Multics Glossary

Glossary of Multics acronyms and terms.

The glossary is divided into 26 files, one for each letter. (Non-letter entries are in the "A" file.)

Click on a letter to select a glossary file.
Index| A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M| N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z|

Alphabetical list of 843 entries

103A Classic low-speed Bell asynchronous modem....
1050 First IBM terminal that used the Selectric mechanism....
1ISG US Air Force unit that operated the Pentagon AFDSC...
202C6 High-speed Bell asynchronous modem....
2741 IBM terminal with Selectric mechanism, came after the 1050....
6090 Model number on the first 6180 as it was...
6180 Second-generation Multics machine, with major architectural improvements over the...
635 General Electric's competitor to the IBM 7094 in the...
6.36 Simulation environment for the 645 machine (at first called...
645 Computer system that Multics first ran on, produced by...
645F (645 Follow-on) the name for the 6180 while it...
7094 IBM's most powerful scientific computer in 1963, the platform...
7punch Binary card format used by the I/O daemon for...
abbrev Per-user command line abbreviation facility....
ABR Address Base Register....
absentee The Multics absentee facility is like traditional batch processing,...
ABSI Asynchronous Bit Serial Interface (ABSI)....
absolute (1) An absolute pathname descends from the root....
absolute mode The hardware startup mode of the 6180 and 645...
abs_seg An SDW used by supervisor routines to access absolute...
abs-usable Main memory frame, part of the paging pool, in...
abs-wired (1) Of a page....
accept Of a physical volume....
access class An access isolation mechanism attribute that denotes the sensitivity...
access control Multics feature that checks if a user can do...
accounting Multics comes with an elaborate accounting system, that summarizes...
AccuRay Later name for Industrial Nucleonics...
ACL Access Control List....
ACS Access Control Segment....
ACTC Software engineering solutions company in Calgary Alberta, Canada, formerly...
activate To make a segment active....
activation attributes Those attributes of a segment that are read from...
active (1) Said of a segment: an active segment is...
active device In the 635/645/6180 architecture, active devices are CPUs, GIOCs...
active function A command, enclosed in brackets, inserted in a command...
Ada Language specified by the US Department of Defense....
additional names Segments and directories can have any number of entry...
ADP Advanced Development Program....
AED Algol Extended for Design....
AEP Advanced Engineering Program....
AFDSC US Air Force Data Services Center....
AIM Access Isolation Mechanism....
AI Tools Bull had a very good team, called CEDIAG, of...
ALGOL 68 Done by HIS UK in the 1980s...
ALM Assembly Language for Multics, which was supposed to be...
Amber Amber was an operating system produced by the S-1...
AML Author Maintained Library, stored in >aml....
AN61 , Honeywell Order No....
anonymous user User Control allows a project administrator to define an...
answering service Facility in Multics that listens to all non-logged-in terminals,...
AOS Add one to storage, opcode on 600 and 6000...
APL Interpreted language, defined by Ken Iverson of IBM, that...
appending mode Hardware mode of the 6180 and 645 processors where...
Appending Unit Or APU....
APT Active Process Table...
APU See Appending Unit...
archive Command that manages segments that consist of multiple subfiles....
ARCS Academic & Research Computing Services, the application programming organization...
ARDS Advanced Remote Display Station, an early graphics terminal....
area PL/I data type that acts like a free storage...
ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of...
ARPANet Network first constructed by ARPA, which decades later became...
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange....
ASEA Multics customer....
associative memory Each 645 and 6180 CPU had a content-addressed memory...
AST Active Segment Table....
AST hash table Table, kept in active_sup_linkage, holding the heads of hash...
AST pool There are four sizes of AST entries, those containing...
AST trickle Supervisor mechanism that periodically and slowly traverses the lists...
ASTE Active Segment Table Entry....
ASU Multics site....
attach The act of associating an I/O switch with another...
audit (1) The process of peer code review practiced at...
Avon Multics site....
B2 Orange Book (US government TCSEC) rating achieved by Multics....
backup Dumping files from disk to tape so they can...
BASED PL/I storage class, meaning "found by following a pointer."...
BASIC Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a language invented by...
Bath University of Bath, England...
BCD Binary-coded decimal....
BCE Bootload Command Environment...
BCO Billerica Computer Operations....
BCPL Bootstrap Combined Programming Language....
Bell Canada Multics customer, Bell Canada....
benchmark One part of most RFPs was a performance benchmark....
binder Utility that combines program binaries, the output of compilers,...
Birmingham Multics site: University of Birmingham...
bisync Binary Synchronous Communication....
bit count The file system stores a bit count for each...
block "Block and wakeup" is one of two interprocess synchronization...
bootload To load software into a system and start it...
bootstrap1 First program on a Multics boot tape....
boot tape Multics Standard Tape (MST) from which the three "collections"...
BOS Bootload Operating System....
branch Structure in a directory allocated for each segment or...
Bristol University of Bristol...
Brunel Multics site: Brunel University (Uxbridge, Middlesex, England)....
BSA Bootstrap Assembler...
BTL Bell Telephone Laboratories....
Bulk Store Replacement for the firehose drum, this was a large...
Bull Compagnie des Machines Bull (CMB), a French computer company...
Bull System H Honeywell Bull system used to develop X25 in Hounslow...
bump Involuntary logout....
C In MR12.0 (1986), a C compiler was written for...
cache (1) In 1974, the 6180 acquired an optional CPU...
