Anyone have info on pulse?

Anyone have info on pulse?

[arny]

The January 87 issue of IEE Software has a book review (page 95) of:

   Pulse: An Ada-Based Distributed Operating System
     by D. Keefe, G.M.Tomlinson, I.C.Wand, and A.J. Wellings.
     (Academic press, Orlando Fla., 1985)

This seems like a very interesting book.  The objective of Pulse is to develop
"a distributed environment, using Ada as the implementation vehicle"
and taking Unix as the environment whose successful features are to be
emulated.  It supposedly connects several personal computers in a LAN.  The
book is written for people very knowledgeable about Ada and interested in
distributed operating systems.  The book is given a very good review.

My questions are these:

    - Does anyone know if this book describes an ongoing project or an idea?
    - Where is this work being done?  Is it complete?
    - Why haven't we heard of this effort before?
    - Are there any papers published or presentations made by the authors that
      I have somehow missed?
    - Does anyone have ANY additional information on Pulse?


Arny B. Engelson
{bonnie|clyde|ihnp4}!wayback!arny
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany, N.J.
(201) 386-4816

Re: Anyone have info on pulse?

[paul]

Wellings is at
Department of Computer Science,
University of York,
York,
UK
Tel: +44-904-59886
...but I don't know his email address I'm afraid.

Re: Anyone have info on pulse?

[Chris Johnson]

At least one of the authors of the Pulse book (Ian Wand) is still at
the University of York, UK; e-mail address	icw@minster.york.ac.uk
Another (David Keeffe) I last heard of as	dk@sysdev.co.uk

Re: Anyone have info on pulse?

[Gerry Tomlinson]

The PULSE project was carried out during the period
1979-84 by a small group of researchers at the University
of York in the UK with support from the Science
and Engineering Research Council of Great Britain.
It produced and evaluated a prototype distributed operating system running on 
two LSI/11-23 based personal computers connected by a Cambridge Ring. The system was written almost entirely in Ada using the York
Ada compiler (cross-compiling from a VAX) which was being developed concurrently.

The project is now finished and the results have been
published in the following papers etc:

%T A Problem with Ada and Resource Allocation
%A A. J. Wellings
%A D. Keeffe
%A G. M. Tomlinson
%J Ada Letters
%V 3
%N 4
%D January/February 1984

%T The PULSE Distributed File System
%A G. M. Tomlinson
%A D. Keeffe
%A I. C. Wand
%A A. J. Wellings
%R
%I Software Practice and Experience
%V 15
%N 11
%D November 1985
%P 1087-1101

%T Aspects of Portability of the UNIX Shell
%A D. Keeffe
%A G. M. Tomlinson
%A I.C. Wand
%A A. J. Wellings
%J IEE Proceedings-E, Computer and Digital Techniques
%V 132
%N 5
%P 257-264
%D September 1985

%T Communication Between Ada Programs
%A A. J. Wellings
%A G. M. Tomlinson
%A D. Keeffe
%A I. C. Wand
%J Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Ada Applications and Environments
%P 145-152
%C 
%D October 1984


%T The Use of Ada Tasking in the Implementation of a Distributed Operating System
%A A.J. Wellings
%J Ada UK News
%V 6
%N 3
%P 53-60
%D 1985

%T PULSE: An Ada-based Distributed Operating System
%A D. Keeffe
%A G. M. Tomlinson
%A I. C. Wand
%A A. J. Wellings
%E 
%I APIC Studies in Data Processing Series, Academic Press 
%C
%D 1985

The book attempts to bring together in one place all that was learned
from the project.

Andy Wellings and Ian Wand are  at 
Department of Computer Science,
University of York,
York,
UK
Tel: +44-904-430000

e-mail:  andy@uk.ac.york.novice and icw@minster.york.ac.uk
 
David Keeffe is  at Siemens UK; e-mail dk%siesoft@sysdes.co.uk

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SENDER  : Gerry Tomlinson                PHONE   : +44 091 329233
POST    : Computing Lab, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU
ARPA    : gerry%cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk
JANET   : gerry@uk.ac.newcastle.cheviot
UUCP    : gerry@cheviot.UUCP

Re: Anyone have info on pulse?

[mike feldman]

A hint on the Wand/Wellings etc. book  is that Wand and Wellings are in
the UK. Wellings' Ph.D. dissertation is cited in Burns' book _Concurrent
Programming in Ada_ (Cambridge U. Press 1985 - Ada Companion Series).
Burns is at Bradford U. (U.K.); I think Wellings was his student, don't
remember where he went, but I'm pretty sure it's still in England.

The Burns book is an _excellent_ balanced monograph on the Ada tasking
model, including a whole lot of hints for avoiding tasking pitfalls.
It's similar to the Gehani book, but with a lot more interesting
examples.