BYTE Vol 11 01 1986 01 Robotics

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THE CRITICS' CHOICE

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CONTENTS

■■■■■■■■■

82

158

FEATURES

Introduction 82

Product Description: The Atari 520ST

by }on R. Edwards, Phillip Robinson, and Brenda Mclaughlin 84

The company's latest venture is a competitive 68000 system.

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: Build an Analog-to-Digital Converter

by Steve Garcia 104

Steve returns to this topic with a state-of-the-art converter.

Product Preview: Q&A by Jon R. Edwards 120

This software package combines word processing and file management with a full macro facility and an effective natural-language interface.

Programming Proiect: A SIMPL Compiler,

Part 2: Procedures and Functions by \onathan Amsterdam 130

Procedures and functions are useful but can be difficult to compile.

Creating Reusable Modules by Namir Clement Shammas 145

You can lower programming costs and increase reliability with the strategy described.

Programming Insight: Easy 3-D Graphics by Penning Mittelbach 153

Develop three-dimensional graphics on the IBM Personal Computer, the Macintosh, and the Apple II family.

THEMES

Introduction 158

Machine Vision by Phil Dunbar 161

Despite various obstacles, vision-system hardware continues to develop.

Robotic Tactile Sensing by Kirk E. Pennywitt 177

For robots to achieve widespread use, they must be equipped with sophisticated sensory capabilities.

Multiple Robotic Manipulators

by I. Scott Hawker. R. N. Nagel. Richard Roberts, and Nicholas G. Odrey 203

Coordinating two robots isn't as easy as it sounds.

Autonomous Robot Navigation

by Charles lorgensen. William Hamel. and Charles Weisbin 223

Three robotics researchers discuss the art of teaching robots to look before they leap,

AI in Computer Vision by ]ohn L. Cuadrado and Clara Y. Cuadrado 237

A simple system demonstrates the role artificial intelligence may play in advanced computer-vision systems.

Automation in Organic Synthesis by Gary W. Kramer and Philip L. Fuchs 263

If automation is to come to organic chemistry, it must be flexible enough to allow facile reconfigurations.

REVIEWS

Introduction

Reviewer's Notebook by Glenn Hartwig

288

.291

BYTE (ISSN 0360-5280] is published monthly with one extra Issue per year by McGraw-Hill Inc. Founder: lames H. McGraw M860-I948) Executive, editorial circulation, and advertising offices: 70 Main St.. Peterborough. NH 03458. phone (603) 924-9281 Office hours: Mon-Thur 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM, Friday 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM. Eastern Time. Address subscriptions to BYTE Subscriptions, POB 590, Martinsville. NI 08836. Postmaster send address changes. USPS Form 3579, undeliverable copies, and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 596, Martinsville, N[ 08836 5econd-class postage paid at Peterborough. NH 03458 and additional mailing offices. Postage paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Registration number 9321 Subscriptions are 52! for one year. S38 for two years, and 555 for three years in the USA and its possessions. In Canada and Mexico. S23 for one year. 542 for two years. S6I for three years. 569 for one year air delivery to Europe 17.100 yen for one year surface delivery to lapan S37 surface delivery elsewhere. Air delivery to selected areas at additional rates upon request Single copy price is 53.50 in the USA and its possessions, S3 95 in Canada and Mexico. $4 50 in Europe, and S5 elsewhere Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a US. bank Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery of first Issue. Printed In the United States of America.

2 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

COVER PAINTING BY ROBERT T1NNEY

BITE

VOLUME II, NUMBER I, 1986

Canon-s A-200 by Peter V. Callamaras 293

It's compatible with IBM's PC. and it has room to grow.

Color Fox by ]ohn D. Unger 301

Scottsdale Systems soups up a Sanyo.

Eco-C88 C Compiler m David D. Clark 307

An inexpensive package for MS-DOS machines.

Inside The Sider by Douglas E. Hall 319

A hard disk for the Apple 11+ and lie.

Advantage! for the AT by TJ Byers 327

One way to add memory and I/O ports.

Enable^ Steve King 331

Integrated software for IBM PCs.

Review Feedback 344

Readers respond to previous reviews.

KERNEL

Introduction 346

Computing at Chaos Manor: One Minor Problem by \erry Pournelte 349

Hey. what's one minor problem? Tune in and find out

Chaos Manor Mail conducted by jerry Pournelle 366

lerry's readers write, and he replies.

According to Webster: Benchmarking by Bruce Webster 371

Finding himself settled in Utah. Bruce talks about benchmarks and makes some predictions.

BYTE Japan: Favoring Kanm by William M. Raike 381

Bill reports on the NEC computers, a lapanese version of the Macintosh, and the new Fujitsu lap-size portable.

BYTE U.K.: The Acorn RISC Machine by Dick Pountain 387

Our U.K. correspondent reports on a commercial RISC processor.

Mathematical Recreations: Euclid's Algorithm by Robert T. Kurosaka 397

Learn how to convert repeating decimals to fractions.

Circuit Cellar Feedback conducted by Steve Qiarcia 403

Steve answers project-related queries from readers.

Editorial:

A Threat to Future Software 6

Microbytes 9

Letters 14

Fixes and Updates 33

Whats New 37, 408

Ask BYTE 44

Clubs and Newsletters 54

Book Reviews 57

Event Queue 78

New Services 404

Unclassified Ads 461

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box. BOMB Results 462

Reader Service 463

Address all editorial correspondence to the Editor. BYTE. POB 372. Hancock NH 03449 Unacceptable manuscripts will be returned if accompanied by sufficient first-class postage Not responsible for lost manusctlpts or photos Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTE

Copyright © 1986 by McGraw-Hill Inc. All rights reserved Trademark registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Where necessary, permission is granted by the copyright owner for libraries and others registered with the Copyright Clearance Center ICCCI to photocopy any article herein for the flat fee of SI 50 per copy of the article or any part thereof Correspondence and payment should be sent directly to the CCC. 29 Congress St Salem MA 01970 Specify ISSN 0360-5280/83 SI 50 Copying done for other than personal or internal reference use without the permission of McGraw-Hill Inc Is prohibited Requests [or special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to the publisher BYTE is available in microform from University Microfilms International. 300 North Zeeb Rd Dept PR. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106 or 18 Bedford Row Dept PR. . London WCIR 4EI England

Subscription questions or problems should be addressed to: BYTE Subscriber Service. POB 328, Hancock. NH 03449

288

346

SECTION ART BY ROB COLVIN

IANUARY 1986 'BYTE 3

Inquiry 343

The Electric Sponge: EnGarde

EnGarde™ is the only surge suppressor with the added protection of an anti-static touch pad that safely absorbs harmful static charges from your body. It protects computer memory and data from disruptions, while shielding your system from static charges that degrade delicate microcircuitry.

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EnGarde™also protects your computer from power surges caused by changes in electrical loads and other electrical disturbances. It includes a limited five-year warranty'.

EnGarde™ is a product of Systems Control, manufacturer of power protection systems for the nation's utility companies.

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4 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

BYTE

editor in chief

Philip Lemmons managing editor, print Gene Smarte managing editor,

electronic publishing and communications

George Bond consulting editors

Steve Ciarcia Jerry Pournelle Bruce Webster senior technical editors

G Michael Vose, Themes Gregg Williams technical editors

Thomas R. Clune

Jon R. Edwards

Richard Grehan

Glenn Hartwig. Reviews

Ken Sheldon

Ianf. Morrill Tazelaar

Tom Thompson

Charles D. Weston

Eva White

Stanley Wszola

Margaret Cook Gurney. Associate

Donna Osgood. Associate, San Francisco

ALAN Easton, Drafting

NEWS AND TECHNOLOGY

Ezra Shapiro Bureau Chief, San Francisco Rich Malloy. Senior Jechnicai Editor, New York Phillip Robinson. Senior Tecnnical Editor. Pah Alio Tony Lockwood. Senior News Editor, Peterborough associate news editors Dennis Barker. Pererfwoudfi Brenda McLaughlin, San Francisco Lynne M. Nadeau. Peterborough

contributing editors

Ionathan Amsterdam, programming projects

David Betz. programming

Mark Haas, at large

Rik Iadrnicek. CAD. graphics, spreadsheets

Robert T. Kurosaka. mathematical recreations

Alastair I W Mayer, software

Alan Miller, languages and engineering

Dick Pountain. U.K.

William M. Raike, \apan

Perry Saidman. computers and law

Robert Sterne, computers and law

COPY EDITORS

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art

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senior vice president/publisher

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personnel

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Editorial and Business Office: 70 Main Street. Peterborough. New Hampshire 03458. (603) 924-9281 West Coast Offices: McGraw-Hill 425 Battery Si San Francisco. CA 94111. (4151 362-4600.

McGraw-Hill. 1000 Elwell Court Palo Alio CA 94303. |415| 964-0624 New York Editorial Office: 1221 Avenue of ihe Americas New York. NY 10020 (2121 512-2000.

Oflicers of McGraw-Hill Informalion Systems Company President Richard B Miller Executive Vice Presidents Frederick P lannott Construction Information Group. Russell C White. Computers and Communications Information Group: I. Thomas Ryan. Marketing and International Senior Vice Presidents Francis A Shinal. Controller: Robert C Violette. Manufacturing and Technology Senior Vice Presidents and

Publishers Laurence Alt man. Electronics Week; Harry L Brown, BYTE and Popular Computing: David J. McGrath. Construction Publications. Group Vice President Peter B McCuen. Communications Information Vice President: Fred O. lensen. Planning and Development

Officers of McGraw-Hill. Inc Harold W McGraw. Ir, Chairman. Joseph L Dionne. President and Chief Executive Officer: Robert N. Landes. Executive Vice President and Secretary Walter D Serwatka. Executive Vice President. Publishing Services: 5he! F, Asen, Senior Vice President. Manufacturing Ralph R Schulz. Senior Vice President. Editorial: George R Elsinger. Vice President, Circulation. Ralph I Webb. Vice President and Treasurer

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EDITORIAL

A Threat to Future Software

Last October Digital Research Inc. yielded to pressure from Apple and agreed to change its GEM software to decrease its resemblance to Apple Macintosh software. (GEM is an operating environment for several MS-DOS- and PC-DOS-based computers that allows a user to interact with a computer via windows and icons rather than the usual text-only commands.) Let's ignore, for the moment, the uncertain worth of a "visual copyright" (the legal term for Apple's copyrighting of the overall "look" of Macintosh software). Let's also ignore the ethics of Apple's actions. The point to focus on, instead, is that Apple's actions are to no one's benefit: Both the microcomputer industry and Apple itself will suffer from their effects.

Apple's actions will slow the growth of the microcomputer industry, which will hurt Apple by shrinking the potential microcomputer audience. Already, several small companies are worried that some project they're working on (and, often, they with it) will be cut down because it is "too Mac-like." In addition, the success of Apple's tactics may encourage other companies to try similar actions, thus increasing the paralysis and anxiety in the industry.

These actions will stifle the incremental evolution that is at the root of any significant growth in our industry. By "incremental evolution" I mean the process of gradual improvement of a product type that eventually leads to a more robust, useful product. For example, AshtonTate's Framework did not spring full-blown from the heads of the programming team at Forefront, it had its roots in Dan Bricklin's and Bob Franston's VisiCalc spreadsheet, Sorcim's Supercalc (which added functions and sold to a market not supported by VisiCalc), Mitch Kapor's VisiPlot (which gave the distinctive highlighted menu bar now used in so many programs), the software integration of Lotus 1-2-3. and the icons, windows, and pulldown menus of—well, you get the point. If companies are afraid to go to market with what they think are incremental—but distinct—improvements on a basic design, we will become a stagnant industry bounded by the usual and comfortable.

6 BYTE' JANUARY 1986

According to Irving Rappaport, Apple's associate general counsel, Apple's intent is to prevent other companies from creating products that are easy to use because of their similarity to the Macintosh. "If people look at it and say, Gee, that's like the Mac—1 can operate that,' when that's the result you get. it's over the line" of infringement of Apple's copyrights. The effect of this intent is to fragment the industry in the face of what was becoming a de facto standard for human-computer interaction. This lack of standardization will cause many people to stay uninterested in computers because they will have to releam basic skills with each brand of computer they encounter. (Imagine how many people would drive cars if car manufacturers used different controls for every function in the car.)

Apple might argue that, by claiming a larger slice of a smaller pie, it will still come out ahead. We believe that it will be hurt directly by its actions and will end up with a smaller piece of a pie that is itself smaller. Apple will, in effect, build a wall around its ghetto of Macintosh products, thus limiting its own growth and encouraging people to "live" elsewhere.

Texas Instruments' TI-99/4A provides a good example. Tl announced that it intended to directly profit from all software written for its machine by forcing thirdparty software developers to publish their products through Tl. When a brave.few brought out 99/4 cartridges on their own. Tl added a proprietary chip to their cartridges that the computer required before it would run the enclosed software. Needless to say, the few developers working on 99/4 software wisely turned to support other computers.

The same may happen to Apple. IBM already sells over half the business computers bought today, and IBM PC-compatibles account for a fairly large slice of what's left. If Apple has been slowing the erosion of its market share to IBM with the Macintosh line (and I think it has), its current moves will alienate software and hardware developers, who will begin to lavish their creativity upon the more congenial IBM PC-compatible marketplace. And where innovation goes, the market will follow.

Consider: IBM made its software and

hardware architectures open. It allowed the development of innumerable hardware clones, many far more similar to IBM products than GEM is to the Macintosh desktop; consequently, the IBM PC-compatible market far outdistanced its combined competitors in less than two years. On the other hand, Apple is actively discouraging not only copying but also borrowing from its software design. It claims the sole right to benefit from a set of ideas that Apple itself has borrowed and improved on (the most direct borrowing was from work done at Xerox PARC). Given these two opposing directions, what do you think will happen?

A Call to Action

We at BYTE call on Apple to recognize the long-term implications of its actions and limit itself to prosecuting cases where the alleged theft is not of "looks" but of actual program code. Barring that, we call on Apple to license its allegedly copyrightable interface to markets that do not directly compete with its current or planned product line—if the licensing fees are reasonable, everyone will profit.

If neither of these things happen, we call on the judicial system to hand down rulings that reflect a strict interpretation of the visual copyright laws—that is, that a product is at fault only if it shows no distinguishing characteristics in appearance or operation from the alleged original; this would protect products that show incremental evolution. We also call on the industry to do two things. The first is to stand up to Apple and see the case decided on its legal merits. The second is to develop an alternative graphic interface and allow its wide adoption throughout the non-Apple computer community; in this way, the rest of us can get on with the business of making computers—in general—good enough that everyone will want to use them.

[Editor's note: Apple maintains that the agreement covers "only three specific products'.' but one of them is GEM Desktop, which defines the overall GEM environment. Also, according to Kathleen Dixon of Apple, the agreement includes any custom work DRI has done, including the modified GEM software that Atari uses in its 520ST computer.] ■ —Gregg Williams. Senior Technical Editor

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FLOPPY DISKS THE GOLD STANDARD

Inquiry 228

SmarTerm 220 software makes DEC terminals obsolete!

You don't need a DEC terminal to access DEC'S new generation host software. Now you can use your IBM PC and SmarTerm 220 terminal emulation software to access All in One, A to Z, and other popular mainframe software. SmarTerm 220 gives you sophisticated, accurate DEC VT220, VT100, VT102 and VT52 emulation, and includes TTY mode to link you to popular services like The Source, CompuServe, Dow Jones, EASYLINK, and Tymnet.

As you've learned to expect from Persoft, the industry leader in software terminal emulation, SmarTerm 220 continues the tradition of offering "smart" software solutions where IBM PC hardware limitations prevent exact duplication of DEC terminal features. For example, we give you horizontal scrolling for 132-column text display, and also support popular 132-column

video display boards. And we provide "convenience" features not found in other terminal emulation packages like: "Branch to DOS" hot key, automatic installation, color support, multiple setups, "smart" softkeys, remappable keyboard layouts, and online help screens detailing PC and AT keyboard mappings. Our unique support for DEC's popular EDT editor includes convenient keyboard mapping of the "GOLD" and PF function keys, as well as an EDT specific on-line help screen, and keytop chart.

International business people take note: SmarTerm 220 fully supports European versions of the DOS operating system, 8 bit mode, the VT220 multinational character sets, and the compose key.

SmarTerm 220 is a powerful communications package as well, allowing text and binary file transfer at speeds up to 19,200 baud. In addition to the

popular XMODEM "error-free" protocol, we include our own PDIP protocol and supply you with free BASIC and FORTRAN programs which implement the protocol on VAX/VMS systems.

"Farm out" your obsolete DEC terminal, and join the satisfied users who "reap" the benefits of SmarTerm!

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SmarTerm 220—DEC VT220

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SmarTerm 125—DEC VT125

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And now the new SmarTerm 240—DEC VT240

PUT YOUR DEC TER OUT TO PASTURE!

After SmarTerm, what do you do with your obsolete terminal?

IDEA CREDIT: Ann Garner Riddle of Winston-Salem, N.C.

■SmarTerm is a registered trademark of Persoft, Inc. 'PDIP is a trademark ol Persoft, Inc. 'DEC, VT, ReGIS, A lo Z and All in One are trademarks ol Digital Equipment Corp. "DASHER is a registered trademark ol Data General Corp. "Tektronix Is a registered trademark ol Tektronix, Inc. © Persoft, Inc. 19B5, All rights reserved,

Persoft, Inc - 2740 Ski Lane - Madison, Wl 53713 (608) 273-6000 - Telex 759491

8 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

persop

Inquiry 430 for End-Users. Inquiry 431 for DEALERS ONLY.

M 1CROBYTES

Staff-written highlights of late developments in the microcomputer industry.

Epson, Toshiba Announce Color LCDs

Toshiba has developed an active-matrix, eight-color, 640- by 480-pixel, 10-inch-diagonal liquid-crystal display (LCD) that nearly matches the brightness of a standard color TV. No pricing or availability information was given.

Epson announced a backlit, high-contrast, 5.13-inch-diagonal color LCD with a resolution of 480 by 440 pixels (one-third of which are red, green, or blue). Epson says the display's contrast ratio is more than 10 times that of a standard reflective LCD and has a viewing angle greater than 60 degrees. Epson also unveiled a high-contrast, 9-inch-diagonal monochrome LCD with a resolution of 640 by 400 pixels. Samples of both displays will be available during the first half of 1986; prices should be approximately twice as much as standard reflective LCDs.

Epson also announced two 10-inch-diagonal monochrome displays using ferroelectric smectic-C crystals. The 640- by 400-pixel and 640- by 200-pixel displays are said to have high contrast ratios, low power consumption, and moderate cost; samples may be available late this year.

Optical-Disk Developments: Write-Once Drives, Partnership

Optimem, which currently makes 12-inch write-once optical-disk drives, showed a prototype multifunction 5'/2-inch optical-disk drive at COMDEX. The drive will work with read-only, write-once, and erasable disks produced by 3M. Optimem had not yet finalized specifications for the drive but expects to begin shipments in 1986.

Sony announced a new line of write-once optical-disk drives. The WDD-2000 uses a 20-cm (8-inch) optical disk that can store I gigabyte of formatted data; a single drive with a controller will have a list price of $16,000. The WDD-3000 uses a 30-cm (12-inch) optical disk to store 2.1 or 3.2 gigabytes of formatted data, depending on the disk used; a single drive with a controller will have a list price of $19,000. Sony also unveiled a jukebox-style device capable of holding 50 of the 12-inch disks.

AGA Inc., New York, NY, introduced an optical-disk system for the IBM PC based on a 12-inch write-once drive from Alcatel-Thomson Gigadisk. AGA says its Discus 1000 stores up to 3 gigabytes of text data or up to 50 gigabytes of graphics images on a 1-gigabyte disk, using a proprietary data-compression technique. The drive alone is available for $21,500; with the data-compression facility, it's $31,000.

Du Pont and N. V. Philips revealed a joint venture to produce optical disks, including 4.7-inch CD-ROM and CD audio disks, a 12-inch write-once disk, and an unspecified erasable disk. The joint venture hopes to produce 200 million disks annually by 1990, half for data storage.

New Developments in 32-bit Chips

Signetics, Sunnyvale, CA, unveiled the 68070, a microprocessor that is compatible with Motorola's 68000 but also includes on-chip memory management and direct memory access. Samples of the 68070 should be available from Signetics and parent company Philips next summer, with production quantities available in late 1986.

National Semiconductor began shipping samples of its 32332 microprocessor, which provides more on-chip functions and memory-addressing capability than the 32032. New onchip features include dynamic bus-sizing (8-, 16-, or 32-bit data buses), burst-mode memory addressing, a barrel shifter, an expanded instruction queue, and support for external cache memories. The 32332 expands the 32032's I6-megabyte address space to 4 gigabytes by adding a full 32-bit address register. While the 32032 was available only in 6-, 8- and 10-MHz versions, the 32332 will instead run at 10, 12, or 15 MHz. Weitek Corporation will interface its two-chip, 64-bit, floating-point math coprocessor to the 32332.

The Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern, England, is developing the Viper, a

[continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 9

new 32-bit, RISC (reduced instruction set computer) microprocessor design. Because RSRE wanted a reliable chip for use in weapons and nuclear power plants, the design team used mathematical-correctness techniques that compare a formal specification of the chip with the logical implementation, which they hope will guarantee an error-free architecture and instruction set.

Also in England, a fingerprint-matching computer based on an array of 100 INMOS Transputers is being developed for the Home Office. When finished, the experimental system should run 25 times faster and cost one-fifth as much as the current system, which uses a minicomputer and vector processors.

Vitesse, GigaBit Logic Announce LSI Gallium-Arsenide ICs

Vitesse Electronics will develop gallium-arsenide (GaAs) versions of some Advanced Micro Devices 2900-series devices, which include microprocessors, controllers, and signal-processing chips. AMD currently produces the high-speed parts using silicon bipolar technology; Vitesse expects that the use of LSI GaAs could enhance performance four to six times. Samples of the first components are expected in mid-1986, with full production starting late next year.

Separately, GigaBit Logic announced GaAs multiplexer and demultiplexer (mux/demux) circuits that it says allow fiber-optic data transmission at up to 1.5 gigabits per second (gps), or three times the current limits of silicon. Eight standard 135-megabit-per-second transmissions can be combined in a single 1.1-gps signal. While the mux/demux circuits use about 200 gates per chip, both GigaBit Logic and Vitesse plan to produce GaAs chips with more than 1000 gates in the spring.

Kodak Proposes Tiny Magnetic Disk for Photographs

Eastman Kodak, Rochester, NY, has lined up more than 30 companies—including Sony, Hitachi, and Fuji—to support its 47-mm (1.85-inch) floppy disk for storage of electronic still images. The 800K-byte disk can store up to 50 images of 240-line NTSC video. Eventually, the disk is intended for use in cameras; for now, Kodak is working on a 35-mm film-to-disk transfer station for use in developing labs and a still-video player/recorder for the disks.

Nanobytes

To back up the newer 3'/2-inch hard disks, Data Electronics Inc. and 3M agreed on a smaller tape-cartridge format that will permit tape backup systems to fit in the same space as a 3'/2-inch disk drive; drives using earlier '/4-inch tapes required more room. DEI and 3M agreed on two formats; a 120-inch-per-second (ips) 24-track '/S-inch tape that stores 40 megabytes and a 90-ips 12-track tape 0.15 inch wide that stores 20 megabytes. . . . TDI Software Ltd. has released a full Modula-2 compiler for Atari's 520ST computer, In England, the compiler is priced at £195... . VMark Computer, Natick, MA, announced a database-management/application development system that can convert source programs for the Pick operating system to run under AT&T's UNIX System V. . . . Tall Tree Systems, Palo Alto, CA, announced the Jlaserprinter, a $400 laser-printer interface for its JRAM-3 memory board for the IBM PC. The Jlaserprinter uses the JRAM-3 s expanded memory to allow laser printers like Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet to print high-resolution graphics quickly. .. . Micron Technology of Boise, ID, is offering 256K-bit error-correcting DRAM chips. Configured as 64K by 8 bits, the chips cost approximately $6 in quantities of 100. . . . Novell Inc., Orem, UT, announced System Fault Tolerant NetWare software for IBM AT-based LAN file servers, providing three distinct levels of protection from hardware faults. . . . AST announced the Shared Resources Network, a new 5-megabit-per-second LAN, which can be made compatible with IBM's PC Network by using ASTs NETBIOS software. Each $495 network adapter card comes with a removable ROM chip that allows diskless IBM PCs to be connected to the network. . . . Integrated Device Technology, Santa Clara, CA, announced plug-in replacements for Advanced Micro Devices 2900 bit-slice processor chips; the Microslice-family chips use from one-third to one-fifth of the power of the AMD chips. . . . Cermetek Microelectronics, Sunnyvale, CA, is offering the CH1812A, a DAA component that provides a direct interface to both leased and dial-up phone lines. The DAA conforms to both FCC and Canadian DOC rules and is priced at $18.95 in 1000-piece quantities. . . . Motorola's new 68824 Token Bus Controller (TBC) chip fully implements the ISO Open Systems Interconnect data-link layer for networks; it also conforms to General Motors Manufacturing Automation Protocol specifications. . . . LSI Logic, Milpitas, CA, announced a CMOS gate array with 50,000 gates made of more than 500,000 transistors.

10 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Go Portable

with cordless printing and disk drive power when you travel*

- □ Q

Imagine a full-featured, batterypowered computer system — complete with disk drive and printer—that fits in your suitcase on trips. Now you can make your Tandy 200 or Model 100 more powerful than ever.

Don't Travel Without Your Files

The Tandy 200/Model 100 Portable Disk Drive (26-3808, $199.95) gives you fast access to 100K of data on 3'/2" floppy diskettes. That means you don't have to leave your important documents, reports, spreadsheets, statistics and other vital data back home.

This portable drive may be small, but it's not a toy. Menu-driven operation makes it easy to use. It features these powerful operating system functions: FORMAT, SAVE, LOAD, KILL, RENAME and BACKUR See a list of files anytime. And you can choose battery operation, or attach an optional adapter to use AC power.

Get Automatic Hardcopy in Your Hotel Room

Like the Portable Disk Drive, the TRP 100 Thermal Ribbon Printer is made to be used anywhere—with batteries or AC power.

Sitting in your hotel room before an important meeting, you can produce a printout of a report you composed on the plane. Or, with your 200/100's direct-connect modem, you can tap into your home office's computer for the latest data to update your spreadsheet.

The TRP 100 (26-1275, $299.95) uses plain 8ll-z" paper and a thermal ribbon for high-contrast characters. Or you can use thermal roll paper without the ribbon for direct transfer. It even produces bit-image graphics.

True Portable Power

Tike off with Txndy 200/100 peripherals today. And don't forget our selection of software. Tandy is Clearly Superior!

Radio /haeH

The Technology Store"

| I

New 1986 Computer Catalog! Send Me a Copy.

1

Mail To: Radio Shack, Dept. 86-A-S95 300 One Tandy Center Fort Worth, Texas 76102

Compai

Address _

City

State

I

1

L

Phone _

Zip.

Inquiry 304

Prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating stores and dealers. Batteries extra.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 11

The database used

nowbe used

Introducing dBASEIir PLUS.

The PLUS stands for all the improvements weVe made to the world's number one selling database management software.

UP 1

PH^fSm Update

Position Ret

Database file

Format

U ieu

Query

Report

Labe 1

The Assistant helps beginning users accomplish day-to-day data management taskswithout programming.

Mind you, dBASE III PLUS still has the powerful dBASE programming language, dot prompt, and all the features that have made dBASE III the standard of the industry

WeVe simply raised the standard.

And just as dBASE III introduced more power to the people, our new dBASE III PLUS introduces more people to the power.

People who aren't all that crazy about programming, for example.

The Assistant feature in dBASE III PLUS now provides them with new easy-to-use pull-down menus for creating, using and modifying multiple databases.

So now anyone who can manage a simple cursor can manage day-to-day data management tasks. Without programming.

And by using our new Screen Painter,

anyone can create custom screens. Without programming.

Or using View, access related information in several databases at one time. Without programming.

With Advanced Query System, another new non-programming feature, any user can build complex queries just by selecting from the dBASE III PLUS pull-down menus.

For rapidly creating entire programs, there's even a new Applications Generator

And for all those who wish to learn to program, the Assistant can be of farther assistance. By teaching you programming commands as you go along. Without disrupting your work flow

These are only a few of the dBASE UI PLUS features that can help new users quickly get up to speed. And experienced users quickly increase their speed. (Sorting, for example, is up to two times faster and indexing up to ten times faster than dBASE III.)

Display

Field Name STATE Operator hatches Constant/Express ion "NY"

No combination Online uitb .AMD.

Combine with .AND..NOT. Combine uith .0»..NOT.

Line Number 1

Line

Field

Operator

Constant/Expression

Connect

1

STATE

Hatches

"NY"

.OB.

Z

STATE

Matches

"DE"

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3

PIIOS DESC

Matches

"LM Bass Lures"

. AND.

1

5 b 7

ORDER DATE

More than or equal

11/81/65

\ Set Filter

Selact a logical connector for the filter condition. j

Advanced Query System lets you set up and answer complex queries urithoutprogramming.

12 BYTE- lANUARY 1986

by more people can by more people.

And it's the fastest way to network those users, too. Because now, local area networking capabilities are built right in.

dBASE III PLUS can also help put developers in the fast lane. With a new Data Catalog and more than 50 new commands and functions. Plus code encryption and linking, improved debugging aids, assembly language calls and much more.

ASHTON TATE

Tb obtain a free dBASE III PLUS demo disk, call 800-437-4329, Extension 0282; for the authorized AshtonTate8 dealer nearest your

And get your hands on dBASE III PLUS.

It's the software more people can look forward to using.

Inquiry 26

In Colorado call (303) 799-4900, Extension 0282. "Upgrades are available to all dBASE III owners. Requires IBM* PC or 100% compatible.Trademarks/owners: Ashton-Tate, dBASE III/ Ashton Tate; IBM/International Business Machines Corporation. ©1985 Ashton-Tate. All

rights reserved.

dBASE III PLUS

The data management standard.

LETTERS

The Mac and the DSI Sieve Benchmark

- As I read the benchmarks in "The DS1-32 Coprocessor Board, Part 1: The Hardware" (August 1985. page 120), 1 noticed a missing system in the comparisons, the Apple Macintosh. Being a MacUser, 1 found this disappointing, so I set up and ran the benchmarks on my 512K-byte Mac. My only significant change to the benchmarks used by DSI is the use of a base (pointer) register rather than a global variable for the arrays used. This change allows use of the Mac's ROM memory manager and does not represent a radical change to the routines.

The DSI Sieve benchmark is not fully representative of a machine's Boolean and integer capabilities, calling for only three register variables and using no pointers. Applications written by advanced programmers take better advantage of these tools. Accordingly. I used three versions of Sieve, calling them Sieve (same as the DSI Sieve), RSieve (using more registers), and PSieve (using registers and pointers). The performance of these roughly represents the performance of inexperienced, intermediate, and advanced programmers'

code. The Float and FLT benchmarks are transliterations of FORTRAN into C with some assumed register optimizations. See table 1.

All three forms of Sieve beat the IBM PC AT for n = 40,000 (and the AT could not run n = 80,000). This is due to the much higher costs for 32-bit integer/addressing arithmetic on the AT. needed for addressing large amounts of data and for most applications except games and graphics. Thirty-two-bit integers are standard on the Mac with the SoftWorks compiler. The single-precision Float benchmark for the AT with the 80287 floatingpoint coprocessor is less than five times faster than the software floating-point coprocessor of the Mac, a surprising result. The hardware advantage of the AT did show up in the FLT benchmark, however. In 64-bit floating-point, the AT's hardware was 12 times faster than the Mac's software.

A quick note on the VAX timings. The VAX C compiler that I am familiar with automatically pointerizes loops such as the Sieve benchmark. PSieve is therefore the equivalent benchmark, and the Mac's speed in this benchmark is near that of

Table 1: Reader Hembree's benchmark results for the Macintosh.

n

Sieve

RSieve

PSieve

8191

4.23

3.37

2.80

20000

10.50

8.37

6.93

30000

15.87

12.53

10.47

40000

21.25

16.97

14.00

80000

43.00

34.33

28.32

Float (40000)

78.90

FLT (256000)

1759.85

Table 2: Definicon benchmark results.

n

Sieve

RSieve

PSieve (corrected) # of Primes

8191

1.75

1.58

1.43 1899

20000

4.45

4.23

3.51 4202

30000

6.70

6.36

5.33 6056

40000

8.95

8.51

7.08 7836

80000

17.90

16.81

13.95 14,683

Float (40000)

0.71

FLT (256000)

16.45

the VAX-ll/750. particularly impressive since the 750 costs more than 30 times as much. I would like to see the performance of more machines using the multiple Sieve benchmarks since they test a wider spectrum of CPU architectures rather than reducing all to a common denominator.

I have one complaint about the DSI article. It seems to have been written by Definicon Systems Inc., and page 134 reads like a full-page ad for DSI. While the designers may understand the hardware better, 1 would like to also see an independent review of the system by BYTE.

William L. Hembree Las Cruces, NM

Definicon Systems replies: We did not think it was fair to include the Mac in the benchmark comparisons because it did not have a hardware floating-point accelerator. Mr. Hembree's own data shows that the Mac is 100 times slower than the DSI in floating-point execution (Float and FLT benchmarks). Floating-point arithmetic is present in virtually all application software, from simple spreadsheets to complex statistical packages.

The Sieve benchmark we used was taken from BYTE. In order to evaluate Mr. Hembree's newer versions, we compiled and ran them. To our surprise, the PSieve version reported an incorrect number of primes. We traced the problem to a double increment of i in the second FOR loop. Without the fix. Mr. Hembree's pointerized version ran in 1.05 seconds on the DSI-32. When the problem was corrected, it took 1.43 seconds. I have

[continued)

LETTERS POLICY: To be considered for publication, a letter must be typed double-spaced on one side of the paper and must include your name and address. Comments and ideas should be expressed as dearly and concisely as possible. Listings and tables may be printed along with a letter if they are short and legible.

Because BYTE receives hundreds of letters each month, not all of them can be published. Letters will not be returned to authors. Generally, it takes four months from the time BYTE receives a letter until it is published.

14 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

This Little Ma

Means Business.

The Mouse by Maynard Electronics makes your favorite programs faster, wsmmm eas'er> an(l smarter!

At last, an "intelligent" mouse! Now you can add command power to your programs, when you want, the way you want—instantly! The Mouse by Maynard Electronics comes with our CustomKey™ software which lets you assign and reassign commands while using your favorite programs — even those without mouse utilities. Fly through programs like / Symphonyr Lotus 1 -2-3* Frameworkf MultiMate^and others with undreamed of speed! And of course, it's fully compatible with all programs written for a mouse, too.

'Symphony and Lotus 1-2-3 are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Framework is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. MultiMate is a trademark of SoftWord Systems Inc. Telepaint is a trademark of LCS/Telegraphics.

Teach The Mouse To Type.

A single Mouse click will instantly produce the character, sentence, paragraph, or anything else you've selected. Click: you call up the CustomKey menu. Click: your file is saved. Click: a commonly used paragraph appears in place. No other mouse gives you such power and versatility.

A Tale Of Three Mice...

Compare our Mouse with the others running around and you'll see, there's no comparison! Here are just a few features across the board:

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# of Button Combinations

7

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Diagnostics

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Dynamic Scaling

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Cursor Overshoot Control

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Adjustable Cursor Speed/Up, Dn (while

running application) Adjustable Cursor Speed/Rt, Lft (while

Yes

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running application) Buttons-Definable (while running application)

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Macros-Definable (while running application) User-Definable Alternate Cursor Movement

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inquiry 229

ler or write to us today for product information.

IANUARY I986 • BYTE 15

Why you should ignore 95% of the news

Because NewsNet automatically finds the 5% yon need. From our database of authoritative, up-to-date business news, you get just the stories you want, delivered instantly to your microcomputer. You choose your own, unique keywords, and NewsNet saves—just for you— every new article containing those words. Or, you can find that critical 5% on your own, jf^- with NewsNet's powerful keyword searching and text scanning.

Just what's in NewsNet's database? The full text of over 300 valuable business newsletters. Indepth news, written by experts, filled with analysis and interpretation. News from 34 different industries and professions—everything from Computers to Investments, from Management to Telecommunications. Plus extras such as wire services, online stock quotes, air fares, and business credit reports.

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LETTERS

not, as Mr. Hembree did, removed the calls to MALLOC or PRINTF from the times reported for execution.

Table 2 shows the data for the DSI-32 corresponding to Mr. Hembree's benchmarks.

I disagree strongly with the concept that any benchmark or combination of benchmarks can do anything other than show that a particular architecture is competitive with another. For instance, programmer productivity is rarely quantified. We have found, for example, that a 400-line C program takes 15 seconds to compile on the DSI-32, 5 minutes on an Atari 520ST, and 4.3 minutes on a Mac. Why shouldn't this data be relevant when considering a computer's performance? If the VAX compiler automatically pointerizes code and thus makes it run faster, is this not a valid measure of productivity enhancement? Our compiler automatically registers variables. This saves the programmer the task of keeping track of which variables are most efficiently registered. Is this not an important factor in overall productivity?

It really should not matter whether a computer uses a microprocessor from XYZ company or ABC company or whether it performs a sieve in 1.43 seconds or 1.85 seconds. What should be important is what the machine can do for you and how long it takes you to get the machine to do what you want it to.

It is a travesty of objectivity that simplistic benchmarks have become the most widely accepted method for performance evaluation.

The DSI-32 project has so far taken four worker-years to bring to fruition. If BYTE magazine had not become involved, it would be yet another closedarchitecture computer accessible only to the inveterate hacker. The technology of 32-bit microcomputer design would still be locked within corporate vaults. BYTE provided a forum for Definicon to promulgate its technology while recognizing that projects such as these will only be made available to the hobbyist while adequate financial return for the development cycle can be maintained.

Finally, there was a misprint in the benchmark data published in the August issue. The time for a VAX-11/780 to perform an 8191 Sieve should be 1.09 seconds, not 1.90, as printed.

BYTE replies:

Publishing hardware-construction articles presents us with a dilemma. If the author

{continued)

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In-a-Vision's mouse support, windowing, icons, and pull-down menus, you produce drawings more quickly, accurately and efficiently than ever before.

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(Most popular graphics cards, platters and printers supported.) Microsoft Windows compatible. Call for specific operating environment requirements.

around in a user-definable drawing space up to 68" x 68" and zoom in on specific areas for greater detail. Scale, rotate and dimension symbols, fill an area with your choices of predefined colors and patterns, as well as draw lines with multiple styles and widths. Other features include overlays, predefined and userdefinable page sizes, rulers, grids, and symbol librar ies.

Multi-tasking in a PC-based CAD system.

In-a-Vision uses multi-tasking to enable you to continue drawing while printing hard copies as well as edit multiple drawings simultaneously.

MICROGRAFX

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Inquiry 241

make you more productive, we'll give you ": ten days to prove it to yourself. If bra*Vision doesn't improve, your productivity, return it within ten days for a full refund.

In-a-Vision will make your complex drawing tasks simple and make you more productive. Satisfaction guaranteed. Dial 800-272-3729 to order or for a free brochure. In Texas or for customer support, call (214) 234-1769. MICROGRAFX, Inc., 1820 North Greenville Avenue, Richardson, Texas 75081.

In-a-Vision and MICROGRAFX are ladcroartis MICROGRAFX. Inc.

Windows ami Microsoft arc nrademarics of Micro

mm

Socia

L

L

a/rucA]

1 Invitations Emphasis

k-l

l^SFancyFont

qud- i- (y

print-ing

0 <i? 0

t

Dot Matrix^ Printing Made Beautiful

This entire ad, from top to bottom, was printed on an inexpensive dot matrix printer with Fancy Font* a unique program that works with almost any word processor to produce high resolution, proportionally spaced, letter quality printing.

No special hardware or installation is required, so you'll be using Fancy Font as soon as you get it.

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LETTERS

doesn t support the project by arranging for key parts to be available from one source at reasonable prices and by answering questions of all those readers who build the project, then readers become frustrated an and angry. Readers have to go through all the trouble of buying every part in quantity one and at high prices. If the assembled project doesn f work properly, readers rightly want help diagnosing the problem. Supporting 400 readers who have built a project requires time and effort on the part of the designer. Usually the demands far exceed what any individual author is willing to undertake.

On the other hand, when we make certain that a project is backed by the resources of a firm with an adequate staff and that parts and support are easily available, some readers believe that the article is intended to force them to buy a commercial product. This is not the case. Unfortunately, there is never likely to be a charitable foundation that supports hardware-construction projects with design and support engineers, a purchasing manager, clerical help, and all the other resources that go into producing a complex electronic project.

Based on years of experience, we believe that arrangements such as our continuing one with Steve Ciarcia and the DSI-32 agreement with Definicon serve our readers much better than publishing schematics and leaving the reader with no hope of support. Readers who prefer can always work from the schematics and ignore the support firm. BYTE has no financial interest in any of these projects.

Because our readers' greatest interest is in new technology, we are determined to do hardware-construction articles based on new and advanced chips. Ciarcia's project based on the 64180 and Definicon's based on the 32032 are excellent examples. They afford readers an opportunity to work with systems based on advanced chips without having to buy a large development system from a semiconductor manufacturer. We would like to do more articles based on advanced chips, but we are usually unable to convince anyone to undertake the financial risk and the burden of support. Such articles require purchasing hundreds of parts with no certainty as to how many people will build the project and buy the parts. There are sometimes supply problems with the new parts as well.

We're now trying to make arrange

[continued]

18 BYTE- (ANUARV 1986

For those times when640K memory just doesn't seem to be enough.

AST introduces RAMpage!™ with up to 2 Mb of PC RAM.

Feed your byte-gobbling applications with the expanded memory of RAMpage! And stop wasting valuable time with frustrating "Memory Full" messages.

Breaking The 640K Barrier.

RAMpage! breaks through the PC's 640Kbyte barrier delivering up to 2 megabytes of parity checked memory for expanded memory applications. Up to 4 RAMpage! boards can be used in a single PC for a full 8 Mb of memory per system.

EMS Compatibility. RAMpage! is fully compatible with all applications developed for use with the Lotus*

Expanded Memory Specification (EMS). It's also supported by Enhanced EMS software—offering more versatility for even greater value and performance.

New software updates of popular applications like Symphony™ Framework™ and 1-2-3* designed

specifically for use with EMS boards, are now becoming available. And a wide variety of other packages, including windowing, spreadsheet, database and CAD applications, will soon follow.

A Super Bonus. RAMpage! includes AST's new SuperPak™ utility software. Designed specifically to operate in expanded memory environments, it allows you to spool print jobs and create multiple RAM disks for added performance.

Don't let your valuable bytehungry applications starve. Get RAMpage! today For more information call our Customer Information Center (714) 863-1333.

Or write, AST Research, Inc., 2121 Alton Avenue, Irvine, California 92714 TWX: 753699 ASTR UR.

Specifications

• For use with IBM"- PC, PC-XT, 3270 PC and compatibles.

• Up to 2.0 Mb expanded memory per board—8.0 Mb total per system.

• Socketed and user upgradeable with 256K DRAMS.

• Fully compatible with Lotus EMS 3.0.

• Enhanced EMS design for greater performance with enhanced EMS software.

• AST Expanded Memory Manager software standard,

• New SuperPak1" utility softivare standard.

RcscnncH inc.

RAMpage) and SuperPak trademarks of AST Research, Inc. Lotus and 1-2-3 registered trademarks and Symphony trademark of Lotus Development /%ri'*;''ti'<<, Corp. framework trademark of ' '''r*Ufjfi*;

Asliton-Tate. MM registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

Inquiry 4 for End-Users. Inquiry 5 for DEALERS ONLY.

JANUARY 1986 "BYTE

19

I

DATA INDEPENDENCE

MUCH SMALL

mm

WM ■ The Age of Data Independence " dawned W^^f^^r about two years ago when IOMEGA

[ JkM introduced a revolutionary mass storage __jfi wk device called The Bernoulli Box." Featuring a unique technology that uses rugged, removable 10-megabyte cartridges, it freed companies to work more productively and economically-and was soon recognized as the decade's biggest step forward in business data storage. Today, IOMEGA has taken another giant step. With the addition of the compact 20-megabyte-per-cartridge Bernoulli Boxes, in single- and dual-drive versions, the Data Independence family gets simultaneously bigger and smaller. The new Bernoulli Boxes double on-line capacity to up to 40 megabytes and cut the space required to carry and store data cartridges. They also boast a footprint that is literally half that of the previous version, freeing just that much more valuable desk space.

But what makes the new Bernoulli Box so exciting are the same features that made it the new standard in data management to begin with.

TRANSPORTABILITY The Bernoulli Box cartridges are completely interchangeable. You're free to take the cartridge from one and use it in another with complete confidence. Take it across the hall or mail it across the continent

EXPANDABILITY Free yourself from the limitations of system capacity. If you need more, you expand by buying slim, inexpensive cartridges, not bulky and costly hardware.

RELIABILITY

Incredible resistance to shock and vibration combined with a rugged cartridge format free you from concerns about equipment failure, head crash, or data loss.

1

20 B Y T E • JANUARY 1986

E

MORE GIANT STEPS. R FOOTPRINTS.

PERFORMANCE, die amazing speed of The Bernoulli Boxvith access times and transfer rates that rival ind often surpass the best hard disk drivesranslates into the best freedom of all: the freedom of time. And iow The Bernoulli Box offers users the option of booting from Hie Bernoulli Box cartridge with any of the IBM PC or :ompatible computers.

E

SECURITY

Free your sensitive files, such as payroll and personnel, from unauthorized scrutiny and free yourself from unnecessary anxiety. Put them on a Bernoulli Box cartridge, and put the cartridge where you /wow; it will be safe.

Check out the latest Bernoulli Box family members today. More giant steps towards the complete data independence of businesses using the IBM PC, XT, AT, most compatibles, and the Macintosh? ™ Giant steps with very small footprints.

For the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-556-1234, exL 215. In California, call 1-800-441-2345, ext. 215.

*The Bernoulli Box for Macintosh is available in a 5-megabyte single-drive version and a 20- megabyte dual-drive version for AppleTalk."

The Bernoulli Box is a registered trademark of IOMEGA Corporation. Data Independence is a trademark of IOMEGA Corporation. Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer, Inc. AppleTalk is a trademark of Apple Computer. Inc.

JULLI

L-1VIEGA

IOMEGA Corporation 1821 West 4000 South Roy, Utah 84067

Inquiry 175

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 21

Crisp, clean, hardcopy graphics make dramatic impressions. Now, with Houston Instrument's PC Plotter, you have an affordable way to link the power of graphics to your personal computer. The PC Plotter produces quality graphics at a price you won't mind paying. It allows you to produce vibrant line, bar, and pie charts using eight different colors on either paper or overhead transparencies. And you can create either 8V2" x 11" or 11" x 17" graphics.

Whether you're a computer wizard or novice, the PC Plotter is simple to operate and can be used with virtually any computer on the market today. Plus, your graphics software choices are unlimited. Houston Instrument products are supported by a versatile collection of more than 250 graphics software packages.

For example, just take a look at the above photo and you'll see plots created by PFS:® Graph, Lotus" 1-2-3,'"'Peachtree Business Graphics System, Design Intelligence, : Energraphics,1": and Smart Spreadsheet with Graphics.

Make the most out of owning an IBM," Apple" or other personal computer. Give it a PC Plotter. . .and give your presentations the visual advantage you need to win in business.

Visit your authorized Houston Instrument dealer or local computer store today and ask for a demonstration of the PC Plotter. For more information, call us at 800-531-5205. Texas residents may phone (512) 835-0900. Houston Instrument products are designed, marketed, and manufactured in Austin, Texas.

DqcdodsGcddd

instrument

Inquiry 406

4P019

The most flexible printer^ sharing device you can buy is from

BayTech

LETTERS

ments for hardware projects based on three different 32-bit processors: the INMOS Transputer, the Acorn RISC Machine, and the Motorola 68020. Anyone interested should contact Phil Lemmons.

We didn't publish the DSI-32 article without assuring ourselves that the board would work. Phillip Robinson of our West Coast staff saw the DSI-32 assembled and working before we published the article on it. Definicon also shipped us a DSI-32 board that functioned properly in an IBM PC here in our main office. Our technical staff edited the article.

An independent review of the DSI-32 is a good suggestion. We'd prefer to do that as a collaboration among as many DSI-32 users as possible. Those interested should contact Glenn Hartwig.

Compressing Data

On page 392 of the October 1985 BYTE (Letters), readers found an interesting "printing experiment" that surely could use more explanation. Although it's called a "high-density bar code" in its caption, the sample has little resemblance to a conventional bar code image; rather, it appears to be a direct binary high-density representation of bits framed by an error detection/correction and timing format.

A format like the sample printed has good prospects for delivery of machinereadable data. I count about 64 information bits in width (excluding error detection and framing information), with a density estimated to be 128 bits per inch. The same 128-bpi density seems to be used in the vertical direction, with a length of 7.5 inches. Multiplying the numbers, we can estimate that the test patch represented some 61,440 bits, or about 7.5K bytes. Multiply that by 10 or so columns, and we have an apparent page capacity in excess of 75K bytes. For source code of programs, you'd probably want to use a token-compression scheme. In some experiments I did in 1981 with token-compression techniques, I was able to achieve almost '3:1 compression for large Pascal source programs. Thus, as a means of representing a high-level language program with comments, your 7.5K-byte sample in October could represent the equivalent of over 20K bytes of uncompressed Pascal source text. A 20K-byte source program, while not large, is a significant chunk.

There was another fundamental problem with the bar code formats we printed a long time ago in BYTE. Those bar code formats were ugly to look at. The sample

[continued]

router to 8 P*^

0r any combination

Introducing the new Model 528DB multiport controller. It will let eight users automatically share one printer, or in multiple printer applications, let users code-select a specific printer or contend for the first available printer. Flexible, userselectable features include: the number of printers versus the number of computers, printer select code, CTS DTR or XON-XOFF handshaking, operating mode, form-feed mode, header-page message, disconnect time-out, and baud rates. To set up, simply connect the multiport between your computers and printers. It interfaces easily with any RS-232C serial device. Model 528DB with 9 ports, $659. Larger models also available.

BAY TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES, INC.

DATA COMMUNICATIONS PRODI 'CI S

800-523-2702

Highway 603, P.O. Box 387, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi 39520 Phone: 601-467-8231 Telex: 910-333-1618 (BAYTECH)

Inquiry 34

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 23

LETTERS

printed in the October 1985 BYTE has information, but at a small enough scale to look reasonably good to the human eye's wonderful power of averaging.

The use of this density represents a significant advance, probably enough to justify purchase of a specialized reader designed like no bar code reader presently on the market. I conjecture that a lineimage CCD (charge-coupled device) video

sensor could span the width of the image with 128 or 2 56 pixels relatively inexpensively. A brute-force capture device could be made to take advantage of this format provided that it addressed the problem of maintaining alignment during the scan. Rough alignment of the scan with the vertical direction of the page can be provided by the "gutter" of the magazine or a ruler. Vertical timing is obtained from the edges

of the pattern as printed. Enough memory to allow processing of several conceptual horizontal lines would allow for a small amount of skew on the part of the line sensor. Averaging adjacent pixels and using a digital threshold test would allow capture of the smallest dots in the format. Vertical timing information present in the format as printed would calibrate the pattern to the actual velocity variations of the person using the device, reducing the need for sampling of the image. Scanning ought to be possible in a few seconds for each chunk of 7.5K bytes or so.

If this technology works, BYTE, its advertisers, and its readers finally have a way of printing recoverable data for source/object code of significant programs, a capacity that was not possible in our earlier experiments with bar code formats. (See my editorial in the April 1980 issue, which summarized BYTE's bar code experiments from 1976 through 1980.) Now. whoever is responsible for this experiment must still answer the entrepreneurial problems: Who will build the bar code readers, and at what cost to the end user? Which comes first, the widespread printing of information or the availability of the readers? By presenting a regular fare of significant programs in source form using this format. BYTE could spawn a whole new marketplace for machine-readable keyless data entry from print.

Carl Helmers Peterborough, NH

BYTE replies:

The printed software strip on page 392 of the October 1985 BYTE is called a Cauzin Softstrip. The strip was designed by Cauzin Systems Inc. of Waterbury. Connecticut, and was unveiled at COMDEX last November along with the company's $200 Cauzin Softstrip Reader. Cauzin is promoting the device, which will first be available for the Apple Macintosh and IBM Personal Computers, as a new way of reproducing and distributing programs and data. Robert L. Brass, president of the company, explained the technology behind the Softstrip to me.

The Softstrip can be printed in lowmedium- or high-density formats. The strip that appeared in BYTE was in medium density and contained about 3000 bytes of information. The standard Softstrip is a bit longer—9.5 inches—and holds approximately 3500 bytes. (Highand low-density strips of the standard size hold 5500 and 500 bytes, respectively.)

[continued)

AT MASS PR

LARGE OEM $595 QUANTITIES **w

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24 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 408 for End-Users. Inquiry 409 for DEALERS ONLY.

Inquiry 181 —►

THAT IS OUT OF THIS WORLD..

i

$389°°

MODEL 2000 201

MODEL 3500 35MHz DUAL TRACE DUAL TRACE DELAYED SWEEP

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At last! Truly affordable test equipment with no compromise in design, and features you would expect to find only on oscilloscopes costing hundreds of dollars more! JDR Instruments presents two, new, high-performance models backed by a two year warranty and technical support which is only a phone call away. Perfect for the technician or advanced hobbyist, both models feature Dual Trace capability and a variety of operating and triggering modes, including CH-B Subtract and X-Y operation.

MODEL 2000 has a 20 MHz I MODEL 3500 features a 35

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sweeps ranging from .2s to .2jjs. w^UfmiS&m I 1mV//DIV sensitivity. Delayed

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OR8ooR5T3?L5ooFoREE tBiJDR INSTRUMENTS

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COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR INSTRUMENTS. EARTH PHOTO COURTESY OF NASA. THE JDR INSTRUMENTS LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES. JDR INSTRUMENTS IS A TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES.

LETTERS

Cauzin's use of a near-infrared sensor in its reader gives the Softstrip some interesting properties. The sensor emits a near-infrared beam of light, which heats the carbon used in black ink and photocopier toner; the receptor portion of the sensor measures the slight heat increase of a dark area. With this method of sensing, you can write with colored inks lor spill coffee, tea, or cola) on a Softstrip and not impair its ability to be read. However, writing across a Softstrip or printing it on multicolored paper is an effective way of copy-protecting it—any attempt to photocopy it will result in extra photocopy toner deposits that will render the Softstrip unreadable.

The Softstrip format was designed to be reliably readable, even in less than ideal conditions. In its medium-density mode, each line of the Softstrip (past the obvious header information at the top) represents 4 bytes (32 bits) of data. Each bit of data is encoded as what Cauzin calls a dibit—a white square followed by a black represents a I bit, and the opposite represents a 0 bit. (Because of this.

4 bytes of data are represented as a line of 64 black and white squares.) Two parity bits are on either end of a line of Softstrip data. A clever scheme of using one bit for parity of the even bits and the other for parity of the odd bits—plus a checksum on each line and the method of scanning (discussed below)—gives the Softstrip Reader a I in 10 billion chance, according to Cauzin, of making an undetected error.

With an effective accuracy of 0.00001 inch, the scanner scans in increments of 0.0025 inch. In a medium-resolution Softstrip, each line of data is 0.001 inch high; this means that each data line is scanned four times, each in a slightly different place. The sensor integrates the density of each half of the dibit and decides the bit's status based on the multiple versions of this information. Cauzin claims that this method is much more immune to errors than a system that would simply watch for the density transition in the middle of a dibit.

The Cauzin system does not do any data compression, but there are

numerous public-domain programs that compress and restore arbitrary files. As Mr. Helmers points out, such compression could effectively double or triple the amount of data that a Softstrip could encode. It is conceivable that a single Softstrip (9.5 by 0.625 inches) holding compressed data could encode as many as five pages of high-level language source code!

Cauzin hopes that its product will become widely accepted and that Softstrips will become a common form of low-cost software storage. We are enthusiastic about the product and wish the company well. We look forward to the day when the Softstrip format is in wide enough use to merit its inclusion in BYTE listings.

Intels Benchmarking Strategy

There has been a lot of discussion lately (particularly on the UNIX Usenet news network) concerning Intel's recent advertising campaign comparing the Intel 80286

(continued)

PC LIGHT PEN

11

M HEI inc.

Victoria, MN 55386 • 612-443-2500

Speed up data entry with HEI's "Fast-Point"™ light pen for IBM* PC computers and compatibles. Ideal for cursor control, menu and icon picking, interactive graphics, and other data entry tasks.

"Fast-Point" plugs into the IBM PC color graphics board light pen port, or monochrome graphics board light pen port where applicable. It's compatible with standard IBM BASIC light pen statements and functions. HEI light pens are sold with technical documentation, and implementation software on diskette.

HEI is a leading supplier of highperformance light pens for computer graphics, CAD, CAI and other applications with over 35,000 devices in the field. Put an HEI "Fast-Point" pen to work on your PC. (From $140 to $195)

(HEI is a major supplier of OEM graphics lerminal lighl pens. Call or write for information.)

'Registered Trademark of International Business Machines.

26 BYTE- IANUARY I986

Inquiry 150

*1485lldycn Mn nxonpulu PtotJucu lie.

If the Hayes Smartmodem 1200 is smart, this one is utterly brilliant.

First came the Smartmodem 1200. Now, there's the smarter Smartmodem 2400.™ It's twice as fast. Or just as fast. Or even not as fast. Because it's smart enough to automatically adjust to 2400. 1200 or 300 bps communications. And to make sure you can communicate, it gives tests. It tests the phone line, it tests remote modems, it even tests itself Because the Smartmodem 2400 features advanced diagnostics.

Moreover the 2400 is a smart communicator. It communicates with mainframes and minis. Both synchronous and asynchronous transmissions are supported by the Hayes standard command set for 2400 bps. And you can transmit data to another room, or

another country because the 2400 meets CCITT international standards.

So, if you want to make fast work of high-volume communications, you'd be very smart to see your authorized Hayes dealer for a look at the Smartmodem 2400 or 2400B, a plug-in board for the IBM PC and compatibles.

Now you can be smart, smarter and smartest all at once.

Say yes to the future with Hayes.

SMARTMODEM 2400

• Direct connect • Auto-answer auto-dial • Bell 103. 2I2A and CCITT V.22 and V22 bis compatible

• Synchronous or Asynchronous • Full or half duplex

• Nonvolatile memory for communications settings

• Automatic fallback to 12O0 or 300 bps«Voice/fjata switching • Audio speaker • Advanced diagnostic tests: analog, digital and remote digital loopback

• Touch tone or pulse • Automatic adaptive phone bne equalization • Two-wire lease line capability

• Supports single and multi line phone systems

• Call progress monitoring SMARTMODEM 24O0B

• Plug-in board for IBM PC packaged with Smartcom II Software • Above features plus synchronous/asyn chronous via standard PC communications port • Rear panel communications port switch

SMARTCOM n«

• Menu-driven communications soltware

• 26 communications sets for automatic log- ons

• Error-free XMODEM and Hayes Verification protocols • VT100/102 and VT52 emulation

• Unattended batch operation • For most popular computers

Inquiry 15<1

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 27

When you positively custom

Reliability

is your obvious first requirement in this vital link between your product and the outside world. At Ven-Tel —with 12 years experience and millions of modems designed and shipped—we don't take reliability for granted ...so you can.

. 1 L

, J

>

1.

m

r

i i i

1 .! -f if

l

1 -+

T"

f

i

Compatibility QuickTlirnaround

with industry standards. All Ven-Tel modems utilize the industry standard "AT"command set,guaranteeing compatibility with virtually all types of software. And every Ven-Tel custom modem is fully compatible with our complete line of standard desktop and PC internal modems. We also meet Bell 212A and CCITT V22bis standards in speeds up to 2400 baud.

is more than a phrase to us. We've built a reputation for meeting product deadlines among some of the nation's largest and most demanding manufacturers. From start to finish in as little as 90 days, Ven-Tel can help you get your product to market quickly. You can even begin development using our standard modules while your design is being finalized.

take a good

absolutely,

need reliable

modems...

Customizing

your modem is your choice. From our standard off-the-shelf boards, to complete custom design, to licensing our proprietary CMOS chip design (for quantities in excess of 100,000 annually), we guarantee the right modem solution based on your deadline, design and volume requirements. Custom hardware configurations and firmware give you maximum freedom for integrating the modem into your overall product design.

P

Compact Size

is an important requirement in applications like credit check terminals, portable computers and trouble monitors. Ven-Tel modem density is state-of-the-art to provide excellent "real estate" value, with complete auto-dial/auto-answer, AT compatible, 212A modems— in as little as 12 square inches. With power requirements as low as 500mW.

Competitive Pricing

makes the Ven-Tel custom modem package one definitely worth looking into. For quotations based on your modem specs or a discussion with our experienced OEM sales engineers, call 800/538-5121 (outside California). In California, call 408/727-5721. Or contact us for our custom modem brochure: Ven-Tel, OEM Products Division, 2342 Walsh Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95051.

Inquiry 369

look at Venlel

Inquiry 152

Brainy Buffer.

Do you press print and wait? And wait? And wait?

mm

HANZON DATA INC. ■ 18732 142nd N E. * Woodifwlle. WA 98072

Your waiting is over with the Universal Data Buffer — it frees your computer in seconds while it handles the printing of your file.

And the Universal Data Buffer from HanZon is smarter than the average buffer. For one thing it has two inputs—one serial and one parallel, and two outputs—one serial and one parallel. Since all the ports

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its standard function - as a 64K buffer expandable to 256K. The buffer also has operator controls for

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HANZON DATA INC. • 18732 142nd Ave NE • Woodinville, WA 98072

DataSaver

Standby UPS

Power protection for high-level microcomputers with peripherals, multi-tasking systems, and communication networks is here, now, with the 400 Watt DataSaver. Placed between the desktop computer and system monitor, the DataSaver 400 features a master power switch directing four power outlets. 2-stages of overvoltage transient suppression and built-in, automatically recharged batteries stand by to assure clean, uninterrupted power for the five minutes you might need to shut down before the power shuts off. 90 and 200 Watt models available.

BYTE" JANUARY I986

Inquiry 91

LETTERS

to the Motorola 68010 and 68020. Intel has published a document entitled "iAPX 286 High Performance Benchmark Report" (hereafter referred to as "the report") to support its claim that the 80286 offers superior performance over the Motorola 68010 and 68020 chips. Both the advertising and the report use the benchmarks that appeared in my article ("Benchmarking UNIX Systems." August 1984 BYTE, page 133) as the basis for comparing the Intel and Motorola chips.

After studying the Intel report, I believe there are several problems with Intel's approach to benchmarking that should be addressed. While the problems presented below may not prove to invalidate Intel's claim, they do raise doubts as to the objectivity and impartiality of Intel's benchmarking strategy. As author of the majority of the benchmarks Intel has used to make its claim, 1 feel compelled to discuss some problems with Intel's benchmarking strategy.

On July 22, 1985,1 hand-delivered to the local Intel office a list of problems with its benchmarking strategy and reasons why I believe the company cannot legitimately make the conclusion it did. As of today. 1 have not received a satisfactory response to most of these issues, which are outlined below.

1. The listing for the pipes.c benchmark as published in Intel's report is incorrect. If this listing is identical to the source code used to evaluate the 80286-based systems mentioned in Intel's report, then the program will terminate prematurely, resulting in invalid timings. This listing is as it was presented in the August 1984 BYTE. However, an error was made on my part when I furnished the listing to BYTE, and a line was inadvertently deleted. I notified BYTE of the omission, and BYTE published a correction in the January 1985 issue (page 14). Intel should have used the corrected benchmark. Intel has responded favorably to this error and has rebenchmarked its systems. I have been told that Intel will publish a correction.

2. Intel admits that the benchmark data used for the Masscomp and Sun Microsystems machines is the data presented in the August 1984 BYTE. The BYTE article was originally slated to appear in the February 1984 issue. Due to production delays, however, it did not appear until August. Although 1 have no precise record, the benchmark data I gave to BYTE is probably as old as, if not older than, December 1983. This means that Intel is

[conlinued]

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Inquiry 167

Send this coupon with your credit card number (Visa, mastercard), money order or check for $89.95 plus $5.00 for postage and handling. In Texas, add 6Vb% sates tax ($5.51). Outside the U.S. add $10.00 (to U.S. Bank) for postage and handling. No C.O.D. please.

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LETTERS

comparing benchmark results from 68010 machines over a year old to current 80286 benchmarks! Intel apparently did not make an effort to benchmark current 68010 machines other than the AT&T 7300. More recent, but still dated, benchmark data I have shows that the Sun is much faster than reported in at least two benchmarks. Intel should have noted the benchmark dates of the Sun and

Masscomp machines clearly as being old and benchmarked current production machines, as it did with the Intel-based microcomputers.

3. The 80286-based microcomputers benchmarked all ran XENIX 3.0. The Motorola-based microcomputers ran different operating systems: System III, System V, and Berkeley 4.1 BSD. The BYTE UNIX benchmarks, as stated in the August

1984 article, are UNIX operating-system benchmarks. They are not microprocessor benchmarks and should not have been used as such. The consistently superior results obtained on the microcomputers running XENIX as compared to the microcomputers running other versions of UNIX indicate that performance differences may be due more to differences in operatingsystem software than to microprocessor design. For example. XENIX 3.0 uses an internal buffer size of 512 bytes; 4.2 BSD uses a 1024-byte buffer size. The pipes.c benchmark as published in BYTE does not take differing buffer sizes into account and assumes a 512-byte buffer size. Read and write operations thus appear to be less efficient on the Sun as compared to other machines. In short, by not taking system differences into account, Intel did not employ the scientific method. Thus, there are too many unknowns for a conclusion to be reached. Intel should have benchmarked a Motorola-based microcomputer running XENIX or an Intel-based microcomputer running something other than XENIX if it wanted to reach conclusions about CPU performance under similar circumstances and operating systems.

On a related issue. Intel's version of the other benchmarks used in the report are flawed, some critically. The company's C translation of the Whetstone benchmark as published has two errors:

1. It is performing one loop more than necessary in module three. This is actually a detriment to Intel's results.

2. The Whetstone uses a single dimension array of four elements. These elements are correctly referenced using the subscripts 0, 1.2. and 3. Intel's benchmark uses the subscripts 1, 2. 3. and 4.

Intel's version of the Fibonacci recursion benchmark has a more substantial flaw. Because of an extra semicolon, the benchmark makes one iteration instead of the 10 iterations, as implied in the listing.

In all likelihood, the errors in the Whetstone benchmark did not significantly affect the results on the machines benchmarked in the report. However, because of these flaws the results from this industry-standard benchmark cannot be compared to data from other versions of the Whetstone.

The same may be true for the errors in the Fibonacci benchmark. Both instances raise doubts as to Intel's knowledge of the C language, which it has specifically selected for comparing microprocessors.

[continued on page 4071

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ESSENTIAL GRAPHICS $250

Fast, powerful, and easy to use. Draw a pie or bar chart with one function. Animation (GET and PUT), filling (PAINT) and user definable patterns. IBM color, IBM EGA and Hercules supported (more soon). NO ROYALTIES. Save $50 when purchased with above libraries. Available February, 1986.

Compatible with Microsoft Ver. 3, Lattice, Aztec, Mark Williams, CI-C86, DeSmet, and Wizard C Compilers. IBM PC/XT/AT and true compatibles.

OCompiler Packages: Microsoft C - 319, Lattice or CI-C86 compilers -$329. Save $40 - $50 when purchasing compiler and library combinations. Specify C compiler and version number when ordering. Add$4 for UPS or $7 for UPS 2-day. NJ residents add 6% sales tax. Visa, MC, Checks, PO's.

ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE, INC ■5= P.O. Box 1003 Maplewood, NJ 07040 914/762-6605

32 BYTE" IANUARY

Inquiry 124

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File Uiew Special

jC:CD \UINDQUS

CftLC.EKE CLOCK.EKE EDL.INP

CALENDftR.EXE CONTROL -EXE EDL1.BAT

CARDFILE.EXE CQUR.EXE EDL2.BPT

CLIPBRD.EXE DOTHIS.TXT EEDESIGN

^Microsoft Multiplani

Microsoft® Windows has arrived. For anyone who uses a computer in earnest, that is extremely good

1 2 1 Unit Cost of Goods 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

3

$200.00 190.00 175.00 150.00 120.00

news.

Windows gives you a practical way to integrate programs. It radically decreases the time it takes to move from one application to another. Dramatically simplifies the means of consolidating data from many different programs.

And, as a graphical extension of the MS-DOS" operating system, it gives you a highly visual way to work and to organize your work.

In short, Windows brings efficiency to all those processes of personal computing which have till now been awkward, unwieldy, inconvenient. The joys of job hopping.

With the advent of Windows, you can work with multiple applications. And switch from program to program with ease.

Start up with one application, then another, and another. Leap back and forth between applications as your work routine dictates. Then pick up right where you left off.

The ability of Windows to change quickly from program to program logically and naturally magnifies the utility and productivity of the personal computer. And is a recognition of the way people who exploit the power of PC s really do their jobs.

Breaking the 640K barrier.

Just like you, Microsoft Windows can handle several projects at the same time. Juggle assignments. Deal with frequent interruptions.

And Windows will ignore the 640K limit of your PC, especially if you have a hard disk, the Intel'" Above Board, or expanded memory. It will execute the rather neat trick of working with more programs than memory can hold at one time.

IBM Filing Assistant!

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101700

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100

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Spreading knowledge.

Another great service Windows performs is accelerating the movement of information from one program to another.

Collecting and combining that information is as simple as taking a "snapshot" of data in one program. Editing it. Then consolidating it with data from other programs.

With Windows, you can enjoy the advantages of conventional integrated programs without their compromises. Because Windows lets you put together the applications that you know, and that get a job done for you.

Choose your best word processor, spreadsheet, database—you name it. They're all there for you at a keystroke.

tr

Common ground.

Finally, Windows is not only an immensely powerful tool for today, it's also a solid base for a new generation of Windows applications.

As an introductory offer, two of these—Microsoft Windows Write and Paint—are included in the package. Along with more than a dozen other programs.

In Windows applications you have a common interface which includes drop-down menus, dialog boxes, icons. Along with a richer environment that allows you to mix pictures and text. And to summon different type faces and styles at a keystroke.

Windows is a bridge between today's applications and the graphics based software now evolving. A way to work interchangeably with today's programs. And tomorrows.

If you're somone who uses personal computing as a natural part of your work life, who capitalizes on the productive powers of sophisticated applications, look into Windows, a new vision of what a computer can do.

Windows breaks down walls.

Spreadsheet information from Lotus® 1-2-3* can be captured And then transferred to Windows Write, our graphic word \ processing program for consolidating, editing, and formatting. I

Using your spreadsheet data, build a Lotus chart. Then capture it from the screen. And paste it into Windows Paint.

Windows Paint is an illustrator's studio. A palette of graphic tools. Use Paint to create drawings and diagrams. Or, in this case, to enhance a 1-2-3 chart to emphasize your point.

Data from dBASE IP can also be copied and transferred to Write.

file Edit Se-irch Charactet- Paragraph

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Windows Write is a straightforward and able word processor. It serves as the "great integrator" in Windows. The place where text and graphics from all your other programs are organized and formatted for presentation. What you see on the screen is what you'll get on the printout.

In-a-Vision, a Windows application by Micrografx, Inc., is a computer-aided design program. Its highly detailed technical illustrations are easily transferred to other Windows applications.

Windows lets you freely combine information from all your applications. And gives you the means to organize, compose, format and print it.

Because Write and Paint are graphic programs, they brilliantly exploit the capabilities of dot matrix and laser printers. When you're satisfied with what you've done in Write, print it.

For a stunning presentation.

Windows provides an easy means of selecting and gathering text and graphics from your programs. And then consolidating it all—text, numbers, and images—in one application.

Windows Write and Windows Paint can serve as a staging area.There you highlight, expand,

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and compose text, charts, and illustrations drawn from a variety of programs. Then format it all for printing.

For instance, you can move data from Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE II into the Windows Write word processor. A chart from 1-2-3 can likewise be pasted into Paint, a drawing tool. There you

have the means to transform a basic chart into something that communicates exacdy what you want to say. Which you then transfer to the letter being produced in Write. When you're happy with content and composition, print the page on a graphic printer just as you see it. The better your printer, the better the result.

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7:45 AM. Early as usual. Opening Windows lands you in the MS-DOS Executive, the Windows command center and file directory. Run the Windows Calendar program and see what's up for the day.

7:55 AM. You've got a report due by the end of the day. A comprehensive sales analysis. Bring up Multiplan'" and R:BASE 5000!" Copy regional sales data from R:BASE into Multiplan.

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1:30 PM. Market's closed. How'd you do? Open Terminal to dial Dow Jones News/Retrieval'" and check the final quotes. Copy and paste them into Notepad.

1:45 PM. You did pretty well today. So use the Windows Calculator to figure your gains. Which you duly note in Notepad. Your good luck, however, requires a call to your tax attorney. A quick click brings up his listing in Windows Cardfile. Another click dials him automatically on your modem.

One of the great beauties of Windows is that in the here and now you enjoy the benefits of computing's future path—graphically oriented software. Without giving up any of the applications you're happy with today.

Windows integrates the DOS programs you're already using with a wide array of Windows applications.

In addition to Windows Write and Paint, the package includes a collection of Windows desktop applications which you can use to

manage your day-to-day activities. A calendar, cardfile, notepad, calculator, and telecommunications program, just to name a few. Used together with your standard applications, they can handle an impressive list of office routines

Spend a day with Windows and the future of business computing falls into place.

Windows isn't merely an operating environment. It's an extremely useful collection of applications.

And because Windows runs most existing

never give up aWindows office*

10:30 AM. You've squeezed everything you can out of the numbers. Now open up Microsoft Chart. And let the pictures tell the story. When you've made a chart fit for presentation, capture it from the screen.

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1:55 PM. No sooner do you hang up, than your Calendar alarm sounds. Checking the Calendar, you find you've got a meeting at 2. 3:00 PM. The meeting went on forever. About time you got back to that report. Copy the chart from Paint, and paste it into Write. It looks brilliant. Now write it so it sounds brilliant.

4:48 PM. Everything on screen is looking good. You're ready to print. Open Clock to confirm time. That's right, it's tight. Choose the Print command and send the document off to the printer. Open Reversi for a quick game while you wait. While you beat the clock you can try beating the computer. 5:00 PM. Report printed impeccably. Turn it in and shut down for the day. After all, you were in fifteen minutes early.

standard DOS applications, it's ready to handle any job you need to do today.

But Windows also represents a foundation for the future.

The Windows interface establishes a common set of command conventions, drop-down menus, dialog boxes, and icons to standardize operations for all forthcoming Windows applications. Which means once you've learned one Windows application, learning the next one will be deja vu, not start from scratch.

Windows Write and Windows Paint are the first examples of programs that embrace the standard.

In-a-Vision, an impressive computer-aided design program by Micrografx.Inc, is another example. Many more are now being written.

And because Windows runs standard DOS applications, you can look forward to the future.

But you don't have to wait for it.

The first reviews are in. Here's what they see in Windows.

Prominent reviewers and industry experts have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Microsoft Windows.

Now they've had a good look. And we're pleased to record their responses to what they saw.

."I'll bet on Microsoft Windows!' Jonathan Sacks, West Coast editor of Popular Computing magazine.

"You've got a clear winner..'.' Stewart Alsop, editor and publisher of PC. Letter.

".. .Windows looks very good.." Peter Norton, in his column in PC Week 9/24/85.

Of course, all this is going to cost you: $99.

A price that makes Windows the most startling value ever offered in software.

A comparable collection of programs—a switching program, a graphic interface, desktop applications, a word processor, a drawing program —could easily cost hundreds of dollars more.

Windows will instantly deliver you a more productive present. And a leap into the future.

A future which, frankly, we have no interest in keeping exclusive. At this price, it looks to be arriving in a rush.

Integration features:

♦ Work with multiple applications and switch between them.

♦ Run more applications than fit in memory at one time.

♦ Consolidate information from standard DOS and Windows applications.

Applications included:

♦MS-DOS Executive —DOS file management program.

Run programs; format disks; copy, rename, delete files. ♦Calendar—Set appointments with optional alarm

reminders; daily or monthly view. ♦Cardfile —Filing program; cards can include text or

graphics, autodial capability/'

♦ Notepad —Text scratch pad/editor; time/date stamp option. ♦Terminal—Telecommunications program; copy session data

to other programs or capture to file; autodial capability* ♦Calculator—Common arithmetic operations, plus square

root, percent, and memory. ♦Clock—Can be displayed anywhere on the screen.

♦ Reversi — Strategy game; four levels of play.

♦Control Panel—Set time,date,communication ports,colors, add/delete printers.

♦ Program Information File (P1F) Editor—Create or edit PIF files for standard applications.

♦ Print Spooler—Print files from Windows applications while running other programs.

♦Clipboard—View information copied from applications.

♦ RAMDrive —Setup memory expansion cards as a RAM disk.

Introductory offer also includes:

♦ Windows Write — Graphics based word processor. ♦Windows Paint—A full-featured drawing program.

'''requires a Hayes compatible modem

Windows will open your eyes. We invite you to visit your Microsoft Dealer and get a screenful of Microsoft Windows. We think you'll agree Windows is clearly a winner.

Microsoft Corporation Bellevue, Washington USA

Microsoft GmbH

Munich DEUTSCHLAND

Microsoft Pty

Sydney NSW AUSTRALIA

Microsoft Ltd Berks ENGLAND

Microsoft Canada Inc Ontario CANADA

Microsoft AB Sollentuna SWEDEN

Microsoft SARL Paris FRANCE

ONLX Microsoft Seoul KOREA

Microsoft Far East Tokyo JAPAN

Microsoft* Windows

The High Performance Software™

Microsoft, Muliiplan and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and The High Performance Software is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

The names of the people and companies used in litis piece are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people or companies is purely

FIXES AND UPDATES

Mac C Updated, QSORT Repaired

Consulair Corporation wrote regarding Tim Field's review of five C compilers for the Macintosh (see the November 1985 BYTE, page 275). One of the compilers he evaluated was Consulair's Mac C version 1.7. The company pointed out that Mac C version 4.0 came out in August 1985.

Consulair also noted an error in the QSORT benchmark (listing 7. page 292). Using its own version of a quicksort program, with 16-bit integers, Consulair benchmarked version 4.0, the results of which are shown below (times in seconds). The source code for Consulair's quicksort version is available on BYTEnet Listings; telephone (617) 861-9764.

Normal

Register

File Size

FRAME

0.10

0.07

13056

POINTER

26.57

15.17

13056

INTMATH

5.05

2.68

13568

SIEVE

6.33

4.40

13056

QSORT

9.47

8.68

13312

FLOAT

289.90 155.90 (extended) 13568

FIB

29.93

13056

BYTE'S BUGS

Sorry, ha!

Steve Ciarcia built a computer into a Fraggle Rock Iunchbox (see the October 1985 Circuit Cellar, page 86). Fraggle Rock is part of the world of Muppets. Mr. Ciarcia's staff dutifully contacted Henson Associates (whose letterhead reads "ha!"), rightful owners of all Muppet likenesses and concepts, and asked for permission to use a photo of said Iunchbox. The mavens of Muppetry graciously granted permission.

However, we failed to acknowledge hal's granting of permission. We apologize to Henson Associates for this oversight. (Now will you please call off those large nappy creatures we've seen lurking menacingly around the offices?)

Benchmark Bug

We go back a ways with this one. An error has been found in the Turbo Pascal benchmarks (July 1984 BYTE, page 267). The problem occurs in the Puzzle program (page 274), in a line near the bottom of

Project Not Bug-Free

Several bugs wiggled into Jonathan Amsterdam's "Context-Free Parsing of Arithmetic Expressions" (August 1985 BYTE, page 138). Antonio Salvadori. associate professor of computing and information science at the University of Guelph in Ontario, sent us the following corrections.

On page 142, in the line that begins UNTIL c < >, there should be only one space inside the single quotation marks. Fourteen lines below that, a closing parenthesis is missing from the comment statement.

The variable savedChar should be initialized by savedChar: = chr(empty); at the beginning of the main program.

the second column. The line reads

pieceMax[1] : = 1+d*+d*d*3;

To correct it, insert 0 between the first asterisk and the plus sign.

BYTE'S BITS

A Paper-Tape Kind of Guy

Roberto Denis, a BYTE charter subscriber in Plantation, Florida, decoded some of the punched paper tape running across the page tops of our 10th anniversary

issue (September 1985). The message reads: HOPE TO HERE [sic] FROM YOU HARD CORE PAPER TAPE PEOPLE ALL THIS TYPING BETTER BE WORTH IT.

Mr. Denis challenges readers who have copies of BYTE's early letterhead, which had paper tape running across the top, tc decipher the message. If there is one.

San Francisco's Exploratorium Comes to New York

The staff of the Exploratorium in San Francisco is packing up more than 80 interactive exhibits and heading east, where they'll set up shop at the IBM Gallery of Science and Art in New York City. The exhibition is designed to help people increase their understanding of light, visual perception, and other phenomena of the physical world.

Among the wonders are the "Distorted Room." where people appear to shrink and grow in this room with no right angles, and the "Duck Into Kaleidoscope," which appears to create a crowd when only a few people are actually present.

The exhibit runs from January 31 through April 26. The IBM Gallery of Art

and Science is located at 590 Madison Ave.. New York. NY 10022, (212) 407-6100.

How To Access and Use BYTEnet Listings

To access BYTEnet Listings, call (617) 861-9764. When you get the carrier tone, enter two or three carriage returns so that our software can determine your operating parameters.

Optimum modem settings are 8 bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity at full duplex, or 7 bits, I stop bit, and even parity

at half duplex. Acceptable operating speeds are 300 or 1200 bps. At this time, BYTEnet Listings does not support 2400-bps transmissions.

The BYTEnet Listings software itself is menu-driven. Programs may be downloaded using ASCII, Kermit, TeleLink, and XMODEM protocols.

JANUARY 1986 - BYTE 33

How to Save Money

I i I I 1 I I I I I I I I I 1 I I I 1 1 I IT

rrm

IBM PC SYSTEMS

I I I I I I I I I I I M I I I I I I I

MAINSTREET ENHANCED

PC $1965

with 10 MB Disk

360kb Tandon Floppy 10 MEG ADEPT Hard Disk 256K RAM

All Controllers, Cables, Manual 1 Year Warranty Monitor Not Included Many Options Available

Same System with 20 MB Hard Disk

$2085

i m i i 11111 1111 i m 11 i i i nr

IBM PC/AT

TT

AXplus $3860

20MB System Includes: o 1.2 MB Floppy

□ 360 KB Floppy

□ 512K RAM

□ 20 MB Hard Disk n Serial/Clock

□ All Cables, Controllers, Manual

Monitor Not Included

Same System with 32 mb

$4071

MORE IBM PC SYSTEMS FROM MAINSTREET <3SUPER PC

• 256K RAM

• 360K Floppy

• 10 MEG

1 Tape Drive • 135 Willi ' 6'IOK RAM

• 20 MB Hard Disk

<3Slot Saver * Pmvst VidL,u Combo

• 2-360K Floppies

• 3 Slots Available

<ISUPER PC+

• 640K RAM

• 2 Floppy

• 20 MEG HARD

• T;i|w Backup

AST 6 PAK 135 W.ill Power

OPC 2/20

• 256K RAM

• 2-360K Floppies

• 20MB H.ird Disk

Printers

EPSON FX-80+ $299

EPSON LQ-1500 $929

EPSON FX-185 $499

EPSON LX-80 $220

TOSHIBA 1340 $569

TOSHIBA 351 $1099

TOSHIBA 1351 $999

TOSHIBA 341 $939

NEC E*L*F $449

CITIZEN MSP-10 $299

OKIDATA 182 $239

OKIDATA 192 $349

OKIDATA 193 $549

OKIDATA 84 $759

POWER

A I I I I I I I 1 I

ADEPT

DalaShiald AT 800 . . $689

Back up pawn 801) Walls DalaShiald X 1:100 . . . $369 DalaShiald PC200 . . . $285 DalaShiald AT500 . . . $559

SURGE Protection

DalaShiald S10O $59

DalaShiald S85 $49

DalaShiald S75 $36

Kensington Maslerpisca $95

Computer Accessories

i I I ' I

TO PLACE YOUR ORDER CALL

1-800-426-MAIN

aaas!

!ilWiB3BB

MAINSTREET

COMPUTER CORPORATION

HOURS: 9am to 6 pm CST M-F Sat 9-3

o FAST 8086 Processor

□ 640K RAM

o 20 MB Hard Disk

□ 2 - 360kb Floppy

□ High Resolution Monitor o Basic

□ 1 Year Warranty

20 MB

System $2999

COm/Ml Portable

$2466

256K, 360KB Floppy, 10MB Hard Disk

ORDERING INFO: All Mail: 1025 Main St.. Bastrop TX 78602. We accept personal and corporate checks. No delay if driver's license and expiration included. Shipping is free on prepaid orders via UPS Ground. Air is extra. We accept VISA. MC. (Am. Exp. and Diner's Club = 3".i surcharge.) We double manufacturer's warranty on all hardware. Software is not returnable. All goods ore new. Inquiry 221 B0186

Buy Mainstreet and Adept

ADEPT PC

1 I I I I I I I [ l l I 1 I II I 11 ITT

ADEPT AT

n

$749

SYSTEMS

ADEPT Personal Computer

• 640K RAM

• 360Kb Floppy

• "Touch Type" Keyboard

• 1 Year Warranty

• Runs IBM'" Software

30 Day Trial / 100% Credit Towards IBM PC

I I I I

$1975

• 80286 Microprocessor

• 1 Megabyte Motherboard

• 1.2 MEG Floppy Drive

• Hard Disk Controller

• "Touch Type AT" Keyboard

• Runs IBM PC, XT, AT Software

• 8 Full-Size Expansion Slots

• 1 Year Warranty

Ask About Our 30 Day Trial Offer

Quick-Six Multifunction Board

• Serial Port

• Parallel

• 384K RAM

Clock/Calendar RAM Disk Software Print Spooler

For A Limited Time

MONO/GRAPHICS BALANCE I $229

• 720 x 348 Resolution

• Parallel

• Serial

• Runs 1-2-3

Balance II

$299

Mono/Color Graphics

24 Bulletin

B»i rd Service AU >u>

I IK IS I MIL DOWNLC AD ( HDI KIM 2-12 -7 117

All in onC rd >r I .11.

512-12

HIGH SPEED TAPE BACK-UP

$739

20MB

Backs up 20 MB in less than 10 minutes 60 MB

$899

Similar to TECMAR QIC-60

AT E«X«P BOARD

• 3MB RAM

• Serial Port

• Parallel Port

• For IBM or ADEPT AT

$289

HARD DISKS

by flPtPT

20MB

$490 map

• Half-Height

• Complete System

Mounts Internally 1 Year Warranty

10 MB • $390 32MB - $695

For really FAST access, call our hard drive specialist — 800-426-6246

10.20.32 MB . From$595 10 MB Combination Systems

IIAHI) DRIVE TAPE

PRICE

10 MECi 20 MECi 20 MEG 32 MEG

10 MEG 20 MEG 60 MEG 60 MEG

$1185 $1390 $1665 $1870

A perfect match! Colors and casing to conform wilh your IBM or ADEPT PC. In Iwo convenient models lo suil your space requirements. Add hard drives in 10.20,32 or 40 megabytes. Cartridge tape backup in 10,20 or 60 megabytes. Combine hard drive and tape backup (or complete storage solulions. All unils come wilh power supply, cables, software and manual.

10,20,32MB... From$635 10 MB Combination Systems

I

800 426-6246 ^1!%?^"

ORDERS Baalron, TX 78602

512 321-4406 Hour*

Technical AoUtance Mon-I ri: 9 am-6 pm T«»a» R<-»id>nU, Inquirin> Saturday: 9 am- 3 pro

IIAHI) DRIVE

TAPE

PRICE

10 MECi

10 MEG

$1225

20 MEG

20 MEG

$1430

20 MECi

60 MEG

$1705

.12 MECi

60 MEG

$1915

i . i i i i i i i i n

SOFTWARE—Many titles available 800 426-6246 Call for Latest Version and Price

Example*- Borland Superkey $35 Copy II PC $25 Mullimnte $238 Norton Utilities $49

1

m

SBfiiBmii

i»T» 11M i MI M« 11

BIBB JBbM

: |:Fl

•4*l3|ii«[»r*in«. ■ttHEI*tiBI*l*fi

Jail

SEE US AT ATLANTA COMDEX

'86

ADVANCED J DIGITAL,

WHAT'S NEW

HP Computer Compatible with IBM PC AT

The Vectra PC from Hewlett-Packard is an 80286-based computer compatible with the IBM PC AT. The Vectra's processor runs at 8 MHz, as opposed to 6 MHz for the AT. A socket is provided for an optional 80287 numeric coprocessor.

The base unit measures 16.7 by 1 5.4 by 6.3 inches, for a footprint approximately 30 percent smaller than that of the IBM PC AT. Inside, the Vectra PC has five full-size and two half-size expansion slots and room for three stacked disk drives. Drives from either HP or other manufacturers fit into plastic carriers that snap into the chassis, allowing for a wide assortment of massstorage devices, including 3'/2-inch and 5/4-inch floppydisk drives, 20- and 40-megabyte hard disks, and tape backup.

The keyboard has a bank of 10 function keys at the side for use with IBM PCcompatible software; a row of 8 additional function keys across the top provides compatibility with programs for earlier HP personal computers. Theoretically, all 18 keys could be used by a program. The keyboard is connected through the HPHIL (Hewlett-Packard Human Interface Loop), which allows for multiple input devices without wasting either ports or expansion slots. Both a touchscreen bezel and a mouse are available.

The three basic configurations of the Vectra PC are

Hewlett-Packard's Vectra PC.

the Model 2 5, with 2 56K bytes of RAM and one 360K-byte floppy-disk drive for S3199; the Model 3 5, with 2 56K bytes of RAM and a 1.2-megabyte drive for $3399; and the Model 45, with 640K bytes of RAM and a 1.2-megabyte drive for $3 599. A floppy-disk controller is built into the system electronics. Prices include a color-graphics adapter but not a monitor. Prices do not cover MS-DOS 3.1, but if you buy the operating system, you also get HP's Personal Applications Manager. For further information, contact HewlettPackard Co., 1801 Embarcadero Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304, (800) 367-4772. Inquiry 550.

Memory-Resident Utilities for CP/M

Spectre Technologies' Presto! is a memoryresident pop-up utility program providing notepad, calendar, calculator, printscreen, and cut-and-paste functions for CP/M computers. Depending on the modules used, Presto! occupies from 6K to 12K bytes of RAM.

The notepad module creates an 11-line by 80-character window for editing or viewing files; to conserve memory, only the current 11 lines are stored in memory, with the rest of the file stored on disk. The notepad uses standard WordStar commands.

The calculator emulates a standard four-function memory calculator. To those capabilities it adds Boolean operators and support for

binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal math as well as a character mode. A time pad provides a calendar and, on machines with a real-time clock, an alarm and timer. You can print the current text screen to a printer or a file in ASCII format, or you can save a graphics image to a file for later processing with Spectre's Rembrandt graphics program, which is available separately.

Presto! is initially available for the Osborne 1, Executive, and Vixen, and all Kaypro CP/M computers. Spectre plans to release versions for other popular CP/M computers soon.

List price of Presto! is $39.95. Contact Spectre Technologies, 224 58 Ventura Blvd., Suite E, Woodland Hills, CA 91364, (818) 716-1655. Inquiry 551.

Animation Generator for 64K Machines

Fantavision is a special effects/animation generator designed to help you create animated sequences with 64K-byte Apple lis. Br0derbund says that with the software, you can produce studio-quality work.

Fantavision incorporates computer animation techniques such as tweening (the machine creates fluidlooking motion by instantly generating as many as 64 intermediate positions between objects) and transformation (an object in one frame can be transformed into a different object in the {continued)

Inquiry 10 for End-Users. *— Inquiry II for DEALERS ONLY.

JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 37

WHAT'S NEW

subsequent frame). You can superimpose special effects onto high-resolution backgrounds available on the program disk or taken from other Apple graphics software. Sequences can be stored on disk.

Fantavision costs $49.95. Contact Br0derbund Software, 17 Paul Dr., San Rafael, CA 94903, (415) 479-1170. Inquiry 552.

Add 320K to IBM PC

The IPC 320 RAM board gives you 320K bytes of CMOS RAM with battery backup on a standard IBM PC expansion card. You can divide the 320K bytes into bank-selectable 64K-byte blocks or address the extra memory as 3 2 OK bytes of contiguous storage space.

You can install as many as four boards in one IBM PC. If the card is used as a nonvolatile RAM disk, the PC can still address a full 640K bytes of main memory in addition to the 320K-byte RAM disk.

The IPC 320 is priced at $795, which includes RAMdisk software. Contact Diversified Technology Inc., POB 748, Ridgeland, MS 39158, (601) 856-4121. Inquiry 553.

Mouse Needs No External Power Supply

Logitech's Logimouse C7 is a CMOS mouse that uses a maximum of 5 mA of electric current. This low power requirement means the mouse does not need an external power supply; instead it runs on power from the RTS and DTR control lines of the host system's serial port. It has a

voltage tolerance of 6 to 15 volts, so it can be used with most computer systems.

The standard C7 comes with a resolution of 200 dots per inch (a 320-dpi version is also available) and a programmable data-transmission rate of up to 9600 bps. You can buy it with either a 2 5-pin RS-2 32C connector for the IBM PC, XT and compatibles or a 9-pin serial connector compatible with the IBM PC AT. Logitech will also customize connectors.

Logitech says the Logimouse C7 is protocolcompatible with all existing serial mice and will run with most software packages. It costs $99. Contact Logitech Inc., 805 Veterans Blvd., Redwood City, CA 94063, (415) 365-9852. Inquiry 554.

PortaFile Puts Handle on 20 Megabytes

The PortaFile 20 incorporates a 20-megabyte external hard disk and power supply shockmounted in a portable case with a carry handle. Packaged with the drive is an IBM PC hard-disk-controller expansion card (which can work with one internal hard disk as well as the PortaFile) and cable.

The PortaFile 20 is scheduled to be available in February for $1295. For additional information, contact Western Digital, 2445 McCabe Way, Irvine, CA 92714, (714) 863-0102. Inquiry 555.

Robotic Computing Kit

Parsec Research has taken a robot construction kit made by fischertechnik of Germany and equipped it with a FORTHbased control language called PaRCL (pronounced "parkul"). The kit contains 10 projects designed to teach you the fundamentals of robotics while you build a plotter, sotting system, or other automated devices.

The fischertechnik package (249 pieces in all) comes with two motors, two gears, one electromagnet, three lamps, eight pushbuttons, and two potentiometers. The computer interface has four outputs for connection of motors and other components, eight digital inputs, two analog inputs, and a program disk.

PaRCL is modeled after advanced industrial and laboratory standards. Parsec said the language uses no complex codes; commands are written in English. The routines reportedly run much faster than BASIC equivalents.

After you've constructed your device, you can control it with an Apple II, Commodore VIC-20. or Commodore 64. Besides a plotter and sorting system, other projects in the kit let you build a materials lift, an aerial rotor, a graphics panel, and a teachable robot.

The Robotic Computing Kit sells for $199. The plastic pieces snap together, so assembly requires just a screwdriver. To power the models, you need a 6- to 10-volt DC supply with a minimum of 500 milliamps. Contact Parsec Research, Drawer 1766, Fremont, CA 94538, (800) 633-6335; in California, (415) 651-3160. Inquiry 556.

{continued)

38 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

NEW FROM BORLAND

Borland Introduces Reflex, The Greatest Analytical Tool Since The Couch

INTRODUCING REFLEX, THE ANALYST.

If you use Lotus 1-2-3'", dBASE® or PFS File'", you need Reflex'"—because it's a totally new way to look at your data. It shows you patterns, relationships and interrelationships you didn't know were there, because they were hidden in data and numbers.

Reflex is the first database that separates the trees from the forest. The first database that understands that what you see depends on how you look at it.

The first database that probes relationships—then shows them to you in various graphic forms—scatter, line, bar, stacked bar and pie charts.

The first database to break the bonds of traditional DBMS (Data Base Management Systems) and give a dramatic visual turn to data analysis.

Reflex makes graphic leaps far beyond 1-2- 3. With Reflex, when you look, you see.

HOW THE CRITICS REACT TO REFLEX

'"The next generation of software has officially arrived."

Peter Norton, PC Week

"Reflex is one of the most powerful database programs on the market; its multiple views; interactive windows and graphics, great report writer, pull-down menus and cross tabulation make this one of the best programs we have seen in a long time...The program is easy to use and not intimidating to the novice...Reflex not only handles the usual database functions such as sorting and searching, but also "what-if' and statistical analysis,..it can create interactive graphics with the graphics module. The separate report module Is one of the best we've ever seen."

Marc Stern, InfoWorld "What you see, then, is an interesting hybrid of a database and a spreadsheet that is Ideal for analyzing tabular data."

Adam B. Green, InfoWorld "More flexible than spreadsheets, this easy-to-use database analysis package presents information with visual clarity...Reflex is for you. The flexibility of switching between different views of the data lets you see relationships you may have previously overlooked...Without "what-if" analysis, key variables—such as cost of goods sold or travel expenses—may be out of hand but unnoticed. The type of analysis to uncover such a foible is awkward to do on a spreadsheet; yet, it may mean the difference between success and failure in a competitive situation." Ira H. Krakow, Business Computer Systems

BORLAND

INTERNATIONAL

4585 Scorn Valley Drive, Scoltt Valley CA 95066 Phone (408) 438-8400 Telex 172373

Trademarks: Rcfln is a trademark of BORUND/Ariarytica inc. Lotus is a registered trademark and Lotus 1-2-3 ii a trademark of Lotus Detdoprnem Corporation. dBASE is a registered trademark of AshtonTate PFS is a regls-ered trademark and PFS File ts a trademark of Sofissare Publishing Corporauon IBM PC, >T, AT, PC-DOS and IBM Color Graphics Adapter are registered trademarks of Inlemational Business Machines Corporauon Hercules Monochrome Graphics Card is a trademark of Hercules Computer Technology.

Inquiry 40 for End-Users. Inquiry 41 for DEALERS ONLY.

REFLEX OPENS MULTIPLE WINDOWS WITH NEW VIEWS AND GRAPHIC INSIGHTS.

You use Reflex's Form View to build your database; the List View lets you put data in tabular List form; the Graph View gives you instant interactive graphic representations; the CrossTab View gives you amazing "cross-referenced" pictures of the links and relationships hidden in your data. Report View allows you to import and export data to and from Reflex, 1-2-3, dBASE, PFS File and other applications and prints out information in the formats you want. In fact, Report View is probably the best 1-2-3 report generator you can buy today. It's also the cheapest—and you're getting all the other features free.

The commands for all five Views are consistent—so you're not stuck learning five different ways to get something done. And because Reflex uses advanced windowing techniques, you can see several views on the screen at the same time— widiout having to switch back and forth. You get the picture—and the pictures—all at once—if that's the way you want to look at things.

Modify a number and all your Views—List, Form and Graph—are immediately updated, on-screen. Changing a number changes the picture—which is mighty handy when you're analyzing (let's say) sales figures by salesperson; or you're in "What-if?" country asking yourself "What if we could add 2.5% in January sales?" "Show me."

"Give me the picture." "Show me what happens when we shift 1196 of Nebraska's inventory to the new store in Hawaii." "Show me how many Gizmo 28's we have in every store in every state as of midnight last night and what happens to our East Coast stocks if the shipping strike lasts more than a week." "Show me." So Reflex shows you. Instant answers. Instant pictures. Instant analysis. Instant understanding.

HOW IN THE WORLD CAN BORLAND SELL A PHENOMENAL PRODUCT LIKE REFLEX FOR ONLY $99.95?

At $495.00, Analytica's original price, Reflex was a bargain. Acclaimed by critics and praised by users, Reflex also got our attention at Borland International. We were so impressed by Reflex that we bought the company!

To celebrate that, we're making business software history by offering Reflex—FOR A LIMITED TIME—for ONLY $99.95! (Offer good through March 31, 1986).

That's $395.05 off the original price— which is a pretty good return on your tollfree phone call.

We think Reflex should be an "automatic product," a "standard" that every PC owner should own. That's why we priced it at $99-95. Naturally we've added our 60-day money-back guarantee and Borland's Reflex is not copy-protected.

Ti

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Avai-able Abetter dea-ersna

YES! Rush Reflex to me. Send me

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60-DAY

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WHAT'S NEW

32-bit Floating-Point Processor

Advanced Micro Devices has developed a singlechip floating-point processor (FPP) that can perform 32-bit floating-point addition, subtraction, or multiplication within a single 150-nanosecond clock cycle. The Am2932 5 FPP has a flow-through architecture that features two 32-bit input buses and one 32-bit output bus.

This FPP is the first member of the planned Am29300 family of 32-bit bipolar microprocessors. It can perform a singleprecision floating-point operation within 150 ns in the flow-through mode or 13 5 ns in the clocked mode. The chip can be employed in systems based on other microprocessors.

The Am29325 can perform arithmetic using either the IEEE floating-point standard P754 or the DEC singleprecision floating-point format. It can also convert numbers between the IEEE and DEC formats and between 32-bit integer and floating-point formats.

in addition to the standard I/O configuration already described, the Am2932 5 can be selected for a 32-bit, two-bus architecture or a 16-bit, three-bus structure for use with 16-bit microprocessors. The input and output registers can be made transparent so the system designer can use external registers with no system speed penalty.

The Am2932 5 FPP comes in a 144-pin pin-grid-array package and is priced at S695 each in 100-unit quantities. Contact Advanced Micro Devices Inc., 901 Thompson Place, POB 3453, Sunnyvale, CA 94088, (408) 732-2400. Inquiry 557.

The Am2932 5 floating-point processor from Advanced Micro Devices.

Low-Cost Word Processor

DAC Software's DAC Easy Word runs on the IBM Personal Computer and compatible machines. Commands are entered either by selecting options presented in a series of nested menus or by typing mnemonic Altkey combinations.

The program can maintain up to four windows at a time, can import and export ASCII text, and has mailmerge capabilities. It supports margins up to 127 characters and can scroll horizontally. Other features include automatic hyphenation with a dictionary of more than 3000 cases, a 60-line buffer from which deleted text can be retrieved, access to DOS commands, word counting, and a spelling checker with a 70,000-word expandable dictionary.

DAC Easy Word requires at least 2 56K bytes of RAM and DOS 2.0 or higher. With 2 56K bytes of memory, the program can handle about

70 pages of text. It costs $49.95. Contact DAC Software Inc., 4801 Spring Valley Rd., Building 110-B, Dallas, TX 75244, (214) 458-60038. Inquiry 558.

CAD Software for the IBM PC

Generic CADD from Generic Software is a S99.95 program for computer-aided design and drafting with the IBM PC. You can use it to design and draft in two dimensions on the computer screen using multiple layers, multiple line types, rubber-banding of lines and windows, userdefinable video and digitizer menus, and component libraries. You draw with a mouse, digitizer, or keystroke commands.

The program features absolute or relative coordinate input, floating-point-based data, and unlimited picture size. The number of entities in a single drawing is limited only by memory size (640K bytes of RAM will allow approximately 40K lines).

You can choose from point, straight-line, rectangle, regular-polygon, circle, arc, ellipse, and curve (B-spline) drawing entities. You can

select 2 56 layers, 2 56 colors, and 256 line types. The program provides for measurement of lengths, angles, and areas. Text placed in drawings can be scaled or rotated; multiple fonts are available.

Component libraries in Generic CADD can hold up to 2 56 different components for a single drawing. Such components can be included on menus and can be rotated, scaled, stretched, shrunk, or mirrored.

Generic CADD requires an IBM PC or compatible with at least 2 56K bytes of RAM, a video graphics board, an 8087 coprocessor (or an 80287 for an IBM AT), two floppy-disk drives, and DOS 2.0 or above. The recommended system configuration is a PC with 512K bytes or more of RAM, a mediumresolution video graphics board (720 by 3 50 monochrome or 640 by 400 color), a 10-megabyte harddisk drive, a 12- by 12-inch digitizer, and a plotter. Generic CADD is priced at $99.95 with a 60-day unconditional money-back guarantee. Contact Generic Software Inc., 6 Lake Bellevue #203, Bellevue, WA 98005, (206) 462-1944. Inquiry 559.

Macintosh

Telecommunications

MicroPhone is a Macintosh telecommunications program written by Dennis Brothers, author of the public-domain program MacTEP. MicroPhone can emulate DEC VT-100. VT-52, and TTY-type terminals and provides ASCII and XMODEM file-transfer capabilities. Apple's Switcher is packaged with MicroPhone so that other applications

(continued)

40 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

NEW FROM BORLAND!

Borland introduces Tuxbo Lightning™

the fastest, most amazing information system since your brain

You can now find out everything in a flash.

With instant access to electronic versions of the 83,000 word Thrbo Lightning'" Random House® Speller & Word List; the 50,000-word Thrbo Lightning Random House Thesaurus'" and the soon-to-be-released Thrbo Lightning Encyclopedia'" — and to an astonishing array of electronic reference books which form Borland's new Thrbo Lightning Library'"

Hitting one key on your IBM® personal computer — taps you into this new electronic age of instant information,

You get the right word, the right spelling, the right name, the right address, right now.

What we've done has been called "Artificial Intelligence," we simply call it "ThrboLightning." This information revolution — driven by Thrbo Lightning — means that the way you look things up is definitely looking up.

No matter what program you're running, Turbo Lightning instantly checks your

spelling as you type. You could be running WordStar®, MultiMate'", SideKick®, Microsoft® Word, MCI Mail®, CompuServe®, or whatever, because as you work, as you write, 7urfx> Lightning is waiting in the wings, watching how you spell every word, but not getting in the way of what you're doing.

So how does it work? Let's say the word you meant to type was "RIGHT," but you accidentally typed 'RIHGT," which is wrong. What happens then?

You immediately hear a 'beep,' so you know there was a boo-boo. You instantly see a window, that doesn't list "RIHGT" but it does list 'RIGHT' and its sound-alike words. So your screen looks like this:

rihgt Sound Alike Words :

A: r i g h t

B: rights C: righted D: rightly E: re I ig h t F: tighter

G. Add word to auxiliary dictionary PgUp or PgDn for more words

So you move your cursor to "A." which is the right "right," hit Return and the spelling mistake is Instantly fixed. And the program you were working on has continued to run while you did a little spelling sidetrip with Thrbo

Lightning. (li you'd rather not remember your Spelling grades in school, lire beep might mate you nuts, but you can citoose the "whole page" option. Which meant tlot ».';.• /' yoti AWi writing the entite page, any spelling mistakes will be highlighted Ynt go in and straighten things out straight away).

Lightning never goes away, is 100% concurrent, reliable, accurate and cannot, does not, will not 'crash & bum.'

Your document, letter, report, spreadsheet is word perfect and no one ever knows that you can't spell for beens.

BORLAND

INTERNATIONAL

4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVE, SCOTTS VALLEY,

CA 95066 PHONE {408) 438-8400 TELEX 172373

Turbo Lightning does a lot more than spell "right" right, it also gives you instant

Synonyms. Because you also have Thrbo Lightning's Random House Thesaurus at your fingertips, you can really get to know your 'rights.' So back to the word "Right," but this time in the thesaurus. Type in "Right" and what you see in the on-screen window is:

righ t Synonyms -Adjective

A:straight

B: true

C: accurate

D: s o u n d

-Noun

F: claim G: title H: due

I: ownership

PgUp or PgDn for more words

So you instantly know more than one way to say, "The Boss is always right," which is handy if you get cornered and have to lie like that.

Introduce yourself to Turbo Lightning and it will never ever forget your name, it s conceivable,

if unfair, that your name is not in the dictionary already, but you can instantly teach Thrbo Lightning your name and all the other names and words it needs to know to help run your business or personal life.

Once you've taught Thrbo Lightning what it needs to know, you'll never blow it with a letter to the Joint Cheek of Staff, the Raygan White Howse or mess something up on your 1MB PC. (1MB PC is no; a trademark of International Business Machine Corn!)

Not $500, not $400, not $300, not $200, not $100, just $99.95 for this instant electronic

miracle. Our success is pretty simple. We're not greedy. We believe that it is better to sell hundreds of thousands of software programs at a reasonable price—instead of a few at prices that would make Jesse James blush.

Just $99-95 gets you into the Thrbo Lightning Library— which is an incredible deal when you look at what you're getting. You're getting the 'access system'—Thrbo Lightning—which is the "engine" that powers the whole Thrbo Lightning Library. You're getting the "engine" plus die 83,000-word Thrbo Lightning Random House Speller and Word List; the 50,000-word Thrbo Lightning Random House Thesaurus. And you're getting all that for an incredible $99.95!

If you ever write a word, think a word or say a word, you need Turbo Lightning, we give you a

60-day money-back guarantee and of course there's no copy protection. $99.95 isn't much to pay for a mistake-free life. Not to mention an education. No matter who you are or what you do, you need Thrbo Lightning. That $99 95 will be the best $99-95 you ever spent on yourself or your company.

Do yourself, your assistants, your secretary, your boss, your readers, your audience and your career a favor, get Turbo Lightning todayl

V.irixi tigljiiiiifl. t\af*> 1 ifrhuilrtft tixyclotHxtia. and luriw bahmltig Uhrjiy are Trademarks and SkltfKltfc is a regWrcii trademark of norland Wemaiic.ul. Inc. RanUuni Hcie* is a. rejtistcnx^wlcmark rr Rxntwn^fousi;, nv. HJM 1RM tfj. AT^ ^

MCI Mail'S. a a-Biwc-recl ualli:m.trk > ,1 MCt C<mynw.ia:Mii.in= tVji OwrtikSerwIs a registered trademark of GimtxiServe f".wr\

Inquiry 42 for End-Users. Inquiry 43 for DEALERS ONLY.

WHAT'S NEW

can be coresident with the program.

With MicroPhone. the Macintosh can automatically log on to a remote system, send and receive mail, transfer files, and log off, all without human intervention. Simpler macros can be activated with a single keystroke. Macros can be created using Microphone's "Watch Me" mode—in which the program observes prompts and keystrokes—or by using the program's Script window menus, or a combination of the two.

MicroPhone has a list price of $74.95. For more information, contact Software Ventures Corp., 2907 Claremont Ave., Suite 220, Berkeley, CA 94705. (800) 336-6477; in California, (800) 336-6478; in Canada, (800) 336-6479. Inquiry 560.

Equity II and Equity III

Epson has released the Equity II. an IBM PCcompatible, and the Equity ill, which is compatible with the PC AT.

The Equity II is based on NEC's 8086-compatible V30 microprocessor. While the Equity II normally operates at 7.16 MHz. it can also run timing-critical software at the same 4.77-MHz clock speed as the IBM PC. The Equity II includes a keyboard similar to the ofo^hipped with IBM's PC ST; but without LEDs. For operator convenience, the power switch, volume control, and all DIP switches are located behind a drop-down front panel.

A combined monochrome/ color-graphics controller, floppy-disk controller, serial and parallel ports, and 640K bytes of RAM are on the main system board. A 100-watt power supply, five

Epson's Equity II (right) and Equity 111

open expansion slots, and space for up to two halfheight disk drives allow for additional hardware. The system power can be turned on with the front-panel power switch or optionally by a preset timer or whenever the serial port detects a ring-detect signal. Power can be turned off manually or through a software command.

Like the PC AT, the Equity III includes eight expansion slots, a single 1.2-megabyte disk drive, serial and parallel ports, and room for up to four internal half-height disk drives. A hard-disk controller and 640K-byte RAM are also standard.

The Equity II with one 360K-byte disk drive will retail for under $1900. The Equity ill with one 1.2-megabyte drive will be priced under $3500. Contact Epson America. Computer Products Division, 2780 Lomita Blvd., Torrance, CA 90505, (213) 539-9140. Inquiry 561.

Data-Compression Units Multiply Modem Speed

Adaptive Computer Technologies now offers the ACT-1200A and the ACT2400A, data-compression units for use with 1200- and 2400-bps full-duplex

modems. These devices are stand-alone boxes that interface not only to modems but to terminals and computers through an RS-232C cable. They can be used for modem file transfer, transmission to a printer, or general, interactive terminalto-computer work. To compress data, you need to have an ACT unit at each end of the line. However, the units do have a transparent mode that does not compress data but simply passes it along.

The ACT compression units analyze transmitted data and use statistical characteristics about that data to select a compression scheme. The units can stay with built-in tables, or they can invoke a dynamic history feature and agree to work with a new table based on the last few thousand characters. Because the units will derive the same new table, one doesn't have to send the entire table to the other; a short message suffices.

Repetitive strings are compressed using variable bitlength encoding. The compression ratio is not directly related to the type of file: Database files and text files will see the same sorts of compression. Compression

factors range as high as 5:1. but 2:1 or 3:1 is typical. Encoding and decoding also incorporate a full CRC-16 error-correction process.

A series of menus lets you set certain compatibility and transmission options, which are then stored in nonvolatile memory inside the unit. You can modify the handshaking that alerts the units to the presence or absence of another compressor at the other end of the line.

The ACT-1200A costs $595. The ACT-2400A costs $795. Contact Adaptive Computer Technologies. 97 Boston Ave.. Suite 103, San lose. CA 95128. (408) 279-3993. Inquiry 562.

Synthesizer Attaches to Parallel Port

Rayna Systems has developed a highperformance music synthesizer that can attach to almost any computer through a parallel printer port. The synthesizer has 59 oscillators, all of which have programmable frequency, volume, and waveform.

These oscillators can be combined to produce a varied collection of sounds. In addition, output can be channeled into any of four output jacks to provide quadraphonic sound. A sample BASIC program shows how the synthesizer can be set up. For CP/M systems, additional software is available, including a $150 program that allows you to edit musical note sequences and instrument characteristics in real time.

The price of the Rayna Synth-in-a-Box is $850. As an S-100 board, the product costs $650. Contact Rayna Systems. 460 9th St.. Brooklyn, NY 11215, (718) 499-84 57. Inquiry 563.

[continued on page 408)

42 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 126 for End-Users.

Inquiry 127 for DEALERS ONLY. —►

fOR Ttif f IRST TIMf... tllGfl Pf RfORMANCf BACKUP PPAT A fLOPPY TAPf PPICf

WHO HffDS fLOPPY TAPf!!

TheE

verex EXCEL STREAM-20 Cassette Backup System No extra expansion slot needed High Speed—up to 10MB in just 2 minutes No time-consuming pre-formatting

Internal and externc

Is for the

Capacity

No extra slot needed Backup time lor 10MB Automatic Verification

Automatic formatting

FlIe-bv-Flle Restore from Image Backup

Internal Model

EXCEL STREAM-20 is a trademark of Everex Systems Inc.

Replace your floppy disk controller with Everex's combination cassette AND floppy disk controller—no extra cost, no extra slot needed. Data is automatically verified/corrected and the tape is pre-formatted during backup—saving you the 30 minutes you waste to format and verify with a floppy tape system. The STREAM-20 includes the most advanced backup/restore software. The choice is simple—the Everex EXCEL STREAM-20 Cassette backup system—High Performance backup at a floppy tape price. Visit your local Everex Dealer today land ask to see the STREAM-20 in action. For the name of your nearest Everex Dealer, please call 415-498-1111. Address: 47777 Warm Springs Blvd., Fremont, CA 94539 TELEX: 5101000590 EVEREX FAX: 415-651-0728 Dealer Hotline: (800) 821-0806

In CA (800) 821-0807

ASK BYTE

Conducted by Steve Garcia

RAM for Apple

Dear Steve,

I have a 294K-byte RAM card made by "Syntex, Redmond" for the Apple II. Apparently, the company was originally located in the state of Washington and merged with another company.

I need information on installation and use of the product. Any help you could give me would be appreciated.

Stan Reed Eagle River, AK

There was a company called Syntex in Redmond, Washington, that made a RAM card for the Apple called Flashcard. That company, however, is no longer in business. An Apple Pascal 1.2 driver to configure the Flashcard as a soft disk drive is available from

A.P.P.L.E. Co-op

290 Southwest 43rd St.

Renton, WA 98055

ProDOS drivers are available from

Microseeds

20 Coodell Rd.

Stafford Springs, CT 06076

—Steve

6502 Math

Dear Steve,

Do you know of a book that explains 6502 math utilities? 1 need something that develops the algorithms for floating point, random numbers, rounding errors, trigonometric functions, logarithms, powers, roots, and so on.

I'm in prison here in Texas, and I work in the electronics shop. I use an Apple He and would like to write my own math functions, but I've been hampered by the lack of proper algorithms. I managed to figure out a floating-point format using a 64-bit mantissa, a 15-bit characteristic, and a sign bit. After that, the only algorithm I could find was a Taylor power series in a calculator book.

It is very frustrating to order computer books by mail without any recommendations. I don't have any reference library except the one I have put together myself.

Michael Sanders Huntsville, TX

Three good sources of the kind of information you are seeking are

Ahl, David H. Computers in Mathematics: A Sourcebook of Ideas (Creative Computing Press)

Bennett, William. Scientific and Engineering Problem-Solving with the Computer (Prentice-Hall)

Knuth, Donald E. The Art of Computer Programming, \folume 2: Semi-Numerical Algorithms (Addison-Wesley)

Current prices and relevant ordering information can be obtained by writing directly to the publishers.—Steve

Just One Minor Question

Dear Steve,

Could you advise me on how to learn more about microcomputers? 1 do have some computer background: I've taken graduate physics courses in micros and courses in FORTRAN, assembly language, and the use of BASIC and machine language. I've also used RCA and DEC mainframe computers.

I am looking for a way to make an Atari run Commodore and Apple programs, since they all use the 6502 processor. Can you use tristate buffers to switch to different operating-system ROMs, I/O ports, etc.? This leads me to ask about emulation—is it an advanced program lookup table (what is a lookup table?) that makes the processor think it is in a different machine? Or does it just translate the program to the other machine's requirements? Can an emulation ROM be bankswitched in to translate the program?

I've read that an operating system has been written in the C programming language. How? I've looked at a couple of operating-system programs, but I admit I don't know much about the subject. I couldn't write my own, and I have only a vague concept of the BIOS. How can I learn lots more?

How does the Commodore C-128 tie together the 6502 and the Z80? Using a coprocessor? (What is a coprocessor?) How does the Heath/Zenith H-89 use one Z80 to control a second Z80 in a processor/slave arrangement? Where can I learn how to use a Z80 or a 6502 to con

trol a 68000? How does the operating system control parallel processors, such as an 8086 with an 8087?

I'm not sure I understand the DMA concept or how a cache memory works. How are programs (and the operating system) written to handle a RAM disk? A bubble memory? Can dynamic memory be used in the RAM disk? How is refreshing handled?

MSX is being promoted as an 8-bit operating-system standard. Where can I find out more? Can 1 convert an old Radio Shack computer to use MSX? How? Where can I find an operating-system ROM?

I think I know some basics about micros, but where do I go for an intermediate education? 1 do try to read BYTE regularly— especially your articles—but sometimes I have more questions than understanding.

Merle Rummel Liberty, IN

Mr. Rummel, you ask a lotta questions.

Your letter is filled with questions ranging from basics to advanced hardware/ software techniques. As a beginning, the best way to learn a subject is to read and experiment. You should have some computer-related textbooks left over from college that would provide a good start. In addition, a trip to your library and a wellstocked bookstore will provide a wealth of computer-related information. You can select books that furnish information at a level you can understand.

Making a series of computers that utilize the same microprocessor chip (and therefore the same instruction set) is not as simple as changing an operating-system ROM. The address locations of the I/O ports on one machine are usually different from those on another. This means that you have to change one machine's operating system's port addresses to fit the new machine. Device addresses, memory addresses, etc., are set by hardware, not software. Consequently, a program that runs on an Apple will not load and run successfully on a Commodore or Atari computer, even though they ail share the same microprocessor.

An operating system can be written in

[continued)

44 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. CIARC1A. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

>es dBASE III users more time to do more. Or

less.

Clipper™ allows you to run all dBASE III'" programs 2 to 20 times taster than they do with the standard dBASE interpreter.

That trees up extra time you're wasting it you're running dBASE III programs without Clipper.

Extra time to think. To create. To produce. To use as you choose.

You see, Clipper is the first true compiler for dBASE III. Clipper eliminates the timeconsuming translation which the dBASE interpreter performs line after line whenever a program is run.

With Clipper, once you've debugged your source code, it's compiled into more efficient machine code.

And Clipper compiles all your dBASE III programs. The ones you have today. The ones you'll have tomorrow. But don't wait until tomorrow to order Clipper.

Today, Clipper has already been purchased to speed up dBASE run time at 3M and Touche Ross. At Exxon and NASA. In

the Harvard Physics Department. For the State of Arizona and TRW.

And that's just a few of the installations worldwide. From Greece to Venezuela to Canada to Europe.

So stop wasting time.

Call our toll-free 800 number and get Clipper.

You'll spend less time running dBASE III and more time running the rest of your life.

fc Nantucket.

Inquiry 259 for End-Users. Inquiry 260 for DEALERS ONLY.

ASK BYTE

C, FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal etc. An operating system tells the microprocessor how to talk to a computer system s various components, like disk drives, printers, terminals, parallel ports, serial ports, etc. This can be done in any language, provided it is eventually compiled into the machine instructions required by a particular microprocessor.

A coprocessor is used to assist the main processor or to perform a task more efficiently than the main processor can. An example is the 8087 math coprocessor used with the 8088/86 series of

microprocessors. The 8087 performs mathematical computations many times faster than the 8088/86. Since a coprocessor usually shares the same data and address bus as the main processor, special hardware is required to assure that only one processor has control of the bus at any given time.

DMA (direct memory access) is a method by which a device reads and writes directly to RAM without intervention or help from the main processor. This allows highspeed data transfer and is usually provided by a dedicated DMA

controller chip or a separate processor.

A RAM disk is a program that sets aside a portion of memory for use as a disk drive. It does this by fooling the operating system into "thinking" that this RAM is a physical drive. Dynamic RAM can be used as a RAM disk, as can bubble memory and static RAM. The operating system and RAM-disk program don't care if the memory is dynamic, bubble, or static; these are all handled by hardware.

Since dynamic memory is based on charge-storage in capacitors, rather than

(continued)

A PROTOTYPE FOR YOUR PROTOTYPES

METHODS BY DIGITALK. A SMALLTALK PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT FOR THE IBM PC. AN OBJECT-ORIENTED SPEED DEMON. AN EXCITING WAY TO PROGRAM.

Think about your problem. Browse the Methods Smalltalk source code. Select some building blocks like pop-up menus, windows, text-editors and dictionaries. Put them together. Try it. Oops, Methods tells you something is missing. No problem. Continue thinking, changing and trying. Now you're prototyping! Try out new ideas. Redefine your problem. And you don't have to throw this prototype away. Refine it until you like the finished product.

Methods by Digitalk. A new way to develop software for the PC. Use it for windowing, simulation and artificial intelligence applications. Use it by prototyping.

Methods is Smalltalk-80™ language compatible. It includes its own Smalltalk source code. You can extend it in Smalltalk and assembly language.

Methods operates on IBM PCs with 512K bytes RAM using MS-DOS or PC-DOS. Color and monochrome monitors are supported. No mouse is required. A Smalltalk language manual and an environment guide are included.

Smalltalk-80" is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. MS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Available from Digitalk for $250. Outside U.S. add $1 5.00 for shipping and handling. California residents add 6% sales tax. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Educational and Dealer Discounts Available.

DIGITALK, INC.

5200 West Century Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90045 (213) 645-1082

46 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry I0<1

TEC

„ The C for Microcomputers

PC-DOS, MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Macintosh, Amiga, Apple II, CP/M-80, Radio Shack, Commodore, XENIX, ROM, and Cross Development systems

MS-DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M-86, XENIX, 8086/80x86 ROM

Manx Aztec C86

"A compiler that has many strengths... quite valuable for serious work"

Computer language review, February 1985

Great Code: Manx Aztec C86 generates fast executing compact code. The henchmark results below are from a study conducted by Manx. The Dhrystone benchmark (CACM 10/84 27:10 pl018) measures performance for a systems software instruction mix. The results are without register variables. With register variables, Manx, Microsoft, and Mark Williams run proportionately faster. Lattice and Computer Innovations show no improvement.

Execution

Code

Compile/

Time

Size

Link Time

Dhrystone Benchmark

Manx Aztec C88 3.3

34 sees

5.760

93 sees

Microsoft C 3.0

34 sees

7,146

119 sees

Optimized C86 2.20J

53 sees

11,009

172 sees

Mark Williams 2.0

56 sees

12,980

113 sees

Lattice 2.14

89 sees

20.404

117 sees

Great Features: Manx Aztec C86 is bundled with a powerful array of well documented productivity tools, library' routines and features.

Optimized C compiler Symbolic Debugger

AS86 Macro Assembler LN86 Overlay Linker

80186/80286 Support Librarian

8087/80287 Sensing Lib Profiler

Extensive UNIX Library DOS, Screen, & Graphics Lib

Large Memory' Model Intel Object Option

Z (vi) Source Editor -c CP/M-86 Library -c

ROM Support Package -c INTEL HEX Utility -c

Library Source Code -c Mixed memory models -c

MAKE, DIFF, and GREP -c Source Debugger -c

One year of updates -c CP/M-86 Library' -c

Manx offers two commercial development systems, Aztec C86-C and Aztec C86-d. Items marked -c are special features of the Aztec C86-c system.

Aztec C86-C Commercial System $499

Aztec C86-d Developer's System $299

Aztec C86-p Personal System $199

Aztec C86-a Apprentice System $49

All systems are upgradable by paying the difference in price plus S10.

Third Party Software: There are a number of high quality support packages for Manx Aztec C86 for screen management, graphics, database management, and software development.

C-tree $395 Greenleaf $185 PHACT $250 PC-lint $98 HALO $250 Amber Windows $59 PRE-C $395 Windows for C $195 Windscreen $149 FirsTime $295 SunScreen $99 C Util Lib $185 PANEL $295 Plink-86 $395

MACINTOSH, AMIGA, XENIX, CP/M-68K, 68k ROM

Manx Aztec C68k

"Library handling is very flexible... documentation is excellent ...the shell a pleasure to work in ... blows away the competition for pure compile speed ...an excellent effort."

Computer Language review, April 1985 Aztec C68k is the most widely used commercial C compiler for the Macintosh. Its quality, performance, and completeness place Manx Aztec C68k in a position beyond comparison. It is available in several upgradable versions.

Optimized C Creates Clickable Applications

Macro Assembler Mouse Enhanced SHELL Overlay Linker Easy Access to Mac Toolbox

Resource Compiler UNIX Library Functions Debuggers Terminal Emulator (Source)

Librarian Clear Detailed Documentation

Source Editor C-Stuff Library

MacRam Disk -c UniTools (vi,make,diff,grep) -c Library Source -c One Year of Updates -c

Items marked -c are available only in the Manx Aztec C86-C system. Other features are in both the Aztec C86-d and Aztec C86-C systems.

Aztec C68k-c Commercial System $499 Aztec C68d-d Developer's System $299 Aztec C68k-p Personal System $199 C-tree database (source) $399 AMIGA, CP/M-68k, 68k UNLX call

Apple EE, Commodore, 65xx, 65C02 ROM

Manx Aztec C65

"The AZTEC C system is one of the finest software packages I have seen"

NIBBLE review, July 1984

A vast amount of business, consumer, and educational software is implemented in Manx Aztec C65. The quality and comprehensiveness of this system is competitive with 16 bit C systems. The system includes a full optimized C compiler, 6502 assembler, linkage editor, UNIX library, screen and graphics libraries, shell, and much more The Apple II version runs under DOS 3.3, and ProDOS, Cross versions are available.

The Aztec C65-C/128 Commodore system runs under the C128 CP/M environment and generates programs for the C64, C128, and CP/M environments. Call for prices and availability of Apprentice, Personal and Developer versions for the Commodore 64 and 128 machines.

Aztec C65-c ProDOS & DOS 3.3 $399 Aztec C65-d Apple DOS 3.3 $ 199

Aztec C65-p Apple Personal system $99 Aztec C65-a for learning C $49 Aztec C65-c/128 C64, C128, CP/M $399

Distribution of Manx Aztec C

In the USA, Manx Software Systems is the sole and exclusive distributor of Aztec C. Any telephone or mail order sales other than through Manx are unauthorized.

Manx Cross Development Systems

Cross developed programs are edited, compiled, assembled, and linked on one machine (the HOST) and transferred to another machine (the TARGET) for execution. This method is useful where the target machine is slower or more limited than the HOST, Maax cross compilers are used heavily to develop software for business, consumer, scientific, industrial, research, and educational applications.

HOSTS: VAX UNIX ($3000), PDP-11 UNIX ($2000), MSDOS ($750), CP/M ($750), MACINTOSH ($750), CP/M-68k ($750), XENIX ($750).

TARGETS: MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Macintosh, CP/M-68k, CP/M-80, TRS-80 3 & 4, Apple II, Commodore C64, 8086/80x86 ROM, 68xxx ROM, 8080/8085/Z80 ROM, 65xx ROM.

The first TARGET is included in the price of the HOST system. Additional TARGETS are $300 to $500 (non VAX) or $1000 (VAX).

Call Manx for information on cross development to the 68000, 65816, Amiga, C128, CP/M-68K, VRTX, and others.

CP/M, Radio Shack, 8080/8085/Z80 ROM Manx Aztec CD

"I've had a lot of experience with different C compilers, but the Aztec CHO Compiler and Professional Development System is the best I've seen."

80-Micro, December, 1984, John B. Harrell III

Aztec C R-c (CP/M & ROM) $349

Aztec C D-d (CP/M) $199

C-tree database (source) $399

Aztec C80-c (TRS-80 3 & 4) $299

Aztec C80-d (TRS-80 3 & 4) $199

How To Become an Aztec C User

To become an Aztec C user call 1-800-221-0440 or call 1-800-832-9273 (800-TEC WARE). In NJ or outside the USA call 201-530-7997. Orders can also be telexed to 4995812.

Payment can be by check, COD, American Express, VISA, Master Card, or Net 30 to qualified customers.

Orders can also be mailed to Manx Software Systems, Box 55, Shrewsbury, NJ 07701.

How To Get More Information

To get more information on Manx Aztec C and related products, call 1-800-221-0440, or 201-530-7997, or write to Manx Software Systems.

30 Day Guarantee

Any Manx Aztec C development system can be returned within 30 days for a refund if it fails to meet your needs. The only restrictions are that the original purchase must be directly from Manx, shipped within the USA, and the package must be in resalable condition. Returned items must be received by Manx within 30 days. A small restocking fee may be required.

Discounts

There are special discounts available to professors, students, and consultants. A discount is also available on a "trade in" basis for users of competing systems. Call for information.

Inquiry 222

UNIX ft a regisiored TM ol Boll Lutjo'aiones Lattice TM Lattice Inc., C-ireeTM Faircom. Inc., PHACT TM PHACT ASSOC.. CI Optimizing C66 TM Computer Innovations, Inc., MACINTOSH, APPLE TM APPLE. INC. P'e-C, PLINK 86, TM PHOENIX, HALO TM Media Cybernetic*. Inc. C-ttrp. PC-Jmi TM GIMPLE Software. Windscreen. SunScreen TM SunTac, PANEL TM Rounflh.ll Computer Systems LM.. WINDOWS FOR C TM Creative Solution a XENIX, MS TM MICROSOFT INC., CP/M TM DRI, AMIGA C64. C12B TM COMMODORE Inl

Which Master Would Your Slaves Recommend?

OurNewCPZ-186 Has It All

Intercontinental Micro Systems, the leader in the 8-bit single board computer world, has done it again.

The CPZ-186, based on the 80186 CPU with integrated 2 channel Direct Memory Access Controller, has a 4-drive floppy controller, 2 serial I/O ports, 2]/> parallel I/O ports, Memory Management Unit, Interrupt Controller, up to 1 Megabyte of Dynamic RAM, and up to 8K EPROM, all on a single IEEE S-100 Bus Board.

Talk about speed and flexibility. The CPZ-186 runs at 8 MHz and can be used for single user systems or in powerful multi-user applications. As a Network Master (File Server), the CPZ-186 can network 8-bit and 16-bit S-100 Bus Slaves as well as PC's using Interconfinental's complete line of hardware and software networking products.

Find out what support really is.

Everyone talks about support, but at Intercontinental you deal directly with our hardware and software design team. Who else could know more about solving your problems?

Best of all, we're delivering now, and our price allows building cost effective systems and networks.

Circle the bingo number below or contact us directly, and ask about our complete line of S-100 Bus and Local Area Networking Boards.

Intercontinental Micro Systems

4015 Leaverton CI, Anaheim, Ca 92807, (714) 630-0964JELEX: 821375 SUPPORT UD

Inquiry 172 for End-Users. Inquiry 173 for DEALERS ONLY.

ASK BYTE

a flip-flop circuit (as in static memory), dynamic RAM requires a periodic refresh pulse to offset the effects of the capacitor's leakage. This refresh pulse is provided either by the processor (such as the Z80's refresh pin) or some other timed-pulse generating circuitry.

As far as converting a Radio Shack computer to run an operating system other than what it was designed for, I suggest you visit your local Radio Shack computer store and discuss the details of this with them.— Steve

VERSACARD

Dear Steve,

1 have a problem with my Prometheus VERSAcard in my Apple II. I've sent several letters to the manufacturer with no reply.

When I use my Signalman Mark XII modem at 1200 bps, the VERSAcard drops between five and eight characters following each carriage return. This occurs in either a 40- or 80-column display. I've tried four terminal programs with the same result. I've also tried the modem on two other computers with no problem. Do you have any ideas?

Steve Nelson Euless, TX

This type of problem is frequently due to incompatible or inadequate handshaking signals: The VERSAcard and the modem may not know who's going to do what, and when. 1 would suspect the DTR (data terminal ready) signal, pin 20, on the standard DB-25 connector. On the VERSAcard, this line is tied permanently high. The Signalman modem, in its default configuration, uses this line to determine when the VERSAcard is ready for more data.

As characters are received through the modem and serial card, the terminal program stores them in a buffer (frequently, the Apple's keyboard-input buffer is used for this purpose). When a carriage-return character is received, the terminal program signals the modem to stop sending data and processes this buffer. If the modem doesn't receive this signal, it will continue sending characters and the terminal program will miss some characters.

If the DTR signal is the cause of your problem, the solution is probably attained most easily in software. You should configure your modem to ignore the DTR line, then implement a suitable software handshaking protocol, like the XON/ XOFF protocol. The terminal program you are using will determine which soft

ware protocols you can use. Two terminal programs that work well with the VERSAcard/Signalman combination are ASCII Express, from United Software, and Modem Magician, available from A.P.P.L.E. Co-op, 290 Southwest 43rd St., Renton, WA 98055— Steve

Music, Music, Music

Dear Steve,

Some friends and I are developing software for producing printed output in musical notation from data input by a musical keyboard. At the moment, we are using a Wersi organ because it delivers logical MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) data in physical RS-232C format. This organ is very expensive, and we would like to use a much cheaper MIDI keyboard. Since the computer we are using has only an RS-232C serial interface, we will need a MIDI-to-RS-232C converter. Do you know of any such converter?

Erich Neuwirth Vienna, Austria

Ferro Productions (228 Washington Ave., Belleville, Nj 07109, (201) 751-6238) has written several tutorials on the MIDI and music synthesis. According to a company source, they will be releasing a new MIDI course in the next few months. In addition, a book will be available that also covers this subject. Contact the company for information concerning the course.

The book, MIDI and Related Interfaces, will be available through

Cherry Lane Music POB 430

Port Chester, NY 10573 (914) 937-8601

You should also check into MIDI boards that plug directly into most personal computers. Cherry Lane Music carries such hardware, as does

Syntech Corporation 23958 Craftsman Rd. Calabasas, CA 91302 (818) 704-8509

—Steve

Hardware Education

Dear Steve,

I have been in the computer field for about six years and have done mostly software work. My only hardware project was building an S-100 system for my own use.

{continued)

BYTE' JANUARY 1986

PC Paintbrush: Because life is too short for monochrome pie chads.

Fun

is the best thing to have.

With PC Paintbrush, you can add color, flair, dimension and creativity to a chart, a presentation, or an otherwise dull day. From charts and graphs to serious computer art, our newest generation 3.0 PC Paintbrush will cheer you on with features no other graphics package can match.

Best of all, ifs easy to use. You don't have to learn up to sixty commands, like you do with some products. If you can understand icons as simple as scissors, paintbrush, spray can and paint roller, you're ready to start using PC Paintbrush.

The pen is mightier than the keyboard.

None of history's great artists drew with a keyboard, and you shouldn't have to either. So PC Paintbrush is now available with a cordless PenMouse, to give you complete freedom of expression. Of course, it also supports regular mice, joysticks, graphics tablets, and is compatible with most graphics cards.

PC Paintbrush also has a beautiful way with words. The text icon lets you write in any of eleven fonts, in nine sizes, with italics, outline, shadow and boldface variations.

What's more, with the new 3.0 PC Paintbrush, you can draw rounded boxes, rubber band curves and circles, and edit pictures many times larger than the screen.

Are we making fun ofl-2-3@?Whynot?

For Lotus™ users, PC Paintbrush's new PIC

Go on, live a little.

interpreter loads 1-2-3™ and Symphony™ charts and graphs at your equipment's best resolution, from an IBM EGA™ (640 X 350 X 16 colors) to a Number Nine Revolution™ (512 X 512 X 256 colors).

With our FRIEZE™ frame grabber you can pull graphics created by any program right off the screen into PC Paintbrush. So you can take your Paintbrush and pallette anywhere, improving the looks of things as you go. And having a lot of fun on the way. In addition, our optional presentation package, PC PRESENTATION, allows you to program your graphics into a first class presentation with fades, zooms, quick cuts and animation.

PC Paintbrush supports 19 video graphics cards and 30 printers and plotters.

For more information on PC Paintbrush, call or write us at the address below, or ask your computer dealer for a demonstration.

Z-SOFT

PC Paintbrush

Corporate Headquarters:

ZSoft Corporation, 1950 Spectrum Circle, Suite A 495, Marietta, GA 30067,404/980-1950

West Coast Sales Office*

160 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo, CA 94960,415/456-0955

PC Paintbrush is a trademark of ZSoft Corporation. Lotus, 1-2-3, and Symphony are registered trademarks ol Lotus Development Corporation. IBM and Enhance Graphics Adapter are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Corp. Number Nine Revolution is a trademark of Number Nine Computer Corp.

Inquiry 401 for End-Users. Inquiry 402 for DEALERS ONLY.

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 49

THE DIGITAL

SOUND SENSATION

ASK BYTE

Call 1-800-233-3865 Today! (In PA call 717-299-4327) or send in the

MUSIC

The fascination behind music is man's triumph upon mastering it. WERSI's new DMS Instruments, with their live recorded sounds of acoustical instruments and complexity of an entire symphonic orchestra, now open new ways of actively making music for everybody.

KIT BUILDING

WERSI's unique modular system offers expandability, updateability and great savings. The wide variety of products —from digital keyboards to rhythm devices to full size digital organs and pianos — all have two things in common: they are available in kit form, as well as fully factory assembled, and they all are capable of communicating perfectly with home computers.

COMPUTERS

How about buying floppy disks instead of record albums? Use your computer with a DMS device or instrument hookup to turn digital information into record quality music. Or how about composing, recording and printing out sheet music using your computer equipment? .

Inquiry 380

coupon to WERSI addresses below. Sold worldwide in over 50 countries

FREE "CATALOG- COUPON

Our fascinating 60 page color catalog will tell you everything about a breakthrough in music technology and exciting new ways to use your computer.

Name. City _

Address . State

Zip

I am writing for some advice on how I can learn about hardware, enough so that I will be able to troubleshoot and repair microprocessor systems.

If you could recommend some books or courses, I would greatly appreciate it.

Leonard Simon Kenvil, N]

A good way to learn a subject is to familiarize yourself with the selection of books at your local library on the topic of interest. This is also an inexpensive approach since you don't have to purchase books that are either too technical or too basic for you. In addition, authors and publishers of a book that is useful for a particular subject generally publish related works, a handy source for contacts. You can also stop by a well-stocked bookstore and browse through its selection of electronics and computer-related publications. I have found many interesting books this way.

Howard W. Sams publishes a set of five books called Basic Electricity and Electronics. Each book sells for $10.95. A few more useful books from Sams are Digital Logic Circuits: Tests and Analysis by Robert C. Middleton ($16.95) and Microprocessor Circuits by Edward M. Noll ($9.95 for each of two volumes). All these books can be obtained from the publisher or from the following company:

Hughes-Peters Inc. 481 East Eleventh Ave. Columbus, OH 43211 (614) 294-5351

The use of home-study courses and technical schools provides for the best training. You are offered assistance when required and receive feedback as to your progress and knowledge in the form of grades.—Steve ■

EAST: P.O.Box 5318 Lancaster, PA 17601 Call 1-800-233-3865 (In PA 717-299-4327)

WEST: 14104 E. Firestone Blvd., Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670. Call 1-800-221-9590 (Outside CA: 213-802-2891)

CANADA: 252 Railway Ave.,Treherne, Manitoba Canada R0G-2V0 Call 204-723-2366

IN ASK BYTE, Steve Ciarcia answers questions on any area of microcomputing. The most representative questions received each month will be answered and published. Do you. haw a nagging problem? Send your inquiry to

Ask BYTE

do Steve Ciarcia

POB 582

Glastonbury. CT 06033

Due to the high volume of inquiries, personal replies cannot be given. All letters and photographs become the property of Steve Ciarcia and cannot be returned. Be sure to include "Ask BYTE" in the address.

The Ask BYTE staff includes manager Harv Kleiner and researchers Larry Bregoli. Bill Curlew, feannette Dojan. ]on Elson. Roger lames. Frank Kuechmann. Dick Sawyer. Andy Siska. and Robert Stek.

MICROSOFT LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER Vol. 1-1

News about the Microsoft Language Family

Faster Macro Assembler 4.00 release developed in Microsoft C

By porting the new Macro Assembler 4.00 release to Microsoft C, it assembles programs from 2 to 3 times faster than the previous Microsoft 3.00 and IBM'"2.00 releases.The mixed language and memory model support unique to Microsoft C allowed the new assembler to be written as a small model program using the more efficient Pascal calling conversions for all internal functions. Macro text, symbol names and file buffers were moved out of the 64K "near" workspace into "far" memory allowing much larger programs to be assembled. Additional performance tuning was possible in C by using register variables throughout the assembler. Final profiling identified a few critical small routines to write in assembly language.

The source symbolic debugger, SYMDEB, has been enhanced to include screen swapping, stack backtracing, DOS command execution, better source display and debugging features making this the ideal tool for debugging programs. The 25% faster LINK and the EXEPACK utility can compress executable files by removing common sequences and optimizing the relocation tables. The MAKE utility now supports macros and inference rules.

We are committed to making the complete Macro Assembler product the best value in PC development tools.

News for Microsoft and IBM COBOL users

The new Microsoft® COBOL 2.1 release for MS-DOS* and XENIX® features faster execution and support for the new COBOLTools package which contains VIEWCOB, COBREF, Menu Handler, and CBMOUSE (MS-DOS only). VIEWCOB is an interactive symbolic debugger with an easy-tolearn, menu-driven user interface which supports on-line help and up to 10 windows on your source text, variables, memory, and procedure traces. The COBOL trace mode highlights each statement as it is executed. COBREF is an advanced COBOL cross reference generator that displays lists of files, variables with types, and procedures. Menu Handler and CBMOUSE allow the COBOL programmer to create menu-driven applications to interface to the Microsoft Mouse.

Microsoft C Selected for the IBM personal computer C compiler

The IBM C compiler is a repackaging of the Microsoft C Compiler with a few utilities from the Microsoft Macro Assembler product. A XENIX version of the same compiler is part of Microsoft's XENIX system V release. IBM also distributes Microsoft BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, and Pascal compilers, BASIC interpreter and Macro Assembler under its own logo. Microsoft offers special upgrade pricing to owners of certain Microsoft languages purchased through IBM. Call us for more information.

Write to: MICROSOFT Languages Newsletter 10700 Northup Way, Box 97200

Bellevue, WA 98009 for product update and information. Or phone:

(800) 426-9400. In Washington State and Alaska, (206) 828-8088. In Canada, call (416) 673-7638.

Microsoft. XENIX and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

Latest DOS Versions:

C

3.00

COBOL

2.10

FORTRAN

3.31

Macro Assembler

4.00

Pascal

3.31

QuickBASIC

1.00

IANUARY 1986 'BYTE 51

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IBM PRE-FORMATTED

10 ea., DS/DD, 40 Trk W/FLIP BOX $ 20

100 ea./1000 ea., DS/DD, 40 Trk $149/$959

SINGLE-SIDED, DOUBLE DENSITY

LIST CONROY 19 24 19 17

CDC, 10 ea, SS/DD, 40 Trk (Apple, etc) $ 45 $

DYSAN, 10 ea, SS/DD, (Apple, etc.) $ 40 $

MAXELL, 10 ea, SS/DD, MD1 (Apple) $ 47 $

VERBATIM, 10 ea, SS/DD, MD5M, (Apple) $ 49 $

DOUBLE-SIDED, DOUBLE DENSITY

CDC, 10ea,DS/DD,4OTrk(IBM,H/P)$ 59$ 23

DYSAN, 10 ea, DS/DD, (IBM, H/P) $ 69 $ 27

MAXELL, 10 ea, DS/DD, MD2 (IBM) $ 65 $ 21

VERBATIM, 10 ea, DS/DD, MD34 (IBM) $ 75 $ 21

3W MICRO DISKETTES

MAXELL, 10 ea. SS/DD (MAC, H/P) $ 55 $ 28

MEMOREX, 10 ea. SS/DD (MAC, H/P) $ 60 $ 33

VERBATIM, 10 ea, SS/DD (MAC, H/P) $ 65$ 32

HIGH DENSITY DISKETTES FOR IBM-AT MAXELL, 10 ea. DS/HD (IBM-AT) $ 75 $ 49 MEMOREX, 10 ea. DS/HD (IBM-AT) $ 84 $ 49

* GENERIK DISKETTES *

Top quality, w/jackets, no labels. Quantity discounts. 90 day "No hassle, money back guarantee."

100 ea. SS/SD, 35 Track (Apple, etc) $ 75

100 ea, DS/DD, 40 Track, (IBM, H/P) $ 79

10 ea. DS/HD, (IBM-AT) 96 TPI $ 27

100 ea. DS/HD, (IBM-AT) 96 TPI $ 249

MAIL: 12060 SW Garden Place, Portland, OR 97223) FOR YOUR APPLE

COMPUTERS

^nppkz

IN STOCK, CALL

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

LIST CONROY

$ 269 $ 159

$ 100 $ 59

$ 269 $ 159

t 299 $ 169

$ 249 $ 149

$ 79 $ 45

MICRO-SCI, A2 Disk Drive, 143K

A2 Controller Card

Half Height Drive lor II +/lie

Halt Height Drive for lie TEAC, T40 Half Ht, 163K, Direct

Controller Card for T40 by ComX

HARD DISKS

IOMEGA, 5 meg Bernoulli Box I/Mac $1995 $1595 QUARK,'QC10 for llc/lle/lll/MAC $1995 $1175

OTHER HARDWARE

APPLE, Mouse for lie

$

150

CALL

CCS, 7711 or 7710-A Interface, ea.

S

115

S

95

CPS/EASTSIDE, Wild Card II (copier, +/e)

$

140

S

79

COMX, 16K RAM Card (II +), 1 yr ltd wty

$

119

$

39

HAYES, Mach II, III Joysticks (II + /Me)

CALL

KENSINGTON, System Saver Fan

$

90

$

65

KEY TRONIC, KB200 Keyboard ( + )

$

398

$

248

KOALA, Muppet Keys

$

60

$

44

Touch Tablet w/Micro Illustrator (+/e

$

130

$

75

KRAFT, Joystick (lle/llc)

$

50

$

25

MICRO-SCI, SO Col. Card + 64KRAM Card (lie

s

179

$

89

MICROSOFT, Z80 Softcard II, 64K

$

425

$

269

ORANGE MICRO, Buffered Grappfer Plus, I6K

$

209

$

145

16K Buffer Board for Grappler Plus

$

99

$

59

Hot Link, S-P cable for He

$

70

$

44

TITAN, Accelerator He

$

319

$

229

128K RAM Card (II+)

s

329

$

149

TRACKHOUSE, Numeric Key Pad (lie)

$

100

$

87

VIDEO 7, V Color 7 RGB Card

$

150

S

129

V Color He

$

130

s

89

V Color lie

$

250

$

169

VIDEX, UltraTerm 132 Col. (II +/lie)

$

299

$

189

VideoTerm 80 Col. Card (II +/lie)

$

279

$

175

WICO, Smancard (spec. Il/ll +/He)

$

199

$

159

MODEMS

LIST

HAYES, 2400 External Modem $ 899 Smartmodem 1200B (IBM) $ 549

Smartcom II Software (IBM or MAC) $ 149 Smartmodem 12O0 (External) $ 599 Micromodem lie w/Smartcom (AP) $ 199 Transet 1000 - 128K $ 399

Transet 1000 Access Paks AP/IBM/MAC $ 40

NOVATION, Apple Cat II300 Baud (AP) $ 369 2400 External $ 795

212 Apple Cat, 1200 Baud (AP) $ 595 SmartCat Plus w/software (MAC) $ 499

PROMETHEUS, 1200 Standalone Modem $ 495 ProModem 1200 w/software (MAC) $ 549 ProModem 1200A (AP) $ 449

ProModem 300C (AP lie) $ 199

ProModem 12008 (IBM) $ 399

VENTEL, PC Halfcard (IBM) $ 549

CONROY $ 619 $ 379 $ 107 $ 419 $ 149 $ 309 $ 35 $ 219 $ 595 $ 409 $ 349 $ 349 $ 399 $ 329 $ 149 $ 289 $ 389

MONITORS

AMDEK, 300G, 12" Green/Comp

$

179

$

119

300A, 12" Amber/Comp

$

199

$

129

310A, 12" Amber/IBM

$

230

$

159

Color 300, Comp/Audio

$

349

$

239

Color 500, Comp or RGB/Audio

$

525

S

299

Color 600, Hi Res RGB/Audio

$

599

S

399

PRINCETON, MAX-12, Amber (IBM)

$

249

S

179

HX-12, Hi Res/RGB

$

795

S

445

HX-12e, HI Res/RGB/for IBM-EGA

S

785

S

559

SR-12, Hi Res/RGB

$

799

S

599

QUADRAM, Amberchrome, 12"

$

250

$

149

ZENITH, ZVM-1220, 12" Amber/Comp

$

159

$

109

ZVM-1230, 12" Green/Comp

$

159

$

109

ZVM-1240 & ZVM-135

15-25%

OFF

CABLES

ARBO, IBM-PC to Modem Cable $ 31 $ 19

ASTAR, RF Modulator for T.V. (Apple)* 35 $ 20

C0MPUCABLE, Mac/Hayes Smartmodem Cable $ 32$ 18

CURTIS, Monitor Extension Cable (IBM) $ 50 $ 32

3'-9' Keyboard Extens. Cable (IBM) t 40 $ 26

RCA, Monitor Cable $ 15 $ 6

BUSINESS SOFTWARE UTILITIES SOFTWARE

LIST CONROY PRICE PRICE

ALS, Word or List Handler, ea. $ 80 $ 36 Handler Pak (Word/List/Spell) $ 170 $ 73 APPLE, Appleworks $ 250 $ 225

ASHTON-TATE, dBase II (Req CP/M 80) $ 495 $ 289 BPI, AR, AP, PR or INV, each $ 395 $ 240

DATA TRANS, Fontrix $95$ 63

DOW JONES, Market Analyzer $ 349 $ 219 HOWARD SOFT, '86 Tax Preparer $ 295 $ 199 HUMAN EDGE, Sales or Mgmt Edge, ea. $ 250 $ 139 LIVING VIDEOTEXT, Think Tank $ 145 $ 89 MEGAHAUS, Megaworks $ 125 $ 79

MICRO PRO, WordStar (req. CP/M) $ 350 $ 189 WordStar w/ Starcard $ 495 $ 265

WordStar Professional, 4 Pak $ 495 $ 265 MICROSOFT, Multi-Plan (Ap DOS) $ 95 $ 65 QUARK, Word Juggler & Lexicheck (lle/llc) $ 99 $ 79 SATELLITE, Word Perfect * 179 $ 115

SENSIBLE, Sensible Speller $ 125 $ 79

SIERRA/ON-LINE, Screen Writer II $ 130 $ 89 SOFTWARE PUBL, PFS:File or Write, each $ 125 $ 79 PFS:Graph or Report, each J 125 $ 79

PFS:Access $ 70 $ 43

First Success (F/R/W) $ 225 $ 145

SPRINGBOARD, Newsroom $ 50 $ 32

STONEWARE, DB Master, v. 4+ $ 350 $ 189

UTILITIES SOFTWARE

BEAGLE, GPLE or Alpha Plot, ea $ 50 $ 27

Pronto DOS or Disk Quick, ea $ 30 $ 19

Apple Mechanic or I.O. Silver $ 30 $ 19

BORLAND, Turbo Pascal (req. CP/M) $ 70 $ 36

Turbo Toolbox $ 55 $ 30

CENTRAL POINT Copy II Plus (bit copier) $ 40 $ 22

EPSON, Graphics Dump $ 15 $ 7

FUNK, Sideways $ 60 $ 37

HAYES, Terminal Prog, lor Smartmodem $ 99 $ 65

MICROSOFT, Full Line IN STOCK CALL

MICROSTUF, Crosstalk $ 195 $ 109

OMEGA, Locksmith $ 100 $ 73

PENGUIN, Complete Graphics System II $ 80 $ 49

LIST CONROY PRICE PRICE

PENGUIN, Graphics Magician $ 60 $ 41

QUALITY, Bag of Tricks $ 40 $ 29

UNITED SWI, ASCII Express-Pro DOS $ 130 $ 82 UTILICO, Essential Data Duplicator III $ 80 $ 49

HOME & EDUCATIONAL

BARRONS, Study for SAT

$

90

S

60

BEAGLE BROS., Full Line IN STOCK

CALL

BRODERBUND, Print Shop

$

50

$

31

Print Shop 8, Refill

$

65

S

39

Bank St. Mailer or Filer, ea.

$

70

$

45

Bank St. Writer or Speller, ea

$

70

s

45

Bank St. Combo (Writer & Speller)

$

140

$

85

CONTINENTAL, Home Accountant

$

75

s

43

HARCOURT, Computer SAT

$

80

s

51

KOALA, Full Line IN STOCK

CALL

MICROSOFT, Typing Tutor II

$

25

$

17

MINDSCAPE, Crossword Magic

$

50

S

35

MONOGRAM, Dollars S Sense (ll + /llel

$

100

$

59

Dollars & $ense (He/He 128K)

$

120

s

69

Forecast

$

60

$

38

SCARBOROUGH, Mastertype

$

40

$

25

Your Personal Net Worth

$

80

s

50

SIERRA/ON-LINE, Homeword

$

70

$

45

SIMON & SCHUSTER, Typing Tutor III $

50

$

33

RECREATIONAL SOFTWARE

BLUECHIP, Millionaire or Barron, ea. $

ELECTRONIC ARTS, Bard's Tale $

Sky Fox & others, ea. $

Movie Maker $

Deluxe Music Construction $

Dr. J S Larry Bird $

HAYDEN, Sargon III (Chess) $

INFOCOM, Zork I, II. or III, ea $

MICROPROSE, Strike Eagle $

ORIGIN, Ultima III $

Ultima IV $

PENGUIN, Transylvania $ SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE, Gato (128K) $ SPINNAKER, Full Line IN STOCK

SUB LOGIC, Flight Simulator II $

50 $ 45 $ 40 $ 40 $ 50 $ 40 $ 50 $ 40 $ 35 $ 60 $ 64 $ 35 $ 40 $

37 30 30 29 23 39 441 24 25 CALL 50 $ 30

.; ... . '

PRINTERS

DOT MATRIX: UST CONROy

EPSON, FX85-160 cps DQ/32 cps NLQ/10"$ 499 $ 389 FX185 - 160 cps DQ/32 cps NLQ/15" $ 699 $ 539 LX80 - 100 cps DQ/16 cps NLQ $ 299 $ 249 LQ1500 - 200 cps DQ/67 cps LQ $1295 $ 995 Tractor feed for LX80 $ 40 $ 33

Tractor feed for LQ1500 $ 70 $ 55

Tractor feed for FX85 $ 45 $ 35

HEWLETT-PACKARD, Laserjet $3495 CALL Thinkjet - 150 cps Inkjet $ 495 CALL

OKIDATA, Okimate 20, 182, 84 LOW PRICES 92,192,193, 2410 Pacemark IN STOCK

PANASONIC, P1092 - 180 cps/10" $ 599 $ 399 1093 $ 699 $ 469

QUADRAM, Quadjet-Inkjet Color $ 695 $ 395

STAR MICRO, SG10 - 120 cps DQ730 cps NLQ $ 299 $ 249 SD10 - 160 cps DQ, 40 cps NLQ $ 449 $ 379 SR15 - 200 cps DQ, 50 cps NLQ, 16K $ 799 $ 679

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, 855 - 150 cps $ 995 $ 689

TOSHIBA, 351 - 288 cps $1695 $1195

LETTER-QUALITY:

JUKI, 6300 - 40cps/para. $ 895 $ 699

6100-18 cps/para/3 pitch $ 599 $ 409

Sheet Feeder for 6300 (single) $ 275 $ 225

PANASONIC, P3151 - 22 cps/15Vj" $ 659 $ 439 TOSHIBA, Prop, spacing & hi-res graphics:

1340 - 144 cps DQ & 54 cps LQ $ 799 $ 519

Bi-direction Tractor Feed $ 195 $ 175

PLOTTERS:

EPSON, 4 Pen Plotter $ 599 CALL

HEWLETT-PACKARD, 8 Pen Plotter $3900 CALL

PRINTER SUPPLIES:

CONROY LAPOINTE,

Colored Paper Pack (250 sheets) $ 13 $ 8 PAPER: While, Colored, Laser Cut, etc. RIBBONS, DAISYWHEELS IN STOCK

PRINTER INTERFACES AND BUFFERS

LIST CONROY

PRICE PRICE

ARBO, IBM-PC to Para Printer Cable

$

36 $

25

Switchbox, TS-0902

$

95 $

59

ASSIMILATION, Mac to Epson Conn l/F

$

89 $

69

Daisywheel Connection

$

99 $

80

EPSON, Parallel Interface for LQ1500

$

100 $

79

Serial Interface Board

$

130 $

110

OKIDATA, Plug 'n Play, Tractors, Okigraph

CALL

ORANGE MICRO, Grappler Plus for Apple

$

145 $

95

Serial Grappler

$

119 $

79

Buffered Grappler Plus, 16K

$

209 $

145

Hoi Link, S-P cable for He

$

70 $

44

Grappler C

$

119 $

75

QUADRAM, Microfazers, Full Line IN STOCK

CALL

Microfazers 8K, P-P, w/copy

$

189 $

139

SMT, Apple II l/F & Cable

$

89 $

39

STAR MICRO, Mac/Star Interface

$

100 $

89

ACCESSORIES

CURTIS, Diamond, 6 outlets, switched

$

50 $

29

Emerald , 6 outlets, 6' cord

$

60 $

35

Ruby, 6 outlets, 6' cord, filter

$

90 $

55

Sapphire, 3 outlets, w/filter

$

80 $

46

EPD, Lemon, 6 outlets/wall

$

45 $

29

Lime, 6 outlets/cord

$

70 $

45

Orange, 6 outlets/cord/filter

$

100 $

66

Peach, 3 outlets/wall/filter

$

60 $

39

INNOVATIVE, Datacase 50 (disk holder)

$

15 $

10

KENSINGTON, Printer Stand

$

30 $

17

NETWORX, Wiretree, 4 oullet/lilter/surgB

$

70 $

39

Wiretree Plus, 6 outlets/filter/surge

$

100 $

59

PROD TECH INTT, Uninterruptable Power Supply

200 Watts, PC200 for IBM-PC

$

359 $

289

300 Watts, XT300 for IBM-XT

$

499 $

399

800 Watts, AT800 for IBM-AT, 72 lbs

$

899 $

789

r

CONROY- „ LAPOINTE 2 CREDIT CARD *

Send me a Conroy-LaPoinia credit application form, so I can gat cash discount prices with credit card convenience. $400 Minimum initial purchase.

