The MERT (Multi-Environment Real-Time) operating system was one of the earliest to be constructed using an organizational concept that later became known as a "micro-kernel". An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ... A kernel connects the application software to the hardware of a computer. ...

MERT was created in the 1970s at Bell Labs, and was a spinoff of Unix. It ran on Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 computers (models 11/45 and 11/70). The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... The DEC logo Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the computer industry. ... The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ...

Although it was not exactly a micro-kernel as they are today, it was a definitely not a "monolithic kernel"; it was a major step down the road to micro-kernels (Altinsel). MERT was an operating system which was divided up into several semi-independent components, all of which ran on a lower-level "kernel" (as they described it). It has been suggested that Monolithic system be merged into this article or section. ...

The kernel provided only the lowest-level basic mechanisms (memory management, process scheduling, etc); the other components needed for an operating system (e.g. a file system) were constructed as processes which ran on top of the kernel. Inter-process communication was done with messages, event flags, and shared memory and shared files. Memory management is the act of managing computer memory. ... Scheduling is a key concept in computer multitasking and multiprocessing operating system design, and in real-time operating system design. ... For library and office filing systems, see Library classification. ...

MERT was also intended to be used in real-time applications, and had a number of features to meet this goal. Process scheduling had real-time mechanisms, as did the file system.

References

• D. L. Bayer, H. Lycklama, MERT - a multi-environment real-time operating system, (Fifth ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, Austin, Texas, 1975)
• H. Lycklama, D. L. Bayer, The MERT Operating System (The Bell System Technical Journal, July-August 1978, Vol. 57, No. 6, Part 2)
• J. O. Becker, The 3B20D PROCESSOR and DMERT Operating System (The Bell System Technical Journal, January 1983, Vol. 62, No. 1, Part 1)
• Altinsel, M. 1983. "Resourceful Uses of M.E.R.T". Scientific Philosophy, October 6, 1983

• Turkish boy name: MERT