Memoranda of the Project MAC/LCS Computer Systems Research Group
authored by or coauthored with Jerome H. Saltzer
Return to the list of locally distributed documents.
Last updated 21 March 2021
This page contains memoranda issued in three numbered series:
Except as noted, these documents were scanned in 2006 by Roger Roach and Olin Sibert as part of the Multics History Project.
Links from numbered document identifiers lead to files in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). These files include searchable text acquired by optical character recognition using Adobe Acrobat Pro version 10. They can be read with most web browsers as well as separate PDF viewers such as Adobe Reader.
Computer System Research Group Requests for Comments. Informal memoranda of the Project MAC (after 1976, Laboratory for Computer Science) Computer Systems Research Group. CSR-RFCs should not be confused
with the similarly-named RFCs of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
- CSR-RFC #1:
A new communication medium for CSR.
January 11, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #2:
Proposal for CSR work beginning July 1, 1973.
January 26, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #3:
Bibliographies on selected systems.
With co-author Michael D. Schroeder, February 1, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #5:
Repaired security bugs in Multics.
February 7, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #11:
Protection and the Control of Information Sharing in Multics.
March 13, 1973, draft of a paper presented at the Fourth ACM Symposium
on Operating Systems Principles and published in 1974 in the
Communications of the ACM. A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #19:
Measurements of hardware speed of the 6180.
May 4, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #20:
645/6180 Performance comparison tests.
With lead author Roger A. Roach, May 17, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #22:
Current CSR activities.
May 21, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #26:
Errata for "The Multics System ..." by E. I. Organick.
June 3, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #29:
CSR Division annual progress report, July, 1972 -- June, 1973.
Editor, June 3, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #30:
1972-1973 Progress report -- publications, etc..
June 18, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #34:
Some system certification tasks.
September 5, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #35:
The "Principle of least privilege" and Multics.
February 14, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #36:
Ongoing research and development on information protection.
Second draft, September 5, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #39:
A CPU speed measurement tool.
October 9, 1973.
- CSR-RFC #46:
Some Multics security holes which were closed by 6180 hardware.
With co-authors Philippe A. Janson and Douglas H. Hunt), January 28, 1974.
- CSR-RFC #47:
Some recently repaired security holes in Multics.
With co-author Douglas H. Hunt, January 28, 1974.
- CSR-RFC #57:
CSR publications, talks, and theses, July 1973 to June 1974.
July 18, 1974.
- CSR-RFC #60:
The Protection of Information in Computer Systems.
Draft, with co-author M. D. Schroeder, October 4, 1974.
The final version of this paper was published in the Proceedings
of the IEEE in 1975. A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #61:
Computer Systems Research Division annual progress report /
July, 1973 to June, 1974.
With co-authors Michael D. Schroeder and David D. Clark, October 7, 1974.
- CSR-RFC #75:
The Protection of Information in Computer Systems.
With co-author Michael D. Schroeder, May 7, 1975.
Cover note only. A draft was circulated as
CSR-RFC #60, above,
and the final paper was published in the Proceedings
of the IEEE in 1975. A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #77:
Some comments on the NBS Standard Encryption Algorithm.
May 23, 1975.
- CSR-RFC #86:
Annual report.
Draft, with co-authors M. D. Schroeder and D. D. Clark, July 21, 1975.
- CSR-RFC #88:
Position note on new directions for operating systems.
October 14, 1975.
- CSR-RFC #89:
A note on Lipner's comment on the confinement problem.
October 16, 1975.
- CSR-RFC #92:
Case studies of protection system failures.
October 27, 1975.
- CSR-RFC #103:
Measurements of USL Multics.
With co-author David D. Clark, December 1, 1975.
- CSR-RFC #104:
Some observations about the Hewlett-Packard 2640A display terminal.
January 19, 1976.
- CSR-RFC #106:
On the Modeling of Paging Algorithms.
February 13, 1976.
