UCSD Pascal was a specific implementation of the programming language
Pascal which used the
P-code machine architecture.
The UCSD Pascal compiler was distributed as part of a portable operating system, the p-System[?].
There were four versions of UCSD Pascal (and the p-System):
- Original version, never distributed outside of the University of California, San Diego.
- Widely distributed, available on many early microcomputers.
- Custom version written for Western Digital to run on their Pascal Micro-Engine[?] microcomputer.
- Commercial version, developed and sold by Sof-tech. Did not sell well due to combination of their pricing structure, performance problems due to P-code interpreter, and competition with native operating systems (which it often ran on top of). After Sof-tech droppped the product it was picked up by Pecan Systems (a relatively small company formed of p-System users and fans). Sales revived somewhat, due mostly to Pecan's reasonable pricing structure, but the p-System and UCSD Pascal gradually lost the market to native operating systems and compilers.