Philips P5040 Boot disk wanted - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

JohnBHanson · 12th Apr 2014, 4:14 pm

I have a Philips P5040 computer and would like a CP/M boot disk. If anyone has one of these machines out there could they copy CP/M for me.

Many thanks.

SiriusHardware · 16th Apr 2014, 8:52 pm

John, can't help you directly - although there's a lot of crossover here with many people on these forums being interested in retro tech of all sorts, your particular problem is so obscure that you might be better off asking in a specialist vintage computer forum such as:-

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/forum.php

I think that's a primarily USA based forum, so much will depend on whether your Philips was a European oddity or was available on the world market.

I can sympathise with the problem: Unlike the DOS world where all the machines DOS ran on had largely common hardware, CP/M ws available across a wide range of platforms and several microprocessor families, plus each manufacturer tended to go their own way with the disc format their machine used so you often couldn't just put a disc from one CP/M Z80 system (for example) into a drive on one made by another manufacturer and expect it to be able to read it. To get software from one machine to another it was common to have to use terminal programs and a serial lead.

When I was having a similar problem (not on a Philips system, something else) many years ago there was a very active CP/M user group which tried to maintain archives of operating system discs, CP/M software and so on... but that was a very long time ago, and I can find no recent traces of their existence now. Your best hope seems to be the freakish possibility that someone still has one with the OS discs. A brief search showed that these systems have occasionally been sold complete with the discs at various times within the past few years, so someone most have them.

mike_newcomb · 18th Apr 2014, 3:34 pm

Hi John, see here:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=261413988908

Suggest contact the seller, who may be able to help and/or put you in contact with the purchaser.

Please advise back on progress.

Some photos of yours would be interesting to see.

CPM was a nightmare and destined/deserved to fail. e.g.
a) meaningless student type commands like - PIP instead of COPY
b) some manufactrures used special formating programs which they did not distribute, so you could only buy already formatted floppys from them.
Little wonder DOS replaced it.

Regards - Mike

JohnBHanson · 18th Apr 2014, 4:16 pm

Actually already explored that route(!). But thanks for the heads up.

julie_m · 18th Apr 2014, 4:42 pm

At least the software for CP/M boxes was written in Assembly language, constrained for space and you could get -- and alter -- the Source Code easily enough. Can't do that with bloated, pre-compiled binaries written in high-level languages .....

12th Apr 2014, 4:14 pm	#1
JohnBHanson Heptode Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Worthing, Sussex, UK. Posts: 661	Philips P5040 Boot disk wanted I have a Philips P5040 computer and would like a CP/M boot disk. If anyone has one of these machines out there could they copy CP/M for me. Many thanks.

16th Apr 2014, 8:52 pm	#2
SiriusHardware Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK. Posts: 11,556	Re: Philips P5040 Boot disk wanted John, can't help you directly - although there's a lot of crossover here with many people on these forums being interested in retro tech of all sorts, your particular problem is so obscure that you might be better off asking in a specialist vintage computer forum such as:- http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/forum.php I think that's a primarily USA based forum, so much will depend on whether your Philips was a European oddity or was available on the world market. I can sympathise with the problem: Unlike the DOS world where all the machines DOS ran on had largely common hardware, CP/M ws available across a wide range of platforms and several microprocessor families, plus each manufacturer tended to go their own way with the disc format their machine used so you often couldn't just put a disc from one CP/M Z80 system (for example) into a drive on one made by another manufacturer and expect it to be able to read it. To get software from one machine to another it was common to have to use terminal programs and a serial lead. When I was having a similar problem (not on a Philips system, something else) many years ago there was a very active CP/M user group which tried to maintain archives of operating system discs, CP/M software and so on... but that was a very long time ago, and I can find no recent traces of their existence now. Your best hope seems to be the freakish possibility that someone still has one with the OS discs. A brief search showed that these systems have occasionally been sold complete with the discs at various times within the past few years, so someone most have them.

18th Apr 2014, 3:34 pm	#3
mike_newcomb Rest in Peace Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: West London, UK. Posts: 665	Re: Philips P5040 Boot disk wanted Hi John, see here:- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=261413988908 Suggest contact the seller, who may be able to help and/or put you in contact with the purchaser. Please advise back on progress. Some photos of yours would be interesting to see. CPM was a nightmare and destined/deserved to fail. e.g. a) meaningless student type commands like - PIP instead of COPY b) some manufactrures used special formating programs which they did not distribute, so you could only buy already formatted floppys from them. Little wonder DOS replaced it. Regards - Mike

18th Apr 2014, 4:16 pm	#4
JohnBHanson Heptode Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Worthing, Sussex, UK. Posts: 661	Re: Philips P5040 Boot disk wanted Actually already explored that route(!). But thanks for the heads up.

18th Apr 2014, 4:42 pm	#5
julie_m Dekatron Join Date: May 2008 Location: Derby, UK. Posts: 7,735	Re: Philips P5040 Boot disk wanted At least the software for CP/M boxes was written in Assembly language, constrained for space and you could get -- and alter -- the Source Code easily enough. Can't do that with bloated, pre-compiled binaries written in high-level languages ..... __________________ If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments.