CP/M-86

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CP/M-86
Concurrent CP/M-86 3.0

CP/M-86 is a discontinued version of the

DR DOS
families of operating systems started as derivations of Concurrent DOS as well.

History

Digital Research's CP/M-86 was originally announced to be released in November 1979, but was delayed repeatedly.

royalty licensing plan.[4]
After discussions with
PC DOS. After learning about the deal, Digital Research founder Gary Kildall threatened to sue IBM for infringing DRI's intellectual property, and IBM agreed to offer CP/M-86 as an alternative operating system on the PC to settle the claim. Most of the BIOS drivers for CP/M-86 for the IBM PC were written by Andy Johnson-Laird
.

Digital Research CP/M-86 for the IBM Personal Computer Version 1.0

The IBM PC was announced on 12 August 1981, and the first machines began shipping in October the same year, ahead of schedule. CP/M-86 was one of three operating systems available from IBM, with PC DOS and

IBM Displaywriter.[2][7]

On some

MP/M 8-16).[9][10] The version of CP/M-86 for the 8085/8088-based Zenith Z-100
supported running programs for both processors as well.

When PC clones came about, Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to other companies as well. Experts found that the two operating systems were technically comparable, with CP/M-86 having better

Concurrent CP/M-86.[11]

On the IBM PC, however, at US$240 per copy for IBM's version, CP/M-86 sold poorly compared to the US$40 PC DOS; one survey found that 96.3% of IBM PCs were ordered with DOS, compared to 3.4% with CP/M-86 or Concurrent CP/M-86.[12] In mid-1982 Lifeboat Associates, perhaps the largest CP/M software vendor, announced its support for DOS over CP/M-86 on the IBM PC.[13] BYTE warned that IBM, Microsoft, and Lifeboat's support for DOS "poses a serious threat to" CP/M-86,[5] and Jerry Pournelle stated in the magazine that "it is clear that Digital Research made some terrible mistakes in the marketing".[14]

By early 1983 DRI began selling CP/M-86 1.1 to end users for US$60.

FM-16-based machines using Kanji CP/M-86.[21][22]

CP/M-86 and DOS had very similar functionality, but were not compatible because the system calls for the same functions and

program file formats were different, so two versions of the same software had to be produced and marketed to run under both operating systems. The command interface again had similar functionality but different syntax; where CP/M-86 (and CP/M) copied file SOURCE to TARGET with the command PIP
TARGET=SOURCE, DOS used COPY SOURCE TARGET.

Initially MS-DOS and CP/M-86 also ran on computers not necessarily hardware-compatible with the IBM PC such as the Apricot and Sirius, the intention being that software would be independent of hardware by making standardised operating system calls to a version of the operating system custom tailored to the particular hardware. However, writers of software which required fast performance accessed the IBM PC hardware directly instead of going through the operating system, resulting in PC-specific software which performed better than other MS-DOS and CP/M-86 versions; for example, games would display fast by writing to video memory directly instead of suffering the delay of making a call to the operating system, which would then write to a hardware-dependent memory location. Non-PC-compatible computers were soon replaced by models with hardware which behaved identically to the PC's. A consequence of the universal adoption of detailed PC architecture was that no more than 640 kilobytes of memory were supported; early machines running MS-DOS and CP/M-86 did not suffer from this restriction, and some could make use of nearly one megabyte of RAM.

Reception

PC Magazine wrote that CP/M-86 "in several ways seems better fitted to the PC" than DOS; however, for those who did not plan to program in assembly language, because it cost six times more "CP/M seems a less compelling purchase". It stated that CP/M-86 was strong in areas where DOS was weak, and vice versa, and that the level of application support for each operating system would be most important, although CP/M-86's lack of a run-time version for applications was a weakness.[6]

Versions

A given version of CP/M-86 has two version numbers. One applies to the whole system and is usually displayed at startup; the other applies to the

BDOS kernel
. Versions known to exist include:

OS BDOS Date Notes
CP/M-86 1.0 for AST[23] 2.2? 1981?
CP/M-86 1.0 for the
8600[23]
 2.2? November 1981[24]
CP/M-86 Version 1.1 for IBM Displaywriter 2.2 November 1981[2]
CP/M-86 1.0 for the
Victor 9000
 2.2a 1981/1982
CompuView CP/M-86 2.x? 1982 196 KB disk capacity, compatible with IBM PC hardware[6]
IBM CP/M-86 for the IBM Personal Computer Version 1.0 2.2 1982-04-05[6] Initial release for the IBM PC. 141 KB disk capacity (Initial date defaults to 1982-02-10.)[6]
IBM CP/M-86 for the IBM Personal Computer Version 1.1 2.2 March 1983 Hard drive support was added.
CP/M-86 Plus Version 3.1 3.1 October 1983 Released for the Apricot PC. Based on the multitasking Concurrent CP/M-86 kernel, it could run up to four tasks at once.
Personal CP/M-86 Version 1.0 3.1 November 1983 Released for the Siemens PG685.
Personal CP/M-86 Version 3.1 3.3 January 1985 A version for the Apricot F-Series computers. This version gained the ability to use FAT formatted disks as used by DOS.
Personal CP/M-86 Version 2.0 4.1 1986 or later Released for the
DOS Plus 1.2
.
Personal CP/M-86 Version 2.11 4.1 1986 or later Released for the Siemens PG685.

