Something old: the Gamma 60 the computer that was ahead of its time

Journal Vol.5, No.3, p 99-105 (1971)) Chain is the forerunner of present-day process management and synchronization, using semaphores. Interrupt instructions specifying parallel paths for program concurrency were later named FORK and JOIN by Conway [18]. • The Control Return Chain is the parent of today's queuing mechanisms. • The virtual element protecting a subroutine is a parent of the semaphore. • The distribution of functions between distributors, channels, and functional units is accepted practice in present-day systems (i.e., the IOC function in multiprocessor systems). • These technological features enabled the first multiprogramming to function in a software environment. However, there was no hardware protection of memory. • . The "statute catena" is the parent of the "status word", which did not exist in 1957-vintage computers. [] The use of phase modulation instead of nonreturn-to-zero recording for magnetic tape was an innovation in its day, and was not used in other computers until several years later. [] The Gamma 60 character set was remarkably similar to the p[esent ASCI I/ISO code. It was by far the closest to it of the 65 computer character sets surveyed in 1960. The blank, alphabet, and digits are identical in the 4 low-order bits.