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The TOPS-10 System (Timesharing / Total OPerating System) was a computer operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
 from Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering United States company in the computer industry. It is often referred to within the computing industry as DEC ....
 (DEC) for the PDP-10
PDP-10

The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10"....
 (or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer
Mainframe computer

Mainframes are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, Enterprise Resource Planning, and financial transaction processing....
 launched in 1967. TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the PDP-6
PDP-6

The PDP-6 was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1963. It was influential primarily as the prototype for the later PDP-10; the instruction sets of the two machines are almost identical....
 and -10 computers; this was renamed TOPS-10 in 1970.

-10 supported shared memory
Shared memory

In computing, shared memory is a memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies....
 and allowed the development of one of the first true multiplayer
Multiplayer game

A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that pit the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or Non-player character, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular huma...
 computer games.






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The TOPS-10 System (Timesharing / Total OPerating System) was a computer operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
 from Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering United States company in the computer industry. It is often referred to within the computing industry as DEC ....
 (DEC) for the PDP-10
PDP-10

The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10"....
 (or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer
Mainframe computer

Mainframes are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, Enterprise Resource Planning, and financial transaction processing....
 launched in 1967. TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the PDP-6
PDP-6

The PDP-6 was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1963. It was influential primarily as the prototype for the later PDP-10; the instruction sets of the two machines are almost identical....
 and -10 computers; this was renamed TOPS-10 in 1970.

Overview

TOPS-10 supported shared memory
Shared memory

In computing, shared memory is a memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies....
 and allowed the development of one of the first true multiplayer
Multiplayer game

A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that pit the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or Non-player character, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular huma...
 computer games. The game was called DECWAR
Decwar

DECWAR is a multiplayer computer game first written in 1978 at the University of Texas at Austin for the PDP-10. It was developed from an earlier two-player version, WAR, adding multi-terminal support for between one and eighteen players....
 and was a text-oriented Star Trek
Star Trek

Star Trek is an American Science fiction on television entertainment series and media franchise. The Star Trek fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series including the original 1966 Star Trek: The Original Series, in addition to ten feature films with Star Trek to be released on May 8,...
 type game. Users at terminals typed in commands and fought each other in real time.

Another groundbreaking application was called FORUM. This application was perhaps the first so-called CB Simulator
CB Simulator

CompuServe CB Simulator was the first online chat service. It was developed by a CompuServe executive, Alexander "Sandy" Trevor, and released by CompuServe in 1980....
 that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as a chat room
Chat room

The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing....
. This application showed the potential of multiuser communication and led to the development of CompuServe's
CompuServe

CompuServe, , was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of information services such as AOL that charged monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates....
 chat application.

TOPS-10 had a very robust API that used a mechanism called a UUO which is an acronym for Unimplemented User Operation. UUOs implemented operating system calls in a way that made them look like machine instructions. The API was called Monitor Calls and was very much ahead of its time like most of the operating system. System programming on DECsystem-10s was simple and powerful thanks to this extremely flexible operating system API.

TOPS-10 had an interesting scheduler with many run queues, unlike OpenVMS
OpenVMS

OpenVMS , previously known as VAX-11/VMS, VAX/VMS or VMS, is the name of a high-end computer server operating system that runs on the VAX and DEC Alpha families of computers, developed by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts, Massachusetts , and most recently on Hewlett-Packard systems built around the In...
 for example which has two run queues, and inserts processes into the queue depending on process priority. The TOPS-10 Operating System also included User file and Device independence.

TOPS-10 was a very fast and flexible operating system that was far ahead of its time.

Release history

The first release of the PDP-6 Monitor software was 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 program larger than physical memory to be run. From release 7.00 onwards symmetrical multiprocessing was available (as opposed to the master - slave concept used before). The final release of TOPS-10 was 7.04 in 1988.

TOPS-10 today

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

The easiest way for the hobbyist to run TOPS-10 is to acquire a suitable emulator
Emulator

An emulator duplicates the functions of one system using a different system, so that the second system behaves like the first system. This focus on exact reproduction of external behavior is in contrast to some other forms of computer simulation, which can concern an abstract model of the system being simulated....
 and an operating system image
System image

A system image in computing is the state of a computer system or software system system stored in some Secondary storage form. The form of computer storage is often a Computer file....
. TOPS-10 may also be generated from archived original distribution "tapes".