CACL Common ACL....
calendar Multics provides a program to print wall calendars....
Calgary University of Calgary...
call bracket Range of rings that can call a given segment...
call/save/return The machine language sequences for inter-subroutine call depend on...
Cambridge Project An MIT-Harvard social science data management project....
canonicalization Multics converts terminal input lines to a standard form,...
card The 645 came with a card reader and punch....
Cardiff Multics site: Cardiff Joint Computing Centre [CJCC] (Cardiff, Wales)....
carry Originally a daily sneakernet between the Project MAC and...
CCVR Multics site: Centre de Calcul Vectoriel pour la Recherche,...
CEDIAG Bull AI group led by Jean Rohmer....
CERAM Multics site: Centre d'Etude et de Recherche des Alpes...
CICB Multics site: Centre Interuniversitaire de Calcul de Bretagne, Universite...
CICG Multics site: Centre Interuniversitaire de Calcul de Grenoble, Universite...
CICL Multics site: Centre Interuniversitaire de Traitement de l'Information, Universite...
CICRP Multics site: Centre Interuniversitaire de Calcul de la Region...
CICT Multics site: Centre Interuniversitaire de Calcul de Toulouse, Universite...
CiiHB See Bull...
cipher Multics commands encode and decode implement a powerful file-encryption...
CIRCE Multics site: Centre InterRegional de Calcul Electronique, Centre de...
CIRIL See Nancy...
CISL Cambridge Information Systems Laboratory....
CISLian A Multician who worked at CISL...
clock The original 645 shipped with a separate box that...
clock algorithm Page-replacement algorithm (PRA) due to Corbató, whose variants and...
CNET Multics site: Centre National d'Etudes sur les Télécommunications [CNET]...
CNO Corporate Network Operations....
COBOL COBOL compiler done at Honeywell Billerica in early 1970s....
collection A Multics boot tape contains three logical groups of...
COLTS Communications OnLine Test System run by TOLTS....
combined linkage segment Per-ring segment that contains the LOT, the ring's STATIC...
command Program designed to be invoked by typing its name...
command language The Multics command language derives from the CTSS language,...
command level Process state in which lines input from the user's...
command processor See shell....
compare_ascii Multics command: compares two ASCII files and prints differences....
compose Multics text formatting command, successor to runoff....
computer utility A computer, its software, and staff set up to...
config deck An array of card images read by BOS and...
connect Communication signal sent from one active device to another....
connect time The accounting system metered and charged for "time logged...
connection failure At segment activation time, segment control checks that the...
Consistent System Social science data manipulation subsystem built by MIT's Cambridge...
console Terminal device hard wired to the IOM and used...
continuum Bulletin board program that ran on Multics in the...
control argument An argument that controls how a command works....
Control Unit That portion of the 6180 processor (the parallel component...
copy switch Argument to hcs_$initiate that caused a copy of the...
core Computer memory technology invented by Jay Forrester of MIT...
core metering Memory usage metering was described by Bob Frankston in...
cow's stomach The "Coreadd queue" of Release 6.1 and afterward....
CP-6 Honeywell bought rights to the CP-V operating system from...
CP/CMS IBM operating system for the 360/67, begun at the...
CPU Central Processing Unit, or processor....
crash An unplanned termination of system availability caused by problems...
crawlout When a signal is raised in an inner ring...
Cray Station Usually titled Multics Cray Station (although the acronym MCS...
Credit Lyonnais Multics site: Credit Lyonnais (Paris, France)....
CRF Camelback Road Facility....
CS see Consistent System...
CSC Computer Sciences Corporation, Moorestown NJ....
csort Cygnus Sort, a more performant reimplementation of the standard...
CST Copious Spare Time (CST)....
CTSS Compatible Time Sharing System....
CU See Control Unit...
cu_ For "command utility"....
CUESTA Simulated user driver for benchmarks....
CURSES Implementation of Unix CURSES package....
daemon A beneficent spirit....
damaged switch Segment attribute set during crash recovery, if the volume...
Data Management Large-scale project undertaken in the 1980s to add support...
Datatran Cambridge Project feature?
DBR Descriptor Base Register, sometimes Descriptor Segment Base Register, DSBR....
DCC Data Communications Corporation, Memphis, TN....
DCW Device Control Word....
DDDS/ORAE Canadian DND Multics site....
debug Multics source-level and process-level debugger, initially written by Steve...
deciduous A neologism of Bernie Greenberg's for branches that lose...
Decimal Unit Or "DU"....
definitions Section of an object segment that defines the offsets...
DELTA DEfinition des Langages et de Leurs Traducteurs par Attributs....
Descartes Executable specification language based on data structuring methods proposed...
descriptor (1) contents of an SDW...
descriptor segment Array of SDWs (segment descriptors) that totally define a...
development machine Any of several Multics machines at or near the...
development run Testing of new software on the development machine at...
DFAST FAST subsystem with Dartmouth conventions...
dial The answering service connects a TTY channel to an...
dialup_ Main event-driven dispatcher of the answering service...
DIM Device Interface Module....
DIPPER Code name for new hardware I/O system done in...
Dir. Prevision Multics site: Ministère des Finances, Direction de la Prévision,...
directory File system container for segments, links, or other directories....
directory control Supervisor subsystem that provides the directory abstraction....
Discourse Programming and simulation language based on a geographical data...
