CP/M

CP/M is an operating system created for Intel 8080/85 and Zilog Z80 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc.

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CP/M was commonly understood in the latter half of the 1970s to represent Control Program for Microcomputers but originally the antecedent was Control Program/Monitor. Note that in Control Program for Microcomputers the / means for, as was common in the prevailing technical parlance of that era, as in Kildall's/Intel's PL/M, Programming Language for Microcomputers, and in Prime Computer's PL/P, Programming Language for Prime. Gary Kildall himself renamed CP/M in word form as part of the maturation of CP/M from personal project in 1974 to commercial enterprise in 1976.

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The combination of CP/M and S-100 bus computers patterned on the MITS Altair was an early "industry standard" for microcomputers, and was widely used through the late 1970s and into the mid-80s. By greatly reducing the amount of programming required to install an application on a new manufacturer's computer, CP/M increased the market size for both hardware and software.

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Operating system: In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. Additionally, it provides a foundation upon which to run application software such as word processing programs and web browsers....

Intel 8080: The Intel 8080 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. The 8-bit CPU was released in April 1974 running at 2 MHz, and is generally considered to be the first truly usable microprocessor CPU design....

85: Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century...