OASIS operating system
Encyclopedia
The OASIS operating system
(renamed THEOS
in about 1983) was originally developed and distributed in 1977 by Phase One Systems of Oakland, California
(President Howard Sedorsky). OASIS was developed for the Z80 processor and was the first multi-user operating system for 8 bit microprocessor based computers(Z-80 from Zilog
)."OASIS" was an acronym for "Online Application System Interactive Software".
OASIS consisted of a multi-user operating system, a powerful Business Basic/Interpreter, C
compiler and a powerful text editor.
Timothy Williams developed OASIS and was employed at PHASE ONE. The market asked for 16 bit systems but there was no real 16bit multi-user OS for 16bit systems.Every month Phase One announced OASIS-16 but it did not come. One day Timothy Williams claimed that he owned OASIS and started a courtcase against Phase One and claimed several million dollars. Sedorsky had no choice and claimed chapter 11.
The courtcase took 2 years and finally the ruling was that T Williams was allowed to develop the 16 bit version of OASIS but he was not allowed to use the name Oasis anymore.
As an alternate to the above paragraph, this is the way the history was presented by David Shirley at the Computer Information Centre, Oasis distributor for the UK in the early 1980s: Timothy Williams developed the Oasis operating system and contracted with Phase One Systems to market and sell the product. Development of the 16-bit product was under way but the product was pre-announced by POS, leading to pressure to release it early when it was not properly debugged or optimised. (Oasis 8-bit was quite well optimised by that point, with many parts hand-coded in Z80 assembler, which meant that most early then-new 16-bit systems performed nowhere near as well as their 8-bit counterparts). This situation led to TW becoming dissatisfied with the Phase One company at the time, and forming his own company to market and support the product. The company was initially called Oasis Technologies, until Phase One took action to protect the name which they considered to be theirs, so rather than fight a long and expensive court battle, the company and product was renamed "THEOS".
Williams created a new company and productname :"THEOS" meaning "the OS" in the sense of "the one" . (Theos is Greek
for God
).
While Williams and Sedorsky where fighting in the court the manufacturers had no 16 bit multi-user OS. That led to the agreement between Microsoft and Altos to make a commercial usable version of the only academiclly available os UNIX 7 from Bell Labs
. They called it XENIX
. It was a joint development and the Altos version would be AMEX (Altos multiuser executive). Microsoft would distribute the product via Santa Cruz Operation.
Seiko also lost his patience with Williams decided to make their own OASIS 16 bit version and hired DR Jeffrey Bahr. When Xenix and Theos became available Seiko did decide to leave this market.
Jeffrey Bahr started CET which went on with the development of the 16 bit OASIS compatible software.
CET softwere was complete compatibel with OASI/THEOS and allowed these usres to go into the Unix and ms world.
Cet acquired the Phase one company. Also, Phase One Systems licenses a porting tool called CET Basic. CET Basic is compatible with THEOS BASIC
, MultiUser BASIC, OASIS BASIC, and UX-BASIC. This means you can keep most of your existing source code, and using W/32 BASIC, recompile your THEOS, OASIS, or UX-BASIC programs to work under additional operating systems such as Microsoft Windows
, Linux
or SCO UNIX.
THEOS operating systems have been distributed by THEOS Software Corporation in Walnut Creek, California
, since 1983.As of 2003, Phase One Systems publishes software development tools for THEOS(R) systems.
As well as porting tools, Phase One Systems distributed the Freedom query package and Control database package for THEOS systems, used to bring SQL-like data extraction tools to third-party software packages.
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
(renamed THEOS
THEOS
THEOS, which transcribes to "God" in Greek, is an operating system which started out as OASIS, a microcomputer operating system for small computers that use the Z80 processor. Originally written in the late 1970s by Timothy S...
in about 1983) was originally developed and distributed in 1977 by Phase One Systems of Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
(President Howard Sedorsky). OASIS was developed for the Z80 processor and was the first multi-user operating system for 8 bit microprocessor based computers(Z-80 from Zilog
Zilog
Zilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG , is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for its Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.-History:...
)."OASIS" was an acronym for "Online Application System Interactive Software".
OASIS consisted of a multi-user operating system, a powerful Business Basic/Interpreter, C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
compiler and a powerful text editor.
Timothy Williams developed OASIS and was employed at PHASE ONE. The market asked for 16 bit systems but there was no real 16bit multi-user OS for 16bit systems.Every month Phase One announced OASIS-16 but it did not come. One day Timothy Williams claimed that he owned OASIS and started a courtcase against Phase One and claimed several million dollars. Sedorsky had no choice and claimed chapter 11.
The courtcase took 2 years and finally the ruling was that T Williams was allowed to develop the 16 bit version of OASIS but he was not allowed to use the name Oasis anymore.
As an alternate to the above paragraph, this is the way the history was presented by David Shirley at the Computer Information Centre, Oasis distributor for the UK in the early 1980s: Timothy Williams developed the Oasis operating system and contracted with Phase One Systems to market and sell the product. Development of the 16-bit product was under way but the product was pre-announced by POS, leading to pressure to release it early when it was not properly debugged or optimised. (Oasis 8-bit was quite well optimised by that point, with many parts hand-coded in Z80 assembler, which meant that most early then-new 16-bit systems performed nowhere near as well as their 8-bit counterparts). This situation led to TW becoming dissatisfied with the Phase One company at the time, and forming his own company to market and support the product. The company was initially called Oasis Technologies, until Phase One took action to protect the name which they considered to be theirs, so rather than fight a long and expensive court battle, the company and product was renamed "THEOS".
Williams created a new company and productname :"THEOS" meaning "the OS" in the sense of "the one" . (Theos is Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
for God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
).
While Williams and Sedorsky where fighting in the court the manufacturers had no 16 bit multi-user OS. That led to the agreement between Microsoft and Altos to make a commercial usable version of the only academiclly available os UNIX 7 from Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
. They called it XENIX
Xenix
Xenix is a version of the Unix operating system, licensed to Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually superseded it with SCO UNIX ....
. It was a joint development and the Altos version would be AMEX (Altos multiuser executive). Microsoft would distribute the product via Santa Cruz Operation.
Seiko also lost his patience with Williams decided to make their own OASIS 16 bit version and hired DR Jeffrey Bahr. When Xenix and Theos became available Seiko did decide to leave this market.
Jeffrey Bahr started CET which went on with the development of the 16 bit OASIS compatible software.
CET softwere was complete compatibel with OASI/THEOS and allowed these usres to go into the Unix and ms world.
Cet acquired the Phase one company. Also, Phase One Systems licenses a porting tool called CET Basic. CET Basic is compatible with THEOS BASIC
THEOS Multi-User Basic
In the origin on OASIS operating system, THEOS Multi-User Basic is the dialect of BASIC used in the THEOS Operating System.THEOS 4.2 used THEOS BASIC version 32 Ver 2.0, while THEOS CORONA uses version Multi User Basic 32/64 Ver 2.1....
, MultiUser BASIC, OASIS BASIC, and UX-BASIC. This means you can keep most of your existing source code, and using W/32 BASIC, recompile your THEOS, OASIS, or UX-BASIC programs to work under additional operating systems such as Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
or SCO UNIX.
THEOS operating systems have been distributed by THEOS Software Corporation in Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...
, since 1983.As of 2003, Phase One Systems publishes software development tools for THEOS(R) systems.
As well as porting tools, Phase One Systems distributed the Freedom query package and Control database package for THEOS systems, used to bring SQL-like data extraction tools to third-party software packages.