It was developed by [[Gary Kildall]] of [[Digital Research|Digital Research, Inc.]] as a private project from 1974 on, named '''''C'''ontrol '''P'''rogram/'''M'''onitor''. When it became commercial software in November 1977 it was renamed to '''''C'''ontrol '''P'''rogram for '''M'''icrocomputers''.
CP/M is in three partsdivided into 3 components:* BIOS (Basic Input/Output System): It consists of input/output routines. The console command processor It manages data transfer between the CPU and various peripherals.* BDOS (CCPBasic Disk Operating System) which : It directs the activities of the disk controller and manages the file allocation on the disk. It allocates memory space under a file name.* CCP (Console Command Processor: It handles your input from the "A>" prompt. The basic disk operating system (BDOS) and the basic input/output system (BIOS).
The CCP and BDOS are machine independent and are made by Digital Research. The BIOS is implemented by the vendor (e.g. Amstrad).