History of Operating Systems on PDP computers

Over the past few years I have been working on a timeline of operating
systems which can be found here:-

[url]http://www.oshistory.net/metadot/index.pl?id=2165;isa=Category;op=show[/url]

A large part of the early history of operating systems was taken up by
the PDP series of machines. I have tried to pull this together in the
timeline and you can find this information in the second quarter of
the diagram.

I have been expanding the DEC and PDP side of things and now have a
more in depth list of OSes found on early PDP machines which can be
found here :-

[url]http://www.oshistory.net/metadot/index.pl?id=2297;isa=Category;op=show[/url]

But I know I have missed some (i.e.OSes for PDP-5 and PDP-6 are
missing)

Thanks for your help

Paddy

UnderMine wrote:
[color=blue]
> I have been expanding the DEC and PDP side of things and now have a
> more in depth list of OSes found on early PDP machines which can be
> found here[/color]

One thing you should note, esp for DEC systems, is which OS came from
DEC and which were developed by customers or distributed through DECUS.

The earliest operating systems for DEC machines weren't developed at
DEC. There was no "PDP-1 OS" in 1962. At least two timesharing systems
were developed by BBN and Stanford for the PDP-1. The earliest 'monitor'
software from DEC would be "DECSYS", which was developed on the PDP-4
as a DECtape file system.

You also appear to be missing the entire 18 bit product line prior to
1970, including the F/B and Advanced Monitors for the PDP-9, backported
to the PDP-7

Most of the surviving documentation for early DEC system software is on
[url]http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/[/url]

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UnderMine wrote:
[url]http://www.oshistory.net/metadot/index.pl?id=2297;isa=Category;op=show[/url][color=blue]
>
> But I know I have missed some (i.e.OSes for PDP-5 and PDP-6 are
> missing)[/color]

[url]http://www.ultimate.com/phil/pdp10/tops-10[/url]

Includes the monitor for the PDP-6

Many minicomputers (including those from DEC) weren't used with anything other
than paper tape on a teletype for bootstrapping, so many don't have an "Operating
System" per se. They just bootstrapped directly to the application.

An "Operating System" or "Monitor" doesn't start to appear until there was
some form of mass storage (magtape, DECtape, disc, drum) attached to the system
capable of storing multiple programs. This was a long time in coming since these
devices were often as expensive as the computer itself. DECtape was one of the
first "low cost" block-addressable storage devices.

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Al Kossow wrote:[color=blue]
> The earliest 'monitor'
> software from DEC would be "DECSYS", which was developed on the PDP-4
> as a DECtape file system.[/color]

Here are the details resulting from Bob Supnik's efforts getting DECsys
to run on SIMH

[url]http://simh.trailing-edge.com/docs/decsys.pdf[/url]

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In article <45df00e4$0$16390$88260bb3@free.teranews.com>,
Al Kossow <aek@spies.com> wrote:[color=blue]
>UnderMine wrote:
>[url]http://www.oshistory.net/metadot/index.pl?id=2297;isa=Category;op=show[/url][color=green]
>>
>> But I know I have missed some (i.e.OSes for PDP-5 and PDP-6 are
>> missing)[/color]
>
>[url]http://www.ultimate.com/phil/pdp10/tops-10[/url]
>
>Includes the monitor for the PDP-6
>
>Many minicomputers (including those from DEC) weren't used with anything[/color]
other[color=blue]
>than paper tape on a teletype for bootstrapping, so many don't have an[/color]
"Operating[color=blue]
>System" per se. They just bootstrapped directly to the application.[/color]

I'm talking about a later era now. The minis were also used as
the terminal concentrators.[color=blue]
>
>An "Operating System" or "Monitor" doesn't start to appear until there was
>some form of mass storage (magtape, DECtape, disc, drum) attached to the[/color]
system[color=blue]
>capable of storing multiple programs. This was a long time in coming since[/color]
these[color=blue]
>devices were often as expensive as the computer itself. DECtape was one of[/color]
the[color=blue]
>first "low cost" block-addressable storage devices.[/color]

Was it storage or memory management (or both) that started people
developing monitors?

/BAH

On Feb 23, 3:42 pm, Al Kossow <a...@spies.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> UnderMine wrote:[color=green]
> > I have been expanding the DEC and PDP side of things and now have a
> > more in depth list of OSes found on early PDP machines which can be
> > found here[/color]
>
> One thing you should note, esp for DEC systems, is which OS came from
> DEC and which were developed by customers or distributed through DECUS.
>
> The earliest operating systems for DEC machines weren't developed at
> DEC. There was no "PDP-1 OS" in 1962. At least two timesharing systems
> were developed by BBN and Stanford for the PDP-1. The earliest 'monitor'[/color]
T> software from DEC would be "DECSYS", which was developed on the
PDP-4[color=blue]
> as a DECtape file system.
>
> You also appear to be missing the entire 18 bit product line prior to
> 1970, including the F/B and Advanced Monitors for the PDP-9, backported
> to the PDP-7
>
> Most of the surviving documentation for early DEC system software is onhttp://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/
>[/color]

Been hunting some of these down and have made some updates.

The PDP-1 appears to have had three Time Sharing systems (MIT, BBN and
ZEUS) but this could be wrong as BBN and ZEUS may be the same thing.

Can anyone help clarify things for me here?

