Lesson plan
Network Computing System
The Network Computing System (NCS) was an implementation of the Network Computing Architecture (NCA), launched in 1987. It comprised a set of tools for implementing distributed software applications, or distributed computing. The three principal components of NCS were a runtime environment for remote procedure calls, a network interface definition language (NIDL) compiler, and a location broker service. The location broker differentiated NCS from similar offerings, such as the rival Open Network Computing technology from Sun Microsystems, by permitting services to be distributed in a dynamic fashion and offering the possibility of "location independence". The design and implementation of DCE/RPC, the remote procedure call mechanism in the Distributed Computing Environment, is based on NCA/NCS. In response to a request for proposals from the Open Software Foundation for distributed computing environments, NCS featured in the DEcorum proposal submitted by Apollo, by then incorporated as a division within Hewlett-Packard, along with IBM, Locus Computing, Transarc, Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft. It also was the first implementation of universally unique identifiers, these being employed by the location broker to identify objects in the distributed system.
Article summary
The Network Computing System (NCS) was an implementation of the Network Computing Architecture (NCA), launched in 1987. It comprised a set of tools for implementing distributed software applications, or distributed computing. The three principal components of NCS were a runtime environment for remote procedure calls, a network interface definition language (NIDL) compiler, and a location broker service. The location broker differentiated NCS from similar offerings, such as the rival Open Network Computing technology from Sun Microsystems, by permitting services to be distributed in a dynamic fashion and offering the possibility of "location independence". The design and implementation of DCE/RPC, the remote procedure call mechanism in the Distributed Computing Environment, is based on NCA/NCS. In response to a request for proposals from the Open Software Foundation for distributed computing environments, NCS featured in the DEcorum proposal submitted by Apollo, by then incorporated as a division within Hewlett-Packard, along with IBM, Locus Computing, Transarc, Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft. It also was the first implementation of universally unique identifiers, these being employed by the location broker to identify objects in the distributed system.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.