Byte Magazine Volume 10 Number 06 - Programming Techniques

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How to avoid paying wor bills

X. J \^) J by Alan Greenspan

Akin Grrenspan Famous Fcnuoiiiic A/imir

"The other day a prominent politicianin the executive branch of our government phonedme up.

'Alan', he said to me.'the budget is a mess.'

'No joke! 1 said.

'Not that budget [the prominent politiciancontinued. 'My budget. My checkings overdrawn.They're threatening to disconnect my phones. I evengot into a shouting match with my wifewhen 1 tried to lay off the servants!

'Civil?'

'Not very And I think I'm about tobe audited. What would I show them?Who keeps receipts for embassy parties?"

At this point, we were discon-nected. And although it was too lateto teach proper money managementto this prominent politician, there isa lesson all of us can learn from hismisfortune.

__.r_,l«.T^.[_r«.r_i».v^.i^.(_TTv__.\

ST^

•span

Everyone has to pay their hills,and nobody likes to do it.

You can keep file folders foil of bills,drawers stuffed with grocery receipts,envelopes brimming with cancelledchecks, and at the end of the month,it still takes hours to figure out justwhere your money has gone. Not tomention how long it takes to straight-en things out at the end of the year.Well, after years of financialconsulting, I've discovered a way toavoid paying your bills: let an Apple" IIPersonal Computer pay them for you.There are several advantages t(letting an Apple handle your finance?It will save you time.It will organize everything.It will tell you, at a glance,exactly what is going on with your money.

It will pay your bills, and never send you any.And now I'd like to turn the page over to thosenice people at Apple, who will explain, in their ownexcruciating detail, just what I'm talking about!'

The Apple II and the Home Budget.

With software programs like The Home Accountant"and Dollars & Sense!Mthe Apple II makesit easy to set up household books. First,it will ask you some questions about yourhome finances. Like how much moneyyou bring in each month, how much renyou pay. and whether you owe moneyto credit card companies, mortgageholders, or any other surlycharacters. Then, it will askyou to enter some of thebills you receive each monthwhose prices may vary:

Mlftli

All Apple II willlake can ofei'etytbingjroin your bnitsebakl budgetIn vmir taxes with software programs liheDiilurs c- Sense. Tin- HarmAccountant, ami TaxPreparer.

)hone, utilities, and the like. Then, it will ask youwhere you keep your money and for the numbers of/our various checking and savings accounts.

That's really all there is to it. After that, an\pple II can automatically write checks for all yourixed expenses each month. It will also tell you

m

This is anfople modem \'nl much to link at. ire admit but it tint*: let yoiipdystocks by pone. It also connects your Apple II to a wealth of information servkSOURCE'" and CompuServe"

Tpav hilts diidtrath -

Ttrath.'. like THE

using an Apple modem, you'll gain instant access tofinancial news sources like The Wall Street Journal,vvhat other bills you can be expecting, and when you Barrons. and the Dow Jones News/Retrieval* service.?nter their costs, an Apple II will pay them, too. Find out what they've been saying on Wall $treet

An Apple II will see to it that your checkbooks Week. And in most cases, get up to the minute pricemain balanced, and that you'll know when your quotes on over six thousand stocks, options, andexpenses are about to exceed your income. It can other securities.?ven help you plan to buy a new car. Or a home. An Apple II lets you buy and sell securities right

Or a fur-lined boat, if your budget permits.

How to avoid yourbanker.

After the Apple II writesyour checks, it can callyour bank with the helpof your telephone andan Apple modem. Andfaster than a teller cansay "Next window,)lease!' you can find out all your balances, enter de-)Osits, see what checks have cleared, transfer moneyrom one account to another, and even pay offome of your credit cards and other bills electroni-:ally—without ever writing a check.

So the only timeou'll have to go to the)ank is when youvant to visit with yournoney personally

111) our Scribe color graphics printer, you canutomatically print out your own checks —•ol to mention reports, papers, almost anythingxcepl money.

in your home or office, at the moment you want tomake the trade. It automatically updates your port-folio and gives you detailed holding reports. It evenproduces charts and graphs, so you can quickly seehow you and your investments are doing.

A little tax relief.

If you become perturbed everytime the subject ofdoing taxes comes up, an Apple II can do them foryou with programs like Forecast™and Tax Preparer™

It can store your records, plan for the nextyear, and calculate your taxes.

You'll be alerted to payments you've made overthe year that may be tax-deductible. It even keepsyear-round records, automatically updating totalsand making corrections for you. It will even print

out completed taxforms that the I.R.S.will accept.

And it can doabout 10,000 other

.yri . i i // can manage your entire stock portfolio withprograms like Dow Jones Investor's Worksixiff'and Charles Schwab <-!,•-,,-.„ tritvill ~wn\'\t

W niCn, Wlien and Company's The Equalizer" It can even show you what's going on in your hank account" tnillgS tOulllV LllLlcltll""

lone in moderation, we can recommend most highly ed to taxes or this ad. So there's no telling how far

The Apple II and making money an ^"utokthu about cove,, it. And what if.

\n Apple II can do wondrous things for your person- after all of this, you still have some money left over?d finances. With several different software programs, Congratulations. You're doing a lot better than

'ou can become your own stockbroker. Again, by the government."

note to Dr. Greenspans relatives: He says. "Don't get excited. This isn't my real hank account'© 1985Apple Computer. Inc fople and the Apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc.lie Home Accountant is a tnulemark of Continental Software Dolkirstk Sense anilForecastare trademarks oj Monogram Dow Jones Xeas Retneral and DimJones Investor's Workshop are trademarks1 DowJones and Company Inc. Tax Preparer is a trademark of Howard Software Services. Scribe « a registered trademark licensed to fople Computer. Inc. THE SOURCE ii a service mark of Source'Recomputing Corporation, a subsidiary of the Reader's Digest Association, Inc. CompuServe is a trademark of CompuServe Corporation, an H & R Block Company. The Equalizer and Equalizer are■ademarks of Charles Schwab & Company Inc. Spectrum is a registered service mark of the Chase Manhattan Corporation. For an authorized Apple dealer near you call (800) 538-9696.i Canada, call (800) 268-7796or (800) 268-7637.

CONTENTS

106

•

232

FEATURES

Introduction 106

Interactive Audio in a Videodisc System

by \ohn Lawler. Paul Hairsine. and Albert E. Miller 108

The tool described consists of a microcomputer, a touch-sensitive display,and an external audio box that's computer-controlled

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: Build the Home Run Control System,

Part 3: The Software by Steve Ciarcia 121

In this final part of his home-control system, Steve describes the software anddemonstrates a schedule entry.

SALT by Samuel D. Fenster and Lincoln E. Ford 147

SALT is a reinvention of the threaded interpretive language in which assembly-languageroutines can be used in a single CALL statement from BASIC

The SUM: An Al Coprocessor by Phillip Robinson 169

This coprocessor is intended for computers geared toward Al programming

Inside AppleTalk by David Ushijima 185

Apples new local-area network is designed to let Apple and non-Apple productscommunicate and share information and resources.

The Expert Mechanic by Michael Fichtelman 205

Expert systems needn t be esoteric or waste resources

Switch by Werner R Grunbaum 221

Use color and monochrome monitors simultaneously on your IBM PC

Two s-Complement Numbers Revisited by Gary Bronson and Karl Lyon 228

A value box helps simplify the conversion of positive numbers from binary to decimal form

THEMES

Introduction 232

Choosing a Programming Language by Gary Elfring 235

It's a three-step process

Structuring BASIC by Arthur Huston 243

Compensate for some of the languages shortcomings with a library of subroutines

Subroutine Libraries in Pascal by Bruce Webster 253

The author presents a look at some of the facilities available for developing these libraries

Using Data Flow for Application Development by Wayne P. Stevens 267

This form of linkage results in functions that are easier to understand, develop, and maintain

Debugging Techniques by Gregg Williams 279

There are no magic formulas, but there are tools, and the most powerful one is your own brain

6502 Tricks and Traps by \oe Holt 295

A programmer offers tips for surviving 6502 assembly-language programming

Software-ICs by Lamar Ledbetter and Brad Cox 307

Productivity Products International offers a plan for building reusable software components

REVIEWS

Introduction 320

Reviewers Notebook by Glenn Hartwig 323

BYTE (ISSN 0)60-52801 is published monthly with une extra issue per year by McGraw-Hill Inc f-ounder lames H McGraw 11860-19481 Executive editorialcirculation and advertising offices 70 Main St Peterborough NH 034 58 phone [603i 924-9281 Office hours Mon—Thur 8 30 AM - 4 30 PM Friday8 10 AM - 1 00 PM Eastern Time Address subscriptions to BYTE Subscriptions POB 590 Martinsville N| 08836 Postmaster send address changesUSPS Form 3579 undeliverable copies and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions POB 596 Martinsville Nl 08836 Second-class postage paidat Peterborough NH 0!458 and additional mailing offices Postage paid at Winnipeg Manitoba Registration number 9321 Subscriptions are S2I forone year S38 fur two years and $55 for three years in the USA and its possessions In Canada and Mexico, S23 for one year. S42 lor two years. 561for three years $69 for one year air delivery to Europe 17 100 yen for one year surface delivery to lapan S37 surface delivery elsewhere Air deliveryto selected areas at additional rates upon request Single copy price is S3 50 in the USA and its possessions S3 95 in Canada and Mexico. $4 50 inEurope and S5 elsewhere Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a US bank Please allow six to eightweeks for delivery of first issue Printed in the United States of America

2 BYTE- IUNE I98S

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT TINNEY

BITE

VOLUME 10. NUMBER 6. 1985

The Mindset Personal Computer by Tom VJadlow 324

A machine that works like an IBM PC but adds CAD/CAM-inspired graphics capabilities.

Idea Processors by 'William Hershey 337

Four packages for organizing text and thoughts.

Convenience Software by Mark |, Welch 353

A comparative review of pop-up programs.

Building Expert Systems with M.l by Bruce D'Ambrosio 371

A knowledge-engineering tool that's part software, part seminar

Hewlett-Packard's HP 7475A Plotter by Rich Malloy 379

A six-pen graphics machine.

The IBM Quietwriter Printer by ]on R Edwards 385

A letter-quality printer that uses thermal-transfer technology

The Word Plus by George Sheldon 393

Software that checks your spelling.

Review Feedback 401

Readers respond to previous reviews

KERNEL

Introduction 406

Computing at Chaos Manor: From the Living Room by \erry Pournelle 409

Complete chaos at the Manor causes Jerry to escape to New York, but he stili finds timeto visit shows and look at new products.

Chaos Manor Mail conducted by \erry Pournelle 435

lerry's readers write, and he replies.

BYTE U.K.: Telephone Computers by Dick Pountain 439

The One Per Desk is a personal computer with built-in telephone hardware, tightly integratedtelecommunications software, and general-purpose desktop computer facilities.

BYTE |apan: New NECs and a Cartridge Disk by William M. Raike 451

Our lapan reporter tells about three new microcomputers from NEC. a cartridgehard-disk system from Tomas Electronics, and Japan's use of public video-display unitsas shoppers directories.

BYTE West Coast: A GEM Seminar by )ohn Markoff and Phillip Robinson 455

Our West Coast correspondents report on DR's seminar to teach programmersto adapt their software to the GEM environment, and on MacNosy and advancesin disk-controller technology

Circuit Cellar Feedback conducted by Steve Garcia 461

Steve answers project-related queries from readers

BYTEL1NES conducted by Sol Ubes 468

EditorialThe BYTE Information Exchange . . .6

Microbytes 9

Letters 14

Fixes and Updates 33

Whats New 39, 470

Ask BYTE 48

Clubs & Newsletters 58

Book Reviews

65

Event Queue

86

Books Received

. .465

Unclassified Ads

525

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box,

BOMB Results

526

Reader Service

527

Address all editorial correspondence to the Editor. BYTE POB 372 Hancock NH 03449 Unacceptable manuscripts wil! be returned if accompaniedby sufficient firsKlass postage Not responsible for lost manuscripts or photos Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTE

Copyright <S 1985 by McGraw-Hill Inc All rights reserved Trademark registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Where necessarypermission is granted by the copyright owner for libraries and others registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC| to photocopy any articleherein 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 CongressSt Salem MA 01970 Specify ISSN 0360-5280/83 St 50 Copying done for other than personal or internal reference use without the permis-sion of McGraw-Hill Inc is prohibited Requests for special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to the publisher BYTE is availablein microform from University Microfilms International. 300 North Zeeb Rd. Opt PR. Ann Arbor Ml 48106 or 18 Bedford Row. Dept PRLondon WC1R 4EI EnglandSubscription questions or problems should be addressed to: BYTE Subscriber Service. POB 328, Hancock, NH 03449

320

406

SECTION ART BY DAVE CALVER

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 3

Can You Name EveryDual-Drive Color PCThat Runs Lotus 1,2,3and Costs Under S1500?

Hints

• It comes with a 14" RGB monitormuch like the 14" monitor that comeswith the $2495 Leading Edge PC.

• It has dual 800K disk drives muchlike the $2495 Tandy 2000, but unlikethe 2000 it will also read and write to160K, 320K, and 360K IBM-PC formats.

• It's an 8088, MS-DOS system with!256K of RAM, but it comes with a betterfree software bundle than the 8-bit Kayproincluding MS-DOS 2.11, HAGEN-DOS,DOS-TUTOR, WordStar 3.3, Easy Writer,Spell, Mail Track, PC File III, FILE-BASE, CalcStar, games, graphics, utili-ties, and two BASIC languages.

• Although it's not PC-DOS compatibleit will run hundreds of the same pro-grams as the IBM including d BASE II,Multiplan, the PFS series, Lotus 1,2,3and even Flight Simulator.

• During the dog days of summercomputer sales, we've lowered the pricesof both our color and monochrome systems.You can receive a free booklet on thesesystems by calling our machine at1-800-FOR A FOX, and leaving yourname and address at the beep.

Your time is up the answer is:

Color Fox $1497

alsoFox Jr. . .. $899 Silver Fox . . $1297

Scorrsdale Systems, M

617 N Scorrsdale Rd. #D, Scorrsdole, Az 85257 ■

(602)941-5856 "

The Silver Fox is sold exclusively by Scottsdale SystemsLtd., 617 N. Scottsdale Road WB. Scottsdale, AZ 85257.Trademarks: Silver Fox, HAGEN-DOS, and Datemate,Scottsdale Systems Ltd.; WordStar and CalcStar,Micropro International; MS-DOS, and Multiplan, Micro-soft Corporation; FILEBASE. EWDP Software. Inc.;dBASE II, AshtonTate; IBM-PC. and IBM-PC DOS;International Business Machines Corporation. Ordering:Telemarketing only. Silver Fox price is for cash,F.O.B. Scottsdale. prices subject to change, productsubject to limited supply. We accept purchase orders fromFortune 1000 companies and major universities withgood credit - add 2% Visa, Mastercard add 3%, AZresidents add 6%. Returned merchandise subject to a 20%restocking fee. Personal or company checks take up to 3weeks to clear. No COD's or APO's.

BYTE

editor in chiefPhilip Lemmonsmanaging editor

Gene Smarteconsulting editorsSteve Garcia

Ierry Pouknelle

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G Michael Vose. ThemesGregg Williamstechnical editors

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Glenn Hartwic Reviews

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Iane Morrill Tazelaar

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Alan Easton. Drafting

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electronic publishing and communications

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user news editor. east coast

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USER NEWS EDITOR, WEST COAST

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Perry Saidman computers and law

Robert Sterne, computers and law

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a

YTE • IUNE 1985

Give yourself a Giff

Now you can network IBM PCs with apowerful, multitasking, multiuser system.

Run popular MS-DOS™ programs like Lotus™ 1-2-3,SuperCale 3 and WordStar.™ Plus all the thousands of CP/M*programs. Plus true multiuser accounting, database manage-ment, and electronic mail.

Gifford's MC-NEX™ running on our MC-186™ and IBMcompatible PCs, gives you all this capability and more. It letsyou grow a network that shares information and resourcesamong hundreds of people. With full security. Advanced tele-communications. And the ease of use of a standalone PC.

Get the whole story on Gifford hardware, software andservice. Just call 415/895-0798 and ask for a Giff Pack.™ Or writeto us at 2446 Verna Court, San Leandro, CA 94577

Give yourself the Giff that keeps on giving.

©GIFFORDCOMPUTER SYSTEMS

A subsidiary ofZitel corporation

THE MULTIUSER COMPANY'

2446 Verna Court, San Leandro, CA 9*577 4lV89S-0"'98 Telex ^04521 2050 North Loop West, Suite 116 Houston. TX ^""018 713/680-1944

In Europe: London (01) 878-9111 Telex 28106 (UK)

MC-NET and MC-186 are trademarks of Gifford Computer Systems, MS-DOS, CP/M, Lotus 1-2-3, SuperCale 3 and VlbrdStar are trademarks of Microsoft. Digital Research,Lotus Development Corporation, Sorcim/ILIS Micro Software, and MicroPro International respectively.

Inquiry 196

IUNE 1985

I YT E

EDITORIAL

The BYTE InformationExchange

BYTE will soon become an interactivemagazine by founding the BYTE Informa-tion Exchange (BIX). The goal of BIX is toset up ideal forums for exchanging infor-mation about computers and relatedtopics. If even 1 percent of our circulationowns a specific kind of computer, thattranslates to several thousand people-enough to constitute a thriving usercommunity.

Although a new product. BIX is also anextension of the BYTE magazine that youread each month. Through the BYTE In-formation Exchange, you'll be able to getyour messages to Steve Ciarcia and lerryPournelle more quickly. You'll be able todownload program listings from BYTE ar-ticles for noncommercial use. In time,you'll find in BIX more product announce-ments and scheduled events than wereable to print on paper in BYTE s What'sNew and Event Queue.

BIX has all the functions of an electronicbulletin board but also provides true com-puter conferencing. "Computer conferen-cing" fails to express the kind and qualityof person-to-person communication thatthis technology fosters. Printouts of con-ferences often read like the transcripts oflively face-to-face discussions, and youwish you had been there. You have toremind yourself that the "speakers'weren't "there" either—like you. they wereusing personal computers in their homes,offices, or hotel rooms and were transmit-ting messages at whatever hours theyfound convenient.

Because computer conferencing makesit possible to have a group discussionwithout gathering everyone in one placeor at one time, it is the ideal way to tapdistributed resources. BYTE's subscribersare a paradigm of distributed resources.Collectively you possess more informationabout personal computers and corre-sponding topics than any other group ofpeople in the world. We think of you asa living database.

Through BIX. you can share not only theknowledge of other subscribers but alsotheir thinking power. Terms like "dis-tributed resources" and "living database"fall short of the real possibilities for infor-

mation exchange that mechanisms suchas BIX can bring about.

HOW BIX MAKES BYTE"Subscriber-Specific"

Besides giving you a major new resourcefor information on computers. BIX will letus customize BYTE for you. How? Onceyou join a "conference—just by typing joinand the conference's name—you automa-tically receive all new comments from theconference each time you sign on. You canjoin all those conferences that meet yourindividual interests. Suppose you're in-terested in the Macintosh. FORTH, the68020. computers in education, androbotics. You can join a conference oneach of those topics. When you sign on,you'll find all the new comments on thosetopics waiting for you to read, and. if youwish, you can enter comments yourself,including queries. Another subscriber maybe interested in IBM PCs. C PC-DOS.XENIX, graphics, the 80286. and scientificcomputing. Neither of you will have towade through the comments in topics thatdon't interest you. BIX will enable BYTEto cover your particular machine, but it willbe much better than "machine-specific."Through BIX. BYTE will serve eachsubscribers needs.

We will set up conferences and sub-conferences on any topic of legitimate in-terest in personal computing and relatedfields. We'll start with conferences on dif-ferent computers, programming lan-guages, chips, and operating systems, aswell as such topics as graphics, artificialintelligence, and telecommunications.

Software and Sign-Up

The BYTE Information Exchange is based

on CoSy (for conferencing system]. CoSyis a powerful and friendly piece of con-ferencing software developed by friendsof ours at the University of Guelph inOntario. After you first sign on andregister, you can see the major groups ofconferences by typing show groups. Youcan see a list of all the conferences by typ-ing show all. If you want to participate ina conference not listed, send a note to theeditors proposing the conference. We'llfind the right place for the new conferencein the BIX structure and let everyone knowwhere to find it. Once you sign up for BIX,we'll send you the BIX user's manual,which has one of Robert Tinney's bestcovers ever.

Charter Subscriptions

Charter subscribers—people who join BIXbefore lanuary I. 1986—will receive spe-cial low rates. The introductory sign-up feeis $2 5. If you call through our own com-munications nodes, you pay evening andweekend charges of $6 per hour of con-nect time, whether for 300 or 1200 bps.Charter subscribers calling throughTymnet will pay the same $2 5 sign-up feeplus evening charges of $8 per hour. Dur-ing the day. our direct rate will be $18 perhour and our Tymnet rate $24 per hour.

In the beginning, there will be direct BIXnumbers in four cities: San Francisco. LosAngeles. Chicago, and Boston. You'll bereceiving the direct BIX numbers andother information either here in themagazine or through direct mail. The infor-mation will include instructions for sign-ing up. which you can do either on lineor through the mail. Billing will be throughVisa and MasterCard.

Readers who use our free bulletin boardto download program listings should restassured that it will remain available. BIXusers will be able to download programlistings using either Kermit or XMODEMprotocol.

We're excited about the prospect of on-line interaction with subscribers. It shouldenable us to do a better job of meetingyour needs and should make a strongercommunity of us all. We hope to meet youon line soon.

—Phil Lemmons. Editor in Chief

BYTE • IUNE 1981

maxell

FLOPPY DISK

Maxell Gold

The floppy disk

that helps IBM PC AT

spell it out,

keeps Data General

specific,

and suits AT&T to aT

Tailored to surpass your mostdemanding specifications. Maxell.The Gold Standard in floppy disks.From high density floppysfor PC AT (ours was the firstcommercially available) tostandard formats for virtuallyevery computer made, Maxellleads the way. Each comes witha lifetime warranty. And eachcarries the name to make yournext floppy disk purchase decisiona solid triumph.

maxell

IT'S WORTH IT

Maxell Corporation of America, 60 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, N.J. 07074Inquiry 266

PC AT is a registered trademark of IBM Corp

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 7

YOUR DAYS OFBUYING TERMINALSARE OVER!

Now there's SmarTerm terminalemulation software for your IBM*PC, XT, AT or compatible system.All SmarTerm products offer com-prehensive and exact terminalemulation, powerful ASCII andbinary file transfer facilities, andinclude TTY mode to link you toThe Source, CompuServe, DowJones, Easylink, Tymnet or otherpopular services. We've includedfeatures such as multiple setupconfigurations, XMODEM and PDIP*protocol support,"smart'' softkeys,plus EuropeanDOS support.

NEW! SmarTerm 220 supportsA-to-Z and other software whichrequires DEC* VT220 terminals.It includes the full capabilities ofSmarTerm 100 DEC VT102,VT100, and VT52 emulation. Ifyou need VT125 ReGIS graphicssupport, choose SmarTerm 125.For Data General Dasher* D400,D200 or D100 emulation you needSmarTerm 400

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© Period Inc 198S All nghis reserved

MICROBYTES

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

Complex High-End Chips Hit Snags

Problems in debugging complex microprocessor chips have caused new problems at Zilogand Intel. Zilog admitted that sampling of its Z80000 32-bit processor, announced in thesummer of 1983, has been delayed until early 1986. Zilog had originally planned to startshipping the Z80000 in late 1984.

A newly discovered bug in Intel's newest 80286 processor reportedly has delayed DigitalResearch's work on the Concurrent 286 operating system. The bug, which Intel says wasundetected until the third version of the 80286, apparently affects software in the chip's"protected'' mode, used in multitasking and multiuser applications.

Intel has also stopped all manufacturing, marketing, and support activities for its 432microprocessor. The 432 was Intel's first 32-bit chip set, but it was never used in any large-volume computers. Intel is reportedly working on two other 32-bit chip designs, includingthe Intel 80386, which will be compatible with its 80286 and earlier designs. Intel will beginshipping samples of the 80386 late this year.

Lotus, Intel Agree on 8-megabyte Memory Standard for IBM PC

Lotus and Intel have announced an expanded-memory specification for addressing memoryabove the IBM PC's 640K-byte limit and the PC AT's 3-megabyte limit. New versions ofLotus 1-2-3 and Symphony and Ashton-Tate's Framework will be able to directly address upto 4 megabytes of memory.

Intel's new Personal Computer Enhancement Operation division announced the first ex-pansion cards that address and also go beyond the specification. Each of Intel's AboveBoard expansion cards adds up to 2 megabytes of RAM to the IBM PC and 4 megabytes tothe IBM PC AT. The Above Board/PC card, with 64K bytes already installed, is $395; theAbove Board/AT card will be available next month for $595 with 128K bytes installed.

New Computers Unveiled at COMDEX

Several companies had plans to introduce computers in May. Compaq announced 80286-based IBM PC AT-compatible versions of its Portable and DeskPro computers late in April.Both machines feature 6- or 8-MHz clocks and 256K bytes of RAM. The Portable can han-dle 640K bytes of RAM on its main board, while the DeskPro can be equipped with 2.2megabytes. Additional boards provide the former with 2.6 megabytes of RAM and the latterwith 8.2 megabytes. The Portable's storage configurations range from single or dual 360K-byte or 1.2-megabyte floppy-disk drives with a 20-megabyte Winchester drive to a unit witha single floppy-disk drive and a hard-disk drive with a fixed-disk backup. The DeskPro is of-fered with the same floppy-disk storage arrangements and hard-disk capacities ranging from20 to 70 megabytes. Pricing will be competitive with the PC AT.

TeleVideo unveiled a computer designed to outperform the IBM PC AT. The system usesan 8-MHz 80286 processor instead of the 6-MHz version used in the AT and reportedly alsohas faster disk access. The system features four unoccupied AT-compatible expansion slotsand two XT-compatible slots, serial and parallel ports, a I.2-megabyte 5!/4-inch disk drive,and an optional 20-megabyte hard disk. TeleVideo said pricing for the system, including MS-DOS 3.1, would be about 15 percent less than prices for comparable IBM products.TeleVideo will also sell a high-resolution 640- by 400-pixel graphics card and monitor for thecomputer.

Zenith Data Systems was to unveil the Z-171 and Z-138, two IBM PC-compatible portablecomputers. The Z-171 is a battery-powered 17-pound portable based on Morrow's rede-signed Pivot computer. With a backlit 80-character by 25-line liquid-crystal display, two5!4-inch disk drives, and 256K bytes of memory, the Z-171 retails for $2699. The Z-138 is a25-pound transportable computer with one expansion slot and color graphics capabilities.With one 5'/Hnch disk drive and I28K bytes, it will sell for $2199: with 256K bytes and two

{continued)IUNE 1985 -BYTE 9

drives, it's $2499. Zenith also planned to unveil three new flat-screen monochromemonitors.

Leading Edge Products hoped to reduce supply problems resulting from its dispute withsupplier Mitsubishi by offering a new system manufactured by Daewoo of South Korea. Thenew machine will offer a smaller footprint than its earlier computer. Pricing will range from$1495 for a two-drive 256K-byte system with a monochrome monitor to $2695 with a10-megabyte hard disk and an RGB monitor.

Columbia Data Products introduced a multiuser system based on its IBM PC-compatibleMPC Models 4750 and 4950. Each workstation includes a processor card with an 8-MHz8088, 256K bytes of RAM (expandable to 768K). and a serial port; the workstation itselffeatures a parallel port and connectors for a color or monochrome monitor. Workstationsare connected to the computer via four- or six-wire twisted-pair cables. Up to four $1200workstations can be added to a standard MPC. Theoretically, up to 31 workstations couldbe added using optional expansion chassis. Columbia's system uses software licensed fromAlloy Computer Systems, which also sells hardware and software allowing multiuser accessto the IBM PC.

New Laser-Class Printers

Data Recording Systems Inc., Melville, NY, announced the LaserScribe/8415 laser printer,available to other manufacturers in versions with print resolutions of 600, 800, and 1000dots per inch at speeds from three to eight pages per minute. Retail products based on the8415 will probably be priced well above $30,000.

Casio announced the LCS-2400 "electro-photographic" printer, using liquid-crystal shuttertechnology. The LCS-2400 prints up to nine pages per minute at a resolution of about 240dots per inch. Casio was unsure of U.S. pricing but said the printer currently sells for about$1600 in Japan. In the U.S., it will be available only to other manufacturers.

Products Will Aid Visually Disabled Computer Users

Computer Aids, Fort Wayne, IN, introduced several microcomputer products for the dis-abled. One product, Small-Talk, uses a modified Epson HX-20 and a speech synthesizer toallow blind users to perform word-processing tasks. With a printer, microcassette tape drive,and special word-processing software, the computer will cost about $2000.

NANOBYTES

Advanced Micro Devices unveiled several new products, including a 1-megabit EPROM, abit-mapped color graphics chip, and a data-compression and -expansion chip. AMD alsohopes to begin sampling both 1200- and 2400-bps single-chip modems late this year. . . .Alpha Software added its name to the list of manufacturers of keyboard-enhancement pro-grams with its new $90 Key works . Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Access, a $250 com-munications program . . Hayes Microcomputer Products announced the Transet 1000, anintelligent printer/communications buffer/port expander. The $399 unit includes a 68008 pro-cessor and 128K bytes of memory. . . In response to customer complaints about copy pro-tection, several companies are dropping software protection or are offering unprotected ver-sions at a higher price. MicroPro and Stoneware dropped copy protection from theirnewest IBM PC products. MaxThink offers an unprotected version of MaxThink for $60 ex-tra, following the earlier example of Borland International Scenic Computer SystemsCorp., Redmond, WA, has introduced a text-composition system that prepares text for laserprinters using an IBM PC. Scenic Writer for the Hewlett-Packard Laser|et is $995.... In-terstate Voice Products, Orange, CA, announced a connected-speech recognition systemfor the IBM PC. A vocabulary of 15 to 20 words can be recognized in continuous speech,while an additional 240 words are recognized when pronounced with silence betweenwords. The $1650 card includes an 80186 processor and 128K bytes of RAM. . . . BeamanPorter, Harrison, NY, has unveiled PowetText Formatter, a $50 program that allows users ofmost popular word processors to print documents in a two-column format with foot-notes. . . . IBM introduced PC Storyboard, a slide-show graphics package that can reside asa background task and can be used to "capture" screen graphics from other programs. The$250 program can then be used to enhance the graphs and display them in a slide-show-like sequence. . . . Manhattan Graphics Corp. has unveiled a $125 page-design program forApple's 512K-byte Macintosh. Users of ReadySetGo can resize and rearrange blocks of textand graphics on a page for newsletters or other documents.

10 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Both letter-quality and draft hard copy

astest documenthroughput in its class

Both friction andtractor paper feed

Better,

more versatileoperatorcontrols

'I reliability

Compatibility with third-partyand proprietary software

Better,

more durableeasy-accessfont modules

TheTI 855 microprinter.

No other printer says better

so many ways*

re for feature, no other microprinteratch the versatility, compatibility,Mlity and productivity of theJI 800* Model 855 microprinter.; why.

>rinter8 In One. With the TI855• the speed of dot matrix draftlus the precise clarity of the most*d matrix technology for letter->rint. It's two printers in one — atorice.

Family Name. Texas Instru-.nown for providing the world. |idustry standard for printers —1 1. TI builds the same reliability1 1300 series microprinter. Both1 11 the data processing Model1 1 of the expanding TI line of1 \ laance' l°w'cost microprinters.

Hardware Compatible. The TI 855

microprinter is compatible with all majorPC hardware. And it provides both serialRS232C subset and "Centronics-type"parallel as standard interfaces.Software Compatible. The TI 855 usesindustry standard escape sequences forcompatibility with virtually all third-partysoftware. And for those with proprietarysoftware needs, a model is available withANSI standard escape sequences.Tough Font Modules For Quick Char*acter Change. Three font modules canbe inserted into the front of the printer atone time, and are accessed individually.Each contains both draft- and letter-quality character sets. They're easier touse, more reliable and more durable thantraditional metal or plastic daisy wheels.

•xas Instruments " Trademark of Texas Instruments

More Productivity Than Any OtherMicroprinter. The 855 offers both fric-tion and tractor paper feed, to handle alltypes of word and data processing applica-tions. A quick-change snap-in cartridgeribbon. Raster and mosaic graphics. Andintelligent printing which maximizes doc-ument throughput — regardless of format.

Get the printer that makes for betterinformation systems, for more informationvisit your nearest TI authorized dealer orwrite Texas Instruments Incorporated, P.O.Box 402430, Dept. DPF-082BY, - .Dallas, TX 75380-9063. Or call JlXtoll-tree: 1-800-527-3500. ^^t

TexasInstruments

Creating useful productsand services for you. 29

IUNE 1985 -BYTE II

COMBINE POWER ANDENHANCE YOUR PC-AT

Quadram introduces the smart way to enhance your IBM PC-AT. Quadmeg-AT andQuadport-AT. Smart because Quadmeg-AT and Quadport-AT make the most of your ATsystem today and expand to meet your system's growing needs in the future.

Quadmeg-AT comes socketedfor memory expansion from128K to 2 Megabytes. Harnessthis power to create megabyte-sized RAM drives, access

QU\DMEGAT"

Advance to 4 Megabytes

When you need more than2Mbytes, Quadmeg-AT adaptswith two Quadmeg-ATExpansion Cards. Each packs512K or 1Mbyte extra RAM.

Both cards filled giveQuadmeg-AT a powerful4Mbyte capacity.Quadmeg-AT deliversthe power you need totake full advantage of theAT's capabilities.

greater amounts of informa-tion, and process data fasterand more efficiently thanever before. Plus, with"split memory mapping','Quadmeg-AT lets you expandthe AT's base system memoryto 640K without buying aspace-wasting 128K card.

Add a SecondQuadport

Two Quadport-ATs gu\our AT system a totalof 2 parallel ports and10 serial pom. Addperipheral devices orworkstations for theultimate in PC-AT,performance

Maximum Performance inMinimum Space

Quadmeg-AT and Quadport-AT fitsnugly side bv side to deliver a powerful4Mb RAM and multiple I/O expan-sion in just tuo AT expansion slots.

Look for this seal. It's themark of dependability and1 performance from theleader in microcomputerH enhancements.

IBM PC-AT is a registered trademark nfInternational Business Machines Corporation.

12 BYTE- IUNE 1985

EXPANDABILITY TOTHE SMART W\Y.

QLADPORT-AT

Quadport-AT combines aparallel printer port and aserial port to give your AT thefeatures found onIBM's Serial/Parallel Adapter. tBut at a lowercost and with

built-in expandability. Connectprinters, plotters, modems,and other devices for increasedproductivity.

Advanced Port Expansion

As your AT becomes thecenter of a high-performanceLAN or growing multi-user, multi-tasking system,snap on the optionalQuadport-AT ExpansionKit and add 4 more serialports to your system. TheQuadport-AT ExpansionKit comes with softwareto access these ports,making it easy to addshared peripherals orworkstations.

Enhance the smart waywith Quadram.

For basic AT expansion,Quadmeg-AT and Quadport-ATwork together to provide 128Kmemory expansion, a serial port,and a parallel port.Then, as your systemgrows, Quadmeg-AT andQuadport-AT give you up to4MB RAM, 1 parallel port,and up to 5 serial ports in justtwo PC AT expansion slots.Only Quadram combines somuch power and expandability.That's PC AT enhancementthe smart way.

Features

Quadmeg-AT: RAM

expansion from 128K to2Mbytes. Expandable in 512Kincrements. Split memorymapping assigns 128K or 384Kto base memory.

Total RAM Capacity:

4Mbytes.

Expansion Cards: Two cardsavailable. Each comes with512K or 1Mbyte RAMinstalled.

QuadMaster-AT Software:

RAM Drives and Spooling forextended memory.

Quadport-AT: Port expansionwith 1 Centronics parallel portand 1 RS-232C serial port.

Quadport-AT Expansion Kit:

(optional) 4 RS-2 32C serialports. Software to access ports.

For a free demonstration visitthe Quadram dealer nearestyou. Or, for information, writeus at 4355 International Blvd.,Norcross, Georgia 30093(404)923-6666.

QUADRAM

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Inquiry 344

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 13

LETTERS

Votes for ProgrammingInsights

This is a complaint. It is no service to yourreaders to bury very useful articles under"Programming Insight" at the bottom ofyour table of contents. "SimultaneousEquations with Lotus 1-2-3" by lan-Henriklohannson (February, page 399) was themost interesting article in that issue.

You might justify your position by say-ing that such articles never get mentionedin the BOMB (BYTE's Ongoing MonitorBox). I agree. But the reason is that youexclude them from the ballot! So here'sa vote for lohansson—the only way I cando it.

N. C. Webb, M.D.Lincoln, MA

Gene Smarte replies:

Thank you for your vote. It will be in-cluded in our tabulation. As of May, weare adding all the Programming Insights,Application Notes, and other brief ar-ticles that appear at the back of the bookto the table of contents and the BOMB.

