Lilith (computer)

Lilith is the name of the developed at ETH Zurich in 1980 by the Swiss computer scientist Niklaus Wirth computer system. Base was a 16 -bit processor (AMD 2901 ) with a Modula -2 optimized instruction set.

From its developers and others the corresponding operating system Medos -2 has been programmed.

Wirth had 1977/78 at the Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Research Institute of the pioneering architecture of Alto workstations know that already like the mouse, graphical screen and window technology. After his return Wirth began his own group, the development of such a workstation, with the co-development of hardware and software was operated. In this way, Modula-2, the successor to Pascal, was generated as the system language and operating system Medos. The compiler created thereby an intermediate code (called M- code), which could be executed directly. The original Lilith had a screen with 704 × 928 pixels ( portrait), later versions had already 1024 pixels resolution.

The Lilith computer served the early eighties as a platform for numerous software projects in research. They were among the first computers with bitmap display, mouse and window - oriented user interface. The Lilith workstations were operated on a local network and was listed on the then also new laser printers. Commercial marketing ( from 1982) was a failure, although this futuristic machine has influenced a generation of computer scientists.

The name " Lilith " is according to specification by Niklaus Wirth back to the same goddess in Sumerian mythology.