| BESYS (Bell Operating System) | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Bell Labs |
| Written in | IBM'sFORTRAN andNorth American'sSymbolic Assembly Program (SAP) |
| Working state | Discontinued |
| Initial release | 1957; 69 years ago (1957) |
| Latest release | BE90 / 1968; 58 years ago (1968) |
| Supported platforms | IBM 704 |
| History of IBM mainframe operating systems |
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BESYS (Bell Operating System) was an early computing environment originally implemented as abatch processing operating system in 1957 atBell Labs for theIBM 704 computer.
The system was developed because Bell recognized a "definite mismatch...between the 704's internal speed, the sluggishness of its on-line unit-record equipment, and the inherent slowness of manual operations associated with stand-alone use."[1] According to Drummond,[1] the name BESYS, though commonly thought to stand for BEll SYStem, is actually a concatenation of the preexistingSHARE-assigned installation code BE for Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ and the code assigned by SHARE for systems software, SYS.
The goals of the system were:
The initial version of the system BESYS-1 was in use by October 16, 1957.[1] It was created byGeorge H. Mealy and Gwen Hansen with Wanda Lee Mammel and utilized IBM'sFORTRAN andUnited Aircraft'sSymbolic Assembly Program (SAP) programming languages. It was designed to efficiently deal with a large number of jobs originating onpunched cards and producing results suitable for printing on paper and punched cards. The system also provided processing capabilities for data stored onmagnetic tapes andmagnetic disk storage units. Typically punched card and print processing was handled off line by peripheralElectronic Accounting Machines,IBM 1401 computers, and eventually direct coupled computers.
The first system actually used at Bell Labs was BESYS-2. The system was resident onmagnetic tape, and occupied the lowest 64 (36-bit) words and the highest 4K words of memory. The upper 4K words held the resident portion of the monitor, and could be partially swapped tomagnetic drum to free up additional core for the user program if needed.[1]
"BESYS was a complex software package that provided convenient input/output and integrated disk file storage facilities."[2]
BESYS was used extensively by many departments of Bell Labs for over a decade. It was made available through theSHARE organization to others without charge or formal technical support.
Versions of the BESYS environment (BESYS-3 (1960), BESYS-4 (1962), BESYS-5 (1963), BESYS-7 (1964), and BE90 (1968)[1]) were implemented as the underlying computers transitioned through theIBM 709X family. BESYS development was discontinued when Bell Labs moved to theIBM System/360 in 1969. Throughout this period the head of the BESYS development project wasGeorge L. Baldwin.
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