The Multics System: An Examination of Its Structure

by Elliott I. Organick

This volume provides an overview of the Multics system developed at M.I.T.-a time-shared, general purpose utility-like system with third generation software. The advantage that this new system has over its predecessors lies in its expanded capacity to manipulate and file information on several levels and to police and control access to data in its various files. On the invitation of M.I.T.'s Project MAC, Elliott Organick developed over a period of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262150123
• ISBN13: 9780262150125
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Clear explanation of early Multics design

Organick describes the design of Multics, a mainframe timesharing system that was one of the most influential software efforts of the late 1960s. The book describes the internals of the Multics system with a clarity and thoroughness that set a standard for other writers on operating systems. The book describes Multics as it was planned in the late 1960s, before it had been released to users, and it describes the version of the system that ran on the GE-645 computer. Multics became a commercial product from Honeywell on a substantially enhanced machine and continued to evolve for 20 years, so readers should understand that they are reading about the system designers' intentions and plans, and not necessarily about features of the commercial system. (disclosure: I worked on Multics in the 60s and helped review drafts of some chapters of this book before publication.)