UNIX on a micro

Abstract

The earliest version of UNIX (circa 1969--70) developed at Bill Laboratories ran on DEC PDP-7 and PDP-9 computers. It was modeled on the Multics system; the operating system resulting from a joint development project undertaken in the mid-sixties by Bell Labs, MIT and General Electric (now Honeywell) which at the time it was conceived, was one of the first operating systems to be largely written in a high level language. The PDP-11 version of UNIX became operational in 1971. Dennis M Richie and Ken Thompson, joint developers of UNIX, cite its most important achievement was the demonstration that a powerful operating system for interactive use need not be expensive in either hardware of software development. They claim the main system software was developed in less than two man years. This was not done at the expense of operating facilities as the users of UNIX will testify; the system is characterised by its simplicity, elegance and ease of use.[1]