GEneralized Message COntrol System

GEMCOS is a name used in homage to the eponymous and somewhat obscure Burroughs mainframe system. GEMCOS was superceded by COMS and then LINK before the Unisys merger as a means to generate an MCS. The eponymous new thing is an asdf used to generate a custom MCP channel type. There was an evolution in the original Burroughs products some of which were user produced from creating programs for a DCP to what would later become COMS and LINK. So GEMCOS here is at a higher level than any of these but retains the core meaning of generating an MCS.

• EnWiki on MCS with mention of GEMCOS
• B1800 1980 GEMCOS Users Guide
• B1000 1985 GEMCOS Reference
• 1980 NDL Reference
• Current DC Algol Reference

The GEMCOS docs are no longer available from Unisys, the ones above are from bitsavers, unclear if there is a current Unisys version of NDL but DC Algol and the like are , meaning within a few mark releases of current MCP.

Also unlike Burroughs, my GEMCOS isn an alternative and short cut to custom coding, rather it creates a base MCS which will be elaborated by code rather than being a table driven fixed codeset . In Unisys MCP, a stub DCAlgol program can be a useful MCS, e.g. for device integration and testing.

MCP channels are the uniform communication basis for our sense of DCP, for lisp, prolog, and haskell KEE components access to it.

There was a large systems GEMCOS but it's fitting that the main one was on small systems as they were actually the more advanced in some ways, e.g. being user microprogrammable, the whole memory a bit string, etc. FWIW, the medium systems were the least interesting being basically COBOL machines built on conventional arches and with an assembly coded MCP. Also there was no B1000, the 1000 designates the smaller systems which started with 1700 and became v series when large systems became a series.