The short explanation is that in the past the MIT Architecture Machine Group found it necessary to write an operating system for their Perkin-Elmer minis. They christened it Magic, and it progressed through to Magic 6.
The Perkin-Elmer 3230s (Pam, Nick, and Devo) running Magic6 were the first "real computers" powered on in the new Media Lab in Jan. 1985, and continued running until Nick lathed it's disk in 1987.
Since several features of Magic6, such as its trusting view of
users (security ? what's that ? EVERY process can be a supervisor !),
were fondly remembered, we decided to continue the succession.
Hence, Magic 7.
Back to Magic7 Overview