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Actually the 635 had no virtual memory or I think even memory protection (no more than the IBM 7090 it was closely modeled after). The difference was that GE pr
by pinewurst 7y ago
Actually the 635 had no virtual memory or I think even memory protection (no more than the IBM 7090 it was closely modeled after). The difference was that GE promised to add the all-singing, all-dancing MMU (paging, segmentation, rings) of MIT's dreams so they won the contract, resulting in the Multics 645.
The problem long term was that while every MMU option was available, the Multics base platform remained an extended, async 7090 (itself an extended (circa 1952) 704), rapidly falling behind in performance (and ability to be re-implemented quickly/well in rapidly advancing technology). Look at the trajectory from 645 to 6080 to DPS8 and shudder. Compare with the 360 as a modern ISA re/implemented at close to the state of the art.
Multics proper became excellent, highly capable software but to use the term the Germans used about Austria-Hungary in WW1, it was "shackled to a corpse".