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| source_model = [[Proprietary software|Closed source]]
| source_model = [[Proprietary software|Closed source]]
| kernel_type = Time-sharing operating systems
| kernel_type = Time-sharing operating systems
| supported_platforms = [[PDP-8]]
| supported_platforms = [[PDP-8 starting with the PDP-8I model]]
| influenced_by = [[TSS (operating system)|TSS/360]]
| influenced_by = [[TSS (operating system)|TSS/360]]
| ui = [[Command-line interface]]
| ui = [[Command-line interface]]
Line 26: Line 26:
| license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
| license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
| preceded by =
| preceded by =
| succeeded by = [[RSTS/E|RSTS-11]]
| succeeded by = [[PS/8 and OS/8]]
| website =
| website =
}}
}}
'''TSS/8''' is a discontinued [[time-sharing]] [[operating system]] co-written by Don Witcraft and John Everett at [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] in 1967. DEC also referred to it as Timeshared-8 and EduSystem 50.<ref name=HandB.8e>{{cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/handbooks/Small_Computer_Handbook_1973.pdf |title=PDP-8/E PDP-8/M & PDP-8/F Small Computer Handbook |date=1973 |publisher=Digital Equipment Corporation}}</ref>{{rp|p.2-15}}
'''TSS/8''' is a discontinued [[time-sharing]] [[operating system]] co-written by Don Witcraft and John Everett at [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] in 1967. DEC also referred to it as Timeshared-8 and later the EduSystem 50.<ref name=HandB.8e>{{cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/handbooks/Small_Computer_Handbook_1973.pdf |title=PDP-8/E PDP-8/M & PDP-8/F Small Computer Handbook |date=1973 |publisher=Digital Equipment Corporation}}</ref>{{rp|p.2-15}}


The operating system ran on the [[12-bit]] [[PDP-8]] computer and was released in 1968.
The operating system runs on the [[12-bit]] [[PDP-8]] computer starting with the PDP-8I model and was released in 1968.


==Authorship==
==Authorship==
{{quote|TSS/8 was designed at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] with graduate student Adrian van de Goor, in reaction to the cost, performance, reliability, and complexity of IBM's [[TSS (operating system)|TSS/360]] (for their [[IBM System/360 Model 67|Model 67)]].<ref name="computer-engineering">{{cite book|url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/Bell-ComputerEngineering.pdf|title=Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design|publisher=[[Digital Press]]|author1=C. Gordon Bell|authorlink1=Gordon Bell|author2=J. Craig Mudge|author3=John N. McNamara|isbn=0-932376-00-2}}</ref>{{rp|180}}}}
TSS/8 was designed at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] with graduate student Adrian van de Goor, in reaction to the cost, performance, reliability, and complexity of IBM's [[TSS (operating system)|TSS/360]] (for their [[IBM System/360 Model 67|Model 67)]].<ref name="computer-engineering">{{cite book|url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/Bell-ComputerEngineering.pdf|title=Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design|publisher=[[Digital Press]]|author1=C. Gordon Bell|authorlink1=Gordon Bell|author2=J. Craig Mudge|author3=John N. McNamara|year=1978 |isbn=0-932376-00-2}}</ref>{{rp|180}}


{{quote|Don Witcraft wrote the TSS/8 scheduler, command decoder and UUO (''Unimplemented User Operations'') handler. John Everett wrote the disk handler, file system, TTY ([[teletypewriter]]) handler and 680-I service routine for TSS/8.
Don Witcraft wrote the TSS/8 scheduler, command decoder and UUO (''Unimplemented User Operations'') handler. John Everett wrote the disk handler, file system, TTY ([[teletypewriter]]) handler and 680-I service routine for TSS/8.