Disk Rotating magnetic storage device with movable heads....
disk quota Multics enforces disk usage quotas at page fault time....
DL Assembler flag for "Direct lower", 18-bit immediate operand....
DN30 Datanet-30 communications front-end processor, used by GECOS time sharing...
DN355 Datanet-355 communications front-end processor, added to 6180 Multics to...
DN6661 Datanet 6661 communications front-end processor....
DN6670 Datanet-6670 communications front-end processor...
DND Canadian Department of National Defence....
DOCKMASTER Unclassified Multics system operated by the US National Security...
dollar limits See resource limits...
dope Address-independent descriptive material for argument data....
dprint Delayed print....
DPS Distributed Processing System....
DPS6 Another name for a Level 6...
DPS6plus Version of the Level 6 that ran a secure...
DPS8 Honeywell early 80s name for its mainframe line....
DPS88 Later name for the Honeywell ADP and Orion machines....
DPS90 Even later Honeywell processor line....
Drum See Librafile...
DS 10 Early disk unit....
DSA Honeywell Distributed Systems Architecture....
DSEG Jargon for descriptor segment...
DSS191 Disk unit, used on Multics in the early 70s....
DSU170 Disk unit, used on Multics in the early 70s....
DSU270 Disk unit, used on Multics in the early 70s....
DTSS Dartmouth Time Sharing System....
DU (1) Assembler flag for "Direct upper", 18-bit immediate operand....
DUMP BOS command that prints an octal dump of selected...
DVCP Deer Valley Computer Park....
dynamic linking Actually two related concepts: the runtime location and initiation...
dynamic reconfiguration Multics facility that allows the system to add and...
EBCDIC Extended BCD Interchange Code....
echo Command that prints its arguments on user_output....
echo negotiation Scheme (1979) for conditional character echoing by MCS, echoing...
EDA (1) CTSS editor written by Jerry Saltzer....
edm Multics command for editing ASCII character stream files...
EIS Extended Instruction Set....
Elf Aquitaine Multics site: Centre de Recherche Elf Aquitaine (French oil...
eligible Eligible for multiprogramming....
Emacs From, "Editing MACroS", a video editor derived from David...
EMCRB Executive Multics Change Review Board....
enter Answering service command to log in an anonymous user...
entry An item cataloged in a directory: segment, link, multisegment...
entryname Name given to an item contained in a directory....
entry point An address in an object segment referenced by a...
EOP Executive Office of the President....
EPL Early PL/I....
EPLBSA EPL BootStrap Assembler....
eppbp 6180 opcode 352, "effective pointer to pair BP ((utility)...
EPSHOM Multics site: Etablissement Principal du Service Hydro-Océanique de la...
equal convention Command argument convention that specifies the interpretation of equal...
erase The # character in terminal input erases itself and...
ERF Error Report Form Number - report of a system...
error_output The standard process I/O switch that commands normally use...
error_table_ Deciduous segment containing a table of distinct integers ("error...
escape Multics terminal input supports several conventions to allow the...
ESD Emergency ShutDown....
ESL Electronics Systems Laboratory....
event channel See IPC....
eviction Opposite of paging-in, to remove a page from memory,...
Excalibur Proposed I/O controller to work with Merlin CPU....
exec_com Multics command that executed a script of commands from...
EXECUTE Button on the 645 and 6180 CPUs that, according...
execute bracket Range of rings that can execute a given segment....
Explorer Program conducted by the Boy Scouts of America for...
extended access The file system supports additional access control bits, not...
F&T Restaurant in Kendall Square, Cambridge, where Project MAC Multicians...
FAMIS Feature of MR11.0....
FAST DTSS simulator, with command conventions made more like Multics....
fatal error A Multics process can terminate for a number of...
fault Processor generated exception causing a diversion of control through...
fault vector Set of 32 instruction pairs in a fixed location...
FDUMP BOS command that takes a core dump into a...
Field Engineers FEs were Honeywell employees who installed the big iron...
file See segment...
File manager See vfile_...
file map Data structure that lists disk record addresses for each...
file system Multics was the first operating system to introduce a...
FIM Fault Interceptor Module....
finish PL/I condition signalled in a process at logout time...
finjan See ZARF...
Firehose drum See Librafile...
FJCC Fall Joint Computer Conference....
FL Function Language....
Flag Day Any software change that is neither forward nor backward...
Flexowriter Typewriter device made by Friden, which could punch paper...
Flower Honeywell machine, planned as a Multics platform in the...
flush Command that causes lots of paging by creating many...
FNP Front-end Network Processor...
Ford Ford Motor Company....
format_document (Short name, fdoc.) Primitive Multics text formatting command....
format_pl1 PL/I indenting program with many features, options, and control...
FORTRAN Multics had three fortran compilers....
forum (1) Bulletin board system....
frame As in core frame, or page frame....
FRED ARPANet interface board...
FSDCT File System Device Configuration Table....
FSIM File System Interface Module...
FSO Federal Systems Operation....
FT2 Fault Tag 2, a hardware indirection indicator that causes...
FTP File Transfer Protocol....
gate Segment that allows transfer of control between rings in...
Gateway Hardware project to build an ARPANet gateway, done at...
GCOS Formerly GECOS, General Electric Comprehensive Operating System....
GCOS 6 Operating system for the Honeywell Level 6 minicomputer....
GCOS simulator Also called the GCOS Environment Simulator, GES....
GE General Electric Co....
GEBUG Debugging facility for 6.36 programs....
