Talk:List of computers running CP/M

Comments

Is this list really needed?

If it is, then at least all articles that link to CP/M operating system should be consulted, otherwise the list is worth nothing.

Click here for list

Also, the Wikipedia naming conventions must be obeyed. A suitable title could be List of machines running CP/M or something like that -- Egil 11:15 Apr 11, 2003 (UTC)

Point taken - F1lby

The HP 9816, too.

The Altos 580 link goes to a page about a place named Altos and has nothing do to with the computer company. [REL June 22, 2007]

Fixed. You can fix this sort of thing, too. Get a user account and you can sign your name with --~~~~. The Altos 580 has nothing to do with the Xerox Alto, an altogether vastly more powerful computer. --Wtshymanski 15:46, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Comments

is it true that almost all modern PCs run CP/M 86? Helpsloose 18:57, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Suggest move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was moved. --BDD (talk) 23:11, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

List of machines running CP/M → List of computers running CP/M – "Machines" is jargony and nonspecific. CP/M was never running on steam engines, catapults, or other such machines. Wtshymanski (talk) 18:10, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Support. Suggested name is an obvious improvement, plus it would have saved me countless hours trying to install CP/M-68k on my Advanced Uniflow Steam Engine. :) --Guy Macon (talk) 20:35, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Support. Even the list makes it clear at the beginning that it really is a list of microcomputers.

As ever Wtshymanski refuses to follow the correct procedure for merging or renaming articles. Since the proposed name really is an improvement, I have taken the liberty of doing what should have been done in the first place. DieSwartzPunkt (talk) 11:48, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

• Comment wouldn't it be List of systems running CP/M ? Since not everything running it is a personal computer (or big iron either), which is the obvious inference for "computer" (usually you don't think of an embedded system or peripheral as a computer) -- 65.94.78.70 (talk) 06:21, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Which items on the current list are not computers? (Note that the Allen Bradley Advisor was not an Industrial Programmable controller but rather a computer that connects to one.) --Guy Macon (talk) 06:34, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

From the current list, there's the VT180, which is a terminal to another computer, and thus a peripheral.

But there are machines out there that ran CP/M as an embedded OS as well, which don't feature on this list currently. (laser printers, laser scanners, etc) -- 65.94.78.70 (talk) 02:46, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

The VT180 was a computer. "In 1982, Digital introduced an option board which turned a VT-100 terminal into a personal computer using the CP/M operating system. It was called the Digital's Personal Computing Option."[1]

If you can find sources for CP/M being used in embedded systems, that would be a nice addition to this page. --Guy Macon (talk) 02:58, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The "On" Computer?

I'm looking for info on a CP/M based pesonal computer that (I think) was known as the "On Computer" or "On Machine" (though it might have also had a more formal name or product ID). IIRC it had static RAM and a static RAM disk all battery backed and was to kept powered up at all times. I doubt it sold in quantity as it (again IIRC) it came out after the IBM PC was displacing CP/M as the mainstream business personal computer OS and it was probably expensive. I'd like to use it as an early example of an interactive personal computer without mechanical storage, which now seems prescient. I was hoping to find it on this list, but no luck and my first few web searches haven't turned up anything at all. (I may need to try The Wayback Machine or start flipping through old hard copies of Byte.) If anyone has links to articles that mention this machine, I suggest adding it to the list. It might even merit an article.

BTW: No, I don't know the manufacturer's name.

Ericfluger (talk) 17:27, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

I recall seeing a demo unit at our user group meeting, mid-'80s. I think the company may have been called "Oneac" but the only think that shows under that name now is a UPS builder. Don't recall seeing a review in BYTE but that's definitely the place to look. I also no longer have my club newsletters from that era - at least that would have given a year. Good hunting. --Wtshymanski (talk) 18:05, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

The Manufacturer of the 'ON computer' was ONEAC of Chicago who specialized in power conditioners which prevented transient surges from affecting sensitive electronics. The 'ON' was a sideline created by one of the principals for his own use and then put into production. I bought five of them. The OS I used was ZCPR3 a CP/M variation using ZRDOS by Joe Wright of Palo Alto. The CPU has two Z-80 64K chips which could be used for two operations simultaneously. There was no ON/OFF switch and the computer was on always. I think it sold for $2500 in 1984. Rev glenn charles (talk) 01:19, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for that...don't suppose you've got a musty old magazine article that talks about it? Who knew 22 years later that I'd be looking for the pamphlet on this thing? --Wtshymanski (talk) 01:38, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Short news about upcoming ON! Computer is in Byte, vol. 11, n. 6 (June 1986), p. 36. However, it seems this computer was not available until early 1987 (The Computer Journal, issue 28 (January-February 1987), p. 20: "...and the soon-to-be-available ON! computer from Oneac" Pavlor (talk) 06:24, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Eracom

