Compatible Timesharing System
CTSS
<operating system> (CTSS) One of the earliest (1963)
experiments in the design of interactive {time-sharing}
{operating systems}. CTSS was ancestral to {Multics}, {Unix},
and {ITS}. It was developed at the {MIT} Computation Center
by a team led by Fernando J. Corbato. CTSS ran on a modified
{IBM 7094} with a second 32K-word bank of memory, using two
{2301 drums} for swapping. {Remote access} was provided to up
to 30 users via an {IBM 7750} {communications controller}
connected to {dial-up} {modems}.
The name {ITS} (Incompatible {time-sharing} System) was a hack
on CTSS, meant both as a joke and to express some basic
differences in philosophy about the way I/O services should be
presented to user programs.
(1997-01-29)