Concept
TOPS-10 System (Timesharing / Total Operating System-10) is a discontinued operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for the PDP-10 (or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer family. Launched in 1967, TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier "Monitor" software for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 computers; this was renamed to TOPS-10 in 1970. TOPS-10 supported shared memory and allowed the development of one of the first true multiplayer computer games. The game, called DECWAR, was a text-oriented Star Trek type game. Users at terminals typed in commands and fought each other in real time. TOPS-10 was also the home of the original Multi User Dungeon, MUD, the fore runner to today's MMORPGs. Another groundbreaking application was called FORUM. This application was perhaps the first so-called CB Simulator that allowed users to converse with one another in what is now known as a chat room. This application showed the potential of multi-user communication and led to the development of CompuServe's chat application. TOPS-10 had a very robust application programming interface (API) that used a mechanism called a UUO or Unimplemented User Operation. UUOs implemented operating system calls in a way that made them look like machine instructions. The Monitor Call API was very much ahead of its time, like most of the operating system, and made system programming on DECsystem-10s simple and powerful. The TOPS-10 scheduler supported prioritized run queues, and appended a process onto a queue depending on its priority. The system also included User file and Device independence. The following list of commands are supported by TOPS-10. ASSIGN ATTACH BACKSPACE BACKUP CCONTINUE COMPILE CONTINUE COPY CORE CPUNCH CREATE CREDIR CREF CSTART D(eposit) DAYTIME DCORE DDT DEASSIGN DEBUG DELETE DETACH DIRECTORY DISABLE DISMOUNT DSK DUMP E(xamine) EDIT ENABLE EOF EXECUTE FILCOM FILE FINISH FUDGE GET GLOB HALT HELP INITIA JCONTINUE KJOB LABEL LIST LOAD LOCATE LOGIN MAKE MERGE MIC MOUNT NETWORK NODE NSAVE NSSAVE OPSER PJOB PLEASE PLOT PRESERVE PRINT PROTECT PUNCH QUEUE QUOLST R REASSIGN REATTACH REENTER RENAME RESOURCES REWIND RUN SAVE SSAVE SCHED SEND SET SKIP START SUBMIT SYSTAT TECO TIME TPUNCH TYPE UNLOAD USESTAT VERSION WHERE ZERO The PDP-6 Monitor software was first released in 1964.