CP/M and the Year 2000

Disclaimers

I am not an official spokesman for any organisation that owns or sells CP/M. All information on these pages is the result of tests made by me or other third parties. It may be incorrect. I accept no responsibility for dire consequences caused by the use of information or programs on this page; use them at your own risk!
If I say a program or operating system is 2000 compliant, it only means that my tests have failed to detect any flaws. On the other hand, if I say that something is not 2000 compliant, I'm probably on to something :-)
This is still very much a work in progress; if a particular CP/M version is marked as unknown, and you have Year 2000 information on it, please let me know.
This page is limited to discussion of the operating system. If you have a hardware clock, you will also need to check its compliance; similarly, you need to check any applications that you are using.
Some application patches can be found at http://www.gaby.de/edownl.htm.

Notation

The version numbers listed below are the internal numbers used by the BDOS; under CP/M-86, these do not necessarily correspond to the version numbers used by other parts of the system.

To determine your BDOS version number, download and run VER80.COM for 8-bit systems or VER86.CMD for 16-bit.

Links to files

Downloadable fixes for known Year 2000 problems.

8-bit systems

CP/M 1.x

The OS makes no use of dates and so is fully Year 2000 compliant. You will still need to check any applications you use.

CP/M 2.x

The original Digital Research CP/M 2 makes no use of dates. However, several third-party BDOSes have been produced, which behave like CP/M 2 but also include time and date functionality:

Z80DOS: Z80DOS itself is 2000 compliant. Its date utility (TIMEZD12.COM) will not display dates past 2000 correctly, but such dates can be entered.
DOS+: DOS+ itself is 2000 compliant. Its date utility (TIME.COM) will accept dates past 2000, if they are entered explicitly as four digits.
P2DOS: P2DOS is 2000 compliant, and it is supplied with an excellent date utility that is also 2000 compliant. A version of this date utility suitable for use in Z80DOS, DOS+ and CP/M 3 is available on the fixes page.

NovaDOS and SUPRBDOS are derivatives of P2DOS and the P2DOS information also applies to them.

CP/M 3.x (CP/M Plus)

The CP/M Plus BDOS is 2000 compliant, but the utilities DATE, DIR and SHOW are not. See the fixes page for information on obtaining updated versions of these programs.

16-bit systems

BDOS 2.x (CP/M-86 v1.1)

The BDOS itself includes no date functions. However, the BIOS displays the current date on the screen; Year 2000 patches for this are available at the Unofficial CP/M Website, DOWNLOAD >> CP/M-86 >> PATCHES

BDOS 4.x (DOSPLUS; Personal CP/M-86 v2.0/2; CP/M-86 Plus)

The BDOS itself is Year 2000 compliant. The PCP/M-86 v2.0/2 and CP/M-86 Plus utilities (DIR.CMD; SDIR.CMD; SHOW.CMD; DATE.CMD) will not allow entry or display of dates after 2000. The DOSPLUS equivalent (COMMAND.COM) will.