history of dos

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THE HISTORY OF DOS
The origin of MS-DOS can be traced back to 1980 when Seattle Computer Producers developed a microcomputer operating system for in-house use and was called QDOS and then renamed 86-DOS in late 1980 after modification. Microsoft bought the rights to 86-DOS which had a contract with IBM to produce an operating system for IBM's new PC. The 86-DOS was modified and called PC-DOS 1.0. When PC Compatible machines were produced they used a similar version of PC-DOS called MS-DOS. Version 1.0 of DOS was released in 1981 giving single sided disc drive capability. Version 1.1 of DOS was released in 1982 giving double sided disc drive capability (single sided on V1.0) and output to a serial printer. Version 2.0 released in 1983 gave hard disc support, sophisticated hierarchical file directory, installable device drivers and file handles. Version 3.0 released in 1984 gave improved hard disc and network support. Version 3.3 released in 1987 continued this trend. Version 4.0 released in 1988 provided the DOSSHELL, expanded memory driver, larger than 32Mb hard disc partitions. Version 5.0 released in 1991 designed as an upgrade which enabled device drivers to be placed in upper memory leaving more conventional memory available to programs.