KeyKOS domains provide environments in which programs may execute. They contain some ordinary process state information and some state information unique to KeyKOS.
Here are a few features that analogs of domains in other systems frequently have that KeyKOS domains lack:
The domain has no special terminal with which it can converse (unless one of its accessible keys provides that).
The domain has no special authority to access some directory by virtue of the fact that it was created by the directory’s owner or by any other virtue except holding a key to the directory.
The domain has no special scheduling or billing properties beyond those stemming from its meter key.
The domain has no special affinity to an “address space” beyond that explicitly designated in the domain’s address slot.
There is no “caller of this domain” implicitly known by the system that can be “referenced” only by returning to it.
There are no System Calls other than:
There are no special provisions for intervening in a broken domain beyond that provided by the domain’s keeper or some other holder of the domain service key. No key, no access.