Edos

Last updated
Edos
Developer The Computer Software Company
OS family DOS/360 and successors
Working stateHistoric, unsupported
Initial release1972;51 years ago (1972)
Available in English
Package manager N/A
Default
user interface 		Command-line interface
License Proprietary

Edos is a discontinued operating system based upon IBM's original mainframe DOS (not to be confused with the unrelated and better known MS-DOS for the IBM PC). The name stood for extended (or enhanced) disk operating system. It was later purchased by the West German computer company Nixdorf, who renamed it to NIDOS (Nixdorf Disk Operating System).

Contents

In 1970, IBM announced the IBM/370 product line along with new peripherals, software products, and operating systems, including DOS/VS that supplanted DOS. Although IBM was rightly focused on their new products, the computing world was dominated by the IBM/360 line, which left a lot of users nervous about their investment.

Although there were a couple of projects emulating the IBM/370 on the IBM/360 (e.g., CFS, Inc.), other companies took a different approach, extending the then-current (and limited) DOS.

The Computer Software Company (TCSC) took the latter approach. Starting in 1972, they developed Edos, Extended Disk Operating System. They extended the number of fixed program space partitions from 3 to 6, added support for new hardware, and included features that IBM had offered separately. The first version of Edos was released in 1972, in response to the announcement by IBM that DOS Release 26 was the last DOS release to be supported on the System 360, and future DOS Releases would support System 370 machines only. [1]

They also made available other third party enhancements such as a spooler and DOCS, from CFS, Inc.

Edos/VS and Edos/VSE

TCSC enhanced EDOS to become EDOS/VS, which was announced in 1977 and delivered it to beta test sites in 1978. [2] In May 1977, TCSC announced it would release Edos/VS in response to IBM's release of DOS/VS Release 34 and Advanced Functions-DOS/VS. Edos/VS was based on IBM's DOS/VS Release 34, and provided equivalent functionality to IBM's Advanced Functions-DOS/VS product. [1] Unlike IBM's offerings, Edos/VS would run on System 360 machines and System 370 machines lacking virtual storage hardware (non-VS machines), whereas IBM's offerings only supported the latest System 370 models with VS hardware included. [1] TCSC identified the parts of IBM's DOS/VS Release 34 operating system which relied upon System/370-only machine instructions and rewrote them to use instructions supported by the System/360. [1] TCSC was legally able to reuse IBM's DOS/VS Release 34 code, since IBM had (intentionally) published the code without a copyright notice, which made it public domain under US copyright law at the time.

In 1981, NCSC announced plans to release an Edos/VSE 2.0, based on IBM DOS/VSE Release 35, suitable for IBM 4300 machines. [3]

TCSC corporate history

TCSC was founded by Jerry Enfield and Tom Steel, responsible for development and marketing, respectively. Company headquarters were in Richmond, Virginia. TCSC expanded into Canada, Australia, and Europe. [4] Other products of TCSC included the Extended Console (Econ) system, which enabled display of the system console using a CRT terminal such as an IBM 3270. Econ was available for IBM's DOS and DOS/VS and TCSC's Edos and Edos/VS operating systems. [5]

In 1980, the company was acquired by Nixdorf and became NCSC. [6] By 1982, Nixdorf had renamed Edos to NIDOS/VSE, and was selling to run on their new Nixdorf 8890 series of IBM-compatible mainframes. [7]

TCSC licensed DATACOM/DB from Applied Data Research (ADR) to run under its EDos and EDos/VS operating systems. When in 1980 Nixdorf bought TCSC, Nixdorf sought to continue the licensing arrangement; ADR and NCSC went to court in a dispute over whether the licensing arrangement was terminated by the acquisition. [8] ADR and Nixdorf settled out of court in 1981, with an agreement that Nixdorf could continue to resell ADR's products. [9]

In July 1985, Nixdorf announced the release of Nidos/VSE Release 2. [10]

