News & Pointers: S-100, CP/M and related sites

Most recent revision dated May 02 2008. Web links validated or marked during April 2008. Corrections appreciated.

I'm Herb Johnson, in New Jersey USA. I provide some support services for old S-100 (IMSAI, Altair, Compupro, etc.) computers and also floppy disk drives. For more information on what I have available, check my S-100 Stuff Home page. This page has a list of useful Web links to other sites with related information and interests. There is also some references to Digital Research (DRI) CP/M products, as DRI was the creator of CP/M which was the operating system of many S-100 systems. I have a few Intel/Multibus links, as in a way the Multibus was a predecessor to the S-100 bus and the Intel 8080 was the first S-100 processor. Also I mention the CP/M FAQ and a popular source for CP/M boot disks.

My section which lists Web pointers is ordered by date of entry, most recent at the top. I add pointers from time to time and occasionally check old pointers. If I point to your site, please consider pointing to mine. My list is not comprehensive, try a Web search for new or other sites. Any corrections or additions would be appreciated.

Herb Johnson
New Jersey, USA
My email address is listed on this page

Index of links

CP/M and related software

  • What is CP/M? Where is it? How do I use it?
  • Unix and Z80's
  • Digital Research and CP/M history through today
  • CP/M boot disks
  • CP/M mail list discussions
  • Intel, ISIS and Multibus-era links
  • CP/M disk conversion: 22DISK and Sydex
  • Pascal P-system, UCSD Pascal, related efforts
  • SIG/M, CPMUG, Walnut Creek CP/M, Simtel, Oakland archives

    S-100 news

  • What is S-100?
  • Cromemco still in business
  • GIDE: IDE drive for Z80
  • Who has S-100 systems?
  • My S-100 home page.

    Pointers to S-100, CP/M and Related Sites

  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
  • 2002
  • 2001
  • links before 2001

    CP/M and related software

    Editorial: What is CP/M? Where is it? How do I use it?

    My editorial about CP/M for nubies, is now on on my DRI Web page.

    UNIX versus CP/M?

    This section is now on my DRI Web page.

    Digital Research and CP/M: links and status

    This DRI material was moved to my Digital Research CP/M Web page. Any news directly related to Digital Research's old products would be on that page or pages linked to it.

    Since December 2006, I've been facilitating the archiving of DRI-related posted material of Emmanuel Roche as posted in comp.os.cpm. Check the link for details.

    CP/M boot disks

    In most cases, when someone requests "a copy of CP/M", they mean a boot disk for their old CP/M computer. CP/M requires a "BIOS" section which is tailored to specific hardware; it was designed to allow individuals to do so. One site and person who provided boot disks in the 1990's was Don Maslin. As of 2003 there is a Web site page of a list of what were his available system disks via this link at the Gaby CP/M system page.

    Don Maslin passed away on Sept 10 2004. Check the Gaby CP/M site for more info. But as of Dec 2005, Gaby has no further info as to who will take over that private archive of diskettes. There was a person who announced in comp.os.cpm his intentions to obtain Don's archive: as of Dec 2005 nothing further was heard from that person. A search of newsgroup "comp.os.cpm" may find more current information, and previous posts as summarized here. There have been discussions in comp.os.cpm about "someone" creating a new archive, but nothing has emerged as of Dec 2005.

    By 2005 or 2006, there are more references in comp.os.cpm to Dave Dunfield's site for system boot disk, disk images, and for tools to create and manipulate them. In 2006 he moved much of that information to the "classiccmp" Web site. Details and links are elsewhere on this page..

    Also look at my notes and news on 22DISK and Sydex. These products are still popular for manipulating CP/M disks; and they are "available" as per my notes including my exclusive 2005 discussion with the author of those products!

    CP/M mail list discussions

    In 2006, there are a number of discussion venues on the Web for CP/M. First were the Usenet newsgroups, these preceeded "the Web", and are available as news services on some Web sites and from your Internet access provider in most cases. The foremost CP/M newsgroup is comp.os.cpm, detailed below. There are other Usenet newsgroups which include discussions of CP/M or CP/M-era computers: alt.folklore.computers is very active; various newsgroupd devoted to particular brands of computers, often called comp.sys.[brand name], may discuss CP/M if it runs on the named systems. In the 21st century super-providers like Google and Yahoo! sponsor discussion groups of some size, which include one or more for CP/M or CP/M interests.

    comp.os.cpm is a well-established newsgroup for discussions about CP/M and the classic hardware it ran on; as well as discussions about new products and hardware that can support CP/M and its DRI successors; AND discussions of related Z80-class operating systems. Activity in comp.os.cpm has increased since about 2004, after a lull of a few years. Like most Usenet newsgroups, comp.os.cpm has a document of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). FAQ's were a popular way in the 1980's to answer common questions which "new" people would post into newsgroups. Since Oct 2000 the FAQ is maintained by F. Trevor Gowen on his home page, However the FAQ has not been posted or even mentioned in comp.os.cpm since mid-2000. The contents have not changed substantially since that time, but Mr. Gowen does make updates by request, look to his home page for details. The page is still active as of later 2005.

    Intel, ISIS, PL/M and Multibus-era links

    Intel developed the Multibus bus design for their 8080 and subsequent processor product lines. Digital Research, the producers of CP/M, provided some of Intel's 8080 software products including the PL/M compiler and cross-assemblers in FORTRAN; the earliest CP/M's had a BIOS for use with a Multibus system. ISIS was Intel's early operating system for their 8080 and later 8086 development stations; they turned down Gary Kildall's offer of what became CP/M. iRMX was an Intel real-time operating system which ran on Intel processors and Multibus cards.

    Further information on Intel's ISIS and PL/M can be found on this ISIS page and a substantial Multibus card and document collection. (But I'd like to get pre-Multibus "intellec" Intel products and info, so let me know if you have them!)

    CP/M disk conversion: 22DISK and Sydex

    In Jan-Feb 2002 there was some (newsgroup) comp.os.com discussion of the well-known Sydex diskette analysis MS-DOS programs ANADISK and 22DISK. The discussion included suggestions that Sydex no longer offered those products for free evaluation via download. I searched the Web and made contacts. Ultimately I recieved a communication New Technologies, Inc. or NTI which claimed they obtained commercial rights to Sydex products and that they offer their version of them at commercial prices, in the context of data security and forensics. AnaDisk is listed on their site as a forensics tool.

    In mid-2003, a colleague of mine recieved an email from "Sydex Product Information" which said: "22DISK was removed from shareware distribution and support some years ago. It is still available from Sydex, as a commercial product. Our price is US$100 per copy, plus shipment charges." Contact that reference for current details." The SydexWeb site at that time specifically refered people to New Technologies. Inc for 22DISK and ANADISK products.

