Multics
Multics ( Mult iplexed I nformation and C omputing S ervice , German, literally: Bundled information and computing service ) is an operating system for mainframes .
From the further development of the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), under the leadership of Fernando José Corbató , through his work in the field of multiple access computers, Multics emerged . It was in 1963 in cooperation with MIT, General Electric and Bell Labs of AT & T developed. In 1969 Bell Labs withdrew from the project. The development was financially supported by the ARPA . The system was in the programming language Early PL / I written (EPL), a subset of PL / I .
From 1969 the first Multics system was available at MIT. The first commercial system was sold by Honeywell Information Systems, Inc. on a Honeywell 6180 until the last system was installed in 1986. On October 30, 2000, the last running Multics system of the Canadian Department of National Defense in Halifax , Canada was shut down and taken out of service.
The only Multics installation in Germany was in operation from 1984 to 1991 at the University of Mainz .
Multics became the forerunner for the development of Unix (see also History of Unix ). On 14 November 2007, the Multics were source code by Bull under the MIT license published.
literature
- Elliott I. Organick: The Multics System: An Examination of its Structure , MIT Press , 1972, ISBN 0-262-15012-3