Multics

3 definitions found

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  MULTICS
       MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service (OS)
       
       

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [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 (27 SEP 03) [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 last Multics system running, the Canadian Department of
          National Defence Multics site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,
          shut down on 2000-10-30 at 17:08 UTC.
       
          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.multicians.org/)}.
       
          {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:alt.os.multics}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (2002-04-12)