Time Sharing Spectra 70 Style
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~ \~~1 ,,~~ ). AUERBACH ON COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY This profile of RCA's new time sharing sys tem and other recent developments in the Spectra 70 line is extracted from a new 250- page analysis of the RCA Spectra 70 hard ware and· software in AUERBACH Standard EDP Reports, an analytical reference service published by AUERBACH Info, Inc., of Phila .delphia. time sharing spectra 70 style By J. BURT TOTARO Associate Editor,AUERBACH Standard EDP Reports AUERBACH CORPORATION When the RCA Recognizing these problem of GE and IBM. RCA's apparent Spectra 70 se areas, RCA quietly set about clos intention is to remain competitive ries of comput ing the "facilities gap" between it in all areas of the small-to-me ers was an self and IBM. During the past year dium scale commercial computer nounced in De RCA has added new and impres market without enduring. the frus cember 1964, sive peripheral units to its Spectra trations of the more ambitious pio RCA entered 70 line and has greatly increased neers in the large-scale commercial head - to - head the capacity and scope of its soft time-sharing business. competition ware systems. Most recently, on The monthly rental .of an RCA with IBM and May 4, 1967, RCA announced the Spectra 70/46 Processor with 262,- its System 360. From the begin long-rumored Spectra 70/46 Time 144 bytes of core storage is $14,- ning, RCA promised to provide Sharing System, a development 125. RCA estimates that typical more computing power per dollar that serves to plug the only re 70/46 system configurations will than IBM. maining gap of any significance rent for between $25,000 and $30,-- Spectra 70 indeed offered much: in RcA's battle ~o match the proc 000 per month. Contributing to a family of five generally compati essing capabilities of IBM in the the relatively modest prices of ble computer systems, a high de small-to-medium-scale computer planned Spectra 70/46 systems are gree of source and object program market. the facts: (1) that the 262K-byte compatibility with the IBM Sys 70/46 Processor is basically an ex tem 360, extensive use of mono Spectra 70/46 panded version of the $11,125- lithic integrated circuitry, three The Spectra 70/46 Time Shar per-month Spectra 70/45 262K levels of integrated operated sys-. ing System includes a new Spectra byte Processor, (2) that only sin terns, and an extensive line of 70/46 central processor, a new 70/ gle-processor systems have been peripheral equipment. * But the 567 high~speed magnetic drum announced to date, and (3) that System 360 offered more~a great unit, and a specially-designed soft a maximum of 48 on-line remote er variety of hardware and, espe ware system called the Time Shar terminal units can be controlled cially, more "third generation" ing Operating System .(TSOS ). by the system. software facilities, such as ran Both hardware ~nd· software for According to its design goals, dom-access-oriented operating sys the Spectra 70 Time Sharing Sys the. Spectra 70/46 Time Sharing tems, source-language control of tem are scheduled for first delivery System will be an efficient batch random access devices, automatic during the third quarter of 1968. processing system with advanced data management systems, com The 70/46 marks RCA's entry multiprograming capabilities; re prehensive data communications into the time-sharing' computer mote, conversational time-shared control systems, and support of market, joining such competition operations in time-sliced mode will ~ime-shared processing. as the GE-645, IBM System 3601 be a powerful available facility Model 67, and SDS Sigma 7 com that may: in some installations, *For a detailed review of the Spectra 70· fam· puter systems. Howev~r, R~A has' consume only a limited amount of ily of computer systems, see "RCA Spectra 70 -A Compatible Competitor," by J. B. Totaro, designed its time-sharing system the system's total processing ca DataProce88ing Magazine, June 1966, pages 54-61. with more modest goals than those pacity. The more expensive GE- Reprinted From Data Processing Magazine July, 1967 645 and IBM System 360/Model same numbers). The few configu 70/46 Processor is its read-only 67 systems, by contrast, are de ration differences include the 70/ control memory unit. This unit signed primarily for time-shared 46's required use of a 70/567 has a memory cycle time of 480 processing. Drum Memory Unit and, if remote nanoseconds per 54-bit access. Noteworthy features of the 70/ terminals are expected to be used Read-only memory (ROM) is pro 46 Time Sharing System include: on-line, a nluLi-line communica