It seems that Gary Kildall did give the answer that ended the debate. Here's what the CP/M FAQ says:
Q1: Does CP/M stand for anything?
A: (Don Kirkpatrick) There are at least three popular answers - Control Program for Microcomputers, Control Program for Microprocessors, and Control Program/Monitor. The issue is clouded by authors of popular CP/M books giving different answers. According to Gary Kildall (the author of CP/M), in response to a direct question on the PBS show "The Computer Chronicles" following Computer Bowl I, the answer is: Control Program for Microcomputers. This is also consistent with DRI documentation. See, for example, p. 4 of the DRI TEX manual.
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Z-80
From : Herman Yan
Gil Parrish said:
> I believe the Z-80 on the 128 is pretty quiet until you boot up CP/M.
Actually, the Z-80 isn't quiet at all! The Z-80 in the C128 is used *every time* you boot up as that's the first processor that gets initialized. The C128 Programmer's Reference Guide descibes it best so I'll quote it here (p. 576):
PROCESSOR SWITCHING
It is important in normal operation for the Z80 and the 8502 to operate as coprocessors, communicating with each. Since only one processor may have the bus at any one time, this is only serial coprocessing, not parallel coprocessing or multiprocessing. This is important in several ways:
First, the C128 system must power-up with the Z80 as master processor. This is to prevent the Z80 from accidentally accessing the bus when powering up. Thus, the Z80 is made master on power-up and can do anything it likes to the bus. Also, because the Z80 can start-up certain C64 applications that would cause the 8502 to crash, the Z80 starts-up the 8502 in either C128 or C64 mode, depending upon whether a cartridge is present and upon the type of cartridge....
Second, processor switching allows the Z80 to access 8502 Kernal routines. For standardized programs or for any I/O operation not supported in the Z80 BIOS, the Z80 can pass on the task of I/O to the 8502. Since the Z80 sees BIOS ROM where the 8502 sees its pages 0 through F, the Z80 can operate without fear of disrupting any 8502 pointers or the stack in RAM Bank 0. The Z80 ROM BIOS physically overlays that critical section of RAM Bank 1.
