In fact, the field of operating system development is still a very active one in
computer science. Not only are operating systems becoming more complex (adding firewalls and other protections,
for example), but operating systems are also becoming more diverse. As simpler devices like thermostats and
dishwashers come under computer control, computer scientists have created specialized ???embedded systems???
operating systems for those requirements.
Even into the 1980s many, if not most, computers were stand-alone??”not connected to one another. During
the 1970s and 1980s computer scientists explored the advantages of computing networks and proposed
a number of different physical connections among computers, as well as different networking protocols. At the
time there was hot competition among different vendors of computers, each with a different standard, and each
hoping to ???lock in??? customers by selling its particular networking products. IBM offered System Networking
Architecture (SNA), Digital Equipment promoted DECnet, Hewlett Packard offered Distributed Systems
(DS), and Xerox offered Xerox Networking Systems (XNS). Even General Motors got into the act, with its
Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP).
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25