CITY STATE ZIP

MAIL TO: 72060 SW Garden Place, Portland, OR 97223 CREDIT DEPT. (503) 684-1232

Include telephone number. Check Handling (SIH). All items usually in stock. NO C.O.D.

ADnCDIMP I MCA 0 TCDMO ■ MAIL TO: 12060 SW Garden Place, Portland, OR 97223 VJrlL/unillVa llMlVy OL I CrllVIO. your figures for Shipping, Insurance and Handling (SIH).

Cashiers checks, money orders, Fortune 1000 checks and government checks honored immediately. Personal and other companychecks-allow 20 days to clear. Prices reflect 3% cash & Conroy-LaPolnte Credit Card discount, so ADD 3% to above prices for VISA/MasterCard/American Express. Your card NOT charged lil we ship. Gift Certificates available in any amount. We ship Federal Express Standard Air. U.S. & Puerto Rico, add 3% {$5 minimum), Canada, add 12% ($15 min). Foreign, add 18% ($25 min). APO, FPO, & other U.S. territories shipped postal, so add 6% ($10 min.). Orders received with insufficient SIH will be held for balance due. All prices, availability and specifications subject to errors or change without notice, so call to verify. All goods are new, include warranty and are guaranteed to work. Due to our low prices and our assurance that you will get new, unused products-ALL SALES ARE FINAL. We do not guarantee compatibility. Call before returning goods for repair or replacement. ORDER DESK H0URS-6AM to 6PM PST, Monday through Friday, Saturday 8 to 4. PC Mastercard*1, EconoRAM™, Fastrak"", and Generik"* are trademarks of Magnum Computer, Inc.

Inquiry 88 for Apple. Inquiry 89 for IBM Peripherals. Inquiry 90 for all others.

#B33

1984.1985 fcy Convoy LaPointe. Inc Ail Rights Reserved

LOW PRICES TO PROFESSIONALS WHO KNOW WHAT THEY WANT AND KNOW HOW TO USE IT!

(TO ORDER, CALL (800) 547-1289 )( FOR YOUR IBM-PC, XT, AT or JR

COMPUTER SYSTEMS OTHER HARDWARE OTHER HARDWARE MEMORY

1088-2 PC/XT-2

$995

640K, Two 360K Drives

Plus: MS-DOS 2.11, Parallel Port, 2 Serial Ports (RS 232C), Clock/Calendar, Floppy Drive & Tape Backup Controller, 5 slots, 135 Watt Power Supply, 8087-2 optional, Selectric PC/AT Style Keyboard.

w/1 Floppy & 10 meg Hard Drive $1595

Please call lor other conliguralions Above prices do not include video card or monilor

E1M-PC

256K, 2 360K Disk Drives

LIST

CONROY

AST, SixPak Plus, 64K

$

395

s

239

SixPak Plus, 256K, S/P/CC + S/W

$

695

s

259

SixPak Plus, 384K, S/P/CC + S/W

$

895

s

269

Preview™ Graphics Card w/para, 64K

$

399

s

249

Advantage" Mullil. Bd. tor AT, 128k

i

595

s

445

I/O Plus II. S/P/CC

$

215

s

169

I/O Plus II, S/P/CC/G

$

265

$

225

Port Kits - ser, para, or game, ea.

$

50

$

35

CENTRAL POINT, PC Option Board

$

95

s

81

COMX, 130 Wan Power Supply

$

179

s

93

Selectric PC/AT Style Keyboard

$

195

$

95

CURTIS, Command Center

$

180

$

119

EVEREX, The Edge, Color/Mono Brd

$

399

s

269

HAUPPAGE (HCW), 8087 Chip

$

175

s

125

8087 Math Pak (Chip S softw.)

$

295

s

219

80287, Fast-5

$

295

s

239

HAYES, Mach II Joystick

$

45

s

29

Mach III (PC or Jr.)

$

55

s

35

HERCULES, Color Card w/para.

$

245

s

159

Mono Graphics Card

$

499

s

309

IMSI, Mouse with Paintbrush

s

220

s

129

KENSINGTON, Masterpiece

$

mo

s

92

Masterpiece Plus

$

180

s

137

KEY TRONIC, KB5151, Std. Keyboard KB 5153 Keyboard w/Touch Tab

$

255

$

189

$

400

s

325

KOALA, Speed Key Software

$

100

s

63

Speed Key System (Tab w/ softw)

$

200

s

115

BE5 iM [EE tMM ESa33

CDC, 360K DS/DD DISK DRIVE

Limited 30 dav warranty Call for quantity prices

Full Height $119 Half Height $ 89

h3 VI-* •- vV

list CONROY

LIST CONflOY

CDC, (39 msec, access time) Internal 20 meg kit FOR AT $1695 $1195

CORE INTL,(39msec.arasstime) ATplus 20 meg kit FOR AT $1395 $1095 ATplus 30 meg kit FOR AT $1595 $1245

IRWIN,

10 meg tape backup system $ 795 $ 449 10 meg tape cartridges (by 3M)$ 25$ 19

KAMERMAN,

10 meg kit w/controller $ 895 $ 579

20 meg kit w/controller $ 995 $ 695

Mastertlight 10 meg w/tape $2295 $1795

SEAGATE,

10 meg w/controller $ 745 $ 459

20 meg w/controller $ 895 $ 489

TALLGRASS,

24 meg disk, 10 meg tape $3495 $2490

LIST CONROY PRICE PRICE

KOALA, Koala Pad w/PC Design $150$ 85 MAYNARD, SAND STAR SERIES IN STOCK CALL

Multifunction (6) Card $ 89 $ 79

Memory Card no RAM S 199 $ 139

Serial Port Module $ 95 $ 79

Para or Clock Cal. Module, ea. $ 59 $ 49 MICROSOFT, Mouse (lor PC) $ 195 $ 129

Serial Mouse $ 195 $ 145

MOUSE SYSTEMS, PC Mouse S Paint $ 220 $ 145 PARADISE, Modular Graphics Card $ 395 $ 295

Parallel or Serial Port, ea. $ 95 $ 66

256K Module w/clock $ 195 $ 165

PERSYST, PC/Mono Board, w/para $ 250 $ 159

PC/Color Graphics Board $ 244 $ 176

QUADRAM, Quadboard, no RAM, to 384K $ 295 $ 195

Quadboard 64K, to 384K, S/P/CC/G $ 395 $ 239

Quadboard 256K, to 384K, S/P/CC $ 675 $ 269

Quadboard. 384K (full), S/P/CC/G $ 795 $ 279

Quadboard II, no RAM, to 256K $ 295 $ 215

Quadboard II. 256K, 2S/CC

Quad 512 + 64K w/serial port

Quadcolor I, board, 4 colors

Upgrade Quadcolor I to II kit

Quadnet VI

Quadlink

Quadsprint TALLTREE, J RAM II Board

J RAM II Modules

J RAM III, 256K Board TECMAR, Maestro, 128Kto3MB, S/PlorAT $ 5B9 $ 459

Graphics Master TITAN, 128K PC Accelerator VIDEO 7, Mono Graphics Card

MGC w/ Parallel Port

VEGA Board (EGA Compatible) WICO, Smartboard Keyboard

* * FOR YOUR PC

JR

*

KEY TRONIC, KB5151 Jr. Keyboard

$ 255

S

189

Numeric Keypad

$ 69

$

52

KOALA, Touch Tablet for Jr.

$ 125

$

75

MOUSE SYSTEMS, Mouse w/software

$ 220

S

138

QUADRAM, Expansion Chassis

$ 695

$

540

Memory Expansion Board 128K

$ 275

$

215

RACORE, Expansion Chassis

$ 675

$

449

128K Expansion Board

$ 275

$

189

TECMAR, Jr. Captain

$ 395

$

309

128K KIT

$39

90 Day Warranty;; by us

CALL FOR QUANTITY PRICES

EconoRAM' 384K

Single Function Board LIST <fcQQ

$99 ooy

With Fastrak™, RAMdisk and Print Spooler. Requires 256K of memory already installed.

PC MASTERCARD™

The Only Multifunction RAM Card Expandable to 1.5 MB

LIST CONROY

"0"KB $169 $139

384 KB $199 $179

1.5 MB $399 $349

Works like AST SixPak™ except includes game port Also has serial port, parallel port, clock/calendar, 1.5 MB RAMdisk, 1.5 MB print spooler, 1.5 MB bank switching development and utility software: Silicon Bullet:" 1 Year Limited Warranty.

SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM-PC, XT, AT or JR

BUSINESS

BUSINESS

BUSINESS

UTILITIES

LIST

CONROY

PRICE

PRICE

ASHTON-TATE, Framework II

$

695

s

415

dBase III

$

695

s

395

dBase D, (req. PC-DOS & 128K)

$

495

s

289

BORLAND, Reflex: The Analyst

i

99

$

59

BPI, General Acctg. AR, AP, or PR, ea

$

595

s

365

BREAKTHROUGH, Timeline

t

495

s

295

BRODERBUND, Bank St. Writer (PC or Jr.

$

80

s

51

CDEX, Advanced Training for Lotus 1-2-;

$

70

s

45

CONTINENTAL, Ullrafile

$

195

s

115

Tax Advantage

$

70

s

40

Property Management

$

495

s

295

DATA TRANS., Fonlrix

$

155

s

99

Font Packs, each

$

20

s

19

DOW JONES, Market Manager Plus

$

249

s

159

Market Analyzer

$

349

$

229

Spread Sheet Link

$

249

$

159

FOX & GELLER, Ouickcode III

s

295

s

185

HARVARD, Total Project Manager

$

495

s

295

HOWARD SOFT, '86 Tax Preparer

$

295

s

199

HUMAN EDGE, Mind Prober (PC or Jr.)

s

50

s

29

Sales Edge or Management Edge, ea

$

250

s

139

Negotiation Edge

$

295

s

165

INFOCOM, Cornerstone

$

495

s

309

LIFETREE, Volkswriter Deluxe

$

295

s

159

LIVING VIDEOTEXT, Think Tank

$

195

s

109

LOTUS, 1-2-3 NEW VERSION.

$

495

s

329

Symphony

$

695

s

449

MDBS, Knowledgeman II

$

595

s

395

MECA, Managing Your Money (PC)

$

199

s

105

MICROPRO, Easy NEW

$

150

s

99

WordStar (PC)

$

350

s

189

WordStar Professional, 4 Pak

$

495

s

265

LIST

CONR0V

PRICE

PRICE

MICROPRO, WordStar 2000 (copiable) $ 495

s

265

WordStar 2000 Plus (copiable)

$ 595

s

295

WordStar Professional, 4 Pak

$ 495

s

265

MICRORIM, R:Base Series 5000

S 695

s

385

R:Base 4000

S 495

s

259

R:Base Clout

S 249

s

133

Extended Report Writer

S 150

s

92

MICROSOFT, Multiplan (PC or jrj

$ 195

$

129

Chart

S 300

s

199

Project

S 395

$

265

Word

S 375

s

239

MOSAIC, Twin

$ 145

s

89

MULTIMATE, Mullimate Ver. 3.3

S 495

s

229

PALADIN, FlashCalc

S 129

s

86

PEACHTREE, Back to Basics

S 395

$

229

Peach Pak (GUAR/AP)

$ 395

s

219

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CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS

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CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS is an acknowledgment of new clubs and newsletters received at BYTE. Please allow at least four months for your club's mention to appear. Send information to BYTE, Clubs and Newsletters. POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

54 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

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Inquiry 306

IDM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, ATlas Is a trademark of Hod River Technology. Inc.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 55

Amdek challenges you to read between the lines.

Not all monitors are created equal. And no monitor in this price range can equal the new Amdek Color 722.

What makes the 722 RGB monitor so distinctive? For one, a dual frequency output that is capable of supporting IBM's Enhanced Graphics Adaptor. The result is 350 lines of resolution, assuring you of a sharper, crisper image that makes your graphs and charts look more like a work of art, and less like a rough sketch. For another, the fact that the 722 is made by Amdek — where monitors are our only'line, not just a sideline.

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Inquiry 15

Clearly the finest in monitors.

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BOOK REVIEWS

INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS Arthur J. Critchlow Macmillan Publishing Co. New York: 1985 528 pages, $3 5

THE MICROCOMPUTER IN CELL AND NEUROBIOLOGY RESEARCH

R. Ranney Mize, editor Elsevier Science Publishing New York: 1985 498 pages. $49.50

DATA BASE

MANAGEMENT

Fred R. McFadden and

Jeffrey A. Hoffer

Benjamin/Cummings

Menlo Park. CA: 1985

558 pages. $36.95

INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS

Reviewed by Larry Clark

The history behind the development of robots, their operational characteristics, and the benefits of their use are the focus of Introduction to Robotics. Arthur). Critchlow prepared the chapters so that the first portion of each can be read casually; there's not an extreme amount of technical detail. An introductory course could even be gleaned from these parts of the book. He then closes the chapters with valuable technical matter for advanced readers. Although some repetition is evident, the dual level of presentation would have been impossible without it.

The book is designed so that readers who did not major in robotics can still understand the subject. Critchlow recognized that the field of robotics attracts and involves people from a variety of disciplines and wrote to the whole

audience. Nearly any engineering major would find the section on analysis of robot arm links interesting and lucid, even though it uses advanced analysis tools like Denavit-Hartenberg matrices.

In my estimation, the book was written for the junior and senior levels of college and is for those people who want to familiarize themselves with robotics or those who intend to become involved in robot applications. Critchlow explains robots from a design standpoint so that the reader can understand why robots exhibit certain characteristics. He explains features that researchers are currently developing and what needs these features will serve. For instance, a factory of the future will have robots that are programmed "off line" directly from CAD (computer-aided design) data so that programming does not take up valuable production time. For off-line programming to become practical, hurdles (collisions, for example) must be overcome. The author describes these problems in detail.

Critchlow reviews research efforts by corporations and universities. The results describe an exciting array of mobile robots, advanced controls and sensors, and language developments that include artificial intelligence.

The references at the end of all chapters indicate that each section is based on extensive research. A reader could use this book as a complete reference resource to locate original papers on robotics topics (such as works of Denavit and Hartenberg), even those that were written early in the robotics era and may now be hard to get. Extensive excerpts or summaries are taken from the refer

[conlinued)

ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID GOTHARD

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 57

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58 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

BOOK REVIEWS

ences and more than support the author's statements. Many of the illustrations are also taken from these references.

Critchlow's unusual and refreshing introduction to robotics begins with European mechanical developments in the 1700s and mentions Karel Capek's coining the word "robot" in 1921. By doing this, Critchlow shows that many basic ideas used in robotics, like mechanical-cam programming, existed for hundreds of years before the word "robot" came into existence.

The author discusses kinematic analysis using homogeneous matrices and, as an exception to the purpose of an introduction, goes on to give numerical examples of their use that are excellent. A reader will immediately see the complexity involved and how maximum performance is demanded from a control computer. Compliant end effectors and end-of-arm tooling schemes are described (compliant tooling offers several advantages despite the added complexity). Mechanical power-drive mechanisms are explained in terms of how they are specially suited to the rigorous needs of robots. Hydraulic, pneumatic, and electric drives are detailed.

Microprocessors are introduced briefly using the 8080 as an example. The reader is given definitions of some of the terminology; fortunately, Critchlow reviews logic gates before moving on to describe microprocessor programming and architecture.

Software capabilities are detailed for several commercial robots. I have seldom seen this much data on the characteristics of robot programming. A total of 14 language systems are reviewed, including VAL, a structured language.

Sensors are evaluated in terms of the signals they produce, how they operate, and the best uses to which they can be put. Vision sensing is introduced in an especially thorough manner in a chapter of its own. Critchlow provides extensive examples of elementary mathematicalanalysis methods. You can see for yourself how lines and edges are identified in an image and how their slope and intercept values are determined. Because vision algorithms are complex and quickly exceed the scope of an introduction, the reader is sent to the references that appear at the end of each chapter for more information. But by this time you will know what you want to learn more about and where to find further information. Vision, undoubtedly one of the more important sensing methods, remains largely undeveloped. The reader is shown what vision systems are capable of doing now and what capabilities remain to be developed.

Errors

The book contains several errors that you should be prepared to recognize and ignore. 1 will describe two so that you can sense their nature. (Other small errors such as incorrect references to figures were obvious and not significant.) Though the errors described here do not

[continued]

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 59

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BOOK REVIEWS

destroy the book's value, they limit its audience to those who wouldn't be misled by them.

The chapter on controls analysis contains a significant error that would certainly confuse the uninitiated. Beginning engineering students would be confused by reading that feedback forces the output of a closed control loop to be equal to its input (that is, their ratio is unity), then seeing the classic development of the closed-loop transfer function. The transfer function, G(s)/(l +G(s)H(s)), equation #4 on page 168, is correctly given as the ratio of output to input and is clearly not equal to unity as stated earlier. If the author has an explanation for the differences this literal interpretation of his writing brings to light, he does not say. I can imagine the number of questions a group of students would have about this discrepancy.

I found another error in an extensive description of the General Motors Consight vision system. The Consight system, as described on page 374, was said to be able to accurately measure the height of a part on a conveyor belt even though only a linear diode array camera was being used. Further, the system was described as a two-dimensional system that could provide both a part's height and location on a conveyor belt.

I checked the original reference and found that the Consight system did provide 2-D silhouettes but did not provide height data; it only detected height in finding the outline of the part. I learned enough from Critchlow's writing about solid-state cameras to find this anomaly. In fact, I found it worthwhile to look beyond the errors to appreciate the wide range of information offered in this book on advanced robot controls, software, sensors (especially vision), and applications. The author's work represents a worthy effort, though the errors are annoying.

The book offers a good overall view of the robotics field for someone who wants either a light introduction or a starting point that gives detailed references to original works in robotics and related fields. To me, the most interesting portions of the book are its sections on kinematics and analysis of vision problems. Although errors are significant, they would affect only a fraction of the book's potential audience.

Larry Clark (8103 Thornewood Dr., Hixson, TN 37343) is involved in robotics applications development and teaches robotics after-hours as an adjunct professor at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. His hobbies include building microcomputers and working with a FORTH compiler he wrote.

THE MICROCOMPUTER IN CELL AND NEUROBIOLOGY RESEARCH

Reviewed by David A. Price

The Microcomputer in Cell and Neurobiology Research presents advice for biologists who want to use microcomputers to control experiments and analyze the results. Although

(continued)

60 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 242

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BOOK REVIEWS

biologists have long used minicomputers and mainframes for these purposes, the advent of microcomputers and lab-oriented microcomputer peripherals (such as highspeed analog-to-digital converters and video "frame grabbers") has made laboratory automation less costly and more convenient. R. Ranney Mize, the editor, selected a diverse range of application areas, with chapters written by researchers who have implemented microcomputer systems for their own labs. They have practical knowledge to share, but their contributions vary widely in quality.

The application areas covered include light and electron microscopy, morphometry (measuring the sizes and shapes of cells and organelles), serial section reconstruction (drawing the original three-dimensional form of an object based on a series of two-dimensional tissue slices), image analysis, and electrophysiology (recording electrical activity in the nervous system). In each of these areas, the potential contribution of lab computers is inestimable. Morphometric analysis, for example, is highly tedious work if the researcher must rely on manual methods. One typical approach is to trace a picture of a cell, cut it out, and weigh the cutout—an approach that one of the authors describes as "exhausting." With a video display or a digitizing tablet, the researcher can partly automate the process, thereby making morphometric information not only less costly but also more accurate.

Researchers using autoradiography (that is, tracing blood flow and other activity using radioactive solutions in animal bloodstreams) have benefited from image-analysis systems. (An autoradiograph is a photographic print of a slice of tissue, with varying levels of gray for varying concentrations of radioactive solution.) After using a video camera or a scanning densitometer to put an autoradiograph into a computer, a researcher can make the gray levels easier to distinguish by having the computer assign "false colors" to each of the gray levels and then displaying the autoradiograph on a color monitor. The researcher can then compare different autoradiographs either visually or with precise, computer-generated statistics.

Researchers Writing for Researchers

Because a large number of researchers contributed to the book, it does not focus exclusively on a particular machine; systems described in the book are based on the Apple II, the IBM Personal Computer, the DEC LSI-11. and many other microcomputers. The choice of languages, similarly, includes assembly, BASIC, FORTRAN, FORTH, and C. Most of the contributors describe in precise detail the hardware and software they used to build their systems, as well as the considerations that led them to choose as they did.

The fact that the authors are researchers writing for other researchers has both good and bad effects. A good effect is that their point of view differs sharply from a computer specialist's: The authors place a higher value on simplicity and practicality than on impressive specs. (Some

[continued)

62 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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I Y T E 65

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66 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 278

BOOK REVIEWS

exceptions stand out, though; a handful of the writers are obviously dazzled by fine technical differences of questionable importance.) Another good effect is that each author provides an extensive bibliography to which readers can refer for further information about algorithms, lab techniques, and equipment. A bad effect is that the text, like most scientific writing, has many awkward moments; the passive voice reigns supreme.

The topics covered are especially well chosen because they not only relate to a variety of applications but also present a variety of engineering problems. The chapters on microscopy and morphometry describe some challenging problems of pattern recognition. The parts covering serial section reconstruction show how some programmers have tackled the representation, manipulation, and display of three-dimensional line drawings. The chapters on autoradiographic image analysis discuss various ways to digitize an image and enhance it. Sections on electrophysiology focus on numerical and graphic analyses of electrical signals. Others provide helpful descriptions of algorithms, and one chapter even includes a lengthy BASIC listing.

Many of the contributions are excellent. The chapter by Sing and Salin, for example, provides a clear overview of popular computer languages and the issues involved in choosing a language for lab use. The chapter on hardware selection by Poler, Akeson, and Flaming includes a useful discussion of technical support; it gives a much-needed warning of the fact that computer dealers are generally unfamiliar with the special requirements of laboratories. The chapters on autoradiographic image analysis are consistently first-rate, as is the chapter by Park on neurophysiological recording.

Flaws

Some of the contributions, however, fall short. The first chapter, intended as an introduction to microcomputer hardware, says little of importance to researchers. Giving short shrift to the vital topic of interfacing, it consists mainly of a daunting discussion of bus and processor architectures. Some contributors present long and boring recitals of technical data ("The 984 5B has dual 16-bit NMOS-I1 microprocessors, 187 KB of RAM memory, a mediumresolution graphics screen. . .") as a substitute for insight and analysis.

A more serious difficulty is that several of the contributors wrote article-length advertisements, in essence, for products in which they appear to have a proprietary interest. Although the developers of a product are, of course, suited to describe it for interested users, the possibility for abuse is obvious. First, the writer (or editor) does not alert the reader to the pertinent facts. Unless you read the material carefully, you might not realize that the author who is lauding system X also happens to own the company that sells it. When an author has a commercial interest in a product, he or she should say so forth

(conlinued)

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BOOK REVIEWS

rightly. Even if the writer is candid about the shortcomings of the product, a reader deserves to know about the potential conflict of interest.

Second, the problem is worse because the offending authors in this book give one-sided, congratulatory views of their products. Their chapters are sprinkled with such adjectives as "powerful," "user-friendly," and "ideal." One author, after describing a system based on a severely dated and now almost unknown microcomputer and on a nonstandard operating system, informs the reader unblinkingly that the system "defies obsolescence."

The book is also marred by some unfortunate omissions of important topics. It gives little attention to managerial issues—for example, deciding whether to write one's own lab software, hire a programmer, or buy a canned package. It omits any discussion of software testing, which is vital in a laboratory because mistakes are costly and often hard to detect.

These flaws aside. The Microcomputer in Cell and Neurobiology Research is a worthwhile source of information for researchers with an interest in bringing microcomputers into their laboratories. For researchers considering so substantial an investment, every source of information should be welcome.

David A. Price (57 Roseland St. #2, Somerville, MA 02143), formerly a programmer in physiology and neurobiology laboratories, is a third-year law student at Harvard University.

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

Reviewed by Joseph A. Benderavage

Databases grow slowly, often over a period of years. Plan one to meet the needs of your organization, for both today and the next decade. This is the underlying principle of Data Base Management as seen by the authors, Fred R. McFadden and Jeffrey A. Hoffer. They describe very complete, detailed design rules that are easy to follow. They cite methodology for top-down planning developed by IBM, and they frequently refer to that company.

Database Design

Lack of standardization for semantic controls (commands), among other reasons, led to a conference that laid down guidelines for designing network databases. The Data Base Task Group (DBTG) of the Conference of Data System Languages (CODASYL) formulated the principles listed in the book. All manufacturers, with the exception of IBM, tried to meet CODASYCs specifications. Relational databases, on the other hand, lack uniform index-maintenance procedures and process data one file at a time, not one record at a time. The startling admission that the authors do not know how a relational database implements relationships surfaces amid an ocean of specific and precise definition.

(continued]

mn.

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Inquiry 383

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 69

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BOOK REVIEWS

Many of the rules in this book are for designing databases, yet there is a reference to using software programs to accomplish this. The authors go to great lengths to identify the symbols and data input for the Data Designer program. They also include a list of costs and benefits that would be useful in the investigative phase of systems analysis and design.

The choice of software for management of data is of paramount importance to design. Although a database management system (DBMS) requires many more steps than a conventional file-processing system to perform a simple task, and although input/output (I/O) operations are slower, McFadden and Hoffer assert that general productivity will be higher. Usually a DBMS has a control system and a storage system, and it interfaces with user programs, compiled representations of data (called schemas), and access methods. This complexity is revealed in an intricate illustration that describes the loading of managementsystem components connected by a linkage editor into the main memory of a computer. It also shows the communication that occurs between a user program and its schema and, consequently, its data definitions. The authors explain the central role of the data dictionary/ directory and its link with schema at length. Many example schemas are mapped out; so too are subschemas, which give customized views of a database and are independent of application programs.

File Design

McFadden and Hoffer's helpful rule of thumb for designers suggests that an index referencing more than I0 percent of the records in a file will not work as efficiently as a complete sequential file scan. A compact table, impressive in its coverage and scope, presents guidelines for identifying secondary and primary keys to further assist in file design. The authors' explanation of random access to ISAM (indexed sequential access method) files is very lucid, as is that for hashing algorithms and hashed file designs. I discovered that the access-speed hashing algorithm was 80 percent of maximum access speed, a factor certain to influence your choice of access method.

The chapter on data models (hierarchical, relational and network, and the hybrids) clearly demonstrates the reduction of complex user views to a set of small data structures. This is the strongest part of the book. Normalization is extensively documented and lists the criteria for first, second, and third normal forms and beyond.

A useful tip I gleaned is the 80-20 rule, which declares that 20 percent of all data items accounts for 80 percent of I/O operations.

The authors make few concrete analogies. I appreciated one that introduced the grouping of intrarecord data structures with a folk saying: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Another analogy compares inverted lists with the task of consulting a library file catalogue.

McFadden and Hoffer refer to the concept of virtual

(continued)

70 BYTE* IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 252

THE PROFESSIONAL'S CHOICE

•d^Lotus

Lotus

dBase III

PrameWork > II

$369

MultiMate

-g^Word

1-2-3

$319

Symphoiiy

$439

$369

$219

Perfect 4-1

$209

Software

Word Processing Editors

FANCY FONT $139

FINAL WORD $179

MICROSOFT WORD $218

MULTIMATE $219 MULTIMATE

ADVANTAGE $269 OFFICE WRITER/

SPELLER $239

PFS: WRITE $ 89

SAMNA WORO III $258 V0LK8WRITER

DELUXE $158 VOLKSWHITER

SCIENTIFIC $268

WORD PERFECT 4.1 $209

WORDSTAR $189

WORDSTAR 2000 $249

WORDSTAR 2000* $289

WORDSTAR PRO $259

XYWRITE Ik $188

Database Systems ALPHA DATA BASE

MANAGER II CLIPPER CLOUT V 2.0 CONDOR III CORNERSTONE DBASE III

KNOWLEDGEMAN 2 PARADOX PC FOCUS PFS: FILE/PFS:

REPORT POWERBASE QUICKCODE III OUICKREPORT R BASE 5000 REFLEX REVELATION

Spreadsheets/ Integrated Packages

ELECTRIC DESK

ENABLE

FRAMEWORK II

JAZZ

LOTUS 1-2-3 MULTIPLAN OPEN ACCESS SMART SYSTEM SPREADSHEET

AUDITOR SUPERCALC 3 SYMPHONY

M79 388 139 328 478 368 329

:;Cill $1139

$189 $219 $159 S158 $359 $79 $629

Graphics BPS BUSINESS

GRAPHICS $229

CHARTMASTER $219

CHARTSTAR $169

DIAGRAM MASTER $215

EXECUVISION $249

ENERGRAPHICS $189

FREELANCE $239

GEM DRAW $ 95 GRAPHWRITER

COMBO $339

IN-A-VISION $319

MS CHART-NEW $189 OVERHEAD

EXPRESS $109

PC DRAW $249

PC PAINTBRUSH $89

PFS: GRAPH $ 89

SIGNMASTER $159

Project Management HARVARD TOTAL

PROJECT MANAGER $279 MICROSOFT

PROJECT-NEW $249 PROJECT SCHEDULER

NETWORK $339

SUPERPROJECT $209

TIMELINE 2.0 $288

Desktop Environments

DESK ORGANIZER $ 89

GEM DESKTOP $ 39

SIDEKICK $ 39

Communications/

Productivity Tools

CROSSTALK $ 99

CROSSTALK MKIV $149

PROKEY $ 88

KEYWORKS $ 58

RELAY GOLD SCnll

REMOTE $119

SMARTERM $C>II

SMARTCOMII $99

SUPERKEY $ 55

Statistics

SPSS/PC $695

STATPAK-NWA $329 STATPAC

WALONICK $349

SY8TAT $419

Professional Development

LIGHTYEAR $319

THINK TANK $109

Languages/Utilities

CONCURRENT DOS $189

C86 C COMPILER $299

OR FORTRAN 77 $219

FASTBACK $119

LATTICE C COMPILER $289

MARK WILLIAMS C $319 MICROSOFT C

COMPILER $249

MS BASIC COMPILER $249

MS FORTRAN $229

NORTON UTILITIES $ 59

OUICK BASIC $ 79

TURBO PASCAL S 49

XENIX Scall

Accounting

BPI $299

GREAT PLAINS ! 479

IUS EASYBUSINESS $319

ONE WRITE PLUS M79

OPEN SYSTEMS I 359

PEACHTREE : 289

REAL WORLD $369 STAR ACCOUNTING

PARTNER $249 STAR ACCOUNTING

PARTNER II $529

Hardware

Display Boards AST PREVIEW $279 EVEREX EDGE $309 EVEREX GRAPHICS

EDGE $319 GENDA SPECTRUM $Call HERCULES GRAPHICS

CARD $289 HERCULES COLOR

CARD $159 PARADISE MODULAR

GRAPHICS $275 PARADISE

MULTIDISPLAY CARD $285 SIGMA COLOR 400 $488 STB CHAUFFER $278 TECMAR GRAPHICS

MASTER $458 TSENG ULTRA PAK $428 TSENG ULTRA PAK-S $368

Multifunction Boards AST ADVANTAGE $389 AST 6 PAK PLUS (64K) $229 AST 6 PAK PLUS 384K) $249 GOLD QUADBOARD (OK) $419 ORCHID BLOSSOM

(OK) $199 ORCHID BLOSSOM

(384K) $249 ORCHID PC TURBO

(256K) $699 PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM

(OK) $199 PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM

(384K) $249 QUADBOARD (OK) $189 QUADBOARD (384K) $219 SILVER QUADBOARD

$219

Monitors AMDEK 310A AMDEK 300/500 AMDEK 600/710

$169 $249/349 $449/469

(OKI

TECMAR CAPTAIN

(OK) $189 TECMAR CAPTAIN

(384K) $229 TECMAR JR CAPTAIN

(128K) $288 TECMAR WAVE (64K) $209

$389 $389 $349 $579 $299

$369 $489

Emulation Boards AST 5251-11 AST 5251-12 AST BSC AST SNA CXI 3278/9 Plus IRMA IRMALINE

Networks AST PC NET 1 CORVUS NET ! ORCHID PC NET 3COM I

Mass Storage/Backup EXCEL STREAM 60 TAPE

$599 549 489 ,599 959 799 999

IOMEGA BERNOULLI

BOX-NEWI $2445 IRWIN 310A 10MB TAPE

(EXT) $850 IRWIN MOD 10MB TAPE

(INT) $499 MAYNSTREAM 60MB TAPE

(INT) $1199 MOUNTAIN DRIVECARD

10MB $788 TALLGRASS $Cill TECMAR OIC-60AT TAPE

(INT) $1199

PRINCETON HX-12 $459

PRINCETON MAX-12E $179

PRINCETON SR-12 $579

PRINCETON HX-12E $559

PRINCETON HX-9 $529

TAXAN 122 AMBER $159 TAXAN 630/640 $469/539

Modems AST REACH 1200 HAYES 1200 HAYES 1200B HAYES 2400 TRANSNET 1000 VENTEL1200 HALF CARD WATSON

Printers/Plotters BROTHER TWINWRITER $939

DIABLO $Call

EPSON FX-85 $369

EPSON FX-185 $489

EPSON LQ-1500 $999

HP 7475A $Call

JUKI 6300 $699

NEC ELF 350 $439

NEC 3550 $1139

OKIDATA193 $539

OUME SPRINT 1155 $1569

SWEET P 600 $838

Tl 855 $799

TOSHIBA P351 $1129

Input Devices

KEYTRONIC 5151 $179

KOALA $109

MICROSOFT MOUSE $129 PC MOUSE W

PAINTBRUSH $129

Accessories CURTIS SURGE

PROTECTORS $Call DATASHIELD BACKUP

POWER $Ca« GILTRONIX SWITCHES Scull MASTERPIECE PLUS $135 MICROFAZER INLINE

(64K) $219 TRIPPLITE BACKUP

POWER $Call 256K RAM SET I 39

8087 MATH CHIP $135

Helcules

Mountain

Quadboard

Six Pak Plus

Smartmodem

Smartmodem

Graphics Card

Drivecard 10

384K

384K

1200B

2400

$299

$789

$219

$249

$349

$579

•CALL FOR SHIPPING COSTS

LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE!!

We will match current nationally advertised prices on most products. Call and compare.

free

Diskette Library Case

with your order

TERMS:

Checks—allow 14 days to clear. Credit processing—add 3%. COD orders—cash, M Oor certified check—add $5.00. Shipping and handling UPS surface—add $3.00 per item (UPS Blue$8.00 per item). NY State Residents—add applicable sales tax. All prices subject to change.

1-800

In New York State call (718) 438-6057

MON.-THURS. 9:00AM-8:00PM SUN. & FRI. 9:00AM-4:00PM

Softline Corporation P.O. Box 729, Brooklyn, TELEX: 421047 ATLN Ul FAX: 718-972-8346

11230

JANUARY I986 'BYTE 71

For thousands of years, man used personal computers without decent

tape backup

Enough*

Personal computers have come a long way. Unfortunately, tape backup systems have not. Their functions are primitive, they're frightening to install and truculent to use.

Genoa's Galaxy™ Systems are more highly evolved. So not only do they outperform competitive systems, but using them is actually something that can be done by an ordinary human.

The simpler. The better.

Our software is what makes the difference between our systems and everybody else's. And it's designed to help you use the system easily in either of two modes. Namely, menudriven or batch file.

The menu mode operates true to its name, with menus showing all the commands you have to choose from. Plus, there are multiple window displays that show execution status, on-line help with examples and howto's, even an editor just in case you make a mistake in selecting a command. And there isn't a thing you can't do from the menu mode because it's comprehensive.

You'll want to use the batch mode for routine operations though, because it allows you to create a "file" to contain those operations and run them automatically, just by hitting a few keys. You can create your batch files easily, too, using the same commands as the menu mode.

But probably the best example of j ust how downright civil the Galaxy systems can be is our auto backup. You just preset the time and the desired function, and the system does the rest. Automatically.

No other tape backup systems, by the way, operate this simply. In fact, if you saw what passes for "userfriendly" these days, you'd be horrified.

The features all tape backups should have. But don't

Beginning with our ease of installation.

Before you make your first backup — which is the right time to do this— our installation software checks your disk configuration to make sure your tape drive will run at top speed. And it checks the entire system to guarantee it will perform as promised. Elapsed time? About 7 minutes.

No competitive system offers anything like it.

Another thing you can do is abort any command at any time. So you don't have to sit through a 20-minute file-by-file restore just because you hit the wrong key.

Something else not everybody can do.

You can also do a file-by-file restore from an image backup. Now you'd think everybody could do this, but no. It's important though, because if you've made an image backup (as most people do since it's so fast), you want to be able to get back the one file you need rather than all the files you don't. Hence, file-by-file restore from an image backup.

But whether it's a couple of files or a complete image, you'll be pleased

to know you can restore to any storage device, thanks to Galaxy's interchangeability feature.

Multiple backups on the same tape—even from multiple sources like a floppy or another hard disk—aren't a problem either. The system simply starts recording where the last backup ended.

Or you can use multiple tapes to back up very large files.The system will just let you know when it needs a new tape. And as long as you have enough tape, you can backup as much as you like.

We also perform crc error checking constantly. We can back up a 20 Mb disk in just over 4 minutes. And we're network compatible. Some of our competitors can do some of these things, some of the time.

What price progress?

Surprisingly, the Galaxies cost somewhat less than tape backup systems that offer less. Which includes all of them.

For the Genoa Galaxy dealer near you or complete specs, call 408945-9720. Or write Genoa Systems Corporation, 73 E.Trimble Road, San Jose, CA 95131.

The Genoa Galaxy Systems.The most civilized tape backup in history.

The lBM®compatible Genoa Galaxies are available as internal or external versions of 'A " streaming tape or cassette models. (External cassette not shown).

Galaxy is ;i trademark of Genoa Systems Corp. © 1985 Genoa Systems Corporation.

Inquiry 144

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 73

The Same Only Better

The PC AT layout for the PC

Key Solutions improved on the familiar PC layout.

■ Available in both Conductive Elastomer and

Mechanical Switch styles

■ Optional output for standard ASCII and Position encoding

■ Optional baud rates up to 9600

Introductory special only $99

Normally priced at $125

Call for volume discounts • Dealers inquiries invited Call 1612.884-7375

key mupuwm" ~~

An 5MK, Company

10800 Normandale Boulevard MB Minneapolis, MN 55437 li^M HHFJ

PC and PC AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

BOOK REVIEWS

storage frequently, but they explain it rather cursorily, mainly with diagrams.

Program Languages and Illustrations

Why not program in English? Excessive overhead and absent update facilities in network-database processing constitute the predominant reasons for not doing so. Nonprofessionals currently interacting with a database may use codified query languages, but they still must know syntax and vocabulary. The authors use pseudocode in a great number of sample programs, while they use a variety of languages for the algorithms throughout the latter part of the book, especially programs for the hierarchical database systems IMS, DL/l, and System 2000/80. However, the authors affirm a trend toward natural languages.

Each chapter includes an introduction, narrative, summary, exercises, and a review filled with stimulating problems and questions. A lengthy bibliography closes each chapter, while a cumbrous index completes the book. Highly visible symbols in the margin of the text keynote case examples. A supplementary classroom package available to instructors contains answers, teaching suggestions, questions, and transparencies. Another supplement contains case studies for course projects.

Reference Tool

Must textbooks always be dull and tedious? While parts of this book read easily, much of it is slow and dry. Nevertheless, the style is smooth, even-tempered, unequivocal, and consistently serious (except for a startlingly funny simile likening a data model diagram to an explosion at a spaghetti factory).

The authors tested this book in an introductory course on database management and in management programs. Generally, they provide reasons for their teaching method; they itemize, prioritize, and categorize the logic of doing things their way. The text is chock-full of definitions, with new terms conspicuous in boldface print. They define buzzwords, Latin phrases, and ambiguous terms in parentheses and often use outline formats. Examples and "what if" situations abound, including a definition of "real world" as one of the realms of abstraction. They list many advantages of the personal computer and ascribe a positive outlook to it in data-management strategy.

Data Base Management begins on a dense, abstract, and theoretical level. If you are in tune with the authors' idiom, you will derive the full worth of the book. While it is a textbook for upper-division university and graduate students as well as data-processing managers, system designers will find the tome a valuable tool that contains numerous relevant cross-references. It incorporates sound advice and practical suggestions for consultants, too. ■

\oseph A. Benderavage (POB 1974, Peterborough. Ontario K9J 7X7, Canada), a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, is a freelance book reviewer published frequently in Canadian computer magazines.

74 BYTE • JANUARY I986

Inquiry 192 for End-Users. Inquiry I93 for DEALERS ONLY.

„ LOWEST PRICES

J^J^NO SURCHARGE >x ON BANK CARPS

SILICON SP€CIRITI€S

4v

PRINTERS

Anode x All Models Brother All Models Cannon Laser Printer Citizen MSP-10

MSP-15orMSP-20

MSP-20 MSP-25

Datasouth AU Printer Models Diablo D-25

635

Olher Printer Models Epson All Printer Models Juki 6000

6100

6300

NEC 2010, 2015, 2050

3510, 3550

3515

3530

68)0, GB30, 8850

P2, P3

Elf 360

EH 370

Okidata All Prmfer Models Panasonic 1091

1092

1093

KXP315I ........

Star Mtcronics All Printer Models Silver Reed EXP-S00 Parallel

EXP500 Parallel or Serial

EXP550Porollel or Serial

EXP770 Parallel or Serial

Save Save

$2099 S255 $349 $319 $489 Save $549

$1079 Save Save S169 S349 $679 $629 $989

SI 009 S935

SI 379 Save $399 $389 Save $235 $349 $429 S409

Save

S205 $279 $389 S699

TOSHIBA PRINTERS SPECIAL

1340 Parallel

$449

1340 Serial

$449

341 Parallel

$829

341 Serial & Parallel

$879

351 Serial & Parallel

$985

MONITORS

Amdex All Mcnilors

Save

NEC All Monitors

Save

Princeton Graphics

$ave

Taxan All Models

Save

Zenith All Models

Save

HARDWARE

BOARD

ETTES l

S DISK

AST Advantage

Six Pock Plus

Everex Boards Hercules Color Card Graphic Card Paradise Modular Grt

fiveftik

Quadram

Quadlink

Tec Mar Graphics Mas Captain No Memory

COMPUTERS

Zenith

Z-158 All Models Z-138 All Models ,. .., Z-148 All Models

Z-171

Z-200

$389 $219 Save $149 $299 S259 $119

S325 $445 $155

VIDEO TERMINALS

AltOS Smart III

IBM 3161 8 3163 Series

Qume QVTGreen 101

QVT Amber 101

Wyse 30

50

75

Wyse 85 .

Wyse 350

Zenith Z-22

Z-29.

Z-49

$ave Save Save Save Save

5599 Save $299 $314 S299 $419 $559 S579 5859 $455 $599 Save

DISK DRIVES

Alpha Omega Turbo 10 5529

Turbo 20 S529

Turbo 30 5729

Everex All Hard Disks Save

Haba Macintosh 400K 5279

Moclnlosh BOOK $409

Iomega

Bernoulli Boxes for IBM Save

Bernoulli Boxes lor Macintosh Save

Paradise Macintosh Hard Disk ... Save

MODEMS

AT&T

4000 External

Anchor Automation

Anchor Express .

Mark XII

Hayes Smartmodem 300 Baud Smartmodem 1200 Baud Smartmodem 1200B|IBM) . . . Smartmodem 2400 Baud . Micromodem ME (Apple) Novation Smart Cat Plus. Prometheus All Models US Robotics Courier 2400 Password 1200

$309

5229 $229 Save Save Save Save

$ave 5279

Save $389 $189

Microlink 2400 $389

KEYBOARDS

Keytronics 5151

5151 Jr.

Olher Models

$159 5179 Save

Maxell MD-2 Plastic Box (Qty 100)

MD-20 Plastic Box (Qly 100)

Sony MD/2 (Qty 100)

PLOTTERS

Enter Sweet-P600 $749

Epson Hi-eo Save

SOFTWARE

IBM PC and 100% Compatibles

WORD PROCESSORS

Leading Edge Word Processor. . $50

Leading Edge W/P wilh Spell & Mail 5137

Microsoft Word Save

Multrmate 3.3 $206

PFS-Write $78

Wordstar w/Tutor $169

Wordstar Pro Pack $239

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Dollars & Sense w/Forcast 595

Tobias Managing Your Money $95

Gen

l Collection . .

$115

Gen

l Desktop....

$29

Gen

l Draw

. . . $ave

Word Perfect (Ver.4.1). . $199

Wordstar 2000 $239

Wordstar 2000 Plus . . . $285

GRAPHICS

Chartmosler $206

PC Paintbrush $62

Turbo Graphix Tool Box $28

Diagram Master 190

Dr. Halo $55

Energraphics $1 65

Energraphics w Plotter Option $214

Microsoft Chart 5172

PC Draw $203

PC Draw Light Pen $1 04

PC Paint w Mouse $123

PC Mouse w Paintbrush $107

PFS Graph $78

Prinlmaster $30

Signmaster . $135

LANGUAGES

C Compiler (Microsoft) $235

Fortran Compiler (Microsoft) $209

Macro Assembler. . ., $89

Poscal Compiler (Microsoft) $178

Turbo Pascal 3.0 535

Lattice C Compiler $ave

Run C Interpreter $85

Quick Basic $59

Turbo Tool Box 528

UTILITIES

I DIR

$48

Copy II PC $19

Norlon Utilities 3.1 $49

Sidekick $28

Sidekick (Unprotected) 543

Sideways $31

Superkey .-. 535

Printworks $36

Spotlight $43

Sidekick-Superkey(Bundle) $65

TRAINING

Flight Simulator $30

Typing Instructor $29

Typing Tutor III $29

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Harvard Total Project Manager $239

Microsoft Projecl Save

Super Project , $182

Timeline 2.0 $249

COMMUNICATIONS

CompuServe Starter Kit $17

Crosstalk XVI $94

PFS Access $78

Remoie $94

INTEGRATIVE SOFTWARE

Enable 1.1 5329

Framework Save

Smart Software Syslem . . $459

Symphony Scivo

SPREADSHEETS

Lotus 1-2-3 Save

Mulliplan $114

Spreadsheet Auditor 2.0 $83

| Supercolc 3 (Ver.2.1). . $AVE | DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

Cornerstone 5255

dBase II Save

dBase III Save

Nulshell Save

PFS:File $78

PFS:Report 570

Quickcode 5139

QuickReporl 5139

Exlended Report Writer $80

Think Tank $93

Clipper 5355

Knowledgeman II $ave

Knowledgeman Upgrade Kit Save Powerbase

(New Ver. Reb. 32QK) $205

|R:Base 5000.$335/'

[MaitwCard]

6*W

Prices reflect 3% to 5% cash discount. Product shipped in factory carfons with manufacturer's warranty. Please add $10.00 per order for UPS shipping. Prices & availability subject to change without notice.Send cashier's check or money order...all other checks will delay shipping two weeks.

Inquiry 321 for MS-DOS Products. Inquiry 322 for all others.

This is for all the power user* technologies before the)

Other than Steve Wozniak and Jonathan Rotenberg, there are probably only 2,998 personal computer users who qualify as trend setters. They're the people who owned Apples® when everyone else thought Apple® was a record label. People who were called hackers when a hacker was someone no one wanted to play golf with.

However many of you there are, this ad is for you. It's been designed and written to introduce you to a new technology without using superlatives or words like revolutionary. (We're saving those words for future ads targeted at the general consumer.)

The new technology is called the Softstrip ™ System. This ad tells you what it's all about. THE SOFTSTRIP SYSTEM ENCODES DATA ONTO PAPER.

Softstrip technology allows text, graphics, even digitized sound to be encoded on a strip of paper. Providing an alternative to magnetic media and telecommunications for the recording, distribution and retrieving of information.

These data strips, each a structured pattern of black and white rectangles that look something like a condensed bar code, can be encoded with special software and read with a scanning device called the Cauzin Softstrip System Reader. The reader optically scans the strip, translates its contents into 8-bit code and feeds it into a personal computer's serial or cassette port, enabling automatic, error-free entry of printed data without using a keyboard.

publishers), or by using a laser or dot matrix printer and special software (appropriate for per sonal or business use).

If you want, you can generate strips that can be reproduced on a copier or versions that can't be. Either way, any data strip, whether it's printed in a newspaper, magazine or personal letterhead, can survive pen marks, scratches, even coffee stains.

. Basically, anything you can put on a magnetic disk you can put on a Softstrip data strip, which should suggest numerous application possibilities.

Starting in the next two months, data strips will appear in magazines, journals and books. These strips will contain program listings, tables of

Eight Lenses on Rotating Cylinder

mm

fill

Light Pipe

Near Infra-red Light Emitting Diode

THE ANATOMY OF A STRIP. A Softstrip data strip contains not only software or data, but also information about its content, including file types, file name and the number of strips. Because of its inherent technology; strips are as accurate as any magnetic medium. And they can be entered into an IBM PCf Apple II® or Macintosh® computer using the same reader with only slightly modified communications software. Strips encode data bit by bit using highly structured optical patterns. The bits are each composed of two rectangles called di-bits. They function as optical on/off signals. White/black equals 1.

Black/white equals 0.

Data is organized In lines. Each line, between 0.01 and 0.04 inches high and from 0.5 to 0.76 inches wide, contains from two to six bytes of data. Line width and height are varied depending upon the quality of the paper and printing process. The reader

One Softstrip data strip, typically %" x 9 W, can contain up to 5,500 bytes of information. (For example, you could fit this entire ad on two strips.)

Strips can be printed by using a photographic negative (ideal for book and magazine

Truck Chassis

Drive Wheel

Reader Case

contents, new product demonstrations and data.

Eventually, strips may be used for everything from bank statements to sheet music.

scans each data line with a series of raster scans 0.0025 inches apart providing between four and sixteen scans per line.

76 BYTE* JANUARY 1986

who want to know about new become household words.

A close-up view of a strip reveals five distinct sections. The header (1) at the top tells the reader the number of bytes in a line, the height of each line, and the paper to ink contrast level. Running vertically down the sides of the strip are the startline (2), the checkerboard (3) and the rack (4). They identify the boundaries of every horizontal line to be read. They also work in tandem to feed the reader alignment information.

Contained within the body of the strip, between the checkerboard and rack, is the file's data area (5).

Strip data accuracy is checked and error correction is provided by parity bits at the beginning and end of every dataline,aswellasbya strip checksum. There is also an optional 16 bit CRC. Combined, this design results in an undetected bit error rate

of less than one bit error per 10,000,000,000 bits. IT TOOK GUTS TO BUILD THE READER.

Rated for 25,000 reads, the reader is an equally impressive technology. It's composed of two key components: the case and the truck. While the case sits still, the truck moves uniformly down the length of the strip making a complete scan of the strip's di-bit lines every 0.0025 inches.

As the truck moves down the strip, it tracks its own lateral movement within five microns. Alignment is controlled by two servo mechanisms. As the truck moves, it illuminates the area to be scanned using near infra-red light beamed through a light pipe. (The infra-red technique permits the reader to see through colors, stains, and spills.)

The reader's optical scanning system, containing eight rotating cylindrical lenses and an aspherical corrector lens, forms an F.12 optical system with a depth of field between 0.05 and 0.08 inches. A set of 160 addi tional cylindrical lenses on the rotating lens allow the system to control scanning speed.

Inside the reader, the mechan ical system uses six AGMA-7 high precision plastic molded gears to provide very accurate truck movement. One gear system even allows for a 4000 to 1 angle reduction with no backlash for corrector lens alignment.

ATMS 7040 8-bit processor and Cauzin's own custom VLSI chip provide

Inquiry 55

reader logic, control and communications using four nested phase locked loops and several hardware and software servos. The reader transmits data to the host at 4800 baud burst rates with throughput of 1500 baud.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN STRIPS. There are two ways to create Softstripdata strips. For large volume and greater density - up to 5500 bytes per strip - a film negative is created using special Cauzin software and hardware. This is ideal

for book, magazine, newsletter, data base and commercial software publishers who can reproduce a strip in volume using web, offset, gravure or similar processes.

For personal or business applications, 500 to 1000 byte strips can be generated using Cauzin licensed software on dot matrix printers; up to 3400 byte strips can be generated using other Cauzin licensed software and laser printers.

In the next few months, you should start to see data strips appear in popular computer magazines, some t new computer books, and those

consumer ads we told you about earlier. They'll look exactly like the working strip you see here, a medium density strip with an ASCII text file on it.

Of course you'll be able to purchase a reader at most computer dealers. They'll be selling for about $200.00. Contact your dealer soon for a demonstration. Or call us directly at 203-573-0150.

Apple® and Macintosh® are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc.

Apple® is a registered trademark of Apple Records, Inc.

Softstrip® and the Softstrip® System Reader are trademarks of Cauzin Systems, Inc.

wmm

mm

wis

II

v.* yw1

Ill

mm

ill

km w

mm

Softstrip

Softstrip

COMPUTER READABLE PRINT ■

Cauzin Systems, Inc., 835 South Main St., Waterbury CT 06706

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 77

EVENT QUEUE

january 1986

Introduction to Digital Signal Processing & Filtering; Mini- and Microcomputer Concepts; and Microprocessor Hardware and Software-An Introduction, Milwaukee. Wl. John T. Snedeker, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee/Extension, 929 North Sixth St., Milwaukee, Wl 53203, (414) 224-4193. January

Microcomputer and Communications Seminars, various sites throughout the U.S. Center for Advanced Professional Education, Suite 110, 1820 East Garry St., Santa Ana, CA 92705, (714) 261-0240. \anuary

Micro Shows and Fleamarkets, Philadelphia, PA, Secaucus, NJ, and Boston, MA. Ken Gordon Productions inc., POB 13, Franklin Park, NJ 08823, (201) 297-2526. January

Robotics; Future Trends in the 1980s, Des Moines, IA. The Des Moines Center of Science and Industry, 4500 Grand Ave., Des Moines. 1A 50312, (515) 274-4138. }anuary

Communications/Microcomputer Curriculum,

various sites throughout the U.S. Datapro Research Corp., 1805 Underwood Blvd., Delran, NJ 08075, (800) 328-2776. January-February

Intensive Seminars for Professional Development, Boston, MA, area. Kathy Shaw, Office of Continuing Education/Higgins House, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609. (617) 793-5517. January-March

Symphony Seminars,

various sites throughout the U.S. Automated Digital Offices, 4555 MacArthur Blvd., Washington, DC 20007, (202) 337-1393. January-March

Computer Competence Seminars, Boston, MA, area. Boston University Metropolitan College, 755 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215. (800) 255-1080; in Massachusetts. (617) 738-5020. January-April

Computer Short Courses,

various sites throughout the U.S. Integrated Computer Systems. 6305 Arizona Place. POB 45405, Los Angeles, CA 90045, (800) 421-8166; in California, (800) 352-8251 or (213) 417-8888. ]anuary-April

Systems Seminars, various sites throughout the U.S. Ken Orr & Associates Inc., 1725 Gage Blvd., Topeka, KS 66604-3379. (800) 255-2459; in Kansas. (913) 273-0653. January-April

Microcomputer/Engineering Courses, various sites throughout the U.S. Continuing Engineering Education, The George Washington University, Washington. DC 20052, (800) 424-9773; in Washington, (202) 676-6106; in Canada, (800) 53 5-4 567. lanuary-May

1986 International Winter Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas,

NV. Consumer Electronics Shows, 2001 Eye St. NW. Washington, DC 20006, (202) 457-8700. January 9-12

Interfacing Sensors with the IBM PC, Madison, Wl. E. K. Greenwald. Department of Engineering Professional Development. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 432 North Lake St.. Madison, Wl 53706, (608) 262-0573. January 13-15

MOS Analog/Digital Interface Circuit Design for VLSI Digital Systems, San Francisco, CA. Continuing Education in Engineering, University of California Extension. 2223 Fulton St.. Berkeley. CA 94720, (415) 642-4151. January 13-15

Data Recovery: What To Do When It All Goes Wrong, Phoenix, AZ. Independent Computer Consultants Association, POB 32115, Phoenix, AZ 85064. January 14

MacWorld Exposition, San

Francisco, CA. World Expositions, Mitch Hall Associates, POB 155, Westwood, MA 02090, (617) 329-7466. January 16-18

Advanced Semiconductor Equipment Exposition & Technical Conference, San lose, CA. ASEE '86 Show Manager, Cartlidge & Associates Inc., Suite M2 59. 1101 South Winchester Blvd.. San lose, CA 95128, (408) 554-6644. January 21-23

Writing Better Computer Software Documentation for Users, Research Triangle Park, NC. Trish Stolton. Department of Continuing Education, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0385, (404) 894-2547. ■ January 21-23

Sixth Annual Florida Instructional Computing Conference. Orlando, FL. )ill Draper, Florida Department of Education. Educational Technology Section. Knott Building. Tallahassee, FL 32301. January 21-24

Animating Escher with Computer Graphics; Special Effects; and Fractals, Computers, and DNA, New York, NY. Gideon Nettler, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Montclair State College. Upper Montclair. NJ 07043, (201) 893-4294. January 22

Making Sense of Data Communications; T-l Facilities and Networking,

Orlando, FL. Timeplex Inc.. 400 Chestnut Ridge Rd.. Woodcliff, NJ 07675, (201) 391-1111. January 22-23

1986 Measurement Science Conference, Marriott Hotel. Irvine, CA. Dennis Pinnecker. Measurement Science Conference, POB 1294, Corona, CA 91718. (714) 632-3923. January 23-24

Communications Networks '86, Washington, DC. CW Conference Management Group, Box 880, Framingham, MA 01701. (800) 22 54698; in Massachusetts, (617) 879-0700. January 28-30 ■

IF YOU WANT your organizations public activities listed in BYTE's Event Queue, we need to know about them at least four months in advance. Send information about computer conferences, seminars, workshops, and courses to BYTE, Event Queue. POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

78 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Pick A Racehorse, A Workhorse, Or Your Choice Of Saddles

VAR's & VAD's now have a choice of PC and AT compatible computers and a complete range of enhancement products all in one place. And you won't be dealing with rookies either. Basic Time has been a computer manufacturer and distributor since 1975. We have the experience and proven ability to offer systems integrators the products and service they need.

Hun

With Our Racehorse The ST/AT.

This 80286 computer with 28ms average access time 44 Mb drive runs circles around the IBM" AT. It's complete with Hercules compatible monochrome monitor (color optional), a fistful of I/O ports, keyboard, 1.2 Mb/360k floppy, and 640k of RAM, MS-DOS and GW-BAS1C. All this and more at the lowest price available for an AT compatible*.

Inquiry 33

Try Our WorkhorseThe BT/HT. A new

standard in price/performance for an 8088 computer. 8 slots, 256k RAM, AT type keyboard, Hercules compatible monochrome monitor and adapter, 20 Meg hard disk, floppy drive, 130 watt power supply, MS-DOS, and full PC compatibility.

external modems. Hard disk storage is simple and reliable with our 20 Mb systems for PC's and BT44 and BT70 Mb drives for AT's. Tape backup systems are available to secure your data too. Need more memory and I/O ports? The BT6Plus and AT4x4Plus multifunction boards give you unrivaled bang for your buck.

For more details on how your company can offer it's customers more performance while you concentrate on one vendor instead of five, call or write:

Your Choice Of Saddles. Either horse

you choose we can outfit you completely. Our HR series monitors support monochrome, color, or EGA adapters. Communication is easy with Basic Time internal or

Department B 3350 Scott Blvd., Bldg. 52 Santa Clara, Ca. 95054

Inside California (800) 841-2474

Outside California (800) 323-8437

basic Lime

♦lnfoworld Sept. 2, 1985, Page 1.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 79

NETWORK

BUY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE AT WHOLESALE + 8%, AND GET 14-30 DAY SOFTWARE RENTALS1...

Listed below are just a few of the over 30,000 products available at our EVERYDAY LOW PRICES! The Network carries products for Apple, IBM, CP/M and most other popular computer families.

GAMES & EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II & MACINTOSH

(Please add $1 shipping and handling lor each title ordered Irom below.) Wholesale

Arrays Home Accountant-Mac Only $65.00"

Axlon Art Portfolio & Card Shoppe 31.00*

Bluechip Baron! Millionaire! Tycoon 26.00*

Broderbund I oaorunncr 19.75'

Broderbund Choplitter 19.00'

Broderbund Print Shop 28.75'

Broderbund Dazzle Draw 31.97'

CBS Mastering the GRF 53.50"

CBS Murder by the Dozen 20.97'

CBS Gcren Bridge Made Easy 45.00*

Counterpoint Tlie News Room 26.97*

Davidson Speed Reader It 37.97*

Davidson Main Blaster 29.97*

Davidson Word Attack' 29.97'

IslByteSmoolh Talker-Mac Only 47.00'

HaydenDaViricr-House'lnleriors/Landscapes 24.75'

HaydenSaraon III 25.75*

Intocom Deadline or Suspended 24.00'

Infocom Enchanter, Pianetlail 20.00'

Cutthroats. WitnessorZorkl

Infocom Hitchiker's Guide or Scastalker 20.00'

Infocom Suspect. Sorcerer or Inlidel 22.00'

InlocomZorft IIor III 22.00"

Layered Front Desk-Mac Only 65.00'

Mirage Concepts Trivia 11.00*

Miles Computing Mac Attack-Mac Only Palatir Mac Type-Mac Only Penguin Graphics Magician Penguin Pensale or Xyphus Penguin Transylvania-MacOnly Professional Software Trivia Fever Pryority Software forbidden Quest Scarborough Master Type Scarborough Hun lor the Money Simon & Schuster typing Tutor III Sir-Tech Wizardry Sir-Tech Knight ot Diamonds Sir-Tech Rescue Raiders Sublogic Night Mission Pmbatl Sublogic Flight Simulator II

►Spinnaker Alphabet Zoo. Face Maker. Kinder Comp, Hey Diddle Diddle, Rhymes & Riddles. StoryMachine

►Spinnaker The Most Amazing Thing

►Spinnaker Delta Drawing T/Maker Click Art-Mac Only Warner Desk Organizer Videx fun Pack-Mac Only Videx Mac Checkers A Reversal Virtual Combinalics Micro Cookbook

Wholesale S23.00' 23.50' 28.97" 20.00' 20.00" 19.00" 21.00* 26.50' 26.00' 28.25* 26.97* 18.97' 18.9720.00* 27.25* 15.97'

20.77' 24.97' 25.00' 65.0019.77* 25.17* 21.00'

BUSINESS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II & MACINTOSH

(Please add S2.50 shipping and handling for each title ordered Irom below.)

►Apple Apple Works

SI 60.00

► Microsoft Word lot Macintosh

$102.00'

Borland International turbo Pascal

30.00'

► Microsoft htirlor Macintosh

10200'

BPI GL.APAR. PR. orlNV

205.00

► Microsoft MUlliptitn h it Macintosh

102 00'

Broderbund Bank Street Writer

40.00'

Microsoft Basic lor Macintosh

79.00'

Central Point Copy II Plus or Copy II Mac

20.00'

Microsoft Chart tor Macintosh

66.00

Funk Software Sideways

34.00'

Monogram Dollars A Sense tor Apple lie

55.00*

Fun soft Macasm

60.00

Monogram Dollars & Sense tor Macintosh

70.00'

Haba Habadex

40.00

Odesta Helix lor Macintosh Reg s 512K

200.00'

Haba Quartet

101.95*

Provue Overvue-Mac Only

135.00"

Harvard Mac Manager

29.95*

Sensible Software Sensible Speller IV

67.50'

► Human Edge Mind Prober

24.00'

Soft craft Fancy Fonts

125.00*

►Human Edge Sates Edge

110.00*

Softech Microsystems UCSDPascal

140.00*

Human Edge Communication Edge

98.00'

Software Arts TK Solver1 tor Mac

134.00'

► Living Videotex! Hunk-thank-Mac Too'

65.00'

Software Publishing PFS File. Write, or Graph

68.00'

Main Street Filer-Mac Only

67.00'

Stoneware DB Master-Mac Tool

95.00'

MECA Managing your Money

105.50'

Telos Filevision lor Mac

87.50"

HARDWARE FOR YOUR APPLE //& MACINTOSH

(Please add shipping and handling charges found in italics next to price.)

DISK DRIVES

MODEMS

Wholesale

Alps AP- IO0A Dual Apple Dnves in

$309.00'

(/

00}

One Case

Apple MAC 400KB External Drive

349.95'

(7

so;

Corvus 5 5MB Hard Drive

939.00

(20

28)

1 Omega Macnoulh 5MG Removable

1,250.00'

(27

00)

Drive tor Macintosh

Micro Sc\A2 14 3KB Drive

150.00'

(B

00)

Just tike Apple's Own

Micro Sci Floppy Controller

55.00*

12

50)

► Paradise Mac IOMB Hard Drive

750.00*

rrs

20)

Subsystem

► Paradise Mac 30MB Hard DW

950.00'

(20

52)

Subsystem

►PC Network I40K External Drive

95.00*

12

50)

tor Apple tic

Rana Elite 1163K Drive

225.00'

00)

Tecmar 5MB Removable Drive tor MAC

999.00'

(21

58)

Tecmar WMB MAC Drive

999.00*

(21

58!

Tecmar 5MB MAC Drive Upgrade

1.235.00'

(26

68)

Wholesale

12 501 (3 50) (6 001

BOARDS AND BUFFERS

ALS Z-Eng<ne

S115.00"

'?

50)

AST Mutti 110-2 serial/Clock

155.00'

(2

50)

Microsoft Premium Sotlcardtlc

243.67'

(2

50)

Microtek DumptinglGX

55.00

(2

50)

Orange Micro Giapplet <

66.00'

(2

50)

Orange Micro Serial Grappler

66.00'

(2

50)

PC Network Z80 Card

35.00*

(2

50)

Quadram APIC'G Graphics Interface

62.00*

(2

50)

Quadram e RAM-BO

88.00*

ff

50)

Quadram Mutticcc— 1 Parallel! 1 Serial/

140.00'

(2

50)

Clock Expandable to 256K

Thunderware Ihunderclock

104.00

(2

Ml

Hayes Micromodem lie w.'Smartcom SI 25.00' Novation Apple Cat II 174.45'

Prometheus 1200 A 276.00'

Low Cost (200 Baud Internal Modem tor Apple II Prometheus Promodern 1200 299.00' (6 001

w I Mac Pack

Zoom Zoom!'Modem lie 90.00' (2 501

Micromodem Compatible-Free Dow Jones

ACCESSORIES

Apple Macintosh Carrying Case S69.00' (I J9j

Apple Macintosh Security Kit 29.00" 11 50)

Apple Macintosh Numeric Keypad 69.00" 12 50)

Hayes Mach III Joystick 31.00* (1 50)

wIFire Button tor lie

Kensington Dust Covei tor MAC 8.25" (f 50)

or image writer

KensingtonSfa/lerPac'i ' 54.00' f3 00/

Kensington Surge Projector 33.47* f2 50)

Kensington System Saver Fan 56.97* 11 501

►Koala MacVisian 158.00* (3 00J

Koala Koalapad touch Tablet 78.00' tt 50)

MAR Sup-R-ModRF Modulation 44.00" (1 501

PC Network Cooling Fan with Surge 25.00' 12 50)

Protector & Dual Outlets

PC Network SS/DD Diskettes iBox ot Wi 7.95' |l 00)

PC Network Macintosh Diskettes 21.95' j I 501

Includes Free Flip & File Case These Diskettes are Guaranteed tor Lite' No Generics'

Sony MAC Diskettes IBox ot Wi 22.95' (1 50)

GAMES & EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add SI shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

ATI Intro to PC DOS Vol IS II $23.00*

ATI Intro to BASIC 23.00*

Bluebush Chess frbuf roughest Opponent! 34.00"

Bluechip Millionaire!Oil Baron or Tycoon 28.25"

Broderbund Lode Runner 19.75*

CBS Goren-Bndge Made Easy 40.00"

CBS Mastering the SAT 50.00'

CDEX Training tor Word Star 37.25'

Comprehensive Intro to Personal Computing 32.00'

Davidson Math Blaster. WordAltacki 26.50'

Davidson Speed Reader It 36.50"

Hayden Sargon III 25.75*

Individual ProfossorDOS 32.50*

Individual Thelnsirvctor 24.50"

►Infocom Zork I or Witness 20.00"

► Infocom Deadline, or Suspended Microsoft Flight Simulator

Mouse Systems PC Paint-Turn your PC

into A Color Macintosh! Scarborough Mastertype Sierra On-Line King s Quest It Sierra On-Line Crossfire Spectrum Holobyte GATO ►Spinnaker Alphabet Zoo. Kinder Comp.

StoryMaclune, Face Maker. Hey Diddle. Diddle, Rhymes & Biddies ►Spinnaker Delta Drawing

► Spinnaker Most Amazing Thing Sublogic Night Mission Pmball Virtual Combinalics Micro Cookbook

Wholesale S24.00* 27.00' 59.95*

27.00* 27.00* 18.00' 18.00'

15.97'

24.97' 20 77' 20.00" 21.00*

BUSINESS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add S2.50 shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

►AshtonTate DBase it S365.00'

►AshtonTate Framework II 365.00'

Borland Turbo Pascal 25.75'

Borland Side Kick (Protected) 26.00'

Borland SupcrJicy 32.00*

BPI GIL. AtRor AIP 305,00*

BPI Aura 265.00"

BPI Personal Accounting 48.00*

Breakthrough timeline 230.00"

►CentralPoint CopyllPC 20.00*

Conceptual Instruments Desk Organizer 157.00"

Digital Research OR Logo 75,00'

Digital Research Gem Desktop 25.00'

Digital Research Gem Draw 73.00'

Enertronics Enernraphics with Plotter Option 190.00*

Funk Software Sideways 34.00'

► Harvard Harvard Pro/t>c( Managet 175.00* Harvard Total Project Manager 225.00*

► Hayes Snurft om H- New VT100 Emulator 68,00* ►HumanEdge fhpM.inagernenfEdge" 137.50* ►Human Edge The SalesEdge 110.00* ►Human Edge Mind Prober 26.50*

Lifelree VolkswriterDelux 135.00"

► Lotus Development I oius '-?-3 285.00' MDBS Knowledgeman/2 295.00' MicroPro Wordstar 2000 219.00'

MicroPro Wordstar 2000 •

MicroRimflOase 5000

Microsoft C Compiler

Microsoft Word-Latest Version2.0

Microsoft Multiptan

Microsoft Mouse

Monogram Dollars & Sense

► MuKimate Multimate (Latest Verstonf Norton Norton Utilities 3 0

Oasis JTie Word Plus

Open Systems PIO Sales AIR INVCIL AIP Team Mgr.

Power Base Power Base

Real World GIL AIP AIR or OE/INV

Rose so ft Prokey version 3

Ryan McFartond RM COBOL tDev System) ►Samna Samnn III Word Processor ►Samna Word 4

► Satelite Software Word Perlect So ft era ft Fancy Fonts Software Arts TKISolver

Software Publishing PFS File. Write, Graph Software Publishing PFS: Report Sorcim Supercalc III Xanaro Ability

S262.00* 300.00' 220.00* 205.00*

9500* 107,00*

95.00* 190 00*

46.00*

75.00' ea 275.00

197.00* ea. 275.00* 65.00* 520,00227.00' 320.00' 190,00* 125 00* 2000068.0064.00' 169.00' 247.50'

HARDWAREFORYOUR IBM

(Please add shipping and handling charges found in italics next to pnee.)

DISK DRIVES Wholesate

52.149.00* K6 4ZI

MODEMS

lOmega BcrnoulliBox Dual J0MG Drives Maynard WS-1 tOMB Internal Hard Disk

Maynard WS-2 same as WS-1 but with 930.00" (20.30) Sandstaar Floppy Controller fuses I slot)

►PC Network 10MB INTERNAL Height 330,00' (7 131 Autoboot Drive. New lower price Dnves by Shugart or Tandon

PC Network lOMfJ Tape Backup 460.00' (8.94) Same uml used in Compag's DeskPro'

►T»naonrMTO?F,,»Hc,jflIDS/DDDnres 93.00 12201 „„„,„,„ „„oc„,omo G„,p„,cs Ca,0

■U^amCamamMDM 2.375.00- 151301 fjrt wi/h60MS Tape Backup

AST Reach'Short Slot 1200Baud Internal Modem

730.00' (15.77) HayesSmarlmouem !200Bwitt\New Smancomtl/VTWO Emulator Hayes Smailmodem 1200BAIone Prometheus Promodern 1200B Internal Quadram Qiiadmodcm It 1200 Baud Halt Card wiCrosstalk XVI

VIDEO CARDS

Wholesale $345.00* (280)

►Teac FD 55 FJ Halt I Ivighi DS/DO Drives ►Teac J 2MB I faff Height Disk Drive lor AT

90.00' (1 94)

► PC Network h

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

Apparat AT Ram Fxpansion card

S139.00

(2

50)

►AST Six-Pack Plus With 64K

195.00

(2

50)

ASTtlOPtusll

120.00'

(2

50)

AST Advantage tor AT

355,00

(2

50)

Everex M.igic CardttS4K

160.00'

(2

50)

►PC Network 512K Memory Board wiOK

69.00'

a

50)

PC Network Sn-Pac* Clone w'OK

89.00'

IS

SO)

Mono Card Clone

1.0.00- «*, ^zzzzstzr*

Persyst Boo Card Ullia High Res Color ►STB Graphix Pius//

(Simultaneous Mono Graphics & Color)

265.00*

(2 50)

225,00*

(2 501

275.00

12.501

SI 42.00*

12 50)

263.00*

(2 501

235.00

(2 501

9900

69.00

(2 50)

299.00'

(2 50J

199.00

(2 50)

S895

it 00)

Full Six-Pack Feutvtes—Game Port Standard Direct Imparl from Taiwan at a Fabulous price' 1 year Warranty-Money back Guarantee ► PC Network ItOPIusll Clone 69.00* 12 50)

Ser/ParrGameiClock standard Quadram improved Quadboard w/OK 170.00* (2.50)

Tecmar Captam Multifunction Card w/OK 146.00" (2 50)

ACCESSORIES

► DS/OD Bulk Rate Special 59* ea.

Packaged in 50 with sleeves and tape's

Guaranteed for t. lie' ►PC Network Replacement 130 Watt 76.00* (2 70)

IBM-PC Power Supply-Gives your PC the same

Capacity as an XT Good lor addm Tape Drives

(without need tor a piggyback unit) and large

capacity disk dnves SMAPCDoocuma'c.Kevfxiaidrempl.ites 9.99* (I 00J

lor LotuslDBaselMuitimate and others tEacb]

MEMORY CHIPS

► 64K Memory Upgrade Kits (9 Chipsi S5 40*

Quantity Discounts Available'

► 64K Dynamic Ram Chips (Each) .60*

► 256K Dynamicflam Chips tEach) 3,00*

► 126K IBM AT Piggyback Chips (Each) 4.00"

EXTERNAL MODEMS

Anchor Signalman Express 5205.00'

HayesSmartmodemSOO 125.00*

Hayes SmartmoPern 1200 340.00*

Hayes Smailmodem 12008 wi!h new 317,00'

Smartcomll VI100Emulator

Hayes Smartmodem I200B Alone 265,00'

► HayesSmar/modem2J00 535,00' Prometheus Promodern 1200 276 .00'

External !0O"u Hayes Compatible

► U.S. Robotics Courier 240OBPS Modem 450.00*

► U S Robotics Password 19S.00'

LOWEST PRICL I200BPS Modem'

13 00) 13 001 13 00) (4 64) t? 88) (9 33) 10 48)

(5,00) 15.00) (5.00) (250)

(2 50) (5 00) (6 00)

MONITORS

Amdek Video 300G Composite Green S110.00*

Amdek Video 300A Composite Amber 120.00*

Amdek Video 310AIUM Type Amber 130.00'

Amdek Color 300-Composite 215.00"

Amdek Color 600 - High lies RGB 365.00'

Amdek Color 700-Ultra High Res 455.00*

Amdek Color 710-700wlNon Glare 475,99'

Long Phosphor

Princeton HX-12 RGB Monitor CALL

Princeton MAX- I2e CALL

Worft wilt) Color or Mono Card!

QuadramGuadrtmnM"New' 350 00' I f 56l

640X200 RGB w> 14 Screen'

Black Phosphor Mask'IBM Case

► Samsung 12 T It IBM Type Amber 85.00' ft 001

A great looking/performing monochrome Iron) the

manufacture ot IBM s own color monitor

Taxan 440 Super Hi Res RGB 495.00* (/0 69J

Currently Available works with Persyst Bob Card

ZenWh ZVM 1230A Green Hi Resl 81.00' ft 75)

Non Glare

COMPLETE SYSTEMS

Wholesale

Apple Macintosh Base Systems CALL

AT&T 63P0 PC CPU2 SI ,575.00' 13402)

128K/2 Floppy/1 Serial/1 Parallel AT&T 7300 Unix PC 3,699.00' 179 90)

10MB Hard Disk/1 Floppy!5I2K COMPAQ DeskPro) Tape Backup System 2,951.94' (63.70)

W/640K11 Floppy! 10MB Hard Disk/

tOMB Utpfl Drive/Monitor

Wholesale S2.235.00' M8?ffl

►COMPAQ I i.ud Disk Portable

10MB Hard Disk!Floppy!256K

>\BM PC Base System 2DSDD'FDC-?5fiK 1,425,00' (30 /Hi

►IBM PC Prolessional Hard Disk 1,709.00' fM9!J

IBMPCMrflaseSys'em-f 2MB 2.795.00' 16037)

Floppy!256K

IBM AT Professional System CALL I 2MBFloppy!20MBHardDiskl 1 Sett I Par/512K

PRINTERS

TERMS & CONDITIONS

*PC NETWORK—Members pay lust 8% above the wholesale price, plus shipping. All p( ir.es relleciaS4* cash rtisr.tujnl Minimum shipping S2 60 per order International orders call tot shipping & handling charges Money Orders, personal and company checks please allow 10 working days lo clear All prices subject to change without nonce1 t RENT BEFORE YOU BUY-Members are eligible to |Oin the NETWORK'S Business and Game software Rental Libraries andevaluate products lorn lull 14 (Regular) or 30 (VIP) days to see if it meets your needs And The NETWORK'S lonlal Charges are lar less than older soltware rental services-Just 20% OF THE MEMBER WHOLESALE PRICE Rental titles available in IBM/Apple/MAC and CP/M Formats. Hardwire prices highhled by ► rolled recenl major price reductions

►Citizen MSP-10 NEW'

S265.00

(5 V?)

►NEC 353033CPS LQPaiatlet

S 883.00

19 IB)

I60CPSI80COL/Fric' Trac

►NEC 3550 33CPS Letter Quality Printer

920.00* ftMfl

►Citizen MSP- '5 NEW'

350.00'

(7.5SJ

►NEC B850 55CPS Printer

1.330.00*

28 731

I60CPS! 132COL/Fnc • Trac

►NEC Pmwriter 2 New'Color Dot Matrix

599.00

112 94)

►Citizen MSP- 20 NEW'

350.00'

(7.5fij

OkidataML 182New I20CPSILQ

CALL

20aCPSiB0COL!Fnc - Trac

Model Fnc!IBM Graphics > more

►Citizen MSP-25 NEW!

499.00'

flO 76)

OkidataML l92NewS/cehDe5inn'

CALL

200CPSI 132COUFnc + Trac

l60CPS'LOMode/Fnc/J8MG/aphici

► Citizen Premiere 35 NEW'

569.00'

112.29)

Okidata Color 20 8QCPS1100 •

CALL

35CPS Daiseywhecl! 132COLI Fnc

Trac.

Colors! LO Model IBM Graphics! < More

►EpsonL*-«0 IOOCPS80COLLQMod(

199.00

14.30)

(Requires Interlace)

New Model"

Okidata IBM Interface lor Okimate

CALL

►Epson i ■ ■■

299.00

16 46)

Color 20

►Epson FX-IB5

429.00

19 27)

Okidata ML84P200CPS 132COL

CALL

Epson IQ-1500

79900*

117 26)

Okidata ML 93P 160CPS Wide Platen

CALL

Epson SO2000 NEW Ink/et Printer

1.359.00

i29 35)

Okidata 241QPPacemark 350COL

CALL

lOSCPSLOModC 1' 6CPS Draft/1

32COL

Qume Sprint 11140 40CPS Letter Quality

1,155.00

24 00)

Epson DX. 35 35CPS

569.00*

112 29)

SlarMicronicsPoweriype IfiCPS

300.00

f6 J8J

Letter UuaWy Printer

Letter Quality

►NEC 20.70 MICPS t. O Parallel

605.00'

11300)

ToshibaP*3.10 80COL.'l44CPS

450.00

(9 72)

► NEC 29M 2QCF& l etter Quality Pnnte

605.00*

113 00J

Toshiba P35I New'288CPS! I32COL

975.00*

(21 00)

NETWORK

COMPLETE SYSTEMS

onal local warranty service available in most major metro areas)

IBM PC BASE SYSTEM

IBM PC W/256K

Floppy Drive Controller 2 Double Sided Double

Density Disk Drives Mix and Match with your Favorite Monitor and Printer!

I*

IBM PC HARD DISK SYSTEM

IBM PC W/256K Floppy Drive Controller 1 Double Sided Double

Density Disk Drive Half Height 10MB

Disk Subsystem

$1,425.00'

CALL FOR LATEST IBM ANNOUNCEMENTS

$1,709.00'

PORTABLE HARD DISK SYSTEM

W256K/1 Floppy/10MB Hard Disk

COmPAO.

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BYTE

Features

Product Description: The Atari 520ST THREE BYTE STAFF MEMBERS. Jon Edwards. Phillip Robinson, and Brenda

by Joh R. Edwards. Phillip Robinson, and McLaughlin, have put together a preliminary but detailed evaluation of the

Brenda McLaughlin 84 Atari 520ST. They summarize the hardware of the 520ST as "the 68000 un

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: bounded." Among the features they were impressed with are the quality of

Build an Analog-to-Digital Converter video output (though you must choose between monochrome and color), the

by Steve Ciaraa 104 speecj Qf tne ^isk I/O, and the variety of ports. An unfinished operating system

Product Preview: Q&a ancj minimal application software did not dampen their overall impression.

by )on R. Edwards 120 The g^g^ Qf analog-to-digital conversion is one that Steve Ciarcia returns

Programming Project: ^ to every few years. He does this largely so that new readers can learn the

A SIMPL Compiler, Part 2: basics. For readers who have been around for a while, he also includes the

Procedures and Functions . . . . . , „,. .,, , .. „.

by Nathan Amsterdam 130 'ftest conversion interface. This months column is no exception. Steve

discusses the basics and then describes a 16-channel 12-bit high-speed AID

Creating Reusable Modules mnvprfpr

by Namir Clement Shammas 145 ,™®r,„, , , . , ■a,

Q&A is a product preview about an integrated software package that com

Easy^d^raphics"^ bines word processing and file management with a full macro facility and an

by Henning Mittelbach 153 effective natural-language interface—your Intelligent Assistant. By entering nor

mal English phrases and sentences, you can carry on a conversation with your

Assistant and get a lot of information into and out of your database. )on

Edwards provides a sample session in "Q&A," discusses some of its drawbacks,

and compares it with other natural-language database products.

Last month, Jonathan Amsterdam began a three-part article on a compiler for his high-level language called SIMPL. This month, he describes the part of the compiler that handles procedures and functions, also known as routines. The routines of SIMPL are similar to those of Pascal, and like most routines, they're useful for programmers but difficult to compile.

Large software projects can be undertaken by simply reusing the same modules of code in different programs. Modula-2 imposes some restrictions to this method, and Namir Clement Shammas. author of "Create Reusable Modules." offers a program strategy as a solution. The strategy involves the creation of capsule editors, the advantages of which include customization of programs, lowered costs, and increased reliability.

Creating three-dimensional graphics on microcomputers has been a popular subject with both BYTE readers and authors. In "Budget 3-D Graphics" (March 1985), author Tom Clune looked at the program SURF, which includes such advantages as hidden-line removal and the ability to rotate the plot around three axes. This month we have "Easy 3-D Graphics" by Henning Mittelbach. The author has written a low-cost, three-dimensional graphics program for the IBM Personal Computer, the Apple Macintosh, and the Apple II family.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 83

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

The

Atari 520ST

The 68000

unbounded

Editor's note: The following is a BYTE product description. It is not a review—for several reasons. Some of the equipment we received, such as the hard-disk drive, were prototypes, and at the time of this writing, software is scarce. Atari has not yet completed its BASIC interpreter, and the operating system. TOS, remains unfinished. Nonetheless, we are as intensely interested as our readership in new technology, and we feel we have learned enough to share some of the results of our investigations. We began our work on this description as soon as we were able to get a system from Atari. A full review will follow in a subsequent issue.

For many years the public has equated the Atari name with arcade games and joysticks. In truth, the Atari 400/800/XL computer line is technically at least comparable if not better than other 8-bit machines, so it should not be a surprise that the company's latest venture, the 520ST (see photo 1), is a competitive 68000 system. Indeed, we are most impressed with the clarity of the graphics, with the speed of the disk I/O (input/output), and with the 520ST's value.

The system is not without its problems. The desktop is less effective than the Macintosh's, the keyboard has an awkward feel, and the current operating system makes it impossible to switch between high-resolution monochrome and low- or mediumresolution color without installing the

other monitor and rebooting. Nonetheless, we are left with a very favorable impression; several software-development languages are already available, including FORTH, Modula-2, and C. With them, you can tap the power of the 68000 at a most reasonable price.

System Description

The Atari 520ST is a keyboard computer. Like the Commodore 64 and the Atari 400/800, the 520ST keyboard unit contains the microprocessor, the memory, the video and sound circuitry, and so on. The power supply, disk drives, and monitor are external devices. The 520ST has a variety of ports, but there are no internal expansion slots.

The In Brief box on page 90 summarizes the features of the Atari 520ST. For $799, you get the CPU, a 12-inch diagonal monochrome monitor, and one external single-sided double-density floppy-disk drive. For $999, you get the same system with a 12-inch RGB analog monitor in place of the monochrome monitor (see photo 1). Both systems provide 512 K bytes of RAM (random-access read/ write memory), a Motorola 68000 microprocessor, MIDI ports with a transfer rate of 31,2 50 bps (bits per second), a DMA (direct memory access) port with a transfer rate of 10 megabits per second for a hard disk or CD-ROM (compact-disk read-only memory), and much, much more. To be sure, owners will make some sacrifices. The unit does not have an RF (radio frequency) modulator for television output, every peripheral has a separate power supply (wire haters beware), and the operating system

currently rests in RAM, stealing over 200K bytes from your workspace. We have summarized other problems below, but almost all are insignificant when you consider what you do get for the money. And rest assured, the system works. Our first system, like most of the first production units, had to have several chips reseated. It now functions properly, and we have not heard of any similar quality-control problems on the latest 520STs.

The Hardware Design

The heart of the 520ST is the MC68000, with its 16-bit data bus and 24-bit address bus, running at 8 MHz (see figure 1). The rest of the system was designed to stay out of the 68000's way. (See the 520ST motherboard in photo 2.)

The Atari design team began work on the 520ST in May 1984. From the start, they had several specific goals in mind. The first was to choose a fast microprocessor and do everything to let it run effectively at full speed. To the Atari team, that meant maximizing bus bandwidth and relegating as

[continued)

Jon R. Edwards is a technical editor, Phillip Robinson is a senior technical editor, and Brenda McLaughlin is an associate news editor for BYTE. They can be contacted at BYTE, POB 372, Hancock, NH 03449.

84 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

by Jon R. Edwards, Phillip Robinson, and Brenda McLaughlin

D.".k Filg

'..mi isd.I'm:

Photo 1: The Atari 520ST, shown here with the color monitor and two single-sided double-density disk drives, [a] On the right side of the keyboard unit are two joystick/mouse ports, (b) On the left is the \28K-byte ROM cartridge port, (c) The rear of the disk drives has specific ports for I/O in and I/O out.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS

JANUARY 1986 "BYTE 85

ATARI 520ST

many mundane tasks as possible from the microprocessor to other chips. Second, according to Shiraz Shivji, Atari's vice president for research and development, "We didn't want to reinvent the wheel . . . things that were available that could offload the processor—we wanted to use." A direct result of that goal was the use of several standard chips (such as the Western Digital WD1772 for floppydisk-drive control) and use of custom

CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) chips for performance, reliability, and manufacturability. All four custom chips—Glue, the Memory Controller, the Video Shifter, and the DMA chip—share many of the 520ST's duties.

Third, the 520ST had to provide highquality color displays. Finally, the design team wanted to give the 520ST excellent I/O capabilities. That goal is reflected in both the variety of ports that

surround the 520ST and in the high speed of the DMA (hard-disk) port.

Memory

The 520ST currently includes 512K bytes of RAM and 16K bytes of ROM. The RAM consists of sixteen 2 56K-bit dynamic RAM chips that are rated at 150 ns (nanoseconds). Atari is already talking about 1-megabyte and 2-megabyte (RAM) versions of this same computer. The 68000 CPU (central processing unit) can directly address up to 16 megabytes of ROM and RAM, but the present Memory Controller chip can only work with 4 megabytes. The circuit board has room, but it will need a slight redesign to use the 1-megabit dynamic RAMs when they become available. (The 1-megabit chips have two more pins than the 16-pin 2 56K-bit chips they would replace and also would have some of the signals on different pins. This change would require a small modification in manufacturing.)

Memory is configured as five 64 Kbyte sets of ROM and one configurable bank of 128K bytes, 512K bytes, or 2 megabytes of RAM. (Early in 1985, Atari mentioned a possible 128K-byte RAM version of the ST.) Software determines the ROM configuration. A shadow-test algorithm that loads a Memory Configuration register determines the RAM configuration. When the computer is turned on, this algorithm tries to write to and read from memory addresses unique to the possible configurations.

The memory map is shown in figure 2. The first 2K bytes (lowest address values) are reserved for the exception vector table and the supervisor stack. These 2K bytes—and the I/O spaceare protected: They can only be accessed when the CPU is in supervisor mode. Four words of ROM are shadowed at the start of RAM for the reset stack pointer and the program counter.

Video Memory

The Atari 520ST offers three display resolutions. The highest resolution is a noninterlaced monochrome 640- by

MC68000 MPL

3<n

CONTROL LOGIC

192K- BYTE ROM

ROM i EXPANSION PORT

MEMORY CONTROLLER

r?

128K- OR 512KBYTE RAM

BUFFERS

->

VIDEO SHIFTER

MC6850 ACIA

KEYBOARD PORT

MC6850 ACIA

MIDI PORTS

RGB

MONOCHROME

I KBD

OUT/THRU IN

MK68901 M F P

RS-232C PORT

AY-3-8910 PSG

PARALLEL PORT

PRINTER

SOUND CHANNELS

WD F D C

3

1772 ( )

FLOPPYDISK PORT

DMA

CONTROLLER

HARD-DISK PORT

■ AUDIO

FLOPPY DRIVE

* HARD DRIVE

Figure 1: The system block diagram for the Atari 520ST.

86 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

ATARI 520ST

Photo 2: The Atari 520ST motherboard.

JANUARY 1986 ■ BYTE 87

ATARI 520ST

- -ST

MEMORY MAP

00

0 000

ROM

RESET: SUPERVISOR STACK

POINTER

00

0004

ROM

RESET: PROGRAM COUNTER

00

0008

RAM

OK-BYTE RAM

0 2

0000

RAM

1?RK_DYTF RAM

08

0000

RAM

512K-BYTE RAM

•

fa

0000

ROM

320K-BYTE ROM

•

fc

0000

ROM

RESET: SUPERVISOR STACK

POINTER

f c

0 004

ROM

fc

0008

ROM

192K-BYTE ROM

fe

f fff

ROM

OK-BYTE ROM

ff

8000

I/O

CONFIGURATION REGISTERS

f f

8200

I/O

DISPLAY REGISTERS

f f

8400

I/O

RESERVED

f f

8600

I/O

DMA/DISK REGISTERS

ff

8800

I/O

SOUND REGISTERS

ff

faOO

I/O

MC68XXX REGISTERS

f f

fcOO

I/O

MC68XX REGISTERS

Figure 2: The 520ST memory map.

Photo 3: Low-resolution graphics offer 16 colors in a 320- by 200-pixel array.

400-pixel mode that is output at 70 Hz. The maximum color resolution, "medium resolution," is 640 by 200 pixels with 4 colors (see photo 3). Low-resolution color is 320 by 200 pixels with 16 colors.

Bit maps in the main RAM store all of the displayed images (see figure 3). A special interleaving scheme, managed by the Memory Controller chip, allows the CPU and video to share memory efficiently. Each display mode uses a 32K-byte bit map in memory, each starting at a 2 56-byte half-page boundary in RAM. This memory is a contiguous chunk configured as n logical planes of 16-bit words. The Video Base Address register holds the starting address of display memory, a value that is loaded into the Video Address Counter register and incremented to determine which plane a word is in.

These registers make video programming straightforward. You choose a mode, select the address for the start of the screen, and then you have a bit-map screen in memory that is affected only by the color palette.

The Video Shifter chip takes words from video-display memory (in general RAM) and combines them according to the mode selected and the position of the word (see figure 4). It then interprets the bits as an index to the color lookup palette. That information is then shifted out to 3-bit digital-to-analog converters that produce the analog RGB (red-green-blue) output.

Color Palette

The 320- by 200-pixel color resolution uses four planes, the 640 by 200 color resolution uses two planes, and the 640 by 400 monochrome uses one plane. The 16-bit color lookup palette has 9 bits of color per entry, 3 bits each of red, green, and blue aligned on low-nybble boundaries. This arrangement generates eight levels each of red, green, and blue, for a total of 512 possible colors.

The 320 by 200 (four-plane) mode can index all 16 palette colors, but the 640 by 200 (two-plane) mode works with only the first 4 palette entries.

88 BYTE* IANUARY 1986

ATARI 520ST

16-BIT WORD

4 PLANE

PLANE

0

PLANE

1

PLANE

2

PLANE

3

PLANE

0

2 PLANE

PLANE

0

PLANE

1

PLANE

0

PLANE

1

PLANE

0

1 PLANE

PLANE

0

PLANE

0

PLANE

0

PLANE

0

PLANE

0

Figure 3: Organization of bit-plane data in memory.

J"

LOGICAL BIT-MAP PLANES

0 12 3

0

1

2

3

lsb

16 x 9 LOOKUP

INVERTER

-MONOCHROME

VIDEO-DISPLAY VIDEO SHIFT MEMORY REGISTER

COLOR PALETTE AND 3- BIT DAC

Figure 4: The flow of data from video memory to analog RGB output.

The 640 by 400 monochrome mode bypasses the palette, instead employing an inverter for inverse video. The inverter is controlled by bit 0 of palette color 0. Palette color 0 also assigns a border color in multiplane mode and a white or black border in monochrome mode.

A single call to BIOS (basic input/ output system) can change the colors in the palette registers. You could show all 512 colors on a single screen by making such calls on the fly. The 520ST does not have any hardware provision for sprites or player-objects, graphics tools that are found in the Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari 800. It does have bit-blitting, but only in the GEM software.

Memory Controller

Using the data bus efficiently was an absolute priority in the design of the 520ST. The CPU makes frequent use of the bus: The designers noticed that between 30 and 40 percent of program instructions would be store and load types. And the video display needs constant refreshing from memory. After all. in a bit-mapped system such as this, the display on the screen is virtually an image of what is in the RAM chips.

A 68000 running at 8 MHz takes 500 ns for each memory-access cycle. But during the first 2 50 ns of that time, it isn't looking at the data bus. Instead, it is just setting up the address bus and performing handshaking functions. Shivji explains that his team decided to use memory chips that could be read in a 2 50-ns slot, and then to put a Memory Controller custom chip between the CPU and memory. The same controller also sits between the Video Shifter custom chip and memory.

During the first 2 50 ns of the 68000's 500-ns read cycle, the Memory Controller gives the Video Shifter access to RAM. Then, when the 68000 is ready—during the second 2 50 ns of the read cycle—the Memory Controller turns RAM access over to the CPU. The Video Shifter and CPU keep taking turns. Because the RAM is twice as fast as the microprocessor,

the 68000 can run at full speed and read or write to RAM as it desires without disturbing the refreshing of the display. More important, CPU tasks won't be put on hold while the video circuitry makes heavy demands on memory for high-resolution data.

Occasionally, because the 68000 has an asynchronous bus that you cannot lock exactly with the video circuitry, missed cycles will occur. All that happens is that the CPU has to wait one 2 50-ns cycle, a rare event according to Shivji.

Glue

The Glue chip reduces the overall chip count on the board by integrating the functions of many smaller chips into one device. Glue generates chip selects, handles handshaking (for parts that aren't 68000-bus-oriented), and generates both the video timing and the interrupt controls. Although the 68901 handles part of the interrupt management task, Glue takes the

interrupt from the 68901 and determines its priority with respect to the vertical and horizontal interrupts. Glue also handles the actual interrupt acknowledge cycles.

I/O Chip

The 68901 MFP (multifunction peripheral) chip is a standard member of the 68000 family and provides serial I/O, parallel I/O, timers, and counters. It has eight parallel I/O pins; a 16-source interrupt controller with programmable service modes, including polling and vector generation; four separate timers with individually programmable prescaling; and a singlechannel, full-duplex USART (universal synchronous/asynchronous receiver/ transmitter).

Sound

The Yamaha YM2149 sound chip has three independent monophonic voices and uses a 2-MHz clock input

[continued)

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 89

ATARI 520ST

IN BRIEF

Name

Atari 520ST

ompany

Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 745-2000

Price

Monochrome system Color system

■

$799 $999

Microprocessor

Motorola 68000, a 32-/16-bit microprocessor (32-bit internal architecture with 24-bit. nonsegmented, external data bus) running at 8 MHz

Dit.

Main Memory

512K bytes of dynamic RAM. Expansion to 4 megabytes may be possible in the future through the use of a planned 8-slot expansion interface.

*

IOM

Current models contain 16K bytes of boot-up ROM. Atari intends to release TOS on ROM for $20, upgrading ROM to 192K bytes and freeing up that amount of RAM.

Graphics

Three modes: 640- by 400-pixel monochrome, 320 by 200 with 16 colors, and 640 by 200 with 4 colors

Sound

Three independent sound channels from 30 Hz to 125 kHz Floppy-Disk Drive

Bundled, external 31/>-inch single-sided double-density drive with capacity of 360K bytes. System supports maximum of two floppy-disk drives.

Keyboard

94-key Selectric-style QWERTY keyboard with numeric keypad, cursor controls, ar rhomboid functic

Interfaces

MIDI in and MIDI out ports

Monitor port (supports RGB analog, high-resolution monochrome) Centronics parallel printer port (supports Epson-compatible printers) RS-232C serial port Floppy-disk port

Hard-disk port (10-megabit-per-second DMA transfer rate) 128K-byte ROM cartridge port Ports for mouse or two joysticks

Bundled Software

TOS, including GEM Atari Logo

Optional Peripherals/Expansion

SF354 single-sided drive $199

SF314 double-sided drive $299

1-megabyte RAM upgrade (Lemon Micro, Redondo Beach, CA) $300

SMM801 dot-matrix printer, SDM121 daisy-wheel printer, 10-megabyte fixed disk, RAM disk for cartridge port, 8-slot expansion interface, local-area network for MIDI port, CD-ROM

BASIC, when completed

to produce tones from 30 Hz up to 12 5 kHz—more than the human audio range. The chip also has a noise channel. Atari documentation calls this chip the PSG (Programmable Sound Generator). The three channels of output are mixed, converted by a builtin digital-to-analog converter, and sent to a monitor speaker. The designers were also able to use some ports and registers on the PSG for activities completely unrelated to sound generation, such as controlling parts of the parallel and serial ports.

The registers for the voices control a basic square wave while the Noise Generator register controls a frequency-modulated square wave of pseudorandom pulse width. You can mix tones and noise over individual channels by using the Mixer Control register. Amplitude registers allow you to choose fixed or variable (Enveloperegister-determined) amplitude.

DMA Port

The 520ST ports fill the entire back and sides of the keyboard unit (see photo 4). One of the strongest features of the 520ST is the built-in DMA port. Using a CPU to move large blocks of data between memory and external devices is neither fast nor efficient. DMA was created to provide a speedy channel for such transfers and to leave the CPU free to calculate. Without help from the CPU the Atari's DMA port can move data at 10 megabits per second, a rate twice the standard hard-disk transfer rate and much higher, for example, than the Macintosh, which must make do with a much slower serial port. In addition, the port can handle up to eight daisychained devices and is the opening to practical use of CD-ROMs and many other devices.

DMA Controller

The Memory Controller and Glue custom chips contain parts of the DMA function, but it is the DMA custom chip that directs the highspeed data transfer through the DMA port. The DMA controller and the CPU have equal access to the bus: A

(continued)

90 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Industry Standards Upgraded!

The Models 630 And 640 Are 100% Compatible With The AT&T 6300 and 6300 Plus!

A perfect upgrade/replacement for the standard IBM color graphics monitor and card, the Taxan model 630 and 555®create a higher resolution at a greater savlngsl

IBM Display IBM CGA Color Adaptor

TAXAN 630 TAXAN 555 SCG Board

S924.00

S920.00

PRICE/PERFORMANCE RATIO

Super High Resolution Text and Graphics.

IBM

TAXAN

l _ i

,k> .11. H: A V "3L A

Superior Text and Graphics Beyond IBM.

640(H) x 200(V) Resolution (640(Hj x 400(V) Non-interlaced Resolution

0.37mm Dot Pitch 24.75Khz Scan Frequency 100% compatible with IBM PC, XT, and AT® when used with the Taxan 555 board. $675.00 Suggested Retail

Screen Test—This actual unretouched photograph demonstrates the superior text resolution created by the TAXAN 630 monitor and 555 color cardl For maximum resolution and ease of viewing, Taxan's the winner!

► The Taxan 555 is basically equivalent to the IBM standard color board. This means that the 555 Is 100% compatible with all IBM softwarel

COMPATABILITY

IBM

TAXAN

Text Mode

16 Colors

16 Colors

320 X 200

4 Colors

4 Colors

640 X 200

1 Color

1 Color

Alphanumeric Text

Resolution

Character Cell

8X8

I0X 16

Scan Frequency

15.75 Khz

24.75 Khz

Compatible with AT&T 6300 Computer

RGB Color, and

FOUR Monochrome Capabilities in

One

Monitor!

RG

^ No one

else offers the monochrome options available with the new Taxan 600 series!

The Taxan 630 & 640 monitors offer Green, Amber, B&W Reverse, and a White on Blue Background as their total spectrum of monochrome options. Only Taxan offers such a wide variety of monochrome capabilities.

REVERSE BLUE

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-AXMTMOTUUNTAHMTJUMTi rrftWWIfOWHM^IflxWTAXMTl

iVMiawimxKmwfic REVERSE B&W

Total CAD/CAM Compatibility 720x400 Resolution!

The Taxan 640 The Ultimate In Monitor Resolution.

0

640(H) x 400|V)

Non-Interlaced

Resolution

4,000 Character Display Capability

0.31mm Dot Pitch

24.75Khz Scan Frequency

Compatible with AT&T 6300 Computer

100% Compatible

with the new generation of graphics boards Taxan (555), Persyst B.O.B.®, Sigma 400®,

Artist II®, STB 400®

and others for

the IBM PC, XT, and AT.

$775.00 Suggested Retail

198S Taxan Corporation

^^TJ^k JB& |Bk I TAXAN CORPORATION TAXAN EAST, MIDDLESEX BUSINESS CTR.

\//\ \ V \ /f \ \\\\\\ 18005 CORTNEY CT- 111 CORPORATE BLVD. SUITE E

I WQ\ \y\ V/OX M| V_l INDUSTRY, CA 91748 (818) 810-1291 S. PLAINSFIELD, NJ 07080 (201)769-6500

•IBM, IBM PC, XT and AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., "APPLE is a registered trademark of Apple Computers Inc., "TAXAN 555 is a registered trademark of Taxan Corp.. "PERSYST BO B ts a registered trademark of Emulex Corp, "SIGMA 400 is a registered trademark of Sigma Designs. "ARTIST II is a registered trademark of Control Systems. "STB 400 is a registered trademark of STB Systems, Inc AT&T 6300 and 6300 Plus are registered trademarks of ATST Information Systems. Inc

Inquiry 404 for End-Users. Inquiry 405 for DEALERS ONLY.

IANUARY 1986 'BYTE 91

ATARI 520ST

first-come, first-served scheme handles contention. Only one DMA operation can take place at a time. A DMA operation depends on the base address, the count, and the read/write status values the program loads into the DMA Base Address and Counter register. In addition, two bits are used as address lines to steer the output of the DMA to the floppy-disk port or to the hard-disk port.

DMA occurs in bursts, with the DMA chip storing information in its 32-byte FIFO (first-in/first-out) buffer

and then sending it in a hurry to either RAM or to the outside world. The DMA chip and the 68000 CPU have equal access to RAM and compete for the same cycles. The DMA chip's 10megabit-per-second rate is equivalent to 1.2 5 megabytes per second or 62 5K words per second. (The transfers to and from memory in the 520ST are handled in 16-bit words.) The 68000 can access memory every 500 ns. That means its maximum bus use is 2,000,000 words per second. A worst-case calculation (dividing the

62 5 K words/second rate by the 2,000,000 words/second rate) shows that DMA cannot use more than 33 percent of the CPU bus cycles.

A more realistic calculation assumes a 5-megabit-per-second rate for DMA (the standard rate for hard-disk drives) and does not assume that the highestspeed bursts of DMA would run continuously, or that the CPU would reach for memory in every cycle. With these assumptions, the DMA would rarely borrow even 5 percent of the 68000's RAM access cycles.

Ports

The serial port is a standard RS-232C interface. Some of its signals come from I/O port A of the sound chip, while others are routed through the 68901 chip. The serial port can work with asynchronous data-transfer rates from 50 to 19,200 bps.

The parallel port supports the strobe and busy signals of the Centronics parallel interface standard. Both I/O port B of the sound chip and the 68901 chip help control these lines and the eight read/write data bits. The parallel lines of the sound chip are bidirectional, which could lead to some interesting hacking. For example, you might convert a parallel printer into a scanning device to digitize information. The typical datatransfer rate is 4000 bytes per second.

The two MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) ports bear special attention. MIDI is an industry-standard interface for computers and musical peripherals. The MIDI ports will allow the 520ST to attach directly to external keyboards, synthesizers, and other equipment. Atari has even been investigating the possible use of the MIDI ports for inexpensive networking of 520STs. The interfaces work at 31,2 50 bps for serial transfer of information from the keyboard or a program to and from external devices. Data is organized as a start bit, eight data bits, and one stop bit.

One of the 6850 chips controls the MIDI serial communication. Up to 16 channels are allowed on the MIDI bus in one of three network addressing

(continued)

Photo 4: The back panel of the 520ST. From left to right are a reset button, the onloff switch, power cable, MIDI out and MIDI in, the monitor port. 25-pin Centronics parallel printer port, an RS-232C serial port, the floppy-disk port, and the hard-disk (DMA) port. Out of view, on the sides, are the joystick/mouse ports and the \28K-byte ROM cartridge port. Unfortunately for left-handed users, the attachment cables for the disk drives and for the mouse are short. All but the most inventive users will place the drives on the left and the mouse on the right.

///////////

A 520ST

fXDJLTIJ

■■■at

jjj_U'j_ri_j

JJJ_

Photo 5: The 520ST keyboard. Wider keytops and the rhomboid shape of the function keys lessen the utility of an otherwise full-featured, well-designed layout.

92 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

SOLVE PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS THE WAY YOU THINK.

PURE AND SYMBOL.

n

Exi i=i

Introducing the new APL*PLUS®PC System, Release S.O

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But unfortunately, that's not the case in programming.

Most languages require you to go through an enormous number of steps before an idea becomes reality.

That's why the APL*PLUS PC System is such a dramatic and exciting software tool for serious PC programmers and application developers.

Instead of requiring you to learn—and write—long-winded and complicated programs, APL is based on your instinctive ability to deal in symbols. And once you begin using APL's quick notations, you'll find it the ideal programming

environment for all your application needs.

The incredible shortcuts you get with APL will let you spend less time on drudgery and more time creating. Intricate calculations and modeling on PC's are a snap.

The Release 5.0 version features:

• multi-window, full-screen editing

• graphics primitives, now with EGA support

• spreadsheet-like numeric editing

• fast Assembler library

• built-in terminal mode

• and report formatting. Plus concise notation for

programs like sorting, matrix inversions, string searching,

and more. And the complete package price is just $595 with major credit cards accepted.

Act now, and we'll send you a free Convincer Kit. Contact your local dealer, or call 800-592-0050 (in Maryland, call 301-984-5123) to order your system, or for more information about our other APL * PLUS products—from our UNIX™ version to the new stieamlined Pocket APL™ Or write STSC, Inc., Software PubUshing Group, 2115 East Jefferson St., Rockville, MD 20852.

You'll see how symbol PLUS*WARE products are to use, the very first time you use them.

Problem-solving at the speed of thought."

#■^^1 APL* PLUS PC System requires 256K and DOS 2.0 or later. A soft character set can be used for computers with IBM compatible graphics board. A character generator

| R0M or software ls included for the IBM PC or selected compatibles.

a contei company PLUS* WARE and Pocket APL are trademarks of STSC, Inc. APL*PLUS is a registered trademark of STSC, Inc. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Inquiry 339

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 93

ATARI 520ST

modes. The Omni mode addresses all units simultaneously and is the default mode when the computer is first turned on. Poly mode addresses each unit separately. Mono mode addresses each unit voice separately.

Keyboard and Mouse

The documentation refers to the 94key keyboard (see photo 5) as the Atari Intelligent Keyboard because it uses its own 1-MHz 6301 microprocessor with its own mask-programmed ROM. The device scans the keyboard and the joystick/mouse ports. It provides two-key rollover and sends keyboard, mouse, trackball, joystick, and time-of-day information to one of the 6850 ACIA (asynchronous communications interface adapter) chips on the main computer board. The lines are bidirectional, and the 6850 also sends commands to the keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard has a stan

dard Selectric-style layout with 10 rhomboid function keys, a numeric keypad, and four cursor-control keys. Many applications for the 520ST will use two special keys, Help and Undo. We found the keyboard layout pleasant in appearance and extremely functional. It closely resembles the DEC VT-100 layout. The Control and Return keys are well placed, and the Return key is a three-key-size reverse L shape and hard to miss. The shape of the function keys, however, may make it difficult to avoid hitting more than one.

More of a problem is the feel of the keyboard. Each keytop is Ji-inch wider than the keytops on the Macintosh and IBM PC keyboards. As a result, the keys seem much more closely packed, and you may tend to press two at a time more often than usual. In addition, the keys on our unit required noticeably more pressure than do the

keys on most other small systems. And, because connectors are attached to the rear of the unit, it is relatively difficult to adjust the keyboard.

The mechanical two-button mouse, which attaches to a port on the right side of the unit, has a resolution of 100 counts per inch and can handle a maximum velocity of 10 inches per second. It has a good feel. You will use the left button for most manipulations, including select and dragging within GEM. The right button is application-dependent. For example, NEO, a low-resolution paint program, uses the right button to copy images. There are keyboard alternatives to all mouse functions, though 1 suspect few of you will ever use them.

Disk Drives

We were impressed by the high datatransfer rate of both the floppy-disk

(continued)

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■ Two full function RS232C serial ports with individually programmed transmission rates—50 to 38.4K baud

■ Software compatibility with the 8086 and 8088.

■ 8K of EPROM contains drivers for peripherals, commands for hardware checkout and software testing

■ Software supports most types and sizes of disk drives

■ Source for monitor included on disk

■ Bios supports Xebec 1410 and Western Digital WD 1002 SHD controller for hard disks

Fully assembled and tested only $895

THE SLICER 1-MByte .£*J EXPANSION BOARD For expanded memory, additional ports, and real time clock

■ 1-MByte additional dynamic RAM

■ 2 RS232C asychronous ports with baud rates to 38.4K for serial communication

■ 2 additional serial ports for asynch (RS 232) or synch (Zilog 8530 SCC) communication

■ Real Time Clock with battery backup

■ Centronics type parallel printer port Fully assembled and tested only $750

SLICER 1MByte EXPANSION COMBO The Slicer (without RAM or RAM controllers) with Full 1-MByte Memory Expansion

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THE SLICER PC EXPANSION BOARD Gives your Slicer high performance video capability

■ IBM compatible monochrome video

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■ 2 IBM type card slots for color video, I/O expansion, etc.

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Fully assembled and tested only $600

All boards available in kit forms The SLICER Bulletin Board (300/1200 baud) 612/7B8-5909

Runs MS DOS generic software; PC DOS program operation not guaranteed Also available: The /jSlicer 188 $700; 8087 Math Co-Processor Bd. (call); 10 MB Hard Disk $700; W.D. 1002-SHD H.D.C. Bd. $200; Enclosures, Power Supply, and Support Hardware. CP/M 86 $85, CCP/M $250 (Digital Research, Inc.); MS DOS $175 (Microsoft Corp.)

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e SLICER UD

94 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 323 for End-Users. Inquiry 324 for DEALERS ONLY.

&sbte*&M BUT HERE'S SOMETHING THAT WILLtiSm, r* AND IT'S FREE!

*?^^gai. Just like our FlexyDisks, BASF Video and -j: Audio Cassettes are warranted for a lifetime.*

Mj&iM&Jf And when you buy specially-marked boxes of gS5LJB> BASF FlexyDisks between now and January 31, *^5§53§ 1986, you have your choice of a free BASF HighGrade Chrome Video Cassette (VHS or Beta) or F two free top-of-the-line BASF Chrome Maxima II Audio Cassettes. Just mail the coupon below, plus the special labels and the bar codes from the disk packages along with $1.00 for postage and handling. Visit your nearest BASF dealer (to find out where he is, call toll-free 1-800-343-4600) and take advantage of our free offer and sweepstakes today.

WIN A COMPLETE $7,500 COMPUTER SYSTEM,

featuring the new COMPAQ DESKPRO 286 and the Epson " MODEL LQ-1500 letter-quality printer, in our new BASF Computer Sweepstakes! To enter, simply fill out the coupon below

and send it to us; or stop by any BASF FlexyDisk" dealer between now and January 31,1986, and fill out the official entry form; or send a postcard with your name and address to BASF Giveaway, P.O. Box 8920, Westport, CT 06888.

For a copy of the Lifetime Warranty, write BASF Systems Corporation, 19 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730.

mBASF

• \Li8(i BASF Systems Corporation Bedford MAfji/'^j COMPAQ DESKPFtO Mb is a trademark ol COMPAQ Coi I pson is n registered trademark,©' Epson Corporation

Inquiry ~YL

Mail to: BASF Giveaway, P.O. Box 8920, Westport, CT 06888

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drives and the hard-disk drives we tested with the 520ST. The speed is a tribute to the efficiency of the DMA custom chip and the WD1772 floppy controller. I/O is quick (no endless waiting during disk reads), and, unlike the Macintosh, you can remove disks easily at the touch of a button on the drive. The standard system currently includes one single-sided doubledensity drive with a capacity of 360K bytes. For $299, you can obtain a double-sided drive that can store up to 72OK bytes. Setting up the drives is slightly more unforgiving than daisychaining on Atari's 8-bit systems in that you must use the designated in and out I/O ports on the back of the drives. Still, adding the second drive is a distinct plus. With it, you can copy an entire disk (without the four swaps required if you don't have one) in 99 seconds and copy a 32K-byte file in 16 seconds. The disk-copy operation does not automatically format the disks, which requires an additional 54 seconds for the single-sided disks.

The disk format employed is very similar (down to the file-allocation tables) to that of the MS-DOS disks used on the Data General/One portable computer. However, the formats are not absolutely identical. We took a disk from a DG/One that contained a text file and slipped it into the 520ST disk drive. The GEM desktop on the 520ST recognized the disk and showed it contained a file, but the 520ST wasn't able to open the file for printing or display. When questioned about this, Atari admitted that a utility will probably be necessary to read the files.

Floppy-Disk Controller

Atari didn't design the floppy-disk controller. The design team chose a chip with a built-in data separator, a modified version of the 1770 chip from Western Digital. The old chip worked with 6-, 12-, 20-, and 30-millisecond drives. Atari asked Western Digital to change some of the drives that they support, and the new chip— the 1772—can work with 2-, 3-, 5-, and 6-ms stepping speeds. Atari is using

{continued)

JANUARY 1986

I Y T E 97

ATARI 520ST

Photo 6: The 520ST desktop in low resolution, showing the control panel and a customized background color. You can fix your choices by saving the desktop.

3-ms drives. The chip uses the System/34 format. There is some incompatibility between the 1772 and the 765 controllers (the chip used in the IBM PC), although the format is the same.

The floppy interface will support a maximum of two daisy-chained floppy-disk drives. You send commands to the FDC (floppy-disk controller) by first writing to the DMA Mode Control register (to select the FDC internal command register) and then writing the desired 1-byte command to the Disk Controller register. The floppy controller works through the DMA controller custom chip, just as all hard-disk transfers do.

Hard Disk

Although Atari hasn't yet released its planned 3'/2-inch hard disk for the 520ST system, the company let us play with a 10-megabyte prototype, which transfers data at 5 megabits per second, the standard ST 5 06 rate. Later drives will feature 15 megabytes and 7.5 megabits per second.

There is no hard-disk controller inside the 520ST. But the DMA custom chip makes for easy, fast interfacing.

The AHDC (Atari hard-disk controller) will be in the hard-disk-drive unit. The DMA controller sends commands to the hard disk using the ANSI X3T9.X SCSI (small computer systems interface)-like command descriptor block protocol. The AHDC supports a minimal subset of SCSI commands that are sent to the AHDC in much the same way that commands are sent to the FDC. Both floppy- and hard-disk formats contain 512-byte data sectors.

Monitors

We used both the monochrome SMI24 and RGB SC1224 monitors with excellent results. The color monitor supports low and medium resolution. You can use the monochrome monitor only for high resolution. All of the displays are clear, sharp, readable, and flicker-free, but we were particularly impressed by the clarity of the high-resolution monochrome.

The monitor you connect when you boot will determine the resolutions you will have available; there is only one monitor port, and you cannot unplug one and connect the other, since they have no compatible resolution. This may give some users a dif

ficult choice, since much of the early software will work with one monitor or another but not both. For the moment, if you are interested in buying the 520ST for business or programming uses, you would be best served with the high-resolution monochrome system. Nonetheless, developers will undoubtedly make available resolution-independent software, in part because the developer's kit includes an appropriate directive.

TOS

TOS (the 520ST's operating system), including the GEM overlay, was to be in ROM and obviously would boot very quickly. As of this writing, however, it is in RAM where, in addition to taking up over 206K bytes of RAM, it requires 32 seconds to boot. Still, this leaves you with a reasonable amount of workspace until Atari releases the ROM version. In the meantime, 16K bytes of ROM (two 64K-bit ROM chips) hold the boot-up code for the computer. Four empty sockets within the 520ST await the new ROM chips.

The appearance of the desktop depends upon the monitor and the resolution (see photos 6 through 8). It has some unusual features and some annoyances, but for the most part, those familiar with the operation of the Macintosh will feel at home. The menu bar is at the top, you can use the mouse to resize and move windows and to work scroll bars and sliders, and you can click on file icons to format disks, to get directories, and to rename or get detailed information on files and folders. Like the Macintosh, you double-click on icons to open them, drag icons to copy files and disks, or use shift-clicks for multiple file copying. Undoubtedly, the most impressive aspect of the interface is the speed with which you are able to resize and move windows.

Those expecting a clone of the Macintosh interface, however, will be disappointed. And several of the differences are annoying. It takes slightly but noticeably longer to click on the boxes within the windows, and resizing, though quicker, is somewhat

98 BYTE" JANUARY 1986

ATARI 520ST

Photo 7: The 520ST desktop in medium resolution, \cons are the default, but you can easily set your preference to text.

Photo 8: The 520ST desktop in high resolution.

more awkward. For example, when you click on the Resize box, the new 520ST window automatically reduces in size. On the Macintosh, it stays the same size until you decide to alter it.

There are other important differences between the 520ST and Macintosh desktops. The trash can is actually an incinerator. Move a file or folder there and it's gone permanently. Unlike the Macintosh, whenever the pointer even touches the menu bar, you bring down the menus. To eliminate the menu, you have to bring the pointer off the menu and click the mouse button. It's amazing how often this happened to us by accident. The selection process would be much improved if only you had to press the button to select menus. Second, the 520ST desktop seems to have partitions into which icons can fit. Unlike the Macintosh, in which you can place icons where you wish, the icons have a finite number of possible locations. Third, there is no option to move files, folders, and applications. The only available options are copy and delete. Therefore, to move an icon into a folder you will need to copy it there and then delete the original. And, to move a file out of a folder, matters are further complicated by the fact that the folder opens to take over the window from which it derived. You would first have to move the file to a different disk, delete the original file from the folder, then copy the file back to the original disk but not within the folder, and then delete the first copy you made. It sounds difficult because it is.

From the current desktop, you have access to a VT-52 emulator, you can install your printer, you can configure the RS-232C port, and you can set any of several defaults on a control panel. For example, if you have the color system, you can alter the palette and thus affect, if you wish, the appearance of the desktop and other applications. In low resolution, you can modify all 16 colors from the palette of 512; in medium resolution, you can modify up to 4. You can also set when and at what rate the keys will repeat with the keyboard response

selectors, you can alter the doubleclick response time, and you can activate or deactivate the keyboard click and the pleasant-sounding error warning bell. However, there are few editing amenities when resetting the time

and date, a small annoyance since the 520ST has no internal battery maintaining the clock. Most of the time, you will have to type in the entire date and time string.

{continued)

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 99

ATARI 520ST

The RS232 Port Configuration window lets you fix the data-transmission rate. XON/XOFF, the parity, duplex, and the number of bits per character. The Install Printer window allows you to select between dot-matrix and daisy-wheel, between black-and-white and color, between draft and final quality, and the number of pixels per line, A Set Preferences window allows you to set the screen resolution, though your choices here are obviously limited by your selection of monitor. You can also choose not to confirm deletes and copies. Once you have set all your preferences, you can save them by selecting the save desktop option. The only absent option of importance is a command-line interface, which is available only with the 520ST developer's package.

Software

The system comes bundled only with TOS and Atari Logo, and like other new systems, there is at present a dearth of software. Already, however, Atari has released NEO, a paint program, and ST Writer, a word processor, into the public domain, but both are surrogates until GEM Write and GEM Paint are available.

Atari Logo is surprisingly powerful. It makes full use of the GEM environment and, among many features, allows you to edit on the fly. Atari will soon also bundle Atari BASIC with the machine. Our beta version is fast, fullfeatured, and also uses GEM, but it was constricted by a 32K-byte workspace. Undoubtedly, however, most users will be attracted by the availability of serious development languages, the absence of which held back software development on Apple's Macintosh for most of its first year.

TDI Software Ltd. (29 Alma Vale Rd., Clifton, Bristol BS8 2HL, England) has released Modula-2/ST, a 32-bit development system that includes an editor, compiler, linker, and library facilities. TDI's Modula-2 is a full implementation, has complete libraries for TOS, and provides full access to the 520ST's graphics features. TDI is also marketing a version of UCSD

Pascal with the p-System, which, however, does not include support for GEM. Both TDI products cost £195 each.

The Dragon Group (148 Poca Fork Rd., Elkview, WV 2 5071) has released 4xFORTH, a series of 32-bit FORTH development systems for the 520ST. The basic 4xFORTH system ($99.95) includes support for multitasking and multiuser access, a compiler, a fullscreen editor, and support for 520ST graphics. For $149.95, 4xFORTH also provide a floating-point system and support for GEM calls.

Atari has released its C development software. The $300 package includes the entry points and C bindings to both TOS and to the operating system's text and graphics routines (such as text size, attributes, alignment, and angle, as well as circle drawing, area fill, and bit-blitting). The documentation also provides the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the BIOS," information on Kermit and MIDI, a C programmer's guide, and much more. Purchasers of Haba's Hippo-C, now available for the 520ST, should be warned that the Atari development documentation will still be essential reading.

Several other companies are promising interesting additions to the 520ST language group. Metacomco (26 Portland Square, Bristol BS2 8RZ, England) will soon distribute ISO Pascal, a 68000 assembler, and Lattice C. Philon Inc. (641 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10011) is readying a BASIC compiler, a BASIC interpreter, and a C compiler. It is also working on compilers for FORTRAN, Pascal, and COBOL.

System Documentation

It is fortunate that the system is so easy to learn to use because the documentation is quite poor. The 80page owner's manual has requisite sections on setting up the system, getting started, touring the GEM desktop, and managing disks, files and folders, but it has very little technical material. Materials with the disk drive and monitors are also sadly lacking. Undoubtedly, users will have to wait for

the trickle of technical references on working with the hardware.

Conclusion

Judging from the conversations around the office and on BIX (BYTE Information Exchange), CompuServe, and The Source, there is a storm of interest in comparing the relative capabilities of the 520ST, the Amiga, and the Macintosh. There is, in fact, far more interest than there seemed to be in comparing the merits of the 8-bit computers from Atari, Apple, and Commodore. An upcoming special edition of BYTE on the 68000 will make comparisons of processor and application speeds, ease of development and portability, and user interfaces, but we are still left with our conclusion that these are very different machines, with very different markets.

The 520ST is an architecturally simple 68000 computer with high-quality video output and a high-speed DMA port. The easiest way to summarize our first look at the hardware is that the 520ST presents the 68000 unbounded. Not only does it offer an excellent price/performance ratio, but we expect it to produce some impressive benchmarks on tasks with heavy computation.

The 520ST's complete keyboard and impressive array of ports add up to an attractive system. Finally, the 520ST's use of standards (for example, 68000, MIDI, Yamaha sound chip, and Western Digital FDC) should make it easier to program, expand, and manufacture.

There are also the promised cheap, powerful peripherals: a 10-megabyte hard disk for $700, a /2-gigabyte CDROM optical disk for around $500, and a 1200-bps modem for $150.

The Atari 520ST is certainly an excellent value. For the moment, there is not much application software and you still have to deal with an unfinished operating system; but with the current availability of several highlevel languages, the 520ST will undoubtedly provide many users with what they seek—a means to tap the power of the 68000 at a price they can afford. ■

100 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Directions

for.

converting

a PC

to an XT

First you have to remove Hardcard" from its box.

An operation that's about as simple as installing it in your PC*

Using thumb and forefinger, lift the flap of the box. Now reach inside and grasp Hardcard. Slowly pull it out, making sure that your warranty information doesn't fall unnoticed to the floor.

And that's it.You're over the hump.

You've got 10 megabytes of hard disk storage in your hand. Everything— the drive, the controller, the electronicsis compressed onto a single card.

Allow yourself a moment to marvel at its size and weight.Just over 2 lbs. Measuring only 13x4x1 inches. With no connector cables. No additional power supply required. No adapter card to buy.

Now slip it into a single expansion slot inside your PC and forget it. Odds are you'll never have to fuss with it again.

Because it's so remarkably reliable. More than twice as reliable as the XT's built-in drive. Since Hardcard has fewer parts, there are fewer things that can go wrong.

On top of that, Hardcard is even faster than the XT's drive.

And it maintains PC compatibility with the most popular software programs. In fact, our special compatibility task force has spent many man-years making sure that Hardcard runs popular software trouble-free.

Hardcard also lets you keep both your floppies up and running. Which is' something no other add-in drive can do.

All of which means that your PC can now be saved.

And that friendly, intelligent little machine can have its useful life extended.

You won't have to go to the expense of replacing it with an XT

Or suffer the shortcomings of bulky, conventional hard disks. Which take hours or even days to install.

And when it comes to installing DOS, Hardcard is just as easy. Its special installation program loads your operating system and gets you ready to install your software in minutes.

And Hardcard's Directory Program lets you access those programs at the touch of a key

Finally, since Hardcard is so much more reliable, we can give you a warranty that goes well beyond the usual 90 days.

We give you a full year.

Still, it's nice to know that if anything ever should go wrong, you can pick up a replacement Hardcard at your nearby authorized service center.

Hardcard is available now at major retailers nationwide. For the name of the one nearest you, call Plus at (408) 946-3700. Or write Plus Development Corporation, 1778 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas,CA 95035.

And we'll give you all the directions you need to save your PC.

'Hardcard is compatible with IBM PC IBM PC XT. Compaq forcible, Compaq Plus. AT&T PC 6300

Plus and Hardcard arc trademarks of Plus Development Corporation IBM. MM PC and IBM PC XT arc trademarks oflnternationa! Business Machines Corporation. Compaq Portable and Compaq Plus are trademarks of Compaq Computer Corp AT&T PC 6300 is a registered trademark of AT&T Information Systems. Inc

Hardcard

from Plus

Inquiry 282

104 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS

C I A R C I AS CIRCUIT CELLAR

*

>

v BUILD AN ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER

by Steve Ciarcia

A \6<hannel \24it high-speed A/D converter

It is evident that many applications for computer controls, including energy management, security, and environmental monitoring, require measurement inputs and control

outputs in quantities not easily expressed in the 0- and +5-volt TTL (transistortransistor logic) levels present in your computer.

An energy-management system, for example, may need to monitor a temperature range of 0 to 100° C with a resolution of 0.1 degree. The thermocouple sensing this temperature range might generate only 1 or 2 millivolts per degree. A proportional-drive pump motor in the same system might require a 2.40-V set-point control input to produce the proper flow rate throughout the system.

Continuous analog systems like these are in the real world, outside the binary logic-0 and logic-1 domain of digital computers. For the computer to interact with the real world, we need some scheme for translating analog measurements to and from quantized binary equivalents.

This is not the first time 1 have touched upon analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion. I try to cover this topic every three or four years so that new readers can be brought up to speed on the basics. For

the old-timers, however, 1 spice up the project with the latest whiz-bang conversion interface that can be cost-effectively produced.

The previous projects have all used 8-bit converters. However, the overwhelming response to the BASIC-52 computer/controller (BCC-52) presented in the August 1985 Circuit Cellar has created a demand for something more challenging. Thousands of BCC-52 industrial and end users are applying computer control to applications that ultimately require greater accuracy of measurement.

Presently, an 8-channel 8-bit A/D converter (10,000 samples per second, 0 to 10 V or -5 to +5 V, P/N BCC-13) is available for the BCC-52, but many measurements require more resolution. Therefore, it's time to dust off the old theoretical explanations and present an up-to-date, high-speed, highresolution A/D interface for the BCC-52.

First, because one is an integral component of the other, I'll outline the basics of D/A conversion and then go on to A/D conversion. After a few circuit examples, I'll get

(continued)

Steve Ciarcia (pronounced "see-ARE-see-ah") is an electronics engineer and computer consultant with experience in process control, digital design, nuclear instrumentation, and product development. He is the author of several books about electronics. You can write to him at POB 582, Glastonbury, CT 06033.

COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. CIARCIA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

IANUARY 1986 - BYTE 105

CIRCUIT CELLAR

into the heavy stuff. Ultimately, this month's project is the design of a 16-channel (8-channel differential input) 12-bit plus sign bit, -5 to +5 V, 10,000 samples/sec, BCC-52/Z8 buscompatible A/D converter board. In a few months, after I have presented a few more essential peripheral devices, 1 will demonstrate the configuration

and application of a full-fledged dataacquisition and control system based on the BCC-52.

D/A Conversion

The D/A converter can be thought of as a digitally controlled programmable potentiometer that produces an analog output voltage. This output

voltage (V„) is the product of a digital signal D, a multiplier constant K (usually 1), and an analog reference voltage V„/. related by the following equation:

V0=KDVre/

The binary value transmitted to the D/A converter by the computer is a binary fraction representing what portion of the full output voltage is emitted. The fraction is multiplied by a reference voltage, which can be either fixed or variable. D/A converters with variable reference voltages are often referred to as multiplying D/A converters, although all D/A converters can be said to multiply.

In finite binary fractions, the most significant bit (MSB) has a value of 1/2 (that is, 2~l). the next most significant bit is 1/4 or I'1, and the least significant bit (LSB) is (1/2)" or 2"", where n is the number of bits in the binary fraction. If all the bits in the fraction are added, the sum approaches 1; the more bits in the fraction, the closer the sum is to 1. The difference between 1 and the approach to 1 is the quantitation error of the digital system. I'll discuss this later.

Different implementations of D/A and A/D converters use different formats for representing the binary digital quantities. One basic difference is how systems represent negative binary numbers and negative voltages; some can, and some can't. Analog interface systems that can manipulate positive and negative numbers and voltages are called bipolar converters; systems that can handle only positive voltages and quantities are called unipolar.

Unipolar converters chiefly use straight binary and binary-codeddecimal (BCD) representations of digital quantities. Bipolar converters use a variety of representations, including offset binary, one's- and two'scomplement formats, and Gray code. For brevity, I will limit this discussion to converters using straight-binary and offset-binary representations. Later, I will get into two's-complement representations since the converter chip used in this project represents

MSB

R

_VW

2R —VNAr

4R

LSB BR

'I

BINARY "1"= SWITCH CLOSED BINARY "0" = SWITCH OPEN

-Ov0

, . f^REF "VreF -VREF -VREF"1R

Figure 1: A 4-bit weighted-resistor D/A converter. A 4-bit word is used to control four single-pole single-throw solid-state switches. Each switch is in series with a resistor. The resistor values are related as powers of 2. The other sides of the switches are connected together at the summing point of an op amp. Currents with magnitudes inversely proportional to the resistors are generated when the switches are closed. They are summed by the op amp and converted to a corresponding voltage.

Figure 2: A 4-bit R-2R-type resistor-ladder D/A converter. The topology of this network is such that the current flowing into any branch of a three-branch node will divide itself equally through the two remaining branches. Because of this, the current will divide itself in half as it passes through each node on its way to the end of the ladder.

106 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

negative numbers in two's-complement form.

Offset binary differs from straight binary only slightly. In offset binary, a number consisting of all zeros represents the most negative possible quantity. The most obvious consequence of this is that the MSB acts as a sign bit, 0 for negative values and 1 for positive. For instance, in offset notation, the bit string 01000000 represents -64, while the bit string 11000000 stands for +64.

Frequently, offset notation is referred to as a resolution value plus sign bit, i.e., 12-bit plus sign converter. The sign bit, while performing as a thirteenth bit in bipolar operation, should not be confused with a 13-bit converter. The sign bit can be used to indicate only quantities above 0 V (in this case, sign bit=0) or below 0 V (sign bit= 1) and not shifted in scale. Between - 5 V and + 5 V on a 12-bit plus sign converter, there will be 8192 divisions (13 bits). However, if the converter were to measure inputs only in the range of 0 to 5 V, only 4096 divisions (12 bits) can be represented. In this project, the A/D is set for - 5 to + 5 V and is therefore indistinguishable from a 13-bit converter between these limits and would be 1 bit better than a straight 12-bit converter used to measure the same range.

The translation of digital values to proportional analog values is performed by either of two basic D/Aconversion circuits: the weightedresistor circuit or the R-2R circuit. The weighted-resistor converter is by far the simpler and more straightforward. This parallel decoder requires only one resistor per input bit.

In the weighted-resistor D/A converter, solid-state switches are driven directly from the signals that represent the digital number D. Individual currents with voltage magnitudes related by powers of 2 (magnitudes of

1/2, 1/4, 1/8 2-) are generated

and summed by connecting a network of resistors with values of R, 2R, 4R, .... 2"R between the reference voltage -Vre/and the summing point of an operational amplifier (op amp) by means of the set of electronic

switches. After being summed, the various currents are converted to a voltage by the op amp, as shown in figure 1.

While this may appear to be a simple answer to an otherwise complex problem, this method has some significant drawbacks. The accuracy of this type of converter is a function of the combined accuracies of the resistors, switches (all switches have some resistance), and the op amp. In D/A-conversion systems of greater than 10 bits resolution, the values of the resistors become extremely large, and the resultant current flow is reduced to such a low value as to be lost in circuit noise.

For example, in an 8-bit D/A converter with R (the value of the resistor for the MSB) set to 10 kilohms, the value of the resistor for the LSB turns out to be 1.28 megohms. With a reference voltage of 10.00 V, only 7.8 microamperes would flow into the op amp. This current is significantly below the response threshold of most low-cost op amps and would not be

detected. Lowering the value of R to 100 ohms creates the opposite problem. At a reference voltage of 10.00 V, the input current to the op amp would be 100 milliamperes, more than most op amps can handle.

A reasonable alternative to the weighted-resistor D/A converter is the R-2 R D/A converter, often referred to as a resistor-ladder converter. This type is more widely used, even though it uses more components than the weighted-resistor type. A simple R-2R design is shown in figure 2, including the reference voltage, a set of binary switches, and an output amplifier. The basis of this converter is a ladder network constructed with resistors of two values: R and 2R.

In each bit position of the network, one resistor (2R) is in series with the bit switch, and the other (R) is in the summing line, so that the combination forms a pi network. This suggests that the impedances of the three branches of any node are equal, and that a current i, flowing into a node

[continued]

Figure 3: A block diagram outlining a typical connection of the AD558 8-bit multiplying D/A converter.

WRITE WR

ENABLE

DATA BUS {

DECODED ADDRESS

+5-15V

V,M,T

V°UT

SENSE

DB1

DB2

AD558

DB3 DB4

Vout

SELECT

DB5

DB6

DB7

CS

GND GND

/77

iov

2.56V

0-2.56V

RANGE SELECTOR 10V

M5-V0LT SUPPLY REQUIRED FOR 0-10V OUTPUT RANGE

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 107

CIRCUIT CELLAR

through one branch, flows out as i/2 through the other two branches. In other words, the current produced in the network by closing a bit switch is cut by half as it passes through each node on the way to the end of the ladder. Simply stated, the position of a switch with respect to the point where the current is measured determines the binary significance of the particular switch closure.

The R-2R D/A converter is easy to manufacture because only two resistor values are needed. The component stock can be reduced to one resistor value if two are used in series for each bit. Keeping matched resistor values that have the same temperature coefficients contributes to a stable design. Certain trade-offs are required between ladder resistance values and current flow to balance accuracy and noise.

One form of the R-2R ladder circuit is found in the multiplying D/A converter. This type of converter, which utilizes external-variable analog reference voltages, produces outputs that

ANALOG r-^. REFERENCE L-^"

are directly proportional to the value of the digital input multiplied by this reference. Functionally, this type of converter is available as current- or voltage-output types. The currentoutput devices are faster and less complex because they do not include additional output-amplifier stages. Therefore, they cost less than voltage types.

An economical 8-bit multiplying D/A converter is the Analog Devices AD558. Shown in figure 3, it contains an 8-bit latch, R-2R ladder network, reference-voltage source, and output amplifier. The AD558 can run on a + 5to +15-V power supply and can be jumper-selected for 0- to 2.56-V or 0to + 10-V ranges. Using a separate op amp, you can configure an offset converter or modify the output of the range.

The AD558 can be used as a transparent D/A converter by holding the chip-enable and chip-select lines constantly low. However, it was primarily designed to be bus-operated and appear as a write-only location in mem

ory or I/O (input/output) address space. Typical connections consist of a decoded address strobe, a writeenable signal, and the 8-bit data bus.

A/D Converters

Virtually all high-resolution A/D converters incorporate a D/A converter as an integral component. That is why, even though our ultimate aim is A/D, I always discuss D/A converters first. Hopefully I have made you aware of the binary-conversion process, and you can appreciate the concepts of resolution and accuracy.

An A/D converter changes an analog voltage into a digital representation compatible with the computer's input needs. Akin to the 8-bit D/A converter, an A/D converter is subject to the same conversion rules. If you are trying to read a 10-V signal with an 8-bit converter, resolution is 1/2 56 of 10 V (approximately 40 mV), and accuracy will be ± 1/2 the LSB.

For greater resolution, more conversion bits are necessary. The number of bits does not set the input-voltage range of a converter: it only determines with what precision the output value is represented. An 8-bit converter (either A/D or D/A) can be set up just as easily to cover a range of 0 to + 1 V as it can be to cover 0 to +1000 V. Often, the same circuitry is used with only a final amplification stage or resistor-divider network changed.

Note, however, that an 8-bit converter with a range of 1000 V has a resolution of only 4 V (1000/256), and it would be useless to measure 0- to 10-V signals. You can solve this problem in a number of ways. The easiest solution is to use a converter with more bits. A 16-bit converter, which has 65,536 steps instead of 2 56, would cover the same 1000-V range in 15-mV increments.

As a practical matter, though, a reasonable price/performance ratio is often more important than widerange capability. A/D conversion is considerably more expensive than D/A conversion, and price is directly related to resolution and accuracy. If you intend to read 0- to 5-V input

DIGITAL-TO- ANALOG CONVERTER

COMPARATOR

CLOCK

MSB

MSB

-o -o o o ■€>

. 8-BIT / PARALLEL OUTPUT

LSB

-oj

D SUCCESSIVEAPPROXIMATION CK REGISTER

CONVERSION

-o

OUTPUT

Figure 4: A Mock diagram of a typical &-bit successive-approximation A/D converter.

108 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

signals and you have to be accurate within only 35 mV, it hardly makes sense to use a 1000-V range 16-bit converter (probably costing $5000) when an 8-bit 0- to 5-V range unit ($150) would more than suffice.

The rule in choosing an A/D converter boils down to "be realistic." Assess the quality of the signal source (noise, rate of change of input, ground referenced or differential, etc.) when you choose your converter. Installing a converter with 1-microvolt (pV) resolution to measure an input signal buried in 200 mV of noise is pointless.

An A/D converter that scans thermistor probes and controls the ambient temperature in a large supermarket cannot encode video information from an optical scanner. A/D converters, much more than D/A converters, are specifically tailored to an application. Speed, accuracy, and resolution are variables in any converter design, but the blending of these choices can greatly affect the cost in A/D conversion.

Most confusing is the variety of A/Dconverter designs. They range from very slow, inexpensive techniques to ultrafast, expensive ones. You get what you pay for. The two fastest techniques are flash conversion and successive approximation.

The flash converter is just that. It consists of a separate analog-input comparator for each incremental voltage it is to measure. An 8-bit flash A/D converter has 2 56 comparators with gating logic that outputs the binary code corresponding to the comparator triggered by the input voltage. Flash converters are very fast (1 million-100 million samples/sec), but they are also very expensive.

A somewhat slower (1000-1 million samples/sec) and more cost-effective alternative is the successive-approximation converter. Shown in figure 4, this type—like the binary-ramp-type A/D converter—uses a D/A converter in the feedback loop to compare a calculated D/A voltage to the unknown input voltage. In this implementation, the binary counters are replaced with a special successiveapproximation register (SAR).

Initially, the outputs of the SAR and the mutually connected D/A converter are at a zero level. After a start-conversion pulse is received, the SAR

enables its bits one at a time starting with the MSB. As each bit is enabled, the comparator gives an output signi

(continued)

Figure 5: Pin-out and block diagram of National Semiconductor's ADC1205CCJ 12-bit plus sign A/D converter chip.

CONNECTION DIAGRAM DUAL IN-LINE PACKAGE

V- C V|N<-) C V|M(+) C ANALOG GND C

Vref rz

ANALOG VCC C VOS C

CLK IN rz

wr rz cs rz rd rz

DIGITAL GND

DIGITAL Vcc

DB7/DB12-0 (STATUS WORD)

DB6/DB12- SARS

DB5/DB12-0

DB4/DB12-0

DB3/DB11-0

DB2/DB10-BYST

DB1/DB9-E0C

DB0/DB8-INT

INT

READY OUT

STATUS

TOP VIEW

FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM

V|N<+>

V1N<->

CLK _ IN CS

READY OUT

TTTT

DIGITAL

STATUS Vcc

CONTROL

AND

TIMING

SUCCESSIVEAPPROXIMATION REGISTER

1

vref

BYTE

SEQUENCER AND

TRI-STATE

OUTPUT

LATCH

i I 2-BYTE

I ) ADC1205 I 0 ' ONLY

-4

.J.

ANALOG

vcc

JANUARY 1986 - BYTE 109

CIRCUIT CELLAR

fying that the input signal is greater or less in amplitude than the output of the D/A converter. If the D/A output is greater than the input signal, a 0 is set as the value of the corresponding output bit. If the D/A output is less than the input signal, the circuit sets the corresponding bit to a 1. The register successively moves to the next bit (retaining the settings on the previously tested bits) and performs the same test. After all the bits have been tested, the conversion cycle is complete. An 8-bit successive-approximation A/D converter takes only eight clock cycles to complete a conversion.

This one-to-one relationship between conversion resolution and SAR clock counts is generally true only for discrete-component SAR-based A/Ds. In higher-resolution integrated-circuit A/D converters, the clock cycle/conversion bit times are less distinct due to extensive housekeeping circuitry. Like many microprocessors with high clock-crystal frequencies, the actual system clock is much slower.

THE ADC1205

Figure 5 is the pin-out and block diagram of the National Semiconductor ADC1205CCI 12-bit plus sign A/D converter chip. It operates on a single + 5-V logic supply and 5.000-V reference input to provide a 12-bit conver

sion on 0- to 5-V inputs. With a 1.08-megahertz clock frequency, the ADC1205 will do 10,000 conversions per second (108 microseconds per conversion).

If an additional - 5- to -15-V supply is connected to V- (pin 1), the ADC1205 will convert -5-to + 5-V inputs using a thirteenth output bit. This MSB is the sign bit. It is a logic 0 for positive values and logic 1 for negative values.

Figure 6 shows the output characteristics of the converter. For 0- to 5-V inputs (sign bit=0), the codes range from binary 0000000000000 to 0111111111111, respectively. In a 5-V range, each bit represents 0.0012 V, or 1.2 mV resolution! If the output of the converter were binary 0000010111100 (hexadecimal 000BC), this would be (188)*(0.0012)=0.22 56 V. Similarly, binary 0110101111000 (hexadecimal 00D78) is +4.1376 V.

Negative inputs are represented in two's-complement binary. For 0- to -5-V inputs (sign bit=l), the codes range from binary 1111111111111 to 1000000000000, respectively. The output code for negative values is represented as the magnitude of the difference from the unknown input to - 5 V and not its distance from zero. An output code of 1000010111100 (100BC) is -((5.00)-(188)*(0.0012)) = -4.7744 V. Similarly, 1110101111000

(10D78) is -((5.00)-(3448)*(0.0012)) = -0.8624 V.

Under computer control, the conversion is relatively easy. At each reading, determine the absolute value of the 12-bit number by multiplying it by 0.0012 V. If the sign bit is a 0, add a plus sign to your calculation, and you have a positive output of that magnitude. If, on the other hand, the sign bit is a 1, subtract that value from 5.0 V and append a minus sign. You can see that watching the sign bit is important, and this is not as simple as offset binary.

One further consideration before presenting the entire schematic is the concept of single-ended and differential inputs. There is a significant difference between them. Most low-cost multichannel A/D converters have single-ended inputs.

All converters have a V,„+ and a V,„input. In a single-ended A/D converter, the V,„- line is connected to ground. Therefore, all measurements are referenced to a common ground. Even if an 8-channel multiplexer switches inputs to the V/n+ line, all readings are referenced to a single ground, and voltages from two different systems cannot be monitored simultaneously unless their grounds are connected. This is often not the case, and conditions called ground loops result. Many of you no doubt remember "smoking" an early-generation oscilloscope by accidentally viewing the hot side of the AC line while referenced through the line cord to the other side (even today I still use an isolation transformer on my scopes).

Another consideration is trying to measure voltages that are not necessarily relative to ground. Perhaps resistor Rtc in figure 7 is a thermistor, and we wish to read the voltage drop across it to determine temperature. A single-ended A/D converter could not be connected directly across R„ if both the circuit and the A/D converter have the same ground without shorting out one of the resistors. To read the thermistor, you would have to separately read the voltages at points B and C and subtract them. Further

(4095)0,1111. mi. mi-r

(4094)0,1111,1111,1110-

(2)0,0000,0000,0010 (1)0.0000.0000,0001 (01 0,0000,0000.0000

-Vref

-TnEGi

NEGATIVE FULL-SCALE TRANSITION

POSITIVE

FULL-SCALE

TRANSITION

|lsb

1,1111,1111.1111(-1) i,mi,im.nio(-e)

+^REF

—1,0000.0000,0001 (-4096) --1.0000,0000,00001-4096)

ANALOG INPUT VOLTAGE [v,N ( + 1 -VIN (.,]

Figure 6: ADC1205 output characteristics.

110 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

more, unless you manually move the probes, the only way to do it is to increase the number of channels on the A/D converter. Hence, the proliferation of multichannel single-ended A/D converters.

Unfortunately, measurements referenced to ground often contain noise and power fluctuations from other components in the circuit. It is far better in some applications to simply measure the voltage between two points in a circuit irrespective of ground. Such a measurement is termed "differential." For lack of a better example, think of this as the two probes on a digital voltmeter (DVM). If the meter is battery-operated, it is completely isolated from ground, and the two probes measure absolute potential between them. Only when the V,„_ probe is physically connected to the circuit ground are the readings then single-ended and ground-referenced.

The ADC1205, while being powered from ground-referenced power supplies, has analog input lines that are isolated from ground. These two lines are like the two probes on the DVM. In a multichannel single-ended A/D converter, only the V,„t line is multiplexed. The V,„- line is attached to ground. In a differential-input multichannel A/D converter, both the V,„+ and V,„- lines are multiplexed, and neither is tied to ground. To read across Rtc, the V,„+ line is attached to point B, and the V,„. line is connected to point C (in industry parlance, V,„+ is Vo> High and V,„. is Vin Low).

The ADC1205 is a 12-bit converter designed to attach directly to an 8-bit microcomputer bus. The system communicates with the chip as memorymapped I/O through the CS (chipselect bar) and RD (read bar) WR (write bar) signals. An additional STATUS (status bar) line is used as a signal to start conversion or check conversion progress.

The 12 bits and sign are read as 2 successive bytes. Data is right-justified with the most significant byte presented first (the 4 MSBs of the first byte all have the value of the sign bit). A second read to the chip automati

cally presents the least significant byte. The three possible interactions are given in table I,

Communicating with this chip may look complicated, but it is much less so than you might think, especially if you are operating the converter in BASIC. I will demonstrate it shortly.

the bcc-30 16-channel a/d Converter Board

When you invent things, you get to name them. I called the BASIC-52 board the BCC-52. Since this A/D converter board is BCC-bus-compatible,

I've decided to call it the BCC-30 (other more appropriate numbers are unfortunately taken). See photo 1. The schematic of the BCC-30 is shown in figure 8.

The configuration of the BCC-30 is as a bus-compatible peripheral device to the BCC-52 and the BCC-11 Z8based computer/controller redesigned from the original presentation in July 1981. See photo 2. Both units and a number of expansion boards I've designed over the years share a common 44-pin bus sometimes called

{continued)

+4V

1K

2K

J"

SINGLE-ENDED INPUT

Vm high;

m

V|N HIGH) V|N L0W/

VIN1 V|N" AGND

A/D

DIFFERENTIAL

INPUT

>—

VIN +

A/D

>

V|N

AGND

Figure 7: Comparison of single-ended versus differential input connections.

Table I: The three possible interactions with the AC1205 A/D converter chip.

CS RD WR STATUS Function

0 11 0 Reset data-byte counter and start

conversion.

0 0 1 1 Read data. First byte is sign and 4

MSBs; second byte is 8 LSBs.

0 0 1 0 Read status word.

Status-word format: Bit 0 — High indicates conversion

complete and data ready.

Bit 1 — High indicates conversion complete.

Bit 2 — High indicates next byte is 8 LSBs. Low indicates next byte is sign and 4 MSBs.

Bit 6 — High indicates conversion still in progress.

JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 111

CIRCUIT CELLAR

T T

u

CL

s

o o o o

ujooca < 01 a iw m cq m cn m ca m 10

rrtrrra

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n n h >>>->

< ™

r-, M ~ O O 15

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co (ji o inic/

< < 3 <lc

All

A12

A13

3

IS

5

■

3

0

KD ID

O Q

5 5

OOOOO

<r < in

(a)

Figure 8: Schematic diagram of the BCC-30 \&channel AID converter board.

112 BYTE" JANUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

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>

^5

o o y

o m>

-W •—H—"

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to

CO

cr

=i —i -» <

z til

a:

Ul M

o:

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3

3i

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53

in I U> cm I

s s »

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<

X

o

- © + • © +

1© 1©

5 © ■

= 0 ■

Z < I

(b)

_

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 113

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Photo 1: Prototype of the Circuit Cellar \6-channel \2-bit plus sign AID converter board.

Photo 2: The BCC-30 A/D board is bus-compatible with the BCC-52 controller board. The BCC-30 A/D prototype and BCC-52 are shown plugged into a backplane for use together.

the "Z8 Bus" but more properly called the MMZ8 bus. Nothing is unique about the signals on this bus except perhaps their pin designations. It is a multiplexed address/data/control bus primarily oriented to 8-bit computers (16-bit address and 8-bit data).

The BCC-30 A/D board looks to the computer as a single address at any one of 128 predefined (jumperselectable) locations. It can be configured either as 16 independent single-ended-input channels or 8 differential-input channels. Singleended or differential operation is determined by the placement of jumpers JP1—4 and is therefore not under program control. The data byte sent by the computer to the board address defines which channel the input multiplexer is set for.

ICs 2, 3. 4, and 5 decode A8-A14 address bits to produce C5 for the ADC1205 chip and latch data directed through buffer IC7 into the multiplexer address latch (IC6). The jumper positions selected in the schematic locate this address at B800 hexadecimal (47104 decimal). The 4 LSBs of this register control the input multiplexer while the fifth bit (b4) sets the STATUS level control line to the ADC1205.

Running the A/D board in BASIC is straightforward and consists of four sequential operations: set multiplexer address and reset A/D, start conversion, read most significant byte, and read least significant byte. While the status of the A/D is available as an output, a conversion takes only 100 microseconds and therefore could never be seen in BASIC (reading the status will be necessary if you are taking 10,000 samples/sec in an assembly-language program, however). It is simple enough to start the conversion and then go back immediately and read it since it will always be completed.

Executing an XBY(47104)= 18 in BASIC will load hexadecimal 12 into the address latch (the XBY() command in BASIC-52 is like PEEK and POKE in other BASICs). This corresponds to a multiplexer address of 2 and a status bit set to a logic 1

114 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

(reset). Resetting the status bit starts the conversion with an XBY(47104) = 2. The 2 bytes are then read as A1 = XBY(47104):A2 = XBY(47104). The most significant byte/least significant byte counter automatically increments on the successive reads. Summarizing, to read channel #2 (board address B800 hexadecimal), we execute code as outlined in figure 9.

Al and A2 can then be combined to produce the desired output. I refer you to listing 1 for that procedure.

As mentioned earlier, four jumpers (IP 1-4) decide whether the function of the A/D is 16-channel single-ended or 8-channel differential. All four jumpers are moved together, and all must occupy either the single-ended or differential jumper positions together. Each MUX08 (1C9 and 10) multiplexer is an 8-channel JFET-type analog switch. While CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) switches might function in the circuit (and be about a tenth the cost), their I/O-transfer characteristics are not adequate for a 12-bit converter. The variations in resistance with input signal level would surface as measurement errors and instability. JFET multiplexers are specifically designed for this application and have very flat response curves.

