PL/M

The PL/M programming language (an acronym of Programming Language for Microcomputers) is a high-level language developed by MAA (later Digital Research) in 1972 on behalf of Intel for its microprocessors. PL/M is no longer supported by Intel, but aftermarket tools like PL/M-to-C translators exist (for examples, see External links, below).

The language incorporated ideas from PL/I, ALGOL and XPL, and had an integrated macro processor. PL/M had no standard input or output routines like other contemporary languages like Pascal, C or BASIC. It included features targeted at the low-level hardware specific to the target microprocessors, and as such, it could support direct access to any location in memory, I/O ports and the processor interrupt flags in a very efficient manner. PL/M was the original implementation language for the CP/M operating system. Also the firmware of the Service Processor component of CISC AS/400 was written in PL/M. PL/M compilers have been made for the following processors/controllers: Intel 4004, 8008, 8080, 8051, 80196, 8086/8088, 80186/80188, 286, and 386. While some PL/M compilers were "native", meaning that they ran on systems using that same microprocessor, e.g. for CP/M systems and the Intel ISIS operating system, there were also "cross compilers" which ran on other operating environments such as Microsoft's DOS, and Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX/VMS.

References

• Intel Corporation (1976). PL/M-80 Programming Manual. Doc # 98-268B.
• McCracken, Daniel D. (1978). A Guide to PL/M Programming for Microcomputer Applications. Pearson Addison-Wesley.

External links

• PL/M 386 Programmer’s Guide (PDF) – RadiSys Corporation, December 1999. Includes entire syntax of PL/M in BNF notation.
• Development Assistant for PL/M (DA-PL/M) – Commercial PL/M IDE from RistanCASE GmbH
• PLM2C - PL/M to C Translator – Commercial product from Alternative Solutions
• XTRAN Demonstration: Translating PL/M to C – Commercial product from Pennington Systems, Inc.
• Micro-Processor Services, Inc., a supplier of translators from PL/M 51, 80, 86, 96, 186, 286, and 386 to C

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.