HP Multi-Programming Executive

Discontinued mainframe/minicomputer operating system

MPE, MPE XL, MPE/iX
Developer	Hewlett-Packard
Written in	System Programming Language, HP Pascal, Assembly language
Working state	Discontinued
Initial release	1974; 50 years ago (1974)
Latest release	7.5 / August 2002; 21 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 made by Hewlett-Packard. While initially a mini-mainframe, 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

^ 3000-MPE (Software), on HPMuseum site, retrieved on October 2019.
^ 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. 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

Hewlett-Packard

Founders

Directors

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	Pavilion Spectre ENVY OMEN Stream HP Chromebox Essential laptops

Consumer electronics
and accessories

Photography and printing	Deskjet LaserJet Scitex Photosmart

Other divisions

Software

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 OmniBook OmniGo iPod+HP VoodooPC TouchPad Internet Advisor Vectra Brio Mini Slate TouchSmart Sprout NetServer Kayak