    In late May 2004, there was further news posted in Usenet newsgroup comp.os.cpm, regarding Sydex products and activities. Gaby Chaudry, who operates the well-known CP/M licensed archive Web site reported that she was contacted by Sydex Inc. and urged to "remove the downloads of Anadisk, CopyQM and Teledisk, as well as the extended 22DISK definitions file" from her Web site. She was not ordered to remove 22DISK, presumably the early distributed "shareware" versions with their original, smaller definition files. The announcement and discussion of it is available in the comp.os.cpm newsgroup as subject "Sydex tools" for late May 2004. Gaby says there that the apparent basis for asking removal of the three programs was "they are now commercial software for forensic use" and previously sold to NTI. She also said "they did not prohibit the distribution of the other Sydex products which have not been bought by NTI, as e.g. 22disk or 22nice." She also said that (at some unspecified time) she was quoted $100 US per copy of Teledisk from NTI, even in 100 quantity.

    There was comp.os.cpm discussion at that time, about how to create, archive and distribute disk definitions created independently of Sydex's registered versions. Also there was discussion of related disk analysis and conversion tools, with specific Web links. In 2005 there are still occasional discussions about these former Sydex products.

    I confirmed in 2004 (and in Dec 2005) that the Sydex.com and NTI Web sites mentioned above are still in operation. Others reported in 2004 that NTI officers include either former or current employees of Sydex. I found in 2004 that more than one Web site which once had Sydex "shareware" software for download, now no longer had the programs named above.

    I'm not a lawyer and I have no QUALIFIED opinion about these issues. However, it seemed to me (and I posted this in 2004) that it's hard to consider these products are "abandonware" as the developers of them and their companies are active and interested and even selling related products. They are also apparently not "public domain", because as "shareware" they were freely DISTRIBUTED but with specific rights noted in the documentation as regards to redistribution, first use and licensing for additional use.

    Subsequently in Nov 2005, I was contacted by Charles Guzis, president of Sydex and the author of these former Sydex program, who reviewed my information above. His email, quoted with permission, says that Gaby Chaudry was not permitted to distribute registered copies of former Sydex products or disk format files which were sold to NTI. But to his knowledge, distribution of EVALUATION versions (his emphasis) was not prohibited. Sydex can't sell AnaDisk, TeleDisk or CopyQM, he says, but they continue to support previous registered users of those products. Sydex also has some new products that are available, and continues to offer support services for media conversion. (A look at sydex.com in Dec 2005 shows they provide software development and data recovery services, but apparently not software for use.)

    Additionally, he informed me that NTI's stake in the former Sydex products was "spun off" to Breakwater Technology of Seattle WA. The NTI Web page shows these products as available as of late Nov 2005 from NTI, but as an "Armor Forensics division" in Florida. There is a Breakwater Security Web site showing Seattle offices but referring to "NTI Breakwater" under their "data forensics" services.

    Regarding use of Teledisk with new formats, during a July 2004 Web search for Teledisk, I found a useful Web site. Will Krantz has a Teledisk Web page dated year 2002. It covers the history of the product and he's analyzed the methods and formats used. He's created a C program, provided on the site, to perform similar tasks. Will references yet another program TDCVT, written by Sergey Erokhin which also does disk to file conversion.

    Further work on Teledisk was done by Dave Dunfield, who also developed a means of diskette imaging. Check my CP/M boots disk section for details.

    Pascal P-system, UCSD Pascal, related efforts

    An item in eBay about UCSD Pascal caught my attention in July 2004. I did some Web searching and found surprisingly LITTLE about UCSD Pascal, other than some references to the history and legacy of the product. Notibly: 1) the P-code system is a predecessor of sorts to Java and 2) Delphi is a kind of descendent of Pascal. However, almost NO archive and content on the Web about the actual UCSD compilers or the P4 interpreter. I did find one software source link of sorts:

    Authors Steven Pemberton and Martin Daniels have posted on Pemberton' Web site Pascal Implementation, a manual with Pascal source code for a P4 interpreter. The book was written by Steven Pemberton and Martin Daniels to support a course on Pascal compiler design. The home page of Pemberton provides some context for this work, converted to HTML and available via the link. Another page which refers to this work and "standardizes" it is: Scott A. Moore's brief on P4 and UCSD Pascal on his Web site. A Web search on "UCSD Pascal" will find a number of histories of that implementation and subsequent distributions of it.

    The UCSD Pascal system was its own operating system. Clarence Wilkerson, a math professor at Perdue University, came up with a CP/M BIOS version. that is, the P-code interpreter used a CP/M BIOS to interface to the hardware. Check this link to his posted work at Perdue's Math Department Web site

    A major newsletter of the early Pascal era was the "Pascal Users Group Newsletter", published from 1974 through 1983. A set of these has been scanned and PDF'ed, with permission apparently, and is available at this link on Scott Moore's Web site at moorecad.com. He offers Moore/CAD and some Pascal products, and his site includes a lot of Pascal material.

    I also came across the Borland museum, which offers some of its early Turbo Pascal and Turbo C software. They are "free of charge...for personal use only" but still have "copyrights in force".

    There are many other sites which either celebrate Pascal, archive Pascal, or support Pascal use. Look around, it's amazing!

    The following was posted in Usenet newsgroup comp.compilers on 24 Feb 2006:

    >> From: HansO 
    >> Newsgroups: comp.compilers
    >> Subject: UCSD Pascal I.5 sources available at UCSD
    >> Date: 24 Feb 2006 13:17:28 -0500
    >>
    >> Members of the Yahoo group devoted to UCSD Pascal
    >> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UCSDPascal/
    >> (David Barto is the person to thank for that)
    >> have convinced UCSD to publish the sources of UCSD Pascal I.4 and I.5.
    >>
    >> The sources contain the complete set of sources compiler, operating
    >> system, editor, linker, librarian Pascal and interpreter assembler
    >> source etc.
    >>
    >> The direct location to download the sources (also mentioned on my
    >> website now) is:
    >> http://invent.ucsd.edu/technology/cases/1995-prior/SD1991-807.htm
    >>
    >> This software is nearly 30 years old!  The relevance is mostly for
    >> understanding the history of programming languages (structured and
    >> modular programming), compiler construction (UCSD Pascal is based on
    >> the recursive descent down single pass P2 Pascal compiler made by
    >> Niklaus Wirth and his brilliant group at the ETH Zurich), operating
    >> systems written in a higher level language and interpreter based
    >> virtual machines.
    >>
    >> Hans, http://www.hansotten.com
    

    SIG/M, CPMUG, Walnut Creek CP/M, Simtel, Oakland & other archives

    Two early archives of CP/M software were created by the CP/M User's Group (CPMUG) of New York City, NY and SIG/M of New Jersey, starting in the late 1970's. They distributed CP/M software on diskettes during the 1970's and 80's. There is some overlap between their contents. Their archives by name found their way to Oakland's and other on-line and CD-ROM archives. Some early work of CPMUG appears on my in my history of Digital Research and CP/M.

