The MULTI8 Operating System

Introduction

MULTI8 was the result of a two-year co-operation of the Medical Biological Laboratory of TNO Rijswijk and the Physiology Department of the University of Utrecht, both in Holland. During this period the system was redesigned several times, eventually resulting in a stable operating system that has proved to be very reliable. From the beginning the designers of MULTI8 have felt that the system should be general and flexible so that it can be used by other PDP8 users also. A complex software product such as MULTI8 cannot be distributed without good maintenance and support. Therefore MULTI8 was distributed via a commercial organization, giving possibilities for support that can not be realized by the non-profit laboratories where the system was developed.

MULTI8 V7A is the accumulated result of about 3 years of development done at the Physiology department of the University of Utrecht. An important factor in the realization of V7A is the availability of the Memory Management Unit built by DIGICOS BV. This hardware module, designed to the specifications of the MULTI8 implementers, enhances the protection and addressing structure of the PDP8 to allow a smooth operating virtual memory system. Better configuration procedures, better reliability and maintainability. In this exploding microprocessor world, the PDP8 seems to hold a place of its own.

Please refer to the Software Documentation page here for more information on MULTI8.