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multics

multics

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  Multics  /muhl'tiks/  n.  [from  "MULTiplexed  Information  and 
  Computing  Service"]  An  early  time-sharing  {operating  system}  co-designed 
  by  a  consortium  including  MIT,  GE  and  Bell  Laboratories  as  a  successor 
  to  {CTSS}.  The  design  was  first  presented  in  1965,  planned  for  operation 
  in  1967,  first  operational  in  1969,  and  took  several  more  years  to 
  achieve  respectable  performance  and  stability. 
 
  Multics  was  very  innovative  for  its  time  --  among  other  things  it 
  provided  a  hierarchical  file  system  with  access  control  on  individual 
  files  and  introduced  the  idea  of  treating  all  devices  uniformly  as  special 
  files.  It  was  also  the  first  OS  to  run  on  a  symmetric  multiprocessor, 
  and  the  only  general-purpose  system  to  be  awarded  a  B2  security  rating 
  by  the  NSA  (see  {Orange  Book}). 
 
  Bell  Labs  left  the  development  effort  in  1969  after  judging  that 
  {second-system  effect}  had  bloated  Multics  to  the  point  of  practical 
  unusability  Honeywell  commercialized  Multics  in  1972  after  buying  out 
  GE's  computer  group  but  it  was  never  very  successful:  at  its  peak  in  the 
  1980s,  there  were  between  75  and  100  Multics  sites,  each  a  multi-million 
  dollar  mainframe. 
 
  One  of  the  former  Multics  developers  from  Bell  Labs  was  Ken 
  Thompson,  and  {Unix}  deliberately  carried  through  and  extended  many  of 
  Multics'  design  ideas;  indeed,  Thompson  described  the  very  name  `Unix' 
  as  `a  weak  pun  on  Multics'.  For  this  and  other  reasons,  aspects  of 
  the  Multics  design  remain  a  topic  of  occasional  debate  among  hackers. 
  See  also  {brain-damaged}  and  {GCOS}. 
 
  MIT  ended  its  development  association  with  Multics  in  1977. 
  Honeywell  sold  its  computer  business  to  Bull  in  the  mid  80s,  and 
  development  on  Multics  was  stopped  in  1988.  Four  Multics  sites  were 
  known  to  be  still  in  use  as  late  as  1998,  but  the  last  one  (a  Canadian 
  military  site)  was  decomissioned  in  November  2000.  There  is  a  Multics 
  page  at  `http://www.stratus.com/pub/vos/multics/tvv/multics.html'. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  Multics 
 
    /muhl'tiks/  MULTiplexed  Information  and 
  Computing  Service.  A  {time-sharing}  {operating  system} 
  co-designed  by  a  consortium  including  {MIT},  {GE}  and  {Bell 
  Laboratories}  as  a  successor  to  MIT's  {CTSS}.  The  system 
  design  was  presented  in  a  special  session  of  the  1965  Fall 
  Joint  Computer  Conference  and  was  planned  to  be  operational  in 
  two  years.  It  was  finally  made  available  in  1969,  and  took 
  several  more  years  to  achieve  respectable  performance  and 
  stability. 
 
  Multics  was  very  innovative  for  its  time  -  among  other  things 
  it  was  the  first  major  OS  to  run  on  a  {symmetric 
  multiprocessor};  provided  a  {hierarchical  file  system}  with 
  {access  control}  on  individual  files;  mapped  files  into  a 
  paged,  segmented  {virtual  memory};  was  written  in  a 
  {high-level  language}  ({PL/I});  and  provided  dynamic 
  inter-procedure  linkage  and  memory  (file)  sharing  as  the 
  default  mode  of  operation.  Multics  was  the  only 
  general-purpose  system  to  be  awarded  a  B2  {security  rating}  by 
  the  {NSA}. 
 
  Bell  Labs  left  the  development  effort  in  1969.  {Honeywell} 
  commercialised  Multics  in  1972  after  buying  out  GE's  computer 
  group  but  it  was  never  very  successful:  at  its  peak  in  the 
  1980s,  there  were  between  75  and  100  Multics  sites,  each  a 
  multi-million  dollar  {mainframe}. 
 
  One  of  the  former  Multics  developers  from  Bell  Labs  was  {Ken 
  Thompson},  a  circumstance  which  led  directly  to  the  birth  of 
  {Unix}.  For  this  and  other  reasons,  aspects  of  the  Multics 
  design  remain  a  topic  of  occasional  debate  among  hackers.  See 
  also  {brain-damaged}  and  {GCOS}. 
 
  MIT  ended  its  development  association  with  Multics  in  1977. 
  Honeywell  sold  its  computer  business  to  {Bull}  in  the  mid 
  1980s,  and  development  on  Multics  was  stopped  in  1988  when 
  Bull  scrapped  a  Boston  proposal  to  port  Multics  to  a 
  {platform}  derived  from  the  {DPS-6}. 
 
  A  few  Multics  sites  are  still  in  use  as  late  as  1996. 
 
  The  {Jargon  file}  3.0.0  claims  that  on  some  versions  of 
  Multics  one  was  required  to  enter  a  password  to  log  out  but 
  James  J.  Lippard  ,  who  was  a  Multics 
  developer  in  Phoenix,  believes  this  to  be  an  {urban  legend}. 
  He  never  heard  of  a  version  of  Multics  which  required  a 
  password  to  logout  Tom  Van  Vleck    agrees.  He 
  suggests  that  some  user  may  have  implemented  a  'terminal 
  locking'  program  that  required  a  password  before  one  could 
  type  anything  including  logout 
 
  {Home  (http://www.best.com/~thvv/multics.html)}. 
 
  {Usenet}  newsgroup:  {news:alt.os.multics}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1996-11-15) 
 
 
 
  From  V.E.R.A.  --  Virtual  Entity  of  Relevant  Acronyms  13  March  2001  [vera]: 
 
  MULTICS 
  MULTiplexed  Information  and  Computing  Service  OS