SIMULTANEOUS PERIPHERAL OPERATION ON-LINE

  

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SIMULTANEOUS PERIPHERAL OPERATION ON-LINE

Specialty Definition: SIMULTANEOUS PERIPHERAL OPERATION ON-LINE

DomainDefinition

Computing

Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On-Line (SPOOL) Accessing peripheral devices with the help of an off-line tape drive. The term was derived by IBM for use with the IBM 360 operating systems. In the early days of computing (early 1960s), before multitasking was invented, computers (e.g. IBM 704) could run only one job at a time. As peripheral devices such as printers or card readers were much slower than the CPU, devoting the computer (the only computer in many cases) to controlling such devices was impractical. To free the CPU for useful work, the output was sent to a magnetic tape drive, which was much faster than a printer and much cheaper than a computer. After the job was finished the tape was removed from the tape drive attached to the computer and mounted on a tape drive connected to a printer (such as the IBM 1403). The printer could then print the data without holding up the computer. Similarly, instead of inputting the program from the card reader it was first copied to a tape and the tape was read by the computer. (1999-01-12). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Alternative Orthography: SIMULTANEOUS PERIPHERAL OPERATION ON-LINE


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

53 49 4D 55 4C 54 41 4E 45 4F 55 53      50 45 52 49 50 48 45 52 41 4C      4F 50 45 52 41 54 49 4F 4E      4F 4E 2D 4C 49 4E 45

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

            

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010011 01001001 01001101 01010101 01001100 01010100 01000001 01001110 01000101 01001111 01010101 01010011 00100000 01010000 01000101 01010010 01001001 01010000 01001000 01000101 01010010 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001111 01010000 01000101 01010010 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01001111 01001110 00101101 01001100 01001001 01001110 01000101

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#83 &#73 &#77 &#85 &#76 &#84 &#65 &#78 &#69 &#79 &#85 &#83 &#32 &#80 &#69 &#82 &#73 &#80 &#72 &#69 &#82 &#65 &#76 &#32 &#79 &#80 &#69 &#82 &#65 &#84 &#73 &#79 &#78 &#32 &#79 &#78 &#45 &#76 &#73 &#78 &#69

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0053 0049 004D 0055 004C 0054 0041 004E 0045 004F 0055 0053      0050 0045 0052 0049 0050 0048 0045 0052 0041 004C      004F 0050 0045 0052 0041 0054 0049 004F 004E      004F 004E 002D 004C 0049 004E 0045

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

5343475546543548394955532503952435042395235462495039523554434948249481546434839

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INDEX

1. Orthography
2. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.