In 1960, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AT&T Bell Laboratories and General Electric worked on an operating system, MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service (MULTICS). The MULTICS operating system was designed to run the GE-645 mainframe computers. The operating system was not very successful. Ken Thompson. who was a developer in the AT&T Bell Laboratories, developed a game called Space Travel for the GE-645 mainframe computers. The system was running at a very slow speed. Then, he wrote the game in the assembly language with the help of Dennis Ritchie.
In 1970, an operating system named UNiplexed Information and Computing System (UNICS) was developed, which allowed two users to work simultaneously. The name was changed to UNIX from UNICS. UNIX as an operating system was developed in the early 1970s at AT&T Bell Laboratories.
UNIX AS AN OPERATING SYSTEM
UNIX is a multi-user and multitasking operating system. In a multi user environment, the computer can receive the commands from a number of end users to run programs, access files, and print documents simultaneously.
The host computer, which has a UNIX operating system, provides services to the terminals, such as file access services. Four terminals are connected to one host computer and all the terminals are sharing resources from the host computer.