Four bits from the multiplexer address latch (IC6) are directed through the jumpers to the multiplexer control lines. In the single-ended position, V(„of the ADC1205 is physically grounded, and the two MUX08s sequentially address 16 input signals through it to the V,„+. When they are in the differential position, however, address line D is disabled, Vw_ is removed from ground, and both V,„+ and V,„- are switched through the input multiplexers. A differential input on channel #2, for example, would have Vin high on IC9 pin 6 and Vin low on IC10 pin 6 (setting channel #10 when using differential mode will enable channel #2 instead).

The remaining areas worth commenting about are the reference voltage and input protection. For a 12-bit A/D to be worth anything, it must have a precise, stable reference

voltage for its internal D/A. In the BCC-30, the 5-V reference is supplied from an LM336-5 voltage reference chip. Additional diodes and a trim pot allow it to be precisely set at 5.000 V with virtually no temperature drift. Only a positive reference is required, even though the converter measures negative voltages as well.

The only "gotcha" in using the ADC1205 is input protection. While it measures +/- 5-V inputs, levels above or below +/- 5.3 V may damage the device. One method of protecting the inputs is through clamping diodes and current-limiting resistors. Using

these techniques, I have connected V,„+ and V/n_ to a voltage source that will shunt damaging inputs away before they exceed 5.3 V. Unfortunately, if these diodes are connected to +/- 5 V they will not begin conducting until +5.6 V and -5.6 V, respectively (germanium diodes with similar speed and power capabilities are much more expensive). I have chosen the least painful alternative by providing +/- 4.7-V Zener-generated sources to the clamping diodes that will start conducting at 5.3 V. Presently, only a 100-ohm series

{continued)

BASIC Command Function

XBY(47104)= 18 Set multiplexer channel #2 and set status

line high to reset A/D converter.

XBY(47104) = 2 Retain multiplexer channel setting and set

status line low to start conversion.

A1 =XBY(47104) Read first (most significant) byte.

A2 = XBY(47104) Read second (least significant) byte.

Figure 9: Series of BASIC-52 statements used to read channel #2 of the BCO30.

Listing 1: A sample BASIC-52 program to read and display channels 0-7 on the BCC-30.

10 CLEAR

20 REM READ AND DISPLAY A/D CHANNEL 0-7 30 REM SINGLE-ENDED OR DIFFERENTIAL 40 REM -5-TO +5-VOLT INPUT 50 REM 60 REM

70 N = 47104 : REM BOARD ADDRESS

80 REM STATUS BIT IS B5 - LOGIC 1 IS RESET

90 FOR A = 0 TO 7 : REM DO ALL CHANNELS 0-7

100 GOSUB160:REM READ A CHANNEL

110 NEXT A: REM NEXT CHANNEL

120 PRINTCHR(18),CHR(27),"Y":REM TERMITE - HOME AND CLEAR SCREEN 130 REM DISPLAY ARRAY HOLDING CHANNEL 0-7 READINGS 140 PRINT USING (#.###),A(0),A(1),A(2),A(3),A(4),A(5),A(6),A(7),"VOLTS" 150 GOTO 20 : REM DO IT ALL AGAIN

160 XBY (N) = A + 16 : REM RESET A/D AND SET MULTIPLEXER CHANNEL

170 XBY(N) = A : REM CLEAR STATUS BIT TO READ DATA

180 D1 = XBY(N): D2 = XBY(N): REM READ 12 BITS AS TWO SUCCESSIVE WORDS

190 R = 0.0012207 : REM VOLTS PER COUNT

200 IF D1 > = 240 THEN GOTO 230

210 A(A) = R*((D1 *256) +D2) : REM SAVE POSITIVE READING IN ARRAY 220 RETURN

230 D1 = 255 - D1 : D2 = 255 - D2 : REM ADJUST D1 & D2 FOR

TWOS COMPLEMENT

240 A(A)= - 1 *R*((D1 *256) + D2) : REM SAVE NEGATIVE READING IN ARRAY 250 RETURN

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 115

Xerox is about

to move xerography

light years ~ ahead. =

About twenty-five years ago something happened that changed the world of information forever.

Xerox introduced the first plain paper copier, an achievement that brought xerography into almost every office.

Since then, for more than a decade, Xerox has been applying the power of laser technology in high speed computer printing systems. Systems that produce superb documents of unsurpassed quality. Quickly, quietly and cost effectively.

Now, through this process which we've named Lasography, Xerox has come up with a revolutionary product that lets smaller offices and work groups enjoy these benefits, too.

Introducing the Xerox 4045 Laser Copier Printer.

It's the desktop copier/laser printer

TeamXerox

with a totally unique dual personality.

For one thing, it's a sophisticated laser printer. It can print up to ten pages a minute. Which is ten times faster than standard office printers.

And while other desktop printers serve primarily one workstation at a time, the Xerox 4045 Laser CP is designed to accommodate four. All at the same time. Not only that, but with the Laser CP's graphics capabilities you can merge all the forms, logos, texts and signatures you want printed and produce documents that anyone would be proud of.

But as we said before, the Laser CP has a dual personality. It doubles as a high quality convenience copier.

The Xerox 4045 Laser CP is only one example of what Lasography has to offer your office, remote or distributed

data processing environments.

Because Xerox is already planning ways to apply Lasography toward an even wider selection of products.

All of which will put your office exactly where it belongs.

Light years ahead.

Call 1-800-TEAM-XRX, ext. 179 for information and product demonstratioa

Please send me more information on Xerox Lasography.

□ The 4045 Laser CP

□ The complete line of Lasographic printers. Send this coupon to:

Xerox Corporation, RO. Box 24, Rochester, NY 14692

NAME

TITLE

COMPANY

ADDRESS

CITY

If you can't wait, call:

1-800-TEAM-XRX, ext. 179

0-800-832-6979. ext. 179) gg 192-1-86

XEROX® and the number names are trademarks of XEROX CORPORATION.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON XEROX LASOGRAPHIC PRINTERS. CIRCLE 390 ON THE READER SERVICE CARD.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 119

PRODUCT PREVIEW

Q&A

Integrated software with macros

and an

Intelligent Assistant

Editor's note: The following is a BYTE product preview. \t is not a review. We provide an advance look at this new product because we feel it is significant. A complete review will follow in a subsequent issue.

Qm J\ is a new product from Mm. Symantec (see "In Brief" on page 122) that integrates word processing and file management with a full macro facility and an effective natural-language interface, your "Intelligent Assistant." The database and word-processing modules include data merge, comprehensive report capabilities, and context-sensitive help, but it is the Assistant that distinguishes the software. With it, you have the option of addressing the database intuitively and quickly by entering ordinary English phrases and sentences. You can carry on a conversation about the data in your database, to find forms, to ask questions of the database, to view or print reports, to run predefined reports, to perform calculations on the data, or to change the information in the database. And with macros, you can speed requests by defining keys as commonly used words and phrases. You can thus bypass the more formal searching, reporting, and updating procedures in most database applica

120 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

tions and in Q&As own database module.

Your Intelligent Assistant

The Assistant has a built-in vocabulary of over 400 words (see table 1 for a partial list), and it automatically learns field names and the contents of the database. If you desire, you can also train your Assistant to comprehend your parlance in eight quick lessons. By so doing, you can increase the number of words that the Assistant understands and provide for much more personalized sessions.

From the Assistant's main menu (see photo 1) you can get acquainted with your new helper through a series of short help screens (and you can rename it to your liking—I chose the name Duncan), you can elect to train or retrain the assistant, or you can ask it to do something.

A Sample Session

Let's follow a session with the sample database. Realty, which contains addresses and descriptions of 47 bedand-breakfast units in the United States. The fields include owner's name, address, number of beds, number of baths, rent, amenities, type, and commission.

After loading in the database, the Assistant asks you to type your request in English (see photo 2).

Me: Where can I get a room? Duncan: Shall I do the following? Create a report showing the address, city, state, zip, and bed from all the forms?

The bottom of the screen presents my options. For example, you can dump the output to the screen or to a

printer, edit individual forms, or focus the search further. Let's try something a bit more practical.

Me: Are there any units for rent with more than 1 bed and a pool?

After 10 seconds on an IBM AT, with Duncan highlighting its progress through the sentence, it responds:

Duncan: Shall I do the following? Create a report showing the monthly rent and the address and the city from the forms on which the bed > 1 and the amenities include "pool" sorted by monthly rent?

I'm not sure why it sorted by rent, but I got the information I requested. The report included 17 units sorted from the highest to the lowest rent. Finally, I tried another approach.

Me: Show me the forms for the units with between 2 and 5 baths. Duncan (7 seconds later): Shall I: Select and view the forms on which the bath is > = 2 and < = 5?

It's hard not to be impressed. The Assistant answers many "Are there. . ." questions with "Yes, press return to see the forms," and "How many. . ." questions with a numeric answer. You can perform calculations, ask follow-up questions, ask to see specific forms, ask date-related ques

Inquiry 73

J-800-826-0843

Tlnll

C©MlPOT(li i

Super Low Prices on Micro Computers and Accessories..

MODEMS/DATA COMMUNICATIONS

CASE/RIXON Price

LDM 710 Limited Distance Modem $ 220

LDM 720 Limited Distance Modem 410

DCX 815 Stat Multiplex or 4-Port 960

DCX 815 Stat Multiplex or 8-Port 1400

TA208 A/B 4800 bps Modem Dial-Lease Line 1400

R96FP 9600 bps Modem Fast-Poll 1375

R96 9600 bps Modem 1250

R212A Intelligent Modem 300/1200 bps 350

R212 Executive 212 420

R208 4800 bps dial up 900

R1224 300/1200/2400 bps v.22 bis. 550

DCX 812 4 Port Multiplexor 1030

ARK/PARADYNE

All Models call

PRENTICE

Multiplexors call Bell 202T Compatible

Modem 315 Bell 212A Compatible P212 SA Stand Alone 395 P212 RM Rack Mount 315 212 TCM SA Stored

Directory 635 212 TCM RM Rack

Mount 555 P212 ST Auto Dial/Aulo Answer 275 TRIMODEM

Stand Alone 750 TRIMODEM

Rack Mount 690 V.22 0-300/600/1200 Rack Mount 635 Stand Alone 555 BELL 201C Compatible P 201C SA Sland Alone 595 P 201C RM Rack Mount 515 BELL 208 A and B P 208 A/B Stand atone 1115 P 208 A/B Rack mount 1035 CC1TT V29 Compatible 9600 A/B SA Dial or

leased line 9600 bps 1725 9629 leased line Syncronons 9600 bps modem 1350

DEALS

PRINTERS

ANADEX List Price

DP-6500 $ 1595

DP-9001B 829

DP-95001A 929

DP-95001B 865

DP-9625B 1029

DATASOUTH

PP1-80 col. PC

Parallel 595 385

PP2-157 Col. PC

Parallel 845 475

DIABLO 630 API (Letter

Quality) 2095 1395

630 APUECS/EXS 2295 1595 D25 25 CPS

IBM PC 745 535

P101 80 CPS 80

COL Dot Matrix 499 355 P12CQ1 150 CPS 80 COL Dot Matrix 699 495

Call lor pricing on accessories and other available printers.

CANON

LASER PRINTER ~~

LBP-8A1 Laser

Beam 3495 2595

Canon BJ 80 Bubble Jet Printer 599 449 Call lor other available Canon printers and accessories.

SYSTEMS AND TERMINALS Low priced, reliable, ergonomic design.

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WYSE 50 $ 595 WYSE 50+ 695 WYSE 75 WYSE 85 WYSE 350

COLOR WYSE 30

NEW •WYSE-1100-1

(360K PC) 1765 "WYSE-1100-2

(Same as

above w/10

mgb hard

disk) 3265 WYSE 500

(Green monochrome) 230 WYSE 600

(Color KGB) 730

795 799

1195

399

Price $ 410 525 539 575

875

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160 505

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COLOR TERMINALS $ 735 VISUAL

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SCREEN 1850 VISUAL EXP. MEMORY 375 VISUAL 102

TERMINALS 695 VISUAL 241

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TERMINALS 525 VISUAL 55

TERMINALS 650 VISUAL 550

TERMINALS 995 NEC 8810 55 CPG

(USED) SERIAL PTR 1400

SAFT, ELGAR, SURGE SUPPRESSORS AND STANDBY POWER SUPPLIES

List Price

200 Volt Power

Supply 595 419

400 Volt Power

Supply 795 559

Surge Suppressor 149 105 Power Line

Conditioners Call for specs

TELEVIDEO

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Mfr. List

Price

PM WORK

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$ 1160

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2588

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2120

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3295

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TERMINAL 499

380

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520

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715

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639

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425

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Call for free catalogue

CIRCUIT CELLAR

resistor is used in each input line to dissipate any input overvoltage. The ADC1205 converter has about a 50kilohm input impedance so this extra resistance is unnoticeable. The series resistance can be increased further for more protection, but the temperature drift of this resistor adds errors to the system. The quantity of error depends upon the signal source impedance.

Frankly speaking, I would much rather have added a clamped-output op-amp stage, but it would have been very expensive. Remember, we are talking about l-mV signals and 20 parts per million maximum permissible temperature drift. It hardly makes sense to add an op amp with a 30-mV offset and 200 ppm temperature drift combined with piles of who-knowswhat discrete components moving in all different directions. Low-drift, lowoffset, high-speed op-amp circuits are expensive.

It would be easy for me to simply provide an untried schematic of a typical protection circuit, but, as a practical matter, a properly designed and tested circuit with no offset or drift would have been a bigger project than the whole A/D board. I suggest that you simply try to limit your input range to +5 to -5 V. Half-watt 100-ohm series resistors will protect the inputs up to +/- 12 V.

While faster diodes might eventually be required in the clamping circuits shown, they are reasonably priced and adequate protection for normal use. No one wants to pay what it would take to guard against all possible circumstances. Only an idiot would try to measure the voltage across the tips of an arc welder with this board.

Conclusion

The price/performance of A/D converters is a balance of speed and resolution. There are $200 4-bit 100 million samples/sec A/D chips and $9.95 12-bit 2 samples/sec units (I won't bother to tell you how much 12 bits at 100 million samples/sec would cost). In environmental systems that have slowly varying conditions, speed is not as important as accuracy. Room

temperature, for example, doesn't change so fast that you need to sample it 500 times a second. The accelerometers on a shake table, however, may need to be sampled 20,000 times a second for accurate G-force event records.

The BCC-30 has more than enough performance for most data-acquisition situations and will be finding a home in industrial control applications along with the BCC-52.

Circuit Cellar Feedback

This month's feedback is on page 403.

Next Month

I'll build a multichannel audio/video multiplexer. ■

The following items are available from

The Micromint Inc.

25 Terrace Dr.

Vernon, CT 06066

(800) 635-3355 for orders

(203) 871-6170 for information

1. BCC-30. 12-bit plus sign, 10,000 samples/ sec, input range: - 5 to + 5 V, 16-channel A/D converter board.

assembled and tested .... BCC-30, $197

2. BCC-13, 8-bit, 12,000 samples/sec, input ranges: 0 to 10 V or -5 to +5 V, 8-channel A/D converter board.

assembled and tested .... BCC-13, $140

3. BCC-99 manual set. Includes all user's manuals and schematics for BCC-52, BCC-11, and BCC-21 computer/controllers and all currently available expansion boards, including serial, parallel I/O, AC/DC power I/O, and those listed above. Shipping weight 5 lbs.

BCC-99, $29.95

All the units above are bus-compatible with the BCC-52, BCC-11. and BCC-21 computer/ controllers. All units come complete with user's manual.

Please include $4 for shipping and handling in the continental United States, $10 elsewhere. Connecticut residents please include 7.5 percent sales tax.

Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous Circuit Cellar articles. Most of these past articles are available in book form from BYTE Books, McGraw-Hill Book Company, POB 400, Hightstown, N] 082 50.

Ciarcids Circuit Cellar, Volume I covers articles in BYTE from September 1977 through November 1978. Volume 11 covers December 1978 through June 1980. Volume 111 covers July 1980 through December 1981. Volume IV covers January 1982 through lune 1983.

116 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

by Jon R. Edwards

tions ("Who was hired after June 1, 1985?"), and sort. With a larger database, you might want to find the average number of beds in Boston, sort the cost of condominiums with two beds and a bath, or view the list of owners with last names beginning with "D."

And you can also use the Assistant to create or delete forms. For example, you could type "Fill in a new form with 5 Main Street in the address field" or "Delete all forms with no addresses" and the Assistant will com

ply. To modify a form, try "Change Paul John's street address to 5 Main Street," or "Increase all rents by $5."

Clearly, the possibilities are limitless, but I did have some problems. The Assistant tended to be a bit unforgiving with my typographical errors. It does permit you to edit or define words that it does not understand, but it does not have a built-in spelling checker to offer possible interpretations of your entry. Moreover, after you have corrected your error, it begins its interpretation of your re

quest at the beginning, not where it encountered the problem. And if you are well accustomed to databases, you may long for faster access to the data. The File module, which 1 describe in detail later, permits more conventional inquiries. Although 1 found that by truncating my requests ("3 beds" or "sort beds by state") and by using abbreviations that the Assis

{conlinued]

\on R. Edwards is a BYTE technical editor. He can be contacted at POB 372, Hancock, NH 03449.

U lop lay

oetiouicuo

Oporrh/^nrt

Edit

AH i active*

WUI11 pal alive

Qi inorlati\/&

OUpcl IcUl vc

display

add

alphabetical

blank

big

above

biggest

find

difference

containing

enter

low

larger

least

get

divide

descending

erase

many

less

littlest

list

average

and

change

few

below

bottom

make

bottom

ascending

create

great

bigger

fewest

print

count

before

define

high

greater

greatest

report

half

early

expunge

much

littler

lowest

run

cut

begin

delete

large

fewer

highest

search

increase

excluding

new

small

lower

maximum

show

decrease

between

empty

little

higher

largest

table

maximum

fewer

remove

more

minimum

mean

find

replace

over

most

minimum

first

set

smaller

smallest

multiply

get

under

top

percent

greater

plus

higher

product

including

quotient

increasing

raise

last

ratio

late

remainder

least

subtract

lower

sum

not

total

or

twice

order

recent

reverse

search

start

through

top

under

Table I: A list of some of Q&A's built-in vocabulary sorted into categories.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 121

Q&A

tant understands ("WNIC" for "with no identification columns"), I got reports and got to the data quickly.

Teaching Your Assistant

One other problem was easy to solve. I asked about "radar ranges," but dis

IN BRIEF

covered that Duncan only understood "microwaves," the precise entry in the amenities field. Immediately however, Duncan gave me an opportunity to look at all the words in its dictionary and to define the new word as a synonym for the term it knew. You can

HHH8GHHfflHHHHBNMHHHi

Name

Q&A

Type

Integrated software, including word processor, database manager, report generator, and a natural-language query system, Works with single flat data files.

Manufacturer

Symantec Corporation 10201 Torre Ave. Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 253-9600

Price

$295

$349 with a 256K-byte RAM board

$50 trade-in policy for some database managers

Format

Three 51/4-inch floppy disks

Computers

IBM PC, XT, AT, or compatibles with a minimum of 512K bytes of RAM and two disk drives. A hard disk is preferred.

Photo I: The Q&A main menu.

just as easily delete a synonym from the list. Alternatively, you can tell the Assistant to "Define 'radar range' as 'microwave'" or try more complex synonyms like "Define 'home' as 'address, city, state.'" One of the nicest features is using synonyms to define reports. For example, if you enter "Define 'bedsort' to be 'address, state, zip code, and rent, sorted by bed,'" you could later enter "bedsort in Massachusetts."

Formal schooling for your Assistant is only slightly more involved, but by conducting the lessons, you can personalize your relationship with the Assistant (see photo 3). The eight lessons involve teaching the Assistant about the database. You can identify units of measure, words that generally describe the purpose and nature of the database, words that are generally synonymous with each field name, and fields that hold locations, names, or values. You can also specify the default columns that you want displayed in every report.

Two lessons are more advanced. One teaches adjectives to the Assistant. For example, you could define "young" as a low age, or "rich" as a high income. In each case, the adjectives would apply to a specific field, allowing the Assistant to make judgments like younger ("Who is younger than Jackson?"), youngest, richer, and richest. The final lesson allows you to associate verbs with particular fields. For example, by associating "earn" with a salary field, you could ask the Assistant "Who earns more than $30,000?" The Assistant has provision for learning irregular verbs.

Integrated Modules

Q&A contains four other integrated modules, Write, File, Report, and Utilities. You select the module you want from Q&A's main menu. All of the modules use the screen format and menu structure of pfs:File.

Write provides a comfortable wordprocessing environment as well as "merge printing." From the main Write menu, you can define a new or edit an existing document; set page di

{continued)

122 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

AMAZING! our new 2.5 mb pc-at memory board

ACTUALLY ALLOWS YOUR AT TO RUN UP TO 30% FASTER

The memory in your IBM PC-AT, as well as the AST Advantage!™, Tecmar MaestrorM, and other AT memory boards require three clock intervals per memory cycle to perform the same operation that the Cheetah Card™ can accomplish in only two!

Other memory boards must wait one full clock interval because their memory is too slow — one-third of the time is lost!

The Cheetah Card™ runs "NO WAIT STATE." Programs running in our memory run much faster. Up to a full 30% faster. (It's not possible to achieve a full one-third gain because of I/O operations, etc.)

Cheetah International, Inc. 107 Community Boulevard, Suite 5 Longview, Texas 75606 USA

TELEX: 510-600-4578 CHEETAH

You purchased an AT for speed. Do you really want to install a memory board that makes the AT run slow? Of course not!

For the first time, you now have a clear choice. You can choose a product that costs more, runs slower, and comes with less guarantee.

Or you can choose the 2.5MB Cheetah Card™ that allows the AT to perform up to 30% faster, comes with a full 3-year limited warranty, and retails for less than our competition!

2.5MB Cheetah Card™ $945 TriComPlus™ $195

Now that you have a new stopwatch — go by your local computer store and time the new Cheetah Card™. And while you are there — take a look at our versatile 3 serial, 1 parallel TriComPlus™ I/O board.

If your local dealer does not yet have the Cheetah Card™, then we will ship UPS PREPAID — direct to you. Purchase either the Cheetah Card™ or the TriComPlus™ and test them for up to 30 days! If you are not 100% satisfied, simply return ship C.O.D. for same day full refund!

CALL TODAY

1 -800-CHEETAH

(1-800-243-3824) TEXAS: 1-214-757-3001

AST Advantage !TM is a registered trademark of AST Research Inc. Tecmar MaestroTM is a registered trademark of Tecmar, Inc.

Inquiry 58

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 123

Q&A

mensions, margins, and type size; clear a document from memory; print the document; or use three DOS functions (copy, delete, and rename). Write saves text in ASCII; therefore, you could, if you desire, use your favorite editor and only then make use of

Q&A's merge capabilities. Nonetheless, Write is full-featured. In addition to most conventional features, like a range of block moves, headers and footers, integrating ASCII text within existing documents, and adequate printer support, Write includes on

SMS ] is the foilwitis*

Stitci vie* tht hm w m\o the pi k 1 mi Mtt B*tt> u > 1 mi

Photo 2: Using the Intelligent Assistant.

Photo 3: The third lesson for the Assistant.

124 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

screen page breaks, macros, word counts, context-sensitive help, a limit of approximately 30 pages of text per document, and line and box drawing. You can also customize commands in a default file. You can save a personalized default file in different directories for different kinds of documents. Windowing, footnoting, and columnar commands are the only conspicuous features that are missing.

Write does not work directly with the Intelligent Assistant, but you can use the merge capabilities to insert Q&A data into Write documents. You need only place *field name* within the text to access the data, and there are a variety of text-formatting commands to smooth the printing of merged documents. Tb print the document, you select Print at the main Write menu. You can then select among several options, including the selection of the database to be used, the number of pages and copies, line spacing, and justification.

You can use File, a full-featured database, to build single flat files for use with the Intelligent Assistant or to search for and retrieve data directly. From the main File menu, you can design (or redesign) the database, add data, search, update, mass-update, copy, delete, and print. Forms can be up to 10 screen pages long; each screen page contains 21 lines, or three screen pages per 8V2- by 11-inch sheet. You can have up to 1980 characters per field, 2400 fields per record, and up to 16 million records per file. Each field can be up to one screen in length. You can sort (ascending and descending) on up to 2 5 fields and index on up to 120 fields. Field types include text, number, money, keyword, date, hours, and yes/no.

File's procedures are more conventional and formal than the Intelligent Assistant's, but for data entry and some reports, you will undoubtedly prefer its options. Within File, you can add punctuation and symbols, you can perform date and time arithmetic, and you can include programming statements (including IF. . THEN, IF. . THEN . . . ELSE, AND, OR, NOT,

(continued) Inquiry 250—»

HOW TO GET OVER $2000 WORTH OF NEW CAPABILITIES FOR YOUR

FOR $599*

The Spartan'" is the Apple™ II + emulator for your Commodore 64'" that will open

up a whole new world of hardware and software for youl Imagine adding these features to your Commodore 64™ for the Spartan™ price of $599: □ Apple™II + hardware and software capabilities □ 64K RAM expansion Q four software selectable Commodore 64™ cartridge slots Q non-dedicated 8-bit parallel port Q standard audio cassette deck capabilities for your C-64™. The suggested retail value of comparable products offering only these capabilities is over S2200.00* — but the Spartan™ gives you much, much morel By building on your investment in your Commodore 64™— an excellent introductory computer — you create a whole new system with both C-64™ and Apple™ II + capabilities. There is a whole other world out there! The huge selection of Apple™ II + hardware and software is now yours to explore! Call toll free for the Spartan ™

dealer nearest you.

mimic

FOR INFORMATION WRITE:

MIMIC SYSTEMS

1112 FORT ST., FL. 6H VICTORIA, B.C. CANADA V 8 V 4V2

"All prices quoted are In U S funds, freight ond taxes not included Value at components equivalent to the Sporton" system are quoted Irom Apple " II + CPU and Apple" II t- single disk drive 1983 list prices, and from current suggested list prices and component specifications of other peripheral manulacturers. Commodore 64 " and Commodore logo are trademarks of Commodore Electronics Ltd. and/or Commodore Business Machines. Inc Apple " II + Is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc Spartan " is a trademark of Mimic Systems Inc. and has no association with Commodore Electronics or Apple Computer Inc The Spartan " Is manufactured by Mimic Systems under license granted by AIG Electronics Inc ol

Victoria, B.C. Canada

TO ORDER CALL

1-800-MODULAR

(663-8527)

Q&A

and INT) to update fields conditionally or to control the order of data entry. You can customize field-specific help screens to provide contextsensitive aid in entering the data, a useful feature when fields restrict data in some way. You can also use colors, shading, and underlining, perhaps to set off the current field or the field

126 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

labels. Lookup tables let you construct and edit a table of values; you could, for example, construct the table to hold relevant tax information for different states or countries. Entries in the table cannot exceed 69 characters. The Print feature is also more versatile than the Intelligent Assistant's. For example, like most data

inquiry 25

base managers, File allows you to print mailing labels and to design and reuse specialized forms.

The Report module extends your reporting capability. From the main Report menu, you can design or redesign a report; print; set new headings; and rename, delete, or copy files. Like other report applications, Report sorts (up to 16 columns in ascending or descending order) and arranges the data from the database into a screen or printed display. Report allows you to do calculations and subcalculations on or within columns; to specify where you want page breaks; to include page numbers, headers, and footers; and to derive up to four new columns from existing data. You may want to create a report based on keywords or have several invisible columns that are not printed but that permit special sorting or particular derived columns.

From the main Utilities menu, you can import and export data and install a range of printers to support Q&A's advanced printing features. You can import data, or append data to the end of existing Q&A files, from either pfs:File or IBM Filing Assistant. To import data in D1F (Data Interchange Format) or ASCII, or from Lotus 1-2-3 or Symphony files, you must first have or prepare a Q&A file exactly matching the form template of the imported file. Menus guide you carefully through the process.

You can define a macro anytime within Q&A, or edit existing macros in the Write module. Pressing Shift-F2 brings the Macro Menu box to the bottom of the screen, with options to define, retrieve, save, and clear macros. Use them within the modules to set up your working environment, to perform common operations, or to ease tasks like printing or retrieving. Use them with the Assistant to personalize your relationship further. You could, for example, use macros to hasten the typing of your requests. Macro aficionados will appreciate the Escape key, which immediately stops the playback of the macro.

Q&A, which is written in C and ma

(continued)

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chine language, requires an IBM PC, XT, AT, or compatible with a minimum of 512K bytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory) and two disk drives. Hard disks are clearly preferable for storing and accessing large databases. The suggested retail price is $295, or $349 packaged with a 2 56K-byte.RAM board. Symantec will also provide a $50 trade-in for your commercial database software. The Q&A package includes substantial easy-to-follow documentation, a function key template, a quick-reference card, and four disks, which include a tutorial and a sample database.

Conclusion

Much research on natural-language query processing is centered on accessing data from relational databases in a multiuser, networked environment. Q&A draws from the research, though the software manipulates only single flat files and has no multiuser or networking capabilities.

There are other natural-language database products for the microcomputer market (see "CLOUT and SALVO" by George Bond, October 1984 BYTE, page 279), but most are either front ends or have much more restrictive features than Q&A. With full integration, macros,, and an Intelligent Assistant capable of searching and sorting as well as updating the database, Q&A may go far in attracting users who are tired of the programming-like formalism often required to retrieve data and organize reports.

Nonetheless, natural-language query systems have inherent limitations. Processing the query takes time. It may be hard for some to justify the time required to teach the Assistant, and individual expert users will undoubtedly be better served by raw programming power. And Q&A is not the ultimate natural-language product, since it doesn't support relational queries and isn't meant for use in a multiuser environment. Still, with the Intelligent Assistant, you can effectively explore the relationships in your data without having to grumble about database syntax. Q&A gets the job done in an enjoyable way. ■

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JANUARY 1986 - BYTE 129

130 BYTE ■ JANUARY 1986

ILLUSTRATED BY |OHN S. DYKES

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

A SIMPL COMPILER PART 2: PROCEDURES AND FUNCTIONS

by Jonathan Amsterdam

Procedures and functions are a boon for programmers, but they're tricky to compile

Last month, I described the construction of a compiler for the highlevel language SIMPL, but I omitted any dej scription of the part of the compiler that handles procedures and functions. This month, I'll fill that gap.

The SIMPL compiler I wrote translates SIMPL, a Pascal-like language, into VM2 assembly language. VM2 is a hypothetical computer that I wrote a simulator for in "Building a Computer in Software" (October 1985 BYTE, page 112). I described an assembler for VM2 in my November 1985 article (page 112). The routines—my collective term for procedures and functions—of SIMPL are similar to those of Pascal, except that a value is returned from a function using a RETURN statement rather than by assignment to the function name. The syntax of routines is presented in figure 1, and a SIMPL program using a function can be found in listing la.

The Challenge of Routines

What makes compiling routines so difficult? Listing 1 shows a SIMPL program that calculates the factorial of a number, using a function called fact. The factorial of a nonnegative integer n is n*(n - 1)*(n- 2)*. . . * 1. The fact function is recursive; it says that

the factorial of n is equal to n times the factorial of n - 1 and that the factorial of 0 is defined to be 1. To see what has to be done to compile this program, first consider what the run-time behavior of the program ought to be. The following four things have to be done when calling fact.

1. When the statement WRITE(fact(n)) is executed, control has to transfer to the code constituting fact.

2. The argument n has to be passed to the function. Somehow, the actual parameter, the value of n in the call to fact, must be connected (or bound) to the formal parameter, n, that appears in the function definition.

3. It is necessary that fact return to the proper place in the main program and that its result be made available. A function call should act as if it were replaced by its result in the program text. If the call to fact produced the result 6, the program should behave as if the call to fact were simply replaced by the number 6, yielding the statement WRITE(6).

4. Storage has to be found for fact's local variable, temp.

[continued)

)onathan Amsterdam is a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He can be reached at 1643 Cambridge St. #34, Cambridge. MA 02138.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 131

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

To handle the control transfer, a simple BRANCH instruction will suffice. If we provide fact with a return address—the memory address of the instruction just after the call—fact will know where to branch to when it's finished. That takes care of transferring control.

How about storage allocation? One solution, often used in FORTRAN compilers, is to allocate enough space with each procedure or function to

hold that routine's arguments and locals, plus an additional word of storage for the result of a function. In this case, three words would be allocated: one for the argument n. one for temp, and one for fact's return value. The compiler would assign these memory locations while compiling fact; it would remember them in the symbol table and use them to generate references to the argument, local, and return value.

(b)

BRANCH factorial

n: 0

fact:

SETSP

1

PUSHL

0, 3

; n

PUSHC

0

EQUAL

BREQL

L1

PUSHC

1

FRETURN

1

BRANCH

L2

L1:

PUSHL

0, 3

; n

PUSHC

1

SUB

CALL

fact, 1

POPL

0, -1

; temp

PUSHL

0, 3

; n

PUSHL

0, -1

; temp

MUL

FRETURN

1

L2:

PUSHC

0

FRETURN

1

factorial:

RDINT

POPC

n

PUSH

n

CALL

fact, 0

WRINT

HALT

This design is simple and elegant. Unfortunately, it does not handle recursion. Because this scheme assigns a fixed amount of memory to each routine, it implicitly assumes that a routine can use only one set of arguments and locals at a time. Each time a routine is called recursively, a new invocation is set up using the same code but different values for the arguments and locals. In the simple scheme above, the values of the first invocation of a recursive routine will be overwritten by the values of the second invocation.

It is necessary to allocate new memory locations each time a recursive routine is called. But it's impossible for the compiler to predict the amount of storage a recursive routine might need, because the compiler can't determine how many recursive calls of a given routine would occur when the program is run. Therefore, this storage allocation must take place at run time, not compile time. You need to decide at compile time how to reference the arguments and locals of the routine and compile the references into the code for the routine. How can this be done?

Activation Records

The solution to this problem involves a data structure called an activation record, which is a contiguous region of memory that contains all the variable information needed for a routine's invocation. It holds the arguments, locals, and a space for the return value for functions. It also holds the return address and some pointers to other activation records I'll describe later. All the activation records for a given procedure have the same format, but their contents differ from invocation to invocation.

The run-time behavior of a program with routines is as follows: Each time a routine is called, storage for a new activation record is allocated. After the activation record is allocated, it is filled with the values of the arguments passed by the call and with the return address. Control then transfers to the called routine. When the routine

(continued)

routine :: = proc | func

proc :: = PROCEDURE id {formals} ; {vars} <routine> block;

func :: = FUNCTION id {formals} : type ; {vars} <routine> block;

formals :: = ( <decl ;> decl)

Figure I: The syntax of S1MPL routines. A block is a list of statements surrounded by BEGIN and END; a dec\ is a variable declaration; and vars indicate the keyword VAR followed by one or more dec\s. Curly braces around an item indicate that the item is optional. Angle brackets indicate zero or more repetitions of the item are permitted.

Listing 1: [a] A SIMPL program for calculating the factorial of a number, (b) VM2 assembler code generated by the compiler from (a).

(a)

PROGRAM factorial; VAR n:INTEGER;

FUNCTION fact(n:INTEGER):INTEGER;

VAR temp:INTEGER;

BEGIN

IF n = 0 THEN RETURN 1; ELSE

temp : = fact(n- 1); RETURN n*temp; END;

END;

BEGIN

READ(n); WRITE(fact(n));

END.

132 BYTE' JANUARY 1986

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 133

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Listing 2: (a) A SIMPL program Illustrating nested routines, {b) VM2 assembler code generated by the compiler from (a).

(a)

PROGRAM P; VAR a, b:INTEGER;

PROCEDURE Q; VAR b, c:INTEGER;

PROCEDURE R; VAR b, d:INTEGER;

BEGIN { R }

b : = 3; d : = 3;

WRITEC \ nVRV:',' '.a.b.cd); IF c > 1 THEN c : = c- 1; R; END; END;

BEGIN { Q } b := 2; c := 2; R;

WRITEC \n\'QV:7 \a,b,c); END;

BEGIN {P}

a:= 1; b := 1; Q;

WRITEC \ n'.'P',':', END.

',a,b,'\n');

(b)

BRANCH

a: 0 b: 0 RO:

SETSP

PUSHC

POPL

PUSHC

POPL

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSH

2 3

0,-2 3

0, -1

'R

L1

Q:

WRINT

PUSHL

0, -2

WRINT

PUSHL

1, -1

WHIN I

PUSHL

0, -1

\A/DIMT

WHIN I

PUSHL

1, -1

PUSHC

1

GREATER

BREQL

L1

PUSHL

1, -1

PUSHC

1

SUB

rUrL

1 , - 1

CALL

RO, 1

RETURN

0

SETSP

2

PUSHC

2

POPL

0,-2

PUSHC

2

POPL

0, -1

CALL

R0, 0

PUSHC

1

WRCHAR

PUSHC

■Q

WHUHAn

PUSHC

<■

WRCHAR

PUSHC

•

WRCHAR

PUSH

a

WRINT

Dl ICU 1

rUoHL

0,-2

WRINT

PUSHL

0, -1

WRINT

RETURN

0

PUSHC

1

POPC

a

PUSHC

1

POPC

b

CALL

Q, 0

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSHC

'P

WRCHAR

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSHC

WRCHAR

PUSH

a

WRINT

PUSH

b

WRINT

PUSHC

WRCHAR

HALT

returns, the storage for the activation record is deallocated.

How are references to arguments and locals handled? Instead of wiring an absolute address into the routine's code, the compiler generates an offset from the current activation record. The offset is added to the address of the current activation record to get the address of the variable being referenced. Since all activation records for a given routine have the same format, a given offset will pick, out the same variable regardless of the invocation.

The current activation record is referenced with a new register I have added to the VM2 machine. This register is called the frame pointer (FP). The FP always points to the current activation record. Each time a routine is called, VM2 needs to save the current value of the FP and set the FP to point to the new activation record. It is convenient to save the old FP in the new activation record. When the routine returns, VM2 sets the FP back to the old value. These manipulations ensure that the FP always points to the activation record of the routine currently being executed.

A new activation record must be allocated on each call of a routine, and it should be freed when the routine returns, otherwise all the machine's memory would eventually be consumed. Activation records can be allocated on a stack—the same stack VM2 uses for almost everything else it does—and can be freed by simply popping the stack. In fact, another name for an activation record is a stack frame, from which the name "frame pointer" comes. You may recall from my discussion of stacks in "Building a Computer in Software" that pushing and popping involve little more than incrementing and decrementing the stack pointer. You could hardly hope for a more simple and efficient storage-allocation scheme.

Nested Routines

The scheme for compiling routines as outlined so far does not handle

{continued)

134 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

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PROGRAMMING PROJECT

SIMPLs feature of nested routines. Take a look at the SIMPL program in listing 2a, which makes use of nested routines. It illustrates how you can place the definitions of other routines between the local-variable declarations and the body of a routine, just as you can place routines between the global-variable declarations and the main program body. Nesting affects the scope or visibility of identifiers, that is, which identifiers—variables and routine names—are available to different parts of the program. Let us define the lexical level of a point in the program as its depth of nesting. In listing 2a, global variables are

declared at lexical level 0, variables local to procedure Q are at lexical level 1, and variables local to procedure R are at lexical level 2. Then, the rules governing scope in SIMPL are easily stated: A routine has available to it all identifiers declared in the routines that enclose it and none of the identifiers declared in routines nested within it. Furthermore, if two identifiers have the same name, the one at the highest lexical level is the one that is visible to a routine.

Running the program in listing 2a results in the following output:

R: 1323

FP

LOCAL m

LOCAL 1

RETURN ADDRESS

STATIC POINTER

OLD FP

ARGUMENT n

LOW MEMORY

DIRECTION OF STACK GROWTH

HIGH MEMORY

1

ARGUMENT 1

Figure 2: The structure of an activation record for a routine with n arguments and m local variables.

SP

OLD FP

SP

ACTIVATION RECORD FOR R

LOW MEMORY

ACTIVATION RECORD FOR R

DIRECTION OF STACK GROWTH

ACTIVATION

RECORD HIGH MEMORY

FOR Q

Figure 3: The structure of the stack when Q calls R and then R calls itself showing the static (SP) and dynamic (FP) pointers.

R: 1313 Q: 121 P: 11

Procedure R, being the innermost procedure, can access the global variable a; the variable c, which is local to procedure Q: and its own local variables b and d. R can also call both itself and the procedure in which it is nested, Q (R does not call Q in this example). Q cannot access any of R's variables, but it can access a and its own locals, and it can call R. The main program can access only global variables and can call Q. The variable b provides an example of how variables with the same name hide, or shadow, one another. Each of the three occurrences of b in the program refers to a different variable. The appearances of b within R and Q refer to local variables of those procedures and have the values 3 and 2, respectively. The occurrence of b in the main program refers to the global variable b. and its value is 1.

R's access to c causes a problem for the routine-calling scheme I outlined above. If c were a global variable, it would be accessible directly by name: if it were local to R, it could be found at some fixed offset from the FP. But c is neither local to R nor globally visible from P. I have not indicated how such nonglobal nonlocal variables can be accessed.

Before I proceed to the solution, note that at the time it is accessed by R, the variable c must be residing somewhere on the stack because, by the visibility rules discussed above, Q has to be called before R can be; it is only from within the definition of Q that R is visible at all.

You may recall that the activation record for R contains the value of the FP for R's caller. In this case, R's caller is Q, so the old FP is a pointer into Q's activation record. It would seem you need only follow the old FP to get to nonlocal nonglobal variables.

This will not work, however, because other routines besides Q can call R; in particular, R can call itself. In this case, the old FP for the second invocation of R points to the activation

136 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

record for the first invocation of R, not to Q's activation record, so following the old FP would not get us to Q, but merely to another copy of R. We would need to follow the chain of frame pointers back twice to get to Q.

Static Pointers

In essence, the problem with following the FPs to find nonlocal nonglobal variables is this: The saved FPs indicate the dynamic structure of the program, its run-time behavior: who calls whom. To find variables, the socalled static structure is needed: who's defined inside whom.

The solution I have adopted is to maintain a static pointer (SP) in each activation record in addition to the value of the caller's FP (sometimes called the dynamic pointer). The SP always points back to the most recent activation record of the routine in which the current routine was defined: for instance, the SP in R's activation record always points to an activation record for Q, regardless of who called R. The activation-record format for a routine with n arguments and m local variables is shown in figure 2. Figure 3 illustrates the structure of the stack when static and dynamic pointers are used. Note that it is sometimes necessary to follow several static pointers to get to the desired variable. For example, if a procedure S were defined inside R and accessed the variable c, the SP in S's activation record would be followed, leading to an activation record for R; then, R's SP would be followed, leading to the desired activation record for Q. The number of static pointers to follow is the difference in lexical levels between the point of call and the callee.

Calling Mechanism in Action

Now that all the pieces of the routinecalling scheme have been described, let's put them into place by seeing what happens when the program in listing 2 is executed. You may want to glance at figure 4 during this discussion.

The main program begins by calling Q. First, the current value of the FP

is pushed, followed by the SP, and the FP is set to the current value of the stack pointer. Since Q is called from the main program, it is not necessary to save the FP on the stack or to compute the SP, but I do it anyway since it's easier to implement this calling mechanism if a call from the main program isn't treated as a special case. Next, the return address, which can be calculated from the value of the program counter at the time of the call, is pushed onto the stack, and the computer branches to the beginning of Q (see figure 4a).

Q begins by pushing two zeros onto the stack. This serves to allocate

a word on the stack for each of Q's local variables and at the same time to initialize those variables to 0. The body of Q begins execution by setting its local variables, b and c, to 2. Then, R is called by the same mechanism as before: First, the FP is pushed onto the stack, the SP is computed by following the chain of static pointers as many times as the difference in lexical levels between the point of call and R, and the value of the FP for the activation record at that place in the stack is pushed. Since the definition of R is at the same lexical level as the body of Q, no static pointers need be

(continued)

Figure 4: The run-time behavior of the program in listing 2. See the text for details.

FP

F P

-J

(a)

RETURN ADDRESS

FOR 0

SP FOR Q

OLD FP FOR

0

(b)

RETURN ADDRESS FOR R

SP FOR R

OLD FP FOR R

OS LOCAL VARIABLE c

O'S LOCAL VARIABLE b

RETURN ADDRESS FOR Q

OLD FP FOR Q

(c)

RETURN ADDRESS FOR R

SP FOR R

OLD FP FOR R

R'S LOCAL VARIABLE d

R'S LOCAL VARIABLE b

RETURN ADDRESS FOR R

OLD FP FOR R

Q'S LOCAL VARIABLE c

Q'S LOCAL VARIABLE b

RETURN ADDRESS FOR Q

SP FOR Q

OLD FP FOR Q

LOW MEMORY

DIRECTION OF STACK GROWTH

HIGH MEMORY

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 137

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

followed, and the FP value for Q is pushed as the SP for R's activation record. FP is then set to the stack pointer, the return address is pushed, and control transfers to procedure R (see figure 4b).

After pushing and initializing its local variables, R executes its WRITE statement, then tests the value of Q's local variable c. Since Q set c to 2, the statements within the IF statement are executed. First, c is decremented, then R is called recursively. To begin the recursive call on R, the FP is again pushed onto the stack and the new SP calculated. Now, since this activation record for R is one lexical level deeper than R's definition, a single SP is followed; this leads back to Q's activation record, so the FP value for Q is again used as the SP for this second invocation of R. Note that although the activation record for each invocation of R has a different value for the

old FP, they have the same value for the SP. Next, the FP is set to the current value of the stack pointer, the return address is pushed, and control transfers to the body of R for the second time (see figure 4c).

In the second invocation of R, R's local variables are pushed onto the stack and then the WRITE statement is again executed. R tests c, but this time it is not greater than 1, so the code within the IF statement isn't executed. The return process is the inverse of the call: The stack pointer is set back to where it was before the call, and the FP is restored to its old value. At this point, the stack again looks as it does in figure 4b.

Now that the second invocation of R has returned, the first invocation can also return. (The stack now appears as in figure 4a.) Then, Q executes its WRITE statement and returns, and finally the main program

does a WRITE and the program ends.

What I've just described differs in two minor ways from the scheme as 1 originally presented it. First, although for reasons of conceptual simplicity I described the activation record as being allocated all at once, it in fact is allocated piecemeal, a push at a time: the arguments (although in this example there were none), the FP, the SP, and the return address. Second, it's somewhat more convenient for my purposes to have the FP point to the middle of the activation record instead of to the beginning. This means that some offsets from the FP will be negative and others positive.

Some New Instructions

A compiled program's code would be long and messy indeed if it had to worry about every manipulation of static pointers and activation records. Instead, I'm going to push all this complexity down into the virtual machine, VM2, and hide it behind five new VM2 instructions.

The first and most complicated is CALL, which takes two arguments: the memory address of the beginning of the routine's code and the difference in lexical levels between the caller and callee. It performs all the operations necessary when one routine calls another: saving the return address and FP on the stack, setting the SP, setting the FP register, and branching to the routine. Because CALL is so complex, I have provided the Modula-2 source code for it in listing 3.

The instructions PUSHL and POPL are used to access all but global variables: the "L" is for "local." They each take two arguments: the difference in lexical levels between the variable and the accessing routine and the offset of the variable. Each follows the chain of static pointers a number of times equal to the difference in lexical levels and then uses the offset to access the variable. PUSHL pushes the value of the variable onto the stack; POPL pops the top of the stack into the variable.

(continued)

Listing 3: The Modula-2 source code for the SIMPL CALL statement.

(* CALL takes two arguments, the address to branch to and the difference in lexical levels. It does the following things:

1. Pushes the current FP

2. Computes and pushes the SP

3. Pushes the return address

4. Branches to the address. *) PROCEDURE call;

BEGIN

pushWord(framePtr); (* save current FP *)

(* use the difference in lexical levels (2nd arg) to set the SP *) pushWord(followSP(CARDINAL(memory[programCtr+1]))); framePtr := stackPtr; (* FP will point to return address *)

pushWord(programCtr + 2); (* return address *) branch; END call;

(* Follows the static-pointer chain. *) PROCEDURE followSP(num:CARDINAL):address; VAR fp:address;

n:CARDINAL; BEGIN

fp : = framePtr;

FOR n : = 1 TO num DO

fp : = address(memory[fp + SPoffset]);

END;

RETURN fp; END followSP;

PROCEDURE branch; BEGIN

programCtr : = address(memory[programCtr]); END branch;

138 BYTE* JANUARY 1986

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PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Two instructions, RETURN and FRETURN, handle returns. Both take one argument, the number of words of actual parameters (arguments) pushed onto the stack by the caller. They need this value to determine where to set the stack pointer. RETURN merely sets the stack pointer to where it was before the call, effectively popping the activation record off the stack. FRETURN (function return) first pops the top of the stack, which should contain the value to be returned by the function, then resets the stack pointer as with RETURN, and finally pushes the returned value back onto the stack.

To get a sense of the code generated by my compiler, you may want to look at listings lb and 2b; they show the compiler's output for listings la and 2a, respectively.

Compiler Issues

Paradoxically, I have spent nearly all the second part of the compiler project describing a mechanism that is implemented in VM2. Of course, the mechanism would have been unnecessary were it not for the peculiar problems that arise in compiling highlevel languages with nested procedures and functions. But it is now time to move to the compiler proper.

The basic action of the compiler when it sees a routine is as follows: First, the routine name is entered into the symbol table. Then, the list of formal parameters is parsed; each formal parameter is entered separately into the symbol table, and the whole list of formals is attached to the routine's symbol-table entry as well to aid in checking calls to make sure they supply the right number and types of arguments. If the routine is a function, its type is then parsed and placed in the routine's symbol-table entry. Next, the local variables are parsed and entered into the symbol table. The compiler's routine-compiling procedure then calls itself recursively to handle any nested routines.

Finally, the body of the routine is compiled. The compiler first outputs a label, which is the routine's name. Then, the code to place the local vari

140 BYTE* JANUARY 1986

ables onto the stack is generated. I do this by outputting a PUSHC 0 instruction for each local; as I said earlier, it has the effects of allocating a word on the stack and initializing the variable to 0. Lastly, the code for the body is generated, in SIMPL, if no RETURN statement is executed in a procedure, that procedure returns after its last statement is executed; to handle this, the compiler needs to generate a RETURN instruction after the code for the procedure. Functions, on the other hand, have to return values explicitly. It should be an error if they don't.

A few things are needed to embellish this basic compiling process. First, the compiler needs to remember the lexical level at which each identifier in the program is defined. It does this by means of a counter, lexicalLevel, which starts at 0, is incremented whenever a routine definition occurs, and is decremented when the compiler has finished compiling a routine. Each time a routine name or variable is defined, the current lexical level is stored with it in its symbol-table record. In order to get the visibility of routine names right, the counter must be incremented just after the routine name is seen but just before the formals are. Formals are treated as being local to the routine in which they occur.

Second, formals and locals need to be given offsets from the FP. If you take a look at the form of an activation record in figure 2, you'll see that the first local variable is one word below where the FP points to, so it should be given an offset of - I. The second local should be given an offset of - 2, and so on. Things are a bit more tricky with formals, however. The compiler handles the arguments in a routine call from left to right, pushing the first argument onto the stack first. Hence, the first argument will be farthest from the FP, so it should have the highest offset. To assign offsets to formals, the compiler must read them all in first, count how many there are, then go back through them and assign the offsets. Because

(continued)

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PROGRAMMING PROJECT

of the way I've set up the activation record, the last argument—the one closest to where the FP points—will have an offset of 3.

One final consideration is that after the compiler is done with a routine, all identifiers local only to that routine should be removed from the symbol table. This is so that a later part of the program can't possibly succeed in referencing one of these identifiers. I'll now describe how to compile the various constructs that arise in dealing with routines.

Routine Calls

To compile a procedure or function call, the arguments are treated as expressions and each is compiled. When an expression is compiled, code is generated that will result in the value of the expression being left on the stack at run time, so compiling the arguments as expressions is just what the routine-calling mechanism requires. After the arguments are compiled, a CALL instruction is generated with the name of the routine being called and the difference between the lexical level of the called routine and the current lexical level. The compiler also performs several checks: The called routine must be a function if the call occurs in an expression, otherwise it must be a procedure; and the number of arguments and their types must match with the list of formal parameters.

SIMPL RETURN Statement

When the compiler sees a RETURN statement followed by an expression,

it checks to make sure it is in the process of compiling a function; if so, it generates code for the expression (which will result in the expression's value being pushed onto the stack at run time) and generates an FRETURN instruction. When the compiler sees a RETURN statement with no following expression, it makes sure it is compiling a procedure, then it generates a VM2 RETURN instruction.

Variable Access

When a variable is used in the code, the compiler looks it up in the symbol table. If it is global, its name is used. If not, a PUSHL or POPL instruction is generated, as appropriate, with the variable's offset and the difference in lexical levels between the current one and the one in which the variable was defined.

Name Management

Two minor problems remain for the compiler, both having to do with managing the names of identifiers. The first one concerns routine name clashes. Say you have two routines, P and Q. Inside P you can define another routine, R, and inside Q you can also define a routine called R. The problem is that you can't use the routine names as labels in the assembly-language program, since then you would have two "R" labels, and that's illegal in my assembler. The easiest solution is to generate a new label for every routine and record the label in the routine's symbol-table entry for use when the routine is called.

[continued)

Figure 5: The structure of the symbol table: an array of pointers to doubly linked lists of symbol-table entries.

142 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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IANUARY 1986 -BYTE

143

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

The second problem concerns the process of looking up an identifier in the symbol table. Recall that the second scoping rule states that when an identifier that is declared in a nested routine is also declared inside the routine in which it is nested, the innermost identifier shadows the other. So the b referred to by procedure R in

listing 2a is the variable local to R, not the ones local to Q or P. How can we implement the identifier lookup routine so that this scoping rule is enforced?

The obvious solution is to examine all the identifiers with the same name and choose the one defined at the highest lexical level. This solution will

work, but a simpler one suggests itself if you notice that identifiers in lower lexical levels are declared before those in higher ones. That is, as the compiler reads the program from top to bottom, it will first install global variables into the symbol table, then variables at lexical level I, and so on. If the symbol table were merely a list of entries, and if new entries were inserted at the beginning of the list, the lookup routine could simply take the first identifier whose name matched the one being looked up; since that identifier was the most recently inserted of all those with the same name, it must have been defined at the highest lexical level.

In practice, though, a single list is too inefficient a representation for a symbol table—the lookup time is proportional to the length of the list, and if there are many identifiers, the list will be long. It would be great if the symbol table could combine the efficiency of a hash table with the nice lookup property of a list. That's possible if each element of the hash table, instead of containing a single symbol entry, contains a pointer to a list of entries. Instead of one long list, the symbol table consists of an array of shorter lists; and since identical strings hash to the same location in the array, all the identifiers with the same name will be on the same list. The lookup routine hashes the name of the identifier it is searching for, indexes the array to find the appropriate list, and searches the list in order, taking the first match it finds. To facilitate the removal of entries, the list is doubly linked. The structure of the symbol table is illustrated in figure 5.

Conclusion

The Modula-2 source code for my SIMPL compiler, including the code to handle routines, along with the VM2 assembler and VM2 monitor, are available for downloading - from BYTEnet Listings. The telephone number is (617) 861-9764. In part 3 next month, I'll extend the compiler by adding some useful features like arrays. ■

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Inquiry 375

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Creating Reusable Modules

Capsule editors

quickly customize modules in Modula-2

The advent of Modula-2 marked another step in the evolution of structured programming languages. Modula-2 evolved from Pascal and addresses some programming aspects more effectively than its predecessor. Most important is its ability to create

separate modules that are procedure libraries. These libraries perform many related tasks. The concept of modules stresses the ability to tackle a big software project and apply (reuse) the same code in future programs. This cuts down on software development time, cost, and debugging. This article discusses module reusability—its limitations and remedies.

To reuse code, you must write procedures and modules that have some degree of freedom from the rest of the program. These modules carry out specific tasks while interchanging data with other parts of the program via global variables, call arguments, and data files. Modula-2, however, imposes some restrictions to prevent this freedom from turning chaotic.

Modula-2 requires that any variables passed to procedures be of the exact same type (i.e., you can't mix apples and oranges), and it allows no generic types. The language relaxes this somewhat for procedure calls for arrays. You can declare an open array without specifying its bound limits, which means that procedures can accept arrays of different sizes but not of different basic types. For example, you can have a procedure like this:

PROCEDURE SendString (Name : ARRAY OF CHAR);

Notice that the variable Name is a character array whose dimensions are determined when the program calls the procedure SendString. Thus,

{continued)

Namir Clement Shammas (4814 Mil! Park Court, Glen Allen, VA 23060) is a freelance writer and programmer. He is also a contributing editor to Computer Language magazine.

LLUSTRATED BY CLAUDIA TANTILLO

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 145

REUSABLE MODULES

SendString can accept arrays of any size as long as they have the basic type CHAR and are one-dimensional. Hopefully, future language updates will expand the open-array feature. By comparison, the Ada language allows generic types but has stricter type checking. The C language, on the other hand, shows little or no type checking and allows the programmer a great deal of freedom—and responsibility.

Remedies for some of these limitations are available in the following programming strategy:

1. Write an incomplete program skeleton that constitutes the major portion of a procedure, function, or module. This capsule should include as much general code as possible.

2. Write another program, a capsule editor, that customizes the capsule and adds the last details by interacting

Enter the output filename ? c:sort1.tst Enter new procedure name ? ZipSort Enter record type name ? Mail Is the sort based on one field ? Yes Enter fieldname ? ZipCode

Figure 1: The display from running EditSort for a single sort key.

Enter the output filename ? c:sort2.tst Enter new procedure name ? MailSort Enter record type name ? Mail Is the sort based on one field ? No Enter number of fields used ? 3 Enter name for subkey # 1 ? ZipCode Enter name for subkey # 2 ? State Enter name for subkey #37 Name

Figure 2: The display from running EditSort for multiple sort keys.

with the user for the required information.

The resulting code produced by the capsule editor is correct and complete.

Capsule editors are entire programs that perform text editing, insertion, and addition on the code in the capsules. You can think of them as advanced processors that offer flexibility before you invoke the compiler. It is normal to have one capsule altered by one editor. However, you can have several capsule editors work on the same capsule (or the reverse), and you need not write the capsules and their editors in the same language.

The advantages of using capsule editors are

• easier and faster means of producing custom programs

• lower software development cost

[continued]

Time and Money.

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XT and AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Pfastcr286 and Programmers' Pfantasies are trademarks of Phoenix Computer Products Corporation. For the Ferrari aficionado: yes, we know [his is a rear engine car. We a're showing the addition of a second engine to symbolize how Pfaster can be added to your PC or XT to increase performance.

Inquiry 281 IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 147

hardware-dependent programs and back again without rebooting. All with Pfaster286's compatible ROM software. And, Pfaster286 does the job unintrusively! No motherboard to exchange. No wires to solder. No chips to pull. Just plug it into a standard card slot, and type the magic word, "PFAST!' If you really didn't want an AT in the first place, just what it could do for you, call or write: Phoenix Computer Products Corp., 320 Norwood Park South, Norwood, MA 02062; (800) 344-7200. In Massachusetts,

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Programmers' Pfantasies™ by

REUSABLE MODULES

• increased reliability, and

• the ability to produce custom programs when the original software author is unavailable.

A Demonstration

This demonstration deals with a sort algorithm. I used Logitech's Modula-2/ 86 compiler, version 0.3c, which does not have floating-point implementation but does have reliable file I/O (input/output) operations. I used an IBM PC XT to test the program with all files located on drive C, the hard disk. The compiler did not have a string-manipulation library so I used Strllbl, a module I developed earlier. Reference 1 contains the code for this entire module.

The example is a capsule for the recursive Quicksort algorithm. [Editor's note: Listings for QUIKSORT.MD2 and EDITSORT.MD2 can be downloaded from BYTEnet listings at (617) 861-9764.| This capsule is a procedure written with the following assumptions and remarks:

1. The data records to be sorted are of a dummy type called Item. The capsule editor changes this to match the desired custom record type.

2. The original capsule has one single dummy sort called key, which the capsule editor alters according to your input.

3. You can only sort on alphanumeric data fields (keys).

4. If you use a field as a sort key, you must use the entire field.

The capsule editor for the QuickSort capsule is the module EditSort. It performs the following functions:

• prompts for the output filename

• prompts for the output procedure name

• asks for the record type name that you intend to use throughout your program, and

• asks for the sort keys. (Based on the number of keys involved, the capsule editor decides how to edit Quicksort. The following two cases explain how this works.)

If you want to sort a mailing list, you could call your record type, Mail, and

(continued)

Listing 1: The output code generated by running the EditSort capsule editor on the Quicksort capsule with a single sort key.

PROCEDURE ZipSort( A : ARRAY OF Mail ; N : CARDINAL );

PROCEDURE Compare (S1, S2 : ARRAY OF CHAR): BOOLEAN; (* Compare two strings of the same maximum length.*)

CONST eos = 0C; (* end of string *)

VAR Less, Stop : BOOLEAN; i : CARDINAL;

BEGIN

Less := FALSE; Stop : = FALSE; i : = 0;

WHILE (i < = HIGH(S1)) AND (Less = FALSE) AND (Stop = FALSE) DO IF (S1[i] <> eos) AND (S2[i] < > eos) THEN (« Proceed in comparison *)

IF (S1[i] < S2[i]) THEN Less := TRUE ELSE INC(i) END; ELSE Stop : = TRUE (* Reached the end of string*) END;

END;

RETURN Less; END Compare;

PROCEDURE Sort( L, R : CARDINAL);

VAR i, j : CARDINAL; X, W : Mail;

BEGIN

X := A[(L + R) DIV 2]; REPEAT

WHILE Compare(A[i].ZipCode,X.ZipCode) DO INC(i) END; WHILE Compare(X.ZipCode,A[i].ZipCode) DO DEC(j) END; IF i < = j THEN

W = A[i] := A[i] ; A[i] := AO] ; AO] := W ; INC(i) ; DEC(j) END; UNTIL i > j ;

IF L < j THEN Sort(Lj) END; IF i < R THEN Sort(i.R) END; END Sort;

BEGIN

Sort(1,N)

END ZipSort;

148 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 327

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ata communications software for small business computers. design you have used Crosstalk XVI before, you will feel right at home with P5.00 price Because we control the reflection, costs only S49.95.

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REUSABLE MODULES

Listing 2: The output code generated by running the EditSort capsule editor on the Quicksort capsule with multiple sort keys.

PROCEDURE MailSort( A : ARRAY OF Mail ; N : CARDINAL );

PROCEDURE Compare ( R1, R2 : Mail): BOOLEAN; (* Compare two strings of the same maximum lengths.*)

CONST eos = OC; (• end of string *)

VAR Less, Stop : BOOLEAN; i : CARDINAL;

S1, S2 : ARRAY [l.YourMaxString] OF CHAR;

BEGIN

Less : = FALSE; Stop : = FALSE;

i := 0;

Stringls(S1,R1.ZipCode) StringAdd(S1 ,R1 .State) ; StringAdd(S1,R1.Name) WHILE (i < = HIGH(ST)) AND (Less IF (S1[i] <> eos) AND (S2[i] < >

; Stringls(S2,R2.2ipCode) ; StringAdd(S2,R2.State) ; StringAdd(S2,R2.Name) ;

FALSE) AND (Stop = FALSE) DO eos) *)

THEN (« Proceed in comparison

IF (S1[i] < S2[i]) THEN Less := TRUE ELSE INC(i) END; ELSE Stop := TRUE (* Reached the end of string*) END;

END;

RETURN Less; END Compare;

PROCEDURE Sort( L, R : CARDINAL);

VAR i, j : CARDINAL; X, W : Mail;

BEGIN

X := A[(L + R) DIV 2]; REPEAT

WHILE Compare(A[i],X) DO INC(i) END; WHILE Compare(X,A[i]) DO DEC(j) END; IF i < = j THEN

W = A[i] : = A[i] ; A[i] : = A[j] ; A(j] : = W ;

INC(i) ; DEC(j) END; UNTIL i > j ;

IF L < j THEN Sort(Lj) END; IF i < R THEN Sort(i.R) END; END Sort;

BEGIN

Sort(1,N)

END MailSort;

declare it as

= RECORD ARRAY [1..30] OF CHAR; ARRAY [1..30] OF CHAR; ARRAY [1..20] OF CHAR; ARRAY [1..2] OF CHAR; ARRAY [1..9] OF CHAR

TYPE Mail Name; Address : City : State : ZipCode : END;

In the first case, you want to sort by zip code only. Create a new procedure named ZipSort, and store it in file c:sort1.tst. Figure 1 shows the display for this case and listing 1 shows the output file. If you compare it with the original capsule, you will see that the capsule editor alters only the procedure name, the record type name, and the sort key according to your input. It adds no program linesl

In the second case, you want to sort by three fields (zip code, state, and name). Call the new procedure MailSort, and save it in file c:sort2.tst. Figure 2 shows the display and listing 2 shows the output file. In this case, the action exceeds mere renaming. The capsule editor alters the argument calls of the procedure Compare; it takes records of type Mail instead of strings as arguments: it declares strings previously passed as local variables; and it adds enough code lines to build the sort strings. The capsule editor even alters the use of Compare in the procedure Sort, and it eliminates dummy key components altogether.

The strategy of using capsules provides you with a new kind of software tool. When applied to supercomputers, these tools create a new class of programmers. Modula-2 capsules offer an alternative to changing the code prior to compilation, one that allows modules to be quickly customized. ■

REFERENCES

1. Shammas. N., "Modula-2: No Strings Attached," journal of Pascal and Ada. March/April 1984.

2. Wiener, R., "Generic Sorting in Modula-2," \ournal of Pascal and Ada. lanuary/February 1984,

3. Wirth, N., Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1976.

150 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Why the Hercules Color Card is better for your XT than IBM's.

Did you know that there's a color graphics card specially designed for the XT™? It's called the Hercules'" Color Card. We think that it's better for your XT than the IBM®Color Graphics Adapter. Here's why.

The XT comes with an empty short slot. IBM's card is too long to fit in it, so you're forced to sacrifice a valuable long slot, while your XT's short slot goes unused.

The Hercules Color Card is designed to fit in this short slot. It's the smartest way to maximize the usable slots in an XT and provide for your future expansion needs.

IBM

Hercules

Notice how much more efficiently Hercules makes use of the XT's slots.

Our efficient use of an XT's slots is not the only reason to buy a Hercules Color Card instead of IBM's. We give you a parallel printer port at no extra cost. (IBM charges extra and takes up another slot.)

A lot of people wonder how Hercules can do everything that IBM can in a card less than half the size. We do it by designing our own graphics microchips. Just one of our chips packs the punch of dozens of IBM's, reducing by more than 50% the number of components that can fail.

And we'll do just about anything to make our products the most reliable you can buy.

Hercules

IBM

Of course, you will have to give up something when you buy a Hercules Color Card. You'll have to give up software incompatibility. With Hercules, there is none. Every program that runs on the IBM color card will run on the Hercules Color Card.

You'll have to give up IBM's ninety day warranty. Ours is two years.

Compare warranties

IBM

■H 3 months

Hercules

And you'll have to give up a dollar. The Hercules Color Card is $245-IBM's is $244.

Look into the Hercules Color Card for the XT, PC or AT.™ Find out why the readers of PC World voted the Hercules Color Card 1985's best color graphics card-ahead of IBM's. Call 1800 532-0600 Ext. 432 for the name of the dealer nearest you and we'll rush you our free info kit.

Hercules.

inquiry 155 We're strong on graphics.

Address: 2550 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA94710 Ph: 415 540-6000 Telex; 754063 Trademarks/Owners: Hercules/Hercules Computer technology; IBM, XT, AT/IBM. Printer cable offer expires February 28,1986. Good only in U.S.A., offer subject to change without notice

Here there be Wizards!

In the distant past, stories were told of a breed of mysterious and powerful beings; beings that could weave magical spells, conjure spirits from the vasty deep, and calm the raging elements with subtle movements of the hand. They were called Wizards — the keepers of rare and special knowledge.

Today, they work their ' craft still: invoking daemons, executing spells, and controlling the very source of their environment. No magic, but wizardry nonetheless; the kind of wizardry without which much of today's world would simply cease to function.

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software for computer networks, switching systems, and operating systems such as UNIX and UTS on machines

ranging from the largest These modern-day Wizards mainframe to the smallest are masters of systems microcomputer. _

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t- A C h

they hold the keys to the principles that control a society which is now dependent on this powerful software. At Lachman Associates, st Inc., we understand the _ unique position' of talented

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So be advised, Wizards do exist. In fact, perhaps you are one:

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Chicago Columbus Denver New Jersey

PROGRAMMING INSIGHT

EASY 3-D GRAPHICS

BY Henning Mittelbach

A BASIC program for plotting 3-D surfaces

AFTER READING "Budget 3-D Graphics" by Tom Clune (March 1985 BYTE, page 240), I decided to develop a low-cost program for three-dimensional graphics on small computers. | Editor's note: Versions of the program for the IBM PC, Macintosh, and Apple ll/IIe are

available for downloading via BYTEnet Listings. The telephone number is (61,7) 861-9764. More information on downloading to your particular machine can be found at the end of the article]

The program is based upon the formulas for an axonometric projection

(0. 0) w

XB UP TO 279 ■

YB TO 189

PLOTTED AREA

Figure I: The graphic window, shown here for the Apple Q, on which the 3-D graphics program was developed.

in relation to the origin, as shown:

XB = X*COS(PHI) - Y*COS(PSI) YB = X*SIN(PHI) - Y*SIN(PSI) + Z

Depending on the graphic window of the computer used, you may change these formulas to

XB = XO + X*COS(PHI) Y*COS(PSI)

YB = YO - X*SIN(PHI) Y*SIN(PSI) - Z

where XO and YO will represent the origin of the axes, as shown in figure 1. (I developed the program on an Apple 11, with XO = 110 and YO = 180.) Also in figure l, (XBYB) is the point to be plotted, and PHI and PSI are the angles referring to the horizon. The function Z = F(XY), in line 200 of the program, needs a scaling factor F (line 210) that the user has to introduce in the program.

The Program

The program starts at lines 100 to 180 where you set the parameters X0, Y0,

[continued)

Henning Mittelbach (FH Munchen. hothstrasse. D8000 Munchen. West Germany) is professor of mathematics at Fachhochschule Munchen.

-— Inquiry 424

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 153

Inquiry 398

1st PLACE

COMPUTER SYSTEMS 13422 IM. CAVECREEK RD.

PHOENIX, AZ. 85022

OTHER INFORMATION: 602-867 9897

EH S

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CALL FREE 1-800-841-2748

^ Hi — I'm Joan,

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and thank you for a successful 1985.

We are again looking forward to a even greater 1986. With yourhelp we can do it, so keep these phones ringing and let us show you our fast and courteous service.

Thank you and God Bless

Joan

ALTOS 186-10 S4415

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SIMPLE 3-D GRAPHICS

PHI, PSI, XL, XR, YL, YR, and D. Changing parameters gives you variety. It is important that XL be less than XR and YL be less than YR, though these values may be either positive or negative.

The parameter D gives the distance between the coordinate lines to be plotted. The program sets D = 5, although you can make D smaller (for a more detailed graph) or larger (for a coarser graph that takes less time to plot). You should be sure, however, that the differences XR-XL and YR-YL are multiples of D, or the graphic will have no contour.

Line 200 contains the function to be plotted. Figure 2, for example, shows the plot of the program with the function

FN Y(X) = SIN (Y/F) * (X-Y) * (X-Y)/150

The parameter F, in line 210, stretches the X and Y directions in the argument of Y(X), as does the divisor 150 in line 200.

After fitting some abbreviations to accelerate the plotting (which can take several minutes), line 260 sets an upper limit for FN(X). Later, in lines 1040

and 2040, the program cuts those values of F(X) that would fall above the top of the window.

Line 270 asks whether you want to see the graph with two sets of coordinate lines, as in figure 2, or with one set of coordinate lines (which takes less time). Depending on your response, the program goes to subroutines at line 1000 or 2000.

Lines 300 to 330 ask if you wish to see the axes or not, and will draw them if you do, while line 3 50 draws a frame for the graph.

Next, an array H is set to the lower border of the window. Later, a part of this array will be plotted to get the hidden lines.

The program continues with line 1000. First the mask (array H) is raised to the front line of X. Later, the Ycoordinate lines can only be plotted if they are above this border. Thus, in line 1060

IF YB < H(XB) THEN H(XB) = YB

a small value for XB will be corrected up.

Line 1120 starts the first Ycoordinate line with the smallest Y value, Y = YL. The inner loop Y corn

Figure 2: The 3-D plot of the function FN Y(X) = SIN(Y/F)*(X-Y)*(X-Y)/150.

154 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

SIMPLE 3-D GRAPHICS

Figure 3: The 3-D plot of the function FN Y(X) = 20*SIN(X/F)*COS(Y/F).

Figure 4: The 3-D plot of the function FN Y(X) = -8*EXP(SIN(X*Y/F/F)).

putes all points with fixed X (first X = XL) and then, after setting the mask on this line, plots the line (lines 1200 to 1220 of the program).

Lines 2000 to 2240 are an exact copy of lines 1000 to 1240 and are called if you choose the cross-hatching option at the beginning of the program run.

A number of examples follow. Figure 2, the 3-D graphic that comes with the program, uses the parameters

X0

Y0

PHI

PSI

XL

YL

XR

YR

D

110

180

0.5

0.4

0

0

170 100 5

FN Y(X) = SIN (Y/F) * (X-Y) *

(X-Y)/150

F =10

Figure 3 uses similar parameters, except that D = 10, F = 20 and the function

FN Y(X) = 20 * SIN(X/F) * COS (Y/F)

was substituted on line 200. The parameters

X0

Y0

PHI

PSI

XL

YL

XR

YR

D

140

100

0.3

0.3

-70

-70

70

70

10

EXP(SIN(X*Y/F/F))

Figure 5: The 3-D plot of the function FN Y(X) = -X*Y/F/F.

FNY(X) = -8 F =28

produce figure 4. Changing the function on line 200 to

FN Y(X) = -X*Y/F/F

and setting F = 10 produces the plot shown in figure 5. ■

The program for easy 3-D graphics is available as PCGRAF.BAS for the IBM Personal Computer, MACGRAF.BAS for the Apple Macintosh, and APPLGRAF.BAS for the Apple II family (DOS 3.3). You will need BASIC for whichever system you choose.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 155

BITE

Robotics

Machine Vision

by Phil Dunbar 161

Robotic Tactile Sensing

by Kirk E. Pennywitt 177

Multiple Robotic Manipulators

by ), Scott Hawker. R. N. Nagel. Richard Roberts, and Nicholas G. Odrey 203

Autonomous Robot Navigation

by Charles \orqensen, William Hamel, and Charles Weisbin 223

AI in Computer Vision

by \ohn L. Cuadrado and

Clara Y. Cuadrado 237

Automation in Organic Synthesis

by Gary W. Kramer and Philip L. Fuchs . . 263

I TEND TO THINK of servo- and stepper-motor control, data acquisition with sensors, and the like as mature technologies. So when 1 began to research this theme, the foremost questions in my mind were, What makes robotics so hard? Why is it taking so long to develop this technology? This month's theme authors provide clear explanations of what some of the major problems are and indicate some of the new research developments that are finally bringing robotics to maturity.

One set of robotics problems involves sensors. We begin our theme with two pieces on this topic, one on vision and the other on touch. It is generally agreed that these two are necessary (and possibly sufficient) for most autonomous robotic functions.

First, Phil Dunbar presents a discussion of the problems of current camera systems for robotic vision. He includes an overview of some of the more interesting cameras available for machine vision.

Next, Kirk Pennywitt looks at directions in research on touch sensors. Those who think of mechanical touch as synonymous with pressure transducers will be surprised to learn how complex this subject really is.

Motion is central to the idea of robotics. We have two pieces that discuss some of the issues associated with machine motion. J. Scott Hawker, R. N. Nagel, Richard Roberts, and Nicholas G. Odrey discuss coordination of two arms in performing a task. Research on this topic is just beginning, so the focus of the piece is more on problems to be addressed than answers that have been devised. Charles Jorgensen, William Hamel, and Charles Weisbin consider the levels of complexity of robotic navigation. They use a delightful analogy to Magellan, Columbus, and Ulysses to clarify the issues involved in machine exploration.

The problems of robotic navigation are primarily concerned with artificial intelligence, as is our next piece. Clara and John Cuadrado discuss artificial intelligence in machine vision. Their article explains such Al concepts as frames, inheritance, and demons so clearly that I finally understand what these terms mean.

Finally. Gary W. Kramer and Philip L. Fuchs discuss how they used a robotic arm to automate their organic chemistry laboratory. 1 find two aspects of their piece especially interesting. First is how they solved the universal problem in robotics of interfacing disparate equipment. Second, the arm that they employ is perhaps the lowest-tech piece of equipment in their lab. but it has allowed them to unlock the power of the intelligent instruments with which they work.

It is impossible to cover all the major topics of robotics in a single theme. For example, both Phil Dunbar and the Cuadrados acknowledge that the hardest part of machine vision is the intermediate level, where camera data is analyzed to identify, for example, two overlapping objects in a field of vision. This is a hot topic in current vision research but is not included in our theme. However, we found the articles that are here exciting and informative. We hope you have as much fun reading them as we did.

—Tom Clune. Technical Editor

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 159

AI: The Future is at Gold Hill Today

You know artificial intelligence is the wave of the future. Programs based on the ideas of artificial intelligence are being written today in Common Lisp-the new Lisp standard developed by researchers from universities and corporations such as Carnegie Mellon, DEC, MIT, Stanford, Symbolics and TI. Lisp allows the development of programs that are intelligent, flexible, and even human-like. The problem has been that hardware needed to run Lisp is expensive.

No longer. Golden Common Lisp (GC Lisp) makes it possible for you to learn and use Lisp on your personal computer. When you use GC Lisp in combination with the AI examples provided, you will be able to develop such exciting applications as expert systems, natural language systems, and intelligent interfaces to complex software. The possibilities are endless. With GC Lisp you can tackle problems that you could not solve before with ordinary number crunching programs. You will be able to write powerful programs that can accommodate casual computer users who want intelligible answers quickly.

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GC Lisp makes it easy for you to learn the technology of AI at your own pace. Each package includes the San Marco Lisp Explorer—2X\ interactive software tutorial developed by Patrick H. Winston and his associciates. This 800-frame instructional

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GC Lisp comes complete with the intelligent GMACS editor (based on EMACS), full on-line documentation of all GC Lisp and GMACS functions, the Common Lisp Reference Manualby Steele, and a comprehensive user manual. In short, Golden Common Lisp comes with everything you need to program in Lisp. GC Lisp is the most powerful

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In addition to GC Lisp, Gold Hill offers an entire line of development and delivery tools designed to increase your organization's productivity in artificial intelligence. These include the GC Lisp Compiler, PC-to-Symbolics™ network, HALO'" Graphics, and training and consulting services. Gold Hill is also proud to introduce GC Lisp LM (Large Memory) —the first PC-DOS language to take advantage of the 15-megabyte memory capacity of the latest generation of PCs (such as the IBM PC AT). For multiple-user sites, Gold Hill offers a Corporate License Package which features quantity discounts and service and support.

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Golden Common Lisp and GC Lisp arc trademarks of Gold Hill Computers, The San Marco Lisp Explorer is a trademark of San Marco Associates Lisp is copyrighted by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. The COMMON L/SP Reference Manned is copyrighted by Digital Equipment Corporation. IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT, and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines. Halo Graphics is a trademark of Media Cybernetics, Symbolics is a trademark of Symbolics, Inc.

160 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 14 5

ROBOTICS

MACHINE VISION

by Phil Dunbar

An

THE POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS of machine vision are many and obvious. Everything from quality assurance to robotic navigation could benefit from the availability of reliable vision systems for computers. Perhaps less obvious, though, is the variety of problems that hamper development of the technology. These problems appear on all levels of machine vision—hardware, low-level analysis, and high-level Al (artificial intelligence) manipulation of low-level data. This article will discuss problems that plague the development of vision-system hardware and indicate some of the technology that has emerged to address these problems.

You might think that the most difficult hardware problem in vision systems is digitizing the high-frequency analog stream of camera data. In fact, that is not so. Currently, machine vision algorithms use gray-scale (i.e., monochrome intensity) video information almost exclusively. Such information can be adequately extracted from an analog signal by a 6-bit or 8-bit A/D (analog to digital) converter. Real-time conversion requires approximately a 10-MHz conversion rate to digitize a 512- by 512-pixel image.

examination of what's in vision hardware

These rates can be achieved with flash converters, pioneered by the TRW company when it introduced the TDC 1007 in 1977. Flash converters employ (2W)-1 comparators to perform N-bit conversions. That is, an 8-bit flash comparator requires 255 comparators to operate. Since all possible digitized values can be compared to the signal at once, the throughput is much greater than with successive approximation methods. Of course, the complexity of the converter rises exponentially with linear increases in resolution. Notable among the commercially available flash converters is TRW's 8-bit monolithic chip flash converter (TDC 1048) that can operate at speeds necessary for real-time machine vision applications and costs about $140 per unit.

The real problems with vision hardware revolve around the cameras. The problems fall into two basic categories: video signal standards and limitations of particular camera hardware technologies.

Television Standards

Much of robotics suffers from a lack of standards. Machine vision, on the other hand, suffers from the existence

new

of video signal standards that are not appropriate for our needs. Those standards were created by and for the television industry. Since the entertainment industry is still a far more lucrative market for camera manufacturers than machine vision, few image sensors and cameras deviate from television standards.

The monochrome video signal standard used in the United States, Japan, and most of the Western Hemisphere is RS-170, a subset of the NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) standard. Europe uses the international CCIR (Consultative Committee, International Radio) standard, which is similar to, but not compatible with, RS-170. Since both standards present essentially the same problems to machine vision applications, I will limit my remarks to the RS-170 standard.

The RS-170 standard defines the composite video and synchronizing signal that your television uses (see figure 1). The image is transmitted one line at a time from top to bottom of

[continued)

Phil Dunbar is Manager o\ Software Engineering. Industrial Automation Division, Analog Devices inc. (POB 280, Norwood. MA 02062).

IANUARY 1986 "BYTE 161

MACHINE VISION

the television screen. The full image frame consists of 52 5 lines, repeated at 30 Hz. Each frame consists of two interleaved fields of 262.5 lines. Forty lines are blank to allow for vertical retrace of the raster scan. Sync signals precede each line of video signal. The synchronization may originate from either the camera or the display apparatus.

Unfortunately for robotics and other machine vision tasks, the RS-170 standard specifies a 4:3 horizontal-tovertical aspect ratio for video signals. This means that the video-signal represention of a square will be longer in the x direction than in the y direction. Your television has a complementary distortion of a 3:4 aspect ratio, so the image of the square ends up appearing visually correct. However, this system poses a problem to algorithm design, since vision algorithms measure distances and tolerances by counting pixels from edge to edge. When viewed through a 4:3 aspect ratio, there is a geometric

distortion. At the digital level, circles become ellipses and squares become rectangles. Thus, distance measurement is tedious for objects of random orientation. For example, to determine the length of a straight edge, you must project the edge onto the x and y axes, normalize the distance on one axis to the opposite (reference) axis, and then calculate the true length as the hypotenuse. It would help to have machine vision cameras with a symmetric aspect ratio. Some do exist, but there is no public standard for the composite output signal.

Lights, Camera, Action

There are other problems associated with the entertainment-industry bias of camera technology besides inappropriate standards. Primary among these is simply that the technology has been developed for consumption by human eyes and brains. Biological vision tends to be insensitive to absolute light intensity, slow variation in intensity, and spatial accuracy. While

REFERENCE WHITE

SYNC LEVEL

Figure 1: A composite video signal as it might appear on an oscilloscope.

SIGNAL

ILLUMINATION

Figure 2: A graph of response curves for y < 1 {red), y > 1 (blue), and y =1 (black).

the human eye is well adapted to detection of local intensity gradients, global gradients cannot be perceived without high contrast. Since overengineering any product does not make economic sense, video cameras tend to suffer the same biases as humans do: I will discuss some of these biases in detail later in the article.

Another problem that can be traced to the entertainment industry is that most video cameras exhibit a nonlinear response to light intensity to compensate for nonlinearity in CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors. What linearity means when you are talking about light intensity is not intuitively obvious, so I will pause to clarify this concept.

Camera dynamic range is determined by the ratio between video output amplitude at saturation and RMS (root mean square) noise in darkness. It is essentially limited by noise in the low end and maximum charge capacity in the high end. Some cameras have automatic gain control (AGC), which adjusts the absolute gray-scale response of the sensor to total brightness of the scene. Most often, however, you will control the illumination in machine vision applications. Thus, you may need to use reference gray values when you switch from scene to scene, or important information may be compressed in dark regions of the scene by AGC adjustment to bright regions.

Gray-scale response linearity is specified by the term gamma (7), which is the exponent in the function A = K * \y, where 1 is light intensity, K is a constant, and A is the output amplitude. A gamma of 1 yields a linear response, whereas less than 1 compresses the bright end of the response curve and greater than 1 compresses the dark end (see figure 2). Many video cameras have a gamma of less than I to compensate for video monitors that exhibit the opposite effect.

Sensor Technologies

There are essentially two types of video cameras available—one is

(continued)

162 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

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Inquiry 78

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 163

MACHINE VISION

based on vacuum-tube technology, and the other is based on semiconductor technology. While tube cameras have been around for a long time, solid-state cameras date back only to the early 1970s.

VlDICONS

Since vacuum tubes have been around the longest, we will consider vacuum-tube cameras first. Various types of photoemissive devices are used for imaging in specialized applications that require low light or infrared vision. For normal video applications, the most popular and costeffective of the tube sensors is the

vidicon tube (see figure 3), a photoconductive device. It employs a photoconductive layer that develops an electric charge in response to impinging photons. An electron beam scans the photo layer in a raster format, reducing the charge along a line of the picture. This discharge produces a continuous analog signal proportional to the light intensity of the focused image. The camera electronics insert sync pulses to indicate scan lines, fields, and frame ends. Vidicons can image a wide spectral band from the ultraviolet, through the visible, to the near-infrared. As you can see in figure 4, the vidicon tube

LIGHT

SIGNAL PLATE (TRANSPARENT)

ELECTRON GUN CATHODE

PHOTOCONDUCTIVE MATERIAL

i

i

SCANNING

ELECTRON

BEAM

OUTPUT

RL

( RESISTANCE LADDER)

POSITIVE VOLTAGE POTENTIAL

Figure 3: A diagram of a vidicon tube sensor.

I 1

100

■ i i i

500 600 700 800

WAVELENGTH (NANOMETERS)

i i

900 1000

i

1100

| UV | VIOLET

BLUEl GREEN Iy| 0 1 RED

INFRARED

YELLOW 1 1—ORANGE

Figure 4: The spectral response of the human eye [blue), vidicon (red), and CCD image sensors (black).

has a spectral response similar to, but broader than, the human eye.

The drawbacks to vidicon tubes are analogous to the drawbacks to tubes generally. They require more power, are less rugged, weigh more, and are larger than solid-state devices. In addition, they have one drawback that is unique to camera technology: They exhibit significant image lag. What this means is that the electric charge that was induced in the photo layer for one frame tends to persist over subsequent frames. Thus, a quickly moving bright object will appear to leave a tail in its wake, rather like a comet. A newer kind of tube sensor, called the newvicon tube, has lower image lag than the vidicon. However, the newvicon has a spectral response biased toward the far-red region.

Solid-State Cameras

Most solid-state cameras are based on charge-coupled device (CCD) technology, which is now closing in on the performance of existing camera tubes. Silicon, with energy sensitivity in the range of 400 to 1100 nanometers (see figure 4), is a good choice for detection in the visible spectrum. However, one of the problems of solid-state image sensors is that they have a peak sensitivity in the nearinfrared, although most have a bimodal spectral response with a second peak in the green. Because of broad near-infrared sensitivity between 800 and 1100 nm, you should use an infrared cut filter with solidstate cameras, particularly if they will be used under incandescent lighting. Ambient infrared light has a "washout" effect on response in the visible spectrum. In fact, most solid-state camera manufacturers specify sensitivity only with an infrared filter.

Solid-state sensors can be either metal-oxide semiconductor or photodiode. The basic structure of the CCD is that of an analog shift register consisting of a series of closely spaced capacitors. Charge integration by the capacitors provides the analog representation of light intensity.

CCD sensors most commonly use

{continued)

164 BYTE • 1ANUARY 1986

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"Typical MICROCAP Transient Analysis"

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MACHINE VISION

one of three addressing strategies: interline transfer, frame transfer, or column-row transfer.

Interline Transfer

The interline transfer CCD is organized into column pairs of devices. An

imaging column of photosensors is adjacent to an opaque vertical shift register (see figure 5). Charge accumulates in the imaging column until the end of the integration period, when it is transferred to the opaque column. The signal then shifts vertical

ly into a horizontal shift register that represents the picture sequentially, line by line. Since the photosensor area is interspersed with image-insensitive shift registers, there is a grate pattern that can create undesirable interference called aliasing and moire effects (see the glossary on page 168).

The advantage of the interline transfer is that the transfer time (to opaque storage) is short compared to the integration period. This is desirable because when transfer time approaches the integration time, solidstate sensors tend to exhibit a locally contained spreading of image response. Such spreading is called, appropriately enough, smear. Interline transfer minimizes smear.

Frame Transfer

In the frame transfer organization (see figure 6), the sensor consists of vertical columns of CCD shift registers divided into two zones. One zone, where charge accumulates during integration time, is photosensitive. When integration is complete, the whole array is transferred in parallel to the opaque storage area of the second zone. Since the whole image zone is photosensitive, the frame transfer organization minimizes problems with moire effects. Another advantage of the frame transfer CCD is that it can transmit one image while acquiring another. This gives you the flexibility to vary the integration period without changing the readout time.

Column-Row Transfer

A third type of solid-state sensor employs x-y, or column-row, addressing (figure 7) to transfer charge from the photosite to the output signal amplifier. The sensor elements are addressed by selecting individual column and row electrodes. Charge collected under the column electrode is transferred to the row electrode and amplified for output.

Blooming

One general difficulty with solid-state sensors is that they tend to exhibit "blooming," which is the cascading of

- VERTICAL SHIELDED CCD SHIFT REGISTERS

PHOTOSENSITIVE CELLS

r 1

r^X. » SIGNAL

\S OUTPUT

HORIZONTAL CCD SHIFT REGISTER

Figure 5: A diagram of an interline transfer CCD.

-VERTICAL CCD SHIFT REGISTERS

) IMAGE SECTION

} STORAGE SECTION

, SIGNAL OUTPUT

HORIZONTAL CCD SHIFT REGISTER

Figure 6: A diagram of a frame transfer CCD.

166 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 262

MACHINE VISION

COLUMN SELECT LOGIC

SIGNAL

INJECTION . /-Ts^ts CONTROL ? K.7K7

SIGNALS >

-O

ROW MUX

mm

COLUMN -< REF.

POTENTIAL

<)

ii—a

COLUMN MUX

COLUMN LOAD DEVICES

ROW -< ACCESS SIGNALS

Figure 7: A diagram of a 4 by 4 CID matrix witft column-row addressing. Based on a drawing from General Electric Technical Information GET 6803. Used with permission of GE.

charge saturation from a few photo elements along paths of least resistance in the sensor array. The effect is bright streaks along a single axis or both axes, extending the full height of the sensor. Scenes containing objects with specular reflections at random orientations, where light saturation is difficult to control, are especially problematic.

To effectively contain blooming, newer devices employ charge drains adjacent to the sensor cell to absorb the excess charge before it spreads to neighboring image elements.

Spatial Resolution

Whatever camera technology you use, you must concern yourself with the spatial resolution of the camera. There is considerable confusion among camera users as to what camera resolution means. It is often defined in terms of "TV lines." These units should not be confused with raster lines or the number of lines electronically scanned in the image. Lines of resolution correspond to the maximum number of alternating

white and black lines per frame height or width that can be resolved by visual inspection. Often people will test resolution in both the horizontal and vertical axes by imaging a test pattern of converging black and white bars.

It is desirable to have equal resolution in both horizontal and vertical axes, but not all cameras do. In situations common to robotics, where objects may appear in the field of view at random orientations, you must assume that the camera resolution is the lower resolution of the two axes. Line resolution may also vary from region to region on the sensor surface, particularly on the peripheral areas of tube cameras.

A less subjective measure of resolution is the modulation transfer function (MTF), which relates output signal amplitude to the light image created by a bar pattern of sinusoidal variation in gray level. The function is normalized to 100 percent, where it levels . off to a maximum for low spatial frequencies.

{continued)

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 167

MACHINE VISION

A similar measure of resolution is the contrast transfer function (CTF). For this measure, we use a simple black-and-white "square wave" pattern rather than the sine wave modulated pattern. Resolution is specified as a percentage of response for a given number of TV lines. For example, 20 percent response at 800 lines would

be considered high resolution by today's standards.

In solid-state cameras, resolution is limited by the number of photosites on the sensor, by the array geometry, and by how much opaque material separates the photosites. Charge leakage adversely affects resolution, as does transfer inefficiency in the

case of CCD cameras.

Hibe camera resolution is a function of the electron-beam diameter relative to the area of the photoconductive layer. Tube camera resolution is generally higher than that of solidstate cameras and easily outstrips the limitations imposed by the RS-170

{continued)

A Video Glossary

Aliasing: The kind of misrepresentation that results from pixel density being too low to represent the spatial frequencies in an image.

Blooming: A phenomenon whereby streaks fan out in the image around an area of intense illumination. Blooming occurs when excess charge in the sensor cell overflows into neighboring CCD registers. This can be suppressed by introducing overflow drains under or adjacent to the photosensitive area.

Candela: Intensity of a point source that generates one lumen per steradian (unit solid angle). Also called candle power. Abbreviated cd.

CCD: Charge-coupled device. A monolithic silicon structure in which discrete packets of charge are transported from position to position by sequential clocking of an array of gates.

CCIR: Consultative Committee, International Radio. International standard for composite monochrome video signals.

Chrominance: Indicates the hue and saturation of a color or the color information without the brightness.

CID: Charge injection device.

CPD: Charge priming device.

CTF: Contrast transfer function. Similar to MTF but uses a black-and-white test pattern.

Definition: Number of sensor cells per line/column.

Dynamic range: Ratio of the output voltage at saturation and RMS noise in darkness.

Exposure: Result of illumination over a given integration time.

Gamma (7): A numerical value representing the exponent in a function that relates illumination to response. A gamma of 1 yields a linear response. A gamma of more than 1 results in a greater slope for bright illumination, and a gamma of less than 1 results in a greater slope for low illumination.

Integration time: Time allowed for light impingement on a given sensor cell.

Lag: Persistence of image charge over subsequent frames.

Lumen: The amount of luminous flux on a 1-square-foot area of a 1-foot radius sphere cast by a 1-cd light source at the center.

Luminance: Indicates the light intensity without the color.

Luminous flux: Luminous power per unit area.

Marking: Regional degradation of an electron tube from excessive exposure.

Moire effect: Interference between the spatial frequency of the sensor structure and spatial frequencies in the image.

MTF: Modulation transfer function. The signal output of the sensor in response to a standard test pattern consisting of sinusoidal variations in gray-level density over a range of frequencies.

NTSC: National Television Systems Committee. A standard observed by the U.S.A., Canada, Japan, and most countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Nyquist limit: Upper limit of spatial resolution based on the spatial frequency of the placement of sensor elements.

PAL: Phase Alternation Line. A system in which the subcarrier phase is inverted from one raster line to the next. A standard observed by most European countries.

Pixel: Picture element or sensor element or photosite.

Pixel blemish: A pixel is blemished if it has a response not within an acceptable percentage of the average.

Resolution: Number of image lines per frame height with a contrast above or equal to 50 percent.

Response: Amplitude of output voltage per unit of light exposure.

Response nonuniformity: Difference in response between the most and least sensitive regions of the sensor under uniform illumination, expressed as a percentage of the average.

Saturation: Maximum amount of charge stored by a given sensor cell.

Saturation voltage: Maximum output voltage for sensor saturation.

SECAM: Systeme Electronique Couleur Avec Memoire. A standard observed by France and most Eastern bloc countries.

Sensitivity: Minimum illumination required to generate a usable signal.

Spectral range: Portion of the light spectrum over which the sensor has a response above 10 percent of the peak-to-peak voltage.

168 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

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Inquiry 217

Lomas Data Products

182 Cedar Hill Street, Marlboro, MA 01752,617/460-0333 TELEX 4

MACHINE VISION

Table 1: Commercially available cameras and their features.

Vendor

Camera

Sensor

Resolution

MTF

Minimum Illumination

Signal/ Noise

Pixel Size

Gamma

Circon

749 Ward Dr.

Santa Barbara, CA 93111

(OUb) yb/-U4U4

MV 9015-H

MOS array 648 (H) x 485 (V)

480 lines (H), 330 lines (V)

20 lux with fl.6 lens

42 dB

1.0 or 0.45 selectable

Cohu Inc.

Electronics Division 5755 Kearny Villa Rd. POB 85623

San Diego, CA 92138-5623 (619) 277-6700

Model 4600

Interline transfer CCD 384 (H) x 490 (V)

285 lines (H), 480 lines (V)

50 dB

0.45 or 1.0 selectable

Cohu Inc.

Electronics Division 5755 Kearny Villa Rd. POB 85623

San Diego, CA 92138-5623 (619) 277-6700

Model 5402

Vidicon

E5405

(Chalnicon

E5415

option)

Center 900 lines (H), corner 600 (H)

1 lux

54 dB

NA

0.5 to 1.0 adjustable

EG&G Reticon

345 Potrero Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086-9930 (408) 738-4266

MC9256

MOS

photodiode array 256

x256

60 dB

Fairchild CCD Imaging

3440 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 (415) 493-8001

CCD3000

Interline transfer CCD 380 (H) x 488 (V)

285 lines (H), 488 lines (V)

cnn/„ OUU/0

(CTF) at 488 lines (V)

20 lux with fl.4 lens

5U OB

l.U

Fairchild CCD Imaging

CCD

3440 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 (415) 493-8001

CCD 4001

Interline transfer CCD 256 (H)x 256 (V)

General Electric

890 7th North St. Liverpool, NY 13088

TN 2509

CID 260 (H) x 253

(V)

80% at limiting resolution

50 dB at saturation

28x28 nm

1.0

Hitachi Denshi America Ltd.

175 Crossways Park West Woodbury, NY 11797 (516) 921-7200

KP-120

MOS array 320 (H) x 244 (V)

240 lines (H), 190 lines (V)

5 lux with fl.4 lens

49 dB

Imagerie, Industrie, Systeme

(I2S)

239 rue du Jardin-Public 33300 Bordeaux, France (56) 29-10-03

IS 400

Frame transfer CCD 384 (H) x 576 (V)

3 lux

68 dB

23 x 23

1.0

170 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

MACHINE VISION

Response

Geometric

Output

Power

Uniformity

Distortion

Signal

Weight

Consumption

no-1 /U

17D n

I iu g

in w

IU vv

(camera

head)

RS-170

511 g

5.5 W

0.5%

RS-170,

450 g

24 W

CCIR

(camera

head)

± 10% at

Clock rate

340 g

5 W

saturation

525 kHz to

8 MHz at

+ 1V or

RS-170 with

MB9000data

formatter

RS-170

1 kg

RS-170

1 kg

RS-170

383 g

2.5 W

RS-170

400 g

5 W

±5%

RS-170, CCIR, 6-bit digital

standard in the vertical axis.

One point that complicates evaluating resolution is that the host computer may digitize the output signal at a rate inconsistent with camera resolution.

Noteworthy Cameras

Table 1 lists a selection of commercially available cameras. As anyone who has worked from manufacturers' specification sheets knows, however, the information provided by one manufacturer is not always readily comparable to the information provided by another manufacturer. Therefore, to help you evaluate the different cameras, I want to mention some aspects of particular cameras that we at Analog Devices have found particularly desirable for machine vision.

The GE cameras use a proprietary charge injection device (C1D) sensor that contains an array of column-row addressed MOS sensor cells. The camera can be applied effectively with strobe lighting to capture transient events like moving objects. You can inhibit normal destructive readout of the camera's sensor until the event occurs, when light from the strobe generates the signal charge. Releasing the inhibit signal allows you to read out the signal. Another application of the inhibit feature is to extend the integration period of the sensor longer than the normal 50 or 60 Hz standard frame time. Extended integration allows you to accumulate more charge where scene lighting is low. With a format of 260 horizontal by 2 53 vertical pixels, the TN2 509 camera has a symmetric aspect ratio and linear response.

For high resolution in a solid-state camera, VSP labs has the SC500 with 604 horizontal by 576 vertical photo elements. The sensor is a CCD array with high sensitivity in the blue region and a 1:1 aspect ratio.

1TM Corporation's Model 5000 Datavision has excellent response linearity and a typical spatial uniformity (response nonuniformity) of about 4 percent. The Model 5000 features

[continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 171

MACHINE VISION

Vendor

Camera

Sensor

Resolution

MTF

Minimum Illumination

Signal/ Noise

Pixel Size

Gamma

Image Technology Methods Corp.

103 Moody St. Waltham, MA 02154 (617) 894-1720

Model 5000

Datavision

CCD 384 (H) x 491 (V)

280 lines (H), 350 lines (V)

3 lux with f1.4 lens, without IR filter

45 dB

23 (H) x 13.4 (V) iim

1.0

Javelin Electronics

19831 Magellan Dr. Torrance, CA 90502 (213) 327-7440

JE-2062

MOS array 384 (H) x 485 (V)

500 lines (H)

30 lux with f1.4 lens

43 dB

0.45

Panasonic Industrial Co.

One Panasonic Way Secaucus, NJ 07094 (201) 348-7000

WV-CD10

CPD 404 (H) x 256 (V)

280 lines (H), 190 lines (V)

10 lux with f1.4 lens, IR filter

46 dB

Physitec Corp. 206 Main St. Norfolk, MA 02056 (617) 528-4100

43-0031

Frame transfer CCD 604 (H) x 575 (V)

0.1 lux

10 (H) x 15.6 (V) urn

Dl II M!V AaUjh»l«« Ihm

PULNiX America Inc.

453-F Ravendale Dr. Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 964-0955

TM-34K

Interline transfer CCD 384 (H)x491 (V)

280 lines (H), 350 lines (V)

3 lux with f1.4 lens

45 dB

23 (H) x 13.4 (V) fim

RCA

Closed Circuit Video

Equipment New Holland Ave. Lancaster, PA 17604 (717) 397-7661

TC2900

CCD 403 (H) x 512 (V)

50% at 200 lines (H)

0.025 lux

52 dB

0.5 to 1.0 adjustable

Sanyo

Industrial Video Division 1200 W. Artesia Blvd. Compton, CA 90220 (213) 537-5830

VDC3800

Frame transfer CCD 572 (H)x 485 (V)

420 lines (H), 400 lines (V)

2 lux with f1.4 lens

46 dB

Sierra Scientific Corp.

2189 Leghorn St. Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 969-9315

DAV-26

Plumbicon (other tubes available)

1000 lines (H), 700 lines (V)

20% at 1000 lines (H)

3 lux

36 dB typical

NA

Sony Component Products Division

15 Essex Rd. Paramus, NJ 07652 (201) 368-5001

XC-38

Interline transfer CCD 384 (H) x 491 (V)

3 lux with f1.4 lens, without IR filter

46 dB

23 (H) x 28 (V) am

Video Logic Corp.

597 North Mathilda Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 245-8622

CDR-460

Interline transfer CCD 384 (H) x 491 (V)

250 lines (H), 350 lines (V)

3 lux

46 dB

23 (H) x 13.4 (V) lim

VSP Labs Inc. 670 Airport Blvd. Ann Arbor, Ml 48104 (313) 769-5522

SC500

Frame transfer CCD 604 (H) x 576 (V)

400 lines (H), 400 lines (V)

70% at 400 lines

20 lux with f1.4 lens

30 dB

10 x 15.6 urn

1.0 or 0.6 option

172 BYTE' JANUARY 1986

MACHINE VISION

Response Uniformity

Geometric Distortion

Output Signal

Weight

Power

Consumption

4% typical

RS-170,

8-bit

digital

1.36 kg

RS-170, CCIR

300 g

2 W

RS-170

600 g

6.8 W

CCIR

RS-170

122 g

RS-170

900 g

7.2 W

RS-170

5 W

10% peakto-peak

1.0%

RS-170

5 9 kg

100 w

RS-170

115 g

2.3 W

RS-170

545 g

RS-170

1 kg

standard RS-170 output with an optional 8-bit digital output at 7 MHz.

Another notable camera for robot vision is the I2S IS400. The sensor is a 384 horizontal by 574 vertical frame transfer CCD array with symmetric photo elements. Output, options include RS-170, CCIR, or 6-bit digitized data at TTL levels. The outstanding feature of the 1S400 is the Monoshot, or image-gating, mode. Monoshot allows the host to trigger the start of charge integration and control the time period of charge integration. With integration periods possible from 3 to 100 milliseconds, you can use the camera to capture moving objects under good lighting conditions or to image static scenes under poor illumination.

Expectations

We are reaching the performance limitations of RS-170 arid CCIR standards as sensor resolution improves. With the price of flash converters coming down, it would make sense to design cameras for machine vision with the converter in the camera—as close to the sensor as possible—to minimize signal noise and degradation. A multidrop bus with camera select and handshake would enable the host computer to select one of several cameras on the bus and send commands. Data would be received as a serial byte stream. Useful commands might include window coordinates where only a subregion of the scene is of interest, programmable gain, subsampling rate, or variable integration time.

Feature and distance gauging requires that pixel cells be symmetrical in both horizontal and vertical axes, and most sensor manufacturers recognize this. Sensitivity, dynamic range, and uniformity are improving as weight, power consumption, and package size decrease.

In the future, we hope to have the ability to perform pixel processing at the sensor level. Operations like edge enhancement or even object detection could be performed before the data is passed to the host, thus lowering traffic on the bus. ■

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 173

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174 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

make us Progressive.

PC SYSTEMS

AT&T PC 6300

640K, 2 drives, monochrome monitor/adapter,

DOS/BASIC $1998

640K, 2 drives, color monitor/adapter, DOS/BASIC $8496 640K, 1 drive, 10MB hard disk, DOS/BASIC $8998

ATGT PC 6300 PLUS

25% faster than IBM's AT CALL FOR BI8I PEICE.

IBM PC

256K, 2 drives, monochrome/printer adapter

Sf monitor $8198

256K, 2 drives, color/graphics adapter & monitor $2498

256K, 2 drives, 10MB internal hard disk $8396

IBM PC XT

256K, 2 drives, monochrome/printer adapter

G? monitor $8898

256K, 2 drives, color/graphics adapter & monitor $8899

286K, 2 drives, 10MB internal hard disk $8898

256K, 2 drives, 20MB internal hard disk $8B9B

IBM PC COMPATIBLE

256K, 2 drives, 8 slots, 135w power supply $998

2S6K, 1 drive, 10MB, 8 slots, 13Sw power supply $1898 These systems are brand new, shipped fully tested and burned in, fully warranteed for ninety days AND ARE ALWAYS IN STOCK! All system orders include our PC Utilities Package at no extra charge!

PRINTERS

EPSON

FX-85 (160 cps narrow carriage NLQ dot matrix) $369

PX-185 (160 cps wide carriage NLQ dot matrix).. . $809

LX-80 (100 cps narrow carriage NLQ dot matrix) $849

JX-80 (160 cps narrow carriage color dot matrix) $886

LQ-1500(LQ dot matrix w/parallel interface) $998

DX-10, 20, 35 (new EPSON daisywheels) .. OH SPiOIALI

OKTDATA

ML 192 (160 cps narrow carriage dot matrix) .... $899

ML 193 (160 cps wide carriage dot matrix) $839

PACEMARK 2410 (350 cps wide carriage

dotmatrix) $1898

CANON

LBP-8A1 (8 ppm, better than HP) 98198

FW-1080A( 160 ops dot matrix) $389

PJ-1080A (32 cps color printer) $849

TOSHIBA

P-351 (198 cps wide carriage LQ dot matrix) $1098

P-1340 (180 cps narrow carriage LQ dot matrix) .. $898 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

TI-855 (150 cps narrow carriage LQ dot matrix) CALL BROTHER

HR-15+ (17 cps narrow carriage letter quality) .. $398

HR-85 (23 cps wide carriage letter quality) $880

HR-35 (32 cps wide carriage letter quality) $7BB

M-1509 (180 cps, wide carriage NLQ, S6?P

Dot Matrix) CALL

C. ITOH

Starwriter (40 cps letter quality) $898

Printmaster (55 cps letter quality) $1198

NEC

Pinwriter P-2 6? P-3 CALL

Spinwriter 2050, 3550, 8850 CALL

Ask about our full line of tractors and cut sheet feeders!

PLOTTERS

We carry all HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS and HEWLETTPACKARD plotters

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

HALF-HEIGHT 360K (PC/XT/AT compatible) $119

HALF-HEIGHT 1.2MB (PC/XT/AT compatible) $139

MISC. HARDWARE

POLAROID Palette (Makes color slides from your PC's

screen) $1398

ORCHID PC Turbo ( adds 8MHz processor, multitasking to

PC) from $649

KEYTRONIC KB 5151 6? 5153 keyboards CALL

MOUSE SYSTEMS Optical PC MOUSE w/PAINT 9188

MICROSOFT Serial or Bus mouse w/Mouse Menu) . $186

GIS Power Back-ups (SPS'and UPS') CALL

QUADRAM Microfazer Printer Buffer from $138

CURTIS System accessories CALL

HARD DISK DRIVES

Internal atiosmb $8996

PC/XT 10MB . . . from $489 AT 140MB $3398

AT 30MB $898 AT 190MB $4396

pc/xt 2omb $848 External

AT 30MB $898 PC/XT 10MB $696

PC/XT 30MB $998 PC/XT 80MB $946

AT 85MB $1996 380MB $6996

We proudly offer what we think are the best price/performance hard disk and streaming tape sub-systems available. We will gladly test and format any hard disk we sell at a nominal charge. Our line includes: ALLOY, BERNOULLI TECHNOLOGY, CIPHER DATA, DMA, EMERALD SYSTEMS, EPSON, GENOA, IRWIN, MAXTOR, PEACHTREE TECHNOLOGIES, PRIAM, QUADRAM, RODIME, SYSGEN, TALLGRASS, TULIN and WANGTEK

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We carry the finest quality multifunction boards at prices too low to mention. We are factory authorized centers for the top names in the industry. Our volume buying allows us to set the most competitive prices anywhere. Call us for the lowest prices a full service distributor can give you.

MODEMS

CHIPS

64K (nine chips) 910 188K (AT RAM) $36

8087 (coprocessor).. $189 2 56K (jr & AT boards) $36 80887 (coprocessor) $199

CALL FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS

GRAPHICS CARDS

We carry a variety of display adapters. So, call us if you don't see the one you want or need help choosing. GENOA

Spectrum (High res color £? Mono) $889

AT&T

Enhanced Display Adapter (runs 640x400 w/ a palette of 16,000 colors on AT&T's Hi Res color monitor ... GALL HERCULES

Graphics Card (Lotus compatible monochrome

graphics) 8389

Color Graphics Card (Short-slot color card w/par) $179 PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card & Multi-Display Card from $899 TEC MAR

Graphics Master (640x400 16 colors and

monographics) $489

PERSYST

BoB Board (clear text on a color monitor) $489

TSENG LABS

UltraPAK (132 col. mono graphics, ser, par, C/C)... $439

MONITORS

AMDEK

300G a 300A (Green or Amber,

composite video monitors) $189/9139

310A (Amber TTL input, non-glare tube) 8189

COLOR 600 (13" 640x840 RGB w/textbutton, audio) $488

COLOR 700 (13" 780x480 RGB w/.31mm dot) $478

COLOR 710 (13" 780x480 RGB, non-glare,/flicker) $B76

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

PGS MAX-18 (Amber TTL input, non-glare tube) .. $189

PGS HX-18 (690x480 RGB w/.31mm dot) $449

PGSSR-12 (690x480 non-interlaced RGB w/.31 dot) $895 QUADRAM

Amberchrome (Amber TTL monochrome) $149

Quadchrome (690x480, .31mm dot pitch) $489

Quadchrome II (same as IBM Color Monitor) $389

TAXAN

New 600 Series high res color monitor GALL

We carry WYSE and KIMTRON terminals, call for prices.

PROTOCOL CONVERSION

We carry all AST and DCA products, call for prices.

HAYES

Hayes 1200 (external 300/1200, auto answer/dial) .. $419 Hayes 1200B (internal 300/1200, w/Smartoom II) .. $379

Hayes 8400 (New external 2400 baud modem) $678

DCA

New Fastlink 10KB modem from $1898

ANCHOR AUTOMATION

Signalman Mark XII (1200 baud at 300 baud price) $889 We also carry modems by AST RESEARCH, BIZCOMP, PENRLL, QUADRAM, RLXON, VENTEL — please call for current pricing.

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We carry all the best names including 3COM, AST RESEARCH, FOX, IBM, and ORCHID TECHNOLOGIES. Call our Networking Applications experts to design a costeffective device-sharing networked layout for your office! Regional ON-SITE installation and training available.

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We sell and support the finest computer aided drafting/ design packages available. Eegional ON-SITE installation and training available.

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VERBATIM

Single sided/Single density: 10/984

Double sided/Double density: 10/829

DYSAN

Double sided/Double density: 10/529

High density AT diskettes: 10/889

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High density AT diskettes: 10/999

PMD

Double sided/Double density 10/$18

100/8199 100/9849

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100/$8(9 100/9189

SOFTWARE

Inquiry 292

LOTUS Symphony 9449

MICROSOFT Excel CALL

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409

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WORD PROCESSING FANCY FONT S159

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ROBOTICS

ROBOTIC TACTILE SENSING

by Kirk E. Pennywitt

Coming to grips with tactile sensors

TODAY'S INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS perform a variety of tasks, and robotic applications are steadily increasing. Nevertheless, robots currently in use are quite primitive; at best, they possess only a rudimentary awareness of their surroundings. As a result, they are generally limited to performing precisely defined tasks in a highly structured environment.

The controlled environment of a factory floor is considerably different from the unstructured and complex world in which most humans live and work. The robots of the future should be able to adapt to any work environment because it is often not practical to adapt the environment to them. Robots of the future should also be able to work with the same tools and equipment—conventional wrenches, hammers, pliers, screwdrivers, and so on—that human workers use. For robots to achieve these goals and attain more widespread use, they must be equipped with more sophisticated sensory capabilities that resemble those of a human.

Of the five human senses, only vision and touch are really required for a successful and adaptable robot. (Although hearing could be useful for

the reception of oral commands by a robot, it is not a truly necessary capability. The use of ultrasonic ranging techniques has been investigated for proximity sensing, but interference from the loud noises common in an industrial environment remains an obstacle.)

VISION AND TOUCH

The capabilities of vision and touch are generally seen as complementary for most future robotic applications. Vision is obviously important for object identification and obstacle avoidance. It is considered a prerequisite process for locating, positioning, and identifying objects and also as a proximity sensor for the robot hand or end effector. Touch, or tactile sensing, then takes over for subsequent manipulations in which force, pressure, and compliance are important factors.

For many applications, the sense of touch is often considered more important than vision during manipulation. A robot must be able to judge when contact is made with an object and know how much force is being exerted upon that object.

A robot should also be able to

determine when slip is beginning to occur and when the object is positioned properly in its intended location. In the past, greater attention has been devoted to visual sensing, but robotic touch is now beginning to attract more attention.

In this article I will provide an overview of robotic touch sensing, some of its problems, and some of the more promising approaches.

Tactile Sensing

In robotic applications, we are concerned with tactile sensing, or taction. rather than simple touch. The term taction was coined by the late Professor Leon D. Harmon of Case Western Reserve University, one of the pioneers of tactile-sensing research.

Tactile sensing is defined as the continuous sensing of variable contact forces, commonly by an array of sensors. This sensing should be capable

(continued)

Kirk E. Pennywitt is a research engineer at Georgia Tech Research Institute (Electronics and Computer Systems Lab, Command and Control Division, Atlanta, GA 30332). He works in the areas of computer-based decision support systems, videodisc and computergraphic software, and robotic tactile sensing.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 177

TACTILE SENSING

of being performed within an arbitrary three-dimensional space. This distinguishes taction from touch, or binary sensing, which is simple contact or force sensing at a single point. Tactile sensing generally refers to skinlike properties where areas of force-sensitive and displacement-sensitive surfaces are capable of report

ing graded signals and parallel patterns of touching.

Tactile sensing may be viewed as a two-step process: (1) transduction and (2) data processing. Transduction occurs when the features of an object being examined are converted into signals of some form, as in the case of the translation of forces into elec

trical impulses. Data processing then interprets these signals to obtain useful information about the features of interest.

Since it is often stated that a robotic tactile sensor should have capabilities similar to that of human touch sensing, we should briefly examine human tactile perception.

Kinesthesia versus Cutaneous Responses

Human tactile perception consists of two separate and distinct components: cutaneous and kinesthetic responses. The cutaneous response conveys touch, force, slip, and temperature information via the sensitive nerve arrays on the fingertips. This type of capability is what is usually thought of when considering robotic tactile sensing.

The kinesthetic response plays a very significant role in the sense of touch. Kinesthesia is the sensing of limb and joint position. It includes both afferent incoming signals developed at muscles and joints and efferent outgoing signals that are motor muscle action commands.

The combined cutaneous and kinesthetic senses are sometimes referred to as haptic perception. Together, cutaneous and kinesthetic stimulation allow a person to perceive objects of three dimensions and events in three-dimensional space.

Cutaneous sensations provide the perception of texture and details of shape. Kinesthesia allows the detection of larger contours and enables a person to control exploratory movements. Cutaneous stimulation and kinesthesia must work together for an organism (or robot) to be able to actively explore and perceive its tactile environment. Current research in robotic taction focuses almost exclusively on the cutaneous aspects of touch. Since a satisfactory approach to the development of a cutaneouslike sensor has yet to be achieved, it is perhaps premature to be overly concerned with the lack of attention devoted to the kinesthetic aspects of touch sensing. However, it is impor

[contimed\

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IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 179

TACTILE SENSING

tant to realize that both of these components should be integrated to develop a successful robotic tactile sensor.

Cutaneous sensations are conveyed by the skin. The skin's structure, sensitivity, and density of nerve-sensing sites vary considerably over the extent of the human body. Within the hand, the sensitivity may vary by an order of magnitude from the palm to the fingertip. The properties and sensory capabilities of fingertip skin most closely resemble those desired for robotic tactile sensors.

Tactile Resolution

Estimates of the spatial resolution of the fingertips vary from 0.8 to about 3 millimeters. The coarser estimates are based on two-point threshold tests, where two sharp points are pressed against the skin and the minimum separation distance re

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quired to determine that two points are being applied is measured. With this method, estimates of spatial resolution range from 2 to 3 mm.

Other methods of determining resolution include detecting gaps in a surface applied to the finger, determining the orientation of a fine grating, and identifying the forms of alphabetic characters. The last three methods yield resolution estimates closer to 0.8 mm. The higher resolutions obtained in these latter examples seems to indicate that when larger touch areas are involved, additional information is obtained that allows finer perceptions.

Tactile acuity is more than just a function of the sensory unit density. It also depends on the relative portion of the brain devoted to tactile representations and on the structure of the skin itself. It has been demonstrated that the brain region devoted

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to tactile processing can change and in turn alter tactile acuity.

Experiments on monkeys show that upon loss of a finger, the brain region devoted to the remaining fingers grows to include the region previously devoted to the amputated finger. The tactile acuity for the remaining fingers improves substantially. Moreover, the role of any individual nerve cell is believed unimportant; rather, networks of thousands of cells provide tactile response.

In addition, the structure of fingertip skin, particularly the papillary ridges (the raised ridges on the fingertips that produce fingerprints), may contribute to tactile perception. During fine movements of the fingers, the ridges create vibratory effects that propagate through the various skin layers, adding to tactile pattern recognition. These phenomena illustrate that the data-processing aspects of tactile sensing should be considered at least as important as the transduction concerns.

Tactile Sensing versus Vision

Tactile sensing is analogous to visual sensing in many respects. Both sample continuous signals over a two- or three-dimensional space and share a common model of the outside world. Both must employ pattern-recognition techniques to interpret the spatially sampled pattern representations of their environment. These similarities may allow tactile sensing to derive benefits from the considerably greater effort that has already been devoted to visual sensing.

However, taction has many advantages over vision for physical manipulation tasks, which, of course, include almost all commercial and industrial applications. With taction, the physical properties being directly measured are those we are most interested in— object position, shape, texture, surface detail, and so on. Vision can infer these properties only indirectly by deducing them from optical properties (shading, projection, reflectivity, etc.).

[continued)

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 181

TACTILE SENSING

The collection of tactile data is more readily controlled because the sensor is generally in actual physical contact with the object being examined. This eliminates potential problems involving uneven illumination, confusing background image information, or camera point-of-view constraints. There is also potentially less data to analyze in a tactile versus a visual representation. A tactile sensor is obviously ideal for pressure, slip, and incipient-slip detection as well.

On the other hand, tactile sensing involves several unique problems. With vision, the three-dimensional reconstruction of the object (based on the two-dimensional camera image) may be done by a powerful central processor that is remote from the sensor.

For taction to be useful, you must be able to actively manipulate and explore the object being examined. This

requires not only the transduction to be performed at the object site but a large amount of real-time data processing to be performed there as well.

Because a visual sensor is remote from the subject at all times, it faces only moderate constraints on physical size and placement. However, a tactile sensor is normally an integral component of a robot end effector and thus must conform to strict size and shape constraints. In addition, the sensor itself must be capable of resisting abrasion, heat, and chemicals present in the industrial environment.

Requirements of a Tactile Sensor

The exact requirements of a particular tactile sensor depend on its specific application. However, there is a consensus among actual and potential robot users on the capabilities a generalpurpose tactile sensor should possess.

The most commonly stated requirement is that the sensor be skinlike. It should exhibit high sensitivity, fast response time, continuously variable signal output, and low power consumption. It should also be cheap and durable.

The ideal end effector should be handlike. Touch, force, pattern, slip, and movement detection should all occur in one device. Forces transferred to the support structure should be used for analyzing larger signals (kinesthetic versus cutaneous sensing). Finally, the hand should be intrinsically "smart." That is, a significant amount of data preprocessing should be done at or near the sensor. Lowlevel data processing should take place at the sensor level, including detection of information regarding edges, holes, etc.

Most surveys of industrial robot

(continued)

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"The file manager is great. It's a step above the old DOS system. You don't have to remember commands and you don't have to read the manual."

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Concurrent PC DOS is a trademark and Digital Research is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. PhoneXpress is a trademark of Applied Voice Technology,

M DIGITAL RESEARCH*

We make computers work."

182

BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 103

I Program In BetterBASIC Ana I Recommend It!'

"Lifeboat Associates," has expanded its philosophy of endorsing structured programming languages to include a truly superior product—BetterBASIC. More than just a BASIC, BetterBASIC offers use of the full memory of the computer, true procedures and functions, modularity and more. BetterBASIC has the advantages of the C language on which Lifeboat built its reputation and appeals to the wide audience of programmers who already program in BASIC. I liked BetterBASIC so much, I decided "Lifeboat" should publish it. I program in BetterBASIC and I recommend it."

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INTERACTIVE BetterBASIC acts like an interpreter because it responds to the users' commands in an immediate mode. However each statement is actually compiled as it is entered. COMPILED Each line of the program is compiled as it is entered into the computer's memory rather than interpreted at runtime. RUNTIME SYSTEM The optional Runtime System generates stand alone EXE. files allowing for the distribution of products

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BetterBASIC is a registered trademark of Summit Software Technology Inc. IBM PC, XT, AT, are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Tandy is a registered trademark of Tandy Corp. Btrieve is a registered trademark of SoftCraft Inc.

(If you're using BetterBASIC and would like to be featured in one of our ads, please write to the Director of Advertising at Summit.) Inquiry 341 JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 183

TACTILE SENSING

Prosthetic and

orthotic needs for

an important use for manipulators and tactile sensors.

users indicate that the spatial resolution required for a useful tactile sensor is approximately 1 mm. For a manipulator of the same approximate size as a human fingertip, this implies a sensor array of from 5 by 10 to 10 by 20 elements.

The sensor should have a sensitivity on the order of 1 gram and should have an upper-limit capability of approximately 1000 grams. (A logarithmic response would be satisfactory for most users.) Nonlinearity in the response of the sensor is generally tolerable because it can be compensated for in the data-processing software. Hysteresis in the sensing device, however, is absolutely intolerable. (Hysteresis is a characteristic of many materials whereby a physical parameter, such as electrical response, varies markedly depending on whether the phenomenon on which it depends is increasing or decreasing.)

A sensor's response should be stable and repeatable, and its response time should be short. The sensor transduction bandwidth requirements vary from 100 to 1000 hertz. That is, the data from the sensor should be updated at least every 10 milliseconds and preferably every 1 millisecond. (It is interesting to note that human touch is fairly hysteretic and that the transduction bandwidth ranges from 20 Hz for separate touches to several hundred Hz for vibration sensing.) The sensor must also be durable and capable of withstanding the rigors of an industrial environment.

Applications for tactile sensors include manipulation, teleoperation, and prosthetic and orthotic needs. Industrial uses include assembly, casting and molding, forging, grinding and polishing, heat treating, machining, painting, pouring, sorting, stacking, transporting, and welding. Many agencies, particularly the military, have uses requiring robots with tactile sensing capabilities. These include undersea exploration and salvage, prospecting, space-station operations, mining, and hazardous factory, power plant, and rescue operations.

Tactile sensing is ideally suited for use in obscured environments, such as murky water and smoky rooms. Teleoperated manipulators require accurate force feedback, stable grasping, position sensing, detection of slip, and light touch. This area of sensing has received surprisingly little significant attention.

Prosthetic and orthotic needs for the handicapped are another important use for manipulators and tactile sensors. These include artificial limbs for the amputee and sensing and assist devices for the paralyzed. The requirements for prosthetic and or-, thotic aids are primarily the same as for teleoperation: stable grasping, light touch, slip detection, and so on.

Half of the estimated 7,500,000 disabled persons in the U.S. could probably be helped to some degree with presently available robotics technology.

Despite the considerable list of needs for effective touch sensing, the present state of the art remains extremely primitive. Automated tactile sensing is at a very early stage of investigation, comprehension, and capability. Until very recently, touch feedback systems for robots and manipulators were quite simple and relatively crude.

Today's industrial systems still employ extremely simple devices; almost all of the more sophisticated, complex, and potentially useful tactile sensors are still in laboratory development, primarily in the academic or government environment (see table 1).

However, the transition from simple contact sensing to full robotic taction is under way. A great deal of research is currently being devoted to tactile sensing, and many promising approaches are being investigated.

Approaches

The design of a tactile sensor is influenced by its intended use. The major applications for tactile sensors can be divided into three general categories:

1. Simple pressure determination and slip sensing. These capabilities are necessary for the most common industrial applications of handling a workpiece without damage.

2. Determination of object orientation and position. This is required for more complex and unstructured applications, such as picking an object from a bin, orienting it into a new position, and assembling it with other objects.

3. Object identification or recognition. This feature is necessary for advanced applications in which a robot may be working in a totally unknown environment (such as undersea exploration) and may be required to classify or identify an object based solely on tactile sensations.

Each of these applications involves a different design approach and different computational requirements. The first application is technically the simplest to implement, and industry has found several workable approaches to it. The latter two applications are the most challenging, and it is on these applications that most of the current laboratory research is focused.

The mainstream of current tactile sensor research can be divided into three broad categories, distinguished by their fundamental principles of operation: sensors using electrooptical, piezoresistive, or piezoelectric properties.

Electro-Optic Tactile Sensors

Electro-optic sensors rely on the modulation of a light source by the

(continued)

184 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

TACTILE SENSING

Table 1: A comparison of robotic tactile sensors and their characteristics.

Sensor

Principle

Spatial Resolution

Bandwidth

Force Sensitivity

Load Range

Status

Advantages

Disadvantages

Ideal Sensor

(Harmon

Compilation)

1 mm

100-1000 Hz

1 gm

1-1000 gm

Hasn't been

invented

yet

General-purpose, no hysteresis, high resolution

None

Lord Tactile Sensor

Optic

1.8-7.6 mm

300 Hz

3 gm

0-681 gm

Commercial

Durable, little

electromagnetic

interference

Individual LED/ detector for each site limits ultimate resolution

MIT Sensor

Schneiter/

Sheridan

Optic

0.6 mm

30 Hz

N.A

18:1

dynamic range

Experimental

Very high spatial resolution possible, little electromagnetic interference

Possibly high computational requirement, limited durability at present

Tactile Robotic Systems

Optic

2.5 mm

12 Hz

0.04 gm

256:1

dynamic

range

Commercial

Low hysteresis, relatively inexpensive devices available

for

experimentation

Still relatively experimental

MIT SensorPurbrick

Conductive

silicone

rubber

2 mm

40 Hz

5 gm

5-100 gm

Experimental

Simple,

inexpensive

design

High hysteresis, nonlinearity

MIT SensorHillis

Aniso

tropically

conductive

silicone

rubber

0.6 mm

N.A.

5 gm

5-50 gm

Experimental

High resolution,

inexpensive

design

Hysteresis problems

Barry Wright Corporation Sensoflex Tactile Sensor

Conductive elastomer

1.3 mm

30 Hz

230 gm

200-50,000 gm

Commercial

Relatively low hysteresis, durable, wide load range, high repeatability

Relatively low sensitivity

Transensory Devices Inc.

Silicon

strain

gauge

2 mm

N.A.

10 gm

10-1000 gm

Commercial

Mature

technology, low hysteresis, high repeatability

Fragile, brittle

University of Florida Induced Vibration Tactile Sensor

Piezoelectric

0.3 mm* (not yet real-time)

1 Hz

Not tested

Not tested

Experimental

Inexpensive, good for slip detection or exploration

No static response, highly experimental

University of Pisa Sensor

Piezoelectric

3 mm

100 Hz

20 gm

20-80,000 gm

Experimental

Multipurpose temperature, vibration, and pressure sensing

Static response requires increasec complexity of design

" Single-element sensor, high-resolution capability based on vibrational design concept. N.A.: Information not available.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 185

TACTILE SENSING

mechanical deformation of a flexible material. An elastic membrane often forms the touch surface and is usually chosen to be tough and durable. This type of sensor is generally a completely sealed unit and is thus impervious to most industrial contaminants.

Electro-optic tactile sensors may also be highly sensitive, providing a direct readout of the degree of mechanical deformation of their touch surface and are usually less susceptible to electromagnetic interference than other types of tactile sensors. Two tactile sensors based on electrooptics are commercially available, and they represent the two most common optical approaches.

The Lord Corporation of Erie, Pennsylvania, presently markets a line of tactile sensors designated as the LTS-100, LTS-200, and LTS-300. All are based on the same principle and differ primarily in sensing area and resolution. The Lord Tactile Sensor is made up of three major components: a touch surface, a transduction array, and an electronic interface and control.

The touch surface is an elastomeric pad that contacts an object to be ex

amined. The transduction medium consists of an array of LEDs (lightemitting diodes) and phototransistor pairs.

The light from the LED is projected across a small gap and is received and converted into an electrical current by the phototransistor. When the touch surface comes into contact with an object, a pinlike projection on the underside of the touch surface protrudes into the transduction area. This projection is forced downward into the gap between the light emitter and detector and progressively blocks the light from the LED emitter (see figure 1).

The current generated by the light detector is inversely proportional to the degree of deflection of the transduction medium. The amount of force applied at a site may be determined by the properties of the elastomeric touch surface.

The Lord LTS-100 sensor consists of an 8 by 8 array of LED/phototransistor pairs providing a total of 64 sensitive sites for pattern information. Each site is sensitive only to normal loads, and the electrical signal generated at each site is digitized to an 8-bit value to

provide gray-scale information.

Photo 1 shows the LTS-100 and a sample output image. The site-to-site spacing of this sensor is 7.62 mm, and the deflection range at each site is from 0 to 1.52 mm, corresponding to 0 to 681 grams. The 7.62-mm resolution of this sensor is relatively coarse, although its sensitivity of 3.18 grams per deflection increment is fairly good.

Deflection information for the entire array is scanned and output approximately every 3 milliseconds. The LTS-200A sensor provides higher resolution by using an array of 10 by 16 sensitive sites on 1.80-mm centers. However, these sites are only digitized to 4-bit values, which reduces their sensitivity.

The Lord sensor is a durable and rugged unit. However, since the design requires that each sensitive site be equipped with its own light emitter/receiver pair, which must be individually scanned, the ultimate resolution of the sensor is limited by the physical size of the sites and the complexity of the electronics required to interpret the signals received.

(continued)

Photo 1: LTS-100 sensor with display of tactile impression. Used with permission of lord Corporation, Erie, Pennsylvania.

ZERO DEFLECTION MODERATE DEFLECTION

Figure 1: Sensitive site detail of an electro-optic tactile sensor. Used with permission of Lord Corporation, Erie, Pennsylvania.

186 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

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300 LINES

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I I

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 187

TACTILE SENSING

A tactile sensor based on the use of fiber optics is illustrated by research performed at MIT by lohn L. Schneiter and Thomas B. Sheridan. In

this approach, light is transmitted through a bundle of fiber optics to an elastic reflective surface. The light reflected back from this surface is

LIGHT IN

LIGHT OUT

RUBBER SKIN WITH REFLECTIVE SURFACE

B—

OPTICAL FIBERS

COMPUTER

Figure 2: A tactile sensor based on the use of fiber optics, designed by lohn L. Schneiter and Thomas B. Sheridan. Reprinted from Robotics and ComputerIntegrated Manufacturing. Courtesy of Pergamon Press.

transmitted through another bundle of fiber optics to a video camera. The camera's output is digitized and made available to a computer for processing.

When pressure is applied to the deformable reflector, the intensity of the light transmitted through the individual fibers changes. This information can be converted into a visual image by the computer. (The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has developed a tactile sensor based on the same principle; however, the JPL sensor uses individual photodetectors for each of 16 fiber-optic sensors in a 4 by 4 array.)

The touch surface of the MIT sensor consists of a layer of white silicone rubber that acts as a deformable reflector. This layer is bonded to a layer of clear elastomer, to which the fiber-optic bundles are attached. Various methods of transmitting and receiving the light have been experimented with.

In one case, individual fibers were paired into emitting and receiving layers. This design, illustrated in figure

2, was somewhat difficult to fabricate because of the requirement that half the fibers be directed to the light source and the other half to the video camera.

A different design, shown in figure

3, uses each fiber for both emitting and receiving. In this implementation,

(continued)

TACTILE SENSOR

OPTICAL FIBER BUNDLE ■

COMPUTER

TELEVISION CAMERA

BEAM SPLITTER

□

LIGHT SOURCE

EPOXY

OPTICAL FIBERS —

REFLECTING SURFACE

WHITE SILICONE RUBBER

TRANSPARENT RUBBER

Figure 3: A fiber-optic-based tactile sensor that uses each fiber as both emitter and receiver. Reprinted from Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing. Courtesy of Pergamon Press.

188 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

TODAY IF YOU COME IN SECOND, YOU'VE LOST THE RACE.

It may have been good enough in a Soapbox Derby,® but these days there is no second place.

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Amiga can not only do many more tasks, it can do more of them at once. And work on all of them simultaneously While you're preparing the spreadsheet, Amiga will print the memo. And there's probably enough power left over to receive a phone message or a stock quote over a modem at the same time.

You won't find a computer fhafs easier to use, either. You point at symbols with the mouse or use keyboard commands if you prefer. Only Amiga is built to give you a choice.

Amiga has twice the memory of an IBM® PC. But although it can run rings around IBM, it will also run IBM programs. You have instant access to the largest collection of business software in the industry, including old sfandbys like Wordstar® and Lotus® 1,2,3. Amiga is more powerful than Macintosh,™ too, and more expandable. With an optional expansion module you can add memory up to 8 megabytes. And while it can do much more than Macintosh or IBM, Amiga costs less than either of them.

See an Authorized Amiga Dealer near you. Now that Amiga is here, the question isn't whether you can afford a computer, ifs whether you can afford to wait.

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Amiga's color graphics leave the competition far behind.

^ AMIGA GIVES YOU A CREATIVE EDGE.

® Soapbox Derby is a registered trademark of International Soapbox Derby, Inc.. Akron, Ohio.'" Amiga is o trademark of Commodore-Amiga. Inc. ® IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. ® Wordstar is a registered trademark of Micropro, Inc. ® Lotus is a registered trademark of Lotus Developmenl Corporation. " Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer, Inc. © 1985. Commodore Electronics Limited.

JANUARY 1986 - BYTE

189

TACTILE SENSING

light is directed from the light source to a beam splitter. At the beam splitter, 7 5 percent of the light is transmitted straight through and is lost. The other 25 percent is directed into the fiber-optic bundle and transmitted to the reflector. This light is then reflected from the reflector back into the bundle, where it again passes through the beam splitter (with 75 percent transmission) to the video camera. In this way, each fiber acts a both an emitter and a receiver, and fabrication is greatly simplified.

Because this type of sensor uses tightly packed bundles of optical fibers, extremely high spatial resolution is possible. The ultimate resolution of this type of device is limited only by the diameter of the individual optical fibers.

Schneiter and Sheridan have reported usable spatial densities of over 2100 sensitive sites per square

inch, which is roughly equal to a resolution of better than 0.6 mm. The device is also completely immune to electromagnetic interference and can be used in environments that would harm computers by simply routing the fibers from the sensor to a remote location.

The prototype device is currently limited by a reaction time of 33.33 milliseconds (based on the video camera refresh rate), a somewhat restricted dynamic range of 18 to 1, and a touch surface that wears out fairly rapidly (after a few hundred cycles). It is also important to note that very high spatial resolutions, like those attained in this design, often require increased computational requirements as well.

A commercial tactile sensor combining features of both the Lord and the MIT optical sensors is available from Tactile Robotic Systems of

Sunnyvale, California. The company's highest-resolution sensor consists of a 16 by 16 array of sensitive sites spaced approximately 1.3 mm apart. Each sensing site is composed of a very small cantilever spring that protrudes through a metal plate. An optical fiber passes beneath each sensing site.

The fiber has a small gap cut in it so that the two cut ends look at each other across a small air space. Light is passed through the fibers from an array of LEDs along one side of the sensor and is received by phototransistors along the opposite side. When pressure is applied to a sensing site, the cantilever spring pushes one end of the optical fiber out of alignment with the other fiber, thus diminishing the amount of light received by the photodetector at the opposite end of the fiber.

This arrangement is similar to the Lord approach, but it can provide a potentially higher spatial resolution because the light emitters and detectors are located along the sides, rather than within the interior, of the sensor array. Also, whereas the Lord sensor relies on the properties of its elastomer surface to provide the force-versus-displacement calibration, the Tactile Robotic Systems device uses the metal cantilever spring to provide a more stable and predictable spring constant.

The sensor can be calibrated to determine loads ranging from 10 to 1000 grams per sensing site. Each sensing site can resolve approximately 2 56 discrete steps, so the sensitivity of an individual site can be as high as 10/2 56 grams, or approximately 0.04 grams. The data response time of the sensor is restricted by the hardware and software of the personal computer it is interfaced to and is currently limited to a scan rate of 3 kHz for each site, or approximately 12 Hz over the entire array.

plezoresistive tactile Sensors

The category of piezoresistive tactile sensors is quite broad and includes

(continued)

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190 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

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192 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 243

TACTILE SENSING

a multitude of different device types and approaches. These range from simple strain gauges and solid-state silicon devices to conductive elastomers and foams. They are all included in this single category because all rely on materials whose electrical conductivity varies as pressure is applied.

The use of conductive elastomers as the basis for a tactile sensor has been studied for some time. A conductive elastomer is simply an elastic, rubberlike material that has electrically conductive properties. Many different conductive elastomer or conductive foam materials have been experimented with, but most sensor designs use an approach similar to that used by John Purbrick of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Purbrick noted that if a flat, hard conductor is pressed against another that is rounded and compressible, the area of the electrical contact will vary according to how hard the first conductor is pushed. The greater the pressure, the larger the contact area formed and the lower the electrical resistance.

Strings of conductive silicone rubber with a semicircular cross-section were formed into two identical sets of 16 parallel lines. These were aligned perpendicular to each other and placed into contact to form a 16 by 16 array. This created 256 nodes where the convex surfaces of both sets of cords touched. An automatic scanning system passed a current into the array along a horizontal string and out across a vertical string, one combination at a time.

It was possible to measure the resistance of each of the 2 56 contact points in the grid approximately 40 times per second. Purbrick's device was able to distinguish at least 10 different amounts of pressure in a range from 5 to 100 grams.

William D. Hillis, also of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, extended this approach by using sheets of a material known as anisotropically conductive silicone rubber (ACS). ACS has the useful property of being conductive along only one axis in the

plane of the sheet.

A flexible printed-circuit board was etched into fine parallel lines so that it, too, was conductive in only one direction. The etched-circuit board and the ACS were placed into contact, with the lines on the printed-circuit board oriented perpendicular to the ACS axis of conduction. The contact points at each intersection of the perpendicular conductors form the pressure sensors. A springy nylon mesh (made from pantyhose material) was used to separate the contacts after pressure was released.

The array was scanned electronically to determine the applied pressure at each contact point. Hillis's device was a 16 by 16 array over a 1-squarecentimeter area. It was able to reliably measure pressures ranging from 5 to

50 grams per square millimeter.

Barry Wright Corporation of Watertown, Massachusetts, markets a commercial tactile sensor based on the research of Purbrick and Hillis. However, the Barry Wright sensor uses a proprietary elastomer material, rather than silicone compounds.

The Sensoflex Tactile Sensor is currently available in two models, one made up of a 16 by 16 site array on 0.1-inch centers and the other an 8 by 16 array on 0.05-inch centers. The sensor is scanned on a row/column basis, and the output is digitized to an 8-bit value. The sensor can be scanned at rates up to 30 times per second and is designed for recommended loads ranging from 0 to 75 pounds per square inch. Barry Wright Corpora

{continued)

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 193

For Further

Cholakis, Peter N. "Tactile Sensing for End Effectors." SME Seminar on Robotic End Effectors, March 1984.

Dario, Paola, and Danilo De Rossi. "Tactile Sensors and the Gripping Challenge." IEEE Spectrum, August 1985.

Fox,). L. "The Brain's Dynamic Way of Keeping in Touch." Science, vol. 22 5, no. 4664, August 27, 1984, pages 820-821.

Hapgood, Fred. "Inside a Robotics Lab: The Quest for Automatic Touch." Technology Illustrated, April 1983, pages 18-22.

Harmon, Leon D. "Automated Tactile Sensing." The International \ournal of Robotics Research, vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1982.

Harmon, Leon D. "Touch Sensing Technology: A Review." Case Western Reserve University, SME Ttechnical Report MSR80-03. 1980.

Hillis, William Daniel. "Active Touch Sensing." Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, A.I. Memo 629, April 1981.

Kowalski, Carl. "Silicon Succeeds in Touch Sensing." Robotics Today. April 1985.

McMillan. William W. "The Robot's Sense of Touch: Some Lessons from Human Taction." Proceedings of the 1984

Information

Computer Science Conference. New York: The Association for Computing Machinery, February 1984. Nevill, G. E„ Jr., E. F. Schildwachter, and K. L. Doty. "Alternative Skin Geometries and Materials for Induced Vibration Touch Sensors." Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, June 1985.

Patterson, Robert W. "Development of a Dynamic Touch Sensor." Ph.D. Dissertation. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, 1985.

Purbrick, John A. "A Force Transducer Employing Conductive Silicone Rubber." First Robot Vision and Sensors Conference, 1981.

Rebman, J., and M. W. lull. "A Robust Tactile Sensor for Robotic Applications." Proceedings of the 1983 international Computers in Engineering Conference and Exhibit. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, August 1983.

Schneiter, John L„ and Thomas B. Sheridan. "An Optical Tactile Sensor for Manipulators." Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, vol. 1, no. 1, 1984, pages 65-71.

"Tactile Robotic Systems Inc. Product Information Sheet" and personal communication. Sunnyvale, CA: Tactile Robotic Systems Inc., August 21, 1985.

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194 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 22 for End-Users. Inquiry 23 for DEALERS ONLY.

TACTILE SENSING

tion, manufacturer of the Sensoflex Tactile Sensor, claims that its product exhibits the characteristics of low hysteresis, fast response time, and high repeatability.

Strain Gauges as Tactile Sensors

Although careful material selection can minimize hysteresis and long-term creep, these effects will always be present to some degree in an elastomer material. Some researchers prefer to avoid these potential pitfalls by basing their sensor design on the more mature and proven technology of strain gauges.

In its simplest form, a strain gauge is a circuit that is capable of measuring very minute changes in the resistance of one or more of its components. When a force is applied to the gauge or to an object to which the gauge is attached, some parts of the

gauge are subjected to tension or compression. This results in a small change in the physical dimensions of the gauge and can be quantified by the resultant change in the electrical resistance of the strain-gauge circuit. Strain gauges are available in a variety of shapes and sizes and offer the dual advantages of low hysteresis and low fatigue.

Transensory Devices Inc. of Fremont, California, is developing a tactile sensor based on solid-state silicon strain gauges. These miniature strain gauges allow for the relatively dense arrays of sensing sites generally considered necessary for an effective tactile sensor.

Each individual sensing site of the Transensory Devices sensor consists of a small box-shaped silicon element (called the mesa) that protrudes out of a silicon diaphragm. The mesa is capped with a protective square of

hard plastic, and the whole assembly is bonded to a glass substrate housing the electrical connections. A rugged elastomer material covers the entire assembly for protection (see figure 4).

The mesa, diaphragm, and interface circuitry are all machined from a single piece of silicon wafer. In use, a 5-volt power supply provides a reference signal for the sensor, as well as power for the on-board logic circuitry. The sensor's output is an analog voltage that changes proportionally with the force applied to the sensitive area.

Two sensors have been developed and tested by Transensory Devices. One is a single-element sensor; the other is a 3 by 3 array of sensor elements spaced on approximately 2-mm centers. The present devices provide good linearity in force sens

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 195

TACTILE SENSING

ing and are designed to measure from 0 to 2 pounds of force. This design approach of miniature solid-state transducers offers great promise for future high-resolution sensors. However, the current silicon and glass sensor is both fragile and stiff and will require further refinements before it is suitable for widespread application in an industrial environment.

Piezoelectric Tactile Sensors

Piezoresistive sensors measure a change in electrical resistivity as a result of an applied force. Piezoelectric sensors are based on materials that generate an electrical response to an applied force. Piezoelectricity is a common phenomenon of crystalline materials such as quartz, and piezoelectric ceramics are in widespread use. However, the brittle nature of most common piezoelectric materials tends to make them unsuitable for tactile sensor applications.

A class of materials known as piezoelectric polymers offers considerable promise for tactile sensing. Piezoelectric polymers are, as the name implies, polymers that exhibit piezoelectric properties. They are rugged, durable, inexpensive, and available in thin flexible sheets that allow them to conform to complex contours.

Piezoelectric polymers may be formed into patterns of high-resolution arrays by either metalizing the polymer film through a suitable mask

or by selectively etching a metalization previously deposited on the film. They are flexible, rugged, high-resolution, and inexpensive. These are some of the key characteristics of the ideal tactile sensor discussed earlier.

In addition to their piezoelectric properties, the polymers also exhibit pyroelectric characteristics. That is, they show a change in electrical response based on temperature as well as pressure stimuli. This can be a problem or an asset, depending on how it is dealt with. One piezoelectric polymer that is widely used in tactile sensor research is polyvinylidene fluoride, or PVDF. This material exhibits the desirable property of a relatively large and linear electrical response to an applied external force.

One problem with the use of PVDF or other piezoelectric materials in general is that the electrical response is inherently dynamic. That is, the material generates an electrical response only while it is being deformed. If a continuous, nonvarying load is applied to a PVDF sensor, the electrical signal generated by the load will soon decay to zero.

The Dynamic-Motion Principle

Researchers at the University of Florida dealt with that potential problem by developing a sensor based entirely on dynamic motion. The concept of a sensor based on the vibrations induced by sliding motion across a sample object was devel

oped by Gale E. Nevill Jr. and Robert W. Patterson of the University of Florida.

This concept is based on the theory that the papillary ridges of the fingertips provide information that is useful in the identification of objects by touch. To investigate the theory, a tactile sensor was designed that would move across an object under examination.

The sensor is composed of two separate PVDF transducers. One transducer is oriented so that its direction of greatest electrical sensitivity is parallel to the direction of movement; the other is oriented transverse to that direction. The two transducers, oriented perpendicular to each other, are bonded together with nonconductive epoxy. The transducer assembly is then bonded to a silicone rubber pad.

The surface of the rubber pad is made up of a regular series of triangular ridges, meant to simulate the ridges on the human fingertip. Separate electrical leads from the parallel and transverse transducers are fed to a signal analyzer. The construction of the sensor allows for the separate analysis of the transverse and parallel vibrations induced by moving an object across the sensor.

In experimental use, objects are moved across the sensor at a constant speed via a rotating platform. When the sensor pad contacts an object, a measurement is made of the signal induced by both the transverse and parallel vibrations. This results in a signal spectrum of voltage versus frequency. Discrete values of the signal within certain bandwidths are used as parameters for a discriminate analysis pattern-recognition scheme.

During laboratory tests, sample objects are first moved across the sensor to establish a test template of parameters. Afterward, the sensor is able to recognize objects to which it has been previously exposed with almost 100 percent accuracy. It is capable of reading the Braille alphabet and can distinguish between different grades of sandpaper. It can tell

[continued)

MESA

GLASS SUBSTRATE

EPOXY

PACKAGE

HARD PLASTIC

ELASTOMER

ELECTRICAL CONNECTION

Figure 4: The major components of a single-element tactile sensor that measures force normal to its surface. By permission of Transensory Devices Inc., Fremont, California.

196 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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TACTILE SENSING

the difference between cylinders and spheres of varying sizes and can resolve differences between ball bearings spaced 0.2 5 inch versus 0.26 inch apart. It can also determine the features of an object under examination even if the speed with which it is scanned across the object is changed. More recent experiments have iden

tified materials for the surface pad that are more resistant to temperature and abrasion than the original silicone rubber pad. Further investigations are being performed to develop sensor arrays that offer increased spatial resolution. This type of sensor shows promise in applications that are primarily exploratory or object-iden

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tification-oriented. It also appears appropriate for use in slip detection.

However, since its output depends on dynamically induced vibrations, this type of sensor is unsuitable for conventional gripping applications unless wedded with another sensor design. Also, since the computer must know the sensor's relative speed of motion, there must be communication with another device capable of determining that speed. This is not necessarily a problem, since such information could be obtained from the movement of a robot arm attached to the sensor, but it is a consideration nevertheless.

P. Dario, D. De Rossi, P. C. Pinotti, R. Bardelli, and others at the University of Pisa in Italy have been involved for many years in developing an artificial, skinlike, tactile sensor capable of alleviating some of these problems.

One of their designs attempts to reproduce the sensing properties of the human fingertip. The sensor consists of an outer epidermal layer and an inner dermal layer (see figure 5), each of which performs distinct sensing functions. The epidermal layer consists of a 40-micrometer-thick film of PVDF protected by a thin Mylar sheet.

Electrodes on the top and bottom of the epidermal PVDF film carry off any electrical charge to signal processing equipment. The underside of the PVDF layer is covered with a resistive paint and is backed by an elastomer layer. A HO-micrometerthick PVDF film is attached to the underside of the elastomer layer. The lower PVDF layer serves as the dermal sensor and is bonded to a circuit board containing an 8 by 16 array of circular electrodes, spaced on 3-mm centers.

Any charge developed in the dermal PVDF layer is discretely measured by the closest electrode sites, The signals from the electrodes are consecutively scanned, fed into a charge amplification device, and measured. This design allows the sensor to measure gross pressure deformations in the epidermal layer and more highly resolved and localized defor

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198 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 199

TACTILE SENSING

mations in the dermal layer.

The overall sensor dimension is approximately 1 by 2 inches. The elastomer layer between the two PVDF layers provides electrical insulation. In addition, the elastomer introduces a time delay of about 1 second between the detection of thermal signals in the epidermal and the dermal layers, allowing the isolation of thermally induced responses. This alleviates the potential problems associated with the pyroelectric response of PVDF and allows for the possible identification of objects based on their thermal conductance.

In practice, the sensor replicates the human's temperature- and pressuresensing responses. When the resistive paint layer is connected to a regulated power supply, the paint raises the sensor's temperature to approximately 37° Celsius. When the tactile sensor touches an object, heat flows from the resistive layer through the PVDF epidermal sensor to the object. The rate of heat flow depends on the ther

mal properties of the object being touched. This allows metals, which have a high thermal conductivity, to be clearly distinguished from plastics or other insulating materials.

The dermal sensor array continuously measures varying contact forces over relatively dense sensing sites and can therefore detect geometrical features of objects such as edges, corners, and depressions.

The epidermal layer, protected only by a thin Mylar film, is extremely sensitive to deformations and can provide gross information only on contact location. However, when gently rubbed against an object, the epidermal sensor behaves like a phonograph needle, indicating surface roughness. In this mode, it can detect differences between grades of fabric, similar to the capabilities of the University of Florida sensor.

When pressed against an object and then released, the combined signals detected by the epidermal and dermal layers provide information on

object hardness. When installed in a mechanical gripper, the sensor can determine object slippage based on microvibrations generated in the epidermal layer by the slipping object.

During laboratory tests, the sensor detected slips as small as a few hundred micrometers over the time span of a few milliseconds. The sensor has demonstrated a maximum load capability of 40 newtons (a newton equals 1 kilogram/meter/second) and can detect forces as small as 0.01 newton. This represents an impressive dynamic range of 4000 to 1.

The University of Pisa researchers suggest two solutions to the problem of the dynamic response limitations of a PVDF tactile sensor. One solution is to make use of a conductive elastomer to separate the dermal and epidermal PVDF layers. This elastomer can then measure continuous pressure in the same way as the conductive elastomer sensors described earlier.

Another solution is to send sound pulses from the lower to the upper PVDF layers. By measuring any differences in the travel time of the waves from the lower to the upper layer, the amount of compression can be determined and the pressure indirectly inferred. The University of Pisa sensor appears to offer great promise as a general-purpose tactile sensor combining many functions into a single device.

Conclusion

There are many approaches to tactile sensing that I have not covered. These include the use of ultrasound, magnetic induction, electrotopography, and other intriguing techniques. I have tried to identify many of the major concepts and stimulate ideas for future approaches.

The robotics designer should be aware of the trade-offs involved between the spatial density of a sensor array and its resultant computational requirements. Higher resolutions often require much greater dataprocessing capability. Also, it is important to remember that the intended use of the sensor plays a major role in its design. ■

Figure 5: A skinlike tactile sensor with an outer [epidermal) layer and an inner [dermal) layer. The sensor was developed at the E. Piaggio Center of the University of Pisa and at the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the Italian National Research Council. This figure is reprinted with permission of the IEEE and appeared in "Tactile Sensors and the Gripping Challenge" by Dr. Paolo Dario and Dr. Danilo De Rossi (IEEE Spectrum, August 1985).

200 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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IANUARY 1986 - BYTE 201

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ROBOTICS

MULTIPLE

ROBOTIC MANIPULATORS

by J. Scott Hawker, R. N. Nagel, Richard Roberts, and Nicholas G. Odrey

Designing a task-oriented control system for multiple manipulators

WHEN CONFRONTED WITH issues related to robots, the average person generally envisions a device or system that is humanlike in form and possesses some human attributes. Robotic reality is quite different from this perception. Robots are generally not human in form and rarely possess human qualities or attributes. Robots in the industrial environment are, for the most part, very simple devices performing simple tasks. To date, few robots have been integrated to work together on the same task or even in the same workspace.

It appears on the surface that coordinating two robots is not a difficult assignment. This is not the case. To more fully appreciate the potential difficulties with coordinated performance, consider the requirements for holding a pencil or cylindrical object between the tips of two index fingers. This action requires that the two fingers exert a force on each end of the pencil or cylinder. These forces must support the weight of the pencil (see figure la). At the same time, the forces must be limited so they don't damage either the pencil or,

from the human standpoint, the fingertips. This type of behavior clearly requires force sensors and coordinated control between the two fingertips.

Now let's add more complexity to the assignment. Consider the problem of holding one fingertip poised in space (fixing one end of the pencil) while moving the other fingertip in a circular path, causing the other end of the pencil to follow (figure lb). A slightly more ambitious assignment would be moving both ends in circular paths simultaneously (figure lc). Then, while rotating both pencil tips in circular paths, move or translate the pencil through space (figure Id).

The three motions described require that the forces between the fingers and the positions of the fingertips be carefully controlled. We recommend that you attempt these motions (as shown in figures la through Id) to appreciate the subtleties involved in moving the pencil through its paces.

It becomes apparent that a means of monitoring and controlling the applied force is needed. In addition, a

means for setting, monitoring, and controlling the paths of the pencil's end points is required. Communica

(continued)

J. Scott Hawker, who holds B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Texas Tech University, is a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Robotics, Lehigh University. Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. He is now on leave from AT&T Bell laboratories, studying robotics and manufacturing systems.

R. N. Nagel holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Maryland. Dr. Nagel is the director of the Institute for Robotics at Lehigh University.

Richard Roberts holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University. Professor Roberts is an expert in the areas of machine design and failure analysis.

Nicholas G. Odrey holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering. Dr. Odrey is the director of the Robotics laboratory of the Institute for Robotics at lehigh University.

All of the above authors may be contacted at the Institute for Robotics, lehigh University. 200 West Packer Ave.. Bethlehem. PA 18015.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 203

MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

tion channels and a minimum level of intelligence are required so that the proverbial left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

in addition to these requirements, the benefits of practice should have become obvious. As the tasks are repeated and the fingertips become more skilled, the coordinated motion becomes easier. This last feature, the

ability to improve performance through trial, is especially important if a robot is to be a truly flexible, adaptable element in a factory environment.

