This article presents a

timeline A timeline is a display of a list of events 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 represen ...

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 Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

-family disk operating systems 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 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibil ...

-based and 16-bit x86-based CP/M 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 An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

adaptation kits (OAKs) – all Microsoft releases before version 3.2 were OAKs only *

Shrink wrap Shrink may refer to: Common meanings *Miniaturization *Shrink, a slang term for: ** a psychiatrist ** a psychoanalyst ** a psychologist Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Shrink'' (album), album by German indie rock/electronica group The Notwist ...

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

2001–2022: Post-millennium

Notes

References

External links

Origins of DOS
, Tim Paterson website
PC DOS Retro
by Vernon C. Brooks

* /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 Ngram Viewer or 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 2019 in Google's text co ...

DR-DOS versions
{{Disk operating systems

Timeline of x86 DOS