Let's simplify this ... A LOT. The most common disk format (BY FAR) for CP/M was 8-inch, single sided, single density. If they are in that format, then virtually any CP/M system with 8" floppy disk drives can read the disks (assuming that they are still readable). It is very unlikely to matter what disk controller was used to write the disks, it is very unlikely to matter what system originally created the disks. The 8" SSSD format is "gold standard interchangeable" among virtually all CP/M systems with 8" floppy drives. And it was, BY FAR, the most common CP/M disk format. Finding a working CP/M system with 8" drives should not be difficult. I have 3 of them here (I'm in Ohio, USA). There are still many thousands of running CP/M systems around. A slightly greater problem is getting the files moved from the 8" CP/M floppy disks to another [more useful] form of media. What you really want is a system with both 8" and 5.25" floppy drives, and a PC with 5.25" floppy drives. Such a system would allow you to move the files from 8" CP/M to DOS/Windows, which is probably the objective. My experience in reading 8" diskettes written in the 1970's has been excellent. I have hundreds, probably a couple of thousand such disks, and I have only had a single-digit number of diskettes that I have been unable to read out of all of those. Others who have actually had experience with large numbers of 8" disks also report very high success rates with disks that have been stored in climate-controlled environments. Now if the disks were outside in a garage for 20 years, that would be another matter of course, but for well stored disks, readability is not usually an issue. It is possible that the disks are not SSSD (single sided, single density), and if that is the case, then the problem becomes far more complex. Once you get away from 8" SSSD, there is no standard disk format, rather there are hundreds of different formats specific to each implementation of CP/M. This could [greatly] complicate recovery, however, under no circumstances would this make recovery impossible. CP/M is highly adaptable, and with some effort (programming) it would be possible, first, to determine the format, and, second, to adapt any CP/M system to be able to read any disks for which it had the correct type of drive. In general, unless the format is ***VERY*** non-standard, it doesn't matter what the controller was that wrote the disks. Most systems used Western Digital 17xx controllers, some did use NEC 765 controllers (which existed for a couple of years before the PC came out), and a few used discreet logic controllers. But for the most part (and in particular between the WD and NEC based controllers), disks were interchangeable with regard to being READ. A few people mentioned hard-sectored media. While hard sector 8" disk systems did exist (I have two of them here), it was very, very rare for hard-sectored media or systems to run CP/M. Invariably, systems using hard-sector 8" media ran proprietary operating systems. You can assume that any 8" CP/M system was soft-sectored and be correct at about the 99% level.