Control Program for Microcomputers

operating system (CP/M) An early microcomputer operatingsystem written by Gary Kildall of Digital Research for

8080 and Zilog Z80-based 8-bit computers. CP/M was very

popular in the late 1970s but was virtually wiped out by

MS-DOS after the release of the IBM PC in 1981.

Many of CP/M's features and conventions strongly resemble

those of early DEC operating systems such as TOPS-10,

OS/8, RSTS and RSX-11.

CP/M might have been the OS for the IBM PC instead of

MS-DOS but Kildall wanted to keep control of his creation

and only license it to IBM. Big Blue however wanted to own

and control it completely. Kildall spent the day IBM's reps

wanted to meet him enjoying the perfect flying weather in his

private plane.

[Did CP/M use the same FAT file system as MS-DOS?]

(1996-01-07)