Dual-Arm Structure

Researchers at the Institute for Robotics at Lehigh University are now studying the philosophy and imple

mentation of high-level, task-oriented control of dual-arm robots, as well as the design and low-level control of robotic arms. The dual-arm robot being described was designed as a research system capable of providing a variety of issues related to coordinated control of two or more robotic arms.

As we made individual design decisions, we always biased them to provide as challenging a set of problems as possible for the researcher. The dual-arm robot currently being constructed at Lehigh University consists of two movable robot arms attached to a rigid base. Each arm possesses seven degrees of freedom: three translational and four rotational. Figure 2 shows the structure and the various degrees of freedom of one of these arms.

Each arm is attached to the rigid base in a way that allows the attachment points to move with two degrees of freedom in a fixed vertical plane. The range of travel for coordinate axes is as follows: Translational axis 1 is 7 feet, translational axis 2 is

3 feet, and translational axis 3 is approximately 1/2 feet. When fully extended, the robot hand can reach 55 inches from the vertical plane represented by coordinate translational axes 1 and 2.

The precise limitations of the angular travel of rotational coordinates 1,2, and 3 are not known but are believed to be in the range of plus or minus 90 degrees. Rotational axis

4 can provide a full 360 degrees of rotation. With the ranges of travel noted for the translational and rotational axes of the two arms, a large work envelope can be addressed. This should provide ample space to confront the two arms with tasks that require coordinated motion.

Implementation

We chose aluminum as the material for construction of the robot arms in order to minimize the weight of the arms and reduce the requirements of the driving actuator motors for the system (we designed each arm to han

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IANUARY 1986 • BYTE

MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

die a total load of 5 pounds).

Both stepper motors and servo motors are used for driving the robot arms. The three translational axes and the first rotational degree of freedom are powered by stepper motors. The drivers for the remaining three rotational degrees of freedom and the motor that actuates the hand are servo motors.

We based the decision to mix the types of motors on size and power requirements, delivery schedules, and cost. In addition to these factors (and probably just as important) was the desire to provide the designers of the low-level controls with the different challenges presented by each motor type. All of the stepper and servo motors are equipped with position sensors so that the motions of the arms can be measured. In addition to the positional sensors, each hand will

be equipped with a force sensor so that the forces exerted by the hand can also be measured.

Controlling two arms to cooperate in accomplishing one task is more complex than controlling two arms to accomplish two independent tasks. Nevertheless, it is very important that adequate, independent, single-arm control mechanisms be in place for each of the two arms so that their motions and applied forces can be controlled within the motion constraints specified. These single-arm controllers can then be extended and coupled to form an integrated dualarm controller.

Since dual-arm control is an extension of single-arm control, we will first describe the common approaches to and requirements of single-arm control. We will highlight the single-arm control problems that are not ade

quately solved and will assume that answers to these problems will be applicable to dual-arm control.

Single-Arm Control

In order to provide a clear understanding of the goals of single-arm control, our discussion will consider a robotic arm to be very much like a human arm: a series of connected mechanical links or "bones" that allow the end of the last link (the end effector or "hand") to be placed at some position and orientation in space. The energy that causes the motion of the arm comes from actuators or "muscles" that drive the motion of each mechanical "joint" to achieve the desired pose, motion, or force of the end effector.

A control computer is normally used to generate the particular ac

{continued)

,—TRANSLATIONAL X / AXIS 1

-TRANSLATIONAL AXIS 2

-ROTATIONAL AXIS 1

TRANSLATIONAL AXIS 3

ROTATIONAL AXIS 2

ROTATIONAL / AXIS 4

Figure 2: A schematic representation of Lehigh University's robot arm showing the three translational axes of movement and the four rotational axes of movement.

206 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 336 —►

SPSS inc. PRODUCTIVITY RAISED TO THE HIGHEST POWER

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1

\

MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

tuator drive signals that coordinate the motion of the joints and linkages of a single-arm manipulator. For example, raising the end effector may be achieved by "shoulder" motion, "elbow" motion, or both. This kind of control, which corresponds loosely to the basic motor skills of the human brain, is called "low-level" control in

that it is automatic. (Most people don't concentrate on which muscles they have to move to lift a pencil.) Much more effort is expended on planning and executing the overall task (the high-level control), while the low-level control operation is assumed to be available and is essentially ignored.

All the planning, execution monitoring, and low-level control suggests that there is far more to a single robotic arm than a collection of linkages, actuators, and basic motor control that mimics the human arm. This is indeed true. For example, the endeffector "hand" is usually designed for specific tasks. A welding tool is used on a welding arm, a viselike gripper or humanlike hand on an assembly arm, and a paint sprayer on a painting arm. The operation of the end-effector devices must also be controlled in coordination with the motions of the end effector, as determined by the low-level controlled motion of the link actuators.

It is obvious then that the high-level control that dictates to the low-level control the pose of the arm end effector must also tell the end effector what to do once it is there. The goal of the high-level computer is to determine the particular sequence of link motions and end-effector operations that accomplish a given task and then drive the low-level control that generates the arm and end-effector actuator drive signals to achieve the task motions and operations.

Throughout the performance of the task, the task execution must be monitored through sensors not only to assure that the motions and operations are as expected but also to adjust the actuator drive to correct any sensed errors. Such closed-loop or feedback control is used at both the low and high levels of control.

In order to achieve real-time closedloop control for a system as complex as an autonomous robot, data must be gathered (through sensing transducers), processed, and monitored to update the parameters of the control and decision algorithms before they are executed. The real-time aspect is required so that error feedback can provide input corrections quickly enough to reduce errors before they become too large. The more variable the working environment, the more data must be gathered, and the more quickly unexpected changes might occur, the more quickly this data must

{continued)

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208 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 344

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210 BYTE' IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 317

MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

be processed and fed back to the control input.

Stability

Complex coupled systems such as single- or dual-arm robots have the potential for unbounded or uncontrolled behavior (instability) in certain ranges of operation. These regions are usually characterized by constraints on allowed velocities and accelerations or by regions of the workspace that are less precisely controlled than other regions. The control system must be designed to locate and avoid, or otherwise accommodate, these regions of operation without adversely affecting the flexibility in the range of operation.

Most commercial control systems simplify the control issues by placing limits on the overall velocities and accelerations and therefore do not allow the robot to perform to its maximum capabilities throughout the workspace.

As the above discussion indicates, the more flexibility required in a robotic application, the greater the number of variables that must be controlled simultaneously. State-of-the-art systems are typified by the extensive use of fixtures to reduce the number of variables to a manageable level. Unfortunately, such structures also reduce the flexibility of a system in accommodating new tasks or unexpected difficulties.

This use of rigid structures is often attributable to the lack of availability of a broad range of sensors and lowcost control computers, and the difficulty and cost of overall integration into a sensory feedback, real-time control system. The development of the more complex dual-arm robotic systems must address these issues more directly, without imposing rigid structures by "engineering away" problems.

Control Levels

Researchers at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) have developed a philosophy for designing and implementing real-time, hierarchically distributed, sensory-control systems

incorporating robotic arms, machine tools, and other manufacturing devices.

This philosophy has been successfully demonstrated repeatedly and has recently been applied to a form of dual-arm control. Because of this demonstrated success, the dual-arm research at Lehigh is based on the NBS philosophy of distributed hierarchical control.

We have chosen to describe the portion of the control that achieves the desired motions as "low-level control" and the portion that determines the motions desired for a task as "high-level control." This dictates the following interpretation of the present state of research in robotic arm control.

Closed-loop sensing and control algorithms now exist that allow precise and stable control of the position and orientation of the end effector of an arm, and techniques for

more general velocity and force control are well under development at many research laboratories. Low-level control mechanisms now or will soon exist that, when given the desired trajectory (position versus time) of the end effector, will provide the desired motion.

The end effector itself is typically a very simple special-purpose tool for which low-level control is also readily available. However, more generalpurpose end effectors, such as humanlike hands that can grasp a wide variety of objects or hand tools, are slow in development due to many of the same problems of dual-arm control.

Much of the research on high-level, task-oriented control is focused on the planning aspects associated with various tasks. The planning aspects are concerned with how to automati

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212 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

cally generate the trajectory path of an arm carrying an object so that it does not collide with other objects in the workspace, or how to determine the best grasp location and force for a particular object based on data represented in a computer-aided design (CAD) model of the object.

Perhaps more important, artificial intelligence researchers are searching for algorithms and heuristics for the automatic decomposition of the steps of a task into a sequence of simpler subtasks that are already implemented. Artificial intelligence researchers and others are searching for robust techniques for executing the task steps in the presence of uncertainties and unexpected changes in the work environment.

Visible results of research on highlevel control systems include a number of human-oriented graphical programming and simulation systems for robot motion programming and the development of high-level robot programming languages. These languages have, in some cases, been modeled after popular structured programming languages (e.g., Pascal, APL, and FORTH).

Other available results include the development and application of a number of techniques for visual image processing and image understanding. Methods for integrating these and other sensory-perception techniques into an autonomous, intelligent control system are under intense, although slow, study. Our plan is that the dual-arm research project will provide a flexible and powerful test bed for accelerating the development of robust, generic solutions to high-level control problems.

Dual-Arm Control

There are research challenges in dualarm control at both the low level (how to achieve the desired motions in real time) and the high level (how to determine the desired motions to achieve a task). The challenges at the low level derive from the need for coordinated control of two arms in real time, as well as a data-communications technique that supports the distribution

of commands and data among the distributed control elements of the two arms.

Many single-arm systems can bypass these requirements because the control and sensing algorithms are simple enough to allow a single computer to perform all tasks in real time. With dual-arm systems, the number of control and sensing procedures is more than double that of single-arm systems, so the sensing and control functions must be distributed among a number of physically distinct and heterogeneous computers.

At the high level, the problems associated with single-arm task planning and execution are magnified by the fact that the job tasks must be partitioned among two arms, but the task partitioning must be coordinated in such a way that the high-level task is accomplished correctly. Algorithms for planning and monitoring must be modified from the domain of the single arm to the more general dualarm arena.

Just as general techniques for the distribution of function and data have proved elusive in the world of distributed and parallel computing, so too have general techniques for distributed control of robots.

The NBS approach is to partition the sensory processing, world modeling (expectations), and control functions. The control functions are decomposed into hierarchically structured, limited-scope modules. This same approach has proved useful in the preliminary study and research of dual-arm systems at Lehigh University.

It seems natural to think of a dualarm robot as two independent, lowlevel, single-arm controllers directed by a third (higher-level) controller that coordinates and synchronizes the arms (see figure 3). This approach, however, does not allow the arms to work together in a tightly coupled operation such as manipulating the pencil.

The role of the high-level coordinating controller is needed, but the low-level single-arm controllers must also be integrated, for example, to

[continued]

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MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

allow the forces felt by one arm to directly modify the forces applied by the other arm. This results in the con

ceptual control architecture shown in figure 3, integrated into the overall system architecture shown in figure 4.

Note in figure 4 that the low levels are coupled directly in the control portion and also indirectly through the model.

HIGH-LEVEL

AND STATUS

COORDINATION

AND

SYNCHRONIZATION

LOW-LEVEL COMMAND AND STATUS

LOW-LEVEL COMMAND AND STATUS

SINGLE-ARM

COUPLING

SINGLE-ARM

CONTROL

CONTROL

ACTUATOR SIGNALS

ACTUATOR SIGNALS

ARM

ARM

Figure 3: Simplified dual-arm control hierarchy showing low-level and high-level functions.

Distribution of Function

Physical implementation of the conceptual system models shown in figures 3 and 4 requires more explicit definition of the distribution of function and data between low- and highlevel control and between the individual low-level controls. For example, consider which element is responsible for avoiding collisions (i.e., the individual arm controllers or the high-level coordinating controller).

It seems that the collision-avoidance function itself should be split and the subfunctions distributed. Similarly, how does the grasp planning of one arm consider the fact that an object is to be handed to another arm whose grasp requirements must also be accommodated? The laboratory system

(continued)

DATA

CAD OR 'A PRIORI1 DATA

SENSED DATA

MODEL

VOLUME

REPRESENTATION

OBJECT

REPRESENTATIONS

ARM

REPRESENTATIONS

SINGLE -ARM CONTROL

ARM

SENSORS

CONTROL

COORDINATION AND

SYNCHRONIZATION

SINGLE-ARM CONTROL

ARM

Figure 4: Overall system control hierarchy of a dual-arm robot, showing the relationship between the external world, the actual control, and the intrinsic model used by the system.

214 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

In 1876Alexander Graham Bell gave people an easier way to stay in touchlbday, we're doing the same for computers.

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MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

currently under development will allow various alternatives to such issues to be quickly and easily explored.

Lehigh University researchers have designed a control structure for complex dual-arm operations, and initial research has progressed in two areas: pick-and-place operations with two arms that have overlapping workspaces and the design of task-planning algorithms to allow the interchange of objects between arms (i.e., end effectors) in free space.

The existence of overlapping workspaces has led to the development of algorithms for collision avoidance that consider two moving arms. The planning of free-space object interchange takes into consideration the relative locations of the arms, objects to be manipulated, and object destinations, and assigns arm subtasks based on these considerations within the con

fines of workspace areas accessible to the arms.

Coordinated-Control Research

Lehigh University researchers believe that a distributed control and communications system must be implemented and that high-level control algorithms must be developed to accommodate the increased number of variables and capabilities of dual-arm robots. They have also noted that single-arm low- and high-level control techniques may not be directly applicable due to the increased complexity of dual-arm implementations.

Lehigh's research team has developed a plan that will begin to uncover the requirements and implementations of dual-arm and more generalpurpose multidevice manufacturing systems. The first step in the study of multidevice systems is to obtain a

clear understanding of how complex tasks are decomposed into simpler subtask "primitives." This understanding of task decomposition must be accompanied by an in-depth knowledge of how manufacturing systems are combined to achieve a particular task. We must understand the system composition that supports the task decomposition.

We are approaching this problem in two ways. First, we are identifying and developing mathematical system analysis (decomposition) and synthesis (composition) tools that allow theoretical modeling and study of manufacturing systems. Second, we are developing a flexible system-implementation strategy that follows the structure of the mathematical tools.

This strategy includes modular design with rules for integrating the modules into a system. Clearly defined, functionally bounded modules with clearly defined data and control interfaces must be developed.

The dual-arm laboratory system under development is the first step toward this system-building understanding. It will allow us to study such questions as "How can two arms be controlled to cooperate in lifting a load heavier than one arm can handle alone?" or "How can two arms be controlled to manipulate the ends of a pencil without dropping or breaking the pencil?"

More fundamental to an autonomous flexible operation, perhaps, is obtaining answers to such questions as "What general task-decomposition techniques are needed to consider the increased capability of two arms, rather than simply considering two independent arms?" That is, "What does parallelism provide that distinguishes it from overlapping sequential control?" We believe the answer lies in the term "coordination," which could be interpreted as "dependent" overlapped sequential control.

Our research is aimed at understanding and controlling this dependency to achieve coordination. Our short-term goal is to develop a

[continued)

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216 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 371 for End-Users. Inquiry 372 for DEALERS ONLY.

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Inquiry 387

MULTIPLE MANIPULATORS

Ike Lehigh arm has seven degrees of freedom.

mathematical theory of manufacturing-system building and to develop implementations that realize these theoretical systems. The long-term goal is to develop a general approach to classification of the capabilities of manufacturing devices and then extend the dual-arm analysis and synthesis philosophies to allow synthesis of multiclass machine work-cell tasks.

The ultimate goal of this and related research is to develop the mathematical tools and system-implementation techniques needed to automatically synthesize an entire facility's production schedule in direct response to customer demand, even when (especially when) the customer demands only one custom part. This implies that, with only a customer's description of the part, the facility resources are automatically allocated and control programs are generated (synthesized) and executed, resulting in the economical production of that one custom part.

Conclusions

In order to implement a manufacturing system with the flexibility required for future production, we must first develop a fundamental understanding of manufacturing-device coordination in conjunction with the necessary system analysis and synthesis tools to achieve this device coordination.

The direct results of dual-arm robotic research will be readily applicable to many manufacturing tasks. More important, the overall knowledge obtained by studying the dualarm system will be applied toward developing a general theory of structural analysis and synthesis for flexible, modular manufacturing systems.

We have begun the ambitious undertaking of developing such a general theory. To date, Lehigh has implemented a sensory-control and

modeling system based on the NBS philosophy of hierarchical real-time system control. In addition, we have implemented a data-communications network and distributed the low-level and high-level control of a dual-arm cooperating pick-and-place robot, and we are in the process of duplicating this control for the pair of Lehighdesigned, dual seven-degrees-offreedom arms described above.

Many of the high-level control strategies are in the feasibility phase of development and thus offer only rudimentary capabilities. They were developed to demonstrate the cooperation of two arms in an overlapping workspace for the "simple" tasks involved in pick-and-place operations. The implementations allow more general study of the sophistication required of the high-level coordination mechanisms needed for flexible, autonomous, multidevice manufacturing systems. ■

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Albus, |. S.. A. I. Barbera. and R. N. Nagel. Theory and Practice of Hierarchical Control." Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE Computer Society international Conference, September 1981.

Barbera. A. I..). S. Albus. M. L. Fitzgerald, and L. S. Haynes. "RCS: The NBS RealTime Control System." Detroit, Ml: Robots 8 Conference and Exposition, lune 1984.

lones, A. T„ and C. R. McLean. "A Cell Control for the AMRF." ASME Conference, August 1984.

Nagel. R. N. "Robots: Not Yet Smart Enough." IEEE Spectrum. May 1983. pages 78-83.

Nagel. R. N. "State of the Art and Predictions for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics." in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. M. Brady, L. A. Gerhardt. and H. F. Davidson, eds. Berlin: SpringerVerlag NATO AS1 Series, 1984.

Nagel, R. N., and S. R. Garrigan. "An Analysis of Robot Software and Plans for Its Enhancement." #85-001 (oint Report Series. Manufacturing Systems Engineering Program, CDMI. & NET Ben Franklin Technology Center, Lehigh University, lune 1985.

Scott, H., and K. Strouse. "Workstation Control in a Computer Integrated Manufacturing System," Proceedings of Autofact 6, October 1984.

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JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 219

THE CMO ADVANTAGE

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Inquiry 77

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THE TECHNICAL SOFTWARE SOURCE

222 BYTE" JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 188

ROBOTICS

AUTONOMOUS ROBOT NAVIGATION

by Charles Jorgensen, William Hamel, and Charles Weisbin

Teaching robots to look before they leap

MOST COMMERCIAL robotic systems depend heavily on the fact that their job environments are well known and change only in prescribed ways. Generally, when navigation is required, the environment rather than the robot is designed to accommodate movement. We can keep paths of movement open, preposition assembly lines, preplace parts, and reduce variations and unknown factors.

When we relax such restrictions, however, we must increase the robot's capabilities to compensate for unpredictability in the environment. Thus, the first step toward generalized mobility is to add sensors to provide data so that the environment and the internal state of the robot can be determined prior to any decisions. In this instance, because the spatial relationships between the robot and the world are no longer predetermined, two questions immediately arise. First, what does the world map look like? This requires some form of sensor mapping. Second, where is the robot at any given moment relative to that world? This is called self-location.

Because both robot position and environment may change in real-world problems, an advanced autonomous robot must be capable of answering both questions. Until recently, experiments in autonomous navigation have focused primarily on robot environment mapmaking rather than on the self-location problem. As a result, even though the experimental environment could change in minor ways, it usually contained a fixed reference point that the robot sensors could detect and use to calculate selflocation. For example, self-location has been calculated by homing on a single point such as a radio source, following a path like a magnetic floor tape, using triangulation on infrared emitters (reference 1), or sighting specially constructed optical landmarks.

Commercial applications such as inplant mail delivery have used such systems to a limited extent, but they are not practical for unplanned situations like military land-vehicle operation or emergency repair of nuclear power plant components. For these situations, a robot needs to construct

temporary references instead of relying on known references. An example of a temporary reference is using a landmark such as a tall building to orient streets and buildings.

The Find-Path Problem

Once a robot has determined a reference point and used its sensors to generate a map of the external environment, it must select control algorithms associated with movement. That is, it must find a path to its goal.

The so-called find-path problem, which has been carefully studied in robotics, can be stated as follows: Given an object with an initial location and a set of obstacles whose spatial location is known, find a continuous path from the initial position to the goal that avoids collision with obstacles along the way. Researchers

(continued)

Drs. Charles jorgensen, William Hamel, and Charles Weisbin are involved in research and development of robots and artificial intelligence at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research of the Oak Ridge National laboratory (POB X, Oak Ridge, TN 37831).

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 223

NAVIGATION

have proposed a variety of approaches to solving this problem.

One approach, called the configuration-space method by Lozano-Perez (reference 2), divides a navigation space into zones that the reference point of a robot can occupy without the robot colliding with any obstacles. Paths are then defined for the reference point that makes maximum use of the open area between the reference point and a specified goal. For example, to define the configuration space, Moravec's Rover (reference 3) bounded all obstacles with circles that were enlarged to assure clearances for the robot edges. Paths were then calculated as tangents to these circles. In the context of robot manipulators, Udupa (reference 4) chose to bound the obstacles with complex polyhedra.

Other approaches involve either local or global navigation strategies. Local navigation deals with immediate problems of obstacle avoidance, whereas global navigation considers larger regional information like the plan of a building or long-term goals. For example, Crowley (reference 5) described global path planning in terms of previously stored networks of places. He defined global navigation as traversals along "legal highways" in known areas, with local movement based primarily on avoidance procedures using sensors.

Recently, there has been an interest in merging exploration and learning. Learning has been considered in other aspects of robotics, such as manipulator movement (reference 6), but has only recently been applied to navigation control (reference 7). The many factors involved in exploratory robot navigation make it useful to have a conceptual framework to discuss the points. We will now consider one such framework, based on some well-known human explorers.

Exploration

Navigation in unknown territory implies that a robot is going to encounter unexpected situations. The robot will have to surmount problems such as how to avoid obstacles. There will also be serendipitous discoveries

Figure 1: A simple robotic obstaclecourse floor map. The red lines represent the bloomed obstacle diameters, blue indicates projected path lines, and green identifies the shortest path.

that can be exploited. Such situations are common for all explorers, whether mortals or machines. To clarify the issues involved, let us consider three well-known explorers and their labors and how they relate to autonomous robot navigation.

We will begin by comparing a mobile robot to Ferdinand Magellan, the British cartographer whose mapmaking consolidated a disordered 16th century world into sets of wellordered countries and coasts. Next, we will consider the less structured world of Christopher Columbus navigating toward unknown territory. Finally, we will examine the mythical hero Ulysses as he contends with the whims of the gods who change his world and throw dangers in his path.

Our explorer will be HERMIES II, a small mobile robot at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as he navigates around the laboratory at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR).

Magellan

Magellan was interested primarily in the accurate circumnavigation of the world in which he traveled. He therefore prepared detailed maps from bits and pieces of geographic information gathered from many sources. He synthesized this information into a spatial

map that reduced the three-dimensional real world into scaled distances between objects characterized in twodimensional Cartesian projections.

When used by an experienced navigator, the maps of Magellan permitted the accurate selection of proper headings and destination points and minimized travel distances. In the same way that Magellan organized the world into maps and used that information for path planning, a robot must be able to use spatial maps of the environment to select destinations and minimize the expenditure of resources when seeking goals.

At the Magellan level, we assume that information about the spatial characteristics of the environment is suitably stored in computer memory and accessible to the robot-control algorithms. Given known obstacle locations that make straight-line traversal impossible, the robot's task becomes one of finding the best path to a goal destination. If necessary, the robot may need to turn and maneuver in tight spaces, dead-end corridors, or mazes. Such situations often occur in real-world environments such as large industrial plants or buildings.

Figure 1 shows a sample room with two obstacles placed between a robot and a goal point. The dark borders of the obstacles represent a two-dimensional projection of the three-dimensional object shapes. Because the exact locations of obstacles are known, navigation could be performed as follows: A line is projected from the robot to the goal. If the path is clear, the robot uses the line to calculate an angle of turn and travel distance using the Pythagorean theorem.

However, such a simple algorithm could result in problems. For one thing, we have made no allowance for the width of the robot, and it may collide with edges of obstacles. Consequently, a robust algorithm must take into account required clearances due to all sources of potential imprecision. Second, if a straight line is not reasonable, the robot requires a procedure

[continued]

224 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Today, there are lots of BASICs. All but one are a forced fit.

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39 South Main Street Hanover, NH 03755 Inquiry 363

NAVIGATION

The piano-mover problem considers both rotation and translation.

for obtaining other paths and selecting one from among the intermediate choices, much as a traveler would select intermediate stops on the way to a destination. This kind of situation is an instance of the find-path problem.

One way to implement a find-path algorithm is shown in figure 1. Here, the known boundaries of the obstacles are enlarged ("bloomed") by an amount equal to one-half the diameter of the robot plus an extra amount for uncertainty associated with the robot's actual position. At the same time, the robot is mathematically shrunk to a single point. If some object obstructs a straight-line path to the goal, hypothetical lines are drawn from that point to each of the vertices (edges) of the expanded obstacles in direct line of sight of the robot. From each of those points, new lines are drawn to each vertex of the obstacles in their line of sight, and so on, until a line of sight from some vertex to the goal has been obtained.

All paths from the robot's current

position to the goal are converted into a graph of nodes and edges where each edge is a path segment. Finding the best path consists of examining path lengths from the start node to the finish and selecting the shortest sequence. Optimal solutions for such find-path problems have been developed that permit the answer to be obtained very efficiently, such as the A* algorithm used in the artificial intelligence community for the search of decision graphs. Moravec used the approach of projecting three-dimensional shapes onto two-dimensional surfaces and calculating tangential paths as a method of navigation planning for the Mars Rover.

When the available movement corridors are very narrow, the robot needs more complex algorithms to calculate its rotations. This class of path planning has been called the "piano-mover problem" (reference 8).

In the simple find-path problem above, we treated the robot as a point rather than a polygonal body with unequal dimensions and appendages into the navigation space. Such an approach will work if there is plenty of maneuvering room. In the case of the piano-mover problem, the corridors the robot will traverse may narrow so that the robot must rotate to squeeze through clearances the way a piano mover must make turns and rotations

to climb stairs, go through doors, or go around corners.

The complexity comes from the fact that, in addition to finding a continuous motion that will take a robot from a given initial position to a final position, the robot is subject to geometric constraints during the motion. The constraints do not permit any part of the irregular robot body to come into contact with obstacle edges or walls.

You can simplify the task by imposing restrictions on the range of allowed robot motions, such as insisting that the robot move in a fixed orientation or that the change of orientation can occur not more than once during a path traversal, but in general the problem is approached as follows.

Each corner of the robot chassis outline is labeled and treated as an axis around which the robot can rotate. The map of the navigation area is divided into regions of open space formed by the intersections of the lines connecting the objects, room walls, and corners. Each region is separated from the other in terms of "critical curves" that are created by the set of points generated when each vertex of the robot outline is placed at an intersection point of two regions, and the robot is rotated around that axis until an intersection occurs with region boundaries.

The set of intersecting curves formed for all the robot vertices composes a finite connectivity graph that contains all possible boundary-crossing rotations of the robot. Algorithms are then applied to this connectivity graph to select a "path" consisting of axis rotations that permit the robot to cross from one region to another. In figure 2, the robot is represented by a triangle and the corridor to be navigated is bent at an angle. To traverse the boundary, the robot must turn right at the first boundary area and move backward down the corridor to fit through.

With the current state of robot sophistication, other factors can overshadow such tight maneuvers in reallife situations. These factors lead us

[continued)

226 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

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Inquiry 378

NAVIGATION

to the next level of navigational complexity, the exploration of Columbus.

Columbus

In the navigation of Magellan, the world map existed. Travel involved finding the best path to a goal. Columbus faced a different problem. He knew roughly where he wanted to go, but he had little or no information as to what he would encounter along the way.

Since others felt he might sail off the edge of the world, it was important that he create a detailed record of his journey as he went. The voyage was filled with both perils and great discoveries to record. For an autonomous robot, such situations occur with obstacle avoidance and world mapping through sensors.

Robotic sensors come in many types and include monoscopic and stereoscopic vision systems, fixed and mobile sonar range finders, laser range finders, touch sensors, stress and torque sensors, and collision detectors. For navigation, the most often sought sensor data is used for edge detection.

Vision systems usually encode pictures as matrices of gray-scale pixels that are connected through gradientseeking algorithms that consider reflectivity, texture, and shading to produce skeletal representations of the scene objects. The skeletal edges are then used to direct turn angles or grasping orientations of end effectors. Using multiple cameras simultaneously permits the estimation of distances through optical parallax.

Lasar range finders allow precise location of edges and can be used in conjuction with other sensors such as those for vision. Touch sensors permit obstacle avoidance through edge following and work well if the objects are not highly irregular. Sonar sensors are widely used in robotics navigation. For a discussion of the nature and limitations of this kind of sensor, see the text box "Sonar Sensors" on page 230.

When the approximate locations of obstacles have been determined, the navigation algorithms use the sensor

] W ^ TURNING BACK

| L s INTO DEAD-END I V \ CORRIDORS

I \

I V BLOCKED PATH

A \ TO GOAL

Figure 3: A simple maze that demonstrates the need for memory in Columbus-level navigation.

generated map to determine admissible paths much like the Magellan example. The situation is more complicated, though, because of the uncertainty that is introduced by sensor errors, fuzzy object shapes, and imprecise destination areas. Depending upon what the robot finds on the way, it may not be possible to reach a goal, and numerous unplanned changes in course may be required. It is also no longer possible to guarantee that the robot is taking the most efficient path to a goal any more than Columbus could guarantee that he had selected the best route to an unexplored continent.

When the environment is only partially known, new issues must be considered that would not occur with a complete world map. lust as Columbus could sail into closed lagoons, a robot can encounter dead-end corridors and mazes when exploring. A maze might be generated by rows of boxes, outdoor canyons, or tangled equipment and can result in a teleoperated robot getting choked by its own power cord. In contrast to Columbus, it is not always easy for a robot to determine that it is in a deadend situation.

Figure 3 shows a maze problem. Suppose the robot were given a control algorithm like the following:

When in a new area, first turn toward the location of the goal

you wish to reach. Take a sonar reading to see if the path is clear. If the path is clear, then move. If it is not, take the first open path on either side of the line you would have taken if the path had been clear. Go one-half the distance to the goal. When you arrive at that location, turn back toward the goal and repeat the process.

At first glance, such a procedure appears very sensible. The first clear path closest to an ideal straight line is always the one taken. The halfdistance criterion assures that if the robot is far from the goal it will move rapidly to it, but it will take smaller, more careful moves the closer it gets.

What, then, is wrong? The problem is that we have not given the robot an ability we take for granted. The robot has no memory. Look again at figure 3. The robot's goal is directly on the other side of a wall. If the robot follows our initial algorithm, it will scan the corridor it is in and select the first open move halfway to the goal after about a 90-degree left turn. The robot will begin to move up the corridor, away from the goal. After a short distance, the robot will be far enough from the goal so that it can travel half the distance by making a turn back toward the goal.

What happens? The robot again moves into the dead-end corridor. Thus, without external memory, our explorer bounces around and never reaches the goal. With a memory, previously explored blocked areas can be set off limits for a goal traversal so the robot is gradually squeezed out of dead-end situations.

Of course, there are many ways we could deal with this problem. The real difficulty is assuring that a generalpurpose navigation algorithm considers all the possible traps that can be generated by deficiencies in the robot. Subtle complexities can hide in seemingly simple situations, such as a need to consider multistep memory to avoid recursive loops, a need to explicitly consider trading off distance traveled versus angle turned, and

[continued]

228 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

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IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 229

NAVIGATION

Sonar Sensors

Sonar sensors have proved particularly useful in navigation research, largely because they are relatively inexpensive and able to grossly cover large areas more rapidly than detailed processing with visual systems. Nonetheless, their use in autonomous navigation does pose some problems. Figure A illustrates some of the properties that make "sonars" challenging for use in navigation.

Most low-cost sonar devices function by sending a multifrequency or "chirped" sound pulse from a transducer outward in a cone-shaped wavefront. The difference between the time of emission and return is then used to determine estimated distance calculated on the basis of how far the wave could travel in one-half the period.

Real-world factors intervene when a

robot uses that information to construct spatial distance maps from different scanning positions. First, although not of great concern indoors, sonar is sensitive to temperature changes. Specifically, the speed of sound in air is proportional to the square root of the absolute temperature in degrees Rankine (degrees Fahrenheit plus 460). If a sonar range detector is calibrated at a standard temperature S and the actual room temperature is A, then the actual distance traveled by the sound in the air is the square root of (460 + A) / (460 + S) times the estimated distance. Thus, if a sonar were calibrated at 80° F and the actual room temperature was 60° F, a measured range of 35 feet would be overestimated by 7.8 inches (see table A). If that 7.8 inches overlapped with the position of a solid object, the difference could provide a

shocking experience for a moving robot.

Another property of sound waves is that they exhibit specular reflection and interact with the texture of materials. This interaction was illustrated one day in our laboratory when we were going to demonstrate a small mobile robot for some visitors and decided to give the obstacles colorful coats of shiny new paint. The high gloss was attractive to the human eye but also extremely reflective to sonar, so that if the obstacles were not hit almost head-on by a sonar beam they vanished from the sonar navigation maps. The result was that the robot often rammed into the objects instead of going around them. After trying cardboard, metal, and other coverings, we found that the highest specular reflection was provided by simple plastic bubble wrap. Visitors now see

SHINY

WALL

TRANSDUCER

AND RECEIVER

(1)

//

//

//

//

A

FOAM

BLOCK

//m

(3)

(2)

(4)

Figure A: Sonar problems. (1) Specular reflection, (2) false distance readings caused by reflection. (3) absorbancy. and (4) beam focusing.

o FALSE 8 REFLECTION _D_ BOUNDARY

SCAN^'V - TRANSDUCER

PULSE NARROWING FROM BEAM WIDTH

-EDGE SMOOTHING

A SINGLE

SONAR

READING

) O O o o

- OVER

ESTIMATE OF WIDTH

Figure B: A sonar map of a room. Each grid is two feet square.

230 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 233

NAVIGATION

Table A: The equations of sonar in air.

S = V KgHRT

SPEED OF SOUND IN AIR

Where

S = speed of sound Kg= gravitational constant

H = ratio of specific heats of air at constant pressure to constant volume R = gas law constant for air T = absolute temperature

ACTUAL DISTANCE Ds = ~fAJSt

Where

Ds= sonar-measured distance using the above formula A,= actual outside temperature S,= standard temperature

SONAR-CALCULATED DISTANCE Vz tS

Where

f = time between sending and receiving sonar pulse S = speed of sound in air

colorful boxes through a fat layer of bubble packing. Since robot designers can't bubble-pack the world, it is obvious that other sensor types must be used in conjunction with sonar for navigation.

The characteristics of reflected sound also depend on signal energy and frequency. Frequencies that are useful in medical imaging, such as ultrasound, are not really practical for robotics because they take advantage of the density of the propagation medium, which is usually a fluid or tissue. Most sonar systems for air rely on a carefully selected subset of frequencies designed to minimize absorption by typical materials. Under some circumstances the frequency will be inappropriate even for head-on readings. An actual example occurred in some initial experiments using robot manipulators that attempted to grasp polyurethane foam blocks, which have extremely high sonar absorbency. For all intents and purposes, these blocks were invisible to sonar.

Other sonar problems occur because of the beam shape. The output of a sonar transducer is actually a cone, like the beam of a flashlight. Without a focusing horn, a typical sonar cone is about 3 5 degrees wide. Therefore, sonar maps have to take into account that the leading edge of the cone will

contact a barrier well before the center axis of the transducer. If the false angular reading is not corrected, the map of an area a robot uses to navigate is distorted. Figure B shows a sonar map made by a robot in the CESAR laboratory that illustrates some of these effects. Specular reflection caused the map to show artificially smoothed edges to boxes, vanishing walls, and falsely closed movement corridors. Beam spread made obstacles that are farther away from the robot appear larger than they really were. Failure to correct for the width of the beam and plotting the distance returns as though they were at the center axis of the sonar resulted in a false inward wall curvature.

Many of these characteristics can be compensated for based on known properties of the sonar beam, but not all. The reason is that, in an unknown room, there is no way to assure that a sonar return is the result of a specular reflection effect instead of an actual return from a new object. Without further verification from different robot positions or alternate sensors such as vision, extraneous information must remain in the sonar map. The correction, or "unfolding," of sensor data thus becomes of major concern the more rapidly navigation decisions must be made.

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[ANUARY 1986 * BYTE 231

NAVIGATION

checking sonar maps to handle changing reflections.

In addition to changing reflections, errors in robot position occur due to the cumulative buildup of mechanical and electronic innaccuracies in the robot propulsion system. Columbuslevel navigations must be able to correct a position by keeping track of

changing external references. There is also a need to keep track of higherlevel global relationships. One problem is identifying and selecting a good reference point. A robot can use such a point to correct cumulative mismatches between what the internal map records as the robot's location and what sensor data indicate are

actual object distances and orientations. How to best select and relate such references as well as how to update the internal map are topics still being researched.

Ulysses

Other types of problems occur when navigation in real time is considered. Ulysses had to contend with a multitude of perils on his explorations, but he also faced gods who kept changing his environment by adding threats or removing them.

For an autonomous robot, a similar situation occurs with traversal in an environment where objects move and requires creation of a stack of intermediate goals as changes invalidate global plans. The robot must generate new plans, remove invalid goals from the stack, and break world maps into static and dynamic areas.

Consider a woman walking down a crowded hall who is preoccupied with a schedule and takes only occasional glances to determine if something is in her way. A glance may work as long as the unexpected does not occur. The greater the amount of change in the environment, however, the faster and more frequently she must glance up and the more often she will have to modify a plan to walk straight ahead in order to avoid bumping into people.

A robot in a dynamic environment is in the same situation. Sensor processing speed must be sufficient to recognize changes in the environment before a preplanned action results in a catastrophe. Consider the implications for a Mars Rover that could only process the image of a cliff after rolling over the edge. Although current computer vision systems provide detailed two-dimensional information about the environment, they can be very slow and computation-intensive. The technology is changing, but vision may not be able to effectively handle the full navigation problem. Single-sensor limitations make us want to simultaneously use different kinds of sensors to provide more data. Higher-order logic may then be able to use the increased information

Photo I: HERMIES (right) and friend. Notice the bubble wrap on the obstacles and the two-feet-square floor grids.

232 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

NAVIGATION

to anticipate serious events before they occur.

Ulysses navigation often creates the need for multiple sources of information to supplement local sensor readings. Sensor speed is important because the total array of sensors must be fast enough to monitor world changes effectively. In addition, multiple sensors increase the importance of future research on databases that combine information into a composite data structure. One such area is robotic learning. An ideal autonomous vehicle would acquire information about its environment on a local basis and at the same time build or modify a global world model that can be used for more complex plans (reference 7).

A Visit with HERMIES

To illustrate how some of these techniques appear in a working system, consider HERMIES (see photo 1). A small mobile robot at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, HERMIES is the prototype of a robot series that contains many of the features needed for autonomous operation in hazardous environments.

HERMIES has a self-powered mobile platform with a wheel-driven chassis, dual manipulator arms, onboard distributed processors, and a directionally controlled sensor suite. He is propelled by two independent DC-motor-driven wheels with a common axle alignment. Common motor direction provides forward and reverse motion, while counter driving provides bidirectional pivoting for heading changes. On-board computers consisting of an IBM Personal Computer and a Z8 microprocessor are located in an enclosure mounted above the drive chassis. The PC controls all functions except the arms, which are controlled by the Z8. The dual arm manipulator torso is located above the computers with two fivedegrees-of-freedom Hero I arms with added shoulder-pitch motion and a base rotation. At present, the sensory platform at the top of HERMIES has one four-element phased array and a binary vision system positioned by a

Figure 4: A Magellan-level navigation by HERMIES, showing the original spatial map, the blooming of obstacle diameters by HERMIES (red), and the selected path (blue).

pan-and-tilt mechanism. The sensor platform is controlled by an openloop commercial multiaxis stepper controller. HERMIES does not do all planning on board but rather communicates sensor data to a remote LISP machine via a radio frequency link. Thus, all the navigation planning, map construction, and decision making occur in the LISP machine, and decisions are transmitted back to HERMIES as primitive FORTH commands recognized by the robot operating system.

The boxes shown in photo 1 are movable obstacles from which various maze and barrier problems can be constructed. The box mobility also permits experimenters to change the positions of the obstacles as HERMIES navigates. The circular disks on the floor are goal markers so the staff can assess how much cumulative error has been introduced between the internal sonar map of the robot location (displayed in real time on the

—tf

0°

i_

o o

J?

s

TART

)

0

K $

0

/STOP^ yGOALy

—

0

0

o

E

s°°

0°°

Figure 5: A Columbus-level navigation by HERMIES. Obstacles are drawn into the figure but were not available to the robot. The small circles represent the obstacle locations as they appeared on sonar.

LISP machine) and the actual location of HERMIES in the laboratory.

Consider first a simple find-path problem. Figure 4 is an example of a spatial map that HERMIES constructed when given a Magellan problem involving four blocks.. Notice how the edge of the room and the boxes were "bloomed" (red lines) to allow movement clearances. The blue line shows the computed path to be traveled, which corresponds to the selected vertices of the bloomed boxes. Notice that a shorter path looked possible but the robot did not select it because the clearances of the obstacles were insufficient after the obstacles were bloomed.

Figure 5 shows part of a Columbus problem navigation map generated by sweeping the HERMIES sonar through 180 degrees and recording the returned distances as small circles. The dashed line corresponds to the

(continued]

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 233

NAVIGATION

path selected by HERMIES to avoid the obstacles. The actual shapes of the obstacles are drawn in to illustrate the error introduced by the sonar returns (see "Sonar Sensors" on page 230) and were not available to HER

lal

MIES at the time of navigation.

Figure 6 shows part of a Ulysseslevel global map that was built in four steps. This information is used to combine the history of multiple journeys for future navigation planning.

Figure 6a shows a spatial graph of current obstacle locations and paths from four earlier Columbus-level journeys. Figure 6b is a special type of graphic representation called a Voronoi diagram. Both are used to apply graph theory to the multipath history and calculate a new optimal path from previously learned information. This path would minimize additional sensor use. Learning occurs as new paths are added to the Voronoi diagram and spatial graphs so that, with time, the robot navigation control switches from sensor-driven obstacle avoidance to global graphbased decisions.

Future Directions

Advances in robot navigation are occurring very rapidly, so accurate projections about the future are speculative at best. Some trends appear evident, however. Robot navigation planning will move increasingly toward Ulysses-level problems. There will be more concern with the computational and algorithmic requirements of realtime sensor processing and decision making using parallel computer architectures, larger knowledge bases and expert systems, and effective characterization of uncertainty. Sensors will increase in speed and number with improvements being made in integrated functions, such as the use of multiple phased arrays to improve sonar focusing, laser range finders for precise distance and edge detection, touch sensing, and stereoscopic vision.

Future descendants of current mobile robots such as CarnegieMellon's Terregator, HERMIES, the University of Tolouse's Hilare, and the Department of Defense's Autonomous Land Vehicle will most likely be faster, smarter, and more aware of their environments than today's prototypes. The mobile robots of the future may well be a new class of explorers that journey to places or planets where people can never go. ■

REFERENCES

1. (uliere, M., L. Marce, and H. Place. A Guidance System for a Mobile Robot. 13th In

(b)

/ CLEAR

I—I END

Figure 6: A Ulysses-level map constructed by HERMIES. [a) The obstacle positions before exploration and four paths {blue) from previous traversals around the objects: [b] Voronoi regions are created and labeled from previous path points. The optimal path calculated is shown in blue.

234 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

NAVIGATION

ternational Symposium on Industrial Robots, ROBOT 7, vol. 2. April 1983.

2. Lozano-Perez, T. "Automatic Planning of Manipulator Transfer Movements." IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man. and Cybernetics. SMC-11, 1981, pages 681-689.

3. Moravec, Hans P. "Obstacle Avoidance and Navigation in the Real World by a Seeing Robot Rover." Stanford AIT-340. September 1980.

4. Udupa, Shriram M. "Collision Detection and Avoidance in Computer Controlled Manipulators." Proceedings of IJCAI-5. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1977. pages 737-748.

5. Crowley, ). L. "Navigation for an Intelligent Mobile Robot." IEEE \ournal of Robotics and Automation., vol. RA-1, no. 1. March 1985.

6. Dufay. "Apprentissage par Induction en Robotique—Application a la Synthese de Programmes de Montage." These de Troisieme Cyde. INPG Genoble, June 1983.

7. Iyengar, S. S., C. C. Jorgensen, S. V. N. Rao, and C. R. Weisbin. "Robot Navigation Algorithms Using Learned Spatial Graphs." ORNL technical report ORNL-TM-9782, August 8, 1985.

8. Schwartz, f. T, and Micha Sharir. "On the Piano Movers Problem, the Case of a Two Dimensional Rigid Polygonal Body Moving Amidst Polygonal Barriers." Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics. vol. xxxvi, 1983, pages 34 5-398.

9. Everett, H. R. "A Multielement Ultrasonic Ranging Array." Robotics Age. July 1985. pages 13-20.

The research that is the subject of this article was sponsored by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC05-840r21400 with Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION For more detail on vision systems, see Digital image Processing by Rafael C. Gonzalez and Paul Wintz (Reading, MA: AddisonWesley, 1977).

For an interesting study of the Mars Rover, see Robot Rover Visual Navigation by Hans P. Moravec (Ann Arbor. Ml: UMI Research Press. 1981).

For more detail on robotic arms, see Teleoperation and Robotics: Evolution and Development. Robot Technology Series vol. 3A, by lean Vertut and Philippe Coiffet (London: Kogan Page, 1985).

For information on planning, see A Structure for Plans and Behavior by Earl D. Sacerdoti (New York: Elsevier, 1977).

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236 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 118

ROBOTICS

AI IN COMPUTER VISION

BY jOHN L. CUADRADO AND CLARA Y. CUADRADO

Framing doors and windows

COMPUTER VISION INVOLVES a two-stage process: An early processing (sometimes called low-level processing) stage extracts intrinsic information of images, e.g.. the gray level at various points on an image plane. This early processing is done very efficiently, albeit unconsciously, in the human visual system. We do not yet understand very well the way it works. In contrast, the late processing (or high-level processing) stage in computer vision uses general assumptions about how the physical world fits together to guide vision. This highlevel processing is more easily understood in terms of the human visual system: We constantly utilize domain knowledge to guide our interpretation of images. Here vision becomes inseparable from general cognitive processing. This is the stage where artificial intelligence and vision meet: knowledge representation, inferences, goals, and plans all play an important role in this stage of vision.

In this article we will attempt to illustrate how artificial intelligence techniques can be used to aid computer vision. Because of the complexity and

diversity of issues involved in these two fields, we feel it is futile to try to cover current state-of-the-art research. Interested readers should consult references I, 2, 3, and 4. Instead, we will present a simple computer-vision system that we have constructed for the explicit purpose of demonstrating the role AI may play in a vision system. We will concentrate on the high-level end of the vision hierarchy but we will also point out the interplay between the low-level processes and the knowledge-intensive processes whenever appropriate.

Frame-based Knowledge Representation

Our computer-vision system uses a frame-based knowledge representation to handle all the components in the high-level processing of the vision hierarchy. (Probably the best introduction to the idea of frames and framebased systems is reference 5. An excellent succinct presentation is also available in reference 6.) The frames structure we use is based on a combination of features from KRL (Knowledge Representation Language), SRL

(Schema Representation Language), and FRL (Frame Representation Language). Our frame-based system is implemented in Prolog and includes such features as inheritance and demons.

The basic structure of an abstract frame is shown in figure 1. A frame consists of a name followed by an arbitrary number of slots, each of which can support an arbitrary number of facets. Each facet has an associated value. The data corresponding to these values is not typed data in general, although it is a simple matter to provide mechanisms for the enforcement of strongly typed facets. The value associated with a given facet can be an integer, string, list, or an even more complex object. The most common facet is the value facet.

[continued]

Clara Y. Cuadrado and }ohn L. Cuadrado (Octy Inc., 10920 Oxford Court, Fairfax Station, VA 22039) both earned Ph.Ds from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They taught at the University of Maryland and Dartmouth College, respectively, and now run their own company developing AI systems.

IANUARY 1986 "BYTE 237

VISION AI

This facet refers to the actual value taken by the corresponding slot. Other commonly occuring facets include the default and if needed

facets. A simple example should help to clarify all this terminology.

Consider a simple personal computer consisting of a microprocessor, some memory, a disk drive, a video monitor, and a keyboard. This might be represented as shown in figure 2.

Now, a specific instance of this type of computer could be my computer, as shown in figure 3a. The ako acronym stands for "a kind of" and indicates that my_computer is one of the class of computers having all the characteristics of computer_brandX. In particular, my computer "inherits" an 8088 processor from the

computer brandX. Similarly, if we

want to know what kind of monitor

my computer has, we

know that

< frame-name >

< slot-name >

< facet-name >

: value

< facet-name >

: value

< slot-name >

< facet-name >

: value

< facet-name >

: value

Figure 1: An abstract representation in pseudocode of a frame.

since we did not specify a monitor, my computer will inherit the blackand-white monitor specified as the default monitor in computer_ brandX.

From this simple example we see that we are going to need a number of procedures to retrieve values from frames, to install values in frames, etc. We must also agree on some specific representation for frames using the data-structuring facilities that our implementation language provides.

The implementation we have chosen is to let each slot-facet-value triple be represented as a predicate whose head is the frame name. For

example, my computer in figure 3a

would be represented as shown in figure 3b. We have chosen not to implement frames as list structures in Prolog primarily because Prolog does not provide adequate list-surgery

computer_brandX

cpu

value :

8088

memory

default

: 256k

keyboard

default

: 80_keys

monitor

default

: black white

disk drive

default

: ss_floppy

Figure 2: A pseudocode representation of a frame defining a kind of microcomputer.

(a)

my_computer ako

value : computer_brandX memory

value : 512k

(b)

my computer(ako, value,computer brandX).

my_computer(memory,value,512k).

Figure 3: Ad instance of a figure 2-type computer in pseudocode (a) and as implemented in Prolog (b).

operations. This is not an oversight by the designers of Prolog. To perform such list surgery it becomes necessary to do certain manipulations that are against the applicative nature of Prolog. There is a way around it via difference lists, but we will not go into that here.

Frames in Prolog

In the next few paragraphs, we present a guided tour through the various functions that provide the retrieval and maintenance facilities for this particular representation of frames in Prolog. Each of the sets of functions presented below is organized as a main predicate that provides a general facility, including the ability to handle inheritance and the invocation of suitable demons.

First, we need a function that will retrieve information from the slots in

a frame. The predicate frame get

performs such a function. It uses ffget as an auxiliary predicate to handle traversals up the frame hierarchy. The actual code for this function is presented in listing l. {Editor's note: The Prolog source code is available for downloading from BYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764. The code can be run on PDPROLOG, which is also available from BYTEnet Listings. |

The next set of predicates provides the facilities to install values in a given

slot of a frame. The code for frame

put in listing 1 does this.

Next, we provide a predicate for removing information from a frame, frame remove (listing 1).

Occasionally, we not only need to install and remove values from some slot in a frame but also need to replace whatever value is in a slot with a new value. In listing 1, frame_ replace does this.

Finally, there are times when we need to deal with lists as the values of some slots. Often in these cases we build the lists incrementally. For this reason, we provide the frame append predicate that appends values to a list in a slot (listing 1).

To further illustrate the use of the frame-retrieval and maintenance

[continued1,

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VISION AI

Listing I: The Prolog frame-manipulation routines with an example routine for calculating cylinder attributes.

r Get the Value of Slot in a given Frame */ frame_get(Frame,Slot,Value) :

tfget(Frame,Frame,Slot, Value).

ffget(Parameter_Frame,Frame,Slot,Value) :- /* Check for a value Facet. */

fget(Frame,Slot,value,Value).

ffget(Parameter Frame,Frame,Slot,Value) :- /* Does it have a default?

7

fget(Frame,Slot,default,Value). ffget(Parameter_Frame,Frame,Slot,Value) :- /* How about a demon? */

fget(Frame,Slot,if_needed,Rule),

F =.. [Rule,Parameter_Frame,Value],

F.

ffget(Parameter_Frame,Frame,Slot,Value) :- /* None of the above. */ fget(Frame,ako,value,Parent), /* So, move up the hierarchy.

*l

ffget(Parameter_Frame,Parent,Slot, Value). fget(Frame,Slot,Facet,Value) :- /* Just grab the given Facet or fail. */

F =.. [Frame,Slot,Facet,Value],

F.

/* Put Value in Slot of a given Frame. If this Slot has an associated if_added demon, then grab it and execute it after installing the given Value.

•/

frame_put(Frame,Slot,Value) :

get_rule(Frame,Slot,if_added,Rule), /* Must we do something

extra? */

fput(Frame, Slot, value, Value), F = .. [Rule.Frame.Value], F.

frame_put(Frame,Slot,Value) :

fput(Frame,Slot,value,Value). /" Just a simple fput will

do. */

fput(Frame,Slot,Facet,Value) :

F = .. [Frame,Slot,Facet,Value], assertz(F).

/* Remove Slot from a given Frame. If the Slot has an associated if_removed demon, then grab the rule and execute it before removing the Slot.

7

frame remove(Frame,Slot) :

get rule(Frame,Slot,if removed,Rule), /* Something extra to

do. */

F =.. [Rule,Frame],

F,

fremove(Frame,Slot). frame_remove(Frame,Slot) :

fremove(Frame,Slot). (* Just a simple fremove. */

fremove(Frame.Slot) :—

F =.. [Frame,Slot,value,Value], retract(F).

fremove(_,_). /* If Slot doesn't exist, then no harm done. 7

/* Replace whatever is in Slot with Value. If the Slot has an associated

if replaced rule, then grab it and execute it after doing the

replacement. (continued)

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•/

frame__replace(Frame,Slot,Value) :

get rule(Frame,Slot,if_replaced,Rule), /* Something extra to

do. '/

freplace(Frame,Slot,Value), F = .. [Rule.Frame],

F.

frame replace(Frame,Slot,Value) :

freplace(Frame,Slot,Value). /* Just a simple

replace. */

freplace(Frame,Slot,Value) : fremove(Frame,Slot), frame_put(Frame, Slot, Value).

/* Append Value to the list in Slot. If Slot has an associated if_appended rule, then grab it and execute it after appending the Value.

7

frame append(Frame,Slot,Value) :

get_rule(Frame,Slot,if_appended,Rule), fappend(Frame,Slot, Value), F = .. [Rule.Frame], F.

frame append(Frame,Slot,Value) :

fappend(Frame,Slot, Value).

/* Here we check to see if the slot already exists.

If it does, then we just append the new Value to the old value

list.

If the Slot does not exist, then we create it and give it a value consisting of the list whose single element is Value.

"/

fappend(Frame,Slot,Value) :

fget(Frame, Slot, value, Old), (member(Value,Old)

fremove(Frame,Slot), fput(Frame,Slot,value,[Value4Old])

)■

fappend(Frame,Slot,Value) :

fput(Frame, Slot, value, [Value]).

/* This is a simple utility predicate used to travel up the frame hierarchy looking for an appropriate rule to grab.

7

get_rule(Frame,Slot,Type,Rule) :

fget(Frame, Slot, Type, Rule), get rule(Frame,Slot,Type,Rule) :

fget(Frame,ako, value, Parent),

get_rule(Parent,Slot,Type, Rule).

I

/" Example

frame representation:

cylinder ako

value : thing

height

if_added : cylinder_height add

if_removed : cylinder_height remove

radius

if_added : cylinder_radius add

lf_removed : cylinder_radius_remove

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HOW TO ORDER. Send check or money order to Ellis Computing, Inc. with VISA or MASTERCARD order by phone. Sorry no COD's.

after Jan

OEllis Con 5655 Rig. Reno, Ne Phone (7 SINCE 1977

ELLIS COMPUTING

Our new address and phone after Jan. 2,1986: Ellis Computing, Inc. 5655 Riggins Court, Suite 10 Reno, Nevada 89502 Phone (702) 827-3030

244 BYTE • JANUARY I986

Inquiry I2I

I

Inquiry 356

VISION Al

cross_section

if needed : cylinder cross section

volume

if needed : cylinder volume

cylinderl ako

value : cylinder

comments: cylinderl above is an instance of cylinder. When we use frame_put(cylinder1 .radius,2), say, the system will install the number "2" as the value of cylinderl's radius and it will further compute cylinderl's cross sectional

area and install it under the cross section slot. Similar actions take place when we

do a frame put for cylinderl's height. Below is the Prolog code that implements

all this. NOTE: PDPROLOG only supports integer arithmetic. '/

cylinder(ako, value, geometric_object). cylinder(height,if_added,cylinder_height_add).

cy/indef(height, if_removed, cylinder height remove).

cylinder(radius,if added,cylinder radius add).

cylinder(radius,if removed,cylinder radius remove).

cylinder(cross_section,if_needed,cylinder_cross_section). cylinder(volume,if_needed,cylinder_ volume).

/' If we get the height, then we try to compute the cylinder's volume.

*/

cylinder height add(Cylinder ) :

cylinder volume(Cylinder ).

cylinder_height_add( ). /* If we can't do it,

e.g., the radius is unknown, then no harm done. */

/" If the height is removed, then the old volume is no longer valid.

"/

cylinder height remove(Cylinder) :

frame remove(Cylinder, volume).

/* If we get the radius, then we can compute the cylinder's cross sectional area.

*/

cylinder radius add(Cylinder ) :

cylinder cross section(Cylinder ).

/* If the radius is removed, then the old cross sectional area is no longer valid.

*/

cylinder radius remove(Cylinder) :

frame remove(Cylinder, cross section),

frame remove(cylinder, volume).

/* PDPROLOG does not support floating-point arithmetic, so if you are using that version, change pi to an integer value.

*/

cylinder cross section(Cylinder,Cross Section) :

frame get(Cylinder, radius, Radius),

Cross Section is 3.1416*Radius*Radius,

freplace(Cylinder,cross_section,Cross_Section).

cylinder volume(Cylinder,Volume) :

frame get(Cylinder,cross section,Cross Section),

frame get(Cylinder,height,Height),

Volume is Height*Cross Section,

freplace(Cylinder, volume, Volume).

cylinderl (ako, value,cylinder).

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IANUARY I986 -BYTE 245

VISION AI

predicates, we present an example. It describes a frame for a general cylinder and provides demons for calculating the cross-sectional area and volume. The code in listing 1 from the "Example" remark to the end of the listing accomplishes this.

In the above, we have presented a brief review of the concept of framebased representation and provided enough frame-building tools so that anyone wishing to embark on the design of a frame-based system can utilize this skeleton to get started. Next, we will describe the workings of a vision system that incorporates these ideas.

A Simple Vision System

Sometime last year an architectural firm (let's call it Palladio Associates)

came to us with a request for the design and implementation of a system capable of interpreting house drawings. They needed a system to classify houses according to a fixed number of models. They also wanted the system to make recommendations on possible improvements that could be made to a set of sample houses to make them conform more closely to the models. It was also important that the system be capable of justifying (explaining) any recommendations that it would make.

After talking with representatives from Palladio Associates, we learned that the number of their model houses was very small. We also learned that the sample houses to be presented to the system fell into welldefined, narrow categories with only

some fairly straightforward differences between the samples and the models. The folks at Palladio also revealed that they had purchased adequate digitizing equipment to convert the pictures of the houses into what were essentially sharply segmented line drawings.

Figure 4 shows line drawings of two of Palladio's house models. Figure 5 shows similar line drawings of two of the sample houses. We were also given a set of what the architects considered acceptable window, door, and siding styles to go with these traditional-style houses. Equally important was a set of window, door, and siding styles that the architects considered in poor taste, yet which would appear in the sample houses. They further made recommendations on which acceptable windows should replace which inadequate ones, etc. Confident that Palladio's requests for the sytem's features were manageable, we decided to undertake the project.

After agreeing to take on the job, we met with the architects from Palladio to come up with an initial set of system requirements. Since the digitizing equipment was already available, this presented no real problem. At this meeting the architects expressed an interest in having the capability to input sample houses to the system by using an icon-driven drawing system that they had just purchased for their computer. This did not present any additional problems. In fact, input from the icon-driven system would be simpler to deal with than input from the digitizer since, for example, the windows and doors would already be labeled according to their categories.

The Housing Project

We will now describe the overall system architecture that we used in the project and explain the flow of information through the system.

Figure 6 is a diagram of the structure of the system. As indicated by box 2 in figure 6, you interact with the system by specifying one or more sample houses that you wish to have

{continued)

Figure 4: Two house models used by "Palladio Associates'.'

Figure 5: Sample houses to be analyzed by the architectural program.

246 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

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9

Ol<3 V

O

■ X'r.

M

VISION AI

the system analyze. You can have a picture digitized, or you may instead choose to input a line drawing using the icon-driven drawing system.

All system interactions are ultimately controlled by the inference engine (figure 6, box 1). It has a set of toplevel routines that schedule when other processes in the system get to execute. Whenever some process in the system finishes executing, it passes control back to these top-level routines in the inference engine. The inference engine also provides a number of generic routines that are available to the rest of the system.

The core of the frame utilities component of the system (figure 6, box 0) has already been described in the previous section. The routines provided by this component are also generally available to the rest of the system and can be considered as providing another, higher-level language on top of Prolog.

After the image of a house has been

suitably massaged by the low-level system components in boxes 3 and 4 in the diagram, the information then flows on to box 5. It is here that the system attempts to put together a higher-level description of the image. First, as depicted in figure 7, a set of processes partitions the image into "global house coordinates" and assigns sets of these coordinates to each of the major features of the house, for example, the windows and doors. The main goal here is to partition the house into a set of vertical and horizontal components, each of which contains some house feature that later system phases will find interesting. The general scheme here is basically a simple relaxation technique that first tries to partition the house into three vertical components and three horizontal components. By attempting to isolate significant features in each of the components, the process either increases or decreases the number of com

ponents. In the simple houses that the system deals with, the process usually converges very rapidly, and it takes only a couple of passes to settle down to a final partition. What we mean by "global house coordinates" is simply a left-to-right and bottom-to-top assignment of natural numbers to each of the partitions in the image, as illustrated in figure 7. During this phase the system also attempts to classify the windows and doors in the house and match them against the model windows and doors provided by the system. The frame representation of one of the system's models is shown in listing 2.

The processes in box 6 of figure 6 now take over and attempt to construct a frame representation of the entire house. This representation incorporates all the information from the intermediate processes in box 5, but it also discards the pixel-level information from boxes 3 and 4. The

USER INTERFACE

e.g.. KEYBOARD. MOUSE.

HIGH-RESOLUTION DISPLAY

RECOMMENDATIONS /RATIONALE PROCESSES

e.g.. APPLICATION OF ARCHITECTSUPPLIED HEURISTICS

INPUT SUBSYSTEM

e.g.. PICTURE DIGITIZATION

ICON-DRIVEN DRAWING SYSTEM

INFERENCE ENGINE

e.g.. CONTROL STRUCTURES. HEURISTICS

FRAME UTILITIES

e.g.. FUNCTIONS TO BUILD AND

MAINTAIN FRAME STRUCTURES

FRAME MATCHING PROCESSES

e.g.. MATCHING OF SAMPLE HOUSE

FRAME AGAINST MODEL HOUSES

LOW-LEVEL PROCESSES

e.g . DETECT WINDOWS AND DOORS

INTERMEDIATE PROCESSES

e.g.. CLASSIFY WINDOWS AND DOORS. ASSIGN GLOBAL HOUSE COORDINATES

TOP-LEVEL DESCRIPTION PROCESSES

e g . INTEGRATION OF INFORMATION INTO FRAME STRUCTURES FOR EACH SAMPLE HOUSE PRESENTED TO THE SYSTEM

Figure 6: Diagram of the structure of the architectural system.

248 BYTE" JANUARY 1986

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Microsoft and Multiplan are registered trademarks and The High Performance Software is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation Lotus and 1-2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. VisiCalc is a registered trademark of VisiCorp. dBASE IU is a trademark of Ashton-Tare. R:BASE 5000 is a registered trademark of Microrim. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines CorporationChart runs on IBM* PCs and compatibles. And supports IBM EGA and other graphic cards, as well as the latest output devices from Polaroid, Hewlett Packard, IBM and others.

Inquiry 69

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VISION AI

frame representation generated by the system for a typical sample house is shown in listing 3.

From here on, the system works with the frame representations exclusively. The processes in box 7 attempt to match the frame representation of the sample house against the model frames provided by the system. The matching process is very forgiving and utilizes a set of heuristics to include or ignore features that are considered relevant for a global match.

After the system has produced what it considers to be a suitable matching between the sample and one of the models, it passes control back to the top-level inferencing component. The system then invokes the final set of processes in box 8, which analyze the sample frame and the model and use a set of the heuristics supplied by the architects to make recommendations on how to modify the sample house to make it conform to the model more closely. The recommendations are coupled with various explanations based on the types of windows, doors, etc., and why the architects feel it would be more appealing to remodel according to some given plan.

Epilog

The simple system presented in this article illustrates how techniques in ar

tificial intelligence, such as framebased knowledge representation, can be used in a vision system to provide a very high-level representation of the information contained in simple, wellspecified images. The system works because the set of alternatives it has to consider is very small. The system only "knows" a very limited set of window, door, and siding types, some symmetries, and a few relatively simple heuristics relating to the interplay among these well-defined categories.

While we spare no effort in encouraging our readers to try their hands at applying AI techniques to their computer-vision problems, we hasten to add that the gap between our system and something like the ACRONYM system at Stanford (described in reference 7) is enormous. General-purpose systems like ACRONYM have to deal with issues that are not even addressed in the current system. It is important that our readers refrain from extrapolating the capabilities shown in the simple system described in this article into realms for which it was never intended.

Having said all that, we hope that our little system demonstrates that, given a narrow domain with relatively little noise, it is fairly straightforward to construct systems that have reason

[continued]

YPOSITION

n

XPOSITION

Figure 7: Global house coordinates showing the partitioning of a sample house by the program.

250 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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VISION AI

Listing 2: The frame representation of one of the

architectural system's house models.

window typel

ar\u

VSlUG !

WlrlUOW

nanpQ

VcllUG '.

1 9

stylG

VcllUG '.

sash

window_type2

ako

value :

window

r^i noc (Jell leb

value '.

?4 ct

style

wall ia ■

each octal l

window_type3

ako

value :

window

\Jaf leb

value .

q o

style

value

fj I \j i u I c

window_type4

ako

value

window

nanpc pai ico

value .

q

style

value :

sash

window type5

ako

value

window

panes

value :

2

style

value ■

sash

window

ako

value

thing

area

if_needed : window_area

window area(Window.Area) :

fget(Window, height, Height),

fget(Window,width,Width),

Area is Height

. Width,

f replace(Wi ndow, area, Area).

door typel

ako

value

door

panels

value

4

symmetry

value

yes

doorway

value :

[columns, fan light]

door type2

ako

value ;

door

[continued]

252 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 108

New from Logitech.

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Inquiry 216

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 253

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1- S109

2- 3 S105 4-10 S100

•>

Multifunction Card

PRICE BREAKTHROUGH

I Serial Port Punter Port — Game Port Real-Time Clock-Calendar RAM Disk — Port Spooler Optional second serial port available

With 384 RAM S229

3 or more S199

PC PLUS " Add-Ons for IBM " PC & Compatibles

Disk Controller Card

44

Game Adapter

23

Disk 1 0 Card (2 Serial. Parallel

Color Graphics Card

... 99

Clock 6 Game)

. 113

Color Card/Parallel Pari

119

Parallel Printer Card

..23

Mono Graphic Cd Printer Port

109

Hi-fles Mono Card. .

85

Speaker

. . Z 50

Serial Card

30

I/O Plus Card

99

PAPER

Keen Edge 29

9W" x 11" Slandard 27

14'/r x 11" Standard 38

20 lb - other weights available 2700 sheets per case

Our networking and integration department has serviced many ol the Fortune so companies lor the past 5 years. Call and discuss your applications.

r

data systems

o | One Plus

^™ I 7 Expansion Slot:

4 12 DS/DD 360K Disk Drive

| I 3B4 RAM Memory, Amuei 20 MHz Monitor Pi3

ROM Diagnostics, 1 Expansion Slot CZF-148-42BU 1 ,350

2J

CZF-I58-42BU 1 ,850

One Plus

Hard Disk System, 20 Meg Winning 1 DS'DO 360K 384 RAM Memory. B MHz with 7 Expansion Slots CZW-I58-42BU

New Advance Technology PC IBM PC/AT Compatible

Single DS/DD 1 2 Meg Disk Drive 512K RAM. Serial Parallel Amber 20 MHi Monitor (Pi3) Expandability lor up to 12 simultaneous users

czF-241-ai Call

I Four Plus

c i Four Plu

| Hard Disk Syste Same as above

CZW-241-B2BU

nclnding 40 Meg Hard Oisk

Cell

2,429

£i i Portables Zenith Quality ISM Compatihlri

O I Back Ln Semen 8 MHr

2 Slandard DS/DD/360K Drives 640 < 200 Dot Graphs 14 3 Lbs. 2S0K RAM

CZ17I-42 1 ,995

7 I Trans Portable

/ I 2 DO 360K Drives —— 8 MHr Clock. 128K RAM 24 2 lbs

CZF-138-2! 1 ,299

SOFTWARE

for IBM, Macintosh Apple All Major Brands

25% - 40% Off

Call lor pricing Corporation users volume purchase contracts available Call for money saving details

, HARD DISKS .

10 Meg ba'e ml eit 299 489 1589 70 Meu. bare ml e>t 499 fiB9 889 30 Meg Cull 85 Meg Call WD Hard Disk Cnntro/ler 190

MODEMS 2)Hay&s Mnchop

Canon

Laser Beam Printer

Many Advantages 0V« HP Nil Additional Cull Obanlrrv Discounts

IBM Parallel Interface

ft can 1HINK' lis a Diablo 630 4 Resident Funis Down loadable Fonis Choose numb* ol copies from ktit«ia<<I

Fa BE ST PRICE Call

CLOSEOUT SPECIAL

Vic 20 software grab bay 3 assarted pieces S20 up to S129 Value

10 assorted pieces S55 up to S429 Value Act now while they last!

EPSON

flX-irjO LX-BO FX-85+ FX-185+ LQ 150D JXBQ Color

r 10

Call Call Call

Free printer stand with each printer purchased'

Canon A-4S

npoct Dot Matrix Printer

Nm< letter qualf* 23 i IB mirrii 140 cos 3 kinds ot Graphic Image SHoclable Uneteeding, IBM Printer Cnmpalibls Push Feed Adjustable Tractor

Fanlold Single Sheer b Wuttipa'i Copt Pape' Usable in* Mo'« lealuris Onl( S2b9

ORDERING INFORM A JVC* Order by check. Mastercard or VISA. Personal checks lake 15 days to clear No waiting on certified checks or money orders Minimum shipping charge S4 GO. MA residents add 5%. All items subject to availability Prices subject to changes Additional discounts available In qualified educational institutions. Requests for hid on volume requirements invited Dealer inquiries

Customer Service 215-822-7727

COMPUTERS

Use our TOLL FREE Order Line Mon-Fri 9am-6pm EST

800-822-1211

In PA: 215-822-7727

252 BETHLEHEM PIKE. COLMAR. PENNSYLVANIA 18915

VISION Al

panels

value :

6

symmetry

value :

yes

doorway

value :

[columns, portico, side_

_windows]

door type3

ako

value :

door

panels

value :

0

symmetry

value :

no

doorway

value :

[]

door

ako

value :

thing

area

if needed : door area

door area(Door.Area) :

fget(Door, height, Height),

fget(Door,width,Width),

Area is Height

• Width,

freplace(Door,area, Area).

. siding typel

ako

value :

siding

material

value

clapboard

width

value

narrow

cornerboard

value

yes

siding type2

ako

value

siding

material

value

aluminum

width

value

wide

cornerboard

value

no

siding

ako

value

thing

house typel

ako

value

house

stories

value

3

siding

value

siding typel

roof

value

gable

windowl

optional : yes

xposition : 2

yposition : 3

type :

window type2

{continued)

254 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 6

INTRODUCING

ORCHID'S S.W.A.T. TEAM

LotuB/IntelEMS

3 Megabytes Serial/Parallel Forts

B^ottaess installation

Slot 1

The Multifunction Force That's Superstuff ed With Advanced Technology.

Every member of this team has the technology you need to get the job done: Lotus/Intel Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) breaks the 640K DOS limit. Powerful Productivity J\ Software including Disk Caching, 4 \ RAM Disk and Print Spooling.

Switchless design makes installation easy and fast. All these boards come with a Two Year Warranty to prove our team means business.

Finally, advanced technology in multifunction boards.

47790 Westinghouse Drive. Fremont, CA 94539 (415) 490-8586 .Telex 709289

ECCELL, Conquest and CramRAM are trademarks of Orchid Technology. Other products named in this document are trademarks of their manufacturers.

ORCHID

Inquiry 268

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 255

Inquiry 346

GOOD NEWS FOR AT&T 6300 OWNERS!

PC-DocuMates

Or see our ad on page 208 for details.

VISION Al

window2

xposition : 1

yposition : 2

type : window type2

window3

xposition : 3

yposition : 2

type : window type2

proto house

ako

value : house typel

window4

xposition : 1 yposition : 1 type : window type2

door

xposition : 3 yposition : 1 type : door typel

proto house mirror image

ako

value : house typel

window4

xposition : 3 yposition : 1 type : window type2

door

xposition : 1 yposition : 1 type : door typel

Listing 3: The frame representation generated by the

architectural system of a sample house.

housel7

ako

value

house

stories

value

3

siding

value

siding type2

roof

value

gable

windowl

value

w7

window2

value

w12

window3

value

w17

window4

value

w23

door

value

door37

w7

ako

value

window type4

ipo

/* is part of */

value

housel7

xposition

value

2

[continued]

256 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 46

NRI Trains You At Home—As You Build Your Own IBM-Compatible Computer

GET THE KNOW TO

COMPUTER

EVERY THIS PAGE

Learn the Basics the NRI Way-and Earn Good Money Troubleshooting Any Brand of Computer

The biggest growth in jobs between now and 1995, according to Department of Labor estimates, will occur in the computer service and repair business, where demand for trained technicians will actually double.

You can cash in on this opportunity—either as a fulltime corporate technician or an independent serviceperson— once you've learned all the basics of computers the NRI way. NRI's practical combination of "reasonwhy" theory and "hands-on" building skills starts you with the fundamentals of electronics, then guides you through advanced electronic circuitry and on into computer electronics. You also learn to program in BASIC and machine language, the essential languages for troubleshooting and repair.

You Build-and Keep-a Sanyo MBC-550-2

The vital core of your training is the step-by-step building of the 16-bit Sanyo MBC-550-2 computer. Once you've mastered the details of this state-of-the-art machine, you'll be qualified to service and repair virtually every major brand of computer, plus many popular peripheral and accessory devices.

With NRI training, you learn at your own convenience, in your own home. You set the pace—without classroom pressures, rigid night-school schedules, or wasted time. You build the Sanyo MBC-550-2 from the keyboard up, with your own personal

IBM is a Registered Trademark of International Business Machine Corporation. Epson Is a Registered Trademark of Epson America, Inc.

5 Registered Trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

NRI instructor and the complete NRI technical staff ready to answer your questions or give you guidance and special help whenever you need it.

Praised by critics as the "most intriguing" of all the IBM-PC compatible computers, the new Sanyo uses the same 8088 microprocessor as the IBM-PC and features the MS/DOS operating system. As a result, you'll have a choice of thousands of off-theshelf software programs to run on your completed Sanyo.

Your NRI course includes installation and troubleshooting of the "intelligent" keyboard, power supply, and disk drive, plus you'll check out the 8088 microprocessor functions,

using machine language. You'll also prepare the interfaces for future peripherals such as printers and joysticks.

100-Page Free Catalog Tells More

Send the postage-paid reply card today for NRI's big 100-page color catalog on NRI's electronics training, which gives you all the facts about NRI courses in Microcomputers, Robotics, Data

Communications, TV/ Video/Audio Servicing, and other growing hightech career fields. If the reply card is missing, write to the address below.

Your NRI course includes the Sanyo MBC-550-2 Computer with 128K RAM, monitor, disk drive, and "intelligent" keyboard; the NRI Discovery Lab19, teaching circuit design and operations; a Digital Multimeter; Bundled Spread Sheet and Word Processing Software worth $1500 at retail—and more.

SCHOOLS

McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center

3939 Wisconsin Avenue, NW fJ'iJ) Washington, DC 20016 fjfiffi

We'll Give You Tomorrow.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 257

WHAT WILL WE HAVE TO IMPORT NEMT, COLLEGE GRADUATES?

Ever since World War I, most of the rest of the world has come to the United States for the latest in technology. Now there's a real danger that the pendulum is swinging the other way. We're importing know-how in many fields instead of exporting it.

Unfortunately this situation will get progressively worse. Unless we

protect American colleges from inflation. For our colleges and universities supply most of the important basic research upon which technological progress is built.

So please give generously. If we keep the intellectual balance of trade in our favor the industrial balance most certainly will follow.

HELP PRESERVE AMERICAN KNOW-HOW.

GIVE TO THE COLLEGE OF YOUR CHOICE.

TOUGH LOCAL NETWORK PROBLEM:

"How can our department get our six computers and three printers to work together efficiently? We also want to be able to access outside data services and our future company LAN."

SIMPLE $2995* SOLUTION: NetCommander

NetCommander is a smart, small Local Area Network manager. It lets you link from four to 40 computers and peripherals — in any mix of models and makes. A 50K buffer (expandable to 250K.) makes sure that productivity is high — keeping fewer printers humming — while computer and PC users do their thing, without waiting for a printer, modem, or shared disk. Those devices can be specified with names defined by users — and allocated on the basis of availability and capability. And NetCommander handles multiple protocols and different baud rales simultaneously — w ithout modifications to hardware or software. It will also tie into your company's LAN. The latest in a family of products in use since 1979, NetCommander is a smart, small, efficient network manager.

For more information, call or write:

-NetCommander

Digital Produc ts Int . • The Simple Network Solution Company 600 Pleasant Sired • Water tmen. MA • 02172 (617) 924-1680 • Outside Mass.. call 1-800-241-2313 And check out our 30-day trial evaluation.

'For Hi ports

VISION AI

yposition

value

O

w12

ako

value

window type4

ipo

value

house17

xposition

value

1

yposition

value

2

w17

ako

value

window type4

ipo

value

house17

xposition

value

3

yposition

value

2

w23

ako

value

window type3

ipo

value

house17

xposition

value

3

yposition

value

1

door37

ako

value

door type3

ipo

value

house17

xposition

value

1

yposition

value

1

able performance using a modest set of generally available and easily understood tools. ■

REFERENCES

1. Baird, H. S. Model-Based \mage Matching Using location. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1984.

2. Ballard, D. H., and C. M. Brown. Computer Vision. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall. 1982.

3. Brady, ). M., ed. Computer Vision. New York: Elsevier, 1981.

4. Lowe, D. G. Perceptual Organization and Visual Recognition. Hingham, MA: Kluwer Academic Press, 1985.

5. Minsky, Marvin. "A Framework for Representing Knowledge." Cambridge, MA: MIT Al Memo #306 (1974).

6. Winston, P. H. Artificial \ntelligence, 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984.

7. Brooks, R. A. Model-Based Computer Vision. Ann Arbor, Ml: UM1 Research Press. 1984.

258 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 102

Actually, we give you two things free.

Our source code. And your freedom.

Just buy part or all of our excellent integrated business accounting system, the SBT Accounting Software Library.

We'll give you our source code absolutely free.

Which, in turn, gives you the freedom to customize our software to fit your business needs.

Say, for instance, you want to change the way a management report is formatted. Our free source code enables you to change it.

What's more, the change will be quick and simple because our software is written in easy-touse dBASE.

In fact, the entire SBT Accounting Software Library runs with dBASE III or dBASE lit so you get the power and flexibility of those best-selling programs. Plus the freedom to use any computer that runs dBASE.

The SBT Accounting Software Library. Great software and freedom. All in the same box.

Call today for our demo disk and brochure. (415) 331-9900.

Three Harbor Drive Sausalito, CA 94965 (415) 331-9900

Call today for the name of the SBT consultant in your area.

THE SBT ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE LIBRARY.

dProfessional

Time & Billing

$395

d Order

Sales Order Processing

$195

d Invoice

Billing/Inventory Control

$195

d Statement

Accounts Receivable

$ 95

dPurchase

Purchase Order

$195

d Payable

Accounts Payable

$295

d Payroll

Payroll/Labor

$395

dLedger

General Ledger/Finance

$395

dAssets

Asset/Depreciation

$195

dProject

Project/Job Accounting

$395

dBackup

Menu/Backup

$ 65

Free source code in every box.

JB » HAPPY NEW YEAR! » Ja

Commodore® Accessories | apple" compatible computer accessories | IBM® Accessories

RS232 Adapter for V1C-20 and Commodore 64

Hie JE232CM allows connection of standard serial RS232 printers, modems, etc. to your VtC-20 and C-64. A 4-pole switch allows the inversion of the 4 control lines. Complete installation and operation instructions included.

■ Plugs into User Port • Provides Standard RS232 signal levels ■ Uses 6 signals (Transmit, Receive, Clear to Send, Request to Send, Data Terminal Ready, Data Set Ready).

JE232CM $39.95

VOICE SYNTHESIZER FOR COMMODORE VIC-20 AND C-64 Plug-In — Talking in Minutes!

JE520CM $99.95

300 BAUD AUTO MODEM Mitey-Mo (For C-64) $74.95

PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE

FREE 2K Buffer Included! MW350 (For VIC-20 & C-64) $69.95

TRS-80 Accessories

EXPAND TRS-80 MEMORY

TRS-80 MODEL I, III

EactiKil comes complete wittl Bight MM5290 (UPD416/41 1GI 16K Dynamic RAMsand documentation tor conversion Model 1 16K equipped wilh Expansion Interface can be expanded to 4BK with 7 Kits Model III Can lie ' 1 Irom 16K to 48K using 2 Kils Each Kil will expand computer by

200ns (Model III) $5.95

250ns (Model 1) $5.49

ttk TRS-16K3 TRS-16K4

TRS-80 COLOR AND COLOR II

Easy to install Kit comes complete with 8 each 4164N-20 |200nsl 64K Dynamic RAM:> ;mri dociimuiitriiiiiii tnr coiwerston Converts 1RS-S0 Color Computers with 0, E, ET. F and NC circuit boards to 32K Also converts THS-BO Color Computer II lo G<IK Flex DOS or OS-'.) ruciuired to utilize luli i.-ih HAM on ;il| computers

TRS-64K-2 $9.95

TRS-80 MODEL 4, 4P

Easy lo install Kits come complete wilh Tns-64K-2(8ea 4164N-20 (200ns) 63K Dynamic RAMs): TRS-64K-2PAL (8 ea 4164 s plus PAL chip) and documentation lor conversion

TRS-64K-2 Expands Model 4 from 16K-64K or

Mode! 4P from 64K-12BK S 9.95

TRS-64K-2PAL Expands Model 4 from 64K to 128K S29.95

• TRS-80 Model 100 • NEC - Olivetti

Easy lo install Mmlule fiiuys nylit m(u ttitj sockei incie.isinrj memory in 8K increments Three modules will increase your memory lo ils lull capacity Complete with module and documentation lor installation.

MIOOaK (TRS-80 Model 100 Expansion) E29.95 ea. or 3/S79.95

NEC8KR (NEC PC-8201A) S29.95 ea. or 3/S79.95

OM108K (Olivetti M10) S29.95 ea. or 3/S79.95

TANDY 200

24K increments Compli;ie v.ir c-ih■:■ ■ .mo <kiiu>mi;iii,iii(]n (or installation

M200R (Tandy 200 Expansion). . . $99.95 ea. Of 2/$1 89.95

PROMETHEUS MODEMS

Intelligent 1200/300 Baud Modem with Real Time Clock/Calendar

The ProModem ' is a Bell 212A {1200/300) intelligent stand-alone modem ■ Hayes command set compatible plus an additional extended command set ■ Shown with alphanumeric display option.

PM1200 RS-232 Stand-Alone Unit $299.95

OPTIONS FOR ProModem 1200

PM-COM (ProCorn Communication Software] S 79.95

Please specify Operating System

Apple ProDOS or CP/M - or

I9M PC DOS or MS DOS

PM-OP51 2K (Communication Butter Optioni S129.95

BUF512K I5T2K Memory lor PM-OP512KI S 54.95

PM-ALP lAlpn.immieru: Display! $ 79.95

PM-Special K2 itncJudes PM-OP512K.

BJF5I2K and PM-ALP) S249.95

DATA BOOKS

210830 Intel Memory Components Hndbk. (1983/84). . . . S14.95

Contains nil '\ut.'!ie;il:nrvr Noi>-?i Articio lift" mis D.il.i Siiuels S other Otsiqn inform.ition on Inlrl :, H.m.is. DR..-.M-. [."1'HOr.V. IMTOMs nnd Buhble Memories 1660 pages)

230843 Intel Microsystem Components Hndbk. (1983/84) S 19.95

Contains D.iUiStii^.'l^ on.ill ritlntorr. Micii)|jr™;,>s^ciinS|ieriphi?inls

2 volumes (257S pages) 30022 National Logic Data Book Set (1984) S24.95

Volumes I 8 II (3485 pages)

Contains inl;;riTKilioii oil II.itiLiri,il,'.lTTL]]rL(lll.-.lliili>,liulC[)'lijOOIjmilv This includes 7400. 74L. S. AS. LS and ALS Hiniua devices, nntl MM54HC .' 74HC / 54HCT ■ MHCT Hr-:li SiHr.'d Mw, CMOS r.iriiily MM5JC i 7 AC lamily. and CMOS LSI / VLSI

Muffin-Style & Sprite-Style Fans

MUF60 (SPN3-15-2462)

Howard Industries (4 68"sc|„60c!m). . . . S9.95

SU2C7

EG&G Rolron |3 125" sq., 32clm) S9.95

5W Full Height Disk Drive and Controller Card for Apple II, II i and iky

0

5V Half-Height Disk Drive and Controller Card for Apple II, 11+ and lie'

ADD-Ifc $139.95

12" Monochrome Green Monitor for Apple II, He and lie'

AMON $99.95

1200/300 Baud Internal Modem

for Apple II, II + and lie'

Complete with on-board software and all necessary hardware!

PM1200A $299.95

1200/300 Baud Stand-Alone Modem

for Macintosh

PM1200M/MAC PAC provides everything you need loi Macintosh communications including:

■ ProModem 1200 • Cable ■ Communications Software (ProCom-M) NEW! Now Operates with Hayes and Compatible Modems!

PM1200M imacpaci $349.95

ProCom-M iMacm^, softer, only) $ 79.95

JES20 VOICE SYNTHESIZER

for APPLE II, tl+ and tfe*

JE520AR.$119.95

APPLE Keyboard and Case for Apple II and II+*

KB-Au'8 ■ Pop-un lid If.

keypad ■ Shift key modified k.iA|!|,lu'.c.ll. DOS i orii-ii.in-.l:..', CF.'Mi ■ Uiitiyr/loiwr case with 80 column card or [ill case chip ■ 10 user-define keys

Keyboard and Case $99.95

6B-Key Apple Keyboard only S69.95

Expanded Apple Enclosure Case only $34.95

lameco

Five Key 128K RAM Card

Software Programs.' For Apple II, II+ and lie*

5*1

Disk:

SSaif'-"

utilised with all ^Dttw.ur lh.il cm ee ui.ju .■-.In ,i ■■l.init.ird i GK cm Tin: JE363

in.;iu.i.,Ll Memory Mim.sii. 'in :n. ,;M n- .] .i;r' ■:u. ■ i >..■ -■ r=2 ■■

i.thuMois for DOS 3 3. CP'M ,md Appl.:- Ri::.i-.n <\\:;u I-mIuil'S DOS rdi.,."slur Complete

JE868 (Expand-A-RAM) $119.95

Applesurance Diagnostic Disk Controller Card

Prevents Crashes! For Apple II, II+ and lie*

ili:A drive controller Hi.' JLiiT'i .'..n .in.] ( h./c* tht; nperating hardware Ol ,nur %yslL'm each 1.me you lurn on your Apple II. II ■ or llem Tl-s1 your RAM. ROM t.lI'U, ,-nnt disk Uriwii |}i,iij[iol,Ii(; rnulmii:, m.iy In; ■..incellod at l!n? innch at a key.

Complete wilh instructions.

JE877 (DRV-1 /Applesurance II) S69.95

W

BfllMIIBte|i|i

Parallel Printer Card For Apple II, 11+and He*

JE880 (PRT-1) $59.95

II

Parallel/Serial Butter Card For Apple II, II+ and He*

The JEBB3|iiovi:Il'sIIu; limji with uplo6.1Knl .ulililrrjn.irr_,r tiullerwl rn <.rv 118i>.ig<;5

'il iiiliir in.iMonl U-iin.| id" jiiir.iili'l iumrim '--iIjI.' ■■p!ir:l. Hie JEijllJ will ,ill.i'.:h lo Ilia ..T■WiO l.iliove) P,:i,ilii:l i .ml ni'.'ded lor uin.'i.ilion Tin. JEBB3 in(.lud."i ,i iilandard p;ir;illL'l input wilh Dull, p.iralk'l and serial mSJX'i uuflered oulnuts With thesis li.'.itui..;s you may :](':::<-:.■, and Ijutftl-: iiibrmaliun lo t.vu types ol prink-rs lone serial one p.irallell simultanrously Complete wilh inslructions

JE883 |P/S Buffer) $79.95

VERSACARD

for the Apple II, 11+ and lie*

VERSACARD provides the Apple user with four most popular functions on one physical card. Through hardware address decode, VERSACARD looks to the Apple as if three different cards are installed: Serial. Parallel, Real Time Clock/BSR Control Interface. VERSACARD's hardware maintains complete compatibility with CP/M. Apple Pascal, and Apple ProDos, with no need for special disks In addition, all standard Apple software using the PR== and IN;- commands work normally.

VERSACARD -\ luncUons on on.) card SERIAL, PARALLEL. REAL TIME CLOCJK/CALENLWi. E

PM-ROM ( )' C.iaphitli Upgiarie HUM lAllows high n^ulmum giaphrcs)

PM-SC Serial Cahle for VERSACARD S26-6 -DB25P (Malol

PM-PC Parallel Cahle tor VERSACARD" S20-5-Centronics (Mala)

$169.95

. .. . S39.9S . .. . $24.95 . . . . S24.95

Jameco's New 1986 Catalog!

Filled with New Products, Reduced Pricing and Valuable Pin-out Data. Send $1 Postage for FREE 1986 Jameco Catalog!

S20 Minimum Order - U.S. Funds Only Cfl Residents: Add G% or 6Vi% Sales Tan Spec Sheets - 30e each Shipping: Add 5% plus S1.50 Insurance Send S1 Postage for FREE 1986 Jamcco Catalog Prices Subject to Change Send stamped, sell-addrtrssed envelope to receive a Quarterly Sales Flyvr — FREEI

ameco

ELECTRONICS

VISA'

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME - (415) 592-8097 - Telex: 176043

IBM PC/XT Compatible Keyboard

I J | l I 1 l It I t IB II

IBM-5151 [Equivalent loKeylronics'5151) $129.95

Additional Add-Ons Available!

IBM-Case Computer Case S 59.95

IBM-KB Keyboard $ 79.95

IBM-FCC Disk Controller S 79.95

IBM-MCC Monochrome Card S 99.95

IBM-MON 1T Moniior S109.95

IBM-ICB ColorCard $149.95

IBM-E384K 384K RAM Card $199.95

IBM-MB Motherboard $349.95

IBM-10MBK 10MB hh Hard Kil $599.95

IBM-20MBK 20MB HH Hard Kit $799.95

Hjjp > IBM PCXT Equivalent ijll 130 Watt Power Supply

n& UPGRADE YOUR PC!

■ Input: 110V m 60Hz • Oulpul: +5VDC e 15A, -5VDC @ 0.5A, +12VDC 9 4.2A. -12VDC @ 0.5A ■ Plug compatible connectors ■ Fits inlo IBM PC ■ Weight: 6 lbs.

IBM-PS $99.95

Prometheus Modems

The ProModem 1200B/BS is a 1200/300 baud modem card which plugs into IBM PC and XT. Provides a third serial Comport. Two versions available: 1200B (withoul software) and 1200BS (with software). The PM1200BS is supplied with powerful MITE communications software trom Mycroft Labs. Software available: PC DOS or MS DOS.

PM1200B (without Software) $239.95

PM1200BS (with MITE Software) $274.95

■foible! DISK DRIVES

Documentation Included

RFD480 (Remex 5'<" DS full-hi.) $69.95

FD55B (Teao5'.»"DShalf-ht.) $99.95

SA455 (Shugart 514" DS half-ht). . .. $99.95

TM100-2 (Tandon 5HTDS lull-ht.) $99.95

JMR 51A" DISK DRIVE ENCLOSURES

Complete with power supply, switch, power cord, fuseholder and connectors DDE-1FH (Houses i full-hr 5'i floppy (MnJ. . $ 69.95 DDE-2HH (Houses 2 naif-fit 5V _ „n

floppy drives - vertical) S (9.95

HDDE-1FH ihou»s iiwoarivei $199.95

General Application Keyboards

Mitsumi 54-Key ■ ■ ■ ,., rr, ■ ■ ■ ■Unencoded Vl I lYt I I t l t I I

Keyboard . ,V|\

• SPST keyswitches ■ 20 pin ribbon cable connection

• Low profile keys ■ Fealures: cursor controls, control, caps (lock), function, enter and shift keys • Color (keycaps): grey ■ Weight: 1 lb. ■ Pinout incl. • Size: 13VL x WWxWH

KB54 $9.95

74-Key ASCII Cherry Keyboard

■ 7-bit parallel ASCII ■ Full Upper Case, Full Lower Case except I, m, n, o and p. • Cursor keypad ■ SPST mechanical keyswitches ■ 26-pin header connector • Color: white

Size: 18"Lx 6VW x 1'.j"H • Spec included KB8201 (1500 available) $14.95

UV-EPROM ERASER

8 Chips - 21 Minutes |

| 1 Chip -15 Minutes

Erases all EPROMs. Erases up to 8 chips wilhin 21 minutes (t chip in 15 minutes). Maintains constant exposure distance ol one inch Special conductive foam liner eliminates stain; build-up. Buill-in safety lock to prevenl UV exposure. Compact - only 9.00"L x 3.70"W x 2.60"H. Complete with holding tray lor 8 chips.

DE-4 UV-EPROM Eraser $74.95

UVS-11EL Replacement Bulb S17.95

260 BYTE • IANUARY 1986 Inquiry I79

JaggS NEW LOW, LOW PRICES!!! J

ameco

CALL FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS 7400

SN740ON :,iU-:t]\U

5N7406H SN 7.1(1/N

Stl/lil'lN SN/110H SN7411N SMU1IH SN74I.VJ

:;N/-tiiiN

SN74I7N

Skton

5N7427II SN7423H SNM2MI SN7426N BW427II

SN/430N SN7432N SN7433K 5N7-13/N ■.n/.i;ii-;n :,rj/.l3'.lli :,N/i.um 8H7441M SN7442N SN7443N

SN/445N 5N7446N SN7447N SN744BN SN7454K SN7459N SN74dUN SN7470N SN7472N Sf|7J73N

74LSOO 74LS01 74LS02 74LS03 74LS04 74L505

mm

74L507

7-11508

741S09

74LS10

74LS11

74LS12

74LS14

74LS15

74LS20

74LS21

74LS26

741S27

74LS28

74LS30

74LS32

74LS33

74LS37

74LS3fl

74LS4?

74LS47

74LS48

741551

74LS54

74LS73

74LS74

74LS75

74LS76

74LSS5

74LSB6

74LS90

74LS92

74LS93

74LS96

74LSI07

7-1LS1D9

74LSI12

74LS122

74LS123

74LS125

74LS126

74LS132

74SOO 74S02 74S04 74505 74S0S 74S09 74S10 74SI1 74S15 74S20 74S22 74S30 74S32 74S37 74S38 74SG4 74S55 74S74 74SB5 74586

F4ALS0 I 74ALS02 74AIS04 74ALS05 74ALSOB 74ALS10 74ALS27 74ALS30

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74S/PR0MS*

74S1I2 74S124 74S132 74S133 74S135 74S136 74S13B 745139 74S14D 743151 74S153 74S157 745158 74S160 745169 74S174 74S175 74S188'

74ALS32 H

74ALS74 14

74ALS109 IE

74ALSII2 16

74ALS13B 16

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SW741BIN SH74162K j!J7-!16J!J KfifMIBSN HN7413?'-J SN7.11MN' KN74191N S)I7.!192IJ

SN74I94N SN7-119LN !;fJ7-119G!J M74147N iiH/-tl9SN SNAlt93N EN 7422!N SH74J2S1N

i.;i.7.|27GN SN74?79fJ S!J7.1?tf3f; SN742B4N SIJ74285N SN74355N SN74366N SN74367N EN743G8N SN74390N SN74393N

741S261 741S2R6 74iS2?3 74LS279 S^Cl

'4.S269 741S299 71.5322

74IS366 74L5373 74LS374 74LS375 74LS377 7415386 74LS3WJ 74LS393 iMLS399 74LS4G0 74LSS33 74LS534 74LS540 74LSS41 74LS590 74LS624 74LS629 74LS640 74LS641 74LS644 74LSE-15 74LS67D MLS68B B1L595 S1LS96 31LS97 81LS98

MS 189 '45194 MS 195 MS 196 74S240 '4S241 MS242 MS244 74S251 M5253 745257 MS25B 74S273 74S280 74S28774S2BB1 74S299 74S373 745374 74S472

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T4ALS175 MALS240 74ALS244 74ALS245 74ALS373 74ALS374 74ALS573

CD4000 C04001 CO4002 CO4000 CQ4O07 CIJ400B CD40O9 BO4910 CD40II CU401? CD4013 C04U14 CD4015 CDW6 CD4017 CO40IB CD4019 CO402U CO4021 CO4022 CD4023 OMOH CIM025 CID4026 CD4027 CD4028 Cn4029 CO4U30 CIM034 CD41B5 CD4040 CD4041

CD-CMOS

CU4043 CD4Q44 CD4046 CU4Q47 CO4048 CD4049

mm>

CC4051 CD4052 C04053 CD4056 LD.10W CD4060 CD4D6G CO406B CD406S CD407U CD407I CD4072 CD4073 CD4D75

CD407f;

CD4077 CD4Q76 C04961

Emma

CD4093 CD4094 CD409B

CD40t03 CD4503 (B4SOB CD4510 ffl4511 CM512 CD4514 CD4515 E04516 CD45IB □4519 G4520 CD4522 (;;j452f) CU4528 CD4529 CD4531 C34538 CD4541 CD4543 CU4553 CU4555 CD4556 C114LG!) CD4556 C04583 CI1J534 0)4585 CD4723 CD4724

SPECIAL!!

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(Mi motorola MC68701 - Microcomputer with EPROM

^^^^ rhu MC6B701 is nn B-uii single chip mlerocomputei urill (MCU) which signilicanlly ^HRff1 enliisncfrs llio i^in^liiliiii'^ of \ W M(.'i;i!()0 l.irmlv til [i.uls On-chi|> rc-iources includu

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^BSfRtli oarallel I/O. and a three lunctron Programmable Timer.

MC68701 $24.95

CUST

for VIC-20, (

Pari No. Description Price

OM COMMODORE

;-64 and C-128 Person

Part No. Description Price

CHIPS

al Computers

Pari No. Description Price

'6510 CPU S19.95

*6525 TPI S20.95

•SPECS. AVAILABLE ® S1.50 EA.

■6526 CIA S25.95

•6560 VIC-I $29.95 ■6567 VIC-II $44.95

■6581 SID .. $32.95 82S100PLA PLA.. $37.95

NOTE: 82S100 = U17 (C-64)

MICROPROCESSOR COMPONENTS

ZBO

ZBD-CTC

780 DART

ZBO DMA

ZfJUPlO

7BCJ 51U 0

780-S10 t

ZB0-S10.2

78U-S10/9

2S0A

OUrCIC

zeoADAnr

ZBOADMA

280API0

ZKOAStOO

ZHDASKl'l

/KIIA i;iik>

7tiim:;ii)".i

ZB0B

/aoB-crc

780UDAH1 Z80H-P10 7fi!l:l Slll.ij ZlinllSIH'l

/f.on-;

6502 6520

GB09 CBIWF 6810

6852 6860

nana

BWSP 6B6G1 68701

B253-5 8254 8255 8255A-5

mi s

B259

8259-5

8272

8274

8275

S279

8279 5

ftriphcidl Inlei Ad.idIci VnsBWt l»iei Adaniei

-8000/80000 SERIES

i CMM Onemd rru *'Ram t I/O l mpu - a-Bit

i CPU-Sill Ctii!jB-HilH?fllHs RAMi I CPU - 8 0(1 HMOS

HMO! EPROM ,V!'LI

Mill c !il itFWJM'.i|iMi'iu!i: CfU ,■. -1K.H EPRflM ■, I?.-.'. IfA EPROM wilMr'O Hijti \r.\_v.'.,>-M ]':A". Mill M:;M int-vn 16-B4 MPU IB-Bil Numcnc Processor Fj!

UYNAmlli HAMS

2 764.25

2761A-75

2764-45

27064

27128-25

J717r!A I".

27jr.V2:,

27C"-'.

687G4

74S476 7-:5',;c

,MS->7 1

B2S135 82S13I OMSn'SIMII

(!1!.2. li )l:')2..'i

21V

ADC! Him A0CCBQ1 adi;ch(i:( ADC0B04 AD'JMOri ADCC809 ADC0B16 ADC0II17

D7»C'.):i!iu

UACCoUfi

OA00808

DAC0331

OAClDOfl

[lAOIOlW

DAC1022

DACI22I'

OAC1230

0ACI231

AY■ i lill!)l)

AY 5-ini3A

(250ns| 21V

1250ns) 125V

CMOS 21V.

a ir,:KM).n eMtoi I2BK21V

28 16.384x8 1250ns) 128K 12 5V

28 32.7(5;!.!! i?50n5l256K(14V|

ZB 32 768..'! t.-'5(lMli ,'::f;K H MDSi

Z4 B!92>8 UiOiibi 25V

24 Sl92ili (350ii31 25V

16 32»B PROM0.0 (fi3.ii) li

1G 256x4 PH0M IS. (031111)

16 !>:■' riiliMTS ii, (il li

IB 256«4 PROMO.C 16300 I)

H) 256x8 PROMTS 16309-1)

20 512.H PROMTS (6349-1)

20 512xB PROM DC I634B) .

Z4 512x8 PROMTS IOM87S2B6N)

24 512x8 PROM O.C. (0310)

18 1024x4 PROM r.s

16 5I2<4 PROMO.C (63051

16 512x4 PHOM IS (6306)

IB 1024.4 PflOMOC 16352)

IB 1024x4 PROMTS (B2S137I

16 32x8 PROMO.C (27S18I

24 512»B PROMTS I27S15)

16 IT!i)M IS (.'/Sl.fi

16 250*4 PH0M 0 0 (27S20)

16 2 56x4 PROMTS I27S21J

16 512»4 PROMOC [2751?!

IS 204S.4 PROM TS illlCMSii! i

U 2048x8 (B0n5)

24 1024x8 PROMTS (B2S1B1)

— DATA ACQUISITION

l,M(.l [l;. (i A C.:r:v i ii.M

::'.>. R.:.i;l UAHT.

::iiK H.u; l UAliT rTfi li.l.i; i

Law Prolile (Tin) Sockets Part Hp. 1-9 10 99 100 up

20 pin LP 26 .26 22 nm LP 30 .28 24 pin LP .31 .30

Suldertail |Gold) Standard

'art Kb. 1-9 10 93 100 up

Shekels 1 (Gold) Level (13

in SG 65 59

24 pm 5G 79 69 28 pin SG 95 85 36 pin SG 1 25 1 15

8 pin WW 55

lQfunWW D5

14<)inWW 09

16 pm WW 75

■III!'

Header Plugs [Gold]

Pari Hp. 1-9 10-90 ItjOjjf

14 |nn HC 15 24 pin DC 29

S20 Minimum Ordei - U.S. Funds Only CA Residenls: Add 6= 0 or 6,'!°/a Sates Tax Spec Sheets - 30c each Shipping: Add 5* nlus 51.SO Insurance Send Si Postage for FREE 1986 Jameco Caia/og Prices Subject to Change Send stamped, sell-addressed envelope ro receive a Quarterly Sales Flyer — FREE!

MasterCard

J

Mall Older Electronics -Wmldwltfe

ameco

ELECTRONICS

Pins Function

2816A 24 2048x8 16K E2PR0M 350ns. . .$8.95

Features: • On-board Address/Data Latches ■ Auto-Timed Byte Write (on chip timer) ■ 5V Erase/Write/Read • Optional High Voltage Erase/Program (9V-15V) - Power Up7Down Write Protection ■ Aulo Erase before Write

The 2Btl)A is an ide.il iirjimilnlile memoiy providing in-uy:.|i>iii nlter.ihilih with irifj same ease and with the same leatures .is PK.H Static RAMs

DT1050-»,fc

IjnjuigE Innstitimu. tic The ()i

Digitalker

'.hi : Tk tiril)5(l consists ol i Speech P/ijcpssji Chip MM54104 |40-pin| and \m |2| Speech RDM! MM57JG4SSR1 and WM5ZI6JSSH2 [24 pin] ateng with) Mi.ln Vferd lis! and i rcconmendid HAnaiE dinjrirn an the application sheet.

DT1050 Digitalker" $24.95 ea.

MM54104 Processor Chip $12.95 ea.

DT1057 — Expands Itie OT IQ5[] vocabulary If on I37 In urer 28D woiis Inci 2 HUM; and iptrcs

Part No. DT1057 $11.95 ea.

INTERSIL

thtfl XIL (Lv.iln,nlniii Kill

31 49 21 49 1D95

30009 1985 Intersil Data Book i

S9.95

74HC HIGH SPEED CMOS

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME - (415) 592-8097 - Telex: 176043

/-■.HD.il) 74HC02 74HC03 74HCO-1 71HC(Jii-i 7-IHC08 74HC10 74HC11 74HC14 71IIC2I) 74HC27 74KC30 71HC3.-: 7-1110-1? 74HC51 7JHC5H 74HC/:i 74HC74 71HC75 74HC70 74HC85 74HC86 /-mem/ /■tmMii.i

74HClt;'

741(0123 74HC125 '■men/

74HC13. 7.1HC1 !>)

DS0026CN

TL064CN TL071CP TL072CP TL07.1CN TL081CP IL082CP

no8-o

LM109K :M30if:N LM302H LM304H LM305H LM307(!J

LM309K

I.M3IMCN

LM31ICW

LM312H

LM317T

LM317K

IM3H'.CN

LM319N

LM32[)K'i

LV.32CK K'

l MSZCM',

LM320K24

LM320I-5

LM32UI 12

ir.OT.il 1!,

I M1120I,"'.!

LM322N

LM323K

LM324N

1 M329W

LM331M

I.M334Z

LM3352

LM3367

L HX'. 7MP

LM337T

LM338K

LM339N

LM340K-5

LM3H!h I!1

LM3-10K I:,

ir.l3.niK;'-:

LM340T-5

I.M34DT-1:'

LM3101 r,

IM340I-31

LF347N

LM34BN

Lf35)N B

LF353N S

LF355N B

LF356N B

LM356N 8

IM359N 14

LM350N B

LM36'N 14

LM37UN 14

LM373N 14

1.M377N 14

LM3B0CN fl

LM3B0N H

LM38'N 14

LM382N 14

LM384N 14

LM3B6N-3 6

LM3B7N 8

LM38SN IB

LM391fJ-80 16

LM392N B

LM39:N 6

LF39B-J B LM399H

LF412CN B

n.494CN 16

H496CP 6

1L497ACN 14

NE531V B NE54W (C540H1

NE5J4N 14

NE555I/ 8

XR-L5S5 8

LM556N 14

NE558N 16 16

LM56:N 14

LM5CCCW B

LM567V 8

NE57DV 16

NE571*i IB

NE592N 14

LM710N 14

LM711N 14

LM723N 14

LM733TI 14

LM739N 14

LM741CN 8

LM74/N 14

LM145BCN LM14BBN LM1489N LM1496N I.MI605CK LM1B71N LM1B72N LM1H77N-9 LM1889N LM1896N LM20021 ULN2O03A XH2206 XH2207 XB2208 xn?2ll LM2B77P LM287BP LM2WI1N LM7W12N LM29U7N LM2917N LM2935T LM3900N LM3905CN LM3909N LM3911N LM3914N LM3915N LM3916N RC4136N HC4151NI3 (CU'WIll LM1250CN NE5532 NE5534 7BL05A 7BU2A 79L05A 79M05AH

30003 1982 Nat. Linear Data Book |i

.S14.95

Inquiry 179

IANUARY (986 * BYT E 26I

MORE EXHIBITS. MORE SESSIONS. MORE PRACTICAL INFORMATION FOR ALL APPLICATIONS.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS '86.

You'll discover new ideas...new techniques...and new products and services at Computer Graphics '86, the world's largest computer graphics conference and exposition, May 11-15, Anaheim.

You can begin with the basics. Or build on your already substantial experience.

More than 135 technical and tutorial sessions provide intensive, up-to-the-minute information on every aspect of computer graphics from AEC and

CAD/CAM/CAE to business graphics and visual communication.

The 300,000 square foot exposition presents computer graphics for micros, minis and ma i n f ra mes... softwa re packages...peripherals,

and related services from more than 200 of the most progressive

EVANS AND SUTHERLAND

ACT NOW TO ASSURE YOUR CHOICE OF SESSIONS.

I want more information!

Rush registration materials on the Computer Graphics '86 Conference and Exposition to:

Send coupon to:

National Computer Graphics

Association Department AJ, Suite 200 2722 Merrilee Drive Fairfax, VA 22031

Name

Title

Company

Address

City, State, Zip

companies in the field—all ready to answer questions, provide demonstrations, and introduce you to the latest in resultsoriented applications.

Attend Computer Graphics '86—and see what the world of computer graphics is coming to!

Computer Graphics '86.

May 11-15, 1986,

Anaheim.

You'll see it there.

262 BYTE* JANUARY 1986

ROBOTICS

AUTOMATION IN ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

by Gary W. Kramer and Philip L. Fuchs

In search of the electronic chemist

THIS ARTICLE WILL cover aspects of how we are automating the research process for organic chemical synthesis. We use a robot arm to handle the mechanical aspects of the task (such as preparing samples) and a number of independent, microprocessor-based substations for support activities (such as cleaning the sample tubes and controlling the analysis equipment). We'll explain in detail how we are interfacing support equipment to one of the substations.

In the day-to-day life of the scientist there are occasional periods of great excitement, but more often the practice of experimental science is routine. Many times procedures are repeated with only small variations to determine the effect of variables or to gather enough data for sound statistical analyses. Organic chemistry is no exception.

Production of a target molecule, whether a drug, a natural product, or an industrial chemical, often requires carrying out a sequence of steps where the product from the current reaction becomes the starting material for the next step. Like all

serial processes, synthesis schemes are adversely affected by weak links. Considerable effort is expended to improve the low-yielding steps of the process.

In the commercial production of chemicals, it is desirable to know the precise effects of variables on reaction rate and yield. This knowledge is important in compensating for unforeseen events that can affect production, safety, and economics. When the number of variables is large, the number of experiments needed to find the best set of conditions or to map out a reaction profile can be astronomical.

Automation is an answer to this problem. In other branches of chemistry, most notably clinical chemistry, automation of routine processes is common. In organic chemistry, where experimental procedures are more diverse, automation is not widespread. If automation is to come to the organic laboratory, it must be flexible enough to allow facile experimental reconfigurations.

The introduction of the Zymate Laboratory Robot in 1981 by the

Zymark Corporation (see the "Products Mentioned" text box on page 268) greatly enhanced the practicality of automating organic synthesis. The Zymark robot consists of a nonmobile, nonarticulated arm that can rotate about its base, can be raised or lowered, and can move in and out to gain access to a cylindrical work area about 14 inches high and 54 inches in diameter. At the end of the arm is a wrist that can rotate 360 degrees. A unique feature of this robotic arm is its set of hands. Several different hand types (gripper, syringe, etc.) are available, and the robot can be programmed to change hands for different applications. A self-contained system controller and a variety of automated laboratory appliances (centrifuge, balance, shaker, vortexer,

[continued}

Gary W. Kramer holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University and is an instrumentation specialist with Purdue's Department of Chemistry. Philip L. Fuchs is a professor of chemistry at Purdue; he has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. They can both be reached at the Department of Chemistry, Purdue University. West Lafayette, IN 47901.

JANUARY 1986 •BYTE 263

Inquiry 295

IBM PC Add-Ons

Shop and Compare!

QIC-286-AT

8MHz, 640K, 1.2MB

Controller & Keyboard $ 1 895

10,20 33MB Hard Disk Subsystems

10MB + Controller $419

20MB + Controller $479

20MB FOR AT (40MS) . .$625

External 10MB $579

External 20MB $629

33MB + Controller $725

10, 20, 60MB Back-up Subsystems

10MB Floppy Tape \ Back-up Drive $425

20MB Cassette Back- fi^OE up with Controller ... o95

60MB Streaming Tape Back-up $815

Expansion Chassis

With 5 I/O slots and space for 4 halfheight drives

or tapes 645

Hayes®Compatible Modems

300/1200 baud

internal 1 99

'/2 size card $2 1 5

external ...... $299

(comes with software which emulates IBM 3101 and VT 100)

Floppy Drives

360K for PC, XT $99

360K for AT $ 1 19

Multifunction Card

With 0 to 384K Ram, Serial parallel port, game port, clock calendar $ 109

With 384K RAM $1 29

Everex Graphics Edge $265

Call us today!

408/942-8086 800/843-8086 (exP. cm

Telex: 5101002379 QICRCH 30 Day Money-Back Guarantee |C RESEARCH

INCORPORATED

489 Valley Way sue 503 Milpitas, CA 95035

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

syringe pumps, etc.) complete a typical laboratory system.

The First-Generation System

Although the Zymark system was created to do chemistry, it was designed with the sample preparation phase of analytical chemistry in mind. Accordingly, it was given the capabilities of weighing, mixing, diluting, pipetting, and extracting: tasks necessary to get a raw sample ready for final analyses by other instruments. Initially, we built our system around the robot, using it to do everything. However, as the system's capability has expanded, our philosophy has evolved to using the robot only to handle situations that would otherwise be difficult to automate.

The creation of new instrumentation often goes through several stages. First, a demonstration system is created, which performs some subset of the overall task. Its purpose is to answer key feasibility questions, highlight troublesome areas, and attract resources to the project. Our firstgeneration scheme consisted of a

Zymark system, locally built automated room temperature reactors, and a semiautomated liquid chromatograph as the analyzer (see photo 1). The system was managed solely by the Zymark controller. The first chemical reaction tested was chosen not only because it fit the system capabilities but also because it was a step in a synthesis in need of yield improvement. The system was run openloop; that is, the results from the reactions were printed out for later interpretation by the operator. This system ran 16 reactions and 240 analyses over a 50-hour period, producing a significant improvement in the yield of the desired material (see the article "Robotic Orchestration of Organic Reactions" by A. R. Frisbee, M. H. Nantz, G. W. Kramer, and P. L. Fuchs in the journal of the American Chemical Society, volume 106, page 7143, 1984).

Toward the Second Generation

Change is inevitable in creating openended systems such as ours, as to

Photo I: The Purdue Automated Synthesis System, phase 1. The robot arm stands in the center of the laboratory setup. Arranged around the arm, starting from bottom left of the photo and continuing clockwise are: HP3390A reporting integrator, reagent station, reactor station, aliquot archive station, workup station, syringe and needle wash station, and sample turntable. In front of the reagent station are three hand parking stations.

264 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

How will you manage the growth of PC technology in your organization?

Millions of Workers with Personal Computers

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Inquiry 140

*Price subject to change without notice.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 265

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

day's wants become tomorrow's needs. Accommodating this change is a major design challenge. Flexibility, modularity, and portability in both software and hardware are essential.

The control-system architecture (figure 1) reflects these design criteria and allows orderly growth. The executive processor contains the user interface, application program, and the main control routines. It interacts with the rest of the system through 8-bit managerial processors. These managers are the key to the control system. They serve as buffers, translators, controllers, and isolators. Interprocessor communication is carried out in a block protocol over serial data lines. This architecture allows true concurrency while freeing the

system from timing constraints. Its modularity permits replacement of system components with a minimum of problems. Isolation of the executive from the real-time, bit-flipping environment of the managers allows the application software to be written in a portable high-level language.

The analysis manager provides a good example of the managerial function. Most modern chemical analysis equipment is smart; that is, its internal control systems are processordriven. Many of these instruments allow downloading of analytical methods, automatic sample injection, postprocessing of raw data into meaningful information, and transmission of results. In our work, a sample is loaded into the instrument's auto

injector by the robot, a command file detailing the processing is downloaded, and, following the analysis, the instrument returns the results.

Unfortunately, there is little standardization in the world of analytical instruments. Even within a given company's product line, the command to inject a sample on a high-pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC) is not likely to be the same as that used on a gas chromatograph (GC). However, the managerial computer will know these details, so they can remain hidden from both the user and the application-level software.

Actual analytical parameters are specified by the user during system initialization and are stored as

[continued]

HPLC SYSTEM

GC

SYSTEM

VALVE-CONTROL SYSTEM

LIQUID -SENSOR SYSTEM

ANALYSIS MANAGER

OTHER

MANAGERIAL

PROCESSORS

EXECUTIVE PROCESSOR

ADVISORY | PROCESSOR I

ROBOT MANAGER

REACTOR MANAGER

SYRINGECLEANER CONTROLLER

ROBOT SUBSYSTEM

REACTOR

REACTOR

CONTROL #1

CONTROL #2

REACTOR #1

REACTOR #2

REACTORCONTROL #8

REACTOR #8

Figure 1: Control-system architecture.

266 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

■

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The Easy to Use CAD System!

ProDesign II Is one of the most advanced CAD packages available •for microcomputers. We think it's absolutely the easiest to use. Wi th competitive CAD systems priced at $ 1500 to $2500, we were posed with the problem of setting our price. ProDesign II works a wide variety of digitizers and mouse devices. It works with nearly any plotter or printer available for the IBM PC. ProDesign II can produce plotter quality drawings on ordinary dot matrix printers - a feature found exclusively on ProDesign II ProDesign II utilises a virtual screen 4 times the size of the physical screen to make it practical to produce drawings on a normal resolution IBM monitor. ProDesign II is truly an outstanding CAD package for the IBM PC and compatibles The question we had to answer was: Even though we had a better product, should we price it higher than the other CAD systems on the market?

We did market studies and calculations. We consulted with experts. We drew charts and graphs. We used the finest spreadsheet programs money could buy. When it came right down to it, we still didn't know what to sell ProDesign II for. $2995? $2495? $1995? We even considered $995.

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Inquiry 18

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

Back, by popular demand.

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1

methods files that are downloaded to the analytical manager at run time. During a run the executive can issue a task to the manager, such as "Take sample number three and run an HPLC analysis using method number two." Upon receiving this command, the manager checks to see if the task can be done (analytical instrument ready and sample three exists) and then returns a completion time estimate to the executive, which sets up a watchdog timer. The manager carries out this task by delivering the necessary directives to the analytical instrument.

When the results of the analysis are available and formatted for transmission to the managerial computer, it interrupts the executive. Uploading the results to the executive completes the task. If the executive watchdog times out, the executive will issue a status request to the manager and will initiate appropriate action based upon the returned status. Fault conditions in the analytical instruments are reported to the manager, which either

corrects the problem or passes it up to the executive. In this way, a disparate collection of analyzers can be made to look relatively uniform to the application software.

Figure 1 shows an advisory processor in a dotted box to the right of the executive processor. In the future, we will probably use an expert system and other artificial intelligence (Al) methods to enhance the capabilities of our system. Since this technology usually requires special hardware and software environments, a separate computer seems appropriate.

Initially, the AI machine will function as a consultant to the executive, but in time the user interface and application programming functions may migrate to this processor.

Choosing the Components

Requirements for flexibility, modularity, and expansibility point to a multicard, bus-oriented system. Our choice of the IEEE-696 (S-100) bus over Multibus or STD-bus systems was

[continued)

Products Mentioned

Laboratory Robot

Optical Liquid Detector

Zymark Corporation

Ivek Corporation

Zymark Center

43 School St.

Hopkinton, MA 01748

North Springfield. VT 05150

(617) 435-9501

SI9 Sight Glass Scanner

Chemically Inert Metering Pumps

Skan-A-Matic Corporation

Fluid Metering Inc.

Route 5W

29 Orchard St.

Eibridge, NY 13060

Oyster Bay, NY 11771

(315) 689-3961

(516) 922-6050

Bantam-meter Optical Sensor

LQD Liqua Sense Liquid Level

Kontes Scientific Glassware

Sensor

Spruce St.

Hi-G Company Inc.

Vineland, NJ 08360

Electronics Division

(609) 692-8500

580 Spring St.

Windsor Locks. CT 06096

Series 1, 2, and 18 Miniature Teflon

(203) 623-2481

Solenoid Valves

General Valve Corporation

Liquid Level Quartz Sensor

202 Fairfield Rd.

NSG Precision Cells Inc.

Fairfield, N] 07006

560 South Broadway

(201) 575-4844

Hicksville, NY 11801

(516) 938-7772

268 BYTE • IANUARV (986

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TAS comes with a 30 day money back guarantee (less handling fee of SI5 Level J, $30 Level 2, $45 Level 3 and $10 Multiuser). TAS is available for the IBM PC/XT/AT™ Compaq™ AT&T 6300™ Tandy 1000, 1200, 2000™ and most MS-DOS™ CP/M™ and MP/M™ systems. Multi-user and LAN versions also available.

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Ask for operator 11

Call our Toil-Free Hotline. Use your VISA or MasterCard to order today. Outside Washington call 1-800-648-6258. Washington residents call 1-206-644-2015. Deafer Inquiries Welcome.

BUSINESS TOOLS INC.

4038-B 128th Ave, Suite 266

Bellevue, WA 98006

Inquiry 44

SE

The following are registered irademarks of these companies. TAS, Accounting Solution, Business Tools Inc; RBase5000.Micrortmlnc: DBase III, Ashton-Tatelnc; CP/M and MP/M, Digital Research Inc; IBM PC/XT/AT, International Business Machines Corp; Compaq, Compaq Computer Corp; AT&T 6300 AT&T Information Systems Inc; Tandy 1000.1200,2000, TandyCorp, MS-DOS, Microsoft Corp; The Sensible Solution trademark rights are claimed by 0'Hanton Computer Systems Inc.

©Copyright 1985 Business Tools Inc.

r

i i i i i i i i i

Describe your

computer system

q 8 bit

CP/M, MP'M TurboDOS

Disk size isD 5V<

Computer name/mode!-s.

Name-. Street I City. | State:

1Phone 4038-B 128th Ave. SE

I Su"e 266 WA 98006 ■ Bellevue, WA^

a 16 bit

MS-DOS PC-DOS

Business^1"

Quantity'

_Level 2 AccoutWB (J»

Multi-user i

Shipping (USA g»_$2000ea.)

Credit Card E*p!t*« C Card Number-.Name on card

Signal"'

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How to go from UNIX to DOS

without compromising your standards.

It's easy. Just get an industry standard file access method that works on both. C-ISAM" from RDS.

It's been the UNIX™ standard for years (used in more UNIX languages and programs than any other access method), and it's fast becoming the standard for DOS. Why?

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RELATIONAL DATABASE SYSTEMS, INC.

© 1985, Relational Database Systems, Inc. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T. INFORMIX is a registered trademark and RDS, C-ISAM and File-It! are trademarks of Relational Database Systems, Inc.

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

finally made on the basis of cost per board function and the authors' familiarity with S-100 systems. With the bus architecture decided, the choice of a CompuPro 8/16 was easy. At present, CP/M is the base-level operating system. However, only the terminals, printer, and disks are CP/M system devices. The special interruptdriven, multitasking control software is implemented as a transient program. This run-time package takes control of the executive processor, relying on CP/M only for terminal and disk I/O (input/output) handling.

If the choice of the executive processor was easy, the converse was true of the managers. Many of the executives' requirements also apply to the managers. But the managers only need to be 8-bit ROM (read-only memory)-based machines; disks and operating systems are unnecessary. The choice came down to either an STD-bus approach or an in-house designed system. Over the years we have built up an extensive 8-bit system that has been used in several data acquisition and control projects. To aid in the development and maintenance of this system, we also created a variety of hardware and software tools. We have little experience with the STD bus; however, it is desirable to use commercially available equipment whenever possible. Ultimately, we chose the inhouse design for our first synthesis system, feeling that we could get going quicker with it.

Each managerial computer contains the same set of core boards: an 8085 8-bit microprocessor with 19 interrupt channels, a status and start-up card containing bootstrap PROM (programmable read-only memory) used during initialization, a real-time clock card containing a day/date clock (MM58167) and six 16-bit timers (two 82 53s), a triple serial interface card (three 2651s), and a 64K-byte PROM/ RAM (random-access read/write memory) card. Other cards, such as buffered parallel interfaces, additional clock cards, analog-to-digital converter cards, digital-to-analog con

[conlinued]

270 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 307

Someone new has just entered the world of programming.

Now, everyone can program their computer. Because now, there's ALICE to show you the way.

ALICE: The Personal Pascal...the first complete programming environment that lets you create your own sophisticated Pascal programs, while teaching you how.

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ALICE has a unique Pascal interpreter that lets you run - and debug - your programs directly. You can actually see your program executing. And the programs that you develop with ALICE can be used with your

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All the information you'll ever need from ALICE. A tutorial, features of Pascal, and the meaning of error messages is now at hand... in over 500 screens of on-line HELP

Let ALICE be the Teacher

ALICE is currently being used in hundreds of schools to teach Pascal programming. Why Pascal? Because it has emerged as the language of choice of colleges and universities and is now the language of choice of the SAT examinations.

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Now you'll program intelligently, accurately, almost intuitively... with ALICE. To order by credit card, call 1-800- 448-3400 ext. ALICE (in Canada 1-800-387-9018). Specify software or demonstration diskette. Or, fill in the order form and send to:

Inquiry 329

SOFTWARE X X

channels

Software Channels Inc.

4 Kingwood Place, King-wood,

Texas 77339 (713)359-1024

Canada and International:

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ALICE

The Personal Pascal™

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Number of Copies:.

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_ Machine Memory (K):_

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For IBM PC, XT, AT and compatibles. Dealer and distributor inquiries welcome. Site licences available.

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

- UPPER NEEDLE GUIDE

Figure 2: Self-cleaning syringe washer.

verter cards, and stepper-motor driver cards, are added as required by the specific application. The 44-pin bus is terminated actively on the backplane board. The front panel has LED (lightemitting diode) indicators for the system states (used during debugging), a reset button (warm start to location 0000H), and a restart button (cold start back to bootstrap PROM). A connector on the rear of the front panel allows a box with hexadecimal data/address displays, halt/run switch, and single-step switch to be attached for use during debugging, If needed, our DMA (direct memory access) card, disk-controller card, and disks can be added to create a CP/M-compatible development system.

Each managerial processor has at least one 8K-byte PROM, located at address E000H, which contains the system monitor, debugging routines similar to the CP/M DDT (dynamic

debugging tool) functions, blockmode communication driver, and interrupt handlers. When the overall system is complete, there will be several managerial processors running simultaneously. It is impractical to provide a terminal for each computer, and the front-panel displays are quite limited. To debug and maintain the system, a spy feature is implemented in each manager. Periodically, the manager transmits a message from one of its serial channels describing its current activity and status. We connect the spy lines from each manager to a manual multiplexer switch connected to a single terminal. The system operator selects which manager is monitored. If this manual method proves too limited, the multiplexer and terminal can be replaced with a disk-based system that can log the activity of all the managers onto disk for postmortem analyses.

CONTROLLER

Figure 3: Syringe-cleaner subsystem.

272 BYTE' IANUARY 1986

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

Much software used by the managers will be PROM-based; only variables and special routines are downloaded after each master system reset.

One Subsystem in Detail

Rather than give a condensed view of our entire system, it may be more illuminating to describe in some detail one subsystem, currently being built, that illustrates several techniques. First, a brief description of the robot's syringe hand is in order. The hand consists of a glass syringe whose plunger is driven by a small DC motor through rack-and-pinion gearing. A potentiometer, mechanically coupled to the drive assembly, provides position feedback. Normally, a syringe hand must be cleaned after each use. Figure 2 shows our self-cleaning syringe washer. The cleaning process involves inserting the syringe needle into the lower needle guide, drawing

solvents into the syringe barrel one at a time, and then expelling them to waste, followed by pumping nitrogen in and out to dry the syringe. Sufficient solvent pressure is developed in the lower needle guide to provide efficient washing of both the syringe interior and the needle exterior. This process uses valuable robot time, since the hand must be attached to the arm for cleaning. Several other hands are available, so the robot could be doing useful work if a syringe could be cleaned while its hand is parked.

Figure 3 shows a system that alleviates the cleaning problem by allowing up to four syringe hands to be cleaned while parked. A syringe washer is placed below each parking station, and each hand is equipped with an auxiliary set of contacts that engage when the hand is parked. Parking a hand in its station initiates

The robot could be doing useful work if a syringe could be cleaned while its hand is parked.

its cleaning cycle. The controller hardware for this subsystem is identical to that in the managerial processors previously described. In figure 1, this controller is shown reporting to the robot manager. However, it may end up serving the liquid-handling manager or even becoming a full manager itself.

The solvents are stored in large containers and directed to the cleaning stations by metering pumps driven by permanent magnet stepper motors.

(continued)

+ 5V

DIRECTION I

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Figure 4: Stepper-motor drive ci

iANUARY 1986 -BYTE 273

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

Solvent levels are monitored with sensors that make use of the reflectance of light passing through a glass rod.

Figure 4 shows the circuitry required for driving these four-phase motors. The direction line is left high, and the

step line is driven from the buffered output of an 82 53 or 8254 countertimer controller (CTC). Our metering pumps (manufacured by Fluid Metering hie.) deliver a fixed amount of liquid for each rotation of the motor. Solvent can be delivered at a programmable rate by using the CTC in the rate-generator mode. If a fixed amount of solvent is to be delivered, the rate-generator CTC can be gated with the complemented output from a second CTC channel that is used in the interrupt on terminal-count mode. Figure 5 shows one of the CTC circuits on our real-time clock card. Easy

selection of true or complemented signals improves the flexibility of this card.

System reliability is improved by several sensors mounted near the pump. Solvent levels in the reservoirs are monitored using sensors that make use of the internal reflectance of light passing through a glass or quartz rod whose tip is cut to a 90-degree taper. According to Snell's law, when the tip is surrounded by a low-refractive-index medium such as air, light passing through the rod will be totally reflected. When the refrac

(continued)

2 MH i □>

BESET □>

! Hz

~i_r

500nsec

ao rz>

Al O

CS £>

00 O

01 O

D2 O

03 O

01

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06 O

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RD O

WR [Z>

CS »1 AO

B253 OR 8254 CTC

DO 01 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 RD WR

CLK0 CLK1 CLK2 GATE0 GATE 1 GATE 2

CKZ —J CK2

G TO

6X 330/

680

PU/PO

I

<□ GATE 2

9 00

-O OUT 0 I I

-0> OUT 1

I I

-0> OUT 2

Figure 5: Real-time clock (CTC) circuit.

274 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

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EXPRESS MICRO SUPPLIES INC. * DEPT. L-557 • COLUMBUS OH 43260

Inquiry 130 JANUARY I986 - BYTE 275

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

tive index of the surrounding medium is higher, such as with a liquid, a portion of the light passes from the rod into the liquid (figure 6). If a photodetector is placed at the flat end of the rod, its output will decrease when the conical tip of the rod is immersed in a liquid. A simple comparator cir

Figure 6: Reflective liquid-level sensor.

cuit (figure 7) converts this change into a computer-readable signal. A version of this sensor, the LQD Liqua Sense Liquid Level Sensor, is commercially available. The simple design shown here must be shielded from external light; however, a more sophisticated synchronous detection scheme (such as the Liquid Level Quartz Sensor from NSG Precision Cells) can virtually eliminate this problem.

To ensure that the pump retains its prime, a flow-through sensor is mounted on the pump output to detect the presence of the liquid in the Teflon tubing leading to the distribution valve. This device uses an LED and a phototransistor on opposite sides of the translucent Teflon tubing to detect the presence of a liquid. Again, a comparator circuit (figure 7) provides a TTL (transistortransistor logic) level signal. To shield this sensor from ambient light, the LED and phototransistor are mounted in an opaque plastic block (figure 8), and the entire circuit is housed in a small black plastic Pomona Box. We know of no commercial versions of this sensor that are as small as the one described, but models that work with larger tubing are readily available

+ 5V

+ 5V +5V

4> 4

I 360ii

TIL32

+5V

+ 5V

TIL78

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HLMP 1300

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75452

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(the Optical Liquid Detector, the SI 9 Sight Glass Scanner, and the Bantammeter Optical Sensor).

A small bellows-type pressure sensor on the outlet of the pump is used to detect an overpressure condition due to a fully closed distribution valve or a clogged tube. The TTL outputs from these sensors are brought into the controller through a 16-bit buffered parallel I/O card. Figure 9 shows the input section of this circuit.

The effluent from each pump is brought to a four-way distribution valve whose exit ports lead to the individual washing stations. These distribution valves are typical of the miniature solenoid valves used in this project, which feature small internal volume (30 to 60 microliters), highspeed operation (8 milliseconds), low power drain (12 volts DC 210 milliamperes), and all Teflon wetted parts (Series 1,2, and 18 Miniature Teflon Solenoid Valves). Since the current required to drive these valves is greater than that provided by standard opencollector TTL drivers, additional buffering is provided as shown in figure 10. The diodes protect the switching transistor from the voltage spikes generated when the solenoid valve is

{continued)

THIN-WALL TEFLON TUBING 1/8 in. OR 1/16 in. 00

Figure 7: Optical fluid detector circuit.

Figure 8: Liquid-presence detector.

276 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

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We think you'll be thrilled with this breakthrough system when you discover its power, ease of use, and dazzling performance on your IBM PC, Apple Ile/IIc, or Commodore 64. But we don't expect you to accept our claims for PROMAL without proof, so we invite you to explore the power of PROMAL on your own during our 30-day trial period.

Broken Rules

Now that PROMAL 2.0 has broken the rules, a structured language doesn't have to be slow, unwieldy and difficult to use. PROMAL is fast, elegant, and simple.

What Is PROMAL?

PROMAL stands for PROgrammer's Micro Application Language. But PROMAL is more than a high-level language, it's a total structured programming development system with a fast, one-pass compiler, a versatile full-screen editor, plus an integrated machinelanguage subroutine library. And for APPLE and Commodore systems it includes a DOS-like system "Executive."

Better By Design

PROMAL was designed from "scratch" for optimum performance and ease of use on microcomputers. It has a simplified syntax with no awkward terminators

PROMAL 2.0 FEATURES

COMPILED LANGUAGE

• Structured indentation syntax

• No line numbers or terminators

• Long variable names (31 characters)

• Global, Local, & Argument variables

• Byte, Word, Integer & Real data types

• Decimal or Hex number types

• Functions & Procedures with passed arguments

• Predefined DATA of any type

• Multi-Dimensional Arrays (any type)

• Strings & pointers

• Control Statements: IF, IF-ELSE, WHILE, FOR, CHOOSE, REPEAT-UNTIL, BREAK, NEXT, INCLUDE, ESCAPE, REFUGE

• Bit-operators, shifts, type casts

• Variables at any memory location

• Simple Machine Language interface

• Recursion supported

• Program chaining and overlays (IMPORT/EXPORT)

• Separate compilation of modules

• Load and run relocatable M/L programs

• Compile errors trapped for Editor

EXECUTIVE (APPLE II & C64 Only)

• Command driven, with line editing

■ Multiple user programs in memory at once

• Function key definitions

• Progam abort and pause

• Prior command recall

• I/O lie-direction & batch jobs

• "DOS'Mike commands: COPY, RENAME, DELETE, display FILES, TYPE, HELP, etc.

• Memory MAP SET, and display commands

EDITOR

■ Full-screen, cursor driven

• Function key controlled

• Line insert, delete, search

■ String search and replace

• Block copy, move, delete & file read/write operations

• Auto indent, undent support

LIBRARY

• 50 Resident Machine-language commands

• Call by name with arguments

• String handling (9 routines)

• Re-directable I/O (STDIN & STDOUT)

• Formatted numeric output

• Decimal & Hexadecimal I/O

• Block ffll/move/read/write

• Cursor control & line editing

• Data type conversion

• Random number function

• Real function support (in PROMAL):

ABS, ATAN. COS. EXP LOG, LOGIC, POWER, SIN, SORT, TAN

: support &. much more

like ";" or "}" and indentation is part of the syntax, so structuring your code is natural and easy. Just compare PROMAL with BASIC in this example:

Equivalent Program Segments

: PROMAL

REPEAT

PROMPT_AT 5.24. Add.Chg.'Quit?' IF Reply - A ADD Item

NewJtems New_llems 1 1 ELSE IF Reply CHANGE Hem UNTIL Reply - Q

11910REM BASIC

11920CL 5:LN 24:PRS Add Chg/Quit?' 11925 GOSUB 9490:REM GET REPLY 11930 IFRPS -'A" THEN 11950 1 )940 19 IT:GOSUB 10100:REM ADD 1 1945 Nl Nl- 1GOTO 11920 11950 IFRPS-. - "C" THEN 11970 11960 19 IT:GOSUB 6050:REM CHG 11970 IFRPS- "Q" THEN 11920

PROMAL is readable and understandable. You see the logic from the structure. And PROMAL lets you call procedures by name-so no more GOSUBs. But there's more.

Slick Editor

Editing your source is a snap with the specially-designed and integrated fullscreen Editor-it not only helps you structure your program, it even finds compilation errors - automatically.

Quick Compiler

The compiler is a lightning-fast,

one-pass, recursive descent design. On the IBM PC it crunches source to object at 2000 lines per minute, and it's equally impressive on the Apple and C64. And your PROMAL source code is portable from machine to machine. That means your source can be used on all PROMAL target machines.

Run-Time Speed Demon

PROMAL blows away Apple II and C64 languages from BASIC and PASCAL to FORTH. (Send $3 for a copy of our full benchmark report.) It's 2000% faster than BASIC. And on a normal IBM PC, the native 8088 code from PROMAL beat Turbo Pascal 3.0 by 10% on the standard sieve benchmark!

DOS For Those Without

If you don't have a real "DOS," then PROMAL gives you a true operating system environment with the built-in operating system Executive. (See box.)

Order Form for PROMAL 30-Day Trial!

My system is (check one)

□ IBM PC/1009J compatibles □ APPLE Ilc/IIe

□ COMMODORE 64/128

Please RUSH me:

□ PROMAL Developer's System-Compiler, Editor, Library, Demo disk, 280-page manual, (Plus Executive for Apple and C-64) and stand-alone program generation (no royalties).

$99.95 + 5.00 Shipping* Handling

□ End-User System for Apple IIc/He and Commodore 64/128—all features of Developer's Version except stand-alone program generation (Executive needed for program execution)

$49.95 + 5.00 Shipping* Handling

□ Graphics ToolBox (Apple/L64 only)-20 routines for ni-res graphics: windows, clipping, text-ongraphics using scaled, rotated, user-defined fonts. $29.95 + 2.50 Shipping & Handling

MEMBER

Outside Opinion

Naturally we're enthusiastic about PROMAL, but here's what other programmers are saying:

"Excellent... an ideal development

system Well done indeed!"

M.T.V. Naperville, III.

"I am... so amazed by PROMAL... I cannot believe the high degree of excellence of this entire package."

C. P., Ph.D.

Ridgeway, New York

"I don't know that I've ever seen a [system] as thoughtfully designed and as skillfully executed as PROMAL. Its logic and ease of programming are truly remarkable. Its speed of execution is phenomenal... congratulations " E. C. R. Alexandria, VA

Safety In Numbers

SMA, Inc. has been satisfying customers (over 100,000) since 1982 with innovative microcomputer products. Now you can join our thousands of satisfied PROMAL users, by trying it today.

Try It For 30 Days On Us

Send us some bucks and we'll send you PROMAL on trial for 30 days. If for any reason whatsoever you are not satisfied, just send it back for a

quick refund of your purchase price. No questions asked. No risk.

How To Order.

Call TOLL-FREE to order with your credit card or use the handy order form below to send in your check or moneyorder for your 30-day trial. Don't wait, you deserve the power of PROMAL today!

1-800-762-7874

In NC: 919

-3600

wfwmrwm

Systems Management Associates, Inc. 3325 Executive Drive, Dept. PB-6 Raleigh, North Carolina 27609

PROMAL runs on IBM PC/PCjr with 192K, Commodore 64/128, APPLE lie, or APPLE lie with 80 Col. 128K Card, and is NOT COPYPROTECTED. ^

Please charge my

□ Visa

□ MasterCard

□ American Express

□ My check is enclosed

Card Number

Signature

Name

Address

City

. Exp. Date

State .

.Zip.

. mcmocn

NC residents add 4V>% sales tax.

Foreign orders add $20.00 additional shipping.

PROMAL is a trademark of Systems Management Associates, Inc. Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International, Inc. Inquiry 345 JANUARY 1986 ■ BYTE 277

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

turned off. The capacitor connected from collector to emitter on the switching transistor slows its switching speed, preventing secondary breakdown from the turn-off transient of the inductive load. Drive for these current boosters is derived from a 16-bit buffered parallel I/O card. Figure 11 shows the output section of this circuit. The DP8311 octal peripheral driver is used as a medium-power (100 mA per line) open-collector in

verting buffer. The SIP resistor pack on the outputs is optional and is not used when the power booster circuit is used.

The DC motor on the syringe hand that drives the syringe plunger is controlled by the circuitry shown in figure 12. The location of the plunger corresponding to the empty and full positions is discerned by a pair of comparators that monitor the voltage across the position feedback poten

tiometer in the hand. In this cleaning operation, we monitor only the open and closed positions of the plunger. When given an UP signal from the controller, the plunger is allowed to slew to the top position: a DN signal slews the plunger to the bottom. The controller can determine the position of the plunger by monitoring the TOP and BOTTOM signals. A third input signal, HAND PRESENT, detects

{continued]

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Figure 9: \ 6-bit buffered parallel input circuit.

278 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

THE CMS POWER SERIES

Expansion Subsystems for IBM® and

Compatible Computers

The Power Drive™

Hard Disk Subsystems 10 to 120 MB

The Power Twin ™

Hard Disk Plus Tape Backup 10 to 30 MB

The Power Tape™

Tape Backup Subsystems 10 to 60 MB

Features:

• One master AC circuit • AC surge suppressor

• Three independent AC circuits ' Fan

. ac line filter ' TriP|e output DC supply

The Power Center1

Stackable expansion subsystem

Accepts up to two half height 30 MB disk or 60 MB tape drives.

ENERGIZE YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER

We Back You Up! 401 W. Dyer Rd. Santa Ana, CA 92707 (714) 549-9111

Inquiry 61

IBM is a registered iradsmark of International Business Machines Corporation. Power Sorios is a trademark of CMS

Inquiry 123

CALL US LAST!

For best prices and fastest

EPSON • PANA JVC • SHARP HITACHI

Will

NO EXTRA CHARGE TO USE YOUR MASTER CARD

Post-Holiday Inventory Reduction Sale On Epson Printers!

Prices TOO LOW to print! HomeWriter 10 with PIC

100 CPS —NLQ Mode — One Year Warranty PIC's to select from: IBM Jr & ooiQ PC, Atari, Commodore, Apple llc-**^1 Generic Parallel CALL!

AP-80 "NEW ITEM" CALL!

75 CPS — NLQ mode-One Year Warranty Fully compatible with Apple Computers! Supports all Apple ImageWriter software!

TIRED OF SOME

MAIL ORDER RUN AROUND? WE DELIVER PRODUCT

~ NOT PROMISES!

1 -800-527-5274

IN MISSOURI: 314-423-8300

Computer & Video Supply Co

3.0. BOX 28448 ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 63146

-J

C.O.D.

TAKE COMMAND

of Your Keyboard

Place your most often used sollware commands where Ihey belong—al your fingertips—on top of the keys. End fumbling and searching through manuals. Touchdown'" Key Overlays will greatly reduce instructional needs and learning time, reduce operator fatigue and increase productivity.

These Overlays are made of a non-glare rigid plaslic material with the same look and feel as the original keylop, precisely die-cut to the exact size of your keytops. Printing is on the underside to prevent the print Irom ever wearing off. The back is laminated with a strong non-slip adhesive for permanent adherence to the keytop; although Ihey can be removed without permanent damage to the keytops if desired. Instructions for easy installation are included with the kit.

CUSTOM KEY OVERLAYS can be made to your exacl specs at a much lowet cost lhan engraving. TioMWXNY P.O. Box 201, Dept. B, Cornville, AZ 86325 (602) 634-7517

KEY OVERLAYS _ Qty.

Qty. Price

5250/5251 (48keylops/fronts) $21.95

5520 (101 keylops) 29.95

3270 (30 key fronts) 18.95

DisplayWrile 2 (36 keylops) 21.95

DisplayWrile 3 (38 keylops) 21.95

Dvorak (43 keylops) 26.95

Wordstar (29 keylops) 26.95

Control Key English (5 keylops) 6.95

Blank Overlays (99 keylops) 21 95

Do-it-yourself Kil (200 +pieces) 29.95

Name

Address

City

Price

_MulliMale (44 keylops) $29.95 _EasyWriler II (22 keylops/

7 key Itonls/Handy Card) 29.95 .Lotus 1-2-3

(24 keylops/Handy Card) 29.95 .WordPerfect

(32 keylops/Handy Card) 29.95 .WordPerfect 3.2 (32 keylops/

10 key Ironts/Handy Card) 29.95 _WordPerfect 4.0 (24 key tops/

11 key fronts/Handy Card) 29.95

KEYTOP EXPANDERS

Qty.

□ Grey Price

_Slale_

-Zip

□ Visa □ MC Exp. Dale_

.Card #_

_IBM PC. PC/XT, PC Porl

(12 keys) $21.95 IBM 5291 Display Station

(13 keys) 2195

Compaq, Columbia (10 keys) 21.95

Corona, Eagle Spirit, Qubie,

Keylronic (10 keys) 2195

IBM 3270 PC ■'Enter" (1 keylop) 3.95

Individual Expanders 2.75

TOTAL (Min order $10.00) $

Prices include lirsl class postage. (Orders shipped wilhin 24 hours.)

Arizona residenls add 5% tax

TOTAL ENCLOSED S

|^ Visa or MC orders phone 602 634-7517 Your satisfaction guaranteed or your money refunded.

280 BYTE ■ JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 159 for End-Users. Inquiry I60 for DEALERS ONLY.

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

+v

Figure 10: Valve-driver power booster circuit.

when the hand has been placed in its parking station. One subtle feature is the internal interlock signal. This signal is generated by a magnetically actuated reed switch on the parking station. The magnet is attached to the robot arm. The purpose of this circuit is to prevent power from the auxiliary contacts from being applied to the hand when it is still attached to, and powered by, the robot arm. To activate the syringe cleaner drive, the robot arm must physically back away from the hand.

The final device controlled in this application is a standard 120 V AC solenoid valve used to turn on and off the water to an aspirator that provides vacuum for removing the waste solvent. This valve is controlled by an optically coupled solid-state relay driven directly from a DP8311 output. Liquidpresence sensors on each waste line are used to help ensure that the washing operation actually occurred.

Having described the hardware, let us examine some of the software requirements. Since this is a subsystem, it must be able to communicate with a higher-level computer. The communication is done serially over an RS-232C link in a block protocol, with CRC-16 error checking and automatic

[continued}

Transporter Kight Shift

Long After Your Staff Goes Home, We Keep Your PC Making Colls, Sending and Receiving Files, and Keeping o Log

Your microcomputer doesn't go home at five. Why not keep it working?

TRANSPORTER keeps your PC communicating almost as well as your staff could do it. Just load it with a "task list" before you go home. It can automatically call other computers, log in, repeat calls if necessary, send and receive files, and more.

It can do it overnight, when phone rates are lowest.

The next morning, TRANSPORTER gives you a report of what it has accomplished during its night shift.

So you can start the day ahead of the game. TRANSPORTER comes with our popular CROSSTALK data communications program added on. It communicates with any other system running TRANSPORTER or CROSSTALK. For details, see your retailer or write for a brochure.

»

1000 Holcomb Woods Parkway Roswell, Georgia 30076

For [he I0M Personal Computer. Requires 128K RAM, two disk drives, PC-DOS. Asynchronous Communications interface or equivalent R5202 connection, and a modem compatible with the 'AT command set.

Inquiry 24 7

MICROSTUF

^ ^ ^^^^^*"^"

^/ ^ ^ ^^^^

i -Tr -i ' > ■ . .1'. MftSJsJtww

ACS-1000

• 8 Or 4.77 MHz

• 1 Meg Memory

• 2 Serial Ports

• 1 Parallel Port

• On Board Disk Controller

• On-Board Clock/Calendar

ET-286 plus

• 10/6 & 12.5MHz

• 4 Meg Memory

• 3 Serial Ports

• 2 Parallel Ports

• 8 Expansion Slots

• On board Clock/Calendar

A WORD ABOUT STANDARDS . . .

A lumbering giant like IBM must play it safe, move slowly and if at all possible, maintain control. Control is maintained by setting standards . . . safe, easy targets for performance.

OEM's and system integrators profit from those standards and the market acceptance they create by combining compatibility with superior performance. You might say that IBM sets the standards, and the aftermarket raises them.

Inquiry 1

Push Back The Envelope:

10/6

& 12.5 MHz

AT Compatibility

A HERITAGE OF EXCELLENCE ... In any marketplace one product stands out as the pinnacle of performance and value. In the PC/XT marketplace, that product is the ACS-1000: 4.77 or 8 MHz operation, 1 Megabyte memory, built-in communications, built-in floppy disk controllers, even a SASI interface—all packaged on a single board and priced competitively with the merely compatible.

Building on the heritage of the ACS-1000, the ET-286 plus brings the same standards of excellence to the AT marketplace.

EXPERIENCE WAITLESSNESS . .. While your competitor's products are toiling away at a meager 6 MHz, you and your ET-286 plus can jet along at 10 MHz! If that's not fast enough, the architecture of the ET-286 plus is ready to launch into HyperSpeed at 12.5 MHz when processors are commercially available. You can, through software, throttle back to 6 MHz with 1 wait state for absolute adherance to the IBM standard. Or a simple jumper sets the ET-286 plus at 6 MHz with no wait state.

As further insurance for your future, the ET-286 plus is the first PC to use the new 1 Megabit Ram chips (in addition to 256K chips), offering up to 4 megabytes of on-board memory. As a major node in your network, we've provided two parallel ports and three serial (take your pick: RS-232 or RS-422) ports.

Even with all these features, this American made product is available in OEM quantities for under $1,000. .In fact, for a limited time we are offering qualified OEMs a system evaluation kit including a fully tested 10 MHz board, 512K memory, cables and 200w power supply for $1495. For more information, call or write:

ACS International, Inc. 2105 Luna Rd., Suite 330 Carrollton, Texas 75006

214-247-5151

TELEX: 709748 ACS UD

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 283

ORGANIC SYNTHESIS

+ 5V

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Figure 12: Parked syringe hand drive circuit.

retransmission of bad blocks. The most common request from the superior processor will be "Which syringe hand is clean and ready?" The subsystem must answer this question, but if no hand is available, it should give an estimate of when one will be ready. This allows the calling processor to set a countdown timer that avoids redundant requests for a clean hand when none is available. Another interaction with the calling processor is downloading a special cleaning procedure to be used in place of the default method. The local processor should be able to handle routine error conditions such as a pump losing its prime, but it will have to report fatal

errors, like being out of solvent, to the superior processor.

A Look into the Future

In the evolution of this project, many problems like the syringe cleaner will continue to be encountered. Some can be sidestepped, others ignored, but many will require solutions. The software will be formidable, but hopefully the user interface will hide most of this so that the system will not intimidate its users. Even when complete in its present design, our system will require input from a highly trained chemist to produce useful results. This may not always be so. Rapid progress is being made in the parallel field of

computer-aided synthetic design. The future marriage of an automated synthesis system such as ours and a synthesis-design computer will result in a quantum leap in organic chemistry: the ability to design, carry out, and optimize the production of a material under the guidance of a computer. ■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to note especially the hard work of Doug Lantrip, Mike Trueblood, and Roger Frisbee, without whom most of this system would still be on paper. Financial support by Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., The Dow Chemical Co., Eli Lilly and Co.. and the National Science Foundation (CHE-8406115) is gratefully acknowledged.

284 BYTE- JANUARY I9S6

PC

SOURCE

litis

PC, XT&AT

$Call

For Prices

Hard Disk Kit For The...

IBM AT

$595 $749

20MB 30MB

BRAND PRODUCTS

in-''

• Intel 8088-3 (4.77 MHz)

•MicroSoftMS-DOS2.11

•1-Half Height Floppy Disk Drive

• 640K Ram

• 135 Watt Power Supply

• 8 Total Slots

• Standard Keyboard

C/XT

$695

Free Shipping!

Runs All Major Software Written For IBM PC & PC-XT

Complete Hard Disk Kits for the IBM PCm

^- Reliable f Full Instructions r-1 Year Warranty

$395 $479 $695

10MB 20MB 30MB

STANDARCKEE MFC

$149 W/384K

Memory

64K Chip Set

9 chips per set,

1 Yr. Warranty <£f»

Minimum Order2 Sets . . *-PO

256K chip Set

9 chips perset, ttOQ

1 Yr. Warranty .... ^>

20MB Hard Disk*

COMPAQ.

Portable

256K 360K Floppy

$2559

" PC Source Installed

Hard Disk Kit For The... comma

Portable

$469 $579

10MB 20MB

SixPakPlus

$249

W/384K

TEAC 55B

fc $299

STANDARDS FDC $79 /U5TAdvantage! $3

HEWLETT PACKARD

Six Pen, Size A&b

7440 New!

8Pen,SizeA. 4> I I " J

Intel

Math Co-Processor

8087 $119 80287 $219

■mm 360K

Floppy Drive forthelBM ATtm

$109

CORPORATE AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTS

Oui ii.iiHiii.il accounts division is dedicated to providing the prompt professional service required lo keep your business running smoothly. We accept P.O.'* on a Net Terms basis, (minimum purchase ol $50) offer same day shipping, free fully insured UPS ground shipment. We offer full-lime lechnical staff to answer any questions that might arise and lo make fast repairs if neeeded. Call our national account* staff toe/jf. We Make four Job Easier...

OUR POLICY

We accepl Mastercard & Visa (with no Surcharge!), money orders, certified checks, personal checks ( allow 10 days for processing), COD (minimum purchase of $50), Company/Institutional P.O.'s and wire transfers. We do not charge your card until we ship. We pay shipping (UPS ground, fully insured)on orders delivered in continental U.S.A.

Add 6 1/8 sales tan if Texas resident. Prices are subject to change. All equipment carries a new factory warranty. Any return item must bo accompanied by a return authorization number.

Call Toll Free (800)626-4027 Within Texas (512) 331-6700

JHL

Inquiry 67

12303-G Technology Austin, TX 78727

The personal computer that raised high performance

to new heights.

If you work with high volumes of information, you need answers fast.

You need a personal computer that's up to the task.

Which is why IBM created the Personal Computer AT® system. It's changed a lot of ideas about business computing.

The idea of "fast" has become much faster. The idea of "data capacity" has become far greater.

There are new definitions of "power" in a stand-alone PC. While phrases like "sharing files" and "multi-user systems" are being heard more often.

And surprisingly, words like "affordable" and "state-of-the-art" are being used together:

Clearly, the Personal Computer AT is different from anything that came before. And what sets it apart can be neatly summed up in two words.

Advanced Technology.

If you've ever used a personal computer before, you'll notice the advances right away.

To begin with, the Personal Computer AT is extraordinarily fast. That's something you'll appreciate every time you recalculate a spreadsheet. Or search through a data base.

It can store mountains of information — literally thousands of pages' worth—with a single "hard file" (fixed disk). And now you can customize your system to store up to

30,000 pages with the addition of a second hard file.

The Personal Computer AT runs many of the thousands of programs written for the IBM PC family. Like IBM's TopView, the program that lets you run and "window" several other programs at once.

Perhaps best of all, it works well with both the IBM PC and PC/XT. Which is welcome news if you've already made an investment in computers.

You can connect a Personal Computer AT to the IBM PC Network, to share files, printers and other peripherals with other IBM PCs.

You can also use a Personal Computer AT as the centerpiece of a three-user system, with your existing IBM PCs as workstations.

Most important, only the Personal Computer AT offers these capabilities and IBM's commitment to quality, service and support. (A combination that can't be cloned.)

If you'd like to learn more about the IBM Personal Computer AT, see your Authorized IBM PC Dealer, IBM Product Center or IBM marketing representative. For a store near you, call 1-800-447-4700 (in Alaska, call 1-800-447-0890).

The IBM Personal Computer AT, for Advanced Technology.

Little Tramp character licensed by Bubbles Inc., s.a.