GEMSOS Gemini Computer's secure OS, influenced by Multics...
Genstat Genstat, "A General Statistical Program," was developed at the...
GESHUA GE Six Hundred series Users' Association....
GIM GIOC Interface Module....
Gimpelize To arrange the items in a PL/I data structure...
GIMPSPIF GIOC to IMP Special Interface....
GIOC Generalized I/O Controller....
Glim Statistical stuff done by Douglas Clark at Bath?
GM General Motors Corporate/EDS....
GMCRB Greater Multics Change Review Board....
graphics Multics graphics were heavily influenced by the Electronic Systems...
GRTS GCOS remote job entry supervisor used in the 1970s....
GTSS GCOS Time Sharing System....
Guardian CISL/MITRE/USAF project that added AIM, the Access Isolation Mechanism,...
hardcore (1) That portion of the Multics that is loaded...
hardcore partition Partition, on the RPV, used for the pages of...
hardware monitor See yellow submarine...
HASP Houston Automatic Spooling Program....
hcs_ Gate into the hardcore supervisor....
HEALS Honeywell Error Analysis and Logging System....
help The first Multics help facility simply printed out system...
hierarchy The Multics file system names files (segments) with multi-part...
HISCAN Honeywell Information Systems, Canada...
HISLTD Honeywell Information Systems, Limited....
HISUK Another name for HISLTD...
HLR Multics site....
HLSUA Honeywell Large Systems Users Association....
home directory Each user on a project has a home directory,...
Honeywell USA conglomerate....
HOPL History of Programming Languages...
hphcs_ Highly Privileged HardCore Supervisor, pronounced "h'putschkiss", after Greenberg....
HRX Internal Honeywell codename for the DPS6plus...
IACL Initial ACL....
idiotic The EPL compiler produced spectacularly bad code for some...
idle process Multics creates a dedicated process for every CPU, all...
IFAD Integrated Firmware and Diagnostics....
ifd Interpret FDUMP....
illegal For a while, official Honeywell Multics documentation policy tried...
IMFT Inter Multics File Transfer...
IML Installation Maintained Library, stored in >iml...
IMP Interface Message Processor....
IMU Information Multiplexer Unit....
IN Industrial Nucleonics....
info seg The help command prints out information from segments with...
inhibit Bit 28 (big-endian) of every 645 and 6180 instruction...
initialization Software mechanisms by which the Multics supervisor is loaded...
initializer First process created when Multics is booted....
initiate Map into an address space and optionally assign a...
INNPPP Multics site: "Institut National de Physique Nuclèaire et de...
INRA Multics site: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique [INRA]...
INRIA Multics site: Institut National de la Recherche en Informatique...
INSEE The French Minestère of Finances had three Multics sites...
Intellect Natural language database query product from Artificial Intelligence Corporation...
interactive message Facility for sending one-line messages between users, including the...
interlace Technique of placing alternate word-pairs or word-quads of the...
interrupt The 645 /6180 CPU has a separate set of...
ioa_ Standard Multics output formatter, ancestor to C printf, invented...
IOCT I/O Command Translator....
I/O daemon The I/O daemon process runs all the printers and...
IOI (ioi_) I/O Interfacer....
IOM Input/Output Multiplexer....
I/O module Program that processes input and output requests directed to...
ios_ I/O Switch....
IOSIM I/O Switch Interface Module...
I/O switch Path in the I/O system through which information is...
IOTC I/O Table Compiler....
iox_ I/O Exchange....
IPC (1) Information Processing Center....
IPR (1) Independent Project Review....
IPS (1) Information Processing Services....
IPTO ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office....
IRIA Initial name of INRIA...
IRT Multics site: Institut de Recherche des Transports, Arcueil, France,...
ISL The ISL (InterSystemLink) hardware and software, by means of...
ISOLTS Isolated OnLine Test System....
ISOT Internal Static Offset Table....
iteration The Multics shell supports iteration over command arguments....
ITS (1) Indirect To Segment....
Janus Relational data base management system developed as part of...
jladdae (for "just logout and don't do anything else", pronounced,...
KERMIT Protocol for transferring files to and from PCs over...
kernel We didn't speak of the "kernel" of the system...
kill The @ character in terminal input "kills" the whole...
Kludge The ESL display, a feature of CTSS....
known A segment is "known" in a process if that...
KOOL Artificial Intelligence language created by CEDIAG, the Bull AI...
KST Known Segment Table....
LALR Compiler-compiler system, used for parser generation....
LAPB Flavor of X...
LCPD Honeywell Large Computer Products Division....
LCS MIT Laboratory for Computer Science....
LDBR Load descriptor base register....
LDS Library Data Segment, another archive-like mechanism...
Level 6 Honeywell minicomputer, built by Honeywell at BCO in Billerica,...
Level 61 Honeywell minicomputer, designed and built by Bull...
Level 62 Honeywell minicomputer, designed and built by HIS Italia...
Level 64 Honeywell mid-range computer, designed in France by Bull....
Level 66 Honeywell's designation for the large-scale computers that ran GCOS,...
Level 68 Honeywell's designation for the large-scale computers that ran Multics....
Librafile The "Firehose drum." A large, fixed-head (head per track,...
Library tools Set of programs used by system maintenance staff at...
LILA Query language accepted by LINUS...
link (1) (As opposed to branch)....
linkage section The output of a compilation is program instructions, in...
linker Supervisor facility that implements dynamic linking....