    CP/M-based computer companies often offered their own CP/M program distributions on diskettes. Those companies included Osborne, Kaypro, Ithaca Audio/Intersystems, and others. There are Web links on this Web page for some of those archives. Some of those archives also found their way to general on-line or CD-ROM archives of programs; and some of these archives are on the Web by their original distributors.

    CP/M files were archived online by Oakland University, in Rochester MI, in their "OAK CP/M" online archive at oak.oakland.edu. That archive site no longer exists as of about year 20003, when it was taken down for economic reasons.

    After a Jan 2006 discussion of the Oakland archives in comp.os.cpm, I was contacted by Fritz Chwolka who told me: "A backup of [the Oakland CP/M archive] is at trailing-edge.com and I have a copy at oldcomputers.dyndns.org; and a lot of other interesting [items elsewhere] [at that site]." He later noted that a description of Oakland's OAK archive exists at the Web archive project site; but in 2008 only a few Okaland Web pages are available there. Fritz also offered links to related but non-CP/M archives: hobbes for OS/2 and Simtel for msdos. There is also an archive to a copy here at a Z80 archive mirror Web site.

    A related archive of CP/M files was the "Simtel20" or "Simtel" archives. It was started by Keith Petersen in 1979 as a CP/M archive at MIT (University in Boston) on the ArpaNet, and later was hosted on the Internet at a military base as the "SIMTEL20" archive of software for many operating systsems. "SIMTEL" was later sold to a commercial company. As of 2008 Simtel has a Web site at at this link and an FTP site at this link. However in 2008 they don't have any CP/M archives, only MS-DOS and later archives, as far as I can tell. (History from the wikipedia entry for "simtel" as of 2008.)

    From Sept 2004 to 2006, I offered a copy of the Walnut Creek CP/M CD-ROM. A short description of it is that it's a noncommerical subset of the CP/M files archived by Oakland University (in Washington state) in their "OAK CP/M" online archive. Since 2006, it's been available from a number of CP/M file archive Web sites. The Retroarchive.org Web site has the content directly online as of early 2008. A Web search today will likely find it and other archives.

    Some references to these archives is in discussions on Usenet newsgroup comp.os.cpm, and elsewhere on this list of Web links.


    S-100 news

    What is S-100?

    Read this document about the S-100 bus. Then look at some of the info on my S-100 home page and go from there.

    Cromemco still in business, offers old manuals freely

    In June 2004 I was told I'd find Cromemco's web site at this link. Seems that Cromemco is now a European company which offers some multiprocessor products and also Internet services. Their site acknowledges their S-100 origins from two Standford University professors (California USA) and mentions their early S-100, Z80 and Unix work. Beyond a "history" document they offer no further information on their oldest products.

    In late November 2004, the current "Cromemco" company said they would not prohibit distribution of their old Cromemco S-100 documentation. Gaby Chaudry posted in comp.os.cpm on a "Cromemco" thread: "I got a mail from Cromemco Switzerland stating that the original US company doesn't exist any more and that from their side there are no objections against publishing the material." A copy of the email is on a Cromemco "museum" page of Randy McLaughin's S-100 manuals archive site. Check my Cromemco Web page for a copy and details.

    GIDE: IDE drive for Z80

    A number of people have worked on connecting IDE drives to Z80 processors. Tilmann Reh wrote a series of articles in The Computer Journal in 1995, about his Z80 plug-in IDE interface, which he called GIDE (Generic IDE). It's a small board of a few chips, which plugs into the Z80 40-pin socket, and which has an IDE interface. My part in this activity was to encourage Tilmann Reh in developing the GIDE; I was the first to suggest he add a RTC (real time clock) to it. I was the first to import and resell his GIDE boards into the US; and I distributed all the code he and others developed for it at that time. Other designs followed and others including Tilmann sold them. I no longer offer GIDE kits.

    As of March 2003, a group in Germany called KC Club provided GIDE kits for a modest fee and included US customers. On Jan 24 2004, the KC club site reported the last of those kits were available. Another post and offer of kits was on Feb 16 2005; and again on Oct 15 2006.

    A message posted on comp.os.cpm on Oct 15 2006 by the KC club said: "Once more the KC club has produced a series of the well-known GIDE interface for Z80-based computers...a few kits are still available....For more details and informations about shipping and payment please visit our Web site".. For software, the KC Club's GIDE page refers to Gaby's CP/M archive and its GIDE section, as below.

    In Oct 2006 I emailed the KC Club to request the status of GIDE software; I got a reply from Frank Dachselt. He says he's requested code from GIDE buyers but initially did not get much response. Encouraged by discussion at comp.os.cpm, he tells me he'll try again; and also publish his KC85-GIDE code. I checked again in Jan 2008: Frank said "Yes, our page above is still up to date. There are still some kits from our last [2006] run available.... Unfortunately, my project for providing some BIOS source code from my own system is still on my ToDo list.."

    Gaby's GIDE archive on her CP/M archive site HAD an April 2002 GIDE update by Tilmann Reh and some software from 1996. As of mid-Oct 2006 it now provides the same files as Tilmann's Web site as described below; Tilmann has subsequently said both site pages are "mirrored".

    As of 2006, this site by Terry Gulczynski of T. G. Consulting says they produce a "GIDE-P112" board for a P112. The P112 is a Z180 computer originally designed and produced by David Brooks; it is now produced by David Griffith. As of 2006 the TG Consulting site offers a downloadable BIOS including some GIDE code, for the Hal Bower "B/P BIOS".

    Dave Griffith's previous P112 Web site WAS at this link. (As of June 2007 it is now at this link.) Hal Bower's GIDE drivers are apparently also on his site. In addition, there is apparently a SourceForge site for the P112 as of 2007.

    Tilmann Reh, the designer of the GIDE, has a section on his Web site for GIDE code he initially developed. Check this link for those files. As of Oct 2006, they include documentation of the design and use of the GIDE including the Seiko-Epson clock chip, and "test software and samples" of code. This code includes several packages. One is apparently "version 0.9" of Tilmann's GIDE code and includes changes by Shawn Sijnstra from year 2000. Another package has code from 1996 by John Baker to support the "Davidge DSB 4/6 single-board computer", a Z80 board. Also, Pete Cervasio's 1995 MAC version of Tilmann's PASCAL program to identify IDE drives.

