DEC BATCH-11/DOS-11

Digital Equipment Corporation

Company type	Public
Industry	Computer hardware and software
Founded	November 8, 1957 (1957-11-08) in Maynard, Massachusetts, United States
Headquarters	Maynard , United States
Products	PDP-11 minicomputer, DOS-11 operating system, RT-11 operating system, RSTS-11, RSX-11

BATCH-11/DOS-11, frequently referred to simply as DOS-11, is an obsolete operating system created by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts. Introduced in 1970 (version V08-02), it holds the distinction of being the inaugural OS designed for the Digital PDP-11 minicomputer. Although it was groundbreaking at the time, DOS-11 was often regarded as challenging to operate and saw a decline in usage following the 1973 debut of the RT-11 operating system.

Features

The DOS-11 package comprised:

• DOS-Monitor
• Edit-11 (text editor)
• FORTRAN IV compiler
• Libr-11 (librarian utility)
• Link-11 (linker)
• ODT-11R (debugger tool)
• PAL-11R (assembler)
• PIP (file management suite)

Included with DOS-11 was XXDP, a diagnostic and monitoring program tailored for the PDP-11 platform. The FORTRAN-IV compiler demanded a minimum of 12K memory; however, systems equipped with 8K or 12K could only operate a restricted variant of the MACRO-11 Assembler (the overlaid PAL-11R version).

The core of DOS-11 was contained within a single file named MONLIB.LCL, standing for Linked Core Image Library (LICIL). This file was versatile in storage options, capable of residing on disk, DECtape, punched tape, or magnetic tape media. When stored as a contiguous file on disk, it was renamed MONLIBCIL (Core Image Library), which facilitated system booting. The Core Image Library incorporated fundamental elements such as the resident monitor (RMON), keyboard command handlers, device drivers, EMT routines, clock functions, and the transient monitor. The CILUS utility was responsible for generating and updating these core image files.

Legacy

DOS-11 played a significant role in compiling and installing early editions of the RSTS-11 and RSTS/E operating systems and served as an antecedent to the RSX-11 series of operating systems.