/PROFILE 1 POPULAR CHOICE

adopt it, thus creating a de facto 'standard'. Many Since its introduction, the Control Program manufacturers who had chosen the for (CP/M) has become 8080 or Zilog Z80 processors for their machines the industry standard in operating systems. specified CP/M because it offered a simple way of The phenomenal success of CP/M has handling access to the screen, printer, disks, changed the life of its designer, Gary keyboard and so on. And as its popularity Kildall, who left the teaching profession to increased, more and more CP/M software found the company known as Digital became available, providing an even greater LOGO Designs Research. incentive to adopt it. Digital Research has moved into The Control Program for Microprocessors was languages and leads the field Gary Kildall, a member of the Intel team that at first licensed to a few select users. The now with its DR LOGO. Like all good developed the 8080 , created his famous abbreviation initially stood for 'Control LOG0s, graphics are one of its first version of the CP/ M system in 1974 to Program/Monitor', but this rather humble title strong points support a for PL/M, the first high-level was soon changed! By 1976, Kildall was language produced by Intel. In 1975, he added an overwhelmed by requests for the product. He editor (ED), assembler (ASM), and debugger resigned as professor of at a (DDT). He offered the new to naval college in Monterey and founded Digital Intel, who turned it down—which was probably Research at Pacific Grove, California. Kildall's luckiest break. Partnered by Dorothy While CP/M was growing, Digital Research McEwan, he started to publish hobbyist turned its attentions to the multiple-user systems and produced MP/M. This was intended to be magazines and to sell CP/ M privately. Kildall's Business Graphics CP/M quickly outsold the hobbyist magazines. compatible with CP/M in every respect, though in GSX is a pioneering software Whether by design or sheer good luck, Kildall its early versions it had none of CP/M's success. package designed to make had hit upon a system that greatly diminished the Partitioning of the user areas, and other graphics applications portable major problem of the in its early configurations that a systems programmer might between different machines, such as the business graphics years—compatibility. The three most significant need to do, were by no means straightforward, and package shown here consumer of the late 1970s (the PET, in some cases file handling differed from CP/M's. Apple, and Tandy) had incompatible disk However, since the physical costs of operating systems, and independent software microprocessors have dropped as production has producers had to opt for one format or the other. risen, the need for several users to share one Code had to be completely rewritten to make a processor has ceased to make economic sense, and software product work on a machine other than the now-revised MP/M has not proved popular. the one it had been designed for. But CP/M Digital Research raised finance from several changed all that: its considerable popularity venture capital companies in 1981, to become a meant that a majority of manufacturers began to true multinational, with a notably strong presence

'k_ts1 John Rowley, President of Digital Research Incorporated Gary Kildall Li THE HOME COMPUTER ADVANCED COURSE 239