Panos (operating system)
Encyclopedia
Panos was a computer
operating system
developed by Acorn Computers
in the 1980s, which ran on the 32016 Second Processor for the BBC Micro
and the Acorn Cambridge Workstation. These systems had essentially the same architecture, based on a 32-bit
NS32016 CPU; the ACW having a BBC Micro
-based "I/O
processor". Access to the I/O processor was through a NS32016 firmware
kernel called Pandora.
Panos ran on the NS32016 and was a rudimentary single-user operating system, written in Modula-2
. It provided a simple command line interpreter, a text editor
and access to DFS
, ADFS
or NFS file system
s via the I/O processor. Targeted at the academic and scientific user community, it came bundled with compilers for the FORTRAN 77, C
, Pascal
and LISP programming language
s.
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
operating system
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...
developed by Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro, and the Acorn Archimedes...
in the 1980s, which ran on the 32016 Second Processor for the BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
and the Acorn Cambridge Workstation. These systems had essentially the same architecture, based on a 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
NS32016 CPU; the ACW having a BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
-based "I/O
I/O
I/O may refer to:* Input/output, a system of communication for information processing systems* Input-output model, an economic model of flow prediction between sectors...
processor". Access to the I/O processor was through a NS32016 firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
kernel called Pandora.
Panos ran on the NS32016 and was a rudimentary single-user operating system, written in Modula-2
Modula-2
Modula-2 is a computer programming language designed and developed between 1977 and 1980 by Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zurich as a revision of Pascal to serve as the sole programming language for the operating system and application software for the personal workstation Lilith...
. It provided a simple command line interpreter, a text editor
Text editor
A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
and access to DFS
Disc Filing System
The Disc Filing System is a computer file system developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, and introduced in 1982 for the Acorn BBC Microcomputer. It was shipped as a ROM to be inserted onto the BBC Micro's motherboard. It has an extremely limited design, and uses a flat directory structure...
, ADFS
Advanced Disc Filing System
The Advanced Disc Filing System is a computing file system particular to the Acorn computer range and RISC OS based successors. Initially based on the rare Acorn Winchester Filing System, it was renamed to the Advanced Disc Filing System when support for floppy discs was added and on later 32 bit...
or NFS file system
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...
s via the I/O processor. Targeted at the academic and scientific user community, it came bundled with compilers for the FORTRAN 77, 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....
, Pascal
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
and LISP programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s.