Development of the operating systems (OS) for DIPS (Dendenkosha Information Processing System), which is a series of computers developed and operated by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation* , started in 1968. Prior to DIPS, the Electrical Communication Laboratory (ECL) of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation had researched and developed some type of computers, including the parametron computer, MUSASINO-1, and the transistorized computer for telephone charge and rate calculation, CM-100. Following Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation’s launch of the data communication service (online information processing service) in 1966, the ECL laboratory recognized the need for research and development of online computers and their software for the use of the data communication services, which led to the research and development project of DIPS. The DIPS project was conducted as a joint research with three major Japanese computer manufacturers, NEC, Hitachi and Fujitsu, based on the three principles concerning the public data processing service, “universal or nationwide, public and technologically leading [service],” propounded by the former Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation.
* Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation was privatized in 1985, and now called Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.(1) Early Stage Research and DevelopmentDIPS-0 Research Project, whose primary purposes were the acquisition of experience in online information processing services and the development of specialist personnel, was aimed at prototyping a TSS system to be used at the laboratory through joint research with Hitachi. DIPS-0 project adopted HITAC 8300M, which was upgraded with TSS functions on Hitachi’s commercial machine HITAC 8300. The TSS system called “DIPS-0 BASIC” was prototyped in the first year, and then followed”DIPS-0 FINAL” system that implemented kana (Japanese character) commands. * TSS: Time Sharing System
(2) DIPS-103/105 OS DIPS-100 was the documentation of basic concepts of the DIPS Project. Its concepts were ambitious and innovative because it took into account the status of the MULTICS and IBM System/360 projects, and adopted the latest hardware and software technologies into it. * MULTICS: Multiplexed Information and Computing Service The Project released DIPS-101 OS (1971), and DIPS-102 OS (1972) with interactive processing functions, as prototypes of DIPS operating system, which lead to provide a solid foundation of the OS technologies for commercial service systems. Next, the project set up to develop DIPS-103-10 OS for interactive processing. At the end of December 1973, the OS was adopted for the DEMOS-E service as the first commercial model of the DIPS system. In parallel with this activity, the project also proceeded with development of a real-time system (RTS). DIPS-103-20 OS adopted a hierarchical configuration for packaging real-time specific functions. The first version of DIPS-103-21 OS was completed in 1975 and was introduced into systems such as the DRESS system. The OS for the time-sharing system (TSS) was developed with a focus on the inter-computer communication function as part of the DIPS-105 OS developement. This triggered the establishment of Japan’s first computer network on a nationwide scale in the form of the DEMOS service. * RTS: Real Time System * DRESS: Dendenkosha REal-time Service System *TSS: Time Sharing System
(3) DIPS-104 OS In parallel with the development DIPS-103 OS for real-time processing and DIPS-105 OS for the interactive processing, the ECL also studied a multi-service applicable OS that could simultaneously control both RTS and TSS. However, once demand for a large-scale real-time system for national projects became concrete, the company positioned DIPS-104 OS as an OS for real-time processing, which was the successor to the DIPS-103-20 OS. As a result, the company started development of DIPS-104-01 OS in 1974, and this OS was introduced into large-scale national projects such as the Postal Saving Bureau’s system of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry and the Japanese Bankers Association’s Data Telecommunications System (“Zengin System”: on-line processing of domestic fund transfers and remittances). Following the release of the first version of DIPS-104-01 OS, the ECL embarked on the development of an RTS-TSS consolidated OS based on their initial plan. The core functions of DIPS-104-01 OS constituted the base of DIPS-104-02 OS, and the TSS-specific functions separated from DIPS-105 OS were packaged into TSP. In the development of DIPS-104-02 OS, the ECL repeatedly redesigned and improved the basic functions in order to ensure diversion of the TSS functions and compatibility of the TSS processing program. As a result, it became possible to apply a single OS to all service areas, leading to a substantial reduction in costs for subsequent system development and maintenance/management. DIPS-104-02 OS was released and introduced into the DEMOS-E service system in November 1980. * RTS: Real Time System TSS: Time Sharing System Subsequently, the company enhanced the distributed computing functions; for example, by developing a dedicated processor (BEP system) for file management for large-scale databases, supporting the LCMP configuration in which the external storage device was shared by multiple computers, and supporting the network communication control within the center and t through a network. Consequently, the revised DIPS-104-03 OS was commercially introduced into more than 30 systems. * BEP: Back End Processor LCMP: Loosely Coupled Multi Processor