Mail-Order Delays

Regarding Phil Lemmons's editorial "Ser-vice and Support" (February, page 6). Ihave purchased various computer systemsand components via mail order, and I havenot had any problems except with Priori-ty One Electronics in Chatsworth, Califor-nia.

Priority One has been sitting on $300of mine since August 1984. Several phonecalls resulted only in assurances that myparts would be mailed "Real Soon Now."That was several months ago. I have neverbeen informed that there would be anydelay in delivery of my order

Priority One Electronics continues toadvertise and take orders for the sameparts that I have yet to receive!

Bob HarringtonDuquesne. PA

Priority One Electronics replies:

First, allow us to apologize for thedelays associated with your order. OnAugust 30. the day after we received yourorder, we shipped the items that wereavailable. But for Prometheus Productsinability to deliver the balance of your

order, the order would have beenshipped complete.

As a rule, we advertise only those itemswe have in stock or for which we havereceived a firm commitment from themanufacturer that the product will beavailable by the time our advertisementis published Our decision to advertisePrometheus's products was based onthat company's promise of delivery.

Due to production problems, Prome-theus was unable to deliver the optionsprocessor and display you ordered as ithad promised us some three months ear-lier. Because we had received numerousbroken promises from Prometheus thatthe processors and displays would shipany day'' we were hesitant to launch amajor campaign to notify our customersof a shipping date and instead concen-trated our efforts on pressuring Pro-metheus into expediting our order. Whenyou contacted our customer-servicegroup, we could relay to you only thelimited information we had obtainedfrom Prometheus.

Finally, after whatever flaws thatdelayed production were corrected, atour insistence, Prometheus workedthrough a weekend to fill our back orders.We are proud to say that we shipped allour customers orders in only that partof a day that it took for us to receive theproduct and package the outgoingorders.

We are happy that we were able tocomplete your order. If Prometheus hadnot delivered when it did. our nextcourse of action would have been tocancel all our orders for this product.

We regret that these events may havesoured your taste for our company. How-ever, we understand your position andappreciate your feelings. It is our sincerehope that this experience does not un-justly bias any future decisions you maymake regarding shopping via mail order.John C GunnDirector of Consumer AffairsPriority One Electronics

NOTES ON THE VU68K

Remember "The VU68K Single-BoardComputer" described by Edward M.Carter and A. B. Bonds (lanuary 1984.

page 403)? Well. I finally completed it andfound it to be an excellent vehicle to learnabout the marvels of the 68000 with littleexpense. BYTE and the authors are to becommended for the article as there arestill readers who want to learn aboutmicrocomputers from the ground up.

Here are a few suggestions for otherswho may be having problems with theproject. The address lines A2I and A22are incorrectly connected to the terminalACIA (IC1I) in the wiring diagram andshould be reversed. I tied BR. BGACK. andBERR high although it may not be neces-sary. Lastly, the monitor program (VUBUG)as I received it was assembled with a one-pass assembler, and therefore all forwardreferences must be resolved before youcan use it.

Walter R. CurticePrinceton junction. Nj

Remote Diagnostics

I found Phil Lemmons's editorial concern-ing remote diagnostics both interestingand informative ("Service and Support."February, page 6). As more systems arebeing sold to first-time computer users,the need for better repair service isbecoming an even greater factor than theperformance features of the system.

We at RACET have long believed that thekey to success in the systems-house busi-ness is support. Although we're a smallcompany, our customers expect big-company support. Several years ago, wedeveloped a series of diagnostic tests forcheckout of the hard-disk subsystems thatwe sold to the Radio Shack market. Thediagnostic was set up so that it could berun via remote (modem) connection, en-

tcontinued)

LETTERS POLICY: To be considered for publica-tion, a letter must be typed double-spaced on oneside of the paper and must include your name andaddress. Comments and ideas should be expressed asclearly and concisely as possible. Listings and tablesmay be printed along with a letter if they are shortand legible.

Because BYTE receives hundreds of letters eachmonth, not all of them can be published. Letters willnot be returned to authors. Generally, it takes fourmonths from the time BYTE receives a letter untilit is published

14 BYTE • IUNE 1985

M^vnaitl Electronics

Shaping Tomorrow's Technology

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Inquiry 268

If you're tired of waiting,

you're using the wrong file manager.

Be fast. Btrieve.™

If batch jobs and reports turn wait-ing time to nighttime, then wake up!You're using the wrong file manager.

Btrieve™ file management hateswaiting as much as you do. It's writ-ten in assembly language especiallyfor the IBM PC. And based onb-tree file indexing, with automaticbalancing for access speed that won'tdegrade as your database grows. WithBtrieve, your applications always runfast. So you'll be out the door faster.

The standard for networking.Btrieve/N (network version) sets thestandard for the industry's mostpopular LANs, including IBM's PCNetwork. Btrieve/N offers safe net-work file management that coor-dinates simultaneous updates andprevents lost data.

Automatic file recovery. Btrieve pro-vides automatic file recovery after a

Suggested retail prices: Btrieve, $245; Btrieve/N, $595,Rtrieve/N, $175. Requires PC-DOS or MS-DOS IX,

system crash. Your Btrieve data alwayscomes back intact.

Fully-relational data management.SoftCraft's entire family of productsgives you a complete, fully-relationaldatabase management system.Rtrieve™ adds report writing capabili-ties. Xtrieve™ speeds users throughdatabase queries with interactivemenus.

For professional programmers.Btrieve is the fast, reliable answer forall your application development inBASIC, Pascal, COBOL, C, FORTRAN,and APL. With Btrieve, you candevelop better applications faster.And know they'll run—fast.

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LETTERS

abling our support people to check outa reported problem without flying all overthe country.

We have since migrated to the IBM PCmarket, where we offer hard-disk and tapesubsystems capable of storing from 100to 400 megabytes. Our remote-diagnosticprogram allows us to check out the disk,tape, and controllers and isolate down tothe module level. We can then expeditethe replacement module or component tothe customer before a field technician issent out. This procedure saves ourcustomers time and money and improvesthe relationship with their customers.

For us, remote diagnostics has beenstandard practice for several years and weagree totally that the industry shouldfollow suit.

Thomas S. Bernard

Vice President, Marketing and Sales

RACET Computes Ltd.

Orange, CA

ICONOCLASM AND THE MAC

Ann Marchant's letter on icons ("Icons AreArcane," February, page 24) agrees withmy own experience, but there's anotherexample of their use that started 4990years later than hers. We now see rabbits,turtles, and globs of oil used on farm-equipment instrument and control panelswhere we used to see plain English. TheDymo labeler solved most of the problem,but there were a couple of side effects.First, the suspicion farmers had thatagricultural engineers were illiterate wasreinforced. The second was more perti-nent. Several of my former professors andclassmates have worked on projects in thethird world. They found that the locals'knowledge of English rarely extended tothe fables of Aesop, and there was a prob-lem if rabbits or turtles were not part ofthe local fauna. Training people who don'tknow how to drive a car to operate com-plex modern farm machinery is enoughof a problem without having to interpretnonsensical symbols for them.

My own experience with the Macintoshwas an exercise in frustration. I was look-ing for something better than my TRS-80Model PC-2 pocket computer, and I gotthe chance to use a relative's Mac for twodays. I ran a series of small benchmarks,and I could edit a program on the PC-2far more quickly than I could on the Mac.The mouse is no substitute for a good setof cursor and function keys. I was so surethis turkey would never fly that I got a bitparanoid and wiped the Apple lie and lieoff my shopping list as well. I bought a

[continued)

16 BYTE

Inquiry 374

ProModem 1200... H OT*LI NE

Our ProModem 1200 MakesSmart Modems Look Dumb

ProModem 1200(RS-232)

m

Send Or Receive 50 Pages Of TextWithout Tying Up Your Computer

COMPUTERBUSY

COMPUTERTURNED OFF

No wonder Smart Modems, Cats, and Maxwellscringe when compared to our $495 ProModem1200, an expandable 1200/300 baud modemfor use with all personal computers. It costsless, but is smarter than the rest.

And when you add our $99 Communica-tions Buffer and Alphanumeric Display options,ProModem 1200 becomes a veritable genius!

Imagine, you unplug your computer, take ithome for the weekend, and while you're gone,ProModem 1200 answers the phone, collectsmessages up to 50 pages long, sends outelectronic mail, and displays all events with theexact time of each. Thanks to ProModem 1200,expensive, hard-to-use communications soft-ware isn't needed. The communications is in themodem, and electronic mail becomes a back-ground function, where it belongs.

A

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ProModem 1200M(Macintosh)

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Our Communications Buffer is a 4 by 6 card thatplugs into the ProModem 1200 motherboard.It comes with 2K of CMOS battery backed-upmemory, expandable to 64K. Part of the mem-ory is used as a dialing directory with thebalance reserved for storage. For $99 more,a front panel Alphanumeric Display can beadded to show time, date, and 24 status andhelp messages. These two powerful optionscan be included at time of purchase, or canbe added later.

Hayes Compatible

ProModem 1200 is Hayes compatible but that'swhere the resemblance ends. Our standard$495 modem includes a real-time clock/calendar. Hayes charges hundreds more for aSmart Modem with a time-base. Nor do theyhave electronic mail capability at any price.

ProModem 1200 contains a battery backed-up real-time

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tying up the computer.

Send for complete details and the nameof the Prometheus dealer nearest you.

CattNo^fnfo

PRODUCTS INCORPORATED

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Inquiry 340

IUNE !985 -BYTE 17

RUN/C: <§

The C Interpreter

Only $149.9S! i

For both

the beginner and the C professional.

RUN/C: The C Interpreter

makes program development easier andfaster. With RUN/C all those C programs you'vebeen writing — or have been wanting to write —can be up and running in a fraction of the time.

The beauty ofRUN /C is that it provides

a BASIC-like user interface for C; it allows the user

to edit and debug code immediately and interactively.

RUN

/C is the first program to make C a user-friendly language.

Although C is structured, compact and FAST, the writing and testingof C programs is often a tedious process. RUN/C helps bring up tospeed both your programs and your C programming skills. Cprogramming has never been so fast and enjoyable!

When running under RUN /C. yourC program performs exactly as itwould if it were compiled (although slower since RUN/C is a trueinterpreter). If your program does have an error, RUN/C finds it.gives you a comprehensive error message and allows you to correct theerror on the spot. Once you are completely satisfied with your Cprogram it can be SAVEd. then compiled and linked using your favoriteC compiler.

RUN/C offers easy and familiar commands such as LOAD, LIST.SAVE. RUN. etc. A powerful line editor is built right in. RUN/C'sSHELL command will also allow you to use your own editor forextensive full-screen editing, and then return your newly editedprogram to RUN /C — all within a single, unified environment.

RUN/C offers:

• A robust implementation ofstandard Kernighan and Ritchie C.

• Full floating point. 8087 mathchip support, structures,unions, initializers, casts andmore than 100 built-in standardC library functions.

• An easy-to-read 475-pagemanual filled with usefulexamples to help you masterthe C language.

• TRON. TRACE and DUMPdiagnostics PLUS a programprofiler.

For immediate delivery

• Printer and asynchronouscommunications support.

• A full set of buffered andunbuffered file I/O functions.

• Nearly 100 sample C programson disk illustrating the mostimportant C functions andconcepts.

• System Requirements:IBM® PC or compatible withPC-DOS 2.0 or MS™-DOS 2.0

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LETTERS

RUN/C is a trademark of Age of Reason Co.

Tandy 1000 and like it so far, although itis still an immature system. The Text wordprocessor of DeskMate. on which this let-ter is being written, is a lot nicer than Mac-Write. Worksheet, Filer, and the BASIChave a few problems. The Radio ShackDWP-210 printer is a bit faster than adver-tised, running the 60-column Shannon test(discussed on page 207 of Sergio Mello-Grand's "The Art of BenchmarkingPrinters," February 1984, page 193) at 19.7characters per second (cps| rather than theclaimed 18 cps.

On further reflection, I think the Macmay find a niche in the educational andgraphics markets, but it will never chal-lenge the MS-DOS machines for the busi-ness market unless someone finds a wayto bypass the bells and whistles.

|ACK MONTEITH

Balcarres, Saskatchewan, Canada

The Origin of 0

In his review of the book Alan Hiring: TheEnigma (February, page 65), G. MichaelVose mentioned Turing's habit of writingzero as "/" as possibly the origin of thecomputer habit of writing zero as 0 todifferentiate it from the letter O.

1 own an ancient Model 17 Teletype thatI am sure, judging by its condition, goesat least as far back as World War II. andit uses a "0." I think the convention goesback to telegraphers who had to clearlydistinguish between the two as they hur-riedly transcribed the clicking of the wires.William D. A. GearyDeer Park, NY

GPIB VS. HP-IB

1 read Thomas R. Clune's article "Interfac-ing for Data Acquisition" (February, page269) with great interest. I am involved withstandards, both in the IEEE and HP, fordevices that use the IEEE-488 bus. He hasdone a great service in describing theattributes of a communication mediumthat has eased the construction of instru-ment systems for years. 1 do, however, feelthat a few points in the article need clari-fication.

Hewlett-Packard never uses GPIB in ref-erence to any of its products. We alwaysuse HP-IB. Our lawyers say the hyphen isimportant because it protects the HPtrademark.

I was a little confused by the way Clunedifferentiated between command anddata modes. I have always thought of thecommand mode as involving setting upwhich device would talk and which wouldlisten. Technically, sending messages to a

{continued)

18 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 248

4 Out Of 5 PC-AT Expansion BoardBuyers Own Advantage!

The overwhelming choice of IBM*PC-AT users, Advantage! from ASTsets the standard in high-poweredmultifunction enhancement.Advantage! was the first multifunc-tion board for the PC-AT. And itremains the leader by providing mil-lions of characters of memory capac-ity, two serial ports, a parallel portand a game port. All in a single expan-sion slot.

First In Memory. All it takes isAdvantage! There's no need to addother cards or hard-to-find chipson your system board. Whether youhave an 256K, 512K or 640K AT, ourunique memory addressing tech-nique lets you add up to 3 Megabytesof parity checked user memoryefficiently and economically. Forflexibility, Advantage! can use either64K or 256K memory chips. Andof course, it supports your AT's highperformance 16-bit bus and fasterprogram processing speed.

Now you can have the extramemory to run integrated businesssoftware such as Symphony™ and

Framework™ To make full use of newconcept windowing software suchas D ESQ™ To utilize multitasking pro-grams such as IBM's TopView™ ormultiuser operating systems suchas XENIX™ To handle larger amountsof data, faster. Or for RAM disks.

First In I/O. Here's all the I/O capa-bility you need now, even if you'restarting with a base model AT. EveryAdvantage! card includes an ATcompatible serial port and a parallelport so you can connect printers,plotters, mice and modems. Or withthe appropriate software, you canconnect other terminals to createmultiuser environments.

With our optional second serialport you can attach even more peri-pherals, while our optional gameport lets you plug in joysticks andother cursor-control devices forbusiness or just for fun.

First In Quality. AST's reputationis built on quality products, qual-ity support and quality service. Ourcomplete documentation meansAdvantage! is exceptionally easy

to install and use, but if it's notenough we're always here to help.

Four out of five buyers agree, thechoice is Advantage!—only from AST.Ask your dealer, or call our CustomerInformation Center (714) 863-1333for more information. AST Research,Inc., 2121 Alton Avenue, Irvine, CA92714 TWX: 753699ASTR UR

FEATURES

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Port

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Advantage! trademark of AST Research, Inc. IBM PC-AT andIbpView trademarks of Internationa! Business Machines Corp.Framework trademark of AshtonTate. Symphony trademarkof Lotus Development Corp. DESQ trademark of QuarterdeckOffice Systems. XENIX trademark of Microsoft Corp.

R€S€RRCH INC.

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

/

ill

J

WE INTERRUP1

HIS MAJORNTRODUCTION10WU SOMETHINGtEALLYMPORTANT.

THE BIG NEWS IN DISK/TAPE IS PC/% ASENSIBLE NEW APPROACH TO ARCHIVALSTORAGE.

We've tamed tape. And made it docile.By making it DOS-like.

So, while this started as an ad for ourfive new HardFile™ subsystems, whichdeliver 25 to 80 megabytes of hard diskstorage and 60 megabytes of tape backup,instead we want to introduce you to PC/T.™

PC/T is a new format that makestape a more sensible storage solution forpersonal computers. It puts tape on line,in real time, for instant access. And freesyour hard disk for your most current data.

You already know how to use PC/T.Because it responds to standard DOScommands.

Here's the big news: just like anyDOS-controlled hard or floppy disk, PC/Tenables you to create directories and fileson tape. Then you can call up the exact fileyou need, and change a portion of the tapewithout having to erase and overwrite theentire cartridge.

Without PC/T, you haveto rewrite the entire 60 MBcartridge each time youmake a single change.

With PC/T, you create anddirectly access files ontape, just like with floppyor hard disk.

PC/T formats each new tape cartridge,just like you format any hard or floppydisk, locking out bad blocks to assure thatevery bit of data you write to tape isrecorded with utter accuracy.

What's more, PC/T gives tape trueerror correction capability. 50% redundancyduring write operations ensures 100%reconstruction of data lost because of oper-ator error, dust and dirt, or everyday wearand tear.

There is a catch. You can get yourhands on PC/T just one way: Buy one of ourpowerful new HardFile subsystems. Withdisk plus tape. Or tape alone. Which bringsus back to where we started. And givesyou a place to start. Just call 1-800-228-DISK for the Tallgrass dealer nearest you.

TALLGRASS SELLS MORE HARD DISKSTORAGE WITH CARTRIDGE TAPEBACKUP THAN ANYONE IN THE

WORLD.

TALLGRASS*TECHNOLOGIES

COMMITTED TO MEMORY

Inquiry 399

HardFile™'and Tallgrass'"are trademarksof Tallgrass Technologies CorporationC11985 Tallgrass Technologies

datasouthWheels OutYour NewCorporateImage

Dear Businessperson:

A good daisywheel printershould work like a pin-stripesuit for your letterhead.

That's why you need a newDaisyWheel 36 from Datasouth. It is,literally, a very impressive machine.

The DaisyWheel 36 is quick, with a top speed of 36 cps.It's more capable than any other daisywheel in its class,with superscriptsf subscripts, boldfacing, underlining,text reprinting, red & black color printing and proportionalspacing, among other impressive features. And with itsDiablo 630 compatibility, your DaisyWheel 36 will get alongwith just about any computer in your office.

Your secretary will get along with your DaisyWheel 36too—thanks to its sheet and tractor feed options, cartridgeribbon, and a whole garden of distinctive daisywheel typefaces, each with its own protective cassette.

Best of all, the DaisyWheel 36 comes from a companywith a most impressive name: Datasouth—the name thatmeans high performance.

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Datasouth Computer CorporationBox 240947 • Charlotte, NC 28224704/523-8500 • Telex 6843018 DASOU UWInquiry 132

LETTERS

DMM (digital multimeter) to set up itsmeasurement function is done in the datamode. The message is going from thecomputer (talker) to the DMM (listener).During this time the controller function inthe computer is inactive.

While service requests and parallel pollsare often used to indicate unexpectedconditions, they have applications beyondjust indicating problems. A commonusage is to synchronize stimulus and mea-surement devices. A source may take asignificant length of time before its out-put is stable. By asserting SRQ (servicerequest) when everything is ready, thedevice signals the computer that a mea-surement can be taken. Some instruments,like swept-spectrum analyzers, take quitea while to complete a measurement. Usingpolling methods, the computer can pro-cess other tasks while waiting.

Table 1 of the article described the bitpattern "N11SSSSS" as a secondary ad-dress. Actually, it should be described asa secondary command. A secondary com-mand has meaning after either a parallel-poll configure or a primary address. Thesecondary command after a parallel-poll-configure command programs which bitthe device will drive during a parallel poll.

The other use of secondary commandsis for secondary addressing. A device mayimplement extended talker or extendedlistener functions. If so. the device mustreceive its primary address followed by itssecondary address in order to be ad-dressed. Using secondary addresses toprogram device functions is not generallydone. A device may have several TE (ex-tended talker) and LE (extended listener)functions to allow access to various partsof the instrument. Conceivably, a devicecould contain both a power supply anda voltmeter. One secondary addresswould allow programming messages to goto the voltmeter section and anotherwould allow them to reach the power-supply section.

I'm not sure 1 would describe REN(remote enable) as a "warm boot." RENgives the controller charge over where theinstrument will receive its instructions.While REN is false the front panel is ac-tive. If REN is true and the listen addressis received, the front panel is deactivated.I think the description of IFC (interfaceclear) as a "panic button" is very accurate.

The IEEE has a companion documentto IEEE-488 called "IEEE RecommendedPractice for Code and Format Conven-tions" or ANSI/IEEE Standard 728-1982.This standard is directed toward program-

{contmued)

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Inquiry 47

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 23

LETTERS

ming and response messages. The IEEEhas also formed a committee. P981. towork on extending and refining the cur-rent standards. My article, "Test/ControlUpdate: GPIB Instruments" [ElectronicEngineering Times. December 17, 1984, page47). may be of interest.

1 think the BYTE article did a good jobof communicating the fundamental capa-bilities and advantages of the IEEE-488

bus. The application example demon-strates the power that is available to theuser. I am convinced that this interface willbecome more widely used with personalcomputers. I appreciate your efforts inspreading the word.

Stephen Greer

Interface Engineer

Hewlett-Packard

Loveland, CO

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DISTRIBUTORS INQUIRY WELCOME Inquiry 254

Thomas R. Clune replies:

I appreciate the clarity of your well-informed remarks. I do, however, thinkthat you have overstated the sharpnessof the distinction between command anddata modes. For example, a DMM manu-facturer would be perfectly free to treatits product as three instruments in one.The voltmeter could be given a differentsecondary address from the ohmmeter,etc. Thus, addressing the voltmeter totalk would be functionally equivalent toselecting the volts function in data modeon, for example, the HP 3478A. Further,commands like GET are. to my mind,more like programming statements thanaddress information. Having said that, letme thank you for your corrections andadditions to my remarks. I look forwardto reading your article in ElectronicEngineering Times.

Conversion Utilities

1 read with interest Ted Carnevale's "C toPascal" (February, page 138). Camevale of-fered a filter program for converting Csource code into a form that requiresminimal editing to produce the corre-sponding Pascal. The author's explicationof his problem and the chosen method ofsolving it were informative and lucid. Thisarticle was also valuable as an illustrationof program construction. Your readersmay be interested to know of an alter-native method for carrying out such con-versions in a few minutes without pro-gramming.

The WP Toolset provides 50 utilities forthe IBM PC including a program to makeany set of regular substitutions in disk files.This general-purpose filter makes multipleglobal replacements in one pass, replac-ing any string of printable or nonprintablecharacters with replacement strings ofyour choice. The replacements are storedin an ASCII file with nonprintable charac-ters represented in hexadecimal. The filtercan be called from the command line orbatch files for conversion of programs,word-processing files, or any data whoseline delimiters need modification. The WPToolset is available for $39 from iRr Soft-ware, 28 Ridgewood Rd„ Concord, MA01742.

Gail Johnsen

iRr Software

Concord, MA

Art Appreciation

The illustration on page 96 of your Marchissue, by artist Barrett Root, is without adoubt one of the finest that has ever ap-

icontinued)

PERSONALITYPROBLEM?

UNIX™ and DOS™ At the Same Time!

ivailableimthePC/XT and:ompatibles.

Looking at an IBM PC/AT? Happy with DOS but wantUNIX? Happy with UNIX but want DOS? Wmt themworking together?

Get The Connector!™

The Connector is a revolutionary product that allowsDOS applications to run on the IBM PC/AT or XTunder VENLX/86 (the first licensed AT&T UNIXoperating system for the IBM PCs) or PC/IX. Thatmeans you can add one or more terminals to your ATwhich run programs using multi-user VENIX/86 toshare the disk and printer. Switch between UNIX andDOS at the console with a single command. And runmore than one task simultaneously. Like running aspelling check in the background while you print areport and run Lotus 1-2-3™ or dBasell™

Get yourself an AT and load it with VENIX. Collectyour DOS and/or UNLX applications. We'll supply TheConnector. The right solution to your software per-sonality problems.

Call for complete details.

Unisource Software Corp., Department 4109,71 Bent Street, Cambridge, MA 02141.Telex 92-1401/COMPUMART CAM.

617-491-1264

;!NIX is i trademark of ATAT Technologic*. Inc. DOS Is a trademark of Microsoft. Inc PC/AT and PC/XT arc trademark* of IBM. The Connector is a trademark>f Uniform Software Systems. Inc. VENIX/86 implementation by VentwrCom, Inc. 1-2-3 and LOTUS are trademarks of Lotus Development Corp. dBasell is arademarfc of AshtonTate,

Inquiry 411

Getting UNIX SoftwareDown to Business

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 25

LETTERS

peared in a computer-oriented magazine.

The symbolism isn't subtle, but howperfectly right the artist was, that demonterminal and computer have become ourgods! And that the temple computer is atthe summit of the other lesser computersor terminals.

1 actually know computerists who vir-tually worship their computers and whoreligiously do obeisance to their electronicgods. I'm sure that the Parthenon did notexert the influence on some of itsdevotees that the microcomputer does

today on many of its owners.

My sincere compliments and thanks toMr. Root.

Bernard A. McIlhanyMarble Hill, CA

Factoring with SI

Thanks for Richard B. Leining's interestingarticle, "Factoring with Hyper" (March,page 396). The method outlined is un-doubtedly applicable in certain circum-stances. However . ..Instead of comparing Hyper with a so-

Table

: The number of trials

necessary to

find a factor.

N= num

ber to be factored

0 = actual factor to be found

Qmax =

s/~N

Rq = 0/Qmax

Method

Rq =0.5

Rq-

=0.2

Rq-

=0.1

Hyper

0.125-Omax

0.8*

Omax

2.03

*Qmax

S1

0.25 'Qmax

0.4*

Qmax

0.45

'Qmax

phisticated program I compared it with thesimplest factoring program possible,which I have called SI (Simple l). You startwith Qmax=V~A/~ and try dividing N byeach odd number smaller than Qmax. Thusfor/V=96,00l, Qmax= 309.84, and you try0=309, 307. 305. etc. The most numbersone can ever try with SI is Qmaxll: thusfor 96.001 after 154 trials you reach Q- 1and conclude (correctly) that 96,001 isprime.

Hyper takes 7846 trials to conclude that96,001 is prime. But wait! One expects touse Hyper for numbers that can actuallybe factored. The question is, how long doyou have to search before finding the fac-tor? If we define Qmax as equal to vHvand Rq as equal to QIQmax, where O is theactual factor that will be found by eitherHyper or SI, we can calculate how manytrials each will require. For SI, Trials=Qmax*(\ -Rq)/2. For Hyper, Trials=Qm«»[Rq+ \lRq-2)/4. If Rq is near 1. Hyper getsthe job done faster than SI. But as Rqbecomes small. Hyper suffers. Table 1 il-lustrates some examples.

[continued)

8 MHz/ 1 Megabyte PC

Where do TAVA PC, WESTERN PC. CONQUEST PC. and STAR PC get theirPC compatible system boards'' They use the ADVANCED PC from ADVANCEDLOGIC RESEARCH. INC.

ADVANCED LOGIC RESEARCH (ALR), the original designer of the TAVAPC. is currently offering the ADVANCED PC to OEMS. DEALERS, andSYSTEM INTEGRATORS.

The ADVANCED PC is a single board computer that was designed tomaximize compatibility with fhe IBM PC. Its features include a switchselectable 8MHz/4.77 MHz CPU clock, 1 megabyte memory withoutaddition of add-on cards, 1 serial and 1 parallel port, and 5 expansion slots.The BIOS used on the ADVANCED PC is the same that is used on the TAVAPC. WESTERN PC, ETC.. and has proven to offer the highest degree ofcompatibility available.

ALR also provides PC-AT storage for your PC with the ALR I/O FLOPPY.The standard features of the I/O FLOPPY include support for 1.2 MB HIGHDENSITY drives. 8" drives, as well as standard 360K drives. Optionalfeatures include an AST compatible clock/calendar interface, RS232serial port, and 1 parallel port.

ALR1001T -ADVANCED PC TURBO SYSTEM26 B YTE • IUNE I985

ADVANCED PC

COMPLETE SYSTEM $1 695

2a

(714) 832-7808(714) 832-7809

The complete system includes:8 MHz CPU, 256K Memory. 2 Drives. ALR I/OFloppy with AST compatible Clock/Calendar.Monochrome Display Card and Monitor, 5151Style Keyboard.

lADVANCED LOGIC RESEARCH, INC.1 5455-B Red Hill Avenue. Tustin, California 92630

TELEX - 756-731-ANS/WESTERN COMP.

Inquiry 15 for End-Users. Inquiry 16 for DEALERS ONLY.

Ven-TfePs Half Card™ modemis in all the best computers,

Here's why.. —

en-Tel gives you lots of reasons to buy our Half Cardlodem for your IBM PC or compatible. The Half Carda complete system that lets you communicate withther PCs, mainframes, and databases effortlessly,includes Crosstalk-XVI" software. It's reliables got all of the features you want. And it'sgood value.

o You Own One of Theseomputers?

hances are you do. And if you'relinking of buying a modem, considerie Half Card™. Because of its small size,le Half Card™ fits in more computers,eluding all of the models we've listedere. The Half Card™ is small, so it fits iniort slots or long. That means you canave your long slots for other expan-on uses.

ffortless Communicationach Half Card™comes with Crosstalk-XVI®Dmmunications software, by Microstuf. It'sie easiest to use, whether you're a beginnerr an old hand, and the most powerful. A fulln-line help menu makes using Crosstalk® forie first time a snap. It can turn your PC into airminal on a mainframe computer with its poweril terminal emulation feature. It will even oper-te your PC when you're not there. You can callito an information service such as The Source or Dow Jones Newsetrieval, or transfer files and electronic mail, all at the touch ofbutton. The Half Card™ connects your computer to the world,ffortlessly.

lore Modem for Your Money

/hen you buy the Half Card'" you don't need anything else. Thealf Card™ is a complete communications package that includesfull-featured modem and the best known software on the market,omplete easy-to-understand instructions with full technical supportn installation and use. And a very competitive price. The Halfard'," with Crosstalk-XVI® software, retails for only $549.

eatures

1200/300 baud auto-dial, auto-answer.

Uses the industry standard "AT"

command set.

Runs with virtually all communications

software, including Smartcom II and PC

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as Symphony and Framework.

Includes Crosstalk-XVI® software.

On -board speaker and extra phone jack

for easy switching from voice

to data mode.

Selective tone or pulse dialing;

full or half duplex.

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Reliability

Ven-Tel has been making

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You Can Buy the Half Card™Anywhere

You can get the Half Card™ at Computer-Land, Businessland, the Genra Group,Entre Computer Centers, Macy's ComputerStores and other fine dealers nationwide.Also from Ven-Tel: the 1200 Plus7 anexternal modem and the PC Modem1200™ an IBM internal with V22 inter-national capability.

Effortless Communication

* Ven-Tel Inc.

2342 Walsh AvenueSanta Clara, CA 95051(408) 727-5721

Crosstalk is a registered trademark of Microstuf, Inc. Smartcom II is a trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products. Symphony is a trademark of Lotus Development. Framework is a trademark of AshtonTate.Inquiry 415 JUNE 1985 • BYTE 27

Now last minute presentation:

can be made from

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In color. In house. In minutes.

Introducing Polaroid Palette.

Whether your presentation is in 30minutes or 30 days, the new PolaroidPalette Computer Image Recorder willmake it easier. Priced at under $1800*,it lets you make Polaroid 35mm InstantSlides or prints from personal com-puter-generated data. Right at yourdesk. So now you can create a presen-tation in minutes. Without sending outfor processing, paying premiums forrush service or risking the security ofyour confidential information.

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Color 35mm slides, even froma black and white CRT

Think of it as an artist's palette.Because Palette "paints" your graphs,charts and text. You're choosing fromup to 72 colors. If you don't want red,press a few keys—it's green. And ifyou're not the artistic-type, Polaroidhas developed a menu of color sets:combinations of colors that have beenspecially coordinated to complementyour presentations. And all of this is

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The Polaroid Palette is the fast, con-venient, low-cost way to prepare slidesfor your presentation. And perhapseven more important, Palette allowsyou to keep confidential informationconfidential. You won't have to sendyour work out to anyone again.

So why wait until the last minute tofind out about Polaroid Palette?Contact one of the Palette dealerslisted here or call the toll-free numberon the opposite page. Look at it thisway, now you can change yourpresentation as fast as you changeyour mind.

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VISIT OUR BOOTH AT THE NATIONAL COMPUTER CONFERENCE.

Alabama: Business Graphics, Birmingham, (205)

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Arkansas: The Computer Shoppe #215, Little Rock,(501)375-5544.

California: Drake Morton (l.omita Pacific Photo),Lomita, (213) 326-7077; Ravtec, Inc., San Diego,(619)695-8611.

Los Angeles: Media Fabricators, Los Angeles, (213)937-3344 or (714) 954-0590; Computer BusinessCenter, Santa Monica, (213) 452-2027; Long BeachMicro, Long Beach, (213) 435 3006; AdvancedComputer Products, Santa Ana, (714) 558-8813; Photo& Sound, El Monte, (213) 575-1924; Software Central.Pasadena, (818) 793-4101; Computerland of Simi Vallev.Simi Valley, (805) 583-5585; ManumitMicrocomputers, Anaheim. (714)520-0411; #33Businessland, Li is Angeles, (213) 387-1938.San Francisco Area: Image Sales, Inc., WalnutCreek, (415) 932-1031 or (800) 3211821; KSP Inc., PaloAlto, (415) 327-8996; Computerland/Dublin, Dublin,(415) 828-8090; Able Computer, Belmont, (415) 593-2253, Imago Data, Sunnyvale, (408) 737-9172; PCSupport, Sunnyvale, (408) 746-2772; Photo & Sound,San Francisco, (415) 421-0410; #6 Businessland, SanFrancisco, (415) 989-3741.

Colorado: Fairview Audio-Visual, Englewood, (303)771-6335; BFA Corp., Denver, (303) 777-8070.Connecticut: Computerease, Avon, (2031677-7191;Computerease, Danbury, (203) 794-9493;Computerease, Darien, (203) 656-1494;Computerease, E. Hartford, (203) 278-1080;Computerease, Milford, (203) 877-7447; EntreComputer Center, Stamford, (203) 967-2233.Delaware: RSG Computer Supplies, Inc., Newark,(302)368-49.38.

Florida: Micro Mart, Altamonte Springs, (305) 830-4076; Micro Mart, Coral Gables, (305) 445-9500;Micro Mart, Ft. Lauderdale, (305) 749-0330; ComputerStation, Jacksonville, (904) 724-3n4; Micro Marl,Jacksonville, (904) 396-8089, Kendall Computers,Miami, (305) 274-6312; United Computers BusinessCenter, Miami, (305) 371-6100; United ComputersBusiness Center, Miami-Bay Harbor, (.305) 868-8300;Procomp Systems. Inc., Pompano Beach, (305) 997-6313; Micro'Mart, Tampa, (813) 972-5000.Georgia: The Computer Pro, Augusta, (404)737-8313; MicroWorks, Smyrna, Atlanta, (404) 980-1000;OTR Atlanta, (404) 688-3107; Software Atlanta, Atlanta,(404) 934-0924; Boardroom Graphics Systems,Atlanta, (404) 457-2836; Southern BusinessCommunications, Inc., Macon, (800) 282-5687;MicroWorks, Norcross, (404) 446-1678; SouthernBusiness Communications, Inc., Norcross, (404) 449-4088; Micro Mart, Norcross, (404) 449-8081; SoftwareAtlanta, Smvrna, (404) 434-4171; Computer Network,Smyrna, (404) 951-0134; Micro Mart, Smyrna (404)956-8088; Southern Business Communications, Inc.,Savannah,(800)282-5687.

Illinois: Midwest Visual Equipment, Chicago, (312)478-1250; Eberhardt Instruments, Downers Grove,(312) 964-4240; Computerland, Elmhurst, (312) 8.32-0075; NorthBrook Computer, NorthBrook, (312)480-9190; Software and Bevond, Schaumburg, (312) 882-3733; New Orient Media, W Dundee, (312) 428-6000.Indiana: CBM Computer Center, Evansville, (812)474-0555.

Kentucky: CBM Computer Center, Lexington, (606)276-1519; The Computer Shoppe #209, Louisville.(502) 426-8787; The Computer Shoppe #217,Louisville, (502) 581-9109; CBM Computer Center,Louisville, (502) 425-7602; Micro Mart, Louisville,(502)895-5624.Louisiana: Micro Mart, Metairie, (504) 835-6481.

Maryland: MB1 Business Centers, Bethesda, (301)657-1611; Folkemer Photo & Computer Center, EllicottCity, (301) 465-7788; Software Centre WintergreenPlaza, Rockville, (301) 424-3024; MBI BusinessCenters, Rockville, (301) 984-8922; Micro Mart,Rockville, (301) 294-9000.

