by TomXP411 » December 28th, 2018, 3:03 pm
So here's the thing...
The original Altair 8800 did not start up to a terminal prompt. This didn't become a thing until the Turnkey ROM was available for the Altair model with no front panel switches. The Altiar Turnkey had nothing on the front but a key operated power switch, if I recall.
Without the Turnkey monitor, starting CP/M (or any disk based OS) requires the sequence Altair users have come to know and love: left 8 switches up, right 8 switches down, EXAMINE, RUN.
If you really want to run a CP/M computer without the need to interact with the front panel, you might want to look at either Altair32 (an Altair emulator running on Windows), or maybe RunCPM, which is a modern Z80 emulator designed to run CP/M and load files directly from the file system. (You don't use floppy images; you just drop files in directories named A, B, etc.)
RunCPM can run in a shell on Windows, Linux, or MacOS, or you can install it on a microcontroller. I'm running it on an Arduino Due (with a microSD shield) and a Teensy 3.6. The Teensy runs CP/M amazingly fast, and the Teensy board is so small that it looks more like a USB memory stick than a computer. I am currently using one to help develop my Windows terminal program; I don't always have access to my Altair Clone or my Altairduino, but the Teensy is small enough I can just toss it in my computer bag. Since it needs some protection, I'm just using a small container that my spare Z80 processor shipped in.