4 Minutes of Productivity : CP/M Applications on the Apple II

CP/M (Control Program For Microcomputers) was a command-line OS that would later inspire MS-DOS. Developed by Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research, this OS ran on computers equipped with a 80-column text card and the Zilog Z80 processor. CP/M was a widely used OS and many productivity programs, like WordStar, dBase, and SuperCalc, ran under it. Because of the expandable nature of the Apple II, these features could be added to the Apple II as well. Natively, the Apple II couldn't run CP/M as that computer had a 6502 processor and a 40-column text display (technically, CP/M could run on a 40-column display, but one might as well smash there head against a wall as it's mostly unusable. Just look at the Coleco Adam).
However, Microsoft made there Z-80 SoftCard that had the appropriate processor on it. Using the 80-Column text card alongside the SoftCard, now the Apple II was one of the best CP/M machines that anyone could use. Again, this is yet another milestone accomplishment of Wozniak as he designed the motherboard and the expansion capabilities that would go on and define the Apple II.
Z-80 SoftCard (Wikipedia)
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CP/M (Wikipedia)
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Gary Kildall (Wikipedia)
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