Add-on products for Edos

In 1973, TCSC released a remote job entry (RJE) option for Edos. [11]

In 1975, TCSC released a tape management system for Edos known as TMS. [12]

In 1983, NCSC announced a Unix compatibility subsystem for IBM mainframes running IBM's DOS/VS(E) and Nixdorf's Edos/VS and Edos/VSE operating systems, known as Programmer Work Station/VSE-Advanced Functions, or PWS/VSE-AF for short. PWS/VSE-AF was based on the Coherent Unix clone developed by Mark Williams Company. [13]

Discontinuation

In 1989, Nixdorf decided to pull out of the IBM-compatible mainframe market, in order to focus on Unix. It transferred its Nixdorf 8890 line of clone IBM mainframes to Comparex Informationssysteme GmbH. However, while Comparex was willing to take over the hardware business, it did not want the responsibility of maintaining the Edos operating system, preferring instead that its customers purchase DOS/VSE or MVS from IBM. Nixdorf decided to cancel all work on the next release of Edos, since they did not want to commit to maintain any new version in the years to come. [14] [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM AIX</span> Series of Unix operating systems from IBM

AIX is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.

IBM mainframes are large computer systems produced by IBM since 1952. During the 1960s and 1970s, IBM dominated the large computer market. Current mainframe computers in IBM's line of business computers are developments of the basic design of the IBM System/360.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VSE (operating system)</span>

VSEn is an operating system for IBM mainframe computers, the latest one in the DOS/360 lineage, which originated in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coherent (operating system)</span>

Coherent is a clone of the Unix operating system for IBM PC compatibles and other microcomputers, developed and sold by the now-defunct Mark Williams Company (MWC). Historically, the operating system was a proprietary product, but it became open source in 2015, released under the BSD-3-Clause license.

Disk Operating System/360, also DOS/360, or simply DOS, is the discontinued first member of a sequence of operating systems for IBM System/360, System/370 and later mainframes. It was announced by IBM on the last day of 1964, and it was first delivered in June 1966. In its time, DOS/360 was the most widely used operating system in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM 3790</span>

The IBM 3790 Communications System was one of the first distributed computing platforms. The 3790 was developed by IBM's Data Processing Division (DPD) and announced in 1974. It preceded the IBM 8100, announced in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nixdorf Computer</span> German computer company

Nixdorf Computer AG was a West German computer company founded by Heinz Nixdorf in 1952. Headquartered in Paderborn, Germany, it became the fourth largest computer company in Europe, and a worldwide specialist in banking and point-of-sale systems.

Applied Data Research (ADR) was a large software vendor from the 1960s until the mid-1980s. ADR is often described as "the first independent software vendor".

IBM Distributed Office Support System, or DISOSS is a centralized document distribution and filing application for IBM's mainframe computers running the MVS and VSE operating systems. DISOSS runs under both the CICS transaction processing system and the IMS/DS transaction processing system, and later versions use the SNADS architecture of peer to peer communication for distributed services.

Datacom/DB is a relational database management system for mainframe computers. It was developed in the early 1970s by Computer Information Management Company and was subsequently owned by Insyte, Applied Data Research, Ameritech, and Computer Associates International, Inc. Datacom is now owned by CA Technologies, which renamed it to CA-Datacom/DB and later to CA Datacom/DB.

Locus Computing Corporation was formed in 1982 by Gerald J. Popek, Charles S. Kline and Gregory I. Thiel to commercialize the technologies developed for the LOCUS distributed operating system at UCLA. Locus was notable for commercializing single-system image software and producing the Merge package which allowed the use of DOS and Windows 3.1 software on Unix systems.


MTCS was a transaction processor that ran on IBM mainframe systems under OS/VS1 and DOS/VS.

DUCS was a teleprocessing monitor from CFS Inc. It was one of two early local teleprocessing packages for IBM's DOS/VSE environment. DUCS provided an interface and access method for programmers to 'talk' to monitors. Such access methods later became known as APIs.

