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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.

Commands

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

• =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

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

v t e Hewlett-Packard
HP Inc. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Founders	Bill Hewlett David Packard
Directors	Marc Andreessen Mohamed M. Atalla Shumeet Banerji Raj Gupta Raymond J. Lane Ann Livermore Gary M. Reiner Patricia F. Russo (Chairwoman) Jim Skinner
Executive officers	Meg Whitman Todd Bradley Dave Donatelli Martin Fink Henry Gomez John Hinshaw Marty Homlish George Kadifa Tracy Keogh Cathie Lesjak Mike Nefkens Antonio Neri John F. Schultz Bill Veghte
Computer hardware products	HPE Servers BladeSystem Integrity Superdome ProLiant NonStop Storage HPE Storage HPE XP HPE 3PAR HP Inc. Business laptops ProBook EliteBook ZBook Business desktops ProDesk EliteDesk Z workstations Consumer PCs OmniBook OMEN HP Chromebox
Consumer electronics and accessories	Aruba Networks Calculators Teradici HyperX Plantronics Photography and printing DeskJet JetDirect LaserJet ScanJet Scitex Photosmart
Other divisions	Colorado Memory Systems Indigo Digital Press Scitex Systems Insight Manager HPE Networking
Software	HyperSpace OS HP-UX HP Data Protector NonStop OS NonStop SQL
Discontinued products	Compaq line HP Compaq HP Compaq Elite TC Presario Evo iPAQ AlphaServer Software Domain/OS LightScribe MPE OpenVMS (sold) HP QuickPlay Tru64 UNIX WebOS (sold) Services HP Cloud HP CloudSystem HPE Helion Hardware Jornada OmniGo iPod+HP VoodooPC TouchPad Internet Advisor Pavilion Spectre ENVY Stream Essential laptops Vectra Brio Mini Slate TouchSmart Sprout NetServer Kayak
Closed divisions	VoodooPC ProCurve Sold: Palm Snapfish
HP CEOs	List of HP executives Co-founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard John A. Young Lewis E. Platt Carly Fiorina Mark Hurd Léo Apotheker Meg Whitman
Assets	HP Garage HP Labs HP Atalla
See also	Acquisitions HP spying scandal HP Inc. assets Products Mission: SPACE Steve Wozniak

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