History of Operating Systems

History of Operating Systems

The first digital computer was created by Charles Babbage in the mid 19th century. (Tanenbaum, 2001) His computer did not have any software, so a woman named Ada Lovelace created some software, but it was not an operating system. Between the mid 1940's and the mid 1950's, first generation computers were beginning to be developed. During these days, programming languages were unheard of, even assembly language; so of course there was no operating system.

During the second generation of computers, operating systems began to be used; especially with mainframe computers. These mainframe computers were mostly used for (Tanenbaum, 2001) scientific and engineering calculations. The two main operating systems available were the FMS (Fortran Monitor System) and the IBSYS (IBM). The systems were classified as mainframe operating systems. These operating systems were designed for processing many jobs at once. And many of these mainframe operating systems were designed to be batch systems, meaning that jobs would run automatically without human contact. Also in this period came the server operating system. These systems, which are still very common today, are ideal sharing purposes such as (Tanenbaum, 2001) print services, file services, and web servicing.

As with all operating systems, they are very nearly identical to a program written in a high level language. The only substantial difference is that with an operating system program running the mode bit of call is always zero and every other program run is non zero because it is called by an interrupt. Or speaking elementary, the operating system is run automatically from startup and a typical program is run by the user.

Third generation computers followed from the mid 1960's to around 1980. These operating systems became reliable as well as very satisfying to the customer. Reason being is that these new third generation computers ran was operating systems developed through multiprogramming.

With the advent of multiprogramming, (Tanenbaum, 2001) now operating systems could partition memory into several pieces all of which doing a different job. With multiprocessor operating systems, there came the ability to have multiple CPU's on one computing device, thus the ability to for parallel computing was born. From the initial multiprogramming environment came timesharing, where several users could be using the operating system from separate computers. Also another enhancement to this generation of operating systems was the ability to spool job. Back then; jobs were read from cards one at a time, so when a job finished then a subsequent card (job) could be loaded and run. But with the advent of spooling, this was no longer needed, the cards could then be loaded all together, and once a certain job finished, then the next could run.

During the fourth generation of computers, which is from about 1980 to the present, computers became very user friendly. The advent of the GUI based personal operating system, most notably Microsoft Windows, came the influx of computing into the mainstream of developed cultures. Network operating systems and distributed operating systems became popular in the business environment in these current times. Network operating systems allow the user to (Tanenbaum, 2001) login and copy files from a remote personal computer. Distributed operating systems, are sort of the inverse of network systems. With distributed operating systems the user has the feel of being on one personal computer, but in fact they maybe using multiple processors; these processors maybe on just one computer, but most likely on multiple computers.

As technology has grown, so too has management. I key tool for manufacturing in current times is precise computing. Such as a JIT (Just In Time) manufacturing environment breeds systematic computations from very resources, a breed of operating system is needed to perform those precise computations. Real-time operating systems fill that task by making sure that deadlines are met; referred to as hard real-time system.

Other notable types of operating systems are smart card operating systems and embedded operating systems. An embedded operating system is one which would be used on a small person device (PDA) such as a palm top computer. A smart card operating system is an embedded computer on a device such as a gift certificate credit card.

There is no telling when or exactly what the fifth generation computers will be. But it is safe to hypothesize that these next generation iterations of the computer will encompass a (Ehrhart, 2003) combination of human and computer expertise; comprising of artificial intelligence, natural language and computer expertise. And as time passes and new technologies come and go and as the future seems so bleak comes even a higher technological feat. (Wooster, 2003) It is currently being conceived that towards the end of the 21st century that a future generation of computers will so called Nano Machines. These computers will be engineered in the realm Charles Babbage's first computer; meaning that these Nano Machines will be mechanical in construction, rather than electrical. Such as modern computers and modeled after natural building blocks DNA and particles. And the operating system to power these futuristic computers will undoubtly follow the same path as all its ancestors; that is to begin with assembly language and eventually be implemented in popular languages such as C or Java.

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