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Major OS Achievements 1 Running head: MAJOR OS ACHIEVEMENTS Major OS Achievements Chris Collins th 15 October 2006 Major OS Achievements 2 Introduction This paper discusses several major achievements in operating systems (OS). We begin by discussing the birth of the operating system with multiprogrammed batch systems. Then we discuss memory management and process management which both of which were required by multiprogrammed batch systems. Major OS Achievements 3 Birth of the Operating System In the very early days of computing, a computer was a single task, single user machine. A user would load their program in source code from from punch cards or punch tape, load an appropriate compiler, any required libraries, an assembler or linker, etc, compile the program and run it. This was a very time consuming and error prone process. Since computers were very expensive machines any idle time was a major cost to the computers operator. Batch systems were introduced with the intention of reducing the setup and tear down time involved with running a program. In a batch system, similar programs would be put in batches. For example, all programs which required the FORTRAN compiler would be batched together. The computer would be set up appropriately and all programs in the batch were run in sequential order. This in itself was a major change from the way the user interacted with a computer. No longer w