Roger Pyle and John Everett wrote the [[PDP-8]] Disk Monitor System, and John Everett adapted PAL-III to make PAL-D for DMS. Bob Bowering, author of MACRO for the [[PDP-6]] and [[PDP-10]], wrote an expanded version, PAL-X, for TSS/8.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-15.html|title=Who's Who?|work=PDP-8 Frequently Asked Questions}}</ref>}}
Roger Pyle and John Everett wrote the [[PDP-8]] Disk Monitor System, and John Everett adapted PAL-III to make PAL-D for DMS. Bob Bowering, author of MACRO for the [[PDP-6]] and [[PDP-10]], wrote an expanded version, PAL-X, for TSS/8.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-15.html|title=Who's Who?|work=PDP-8 Frequently Asked Questions}}</ref>


==Architecture==
==Architecture==
⚫
This timesharing system is based on a protection architecture proposed by Adrian Van Der Goor, a grad student of [[Gordon Bell]]'s at [[Carnegie Mellon University|Carnegie-Mellon]]. It requires a minimum of 12K words of memory (8K for the operating system and 4K for the user swap area) and a swapping device; The standard swapping device, called a drum, was a disk drive with a head assigned to each track so there was no delay waiting for a read/write head to be repositioned on the drive. On a 24K word machine, it can give good support for its maximum of 16 users.<ref name="running tss-8"/>
This timesharing system:


⚫
Each user gets a virtual 4K PDP-8; many of the utilities users run on these virtual machines are modified versions of utilities from the Disk Monitor System or paper-tape environments. Internally, TSS/8 consists of RMON, the [[resident monitor]], DMON, the disk monitor (file system), and KMON, the keyboard monitor (command shell). BASIC is well supported, while restricted (4K) versions of FORTRAN D and Algol are available.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-10.html|title=What operating systems were written for the PDP-8?|work=PDP-8 Frequently Asked Questions}}</ref>
⚫
{{quote|was based on a protection architecture proposed by Adrian Van Der Goor, a grad student of [[Gordon Bell]]'s at [[Carnegie Mellon University|Carnegie-Mellon]]. It requires a minimum of 12K words of memory and a swapping device; on a 24K word machine, it could give good support for 17 users.<ref name="running tss-8"/>


⚫
Like IBM's [[CALL/OS]], it implements language variants:<ref name=HandB.8e/>{{rp|pp.2-16 thru 2-18}}
⚫
Each user gets a virtual 4K PDP-8; many of the utilities users ran on these virtual machines were only slightly modified versions of utilities from the Disk Monitor System or paper-tape environments. Internally, TSS/8 consists of RMON, the [[resident monitor]], DMON, the disk monitor (file system), and KMON, the keyboard monitor (command shell). BASIC was well supported, while restricted (4K) versions of FORTRAN D and Algol were available.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-10.html|title=What operating systems were written for the PDP-8?|work=PDP-8 Frequently Asked Questions}}</ref>}}
⚫
* FORTRAN-D can only access 2 data files at a time, and the entire program is MAIN: no subroutines.

⚫
* [[BASIC-8]] programs are limited to 350 lines, but "chaining" allows "programs of virtually any length." BASIC-8 is based on [[Dartmouth BASIC]] but lacks matrix operations, implicit declaration of small arrays, strings, ON-GOTO/GOSUB, TAB, and multiline DEF FN statements.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/tss8/DEC-T8-KJZA-D-TSS-8_BASIC_8_Programming_Manual_Mar1969.pdf |title=Appendix E: Implementation Notes, page E-1}}</ref>
⚫
Like IBM's [[CALL/OS]], it implemented language variants:<ref name=HandB.8e/>{{rp|pp.2-16 thru 2-18}}
* PAL-D (Program Assembly Language/Disk) allows the "full standard" but, like all TSS/8 programs, is restricted to 4K. Many programs designed to work on a stand-alone machine and manipulate hardware directly would still work on TSS-8 as it emulated many I/O requests internally.
⚫
* FORTRAN-D could only access 2 data files at a time, and the entire program was MAIN: no subroutines.
⚫
* BASIC-8 programs were limited to 350 lines, but "chaining" allowed "programs of virtually any length." BASIC-8 was based on [[Dartmouth BASIC]] but lacked matrix operations, implicit declaration of small arrays, strings, ON-GOTO/GOSUB, TAB, and multiline DEF FN statements.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/tss8/DEC-T8-KJZA-D-TSS-8_BASIC_8_Programming_Manual_Mar1969.pdf |title=Appendix E: Implementation Notes, page E-1}}</ref>
* PAL-D (Program Assembly Language/Disk) allowed the "full standard" but, like all TSS/8 programs, was restricted to 4K.
* ALGOL<ref>{{cite web
* ALGOL<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://groups.google.com/d/topic/alt.sys.pdp8/KUw3praLkmE
|url=https://groups.google.com/d/topic/alt.sys.pdp8/KUw3praLkmE
|title=TSS/8 ALGOL}}</ref> was implemented as a known standard subset, "IFIP Subset ALGOL 60."
|title=TSS/8 ALGOL}}</ref> is implemented as a known standard subset, "IFIP Subset ALGOL 60."

