History of IBM Mainframe Operating Systems

History Of IBM Mainframe Operating Systems

The history of operating systems running on IBM mainframes is a notable chapter of history of mainframe operating systems, because of IBM's long-standing position as the world's largest hardware supplier of mainframe computers.

Arguably the operating systems which IBM supplied to customers for use on its early mainframes have seldom been very innovative, except for the virtual machine systems beginning with CP67. But the company's well-known reputation for preferring proven technology has generally given potential users the confidence to adopt new IBM systems fairly quickly. IBM's current mainframe operating systems, z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, and z/TPF, are backwards compatible successors to operating systems introduced in the 1960s, although of course they have been improved in many ways.

Both IBM-supplied operating systems and those supplied by others are discussed here, if notably used on IBM mainframes.

History of IBM mainframe operating systems
Early mainframe computers
  • GM OS & GM-NAA I/O (1955)
  • BESYS (1957)
  • UMES (1958)
  • SOS (1959)
  • IBSYS (1960)
  • CTSS (1961)
S/360 and successors
  • BOS/360 (1965)
  • TOS/360 (1965)
  • TSS/360 (1967)
  • MTS (1967)
  • ORVYL (1967)
  • MUSIC (1972)
    • MUSIC/SP (1985)
DOS/360 and successors (1966)
  • DOS/VS (1972)
  • DOS/VSE (1980s)
  • VSE/SP late (1980s)
  • VSE/ESA (1991)
  • z/VSE (2005)
OS/360 and successors (1966)
  • MFT (1966)
  • MFT II (1968)
    • OS/VS1 (1972)
    • OS/VS1 BPE
  • MVT (1967)
    • 65MP
    • OS/VS2R1 (SVS) (1972)
    • MVS (OS/VS2R2 and later) (1974)
      • MVS/SE (1978)
      • MVS/SE 2 (1979)
      • MVS/SP Version 1 (1980)
      • MVS/XA (1983)
      • MVS/ESA (1988)
      • OS/390 (1995)
      • z/OS (2000)
VM line
  • CP-40/CMS (1967)
  • CP-67/CMS (1967)
  • VP/CSS (1968)
  • VM/370 (1972)
  • VM/BSE (BSEPP)
  • VM/SE (SEPP)
  • VM/SP (1980)
  • VM/XA MA (1984)
  • VM/XA SF (1985)
  • VM/XA SP (1988)
  • VM/ESA (1990)
  • z/VM (2000)
TPF line
  • ACP (1967)
  • TPF (1979)
  • z/TPF (2005)
UNIX and Unix-like
  • UTS (1981)
  • AIX/370 (1990)
  • AIX/ESA (1991)
  • MVS/ESA OpenEdition (1993)
  • OS/390 UNIX System Services (1996)
  • Linux (1999)
  • z/OS UNIX System Services (2001)
  • OpenSolaris (2008)

Read more about History Of IBM Mainframe Operating Systems:  Before System/360, Early Time-sharing and Virtual Machine Systems, System/360 Operating Systems, System/370 and Virtual Memory Operating Systems

Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, operating and/or systems:

    “Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
    —Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)

    “Every member of the family of the future will be a producer of some kind and in some degree. The only one who will have the right of exemption will be the mother ...”
    —Ruth C. D. Havens, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    “Many people operate under the assumption that since parenting is a natural adult function, we should instinctively know how to do it—and do it well. The truth is, effective parenting requires study and practice like any other skilled profession. Who would even consider turning an untrained surgeon loose in an operating room? Yet we “operate” on our children every day.”
    —Louise Hart (20th century)

    “No civilization ... would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.”
    —Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)