| Developer | Digital Equipment Corporation |
|---|---|
| Written in | MACRO-10,BLISS |
| Working state | Discontinued |
| Initial release | 1970; 55 years ago (1970) |
| Latest release | 7.04[1] / July 1988; 36 years ago (1988-07) |
| Available in | English |
| Platforms | PDP-10 |
| Default user interface | Command-line interface |
| License | Proprietary Free for personal use |
TOPS-10 System (Timesharing /TotalOperatingSystem-10) is a discontinuedoperating system fromDigital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for thePDP-10 (or DECsystem-10)mainframe computer family. Launched in 1967, TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for thePDP-6 and PDP-10 computers; this was renamed to TOPS-10 in 1970.
TOPS-10 supportedshared memory and allowed the development of one of the first truemultiplayercomputer games. The game, calledDECWAR,[2] was a text-orientedStar Trek-type game. Users at terminals typed in commands and fought each other in real time. TOPS-10 was also the home of the original Multi User Dungeon,MUD, the forerunner to today'sMMORPGs.
Another groundbreaking application was calledFORUM. This application was perhaps the first so-calledCB Simulator that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as achat room. This application showed the potential of multi-user communication and led to the development ofCompuServe's chat application.
TOPS-10 had a very robustapplication programming interface (API) that used a mechanism called a UUO orUnimplemented User Operation. UUOs implemented operating system calls in a way that made them look like machine instructions. The Monitor Call API was very much ahead of its time, like most of the operating system, and made system programming on DECsystem-10s simple and powerful.
The TOPS-10scheduler supported prioritized run queues, and appended a process onto a queue depending on its priority. The system also included User file and Device independence.
The following list ofcommands are supported by TOPS-10.[3]
The PDP-6 Monitor software was first released 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 implementvirtual 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 arrangement used before). The final release of TOPS-10 was 7.04[1] in 1988.
Hobbyists are now entitled to set up and use TOPS-10 under a Hobbyist's License.[4]
The easiest way for the hobbyist to run TOPS-10 is to acquire a suitableemulator[5][6] and an operatingsystem image.[7] TOPS-10 may also be generated from archived original distribution "tapes".[8][9]
Paul Allen maintained several publicly accessible historic computer systems, including a DECsystem-2065 running TOPS-10.[10]
The TOPS-10 assembler,MACRO-10, was bundled with the TOPS-10 distribution.
The followingprogramming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as layered products:
The following programming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as contributions fromDECUS members:
The following major user utilities were implemented on TOPS-10:
MS-DOS was heavily influenced by TOPS-10. Identical elements include three characters longfile extensions, several standard extensions (e.g., EXE, TXT), the asterisk (*) as awildcard, the usage of theslash (/) as a switch separator and more.[19]
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