Honeywell Level 6

The Honeywell Level 6 was a line of 16-bit minicomputers, later upgraded to 32-bit, manufactured by Honeywell, Inc. from the mid 1970s.[1] Honeywell literature for Models 6/06, 6/34 and 6/36 say "Series 60 (Level 6)".[2] In 1979 the Level 6 was renamed the DPS 6, subsequently DPS 6 Plus and finally DPS 6000.

Honeywell DPS 6 and DATANET minicomputers in the OSAX room of the Diefenbunker, Carp Ontario, Canada.

Description

As initially introduced the Level 6 consisted of three models: the 6/06, the 6/34, and the 6/36. The CPU featured a real-time clock, a ROM bootstrap loader and 64 interrupt levels. The architecture provided a variety of addressing modes and 18 programmer-visible registers. Rack-mount and tabletop versions were available.

These systems supported up to 64 K words (KW) of MOS memory with a cycle time of 650 nanoseconds.

All three models all featured the Megabus, which was a proprietary asynchronous bus architecture.

By 1978 the line had been extended downwards with the introduction of the 6/23 and 6/33, and upwards with the 6/43, 6/47, 6/53, and 6/57. The 6/23 did not support the Megabus. The 6/33 was the new entry-level upgradable model. The other four models supported up to 1 MW (Mega Words) of memory and 26 registers. A memory management unit (MMU), optional on the 6/43 and 6/47, and standard on the 6/53 and 6/57, supported memory segmentation and four protection rings. An optional Scientific Instruction Processor (SIP) added single- and double-precision hardware floating-point instructions. The 6/47 and 6/57 were enhanced versions of the 6/43 and 6/53 respectively which added a Commercial Instruction Processor (CIP) including 30 additional instructions for character-string manipulation and decimal arithmetic.[3] Among the final developments in the line were the high-end 32-bit 6/95-1, 6/98-1 and dual processor 6/95-2 and 6/98-2 models.[4]

In the 1980s, Honeywell's Datanet 8[5] line of communications processors, often used as front-end processors for DPS 8 mainframes, shared many hardware components with DPS 6. Another specialised derivative of the Level 6 was the Honeywell Page Printing System.[6]

In June 1986, following Honeywell Information Systems' merger with Bull, Honeywell Bull introduced the DPS 6 Plus line of symmetric multiprocessing 32-bit systems, models 410 and 420 (code named MRX - Medium Range eXtended) with up to four processors.[7] In 1987 they introduced the uniprocessor models 210 and 220 (code named LRX - Low Range eXtended), announced the HRX (High Range eXtended), and Computerworld reported that there were more than 50,000 DPS 6 systems installed worldwide.[8] The HRX was introduced as the DPS 6000 600 series. Recognising the commercial success of Unix, in 1988 Honeywell Bull introduced an 80386-based Unix co-processor for the DPS 6 Plus 400 series.

Software

The operating system for the Level 6 was GCOS 6:

  • GCOS 6 Mod 200 was an entry version of the system oriented toward interactive data entry.
  • GCOS 6 Mod 400 was a batch operating system also used to run process-control applications.
  • GCOS 6 Mod 600 was a time-sharing operating system.[9]

The DPS 6 Plus line ran HVS 6 Plus.

See also

References
  1. Honeywell, Inc. (January 1976). Honeywell Level 6 Minicomputer Handbook (PDF). Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  2. Honeywell Series 60 (Level 6): Model 6/06 Minicomputer. R60 Rev. 0
  3. Honeywell, Inc. (October 1978). Honeywell Level 6 Minicomputer Systems Handbook. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  4. "Hardware Roundup Large and Medium-Scale Systems". Computerworld. October 6, 1986. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  5. "Honeywell revamps net architecture". Computerworld. October 7, 1985. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  6. "A Nonimpact Page Printing System" (PDF). IEEE Computer Society. September 1975. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  7. "Honeywell Bull's New Computers". The New York Times. June 10, 1987. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  8. Bozman, Jean S. (September 21, 1987). "Honeywell Bull to ax U.S. plants, old systems". Computerworld. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  9. "Honeywell GCOS 6". FEB-patrimoine. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
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