⚫
It also supports DEC's [[FOCAL (programming language)|FOCAL-8]], which has been available from earlier PDP/8 models and it provides an algebraic language as well as a desk calculator mode.

==Legacy==
⚫
TSS/8 sold more than 100 copies.<ref name=HandB.8e/>{{rp|2-16}}


⚫
Operating costs were about 1/20 of TSS/360. TSS/8 is also designed to be more cost-effective than the PDP-10 "for jobs with low computational requirements (like editing)".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/CGB%20Files/Design%20and%20Behavior%20of%20TSS8%20IEEE%206906%20c.pdf|title=Design and Behavior of TSS/8: a PDP-8 Based Time-sharing System|author1=Ad van de Goor|author2=C. Gordon Bell|authorlink2=Gordon Bell|author3=Donald A. Witcraft|journal=[[IEEE Transactions on Computers]]|volume=18|issue=11|pages=1038–1043|date=November 1969|doi=10.1109/T-C.1969.222577|s2cid=16325116 }}</ref>
⚫
It also supported DEC's FOCAL, which was "developed specifically for the PDP 8/E" and it provided "an algebraic language" and also a "desk calculator mode."


⚫
The [[RSTS/E|RSTS-11]] [[operating system]] is a descendant of TSS/8.<ref name="computer-engineering"/>{{rp|181}}
==Historical notes==
⚫
* TSS/8 sold more than 100 copies.<ref name=HandB.8e/>{{rp|2-16}}
⚫
* Operating costs were about 1/20 of TSS/360. TSS/8 was also designed to be more cost-effective than the PDP-10 "for jobs with low computational requirements (like editing)".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/CGB%20Files/Design%20and%20Behavior%20of%20TSS8%20IEEE%206906%20c.pdf|title=Design and Behavior of TSS/8: a PDP-8 Based Time-sharing System|author1=Ad van de Goor|author2=C. Gordon Bell|authorlink2=Gordon Bell|author3=Donald A. Witcraft|journal=[[IEEE Transactions on Computers]]|volume=18|issue=11|pages=1038-1043|date=November 1969|doi=10.1109/T-C.1969.222577}}</ref>
⚫
* The [[RSTS/E|RSTS-11]] [[operating system]] is a descendant of TSS/8.<ref name="computer-engineering"/>{{rp|181}}


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


{{Digital Equipment Corporation}}
{{DEC operating systems}}
{{Time-sharing operating systems}}
{{Time-sharing operating systems}}


Latest revision as of 15:09, 13 December 2023

TSS/8
DeveloperDigital Equipment Corporation
Written inALGOL, BASIC, FOCAL, Fortran D, PAL-D
Working stateDiscontinued
Source modelClosed source
Initial release1968; 56 years ago (1968)
Latest release8.24 / January 1975; 49 years ago (1975-01)[1][2]
PlatformsPDP-8 starting with the PDP-8I model
Kernel typeTime-sharing operating systems
Influenced byTSS/360
Default
user interface		Command-line interface
LicenseProprietary
Succeeded byPS/8 and OS/8

TSS/8 is a discontinued time-sharing operating system co-written by Don Witcraft and John Everett at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1967. DEC also referred to it as Timeshared-8 and later the EduSystem 50.[3]: p.2-15 

The operating system runs on the 12-bit PDP-8 computer starting with the PDP-8I model and was released in 1968.