Preprint of a letter that appeared in the ACM Forum, Communications of the ACM in 1976. A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #117:
CSR section of ARPA/ONR continuation proposal.
Editor, July 2, 1976.
- CSR-RFC #118:
Annual Report: Ju1y,1975--June, 1976.
With co-authors M. D. Schroeder, D. D. Redell, D. P. Reed, K. P. Pogran, and D. D. Clark, July 12, 1976.
- CSR-RFC #121:
Problems of office automation, or Why we don't use Multics for typing important documents.
July 12, 1976.
- CSR-RFC #125:
Technical Possibilities and Problems in Protecting Data in Computer Systems.
September 30, 1976. Preprint of a paper presented at an Austrian
conference in 1976. A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #128:
Discussions on "distributed system" research.
October 21, 1976.
- CSR-RFC #131:
Name Binding in Information Systems.
December 9, 1976.
- CSR-RFC #140:
The Multics Kernel Design Project.
With co-authors Michael D. Schroeder and David D. Clark,
March 31, 1977. Preprint of a paper presented at the Sixth
ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles and published
in November 1977 in Operating Systems Review.
A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #145:
Annual report: July, 1976 -- June, 1977.
Draft, with co-authors D. D. Clark and L. Svobodova,
June 30, 1977.
- CSR-RFC #148:
On Digital Signatures.
August 30, 1977.
Preprint of a note published in ACM Operating Systems Review,
January 1978. A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #174:
Draft of annual report, July, 1978 - June, 1979.
Editor, June 7, 1979.
- CSR-RFC #176:
Computer systems research: Activities as of Fall, 1979.
September 26, 1979.
- CSR-RFC #177:
Systems working paper library.
November 9, 1979.
- CSR-RFC #185:
End-to-End Arguments in System Design.
Draft of April 17, 1980, of a paper later
expanded with co-authors David P. Reed and David D. Clark
and presented and published in several venues.
A full citation is in the
list of formal publications.
- CSR-RFC #186:
Proposal for distributed system framework design notebook.
April 18, 1980.
- CSR-RFC #189:
Draft of annual report, July, 1979 - June, 1980.
Editor, June 11, 1980.
- CSR-RFC #197:
Trip report, August 15 - September 1, 1980.
September 5, 1980.
- CSR-RFC #199:
Source Routing for Campus-Wide Internet Transport.
With co-authors David P. Reed and David D. Clark,
September 24, 1980.
Preprint of a paper presented at a 1980 IFIP workshop and published in a 1981 book pf [proceedings of that workshop. A March 1980 draft was distributed as Local Network Note #22, below, and also as Internet Engineering Note IEN-144. A full citation is in the
list of formal
publications.
- CSR-RFC #203:
Comments on the standard Ethernet.
November 25, 1980.
- CSR-RFC #205:
Trip Report: INRIA Workshop on Distributed Systems /
Second International Conference on Distributed
Systems / Versailles, April 6-10, 1981.
With co-author David P. Reed, April 15, 1981.
- CSR-RFC #208:
Hazards of file encryption.
May 27, 1981.
In 1998, Kevin E. Fu kindly rendered this paper as
a web page.
- CSR-RFC #209:
Trip Report: Europe 8 June - 25 June, 1981.
June 29, 1981.
- CSR-RFC #209a:
Trip Report: 7th Data Communications Symposium, Mexico City, Mexico, October, 1981.
November 2, 1981.
- CSR-RFC #222:
Trip Report: IFIP International Symposium on Local Computer Networks.
April 28, 1982.
- CSR-RFC #228:
Annual report, 1981-82, Computer Systems and Communications.
With co-author David D. Clark, July 16, 1982.
- CSR-RFC #230:
CSS and CSC Proposal to DARPA for 1983-85.
Co-authors David D. Clark, David P. Reed and David K. Gifford,
July 16, 1982.
- CSR-RFC #255:
Dover printing with the IBM PC.
