The Multicians web site presents the story of the Multics operating system for people interested in the system's history, especially Multicians. The site's goals are to
- preserve the technical ideas and advances of Multics so others don't need to reinvent them.
- record the history of Multics, its builders, and its users before we all forget.
- give credit where it's due for important innovations.
- remember some good times and good people.
The Multicians web site contains 476 HTML files (see the Site Map) comprising over 540K lines, 686 PDF files, and 642 graphic images. The site has benefited from the contributions of many authors. Contributions are invited: if you have a correction, fact, date, name, anecdote, or picture, please share it with Multicians everywhere by sending mail to the editor.
MR 12.6f, April 2017.
Anyone can try out a simulated Multics or install the simulator on their own computer.
Open Source for Multics is hosted at MIT,
courtesy of Bull HN.
It is available "for any purpose and without fee" provided that the copyright notice and historical background are preserved in all copies.
Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) was a mainframe timesharing operating system begun in 1965 and used until 2000. Multics began as a research project and was an important influence on operating system development. The system became a commercial product sold by Honeywell to education, government, and industry.
Multics was a prototype of a Computer Utility, providing secure computing to remote users at their terminals. Multicians still miss the elegant, consistent, and powerful programming environment; some Multics features are only now being added to contemporary systems.
- 03/21
- Bibliography: Added 3 internal MIT memos by Jerry Saltzer on Multics terminals and security.
- 03/13
- Bibliography: Added 1968 GE-645 System Manual.
- 03/03
- Cookie: Corrected attribution of the original TV show, thanks to mail from Chris Tavares.
- 01/21
- Simulator: Added pointers to discussion of Multics Release 12.7, in preparation now.
- 01/14
- Multicians: Added ACM Fellow award for Ken Thompson.
- 01/08
- Multicians: Updated entry for Tom Perrine.