Eindhoven University of Technology (Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven); Edsger Dijkstra, et al.
Written in
Electrologica X8 assembly language
Working state
Discontinued
Initial release
1965; 59 years ago (1965)
Final release
Final / 1968; 56 years ago (1968)
Marketing target
Research
Available in
English
Update method
Compile from source code
Platforms
Electrologica X8
Kernel type
Layered
Default user interface
Paper tape
The THE multiprogramming system or THE OS was a computer operating system designed by a team led by Edsger W. Dijkstra, described in monographs in 1965-66[1] and published in 1968.[2]
Dijkstra never named the system; "THE" is simply the abbreviation of "Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven", then the name (in Dutch) of the Eindhoven University of Technology of the Netherlands. The THE system was primarily a batch system[3] that supported multitasking; it was not designed as a multi-user operating system. It was much like the SDS 940, but "the set of processes in the THE system was static".[3]
The THE system apparently introduced the first forms of software-based paged virtual memory (the Electrologica X8 did not support hardware-based memory management),[3] freeing programs from being forced to use physical locations on the drum memory. It did this by using a modified ALGOL compiler (the only programming language supported by Dijkstra's system) to "automatically generate calls to system routines, which made sure the requested information was in memory, swapping if necessary".[3] Paged virtual memory was also used for buffering input/output (I/O) device data, and for a significant portion of the operating system code, and nearly all the ALGOL 60 compiler. In this system, semaphores were used as a programming construct for the first time.
^
Dijkstra, Edsger W. The structure of the 'THE'-multiprogramming system (EWD-196)(PDF). E.W. Dijkstra Archive. Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. (transcription) (Jun 14, 1965)
^
Dijkstra, E.W. (1968), "The structure of the 'THE'-multiprogramming system", Communications of the ACM, 11 (5): 341–346, doi:10.1145/363095.363143, S2CID 2021311
^ abcdSilberschatz, Abraham; Peterson, James L. (May 1988), "13: Historical Perspective", Operating System Concepts, p. 512
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