History of OSs?

From: Huw Davies <H.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au>
Date: Tue Mar 17 20:46:17 1998

At 04:20 PM 17-03-98 -0500, Bill/Carolyn Pechter wrote:

>However, TOPS-20 is based on Tenex which had virtual memory in it before
>DEC got a hold of it.

I'm not sure whether the Tenex VM was retrofitted into TOPS-10 or not but
we definitely ran v6.03 of TOPS-10 with VM around 1974-75.

>VAX/VMS, I figure, was the first "DEC from the ground up" Virtual Memory
>System...

Quite probably true but it wouldn't surprise me to find an -11 operating
system with VM. One of the things to consider is that to do VM "properly"
the hardware has to support it.

Everyone remembers that the Atlas was the first system to have "proper" VM
don't they. Articles on Atlas should be compulsory reading for CS students
to show that most things had been invented a long time ago. I find it
amusing to read all the fuss on I2O when CDC had this sort of thing 25
(30?) years ago...


 Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au
 Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
 La Trobe University | "My Alfa keeps me poor in a monetary
 Melbourne Australia 3083 | sense, but rich in so many other ways"
Received on Tue Mar 17 1998 - 20:46:17 GMT