Ref for Eracom ERA-50 & ERA-60:

https://books.google.com/books?id=MdBP83DW6g4C&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=&source=bl#q=Eracom

--Guy Macon (talk) 01:53, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

IMSAI VDP-80

@Guy Macon: From where did you get the information that IMDOS was a 'modified version' of CP/M? Even IMSAI themselves never made this claim but claimed in their publicity literature that not only did they own it but that it was merely "compatible with CP/M".<ref>IMSAI VDP-80 Literature (page 2). Curiously, IMSAI do not claim that the machine is a computer at all but a 'Video Display Processor' even though the specification and the rest of the literature strongly suggests otherwise. -RFenergy (talk) 14:16, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

From the 1978 IMDOS Brochure:[2]

"IMOOS, the IMSAI Multi·Oisk Operating System, is a powerful, user-oriented, multi-floppy disk based operating system compatible with CP/M... Hardware requirements: I-8080 or any IMSAI VDP or PCS computer system"

From the 1978 IMSAI VDP-80 brochure:[3]

"Included with the VOP-SO, IMOOS (IMSAI's MultiDisk Operating System) is a powerful user-oriented system compatible with CP/M."

The above brochure also answers your question about "'Computer" vs. "Video Display Processor":

"The IMSAI VDP-80 Video Data Processor is a general purpose computer system designed to meet the information processing needs of sma" businesses, major corporations, and academic and scientific communities."

From Herb Johnson of retrotechnology.com:[4]

"IMSAI later implemented IMDOS 2.0x, a licensed version of CP/M created sometime after CP/M version 1.3... A history of early CP/M should include the release of IMDOS by IMSAI, as that represents one of the earliest versions of what became CP/M. This statement is confirmed by accounts at [the IMSAI.NET site interview] where IMSAI staffer Todd Fischer states outright that he worked with Kildall on "various permutations of [CP/M] rev. 1.2 and 1.3 on the IMSAI FDC and DIO floppy systems". According to information posted by Todd from IMSAI staffer Joe Killian, Glenn Ewing (a colleague of Kildall at the Naval school) worked closely with Kildall to develop IMDOS."

From Gary Kildall:[5]:

"In 1976, Glenn Ewing approached me with a problem: Imsai, Incorporated, for whom Glenn consulted, had shipped a large number of disk subsystems with a promise that an operating system would follow. I was somewhat reluctant to adapt CP/M to yet another controller, and thus the notion of a separated Basic I/O System (BIOS) evolved. In principle, the hardware dependent portions of CP/M were concentrated in the BIOS, thus allowing Glenn, or anyone else, to adapt CP/M to the Imsai equipment. Imsai was subsequently licensed to distribute CP/M version 1.3 which eventually evolved into an operating system called IMDOS."

--Guy Macon (talk) 18:42, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

This all rather suggests that IMSAI were early adopters of CP/M and had some influence on its design. The only problem is that the machine used an 8085 processor which appeared two years after CP/M had been released for the 8080. -RFenergy (talk) 13:18, 5 September 2020 (UTC)

I believe that this is the timeline. Feel free to correct me if I got it wrong.

• 1974: Intel 8080
• 1974 MITS Altair 8800
• 1974 First CP/M
• 1975 Altair Basic
• 1975: IMSAI 8080 (clone of Altair 8800 with 8080 processor}
• 1976 CP/M 1.3
• 1976: Gary Kildall licenses CP/M to IMSAI.
• 1976 Intel 8085
• 1977: Altair DOS (by then CP/M was the defacto operating system for Altairs with disks).
• 1977: IMDOS version 2.02 manuals state that IMDOS is an enhanced version of CP/M from Digital Research.[6] Later ads changed this to "CP/M compatible".
• 1978 CP/M 1.4
• 1978 IMSAI VDP-80 (8085 processor)
• 1979 CP/M 2.0

--Guy Macon (talk) 20:06, 5 September 2020 (UTC)