GE 645

GE-645 idealized configuration

The GE 645 mainframe computer was a development of the GE 635 for use in the Multics project. This was the first computer that implemented a configurable hardware protected memory system. It was designed to satisfy the requirements of Project MAC to develop a platform that would host their proposed next generation time-sharing operating system (Multics) and to meet the requirements of a theorized computer utility.[1] The system was the first truly symmetric multiprocessing machine to use virtual memory, it was also among the first machines to implement what is now known as a translation lookaside buffer,[2][3][4] the foundational patent for which was granted to John Couleur and Edward Glaser.[5]

General Electric initially publicly announced the GE 645 at the Fall Joint Computer Conference[1][3] in November 1965. At a subsequent press conference in December[6][7] of that year it was announced that they would be working towards "broad commercial availability"[8] of the system. However they would subsequently withdraw it from active marketing at the end of 1966.[8] In total at least 6 sites ran GE 645 systems in the period from 1967 to 1975.[9]

  1. ^ a b Corbató, F. J.; Vyssotsky, V. A. (30 November 1965). "Introduction and overview of the multics system". Proceedings of the November 30--December 1, 1965, fall joint computer conference, Part I on XX - AFIPS '65 (Fall, part I). Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 185–196. doi:10.1145/1463891.1463912. ISBN 9781450378857. S2CID 11197018.
  2. ^ John Couleur (Winter 1995). "The Core of the Black Canyon Computer Corporation" (PDF). IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 17 (4): 56–60. doi:10.1109/85.477436.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Glaser was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference LSB0468 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ US patent 3412382, COULEUR JOHN F & GLASER EDWARD L, "Shared-access data processing system", assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
  6. ^ Smith, William D. (2 December 1965). "A New Computer Developed at G.E." The New York Times. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  7. ^ "GE-645 Timesharing System". Digital Computer Journal. 18 (2). Office of Naval Research - Mathematics Science Division: 5–6. 1966.
  8. ^ a b "US vs IBM_Exhibit 14971 - Historical Narrative The 1960's" (PDF). pp. 434, 510. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Multics Site Timeline". multicians.org. Retrieved 21 October 2023.