Inquiry 330

Massachusetts: Microsource Financial, Boston,(617) 423-0108; The Computer Store, Boston, (617)426-4385; #52 Businessland, Boston, (617) 542-8099;Micro Store, Brockton. (617) 588-1837; The ComputerStore, Burlington, (617) 272-8770; The ComputerStore, Cambridge, (617) .354-4599; Entre ComputerCenter, Centerville, (617) 771-9747; Entre ComputerCenter, No. Dartmouth. (617)997-3113; The ComputerStore, Framingham, (617) 879-3720; ComputerlandLeominster. Leominster, (617) 534-5240; ComputerSource, Pittsfield, (413) 443-7181; Micro Store,Taunton. (617) 823-8106; Microsource Financial,Watertown, (617)924-5500; Computer Haus,Wilmington, (617) 657(1433Michigan: Inacomp Computer Center, Ann Arbor,(313) 665-4453; Inacomp Computer Center, E. Detroit,(313)445 8010; Inacomp Computer Center, E Lansing.(517)351-1777; Inacomp Computer Center, Flint, (313)234-0161; Inacomp Computer Center, Grand Rapids,(616) 942-2690; Inacomp Computer Center, Holland.(616) 396 5006; Inacomp Computer Center,Kalamazoo, (616)323 2222; Lysinger Corp.,Troy,(313) 583-1070; Inacomp Computer Center, Trov,(313)649-0910.

Minnesota: Blumberg Communications,Minneapolis, (612) 333-1271.

Missouri: Photo & Sound. St. Louis. (314)432-7190.New Hampshire: McAuliffe, lnc.,Keene,(603)3520258; Computer Barn, Salem, (603) 893-2511.

New Mexico: BFA Corp. Albuquerque, (505) 292-1212; Computer Superstores, Albuquerque, (5051293-5370; BFA Corp. Las Cruces, (505) 524-9693.

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New Jersey: Performance Software, Bloomfield.(201) 429-9099; MBI Business Centers, Cherrv Hill,(609) 428-7055; Prodigy Systems, Edison, (201) 321-

1717; Prodigy Systems, East Hanover, (201) 428-0200;Prodigy Systems, Green Brook, (201) 752-6300; TMALogon, Hackensack, (201) 646-9222; Prodigy Systems,Iselin, (201) 283-0600; Prodigy Systems,Lawrenceville, (609) 452 1858; Clancy Paul Computer,New Brunswick, (201) 246-8585; MicroAge ComputerStores, Paramus, (201) 843-5678; Clancv PaulComputer, Princeton, (609) 683-0060; Clancv PatilComputer. Red Bank, (201) 74^-7150; Software Houseof New Jersey, River Vale, (201) 664-5100.New York State: The Computer Room, Albany (518)869-3818; Computer Professionals, Albany (518) 4.38-0010; National Graphics. Albany, (518) 4.38-8411;Graphic Arts Computer Products, Buffalo, (716) 854-0004, The Computer Room, Glens Falls, (518) 798-1446;The Computer Room, Kingston, (914)336-4155;Graphic Arts Computer Products, Rochester, (716)342-0602; All Things Computer, Scarsdale, (914)723-6262; The Computer Room, Schenectady(518)382-1182.

New York City: Future Information Systems, NewYork, (212) 732-3905 or 751-7888, Brilliant Image, NewYork, (212) 736-9661; Erin Data Systems, Melville,(516) 293-4114; MicroAge Computer Stores.Farmingdale, (516) 752-1600.North Carolina:-Carolina Camera Center, Inc.Greensboro, (919) 379-9177; Audio Buys, Raleigh,(919)821-1776.

Ohio: Radgo Computer, Cincinnati, (513) 752-6920;CBM Computer Center, Cincinnati, (513) 793-1787;Micro Mart, Cincinnati, (513) 621-8898, Programs,Unltd, Columbus. (614) 228-4610; OTEC Computer,Mantua, (216) 274-2818, Northeast Business Center,Richmond Heights, (216) 442-4808; Programs Unltd.,Worthington, (614) 4.31-2228.Oklahoma: Argus Systems, Inc., Norman, (405) 329-0180, Fairview Audio Visual, Oklahoma City, (405) 521-0031; Fairview Audio Visual, Tulsa, (918) 664-8020.Oregon: Photo & Sound, Portland, (503) 224-3456.Pennsylvania: MBI Business Centers, Bala-Cvnwvd,(215)668-0870; MBI Business Centers, Jenkintown,(215) 5^6-6650; Computers for the Professional,Kulpsville, (215) 362 1888, S&S Klinetics, Media, (215)565-5.388; OTR Philadelphia, (215) 925-6300; MontereyMicrosystems, Inc., Pittsburgh, (412) 242-1188;MicroAge Computer Stores, Pittsburgh, (412)323-2700. Micro Mart, Pittsburgh. (412) 391-3456; MBIBusiness Centers, Wayne, (215) 687-5991.Rhode Island: The Computer Store, Providence,(401)331-0220.

South Carolina: Southern Business Communica-tions, Greenville, Spartanburg, (800) 241-5312.Tennessee: The Computer Shoppe #219,Chattanooga, (615) 267-8107; Southern BusinessCommunications, Inc., Chattanooga, (800) 241-5312;The Computer Shoppe #213, Goodlettsville, (615)859-4015; The Computer Shoppe #216, Knoxville,(615) 690-8636; The Computer Shoppe #211,Nashville, (615) 366-3810; The Computer Shoppe#214, Nashville, (615) 255-3486;The ComputerShoppe #220. Nashville. (615) 292-4496: CBMComputer Center, Nashville, (615) .385-1855; MicroMart, Nashville. (615) 292-5600; The ComputerShoppe #218, Memphis, (901) 682-7082.Texas: The SoftSource, Dallas, (214) 361-4048 or 960-0413; Kimball Audio Video, Inc., Dallas, (214) 869-0117;#17 Businessland, Dallas, (214) 698-0374; ComputerSuperstores, El Paso, (915) 533-2215; PersonalComputing Delta, Inc., Houston, (713) 850-8445;Jobar's Camera Center, Bellaire (Houston), (713)668-5773.

Vermont: McAuliffe. Inc.. Burlington, (802) 658-4444; McAuliffe, inc., Rutland, (802) 775-1955; EntreComputer Center, Shelburne, (802) 985-3366.Virginia: Technology Services, Alexandria, (703)354-8668; Micro Graphics, Annandale, (703) 642-1444;MBI Business Centers, Arlington, (703) 892-1666;Carv's Camera Shop, Charlottesville, (8O4) 293-4552;MBI Business Centers, Fairfax, (703) 691-8600;Computerland of Hampton, Hampton, (804) 827-8899; Computerland of Norfolk, Norfolk. (804) 625-342"; Micro Age, Norfolk. (8O4) 461-6460;Computerland, Richmond, (804) (W3-0225 or 741-3502; #41 Businessland, Rosslvn,(703) 524-5112; MBIBusiness Centers, Springfield,' (703) 451-7100, MBIBusiness Centers, Sterling. (703) 430-0300 or (301)450-4303; MBI Business Centers, Vienna, (703) 893-0300 or (703) 893-0683; Computerland of VirginiaBeach, Virginia Beach, (804) 422-8271; MicroGraphics, Virginia Beach, (804) 460-9080.Washington, D.C.: Memory Systems, Inc., (202)429-1922; After Computer, (202 ('822-0604; MBIBusiness Centers, (202) 463-7474 or 293-1390; OTR(202)371-2150.

Washington State: Savant Computer Support, Inc.,lssaquah, (206) 643-9116; Photo & Sound, Kent, (206)632-8461.

Wisconsin: Graphic Business Systems, Lake Geneva,(414) 248-9690; Allied Computer Group, Milwaukee,(414)228-9333.

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Inquiry 80

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LETTERS

One can of course use a hybrid searchmethod, using Hyper until Rq= 1/V3, thenswitching to SI. But the fact remains thatthere will be little relative gain over SIoverall unless Rq is near 1. In public-keyencryption, I am not aware of any restric-tion that would prevent Rq from beingquite small—0.1, for example. Hyper or SIor a combination will still take on the orderof 0.5 * Qmax trials to factor the key. For theoft-quoted 200-digit key, that's about0.5* 10'00 trials. And Hyper doesn't do anybetter relative to SI when the keys aresmaller.

The above discussion has assumed thata Hyper trial will burn the same computingtime as an SI trial. In fact, a Hyper trialwill take perhaps three times as long, in-volving as it does an expression withnumbers on the order of N2 compared toSi's single computation of N MOD Q. Alsonote that we can swing the balance fur-ther by skipping every third odd numberin SI, those that are divisible by 3.

John deLaubenfelsDuluth, GA

Richard B. Leining replies:

Basically, we agree on the mechanicsbut not what to make of them. Let's takeyour comments one at a time.

First. Hyper is too slow for testing theprimality of a number like 96.001.Agreed. Although I've not run it. manual-ly 1 predict 784 7 trials, like your 7846.

Hyper is used primarily where factorsare expected to exist—yes, and it is effi-cient near the square root but not farfrom it. The number of trials is

1 +

(I -a)24a

where

a = factor/^TN = your Rq

and

N

your Qmax

If I drop the first trial at the critical up-per bound of 4>I4, then my expression isequivalent to your Qmax '(Rq + l/Rq -2)14. This expression for the number oftrials was edited out of my manuscript.Your searching of odd numbers belowthe square root is interesting. For smallfactors, it is not as trivial as it seems atfirst glance. But for your example of96.001. 1 would use a table of primes.There are only 168 primes below 1000.I suspect that there are less than 154 ofthem below the square root 309.8. ButI don t know how many, as my table and

(continued)

30 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 367

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LETTERS

the computer I use are at work.

My manuscript assessed the possibili-ty of Hyper breaking a large Rivest-Shamir-Adleman cipher, described inC. E. Burton's "RSA: A Public Key Cryp-tography System. Part I" (Dr. Dobb's |our-nal, March 1984, page 16). I wouldntwant to pay for 1027 trials on a big com-puter. I concluded that Hyper's cryptan-alytic virtues were limited to toy ciphers.

especially in BASIC. Those commentswere edited out along with my observa-tions about numbers the order ofN2/4.

What is the point of Hyper? Well, whydoes anyone factor? For research, Iguess. It fascinates me that two of theequations of the RSA cipher should sug-gest a new substitute for factoring. It isalso interesting that equations 12) and

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12A) of my article lead to factoring sub-stitutes that are mirror images of eachother, one searching downward from acritical upper bound, the other searchingupward from a critical lower bound, andboth bounds found in equation (16). Hassome mirror image ofEuler's tou'ent func-tion been overlooked?

Your interest in Hyper is appreciated.I'm impressed that you figured out thenumber of trials so quickly.

Other people helped me develop theHyper factoring program, to the limit ofdouble-precision BASIC. Scaling downthe entire computation by a factor of 4,to defer overflow, was a solution sug-gested by Professor Bill Viavant of theComputer Science Department of theUniversity of Utah.

DEC Rainbow Woes

A few words about some bugs I havefound in my DEC Rainbow. So far, I've hadlittle luck with DEC customer support.

• The CP/M-86/80 2.0 command to backup the hard disk apparently eats files atrandom. All I can advise is that you sim-ply not back up files; or you can spendall day using the PIP command.

• Under CP/M-86/80 2.0. the MAINT com-mand produces erroneous results whenlarge files (50K bytes) are involved or thehard disk is over 50 percent full.

• Under WordStar 3.3 and CP/M-86/80 2.0(exact source of bug unknown), large files(over 30K bytes) mysteriously cannot beedited at times. You can edit them onscreen, but after saving the files, theycome back with the old text, not the revi-sions. Neat trick. One solution is to avoidwriting long files and try resaving the fileas a block write, under a new name. Back-ing up a work in progress should be donethe same way; the "save-S-resume" com-mand, the "save-S-new" command, andthe "save-&-exit" command all seem tohave this random bug.

• The MS-DOS operating system comeswith a very basic user's guide; it doesn'teven explain the directory/subdirectory/path commands. In fact, it tells you verylittle besides how to boot the system. Isthere any other documentation availablebesides the $2 50-plus technical manuals?

I also found that "upgrading" to a harddisk means buying a new $1500 systemboard (the one different chip can't beswapped) or else keeping the operatingsystem on one floppy all the time; it's nosimple upgrade, as promised, either.

Jared ShermanJackson Heights, NY ■

32 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 354

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CPU-Z™8-bit board with allstandard Z80 features. Can berun at slower clock speeds whennecessary, generating MWRITEfor such operations. Includesplug that takes the connectorfrom IMSAI type front panel.Equipped with 8 MHz Z80. $275.

CPU 8085/88™ Includestwo processors: the 10 MHz8088, which is an 8-bit bus ver-sion of the 8086 16-bit CPU, andthe 6 MHz 8085, an advanced8-bit processor to run existing8-bit software. Can be run at2 MHz to accommodate timing-dependent software. $350.

CPU 86™ Operates withIntel's high-performance 10 MHz8086 processor. Includes socketfor 8087 math processor. Compat-ible with 8-bit and 16-bit mem-ory. $395.

CPU 68K™ Based onMotorola's 68000 10 MHz pro-cessor. Socket for 68451Memory Management Unit andsockets for up to 16 Kbytes ofEPROM (8K x 16 bit organiza-tion). $425.

CPU 32016™ This true

32-bit 6 MHz processor bringsmainframe power to desktopmicros. Includes sockets foron-board memory managementand floating point units, plusup to 32 Kbytes of ROM. $895.

A lot of memory fora lot less.

CPU 286™ Intel's iAPX™8028616-bit processor shifts intohigh gear for you. C-Step 6 MHzversion that offers sockets for16 Kbytes of on-board EPROMand for 80287 math processor.Compatible with both 8- and16-bit memory, mixing both inthe same system. Includes ourunique clock switching circuit forbus sharing by special slaveprocessor boards. This featurelets you run alternate 8- and16-bit software libraries withease. $995.

Ram22™256Kx8bitor128K x 16 bit organizations oflow power static RAM. High-speed, high-density board auto-matically works with 8- or16-bit processors. Smooth han-dling of fully static operations(e.g. DMA transfers). Draws halfthe power of dynamic equiva-lents. Operates with all ourCPUs. $1250.

Ram 23™ Same features asRAM 22 above in 128K x 8-bitor 64K x 16-bit configuration.$395.

MDRIVE/H. Can increaseoperating speeds to 3500%!Greatly enhances disk-intensiveperformance. Emulates diskdrive operation but runs at RAMspeed. All of CompuPro'soperating systems — includingCP/M 8-16 and ConcurrentDOS 8-16 —support ourMDRIVE/H. 512K $695.1Mbyte $1350 (10 Plus). 2 Mbyte$2450. 4 Mbyte $4500 (10 Plus).

and grow, and grow,

Our disk controllerboards drive forefficiency.

Disk lA™This floppy diskcontroller is geared for 8" and51/)" drives. Reads and writesmost popular formats. Uses themost advanced LSI floppy con-troller available. $495.

Disk 2™/Selector

ChannePMOur high-performancedisk controller for sophisticated8" Winchester drives. $695.

Disk 3™ Winchester con-troller for up to four ty{ hard-disk drives. Unprecedented highperformance for multi-taskingsystems. The disk's channel pro-cessor seeks, reads and writeswithout external prompting. Thehost can transfer large datablocks between disk and memoryon single command, designatingsource, destination and length.Disk sectors are transferred inhigh-speed "burst mode" DMA.ST 506 interface standard;SA 1100 available on specialorder. $595.

More options for thegrowing CompuPro816 network.

CompuPro Net 100 Board.

Meets all IEEE 696/S-100requirements, featuring eightswitch-selectable I/O ports, onany 8-port boundary in the64K I/O space. Supports 8-bitor 16-bit addressing. Also sup-ports the ARCnet" token passinglocal area network protocolunder Digital Research's DR/NET. Mainframe communicationoption available. $395.

CompuPro Net 10. Has

all the features of our Net 100board but is used in CompuPro10 Plus only. Mainframe com-munication option availableas well. $395.

Net Passive Hub. Connectsup to four CompuPro 816 Com-puters. $65.

Net Hybrid Hub. Connectsup to eight CompuPro 816Computers. $295.

Interface Boards.Smoother ways tomake peripherals talk.

Interfaced™ This eight-channel serial I/O board conformsto all IEEE 696/S-100 specs.Ideal for multi-user, interrupt-driven environments. Includessix asynchronous DCE inter-faces with full RS-232C hand-shaking. Two synchronous/asynchronous DTE/DCE high-speed channels provide RS-232Chandshaking and bi-directionalclock drivers. CRTs, printers,modems and other computers areeasily connected. Also providesan exceptional interrupt structure.$495.

Interfaced™ Advancedserial/parallel I/O board —theonly one needed for most com-puter systems. Features asyn-chronous serial interface with fullRS-232 handshaking and current

and even multiply.

loop capability. Two synchronous/asynchronous high-speedchannels, plus RS-232 hand-shaking and bi-directionalclock drivers. Smooth peripheralconnections and Centronicsparallel interface for fast printersignal transmission. Unique,easy interrupt structure, fullymaskable and designed forflexible strapping. $350.

A strong showing forbetter displays.

PC Video Board. Our high-speed PC Video board is a bit-mapped monochrome and RGBgraphics show. It operateswith the IBM *PC compatibilitymodule and with DigitalResearch's GSX (Graphics Sys-tem Extension) software, bothsupported by Concurrent DOS8-16. Features 80 (normal) or40 (double-width) columns by25 lines in alphanumeric screen,in your choice of 16 colors ormonochrome display mode. High-resolution: Up to 200 x 640pixels (monochrome). Comeswith Window Manager software.Supports "well-behaved" IBM

PC compatible software pro-grams, plus DR Graph™ and DRDraw™ graphics packages fromDigital Research, Inc. This boardis the one to watch. $495.

System support on asingle board.

System Support 1™ A

multiple-function S-100 boardwith 4K bytes of on-board RAM,dual interrupt controllers, 16-bitinternal timers, a math processor,real time clock/calendar withbattery backup and full RS-232serial channel featuring software-selectable baud rate. ROM/RAM can be enabled/disabledby PHANTOM control andrespond to the IEEE 24-bit (16megabytes) extended addressprotocol. A board of many talentsmade for demanding systems.$350.

A great choice inmotherboards.

Pick 6,12 or 21 slot ver-sions. All are exceptionally quiet,fast and dependable. They offeractive termination, full Faradayshielding of all signal traces,plus heavy power busses—with

great bypassing capability.Mating power connections areprovided. $135 (6 slot); $195(12 slot); $295 (21 slot).

Enclosures for hardworking systems.

VIASYN offers you Compu-Pro Desktop or Rack Mount(19") Enclosures. Constant volt-age transformers provide coolerand more reliable operation withsolid protection against varyingline voltages. Rugged, metalconstruction. Line filter reduceseffects of power line spikesand RFI. Fully terminated 21-slotmotherboard and Faraday shield-ing, ideal for high-speed sys-tems to 10 MHz. Enclosuresinclude low-noise fan, air filter,3 switched rear outlets, circuitbreaker, lighted reset button andrear punchouts for DB-25,DB-15 and DB-50 connectors.Desktop $950. 19" Rack Mount$995.

Just what your systemneeds now.

The components, operatingsystems and the building blocksthat can make computer systemsgrow stronger and more capable.All you have to do is contact yournearest Full Service CompuProSystem Center and get the qual-ity, dependability and costeconomy you're looking for.Call toll-free: 800-VIASYN-l.

Regis/civil Trademarks: CP/M, Digital Research Inc.; ARCnet, Datapoint Corporation; IBM, International Business Machines Corp.;

MDRIVE and CompuPro, Viasyn Corporation; Compound Trademarks; CP/M 8-16 and Concurrent DOS 8-16, Digital Research and

Viasyn Corporation. Trademarks: CP/M-68K, CP/M-86, DR/NET, DR Graph, and DR Draw, Digital Research;

iAPX, Intel Corporation; UNIX, Bell Laboratories, Inc.

All prices and information subject to change without notice. Copyright C 1985 by Viasyn Corporation. Printed in the U.S.A.

Viasvn

X

is supplyingroom and Doard

to OEMs.

As much room and board as you need foryour system. CompuPro® IEEE 696/S-100 Busboards that let your systems grow and multiplyReliable boards, delivered at prices our com-petition finds hard to beat.

As an experienced OEM supplier, we giveyou the choice and versatility you're looking for.For example, one of our CompuPro CPU boardsis designed for concurrent 8- and 16-bit oper-ation — mix or match. And you can choose from awide variety of support boards, such as memoryboards, interface boards, motherboards, con-troller boards — you name it.

In addition, you can count on reliable productperformance. Evidence: our exclusive one yearwarranty with an option to extend it to two yearson most products. Plus, the support of our nation-wide network of expert service representatives.

So if you're looking for a dependable placethat gives you plenty of room and board, just takea look at the preceding pages. * MM ML ^^. JP%™Then call us toll- free for the \tfll^^w\best rates in town. www ^m0 W I

The CompuPro People

Where Computers Grow

15506 Breakwater Court, Hayward, CA 94545

Call 800/VIASYN-l • In CA, 800/VIASYN-2 • Telex: 510-100-3288 VIASYN CORP

CompuPro is a registered trademark of Viasvn Corporation.

FIXES AND UPDATES

YTE'S

More Equipment Eases Access to BYTEnet

As a direct result of the phenomenalresponse to BYTEnet Listings, we haverecently increased the number of tele-phone lines and microcomputers support-Author to Advise C Group

ing our new telecommunications service.To accommodate the upgraded equip-ment, we had to change the numbercalled to access BYTEnet Listings. Please

dial (617) 861-9774. When communicationis established, please hit a carriage returnor two so that the software can determineyour data-transmission rate.

An independent Lattice C Users' Grouphas been formed under the guidance ofBill Hunt, author of the book The C Toolbox.Although the group will address the needsof users of Lattice. Lifeboat, and Microsoftversions of Lattice C, membership is not

limited to those users.

Group members receive a 16-pagebimonthly newsletter that explains Csfeatures, provides examples, and offersways to employ C A question-and-answercolumn is featured. Supplementing the

newsletter is a disk containing source files,demonstration programs, library functions,and public-domain programs.

A full year's membership is $30. Fordetails, contact the Lattice C Users' Group.POB 271965. Concord. CA 94527.

Upgrade to Lowercase Descenders

Tim Worcester, proprietor of the ElectronicCloset in Bainbridge Island, Washington,has developed an upgrade kit that may beof interest to owners of the Gorilla BananaPrinter.

The Banana, a low-cost printer fromDAK Industries, does not produce truelowercase descenders, which, in turn,hampers its use in serious word-pro-

cessing applications.

"The software I have developed." saysWorcester, "solves the lowercase problemand gives the user true descenders.''

The software resides in EPROM. andinstallation is said to require the removalof the Banana's standard EPROM. whichis then replaced by Mr. Worcester'sEPROM.

A limited number of Banana upgradekits are available for evaluation on a first-come, first-served basis from Mr.Worcester. He also has upgrade kits forAxiom's GP100 series and for Tandy'sTRS-80 LPVII and DMP-100 printers. Forfurther information, contact TimWorcester, Electronic Closet, 8187 BlakelyCourt W Bainbridge Island. WA 98110.

User-Supported VT Terminal Emulator

PC-VT is a user-supported softwareemulator that enables the IBM PC to func-tion as a DEC VT-52, VT-100, or VT-102video terminal. It handles communicationover an RS-232C port configured as eitherCOM I or COM2, and it supports commondata-transmission rates and data-bitsettings.

PC-VT is suitable for use with nullmodems for direct connection to a hostcomputer or with a modem that does not

require modem-control signals. It sendsDSR and RTS.

It supports Hayes dialing commandsand has a 10-entry dialing directory. Func-tion keys 1 through 10 can be used asmacro keys, and PC-VT supports bothnumeric and application keypad modes.

It's said to have full-featured uploadingand downloading file capabilities. ASCIIand XMODEM protocols are supported.The ASCII upload feature has handshak-

ing capabilities.

A copy of the program is available bysending a formatted double-sided double-density disk to Mark C. DiVecchio. 9067Hillery Dr., San Diego, CA 92126. Astamped, self-addressed mailer must ac-company your request. A voluntary con-tribution is suggested. Contact Mr.DiVecchio for further information at theaddress above or call him at (619)566-6810.

YTE'S BUGS

A Few Points on a Million Points

Several readers have uncovered errors inlames Hawley's "A Million-Point GraphicsTablet." (See April, page 120.)

In the caption for figure I, IC1 throughIC4 are inadvertently identified as Ulthrough U4.

In the parts list, a 100-microfaradcapacitor is listed, yet no such device ap-pears in the circuit diagram. Mr. Hawleyinforms us that this capacitor should be

connected between + 5 volts and groundnear the 7805 voltage regulator.

Two wiring errors mar the circuitdiagram. The connection between pins 2and 10 of IC2 should go between pins 5and 10. In addition, a connection, omittedon the diagram, should be made betweenIC1 pin 6 and 1C2 pin 13.

Finally, on page 120 there's a referenceto a photo that does not appear. We

apologize for this oversight.

The following are clarifications of thediscussion in the article:

The microcode in listing 1 is not a com-plete program, nor was it ever intendedto be one. This code fragment providesaccess to the KoalaPad. It is all thenecessary programming to obtain the x.yvalues that you need for drawing or for

(continued)

]UNE 1985 -BYTE 33

Inquiry 296

Micro-PeripheralsGigantic Sale!

Epson - Brother - 5*0?-"

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We at MidWest Micro guarantee that we can save you up to49% or more on your purchase of new fully warranteedequipment and supplies And we will still give you friendlycourteous service Call today and Save With Confidence1

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LX-80 pVOUR $26g

The new EPSON LX-80 prints smoothly n) quietly at a speed of 100cps With the superb near letter quality mode and full graphiccapabilities as standard, your correspondence will be letter perfect.The LX-80 comes complete with a parallel interface to quicklyconnect it to virtually all computers. There are 160 typeslyles that areswitch selectable and the LX-80 comes with EPSON'S full 1 yearwarranty. Friction feed is standard and an optional tractor feed isavailable. Let the EPSON LX-80 print your next business letter orreport.

Complete EPSON Line . . . Ust pr°"i

LX-80 (100 cps. NQL Mode. 80 Col.) 349 269

RX-100 (100 cps. 136 ColJ 895 399

FX-80+1160 cps. 80 Col 2k Buffer) 699 389

FX 100+1160 cps. 136 Col. 2k Buffer) 999 589

10-1500 (200 cps. NL0 Mode. 136 Col.) 1395 JCALLJ

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Brother 2024 (160 cps. 24 pin head. NLO Mode) 1495 .... 999

Get great hard copy and near letter quality

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(Replaces the G«mlnl 10X)The SG-lO gives you enough versatility lor home or office use. Itoperates bi-directionally at 120 cps and includes many specialfeatures such as near letter quality printing, easy access formatswitches for a wide range of character modes, friction feed for singlesheets and tractor feed for fanfold paper, and even hex dump. Anotherspecial feature is the IBM character sets available at the flip of aSwitch. You get all of this plus a 2k memory buffer and Star's full 1year warranty at a price you can afford!Complete STAR* tine.... SCALLS and SAVE

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Information - Ordering1-800-423-8215

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SI Paris. Ohio 43072

FIXES & UPDATES

cursor movements from the circuit boardIf you add a Return at the end of the code,you will convert it into a subroutine thatcan be used in any graphics program thatyou devise.

The KoalaPad discussed in the article isthe version that's designed to plug into the16-pin game I/O socket of the Apple com-puter. The KoalaPad is produced by KoalaTechnologies Corp.. 3100 Patrick HenryDr.. Santa Clara, CA 95050.

Manufacturer Misidentified

Address Correction

On page 370 of the April BYTE, we pub-lished an out-of-date address for MultiSolutions Inc.. maker of the SI operatingsystem (See "Computing at Chaos Manor:Over the Moat" by lerry Poumelle, page355.)

The correct address for Multi SolutionsInc. is Suite 207. 123 Franklin Corner Rd..Lawrenceville. N| 08648, (609) 896-4100.

In the April BYTE, we misidentified themanufacturer of KES. (See "TheTechnology of Expert Systems" by RobertH. Michaelsen. Donald Michie. and AlbertBoulanger. page 303.)

On page 306, in the partial listing ofdomain-independent rule-based expertsystems, we identified another companyas the manufacturer of KES when, in fact.Software Architecture and EngineeringInc. of Arlington. Virginia, developed andmarkets the system.

KES. or Knowledge Engineering System.

Bugs Warp Reply

runs on an IBM PC XT and requiresIQLISP, an 8087 coprocessor, and 640Kbytes of RAM. The IBM PC XT version is$4000, which includes documentation.Versions of KES are also available for theVAX and other machines.

Software A&E maintains offices at Suite800. 1500 Wilson Blvd.. Arlington. VA22209. (703) 276-7910. In the UnitedKingdom, address inquiries to SoftwareArchitecture and Engineering Inc.. 16 NewPark Rd.. Chichester. West Sussex P0I91XH; tel: 0243-789310.

Several typographical errors marredCharles Kluepfel's reply to MartinKochanski's letter in the March BYTE. (See"The Real RSA Algorithm" on page 26.)The errors began around the discussionof the subroutine coding on page 30. Thetext should have read:

In place of the line in listing I that says

D:QUOTIENT(2*(P- 1)«(Q- 1)+ 1,3),

put the following coding:

D:NXPRIME(P + Q),LOOP

D: NXPRIME(D+1),

X0: (P-1)-(Q-1),

XI: D,

A0: 1,

B0: 0,

Benchmark Misstated

A1: C

,

B1: 1

LOOP

QU:

QUOTIENT(X0,X1)

X2:

xo-

QU

"X1,

A2:

A0-

QU

"A1,

B2:

B0-

■QU

*B1,

X0:

XI,

XI:

X2,

A0:

A1,

A1:

A2.

B0:

B1,

B1:

B2,

WHEN X

= 1,

E:

ABS(B1),

EXIT,

ENDLOOR

WHEN E>2026

EXIT,

WHEN 2 E

>N,

EXIT,

ENDLOOP

In a recent What's New write-up. we incor-rectly reported the speed of SystemsManagement Associates' PROMAL lan-guage for the Commodore 64 (See "Struc-tured Programming Language Releasedfor Commodore," page 446. April.)

The benchmarks show PROMAL to befrom 70 to 2000 percent faster thanBASIC. COMAL. FORTH, and Pascal.

PROMAL, a high-level, structured lan-

guage that's similar to C and Pascal, isavailable in versions for the Apple lie andlie and the IBM PC. The price is $49.95:a developer's package with an unlimiteddistribution license is $99.95 ContactSystems Management Associates. 3700Computer Dr.. POB 2002 5. Raleigh. NC2 7619. Technical information is availableby calling (919) 787-7703, or. for ordersonly, you can call (800) 762-7874.

34 BYTE

IUNE 1985

iicuit-Board-Artwork Softwarefor the Design Engineer

in a Hurry

**\JiBTUU kOfa

For only $895, smARTWORK8 letsthe design engineer create andrevise printed-circuit-board art-work on the IBM Personal Com-puter. You keep complete controlover your circuit-board artwork—from start to finish.

Forget the tedium of taping ityourself or waiting for a tech-nician, draftsman, or the CADdepartment to get to your project.

smARTWORlC is the only low-cost printed-circuit-board artworkeditor with all these advantages:

□ Complete interactive controlover placement and routing

D Quick correction and revision

□ Production-quality 2X artworkfrom a pen-and-ink plotter

□ Prototype-quality 2X artworkfrom a dot-matrix printer

□ Easy to learn and operate, yetcapable of sophisticatedlayouts

D Single-sided and double-sidedprinted circuit boards up to10 x16 inches

□ Multicolor or black-and-whitedisplay

System Requirements:

D IBM Personal Computer, XT, orAT with 256K RAM, 2 disk drives,and DOS Version 2.0 or later

□ IBM Color/Graphics Adapterwith RGB color or black-and-white monitor

□ IBM Graphics Printer or EpsonFX/MX/RX series dot-matrixprinter

□ Houston Instrument DMP-41pen-and-ink plotter

D Optional Microsoft Mouse

i***i

P *

m

The Smart Buy

At $895, smARTWORK® is proven,convenient, fast, and a soundvalue. Call us today. And put it towork for yourself next week.

^D^T^sr

Wintek Corporation1801 South StreetLafayette, IN 47904-2993Telephone: (317) 742-8428Telex: 70-9079 WINTEK CORP UD

In Europe contact: RIVA Terminals Limited,Woking, Surrey GU21 5JY ENGLAND,Telephone: 04862-71001, Telex: 859502

"smARTWORK" "Wintek" and the Wintek logo areregistered trademarks of Wintek Corporation.

Inquiry 425

Which is the better way tc

Any growing business needs toorganize, analyze and use data.

Customer orders. Shippingrecords. Inventory. Billing.Prospect lists.

Now, depending on your Macin-tosh software, you can manage dataone of two ways.

The simple,

stuff-everything-intD-one-filetheory of data management.

That's how ordinary filers andinformation managers work.

You jam data into a single file thatincludes every piece of informationyou might ever want to know.

s

I

«OS£R4CB£5

6

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Hilt* kit

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With an ordinary data manager, you have to re-enterexisting information every time you enter new infor-mation Pretty inefficient.

) I ***** ] f~Nwtl J (Trwiw) { Uril ) ( mi')[' mi 1

WLESIitirS $*ES STATISTICS

NMIE TOfl EWE

L!« S

M. ru nsr

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501 MT MELT

503 «Wt.C 2T.0 22,6 33.1 53.i

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With MacLion, you only have to enter the new datathat has changed. Not only that, you can designyour own data entry screens. Now. which is the mostefficient way to manage your business data?

The problem?

Well, if you have a sales orderentry file, every time you enter newdata about a customer's order, youalso have to re-enter all the existingdata about your customer.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Worse, if you ever want to movethe data from your sales order entryfile to develop a new file, withouthaving to rework it all over again,there's one small problem.

You can't.

Okay Let's get serious.

MacLion™, on the other hand,is a true relational databasemanagement system.

Maclioa Serious database power for seriou

36 BYTE- IUNE 1985

nanage your data? X>

So instead of trying to jam all yourbusiness data into one massive file,you can set up several smaller, moremanageable "relations." (Picturethem as a series of neat file folders.)

The advantage?

In a sales order entry system, onerelation contains biographical dataabout your customers that doesn'tchange. Another has their order datathat does.

There's no duplication.

So when it's time to updatecustomer orders, you only have toenter in new data. Not re-enter whatalready exists. And you can develop

vlacintosh users.

entirely new applications for yourexisting database just by addingnew relations.

That's the most efficient way tomanage your data.

For a MacLion demonstration,see your dealer. Or, send for our"Serious Buyer's Guide to DatabaseManagement Systems," whichincludes a demonstration disk

Simple vs. serious.

And MacLion gives you someother remarkable features, too.

You can design and generate yourown custom data entry screens andreports. Just by clicking your mousethrough Macintosh pull-downmenus—without programming.

Or, if you're a programmer at heart,you can also use MacLion's built-inprocedural language and add evenmore specialized functions.

That's serious database power,only possible with MacLion.

plus complete informationon what a database managementsystem can do for your business.Get serious—with MacLion.

0

MAC

LION

1904 Wright Circle, Anaheim, CA 92806

Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer, Inc.MacLion is a trademark of Computer Software Designs, Inc

Inquiry 107

I'm serious about managing my data.

□ Please send me your free "How to Buy a Database Management System" brochure.

□ Please send me "A Serious Buyer's Guide to Database Management Systems."I've enclosed $9.95.

□ Check or money order enclosed.

□ Please charge my: VISA MasterCard Number

Signature.

VISA and MasterCard orders can beplaced by phone. Call (800) 252-LI0Nor (714)634-9012.Calif, residents please add 6% tax.Send to: Database GuideCOMPUTER SOFTWARE DESIGNS INC.1904 Wright CircleAnaheim, California 92806

State.

-Zip-

INTRODUCING

N6AR L£TOR QUALITYANP THROUGHPUT SftWS0\\\tR PRltfTefiS CAM'TCOMElsieAR.

The new C.ltoh ProWriter™ 8510S-LQNear Letter Quality printer is a wholenew field of one.

It's priced at just $549. But it gives younear letter quality printing for beautifullysharp characters like printers costinghundreds of dollars more.

And in a text and graphicsspeed test against its closestcompetition, namely the Epson®FX-80 and the Okidata Microline92, the new and faster C.ltoh8510S-LQ out printed them all.The stopwatch proved thatthe 8510S-LQ, at throughputspeeds of 100 full lines perminute, printed text up to 35% faster thanthe competition. And it created bargraphs and pie charts up to 54% faster.

Of course, speed in itself does notkeep a printer in a class by itself. Reli-ability does. That's something no C.ltohprinter has ever lacked. No other printersare more thoroughly tested orproven on the job. Which is whyC.ltoh printers continue to be theworld's best sellers, with 1.7million sold last year alone.

For more information on thenew and faster C.ltoh 8510S-LQor wider carriage 1550S-LQ NearLetter Quality printers just seeyour C. Itoh dealer. Or call us tollfree at 1-800-423-0300.

