The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20071127141333/http://web.mit.edu:80…
`
`Home About IS&T Contact IS&T Site Map
`
` Search
`
`
`
` Advanced Search
`
`Overview
`
`History of Multics
`
`Multics Source
`and Documentation
`
`
`Multicians.org
`
`Wikipedia's Multics Entry
`
`Bull
`
`Multics
`
`Overview
`Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) was a mainframe
`timesharing operating system that began at MIT as a research project in 1965. It
`was an important influence on operating system development.
`
`History of Multics
`The plan for Multics was presented to the 1965 Fall Joint Computer Conference in a
`series of six papers. It was a joint project with M.I.T., General Electric, and Bell Labs.
`Bell Labs dropped out in 1969, and in 1970 GE's computer business, including
`Multics, was taken over by Honeywell (now Bull).
`
`MIT's Multics research began in 1964, led by Professor Fernando J. Corbató at MIT
`Project MAC, which later became the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS)
`and then Computer Science And Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Starting in
`1969, Multics was provided as a campus-wide information service by the MIT
`Information Processing Services organization, serving thousands of academic and
`administrative users.
`
`Multics was conceived as a general purpose time-sharing utility. It would be a
`commercial product for GE, which sold time-sharing services. It became a GE and
`then Honeywell product. About 85 sites ran Multics. However, it had a powerful
`impact in the computer field, due to its many novel and valuable ideas.
`
`Since it was designed to be a utility, such as electricity and telephone services, it
`had numerous features to provide high availability and security. Both the hardware
`and software were highly modular so that the system could grow in size by adding
`more of the appropriate resource even while the service was running. Since services
`were shared by users who might not trust each other, security was a major feature
`with file sharing provided at the file level via access controls. For more information,
`see: Wikipedia's Multics: Novel Ideas
`
`LCS research on Multics ended in the late 1970s, and Bull ended Multics
`development in 1985. MIT shut down its Multics service in 1988. The last Multics
`system was deactivated in 2000.
`
`Multics Source and Documentation
`In order to preserve the ideas and innovations that made Multics so important in the
`development of computer systems, Bull HN has provided the source code for the
`final Multics release, MR 12.5 of November 1992 to MIT. It is a generous contribution
`to computer science knowledge and is provided for academic purposes. Additionally,
`we intend this site to become a repository for many papers and documents that
`were created during the Multics development as a complement to the other Multics
`sites.
`
`Multics Source and Listings
`
`
`
`
`
`Dropbox Exhibit 1017 - Page 1
`Dropbox, Inc. v. Entangled Media, LLC
`IPR2024-00285 - U.S. Patent No. 8,484,260
`
`

`

`Home | Getting Started | Getting Services | Getting Help | About IS&T | Accessibility
`Ask a technology question or send a comment about this web page.
`
`Dropbox Exhibit 1017 - Page 2
`Dropbox, Inc. v. Entangled Media, LLC
`IPR2024-00285 - U.S. Patent No. 8,484,260
`
`