    In Oct 2006 I looked carefully through my old GIDE distribution archives. I provided all the code I got to all my customers and to Tilmann. Tilmann's archive as above HAS ALMOST ALL of that code. As of 2006, the only code Tilmann does not provide is some 1995 work-in-progress code by Peter Cervasio, plus a hardware fix for the (original GIDE) reset circuit, plus a completed but flawed read/write clock program for TRSDOS. The "flaw" may have been fixed by the reset circuit. I'll provide the Cervasio work to anyone who requests it, IF they can properly review the code and verify it - I don't want incomplete code floating around.

    Who has S-100 systems?

    In April 2006, I started a page for owners who show off their WORKING S-100 systems. There may also be some S-100 owners in my links to S-100 sites below. But my owner's page will be for people who own and operate just a few systems. Look for them at my S-100 owner's page.

    Pointers to S-100, CP/M and Related Sites

    All links verified as of April 2008. Some dead links removed, some noted in place. We celebrate ten years of S-100 Web pages! - Herb Johnson

    links for 2008

    A somewhat hidden Web site has quite a collection of S-100 documents. Check for an archive of software and hardware of the S-100 and CP/M era. If that Web link fails try this one.. The site is owned by Marcus and Agata (Majzel?)

    A number of S-100 hardware systems have been added to the SIMH computer simulator for 8080 and 8086 hardware.Check the SIMH site for Peter Schorn's work on SIMH. He has packages for CP/M-80 , CP/M-86, IMDOS (IMSAI's licensed version of CP/M), MDOS (from Micropolis, for Vector Graphic), and OASIS (Vector Graphic).

    In comp.os.cpm, Bill Buckels mentioned he's developed an Archive of Aztec C products on his Web site. Apparently Manx Software "disappeared" and shows no interest in these; Buckels makes quite a point about this. There are Aztec C compilers and cross-compilers for the Z80, 6502, and 8086 processors and for corresponding systems. Anyway, he has quite a collection of them on his site.

    On Feb 28 2008, Max Scane announced in comp.os.cpm that the CP/M versions of VEDIT would be released for non-commercial use. Mr. Scane discussed this with the developer of VEDIT, Ted Green, the CEO of Greenview Data Inc, the former CompuView Products. Greenview's terms of agreement for use and for distribution are on the vedit.com Web site at this Web link. Basically they allow for non-commercial use by individuals, and for non-commerical (no charge) distribution on Web sites. The agreement is interesting in its own right.

    While looking at some Web auctions, I came across Richard Pestinger's Web site at this link. He's got a nice collection of early EARLY 8008 and 8080 and 8085 stuff, from the Mark 8 to the Z-100. Nice photos, and some manual PDF's as well. Lots of photos of hard drives, floppy drives and so forth. Some "how I assembled this" stuff. Worth a look!

    In late Jan 2008, Roger Schmidt announced that he's going to offer his 6502 processor- based version of CP/M called "DOS-65". Peter Dassow will provide this Web page for the DOS-65 product which Roger Schmidt produced some time ago. Details of this are not clear; the undated documentation on-site says DOS-65 is still a product and not "public domain, shareware or freeware". The 6502 was developed by MOS Technologies and used in the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and other computers. The manual on site so far refers to the Commodore KIM-1.

    links for 2007

    Dec 2007

    In October 2007, Andrew Lynch announced in comp.os.cpm that others had established a Vector Graphic mail list discussion group. It uses "listserv" to manage the list. Use this Web link to join the list. They also have an archive of VG files and documents. (For more information you'll have to join the list to read the contents.) There is a new Wikipedia entry for Vector Graphic, with more links. By December 2007, Howard Harte announced in comp.os.cpm that he and Andrew and others worked to image several VG diskettes, and to run those images on a version of the SIMH general-purpose computer simulator. The disk images and the simulator are available at a Web page archive also created by the VG discussion group.

    Udo Munk announced in comp.os.cpm that he's modified his Z80 emulator, written in C for Unix use, to compile under Cygwin for Windows use. Check his site for details. He has several versions of CP/M on his site, compiled from the earliest sources, for use with his emulator.

    It's been repeatedly argued that the original MS-DOS for the IBM PC, bought by Microsoft from Seattle Computer Products and written originally by Tim Patterson, was "derived" in some way from Digital Research's CP/M 2.2. The arguement is how the "derivation" occurred. In July 2007, a Seattle court looked at this issue as a result of Patterson's lawsuit against author Sir Harold Evans who argued as much in his book, "They Made America", which featured Gary Kildall. This report of the judge's ruling by Andrew Orlowski in the UK Register, says that the judge agrees that functions of MS-DOS were copied from corresponding CP/M functions, and that Evan's claims were largely factual and without malice.

    Nov 2007

    In Oct 2007, Andrew Lynch started a Yahoo! group email list for Northstar computers. Access that group via this Web link. But to post you need to be a Yahoo! groups member.

    Saw this site referenced in comp.os.cpm: HD64180 Web site in Germany of Rolf Harrmann. The Hitachi HD64180 is a Z180 version processor. The site has source code and binaries, English speakers like myself can probably sort out the German comments.

    While searching for original CPMUG disk images, I found this Web site: the German ZNODE 51 site, which has online archives of the FOG (First OSborne Group) disks for CP/M and CP/M+Plus and for the PCW. Also NZ-COM and Z3PLUS operating system stuff. Another source for CP/M programs!

    June-July 2007

    A useful site for comparative information on computer bus structures is at the Interface Bus site. They recently added a S-100 bus description from me . [Web domain not available 2008]

    In June Miguel Garcia posted in comp.os.cpm: I have created a "C Compilers list for CP/M" on my website, with links, and information. It covers CP/M-80, CP/M-86, CP/M-68K and CP/M-Z8000. I hope [this list] will be of some interest." the list includes Web links to obtain many of these C compliers.

    Apr 2007

    The Amsterdam Compiler Kit (ACK) was written decades ago by Andrew Tanenbaum and Ceriel Jacobs, to cross-compile between a number of programming languages and a number of processors. It was written to run on Unix, and later Minix. In April 2007, David Given announced he's successfully migrated and updated a version of the ACK to run in Linux, and it supports the 8080 so far. He hopes to get a CP/M-80 systems library so that the executable can recognize standard system calls from C into CP/M.

    Udo Munk: From comp.os.cpm for late Oct through April 2007, Udo Munk announced his updates to his Z80pack CP/M emulator for UNIX systems. He says the I/O is "well abstracted" and so any Z80 system can be emulated. It supports CP/M 2, CP/M 3, MP/M and CP/NET; and is written in ANSI C. Sources are included and the license is a BSD-style license. The CP/Net protocol runs under TCP/IP; Udo won't offer support to a Unix serial port driver, you need to use Telnet to connect two CP/NET "systems", real or emulated.