All known Personal CP/M-86 versions contain references to CP/M-86 Plus, suggesting that they are derived from the CP/M-86 Plus codebase.

A number of 16-bit CP/M-86 derivatives existed in the former East-bloc under the names SCP1700 (

Single User Control Program [de]), CP/K, and K8918-OS.[25] They were produced by the East-German VEB Robotron Dresden and Energiekombinat [de] Berlin.[26][25]

Legacy

Tim Olmstead's "The Unofficial CP/M Web site" since 1997.[27][28][29] After Olmstead's death on 12 September 2001,[30] the free distribution license was refreshed and expanded by Lineo, who had meanwhile become the owner of those Digital Research assets, on 19 October 2001.[31][32][33][34]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The same filename extension .CMD is used by OS/2 and Windows for unrelated batch files.

References

  1. ^ "CP/M collection is back online with an Open Source licence". The Register. 2001-11-26.
  2. ^
    Digital Research, Inc.: 2, 5, 7. November 1981. Fourth Quarter. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-17. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  3. ^ Paterson, Tim (2007-09-30). "Design of DOS". DosMan Drivel. Archived from the original on 2013-01-20. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  4. ISBN 0-07-135892-7
    .
  5. ^
    BYTE Magazine
    . 7 (1): 36–68. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  6. ^
    PC Magazine
    : 43–46. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  7. BYTE Magazine
    . 6 (12): 314–318. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
  8. BYTE Magazine
    . 9 (3): 46–54, 58–62, 68–76. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  9. Electronic Design: 157. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-19. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  10. ^ "OLDCOMPUTERS.COM Compupro 8/16". Archived from the original on 2016-01-03. Retrieved 2011-07-13.
  11. BYTE Magazine
    . 7 (7): 330–338. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
  12. ^
    PC Magazine
    : 56. February 1983. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  13. PC Magazine
    : 159–162. June–July 1982. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  14. BYTE
    . p. 307. Retrieved 2019-04-07.
  15. BYTE Magazine
    (advertisement). 8 (6): 65. June 1983. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  16. PC Magazine
    : 403–406. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  17. BYTE Magazine
    (advertisement). 9 (2): 216–217. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  18. ISSN 0010-4841. Archived
    from the original on 2020-02-17. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  19. IDG Business Media GmbH. 1984-01-13. Archived
    from the original on 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  20. Philippi, Donald L.; Lamb, John David; Buda, Janusz, eds. (2019) [1984-01-14]. "Digital Research Japan Develops Japanese Word-Processing Software For 16-Bit, 8-Bit Personal Computers; Features Grammatical Analysis Functions". Technical Japanese Translation. Vol. 1, no. 11. Waseda University. Archived
    from the original on 2020-02-17. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  21. ISSN 0010-4841. Archived
    from the original on 2020-02-17. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  22. ^ Hiroshi, Hatta (2006-02-20). "Fujitsu FM16π (PAI)". IPSJ Computer Museum. Archived from the original on 2017-01-24. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  23. ^
    ITCHP 446f9931d5fa6. Lot X7847.2017. Archived from the original on 2021-08-16. Retrieved 2021-08-16 – via Computer History Museum
    . [8:23]; Bill Selmeier (ed.) 2006-05-24 (NB. About tasks, working relations, and stories from the very earliest years of Digital Research Incorporated.)
  24. ISSN 0199-6649
    . Retrieved 2021-08-20.
  25. ^ a b Kurth, Rüdiger; Groß, Martin; Hunger, Henry (2019-01-03). "Betriebssystem SCP". www.robotrontechnik.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-04-27. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  26. ^ Kurth, Rüdiger; Groß, Martin; Hunger, Henry (2019-01-03). "Betriebssysteme". www.robotrontechnik.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-04-27. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  27. Olmstead, Tim (1997-08-10). "CP/M Web site needs a host". Newsgroup: comp.os.cpm. Archived from the original
    on 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  28. Olmstead, Tim (1997-08-29). "ANNOUNCE: Caldera CP/M site is now up". Newsgroup: comp.os.cpm. Archived from the original on 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2018-09-09. [1]
  29. Caldera, Inc. 1997-08-28. Archived from the original on 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2018-09-09. [2][permanent dead link] [3][permanent dead link
    ]
  30. ^ "Tim Olmstead". 2001-09-12. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  31. Bryan Sparks
    […]
  32. ^ Chaudry, Gabriele "Gaby" (ed.). "The Unofficial CP/M Web Site". Archived from the original on 2016-02-03.
  33. ^ Gasperson, Tina (2001-11-26). "CP/M collection is back online with an Open Source licence – Walk down memory lane". The Register. Archived from the original on 2017-09-01.
  34. CMP Media LLC: 71–73. #361. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2018-09-09. [4]

Further reading

External links
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