Talk:General Comprehensive Operating System/Archives/2016

GCOS is not like IBM 360
"Although GCOS has a basic architecture similar to that of the IBM 360 and earlier IBM 7090 Series, which was abandoned by IBM for the 360, and subsequent operating systems with which it competed, it was also heavily influenced by projects such as MEDINET, Multics, and WWMCCS, and has inherited a strong security structure in consequence."

I don't understand all of this sentence but it is too long, says too many things, and a number of things that are nonsensical. GCOS is an OS, IBM System/360 was a line of computers (that could run a variety of OSes).

The hardware underneath (original) GECOS and its logical successors had a family resemblance to the IBM 704 and its successors -- they were 36-bit systems. GECOS itself felt closer to IBSYS than OS/360.

I inferred that GE wished to catch IBM 7094 etc. users facing a serious discontinuity when IBM ended that line of hardware and software. The 7094 users were all doing scientific computing but little of that work was transferred to GE hardware. The success of the line came from elsewhere. UNIVAC's big machines were 36-bit too. As were DEC's.

The successor to the 7094 in some ways was the CDC-6600. It had 60-bit words. DHR (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:35, 14 July 2016 (UTC)


 * I understand the sentence, but as you noted, it's wrong. However, the last part is correct; GE enhanced GECOS (GCOS) in support of, e.g., WWMCCS, and part of that was based on Multics features.


 * While GECOS had similarities to IBSYS/IBJOB, the GE 625 et al looked nothing like the 7094, despite the identical word size.


 * The competitors to the 7094 were the CDC 3600, GE 625, UNIVAC 1107 and their big brothers; the CDC 6600 was well beyond the 7094 in capacity, cost and speed. It's baby brother the CDC 6400 might have been direct competition for the 7094. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 21:40, 26 July 2016 (UTC)