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◈ALB Atlas

TOPS-20 Dead

TOPS-20
KindOperating system
Appeared1976
StatusDead
CreatorDEC
FamilyIndependent
PlatformDECSYSTEM-20/PDP-10
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

TENEX polished into a product — the friendliest command language DEC ever shipped, mourned hard when the 36-bit line ended.

Descended from TENEX
Ran on PDP-10
Created by Digital Equipment Corporation

TOPS-20 was DEC's productized TENEX — the same virtual-memory, command-completion experience on the DECSYSTEM-20, with DEC's engineering polish. Its command-line help was the best any OS shipped for two decades.\n\nDEC killed the 36-bit line in 1983 to protect the VAX; the memorial posting is one of the era's defining documents.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPS-20