A Time-Sharing Computer

Lawrence Livermore obtained a CDC 6600 in 1965, as did Los Alamos. The CDC 6600 was a bonafide “Supercomputer,” capable of one megaFLOPS performance, outperforming the IBM Stretch by a factor of three. It was considered the world's fastest computer until dethroned by the CDC 7600. https://tinyurl.com/tymb4

A team at Livermore, headed by Norman Hardy, began a project to write a time-sharing system for the CDC 6600, known internally as “Octopus,” but which later became known as Livermore Time Sharing System (LTSS).

Bill Lokke describes the development of Octopus in his paper “Early Computing and Its Impact on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory” which is available online:

After some difficult discussions with Sidney Fernbach, Hardy initially, with the help of small team, proceeded to develop a similar system for the CDC 6600, due for delivery in September, 1964. Fernbach’s caution stemmed from his perception that the enterprise was still in the research phase and might cause a significant disruption and drain of resources without leading to success – a classic clash of vision with practicality.

By the summer of 1965, parts of a system of 48 Teletypes communicating with the CDC 6600 from remote stations were in fairly good operation, with reliable time-sharing service being delivered in 1966.

When asked about Octopus by Fernbach’s 1989 interviewer, Marilyn Ghausi, “Whose idea was it? Was it a group?’ Fernbach replied, ‘It was a group, but the main instigator was Norman Hardy.”

Due to her involvement, Ann was one of the fortunate few who received teletypes on their desks and was permitted the use of the timesharing environment. The timesharing system developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was exported to other sites, notably Los Alamos. https://tinyurl.com/tymb4

1 Lokke, W., “Early Computing and Its Impact on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/345372.pdf