CS361: Operating System

Daniel Bauer - ComputerWorld 1983

DP Execs: CPU Life Spans Shorter (7/4/83, pg 2)

• Shorter hardware upgrade cycles
• About 5 years (down from 7)
• User requirements, growing databases
• CPU development and business growth increasing

Progress Seen Likely in Standardization (7/4/83, pg 37)

• Progress reported in developing network protocol standards
• Based on OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model by ISO
• A model based on layers
• Defined as a logical construct describing what should be standardized and where to permit communications between .application processes. . typically programs . lodged withing terminals and computers to linked via one or more networks
• At the time, the X.25 standard implemented the first three layers

Apollo Operating System Release 6.0 Unveiled (7/25/83, pg 54)

• Release 6.0 improves "sequential file processing, computational and graphics performance, and user functionality."
• Vector library - Optimize access to floating-point hardware
• Reworked graphics primitive commands
• Part of hardware set, $10,000-$50,000
• Also released AUX, Unix based OS
• $1,000 per workstation

Airborne Automation on Boeing 757, 767 Takes Over Flying, Landing, Making Pilot "a True Manager" (8/15/83, pg 17)

• With new system, pilots only need to get plane into the air
• Flight Management Computer (FMC)
• Carries out flight planning, navigation, and monitors condition aboard aircraft
• Made pilots job somewhat easier, also different
• CRT's in cockpit instead of dials and switches
• Less maintenance

The Unix Story (8/22/83, pg 53)

• System V was released in 1983!
• One of the driving ideas behind Unix was hardware portability
• Support across mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers
• Aimed at technical users (programmers)
• LBeginning to spread to regular users
• Use simple tools (like awk) to create complex systems
• Unix and C closely tied together
• Most of the industry stuck on COBOL and FORTRAN
• C thought of as being difficult to work in
• Concern over lack of C programmers and applications
• Unix supported C in part due to its portability

The Founding of the GNU Project

• GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix
• Founded September 27, 1983
• Richard Stallman at MIT
• Goal: To develop "a sufficient body of free software ... to get along with any software that is not free."
• Initiated GNU operating system in 1984
• Their free operating system was completed by 3rd party Linux kernel
• Linux Kernel was released as free software under GNU/GPL
• Still active in development, education, and awareness
• Projects
• GNU Compiler Collection
• GNOME -- Because KDE required proprietary software
• GNASH -- Free Flash player
• Four ideas of "Free"
• Freedom to run the program
• Freedom to access the code
• Freedom to redistribute the program to anyone
• Freedom to improve the software

Other News

• More business adopting computers to manage backend
• ComputerWorld adds international section
• More copyright law issues
• People began calling for computer literacy among the general public
• Supercomputers more common
• Image processing on the rise as a new area of development
• A lot of news about hackers
• Mostly students, often stealing data
• 32bit systems becoming more common

Jobs

• Demand still on the rise, in general
• Some decline in demand for data processors
• Languages/Skills:
• C
• COBOL
• ADA
• FORTRAN
• assembly
• CISC
• Application Programmers
• $21,000 - $45,000
• Inflation Adjusted: $54,000 - $125,000
• Applications Programmers
• $21,000 - $45,000
• Inflation Adjusted: $45,000 - $97,000
• Data Processing
• Programmers/Analysts