Paul Allen
Paul Allen

Paul Gardner Allen is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Allen regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world....
 maintains several publicly accessible historic computer systems, including a DECsystem-1090 running TOPS-10.

Implemented programming languages

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

The following programming language
Programming language

A programming language is a machine-readable artificial language designed to express computations that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer....
s were implemented on TOPS-10 as layered products:

  • ALGOL
    Algol

    Algol , known colloquially as the Demon Star, is a bright star in the constellation Perseus . It is one of the best known eclipsing binary, the first such star to be discovered, and also one of the first variable stars to be discovered....
    , as ALGOL-10 v10B, a compiler used for general computing
  • APL, as APL-SF V2, an interpreter used for mathematical modelling
  • BASIC
    BASIC

    In computer programming, BASIC is a family of high-level programming languages. The Dartmouth BASIC was designed in 1964 by John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, United States to provide computer access to non-science students....
    , as BASIC-10 v17F, an interpreter used for general computing
  • BLISS, as BLISS-36, a compiler used for systems programming
  • COBOL
    COBOL

    COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages still in active use. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
    , as COBOL-68 and COBOL-74, compilers used for business computing
  • Fortran
    Fortran

    Fortran is a general-purpose programming language, procedural programming language, imperative programming language programming language that is especially suited to numerical analysis and scientific computing....
    , as FORTRAN-10 v11, a compiler used for numerical computing


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

DECUS is an independent association of users of Hewlett-Packard and HP Partners. The membership association, registered in Munich, Germany, acts as part of the worldwide Association of Hewlett-Packard User Groups in Germany and Austria....
 members:

  • FOCAL, as FOCAL-10
  • Forth, a threaded interpreted language
  • IMP72
    IMP programming language

    IMP was a systems programming language developed by Ned Irons in the late 1960s through early 1970s. Unlike most other systems programming languages, IMP was an :Category:Extensible syntax programming languages....
  • Lisp, an interpreter used for AI programming
  • Pascal
    Pascal (programming language)

    Pascal is an influential imperative programming and Procedural programming programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structure....
    , a compiler used for computing education
  • PILOT
    Pilot

    'Pilot' may refer to:Paper publications*Pilot by Stephen Baxter*...
  • SAM76
    SAM76

    SAM76 is a Macro programming language used from the late 1970s to the present 2007 initially ran on CP/M.The SAM76 language is a list and string processor designed for interactive and user-directed applications, including artificial intelligence programming, and permits high portability from machine to machine....
  • Simula
    Simula

    Simula is a name for two programming languages, Simula I and Simula 67, developed in the 1960s at the Norwegian Computing Center in Oslo, by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard....
    , a compiler used for modeling
  • SNOBOL
    SNOBOL

    SNOBOL is a computer programming language developed between 1962 and 1967 at AT&T Bell Laboratories by David J. Farber, Ralph E. Griswold and Ivan P....
    , an interpreter used for string processing


Implemented user utilities

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

  • RMS
    Record Management Services

    Record Management Services are procedures in the OpenVMS, RSTS/E, RT11 and high-end RSX-11 operating systems that computer program may call to process Computer file and Database record within files....
     (Records Management Services)
  • IQL (Interactive Query language)


Notable games implemented on TOPS-10

  • DECWAR
    Decwar

    DECWAR is a multiplayer computer game first written in 1978 at the University of Texas at Austin for the PDP-10. It was developed from an earlier two-player version, WAR, adding multi-terminal support for between one and eighteen players....
    , as noted above
  • FORUM
    Forum

    selfref|For Wikipedia's talk pages, see...
    , as noted above
  • Mac Hack, a chess
    Chess

    Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
     program by Richard Greenblatt
    Richard Greenblatt

    Richard Greenblatt may refer to:*Richard Greenblatt , American computer programmer*Richard Greenblatt , Canadian actor/playwright...
  • HAUNT
    HAUNT

    HAUNT was a straightforward but engagingly irreverent text-based mainframe game. It was created in OPS5 language in 1979 by John Laird.You explore a haunted house and encounter clues, wacky creatures and items throughout, including:...
    , an early role-playing game
  • ADVENT
    Colossal Cave Adventure

    Colossal Cave Adventure was the first computer adventure game. It was originally designed by William Crowther, a programmer and spelunking enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave National Park system in Kentucky....