Classic OS's

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Sun Oct 17 18:56:36 2004

>>>>> "Al" == Al Kossow <aek_at_spies.com> writes:

>> Other than software for the PDP-8 was there any low cost time
>> sharing systems that you can still find software for?

 Al> "low cost time sharing system" was almost an oxymoron in the 60's
 Al> and early 70's

 Al> Both the cost of core, and for mass storage devices kept computer
 Al> configurations capable of timesharing pretty expensive. TSS-8 was
 Al> probably the first timesharing system for $50,000. As I recall,
 Al> the final configuration of the TSS/8 system I used at the
 Al> University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee was closer to $100K by the
 Al> time we added the KL8/E's and RK05's. Early RSTS (originally
 Al> called Edusystem-100) was somewhat less expensive, but the pre
 Al> RSTS/E systems were pretty limited.

Not as limited as you might think -- at Lawrence U. we ran an 11/20
with an RK05 for its main storage (DECtape for auxiliary public file
storage). It frequently hit 12 users during the day. When Sociology
101 students used it to do "crosstab all by all" on their survey
databases, things got pretty slow... :-)

It did seem to crash a lot. RSTS/E with an 11/45 and double the
memory took care of that.

       paul
Received on Sun Oct 17 2004 - 18:56:36 BST