The Data General RDOS (Real-time Disk Operating System) is a real-time operating system released in 1970. The software was bundled with the company's popular Nova and Eclipse minicomputers.
Overview RDOS is capable of multitasking, with the ability to run up to 32 tasks (similar to the current term threads) simultaneously on each of two grounds (foreground and background) within a 64 KB memory space. Later versions of RDOS are compatible with Data General's 16-bit Eclipse minicomputer line.
A cut-down version of RDOS, without real-time background and foreground capability but still capable of running multiple threads and multi-user Data General Business Basic, is called Data General Diskette Operating System (DG-DOS or now—somewhat confusingly—simply DOS); another related operating system is RTOS, a Real-Time Operating System for diskless environments. RDOS on microNOVA-based "Micro Products" micro-minicomputers is sometimes called DG/RDOS.
RDOS was superseded in the early 1980s by Data General's AOS family of operating systems, including AOS/VS and MP/AOS (MP/OS on smaller systems).
Commands The following list of commands are supported by the RDOS/DOS CLI.RDOS/DOS Command Line Interpreter User's Manual
ALGOL APPEND ASM BASIC BATCH BOOT BPUNCH BUILD CCONT CDIR CHAIN CHATR CHLAT CLEAR CLG COPY CPART CRAND CREATE DEB DELETE DIR DISK DUMP EDIT ENDLOG ENPAT EQUIV EXFG FDUMP FGND FILCOM FLOAD FORT FORTRAN FPRINT GDIR GMEM GSYS GTOD INIT LDIR LFE LINK LIST LOAD LOG MAC MCABOOT MDIR MEDIT MESSAGE MKABS MKSAVE MOVE NSPEED OEDIT OVLDR PATCH POP PRINT PUNCH RDOSSORT RELEASE RENAME REPLACE REV RLDR SAVE SDAY SEDIT SMEM SPDIS SPEBL SPEED SPKILL STOD SYSGEN TPRINT TUOFF TUON TYPE VFU XFER
Antitrust lawsuit In the late 1970s, Data General was sued (under the Sherman and Clayton antitrust acts) by competitors for their practice of bundling RDOS with the Data General Nova or Eclipse minicomputer. When Data General introduced the Data General Nova, a company called Digidyne wanted to use its RDOS operating system on its own hardware clone. Data General refused to license their software and claimed their "bundling rights". In 1985, courts including the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against Data General in a case called Digidyne v. Data General. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear Data General's appeal, although Justices White and Blackmun would have heard it. The precedent set by the lower courts eventually forced Data General to license the operating system because restricting the software to only Data General's hardware was an illegal tying arrangement.
In 1999, Data General was taken over by EMC Corporation.
References
External links RDOS documentation at the Computer History Museum RDOS 7.50 User Parameters definition SimuLogics' ReNOVAte - Emulator to run NOVA/Eclipse Software on DOS / WindowsNT / UN*X / VMS