How2Day: Applications of the 8085 Microprocessor

The Intel 8085 was an early microprocessor. Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
The 8085 processor, introduced by Intel in 1977, was an update of their older 8080 processor. The chip was an 8-bit processor that was used in various personal computers of the time and that ran the CP/M operating system, which was created by Digital Equipment Corp. -- on which Microsoft later based their MS-DOS operating system. Even though the processor used 8 bits for most operations (by comparison, most computers built as of October 2010 use 64-bit chips), it was able to perform a number of 16-bit operations, making it more versatile than other pure 8-bit chips.

The first word processor to gain general acceptance, WordStar ran under the 8085 chip on the CP/M operating system. The word processor was originally called WordMaster and was created by MicroPro International. It was the first word processor to be made available that was not tied to a specific type of computer but instead tied to a specific type of operating system (CP/M was able to run on a number of different computers) and it happened to be available to run on the 8085 microprocessor. The software was later ported to work on the TRS-80 computer (one model of which used a variation of the 8085 chip), Microsoft DOS and the Apple II computer.

Another word processing program (InfoWorld referred to it as a "text editor," though the two basically do the same thing), The Electric Blackboard was also made available for CP/M, which in turn used the 8085 chip. The software was designed to split the screen into several "windows" that would allow one to work on various sections of a document or to create columns more easily. The software also offered a primitive form of multitasking, allowing different windows to have different documents open at one time and providing a means to switch between them at will.

An early programming language, Microsoft Basic allowed people to create their own software for computers. Basic was itself an application that ran under CP/M and the 8085 microprocessor and that allowed users not only to edit the text of the programming code for their program but also to actually compile the program, thus creating a free-standing program that could be run on the 8085 processor under CP/M. Basic was later incorporated into Microsoft MS DOS.

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