[net.arch] TOPS-10 History

wes@ukecc.UUCP (Wes Morgan) (10/12/86)

Someone mentioned a book written by a DEC engineer on the 
development/implementation of both the PDP-10 and the TOPS-10
OS.  As an old DECsystem-10 user (it was the first *real* main-
frame I ever used), I'd love to read the volume in question.
Could someone please furnish title and/or author?  Thanks.

                 AOSsing workload and SOSsing my pay......




-- 
    Wes Morgan           UUCP:       !cbosgd!ukma!ukecc!wes
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    " Disclaimer? Huh? You mean this was supposed to be *MY* opinion?"
 

cwruacm@cwruecmp.UUCP (Kronen Insultants) (10/22/86)

In article <664@ukecc.UUCP> wes@ukecc.UUCP (Wes Morgan) writes:
>
>Someone mentioned a book written by a DEC engineer on the 
>development/implementation of both the PDP-10 and the TOPS-10
>OS.  As an old DECsystem-10 user (it was the first *real* main-
>frame I ever used), I'd love to read the volume in question.
>Could someone please furnish title and/or author?  Thanks.
>
>    Wes Morgan

If someone has this info, please post it (or at least send it to me).  I'm
a DECsystem-20 user (and consultant, sort of), and it sounds pretty interes-
ting.

						Chet Ramey


Trademark is a Disclaimer of Bell Labs

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lhs@whuxcc.UUCP (lorne schachter ) (10/23/86)

> In article <664@ukecc.UUCP> wes@ukecc.UUCP (Wes Morgan) writes:
> >
> >Someone mentioned a book written by a DEC engineer on the 
> >development/implementation of both the PDP-10 and the TOPS-10
> >OS.  As an old DECsystem-10 user (it was the first *real* main-
> >frame I ever used), I'd love to read the volume in question.
> >Could someone please furnish title and/or author?  Thanks.
> >
> >    Wes Morgan
> 
> If someone has this info, please post it (or at least send it to me).  I'm
> a DECsystem-20 user (and consultant, sort of), and it sounds pretty interes-
> ting.
> 
> 						Chet Ramey
 If someone hasn't written the book, it would be an interesting one to write
						Lorne Schachter
						whuxcc!lhs

dmc@videovax.UUCP (Donald M. Craig) (10/25/86)

I don't know about a whole book on the PDP-10/TOPS-10, but it sounds
like the article being referenced is:
	The Evolution of the DECsystem-10
	C. Gordon Bell, Alan Kotok, Thomas N. Hastings, and Richard Hill
	pp 489-518 of
	Computer Engineering - A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design
	C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John E. McNamara
	Digital Press, 1978, JB066-A, ISBN 0-932376-00-2

An earlier version of this paper appeared in Communications of the ACM,
January 1978.  Alan Kotok was the designer of the KI10 processor (and
maybe more), and Tom Hastings was the operating system manager in
the 4S72 - 5 series days.   My copy of the book has a somewhat musty
odour, and it has such articles as "A New Architecture for Minicomputers -
The DEC PDP-11".   As a source of 'Ancient' DEC computer history it
is peerless, and resolves some of the revisionism we have been hearing
lately in this newsgroup.   "On the basis of previous experience, we
decided that the advantages of having one standard flip-flop were worth
some complications in TX-2 circuitry", from "Transistor Circuitry
in the Lincoln TX-2" by Kenneth H. Olson, a former DEC designer.

Don Craig
Tektronix Television Systems Engineering
dmc@videovax.tek.com