    In April 2007, Roger Ivie has roughed out a port of Z80pack to Windows, using OpenWatcom C. Check his Anachronda Web site for details and progress.

    Thanks to a post in comp.os.cpm, I've been directed to the "oldskool.org" site of the Disk2FDI support page. This is a project with registered or "trial" software for MS-DOS, to read a variety of older disk formats from Tandy, Amiga, Commodore 64, Apple II, and other older systems. May be of interest to CP/M folks. Apparently uses a few bits toggled by the PC parallel port to read the data, while apparently running the drive from a PC floppy controller (unclear). Of additional interest is a Web document which describes how to toggle Teac 5.25" drives to speeds of 300 RPM or 360 RPM, with Teac Web links. That page has a copyright notice that I can't parse so I won't link to it.

    Mar 2007

    Mar 17th 2007 in comp.os.cpm by Jeff Armstrong: he has updates for DEC's version of their use of GSX-86 graphics, under Mark Williams C for CP/M-86. Jeff's versions are available for MS-DOS under MS C 5.1 and OpenWatcomm C 16-bit. Nowithstanding the MS-DOS side, this may be convenient for CP/M-86 users. here's the Web page in any case.

    A March 15th announcement in comp.os.cpm by John Elliot: "I've recently had a stab at converting [at this page]. The testing I've done, such as it was, was under GSX for DOS; but I see no reason why the drivers shouldn't work under GSX for CP/M-86 as well. The drivers include a number of useful [VGA and VESA] resolutions....Let's see how GSX-86 programs get on with them." -- John Elliott [PS for 2008: GSX link is dead, could not find GSX references. Ask John yourself.]

    Peter Dassow has a Web site for MSX computing - that's Microsoft's 1981 attempt at a standard Z80/graphics computing environment. Peter has discussion and code for a CP/M 3.0 that runs on some of these MSX machines. Announced in comp.os.cpm on March 15th 2007.

    Jan 2007

    An updated version of the SIMH emulator for the 8080 and Z80, configured for the MITS Altair 8800, has been updated and is available for download Peter Schorn's site.. The simulator includes C source as well as executables for PC's and Mac OS X and OS 9. Looks like he also offers versions CP/M and MP/M and PL/M for the 8080, and CP/NET with TCP/IP support; and other CP/M-like OS's. A number of popular programs are apparently packaged with the simulated disk images.

    Got some correspondence from someone in Aug 2007 as follows: "The SIMH emulator emulates Altair 8800 well enought to run CP/M. It supports both 8080 and z80 versions. Check this Web link for details. There is a software kit also, to run CP/M under Windows (a precompiled SIMH binaries and disk images), at this link."

    Schorn's work above is very close in time to similar DRI OS work by Udo Munk. Munk continued into March 2007 to work on DRI support inside his Z80PACK, a Z80 simulator.

    links for 2006

    Dec 2006

    Piergiorgio Betti developed part of his Web site in 2006 to mirror a number of CP/M archives, some CP/M and Z80 Web links, and has started to archive some material as well. Check his home page for links to areas of archives, mirrors, and links. [not available as of April 2008? z80cpu.eu?] He also has some contacts and projects that may be of interest. Additional, he is hosting an archive of Emmanuel Roche's comp.os.cpm posts which I'm facilitating.

    Dave Dunfield's section on the "classiccmp" Web site has substantial information on S-100 systems. He also has established, in my opinion, the "standard" for re-creating system boot disks and for tools to manipulate them. In 2006 he moved much of that information to the "classiccmp" Web site. Look at his collection of old computers index page which leads to a variety of systems, boards, documents and software. Also Check out his Disk/Software Images page and his use of Sydex's Teledisk and Dave's own tool, ImageDisk. As of 2007, he provides tools for creating both "imagedisk" format and "teledisk .TD0" format images, and to convert between them; so either of the corresponding tools can be used to recreate those disks.

    Sept Oct 2006

    We've had good hardware discussions recently with W Tom Sanderson of The Virtual Altair Museum. He's a former MITS and Pertec employee who has a really good visual Web page of Altair equipment. Some discussion from him is on our MITS/Altair/Pertec Web page.

    July Aug 2006

    A Web search on Computalker, an early speech synthesizer for the S-100 bus, led me to this interview of one of the designers of the Computalker CT-1. The page is part of a Smithsonian project to document the history of text to speech translation. the interview is of D. Lloyd Rice, who apparently owns all Computtalker products as of 1988. see the Smithsonian's Web site for details. [links updated 2008]

    A newgroup post led me to this European Z80 domain which sites some Z80 and CP/M projects by Peter Dassow. He is developing some kind of "CP/M Commander" which mirrors the DOS Commander program of the 1980's. His site also has some Kermit and Commodore 64 support. He at least mentions and displays an Altair 8800, so it's barely an "S-100" site!

    Late in June, Bill Sudbrink posted in comp.os.cpm that he wrote a program to run Processor Tech ".ent" programs saved on cassette tape for the SOL operating system, as CP/M programs. He posted that the code and other details can be found on this Web page. There is an assembly source program there.

    April May 2006

    In May 2006, Rich Cini announced the upcoming availability of his Altair (8800a) front panel hardware emulator Altair32, and a new Web site to support and offer it. The front panel itself is a USB 8051-based device; the emulator runs on a PC under Windows. The Altair32 software product, freely available, emulates an Altair in a Windows environment with or without the USB front panel. Rich tells me (Dec 2007) the simulator owes some code to SIMH.

    In May 2006 in a comp.os.cpm discussion of Kaypro CP/M systems, this link was posted to mrynet domain's Web page of Kaypro software and docs and projects. There is also a link to Morrow MicroDecision information at this Web site. There is other info at the site as well.

    In April 2006 I stumbled over this PC-history Web site which has a chapter about George Morrow, a first-person account by Stan Veit written around year 2000. Since Veit's death the site has been maintained and preserved. Accounts of other computer manufacturers include Heath/Zenith, Imsai, Altair/MITS, and various non S-100 systems.

    A recent FTP site in the UK for CP/M and other old computer stuff is at this FTP link on the Landover Amiga BBS Web site by Lance Lyon, in their "classic computer" section.[dead link in 2008]

    Jan-Feb 2006

    Mike Sharkey informed me about his work on an 8080 simulator: "Oh, by the way, I just finished developing a pretty darned good (if I say so myself) graphical 8080 simulator that runs on Linux. You can download the source code at this location. [dead link in 2008, can't find sim80 anywhere] It requires the Qt library development files in order to build. Right now it loads binary files only starting at address 0000, however, a future revision will load Motorola S-records or Intel HEX format."