April 19, 1984.
- CSR-RFC #260:
CSC Report Draft, July, 1983--June, 1984.
Editor, June 27, 1984.
- CSR-RFC #262:
The Desktop Computer as Network Host.
With David D. Clark, John E. Romkey, and Wayne L. Gramlich, September 14, 1984. Draft of a paper published in May, 1985, in the IEEE Selected Areas
in Communications.
A full citation is in the list of formal
publications.
- CSR-RFC #264:
Coordination, Atomicity, and Recovery.
September 24, 1984. [Cover page only]
Local Network Notes.
Informal memoranda of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science to record design ideas and circulate drafts of formal papers about local data communication networks.
- LNN #21:
Environment Considerations for Campus-Wide Networks.
March 11, 1980.
This note was also distributed as Internet Engineering Note IEN-143. A full citation is in the list of formal publications.
- LNN #22:
Source Routing for Campus-Wide Internet Transport.
March 11, 1980.
This note was also distributed as Internet
Engineering Note IEN-144. A later version was presented in a 1980 IFIP workshop and published in the 1981 book of proceedings of that workshop. A preprint of the book version was distributed as CSR-RFC #199, above.
A full citation is in the list of formal publications.
- LNN #25:
Communication ring initialization without central control.
November 5, 1980. Draft of a memorandum of the same title published
in December 1981 as
LCS/TM-202 (PDF). A full citation is in
the list of formal publications.
- LNN #26:
LCS Ringnet Documentation.
November 26, 1980.
- LNN #27:
Version two ring cable specifications (initial).
January 14, 1981.
- LNN #28:
On names in networks--one more try.
March 3, 1981. Draft of a paper published in April 1982 and redistributed as an Internet Engineering Note in August 1993 under the
title "On the Naming and Binding of Network Destinations".
A full citation is in the list of formal
publications.
- LNN #30:
Suburban data communication via CATV—preliminary thoughts.
May 28, 1981.
- LNN #32:
LCS Network and IP Gateway plans as of July, 1982.
July 15, 1982.
- LNN #33:
Differences between the IBM Research Z-ring
and the LCS version two ring.
January 11, 1983.
LNN #33 Revised:
A Comparison between two Token-Passing Ring Network Designs.
March 22, 1983.
Network Implementation Notes.
Informal memoranda of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science to record the implementation of local data communication networks.
- NIN #3:
V.2.LNI Transmission subsystem requirements.
February 1, 1979.
- NIN #4:
A Star-Shaped Ring Network.
Co-author Kenneth T. Pogran, February 5, 1979.
Draft of a paper published in May 1979 under
the title "A Star-Shaped Ring Network with High Maintainability".
A full citation is in the list of formal publications.
- NIN #15:
V.2.LNI prototype design and implementation plan.
May 29, 1979.
- NIN #18:
Version two local net interface design considerations.
July 16, 1979.
- NIN #23:
Version II LNI UNIBUS Interface Programming Specification.
With contributions from several group members, November 10, 1980.
- NIN #25:
545 Technology Square Internet status.
March 24, 1980.
- NIN #26:
V2.LNI Control Module Interface Specifications.
Co-author Clifford Ludwig, April 24, 1980.
- NIN #27:
Version 2 Local network status report and development plan update.
April 30, 1980.
- NIN #30:
Local Network Control Module Interface Specifications (Revision 1).
Co-authors Henry Arbour, Gregory Koss, and Clifford Ludwig, July 22, 1980.
- NIN #33:
545 Technology Square Internet status.
December 5, 1980.
- NIN #34:
Version Two Ring Connector Wiring.
With contributions from several group members, January 6, 1981.
- NIN #35:
Bridge robustness status.
January 13, 1981.
- NIN #36:
V2 ring engineering documentation.
September 10, 1982.
- LCS Ringnet Documentation.
(A bibliography.)
January 10, 1984.
Return to Professor Saltzer's home page