TOPS-10
Encyclopedia
The TOPS-10 System was a computer operating system
from Digital Equipment Corporation
(DEC) for the PDP-10
(or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer
launched in 1967. TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the PDP-6
and -10 computers; this was renamed TOPS-10 in 1970.
and allowed the development of one of the first true multiplayer
computer games. The game was called DECWAR
and was a text-oriented Star Trek
type game. Users at terminals typed in commands and fought each other in real time.
Another groundbreaking application was called FORUM. This application was perhaps the first so-called CB Simulator
that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as a chat room
. This application showed the potential of multiuser communication and led to the development of CompuServe's
chat application.
TOPS-10 had a very robust API that used a mechanism called a UUO which is an acronym for Unimplemented User Operation. UUOs implemented operating system calls in a way that made them look like machine instructions. The API was called Monitor Calls and was very much ahead of its time like most of the operating system. System programming on DECsystem-10s was simple and powerful thanks to this extremely flexible operating system API.
TOPS-10 had an interesting scheduler
with many run queues, and inserts processes into the queue depending on process priority. The TOPS-10 Operating System also included User file and Device independence.
TOPS-10 was a very fast and flexible operating system that was far ahead of its time.
The easiest way for the hobbyist to run TOPS-10 is to acquire a suitable emulator
and an operating system image
. TOPS-10 may also be generated from archived original distribution "tapes".
Paul Allen
maintains several publicly accessible historic computer systems, including a DECsystem-1090 running TOPS-10.
, was bundled with the TOPS-10 distribution.
The following programming language
s were implemented on TOPS-10 as layered products:
The following programming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as contributions from DECUS
members:
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
from Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
(DEC) for the PDP-10
PDP-10
The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10". The first model was delivered in 1966...
(or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
launched in 1967. TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the PDP-6
PDP-6
The PDP-6 was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1963. It was influential primarily as the prototype for the later PDP-10; the instruction sets of the two machines are almost identical.The PDP-6 was DEC's first "big" machine...
and -10 computers; this was renamed TOPS-10 in 1970.
Overview
TOPS-10 supported shared memoryShared memory
In computing, shared memory is memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Depending on context, programs may run on a single processor or on multiple separate processors...
and allowed the development of one of the first true multiplayer
Multiplayer game
A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that put the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or AI-controlled opponents, which often...
computer games. The game was called DECWAR
Decwar
DECWAR is a multiplayer computer game first written in 1978 at the University of Texas at Austin for the PDP-10. It was developed from an earlier two-player version, WAR, adding multi-terminal support for between one and eighteen players. WAR and DECWAR are essentially multiplayer versions of the...
and was a text-oriented Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
type game. Users at terminals typed in commands and fought each other in real time.
Another groundbreaking application was called FORUM. This application was perhaps the first so-called CB Simulator
CB Simulator
CompuServe CB Simulator was the first online chat service. It was developed by a CompuServe executive, Alexander "Sandy" Trevor, and released by CompuServe in 1980....
that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as a chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
. This application showed the potential of multiuser communication and led to the development of CompuServe's
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
chat application.
TOPS-10 had a very robust API that used a mechanism called a UUO which is an acronym for Unimplemented User Operation. UUOs implemented operating system calls in a way that made them look like machine instructions. The API was called Monitor Calls and was very much ahead of its time like most of the operating system. System programming on DECsystem-10s was simple and powerful thanks to this extremely flexible operating system API.
TOPS-10 had an interesting scheduler
Scheduling (computing)
In computer science, a scheduling is the method by which threads, processes or data flows are given access to system resources . This is usually done to load balance a system effectively or achieve a target quality of service...
with many run queues, and inserts processes into the queue depending on process priority. The TOPS-10 Operating System also included User file and Device independence.
TOPS-10 was a very fast and flexible operating system that was far ahead of its time.
Release history
The first release of the PDP-6 Monitor software was in 1964. Support for the PDP-10's KA10 processor was added to the Monitor in release 2.18 in 1967. The TOPS-10 name was first used in 1970 for release 5.01. Release 6.01 (May 1974) was the first TOPS-10 to implement Virtual Memory (demand paging) enabling programs larger than physical memory to be run. From release 7.00 onwards symmetrical multiprocessing was available (as opposed to the master - slave concept used before). The final release of TOPS-10 was 7.04 in 1988.TOPS-10 today
Hobbyists are now entitled to set up and use TOPS-10 under a Hobbyist's License.The easiest way for the hobbyist to run TOPS-10 is to acquire a suitable emulator
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
and an operating system image
System image
A system image in computing is a copy of the entire state of a computer system stored in some non-volatile form such as a file. A system is said to be capable of using system images if it can be shut down and later restored to exactly the same state...
