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TOPS-10 System (''Timesharing / Total Operating System-10'') is a discontinued
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
from
Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...
(DEC) for the
PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, espec ...
(or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer family. Launched in 1967, TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the
PDP-6 The PDP-6, short for Programmed Data Processor model 6, is a computer developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) during 1963 and first delivered in the summer of 1964. It was an expansion of DEC's existing 18-bit systems to use a 36-bit d ...
and PDP-10 computers; this was renamed to TOPS-10 in 1970.


Overview

TOPS-10 supported shared memory and allowed the development of one of the first true
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
computer games. The game, called DECWAR, was a text-oriented ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' 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 fore runner to today's MMORPGs. Another groundbreaking application was called ''FORUM''. This application was perhaps the first so-called '' CB Simulator'' that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as a chat room. This application showed the potential of multi-user communication and led to the development of CompuServe's chat application. TOPS-10 had a very robust
application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
(API) that used a mechanism called a UUO or ''Unimplemented 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-10 scheduler supported prioritized run queues, and appended a process onto a queue depending on its priority. The system also included User file and Device independence.


Commands

The following list of commands are supported by TOPS-10. * ASSIGN * ATTACH * BACKSPACE * BACKUP * CCONTINUE * COMPILE * CONTINUE * COPY * CORE * CPUNCH * CREATE * CREDIR * CREF * CSTART * D(eposit) * DAYTIME * DCORE * DDT * DEASSIGN * DEBUG * DELETE * DETACH *
DIRECTORY Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network' ...
* DISABLE * DISMOUNT * DSK * DUMP * E(xamine) * EDIT * ENABLE * EOF * EXECUTE * FILCOM * FILE * FINISH * FUDGE * GET * GLOB * HALT *
HELP Help is a word meaning to give aid or signal distress. Help may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Help'' (2010 film), a Bollywood horror film * ''Help'' (2021 theatrical film), a British psychological thriller film * '' ...
* INITIA * JCONTINUE * KJOB * LABEL * LIST * LOAD * LOCATE * LOGIN * MAKE * MERGE * MIC *
MOUNT Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...
* NETWORK * NODE * NSAVE * NSSAVE * OPSER * PJOB * PLEASE * PLOT * PRESERVE * PRINT * PROTECT * PUNCH * QUEUE * QUOLST * R * REASSIGN * REATTACH * REENTER * RENAME * RESOURCES * REWIND *
RUN Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...
* SAVE * SSAVE * SCHED * SEND * SET * SKIP * START * SUBMIT * SYSTAT * TECO * TIME * TPUNCH * TYPE * UNLOAD * USESTAT * VERSION * WHERE * ZERO


History


Release history

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 implement virtual 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 in 1988.


TOPS-10 today

Hobbyists are now entitled to set up and use TOPS-10 under a Hobbyist's License. The easiest way for the hobbyist to run TOPS-10 is to acquire a suitable emulator and an operating
system image In computing, a system image is a serialized copy of the entire state of a computer system stored in some non-volatile form such as a file. A system is said to be capable of using system images if it can be shut down and later restored to exactly ...
. TOPS-10 may also be generated from archived original distribution "tapes".
Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, whic ...
maintained several publicly accessible historic computer systems, including a DECsystem-2065 running TOPS-10.


Software


Implemented programming languages

The TOPS-10 assembler,
MACRO-10 MACRO-10 is an assembly language with extensive macro facilities for DEC's PDP-10-based Mainframe computer systems, the DECsystem-10 and the DECSYSTEM-20. MACRO-10 is implemented as a two-pass assembler. Programming examples A simple " Hello, ...
, was bundled with the TOPS-10 distribution. The following
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...
s were implemented on TOPS-10 as layered products: * ALGOL, as ALGOL-10 v10B, a compiler used for general computing * APL, as APL-SF V2, an interpreter used for mathematical modelling * BASIC, as BASIC-10 v17F, an interpreter used for general computing * BLISS, as BLISS-10 and BLISS-36, compilers used for systems programming * COBOL, as COBOL-68 and COBOL-74, compilers used for business computing * Fortran, as FORTRAN-10 v11, a compiler used for numerical computing The following programming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as contributions from DECUS members: * FOCAL, as FOCAL-10 *
Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...
, a threaded interpreted language * IMP72 * Lisp, an interpreter used for AI programming *
Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Frenc ...
, a compiler used for computing education * PILOT * SAM76 * Simula, a compiler used for modeling * SNOBOL, an interpreter used for string processing * BCPL, a compiler implemented by Essex University


Implemented user utilities

The following major user utilities were implemented on TOPS-10: * RMS (Records Management Services) * IQL (Interactive Query language) * DBMS-10 ( CODASYL Database Management System)


Notable games implemented on TOPS-10

* ADVENT * DECWAR, as noted above * FORUM, as noted above * HAUNT, an early role-playing game * Mac Hack, a
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
program by Richard Greenblatt * MUD


Legacy

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...
was heavily influenced by TOPS-10. Identical elements include three characters long file extensions, several standard extensions (for eg. EXE, TXT), the asterisk () as a wildcard, the usage of the
slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...
() as a switch separator and more.


See also

*
PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, espec ...
* TOPS-20TOPS-20 was a name, not a direct followup to TOPS-10. TOPS-20 is, however, related to TENEX, which stands for TEN EXteneded * WAITS


References

{{Time-sharing operating systems DEC operating systems Time-sharing operating systems 1964 software