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Definition: TOPS


(1) (Tera "trillion" Operations Per Second) See teraOPS and teraFLOPS.

(2) An early family of operating systems from Digital Equipment that ran on the PDP-6, DECsystem 10 and DECsystem 20. TOPS was later renamed TOPS-10, and TOPS-20 was a new OS based on TENEX, developed at Digital and BBN. TOPS-20 added virtual memory, an advanced feature for the mid-1970s.

(3) (Transparent OPerating System) An early peer-to-peer LAN from Sitka Corporation, Alameda, CA, that used the LocalTalk access method. TOPS connected Apple computers, PCs and Sun workstations. The TOPS Flashcard added LocalTalk to PCs.