Master Control Program

The MCP (Master Control Program) is the proprietary operating system of Burroughs Large Systems , including the Unisys ClearPath / MCP systems .

Originally written in ESPOL in 1961 , it was converted to NEWP in the 1970s - a more structured, robust, and secure form of ESPOL .

The MCP is historically important as follows: It was the first operating system that could manage multiple processors , contained the first commercial implementation of virtual memory and was written in a high-level programming language (e.g. without assembler ).

MCP in the movie Tron

In the feature film Tron , who populates the inner world of a computer system with living protagonists who represent the programs, an MCP is the despotic ruler of this computer world. As the supreme control software, it is probably based on the Burroughs product. In the film it is deprived of power by a human programmer who is sucked into the inner world of the computer, so that freer interaction is possible again.