Architectural issues in the StormCast system -- Lessons learned from building and using the Arjuna distributed programming system -- A high performance totally ordered multicast protocol -- New applications for group computing -- Support for information sharing in CSCW based on causally and totally ordered group communication -- The design of the Transis system -- The Rampart toolkit for building high-integrity services -- Deriving optimal checkpoint protocols for distributed shared memory architectures -- Transaction model vs virtual synchrony model: bridging the gap -- Modelling darwin in the ?-calculus -- Towards open service environments -- Correctness proofs of distributed algorithms -- Deterministic fault injection of distributed systems -- A non-blocking lightweight implementation of causal order message delivery -- Merits of a probabilistic approach to properties in process group systems -- Sequential consistency in distributed systems -- Speedup limits for tightly-coupled parallel computations.

This volume is based on the workshop "Unifying Theory and Practice in Distributed Systems" held in Schloß Dagstuhl, Germany in September 1994. During the past 20 years, a substantial theoretical and practical base has evolved in the area of distributed computing. However, this work has been done by largely disjoint communities of researchers; this workshop brought together established experts from both worlds. The volume contains 17 full papers refereed and revised after the workshop so that they reflect original research enriched by insights gained through discussions at the workshop. Among the issues treated are paradigms and concepts, fundamental algorithms and principles, fault-tolerance, real-time, system structures, large case aspects and others.