Type Mainframe computer | Units sold 60 | |
Operating system CPU Integrated circuits based custom 24-bit CPU Memory 16 and 64 kilowords of 24 bits + parity, additional 4.5 MByte swap Storage 96 MByte at 117 kByte/s, access time 85 ms | ||
The SDS 940 was Scientific Data Systems' (SDS) first machine designed to support time-sharing directly, and was based on the SDS 930's 24-bit CPU built primarily of integrated circuits. It was announced in February 1966 and shipped in April, becoming a major part of Tymshare's expansion during the 1960s. The influential Stanford Research Institute "oN-Line System" (NLS) was demonstrated on the system.
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After SDS was acquired by Xerox in 1969 and became Xerox Data Systems, the SDS 940 was renamed as the XDS 940.
History
The design was originally created by the University of California, Berkeley as part of their Project Genie that ran between 1964 and 1965. Genie added memory management and controller logic to an existing SDS 930 computer to give it page-mapped virtual memory, which would be heavily copied by other designs. The 940 was simply a commercialized version of the Genie design, and remained backwardly compatible with their earlier models, with the exception of the 12-bit SDS 92.
Like most systems of the era, the machine was built with a bank of core memory as the primary storage, allowing between 16 and 64 kilowords. Words were 24 bits plus a parity bit. This was backed up by a variety of secondary storage devices, including a 1376 kWord drum in Genie, or hard disks in the SDS models in the form of a drum-like 2097 kWord ‘fixed head’ disk or a 16 384 kWord traditional ‘floating head’ model. The SDS machines also included a paper tape punch and reader, line printer, and a real-time clock. They bootstrapped from paper tape.
A file storage of 96 MByte were also attached. The line printer used was a Potter Model HSP-3502 chain printer with 96 printing characters and a speed of about 230 lines per minute.
Software System
The operating system developed at Project Genie was the Berkeley Timesharing System. By August 1968 a version 2.0 was announced that was just called the "SDS 940 Time-Sharing System". As of 1969, the XDS 940 Software System consisted of the following:
The minimum configuration required to run the Software System included (partial list):
Additional software was available from the XDS Users' Group Library, such as a string processing system, "SYSPOPs" (system programmed operators, which allow access to system services), CAL (Conversational Algebraic Language, a dialect of JOSS), QED (a text editor), TAP (Time-sharing Assembly Program, an assembler), and DDT, a debugging tool.
A cathode ray tube display with 26 lines that operated DDT loader-debugger that were originally designed to operate from a teletype terminal were also available.
Notable installations
Butler Lampson estimated about 60 of the machines were sold. The major customer was Tymshare, who used the system to become the USA's best known commercial timesharing service in the late 1960s. By 1972 Tymshare alone had 23 systems in operation. Comshare, Inc, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was the second most important corporate customer; Tymshare, Comshare and UC Berkeley collaborated in much of the operating system development for the SDS 940. Douglas Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) used an SDS 940 for their oN-Line System, more commonly known as NLS. It was with this computer that he gave The Mother of All Demos in December 1968, heralding many of the concepts associated with personal computing today. The first host connected to the ARPANET was an SDS 940 at SRI in October, 1969. A San Francisco counterculture community action group called Resource One and located in Project One used a donated surplus XDS 940 as described in Rolling Stone magazine in 1972. The Community Memory project served as an early electronic bulletin board system.