    In comp.os.cpm for mid Jan 2006, Steve Walz announced he has some Kaypro ROM images at this area of his Web site. Looking around his Web site, he has some other bits of software for MOrrows and other vintage systems. May be some S-100 stuff in there.

    In newsgroup comp.sys.zenith for mid-Jan 2006, there was a post by Steven Whitney announcing his 25 years of Programming site which has a section of Z89/H89 and Z100 / H-100 programs he's written, in DeSmet C and GWBASIC source form.

    links for 2005

    November-December 2005

    In newsgroup comp.os.cpm for late November 2005, there was a post by Ephraim Moya, in response to a person asking about how to develop a CP/M for the MicroBee. I've copied that post here with permission. He posted, "You might be interested in my old files. See [this link to his site]. There is an assembler, a c compiler, a linker, a librarian, etc. I've also released my old modular BIOS for the cp/m board I used to manufacture. These are all specific to my board and to the Z180 but the assembler, compiler, etc all work on vanilla cp/m. I have written a cp/m clone for my board. If there's any interest I'll find it and post it too. Take a look." - Ephraim F. Moya

    June-july 2005

    Two German CP/M Web sites of note. One is Club CP/M which appears to be an active organization supporting CP/M. The other is Prof 80 which appears to be a site supporting a Prof 80 computer, a Grip 1 computer, and a Prof 180 computer - all Z80 machines running CP/M 3.0, including some downloadable disk images.

    Here is a Web page for an XOR computer from Delta Products. This is an S-100 computer, owned by Jim Battle. Jim has several old computer Web pages, all linked from his "junk" home page. They include the XOR, SOL 20, Sage II, Bondwell, and some others. The XOR and SOL are S-100 systems. He includes a variety of software with photos and technical information on the computers themselves.

    In late June 2005, comp.os.cpm had a thread on "C vs Forth on the Z80" which includes some Web links. As of Dec 2005 the active links are to Leo Brodie's home page [dead link]and to a SourceForge project page.
    Brodie's page also links to the SourceForge "Thinking Forth" project page which includes a PDF of his "Thinking Forth" project. Brodie also links to his books for sale: "Starting Forth" is his classic Forth book.

    Long ago, there was an Internet discussion group (but not Usenet) for CP/M called "info-cpm". I found an archive recently of these messages at this Web site, for the period of 1980 to 1993. Apparently the messages began in 1979 but they are not available at this site. Jon Ripley apparently operates this personal site; his interests include 8-bit (BBC) Acorn computers. There are a few other archives of these info-cpm messages on the Web, and there is one on the Walnut Creek CP/M CD-ROM.

    April 2005

    Al Kossow's "bitsavers" archive of CP/M and other older computer software and documents has changed to this location, apparently as of late 2004. There is apparently noemail address on this Web page to Kossow, or anyone else. These pages are mirrored on a number of sites, listed on that page, as follows:
    bitsavers.trailing-edge.com (all)
    www.classiccmp.org/bitsavers (all)
    bitsavers.vt100.net (pdf)
    computer-refuge.org/bitsavers (pdf)
    zerkalo.curie.fr./mirrors/www.bitsavers.org/pdf
    (Some pages are difficult to read due to some HTML tags that cramp the text.)

    Feb 2005

    There has been a lot of discussion from David Dunfield in 2004 and 2005, in comp.os.cpm. Seems he is doing a lot of work on CP/M and other DRI op systems; working with or CREATING 8-bt system emulators; providing diskette images and imaging software; and discussing how to upgrade old systems to use 3.5" floppy drives. Check it out! (See my most current links to his work at this section of this page.

    There is a substantial archive of programs, information and technical notes on J. G. Harston's Web site at mdfs.net. Most of this UK site is oriented to 8-bit processors and the Acorn BBC Z80 computer of some years ago. There is also info on disk drives, media, formats. Look it over as there is a variety of stuff there.

    Jan 2005

    At comp.os.cpm in Jan 2005 John Elliot announced a new version of LibDsk library functions . He says "LibDsk is a library that attempts to create uniform functions for accessing discs and disc image files." Apparently it runs under Linux, MS-DOS and Windows, depending on how you compile it. Keep in mind it is a LIBRARY - a collection of C functions, not a utility program.

    An interesting history of the S-100 bus and product lines is on the Computer Conservation Society Web site in the UK. The CCS is associated with the British Computer Society. The history is from a talk given by Robin Shirley in 1993 and printed in their "Resurrection" bulletin. I have not checked it for historic accuracy and I don't agree with all the author's opinions, but it's unusual in its technical grasp of the details and scope of time. The CCS publishes a journal about twice a year. [updated links in 2008]

    Here's an odd duck: a Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III, re-implemented as a set of S-100 cards! Check out David Dunfield's computer museum for not one but TWO implementations! Ugly box however... (See my most current links to his work at this section of this page.

    links for 2004

    Dec 2004

    CP/M on the eZ80 by Holland, using a eZ80F91 module (eZ80Acclaim!) by ZiLOG with MMC flash memory add on. Clever! See the Dec 2004 comp.os.cpm discussion group for his thread on this. eZ80 development kits from Zilog (sold by Digikey et al) are available at various prices.

    Here is a restoration of a multiprocessor Compupro system, "restored" in March 2004 by DigiBarn of California, USA. Unfortunately, the restoration was limited to preserving the massive four-backplane chassis, and populating it with various S-100 cards. (Updates to the site say the original system can't be duplicated and the design is lost. It was a prototype for a multiprocessor design to do physics calculations.) Check the DigiBarn home page for details of that organization. The link here is for the multiprocessor system.

    Docs and code for the Exatron "stringy floppy"; as well as data sheets for many Western Digital floppy disk controller chips (1771, 1791, 1793, etc.) can be found at the TRS-80 Web site. The "stringy floppy" product was a custom cassette-tape drive and controller that was sold by Exatron for many computers. The TRS-80.COM site is a popular site for Radio Shack computer enthusiasts. It has many files of documents and software from Tandy for that product line; and manuals and data sheets for related products and parts. In the section on "emulators" you can find a Intel Hex file of the Exatron ROM for a Tandy application, in Z80 code. Disassemble it to use it on other stuff. The manual for programming is also on site.

    (Feb 2005 update) A Web page with nice Stringy Floppy photos is right here. Link posted on comp.sys.tandy in Feb 2005.

    Oct-Nov 2004

    I found an interesting Web page with descriptions and images of the famous ADM-3A Lear-Siegler terminal. This product was offered in the 1970's by Lear-Siegler (as in the private Lear Jet, etc.) Inc. as a kit or a completed terminal. Many minicomputer and (non-IBM) mainframe computers had these terminals connected to them. Later, many microcomputers used the ADM-3 and ADM-3a.

