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TOPS-10

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TOPS-10
DeveloperDigital Equipment Corporation
Written inMACRO-10, BLISS
Working stateDiscontinued
Initial release1970; 56 years ago (1970)
Latest release7.04[1] / July 1988; 38 years ago (1988-07)
Available inEnglish
Supported platformsPDP-10
Default
user interface		CCL Command-line interface
LicenseProprietary
Free for personal use

TOPS-10 System (Timesharing / Total Operating System-10) is a discontinued operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for the PDP-10 (or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer family. Launched in 1967, TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 computers; this was renamed to TOPS-10 in 1970.

Overview

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The TOPS-10 operating system was designed to be primarily a time-sharing system, and supported "time sharing, remote batch processing, multiprogrammed batch, real-time, and multiprocessor configurations."[2]

TOPS-10 supported shared memory and allowed the development of one of the first true multiplayer computer games. The game, called DECWAR,[3] was a text-oriented Star Trek-type game. Users at terminals typed in commands and fought each other in real time. TOPS-10 was also the home of the original Multi User Dungeon, MUD, the forerunner to today's MMORPGs.

Another groundbreaking application was called FORUM. This application was perhaps the first so-called CB Simulator that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as a chat room. This application showed the potential of multi-user communication and led to the development of CompuServe's chat application.

TOPS-10 featured an application programming interface (API) that used a mechanism called a UUO or Unimplemented User Operation. UUOs implemented operating system calls in a way that made them look like machine instructions. The Monitor Call API allowed developers to use these operations, for system programming on DECsystem-10s..

The TOPS-10 scheduler supported prioritized run queues, and appended a process onto a queue depending on its priority. The system also included User file and Device independence.

Commands

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The following list of commands are supported by TOPS-10.[4]

  • ASSIGN
  • ATTACH
  • BACKSPACE
  • BACKUP
  • CCONTINUE
  • COMPILE
  • CONTINUE
  • COPY
  • CORE
  • CPUNCH
  • CREATE
  • CREDIR
  • CREF
  • CSTART
  • D(eposit)
  • DAYTIME
  • DCORE
  • DDT
  • DEASSIGN
  • DEBUG
  • DELETE
  • DETACH
  • DIRECTORY
  • DISABLE
  • DISMOUNT
  • DSK
  • DUMP
  • E(xamine)
  • EDIT
  • ENABLE
  • EOF
  • EXECUTE
  • FILCOM
  • FILE
  • FINISH
  • FUDGE
  • GET
  • GLOB
  • HALT
  • HELP
  • INITIA
  • JCONTINUE
  • KJOB
  • LABEL
  • LIST
  • LOAD
  • LOCATE
  • LOGIN
  • MAKE
  • MERGE
  • MIC
  • MOUNT
  • NETWORK
  • NODE
  • NSAVE
  • NSSAVE
  • OPSER
  • PJOB
  • PLEASE
  • PLOT
  • PRESERVE
  • PRINT
  • PROTECT
  • PUNCH
  • QUEUE
  • QUOLST
  • R
  • REASSIGN
  • REATTACH
  • REENTER
  • RENAME
  • RESOURCES
  • REWIND
  • RUN
  • SAVE
  • SSAVE
  • SCHED
  • SEND
  • SET
  • SKIP
  • START
  • SUBMIT
  • SYSTAT
  • TECO
  • TIME
  • TPUNCH
  • TYPE
  • UNLOAD
  • USESTAT
  • VERSION
  • WHERE
  • ZERO

History

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Release history

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The PDP-6 Monitor software was first released in 1964. Support for the PDP-10's KA10 processor was added to the Monitor in release 2.18 in 1967. The TOPS-10 name was first used in 1970 for release 5.01. Release 6.01 (May 1974) was the first TOPS-10 to implement virtual memory (demand paging), enabling programs larger than physical memory to be run. From release 7.00 onwards, symmetrical multiprocessing was available (as opposed to the master/slave arrangement used before). The final release of TOPS-10 was 7.04[1] in 1988.