LINUS Logical Inquiry and Update System....
LISD Large Information Systems Division....
LISP List processing language invented at MIT in the 50s...
listener User-ring program that loops reading a line of input...
load control Multics has elaborate features to handle more user demand...
lock 36-bit word used as a semaphore to protect data...
Logica British consulting firm, produced Rapport RDBMS, ported to Multics...
logical volume (LV) NSS term meaning "a group of disk packs treated...
login Command interpreted by the answering service to create a...
LOT Linkage Offset Table....
LP Cambridge Project software done by R K Scott?
LRK Compiler-compiler system, used for parser generation....
LS TAC Large Systems Technical Assistance Center
LSS Limited Service Subsystem....
LUT Multics site: Loughborough University of Technology 1983-1991....
LVT Logical Volume Table...
MAC See Project MAC...
MacAIMS A database research group at Project MAC in the...
MacLisp Multics version of LISP....
MACSYMA Symbolic mathematics subsystem written in LISP at MIT AI...
MAD Michigan Algorithm Decoder....
MADAM MacAIMS Data Management system....
Magic6 Small scale Multics-like system done at the MIT Architecture...
mail Quick and dirty insecure mail was written by Tom...
mailbox (1) The per-user file that mail is received in,...
Mainz Multics site: Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz (Mainz, Germany)....
man Multics had modules such as "ioam" (I/O Assignment manager)...
mandatory access control Access controls that prevent a user from making information...
master directory Master directories are quota directories that have a logical...
master mode The 645 version of privileged mode...
MATPAC ?
MCB Multics Checkout Bulletin....
MCC Multics Computer Center....
MCHQ Canadian DND Multics site....
MCOIN Maritime Command Operations Information Network....
MCR Multics Change Request....
MCR Board Group of software developers who met weekly to consider...
MCS Multics Communication System....
MDA Multics site....
MDBM Multics Data Base Manager...
MDBM Data Dictionary ?
MDN Multics Design Note....
MECR Multics Emergency Change Request....
MED Honeywell Marketing Education....
MEDAGRA Biomedical databank established at Rennes by the NMR laboratory...
MegaCalc Third party spreadsheet package for Multics produced in 1986...
merge_ascii Multics command: combines changes to files descended from a...
merge-editor See MRGEDT...
merger Honeywell bought GE's computer business in October 1970, according...
Merlin Codename for the Flower CPU design....
message coordinator Facility by Tom Van Vleck (1972) that defines and...
message segment Ring-1 segment that contains individual messages, used to implement...
metering Multics has many metering commands, such as file_system_meters, traffic_control_meters,...
MGS (1) Multics Graphics System
MGT Master Group Table....
MHAT Multics Hardware Acceptance Tests....
MIDS Multics Integrated Data Store....
mini-GIM Small, simple, fast version of the GIM, introduced in...
Ministere de la Culture Multics site: Ministere de la Culture....
Ministerie van Sociale Zaken Multics site: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid [SOZAWE]...
Minitab Third party stat package for Multics by Minitab, Inc....
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
MJDT MRDS to Janus Database Transfer: A windowed application providing...
MME Master Mode Entry opcode, used by GCOS programs to...
mmtu Graffiti file at MIT....
MOLTS MPC OnLine Test System run by TOLTS....
Monsanto Sale Multics didn't make?
moo Game programmed for Multics by Jerry Grochow in the...
MOOS Multics OLPARS Operating System, program developed at RADC for...
Mosteller's Law Rule about meetings, attributed to Prof....
motd Message of the Day....
MOWSE Multics Online Work Station Environment....
MPC Microprogrammed Peripheral Controller....
MPM Multics Programmers' Manual....
MPN Multics Planning Notebook....
MPO Multics Project Office....
MR Multics Release....
MRDS Multics Relational Data Store....
MRDSM Multics Relational Data Store Multibase....
MRGEDT CTSS command that wrote a GECOS IMCV tape on...
MRPG Multics Report Program Generator....
MRX Internal Honeywell codename for the DPS6plus processor...
MSB Multics Staff Bulletin....
MSCR Multics System Change Request....
MSP (1) Multics Special Projects; Minneapolis group responsible for marketing...
MSP800 Disk unit...
MSPM Multics System Programmer's Manual....
MSS Multics Standard System....
MST Either "Multics standard tape" or "Multics system tape", which...
MST checker Stand-alone facility invented by Peter Schicker that checked a...
MSU0400 Disk unit....
MSU0451 Disk unit....
MSU0500 Disk unit....
MSU0501 Disk unit....
MSU3381 Disk unit....
MTB Multics Technical Bulletin....
MTR Multics Task Report....
mult I used "mult" to mean either "actively doing Multics...
multer In general, anyone who multed, i.e., programmed (or even...
MultiCalc We [at STC] showed Mike Pandolfo an Apple II...
Multician Anyone who contributed to the development and success of...
Multicious Stylistically consistent with the standards of Multics design and...
Multics Multiplexed Information and Computing Service....
Multics Company Olin Sibert's proposed company, intended to purchase rights to...
multilevel (1) Multilevel secure: certified for use by users with...
multilevel daemon ?
multiplexer The ring-zero multiplexers provide a framework within the Multics...
multiprocessing Running more than one CPU in the same system....
multiprogramming Having more than one program ready to run in...
multisegment file (MSF) One of the weaknesses of Multics is that data...
name See additional names...
