Date : Sun, 29 May 1983 20:15:11-PDT (Sun)
From : harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!vestal@ucb-vax
Subject: Results of CP/M system survey
Descriptions for 120 8-bit systems running CP/M were received.
Only a few replies stating use of CP/M-86 were received, and
these systems have not been counted. A few comments are in order
before giving the quantitative results.
First, a single site reported using 25 Altos 8000 machines.
Another site reported using "several" Altos machines as well, and
I choose the number 7 as being more than a few, less than a lot,
and capable of being stored in a nibble. These were included in
the reports as 32 separate systems, and each entry which might be
affected by such a large block has been marked with an
asterisk(*).
Second, many systems had different types of floppie drives and
more than one communications software package. The results
posted are for system combinations; i.e., if a single system had
both 8" and 5-1/4" floppies, then it was counted in two
categories for question three. Systems with several
communications programs were similarly counted in several
categories. As a result, there were a total of 132 CPU/floppie
categories and 141 machine/software categories.
Finally, floppie drives reported to be switchable have been
included at their highest performance. For example, my 8" drives
are single/double density, single/double sided; they have been
recorded in the 8" DS DD category. It is my understanding that
most drives can accept a lower density and fewer sides than the
maximum capacity reported. No non-standard 8" formats were
reported; the number of 5-1/4" formats is, of course, known but
to God.
I. What kind of machine do you have?
number percentage
of systems of total
Altos 8000(*) 33 27 %
custom assembly 19 15 %
Osbourne I 8 7 %
Northstar Horizon 7 6 %
Heath/Zenith Z89 6 5 %
Kaypro II 5 4 %
TRS-80 5 4 %
Morrow Micro/Design Decisions 5 4 %
Big Board I 4 3 %
Apple II 3 3 %
Compupro System A/B 3 3 %
Max 80 3 3 %
Xerox 820 3 3 %
14 other system types 16 13 %
Total for 27 types 120 100 %
II. What version of CP/M do you run?
2.2 was the almost universal answer.
III. What kind of floppie does your system run?
system percentage percentage
combinations of size of total
5-1/4" 50 100 % 38 %
SS SD soft 9 18 % 7 %
SS DD soft 15 30 % 11 %
DS DD soft 9 18 % 7 %
SS SD 10 sector 3 6 % 2 %
DS DD 10 sector 6 12 % 5 %
other or unspecified 8 16 % 6 %
8" (*) 82 100 % 62 %
SS SD 13 16 % 10 %
SS DD (*) 51 62 % 39 %
DS DD 13 16 % 10 %
unspecified 5 6 % 4 %
Total system combinations 132 100 %
IV. What sort of modem communications software do you use?
system percentage
combinations of total
none (*) 39 28 %
Modem ? 34 24 %
MDM??? 11 8 %
user written 9 6 %
TriCom 7 5 %
Yam 5 4 %
Ascom 4 3 %
19 additional programs 32 23 %
Total 141 101 %