Web site:
Origin: United Kingdom
Category: Desktop
Desktop environment: GUI
Architecture: Motorola 68000/68XXX
Based on: Independent
Wikipedia: TRIPOS
Media: Install
The last version | Released: unknown
TRIPOS (Trivial Portable Operating System) – an operating system developed at the University of Cambridge in 1978 and programmed in BCPL. Both the kernel and the device drivers are written in assembly language.
TRIPOS is a single-user, multi-tasking operating system for small computers, which orginated in the Cambridge Computing Laboratory as a part of a program of research into portable operating systems.
AmigaDOS is based on TRIPOS. The portable TRIPOS kernel was adapted for AmigaDOS by Tim King, who contributed the rights to commercial use of TRIPOS to the company MetaComCo, Ltd.
TripOS was developed at Cambridge University on an IBM 3081 (or an earlier IBM mainframe) running a locally-written OS called Phoenix during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The name is derived from the course description at the university. For example, it is possible to read for the mathematics tripos. It is also possible that the ‘pos’ suffix stood for Portable Operating System.
At some point during the early 1980s Dr. Tim King ported the OS to the Motorola 68k. The operating system exists on a range of platform during this period, including the PDP11, DG Nova, 68000 (a homebrew 68k machine), and the GA-16/220.