(4) DIPS-106-10/20 OS The ECL started the project of developing an OS that could support all ranges from mid- to-large-scale systems to small systems and that could control the whole network system nodes in an integrated manner. DIPS-106-10 OS was released in March 1984 and was introduced into a large number of small systems, including hospital information systems and physical network monitoring and management systems. With the growth and expansion of the networked computer systems such demands were increased to share the data between RTS and TTS, where transaction data collected through real-time processing were processed interactively in the time sharing processing. To achieve these complex processing, functionalities were enhanced all roundly in the OS, particularly in the job management functions such as supporting a file management system based on VTOC, high speed job execution control for the interactive processing and high speed allocation management ,of I/O related resources.. As the result, DIPS-106-20 R1OS was completed released in 1984. * VTOC: Volume Text Of Contents In 1981, the ECL set up investigating the fundamental architecture for the next-generation DIPS. At that time, the third stage of the banking on-line systems development project was started in Japan.. Accordingly, the ECL worked to realize a large-scale, non-stop service operation system including on-line and off-line information processing. To realize such a large-scale mission-critical system, it was decided to put the computer complex system architecture into practical application. In the computer complex system architecture, multiple host computers and FEPs were inter-connected by using a high-speed optical communication loop and the system configuration were managed by the system control processor. s. Specifically, the ECL started development of DIPS-106-20 R2 OS in 1982, and the OS was introduced into the systems of the Postal Saving Bureau of the Posts and Telecommunication Ministry and the Japanese Bankers Association’s revised Data Telecommunications System (“Zengin System”: on-line processing of domestic fund transfers and remittances). Subsequently, DIPS-106-20 OS functionality was enhanced through revision upgrades to R3 and R4, and it was introduced into more than 100 systems, including those for internal use in NTT. In 1987, the ECL started development of DIPS-106-21 OS to respond to hardware renewal, and later improved this OS to R1 and R2 versions. Around 1992, the circumstances surrounding the DIPS project were changing as a result of such developments as the increasing availability of off-the-shelf computers and significant progress in downsizing. In light of these changes, the ECL decided to discontinue the development of DIPS operating system with the completion of the DIPS11-5E series, and the project was shifted to maintenance and management operations.
(5)Virtual Machine Control Operating System In 1976, the ECL started the research and development of Virtual Machine (VM), which was a kind of operating systems for controlling virtual computers, The VM were used in the software development process for DIPS software development in order to improve efficiency in the connecting test process of program modules. The first version of the VM OS was completed and released in 1978. Subsequently, the ECL developed the 2nd version in 1981, the 3rd version in 1986 and the 4th version in 1990. * VM: Virtual Machine
(6) Communication Control Program (CMP) and Database Management System (DBMS) The aims and objectives of the DIPS project, which was the computer system development project operated by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (now called Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), was realized the networked computer systems to provide the on-line information service. The Communication Control Program (CMP) and the Database Management System (DBMS) were the software that served as the core ofprocessings. * CMP: Communication Management Program DBMS: DataBase Management System In the early on-line systems in the 1960s, the computer communications were typically those kinds of data transmission and reception between the terminal and the host computer. Communication protocols were called transmission control procedure. The development of the Communication Management Program was started as a program for realize a transmission control procedure. In the late 1970s, transmission control procedures became more technologically complex and sophisticated with the inception of the public packet switching service of DDX (Digital Data Exchange), and on-line systems were developed into distributed networks containing multiple terminals and host computers. In addition, there arose requirements to access files and databases and to transmit and receive information consisting of graphics and voices data as well as character data. Accordingly, communication protocols were organized and systematized, and the Communication Management Program was continuously revised and improved. Furthermore, with a view to ongoing development of data communication networks, the ECL proposed and investigated the data communication network architecture for systematically defining communication protocols that would enable networks to be logically structured, and the computer and terminals to be mutually interconnected. The ECL worked on the development of the Communication Management Program as a project to realize the data communication network architecture. In the course of the research and development of the database software, the ECL first developed DORIS, whose primary purpose was to achieve data search with a focus on reference processing. DORIS was applied to a news article search system and the CAPTAIN system. Subsequently, the DEIMS (DEIMS-1) was developed, which was a full-scale database system compliant with the CODASYL specifications. This program evolved into DEIMS-2, which supported larger-scale, networked and performance-oriented systems, and DEIMS-3, which supported distributed processing. A series of DEIMS software were successively introduced into various services. The company also developed and progressed the DEIMS software into a version of relational databases (DEIMS-4) and another with multimedia retrieve (DEIMS-5) functions. * CAPTAIN: Character And Pattern Telephone Access Information Network * CODASYL: Conference on Data Systems Languages * DEIMS: DEndenkosha Information Management System
(7) DIPS-CTRON In 1984, the study was started in the ECL to restructure the software into modules and share the software modules between the information processing system DIPS and the electronic exchange system DEX from the perspective of effective software development of data exchange and information processing . Based on these deliberations, the ECL started the project developing the common OS. Given several relevant steps toward standardization, and with the aim of providing support for real-time processing, the ECLworked on research and development of DIPS-CTRON in accordance with the CTRON specifications, which were the software interface definitions for the real-time OS applicable to communication processing, based on the the real-time operating system software interface definitions which were being studied by the TRON project , a public consortium which membership were open to academic and enterprises .