IBM, Personal Computer AT, PC/XT and TopView are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. 286 BYTE • JANUARY J986

Inquiry 163

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 287

BYTE

Reviewer's Notebook WE BEGIN OUR SYSTEM REVIEWS this month with a look at Canon's A-200

by Glenn Hartwig — 291 computer. The unit is based on an 8086 microprocessor running at 4.77 MHz

Canon's A-200 and comes standard with 2 56K bytes of RAM, 16K bytes of ROM, and a 4K

by Peter V. Callamams 293 byte permanent diagnostics routine in ROM. Other memory features are 4K

Color Fox bytes of video RAM if you choose a monochrome monitor and 16K bytes

by ]ohn D. Unger 301 of video RAM if you get the unit with the color monitor. Reviewer Peter

Eco-C88 C Compiler Callamaras was struck by what seems to be a good amount of room in the

by David D. Clark 307 system housing for both expansion boards and a possible hard disk. It comes

Inside The Sider with two half-height 360K-byte 5^-inch floppy-disk drives.

by Douglas E. Hall 319 The Color Fox from Scottsdale Systems started its existence as the Sanyo

Advantage! for the AT MBC-5 5 5 computer. From there, however, some substantial modifications were

by T] Byers 327 made. The result, according to reviewer John Unger, is something that is

Enable generally more IBM PC-compatible than the earlier Sanyo but is still less so

by Steve King 331 than such offerings as the Compaq or the Zenith Zrl 50. Mr. Unger makes the

Review Feedback 344 point that most of the enhancements to the Sanyo to create the Color Fox

are hardware.

David D. Clark, in his review of Ecosoft's Eco-C88 C compiler for Z80 CP/M systems, notes that this is an update of a product that was less than sterling in its earlier incarnation. Now, however, he feels that the changes made to the compiler not only make it worth another look but have improved it to the point where he can give it a good recommendation.

Next, Douglas E. Hall gives us the benefit of his experiences with The Sider hard-disk drive for the Apple 11+ and He. The 10-megabyte external hard disk not only was affordable but was offered with a 15-day free trial that was just too much of a good thing to pass up. How well did it live up to its advanced billing? As with everything, reports Mr. Hall, there are pluses and minuses.

Architectural differences between the IBM PC and the PC AT have created a new load of enhancement products that are designed to do for the latter what has long been available to owners of the former. A case in point is the subject of a review by TJ Byers: the Advantage! multifunction board for the AT from AST Research. You can load the Advantage! with almost 10 times the RAM of another AST product, the SixPakPlus, which is designed for the IBM PC. What you could wind up with is an extra 3 megabytes of memory in a single expansion slot.

Reviewer Steve King takes a hard look at an integrated software package called Enable from The Software Group. Here we have a $695 package claimed in its initial version to be a word processor, database manager, spreadsheet, and data-communications program. There are a lot of promising aspects to the package, says Mr. King, and indeed the producer has refined it in a subsequent version. However, you'll want to read this review for its thoughtful and well-documented analysis of a package undergoing evolution.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 289

THE SMARTEST BUY YOU'LL EVER MAKE:

20 MBYTES OF AUTOMATIC TAPE BACK-UP FOR JUST $795.

Sysgen Smart Image!" More capacity. More features. More value.

The best-selling tape back-up system for the IBM® and compatibles gets even better!

Now the Sysgen Smart Image delivers double the storage capacity: 20 Mbytes on a high density cassette. It backs your data up automatically. And it comes in two convenient versions: The internal model, for just $795—or the slim, half-height external chassis for $895. Only Sysgen gives you unattended back-up. Set the Smart Image once, like a VCR, and it will back up your data up to twice daily, seven days a week. And, if you're using your system, the Smart

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Image will wait until you're your files automatically. That's smart You can't pass up a buy like this.

You won't find a smarter solution—or a better prio Sysgen's entire disk and smart tape family offers an unbeatable combination of capacity and value. Our systems are IBM* standard compatible, and run all software written for current versions of PC DOS® Compare for yourself:

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We seem to have an endless supply of products to review. This month, I thought I'd give you a little preview of what's in store.

Consider Pocket APL from Scientific Time Sharing Corp. (STSC). APLs a language that has long been popular as a teaching tool but never left school with the graduating students. One of the reasons why it suffered in comparison with other languages was the fact that you needed relatively expensive and specialized hardware to implement it. For example, using APL used to mean that you had to have at least an 8087 numeric coprocessor and a special-character ROM (readonly memory). Now, with Pocket APL, you can go about your business with nothing more specialized than an IBM Personal Computer with 128K bytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory). Judging from the review now in process, this is a complete, though compact, implementation of APL with extended system and file functions, on-line help facilities, and sample workspaces on one disk.

On the other hand, Pocket APL looks like a learner's tool in that it emphasizes user-friendliness, and it would probably be of more use to you if your applications are going to be small. Further, it has at least one serious disadvantage in that it limits its workspace to 64K bytes, regardless of the size of the memory on your machine. You can get versions of APL from STSC that are more full-featured (greater memory utilization, full-screen editing, graphics, etc.). However, these implementations are proportionally more expensive than Pocket APL and are the ones you'll want to keep in mind if your learning experience on the compact version piques your interest about going further. The review reveals that the language has some surprising capabilities.

□ o n a in h □ □

Other reviews we've got cooking for the months ahead include one on Ericsson's laptop portable computer. The company announced several months ago that it would no longer be selling this attractive, plasmascreen unit in the United States— which turned out to be both true and not true. Ericsson will no longer sell the computer line through retail outlets or through normal computer distributors. The computers will be available directly from the company, Ericsson tells us. (Ericsson telecommunications equipment is still being actively sold.) BYTE's readers throughout Europe will still be able to purchase the Ericsson laptop through normal channels. Whether or not the computer is worth the extra trouble it will take to own one in the U.S. is a good question. We're hoping this review will provide enough information to make it answerable.

An interesting example of resurgence is the Ace 2000 series from Franklin. The reorganized company claims that the 65SC02 processor used in its Apple Il-compatible machine is functionally identical to the 65C02 used in both the He and lie and is therefore a true work-alike for the lie, + , and lie. Its "Franklin DOS" operating system is claimed compatible with both Apple DOS 3.3 and Apple ProDOS as well as being faster on disk-access functions. Further, it comes with its own version of BASIC in ROM. Franklin is now producing the Ace 2000 in models equipped with two, one, or no disk

drives, and the monitor is an extracost option no matter which model you buy. As to price, the no-drive system was introduced at $699, with the one- and two-drive models costing $849 and $999, respectively. Standard features include 128K bytes of RAM, capability for 80-column display and double high-resolution graphics, and a parallel printer card. With a 67-watt power supply, it has more than enough power to support a hard disk.

All in all, you seem to get quite a bit for your money. We expect to have more to report when the review finally appears in print.

We're also looking at a review of an interesting data-storage and -retrieval device for the Commodore 64. Called the Quick Data Drive, from Entrepo Inc., it reads and writes data on miniature wafer-tape cassettes. The company claims its unit is not only 20 times faster than a cassette drive but is also faster at loading programs than the Commodore disk drive. Tape-loop lengths vary from a 56K-byte capacity of 20 feet up to a 62-foot model that will hold more than 170K bytes of data. You can designate up to 2 55 files on one wafer. A number of other intriguing aspects to this drive could make it worth investigating if you have a Commodore 64, and there are a number of things you're going to have to live with that may or may not present problems in your particular applications.

Other review topics for the near future will be: C compilers, expert-system development tools, high-speed modems, text- and data-compression products for storage and communications, more full systems, and peripherals from hard disks to printers. —Glenn Hartwig Technical Editor. Reviews

ILLUSTRATED BY MACIEK ALBRECHT

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 291

SYSTEM REVIEW

Canon's A-200

An IBM

PC-compatible with room to grow

by Peter V. Callamaras

Peter V. Callamaras is a captain in the U.S. Air Force. His interests are computers, model railroading, photography, reading, and physical conditioning. He can be contacted at POB 408. Scot! Air Force Base.

IL 62225.

The Canon A-200 computer system is a three-piece unit consisting of a video display, a keyboard, and the computer itself. The computer is built around an 8086 microprocessor running at 4.77 MHz.

The A-200 comes standard with 2 56K bytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory) and 16K bytes of ROM (read-only memory). A 4K-byte permanent diagnostics routine executes when you turn the power on. With the monochrome monitor, you get 4K bytes of video RAM; with the color monitor, you get 16K bytes. You also get an RS-232C port, a Centronics parallel port, and a place to plug in an 8087 numeric data processor.

Five IBM PC-compatible slots are built into the A-200, but you can use only four, since one is for the video-interface card. Two of the slots are on a 16-bit data bus (one is used by the video-display adapter); the other three are 8-bit. One nice feature is the ability to add 2 56K bytes of RAM (from Canon) without using any of the remaining four expansion slots. You can go to a 512K-byte system and have four slots left for expanding.

The system reviewed had two half-height 360K-byte 514-inch floppy-disk drives. 1 saw no mention of a hard disk from Canon, but the system should accept any third-party IBM-compatible drive with no problem. \Editor's note: Canon now has A-200 systems with a \0-megabyte hard-disk drive and a 360K-bijfe floppy-disk drive]

Internally, the drives take up most of the front right-hand side, the power supply and fan are behind the drives, and the expansion slots are on the left. There appears to be plenty of room for the necessary working space when you add boards. The ROM chips are readily accessible, just behind the left-hand disk drive, so any updates would be simple to make. Reading the names on the various components inside makes it evident Canon has gone to some pretty good subvendors for parts, with drive com

ponents from Sankyo and a Kyocera power supply/fan case (used in the Radio Shack Model 100 and the NEC PC-8401A laptop portable). One concern 1 have is how well the fan would do in cooling added components, since there doesn't appear to be any venting to draw air across the expansion-slot area. With a "full house" system, any potential for overheating needs to be considered.

The Keyboard

The keyboard is a standard IBM PC-style unit with 10 function keys on the left side, a QWERTY keyboard in the center, and a numeric keypad on the right for a total of 83 keys. Unfortunately, Canon duplicated the IBM keyboard without any improvements—not even status lights on the Caps Lock key or a decent-size Return key (see photo 1). While the keyboard appears plugcompatible with the IBM PC (so you could use a third-party or IBM keyboard if desired), Canon could have made a lot of friends by improving the keyboard. The keys have a very light yet comfortable feel but offer no resistance or feedback when pressed. You can end up with a string of the same letters if you aren't light-fingered. I liked the keyboard, despite its shortcomings, because of the quiet keys.

The Display

For the video display, you have a choice of color or monochrome (P-39 green) units mounted in a swivel/tilt housing that works nicely. I could just set it and forget it. The display is connected with a nine-pin cable running between the rear of the computer and the monitor.

The monochrome unit gives you the standard 80-character by 2 5-line display, but it's with the color monitor that the A-200 really shines. The color monitor is rated at 40/80 characters by 2 5 lines with a total of 16 colors available. You get 640 by 200 pixels in black-and-white mode and 320 by 200

{continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 293

Leonardo Da Vinci was not only a great artist, he was also a great engineer and architect. His innovative designs which blended art, science and technology stressed efficiency and detail and were years ahead of their time. Today, DaVinei!s -spiritlives on in QDjP Ccfi puter Systems' rieyijan exciting graphics card. . . VIVA!

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VIVA was designed for PC graphics soft i ware developers by providing graphics" ' ; primitives in hardware, increasing productivity and reducing application development time. p. Jfr-2J|

VIVA was designed for graphics softwarB users by providing compatibility with existing PC/AT software packages, ultra high re/|0"t lion color and vastly increased dr'awinkEjleta over standard graphics cards. ! -T, 111'

VIVA, like DaVinci, is now the new < '-j n"H~H standard by which all other graphics "caija|. j! | I I t must be measured. This is VIVAt J"~"

Compatible with IBM, PC/XT and clones.

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Get VIVA and bring your PC to life! VIVA is versatile, state of the art quality at a price you can afford. Call today and we'll be there—QDP! VIVA Da VINCI!

Allows a single monitor to pe use, both normal text and grapHU plug the output of your slanSaf, color graphics card into K/p5 port. The display selection ts'cw trolled through software, hr-*

• On-board 16 bit graphics coprociu

Performs all screen drawing br^ functions at high speed leading, computer's CPU free to perfor, tasks.

• Use with standard IBM color TTL RGB

monitors.

• Supports analog RGB monitors on thed

(You get ultra high resolution color' normally only available on mini and frame computers.)

• Standard resolution of 640 by 400, 16 co 128K of video ram on the Silver Card

• Maximum resolution of 1024 by 1024, 16 with 512K of video ram on the Gold Card

• Expansion connector:

Allows upgrades which extend and enhance features of the basic card—no more obsolete hardware. Planned extensions include:

• 256 colors (8 bits/pixel) displayable fron pallete of 262,144 colors.

• 512 colors (9 bits/pixel) displayable from a pallete of 16,777,216 colors,

• Display characteristics are fully programmable

• Interlaced mode allows use of low cost monitors.

• Non-interlaced mode for flicker-free display

• Display size up to 1024 by 1024 (40MHz bandwidth.)

• Flash hardware enable/disable on 4 colors (Layers) allows any of 4 specified layers to be temporarily "disabled" i.e., erased, then ' later can be "enabled", i.e., put back on the screen without being redrawn. This greatly increases speed of use.

• Light pen input port. (Permits a light pen to-be used as a ' / pointing or pick device)

• Hardware pan and zoom support. (Allows smooth panning, and zoom up to 16 times magnification) . < y

• Compatible with existing software including AutoCAD; ' p-cad, VERSACAD, MasterCAD, etc. /

• Software support. Planned software includes /^

computer systen

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Inquiry

p-cad is a trademark of Electronic Design Automation • AutoCAD is a trademark of Autodesk Inc. • VERSACAD is a trademark of T&W Systems, Inc. VIVA and MasterCAD is a trademark of QDP Computer Systems, Inc. • IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines

AT A GLANCE

Name

Canon A-200

Company

Canon U.S.A. Inc. One Canon Plaza Lake Success, NY 11042 (516) 488-6700

Components

Processor: 8086, 4.77 MHz Memory: 256K bytes Mass storage: Two 51/4-inch double-sided double-density floppy-disk drives, 360K bytes each

Display: 80 columns by 25 lines, 640 by 200 pixels (black-and-white); 40/80 by 25, 320 by 200 pixels (color) Keyboard: 83 keys, including 10 function keys and numeric pad; IBM PC layout I/O interface: Centronics port, RS-232C port, five expansion slots (two 16-bit, three 8-bit)

Software

MS-DOS 2.11, GW-BASIC, diagnostics

Options

256K-byte RAM module

Documentation

Manuals for software and machine

Price

A-200 M2 (256K memory, two floppy-disk drives, monochrome monitor) $2195

A-200 C2 (256K memory, two floppy-disk drives, color monitor) $2695

MEMORY SIZE ( K BYTES ) 0 200 400 600

DISK STORAGE (K BYTES ) 0 400 800 1200

]

11

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES 0 2 4 6

PRICE ( $ 1000) 10 0 2 4

| CANON A-200

The Memory Size graph shows the standard and optional memory available for the three computers under comparison. The Disk Storage graph shows the highest capacity of one and two floppy-disk drives for each system. The Bundled Software Packages graph shows the number of software packages included with

each system. The Price graph shows the list price of each system with two high-capacity floppy-disk drives, a monochrome monitor, a printer port and a serial port, 256K bytes of memory (64K bytes for 8-bit systems), and the standard operating system and BASIC interpreter for each system.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 295

The rear view of the Canon A-200 shows (from left to right) the blower fan, power cord receptacles, serial port and parallel port, and expansion slots.

Inside the A-200. At the lower right are the expansion slots; the power supply is at the lower left. At the upper left are the floppy-disk drives.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC 2 50

150

50

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC) 250

150

CALCULATIONS

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC) 50

SPREADSHEET (SEC)

25

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY

40K FILE COPY

CANON A-200

The graph for Disk Access in BASIC shows how long it takes to write a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank floppy disk and how long it takes to read this file. (For the program listings see June 1984 BYTE, page 327, and October 1984, page 33.) In the BASIC Performance graph, the Sieve results show how long it takes to run one iteration of the Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. In the same graph, the Calculations column shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplication and 10,000 division operations using single-precision numbers. The System Utilities graph shows how long it takes to for

1

7.4 \

LOAD RECALCULATE IBM PC V//A APPLE H E

mat and copy a disk (adjusted for 40K bytes of disk data) and to transfer a 40K-byte file using the system utilities. The Spreadsheet graph shows how long the computers take to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cell Microsoft Multiplan spreadsheet where each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left. The tests for the Canon A-200 C2 computer used MS-DOS 2.11 and GW-BASIC. The tests for the Apple lie were done with ProDOS (except for the spreadsheet, which was done with DOS 3.3). The IBM Personal Computer was tested with PC-DOS 2.0 and BASICA.

296 BYTE- JANUARY I986

Inquiry 72

Diskettes BV YCenTecN

The Colorful Solution to Data Organization'"

REVIEW: CANON A-200

Canon

3tr

n i i i i- n i i r n

_

Photo 1: Keyboard of the Canon A-200 computer. It is identical to the IBM PC keyboard.

pixels in four-color mode. This is a crisp, comfortable monitor to view, and 1 had no problem with text and graphics. Since you can mount the monitor on top of the basic computer system, the whole unit takes up only \7% by !5Ks inches.

Software and Manuals

Other items that come with the A-200 are MS-DOS 2.11, GW-BASIC 2.02, manuals for each, a 72-page manual for the computer, a self-prompting diagnostics disk, and a short pamphlet about the monitor. The manuals for DOS and BASIC (about 167 and 3 3 5 pages, respectively) are mainly for reference; you will have to supplement them with outside material if you don't know how to program in BASIC or want to work extensively with DOS. They are definitely not novice-level "how-to" manuals. The system manual is fairly well done and leads you through setup and operation. I did have a problem when it came to booting the system up the first time due to the manual's organization. 1 followed the manual in a serial fashion. I inserted a disk and then waited for it to boot; it wasn't until I turned to the next page that I read you're supposed to push in the head-lock button. The head-lock button actually has a dual function: to pop a disk out and to raise and lower the head. Warnings placed on a following page are seldom read in time, so they should be on the same page as the actions they relate to.

Other than that slight anomaly, the manuals do their job in helping you get the system up and running.

IBM Compatibility

The main question most users will have is just how IBM PC-compatible the system is. Happily, it is very PCcompatible. As mentioned earlier, the system comes with MS-DOS and GWBASIC so no problems there. The system also booted with PC-DOS 2.1 and 3.0, and I did not notice any problems. I also ran compatibility tests with WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, and Flight Simulator, all without problems. Other programs (including FlashCalc, Dollars and Sense, and Statpro) also ran without any noticeable problems. Canon claims to have tested 400-plus programs, and the only programs reported to have had any problems were some games, but Canon mentions no names.

Conclusion

Overall, I found the A-200 with color monitor to be a very attractive system in terms of both looks and capability. I enjoyed using the system, and the color monitor is absolutely outstanding. It has been said that the Japanese incursion into the U.S. computer market follows their classic motto, "Take a product and then make it a little better and a little less expensive." While the Canon A-200 is not a quantum leap over the IBM PC, it is a lessexpensive alternative in a capable package. ■

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PRICE PROMISE: We will better any lower delivered price on the same products and quantities advertised nationally. TERMS: FREE USE OF VISA AND MASTERCARD. American Express also accepted. Shipping: Add S3,OOper 1 OO diskettes or fraction thereof. Other items add $3.00 for disk storage or headcleaning kit or dozen ribbons or C.O.D. orders. P.O. accepted from recognized institutions and schools on 2%-10 Net 30. Utah residents add 5'*m°/0 sales tax. Minimum order $30.00.

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 297

YOU CAM'T GET A GOOD FEEL FOR A SOFTWARE PACKAGE

FROM AM AD.

If you're searching through the ads in this magazine for the Yight" software package, good luck.

Let's say you're looking for a data base manager. You read a dozen ads. Each one offers its list of features. Each one talks about the ideal combination of power and ease of use. And each one promises to "solve your problems", "answer your needs", or both.

Don't Believe Anybody

We could make the same claims for DATAEA5E. Even before Release Z.5, tens of thousands of users made DATAEA5E the corporate data base standard. We could tell you that they found DATAEA5E to be an invaluable productivity tool because of its fully relational capabilities, full screen editor and unique combination of menus and commands. But don't believe us.

More than 100 reviewers from major publications agree with our productivity claims. Data Decisions called DATAEA5E "perhaps the most effective blend of ease-of-use and performance available for PC users to date." But don't believe the reviewers.

Application developers, MI5/DP/ IC managers, and all kinds of other users from Fortune 1000 companies throughout the country have reached strikingly similar conclusions. A user at General Instruments reports that "those same factors that

make DATAEA5E preferable for non-programmers — ease of use and speed of development

— make it the program of choice for many technical types, too." But don't even believe other users.

Nobody knows what you know.

Even if all these people are absolutely right about DATAEA5E, does that mean it's the right product for you?

The best way to know if DATAEA5E fits your needs is to get your hands on our free sample diskette. Fifteen minutes with the sample will give you a feel for our best DATAEA5E yet

— Release 2.5. It has features that appeal to all users; from developers to data entry people: A complete procedural language; quick reports at the press of a button; a direct interface to Lotus 1-2-3; the ability to move rapidly from file to file on a common piece of data; and built-in scientific, mathematical, financial, date, time, and string functions.

Productivity takes more than a good product.

It takes a good company, too. Buying a software package is the beginning of a relationship. Technical support, product upgrades, special corporate and dealer programs and informational seminars should all be part of this relationship. If the only thing you get is a product, forget about productivity. At Software 5olutions, you find more than a product. You find software solutions.

11985 Software Solutions, Inc.

Trademarks are of their respective companies

Find out for yourself.

The advances in DATAEA5E's Release 2.5, and the support behind it, offer you practical advantages that leave all the other data base managers far, far behind — including R:Base 5000® and dBase III®. But don't believe us. Call or write for information and your free sample diskette today.

Software Solutions, Inc.

i i

CALL OR WRITE FOR YOUR FREE SAMPLE DISKETTE.

Send information and a free DATAEA5E I sample diskette for my PC (check one):

| n IBM Q WAhQ D DEC Q T1 Include materials relating to:

Corporate Client Retailer I □ MI5/DP/IC Professional Q VAD

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(lame:

Title: Phone:

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Don't like samples? Then just call us. We'd be happy to talk about your information j management needs and advise you.

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Inquiry 331

JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 299

Meet The Princeton Graphic Systems family

The right monitor at the right price. Princeton Graphic Systems offers you a complete family of high performance personal computer monitors. Monitors that deliver the compatibility, resolution, and reliability you need for any application and any budget: from word processing to sophisticated business graphics.

HX-12E. High resolution RGB monitor 640x350 lines noninterlaced - .28 mm dot pitch -Compatible with IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -$785

HX-12. High resolution RGB monitor -640 x 200 lines noninterlaced -.31 mm dot pitch tube-Nonglare screen -$695

HX-9/9E. Nine inch, high resolution RGB monitor noninterlaced -.28mm dot pitch tube -9E compatible with IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -Green/amber switch -Apple/IBM colors - Etched dark glass screen -$650/$750 (9E)

i

V .,'!' .y.J^i 111

MAX-12. Amber monochrome -720 x 350 lines -Enhanced to interface with IBM color or monochrome adapter card -Nonglare screen -Can display 16 shades of amber -$249

SR-12P. PGS's top of the line RGB monitor 640x480 lines noninterlaced - .26 mm dot pitch - Analog input allows for the display of 4,096 possible colors -Compatible with IBM Professional Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -$999

SR-1 2. Super-high resolution RGB monitor -640 x 400 lines noninterlaced -.31 mm dot pitch tube - Nonglare screen - Requires interface card -$799

Princeton Graphic Systems. The only real choice.

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IBM IBM Enhanced Graphics Aaapler. and IBM Professional Graphics Adapier are trademarks of International Business Machines. Inc Compaq is a irademark Qj Compaq Computer Corp Corona is a trademark of Corona Data Sysiems. Inc Apple is a kademark ot Apple Computer Corp. PC World is a trademark of CW Com mum canons Inc SR-12 screen courtesy ot Mouse Systems, Inc

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SYSTEMS

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300 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 288

SYSTEM REVIEW

Color Fox

Scottsdale Systems

MBC-555

by John D. Unger

Scottsdale Systems has taken the basic Sanyo MBC-5 5 5 computer and put it together with some major hardware upgrades to create the Silver Fox. enhances Scottsdale has replaced the 40-track

— — double-sided double-density (DSDD) disk

SanyO S drives with 80-track double-sided quaddensity (DSQD) drives for a formatted disk capacity of 800K bytes per drive. Included with the Silver Fox is Sanyo's video RAM (random-access read/write memory) expansion board, which makes the computer much more IBM PC-compatible than the standard Sanyo MBC-5 5 5 and allows it to run Lotus 1-2-3 and other PC-compatible software. Besides the packages normally bundled with the Sanyo MBC-5 5 5, Scottsdale Systems adds more programs, including the new operating system needed to use the high-capacity disk drives and the video board.

Scottsdale Systems has also added an NEC color monitor to the basic Silver Fox and dubbed this combination the Color Fox. The Color Fox is the model I review in this article, and unless otherwise stated, the only difference between the Silver Fox and the Color Fox is the monitor.

What you get when you buy a Color Fox is a complete computer system with sufficient software to carry out all the most common tasks that a microcomputer is called upon to do: word processing, spreadsheets, database management, and running BASIC programs. However, the Color Fox cannot be considered a "true" IBM PC-compatible machine like the Compaq or Zenith Z-150. If you must have some special piece of software for your specific application, make sure there is a version that runs on the Color Fox, either with or without the video RAM expansion board.

\ohn D. Unger (POB 95. Hamilton. VA 22068) is a geophjsicisl lor the U.S. government. At work he investigates the causes of earthquakes: at home he tries to keep up with the programming efforts of his two teenaged sons.

Hardware

The principal enhancements to the Color Fox are hardware, so 1 will spend most of the review discussing these aspects. As 1 mentioned, the basic hardware of the Color

Fox is pure Sanyo. In spite of the new label on the front of the computer (see the photo in the "At a Glance" section), the plate with the serial number on the rear of the review machine reads "Sanyo MBC-5 5 5-2."

The most apparent difference between the Color Fox and the Sanyo MBC-55 5 is the substitution of the standard DSDD disk drives with two DSQD drives. The drives, TEAC model FD-55F, can read and write disks formatted in all the standard MS-DOS 40-track formats, either single- or doublesided. With a special operating system from Scottsdale Systems, the drives can read and write disks formatted with either 8, 9, or 10 sectors and 80 tracks for a maximum capacity of 800K bytes per drive. This special operating system is essentially a modification of MS-DOS 2.11 written for the Sanyo. It's called HAGEN-DOS. The computer must be booted with this special operating system to take advantage of the increased disk capacity.

These high-density drives are significantly noisier than either the original singlesided or the DSDD TEAC FD-55B drives I now have in my Sanyo MBC-55 5. The noise appears to come from the stepper motor as it moves the heads from track to track, but it does not seem to affect the performance of the drives.

I had not realized just how much you can store on one 5!4-inch disk when it has a capacity of 800K bytes. In fact, I began to make good use of MS-DOS's tree directory structure, which is normally useful only on hard disks, and partitioned my files into different subdirectories. While Scottsdale Systems recommends disks certified at 96 tracks per inch, I did not use anything other than disks certified for DSDD use in the quad-density drives, and I had no failures formatting even "generic" DSDD disks in 80track format.

The Sanyo video RAM board is an expansion board that was introduced about a year after the MBC-555 came on the market.

(continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 301

REVIEW: COLOR FOX

HAGEN-DOS looks and acts just like MS-DOS 2.11 except for the format program.

Sanyo introduced this option to enable its computer to run Lotus 1-2-3; as a side benefit, the Color Fox and any other Sanyo MBC-555 with the board installed can run other IBM PC graphics software as well.

Technically, together with the special operating system, the video RAM board duplicates the 16K bytes of memory that is permanently set aside in the IBM PC for direct memory access by the graphics display. This tactic is necessary because the Sanyo MBC-555 uses a different section of memory for this purpose. The location of video RAM in the Sanyo also depends upon how much memory you have installed in your computer. Just to complicate things further, the display is "mapped" from RAM to the screen coordinates differently in the Sanyo than in the IBM PC.

The video RAM board mounts inside the case of the Color Fox and is electrically connected to the computer through the single expansion bus on the motherboard. Utilizing the video RAM board's capabilities can be somewhat awkward. The Color Fox comes with two versions of HAGENDOS. One version is for use when running the "straight" Sanyo memory model (that is, without the video board enabled). The other version is for use with software that requires the video RAM board. Also, you have to switch the monitor from its normal output port on the rear of the computer to a different port on the expansion board. Initially, this was quite a chore because the two ports have different types of sockets, so I was switching cables back and forth all the time. Scottsdale Systems now supplies a twin-lead cable connected to a two-position switch (standard with the Color Fox only). Still, when you

want to change from using an application that requires the video board to one that doesn't, you must reboot the system with the' proper version of HAGEN-DOS, switch the monitor cable selector, and then change the monitor SYNC setting from positive to negative.

1 was disappointed with the NEC color monitor. There were no problems running graphics or games in color; the clarity and color separation in graphics mode were very good. My problems stem from trying to read text on the screen. The clarity and resolution of text were poor enough that, for the first time, I did not write the entire review on the actual computer I was reviewing. I lay the blame chiefly on the monitor because the Color Fox's text quality on a normal high-resolution monochrome monitor is quite acceptable. The character set is very similar to that formed on an IBM PC in graphics mode.

The overall quality of the display while operating in IBM PC-compatible mode with the video RAM board is clearly worse than the standard display mode. The screen scrolls in a jerky fashion, and the scrolling is accompanied by streaking and blurring on the display.

The Color Fox has all the open RAM sockets on its motherboard filled, giving it a total of 256K bytes of RAM. This is the maximum memory for the Sanyo and the Color Fox.

Software

To run the bundled MicroPro and IUS software, or when running programs using Sanyo BASIC, you need to boot up under the version of HAGEN-DOS that disables the video RAM board. To run IBM PC-compatible software and the version of GW-BASIC included with the video board, you need to boot up under the version of HAGENDOS that enables the video board. Both operating systems support the quad-density disk drives and both include some nice utility programs not supplied by Sanyo, including a RAMdisk program and a screen-dump routine. The two operating systems and their extra utility programs are

products of A-OK Computers and can be obtained separately and used with a normal Sanyo MBC-5 5 5. (A-OK Computers is located at 816 Easley St.. Silver Spring, MD 20910; telephone (301) 588-8446.)

HAGEN-DOS looks and acts just like plain MS-DOS 2.11 except for the format program, which is more userfriendly and includes the option to format disks in quad-density. I had no problem reading from or writing to disks created in either single- or double-sided double-density format on the Color Fox or on any other MSDOS or PC-DOS machine.

Scottsdale Systems spices up the Color Fox with three major pieces of bundled software not included with the Sanyo MBC-555. The programs are Spell, a spelling proofreader by Software Toolworks; Filebase, a simple database manager by EWDP Software; and Mail Track I, a mailing-list program by Sapana Micro Software. I found the best of the lot to be Spell. It runs faster and is easier to use than SpellStar, which is included with the WordStar series that comes with the Color Fox. Spell has an effective dictionary of more than 50,000 words and runs independently of the wordprocessing program you are using. It has no problems working with text files created by WordStar or with normal ASCII files, but it may not work with files written on some word processors.

Benchmarks

The benchmarks for the Color Fox are somewhat more complex than usual. Because the video RAM board changes the character of the computer completely, I ran each benchmark both with and without the board enabled. I used GW-BASIC for the BASIC benchmarks run with the video board and Sanyo BASIC without the video board. The numbers in the benchmarks do not tell the whole story, however. While changing from page to page or moving the cursor around the page in WordStar, the video-board version of this program runs much faster than the standard

{continued)

302 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

AT A GLANCE

Name

Color Fox

Type

Enhanced Sanyo MBC-555 with color monitor

Company

Scottsdale Systems Ltd. 617 North Scottsdale Rd. #B Scottsdale, AZ 85257 (602) 941-5856

Size

15 by 14V2 by 4% inches; 21 pounds

Components

Processor: 8088 at 3.6 MHz Memory: 256K dynamic RAM standard

Mass storage: Two TEAC FD-55F double-sided quaddensity 51/t-inch drives; 800K capacity per drive Display: NEC JC-1460DA color display; 13-inch diagonal screen; 80-column by 25-line text; 320 by 200 graphics in IBM PC mode; 640 by 200 without video RAM; 640 by 400 with monochrome monitor Keyboard: Detached QWERTY with five function keys and numeric pad

Interfaces: Parallel printer port, monochrome and color RGB ports on both motherboard and video board

Software

HAGEN-DOS (similar to MSDOS 2.11), Sanyo BASIC, GWBASIC, WordStar, SpellStar, MailMerge, InfoStar, CalcStar, Easywriter, Spell, Filebase, and Mail Track I

Options

RS-232C serial port

Documentation

Sanyo operator's guide, manuals for all software except GW-BASIC

Price

$1497

HBHBBBBHHBBHBHB

MEMORY SIZE ( K BYTES ) 0 200 400 600

DISK STORAGE (K BYTES) BOO 1000 0 400 800 1200 1600 2000

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES

0 2 4 6 8 10

PRICE ($ 1000)

0 2 4

COLOR FOX

APPLE EL E

The Memory Size graph shows the standard and optional memory for the computers under comparison. The Disk Storage graph shows the highest capacity of one and two floppy-disk drives for each system. The Bundled Software Packages graph shows the number of packages included with each system. The Price

graph shows the list price of a system with two high-capacity floppy-disk drives, a monochrome monitor, graphics and color-display capability, a printer port and a serial port, 256K bytes of memory (64K bytes for 8-bit systems), the standard operating system for the computers, and their standard BASIC interpreters.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 303

The rear of the Silver Fox. An NEC color monitor distinguishes the The inside of the Silver Fox. Notice the video RAM expansion board Color Fox from the Silver Fox. Also, a twin-lead cable comes with in the lower right corner, the Color Fox to facilitate swapping between the RGB plugs on the motherboard and on the video RAM expansion board.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC) 250

200

150

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC) 250

READ

CALCULATIONS

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC) 50

3EADSHEET (SEC)

20

11

12

1

9 6

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY 40K FILE COPY

§| COLOR FOX WITH VIDEO BOARD

LOAD

COLOR FOX liM] IBM Pc

RECALCULATE APPLE HE

In the Disk Access in BASIC graph, a 64K-byte sequential text file was written to a blank floppy disk and then read. (For the program listings, seethe June 1984 BYTE, page 327, and October 1984, page 33.) In the BASIC Performance graph, the Sieve column shows how long it takes to run one iteration of the Sieve of Eratosthenes. The Calculations column shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplication and 10,000 division operations using single-precision numbers. The System Utilities graph shows how long it takes to format and copy a disk (adjusted time for 40K bytes of disk data) and to transfer

a 40K-byte file using the system utilities. The Spreadsheet graph shows how long the computers take to load and recalculate a 25by 25-cell Multiplan spreadsheet where each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left. The tests for the Color Fox with the video board were done with GW-BASIC; the Color Fox without the video board was tested with Sanyo BASIC. The tests for the Apple lie were done with the ProDOS operating system (except for the spreadsheet test, which was done with DOS 3.3). The IBM PC was tested with PCDOS 2.0.

304 BYTE • JANUARY I986

Inquiry 51

REVIEW: COLOR FOX

Sanyo version. This is because the video board can take advantage of direct video memory input/output, while the version of WordStar configured for the Sanyo or for the Color Fox without the video board enabled uses slower BIOS (basic input/output system) screen-scrolling routines to move through the text.

Conclusion

The Color Fox is an impressive package of hardware and software offered at an attractive price. Scottsdale Systems has taken a powerful yet inexpensive system, the Sanyo MBC-5 5 5, and made it more powerful, more IBM PC-compatible, and added even more software in the bargain.

The hardware enhancements that create the Color Fox from a Sanyo could be done by anyone. However, even if you bought the basic computer and the various components at bargain prices, you'd still end up paying about $300 to $400 more for your system than for the Color Fox.

On the negative side of things, the high-density disk drives are somewhat noisy, and the display quality leaves something to be desired, especially when using the video RAM board in text mode.

The Color Fox comes with a limited one-year warranty from Scottsdale Systems. Easterners may not be comfortable dealing with a company located as far away as Arizona. They might prefer to do business with one just around the corner. However, as far as I know, Scottsdale Systems is the only place to go if you want to buy the Color Fox. The people 1 talked to there were courteous and knowledgeable. Also, the basic core of the Color Fox, the Sanyo MBC-5 55, has proven to be a rugged and reliable computer during the past year and a half. The owner of a Color Fox should have no trouble obtaining post-warranty service for the machine from one of the many dealers set up to work on the Sanyo. ■

Editor's note: For a review of the Sanyo MBC-5 50/MBC-55 5, see page 270 of the August 1984 BYTE.

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 305

MAKE YOUR DECISIONS EASIER

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

Eco~C88 C Compiler

inexpensive MS-DOS

C compiler

by David D. Clark

David D. Clark is a research chemist working at the Research and Development Center of the ColgatePalmolive Company. He has a B.A.

in chemistry from \ndiana Central University and a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of Nebraska. He can be reached at 126 Birchview Dr.. Piscataway.

N] 08854.

In the spring of 1983 I noticed advertisements for a new C compiler for Z80 CP/M systems. 1 had a couple of C subset compilers at that time but wanted one that could perform floating-point arithmetic. That summer I purchased Eco-C version 1.51. 1 was rather disappointed with it as I indicated in a BYTE review (see "Two More Versions of C for CP/M," May 1984, page 246). Since 1 wrote that review, Ecosoft has made substantial improvements to the product. It became so good that 1 bought additional copies for my place of work and now recommend it without reservation.

Since the original review, 1 have purchased a Zenith Z-l 50 IBM PC-compatible computer. I saw that Ecosoft developed a version of its compiler for MS-DOS systems, but at $2 50 it was more than 1 could afford. When Ecosoft announced the new price of $49.95, 1 placed my order.

Using Eco-C88

Installing the compiler is easy. The batchprocessing files supplied on the two distribution disks perform the installation automatically. There are two versions: INSTALLF.BAT for systems with two 360K-byte floppy-disk drives and 1NSTALLH.BAT for systems with a hard disk. The installation process is different from the sequence described in the user's manual because of a change in file sizes; it is documented in a README file on one of the distribution disks. On a floppy-disk system, the compiler and library are placed on one disk, while the header files, cc utility, linker, and editor of your choice are placed on the other. On a hard disk, the files are distributed among several subdirectories.

After installation is complete, you can create a C program using your own text editor. The full C syntax as defined in Kernighan and Ritchie (The C Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, Prentice-Hall, 1978) is supported, with the exception of bit fields and the #line macro preprocessor directive. Only

the small memory model is supported, so programs contain a maximum of 64K bytes of code and 64K bytes of data. This is usually more than adequate. (See the text box "Eco-C88: An Update" on page 314 for the latest information.)

Compiling a program is simple; you type cc followed by the program name. The cc program is not actually part of the compiler proper. It is an auxiliary utility program that controls the flow of the compilation and accepts several options to alter its normal actions. One pleasant feature is the presence of a simple make command. For those not familiar with a UNIX version of the utility, the make command takes care of the compiling and linking of files that make up a program. It will only recompile those modules that have been altered since the last time you ran the program. The cc utility is also provided in source form, so you can customize it to fit particular system configurations. {Editor's note: The cc utility requires DOS 2.21 or higher to run]

The cc utility makes automatic operation of the compiler convenient, but it is possible to individually invoke each of the compiler's passes. These passes consist of the preprocessor (XP.EXE), parser (XC.EXE), optimizer (XOREXE), code generator (XM.EXE), and assembler (XASM.EXE). An error pass (CE.EXE) is called automatically if one of the other passes detects an error. The compiler's output is an .OBJ-type object module that you must then link with routines from the library to produce an executable .EXE file. Although there is a separate assembler pass, it does not accept a human-readable text file as input. All communication between the separate parts of the compiler is accomplished by reading and writing data files (*.cwk) that are automatically created and erased as the programs run.

Error handling is performed just as it is in the Z80 version of the compiler, and it's one of my biggest gripes. If the compiler

(continued)

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 307

REVIEW: ECO-C88

detects an error in the preprocessor, it informs you of what occurred but not always of where. For example, if it detects an unclosed comment, the compiler tells you that it is on the last line of the file and that a comment is not closed. It gives you no idea of where the offending comment starts. The only solution 1 have found is to place dummy #include directives in the file and see how many the compiler includes. If the parser detects an error, it falls into one of two general types: a warning or a fatal error. When this occurs, the line number, character number in the line, and offending token are displayed as well as the error message. The line numbers do not seem to be particularly reliable, however. I have had two succeeding errors with different tokens report identical positions in the file. Furthermore, 1 can't find either with a text editor. The compiler continues

through multiple warnings, but compilation stops after detection of a single fatal error.

The manual describes the compiler's operation with the cc program quite well but contains little description of how to use the individual programs that make up the compiler itself. Two compiler command-line options, h and d, are mentioned, but the manual does not state their purposes. From reading the source text for the cc program, you can deduce that the h command tells the compiler which directory to search for header files. The d option enables you to do a "command-line define," meaning you can define a symbol to the compiler from the command line. This would be useful for switching on or off conditionally compiled debugging code in the program. Although it is not mentioned in the manual, the com

(continued)

Name

Eco-088 1.55

Company

Ecosoft Inc.

6413 North College Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46220 (317) 255-6476

Necessary Hardware

MS-DOS 2.0 (or higher) 8088-based computer with 256K bytes of memory and two 360K-byte floppy-disk drives or one floppy-disk and one hard-disk drive

Documentation

92-page loose-leaf user's manual in a slipcover binder

Price

$49.95

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308 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Inquiry I7I

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JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 309

REVIEW: ECO-C88

piler accepts an n command-line option to disallow the use of nested comments in the source text.

The Library

The library is included in object form only, but the source is available at extra cost ($15 according to the manual. $10 when I ordered). The library contains all the standard library routines you would expect after reading Kernighan and Ritchie. Additional groups of routines are for operating-system-dependent functions, terminal handling, and IBMspecific video routines. The library occupies about 150K bytes of disk space and, unlike the Z80 version, consists of only one file.

The floating-point routines can use an 8087 numeric coprocessor if one is available. If not, the software emulates the coprocessor's operations. The compiler determines the coprocessor's presence or absence by examining the value of an external

variable, 8087. You can use this

variable to force software emulation by setting it to FALSE. The software emulation insures that systems with and without the coprocessor will obtain the same results from a series of calculations.

An object-only version of the ISAM (indexed sequential-access method) functions is also available for $15.

Benchmarks

I used six benchmark programs when evaluating Eco-C88. Several are presented in listings 1 through 5; the results are summarized in table 1. For these evaluations, I used a Zenith Z-150, an IBM PC-compatible computer with 320K bytes of memory and two 360K-byte double-sided doubledensity floppy-disk drives. I performed compilations using the cc program previously described and the -nl command-line option to prevent automatic linking. I did linking by invoking the MS-DOS linker manually. 1 did all timing by hand using a stop watch and took the average of three measurements. File sizes are those given by the MS-DOS command DIR. The Empty program in listing 1 pro

Table 1: A summary of the benchmark results in seconds. All timing was done by hand. The measurements recorded are an average of three. The compile/assemble times were most variable and seemed to depend on the history of file operations on the disk.

Program Compile/Assemble Link Execute Size

Empty 59 26 — 962 bytes

Sieve 63 71 11 7894 bytes

Fib 67 68 43 7876 bytes

Deref 65 66 10 7896 bytes

Factor 70 73 18 8760 bytes

Savage 61 108 449 14,577 bytes

Listing 1: The Empty benchmark tests for the system overhead required to create any program regardless of its useful content.

/*

** empty.c — benchmark to get compile, assemble, link, and library

** overhead

*/

main()

{

}

Listing 2: A corrected version of the Deref benchmark program, which examines the speed of pointer dereferencing.

r

deref.c — benchmark program to examine the efficiency * * of pointer dereferencing */

#define LOOPS (unsigned) 50000 I* how many loops */

#define BELL 7 /* ASCII bell character */

struct cptn {

};

mainQ {

unsigned i; char yekdorb;

struct cptrl ************** * - • - * 'pointer;

printf("°/ou loops \n", LOOPS);

for (i = 0; i < = LOOPS; i+ +)

yskdorb = ********************

p0inter) ptri.

printf("%cfinished\ n", BELL); exit(0);

}

310 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

REVIEW: ECO-C88

Listing 3: The Factor benchmark tests the implementation of long ints. It uses the Pollard rho algorithm to find a factor of a large integer.

/*

* tr

*■/

^include

factor.c — a long integer benchmark in C

"stdio.h"

#define BIGNMBR 1394761

*/

long p, x, y, cnt;

/* 1181 * 1181, number to be factored

/*

gcd — return the greatest common divisor of a and b

long gcd(a, b) long a, b;

{

long q, r;

if (b < 0)

b = -b; if (a < 0)

a = -a; if (a > 0) {

b = b % a; if (b = = 0)

r = 0;

else

r = 1; while (r > 0) {

q = a/b; r = a - q*b; a = b; b = r;

}

return (a);

main()

!

*/

puts("Factoring..."); p = BIGNMBR;

cnt = 0; x = 3; y = 3;

while (gcd(y - x, p) < 2)

cnt + +; /* Pascal or Modula can use Succ or INC */ x = (x"x + 2) % p; y = (y*y + 2) °/o p;

y = (y*y + 2) % p; /* no, this is not a mistake

}

printf("A factor of %ld is %ld\ n", p, gcd(y - x, p)); printf("lt took "/old iterations \ n \ n", cnt);

On a system that uses floppy disks, most of the time involved in compiling small programs is used by disk input/output

vides an estimate of the overhead required just to compile and link a program and the minimum memory necessary to create an executable file regardless of its useful content. The results in table 1 lend support to the conclusion that, at least on a floppydisk-based system, most of the time involved in compiling small programs is used by disk I/O (input/output).

The Sieve of Eratosthenes is the high-level-language benchmark for microcomputers. It uses an algorithm to find all the prime numbers between 3 and 16,381.

The Fib program calculates a series of Fibonacci numbers using a highly recursive algorithm. Because of the recursive function calls, this program gives a good estimate of how well a particular language implementation performs function calls. (Listings for the Sieve and Fib programs appear in May 1984 BYTE, pages 2 50 and 2 52, or you can download them from BYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764.)

When I wrote the review of Eco-C's CP/M version, I was new to C. I heard that pointers were an important part of the language and wanted to write a benchmark that could discern differences in the dereferencing of pointer variables. The result is the Deref benchmark in listing 2. Since the appearance of the first review, others have pointed out to me that the original program has a flaw. The error was in the declaration of

#define LOOPS

50000

My intention was that LOOPS be an

(continued)

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 311

REVIEW: ECO-C88

unsigned integer. However, in the body of the program, that 50000 should be interpreted by compilers as a long int. If the declaration had defined LOOPS as a hexadecimal C3 50 or as an octal value, the listing would have been fine. However, according to Appendix A of Kernighan and Ritchie, a decimal number greater than the largest positive integer should be interpreted as a long integer. This

causes problems for some compilers with the printf statement at the end of the program. Some compilers work because of the way the standard library is implemented. C subset compilers generally have no difficulties, since they usually do not implement long integers.

In order to fix the program, you can simply replace the statement in question with

#define LOOPS (unsigned) 50000

Eco-C88 compiled and worked correctly with both versions. The version with the cast to unsigned produced a slightly smaller program that ran substantially faster.

Most compilers that fail to make it through this program do so because of the depth of indirection. It has been argued that there is no practical analog for such a construct in a program and that the proposed ANSI C standard will require only six levels of indirection. That might be true, but the syntax summary of the language in Kernighan and Ritchie specifies that indirection can be of any depth. In my opinion, the program is flawed on aesthetic grounds since what is pointed to through all those levels of indirection is a random byte of memory. If someone can devise a benchmark that has such a high proportion of dereferencing operations and is more practical, I'd like to hear about it.

The Factor program in listing 3 tests the efficiency of the implementation of long integers. It is based on a Pascal program by Richard E. Crandall (Pascal Applications for Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, 1983). It uses the Pollard rho algorithm to find factors of large numbers.

The program operates under the assumption that the number is indeed factorable. If given a prime number to operate on, the program will not return. The choice of BIGNMBR is arbitrary. It gives an easily measurable execution time. The program uses many of the arithmetic operators as well as long function parameters and function-return values. It gives a fairly well rounded indication of the efficiency with which long integers are implemented in a language.

The Savage program in listing 4 tests the speed and accuracy of floatingpoint calculations. This is a C version of a program originally proposed by Bill Savage in the September 1983 issue of Dr. Dobb's journal ("16-Bit Software Toolbox" by Ray Duncan, page 120). The correct result for the pro

[conlinued)

Listing 4: The Savage floating-point benchmark. The program tests the speed and accuracy of floating-point calculations.

r

* * savage.c — floating point speed and accuracy test. C version ** derived from BASIC version that appeared in Dr. Dobb's Journal. " September 1983, pages 120-122. */

#define ILOOP 2500

extern double tan(), atan(), expQ, log(), sqrt();

mainO {

int i;

double a;

printf("start \ n"); a = 1.0;

for (i = 1; i < = (ILOOP-1); i + +)

a = tan(atan(exp(log(sqrt(a*a))))) + 1.0; printffa = %20.14e\ n", a); printf("done\ n");

}

Listing 5: This apparently innocuous Fopentst program will never run correctly, even if the correct file is present in the default directory, because of the register handling used by Eco-C88.

/*

* * fopentst.c — test the operation of the fopen() function */

#include "stdio.h"

mainQ {

FILE *fp;

if (ftp = fopen("MYTEXT.TXT", "w")) = = NULL) {

puts("Can't open MYTEXT.TXT \ n"); exit(-1);

}

puts("Successfully opened MYTEXT.TXT \ n");

}

312 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

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Inquiry 236

IANUARY 1986

REVIEW: ECO-C88

The Ect>C88 compiler is rather strict in

its adherence to

the C language as defined by Kernighan and Ritchie.

gram is 2 500. When I ran the program, it printed a final value of 2.49999999968640E3, or an error of about one part in a billion. From the results in table 1, it would appear that Eco-C88 is rather slow. This is not entirely true. As I've mentioned, the software floating-point routines emulate the 8087 coprocessor. This means that doubles are 8-byte quantities with a dynamic range of about + /- 10308. That means you can calculate a number as large as 170 factorial without overflow. The other point to note is the accuracy maintained while calculating transcendental functions. Many implementations will only approximate such functions to six or seven significant digits. From past tests of MS-DOS C com

pilers, the results for the comparable benchmarks seem to show that EcoC88 is one of the fastest and produces relatively compact code. A possible exception is in the area of floatingpoint calculations where the software emulation of the 8087 might cost the compiler in speed. 1 am not aware of any directly comparable results for the long-integer benchmark, but I would say that performance in this area is quite adequate. The difference between the 16-bit MS-DOS version of the compiler and its 8-bit counterpart is quite pronounced, even though the 8-bit version is the fastest I have tested.

Another interesting point is that, although the Empty benchmark produced a code file of less than 1K byte, if you write a program that actually does anything, it requires a minimum of about 8K bytes. Overhead is about 1 minute due to disk thrashing on a floppy-based system.

Consider the Fopentst program in listing 5. It looks perfectly legal. As a matter of fact, it will compile and link without error. However, it will never be able to open the file, even if it is present in the default directory. The fopen() function is declared as a function returning a pointer to a variable of type FILE in the source code for the library functions. It is that way on

almost all compilers. However, in the program listing, the type of the return value for the function is not declared and the compiler correctly assumes it to be of type int. The problem occurs because of the way Eco-C88 allocates registers: All return values of type int are returned in the AX register. All pointers are returned in the BX register. In order to get the program to work, the declaration

FILE *fopen();

must appear in the program or the return value gets lost. I should emphasize that nothing is wrong with the way Eco-C88 handles this. It is good programming practice to make such declarations, but it is unusual. Handling register usage in this way probably allows for certain speed and size optimizations not possible if pointer results were returned in the same registers as char, int, and unsigned results. I first ran across this problem when porting programs compiled on UNIX, MS-DOS, and CP/M systems. Mention of this in the manual would have been helpful.

Conclusion

Eco-C88 is a high-quality package, particularly at its new price. It is comparable to systems costing much more. It is convenient to use, works well, and produces acceptably compact and fast programs. The compiler is rather strict in its adherence to the language as defined by Kernighan and Ritchie, almost authoritarian for a C compiler.

A few elements do annoy me, mostly in the area of compiler error handling. Also, because of the large number of passes involved, the compiler spends a lot of time reading and writing disk files. It might be nice to be able to examine assembly-language output occasionally, but 1 have not really missed it. You cannot easily use the system to create programs that manipulate huge amounts of data in memory because only the small memory model is supported, allowing 64K-byte programs and 64K-byte data segments. However, all in all I am more than satisfied. ■

EcoC88: An Update

Since the evaluation of Eco-C88 by David D. Clark, Ecosoft has made a number of revisions to its C compiler. The version now available is 2.81, as opposed to the 1.55 version reviewed.

The C library has been split into three separate libraries to provide support as needed. These files are ECOC.LIB (standard C functions), ECOT.LIB (transcendental math support), and ECOM.LIB (expanded memory support). The standard library. ECOC.LIB, has more functions, such as fgetc and fputc. The memory library, ECOM.LIB. lets you address outside of 64 K bytes of data memory, but it does not support large models.

The cc utility has more options, some that are documented in a new manual, some in a README.DOC file.

The -a option, where supplied to the cc utility or the assembler-pass module XASM.EXE. produces human-readable assembly-code files. The MS-DOS assembler, MASM, can read these files.

Error messages can be directed to an output file using the -e<filename> option, and the line numbers for the error messages are accurate. In addition, enumerated data typing is supported.

A paperback book has replaced the loose-leaf binder for the new Eco-C88 manual.

314 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

If you look at the picture below this paragraph, you will note that the connector has holes going in. It's a female. If it had copper pins sticking out, it would be a male. Now wasn't that simple?

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By Drew Kaplan

Hats off to Hayes. They've just about written the book on specs and protocol for the 1 200 baud modem market.

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There's even a new book that lists and describes such diverse data bases as one with 6500 references about coffee, to one with 2,000,000 on agriculture.

Of course, economics, medicine, law and computers are all well represented. THE TECHNICAL SIDE OR, WHY 1200 BAUD?

The ADC Modem will communicate at 1200 baud (about 120 characters per second) or 300 baud (about 30 characters per second) automatically, depending on the link at the other end.

So, it's clearly a decision of money and time. 1200 baud is roughly 400% faster than 300 baud, so if you transfer data across the country you save 40096 on your phone bill. And think of the time $1 69 can save you!

If you download material from pay data bases, even though some charge more for 1 200 baud, you still come out way ahead because of the amount of information you get per dollar.

It comes with a modular phone cord that you simply connect to any standard modular jack and it uses standard Bell 103 and 212A protocols. It operates in half or full duplex.

Its built-in microprocessors let you automatically answer in-coming data calls and act on all Hayes commands.

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Inquiry 13

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318 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 156

HARDWARE REVIEW

Inside The Sider

drive

by Douglas E. Hall

A hsrcl^disk °run my own '3usiness as a micro~

computer consultant for nonprofit 9. organizations, it was clear that I would need a hard disk for storing my wordlOr the processing, spreadsheet, database, and pro~ , 7Z ~ gram files, which filled more than 40 flop

Apple II + , He Py disks

A mailer 1 received from First Class Peripherals advertised a 10-megabyte harddisk system for Apple II computers. Called The Sider, it sold for only $695. Not only was the price right, but the company offered a 15-day trial period during which 1 could return it with no questions asked. That seemed unprecedented for a piece of sophisticated computer equipment.

The disk drive is about the size of a shoebox, measuring 7.5 by 3.5 by 16 inches. The well-padded package from First Class contained the drive, interface board, installation manual, cable, installation software, and miscellaneous hardware.

Installing the Hardware

Although I have degrees in electrical engineering and once designed and wirewrapped my own homebrew computer, that background was not adequate to help me determine the difference between an "anchor screw" and a "retaining screw," both of which were involved in installing the cable-clamp assembly to the back of my Apple lie. First Class could have made the task easier by including a few more diagrams of hardware-installation steps in the manual. It would also help to have a diagram showing and naming each part and noting whether it is for the Apple II+ , He. or both. Nevertheless, within 45 minutes I had the hardware connected. When the computer and disk were plugged in and turned on, the drive began to hum, and I figured I had at least approximated the correct cable installation.

Douglas E. Hall has B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He currently runs his own microcomputer consulting business. He can be contacted at MicroCraft. lane Road.

Chichester. NH 03263.

Installing Operating Systems

The Sider is partitioned to hold up to four operating systems: DOS 3.3, Pascal, Pro

DOS, and CP/M. You have to decide on the amount of disk space you want to set aside for each system, however, and then follow the step-by-step procedures in the manual. I installed only DOS 3.3 and CP/M. The "dynamic partitioning screen" for dividing the disk into sections for each operating system was confusing to use. Eventually it became clear that I had to adjust ProDOS for maximum partition size (even though I didn't need it at all) as a step along the way to dividing up the disk into CP/M and DOS 3.3 areas. That didn't make a lot of sense to me, but that's the way it had to be done.

In contrast to the Davong 1 5-megabyte hard disk, which I had used for nearly two years earlier. The Sider requires the entire disk to be partitioned during installation. You are not allowed to leave part of the disk undesignated as to operating system and assign it later when your actual need for space becomes more apparent. This forces you to make better estimates as to your space needs and could possibly cause problems later. In my case, if I decide next month that I want to install Pascal, there will be no hard-disk space available for Pascal files even though I may have lots of unused CP/M space. The only solution is to repartition the disk, install the operating system again, and then restore all the files to the disk from backup floppy disks. It would have been better to allow some of the disk space to remain unassigned until needed.

Once 1 had partitioned the disk, my next step was to break each partition into volumes as desired. Again the manual was not very satisfactory. It stated that "DOS is divided into small volumes (DOS-SV) and large volumes (DOS-LV)," without indicating what the actual sizes or limitations on use were for either. After I had guessed at what 1 might need, I was ready to format the disk and install my operating systems. I followed the manual meticulously and all went well. That isn't to say I understood all that was happening. For example, during the process

(continued)

JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 319

REVIEW: THE SIDER

AT A GLANCE

Name

The Sider

Type

10-megabyte external hard disk with controller card for Apple II +, lie

Company

First Class Peripherals Inc. 3579 Highway 50 East Carson City, NV 89701 (800) 538-1307 (702) 883-4000 in Nevada

Size

7.5 by 3.5 by 16 inches; 11 pounds

Necessary Hardware

Apple II + or lie with one floppy-disk drive, monitor, and 64K RAM

Necessary Software

One or more operating systems (DOS 3.3, CP/M, Pascal, or ProDOS)

Features

10 megabytes of formatted storage Options

A second Sider can be daisy-chained

Documentation

53-page installation manual

Price

$595

a lot of screens appeared with information on "Pre Comp Cycle," "Control Byte," "Interleave," "DOS Bounds," and other items meaningless to me. The manual explains these screens by saying, "A series of screens describing the boundaries of each partition are displayed next." It would seem to me that if these screens are important or useful enough to appear at all, then some explanation should be provided. If they are not useful to the user, then why display them?

After an hour, I had completed the software installation. I turned everything off and rebooted. The Sider worked perfectly. The main menu appeared on my screen and I was able to drop into CP/M or DOS or run a program from either a floppy-disk drive or from The Sider.

Utility Programs

The Sider manual lists, but does not explain, the various utility programs that are provided. It seemed logical to me to use the Backup/Restore utility to copy my floppy-disk volumes and files onto the hard disk. I couldn't get it to work; it kept telling me that my floppy disks were not "library volumes." The manual contains not a hint about what this utility expects.

A call to First Class Peripherals' tollfree telephone number resulted in a discussion with a technician who said that he was not sure of the purpose of the Backup/Restore utility. He sug

Photo l: Front view of The Sider harddisk drive.

gested that I use a different utility called Image Copy. He stated that First Class is preparing a user's manual to supplement the installation manual, that people who had bought The Sider would eventually receive a copy, but that no date had been set for its release. He also stated that he had only a handwritten set of engineering notes to use in assisting callers experiencing problems.

I used Image Copy and it worked well. It took 48 seconds to copy a l40K-byte DOS 3.3 floppy disk to a similar volume on the hard disk. (Don't make the mistake of using Image Copy in place of Apple's COPYA program to copy one floppy disk to another, however. COPYA requires l minute 28 seconds to complete that task; Image Copy requires more than 20 minutes.)

One especially handy utility is the Hard Disk Catalog. It automatically catalogs each DOS volume on the hard disk in sequence. It is extremely helpful in searching for a particular DOS 3.3 file. The program as provided was written in Applesoft, so I was able to make a simple modification to send the catalogs to the printer as well as to the screen.

One utility The Sider lacks is an import/export utility, which allows you to copy a file from one operating system to another. I need this to move text files from CP/M, where they were

[continued)

Photo 2: Rear view shows extra connection for daisy-chaining.

320 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 321

REVIEW: THE SIDER

Table 1: Benchmark comparisons for The Sider hard-disk system and Apple's DuoDisk floppy-disk system. (See the June 1984 BYTE, pages 334 and 336, for details.) The benchmark programs were written in Applesoft BASIC. They were executed on an Apple We running DOS 3.3 and having 128K bytes of memory.

The Sider Apple DuoDisk

Write a 64K-byte file 2:43 3:04

Read a 64K-byte file 3:03 3:35

Copy a 40K-byte file :31 1:32

created with dBASE II, to Apple DOS, where they will be used in a mailmerge routine. I'd pay $50 for such a utility. Is anybody at First Class listening?

NOISE

One final complaint: noise. This problem is not unique to The Sider, of course. All hard disks have some noise. But The Sider is not among the quietest of hard disks. I often find myself turning it off so I can hear myself think. Without some special noise insulation, it would be distracting in any office setting.

Speed

The Sider does its job. I've used it to rapidly create large database files for dBASE II under CP/M, which is something that was not possible with my floppy disks. The measurements that are given in table 1 show a com

parison of access times for floppy disks and The Sider.

Conclusion

1 give The Sider an A for price, performance, and ease of use; a C for ease of setup; a D for documentation (at least until the user's manual is released); and an A for First Class's policy of 15-day return and one-year warranty.

1 have necessarily dwelt on the problems 1 see with The Sider. But the best summary of my evaluation is the answer to the question, "Did 1 return The Sider to First Class at the end of the 15-day free trial period for the promised full refund?" Definitely not. For the very attractive price of $695, I am willing to live with The Sider's limitations. |Editor's note: The price has since fallen to $595.| ■

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322 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 254

BYTE • IANUARY 1986

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Inquiry 28

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 325

At NEC, monitors and printers are not peripheral issues.

All too often, brand-name CPUs are "bundled" with mediocre peripherals — a practice that makes for profitable sales, but does nothing for the system's performance.

' In Japan, where most computer peripherals are actually built, NEC is the largest personal computer company—by far. And NEC didn't make it to first place by offering second rate peripherals.

The monitors with the broadcast video heritage.

While dozens of companies market display monitors, only a handful possess the tube technology and manufacturing capability to actually build them. NEC is one of the few. In fact, NEC's complete line of color and monochrome monitors reflects the professional and broadcast video

expertise that twice earned NEC Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Winning the printer race takes both speed and endurance.

Ask people who really know about printers, and they'll tell you that NEC builds the best. They may also point out that NEC builds printers for other computer companies. And if you ask them to choose one word to sum up what makes NEC printers stand out, it will probably be "reliable." This is why NEC has become the printer of choice for the most demanding installations.

So before you buy a peripheral from any name company, make sure the company puts more into the peripheral than just its name.

PC-PR105A IBM PC PLUG COMPATIBLE TRI-MODE DOT MATRIX PRINTER

HARDWARE REVIEW

Advantage*, for the AT

Add-on

memory and I/O ports

for the IBM

PC AT

BY TJ Byers

T| Byers is the author of numerous books and articles on computers. His latest book is Inside the IBM PC AT [McGraw-Hill). You can contact him at 9411 Soledad Canyon Rd.. Canyon Country. CA 91351.

The architecture of the IBM PC AT's 16-bit-wide bus, although similar to that of the 8-bit-wide IBM PC bus, is different enough that standard IBM PC cards are not compatible with the AT in most cases. Consequently, a new generation of IBM enhancement products has been developed for this machine.

One of the more versatile multifunction boards for the AT is Advantage! from AST Research (see photo 1). Advantage!, which is among the first of the third-party products for the AT to appear on the market, closely resembles AST's SixPakPlus multifunction board for the IBM PC. Of course, there are differences.

First, you will notice that the AST clock/ calendar is absent. Since the PC AT has an internal clock and calendar, AST has not duplicated it. Second, you can load the Advantage! with almost 10 times as much RAM (random-access read/write memory) as a SixPakPlus.

Extra memory is really what the Advantage! is all about. The board's minimum memory configuration is 128K bytes of RAM, enough to take an enhanced IBM PC AT with 512 K bytes of memory up to the machine's lower limit of 640K bytes. (The PC AT can use 640K bytes of RAM in its 1-megabyte real-address-mode address space.)

But the IBM PC AT doesn't stop there, and neither does the Advantage! multifunction board. Using the AT's protected-mode memory configuration, Advantage! can contain up to 1.5 megabytes of RAM. This is extended RAM that resides above the normal 1 megabyte of real-address-mode memory-address space that the AT uses for routine operation. You can use this protected-mode memory space for RAM disks such as the IBM PC-DOS 3.0 VDISK utility or for multiuser operating systems like IBM's XENIX package.

If that isn't enough RAM for your needs, Advantage! accommodates a special piggyback memory module that attaches to the

board itself and extends the total on-board memory to 3 megabytes. This means that you can add a full 3 megabytes of RAM to your IBM PC AT while using a single expansion slot. Cascading more Advantage! boards, up to a maximum of five, results in 15 megabytes of protected-mode memory (the maximum the machine will accept). Furthermore, Advantage! offers several other memory-expansion options to meet your goal. You can choose either 64K-bit or 2 56K-bit RAM chips for maximum flexibility when upgrading your system's memory.

Memory-Addressing Capability

Memory addressing, the function of Advantage! that designates where extra memory appears in the machine's address space, is also flexible. The total on-board memory can be split to fill space in both the base (real-address-mode) memory system and the protected-mode memory area.

In other words, if your AT has 2 56K bytes of base memory and you add a 1.5-megabyte Advantage! board to your system, you can choose to put all 1.5 megabytes in the protected-memory area and leave the base memory alone. This decision results in a machine with 2 56K bytes of base RAM and 1.5 megabytes of extended memory for use as a RAM disk or for multiuser functions.

Or you can split the extra memory between the two modes. Through the use of DIP (dual in-line package) switches, you can fully load the base memory by sectioning off 384K bytes of the 1.5 megabytes for use as base memory. The maximum base RAM is 640K bytes of the assigned 1-megabyte address space (in this case, 256K original bytes plus 384K bytes added by addressing the Advantage! board). This leaves 1116K bytes, or 1.116 megabytes, for use as protected-mode memory.

Communications Ports

The Advantage! multifunction board also contains a serial communications port and

[continued]

JANUARY 1986 ■ BYTE 327

REVIEW: ADVANTAGE!

Photo !: The AST Advantage*, multifunction board for the IBM PC AT, showing sockets for up to 1.5 megabytes of RAM, memory-address DIP switches, and parallel-port, serial-port, and game-port connectors. Note the rows of vertical pins in front of the RAM socket area and immediately above the printed-circuit fingers; these are for connecting the optional add-on \.^-megabyte piggyback RAM board.

AT A GLANCE

Name

Advantage!

Company

AST Research Inc. 2121 Alton Ave. Irvine, CA 92714 (714) 863-1333

Computer

IBM PC AT

Features

Memory expandable to 1.5 megabytes on-board, memory expandable to 3 megabytes on-board with piggyback module; split memory-addressing capability; uses 64K- or 256K-bit memory chips; parallel printer port, serial RS-232C asynchronous port, and optional second serial port and game port

Documentation

75-page user's manual, tabbed function identification

Price

128K bytes of memory and

serial/parallel ports $595 3 megabytes of memory with

piggyback board and

serial/parallel ports $2395

a parallel communications port. The serial port is an RS-232C-compatible asynchronous communications port that you can use to provide a link between the AT and a modem, serial printer, mouse, or other serial device. Unlike on the IBM PC, which uses the industry-standard 2 5-pin DB-2 5 connector, Advantage!^ RS-232C port is interfaced via the 9-pin DB-9 connector that IBM is using as its new RS-232C standard. A second asynchronous serial port is offered as an option.

The parallel printer port is also standard on the Advantage! board. It performs exactly like any IBM parallel printer port, such as the one that comes on the IBM monochrome monitor, and can be used in conjunction with the AT's existing parallel port. The IBM PC AT can support three parallel ports, and you can configure Advantage! to respond to two of the three assigned addresses.

As a final option, you can install a game port. The game port is totally software-compatible with the IBM game adapter and you can use it with most joysticks. Due to a problem in the diagnostic program that accompanied some of the earlier AT ma

chines, the port might not always show up on the listing of installed devices. This causes no problem in the use of the game port, so ignore it.

Documentation

Probably Advantage!^ best feature is its documentation. It is clear, concise, and to the point. AST has broken down the operation of each function into a separate and extremely manageable chapter. The text is not overwhelming and the manual is well illustrated. The user's manual includes four appendixes that contain all possible switch settings and actual programs to modify or improve system performance. This is a welcome and noticeable improvement over some manuals I have used.

Priced at $595, Advantage! is a good buy with plenty of capability. Of course, prices increase as the number of memory chips you use increases, but that's to be expected. Advantage! lives up to everything it promises. I have used the Advantage! board for RAM disks and as extended memory with the XENIX operating system, and the results have been excellent. 1 highly recommend it for the serious AT user. ■

328 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

jri/ 2200 SERIES I Lr\ PORTABLE OSCILLOSCOPES

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You can't judge a scope by its cover.

When you look at our simplified, practical internal design, you see why the Tek 2200 Series delivers unparalleled high performance and reliability in the field. You get quality that's unmistakably Tektronix in scopes so advanced, they cost you less to buy and own.

Through an innovative new concept in scope design we reduced the number of mechanical parts by 65%. Reduced cabling by 90%. Virtually eliminated board electrical connectors. And eliminated the need for a cooling fan.

The result: a scope with designed-in simplicity that increases reliability as it cuts downtime and repair costs. All of which means outstanding value in

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Plus, you get a selection of performance to precisely match your needs. There are the 60 MHz single time base delay 2213A at $1275* and the 60 MHz dual time base 2215A at $1525* And at 100 MHz, the dual time base 2235 at $1750* and the 2236 with an integrated counter/timer/ multimeter at $2650*

The industry's first three-year warranty! is testimony to 2200 Series dependability. Adding value to value are a variety of optional service plans that can economically extend this coverage to five years.

Consider what you're paying

now in downtime, in service, in back-up scopes. On the bottom line, a Tek 2200 Series scope will save you money, time and trouble now and in the years to come.

Contact your Tek Sales Engineer for a demo today. Or call 1-800-426-2200, Ext. 201. In Oregon, call collect: (503) 627-9000, Ext. 201.

Tektronix

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

Inquiry 351

"PricesF.O.B. Beaverton, Oregon

t3-year warranty includes CRT and applies io 2200

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Copyright © 1985, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. TTA-517-1 Prices subject to change.

250000customers made usdoitTheWYSEpc.

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Inquiry 388 I I

WYSE

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

Powerful, but not quite ready and able

by Steve King

Steve King is a program analyst for the state of California and a parttime writer and consultant. When not working with computers, he enjoys equestrian activities. He can be reached at 1762 5 Rancho de Oro. Ramona, CA 92065.

Enable

Enable, a $695 integrated software package from The Software Group, would appear to be ideal for certain applications on the IBM Personal Computer. Imagine, for example, writing a guide to restaurants and restrooms in your area. You could use Enables word processor to write the text for the guide, its database manager to assemble the data, its spreadsheet to track the associated expenses and income of the project, and its communications module to transmit the finished manuscript to the typesetter. Throughout the project, Enable's window-management capabilities would apparently let you easily keep an eye on all these functions. You could even use Enable to prepare some charts and insert these into the text.

Unfortunately, an actual test of the software with such a project revealed several deficiencies in Enable. Of course, I used version 1.0. After I wrote this article. The Software Group released Enable 1.1, which is said to include some enhancements. No doubt this new version will fix many of the deficiencies 1 found. In the meantime, I will report on the software as I, and perhaps many customers, received it. | Editor's note: The new version of Enable does indeed fix many of these deficiencies. See the text box "Enable 1.1" on page 334 for some notes on the new version.|

Enable 1.0 comes on three disks: a system disk, an operation disk, and a tutorial/data disk (the new version comes on four disks). I evaluated the program with a Compaq Deskpro containing 640K bytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory) and two floppy-disk drives. Since Enable requires frequent disk swapping on a floppydisk system, I recommend using a hard disk. By the time I finished this review, I was quite burned out by Enable, partially because of so much disk swapping. Not only do the program's many overlay files require frequent disk changes, but The Software Group also employs a copy-protection scheme that checks drive A occasionally to verify the presence of a bona fide system

disk, even if you're running Enable from a hard disk. Fortunately, the new version of Enable is not copy-protected.

Enable's maintenance plan, which includes toll-free telephone support and free updates for a period of one year, costs $95.

In addition to a spiral-bound manual for each of its five modules (word processor, spreadsheet, database manager, communications, and overall system control), a getting-started booklet, a quick-reference guide, and a small binder of helpful hints, Enable comes with a large keyboard overlay that gives the word-processing and telecommunications commands on one side and the spreadsheet and database-management commands on the other. The Software Group has written all the documentation as a tutorial, which makes it difficult when you just want to look up something, even though the manuals contain extensive indexes.

Integration and Control

When you first start Enable, you proceed through a series of menus to your desired function. The software creates a border that displays messages. This border limits the display to a 78-column width.

Enable boots into the Master Control Module (MCM), which integrates Enable's functions. The MCM also controls windowing, file handling, extensive macro capabilities, and a profile of the hardware in your system.

The MCM duplicates most of the operating-system file-manipulation commands. The module lets you select, copy, rename, and erase files from a single menu. However, the MCM doesn't display files that were not created by Enable. The MCM also prevents you from accidentally erasing Enable's system files.

After you choose a profile, the MCM lets you select one of the four applications modules: word processing, spreadsheet/ graphics, telecommunications (Telecom),

[continued]

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 331

REVIEW: ENABLE

Name

Enable 1.0

TVpe

Integrated software package

Company

The Software Group Northway 10, Executive Park Ballston Lake, NY 12019 (518) 877-8600

Format

Three 51/i-inch double-sided floppy disks, MS-DOS 2.0 format

Computer

IBM PC or compatible with at least 256K bytes of memory and two floppy-disk drives; hard-disk drive suggested

Features

Word processing, spreadsheet, database management, graphics, windows, macros, communications, context-sensitive help

Documentation

Five 7- by 9-inch spiral-bound manuals, approximately 150 pages each, three pamphlets, and one keyboard overlay

Price

$695

and database-management system (DBMS)/graphics. Then it helps you choose the file you wish to process. If you don't remember a file's name, enter a question mark and the MCM takes you to the file-control menu. To select the file you want, move the cursor to it and press the enter key.

The Software Group gave Enable's MCM impressive macro capabilities (the ability to execute stored keystroke sequences, including data entry and commands). You can tell Enable to record keystrokes for playback later or, once you have learned Enable's macro language, you can create macro files with the word processor. The Enable disks contain extensive tutorials that impressively demonstrate use of the macro powers.

Word Processing

I tried Enable's word-processing function first and it almost soured me on the rest of the program. When the word processor starts up, you must set your document margins each time you start a new file.

Next, Enable assumes you want a title page for every new document you create. However, you can move the cursor down past the title page and start entering your text. You can also type the key sequence F9-0-N-T to delete the title page.

The series of keystrokes necessary to delete the title page typifies one of Enable's big problems: In general, the commands are too complicated and require too much moving about the keyboard for easy learning. For example, F2 with the up-arrow and P keys takes you to the beginning of a paragraph; F2-P takes you to the end. Most cursor commands start with F2; most text-manipulation commands begin with F9.

You can also access most text-manipulation commands from a series of menus that the software displays at the top of the screen when you press F10. Since you can't access all commands (such as the title-page command) from the menus, you must frequently refer to the keyboard overlay or the manuals. The overlay is printed in very small type and contains rather

cryptic explanations. It was frequently difficult to locate the keystroke sequence I wanted. Usually I resorted to thumbing the pages of the quickreference guide.

Since the menu command sequences are not similar to the keyboard command sequences, the menus do not help you learn the keyboard commands. In fact, I found that this dissimilarity impeded my learning process. For example, when inserting a page break from the menus, you press F10-L-4; when using keyboard commands, you press F9-Ins-M-P. The Software Group should take a lesson from Mark of the Unicorn and use the same keystroke sequence for menu and keyboard command entry. Mark of the Unicorn's The Final Word brings up a menu if you pause after the command-initializing keystroke or lets you enter the command uninterrupted if you know the correct keystroke sequence.

Despite its clumsy, confusing command structure, the Enable word processor contains almost the same capabilities you'd find in The Final Word, WordPerfect, or WordStar 2000. This program can create headers and footers, tables of contents, indexes, and footnotes. The Enable word processor also has a mail-merge function and can perform extensive boilerplate text manipulation using MCM macros.

However, I had several reformatting problems when I edited my text. The program refused to move a small block of words from one place on a line to another place on that same line.

Sometimes when I deleted or moved a block of text, the software left two spaces in the place from which the block came. Since I couldn't persuade Enable to delete either of the spaces, I was left with two spaces between the remaining words.

If I inserted words into the middle of a sentence, thus forcing the endof-sentence mark (usually a period) and the two spaces before the next sentence to wrap to the next line, the software dropped one of the two spaces. I had to manually reinsert

(continued)

332 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Want to hear a demonstration of Hewlett-Packard's Thinkjet Printer?

REVIEW: ENABLE

another space to maintain the proper distance between sentences.

The word processor uses its own format for storing files on disks, but it can also store files in ASCII. Volkswriter, EasyWriter, and WordStar file formats. Enable is also supposed

to be able to read those other formats. However, when I tried to get Enable to read the BYTE standard word-processor benchmark file, a 40-paragraph ASCII file, it would read only the first line. I used a publicdomain utility to convert the bench

mark file to WordStar format, but the Enable word processor still would read only the first paragraph of that format.

Database Management

Of Enable's functions, 1 found the database-management system and the spreadsheet to be the most logical and the easiest to use. The DBMS module contains almost all the capabilities of popular middleweight database managers such as dBASE II or Condor 3. However, Enable allows the use of, but not yet the merging of, multiple data files. Although the Enable DBMS module doesn't contain a built-in programming language, as dBASE II and Condor 3 do, the MCM's macro capabilities combined with Enable's report language let you design sophisticated data-management programs, such as general ledgers or inventory-control modules.

The Enable DBMS can read dBASE II data files directly. Since The Software Group also provides a utility program. Convert, that translates ASCIIformat data files to Enable format, the Enable DBMS can use files created by almost any other database program. I imported a 1260-record mailing list into Enable that Condor 3 had created. I simply told Condor 3 to store the file with fixed-length fields in ASCII format and then used Convert to finish the conversion process.

Each record in an Enable database file can have up to 32 fields (like dBASE II and Condor 3) of entered data or up to 113 fields containing data that is derived or calculated from the entered data. However, each record is limited to 2000 characters.

With Enable, you design a database with a series of menus that lets you specify the type and limits for each field. The software lets you specify an amazing number of details about the limitations for each field, including whether data is entered from the keyboard, derived from another database or from another field, or copied from the operating system.

Next, Enable helps you design the data-entry forms for each database.

{continued)

Enable 1.1

by Rich Malloy

The new version of Enable corrects many, but not all. of the deficiencies reported by Steve King.

Enable now comes on four floppy disks (utility, system, operation, and tutorial/data) that you must frequently swap in and out of disk drive A. All the disks are copyable, but an Install routine mentioned in the manual does not seem to work. Also, the disk-swap prompt is an irritating sound.

The new word processor can now handle text lines longer than 78 columns (up to approximately 160 columns). To help you set margins, a small window in the screen's lower right corner indicates which column the cursor is in. Also, if a reformatting operation leaves an extra space between words, you can delete the extra space with the Del key. You can turn off the automatic creation of a title page for each new document by changing your system profile. Finally, Enable can read ASCII files fairly easily.

The database manager can now easily merge data files.

The updated spreadsheet offers variable formats from 256 rows by 2 56 columns to 4095 rows by 15 columns. The spreadsheet can also easily read and recalculate Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets.

The telecommunications module now lets you set up a wide range of communications parameters. It also can do simple auto-log-on procedures. However, this module still has a few simple problems. For example, it stores your desired parameters on the utility disk, but the operation disk looks for these parameters on your data disk.

Some items were not mentioned by Steve King. Enable does not currently support printers made by Star Micronics, C. Itoh, or Mannesmann Tally. No provision lets you modify Enable for

additional unsupported printers. When I set up Enable for an Epson MX-80, connected an IBM PC to a Star Micronics Gemini printer, and told the system to print, it locked up irretrievably.

The word processor seems to contain other shortcomings. Copying a block of text seems to cause some paragraph indentation in the block to be lost. And for some reason, the backspace key functions as a reverse space bar: it blanks out the character to the left but does not delete the space. You can change this to a normal backspace function by adjusting your system profile, but the backspace key sometimes reverts to its default behavior for no apparent reason.

Finally, in the system-profile section, you apparently cannot change that part of your system profile that refers to your modem.

After a brief test, I would judge the updated product to be much closer to its advertised claims than the version used by Steve King. Note that because of the extensive disk swapping required, I would discourage Enable's use on floppy-disk systems. Also, like Mr. King, I would have preferred that the publisher had made Enable's menu and command sequences identical. Finally, some procedures, such as Install and the one to set up a particular modem, do not seem to work.

All in all, on a hard-disk system and for certain applications requiring several different functions, Enable appears to be a viable, if somewhat idiosyncratic, product.

Rich Malloy is the New York editor for BYTE. He can be reached at BYTE, McGraw-Hill, 43rd Floor, 1221 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10020.

334 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

, Wjntto. „ hear it again?

You made about as much noise turning the page as the

Thinkjet Printer makes turning one out. So it lets you do two things at once. Print. And think. Without sound hoods. Without remote printing stations. Without aspirin. (And without a lot of clutter. The only thing

smaller than the Thinkjet Printer is its price: $495?) Better still, it works with just about every personal computer. Hear the Thinkjet Printer sound off. Call (800) FOR-HPPC, Dept.276X, for the Hewlett-Packard dealer nearest you.

HEWLETT PACKARD

Inquiry 158

*U.S. list pricu. PG02511

L..

INTO VITAL SIMlSnCS.

Data. You live with it every day. What you need are the tools to make it come alive. Comprehensive analytical tools. Mathematical precision. And graphics capabilities to broaden your insights—to help you visualize, analyze, and communicate your findings quickly and convincingly.

And now you've got it. With STATGRAPHICS -a new PLUS*WARE™ product from STSC. STATGRAPHICS is the only PC software to fully integrate a wide variety of statistical functions with highresolution color graphics. Giving you the power and precision you used to find only with mainframe software.

STATGRAPHICS' unique interactive environment allows you to generate graphs from within the statistical procedures. You can change a variable and see the effect — immediately. So your job is easier and you're more productive.

MORE OPTIONS FOR MORE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS.

STATGRAPHICS features over 250 functions for analyzing data— including analysis of variance, regression analysis, experimental design, quality control procedures, multivariate techniques, nonparametric methods, and extensive forecasting and time series analysis.

It also lets you enter data at the keyboard or access data stored in standard ASCII files, LOTUS® 1-2-3 worksheets, and DIF files used by other popular software packages.

TELL A CLEARER, MORE DRAMATIC STORY.

STATGRAPHICS includes a wide variety of graphics programs such as two and three-dimensional line and surface plots, bar and pie charts, histograms, time sequence plots, and quality control charts.

The graphics are supported on color and monochrome graphics boards, dot-matrix printers, and pen plotters for presentation quality graphics.

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STATGRAPHICS is completely menu-driven, and includes a comprehensive user's guide, online HELP screens, tutorial, and handy reference card. And STSC's HELP-Line is only a phone call away—giving you ready access to our staff of technical experts. TAKE A LOOK AT STATGRAPHICS.

AND LOOK NO FURTHER.

STATGRAPHICS is the most advanced statistical graphics software available for PC's. And the complete system is just $695.

To order STATGRAPHICS, or for more information, contact your local dealer or call 800-592-0050 (in Maryland, 301-984-5123). Or write STSC, Inc., 2115 E. Jefferson St., Rockville, MD 20852. Major credit cards accepted.

Inquiry 340

Problem-solving at the speed of thought.

STATGRAPHICS operates on IBM PC's and compatibles under DOS, Version 2.0 or later. A minimum of 384K RAM, a graphics adapter and compatible monitor, and two «9 I double-sided disk drives or a hard disk are required. An 8087 math coprocessor and 512K RAM are recommended.

a Cornel Company STATGRAPHICS is a registered trademark of Statistical Graphics Corporation. PLUS* WARE is a trademark of STSC, Inc. LOTUS is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation.

Inquiry 312

REVIEW: ENABLE

While designing an entry form, you can access the word-processing module to add text enhancements that give instructions to the data-entry person. You can also specify a verification method that requires entering a particular field twice when accuracy is important.

Finally, the DBMS module lets you design reports in almost the exact way that you design data-entry forms. However, The Software Group also has included a rudimentary programming language for creating reports in Enable. Using the word processor, you can construct a report with a series of dot commands (words preceded by a period, or dot). The report language contains .if, .elseif, .else, .exit, and .endif commands to handle conditional situations.

When you are not designing a new database, you can bypass the DBMS menu and enter direct commands to the software as you do when using the word-processing module. The F9 key initiates these commands but, once again, no relationship exists between the menu command sequence and the keyboard command sequence.

Spreadsheet

Since I don't own Lotus 1-2-3, I borrowed a friend's copy for comparing it to the Enable spreadsheet. Enable's spreadsheet looks like 1-2-3 and has a similar command structure, but it offers a maximum worksheet size of only 255 rows by 2 5 5 columns. However, my friend, who is much more of a spreadsheet expert than 1 am, believes Enable's spreadsheet size is more than adequate for most uses.

Since I normally use the Report Manager spreadsheet from Datamension (Northbrook, Illinois), which allows 2 56 pages of spreadsheets as well as 2 56 rows and 2 56 columns per page, 1 found both the Enable spreadsheet and 1-2-3 somewhat limiting. Report Manager's third dimension (pages) lets you generate multiple related spreadsheets, such as a budget page for each month of a year.

The Software Group incorporated

(continued)

. "If it weren't for Harris-Lanier..."

"We wouldn't be speaking to each other.

iMinr

FDR YOUR INFORMATION, OUR NAME IS

HARRIS

For more details on how Harris-Lanier can get your PCs to share information, call 1-800-241-1706.

3) HARRIS |

Inquiry 200

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 337

Most software companies would call it a stroke of luck if they designed a system so effective, it became the small business favorite.

We call it a stroke of genius.

CYMA

McGRAW-HILL

800-292CYMA

Inquiry 187

REVIEW: ENABLE

most typical spreadsheet capabilities in Enable, such as range commands and global formatting. Enable also has many mathematical functions, including business functions (eg., amortization payments and internal rate of return), scientific functions (e.g., sine and cosine), and logical/conditional functions (e.g., choose, if, true, and false). The Enable 1.0 spreadsheet can also save files in 1-2-3, VisiCalc, and DIF formats, but strangely enough cannot read files in those formats.

Graphing

Both the database and spreadsheet modules let you design graphics images on the video screen if your PC has graphics capabilities.

Enable can create vertical bar graphs in two and three dimensions, as well as pie charts and line graphs. 1 found Enables graphs much easier to format and print than those created by 1-2-3, Report Manager, and Condor Graf, You can design various levels of titles for graphs and embellish them with nine different fonts.

Telecommunications

Enables telecommunications module is its weakest point. It requires even more disk swapping than the others and has some severe bugs. For example after you choose Telecom from the main MCM menu, Enable lets you select Communicate or Setup. Setup supposedly lets you change communications parameters. When I tried to use Setup, however, the program beeped repeatedly and instructed me to insert the tutorial/data disk. Enable never accepted the disk asked for and, thus, never let me change the communications setup.

I did manage to convince Enable to communicate by using the Communicate selection to access the program's terminal mode. 1 called a bulletinboard system and tried to download a public-domain program using the XMODEM error-checking protocol. Unfortunately, after you tell Enable to receive a file using XMODEM, the program prompts you to swap a disk before it begins to receive the file.

[continued]

WRITE TURBO PASCAL APPLICATIONS FAST WITH

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For more details on how Harris-Lanier can get your PCs to share information, call 1-800-241-1706.

2) HARRIS |

■*— Inquiry 94 for End-Users.

Inquiry 95 for DEALERS ONLY.

Inquiry 201

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 339

MICROWAY'S 8087 RUNS 1-2-3"!

MicroWay is the world's leading retailer of 8087s and high performance PC upgrades We stock a complete selection of 8087s that run at 5 and 8mhz. All of ou r coprocessors are sh i pped with a diagnostic disk and the best warranty in the business - one year! We also offer daughterboards for socketless computers such as the NEC PC and PCjr, and a board which increases the clock speed of the 80287 from 4 to 8 mhz. Our NUMBER SMASHER" includes512Kram.ltwillrunthelBM PC at clock speeds up to 10mhz and achieves a throughput of .1 megaflops

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87FFT-2'" performs two-dimensional FFTa Ideal for image processing Requires 87FFT $100

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FORTRAN, C and BASIC

Microsoft Fortran Version 3.3 $229

IBM Professional Fortran 545

Ryan-McFarland Fortran 399

FORLIB+ or STRINGS and THINGS 65

Lattice C or Microsoft C Version 3.0 299

FLOAT87 150

IBM Basic Compiler Version 2.0 445

Microsoft Quick Basic 89

Summit BetterBASIC™ 175

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IBM Assembler with Librarian V. 2.0 155

Microsoft Assembler Version 3.01 125

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Microsoft Pascal Version 3.3 199

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STATGRAPHICS 595

COSMOS Revelation 750

Phoenix Plink86 295

SPSS/PC 595

FASTBREAK and NUMBER SMASHER are trademarks ol MicroWay, Inc Lotus and 1 -2-3 are trademarks ol Lotus Development Corp.

340 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 208

REVIEW: ENABLE

After it has received the file. Enable prompts you for another disk swap before it returns to the terminal mode.

After three attempts, the publicdomain program I downloaded would not run. Yet, when 1 downloaded the same program with another communications package, the public-domain software worked properly.

A Test

To put Enable to a good test, I used a data-entry-and-report form that my coworkers and 1 designed for collecting restaurant and restroom data in our area for use in a "restaurant and restroom survival manual." I originally designed two similar databases, one for restaurants and one for restrooms. But after some experimenting, I learned that the menu command allowing the merging of two databases was not yet implemented. So, 1 entered both types of facilities into a single database, using a true/false conditional field to differentiate between a restaurant and a restroom.

Next, I spent about 12 hours entering the data for the survival manual. Then 1 used the Enable word processor for several more hours to write a witty preface. Finally, with the Enable word-processing module running and the preface on the screen, 1 pressed F10 to access the program's command menu. It offered me a number of choices. I chose DBMS to integrate the restaurant and restroom database with my text. That's when Enable told me: "Function will be available in first Enable update."

Of course, maybe it was my own fault. I hadn't read anything about using that particular menu command in any of the manuals. Fortunately, the documentation did offer another method for combining the two files.

Following the manual's instructions, I rebooted the word processor with the preface text. With the MCM, I switched windows and ran the database module. 1 used the display command to access my database. It showed the database on the screen with each record occupying one line. However, if a database were to con

{continued)

What's in a Name...

BetterBASIC" is just what it sounds like. Better than the BASIC you got with your PC. What's better about it? Just about everything.

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BetterBASIC Runtime System. 8087/80287 Math Module, and Btrieve" Interface also available Call Lifeboat about BetterBASIC and our extensive collection of professional development systems.

Lifeboat and Lileboat logo are trademarks of Lifeboat Associates Bel lerBASIC, Runtime System. 8087/80287 Math Module and Btrieve Interface are trademarks of Summit Software Technology.

For immediate delivery or more information, call: 1-800-847-7078 In NY: (212) 860-0300 or write LIFEBOAT" ASSOCIATES

1651 Third Avenue New York, NY 10128

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"We 're really getting some mileage out of the PCs

now that they're sharing information." "Harris-Lanier sure steered us

Inquiry 202

JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 341

I ALWAYS GET THE BEST

OF BOTH!

X

TURNOVER"

"Wireless file transfer" between IBM PC and APPLE II disk. Read, write and format APPLE II disks in your IBM t disk drive. Transfer any disk 1 file from APPLE to IBM, or from IBM to APPLE. No serial cables, no modems, no hassles and no problems.

The TURNOVER board plugs into any slot of your IBM PC, XT and some IBM compatible computers, supplied with special software running under PC-DOS or MS-DOS. TURNOVER will read, write and format APPLE-DOS 3.3, APPLE CP/M, Pro-Dos, APPLE pSystem and Apple III SOS disks in your IBM.

TURNOVER is a fast and simple alternative to complicated modem and serial links for file transfer.

XENO-COPY PLUS " 4.0

The latest release of an award-winning software utility. "Wireless tile transfer" between IBM PC and most other disk formats. Read, write and format 220 different disks in your IBM disk drive. Transfer any disk file from your "other" computer

to IBM, or from IBM to your i "other" computer. Eliminates

L slow, complicated serial links. -. 'jj, * XENO-COPY PLUS reads, U" XJ/vn,es and formats 40 and 80 'f Mack 5'A" disks as well as fjjt 3'A " disks. Transfer files from wy- CP/M, MP/M. XENO-COPY <t PLUS even handles non-IBM

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XENO-DISK offers all the capabilities and features of XENO-COPY PLUS. In addition, XENO-DISK will read, write and format 8" disk formats. Eight different 8" formats are supported including 3741 and CP/M. An optional 5" and 8" disk controller card is also available.

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' 1985 VERTEX SYSTEMS, INC.

•TURNOVER. XENO-COPY PLUS, XENO-DISK are registered trademarks of Vertex Systems, Inc., IBM PC: XT, and PC-DOS are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, APPLE is a

registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc., MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation, CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc.

Inquiry 410 for End-Users. Inquiry 411 for DEALERS ONLY.

Inquiry 209

REVIEW: ENABLE

tain more than 78 characters per record, the program would let you scroll as far right as necessary to view the entire record, similar to a spreadsheet. Since my database contained two comment fields (for directions and comments) of 127 characters each, my records scrolled a long way to the right of the screen window.

Still following instructions, 1 marked the whole database as a block and returned to the word-processing window. I told Enable to move the block into my text. The program carried out my command, but each record extended to the right beyond the wordprocessor screen window.

Unfortunately, the word processor could not scroll to the right. When I tried to scroll to the right to look at the results, my PC locked up and 1 had to reboot and repeat the procedures. Then 1 tried to reformat the database, but that didn't work either and, after several tries, my computer froze again.

I finally gave up on Enable for the survival-manual project.

Summary

As all reviewers do after completing their projects, I'm returning Enable to BYTE along with this review (needless to say, 1 did not write it with the Enable word processor). I am totally disenchanted with Enables awkward, difficult-to-learn command structure and unimplemented features.

Software manufacturers encounter enormous costs and delays as they develop their products. However, 1 don't believe consumers should be forced to endure bugs and unimplemented features such as I found in Enable 1.0.

Enable is a powerful program and probably the most successful attempt so far at a single software package that integrates the most common uses for microcomputers: word processing, database management, spreadsheets, and communications. Although I've heard version 1.1 is better, 1 found Enable 1.0 not quite ready and able because it is plagued by bugs, incomplete functions, and a clumsy disk-swapping scheme, a

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Inquiry 279

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 343

REVIEW FEEDBACK

TOSHIBA PI340

1 have become a bit puzzled about the reviews for printers in BYTE the past year or so, particularly after purchasing a Toshiba PI 340 printer.

The review of the Epson LQ-1500 (BYTE, December 1984, page 293) gives a sample of print from the PI 340 that was made with a printer that was not working properly (see Maxim Smith's letter in Review Feedback, May 1985, page 299). The same is true of reviews of the IBM Quietwriter (June 1985, page 385) and the P1340 itself (October 1985, page 305). The print samples from the PI 340 in all three of these reviews were done with PI 340 printers that were not working properly.

When 1 got my PI340,1 was warned that it was common for the flexible cable from the printer body to the print head to work loose, or partly loose, and that I would need to be sure that it was securely connected. Until 1 did this, my printer did not print properly.

Whatever the cause, the PI 340 can (and should) print better than the examples shown in BYTE. Reviews of the PI 340 should warn buyers about the possibility of loose cable connection, or whatever causes the problem.

Dennis P. McGuire Minneapolis, MN

I want to compliment your review of the Toshiba PI340 printer. 1 was particularly impressed that the reviewer, Rich Malloy, accurately reported the machine's usable fonts, rather than repeating the erroneous specifications advertised by Toshiba.

It should be emphasized to your readers that this machine does not have a usable letter-quality font at 12 characters per inch, despite the fact that Toshiba implies such a font in its advertising and in the user's manual for the PI340. In fact, my experience with Toshiba after purchasing a PI 340 suggests a disdain on the part of Toshiba for its customers; this might be of interest to any of your readers contemplating the purchase of a Toshiba printer.

Readers should know that an executive of the company told me that since I had purchased the printer from a discount house, at a below-list price, I had no right to expect Toshiba to accept return of the

printer. Had 1 purchased the machine from an authorized, "full-price" dealer, Toshiba would have accepted a return.

Altogether, my experience with the Toshiba PI340 was very unsatisfactory. That is too bad, because in many respects it is a very nice printer. My advice is to look for a manufacturer that has some regard for its customers and for the integrity of its advertising.

Eugene H. Levy Tucson, AZ

Deskpro Graphics

In the August 1985 Review Feedback (page 283), Bryan Mumford made a note that the Compaq Deskpro will not run any of the popular graphics cards, such as the Hercules card. This is not quite the case. The monitor supplied with the standard Deskpro will not run on these cards.

When I saw this letter, 1 went to the local Micro Mart; they assured me that the Deskpro will run these cards. 1 have seen Deskpros running a Sigma Color Design 400 with a Princeton Graphic Systems SR-12 Monitor. They also claim that they have sold Deskpros with Tecmar Graphics Master cards and several other graphics cards, but not with the Deskpro monitor. One suggestion to Mr. Mumford: See if the Princeton Scan Doubler will work with the Compaq Graphics Adapter; that will give you 640 by 400 resolution on the Compaq monitor.

Andrew Bowen Bethel Park, PA

Stearns Desktop

The review of the Stearns Desktop Computer (October 1985, page 264) by Wayne Rash Jr. mentioned some severe problems without correctly identifying the causes.

Though I left Stearns in May 1985,1 was the hotline support specialist who answered Mr. Rash's telephone questions and inspected the Stearns computer after he returned it. The computer he used for the review was in BYTE's possession for over a year and had been visibly damaged in one (or more) of the three (or was it four?) shipments that BYTE arranged for the computer. The unit had been dropped so hard that the hardened plastic case cracked, freeing the case's re

taining screws. One of these loose screws lodged under the main computer board (affecting the keyboard interface), a second was found in the power supply, and the third was near the disk controller. When the screws were removed, the keyboard and disk drives functioned perfectly. Few electronic devices function well (if at all) when shorted.

Perhaps, in retrospect, 1 should have been more insistent about shipping a replacement unit. After all. the first dealer service provided to Mr. Rash was removal of a piece of the plastic case from the interior of the floppy-disk drive. He repeatedly refused my offers to send a unit directly from the factory—an admirable attempt by BYTE to maintain continuity and integrity, but a mistake in this case.

Carol L. Jahnke Bloomington, MN

For the most part. Ms. Jahnke's reply may accurately reflect the condition of the computer when it arrived in the Stearns offices. 1 did not notice any severe damage to the machine when I had it, but it was shipped twice more after that. I should note, however, that I would have expected the local service representative to bring such damage to my attention during one of his numerous visits. Since the service rep said nothing, I had to assume that the machine was in optimum operating order.

I should also add that Ms. /ahnke was the model of patience and helpfulness during the time I had the computer. 1 wish that other computer companies would staff their hotlines with people like her.

Finally, let me add that even had the machine operated flawlessly, my findings as to the utility of the machine, its level of compatibility, and the level of documentation would still stand and would still lead me to make the same recommendation as to its desirability.

—Wayne Rash Jr. ■

REVIEW FEEDBACK is a column o/ readers letters. We welcome responses that support or challenge BYTE reviews. Send letters to Review Feedback. BYTE Publications, POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449. Name and address must be on all letters.

344 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

Chic.

Seldom are computers thought of as beautiful.

But out of every thousand, there is always one that catches the eye. Such acomputer is the stunning new WS-1.

The audition starts when you open the flip-top of this intriguing portable. Switch on, and the WS-1 becomes a wordprocessor, a spreadsheet, a database, or a graphics tool.

Stay in touch, widi the WS-1 's built-in autodial modem, speaker phone, and cassette mechanism. Send files, take calls, or even run the WS-1 as an answering machine!

See us

at the COMDEX Show in Atlanta, Georgia, April 28 to May 1, 1986

The WS-1 offers some surprises inside too. Such as a powerful 16/32-bit 68000 microprocessor, ROM-based multitasking Operating System, and APL interpreter. Or features like the high-contrast 25 X 80 bit-mapped graphics LCD, RAM expansion up to 512K, and optional 3.5-inch microfloppy disk drives.

All this power comes in a sleek footprint of only 11X13 inches. We think you'll agree that the WS-1 really is one out of a thousand.

□mpEPE

Inquiry 19

FOR DISTRIBUTORSHIP INFORMATION AND PRODUCT DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT:

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Telefax: 03- 5fi5-OW. Tde (Group Code APLWS).

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BYTE

Kernel

Computing at Chaos Manor: One Minor Problem

by \erry Pournelle 349

Chaos Manor Mail

conducted by )erry Pournelle 366

According to Webster: Benchmarking

by Bruce Webster 371

BYTE Japan: Favoring Kanji

by William M. 'Mike 381

BYTE U.K.: The Acorn RISC Machine

by Dick Pountain 387

Mathematical Recreations: Euclid s Algorithm

by Robert T. Kurosaka 397

Circuit Cellar Feedback

conducted bu Steve Garcia 403

One minor problem. That's all it was—nothing more. We've all had them. In fact, most of us have them every day. In Jerry's case, however, the one minor problem kept going on and on and on. It just happened to be the day before Friday the 13th. Although it turned out to be a day that Jerry would not care to relive, he did learn some lessons from it and still has the highest praise for what personal computers can do.

With the big move to Utah finally completed, Bruce Webster feels that he is ready to start working again. This month's According to Webster deals largely with the subject of benchmarks. Bruce discusses what characteristics they should have, how to interpret them, and factors other than performance you should consider. He also makes a number of predictions for 1986 and promises to review them at the end of the year.

This month in BYTE Japan, Bill Raike focuses on the new NEC computers in the PC-9801 series, which no longer have the 8086 but are quite a bit faster. Another new Japanese product that Bill reports on is the long-awaited Japanese-language version of the Macintosh and some software that comes with it. It is the result of the linkup between Apple and Canon and is actually a kanji-character ROM board that's been piggybacked onto the main board of a 512K-byte Macintosh. Finally, Bill discusses the Fujitsu lap-size portable computer that he reported on in last August's BYTE Japan. It is now called the FM-167T and is available at very reasonable prices, but only in Japan.

The events leading to the development of the Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM, is the topic of BYTE U.K. Dick Pountain covers the background provided by previous Acorn machines and describes the goals of the design team and how they were implemented in this RISC processor.

In Mathematical Recreations, Bob Kurosaka returns to the subject of repeating decimals, covered in his November column. That column concluded with an algorithm for converting repeating decimals into fractions. This month's column presents a program to implement that algorithm.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 347

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PLink-86 - 32 levels, overlays $289

PolyLibrarian - Manage .OBJs $ 89

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348 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 291

• «

COMPUTING

AT CHAOS MANOR

One Minor Problem

Nearly Friday the 13th Reflections SpaceWar

Bridge Parlor

Nemesis

MandelZoom

Cardiovascular Program

PC-Sweep

FUPROLOK

Copy II PC Option Board

Hacker Ethic

by Jerry Pournelle

lerry Pournelle holds a doctorate in psychology and is a science-fiction writer who also earns a comfortable living writing about computers present and future.

've been back from Europe for nearly a month, during which time I've answered 532 letters, thrown out 11 9-gallon trash bags of paper, and caught the flu. Withal, things have almost settled to normalcy. The construction is finished, most of the archaeological layers of mail have been answered, many of my books have been taken from boxes and shelved, and some of the great software inflow has been organized. I've even had time to work on a novel. On the other hand. . .

Day of the Locust

It was not Friday the 13th. It was the day before.

It all started when Mrs. Pournelle made a weekend visit to Seattle. She took along Percy, the NEC PC-8201 lapboard portable. On the way back, she wrote a chapter for her new book and naturally wanted it transferred over to her machine, which happens to be the Zenith Z-150.

"No problem," said I. Little did I know.

Our usual method for transferring Percy's files is to use an RS-232C cable to connect him up to a port on the Golem, our big CompuPro 286/Z80 S-100 Dual Processor. The Golem now reliably runs Concurrent DOS 4.0 and can read and write to a lot of different disk formats: 8-inch and 5K-inch as well as CP/M and MS-DOS. More on this later.

There is a minor problem: I don't yet have the proper Concurrent DOS software to transfer files in through the Golem's serial ports. Real Soon Now, they tell me. Meanwhile, it is only a minor problem. The Golem boots Concurrent DOS off the hard disk, but he first looks to see if there's a floppy in the top 8-inch drive. If there is, he boots that, which means I can bring him up in oldfashioned CP/M-86, and that's not only as solid as a rock but has all the usual CP/M capability for using PIP to transfer files in and out of serial ports. I can bring in files and stash them on the hard disk or in the memory drive, open the 8-inch drive door.

press Reset, and everything's fine.

Well, there is another minor problem. The Golem has two terminals: our ancient (and extremely reliable) TeleVideo 950 and CompuPro's PC Video board, which is designed to make an S-100 system capable of running a fair number of MS-DOS programs under Concurrent DOS. The PC Video board naturally wants an IBM-PCompatible keyboard. We've been testing the Enigma 9000, which is a very good keyboard indeed, but it has an interesting feature: when you first turn on the machine, the keyboard squeals and howls until it gets a signal to shut up. This is fine if I'm booting Concurrent DOS, but when I boot with CP/M, nothing ever talks to that keyboard, so it's going to howl until doomsday, and that's irritating.

"No problem," I say, reaching behind the Golem to unplug the silly thing. My wife, who thinks computers don't like her even though she has made a truce with the Z-l 50 and actually likes the PC-8201 a lot, waited expectantly for her text. "Hmm," I said. "It doesn't seem to be booting. Maybe a bad boot disk."

I removed the 8-inch disk and hit Reset to let the Golem boot up with Concurrent DOS. Nothing. "Oh. I have to plug that keyboard back in." I did. Reset. Nothing.

"Do we panic yet?" Roberta asked.

"Yes." Actually, what I did was call Tony Pietsch. When Reset does nothing, you have a real problem.

He listened to the symptoms. "Don't know. That's hardware, all right. Have you done the usual? Check the fan filter? Take the cover off and push the boards in? Check the cable connections?"

"Uh, yeah," I said somewhat sheepishly. I hadn't told him about removing and replacing the keyboard cable. 1 managed to get off the line. Sure enough, the hard-disk cable connector next to the keyboard input socket had been partially displaced: it took about one second to fix that, after which everything worked fine.

[continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 349

I:

nquiry 290

WALTZ LISP

The universal, superefficient LISP for MS-DOS and CP/M.

Waltz Lisp is a very powerful and complete implementation of Lisp. It is substantially compatible with established mainframe Lisps such as Franz (the Lisp running under Unix), Common Lisp, and MacLisp.

Ultra fast.

In independent tests, Waltz Lisp was up to twenty(!) times faster than competing microcomputer Lisps.

Easy to use.

Built-in WS-compatible fullscreen file editor. Full debugging and error handling facilities are available at all times. No debuggers to link or load.

Practical.

Random file access, binary file support, and extensive string operations make Waltz Lisp suitable for general programming. Several utilities are included in the package.

Full Lisp.

Functions of type lambda (expr), nlambda (fexpr), lexpr, macro. Splicing and non-splicing character macros. Full suite of mappers, iterators, etc. Long integers (up to 611 digits). Fast list sorting using user defined comparison predicates. Built-in prettyprinting and formatting facilities. Nearly 300 functions in all.

Flexible.

Transparent (yet programmable) handling of undefined function references allows large programs to reside partially on disk at run time. Automatic loading of initialization file. Assembly language interface.

Superbly documented.

Each aspect of the interpreter is described in detail. The 300+ page manual includes an exhaustive index. Hundreds of illustrative examples.

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Well, there was a minor problem. The Golem has a lot of RS-232C connectors on the back. Concurrent DOS can support four physical terminals. The next hardware development here is to link the Golem with Zeke, the CompuPro Z80 I'm writing this with. I can also simultaneously connect up several different printers and under Concurrent DOS simply say PRINTER NEC or PRINTER HP, after which the Golem knows which port and printer protocol to use. That's necessary. The HP LaserJet is a fine printer for nearly everything, but it can't handle fanfold. Once a month I call in my accounting program, make journal entries for all the checks, and voilal, I'm done with all that until next tax time; but, of course, the check-writing program expects the checks to be on fanfold paper.

Anyway, there are many cable connectors, and, alas, while each of those connectors has a label, I have never written down which one is the TTY port under CP/M-86.1 mean, I've done this 20 times, right? It's obvious, right? Wrong. And indeed, I did write it down about a year ago in a logbook. Unfortunately, I never got around to indexing the log. Oh well, it's easier to experiment with different places to plug in than to search through that log. It's a simple experiment. lust put the PC-8201 in Terminal mode and enter STAT CON: = TTY:. When you get things plugged in in the right place, Percy controls the Golem and all's well.

Of course, there is a minor problem. You have to be sure Percy and the Golem's TTY port are set for the same baud rate. The PC-8201 is set for 9600 baud. I don't remember what baud rate we set for the TTY port under the old CP/M 2.2 BIOS (basic input/output system), but it doesn't matter. Changing the Golem's baud rate is simple. Just type Baud 06 9600 (port 6 is the TTY port). Of course, if the baud rate is wrong, you can't change it if you've already assigned the console to the TTY port. The machine's not listening to anything except the TTY port, and it won't hear anything coming in at the wrong baud rate. . . Reset takes care

of that. Now change the baud rate, then use STAT, and plug the cable in...

After about 15 minutes of mucking about, I had that taken care of. The cable was connected, Percy and the Golem were on the same wavelength, and we were ready to send over Roberta's file.

There was one minor problem.

The simplest way to bring a file into a CP/M system from a port is to use PIP. True, if the file is larger than 16K bytes, CP/M has to go off and write some directory information at the 16K-byte boundary, but a 286 machine writing to a RAM (randomaccess read/write memory) disk will seldom lose anything, even at 9600 baud: certainly not more than a character or two. There are better ways for transferring important data or programs, but for text, PIP is the easy way to go. I invoked PIP.

"Requires Concurrent DOS," responded the Golem.

"Yeah, of course," 1 muttered. PIP.CMD is for Concurrent DOS. We'd kept the old CP/M 2.2 PIP, but renamed it. Only what had we called it? Directory-search time. Sigh. The Golem has a lot of files on the hard disk in the AO area. There's a reason, of course: system files stored on the A: drive, user area 0, can be invoked from any user area of any disk drive. Search away. Eventually I found PIP22.COM, after which it took about 30 seconds to transfer Mrs. Pournelle's file over to the Golem and another 15 seconds to write it from the RAM disk to an 8-inch floppy. No matter what else happened, that file was safe. I disconnected the RS-232C cable, removed the CP/M 8-inch boot disk, reconnected the keyboard, and pressed Reset. Concurrent DOS came up fine.

Look at the Darned Thing

Of course, there were a few housekeeping details.

Now that i had her file in the M: drive, it was no trick at all to change it from the vanilla-ASCII format of the PC-8201 editor to WordStar; that's

(continued)

350 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

BUT PUT OUT

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Model CP290

THE X-10 POWERHOUSE INTERFACES WITH YOUR COMPUTER TO CONTROL YOUR HOME...FOR SECURITY, COMFORT AND ENERGY SAVINGS.

This remarkable Interface lets you run your home through your Apple lie or lie, Commodore 64 or 128 and a mouse, keyboard or joystick.

When you're away, it makes your home look and sound lived in. When you're home, it can turn off the TV at night and wake you up to stereo and fresh brewed coffee in the morning. It can even turn on your air conditioner and control your heating.

SPECIAL COLOR GRAPHICS MAKE PROGRAMMING A SNAP.

You simply pick a room from the display screen. Use your mouse, joystick, or keyboard to position graphics of lights or appliances. Then follow on-screen instructions to program any light or appliance to go on or off whenever you choose. You can even control thermostats, light intensity and more.

THE WAY IT WORKS. The X-10 Powerhouse Interface is cableconnected to an Apple RS-232 port or a Commodore "User" port and plugged into a standard 110V outlet. After it is programmed, the Interface sends digitally encoded signals through your home wiring to special X-10 Modules. To control a lamp or appliance, you simply plug the electrical device into a Module

Inquiry 389

and then plug the Module into an outlet.

The Interface can control up to 256 Modules throughout your home and won't interfere with normal use of lights and appliances.

There are plug-in Appliance Modules, Lamp Modules, Wall Switch Replacement Modules and Special 220V Modules for heavy duty appliances such as water heaters and room air conditioners. Plus Thermostat Controllers for central heating and air conditioning, Telephone Responders to control your home from any phone, and much more.

IT WON'T TIE UP YOUR COMPUTER. Use your computer only for programming. When you're finished, disconnect the Interface from your computer and keep it plugged into any convenient power outlet in your home. It will operate as a stand-alone controller with battery back-up and will run your home automatically.

SURPRISINGLY INEXPENSIVE. A Powerhouse System including the Interface, software and connecting cables costs less than $150. X-10 Modules are less than $20 each. Software for IBM PC and compatibles available soon.

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Apple. Apple lie and Apple lie are registered trademarks pf Apple Cemputer, Inc. Commodore 64 and 128 are registered trademarks of Commodore Int'l Ltd. IBM PC is a registered trademark ol International Business Machines Corporation.

IANUARY I986 - BYTE 351

Inquiry 412

"BRIEF ... is quite simply, the best code editor I have seen."

— David Irwin, Data Based Advisor, 8/85

Tailor Editing to Your Style

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CHAOS MANOR

done with Tony's F1LTER.COM. a CP/M-80 (Z80) program that comes with the WRITE text editor. FILTER turns WordStar files to WRITE. WRITE to WordStar, and, for good measure, either WRITE or WordStar files to a standard ASCII with carriage return and linefeed at the end of each line (thus suitable for transmission over a modem to BYTEnet or BIX).

It's also fast. Even with a normal Z80 it is actually faster to exit WordStar, use FILTER to transform the WordStar file to ASCII, then use it again to put the file back into WordStar than it is to use the WordStar Control-QA global reformat routine; at least it is for files of any size at all. With the Golem's 8-megahertz Z80 slave board, the 286 to do housekeeping, and a RAM disk, it took less than a minute to make both WS and TXT transformations of her file. I even brought up WRITE, loaded in the text, and showed her.

"Fine, but how do I get it on my machine?" she asked.

"Nothing to it."

There really is nothing to it. Concurrent DOS on the Golem has a magical property: if I put a DOS disk in the 514-inch drive, I can read and write to it just as I would a CP/M disk. Not only does PIP.CMD work, but I can log onto that DOS disk while inside WRITE— which is an 8-bit program running on the Golem's Z80. I need only issue a SAVE on a DOS disk to transfer the file. I didn't do that, but only because it would save it in WRITE format, and she needed WordStar.

"What do you want me to save it on?" I asked. She handed me a disk. It had her book title on the label. I put it in the 5!4-inch drive and from habit displayed the directory.

There was one minor problem. No directory. The Golem wouldn't read that disk.

"Isolate the problem," I said to myself. "Make sure the disk is good. Read it in a DOS machine." I turned on the Kaypro 286i PC AT clone, which is the only fully PCompatible I keep up here.

This time there was a major prob

352 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 413

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CHAOS MANOR

lem. It wouldn't boot.

The next few minutes are too painful to describe. Roberta insisted that computers don't like her, while I had a few choice remarks about experimental systems. Of course, I shouldn't have been much surprised by the Kaypro's problem; it had been having progressively more severe difficulties reading the hard disk. To get ahead of the story, it wasn't Kaypro machinery that failed, it was the Seagate hard disk; Kaypro doesn't make hard disks. At the time, though, that was cold comfort, and I still didn't know why the Golem couldn't read Roberta's disk.

"Calm," I kept telling myself. That often helps, although it's probably better not to shout it at the top of your lungs. Why wouldn't the CompuPro read Roberta's disk? Eventually I looked at it. Looked hard. It said: "10 Sector, Single Sided"; it was for her Apple II, not the Z-150. The CompuPro 286 running Concurrent DOS can do a lot of wonderful things, but it won't read a hard-sectored disk.

Eventually we found her real Zenith disks. The Golem had no trouble at all with those, and it took about one minute for PIP to transfer her file. Roberta went away to work, and I went back to answering mail.

The End of the Matter

There was one minor problem. While we were away in Europe, someone had disconnected the monitor from her machine. That one she dealt with, but they had also disconnected her highly portable MPI Sprinter printer, probably to take to a war-games convention. Roberta is at the stage where she'd rather write with a computer than a typewriter, but she also wants paper copies. I understand perfectly: it took me a couple of years before I was able to dispense with paper drafts and work exclusively on screen. She found her printer but wanted help connecting it. I hadn't set it up and couldn't remember if it was serial or parallel.

"Tell you what," I said. "It's getting late. We'll let Alex take care of that tomorrow. Let Don print it on the IBM

PC." I went back to the mail. . .

After a while Roberta was back. Her file is in WordStar. Don Hawthorne, our assistant, was using XyWrite. FILTER on the CompuPro will transform a file from WordStar to XyWrite, but that's an 8-bit program. Don has a genuine IBM PC. If you read an untransformed WordStar file into XyWrite, you see Greek letters, and graphics symbols, and other extraneous matter, all designed to make you think your files have been corrupted and your text lost. ..

The next few minutes were again too painful to describe. Eventually I convinced her that nothing was lost. Of course, she still didn't have a paper copy.

"Please hook up my printer."

"It's almost suppertime. Here, I'll print it."

She looked a bit wary.

"It's no problem," I assured her. I took her disk upstairs and put it in the Golem's 5 '/S-inch drive. In seconds I had a copy in the RAM-disk drive. Seconds later I had used FILTER.COM to make a WRITE conversion of her WordStar file. I added commands to put in page numbering and double spacing and to print the date as a footer.

"While I'm at it, I'll make a really safe copy of all this," I said. Hard disks and 514-inch disks are all very well, but to me "really safe" means an 8-inch floppy backup. I formatted a disk and put all her files on it. "Now we're ready to print."

Of course, there was one minor problem. Although the Golem can run the HP LaserJet, he generally isn't connected to it; the printer is normally connected to Zeke, the machine I do all my books on. (I explained why I write with an ancient Z80 rather than one of the newer machines in the November 1985 column. Basically, I want one machine that no one experiments with.) It wouldn't be much of a problem. Zeke, being a CompuPro, has no trouble at all reading 8-inch disks written by the Golem. I turned the Z80 on.

Zeke is purely a writing machine; there's an autostart program that

354 BYTE* JANUARY 1986

CHAOS MANOR

brings him up in WRITE. Zeke trundled for a moment, then was quiet. I looked at the screen. "Memory Error at CF61. Exiting WRITE."

I stared at that message. WRITE has a built-in memory-test routine, but I had never seen any result from it before. 1 pushed Reset. Same result. "Memory Error at CF61."

"Is it time to panic?" Roberta asked.

"1 will keep calm," I kept saying, but in truth it was close to panic time; any other machine can fail without disastrous consequence, but Zeke is absolutely vital. "Logic," I told myself. Check the fan filter. Shake the cables. Open the box and push the boards in properly. Turn on the machine again. "Memory Error at CF61. Exiting WRITE."

"Now it's time to panic."

Fortunately, early training prevailed. In the old days—prior to 1981—computers were expected to glitch. Zeke was from that era. When Tony built the machine, he insisted that I buy spare boards. Zeke proved so reliable I'd never needed them, but in fact I have enough boards to build a new computer.

Locating them wasn't easy, but eventually I found a CompuPro RAM-17 64K-byte memory board. Blow the dust off the box. Take out the board. Now pull out Zeke's memory board. Study the switch settings. This should be simple. . .

There was one minor problem. The phone rang. When I got rid of the caller, I realized I didn't know which of those two identical boards had come out of Zeke and which was the spare. Worse, they had different switch settings, and of course the bad board was the one with the switches set the right way. Now which was which? I put in a board and turned on Zeke. It was downright comforting to see "Memory Error at CF61. Exiting WRITE."

Five minutes later Zeke was working fine, and five minutes after that Roberta had her paper copies. The day before Friday the 13th was over.

Reflections

I wouldn't want to repeat that day, but it did have its useful aspects.

First lesson: I've been spoiled. When I first began writing with computers, I bought a modular system because 1 expected glitches. In the old days, I would always push in boards, shake cables, and generally muck about looking for obvious problems. If that didn't work, I'd systematically replace boards.

No longer. For five years Zeke has been on 8 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with time off only when I take trips; and in that time I have replaced one disk drive (the heads got out of line and began eating disks) and done one general housecleaning after moving the machine from one

[continued]

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356 BYTE' I AN VARY 1986

CHAOS MANOR

room to another; now I've had one memory-failure error. Except for the time the drive went bad, I haven't even had (8-inch) disks fail. No wonder I was lulled into a false sense of security! But 1 should have remembered what to do.

Second lesson: don't put the computer memoranda into the day book. Keep a computer log, and log everything. Baud rates. Port numbers. Cookbook instructions on how to do stuff that's important but infrequently needed. I always kept a complete computer log in the old days. It doesn't cost much. My local drugstore sells those mottled black-cover composition books for $1.89—never mind that when I bought my first computer the same book cost 4 5 cents—and it's plenty easy to keep one in the bookcase next to the machinery.

Third lesson: years ago I concluded that "the best business microcomputer is a year-old development system." It no longer makes sense to talk about "the best business micro." Too much depends on business needs and the software base. Even so, there's a bit of truth to the maxim. The Golem is an advanced experimental development system. Viasyn (CompuPro) still dominates the developmentsystem market, and Dr. Godbout is forever sending down new refinements: but the heart of that modular S-100 system doesn't change, and the machine gets the job done.

I can't say I'm entirely happy with the way CompuPro treats software. 1 wish mightily they'd take at least one more step toward PCompatibility. Even so, I'm still running all the 8-bit programs I wrote and refined and tailored to my needs. I've recompiled some in Compiling CBASIC CB-86 so they run even faster. (For all my fascination with Modula-2, my accounting system and most of the business programs I rely on are written in Compiling CBASIC which is one heck of a good language.) In addition, 1 can run Lotus 1-2-3 and a number of other PC programs: indeed, with Concurrent DOS I can run Lotus 1-2-3, my accounting program, WRITE, and three other things at the same time. I can read from and write

to a dozen disk formats.

Computer users have to make choices. A long time ago I thought I'd made mine: I was going to be a user, not a hacker; I wasn't going to learn programming, I didn't care about the innards, I didn't know or want to know one chip from another. In times of stress I talk as if 1 still thought that way; but in fact that's a silly attitude. Powerful machinery gives me capabilities other people don't have. It also demands that I learn something about how to use it. The trade-off is worthwhile.

Example: in about an hour, Larry Niven and Steve Barnes are coming over to work on The Legacy of Hereot, a three-way collaboration. (Actually, it's a collaboration between Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, who make up one auctorial entity, and Steve Barnes, who is another; but that's for a different discussion.) The point is that while Niven and 1 have identical machines, Barnes uses a PCompatible and WordStar 2000. My big CompuPro 286/Z80 will read his disks and transform his text into WRITE files. We'll work for the afternoon, and when we're done, we'll put one copy back into DOS for Barnes and another onto an 8-inch disk for Niven.

Do that with your off-the-shelf PClone.

Development-quality machinery isn't for everyone. Being state of the art has costs. On the other hand, it wasn't the Golem's fault that I shook a cable loose.

When all is said and done, Roberta did manage to write a chapter while on an airplane. We did manage to get it out of the machine and onto paper. I was able to write a column, several chapters of a novel, and a ton of notes while traveling in Europe, and all those safely reside on disks. So we had a bad day. We also got things done that a few years ago I'd have thought impossible.

I love these little machines.

Look First

If you are contemplating buying a CompuPro machine—and I like mine

(continued)

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Inquiry I49

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 357

CHAOS MANOR

a lot—you might want to know more about what you're getting into. C-Pro the independent CompuPro User Group (POB 2146, Woodbridge, VA 22193). publishes an increasingly useful magazine as well as maintaining a bulletin board. There have been a number of debates over software, there are tips about support, and there is enough information to make it.well worth subscribing to. If you already have a CompuPro and aren't a member, you're really missing something.

A Whole Lot of Stuff

Every shelf in my office is a potential guilt trip; the place is crammed with interesting software. Sigh. Even giving short shrift to each won't get them all mentioned, much less do justice to them. In other words, my apologies: it's that time again, when I race along giving brief mention to programs that

deserve a lot more space than they're going to get.

First, there's SpaceWar for the IBM PC. This is a full implementation of the classic game first done at MIT. It can be played by one player or two, with or without star and gravity fields. It has phasers and torpedoes, and the ships move in inertial space, meaning that if you accelerate you'll keep moving in a straight line until you rotate the ship and blast again. It has nearly everything. Great game.

SpaceWar is user-supported software, meaning that you can get a copy from anyone who has one, but you should send the author $20 if you like it and use it.

Next, there's Bridge Parlor, which plays a very good game of bridge; I've been using it to relax after work at night. This one also runs on PCompatibles. including the Kaypro AT clone. It needs 192K bytes of memory,

and I do wish the author had been a little fussier in his use of graphics; here and there I have to look closely to see what's going on.

However: Bridge Parlor plays good, standard bridge. Opponents signal. Normal conventions apply. You can set it for defense practice so that you're never declarer, or you can always sit South with those wonderful hands that South always gets in the newspaper bridge columns. It does all this smoothly, fast, and well. Bridge Parlor isn't as nice as finding three congenial people to play bridge with, but it's the next best thing. Recommended.

1 mentioned last month that there's no good computer program that can play go. That's still true. However, you can get Nemesis, the best go program (as tested in tournaments). If you've any skill at go, it won't ever beat you,

[continued]

Does copy protection have your hands tied?

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Locksmith, the controversial copy program that took the Apple world by storm in 1981, has evolved from a powerful bit-copy programmed into a complete disk utility system, allowing the Apple user to recover crashed disks, restore accidentally deleted files, and perform hardware diagnostics on the disk drive and memory boards. The NEW Locksmith version 6.0 is now available and includes an advanced disk recovery utility, a framing-bit analyzer, an automatic boot tracer, a sector editor, many file utilities, and of course, the most powerful bit-copy program available. A fast disk backup utility copies disks in eight seconds flat. Improvements to Locksmith Programming Language have made it more powerful and easier to use for you to write your own backup and repair procedures. Includes a library disk which contains automatic procedures to copy hundreds of Apple programs.

Locksmith requires no additional hardware, but will use any additional RAM memory that it finds, including RAM boards from Applied Engineering and Checkmate Technology. Don't get caught with your hands tied. Order Locksmith 6.0 today.

NEW LOW PRICE $79.95 Registered Locksmith 5.0 owners may upgrade to version 6.0 for $29.95. Available from your computer dealer or directly from:

E4

Alpha Logic Business Systems, Inc.

4119 North Union Road Woodstock, IL 60098 (815) 568-5166

©Alpha Logic Business Systems, Inc. 1985 Locksmith and Locksmith/PC are registered trademarks ol Alpha Logic Business Systems. Inc.

358 BYTE • JANUARY I986

Inquiry 14

COMPUTERS

PC. 256K, 360K FLOPPY. 10 MEG HD S2049.00 PC. 256K, 360K FLOPPY. 1.2 MEG FLOPPY, 10 MEG HD. $2299.00 PC. 256K. 360K, FLOPPY. 1.2 MEG

FLOPPY, 20 MEG HD. $2659.00 AT-512K, 1.2 MEG FLOPPY. 360K

FLOPPY, 20 MEG HD. $3877.00 AT-512K, 1.2 MEG FLOPPY, 360K

FLOPPY. 40 MEG HD. $4349.00

PORTABLE

256K WITH 2-360K

DISK DRIVES $1919.00

256K WITH 1-360K FLOPPY AND

10 MEG HD. $2449.00 256K WITH 1-360K FLOPPY AND

20 MEG HD. $2639.00

DESKPRO SYSTEMS

MOD. 2-256K, 2HF/HT $1949.00

MOD. 3-256K, 1HF/HT,

1D MEG HD. S2795.00

MOD. 4-640K. 1 HF/HT

10 MEG HD. $2949.00

286 SYSTEMS

286 PORTABLE. 256K AND

1.2 MEG FLOPPY S3299.00 286 PORTABLE, 640K, 1.2 MEG

FLOPPY 20 MEG HD. $4645.00 286 PORTABLE. 640K, 1.2 MEG

FLOPPY.20 MEG HD B/U $5159.00 DSKPRO 286-256K,

1.2 MEG FLOPPY $3129.00 DSKPRO 286-512K, 1.2 MEG FLOPPY

30 MEG HD. $4419.00 DSKPRO 286-512K. 1.2 MEG FLOPPY

30 MEG HD. B/U $4940.00

SOFTWARE

WORD PROCESSING

WORDSTAR 2000 $239.00

WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS $289.00

WORDSTAR EASY $ 87.00

SAMNA PLUS $299.00

SAMNA III $239.00

PFS. REPORT $ 69.00

PERFECT WRITER $125.00 WORDPERFECT

W/SPELLER $211.00 PERSONAL

WORDPERFECT $ 85.00

MICROSOFT WORD $210.00

SPREADSHEETS & DATABASES

LOTUS 1-2-3 S299.00

SYMPHONY S429.00

SPELLING CHECKER $ 87.95

TEXT OUTLINER $ 87.95

SPOTLIGHT $ 44.95

DBASE III $345.00

FRAMEWORK $345.00

SUPERCALC REFLEX POWER BASE R BASE 5000 PERFECT CALC VISICALC MULTIPLAN

S197.00 $249.00 $199.00 S344.00 $125.00 S125.00 $109.00

FINANCIAL SOFTWARE

HOME ACCOUNTANT $84.00 MONOGRAM

DOLLARS & SENSE $99.00 ACCOUNTINB

BPI

GENERAL ACC. S 297.00

BPI INV. OR JOB CST S 471.00 BPI A/P OR A/R $ 297.50

FIS 2001 ACC SYS $2750.00 GREAT PLAINS GL. AR. AP. INV. OR

PAYROLL S 389.00

SORCIM AR. AP.

ORDER ENTRY OR INV. S 297.00

HARDWARE

AST

SIX PACK PLUS S227.00

AT ADVANTAGE CARD $359.00

5251 EMULATION CARD $543.50

QUABRAM

MICROFAZER PAR $204.00

QUADBOARD 64K S225.00

OUADMEG-AT S305.00

KEYTRBNIC

5151 KEYBOARD $149.00

AT PROM KIT $ 14.95

COMPUTER ACC.

POWER DIRECTOR $79.00

MOUSE SYS

MOUSE SYS W/PAINT $138.00

PRINTERS

EPSON

FX-185

FX-85

LQ-1500

$475.00 S349.00 $899.00

STAR MICRONICS

NLQ30 $193.00

NLQ40 $269.00

NLQ50 S369.00

BROTHER

HR-25 HR-35

TWINWRITER

S519.00 $892.00 $913.00

HEWLETT PACKARD

LASERJET $2175.00 6-PEN PLOTTER $1375.00 THINKJET S 369.00

Call for prices on C.ITBH DIABLO, NEC, APPLE, IBM

MODEMS

HAYES

SMARTMODEM 300 $129.00

SMARTMODEM 1200 S379.00

SMARTMODEM 2400 S614.00

DISKS

MAXELL HI-DEN MAXELL DS-DD VERBATIM

$42.95 $19.95 $21.95

GRAPHICS BDS

HERCULES

GRAPHIC CARDS $289.00

COLOR CARD $145.00

PARADISE

GRAPHICS CARD $272.00

MULTIDISPLAY CD $197.00

PERSYST

COLOR CD/RGB COMP $199.00

BOB SUPER HI-RES $389.00

TECMAR

GRAPHICS MSTR BD

$445.00

MONITORS

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12 HI RES $543.00 SR-12 W/DOUBLER $714.00

AMDEK

COLOR 300

$269.00

COLOR 300 RGB

$359.00

COLOR 710 HI-RES

$579.00

IBM

PROF. GRAPHICS MON

$969.00

ENHANCED GRAPHICS

MON.

$599.00

DISK DRIVES

TALLBRASS

TAPE BACKUP 60 MEG

$1511.00

25 MEG DISK/

60 MEG TAPE

$2559.00

35 MEG DISK/

60 MEG TAPE

$3259.00

80 MEG DISK/

60 MEG TAPE

$5359.00

CBNTRBL BATA

SYSTEMS

18 MEG

EXTERNAL HD

$1299.00

30 MEG EXTERNAL HD

$1559.00

30 MEG INTERNAL

IBM-AT

$1299.00

IBMEGA

SINGLE 10 MEG HD

$1799.00

DUAL 10 MEG HD

$2495.00

CARTRIDGES

$ 43.00

SHUGART

10 MEG HD W/CONT.

$431.00

Call for prices on NOVATION, RACAL-VADIC VEN-TEL AND OTHERS

PRECISION DS/DD $9.95 BOX OF 10

COMPATIBLE

PC COMPATIBLE

640K, 135 W P/S keyboard, 2 OS, DD drives, ser port, par port, mono graphics card.

$775.00

XT CBMPATIBLE

640K, 135 W P/S keyboard, 360K floppy, 10 meg HD, controller card, ser port, par port, mono graphics card.

$1495.00

AT CBMPATIBLE

256 K. Keyboard, 192 W P/S, 20 meg HD, 1.2 meg floppy, 360K floppy, conl. cards & cables, mono graphics card. 384 K multifunction card w/clock/ calendar, ser. & par ports, game port (optional).

$2695.00

IBM PROPRINTER $395

IBM QUIET WRITER... $1,049 IBM COLOR JETPTR.... $549 IBM

WHEEL PRINTER.... $1,389

MULTIFUNCTION CARO

Serial and parallel porls, 384 K expandable, clock/calendar, game option port

$95.00

SERIAL CARD.

$44.00

PARALLEL CARD

$29.00

COLOR GRAPHICS

CARD

$74.00

MONO GRAPHICS

CARD

$94.00

I/O MULTIFUNCTION

CARD

$95.00

IBM SPECIAL #1

IBM, 1-320K OS. DD DISK DRIVE. 10 MEG. HARD DRIVE. AMBER OR GREEN MONITOR, 256K, PAR PORT PFS. WRITE AND FILE.

$2350.00

IBM SPECIAL #2

IBM AT-1/20 MEG HARD DRIVE. 1.2 MEG FLOPPY, PAR PORT, 512K, MONO MONITOR CARD, AMBER OR GREEN MONITOR,

CALL $$$

ORDER LINE 1-800-334-8989 IN CALIF. CALL 1-818-341-9193 OPEN 6 DAYS/WEEK, MON.-SAT. 6A.M.-6P.M. Pacific sw. Time

'Mo surcharge for credit cards, free express-shipping on orders of S 100.00, COD's accepted. 3% added for insurance. No monitors, computers, printers, paper included in express-shipping. Prices subject to change without notice. Visa, MC, American Express accepted, Company purchase orders also accepted. +IBM is a registered trademark, Call for RMA# on all returns.

■Price-Line

■Computers, Inc.

9710 Topanga Canyon Place, Chatsworth, CA 91311

Inquiry 286

IANUARY 1986 'BYTE 359

Inquiry 364

TM

FOR

UTILITIES

JEflftg Pascal

PROGRAMMERS

mprove Code Performanc

Find Subtle Bugs Automate Tedious Tasks

Supports Turbo Pascal 2.0 & 3.0 IBM PC/XT/AT & True Compatibles PCDOS 2.X & 3.X 192K RAM DSDD Drive

If You Really Use Your Pascal Compiler You Nee These Tools!

• Pretty Printer

• Pascal Structure Analyzer

• Execution Profiler

• Execution Timer

Advanced Text Processing & Command Automation

• Pattern Replacer

• Difference Finder

• Command Builder

• File Finder

• Super Directory

Where Else Can You Get 500K of Integrated, Useful, Tested, Fully Documented Source Code for $95?

• 140 Page Printed User Manual

• Quick Reference Card

• Detailed Programmer's Manual on Disk

• Complete Turbo Pascal Source Code

• 6 Bonus Utilities with Source!

• Tax & U.S. Postage Included

MC/Visa Orders TOLL FREE (USA) 800-538-8157 x830 (CAL) 800-672-3470 x830 Brochures, Questions, PO's call 408-378-3672 Checks or Money Orders TurboPower Software 478 W. Hamilton Ave., Suite 196 Campbell, CA 95008 U.S.A.

INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES — Switzerland: Software Haus 064-512651 Japan: Southern Pacific Ltd 045-314-9514 England: The Core Store 0606-45420 Canada: Software Commodities 416-865-1600 Holland: SCOS PC-Center 020-106922

Norway: Polysofl 03-82575 TufDo Pascal is a Trademark ol Borland International

CHAOS MANOR

but it does let you practice. If you have never played the game, you can learn using the program; it will ruthlessly exploit dumb mistakes, so that when you graduate from it to a human opponent, you'll be a more interesting player.

Go players are rated in ranks called kyu, with the lowest being best; Bruce Wilcox, inventor of Nemesis (The Go Master), claims this program is at 20 kyu. I haven't played serious go in 10 years; I can beat the program consistently, but 1 do have to pay attention to what I'm doing. Whether it's worth $75 depends; if you've much interest in go, you'll probably be playing it long after you've tossed out most other computer games. Wilcox claims there will be stronger versions available Real Soon Now.

Irs Glorious!

Every now and then we get wonderful, if somewhat specialized, programs to review.

One such is MandelZoom from Token Software. Those of you who read Scientific American will recall the August 1985 cover story on the Mandelbrot set, which is said to be quite possibly the most complex set in mathematics. Mark Bolme of Token Software has done a program that will let you play with Mandelbrot sets on your color PCompatible; and it's glorious.

The disk comes complete with cookbook instructions and a setup to let you examine all the stuff from the Scientific American article; if you want to know more, go look it up. With MandelZoom you can step back and look at the big picture or zoom in to examine fine structure. I can't imagine a better way to waste an afternoon or two. No color PCompatible is complete without a copy of this; get one and see what I mean.

Looks Great to Me

Cardiovascular Systems and Dynamics by Nils Peterson and Diana Armstrong is another specialized program; if you need this one, you need it bad.

Their introduction states: "Simula

tion brings to life the dynamics of a physiology laboratory while avoiding the high costs of animal care and modern equipment."

Most of us are disturbed by the cost of medical training; not merely the money costs, but other ones: the psychic or spiritual costs of using animals not only for research but also for student training. I do not care to become bogged down in the intricacies of this debate. 1 would suppose that there is no one in the world who prefers that animals be sacrificed to train students; the debate is over the necessity.

The late C. S. Lewis said once that he imagined a science that would not do to a vegetable what is often done in experiments to human beings. One of the wonders of computers is their ability to simulate things that we really would not want to do in the real world. As micros become both cheaper and more powerful, we may yet realize Lewis's dream.

The Peterson/Armstrong program simulates cardiovascular systems on a PCompatible machine. I'm not competent to determine how accurate the simulation is. but 1 had an M.D and a veterinarian look at it, and both were impressed. I'd very much like to see efforts like this succeed.

TAKE THAT

Barry Workman has a new PC disk in his Software Anthology Series. This one contains Sweep for PCompatibles. CP/M Sweep is still one of Workman's most popular items; the new one is from the same authors and works more or less in the same way. With PC-Sweep, you can easily transfer files from one disk or directory area to another, rename, delete, make directories, print files, squeeze and unsqueeze, and a lot more. I use it all the time. Like the original Sweep, PCSweep is shareware; if you buy it through Workman, you become a registered user and the authors get their fee.

As usual, the Workman disk contains a mixed bag of shareware, freeware, and public-domain programs.

[continued]

360 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Himtron

MULTM for II

The Multi-User Solution of the future is now available.

Convert your IBM PC, XT, AT or Compatibles to a true multi-user system while maintaining display, keyboard and software compatibility.

Since the KT-7/PC display is the same as your PC monochrome monitor, with its look-alike keyboard, operators will feel they're using an IBM PC and can also use the same software manual. Kimtron's multi-user solution includes file and record locking, shared data access, and communication between users. It is the intelligent alternative.

The KT-7/PC supports Time Sharing, Enhanced Time Sharing

and Multi-Processor implementation under PC DOS, MS DOS, UNIX, XENIX, CPM 86, Multilink, Concurrent PC DOS, and other compatible multi-user operating systems.

Kimtron's multi-user solution may be tailored for cost effectiveness; as low as $1095 for an additional user, and for speeds more than ten times faster than LAN. You can add one or as many as 31 additional users per PC. Kimtron delivers the future now by allowing an everwidening network of multi-user PCs.

The KT-7/PC may be complemented with one (or more) I/O Card, Memory Card, 8086 Speed

Enhancer Card, 80286 AT Card, 8088 Multi-Processor Card, 80186 Speed Enhancer Card, 68000 Card, and related software.

For more information about Kimtron's Multi-User Solution, or general video data terminals for other mini or micro multi-user systems, call your local computer dealers, distributors or Kimtron Corporation Today!

(408) 286-8790 TWX 910-338-0237

NOTE: IBM PC, XT, AT, PC DOS, MS DOS, UNIX, XENIX, CPM 86, Multi-Link, Concurrent PC DOS are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corp., Bell Labs., Digital Research Inc., Software Link Inc. respectively.

1705 Junction Court

Building #160

San Jose, CA 95112

Kimtron

Inquiry 194

JANUARY 1986 - BYTE 361

CHAOS MANOR

All have been tested and work more or less as Workman says they will, although in some cases you may need some ingenuity. I count 20 programs on the disk; PC-Sweep is pretty well worth the $32.50 by itself. There's also FUPROLOK.COM, a demon that will let you run programs that have been protected with Vault's PROLOK from a hard disk. It's quick, transparent, and works. There are other "unprotect" programs also.

I may be repeating myself, but I think Workman's Software Anthology Series is one of the best software bargains going.

Copy All

Every copy-protection scheme can be defeated, in the PROLOK scheme, a hole is burned on the original disk; you can copy the disk, but when you try to run the program, it will at some point or another try to write to that bad disk sector; if it gets back good data, the program knows you're not running the original disk and takes action: it either demands the original

disk or dumps your program. Indeed, some Vault officials threatened much more drastic action, including the insertion of software time bombs that would damage your computer.

The remedy to this one was obvious from the beginning. Using the information from Crayne's Serious Assembler (Baen Books), I was able to write a demon that resides in high memory, watches for the PROLOK call, and satisfies the program that there's a bad sector just where the program wants to see one. I never got around to publishing my demon, largely because 1 wasn't that sure I'd done it right; but it wasn't long before FUPROLOK appeared on bulletin boards across the country.

Other copy-protection programs rely on doing odd things to the disk format: that is, they deliberately introduce errors onto the disk, then in software try to compensate for them. Most of these schemes use "undocumented features'—really quirks and errors—of the PC floppy-disk controller. The Copy II PC program from

Central Point Software will take care of nearly all those schemes. When publishers found that out, they escalated the war.

Central Point's answer to that is a new board. You plug it into your PC and connect to your floppy drives, then run the cable from your PC disk controller to the Copy II PC option board. This allows you to defeat most of the new protection schemes.

The option board works fine in a PC, and it's easy enough to install. It's a bit harder to get into a Compaq or PC AT because you have to change jumpers around, but the instructions are clear enough. Once installed it works automatically, and you're set until the next round in the copyprotection wars.

That's one remedy. Another is to Take The Pledge and not buy copyprotected software—a movement that seems to be gaining ground.

It's having results, too. Living Videotext, which makes the excellent ThinkTank program, has given up copy protection. They're to be commended. 1 hope a lot of others get the message.

The Hacker Ethic

Steve Levy's book Hackers discusses "the hacker ethic" of free software. Some of the old MIT free-software people have decided to do something about it. Richard M. Stallman and others have formed the Free Software Foundation (1000 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138). 1 don't know all those people, but I've known RMS for some time; and while his views of the world are not mine, I respect his intelligence and his integrity.

They're looking for help. Write and ask for their brochure, and since they don't have much money, slip a buck in the envelope to help them cover the expense of mailing it to you.

Winding Down

It's late, Niven and Barnes are here, and the deadline is due; which is all right, because I am out of space.

The game of the month is still BIX, which takes up more of my time than anything else; but while I was suffering from the flu, I found a strange

Items Discussed

Bridge Parlor . . . Price unavailable Parlor Software Company POB 2100

Liverpool. NY 13089

Cardiovascular Systems and

Dynamics Price unavailable

Command Applied Technology Inc. West 400 Main St. Pullman, WA 99163-0511 (509) 344-6145

Copy II PC Program $39.95

Copy II PC Option Board and

Program $95

Central Point Software Inc. 9700 Southwest Capitol Hwy., #100 Portland, OR 97219 (503) 244-5782

MandelZoom

Token Software POB 3746 Bellevue, WA 98009 (206) 455-4130

$25

Nemesis (The Go Master) $75

Bruce Wilcox 34 Oak St.

Lexington, MA 02173

Software Anthology Series

$32.50 per disk, disk 2 of PC Series includes FUPROLOK

WRITE $239

includes FILTER

Workman and Associates

112 Marion Ave.

Pasadena, CA 91106

(818) 796-4401

SpaceWar $20

Bill Seiler

317 Lockwood Lane Scotts Valley, CA 95066

Wilderness

for Apple 11 $49.95

Electric Transit 501 Marian St. Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

362 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

CHAOS MANOR

Pyramid of Peril has interesting puzzles and a good scenario.

satisfaction in fooling about with the Macintosh version of Wizardry, while the boys continue to play both Gato and Pyramid of Peril on the Mac. Pyramid is really quite nice, with interesting puzzles and a good scenario.

1 have somehow managed to neglect Wilderness, an expert-system game developed by Charlie Kohlhase. Charlie's normal job is programming spacecraft; about the time you read this, Voyager will get to Uranus using his mission plan. Wilderness is fun and instructional and can teach a lot about living in wilderness areas. Recommended.

The first book of the month is Kites: How Russians Really Live by David K. Willis, formerly Moscow bureau chief of the Christian Science Monitor (St. Martin's, 1985). Excellent. Example from page 42: "Since I left Moscow, an American personal computer has become the mark of immense klass." If you want to understand life in the Soviet Union, this is the book.

The other book of the month is Modula-2 Programming by Ed Knepley and Robert Piatt (Reston-PrenticeHall, 1985); this is a good text for those who already know something of programming and want to learn more about Modula-2.

BIX, meanwhile, continues to improve. I now find myself committed to having a BIX party next month; it was going to be a few friends and now looks to be bigger than that. I hope the place survives. ■

\erry Pournelle welcomes readers comments and opinions. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to \erry Pournelle. do BYTE Publications. POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449. Please put your address on the letter as well as on the envelope. Due to the high volume of letters, ]erry cannot guarantee a personal reply.

Thinking of the CLanguage?

THINK COMPUTER INNOVATIONS

C86 VERSION 2.3 with Source Level Debugging Support

0$^

The C language has rapidly become the development language of choice for applications ranging from Operating Systems to Accounting Packages. WHY? Its structured approach and extreme portability make it perfectly suited to today's fast-paced environment.

Of all of the C Compilers available for PC/MSDOS, more programmers choose COMPUTER INNOVATIONS' C86. WHY? Because it's part of a COMPREHENSIVE family of C products with an unparalleled reputation for performance, reliability, and stability.

C86 2.3 C COMPILER

C for PC/MSDOS began with C86 and today it remains perhaps the most solid, stable C Compiler available. Even competitor's ads show CS6 as a consistent top level performer in benchmark testing.

Version 2.3 offers a host of new features including source level debugging support and a 40°/o boost in compilation speed. Call for complete specifications. COST: S395 UPDATE TO 2.3: S35 w/old diskettes NOT COPY PROTECTED CALL ABOUT VOLUME DISCOUNTS

LEARN C INTERACTIVELY WITH INTRODUCING C

Intimidated by rumors about the difficulty of learning C? Need to train your staff quickly? INTRODUCING C can help. INTRODUCING C combines a thorough, sell-paced manual with a unique C interpreter to provide a fast, efficient method of learning C. Designed for both professional and casual programmers, it provides a comprehensive understanding of important C concepts such as standard K&R syntax and operators, lull structures and unions, arrays, pointers, and data types. Requires IBM PC, XT. or AT with one disk drive and 192K bytes of memory. COST: S125 - NOT COPY PROTECTED

CI PROBE SOURCE DEBUGGER

Take advantage of C86 2.3 source level debugging support with CI PROBE. Cut down program development time and save money! CI PROBE is highly economical yet has the features of debuggers costing far more. COST: S225 - NOT COPY PROTECTED

C-TERP C86 COMPATIBLE INTERPRETER

The C-TERP INTERPRETER is a full K&R implementation that allows you to write code and execute it immediately without the compile and link steps. Once you have your program running with C-TERP you can compile the code (without alterations) with C86 lor last, efficient executable files. C-TERP requires 256K. 512K is recommended. COST: C86 version - List Price: S300, Special Computer Innovations Price S250. Combined C86 & Lattice version - List Price: S400, Special Computer Innovations Price S350.

Start With Us, Stay With Us

Computer Innovations offers a complete range of products that let you enter trie C environment and create applications with the most advanced set of development tools available. Unparalleled tech support assures that you're always at the height of productivity.

To order call: 800-922-0169

Bi COMPUTER 1 INNOVATIONS, INC.

980 Shrewsbury Ave., Tinton Falls, NJ 07724 • (201) 542-5920

C-TERP is a trademark of Gimple Software Prices and specifications subject to change without notice

Inquiry 76

IANUARY 1986

iYTE 363

i

Contact us for other low prices on hardware and software. Next Day Air Extra, Call for latest prices.

FREE SHIPPING

in the Continental United States

NO SURCHARGE FOR E3 OR

i i

20 MEG Hard Disk System for PC

Internal $469 External $619

Half Height

Includes Seagate Hard Disk, Western Digital Controller, Cables, Manual, Software, and Mounting Hardware. Boots From Hard Disk One Year Warranty

Floppy Disk Drive mi£

55 B, Half-Height, DS/DD

MITSUBISHI

(Japan's Best) Half-Height, DS/DD

Call us for competitive prices on larger quantities of RAM chips.

64K RAM

Set of 9 chips, 200 or 150 Nanoseconds

$8

per set

256K RAM $29 128Kram

Set of 9 chips 150 Nanoseconds §et $39

PC'S LIMITED Six Function Card

• Upgradable to 384K

• Clock/Calendar

• Includes Software

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port

• Game Port

Two Year Warranty

w/384K $129

PC's Limited PC-576 RAM Board W/OK

• Expandable to 576K

• Supports 64K or 256K RAMS

• Fits in Short Slot

$69

20 and 30 MEG High Speed 40 MS Hard Disks for AT

20 MEG $579 30 MEG $699

Includes Seagate Full Height Hard Disk, Cables, Manual, and Mounting Ralls. Boots from Hard Disk. One Year Warranty.

SOLVE YOUR POWER PROBLEM.

XT POWER 135W

$89

25 or mere $75 each

Directly replaces power supply in PC." Fully XT'" compatible. One Year warranty

300/1200 Baud Hayes Compatible Modem Fits in Short Slot

$159

PC's Limited AT Multifunction Card

' Expandable To 3 Meg (1.5 on Board/1.5 on Piggy Back Board)

• Supports 64 or 256K Rams

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port (2nd Serial Optional)

$199

w/0K

Piggy Back Board S59 w/OK

PC's Limited Floppy Controller Card

"CI, '

$49

1 Supports Up To Four Drives

364 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 277

PRICES AND MACHINES THAT OUTRUN THE COMPETITION.

HI PC'S LIMITED1U™?

High Performance Competitive Price

'ilk

$795

PC'S LIMITED AT

High Performance Competitive Price

Includes: System Unit, 640K on Mother Board, 360K Floppy Drive, Keyboard, 13 5W Power Supply.

bill ■« Ma|ar Safhrara wttH.n lor the IBM PC" and PC/XT', 40% hilar, »ilfco»lmodifi.oliom. (PrOfauar) 16-bH 8068-2, 4.77 or 6.66MHZ tlotk Spsed. (Expaniion Stall) :8; 7 ore avaikrbla In abav* lonrtgunrHoi

$1995

Includes: 80286-based System Unit, I024K on Mother Board, 1.2 Meg.Floppy Drive, Combined Floppy and Hard Disk Controller Card, AT Keyboard, 192W Power Supply, 2 Serials and 1 Parallel Port, and Clock/Calendar with Battery Backup, all on Mother Board.

Sum all Major Software written (or Hie IBM PC, PC XV, and PC AT". (Precenor) Intel 80206 punning al 6MHZ.

(Expansion Sloti) 18. 7 aro availablo In abovo configuration. Same But Configuration 01 IBM PC AT".

(8MHZ optional)

PC's Limited PC-2000 RAM Board W/OK Fully Compatible With Lotus/Intel Expansion Memory Paging Technique

• Expandable to 2048K

• Includes Ramdisk/Print Spooler Software

$159

PC's Limited Monochrome Graphics Fully Hercules Compatible

• Text Mode 80 X 25

• Graphics Mode 720 X 348 Pixels

• One Parallel Printer Port

$159

Irwin Tape Backup System

1 Uses Floppy Controller Card ' 10.35 Meg Formatted Capacity ' Used in Compaq Deskpro.

tape not included

• Half Height

• Low Power

PC's Limited Mini I/O

• Serial Port

• Parallel Port

• Clock

• Software

• Fits In Short Slot

PC's Limited Universal • Video Adapter

$259

' Replaces numerous cards, including IBM, Hercules, Plantronics.

• Provides 132 column text—color or mono ' Supports all parallel printers and plotters

• Emulates color software on monochrome monitor in 16 shades

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IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 365

I

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

68000 OBJECTION

Dear Jerry,

In the July BYTE ("Quo Vadimus?" on page 309) you mention that many ignore the Motorola 68000 family despite its fine architecture. For those of us in the scientific world, there is an important reason that 68000-based microcomputers have not yet caught on. That is the lack of a 32-bit floating-point math chip for the 68000 series, analogous to the 8087 family for the 16-bit 8086/8088 series. Motorola has promised such a chip, but it has not yet materialized at the user level. The Skye board, which does do floatingpoint operations, yields about a factor of 3 increase in speed. A 4.77-MHz 8088based Compaq with an 8087 will do floating-point calculations approximately 10 times faster than a 68000-based system with a Skye board. The 6-MHz 80286/ 80287-based IBM PC AT and the 8-MHz 8086/8087-based AT&T 6300 push this ratio to something like 20:1. While 68000-based systems compile and link a lot faster, when you have to start crunching numbers in a language like (1 know you hate this) FORTRAN, the next step after Intel's 16-bit series is something like a VAX, which has good floating-point hardware available.

Joel S. Davis Albuquerque, NM

They tell me that Motorola is fixing this Real Soon Now. Meanwhile. I don't hate FORTRAN; I just don't think there's an easy-to-use implementation of it for micros. Certainly there wasn't back when Maclean and I were first learning about these little machines; FORTRAN was the only higher-level language I'd had any experience with (or read any books about). If there had been a good implementation. I'd probably have been a real champion of RATFOR for micros!

I expect there are good micro FORTRANs now, but I've lost the knack.

Best—Jerry

Sour Apples

Dear Jerry,

Being a late convert to the world of the microcomputer, I have always been amazed at the biased and bizarre views

366 BYTE" JANUARY 1986

of so-called computer hackers. I am currently astonished by the childish behavior of hackers who are in reality Apple fans. I continue to read with amusement their immature ramblings on how we all must join with them to save the world from IBM. These California throwbacks to the Aquarian age are so detached from reality that they may never come back. First, let's look at what IBM did. Its people designed a computer using a microcomputer chip (the venerable 8088J from a third-party vendor (Intel), using an operating system from a third-party vendor (Microsoft), and gave out bus and interconnection information so that anybody could design expansion cards and accessories for it. IBM did make some stupid decisions on the monochrome-versus color-display format and that infamous keyboard that opened the door for even more third-party action. But this is hardly Orwell's 1984. Even the most casual perusal of BYTE reveals that numerous small companies are reaping the benefits of what IBM has done.

Now let's look at the Apple Macintosh to see where Apple is headed. Well, it appears that we have a closed system and a proprietary operating system. On top of that, if you want to do program development, you have to sign a licensing agreement that forbids any criticism of Apple (now that sounds like 1984). Lx>ok how Apple treated its early Mac supporters by charging them $900 for the memory upgrade to 512K bytes. Contrast that to IBM's decision to send all early PCjr buyers a free replacement keyboard.

Now Apple is trying to call the Mac a business machine. The Macintosh design team was a group of immature computer whiz kids who obviously did not give any thought to creating a business computer. If they did, it's obvious that none of them knew what a business computer is, or should be. Anyone attempting to design a business computer must consider the following basic criteria:

1. Ergonomic keyboard. Since a business requires both text and numerical entries and easy scrolling, you need a goodquality keyboard with a separate numeric keypad and cursor pad.

