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CP/M
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<p>CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market <a href="/facts/Operating_system/8XTuvMh2">operating system</a> created in 1974 for <a href="/facts/Intel_8080/32FvNTcD">Intel 8080</a>/<a href="/facts/Intel_8085/jXpfJnM4">85</a>-based <a href="/facts/Microcomputer/ETW22UTv">microcomputers</a> by <a href="/facts/Gary_Kildall/yzxo0mLU">Gary Kildall</a> of <a href="/facts/Digital_Research/9bYQl2pI">Digital Research, Inc.</a> CP/M is a <a href="/facts/Disk_operating_system/Kc28g5MR">disk operating system</a> and its purpose is to organize files on a magnetic storage medium, and to load and run programs stored on a disk. Initially confined to single-tasking on <a href="/facts/8-bit_processor/2CkhLNoH">8-bit processors</a> and no more than 64 <a href="/facts/Kilobyte/jIe6t4yv">kilobytes</a> of memory, later versions of CP/M added multi-user variations and were migrated to <a href="/facts/16-bit_processor/bTGS44Ne">16-bit processors</a>. </p><p>CP/M eventually became the <i><a href="/facts/De_facto/3Du6WQKh">de facto</a></i> standard and the dominant operating system for microcomputers, in combination with the <a href="/facts/S-100_bus/3C5L4KSt">S-100 bus</a> computers. This <a href="/facts/Computer_platform/DmKwp5Bk">computer platform</a> was widely used in business through the late 1970s and into the mid-1980s. CP/M increased the market size for both hardware and software by greatly reducing the amount of programming required to port an application to a new manufacturer's computer. An important driver of software innovation was the advent of (comparatively) low-cost microcomputers running CP/M, as independent programmers and <a href="/facts/Hacker_culture/8ww6P79y">hackers</a> bought them and shared their creations in <a href="/facts/User_group/grXwgJbX">user groups</a>. CP/M was eventually displaced in popularity by <a href="/facts/DOS/sWwDXNmX">DOS</a> following the 1981 introduction of the <a href="/facts/IBM_Personal_Computer/yhcJGMPL">IBM PC</a>. </p>