Multics
24 Apr 2008

Links

Here is a list of internet sites of interest to Multicians.

Additional Information About Multics

Honeywell 6180 (DPS-8) Machine Emulator: Matt Williams has begun an open source project to emulate the Honeywell 6180. (04/24/08)
Multics Source Code new: Bull HN has provided the source code for the final Multics release, MR 12.5 of November 1992 to MIT. It is available "for any purpose and without fee" provided that the copyright notice and historical background are preserved in all copies. (11/09/07)
Multics Archive: maintained by Paul Green at Stratus Computer in Marlboro, Massachusetts, including his Multics Virtual Memory paper, a mirror of the Multicians site, and examples of Multics PL/I programs. (11/06/95)
Multics Manual Collection: Al Kossow has posted scans of the Multics CPU manual, AL39, the Multics Commands manual, AG92, and many other Honeywell Multics manuals. (03/19/03) Bitsavers.org also contains binary images of the boot and diagnostic tapes included with the DOCKMASTER system when it was provided to the Computer History Museum. (12/25/07) Bob Mabee has produced a smaller searchable PDF of AL39 from the compin source. new
The Last Multics Machine: A nice article from "On This Day" In Engineering History by "Moose", describing the history of Multics. (10/31/07)
"The Multics Operating System" in Bruce Schneier's blog: A brief article mentioning Multics and pointing to the Karger/Schell 2002 paper. A wide range of comments. (09/21/07)
"Multics" in Wikipedia: A pretty accurate article, mostly written by Noel Chiappa of MIT. (09/01/05)
My Adventures with Dwarfs: A Personal History in Mainframe Computers: A book of memoirs by GE and Honeywell old timer Russ McGee, manager in Phoenix and creator of the VMM virtual machine monitor. Many interesting insights into the politics at LISD. (06/01/07, 1.9M PDF)
My Career in Computer Architecture: A very fine autobigraphical essay by MIT Prof. Jack B. Dennis, who proposed some of the fundamental ideas that led to Multics. I am proud of the role I played in the activities that led to the construction of Multics. (2003)
Multicians.org and the History of Operating Systems: A review of this website, and of Multics, by Colby College professor Thomas Haigh for Iterations, a publication of the Charles Babbage Institute. (09/13/02)
The Multics-Installation at the Center for Data-Processing of the Johannes-Gutenberg-University of Mainz: Bernd Ulmann has a bunch of pictures of the Mainz machine and a nice story of how he and his friend Ingo got involved with the DPS-8. (11/14/02, 6K, 16 pictures)
A fond goodbye to Multics: Dan Bricklin's web log article for 10/31/00.
System R and MRDS: Paul McJones's summary of MRDS on his System R web site.
Dennis Ritchie's home page: One of our distinguished alumni. His home page includes classic papers on the beginnings of Unix, and manuals for QED and BCPL.
Orange Book: The Department of Defense Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria, DOD 5200.28-STD, December 1985. Describes levels of security for computer systems. Multics was the first system to get a B2 rating.
UC Davis History of Computer Security Project: Seminal papers in the field of computer security in PDF format, including several about Multics.
History of Bull: An interesting and detailed chronology and history of Machines Bull and its descendants, created by former Bull employees and brought to our attention by Jean Bellec.
Multics information page: maintained by Stan Zanarotti at MIT. Mostly a copy of these pages as of 1995. (02/28/95)
Multics page at the Open Directory: edited by Birmingham Multician Conrad Longmore. (03/10/03)

MIT Laboratory for Computer Science

Architects of the Information Society: Chapter One of the book Architects of the Information Society: Thirty-Five Years of the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT (1999; MIT Press) by Simson Garfinkel, edited by Hal Abelson, chronicles the history and achievements of LCS.
Project MAC and LCS publications: These publications are now provided on a server run by the MIT Libraries. See the Multics Bibliography for pointers.
1975 LCS Brochure.: Scanned and put online by MIT Prof. Peter Szolovits.

