While my primary interests are in CP/M and S-100 systems, there's interest in the community of those users in TurboDOS. Discussions in the last several years have lead to a recent (2011) apparent release from copyright of TurboDOS. This Web page provides a little background, the notice of release, and Web links. Most recent revision of this page dated Mar 1 2011. (c) Copyright 2011 Herb Johnson. Corrections appreciated. - Herb Johnson
TurboDOS was a multiple processor and multiple user operating system developed around S-100 cards and systems, and released in 1982 by a company called "Software 2000 Inc." That company was formed by Mick Busch apparently in 1977, in Arroyo Grande, California. As of Feb 2011, an entry for Mick Busch in Linkedin says: "Owner/President Software 2000, Inc. (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry) 1977 - Present (34 years )."
The Z80 version of TurboDOS generally supports 8080 and Z80 programs which run under CP/M, plus it supports networks of multiple users running multiple processor; and shared mass storage. System brands supported with TurboDOS include MuSys, IMS International (former Industrial Micro Systems), Televideo, Morrow Designs, Advanced Digital, Intercontinental Micro Systems (ICM), Pulsar (Australian reseller), NorthStar, Teletek. Many of these were S-100 systems. Software packages for word processing and database were offered by other companies. An 8086 version was available by 1984. TurboDOS saw commercial and some personal use in Z80 systems of the 1980's and through the 1990's. It was not inexpensive to license for redistribution, or to purchase. The apparent Z80 (8080?)versions in use were TurboDOS 1.4+, preceeded by 1.4 and 1.30.
From the 1990's and into the 21st century, there's been occasional interest in TurboDOS in the vintage computing commmunity. A number of CP/M archive and related archive sites, as well as individuals with their own Web sites, have accumulated TurboDOS materials or discuss systems or software. In Jan-Feb 2011, there was another round of discussion of TurboDOS in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.cpm. (See this commentary about one particular poster in that newsgroup.)
A suggestion posted by N8VEM developer Andrew Lynch led to an apparent inquiry to Mick Busch. A notice published by Per Frejvall in Usenet newsgroup comp.os.cpm on Feb 10 2010 titled "TurboDOS is now free!" says quote:
Bearer of good news, it is good to be! Message from Mike Busch, co-founder of Software 2000 and creator of TurboDOS: "Per, Software 2000, Inc. Is no longer enforcing its copyright on TurboDOS. Have fun with it, and thanks for asking. Mike" Unfortunately, they don't have any copies of the sources. We'll have to disassemble if we want to hack it. I will, in a short while, prepare a complete download package and send it to Gaby and Peter Schorn. /per
See the site notes below for descriptions of the persons mentioned.
Gaby Chaudry as mentioned above is the owner and operator of the "unofficial CP/M" archive Web site. Peter Schorn has supported CP/M for some time and supports his Altair 8800 simulator based on SIMH simulators. Per Frejvall of Sweden has worked with TurboDOS for many years; I do not have a public Web location for him. A search of comp.os.cpm archived messages will uncover more information about TurboDOS, from years of prior posts.
Owners of other CP/M and related archive sites, responded to the above post, and indicated interest in hosting (additional) TurboDOS documents and files. I'll provide links to them here as I find them. Unfortunately, Web searches for "Software 2000" and "TurboDOS" often find copies of the Wikipedia description, on Web pages designed to "attract" general searches to ads.
bitsavers.org, TurboDOS from Software 2000; also IMS
former Bill Buckles's TurboDOS museum site
Oakland CP/M archive of TurboDOS
Rlee Peter's privately collected archive, Advanced Digital files including TurboDOS
copy of dyndns.org site with IMS 5000 (LF technologies) manuals and binaries
copy of dyndns.org site with Philips P3500 or 3500 system which used TurboDOS. Includes TD programs written by and release to the public domain by a "S. Kluger"
There was a review of TurboDOS published by the ACM as follows:
TurboDOSTM multiprocessor operating system
Author: William A. Schultz
Published in: ACM '83 Proceedings of the 1983 annual conference on Computers : Extending the human resource
pages: 138 - 139
This article can be purchased online.
Here's a link to an email conversation I had with Ken Koswener, in Feb 2010, about his Industial Micro Systems experiences and TurboDOS activities. Quoted with permission.
As part of my S-100 (computer bus) manufacturer's manuals archives, I have paper originals or copies of the following manuals as shown on one of my S-100 documentation pages. Thanks to Emmanuel Roche for noting these to my attention.
Advanced Digital Corp. (ADC) Super 6 system SINGLE CARD
Turbodos 1.2 manual as follows:
Users Guide 120 pgs
Doc Update 12 pgs
Configuration Guide, with IMS hardware driver listings, 153 pgs
SuperSix Bios manuals (ver 2.2, 2.3) 30 pages
SuperSix Tech manual, schematics, 50 pages
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