Time-sharing versus batch processing: the experimental evidence

Abstract

Time-sharing of computer facilities has been widely acclaimed as the most significant evolutionary step that has been taken in recent years toward the development of generalized information utilities. The basic techniques of interactive man-computer time-sharing were developed in the 1950's in connection with realtime command and control computing systems, initially in SAGE air defense. Time-sharing was practiced in these pioneering systems in the sense that many military operators at separate consoles --- consoles equipped with push-buttons, CRT displays and light guns---were able to request and receive information from the central computing system at essentially the same time. These historical roots reveal that time-sharing is an outgrowth of realtime system development.