    An inquiry from an S-100 customer Kiel Bryant Hosier led me to his DigiBarn Web site section which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Mac with exhibits of artifacts from Mac development and use. Very interesting, check it out! He also has an exhibit of "computer art". What is that, I asked? Turns out Kiel has artistic sketches of robots "made" from very old computers, including the Altair 8800 of course. Ask him for details, mention my site if you wish.

    There was a discussion about converting from 8 inch floppy drives to 3.5" or 5.25", on Oct 2004 in newsgroup comp.sys.tandy. One correspondant posted this linkto a Web document, "Utilizing 5.25" or 3.5" media on your Tandy/Radio Shack computer system" by Frank Durda IV. Looks like a good document on using 5.25 and 3.5 inch drives on older equipment.

    In the same discussion thread as above, there was mention of the Catweasel floppy controller product, produced in Germany by Jens Schönfeld of Individual Computers (and sold by some US companies). Check my floppy drives resource page for current information on this product.

    Aug 2004

    While searching for Northstar tech info, I came across a personal Web site which describes the early history of Northstar and portrays a number of NorthStar former employees who also gathered with him a few years ago! Check Alan Bowker's Web site for his Northstar tribute and history pages. Alan was a tech support person for Northstar.

    While researching hard sectored diskettes, I found a history of early floppy and hard disk development by IBM on the "Recording Technology History" site [updated link 2008]. The page on IBM's work is not linked from this site's home page. That site refers to the RAMDAC Web page at the Magnetic Disk Heritage Center in San Jose CA, where IBM developed the magnetic disk drive and diskette drive.

    April-july 2004

    A reference in comp.os.cpm in July 2004 on articles about CP/M's GSX, led me to a German site which has archived a number of programs and articles about CP/M products. It's in German (I speak English) but it looks informative, and provides access to German work as well as work done in English. Check the CP/M section of Werner's Home Page.

    April 2004

    Hal Bower's Web site has been updated in late May 2004 to include more classic work on Z80 and Z180 operating systems. He has also "adopted" with permission related software as part of his archives. Items on his site include Uzi180, ZsDOS, ZDDOS, and B/P BIOS; ZMAC assembler and Modula; as well as Z-System software libraries. Hal's B/P BIOS is a BIOS to support memory bank switching for CP/M environments and support for SCSI, time of day clocks, etc. Specific computers supported by these products include the MicroMint SB180, the YASBEC, and others. Hal also has a library of diskette formats called "ALIEN" which can be used by B/P BIOS to access a variety of CP/M disks written on other systems; functions similar to 22DISK from Sydex.

    In mid-April 2004, Gaby Chaudry posted the following in comp.os.cpm: "As of today, all unrestricted FOG [First Osborn Group] disks (I think 216 different ones or so) are available for download from ZNODE51. They are in .ARC format to avoid problems when downloading LBR files (some browsers may cause CRC errors because of non-binary downloads). You can access the files at the znode51 Web site.

    In mid-April 2004 in newsgroup comp.os.cpm, Tilmann Reh offered some CP/M Plus programs to "process" MS-DOS disks, as opposed to using Sydex's 22DISK. CP/M Plus is an enhanced version of CP/M. His software is running on a Z180 system. I do not know if the programs he mentions below can be transported to a CP/M 2.2 system and/or a Z80 program.

    He said at the time: "So here are the programs to process MSDOS disks under CP/M-Plus: MSDOS241.COM, MSFORM20.COM, MSDIR10.COM .Take care that these are self-extracting archives for CP/M, not executable under DOS. - Tilmann Reh". As of 2006 the links to those files are obsolete, but his Web site at Autometer is still active. In a reply to the above post, Randy McLaughlin reports "22disk is a pain since it will not run under the NT family (NT, 2000, XP). 22disk will also not do high density under Win98."

    Stephen Mulchay's Web page has an informative document on the history of PC busses and drive interface schemes, which includes the predecessors to the IBM PC's ISA bus including the S-100 bus. He also refers to SCSI, IDE and other peripheral buses. Take a look, this information is hard to find elsewhere.

    Jan-Feb 2004

    Sol-20 Web Page about the Processor Tech SOL, page by Jim Battles. A lot of content including manuals and source code, check it out!

    index and contents of Creative Computing magazine appear to be on this site, which apparently supports Atari 8-bit systems. CC magazine issues Vol 8-11 seem to be scanned and on line. Other, mostly Atair-oriented, magazines are also listed. they have some Morrow articles so my Google search found the site.

    The Heathkit H8 and H19 is described and EMULATED on Dave Wallace's Web site. He has an emulation project which is current to mid-2003 but apparently not all features works under Win 95/98. Although my site is S-100, there is a stong lineage from the H8 to the H89 to the H/Z-100, the last of which IS S-100. And I like the old Heath's anyway. So encourage Dave with his work and maybe to move "up" to the H89 with his emulation!

    Chuck Falconer's Web site includes some interesting CP/M replacements for download. A Z-80 DDT, a CP/M replacment (DOSPLUS), and some other code. Chuck is very active on the comp.os.cpm newsgroup.

    A museum largely devoted to minicomputer and mainframe computing is the Computer History Museum in Mountainview CA. They do have some microprocessor stuff and apparently some S-100 items in their archives.

    The American Computer Museum opened in 1990 in Boseman MT. The collection includes many antique and recent office/business electronic appliances as well as mainframe, mini, and microcomputers. Also many ancient calculating artifacts. It seems to be set up in the traditional museum style as exhibit pieces are in cases and as "diaramas" in a timeline fashion. They claim they have registered the term "Compuseum" with the US Patent office.

    New for 2003

    Dec 2003

    FBE Research Company has a Web section for some old Heath/Zenith Z100 products and upgrades. This includes mods to some Z100 products. Also some Web links there. dead link as of Jan 2006

    The ZNODE 51 BBS One of the last of the pre-Internet BBS system, this page now is an archive site and also has some good links. Check their CD-ROM offer for classic software!

    July 2003

    links to CP/M related sites. Dmoz.org is a human-edited site for "cataloging the Web", an "Open Directory". Check the site's home page for details.

    J.G.Harston BBC PD Library and files for Z80, 6502, CoPro, Tubes/Econet, SJ and so forth. Emulators also.

    April 2003

    Vintage Computer Collection of Eric S Klein. Variety of personal computers and some MITS Altair 8800's. Also discussion boards.

    Tonh den Hartog's Museum of "old" computer items: GEM for the IBM PC, CP/M, Z-80 Spectrum.