Or write C.ltoh Digital Products,Inc., 19750 South Vermont Avenue,Suite 220, Torrance, CA 90502.

" ProWnter is a Trademark of C. Itoh Digital Products, Inc" Epson is a Registered Trademark oi Epson, America, Inc' 1985 C Itoh Digital Products. Inc

Theirs

© 1984 News Group Chicago, Inc

C.ITOH

Printers

38 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 67 for End-Users. Inquiry 68 for DEALERS ONLY.

WHAT'S NEW

Commodore ExhibitsComputer Series

Commodore Internationalexhibited its new 900series computer at the Han-nover Fair in West Germanylate in April.

The Commodore 900series consists of a multi-user. UNIX-like system and ahigh-performance individualworkstation. Commodorespokespeople claim that,although the 900 will sell for"well below $4000," its func-tionality and performanceare similar to workstationscosting five times more.

The individual workstationis distinguished by a 14-inch,bit-mapped monitor that hasa resolution of 1024 by 800pixels and a 72-MHz band-width. The video controllercarries 128K bytes of RAMand will soon employ two-dimensional Bit-BLT tech-nology, which, in short, willgive you raster-like, display-screen operations fromhardware. With the bit-mapped display, you canmix text and graphics win-dows on screen. A 17-inchmonitor is available.

The multiuser version ofthe 900 has a monochrome,character-mapped display. Itsattributes are similar tothose of the IBM PersonalComputer's monochromemonitor. The display formatis 80 by 2 5.

An 8-MHz Zilog Z8000,backed by a minimum of512K bytes of RAM andMark Williams Company'sCoherent, is at the heart ofthe Commodore 900. A10-MHz version of theZ8000 is being developed,

The Commodore 900 made its debut in Europe.

although the 8-MHz modelreportedly provides thespeed and performance of a286 microprocessor runningat 10 MHz.

Coherent, a multiuser,multitasking system, is fullyUNIX-compatible. It is cur-rently being optimized forfurther compatibility withAT&T UNIX System VII aswell as for use on the Com-modore 900.

Formatted storage is pro-vided by a 20-megabytehard-disk drive and a1.2-megabyte, half-heightfloppy-disk drive. A secondfloppy-disk drive, a stream-ing-tape backup, and 40- or67-megabyte hard-disk unitsare available as options.

The Commodore 900 hastwo RS-232C interfaces, aparallel port, and anIEEE-488 connection for avariety of peripherals andinstruments. A VDI interfaceand a graphics kernel systemare provided. An optional

eight-port R&232C boardserves as the multiuser link.You can easily access fourexpansion slots through theback of the machine.

Mounted on the keyboardis a mouse-control pad thatcan also serve as a standardcursor-control unit. The key-board itself has 99 keys aswell as a separate numericpad. A three-button mouseis standard with the in-dividual workstation.

In addition to Coherent,the Commodore 900 comeswith the new ANSI-standardBASIC and a UUC (UNIX-to-UNIX Copy) package. Pascaland COBOL are among thesupported compilers.

User memory can be ex-panded to 2 megabytes onthe main board with 2 56K-

byte dynamic RAMS. Com-modore plans colorcapabilities and will offer asoftware plotting package.

At press time. Commodorehad not made a final deci-sion on pricing for the multi-user version of the Com-modore 900: however,sources at Commodore esti-mated that the base pricewill be in the $3000 range.

European shipments of theCommodore 900 shouldstart during September. It isuncertain when deliveries inthe U.S. will commence.Contact Commodore Inter-national Ltd., 1200 WilsonDr., West Chester, PA 19380,(215) 431-9100.Inquiry 600.

NAPLPS Boardfor IBM

The MGB 8024NAPLPS/graphics boardfrom Electronic Office Sys-tems (Videotex) Limited ofIsrael is designed to replaceor supplement existing IBMPC graphics adapters. Itworks with both the IBM PCfamily and its compatibles.

Its software drivers let youselect from the followingmodes: full SRM NAPLPSdecoder with 2 56 by 210resolution and 16 colorsfrom a palette of 4096: agraphics mode with resolu-tions of 640 by 200 or 512by 2 56 using 4 colors out ofthe full palette: a 4-colortext mode with an 80-col-umn by 2 5-line display: anda Prestel decoder emulationmode.

The MGB 8024 comeswith a dedicated graphicscontroller. Installed versions(continued)

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 39

WHAT'S NEW

The QuadLaser has 2 56K bytes of memory for image storage.

of popular graphics applica-tions will be available. Witha manual and software, theMGB 8024 is $495. ContactElectronic Office Systems(Videotex) Ltd.. POB 4 5266.Tel Aviv 61452. Israel; tel:(9721-3-299908; Telex:341667 RMYM 1L ATTEOS/949.Inquiry 601

Quadrant's LaserPrinter

Quadram's QuadLaser isan 8-page-per-minutelaser printer. It comes with2 56K bytes of memory (ex-pandable to 2 megabytes)for storage of bit-mappedimages, programs, or up to60 standard and user-developed type fonts.

QuadLaser has ROM soft-ware to emulate Epson andQume printers. You candownload user-written soft-ware to emulate otherprinters or provide more ad-vanced features using thecontroller's Z8001 processor.Quadram supplies 7 fontson IBM PC disks with theQuadLaser. You can useeach font in portrait or land-scape modes (horizontally

or vertically), and you canalso create additional fontsusing an editor that comeswith the QuadLaser. You canget 13 more fonts fromQuadram at extra cost.

The QuadLaser can printup to 10,000 pages permonth, and Quadram says itwill last for about 600,000pages. In addition to stan-dard 8'/2- by 11-inch paper,the QuadLaser can print ontransparencies and Euro-pean-size paper. Its papercassette stores 2 50 sheets.You replace toner cartridgesand the print belt sepa-rately—Quadram claims thatthis reduces the printer'soperating cost. The Quad-Laser weighs 85 pounds andmeasures 14!/2 by 20%0 by23!4 inches with the papercassette and tray installed.

The QuadLaser will beavailable this month forunder $3400 ContactQuadram Corp., 43 55 Inter-national Blvd.. Norcross, GA30093, (404) 923-6666.Inquiry 602.

Victor PCs AreCompatible with IBM

Victor Technologies' VPCand VI are compatiblewith the IBM Personal Com-

puter. Built around Intel's8088 processor, these com-puters come with a mini-mum of 2 56K bytes of RAMand VBAS1CA, a Victor-enhanced version ofBASICA. The operatingsystem is MS-DOS 2.1, andan upgrade to MS-DOS 3.0is planned.

Both systems employVictor-VU. an on-screenguide that translates DOSfunctions into easy-to-use in-structions. This interfacegives you single-keystrokehelp screens, an on-screenapplication guide, keyboardprogrammability, and pop-upwindows.

Victor offers three modelsof the VPC. One featurestwin 360K-byte floppy-diskdrives; the others have asingle floppy disk and either

15 or 30 megabytes of hard-disk storage.

Seven expansion slots letyou add features to the VPCas your needs evolve. Itsstandard parallel port givesyou links with many printersor plotters. High-resolutionmonochrome or full-colordisplay screens are available,and the 83-key keyboard has10 function keys and capital-and number-lock LEDs.

VPC pricing begins at$2485, which includes a14-inch monitor. The 30-megabyte version is $4785.

The Victor VI is offeredwith a choice of storage ar-rangements: dual 1.2-mega-byte floppy-disk drives or asingle floppy-disk unit witheither a 10- 20-, or 30-mega-byte hard disk. The VI key-board, which can be pro-grammed for dual Victorand IBM functionality, has

16 function keys, a numerickeypad, and cursor controls.

In the Victor mode, thenonglare 12-or 14-inch

monitor provides high-resolution, 800- by 400-pixel, bit-mapped images.The format is 80 by 2 5 witha 10- by 16-dot charactercell. The display supportsIBM PC screen attributes inthe IBM mode. Other dis-play features include coloremulation with shading anddot pattern supporting 320-and 640- by 200-dot graph-ics modes and 40- and80-column PC text modes.

The VI has two indepen-dent, full-duplex RS-232Cports and single 36-pin Cen-tronics and 50-pin user-programmable ports. TheCentronics port supportsIEEE-488 in the Victormode. Three slots are avail-able for expansion, and youcan expand RAM to 1.98megabytes.

IBM PC programs can bestored on Victor-formatteddisks and vice versa. Victor9000 MS-DOS programs aresupported.

The VI with two floppy-disk drives begins at $4295.Contact Victor TechnologiesInc., 380 El Pueblo Rd„Scotts Valley, CA 95066.(408) 438-6680.Inquiry 603.

BDS Laser Printer

BDS Corporation has in-troduced the BDS Laser630/8. Like the Hewlett-Packard Laserlet. the 630/8is based on Canon's LBP-CXprint engine and uses thesame replaceable toner/beltcartridge.

The BDS printer comeswith nine type fonts: twofonts each in normal, italic,bold, and bold italic, andone font in "landscapemode." Using optional ROMor RAM cartridges, you candownload type fonts from amicrocomputer. A Diablo

{continued)

40 BYTE- IUNE 1985

They said it couldn't beBorland Did It.Turbo Pascal 3j0

*i»>

v

r/?e industry standard

With more than 250,000 users worldwide TurboPascal is the industry's de facto standard. TurboPascal is praised by more engineers, hobbyists,students and professional programmers than anyother development environment in the history ofmicrocomputing. And yet, Turbo Pascal issimple and fun to use!

TURBO3.0

TURBO2.0

MSPASCAL

COMPILATION SPEED

EXECUTION SPEED

CODE SIZE

BUILT-IN INTERACTIVE EDITOR

ONE STEP COMPILE

(NO LINKING NECESSARY)

COMPILER SIZE

TURTLE GRAPHICS

BCD OPTION

PRICE

Portability.

Turbo Pascal is available today for most com-puters running PC DOS, MS DOS, CP/M 80 orCP/M 86. A XENIX version of Turbo Pascal willsoon be announced, and before the end of theyear, Turbo Pascal will be running on most 68000based microcomputers.

An Offer You Can't Refuse.

Until June 1st, 1985, you can get Turbo Pascal 3.0for only $69.95. Turbo Pascal 3.0, equipped witheither the BCD or 8087 options, is available for anadditional $3935 or Turbo Pascal 3.0 with both optionsfor only $12455. As a matter of fact, if you own a 16-Bit computer and are serious about programming, youmight as well get both options right away and savealmost $25

Update policy.

As always, our first commitment is to our customers.You built Borland and we will always honor your support.

So, to make your upgrade to the exciting new version ofTurbo Pascal 3.0 easy, we will accept your original TurboPascal disk (in a bend-proof container) for a trade-in creditof $39.95 and your Turbo87 original disk for $5935. Thistrade-in credit may only be applied toward the purchase ofTurbo Pascal 3.0 and its additional BCD and 8087 options(trade-in offer is only valid directly through Borland and untilJune 1st. 19851

O Benchmark run on an IBM PC using MS Pascal version 3.2 andthe DOS linker version 2.6. The 179 line program used is the "GaussSeidel" program out of Alan R. Miller's book: Pascal programs forscientists and engineers {Sybex. page 128) with a 3 dimensionalnon-singular matrix and a relaxation coefficient of 1.0

The best just got better:Introducing Turbo Pascal 3.0

We just added a whole range of exciting newfeatures to Turbo Pascal:

• First, the world's fastest Pascal compiler just gotfaster. Turbo Pascal 3.0 (16 bit version) compilestwice as fast as Turbo Pascal 2.0! No kidding.

• Then, we totally rewrote the file I/O system, andwe also now support I/O redirection.

• For the IBM PC versions, we've even added"turtle graphics" and full tree directory support.

• For all 16 Bit versions, we now offer two addi-tional options: 8087 math coprocessor supportfor intensive calculations and Binary CodedDecimals (BCD) for business applications.

• And much much more.

The Critics' Choice

Jeff Duntemann, PC Magazine: "Language

deal of the century.. . Turbo Pascal: Itintroduces a new programming environment andruns like magic."

Dave Garland, Popular Computing: "MostPascal compilers barely fit on a disk, but TurboPascal packs an editor, compiler, linker, and run-time library into just 39K bytes of random-access memory."

Jerry Pournelle, BYTE: "What I think thecomputer industry is headed for: welldocumented, standard, plenty of good features,and a reasonable price."

£

BORIAHD

INTERNATIONAL

Software's Newest Direction

4585 Scotts valley DriveScotts Valley, CA 95066TELEX 172&3

totol^«»tao*tire««»<Kw*o/tolaMlnr«™tej( te

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Inquiry 55 for End-Users, inquiry 56 for DEALERS ONL1

WHAT'S NEW

630 emulation mode is pro-vided for offices alreadyusing a daisy-wheel printerThe BDS 630/8 can printtext at a resolution of 300by 300 dots per inch.

The printer provides a"screen dump" image froman IBM PC and can enlargetext and screen images fromtwo to eight times. It hastwo Z80 processors and 64 Kbytes of local memory tostore font information andto buffer up to about fivepages of text. Parallel andserial ports let you link theprinter to two computers.

The BDS 630/8 laserprinter sells for $3495. Formore information, contactBDS Corp.. 800 Maude Ave.Mountain View. CA 94043.(415) 964-2115.Inquiry 604

XTRA XP: An80286-Based PC

ITT's XTRA XP is compati-ble with the IBM PC XTbut executes programs fasterbecause it uses Intel's6-MHz 80286 micropro-cessor. According to ITT, theXTRA XP also features "no-wait-state" RAM, letting itaccess memory informationmore quickly than com-parable IBM computers. Thisincludes the PC AT, whichuses the same processor.

The XTRA XP has 512Kbytes of memory (expand-able on the main circuitboard to 640K bytesl. serialand parallel ports. ROMdiagnostics software, one360K-byte 514-inch floppy-disk drive, and a 10- or20-megabyte hard-disk drive.Of the system's five IBM PCXT-compatible expansionslots, one is for the hard-disk controller and anotherfor an optional graphics-display adapter.

You can get an optional

The XTRA XP has "no-wait-state" RAM.

card with 1 megabyte of ad-ditional "no-wait-state" RAMfor use as a virtual disk.Other options include an80287 numeric coprocessorand the MS-DOS 2.11 oper-ating system.

The ITT XTRA XP with a10-megabyte hard disk willcarry a suggested list priceof S3995. With a 20-mega-byte drive, the price is$4595. Monochrome orcolor graphics adapters are$145 and $190, respectively.The 1-megabyte RAM-diskexpansion card with 512Kbytes of memory on boardwill sell for $395. ContactITT Information Systems.2041 Lundy Ave.. San lose.CA 95131. (408) 94 5-8950.Inquiry 605

AT&T Links MS-DOSand UNIX Micros.Offers PC 6300Enhancements

AT&T has introduced alocal-area network anda number of enhancementsfor its PC 6300 micro-computer.

STARLAN, slated forrelease at year's end, links

up to 200 computers in astar or ring configuration ora combination of both.Adapter boards tailor thenetwork for computers withIBM PC-compatible expan-sion slots and for AT&T'sUNIX-based systems.

STARLAN uses twisted-paircabling and can take advan-tage of existing telephonewiring. The maximum data-transfer rate is 1 megabitper second. Network boardsare about $600, and thenetwork software is $12 5per machine.

AT&T's PC 6300 DisplayEnhancement Board lets youdisplay 16 colors at a reso-lution of 640 by 400 pixelson a standard IBM PC-com-patible RGB monitor. On amonochrome monitor, the6300 can produce 16shades of gray at this reso-lution Color mapping forrapid color changes issupported.

The Mouse 6300 attachesdirectly to the PC 6300skeyboard and comes withsoftware that allows its usewith many programs thatwere not designed for mice.

It comes with a simple wordprocessor and graphics. Thesuggested price is $150.

A version of XENIX,adapted for AT&T by theSanta Cruz Operation, isavailable for the PC 6300.This version of XENIX sup-ports two users, allows filetransfers between it and MS-DOS, and provides file andrecord locking. It's dividedinto three modules: thebasic operating system($395). a software-develop-ment package ($4 50), and atext-processing package($150).

The AT&T CommunicationsManager board for the PC6300 and the IBM PC comeswith a 1200-bps modem,three phone jacks, and com-munications software. It letsyou auto-dial up to 200numbers and. if connectedto two telephone lines, canhandle simultaneous voiceand data connections. Thesoftware lets you switchfrom communications to anyother PC application instan-taneously. The modem isnot Hayes-compatible, butVT-100 terminal-emulationsoftware is provided. It listsfor $599.

Other enhancements forthe AT&T PC 6300 include a20-megabyte hard-disk driveand an 8-MHz 8087-2numeric coprocessor. Thecoprocessor is $295; thehard disk's pricing was notavailable at press time.Contact AT&T InformationSystems. 100 SouthgateParkway. Morristown, N|07960.Inquiry 606.

GEM Applications

GEM Desktop and GEMDraw are DigitalResearch's first end-user ap-plications designed exclu-sively for its Graphics En-vironment Manager (GEM)operating-system extension.In a related announcement,{continued)

42 BYTE

IUNE 1985

Borland's SideKickSoftware Product of theYear

SideKick is InfoWorld Software Product of the Year. It won over

Symphony. Over Framework. Over ALL the programs advertised in

this magazine. Including, of course, all the "fly-by-night" SideKick

imitations. SideKick.... Simply the best.

Here's SideKick running over Lotus 1-2-3. In the SideKickNotepad you'll notice data that's been imported directly fromthe Lotus screen. In the upper right youcan see the SideKick Calculator.

^E32£

Side1

kick

BQOO

u

InfoWorld Report Card 1984 by PapularComputing. Inc.. a subsidiary of CrVCommunications Inc. Reprinted from

InfnWnrld. 1060 Marsh Road.

Mini,, Park, CA 94025.

All the SideKick windows stacked up over Lotus 1-2-3. Frombottom to top: Side Kick's "Menu Window", ASCII table,Notepad, Calculator, Appointment Scheduler/Calendar,and Phone Dialer. Whether you're running WordStar, Lotus,dBase, or any other program, SideKick puts all these desktopaccessories instantly at your fingertips.

Jerry Pournelle, BYTE: "If you use a

PC, get SideKick. You'll soon becomedependent on it."

Garry Ray, PC Week: "SideKick deservesa place in every PC."Charles Petzold, PC Magazine: "In asimple, beautiful implementation of Word-Star's block copy commands, SideKickcan transport all or any part of the displayscreen (even an area overlaid by the notepaddisplay) to the notepad."

Dan Robinson, InfoWorld: "SideKick is a

time-saving, frustration-saving bargain..

~*~=&» S^± 5SS2253-'

I111

Softwtnt N»w»ft Dimtni.

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Symphony, Lotus S Lotus 1-2-3 art trademarks ol Lotus Dtvetopmcm Corp.& Framework are trademarks of AshtonTate. WordStar Is a trademark ol MicroProInternational Corp. SideKick is a trademark of lorland International.

•Selected by «*)Wv« as the most sijiirficant software product of 8* yearInquiry 57 for End-Users, inquiry 58 for DEAiERS ONLY.

WHAT'S NEW

Digital Research introducedGEM Paint and GEM Write,a pair of programs that willbe bundled with GEM Desk-top in a package called theGEM Collection.

GEM applications featuredrop-down menus, windows,and icons. They run on theIBM PC and its compatibles.

GEM Desktop replacesoperating-system commandswith a visual interface. Itproduces a graphics repre-sentation of desktop func-tions, including floppy disks,a wastepaper basket, andfile folders. You use yourmouse or a few keystrokesto open files, run programs,and execute other operating-system commands. As manyas six Desktop accessories,such as a clock or a calcu-lator, can run with otherGEM applications.

GEM Draw is a graphicseditor that produces organi-zational charts, flow charts,logos, and a variety of pic-tures. It comes with a libraryof predesigned graphics thatyou can integrate into yourwork. You can also use it toedit and augment graphicsand charts produced withGEM applications.

The GEM Collection ismade up of GEM Desktop.GEM Paint, and GEM Write.GEM Paint is a graphics-design tool, while GEMWrite, said to be a full-function word processor, letsyou merge graphics fromother GEM applications withwritten reports.

The GEM Collection is dueto be released this monthfor SI99. GEM Desktop isS49.95. Until August 31,GEM Draw will be priced at$149: after that it's S249.Contact Digital ResearchInc., POB DRI, Monterey, CA93942, (800) 443-4200; inCalifornia, (408) 649-3896.Inquiry 607

1 * ■/

Ericsson's Portable PC has a plasma display.

Portable HasPlasma Display

Ericsson says that its Por-table PC's plasma dis-play lets you view on-screeninformation from any angleno matter what amount ofambient light is present.This claim is based on thefact that plasma-displaytechnology generates itsown light rather than reflect-ing light as liquid-crystaltechnology does. The dis-play resolution is 640 by400 pixels, and its format is80 columns by 2 5 lines,comparable to an 11-inchCRT screen.

A 360K-byte, half-height,floppy-disk drive is built intothe Portable PC. as are portsfor serial and parallel inter-faces. It comes with 2 56Kbytes of RAM and a detach-able keyboard. The Intel8088 serves as the centralprocessor, and the PortablePC operates on either 110-or 220-volt currents. Itmeasures 1214 by 15y5 by 4[Ainches and weighs 15pounds.

User memory can be ex-panded by 2 56K bytes, and

a 512K-byte solid-state diskwill further increase storagecapacity. You can install a40-character-per-second ther-mal ribbon-transfer printerwith graphics capabilities: itadds 2 pounds to theoverall system weight.

An expansion box de-signed to accommodateadd-in boards marketed forthe IBM Personal Computeris another option. An inter-nal 300/1200-bps modemwill soon be available. Withkeyboard and plasma dis-play, the basic Ericsson Por-table PC is $2995. ContactEricsson Inc.. Greenwich Of-fice Park 1, POB 2522,Greenwich. CT 06836-2 522.Inquiry 608.

HP Touchscreen II

Hewlett-Packard'sTouchscreen 11 PersonalComputer is compatible withexisting Touchscreen prod-

ucts and comes with a vari-ety of storage and communi-cations options designed toaddress a range of needs.

The Touchscreen II has a12-inch display screen andfour accessory slots thatoffer a wider choice ofmemory and communica-tions cards than its prede-cessor's 9-inch screen andtwo expansion slots. Thedisplay format is 80 by 27.HP 2623 terminal emulationis built in, and VT-100 andIBM 3276/3278 emulationare optional.

An 8-MHz 8088 serves asthe Touchscreen H's centralprocessor. Standard hard-ware includes 2 56K bytes ofRAM expandable to 640Kbytes, 160K bytes of ROM,an HP-HIL interface, oneRS-232C port, and one portthat can be configured foreither RS-2 32C or RS-422.

The Personal ApplicationsManager (PAM), a shell overthe MS-DOS 2.11 operatingsystem, simplifies use byeliminating the need tomemorize system or pro-gram commands. Eight on-screen command keys alsosimplify operation.

You can add networkingand communications to theTouchscreen II. An extendedI/O accessory provides forcommunications betweenthe Touchscreen II and theHP Portable and offers aCentronics-type parallel in-terface. Some other optionsare a touchscreen, mouse,and graphics tablet.

A Touchscreen II with two710K-byte floppy-disk drivesis $3 545. A 10-megabytesystem with a single floppydrive is $4770. With onefloppy and a 20-megabyteWinchester, it's $5 570. Allfloppy-disk drives are3'/2-inch microfloppies. Thetouchscreen interface is$300. Contact your localHewlett-Packard dealer.Inquiry 609.

[continued on page 470)

44 BYTE • IUNE 198 5

I, Power, Price,lorland'slbrbo Pascal Family.

The industry Stanford. With more than 250,000 users worldwide Turbo Pascal is the industry's de tacto standardTurbo Pascal is praised by more engineers, hobbyists, students and professional programmers than any other developmentenvironment in the history of microcomputing. And yet, Turbo Pascal is simple and fun to use!

Joff Dunt&mmn, PCMagizint: "Language deal of the century. . . Turbo Pascal: It introduces a newprogramming environment and runs Hke magic"

Dave Garland, Popular Computing: "Most Pascal compilers barely fit on a disk, but Turbo Pascal packs an editor, compiler, linker,and run-time library into just 29K bytes of random-access memory"

Jerry Pournellt, BYTE: "What I think the computer industry is headed for: well documented standard, plenty of good features,and a reasonable price."

Portability. Turbo Pascal is available today for most computers running PC DOS, MS DOS, CP/M 80 or CP/M 86. A XENIX verison of TurboPascal will soon be announced, and before the end of the year. Turbo Pascal will be running on most 68000 based microcomputers.

High resolution monochrome graphics for the IBM PC and the Zenith 100 computers

DtZZliflQ QraphiCS and pamleSS Windows. The Turbo Graphix Toolbox will give even a beginning programmerthe expert's edge. It's a complete library of Pascal procedures that include:

—Full graphics window management.

—Tools that will allow you to draw and hatch pie charts, bar charts, circles, rectangles and a full range of geometric shapes.Procedures that will save and restore graphic images to and from disk.—Functions that will allow you to precisely plot curves.

—Tools that will allow you to create animation or solve those difficult curve fitting problems,and much, much more

No Sweat and HO royalties. You may incorporate part, or all of these tools in your programs,and yet, we won't charge you any royalties. Best of all, these functions and procedures come completewith commented source code on disk ready to compile!

Searching and sorting made simple

The perfect Complement tO TurbO Pascal. It contains: Turbo-Access, a powerful implementation of the state-of-the-art B+tree ISAMtechnique; Turbo-Sort, a super efficient implementation of the fastest data sorting algorithm, "Quicksort on disk". And much more.

Jerry Poumelle, BYTE: "The tools include a B+tree search and a sorting system; I've seen stuff like this, but notas well thought out, sell for hundreds of dollars."

Get Started right away: free database! Included on every Toolbox disk is the source code to a workingdata base which demonstrates how powerful and easy to use the Turbo-Access system really is.Modify it to suit your individual needs or just compile it and run.

Remember, no royalties!

From Start to Finish in 300 pages. Turbo Tutor

is for everyone, from novice to expert. Even if you've neverprogrammed before, Turbo Tutor will get you started right away.If you already have some experience with Pascal or anotherprogramming language. Turbo Tutor will take you step by stepthrough topics like data structures and pointers. If you're an expert,you'll love the sections detailing subjects such as "how to use assem-bly language routines with your Turbo Pascal programs."

A must. You'll find the source code for allthe examples in the book on the accompanyingdisk ready to compile. Turbo Tutor might bethe only reference on Pascal and programming you

II ever need

$34.95

r

BORIAHD

INTERNATIONAL

Softwtre's Newest Direction

4585 Scotts Valley DriveScotts ValleKCA 95066TZ3?3

TELEX miInquiry 59 for End-Users. Imjuiry 60 for DEALERS ONLY.

Turbo Pascal ts a reflistafBd trademark ot Borland International, toe

Borland Does It Again:SuperKey $69.95

Sure, ProKey™ is a nice little program. But when the people who brought you

Turbo Pascal and SideKick get serious about keyboard enhancers, you can

expect the impossible ... and we deliver.

SuperKey

ProKey

ALL FEATURES RESIDENT IN RAM AT ALL TIMES

RESIDENT PULL-DOWN MACRO EDITOR

RESIDENT FILE ENCRYPTION

PROKEY COMPATIBILITY

DISPLAY PROTECTION

ABILITY TO IMPORT DATA FROM SCREEN

PULL-DOWN MENU USER INTERFACE

CONTEXT-SENSITIVE ON-LINE HELP SYSTEM

DISPLAY-ONLY MACRO CREATION

ENTRY AND FORMAT CONTROL IN DATA FIELDS

COMMAND KEYS REDEFINABLE "ON THE FLY-

PRICE

Sorry ProKey!

Superb software at reasonable prices! 1

There is much more to SuperKey. Maybe the best '

reason to buy SuperKey is that it is a BorlandInternational Product. Each one of our productsis the best in its category. We only believe inabsolutely superb software at reasonable prices!

An offer you can't refuse.

Whether you are a ProKey user or you've never used akeyboard enhancer before, your boat has come in. You canget your copy of SuperKey at this irresistible price.

Get your PC a SuperKey today!

SuperKey is available now tor your IBM PC, XT, AT, jr. and trulycompatible microcomputers.

Total ProKey compatibility. Every Prokey Macro file may beused by SuperKey without change so that you may capitalize onall the precious time you've invested.

Now your PC can keep a secret! SuperKey includes a residentfile encryption system that uses your password to encrypt anddecrypt files, even while running other programs. Two differentencryption modes are offered:

1. Direct overwrite encryption (which leaves the file size un-changed) for complete protection. At no point is a second filethat could be reconstructed by an intruder generated. Withoutyour secret password, no one will ever be able to type out yourconfidential letters again!

2. COM or EXE file encryption which allows you to encrypt abinary file into an ASCII file, transmit it through a phone line as atext file and turn it back again into an executable file on thetarget machine (only of course if your correspondent knows thesecret password!). Now, you will even be able to secretly ex-change programs through Public Bulletin Board Systems orservices such as CompuServe.

Totally memory resident at all times, gives SuperKey the abilityto create, edit, save and even recall new or existing macro filesanytime, even while running another program.

Pull down macro editor. Finally, a sensible way to create, edit,change and alter existing macro definitions. Even while usinganother application, a simple keystroke instantly opens awordprocessor-like window where you're allowed to see,edit, delete, save and even attach names to an indi-vidual macro or file of macros, andmuch more.

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BOMAHD

INTERNATIONAL

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Software's Newest Direction

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ASK BYTE

Conducted by Steve Garcia

Speed Up a Micro

Dear Steve,

I hope I am not asking for the moon, buthow does one speed up a micropro-cessor? Will doing that cause problems inthe operation of the computer?

A. C. PosadaCharlottesville, VA

Microprocessor instructions require aspecific number of cycles to execute.These cycles are timed by a system clock,and the speed of the computer is a directfunction of the clock frequency. Increas-ing the frequency of the system clock,simply by changing a crystal or dividercircuit, will increase the overall execu-tion speed, but there are some limita-tions.

The microprocessor chip itself has aspeed limitation, so when the clock fre-quency is increased, often a higher-speedversion must be used. This is usually whatthe letter at the end of the chip numbersignifies.

The memory chips are also affected byspeed and must be replaced with fasterversions. Otherwise, additional waitstates, which reduce some of the benefitsof the increased speed, will be needed.Some of the peripheral driver chips maybecome speed-limited, also reducing theoverall throughput—Steve

65816 Atari?

Dear Steve,

I have been considering upgrading myAtari 800 by installing a 65816 chip inplace of the 6502. According to the adver-tisements, the chip is software- and hard-ware-compatible with any machine usinga 6502. The lure of a 16-bit processor ableto directly address 16 megabytes is hardto resist, but I am worried.

If the chip from Western Design Centeris all that it is claimed to be. why isn'teverybody installing it instantly?

James E. RaineyCoos Bay, OR

The new 65816 microprocessor chiphas a 6502 emulation mode. In thismode, it is pin- and software-compatiblewith the 8-bit 6502 that is used in yourAtari 800.

When used to its full capability, ad-dressing 16 megabytes requires a 24-bitaddress bus. The 65816 handles the extra8 address bits by multiplexing them withthe data bus. On one half of a clock cycle,the pins are used for address lines; onthe other half cycle, for data lines. Thismultiplexing requires additional circuitry,which is not readily adaptable to yourAtari. This is why it has not become wide-ly used.

A complete description of this newchip can be found in the August andSeptember 1984 issues of BYTE in a two-part article by Steven P. Hendrix, "The65816 Microprocessor. "—Steve

Half-inch Tape Backup

Dear Steve,

I've been frustrated for a long timebecause most microcomputer manufac-turers don't offer '/2-inch tape drives as anoptional accessory. The only one 1 knowof that does is Wicat.

Most of them offer 14-inch streamer tapefor backing up hard disks, but !4-lnch tapewould seem to be an ideal bridge over awide gap between many mainframe sys-tems and micros. For instance, my firm, anonprofit organization, maintains a largemailing list with a data-processing service.I've spoken to the people there, and theyhave neither floppy-disk nor modem capa-bilities. The only way they can communi-cate is via '/2-inch tape. 1 have gone theroute of transferring from tape to floppydisk, but that is cumbersome and expen-sive (not in principle, but in practice); fewfirms offer this service, at least in this area.We could save a lot of money (in key-boarding time and errors) if we could write'/2-inch tapes.

I've resisted purchasing the !4-inchstreamer-tape unit that Molecular, themanufacturer of one of our computers, of-fers because a !/2-inch tape drive wouldallow me to easily back up my hard diskand communicate with the big fellows,assuming enough compatibility were builtin. 1 assume the larger tape drive wouldcost two or three times as much as thesmaller ones do, but it would be worth itto gain both the larger capacity and abili-ty to communicate.

Do you know of anyone offering a solu-

tion to this problem or planning to ad-dress it? Would a controller have to bebuilt for each type of micro, or couldsomething be set up to run from a serialport?

Steve GoldfieldSan Francisco, CA

Overland Data Inc. sells a 9-track tapecontroller for the IBM PC. It is capableof reading and writing industry-standard'/2-inch tape and is compatible with most9-track formatted tape drives. It operateswith tape-drive speeds up to 120 inchesper second and allows data transfer atrates up to 192,000 bytes per second. Itsells for $880 and can be purchased fromOverland Data Inc., Suite A, 5644 KearnyMesa Rd., San Diego. CA 92111. (619)571-5 5 5 5. -Steve

Tall Order

Dear Steve,

1 make my living writing software, andmy only exposure to hardware has beenthrough building several Heathkits. 1 wouldlike to build a computer system fromboard level, since it would enable me tocreate a system to suit my needs. Also, itwould probably be cheaper than purchas-ing a Heath H-100, for example, lust aboutall I know hardware-wise is the differencebetween an S-100 bus and a DB-2 5 con-nector—! could not tell you the differencebetween a switching and nonswitchingpower supply.

How hard is it to get an operating sys-tem/software for a machine that I puttogether myself? What are other major ad-vantages and disadvantages that I shouldbe aware of? Can you recommend somebooks that can get me up to speed withhardware?

Jeffrey ShulmanHighland Park, NJ

Building your own computer fromscratch is quite different from assemblingHeathkits. If you want to get some ideaof the scope of the job of designing andbuilding a computer with capabilities onthe order of the H-100, read my articleson the MPX-16 in the November andDecember 1982 and January 1983 issues

[continued)

48 BYTE

IUNE 1985

COPYRIGHT© 1985 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE AT&T PC

THE COMPUTER WITH

THE FUTURE BUILT IH.

mM

. '.

W M

OaOODDUU

a a a u u

Before you buy a personal com-puter for your business you shouldask yourself two essential questions.One: What do you need today? Two:What will you need tomorrow?

The AT&T PC 6300 is the answerto both. Today, you'll get a high per-formance computer that's competi-tively priced. A computer that notonly runs the broadest selection ofsoftware available, but has the powerand speed to make the most of it. Acomputer with superb graphics inmonochrome or color. And a high reso-lution screen that's easy on the eyes.

For tomorrow, you'll get a com-puter with the future built in. With itsmodular architecture and seven expan-

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That's a commitment from AT&T.And the AT&T PC, the computer withthe future built in.

For more information, call yourAT&T Account Executive, visit anauthorized AT&T dealer, or call1-800-247-1212.

AT&T

The right choice

Inquiry 41

Inquiry 311

ASK

IBM

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^

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50 BYTE- IUNE 1985

ASK BYTE

of BYTE. You could build that yourselfand save some money, but I recommendthat you buy the circuit board. Wire-wrapping a project such as this is notrecommended.

If you want to start with somethingmore modest to learn something aboutmicrocomputers, you could build The Lit-tle Board from Digital Research Com-puters (POB 461565, Garland, TX 75046)or any of the other small computer sys-tems advertised in the back pages ofBYTE.

A practical, though not the least expen-sive, way to build a computer to meetyour requirements is to assemble anS-IOO system using commercially avail-able boards. You can build your ownspecial-purpose cards using the S-IOOprototyping boards, and many of thecommon functions like serial I/O, video,and printer-interface boards are availablein kit form. The book Interfacing to S-IOOIEEE 696 Microcomputers by Sol Libesand Mark Garetz lOsborne/McGraw-Hill)gives good information on interfacing tothings such as memory and I/O for theS-IOO, and in a general way for mostcomputers.

Operating systems like Digital Re-search's CP/M and Microsoft's MS-DOSare readily available, either directly fromthe manufacturer or from computerstores and advertisers in BYTE— Steve

Sticky Keys

Dear Steve.

1 would appreciate any advice you mightgive on remedies for sticking keys. I havefound them to be a minor but distractingproblem on my TI Professional computerand. after consulting with friends who useother micros, I think the problem is fairlywidespread. Is it possible to apply a drylubricant or a Teflon spray on keymechanisms without interfering with elec-tronic circuitry?