Paddy

UnderMine wrote:
[color=blue]
> The PDP-1 appears to have had three Time Sharing systems (MIT, BBN and
> ZEUS) but this could be wrong as BBN and ZEUS may be the same thing.
>
> Can anyone help clarify things for me here?
>[/color]

Zeus and Odin were done at Stanford.

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On Mar 8, 4:26 pm, Al Kossow <a...@spies.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> UnderMine wrote:[color=green]
> > The PDP-1 appears to have had three Time Sharing systems (MIT, BBN and
> > ZEUS) but this could be wrong as BBN and ZEUS may be the same thing.[/color]
>[color=green]
> > Can anyone help clarify things for me here?[/color]
>
> Zeus and Odin were done at Stanford.[/color]

OK so there were four time sharing systems for the PDP1 then
MIT
BNN
ZEUS - Stanford
ODIN - Stanford

Now THOR was a successor to ODIN but what did that run on, the PDP1 or
something else?

Thanks for the help

Paddy

UnderMine wrote:[color=blue]
> On Mar 8, 4:26 pm, Al Kossow <a...@spies.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> UnderMine wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> The PDP-1 appears to have had three Time Sharing systems (MIT, BBN and
>>> ZEUS) but this could be wrong as BBN and ZEUS may be the same thing.
>>> Can anyone help clarify things for me here?[/color]
>> Zeus and Odin were done at Stanford.[/color]
>
> OK so there were four time sharing systems for the PDP1 then
> MIT
> BNN
> ZEUS - Stanford
> ODIN - Stanford
>
> Now THOR was a successor to ODIN but what did that run on, the PDP1 or
> something else?
>
> Thanks for the help
>
> Paddy
>[/color]

[url]http://forum.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/Timeline[/url]

John McCarthy and colleagues (with funding from NSF and the Stanford Computer Center) create Thor, a
PDP-1 based timesharing system. It included twelve Philco display terminals, which made it the first
display-oriented timesharing system anywhere in the world. It was used for a number of years by
Patrick Suppes' computer aided instruction projects.

There are also several significant 36 bit operating systems that come out of Stanford,
SAIL and LOTS.



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Al Kossow <aek@spies.com> writes:
[color=blue]
> There are also several significant 36 bit operating systems that come out of
> Stanford, SAIL and LOTS.[/color]

I was the last Tops-20 systems programmer at LOTS, 1-Oct-1984 to 1-Nov-1991,
so trust me to have this correct.

LOTS was the Low-Overhead Timesharing System, the academic computing facility
started by Ralph Gorin with the support of John McCarthy in 1976. The systems
(eventually 3 DECSYSTEM-2065's and a Systems Concepts SC-30M) ran Tops-20 with
the Stanford-local modifications. (There were, at the height of things, 12
PDP-10 sites at Stanford, all but three of them running Tops-20 with the local
mods; two ran WAITS, and one ran TENEX on a dual KI-10.) Very few of the mods
in the Stanford version of Tops-20 came out of LOTS, mostly a few extra privs
bits for Faculty, (Help Desk) Consultant, and the like, and campus-network
access.

SAIL was the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, started by John
McCarthy when he was lured away from the East Coast. Their operating system
was WAITS, which originated as the 4S72 monitor for the PDP-10, with another
decade and a half of divergent development.

They did create a *language* called SAIL, which was "Algol 60 with the LEAP
data structures" according to the documentation.

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"You get what anybody gets. You get a lifetime." | x HTML mail and |
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[QUOTE=unix;321173]UnderMine wrote:[color=blue]
> On Mar 8, 4:26 pm, Al Kossow <a...@spies.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> UnderMine wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> The PDP-1 appears to have had three Time Sharing systems (MIT, BBN and
>>> ZEUS) but this could be wrong as BBN and ZEUS may be the same thing.
>>> Can anyone help clarify things for me here?[/color]
>> Zeus and Odin were done at Stanford.[/color]
>
> OK so there were four time sharing systems for the PDP1 then
> MIT
> BNN
> ZEUS - Stanford
> ODIN - Stanford
>
> Now THOR was a successor to ODIN but what did that run on, the PDP1 or
> something else?
>
> Thanks for the help
>
> Paddy
>[/color]

[QUOTE=unix;321172]On Mar 8, 4:26 pm, Al Kossow <a...@spies.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> UnderMine wrote:[color=green]
> > The PDP-1 appears to have had three Time Sharing systems (MIT, BBN and
> > ZEUS) but this could be wrong as BBN and ZEUS may be the same thing.[/color]
>[color=green]
> > Can anyone help clarify things for me here?[/color]
>

> Zeus and Odin were done at Stanford.[/color]

OK so there were four time sharing systems for the PDP1 then
MIT
BNN
ZEUS - Stanford
ODIN - Stanford

Now THOR was a successor to ODIN but what did that run on, the PDP1 or
something else?

Thanks for the help

Paddy[/QUOTE]

MIT and BBN (Bolt, Beranek, and Newman) were early users of the PDP-1. I believe BBN had one of the 2 PDP-1D models that were built, so BBN would refer to an OS created at BBN. BBN has nothing to do with the ZEUS OS written at Stanford's IMSSS (Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Science) in the later 1960s, though I imagine OS ideas were freely shared in the academic community.

ODIN, THOR, and ZEUS all ran on Stanford IMSSS's PDP-1D.