Authorship[edit]

TSS/8 was designed at Carnegie Mellon University with graduate student Adrian van de Goor, in reaction to the cost, performance, reliability, and complexity of IBM's TSS/360 (for their Model 67).[4]: 180 

Don Witcraft wrote the TSS/8 scheduler, command decoder and UUO (Unimplemented User Operations) handler. John Everett wrote the disk handler, file system, TTY (teletypewriter) handler and 680-I service routine for TSS/8.

Roger Pyle and John Everett wrote the PDP-8 Disk Monitor System, and John Everett adapted PAL-III to make PAL-D for DMS. Bob Bowering, author of MACRO for the PDP-6 and PDP-10, wrote an expanded version, PAL-X, for TSS/8.[5]

Architecture[edit]

This timesharing system is based on a protection architecture proposed by Adrian Van Der Goor, a grad student of Gordon Bell's at Carnegie-Mellon. It requires a minimum of 12K words of memory (8K for the operating system and 4K for the user swap area) and a swapping device; The standard swapping device, called a drum, was a disk drive with a head assigned to each track so there was no delay waiting for a read/write head to be repositioned on the drive. On a 24K word machine, it can give good support for its maximum of 16 users.[1]

Each user gets a virtual 4K PDP-8; many of the utilities users run on these virtual machines are modified versions of utilities from the Disk Monitor System or paper-tape environments. Internally, TSS/8 consists of RMON, the resident monitor, DMON, the disk monitor (file system), and KMON, the keyboard monitor (command shell). BASIC is well supported, while restricted (4K) versions of FORTRAN D and Algol are available.[6]

Like IBM's CALL/OS, it implements language variants:[3]: pp.2-16 thru 2-18 

  • FORTRAN-D can only access 2 data files at a time, and the entire program is MAIN: no subroutines.
  • BASIC-8 programs are limited to 350 lines, but "chaining" allows "programs of virtually any length." BASIC-8 is based on Dartmouth BASIC but lacks matrix operations, implicit declaration of small arrays, strings, ON-GOTO/GOSUB, TAB, and multiline DEF FN statements.[7]
  • PAL-D (Program Assembly Language/Disk) allows the "full standard" but, like all TSS/8 programs, is restricted to 4K. Many programs designed to work on a stand-alone machine and manipulate hardware directly would still work on TSS-8 as it emulated many I/O requests internally.
  • ALGOL[8] is implemented as a known standard subset, "IFIP Subset ALGOL 60."

It also supports DEC's FOCAL-8, which has been available from earlier PDP/8 models and it provides an algebraic language as well as a desk calculator mode.

Legacy[edit]

TSS/8 sold more than 100 copies.[3]: 2–16 

Operating costs were about 1/20 of TSS/360. TSS/8 is also designed to be more cost-effective than the PDP-10 "for jobs with low computational requirements (like editing)".[9]

The RSTS-11 operating system is a descendant of TSS/8.[4]: 181 

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Remy van Elst (July 26, 2015). "Running TSS/8 on the DEC PiDP-8/i and SIMH". Raymii.org.
  2. ^ "PDP-8 Digital Software News" (PDF). March 1976. DEC-08-XSMAD-A-D. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  3. ^ a b c PDP-8/E PDP-8/M & PDP-8/F Small Computer Handbook (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. 1973.
  4. ^ a b C. Gordon Bell; J. Craig Mudge; John N. McNamara (1978). Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design (PDF). Digital Press. ISBN 0-932376-00-2.
  5. ^ "Who's Who?". PDP-8 Frequently Asked Questions.
  6. ^ "What operating systems were written for the PDP-8?". PDP-8 Frequently Asked Questions.
  7. ^ "Appendix E: Implementation Notes, page E-1" (PDF).
  8. ^ "TSS/8 ALGOL".
  9. ^ Ad van de Goor; C. Gordon Bell; Donald A. Witcraft (November 1969). "Design and Behavior of TSS/8: a PDP-8 Based Time-sharing System" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Computers. 18 (11): 1038–1043. doi:10.1109/T-C.1969.222577. S2CID 16325116.
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