A second question has to do with clean-ing the magnetic heads of floppy-diskdrives. There seems to be no consensusabout the use or the frequency of use ofcleaning kits. Can you offer an opinion?Richard S. MooreHuntsville, AL

Sticking keys can be a real nuisance,and a spray lubricant may or may not beeffective. One of the main causes of thesticking or binding is an interference be-tween the key plunger (the stem underthe key topi and the switch housing.Often, the clearance between these partsis very small to preclude dust and dirt

from entering, but some dirt particles cancause binding. In this instance, a controlcleaner (available at most electronicsupply stores) or some alcohol may suc-cessfully flush away these particles.

Swelling of the plastic is another cause,but lubricants have little effect since theyare quickly scraped away. A Teflon sprayor control cleaner can be tried, but re-placement of the switch is often the finalsolution.

Disk-drive cleaning kits should be usedas required and not as regular mainte-nance. These kits are abrasive and will,over a period of time, damage the read/write head of the drive. The in-out mo-tion of the head on the rotating disk pro-vides a self-cleaning action for most con-taminants. Frequency of use will dependmainly on the quality of the disk medium.Some brands seem to have more looseoxide than others. As a general rule, usea disk-cleaning kit when an occasionalread error is noted— Steve

Bigger Buffer

Dear Steve.

I own a Dynax DX-15 printer with a built-in 3K-byte buffer that is expandable to 5Kbytes. This additional 2K bytes hardlyseems worth fooling with. Is there any waythis internal buffer can be expanded tosomething more worthwhile, such as 16Kbytes or more, without radical surgery? Itseems to me that since the buffer is al-ready present, it shouldn't be too compli-cated to expand it to 64 K bytes. Yes or no?

Thank you for any suggestions you havethat might make my Dynax more usefulor save it from needless slaughter.

Gerry L. TurnerQuincy, IL

I have no circuit data for the Dynaxprinter, so I am unable to determine ifit is possible to expand the buffer beyondthe 5K bytes that Dynax provides. It isa function of the address decoding thatis utilized. Since the control-program andcharacter-generator ROMs require a sub-stantial amount of the controller's ad-dress space, it is doubtful that 64K bytesof memory can be obtained. Even if com-patible memory chips of higher capaci-ty could be used, decoding limits maycause the controller to ignore anythingover the 5K-byte limit.

If you need more buffer space, con-sider one of the external buffers/spoolers) like the Microfazer fromQuadram Corp. or the Spool/64 orSpool/64SP from Apparat Inc. These pro-

[conlinued)

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Inquiry 318

10 MB Hard Disk Drive Set $56920 MB Hard Disk Drive Set $749

130W SwitchingPower Supply $109

Direct replacement for your IBM PC powersupply. Fits inside your PC case. Four powerplugs allow you to connect floppy & hard diskdrives, tape backup systems, etc.

Includes top quality half height Microscience harddisk drive, Mitsuba hard disk drive controller, cables,full height cover plate, mounting screws, software,installation instructions. Microscience is known forquality & performance. Full year warranty. You cannotbeat the value & our low price.

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We accept check, money order. VISA, Mastercard, or American Express (include" and expiration date). Our prices reflect a2% cash discount. Please add 2% for credit card purchase. $2 50 ship ping & handling in continental U.S. (Alaska. Hawaii andforeign add $5.00 for orders under $100. 5fY for orders over $100). Illinois residents add 6.259$ sales tax. Personal and companychecks a How 2 weeks to clear. Purchase orders accepted from schools and major corporations. Prices subject to change withoutnotice. Dealer inquiries invited. If in the Chicago area, we invite vou to visit our retail showroom located at 24 W 500 MapleAve.. Naperville.

ASK BYTE

vide 64K bytes or more and features likemultiple copies and the ability to cancelprinting. Such buffers are available tomatch almost any printer/computer com-bination for around $150 and up. de-pending on memory size and features.— Steve

Printer Trouble

Dear Steve,

We are having trouble printing graphicswith our Toshiba PI 3 50 dot-matrix printer,which is hosted by a Zenith Z-100 ModelZW-110-32 desktop computer. The printerhas graphics characters and dot-imagegraphics printing capability. However, itdoes not respond to any Printgraph com-mands or any Escape sequence printersetup commands while using Lotus 1-2-3.In Z-BAS1C the printer accepts a fewEscape sequence commands but notthose that enable the graphics mode. We'dappreciate any help you can provide.

Dominic AuCalgary, Alberta, Canada

If the inability to get your ToshibaPI 3 50 to print graphics were limited toLotus 1-2-3, I would suspect that theprinter driver was not properly installedin the program. Since it doesn't work inBASIC either, it appears that you have aprinter problem. The graphics optionmay be defective or missing, or theremay be a bad or incorrectly wired cable.The latter is not too likely since you don tmention any other problems. Toshibasays you need the PaperScreen and thecolor/graphics adapter to print graphicswith Lotus 1-2-3 on the IBM PC somaybe you are encountering a minor in-compatibility with the Zenith graphicsboard.

There are two other possibilities. If youare using a serial interface, the protocolmust be set for 8-bit data to use graphics.Also, check your manual to see if thereare any switch settings that could be dis-abling the graphics. If none of these sug-gestions help, the printer is either notworking properly or does not have thecorrect options installed. Take it to yourdealer or a Toshiba service center fordiagnosis—Steve

INTERCABIN TELEPHONES

Dear Steve,

I am part owner of a summer resort with11 cabins. The main cabin has the onlytelephone line out of camp, and the othercabins have no communication lines. 1would like to build a telephone system for

[continued)

52 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 29

viztec The Most Powerful C

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Why Professionals Choose Aztec C

AZTEC C compilers generate fast, compactcode. AZTEC C is a sophisticated developmentsystem with assemblers, debuggers, linkers,editors, utilities and extensive run time libraries.AZTEC C is documented in detail. AZTEC C isthe most accurate and portable implementationof C for microcomputers. AZTEC C supportsspecialized professional needs such as crossdevelopment and ROM code development.MANX provides qualified technical support.

AZTEC C86/PRO— for the IBM AT and PC/XT

AZTEC C86/PRO provides the power, portabili-ty, and professional features you need todevelop sophisticated software for PC DOS, MSDOS AND CP/M-86 based microsystems. Thesystem also supports the generation of ROMbased software for 8088/8086, 80186, and 80286processors. Options exist to cross develop ROMcode for 65xx, 8080, 8085, and Z80 processors.Cross development systems are also availablethat target most micro computers. Call for infor-mation on AZTEC C86/PRO support for XENIXand TOPVIEW.

POWERFUL - AZTEC C86/PRO 3.2 outper-forms Lattice 2.1 on the DHRYSTONEbenchmark 2 to 1 for speed (17.8 sees vs 37.1)while using 65% less memory (5.8k vs 14k). TheAZTEC C86/PRO system also compiles in 10%to 60% less time and supports fast, high volumeI/O.

PORTABLE — MANX Software Systems pro-vides real portability with a family of compatibleAZTEC C software development systems for PCDOS, MS DOS, CP/M-86, Macintosh, CP/M-80,APPLE // +, He, and //c (NIBBLE - 4 apple rating),TRSDOS (80-MICRO ■ 5 star rating), and Commo-dore C64 (the C64 system is only available as across compiler - call for details). AZTECC86/PRO is compatible with UNIX and XENIX.

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The only commercial C development system availablethat runs native on the APPLE II +, lie, and He, theAZTEC C65 development system Includes a full floatingpoint C compiler compatible with UNIX C and otherMANX AZTEC C compilers, a 6502 relocating assem-bler, a linkage editor, a library utility, a SHELL develop-ment environment, a full screen editor, UNIX I/O andutility subroutines, simple graphics, and screen func-tions.

AZTEC C65 (Apple DOS 3.3) $199

AZTEC C65/PRO (Apple DOS + ProDos) $350

(call for availability)

AZTEC C ll/PRO

— for CP/M-80

The first member of the AZTEC C family was theCP/M-80 AZTEC C compiler. It is "the standard" com-piler for development on CP/M-80. The system Includesthe AZTEC CMC compiler, an 8080 assembler, a linkageeditor, an object librarian, a full library of UNIX I/O andutility routines, CP/M-80 run time routines, the SMALLlibrary (creates modules less than 3K in size), the fastlinker for reduced development times, the ROM library,RMAC and M80 support, library source, support forDRI's SID/ZSID symbolic debugger, and more.

AZTEC C ll/PRO $349

AZTEC CII/BAS $199

C-TREE Database with source $399

C-TREE Database in AZTEC object form $149

AZTEC C80

— lor TRSDOS (Radio Shack Model III & 4)

"I've had a lot of experience with different C compilers,but the Aztec C80 Compiler and Professional Develop-ment System Is the best I've seen." 80-Mlcro, Decem-ber, 1984, John B. Harrell III

This sytem has most of the features of AZTEC C II forCP/M. It is perhaps the best software developmentsystem for the Radio Shack Model III and IV.

AZTEC C80 model 3 (no floating point) $149

AZTEC C80 model 4 (full) $199

AZTEC C80/PRO (full for model 3 and 4) $299

To order or for information call:

800-221-0440

(201) 530-7997 (NJ and outside U.S.A.). Or write: MANXSOFTWARE SYSTEMS. P.O. Box 55, Shrewsbury. N.J.07701.

MANX

TRS 80 RADIO SHACK TRS DOS is a trademark of TANDYAPPLE DOS MACINTOSH is a trademark of APPLE

SHIPPING INFORMATION - Standard U.S.shipment is UPS ground (no fee). In the U.S.one day shipment is $20, two days is $10.Canadian shipment is $10. Two days ship-ment outside the U.S. is by courier and isfreight collect.

For Technical Support(Bug Busters) call: 201-530-6557

Inquiry 262

IUNE I985 -BYTE 53

Inquiry 356

Robotic DevelopmentSystem Using IBM PC/Apple lie

€'• n

o-^v^

M m.

fcm »mf\ /urn wA Am i*A

*r^^^™*™»™w ^^^^^^^BW ^BBBBbBBW^w ■

Complete 2 axis systems using 2 size 23 stepper motorswith R2D23 dual-axis driver; cable & powerful system software,expandable to 4 axis.

IBM PC/XT Version $792 Apple ll/lle Version $420

• I 432 I/O stepper controller

• 32 digital I/O

• A6 T/D stepper controller

• 32 digital I/O available

Digital I/O accessories, power supply and higher power size 34stepper motor system are available.

[|t ROGERS LABS

(714) 751-04422727-E So. Croddy Way, Santa Ana, CA 92704 TELEX 681393

CATALOG

YOUR 80-PAGE GUIDE TO COMPUTERSUPPLIES AND ACCESSORIES-INCLUDINGCOMPLETE NEW PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS.

Packed with over 1600 products tor microcomputers, mini-computers, and word processors - many available nowhere else.

Big special section devoted to new supplies and accessories,

■ Comprehensive product descriplions-with more than475 full-color photos—clearly explain features and benefits,

■ Easy-to-use cross reference guides to magneticmedia, ribbons, and more - along with the industry'smost complete cable guide,

■ Helpful suggestions and tips, ranging from flexible diskcare to proper ribbon selection to useful application ideas

PHONE TOLL-FREE 1-800-547-5444* OR SEND COUPON BELOW TODAY.

*ln California, call 1-800-547-5447

ASK BYTE

■ inmatsI

Inmac Catalog Oept, 2465 AugustineDrive, Santa Clara, California 95054

Please rush my free copy of the InmacCatalog, I understand Ihere is absolutelyno obligation whatsoever.

company .

ADDRESS.

CITY.

.ZIP_

.PHONE.

1III

the camp that would allow a telephone inevery cabin (preferably pulse dial becauseof their current low cost), intercabin com-munications, and access to the one mainline from every cabin.

Could you recommend: (1) a circuit todecode pulses from the incoming lines, (2)any telecommunications integrated cir-cuits that might aid me, and (3) an inex-pensive microprocessor that would han-dle all switching requirements?

David A. KearneyHudson, MA

lules H. Gilder has written two bookson telephones that should give you thenecessary information to construct theintercabin telephone system that you re-quire. Telephone Accessories You CanBuild and More Telephone AccessoriesYou Can Build, both published by HaydenBook Company, feature the theory ofoperation and simple construction proj-ects ranging from a simple ring detectorto an elaborate telephone system. Thespecific circuits for your project are inMore Telephone Accessories. Thesebooks are available at many bookstores.—Steve ■

Between Circuit Cellar Feedback, personal ques-tions, and Ask BYTE. I receive hundreds of letterseach month. As you might have noticed, at the endof Ask BYTE I have listed my own paid staff. Weanswer many more letters than you see published,and it often takes a lot of research.

If you would like to share the knowledge you haveon microcomputer hardware with other BYTEreaders, joining the Circuit Cellar/Ask BYTE staffwould give you the opportunity. We're looking foradditional researchers to answer letters and gatherCircuit Cellar project material.

\f you're interested, let us hear from you. Senda short letter describing your areas of interest andqualifications to Steve Garcia, POB 582, Glaston-bury, CT 06033.

IN ASK BYTE, Steve Garcia answers questions onany area of microcomputing. The most representativequestions received each month will be answered andpublished. Do you have a nagging problem? Sendyour inquiry toAsk BYTEdo Steve CiarciaPOB 582

Glastonbury. CT 06033Due to the high volume of inquiries, personal repliescannot be given. All letters and photographs becomethe property of Steve Ciarcia and cannot be returned.Be sure to include Ask BYTE'' in the address.

The Ask BYTE staff includes manager HarvWeiner and researchers Bill Curlew. Larry Bregoli.Dick Sawyer. Robert Stefe. and \eannetle Dojan.

54 BYTE' IUNE IQ8S

Inquiry 222

For a demonstration of the Z-Engine please seeone of the following:

Winner's Circle2816 TelegraphBerkley. CA 94705(415) 645-4814

Micro Data813 N La CadenaCotton, CA 92324{714)824-2266

Software Supermarket16200 Hawthorne BlvdLawndale. CA 90230(213) 542-3801

Software Supermarket11960 Wilshire BlvdLos Angeles. CA 90025(213)207-1494

Con-Soft

429 Height Street

San Francisco, CA 94117

(415) 626-6181

Computer Discount Products4228 Olympic AvenueSan Mateo. CA 94403

(415) 571-1658

Advanced Computer Products

1310-B Edmger

Santa Ana, CA 92705

(714) 558-8813

Software Supermarket

15113 Ventura Blvd

Sherman Oaks. CA 91403

(818) 783-3233

Computer Wave

6791 Westminster Ave

Westminster. CA 92683

(714)8912584

Micro Computer Concepts

13772 Goldenwest Street

Westminster. CA 92683

(714) 898-3002

(800) 772-3914

DMA Digital Computer Systems106 E VermijoColorado Springs, CO 80903(303) 475-2488

Varsity Computing

401 E BroadAthens, GA 306011404) 548-3434

Cash Register Systems1501 Hicks StreetAugusta GA 30904(404) 724-1747

Computer Pro2525 Washington RoadAugusta. GA 30904(404) 737-8313

Varsity Computing

7732 Spalding DriveNorcross, GA 30092(404) 446-3434

Pender's Computer Ctr.117 w Jefferson StreetThomasville, GA 31792(912) 226-3341

Strickly Software

2334 S King Street #206Honolulu. HI 96826(808) 944-0462

Memory Lane98-1254 KaahumanuPearl City Hi 96782(808) 487-7999

Caribe Exchange inc.213 South Conroy StreetKnockville, IA 50138(515) 842-3619

Famsworth Computer Center

1891 N FamsworthAurora, IL 60605(312)851-6567

Z-Engine deliversCP/NTfor your Apple8

<m

Qz<e

<#*

^

Z-Engine delivers a trainload ofadditional programs to yourApple II, II + , lie or Apple com-patible computer. Many of themost powerful and sophisticated pro-grams available today are CP/M basedZ-Engine opens the door to them all. ^PYou might expect that something thatgives so much would cost so much. Not so.Z-Engine is, undoubtedly, one of thegreatest values in the microcomputer industry.Z-Engine is first class service at economy fare.Once the Z-Engine has been delivered we don't shutoff the steam - we support our products - andguarantee them. If you knew what we knowabout the Z-Engine you'd be our next customer.The Z-Engine delivers

Advanced Logic Systems

1195 East Arques Ave.Sunnyvale, CA 94086(408) 730-0307.

/\

'/

i * '■

.^

^

Research Inc.!is a registered trade-mark of AppleComputer, Inc.

Compu-Net1946 North ClarkChicago, IL 60614(312)664-8585Universal Computer1890 First StreetHighland Park, IL 60035(312)433-8930Micro City

24 W 500 Maple AveNaperville. IL 60540(312) 355-9749Alpine Computer Center2418 South Alpine RoadRockford. IL 61108(815) 229-0200Vons Computer317 West State StreetWest Latayetle. IN 47906(317) 743-4041Computer SOS5731 Youree DriveShreveport, LA 71105(318)865-7188Computer Shoppa3828 Veterans BlvdMetaine LA 70002(504) 454-6600Advanced Management2838 Henry StreetMuskegon, Ml 49441(616) 7393395Alternate Computer Supply6034 East StreetTwin Lake Ml 49457(616) 458 7649Personalized Computers12350 Natural BridgeHazelwood MO 63044(314) 739-0263

Mid Watt Computing

201 North Pine

Rolla, MO 65401

(314) 364 1996

The Computerworks

121 West Mission

Bellvue. NB 68005

(402) 291-7804

Computer Ark

1921 New Road

Northf.eld, NJ 08225

(609)641-4300

Bayonne Computer Center

618 Broadway

Bayonne. N J 07002

(201)436-8555

Compute rland

2076 E Route 70

Cherry Hill, NJ 08003

(609)424-8100

AFC Electronics

Salem Industrial Park Rt. 22

LeBannon, NJ 08833

(201) 534-6343

Round Vailey Computer

Box 448 US HWY 22 East

LeBannon. NJ 08833

(201)236-9575

Computer Discount of New Jersey

280-B Hwy 17

Mahwah, NJ 07430

(201) 529-4026

Medford Computer Center

Route 7 Hartford Road

Medford. NJ 08055

(609) 953-0823

Family Computer Centres

154 Valley Street South

Orange. NJ 07079

(201) 762-6661

Family Computer Canters

154 Valley Street

South Orange. NJ 07079

(201) 762-6661

Computer Pro's Inc.

West Belt Mall

Wayne, N J 07470

(201)256-7070

Computer Discount of America31 Marshall Hill Road

W. Miltord, NJ 07460

In NJ - (201) 7288082

Out NJ-(800) 526-5313

Sandta Micro Systems

812 Charleston N.E.

Albuquerque, NM 87110

(505) 266-7410

47th Street Photo

115 W 45th Street

New York. NY 10036

(212) 260-4410

Tec Computer Products Inc.

56 West 45th Street

New York. NY 10036

(212)944-1166

Byta General Dist.

3 Siierks Lane

Roslyn Harbor. NY 11576

(516) 625-3020

Upstate Computer Shop

99 Commercial Drive

Whitesboro, NY 13692

(315) 768-8151

Computer Store of Laurenburg

1023 South Main

Laurenburg, NC 28352

(919)276-4424

Audio Buys

1700 Glenwood Ave

Raleigh, NC 27608

(919)821-1776

Computer Utility Corp.

808 East Main

Ada, OK 74820

(405) 332-4858

Dowllng Inc.

3017 N Stiles Ave

Oaklahoma City. OK 73105

(405) 528-2933

Conroy La Points

12060 Southwest Garden Place

Tigard. OR 97223

(800) 547 1289

Edu-Care Micro Computer

The Learning Source

Hills Shopping Plaza

Camp Hill, PA 17011

(717)761-7487

Esst Coast Software

49 Derrytown Mall

Hershey. PA 17033

(717) 533-8125

Software Hut

2534 South Broad Street

Philadelphia. PA 19145

(215) 462 2268

Opus II

747 Brook Haven Circle

Memphis, TN 38117

(901)683-0117

Inacomp Computer Centsr

330 Franklin Road

Brentwood. TN 37027

(615) 373-5667

Software Centre

5545 Richmond Avenue

Houston. TX 77056

(713) 783-9857

Computer Office

22025 61st Ave SE

Bothell. WA 98021

(206)481-2600

A.P.P.L.E

290 S.W. 43rd Street

Renton, WA 98055

Orders - (800) 426-3667

Info (206) 251-5222

Computer Horizons Inc.

West Virginia

Morgantown Wheeling, Beckley

(304) 594-1855

(304) 233-2484

(304) 2557474

Oryx Systems

425 First Street

Wausau. Wl 54401

(715)848-1374

Dealer inquiries are invited — please contact oneof the following distributors. If a distributor ordealer is not in your area please contact us directly.

s""-i-'>svaaSfe^iii

The Computer Connection

17121 S Central Ave

Union L

Carson. CA 90746

(213)514-9019

Softeam

900 West Walnut StreetCompton. CA 90220(800) 8478383

Softsel Computer Products546 Oak

Engiewood, CA 90312-6080(800) 8478363

Csltek Components

4079 Glen Coe AveMarina Del Rey, CA 90292(213)8271851

First Software

17-21 Ballard Way

Lawrence. MA 01843

(617)689-0077

(800) 343-1290

PC Micro Dealers Co-op

12216 Marc Lane

Glen Arms. MD 21057

(301)592-5110

Jersey Micro Systems

'200 B Haddontieid Road

Cherry Hill. NJ 08002

(609)665-7611

Specialists Financial Planning

160 Washington South Ea

Alb New Mexico. 87108

(505) 265-8308

Simco

2040 Des Cascades. St H

Quebec J2S 3J6

(514) 773-7843

leu

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IJTTT

^■)iphl

rijnl

11} 11 (^

1

r.

TRANSET 1000

©Hayes'

Transet 1000: The print buffer, communications buffer,port expander, printer sharer and I/O switcher. All in one.

Anyone with a personal computerand one or more peripherals hasfaced the all-too-familiar dilemma.You need your computer to do animportant job. But you're forcedto wait for the system to finish onejob (printing, communicating, what-ever) before you can go on to thenext one. Or you need to stop whatyou're doing to switch cables whenyou want to use another peripheral.

Wait no more. Now Hayes intro-duces an innovative new device thatlets you perform many jobs—at thesame time—independent of yourcomputer. Transet 1000. It workswith a wide range of systems andconfigurations. And it allows youto continuallyexpand your sys-tem as your needsgrow.

Transet 1000frees your com-puter from waitingon your printer ormodem—so youand your com-puter can go onto another task.It even lets you

print out documents in pre-set for-mats without having to go back intoyour computer. At the same time.Transet 1000 can operate unattendedmailbox communications—24 hoursa day—even if your computeris turned off.

Two computers can share one printer withTranset 1000. Or. you can use Transet 1000 to lettwo computers communicate with each other.

Even while printing. Transet 1000 acts as a com-munications buffer and 24-hour mailbox And I/Oswitching lets you route information amongperipherals, without switching cables.

In addition, Transet 1000 is a portexpander and software-controlledI/O switcher. Now files can be easilydirected and redirected to differentperipherals, without physicallychanging cable connections.

Transet 1000contains a stand-alone micropro-cessor, and comeswith 12 8K of mem-ory. It operateswith any RS-232interface com-puter, and hasoptional accessorykits available forthe IBM1 PC and PCXT, MacintoslfandApple5lie. Kits contain the necessaryhost cable, a user guide and menu-driven software that lets yougraphically set up orcustomize MM

port

parameters and printing formats.Cables available for IBM PC AT, othercomputers and peripherals.

Like all Hayes products.Transet 1000combines sophisticated capabilitieswith easy operation, lust as Hayesset the standard in personal com-puter communications, now Hayesis taking the lead in computer taskmanagement.

Contact your authorized Hayesdealer to see how Transet 1000 canhelp you get a lot more productivity

Transet 1000 allows printing on both a dot matrixprinter and letter quality printer, while freeing yourcomputer for other tasks.

out of your computer system—without tying up your computeror you.

Hayes MicrocomputerProducts, Inc.. RO Box 105202Atlanta. Georgia 30348404/441-1617

MOMBKn

"Hansel: 1000

i85 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc.

Innovative products for enterprising people

Inquiry 205

CLUBS & NEWSLETTERS

• GARDENING ON LINEInterviews with gardeningexperts adept at usingmicrocomputers to benefittheir yards are included inThe Online Gardener, aquarterly newsletter thatcovers news, trends, andproduct and softwarereviews relevant to home-garden applications.Subscriptions are $8 a year.Contact The Online Gardener.1287 McLendon Ave..Atlanta, GA 30307.

• NEWS FROM RIVER CITY

The Sanyo MBC-2000/3000Forum is designed to pro-vide technical support andan exchange of informationwithout meetings for SanyoMBC 2000 and MBC 3000users. Membership includesa subscription to the month-ly newsletter, access to apublic-domain softwarelibrary, and nationwide com-munication by mail andmodem. The annual fee is$15. Contact William Pletcher,Sanyo MBC-2000/3000 Forum,River City Datamation, 2653Yuma Circle, Sacramento, CA95827, (916) 362-1537.

• TELESATINTERNATIONAL

Members of Telesat Interna-tional benefit from a BBSfeaturing computing reviews,databases, and internationalyellow pages. The board isoperational 24 hours a dayfor an annual fee of S2 5. Fora free membership kit anddetails, contact CustomerService. Telesat International.POB 2334, Elizabeth, N|07207-2334. (201) 352-2319.

• A DENVER GEM

An organization that pro-vides geologists with accessto a BBS with extensive pub-

lic-domain geological pro-grams also produces acatalog, monthly newsletter,and member directory andholds conferences and ex-hibits. Further, experts ingeological-applications soft-ware and databases presenttechnical papers at themonthly meetings of theComputer OrientedGeological Society (COGS)held in Denver, Colorado.Contact COGS, POB 1317,Denver, CO 80201.

• ACTIVE ON LINE

Users of the Commodore 64can link into an electronicnewspaper, search itsdatabase, exchangemessages with other users,and upload and downloadall on line from Ontario,Canada, for a $20 annualfee. The Stelex Sector BBS.available 24 hours a day at(416) 766-3038. also providesan on-line typing service,bulletins, and productsavailable for sale. The BBSmanual sells for $5. Send anSAE to The Stelex SectorBBS, POB 6238, Station A,Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P6,Canada, or call RomanKowalczuk at (416) 769-8226.

• DISK ANSWERS

Chicago's First OsborneGroup (CFOG) gives newmembers a disk that con-tains an explanation ofmeetings, copies of public-domain programs, a list ofmembers who offer help,and instructions on how tooperate the group's 24-hour

RCP/M, which operates on anOsborne I, a 1200-bpsHayes Smartmodem, and aDesign One 10-megabytehard disk. A $2 initiation feeis required. Contact BenjaminCohen. CFOG. POB 1674,Chicago, 1L 60690.

• SEE BASIC CLEARLY

null-BabellCBNews. a newsletterfor CBASIC programmers, ispublished monthly by theCBASIC Users Group. Thegroup also maintains apublic-domain library. Asubscription is $18; $28 over-seas. Sample and backissues are $2. Contact RicAllan, POB 40690, Cincinnati,OH 4 5240-0690.

• INVESTORS IOURNAL

The Microcomputer \nvestor. thesemiannual journal of theMicrocomputer InvestorsAssociation (MCIA), furthersthe group's intentions tofacilitate communications forinvestors who use microcom-puters. Contact lack Williams.MCIA, 902 Anderson Dr.,Fredericksburg, VA 22405.

• INTERACTIVE NEWSThe Society for AppliedLearning Technology pro-duces a quarterly newsletterthat contains information onscheduled events concerninginteractive videodiscs andmicrocomputers in educa-tion. Annual membership is$30. Members are invited tosubscribe to the \ournal ofEducational Technology Systemsfor an additional $31. Con-tact the Society for Applied

CLUBS & NEWSLETTERS is a forum for letting BYTE readers know whatis happening in the microcomputing community. Emphasis is given to elec-tronic bulletin-board services, club-sponsored classes, community-help projects,and other activities. W? will continue to list new clubs and newsletters. Allowat least four months for your club's mention to appear. Send informationto BYTE, Clubs & Newsletters, POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

Learning Technology 50Culpeper St., Warrenton, VA22186. (703) 347-0055.

• A DIRECT LINE

The Long Island NEC UsersGroup (LINECUG) is a non-profit organization thatdistributes public-domainsoftware to users of the NECPC-8000 and PC-8800. A $5annual membership includesbiannual updates of theclub's software. Contact lerryWorthing. LINECUG, 75Weaving Lane, Wantagh, NY11793, (516) 735-2952.

• PRO FORMA

Transcripts of the C-ProUsers Group's bulletin-boardmessages at (703) 491-1852are published in the newslet-ter, as well as public-domainprograms, hardware andsoftware reviews, and tech-nical information for Com-puPro and other S-100 bussystems. Membership is $24per year. Contact theC-Pro Users Group, POB1474, 14057 lefferson DavisHighway. Woodbridge, VA22193, (703) 690-3312.

• SIGCC TAKES ROOT

The International Councilfor Computers in Education(ICCE) seeks local chaptersfor the Special InterestGroup for Computer Co-ordinators (SIGCC), for peo-ple with any computer-co-ordinator responsibilities. Apublic-message bulletinboard, The ICCE Forum, isavailable on CompuServe atGO EDU18; otherwise ICCE'snumber on CompuServe is70014.2117. ICCE housesSIGs for special educators,administrators, and teachersand publishes The Computingjournal and a quarterly

[continued)

58 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Draw Your Own Destiny

If You Can Dream It, Do It With PC-Draw.

Go on. Think big. For the world beats a path to the doorof those who make things happen. Now, graphicallydepict your bold new concepts. From ingenious ideas anddesigns — to master plans and proposals. Communicatewith absolute clarity. And create truly persuasivepresentations and reports.

What fuels the power of your mind?PC-Draw®. An incredibly versatile, interac- Jtive graphics program for the IBM PC®,XT®, AT® or enhanced PCjr® — unlikeanything else on the market. Using yourpersonal computer and a plotter or printer youconceive, develop, then produce a hard copypicture of your thoughts. An optional light penmakes PC-Draw even easier to use.

PC-Draw offers much more than mere painting systems.With it, create in far greater detail an endless variety ofpresentation graphics, proposals, systems design, charts.

forms, diagrams and illustrations. Produce drawings up to99 pages long. Use PC-Draw symbol libraries for appli-cations such as flowcharting, organization charts, formsdesign, office layout and electrical design. And more.Or generate and store your own unlimited supply ofuser defined symbols.

Try PC-Draw for a 10 Day Trial Period.

PC-Draw includes an easy to follow interactivetutorial. Requires IBM compatible computer, graphicsadapter and graphics monitor (or IBM monochromemonitor with Paradise modular graphics card).Graphic boards, light pens at excellent prices.

Go ahead. Control your destiny. Dial 800/2PC-DRAWto order or for free brochure. In Texas or for customersupport call 214/234-1769. MICROGRAFX, Inc., 1701N. Greenville Ave., Suite 305, Richardson, Texas 75081.

(Most popular plotters & printers supported.Version for PCjr available)

MICROGRAFX

The Picture of Success.

Inquiry 281

PC-Draw and MICROGRAKX arc trademarks of MICROGRAFX, Inc.IBM. PC, XT, AT and PCjr are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp Paradise is a trademark of Paradise Systems, Inc.

Inquiry 357

DISK DRIV€ SUBSVST€MS

PC-INSID6R S€RI€S FOR IBM10 TO 116 Mb FORMflTT€D w/ controllcr

FIND FILL N€C€SSRRV CRBL€S, HRRDLURR€& POLU€R SUPPLV LUH€R€ N€€D€D FROM$595

PC-OUTSIDCR S€RI€S FOR IBM

33 TO 116 Mb FORMflTTCD DRIV€S MOUNTED

IN PC-STVLC CRBINCT FROM $1,595

PC-OUTSIDER 60Mb STRC-RMINGTRP€ OPTION FOR IBM $1,525

Q^E^o/V/ASyn 27-120Mb 5 1/4"GCTC-RNni SUBSVSTCMS FROM $1,525

IMPROV€ DISK I/O 6V 10 TIM6S

OV€R TH€ FRSTCST 5 1/4" DRIV€S LUITH TH€

50Mb RMCODVN€ SUBSVST€M OR

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rvrilrblc for COMPUPRO CONCURR€NT

DOS 8-16 & CP/M 8-16JURBODOS,

FIND MSOOS LUITH FAST BACK-UP, ULTIMRT€ DRTRSCCURITV/RRCHIVRL RND fl V€RV CFFICICNTNCTUJORKING SOLUTION FROM $4,795

SP=T22ff* (800 SEE PAGE 485■i'iww 528-3138 FOR OTHER MDSE

DISKCOPYING

Whether you need 50 disks or thousands, we have yearsof experience in creating the highest quality copies. Reasonableprices—fast turnaround. Call today for our free booklet onsoftware duplication and packaging.

BLANKDISKS

Can you tell a good disk from a great one? We can, becausewe copy thousands each day. We'll tell you which brand isbest for your system. Call today—and get great prices, too!

Call ALF first

1-800-321-4668

in Colorado (303) 234-0871

JkW^F ALF Products * Denver, <

CLUBS & NEWSLETTERS

called The SIC Bulletin.SIG membership rangesfrom $10 to $17 annually,depending on ICCEmembership and location.Contact the InternationalCouncil for Computers inEducation, University ofOregon. 1787 Agate St.,Eugene. OR 97403, (503)686-4414.

• REFER TO SNUG

The bulletin boards of theSanyo National Users Group(SNUG) at (509) 884-0613and 335-1652 in Wanatcheeand Pullman. Washington,provide technical assistancefor users of the Sanyo MBCIn addition, a public-domainlibrary is maintained, amonthly newsletter isproduced, and group-purchase discounts areorganized. The annual fee is$15. Contact MichaelRussell, SNUG, POB 2084CS,Pullman, WA 99163.

• BCS KAY PRO

The Boston Kaypro UsersGroup (BOSKUG). affiliatedwith the Boston ComputerSociety (BCS). runs anRCP/M and publishes a bi-monthly newsletter calledThe Boston Kugel. Meetingsare held semimonthly everysecond and fourth Tuesday,loining the BCS entitles youto membership both inBOSKUG and the BCS andto receive their respectivepublications. For member-ship information, contactBCS. 1 Center Plaza. Boston.MA 02108, (617) 367-8080.For a subscription to TheBoston Kugel beyond a75-mile radius of Boston,send $10 to BOSKUG. 27Howland Rd., West Newton.MA 02165, or call LeeLockwood at (617) 965-6343.

• WHAT'S NEXT?

Due to an alleged lack ofcompany-sponsored usersupport, the managing staffof NaWorW, The \ndependentNEC APC News journal, in-vites interested users to

discuss a right to companysupport. Write to Count MeIn, NexWorld, 388 Old Turn-pike Rd„ Woodstock, CT06281, (203) 974-3505.

• V FOR VENTURA

The Ventura County Macin-tosh Club (VMAC) holdsmonthly meetings, producesa monthly newsletter, andmaintains a software libraryMembership is $15 annually.Contact Ventura CountyMacintosh Club, 1413-DSouth Victoria Ave., Ventura,CA 93003, (805) 644-5220or 985-3400.

• OPEN EXCHANGE

The East Carolina CP/M-MS/DOS Group welcomes anexchange of newsletters,public-domain software, andother information relevant tothe CP/M and MS-DOS oper-ating systems. The club pro-duces a newsletter that ispublished every othermonth, and a bulletin boardis in the works. The annualdues are $10. Contact EastCarolina CP/M-MS/DOSGroup, 707 Edge Hill Rd„New Bern, NC 28560.

• DEVELOPERS UNITE

The Software DevelopersAssociation is a nonprofitassociation of computersoftware developers inCanada. A single monthlynewsletter is $5; anannual subscription is $50.Contact Bob Bruce, Soft-ware Developers Associa-tion, Suite 500, 185 BloorSt. E, Toronto, OntarioM4W 313, Canada, (416)922-1153.

• SANYO BLOOMS IN

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IUNE 1985 'BYTE 63

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64 BYTE • IUNE l°85

Inquiry I 73

BOOK REVIEWS

PROGRAMMERPRODUCTIVITY:ACHIEVING AN URGENTPRIORITYGirish ParikhReston PublishingReston, VA: 1984236 pages. $31.50

APPLYING SOFTWARE

ENGINEERING

PRINCIPLES

David Marca

Little. Brown

Boston, MA: 1984

288 pages. $29.95

CP/M-86 USER'S GUIDEJonathan SachsOsbome/McGraw-HillBerkeley. CA: 1985568 pages, $18.95

COMPUTER ANIMATION

PRIMER

David Fox

and Mitchell Waite

McGraw-Hill

New York: 1984

522 pages. $22.95

THE COMPLETEHOME EDUCATOR:A COMPREHENSIVEGUIDE TO MODERNHOME-TEACHINGMario PagnoniLarson PublicationsBurdett, NY: 1984248 pages. $10.95

PROGRAMMERPRODUCTIVITY:ACHIEVING AN URGENTPRIORITY

Reviewed by Michael Martinez and E. Francis Avila

In the world of data processing, systems managers willtell you software development and maintenance are themost expensive costs incurred in running a large system.While computer-hardware costs have dropped, software-development costs have risen. The issue, then, is findinguseful, reliable methods of increasing programmerefficiency, crucial to stemming the climbing costs ofdeveloping and maintaining software.