Nancy Multics site: Centre Informatique Regional Interuniversitaire de Lorraine, Universite...
NCP Network Control Program....
NCSC National Computer Security Center....
NEC Nippon Electric Company....
new_proc Terminate the user session's process and create a new...
nothing This command does nothing, as its name suggests....
notify "Wait/notify" is one of two interprocess synchronization mechanisms used...
notify timeout In some cases a process might wait forever for...
NPS Standard GCOS DN355 software....
NPT New Product Test....
NSA (1) US National Security Agency....
NSS New Storage System....
NSW The National Software Works (NSW) was an Air Force...
NTT Nippon Telephone....
NWGS US Naval War Games System....
object segment Segment containing executable machine instructions....
octal Counting in base 8....
OLPARS Pattern recognition software built at RADC by Pattern Analysis...
ONERA Multics site: Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aéronautiques....
Online T&D Online Test and Diagnostics....
Operations Unit Or OU....
operator Unsung heroes....
Opus System proposed by CISL in 1986 to follow on...
Orange Book Standards document produced by the NCSC, titled Department of...
ORAS Operations Reporting and Accounting System....
Orion 1970s Honeywell codename for a processor in the ADP...
OU (1) Multics site: Oakland University [OU]....
outer module I/O module intended for user stream attachment....
Overlap Project MIT social-science project, a continuation of the Cambridge Project,...
packed pointer Hardware feature on the 6180, and a much rarer...
page Fixed size piece of memory....
page control Ring 0, wired software responsible for managing the transfer...
page fault Still called that, or "missing page exception." When an...
page multilevel Scheme implemented in MSS 16.0 (1971? 72?) by Steve...
page table Array of hardware control words (Page Table Words, or...
page trace Ring-buffer in the first page of a process's PDS...
paging (1) The division (by the 645 /6180 appending hardware)...
paging device Device used as the intermediate level store in a...
PAL (Pedagogic Algorithmic Language) Programming linguistics language created by MIT...
Palyn Report Report prepared in 1978 by Palyn Associates for Honeywell...
PARC (1) GE-speak acronym for "Purchased and Rented Computers." Not...
partition Contiguous region of a disk volume....
Pascal Grenoble wrote a Pascal compiler for Multics in the...
password Secret character string used to authenticate the claimed identity...
path name Multics segments are named by a sequence of entry...
PC support Support for file transfer and terminal emulation between a...
pdd (or PDD, process_dir_dir)....
PDS Process Data Segment....
PDT Project Definition Table....
Perigon Multics site: A software engineering solutions company in Calgary...
person Multics registers individual people in the Person Name Table...
Phase One Integration milestone during Multics development....
phcs_ Privileged HardCore Supervisor gate....
PHM Page Has been Modified....
Phoenician A Multician who worked in Phoenix...
Phoenix City in Arizona, where LISD built large computers....
photocomposition Feature of compose...
PHU Page Has been Used....
PHU1 "Page used in quantum (time since made eligible)"....
physical volume (PV) NSS term meaning "a disk pack"....
pipes Unix feature added to the Multics shell in the...
PIT Process Initialization Table....
PL/I Programming Language #1, invented by George Radin of IBM...
pl1_operators_ Segment referred to by every compiled PL/I program, containing...
pln Print with Line Numbers....
PMDC Phoenix Multics Development Center....
PMF Project Master File....
PML MSS 16.0 and page control jargon for Page Multilevel....
PNT Person Name Table....
pointer register Register on the 6180 (or "pointer pair" on the...
POLTS Peripheral OnLine Test System run by TOLTS....
Port Logic That portion of the 6180 processor that takes absolute...
post-purging To hasten the eviction of "a process's pages" from...
PPR Procedure Pointer Register - a tripartite processor register defining...
PRDS Processor Data segment....
pre-paging Feature of the page control/ traffic control interaction which...
prelinker (1) The Multics supervisor is pre-linked statically at system...
PRHA Multics site: Puerto Rican Highway Authority....
Primos Prime Computer's operating system....
printer Multics supported the standard-issue GE and Honeywell line printers...
privileged mode The GCOS versions of the Multics processors implemented a...
probe Multics high-level PL/I source language debugger...
process An address space and a locus of control....
process directory Directory created when a process is created for exclusive...
process overseer Procedure called at process initialization time....
process preservation Multics can save a process across a communications interruption....
profile (1) Facility to count the number of times each...
program_interrupt After a QUIT signal or fault in an interactive...
project Group of Multics users working together, for the same...
project administrator Person who administers a Multics project....
project directory Directory for a given project, always a subdirectory of...
Project MAC MIT Project MAC, suggested by J.C.R....
PRR Procedure Ring Register....
PTL Page Table Lock....
PTW Page Table Word....
PUMA Proposal to Boeing (Multics as a document processing system...
pure procedure Multics compilers all generate code that does not modify...
PVT Physical Volume Table...
pxss Process exchange, switch stack, the ALM-coded module which performed...
QED CTSS editor written by Ken Thompson....
queue (1) Scheduler queue....
quit Method used to interrupt a running program....
quota Usually referred to disk quota....
RACE The initial 645 configuration shipped to MIT included an...
RADC Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome...
RAE Multics site: Royal Aircraft Establishment (Farnborough, Hampshire, England)....
RAID GECOS machine-level debugger, like DDT....
RALR "Ring alarm register"....
Rapport Relational database produced by the British consulting firm Logica,...