2. Versatile, clear display: Businesses require the option to use either a monochrome or color display. Since many workers do not have excellent vision, the display must be large (at least 13 inches diagonally) and have excellent resolution. Also, the monochrome and color formats should be the same (sorry, IBM).

3. Two disk drives. A minimum of two disk drives are required to reduce annoying and time-consuming disk swaps and to simplify backing up disks.

4. Built-in expansion slots. Since all businesses have unique requirements, expansion slots must be available to tailor the computer to the needs of the business. To minimize desk clutter and to maximize performance, the expansion slots should be in the main unit, directly connected to the main buses on the motherboard.

The Mac falls short in all four categories. Sure, you can clutter up your desk and spend extra money buying a numeric keypad and a second external disk drive. But you can't have a cursor pad, a color display, or any expansion slots. A mouse is a great editing tool, but it is irritating and difficult to use during keyboard-intensive text entry or when entering numerical data in a spreadsheet. Anyway, with the numeric keypad and second disk drive taking up all your desk space, where are you going to roll the stupid mouse?

As to your problems with the MacTribesmen, you do not have to be converted. The Mac is seriously flawed in both design and execution. Apple had a real chance with the development of the Lisa to set the standard for all future computers. Instead, it assembled a design team of brilliant, but naive, kids and let them develop a nice little toy. Then Apple decided to close the system. On top of that, Apple released a virtually unusable 128Kbyte system. Let's hope that all those Mac fans out there get the message and pass it on to Apple. If Apple's arrogance hurts sales enough, maybe Apple and other manufacturers will mend their ways.

David Brandt Oakdale. NY

Well, you put things a bit more strongly than I would. Stay well— Jerry ■

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IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 369

We call him Asher the Slasher. Not to insinuate that he's the violent type. Let's just say that Asher carries his job as media director to a kind of quasi-psychotic extreme; the way he slices up ad copy is a copywriter's nightmare.

But when he ordered us to write this ad for Final Draft, the new word processor from CYMA/McGraw-Hill, we started feeling pretty brave. Because we use Final Draft every day. And we know exactly what to say about this incredibly simple and unbelievably powerful system. Without Asher's slashes.

So we wrote about the edit

commands. They're alphabetically assigned so that you can learn them easily. All 35, not 305 like some of the other systems we've struggled with. In fact, Final Draft is so simple, you can learn to use it the first day and master it the second. We did.

And then we described the feature list: automatic red-lining and strike-out, table of contents, floating footnotes, thesaurus, spelling check . . . power you won't find in comparably-priced systems.

But, as usual, the Slasher had some descriptions all his own. "You call this an ad?! I've read better copy in comic books! I'd better get a real ad

by 5 o'clock, or heads will roll!"

This time, he couldn't scare us. Because we knew it was a great ad. So we stored it with the canned paragraph feature, wrote 37 memos to the execs at CYMA, and read the ad into each one. And they loved it. Absolutely raved. Put it in all the magazines, and since then we've canned all our work with Final Draft.

Now we're working on Asher.

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37 TIMES

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

Industry Updates Benchmarking Predictions

by Bruce Webster

Benchmarking

Bruce Webster is a consulting editor for BYTE. He can be contacted do BYTE. POB 1910. Orem. UT 84057.

'ell, I made it. I and my belongings got to Utah relatively in

, ; ;" ; tact, and I managed to get

everything unpacked and organized a day or two ago, so I'm ready to really start working again. I appreciate your patience over the last few months; these columns have been a little bit sparse, but that should change now.

Industry Update

It is late September when I write this, and Apple has just announced several new products, including a 20-megabyte hard disk for the Macintosh (reportedly priced at $1495) and a 3!/2-inch 800K-byte disk drive for the Apple lie and lie (at $499). Other products include a new version of the Imagewriter printer and two high-resolution color monitors for the Apple II computers. Not having seen any of them, I can't really comment except to say that it's good to see Apple taking a more aggressive role in the marketplace. I've taken swipes at Apple just about every month, mostly out of frustration at the mixture of brilliance and lack of brilliance coming out of Cupertino. Apple's innovative edge had dulled a little, but common sense seems to be making a strong comeback, and it bodes well for Apple as well as the industry as a whole.

On another front, IBM has been very quiet for the last few months, having said little since announcing that earnings for the rest of 1985 were not going to be very good and that the PC II did not, does not, and will not exist. I am not quite sure what this means, but I see two possibilities: Either the Entry Systems Division is in disarray since the mandated relocation of 200 of its executives from Florida to New Jersey, or IBM is planning to make some stunning announcement and has managed for once to keep it quiet. If it's the latter, the people at IBM will probably have made the announcement by the time you read this—they like the November/December period for such things.

In the Atari 520ST versus Commodore Amiga battle, it appears Atari has won the first skirmish by getting machines out the door, onto dealers' shelves, and into users' homes. Commodore is just this week getting demo units of the Amiga to dealers. 1 do not yet have either machine. As I type, though, an Atari 520ST is winging its way to me from the BYTE offices in Peterborough. No word yet. though, on when an Amiga might show up. Look for a side-byside-by-side comparison of the 520ST, Amiga, and Macintosh as systems and development software become available.'

Meanwhile, the "Christmas wars" should be over by the time you read this. Going out on a limb, 1 think that the Atari 520ST will be the big winner, with the Amiga also doing well (but not as well as the Atari). The big loser will be the Apple II, barring a drastic price reduction down to less than $600. Right now, the Apple II falls between the 520ST and the Amiga in price but looks rather pitiful next to either one in performance. The software advantage has carried the Apple II for a long time, but consumers now have some affordable alternatives that make up in sheer power what they may lack in available software. (For more on all this, see the "Predictions for 1986" section later in the column.)

Benchmarks and Language Selection

Speaking of performance, a discussion of benchmarks has been going on for the last week or two in the Pascal conference on BIX (BYTE Information Exchange). The consensus is that the (in)famous Sieve of Eratosthenes (see listing 1) is not adequate by itself as a benchmark and that you should run several different programs to exercise various aspects of a given compiler or computer. The trick, of course, is coming up with the right set of programs.

What characteristics would the right set of benchmarks have? First, such a set would

(continued)

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 371

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need to cover the different aspects of a computer language. The Sieve, at first glance, doesn't do a bad job: It includes integer arithmetic and comparisons, array indexing, loops, and conditional tests. And the Sieve works well for getting "rough order of magnitude" comparisons between languages; for example, the benchmark times shown in my August 1985 column give a pretty good idea of the comparative speeds of, say, MacPascal versus MacModula-2 versus Megamax C. But the Sieve is probably not so reliable by itself for comparing all the C compilers on the Macintosh. Why? The bulk of the time is spent with just a few statements: assigning a constant value to a onedimensional Boolean (or, for C, integer or short) array, increasing an integer value by another integer value, and testing if one integer value is less than or equal to another. By optimizing those few operations, a compiler/language can look good running the Sieve but might not perform so well with a broader mix of tasks.

Let's say, then, that we're going to design a set (or suite) of benchmark programs for comparing compilers and languages. What aspects should be covered? The list might be as follows:

• Integer arithmetic. Addition and subtraction will be fairly straightforward, since the underlying processor can prob

{continued)

Listing l: The Sieve of Eratosthenes program written in Pascal.

program Prime(lnput,Output);

calculate first 1891 prime numbers 10 times

purpose

}

const

Size var

Flags

I,Prime,K,Count,Iter begin Writeln('size of flags: Writein('10 iterations',Chr(7)); for Iter : = 1 to 10 do begin Count : = 0; for I : = 0 to Size do

Flags[l] : = True; for I := 0 to Size do if Flags[l] then begin Prime : = I + I + 3; K : = I + Prime; while K < = Size do begin Flags[K] : = False; K : = K + Prime end;

Count : = Count + 1 end

end;

Writeln(Chr(7),Count,' primes') end. { of program Primes }

= 8190;

: array[0..Size] of Boolean; : Integer;

\SizeOf(Flags));

372 BYTE • IANUARY I986

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ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

ably handle them well. Multiplication and division, though, should get special attention, since they're more difficult and time-consuming, making them better targets for compiler or run-time library improvement.

• Real arithmetic. Typically, most compilers call run-time routines to perform real-number math, so speeds will vary widely depending upon how well written those libraries are. My own benchmark experience bears that out, with significant speed variations between different compilers. Also, precision is as important, if not more so, than speed; more on that later.

• Array manipulation. Arrays are the closest thing to a universal data structure, found in just about all programming languages. They should be read from and written to. Multidimensional arrays with multibyte elements provide the best test of performance.

• Character and string manipulation. The perception of computers as number crunchers lives on, but micros probably do more text processing than any other single function. Different types of string manipulations, including assignments and comparisons, are worth timing.

• Manipulation of other data structures, like records or sets. Pascal, C, and FORTH all allow complex data structures; assignment and manipulation of subfields should be timed.

• Control structures. Loops and IF. . THEN and CASE statements all need to be tested. These are usually straightforward enough, but some care must be taken to provide accurate comparisons. The code within the control structures must have closely matched or wellmeasured performance between different compilers.

• Subroutine calls. As with control structures, you should be sure you're measuring the call and return performance rather than code within the subroutine or bracketing the call.

• Screen input/output. I/O performance tends to be fuzzy because the operating system often stands in the way. Even so, some compilers handle this better than others. On the other hand, those that perform better often do so at the expense of portability by using machine-specific features.

• Disk I/O. Again, the hardware and the operating system play a big role here, but with those two factors held con

Table 1: Times, in seconds, recorded by seven different Pascal implementations running four benchmarks. These

programs were all

run on

the same computer.

Implementation

Sieve

Matrix

Sort

Reals

1

15.3

4.9

12.3

8.4

2

12.3

9.9

3.1

8.0

3

15.2

12.3

14.6

109.0

4

164.3

13.3

17.2

4.2

5

20.9

4.5

10.7

4.2

6

234.3

27.5

26.9

19.9

7

23.8

12.4

11.5

19.9

374 BYTE • JANUARY I986

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stant, language performance can be safely compared.

The second characteristic is that these aspects should be isolated into different programs so that performance in each area can be measured. This isn't always easy; for example, it's hard to test control structures (loops, etc.) without having something in them—but that something might create a speed difference. Likewise, to test, say, integer arithmetic, you may want to set up a loop—but how much effect does the loop have? Still, with work and care you can get a pretty good idea of what aspects of each benchmark program are critical. By separating the benchmarks, you can develop a profile for each compiler or language. This will help you decide which one to use for a particular application.

Third, the issue of true comparison versus optimization must be dealt with. For example, at the start of the Sieve, the array F'ags is initialized using a FOR loop. Many compilers and languages support a fast fill routine (such as FillChar in UCSD and Turbo Pascal or the FILL word found in many FORTH implementations); using such implementation- or language-specific features can speed execution, while strict adherence to an independent form provides a more "accurate" (though possibly less relevant) comparison. So the question is this: Should the benchmark programs be adjusted for each compiler/language to take advantage of special features, or should they remain as identical to other versions as possible? This is another argument for a set of benchmark programs; with multiple programs, you reduce the possibility of a specific feature or extension resulting in deceptively good performance for a single program.

Finally, be aware of compiler options that can affect speed. Turbo Pascal, for example, has a number of options (range checking, user interrupts, etc.) that are turned off by default, resulting in very fast execution. If you turn just one of them—$U + , for user interrupts—back on, your benchmark programs will slow down by a factor of 10 or so. in contrast; 7BMPascal (version 1.0) has a number of similar options (covered by the metacommand $DEBUG) turned on by default, resulting in slower execution. When you run benchmarks, make sure that the compiler options are identically set, preferably with as many options turned off as possible.

Interpreting Benchmarks

Once you've run those benchmarks through a number of compilers or languages, you may find that the results are not as clear-cut as you would like. A particular implementation may do well with a few of the benchmarks, so-so with some others, and poorly with one or two. For example, table 1 shows the results of running four benchmarks— the Sieve, an integer matrix multiplication, a string sort, and a real-number arithmetic exercise—through seven different versions of a particular language on the same computer. Note the dramatic differences. For example, imple

[tonlinued)

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mentation #3 looks pretty good with most of the benchmarks but does horribly with the real numbers. Likewise, implementation #4 beats all the others with the real numbers (except for #5, which it ties) but is terribly slow on the Sieve and less than exciting on the other two. Implementation #5 seems to be the closest to an all-around winner; it comes in first on the second and fourth benchmarks and does acceptably well on the first and third. (For those of you dying of curiosity, the different implementations are unmasked at the end of the column.)

So the question is this: Which one do you go with? Well, as with just about any decision involving micros, "That depends." Upon what? Upon what you want to do with it. If you're going to be doing a lot of real-number calculation, you probably won't choose implementation #3. Likewise, for functions similar to the Sieve, you don't want #4 or #6. But performance alone may not give you sufficient information to select one compiler or language over another. For example, the benchmarks for implementations #1, #2, and #5 are close enough that, for a general mix of functions, performance is going to be pretty much equal. So how do you choose?

More than Speed

Once you have eliminated performance as a criterion for selecting a compiler or language, you should consider other factors. Some of these are

• Precision of real numbers (mentioned above). There are many pitfalls in doing real arithmetic, like cumulative round-off errors, subtraction of nearly identical values/and so on. Compilers typically have a set of library routines for doing real arithmetic; the quality of these routines can dramatically impact the quality of your results beyond the simple issue of how many significant digits the compiler supports.

• Memory models. Most compilers perform well for small programs; what happens when you want to write a large one? How large a program can you have? How much memory can you actually use, and what can you use it for? What mechanisms exist for getting around those limits?

• Compiler size and speed. This wasn't considered an issue until Borland International released Turbo Pascal, which was an order of magnitude smaller and one or two orders faster than anything else out at the time. I, for one, wonder now why many other compilers are so big and so slow.

• Adherence to standards. This can be for the language itself or for the libraries supplied. Again, Turbo Pascal has been controversial in this respect; critics have pointed out the ways in which Borland ignored the ISO (International Standards Organization) and Wirth definitions and the problems caused thereby, while apologists have countered by claiming Turbo itself is a de facto standard because more copies of Turbo are in existence and use than any other Pascal implementation (and, probably, more than all other implementations combined).

376 BYTE- IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 267

Inquiry 274

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

• Access to hardware/ROM (read-only memory)/operating system. How well does the compiler let you use the computer you're running on? This can include graphics, I/O ports, mass-storage devices, math coprocessors, and calls to ROM or operating-system routines.

• Utilities. Does the language have support programs, like editors, debuggers, linkers, and libraries? How many are included in your package, how much do the rest cost, and how well do they work?

• Cost, licensing, technical support, and upgrades. If you're planning to do a lot of work in a given language, cost is not that big an issue (unless, of course, you don't have the money). If you're planning to do commercial work, licensing is a big issue, although more and more firms are dropping licensing fees (inspired, perhaps, by the death of SofTech Microsystems, which used to ask incredible fees). Likewise, good technical-support and upgrade policies are important for serious development, since most compilers are undergoing constant improvement.

• Your environment. If all your coworkers are using C, it may not be a good idea to select Pascal, and vice versa. This is especially true if someone else is going to maintain your program (fix bugs, add features, etc.) after you've written it.

• Aesthetics and philosophy. Some people really like C; others swear by Pascal; yet others prefer FORTH, or LISP, or assembly language, or even (gasp!) BASIC. The reasons are many, complex, and often inalterable; in this respect, a person's language preference becomes as firm as religion or politics. What's really ironic is that, given all the benchmarks and other valid issues, this last point is often the deciding one, and the others are shamelessly manipulated to support the predetermined decision.

As you can see, there is much, much more to consider in selecting a given language or compiler than how fast it runs the Sieve program. Of course, this is all assuming that you're running on one given computer. If we start talking about different configurations (memory, disks, etc.), not to mention entirely different computers, the issues become even more complex.

PREDICTIONS FOR 1986

I'm not sure what it is that makes us get such a kick out of trying to predict the future, but it is fun. I am, perhaps, a bit unwise to try it myself; not only am I writing this before 1986 even starts (late September, to be exact), but 1 don't have much in the way of inside information, especially living up here in the Rockies. But, as the song says, I've been a fool for lesser things, so here goes.

• There will be a big upswing in the "mythical" home computer market. This will start toward the end of 1985 and will continue strong through most of 1986. What's more, the public—having learned their lesson from the millions

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of C-64s, TI-99/4AS, and VIC-20s gathering dust on bookshelves—will be willing to put out the bucks to buy powerful, expandable computers. The result is that. . .

• Commodore and Atari will both do well, much to everyone's surprise. People will buy the 520ST and the Amiga, looking for a system that can do serious work and yet run nifty games. The Apple II has been the only computer on the market for years that has really filled that bill, and its aging technology has caught up with it. This means that. . .

• Sales of the Apple ll will plummet, only to be spurred again by dramatically reduced prices. This, of course, will hurt Apple, since the lie/lie models have been the real cash cows, helping to subsidize the Lisa and the Macintosh. As a result. . .

• Apple will be scrambling, trying to rectify its mistakes of the last two years. The computer-as-toaster concept of the Macintosh has failed. It remains the easiest computer around to use, but the crippling hardware limitations have held it back. A Mac-like machine with slots, a fan, a faster processor and disk drives, more memory and mass storage, a larger display, and possibly even color will be released. With these changes. . .

• An MS-DOS card for the new Macintosh will be released. Probably not from Apple, it will most likely come from either Dayna Communications (the MacCharlie people) or AST Research. The card will have cables leading to a pair of 5^-inch disk drives, and the whole system will let the new Mac look like an IBM PC. Once this happens. . .

• The Macintosh will finally start to penetrate the corporate business market—two years late, and in nowhere near the numbers that Apple had hoped. Nevertheless, it will generate some cash and (more important) confidence from Wall Street, sending Apple stock up from its long-term slump. However, in the meantime. . .

• An MS-DOS box-with 8088 processor and a BIOS (basic input/output system) from the folks at Phoenix—will be released for the Amiga. It will plug into the Amiga's expansion bus and take over the machine, using the 68000 as an auxiliary I/O processor. It may have its own 5!4-inch drives, or it may use the optional 5^-inch Amiga drives. At the same time. . .

• UNIX, despite its many serious flaws, will also do well, much to everyone's surprise (except all those UNIX hackers who have sworn by it all along). Versions of UNIX will appear almost simultaneously for the new Macintosh, the Amiga, and the upgraded (l-megabyte) 520ST. All three machines will become popular in university and engineering environments, as those same UNIX hackers discover the delight of having a computer all to yourself. The upshot of all this is that. . .

• The 68000 will have a good year, not only because of the successes of the new Mac, the Amiga, and the 520ST, but because of other 68000-based systems aimed at home, educational, and scientific markets. Indeed, the 80x86 versus 680x0 dichotomy will cause deja vu in those who have seen the IBM versus DEC mainframe and mini

378 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry I99

Inquiry 87

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

computer market divisions over the years. Speaking of whom. . .

• IBM will mostly sit on its lead (and its hands), content to rely on momentum and its name to sell products. The only new product to see the light of day will be its laptop portable, which will be decently designed but poorly marketed and received. Instead, this market will be snatched up by the clone-makers, much as the desktop portable market was, and possibly by the same firm: Compaq. And speaking of the clone-makers.. .

• IBM-compatible computers will continue to grab a larger share of the business market, eating into IBM's sales. Should IBM be so foolish as to introduce a proprietary operating system, that share will actually increase, as both software developers and consumers shy away from locking themselves into IBM-only software and hardware.

Well, that's that. Those are my predictions for 1986. A year from now, I'll review them and see how I did. None are terribly dramatic, and there will undoubtedly be major developments that are unanticipated here.

In the Queue

Well, the Atari 520ST arrived safe and sound and is now set up and running. Next month's column will be devoted to first impressions of the machine, which 1 think will sell very well. I'll also look at a significant piece of development software for the 520ST: a native-code Modula-2 compiler from TDI Software Ltd. Other programming tools will be covered, too, including two new native-code Pascal compilers for the Macintosh and a useful set of diagnostic tools for Turbo Pascal development under MS-DOS. An Amiga computer is now on its way, so the following month (March) will have benchmarks and other comparisons between the Mac, the 520ST, and the Amiga.

And the Answer Is...

For those of you who are curious as to the identities of the language implementations in table 1, here's the story. All of these are Pascal implementations running on a Compaq portable under MS-DOS 1.1. Since all were done in the spring of 1984, they are out of date; new versions of most (if not all) of the implementations have since been released. If I had had the latest versions of all the Pascals, I would have rerun the benchmarks, but I didn't. As such, these should not be considered accurate or current. The envelope, please:

#1: Turbo Pascal, version 2.0, Borland International

#2: IBM Pascal, version 1.0, IBM (Microsoft)

#3: Pascal/MT+, version 3.1, Digital Research Inc.

#4: UCSD Pascal, version IV. 1, Network Consulting Inc.

#5: Same as #4, but run through the native-code generator

#6: UCSD Pascal, version IV. 1, SofTech Microsystems

#7: Same as #6, but run through the native-code generator

Incidentally, these were all run with as many compiler options turned off as possible. ■

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PANASONIC 1091 $221.95

APPLE 2Ew/DRiVE $790.00

'PRINTER SPECIALS"

Brother HR15XL

Brother HP.35

Clllzen MSP 10

Corona Laser

Epson Lxeo

Epson LQ 1500

DX10

0X20

DX35

FX 185

HP Laser JbI

Juki 6100

312 635 234 23B7 208 837 223 319 619 458

NEC 2050

593

Powerlype

275

NEC 3550

915

Star SG10

198

NEC 8850

1317

Slar SG 15

333

Okidala192

323

Star SD 10

302

OKIdal 193

468

Star SO 15

400

Okldata 182

219

Star SR 10

425

Okimale 10

115

StarSR 15

510

Olympai ro

250

Star SB 10

426

Panasonic KXP 1091

222

Silver ReeOExp550

354

Panasonic KXP 1092

327

Silver Reed Exp 500

231

Panasonic KXP 1093

390

Silver Reed Exp 770

593

Panasonic KXP 3151

379

Toshiba 1340

416

Toshiba 351

985

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IBM

AT Enhanced ATUnenhanced IBM Monitor IBM PC 258K PC XT

PC XT Clone IBM Drive AST Six Pack Tall Grass 25 Meg Quad Board Keylronlcs HBfcules Color Hercules Monochrome Paradise Graphics Paradise 5 Pack STB Graphics +2 STB R10 + 2 STB Mono Board Tecmar Graphics TecmarCaptian Persyst Monocard Bernouli Box

SANYO

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80287 Chip AST Advaniages Everex Edge Everex Magic

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Amdek 300 Green Amdek 300 Amber 310 Amber Color 300 Color 500 Color 600 Color 710 Princton HX12 Princton Max 12 SR12 Taxan 420

222 364 399 390 id? 533 370

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Hayes 1200 349 Hayes 1200B w/Smartcom 323

Hayes 300 120

Hayes 2400 562

Micromodern 2E 123

Novation J-cat 68

Promethous 1200 284

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COMMODORE

Commodore 64 1541 Disk Drive MPS 803 Monitor Indus. Drive Commodore 128 1571 Drive

259 223

Items relied cash discount. For your protection we check for siolen crecil cards. M.C./VISA welcome. Personal checks causa 4 week delay.

Inquiry 153

JANUARY 1986 - BYTE 379

BYTE JAPAN

NEC's PC-98XA, PC-9801VF2, PC-9801VM2, PC-9801VM0, PC-9801U2,

and V30.

DynaMac, EgWord, EgBridge, and FM-167T

by William M. Raike

William M. Raike, who has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Northwestern University, has taught operations research and computer science in Austin, Texas, and Monterey, California. He holds a patent on a voice scrambler and was formerly an officer of Cryptext Corporation in the United States. \n 1980, he went to \apan looking for 64K-6it RAMs. He has been there ever since as a technical translator and a software developer. He can be contacted do BYTE, POB 372. Hancock, NH 03449.

Favoring Kanji

A- s this is being written, the autumn O-bon holidays are behind us, along with the last of the muggy weather. It looks as if I may finally catch up with some postponed chores, like having the straw covers of my tatami mats turned over, mending the paper shoji screens on my sliding doors, buying new futons (sleeping mats), and checking the disk drives for mildew.

NEC Upgrades the PC-9801

Recently, NEC has introduced so many new models in its PC-9801 series that I wonder if it's been taking its cues from automobile manufacturers. The most popular personal and office computers in Japan, the PC-9801 series is the domestic version of the APC III that NEC sells in the U.S. I first mentioned the PC-98XA in BYTE Japan last October (page 381); it's the top-of-the-line model, based on the 80286 microprocessor (the same one IBM uses in its PC AT). In the same column, I mentioned the oddly timed introduction of the PC-9801 U2, a version that uses 3'/2-inch microfloppy-disk drives and has less main RAM (random-access read/write memory) and graphics video RAM than the mainstays of the product line, the F2 and M2 models. All the previous PC-9801 models had been based on the 8086-2 microprocessor, and they differed primarily in the capacities of their built-in 5-inch floppy-disk drives. NEC uses the suffixes U2, F2, M2, M3, etc., to distinguish among PC-9801 models with different diskdrive configurations, memory capacities, etc., but they are all just variations of the basic PC-9801.

Besides the PC-98XA, the new-model lineup includes the PC-9801VF2, VM2, and VMO, in addition to the PC-9801 U2. NEC has switched over to a microprocessor it developed itself, the V30, instead of using the 8086 originally developed by Intel Corporation in the U.S. The V30 microprocessor (its actual designation is the fiPD70116) is completely software-compatible

with the 8086, meaning that it can run all programs that run on the 8086 or 8088 microprocessors used in most current 16-bit computers. The only difference is that it executes them quite a bit faster—typically 30 to 50 percent—even when running at the same clock speed. In the VMO and VM2 models, a slightly faster version of the V30 is used, and there's a switch so that you can select either of two clock speeds. The 8-MHz rate is compatible with older versions of the PC-9801 line, for programs that involve critical timing loops and the like, while the 10-MHz rate gives a 25 percent speed boost. Unfortunately, the 10-MHz rate is too fast for the old-type expansion RAM boards, so people upgrading from the older PC-9801 models will either have to use the slower 8-MHz clock rate or buy the new high-speed expansion boards NEC sells along with the new machines.

The F in the VF2 suffix refers to the 640Kbyte floppy-disk format; the 2 means there are two built-in 5!4-inch floppy-disk drives. The VMO model has no built-in floppy-disk drives, although it does house both 5!4- and 8-inch interfaces because it's designed for users who intend to use external disk drives or for factory-automation applications. The VM2 has two built-in 1-megabyte floppydisk drives, although in this model they are also supposed to be able to read disks recorded on earlier NEC machines in either 640K-byte or 320K-byte formats. Based on the experiences of people I know with earlier models of the PC-9801,1 suspect that the ability to read disks recorded in different formats depends on which operating system you use.

The NEC machines can run Japanese-language versions of either CP/M-86 or MSDOS. NEC spokespersons say the company plans to make CCP/M, Microsoft Windows, and MS-DOS 3.1 available here in the near future. In the past, the PC-9801's ability to read various disk formats hasn't worked for people running under CP/M-86.

(continued)

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 381

BYTE JAPAN

CopyWrite

BACKS UP IBM PC SOFTWARE

Hundreds of the most popular copy-protected programs are copied readily. CopyWrite needs no complicated parameters. It needs an IBM Personal Computer, or an XT or an AT, 128k bytes of memory, and one diskette drive. CopyWrite will run faster with more memory or another drive.

CopyWrite is revised monthly to keep up with the latest in copy-protection. You may get a new edition at any time for a $15 trade in fee.

CopyWrite makes back up copies to protect you against accidental loss of your software. It is not for producing copies for sale or trade, or for any other use that deprives the author of payment for his work.

To order CopyWrite, send a check for $50 U.S., or call us with your credit card. We will ship the software within a day.

Quaid Software Limited

45 Charles Street East Third Floor

Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1S2 (416) 961-8243

Ask about ZeroDisk to run copy-protected software from a hard disk without floppies.

The long-awaited ]apanese-language version of the Macintosh is

finally in the showrooms here.

Other improvements that are now standard were extra-cost options on earlier models. For instance, all models now include a full 6000-plus kanji-character ROM (read-only memory), and the VM2 and VMO models now have 384K bytes of RAM, while the VF2 has 2 56K bytes. A mouse interface is now standard on all models, too, as are 192K bytes of graphics video RAM (except on the U2 model, which has only 96K bytes of graphics video RAM and 128K of main RAM).

Although discounts of 20 or even 2 5 percent are common, the list prices of these computers are not too high considering the technology they represent. The PC-9801VF2 costs about $1480, while the PG9801VM2 costs about $1765. The VMO model costs only about $ 12 5 5. If these prices sound a little higher than those I've mentioned recently in this column, it's because they reflect the recent drop in the value of the dollar against the yen.

DYNAMAC

When I reported on last year's springtime computer shows, 1 had very little good to say about Apple's attempts to introduce the Macintosh to the Japanese market. You can now find features like mice and windows as low-cost options on lapanese-made computers (along with plenty of software). The biggest drawback of the Mac at that time was that it couldn't speak lapanese (except for some strange katakana displays kludged up using graphics). But Apple's reshuffling of its

lapanese distribution setup and its linkup with Canon seem to have made a difference. The long-awaited Japanese-language version of the Macintosh is finally in the showrooms, and it looks as if it's been done properly and professionally. They've piggybacked a small kanji-character ROM board onto the main board of a 512Kbyte Macintosh and written some software to take advantage of it. The result is the DynaMac. It's a package consisting of a 512K-byte Macintosh with the kanji ROM installed (no. it's not available in the U.S.), an external disk drive, and a printer. (The printer is the Seikosha SP 1000 AR which offers a very readable kanji font, but you can order the standard Apple Imagewriter instead.) The kanji ROM incorporates only the IIS (lapan Industrial Standard) No. 1 set of 3400 or so characters, which is enough for lots of applications, although all the topranking lapanese personal computers also include the additional 3000 or so characters in the IIS No. 2 character set. The limitation is unlikely to be serious because, like other lapanese machines, the system includes the ability to incorporate additional userdefined kanji in the phrase dictionary stored on a floppy disk.

1 visited the exhibition where the DynaMac made its debut, courtesy of HI-TECS Company Ltd. in Tokyo a local Apple distributor. In contrast to similar earlier affairs staged by other companies, the demonstrations were professionally organized. There were plenty of machines available, and there was enough well-informed staff on hand that no visitors ended up wandering around looking lost. I asked to see a demonstration of the lapanese-language word-processing program first. It makes effective use of the mouse and pull-down windows, and it seemed at least as usable and powerful as some other popular programs, including the (WORD package that came with my previous Fujitsu computer.

The Conversion Process

The real key to evaluating a Japanese word-processing program is how well

382 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

BYTE JAPAN

it performs kanji conversion. A kana shift, available on all Japanese personal computers, lets you use each key to input one or two katakana (or hiragana, depending on the manufacturer) phonetic characters. But most people are unfamiliar with the layout, and typists generally prefer to enter lapanese text phonetically using the Roman alphabet rather than the kana alphabet. The conversion routine then looks up the appropriate kanji characters in a stored dictionary. Sophisticated programs accept entire phrases, rather than individual words or even individual syllables. The EgWord program that comes from HITECS with the DynaMac does that. (EgWord is not pronounced the way you might think. Because Japanese are taught to mispronounce the word "easy" as "eejee," the spelling of EgWord is an attempt to systematize a mispronunciation of "easy word.") As

you type with EgWord, the phonetic katakana characters corresponding to the Roman letters typed on the keyboard are displayed in a screen window. When you reach the end of a phrase or sentence, pressing one of the mouse buttons causes the machine to look through its phrase dictionary, which is partly in memory and partly on a floppy disk. It then converts the phonetic text to ordinary lapanese, which is a mixture of kanji characters and phonetic hiragana characters used primarily for inflected word endings (e.g., verb tenses).

The conversion is a fairly sophisticated task because there are many kanji characters that are pronounced the same but have completely different meanings. A good conversion routine has to guess the right kanji correctly from context a high proportion of the time. Of course, if the computer's first guess is not the charac

ters you really wanted, you can back up and examine alternative character combinations one by one, using the mouse for selection. Lots of good Japanese word-processing programs do this; this one does it as well as most.

EgWord does have some shortcomings, however: It doesn't handle English-language text input very well (it doesn't have word-wrap, for example, because it's unnecessary in lapanese), and the distinction between standard-width and double-width Roman letters, important for professional-looking lapanese text, is handled clumsily.

Bridging the Gap

In addition to EgWord, a program called EgBridge (similar pronunciation reasoning as in EgWord) is supplied with the DynaMac. EgBridge is a pro

[conlinued)

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Inquiry 106

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IANUARY I986 -BYTE 383

Inquiry 137

II

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Whether the Mac will be able to compete against sophisticated ]apanese hardware and increasingly versatile Japanese software will probably be decided by prices.

gram that lets you enter Japanese characters as well as conventional alphanumeric characters into standard Mac software like Multiplan, MacPaint, MacProject, Microsoft Chart, and Microsoft File. It doesn't convert the English-language messages built into the original program, but it does allow you to enter Japanese text. Even though the resulting screen displays are a hodgepodge of English and Japanese, EgBridge is an attempt to bridge the gap between the worlds of western software and the Japanese language.

EgBridge is much more limited than EgWord; it does kanji conversion on a syllable-by-syllable basis, and it requires a user-supplied kanji dictionary (up to 3000 characters). Nevertheless, companies like HI-TECS are offering customized versions of standard software packages for purposes such as inventory management, building design, scheduling, sales management, etc., at prices ranging from about $5 50 to $800. The president of Hl-TECS, Mr. Haneda, says they'll put together any kanji dictionary the customer wants at no extra charge.

All in all, this is the first time that the Mac has had a chance to succeed in Japan. Whether it will be able to compete against sophisticated Japanese hardware and increasingly versatile Japanese software is another story—one that probably will be

decided by prices. HI-TECS is offering the DynaMac, including the kanji ROM, printer, and external floppy-disk drive, for the equivalent of about $4575 and will throw in EgWord, which normally sells for about $240, for early customers. Since that's nearly double the price of systems like the new NEC PC-9801VM2 or the dualfloppy-disk version of the Fujitsu FM-16/3 with a good kanji printer, people are really going to have to be impressed with the DynaMac for it to be a commercial success. Mac enthusiasts who want more information on this machine can contact Hl-TECS Company Ltd., 4-1 Kodemmacho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103, Japan.

MORE ON FUJITSU'S FM-I67T

In last August's BYTE Japan (page 331)

I reported on the debut of the thenanonymous lap-size portable computer from Fujitsu. The machine is now called the FM-I6ir. It's been on dealer's shelves for some weeks, and even though it's not a technological wonder, I think it's a tremendous value. If I needed a lap-size computer (it's about two inches thick and the size of a sheet of stationery), I'd think seriously about buying this one.

The main processor is an MBL8086L, a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) version of the 8086 microprocessor, running at a clock speed of 5 MHz. The machine comes in three versions, with a main RAM of either 128K, 288K. or 488K bytes. It is available with either the standard US (alphanumeric and katakana) keyboard or a phonetically arranged "goju-on" keyboard layout. A kanji ROM containing the 3400-odd JISNo. I set of characters is standard, and the ROM also includes a 19,000word kanji dictionary for Japanese word-processing purposes. The liquidcrystal display is one of the best I've seen; it's far easier to read, for example, than that of the Data General/ One. It can display 2 5 lines of' 80 alphanumeric (or kana) characters, or

II lines of 40 kanji characters in a legible 16- by 16-dot font. You get a builtin floppy-disk interface and bar-code

384 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

BYTE JAPAN

reader interface as standard, in addition to a parallel printer interface and an RS-232C serial interface. There's no built-in modem, because by the time you read this, it will only just have become legal to hook up a directconnect modem to the Japanese phone system; however, you can buy a separate acoustic coupler.

Unfortunately, the FM-I611- doesn't have a built-in microfloppy-disk drive; instead, like the Epson laptop machines, the machine has a microcassette drive built in. Supposedly, you can write over 200 characters per second to the tape; that comes to about a minute for a 10-page document, which is too long if you plan to save your word-processing results frequently. Nonetheless, I think I could live without a built-in floppy-disk drive. The machine runs under the CP/M-86 operating system, and you can configure part of the main RAM as a RAM disk, which ought to be acceptable for medium-term storage, since a backup battery makes the CMOS RAM relatively nonvolatile.

You can buy software in the form of optional ROM cartridges that sell for a little more than $200 each. Right now you can choose from two cartridges: one includes Fujitsu's version of BASIC plus a communications program and the JWORD Japanese wordprocessing program, while the other contains the kanji COBOL Level II runtime system and a communications program.

I have only one reservation about the FM-167T. The keyboard feel and layout are both good, with one glaring exception: The space bar is actually three short bars, and only the middle part (extending from just under the middle of the V key to just under the middle of the N key) works as a space bar. The outer parts are intended to control kanji conversion when you use a Japanese word-processing program. They are labeled (in lapanese) "Convert" and "No conversion"; they have no effect in the alphanumeric mode. For me. it made ordinary typing very inconvenient and almost intolerable. I suppose you could get used to it, but I'd be

tempted either to "hot-wire" (cut and jumper) the keyboard (and I don't know if that's feasible) or to glue a steel bar over all three segments!

The FM-167T is reasonably priced. You can buy the l28K-byte version for only about $810, while the prices of the 288K-byte and 488K-byte versions are only about $1020 and $1225, re

spectively. You'll have to buy one in Japan, though; they're not exported.

Coming Up

In the February issue, I'll focus on two shows I attended here in Japan in October—one on software and the other on data. I'll also discuss highlights of several new printers. ■

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JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 385

The SB180: Steve's fast, 4" x 7W 64180 Computer - $369.00

Designer Boards Without Designer Prices

hardware from Bytes popular Ciarcia column can be designed into your applications at surprisingly low cost.

Steve's a maverick designer who still believes in the value of a dollar — yours and his. And every board that Steve's

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386 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

BYTE U.K.

A commercial

RISC

processor

by Dick Pountain

The Acorn RISC Machine

Dick Pountain is a technical author and software consultant living in London, England. He can be contacted do BYTE. POB 372. Hancock. NH 03449.

corn Computers Ltd. is one of the U.K.'s most successful computer . companies, but like many others, it had its share of financial problems during the depressed year of 1985. Set up in 1979 by two Sinclair alumni, Chris Curry and Hermann Hauser, the Cambridge-based firm (4a Market Hill, Cambridge CB2 3NJ. England) started out manufacturing a set of modular single-board controllers based on the MOS Technology 6502 processor. These small boards stacked together to make up complete industrial-control systems. The following year the Acorn people launched the Atom personal computer, a packaged but expandable machine that arose out of their experience with 6502 systems. For a while, at around £200, the Atom was the cheapest hobby computer available here, and it attracted a strong following, particularly among those who are as handy with the soldering iron as with the assembler. Hopped-up Atoms can still be found to this day.

Acorn's next product, initially called the Proton, was designed to meet a very advanced—for the time—specification published by the BBC (British Broadcasting Company), which was requesting bids to supply a personal computer around which an educational television series would be produced. Acorn won the contract, after a strong and often acrimonious contest in which Sinclair Research, whose 48K-byte color Spectrum was already on the market, lost out.

After a frustratingly long delay due to quality-control problems with the ULAs (uncommitted logic arrays), the BBC computer was launched and proceeded to corner the market in schools and universities. Acorn became a very wealthy company, with a turnover reputed to be £100,000,000 per annum at its high point.

The BBC Micro (alias the Beeb) is still quite a deluxe machine, with better highresolution color graphics than any of its competitors, and quite a bit faster, thanks

to its 2-megahertz 6502. Another plus is the provision of a 10-MHz bus, called the Tube, to which second processors can be attached. Acorn charges a lot of money for this sophistication though, and the Beeb has kept its £400 price long after competitors have slashed theirs to below the £200 mark.

Acorn had from the start paid more attention to software than most manufacturers, recruiting the brightest Cambridge University computer science graduates for its software division. As a result, the Beeb acquired a range of languages unrivaled by any machine but the Apple 11, including an advanced structured BASIC, LISP, Logo, FORTH, Pascal, BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language), and more. But despite all these positive points, the Beeb has a major drawback, a shortage of memory. The ambitious specification, combined with the limited addressing capabilities of the 6502, left it with a maximum of 32K bytes of workspace (only this year upgraded to 64K bytes), and in the higher-resolution graphics modes this can be reduced to a mere 8K bytes. That doesn't get you very far in LISP or Logo.

So at the height of its prosperity, Acorn set a team to design, in secret, its own processor to replace the 6502. This may seem like an ambitious, even rash, undertaking, but the people on the Acorn team were so wedded to the simplicity and speed of the 6502 architecture that they found it hard to countenance any of the commercially available 16-bit replacements. The BBC operating system is heavily interrupt-driven, and the sluggish interrupt latency of 16-bit chips, such as the Intel 8086 and Motorola 68000, would have meant introducing DMA (direct memory access) hardware and all sorts of other undesirable complications. Acorn did, in fact, adopt the National Semiconductor 32016 as a second processor for the Beeb, but only after first offering a 3-MHz 6502. And so they conceived the idea for the

[continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 387

Only Toshiba printers combine the beauty of the daisy with the spe^d of the dot.

The Toshiba 3-in-One™ printers.

Toshiba's 3-in-One printers are the IBM PC-compatible printers that give you the best of everything.

Because their 24-pin printhead gives you beautiful letter-quality type like a daisy. Combined with the quiet speed and perfect graphics of the matrix.

In the world of business printers this combination makes Toshiba the leader in the letter-quality matrix category. And our3-in-One printers a breed apart. So your printouts stand apart from the crowd.

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388 BYTE' JANUARY I986

BYTE U.K.

Acorn RISC (reduced instruction set computer) Machine, or ARM.

THE ARM

The ARM was a very well-kept secret indeed. Until its announcement in August 1985. when it had already been created and was available in sample quantities, no word of its existence appeared in the computer press.

Acorn's designers worked in collaboration with the U.S. firm VLSI Technology Inc. (San Jose, CA) who supplied them with CAD (computeraided design) workstations and design software and made the chips. The Acorn team already had some experience in VLSI (very-large-scale integration) design from working on the ULAs for the BBC microcomputer, but none in processor design. At the time these were some of the most complex ULAs ever made. In a mere 18 months the Acorn team designed ARM from scratch, and it worked as specified from the first silicon. This is not only a great testament to Acorn's design skills, but also a remarkable vindication of the RISC design philosophy. (See "RISC Chips" by John Markoff, November 1984 BYTE, page 191.) It's highly unlikely that such a feat could have been achieved using any of the colossal architectures currently in fashion, like the 68020.

The Acorn people on the design team were inspired by the virtues of the venerable 6502 and by other RISC researchers, such as those on the Stanford and Berkeley teams. However, they departed in several ways from previously used techniques. The design goals they set were high execution speed, a small and regular instruction set, and a very short response time to interrupts (in particular, one much better than that of present 16-bit chips). In addition, the Acorn people required that the chip be capable of supporting virtualmemory operation. Since they started in 1984, it made sense to go straight to a 3 2-bit processor, as the 16-bit era was already drawing to a close.

The ARM design started, quite properly, with the instruction set

rather than the hardware. In fact, the whole design, debugging, and proving of the chip were performed by software simulations—some running on BBC microcomputers with the 3-MHz 6502 second processor—with no hardware prototype at all. The first fabricated chips were also the first hardware realization of the project.

ARM uses a heavily pipelined architecture to achieve a performance of 3 MIPS (million instructions per second) from a small (7 millimeters square) chip containing 2 5,000 transistors. For comparison, the 68020 is around 9 mm square, contains 192,000 transistors, and achieves about 2.5 MIPS. Clocked at the equivalent of 5 MHz, ARM runs BASIC benchmarks almost exactly 10 times faster than the IBM PC AT and comfortably faster than the TD1 Pinnacle with its 12-MHz 68000. The first version of ARM uses fairly conservative 3-micron CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) design rules with double metal level and uses so little power that it doesn't become even detectably warm in use. The device is packaged on a square 84-pin Jedec chip carrier.

Later versions will go to 2.4-micron design rules, resulting in an even smaller chip. A smaller chip means a higher yield, and Acorn estimates that it will be more than four times cheaper to manufacture than current megachips such as the 80x86 and 680x0 series. Acorn hopes to sell it to manufacturers of low-cost personal computers, as well as to the artificial intelligence workstation sector.

ARM has 2 5 full 32-bit registers, a 32-bit data bus, and a 26-bit address bus that enables it to address 64 megabytes of memory to byte boundaries. Only 16 registers are normally available to the programmer. During interrupts the extra registers become available to the processor to simulate a DMA channel without needing to save any of the user's registers. Register 15 contains the program counter; it also holds the status flags in its first 6 bits, there being no separate flags register.

All instructions are 32-bit words

[continued)

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(aligned on word boundaries), divided into several fields, and fetchable in one clock cycle. All operations are performed on 32-bit quantities. If you wish to fetch bytes, certain of the load-and-store instructions will extract them and zero-extend them to 3 2-bits, making use of the on-chip barrel shifter. The advantage of this scheme is that having everything the same length simplifies instruction fetch and sequencing. A potential disadvantage, shared by many RISC designs, is that a minimum 4-byte instruction generates a lot of code compared to older machine designs. With today's memory prices, however, that is not too great a concern.

There are 44 basic instruction codes that can be divided into five categories: load-and-store single-register, load-and-store multiple-register, arithmetic and logical, branch, and software-interrupt instructions. ARM supports no multiply or divide instructions. Each instruction type has several fields, and by setting appropriate option bits you can synthesize a large number of different instructions from the basic set.

Following the Berkeley and Stanford models, ARM has a load-and-store architecture. Only the load-and-store instructions can access memory, and all

operations on data are register-toregister.

All the instructions are conditional; that is, they include a test that must be true before they will execute. The first 4 bits of each op code are used to select one of 16 possible conditions. This reduces the number of branches required in a program because branches reduce the efficiency of pipelining. When a program takes a branch, it has to throw away the next (already fetched and decoded) instructions; this causes a timeconsuming break or "bubble" in the pipeline. You can write many programs without branches using this "skip-on-test" feature, which is available in every instruction.

The ARM has only two addressing modes: base-relative and programrelative. However, you can easily synthesize other modes from these. Baserelative mode permits either a 12-bit immediate value or a second register—in each case shifted if necessary by the barrel shifter—to be used as the offset. The result of this offset operation may be optionally rewritten to the base register—signaled by turning on a "rewrite" bit in the instruction. Since offsets may be positive or negative, it's easy to get the same effect as the 68000's pre- and post

automatic decrement and increment modes.

The ARM'S barrel shifter is also used for arithmetic and logical shifts and (without programmer involvement) to align data words and to extract fields from instructions. As an example, to multiply a,number in a register by 17, ARM could add the number to itself shifted left four times and could do it in a single clock tick.

Branches use a 24-bit offset that allows branching to anywhere in memory. There are no separate long and short jumping instructions and no reason to want them, as they would save neither space nor time. If you set the optional "link" bit in the branch instructions, register 15 (the program counter) is copied into register 14 as a return address so that jumps and subroutine calls and returns are accomplished by the same instruction.

All ARM instructions can be executed in one clock tick, except for the load-and-store multiple-register instructions, which require one tick per register. These load-and-store multiple-register instructions provide a fast way of saving the processor state and, therefore, very efficient context switching for procedure calls in highlevel languages.

Figure 1 is a block diagram that

DEVICE PROGRAMMERS,

2SS. 5S»»

^•■f

****

;

390 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

BYTE U.K.

32 BITS

. ARM FLOORPLA N .

INSTRUCTION SKIP

TRAP

CONDITION

BIT

PRIORITY

DATA

CONTROL

SEQUENCER

COUNTER

ENCODER

CONTROL

PIPELINE STATUS

INSTRUCTION BUS

REGISTER SELECT |

REGISTER DECODE

PROGRESS

STATUS

REGISTER

ALU DECODE

SHIFT DECODE

INSTRUCTION DECODE

ALU OUTPUT BUS

ADDRESS BUS

ADDRESS BUS

ADDRESS REGISTER

ADDRESS INCREMENTER

_t~l

REGISTERS

SHIFT BUS

CREMENTER BUS

READ BUS B

fl

READ BUS A

PIPELINE

DATA BUS

Figure I: Block diagram of the 32-bit data path through the ARM chip and some of ARM'S main functional units.

shows the 32-bit data path through by a single control unit, as in conven- array in which the instructions are

the ARM chip and some of ARM'S tional processors, but by a number of hard-wired. There is no microcode

main functional units. The flow of data separate functional units. The instruc- ROM (read-only memory); indeed

through this pathway is not controlled tion decoder is a programmable logic {continued)

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there is no microcode. Bits in the actual instruction word provide most of the control information.

ARM may fetch an instruction from memory while the previous instruction is being decoded and that instruction's predecessor is finishing execution in the ALU (arithmetic logic unit). This state of affairs, which maxi

mizes processor throughput, persists as long as ARM is performing registerto-register operations consecutively without branching. The load-and-store architecture pays dividends in pipeline efficiency. Acorn has measured ARM'S maximum processor-to-memory bandwidth (the rate at which it can transfer data) at 18 MHz.

The condition-sequencer and instruction-skip units implement the skip-ontest feature. If the current instruction's condition test fails, the instruction is discarded without breaking the pipeline of following instructions.

Acorn departs firmly from the Berkeley model, however, on the subject of delayed branching. The Berkeley RISC avoids the problem of pipeline breaks by delaying branch instructions; it redefines branches so that they take place after the next instruction; thus, you can always safely prefetch the next instruction. Acorn was initially attracted to this idea but later rejected it because part of Acorn's design goal was to support virtual memory.

A processor that works in a virtualmemory environment must have restartable instructions; if a memoryaccessing instruction—for example, a store—tries to access a part of memory that is not available, the memory manager will order an abort. When the processor receives an abort signal, it must restart the offending instruction, having restored the processor state and taken some appropriate remedial action. With a delayed branching scheme, this is difficult to do if an abort occurs while prefetching the instruction following a branch.

Acorn's team instead chose the skip-on-test route and thus has made all the ARM instructions restartable. However, the hardware itself won't do all the repair work; it only preserves the information necessary so that user-supplied software routines can restore the processor state.

ARM has achieved the desired short interrupt latency, partly thanks to the virtual absence of uninterruptible multicycle instructions and partly due to the presence of dedicated system registers that avoid the need to save user registers.

ARM'S extremely high processor-tomemory bandwidth is achieved by the wide nonmultiplexed data and address buses and the quite modest cycle time (150 nanoseconds) and therefore does not need to employ expensive static-memory parts. The chip has control signals that can extract 30 per

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cent extra performance from cheap 4-MHz dynamic RAMs (random-access read/write memories) by exploiting page-mode cycles.

Software

Unlike most new chips, ARM is already quite well supplied with software. Acorn has a small concurrent operating system running on the chip, derived from that on the BBC computer. Acorn showed me a BBC BASIC interpreter and a LISP compiler working with a windowing full-screen editor. Compilers for BCPL and Modula-2 are also available, while C, Pascal, FORTRAN, and Prolog are all in the works to cater to the scientific and artificial intelligence communities.

Acorn's business division, one of the new departments that were set up after the takeover by Olivetti, is responsible for the design and manufacture of ARM, but it is rather

tight-lipped about current marketing plans. Clearly, Acorn will use ARM in future products, but it has not announced any yet. Acorn has announced that an evaluation board will be available soon and that it will be selling the chip to other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), several of whom have had evaluation units for some time.

Conclusion

The Acorn story nearly ended early in 1985, when the City of London panicked and drove Acorn's shareprice (i.e., stock price) down through the floorboards during the postChristmas computer-sales holocaust. The Italian company Olivetti rescued Acorn and now has a majority shareholding. Informed rumor contends that the Olivetti people didn't know about the ARM project when the rescue was first launched; if that is

true, they must have been pleased when they found out.

In ARM, Acorn/Olivetti has one of the first commercial RISC processors in the world and an exceptionally able one. ARM could revolutionize the performance of even modestly priced home computers. It represents a striking vindication of the RISC philosophy in terms of performance, the time it took to develop, and its ease and low manufacturing cost.

Regular readers of this column may have noticed that I'm a bit of a nut for RISC processors, and it's a source of some vicarious pride to me that by the time you read this column, three powerful examples of the breed, all designed in Britain, will be available. In addition to Acorn's ARM announcement, the INMOS Transputer was launched on October 1, 1985, and the first Metaforth MF16LP has been delivered. ■

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SOME THINGS CAN NEVER BE SHARED OTHERTHINGS SHOULD BE.

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IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 395

AT&T'S

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© 1985 AT&T Information Systems 396 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

m AT&T

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MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS

Euclid's Algorithm

GCDs,

LCMs, and

decimals

by Robert T.

KUROSAKA

In my last installment in November. I examined fractions that form repeating decimals. This month, I am going the other way and will look at how to represent repeating repeating decimals as fractions. I concluded the November column with a presentation of the algorithm for converting repeating decimals to fractions. This month's column will include a program to implement that algorithm, which is shown in figure 1.

The most irritating part of the algorithm is step 5, reducing the fraction to lowest terms. Just how do we do that? First, we must find a common divisor, an integer that divides into both the numerator and the denominator. (For this column, "divides into" also implies "without remainder.") Although 24/30 can be reduced to 12/15 by dividing the numerator and denominator by 2, we must reduce again to 4/5 by dividing through by 3. However, I'm sure we all saw that the greatest common divisor (GCD) was 6 and reduced the fraction in one step. As the numerator and denominator get larger, it becomes more difficult to determine what divides into them.

There are a surprisingly large number of folkways for finding divisors of large numbers. Everyone knows that a number is divisible by 2 if its last (rightmost) digit is divisible by 2. A number is divisible by 4 if the last two digits are divisible by 4. For example, 7536 is divisible by 4 since 36 is divisible by 4. This basic pattern can be extended to higher powers of 2: A number is divisible by 8 if its last three digits form a number divisible by 8, and so on.

Similarly, we all know that a number is divisible by 5 if it ends in 0 or 5. A number is divisible by 2 5 if its last two digits are divisible by 25, by 125 if the final three-digit number is divisible by 12 5, etc.

As I mentioned in the last column, 2 and 5 are special cases in base 10, so it's not Robert t. Kuwsaka teaches surprjsjng that we can't generalize this to ^SetT^Ss n^bers other than powers of 2 and 5.

your correspondence do byte. However, there are some methods for other pob 372, Hancock, nh 03449. numbers. I'll briefly run down the list of

techniques for other numbers up to 9.

A number is divisible by 3 if the sum of its digits is divisible by 3. For example, 312,798 is divisible by 3 since 3+1+2 + 7+9 + 8 = 30. Further, it is divisible by 6 because any even number that is divisible by 3 is divisible by 6. A number is divisible by 9 if the sum of its digits is divisible by 9. Thus, 312,798 is not divisible by 9, but 312,795 is (3 + 1+2 + 7 + 9+5 = 27).

The test for divisibility by 7 is rather amusing: "Detach" the last digit and double it, then subtract the result from the rest of the number. If the answer is divisible by 7, the original number is divisible by 7. For example (not that this method needs any clarification), to test 378, we detach the 8 and double it, then subtract 16 from 37. Since the answer, 21, is divisible by 7, so is 378. Try a larger number, 33,929. Detach the 9, double it, and subtract from 3392, giving 3374. Now, is 3374 divisible by 7? You don't know? Apply the test to 3374. (Why is no one laughing?)

Before giving up on these strange tests, let's look at 11. The divisibility test for 11 is a bit complicated but rather impressive. Add every other (alternate) digit in the number; add the remaining digits; if the difference of the two sums is divisible by 11, the number is divisible by 11. In 9,370,845, the first sum is 9 + 7 + 8 + 5 = 29, and the second sum is 3+0+4 = 7. Since their difference, 22, is divisible by 11, the entire number is divisible by 11. Note also that the sum of all the digits is 36, which is divisible by 9, and that the number ends in 5. Hence, with simple eyeballing, you can be the hit of the party by announcing that 9,370,845 is divisible by 495 (11x9x5).

Similar to our last example, you can determine that a number is divisible by 100 by applying our rules for divisibility by 4 and 2 5. (What? You have an easier way?) Well, perhaps you're beginning to feel that we need a more general method for finding common divisors of fractions. Our first im

(continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 397

EUCLID

1. Let x equal the decimal:

x =

0.7363636. . .

2. Multiply the equation by

100 x =

73.6363636. . .

10" (# of digits in the cycle)

3. Subtract 1. from 2.

99 x =

72.9

4 Solve for x

x =

72.9/99 = 729/990

5. Reduce the fraction

x =

81/110

Figure l: The steps in converting repeating decimals to fractions.

(a)

1

(b)

10

(c)

3

1581

1734 1581

153

1581 1530

51

153 153

153

51

0

Figure 2: Step-by-step application of Euclid's algorithm to the problem of finding the greatest common divisor of 1734 and 1581.

pulse is to use prime factorization. This is certainly a correct approach, but most prime-factorization subroutines are cumbersome or time-consuming. I will show you a delightfully direct method of finding the GCD of two numbers that is easily programmed and requires no guessing, no trial and error, and no prime factorization. This remarkable method is called Euclid's algorithm.

Let us reduce the fraction 1581/1734. The steps are

1. Divide the larger number by the smaller. In figure 2a, 1734/1581 = 1 with a remainder of 153.

2. If the remainder is not 0, divide the divisor by the remainder. In figure 2b, 1581/153 = 10 with a remainder of 51.

3. Repeat step 2 until a 0 remainder occurs. In figure 2c, 153/51 =3 with a remainder of 0.

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EUCLID

The last divisor is the GCD of the two numbers (most texts call it the last nonzero remainder). In figure 2c, the last divisor is 51. Therefore, the GCD of 1581 and 1734 is 51. And, sure enough, the fraction reduces to 31/34. An obvious but necessary remark: If the GCD is 1, the two numbers are relatively prime; the fraction is already

expressed in lowest terms.

Listing 1 offers a program that reduces a fraction to lowest terms by Euclid's algorithm. \Editor's note: The Microsoft BASIC listings in this column are available for downloading from BYTEne( Listings at (617) 861-9764.]

An annoyance related to reducing fractions arises when adding or sub

tracting fractions with unequal denominators. We need to find the least common denominator (LCD). Before finishing our cyclic decimal-toreduced-fraction routine, let's take a side trip to shine some light on LCDs.

In 1/9 + 5/12, we see that the LCD is 36. But precisely what are we seeing?

(continued)

Listing 1: A BASIC program using Euclid's algorithm to reduce a fraction to its lowest terms. The routine begins at line 310 so that, when listing 3 is merged with it. the unnecessary lines (310 to 410) are overwritten.

2"|Q I*************************************************

320 '* EUCLID'S ALGORITHM FOR GREATEST COMMON DIVISORS

330'* BY ROBERT T. KUROSAKA

340 *************************************************

350 CLS

360 PRINT "This program calculates the greatest common divisor"

370 PRINT "of a positive fraction"

380 PRINT "and reduces the fraction to lowest terms."

390 PRINT :PRINT

400 INPUT "ENTER THE FRACTION'S NUMERATOR";NUM:NUM = ABS(NUM)

410 INPUT "ENTER THE FRACTION'S DENOMINATOR";DEN:DEN = ABS(DEN)

420 DIVISOR = NUM:DIVIDEND = DEN 'SAVE ORIGINAL VALUES FOR LATER DISPLAY

430 REM IF EITHER TERM IS NOT A WHOLE NUMBER, CLEAR THE DECIMAL.

440 IF DIVISORolNT(DIVISOR) OR DIVIDENDolNT(DIVIDEND) THEN DIVISOR = DIVISOR*10:

DIVIDEND = DIVIDEND* 10:NUM = DIVISOR:DEN = DIVIDEND:GOTO 440 450 IF DIVISOR>DIVIDEND THEN SWAP DIVISOR, DIVIDEND 460 WHILE DIVISOR>0

470 QUOTIENT = INT(DIVIDEND/DIVISOR)

480 REMAINDER = DIVIDEND - DIVISOR*QUOTIENT

490 DIVIDEND = DIVISOR:DIVISOR = REMAINDER

500 WEND

510 PRINT PRINT

520 PRINT "THE FRACTION ";NUM;"/";DEN;" HAS A GCD OF ";DIVIDEND 530 IF DIVIDEND = 1 THEN PRINT "THE FRACTION IS ALREADY IN LOWEST TERMS.":GOTO 560

540 PRINT "THE REDUCED FRACTION IS: ";NUM/DIVIDEND|" /";DEN/DIVIDEND; 550 IF DEN/DIVIDEND =1 THEN PRINT " = ";NUM/DIVIDEND 560 END

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IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 399

EUCLID

The LCD is the smallest integer that is evenly divisible by both denominators. To put it another way, the LCD is the least common multiple (LCM) of the denominators. While any com

mon multiple of 9 and 12 will suffice for adding the fractions (e.g., their product, 108), we prefer the least value because it will simplify reducing the fraction later.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

3 6 8

1 2 8

1 1 4

1 1 1

3

9 18 24

3

3 6 8

2

1 2 8

4

1 1 4

Figure 3: Finding the least common multiple of three numbers using triple division.

With larger denominators, the task of finding the LCD becomes increasingly difficult. In 5/12 and 3/14, it is not easily seen that the LCD is 84. Many methods have been devised for finding the LCD, most of which require prime factorization. One rather mystical method works for any number of denominators.

Suppose we want the LCM of 9, 18, and 24. Find a common divisor for all three numbers, if possible. If not, find a common divisor for any two of them, if possible. (If not, the numbers are relatively prime; the LCM is merely the product of the three numbers.)

Listing 2: A BASIC program to find the least common multiple of a set of numbers using Euclid's algorithm.

*************

t************

***************************

LEAST COMMON MULTIPLE ALGORITHM BY ROBERT T. KUROSAKA

*********

r**************

**********

********************

****************

'This program calculates the least common multiple" 'of a set of positive integers."

10

20 '* 30 '* 40 '**" 50 CLS 60 PRINT 70 PRINT 80 PRINT

90 INPUT "HOW MANY INTEGERS ARE IN THE SET";TERMS:TERMS = INT(ABS(TERMS)) 100 IF TERMS<2 THEN 400

110 REM NUMBER ARRAY HOLDS THE SET OF INTEGERS FOR WHICH THE LCM IS SOUGHT. 120 DIM NUMBERiTERMS)

130 PRINT :PRINT "ENTER THE INTEGERS ONE AT A TIME."

140 FOR 1 = 1 TO TERMS

150 INPUT NUMBER(I)

160 NUMBER(I) = INT(ABS(NUMBER(I)))

170 IF NUMBER(l) = 0 THEN PRINT "ILLEGAL ENTRY.":GOTO 150 180 NEXT I

190 REM BEGIN LCM PROCEDURE.

200 LCM = NUMBER(1) THE LCM OF A SINGLE NUMBER IS ITSELF. 210 FOR I = 2 TO TERMS

220 REM FIND GCD OF ACTIVE ENTRY AND WHAT PRECEDED IT (GCD WILL BE STORED IN 'DIVIDEND' BECAUSE LINE 290 ASSIGNS LAST VALID DIVISOR TO DIVIDEND). 230 DIVISOR = NUMBER(I):DIVIDEND = LCM

240 REM LINES 250-300 ARE THE SAME AS 450-500 OF THE GCD ROUTINE. 250 IF DIVISOR>DIVIDEND THEN SWAP DIVISOR.DIVIDEND 260 WHILE DIVISOR>0

270 QUOTIENT = INT(DIVIDEND/DIVISOR)

280 REMAINDER = DIVIDEND - DIVISOR'QUOTIENT

290 DIVIDEND = DIVISOR:DIVISOR = REMAINDER

300 WEND

310 LCM = NUMBER(I)*LCM/DIVIDEND

320 REM THE LAST LCM WILL BE LCM OF ALL THE ENTRIES.

330 NEXT I

340 PRINT :PRINT

350 PRINT "THE LEAST COMMON MULTIPLE OF";

360 FOR I = 1 TO TERMS

370 PRINT NUMBER(I);

380 NEXT I

390 PRINT "IS";LCM

400 END

400

BYTE • JANUARY 1986

EUCLID

We will perform a triple division on these three numbers. In figure 3a, we divide the common divisor 3 into all three numbers. Note that we did not divide the first two numbers by 9 because our precedence of rules requires us to first look for divisors of all the numbers.

Next, we repeat the procedure for the three quotients: 3, 6, and 8. The first two are divisible by 3 again (figure 3b). Important: If the divisor does not divide into a particular number, merely copy the number. In figure 3b, the 8 is brought up. This procedure is repeated until all the quotients are Is. In figure 3c, the 2 and 8 are divided by 2, with the 1 being brought up. Finally, in figure 3d, we divide by 4 • and obtain all Is in the quotients. The LCM is the product of all the divisors used. That is, the LCM of 9, 18, and 24 is 3x3x2x4 = 72.

You might enjoy trying to write a program to implement this method. There is, however, yet another method for finding the LCM, and, not surprisingly, it employs Euclid's algorithm.

The LCM of two numbers a and b is the product of the numbers divided by their CCD. That is, LCM(a.6) = axblGCD[a.b). This becomes apparent if we look at a simple example: 10 and 14. Their product, 140, is a multiple, but it isn't the smallest one. Since 10=2x5 and 14=2x7, their LCM needs only 2x5x7, while their product is 2x5x2x7. Dividing by their CCD of 2 eliminates the overlap. In the language of elementary set theory, the LCM is the union of the two sets of factors. The formula above instructs us to "add" the two sets together and then "subtract" their intersection.

Since we already have the GCD program, we are only one step away from finding the LCM of two numbers. That's the good news. The bad news is that this method works only with two numbers at a time. To find the LCM of three or more numbers (say, 8, 10, and 14), we first find the LCM of 8 and 10 (40) and then find the LCM of 40 and 14 (280). This is no problem for a computer, but you may feel that it is less efficient than our

I use strings, of course, because you can't directly enter a repeating decimal into the computer.

triple-division approach. Anyway, listing 2 presents my version of the LCM routine using Euclid's algorithm.

Finally, we are ready to return to our initial problem of converting a repeating decimal to a fraction. Listing 3 shows my routine for doing steps 1 through 4 of figure 1. The program is mostly a lot of string-handling. I use strings, of course, because you can't directly enter a repeating decimal into

the computer. So I use a " " to

signify where the cyclic part begins and enter the number through one iteration of the cycle. This is analogous to the way of writing repeating decimals like 0.333 ... as 0.3. Not only are you unable to enter repeating decimals into the computer, the computer is unable to hold any infinite series. However, the point of step 3 is to get rid of the cyclic part. All of the action in the method happens in the nonrepeating part and the first iteration of the cycle. So that is all that we use in our program.

The only really interesting part of this routine is in line 420. After I find the value of the unreduced fraction's numerator and denominator, I convert the values into strings and then back to numbers. Why?

When I first tried writing the routine in listing 3, I used the number 0.736 as one of my test cases. The routine displayed the numerator value as 72.9 and the denominator value as 99. However, when I merged the routine with listing 1, I got strange results. It seems that Microsoft BASIC'S guard digits were nonzero, so when the GCD routine tried to clear the decimal from the 72.9, the fraction became 7.29x

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JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 401

EUCLID

Listing 3: A BASIC program to convert a cyclic decimal number into an unreduced fraction. You can merge this program with listing 1 to make a complete implementation of the algorithm in figure 1.

20 '* REPEATING DECIMAL TO FRACTION CONVERTING ROUTINE

30 '* BY ROBERT T. KUROSAKA

50 CLS

60 PRINT "This routine can be used with the greatest common denominator" 70 PRINT "program. Load the GCD program, then MERGE this routine into it." 80 PRINT "The MERGEd program is designed to determine the reduced fractional" 90 PRINT "representation of a repeating decimal.":PRINT 100 PRINT "To ENTER a repeating decimal:":

PRINT " Type the nonrepeating part, then a '_' before the cycle." 110 PRINT "For example, 1.2_345 is the proper entry for 1.2345345345. . ." 120 PRINT "The decimal should always precede the ' ', i.e., .333. ... is entered":

PRINT "as ' 3'. Reversing the '.' and ' ' will cause an error.":PRINT

130 INPUT "ENTER REPEATING DECIMAL";NUMBER$

140 REM NONREPEATING PART OF NUMBER IS THAT PART UP TO "__'*. VAL OPERATOR

IGNORES ALL NUMBERS AFTER A NONNUMERICAL CHARACTER. THUS, IN

1.2_345,VAL("1.2_345") WILL BE 1.2, ETC. 150 NONREPEATING.PART = ABS(VAL(NUMBER$))

160 REM DEFINE A MORE READABLE FUNCTION TO USE FOR THROWING THE LEFTMOST

CHARACTER OF A STRING AWAY. 170 DEF FNDROP.LEFT$(A$) = RIGHT$(A$,LEN(A$)-1) 180 REM FIND DECIMAL POINT 190 WHILE LEFT$(NUMBER$,1) <> "." 200 NUMBERS = FNDROP.LEFT$(NUMBER$) 210 WEND

220 NUMBERS = FNDROP.LEFT$(NUMBER$)

230 REM FIND OUT HOW MANY DECIMAL PLACES THE REPEATING CYCLE IS OFFSET FROM

THE DECIMAL POINT. 240 WHILE LEFT$(NUMBER$,1) < > "_" 250 OFFSET = OFFSET+1 260 NUMBERS = FNDROP.LEFTS(NUMBERS) 270 WEND

280 REM THROW AWAY REPEATING PORTION MARKER, "_" 290 NUMBERS = FNDROP.LEFT$(NUMBER$)

300 REM HOW MANY DECIMAL PLACES ARE IN THE CYCLE? SINCE THE REPEATING CYCLE

IS EVALUATED AFTER THROWING AWAY THE DECIMAL POINT, MULTIPLY BY

10" -(TOTAL NUMBER OF PLACES TO THE RIGHT IT SHOULD BE SHIFTED). 310 CYCLE.LENGTH = LEN(NUMBERS)

320 REPEATING.CYCLE = VAL(NUMBER$)*10~ - (OFFSET + CYCLE.LENGTH)

330 REM NUMBER = NONREPEATING PART + REPEATING CYCLE. SINCE THE FIRST

ITERATION OF THE CYCLE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT DOES NOT CANCEL ON

SUBTRACTION, ONLY USE IT. 340 NUMBER = NONREPEATING.PART + REPEATING.CYCLE

350 REM "CLEARED.NUMBER IS THE VALUE OF THE SUBTRACTION THAT DOES AWAY WITH

THE INFINITE CYCLE (STEP 3 IN THE BYTE ARTICLE ALGORITHM). 360 CLEARED.NUMBER = NUMBER* 10'CYCLE.LENGTH - NONREPEATING.PART 370 REM NOW, ASSIGN THE VALUES OF THE NUMERATOR AND DENOMINATOR TO THE

VARIABLE NAMES USED IN THE GCD ROUTINE. 380 NUM =CLEARED.NUMBER:DEN = 10~CYCLE.LENGTH -1

390 REM I CONVERT NUM AND DEN TO STRINGS AND THEN BACK TO CLEAR THE GUARD

DIGITS IN THE NUM AND DEN VARIABLES. SEE BYTE ARTICLE FOR DETAILS. 400 NUMS = STR$(NUM):DEN$ = STR$(DEN):NUM = VAL(NUM$):DEN = VAL(DENS) 410 PRINT "THE EQUIVALENT UNREDUCED FRACTION IS:";NUM;"/";DEN

107 before the decimal-clearing routine gave up in disgust. By converting the values calculated in listing 3 to string values, I clear the guard-digit garbage out of the numerical repre

sentation. When I then reconvert the values into numbers, the GCD routine functions properly.

As always, I welcome your comments, criticisms, and suggestions. I've

been getting some interesting mail on previous columns and will devote some space in an upcoming column to some of the more interesting insights. ■

402 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR FEEDBACK

Conducted by Steve Ciarcia

Museum Control

Dear Steve.

I have used the BSR X-10 system to control a museum exhibit. One problem I encountered, which an engineer at BSR confirmed, was that the lamp modules would not properly control low-wattage light bulbs (25 watts or less). Do you have any ideas about how I can get around this problem cheaply?

Also, what happens if two controllers send commands at the same time? For example, controller x sends an ON command to unit A3 at the same time controller y sends an OFF command to unit B2. Wouldn't a hopelessly jumbled signal result?

TIMOTHY S. GOODFELLOW

Raleigh, NC

Your letter does not state what problems you experienced with lamp modules controlling low-wattage bulbs, so it is hard to give you an exact answer. During development of the Home Run Control System (April through June 1985), I did a lot of testing using a 7-watt nightlight, and the lamp modules were able to turn it on, off, and dim it correctly. Perhaps BSR has improved the modules since you experienced the problem. One solution would be to use higher-wattage bulbs and dim them to the level that you want. (The Home Run system can do this for you automatically.)

You are quite right that two BSR controllers transmitting simultaneously would result in a jumbled signal. The BSR works by sending bursts of 120 kHz at 2.778-millisecond intervals in a pattern that the modules decode. (See my article in the May 1985 BYTE for details on BSR operation.) If a second controller starts transmitting after the first has started, the timing between the pulses would be altered, and the modules would not be able to decode the signal—Steve

LOOKING FOR A UART

Dear Steve.

I am an electronics student who is planning to build a scrolling LED display similar to your April 1984 project.

I plan to use my 8085 minisystem with

2K bytes of EPROM and 1K byte of RAM. The user will be able to enter messages through an ASCII keyboard. Could you please let me know where I can purchase an inexpensive UART, so that the message is transmitted serially to the display?

Also, would the Hewlett-Packard "union jack 1-inch" 16-character display be more cost-efficient and less complex to build than the one in your project?

Michael Sarrett San Francisco, CA

You can purchase a UART from most of the mail-order electronics supply houses. The Intersil IM6402IPL costs $6.90 as Digi-Key part number NT5000-ND. Order from

Digi-Key Corporation Highway 32 South POB 677

Thief River Falls, MN 56701 (800) 346-5144

Any common-anode dot-matrix LED display can be used in place of the single LEDs used in my project as long as it has a sufficient dot matrix (5 dots per row by 7 dots per column). The electronics can be modified to handle larger or smaller LED matrices—Steve

Parallel Processing

Dear Steve,

In your article "Build the Microvox Textto-Speech Synthesizer" (September and October 1982), you stated that the more sophisticated text-to-speech programs required up to 80K bytes of memory, half of which contains words that are exceptions to the rules. It has occurred to me that if such a program were implemented on a single microprocessor, even a fast and powerful one, the time required to generate speech would be prohibitive. Would it be possible to run several processors in parallel, one containing the rules and several others containing words that are exceptions to the rules?

Also, in "The Lis'ner 1000" (November 1984). the caption for photo 4 states that 64 concurrent available words form a reasonable search vocabulary. Are more possible? If not. could parallel processing

be used to overcome this problem?

Alan Aden Camp Point, IL

Parallel processing is the wave of the future. Supercomputers are rapidly approaching the upper limit of speed for a single processor, and the only way to solve a problem any faster is to put several processors to work on the problem in parallel. The way to accomplish this in the manner you suggest is feasible but may not gain much speed. Looking up an item in a sorted table can be done rapidly by using a binary search and even faster if a technique called hashing is used. A table having 8000 entries would require 13 tests to find the desired word. Splitting the table in half and putting each half on a separate processor would reduce the number of tests to 12 on each processor—not much of a gain. The greatest gain would be to have one processor performing a text-tospeech algorithm while a second one searches for the word. If the word is found in the search, the text-to-speech algorithm would be stopped and the word from the table fed into the synthesizer.

Your second idea of applying parallel processors to speech recognition could increase the number of words it could recognize almost linearly with the number of processors you have working on the input word. The only problem you might encounter would be when two or more processors think they have a match, and another processor would have to pick one of the candidates.—Steve ■

Over the years I have presented many different projects in BYTE. I know many of you have built them and are making use of them in many ways.

I am interested in hearing from any of you telling me what you've done with these projects or how you may have been influenced by the basic ideas. Write me at Circuit Cellar Feedback. POB 582. Glastonbury, CT 06033. and fill me in on your applications. All letters and photographs become the property of Steve Ciarcia and cannot be returned.

COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 403

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404 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

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IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 405

"When I was growing up, I was the quickest kid on the block. But the streets were catching up with me. I'm sure glad there was a Boys Club around to help keep me a step ahead.

"You know, a Boys Club shows kids there are lots of ways to reach goals, besides scoring touchdowns. It gives them every chance to be leaders. And encourages something every bit as important as good leadership— good citizenship.

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lines, running through airports. Now I'm even running my own business!

"It's no wonder so many Boys Club kids grow into productive, civic-minded adults, like teachers, politicians, business executives and professional athletes. Which gives more than 1,200,000 young people, at 1,100 Boys Club facilities across the country, something to look forward to.

"Hey, I'm not saying a Boys Club can turn every kid into a star. But a Boys Club sure can teach 'em how to CLUB reach for one."

The Club that beats the streets

406 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 66

LETTERS

{continued jwm page 32)

Intel has adhered to two of the unwritten rules of benchmarking. It used benchmarks developed outside Intel and contracted an outside company to run the benchmarks on its machines. What Intel did not do is have the results interpreted by an objective, independent party.

Intel did contact me prior to publication of the report, but only for permission to reprint the listings (which the company trimmed the comments out of) and not in an advisory capacity. I gave the company reprint permission. I expected that the benchmarks would be used carefully and according to the guidelines of my article. Clearly. Intel could have avoided the problems mentioned above if it had had an outside independent party evaluate its benchmarking methodology and its interpretation of results. At first, 1 was upset that Intel did not reference me as author of the BYTE benchmarks. Upon reflection, I am glad it did not.

David Hinnant Research TYiangle Park. NC

Positioning Printer Paper

Part of my job as an electronics technician requires me to make considerable use of computers and printers. Additionally. I am the owner of a personal computer. Something that 1 (and I'm sure, many others) have noticed is how difficult it is to get the paper positioned "just so" when first loading it into the printer, so that the printer doesn't print on the perforations, the spacing is right from top to bottom, etc. I think I may have a solution to the problem, which I would like to suggest to the printer and paper/forms manufacturers.

My suggestion is that the printer makers get together with the manufacturers of paper and forms and devise/implement a method for advancing paper/forms to the top of the sheet. I'm aware that some printers have a top-of-form function, but this is usually a variant of a formfeed. What I propose is a method of advancing the paper until the first printable line is under the print head, regardless of sheet size or position.

I've given the matter quite some thought, and I think that this could be implemented fairly easily by using the following scheme.

During the manufacturing process for the paper, a dark band or spot would be printed on the paper (between feed holes) some distance from the top of the sheet. This should be fairly easy to do since most paper I've seen has the manufacturer's name already printed on it, and this band or spot would be easily added.

Then, on the printers, a sensor (possibly an MCA-7 optical sensor) would be placed in such a position as to detect that dark band/spot when the first printable line is under the print head, ludging from the number of printers I've seen, this would probably be located in the area immediately under the platen of the printer, perhaps two or three inches lower than the print head. Such a distance would allow the use of full-sized paper, as well as formfeed checks, etc.

By using such a technique, when a top-of-form button was pressed (or command issued) the paper would advance appropriately and stop. Such a system might even prove to be a replacement for the more traditional formfeed command/button, since it would reliably position the paper/form every time (regardless of sheet size), even after paper/form changes or completely powering down the printer.

I would be happy to hear any comments, suggestions, and criticisms BYTE readers might have about this idea.

David K. Merriman Fullerton. CA ■

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Illuminated Technology 1024x1024 Board for AutoCad ™ $995. Earth Computer TURBO SLAVE 18MHz 128K $395.

Turbo Slave I runs with Teletek, North Star Horizon, Advanced Digital and Others under Turbodos"

SYSTEMS

CompuPro 85/88,256K,CDOS, SSl.l/O 4.2-96TPI DPS, 15 Slot CompuPro 85/88,256K,CDOS, SS1.I/0 4,1-96TPI,20MB, 15 Slot CompuPro 286, SPUZ, 40MB, SSI, 1/ 3, CDOS, 15 Slot, 30 amp P/S 286, 1024K, 20MB, AutoCad 2 System — Ready to Run Lomas 286,1024K,20MB HD,1-5",CDOS, 6 SERIAL, 2 Par. 15 Slot Lomas Thunder 186, 256K, 20 MB HD, 1-5", CDOS. 4 Slot Teletek 8MHz Master, 4-8MHz 128K SLVS, 1-5B, 20 MB HD, TDOS AT CLONE 286, FAST 20 MB HD, enhanced 512K 640K PCXT Clone 1 DR Qty 5 up each

UPGRADE YOUR IBM® PC "MI

$3095 $4295

$8395 $4995

$4995 $2995 $795

Princeton Color H Pi-12 Princoton Color SB-12 286ACCELERATOR TufboAccel-2868MHZ MULTI-FUNCTION BOARDS AST6Pak64K

Quad ram Expanded Quadboard OK Teem a r Captain 64 K

SS95 $695 $795 SI 295 S2295 S3295 S3595

MONITORS GRAPHIC BOARDS

Amdex 31 OA $159 Hercules Monochrome $299

Hercules Color Card $159

5459 TecmarGrsphlcsMaster $449

£649 Paradise Graphics $279

STBGraphlx..ll S279 $895 Hercules Compatible MONO $135

FLOPPY DRIVES

$245 TEAC112 HT FD55B $119

S219 MitsuDistii96TPI $125

$199 5" DSDD Color Diskettes $ 21

ALL PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND STOCK ON HAND

CompuPro Is a Registered Trademark ol Viasyn. CPU Z, Disk 1A, Disk 3. Interlace 3. Intertacer 4., CPU 2B6. CPU B085/8B, System Support 1. MDRIVE-H, Ram 22, Ram 23 are trademarks or registered trademarks ol Viasyn. CP/M 2.2, CCP/W, are registered trademarks of Digital Research Inc. MSDOS is a reglslerad trademark ol Microsoft, Systemaster & Systemasler II are registered trademarks ot Teletek Enterprises. Turbodos Is registered trademark ol Software 2000. IBM is a registered trademark ol International Business Machines. AutoCad 2 is a registered trademark o( AutoDask. Inc.

HARD DRIVE KITS PC 10MB PC PC21MBPC AT21MB AT AT 36MB AT AT 70MB AT AT BOMB AT AT 119MB AT PC Flpy Controller AT SER'POR.

Ask about our monthly SPECIAL"

51" Disks

^1395

Sd?£189-5

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SONY.

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TERMS! Minimum20disks or *35<» — VISA or MasterCard accepted CO.D. orders add 2<& for special handling. SHIPPING! 31«'s 5% Diskettes; Add 3^ for every 100 Diskettes or any tragtion thereof. 8 Diskettes; Add 4°P for every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof. We ship UPS; orders requiring other delivery methods add shipping, plus 2% of total order.

* Delaware 1 800-451 1849

RO. Box 10247 Wilmington. DE. 19850

'Oklahoma 1 800 654 4058

RO. Box 1874 Bethany,OK. 73008

* Nevada 1 800 621 6221

RO. Bon 1213 Boulder City, NV. 89005

Inquiry 107

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 407

WHAT'S NEW

PC-Compatible Kaypro

The Kaypro PC is an MSDOS machine based on a 4.77-MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor, with a socket for the Intel 8087 math coprocessor. It comes with 2 56K bytes of RAM. expandable to 640K bytes, two double-density 360Kbyte floppy-disk drives, and room for either a full- or half-height hard-disk drive. Its multivideo adapter supports monochrome, color graphics, and composite video output. System boards use three of the nine IBM PC-compatible expansion slots, leaving the user with three full-length and three half-length slots. Its 132-watt power supply can support a hard disk. It has both serial and parallel ports.

The Kaypro PC comes with a 12-inch monochrome monitor and an IBM Selectric-style detachable keyboard with the same layout as the Kaypro 286i and PC AT keyboards.

Kaypro is bundling MSDOS 2.11, WordStar, Mailmerge, CorrectStar, StarIndex, MITE, Polywindows/ KDESK, and GW-BASIC with the system. It costs $1595. Contact Kaypro Corp., 533 Stevens Ave., Solana Beach, CA 92075, (619) 481-4300. Inquiry 565.

and built to work in extreme industrial environments.

The Kaypw PC

Standard operating systems for the VS-186 are PC-DOS, C/PM-86, and Virtual Systems' UNIX-style QNX.

The VS-186 is founded on an 8-MHz 80186 microprocessor and contains a socket for an 8087 math coprocessor. ROMs can be installed in six EPROM sites; two other ROM sites are occupied by the system code. The VS-186 comes with 2 56K of parity-checked RAM controlled by an 8208 memory controller chip and arranged as two banks, yielding a no-wait-state system that lets the 80186 run at full speed.

The VS-186 has two RS-232C serial ports, a programmable parallel port, a Centronics-compatible parallel port, a SASI/SCSI interface for disk and tape drives, and a processor-bus extension. The serial ports are controlled by a dual serial-channel controller and can operate asynchronously or synchronously. Four iSBX expansion connectors are

wired to the 80186's DMA channels for high-speed I/O.

The VS-186's price is $950. Contact Virtual Systems, Suite 406, 1500 Newell Ave., Walnut Creek, CA 94596, (415) 935-4944. Inquiry 566.

128K Color-Graphics

Single-Board

Quark/150

The Megatel Quark/150 is a color-graphics singleboard computer based on the Z80B microprocessor. It includes a 128K-byte dynamic RAM, two serial ports, four parallel ports, a floppy-disk controller, and RGB video output. The floppy-disk controller can handle up to four drives of any size in any combination.

The RGB interface can be configured 16 different ways using three resolution modes: 2 colors at 640 by by 240, or 16 colors at 160 by 240. A graphics software package with 27 (TeleVideo TPC I-compatible) functions gives you eight fill patterns, eight line styles, multiple character heights and

widths, ellipse and arc functions and lets you change the resolution mode for any line.

The Quark/150 is a 4- by 6-inch Eurocard. It comes with CP/M 2.2 BIOS, the Megatel graphics primitives, and a transition board that provides an interface to standard peripherals for $695. Contact Megatel Computer Technologies, 2311 South Anthony Blvd., Fort Wayne, IN 46803, or call (416) 745-7214. Inquiry 567.

XT-Compatible GMS PC/286

The IBM PC XTcompatible Gulfstream Micro Systems Professional Computer/286 has an 80286 microprocessor running at 8 MHz with zero wait states. An 80287 numeric coprocessor is optional. The system comes with 2 56K bytes of on-board memory, expandable to 640K on the motherboard, and eight expansion slots. Video boards, ports, and monitors are not provided.

The system is sold in three model groups. The first group consists of computers with one or two 360K-byte floppy-disk drives. Model Group 2 adds the choice of a 10- 20-, or 30-megabyte hard disk. Model Group 3 adds a 10- or 60-megabyte internal tape backup.

Prices for Model Group 1 start at $2995; for Model Group 2, $4420; for Model Group 3, $5388. Contact Gulfstream Micro Systems, 5500 North Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL 33431, (305) 994-6500. Inquiry 568.

Single-Board VS-186

irtual Systems' VS-186 is a PC-DOS-com

patible, single-board computer that can accept up to 512K bytes of ROM and up to 1-megabyte of paritychecked RAM. The 8M- by 11-inch computer board is aimed at the measurement and control market and therefore is self-contained

408 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

WHAT'S NEW

warn

ERIPHERALS

■

Eight-Pen Color Plotter from HP

Hewlett-Packard's ColorPro is an eight-pen plotter that can produce multicolor pie. bar, and line graphs and text charts on 8'A- by 11-inch paper or on overhead-projector transparencies. Its high resolution of 0.001 inch is said to give it a fine-line quality as much as four times better than comparable plotters. Such resolution improves the drawing of both straight lines and solid fills.

The ColorPro moves pens at 15.7 inches per second. You can select pens from the carousel through software or front-panel commands. Pens in the carousel are automatically capped. HP offers pens in two widths and 10 colors for paper. Transparency pens are available in seven colors.

A slot for ROM cartridges lets you expand or customize the ColorPro's capabilities. An HP graphicsenhancement cartridge adds a larger buffer and more advanced graphics commands.

Lotus's 1-2-3 and Symphony. Decision Resources' Chart-Master and SignMaster, and HP's Graphics Gallery and Textcharts are some of the programs that work with the ColorPro. The HP-GL programming language is built into the plotter.

Available with an RS-232C or an IEEE-488 interface, the ColorPro costs $1295 and works with HP, IBM, Apple, Compaq, and most other personal computers. The graphics-enhancement cartridge costs $195. Contact Hewlett-Packard, Inquiries Manager, 1820 Embarcadero Rd., Palo Alto. CA 94303. Inquiry 569.

Matrix's Alliance duster controller.

2400-bps Modem from UDS

Universal Data Systems' FasTalk 2400 is a Hayescompatible modem that connects to your personal computer via the RS-232C port. It uses V.22 and V.22bis asynchronous modulation for full-duplex operation at 2400 bps over public switched telephone networks. It will also work as a Bell 212A or 103 series modem at 1200 or 300 bps.

FasTalk 2400 comes with an asynchronous communications package called SignOn for IBM and compatible personal computers. SignOn stores up to 100 phone numbers in a directory and dials any one of them with a single keystroke. You can store automatic logon sequences, and you can set dates and times for unattended data transfer.

The FasTalk 2400 modem and SignOn cost $62 5. Contact Universal Data Systems. 5000 Bradford Dr.. Huntsville. AL 3 5805. (205) 837-8100. Inquiry 570.

RS-232C Networking with Alliance

The Alliance cluster controller allows networking of 2 to 20 IBM PCs and peripherals using standard

RS-232C serial ports and proprietary software. The basic Alliance controller includes a Hitachi 64180 (an enhanced Z80-compatible) microprocessor, software both in the Alliance and for each PC on the network, and eight serial ports; additional modules with four ports each can be added. An optional 480K-byte printer buffer can also be installed, as can a serial-toparallel converter. Information is transferred through the network at 115K bits per second, which is relatively slow compared to other PC networks.

The basic eight-port Alliance should be available this month for a list price of $895. Each four-port expansion module is $349. Contact Matrix Communications, 112-116 Washington St.. Marblehead, MA 01945, (617) 639-1211. Inquiry 571.

RAM Box for Macintosh

MacVentures' QuickDrive is an external RAM-disk box that works with the Apple Macintosh. The basic QuickDrive contains 51 OK bytes of RAM that is designed to behave like a fast disk drive. You can get more RAM with the

1- 1.5-, or 2-megabyte versions of the device or by adding up to three 510Kbyte expansion modules to the basic QuickDrive box.

You connect QuickDrive to the printer port or, for AppleTalk users, the modem port. You can then attach your printer to a second port on the QuickDrive. QuickDrive has its own switching power supply, which will accept 12 volts AC or DC, and a connector to tap standard wall voltage. Because QuickDrive doesn't depend on the Mac for power, it retains any information on the RAM disk even if the Mac accidently loses power or is turned off. You don't have to modify the Macintosh hardware in any way to use QuickDrive.

QuickDrive does not use any of the Macintosh's memory space. MacVentures claims that it is five to ten times faster than floppy-disk drives because its data-transfer rate is greater than 900 kbps. It also claims QuickDrive can launch MacWrite in 7.4 seconds and MacPaint in 5.1 seconds.

QuickDrive comes with a menu-driven program that lets you configure the size and number of disk volumes you want to use and lets you set up a print spooler that can handle printing as a background task.

The basic QuickDrive costs $499, has a 90-day warranty, and includes 510K of RAM, a printer port, a cable, a power supply, and the controlling software. The 1-megabyte, 1.5-megabyte. and 2-megabyte versions of QuickDrive cost $649, $799, and $949, respectively. The 510K-byte expansion modules cost $169 each. Contact MacVentures, POB 6123, Aloha, OR 97007, (503) 645-9696. Inquiry 572.

(continued)

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 409

WHAT'S NEW

10-MHz 80286 Board for IBM PC

Applied Reasoning's PCelevATor Model 2100 allows the IBM PC to operate at up to twice the speed of IBM's PC AT, by adding an 80286 microprocessor running at 10 MHz with no wait states. An optional 5- or 8-MHz 80287 floating-point coprocessor can also be added to the card to speed up computation-intensive programs. The card also has 1 megabyte of memory.

The PC-elevATor is priced at $2695. For more information, contact Applied Reasoning, 765 Concord Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. (617) 492-0700. Inquiry 573.

Hardware-assisted Bug Zapper

The Bug Zapper is a hardware-assisted debugging tool for the IBM PC. The IBM PC half-slot expansion card provides a "zap" circuit that monitors memory addressing and interrupts a program when it overwrites specified locations, enabling the programmer to search through memory to find out where the program went off track. Also available at all times is a "halt" button, which interrupts program execution even when normal interrupts have been disabled, also allowing registers and memory to be checked to locate the cause of unwanted behavior.

Guardian, the monitor program included with the Bug Zapper, is installed at boot time; the halt and zap functions both turn control over to the Guardian monitor or optionally to another host

Norcom chips for enhanced text.

debugging program such as Microsoft's SYMDEB. Guardian performs standard debugging functions including view or overwrite memory or registers, port input or output, trace, and unassemble.

The Bug Zapper. with both the expansion card and Guardian, is priced at $195. For more information, contact Microtech International, 9906 Norwood Court, Dept. M-3, Largo, MD 20772, (301) 350-1068. Inquiry 574.

Enhanced Text Mode for Heath/Zenith 89 and 19

The T-Prom charactergenerator chip from Norcom provides an enhanced character set for the Heath/Zenith 89, 89A, 19, and 19A computers. The replacement character ROM chip enhances 94 text characters, while maintaining graphics compatibility by not changing any of the graphics characters. Another chip, the GT-Prom, combines the T-Prom features with the graphics enhancements of Norcom's earlier G-Prom on a single chip. The T-Prom chip is priced

at $19.95; the GT-Prom is $24.95. For more information, contact Norcom, 9630 Hayes, Overland Park, KS 66212, (913) 888-6237. Inquiry 575.

Breadboards for Eurocard, PC Buses

ugat has added two breadboards to its Uni

layer II product line. The company is now offering a 220-mm dual Eurocard and an IBM PC AT-compatible board.

The Eurocard has a highdensity universal pattern and will accommodate up to 150 16-pin DIP equivalents. It has a primary I/O connector, two 96-pin DIN connectors, and an I/O header that supports two 64-pin DIN connectors.

The IBM PC AT-compatible board also has a highdensity universal pattern and will accommodate 94 16-pin DIP equivalents. The I/O supports the IBM PC ATcompatible edge connector.

a 37-pin D-subminiature, and a 50-pin header area.

Augat will wire the boards for you if you transmit the wiring data to Augat electronically; wired boards can be delivered within four weeks. Unwired, the Eurocards cost $220 apiece or $1505 for 10. The ATcompatible boards cost $197 each or $1590 for 10. Contact Augat Inc., Systems Division, 40 Perry Ave.. POB 1037, Attleboro. MA 02703. (617) 222-2202. Inquiry 576.

ImageMate Emulation Card

Orange Micro's ImageMate card enables Apple's lmagewriter II printer to emulate an Epson FX-80 or IBM Graphics Printer, while also adding a printer buffer with 64K bytes of memory (expandable to 128K). The ImageMate also includes an adapter cable and DIP switches to select IBM or Epson emulation.

For Apple computer owners who don't need Epson or IBM emulation, Orange Micro announced a similar card that adds an intelligent printer buffer to the lmagewriter 11. The ImageBuffer card adds 64 K or 128K bytes of buffer memory and can also print multiple copies of buffered documents. A clear-buffer feature is also provided to eliminate the need to power-off the printer when unwanted information is in the buffer.

Both ImageWare expansion cards will retail for approximately $120 each. Contact Orange Micro, 1400 North Lakeview Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807, (714) 779-2772. Inquiry 577.

410 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

WHAT'S NEW

Modeling in Three Dimensions

MacModel is a solids modeler for the Macintosh that lets you draw three-dimensional objects and view them from many vantage points in wide-angle or telephoto

perspective. You can create models of objects as small as molecules or as large as tall buildings.

The software handles constructive solid geometry. You can start with basic objects like spheres and cubes, then combine them with union, intersection, or subtraction

to form any object. Also, you can move, stretch, or rotate any object with the mouse. After you've drawn an object, MacModel lets you calculate or change physical properties such as size, weight, density, and reflectance. Drawings can be printed with an Imagewriter

or LaserWriter.

MacModel runs on any Mac, but synoptics recommends the 512K-byte version. The software costs $40. Contact synoptics, Suite 213. 1075 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004, (206) 747-7633. Inquiry 578.

PC-to-PL/M Connector

CompuFirm has released an interface library of more than 150 functions and utilities designed to provide a connection between an IBM PC and Intel's PL/M compiler. This debugged set of assemblylanguage functions enables you to write various applications in the PL/M language using the Intel compiler.

PL/M Connection provides access to all of a PC's DOS and BIOS functions and high-speed graphics functions that interface directly with the color-graphics and monochrome display adapters. The package offers development support for software control of such peripherals as floppy and hard disks, communications devices, printers, video displays, and keyboards. The compiler generates in-line code automatically for the 8087 floating-point coprocessor.

The program consists of four main libraries plus utilities written in PL/M and assembly. For programmers unfamiliar with using PL/M to make a DOS program, CompuFirm has provided step-by-step sample programs explaining how to create such a program from the source code. PL/M Connection comes

on a double-sided PC-DOS disk with source code in PL/M and assembly, demo programs, and a 200-page manual with examples of each function. The package has a license fee of $295 per user. Quantity discounts and site licenses are available. Contact CompuFirm Corp.. Suite 204, 7677 Ronson Rd., San Diego, CA 92111, (619) 571-0228. Inquiry 579.

On-line Correction Aid

The Resident Speller from S & K Technology is a memory-resident spelling-correction system for the IBM PC and compatibles. The program checks spelling as you type. It operates with many popular word processors, including WordStar, Microsoft Word, MultiMate, pfs:Write, WordPerfect, Volkswriter, and Peachlext 5000. The Resident Speller can also be used as a stand-alone spelling checker for standard ASCII text files.

As a resident utility, the program occupies 25K bytes of memory; its 49,000-word dictionary takes another 64 K bytes. You can turn checking on and off from within your word-processing environment. Configurable features include the interpretation of individual characters, the marking symbol and meth

od, and default filenames. The main dictionary and alternate dictionaries can be expanded.

The Resident Speller costs $99. Contact S & K Technology Inc., 4610 Spotted Oak Woods. San Antonio, TX 78249. (512) 492-3384. Inquiry 580.

Lessons in Speedy Reading

Achievement House claims its FASTread program can help increase your reading rate with its 80 lessons of self-instruction, practice, and testing. The program also teaches the mental and physical aspects of fast reading to help you increase comprehension and retention along with speed.

The lessons use "real world" material with a difficulty level equivalent to what's found in industry and education. You set your own pace and goals, and the software tracks your progress. The program keeps tabs of where you finish in a lesson so you can resume with subsequent material quickly.

FASTread costs $59.95 and comes with a 30-day guarantee. It runs on an IBM PC. XT, or AT with at least I28K bytes, one disk drive, an 80 by 2 5 display, and DOS 2.0 or later. Contact Achieve

ment House. 103 Great Plain Rd.. Danbury, CT 06811, (800) 551-1133; in Connecticut, (203) 748-0277. Inquiry 581.

PLZ Compiler

KCSystems has developed a resident PLZ compiler that follows Lattice C calling conventions and can be used with any Lattice C-compatible library. The company said its compiler implements the complete Zilog PLZ language, including the extensions of the Z8000 PLZ (32-bit data types, structure operations, etc.). A version for the 68000 running under CP/M-68K is also available.

KCSystems said the compiler is best suited for ROMbased 8088/8086 or 68000 systems, systems-level programs, and any application where C or Modula-2 would otherwise be used.

The package costs $75 and consists of the compiler, user's manual. Report on the Programming language PLZ-SYS (T. Snoock et al., SpringerVerlag, 1978), and a year of free updates. Or you can buy the manual and text for $20; the money is credited toward purchase of the compiler. A money-back guarantee runs for 30 days. Contact KCSystems, 20 Lamington Dr., Succasunna, NJ 07876. (201) 927-9104. Inquiry 582.

(continued)

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 411

WHAT'S NEW

Two for the Amiga

MaxiCorp has released a set of businessoriented modules and a serial communications program for the Commodore Amiga.

Maximillian contains four modules: MaxiCalc. a spreadsheet that can handle 256 rows by 256 columns; MaxiWord, a word processor; MaxiGraph, for drawing bar. line, and pie charts; and MaxiTerm. a communications program that can operate with data speeds up to 9600 bps. With a 256Kbyte Amiga, you can use any one of the applications; with a 512K-byte machine, you can use all four together.

MaxiComm, another communications program, is capable of terminal emulation and file transfers between the Amiga and online services and data transfers between Amigas. Both XON/XOFF and XMODEM protocols are available.

Maximillian lists for $195. MaxiComm is $49.95. Contact MaxiCorp. 2817 Sloat Rd.. Pebble Beach, CA 93953. (408) 625-4104. Inquiry 583.

RAM Disk. RAM Upgrade for 520ST

Lamar Micro has developed a RAM-disk program for the Atari 520ST. Called RAM Overdrive, the program lets a 520ST with 1 megabyte of RAM address the upper 512K bytes of random-access memory as a RAM disk.

One way to fatten your Atari so it can use the RAM disk is with Lamar's 1-megabyte RAM upgrade. When used with a word-processing program such as ST Write, this RAM expansion lets ap

proximately 688K bytes (or 344 typewritten pages) reside in memory at all times. The operating system automatically detects this increase and makes the 688K bytes available to the application.

RAM Overdrive costs $34.95. The RAM upgrade is $300. You have to send your keyboard to the company for installation of the RAM. Contact Lamar Micro, 2107 Artesia Blvd.. Redondo Beach. CA 90278, (213) 374-1673. Inquiry 584.

Pascal for Ataris

Draper Pascal lets you create, compile, and execute Pascal programs on the Atari 400, 800. XL, or XE computers. It incorporates features from UCSD and ISO standards and has extensions, such as sound and graphics, that take advantage of Atari hardware.

Machine-language subroutines can be loaded and called, and program chaining is supported. Draper puts no limit on the size of source-code programs. A one-pass compiler generates pseudocode directly; maximum size of program pseudocode is 30K bytes. Execution debugging tools include instruction trace and stack display. No linking is required.

Draper Pascal needs only one disk drive and 48K

bytes of RAM. It costs $44.95 (plus $2 shipping) and comes with a manual and sample programs. Contact Draper Software. 307 Forest Grove, Richardson, TX 75080. (214) 699-9743. Inquiry 585.

CP/M for Z8000

Digital Research and Zilog have jointly developed CP/M-8000 for the Z8000 16-bit microprocessor. CP/M-8000, which is being marketed by Toshiba and Zilog, features an enlarged directly accessible memory space beyond 64 K bytes. The developers say the new CP/M has an improved file manager and command repertoire as well as increased capability for library maintenance.

CP/M-8000 comes with a C compiler, assembler, linker, debugger, and utilities. Personal BASIC, Compiler BASIC, FORTRAN, and Pascal/MT+ are slated as options. Toshiba's offerings for the operating system are a PL/M compiler, a macro assembler, a PROM writer, a download utility, and a screen editor.

The new CP/M can operate with a Z8001. Z8002, Z8003, or Z8004; a minimum of 176K bytes (2 56K is recommended); and up to 16 disk drives. It comes on singlesided single-density 8-inch floppy disks or on doublesided double-density

514-inch disks. Prices start at $340.

Contact Toshiba Corp., 1-1-1. Shibaura, Minato-ku. Tokyo 105, Japan; telephone: (03) 457-2104; Telex: J22587. Inquiry 586.

Atari Tools

Volume One of the Atari ST Toolbox contains five utility programs on a single disk. The programs are Disk File/Sector Editor. Memory Editor, Fast Format & Copy. Deleted File Recovery, and Directory Print. Volume One costs $39.95.

Contact Mirage Concepts Inc.. Suite 108, 4055 West Shaw Ave.. Fresno. CA 93711, (209) 227-8369. Inquiry 587.

SoftwareDevelopment System

Described as a fourthgeneration language, Sculptor is designed to reduce programming time by using menus written in plain English and screens created with any text editor. Microprocessor Developments Ltd. says Sculptor can cut programming time by as much as 80 percent.

The system uses a B-tree access method. It's transportable to a variety of computers using MS-DOS or PC-DOS. Multiuser applications can be developed for systems running under UNIX, UniFLEX, and OS-9.

Contact Microprocessor Developments Ltd., 1/3 Canfield Place, London NW6 3BT, England; telephone: 01-328-2277. The U.S. representative is Gander & Flynn Ltd., 22 5 Dyer Rd., West Palm Beach. FL 33405. (305) 832-0131. Inquiry 588.

WHERE DO NEW PRODUCT ITEMS COME FROM? The new products listed in this section of BYTE are chosen from the thousands of press releases, letters, and telephone calls we receive each month from manufacturers, distributors, designers, and readers. The basic criteria for selection for publication are: (a) does a product match our readers' interests? and (b) is it new or is it simply a reintroduction of an old item? Because of the volume of submissions we must sort through every month, the items we publish are based on vendors' statements and are not individually verified, if you want your product to be considered for publication [at no charge), send full information about it. including its price and an address and telephone number where a reader can get further information, to New Products Editor, BYTE, 70 MfliH St., Peterborough. NH 03458.

412 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

-The Buyer's Mart

A Directory of Products and Services

THE BUYER'S MART is a monthly advertising section which enables readers to easily locate suppliers by product category. As a unique feature, each BUYER'S MART ad includes a Reader Service number to assist interested readers in requesting information from participating advertisers.

RATES: 1x-$375 3x-$3S0 6x-$325 Prepayment must accompany each insertion.

AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Advertisers must

furnish typewritten copy. Ads can include headline (23 characters maximum), descriptive text (250 characters maximum), plus company name, address and telephone number. Do not send logos or camera-ready artwork.

DEADLINE: Ad copy is due 2 months prior to issue date. For example: June issue closes on April 1. Send your copy and payment to THE BUYER'S MART, BYTE magazine, 70 Main Street, Peterborough, NH 03458. For more information call Karen Burgess at BYTE 603-924-9281.

ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

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376-FJ East St. Charles Road Lombard, IL 60148 1-800-DEAL-NOW (312) 629-5160

Self-Inking Printer Ribbon

For users ol Okidata and other open spool ribbon printers. Controlled Printout Devices are a new kind of printing ribbon that te-ink themselves, and will last 15 times longer than the ribbon you are now using. For further information please call or write.

CONTROLLED PRINTOUT DEVICES, INC.

POB 869, Baldwin Fid., Arden, NC 28704 (704) 684-9044

CONVERSION SERVICES

Convert any 9 track magnetic tape to or from over 500 formats including 3V2", 5'A", 8" disk formals & word processors. Disk to disk conversions also available. Call for more info. (312) 459-6010

Pivar Computing Services, Inc.

* ★

47 W. Dundee Road Wheeling, IL 60090

★ ★

Inquiry 651

Inquiry 667.

Inquiry 729.

BOOKS/DISKS/VIDEOS

GASP!

THAT IS THE SOUND OF YOUR ALTOS AS IT FILLS WITH BUGS, DUST AND OTHER GUNK! Protect your investment in your 586/986 Altos. Enclose it in a filtered solid wood enclosure box. $199.95 Each. BOB'S BOX CO.

314 Sutton Street, Maysville, KY 41056 (606) 564-3932

Inquiry 654

C LANGUAGE TRAINING

Train your entire staff for less than 1 student seminar fee. Use the best & most professional video training package. Complete 5 hour video production. Learn all aspects of C from basics through pointers. $995 includes 6 video modules plus textbook plus workbook.

Call: Retrieval Technology

3 Courthouse Lane, Chelmsford, MA 01824 617-458-1130 X108

Inquiry 734.

INCOMPATIBLE WORD PROCESSORS?

We convert to and from: XEROX, DEC, IBM, LANIER, WANG, PC-DOS, CONVERGENT TECHNOLOGY, WORDSTAR, MULTIMATE, SAMNA ASCII, MICOM. Also most CP/M systems. LOWEST PRICES DATA CONVERSION INC. 6310 Caballero Blvd. • Buena Park, CA 90620 (714) 522-7762 (800) 824-4851 In CA.

Inquiry 674.

LESS NOISE! MORE COOLING!

Stop irritating fan noise & overheating problems with the SILENCER cooling system. It utilizes a super quiet (84% less noise), West German, all metal, 4Vi" fan. Provides up to 100% more cooling. Mounts on the back of the IBM PC. $79.95 + $4 s/h VISA/MC PC COOLING SYSTEMS 31510 Via Ararat Dr., Bonsall, CA 92003 (619) 723-9513

Inquiry 726

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

VIDEO STORES

We need ambitious dealers in all U.S. states and Canada to market a powerful system to computerize video tape rental stores.

WINCHESTER DATA PRODUCTS INC.

3301-Executive Drive., #204, Raleigh, N.C. 27609 (919) 872-0995

Inquiry 752

DOCUMENTATION

Computer Assembly Manuals

BIG BLUE SEED for IBM" BUILDERS: parts list, placement diagrams, instructions lor assembling over 55 IBMcompatible bare cards - $14.95. APPLE SEED II for APPLE- BUILDERS: in the style ol the BIG BLUE SEED with instructions for assembling 70 Apple-compatible bare cards - $12.95. BOTH ASSEMBLY MANUALS FOR $25.00

NuScope Associates

RO. Box 790 • Lewiston NY • 14092

Inquiry 723.

DISTRESS SALE

Export order cancelled on 5,000 new, factory boxed, Canon F-60 and 1080A printers. The letter quality F-60 is similar to IBM's Quietwriter selling for $1,395. Distress priced from $129 to $179. The 1080A has same specs, as FX-85. 160 CPS, NLQ, etc. Priced from $139 to $189. PC SYSTEMS 8 a.m. — 5 p.m. EST 305-746-3407 800-826-4839 305-746-3407

Inquiry 727

COMMUNICATIONS

SMART ANSWERING MACHINE

SAM transforms your IBM PC into an intelligent phone answering & real-voice messaging center. FEATURES: 999 personal messages, call screening, message forwarding, timed or grouped message delivery, sortable phonebook/autodialer, time/date log, voice prompted remote access, AND MORE!! All hardware & software included. Retail $295. VISA/MC

DIALECTRON, INC. 2035 California St., Ste #17, Mountain View, CA 94040 (415) 960-3040

Inquiry 676

DUPLICATING SERVICES

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

Why risk duplicating your important programs on your computer, when our equipment is designed solely to duplicate disks & verify their perfection 100%? Over 600 formals. 3%" 5V4" & 8" Plus serialization, copy protection, labeting. packaging, shrink-wrapping and last, personalized service

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

1701 E. Edinger Ave. A-4 Santa Ana. CA 92705 714/547-3383 (collect)

Inquiry 751.

BLANK FUNCTION KEY TEMPLATES

Write convenient commands next to your function keys on reversible plastic templates Styles to fit IBM-PC, Compatibles, HP-150, Keytroncs 5151, and others. Custom also available $4.95 Pkg. of 3 (Plus $1 s&h) 1-800-231-5413 In CA 1-800-523-5441 Free catalog of other helpful products available by circling number below on inquiry card.

CONTRACTS

FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Legal contracts lor hardware/software developers. Employee agreement, non-disclosure form, contracts for sale (hardware and/or software), consulting, development, hardware & software maintenance, non competition, project delivery & more.

$50 Waters Publishing S50

- 8235 Douglas - Suite 1000 Dallas, TX 75225 800-628-2828

DUPLICATION SOLUTIONS

We have the answer to your duplication needs, no matter what the volume. We supply autoloaders, disks, and technical support. We provide copy protection, serialization, package assembly, and distributive shipping.

MegaSoft

P.O. Box 1143, Freehold, NJ 07728 1-800-222-0490 201-462-7628 (in NJ)

Inquiry 670

Inquiry 749

Inquiry 707.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 413

The Buyer's Mart

ENTERTAINMENT

BIBLE ADVENTURE GAME

"Keys of the Kingdom" is an exciting Bible adventure game in which you acquire the armor of God, confront the devil, meet characters from the Bible, and solve mazes and puzzles using the Bible. Runs pn MSDOS computers. Price: $25.00

Peterson Computer Co.

P.O. BOX 40067 Bellevue, WA 98004

Inquiry 72a

HARDWARE

XPNDR2 PROJECT CARDS

FOR THE COLOR COMPUTER DISK SYSTEM The 6809E signals are brought out to pins on a 40-pin wirewrap connector; on top the disk controller mounts vertically. 4.3X7.2" drilled for ICs; SV and GND buses; all the right stuff. Includes App Notes. Cardguide available. Free Brochure.

ROBOTIC MICROSYSTEMS

BOX 30807, SEATTLE, WA 98107 (206) 782-6809

Inquiry 736.

HARDWARE

BUYING A PROGRAMMER?

Information on EPROM programmers for Engineering, Production and Field Service.

Specifications and prices upon request.

SHERMAN PIRKLE, INC. 617-861-6688

Inquiry 738,

TRAIN DISPATCHER

Train Dispatcher is a realistic simulation of a railroad traffic control center and was created by designers of CTC systems for operating railroads. Learn how dispatchers route rail traffic. IBM PC - $37; graphics card required. Apple II ■ $32; color monitor recommended. MC/VISA accepted.

SIGNAL Computer Consultants, Ltd.

P.O. Box 18222, Dept. 36 Pittsburgh, PA 15236 (412) 655-7727

Inquiry 739.

HARDWARE

Tandy 1000 Hardware

TanPak Multifunction Cards $329

Memory to 512K. RS232. Clock, DMA

TanPak Secondary $249

Memory to 256K, RS232, Clock

10 Meg Hard Drive with Controller $549

20 Meg Hard Drive with Controller $749

Hard Drive Specialist

1-800-231-6671 or 1-713-480-6000

16208 Hickory Knoll, Houston, Texas 77059

Inquiry 692.

BDS LASER PRINTER! — $2,559.00 COMPLETE WITH SOFTWARE!

8 Pages per Minute, 9 Type Fonts, (16 with optional Cartridge), Down-Loadable (Design your own) Fonts, Parallel (Centronics. IEEE-488) and Serial (RS-232C) Interfaces, Landscaping (Graphics Intermixed with Text), Magnification, Sideways Print, and Non-Volatile Memory for Control Features.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY, INC.

9312 W. 92nd Ave., Westminster, CO 80020 (303) 431-7596 VISA and MASTERCARD Accepted!

Inquiry 694.

TURBOCHARGER FOR IBM

Increases processing speed over 300% s Full software compatibility with PC and XT y- Supports Intel 10 MHz 8087 coprocessor

Everett/Charles9 Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue Fontana, CA 92335 800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

Inquiry 684.

PCjr ADD-ON DRIVES

Upgrade your PCjr with our user-installed add-on drive system. It includes a replacement disk con(roller (operates up to 3 drives), a 2 drive cable, external 360K drivets) & software for operating the extra drives. Prerequisite: DOS 2.1. $295 (one drive). $449 (2 drives). $149 (controller only), $6 shipping. Call (505) 292-4182

J & M Systems, Ltd.

15100-A Central SE. Albuquerque, NM 87123

Inquiry 701.

IBM-PC BREAKTHROUGH

X5 -PC PERFORMANCE IMPROVED 500% + EMS 10MHZ SUPER 86 + V2 MB RAM INSTALLED SOCKETS FOR UP TO 3MB OF EXPANDED MEMORY AND 8087 (XR CARD ADDS ANOTHER 5MB MAX) X5 $539 - 1MB XR $369 - % MB RAM $72

TRAILRIDGE ASSOCIATES

14300 WEST S0TH AVE., GOLDEN, CO 80401 303-441-9109

Inquiry 746

Cleans up your line power!

Isobar protects computer from damage caused by high voltage spikes and AC line noise. It prevents errors, malfunctions, false computer printouts and disc skips, plus audio and video hash. Isolated filter banks isolate the outlets to prevent equipment interaction! 3-way spike protection! Free catalog.

Indus-Tool

730 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL 60606 Phone 312-648-2191

Inquiry 696

1/2 IN. 9 TRACK COUPLER

READ ancfWRITE 1/2 in. magnetic tape with formatted 9 track drives. Runs all speeds and densities in PC, XT, & AT running MS-DOS or IBM XENIX. Data transfers up to 904K bytes/second. Couplers start at $880. Complete sub-systems start at $2995.

Overland Data, Inc.

5644 Kearny Mesa Rd„ Ste. A, San Diego, CA 92111 (619)-571-5555 and TELEX 754923 OVERLAND

Inquiry 724.

POWERLINE GREMLINS?? POWER FAILURES??

The MEIRICK STANDBY POWER SYSTEM is the TOTAL SOLUTION to your poweriine problems. 240 watt system - $365; 400 watt system - $495; 800 watt system - $795

MEIRICK Inc., POWER SYSTEMS DIV.

Box 296, Frisco, CO 80443 303-668-3251

Inquiry 706

EPROM/EEPROM PROG. $250

Programs 2716-27256. 25xx and 68764/66 eproms via RS-232. Also 874x micros and 28xxA & 52Bxx EEPROMs. Automatic baud rate select, built in help menus, no personality modules!

16 BIT I/O MODULE $75 Low cost control via RS-232. Expands to 512!

INTELUTRONICS

P.O. Box 3263, Tustin, CA 92680 (714) 6694614

Inquiry 698.

MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

US Made, Memory to 384K, Printer, I/O ports: clock, battery, and more... Under $200

Everett/Charles" Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue Fontana, CA 92335 800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

Inquiry 685

MULTI-FUNCTION Bd $149.95

includes 384K ol RAM, Serial, Pari.. Clock. Software

256K RAM Card (full) for IBM's 109.95

Team 300/1200 modem, int. or ext.,

Hayes Compt 199.95

Radio Shack 64K Color Computer II 139.95

External Drives 5Vi" for Radio Shack in easel 15.95 Epson Printers, Cheap! Call for quotes.

C.C. Distributing 5512 Poplar Ave. Memphis, TN 38119 901-761-4565

Inquiry 662

APPLE A IBM PERIPHERALS!

FACTORY DIRECT! lie 64K/80 Column Bd. $39. II + /lie Cooling Fan $24.95. II +/lie Mouse w/SFWR $49.95. Joystick III w/fire on stick Apple or IBM $24.95. 10 Fl IBM Parallel Cable $1Z95. RAM Set/9 PC-$5 XT-$7. Add $3 Shipping. Write for complete list.

NEXO DISTRIBUTION

8824 Golf Drive - Spring Valley, CA 92077 (619) 589-7928

GOULD COLORPLOTTERS

Model 6120-HP Equivalent small footprint under $1000.

Everett/Charles8 Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue Fontana, CA 92335 800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

$99 HARD DISK CONTROLLERS

These NEWSHUGART 1610 conlrollefS emulate other SASI controllers and mount directly on any 5Wi" drive. 1610-1 emulates DTC 510. ..1610-3 emulates XEBEC S1410. . .1610-4 emulates SCSI similar to ADAPTEC 4000 Controllers work with BYTE's COM 180. ACS 1000. ISIS160. AMPRO. WAVEMATE. TUSSO III. IV. APPLE. MAC. OTHERS Conlroller-$99, Manual & Schematjc$8. COO & Shipping $5 Quantity pricing available. California add 7% sales lax.

COMPUTER SURPLUS STORE

3675 DeSoto Ave., Santa Clara, CA 95051 408-248-0134

Inquiry 722.

414 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 686.

Inquiry 666

The Buyer's Mart

HARDWARE

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

LOW COST EPROM BURNER

Read, burn, and verity popular 28-pin EPROMs and EEPROMs, including 2764. 27128. 27256. 27512. 2817 and 2864. No personality modules. Uses intelligent programming algorithm tor high speed burning. Operates through parallel port. Intel and Motorola hex formats supported. Complete hardware/software package.

Atari 520ST EPROM Burner $139.95

IBM PC/PC compatible EPROM Burner $199.95

Hippopotamus Software, Inc.

985 University. Suite #12, Los Gatos, CA 95030

(408) 385-3190

Price, availability, ana speattcations subject to change vntnout notice

TAX-PREP '86 MAKES TAXES EASIER

Multiplan, 1-2-3 or Excel users, easily prepare totally professional tax returns. 22 linked schedules, IRS approved printout. IBM, Apple, TRS-80, CP/M $129.95; MAC $99.95. Call now for full information.

EZWare Corporation (215) 667-4064

PC-File III™ Version 4

Search, sort, browse, global changes, macros, mailing labels, format reports with selection & calculations, subtotals, totals, averages, encryption. Exchange data with 1-2-3, WORD, WordStar. Over 190,000 users. $59.95 + $5 s/h. For IBM PC.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 1-800-J-BUTTON

Inquiry 695

Inquiry 687.

Inquiry 655.

HAVE YOU SEEN???

If you have missed us In the November Issue of BYTE, Microsystems Journal, or even at Comdex, look us up in the February 86 Issues of these magazines for our HD 84180 master processor and dual 8/16 bit slave processors.

Intelligent Computer Designs Corp.

9252 Garden Grove Blvd. Garden Grove, CA 92644

LP88-LINEAR PROGRAMMING

A powerful menu-driven system for solving linear programs w/ up to 255 constraints & 2255 variables. Features include interactive & batch operation, spreadsheet-style input & editing, storage of problems & bases. Simplex Algorithm restart, report generator, sensitivity analysis. Req. IBM PC, 192K. $99 w/8087 support, user's guide. VISA/MC. EASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INC. P.O. Box 15328, Alexandria. VA 22309 (703) 549-5489

PC-Flle/R'"

All the power of PC-File III plus: Relational link to other databases, integrated letter writing & mailmerge, context sensitive pop-up help windows. New binary search retrieves data hundreds of times faster. $149.95 + $5 s/h.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 1-800-J-BUTTON

Inquiry 754.

Inquiry 681.

Inquiry 656.

PERIODICAL

DISCOVER ROBOTICS

Robot Experimenter™ magazine shows you how to take the next step in the computer revolution by freeing your computer to roam about the house. REx is designed for both educators and experimenters. Subscribe now to explore the world of tomorrow. • $24.00 lor 12 issues. MC/VISA/CHECK •

Robot Experimenter

POB 458, Peterborough, NH 03458 603/924-3843

TSA 88-TRANSPORTATION

A GENERAL-PURPOSE syslem for solving transportation, assignment and transhipment problems. Solves transportation problems with up to 510 origins and/or destinations by applying the Transportation Simplex Algorithm. Menu-driven with features similar to LP88. Requires 192K. $99 with 8087 support user's guide. VISA/MC.

EASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, INC.

POB 15328, Alexandria, VA 22309 (703) 549-5469

PC-Type™

Fast, compact, capable & easy! Help panels, handson tutorial, macros, muttiple-line headings & footings, DOS path support, print spooling, block operations, etc. ASCII files. Install program allows customization. $59.95 + $5 s/h. For 128K IBM PC.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 1-800-J-BUTTON

inquiry /

Inquiry 682

Inquiry 657.

REPAIRS

PC 5V4" HARD DISK REPAIR

10-day repair service on Seagate, Tandon, Miniscribe, Rodime. ALSO, component level repair on •WD1002 Drive Controller PCB, and • IBM PC&XT Motherboard PCB. Send for free brochure or call (714) 550-9303.

APPLIED DISK TECHNOLOGY, INC.

1017 N. Baker St., Suite B Santa Ana, CA 92703

dFELLER Inventory

A business Inventory program written in modifiable dBASE source code. The menu-driven program lets you locate items by inventory name or number. It keeps track of reorder points, vendors, average cost, and other info. Requires dBASE II or III. PC-DOS/CPM $150.

Feller Associates

550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpeming. Ml 49849 (906) 486-6024

PC-Calc " Version 3

64 columns x 256 rows, math and stat. functions, horizontal bar graphs, title locking, individually adjustable column widths, IF.. .THEN, link to other spreadsheets or PC-File databases, much more. Re quires 256K IBM PC. $59.95 + $5 s/h.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 1-800-J-BUTTON

Inquiry 652.

Inquiry 688.

Inquiry 65S.

>OFT WARE/BUSINESS

DATA ENTRY SYSTEM

Heads-down data entry with two-pass verification for the PC/XT/AT & compatibles. Loaded with features like: Auto dup & skip, verify bypass, range checks, & table lookups. Fully menu driven only $395. Call for free 30 day trial period.

COMPUTER KEYES

6519 193 SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036 (206) 776-6443

STANDARD FORMS

Easy to use with on screen step by step prompts. Prints data required in proper spaces on any preprinted form that fits in your printer. Free phone support. $79 (VISA/MC/AMEX). MS-DOS/CPM-80. Other original software. FREE catalogue.

MICRO-ART PROGRAMMERS

173 Birch Avenue, Cayucos, CA 93430 (805) 995-2329 (24 hours)

1985 TAX PREPARATION

Fast, easy to use package prepares and prints 1985 Federal income tax returns using form 1040. Fully interactive, menu driven. Follows IRS forms. Supports 26 forms plus multiples. MS/PC-DOS, 128K; Prof. $149.00; Pers. $39.95; VISA/MC ($5 SH)

Dunphy Systems, Inc.

P.O. Box 326, Worthington, OH 43085-0326 614-459-2349 (orders 800-622-4070; III. 800-942-7317)

Inquiry 665

Inquiry 709

Inquiry 679.

ENHANCE YOUR PRINTER!!

Print in a variety of fonts and sizes with your Epson (or compatible) printer. Prints SIDEWAYS too. Great

for letters, spreadsheets even signs and banners!

Create your own fonts to print. DigiCon Print Package-$49.95 (for IBM PC).

Digital Concepts, Inc.

P.O. Box 8345, Pittsburgh, PA 15218 (412) 823-8314

Inquiry 677

► TIME & BILLING

400 clients/20 partners/80 job & 40 out of pocket categories/20 areas of practice/fixed fee or hourly/more! Prints billing/statements/aged rec's/more! Free phone support. $149 (VISA/MC/AMEX). MSDOS/CPM-80. Other original software. FREE catalogue.

MICRO-ART PROGRAMMERS

173 Birch Avenue, Cayucos, CA 93430 (805) 995-2329 (24 hours)

Inquiry 710.

MY WORD!® is just $35.00

Complete word processing plus sort, add rows & columns, mergeprint, quickprint, macros, math, microjustify, use all 256 char. Source: add $35. 150 page printed manual. 30-day money-back guarantee. IBM PC or compatible, 128K, one drive, any printer,

T.N.T. SOFTWARE, INC.

34069 Hainesville Road, Round Lake, IL 60073 (312) 223-8595

Inquiry 745.

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 415

The Buyer's Mart

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

PC-Write™ Shareware

Fast, friendly, flexible word processor and text editor for IBM PC. Easy to use. Advanced features like macros, split screen, footnotes, mailmerge. Many good reviews, thousands sold. All software, manual on disk $10. OK to copyl Register for full manual, support, source $75.

Quicksort (208) 282-0452 Visa/MC

219 First N. #224J, Seattle. WA 98109

Inquiry 733

Programmers:

We guarantee our producls lo be solid, bugfree.

' CorreclForth - Very professional.

' Correct_Datamizer • 50:1 data compression

guaranteed. " SaleModem - Hackerproof. $80.75 per program MC/VISA/MO/Check. Specify computer.

Correct Software, Inc.

RR1 Box 140, Black Hawk, SD 57718 (605) 787-5904

Inquiry 668

TurboTax(R)

"Very easy to use. Documentation-Excellent"—PC Magazine. POWERFUL and FAST! 33 forms plus multiples. CALCULATES in 3 seconds! Pop up menus. IRS approved. 1986 planning module. Many extras. Simply the best! IBM & compatibles. 256K. $65 + $5 S/H. Visa/MC. Many states avail.

ChlpSoft, Inc. 5674 Honors, San Diego, CA 92122 (619) 453-8722

Inquiry 663

Boost Sales by 25%!

4,000+ SALESEYE users are doing just that. Proven software system streamlines your follow-up efforts. Powerful database manager and word processor. 34 fields (9 user-definable) Unlimited comments. Prints lists, lorm letters, labels, profiles. Money-back guarantee. IBM PC, compatibles W/256K.

SALES SOFTWARE $89 - CALL NOW (212) 684-55S3

High Caliber Systems, Inc.

165 Madison Avenue. Suite 6001, New York, NY 10016

Inquiry 693.

"THE CLERK" RETAIL POINT OF SALE

New software organizes your retail business equal lo the best programs. Features include: complete invoice generating, automatic inventory control, figuring discounts, taxes, and statement generating. A real must for Ihe small retailer. Demo disk $29.95 (refundable). Program on sale $149.95 reg. $199.95.

1-000-346-3026 ext.958

WDR SALES CO.

9604 BELMONT. KANSAS CITY, MO. 64134

Inquiry 750

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

MicroGANTT®

Control your project! You describe the work, MicroGANTT calculates Ihe schedule and budget. Oplimize the schedule interactively. Customize the reports. Sub-tasking, lixed and variable costs, multi-project resource allocalion. unlimited size and scope. GANTT, PERT, CPM. DOD-7000. Call or write for Iree catalog

Earth Data Corporation

P.O. Box 13168, Richmond, VA 23225

(804) 231-0300

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

MICRO BEATS RACETRACK!!

Earn profits to afford peripherals and goodies to build the "System of Your Dreams." Dick Mitchell did it. A Winning Thoroughbred Strategy, book and software program $59.95. Book only, $29.95. Send for literature and review.

Cynthia Publishing Company

4455 Los Feliz Blvd., Suite 1106B Los Angeles. California 90027 (213) 664-3165

Inquiry 672

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

Church Package

Parishioner Time, Talent and Treasure System program is written in modiliable dBASE source code. • Contributions • Disbursements • Ledger • Names wilh mailing labels • Personal information database. Requires dBASE II or III. PC-DOS/CPM-80 $200.

Feller Associates

550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpeming, Ml 49849 (906) 486-6024

Inquiry 689

SIGN MAKER $46.50

Print Letters from 5/8 inch to 83 feet tall Horizontal or Sideways banners to 12 inches tall. Very Fast. 2 fonts. Perfect for Store signs, posters, etc. Okidala 92-3, 192-3 Epson FX80, 100, Star Micronics. MSDOS, CPM-80.

WOODSMITH SOFTWARE Rt. 3-Box 550A, Nashville, IN 47448 (812) 988-2137

Inquiry 753.

WORD IMAGE

Edit 4 files, undo, sub-direclory, big files, macros, on-screen attributes, command driven, batch files, search/replace in ranges, help, all printers, manual, fast. MORE. Needs 320KB, PCDOS 2.0 +. and 360K disk. Intro: $50.00, 30-Day trial.

Software Ideology

P.O. Box 305, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11204 718-236-3876

Inquiry 740

UNIX™-LIKE TOOLS FOR MS-DOS

Increase programmer productivity with QTOOLS $49.50 from

QCAD SYSTEMS, INC.

1164 Hyde Ave., San Jose. CA 95129 Toll-free 800-538-9797 In California, call 408-727-6671

Leaders in software tools

Inquiry 731

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

GRAPHICS PRINTER SUPPORT

AT LASTI Use the PrtSc key to make quality scaled B&W or color reproductions of your display on any dot matrix. Inkjet, or laser printer. GRAFPLUS supports all versions of PC or MSDOS with IBM. Tecmar. and Hercules graphics boards. $59.95.

Jewell Technologies, Inc.

4302 SW Alaska St., Suite 207, Seattle. WA 98116 (206) 937-1081

Inquiry 700

LEARN TOUCH TYPING NOW

Are you a hunt-and-peck typist? Then you need the TOUCH TYPIST computer typing course. Over 10.000 have already learned to type wilh TOUCH TYPIST. For IBM-PC. DEC Rainbow, or DECmate II and III. Lis! $79. SPECIAL PRICE $27.97. FREE SHIPPING. MCA/ISA. COD + $3.

Newline Software

P.O. Box 289, Tiverton, Rl 02878 (401) 624-3322

Inquiry 719

ATTENTION ENGINEERS

Easy-to-use graphics software for the IBM PC.

XT, AT, and compatibles. Full 2-D and 3-D screen graphing capabilities including contours.

No programming needed! Interlace to penpfotter.

OMNIPLOT [S] $195

OMNIPLOT[P] $195

BOTH $295

MICROCOMPATIBLES

301 Prelude Drive * Silver Spring, MD 20901 (301) 593-0683

Inquiry 711.

FREE SOFTWARE

Disk includes sample programs of TOUCH TYPIST, PROFESSIONAL TEXT PROCESSOR, and PROFESSIONAL SPELLING CHECKER. Plus information about other software and computer producls. Indicate IBM-PC or DEC Rainbow or Zenith Z-100. $3 s8ih.

Newline Software

P.O. Box 289, Tiverton, Rl 02878 (401) 624-3322

Inquiry 720

TAX PREPARER PROGRAM

Prepare client's or your own Fed. Income taxes on your PC. Simplified data input. Program calculates and produces printout for transfer to IRS forms 1040. 2210. Sched A. B. C, G. & W. For IBM-PC. Zenilh Z-89. Z-100, DEC Rainbow. Requires BASIC List $60. SPECIAL $39 + $3 sSh.

Newline Software

P.O. Box 289, Tiverton, Rl 02878 (401) 624-3322

CHEAP GRAPHICS

on your printer. GRAF 3.0. an extensive upgrade of GRAF 2.0 (Sept. Chaos Manor) for MS-DOS & Z80

CP/M systems w/Epson or C.ltoh compatible graphics printers. Bar. Pie. Scatter & Line Graphs. 14 Fili-in Patterns. Auto Scaling, Legend Creation Menu-Driven.

CP/M $49.95 MS-DOS $69.95 incl. S/H No CCs

Microcomputer Systems Consultants

27-B Forst Ave., Port Jefferson Station, New York 11776-1820 (516) 928-7493

Inquiry 713.

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

CROSS ASSEMBLERS with "UNIVERSAL" LINKER and POWERFUL LIBRARIANS for IBM PC MS-DOS

Full featured for most microprocessors

ENERTEC, INC.

BOX 1312, Lansdale, PA 19446 215-362-0966 MC/VISA

Inquiry 680

416 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 721.

Inquiry 683.

The Buyer's Mart

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

CBTREE FOR C PROGRAMMERS

Provides enhanced file handling calls directly into C programs. Maintains balanced B-trees, supports unlimited number of keys, data records, and key lengths. Fast, Flexible, Efficient. No royalties. Source Code Included. New Low Price: $99

PEACOCK SYSTEMS, INC.

2009 Hileman Rd.. Falls Church, VA 22043 (703) 893-0118

Inquiry 755

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

Tools for CB80 & CB86

BDOS, DOS, and BIOS calls from CB80 and CB86! CBC Tools includes functions for directory access, string ops, a debugger, radix conversion, command line parsing, quicksorts, bit and byte ops, and much more. Available for CP/M-80. CP/M-86. and PC-DOS for $180.00.

Minnow Bear Computers

POB 2233 Sta. A, Champaign, IL 61820-8233 (217) 398-6883

Inquiry 717.

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

► SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR ■+

Memory resident emulation of the HP-11C plus direct insertion of results in foreground program, graphically presented, decimal, hex, binary, & octal operations, boolean funclions and more Mouse support. 8087 or Standard versions $49.95 + 3.00 s&h.

K SOFTWARE HOUSE

Rt. 2, B0X83B1 Unionville, TN 37180 (615) 294-5090

Inquiry 703

Minnesota §NOBOL4 Language

Powerful string & data handling facilities. Interpreter compatible with mainframe SN0B0L4. 32K strings, 32 bit integers, 8087 for float & large memory model. Sample pgms include ELIZA. For > 128K IBM PC/MS DOS or compatible. Authoritative "green" book by Griswold available.

Guide +5V4" diskette $44.95

Guide + green book + dkt $59.95

Green book only $24.95

Postpaid in USA. In NY add tax. VISA/MC (914) 271-5855 BERSTIS INTERNATIONAL POB 441, Millwood, NY 10520

68020

Motorola compatible macro Assembler Package features linker, object librarian, symbol report generator with cross reference. Produces S-records and ROMable code. For CP/M-68K, MS-DOS $750. Portable Source in C $3500. AVAILABLE NOW.

Quelo, Inc.

2464 33rd Ave. W. Suite 173, Seattle, WA 98199 206/285-2528 telex 910-333-8171

PC TECHNICAL GRAPHICS

TEKMAR is a graphics library for the Tecmar Graphics Master. Similar to PLOT-10, includes WINDOW, VIEWPORT, AXIS. Support for HP, HI plotters. Curve fitting, complete plotting program. Log, semi-log, multi-axis, 3-D, contours. Demo disk, literature available.

Advanced Systems Consultants

18653 Ventura Blvd., Suite 351, Tarzana, CA 91356 (818) 407-1059

Inquiry 653

Inquiry 732.

Inquiry 650

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

JOIN THE "C" GUILD

Membership includes quarterly distribution of all public domain submissions and 50% discount on catalogue items including "C" source code for PC utilities, small C compiler, adventure games and 2D & 3D fractals, graphics, and spreadsheet routines, etc. VISA

"C" Guild, Inc.

116 W. 6th St., Bloomington, IN 47401 1-800-554-3874

PC Array Processing!

VECT0R87 has 60 array processor subroutines: FFT, 2D FFT, convolution, dot product, real & complex vector operations, linear equations, etc. Up to 18 times faster than compiled code. For MS Fortran, Pro Fortran, Lattice C, MS C. $120 each version with source, no royalties. Vectorplex Data Systems Ltd.

Box 138 Station M, Calgary, Alberta T2P 2H6, Canada (403) 248-1250

CADD for $99.95

FEATURES: Drawing layers • User Defined Fonts

• Component Libraries • Video & Digitizer Menus

• Color Graphics.

AutoCad™ file conversion - $24.95 Dot Matrix Printer/plotter oplion - $24.95 MC, VISA, COD, add $3.00 for shipping. 60 day money back guarantee. GENERIC SOFTWARE 6 Lake Bellevue #203, Bellevue, WA 98005 1-800-228-3601

Inquiry 661

Inquiry 746.

Inquiry 690

UNIVERSAL CROSS-REFERENCER

—WORKS WITH ALL LANGUAGESBASK. C. Pascal. FORTRAN, COBOL. ASM. . . You name iti

MS/PC-DOS V2+ , IBM PC, XT & compatibles Unbeatable al $39.95 + $3 s/h. MC/Visa/Check

DALSOFT SYSTEMS

3565 High Vista, Dept E2 Dallas, TX 75234 (214) 247-7695

Affordable Engineering Software

CALL or WRITE for FREE CATALOG Circuit Analysis • Root Locus • Thermal Analysis • Matrix Manipulation • Signal Processing • Filter Design • Graphics • Text Proofreader

BV Engineering

2200 Business Way Suite 207, Riverside, CA 92501 VISA/MC (714) 781-0252

Digital Logic Design on the Macintosh™

The LogicWorks™ series allows you to create, test and document digital circuitry on your Macintosh. Full simulation capabilily lets you catch design errors before committing your circuit to hardware. From $79.95 (US). Demo pkg. $10. Visa/MS Accepted.

Capilano Computing Systems Ltd.

Box 86971, N. Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V7L 4P6 (604) 669-6343

Inquiry 673

Inquiry 659.

Inquiry 660.

BYSO® LISP

tor IBM PC INTERPRETER $150

(includes Visual Syntax®) COMPILER $395

lor stand alone expert systems, etc.

Levien Instrument Co.

POB 31, McDowell, VA 24458 (703) 396-3345

SYSTEM DESIGNER

SD is a tool (or the design of hierarchical systems and processes, representable by trees. SD breaks a task ol designing a large system into a great number of small, easy tasks while keeping track ol all pieces. SD plots a graph of a tree representing the proposed system. The price is $399.

CUSTOM SYSTEMS

23 Crestwood Ct., Lansdale, PA 19446 (215) 468-7773

AutoCAD IC LIBRARIES

Iniegraled circuit symbol libraries allow rapid caplure of electronic schematics with AuloCAD 2.X. Symbols can be inserted, scaled up/down, rotated, copied, moved, dragged, pul on new layers, erased, made into blocks, and used with data attributes.

LS TTL Library $295

Z80 Family Library $195

Schematic Library $295

TKF Systems (301) 730-3542

5478-A3 Harpers Farm Rd., Columbia, MD 21044

AutoCAD is a registered trademark o! Autodesk, Inc

Inquiry 705

Inquiry 677

Inquiry 702.

FTWARE/SYSTEM

CROSS ASSEMBLERS

Develop microprocessor programs on your IBM PC or MS DOS computer.

* Macros * Condilional Assembly * Editor * Complete support for most 8 bit microprocessors Linker and EPROM Programmer Driver

Microcomputer Tools Co.

1255C Kenwal Rd., Concord, CA 94521 (415) 825-4200

Inquiry 716

BEAM ANALY. & SPRING DESIGN

Beam analysis program calculates shear, moments, reactions, slopes and deflections in beams Price: $50.00. Helical spring design program for compression, extension and torsion springs. Price: $75.00. Both packages include disk and documentation For Apple II series of computers or IBM PC. PCjr and compatibles.

SYLCA CORPORATION

33-47 14 Street, Dept B, Long Island City, NY 11106 718-278-4604

Inquiry 743

DISK DRIVE DIAGNOSTIC

Memory Minder, from J & M Systems, is a disk diagnostic program lor the IBM PC, PCjr, & IBM compatibles. It checks your drives for head alignment, spindle speed, hysteresis, azimuth & more. And. you can use Memory Minder to actually align your disk drives! $99 plus $4 shipping.

J & M Systems, Ltd.

15100-A Central SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123 (505) 292-4182

Inquiry 669.

IANUARY 1986 •BYTE 417

The Buyer's Mart

SOFTWARE/SYSTEM

MCFORMAT $50

Don't let DOS waste your disk space! Add up to 50% more hard disk capacity to your IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible by selecting format parameters, including cluster & directory size. Fully DOS compatible (3.0 or 3.1). VISA/MC.

Microcomputer Concepts, Inc.

9715 SE 43 St., Mercer Island, WA 98040 (BOO) 722-808B (206) 236-2300

Inquiry 712.

SOFTWARE/SYSTEM

Symbolic Debugger for Turbo Pascal™

- Set breakpoints at line numbers or procedures

- Display and modify variables symbolically

- Fully integrated into Turbo Pascal envlronmenl Requires Turbo 2.0 or 3.0, IBM PC version.

Only $49 plus $2 S&H.

KYDOR COMPUTER SYSTEMS

812 S. Sherman St., Richardson, Texas 75081 (214) 669-1888

Inquiry 704.

UTILITIES

MEDIA MASTER PLUS

READ, WRITE, and FORMAT over 60 CP/M disks and run most CP/M-80 programs on your IBM PC! Two program package includes ZP/EM, a CP/M-80 emulator program that transforms your IBM PC info a 1-2 MHZ CP/M 2.2 computer. $59.95 + $3.00 S/H (CA 6%)

Intersecting Concepts, Inc.

4573 Heatherglen Ct. Ste. 10 Moorpark, CA 93021 (805) 529-5073

Inquiry 699.

Multi-terminal DOS

GASS-General Accounting Scientific Switching system. Multitasking. Can handle 12 terminals off IBM PC. Used in mini's since 1976. Dealers wanted. List price $795.00. For limited time $95.00.

Maxey Systems, Inc.

5910 Youree Dr. Suite D, Shreveport, LA 71105 (318) 868-5422

pcSHARE MULTI-USER O/S

pcSHARE allows your IBM-XT/AT or compatible to support up to 5 users running 1-2-3, dBASE, WordStar, etc. on inexpensive serial CRTs. For software developers, pcSHARE efficiently runs compiled Basic, Pascal & C programs with full DOS 3.0 compatible record locking.

Digitrol Computers Inc.

440 Phillip Street Waterloo, Ontario, CAN, N2L 5R9 (519) 884-4541

BASIC PROGRAMMERS

Add SALT & PEPPER to your existing/new programs. Create dazzling Menus, intelligent Input Screens. Walking Strings, ASC/Desc Sort, PRT. SCR. Data processing & more. SALT & PEPPER has 28 modules, {in MS-DOS compatible BASIC). They merge with your program in minutes. S & P performs all the tricks, YOU get the applause. $59.95 plus $2.50 s&h. Demo disk $2.50 ppd.

mca/isa computer GURU

40 Wagner Ave., Piscataway, NJ 0B854 201-356-6477

Inquiry 706.

Inquiry 678.

Inquiry 664.

STATISTICS

LASER TYPOGRAPHY $495.

Typographic composition software to drive the Corona L300 Laser Printer as a typesetter. H & J 24 proportional space fonts, widths for 78 fonts available. Mix face & point size on any line, multicolumn capability.

Micro Print-X, Inc.

P.O. Box 581, Ballinger, TX 76821 (915) 365-2343 Dealer Inquiries Welcome

Inquiry 715.

RATS!

RATS is a fast, accurate & complete regression package with unsurpassed POWER. Has both lime-series & cross section analysis. Includes Box-Jenkins, logit & probit. Spectral analysis & graphics also available. Requires 256K RAM, IBM PC or compatible. $200. MCA/isa.

VAR Econometrics

P.O. Box 19334, Minneapolis, MN 55419 (612) 822-9690

Inquiry 747.

PACKED

HOT STUFF

UTILITY DISK

FOR IBM-PC

$10

EXPECT A MIRACLE!

MICRO TOOLS INC.

POB 357 N. Chili, NY 14514 (716)594-1088

Circle the Inquiry # ... We'll do the Rest

Inquiry 714,

ACT1 PROFESSIONAL FULLY INTEGRATED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM for PC-DOS

Proven 3'/2 years. Includes General Ledger; Accounts Receivables; Order Entry/lnv.; Accounts Payable; Inventory, Payroll (incl. Post Facto).

only $99.50 plus ship. & hand. (800) 344-2540

Cougar Mountain Software

Box 6886, Boise, ID 83707

NUMBER CRUNCHER STAT SYS

Menu-driven. Multiple & stepwise regression, ANOVA, time series, discriminant analysis, principal components, scatter plots, histograms, t-tests, contingency tables, nonparametrics. Import export data. Sort, join, merge. Site license $79. IBM PC/Macintosh.

NCSS-B

865 East 400 North, Kaysville, UT 84037 801-546-0445

"'HARD DISK OWNERS'" SIMPLIFY S PROTECT YOUR SYSTEM WITH THE MAIN MENUI

Organize your system wilh easy-to-create easy-lo-lollow menus that display when the system is turned on. Execute programs and DOS commands with the touch ol a key. Password protect specific programs or entire menus. Will not detract from your systems memory. On-line help screens. Time Utility. $19.95 VISA/MC

IBM pc/xt & compatibles with 192K and dos 2.x. PARSONS TECHNOLOGY 6925 Surrey Dr. NE„ Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 (319) 373-0197

Inquiry 744.

Inquiry 725.

TRANSLATIONS

CPM-80 LIVES on your PC

CP/Mulator puts a 4mhz 8 bit CP/M emulator in your IBM-PC lor $99.

-A great 8 bit development system -Saves expensive CPM-80 applications -Increases PC speed 10% for 8088 programs -Priced less than most software only products -Uses no valuable board slots

Source Information

P.O. Box 2974, Warminster, PA 18974 Phons (21S) 628-4719

ARABIC AND FRENCH TRANSLATION

If you are interested in expanding your sales base into the Arabic or French market then SCIENCE may be able to help you. Fast, accurate translation of any computer related application. Business advice for entry of your product into these markets is also available.

SCIENCE

55 rue Barbes, 94200 Ivry-Sur-Seine, France (1) 46-71-1B-55

ZERODISK

ZeroDisk runs dozens ol copyprotected business packages from your hard disk without floppies. Call lor the latest list ol software it handles. Needs IBM AT, XT, PC, or compatible, DOS 2.0 or higher. ZeroDisk is revised monthly and is not copy protected. $75 US. Check or Credit Cards accepted.

QUAID SOFTWARE LIMITED 45 Charles St. E. 3rd Ft.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 1S2

(416) 961-8243

Inquiry 741.

Inquiry 737.

UTILITIES

CP/M Calls from CB80

Access the full power of CP/M or MP/M direct from your CB80 progs. Execute BDOS or XDOS calls. Get such info, as user or CP/M version number, time of day. directory, etc. BDOSMASTER consists of CB80 Basic code to be "INCLUDED" in your prog, and a module for use by LK80. Complete package $75.00.

Practical Solutions, Inc.

134 S. Central Ave., Valley Stream, NY 11580 FOR INFO. CALL 1-516-561-0566 TO ORDER 1-(800)-227-3800, ext. 983

Inquiry 730

418 BYTE' IANUARY 1986

DOS PATHING EXTENSION

Give your software the full PATHING capabilities that are missing from the 2.xx and 3.xx versions of MSDOS and PC-DOS. FULLPATH object license: $19.95. source license: $399.95, (+$5 S&H + 6% in MN). VISA/MC/PO/CHK 30 day money back guarantee.

P. R. GLASSEL and ASSOCIATES, INC.

30255 Fir Trail, Stacy, MN 55079

612-462-1337

Inquiry 691.

IBM - TOSHIBA PRINTER INTERFACE

• all extended capabilities ol the TOSHIBAS available

• bit mapped graphics supported

• Prints all IBM extended ASCII characters

• screen dumps in text and graphics

• escape sequences supported

• popular software supported directly

• "Sideways" and "Pyxel Visuals" support

• dealers welcome S79.95 ($2.50 S&H) Integrated Data Technologies, Inc. 4775 Bunchberry Lane, Colorado Springs, CO 80917

MC/VISA

Inquiry 697.

COMPUTER PRODUCTS.

Inc.

ORDER TOLL FREE

(800) 538-8800

(CALIFORNIA RESlDENTSi

(800) 848-8008

VISA

74LS00

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We will try to BEAT

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CALL for Quote!

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vmiQ pniiDnucuT uccr

CRYSTALS ALL STANDARD VALUES... 1.69 CRYSTAL CLOCK OSC. ALL STANDARD VALUES... 4.89

DIP SWITCHES

4, 5. 6. 7. 8,10 ALL... .79 ai.

ZIF SOCKETS

UHlZIF 4.11

UptaZIF 411

24IUZIF 511

MpUZIF Ml

41 ph IIF Ml

ORBITAL SYSTEMS:

EXTENDED 80-Column Card for APPLE He

• 64Kto 128K Upgrade

• 2-Year Warranty.... $69.95

Z-80 (CP/M) CARD

APPLE II+, IIEt

• Compatible w/all Apple CP/M

• Lifetime Warranty— 69.95

MEG-O-RAM EXPAND DESKTOP SPACE 1 MEGABYTE

on APPLEWORKS f APPLE It et- - $259.00

APPLE ACCESSORIES

PinlM Printir Cirri 49.95

80-Cif art! tir Apple II+ ... 149.95 80-Col. cirri fir Appli III ... 129.95 Serial Card IcmimilatlM) ... 69.95

Cooling Fin 38.95

Pinr Supply 69.95

JintJek 29.95

Joystick Adiptir Appli lie. .. 14.95

RF Moduli lor 13.95

Disk Drln Full Height 169.95

Disk Drill ' , Hilght 169.95

Coittrollir Cird 49.95

AppliPidflet 5.95

16K Cirri 39.95

4 BULK ^

• DISKETTES *

SS/DD 25/$17.25

DS/DD 25/$19.75

AT* disks.... 25/S50.00 3V2" disks....25/$50.00

ALL DISKETTES HAVE A FULL 1-YEAR WARRANTY

UV ERASERS

QUV-T8/1 $49.95 ECONOMY Model

Erases 15 EPROMS In 20 minutes Plastic Enclosure

I DO KAY carries the Full Line -of LOGICAL DEVICES, Inc.^

41256 150ns $2.89 each!

APPLE* or IBM' JOYSTICK »29.95

# MERCURY MODEMS #

For APPLEt and IBM* HAYES COMPATIBLE MODEM 195.00

— FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY —

v/ IBM* ACCESSORIES ✓

8087-3 (5 MHz) 124.95

8087-2 (8 MHz) 144.95

TEAC 5SB 99.95

TANDON TM100-2 129.95

135WXT POWER SUPPLY.. 99.95 512K RAM MEMORY BOARD.. 139.95 MULTIFUNCTION BOARD »lt» 384KHAM 179.95

MACINTOSH* UPGRADE

(Parts only)

128K to 512K 50.00

Consists of: 16 41256 150ns 1 74F253 1716 Pin Sockets Rislltort ni Ciptcltiri ALSO INCLUDED

t A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER t A TRADEMARK OF IBM CORPORATION

CALL or WRITE

for our FULL CATALOG

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00 For shipping and handling include $2.50 for UPS ground or $3.50 for UPS Blue (air). For each additional air pound, add $1.00. California residents must include 6% sales tax; L.A., S.F., S. Cruz, & S. Mateo . counties include 6.5% sales tax and Santa Clara include 7% sales tax. All items subject to availability and prices subject to change. Typographical errors are not our responsibility.

No additional charge for Mastercard or Visa. We reserve the right to substitute manufacturers and to limit Quantities.

iwinE&iinziMiiTiTLi

HOURS: Mon - Fri 7 30 I !

Saturdays 10 00 to iOO VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

2100 De La Qiuz Bu 1 Sant.i Ciara CA 9505 i408i986-0697

ALL MERCHANDISE IS

100% GUARANTEED

Telex: 756441

IANUARV

BYTE 419

Inquiry 92

CCT-4smEM

SERIES

The latest CCT implementation of the new generation Intel 16-Bit Processor technology. This means extreme speed, unequaled power, and the ultimate in reliability, and of course, the innovators at CCT behind it.

This series in the CCT line exploits the speed and power of the Intel 80286 and Zilog Z-80H (8MHz), on the 286Z CPU board. This combination, along with CompuPro DMA controllers and I/O boards, yields a dramatic improvement in system throughput speeds, from basic CP/M operation, up to large powerful multi-user/multi-tasking machines. The CCT-4 represents the most advanced hardware presently available in a microcomputer to run the thousands of CP/M type software programs on the market, and with CONCURRENT DOS 8-16 and the CompuPro PC Graphics board (when available), all software written for the IBM PC machines. This series is for the serious business/scientific user.

CCT-4A State-of-the-art power in it's basic form. Consists of CCT-286Z CPU board and CCT-M256 (256K), along with CompuPro: Enclosure 2 Desk (21 slot MF), Disk 1A, System Support 1, Interfacer 4, the CCT-2.4 floppy drive system, and CP/M 8-16, and with SF-200 surge suppressor system $5,269.00

CCT-4B Single-user/hard disk power. As the 4A, except priced without the CCT-2.4, to add in your choice of CCT hard/floppy

combination drive subsystem, at the published pricing $4,149.00

(Example: CCT-4B Mainframe with CCT-10/1 = $6,198.00) Plus cosl of selected drive subsystem

CCT-4C « Multi-user/hard disk power. As the 4B, with the CCT-M512 (512K static RAM board) instead of M256; Interfacer 3 instead of Interfacer 4; SF-400 instead of SF-200, plus Concur. DOS 8-16 O.S. (4 to 6 user system) .... $4,999.00 ^t£j^. (Example: CCT-4C Mainframe with CCT-40/1 = $8,048.00) p,us cost of selec,ed drive subsystem xjy^S^ Limited Time Offer - FREE 80287 and Supercalc 86 with any CCT-4! /fc ^(/q^ V» Tne above systems include all necessary cabling, assembly, testing, minimum 20 hour burn-in, 'CfJy v ^ and the CCT unconditional 12 month direct warranty. ty/ CCT-M512 WORLD'S TOP SELLING CCT STATIC RAM. IEEE Standard 12MHz. 512K in one slot! — Special Price: $799 * CCT-M256 256K version of M512 upgradeable to full 512K. Perfect 256K RAM board for any CompuPro system $439

CUSTOM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY / BOX 4160 / SED0NA, ARIZONA 86340

TOLL FREE ORDERING: 800-222-8686 / For technical support / service: 602-282-6299

BYTE

back issues for sale

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

Jan.

S3.25

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

Feb.

$3.25

$3.70

S3.70

$4.25

S4.25

March

$3.70

S3.70

$4.25

$4.25

April

S3.25

$3.70

$3.70

S4.25

$4.25

May

$3.70

$3.70

S4.25

$4.25

June

$3.70

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

July

$3.70

$4.25

S4.25

Aug.

S3.70

$4.25

S4.25

$4.25

Sept.

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

$4.25

Oct.

S3.25

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

$4.25

Nov.

$3.25

$3.70

$4.25

S4.25

$4.25

Dec.

$3.25

$3.70

S4.25

$4.25

$4.25

SPECIAL ISSUES and INDEX

BYTE '83-'84 INDEX

$1.75

1984 Special Guide to IBM PC's (Vol. 9, No. 9) S4.75

1985 INSIDE THE IBM PCs (Vol. 10, No. 11) $4.75

Circle and send requests with payments to: BYTE Back Issues P.O. Box 328 Hancock, NH 03449

Prices include postage in the US. Please add S.50 per copy for Canada and Mexico; and $2.00 per copy to foreign countries (surface delivery).

Payments from foreign countries must be made in US funds payable at a US bank.

□ Check enclosed □ VISA □ MasterCard

Card # Exp. _

Signature

Please allow 4 weeks for domestic delivery and 12 weeks for foreign delivery.

