Bruce R. Montague

I finished my PhD at the Computer Science Department of UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz) in 1998. My dissertation was Concurrent System-Software via Soft-Instructions.

I currently mostly do OS-related consulting in the silicon valley area (I have over 25 years of experience in operating systems engineering). Much of what I do I would consider technology transfer. If you know of some exotic research field (or just suspect that someone has played in some area before), and you would like to try to apply any previous research results to a real-world project, get in touch. The more exotic the better!

My current e-mail is: brucem@mail.got.net

[FreeBSD Links] [PicoBSD Notes] [Nak nanokernel (license unencumbered JN kernel]

The remainder of this page is quite dated...

  • The Soft-Instruction Software Architecture
  • Research Interests & Dissertation
  • Professional
  • Current colleagues
  • Publications
  • Bookmarks
    • (408) 459-5625 (Lab Phone)
    brucem@cs.ucsc.edu (e-mail)
    Address -
    Computer Science Department
    University of California, Santa Cruz
    225 Applied Sciences Building
    Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA
    [Montague Millennium] [In Memoriam, Dr. A. Dain Samples] [FreeBSD Links] [Nak nanokernel (license unencumbered JN kernel]

    Keywords: Bruce R. Montague bruce montague brucem@cs.ucsc.edu
    software engineering, soft-instructions, operating systems, kernel design, software architecture, file systems, servers, embedded systems, real-time, database, b-tree, access method, concurrent programming, synchronous language, reactive systems, thin-OS, transaction processing, system programming, Java , JavaOS, National Semiconductor NS486SXF , CR32.
    `There can be no greater danger in teaching than to let words usurp the place of facts. That mistake is all the more fatal when one remembers that the young are temperamentally only too prone to become intoxicated by words, and to give them the validity of things.'

    -- Marc Bloch, Strange Defeat.

    Research Interests

    My interests are software architectures for operating systems and servers (kernels, file systems, databases, networks, driver technology, ...); the engineering of large concurrent programs; and all aspects of system programming: software engineering, languages, I/O, debugging, program comprehension, ... basically, systems software in all its gory.

    Dissertation
    My dissertation is the soft-instruction software architecture . My goal is to understand, analyze, and legitimize (popularize) this somewhat obscure approach to light-weight concurrent programming, which is perhaps the only realistic alternative to conventional light-weight multithreading.

    In the lab...

    I recently wrote a kernel, the Java nanokernel (JN), for the National Semiconductor NS486SXF systems in the embedded system lab . The NS486 CPU contains on the CPU chip itself many peripherals normally found on the motherboard, and is intended for low-cost embedded systems (such as web browsers). More NS486 info:

    NS486 Overview
    Odin : National has a reference design for a NS486-based web browser that costs $200!
    NS486 Home page
    NS486 Core Architecture (slide show).

    [Top] [Research] [Professional] [Colleagues] [Publications] [Bookmarks]

    Professional

    I have been in software engineering since 1975, mostly as an OS engineer. I have worked on 8 OS implementations, and have been architect of 4. I'm primarily a file, kernel, and networking person, but have done a lot of related things: self-organizing file systems (clustering by content), 4GL's, weird languages, database access methods, light-weight sensor nets, etc.. I've worked on a couple very wide-spread commercial products, some of which you have probably used routinely if you live in the US.

    I have been a Civilian USAF Computer Scientist, a Senior Engineer at Digital Research, on the staff of the Naval Postgraduate School, and associated with a number of Silicon Valley contract projects and startup companies (mostly without ever changing my desk). A long time ago I operated a Tempest ( [1], [2], [3] ) secure Arpanet site and was also involved with the real story behind the ( bad ) Matthew Broderick film Project X .

    My undergraduate degree was in Physics. I've spent an awful lot of time irradiating rocks, and had the pleasure one summer of doing so at Johnson Space center . This is the first time I've really gone to school full time, but it doesn't really feel like it!

    Additional details.

    [Top] [Research] [Professional] [Colleagues] [Publications] [Bookmarks]

    Current Colleagues

    Embedded System Lab : My advisor, Associate Professor Charlie McDowell and graduate students Mike, Libby (Libby's Java links), and Marcelo.

    UCSC CSE graduate students and faculty.

    [Top] [Research] [Professional] [Colleagues] [Publications] [Bookmarks]

    Publications

    [Top] [Research] [Professional] [Colleagues] [Publications] [Bookmarks]
    Bruce R. Montague / brucem@cs.ucsc.edu
    URL: http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~brucem/index.html - Last revised on Saturday, 28-Dec-96 19:47:05 PST