. TOPS-10 may also be generated from archived original distribution "tapes".
Paul Allen
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates...
maintains several publicly accessible historic computer systems, including a DECsystem-1090 running TOPS-10.
Implemented programming languages
The TOPS-10 assembler, MACRO-10MACRO-10
MACRO-10 is an assembly language with extensive macro facilities for DEC's PDP-10-based minicomputer systems, the DECsystem-10 and the DECSYSTEM-20...
, was bundled with the TOPS-10 distribution.
The following programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s were implemented on TOPS-10 as layered products:
- ALGOLALGOLALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years...
, as ALGOL-10 v10B, a compiler used for general computing - APL, as APL-SF V2, an interpreter used for mathematical modelling
- BASICBASICBASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
, as BASIC-10 v17F, an interpreter used for general computing - BLISS, as BLISS-10 and BLISS-36, compilers used for systems programming
- COBOLCOBOLCOBOL is one of the oldest programming languages. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
, as COBOL-68 and COBOL-74, compilers used for business computing - FortranFortranFortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
, as FORTRAN-10 v11, a compiler used for numerical computing
The following programming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as contributions from DECUS
DECUS
The Digital Equipment Computer Users' Society was an independent computer user group related to Digital Equipment Corporation.The Connect User Group Community, formed from the consolidation in May, 2008 of DECUS, Encompass, HP-Interex, and ITUG is Hewlett-Packard’s largest user community...
members:
- FOCAL, as FOCAL-10
- Forth, a threaded interpreted language
- IMP72IMP programming languageIMP was a systems programming language developed by Ned Irons in the late 1960s through early 1970s. Unlike most other systems programming languages, IMP was an extensible syntax programming language....
- Lisp, an interpreter used for AI programming
- PascalPascal (programming language)Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
, a compiler used for computing education - PILOTPILOTProgrammed Instruction, Learning, Or Teaching is a simle historic programming language developed in the 1960s.Like its younger sibling LOGO programming language, it was an early foray into the technology of computer assisted instruction ....
- SAM76SAM76SAM76 is a macro programming language used from the late 1970s to the present 2007 initially ran on CP/M.The SAM76 language is a list and string processor designed for interactive and user-directed applications, including artificial intelligence programming, and permits high portability from...
- SimulaSimulaSimula is a name for two programming languages, Simula I and Simula 67, developed in the 1960s at the Norwegian Computing Center in Oslo, by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard...
, a compiler used for modeling - SNOBOLSNOBOLSNOBOL is a generic name for the computer programming languages developed between 1962 and 1967 at AT&T Bell Laboratories by David J. Farber, Ralph E. Griswold and Ivan P. Polonsky, culminating in SNOBOL4...
, an interpreter used for string processing
Implemented user utilities
The following major user utilities were implemented on TOPS-10:- RMSRecord Management ServicesRecord Management Services are procedures in the VMS, RSTS/E, RT-11 and high-end RSX-11 operating systems that programs may call to process files and records within files. VMS RMS is an integral part of the system software; its procedures run in executive mode...
(Records Management Services) - IQL (Interactive Query language)
Notable games implemented on TOPS-10
- ADVENTColossal Cave AdventureColossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
- DECWARDecwarDECWAR is a multiplayer computer game first written in 1978 at the University of Texas at Austin for the PDP-10. It was developed from an earlier two-player version, WAR, adding multi-terminal support for between one and eighteen players. WAR and DECWAR are essentially multiplayer versions of the...
, as noted above - FORUMForumForum may refer to:*Forum , open public space in the middle of a Roman city**Roman Forum, most famous example*Forum , designated space for public expression in the USA...
, as noted above - HAUNTHAUNTHAUNT was a straightforward but engagingly irreverent text-based mainframe computer game. It was created in OPS4 language in 1979 by John E. Laird....
, an early role-playing game - Mac Hack, a chessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
program by Richard GreenblattRichard Greenblatt (programmer)Richard D. Greenblatt is an American computer programmer. Along with Bill Gosper, he may be considered to have founded the hacker community, and holds a place of distinction in the Lisp and the MIT AI Lab communities.-Childhood:... - MUDMUD1Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD is the first MUD and the oldest virtual world in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language...