Before making any conclusions about which was the first Operating System (OS), we
will have to see what exactly is an OS, in brief very briefly actually.
An OS is a piece of software which acts as
a mediator between the bare hardware and application programs. The definition
which is supported by most of the programmers is: An OS is collection of
programs (or “modules” in nerd-speak), that manages, and controls the resources
of a computer or other computing device, and gives user and programs an interface
to utilise these resources.
For further definition, and explanation read "Definition of OS" or if you can carry none the less.
Just
like the computer hardware, the operating system wasn’t created overnight, but
unlike the hardware nobody was trying to create an OS intentionally. The very
first few operating systems were results of evolution taking place within the
world of computing. Few milestones
can be mentioned here, in the chronological order:
Programs > Loaders > Monitors >
Operating Systems
Problematically
enough, there was no term coined as “Operating System”, and the early operating
systems were nothing but the next step of the ”Monitors” in the evolution. So
there is a very thin line between the monitors and OS’s of these days. Which
makes even difficult to track down the first OS.
Coming to the point: for a very long
time now the first operating system was thought to be “GM-NAA I/O”, which
stands for “General Motors – North American Aviation I/O” System. (Where again
I/O stands for input/output.) This system was created in 1956 for IBM-704 computer system, by Robert Patrick of General
Motors Research, and Owen Mock of North American Aviation. [1] [2]
The
GM-NAA I/O system was based on a system monitor created by programs of General
Motors for its IBM-701. This system monitor was created in 1955.
Recently from studying the codes of both, GM-NAA I/O (IBM-704), and the system
monitor of IBM -701, it has been debated that the system monitor was mature
enough to be called as an operating system.
IBM-701,
well known by its nick name “Defence Calculator”, was made public circa 1952,
but the system monitor in discussion was created in 1955 by GM, and the GM-NAA
I/O (1956) system was actually based on the system monitor. [3]
There is more!
The quest yields one more name, which is
chronologically the first one: “Tape Director Program”. [4] It is
sometimes also called as director tape program. It was created in 1954 by MIT
for UNIVAC 1103. UNIVAC 1103 was a competitor of IBM 701 in the field of “Scientific
Computation”. Yet, it is believed by most that the tape director program, even
though almost an operating system,
was not entirely operating system.
The
information provided above leaves us with two doubts/questions.
- Which monitor/program was developed/mature enough to be termed as an OS?
- Was there any other fully developed monitor, which actually was an operating system but we don’t know about it?
The secrecy of such particular projects,
can also be the reason for our problem here, as most of this events/development
took place in the period of World War II, and Cold War. The first completely
electronic computer was supposed to be ENIAC, which is purely a
misunderstanding. I will soon update an article, which solidly proves that ENIAC wasn’t the first electronic computer.
References:
1: http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?year=1956 ("Software and Languages" Section)
2: http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/os/gm.html
3: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?reload=true&tp=&arnumber=4640507&isnumber=4640446
4: http://www.csail.mit.edu/timeline/timeline.php/timeline.php?query=event&id=3
2: http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/os/gm.html
3: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?reload=true&tp=&arnumber=4640507&isnumber=4640446
4: http://www.csail.mit.edu/timeline/timeline.php/timeline.php?query=event&id=3
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