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IBM 7090/7094 Dead

IBM 7090/7094
KindMachine
Introduced1959
Discontinued1969
StatusDead
ManufacturerIBM
ClassMainframe
PlatformTransistorized
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

The transistorized 709 — the scientific mainframe CTSS was written on, making it the birthplace of timesharing and of the command line as we know it.

Created by IBM
Hosted CTSS

The 7090 (and upgraded 7094, 1962) was the transistorized 709 — IBM's dominant scientific machine of the early 60s. MIT's CTSS ran on one from 1961, inventing timesharing; the same hardware family ran IBSYS batch.

Every modern command line descends from the CTSS command shell Louis Pouzin wrote for this hardware — 'shell' itself comes from the Multics project's vocabulary.

→ Read the full article on the ALB Wiki

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/7090/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_7090