Articles

Articles Available

Technical articles about features of Multics written by Multicians.

See Stories for 87 stories about Multics and Papers for 46 published conference papers about Multics.

(most recent first)

1. "The GE-635s at Project MAC and BTL" Using the GE-635 in early Multics development.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 05/14/23)

2. "Execution Environment" The execution environment for Multics programs. Hardware architectural support and system conventions.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 05/08/23)

3. "Multics Failure Recovery" How Multics recovered from hardware and software failures.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 12/07/22)

4. "Software Development Process" The Multics software development process.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 11/29/23)

5. "Communications and Networking" The evolution of Multics communication and networking facilities.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 12/07/22)

6. "B2 Security Evaluation" The history of Multics security features and the NCSC Orange Book security evaluation of Multics in the mid-80s.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 11/08/23)

7. "Software Development Process History" History of the Multics software development process.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 11/29/23)

8. "PL/I" The history of EPL, Version 1 and Version 2 PL/I, as well as related topics.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 12/07/22)

9. "Code Auditing" The informal code review process used in Multics.
   (Tom Van Vleck, 12/07/22)

10. "Debug Breakpoint Handling" The sequence of events in a debug breakpoint.
    (Gary Dixon, 13 Feb 2017)

11. "The Reduction Compiler" A tool we used to build tools in Multics.
    (Gary Dixon, 12/07/22)

12. "Trouble Report System" The system for handling Multics trouble reports.
    (Gary Dixon, 04/27/21)

13. "The Multics Scheduler" Three generations of Multics scheduling algorithms.
    (Bob Mullen, 25 Jan 2016)

14. "The B2 Final Evaluation Report" Report on NSA Evaluation of Multics security.
    (Tom Van Vleck, 28 Apr 2015)

15. "Final Evaluation Report of Honeywell Multics MR 11.0" 36 MB PDF.
    (NCSC staff, 01 June 1986)

16. "Multics Bootstrap Loading" The evolution of Multics bootstrap loading and BOS.
    (Tom Van Vleck, 01 Mar 2013)

17. "Multics and Hyperchannel" A project at ASEA to connect Multics to Modcomp computers via Hyperchannel.
    (Olin Sibert, 19 May 2004)

18. "Record Stocks and the Physical Volume Scavenger" Record Stocks in Multics. Pages are allocated to segments so crash recovery is safe and fast.
    (Olin Sibert, 19 May 2004)

19. "Multics Library Processes and Tools" How Multics source and object libraries were managed.
    (Olin Sibert, 24 Apr 2006)

20. ""And They Argued All Night..."" The history of the Internet. An article for Matrix News.
    (Mike Padlipsky, 2000)

21. "Priority Scheduling" HLSUA Presentation, Forum XXV.
    (Harry Quackenboss, 18 Oct 1977)

22. "Multics Leap Year Calculations" Y2K was anticipated as early as 1966.
    (Jerry Saltzer, 05 Jan 2000)

23. "The who command" The Multics who command.
    (Tom Van Vleck, 08 Sep 1997)

24. "Home Terminals" Over 50 years of logging in from home.
    (Tom Van Vleck, 09 Jul 2001)

25. "Printer Software" Printers, listings, and crash dumps.
    (Tom Van Vleck, 27 Feb 1996)

26. "The New Storage System" 1975 project to replace the file storage system.
    (Tom Van Vleck, 12 Feb 1995)

27. "Multics Virtual Memory - Tutorial and Reflections" Summary of the Multics virtual memory design.
    (Paul Green, 1995)

28. "Multics History" PDF slides from John Gintell's lecture on Multics History to the ACM Greater Boston Chapter. Also available on YouTube.
    (John Gintell, 16 Nov 1989)

29. "Observations about Software Maintenance" A talk to the Ada SIG by Paul Stachour about the Multics Way.
    (Paul Stachour, 26 Mar 1984)

30. "Multics Data Security" Security controls in Multics. Published in Scientific Honeyweller (Vol. 2 No. 2) and as Honeywell doc GA01.
    (David M. Jordan, Jun 1981)

31. Multics Storage System, Wiki article, (Gary Dixon)