<P> Early computers were built to perform a series of single tasks, like a calculator . Basic operating system features were developed in the 1950s, such as resident monitor functions that could automatically run different programs in succession to speed up processing . Operating systems did not exist in their modern and more complex forms until the early 1960s . Hardware features were added, that enabled use of runtime libraries, interrupts, and parallel processing . When personal computers became popular in the 1980s, operating systems were made for them similar in concept to those used on larger computers . </P> <P> In the 1940s, the earliest electronic digital systems had no operating systems . Electronic systems of this time were programmed on rows of mechanical switches or by jumper wires on plug boards . These were special - purpose systems that, for example, generated ballistics tables for the military or controlled the printing of payroll checks from data on punched paper cards . After programmable general purpose computers were invented, machine languages (consisting of strings of the binary digits 0 and 1 on punched paper tape) were introduced that sped up the programming process (Stern, 1981). </P> <P> In the early 1950s, a computer could execute only one program at a time . Each user had sole use of the computer for a limited period of time and would arrive at a scheduled time with program and data on punched paper cards or punched tape . The program would be loaded into the machine, and the machine would be set to work until the program completed or crashed . Programs could generally be debugged via a front panel using toggle switches and panel lights . It is said that Alan Turing was a master of this on the early Manchester Mark 1 machine, and he was already deriving the primitive conception of an operating system from the principles of the universal Turing machine . </P> <P> Later machines came with libraries of programs, which would be linked to a user's program to assist in operations such as input and output and generating computer code from human - readable symbolic code . This was the genesis of the modern - day operating system . However, machines still ran a single job at a time . At Cambridge University in England the job queue was at one time a washing line (clothes line) from which tapes were hung with different colored clothes - pegs to indicate job - priority . </P>

What is an operating system name the types of os