Talk:General Comprehensive Operating System/Archives/2014

Operating System or Supervisor?
The GE 635 programming reference and the Honeywell GCOS manual for GCOS-III say "Supervisor". Can anyone cite a trustworthy source for the "S" in GCOS standing for "System"? Odam 07:55, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * If memory serves me it's actually General Comprehensive Operative Supervisor - I have some GCOS 6 Mod 400 (Level 6/DPS 6/DPS 6000) manuals somewhere and I'll see if I can find the full wording. Ian Dunster 18:13, 1 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I've had a look and AFAIKS nowhere does any of them give the full wording! - I did have a "GCOS 6 Mod 400 Programmmer's Pocket Guide" somewhere that I think DID give the full name but that's disappeared. Ian Dunster 09:44, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

History
The original 600 series systems were intended to compete with and replace IBM 7090 series systems which were also 36-bit systems. The GE 600 series systems employed a Base Address Register that allowed the OS to segment memory dynamically providing both efficiency and program isolation.


 * The GE 625 and 635 had block relocation. The term segment in this context should not be confused with a segmented virtual memory, where a single process has multiple segments and a virtual address contains either segment/offset or segment/page/offset designators. The version of GCOS that supported rings was for a more recent processor. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 19:36, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Split into multiple articles?
Maybe it would be a good idea to split GCOS 7 and GCOS 8 into separate articles. All the IBM and Unisys mainframe systems have their own articles, and GCOS 7 and 8 are totally distinct systems (GCOS 7 has a Multics heritage, GCOS 8 is derived from the original GECOS.) It might also be a good idea to split out a Novascale article, covering both mainframe and commodity Novascale systems.

On another note, ACOS (a GCOS derivative) really needs its own article. Kiralexis (talk) 20:14, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

GCOS6/TPS6
Should we capture some detail about the mini range? TPS6 was notable as one of the first transaction systems, and for its own language, Screenwrite. Campingcar (talk) 19:37, 15 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Sounds like it shoild have its own article. Peter Flass (talk) 21:48, 15 July 2014 (UTC)


 * The information doesn't belong here. Are you willing to write separate articles on TPS6 and the underlying hardware? IMHO they would be welcome. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 14:54, 16 July 2014 (UTC)


 * After a bit of research I see the hardware for GCOS 6 was a mini (16 or 18 bits?), so it was obviously a different beastie from GCOS 7/8. It would be nice to sort all this out.  How similar was GCOS 6 to the others? Peter Flass (talk) 16:11, 16 July 2014 (UTC)


 * For what it's worth I created a tiny stub Honeywell Level 6 about the Level 6 and DPS 6, obviously to be filled in later, but I would suggest this as a place for anything you want to write about TPS 6. Peter Flass (talk) 15:02, 18 July 2014 (UTC)