Summary

KeyTECH/KeyNIX offers significant advantages over traditional implementations of UNIX. The system-wide checkpoints mean that a user of UNIX does not have to shutdown or startup UNIX every time he or she wants to use the computer. Simply powering up the computer restarts KeyTECH/KeyNIX and restores the complete user environment. If the user had seven windows open running six background jobs and was editing a letter when the computer was powered off, then that is what will be going on when the computer is powered on. The user does not have to run FSCK, does not have to restart X, does not have to restart the background jobs, and does not have to restart the editor.

Little performance is given up to achieve this convenience. The overall performance of the KeyTECH/KeyNIX combination as seen from the user at the console is virtually indistinguishable from a “native” implementation of UNIX that does not have the checkpoint/restart feature.

The future is much brighter in the KeyTECH/KeyNIX environment than in the traditional UNIX environment as it is now possible to mix versions of UNIX and UNIX with high performance transaction processing on the same computer. The KeyTECH/KeyNIX environment allows for a level of security not possible with “native” UNIX implementations due to the nature of the KeyTECH architecture. A user will be able to migrate to new versions of UNIX without fear of losing valuable data or suffering prolonged unavailability of the computer system.

The KeyTECH Microkernel offers all of these advantages without sacrificing performance.