RAR (1) Read-alter-rewrite, an SCU operation needed by a class...
RCCL Read Calendar Clock....
RCI Renaissance Computing Incorporated....
RCP Resource Control Package....
read bracket Range of rings that can read a given segment....
Read-Write Sequence (RWS) An internal operation of page multilevel which evicts...
ready message The standard listener called cu_$ready_proc before reading a command....
record stock An in-memory "stock" of records is withdrawn from the...
reduce Symbolic algebra package written in LISP...
reduction compiler Tool similar to YACC that generated a parser for...
reference name Name supplied to hcs_$initiate when a segment is made...
referencing_dir Search rule that looks for a segment in the...
relative Pathname interpreted relative to the current working directory...
Renault Multics site: Regie National des Usines Renault, Boulogne-Billancourt, France,...
REPL Restricted EPL....
reservation There is a way to reserve tape drives and...
resource limits Multics supported spending limits per user and per project....
RESTOR BOS command....
retrieve Obtain a copy of a lost file from a...
REWPUG Read, Execute, Write, Privileged, Unpaged, (not) Gate, the six...
RFP Request for Proposal....
ring Concentric level of privilege of user/supervisor distinction....
ring 0 Most privileged ring of the Multics architecture....
ring brackets Three numbers associated with every segment defining the highest...
RJE Remote Job Entry...
RLV Root Logical Volume....
RNT Reference Name Table....
root Top directory in the naming hierarchy of a Multics...
RPV Root Physical Volume....
RPVS Root Physical Volume Salvage....
RSEXEC Resource Sharing EXECutive facility, funded by ARPA as a...
run unit Introduced to support COBOL....
RUNCOM BOS facility that allowed the execution of a script...
RUNOFF CTSS command for text formatting written by Jerry Saltzer....
RWS Jargon for Read-Write Sequence...
safety switch Segment attribute that controls whether a segment can be...
salvager Set of programs for reconstructing directory and file system...
SCAS (for "System Controller Addressing Segment") A supervisor segment with...
scavenger Program for finding records on a physical volume "lost"...
scheduler Used ambiguously, as in today's operating systems, to denote...
SCICONIC Mathematical programming facility produced by SCICON, Ltd....
SCOMP Secure COMPuter....
SCS (for "System Configuration Segment") A wired ring 0 data...
SCSI Multics site: SCSI....
SCU (1) System Control Unit, or Memory Controller....
SDW Segment Descriptor Word....
search rules The dynamic linking mechanism looks for segments in a...
second system effect As described in The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks,...
security Security was one of the basic design requirements for...
security-out-of-service switch The "soos" switch is set if the salvager detects...
SEDACS Support Equipment Data Acquisition and Control System, application hosted...
segfault Jargon for "(missing) segment fault"....
segment User-visible subdivision of a process's address space, mapped onto...
Segment Loading Table (SLT)....
segmentation Division of a process's virtual memory into a vector...
segment control Ring 0 software responsible for the management of segmentation,...
Selectric IBM mechanism for typewriters and computer terminals....
SEP Multics site: Société Européenne de Propulsion, Vernon, France, near...
Series 60, Level 68 Marketing name for a repackaged 6180....
SET System Environment Test...
SFEP Secure Front End Processor; original name of the machine...
shell The Multics command processor used to be called the...
shift The accounting system defines up to 8 shifts, which...
shriek name Multics has a convention of converting unique IDs into...
SIB Software Installation Bulletin....
signal PL/I name for an exception....
SIMPL Simulation language, descendant of OPS-4, compiled into Multics PL/I....
SIPB MIT's Student Information Processing Board....
Site Analysts Heroes of Multics....
Site N US National Security Agency site, Ft....
Site Security Administrator Designated security administration role at some sites....
SJU Multics site: St John's University (Jamaica NY)...
slave mode Unprivileged execution mode of the CPU....
SLT See Segment Loading Table...
SMM Segment Management Module....
SNECMA Multics site: Société Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de...
SNOBOL String processing language implemented for Multics by Olin Sibert...
sort/merge Multics has a sort/merge facility that was done as...
SOZAWE Multics customer...
SRB Software Release Bulletin....
SSA US Naval War Games System, Software Support Activity, Newport...
SSS See Standard Service System...
SST System Segment Table....
STAC Store A (accumulator) Conditional (on memory operand being zero.)...
stack Multics has a stack segment for the stack of...
STACQ Store A (accumulator) Conditional on Q (quotient register) (being...
standard service system Commands and subroutines provided with Multics, necessary for use...
star convention Convention of representing the names of multiple entries in...
Staran Attached associative processor, built by Goodyear Aerospace, used on...
STATIC PL/I storage class....
static section Region of the combined linkage segment where STATIC storage...
STC Multics site: Standard Telephones and Cables (New Southgate, North...
Stratus VOS See VOS...
subsystem utilities Library of utility routines for programs that read requests...
subverter Program written by the Project ZARF team to test...
suffix The last period-delimited component of an entryname....
SUNIST Service Universitaire pour l'Information Scientifique et Technique, Ministère de...
supervisor That portion of the operating system which runs in...
swapping Performance enhancement scheme implemented about 1977 for a Multics...
SysAdmin Project name for system administrators, the people who registered...
SysDaemon Multics project name that daemon processes runs under...
SysMaint Project name for system maintainers, the people who installed...
System M Multics system in Phoenix at CRF used by Honeywell...
