PEEK Reference Manual

Glossary
PEEK Reference Manual — 529657-006
Glossary - 6
message system
message system. A set of operating system procedures and data structures that handles
the mechanics of exchanging messages between processes, which might be running
in the same processor or different processors.
millicode. The system’s lowest-level machine-dependent code, often coded in assembler
language. TNS/R millicode and TNS/E millicode are functionally similar to the
microcode on TNS systems. The system has several types of millicode, including
machine interrupt handlers, operating system primitives, routines implicitly called from
native-compiled code, emulators for TNS floating-point arithmetic, and emulators for
privileged-only or long-running TNS machine operations.
module. (1) A physical grouping of procedures and data structures. (2) For NonStop
S-series servers, a set of components sharing a common interconnection, such as a
backplane. A module is a subset of a group and is usually contained in an enclosure.
There is one module in a group. For NonStop NS-series servers, a module is a set of
function components and is nominally a single fault zone.
MQC. See message quick cell (MQC).
MQC finder table. A table containing message quick cell (MQC) information. See also
message quick cell (MQC).
mutex. A synchronization object that provides mutual exclusion among threads. A mutex is
often used to ensure that shared variables are always seen by other threads in a
consistent state.
named process. A process to which a process name was assigned when the process was
created. Contrast with unnamed process.
named resource list (NRL). An operating system data structure that contains information
about the characteristics of named processes and logical devices in the system. See
also
NRL table.
NonStop S-series servers. The set of NonStop servers having product numbers beginning
with the letter S (such as S70000). These servers run the NonStop operating system
and implement the ServerNet architecture.
NRL. See named resource list (NRL).
NRL table. A table containing named resource list (NRL) entries. See also
named resource
list (NRL).
object file.
A file generated by a compiler, Binder program, or native link editor (nld) utility
that contains machine instructions and other information needed to construct the
executable code spaces and initial data for a process. The file might be a complete
program that is ready for immediate execution, or it might be incomplete and require
linking with other object files before execution.