Multiple Console Time Sharing System

GM Multiple Console Time Sharing System (MCTS)

Developer	General Motors Research Laboratories
OS family	Multics
Working state	Historic
Initial release	1970s
Available in	English
Platforms	Control Data Corporation STAR-100
Kernel type	N/A
Default user interface	Command-line interface
License	none

The Multiple Console Time Sharing System (MCTS) was an operating system developed by General Motors Research Laboratories in the 1970s for the Control Data Corporation STAR-100 supercomputer. MCTS was built to support GM's computer-aided design (CAD) applications.^[1]

MCTS was designed starting in 1968. It was written in a high-level systems programming language "Malus", a dialect of PL/I. A superset of Malus called Apple became the primary application language.^[2]

MCTS was based on Multics.^[3] All access to data was through the virtual memory system. Only the system paging support module was concerned about the physical location of the data.^[2]

See also

• GM-NAA I/O
• SHARE Operating System
• Timeline of operating systems

References

1. Elshoff, James L.; Ward, Mitchel R. (January 1976). "The MCTS operating system". ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review. 10 (1): 18–38. doi:10.1145/775314.775317.
2. Brown, R.R; Elshoff, J.L.; Ward, M.R. (1 Oct 1975). "The GM Multiple Console Time Sharing System". ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review. 9 (4): 7–17. doi:10.1145/775310.775311. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
3. Krull, pg. 54

Further reading

• Krull, F.N. (Fall 1994). "The origin of computer graphics within General Motors" (PDF). IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 16 (3). IEEE: 40–56. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1994.298419.