A General-Purpose Time-Sharing System For a Small- Or Medium-Scale Computer.

An overview is provided of the Experimental Time-Sharing System (ETSS). Few manufacturers of small-scale and medium-scale computers offer operating systems capable of supporting both terminal-oriented time-sharing and multiprogramed batch processing. ETSS was developed to demonstrate that a powerful, general purpose operating system of this type is feasible on a smaller computer and that it can provide highly flexible and cost-effective computer services. Developed for an educational application, the system can be tailored to meet a wide range of application requirements and can support a mix of terminal-oriented, time-sharing, fast response process control and one or more batch streams. Described in this paper are the organization of the operating system and its major components, with detailed attention being given to task scheduling and memory management. (Author)