In Programmer Productivity: Achieving an Urgent Priority, GirishParikh, an experienced data-processing programmer andmanager, tackles this difficult but vital task head-on. Heoffers practical solutions that promise to increaseproductivity while reducing maintenance costs.

Be forewarned that Pro-grammer Productivity is notintended for hobbyists,although amateur program-mers would do well toadopt good programming practices. Parikh has written thistext primarily for professional programmers and data-processing managers working in large-systemsenvironments with teams of programmers, designers, andanalysts developing applications software that oftenencompasses thousands upon thousands of lines of code.Consequently, the book's technical nature often makesfor dry, sometimes ponderous reading. Additionally, Parikhassumes the reader possesses more than a casual knowl-edge of professional programming operations. He doesnot shy away from technical prose.

Parikh begins each chapter by quoting either his ownexperiences or those of other data-processing experts. Hefollows this with a presentation of some of the more

[continued]

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BOOK REVIEWS

popular (and not so popular) theories and practicalmethods that promise to increase programming efficiencyand lower maintenance costs.

Throughout the book, the author intersperses details ofpersonal successes and failures, as well as other casestudies, encountered during the process of implementingand testing the various productivity techniques. Generally,Parikh does not hesitate to show his support for onetechnique over another.

Improved Technologies'

The book's central hypothesis revolves around what Parikhcalls "improved programming technologies." If these tech-nologies are adopted, dramatic increases in theproductivity of programming projects can be realized, ac-cording to Parikh. In the first chapter, he lists these tech-nologies: H1PO (hierarchy plus input-process-output), top-down program development, chief-programmer teams, de-velopment-support libraries, structured programming, andstructured walk-through.

Unfortunately, Parikh does not go into any great detailabout any one technique; he leaves that for furtherresearch by the reader. Instead, he offers a quick overviewof each technique, sometimes listing the good and badpoints. With H1PO and structured programming design,for example, he provides simplistic models of thesedifferent approaches, mixing each with comments and hisown experiences.

Of course, many techniques employed to increase pro-grammer output, such as Warnier-Orr diagraming andstructured design, are subjects of books themselves. Parikhcannot be expected to treat them in depth in a bookdesigned as an overview of programmer productivity.

The success of any one of Parikh's recommendationsdepends on the size and nature of the project. But of thesix technologies outlined by Parikh, you'll get the impres-sion that structured programming technique is the methodmost capable of producing the most success. And indeedit has been our experience that structured programmingmethods have proven more successful in increasing prod-uctivity as well as long-term maintainability of softwarethan many other methods devised.

You might get the impression that the author is address-ing only COBOL programmers. However, this is not thecase. While a chapter is devoted specifically to COBOLusing a preprocessor, the wealth of material Parikh coversis not bound by any language and could be just as easilyapplied to FORTRAN. C Pascal, or BASIC.

Pedantic

Parikh occasionally drops his guard and comes acrosssounding a little pedantic, at times condescending. Thisis unfortunate because it detracts from an otherwise goodtreatment of material. There are times when Parikh writesmore like a crusader waving the banner of improved pro-gramming technologies than a professional sharing his

{continued)

66 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 111

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BOOK REVIEWS

knowledge and experience. Obviously, he feels verystrongly about his subject matter.

The Egoless Programmer

One intriguing subject that Parikh suggests needs moreattention is his idea of "egoless programming." He devotesan entire chapter to this ignored topic.

Parikh urges programmers and managers alike to aban-don egocentric attitudes and pull together as a team onprojects. He asserts that the key to self-fulfillment is tobecome "egoless." Only then will programmers (andmanagers) get a clearer picture of the task at hand. Hecautions programmers not to take criticism personally butto instead be open to suggestions from peers and accept"humbling tasks."

To merge ego into the programming team may sounda bit offbeat for the average software-development groupin this country. Given the prevailing attitudes of mostAmerican workers, we doubt that this philosophy wouldstand much of a chance of being taken seriously, butParikh's discussion is interesting nevertheless.

Programmer Productivity opens several doors that poten-tially lead to increasing both the quantity and the qualityof computer-programmer output. The author freelyacknowledges that the programmer's craft as an intellec-tual endeavor is very difficult to measure, let alone im-prove upon. But, he insists, with the proper use of "im-proved programming technologies" it can be done. Parikhleaves it to the reader to choose which technology is best.

Michael Martinez (7475 San Bergamo Dr., Goleta, CA 93117)is a systems programmer. E. Francis Avila (POB 4401, Auburn.CA 95604) is a contract programmer working on a degree inmathematics.

APPLYING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PRINCIPLESReviewed by Annette Hinshaw

With questions and exercises at the end of everychapter and a dry academic style that tends toobscure the important material it contains, Applying Soft-ware Engineering Principles looks like a textbook. However,the exercises suggest individual study rather than class-room use. Every problem requires access to a library ofprograms used in business. The questions ask the readerto analyze both successful and unsuccessful software inlight of the principles covered in that chapter. They alsosuggest ways to implement the ideas from the chapter inupcoming programming projects.

These exercises are excellent, but they seem pertinentonly to people working in programming shops largeenough to require multiperson projects. On the otherhand, the exercises may require more time to completethan most working programmers can spare for self-improvement.

(continued)

68 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 66

Ifoumaybethe best programmer

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IUNE 1985 'BYTE 69

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—These features are standard from GTEK—Compatible with all RS232 serial interface ports • Auto select baud rate • With or without hand-shaking • Bidirectional Xon/Xoff • CTSDTR supported • Read pin compatible ROMS • No personaBty modules • Intel, Motorola, MCS86 Hex formats • Split facility for 16 bit data paths •Read program, formatted fast commands • Interrupt driven — program and verify real time whilesending data • Program single byte, block, or whole E PROM • Intelligent diagnostics discern bedand/or erasable EPROM • Verify erasure and compare commands • Busy light • Complete withTextool zero insertion force socket and integral 120 VAC power (240 VAC/50Hz available! ■

MODEL 7324 $1199This unit has a built-in compiler.The Model 7324 programs allMM I. National and TI 20 and 24pin PALs. Has non-volatilememory. It operates stand aloneor via RS232.

MODEL 7128 - $429This model has the highestperformance-to-price-ratio of anyunit. This is GTEK's most popularunit! It supports the newestdevices available through256Kbits.

MODEL 7316 Pal Programmer $ 599

Programs Series 20 PALs. Built-in PALASM compiler.

DEVICES SUPPORTED

by GTEK's EPROM Programmers

NMOS

NMOS

CMOS

EEPROM

MPU'S

2758 2764A

2508 68764

27C16

5213 I2816A

8748 8741H

2716 27128

2516 8755

27C16H

5213H I2817A

8748H 8744

2732 27128A

2532 5133

27C32H

52B13

8749H 8751

2732A 27256

2564 5143

27C64

X2816

8741 68705

2764 27512

68766

27C256

48016

8742H

UTILITY PACKAGES

GTEK"s PGX Utility Packages will allow you to specify a range of addresses tosend to the programmer, verify erasure and/or set the EPROM type. The PGX Utili-ty Package includes GHEX, a utility used to generate an Intel HEX file.

PALX Utility Package — for use with GTEK's Pal Programmers — allowstransfer of PALASM® source file or ASCII HEX object code file.

Both utility packages are available for CPM,1 MSDOS* PCDOS,® ISIS® andTRSDOS® operating systems. Call for pricing.

AVOCET CROSS ASSEMBLERS

These assemblers are available to handle the 8748, 8751, Z8, 6502, 68X and othermicroprocessors. They are available for CPM and MSDOS computers. When order-ing, please specify processor and computer types.

ACCESSORIES

Model 7128-Ll, L2, L2A

(OEM Quantity! $259.

Model 7128-24 $329.

Cross Assemblers $200.

PGX UtilitiesPALX

Call for pricingCall for pricing

GTek

XASM (for MSDOS) $250.

U/V Eraser DE-4 $ 80.

RS232 Cables $ 30.

8751 Adapter $174.

8755 Adapter $135.

48 Family Adapter $

68705 Programmer $:

Development Hardware/SoftwareP.O. Box 289. Waveland, MS 39576601/467-8048, INC.

GTEK, PALASM. CPM, MSDOS. PCDOS. ISIS, and TRSDOSare all registered trademarks.

BOOK REVIEWS

David Marca has divided his book into four sections:general concepts, engineering with a computer language,engineering using existing software, and engineering withregard to human and machine environments.

Marca researched this book extensively; he supportsmany important ideas with numerous citations. The bookis long on general principles, but it never quite makes itto the "applying" of the title. For the most part, thesegeneral principles are not related to concrete, real-worldissues. Although he promises early in the book that hewill help software engineers make specific design choices.Marca does not fulfill this promise. The book contains thepieces to develop decision guidelines, but they are likeunstrung beads. I wanted walk-through examples show-ing how to apply principles to specific situations. And Ihad trouble making the obviously sound ideas in the bookjell into a set of rules for making decisions.

Marca defines software engineering as "the act of anindividual who learns to develop software in a practicalsetting." He emphasizes that engineering is different fromwriting program code, lust as most of the engineering ona bridge is complete before construction begins, so soft-ware engineering is largely a series of planning decisionson what to include in a software system and how to ar-range the program for easy use and maintenance. Thisplanning comes in stages: analysis, design, implementa-tion, and installation. Marca devotes most of the book tothe implementation stage, where actual code is generated.

All programming examples are in FORTRAN. Theauthor's decision to use only one language limits coverageon some topics. He mentions recursion but does notdiscuss it because FORTRAN does not support this tech-nique. He uses FORTRAN'S poor string handling as an ex-ample of a need to extend a computer language, but hedoes not address strings as a data type because most ver-sions of FORTRAN do not use text. He touches on thedifficulty of using files in FORTRAN but does not provideexamples of this function from another language.

Marca discusses designing software with parameterssuch as cost-effectiveness, timely production, and simplici-ty. He recommends organizing activities into analyzing aproblem, designing a system that can solve the problem,writing a program to the design, and installing the finishedprogram. His principles are not original, but they are asound basis for operation.

MODELS

The chapters on modeling are a good example of myfrustration with this book. Obviously a good model fora system is central to good software design. Marca beginsby analyzing what makes a model and then explains limita-tions. He talks about form and language and offers an al-gorithm for creating a model Instead of providing some-thing concrete, he moves on to validating a model. Theexercises at the end of the chapter do offer concreteexamples, but this makes the book useless for anyone who

[continued]

70

BYTE • IUNE IWi

Inquiry 201

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72 BYTE • IUNE 1985

NATIONAL REFERRALSERVICE AND SUPPORT.

Computers

LEADING EDGE Complete systems. FROM $1495AT&T Color and Mono systems. In stock!!

Call lor Low, Low Price!

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3278.

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FROM $799

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EPSON FX80 Plus/100 Plus

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OKIDATA Color printers. Complete line.

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NORTON Utilities 3.0 $69

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KEYTRONICS 5150& 5151. Keyboards for PC and Jr.KENSINGTON MICROWARE Master Piece _ $119

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Prices are subject to change without notice and are similiar, but vary at Micro Mart Retail Stores.IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

Inquiry 277

IUNE I985 -BYTE 73

.i» ii-i-inuio unnniu-H; i-TJTKJM. Vlirt/IVIb MUUtKItU

Inquiry 263

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 75

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BOOK REVIEWS

use, it could be a reasonable basic textbook. As a guidefor software engineers in the field, the book is seriouslylacking. Engineers will still have to derive most of theirown specific application guidelines.

Annette Hinshaw (POB 580635, Tulsa. OK 74158) is a freelancetechnical writer.

CP/M-86 USER'S GUIDEReviewed by Paul W. Lowans

This guide covers Digital Research's CP/M-86 family ofoperating systems, including MP/M-86, ConcurrentCP/M-86. and Concurrent DOS. In the beginning ofCP/M-86 User's Guide, author Jonathan Sachs, a computerconsultant on technical writing and software development,suggests how to set up your system, discusses hardware,and introduces a basic implementation of commands. Therest of the book explains CP/M's more advanced features,covering in more detail the commands and utilities. Anadditional "Note to the System Manager" describes howto assist a CP/M novice in using the guide with hands-onexperience. Sachs has written this book for people at dif-ferent levels of expertise.

Appendixes cover the differences in various releases ofCP/M systems. The book also contains a resource guideof names and addresses of computer-related publications,products, and accessories, as well as a listing of bulletinboards. Also included are specific notes for users of Com-puPro, DEC Rainbow, and IBM PC and PC XT computers.

Sachs points out in the acknowledgments that he wrotethe book while Concurrent CP/M-86 and Concurrent DOSwere still being developed; thus, the syntax he explainscould be in error. Since I work strictly with CP/M-86, I can-not determine any such errors; you should check this outbefore you buy the guide.

A main drawback in the book is its organization byoperation, not by family member. It is fragmented byhaving a little bit of material on each command for eachsystem. Sachs jumps from one system to another, whichcan cause confusion. He begins one section with how toboot each system, then explains how to format a disk foreach system, then how to manipulate files, and so on.

This fragmentation forces the reader who wants to getthe full story about an operating system to read the bookfrom cover to cover, but jumping from system to systemforces the reader to skip portions that do not apply tohis CP/M family member.

Conclusions

Sachs uses plain English and simple examples to explainthe operations of each system. Throughout the book areboxes titled "Things That Might Go Wrong"; they explainerror messages and how to recover. Sachs begins theguide simply and moves on to the more complex. It issimilar to taking a programmed book course whereby the

A DIVISION OF OELUXE CHECK PAINTERS INC

76 BYTE • IUNE I985

Inquiry 156

BOOK REVIEWS

user is encouraged to try examples that build on eachother in the learning process.

Because the guide covers the family of CP/M, it is goodfor people who want to use more than one version. Theappendixes are not only well written but prove to be goodreferences for the user who has some familiarity withCP/M. However, Sachs does not explain the CP/M-86assembly language or the 8086 instruction set other thanthe syntax for ASM-86.

Paul W. lowans (2709 South Union St., Spencerport. NY 14559)is an electronics engineering technician at Xerox Corporation inRochester, New York.

COMPUTER ANIMATION PRIMERReviewed by Jeff Campbell

Computer Animation Primer provides the armchair pro-grammer and would-be computer animator with a fas-cinating overview of a technology capable of bringing theillusion of reality to our most abstract imaginings. Fromthe high-tech marvels of Star Wars special effects to BASICprograms to run on your personal computer, David Foxand Mitchell Waite explore how to become involved incomputer animation today.

Fox and Waite begin with a brief history of animation.Antique animation devices with such exotic names asThaumatrope, Phenakistoscope, and Zoetrope almostseemed to anticipate their computerized futures. Thediscussion highlights the major advances by animationpioneers like Walt Disney, Walter Lantz, Max Fleischer, etal. The perspective concludes with an examination of howcomputer animation is used today in the film industry,medical research, sports, education, engineering, adver-tising, and arcade games.

One section extensively describes the basic hardwareused in computer animation. Brief explanations covereverything from the mechanics of creating movement andcolor on a cathode-ray tube to the light pens, digitizingtablets, and joysticks used to create and manipulategraphics images. The authors conclude this section withthe observation that the "trickle-down" effect will continueto allow increasingly sophisticated equipment to becomeavailable to the personal computer user.

In a chapter on computer-animation software and ap-plications. Fox and Waite focus on techniques for defin-ing graphics objects in ways that a computer can under-stand. Some rather complex algorithms come into playwhen images are rotated, translated, and scaled, yet thesediscussions do not bog down. The text is lucid, and theauthors are not above an occasional humorous touch.

Sample Programs

The bulk of the book deals with actual programs foranimating on a personal computer. The authors have

{continued)

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Inquiry 273

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 77

Inquiry 112

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chosen to work with Atari BASIC because they think it hashigh potential for graphics and animation. The programsthemselves are widely adaptable for use on other micro-computers. Fox and Waite provide instructions for creatingcustomized character sets (or making do with the onesyou have) and then animating them. They cover anima-tion loops; with this information you can create gallop-ing horses, a walking man, or an exploding bomb. Move-ment can also be suggested by changes in color. This iscovered in a section on color-register animation.

Separate chapters deal with player-missile graphics,employed in many arcade games, and using machine lan-guage in BASIC programs. The final chapter offers the in-formation necessary to create scrolling backgrounds. Byapplying this knowledge, it's possible to create some veryimpressive animated graphics.

Visual Effects

The layout of this book deserves special mention. Widemargins on the outside of each page not only contributeto an uncluttered page but allow the inclusion of four "flipbook" computer-animation movies. By flipping throughthe upper corners of this book—both forward and back-ward—you can view approximate real-time segments ofthe animation discussed in the book. Fox and Waite useone of the oldest animation techniques to elucidate oneof the newest.

The book also has a 16-page color section. Appendixesinclude a compilation of all program listings reproducedin larger detail, a character-set grid, listing conventions forrepresenting hidden (or invisible) characters, methods forstoring machine-language routines in strings, parameter-table entries for black-box routines, source-code listingsof assembly-language routines, and Atari hardware andshadow registers.

Computer Animation Primer is the book for people whowant action livening up their computer screens.

}eff Campbell (9296 West 98th Place, Broomfield, CO 80020) ispresident of Campbell Photo/Graphics.

THE COMPLETE HOME EDUCATOR:A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDETO MODERN HOME-TEACHINGReviewed by Hunter Holmes Alexander

Many parents despair of the public schools but fewact to set things right. The Complete Home Educator:A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Home^eaching is a step-by-step handbook for teaching youngsters at home. It is alsoa book about the mediocrity of schools and how micro-computers can be used to improve education.

Mario Pagnoni, a teacher for 13 years, decided to leavehis school in order to teach his two sons math, computerskills, writing, spelling, and problem solving at home. He

[continued]

78 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 404

iiS

.<*

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But it's really no surprise that our Cstretches your micro to its limits. Wevrote both the MS-DOS and theKENIX operating systems.

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

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A new utility used to modify the fields in the header according tothe instructions given by the user in the command line.'C Benchmarks—done on a Compaq Plus with 512k memorywith no 8087. Program "SIEVE! with register variables.

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MacCharlie is a product of Dayna Communications,50 S. Main, Salt Lake City, Utah 84144Inquiry 133Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer. !n< Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer. Inc. IBMis a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

Inquiry 251

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used an Apple II + as an aid in instruction.

What tricks did he discover? Pagnoni advises home-schoolers to be the educational consultant for theirchildren rather than the traditional pedagogue. He citestest scores to show that his sons, ages 7 and 10. learnedmore in the year he tutored them at home than in theyears they endured in the traditional school with itsregimentation and instructors who are sometimesunderqualified.

This book is written primarily for parents who want totake their children out of the school system or those whowant to tutor their children after school. But it couldbenefit computerists who don't know about teaching, peo-ple who aspire to teach about computers, and computerbusinesspeople, as well as sociologists, salespeople, politi-cians, and people interested in school-board positions.Mostly it is for parents who know little about computers,as was the case with Pagnoni only a few years ago.

Parent /Child Bond

Pagnoni advises against forcing youngsters to learnsomething the way you learned it. He suggests that home-schoolers write to a private school for its curriculum. Herecommends a list of read-aloud books and encouragesparents and children to read aloud together.

One advantage of home-schooling, Pagnoni says, is thatit strengthens the parent/child bond since the parent andchild spend more time together. Also, teaching will makeparents feel more in charge of their children's education.Children taught at home generally test higher than thosein public schools and have more self-esteem; Pagnoni saysthat students who have been taught at home can get intoHarvard.

The disadvantages of home-instruction include the pos-sibility of failure. Also, children could miss out on somepeer-group experiences, although the author suggestsways to prevent this.

Pagnoni discusses BASIC programming and word pro-cessing for novices. Appendixes cover sources for legalinformation, correspondence courses, and resources forlearning programming. A subject index is included.

The introduction endorsing Pagnoni's work is by lohnHolt, author of Growing Without Schooling and editor of anewsletter on home-schooling.

The Complete Home Educator is entertaining and useful.Pagnoni shows how to put the fun back into schooling.More and more court cases are going in favor of home-schoolers, and "unfriendly" school boards seem to be get-ting poor publicity. Home education is a growing socialmovement and no longer seems as radical as it once did.About 40,000 Americans teach their children at home.Pagnoni's book provides them with a good model forhome education with high technology. ■

Hunter Holmes Alexander (4520 King St. #404, Alexandria, VA22302) is BYTE's Washington correspondent, belongs to theWashington Apple Pi users club, and is a former teacher.

82 BYTE

IUNE 1985

Inquiry 42I

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So take a long, hard look atThe Accounting Solution™ a new,totally integrated software packagefrom Business Tools, Inc™

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enough for the novice hard-noseto use within minutes of receivingthe package. Yet it's also sophisti-cated, offering unlimited flexibilityand opportunity to the hot-shothard-nose. And it's designed torun on CP/M-80, MP/M-80, IBMPC and compatibles'*

stands in the way of progress.Thanks to multi-user capability, twoor more hard-noses can use thesame application at the same time.

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With The Accounting Solution,it's easy to change your mindbecause the source code is sosimple to modify. Ready to grow?Great. You can change hardwareHard-nosed economy, $99.* Multi hard-nose capability. without spending a dime on new

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Inquiry 65

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 83

TAR'S NEW

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4 WAYS TO A

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84 B YTE • IUNE 1985

or a better return on your com-

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Inquiry 387

IUNE 1985

IYTE 85

EVENT QUEUE

June 1985

• C STUDIED

C Language Workshops,various sites throughout theU.S. Workshops and semi-nars on C programming andissues. Contact Plum HallInc.. 1 Spruce Ave.. Cardiff, N)08232. (6091 927-3770. lune

• FIX-IT WORKSHOP

Computer Repair User Work-shops, various sites through-out the U.S. A one-dayseminar on repairing com-puters. The fee ranges fromS140 to $175. dependingupon location. ContactCascio School of ComputerTechnology. Suite B109-Q.2 580 San Ramon ValleyBlvd.. San Ramon, CA94583, (415) 829-5140. lune

• CONFERENCES FORMANUFACTURERS, USERS

Conferences for Manufac-turers and Users from theInstitute for Graphic Com-munication, various sitesthroughout the U.S. Plannedare "Slidemaking with Com-puter Graphics" and "DigitalFacsimile." Contact RichardD. Murray, Institute forGraphic Communication.375 Commonwealth Ave..Boston. MA 02115, (617)267-942 5. lune

• SEMINARS FORMANAGERS. PRO-FESSION A LS-DataproSeminars, various sitesthroughout the U.S. Amongthe topics covered aremicrocomputer communica-tions, telecommunications,and local-area networks.Contact Datapro ResearchCorp.. 1221 Avenue of theAmericas. New York. NY10020. (800) 2 57-9406. lune

• SEMINARS ANDSYMPOSIA—EDP Seminars

and Symposia, various sitesthroughout the U.S. "Data-base Management andFourth Generation Lan-guages for Personal Com-puters" and "Introduction tothe UNIX System" areamong the offerings. Feesrange from $395 to $895.Calendar available. ContactSoftware Institute ofAmerica Inc.. 8 Windsor St..Andover. MA 01810, (617)470-3880. lune

• PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT-lntensiveSeminars for ProfessionalDevelopment, various loca-tions in the Boston metro-politan area. Syracuse. NY.and Saddle Brook, N|, Com-puter, management, andmanufacturing seminars.Catalog available. ContactKathy Shaw. Office of Con-tinuing Education, WorcesterPolytechnic Institute, HigginsHouse. Worcester. MA01609. (617) 793-5517. lune

• MICRO WORKSHOPS

Microcomputer Workshops,various sites throughout theU.S. and Canada. More than20 workshops for all levelsof expertise. ContactRhonda Carney. Intel Corp..Customer Training, 27 In-dustrial Ave,, Chelmsford,MA 01824-3688. (617)256-1374. lune

• HOME, OFFICECOMPUTING-New OldenSpring and Summer Com-puter Workshops. New YorkCity. Introductory and ad-vanced workshops on per-sonal, executive, and

secretarial computing. Feesrange from $45 to $400.depending upon duration.Contact The Olden Com-puter Workshops, 1265Broadway. New York, NY10001, (212) 685-1234.

• SEMINAR, WORKSHOPPersonal Computers and theMainframe Connection; Ad-vanced Applications Tech-niques: Using Lotus 1-2-3Macros and Functions,various sites throughout theU.S. For information onthese seminars, contactData-Tech Institute, LakeviewPlaza, POB 2429, Clifton, N|07015, (201) 478-5400. ]une

• SUMMER SEMINARSSummer Seminar Series,Rochester Institute of Tech-nology, NY. A series of one-week seminars. Titles include"Introduction to Linear Sys-tems and Digital Signal Pro-cessing" and "AdvancedDigital Logic." ContactYvonne Fish, School of Engi-neering Technology.Rochester Institute of Tech-nology. One Lomb MemorialDr., POB 9887, Rochester.NY 14623. (716) 475-2915.lune

• Al, EXPERT SYSTEMSBRIEFING—Artificial Intelli-gence and Expert Systems:What Users and SuppliersMust Know Today to DeployThese Technologies as Pro-fitable Strategic CorporateResources Tomorrow. Bostonand Framingham, MA Aone-day executive briefing.The fee is $790. Contact Ms.

IF YOU WANT your organization's public activities listed in BYTE's EventQueue, we need to know about them at least four months in advance. Sendinformation about computer conferences, seminars, workshops, and coursesto BYTE, Event Queue, POB 372. Hancock. NH 03449.

Lee Burgess. ProfessionalDevelopment Programs.Rensselaer Polytechnic In-stitute. Troy Building. Troy.NY 12180-3590, (518)266-6589. lune-lulu

• DATA SWITCHING

Distributed Data SwitchingSeminar, various sitesthroughout the U.S. A one-day seminar on the tech-nology and application ofdistributed data switching intelecommunications. The feeis $395. Contact TimeplexSeminars. 400 ChestnutRidge Rd.. Woodcliff. N|07675. (201) 930-4600.lune-luly

• INFO MANAGEMENT

SEMINARS-NYU Seminarson Information Manage-ment, various sites through-out the U.S. On the agendaare "Legal Issues in Acquir-ing and Using Computersand "Networking PersonalComputers." Contact Schoolof Continuing Education.Seminar Center, New YorkUniversity, 575 MadisonAve.. New York. NY 10022.(212) 580-5200. lune-lulu

• CAD COURSE

Computer-Aided Design. Col-orado State University, FortCollins. Three one-weekcourses with participantsusing a high-performancedynamic graphics machine.The fee is $800. ContactProfessor Gearold lohnson.Center for Computer-Assisted Engineering, Col-orado State University, FortCollins, CO 80523, (303)491-5543. lune-August

• ENGINEERING CON-FERENCES—EngineeringSummer Conferences,

[continued)

86 BYTE' IUNE IWi

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Checks—allow 14 days to clear Credit processing—add 3%. COD orders—cash,MO or certified check—add $3.00. Shipping and handling UPS surface—add $3 00per item (UPS Blue $6.00 per item). NY State Residents—add applicable sales taxAll prices subject to change.

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Softline CorporationP.O. Box 729, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230TELEX: 421047 ATLN Ul

IUNE I985 • BYTE

87

Inquiry 368

ELEPHANT II SPR 2800

$399.00 U.S.

(F.O.B. Edmonton, Canada)

LOW COST PROM PROGRAMMING

• Use with Printers, Video Displays. Personal Computers. MainFrame Computers.

• Base price includes CSA UL approved wall adaptor. 8K RAM,2716/2516. 2732.2732A. 2764 EPROM Personality Modules.

• Purchase Personality Kits for the 2532, 2564, 2764A, 27128,27128A,27256

• RS232 Interface to View. Upload, Download. Modify, Examine,etc

• Extremely easy to use. no complicated key sequences

• In Stand Alone mode copy, verify and check for all locationserased A proven product, successorto the Elephant I. SPR 2700(for 2708. 2716. 2732).

• Accept VISA or Money Order

• Distributor Inquiries Welcome.

SHERREX SYSTEMS LIMITED

4196 - 93 Street, Edmonton, Alberta Canada.T6E 5P5, (403) 462-4085

$995

■ll'""!!! MAX. IBM® AT/PClllllll) COMPATIBILITY PC-2001*

111111111 ■ Mads In USA COMPLETE SYSTEM

*OEM BASIC System $555 (Minimum Order 10 Units)

*P( -2001 Complete System $995 (Dealers at Quantity 2)

*X 1-2001 10 MB Complete System $1695 (Dealers at Quantity 2)•AT-7000 Call For Evaluation Unit $ (Approx. $2000 Off IBM Pricing)

PC-2001 Partial Feature*: (Dealers Please Call For Details)• Multi-layered Mother Board • RAM Memory Upgradable to 640K • K-8400 orK-9600 Keyboard • TEAC Drive & Controller • 2 Serial 4 1 Parallel Pons • RunsLotus 1-2-3, Symphony, Flight Simulator and thousands more

*DEALER INQUIRIESINVITED

PLEASE CALL FORDEALERS NEARESTYOU

fc

Other OEM Accessories:•20 MB HARD DISK*TAPE BACK UP*8 SLOT MOTHER BOARD•AT-7000 MOTHER BOARD

EVENT QUEUE

Chrysler Center for Continu-ing Engineering Education.University of Michigan. AnnArbor. Conferences in suchareas as biomedical,chemical, civil, computer,electrical, and environmentalengineering. Contact Engi-neering Summer Con-ferences. 200 ChryslerCenter, North Campus, Uni-versity of Michigan. AnnArbor. Ml 48109. (313)764-8490. ]une-August

• COMPUTER SHORTCOURSES-The FifteenthAnnual Institute in ComputerScience, University ofCalifornia, Santa Cruz.Among the offerings are"Relational Database Man-agement," "Data Storage,"and "Computer-Aided Geo-metric Design." Contact SallyThomas, University ofCalifornia Extension. SantaCruz, CA 95064, (408)429-4534. ]une-August

• SOFTWARE COURSES

Software Short Courses,various sites throughout theU.S. Among the courses are"UNIX: A Hands-on Intro-duction," "Programming inC: A Hands-on Workshop,"and "Software Requirements.Specifications, and Tests."Contact Integrated ComputerSystems, 6305 ArizonaPlace, POB 45405. LosAngeles, CA 90045. (800)421-8166; in California, (800)352-8251 or (213) 417-8888;in Canada. (800) 228-6799.\une-August

• DEVELOPMENT

SEMINARS—ProfessionalDevelopment Seminars,various sites around Boston,MA. A brochure describingone- and two-day seminarson computer competence,management, sales, andfinance is available. ContactBoston University Metro-politan College, 73 5 Com-monwealth Ave., Boston, MA02215. (800) 255-1080; inMassachusetts, (617)738-5020. June-September

• SME CONFERENCES,

EXPOS—Conferences andExpositions from the Societyof Manufacturing Engineers,various sites throughout theU.S. For a calendar, contactthe Society of ManufacturingEngineers, Public RelationsDepartment, One SME Dr.,POB 930, Dearborn. Ml48121, (313) 271-0777.]une-November

• SNA SEMINAR

IBM's Systems NetworkArchitecture (SNA) Seminar,various sites throughout theU.S. Covers such topics aslocal-area networks, SNAdistribution services, andpersonal computer connec-tions. Contact Communica-tions Solutions Inc., 992South Saratoga-SunnyvaleRd.. San lose, CA 95129,(408) 72 5-1568. )une-December

• PICK EDUCATION

Pick System EducationalSeries, various sites through-out the U.S. and Europe.Seminars and workshops onthe Pick operating system.Contact |ES & AssociatesInc.. POB 192 74, Irvine, CA92714, (714) 786-2211.}une-December

• MUMPS MEETINGThe Fourteenth AnnualMeeting of the MUMPSUsers' Group, McCormickCenter Hotel, Chicago, IL.Tutorials, workshops, sitevisits, discussions, and ex-hibits. Contact MUMPSUsers' Group, Suite 510,4321 Hartwick Rd.. CollegePark. MD 20740, (301)779-6555. ]une 10-14

• ROBOTIC STRATEGIES

Robot Manipulators, Com-puter Vision, and IntelligentRobot Systems, University ofStirling, Stirling, Scotland.The emphasis is on develop-ing strategies for solvingrobotic-sensing, spatial-reasoning, and manipulationproblems. Contact Directorof Summer Session, Room

[continued)

88 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 434 for End-Users.Inquiry 435 for DEALERS ONLY.

&■

em

*im

AT Power/XT Prices

Our new Zorro AT systems give you: on 00206 CPU operating at a quick 6 Mz.. eighrexpansion slots, o clock/calendar with battery backup, o 1.2 Megabyte 5 1 /4" floppy disk drive,and I0M-AT compatibility.

Zorro AT's also include options rhot would cosr you almost 11000 from IBM: a 360K drive toqlve you PC/XT media compatibility, a copy of DOS 3.0 to get you starred and o full 512K of iRAM on the main board.

Zorro AT-20's feature a 20 Mb. Winchester drive from NEC. and you still hove room to add ofourth drive or tape backup.

To be quire frank, we believe our Zorro AT's ore built better, and we back each system with o Ilimited warranty for a full year. Our quality and features invite comparison, our prices speak for Irhemselves.

Zorro ATZorro AT-20

J2695 |S3695 .

The Silver Fox TrotsThrough Lotus Like 1,2,3

The Silver Fox is not IDM-PC compatible yet it runs hundreds of MS-DOS programs includingLotus 1,2.3, dDASE II. Mulriplan. and even Right Simulator.

The Silver Fox does nor have IBM compatible expansion slots but you can economically addpnnters, serial pons, modems 10-40 Mb. hard disks, clock/colendar cards. RAM, joysticks, on0007 co-processor, and more.

What makes the Silver Fox unique, however, isn't what you can add to it, but what comeswith it. Each Silver Fox comes with on 0000 CPU. 256K of RAM. tout video ports, and a prinrerport. Plus you get more rhan twice the storage of a standard PC. 1.6 Megabytes on dual 5 1/4"floppys. and the Fox will read and write to standard 160K, 320K, ond 360K IDM-PC formats.

Standard equipment also includes o better keyboard, o 12" high resolution monitor with ofull 25x00 display, ond we bock eoch 5ilver Fox wirh a one year limited warranty.

Were this not enough each Silver Fox comes wirh the best free software bundle in thebusiness including: MS-DOS 2.11/HA6EN-DOS 2.11 DOS Tutor, Wordstar 3.3. Eosy Writer, SpellMoil Trock. PC File III. FILEDASE, ColcStor. gomes, graphics, utilities, and two BASIC longuoges.

Because computer sales usually slow down during the summer we've given you on extraincentive to buy o fox by lowering our prices. If you wont to get the most for your computerdollar, call our machine ot 1 -600-FORAFOX. leave your name ond address or the beep andwe'll send you a Silver Fox booklet that will rell you how ii can.

Silver Fox $1297

Color Fox $1497

Altos

High<performonce Xenix-based multi-user systems fromlAltos-world leaders in multi-user systems and applications(software.

As port of TRW s marketing support group we con hove your

■ Altos system installed on your site (additional charge).

Altos systems ore eosy to expand, ond wirh shared primers

■ and hard disks ore cost competitive wirh multiple single user

■ systems. Call for additional pricing and availability.

1466-20 (4539

1566-40 $7249

|966-40 $8629

WtosAcc'f $2779

PRINTERS

Now!

I EpsonFX-BO "$5*0180 off

LX-80 ~»4«$100off

Okidoto 92 S»W $ 12 5 off

Okidoto 93 $»« $210 off

Okidoto 84 Coll

SrarSG-10 $239

StarSR-15 $599

Panasonic 1091 $298

Toshibo 1340 $579

| Toshiba 351 $1319

LETTER QUALITY

I Powerrype $299

Juki 6100 $399

Juki 6300 $719

Silver Reed 500 $299

Silver Reed 550 $409

Silver Reed 770 $724

Diablo Call

NEC Coll

| Daisvwriter 2000 $824

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS

DMP-29 $1795

DMP-40 $745

DMP-41 $2340| other models Call

I The Bernoulli Box:

■ Hard disk capacity and performance

■ Removable cartridge economy ond convenience I

■ Cartridge convenience ■ Flexible disk economy I

■ Winchester capacity ■ Unparalleled reliability IJ10 Mb S1639I

20 MD J2529I

l5Mb./Moc $13791

Columbia 4220 or 2220

Fox Jr

$899

call for details

S1698

\ /

I ScottsdaIe Sysfems w.

| 617 N. Scorrsdale Road, Suire D, Scorrsdale, Arizona 85257

~(602)941-5856E

^ Call 8-5 Mon.-Fri.

W^^ We participate in arbitration for business and customers through rhe DerrerBusiness Bureau of Maricopa County.

