Talk:Burroughs MCP

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Copies of substantially the same article exist in several locations including Fact Archive; many of those sites cite Wikipedia as the source, so it is difficult to tell now if this is a copyvio. Someone better equipped to research the history may want to have a closer look. --Kgf0 19:08, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

How is this page not wikified? Just wondering since a cursory look reveals no non-wiki markup. But then again, WTF do I know? Thirdgen 09:45, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I added a link to Category:Computing by operating system and only later noticed that it was already linked to Category:Operating system. I'm not quite sure what is supposed to be in the former Category so I'm going to leave it as it is and let someone correct me if I'm wrong. --JeffW 22:51, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

I added an OS Infobox (is this a template?). I invented the term priced source for the source model because unlike closed source the source can be had for a price. I also used menu-based interface for the default UI because the default interface for the user, MARC, consists of a menu, unlike a command line interface, but it is requires the menu choices be entered as text, unlike a GUI. --JeffW 19:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Moving page to MCP (Operating System)
I'm proposing to move this page to the name "MCP (Operating System)" because no one calls it the Master Control Program. I'm not sure how many people know that that's what it stands for. As I understand it, the only way to make it show up on the Category: Operating systems page as MCP is to change the name of the page. I won't move it for four days to give anyone who wants to a chance to comment (and because as a new user I can't use the move command for four days anyway).--JeffW 04:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Since I proposed this move I've discovered that Burroughs actually had three OSs called MCP, one each for their large, medium, and small systems. So would the names of MCP (Burroughs Large Systems), etc. be ok. Would it be better to have MCP (Burroughs Operating Systems) in the Operating System category with that page linking to MCP (Large Systems)? --JeffW 12:38, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

MCP was the generic term Burroughs used for their operating systems. They usually shared the same general philiosphy but implementation and features differed considerably. The large systems MCP was the first and probably the model for the others. There were MCP's for the medium systesm B2x00, B3x00 and B4x00, another for the B1x000, one for B700 systesm followed by the CMS MCP which had implementations on the B[8|9]0, B[8|9]00 and B1[8|9]00 computers in the mid 1970's. 18:09, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

The Name is "Master Control Programm" as the manual says ;) greetz alex http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/images/manuals/b5000/brochure/b5000_broch.html

Open Source?
I worked as a Burroughs systems programmer in the 80s and had a B6700 and B6800. At least then, and I imagine still, all of the source code for all the systems programs was available and in fact that was how you did MCP and other component patches and upgrades, i.e. recompilation. There was/is no reason to protect the sources because they only run on the B machines. -juan@acm.org


 * In fact, because I was quite young as Systems Programmer I printed out all of the MCP and most of the other base OS elements


 * Signing and correcting,just received some correspondence on it. Dunno when I posted this, but I did confirm later that Unisys still ships source, I think in the '08/09 timeframe . Lycurgus (talk) 11:01, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

First open source OS?
I'm not sure I buy the claim that MCP was the first open-source OS. In particular, IBSYS was available in open source on the IBM 7090, introduced in 1959, and it descended in part from an OS developed by SHARE members on the 709. Further, it was not common for operating systems code to be shipped in binary only form in that era; that practice did not start until the late 1970s in the IBM world, and it was hardly unique in that regard. Jay Maynard 00:59, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Change name to Unisys_MCP

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was no consensus for move. – Juliancolton  &#124; Talk 01:27, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Burroughs MCP → Unisys MCP &mdash; since Unisys took over Burroughs more than 20 years ago and since MCP is still being sold by Unisys. It would be renamed with a redirect from Burroughs MCP. Damianthomas (talk) 22:55, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It doesn't necessarily matter what the current owner wants it to be called, for our purposes. What's more important, as is outlined in WP:UCN, is what is most often used by general reader sources. In other words: News media, books, magazines, etc... Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any third party references given in the current article, which makes any real determination on what the "common name" actually is nearly impossible. The article really needs third party references in order to establish notability anyway, so my recommendation is to table this for now and re-address it after improving the article. — V = I * R  (talk) 04:37, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Unlike IBM ...
"Unlike IBM, which faced hardware competition after the departure of Gene Amdahl, Burroughs software was designed to run only on proprietary hardware."

I suspect, but offer no evidence, that IBM software was designed to run only on proprietary systems, i.e., IBM's S/360 architecture. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Amdahl designed compatible hardware.

If someone had bothered to build Burroughs-compatible hardware, presumably Burroughs software would be equally 'portable'.

That is, this is not a matter of software design; it is a matter of whether there were functional clones of the original hardware. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.20.148.80 (talk) 02:23, 4 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Addressed this. Vt320 (talk) 18:09, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Unisys MCP programming languages
Subtopic, no need for a standalone article. Enterprisey (talk!) 09:04, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 20:36, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

Page should be renamed to "Unisys MCP"
The name should be change to Burroughs/Unisys Large system MCPs.

There were also MCPs for the small system CMS (Computer Management System) range which ran on the B80/CP+, B700+, B1700+ architectures. There was another version for the medium system range B2000-B4000. This also came with editable source code, though most used the standard builds i.e 20S. All three MCPs used the same basic SPO operator commands i.e MX WY IL UL DS... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Adsjaldjjfgwetwlla (talk • contribs) 19:47, 17 July 2024 (UTC)