Abstract

The recent proliferation of portable computers, the advent of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and continuing advances in computer networking all point to a future in which mobility of both users and computing system elements will be standard. However, these developments also invalidate many of the assumptions made by current system software, which has been built for stationary systems and users. An important component of system software that needs to looked at afresh is the file system. A user should be able to access the files he or she needs regardless of location. Although existing research efforts do provide some support for this, there are significant deficiencies that need to be remedied. We propose two related designs to address these problems. The first exploits the unique property of a PDA that it can accompany its owner at all times by using it to carry files of most immediate need to him or her. The second makes use of the recently proposed idea of a computing persona.