Lilith (computer)

Lilith was a personal workstation computer designed in the late 1970s and early 1980s at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) under the direction of Niklaus Wirth. It was conceived as a follow-up to the earlier computer system, Alto, at Xerox PARC, but with a focus on simplicity and efficient execution of high-level programming languages.

Design and Purpose:

Lilith was specifically designed to execute the Modula-2 programming language efficiently. Modula-2, also designed by Wirth, was intended to be a successor to Pascal, incorporating modularity and concurrency features. The computer's architecture was tightly coupled with the language, facilitating direct execution of Modula-2 code without the need for extensive translation or interpretation.

Hardware:

The Lilith computer consisted of a high-resolution bitmapped display, a mouse, and a custom-designed processor that was microprogrammed. The display was black and white and provided a significant visual area for its time. The mouse served as the primary input device for interacting with the graphical user interface. The processor was based on bit-slice components and was optimized for Modula-2 operations. The Lilith workstation had a considerable amount of RAM for its era.

Software:

The entire operating system and a suite of applications for Lilith were written in Modula-2. This included a text editor, a graphics editor, a compiler, and other utilities. The self-hosting nature of the system, with the operating system and tools written in Modula-2, allowed for rapid development and iteration.

Impact and Legacy:

Lilith was influential in the development of personal workstations and graphical user interfaces. While never commercially produced on a large scale, its design and the principles behind it influenced subsequent computer architectures and programming languages. Its focus on direct execution of high-level languages and tight integration of hardware and software were notable contributions to the field. The experience gained from the Lilith project also contributed to the later development of the Ceres workstation at ETH Zurich.

Key Features:

• Designed specifically for the Modula-2 programming language.
• Bitmapped display with a graphical user interface.
• Mouse-driven interaction.
• Microprogrammed processor optimized for Modula-2 execution.
• Operating system and applications written in Modula-2.