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From: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
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Subject: [COFF] Re: Terminology query - 'system process'?
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    > From: Derek Fawcus

    > How early does that have to be? MP/M-1.0 (1979 spec) mentions this, as
    > "Resident System Processes" ... It was a banked switching, multiuser,
    > multitasking system for a Z80/8080.

Anything with a microprocessor is, by definition, late! :-)

I'm impressed, in retrospect, with how quickly the world went from proceesors
built with transistors, through proceesors built out discrete ICs, to
microprocessors. To give an example; the first DEC machine with an IC
processor was the -11/20, in 1970 (the KI10 was 1972); starting with the
LSI-11, in 1975, DEC started using microprocessors; the last PDP-11 with a
CPU made out of of discrete ICs was the -11/44, in 1979. All -11's produced
after that used microprocessors.

So just 10 years... Wow.

	Noel