P.G.NEWMAN@aberdeen.ac.UK (06/07/89)
As a newcomer to the CP/M public domain scene, I am bemused by the apparent number of versions of the CP/M operating system around. Those I have come across (many in the Simtel archives) include CP/M, CP/M 80, CP/M 86, CP/M concurrent, CP/M 68K and CP/M Plus, not to mention CP/M versions 1.4, 2.0, 2.2 and 3.0. I believe all were put out by Digital Research? I am using an Amstrad PCW8512, which is supplied with CP/M Plus. I gather this is the same as v.3.0, although not entirely compatible with earlier versions? Can anyone perhaps explain the origin of all these CP/M's, and advise me which versions are compatible with my CP/M Plus? Any replies to the list, please, or direct to the following address, marked "Re: CP/M" in Subject: field. Thanks, David. ======================================================================= p.g.newman@uk.ac.aberdeen --------------------------------- JANET %aberdeen.ac.uk@UKACRL -------------------------- BITNET/EARN @CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU -------------------------------- INTERNET %NSFNET-RELAY.AC.UK@RELAY.CS.NET ---------------- CSNET ...!psuvax1!cunyvm.bitnet!aberdeen.ac.uk!p.g.newman ------- UUCP
samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Sam Bassett RCD) (06/08/89)
In the beginning there was Gary Kildall, who was a professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and working on the side (the Navy doesn't pay spectacularly well) as a consultant for Intel, writing software to make their chips useful. Dr. Kildall became mightily (and rightly) incensed with the brain- damaged excuse for an operating system (ISIS) that Intel perpetrated on their development systems. He therefore went out and wrote a simple program loader cum hardware interface that he could use to do the work that Intel was paying him for -- write programs quickly and easily. This first incarnation was written in PL/M, Intel's quirky subset of Big Blue's PL/1 -- which stood for "Programming Language / One", among other things -- thus, "Programming Language/Microcomputer". Intel had just decided to call the 8080 a microcomputer (this was 1979 or 80). "Hmmm", he said, "three letter acronyms with a slash seem to be the in thing, so I guess I'll call this 'Control Program/Microcomputer'!" Thus "CP/M". I don't know what the _very_ first version was called, but the first version to get any commercial distribution (on Tarbell magnetic tape, if my memory serves me, was CP/M 1.4. This was found to be a bit primitive, and was followed by CP/M 2.0 and 2.2. In the midst of all of all of this, Dr. Kildall found he needed a company to keep the Internal Revenue (Inland Revenu to you Brits) busies out of his personal pocketbook. He therefore incorporated as "Intergalactic Digital Research, Inc." A couple of years later, when he needed some outside funding, he was persuaded to drop the "intergalactic" part, so as not to freak out bankers. "Kentucky Fried Computers" was also persusded to change their name at about this time to "North Star Computers" by a gang of bankers & lawyers -- the Col. was not amused. Also, about this time, DRI introduced MP/M for the 8080/8085/Z80 -- an operating system that permitted limited multi-programming, in the sense that several programs could run in a round-robin scheduling fashion, and look like they were running simultaneiously. Very much like UNIX, but limited to 8-bit machines. This OS became moderately successful on high-end micro hardware, like Bill Godbout's CompuPro boat-anchors, but never among hobbyists or the general user. The last 8080/8085/Z80 product from DRI was CP/M 3.0, aka CP/M+ or CP/M Plus -- which added bank-switching to the amentities of CP/M 2.2. The dreaded Intel 808x entered the scene at this point. Naturally, the leading (then) purveyor of OSs for micros could not be left out in the cold, and a good deal of money and personnel were thrown at re-writing CP/M for the 8086 & 8088 chips. Therefrom issued, in good time, CP/M-86 (CP/M for the 80x86 family). The good old cash cow was then renamed CP/M-80. While all of this research was going on (and eating money), a couple of smart technical types in Seattle WA took the sources to CP/M 1.4 (which they or someone had bought) and ran them through an early 8086 Assembler, and came up with "Seattle DOS" or DOS86. There are a number of apocryphal stories about why IBM did not sign up with DRI to provide the OS for the PC, and Dr. Kildall has told a couple of the versions himself. The one I like best was that Dr, Kildall was out of town, and a couple of goons in dark suits showed up at the offices in Pacific Grove, and demanded to see Kildall instantly. they were so rude and uncivilized that they were told to pack it in and take a hike. They did -- right to the airport and on to Seattle, to sign up with Billy Gates' Microsoft (who went out and bought the rights to Seattle DOS, changed its name to MS-DOS, and made pots of money). The research bore fruit, and CP/M-86 was followed by Concurrent CP/M-86 (renamed from MP/M-86), GEM, DRI-DOS, and several other packages and applications (including Ventura Publisher, done by DRI defectors, reportedly because DRI would not fund it . . .). - - - - - - There are as many varieties of CP/M-80 as there were hardware companies or hackers who were willing to port it to their boxes, because what DRI sold was the Basic Disk Operating System (BDOS) and the Console Command Processor (CCP) -- each developer has to create a custom Basic I/O System (BIOS) from hints in the DRI documentation (the less said about which, the better!) In other words, talking to the hardware was _your_ problem, said DRI, we provide the high-level stuff. MS/PC-DOS provided a set of device drivers for the standard PC hardware (CP/M hardware was in _NO WAY_ standard), and the ability to load custom dirivers -- vi CONFIG.SYS. {UNIX hasn't learned that lesson, yet!!!} Sam'l Bassett, Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA 94035 Work: (415) 694-4792; Home: (415) 969-2644 samlb%well@lll-crg.ARPA samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov <Standard Disclaimer> := 'Sterling doesn't _have_ opinions -- much less NASA!'