Westi was one of two early local teleprocessing packages for IBM's DOS/VSE environment. Westi stood for Westinghouse Terminal Interactive. Westi provided an interface and access method for programmers to 'talk' to monitors and handle data entry. Such access methods later became known as APIs and the handlers a form of transaction processing.

DOCS was a software package for IBM mainframes by CFS Inc., enabling access to the system console using 3270-compatible terminals.

Westinghouse Disk Utility, popularly called WDU, is a copy/backup/restore program for IBM's DOS, DOS/VS, and DOS/VSE environments. In 1978, it was reported that WDU, a product of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, was in use at over 3,000 sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grasp (software)</span>

GRASP was a systems software package that provided spooling facilities for the IBM/370 running DOS/VS or DOS/VSE environment, and IBM/360 running DOS or retrofitted with modified DOS.

Easytrieve is a report generator, sold by CA Technologies. Easytrieve Classic and Easytrieve Plus are two available versions of this programming languages primarily designed to generate reports and are used by large corporations operating in mainframe, UNIX, Linux, and Microsoft Windows environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altos Computer Systems</span> Unix manufacturer

Altos Computer Systems was founded in 1977 by David G. Jackson and Roger William Vass Sr. It focused on small multi-user computers, starting with multi-user derivatives of CP/M, and later including Unix and Xenix-based machines. In its 1982 initial public offering on NASDAQ, the company raised $59M. Thereafter the company's stock was traded under the symbol ALTO.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Leavitt, Don (16 May 1977), "'Edos/VS' marks first response to IBM Release 34", ComputerWorld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 11, no. 20, pp. 1, 4, ISSN   0010-4841
  2. ↑ Leavitt, Don (3 July 1978), "Move to Edos/VS generally goes well", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 12, no. 27, p. 15, ISSN   0010-4841
  3. ↑ "Nixdorf plans operating system for IBM 4300", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 15, no. 8, p. 13, February 1981, ISSN   0010-4841
  4. ↑ article
  5. ↑ "'Econ' puts console work for DOS, DOS/VS on CRT", Computerworld, vol. 13, no. 49, p. 42, 3 December 1979, ISSN   0010-4841
  6. ↑ Rosenberg, Marcy (8 September 1980), "Nixdorf Launches Software Offerings", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 14, no. 36, p. 47, ISSN   0010-4841
  7. ↑ Emmett, Ralph (February 1982). "Soft Key to IBM's Kingdom?" (PDF). Datamation: 71–74.
  8. ↑ Blumenthal, Marcia (18 August 1980), "ADR asks ruling on Datacom rights", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 14, no. 33, p. 76, ISSN   0010-4841
  9. ↑ "ADR, Nixdorf Companies Settle Marketing Dispute", Computerworld, vol. 15, no. 16, p. 78, 20 April 1981, ISSN   0010-4841
  10. ↑ "Nixdorf announces series of software". Computerworld. IDG Enterprise. 19 (29): 42. 1985-07-22.
  11. ↑ "Edos RJE option will integrate terminal support under spooling", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 7, no. 44, p. 12, 31 October 1973, ISSN   0010-4841
  12. ↑ "TMS Controls Tapes Under Edos", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 9, no. 28, p. 11, 9 July 1975, ISSN   0010-4841
  13. ↑ "Nixdorf unwraps Unix-compatible T/S for IBM", Computerworld, IDG Enterprise, vol. 27, no. 37, p. 4, 12 September 1983, ISSN   0010-4841
  14. ↑ "NIXDORF LEAVES SOME 8890 IBMULATOR USERS FEELING LIKE ORPHANS". Tech Monitor. 1989-10-22. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
  15. ↑ "NIXDORF PHASES OUT IBM 370-COMPATIBLES FOR UNIX". Tech Monitor. 1989-03-13. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.