PL/M

PL/M, an acronym for Programming Language for Microcomputers, is a high-level language conceived and developed by Gary Kildall in 1973 for Hank Smith at Intel for the Intel 8008. It was later expanded for the newer Intel 8080.

The 8080 had enough power to run the PL/M compiler, but lacked a suitable form of mass storage. In an effort to port the language from the PDP-10 to the 8080, Kildall used PL/M to write a disk operating system that allowed a floppy disk to be used. This was the basis of CP/M.

History

Kildall was working at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 1973 when he received funds to equip a computer lab, first with MCS-4-based SIM4 and, a year later, the Intel 8008-based Intel Intellec 8. As part of his employment, Kildall was allowed to spend one day a week on his own projects, but soon found himself spending much more than that living in his VW Microbus in the parking lot of the Intel offices on Bowers Avenue in Santa Clara.

One day he went to see Hank Smith, Intel's manager for the tiny microcomputer software department. Kildall explained his idea of making a high level language for the 8008. Smith didn't understand the concept, so Kildall explained that a programmer could write something like X = Y + Z and the program would convert that into several lines of assembler code which would perform this operation. Smith then called one of Intel's customers and asked if they might be interested in such a product, and when they expressed their interest, Smith immediately told Kildall to do it.