Industry

Internet services moving us back toward Multics utility computing of old: Bob Metcalfe's "From the Ether" InfoWorld column. "... the Internet is heading away from stand-alone personal computing, a tangent since Multics, and back toward utility computing. I'm all for it, but not because I enjoyed waiting 5 seconds for Multics to respond." (10/18/99)

Other Operating Systems

Contemporary with Multics, or influenced by Multics

Stories About the B5000 and People Who Were There: The Burroughs 5000 had segmentation, high level language, multiprocessor organization, and many other innovations in the early 60s. Richard Waychoff wrote a fascinating memoir of the system and the people who built it.
CTSS: MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System on the 7094 was the immediate ancestor of Multics.
DTSS: The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, begun in 1963, also ran on GE computers. There is a new project to re-create an emulated DTSS Version 1.
CP/CMS: CP/CMS ran on the 360/67 and was also developed in Tech Square. See also Melinda Varian's VM and the VM Community, an outstanding memoir about the history of CP/CMS, the people who built it, the machine it ran on, and its descendants.
HITAC 5020: The Hitachi HITAC 5020 system was strongly influenced by Multics. Its descendant, Omicron, has a home page which includes early (1969 and 1971) papers on the 5020 system.
MTS: The Michigan Timesharing System ran on the 360/67.
TENEX and TOPS-20: Originally developed at BBN. Ran on the PDP-10.
PDP Planet: Rich Alderson has restored one of Paul Allen's PDP-10s to working order and put it on the Internet running TOPS-10.
TENEX and TOPS-20: Gordon Bell's DEC history.
Primos: Prime's operating system shows a strong Multics influence.
Amber: The operating system produced by the S-1 project at Livermore between 1979 and 1986.

Computer History

Computing at Columbia Timeline: A chronological history of computing at Columbia University in New York by Frank da Cruz. Columbia was Herman Hollerith's alma mater, and the original site of the IBM T. J. Watson laboratory. Many good pictures of bygone computers, including the SSEC, the NORC, and many more. (05/23/03)
GE-625 / 635 Programming Reference Manual: Ed Thelen's site has an online version of the hardware manual for the ancestor of the 645. (11/04/02)
Interview with Monte Davidoff: An interview by The Register about Monte's work with Bill Gates at Microsoft before he joined the Multics team.
Bob Bemer's Site: The late Bob Bemer, "father of ASCII" and prolific inventor, put up a wonderful site with many stories of the old days, with a few mentions of Multics.
The Computer History Museum: The History Center in Silicon Valley contains a collection of old computers. They have the hardware from DOCKMASTER.
The Computer History Association of California: A well-developed web site full of historical information.
The Virtual Museum of Computing: Maintained by Jonathan Bowen at the University of Reading.
Charles Babbage Institute: Great source for computer history information. They have a collection of oral interviews with computer pioneers, including Corby, Licklider, and others who made Multics possible, and pointers to other historical information.
An interview with Norman Hardy: An interview with a timesharing pioneer. He visited MAC in the 60s and mentions the influence of Multics on other systems.
RADC: History of the Rome Air Development Center, an early Multics site. 1971 timeline entry describes Multics evaluation.
Museum Waalsdorp: has an interesting site which includes information on their CDC systems.
Computing's Johnny Appleseed: "Almost forgotten today, J.C.R. Licklider mentored the generation that created computing as we know it." An article by Mitchell Waldrop from the January 2000 Technology Review. (As of June 2002, Technology Review requires you to pay or be an MIT affiliate to view their archive.)
Larry Roberts: Dr. Lawrence Roberts is one of the fathers of the Internet. This site has fundamental historical papers and a valuable chronology of the Internet.
feb_wwide: This mailing list is for present and former employees of Bull, GE, Honeywell, and related companies. It focuses on computer history and preserving the story of past accomplishments. Apply to Jean Bellec for membership with a brief biography.
Retro Roundup: Kevin Savetz maintains a site that aggregates RSS feeds about classic computing and retro video games. (02/20/05)
Computer: Bit Slices of a Life: Herb Grosch, another computer pioneer, describes his career. Some info on the origins of GE's computer department, no mention of Multics. Full 500-page book, hosted at Columbia. (02/20/05)
Jef Raskin: Holes in the Histories: The late father of the Macintosh wrote an insightful and cautionary piece about computer history. Don't believe everything you read. (03/02/05)
Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing: A 1972 ARPA film describing computer networking, featuring many pioneers and glimpses of old machines. The first person talking in the film is Corby. Then Lick. About 26 minutes long. (03/19/06)