Systeme X Multics system in France used by Bull employees for...
T&D Test and Diagnostic....
Tague Project Another attempt to start a company to build Multics...
tape Multics uses tape for file backup, for disk snapshots...
tbl Table Building Language....
TCB Trusted Computing Base...
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol....
Tech Square Technology Square....
TECO Tape Editor and Corrector....
ted For "text editor", a powerfully enhanced qedx by Jim...
Telefunken TR440 Telefunken Computer, for reasons known only to them, purchased...
TENEX PDP-10 operating system developed at BBN in the late...
terminal Interactive processes usually have a typewriter terminal (tty) attached...
terminal operators CISL staff who typed in the Multics documentation written...
terminal type Name for the kind of terminal device connected to...
terminate Said of a segment....
TeX Text formatting language invented by Donald K....
Texto Full text indexing software, used at Rennes to implement...
thrashing Condition in which the combined working set of the...
timesharing Time-Sharing computer systems provide multiple simultaneous users a program...
TMG TransMoGrifier....
TN1200 TermiNet 1200....
TN300 TermiNet 300....
TOLTS Total OnLine Test System....
Toshiba Multics customer...
TP Transaction Processing....
TPR Temporary Pointer Register - a tripartite processor register in...
TR Trouble Report....
traffic control Supervisor subsystem that performed the functions of controlling process...
Trap Trap attribute....
Trinity 1960s management group consisting of the leaders of MIT...
Triumvirate Next-level 1960s management group, reporting to the Trinity, of...
TRR Temporary Ring Register - the ring component of the...
TSP Cambridge Project feature?
TSS IBM's time-sharing system for the System/360 model 67....
TSS-645 Time-Sharing system related to GCOS time-sharing, run on the...
TTY Teletype....
TTY DIM Device Interface Module for terminals....
TTY35 Teletype Model 35....
TTY37 Teletype Model 37....
TYPSET Editing program for CTSS written by Jerry Saltzer....
UBCC Multics site: University of Birmingham Computer Centre [UBCC] (Birmingham,...
UC Multics site: University of Calgary [UC] (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)....
udd (or UDD, user_dir_dir) Alternate names of the directory >user_dir_dir,...
UID Unique identifier....
UIM Universal Interface Module....
UK file transfer & RJE ?
UK mail & network addressing ?
UK Transport Service ?
unbundled Costs extra....
unclaimed signal If a signal is raised, and the runtime cannot...
UNCP Universal Network Control Program....
underscore The character _, ASCII 137 (octal)....
unique name See shriek name...
university customers See Arizona State, Avon Universities (Bristol & Bath), Brunel,...
Unix Operating system done at Bell Laboratories by Ken Thompson...
UNSPEC PL/I language construct....
upgraded directory Directory with a higher AIM classification than its parent....
user (1) A person registered on a project....
User Control Subsystem that handled login, user registration, projects, and so...
user_input The standard process input I/O switch that commands normally...
user_i/o The standard I/O switch that can be assumed to...
user_output The standard process output I/O switch that commands normally...
USGS US Geological Survey....
USL University of Southwestern Louisiana [USL] (Lafayette, LA)....
validation level Ring number used for access checking when inner ring...
vfile_ Multics DIM that allowed users to access segments with...
vform_ vform_ was a forms product that could define a...
Video System Character based window system and real-time input editor much...
VIP7760 Honeywell video terminal....
VIP7801 Honeywell video terminal....
virtual cpu CPU cycles used excluding overhead for multiplexing....
virtual memory Addressing technique that provides uniform logical access to data,...
VisiCalc Microcomputer spreadsheet developed by Multicians Bob Frankston and Dan...
VLSI Design software ?
VMM Virtual Machine Monitor....
volume backup Storage backup of physical volumes while Multics operates....
volume map Data structure with one bit for each allocatable record...
volume pool RCP feature that allocates volumes for a generic ID...
volume salvager Repair a physical volume....
VOS Stratus operating system, influenced by Multics, developed by Multicians....
VPI Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA....
VTOC Volume Table of Contents....
VTOCE VTOC Entry....
VW Multics site: Volkswagen of America (Troy MI)....
wakeup See IPC...
WARMAPS Wartime Manpower Programing System....
WATCHWORD Authentication device that looked like a pocket calculator, used...
WHIRLWIND Early computer at MIT, begun during WW II and...
wired Code or data that is fixed in physical memory,...
WORDPRO Marketing package for compose plus Emacs, plus Speedtype, plus...
working directory Directory used as the implicit prefix of relative path...
working set Set of pages, at any time, required in core...
write bracket Range of rings that can write a given segment....
X.25 Communications protocol supported by Multics in MR 10...
xforum, xmail "Executive" versions of the forum and mail commands....
XR Index Register....
XRAY Jerry Grochow's tool for debugging 645 Multics....
XTS200 Honeywell product name for a "second generation SCOMP"....
XTS300 Wang Government Services (later known as Getronics (later known...
XTS400 2002-2003 outgrowth of the XTS300, produced by BAE Systems....
yellow form Workflow form used at Honeywell to submit system changes....
yellow submarine Hardware Engineering measurement device that hooked into the backplane...
ZARF Code name for Air Force/MITRE tiger team project that...
Zero Six Dog Field Engineers' jargon for "PRG06D", the 6080/6180 T &...
ZWERG BOS program that was a diagnostic for the ABSI....

Next: A