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Thompson on how a disk scheduling algorithm accidentally became Unix.

Turing Awardee Clips

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  • Presented by Ken Thompson, co-creator of Unix

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History and cultureSystems programmingHistory of computingOperating systemsPeople who shaped computing

Ken Thompson recounts how his work on a disk scheduling algorithm unexpectedly led to the creation of the Unix operating system.

Kenneth Lane Thompson, winner of the Association for Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award, discusses how his intention to play around with the storage systems of Bell Labs computers to produce a superior disk scheduling algorithm led unexpectedly to the first version of the Unix operating system. This clip is taken from an interview conducted with Thompson by David Brock for the ACM and Computer History Museum on March 6, 2024 which is distributed here by permission of the Computer History Museum. Video of the full interview is available as part of Thompson’s ACM profile at amturing.acm.org/interviews/thompson_4588371.cfm.

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What people say. Recommended as a fascinating historical anecdote from one of the pioneers of modern computing.

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Ken Thompson on How A Disk Scheduling Algorithm Became Unix
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