How did time-sharing allow many people to use one computer?

Time-sharing is a method of operation that allows multiple users to interact with a central processing unit (CPU) nearly simultaneously.1

This system works because the CPU operates at speeds significantly faster than peripheral equipment, such as printers or video display terminals. During the time required for input and output processes, the CPU has sufficient capacity to solve several discrete problems in sequence.1

From the perspective of a user at a remote terminal, this process appears instantaneous, as solutions are provided as soon as the problem is fully entered. Developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, time-sharing was designed to improve the efficiency of expensive processor time, moving away from the limitations of batch processing—where users had to wait hours for results from punched cards—toward a model of interactive computing. This innovation necessitated the development of new operating systems and programming languages, such as BASIC, to support multiple users effectively.12