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The Burroughs Large Systems Group produced a family of large
48-bit In computer architecture, 48-bit integers can represent 281,474,976,710,656 (248 or 2.814749767×1014) discrete values. This allows an unsigned binary integer range of 0 through 281,474,976,710,655 (248 − 1) or a signed two's complement ra ...
mainframes A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
using stack machine instruction sets with dense
syllables A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
.E.g.,
12-bit syllable In computing, a syllable is a name for a platform-dependent unit of information storage. Depending on the target hardware, various bit widths (and sometimes internal groupings) are associated with it. Commonly used in the 1960s and 1970s, the term ...
s for B5000, 8-bit syllables for B6500
The first machine in the family was the B5000 in 1961. It was optimized for compiling
ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a k ...
programs extremely well, using single-pass compilers. It evolved into the B5500. Subsequent major redesigns include the B6500/B6700 line and its successors, as well as the separate B8500 line. In the 1970s, the
Burroughs Corporation The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. In 1986, it merged with Sperry UNIVAC to form Unisys. The company's history paralleled man ...
was organized into three divisions with very different product line architectures for high-end, mid-range, and entry-level business computer systems. Each division's product line grew from a different concept for how to optimize a computer's instruction set for particular programming languages. "Burroughs Large Systems" referred to all of these large-system product lines together, in contrast to the
COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...
-optimized Medium Systems (B2000, B3000, and B4000) or the flexible-architecture Small Systems (B1000).


Background

Founded in the 1880s, Burroughs was the oldest continuously operating company in computing ( Elliott Brothers was founded before Burroughs, but did not make computing devices in the 19th century). By the late 1950s its computing equipment was still limited to electromechanical
accounting machine An accounting machine, or bookkeeping machine or recording-adder, was generally a calculator and printer combination tailored for a specific commercial activity such as billing, payroll, or ledger. Accounting machines were widespread from the ear ...
s such as the Sensimatic. It had nothing to compete with its traditional rivals IBM and NCR, who had started to produce larger-scale computers, or with recently founded
Univac UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and ...
. In 1956, they purchased
ElectroData Corporation Sibyl Rock at the console of an ElectroData Datatron computer in 1955 The ElectroData Corporation is a defunct computer company located in Pasadena, California. ElectroData originated as a part of Consolidated Electrodynamics Corporation (CEC), ...
and rebranded its design as the B205. Burroughs' first internally developed machine, the B5000, was designed in 1961 and Burroughs sought to address its late entry in the market with the strategy of a completely different design based on the most advanced computing ideas available at the time. While the B5000 architecture is dead, it inspired the B6500 (and subsequent B6700 and B7700). Computers using that architecture were still in production as the
Unisys Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions ...
ClearPath Libra servers which run an evolved but compatible version of the MCP operating system first introduced with the B6700. The third and largest line, the B8500, had no commercial success. In addition to a proprietary CMOS processor design, Unisys also uses Intel
Xeon Xeon ( ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same a ...
processors and runs MCP, Microsoft Windows and
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
operating systems on their Libra servers; the use of custom chips was gradually eliminated, and by 2018 the Libra servers had been strictly commodity Intel for some years.


B5000

The first member of the first series, the B5000, was designed beginning in 1961 by a team under the leadership of Robert (Bob) Barton. It had an unusual architecture. It has been listed by the computing scientist John Mashey as one of the architectures that he admires the most. "I always thought it was one of the most innovative examples of combined hardware/software design I've seen, and far ahead of its time." The B5000 was succeeded by the B5500 (which used disks rather than drum storage) and the B5700 (which allowed multiple CPUs to be clustered around shared disk). While there was no successor to the B5700, the B5000 line heavily influenced the design of the B6500, and Burroughs ported the
Master Control Program The MCP (Master Control Program) is the operating system of the Burroughs small, medium and large systems, including the Unisys Clearpath/MCP systems. MCP was originally written in 1961 in ESPOL (Executive Systems Problem Oriented Language). In ...
(MCP) to that machine.


Features

* Hardware was designed to support software requirements * Hardware designed to exclusively support
high-level programming language In computer science, a high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer. In contrast to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language ''elements'', be easier to ...
s * Simplified
instruction set In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called a ...
* No Assembly language or assembler; all system software written in an extended variety of
ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a k ...
named ESPOL. However, ESPOL had statements for each of the syllables in the architecture. * Partially data-driven tagged and descriptor-based design * Few programmer accessible registers * Stack machine where all operations use the stack rather than explicit operands. This approach has by now fallen out of favor. * All interrupts and procedure calls use the stack * Support for other languages such as
COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...
* Powerful string manipulation * All code automatically
reentrant Reentrant or re-entrant can refer to: *Re-entrant (landform), the low ground formed between two hill spurs. *Reentrancy (computing) in computer programming *Reentrant mutex in computer science *Reentry (neural circuitry) in neuroscience *Salients ...
: programmers don't have to do anything more to have any code in any language spread across processors than to use just the two shown simple primitives. * Support for an
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 ...
(MCP,
Master Control Program The MCP (Master Control Program) is the operating system of the Burroughs small, medium and large systems, including the Unisys Clearpath/MCP systems. MCP was originally written in 1961 in ESPOL (Executive Systems Problem Oriented Language). In ...
) * Support for
asymmetric Asymmetric may refer to: *Asymmetry in geometry, chemistry, and physics Computing * Asymmetric cryptography, in public-key cryptography *Asymmetric digital subscriber line, Internet connectivity * Asymmetric multiprocessing, in computer architect ...
(master/slave)
multiprocessing Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There ar ...
* An attempt at a secure architecture prohibiting unauthorized access of data or disruptions to operationsThere were security issues * Early error-detection supporting development and testing of software * A commercial implementation virtual memory, preceded only by the
Ferranti Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known ...
Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...
. * First segmented memory model


System design

The B5000 was unusual at the time in that the architecture and instruction set were designed with the needs of software taken into consideration. This was a large departure from the computer system design of the time, where a processor and its instruction set would be designed and then handed over to the software people. The B5000, B5500 and B5700 in Word Mode has two different addressing modes, depending on whether it is executing a main program (SALF off) or a subroutine (SALF on). For a main program, the T field of an Operand Call or Descriptor Call syllable is relative to the Program Reference Table (PRT). For subroutines, the type of addressing is dependent on the high three bits of T and on the Mark Stack FlipFlop (MSFF), as shown in B5x00 Relative Addressing.


Language support

The B5000 was designed to exclusively support high-level languages. This was at a time when such languages were just coming to prominence with FORTRAN and then
COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...
. FORTRAN and COBOL were considered weaker languages by some, when it comes to modern software techniques, so a newer, mostly untried language was adopted, ALGOL-60. The ALGOL dialect chosen for the B5000 was Elliott ALGOL, first designed and implemented by
C. A. R. Hoare Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare (Tony Hoare or C. A. R. Hoare) (born 11 January 1934) is a British computer scientist who has made foundational contributions to programming languages, algorithms, operating systems, formal verification, and c ...
on an Elliott 503. This was a practical extension of ALGOL with I/O instructions (which ALGOL had ignored) and powerful string processing instructions. Hoare's famous