The UNIX Time-Sharing System
t ·,) DRAFT The UNIX Time-Sha.ring Syste:n D. M. Ritchie 1· ~oduction UNIX is a general-purpose, multi-user time sharing system in- ) plernented on several Digital Equip~ent Corporation PDP series machines. UNIX was written by K. L. Tho::ipson, who also wrote many of the command prograns. The author of this meraorandurn contributed several of the major corilinands, including the assembler and tne debugger. The file system was originally designed by Thom?son, the author, and R.H. Canaday. There are two versions of UNIX. The first, which has been in ex- istence about a year, rtins on the PDP-7 and -9 coraput~rs; a more modern version, a few months old, uses the PD?-11. This docu,f'.ent describes U:-HX-11, since it is more modern and many of the dif- ferences between it and UNIX-7 result from redesign of features found to be deficient or lacking in the earlier system. Although the PDP-7 and PDP-11 are both small computers, the design of UNIX is amenable to expansion for use on more powerful machines. Indeed, UNIX contains a number of features w,~ry selc.om offered even by larger syste~s, including 1 o A versatile, conveni<?nt file system with co:nplete integra- tion between disk files and I/0 devices; .. - 2 - i " 2. The ability to initiate asynchrously running processes. It must be said, however, that the most important features of UNIX are its simplicity, elegance, and ease of use. Besides the system proper, the major programs available under UNIX are an assembler, a text editor based on QED, a symbolic debugger for examining and patching faulty programs, and " B " t a higher level language resembling BCPL.
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