Burroughs MCP Architecture: Difference between revisions
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''[[:en:Burroughs large systems]]'' | ''[[:en:Burroughs large systems|<span style="color: pink;">EnWiki Version</span>]]'' | ||
== Dominion Preface == | |||
Noting that by 2012-08 the Lede at least at the English wiki was better, more accurate. I put a lot into the article that's still there, the illustration for example, the characteristics, the point about re-entrancy. I don't expect to maintain the below, but I just learned about the B205 and apparently my long presumption that Burroughs didn't have computers in the '50s is only partially true. They just didn't make any themselves, the B205 (1956) was made by a company Burroughs purchased and rebranded as their product. | |||
== Content == | |||
Founded in the 1880s, Burroughs was the oldest continuously operating entity in computing, but by the late 1950s its computing equipment was still limited to electromechanical [[Accounting Machine|accounting machines]] such as the [[Burroughs Sensimatic|Sensimatic]]; as such it had nothing to compete with its traditional rivals [[IBM]] and [[NCR Corporation|NCR]] who had started to produce larger-scale computers, or with recently-founded [[Univac]]. The first machine, the B5000, was designed in 1961 and Burroughs sought to address its late entry in the market with the strategy of a completely different design based on the most advanced computing ideas available at the time. While the B5000 architecture is dead, it inspired the B6500, and computers using that architecture are still in production as the [[Unisys]] ClearPath MCP machines. The third and largest line<ref name=Da8500/><ref name=Ga8500/> was a dead end. In addition to the proprietary [[CMOS]] architecture, Unisys also uses Intel [[Xeon]] processors, and runs [[Burroughs MCP|MCP]], [[Microsoft Windows]] and [[Linux]] operating systems on their servers. | Founded in the 1880s, Burroughs was the oldest continuously operating entity in computing, but by the late 1950s its computing equipment was still limited to electromechanical [[Accounting Machine|accounting machines]] such as the [[Burroughs Sensimatic|Sensimatic]]; as such it had nothing to compete with its traditional rivals [[IBM]] and [[NCR Corporation|NCR]] who had started to produce larger-scale computers, or with recently-founded [[Univac]]. The first machine, the B5000, was designed in 1961 and Burroughs sought to address its late entry in the market with the strategy of a completely different design based on the most advanced computing ideas available at the time. While the B5000 architecture is dead, it inspired the B6500, and computers using that architecture are still in production as the [[Unisys]] ClearPath MCP machines. The third and largest line<ref name=Da8500/><ref name=Ga8500/> was a dead end. In addition to the proprietary [[CMOS]] architecture, Unisys also uses Intel [[Xeon]] processors, and runs [[Burroughs MCP|MCP]], [[Microsoft Windows]] and [[Linux]] operating systems on their servers. | ||
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{{TOCleft}} | {{TOCleft}} | ||
==B5000== | ==B5000== | ||
The first member of the first series, the B5000,<ref name=B5000-21005/> was designed beginning in 1961 by a team under the leadership of [[Robert | The first member of the first series, the B5000,<ref name=B5000-21005/> was designed beginning in 1961 by a team under the leadership of [[:en:Robert S. Barton]]. It was a unique machine, well ahead of its time. It has been listed by the influential computing scientist [[John Mashey]] as one of the architectures that he admires the most. "I always thought it was one of the most innovative examples of combined hardware/software design I've seen, and far ahead of its time."<ref name=johnmashey> | ||
{{cite newsgroup | {{cite newsgroup | ||
| title = Admired designs / designs to study | | title = Admired designs / designs to study | ||
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* Influenced many of today's computing techniques | * Influenced many of today's computing techniques | ||
====Unique system design==== | ====Unique system design==== | ||