    John Elliott's homepagehas a section on CP/M including some useful descriptions and discussion of CP/M programming, and some interesting links.

    an AltairZ80 simulator by Peter Schorn, based on the SIMH emulator family.
    I have not looked at this, it was announced in comp.os.cpm. Purports to run various disk images from the Altair or from CP/M disks. With C source. As of 2006, he also includes a number of operating systems with source: CP/M in various versions, and modified versions of 8080 or Z80 "dos"es with a CP/M BIOS. Check it out!

    The "oak.oakland.edu" site is gone, and so the "OAK CP/M" archive is gone. An Oakland University person said in a quoted email that they cannot afford to support their former archives. In April 2003 a ftp.mayn.de German FTP site mirrorred the Oak CP/M archive. (Gone as of Jan 2006.) The corresponding Web site lists MS-DOS and UNIX archives but does not list CP/M archives. Nevertheless via FTP the link above "works" although it is slow. It appears that the archive is complete and mirrors what was on Oakland's site. If you go up a few levels to the "/pub" directory, there are archives for many other processors, programs and systems. Check some of the README's to see terms of use. It appears that most but not all of the Oakland CP/M archive is on the Walnut Creek CP/M CD-ROM; commerical items in the Oakland archive may not be on the Walnut Creek CD-ROM.

    Feb 2003

    "The following were posted in late Feb 2002 by George Czerw, on newsgroup comp.os.cpm. I can't vouch for all of these sites; when I visit them I'll change these to Web links." - Herb in 2003.

    Chaos Cottage BBS CP/M file listing from 1998. This was for Amstrad/PCW software but also CP/M software and Z-system.

    Gene Buckle's extensive Retrocomputing Archive of files and documents.

    The DiskDoctor CP/M Page, by 2008 a Web page about CP/M and PCW's (Amstrad).

    Jan 2003?

    an updated mirror of a hard drive tech reference from Michigan Tech, by Chris Hooper.

    Howard M Harte's Northstar site with docs and I think an on-line Northstar system!

    D Bit's 8-inch floppy disk adapter for 8-inch drives on PC\windows systems. Note: they don't provide PC software for CP/M diskettes, but they do have an MS-DOS utility for PDP-11 diskettes called "PUTR" that may be relevant. Check my S-100 FAQ for further discussion of 8-inch floppy drives and PC/Windows systems. As of Nov 2004, this adapter was still available from dbit.com.

    The Retro Computer Society of Rhode Island has quite a collection of mainframe and minicomputers; and they've been kind to me when I've visited and donated stuff. They WERE a very active group and they have monthly public presentations at their warehouse/museum.Their Web site and domain as of 2008suggests they are less active, after a major physical move within Providence RI.

    2002

    In June 2002 I corresponded with Steven Vagts, the long time editor of Z-100 Lifeline, a newsletter about the Z-100 and related Heath and Zenith products. He also has some business in Z-100 products. His LifeLines Web page,
    (still there in 2003, again in 2006, 2008) has a lot of useful Z-100 information. Check with him for details.

    In Feb 2002 I discovered the FreeGEM Web site in the UK for FreeGEM. That site said Caldera/Lineo in 1999 released Digital Research's GEM under the GPL license agreement. Since 2002 FreeGEM has developed further: there is a FreeGEM Web ring linking several sites. Check it for current developments. As for Caldera and Lineo, and the current status of DRI's CP/M, check my Digital Research CP/M Web page. I'll also put some FreeGEM Web links there.

    In March 2002 I corresponded with Jim Battle. He has an extensive Web site on the Processor Technology SOL including on line docs, software, emulators, even cassette tape files! A lot of effort, and I'm pleased to link to him. Note: he also has some NorthStar stuff as the Northstar floppy disk controller was the classic upgrade to the cassette-based Sol. NorthStar started out as a disk-upgrade company before they made their own S-100 system.

    Web pointers for 2001

    Note: in Jan 2006 I've removed links that are duplicated above.

    Links as of Oct 2001:
    BBC Basic and other Z80 stuff by R. T. Russell

    Links as of sometime in 2001:
    HeathKit company page, by William A. Wilkinson.

    CP/M software archives as updated October 2000:

    The following list of CP/M software archives (Oct 2000) are courtesy of the CP/M FAQ:
    Update Computer club in Sweden has mostly old DEC stuff but that includes some Decmate CP/M software.
    UK site Demon Internet Service archives for many old OS's including CP/M Dead in Jan 2006

    The following archive listings are a result of a Google search and verification, October 2000:
    Seasip at demon.uk CP/M site, no updates since 2005.
    Cereal.mv.com's archive of OS/2, MS-DOS and CP/M software among others.
    Southcom site, Australian, HAD quite a selection of CP/M files. Now it's just Linux.

    Digital Research archives: Lineo had some of these files (and DR-DOS) available via FTP since 1999, at their FTP site but no longer as of 2005. Their "terms of use" suggested then they were are available for non-commerical use and for licenced commercial use. There may be other stuff there.

    Links before 2001

    As of April 2008 I've verified all links below, removed or edited dead one, removed links already referenced above.

    New for October 2000:

    Classic computing . com site by David Greelish. Site comes and goes.
    Trailing Edge Web site of old computers is back in 2006. Has a lot of software resources.
    MESS site, a single emulator for various old computers, mostly gaming systems.
    Microdrive offers a "clone" of CP/M on their site.
    Logan Industries HAD updates of DRI multiuser DOS, a commercial product, on this site. In 2006 they just link to other sites with Web based products.

    As of July 2000:

    Tom Carlson's Obselete Computer Museum. includes list of many other old computer Web sites, show and tell about many old computers.
    As of 2006, he's apparently selling off his collection and "virtualizing" his museum.

    Multibus manufacturers group dead link as of 2006

    New for jan 2000:

    Mark Rison offers a Z80 assembler and TCP/IP source code for Amstrad on his page. [Gone as of 2008, do a Web search.]

    New for July 1999:

    Roger Hanscom's new (Oct 2001) "computer archeology" Site - Z80 stuff, early IBM stuff.
    Classic BASIC games page BASIC games to download.
    Tim Mann's TRS-80 site ,with related info on S-100 topics:

    New as of Nov 1998:

    Vintage Computer Festival in CA.
    MITS/Altair: the Virtual Altair Museum
    Yahoo! Altair Computer Club, chat area & msgs

    New for Sept 1998:

    The Retro-Computing Society of RI, Inc.mostly larger computers (mini's, mainframes). [See their current link in 2008 above.}

    Jim Willing's Computer Garage (now museum) and parts store

    Computer Museum of America (San Diego CA, USA) Home Page
    As of 2005 the collection was "gifted to a local university library". Their Aug 2005 newsletter mentions their "last hurrah" at Coleman College.


    Contact information:

    Herb Johnson
    New Jersey, USA
    To email @ me, see see my ordering Web page.

    Copyright © 2008 Herb Johnson