Basic Disk Operating System
A screenshot of CP/M-86
|
|
| Developer | Digital Research, Inc./ Gary Kildall |
|---|---|
| Written in | PL/M |
| Working state | Historical |
| Source model | Originally closed source, now open source |
| Initial release | 1974 |
| Latest release | 3.1 / 1983 |
| Platforms | Intel 8080, Intel 8085, Zilog Z80, Zilog Z8000, Intel 8086, Motorola 68000 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| Default user interface | Command-line interface |
| License | Originally proprietary, now BSD-like |
| Official website | Digital Research official CP/M page |
CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initially confined to single-tasking on 8-bit processors and no more than 64 kilobytes of memory, later versions of CP/M added multi-user variations and were migrated to 16-bit processors.
The combination of CP/M and S-100 bus computers was loosely patterned on the MITS Altair, an early standard in the microcomputer industry. This computer platform was widely used in business through the late 1970s and into the mid-1980s. CP/M increased the market size for both hardware and software by greatly reducing the amount of programming required to install an application on a new manufacturer's computer. An important driver of software innovation was the advent of (comparatively) low-cost microcomputers running CP/M, as independent programmers and hackers bought them and shared their creations in user groups. CP/M was displaced by MS-DOS soon after the 1981 introduction of the IBM PC.
A minimal 8-bit CP/M system would contain the following components:
The only hardware system that CP/M, as sold by Digital Research, would support was the Intel 8080 Development System. Manufacturers of CP/M-compatible systems customized portions of the operating system for their own combination of installed memory, disk drives, and console devices. CP/M would also run on systems based on the Zilog Z80 processor since the Z80 was compatible with 8080 code. While the Digital Research distributed core of CP/M (BDOS, CCP, core transient commands) did not use any of the Z80-specific instructions, many Z80-based systems used Z80 code in the system-specific BIOS, and many applications were dedicated to Z80-based CP/M machines.
...
Wikipedia