moniajakäyttöisyys

Moniajakäyttöisyys, known in English as time-sharing, is a computing concept that allows multiple users to access a single computer system simultaneously. This was a significant advancement over early computing where a single user would typically have exclusive access to a machine for a set period. Time-sharing systems divide the computer's processing time into small slices, which are allocated to different users or processes in rapid succession. This creates the illusion that each user has their own dedicated computer, even though they are all sharing the same hardware resources.

The development of time-sharing in the 1960s was driven by the need to make expensive computing resources more accessible and efficient. By allowing many users to interact with the computer concurrently, the idle time of the machine was greatly reduced. This led to increased productivity and fostered collaborative environments in research and academic institutions. Early time-sharing systems often used teletype terminals for user interaction, with users submitting commands and receiving output remotely.

Key to the functioning of time-sharing is a sophisticated operating system capable of managing these multiple concurrent processes. This involves techniques like scheduling algorithms to allocate processor time fairly and efficiently, memory management to ensure processes do not interfere with each other, and input/output handling to manage communication with numerous terminals. While modern computing often features distributed systems and personal computers, the principles of time-sharing remain fundamental to the operation of multitasking operating systems found in virtually all contemporary devices.