HP Multi-Programming Executive

MPE, MPE XL, MPE/iX

Developer	Hewlett-Packard
Written in	System Programming Language, HP Pascal, Assembly language
Working state	Discontinued
Initial release	1974; 51 years ago (1974)
Latest release	7.5 / August 2002; 22 years ago (2002-08)
Platforms	HP 3000
Default user interface	Command-line interface
License	Proprietary

MPE (Multi-Programming Executive) is a discontinued business-oriented mainframe computer real-time operating system developed by Hewlett-Packard for their HP 3000 computers. While the HP 3000s were initially mini-mainframes, the final high-end systems supported 12 CPUs and over 2000 simultaneous users.

Description

It runs on the HP 3000 family of computers, which originally used HP custom 16-bit stack architecture CISC CPUs and were later migrated to PA-RISC where the operating system was called MPE XL.

In 1983, the original version of MPE was written in a language called SPL (System Programming Language). MPE XL was written primarily in Pascal, with some assembly language and some of the old SPL code.

In 1992, the OS name was changed to MPE/iX to indicate Unix interoperability with the addition of POSIX compatibility. The discontinuance of the product line was announced in late 2001, with support from HP terminating at the end of 2010. A number of 3rd party companies still support both the hardware and software.

In 2002 HP released the last version MPE/iX 7.5.^[1]

Commands

Among others, MPE/iX supports the following list of common commands and programs.^[2]

• =SHUTDOWN
• BASIC
• CHDIR
• COPY
• DEBUG
• ECHO
• ELSE
• EXIT
• FORTRAN
• HELP
• IF
• PASCAL
• PRINT
• RENAME
• SH
• WHILE

References

1. 3000-MPE (Software), on HPMuseum site, retrieved on October 2019.
2. MPE/iX Commands Reference Manual - HP 3000 MPE/iX Computer Systems - Edition 11^{[permanent dead link‍]}

External links

• Allegro Consultants, Inc. Free HP 3000 Software, MPE Software Support
• Beechglen Development Inc. Archived 1996-12-27 at the Wayback Machine MPE Software Support
• HP MPE/iX homepage
• HP MPE/iX Command reference
• openMPE Archived 2018-08-23 at the Wayback Machine Advocates of continued MPE and IMAGE source code access beyond 2010