NAME

ADDRESS CITY

STATE

ZIP

420 BYTE- JANUARY 1986

TOLL-FREE ORDERING: 800-222-8686

FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT/ SERVICE / IN ARIZONA: 602-282-6299

CCT

CUSTOM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY A,

1 CCT PLAZA — P.O. BOX 4160 — SEPONA, ARIZONA 86340

Purchase your Hardware and Software directly from an OEM / Systems Integrator. Take advantage of our buying power! We stock a full line of Board Level Components, Software and Peripherals. Call for your needs. We'll give you the Lowest Prices, and the Technical Support and Know-How we are quickly becoming well-known for. Satisfied Customers Nationwide. The Nation's Custom Systems House for Business, Education and Science. Call for a system quote. CCT implements tomorrow's technology today!™

FOREMOST QUALITY » ADVANCED SUPPORT » REASONABI

CCT

| ("ompuPro

80286 NOW!

□ CCT-286Z is our model designation for the MI-286 dual processor board from Macro tech. It features the super high speed combination of Z-80H and 80286, with provision for the 80287 math chip. Directly replaces 8085/88 and 8086 CPUs running CP/M, MP/M Concurrent DOS, and MS-DOS, at throughput increases of 3X to 5X! SPECIAL PRICE $795 80287 Option - Installed - $250

SEE THE CCT-4 SERIES USING THIS BOARD DETAILED ON THE FACING PAGE

NOW! BATTERY BACK-UP ON

CCT RAM BOARDS!

VOLATILE PRICES CALL FOR QUOTE

LIBERTY TERMINALS

• Superior Reliability • 110-14" GREEN-80/132 Column .. CLOSE

110-14" AMBER OUT

200-14" GREEN-80/132 Super Deluxe PRICES 200-14" AMBER CALLS

OKIDATA PRINTERS - Top Quality

82-80Col ..CALL 83-132Col ..CALL 92 - 80Col ..CALL 93-132Col ..CALL 84 -132 Col/200cps—Top of the Line . CALL For Serial Interfaces CALL

TOSHIBA P351 - 288 CPS/24 PIN - $1499

DIABLO - Letter Quality Series Model 620 $969 Model 630 $1799

WE HAVE ALL SOFTWARE—CALL

$ ACROSS THE BOARD PRICE REDUCTIONS $

INDUSTRIAL GRACE SUPERIOR QUALITY

CCT DISK DRIVE SYSTEMS

S-100 HARD DISK SUBSYSTEMS

ROLLS ROYCES OF THE INDUSTRY

Professionally engineered ST-506type systems forthe business market S-100 Computer user. Includes industry top quality drives, CompuPro Disk 3 DMA controller, all cabling, A&T, formatted, burned-in. Provisions for up to two hard disks in each system. We include operating system update. CP/M 80, CP/M 86, CP/M 8-16, CCP/M 8-16, CP/M 68K. (/1 Systems are CCT innovated hard/floppy combinations, with Mitsubishi DSDD 8" drive.) 12 month warranty.

CCT-10(11 + MEG) $1499

CCT-20(22+ MEG) $2019

CCT-40 (36 + MEG) $2499

CCT-60(58 + MEG) $3699

CCT-90(87 + MEG) $4909

CCT-125(123 + MEG) $6099

CCT-10/1 $2049

CCT-20/1 $2569

CCT-40/1 $3049

CCT-60/1 $4249

CCT-90/1 $5459

CCT-125/1 $6649

HOT NEW PRINTERFACER 1 ™ - Print buffer I/O Board. Up to 1 Meg. RAM on board. Looks as/works with CCT lnterfacer3/4. Single or Murtiuser/lnterrupt driven or polled. Super-slick design handles one serial, oneparallel, BOARD software swrtchable. Also for Zenith and Alpha. Intro Price — $349.

CCT-2.4.Dual8"DSDD FLOPPY SYSTEMS CCT.5.5,/4"DSDD

Mitusbishi 2.4 Megabyte in Extra Heavy horizontal enclosure, IBM Compatible Mitsubishi 360K. Extra Heavy Cabinet removeable filter air system, all cabling, A&T, Burned in. The accommodates two drives, hard or floppy. All cabling, A&T,

fastest system available: $1229 Burned-in. Perfect for our Concurrent DOS Package . $399

CCT-8/5 • FULL IBM COMPATIBILITY One Mitsubishi 8" DSDD (1.2 Meg)/One 5-V«" DSDD (360K) IBM Drive For Concurrent DOS and PC DOS $1029

★ SUPERPRICES * COMPUPRO COMPONENTS* IN STOCK ★

CPU-Z-$229 • Disk 1A-$399 • Disk 1Aw/CP/M-$499 • CPU 8086/10 - $359 • SPU-Z-? CPU 8085/88-$229 • CPU 286-$849 • CPU 68K - 10Mhz - $359

Disk 3-$459 • RAM22(256K)-? • RAM23/64K-$229/128K-$299

SUPER SALE - M-Drive/H - 512K - $399 / 2 Meg - $899 Enclosure 2 Desk-$699/Rack-$749 • Interfacer 3 - $409 • Interfacer 4 - $289 • System Support 1 - $299 Concurrent DOS 8-16 (CCTCMX)-$309 • CP/M 80 (CCTHMX) - $125 • CP/M 86 (CCTTMX) - $175 CP/M 8-16 (CCTTMX) - $199 • CP/M 68K (CCTCX) - $279 • Operating System Updates/Remakes - $30

16 Bit Upgrade Kit: CP/M 86, RAM 23, System Support 1, Cable $649 □ CP/M 8-16 - Kit - $673

CCT-1 - ENTRY LEVEL S-100 BUSINESS SYSTEM

■ Enclosure 2-Desk-21 Slot Mainframe •

• CPU-Z-6MhzZ-80CPU Board • Disk 1A - DMA Floppy Disk Controller •

• RAM 23 - 64K Static RAM - 12Mhz •

• Interfacer 4 - 3 Serial/2 Parallel I/O •

• CCT-2.4-Dual 8" Mitsubishi DSDD Drive System - 2.4 Megabytes •

• CP/M 80-2.2 HMX-CCT Modified •

• All Cabling, Complete CCT Assembly, Testing, and Minimum 20 Hour Bum-in •

SPECIAL PRICE

$3,150

RUNS ALL STANDARD 8" CP/M SOFTWARE - INCLUDES OUR EXCLUSIVE 12 MONTH DIRECT WARRANTY

Prices & availability subject to change. All products new, and carry full manufacturer's warranties. Call for catalog. Free technical help to anyone. All products we sell are CCT individually tested and set up for your system - Plug-In & Go! Arizona residents add sales tax CCT© Trademark — Custom Computer Technology; MS-DOS© Trademark — Microsoft; IBM© Trademark — International Business Machines; CompuPro© Trademark — W.J. Godbout; CP/M© MP/M © Trademarks — Digital Research HERCULES™ Trademark — Hercules Computer Technology

Inquiry 93

(ANUARY 1986 •BYTE 421

Inquiry 342

SUNTRONICS CO..INC.

12603 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250

1-800-421-5775 (Order Only)

1213) 644-1140 (CA Order & Info |

STORE HOURS Mon -Fn 9am lo 6 p m

Sal 10 a m to 5 p n

TERMS VISA MASTFRCARD COD iCasr> o- Ceniiwd Check Required I Crieck i Allow ? 3 Weeks 'or Oeatmqt Shipping 1 H C S3 00 'oi 3 lbs plus f>0c 'or each add ■ LD Can' resitfemsaodCaur Sales Tai S'O 00 Minimum Ode. IBM and Appie are <eqistefed trade markso'IBM & App*

SUN-XT CPU

□ 808S CPU (8087 OPTION)

□ RAM EXPANDABLE TO B40K

□ FULLY IBM COMPATIBLE

□ DIMENSION SAME AS IBM PC/XT

□ NO RAM INCLUDED

□ 8 EXPANSION SLOTS

$175.00

MONOCHROME GRAPHIC CARD

□ HIOH-RES CHARACTER

□ 720(H) i 348(V)

□ 80 i 25 TEXT MODE

□ RUN LOTUS 1-2-3 ETC.

□ WITH PARALLEL PRINTER PORT

$120.00

FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER

□ STANDARD DOUBLE SIDE DOUBLE DENSITY

□ RUN 2 INTERNAL S

2 EXTERNAL

□ WITH CABLE $59.00

MULTI-FUNCTION BOARD

□ RAM EXPANDABLE TO 384|0 K)

□ SERIAL/PARALLEL PORT

□ CLOCK CALENDAR W/BATTERY BACKUP

□ GAME PORT

□ SPOOL S RAM DISK

$12*1 nn

IBM STYLE CABINET

□ B 8LOT BACK PANEL

□ COMES WITH MOUNTINO BRACKET S HARDWARE

□ FITS IBM POWER SUPPLY

$59.00

MULTI-I/O BOARD

□ FLOPPY DI8K DRIVE CONTROLLER

□ PARALLEL PRINTER PORT

□ SERIAL I/O PORT (OPTION: DUAL)

□ CLOCK CALENDAR W/BATTERY BACKUP

□ OAMEPORT

$149.00

COLOR GRAPHIC CARD

□ ROB S COMPOSITE VIDEO

□ 840 i 200 HIOH-RES

□ 320 x 200 L0-RE8

□ 80 i 25 TEXTMODE

□ LIGHT PEN INTERFACE

$99.00

RGB COLOR MONITOR

□ 14" DISPLAY DB-S CONNECTOR

□ 840 i 240 HIGH-RES

□ 2500 CHARACTERS (80 x 32)

□ RGB TTL LEVEL. INTENSITY SIGNAL

□ 0.38 mm DOT PITCH

□ H-SCANNING 14.5K-17.SKHZ

$365.00

Milan HfcoULU I lUtU

MONOCHROME MONITOR

□ 12" AMBER OR OREEN

□ 1000 LINES AT CENTER

□ 20MHZ BAND WIDTH

□ SEPARATE TTL SIGNAL INPUT

□ DUAL INTENSITY SIGNAL LEVEL

□ HIGH PERFORMANCE SHARP

,M*OES $105.00

FULL FUNCTION KEYBOARD

□ 83 KEY FULL FUNCTION

□ POWER, CAPS. NUM LIGHT INDICATOR

□ MECHANICAL TYPE SWITCH

□ WITH CABLE __

$79.00

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

SUN-XT COMPUTER

(IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE)

□ RAM EXPANDABLE TO B40 K

□ USES MS & PC-DOS OPERATING SYSTEMS

□ RUN LOTUS 1-2-3 FLIGHT SIMULATOR SYMPHONY DBASE II S III AUTO CAT, WORD STAR. MULTI PLAN . .. ETC. (DOES NOT RUN PROG. REQUIRE ROM BASIC.)

□ CPU BOARD W/256 K RAM

□ COMPUTER CABINET

□ FULL FUNCTION KEYBOARD

□ 135 W/POWER SUPPLY

□ 2 DSDD DISK DRIVES

□ FDC W/CABLE

□ TTL MONITOR (AMBER OR GREEN)

□ MONOCHROME GRAPHICS CARD W/PARALLEL PRINTER PORT.

□ FULLY A & T

(MEETS FCC CLASS "A" REG.. FOR IND. &BUS. USE)^__ _ _

only5895.00

DEALER &OEM INQUIRES INVITED!!

13SW POWER SUPPLY

S89.00

150W POWER SUPPLY

S109.00

B OUTLET SURGE SUPPRESSOR

[MIDLAND ROSS IND.] $14.50 10MB HARD DISK w/CONT.

$450.00

20MB HARD DISK w/CONT

S550.00

ASYNC R8232

$59.00

PARALLEL PRINTER CARD

$39.00

TEAC 55 BV

OR TOSHIBA ND-04

DISK DRIVE

$89.00

HARD OI8K DRIVE CONTROLLER

(10MB OR 20MB) S159.00

84K RAM KIT (9 EA)

98.50/KIT

2SBK RAM KIT (9 EA)

529.00/KIT

PARALLEL PRINTER CABLE

$15.00

CITIZEN MBP-10 PRINTER

S299.00

TOSHIBA 1340 PRINTER

$599.00

DSDD 5V« DISKETTE

$12.95/per 10 oa

EPROM BLASTER FOR IBM, HIBH SPEED. BURNSIN 45 SEC. PROO2716, 38, 64, 128 $139.00

^===" CALL: = 1-800=^ = 872-4727

PC-256K. 1/360K Floppy, 10 MB Hard Disk

comma

(Monitor Emra)

H $2,260°°

256K, 1/360 Floppy, 10 MB Hard Disk

MONITORS

Amdek 310A

Taxan 121, Green.... Taxan 122, Amber . . . TVM MD-3 (Amber, Green, RGB) COMREX CR6700 (RGB)

$169oo $15900 $165°o

$44900 $299oo

DISK DRIVES

INTERNAL HARD DISK (with controller) 10MB Rodime (Compaq Upgrade

Kit) $52900

10MB Vz Height Seagate $39500

20MB V2 Height Seagate $495°°

External Case $14900

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

'/2 Height Mitsubishi $8500

PC*USA Has It All

Honesty

2003 108th St.. Suite 301 Grand Prairie. TX 75050 214-641-6953 Metro 647-4008 Texas Wats 1-800-441-0975 National Wats 1-800-872-4727 Business Hours (M - F 9 - 6) CT

TELEPHONE SALES ONLY - NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC • MINIMUM ORDER $200 00 lor free delivery • TERMS: VISA, MASTERCARD. CASHIER S CHECK. WIRE TRANSFER (C O D. call tor details) • ALL ITEMS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY AND PRICE CHANGE ■ ALL PRODUCTS ARE NEW AND CARRY MEG AND/OR PC'USA WARRANTY PLEASE CALL FOR WORK-ORDER NUMBER BEFORE RETURNING DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE UNAUTHORIZED RETURNS SUBJECT TO A RESTOCKING FEE • ALL SALES ARE FINAL.

• Price

• Service

• Delivery

EPSON LX 80 . . EPSON LQ 1500 COMREX CRM .

comma

Portable Hard Disk System 256K 1/360K Floppy. 10 MB Hard Disk

$4359<>o rM

(Monitor Extra)

Systems Include

IBM AT and Keyboard, IBM 1.2 Meg Floppy, Panasonic 360K Floppy, Seagate (ST4026) 20 MB Hard Disk (40 MS Access Time)

TEAC 20MB Tape Backup «839

PRINTERS

$21500 COMREX CRIV *49900 $920<>o okidata 192P .. .$369°° $29900 okidata 193P . . *499°o CANON LASER BEAM S249500

422 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 275

A Happy & Prosperous New Year From Computer Connection

For The Best Prices & Call [800] 732-0304

PRINTERS

STAR MICRONICS

SG-10,120cps,2Kbuffer $219

SG-15,120cps,2Kbufter 375

SD-10,160 cps, 10" carriage 359

SD-15,160 cps, Corr. Qual 469

SR-10,2O0cps,10"carriage 499

SR-15,200cps,w/tractor 599

SB-10 Draft & NLQ 24 wire printhead . 625 OKIDATA

ML182P120cps We

ML182IBMGraphicsComp Will

ML182S10"Carriage Beat

ML192P, 160cps all

ML192lBMGraphicsComp Pricing

ML192S, 160cps on

ML193P,160cps Oki

ML193 IBM Graphics Comp ... Printers

ML193S, 160cps with

ML84P,200cps or

ML84 IBM without

ML84S,200cps IBM

Okimate20 Rom

EPSON

LX80,100 cps, 10" carriage Call

FX80 + , 160 cps, 10" carriage Us

RX100,100 cps, 15" carriage First

FX100 + ,160cps,15"carriage For

LQ1500 Draft NLQ Lowest

SQ2000,AIINew Prices

'We Are An Authorized Dealer BROTHER

HR-25 $ 439

HR-35 649

DYNAX

DX15XL,20cps ByBrother $ 329

DH-45 Dual Head, LQ & Dot Matrix.. 829 JUKI

6100, LQ. 18 cps w/proportional spc.$ 349 6300 LQ. 40 cps 675

TOSHIBA

P1340P $ 525

P1340S 525

P351 P/S,FasterandMoreVersatile 1145 PANASONIC

1091 w/Tractor, 120cps, 1 yr.war. ..$ 239

1092,10" carriage, 180 cps 375

1093,15" carriage, 160cps 535

HARD DISK DRIVES

MICRO-SCI

10 Meg w/cont. formatted for IBM $ 385

20 Meg w/cont. formatted for IBM 599

ALPHA OMEGA

10Megw/ControllerCard $529

20 Meg w/Controller Card 629

30Megw/ControllerCard 999

20 Meg for AT 550

33 Meg for AT 775

DISK DRIVES

TANDON

TM100-2forlBMPC $ 89

MITSUBISHI

'/iHt.360K $ 110

TEAC

55B Double Sided 360K $ 99

Quad Density 159

□rives For Apple & Franklin MICRO-SCI

A-2 $ 155

A.5C for lie w/cable 155

A.5V2 height for HE 115

Controller Add 55

10 meg. w/cont 645

20 meg. w/cont 845

PRINTER ACCESSORIES

ORANGE MICRO

Grappler + $ 75

Buffered Grappler + , 16K exp. 64K . 149 TOSHIBA

Bi-DirectionalTrac. 1351/351.. .$ 149/155

Font Disk for Down loading P1351 .. 50 MICROTEK

Dumpling GX (same as Grappler +) $ 65

Dumpling GXw/16K buffer 119

DumplingGXw/32Kbuffer 129

Additional Buffering 16K 7

FOURTH DIMENSION

Par. Card & Cable for Apple $ 49

OKIDATA

Plug and Play for IBM $ 49

Tractorfor182&192 39

JUKI

Bi-Direc.Tractortor6100/6300 .$ 115/125

Serial Interface 65

CABLES

IBM PCto Parallel Printer $ 18

Serial Cable 16

Centronics M/M or M/F 16

DISPLAY MONITORS

QUADRAM

Amber chrome IBM compatible . .. .$ 169 AMDEK

V300G $ 119

V300A 125

V310A for IBM PC 155

Color 300 199

Color500ColorComposite 319

Color 600 RGB Hi-Res 399

Color 710SuperHi-Res 545

TAXAN

IBM Green Monochrome#121 $ 129

IBM Amber Monochrome#122 139

RGB IBM w/Cable#620 389

RGB Super Hi-ResJ640 Best Buy . 489 RGB/#630 389

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12forusewithlBMPC $440

Max12EAmberforlBM 169

SR12SuperHi-Res 575

ScanDoubler 185

QUIMAX

PX-4, RGB Hi-Res w/Gr. Text Mode .$ 410 DM-14 Monochrome for IBM 150

NEW YEAR SPECIALS!!

IBM STARTER

• IBM PC • 128K «One 360K Disk Drive • Amber Monitor

S1750

COMPAQ STARTER

• Compaq Port • 256K • One 360K Disk Drive • 10 meg

$2399

IBM PROFESSIONAL COMPAQ PROFESSIONAL

• IBM XT • Two 360K Disk Drive • Compaq Desk Pro • 640K

• 20 meg. H.D • 2 Par. & I Ser Port • Clock/Cal. 640K • Taxan # 620 • DOS 3.1

53099

• One 330K Disk Drive • 20 meg H.D. • 10 meg Tape B/U Taxan #620 • Par. & Ser. Ports

S3185

'THE COMPANY THAT DELIVERS"

IBM PC ACCESSORIES

IBMDOS3.1 $ 65

PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card $ 259

Module A 75

Module B256KW/C&C 120

5-Pak same as 6-Pak - Ser. Port 175

B4K MEMORY UPGRADE

64K(9chips)200ns&150ns $9.99

HEXACE TECHNOLOGIES

Hi-ResColorCardforPC,XT,AT ...$ 110

QUADRAM

Quad Colon Board $ 179

Exp. Quadboardw/64K&Game Port 199 Quadlink 3000 Run Apple sft on IBM 329

VUTEK (2 yr. war.)

Vutek - CPS Board, RGB & Composite

w/Par.&Ser.Ports,2Yr.War $ 189

Color Card (Here, comp.) w/Para 150

Monographic Card (Hero, comp.)... 275 AST RESEARCH

Six Pak + W/64K & Sidekick $ 215

Six Pak + W/384K & Sidekick 255

Game Port 49

KEYTRONICS

KB5151 $ 175

MICROTEK

Monochrome Text Par. & Ser $ 169

Color Graphics Card 165

TECHMAR

Graphics Master '.....$ 449

256K Memory Upgrade

APPLE & FRANKLIN ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

Kensington System Saver $ 69

Masterpiece Control Unit 99

MICROTEK

Serial Interface $ 75

MICROMAX

Viewmax 128K extended 80 col. card

forApplellEw/64K $ 99

80col.cardforADDlell&ll+ 139

ADVANCED LOGIC SYSTEMS

Z Engine 2.2 $ 115

80 COI./64K 69

APPLE

Super Serial Card $ 139

SMT

64K,80col.Card,3yr.war $ 49

MICRO-SCI

64K, 80 Col. Card $ 79

PERSONAL SYSTEMS

APPLE

Professional Sys. Incl: Apple ME W/128K & 80 col., tilt mon., duo disk w/con't kit .$1339

Apple lie Lightweight Portable 789

IBM

IBM PC64K.1 Drive $1460"

IBMPC,2Drlvesw/256K 1535'

IBMXT,10Meg.,360KDr.w/256K . 2399' IBM XT Bare W/256K&IBM Floppy. 1899" Call About All "AT" Systems "Call for current IBM prices SANYO

MBC550-2w/1,320KDrive&sftwr. .$ 750 MBC 555-2 w/2, 320K Drives &

more software 899

775 Portable 1795

Serial Port forSanyo 65

COMPAQ

256K, w/2-320K Drives $1899

DeskTop Model 1 1649

Desk Top Model 2 1925

Desk Top Model 3 Call

DeskTop Model 4 Call

We have "286" Ports. & D.P. in stock WYSE

1100-1 incl. 256K w/two 360K Drives, 1 par

& 2 ser. ports $1399

1100-2 incl. 10 meg, 1 floppy, 256K, 1 par. &

2 ser. ports 2599

"Wyse Monitors & Exp. Chasis Available

SOFTWARE

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.

Lotus1-2-3 $ 289

Symphony 420

ASHTON TATE

DBasell $ 299

DBase III 389

PRINTER SWITCH BOX

EXPONENT

Centronics Two Switch $ 60

Centronics Four Switch 85

Serial Two Switch 45

Serial Four Switch 69

MODEMS

ANCHOR

Volksmodem XII $ 185

Express 1200 255

HAYES MICRO

300 Baud Smart Modem $ 149

1200 Baud Smart Modem 379

1200BforlBMPCw/SMII 375

2400 Baud Modem 645

Micro Modem HE 149

Chronograph 189

300ForApplellcw/Sftwr Call

DISKETTES

PC DISKETTES

Sgl./Dbl.(Boxof10) $ 13

Dbl./Dbl.(Boxof 10) 15

COMPUTER CONNECTION

Dbl./Dbl.(Boxof10) $ 16

Sgl./Dbl.w/DiskContainer(10) 15

Dbl./Dbl.w/Dlsk Container 17

Bulk 50 & Up — Dbl./Dbl 1.35 ea.

We Stock What We Sell!!

IF YOU SEE IT ADVERTISED FOR LESS, CALL COMPUTER CONNECTION FIRST FOR LOWEST QUOTE!

We accept VISA, MasterCard, COD [w/dBposit], Certified Checks or WireTrai

MAIL ORDER:

17121 S. Central Avenue, Unit L Carson, California 90746

ESI

'ire Transfers. Minimum Shipping Charge S4.00. Some items subject to back order. California Res. add G%% Sales Tax. All returns are Bubjecttoa'15% restocking charge and must be authorized by store manager within 10 days. P~*~ subject to change without not This Ad supersedes all others.

ORDER LINE [800] 732-0304

[OutBide California]

(213] 635-2B09

[Inside CBlifornial

Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: [213] 635-SOB5

Mon.-Fri. S a.m. to 3 p.m.

Inquiry 75

JANUARY I986 'BYTE 423

COMPUTERS

I Altos 586-20 Multiuser System 5199 I

AT&T 6300-PC/1 Floppy Drive 1679

Lazer 3000/1 FDrive/Apple Comp 425

Televideo PM-4T Multiuser System... 4895

Wyse-PC/2 Floppy Drives 1159

Wyse-XT/1 FDrive/10M HDrive 1879

Zenith 158-PC/1 Floppy Drive 1549

Zenith 171-PC Port/2 FDrives 1879

Amstrad/Columbia/Corvus CALL

Compaq/Corona/IBM/Molecular.... CALL | NEC/Onyx/Olivetti/Sharp/Sperry ... CALL |

ZENITH 148-PC WITH 1 DRIVE VERY IBM COMPATIBLE.... 995

MODEMS

AST Reach Halt-Card W/Soft (Int) 325 I

Anchor Volksmodem (Ex) 55

Anchor Signalman Express (Ex) 235

Hayes Micromodem HE W/Solt 128

Hayes Smarlmodem 300 W/Sott (Ex). .155

Hayes Smartmodem 1200 (Ex) 361

Hayes Smartmodem 12O0B (Int) 309

Novation Apple Cat II (Int) 192

Novation J-Cat 300 (Ex) 98

Novation Hall-Card 2400 (Int) 439

Racal-Vadic 300 PC W/Soft (Int) 98

Racal-Vadic 1200V W/Soft (Ex) 215

Racal-Vadic 2400V W/Soft (Ex) 399

Ven-Tel PC Modem Half-Card (Int) 375 I

4-8949

532

PRINTERS

I Citizen MSP10...... 248 Abati LQ.... 199

C Itoh F10-55. ... 949 Juki 6100... 345

Data Prod. 8052. .1129 Juki 6200.. .495 Data South 220... 1295 Juki 6300... 665

Diablo D25 535 NEC 3550... 985

Epson LX90 W/IF..269 NEC ELF. 385

Panasonic 1080. .205 NEC P5 965

Panasonic 1091. .234 Star SG10..209 Panasonic 3131. .. 285 Tally MT86.. 419

Toshiba 341 899 Ti 855 549

Toshiba 1340 469 Cables 10 . .19

Anadex/Brolher/Canon/Okidata CALL

Qume/Silver-Reed/Televideo CALL

I Buffers/Sheet Feeders/Tractors CALL I

Stands/Switches/Ribbons 20% OFF

Houston l)MP 41/42 Plotter 2495

Roland DXY B80 Plotter 975

I Houston TG8024 Digitizer 2395

| Other Plotters And Digitizers CALL

TERMINALS

MONITORS

BUI 14" Color.

349

Amdek 300G.116

Prinrptnn HXQ

1 1 11 llrG LUM 1 1 A .T . a ,

415

Amdek 310A.142

Prinrptnn HX1?

r I 11 IL.r,11?[ I tlA I L . .

432

AmHcl/ ^fif rtfNUcK OUL

. ,lH3

Princeton MAX12

162

HIIIUcK »UU

o nn

. oyy

Prinrptnn ^R1 0

579

Tavan 11R

I □ K 0 II I I J.

115

Tatung CM1370.

499

Tayan 1 00

IdAd11 \CC.

139

Thomson 31021G

139

Taxan 620.

389

Thomson 36432.

345

Taxan 640.

Wyse 600 W/Card

519

Wyse 500.

.169

Zenith 122/123..

.79

Zenith 1240

.169

NEC/Panasonic/Roland/Tecmar

CALL

Corona/Magnavox/Quadram

CALL

Cables/Interfaces/

Stand

CALL

[Adds Viewpoint + .429

I Altos III 595

lAmpex 210 365

lAmpex 219 519

lAmpex 230 449

iTelevideo 914 539

I Televideo 922 595

ITelevideo 955 458

Qume 101G..289

Qume 201G Qume 202G Wyse 50... Wyse 75... Wyse 85... Wyse 350.. Zenith Z29.

525 595 .418 .555 .575 .855 608 CALI

QUALITY PRODUCTS AT EXTREMELY LOW DISCOUNT PRICES.

DISK DRIVES

I Apple Compatible Floppy Drives 125 I

IBM Compatible Floppy Drives 95

Seagate 10M Subsystem/IBM Comp.. .439 Seagate 20M Subsystem/IBM Comp.. .539

| Tape Back Up Systems CALL |

OTHER FLOPPY AND HARD DRIVES ALPHA OMEGA • MITSUBISHI CONTROL DATA • PRIAM CORVUS • SHUGART IOMEGA • TANDON MAYNARD •TEAC ' MICRO SCI • TECMAR I LOW PRICES CALL I

nqulry 70l

BOARDS

AST Advantage W/128K 375

AST Six Pack Plus W/64K 209

Cardo G-Whiz (Commodore) 55

Hercules Color Card 143

Hercules Monochrome Graphics 289

Micro Sci 80/64E (Apple) 75

Orange Grappler + (Apple) 70

Orange Hot Link (Apple) 49

Orchid Conquest/OK 265

Orchid PCturbo 186/256K 635

Paradise Modular Graphics 258

Paradise Multi-Display 189

Persyst Short-Port Color Card 159

Persyst Bob Board 335

Premier Color-Pack Card 115

Quadram Quadboard/384K 225

Quadram Silver Quadboard/OK 219

STB Graphics Plus II 235

Tecmar Captain/384K 225

Tecmar Maestro AT 379

ABM/Logicom/Microtek/PGS CALL

Practical Peripherals/Thesys CALL

WE ALSO CARRY

Bonus Disketles/SS-DD (Bx) 12

Bonus Diskettes/DS-DD (Bx) 17

Verbatim/Maxell/Memorex/Others . CALL SOFTWARE Apple/Atari/IBM/Commodore Keyboards/Joysticks/Power Supplies Chips/Mice/Labels/Surge Protectors Cables/Graphics Tablets/Light Pens

CompuSave 3010 S. 48th St., Suite 8, Phoenix, AZ 85040, (602) 967-3! Purchase Orders and All Major Credit Cards Welcome Prices Reflect Cash Discounts. Minimum Shipping A Division of Adlanko Corporation

■I

mi

yTE CONNECTION INC

PEICE I I VI tilM - **Wh

C714) 778-6496

1 ;

mmm

PRINTERS:

424 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 45

comma

CALL

DIFFERENT IONS

TURBO

IBM PC, 256K, One Half Height 320K Disk Drive DS/DD, Persyst Color Card With Printer Port, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1, PLUS a 10MB Hard Disk Sub System All For:

$2499.

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, Persyst Color Card With Printer Port, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt Power Supply PLUSalOMBHardDiskSubSystem All For:

$2799.

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, Persyst Color Card With Printer Port, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt Power Supply, 10MB Hard Disk Sub System, PLUS 10MB Tape Back Up System All For:

$3299.

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, Persyst Color Card With Printer Port, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt Power Supply, 20MB Hard Disk Sub System All For: OflQQ

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, Persyst Color Card With Printer Port, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt Power Supply, 20MB Hard Disk Sub System, PLUS 10MB Tape Back Up System All For:

$3699.

AMDEK 300 Green

AMDEK 300 Amber

AMDEK 310 Amber W/TTL Plug

PGSHX-12

PGSMAX-12

PGSSR-12

TAXAN #115 Green Composit _ TAXAN #116 Amber Composit _ TAXAN #121 Green W/TTL Plug TAXAN #122 Amber W/TTL Plug TAXAN #620 COLOR MONITOR TAXAN #640 COLOR MONITOR IBM MONOCHROME DISPLAY IBM COLOR DISPLAY

$135.00 $149.00 $165.00 $465.00 $185.00 $625.00 $125.00 $135.00 $149.00 $159.00 $449.00 $569.00 $260.00 $590.00

v..,., __

NEC PINWRITER 80 COL. . NEC PINWRITER 136 COL.

EPSON LX 80

EPSON FX 85

EPSON FX 185

EPSON RX 100

EPSON JX 80

EPSON LQ 1500

COMREX CR 420

TOSHIBA 351

. $599.00 $799.00 . $239.00

STAR MICRONICS SG 10 _ STAR MICRONICS SG 15 _ CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-10_ CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-15 _ CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-20. CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-25.

JUKI LQ 6100

JUKI LQ 6300

BROTHER HR-25

BROTHER HR-35

DYNAX DX 15XL

OKIDATA

_ $359.00 _ $499.00 _ $399.00 _ $499.00 _ $895.00 . $1895.00 . $1199.00 _ $259.00

. $395.00

. $325.00

. $450.00 . $435.00 . $599.00

. $385.00

_ $725.00 . $499.00 . $775.00 $365.00 _ CALL

13" RGB MONITOR FORTIS FC10

$299.Sfi

HAYES SMART MODEM 1200 . HAYES SMART MODEM 300 _ HAYES 1200B PLUG IN CARD . HAYES 2400 BAUD MODEM _ POP COM 1200 EXTERNAL _

AST REACH MODEM

QIC MODEM INTERNAL

_$395.00 . $209.00 . $365.00 . $699.00 _ $375.00 . $380.00 . $275.00

CONQUEST PC TURBO 640K Two

Half Height Drives, Floppy Disk Controller 135 Watt Power Supply, Serial Port, Parallel Port (IBM Standard) and Enhanced Keyboard:

$1225.

Above System With 10MB Internal Hard Disk:

$1970.

With 20MB Internal Hard Disk:

$2195.

With 40MB Internal Hard Disk:

$2515.

Tape Back Up Systems Are Also Available for the Conquest PC Turbo at a reasonable price.

MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

AST I/O MINI CARD, 1-SER

AST SIX PACK 64K, 1-SER., 1-PAR .

AST PREVIEW

AST ADVANTAGE CARD

128K FOR AT

_ $145.00 . $249.00 . $299.00

ALR CHALLENGER CARD 128K FOR AT

. $425.00 . $395.00

PERSYST COLOR

PRINTER ADAPTER

PERSYST MONOCHROME

PRINTER ADAPTER

PERSYST BOB CARD

HERCULES COLOR

PRINTER ADAPTER

. $179.00

. $395.00

HERCULES GRAPHIC

PRINTER ADAPTER

STB GRAPHIC PLUS II

IBM COLOR GRAPHIC ADAPTER . IBM MONO PRINTER ADAPTER _

. $179.00 . $299.00

. $325.00

_$225.00

. $230.00

DRIVE!

GENOA SPECTRUM GRAPHIC CARD _ $349.00

TANDON TM-100-2 DS/DD . TOSHIBA SLIMLINE DS/DD. TEAC SLIMLINE DS/DD

. $139.00 . $120.00 . $120.00

HARD DISKS

MAXELL DISKETTES MD2

MAXELL MD2-HDM FOR AT

CONTROL DATA DISKETTES _ KEYTRONIC KEYBOARD KB 5151

. $35.00/box . $60.00/box . $24.00 $169.00

10MB SUB SYSTEM INTERNAL EXTERNAL.

20MB SUB SYSTEM INTERNAL EXTERNAL

40MB SUB SYSTEM INTERNAL .

EXTERNAL.

_ $595.00 _ $795.00 _ $875.00 .$1050.00 _$1150.00 . $1325.00

10MB HARD DISK

W/10MB TAPE BACK UP 20MB HARD DISK

W/10MB TAPE BACK UP. 40MB HARD DISK

W/10MB TAPE BACK UP

. $1250.00 . $1475.00 _$1795.00

(714) 838-7530

2630 Walnu! Avenue. Unit C. Tustin, California 92680

Prices & availability subject to change without notice—IBM is a registered trademark ot IBM Corporation. COMPAQ is a registered trademark of COMPAQ Computer Corporation. Conquest is a registered trademark of Conquest Computer Industries.

Inquiry 245

IANUARY I986 -BYTE 425

BDysan

SPECIAL DISKETTE OFFER

Dvs.h, diskc.ies are the ultimate in quahty flexible recording media for flexible disk drives. They are certified to be 100% error free on-Track and between tracks. And to he p introduce you to the Dysan quahty standard we're running a special on thetr dtskette product line.

PI US' If you call, write, or utilize reader service in response to this ad-well send you our full-range catalog of computer supplies with Special Offers good lor further savings on IDvsan diskettes and many other quahty products. Oysan. THe Fines. Quali.y D.sketles Available.

Simpb' #1 in Sen'ice & Reliability

m WBEKI 1050 E Maple Rd

LY DtN Tro^Ml 48083

COMPUTER SYSTEMS (313)589-3440

Inquiry 218

RS232C IBM PC Compatible Paper Tap* "Transmitter/Model 612

Stops and starts on character at all speeds uses manual control or X-on, X-off 90-26C volt. 50-60 Hz power. 50-9600 baud, up to 15C char/sec synchronous or asynchronous gated internal or external clock, RS 232C current loop or parallel output, reads 5-8 leve tape, 7-11 frames per character, even or ode parity. Desk top or rack mount. Addmaater Corporation, 415 Junlpero Serra Drive, San Gabriel, CA 91776, (818) 285-1121, Telex 674770 Addmaater SGAB

Inquiry 8

—

SAVE TIME AND MONEY WITH LOW COST PI-SWITCH BOXES.

4

U-jtfrJ Starting at $59.95

•Quickly shares your computer among multiple terminals, printers, moderns, etc. with just a flick of the wrist.

•Compact black & beige aluminum enclosure features a high quality rotary switch with rear mounted connectors.

•Serial RS-232 Models have fern. 25-Pin Conn. (Lines 1-7 & 20)

PI-02-S switches 2 to 1 $59.95

Pt-03-S switches 3 to 1 79.95

PI-05-S switches 5 to 1 109.95

•Parallel models have fern. 36-Pln cent. conn.

PI-02-P swltchos 2 to 1 94.95

PI-04-P switches 4 to 1 154.95

•Dealers, schools & custom inquiries welcome.

•One Year Warrantee. COD, VISA, M/C.

•Shipping UPS $2.00/ea. AIR $4.0CVea.

5f)[> 7301 NW 41 st

MIAMI, FL 33166 (305) 592-6092

WAVEFORM

SYNTHESIZER

• For IBM-PC/XT/AT and compatibles

• Generates user-definable signal Up to 2000 points per envelope

$795.00 QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304 (216)434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

Inquiry 296 __

MODULAR DATA ACQUISITION

• For IBM & Compatibles

• Flexible and Inexpensive

• Money Back Guarantee

• Free Technical Support

Fast Delivery QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304 (216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

0

Inquiry 297

RS-422

Communications Board

• For IBM-PC/AT/XT and

compatibles

• Dual RS-422 serial interface

• Programmable to 56k baud

• Differential drivers to 4000 ft.

$345.00 QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304 (216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

0

64K-128K-256K

DRAMS

80287-8 "80287-3 8087-3-8087-2 8087-1

B I T T N € R

eiecTRONics

899 SOUTH COAST HIGHWAY LAGUNA BEACH, CA 92651

(714) 497-6200

CALL NOW FOR FREE CATALOG

Inquiry 36

our spellin

The Resident Speller™

PC Version

' Turn on or off checking with the touch of a key i Add words to alternate list

< Works with most word processors

< Requires 90K in addition to word processor for 49,000 word dictionary

I

The Resident Speller Demo Disk

S99 $ 2

S & K Technology, Dept. G 4610 Spotted Oak Woods San Antonio, TX 78249 512-492-3384

Inquiry 3II

i;'-V i"f' i'

UJ

LU

*H CDlmenslons 6"x4"x3'4"J^

BI -DIRECT I ONAL SERI AL'PARALLEL CONVERTER

CONUERT YOUR RS232 SERIAL PORT INTO A CENTRONICS PARALLEL PORT, YOUR PARALLEL PORT INTO A RS232 SERIAL PORT, JUST BY rlOUING JUHPERS.

NO MORE LINI TAT IONS IN YOUR SYSTEM.NOU YOU CAN CONNECT A TERMINAL TO PARALLEL PORT, YOUR PARALLEL PRINTER TO A SERIAL PORT,SERIAL PRINTER TO A PARALLEL PORT, AND MUCH MORE !!.

BAUD RATE AND MODE FULLY SELECTABLE.

22 ALL IN ONLY ONE UNIT 22

ORDER TODAY AT INTRODUCTORY PRICE AT:

INTECTRA INC. - Deportment 232 2629 TERMINAL BLU MOUNTAIN UIEU - CA - 91343 (41SJ 962-8818 - TLX 345545

Introductory pt Ice * 79.99 CCoLlfornla residents odd 6* tax Boy oreo residents odd 7* lax}

Inquiry 315

Inquiry 298

Inquiry 170

$1149

■ Two 800K Drives ■ 256K RAM

■ Video RAM Board ■ Monitor

■ 14 Free Software Packages

■ 1 Year Warranty and More!

The Silver Fox $1149

The Color Fox $1298

The Fox $995

The TurboFox

^_$1499

v-s

■ IDM-PC Compatible

■ 8088-2 CPU ■ 4.77/8MHZ

■ Two DSDD Disk Drives

■ 256K RAM ■ Monitor

■ 8 Expansion Slots

■ WordStar. CalcStar

■ MS-DOS 2.11.GWBA5IC

The TurboFox $1499

with 20MB Hard Disk $2099

Zenith Z-148

$1398

■ Two DSDD Disk Drives

■ 640K RAM ■ Amber Monitor

■ MS-DOS. Filebase

■ MyWrite, MyCalc, Spell

Zenith Z-148 $1398

Two Place Expansion $99

The Mew ALTOS 2086-2

The high performance Xenix based system tor 20 work stations from Altos - a world leader in multi-user systems and software.

The 2066-2 features 2 MB of RAM, an 80MB hard disk, a 60MB tope backup and an 80286 CPU. Options indude: 10 more user stations, up to 8MB of RAM up to 189MB of hard disk storage and an 80287 co-processor.

ALTOS 2086-2 $14588

The power of o mini or a fraction of the cost

ALSO

Altos 986-40 £8619 Altos 586-40 ...

THE ATARI 520ST

■ Precision Grophics-640x400 resolution.

■ 512 Colors with options RGB monitor.

■ Parallel and Serial Interface Standard.

■ Double Density Disk Drive Standard.

■ Two Burron Mouse Standard.

■ Optional 10 MB Hard Drive. ecqq

■ 66000 CPU Architecture. 31033

■ 512K RAM Standard. m°"°*rame monitor

■ 8MHz Clods Speed. $899

■ MIDI Interface. with RGB monitor PUIS

Word processing, spreadsheet, database and inregrared software is avoilabe now! Call fcr pricing and inquire about the national 520ST Users Group.

It OLVMPIA

THE OLYMPIA NP

If you're considering the purchase of an Okidara 192 or an Epson FX-85 give us a call before you spend £50 to $100 more for an inferior printer. We'll send you on actual print sample detailing rhe MP's amazing 17x17 dot matrix and such features as it's built-in push tractor, 165 CPS speed, low noise level and FX-80 comparability that make the Olympio NP the best value in dot matrix printers for only $285

THE OLYMPIA RO

A letter qual ity daiseywheel printer the Olympic RO offers o 14" carriage. 14 CPS print speed, Diablo 600 emulation, parallel ond serial ports. All this and a builr-in tractor or onfy 1329

MORE

PRINTERS

SrorSG-10 $239

Diablo D-25 $549

All Okidara Call

All Epson Call

Season's Greetings From

\ /

^6e,P, < W

"•ton,

lu»V.5

/ x

Scoffsdale Systems

617 N. Scorrsdale Rood Suite D, Scorrsdale, Arizona 85257

(602) 941-5856

Call 7-5 Mon - Fri.

We participate in arbitration for business and customers through the Bettet Business Bureau Of Maricopa County.

SINCE 1980

TELEMARKETING ONLY: rf you plan to stop by please phone aheod. Prices listed are for cash. P.O's from Fortune 1200 companies ond universities with good aedirodd 2% / Mastercard ond Visa odd 3% / Arizona residents add 6% sales rax / Shipping extra / All items ore new with nx^irfoaurer's warranty / Returned merct>andise subject to 20% restodyng fee / Personal or company checks rake up ro 3 weeks to dear / No COD'sor APO's. Prices ond speafvcarjons subject ro change / Product subject to availability. Trademaiks: Altos, Altos Computer Systems; Silver Fax. MyWrfre and MyCalc. Software Toolworks.- Apple II m and Macintosh im. I Apple Computer Inc." Atari o* by Atari Corp. HAGEN—005. ond Jocklntosh, Scorrsdale Systems, Ltd.; Wordstar and CalcStar, Miaopro Intemarional; MS-DOS. and Multiple*!. Miaosofr Corporarion; FILEBASE, EWDP Software. dBASE II, Ashfon-Tate: IBM-PC DOS. and IBMPC Inrernational Business Machines.

WE NOW DO SPECIALIZED SERVICE

If you own a Sanyo 555-2, Silver Fox or any other compurer that is out of warranty, please contact our Service Deportment. We'll be happy to quote a price for cleaning ond adjustment of drives, motherboard repair or general service questions. We'll work with you to keep your system alive.

TERMINALS

WyseSO $449

QumeQVT101 $298

QumeQVri01A $325

COLOR MONITOR SALE

NEC JC 1460 RGB $298

Taxan 420 RGB $409

THE BERNOULLI BOX

The Half-Heights Are Here!

■ Hard disk capacity and performance

■ Removable cartridge economy

■ Cartridge convenience

■ Winchester capadty

■ Unparalleled reliability

10 Mb $1859

20 Mb $2499

GQ®D0©G®LiQ instrument

PLOTTERS

DMP-29 $1795

DMP-41/42 $2365

DMP-51/52 $3579

PC-695 $629

PC-595 $549

DIGITIZERS

DT-11 $669

DT-11A $669

REACH OUT AND TEACH SOMEONE

THE AMSTRAD 128K

■ Z-80ACPU

■ Keyboard

■ Monitor (RGB opr.)

■ 3" Disk Drive

■ Casserte Interface

■ Joystick Porr

■ Parallel Port

■ CP/M LOGO, AM-DOS

■ Word Processor

■ Spreadsheet

■ Gomes, Graphics

Introduce Your Family To Computing For Only

$439

with green monitor

Inquiry 319

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 427

Erases Most Eproms in 3 Minutes

state 2-8 Min. Timer Version $54.95

For all 24 or 28 pin devices—2 al a lime.

90 DAY WARRANTEE SHIPPING & HANDLING DEALERS WELCOME

WdLLirtG CO.

$2 50 AZ RESIDENTS ADD 6% TAX

4401 S. JUNIPER • TEMPE, AZ 85282 • (602) 838-1277

Inquiry 376

Osborne

As available only! Very limited quantity.

Important:

To fix yourself.

Guaranteed for 30

Always call to

or for

parts.

days. May be new

check availa

Complete, but

or refurb

, depen

bility before

known

not

ding on

ivail.

ordering.

working.

Exch/

Outright

Repair

Main Board OS-1

$79

$79

$139

Main Board Exec.

$159

$139

$299

Battery Pack, 40 Watt

$49

lOouble Density Kit "

$79 1

5" CRT IGrn/White)

$9.95

$19

$29

7" CRT (Amber)

$19

$49

$99

15" CRT, no case

$85

Drive Analog Card

$9.95

$29

$59

Drive Mechanism

$19

$25

$59

Power Supply

$4.95

$24

$29

Keyboard (No enclos.)

$9.95

$99

Shipping charged on all orders

Computer Parts Mart 415-493-5930 3200 Park Blvd * Palo Alto * CA 94306

Inquiry 79

DATA ACQUISITION TO GO

INTERFACE FOR ANY COMPUTER

Connects via RS-232. Built-in BASIC. Stand alone capability. Expandable. Battery Option. Basic system: 16 ch. 12 bit AID, 2 ch. D/A, 32 bit Digital I/O. Expansion boards available. Direct Bus units for many computers.

SPECIALISTS IN PORTABLE APPLICATIONS

(201) 299-1615

P.O. Box 246, Morris Plains, N J 07950

ELEXOR

MiTmnRYmRC INDUSTRIES INC.

800-231-3680

Radio Shack® Tandy® Epson Printers

People you Trust to give you the very best!

22511 Katy Fwy., Katv (Houston) Texas 77450 (713) 392-0747 Telex 774132

Inquiry 226

Sure ifis insured?

SAFEWARE® Insurance provides full replacement of hardware, media and

purchased software. As little as $39/yr. covers: • Fire • Theft • Power Surges

• Earthquake • water Damage • Auto Accident

For information or immediate coverage call:

1-800-848-3469

In Ohio call 1-614-262-0559

(tuTftffli \-3ra tawfcsaL/

SAFEWARE, The Insurance Agenci' Inc.

Inquiry 316

The Linker for Turbo Pascal1

Why recompile tested procedures over and I over while debugging your Turbo Pascal programs, when TP'tinker'* can instantly link them in—already compiled. TP*Linker turns your compiled Turbo rascal procedures into compact, linkable external procedures. Linkable procedures use Vi the memory as their Turbo Pascal source code. So yuu can bring them in off disk faster and store more of them on RAM disk. TP*Linker is easy to | use, self-documenting, and works from the Turbo Pascal Program Development Environment. An extra bonus—now you can sell procedures written in Turbo Pascal as linkable procedures without having to disclose your source code. Why waste time recompiling code that you know works? TP*Linker—the ideal upgrade for anyone using Turbo Pascal.

Not copy protected TP*Linker for Turbo 2.0, 3.0 $69 + BCD, 8087 $99 Add $5 S+II i $10 for Overseas. MCTVISA |

A-OK Systems

81(i Kaslev St., Silver Spring, Ml) 20910 301-585-5105 (6)

Inquiry 271

—

• Multi-user Database!

• Powerful!

• Multiple Operating System Compatibility!

• Attractive Dealer Pricing!

• Full Dealer Support!

Dataflcx . a uadc-mark of Daia Access

Dealer Inquiries Invited

24000 Telegraph Road Southfield. Michigan 48034 USA (313) 352-2345

Inquiry 62

6800 Family

Inquiry 120

Inquiry 3

Inquiry 385

The^5^-1200 bps & 2400 bps Modems

Fully Hayes Compatible 2 Year Warranty

Supports all 20 Hayes Commands and all 6 responses

• Tone & Pulse dialing • Built-in speaker

• Auto dial/auto answer • 8 status lights • Auto speed selection • Self-test

1200 bps Standalone Bell 103 and Bell 212A Compatible

$199

2400 bps Standalone CCITT V22, V22BIS, Bell 212A, and Bell 103 Compatible

1200 bps IDM PC Compatible Card w/MITE Communications Software

BAPRIZIP12(4ibs., Retail $299.00 BAPRIZIP24 (5Retail $599.00

PC LINE CONDITIONER

• Constant Voltage Output with up to 15% DIPS in Line Voltage

• Spike & surge suppression

• Noise suppression

• Prolongs computer life

150 WATT 000 WATT

$59 $99

BASHPI 50

(Sh. wt. 20 lbs.)

(Sh. wt 30 lbs.)

QUAD RAM Quodchrome II

• Large 14" high-res. RGB display

• 640x240 res. • PC cable included

BAQDRQC2

Retail: $599.00

(Shipping weight 30 lbs.)

IRVINE

18241 Mc Durmott, Irvine, CA 92714 (714)660-1411

TST PRIORITY roNE^i ELECTRONICS

— inquiry 289 Mail Your Order To:

5$

SAN JOSE

452 W. Trimble Rd., San Jose, CA 95131 (406)946-7010

21622 Plummer St, Chatsworth, CA 91311-9970 RETAIL: (616)709-5464 INDUSTRIAL (616)709-5111

625.00. Terms U.S. VISA. MC. BAC. Check. Money Order. insurance. Orders over 70 lbs. sent Ireight collect. Just in case, include your phone

number. Prices subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices through January 1986. Credit card orders will be charged appropriate freight We are not responsible for typographical errors.

>per 2400, Zipper 1200B and Zipper Modem are

U.S. Funds ONtY. CA residents add 6%, 61*;%, or 7% Sales Tax. depending on your local rates. Include MINIMUM SHIPPING & HANDtING of $3.00 for the first 3 lbs, plus 50« for each additional pound (25C if within Calif.) Plus 251 per $100.00 value of your order lor

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS and PRIORITY 1 ELECTRONICS are registered service marks of Ihe Heath Group Ltd Zipper 212A trademarks of the Heath Group, Ltd.

^ ORDER TOLL FREE (800)423-5922 (NOW IN CALIF. TOO!!)

NO SHIPPING CHARGES ORDER TOLL-FREE 800-824-3432 CHRISTMAS SPECIALS DRIVES

TANDON 100-2 89.99 TANDON 100-4 (96 T.P.I.) 129.99 EPSON HD860 20 MEG. V4 HT. HARD DISK WITH CONTROLLER & CABLES 599.99 SYSTEMS

BLUE XTRA

• PC/XT Compatible • 8 Slot Motherboard

• 1 -</2 HT. 360K Floppy • 256K RAM

• 135W Power Supply • RunslBMDos2.1 or3.1 FULL WARRANTY

MONITORS Princeton Graphics MAX-12-HI-RES Amber with HI-RES Controller Card Princeton Graphics HX-12 RGB with Color Graphics Card

ADD ON CMOS Multifunction Card W/384K RAM Included Serial/Parallel Port, Clock/Calendar. Game Port 159.99

Inicorn electronics

" lOOlOCanooaAve UnrtB-8.

Mranumofdar $10 00- .__ UPS Bluo add H 00 - Calrf riuMi *» clearance VISA - MC

543.9S

rnaxBll

BULK DISKETTES

5V4"

SS/DD $.70

3V2"

SS/DD $1.70 DS/DD 2.25

Prices based on quantities of 500 Orders shipped within 24 hours

f^*^5 C.O.D. p>«!*«^

JJJj C.O.D. ^^^^

1-800 222 0490 201- 462-7628 in N.J.

MBEHgpft

P.O. Box 1143 • Freehold. N.J. 07728

IBM PC/VT220

EM220 • VT220.VT 102 emulation $149 " transfer

• 132 Column modes

• Color Support

• Hot Key

■■SB TEK 4010/4014

EM4010 $249

Tektronix 4010 emulation VT220, VT102 emulation Pieture files

High resolution hardcopy Supports IBM, IBM Enhanced. Hercules. Tecrnar and AT&T.

Diversified Computer Systems, Inc.

3775 Iris Ave.. Suite IB Boulder. CO 80301 (303) 447-9251

mt&marks; moo — Oi^itui Equipment: ibm pc. XT - ttiM Curj,.

Inquiry 366

Inquiry 230

Inquiry 111

Robot Experimenter"

Looking for information on educational and experimental robots? Need a source lor robot equipment? Like to know the latest news in this rapidly changing field?

Robot Experimenter is the publication for experimental robots. Each issue is loaded with reviews, design ideas, software projects, and the latest industry news.

Wrile today for a FREE sample issue. Don't let the future happen without you.

Robot Experimenter

published by Ceargs PO Box 458 Peterborough. NH 03458 603/924-3843

DeSmet C

Development Package

Still $109

"... a stunning amount of bang for the buck"

Houston, Brodrick and Kent BYTE Magazine, August 1983 Call to order by VISA, MC, or AMEX

(408) 720-9696

or write to us:

C Ware Corporation

505 W. Olive, Suite 767 Sunnyvale, CA 94087

We Sell Direct to You

WE CAN MAKE INCOMPATIBLE DATA COMPATIBLE!

We can transfer datafrles between different operating systems; convert media (disks and tapes); decode and translate documents between major dedicated word processors and/or major PC software; re-arrange database files; transfer texts and re-formulate spreadsheet data.

Write or call to discuss your needs, thai send a disk or tape sample of yourdatafUe for a complimentary translation.

CompuData Translators, Inc.

6565 Sunset Blvd., Suite 301 Hollywood, CA 90028

(213) 462-6222

ADAPSO Member

Inquiry 68

lie

PROMPT DELIVERY!!!

S SAME DAY SHIPPING (USUALLY)

OUTSIDE OKLAHOMA NO SALES TAX

V20 CPUJJPD70108D-8 $1(

8087-2 Math Coprocessors 14(

DYNAMIC RAM

256K 64Kx4 150 ns $7.99

256K 256KX1 120 ns 3.25

256K 256Kxt 150 ns 2.47

128K I2BKx1 120 ns 5.65

64K 16Kx4 150 ns 2.75

64K 64Kxi 150 ns 1.00

EPROM

27C256 32Kx8 250 ns $7.50

27256 32Kx8 250 ns 4.75

27C64 8Kx8 200 ns 3.75

2764 8Kx8 250 ns 2.50

STATIC RAM

6264LP-158Kx8 150 ns $2

NO eniw

COSIFOH F EX SAT DELIVERY

ON ORDERS

" 'BY

MasterCaraWISA or UPS CASH COO n

Factory New, Prime Parts jjPoo

MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED. INC.

Prices shown above are for Nov. 25,1985

Ptoase cat ta cum* rnst I Yens nutted » charrje Ptaaae mpnJ It fit or tower (run sortB M li* to ««*y A demand .ml mr duranj urc Sh^imrj & nutnx eiSa C* " 6 PW CST can usumV d^oud B you by th» m

ikrtart poor. -Jinni Orders m

FINALLY!

Aztec C65tm joins ProDOS,m

with VIX. Develop C programs in ProDOS. Run existing binary programs in ProDOS such as c65, cci. In, mklib and others. System includes:

• Standard library written in 6502 assembly.

• Advanced screen editor with undelete, autoindent, word wrap, macros, and more

• Source code to entire system except editor.

$50 ♦ $3.50 shipping Multitasking 128K version - CALL

Create advanced database applications with TMst. Designed specifically for ProDOS. Tlist uses tile caching and balanced binary tree indexes to advance beyond the limitations of ordinary database managers Tlist is provided as a library of functions featuring:

• Compact variable length record format.

• Multiple fields per index key.

• Function to restructure database files without loss of data.

Tlist in Aztec C65 object format - $75. * $3.50 Tlist with source and VIX - $350.

Eclipse® Systems

P. O. Box 2.T7, Merion, Pa. 19066 (215) 664-2419

quiry 117

C R O S S - 8

MAYBE THE ONLY DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE YOU LL EVER NEED

• Table based 8 bit cross-assembler

• Tables/Source files included for:

1802 6502 8048 COP400

3870 6801 8051 Z8

8096 6805 8085 Z80

• Modify/Create tables for most 8 bit micros Create your own instruction sets

• INTEL, MOTOROLA, TEKTRONIX output formats

• Use with any EPROM programmer

• 36 page manual, full instructions

• Available in the following disk formats:

5" IBM-PC PC/MS-DOS 2.0 or greater, compatibles 5" APPLE ll + /lle CP/M 80 ISoftcard). compatibles 8" SSSD CP/M-80 (Z80 only)

*999

*129

95 CDN

Credit card orders: Include card r>a, name on card, expiry date, signature Nova Scotia residents add 10% sales tax.

LI- 3 I UNIVERSAL CROSS-ASSEMBLERS

I "0 BOX 3BJ BEDFORD NOVA SCOTIA BJA 2X3 CANADA

Inquiry 47

Inquiry 244

HI

Inquiry 368

/ With the purchase of any floppy/ / disk drive in this issue, well

include a 7 melody alarm. V Quartz chronograph, digital \ watch ...absolutely FREE \(limit one per customer)!

mm

MODEMS

SMARTEAM • 103/212A

Fully HAYES compatible

300/1200 baud

external modem . . . *184

• HAYES 1200B *357

• NOVATION Smartest

1200 internal $333

llimmnmiiHiiiHii

ACCESSORIES

KEYBOARDS

FULLY IBM and KEYTRONICS COMPATIBLE

• 5150 style s78°°

■ 5151 style $98°°

PC POWER SUPPLIES 150 WATT . . . *99°°

130 WATT $77°°

• MULTITECH multifunction board

(AST sixpack+comp.) *119" •ASTsixpack + »223°°

• AST Advantage 128K '384°°

• MULTITECH color board '98"

• HERCULES color board »144°°

• HERCULES graphics board >287°°

• MULTITECH

384K mem exp. brd. (empty) «56°°

( YOUR CHOICE *168^J

We bought the remaining inventory of two popular printer models from Legend. When they're gone, they're gonel!

• MODEL 880 Only 500 available!

80 column, "Square Dot" matrix, 100CPS, Centronics Parallel, friction/ tractor feed.

• MODEL 1000 Only 200 available!

80 column, "Copal" mechanism, dot matrix, 100CPS, Cent, parallel, friction/tractor feed.

• EPSON LX80 '248

• OKIDATA 92P s392

iiiiiiimiiHiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

DISKETTES

FUJI

• SS/DD BOX 10 l139°

• DS/DD 48TPI BOX 10'18"

• DS/DD 96TPI BOX 10 »2715

NASHUA BULK DS/DD

Sold in increments of 50 only, shipped in poly bags.

HARD DRIVES

COMPLETE INTERNAL SYSTEMS

Includes drive, controller card, cables and install procedures. Capacities listed are unformatted. We sell only the finest drives from Seagate, Mitsubishi. Tokico/ Hitachi and others guaranteed to meet or exceed original manufacturer's specifications.

FLOPPY

DRIVES-PC COMPATIBLE

• PANASONIC JA551 V* Ht. . . *84

• TEAC FD55 % Ht $88

• 2 drive PC floppy controller »45B5

• 4 drive PC floppy controller '585°

• Name BrandIMB 3V4" »1245°

• APPLE II Compatible, inc. cable . . . $9775

llhiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiimiii

COMPONENTS

256K DRAMS

Quality Japanese mfg. from companies like HITACHI, TOSHIBA and FUJITSU.

Set of 9 150ns $2650

• 64K DRAMSSetof 9 150ns . .$749

• 8087-3 '9900

• 8087-2 »1296°

• 80287 >178°°

• 27128 »29°

• 27256 »45°

• 2764 »19B

■ 4128 »297

• 13MB »389°°

• 25MB *489°°

• 38MB SEAGATE VOICE COIL. *89900

• 51MB SEAGATE VOICE COIL *1098°°

imiiiiiuii

50

100-450

500-950

1000-4950

5000 +

.88

.86

.84

.82

.80

NAME BRAND DS/DD

Grey Jacket, with reinforced hub. From a well known nationally advertised maker.

Sold in increments of 100 only, shipped in poly bags.

100-400

500-900

1K-4.9K

5K-9.9K

10K +

.65

.60

.56

.53

.50

MONITORS

TATUNG *

• 14" HI RES R.G.B $44450

• 12" GREEN »1153°

• 12" AMBER »119"

• AMDEK Color 300 »22600

• TAXAN 121 Green »13600

• TAXAN 122 Amber »146°°

i¥i

LDWIDE ACCESS

dy hates us but our custo

1

M

IF YOU DON'T SEE IT, CALL!

We have virtually any producl available n the besl pricing Space limits us In only a fraction of what we soil Call us for a quote

Vfeature PIP disks

for D I U files User-Transparent Security Features Included.

Golden Bow Systems

619/298-9349

Inquiry 146

8051/52 DEVELOPMENT BOARD

8051 -Based Single-Board Computer with Monitor/Debugger a • 28-pin byte-wide sockets; monitor will program EEPROMS. ■Perfect for System Development and Educational Applications

W £ S255

Binary Technology, Inc.

Inquiry 35

; 'li'

MEASURE THE REAL WORLD WITH OUR SAV 10 MULTI CHANNEL

SERIAL ASCII VOLTMETER

• STAND-ALONE operation no control messages Irom ,1 host computet

• SELECTABLE DATA RATE. HS232 OUTPUT MESSAGES

■ 4 ANALOG VOLTAGE INPUTS ol 0 • 2 55V measured simultaneously -li H tii! resolution

■ SIMPLE INSTALLATION duociiy connects lo a data display lcrmin.il

■ LOW POWEP. CONSUMPTION

■ HUGGED. COMPACT PACKAGE . NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS:

Data togging and processing

RtmoKdan mam

Security systems e

$169.95

A typical SAVIO application

MARON PRODUCTION INC.

DISCOVERY PARK. 105 - 3700 GILMORE WAY BURNABY, B.C.. CANADA V5G 4M1 / (604) 435-6211

System 501: $1975

DATA ACQUISITION & CONTROL

Call or write for FREE brochure

KEITH LEY

Keithley Data Acquisition and Control, Inc.

28775 Aurora Road Cleveland, Ohio 44139 216) 248-0400 Telex: 98-5469

Inquiry 191

CIRCU

lis 8!

T DESIGN TOOLS FOR PC'S

III

ISJPICE $95 S0FT_SC0PE $175

Perform AC, DC and Transient analysis with IS_SPICE. View manipulate and plot data with Soft_Scope. Requires 640K RAM, coprocessor, fixed disk and color graphics adapter.

Write or call intusoft PO BOX 6607 (213)833-0710 San Pedro, CA 90734-6607

Inquiry 174

STATE-OF-THE-ART MAGNETIC MEDIA

SW DISKETTES

• With Hub Rings

• With Write Protect Tabs

• With Static-Free, Dust-Free Envelopes

• With User ID Labels

• In Factory Sealed Poly Packs

Double Side Double Denafty

100% ERROR FREE - LIFETIME WARRANTY MEET OR EXCEED APPLICABLE ANSI. ECMA. ISO

STANDARDS Minimum quanlily 50diskettes Discount for 300ot more diskettes Shipping and Handling: S4 00 per lOOdisketles Reduced shipping charge for larger quantities COD add S4 00 Cash or certified check Ml residents add 4% sales tax Prices SLibjerl to change without notice

J

COD.

Precision Data Products

P.O. Bo* 8367, Grand Rapids, Ml 49508 (616) 452-3457 • Michigan 1-800-632-2468 Outside Michigan I-8O0-258-0O28

BULK DISKETTES

BY

NASHUA

i

each

Qt\. KM)

5V DS/DD with hub ring and Tyvek sleeve, bulk packaged, no labels, laclory warranleed Shipping extra For quantity 50. add 10C each

Get the same low price our high-volume duplication customers get!

CALL TOLL FREE

1-800-321-4668

in Colorado, 303-234-0871 MSA. MASTERCARD, OR COD ACCEPTED

jt^^ JL IP1

1315-F Nelson St Denver, CO 80215

17 parking lots for your disks

while working I easy to save, easy to get.

very useful I protect disks from damaged I no more mess on desk

Only $3.75 $1.00 shipping N.Y. residents add 8% sales tax

sent check to:

COMET TECHNOLOGICAL CO.

68-44 Burns St. Apt. C3

Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375

(718) 793-1065

Inquiry 64

DYNAMIC RAMS

41256 /41256

4164 1/4164

128K

120ns $3.1 5 1 50ns ^JfJjX 120ns M.05 1 50ns ^JjEEeV 150ns $4.50

I COPROCESSORS

8087-2 $130.00

8087-3 $115.00

80287-3 $185.00

I STATIC RAMS

■ E. PROMS

27C 256 250ns $

895

27256 27128 27C64 2764

250ns $ 5.25

250ns $ 2.75

200ns $ 4.25

250ns $ 2.25

250ns $ 1.80

Inquiry 225

Inquiry 285

I.C.EXPRESS

I5358 Valley Blvd.. City ot Industry. CA 91746 (Mon-Fri • 8-5/Sat 9-3)

.ORDER

(818)369-2688

| CALL FOR CURRENT PRICES & VOLUME DISCOUNTS |

Price Shown tor UPS COD Cash • MasterCard/VISA add 3°/. moil Prrcos are subject in change Minimum order StOOO CaJilornu rtanhvii!. «u;M add G5»i. sales tan Shipping 4 Handling UPS Ground J5.00. UPS Air S7.00 (under 1 II ALL MERCHANDISE IS 100% GUARANTEED.

Inquiry 166

o

COMPUTERBANC

HARD DRIVE KITS

20 MB Internal w/Controller $495 | 30 MB Internal for AT $799

10 MB Internal w/Controller $425 | •External Models Add $150

TAPE DRIVES

20 MB I 45 MB I 60 MB $699 I $999 I $1,099

•File by File "Mirror Image'Software Included

IBM PC AT 20 MB

(Seagate Model 225) 512 K Serial, Parallel

$4,299

MODEMS

Volksmodem 1200

$169.95

Prometheus 1200

$269.00

IBM PC XT

10 MB, 256K

CALL

CALL

256K 2 Drive

IBM PC

AT COMPATIBLES

Sperry IT 44 MB

COMPAQ 286 30 MB

KEYBOARD

$119

"Keytronics5151 Compatible

IBM PC COMPATIBLES

ITT XTRA 2 Drive, 256K $1,495 Leading Edge PC CALL |

16 Bit PC Clone System $899

IBM SOFTWARE

LOTUS 123 CALL

Symphony CALL

ENABLE 389.00

BEM COLLECTION 129.00

ASHTON TATE Framework. 379.90

dBASE II 289.00

dBASE III 389.90

CLIPPER dBASE III Compiler 379.00

MULTIMATE 239.90

SORCIM Supercalc III 210.00

Super Project 210.00

MICROSOFT Mulliplan 125.00

Word 229.00

Project 159.00

FOX & SELLER Quickcode 139.00

NORTON UTILITIES 52.00

TURBO PASCAL ver 3.0 49.00

SUPERKEY 37.00

SIDEKICK (unprotected) 46.00

ASCII PRO Cmm Sillwire 69.00

CROSSTALK XVI 105.00

PEACHTREE Back To Basics 101.00

IN-HOUSE ACCOUNTANT 89.90

WORD PERFECT. 249.00

MICROPRO WordStar Pro 259.00

WordStar 2000 316.00

SAMNA Plus 345.00

WORD III 279.90

ABASE 5000 389.90

PRINTMASTER 35.00

ENERGRAPHICS 169.00

BPl General Accounting 316.00

IBM HARDWARE

AST 6 Pack Plusw/384K 249.00

Advantage w/128 K 399.00

HERCULES Mono Graphic. 319.00

Color Card 159.00

HERCULES like Color Card 129.00

Monochrome Graphics Card ... 149.00

ORCHID Turbo W/256K 669.00

QUAORAM Quadboard 0-K 198.00

QuadPort for AT ser & par II 5.00

TECHMAH Graphics Master.... 469.00 STB Rio plus 64 K 5 Functions... 189.00 Rio Grande 3 function for AT... 2B9.00

Graphix II 210.00

High Res 400 369.00

Chaffeur monographics NEW... 234.00 PARADISE Modular Graphics Card.. CALL

SIGMA High Res Color 400 CALL

IBM COMPATIBLES

Color card 129.00

Multifunction Card 384 K saclck. 169.00 Multifunction Card 0k-1.2mb . 179.00 Compatible Mono Card w/par... 129.00 5151 Compatible Keyboard.... 119.00 TTL Monitor Amb or Grn IBM... 100.00

Expansion Chasis CALL

TALLGRASS w/Tape CALL

IRWIN TAPE DRIVE 499.00

EVEREX TAPE Pc/Xt/AT CALL

Graphics Edge Card CALL

Edge Card CALL

R0DIME 20 MB Drive. CALL

TEAC 55 BV 95.00

1.2MB FLOPPY fir AT 189.00

360K FLOPPY fir AT 115.00

MOUSE SYSTEMS Mouse 135.00

FIELDMOUSE 113.00

MICROSOFT Mouselpus) w/sttwr. 117.00 Mouse(serial) w/PC Paintbrush. 125.00

KOALA KAT 149.00

DISKETTES 2S DD 15.00

MODEMS ANCHOR Express 300/1200 ... 229.00

Volksmodem 12(5 wrnty) 169.95

Lightning 2400 Baud CALL

HAYES 1200 379.00

1200B 349.00

2400 CALL

Micromodem//e CALL

TransetlOOO CALL

PROMETHEUS 1200 269.00

Promodem 1200B 219.00

Promodem 1200A 259.00

Promodem Mac Pac Kit 299.00

Promodem 300 lie 139.00

MONITORS

AMDEK 300A. 139.00

310A HFRes Ambr 155.00

Color 600 Hi-Res RGB 433.00

Color 710 474.00

PRINCETON GRAPHICS HX-12 ... 469.00

HX-9 449.00

SR-12 625.00

MAX-12 179.00

TAXAN 121/122 149.00

620 (RGB) 640x200 NEW CALL

640 (RGB 720x400 NEW CALL

PANASONIC DT-S101 Color.... 179.00 DT-H103 10" High Res RGB... 369.00 IBM COMPATIBLE Monocrome... 99.00 Color RGB Monitor (640x200)... 349.00

PRINTERS

BROTHER 1509 DOT MATRIX ... 369.00

HR-15XL 345.00

HR-25XL. 469.00

HR-35XL 699.00

Twinwriter 822.00

EPSON LX-80 225.00

FX-85 345.00

FX-185 485.00

0KIDATA ML-192 373.00

ML-193 522.00

PANASONIC KX-P1091 229.00

KX-P1092 299.00

KX-P3131/17cps Daisey 269.00

KX-P3151/22cpsDaisey Wheel. 379.00

TOSHIBA P351 w/tractor 1279.00

STAR MIH0NICS SG-10 219.00

SG-15 399.00

CITIZEN MSP-10 266.00

MSP-15 335.00

MSP-25 489.00

CANNON Laser Printer. CALL

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS Plotters. CALL

Digitizers CALL

HEWLETT PACKARD PRINTERS.... CALL

APPLE PRODUCTS

APPLIED ENGINEERING

Ramworks 64 K 149.00

ASTMuIti I/O CALL

MICRO SCI A2 Drive lie 169.00

lie Compatible Drive 139.00

APPLE Compatible Drive 129.00

HABA Mac Drive CALL

MAC Compatible 3 1/2 drive... 249.00

BERNOULLI 5MB MAC Drive CALL

MACINTOSH Harddrive CALL

MICROSOFT Macenhancer CALL

Softcard II 259.00

Multi-plan //e& Mac..; 129.00

Basic (Mac) 109.00

ASCII XPRESS (Communications). 69.00 THE DESK ORGANIZER (Mac)... 133.00

APPLE MOUSE II 129.00

APPLEWORKS 215.00

SPELLWORKS CALL

PRINTSHOP 30.00

HAYES Mach III Joystick 39.00

SYSTEMS SAVERF an 69.00

VIDEO 7 lie Enhancer CALL

V-colorllc(RGB) CALL

TITAN Accelerator 229.00

VIDEX Ultraterm. 169.00

APRIC0RN (Lifetime Warranty)

Super Serial Imager 69.00

Graphics Interface 59.00

80 ColumrV64K 59.00

EXTEND IT64K 39.00

KOALA SpeedKey 99.00

Muppet Learning Keys 39.00

DISKETTES AppFe/Mac ... 12.00/24.00 APPLE lie 64k w/80 column ... 775.00

o

TM

COMPUTERBANC

16783 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, CH 92647 T€L€X #550757 ANSUJCR BACK—COMPUTER UD 714/841-6160

*TSf No Charge for Credit Cords Orders Only

800/332-BANC

OUTSID€ CALIFORNIA

I

Cosh prices Indicated. AS products ore In Foctorv sealed packages. UJe guarantee all Items for 30 days. Within this period, defective merchandise returns must be accompanied bu FtMR number. All other returns will be subject to o 10% restocking fee. For prepaid orders, there will be o 3% shipping charge: 5% for UPS Blue Label; $5.00 minimum; oil orders outside U.S.A. at 15% shipping. Catfornla residents odd 6% safes tax Prices subject to change without notice. ©Caught 1985 COMPUT6RBANC, AH fights Reserved.

_____

Inquiry 84

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 433

Softerm PC emulates over 3D popular terminals including the:

• □ECVT102.VT220

• Data General D200, D410

• IBM 3101-20 [block mode)

• Hewlett-Packard 2622A

• Honeywell VIP7801, VIP7803 Guaranteed Compatibility

Call for free product brief

$195MC-VISA-COD

For the IBM PC/XT/AT, DG1, NEC,

Wang PC, Tl Pro, Gridcase, Tandy

SBFTRONICS

3639 New Getwell, Suite 10 Memphis, TN 38118 901-683-6850

Inquiry 328

I I/O Bus for Data Acquisition & Control

I now available for IBM PC & Apple II series computers

The .Looal.AopMc.llOns Bus....... ;LAB .40',

In photo ■ re)'LAB40-PC' gan«ratorsVLAB40-V nlgnal acquisition modula.

• Modular ipproBch to data acquisition and control.

A 40 conductor ribbon cable bui la flenaratod by a card In the boat computer. Up to B low coat modulaa can bo located anywhere on a cable up to 100 ft. long. Our LAB 40 generator cards for Itie IBM PC or Apple II are priced at tiBB,

• Signal Acquisition and Control Module, modal 'LAB 40-1'. Features: B bit resolution, 4 channels, differential Inputs, sampling rata up to B50KHz, eoftwere programmable gaine and offset, digital output port, low price of B220. melve bit modulo available.

• Full featured 'digital oacllloaoopa' l

Documented ana user modlfy-able. PC varalon I17B. Apple II version S100 Complete data acquisition packages (hardware and aoftware) start at S460.

• Development tool.

Unique to LAB 40 Is rts ability to Interface directly to microprocessor compatible Integrated clrculta and hybrids. We encourage users to develop protects and products. LAB 40 Is an Ideal educational tool. ■ New low cost modul«» IWolve bit A/D. Port/Relay Driver. Real Time Clock.

Computer Continuum

75 Soulngate Ave.. Suite 6 • Daly City, CA 94015 (415) 755-1978

NEC PRINTERS

Pinwriter P-2 $ 485

(w/lnterface & Tractor)

Pinwriter P-3 $ 685

(w/lnterface & Tractor)

Pinwriter P-5 $ 925

(w/lnterface & Cut Sheet Guide)

ELF 360, 350 $ 380

2010/15/30/50 $ 605

3510/15/30/50 $ 960

8810/15/30/50 $1365

Optional Forms Handling Devices CALL

QUALITY PRINTERS 8415 Cement City Rd. Brooklyn, Michigan 49230 Phone: 517-592-3749

M*A-G«I-C

1NLAB28 LOGIC/MEMORY PROGRAMMER

It must be magic! How else could IN LAB load all these features into such a small package:

• Capable of programming hundreds of logic and memory devices!

• Small and portable-less than 26 ounces!

• Inexpensive firmware updating!

• Available with CUPL™ design software!

• Standard RS232 interface!

• EPROM emulation, from 2716 up to 27256 (including CMOS)!

It's no illusion! For only $1995. we can make a Model 28 appear before your very eyes! Just give us a call at 303/460-0103. We'd like to do some magic for you!

IMMB

CUPL u I trKtrrtuk ui TrchnolinrY. 'k-m Model IH.it nunuf.ci mirkrltd under I liens. Dlgiul Media, Ini

EUSC

A Hathaway Company

2150-1 West 6th Avenue Broomfield, CO 80020

Inquiry 168

—

aaaaaaa

t-;VROSE DATA SWITCHES

llm<*r ELECTRONICS .,.„.

SHARE computers, printers, any parallel or serial device ELIMINATE cable swapping ! INEXPENSIVEwaylonetwork I COMPATIBLE with all computers.

Businesses. Schools. Homes WE ALSO OFFER: Data Buffers, Line Drivers, Modems, Protocol Converters, Parallel - Serial Converters. Cables, Compulers. Printers, Disk Drives, and more, AUTOMATIC - CARETAKER is ideal for a business or school to sharea printer or modem among many computers. Operation is fully automatic with no software required. Parallel or Serial 4 channels • $295 8 channels - $395 MANUAL - HARDSWITCH is operated with the flip of a switch. 2:2 and 2:4 models allow simultaneous communication

Serial 1:2-$59 1:4 • $ 99 2:2 - $109 2:4 - $169 Parallel 1:2-$79 1:4 • $139 2:2-$119 2:4 - $199 LED and spike protection on serial models add $20. CODE ACTIVATED - PORTER connects one computer to multiple peripherals. A software code selects the peripheral. Parallel or Serial 4 channels - $295 8 channels ■ $395 Buffer option 64K - $100 256K - $250 REMOTE - TELEPATH connects multiple computers to multiple peripherals. A selector at each computer or terminal chooses up to 4 peripherals and displays busy status 4:4-$495 4:8 - $795 selector - $39.

HOSE ELECTRONICS (713) 933-7673 P.O. BOX 742571 MC a VISA Accaptad

HOUSTON, TX 77274 Dealer Inquiries Invited

CALL US FOR ALL YOUR INTERFACE NEEDS

Inquiry 3!0

_

ATTENTION nti BERNOULLI BOOSTERS

Go Either Way!

BOOT

from the Bernoulli Boxl from the AT Hard Diskl

FORMAT WITH 00S PARTITION WITH FDISK NO SLOWING Wo m bean shipping Bernoulli Boots Ihsl work lor over s year —

still wilting?

Golden Bow Systems

S95-S110

Ada S3 lor snipping/

P0 Bo* 3039

San Qreoo. CA 92103

(619) 298-9349

WEDGE-PC OEM PRODUCTS

PC-AT Compatible $1659fone

512k RAM, 1.2M disk drive, hard disk & floppy

disk controller, monochrome card, 200W

power, keyboard, enclosure.

PC-XT compatible $550/one

256k RAM, one 340 disk drive, monochrome

card, keyboard, 130W power, enclosure.

AT mother board $895 AT Enclosure $79

AT 200W power $135 Monochrome monitor $99

Dealer call for qty price

WEDGE TECHNOLOGY INC.

1190 Mt. View-Alviso Rd„ Suite R Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (408) 734-9866 Telex 3719075 EDGE UB

Inquiry 379

The GRANDSTAND

PRINTER STAND AND TRAY

• Folds & Stacks Automatically

• Fits ALL Popular Micro Printers

• Space Saving Operation

• Routes Cables Neatly

Grand Union

Micro Systems

P.O. Box 1880 Fallbrook, CA9202B (619) 723-0882

Inquiry 148

RS-232 to RS-422A CONVERTER

For Under

$50!

• Allows your RS-232 Equipment to communicate with devices using RS-422A

• Two converters can extend RS-232 signals up to 4,000 ft.

• Bi-directional, uses 12 volts

ORDER NOW! Model 422 CCV $49.95 Optional power supply $14.95. Cash orders shipped postpaid, IL Res. add 6% sales tax. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Satisfaction Guaranteed. FREE fully illustrated newly revised catalog of interlace & testing equipment. Phone: 815-434-0846

MANUFACTURING COMPANY

P.O. Box 1008B, OTTAWA, IL 61350

Inquiry 299

Inquiry 147

Inquiry 30

Super Disk

Diskettes

Now...Diskettes you can swear by, not swear at.

Lucky for you, the diskette buyer, there are many diskette brands to choose from. Some brands are good, some not as good, and some you wouldn't think of trusting with even one byte of your valuable data. Sadly, some manufacturers have put their profit motive ahead of creating quality products. This has resulted in an abundance of lowquality but rather expensive diskettes in the marketplace.

A NEW COMPANY WAS NEEDED AND STARTED

Fortunately, other people in the diskette industry recognized that making ultra-high quality diskettes required the best and newest manufacturing equipment as well as the best people to operate this equipment. Since most manufacturers seemed satisfied to give you only the everyday quality now available, an assemblage of quality conscious individuals decided to start a new company to give you a new and better diskette. They called this product the Super Disk diskette, and you're going to love them. Nowyou have a product you can swear by, not swear at.

HOW THEY MADE THE BEST DISKETTES EVEN BETTER

The management of Super Disk diskettes then hired all the top brains in the diskette industry to make the Super Disk product. Then these top bananas (sometimes called floppy freaks) created a new standard of diskette quality and reliability. To learn the "manufacturing secrets" of the top diskette makers, they've also hired the remaining "magnetic media moguls" from competitors around the world. Then all these world class, top-dollar engineers, physicists, research scientists and production experts(if they've missed you, send in your resume to Super Disk) were given one directive...to pool all their manufacturing know-how and create a new, better diskette.

HOW SUPER DISK DISKETTES ARE MANUFACTURED

The Super Disk crew then assembled the newest, totally quality monitored, automated production line in the industry. Since the manufacturing equipment at Super Disk is new, it's easy for Super Disk to consistently make better diskettes. You can always be assured of ultra-tight tolerances and superb dependability when you use Super Disk diskettes. If all this manufacturing mumbo-jumbo doesn't impress you, we're sure that at least one of these other benefits from using Super Disk diskettes will:

1. TOTAL SURFACE TESTING - For maximum reliability, and to lessen the likelihood ol disk errors, all diskettes must be totally surface tested. At Super Disk, each diskette is 100% surface tested. Super Disk is so picky in their testing, they even test the tracks that are in between the regular tracks.

2. COMPLETE LINE OF PRODUCTS - For a diskette to be useful to you and your computer, it must be compatable physically. Super Disk has an entire line of 5'/4-inch diskettes for your computer.

3. SPECIALLY LUBRICATED DISK - Super Disk uses a special oxide lubricant which is added to Ihe base media in the production of their diskettes. This gives you a better disk drive head to media contact and longer head and disk life.

4. HIGH TEMPERATURE/LOW-MARRING JACKET- A unique high temperature and low-marring vinyl jacket allows use of their product where other diskettes won't work. This special jacket is more rigid than other diskettes and helps eliminate dust on the jacket.

5. REINFORCED HUB RINGS- Standard on all Super Disk mini-disks, to strengthen the center hub hole. This increases the life of the disk to save you money and increase overall diskette reliability.

6. DISK DURABILITY - Super Disk diskettes will beat all industry standards for reliability since they will give you more than 75% of the original signal amplitude remaining even after an average (Weibul B-50) of 30 million passes. They are compatible with all industry specifications as established by ANSI, ECMA, ISO, IBM and JIS.

7. CUSTOMER ORIENTED PACKAGING - All Super Disk disks are packaged 10 disks to a carton and 10 cartons to a case. The economy bulk pack is packaged 100 disksto a case without envelopes or labels.

8. LIFETIME WARRANTY - If all else fails, remember, all disks made by Super Disk Inc., have a lifetime warranty. If any Super Disk diskette fails to meet factory specifications, Super Disk Inc. will replace them under the terms of the Super Disk warranty.

9. SUPERB VALUE - With Super Disk's automated production line, high-quality, errorfree disks are yours without the high cost.

Order toll free 800-USA-DISK

Inquiry 65

NOW...NAME BRAND QUALITY AT SUPER CE PRICES

Now, you can buy Super Disk brand diskettes directly from Communications Electronics at prices less than "unbranded" generic diskettes. Your data is valuable, so why take chances using a diskette that could be so unreliable that the manufacturer refuses to put their name on it. To save you even more, we also offer Super Disk bulk product where 100 diskettes are packed in the same box without envelopes or labels. Since we save packaging costs, these savings are passed on to you. Diskette envelopes are also available from us. These super strong and .tear resistant envelopes are only 84 each. Use order # EV-5 and specify the quantity of 51A" diskette envelopes that you want.

390 per disk Quantity One

Our diskettes are packed 10 disks to a carton and 10 cartons to a case. The economy bulk pack is packaged 100 disks to a case without envelopes or labels. For best value, you should order in increments of 100 diskettes. Almost all diskettes are immediately available from Super Disk. With our efficient warehouse facilities, your order is normally shipped in less than a day.

SAVE ON SUPER DISK~ DISKETTES Product Description

Part#

Super Disk

price per disc ($)

5'/4"

5Va" SVt" 5'A' 5V 5Vt' 5</4'

6431-BA 6437-BA 6481-BA 6487-BA 6491 -BA 6497-BA 6501-BA

0.54 0.39 0.58 0.43 0.64 0.49 1.49

SSSD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring Same as above, but bulk pack w/o envelope SSDD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring Same as above, but bulk pack w/o envelope DSDD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring Same as above, but bulk pack w/o envelope DSQD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring (96 TPI)

SSSD = Single Sided Single Density; SSDD = Single Sided Double Density; DSDD = Double Sided Double Density; DSQD= Double Sided Quad Density. TPI = Tracks per inch.

BUYYOUR DISKETTES FROM CE WITH CONFIDENCE

To get thefastest delivery of yourdiskettes, phone your order directly to our order desk and charge it to your credit card. Written purchase orders are accepted from approved government agencies and most well rated firms at a 10% surcharge for net 10 billing. For maximum savings, your order should be prepaid. All sales are subject to availability, acceptance and verification. All sales are final. All prices are in U.S. dollars. Prices, terms and specifications are subject to change without notice. Out of stock items may be placed on backorder or substituted for equivalent product unless we are instructed differently. A $5.00 additional handling fee will be charged for all orders with a merchandise total under $50.00. All shipments are F.O.B. CE warehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan. COD terms are available, in U.S. UPS areas for $5.00 extra, and are payable with cash or certified check. Michigan residents add 4% sales tax.

For shipping charges add $6.00 per 100 diskettes and/or any fraction of 100 51A-inch diskettes for U.P.S. ground shipping and handling in the continental U.S. For 1,000 or more disks shipped to the continental U.S., shipping charges are $3.00 per hundred diskettes. UPS 2nd day air rates are fhree times continental U.S. rates. For Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, or APO/FPOdelivery, shipping is three times the continental U.S. rate.

Mail orders to: Communications Electronics Inc., Box 1045, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1045 U.S.A. If you have a Visa or Master Card, you may call and place a credit card order. Order toll-free in the U.S. Dial 800-USA-DISK. In Canada, order toll-free by calling 800-CA1-DISK..If you are outside the U.S. or in Michigan dial 313-973-8888. Telex anytime 810-223-2422. Order your Super Disk diskettes now.

Copyright© 1 986 Communications Electronics Inc. Ad#102585-BA

Now

390

a disk

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 435

Compare for yourself

Ordering

rOHCy

Capital Micro

Average Mail Order

Satisfaction Guaranteed

YES

NO

YES

NO

COD Shipping Available

YES

NO

YES

NO

or 1-3% extra

Defective Returns Accepted

YES

NO

YES

NO

manuf. only

FREE Shipping

YES*

NO

YES

NO

3-5%, $5 min.

Additional Credit Card Charge

YES

NO

YES

NO

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $100

HEWLETT-PACKARD

10 Series

HP-11C Scientific 5 55.95

HP-12C Financial $ 87.95

HP-15C Scientific $ 87.95

HP-16C Computer Science t 87.95

HEWLETT-PACKARD

40 Series

HP-41CV Scientific $ 169.95

HP-41CX Scientific 5 239.95

Accessories

82059D Battery Recharger $ 16.00

82104A Card Reader t 150.15

82120A Battery Pac S 28.00

82160A HP-IL Interface » 96.25

82180A Extend Functions $ 60.00

82181A Extend Memory $ 60.00

92266A Extended Use Battery S 39.95

Software

41-15049 Math/Statistics Pac $ 36.00

41-15004 Financial Decision S 28.00

41-15027 Stress Analysis $ 28.00

41-14005 Surveying S 28.00

41-14006 Circuit Analysis S 36.00

41-15055 Advantage

HEWLETT-PACKARD

70 Series

HP-71B Handheld Computer s 389.95

HP-75D Handheld Computer % 799.00

Peripherals

82400A Card Reader $ 127.05

82401A HP-IL Interface $ 96.25

82420A 4K Memory Module S 60.00

82441A FORTH Assembler $ 115.50

82483A Surveying $ 115.50

82490A 41/71 Translator Pac 5 96.25

92198A IL 80 Column Interf $ 250.25

82489A Statistics Pac $ 96.25

EPSON

LX-80

100cps 8t NLQ Dot Matrix

$

215.00

LX-90

100cps 8c NLQ Dot Matrix. 5

CALL

FX-85

160cps Dot Matrix

8

339.00

FX-185

160cps Dot Matrix

$

479.00

JX-60

Color Dot Matrix

$

469.00

HS-80

InkJet

i

319.00

AP-80

Apple comp. Dot Matrix.

s

275.00

SQ2000

Office Inkjet

$

1550.00

LQ1500

NLQ Dot Matrix

S

850.00

DX-10

Daisywheel

S

229.00

DX-20

Dalsywheel

$

315.00

DX-35

35cps Dalsywheel

«

675.00

PX-8

Geneva Computer

$

699.00

HX-20

s

399.00

HEWLETT-PACKARD

Additional Items

4S710A Portable w/ Lolui 123... .5 CALL

45711B Portable Plus $ 1795.00

22258 Thinkjet Printer $ 379.00

7470A 2-Pen Plotter $ 843.15

9114A 71 OK Disc Drive $ 625.00

82143A Thermal Printer $ 295.00

82161A Cassette Drive $ 423.00

82162A IL Printer $ 346.50

82164A IL/RS-232 Interface $ 227.15

62165A IL/GPIO Interface » 227.15

62169A IL/IB Interface $ 304.15

82153A Optical Wand 5 96.25

92192A Box of 10 Discs $ 55.20

92285A Laser Jet Toner • 79.20

AT&T

4000 Sortcall

. S 349.00 S 59.95

Capital micro

The Intelligent Choice

7600 FLOWER AVENUE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20912

(800) 544-4442

in Maryland, call

(301) 565-3595

TERMS:

• Free Shipping on orders over S100.

• NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for credit cards. •MD residents add 5% sales tax.

• Credit references required for open account. •Allow 2 weeks for personal checks.

• C.O.D.'s-ca»h, money order, bank or

certified check.

PRINTERS

Diablo

D-25 25 cps Daisywheel S 595.00

Okidata

ML182 120cps Dot Matrix i 219.00

ML192 160cps Dot Matrix $ 349.00

Ok120 Color Dot Matrix S 199.00

ML193 160cps Wide Carriage. . .5 499.00

Brother

M1509 180cps Wide Carriage. . .$ 379.00

HR-15XL 17cps Dalsywheel $ 345.00

HR-35 36cps Daisywheel $ 689.00

2024L 200cps & NLQ S 799.00

TwtnwrtterS Dalsywheel/Dot Matrix. . . .$ 815.00

Panasonic

KXP1091 $ 249.00

Citizen

120D 120cps Dot Matrix $ 199.00

MSP-10 160cps Dot Matrix S 265.00

MSP-15 160cps Wide Carriage. . .$ 379.00

MSP-20 200cps Dot Matrix $ 359.00

MSP-25 200cps Wide Carriage. . .$ 499.00

Premier 35 35cps Daisywheel $ 439.00

Star

SG10/15 120cps Dot Matrix $ 235/275

SD10/15 160cps Dot Matrix 5 339/449

SR10/15 200cps Dot Matrix $ 485/595

SB10 24 pin Head $ 549.00

PowerTypeDaisywheel S 309.00

Amdek

V300G 12" Green Monitor i 129.00

V310A 12" Amber IBM Monitor. . .5 159.00

C300 13" Color Composite S 199.00

C710 13" 720 x 480 Monitor. .. .5 589.00

COMPUTERS

Epson

Equity I Single Drive $ 799.00

Equity I Dual Drive 5 CALL

Equity I Floppy/Hard Drive $ CALL

Sperry

"IT" 512K, 44 mbyte Sperry Monitor, and keyboard $ 3995.00

Quadram

DataVue portable $ 1295.00

436 BYTE • IANUARY I986

Inquiry 52

FORTRON CORPORATION

3225 SELDOM COURT, FREMONT, CA 94538

INFORMATION & CALIF. RESIDENTS

(415) 490-8171

TLX: 559291 FORTRON FAX: [415] 490 9156

When choosing a POWER SUPPLY for your PC, XT. AT or Compatibles please consider this. . .

"All look-alike supplies come with some type of warranty, only Fortron's power supplies come with a guarantee backed by a full U.L. rating. Your PC represents a substantial investment, it does not make sense to risk costly downtime due to bargain power supplies, when for a few dollars more you can have the confidence of Fortron quality."

Trust in Fortron quality without compromise.

PC/XT

189""

PC/AT

FC 5192

[200 W. max.]

• Identical dimension & pin-out to IBM AT power supply

• Faraday type pin-out available

• W/4 drives connectors

• High air flow, low noise DC fan, 110/230 VAC convertible

• OCP, OVP, short circuit, thermostat protections

• U.L. recognition, one year warranty

FC 135-40 [140 W. max.] 129°°

• For upgrade IBM PC to XT same pin out, same dimension as IBM PC, XT

• or 8 pin output connectors for Faraday CPU board

• With 4 drives connectors

• Low noise DC fan, 110/230 VAC convertible

• Over current, over voltage, short circuit, thermostat protections

• U.L. recognition, one year warranty

FORTROIM-200

(200 W. Uninterruptible Power System for PC]

• 11SV/230V AC input convertible

• Input current 2.5 amp

• 200W continuous

• Vi cycle (typical) transfer time

• Hold-up time from 20 minutes (200W) up to 60 minutes (60W)

• 5.12" X 7.7" X 13.46"

ORDER TOLL FREE [800] 821-9771

INFORMATION S. IN CALIF. [415] 490-8171

Attractive Prices for Dealers/OEM's Please Call for Current Prices!

COMPUTER CHASSIS & KEYBOARD

FC 740 Multi-I/O Card

• 1 EIA-RS232C port. 2nd optional

• 1 Centronics port

• Clock/calendar

• Set/Retrieve clock program

• Game port

• Control 2 HalfHeight Floppy Drives

FC 230 Floppy Disk Controller

• Drives 4 X 5V4 " FDD

• IBM compatible

• w/cable

59°'

FC 630 A2

99°

IBM XT identical To use FC 135-40 power supply Side switch Complete mounting parts

FC330 Hard Disk Controller

• Up to 2 Hard Disk Drives

• Fully Buffered I/O Bus

• Built-in ECC

149°

FC 630 AT

139"

1

IBM AT identical Complete mounting hardware LED lamps, speaker optional

FC 640 Expansion Chassis 26900 Ext./Rcv.

Adaptor

179°°

Comes with 5 slot mother brd., 100 W. power supply, cooling fan

Three Vi height drive bracket

Dia. !Syj*xl2*x6!4*

Ext./Rev. Adaptor optional

FC 520 Color Graphic Monochrome/Printer

• TTL/composite level outputs

• 320x200 (color) 640 x 200 (B/W)

• Centronics printer port

• Printer port address selectable

• Light pen

FC940 RS232 /Real Time Clock

• To 9600 Baud

• Battery back-up

69°° 59°°

Clock only

FC 427

89°

IBM XT keyboard compatible Enlarged return key

Light and num. lock keys

FC 830 512K

Memory

Expansion

• From 64K to 512K

• Parity-checked memory for error detection

Low Low Cost for IBM PC, XT, AT Add-On Cards

FC 527

129°

IBM AT keyboard compatible Enlarged return shift key Capacitance low profile key switch

FC 730 AT Multifunction Card for PC-AT 249°°

• Game Port

• 2 EIA-RS232C port

• Centronics printer port

• 128K to 1.5MB memory using 64/256K DRAM

• Expandable to 3MB (optional)

• Spooler

• RAM disk

FC 930 RS232/ Parallel Port

• RS232 serial

• Parallel interface

79°'

FC 530

Monochrome/

Printer

• 8 x25 screen

• 7 x9 character

• TTL Level of output

99°

MONITORS H CABLES

550 (CT-60401

Monochrome/Graphic/

Printer

• 80 X 25 text mode

• 720x348 graphic mode

• Runs Lotus 1-2-3

• 64K Graphic Display Mem.

119°

DRIVES

FC 730 (CT-6050C] 384K Multifunctions

• Memory Expansion to 384K

• Clock/Calendar

• Serial, parallel interface

• Game port

129>»

w/Swivels

Hi-Res for IBM PC

109°

• Hard Disk Drive Cable (34p-34p) 198'

• Floppy Drive Cable 11"

• 9 pin D type to 25 pin

D type for PCAT 19°'

• Printer cable 25 DB to

> Centronics 1901

RS232 to RS232 cable 19"

• Power cord w/female socket 2°

TEAC

TEAC

55GV

55BV

1.2MB

360K

F.D.D.

F.D.D.

for

PC-AT

@9°°

13900

10MB H.D.D. 44900

20MB H.D.D. 559oo

(H.D.D. w/cable controller)

Internal Modem

179°°

Free PC-Talk Software 300/1200 baud Auto Busy Redial, Auto Answer

Dual phone jack plus RS232 port

RAM

CHIPS

64K .

...8°7 9 pes. ..33°7 9 pes. 128K 53/9 set

(for PC-AT)

256K.

RS232/ Printer Card for PC-AT

EIA RS232C port

Centronics parallel port

119°

PRINTER

93°° 59°7iopc.

• Thermo

• 80 character/ line

• Battery Back-up

• Centronics parallel interface

TERMS

• Min. shipping & handling $6.00.

Can be more for actual cost.

• CA. Res. add 6.5% tax.

• No return merchandise without a RMA No.

• Restocking charge 15%.

• Prices subject to change w/o notice.

Inquiry 396 for End-Users. Inquiry 397 for DEALERS ONLY.

JANUARY 1986 'BYTE 437

The Diversified Group

The DG PC Series computers offers the maximum alternatives in the PC XT compatible market. Alternatives which exceed current PC XT configurations.

Standard features on all DG PC Series computers include:

• Full compatibility with IBM PC XT® machines

• 640K bytes of parity checked memory, 8 slots

• 135 watt power supply • Keytronics 5151 compatible keyboard • 1 Full Year Warranty on Parts and Labor.

BASE UNIT

System Unit 640K on Board Two 360K Drives

w/Controller 135 Watt

Power Supply

$699.95

DG-PC

SYSTEM System Unit 640K on Board Two 360K Drives 135 watt pwr sply Hi-Res Green Mon w/lnterface Card

$847.95

XT

System Unit 640K on Board One 360K Drive 10Meg w/135 watt Monochrome Mon Monochrome Card

$1195.95

All DG Systems are lully IBM Compatible w/1 Year Warranty

DESKPRO

COMPAQ

286

IBM

Model I Model II Model III

$1724.95 2049.95 3549.95

Deskpro 286 Portable 286

$3295.95 3295.95

PORTABLE Two 360K Drives, 256K $1987.95

PORTABLE + DG One 360K Drive, 256K 10 Meg Hard Disk $2389.95

Some Compaqs have been Enhanced by The Diversified Group All Come with 1 Year Warranty through The Diversified Group

IBM PC

One 360K Dr, 256K $1489.95

Two 360K Dr, 256K 1592.95

IBM XT One 360K Drive & 10 Meg Drive $2231.95

IBM AT

Unenhanced $3395.95

Enhanced DG 3995.95

IBM SYSTEM

PC-XT with 10 Meg One 360K Drive, Hercules Color Compatible Card Hi-Res Green Monitor Dos 2.1

$2492.95

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 523-1041

INSIDE CALIFORNIA

(213) 675-0717

MAIL ORDERS TO: 8726 S. Sepulveda, Suite A132, Los Angeles, CA 90045

WAREHOUSE: 4732 Rosecrans, Hawthorne, CA 90250 IBM PC-XT Is a registered Trademark of International Business Machines

TERMS:

Visa, MC, Co. Check, Cashiers Check Wire Transler, P.O.'s Accepted Minimum Shipping S4.50.All Orders Insured No Surcharge on Credit Cards

438 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

They Say It - WE DO IT!

BEAT ALL COMPETITOR'S PRICES Call (800) 523-1041

rrmtPwl

SIEMANS 5W"

• Tandon Compatible • 360K Double Side/Double Density

2 tor $137.00

HARD DISK DRIVES

All Hard Disks Come With: 1 Yr. Warranty, Cables, Controller and are Formatted

QTY. 1 QTY. 5

$389.95 $379.95 489.95 469.95 789.95 779.95

10 Megabyte w/Controller 20 Megabyte w/Controller 30 Megabyte w/Controller

For 1/2 Height Drives add $50 Most Hard Disks are Shugart, Microsci, CMI, Rodine Call for Others

TAPE BACK-UP BY IRWIN

10 Meg Internal Vi Height,

Low Power $495.95 $485.95

10 Meg External Back-up 635.95 615.95

mn DISK DRIVES

For IBM COMPATIBLES

Teac 55B $ 84.95 $ 81.95

Epson 89.95 86.95

IBM "Logo" Drives 119.95 109.95

Tandon TM100-2 89.95 87.95

Slemans (Tandon Compatible) 69.95 69.95

DISK DRIVE CONTROLLERS

IBM (Original) Controller $ 99.95

IBM Compatible Controler 59.95 —

Western Digital Hard Disk Cont. 179.95

Adaptec Hard Disk Cont. 199.95 DG Hard Disk Cont. 139.95

I ■»'• • I. ■ 11 «J r » 1 1 Ml 1.1,11 tlllM

AST ADVANTAGE

• Comes with 1.5 Meg • Parallel Port • Serial Port

$497.95

AST SixPac+ w/OK 2 Yr War $219.95

MF-100 SixPac Compatible plus Gameport

Par., Ser.. Game, 0K-384K, Software

Clock Calendar, 2 Year Warranty $119.95

AST Advantage w/1.5 Megabyte of Memory

Parallel & Serial Ports $529.95

HAYES

1200B w/Smartcom II $356.95 1200 External $385.95 2400 External $599.95

PROMETHEUS

Pro 1200 Ex. $289.95 Pro 1200B Int. $309.95

OKIDATA ML193P

h

• 160 cps • 15" Carriage • w/Correspondence Quality • Similar to Epson FX100

$539.95

LETTER QUALM - DOT MATRIX

OKIDATA

ML182P, 120 cps, Parallel

$229.95

ML182S, 120 cps, Serial

309.95

ML192P, 160 cps, W/NL0

339.95

ML192S, 160 cps, Serial

439.95

ML193P, 15" Carriage, 160 cps, w/NLQ

539.95

ML193S, 15" Carriage, 160 cps, Serial

639.95

ML84P, 15" Carriage, 200 cps

749.95

ML84S, 15" Carriage, 200 cps, Serial

859.95

EPSON — Call for Availability

We also carry Juki, Dynax, Toshiba, Star, Panasonic, NEC, Brother We Will Also Beat All Competitors Prices on These Too.

HERCULES COMPATIBLE

Color Graphics w/Parallel Port 2 Yr. War. Monochrome Graphics w/Par Port

EVEREX

The Edge Color/Mono Graphics Edge

IBM

IBM Monochrome w/Parallel Port IBM Color Card w/Parallel Port

PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card

SIGMA

Color 490 Board

$104.95 119.95

$289.95 289.95

$219.95 214.95

$259.95

MEMORY

64K SETS*

All Upgrades Carry a 2 tear Warranty Nine 4164, 200ns $7.95 50 Sets $6.54 ea. 150ns Sets $8.00

'Due to Semi Conductor Market Call lor Current Prices

128K SETS 256K SETS

Nine, 4128 $39.95 9,41256, 200ns $28.95

25 Sets 32.95 ea. 25 Sets 27.95 ea.

80287

5MHZ for AT & Deskpro $189.95

8087-3 8087-2

5MHZ Math Co-Processor 8MHZ Math Co-Processor lor IBMPC for ATsT, Compaq, Deskpro

$109.95 $124.95

AMDEK COLOR COMPOSITE

• Works w/IBM Apple and Commodore

$159.95

AMDEK

300G Composite Green $124.95

300A Composite Amber 134.95

310A Monochrome Amber 159.95

TAXAN

Call For Lowest Prices

SAKATA

SC-100 Color Composite 13" 280x300 $179.95 SC-150 Color Composite or RGB 640 x 200

w/Text Switch 379.95

SC-200, 640x240 Dot Pitch .39 399.95

SC-300P, 800x400 Dot Pitch .31 599.95

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX12, 640x200 Dot Pitch .31 HX12E, 640x350 Dot Pitch .28 SR12, 640x400 Dot Pitch .31 SR12P, 640x480 Dot Pitch .26 HX-9, 640x350 Dot Pitch .28 MAX12E, 720x350

$442.95 517.95 573.95 787.95 432.95 169.95

DIVERSIFIED GROUP

100 Hi-Res Green 18MHZ Composit 80 col. $ 79.95 100 Hi-Res Amber 18MHZ Compos. 80 col. 89.95 200 Hi-Res Green 20MHZ Mono. 80 col. 89.95 200 Hi-Res Amber 20MHZ Mono. 80 col. 99.95 DG Monitors come with 1 Year Warranty

8r"r7^5""Tirzr"r3"'i!Vi7rT3"jS

si i ■ 11, i m:i ri ri *,m n i n » i «*s m

51A" POLAROID DISKS

• 10 Diskettes • Reinforced Hub • w/Free Library Case

$12.95

A-B SWITCH BOXES

Parallel 2 pos. $54.95 Serial 2 pos. $64.95

DISKETTES

Polaroid Dbl/Obl 5 Year Warranty 1 bx. $12.95 10 bxs. $11.95 100 bxs. $9.95

KEYTRONICS KEYBOARDS

5153 Touch Pad $289.95 5150 Standard $169.95 5151 Deluxe $179.95

BELKIN CABLES

6 foot Shielded IBMPC to Par. $14.95 IBMPC to Modem $16.95

The Diversified PtROiip

Inquiry 428

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 523-1041

INSIDE CALIFORNIA

(213) 675-0717

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 439

PRODUCTS

Sampler (J35) on<J/or

Professional Systems {from 1175) for... Apple ProOos

Amiga

Micro VAX

Macintosh IBM PC/AT

fffC fa/con

UNIFORTH 15 a fuJhfeaturtd, floating-point, FOHTH-83 Standard language available for most micro and mini compulers

Call or write lor our free catalog or use our Bulletin Board (614-459-7736, 300/1200 Baud) lor more detailed Information.

UNIFIED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS ) 80x21294, Columbus, OH 43221 -0294 (614)459-7735

Inquiry 367

VT100$150

* plus your PC, jr, XT, AT or compatible

ZSTEMpc-VT100 Smart Terminal Emulator

132-col. by windowing - no addit. hardware

Double High Double Wide Characters Full VT100 line graphics. Smooth scrolling 2-way tile transfers incl. XMODEM and KERMIT Full keyboard softkeys/MACROS Speeds to 38.4KB. High Throughput Color/graphics, monochrome & EGA support International Font Support • DOS Access ZSTEMpc-VT100 $150. ZSTEMpc-D200 $125. 4010/4014 Option $99 30 day money back guarantee. MC/VISA.

KEA SYSTEMS LTD.

#412 - 2150 W. Broadway Vancouver, B.C. CANADA V6K 4L9 Support (604) 732-7411 TELEX 04-352858 VCR

Order Toll Free (800) 663-8702

by

l(TcA

BUKOWSKI ROBOTICS

L

APPLE I I Tn I/O

ROBOT IC CONTROLLER

HE KNEU THE TRUE ENTHUSIAST WOULD FIND THIS ARTICLE URV BACK HERE IN THE BACK OF BVTE

THE BUKOHSKI ROBOTICS UIP CRRO IS R LOW COST APPLE COtlPAT IBLE ROBOTICS CONTROLLER CARD THAT MAV BE USED STAND ALONE. OR IN AN APPLE SLOT AS AN INTELLIGENT PERIPHERAL CARD THE CHAD FERTURES RN DNBOAAD 65C02 NICAOPAOCESSDR, UP TO 48 I/O LINES, 2 TIMERS, RND 8K NON UOLRTILE Rfltl SHIPPED UITH TONS OF SOFTURRE RND SUPPORT $129 00

BUKOUSKI ROBOTICS 1555 U UNIUEASITV "105 IENPE A2 852BI <602> 956-6230

Inquiry 426

PC EXPANSIONS

AST SixPakPlus (64k) $229

SixPakPlus (384k) $259

MegaPlus(64k) $269

Advantage (128k) $409

Advantage (1.5 M) $569

I/O Plus $129

PCnet - starter kit $809

Quadboard (64 k) $193

Quadboard (384k) $229

Quadmeg-AT(128k) $319

Quadmeg-AT (2M) $529

Quadport-AT. $105

HERCULES graphics board $319

Color Card with PP $159

HAYES Modems: 2400 $call

Smartmodem 1200 $409

Smartmodem 1200B $379

Set of 9 chips (64k) $6

256k chips (each) $3

8087 chip $119

Maynard Disk Controller $100

Sandstar Series $call

Internal Hard Disks from $609

MaynStreamtapebackupfrom... $979

Qume 142A $99

Teac FD55B $99

Tandon TM100-2 $109

CDC 9409 $119

Verbatim Datalife disks (10) $20

VLM Computer Electronics

10 Park Place • Morristown. NJ 07960 (201) 267-3268 Visa, MC, Check or COD.

Software for Engineers

Electronic Circuit Analysis

• Nonlinear transient, DC, AC analysis

• Worst Case, Monte-Carlo

• Frequency, time dependent parts $450,

Logic Simulation System

• Full delay analysis

(min, max, typical, load dependent)

• Ability to save simulation results $395.

Both have:

• Built in editor, fully interactive

• Macros (unlimited)

• Large circuits

For MS-DOS, 192k minimum

Tatum Labs 33 Main Street Newtown, CT 06470 (203) 426-2184

Inquiry 427

Serial 4 1111111111 Parallel

2>

Convert What You Have To What You Want I

' RS232 Serial * 8 Baud Rates ' Latched Outputs

• Centronics Parallel ' Handshake Signals

* Compact 2>/t x 4% x 1!i

No longer will your peripheral choices be limited by the type ot port you have available! Our new High Performance 700 Series Converters provide the missing link. Based on the latest In CMOS technology, these units feature full baud rate selection to 19.2K, with handshake signals to maximize transfer efficiency. Detailed documentation allows simplified Installation. Order the Model 770 (Ser/Par) or Model 775 (Par/Ser) Today!

oniy(89.9!

2734-C Johnson Dr. Post Office Box 3717 Ventura, Calilornia 93006

Connector Option J10.00 CA Residents 6% tax UPS 5lilpplno 53.00

CALL (805) 658-7466 or 658-7467 Wi For FAST Delivery J

Inquiry 393

Inquiry 353

DATA ACQUISITION

and control for ANY computer

The Model 1232 communicates via RS-232, and has 8 analog inputs (±4 VDC; 12 bits), 8 digital inputs and outputs, and a 2000 point buffer. Suitable for field data logging or lab use, the 1232 costs only $690. The 8-bit system (0-5 VDC) is $490. Detailed manual, $6. Phone our applications engineer at 617-237-5514 or write:

2 Mica Lane, Wellesley, MA 02181

TIME SAVING - MONEY SAVING

PRINTER BUFFER

SPOOL-Z-Q PLUS

SPOOL-Z-Q PLUS is .1 parallel |irinh'i liulter which works wilh any parallel prime/ ,md frees up your computet foi productive use while priming, Wry high capacity U2BK to 512K1 and full lime space and null character compression means thai Spool-Z-Q Plus is ready to lake on the really Inn (obs. A special Pause-nnFormieed feature allows printing single sheets (ram Ihe buffer Spool-Z-Q Plus also has Cop,'. Clear, and Self-Ten functions buill in. Supplied complete with UL/CSA listed power supply, tin' Spool-Z-Q Plus buffer is easy (O install and use All models are user expandable to 5I2K at any lime 1>y |ust plugging in standard J5ftK RAM c hips. Spool-Z-Q Plus is the professional's choice, for size, features, and price.

(Without Cable) 128K-S279 25ftK-$309 512K-$369 (Including Cable) 12BK-$309 256K-S339 512K-$399 SPOOL-Z-Q BLUE PLUG IN PRINTER BUFFER FOR THE IBM PC and compatible computers IS A GENUINE IIAKDWARE PRINTER BUFFER, NOT A SPOOLER. Parallel only and Serial/Parallel models available. VUirks with any software and does nut use any of (he computer's memory. Sizes from 256K to 1.0Z4K are available Spool-Z-Q Blue replaces the parallel primer card in the PC [May be LPTI. 2, ot J). Many, many advanced leatuies. Call or write lor lull details. Prices start at {Parallel only) and $199 [Serial capable).

orde

lable from dealers or direct Irom us. \U- accept M/C. VISA, AM EX or COD charge for shipping m COD. 15 day inal period Inohassle refund all products. CA residents - 6% lax.

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED.

O.E.M.s - We can modify our 1601 Fulton Ave.,Suite 10A

buffets lo meet your special Sacramento, CA 95825

requirements. (916) 483-0709

Maxell Floppy Disks

The Mini-Disks with maximum quality.

maxell

1

/TlD2

M.

II

11

I

Dealer inquiries invited. C.O.D's accepted. Call FREE (800) 235-4137.

C*2

PACIFIC EXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd.. San Luis San Luis Obispo. CA 93401. InCal. call (800) 592-5935 or (805)543-1037.

Inquiry 337

Inquiry 189

Inquiry 272

TAKE THE D & D CHALLENGE! CAN YOU FIND A BETTER PRICE?

SPECIAL #1

CORONA PORTABLE

• 256K • 2 Drives • Monitor • Keyboard • DOS

$1195

All Sales Are Warranteed for 90 Days, Parts & Labor

WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL!

MAIL ORDER AND SAVE

ORDER TOLL FREE (800) 621-0849 ext. 446

SPECIAL #2

IBM XT 256K

• One 360K Drive • One 20 MG Hard Disk • Keyboard • Controllers

$2295

SYSTEMS

IBM

PC 256K, 1 Drive $1495

PC 256K, 2 Drives 1529

XT 256K, 1 Drive 1879

XT 256K, 1 Drive 1-10 MG 2229

AT & T

Call for best price

COMPAQ

Portable, 2 Drives, 256K . .$1875 Call on Desk Pro's

CORONA

Portable $1195

Desk Top, 2 Drives, 256K w/monitor 1399

ZENITH

Call for best price

MODEMS

HAYES

Micromodem HE $149

300 149

1200 389

1200B IBM Internal 359

2400 External 639

PROMETHEUS

Promodem 1200 $279

Promodem 1200A 289

Promodem 1200B 269

Promodem 1200MAC Call

ANCHOR

Express $219

PRINTERS

EPSON

Call for Best Pricing

OKIDATA

182, 120 cps $218

183, 120 cps 418

192, 160 cps, IBM 348

193, 160 cps, IBM 498

84, 200 cps, IBM 658

OKI-MATE 20, Color 118

TOSHIBA

P1351 Call

P1340 $ 519

P351 1029

STARMICRONICS

SG10/15 $219/389

SD10/15 355/469

SR10/15 Call

CITIZEN

MSP-10 $249

MSP-15 369

MSP-20 399

MSP-25 539

DISKETTES

Call for quantity discounts

PRECISION COPY

SS 100 (Box of 10) $12

DS 100 (Box of 10 15

DYSAN

SS 100 (Box of 10 $30

DS 100 (Box of 10) 34

MAJOR BRAND DS/DD

Bulk Disks as low as

.69C ea.

IBM EXTRAS

We carry almost everything for PC, AT or XT Name Brands or Generic

AST RESEARCH

PC Net II $519

SixPak+ , 64K w/Side Kick . 209

Reach wCrosstalk 329

Preview Mono Card 239

Advantage wl28K 399

D & D MEMORY CARD

MF-100 + , 64K same as SixPak+ $119

HERCULES

Color Card w/Printer Port . .$149 Mono Graphics Card 305

GOODIES

IBM Printer Cable $15

64K Ram Set of Nine Chips . 8 256K Ram Set of Nine Chips 29

Power Supply 135 Watts 79

8087 Coprocessor Call for Best Price

DOS 2.1 55

DOS 3.1 64

MONITORS

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

Max 12E $159

HX-9 Call

HX-12 429

SR-12 569

Doubler Card 179

THOMSON

Color Monitor $329

Monochrome Monitor 169

310A 600. . 722. .

AMDEK

.$148 . 419 . 525

DRIVES

IBM COMPATIBLE

Teac 55B $90

Mitsubishi 4851 89

Tandon TM 100-2 89

In quantities of 2 or more

TEAC

55B, 360K $ 94

55GF, 1.2MG for AT 149

WELTEC

AT Compatible 360K $109

IRWIN

10 MG Tape Backup $479

100% APPLE COMPATIBLE 5Vi"

525A for He and 11+ $109

525C for He 119

350M for Mac Call

BUILD YOUR OWN P.C.

640K Mother Board

w/8 Slots $179

Flip Top Case w/speaker... 59

Disk Controller 49

Color Card 99

Monochrome Card 129

5151 Keyboard 99

Dual Drive Kit 189

135 Wart Power Supply .... 79

WE OFFER VOLUME DISCOUNTS! MAKE THAT CALL (800) 621-0849 ext. 446

SPECIAL #4 I

MULTIFUNC. CARD FOR IBM I

• Serial and Parallel Ports • Clock/Gameport • Ram disk/ Printer spool. Software • 1 yr. War. I

SPECIAL #3

IBM PC

• Two Vz Ht 360K Drives 256K • 10 MG Hard Disk Drive • 120 Day Warranty

$1929

SPECIAL #5

INTERNAL HARD DISK FOR IBM

• Seagate w/IBM Controller 10 Meg 20 Meg

w/384K only $139 | $419 $519

SPECIAL #6

IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE

• Two 360K 1/2 Ht Drives • 256K • 8 Slots • 135 Watts • 120 Day Warranty

$569

&6

Discount Computet/

SELLING TO YOU SINCE 1978

MAIL ORDER:

13324 HAWTHORNE BLVD., SUITE 201 HAWTHORNE, CA 90250

ORDER DESK:

Inside California (213) 970-0206

Outside California (800) 621-0849 X446

Hours: Monday—Friday 8 am to 6 pm Open Saturdays

WE CARRY TOO MANY ITEMS TO LIST, PLEASE CALL FOR A QUOTE ON ANY ITEM.

No Surcharge for Credit Cards Terms:All merchandise new. We accept MC. Visa. Wire Transfer, C.O.D. (call), Certified Check, P.O.'s from qualified firms. Shipping: minimum $4.00 first 5 pounds. Tax: California residents only add 6'/2% sales tax. All returns subject to 15% restock fee. Prices Subject to Change.

Inquiry 98

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 441

KODAK DISKETTES:

Discover the future today!

M

6i»

N

^Kodak

D4*kattM

N

KODAK. THE NAME SAYS IT ALL.

Take a Century of experience in coating products like photo film, add two brandnew state-of-the-art plants for manufacturing diskettes and you have something new: KODAK diskettes, a taste of the future.

Kodak spends more than three million dollars a day in research and development. They have more than 120,000 employees and manufacture and market more than 30,000 products.

But George Eastman said it best:

George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak and the man who made it possible for everyone to have a family album expressed Kodak's philosophy almost a century ago: make "good goods!"

That's why we're so pleased to add KODAK diskettes to our line.

Great quality, great value!

For those of you who want a "brand name" diskette with top-of-the-line quality... without paying through the nose, the choice is simple: KODAK.

Of course, there's a LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Except as noted, all KODAK diskettes are packed in boxes of ten with Tyvec sleeves, user ID labels and write-protect tabs. Bulk packed diskettes are labelled as KODAK diskettes and are packed in 4 bundles of 25 diskettes with Tyvec sleeves, user ID labels and write-protect tabs.

Qty. Qty. Qty. 20-40 60+ 100

5.25" SSDD $1.11 ea. $1.01 ea.

5.25" DSDD. . . $1.46 ea. $1.33 ea. 5.25"DSDD-HD $3.47 ea. $3.15 ea.

3.5" KODAK DISKETTES 3.50" SSDD. $2.06 ea. $1.87 ea. 3.50" DSDD.. . $2.73 ea. $2.48 ea.

KODAK LABELLED

BULK DISKETTES

5.25" SSDD in package of 100 $ .93

5.25" DSDD in package of 100 $1.24

for orders only: information & 1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140 HOURS: 8AM-5PM Central Time, Monday-Friday WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!. Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmetle. Illinois 60091

FANTASTIC LOW PRICES ON

^ BASF ~

Cffl QUALIMETRIC fe DISKETTES!

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Now, the lowest

Buy in bulk and save. 150 lo the carton with envelopes, writeprotect tabs and user ID labels. Boxed product is the same, except in cardboard boxes ot 10.

Qty. 50

5.25" SSDD .83 ea.

5.25" DSDD .94 ea.

5.25"DSDD-HD 2.13 ea.

5.25-SSDD-96TPI .94 ea.

5.25"DSDD-96TPI 1.06 ea.

3.50 SSDD-135TPI 1 84 ea.

3.50DSDO-135TPI 2.40 ea.

NOTE: 3.50" diskettes in Quantity 50 are packed in plastic library cases. That's why they seem to be a belter buy. But there are only 5 diskettes to a case...so the bulk diskettes are really a better deal, unless you like expensive little library cases.

for orders only: information & 1-800-621-6827 inquiries: (In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-3 1 2-256-7 1 40 HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time. Monday-Friday WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

Qty. 150

.80 ea. .92 ea. N/A N/A N/A 1 68ea. 2.28 ea.

IC U Authorized Reseller

■MwW Information Processing ~ RAQF

WORLD!"*"*

DISK WORLD!

Ordering & Shipping Instructions

Shipping: 5'/<" & 3.5" DISKETTES—Add $3.00 per each 100 or fewer diskettes. Other Items: Add shipping charges as shown in addition to other shipping charges. Payment: VISA and MASTERCARD accepted. COD Orders: Add additional $5.00Special Handling charge. AP0, FP0, AK, HI & PR Orders: Include shipping charges as shown and additional 5% of total order amount to cover PAL and insurance. Taxes: Illinois residents only, add 7% sales tax.

Prices subject to change without notice.

This ad supercedes all other ads Not responsible for typographical errors. MINIMUM TOTAL ORDER: $35.00

INFORMATION & INQUIRIES:

1-312-256-7140

FOR ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140)

HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time Monday-Friday WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!. Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISK WORLD!

50

ATHANA

DISKETTES The great unknown!

fine5 ssdd

UUQ,y 5° 51*'DSDD ~ I t Q'V

You've used these diskettes hundreds of times...as copy-protected originals on some of the most popular software packages. They're packed in poly-bags of 25 with Tyvek sleeves, reinforced hubs, user identification labels and write-protect tabs.

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

SOFT SECTOR ONLY! Sold in multiples of 50 only. for orders only: information & 1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-3 12-256-7 140 HOURS': 8 AM-6PM Central Time. Monday-Friday WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES! DISK WORLD!, Inc. 629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISK WORLD!

. ATHANA Authorized Distributor MAGNETIC MEDIA

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

All 3M diskettes are factory packed in boxes of 10 and come with Tyvec sleeves, user ID labels and write-protect tabs.

5.25" SSDD

5.25" DSDD

5.25" SSDD-96TPI

5.25" DSDD

5.25" DSDD-HD

3.50" SSDD

350" DSDD

Qty. 20-40

$1.20 ea. $1.70 ea. $2.18 ea. $2.73 ea. $3.45 ea. S2.18 ea $3.09 ea.

Qty. 50 +

$1.09 ea. $1.54 ea. $1.98 ea. $2.48 ea. $3.14 ea. S1.98 ea. $2.81 ea.

3M DATA CARTRIDGES

(Sold 10 to a carton only.) (Add $5.00 shipping charges for cartridges!) DC1000 $12.43 ea.

DC300XLP $19.09 ea.

DC600A $20.30 ea.

PRINTER RIBBONS:

at

extraordinary prices!

Brand new ribbons, manufactured to Original Equipment Manufacturer's specifications, in housings. (Not re-inked or spools only.)

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Epson MX-70/80 .. $2.70 ea. + 25C Shpng. Epson MX-100 .... $4.08 ea. + 25t Shpng. Okidata Micro83.. $1.37 ea. + 25t Shpng. Okidata Micro84.. $2.98 ea. + 25e Shpng. for orders only: information & 1-800-621-6827 , inquiries(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-3 1 2-256-7 140 HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES! DISK WORLD!, Inc. 629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISK WORLD!

DISKETTE STORAGE CASES

AMARAY MEDIA-MATE 50: A REVOLUTION ^| IN DISKETTE STORAGE

^^^L . Every once in a while, someone takes the

KM, simple and makes it elegant! This unit holds ■k ' 50 5«" diskettes, has grooves for easy stacking, inside nipples to keep diskettes from slipping and severa1 other features. We like it! CO KQ * *2 00

OCJ.Utl ea. Shpng

DISKETTE 70 STORAGE: STILL A GREAT BUY.

S^^Mf Oust-free storage for 70 514" diskettes. Six dividers included. An excellent * VDISK CADDIES $9-95 Sh^ \ ^* The original flip-up holder for 10 5%" ^^Oiskettes. Beige or grey only. J-j gg i 20c Shpng

for orders only: information & 1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-3 1 2-256-71 40 HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time. Monday-Friday WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES! DISK WORLD!, Inc. 629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

DISK WORLD!

442 BYTE' JANUARY I986

Inquiry 109

What the world really needs is a 69 cent Double Sided, Double Density Diskette with a LIFETIME WARRANTY!

And DISK WORLD! has it.

Introducing Super Star Diskettes: the high quality diskette with the lowest price and the best LIFETIME WARRANTY!

In the course of selling more than a million diskettes every month, we've learned something: higher prices don't necessarily mean higher quality.

In fact, we've found that a good diskette manufacturer simply manufactures a good diskette...no matter what they charge for it. (By way of example, consider that none of the brands that we carry has a return rate of greater than 1/1 000th of 1 percent!)

In other words, when people buy a more expensive diskette, they aren't necessarily buying higher quality.

The extra money might be going toward flashier advertising, snazzier packaging or simply higher profits.

But the extra money in a higher price isn'l buying better quality.

All of the good manufacturers put out a good diskette. Period.

How to cut diskette prices .. .without cutting quality.

Now this discovery posed a dilemma: how to cut the price of diskettes without lowering the quality.

There are about 85 companies claiming to be "diskette" manufacturers.

Trouble is. most of them aren't manufacturers.

Rather they are fabricators or marketers, taking other company 's components, possibly doing one or more steps of the processing themselves and pasting their labels on the linished product.

The new IBM diskettes, for example, are one of these. So are IBM 5Vi" diskettes. Same for DYSAN. Polaroid and many, many other familiar diskette brand names. Each of these diskettes is manufactured in whole or in part by another company!

So. we decided to act just like the big guys. That's how we would cut diskette prices...without lowering the quality.

We would go out and find smaller companies to manufacture a diskette to our specifications...specifications which are higher than most...and simply create our own "name brand" diskette.

Name brand diskettes that offered high quality at low prices.

i

FRAUD ALERT!

Please be careful!

A lot of the "no-name" diskettes flooding the market at prices of less than $1.00 are what we in the industry call "floor sweepings."

In other words, they're garbage...stuff that six months ago, no self-respecting manufacturer would have sold.

But times got tough and some people's scruples got a little lost in desperation... and so a lot of computer users are getting some really bad disks...and that isn't bargain at all.

So, when the price seems too good to be \true...like 39 cents, be careful...very careful! J

HOURS:

Human: 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday through Friday

Super Star diskettes are sold in multiples of 50 only. Diskettes are shipped with white Tyvec sleeves, reinforced hubs, user ID labels and write-protect tabs.

Boy, did we get lucky. Our Super Star Diskettes are the same ones you've been using for years.. .without knowing it.

In our search for the low priced, high quality diskette of our dreams, we found something even more interesting.'

We found that there are several manufacturers who don't give a hoot about the consumer market for their diskettes. They don't spend millions of dollars in advertising trying to get you. the computer user, to use their diskettes.

Instead, they concentrate their efforts on turning out the highest quality diskettes they can...because they sell them to the software publishers, computer manufacturers and other folks who (in turn) put their name on them.. .and sell them for much higher prices to you!

After all. when a software publisher or computer manufacturer or diskette marketer puts their name on a diskette, they want it to work time after time, everytime. (Especially software publishers whp have the nasty habit of copyprotecting their originals!)

HOW TO ORDER:

ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827 (In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) INQUIRIES:

1-312-256-7140 FOR FASTEST SERVICE, OSE NO-COST MCI MAIL: Our address is DISKORDER. It's a FREE MCI MAIL letter. No charge to you. (Situation permitting, we ll ship these orders in 24 hours or less.)

SHIPPING: 5'/<- & 3W DISKETTES—Add $3 00 per each 100 or lewer diskettes. OTHER ITEMS: Add shipping charges as shown in addition lo other shipping charges. PAYMENT: VISA. MASTERCARD and Prepaid orders accepted. COD ORDERS: Add additional $5.00 special handling charge. APO, FPO. AK. HI & PR ORDERS: Include shipping charges as shown and additional 5% of total order amount to cover PAL and insurance. We ship only to United States addresses, except tor those listed above. TAXES: Illinois residents, add 7% sales tax

MINIMUM ORDER: S35.00.

Super Star Diskettes. You already know how good they are. Now you can buy them...cheap.

Well, that's the story.

Super Star diskettes don't roll off the boat from PagoPago or emerge from a basement plant just east of Nowhere.

Super Star diskettes have been around for years. ..and you've used them for years as copy-protected software originals, unprotected originals. Sometimes, depending on which computer you own, the system master may have been on a Super Star diskette. And maybe more than once, you've bought a box or two or more of Super Star diskettes without knowing it. They just had some "big" company's name on them.

Super Star Diskettes are good. So good that a lot of major software publishers, computer manufacturers and other diskette marketers buy them in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

We buy them in the millions.

And than we sell them to you.

Cheap.

When every little bit counts, it's Super Star Diskettes.

You've used them a hundred times...under different names.

Now, you can buy the real McCoy, the same diskette that major software publishers, computer manufacturers and diskette marketers buy...and call their own.

We simply charge less.

Super Special!

Store 75 diskettes for only $5.95!

Yep. that's right: order 50 Super Star diskettes, add $5.95 and we'll include a Media Products DISK MINDER II...a well made unit that we're impressed with.

It holds 75 diskettes securely and looks nice too!

The Super Star LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Super Star Diskettes are unconditionally warranted against defects in original material and workmanship so long as owned by the original purchaser. Returns are simple: just send the defective diskettes with proof of purchase, postage-paid by you with a short explanation of the problem, and we'll send you the replacements. (Incidentally, coffee stained diskettes and diskettes with staples driven through them don't qualify as "defective".)

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY

ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND OUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

DISK WORLD!, INC.

629 Green Bay Road Wilmette, Illinois 60091

Inquiry 109

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 443

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ORDERS 800-528-3138

TECH. SALES/CUST. SERVICE 602-991-7870

Computer Systems

VIASYN 816/286-H40 W/256K SPUZ & .5MDrv/H. $$SPECIAL... TOO LOW TO ADVERTISE!!!

VIASYN 816/C2 wl 80286, 512K RAM, SPUZ-256. 40Mb H.D.. 10Mb Tape, 5'/." 96TPI FLPY, CDOS 816/286,

NewWord & Supercalc II REDUCEDII $6,779

VIASYN CORE SYSTEM W/256K RAM, l/F-4. Syst. Supp. 1, ENCL. 2D, Disk 1A, Disk 3, 5'A" FLPY. & 10Mb H.D. Add Your Choice ol CPU & Oper. Sys.... $3,949

VIASYN 816I10-H40 w/Tape & 1Mb MDrv $6,377

CALL POR OTHER SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS MORROW PIVOT II Portable CALL

data systems

PC COMPATIBLE & FASTER TOO!

ZENITH Z-J58 PC-DESK TOP SYSTEM:256K RAM, 2 DSDD FLPY DRIVES, Serial. Paral. Monochrome & Color Composite & RGB Color Ports. & MS-DOS w/4.77 & 8 MHZ CPU Clock Rales. G or A Monitor... $1,895

Z158 Wl 2 FLPY 4 20Mb H.D. DRVS. $2,459

Z158 Wl 2 FLPY & 40Mb H.D. DRVS $2,798

<k HT 10Mb TAPE OPTION $425

Z-148 PC W/256K. 2 FLPYS, MS-DOS, 4.77 & 8MHz.

Serial & Parallel Ports, Amber Monitor $1,219

Z-138 PC TRANSPORTABLE24 Lbs, 320K, Dual FLPYS, 7" Amber Screen, MS-DOS, 4.77 & 8MHz, Serial &

Parallel Ports $1,499

Z-171 Lap-Top Portable. Dual Drvs., 640K, MS-DOS Battery, Padded Carrying Case. Video RGB & CMPST.. Hayes Compatible 300/1200 Baud Modem .... $2,739

^ A ATARI'

Power Without the Price"

"JACKINTOSCH

520 ST FREE PRINTER!

COLOR SYSTEM 32/16 BIT 68000 CPU. 512K RAM. 500K DRIVE. 4 COLOR GRAPHICS 640X200 RES., MENU DU MOUSE. TOS. BASIC & LOGO SOFTWARE. MUSIC GENERATOR, PARA., SERIAL & JOYSTICK PORTS, CLOCK & TERMINAL EMULATOR $999.95 JACKINTOSCH 520ST Monochrome 640x400 $799.95 ATARI COMMUNICATIONS PACKAGE BY S-100: PROMETHEUS 1200 MODEM, CABLE, & CHAT SOFTWARE RETAILS FOR $545, NOW $329

Diagnostic-Keyboards-Voice

DATACOM TRI-STA TE RS232 V.24 Break-out Box$189

DYSAN DISK DRIVE INTERROGATOR $115

DYSAN DDD Digital Diagnostic Disk . SS $30,DS $40 DYSAN AAD Analog Alignment Disk.. SS S25.DS $50 RID DYMEK FLPY DRV. DIAGNOSTIC DISKETTE $29

FLUKE 77 DVM with Holster $129

KEYTRONICS 5150/5151/5153 $169/$179/$299

VOTRAX PERSONAL SPEECH SYSTEM $295

Floppy Disk Drives

MITSUBISHI 2894 STD / 2896 V, HT 8" .... $395/$369 MITSUBISHI 4853 / TEAC FD55F 96TPI .... $119/$99

TANDON TM 100-2A $115

TEAC FD55B & MITSUBISHI 485/ 48 TPI $88

Computer Accessories

CA PI5 Expandable 5 Circuit Monitor Base with Modem

Protection & Surge/Noise $99

CA P150,P151,P152,P1S with ABC Data Switch .. $209 CA C1-6 6' IBM-Paral. CBL . . .(1-9) $9.50, (10+) $8.80 CA C1-9 9' IBM-Paral. CBL (1-9) $11.95, (10+) $11.00 CA C200 SERIES Premium Molded RS232 Cables ....

(1-9) $18.98 TO $28.47, (10+) $11.86 TO $27.05

CA C300 SERIES Premium Molded Parallel Cables ...

(1-9) $19.98 TO $45.57, (10+) $18.98 TO $43.29

CA C400 VIDEO CABLES

(1-9) $2.48 TO $21.29, (10+) $2.36 TO $18.10

CA C500 SERIES Cable Extender Packs w/ MON. PWR, VIDEO & KEYBD. CBLS ... (1-9) $29.98, (10+) $28.48 CA S4 4 Circuit Surge Supp.(1-9) $26.47, (10+)$25.15

CA S6 6 Circuits Surge & Cable Storage

(1-9) $31.77, (10+) $30.18

Monitor Tilt & Swivel Stand ..(1-9) $12.95, (10+) $10.95

Hard Disk/Tape Subsystems

AT-INSIDER, PC-INSIDER. PC-OUTSIDER HARD DISK SERIES FOR IBM, BOOTS FROM HARD DISK, FORMATTED Wl CONTROLLER & ALL NECESSARY CABLES. HARDWARE & PIS or PC STYLE CABINET.

PC-INSIDER-33 33Mb Formatted $929

PC-OUTSIDER-33 W/T 33Mb & 10Mb Tape . . . $1,599

PC-INSIDER-72 72Mb Formatted $2,385

PC-OUTSIDER-72 W/T 72Mb & 60Mb Tape . .. $3,166

PC-INSIDER-116 116Mb Formatted $4,175

PC-OUTSIDER-116 W/T 116Mb & 60Mb Tape . $5,415

AT-INSIDER-33 33Mb Formatted $995

AT-INSIDER-66 66Mb Formatted $1,649

AT-INSIDER-120 120Mb Formatted $3,895

TECMAR OIC60 TAPE For PC'S $1,299

TECMAR O/C60 HOST l/F Board $109

WANGTEK PC-36 60Mb TAPE Internal Same As

TECMAR $1,199

CALL For DLR &/or QTY. PRICES on HARD DISKS: OUflflTUfn 0540 40Mb REDUCEDII $1,138

•ubishi Mapdor Seagate

)PnLIS MiniScribe Amcodyne

■EMS Supporting Turbodos. 7M 80 & 816 Operating SystemsCALL

DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS FOR COMPUPRO:

w/ DISK 3, CABINET P/S, FAN CABLES, ETC

»20Mb EPSON, SEAGATE, ETC $1,139

•37Mb QUANTUM Q540 $1,825

•45Mb MICROPOLIS 1304 $2,179

• 72Mb XT-1085 or 1325 $2,295

•89Mb MAXTOR XT-1105 $3,695

• 116Mb MAXTOR XT-1140 $4,395

10Mb TAPE ICompuPro or PC) INT/EXT. . . $498/$598

ALLOY PC-BACKUP 17.7Mb TAPE $1,729

ALLOY PC-QICTAPE Up to 69Mb $1,799

ALLOY PC-9TRACK 42Mb $4,995

ALLOY ITS-100+ 9TRACK 42Mb/S-100 $4,995

ALLOY IDXCS-100T 17.7Mb Tape Subsystem . $1,719

Mainframe & Drive Enclosures

ECT RM-10 Rack Card Cage 10 Slol-15A $250

ECT 77-10 Desk 10 Slot - 15 AMP $365

FULCRUM 8S0 with Front Panel & 20 Slots $565

INTEGRAND 2200A w/4 Slots & 2 X 8" V,HT FLPYS349 INTEGRAND 2210 w/4 Slots & 5V4" FLPY + H.D. . $315 INTEGRAND Laser Turbo 10 Slots. 2 H.D. 5V4" .. S498

PARA DYNAMICS 3020D 20 Slot Desk S639

INTEGRAND 2909 2X8" V4 HT Horiz. Stack $189

JMR IH5 5'A" H.D. PC Style Cabinet $189

JMR 2SV8 Dual Vertical 'A HT. 8" $175

JMR 2H5 Dual 5V«" Horizontal H.D $225

MPS 8462 Dual Horizontal 8" Slimline $215

MPS 8465 Dual 5" & 8" Horizontal Slimline $225

MPS 5500 5'/." STD. HT. H.D. & 'A HT. Drive .... $225

MPS 5505 5'/-" H.D. & >A HT Flpy or Tape $209

MPS 5401 5!4" STD HT H.D. or Dual '4HT $215

MICROWARE SINGLE STD. 5'A" Flpy Horizontal . $59 MICROWARE DUAL HORIZ. 5'A" V4 HT. Floppy .. $79 MICROWARE 920004 Dual STD. 5'A, PC-Style... $149 PARA DYNAMICS 2300-G3 2X8" Flpy & 5 H.D. . . $395

Chips

We Have Some ol the LOWEST PRICES in the Nation!! 64K, 256K, 8087 & 80287 CALL

Power Solutions

PC/XT REPLACEMENT PIS 130/150 WATT . . $89/S99

SAFT SPS 400VA 400 WATT & SINE WAVE $475

SAFT SPS1000VA 1000 WATT/SINE WAVE . . . $1,095

SOLA 750/4500 WATT HI-INRUSH UPS $1,899

TRIPPLITE ISOBAR Line Suppressor-Filters Irom $35 TRIPPLITE BC-425-FC 425 Watts 15-20 Minutes. $398

TRIPPLITE BC-1000 Watts 20-30 Minutes $925

TRIPPLITE LC-1800 Conditioner/Stabilizer $215

TRIPPLITE COMMAND CONSOLE CCI 8-12 .... $110

PC & AT Multifunction/Slave Bds.

We Have a Good Selection ol Multifunction and Memory Boards lor PC, XT. AT. JR. AT & T. and PC Portables INTEL ABOVE BOARD AT 128K-4Mb w/Expanded Mem. SW to allow CPU to Address all Avail Mem $459 LASER DISK I/O FLPY CTRL. S.P & G Ports. CLK-CAL,

Ram-Disk & Print Spool. MS-DOS $195

MACROTECH MSR-AT 3Mb PC/AT. 120nSEC .. $929

STB BIG BYTE 64K $122

STB GRANDE BYTE 128K S225

STB RIO PLUS II 64K-512K. S.P. Clock $216

STB RIO GRANDE PC-AT 128K.-1.5Mb. 2S.P&G $319 TECMAR CAPTAIN UN POP w/Treasure Chest .. $157 TECMAR EXPANSION CHASSIS With 8 Slots. .. $675 TECMAR MAESTRO Unpopulated for IBM-AT .. $325

TECMAR MAESTRO For PC/AT 2.5Mb $775

TECMAR WAVE 64K to 256K Fits XT Short Slot . $179 ADVANCED DIGITAL PC-SLAVE W/256K. 8MHz 8088 CPU,2 S Ports. RTNX S/W-For Multi-User P C. .. $695 ADVANCED DIGITAL PC-SLAVE PACKAGE with Link

125 Terminal $999

ALLOY PC-SLAVE 16 256K to 768K RAM $759

PC Scientific/Industrial Boards

IND. COMP. DESIGNS 1000 W/96TTL I/O Ports . $379 TECMAR BASE BOARD 96 Digital I/O Lines .. . CALL

TECMAR DADIO D to A Up to 24 Devices CALL

TECMAR IEEE-488 Board CALL

TECMAR LABMASTER CALL

TECMAR EXPANSION CHASSIS 12AMP P/S. Dual AC Outlets, 7 Useable Slots. Space for Hard Disk ... $675

Video/Graphics & Cad

STB MONO PLUS II $169

STB CHAUFFEUR RGB Port/16 Grey Shades Produced on Monochrome TTL Monitor Without Video

Drivers . '..... $279

STB GRAPHICS PLUS II w/ Paral. PRT Port .... $249

STB SUPER RES 400 Color Hi-Res w/ 32K $325

TECMAR GRAPHICS MASTER 16 Color Hi-Res. $439 TECMAR GRAPHICS TENDER RGB/PRT Porl .. $195 CSD-PC AUTOCAD 2 PACKAGE: 1024X1024 Monochrome Graphics • 15" 1100X1250 Res . $3,149 ILLUMINATED TECHNOLOGIES AUTOCAD PACKAGE: 8 Color 1024X1024 S-100 Board • Inside AutoCad Handbook • AutoCad 2 • Mitsubishi 19" 1024X874 RGB Analog Color Monitor • Hitachi Tiger

11"X11" Tablet with 12 Button Cursor $4,995

STB SUPER-RES PKG: Board & 13" CM-1370 Monitor w/ 16 Colors. 720X400 @ 31.5KHZ Scan Rate. ... S749 TECMAR SUPER-RES PKG: Board & 13" ZVM-136

Monitor with 16 Colors @ 640X400 $925

VECTRIX VXPCA 4096 Colors Close-Out$1,899

VECTRIX VXIPC Video Cable $79

Monitors & Terminals

AMDEK 300G $129

PRINCETON GRAPHICS SR-12 690X480 RGB .. $599 TATUNG CM-1322 640X200 RGB Same as IBM . $375 TATUNG CM-1360 LIKE 1322 with G-A Switch . . $419 TATUNG CM-1370 720X480 RGB w/GRN Switch. Long Persist Phos. Works w/ STB's SUPER RES 400 .. $469 TATUNG DM-12VL A&G 12" Monochrome . $125/$119 TATUNG MM-1222GIA Hi-Res 12" TTL (IBM)$119/125

TAXAN MONITORS Call for Low Prices

TECMAR ZVM-136 640X480 RGB 13". Grn Switch$499

ZENITH ZVM122A AMB or ZVM123A GRN $79

ZENITH ZVM123A (Green)/J22A (Amber) $85/$89

ZENITH ZVM135 Hi-RES RGB w/ Green Switch . $459

KIMTRON KT-7 14" Green $498

LIBERTY FREEDOM TERMINALS CALL

LINK 125 Wyse 50 Compat. 14" GRN or AMB w'Higher RES., More Emul'S. Selectric K B.. 6 Scroll Rates $429 LINK 125 PC w/PC Emulating Video & Keybd .. CALL

S-100 DIV./696 CORP. 14455 NORTH 79th ST. SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85260

Inquiry 3I3 for End-Users. Inquiry 3I4 for DEALERS ONLY.

FULL DEALER SUPPORT VISIT OUR SHOWROOM

HRS: 8:00AM — 5:00PM M-F

WORLD'S LARGEST SELECTION OF PC & S-100 PRODUCTS

S-100 Bus BDS & Accessories Printers, Plotters & Buffers

// you purchased before calling us. you probably paid loo much' We Slock ACKERMAN DIGITAL, ADVANCED DIGITAL, CCS, VIASYN, CROMEMCO, DUAL, ELECTRO LOGICS, INTERCONTINENTAL MICRO, KONAN, MULLEN, PICKLES & TROUT, INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER DESIGNS, TARBELL, TECMAR,

TRANSEND, VECTOR ELECTRONICS

A Few Of This Month's SPECIALS Are:

ACKERMAN MEMORIZED 64K RAM & EPROM . $211

ACKERMAN KLUGE CARD A&T $175

ACKERMAN PROM BLASTER II Up to 27256KS . $306 ACKERMAN PROMBLASTER EXTENDER .... $79.95 SPECTRONICS PE24T/9 EPROM ERASER/TIMER 146 ADV. DIGITAL SUPER 186/256K MASTER .... $1,495

CCS 2422 Dual Floppy CTRL With CP/M $350

CCS 2710 4 Port Serial Board $275

CCS 2720 4 Port Parallel Board $215

CCS 2810 Z80 CPU with Serial Port $235

COMPUPRO/VIASYN RAM 16 64K STATIC $175

COMPUPRO/VIASYN RAM 22 256K STATIC .... $446 COMPUPRO/VIASYN RAM 23 128K STATIC .... $219

COMPUPRO MDRIVE/H-10-1Mb tor 816/10 S595

COMPUPRO PC-VIDEO BOARD $369

COMPUPRO DISK IA 5" & 8" Floppy CTRL $369

COMPUPRO Disk 3 ST506 5" H.D.C $445

COMPUPRO SYSTEM SUPPORT 1 Hi CLK-CAL $263

COMPUPRO MOTHER BOARD 21 Slot $222

COMPUPRO CPU 8085/88 6 & 10 MHz $263

COMPUPRO CPU 8086 - 10MHz $297

COMPUPRO CPU 68K - 10MHz $319

COMPUPRO CPU 286 - 8MHz $672

CROMEMCO XPU 10MHz 68000 CPU $1,270

CROMEMCO DPU 68000/Z-80 Dual CPU $675

CROMEMCO SCC Z-80 Single BD. Computer... $420

CROMEMCO SP/0 8 Port Parallel $293

CROMEMCO 0*7-4 8 Channel 8 Bit D/A $293

CROMEMCO BIART Dual Sync/Async $675

CROMEMCO 64FDC 5"&8" Floppy CTRL $505

DUAL AIM-12 A/D Input 12,Bit/32 Channel $629

DUAL AOM-12 D/A Output'l2 Bit/4 Channel.... $540 DUAL WDC Winchester DMA 2 BD. Set SA-4000 $840

ICM MASTER & SLAVE BOARDS CALL

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER DESIGNS:

•D/A 64-100 64 Analog Outputs $298

•AID 64-100 64 Analog Inputs $225

•CCT-100 Highly Accurate Time & Date Controller with

Battery Back-Up $249

KONAN DGC-100 ST 506 5% H.D. Controller.... $325

KONAN SMC-200 SMD 8" Controller $450

MACROTECH VRAM 512K Static with Battery Back-Up

and MDrive/H Capability $769

MACROTECH M/-286 80286/Z80H Dual Proc. ... $699

MACROTECH MSR-II 1Mb Dynamic Ram $825

MACROTECH MSR-II 2Mb Dynamic Ram $999

MULLEN TB4A EXTENDER BD. w/Logic Probe . . $69 MULLEN ICB10 8 Channel Low Voltage Controller$165 PICKLES & TROUT P&T488 IEEE 488 BD & S.W. $429 VECTOR RAM 17 64K Static Ram (VIASYN) Excellent

with Z80 CPU S $299

VECTOR INTERFACER I Dual Serial (VIASYN). . $199 VECTOR INTERFACER II 3 Para . 1 Serial $219

S.D. SYSTEMS CLOSE-OUT!!!!!!

•RAMDISK 256K $495

•EXPANDORAM-4 256K with Parity $595

• VFW-3 Floppy & H.D.C $475

• CP/M 3.0 UNBANKED $95

TRANSEND CLOSE-OUT!!!!!!

•I/O 5 2 Serial. 3 Parallel $195

• EP128 128K Eprom Reader $169

• PB1 2708. 2716 Eprom Programmer $99

• VB2 Kit I/O Mapped Video Board $99

•MB64 64K Static Ram Board $449

Diskettes & Cartridges

9M TAPES 300XL&600A/1000A In Stock .$29.95/19.95

3YSAN 3.5" SSDD $29.39

DYSAN 3.5" DSDD $35.00

3YSAN SVDSDD $24.95

DYSAN 5V SSDD $22.95

DYSAN 3740/20 8" DSDD $31

DYSAN HARD DISK CARTRIDGES 8" $150

DYSAN 5'/." DSDD I UHI-96TPI IBM-AT $2B/$59

FUJI 5<h" SSDD I 5'/." DSDD $15/$19

FUJI FD2D-1024 8" DSDD $29.95

BROTHER HR-15-XL 17CPS Daisywheel S or P . $377 BROTHER HR-10 12CPS Daisy w/ TRAC S&P . $249 BROTHER TwinRiter 5 Dot Matrix & Daisywheel $859 BROTHER 2024L 24 Pin Hi-Res Print&Graphics . $869

BROTHER M-1509 180/45 NLQ, P&S l/F $295

BROTHER M1009 EPSON Compatible Plug & Play$149 BROTHER HR-5 Plain-Paper Thermal Portable .. $159

CITIZEN MSP-10 160/40 NLQ 80/132 $275

CITIZEN MSP-15 160/40 CPS 15" Low Profile ... $409

CITIZEN MSP-20 200/50 NLQ 80/132 $349

CITIZEN MSP-2S 200/50 CPS 15" ULTRA QUIET $569 EPSON LQ-1500 Cut-Sheet Feeder. Single Bin .. $309

SIEMENS PT-88 80 Column Ink Jet $595

STAR SG10'T5 120 DATA/30 NLQ $239/$409

STAR SD10'15 160 DATA/40 NLQ $369/$495

STAR SR10/15 200 DATA/50 NLQ $S35/$659

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 800 SERIES CALL

HOUSTON INST. PLOTTERS 8. DIGITIZERS . . CALL DITRON 64K PC'XT CARD BUFFER w/PRT Port(LPT 1 or 2 or 3) 100% PC&AT Resident S/W Utilities... $135 HANZON 12315 64K-256K INTELLIGENT BUFFER SER.-SER.. SER.-PAR.. PAR.-SER., PAR-PAR. Computer to Printer Combinations Possible. So easy to use - instructions printed on bottom of cabinet.. $259

HANZON ADD-IN MODULE 64K RAM $49

JOHNATHAN FREEMAN DESIGNS UNIVERSAL PRT

BUFFER S&P In & S&P Out, 64K/256K $189/$249

OKIDATA 182 80 Column 120 DATA/ 60 NLQ . .. $222 PRACT. PERIPH. APPLE GRAPHICARD & CBL. . $70 PRACTICAL PERIPH. APPLE SERIAL BOARD .. $112

PRACTICAL PERIPH APPLE PRINTERFACE $55

VIA WEST VSP-32 Paral-Serial Converter $62

Networking & Switch Boxes

INTERCONT. MICRO SYS. LAN-PC w/o RAM. .. $469

INTERCONT. MICRO SYSTEMS LANS-100 $359

COMPUPRO/VIASYN NET 11 For 816/10 Sys.. .. $425 COMPUPRO/VIASYN NET 101-96 For S-100 Bus $425 GILTRONIX MANUAL and AUTOMATIC SWITCHING UNITS to Fit all of your SHARED PRINTER, TERMINAL, MODEM & other Peripheral Needs. These Units In Stock:

5100 8 Wire A-B Serial CALL

5110 8 Wire A-B-C Serial CALL

5200 24 Wire A-B Serial CALL

5210 24 Wire A-B-C Serial CALL

5211 24 Wire A-B-C W/ LED'S CALL

5220 24 Wire A-B-C-D Serial CALL

5230 24 Wire A-B-C-D-E Serial CALL

5240 24 Wire A-B-C-D-E-F Serial CALL

5400 CENTRONICS A-B CALL

5410 CENTRONICS A-B-C CALL

5500 IBM - PARALLEL A-B CALL

5530 IBM - PARALLEL A-B-C-D-E CALL

5540 IBM - PARALLEL A-B-C-D-E-F CALL

8005 5 Port Peripheral Shared Device to Connect 5

Terminals/Computers to Printer CALL

9301 3-Way Distributed Control Unit - RS232 For Use with Multiple Baud Rate Devices CALL

Call For Prices & Configurations On Other Units

Software » Software • Software

We have Access to all Well Known Brands - ORDER CORRECTLY - SOFTWARE IS NOT RETURNABLE!

Word Proc./Screen Formatter

MICROPRO CORRECT STAR I PC-DOS $95

MICROPRO MAIL MERGE I CP/M-86 8" $75

MICROPRO PROPAK $317

NEW STAR NEWWORD 16 Bit with merge

PRINT, THE WORD PLUS Spelling Checker - Easier than Word Star but File Compatible $99.95

NEW STAR NEWWORD a bit with merge

PRINT $79.95

PFS WRITE $97

OASIS THE WORD PLUS Spelling Checker $95

OASIS PUNCTUATION & STYLE $79

MARK OF THE UNICORN THE FINAL WORD... $189

COMPUVIEW VEDIT/VEDIT PLUS $115/$169

COMPUVIEW VEDIT PLUS. V-PRINT & SPELL .. $298 COMPUVIEW V-SPELL CP/M 80 8" & PC DOS ... $95

TM

Language And Tools

BD SOFTWARE "C" Compiler 8" SS SD 8 BIT ... $95

BORLAND PC TURBO PASCAL 3.0 $44

BORLAND PC TURBO PASCAL 3.0 W/ 8087 $70

COMPUTER INNOVATIONS C-86 "C" Compiler. $299

DIGITAL RESEARCH Most Products 36% OFF

ITHACA PASCAL Z CP/M80 8" $285

LATTICE "C" Compiler $299

MICROSOFT Complete Line 32% OFF

SUPERSOFT FORTRAN PC/MSDOS $199

DIGITAL RESEARCH COMPLETE LINE 36% OFF

AMERICAN TRAINING INT'L TUTORIALS .. 36% OFF

BORLAND PC SIDEKICK (Unprotected) $54

BORLAND PC SUPERKEY (Unprotected) $41

BORLAND PC TURBO GRAPHIX TOOLBOX $35

BORLAND PC TURBO TOOLBOX $35

BORLAND PC TURBO TUTOR $22

FOX ar GELLER QUICKCODE For dBASE 2 $187

FOX ft GELLER dGRAPH For dBASE 2 $187

FOX ft GELLER dUTIL For dBASE 2 $83

FOX « GELLER QUICK SCREEN For dBASE 2... $94 FOX a GELLER PC GRAFOX BUS. GRAPHICS . $159 FOX a GELLER PC QUICKREPORT III $187

Data Bases & Spreadsheets

ASHTON-TATEALi. PRODUCTS 32% OFF

DATAFLEX FILE/RECORD Locking Multi-User . CALL

MDBS Knowledgeman CP/M86 8" $295

MICROPRO REPORT STAR $119

MICROPRO INFO STAR/16 Bit $239

MICRORIM R: BASE 5000 $439

PFS FILE I REPORT CALL

SORCIM Supercalc-3 Better Than 1-2-3!!! $195

Communications Programs

MICROSTUF CROSS TALK XVI $125

MYCROFT LABS MITE I MITE PLUS $135/5150

WOOLF MOVf-/r PC-PC Communications $95

Modems __

PROMETHEUS PROMODEM 1200 Hayes Compatible w/Built-in PWR Supply-RS232 Stand Alone Unit $289 OPTIONS FOR PROMODEM 1200 ARE: COMMUNICATIONS PROC. BUFFER 2K-512K .. . $99

5I2K RAM tor Communications Buffer $49

ALPHA NUMERIC DISPLAY $75

PROMETHE US 1200A Apple II, 11 vile Card w/Termi nal

Software in ROM $279

PROMETHEUS 300C Apple IIC Piggy Back $139

PROMETHEUS J200S For PC'S with Procom .. . $249 PROMETHEUS 1200M Stand Alone MAC Modem with

Cable and Communications Software $348

HAYES SMART MODEM 1200 RS-232 $439

HAYES SMART MODEM 2400 Universal $659

U.S. ROBOTICS PASSWORD 1200 $209

U.S. ROBOTICS AUTO DIAL 212A $309

U.S. ROBOTICS PC/XT MODEM with TELPAC.. $199 U.S. ROBOTICS PC MULTI-MODEM with Clk-Cal..

