Multi-Environment Real-Time (MERT), later renamed UNIX Real-Time (UNIX-RT), is a hybrid time-sharing and real-time operating system developed in the 1970s at Bell Labs for use in embedded minicomputers (especially PDP-11s). A version named Duplex Multi Environment Real Time (DMERT) was the operating system for the AT&T 3B20D telephone switching minicomputer, designed for high availability; DMERT was later renamed Unix RTR (Real-Time Reliable). A generalization of Bell Labs' time-sharing operating system Unix, MERT featured a redesigned, modular kernel that was able to run Unix programs and privileged real-time computing processes. These processes' data structures were isolated from other processes with message passing being the preferred form of interprocess communication (IPC), although shared memory was also implemented. MERT also had a custom file system with special support for large, contiguous, statically sized files, as used in real-time database applications. The design of MERT was influenced by Dijkstra's THE, Hansen's Monitor, and IBM's CP-67. The MERT operating system was a four-layer design, in decreasing order of protection: Kernel: resource allocation of memory, CPU time and interrupts Kernel-mode processes including input/output (I/O) device drivers, file manager, swap manager, root process that connects the file manager to the disk (usually combined with the swap manager) Operating system supervisor User processes The standard supervisor was MERT/UNIX, a Unix emulator with an extended system call interface and shell that enabled the use of MERT's custom IPC mechanisms, although an RSX-11 emulator also existed. Kernel and non-kernel processes One interesting feature that DMERT – UNIX-RTR introduced was the notion of kernel processes. This is connected with its microkernelish architecture roots. In support, there is a separate command (/bin/kpkill) rather than (/bin/kill), that is used to send signals to kernel processes. It is likely there are two different system calls also (kill(2) and kpkill(2), the first to end a user process and the second to end a kernel process). It is unknown how much of the normal userland signaling mechanism is in place in /bin/kpkill, assuming there is a system call for it, it is not known if one can send various signals or simply send one. Also unknown is whether the kernel process has a way of catching the signals that are delivered to it. It may be that the UNIX-RTR developers implemented an entire signal and messaging application programming interface (API) for kernel processes. File system bits If one has root on a UNIX-RTR system, they will