KeyKOS is a
persistent, pure
capability
A capability is the ability to execute a specified course of action or to achieve certain outcomes.
As it applies to human capital, capability represents performing or achieving certain actions/outcomes in terms of the intersection of capacity an ...
-based
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
for the
IBM S/370 mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
computers. It allows
emulating the environments of
VM,
MVS, and Portable Operating System Interface (
POSIX
The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines both the system- and user-level application programming inte ...
). It is a predecessor of the
Extremely Reliable Operating System (EROS), and its successor
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
s,
CapROS, and Coyotos. KeyKOS is a
nanokernel-based operating system.
In the mid-1970s, development of KeyKOS began at
Tymshare, Inc., under the name
GNOSIS
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge ( γνῶσις, ''gnōsis'', f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it s ...
. In 1984,
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it ...
(MD) bought Tymshare. A year later MD spun off Key Logic, which bought GNOSIS and renamed it ''KeyKOS''.
References
External links
* , Norman Hardy
GNOSIS: A Prototype Operating System for the 1990s a 1979 paper, Tymshare Inc.
a 1988 paper, Key Logic, Inc.
{{Operating-system-stub
Nanokernels
Capability systems
Microkernel-based operating systems