This article presents a

timeline A timeline is a list of events displayed in chronological order. It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates paralleling it, and usually contemporaneous events. Timelines can use any suitable scale representing t ...

of events in the history of 16-bit

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

-family

disk operating system A disk operating system (DOS) is a computer operating system that requires a disk or other direct-access storage device as secondary storage. A DOS provides a file system and a means for loading and running computer program, programs stored on th ...

s from 1980 to present. Non-x86 operating systems named "DOS" are not part of the scope of this timeline. Also presented is a timeline of events in the history of the 8-bit

8080 The Intel 8080 is Intel's second 8-bit microprocessor. Introduced in April 1974, the 8080 was an enhanced successor to the earlier Intel 8008 microprocessor, although without binary compatibility.'' Electronic News'' was a weekly trade newspa ...

-based and 16-bit x86-based

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/Intel 8085, 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Dig ...

operating systems from 1974 to 2014, as well as the hardware and software developments from 1973 to 1995 which formed the foundation for the initial version and subsequent enhanced versions of these operating systems. DOS releases have been in the forms of: * OEM adaptation kits (OAKs) – all Microsoft releases before version 3.2 were OAKs only *

Shrink wrap Shrink wrap, also shrink film, is a material made up of polymer plastic film. When heat is applied, it shrinks tightly over whatever it is covering. Heat can be applied with a handheld heat gun (electric or gas), or the product and film can p ...

packaged product for smaller OEMs ( system builders) – starting with MS-DOS 3.2 in 1986,
Microsoft offered these in addition to OAKs * End-user retail – all versions of IBM PC DOS (and other OEM-adapted versions) were sold to end users.
DR-DOS began selling to end users with version 5.0 in July 1990, followed by MS-DOS 5.0 in June 1991 * Free download – starting with OpenDOS 7.01 in 1997, followed by FreeDOS alpha 0.05 in 1998
(FreeDOS project was announced in 1994)

DOS era version overview (1980–1995)

1973–1980: Hardware foundations and CP/M

1980–1995: Important events in DOS history

1995–2000: Windows 9x era

2001–2024: Post-millennium

Notes

References

External links

Origins of DOS
, Tim Paterson website

* /books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=IBM%2CMicrosoft&year_start=1975&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=6&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CIBM%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CMicrosoft%3B%2Cc0 IBM vs. Microsoft

Google Ngram Viewer The Google Books Ngram Viewer is an online search engine that charts the frequencies of any set of search strings using a yearly count of ''n''-grams found in printed sources published between 1500 and 2022 in Google's text corpora in English, ...

DR-DOS versions
{{Disk operating systems

Timeline of x86 DOS