Cosmos
Although the CPC6128 was sold as a Colour Personal Computer (CPC), its configuration in the as received condition referred to a Home Computer, including 128 KB RAM, 180 KB floppy disc drive and 32 KB Video RAM. By adding an external high capacity disc drive, a RAM expansion, a hard disk, a serial interface as well as a mouse, the CPC6128 was turned into a Competitive Personal Computer (CPC). Thus, a lot of serious business applications that existed for CP/M-80 could be executed with ease allowing the user to focus on his work and not on how to deal with the hardware limitations of the system. Typical examples of such applications were WordStar (706 KB), Protext (406 KB), Multiplan (208 KB), SuperCalc 2 (240 KB), DBase II (272 KB) and other Programming software.
COSMOS is a personal COSt MOnitoring System programed by KSL for CPC6128. It has been developed under CP/M 2.2 which was the industry standard of the late 70s - early 80s. COSMOS can be used on an everyday basis in order to edit the daily income, plan the monthly expenses and perform trial and error analyses aiming at maximizing the annual profit. This budget monitoring system is a business application similar to the MSDOS-era PC applications and one of the most recent (2020) projects developed for CP/M-80. Unlike most applications for CP/M, COSMOS is built upon the mouse based graphics user interface as pioneered by Xerox at Palo Alto and popularized by Apple with the Lisa and Macintosh computers.
COSMOS supports all the hardware peripherals that were (contemporary) available for running business applications using the CP/M of CPC6128: the 512 KB Dobbertin Memory Expansion, the ParaDOS or X-DDOS ROMS for the external high capacity (800 KB) floppy drive, the 20 MB Dobbertin Harddisc, the Amstrad Serial Interface, the Amstrad Parallel Printer Port, the CTM640/CTM644 colour monitor and the AMX Mouse. Graphics in COSMOS are implemented on the basis of its internal own GSX. Finally, in order to accomplish its task, the Dobbertin version of CP/M 2.2 (v1.2) which provides 63 KB TPA is required.
By executing COSMOS setup installation utility (A>SETUP) that is included in the COSMOS original disk, the user can initialize any annual project or start a temporary project in order to become familiar with the COSMOS user interface and functions. As far as the controls are concerned, Cursor keys or Mouse can be used in order to control the pointer. [F0] key simulates the left button of the mouse, whereas [F.] key simulates the right button of the mouse. Left button can be used for (Yes), whereas the right button can be used for (No),(Next) or (On-Board) help. ESC key can be used to quit.
Upon installing COSMOS in drive B or HD20 it is suggested to execute COSMOS using all the available extra RAM (no RAM load minimization) and to use a new empty boot disk in drive A as the redundant disk. Notice that a full annual project of COSMOS, including the user attachments, the user block of invoices, the summary files as well as the user agenda notices requires minimum 350 KB of disc space. Finally, the software also contains the latest version of ASCII Tools.
To download the latest version of COSMOS (v.26/Winter 2020) use the link located at the bottom of this page.
Boot CP/M 2.2 v1.2 using the original COSMOS disk and execute A>SETUP.COM.
