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.
Multiple Virtual Storage, more commonly called MVS, was the most commonly used operating system on the System/370 and System/390 IBM mainframe computers. IBM developed MVS, along with OS/VS1 and SVS, as a successor to OS/360. It is unrelated to IBM's other mainframe operating system lines, e.g., VSE, VM, TPF.
OS/390 is an IBM operating system for the System/390 IBM mainframe computers.
Computer operating systems (OSes) provide a set of functions needed and used by most application programs on a computer, and the links needed to control and synchronize computer hardware. On the first computers, with no operating system, every program needed the full hardware specification to run correctly and perform standard tasks, and its own drivers for peripheral devices like printers and punched paper card readers. The growing complexity of hardware and application programs eventually made operating systems a necessity for everyday use.
The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the product announcement. In September 1990, the System/370 line was replaced with the System/390.
Time Sharing Option (TSO) is an interactive time-sharing environment for IBM mainframe operating systems, including OS/360 MVT, OS/VS2 (SVS), MVS, OS/390, and z/OS.
This article presents a timeline of events in the history of computer operating systems from 1951 to the current day. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the History of operating systems.
VM is a family of IBM virtual machine operating systems used on IBM mainframes System/370, System/390, zSeries, System z and compatible systems, including the Hercules emulator for personal computers.
Remote job entry is the procedure for sending requests for non-interactive data processing tasks (jobs) to mainframe computers from remote workstations, and by extension the process of receiving the output from such jobs at a remote workstation.
Conversational Programming System or CPS was an early Time-sharing system offered by IBM which ran on System/360 mainframes circa 1967 through 1972 in a partition of OS/360 Release 17 MFT II or MVT or above. CPS was implemented as an interpreter, and users could select either a rudimentary form of BASIC or a reasonably complete version of PL/I. A third option provided remote job entry (RJE) features allowing users to submit JCL job streams for batch processing. A fourth option was called control mode. Normally, only the system operator would be permitted to use control mode. The available features in control mode included:
A Supervisor Call instruction (SVC) is a hardware instruction used by the System/360 family of IBM mainframe computers up to contemporary zSeries, the Amdahl 470V/5, 470V/6, 470V/7, 470V/8, 580, 5880, 5990M, and 5990A, and others; Univac 90/60, 90/70 and 90/80, and possibly others; the Fujitsu M180 (UP) and M200 (MP), and others; and is also used in the Hercules open source mainframe emulation software. It causes an interrupt to request a service from the operating system. The system routine providing the service is called an SVC routine. SVC is a system call.
The history of IBM mainframe operating systems is significant within the history of mainframe operating systems, because of IBM's long-standing position as the world's largest hardware supplier of mainframe computers. IBM mainframes run operating systems supplied by IBM and by third parties.
OS/360, officially known as IBM System/360 Operating System, is a discontinued batch processing operating system developed by IBM for their then-new System/360 mainframe computer, announced in 1964; it was influenced by the earlier IBSYS/IBJOB and Input/Output Control System (IOCS) packages for the IBM 7090/7094 and even more so by the PR155 Operating System for the IBM 1410/7010 processors. It was one of the earliest operating systems to require the computer hardware to include at least one direct access storage device.
Group Control System (GCS) is an operating system made by IBM, meant to run as a guest of VM. GCS is an integral component of the discontinued VM/SP, VM/XA SP, VM/ESA and current z/VM IBM System product offerings.
System Generation (SysGen) is a two-stage process for installing or updating OS/360, OS/VS1, OS/VS2 (SVS), OS/VS2 (MVS) and chargeable systems derived from them. There are similar processes for, e.g., DOS/360, which this article does not cover. Also, some of the details have changed between releases of OS/360 and many details do not carry over to later systems.
Single Virtual Storage (SVS) refers to Release 1 of Operating System/Virtual Storage 2 (OS/VS2); it is the successor system to the MVT option of Operating System/360. OS/VS2 (SVS) was a stopgap measure pending the availability of MVS, although IBM provided support and enhancements to SVS long after shipping MVS.
OS/VS may refer to one of a number of IBM operating systems for System/370 and successors characterized by the use of virtual storage (VS):
Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem (DFSMS) is a central component of IBM's flagship operating system z/OS. It includes access methods, utilities and program management functions. Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem is also a collective name for a collection of several products, all but two of which are included in the DFSMS/MVS product.
The term IBM platform could refer to any of the hardware and operating systems below.
