Hal-9000 Code Speculation:

[debtboy]

2001: A Space Odyssey is a work of fiction, but
lets just speculate for a second...

What language would the Hal-9000 program/OS have been written in??
What associated hardware would have been involved??

The movie was released in April of 1968 which pre-dates some of today's obvious choices.

Questions like these, if nothing else, force one to look at the historical side of computing.

So, care to speculate.
Explain your speculation, if you like.

[Jordan]

I think the OS would be something new like C.O.S. but I could see a small embedded linux working. The hardware would be neat. Probably something that is only seen at NASA or CERN today.

[debtboy]

While integrated circuits had been around since
1961 or 1962, the first single chip microprocessor
wasn't released until 1971 (Intel 4004).

So Hal probably would have required quite a bit
of integrated circuit hardware as well as solid state
RF hardware.

History of Intel

As Hal pre-dates both the single chip microprocessor
and the "B" and "C" languages, I wonder what language
would have been used (or created) and if a separate
Operating System would have been used/written.
It's possible that Hal had no OS and consisted of just
a large Control Program.

What do you think??

[Natrobius]

Assembly possibly, or maybe COBOL.....