TRIPOS facts for kids

TRIPOS (which stands for TRIvial Portable Operating System) is a special computer program called an operating system. Think of an operating system as the main software that makes your computer run. It helps all the other programs work together.

TRIPOS was created starting in 1976 at the University of Cambridge in the UK. A team led by Dr. Martin Richards developed it. The first version came out in January 1978. It first ran on a type of computer called a PDP-11. Later, it was adapted to work on other computers like the Computer Automation LSI4 and the Data General Nova.

Work on a version for the Motorola 68000 processor began in 1981. A company called MetaComCo continued this work. In 1985, TRIPOS was chosen by Commodore for their new Amiga computer. Students at Cambridge University had a fun nickname for TRIPOS: the Terribly Reliable, Incredibly Portable Operating System.

How TRIPOS Influenced the Amiga Computer

In July 1985, the Amiga computer was launched. It used parts of TRIPOS in its own operating system, AmigaOS. Specifically, the AmigaDOS part of AmigaOS included features from TRIPOS.

AmigaDOS had a command-line interface. This is a way to control the computer by typing commands. It also included the Amiga Old File System, which helped organize files. The original AmigaDOS was written in BCPL. This is a programming language that came before the C language. TRIPOS itself was also written in BCPL.

What Features Did TRIPOS Have?

TRIPOS had several cool features for its time. It could handle pre-emptive multi-tasking. This means it could run many programs at once. It would switch between them very quickly.

It also had a hierarchical file system. This is like how you organize files in folders on your computer today. You can have folders inside other folders. TRIPOS also allowed for multiple command line interpreters. This meant different ways to type commands to the computer.

One important idea in TRIPOS was how it handled memory. It didn't stop programs from using memory that wasn't assigned to them. Also, it sent messages between programs by sharing pointers. This was faster than copying the whole message. These two ideas made TRIPOS very quick. It could send and receive over 1250 messages per second.

Most of TRIPOS was written in BCPL. However, the core part, called the kernel, was written in assembly language. This is a very low-level programming language. It is used for parts of the operating system that need to be super fast.

TRIPOS was known for using shared libraries. This meant many programs could use the same code. This made the programs smaller and load faster. For example, many basic tools were less than 0.5 kilobytes in size. This was tiny compared to other systems.

TRIPOS was adapted to work on many different computers. These included the Data General Nova 2 and the Motorola 68000. It also supported the Cambridge Ring. This was an early type of computer network. More recently, Dr. Martin Richards made a version of TRIPOS that runs on Linux. It uses a special program called the Cintcode BCPL virtual machine.

As of 2020, TRIPOS is still used and updated by a company called Open G I Ltd. in the UK. Many British insurance brokers use TRIPOS systems. These systems help them run their business software. Open G I has added new features to TRIPOS. These allow it to work with modern office tools.

Common TRIPOS Commands

Here are some commands you could type into the TRIPOS command line:

What is Cintpos?

Cintpos is an experimental version of TRIPOS. It runs on the Cintcode BCPL virtual machine. A virtual machine is like a computer program that acts like another computer. Cintpos was also developed by Martin Richards.