SINCE 1980

TELEMARKETING ONLY: If you plan to stop by please phone ohead. Prices listed ore forcash. P.O.'s from Fortune 1200 companies and universities wirh good credit odd 2% /Mastercard and Visa odd 3% / Arizona residents add 6% sales tax / Shipping extra / Allitems ore new wirh manufacturers warranty / Returned merchandise subject to 20%restocking fee / Personol or compony checks rake up to 3 weeks ro clear / No COD s orI APO's. Trademarks: Silver Fox. HAGEN-DOS. and Zorro AT, Scorrsdale Systems. Ltd.:Wordstar ond ColcStor. Micropro International.- MS-DOS. and Mulriplan. Microsoft Corporation:FILEDASE EWDP Software. Inc.. dBASE II. AshtonTate: IBM-PC IBM-PC DOS, and IBMATInternational Business Machines.

WYSE50S

$449

1200 BPS Modems

Volksmodem 12 S199 I

Password $209

Prometheus $315

Hayes 300/1200 &429J

O OLYMPIA

To LQ or IMLQThat is the Question

Whether lis nobler to zip along or 165CPS in draft mode ond use on incredible17x17 NLQ mode for letters, or producelerrer perfecr output ■ Olympia gives you ochoice.

Compare rhe Olympia NP ro the popularEpson FX-60 or rhe Okidara 92 The NP isslightly faster, noticeably quierer andincludes push-type rroctors (and frictionfeed) as standard equipmenr.

Dur rhe NP's really big feature is its finescripr mode which is superior to rhe Okidoto92. ond even better than on FX-60* wirh aS199 "NLQ" oprion.Toquore PC magazineThe (NP) primer is a sure rhing if ir falls intoyour price range and even il a doesn r

If you're looking for the best buy in afrue lener-quolity prinrer (like rhe SilverReed 550 or the Juki 6100) the OlympiaRO is for you. The RO is a 14 CPS. wide-carriage rhar comes wirh both friction ondtractor feed serio' ond parallel pons, ondquality that has made Olympia o wortdleader in rypewrirers.

To IQ or NLQ is up to you. the price loreither rhe Olympia RO or the NP with a 10'shielded cable ro your computer is only:

$344

IUNE !985 'BYTE 89

ADVERTISEMENT

New C Books from Plum Hall

The business of Plum Hall is C Language: trainingcourses, video-tape presentations, and authoritativebooks. We are introducing two new advancedbooks: Efficient C, and Reliable Data Structures inC.

Efficient C (Thomas Plum and Jim Brodie, 1985)provides a small suite of C functions into which thereader can "plug in" any C statement and deter-mine how many microseconds of CPU time it takesto execute. Expanding upon this technique, thebook presents tables of CPU time and code spacefor C operators, control structures, and functioncalls. These allow the reader to make fairly accu-rate estimates of the resources that a program willtake, without resorting to assembler listings. Thebook discusses optimization techniques performedautomatically by several compilers, as well as thosetechniques which can be effectively used by theprogrammer.

Plum and Brodie are respectively Vice-Chair andChair of the ANSI committee X3J11 which is stan-dardizing C language.

Reliable Data Structures in C (Thomas Plum, 1985)describes techniques for a "no surprises" usage ofpointers, structures, and files. Standard data struc-ture techniques like stacks, queues, and trees arepresented using reliability techniques, along with acomplete menu-and-forms screen generator.Relevant information about the draft ANSI stan-dard for C is presented to allow programmers towrite compatibly with existing and forthcomingcompiler and interpreter environments.

Two other well-received books from Plum Hall:

Learning to Program in C (Thomas Plum, 1983)presents the fundamentals of C. Presupposing onlyan acquaintance with computers, it covers C upthrough the basics of pointers and structures.C Programming Guidelines (Thomas Plum, 1984)provides a style standard for projects working in Clanguage. Arranged in "manual-page" referenceformat, it gives rules for using variables, data types,operators, expressions, statements, functions, files,libraries, and documentation.

Each book is $25.00 (plus 6% within NJ), $30.00outside USA (airmail). We ship within two dayswhen ordered by phone or mail with credit card,purchase order, or check. Plum Hall Inc also pro-vides introductory and advanced training in C,both at public courses and in-house. Please call orwrite for our public course schedule and inhousecourse details.

Plum Hall Inc

1 Spruce AvCardiff NJ 08232609-927-3770

EVENT QUEUE

E19-3 56. MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.Cambridge. MA 02139)une 10-14

• CARACAS EXPO

The First International Com-munications and ComputerExhibition and TechnicalConference: VenCom '85,Caracas Hilton Hotel.Caracas. Venezuela. ContactVenCom '85. Suite 219, 3421M St. NW, Washington. DC20007. (703) 685-0600.June 11-14

• UNIX, C CONFERENCEUSENIX Conference andVendor Exhibition. MarriottHotel, Portland, OR USENIXis a nonprofit organizationpromoting UNIX. UNIX-likesystems, and C-languageprogramming ContactUSENIX Conference Office.POB 385. Sunset Beach. CA90742. (213) 592-3243.

lime 11-14

• NETWORK CONTROLAND MANAGEMENT-Net-work Management/TechnicalControl, Santa Clara Mar-riott. Santa Clara. CA.Diagnostic and test instru-ments will be displayed.Contact Louise Myerow. CWConference ManagementGroup. 375 Cochituate Rd..POB 880, Framingham, MA01701, (800) 225-4698: inMassachusetts, (617)879-0700. ]une 12-13

• COMPUTERS INCLINICAL LABS-ClinicalLaboratory Computers: Sym-posium 1985. The TowsleyCenter. University ofMichigan. Ann Arbor. Con-tact Dove Margenau. Officeof Continuing MedicalEducation. The TowsleyCenter, Box 057. Universityof Michigan Medical School.Ann Arbor. Ml 48109-0010,(313| 763-1400. ]une 12-14

• CLINICAL COMPUTING

Computing in ClinicalLaboratories: The Fifth Inter-national Conference, Stutt-

gart. Federal Republic ofGermany. Topics includedatabases, data presenta-tion, and expected develop-ments. Demonstrations andexhibits. Contact PD Dr. Chr.Trendelenburg. Katharinen-hospital KCI. Kriegsberg-strasse 60. D-7000 Stuttgart1. Federal Republic of Ger-many: tel: (07 11) 20 34-4 82.\une 12-14

• INFO MANAGEMENTINFO/West: The Western In-formation Management Ex-position and Conference.Convention Center. Ana-heim. CA. Trade show forexecutives and data-processing and manage-ment-information systemmanagers. Contact INFO/West. 999 Summer St. Stam-ford, CT 06905, (203)964-8287. ]une 12-14

• FORTH CONFERENCE

The 1985 Rochester FORTHConference. University ofRochester, Rochester. NY.The focus will be on soft-ware engineering and man-agement. Contact Ms. MariaGress. Institute for AppliedFORTH Research. 70 Elm-wood Ave., Rochester, NY14611. (716) 235-0168.]UM 12-15

• ELECTRONICPUBLISHING

Pages That Fly, New YorkUniversity. New York. Ses-sions of interest to telecom-munications experts, pub-lishers, and corporate andeducational professionals.Contact Arlene Krebs. NewYork University. 51 PressBuilding. New York. NY10003, (212) 598-3993.\une 13-14

• LOGICAL MACHINES

The Second Annual Con-ference on Logic. LogicMachines, and Public Educa-tion. University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, TX.Formal and informal ses-sions, symposia, and work-

[conimued]

90

BYTt • IUNE !V85

Inquiry 328

I a I a I m

i

i A system that keepsyour private computer filesfrom becoming public.

*r

flJEbt Bail? Ojronitlt

mini mis ft

MET RUES STOLENPHON\ PHONE CALL

GTX-100. Computer securityso advanced, it could evenkeep secrets from Mata Hari.

Does your computer talk tostrangers? Before you answerno, remember, today's com-puter intruders are very skillful.

In fact, even a famous spylike Mata Hari would be hardpressed to match their inven-tiveness. With one deft phonecall, these electronic trespasserscan tamper with such secretitems as privileged customerreports, confidential corres-pondence, and marketingintelligence.

Inquiry 252

Data thieves can steal infor-mation like that. Or erase it.Or alter it to their advantage.

That's why your computerneeds the protection ofGTX-100. It's a new kind ofsecurity subsystem developedfrom Lockheed's years ofexperience with high tech-nology and strict security.

GTX-100 puts an electronicwall around your sensitivecomputer files and keeps yourprivate data private.

Use the coupon to get aGTX-100 brochure plus thename of your nearest salesoffice. They'll show you howGTX-100 can guard yoursecrets the next time a strangercomes calling.

0 Lockheed-GETEX 1985

Mail to:

Lockheed-GETEX, Suite 945,1100 Circle 75 Parkway, Atlanta,GA 30339. (404)951-0878.

Please send me:

□ GTX-100 brochure.

□ The name of my nearest salesoffice.

NameTitle

Company Name

Address

City State Zip

-^Lockheed-GETEX

m Giving shape to imagination.

I IUNE 1985 -BYTE 91

I

THE CMO ADVANTAGE HOME COMPUTERS PORTABLE COMPUTERS

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We will meet or beat anyqualified price you find.

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APPLE

APPLE lie CALL

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MaclNTOSH CALL

lie LCD Display CALL

A ATARI

65XE (64K) g«t

130XE [128K) C*^

130ST (128K) *?C**

S20ST (512K) ?*

ATARI 600XL CLOSEOUT$49.99

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

800XL 64K CALL

850 Interface $109.00

1010 Recorder $49.99

1020 Color Printer $79.99

1025 Dot Matrix Printer $199.99

1027 Letter Quality Printer $269.99

1030 Direct Connect Modem $69.99

1050 Disk Drive $179.99

Touch Tablet $64.99

7097 Atari Logo $74.99

4018 Pilot (Home) $57.99

5049 VisiCalc $59.99

4011 Star Raiders $12.99

4022 PacMan $16.99

BOARDS FOR ATARI

Axlon 32K $39.99

Axlon 48K (400) $69.99

Axlon 128K $269.99

Microbits 64K (600) $109.00

Bit 3 Full View 80 $229.00

£s commodoreNEWCommodore 128, LCD..CALL

SX-64 Portable $499.00

Commodore Plus 4 $199.00

CBM 64 $149.00

C1541 Disk Drive $199.00

C1530 Datasette $39.99

M-801 Dot Matrix Printer $189.00

M-802 Dot Matrix/Serial $219.00

MCS 803 Dot Matrix $179.00

C1802 Color Monitor $199.00

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Professional Software

Fleet System II w/Spell-- $49.99

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8250 Disk Drive $1249.00

4023 Printer $329.00

8023 Printer $589.00

6400 Printer CALL

Z-RAM $299.00

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Professional Software

Word Pro 4 Plus/5 Plus each...$239 00

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HP 71B $419.99

HP 11C $62.99

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We stock the full line ofHP calculator products

NEC

PC-8401 $749.00

PC-8201 Portable Computer...$289.00

PC-8231 Disk Drive $599.00

PC-8221A Thermal Printers $149.00

PC-8281A Data Recorder $99.99

PC-8201-06 8K RAM Chips $105.00

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EVEREX

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IDEAssociatts

5 meg Removable/Internal $1399.00

10 meg Fixed/Internal $1249 00

15 meg 5 Removable/10 Fixed$2149.0025 meg 5 Removable/20 Fixed$2499.00

[■M=CA-

10 meg Bernoulli Box $2149,00

20 meg Bernoulli Box $2699.00

5 meg "MacNoulli" $159900

Mm Sana

10 meg Internal $699.00

TALLORASS

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COMMITTED TO MEMOev

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FLOPPY

INDUS

Apple GT $209.00

Atari GT $249.00

C-64 GT $259.00

A1.5 Apple $199.00

A2 Apple $199.00

5K£J

SD1 C-64 Single $269.00

SD2 C-64 Dual $469.00

mm Ran*

Rana 1000 (Atari) $199.00

Elite 1 (Apple) $189.00

landon

320K 5V«" (PC) $129.00

Pump

320K 5'A" $109.00

MODEMS

aWNCHOR

Volksmodem $59.99

Volksmodem XII $189.99

Mark IL Serial $79.99

Mark VII (Auto Ans/Auto Dial)....$99.99Mark XII (1200 Baud) $259.00

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Smarimodem 300 $145.00

Smartmodem 1200 $389.00

Smartmodem 1200B $359.00

Smartmodem 2400 $699.00

Micromodem lie $249.00

Smart Com II $89.99

Chronograph $199.00

Reach 1200 Baud Half Card ...$399.00

mpp miCROBITS

MPP-1000E AD/AA (Atari) $79.99

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Smart Cat Plus $319.00

Smart Cat 103 $169.00

Smart Cat 103/212 $369.00

Novation 2400 CALL

212 AutoCat II $499.00

Apple Cat II $229.00

212 Apple Cat II $379,00

Apple Cat 212 Upgrade $229.00

Macmodem $319.00

TELELEARNINO

C64 300 Baud $49.99

ZT-1 fT.'...... $339.00

ZT-10 $309.00

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Z-22 Video Data Terminal $529.00

maxell

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30 Disk Tub 3VJ" 8.99

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Apple/Franklin $79.99

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monitor;

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300 Amber $139.00

310 Amber IBM-Plug $169.00

300 Color/Audio $239.00

Color 500 Composite/RGB $389 00

Color 600 Hi-Res (640x240) $399 00

Color 700 Hi-Res (720x240) $499 00

Color 710 Long Phosphor $579.00

12" Amber/Green Composite $99.99

12" Amber/Green TTL (ea.) $119.00

NEC

JB 1260 Green $79.99

JB 1201/1205 Green $129.00

JB 1280 G TTL (ea.) $149.00

JB 1285 A TTL $149.00

JC 1215 Color $229.00

JC 1216 RGB $379.00

JC 1460 Color $269 00

JC 1410 RGB $669 00

PRINCETON

MAX-12 Amber $189.00

HX-12 RGB $469.00

SR-12 RGB ' '9.00

Scan Doubler Board $199.00

* UUA\

115 12" Green Mono $99.99

116 12" Amber Mono $99.99

121 Green TTL $139.00

122 Amber TTL $149.00

210 Color RGB $239.00

400 Med-Res RGB $299.00

410 Hi-Res RGB $339.00

420 Hi-Res RGB (IBM) $429.00

440 Ultra Hi-Res RGB $589.00

QUADRAM^

8400 Quadchrome $479.00

8410 Quadchrome II $469 00

8420 Amberchrome $179.00

ZVM 122/123 $89.99

ZVM 124 IBM Amber $149.00

ZVM 130 Color $279.00

ZVM 131 Color $299.00

ZVM 133 RGB $429.00

ZVM 135 RGB/Color $459.00

ZVM 136 RGB/Color $599.00

Graphcard ~. $79 99

Seriall Card $99.99

Microbuffer II -f $169.00

Microbuffer 32K $189.00

QUADRAM^

Microfazer from $139 00

Efazer (Epson) from $79.99

J^Orange micro

Grappler CD (C64) $99 99

Grappler + (Apple) $89.99

Grappler 16K + (Apple) $159.00

DIGITAL DEVICES

Ape Face (Atari) $49.99

U-Prinl A (Atari) $54.99

U-A16/Buffer (Atari) $74.99

U-Call Interface (Atari) $39 99

U-Print C (C64) $49.99

P-16 Print Buffer $74.99

mpp miCROBITS

MB1150 Parallel (Atari) $79.99

MPP-1150 Parallel (Atari) $69.99

MP-1150XL (Atari 1200XL) $69.99

MicroStutfer 64K Print Buffer..$109.00

AT-100 Atari Interface Printer. $159.00

AT-550 Atari Dual Mode $259 00

GP-100 Parallel Interface $189.00

GP-700 Atari Color Printer $489 00

GP-550 Parallel Printer $269.00

^CITIZEN

MSP-10 (80 col) $349.00

MSP-15 (132 col) $53900

MSP-20 (80 col.) $569.00

MSP-25 (132 col.) $729.00

citoh

Prowriter 7500 $219.00

Prownter 8510P $299.00

Prowriter 1550P $469 00

Son of Starwnter A10P $459.00

F10-40P Starwnter $869 00

F10-55 Pnntmaster $1049.00

ComWnterll Letter Quality $399.00

DIABLO

D25..

$59900

corona

Lazer LP-300 $2799.00

d#isywriter

2000 $749.00

EPSON

RX-80, FX-80 + , LX-80. JX-80 CALL

FX-100+. RX-100, LQ1500 CALL

Homewnter 10 CALL

JUKI

6100 Letter Quality $399.00

6300 Letter Quality $719.00

SEC

8027 Transportable $299.00

2000 Series $699.00

3000 Series $1099.00

8000 Series $1499 00

ELF 360 $449.00

PR103A - Trimode $289.00

LQ15 - Near Letter $359 00

8025 - Wide Carriage $469.00

OKILWA

83. 84, 92. 93. 182, 192, 193

2410. Okimate-20 CALL

Okimate 10 (Specify C64/Atari)$199.00

OLYMPIA

Needlepoint Dot Matrix $329.00

Compact RO $339.00

Compact 2 $369.00

Panasonic

KX1090 $199.00

KX1091 $279.00

KX1092 $409.00

KX1093 $599 00

QUADRAN^Quadiel $749.00

JSILYFrR-ReeO

400 Letter Quality $279.00

500 Letter Quality $299.00

550 Letter Quality 5429.00

770 Letter Quality $779.00

SG10 (120 cps) $239 00

SG15 (120 cps) $399 00

SD10 (160 cps) $359.00

SD15 (160 cps) $479.00

SR10 (200 cps) $499.00

SR15 (200 cps) $639.00

Powertype Letter Quality $319.00

SB10 (NEW) CALL

TOSHIBA

1340 (80 column) $599.00

1351 (132 column) $1199.00

P351 $1299.00

PC-150 Desktop CALL

PC-160 Portable CALL

2220 Dual Portable $1999.00

4220 Dual Desktop $199900

@SANYO

MBC 550-2 Single Drive $699.00

MBC 555-2 Dual Drive $96900

MBC 775 Portable CALL

MBC 511 10 meg CALL

Safari CALL

6300 CALL

corona

PPC22 Dual Portable $1599.00

PPCXTA 10 meg Portable $2799 00PC40022 Dual Desktop $2199.00

• Lotus

Symphony $429.00

1-2-3 $299.00

rirassa

^ JJ I., H'iH.'J

PeachPack (GL/AP/AR) $199.00

III MicroPro

WordStar 2000 $249.00

WordStar 2000+ $31900

M.'.'frWM

RBase 4000 $249.00

Clout 2.0 $129 00

MultiMate

Multi Mate $249.00

. $89.99

Crosstalk

MCflOSOFt

Flight Simulator $39.99

MultiPlan $129.00

.•\SHTON-TATEH

Framework $349.00

dBASE II $299.00

dBASE III $369.00

Professional Software

PC Plus/The Boss $249.00

synapse

File Manager (IBM) $39.99

HbfctU.KCTRUNIC ARTS"

Get Organized $69.99

Cut -n- Paste $39.99

Music Construction $29.99

One -on- One $29.99

Financial Cookbook $34.99

$ ALPHA

Electronic Desk $199 00

BBOMMOINfERNAtlONAt

Turbo Pascal $39.99

Sidekick $39.99

SPI

Open Access $379.00

& I larvurtl Software Inc.

Harvard Proiect Manager $209.00

Total Proiect Manager $269.00

ifc

IBM/APPLE

Access (NEW) $79.99

Write/Graph/File/Plan (ea.) $79.99

Report $74.99

Proof $59.99

Mac Software CALL

SSI SoftwareWord Perfect $239 00

Human Edge™

Communication Edge $99.99

Management Edge $119.00

Negotiation Edge $139.00

Sales Edge $119.00

SOFTWARE GROUP

Enable $549 00

THOUGHTWARE

Trigger $289.00

Sell. Sell. Sell

Training $299.00

Application $179.00

Inquiry I06

IBM PC SYSTEMS

Configured to your

specifications.Call for Best Price!

IBM-PC

IBM-PC IIIBM-XT

IBM-AT

SEC

PC-8800 System

NEC - 8800 CPUNEC - 8831 Dual DrivesNEC - 1460 RGB MonitorNEC - 15LQ Printer

$1499.00

AST

Six Pack Plus $239.00

Mega Plus II $269.00

I/O Plus II $139.00

Memory MBII $249.00

Advantage-AT $399.00

Preview Monograph $299.00

Graph Pak Mono/64K $599.00

MonoGraph Plus $399.00

5251/11 $799.00

5251/12 $579.00

3780 $639 00

BSC $499.00

dcci

IRMA 3270 $899.00

IRMA Print $999.00

EaGLE

Color $199.00

Mono $149.00

EVEREX

Color Card (Graphics Edge) $299.00

Magic Card $199.00

HERCULES

Graphics $319 00

Color $169 00

HOdMB

IDEAmax - ZPR, 64K. C. S. P.$229.00

IDEAmmi - YPR. C. S. P $189.00

IDEAminimax - MPR 128K $229.00

IDEAshare Software $219.00

IDEA 5251 $699.00

MYLEX

The Chairman $489.00

PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card $279.00

Multi Display Card $299.00

Five Pack C. S $159.00

PLANTRONICS

Color Plus $369.00

Ut V • ^BIMB

Captain - 64 $239.00

Captain Jr. 128K $339.00

Graphics Master $469.00

QUADKAM^

Quadboard II $229.00

Expanded Quadboard $239.00

Quad 512 + $249.00

Quad 2 Meg 5879.00

Memory Board $229 00

QuadJr Exp. Chassis S539 00

Quadjr Exp. Memory $219.00

QuadMemJr 5229.00

Chronograph $89.99

Parallel Card $69.99

Quadcolor I $219.00

Quadgraph $379.00

KEYBOARDS

Keytronics Keyboards 5150. 5151,

5151 Jr. 5149 Jr CALL

MEMORY CHIPS

4164 RAM Chips (ea.)$2.39

s=

W3

tlM

I KJJ

■fc^l

Inquiry 293

No More WAITing with

8087 SPEED forLOTUS 1-2-3"

FASTBREAK speeds up 1 -2-3 recalculations by up to 36 to 1 on a4.77 MHz PC and by 79 to 1 on a NUMBER SMASHER equippedPC. It extends DOS functionality to include the 8087 and comeswith a daughterboard which fits into the 8087 socket, an 8087, abreak button and the necessary software. A number of additionalfeatures are invoked through its novel break button. These enablethe user to lock out the keyboard, exchange information with pro-grams written in BASIC, FORTRAN or C that are running concur-rently, spool LOTUS output to a printer and install a single protectedcopy of 1 -2-3 and FASTBREAK on your hard disk An optional LOCKBOX makes it possible to RESET your PC and remove the breakbutton from the computer $339 LOCK BOX $60

See our full page ads elsewhere in this issuefor other MicroWay products including:

8087 5MHz $109

64K RAM Set $12

256K HMOS RAM Set $72

256K CMOS RAM Set $1 35

Contact MicroWay, Inc. or your localMicroWay* Installation Center to order.

Lotus and 1-2-3 are trademarks of Lotus Development Corp. MicroWay,FASTBREAK and NUMBER SMASHER are trademarks of MicroWay. Inc.

MicroWay

PO Box 79Kingston, Mass02364 USA(617) 746-7341

The World Leaderin 8087Support!

COMPETITIVE EDGE

P.O. Box 556 — Plymouth, Ml 48170 — 313^51-0665Compupro", LOMAS, EARTH, TELETEK, Macrotech

S-100 CIRCUIT BOARDS

CompuPro 286 CPU"

$750

Lomas286

$621

Macrotech 286 Z80H

$795

CompuPro SPU Z '" 8MHZ

261

Lomas 8086

420

Lomas 10MHz 8086

520

CompuPro8085 88

245

Lomas Octaport 8 Sena

320

Lomas 4 serial

200

CompuPro Disk 1A '

347

Lomas LDP ' 72

206

Macrotech 256K Dram

499

CompuPro Disk 3

417

Lomas 256K Dram

556

Macrotech 512K Dram

799

CompuPro Ram 22

850

Lomas 512K Dram

821

Macrotech 512K static

1595

CompuPro Ram 23

277

Lomas Ram 67 "

725

Macrotech 256K static

795

CompuPro Ram23 128

487

Lomas Hazilall

244

Lomas Color Magic " 16K

476

CompuProCPUZ"

189

Thunder 186"

1095.

Lomas MSDOS"2.11

200

CompuProCCP M-816'

250

Lomas CCPM "86"

280.

CompuPro MDrive H*512K

495

System Support One '

245

CompuProl 04

.m-::

CompuPro I/O38port

459

Teletek HD

375

Teletek SBC 1

525,

Teletek SBC 16MHz 128

699.

Teletek Systemaster"

557

Systemaster II'

899

Turbodos" lor Teletek

650

Lomas 2 Megabyte Ram-(2048K) ,ust $1595

Earth ComputerTURBO SLAVE 18MHz 128K $395.

Turbo Slave I runs with Teletek, North Star Horizon, Advanced Digital and Others

SYSTEMS

CompuPro 85 88.256K.CDOS, SSl.l O 4.2-96TPI DRS, 10 SlolCompuPro 85 88,256K.CDOS. SSUO 4.1-96TPI.20MB. 10 Slot286Z80H.1024K Static. CDOS, SS1.I O 4.1-96TPI.40MB. 10 SlotM-Dnve-H Option $495 per 512K or $1795 per 2048K eachLomas 286,1024K.20MB HD. 1-5".CDOS. 6 SERIAL, 2 Par, 10 SlotLomas Thunder 186. 256K, 20 MB HD. 1-5", CDOS, 4 SlotTeletek 8MHz Master, 4-8MHz 128K SLVS 1-5 . 20 MB HD, TDOS

UPGRADE YOUR IBMR PC !!

MONITORS

Amdex310ATaxan Color 440Princeton Color HR-12Princeton Color SR-12

MULTI-FUNCTION BOARDS

AST6Pak64K

Quadram Expanded Quadboard OK

Tecmar Captain 64K

$159$549$459

GRAPHIC BOARDS

Hercules MonochromeHercules Color CardTecmar Graphics MasterParadise GraphicsSTBGrapnix II

FLOPPY DRIVES

$245 TEAC V2HTFD55B

$219 Mitsubishi 96 TPI

$199 5" DSDD Color Diskettes

$3095$4295$7495

$4995$2895$4495

£299

$159$449$279

$119$125$ 21

ALL PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND STOCK ON HAND

CompuPro is a Registered Trademark of Vtasyn. CPU Z. Disk 1A. ISystem Supporl i MDRIVE-H Ram 22 Bam 23 ate trademarks cregistered trademarks ol Digital Research Inc MSDOS IS a registereregistered trademarks ol Teletek Enterprises Turbodos is registered□I International Business Machines

k 3. Interface! 3 Inlerfacer 4 . CPU 286 CPU 8085 B;d trademarks ol Vtasyn CPM22 CCP M. ai« o< Microsoft. Systemaster & Systemaster II ai)l Software 2000 IBM is a registered tradema.

EVENT QUEUE

shops. Contact the Institutefor Logic and CognitiveStudies. University ofHouston-Clear Lake. Box269. Houston. TX 77058,(713) 488-9274. ]une 13-15

• INTERNATIONAL SHOWThe International ComputerShow, Trade Fair Center, Col-ogne, West Germany. Morethan 3 50 manufacturersfrom more than 18 countriesare expected to display theirwares. Contact Messe- undAusstellungs-Ges.m.b.H.Koln, Messeplatz, Postfach210760. D-5000 Koln 21West Germany; tel: (0221)821-1. Telex: 8 873 426 mua d.\une 13-16

• SYSTEM/38 SEMINARThe IBM System/38: Stan-dards and Practices,Halloran House Hotel, NewYork City. The fee is $595.Contact DGC Inc., 1450Preston Forest Square,Dallas, TX 75320, (214)991-4044. \une 17-18

• BIO RESEARCH

RESOURCE—Introduction toBIONET: A National Com-puter Resource for Mole-cular Biology. RutgersUniversity, Piscataway. N).Workshops on using com-puters for molecular biologyresearch. Contact Selma Git-terman. Continuing Profes-sional Education, Institute ofMicrobiology. Rutgers Uni-versity POB 759. Piscataway,N| 08854-0759, (201)932-4258. ]une 17-19

• PC IN BIG APPLE

PC Expo, Coliseum, NewYork, NY. Seminars andproduct displays. Contact PCExpo, 333 Sylvan Ave.,Englewood Cliffs. N] 07632,(800) 922-0324; in Newlersey, (201) 569-8542.]une 17-19

• INTRO TO FORTH

Beginning FORTH Program-ming. Humboldt State Uni-versity, Areata, CA. A hands-on, introductory course for

those wishing to learnFORTH and write applica-tions in it. The fee is $150or $200 with three credithours. Contact Claire Duffey,Office of Continuing Educa-tion, Humboldt State Univer-sity. Areata, CA 95 521. (707)826-3731. \une 17-21

• ENGINEERINGSOFTWARE-EngineeringSoftware: Engsoft '85, TheFourth International Con-ference and Exhibition, Ken-sington Exhibition Centre,London, England. Exhibitsand sessions. Contact ElaineTaylor, ComputationalMechanics Centre. AshurstLodge, Ashurst, Southamp-ton S04 2AA, England; tel:(042 129) 3223; Telex: 47388Attn. COMPMECH.

June 18-20

• COMPUTERS ANDMANUFACTURING-Success-

ful Implementation of Com-puter Integrated Manufactur-ing. Constellation Hotel,Toronto. Ontario, Canada.Topics covered include com-ponents of computer-integrated manufacturing,methods of implementation,and planning and manage-ment. Contact Computerand Automated SystemsAssociation, Society ofManufacturing Engineers,One SME Dr., POB 930,Dearborn, MI 48121, (313)271-1500. lane 18-20

• DATA COMMUNICA-TIONS UPDATE-Data Com-munications: A CompleteOverview and Update, New-port Beach, CA. The mana-gerial, operational, andtechnical aspects of datacommunications and facili-ties are covered. ContactData-Tech Institute. LakeviewPlaza, POB 2429, Clifton, NJ07015. (201) 478-5400.

\une 19-21

• TIPS FOR NETMANAGERS—Network Man-agement/Technical Control,

{continued)

94 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 94

Alloy takes your PC

to the limit

QICSTOR-PLUS. The ultimate in PC expansion with

five IBM compatible slots, hard disk storage, and

streaming tape backup in one neat package.

Alloy's QICSTOR-PLUS meets all your ity of 36 to 128 MBytes. And QICSTOR-expansion needs. It's the ideal upgrade PLUS has file-oriented streaming tapefor a growing PC or AT system. backup with a formatted capacity ofQICSTOR-PLUS has five full size over 50 MBytes. Alloy provides file-expansion slots which are completely oriented QTIP software with a trans-compatible with the IBM PC bus and fer rate of 2 MBytes/minute,they also support Alloy's PC-SLAVE/16 QICSTOR-PLUS is available rightmulti-processor, multi-user capability. Its now. So call Alloy today at (617)high performance hard disk has a capac- 875-6100.

COfflPfM/Sfirinfl '15

Computer Products, Inc.

Alloy Computer Products Inc., 100 Pennsylvania Avenue, Pramlngham, Massachusetts 01701. Tel: (617) 875-6100, TWX: 710-346-0394In Europe: Alloy Computer Products (Europe), Ltd., Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Tel: 0285-68709, Tlx: 43340

Inquiry 20

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 95

Inquiry 95 for End-Users. Inquiry 96 for DEALERS ONLY.

=IBM P.C.

AVAILABLE PRODUCTS

0 MEGABYTE HARD DISK

PORTABLE

XT

O'sti fully srux

• tape Back opPower Cemei "

■ 6<IOKion moifei ooarousing 256K Cnips

o

• Tao? Back-up 'j neigni(floppy lapel

• 640 K eipansion onmalfie'Doardu5ing256K

■<H

IBM P.C. AT

AVAILABLE PRODUCTS .'

disk loi Dackup

• CMI20/30 Megabyte iar0 0>sk iSar-r-asuseODy fBMi

• 20 40 60 Megabyte ' •> neigni Tape Sack upVery last eflioenl & leuaWe

• Remoyabie na'cf Oisk 10 Megabyte

EXPANSION BOARDS

AT RAM CARD

1 & Megabyiiusing 256KC• 128* Piggy ECflips tor moi

m$-

COMPAQ DESK PRO

AVAILABLE PRODUCTS

HARD DISK

TAPE

RAM UPGRADE

10.22. 33 MEGABYTE

• w heignt

• 20 40 eOMegaDyte

• 5lanoara a&'.u kir-nat

COMPAQ PORTABLE

'0, 20, MEGABYTE HARD DISK

AT&T

AVAILABLE PRODUCTS

HARD DISK

TAPE

RAM UPGRADE

ONE CALL DOES IT ALL!

(714)953-0470

1512 E Edinger Ave • Santa Ana CA 92705

64K SBCsf:°™$99.

in OEM quantities

•Save development time qnd_costs withMegatel Quark® single board computers• Select only the features you require• We deliver your first unit intwo weeks or less

• 6MHz Z80B»

• 8088 Co-Processor

• 64K. 128K or 256K RAM

• Alpha/Graphics

Video Conlroller

• Floppy Disk Control

(8". 5V or 3'fe")

• Winchester Hard

Disk Control

• Up to 2 Full Duplex

Serial Ports

Special Packages:

Entry Level Quark 10 with ZSOB*. 64K RAM, EPROM, Video,Serial and Parallel I/O only $295.*

64K SBC Package with CP/M1' 2.2 on disk. . only $375.*Custom designs and layouts available

• Up to 128K EPROM

• E2PROM Support

• Time ot Day Clock

• Up to 4 Parallel

I/O Ports

• Peripheral Expansion

Interface

• CP/M' 2.2 or CP/M* 3.0

Operating Systems

To order your first unit callour Toronto sales office today(416) 745-7214

Or write us: Megatel1051 Clinton St.,Buffalo, N.Y. 14206

CP/M ,s a registered trademark ol Digital Research 'Quantify one priceZ80B Is a registered trademark ol Zilog Inc

megatel

EVENT QUEUE

Convention Center. San lose.CA. A conference and ex-position. Contact CW Con-ference Management Group,375 Cochituate Rd. POB880, Framingham, MA01701, (800) 225-4698; inMassachusetts, (617)879-0700. lune 24-27

• WORK WITH ACOMPUTER-Using a Per-sonal Computer, Brecken-ridge Concourse Hotel, St.Louis, MO. A hands-oncourse for those who wantto use integrated softwarepackages. The fee is $965.Contact The Center for Pro-fessional Advancement. POBH, East Brunswick, NJ 08816.(201) 238-1600. lune 24-27

• ADVANCED FORTH

Using FORTH Effectively.Humboldt State University.Areata. CA. An advanced,hands-on workshop in apply-ing FORTH to real-worldproblems. The fee is $150 or$200 with three credithours. Contact Claire Duffey.Office of Continuing Educa-tion, Humboldt State Univer-sity, Areata. CA 95521, (707)826-3731. lune 24-28

• ADVANCED LOTUS

CLASS—Advanced Lotus1-2-3, Georgia Institute ofTechnology. Atlanta. A con-centration on macros, macromenus, and multiple linkedworksheets. The fee is $390.Contact Trish Stolton,Department of ContinuingEducation. Georgia Instituteof Technology, Atlanta, GA30332. (404) 894-2547.lune 25-26

• GRAPHICS IN SUNSHINE

Computer Graphics '85West. Los Angeles, CA. Con-tact National ComputerGraphics Association, 8401Arlington Blvd., Fairfax, VA22031, (703) 698-9600.lune 25-27

• UNIX FOR MANAGERS

UNIX Overview forManagers, City University.

Bellevue. WA. For managersconsidering a UNIX systemfor office automation orsoftware development. Thefee is $100. Contact DavidCheyette. SpecializedSystems Consultants. POB 7.Northgate Station. Seattle.WA 98125, (206) 367-8649.lune 26

• CAD TECHNOLOGY

CAD 2001: The Countdown,Boston, MA. Presentationson the future of computer-aided design. The fee is$900. Contact CAD SeminarsInc.. Suite 400. 150 EastRiverside, Austin, TX 78704.(512) 445-7342. lune 26-28

• DATA COMMUNICA-TIONS UPDATE-Data Com-munications: A CompleteOverview and Update,Philadelphia, PA. See lune19-21 for details, lune 26-28

• COMPUTERS IN AUSTIN

The Third Annual AustinComputer Fair, MunicipalAuditorium, Austin, TX.More than 150 exhibits andseminars are planned. Con-tact David Orshalick. AustinSeminars Inc., POB 4 531,Austin, TX 78765, (512)451-2954. ]une 27-29

]uly 1985

• COMPUTER TRAINING

Computer Training Programs.Wintergreen Learning In-stitute, Wintergreen. VA.Hands-on training in wordprocessing, informationmanagement, spreadsheets,and graphics. Contact Dr.M. D. Corcoran. WintergreenLearning Institute. POB 7.Wintergreen, VA 22958.(804) 325-1107. luly-September

• AUTOMATION DOWNUNDER—AutoMach Australia'85. Melbourne. An auto-mated manufacturing con-ference and exhibition. Con-tact SME World Head-

{continued)

96 BYTE • lUNE 1985

Inquiry 270

AMAZING MLSY

NOW! FULL SIZE, FULL FEATURE, LETTER QUALITY AT ONLY $353

If you have been searching for a letterquality printer you have probably foundthe flood of claims and counterclaims tobe a real roadblock in your search. Notlong ago we were in the same position.We tried to determine which daisy wheelprinter had all the features ourcustomers wanted, yet would not setthem back a month's salary. Recentlyseveral manufacturers have introducedmachines that had features we wereseaching for. After a thorough assess-ment, we eliminated one model after theother for lack of one feature or anotheruntil we only had one left.

