[Cryptography] Speculation considered harmful?

[Bill Frantz]

On 1/9/18 at 11:42 AM, leichter at lrw.com (Jerry Leichter) wrote:

>Capability-based systems are the ultimate development along 
>these lines, but represent a radical departure from current 
>system designs.  Perhaps we can get some of their power without 
>giving up all compatibility with existing code.

When we developed the S370 version of KeyKOS, a capability OS, 
we developed on a running KeyKOS system. We used IBM's CMS 
system -- a part of VM/370 -- which ran using some code we wrote 
called a "CP Simulator". The CP Simulator was like a virtual 
machine monitor for a single virtual machine. It simulated the 
privileged CPU operations and provided I/O support, including 
simulated disks for CMS storage and access to real tape drives 
for backup and recovery.

When we talked with people about Unix compatibility, we always 
asked, "How compatible does it have to be." After a 
conversation, the answer was almost always, "Bug for bug 
compatible." If you are bug for bug compatible, it's hard to 
improve the security.

Cheers - Bill


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