CP/M-386 Brings CP/M to 32-Bit Protected Mode
CP/M-386 – CP/M for 386 protected mode, derived from CP/M‑68K
CP/M-386 is an early-stage operating system that ports CP/M to the 386's 32-bit protected mode, with full Ring-3 TPA support. It boots from floppy or GRUB, supports VGA text and serial consoles, and is highly source-compatible with CP/M-68K and CP/M 2.2. The project is in very early development, lacking drivers for storage and networking, but includes a suite of utilities and can be tested under QEMU.
CP/M-386 is currently in the very early development stages.
- rswail
One of my first jobs, back in the 1980s, was a project for a government department that the supplier (Wang Computers) had bet on MS-DOS being multi-process.
Of course, it wasn't but there was MP/M-86/CCP/M/CDOS/DR-DOS which allowed you to have 4 "users"/virtual TTYs.
So we ended up using that along with some tweaks to the software (including an IBM 3270 emulator, MS-Word/Excel (the DOS versions), and a custom software app) that ended up getting deployed to a few hundred government offices.
Mostly worked except some of the software really didn't like the fact that it was being swapped out of keyboard/screen access.
- iqp
I'm pretty sure CP/M 86 was already a thing. I believe there was even Concurrent CP/M 86, which let you run up to 4 (or more?) virtual sessions concurrently. Light years ahead of MS-DOS but nobody wanted it, so DRI dumbed it down and added MS-DOS compatibility and re-released as DR-DOS (still superior to MS-DOS though).
- anonymousiam
CP/M‑386 is currently in the very early development stages.
Full 32‑bit protected mode implementation with Ring‑3 TPA.
Bootable via 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk MBR or GRUB Multiboot kernel.
Supports VGA text (0xB8000) and/or COM1 serial (9600/N/8/1, 0x3F8) consoles.
No floppy/hard disk/CD/USB/network/sound/other drivers (yet).
So it boots from a floppy, but has no floppy disk support?
- rgmerk
CP/M - because pip just makes more sense than copy.
- flomo
Just as some off-the-top history, MS-DOS was clearly obsolete, but it hung around for like 10 years too long because people couldn't quit it. It was a DOSSY DOS world.
"Protected Mode DOS" went through the IBM/MS gristmill and became OS/2, which was a compromised product in a lot of ways. Then Windows (still mostly a DOS program) got a little traction, and Microsoft had hired Dave Cutler to write a real OS. And David overthrew Goliath and the rest is history. On topic, nobody really wanted protected-mode DOS or CP/M etc.