TOPS-10 today

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Hobbyists are now entitled to set up and use TOPS-10 under a Hobbyist's License.[5]

The easiest way for the hobbyist to run TOPS-10 is to acquire a suitable emulator[6][7] and an operating system image.[8] TOPS-10 may also be generated from archived original distribution "tapes".[9] [10]

Paul Allen maintained several publicly accessible historic computer systems, including a DECsystem-2065 running TOPS-10.[11]

Software

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Implemented programming languages

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The TOPS-10 assembler, MACRO-10, was bundled with the TOPS-10 distribution.

The following programming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as layered products:

  • ALGOL, as ALGOL-10 v10B,[12] a compiler used for general computing
  • APL, as APL-SF V2,[13] an interpreter used for mathematical modelling
  • BASIC, as BASIC-10 v17F,[14] an interpreter used for general computing
  • BLISS, as BLISS-10[15] and BLISS-36,[16] compilers used for systems programming
  • COBOL, as COBOL-68[17] and COBOL-74,[18] compilers used for business computing
  • Fortran, as FORTRAN-10 v11,[19] a compiler used for numerical computing
  • CPL (an interactive PL/I subset)[2]

The following programming languages were implemented on TOPS-10 as contributions from DECUS members:

  • FOCAL, as FOCAL-10
  • Forth, a threaded interpreted language
  • IMP72
  • Lisp, an interpreter used for AI programming
  • Pascal, a compiler used for computing education
  • PILOT
  • SAM76[20]
  • Simula, a compiler used for modeling
  • SNOBOL, an interpreter used for string processing
  • BCPL, a compiler implemented by Essex University

Implemented user utilities

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The following major user utilities were implemented on TOPS-10:

Notable games implemented on TOPS-10

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Legacy

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MS-DOS was heavily influenced by TOPS-10. Identical elements include three characters long file extensions, several standard extensions (e.g., EXE, TXT), the asterisk (*) as a wildcard, the usage of the slash (/) as a switch separator and more.[21]

TOPS-20

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Another DEC operating system for the PDP-10 was TOPS-20, which, despite its name, was almost entirely unrelated to TOPS-10. TOPS-20 supported TOPS-10 monitor calls thru an emulation facility which allowed most, but not all, TOPS-10 executables to run unchanged. TOPS-20 was not a direct followup to TOPS-10, and DEC support for both systems continued in parallel until the discontinuance of the PDP-10 line. TOPS-20 is a development of TENEX from BBN.

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 "TOPS-10 Release History". Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Competitive Time Sharing Offerings" (PDF). bitsavers. Honeywell, inc. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
  3. ↑ "The Decwar Page".
  4. ↑ TOPS-10 Operating System Commands Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. August 1980. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
  5. ↑ "Home hobbyist license for Digital's 36b software". inwap.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "Computer Simulation and History". simh.trailing-edge.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  7. ↑ "KLH10 PDP-10 Emulator". klh10.trailing-edge.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "TOPS-10 pre-built image". www.steubentech.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  9. ↑ "PDP-10 software archive". pdp-10.trailing-edge.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  10. ↑ "Notes on DEC PDP-10 Emulation". asun.net. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  11. ↑ "CLASSIC COMPUTING". paulallen.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  12. ↑ Algol Programmer's Guide (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. April 1977. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  13. ↑ APL-SF Language Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. August 1979. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  14. ↑ BASIC Conversational Language Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. March 1974. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  15. ↑ BLISS-10 Programmer′s Reference Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. February 1974. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
  16. ↑ BLISS Language Guide (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. April 1983. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  17. ↑ TOPS-10/TOPS-20 COBOL-68 Language Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. August 1981. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  18. ↑ TOPS-10/TOPS-20 COBOL-74 Language Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. October 1985. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  19. ↑ TOPS-10/TOPS-20 FORTRAN Language Manual (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. May 1985. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  20. ↑ Wheeler, Elliot S. "Public Domain Software Part 1". acm.org. Retrieved September 10, 2026.”SAM76 is an interactive text manipulation language”
  21. ↑ "Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator?". Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
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