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|style="background:#DFFFFF;width:400px;"|'''Added rough draft of the first section of "History"...'''<br /> [[User:JLSjr|JLSjr]] ([[User talk:JLSjr|talk]]) 05:32, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
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=== Pioneering inspirations ===
With a cursory glance around the internet, or a modest perusal of pertinent writings, one could very easily gain the notion that computer operating systems were a new phenomenon in the mid-twentieth century. In fact, important research in operating systems was being conducted at this time. While early exploration into operating systems took place in the years leading to 1950; shortly afterward, highly advanced research began on new systems to conquer new problems. In the first decade of the second-half of the [[20th century]], many new questions were asked, many new problems were identified, many solutions were developed and working for years, in controlled production environments.
==== Aboriginal Distributed Conputer Science ====
'''The DYSEAC'''<ref>Leiner, A. L. 1954. System Specifications for the DYSEAC. J. ACM 1, 2 (Apr. 1954), 57-81.</ref>
One of the first solutions to these new questions was the [[DYSEAC]], a self-described general-purpose [[Synchronization (computer science)|synchronous]] computer; but at this point in history, exhibited signs of being much more than general-purpose. In one of the earliest publications of the [[ACM]], in April of 1954, a researcher at the [[National Bureau of Standards]] – now the National [[nist|Institute of Standards and Technology]] ([[nist|NIST]]) – presented a detailed implementation design specification of the DYSEAC. Without carefully reading the entire specification, one could be misled by summary language in the papers high-level introduction, as to the true nature of this machine. The initial section of the introduction advises that major emphasis will be focused upon the requirements of the intended applications, and these applications would require flexible communication. However, with language suggesting the external devices might be typewriters, [[Magnetic storage|magnetic medium]], and [[Cathode ray tube|CRTs]], and with the term “[[Input/output|input-output operation]]” used more than once, could quickly limit any paradigm of this system to a complex centralized “ensemble.” Seemingly, saving the best for last, the author eventually gets closer to the nature of the system.
{{quote|Finally, the external devices could even include other full-scale computers employing the same digital language as the DYSEAC. For example, the SEAC or other computers similar to it could be harnessed to the DYSEAC and by use of coordinated programs could be made to work together in mutual cooperation on a common task… Consequently[,] the computer can be used to coordinate the diverse activities of all the external devices into an effective ensemble operation.|ALAN L. LEINER|''System Specifications for the DYSEAC''}}
While this more detailed description moves the perception of the system up a notch or two, the best that can be distilled from this is some semblance of decentralized control. The avid reader that would persevere in the investigation would get to a point where the real nature of the system is divulged.
{{quote|Each member of such an interconnected group of separate computers is free at any time to initiate and dispatch special control orders to any of its partners in the system. As a consequence, the supervisory control over the common task may initially be loosely distributed throughout the system and then temporarily concentrated in one computer, or even passed rapidly from one machine to the other as the need arises. …it should be noted that the various interruption facilities which have been described are based on mutual cooperation between the computer and the external devices subsidiary to it, and do not reflect merely a simple master-slave relationship.|ALAN L. LEINER|''System Specifications for the DYSEAC''}}
There you have it. One of the earliest examples of a computer with capacity for distributed operation. Given the system and its distributed operating system potential is primitive – almost ethereal at points – this was a [[Supercomputer|super-computer]] in its day. [[United States Department of the Army|Dept. of the Army]] reports<ref>Martin H. Weik, "A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems," Ballistic Research Laboratories Report No. 1115, pg. 234-5, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, March 1961</ref> show it was certified reliable and passed all acceptance tests in April of 1954. It was completed and delivered on time, in May of 1954. In addition, was it mentioned that this was a [[portable computer]]. It was housed in [[Tractor-trailer#Types_of_trailers|tractor-trailer]], and had 2 attendant vehicles and [[Refrigerator truck|6 tons of refrigeration capacity]].
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