Batt. Back-up, PRT Port, 256K RAM Telpac $395

U.S. ROBOTICS MULTILINKfCOURIER 2400 $435

Hobby Corner

SOLD "AS IS" WITH NO RETURNS

AMPRO "LITTLE BOARD" (The Original) $259

APPLE II INTEGER BASIC CARD $59

CROMEMCO ZPU $149

DRI GSX-80 $39

DRI PASCAL/MT* $175

ELECTROLOGICS QUASI-DISK 2/4Mb CP/M80 RAM

DISK with Battery Back-Up $1,695/S3,095

HEURISTICS SPEECH LAB For Speech Recognition95 IMSAI P/06-6 Kit 2 Sets of 24 PROG. I/O Lines . $149

IMSAI MIO KIT (Assembled) 2 PAR & 1 SER $69

MICROPRO CalcStar 1.20 8" CP/M $79

MICROPRO SuperSort 1.60 8" CP/M $140

MORROW DJDMA-3A with Software $195

MORROW HDCA-3 8 or 14" SA4008 H.D.C $195

MORROW MPZ80 REV. 2 w/ Documentation .... $195

NORTH STAR FLOATING POINT BOARD $169

NOVATION SMART CAT 212 $239

PARA DYNAMICS 2508D Like 3510 w/ 8 Slots . . $395 PRAGMATIC DESIGNS PD20MS 8" FUJITSU 20Mb

H.D. Subsystem For CompuPro System $2,495

PROTEUS ENGINEERING "WRITE" W.P. CP/M 8" $50

S.D.S. MPU 100 Z80 CPU Kit $89

S.D.S. E-PROM BOARD #27007 Kit $49

SMS STATIC RAM 64K For N.S. Horiz., Etc $149

TEI TFD-0 Cabinet For 3 STD 5'/«" FLY DRVS. .. $195

m >

m

5

2

3 3

8

a

<0

All merchandise new. Advertised prices are cash prepaid only. MC. Visa & P.O's from qualified firms - add 3%. Wires. COD's (S5min. fee) withCashiersCheck/MO&APO's accepted. Shipping: minimum $4 first 3lbs. Tax: AZ RES ONLY add 6% sales tax. All returns subject to 20% restocking fee or credit towards future purchases. Retail prices slightly higher. All prices subject to change without notice.

TOLL FREE

800-854-8230

CA Residents 714-558-8813

OUR POLICY

• Surcharge for VISA or Mastercard.

•Volume purchasing agreements available.

•Orders subject to availably. -Supply limited on certain items.

•Pricing subject to change without notice.

•ACP Retail Store pricing may vary. Not responsible for typos.

I I I I I

brand PRICE BREAKTHRU

PROVEN

SUPERIOR

TO IBM XT®

mm! run

•T*.r

1

3

At these prices you would expect a Taiwan clone. We are offering the best IBM PC/XT® compatible available in the market today. Compare the features and you won't believe the price!

ADVANCED PC/XT $

NEW LOW PRICE!

750

oo

BASE PRICE

{Photo of System 6)

BASE PRICE INCLUDES:

• (1) 360K DS/DD Floppy Disk

• 256K RAM Expandable to 640K on the Motherboard (256K chips)

• On Board Serial Port - FREE

• On Board Parallel Port - FREE

• On Board LCD Display Port - FREE

• On Board RGB Output - FREE

• On Board Video Comp. Out - FREE

• Keyboard Output Port

• (3) Expansion Slots

• Quiet 100 Watt Power Supply

• Ergonomic Design & Packaging

• VLSI Circuit Design

• 90 Day Warranty

• UL Approved/FCC Approved

ACP has sold over 2,000 of this system to major customers including Rockwell Int'l, Hughes Aircraft and Emulex Corp. See for yourself why these customers prefer the Advanced XT over the IBM XT.

SYSTEM 1 SYSTEM 2

CPU w/(2) Floppys, Keyboard, Mouse, Mouse Software 8 Grn Mon w/TIt Swiv Base.

Same as System 1 with RGB Color Monitor and Tilt Swivel Base

$1150.00 $1399.00

SYSTEM 3 SYSTEM 4

CPU w/(1) Floppy, 10Mb Hard Disk, Controller, Keyboard, Mouse and Mouse Software

Same as System 3 with 20Mb

$1399.00 $1699.00

SYSTEM 5 SYSTEM 6

CPU w/(1) Floppy, 10Mb HD, Contr'l, Keyboard, Mouse w/Software & Grn Mon. w/Tlt/Swiv Base

Same as System 5 with RGB Color Monitor and Tilt & Swivel base

$1549.00 $1799.00

SYSTEM 7 SYSTEM 8

CPU w/(1) Floppy, 20Mb HD, Contr'l, Keyboard Mouse w/Software S Grn Mon w/TIt S Swiv Base

Same as System 7 with RGB Color Monitor and Tilt and Swivel Base

$1849.00 $2099.00

UNBUNDLED ADVANCED PC/XT COMPONENT PRICING (ACP recommends using all Advanced Components in upgrading your PC)

•CPU Base Unit $750.00

•Keyboard w/Mouse & Software 149.95

•RGB Color Mon w/TIt Swiv Base... 395.00

•Grn Comp. Mon w/TIt Swiv Base.. 199.00

•LCD 80 x 25 Display 299.00

•Green Monochrome Monitor 149.00

•Hi-res Text Mono Card 149.00

•256K Upgrade (Installed) 59.95

•8067-2 Co-processor 129.95

•1200 Baud Modem Short Card,

Hayes Compatible w/Software $179.95

•6 Slot Expansion Chassis 399.00

•10Mb (gray) Upgrade w/Contr'l.. . 399.00

•20Mb (gray) Upgrade w/Contr'l.... 599.00

•360K (gray) DS/DD Floppy Disk... 129.00

•PC DOS 2.1 05.00

•PC Works 1.15 (Touchstone)

Regular $195 49.95

•GW Basic $75.00

•GEM by Digital Research 29.95

•Maintenance Manual 50.00

•Technical Reference Manual 50.00

SYSTEM SPECIALS

•Sys 5 w/Diablo 620 Serial $1649.00

•Sys 6 w/Diablo 620 Serial 2099.00

DIABLO 620 DAISYWHEEL PRINTER

The Finest Letter Quality Printer at a Spectacular Price. We have sold lOOO's. You can have a spare at this price.

620 Serial List 1495 ACP $395.00

620 API List 1695 ACP 445.00

620 D36 List 1695 ACP 495.00

F-21 Sheet Feeder.List 895 ACP 249.00

620 Tractor List 395 ACP 99.00

Cable ACP 29.00

Serial to Par. 16K Buffer... .ACP 125.00

COF F0RATE BUYERS bafL

$399 2

Upgrade

$599

Upgrade

(1 Year Warranty)

Qty. 1 Qry. 6

SA712 10 Mb $229 $219

ST225 20 Mb $369 $349

Western Digital Cont $195 $175

PC UPGRADE SPECIAL

SET OF (9) 64K RAMS

$yS5

52695

SET OF (9) 256K RAMS $5.95 4128 PIGGYBACK RAM

1200 Baud Hayes™ Comp. Modem

Short Card by U.S. Robotics with Telpac I Software.

List $499 ACP $179.00 Buy (6) $159.00

20Mb Tape Back-up

Archive, #1 in tape back-up technology. High speed 20Mb back-up for only

$899.00

External Box w/Power Supply

Great for adding Hard Disk to your PC. Same as photo $179.00

IBM PC/XT® of IBM

DOT-MATRIX BLOW OUT

DIABLO/HONEYWELL

P-11 100cps, parallel S-11 100cps, serial P-31 100cps, par, wide S-31 100cps, ser, wide P-32 150cps, par, NLQ

$129.95 139.95 249.95 269.95 299.95

CANNON/USA

PW-1080A 165cps, parallel $169.95 PW-1156A 165cps, par, wide 199.95

5A.dvaii.cedi CJoirnputer

''I'll' ' 'I 111

DID YOU GET OUR FLYER?

IF NOT . . . CALL & GET ON OUR MAIL LIST

i i i i i

I I I I I

UPS POWER SUPPLY

UPS-PC 200 Wllti UPS-JTT 300 Win« UPS-AT 800 W«ltl

1277.00 419.00 739.00

AB PRINTER SWITCH

An AB Switch aiiowi UN of two pfMm wit* your OOmpDHr iytlrtm. W« *loc* over IS Oilier am configu ration *.

AB Swiieh (C»ntroniea) 959.00 AB Switch (DB25) 58.00

COLOR VIDEO CARDS

Planironlc* Color Plua $375.00

IBM Color Card 227.00

IBM Mono Card w/parallel 210.00

STB Orapniea Plua 3B9 00

PlradrM MuHidiiplay Card 345.00

Evarai Grarh.cn Edga 345.00

DRIVE CABINETS

IBM 5tyla Hard Olik with oow«r

supply and tan

$179.00

Dual Hard Olik w/powar aup A Ian

295.00

Dual SW Full Haigm vertical mount

85 00

Dual 5V<" Full HMJht horizontal mount

99 00

Dual 6V Thlnllna w/power sup 9 (an

60 00

Single 9V4" Full Haloht w/powar aup a tan 56.00

Sinflfe SV." Thlnllna w/power tup 6 Ian

60.00

PERSYST CARDS

Persysl Mono Combo - NEWI

1335.00

Parayat Color Combo - NEWI

335.00

Parayat Bob Boirb

44500

Parayat Shonpori Color

Call

Parayat Mini Mono

CaJt

Parayat * 1 Tima Spectrum w/84K

179.95

Parayat 192K Rainbow DEC Card

149.95

SPECIAL BUY Sharp 13" Color R List 5499.00 ACP 1249.96

MODEM SPECIAL

INTERSIL STD-BUS BOARDS

TRANSISTORS/DIODES

ISB32;6 ISB321B ISB3220

ISB3331 ISB3340 ISB34TO ISB3410 ISB35C0 I5B3510 ISB3520 ISB3521 ISB3600

ISB3700 ISB3711 1SB3720 I5B3330

Z80 CPU Z80 Univ. CPU BOSS CPU 18K CMOS RAM 16K Static RAM 16K CMOS RAM Z80 PIO (0 maimg) Umvaraal PIO Opto Para. Input Floppy Controller SASt (DMA) WINI Inter

Opto-tao Input SPST Ralay DPOT Relay

EPROM Programer SyncJAaync umi Sync/Aaync REMDACS 12 Bit A/0

LIST ACP

S200 189.95

200 69.95

200 79.95

810 99 95

200 39 95

750 119.95

210 49.95

210 49.95

300 119.95

215 79.95

255 99.95

215 99.95

270 119.95

150 69.95

190 69.95

375 149.95

260 76.85

245 6995

245 8995

315 149.95

720 269.65

CAPACITORS

-OluF CISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100(95.50

.1 uF DISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100/6.50

OtuF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100111 25

.1 uF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100/14.25

CORCOMJ EMI FILTER

STD COHCOM 3 Conductor Filler 14.50

Una Cord 'or above - 6 loot 1 49

Line Cord 2 Conductor - 6 loot .35

Line Cord 3 Conductor — 6 loot .95

MUFFIN FANS

Over 10,000 In Stock

Torln 3" TA-300 Fan NEWI $9 95

Torln 4.6B" Mullin Fan NEWI 12.95

l2VOCFan NEWI 14 95

Finger Guirdi add 149

Pc*er Corda add 1.40

IC SOCKETS

8 Pin ST/LP 14 Pin ST/LP 16 Pin ST/LP 18 Pin ST/LP 20 Pin ST/LP 22 Pin ST/LP 24 Pin ST/LP 28 Pin ST/LP 36 Pin ST/LP 40 Pin ST/LP 64 Pin ST/LP WIREWflAP [GOLD)

8 Pin WW/3L 14 Pin WW/31 16 Pin WW/3L 16 Pm WW/3L 20 Pin WW/3L 22 Pin WW/3L 24 Pin WW/3L 28 Pin WW/3L 40 Pin WW/3L TEXTOOL/ZIF ZERO !8P.n 18 75 24 Pin $7 85 (We Slock All Typea ot

S 49 1 40

PN918

2N221BA

2M2218A

7/(1.00 2N3904 2N3906 TIP29A TIP30A T1P31A TIP32A 1N4148 1N75I 1N4002 1N4004 MPQ2232

11/11.00 11/1.00 2/1.00 2/1.00 2/1.25 2/1.25 8571.00 5/1.00 12/1.00 10/1.00

OPTO ISOLATORS

MCT-2

MCT-6

MCT-68

MCA-255

4N26

Jumbo Green Jumbo Yellow Mini Site Red Mini Size Green Mini SUo Yellow

4N33 4N35 4N37 4N38 TIL117

1 09 I .08

SPECIAL VALUESI

MCM68705 EPROM 18.95

61l6/2016-l50mS 10/1985

DB-25P Male 10/17.50

DB-25S Female 10/18.95

2732A-2 10I28.B5

27-8DC-450mS 10/24.50

2764-4S0mS 10/28.65

CALL ACP FOR ALL YOUR VOLUME ic r

EDGE CONNECTORS

S-100 ST S-100 WW 44 Pin ST

13.85 13.25

4 75 4.10

2.75 2 60

475 425

8 50 6 10

7 25 6 95

D-SUBMINIATURE

DB25S (Female DB25P (Male)

Hood 11.25 DE37S (Female) DE37P (Male)

13.10 12.90

5 26

DO50S (Female) DO50P (Male)

Hood 13 25

Mlg H/W $ 89 18 85 600

Mlg HArV 1 99 (OTHER STYLES IN CATALOG) CENTRONICS

IOC 36 Pin Male IDC 36 Pin Female Solder 36 Pin Male Solder 36 P.n Femaie

(CALL TOLL FREE FOR IDC'a)

IDC CONNECTORS

Ri Angle Solder Header

Ribbon Header Socket

Ri Angle WAV Header

NUMBER OF CONTACTS 10 20 26 34 40 50

3.10 4.10 4.20 4.60 7.15

NOTE: To order insert number ol contacts in place ol xx in ACP pari number. ORDER QUANTITY OF 50pcs (mixed) AND TAKE AN ADDITTIONAL 10H OFF.

EPSON PRINTERS

FX-85 (160cps) $369.00

FX-185 (160cps) 515.00

LX-80 (100 cps) 245.00

LQ-1500 (NLQ) 899.00

FX-80+ 339.00

PRINTER SPECIALS

Toshiba 1340 $399.00

Toshiba 341 949.00

Toshiba 351 1099.00

Star SG-10 239.00

Brother 1509 399.00

86000

B8OOOL10

6600

6802

6803

6809E

8060A 8085A 80C85A 8086

6067-2 1!

8089 8155 8156 81B5

2695 23 85 37.65 3 25

6821 6826 8840 6646

8216 8224 8226

6850 I 3.25

6652 5.65

6860 7.90

6S75 6.75

6860 2.20

68047 22.95

8255A 5.85

I 6.75 69.85 26 85

8.45 8.45 11.85

27.85 24 50 24 50 3495

4.0MHI "B" B.OMHi

ZOO-CPU 2J0-CTC Z8 D-D ART Z80-DMA ZB0 PIO Z80-SIO/0

zeo-sio/t

Z80-BIO/2 Z60.SIO/8

34.95 I Z6002 34.85 I ZB671

DISK CONTROLLERS

■ 18 95 I 1797 121 85

1595 2791 3295

22.75 2793 32 95

21.50 2795 32.95

21.50 I 2797 27.85

CRT CONTROLLERS

8275 128 50 I TMS9918 7220 34 95 8350 5027 17 95 8545 5037 21.85 I 8002 NEC7220 Graphics

UARTS/USARTS

6845 HI 95

16028 13 95 I 2350 1 8 95 1013A 3 95 8250 10.50 101SA 6 75 I IM6402 7.75

IM6403

TMS5501

2651

1702 (imS)

1 3 90

2708 <450nS]

385

275B (5V)

5.50

2716 (450nS)

1.9S

2716 (350nS)

3.95

2516 (5V>

2.95

TMS2718

7.50

TMS2532

560

2732 (450nS)

1 95

2732 !250nS)

2-9S

2732 (2O0nS)

4.05

CMOS EPROMS

27C16

$4.95

2732A-4 (450nS) I 4 50

2732A |250nS) 6.95

2732A<2 (200nS) 8.95

2784<450nS) 1.95

2784 (250nS) 2.95

2784(200nS) 4.95

TMS2564 (450nS) 9 85

MCM68764 (450nS) 19 95

MCM66766 (350nS) 21 95

27128-3 (300nS) 9.50

2712B <2S0nS) 15 95

15.95

STATIC RAMS

11.89

2101 (4S0nS) 21L02 (450nSj

2102-1 (450nS) .79

21L02-2 (250nS) 1.39

211l(450nS) 2.75

21l2(450nS) 2 75

2114 (450nS) 1.45 6/9.50

2I14L-4 (450n) 1.69 B/12.50

21l4L-3(3O0n) 1 78 B/13 30

2114L.2(200n) 1.89B/1390

2147 (55nS) 4.50

4044-4 (450nS) 3 25

4044-3 |300nS) 3 75

4044-2 <200nS} 4 35

UPD4tO(100nS) 3.75

5101 (CMOS) 3.50

MK4118 14 95

TMM2016-2 (2O0nS) 3 10 TMM2O16-15(l50n) 3.85 TMM2016-1 (lOOnS) 3 00 HM8116P-4 (200nS) 4.75 HM6116P-3 (150nS) 3.25 HM6116P-2(l20nS) 5 75 HM6116LP-4 (LP) 3.60 HM6116LP-3(LP) 3 95 HM61I6LP-2(LP) 3.85 Z6l32(300nS) 32.95 HM6264P-15(150) 14.65 HM6264LP-15 (LP) 16.85 74SIB9 (35nS) 1.B5 B3415 (50nS) 3.85 83425 <50nS) 3.85

DYNAMIC RAMS

4027 (250nS)

I 99

TMS44I6 (2C0nS|

16 95

1103 (300nS)

78

TMS4416 (150nS)

7 75

4116N-2 H50nS)

89

41256-150 (150n)

2.75

4I16N-3 (200nS)

66

41256-200 |200n]

2.75

4116N-4 (260nS)

49

TMS4050 (300nS)

1.85

4184N-150 (150n)

9/7.85

TMS4080 (SCOnS)

1.65

4184N-200 (200n)

S/7.50

MM52B0 (300nS)

IBS

4164N-120 (120nS)

2.95

UPD411 (300nS)

1.B5

TM54164 (l50nS)

295

MM5298 l25CnS)

1.65

DISK SPECIAL (ibm pc dsdd)

791

WOWI

■ ^rfFtSCI. Hub Rings

PACKAGE T^vac cove. Supply Limited

OF 100 Major Mlg.

VERBATIM 525-01 SS/DD VERBATIM 550-01 05/DD (IBM) MAXELL MD-1 SS/OD (All) MAXELL MD-2 DS/DD (IHMj MAXELL DISKS lo. AT (96lpl) OYSAN 104/1D SS/DO (All) DYSAN 104/2D DS/DD (IBM) ACP SS/DD (Alt) ACP DS/DD (IBM)

1 Box 10 Box

122 95 119 85 27 85 24 85

CMOS

4000 1

.39

.1028 S

.69

4059 17.80

4905

8.08

4001

.22

4030

,79

4000

.69

4506

1.10

4002

.22

4030

33

4069

.30

4507

1.10

4006

.70

4031

3.25

4009

.20

4508

1.00

4007

.22

4032

2.19

4070

.38

4510

.70

4006

.85

4034

1.01

4511

.70

4009

.39

Has

.70

4072

.9»

4612

.79

4010

.39

4037

1.06

4073

4614

1.18

.79

4078

.28

4012

.24

.79

4070

.78

4516

1.18

4013

.35

«J1

.66

.38

4014

.75

4043

85

4070

.39

4520

.79

4015

.39

4044

.60

4001

.29

4555

. .06

4016

35

4046

.90

4082

.20

4556

.09

4017

.66

4047

.69

4086

.96

4566

146

4016

.79

4040

.09

4008

.06

80C95

1JJ0

4019

.38

4040

.39

4003

.46

80C97

.40

4020

.69

4050

.34

4004

2 95

MC14408

12.95

4021

.69

4081

.79

4008

1.00

MC14409

12.05

4022

.60

4062

.79

4000

1.85

MC14410

9.09

4023

.25

4093

.78

4901

.69

MC14411

11.05

4024

.50

4066

3.06

4502

.08

MC14412

12.05

4025

.25

4066

2.06

4603

.40

MCI4419

4.09

4027

.45

CAU

LFOfl

74MC

74C00

74C0O 1.29

74C74

$.69

74C1

15 I74C373 12.35

74C02

23

74C88

1.00

74C175 1.15 74C374

2 35

74C04

.20

74CO0

1.19

74C240 1

69 74C901

.90

74C0B

35

74C93

1.19

74C244 1.69 I74C922

4.45

74C10

.35

MORE 74C IN STOCK - ALSO IN CATALOG

LINEAR

LM108AH

13.95

NE590

12.45

LM3909

.90

LM300H

99

NE592

2.70

LM3B14

12.95

LM301N

.39

LM709N

.55

LM381S

2.95

LM304H

1.69

LM709H

1.90

LM3B18

2.95

LM305H

.OS

LM710

.60

MC4024

3.75

LM3Q6H

4.75

LM711

.75

MC4044

4.35

LM307N

.40

LM715

386

RC4131

3.75

LM308CN

.05

LM723N

.56

RC4136

1.19

LM310CN

1.99

LM723H

.75

RC4161

3.76

LM311CN

.02

.90

CA3023

2.76

LM312H

1.76

LM738

1.65

CA3038

1.25

LM31BCN

1.45

LM741CN

.33

CA3048

1.25

LM318H

1 55

LM741H

.40

CA305B

2.B5

LM319N

1.10

LM741N

.29

CA3060

2.85

LM320 (aee

VRsj

LM747

.65

CA3085

1.69

LM324N

.65

LM748

.65

CA30S0

1.10

LM339N

.95

LM1014

1.15

CA3081

1.80

LM340 (SOO VRa)

LM1303

1.90

CA3082

1.60

LM34BN

.95

LM1310

1.45

CA3083

1.55

LM35BCN

.65

MC1330

1 65

CA3088

.60

LM359

1.75

MCI 348

1.65

CA308S

2.95

LM360N

2.95

MC1350

1.15

CA3096

3.45

LM370N

4.95

MC135B

1.65

CA3130

1.29

LM373N

3.95

MC1372

6.75

CA3140

1.15

LM376N

3.75

LM1414

1.56

CA3146

1.70

LM377N

1.90

LM1558H

2.99

CA3160

1.49

LM380CN

.95

LM1800

2.35

LM13080

1.25

LM380N

1.05

LM1812

8 10

LM13600

1.46

LM381N

1.59

LM1830

340

LM 13700

1.45

LM382N

1.35

LM1871

5.45

LF347

2.19

LM3B3N

1.95

LM1B72

545

LF351

.60

LM384N

1.75

LM1677

3.20

LF353

.99

LM386N

69

LM1B89

1.90

LF355

1.10

LM3B7N

1.29

LMIB96

1.70

LF3S6

1.10

LM3B9N

1.15

ULN2001

1.95

LF357

1.39

LM3B2N

.60

ULN20O3

1.4B

TL071CP

.79

LM723N

.48

XR2206

3.75

TL072CP

1.35

LM723H

.56

XR2207

2.90

TL074CN

1.80

NES31

2.05

XR220S

2.40

TL081CP

.59

NE555

.35

XR2211

3 75

TL084CN

1.90

NE556

.65

LM2677P

2.00

TL494

4.10

NES58

1.40

LM2B78P

225

TL496

1.65

NE561

23.50

LM2900

.63

TL497

3.20

NE564

2.B5

LM2801

.98

MC3423

1.49

LM5S5

.86

LM2803

.88

MC3453

4.8S

LM586

1.45

LM2807

2.4S

MC3456

1.20

LM567

.05

LM2817

2.85

MC3458

3.75

NES70

385

LM3B00

55

5.25

NE571

290

LM3905

1.16

MC3470

7.95

From AMPEX

JANUARY SPECIALS

(SUPPLY LIMITED)

ALL NEW FACTORY BOX with 1 Year Warranty!

MODEL 127 20Mb HARD DISK

External Unit with Controller Built-in. Available with Host Adaptor tor IBM-PC, IBM-XT or Apple II (Add $149.95 tor Host Adaptor).

Reg Retail $1495 ACP $499.00

MODEL 227 20Mb w/TAPE

Complete Subsystem with 20Mb Hard Disk and High Speed Tape Back-up. Requires Host Adaptor at $149.95. Reg Retail $2995 ACP $1399.00

For PC Jr.

SUPER NUMERIC KEYPAD

Manufactured by Keytronics. We have sold

ACP $29.95

or 6 for 24.95 ea

Reg Retail $99

VOLTAQE REGULATORS

7B05K Also

7B05T Also

6, 12, 15. 24V. .DO

78L05, 12, 16V 05

78M06C 00

76MG/79MG 76H05KC 780SK Alio

12. 15. 24V 7905T Also

8. 12, 15. 24V ./3

. .0.75

1.29

I, 24V

1.39

79L05, 1i

LM309K 1.25

LM317H/K 1.25/3.05

LM323K 4.B5

LM337K 3.75

LM338K 0.75

LM350T 4.55

LM3S0K 4.75

SPECIAL PURPOSE CHIPS

BR1941

34702

5016

0116

5307

MC4024

8038

5389

58167

58174 111.25

5632 3.75

AY52378 11.50

AV53800 1150

2S13401U 8.50

2513-002L 9.50

UPD7201 27.95

3341 4.50

11C90 13.25

MCI 5906 2.95

9SH90

76477

76488

76489

AY38910

AY38912

LM13600N 1.95

19 95 TH1863 5V UART $4.25

DATA ACQUISITION

ADC0808 4.45 ADC0818 14.25 AD7523JN 199

ADC0617 19.75 OAC0600 4,75 DAC0B0B 2.85 DAC1020 7.95 DAC1022 5.85 LF353N 1.98

1408L6 11.95 140BLB 2.B5 DAC100 7.95 DAC0B 7.85 DAC01 6.95 LF13201N 1.89

EXPANSION MEMORY

64K UPGRADE (Set ot 9) $7.95 256K RAMS (Set of 9) $26.95

CABLES/ACCESSORIES

IBM PARALLEL [Shielded)

IBM SERIAL (Sriraldedl

KEYBOARD EXTENSION

RS232 GENDER CHANGER Male-Malo

7400

7-:oo

9 .19

7440

9 .09

74123

• .46

74176

9 .90

7401

.19

7447

.99

74129

.42

74177

.60

7402

.19

7440

.66

74129

.44

74179

1.34

7403

.19

7460

.19

74129

.40

74180

,75

7404

.10

7461

.10

74192

.45

74161

1.79

7406

.23

7493

.10

74139

.76

74162

1.16

7400

.40

7464

.10

74141

.99

74164

3.25

7407

.40

7490

.26

74142

2.88

74185

£39

7400

.24

7490

37

74143

3.70

74100

.67

7400

.10

7470

.29

2 95

74101

.67

7410

.10

7472

.20

74149

.60

74192

.97

7411

.24

7473

.33

7i147

1.40

74193

.07

7412

.36

7474

.34

74148

1.10

74194

.97

7413

.34

7479

.30

74190

1.00

74195

XT

7414

49

7479

.34

74191

.99

74198

.76

7419

49

7470

4.00

74193

.97

74107

.86

7417

.49

7490

.00

74153

.69

74196

1.19

7420

.10

7492

.06

741S4

1.10

74188

1.19

7421

.35

7493

.49

74156

.09

74221

1.19

7422

.46

7495

.55

74169

.69

74251

.79

7423

.69

7400

.36

74197

.68

74273

1.69

7429

.29

7469

1.09

74156

1.66

74276

1,99

7426

,29

7400

.36

74160

1,58

74278

.79

7427

25

7401

.99

74190

.79

74283

1.40

7429

.55

7402

45

74191

.09

74294

290

7430

.18

7493

.35

.99

74285

2.90

7432

2»

7494

.99

74103

.99

74290

1.49

7497

3&

7495

.50

74194

.99

74280

1.40

7439

.29

7498

.60

74109

.00

74365

.55

7430

.58

7487

2.70

74109

.99

74386

56

7440

.19

74100

1,60

74167

2.76

74387

.99

7441

.79

74107

.84

1.26

74366

,66

7442

.46

74109

.97

74172

4.75

74380

1.46

7443

1.15

74119

1 45

74173

.90

74383

1.33

7444

1 15

74121

29

74174

.99

74480

2.26

7445

.09

74122

.44

74175

.00

74LS00

t .16

74LS113

1 .38

74LS247

% 74

74LS01

.16

74LS114

.39

74LS248

.86

74LS02

.19

74LS122

.45

74LS249

.88

74LS03

.19

74LS123

.95

74LS251

.69

74LS04

.24

74LS124

2,75

74LS253

.SB

74LS05

.29

74LS12S

48

74LS257

.60

74LS08

.27

74LS126

.40

74LS258

59

74LS09

.28

74LSI32

50

74LS259

2.85

74LS10

.29

74LS138

30

74LS260

59

74LS11

.33

74LS138

M

74LS281

2.48

74LS12

.33

74LS139

.50

74LS266

.55

74LS13

.39

74LS145

1.10

74LS273

1.45

74LS14

.59

74LS148

1.38

74LS275

3.29

74LS15

.33

74LS151

55

74LS279

.50

74LS20

.26

74LS153

.55

74LS283

.68

74LS21

.20

74LS154

1.40

74LS290

09

74LS22

.20

74LS1S5

.69

74L5293

.79

74LS28

.29

74LS156

.60

74LS295

.88

74LS27

.20

74LS167

.69

74L529B

.88

74LS28

.20

74LS158

.68

74LS324

1,75

74LS30

.26

74LS160

74LS347

1.95

74LS32

.33

74LS161

.69

74LS34B

1.85

74LS33

.53

74LS162

.68

74LS352

1.25

74LS37

.36

74LS163

.69

74LS353

1.25

74LS3B

.30

74LS164

.60

74LS363

1.29

74LS40

.25

74LS16S

.90

74LS365

.48

74LS42

.44

74LS166

1.90

74LS386

.40

74LS47

.74

74LS168

1.15

74LS367

.45

74LS49

.74

74LS169

1.15

74LS368

46

74LS51

.25

74LSI70

1.40

74LS373

1,39

74LS54

.26

74LS173

.67

74LS374

1.33

74LS65

.29

74LS174

.97

74LS37S

.68

74LS73

.39

74LS175

.67

74LS377

1.38

74LS74

.34

74LSIB1

1.95

74LS385

1.95

74LS75

.39

74LS190

.65

74LS386

.49

74LS76

JO

74LS101

.85

74LS390

1.15

74LS78

.39

74LS182

.79

74LS393

1.15

74LSB3

.69

74LS193

.70

74LS395

1.15

74LSBS

.09

74LS194

.69

74LS3B9

1.47

74LSB6

.30

74LS19S

.60

74LS424

2.95

74LS90

.54

74LS196

.79

74LS8B6

1.76

74LS92

.54

74LS197

.70

74LS670

229

74LS93

.54

74LS221

.89

B1LS95

1.45

74LS95

75

74LS240

.05

B1LS96

1.45

74LS96

.99

74LS242

.05

81LS97

1.45

74LS107

.39

74LS243

.05

61L59S

1.45

74LS109

M

74LS244

1.25

25LS2S2I

265

74LS112

30

74LS245

1.45

25LS2569

350

XEROX *299

SUNRISE COMPUTER

80 Column LCD Display

10 Function Keys

Micro / Cassette

Microphone for Speaker Telephone

Optional Disk Drive Port

Centronics Printer Port

Monitor Output Television Output

L

. Optional Printer

Speaker

The Xerox Sunrise 1810 is by far the best value we have ever seen in a micro computer. This is a self contained battery and AC operated portable. The Sunrise was originally prices at $2995. Xerox has since elected to drop the computer from their product list. California Digital has purchased all the remaining inventory and is making the unit available at a fraction of its original cost. This portable features a built in 80 column liquid crystal display, 64K of memory along with both RF monitor and television outputs. The internal 300/1200 baud modem includes an auto dial telephone assembly. The units has both Centronics parallel and a serial port programmable to 19.200 baud. The self contained micro cassette is capable of capturing data from the keyboard as well as doubling as an recorder for dictating messages. An optional dual floppy disk drive module, pictured above, is available for only $219. Also available, for $59 is an 80 column printer that mounts in the drive module. The Sunrise features a CP/M operating system which allows the operator to use any CP/M program in Xerox 5V4" disk format and over 5000 CP/M programs available in public domain.

We have avalable a 15 minute tape on the Sunrise Computer. The tape Is in VHS format and was produced by Xerox to promote the computer. California Digital Is offer the promotional tape at $15. This will be applied towards purchase price of the Sunrise 1810.

179

DATA PRODUCTS ™

1200 Baud • Hayes Compatible

The Eclipse 1200 is the best value we have ever offered in a fully Hayes Compatible modem. The unit incorporates status lamps, speaker, auto dial and many more features into this compact package.

California Digital is so comfident of your complete satisfaction that we will allow The return of the Eclipse 1200 and apply the full credit towards the purchase price of any other modem.

SUPPORT ^r^^Ti: PRODUCTS

MEMORY & SPECIALTY BOARDS

Twix Winchester, floppy and streamer tape 299

AST Six Pack 64K, serial, par'), clock/cal. 229

AST Six Pack as above but 384k/Byte ol mem. 239

AST Advantage 128K 419

AST I/O plus clock/cal. .serial & flame port 129

Quadram Quadboard II, 64K memory 279

Quadram QuadLink/Apple fifes 379

Persysl Time Spectrum card, B4K 239

DlQiGrauhics Multifunction 219

Titan Tech. PC/Acceflertor 499

Hexace RAM card 576K/byte 199

Itcxace multifunction 119

GRAPHIC CARDS

Hercules Color Card 179

Hercules Graphic Card 319

Persysl BoB Board super ht-res color. 329

Hexace half slot video card 119

Peacock Color Card, composll/RGB, printer 139

California Comp. Supervision graphics 379

INTERNALMODEMS

Modtech UltraUnk 1200,202 half duplex 99

Anchor Auto. Signalman Mk6.300 baud. Pramethus 1200B internal

4t

V

HARDWARE

Tallarass 60 meg. tape back-up Kraft IBM Joystick

Microsoft Mouse, serial & paintbrush Mouse Systems PC Mouse 8087 co-processor Keytronlcs 5151 IBM keyboard Befkin A B switch, par'! or serial SOFTWARE MicroPro WordStar word processing 179 Ashton Tate Framework, spreadsheet* 395 Ashlon Tale 0/Basc III, Data Base Manager 395 Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets more 299 Symphony by Lnlus development 419 Redwood Dev. Jr. CAD, plotter 59

1459 36 14! 149 119 199

1200 BAUD MODEMS

UltraUnk 1200

The Universal Data 212A is manufactured for the minicomputer market. This modem is both 300 and 1200 baud aulo answer. An industrial quality modem originally priced at $595. NOT Hayes compatible.

SMARTEAM 1200

199

The Team 212A offers all the features of the Hayes Smart Modem 1200 for a fraction of the price. Now is your opportunity to purchase a 1200 baud modem at [he price of a 300 baud modem.

IBKHK" mark VI

The Anchor Automation Mark VI is a 300 baud direct connect modem that plugs into any slot of your IBM/PC. This modem supports auto answer and auto dial capabililies. Other features include telephone number storage, send / receive text files, single key-stroke dialing along with many other functions provided on disk. The Mark VI was originally priced at over $300.

10 MEGABYTE WINCHESTER HARD DISK DRIVE

Quantity Two

The UltraUnk is a 1200 baud HALF DU PLEX bell 202 compatible internal modem card lor the IBM/PC. This unit operates lull duplex at 300 baud. The UltraUnk adds a voice/data demen sion to your PC. Manufacturers original suggested price on ihis modem is $795. California Digitals price is only $99.

Eclipse1200 100% Hayes, wilhstalus lamps. ECP-1200 Universal Data212LP, 1200 duplex, line powered. UDS-212LP Universal Data212A, 300/1200 baud, industrial. UDS-212A Universal Data 103JLP, line powered, auto answer. UDS-103LP Hayes Smarlmodem 2400 baud modBm HYS-2400 Fujitsu 2400/1200 baud auto everything. FUJ-1935D Team 1200 Hayes Compatible. 300/1200 baud. TEM-SM1200 UltraLink 1200dataandvoiceonsameline. UTL-1200A CTS 212AH 1200 baud, auto dial CTS-212AH Terminal software lor CTS 212AH CTS-212SFT Prometheus 1200 super features PRM-P1200 Prometheus 1200B internal PC PRM-P1200B Signalman Mark 12,1200 baud, Hayes compatible. SGL-MK12 Signalman Mark VI, 300 baud inlernal PC SGL-MK6 Hayes Smart Modem 1200 baud, auto dial HYS-212AD

Hayes 1200B for use with the IBM/PC, 1200baud. HYS-1200B Hayes Smarlmodem, 300 baud only, auto dial HYS-103AD Hayes Chronograph, time & dale HYS-CHR232 Penril 300/1200 industrial quality PEN-12AD

179.00 139.00 159.00

29.00 599.00 459.00 199.00

99.00 219.00

35.00 319.00 279.00 239.00

49.00 389.00 369.00 199.00 199.00 395.00

Five Inch Winchester Disk Drives

each two-t

SHUGART SA71210 M. Ht. 259 239 SEAGATE ST506 6.7 Meg. 139 129 SEAGATE 225 20 Meg. Vi Ht. 389 359 SEAGATE 4026 26 M.35mS. 859 829 SEAGATE 4051 51 M.35mS.1095 1059 FUJITSU 2242 55 M. 35mS. 1799 1729 FUJITSU 2243 86 M.35mS. 2295 2219 RODIME R0-202E 27 Meg. 759 729 RODIME RO-203E 40 Meg. 995 959 RODIME RO-204E 53 Meg. 1259 1195 CONTROL DATA 94155-86 M.1829 1779 MAXTOR XT 1140 140 Meg. 3379 3295 HONEYWELL 85M. 27 mS. 1795 1695 TOSHIBA MK5670 M.30mS.1789 1729 TANDON 502 10 Meg. 419 379

' Winchester Controllers lor IBM/PC •

FALCON FT-HDC half card XEBEC 1220 with floppy controller NATIONAL COMPUTER 5004 DTC 5150BX OMTI 5510 half card ADAPTEC 2010A software Install WESTERN DIGITAL WD/1002

189 269 159 159 189 189 189

• SCSI/SASI Winchester Controllers <

XEBEC 1410A5W toot print OMTI 20L

• Winchester Accessories • Installation Kit with manual Winchester enclosure and supply Dual 20/34 cable set Switching power supply

239 119

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

\f-Jt 11 vm i f

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213;

: • JANUARY 1986

California Digital

17700Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

LETTER QUALITY tM^%£%

F-10 DAISY TAjC

WHEEL PRINTER

Quantity

Single piece price $499. But II you have already purchased an F-10 printer Irom California Digital, we will honor the $429 price on the second printer.

*7o 1

Colltkitrntw, tMjptWml

The TEC F-10 Daisy Wheel printer is the perfect answer to a reasonably priced 40 character word processing printer. While this printer is " extremely" similar to C.ltoh's F-10/40 Starwriter printer. Legal counsel for the C.ltoh Company have advised us that we should refrain from referring to the TEC printer as a Starwriter. This 40 character per second printer auto installs with Wordstar and Perfect Writer. Features extensive builtin word processing functions that allow easy adaptability and reduced software complexity. Industry standard Centronics interlace provides instant compatibility with

DUAL SHUGART

SUBSYSTEM

'239

The dual Shugart subsystem features two SA465 (96 tpi) SW double sided disk drives. Also supplied within the subsystem is 50 watt power supply and a shielded signal cable.

PLOTTER

'X9

The Convex Comscnber I >s Ihe ideal solution ro make snort work ol Iranslatmg Imanaal and numeric dala into a graphic presentation Many ready to run programs sued as Loius 1-2-3. Vta-on and Apple business graphics already support this plotter

The Comscribcr I features programmable paper sizes up to 8' ? by 120 inches. 6 inch per second plot speed ant! 0 00-1 step size Easy to implement Centronics interlace allows the Comscnber t immediate use with Ihe printer pod ol most personal computers. The ComscntMjr I is manufactured lor Convex by the Enter Computer Corporation The plotter is markoied by Heath Kit and also sold under Enters own Sweet P Label This is your opportunity to purchase a plotter which was originally priced at S795 lor only S219 Also available rs a support package which includes demonstration soltware. interface cable, a multicolor pen assortment and a variety ol paper and transparency malenal

all computers equiped with a parallel printer port. The TEC F-10 accepts paper up to 15 inches in width. These printers were originally priced to sell at over $1400. Through a special arrangment California Digital has purchase these units from a major computer manufacturer and is offering these printers at a fraction of their original cost.

Options available include sheetfeeder, tractor feed, buffered memory and an assortment of printer cables for a variety of computers.

Uninterruptible Power Supply

*2B9

If you loosing data due to "dirty" powerand power failure, this uninterruptable supply is the ideal solution. The UPS supplies 250 waits ol ot clean power, free trom RFI and EMI noise. The unit will support a IBM/XT system and color monitor upto 12 miniutes after power failure. Enough time to complete your program and come to a solt landing. The UPS can be sustained for addition hours by connecting to a 12 volt car battery. This is an inexpensive solution to a very costly problem.

NEC RGB

COLOR MONITOR

'219

The NEC JC 14010 is a 13 medium-high iesoluiion RGB monitor suitable loi use with ihe Sanyo MBC-550'55S or Ihe IBM; PC The monitor features a resolution ol -100 dots by 2-10 lines Colors av.nl.ibe are Red. Green Blue Yellow. Cyan. Magenta. Black and While The NEC monitor cames Ihe Litton-Mooroe label and was originally scheduled lor use m their Otliceot Ihe F ntu'e equipment A change in Monroe s rrarkeling strategy has made these units Cxcoss oveniory which were sold lo California Digital We are ollermg these new RGB monitors at a traction ol then original cost Sanya compatible NEC-1401/S IBM/P'C Compute compatible NEC- 1401/PC

Quick-Link 300

-J59

The Quick-Link 300 gives you an instant link to any dial up data base. Such as Dow Jones. Western Union or the Source The Quick-Link has tour user programmable log-on keys, allowing the operator, with only one key stroke, to dial the data base, log-in and give the password. All this information is permanently stored in non-volatile RAM.

Features include video output to television or monitor, aulo dial, auto-log, full sized keyboard. 300 baud modem and 1200 baud auxiliary printer port. All this is available for only $59.

DRAGON

'99

Compatible with most Radio Shack Color Computer software. The world famous Dragon computer is now available in the United States. Manufactured by the Tano Corp. under license of the British Broadcasting Company. The Dragon comes complete with 64K Byte ot memory, serial modem port along with a Centronics printer interface. This unique microcomputer features Motorola's advanced 6809E microprocessor and comes standard wilh Microsoft Color Basic, data base manager, and a complete word processing package. The computer outputs color composite video along with R.F. video that allows the unit to be used in conjunction with any color television. This is the Ideal low cost computer to be used with any dial up information system such as the Source. EasyLink or any olher time share service.

5V4" DISK DRIVE

SALE '89

Quantity Two

Your Choice any 48 or 96 TPI drive SHUGART • TEAC • QUME MITSUBISHI j MATSUSHITA

w.

■H - ,

TEAC FD55B half height 99 89 89

TEAC FD55F 96 TPI, half ht. 119 89 89

TEAC FD55FG for IBM AT 189 179 175

SHUGART SA455 Half Height 99 89 89

SHUGART SA465 Vi Ht. 96TPI 99 89 89

TANDON 100-2 full height 129 125 119

MITSUBISHI 4851 half height 99 89 89 MITSUBISHI 4853 96/TPP/2 Ht. 99 89 89

MITSUBISHI 4854 8" elec. 295 285 275

QUME 142 half height 99 89 89

Switching power supply 49

Installation Kit with manual 10

Dual enclosure for 51A" drives 59

34 pin edge connectors 5

Scotch head cleaning kit 19

Flip & File Storage tubs 15

UME

*M9

Eight Inch Single Sided Drives

QUME 841 single side 159 149 call

SHUGART 801R 359 359 354

SIEMENS FDD 100-8 119 115 109

Eight Inch Double Sided Drives QUME 842 "QUME TRACK 8" 189 179 call SHUGART SA851R OLIVETTI double sided REMEX RFD-4000

MITSUBISHI M2896-63 Vi Ht. 459 449 409 Dual 8" enclosure with power and fan 259 Switching power supply 89 Installation kit with manual 10

PRINTERS

495 485 475 189 179 159 179 169 159

MATRIX PRINTERS

STR-SG10

STR-SG15

STR-D10

CIT-MSP10

70S-1351

OKI-182A

OKI-192A

OKI-84P

EPS-LX80

EPS-FXB0

EPS-RX100

EPS-FX100

EPS-LQ1500

EPS-JXS0

PRO-8510P

Star Gem in i-SG10 120 char/sec. StarGemini-SGl5. lOOchar./soc 15"paper Star Gemini Delia 10. 160 Char/sec Citizen MSP/10FT 160 char/sec Toshiba Pi 351. 192 char/sec letter quality Okidala 182A serial & parallel 9' /' papor Okidata I92A parallel interlace. 160 char;sec Okidala 84 P parallel 15" paper Epson LX-80 I01' 120 Char/sec. Epson FX8QFT. 10" 160 char./soc. wilh graphirax Epson RXlOO i 15' wiihGraphtrax Epson FX100FT 15" 160 char./soc with graphtrax Epson LQ1500. 15" coresponclence quality Epson JX80 Color printer

WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS

Starwriter F10parallel. 40 char/sec PRO-F10P

NEC8810 55 char/second, senat interface NEC-B810

NEC8830 55 char/sec. par t mlerlaco. NEC-8830

NEC3550 popular printer designed lor the IBM/PC NEC-3550 NEC2050 designed tor IBM/PC 20 char/sec. par i. Silver Reed EXP500. 14 char/sec. par I interlace

Silver Reed EXP550 17 Char/sec par I interlace UHU-txf:

Diablo 630 40 char/sec. serial DGL-630 Diabfo 620. proportional spacing. horz A ^ert lab. 20 CDS. D8L-620

Juki6l00, I8char./sec. JUK-6100

Juki 6300.40 char/sec. JUK-6300

Comrex CR2, 5k butler, proportional spacing, pari CRX-CR2I

239 00 389.00 359 00 289 00

1495 00 257 00 345.00 789.00 239.00 369.00 389.00 489 00 895 00 519.00 329.00

6985.00

499.00 1659 00 1659 00 1599 00 689.00 31900 429 00 1569.00 769 00 399 00 699 00 395 00

Shipping: First five pounds $3.00, each additional pound $.50. Foreign orders: 10% shipping, excess will be refunded. California residents add 6%% sales tax. • COD's discouraged. >en accounts extended to state supported educational instituns and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.

JANUARY I986 -BYTE 449

450 BYTE" IANUARY 1986

Inquiry 178

Inquiry 178

IANUARY 1986 • BYTE 451

5W

SS/DD Soft

BASF

FLEX Y DISKS

100 +

$ .92,

$1.02e

DS/DD Soft

High Density $Q CO (IBM-AT) C.yJyJe

.89 ,99

$2.49 e

'2.10*3 $2.05

3.5 / SS Micro

In Stock — Immediate Shipment.

Mastercard, VISA, Check or Money Order. Add $3.00 shipping charges per each 100 or part. Add $2.50 additional for C.O.D. shipments. N.J. residents add 6% sales tax.

Data Exchange

Dept. B, P.O. Box 993 178 Route 206 South Somerville, N.J. 08876

(201) 874-5050

EPROM

PROGRAMMER

APROTEK 1000

ONLY

UIVLY

,-.HHK $265.00

COMPLETE WITH PERSONALITY MODULE 117 VOLT AC POWER-RS232 -6 BAUD RATES - HANDSHAKE TO HOST ALLOWS READ, WRITE, VERIFY & COPY

Comes complete with a CPM, IBM-PC or Apple Driver Program on Disc.

Programs the following 5 Volt 24 or 28 pin devices: 2716 series through 27256, 25xx series, 68764 plus others. Please Specify Personality Module desired with order. Additional Personality Modules only $ 1 5.00 ea. Full 1 year warranty.

TO ORDER CALL 1 800 9R2 5800 OR WRITE APROTEK

1071 A AVEMIDA ACASO Ailil CAMARILLO. CA 93010 04 00 Shipping USA Into I80SI 987 24S4 VISA or MC Add 3%

_____

Real-Time Multitasking Executive

■ No royalties

■ Source code included

■ Fault free operation

■ Ideal lor process control

■ Timing control provided

■ Low interrupt overhead

■ Inter-task messages

Options:

■ Resource Manager

■ Buffer Manager

■ Integer Math Library

■ Language Interfaces: C Pascal PL/M Fortran

■ DOS File Access : CP/M-80 IBM PC DOS

CP'U-aO.iIUtirDrg.lar m PCDOSwlMWN

AMX tor 8080 $ 800 US 8086 950 6809 950 68000 1600

Manual (specify processor) 75

JL KADAK Products Ltd. <«"i

sac Telex: 04-55670

206-1847 W. Broadway. Vancouver, B C. Canada V6J1Y5

Inquiry 394

Inquiry 24

Inquiry 190

ChinaStar© II CHINESE WORD PROCESSOR

4-3C3fc

$99.

• IBM PC, XT, AT, portable or compatible with 256 K RAM

• Multilingual

• 21,000 Traditional or 11,000 Simplified Chinese characters

• Traditional/Simplified file translation program

• Multiple input methods ■■■

JHL JHL RESEARCH, INC.

2552 W. Woodland Dr., Anaheim, CA 92801 (714) 827-7420 Telex: 350481 IBC

_______ SINGLE

M68000 board

COMPUTER

On board 6-10 MHz CPU, 20K RAM. 32K EPROM, two RS-232,16-bit port, 5-counter/timers expandable via Memory/FDC Board.

M68K CPU (bare board) $ 89.95

M68KCPUA&T(6MHz) $495.00

MD512K Memory/FDC (bare board) $ 89.95

MD512K Memory/FDC (128K) $495.00

FDC/Hard Disk interface option $150.00

M68KE Enclosure w/power supply $249.00

M68K Monitor EPROM's $ 95.00

M68K Macro Cross Assembler $195.00

4XF0RTH OSw/assembler, editor $295.00

CP/M68K 0Sw/"C" compiler $395.00

m M Educational P.O. Box 16115

§-" rVI ^% Microcomputer Irvine, CA 92713 _— 1T_\J Systems (714)854-8545

15- BIT A/D CONVERTER

for IBM® PC

+ /-5 VOLT INPUT RANGE. FULLY DIFFERENTIAL 0.025% ACCURACY, 4 CHANNELS

7 SAMPLES/SECOND $265

6-CHANNEL THERMOCOUPLE THERMOMETER

FULLY DIFFERENTIAL $175

64-CHANNEL DATA LOGGING SOFTWARE

VOLTAGE. CURRENT OR THERMOCOUPLES

16- CHANNEL STRIP CHART INCLUDED POWERFUL AND EASY TO USE $150

FOR APPLE II®

BROAD LINE OF DATA ACQUISITION AND CONTROL

PRODUCTS INCLUDING: 8-. 12-, AND 13-BIT A/D CONVERTERS SAMPLING RATES UP TO 111,000/SECOND THERMOMETRY. DIGITAL I/O DATA LOGGING SOFTWARE CUSTOM HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REASONABLE PRICES

LAWSON LABS, INC.

5700 RAISE ROAD

COLUMBIA FALLS. MT 59912 406-387-5355

Inquiry 186

Inquiry 119

Inquiry 204

.JT PC/XT USERS!

M COGTREE Utilities by

Cogitate SI 29.95

M LYNC by Norton-Umber SI99.95

I DATAFLEX by Data Access. ..Varies

# RM/COBOL by Ryan/

McFarland Varies

f Universe by Omnitrend. . . . S 98.50 0 Blue Mad by Cogitate S599.00

# CadPower+ by Trilex S995.00

0 Softext Teaching Aids S 95.00

0 PrintSet by Cogitate S 79.95

JT CogiTAPE by Cogitate CALLII

0 Anti-Static Products Varies

J~ Uninterruptible Power

Backups Varies

J" TeleVideo Software CALLII

Elite

"A Higher Form of Software" 24000 Telegraph Road Southfleld. Ml 48034 |313| 352-2345/Telex 386581

VISA/MASTERCARD ACCEPTED Dealer Inquiries Welcomed

ICs and Disk Drives

□ B4K / 12BK / S5BK

D-RAMs at LOW PRICES

□ TEAC FD-55BV DSDD Disk drives IB9.00 aach or

•82.00 each for box of 10 [w/one vest factory warranty!]

□ V-S0/V-30 TURBO CHARGER

• HIGH SPEED—Up to 40% increase!

• CMOS—Uses 85% less power!

• REPLACES slow 8088 CPU

• LOW COST!

□ MEMORY BOARDS

'ABM SUPERBOARD w/BK S 125.00

'ABM MEM512 W/U5K * 95.00

•JRAM-2 w/BK 1149.00 Expandable 2MB w/BK (149.00

□ E-PROM, S-RAM, 9007, and 90997a are IN STOCK CALL US FOR DETAILS)

WAHHANTY All ICs .no guaranteed lot 180 days from the fl

ExcelTec Industries, Inc.

P.O. Box 2205 Silver Spring, MD 20902 1015 Gayley Ave. #422, Los Angeles, CA 90024

West Coast East Coast

Phone: (213) 208-6942 (301) 933-3523 FAX: (213) 208-6846 (301) 933-3643 OEMs and DEALERS are Invited CALL US FOR THE LATEST PRICES

9-TRACK MAG. TAPE SUBSYSTEM FOR THE IBM PC/XT/AT

For information interchange, backup and archival storage, IBEX oilers a 9-trock. IBM lormal-compaiible V magnelic tape subsystem lor the IBM PC. fealuring:

■ 42 M-Bytea on a single reel.

■ IBM formal 1600 cpl.

IBEX COMPUTER COUP

20741 Manila St Chnlaworth CA 91311 (818) 709-8100 TWX 910-493-2071

Inquiry 162

Products

nternational 7i4/898-o84o *"/

Fax: 714/897-3363

A 92649 <

look Iwh?;,»

Inside!

? XAT is out nost versatile and powerful system Using Intel's 80286 processor. the system runs al 6 and 8 MHz with a true 16-bil dala bus Comes standard with a 3 meg Add-On board, 2 parallel & one serial t, monitor, keyboard. DOS 3.1. two alght DS. DD l 2 meg floppies.

//,;'•;•

This standard system is as compatible with IBM as it can be. Featuring a 4-layer motherboard. 8-slot expansion, up to 640K memory on Ihe motherboard, and the 6.67 MHz TURBO mode Also included; DOS 3.1. keyboard. 135 watt power supply, TTL 720 > 348 resolution video card, green or amber monitor, serial & parallel ports. Real Time Clock and software.

Amsterdam ■ 020-45-26-50

Our 1986 Catalog is HOT} off the press!

/ 1 N Dealers! Check our 9 * Profitable Discount fggffM Pricing!

isf%= Compact

■WlHiillli! ■IIIIWB1 -I

Trie perfect choice for Ihe System integrator who needs the IBM compatibility, but not in the standard PC cabinet This model leatures hinged and removable sides, up to 3 ' jheighl peripherals out front, front mount AC switch and rear mount 200 watt power supply Also makes an ideal "Host" of File Server" unit in multi-user configurations1

■111.

The XTJr. is only junior in size1 With up to 640K memory on Ihe motherboard and lour expansion slots, this stand-alone system is also great for workstations in a networking environment It can be upgraded to the TURBO two speed motherboard and you can also add up to 2 serial & 2 parallel ports or any IBM compatible expansion card. A perfect word processing data entry system

This is truly the affordable portable, and we'll build i: to your specifications Need a 20 meg hard disk and 20 meg tape with 640K memory in your compact portable' Or how about a 2 lloppy Turbo system? No problem* The XPC Compact comes standard with a 9 " green CRT driven by a color graphics card so you'll always have a RGB color output to externally run a color monitor

24 Add-On Cards

Germany

2 Meg Above Board

Hard Disk Controller

384K Multi-Function

4 Meg Token Ring ™

wm

This board satisfies ihe new " Above Board" approach suggested by INTEL and Lotus 1-2-3 Also may be used on our XT-SBC TURBO board for memory based at OX

Handles 1 or 2 drives. 5 to K0 megabytes with minimum software configuration Features DOS 213 31 compatibility, and ST-506 Interface

Features Parallel Port. Serial Port. Game Port. Clock Calendar. Expand to 384K. all cables. PrintSpooler and RAM Disk Software.

Connect your workstation to an existing 4 Megabyte IBM token ring sys;em or build up your own IEEE 802 5 standard system The lowest possible cost for 100e«industry standard compatibility.

AT H.D. & Floppy

Mono & Color Graphics

7 PAK Multi-Function

PROM Laser t

1 - ;1

U 1

1

This new combo board with its h-speed VLSI technology will give you a data transler rate 50% than the existing combo board in the AT. Runs both 360K and 1.2 meg

Supports two levels of graphics and text in monochrome or color Low resolution 320 x 200 pixel, high resolution 640 x 200 pixel.

Features Floppy Controller. Parallel Port, Serial Port (optional 2nd Serial). Game Port, Clock Calendar. RAMdisk. PnntSpooler, all cables & manuals.

Hi-speed algorithmes will burn 2716, 2732, 2732A. 2764 (in 52 sec) 27128. 27256 EPROMS under software control right m youi PC.

England

35 Components

Bombay ■ 357172

Motherboards

XAT TURBO XT-SBC

• 6 8. & 10MHz clock

• 8-slot expansion

• Intel 80286

XPC TURBO

< 4 77 4 8 MHz ClOCk

1 Serial & Parallel

1 4 layer PCB design

1 RTC Calendar

XPCOCT

> 4 77 & 6 67 MHZ i 4-layer PCB design 1 8-slot expansion 1 up lo640K Memory 8088-2 processor

• Standard 4 77 MHz

• up to 640K memory

• 8-slot expansion

• standard 8088 CPU 8087 socket avail

Power Supplys

XT 135 watt XTC-Black

1 135w switching 1 Whisper Fan

• Side AC switch

• + 5V-15A/-SV-5A

1 Rear Mount

• Rear On Oil switch ' extra AC outlets

• +5V-15A -5V-.5A

+ 12V-4.2A. - 12V- 5A • + 12V-4A -12V-.5A

AT 200 watt XT 150 watt

"•at

• 200 Watt power

• Exterior AC switch

• 4 DC power conn

• + 5V-20A.-5V-5A

12V-7 7A'-12V-.5A

Whisper (an Hi-outpul 150 watt 4 DC connectors + 5V-15A -5V- 5A + 12V-5 5A -12V- 5A

Cabinets

The XTJr. cabinet is only 3" x 16 5" x 15 vet will hold a standard XT compatible motherboar.j Includes a switching power supply From panel cut-out lor a half-height lloppy or hard disk.

Our XPC-XT cabinet has an Bslot back panel with additional cut-ouls lor two RS-232 I 0 ports Features mounting lor up to lour hall heighl peripherals

The right choice for an external add-on cabinet' Add-on a floppy, tape back-up. or Lp to 33 meg ol hard disk (half-height) Switching power supply is included

Keyboards

AT

This Keyboard is standard equipment with all of out XAT systems, hut the layout is so well liked, we're offering il here _

XT

Our volume purchases ol these IBM style unils allows us to lower the price once again

5151

Now a fully selectric unit al an affordable price Features a 10-key numeric pad & a separate cursor pad

Drives

Archive Irwin Maxtor Memtek Miniscribe Panasonic Seagate TEAC Tulin

. ul/uu-l tJiui-caaui w uuui iui^ci ti Villi ■ Titvi.in1 itv-.un - Titcj.gn' " ■ ~~r~.-.—-~ ~~-~w.

^^^uTTsystems^B ^^^Netwer1(s^^^^Tas^ette*Trinn^

ill!

■

i

•» '■' 4*

One way to stay ahead ol Ihe competition is by using a MultiUser or Network syslem conliguralion Irom Micro Products International Choose Hi-speed RS-232 - XOR-NET SDLC or Token Ring Data transler rales up to 4 megabytes

What is Ihe Cassette Training concept' Using Interactive Audio Training to combine the advantage ol classroom and self-teaching methods

The Metnod One audio track delivers a lecture explaining the prog.'am, while Ihe second track emulates the keyboard, actually runs the student's computer At frequent intervals the

mpu|Pwhich is monilored^or accuracy by the MITS COED

• FCC approved direct RJ-il connection

• Phone Cable 8 Power Supply Finally a price breakthrough on a 30 1200 baud modem Our low pr sollwau?.

• Runs the popular Hayes communications sollware

if

» XC0M soltware

included » All cables included

Runs the popular Hayes communications soltware

We included every lealure you would want in a modem card.

Inquiry 238

PORTABLE MEMORY EXPANSIONS

8K MEMORY MODULES $29

For Model 100, NEC PC-8201A & Olivetti M10

24K MEMORY MODULES $99

For Tandy 200

12BK SIDESTAR $399

A Ram Disk Cartridge tor the NEC Starlet

12SK SIDECAR $259

Ram Cartridge lor the NEC PC-8201A

TTXpress 1280 $99

Portable Thermal Printer—2.2 lbs., bat. oper. FREE SHIPPING IN USA

(805) 987-4788 (in Calif.)

(800)732-5012

VISA MIC & AMER.EXP.

420 Constitution Ave., Camarillo, CA 93010

fScOMPUTING

Inquiry 429

FREE SOFTWARE

FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

User Group Software isn't copyrighted, so no fees to pay! 1000's of CP/M and IBM software programs in COM and source code to copy yourself! Games, business, utilities! All FREE!

Rent Buy

IBMPC-SIG 1-390 Dlsksldes 410. 850.

IBMPC-BLUE 1-154 Dlsksldes 175. 475.

SIG/M UG 1-246 Dlsksldes 160. 675.

CP/M UG 1-92 Dlsksldes 45. 250.

PICO NET 1-34 Dlsksldes 25. 100.

KAYPRO UG 1-54 Dlsksldes 65. 200.

EPSON UG 1-52 Dlsksldes 65. 200.

Commodore CBM 1-93 Dlsksldes.. 100. 200. Public Domain User Group Catalog Disk $5 pp.

(payment in advance, please) Rental is for 7 days after receipt, 3 days grace to

return. Use a credit card, no disk deposit. Shipping, handling & insurance $950 per library. (619) 941-0925 Orders & Technical (9 to 5) (619) 727-1015 24 Hr. 3 Mln. Info Recording Have your credit card ready!

National Public Domain Software

1533 Avohill Dr. Vista, CA 92083

800-621-5460 then dial 782-542

BBB

AM EX

Inquiry 26!

Rl/V 3M

W /*# FLEXYC

T~ j

FLEXYDISKS

SS/DD Soft

DS/DD Soft

10-90 100 +

M .15ea 1 ■ 1 1 ea M .59ea 1 i54ea $3.19 ea

$2.35ea $2.25ea In Stock — Immediate Shipment.

Mastercard, VISA, Check or Money Order. Add $3.00 shipping charges per each 100 or part. Add $2.50 additional (or C.O.D. shipments. N.J. residents add 6% sales tax.

Data Exchange

Dept. B, P.O. Box 993 178 Route 206 South Somerville, N.J. 08876

(201) 874-5050

High Density $Q OQ (IBM-AT) 0.£3e

3.5JSS Micro

in inn

65

years worked 40 retirement benefits 0

The U.S. Department of Labor has a free booklet that will help you answer these questions and a lot more. Send for it today. Write: Pensions, Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, Colorado 81009

U.S. Department of Labor

KEYBOARD PROTECTOR

Remains in place during keyboard use. Prevents damage from liquid spills, dust, ashes, etc. Fits like a second skin, excellent feel. Available for: IBM-PC. AT, Apple (all). Compaq, Model 100, NEC 8201, C64, Zenith 150, DEC, Kaypro and many others. Send $29.95, check, M.O., Visa & MC include exp. date. Specify computer type. Dealer inquiries invited. Free brochure avail.

Merritt Computer Products, Inc. 2925 LBJ Fwy. *180 / Dallas, Texas 75234 (214) 942-1142

Inquiry 232

BUY UNITED STATES SAVINGS

1 Exxon

i I

General Motors

i

Mobil

4

i-ord Motor

c b

IBM

6

Texaco

7

E.I. du Pont

8

Standard Oil (Ind.)

9

Standard Oil of Cal.

10

General Electric

11 Gulf Oil

12

Atlantic Richfield

13

Shell Oil

14

Occidental Petroleum

15

U.S. Steel

16

Phillips Petroleum

17 C.i m

27 million Americans can't read. And guess who pays the price.

Every year, functional illiteracy costs American business billions.

But your company can fight back...by joining your local community's fight against illiteracy. Call the Coalition for Literacy at toll-free 1-800-228-8813 and find out how.

You may find it's the greatest cost-saving measure your company has ever taken.

A literate America is a good investment.

frxr^

0

cialition for Literacy

r BUILD YOUR OWN XT COMPATIBLE SYSTEM

640K XT COMPATIBLE MOTHERBOARD

ONLY $169

★ 4.77 MHz 8088 CPU, OPTIONAL 8087 CO-PROCESSOR

★ 8 EXPANSION SLOTS

★ OK RAM INSTALLED, EXPANDABLE TO 640K ON-BOARD MEMORY

★ ALL ICS SOCKETED—HIGHEST QUALITY PC BOARD

★ ACCEPTS 2764 OR 27128 ROMS

Compatible with all IBM PC/XT hardware and software. Use with our flip-top case, power supply and other accessories to build a complete XT compatible system.

PRO-BIOS $29»

IBM XT Compatible BIOS runs virtually all IBM software, even Sidekick! EXTRA FEATURES: Control colors from DOS

Park heads on the hard disk with Control-Alternate-Break

HARD DISK SYSTEMS

MINISCRIBE/SHUGART 10 MEGABYTE HALF HEIGHT

SEAGATE ST-225 20 MEGABYTE HALF HEIGHT

$395 $525

Includes short slot HD controller, cables, mounting hardware and instructions. All drives are pre-tested. One year warranty.

evices

1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128 800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430 FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

LEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling include $2.50 for UPS Ground and $3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign CHOC** may require additional shipping charges - please canlacl our sales department for the amount. CA. residents must Include applicable sales tax. All merchandise is warranted for 90 days unless otherwise suited. Prices are subject to change without notice. We are not responsible for typographical errors. We reserve the right lo limit quantities and to substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

© Copyright 1985 JDR Microdevices

ited. Prices are subject to change without notice. We are no graphical errors. We reserve the right lo limit quantities and tc irer. All merchandise subject lo prior sale.

Inquiry I82

IANUARY 1986 -BYTE 455

4164 200ns 690

41256 150ns $2.9

STATIC RAMS

2101 5101 2102L-4 21021-2 2112 2114 2114L4 2114L-2 2114L-15 TMS4044-4 TMM2016-150 TMM2016-100 HM6116-4 H W(3116-3 HM6116LP-4 HM6116LP-3 HM6116LP-2 HM6264P-15 HM6264LP-15 HM6264LP-12 LP=Low pi

256x4 256x4 1024x1 1024x1 256x4 1024x4 1024x4 1024x4 1024x4 4096x1

2048x8 2048x8 2048x8 2048x8 2048x8 8192x8 8192x8 8192x8

(450ns)

(450ns){CMOS)

(450ns)(LP)

(250nsl(LP)

(450ns)

(450ns)

|450ns)|LP)

(200nsl(LP)

(150ns|(LP)

(450ns)

(150ns)

(100ns)

|200ns)|CMOS)

|150ns)|CMOS)

(200ns||CMOS)(LP)

|150ns)|CMOS)(LP)

|120ns)(CMOS)|LP|

|150ns)(CMOS)

|150ns)|CMOSI(LP)

|120ns)|CMOS)(LP)

1.95 3.95

.99 1.45 2.99

.99 1.09 1.49 1.95 1.95 1.49 1.95 1.39 1.49 1.49 1.59 2.95 3.89 3.95 4.49

DYNAMIC RAMS

4116-250

16384x1

(250ns)

.49

4116-200

16384x1

(200ns)

.69

4116-150

16384x1

(150ns)

.89

4116-120

16384x1

(120ns)

1.49

MK4332

32768x1

(200ns)

6.95

4164-200

65536x1

|200ns|(5V|

.69

4164-150

65536x1

(150ns)(5V)

.79

4164-120

65536x1

(120ns)(5V)

1.95

MCM6665

65536x1

(200ns)(5V)

1.95

TMS4164

65536x1

(150ns)(5V|

1.95

4164 REFRESH

65536x1

|150ns)(5V|(REFRESH) 2.95

TMS4416

16384x4

|150ns)|5V)

4.95

41128-150

131072x1

|150ns)(5V)

5.95

41256-200

262144x1

|200ns)(5V)

2.95

41256-150

262144x1

|150ns)(5V)

2.95

5V=Single 5 Vo

1 Supply

REFRESH Pin

1 Rof

resh

* ★★★HIGHTECH**** MECV20 UPD70108 $20"

REPLACES 8088 TO SPEED UP IBM PC 10-40%

* HIGH-SPEED ADDRESS CALCULATION IN HARDWARE

* PIN COMPATIBLE WITH 8088

* SUPERSET OF 8086/8088 INSTRUCTION SET

* LOW POWER CMOS

8 MHZ V20 UPD7010B-8 $24.95 8 MHZ V3D UPD70116-8 $26.95

****SPOTLIQHT****

ORDER TOLL FREE

800-538-5000 800-662-6279,.,

EPROMS

2708

1024x8

(450ns)

3.95

2716-6

2048x8

(650ns)

2.29

2716

2048x8

(450ns)(5V)

1.95

2716-1

2048x8

(350ns)(5V)

2.49

TMS2532

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)

3.95

2732

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)

2.29

2732A

4096x8

(250rts)(5V)(21V PGM)

2.69

2732A-2

l^uunsjpvfif t v r uiwii

3 95

27C64

8192x8

(250ns)|5V)(CMOS)

5!95

2764

8192x8

|450ns)(5V)

1.95

2764-250

8192x8

|250ns||5VI

2.49

2764-200

8192x8

(200ns)|5V|

3.49

TMS2564

8192x8

(450ns)|5V|

8.95

MCM68766

8192x8

(350ns)|5V)|24 PIN)

17.95

27128

16384x8

|250ns)(5V|

2.79

27C256

32768x8

|250ns)(5V||CMOSI

12.95

27256

32768x8

(250ns)|5V)

7.49

5V=Single 5 Vol

Supply

21V PGMUProgram at 21

Volts

D corporation EPROM ERASERS

8000

8035

1.49

8039

1.95

8080

2.95

8085

2.49

8087-2

139.95

8087

109.00

8088

6.95

8088-2

9.95

8155

2.49

8155-2

3.95

8748

7.95

8755

19.95

80286

129.95

80287

185.00

6500

1.0 MHZ

6502 2.79 65C02 (CMOS) 12.95

CRT CONTROLLERS

CRYSTALS

6507 6520 6522 6526 6532 6545 6551 6561 6581

9.95 1.95 4.95

26.95 6.95 6.95 5.95

19.95

6845

68B45

6847

HD46505SP MC1372 8275 7220 CRT5027 CRT5037 . TMS9918A

4.95 8.95 11.95 6.95 2.95 26.95 19.95 12.95 9.95 19.95 .

2.0 MHZ

6200

8203 8205 8212 8216 8224 8237 8237-5 8250 8251 8251A 8253 8253-5 8255 8255-5 8259 8259-5 8272 8279 8279-5 8282 8284 8286 / 8288

6502A I 6520A 6522A 6532A 6545A 6551A

2.95 2.95 5.95 11.95 7.95 6.95

3.0 MHZ

l 6502B 6.95 ,

Z-80

Z80-CPU 2 5 MHz

1.79

4.0 MHZ

Z80A-CPU

1.89

Z80A-CTC

1.95

Z80A-DART

5.95

Z80A-DMA

5.95

Z80A-PIO

1.95

Z80A-SIO/0

5.95

Z80A-SIO/1

5.95

Z80A-SIO -2

5.95

1 8.0 MHZ

Z80B-CPU

4.95

Z80B-CTC

8.95

Z80B-PIO

8.95

Z80B-DART 1

4.95

Z80B-SIO/0 1

2.95

Z80B-SIO/2 1

2.95

L Z8671 ZILOG 1

9.95 .

6860

1.0 MHZ

6800

1.95

6802

4.95

6803

9.95

6809

5.95

6809E

5.95

6810

1.95

6820

2.95

6821

1.95

6840

6.95

6843

19.95

6844

12.95

6845

4.95

6847

11.95

6850

1.95

6883

22.95

2.0 MHZ

68B00

4.95

68B02

5.95

68B09E

7.95

68B09

7.95

68B21

4.95

68B45

8.95

68B50

3.95

68B54

7.95

OISK

CONTROLLERS

1771

4.95

1791

9.95

1793

9.95

1795

12.95

1797

12.95

2791

19.95

2793

19.95

2797

29.95

6843

19.95

8272

4.95

UPD765

4.95

MB8876

12.95

MB8877

12.95

1691

6.95

2143

6.95

32.768 KHz 1.0 MHz 1.8432 2.0

2.097152 2.4576 3.2768 3.579545 4.0 4.032 5.0 I 5.0688 6.0 6.144 6.5536 8.0 10.0

10.738635 12.0

14.31818 15.0 16.0 17.430 18.0 18.432 20.0 22.1184 24.0 32.0

CRYSTAL

BIT RATE QENERATORS

9.95 4.95

MC14411 BR1941 4702

COM8116 8.95

. MM5307 4.95 ,

OARTS

AY5-1013

3.95

AY3-1015

4.95

TR1602

3.95

2651

4.95

IM6402

6.95

IM6403

9.95

INS8250

6.95

CLOCK CIRCUITS

MM 5 369 1.95 MM5369-EST 1.95 MM58167 12.95 MM58174 11.95 . MSM5832 2.95 .

SOUND CHIPS

76477 76489 SSI 263 AY3-8910 AY3-8912 . SP1000

3.95 8.95 39.95 12.95 12.95 39.00 .

OSCILLATORS

1.0MHz

5.95

1.8432

5.95

2.0

5.95

2.4576

5.95

2.5

4.95

4.0

4.95

5.0688

4.95

6.0

4.95

6.144

4.95

8.0

4.95

10.0

4.95

12.0

4.95

12.480

4.95

15.0

4.95

16.0

4.95

18.432

4.95

20.0

4.95

.24.0

4.95

MISC.

TMS99531

9.96

TMS99532

19.95

ULN2003

.79

3242

7.95

3341

4.95

MC3470

1.95

MC3480

8.95

MC3487

2.95

11C90

13.95

2513-001 UP

6.95

AY5-2376

11.95

. AY5-3600 PRO

11.95

TED AT 1256 !

74LS60

Model

Timer

Capacity Chip

Intensity (uW/Cm1)

Unit Price

PE-14

NO

9

8.000

S83.00

PE-14T

YES

9

8.000

S119.00

PE-24T

YES

12

9.600

S175.00

74LS00

.16

74LS165

.65

74LS01

.18

74LS166

.95

74LS02

.17

74LS169

.95

74LS03

.18

74LS173

.49

74LS04

.16

74LS174

.39

74LS05

.18

74LS175

.39

74LS0B

.18

74LS191

.49

74LS09

.18

74LS192

.69

74LS10

.16

74LS193

.69

74LS11

.22

74LS194

.69

74LS12

.22

74LS195

.69

74LS13

.26

74LS196

.59

74LS14

.39

74LS197

.59

74LS15

.26

74LS221

.59

74LS20

.17

74LS240

.69

74LS21

.22

74LS241

.69

74LS22

.22

74LS242

.69

74LS27

.23

74LS243

.69

74LS28

.26

74LS244

.69

74LS30

.17

74LS245

.79

74LS32

.18

74LS251

.49

74LS33

.28

74LS253

.49

74LS37

.26

74LS256

1.79

74LS38

.26

74LS257

.39

74LS42

.39

74LS258

.49

74LS47

.59

74LS259

1.29

74LS48

.69

74LS260

.49

74LS51

.17

74LS266

.39

74LS73

.29

74LS273

.79

741S74

.24

74LS279

.39

74LS75

.29

74LS280

1.98

74LS76

.29

74LS283

.59

74LSB3

.49

74LS290

.89

74LS85

.49

74LS293

.89

74LS86

.22

74LS299

1.49

74LS90

.39

74LS322

3.95

74LS92

.49

74LS323

2.49

74LS93

.39

74LS364

1.95

74LS95

.49

74LS365

.39

74LS107

.34

74LS367

.39

74LS109

.36

74LS368

.39

74LS112

.29

74LS373

.79

74LS122

.45

74LS374

.79

74LS123

.49

74LS375

.95

74LS124

2.75

74LS377

.79

74LS125

.39

74LS378

1.18

74LS126

.39

74LS390

1.19

74LS132

.39

74LS393

.79

74LS133

.49

74LS541

1.49

74LS136

.39

74LS624

1.95

74LSI38

.39

74LS640

.99

74LS139

.39

74LS645

.99

74LS145

.99

74LS669

1.29

74LS147

.99

74LS670

.89

74LS148

.99

74LS682

3.20

74LS151

.39

74LS683

3.20

74LS153

.39

74LS684

3.20

74LS154

1.49

74LS688

2.40

74LS155

.59

74LS783 22.95

74LS156

.49

81LS95

1.49

74LS157

.35

81LS96

1.49

74LS158

.29

81LS97

1.49

74LS160

.29

81LS98

1.49

74LS161

.39

25LS2521 2.80

74LS162

.49

25LS2569 2.80

74LS163

.39

26LS31

1.95

74LS164

.49

26LS32

HIGH SPEED CMOS

A new family of high speed CMOS logic featuring the speed of low power Schottky (8ns typical gate propagation delay), combined with the advantages of CMOS: very low power consumption, superior noise immunity, and improved output drive.

74HC00

74HC: Operate at CMOS logic levels and £

re ideal

for new, all-CMOS designs.

74HC00

.59

74HC148

1.19

74HC02

.59

74HC151

.89

74HC04

.59

74HC154

2.49

74HC08

.59

74HC157

.89

74HC10

.59

74HC158

.95

74HC14

.79

74HC163

1.16

74HC20

.59

74HC175

.99

74HC27

.59

74HC240

1.89

74HC30

.59

74HC244

1.89

74HC32

.69

74HC245

1.89

74HC51

.59

74HC257

.85

74HC74

.75

74HC259

1.39

74HC85

1.35

74HC273

1.89

74HC86

.69

74HC299

4.99

74HC93

1.19

74HC368

.99

74HC107

.79

74HC373

2.29

74HC109

.79

74HC374

2.29

74HC112

.79

74HC390

1.39

74HC125

1.19

74HC393

1.39

74HC132

1.19

74HC4017

1.99

74HC133

.69

74HC4020

1.39

74HC138

.99

74HC4049

.89

74HC139

.99

74HC4050

.89

74HCT60

74HCT: Direct, drop-in

eplacoments for LS TTL

and can be inte

rmixed with 74LS in the sen*

> circuit.

74HCT00

.69

74HCT166

3.05

74HCT02

.69

74HCT174

1.09

74HCT04

.69

74HCT193

1.39

74HCT08

.69

74HCT194

1.19

74HCT10

.69

74HCT240

2.19

74HCT11

.69

74HCT241

2.19

74HCT27

.69

74HCT244

2.19

74HCT30

.69

74HCT245

2.19

74HCT32

.79

74HCT257

.99

74HCT74

.85

74HCT259

1.59

74HCT75

.95

74HCT273

2.09

74HCT138

1.15

74HCT367

1.09

74HCT139

1.15

74HCT373

2.49

74HCT154

2.99

74HCT374

2.49

74HCT157

.99

74HCT393

1.S9

74HCT158

.99

74HCT4017

2.19

74HCT161

1.29

74HCT4040

1.59

74HCT164

1.39

74HCT4060

1.49

74F00

74F00

.69

74F74 .79

74F251 1.69

74F02

.69

74F86 .99

74F253 1.69

74F04

.79

74F138 1.69

74F257 1.69

74F08

.69

74F139 1.69

74F280 1.79

74F10

.69

74F157 1.69

74F283 3.95

74F240 3.29

74F373 4.29

BJDR Microdevices

11224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128 0-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430 FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

HOURS: PLEASE Ul

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling Include $2.50 tor UPS Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign orders may require additional shipping charges - please contact our sales department tor the amount CA. residents must Include applicable sales tax. All merchandise is warranted for 90 days unless otherwise stated. Prices are subject to change without notice. We are not responsible lor typographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and to substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale

© COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. THE JDR MICRODEVICES LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES. JDR INSTRUMENTS AND JDR MICRODEVICES ARE TRADEMARKS OF JDR MICRODEVICES IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES. APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER.

456 BYTE • JANUARY

Inquiry 183

PARTIAL LISTING ONLY — CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG

CMOS

4001 4011 4012 4013 401S 4016 4017 4018 4020 4021 4024 4025 4027 4028 4035 4040 4041 4042 4043 4044 4045 404G 4047 4049 4050 4051 4052 4053 4056 4060 4066 4069 4076 4077 4081 4085 4086 4093 4094 14411 .14412

.19 .19

.29 .29 .49 .69 .59 .69 .49 .25

.69 .75 .59 .85 .69

1.98 .69 .69 .29 .29 .69 .69 .69

2.19 .69 .29 .19 .59 .29 .22

.49 2.49

14419 14433 4503 4511 4516 4518 4522 4526 4527 4528 4529 4532 4538 4541 4553 4585 4702 74C00 74C14 74C74 74C83 74C85 74C95 74C150 74C151 74C161 74C163 74C164 74C192 74C193 74C221 74C240 74C244 74C374 74C905 74C911 74C917 74C922 74C923 74C926 80C97

4.95 14.95 .49 .69 .79 .85 .79 .79 1.95 .79 2.95 1.95 .95 1.29 5.79 .75 12.95 .29 .59 .59 1.95 1.49 .99 5.75 2.25 .99 .99 1.39 1.49 1.49 1.75 1.89 1.89 1.99 10.95 8.95 8.95 4.49 4.95 7.95

7400/9000

74S00

7400

.19

74147

2.49

7402

.19

74148

1.20

7404

.19

74150

1.35

7406

.29

74151

.55

7407

.29

74153

.55

7408

.24

74154

1.49

7410

.19

74155

.75

7411

.25

74157

.55

7414

.49

74159

1.65

7416

.25

74161

.69

7417

.25

74163

.69

7420

.19

74164

.85

7423

.29

74165

.85

7430

.19

74166

1.00

7432

.29

74175

.89

7438

.29

74177

.75

7442

.49

74178

1.15

7445

.69

74181

2.25

7447

.89

74182

.75

7470

.35

74184

2.00

7473

.34

74191

1.15

7474

.33

74192

.79

7475

.45

74194

.85

7476

.35

74196

.79

7483

.50

74197

.75

7485

.59

74199

1.35

7486

.35

74221

1.35

7489

2.15

74246

1.35

7490

.39

74247

1.25

7492

.50

74248

1.85

7493

.35

74249

1.95

7495

.55

74251

.75

7497

2.75

74265

1.35

74100

2.29

74273

1.95

74121

.29

74278

3.11

74123

.49

74367

.65

74125

.45

74368

.65

74141

.65

9368

3.95

74143

5.95

9602

1.50

74144

2.95

9637

2.95

74145

.60

96S02

1.95

74S00

.29

74S163

1.29

74S02

.29

74S168

3.95

74S03

.29

74S174

.79

74S04

.29

74S175

.79

74S05

.29

74S188

1.95

74S08

.35

74S189

1.95

74S10

.29

74S195

1.49

74S15

.35

74S196

1.49

74S30

.29

74S197

1.49

74S32

.35

74S226

3.99

74S37

.69

74S240

1.49

74S38

.69

745241

1.49

74S74

.49

74S244

1.49

74S85

.95

74S257

.79

74S86

.35

74S253

.79

74S112

.50

74S258

.95

74S124

2.75

74S280

1.95

74S138

.79

74S287

1.69

74S140

.55

74S288

1.69

74S151

.79

74S299

2.95

74S153

.79

74S373

1.69

74S157

.79

74S374

1.69

74S158

.95

74S471

4.95

74S161

1.29

74S571

2.95

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

TO-220 CASE

7805T .49 7905T .59

7808T .49 7908T .59

7812T .49 7912T .59

7815T .49 7915T .59

TO-3 CASE 7805K 1.39 7905K 1.49 7812K 1.39 7912K 1.49

TO 92 CASE 78L05 .49 79L05 .69 78L12 .49 79L12 .69

OTHER VOLTAGE REGS

LM323K5V 3A TO-3 4.79 LM338KAdj. 5A TO-3 3.95 78H05K5V 5A TO-3 7.95 78H12K12V5A TO 3 8.95 I 78P05K 5V 10A TO-3 14.95 .

IC SOCKETS

LINEAR

DATA ACQ INTERFACE

ADC0800 15.55 ADC0804 3.49 ADC0809 4.49 ADC0816 14.95 ADC0817 9.95 ADC0831 8.95 DAC0800 4.49 DAC0806 1.95 DAC0808 2.95 DAC1020 8.25 DAC1022 5.95 , MC1408L8 2.95

8T26

8T28

8T95

8T96

8T97

8T98

DM8131

DP8304

DS8833

DS8835

DS8836

DS8837

1.29 1.29

.89

.89

.59

.89 2.95 2.29 2.25 1.99

.99 1.65 ..

EDGECARD CONNECTORS

100

PIN ST

S-100

.125

3.95

100

PIN WW

S-100

.125

4.95

62

PIN ST

IBM PC

.100

1.95

50

PIN ST

APPLE

.100

2.95

44

PIN ST

STD

.156

1.95

44

PIN WW

STD

.156

4.95

36 PIN CENTRONICS

MILE

IDCEN36 RIBBON CABLE 6.95

CEN36 SOLDER CUP 4.95

CEN36PC RT ANGLE PC MOUNT 4.95

FEMILE

IDCEN36/F RIBBON CABLE 7.95.

INTERSIL

ICL7106

9.95

ICL7107

12.95

ICL7660

2.95

ICL8038

4.95

ICM7207A

5.95

ICM7208

15.95

1-99

100

8

PIN ST

.11

.10

14

PIN ST

.11

.09

16

PIN ST

.12

.10

18

PIN ST

.15

.13

20

PIN ST

.18

.15

22

PIN ST

.15

.12

24

PIN ST

.20

.15

28

PIN ST

.22

.16

40

PIN ST

.30

.22

64

PIN ST

1.95

1.49

STSOLDERTAIL

8

PIN WW

.59

.49

14

PIN WW

.69

.52

16

PIN WW

.69

.58

18

PIN WW

.99

.90

20

PIN WW

1.09

.98

22

PIN WW

1.39

1.28

24

PIN WW

1.49

1.35

28

PIN WW

1.69

1.49

40

PIN WW

1.99

1.80

WW=WIREWRAP

16

PIN ZIF

4.95

CALL

24

PIN ZIF

5.95

CALL

28

PIN ZIF

6.95

CALL

40

PIN ZIF

9.95

CALL

ZIF=TEXTOOL (ZERO INSERTION FORCE)

TL066

.99

LM733

.98

TL071

.69

LM741

.29

TL072

1.09

LM747

.69

TL074

1.95

LM748

.59

TL081

.59

MCI 330

1.69

TL082

.99

MC1350

1.19

TL084

1.49

MC1372

6.95

LM301

.34

LM1414

1.59

LM309K

1.25

LM1458

.49

LM311

.59

LM1488

.49

LM311H

.89

LM1489

.49

LM317K

3.49

LM1496

.85

LM317T

.95

LM1812

8.25

LM318

1.49

LM1889

1.95

LM319

1.25

ULN2003

.79

LM320 SOO7900

XR2206

3.75

LM322

1.65

XR2211

2.95

LM323K

4.79

XR2240

1.95

LM324

.49

MPQ2907

1.95

LM331

3.95

LM2917

1.95

LM334

1.19

CA3046

.89

LM335

1.40

CA3081

.99

LM336

1.75

CA3082

.99

LM337K

3.95

CA3086

.80

LM338K

3.95

CA3089

1.95

LM339

.59

CA3130E

.99

LM340 soe7800

CA3146

1.29

LM350T

4.60

CA3160

1.19

LF353

.59

MC3470

1.95

LF356

.99

MC3480

8.95

LF357

.99

MC3487

2.95

LM358

.59

LM3900

.49

LM380

.89

LM3909

.98

LM383

1.95

LM3911

2.25

LM386

.89

LM3914

2.39

LM393

.45

MC4024

3.49

LM394H

4.60

MC4044

3.99

TL494

4.20

RC4136

1.25

TL497

3.25

RC4558

69

NE555

.29

LM13600

1.49

NE556

.49

75107

1.49

NE558

1.29

75110

1.95

NE564

1.95

75150

1.95

LM565

.95

75154

1.95

LM566

1.49

75188

1.25

LM567

.79

75189

1.25

NE570

2.95

75451

.39

NE590

2.50

75452

.39

NE592

.98

75453

.39

LM710

.75

75477

1.29

LM723

.49

75492

.79

H=TO-5 CAN, K=TO-3, T=TO-220

DIP CONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

8

14

16

18

20

22

24

28

40

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLED ST IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxST

.62

.79

.89

1.09

1.29

1.39

1.49

1.69

2.49

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLED WW IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxWW

1.30

1.80

2.10

2.40

2.50

2.90

3.15

3.70

5.40

COMPONENT CARRIES (DIP HEADERSI

ICCxx

.49

.59

.69

.99

.99

.99

.99

1.09

1.49

RIBBON CABLE DIP PLUGS (IDC)

iDPxx

.95

.95

1.75

2.95

DIODES/OPTO/TRANSISTORS

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE D-SUBMINIATURE BELOW

AUGAT 24ST

1N751

.25

4N26

1N759

.25

4N27

1N4148

25/1.00

4N28

1N4004

10/1.00

4N33

1N5402

.25

4N37

KBP04

.55

MCT-2

KBU8A

.95

MCT-6

MDA990-2

.35

TIL-111

N2222

.25

2N3906

PN2222

.10

2N4401

2N2905

.50

2N4402

2N2907

.25

2N4403

2N3055

.79

2N6045

2N3904

.10

TIP31

D-S

UBMINIf

TURE

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

9

15

19

25

37

50

SOLDER CUP

MALE

DBxxP

.82

.90

1.25

1.25

1.80

3.48

FEMALE

DBxxS

.95

1.15

1.50

1.50

2.35

4.32

RIGHT ANGLE PC SOLDER

MALE

DBxxPR

1.20

1.49

1.95

2.65

FEMALE

DBxxSR

1.25

1.55

2.00

2.79

WIRE WRAP

MALE

DBxxPWW

1.69

2.56

3.89

5.60

FEMALE

DBxxSWW

2.76

4.27

6.84

9.95

IDC

RIBBON CABLE

MALE

IDBxxP

2.70

2.95

3.98

5.70

FEMALE

IDBxxS

2.92

3.20

4.33

6.76

HOODS

METAL

MHOODxx

1.25

1.25

1.30

1.30

GREY

HOODxx

.65

.65

.65

.75

.95

.89 1.19

.59 1.29

.99

.10

.25

.25

.25 1.75 I

■49 1

LED DISPLAYS

FND-357(359) COM CATHODE .362" 1.25 I

FND-500I503I COM CATHODE .5" 1.49

FND-507(510| COM CATHODE .5" 1.49 MAN 72 COM ANODE .3" MAN 74 COM CATHODE .3" .99 [

MAN 8940 COM CATHODE .8" 1.99

I TIL 313 COM CATHODE .3" .45

HP5082-7760 COM CATHODE .43" 1.29

TIL-311 4x7 HEXW/LOGIC .270" 9.95

HP5082-7340 4x7 HEXW/LOGIC .290" 7.95

ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: INSERT THE NUMBER OF CONTACTS IN THE POSITION

MARKED "xx" OF THE "ORDER BY" PART NUMBER LISTED.

EXAMPLE: A 15 PIN RIGHT ANGLE MALE PC SOLDER WOULD BE DB15PR.

MOUNTING HARDWARE $1 00

DIFFUSED LEDS

1-99

100-UP

JUMBO RED T1V.

.10

.09

JUMBO GREEN T1V.

.14

.12

JUMBO YELLOW T1V.

.14

.12

MOUNTING HDW T1V.

.10

.09

MINI RED T1

.10

.09

SWITCHES

IDC CONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

10

20

26

34

40

50

SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxS

.82

1.29

1.68

2.20

2.58

3.24

RIGHT ANGLE SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxSR

.85

1.35

1.76

2.31

2.72

3.39

WW HEADER

IDHxxW

1.86

2.98

3.84

4.50

5.28

6.63

RIGHT ANGLE WW HEADER

IDHxxWR

2.05

3.28

4.22

4.45

4.80

7.30

RIBBON HEADER SOCKET

IDSxx

.79

.99

1.39

1.59

1.99

2.25

RIBBON HEADER

IDMxx

5.50

6.25

7.00

7.50

8.50

RIBBON EDGE CARD

IDExx

1.75

2.25

2.65

2.75

3.80

3.95

SPST

MINI-TOGGLE ON-ON

1.25

DPDT

MINI-TOGGLE ON-ON

1.50

DPDT

MINI-TOGGLE ON-OFF-ON

1.75

SPST

MINI-PUSHBUTTON N O.

.39

SPST

MINI-PUSHBUTTON N C.

.39

SPST

TOGGLE ON-OFF

.49

BCD OUTPUT 10 POSITION 6 PIN DIP

1.95

DIP SWITCHES

4 POSITION

5 POSITION , 6 POSITION

.85 .90 .90

7 POSITION

8 POSITION 10 POSITION

I-SUBMINIATURE ABOVE

HARD TO FIND | "SNAPABLE" HEADERS

CAN BE SNAPPED APART TO MAKE ANY SIZE HEADER, ALL WITH .1" CENTERS

1x40 STRAIGHT LEAD .99

1x40 RIGHT ANGLE 1.49

2x40 STRAIGHT LEAD 2.49

i 2x40 RIGHT ANGLE 2.99 .

Let me tell you how much I appreciate your Sales & Customer Service staffs. My recent orderwas filled inamost courteous & prompt manner & I will deal withyou in the future to the exclusion of other similar firms who obviously don't need customers bothering them . Thank you ,

F-K

Chapel Hill, NC .

RIBDON CADLE

B3

MliWWU'lilWUfl;.

TT' ■■MP ■

E1C3HEI E3S EZ33i Kim

illlllll

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES

SCOPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry 183

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 457

800-538-5000 800-662-6279 <ca>

BARGAIN HUNTERS CORNER DISK DRIVE SPECIALS

TEAC FD-54

Vi HEIGHT, IBM

QUME QT

Vz HEIGHT, IBI

SHUGAI

Vi HEIGHT S

TS-806

ONE TEAC FD„ HEIGHT HAH MAJOR MAI PERFECT FOR TJ

4^3/DD

CT DRIVE

$85°

D $9995

BLE

LY $9995

A FULL OR 1/2 ECIALFROM A SAY WHO),

HURRY — QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED! SPECIALS END 2/28/86

PAGE WIRE WRAP WIRE

PRECUT ASSORTMENT

IN ASSORTED COLORS $27.50

lOOea: S.S". 6.0", 6.5", 7.0" 250ea: 2.5". 4.5", 5.0" 500ea: 3.0", 3.5", 4.0"

SPOOLS

100 feet 54.30 500 feet SI 3.25

250 feet $7.25 1000 feet 821.95

Please specify color: Blue, Black, Yellow or Red

EMI FILTER

» MANUFACTURED BY CORCOM

• LOW COST . FITS LC-HP BELOW

* 6 AMP 120/240 VOLT

6 FOOT LINE CORDS

LC-2 2 CONDUCTOR .39 LC-3 2 CONDUCTOR .99 LC-HP 3 CONDUCTOR W/STD

FEMALE SOCKET 1.49

MUFFIN FANS

3.15" SQ ROTRON 14.95

3.63" SQ ETRI 14.95

3.18" SQ MASUSHITA 16.95

WIRE WRAP PROTOTYPE CARDS

FR-4 EPOXY GLASS LAMINATE WITH GOLD-PLATED EDGE-CARD FINGERS

IBM-PR2 IBM

BOTH CARDS HAVE SILK SCREENED LEGENDS AND INCLUDES MOUNTING BRACKET IBM PR1 WITH +5V AND GROUND PLANE . . . . S27.95 IBM-PR2 AS ABOVE WITH DECODING LAYOUT $29.95

S-100

P100-1 BARE - NO FOIL PADS $15.15

P100-2 HORIZONTAL BUS $21.80

PI 00-3 VERTICAL BUS $21.80

P I 00-4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE $22.75

APPLE

P500-1 BARE - NO FOIL PADS $15.15

P500-3 HORIZONTAL BUS $22.75

P500-4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE $21.80

, 7060-45 FOR APPLE Me AUX SLOT $30.

SOCKET-WRAP I.D.™

—W

• SLIPS OVER WIRE WRAP PINS

• K

• IDENTIFIES PIN NUMBERS ON WRAP

• RJ

^«

SIDE OF BOARD

* CAN WRITE ON PLASTIC; SUCH AS IC II

•F3

■»:•

PINS

PARTS

PCK. OF

PRICE

• 8

8

IDWRAP 08

10

1.95

•SS

-o a

14

IDWRAP 14

10

1.95

• B

16

IDWRAP 16

10

1.95

•O*

18 20

IDWRAP 18 IDWRAP 20

5 5

1.95 1.95

n

li

o-» 3»

22

IDWRAP 22

5

1.95

•us

24

IDWRAP 24

5

1.95

• 3

li

=•

28 40

IDWRAP 28 IDWRAP 40

5 5

1.95 1.95

,'

FRAME STYLE TRANSFORMERS

12.6V AC CT 12.6V AC CT 12.6V AC CT . 25.2V AC CT

2 AMP 5.95

4 AMP 7.95

8 AMP 10.95

2 AMP 7.95 ,

PLEASE ORDER BY NUMBER OF PACKAGES (PCK. OF)

ID WRAP 24

[25PIND-SUBziPs—y GENDER m CHANGERS « $7.95

CAPACITORS

TANTALUM

UM

15V

.35

,47uf

35V

.45

6.8

15V

.70

1.0

35V

.45

10

15V

.80

2.2

35V

.65

22

15V

1.35

4.7

35V

.85

.22

35V

.40

10

35V

1.00

DISC

10pf

50V

.05

680

SOV

.05

22

SOV

.05

.oov

50V

.05

27

50V

.05

.0022

50V

.05

33

50V

.05

.005

50V

.05

47

50V

.05

.01

50V

.07

68

50V

.05

.02

50V

.07

100

50V

.05

.05

50V

.07

220

50V

.05

.1

12V

.10

560

50V

.05

.1

50V

.12

MONOLITHIC

.01/yf

50V

.14

.luf

50V

.18

.047</f

50V

.15

.47yf

50V

.25

ELECTROLYTIC

RADIAL

AXIAL

w

25V

.14

V

50V

.14

2.2

35V

.15

10

SOV

.16

4.7

50V

.15

22

18V

.14

10

50V

.15

47

50V

.20

47

35V

.18

100

35V

.25

100

16V

.18

220

25V

.30

220

35V

.20

470

50V

.50

470

25V

.30

1000

16V

.60

2200

16V

.70

2200

16V

.70

4700

25V

1.45

4700

16V

1.25

COMPUTER GRADE

44,000,.!

30V

3.95

DATARASE EPROM ERASER $34.95

■ ERASES TWO EPROMS IN 10 MINUTES . COMPACT-NO DRAWER .THIN METAL SHUTTER

PREVENTS UV LIGHT

FROM ESCAPING

V4 WATT RESISTORS

5% CARBON FILM ALL STANDARD VALUES FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG. OHM

10 PCS same value .05 100 PCS samevahn .02

50 PCS same value .025 1000 PCS same value .015 ,

RESISTOR NETWORKS

SIP

10 PIN

9 RESISTOR

.69

SIP

8 PIN

7 RESISTOR

.59

DIP

16 PIN

8 RESISTOR

1.09

DIP

16 PIN

15 RESISTOR

1.09

DIP

14 PIN

7 RESISTOR

.99

DIP

14 PIN

13 RESISTOR

.99

SPECIALS ON BYPASS CAPACITORS

.01 A/f CERAMIC DISC 100/S5.00

.01 fJf MONOLITHIC 100/S10.00

.1 sit CERAMIC DISC 100/$6.50

.1 lA MONOLITHIC 100/S12.50,

WISH SOLDERLESS BREADBOJI

RDS

PART NUMBER

DIMENSIONS

DISTRIBUTION STRIP(S)

TIE POINTS

TERMINAL STRIP(S)

TIE POINTS

BINDING POSTS

PRICE

WBU-D

.38 X 6.50"

1

100

2.95

WBU-T

1.38x6.50"

1

630

6.95

WBU-204-3

3.94 x 8.45"

1

100

2

1260

2

17.95

WBU 204

5.13 x 8.45"

4

400

2

1260

3

24.95

WBU-206

6.88 x 9.06"

5

500

3

1890

4

29.95

WBU 208

8.25 x 9.45"

7

700

4

2520

4

PS-IBM

SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES

$99.95

PS-130

. FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE

• 130 WATTS

•+5V@ 15A,+12V@4.2A PS-IBM ■5V (5> .5A. -12V @ .5A

• ONE YEAR WARRANTY

PS-130 $99.95

• 130 WATTS . SWITCH ON REAR ■ FOR USE IN OTHER IBM

TYPE MACHINES

• 90 DAY WARRANTY

PS-A $49.95

• USE TO POWER APPLE TYPE SYSTEMS

• *5V@)4A, t12V@2.5A -5V@.5A. -12V@.5A

. APPLE POWER CONNECTOR

PS-SPL200 $49.95

. +5V @ 25A. +12V @ 3.5A -5V <5> 1A,-12V @ 1A

• ULAPPROVED

• ALUMINUM ENCLOSURE

PS-TDK

$29.95

• +5V @ 4A. +12V @ 2A

+12V@>2.8A. -12V @ 30A . 6.2" X 7.4" X 1.7", 1.6 LBS.

PS-11951

$29.95

> MANUFACTURED BY ASTEC

i +5V@>6A, +12V@)2A

<T2V@ 1.5A. -12V (S>2A. * 5.0" X 8.0" X 2.0", 1.6 LBS.

NEW BOOKS BY STEVE CIARCIA

BIULD YOUR OWN Z80 COMPUTER CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 1 CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 2 CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 3 CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 4

$19.95 $17.95 $18.95 918.95 918.95 J

LITHIUM BATTERY

AS USED IN CLOCK CIRCUITS

MICROCOMPUTER HARDWARE HANDBOOK

FROM ELCOMP $14.85

OVER 800 PAGES OF DATA SHEETS ON THE MOST COMMONLY USED ICa. INCLUDES TTL CMOS, 74LS00, MEMORY, CPUs, MPU SUPPORT. [AND MUCH MORE!

IC MASTER $79.95^

3 VOLT BATTERY $3.95 . BATTERY HOLDER $1.49 .

JHE INDUSTRY STANDARD.

H3

JDR Microdevices

m Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128 00-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430 ) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

RS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order J10.00. For shipping and handling Include S2.50 lor UPS Ground and $3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign orders may require additional shipping charges - please contact our sales department lor the amount. CA. residents must include applicable sales tax. All merchandise is warranted tor 90 days unless otherwise stated. Prices are subject to change without notice. We are not

> Copyright 1985 JDR Microdevices

458 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

Inquiry 184

PARTIAL LISTING ONLY — CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG

PRINTER BUFFERS

• FREES COMPUTER FOR OTHER TASKS WHILE PRINTING LONG DOCUMENTS.

• STANDALONE DESIGN - WORKS WITH ANY COMPUTER OR PRINTER.

• ALL MODELS FEATURE PRINT PAUSE. MEMORY CHECK AND GRAPHICS CAPABILITY.

SP120P PARALLEL $139.95

• 64K UPGRADABLE TO 256K

. LED INDICATOR SHOWS VOLUME OF DATA IN BUFFER

SP120S RS232 SERIAL $159.95

• 64K UPGRADABLE TO 256K

• SIX SELECTABLE BAUD RATES FROM 600B- 19.200B

SP110 PARALLEL $249.95

• 64K UPGRADABLE TO 512K

• SPOOLS OUTPUT OF UP TO THREE COMPUTERS

• LED BARGRAPH DISPLAYS AMOUNT OF DATA IN BUFFER

• RESET FUNCTION CLEARS DATA IN BUFFER

• REPEAT FUNCTION CAN PRODUCE MULTIPLE COPIES OF A DOCUMENT ,

mi 3-WAY SWITCH BOXES

l SERIAL OR PARALLEL

t CONNECTS 3 PRINTERS TO 1

COMPUTER OR 3 COMPUTERS

TO 1 PRINTER . ALL LINES SWITCHED ■ HIGH QUALITY ROTARY SWITCH

MOUNTED ON PCB • GOLD CONTACTS > STURDY METAL ENCLOSURE

SWITCH-3P CENTRONICS PARALLEL . SWITCH-3S RS232 SERIAL

IBM PRINTER CABLE

* DB25 TO CENTRONICS

• SHIELDED CABLE

99.95 99.95 .

DISKETTES

N-MD2D N-MD2F N-MD2H

NASHUA 5V4"

DS/DD SOFT SECTOR DS/QUAD SOFT SECTOR DS/HIGH DENSITY FOR AT

$9.90 $34.95 $49.95

N-FD1 N-FD2D

NASHUA 8"

SS/DD SOFT SECTOR DS/DD SOFT SECTOR

$27.95 $34.95

N-3.5SS

NASHUA 3.5"

3.5" SS/DD FOR MACINTOSH

$32.95

V-MD1D V-MD2D V-MD110D

VERBATIM 5Va"

SS/DD SOFT SECTOR DS/DD SOFT SECTOR SS/DD 10 SECTOR HARD

$23.95 $29.95 $23.95

DISKETTE FILE

$8.95

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

TEAC

FD-55B'/! HEIGHT DS/DD $89.95 FD-55F Vi HEIGHT DS/QUAD $99.95

SHUGART

SA460 5 W (80 TRACK) DS/OUAD $ 1 99.95

TANDON

TM1 00-2 5XA" (FOR IBM) DS/DD $99.95

MPI

MPI-B52 5V." (FOR IBM) DS/DD $89.95

SIEMENS 8" DISK DRIVES

FD1 00-8 SS/DD SA801REQUIV. $119.00 I FD200-8 DS/DD SA851R EQUIV. $1 59.00

JFORMAT-2 SOFTWARE $49.95 tandontmioo^

SUPPORT FOR QUAD DENSITY DRIVES FROM TALL TREE SYSTEMS

DISK DRIVE CABINETS

5%" DRIVE ENCLOSURES

CAB-APPLE APPLE TYPE DRIVE CABINET $24.95

WITHOUT POWER SUPPLY

CAB-1FH5 FULL HEIGHT 5W BEIGE DRIVE CABINET $69.95

WITH POWER SUPPLY

CAB-2SV5 DUAL SLIMLINE 5V4" CABINET $49.95

WITH POWER SUPPLY • VERTICAL MOUNT

8 INCH DRIVE ENCLOSURES BY JRR

CAB-2SV8 DUAL SLIMLINE 8" DRIVE CABINET $209.95

WITH POWER SUPPLY - VERTICAL MOUNT

CAB-2FH8 DUAL FULL HEIGHT 8" DRIVE CABINET $219.95

WITH POWER SUPPLY - HORIZONTAL

HOLDS 70 5'/4" DISKETTES

CAB-1FH5

NASHUA DISKETTE SPECIALS

5V4" SOFT SECTOR DS/DD WITH HUB RINGS

$9.90 890ea 790ea

BOK OF 10 BULK OTV 50 BULK QTY 250

NASHUA DISKETTES WERE JUDGED TO HAVE THE HIGHEST POLISH AND RECORDED AMPLITUDE OF ANY DISKETTES TESTED. SEE -COMPARING FLOPPY DISKS". BYTE 9-84.

IBM STYLE COMPUTER CASE

ATTRACTIVE STEEL CASE, WITH HINGED LID, FITS POPULAR PC/XT COMPATIBLE MOTHER-BOARDS.

. SWITCH CUT OUT ON SIDE FOR PC/XT STYLE

POWER SUPPLY - CUT-OUT FOR 8 EXPANSION SLOTS • ALL HARDWARE INCLUDED

IBM COMPATIBLE KEYBOARDS

DKM-2000 S79.95i

$59.95

EXTENDER CARDS

U IBM

km

IBM-PC

845.00

IBM AT

S68.00

APPLE II

$45.00

APPLE Ms

545.00

MULTIBUS

586.00

POWER STRIPS

. UL APPROVED

• 15A CIRCUIT BREAKER

• FULLY IBM COMPATIBLE

• 83 KEY IDENTICAL LAYOUTTO IBM KEYBOARD

• LED STATUS INDICATORS FOR CAPS, NUMBER LOCK

• AUDIBLE CLICK

KB-5151

$99.95

• ENHANCED IBM COMP. W LARGE RETURN KEY

• SEPARATE CURSOR AND NUMERIC KEYPADS

• CAPS LOCK & NUMBER LOCK INDICATORS

• IMPROVED KEYBOARD LAYOUT

1

$12.95

KEYBOARD-AP $49.95

• REPLACEMENT FOR APPLE II KEYBOARD

• CAPS LOCK KEY « AUTO-REPEAT

. ONE KEY ENTRY OF BASIC OR CP/M COMMANDS

CASE WITH KEYBOARD

FOR APPLE MOTHER-BOARD MODEL KB-1000

• USER DEFINED FUNCTION KEYS

. NUMERIC KEYPAD WITH CURSOR CONTROL

• CAPS LOCK » AUTO-REPEAT

.ONLY $79.95

HIGH QUALITY TEST EQUIPMENT FROM JDR INSTRUMENTS

20 MHz DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPE

MODEL 2000

$389

> BAND WIDTH - DC: TO20 MHz (-3db)

AC: 10 Hz TO 20MHZ |-3db)

• SWEEP TIME - .2 //SEC TO .5 SEC/DIV ON 20 RANGES

• COMPLETE MANUAL AND HIGH QUALITY HOOK-ON PROBES INCLUDED

• INPUT IMPEDANCE: 1 MEG OHM « TV VIDEO SYNC FILTER

• X-Y AND Z AXIS OPERATION

• 110/220 VOLT OPERATION

• COMPONENT TESTER

• LP CONSUMPTION - 19 WATTS

• BUILT-IN CAUBRATOR

• AUTOMATIC OR TRIGGERED TIMEBASE

Inquiry 184

35 MHz DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPE

MODEL

3500

$549

• BAND WIDTH - DC: TO 35MHz |-3db)

AC: 10 Hz TO 35MHZ |-3db)

• SWEEP TIME - .1 //SEC TO .5 SEC/DIV ON 21 RANGES

» DELAYED TRIGGER • 100 mSEC TO 1 //SEC WITH INTENSIFIED AND DELAYED MODES

• COMPLETE MANUAL AND 1X1 OX COMPENSATED HOOK-ON PROBES INCLUDED

• VARIABLE HOLD OFF FOR VIEWING COMPLEX WAVES

• TV VIDEO SYNC FILTER

• TRIGGERING OF CH-A, CH-B, ALTERNATING, UNE OR EXTERNAL

• X-Y AND Z AXIS OPERATION

E QUOTES

DIGITAL MULTIMETER PEN MODEL DPM-1000

$5495

AUTO RANGING. POLARITY AND DECIMAL! LARGE 3.5" DISPLAY

DATA HOLD SWITCH FREEZES READING FAST, AUDIBLE CONTINUITY TEST LOW BATTERY INDICATOR OVERLOAD PROTECTION ONLY IV* X 6'/< X >/." DC VOLTS lmVSOOV AC VOLTS 1mV-500V .1 OHM - 2 MEG OHM WEIGHS ONLY 2.3 OUNCES

LOW PARTS COUNT-CUSTOM 80 PIN LSI INSURES RELIABILITY

INCLUDES MANUAL, BATTERIES, HARD CASE, AND ALLIGATOR CLIP

D COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

JANUARY 1986 • BYTE 459

#JDR Microdevices

800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430 • FAX (408) 275-8415

IBM COMPATIBLE INTERFACE CARDS

ALL WITH A ONE YEAR WARRANTY

MULTIFUNCTION CARD

$129.95

ALL THE FEATURES OF AST'S 6 PACK PLUS AT HALF THE PRICE

• CLOCK/CALENDAR

• 0-384K RAM . SERIAL PORT . PARALLEL PORT t GAME PORT « SOFTWARE INCLUDED

PRINTER CABLE $9.95 64K RAM UPGRADE 9/S6.21

COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTOR $99.95

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH IBM COLOR CARD

• 4 VIDEO INTERFACES: RGB, COMPOSITE COLOR, HI-RES COMPOSITE MONOCHROME. CONNECTOR FOR RF MODULATOR

. COLOR GRAPHICS MODE: 320 x 200

• MONO GRAPHICS MODE: 640 X 200 . LIGHT PEN INTERFACE

MONOCHROME GRAPHICS CARD $129.95

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH IBM MONOCHROME ADAPTOR AND HERCULES GRAPHICS CARD

• LOTUS COMPATIBLE

• TEXT MODE: 80 X 25

• GRAPHICS MODE: 720 x 348

• PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE

• OPTIONAL SERIAL PORT $19.95

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE ADAPTOR

■i

$59.95

• INTERFACES UPTO FOUR STANDARD FDDs TO IBM PC OR COMPATIBLES

• INCLUDES CABLE FOR TWO INTERNAL DRIVES

1200 BAUD INTERNAL MODEM FOR IBM

INCLUDES PC TALK III COMMUNICATIONS-SOFTWARE

• HAYES COMPATIBLE

• AUTO DIAL/AUTO ANSWER ■ AUTO RE-DIAL ON BUSY . INCLUDES SERIAL PORT! . ONE YEAR WARRANTY

EASYDATA-12B $195

300 BAUD MODEM FOR APPLE OR IBM

CLOSE-OUT

~» special MBe

NOW ONLY <W

NOW ONLY

$49.95

INCLUDES ASCII PRO-EZ SOFTWARE (A $100 VALUE IN ITSELF)

' FCC APPROVED

> BELL SYSTEMS 103 COMPATIBLE

• INCLUDES AC ADAPTOR

CABLE FOR APPLE

• AUTO DIAL/AUTO ANSWER

• DIRECT CONNECT

SI 4.95

Canon

160 CPS PRINTER

MODEL PW-1080A

$199.95

Printed in Draft mode or Proportional and NLQ

• VERY HIGH SPEED PRINTING (160 CPSI « 2K PRINT BUFFER

• EPSON/IBM COMPATIBLE CONTROL • DOWNLOADING FONT BUFFER

. 11 x 9 DOT DRAFT MODE CHARACTERS * FAN FOLD, CUT SHEET OR ROLL PAPER . 23 X 18 DOTS IN NEAR LFTTER QUALITY • SOLID "BUSINESS" MACHINE

UNBELIEVABLE MONITOR DEALS

TAXAN

RGB VISION III

MODEL 415 MADE FOR TAXAN BY ACORN > 640 x 262 PIXEL RESOLUTION

* 16 COLORS

* 18 MHz BANDWIDTH

* 12" BLACK MATRIX

. IBM AND LOTUS COMPATIBLE

CABLE FOR IBM

SAKATA

COMPOSITE COLOR

MODEL SC-100

TOP RATED FOR APPLE 13" COMPOSITE VIDEO RESOLUTION: 280H x 300V INTERNAL AUDIO AMPLIFIER < ONE YEAR WARRANTY

$15.95

SAMWOO

MONOCHROME

MODEL DM-216B PERFECT COSMETIC MATCH FOR IBM PC

IBM COMPATIBLE TTL INPUT 12" NON-GLARE SCREEN P39 GREEN PHOSPHOR HI RES 22 MHi BAND WIDTH

$289.95 $169.95 $99.95

MONITOR STAND

TILTS AND SWIVELS

$12.95

APPLE COMPATIBLE INTERFACE CARDS

I EPROM PROGRAMMER $59.95 I

MODEL RP525

■ DUPLICATE OR BURN ANY STANDARD 27xx SERIES EPROM

■ EASY TO USE MENU-DRIVEN SOFTWARE INCLUDED

> MENU SELECTION FOR 2716. 2732, 2732A, 2764 8c 27128

• HIGH SPEED WRITE ALGORITHM

• LED INDICATORS FOR ACTIVITY

• NO EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY REQUIRED

. ONE YEAR WARRANTY

16K RAMCARD

$39.95

I FULL TWO YEAR WARRANTY I EXPAND YOUR 48K APPLE TO 64K i USE IN PLACE OF APPLE LANGUAGE CARD

I BARE PC CURD W/ INSTRUCTIONS $9.85

IC TEST CARD

$99.95

• QUICKLY TESTS MANY COMMON ICS

• DISPLAYS PASS OR FAIL > ONE YEAR WARRANTY

■ TESTS: 4000 SERIES CMOS 74HC SERIES CMOS 7400: 74LS, 74L. 74H. 74S, SOME PROMS AND RAMS

DISK DRIVES

FOR APPLE COMPUTERS

dp

• V: HEIGHT-ALPS MECHANISM

■ 100% APPLE COMPATIBLE

■ FULL 1 YEAR WARRANTY

BAL-525 $99.95

BAL-509 $129.95

• TEAC MECHANISM- DIRECT DRIVE « 100% APPLE COMPATIBLE

• FULL 1 YEAR WARRANTY

AP-135

$129.95

■ FULL HT. SHUGART MECHANISM

■ DIRECT REPLACEMENT FOR APPLE DISK II

. SIX MONTH WARRANTY

FOR APPLE IIC

AD-3C $139.95

• 100% APPLE lie COMPATIBLE,

READY TO PLUG IN W/ SHIELDED

CABLE & MOLDED 19 PIN CONNECTOR ■ FAST, RELIABLE SLIMLINE

DIRECT DRIVE I SIX MONTH WARRANTY

FOR MACINTOSH

MAG 535 $249.951

• 3.5" ADD-ON DISK DRIVE

• 100% MACINTOSH COMPATIBLE

• SINGLE SIDED 400K BYTE STORAGE

• HIGH RELIABILITY DRIVE FEATURES AUTO-EJECT MECHANISM

> FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY

DISK DRIVE ACCESSORIES

DISK CONTROLLER CARD $49.95 APPLE lie ADAPTOR CABLE $19.95 ADAPTS STANDARD APPLE DRIVES FOR USE WITH APPLE lie

$199.95

COMREX CR-1000 DUAL SLIMLINE DISK DRIVE

FOR APPLE COMPUTERS

• SPACE SAVING DESIGN STACK BETWEEN COMPUTER AND MONITOR

* QUIET. RELIABLE V: HEIGHT DRIVES

* TOTAL STORAGE CAPACITY: 2S6K BYTES

• AUTO-EJECT MECHANISM . SHIELDED CABLE INCLUDED

INCLUDES CONTROLLER AND DOS 3.3 WITH DISK UTILITIES

ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUAR

460 BYTE' JANUARY I986

■HHUfi

SE23E

Inquiry 185

UNCLASSIFIED ADS

NEEDED: Nonprofit organization needs donation of IBM compatibles, monitors, printers, and Hayescompatible modems for conflict resolution and mediation training and education project in Costa Rica. Central America. Peaceworkers, 3149 Plymouth Rd.. Lafayette. CA 94549. (415) 935-3565.

TRADE: Two white-water rafting tickets in exchange for an IBM PC XT or compatible for our training adventure teaching people with severe cerebral palsy to use micros and obtain employment. Tax-deductible Kathleen Martin. Computer Access Project. 1904 Franklin St.. Oakland. CA 94612. (4151 832-7430.

NEEDED: Nonprofit school for emotionally disturbed children seeks tax-deductible donation of Apple computers, peripherals, literature, supplies, etc. Will provide receipts. Dean Esmay. SMA Independence High School. 22700 Richton Square Rd.. Richton Park. IL 60471. (312) 481-6091.

WANTED: Volunteer programmer seeks contribution of IBM, Apple, or compatible, peripherals, and literature for Institution of Social Work and Community Development projects and development of public-domain educational programs for literacy training in underdeveloped areas, leffrey Y. Balanag, 3 536 Road Ten. Altura St.. Sta. Mesa, Metro-Manila 2806. Republic of the Philippines.

NEEDED: UNIX system. IBM or compatible micros, terminals, monitors, printers, and other equipment for training and user's group sponsored at Maine State Prison. Tax-deductible. George Fernald. Maine State Prison laycees, Box A. Thomaston. ME 04861. or call David Macmillan or Bruce Wentworth at (207) 354-2535. ext. 293.

WANTED: Tax-deductible IBM PC-compatibles, monitors, printers, and copying machines for U.S. professors helping revive scientific psychology in China through graduate program at Liaoning Teachers University. Macintosh with printer also welcome. Shipping paid. Dr. |. S. Phillips. Child Study Center, University of Denver. Denver. CO 80208.

WANTED: Nonprofit educational institution seeks taxdeductible contribution of an Apple He or lie with printer for class use. Sherrill lones, Northside Elementary School. Milledgeville. GA 31061. (912) 452-8502.

WANTED: Nonprofit youth-benefitting organization seeks 256K IBM PC. daisy-wheel printer, and publicdomain software and/or 2 56K Apple lie for business and training use. Will pay shipping and send receipt, lohn Donohue. San Francisco Youth Sports Travel Fund Inc.. POB 31488. San Francisco. CA 94131. (415) 661-5002.

WANTED: Nonprofit after-school day-care center seeks tax-deductible donation of public-domain word-processing and database software for Apple II + . Karen Schiller. Havurah Youth Center. San Francisco lewish Community Center 3200 California St.. San Francisco. CA 94118. (415) 346-6040. ext. 224.

WANTED: Tax-deductible contributions welcomed by nonprofit organization acting as equipment clearinghouse for many nonprofit organizations needing hardware donations in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Northern Rockies Action Group. 9 Placer, Helena, MT 59601. (406) 442-6615.

WANTED: Nonprofit organization specializing in promoting family life seeks tax-deductible donations of computer equipment to expand services. Marian Redinger, Beginning Family. 14260 Lake Hills Blvd.. Bellevue. WA 98007. (2061 644-2207.

WANTED: Tax-deductible donation of TRS-80 computer and peripherals or Kaypro and compatible CP/M machines to support orthodox church group community project. Monastery of St. lustin Martyr, POB 844. El Dorado. CA 95623, (916) 644-6652.

NEEDED: Small church seeks computer system (IBM, Apple, or Commodore) for bookkeeping and word processing. Donations are tax-deductible. Templo El Olivar, POB 729. Sunland Park. NM 88063. (91 5) 778-8605.

NEEDED: Word-processing and computer equipment to assist nonprofit ministry to preach in all parts of the world. Charles and Yvonne Svitlik, Cornerstone Ministries. POB 84 5. Waterbury, CT 06720.

WANTED: Nonprofit tax-exempt organization needs donation of IBM PC. Apple. TRS-80. or compatible

for general accounting and stock-control applications. Mrs. Z. Elizondo. Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 276 Pitt St.. Sydney. New South Wales 2000. Australia.

WANTED: Nonprofit community service organization seeks tax-deductible donation of Apple or compatible with printer. New Life Foundation. Box 2000. Ojai, CA 93023.

WANTED: Swedish student would like to correspond with others who have an interest in artificial intelligence in general and LISP in particular. Fredrik Nyman. Pilvagen I. S-616 00 Aby. Sweden.

WANTED: I need to convert my Apple II to a 11 + . but I can't find the autostart ROMs. Can anyone help? Richard Ashby. M.D., 9713 Old Creek Rd.. Ventura, CA 93003. (805) 649-2725 or 652-6153.

WANTED: Information on punch-card readers, including interface for connection to an Apple 11+ or CompuPro (S-100) running a Z80 processor. Walter F. George. M.D.. 1345 East 14th St.. San Leandro. CA 94578. (4151 483-6367.

WANTED: A copy of BYTE document #112 (LISP interpreter for the 6800 or similar document for the 6809). Mark Wilson. POB 14. Huntingdon. PA 16652.

WANTED: Documentation on OEM (parallel) interface Diablo Hi-Type II daisy-wheel printer including pin assignments, voltage levels, etc. Maintenance information also appreciated. Will refund postage costs. Dick Dixon. Ilmarin. Vale View Dr.. Beech Hill. Reading RG7 2BD. England.

WANTED: Working Intel 4004 and 8008 microprocessor chips for science museum exhibit. Send price. Ray Albrektson. 900 Edgehill Court. Covington. KY 410)1.

WANTED: BYTE, issues 1 through 10. Will pay reasonable price for good condition. Dave lenson. 7200 Marilyn NE. Albuquerque. NM 87109. (505) 821-0109.

WANTED: Information about sales places of literature for Casio FP-200 notebook computer, particularly on how to create an assembly program and to redefine the character set. lavier Argandona Lazo, Dr. lohow No. 385. Nunoa. Santiago. Chile.

FOR SALE: TI-99/4A. cassette-recorder cable, and books: SI30. Timex Sinclair 1000: S20. ColecoVision: S140. Atari 5200: S170.1 will pay postage. Heriberto Suarez. Buzon 3034. Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico 00760.

FOR SALE: DEC PDP-11/05 system with 32K. includes restart/LDR. CRC/LRC arithmetic element, Unibus CTL RK06-EA 120/60. single-access RK06 120/60 Hz, 1014-inch expander box 120 V. DEC maintained. Best offer. Mary Ann Atkins. Fountaindale Public Library District. 300 West Briarcliff Rd., Bolingbrook. IL 60439. (312) 759-2103.

FOR SALE: Radio Shack information distribution network. Five TRS-80 Model II terminals, four disk drives, one MUX. Sue. Data Support Service. 7711 Carondelet 504. Clayton. MO 63015.

FOR SALE: PDP-11/10, two RK05s. Laboratory Peripheral System. VT-52, and manuals. S800. Science Unlimited Research Foundation, 311-D Spencer Lane. San Antonio. TX 78201.

FOR SALE: Complete system board for Columbia 1600-1. 8088 processor, one parallel and two serial ports, power supply, and documentation. S400. Paul Bookbinder. 150 West 87th St.. New York. NY 10024. (212) 840-1327.

UNCLASSIFIED ADS MUST be noncommercial, from readers who haw computer equipment to buy. sell, or trade on a onetime basis. All requests for donated computer equipment must be from nonprofit organizations. Programs to be exchanged must be written by the individual or be in the public domain. Ads must be typed double-spaced, contain 50 words or less, and include full name and address. This is a free service: ads are printed as space permits. BYTE reserves the right to reject any unclassified ad that does not meet these criteria. When you submit your ad (BYTE. Unclassified Ads. POB 372. Hancock. NH 03449), allow at least four months for it to appear.

FOR SALE: Apple 11+ (64 K| with two Apple drives. Zenith monitor, Epson MX-80 F/T with graphics chips, RS-232 interface. RF modulator, manuals, and accessories. Excellent condition, SI 100. lohn Lipa, 165 Harcross Rd., Woodside, CA 94062. (415) 366-0547.

WANTED: Commodore 64 and 128 users in U.S. and Canada for public-domain software club, lonathan Harte. 138 Birch-Hill Dr.. Ottawa. Ontario K1K 3Y5. Canada. (613) 746-7392.

FOR SALE: NEC PC-8001A computer. 8031 dual 150K disk drives. Renaissance Technology Wedge. NEC 1B120I monitor, extra RS-232C port, sound synthesizer board. A/D/A ports, Centronics parallel port, and 300-bps modem. SI700. lames Bucan. 278 Sisson St., Romeo, Ml 48065. (313) 752-2660.

FOR SALE: Dimension 68000. 1-megabyte RAM. four floppy-disk drives, and IBM. Z80. and Apple emulation boards. Asking S6000. Stan Miley, 2812 Hillside Dr., Bryan, TX 77802, (409) 846-1664.

FOR SALE: S-100 system 6-slot Integrand mainframe. Teletek FDC-1 CPU/disk controller 5W-inch and 8-inch formats, two RS-232C ports, parallel ports. CompuPro RAM 16, two 8-inch 1.2-megabyte drives, two monitors, two printers. 300/1200-bps modem, and documentation. S2 500 or best offer. Art Morton, 2 513 Dawes St.. Rancho Cordova. CA 95670. (916) 363-8144.

FOR SALE: Hazeltine Executive 80 Model 20 terminal, 80/132 columns, up to 19,200 bps, character graphics, eight programmable function keys, detachable keyboard. Paul Wick. 10503 limenez St., Lake View Terrace, CA 91342. (818) 896-3502.

FOR SALE: Tektronix 60-MHz oscilloscope. Model 2215. dual trace, dual time base, delayed sweep, with manuals, probes, and cover. SI200 or best offer. Richard Gorton. DV1-C68544. POB 600. Tracy. CA 95376.

FOR SALE: Sol-20 48K computer with Micropolis 630K dual drive Model 1053 MOD II. manuals, and more. All in good condition. S750 plus postage, lohn L. Gorman Sr.. 210 Sprague Ave.. South Plainfield. NI 07080.

WANTED: ALSPA ACI-2 CP/M computer. Duncan Moyer, 13418 Garden Bar. Grass Valley, CA 95945. (916) 268-0115.

FOR SALE: BYTE: lanuary 1982. 23 copies will be sold individually by lottery for S5 each. Send SASE for drawing. Selene Pappas, 23644 North 84th St.. Scottsdale. AZ 85255.

WANTED: Hewlett-Packard 86/87, 128K memory module, serial (RS-232C) interface. I/O ROM. modem, and plotter ROM. D. Bran. 12335 Santa Monica Blvd. #192. Los Angeles. CA 90025.

FOR SALE: Intersystems S-100 system. 64K, Z80. two serial and two parallel ports, two Shugart 850 DS/DD. C. Itoh 101 terminal. PROM burner, modem, and more. S1400 or best offer. Martin Unger. 1415 Northwest 62nd St.. Ft. Lauderdale. FL 33309. (305) 772-3070.

FOR SALE: BYTE: lune through December 1976: $20. 1977 through 1983: S30 per year. David Baldwin. 22 Fox Den Rd.. Hollis. NH 03049. (603) 465-7857.

FOR SALE: Mannesmann Tally MT-160 printer. Epsoncompatible. 160 cps, has near-letter-quality mode. In fine working condition. Asking S200. Also. Apple 80-column card: S25. Dave Schultz. 12801 Countryview Court. Burnsville, MN 55337.

WANTED: EPROM copy, disk copy, source code, or hex dump of operating system for TLC Problem Solver Intelligent Terminal (TOS version 1.011 or later). Also schematics or other documentation. (PSS Inc. out of business in 1979.) Will provide TOS in 2732 for your terminal. Tim Vest, 4 Cambridge Rd„ Convent Station. NI 07961. (201) 993-8541.

WANTED: Correspondence about computers for solar and greenhouse applications, lohn Wilson. 29001 Harvey Lane. Corvallis. OR 97330.

FOR SALE: Hewlett-Packard 9816 personal computer. 9121 two-drive unit, 82906A dot-matrix printer, and all manuals. Mint condition. W. M. Davidson. 4405 West Pyracantha. Tucson. AZ 85741. (602) 742-3982.

FOR SALE: Cromemco Trace System simulator Model TSS-S. SI 5. N. Conroy. 177 Tbsca Dr.. Stoughton. MA 02072. (617) 344-1352. ■

JANUARY 1986 - BYTE 461

BOMB

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box

ARTICLE* PAGE ARTICLE AUTHOR(S)

1 9 Microbytes staff

2 37. 408 What's New staff

3 44 Ask BYTE Ciarcia

4 57 Book Reviews Clark. Price.

Benderavage

5 84 Product Description:

The Atari 520ST Edwards,

Robinson. McLaughlin

6 104 Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Build an

Analog-to-Digital Converter Ciarcia

7 120 Product Preview: Q & A Edwards

8 130 Programming Project:

A SIMPL Compiler.

Part 2: Procedures and Functions . . Amsterdam

9 145 Creating Reusable Modules Shammas

10 153 Programming Insight:

Easy 3-D Graphics Mittelbach

11 161 Machine Vision Dunbar

12 177 Robotic Tactile Sensing Pennywitt

13 203 Multiple Robotic Manipulators Hawker. Nagel.

Roberts. Odrey

ARTICLE* PAGE ARTICLE AUTHOR(S)

14 223 Autonomous Robot Navigation . . . .lorgensen,

Hamel, Weisbin

15 237 AI in Computer Vision Cuadrado.

Cuadrado

16 263 Automation in Organic Synthesis... Kramer.

Fuchs

17 293 Canon's A-200 Callamaras

18 301 Color Fox Unger

19 307 Eco-C88 C Compiler Clark

20 319 Inside The Sider Hall

21 327 Advantage! for the AT Byers

22 331 Enable King

23 349 Computing at Chaos Manor:

One Minor Problem Pournelle

24 371 According to Webster:

Benchmarking Webster

25 381 BYTE |apan: Favoring Kan|i Raike

26 387 BYTE U.K.:

The Acorn RISC Machine Pountain

27 397 Mathematical Recreations:

Euclid's Algorithm Kurosaka

BOMB Results

SIMULATION TABULATION

Lawrence Cone wins $100 for his article "Skycam: An Aerial Robotic Camera System." which placed first in the results of October's issue. In second place is the theme "Why Models Go Wrong" by Tom R. Houston,

who wins S50. Part 2 of Clifford Kelley's "EGO: A Homebuilt CPU" covering "The Hardware" came in third. Steve Ciarcia. Bruce Webster, and Jerry Pournelle remain popular with readers. Hats off to all.

BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF:

Dennis J. Riley. Advertising Sales Manager, 70 Main Street, Peterborough, NH 03458, tel. (603) 924-9281

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Mr. Andrew Karnig

Andrew Karnig & Associates

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8-44 0005

Mr. Alain Faure McGraw-Hili Publishing Co. 17 rue Georges Bizet F 75116 Paris France

111 47-20-33-42

Building #1-Suite 222 Costa Mesa. CA 92626

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Mr. Savio Pesavento McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Via Flavio Baracchini 1 20)23 Milan. Italy 02 86 90 617

Seavex Ltd.

400 Orchard Road. #10-01 Singapore 0923 Republic of Singapore Tel: 734-9790 Telex: RS35539 SEAVEX

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Tom Harvey 18051 964-8577 3463 State Street-Suite 2 56 Santa Barbara. CA 93105

The Buyer's Mart

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BYTE BITS (2x3)

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Post Card Mailings National

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Seavex Ltd.

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Hiro Morita

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462 BYTE • IANUARY 1986

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No.

Page No.

398 1ST PLACE COMP. SYSTEMS. ... 154

2 A-D ELECTRONICS 195

3 A-OK SYSTEMS 428

4 A.ST. RESEARCH 19

5 A.ST RESEARCH 19

6 AB COMPUTERS 254

7 ACS INTL. INC 282

8 ADDMASTER CORP. 426

10 ADV. DIGITAL CORP. 36

11 ADV. DIGITAL CORP. 36

12 ADVANCED COMP. PROD. . 446. 447

• ALF PRODUCTS. INC 432

13 ALL COMPUTERS 316, 317

14 ALPHA LOGIC BUSINESS SYS. . . 358

15 AMDEK CORP. 56

17 AMERICAN MICRO TECHNOLOGY 67

18 AMERICAN SMALL BUSN.COMP. 267

19 AMPERE INC 345

20 AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 372

21 AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 372

22 APROTEK 194

23 APROTEK 194

24 APROTEK 452

25 ARITY CORPORATION 126

26 ASHTON-TATE 12, 13

• AT&T INFO. SYSTEMS 396

• AT&T INTERNATIONAL 309

27 ATRON CORP. 392

28 AVOCET 324, 325

30 B&B ELECTRONICS 434

■ B&C MICROSYSTEMS 374

32 BASF SYSTEMS 96, 97

33 BASIC TIME 79

34 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 23

35 BINARY TECHNOLOGY. INC 432

36 BITTNER ELECTRONICS 426

37 BLAISE COMPUTING INC 178

38 BORLAND INTL CM, 1

39 BORLAND INT L Cll, 1

40 BORLAND INT'L 39

41 BORLAND INT'L 39

42 BORLAND INTL 41

43 BORLAND INT L 41

426 BUKOWSKI ROBOTICS 440

44 BUSINESS TOOLS INC 269

• BYTE BACK ISSUES 420

• BYTE SUBSCRIBER MESSAGE ... 401

• BYTE SUBSCRIBER SERVICE .... 399

45 BYTE CONNECTION. THE 424

46 BYTEK COMP. SYS. CORP. 256

47 C WARE/DESMET C 430

48 CI. COMPUTERS 356

49 CI. COMPUTERS 356

• CALIFORNIA DIGITAL 448,449

51 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT CORP. ... 305

52 CAPITAL MICRO 436

55 CAUZIN SYSTEMS 76, 77

58 CHEETAH INT'L. INC 123

59 CHORUS DATA SYSTEMS 217

61 CMS 279

62 COGITATE 428

63 COGITATE 452

64 COMET TECHNOLOGICAL CO. . . 432

• COMMODORE BUSN MACH. ... 189

65 COMMUNICATIONS ELECTR. ... 435

66 COMPETITIVE EDGE 407

68 COMPUDATA TRANSLATORS INC.430

69 COMPUMAIL 250

373 COMPUPRO/VIASYN CORP. 367

70 COMPUSAVE 424

71 COMPUSERVE 239

72 COMPUTER AFFAIRS INC 297

73 COMPUTER BARN, THE , 116

74 COMPUTER BOOK CLUB. THE . . 129

75 COMPUTER CONNECTION INC. . 423

• COMPUTER CONTINUUM 434

76 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS 363

77 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER . . 220, 221

78 COMPUTER MART 163

79 COMPUTER PARTS MART 428

Inquiry No.

Page No. Inquiry No.

81 COMPUTER SWAP AMERICA ... 375

82 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 179

83 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 179

84 COMPUTERBANC 433

86 COMPUTRADE 398

387 COMPUWORLD 219

87 CONCORD TECHNOLOGY CO . . 379

88 CONROY-LAPOINTE 52, 53

89 CONROY-LAPOINTE 52, 53

90 CONROY-LAPOINTE 52, 53

91 CUESTA SYSTEMS 30

92 CUSTOM COMP TECH 420

93 CUSTOM COMP. TECH 421

94 CYMA CORPORATION 338

95 CYMA CORPORATION 338

96 CYMA CORPORATION 370

97 CYMA CORPORATION 370

98 D AND D DISCOUNT 441

• DAK INDUSTRIES 315

394 DATA EXCHANGE 452

395 DATA EXCHANGE 454

418 DATA SPEC 213

419 DATA SPEC 213

102 DIGITAL PRODUCTS INC 258

103 DIGITAL RESEARCH INC 182

104 DIGITALK 46

106 DISK MERCHANT 383

107 DISKETTE CONNECTION 407

108 DISKS PLUS 252

109 DISKWORLD!, INC 442. 443

111 DIVERSIFIED COMPUTER SYS . .430 428 DIVERSIFIED GROUP 438, 439

112 DO KAY COMP. PROD. INC 419

113 DYNATEC SYSTEMS INC 398

114 DYNAX. INC 191

115 EARTH COMPUTERS 354

116 EARTH COMPUTERS 354

117 ECLIPSE SYSTEMS 430

118 ECOSOFT 236

119 EDUCATIONAL M1CROCOMR SYS. 452

120 ELEXOR INC 428

121 ELLIS COMPUTING INC 244

422 EMERSON 199

423 EMERSON 199

407 ENERTEC INC 70

343 ENGARDE 4

124 ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE INC 32

126 EVEREX SYSTEMS 43

127 EVEREX SYSTEMS 43

128 EXCELTEC INDUSTRIES. INC. . 452

129 EXPERTEACH 374

130 EXPRESS MICRO SUPPLIES . 275

134 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING 209

135 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING 209

396 FORTRON. INC 437

397 FORTRON, INC 437

137 FOX AND GELLER. INC 384

138 FOX SOFTWARE. INC 54

139 FUNK SOFTWARE 143

140 FUTURE COMPUTING/M-C I S 265

144 GENOA SYSTEMS CORP 72, 73

145 COLD HILL COMPUTERS 160

146 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 432

147 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 434

148 GRAND UNION MICROSYSTEMS 434

149 GTEK INC 357

150 H.E.I. INC 26

152 HANZON DATA INC 30

153 HARMONY VIDEO & COMP. .... 379

200 HARRIS/LANIER 337

201 HARRIS/LANIER 339

Page No.

202 HARRIS/LANIER 341

154 HAYES MICROCOMPUTER PROD. . 27

155 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH . . 151

156 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH. . . 318

• HEWLETT-PACKARD 333

158 HEWLETT-PACKARD 335

159 HOOLEON COMPANY 280

160 HOOLEON COMPANY 280

406 HOUSTON INSTR./BAUSCH&LOMB . 22

161 HYMCO TECHNOLOGIES INC. . . 180

162 IBEX COMP. CORP. 452

163 IBM CORP. 286. 287

408 IBS CORP. 24

409 IBS CORP. 24

166 I.C. EXPRESS 432

167 INFORMATION SOFTWARE 31

168 INLAB INC 434

169 INNOVATIVE PERIPHERALS 190

425 INOVION 142

170 INTECTRA INC 426

171 INTEGRAND 308

172 INTERCONTN. MICRO SYS 48

173 INTERCONTN. MICRO SYS 48

• INTERFACE TECH CORP. 187

174 INTUSOFT 432

175 IOMEGA 20. 21

178 IADE COMP, PROD, 450, 451

179 IAMECO ELECTRONICS . . . 260, 261

180 IC INFORMATION SYSTEMS .... 292

181 IDR INSTRUMENTS 25

182 IDR MICRODEVICES 455

183 IDR MICRODEVICES 456, 457

184 IDR MICRODEVICES 458, 459

185 IDR MICRODEVICES 460

186 IHL RESEARCH 452

187 IMC RESEARCH, INC 339

189 IVB ELECTRONICS 440

190 KADAK PRODUCTS LTD 452

393 KEA SYSTEMS 440

191 KEITH LEY DAC 432

192 KEY SOLUTIONS CO 74

193 KEY SOLUTIONS CO 74

194 KIMTRON CORP. 361

196 KYOCERA 215

197 KYOCERA 215

198 LABORATORY M1CROSYS 62

424 LACHMAN ASSOC 152

199 LANG-ALLAN. INC 378

200 LANIER HARRIS 337

201 LANIER HARRIS 339

202 LANIER HARRIS 341

203 LATTICE. INC 355

204 LAWSON LABS, INC 452

206 LEVCO ENTERPRISES 252

207 LEVCO ENTERPRISES 252

208 LIFEBOAT ASSOC 341

209 LIFEBOAT ASSOC 343

210 LINTEK INC 383

213 LOGICAL DEVICES 390, 391

211 LOGICSOFT 176

215 LOGITECH INC 251

216 LOGITECH INC 253

217 LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS 169

218 LYBEN COMP, SYS 426

219 LYCO COMPUTER 205

• MACMILLAN BOOK CLUBS 368. 369

221 MAIN STREET COMPUTER ,.. 34. 35

222 MANX SOFTWARE SYS 47

223 MARK WILLIAMS CO 59

224 MARK WILLIAMS CO 61

225 MARON PRODUCTION INC 432

TO GET FURTHER information on the products advertised in BYTE, either pick up your touch-tone telephone and use TIPS (if you are a subscriber), or fill out the reader service card. Either way full instructions are provided following this reader service index which is provided as an additional service by the publisher, who assumes no liability for errors or omissions. 'Correspond directly with company.

Inquiry No.

Page No.

226 MARYMAC INDUSTRIES INC ... 428

227 MASTERBYTE COMP. OF NY. . 393

228 MAXELL DATA PRODUCTS 7

229 MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 15

• MCGRAW-HILL CEC 321

141 MCGRAW-HILL INC 353

230 MECASOFT 430

231 MEGATEL COMPUTER TECH ... 375

232 MERRITT COMP. PRODUCTS .... 454

233 MFI ENTERPRISES INC 231

432 MICRO BUSINESS PROD. 376

433 MICRO BUSINESS PROD. 376

235 MICRO DATA BASE SYS 95

415 MICRO DATA BASE SYS 323

236 MICRO DESIGN INT'L 313

237 MICRO MART, INC 64, 65

238 MICRO PRODUCTS 453

239 MICROCOMPUTER ACCESSORIES . 240

240 MICROCOMPUTER ACCESSORIES . 240

241 MICROGRAFX 17

• MICROMINT INC 386

242 MICROPHONICS TECHNOLOGY . . 60

243 MICROPHONICS TECHNOLOGY . 192

244 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD 430

• MICRORIM INC 394, 395

245 MICROSHOP 425

• MICROSOFT CORP 51

• MICROSOFT CORP 247

• MICROSOFT CORP 249

• MICROSOFT CORP. . . INSERT 32A-H

247 MICROSTUF. INC 281

248 MICROWAY 141

• MICROWAY 340

123 MIDWEST COMP. & VIDEO SUPPLY 280

250 MIMIC SYSTEMS 125

251 MITAC 306

• MIX SOFTWARE 229

252 MONTEREY INTL. CORP. 70

253 MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS 212

254 MTI SYSTEMS CORP. 322

257 NAN AO 127

258 NANAO 127

259 NANTUCKET i 45

260 NANTUCKET 45

261 NAT'L. PUBLIC DOMAIN SFTW. . 454

• NATIONAL COMPUTER GRAPHIC 262

262 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 167

263 NATIONAL MEMORY SYSTEMS . 211

264 NEC HOME ELECTR. USA 326

265 NEC INFORMATION SYS CI1I

417 NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES 156, 157

• NEWSNET INC 16

267 NORTH HILLS CORP. 376

• NRI SCHOOLS ELECTR. DIV 257

268 ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 255

269 ORION INSTRUMENTS 201

271 PC HORIZONS. INC 428

272 PACIFIC EXCHANGES 440

273 PC NETWORK 80, 81

67 PC SOURCE 285

274 PC TECH 377

275 PC USA 422

276 PC'S LIMITED 242

277 PC'S LIMITED 364, 365

278 PECAN 66

279 PERMA POWER ELECTRONICS. .343

430 PERSOFT INC 8

431 PERSOFT INC 8

281 PHOENIX COMP PROD. CORP. .147

282 PLUS DEVELOP. CORP 101, 102. 103

284 PRACTICORP 69

285 PRECISION DATA PRODUCTS . 432

286 PRICE-LINE COMPUTERS INC. . . 359

287 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 139

288 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 300

420 PRINTER ACCESSORIES DIRECT. 377

289 PRIORITY ONE 429

290 PRO CODE INTERNATIONAI 350

291 PROGRAMMER'S SHOP 348

292 PROGRESSIVE MICRO DISTR. 174, 175

JANUARY 1986 -BYTE 463

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No. Page No.

429 PURPLE COMPUTING 454

414 QDP COMPUTER SYS 294

295 QIC RESEARCH 264

296 QUA TECH. INC 426

297 OUA TECH. INC 426

298 QUA TECH. INC 426

• QUAID SOFTWARE LTD. 382

299 QUALITY PRINTERS 434

302 QUANTUM SOFTWARE SYS 380

303 RADIO SHACK CIV

304 RADIO SHACK II

305 RAIMA CORP. 385

306 RED RIVER TECHNOLOGY INC. ... 55

307 RELATIONAL DATABASE SYS . . . 270

308 RELMS 140

309 ROBOT EXPERIMENTER 430

310 ROSE ELECTRONICS 434

311 S&K TECHNOLOGY INC 426

312 S'NW ELECT £. APPL 337

313 S-100 DIV 696 CORP. 444, 445

314 S-100 DIV. 696 CORP 444. 445

315 SAB-LINK. INC 426

316 SAFEWARE 428

325 SALT 378

317 SAMSUNG ELECT. DEVICES 210

399 SBT CORPORATION 259

400 SBT CORPORATION 259

319 SCOTTSDALE SYSTEMS 427

320 SEMIDISK SYSTEMS 146

321 SILICON SPECIALTIES 75

Inquiry No. Page No.

322 SILICON SPECIALTIES 75

323 SLICER COMPUTERS INC 94

324 SLICER COMPUTERS INC 94

• SOFTCRAFT. INC 18

327 SO FT K LONE DISTRIBUTING 149

■ SOFTLINE CORP 71

328 SOFTRONICS 434

329 SOFTWARE CHANNELS INC. . . .271

330 SOFTWARE. LINK. THE 135

331 SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC 298. 299

412 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 352

413 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 352

335 SPECTRUM SOFTWARE 165

• SPERRY COMP. SYS 133

336 SPSS 207

337 STARBUCK DATA CO. 440

338 STATSOFT 181

339 STSC INC 93

340 STSC INC 336

341 SUMMIT SOFTWARE TECHN INC 183

342 SUNTRONICS CO. INC 422

• SYSGEN INC 290

344 SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT ASSOC 208

345 SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT ASSOC 277

346 SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT ASSOC. 256 427 TATUM LABS 440

404 TAXAN CORP. 91

405 TAXAN CORP. 91

348 TEAC 197

349 TECH PC 218

Inquiry No. Page No.

350 TECH PC 218

351 TEKTRONIX INC 329

352 THOMSON CONSUMER PROD. 63

353 TIGERTRONICS INC 440

• TINNEY. ROBERT GRAPHICS .405

354 TLM SYSTEMS INC 241

355 TLM SYSTEMS INC 243

356 TLM SYSTEMS INC 245

357 TOPAZ. INC 202

358 TOPAZ. INC. 202

360 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC 388. 389

361 TRANSEC SYSTEMS. INC 198

363 TRUE BASIC 225

364 TURBOPOWER SOFTWARE 360

365 U.S. ROBOTICS 373

366 UNICORN ELECTRONICS 430

367 UNIFIED SOFTWARE SYS 440

368 UNIVERSAL CROSS-ASSEMBLERS 430

369 VEN-TEL INC 28, 29

410 VERTEX SYSTEMS 342

411 VERTEX SYSTEMS 342

371 VIA WEST 216

372 VIA WEST 216

" VLM COMPUTER ELECTR 440

375 VOTRAX. INC 144

376 WALLING CO. 428

378 WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS . 227

379 WEDGE TECHNOLOGY INC 434

380 WERSI ELECTRONICS 50

381 WESTERN COMPUTER 58

Inquiry No. Page No.

382 WESTERN COMPUTER 58

383 WHOLESALE OUTLET. THE 68

188 WILEY PROFESSIONAL SFTW . 222

384 WINTEK CORP. 5

385 WINTEK CORP 428

403 WORLDWIDE ACCESS 431

386 WRITING CONSULTANTS 128

388 WYSE TECHNOLOGY 330

389 X-10 U S A INC 351

390 XEROX CORP 117. 118. 119

401 Z-SOFT CORPORATION 49

402 Z-SOFT CORPORATION 49

* Correspond directly with ampcmy

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SECTION

500 AMERICAN BUYING & EXPORT SERVICES I44C

• BYTE I44A. I44D

501 CASIO I44H

502 CITIZEN PRINTERS I44E

503 DELIN INFORMATION I44B

504 FIGURE FLOW LTD. I44B

505 GREY MATTER 144B

506 WINTECH CORP I44B

No domestic inquiries please.

TIPS

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! *

Use BYTE's Telephone Inquiry Processing System

Using TIPS can bring product information as much as 10 days earlier.

SEND FOR YOUR 1) If you are a new subscriber or have lost your I.D. card, circle #1 on the Reader Sei-vice

SUBSCRIBER I.D. CARD Card; attach mailer label. We will immediately send your personal TIPS subscriber card.

GET PREPARED

2)

Write your Subscriber Number, as printed on your Subscriber I.D. Card, in boxes in Step 5 below. (Do not add O's to fill in blank boxes)

3)

Write numbers for information desired in boxes in Step 7b below. (Do not add O's to fill in blank boxes.)

CALL TIPS

4)

Now, on a Touch-Tone telephone dial: (413) 442-2668 and wait for voice commands.

ENTER YOUR SUBSCRIBER AND ISSUE NUMBERS

5)

When TIPS says: "Enter Subscriber Number"

(Enter by pushing the numbers and symbols fit or * enclosed in the boxes] on telephone pad

ignoring blank boxes)

Enter □ □□□□□□□SOU

6)

When TIPS says "Enter magazine code & issue code" Enter lTJ 11 DO El Hill

ENTER YOUR INQUIRIES

b)

7a) When TIPS says "Enter (next) Inquiry Number"

Enter one inquiry selection from below (ignore blank boxes)

Repeat 7a as needed (maximum 17 inquiry numbers)

1. □□□'ffl'01 6. □□□ 00 00 10. □□□lH

2. □□□HID 7.□ □ □ 0000 11.□ □ □ 00BE

3. □ □ □ BD HO 8. □ □ □ BO 00 12. □ □ □ HI HI

4. □ □ □ 00 n 9.□□□mm 13.□□□mm

5. □ □ □ 00 H

END SESSION

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If you are a subscriber and need assistance, call (003) 924-9281.

If you are not a subscriber fill out the subscription card found in this issue or, call BYTE Circulation 800-258-5485. 'Domestic and Canadian Subscribers Only! 464 BYTE • JANUARY 1986

THIS NEC PRINTE

MANUEiGILJRE 2 MILLION

REPAIR

Color Pinwriter CP5 dot matrix printer.

To build 2 million of these cars requires printing more than 25 billion dots. And that's how many our new Pinwriter'" P5 printer can print before you have to think about a repair.

This NEC printer is not an exception. In fact, any NEC printer can run an average of 5 years in normal use before it needs a repair.

Such reliability doesn't come easy Every NEC printer is built on a highly automated assembly line. From the most advanced components in the industry. Then it's subjected to some of the most demanding tests ever devised for printers.

Reliability is not the only thing this NEC printer has going. It's also the quietest dot matrix printer in its class. And it has the finest graphics resolution, plus more built-in true fonts. And it's the fastest multi-speed 24-pin dot matrix printer available.

Now don't you wish NEC also made cars?

Check out a new Pinwriter P5 at your nearest NEC dealer. Or for more information, caU 1-800-343-4418 (in MA 617-264-8635). Or write: NEC Information Systems, Dept. 1610,1414 Massachusetts Ave., Boxborough, MA 01719.

NEC PRINTERS. THEY ONLY STOP WHEN YOU WANT THEM TO.

NEC Information Systems, Inc.

^^jftiJ Computers and Communications

Inquiry 265

NEC

Next to your computer,

nothing beats a Tandy printer*

T

Tandy printers make fine print quality, graphics and high performance affordable

For the best value and selection in printers, shop Radio Shack Computer Centers. Match any of these top-quality printers with your Tandy, IBM® PC or PC-compatible computer*

Low-Cost Business Printer

The DMP 430 (26-1277, $899) is a dot-matrix printer with an 18-wire print head that delivers superior correspondence characters. Choose from micro, italic and double-high fonts, as well as bit-image graphics. In the draft mode, DMP 430 prints 180 characters per second.

Triple-Mode Personal Printer

The low-cost, versatile DMP 130 (26-1280, $349.95) lets you choose from word processing or data processing modes, as well as dot-addressable graphics.

Available at over 1500 Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating Radio Shack stores and dealers.

Radio /hack

COMPUTER CENTERS

Prints in four character styles: standard or italic cursive in draft or correspondence modes.

Budget-Priced High Performer

The DMP 105 (26-1276, $199.95) is the low-cost solution for data processing and general-purpose use. Features a bit-image graphics mode, too. Prints 80 characters per second in the draft mode.

Dot-Matrix Power for Business

Cet high speed and high performance with the DMP 2200 (26-1279, $1695). The draft font prints at an outstanding 380 characters per second. For correspondence, the near letter-quality mode delivers 90 characters per second. That's faster than most daisywheel printers.

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION

Inquiry 303

'DMP 105 requires optional-extra IBM Printer Emulator (700-21 IS, $29.95) for IBM compatibility. Prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating stores and deale rs. IBM/Registered TM International Business Machines Corp.