vided in three banks, each of which • Hardware logic within the tions controller. Spectra 70/46 contains 2,048 54-bit words ( or processor to facilitate program systems are currently restricted to "Elementary Operations"). The paging and segmentation, provid the use of a single processor and Spectra 70/45 Processor, by con ing simultaneous system access 262K bytes of core storage. trast, provides only a single bank for up to 48 users at remote ter In addition to the 70/567 Drum of read-only memory, which is minals. Memory Unit, a minimum Spectra used exclusively for the emulation • Up to 2,097,152 bytes of vir 70/46 configuration will include of other computers, such as the tual memory available to program at least two 70/564 Disk Storage IBM 1401 or RCA 301. ers. Units and two magnetic tape units Spectra 70/46 systems cannot • A fast associative memory for for use by the system's software. use the emulation technique. Read translation of all virtual memory The 70/46 Time Sharing System only memory in 70/46 systems is addresses to real core storage ad is designed to take advantage of instead used to implement several dresses. the processing efficiencies made features that facilitate time-shared • A conversational FORTRAN possible through the use of a hier operation. The first bank of read IV compiler with interpretive exe archy of system storage devices only memory is used to provide cution capability. that range from magnetic tape the microprogramed routines that • F,IlI compatibility with the units to disks, drums, and finally will permit the 70/46 to operate systems programs and language to main core memory. in the Spectra 70/45 processing mode. The second bank is used to processors of the RCA Spectra 70 Storage general-purpose Tape Operating implement an address translation Spectra 70/46 magnetic core System (TOS) and Tape/Disc Op table (in a section called the memory is available in a single erating System (TDOS), both of Translation Memory), an interval block of 262,144 bytes. Memory which are used with Spectra 70/ timer, and other hardware features cycle time is 1.44 microseconds 35, 70/45, and 70/55 computer used by the 70/46 in its paging per 2-byte access. Each byte con systems. and time-sharing operations. A sists of eight data bits and one portion of the second bank and all Configurations parity bit. Bytes can be grouped of the third bank are used to im Spectra 70/46 system configura into 4-byte, 32-bit binary words. plement specialized functions, tions (and their costs) will closely This data structure is identical such as translation table manipu 1 approximate those of Spectra 70/ with that of the Spectra 70/35, lation, paging interrupt handling, 45 systems. Any Spectra 70 periph 70/45, and 70/55 systems (and, etc., that would normally be per eral device that can be used with therefore, with the IBM System formed by software. A special the 70/45 can also be used with 360). Spectra 70/46 processor instruc the 70/46 (and in generally the A major feature of the Spectra tion, Function Call, is provided to call for and execute these micro programmed routines. The new 70/567 Drum Memory Unit is currently offered for use exclusively with the 70/46 Time Sharing System. In this system, pages of user programs will be stored in on-line disk storage units, from which they will be called to main memory for execution. Once in main !Demory.. program pages that must be temporarily dumped to make room for higher-priority pages are sent to the Drum Mem ory Unit, where they await rapid retransmission to core when main memory space again becomes available., Also residing in the Drum Memory Unit will be the most frequently used control rou tines of the 70/46 Time Sharing DEBUGGING AT THE console of a prototype Spectra 70/46 Time Sharing System. Operating Syste·m (T·SOS). JULY • 1967 AUERBACH The purpose of so fragmenting erand address from its virtual ad core storage and programs is to dress form to the corresponding permit a large number of programs real address that is relative to the Vital statistics on the new drum (or program segments) to reside current location of the page in core include a storage capacity that concurrently in core storage in a storage. Virtual-to-real address ranges between 4.1 and 16.4 mil manner that permits execution translation takes place automati lion bytes, an average access time control to be passed easily between cally in the Spectra 70/46 Proc of 8.6 milliseconds, and a peak the resident programs, either on essor, and generally without any data transfer rate of 333,333 bytes an interrupt basis or a time-slicing increase in instruction execution per second. basis. Thus, even modest-sized time.