THE RESULTS ARE IN

We found the printer which has all thefeatures anyone could want. The winneris the Aprotek Daisy 1120, a real heavy-duty workhorse printing at 20 charactersper second. The manufacturer is OlympicCo. Ltd., a highly respected Japanese firm.

FEATURES GALORE

This printer has it all. To start with, ithas a front panel Pitch Selector buttonwith indicators which allows 10, 12, 15characters per inch (CPI) orProportional Spacing. There is a Select(Online) button (with indicator) and aLine Feed button. You can also set Top-of-Form or Form Feed with the touch ofthe TOF button. Other front panel in-dicators include Power and Alarm.

To load a sheet of paper, simply placeit in the feed slot and pull the paper baillever. PRESTO! The paper feeds automati-cally to a 1 inch top margin and the car-riage aligns to the selected left margin.In this manner, each page can have iden-tical margins automatically. You can con-tinue to compute while theDaisy 1120 is

\\\V

AtW&^L

printing. The built in 2K buffer frees upyour computer while printing a page ortwo allowing you to go to your next job.To really put your printer to work, theCut Sheet Feeder option is great forautomatic printing of those long jobs.Also available is the adjustable TractorFeed option. Compare our option prices!Best of all the Daisy 1120 is quiet: only57 dB-A (compare with an average of62-65 dB-A for others).

COMPLETE COMPATIBILITY

The Daisy 1120 uses industry standardDiablo® compatible printwheels. Scoresof typeface styles are available at mostcomputer or stationary stores. You canpop in a 10, 12, 15 pitch or proportionalprintwheel and use paper as wide as 14".At 15 CPI you can print 165columns—great for spreadsheets.

The Daisy 1120 uses the DiabloHytype II® standard ribbon cartridges.Again universally available.

Not only is the hardware completelycompatible, the control codes recognizedby the Daisy 1120 are Diablo 630®compatible (industry standard). You cantake advantage of all the great featuresof word processing packages likeWordstar® , pfs: Write®, MicrosoftWord® and most others which allow youto automatically use superscripts,subscripts, automatic underlining, bold-face (shadow printing) and doublestrike.

The printer has a set of rear switcheswhich allow the use of standard ASCII aswell as foreign character printwheels.Page length can be set to 8, 11, 12, or15". The Daisy 1120 can also be switch-ed to add automatic line feed if required.

1

^

;^SS^

THE BEST PART

When shopping for a daisy wheelprinter with all these features (if youcould find one), you could expect to pay$600 or $700 dollars. The options wouldadd much more. Not now! We have doneour homework. We can now offer thisprinter for only $353. Order yours today!

NO RISK OFFER

Try the Daisy 1120 for 2 weeks. If youare not satisfied for ANY reason we willrefund the full price—promptly. A full1-year parts and labor warranty isincluded.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Aprotek Daisy 1120 (Order#1120) $353

w/standard Centronics parallel interface

and 2K buffer.

Options

Auto Cut Sheet Feeder (#1110) $188

Tractor Feed (#1112) $77

A ccg s sor i c s

8' Cable for IBM PC® and compatibles

(#1103) $26

Interface with cable: "TI-99/4A (#106) $66

•Apple II or He (#1104) $76

•All Commodore (except Pet) (#1105) $44

•All Atari (#1107) $66

Shipping is $11—UPS continental USA. If you are ina hurry, UPS Blue or Air Parcel Post (second dayair) is $25. Canada, Alaska, Mexico and Hawaii are$30 (air). Other foreign is $60 (air). Californiaresidents add 6% tax. Prices are cash prices—VISAand M/C add 3% to total. We ship promptly onmoney orders, cashier's checks, and charge cards.Allow 14-day clearing for checks. No C.O.D.'s. Pay-ment in US dollars only.

TO ORDER ONLY CALL TOLL FREE(800) 962-5800 USA(800) 962-3800 CALIF.

Or send payment to address below:Technical Information & CustomerService: (805) 987-2454 (8-5 PST)Dealer Inquiries Invited

©1985 APROTEK. All rights reserved.Trademarks: Diablo, Hytype U. 630-XeroxCorp; Wordstar-Micropro Corp.; PFS-Software Publishing Corp.; MicrosoftWord-Microsoft Corp.; Apple, II,He-Apple Computer, Inc.;IBM PC-IBM Corp.;PET, CBM.

(8-8 PST)

■ dPROKK

1071-A Avenida Acaso, Camarillo, CA 93010

Inquiry 303

The best of two worlds

The MYTECH COMAL interactiv programming language givesyou the simplicity of Basic and the power of Pascal. Many of theconcepts are influenced by ADA"', for example exceptionhandling, packages etc.

Mytech Comal features

• Friendly, interactive user inter-face with help facilities

• 100% orthogonal.

Screen editor

Fulfills the Comal 2.00 requirements

• Available for IBM *', MACINTOSH'',HP, OLIVETTI, APRICOT",WICAT etc

• Implemented on UNIX'2,CPM/86"3,C-CPM/86'4,MS-DOS*5, PC-DOS'6

• Easily ported to 16/32-bits systems

• fne pacKage concept makesMytech Comal extensible

• Turtlegraphics package (LOGO)is available

• Easily customized forforeign languagesSupport for the 8087.Is written in "C".

i Comal is an official educationlanguage in Europe.

Mytech Comal is the perfect language for students as well as for theprofessional programmer. For further information please ask for adata sheet. Or why not do it the right way, order your Mytech Comalsystem today and move in to a new fascinating and powerful pro-gramming dimension.

UDoO 2iBM.3|DgiaEquoerrert A|AT&T. 5&6| Dgia Research 7) Mwosott. ffl Apple Canouier *ic.» ACT M

MYTECH WjQATA AB

Mytech Software INC, 11120 RoseU Street no.E, San Diego, CA 92121 USATel. 619-452-9847,Tetex. 705340

No Lower Price Anywhere

We have the lowest prices for • SanyoGreywolf marketing 203-928-3654 PH0^°YRDERS

Included with Each Computer

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1 Year on Mother Board — 90 Days on All Other Paris

SECOND DISC DRIVE I <M gfiOO

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to Lelle, Oualily Daisy Whe«l Pnnltif

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MBC1100 $599

B-Bit Integrated Compute' with 64KB RAM MBC 4000 $999

zajACFvtr.mnowa.rmowjrxiL3.g1.6aKB Compact 16-Bit Integrated Computer with

PMMMKfl ROM mo-mxy clfcwr, 10. Iral ewc.il.on ,28KB RAM

l'l"M not'. dl.no iv^'*1"1 *'f1' "t'l'i" .^'J'moler -

Sanyo BAfilC

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ilim ins- mini Boom *5*

MBC 1200 $799

8-Sit Inlegraled Computer withHigh-Resolution Display

I CPiM-S* operating system until (KMMl,'8KRflAM memory capacity t»pa[K:

II , ,■,,, „„,.,. manin. i!-,:.!.„■.,'i in.. .Ml* «i«p l* ino (MBC JOWi mi

• CASH PRICE ONLY*

Chech in advance. Add 3% lor VISA IMC. No ReturnsShipping & Handling charges will be added to each order.I For complete technical literature send S1"0 to:

P.O. Box 689 PHONE ORDERS ONLY;

Putnam.CT 06260 203928-3654

EVENT QUEUE

quarters. One SME Dr., POB930. Dearborn. Ml 48121.(313) 271-1500; in Australia.Mr. Greco, Integrated ProjectManagement Services, POB1399. Crows Nest 2065. NewSouth Wales, Australia; tel:02-439-4014; Telex:AA2 5468. My 2-5

• ADVANCEDAUTOMATION-Robot

Manipulators, ComputerVision, and Automated As-sembly. Cambridge, MA.Contact Director of the Sum-mer Session, Room E19-3 56.Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, Cambridge, MA02139. ]uly 8-12

• COMPUTATIONALLINGUISTICS-The Twenty-Third Annual Meeting of theAssociation for Computa-tional Linguistics, Universityof Chicago, IL. Papers, dem-onstrations, and tutorials.Contact Don Walker (ACL).Bell Communications Re-search. 445 South St., Mor-ristown, N| 07960, (201)829-4312. ]uly 8-12

• SYMPHONY TIPS

Advanced Symphony.Georgia Institute of Tech-nology. Atlanta. Areascovered include auto-dialingto remote computers and"smart" spreadsheets usingAl concepts to preanalyzenumeric outputs. The fee is$390. Contact Trish Stolton.Department of ContinuingEducation. Georgia Instituteof Technology, Atlanta, GA30332, (404) 894-2547.)uly 9-10

• AWC CONFERENCE

The Fourth Annual NationalConference of the Associa-tion for Women in Comput-ing, Allerton Hotel. Chicago,IL. Workshops and sessionson technical and career-enhancement topics. Formore information, contactJoan Wallbaum. AWCC 85,407 Hillmore Dr., SilverSpring, MD 20901.]uly 13-14

• THE NCC

The 1985 National Com-puter Conference: NCC '85.McCormick Place, Chicago,IL. Exhibits, technical ses-sions, and developmentseminars. This year's themeis "Technology's ExpandingHorizons." Contact HelenMugnier. AF1PS, 1899Preston White Dr., Reston,VA 22091. (703) 620-8926.)u!y 15-18

• iRMX USERS MEETThe iRUG Annual Interna-tional Conference. PalmerHouse, Chicago, IL. Thetheme is "The Future Direc-tion of Real-Time SoftwareApplications." iRUG is a anonprofit organization madeup of Intel iRMX operatingsystem users. ContactCatherine Moon, MS/HF2-57.Intel Corp.. 5200 NortheastElam Young Parkway,Hillsboro, OR 97123, (503)640-7038. \uly 17

• SIMULATION

The 1985 Summer ComputerSimulation Conference:SCSC '85, Westin Hotel.Chicago, IL. Contact CharlesPratt. Society for ComputerSimulation, POB 2228, LaJolla, CA 92038, (619)459-3888. July 22-26

• COMPUTERWORKSHOPS-Personal

Computer Workshops. Aspenand Colorado Springs, CO.Tutorials, including an intro-duction to personal com-puters, word processing,spreadsheets, and databasemanagement. Contact RockyMountain Institute of Soft-ware Engineering, 1670 BearMountain Dr., POB 3 521,Boulder, CO 80303, (303)499-4782. ]uly 22-26

• SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH '85: The TwelfthAnnual Conference on Com-puter Graphics and Interac-tive Techniques, MosconeCenter, San Francisco. CA.Contact SIGGRAPH '85.

(continued)

98 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 200

TEK

2213A/2215A/2235

DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPES

THE ANSWER

BY ANY MEASURE

Now! Tek quality and expert adviceare just a free phone call away!

The industrystandard in CRTperformance.

Crisp, easy-to-read, bright CRT;14kV acceleratingpotential, provideshigh writing rateand small spotsize. Full size 8x10cm display formeasurementaccuracy.

Display controlsare flexible andeasy to use. Sep-arate intensitycontrols reduceblooming in alter-nate sweep mode.Focus trackingminimizes controladjustment andBEAM FIND elimi-nates confusion.

Vertical sys-tem providesmeasurementassurance. Flattransient responseand high accuracyensures truereproduction ofyour signals. Fastrisetime and highbandwidth is wellsuited for a varietyof measurement.

Perform delayedsweep measure-ments accuratelyand easily. Bothsweeps can bedisplayed alter-nately making dif-ferential measure-ments easy andaccurate (1%).An interlockingSEC/DIV controlsimplifies set-up.

Stable hands-offtriggering. P-P

AUTO detects sig-nal peaks, thensets the triggerlevel for you. Dis-play asynchronoussignals usingVERT MODE trig-gering. Indepen-dent TV field andline selection.

Front panel laidout by functionfor ease of use.

Color coding aidsthe user in opera-tion. Functionsand modes areplaced logically.All nomenclatureis clearly labeled,and protectedbehind a scratch-less Lexan surface.

Our direct order line getsyou the industry's leadingprice/performance portables...and fast answers from experts!

The 60 MHz single time base delay2213A, the 60 MHz dual time base2215A and the 100 MHz dual timebase 2235 offer unprecedentedreliability and affordability, plus theindustry's first 3-year warranty*on labor and parts, CRT included.

The cost: just $1275 for the2213A, $1525 for the 2215A,$1750 for the 2235T Even atthese low prices, there's noscrimping on performance. You

have the bandwidth for digitaland analog circuits. The sensitivityfor low signal measurements. Thesweep speeds for fast logic fami-lies. And delayed sweep for fast,accurate timing measurements.All scopes are UL Listed and CSAapproved.

You can order, or obtainliterature, through the TekNational Marketing Center. Tech-nical personnel, expert in scopeapplications, will answer yourquestions and expedite delivery.Direct orders include comprehen-sive 3-year warranty*, operator's

manual, two 10X probes, 15-dayreturn policy and worldwide ser-vice backup.

Order toll free:1-800-426-2200,Ask for Rick.

In Oregon, call collect:(503) 627-9000.Or write Tektronix, Inc.P.O. Box 1700Beaverton, OR 97075

Ttektronix

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

Copyright • 1985, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved #TTA-439-3 t Price FOB Beaverton. OR. "3-year warranty includes CRT.

IUNE I985 -BYTE 99

Inquiry 291

/^aMl

MICROTIME

5020 N. ORACLE, TUCSON, HZ 85704

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EVENT QUEUE

Conference Services Office,Smith. Bucklin and Asso-ciates Inc., Ill East WackerDr., Chicago, IL 60601, (312)644-6610. ]uly 22-26

• INTELLIGENT MACHINES

Logic Programming & ExpertSystems, The Turing Institute.Edinburgh, Scotland. Lec-tures, demonstrations, andsessions on programmingtechniques, system structure,and Prolog. Contact The Tur-ing Institute. 2 Hope ParkSquare, Edinburgh EH89NW, Scotland; tel:031-668-1737. ]uly 24-25

• TECH CONFERENCE

Semi-Official Get-together:SOG IV, Central OregonCommunity College, Bend,OR. Sponsored by MicroCornucopia, this conferencefeatures forums on commu-nications and single-boardsystems design. Admission isfree. Contact MicroCornucopia Inc., POB 223,Bend, OR 97709. (503)382-8048. ]uly 2 5-28

• CHEMICALENGINEERING

The Seventh C.C.C.E. Na-tional Computer Workshops-East, Clarkson University,Potsdam, NY. Sponsored bythe American ChemicalSociety Division of ChemicalEducation's Committee onComputers in ChemicalEducation and ProjectSERAPHIM. Advanced regis-tration is $100. Contact Dr.Donald Rosenthal, Depart-ment of Chemistry, ClarksonUniversity, Potsdam, NY13676. (315) 268-6647.\uly 28-August 1

• PUBLIC COMPUTING

The Twenty-Third AnnualConference of the Urbanand Regional InformationSystems Association, WestinHotel, Ottawa, Ontario,Canada. The conferencetheme is "Computers inPublic Agencies, SharingSolutions." Contact UR1SASecretariat, Suite 300. 1340

Old Chain Bridge Rd..McLean, VA 22101, (703)790-1745. )uly 28-August 1

• COMPUTERS ANDEDUCATION-The 1985World Conference on Com-puters in Education, SCOPEConvention Center, Norfolk,VA. Exhibits, papers, panelsessions, tutorials, andpreconference workshops.Contact WCCE/85, AF1PS.1899 Preston White Dr.,Reston. VA 22091. (800)622-1985; in Virginia. (703)620-8900. ]uly 29-August 2

August 1985

• ENGINEERING CON-FERENCE, EXPO-The 1985ASME International Com-puters in Engineering Con-ference and Exhibition.Sheraton Boston Hotel,Boston, MA. The theme is"Expert Systems: A NewDimension in ComputerEngineering." Contact TheAmerican Society ofMechanical Engineers. 345East 47th St., New York, NY10017. (212) 705-7100.August 4-8

• EVENT FOR TRAINERS

COMTRED '85: The NationalComputer Training andEducation Conference andExhibition, Civic Center.Philadelphia. PA. Seminarsand conferences for edu-cators, computer trainers,retailers, and distributors.More than 50 exhibits. Pre-conference workshops onAugust 6. Contact NationalComputer Education Exposi-tions Inc., Suite 200, 1411Walnut St., Philadelphia. PA19102. (215) 972-8792.August 7-9

• TOMORROWSCOMPUTERS—International

Symposium on New Direc-tions in Computing,Norwegian Institute ofTechnology, Trondheim.

[continued)

100 BYTE' IUNE 1985

Inquiry I If

Introducing the new and improved

IBMPCH995

f" Desk file Uieii Options \

'■ || C:\6EM\DESKTDP\

!•

,40215 bytes used in 21 itens.

I ja, Jffi.J3.,J3„ B

3SW I'll"!If ja. M. 3.,'m, "M

♦

* ■

JET j3 fi

GEM^*^-

■*«S'S-;tS»BBB»i»

Actually, it's not a newIBM8 PC.

It's GEM DESKTOP.™The $49.95 softwarebreakthrough that makesyour old IBM PC so aston-ishingly easy to use that itseems like a new one.

So long PC DOS,hello GEM.™

GEM DESKTOP softwarelooks like an ordinary floppy foryour PC. But slide it into yourIBM's disk drive, and the change begins.

From this moment on, you can runmost of the important PC programs—but instead of typing cryptic commandsto get into your program menu, yousimply point and click your mouse* oruse your cursor keys to open a window.It's like a breath of fresh air comparedto the complex PC DOS operating sys-tem you've been using.

Point and click vs. stroke, stroke,stroke.

Next, instead of typing and retypinglong file names, you simply point andclick again at the appropriate symbols.And voila! Your fde appears on screen.But it's not quite the same screenyou've been used to.

Simple menu headers at the top toguide you effortlessly from one func-tion to the next. So instead of makingmore complex keystrokes that caneasily be mistyped, your IBM PC iseasier and faster to use than everbefore. There is also a clock and acalculator both built right in.

Indispensable. And only $49.95.

Your GEM Desktop includes alloperating system interface softwareand comes with amazingly simpleinstructions. In fact, GEM DESKTOPsoftware makes it possible, for the firsttime, for anyone to learn to use anIBM PC. (Who knows, maybe eventhe most dedicated computerphobes inyour company will warm up to the PC,after this.)

And you can just as easily justifythe cost—only $49.95 for completeoperating package. Which makes itaffordable enough to have several.

If you can use a phone, you canhave GEM DESKTOP.Right Now.

To order GEM DESKTOP, just calltoll-free (800) 443^200. Charge yourorder to your Visa, MasterCard orAmerican Express. While you're onthe line ask us about GEM DRAW,™

our nifty $149.00 graphics package withan extensive gallery of art.

Or mail this order form, along withyour payment.

[nIi

" GEM requires that yout computer have appropriate graphics capability and that the pointing device be compatible. Call for exact requirements.GEM. GEM DRAW and GEM DESKTOP are trademarks of Digital Research Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International BusinessMachines Corporation. Digital Research is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. © 1985, Digital Research Inc. All rights reserved.

Inquiry 139

Name.

Address.

City

State

.ZIP.

GEM DESKTOP

$49.95 plus $3.00 shipping and

handling.

GEM DRAW

$149.00 plus $4.00 shipping andhandling.

Applicable sales or use tax will be added. COD,checks or purchase orders will not be accepted.(Outside USA add $10.)

Method of payment. Circle one.

VISA MASTERCARD AM. EX.

Card number

Exp. date

Signature

Mail to: GEM Software

Digital Research Inc.

60 Garden Court

BoxDRI

Monterey, CA 93942

Or call (800) 443-4200.

SGEM"

FROM DIGITAL RESEARCH®

Inquiry 204

HARMONY VIDEO & COMPUTERS

2357 CONEY ISLAND AVE . BROOKLYN. NY 11223800 VIDEO84OR800 441 1144 OR 718 627 1000

tf^i

IBMPC256K

COMMODORE 64

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$1248.95

$149.95

ag»*^^#

STAR SG 10

APP: r

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$212.50

$819.95

'PRINTER SPECIALS"

Brother HR15 XL

338

Juki6100 Televtdeo

349

Brother HR 35

770

Juki 6300

887

Panasonic XKP 3151

Brother Keyboard

!20

Mannesman Spirit 80

174

Powertype

289

NEC 2050

624

468

NEC 3550

999

Corona Laser

2496

NEC 7730

1399

Daisywriter

728

NEC 8850

1399

Epson RX 80 FT+

249

Nee p3 or p2

832

Epson RX 80

194

Ok id a !a 92

349

SlarSRIO

374

Okidata93

564

Epson FX 80

329

Okimate 10

125

Epson JX80

546

Olympai Compact 2

338

Silver Reed Exp550

364

Epson FX 100 +

514

Olympai ro

297

Silver Reed Exp500

249

Epson LQ 1500

909

Panasonic KXP 1091

249

Silver Reed Exp 770

2808

Panasonic KXP 1090

174

Toshiba 1340

515

Panasonic KXP 1092

338

Toshiba 1351

1103

WOW! WOW! WOW!

IBM

PC w/DrivePC XT

IBM DriveAST S«x PackTatlgrass20 MegQuad BoardKeytronicsHercules ColorHercules MonochromeParadise GraphicsParadise Multi DisplaySTB Graphics +2STB R10-2Tecmar GraphicsTecmar CaptainParsyst MonocardBernouliBox10 Meg DriveJoystickTandon 100-2

279252273246236

104

APPLE

2E w'Disk Drive 819

Macintosh 1352

Apple 2C 879

Imagewriter 468Addt. Drives from 119

Modem 12 429

ATARI

800 XL *

1027 Printer 224

1050 Drive 146

Indus. Drive 219

1025 Printer 156

Rana1000 167

Koala Pad 32

Pf Inter I'F 49

MODEMS

Hayes 1200 375

Hayes1200B 312

Hayes 300 177

Micromodem2E 204

MONITORS

Amdek 300 GreenAmdek 300 Amber310 AmberColor 300Color 500Color 600Color 700Color 710PrlnctonHX12Princton Max 12Taxan 122ATaxan 420

SANYO

550 D.S.

555 D.SMBC775

1727

ZENITH

ZenlthPC2150 1619

Zenith PC 15152 2057

Zenith PC161-52 2204

Novaii

:at

800-441-1144

COMMODORE

Commodore84 127

1541 Disk Drive 172

1702 Monitor 182

MPS 802 182

Indus. Drive 219

ems reflect cash discount For your protection i

e check for slolen credii cards

YOUR COMPUTER'S FUTURE

vnicM-.medication _

aspirin

penadol

alcohol

no( more)ansvers

rp edit window =

patient should-take -medication if

_patient complams-of _3gmptom and-medication suppresses _3ymptom

LPA micro-PROLOG professional is a new more powerfulversion of LPA micro-PROLOG with its own window handlingprimitives and "Wordstar-like" screen editor. With"Macintosh-style" menus and windows, LPA micro-PROLOG professional is fully integrated with the MS DOS 2environment using all the memory available.

LPA micro-PROLOG professional is considerably fasterthan LPA micro-PROLOG 3.1 and is an unbeatableproduction tool for Artificial Intelligence programs, writing ofExpert Systems and the rapid prototyping of micro computersoftware.Launch price US $395.00. Upgrade price is US $195.00.

For intormationcontact -NORTH AMERICA

DK Programming Logtc Systems Inc .rKr 31 Crescent Drive, Milford.CT 06460 US. ATel (203)877 7968

REST OF THE WORLD

n^n Logic Programming Associates Ltd Dept BY/2\\n*\ lOBurntwood Close. London SW18 3JUL±=3 Tel 01-874 0350

EVENT QUEUE

Norway. Contact New Direc-tions in Computing, IEEEComputer Society, POB 639,Silver Spring, MD 20901.August 12-14

• GRAPHICS

Ausgraph '85, Brisbane,Queensland, Australia.Australia's first internationalconference and exhibitionon computer graphics. Con-tact Conference Secretariat,Ausgraph '85, POB 29.Parkville, Victoria 3052,Australia; tel: (03) 387 9955;Telex: AA 33761.August 12-16

• COMPUTER SWAP

Northwest Computer SwapNumber 9, Fiesta ExhibitHall, San Mateo County Fair-grounds, San Mateo. CA.Admission is $5. ContactNorthwest Computer Swap,4883 Tonino Dr., San Jose,CA 95136, or call RobertKushner, (408) 978-7927.August 17

• Al INVESTIGATED

UCA1-85: The InternationalJoint Conferences on Arti-ficial Intelligence, Universityof California. Los Angeles.Topics include Al architec-tures and languages, intel-ligent CAI, automated rea-soning, and expert systems.Tutorials. Contact IJCAI-85.American Association forArtificial Intelligence, 44 5Burgess Dr.. Menlo Park. CA94025. (415) 321-1118.August 18-24

• FOR EDUCATORS

Innovative Applications ofMicrocomputer Technologyin Vocational Education,University of Wisconsin,Madison. The emphasis willbe on interactive video, net-working, hard-disk systems,and telecommunications foragriculture, education, andhealth applications. ContactDr. Judith Rodenstein, Voca-tional Studies Center, 964Educational SciencesBuilding, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 102 5

West (ohnson St., Madison.Wl 53706, (608) 263-4367.August 19-21

• INTERFACINGWORKSHOP-Personal Com-puter and STD Computer In-terfacing for Scientific Instru-ment Automation.Washington, DC, area. Ahands-on workshop witheach participant wiring andtesting interfaces. The fee is$450. Contact Dr. LindaLeffel, C.E.C, VirginiaPolytechnic Institute andState University, Blacksburg,VA 24061, (703) 961-4848.August 22-24

• OFFICE AUTOMATION

EVENT-INTECH '85: The In-tegrated Information Tech-nology Conference and Ex-position, Moscone Center,San Francisco, CA. Anoffice-automation forum.Contact Jill Nieman, NationalTTade Productions Inc., Suite400, 2111 Eisenhower Ave.,Alexandria, VA 22314, (800)638-8510; in Virginia, (703)683-8500.August 26-29

• VIDEODISCCONFERENCE-The FifthAnnual Nebraska VideodiscSymposium, University ofNebraska, Lincoln. Thetheme is "Videodisc—The In-dustry Comes of Age." Paneldiscussions, presentations,and exhibits. Registration is$375. Contact VideodiscDesign/Production Group,KUON-TV/University ofNebraska-Lincoln, POB83111, Lincoln, NE 68501,(402) 472-3611.

August 27-30

• NEW ZEALANDERS

CONVENE—The Ninth NewZealand National ComputerConference, Sheraton,Auckland, New Zealand.Speakers, panel sessions,and exhibits. For details,contact Conference Commit-tee, POB 3839, Auckland,New Zealand. August27-31 ■

102 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 2 53

You just experienced one of the benefits of CenTech Color Diskettes.

They're easy to find.

Now you can locate everythingfrom Accounts Receivable to Payroll;and you can do it at the speedof color.

CenTech Color Diskettes arethe logical solution to dataorganization. They come in 13useful colors, to give you morecolor coding possibilities.

Designed, engineered, andmanufactured in America tospecifications and standards thatexceed those developed by theindustry. CenTech diskettes areexceptionally consistent inaccepting and maintaining data.

CenTech is a registered name of Cenna Technology; Inc.

Every diskette is tested, certified,and warrantied to be 100% error freeand free of manufacturing defects, orwe will replace it at no charge.

Cost competitive, colordiskettes by CenTech. Engineeredto surpass the best the world hasto offer.

Ask for CenTech Color Diskettesby name at your dealer, or become a

TCt*dt

Mj

I

dealer yourself by calling toll free:(800) 255-3999, or writeCenTech, 185 Cottage Avenue,Sandy, Utah 84070.Telex: 499-6093

lrCENTEch

®

The Colorful Solution toData Or&nizaubnT

© 1985 Cenna Technology, Inc.

Inquiry 78

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 103

Discover what 50,000

9UBIE' delivers the finest peripheralavailable in terms of features, reli-/ and price/performance. That's whycorporations like IBM. GM and Exxon buyperipheral equipment from Qubie' andhave for years. Check some of your oldback issues of PC — we've been satisfyingPC owners since 1982.

Select products at low prices, with service and support un-paralleled in the microcomputer industry. Our 30 day No RiskGuarantee and 48 Hour Repair Service during the 12 monthwarranty period is proof our products are first rate. We standbehind everything we sell. No "call the manufacturer" re-sponses when you have a question. We also offer our exclusivePreferred Customer Plan*1 with 24 hour repairs and 24 monthsof coverage.

Our low, money-saving prices are the total prices. No smallprint telling you to add up for credit card charges or shippingand handling. Our prices include surface UPS charges andinsurance. In a hurry? 2-day air UPS service is available.*2

S5K=\ ©IS

as? $figa

i .v,w,M

**csas

At Qubie', customer satisfactionis one of the cornerstones of ourphilosophy. Ask your friends,business associates and colleaguesabout Qubie'. Chances are theyare one of our fifty thousand satis-fied customers.

«B

%*C

<,-..„

"- **CROso

*s«Ny0

TOY9TA 2 so

"

INTERNAL MODEM

PC212A/1200 $249

Auto-dial, Auto-Answer • 300/1200 Baud Operation • RunsHayes Compatible SoftwareLike Crosstalk, Smartcom II,and Sidekick • Two PhoneJacks Allow You To Hook UpDesk Phone • Includes PC-

■"^WHHi

TALK III Software (CompleteCommunications Package),Modular Phone Cord, User'sManual / Installation Instruc-tions • Optional Serial Port($30) Allows You To Use PortFor Other Peripherals WhenModem Is Not Being Used.

■I

STANDBY POWERSUPPLY

SB200 $329XT300 $429AT800 $779

OUStf

Noise Filtering/Surge Suppres-sion • Powers Your ComputerFor Up To 30 Minutes In TheEvent Of A Blackout Or Brown-out • SB200 (200 Watt) ForFloppy-Based Systems, XT300(300 Watt) For Hard Disk BasedSystems, AT800 (800 Watt) ForMulti-User Systems

HIGH RESOLUTION

MONOCHROME

MONITORS

HR39S149HR 134 $159

Plugs Into The IBM Mono-chrome or Compatible AdapterCard • 720 x 350 Resolution •12" Diagonal Screen • SuperCrisp Text Capability • HighResolution TTL • IncludesTilt/Swivel Base and Inter-face Cable • HR 134 (Amber)HR 39 (Green)

MULTIFUNCTION CARD

BT6Plus(0K)$195BT6Plus (384K) $299

Memory Sockets For AddingUp To 384K • Parallel PrinterPort • Asynchronous SerialCommunications Port • Battery-powered Clock / Calendar •BTPak Software - BTDrive

(Electronic DiskEmulation) and BTSpool(Print Spooling Software) •

104 B YTE • IUNE 1985

PC owners now know.

Optional Game Port — Chips.Dual Mounting Bracket andCable ($20) • 64K Memory -Installed and Tested ($25) •Includes Cable, Single SlotMounting Bracket, Instal-lation Instructions / User'sManual

INTERNAL HARD DISKSURSY5TEMSPC 10 $649PC20 $699

Boot From The Hard Disk - NoSoftware Patches or Drivers ToInstall • Runs All The PopularSoftware •

Low Power Consumption •High Reliability And Durabil-ity — Specially Plated Drives •Faster Access Time Than XT •Includes ldir "Visual Shell"Software, Cables, MountingHardware, Installation Instruc-tions/User's Manual, Full-Height Bezel — OptionalHalf-Height Bezel ($15) • Aux-iliary Power Supply AndExternal Models Are AlsoAvailable.

KED I I I I- I- IFFTWl

KEYBOARD

££51515159

Solid State Capacitive KeySwitches • 3-Position Height

Inquiry 347

Adjustment • Keys In StandardTypewriter Positions • Sepa-rate Cursor Control andNumeric Keypads • Easy-To-Read Key Legends • LEDIndicators On All Lock Keys •Extra-Wide Left-Hand ControlKey Adjacent To "A" • Control/Reset Replaces AwkwardContol/Alt/Delete • Plugs IntoIBM PC, PC/XT and CompaqDeskpro

EXTERNAL MODEM

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 105

j§

-^SV

Interactive Audio in a Videodisc System

by ]ohn lawler. Paul Hairsine.

and Albert E. Miller 108

Garcias Circuit Cellar:

Build the Home Run Control System.

Part 3: The Software

by Steve Garcia. .. .' 121

SALT

by Samuel D. Fenster and Lincoln E. Ford. . 147

The SUM: An AI Coprocessor

by Phillip Robinson 169

Inside AppleTalk

by David Ushijima 185

The Expert Mechanic

by Michael Fichtelman 205

Switch

by Werner F Grunbaum 221

Twos-Complement Numbers Revisited

by Gary Branson and Karl Lyon 228

LAST JULY OUR THEME was computers and video. This month we presenta different aspect of this interesting topic. John Lawler, Paul Hairsine, and AlbertMiller explain the design and operation of the Search 400-R audio box, whichtransfers sound from a cassette recorder to videodisc systems.

June also sees Steve Ciarcia finishing up his Home Run Control System (HCS)project by describing the system's software. The heart of the HCS is aninterrupt-service routine. All of the system's other functions are subroutinesthat are called from this main routine.

Prior to the development of their SALT language, Samuel Fenster and LincolnFord spent a lot of time developing programs that would accommodate theirwork in research laboratories. SALT is a threaded interpretive language thatperforms repetitious procedures rapidly and does not use much memoryspace.

Phillip Robinson, a senior technical editor in our Palo Alto office, looks atthe SUM coprocessor, which is being developed for computers geared towardAI programming. Originally, the SUM research team planned to develop aunification chip, but it became clear that at present levels of integration asingle chip would be impractical; therefore, the group decided to design afull-blown processor.

In February our BYTE West Coast staff previewed AppleTalk in "The Macin-tosh Office" (page 120). This month David Ushijima takes a closer look atApple's new local-area network (LAN), which is designed to let Apple andnon-Apple products communicate and share resources. AppleTalk is extremelyflexible and can be used in three ways: as a peripheral bus, as a small LAN,or as a path to a more complex network.

Imagine your computer taking the place of your car mechanic. MichaelFichtelman presents an expert mechanic program written in Logo. The ex-pert mechanic analyzes problems with knowledge-base searches—probing untilthe source of the mechanical problem is found. This program could serveas a model for many areas of expertise.

Switch is a BASIC program for IBM PCs that enables you to use both mono-chrome and color monitors at the same time. Werner F. Grunbaum shows youhow to write graphic instructions on your monochrome monitor and displaythe results on your color monitor—a neat idea.

Converting negative numbers on a computer can be difficult. Gary Bransonand Karl Lyon show us a new two's-complement conversion method using the"value box," which simplifies the process by visually connecting a two's-complement binary number to its decimal value.

—Phil Lemmons, Anne Fischer, and ]oan Roy, BYTE

1UNE 1985 -BYTE 107

InteractiveAudio in aVideodisc System

Create various

sound tracks foryour videodisc show

Microcomputer-drivenvideodisc teachingsystems usually con-sist of a microcom-puter, such as an Apple lie or an IBMPersonal Computer (PC), and a video-disc player controlled externally bycomputer. Some systems also use aninput device like a TSD (touch-sensitive display) or a mouse. Thesystem described in this article con-sists of a microcomputer (which con-trols the videodisc player), a TSD, andan external audio system that uses or-dinary cassette tapes. (For an in-depthdiscussion of videodiscs, see "Video-discs and Computers" by Stan Jarvis.July 1984 BYTE, page 187.)

While you can use videotapeplayers interactively, videodiscs aremore readily controlled by computer,have much faster interimage accesstimes, and can store up to 54,000frames on one side. You can also con-nect a TSD so that the computer candetermine what action to take de-pending on the area of the screen youtouch.

Such a system needs computer con-trol. While some videodisc playershave a small amount of memory andtherefore can have rudimentary pro-grams encoded on the actual video-disc, a microcomputer-driven system

is infinitely more versatile.

Software written for the computercan easily drive not only the videodiscplayer but other connected devices aswell. These programs offer you higherlevels of interactivity because mostcomputers are not limited to smallamounts of memory. Keep in mindthat the interactivity of such a systemcomes not from the media (videodisc,etc.) but from the computer program.How well it uses the various parts ofthe system and the techniques of aneffective presentation determines thesuccess of your videodisc system.

You can create teaching packageswith slides and videotaped motion se-quences that have been transferredonto the videodisc and mixed withcomputer text and graphics either onthe videodisc or overlaid on thevideodisc image on the display. Theresulting system is not merely an ex-pensive, glorified slide show. You canhave as interactive a teaching tool asyou want as long as it is controlled bycomputer. You can easily program asmany help buttons, quizzes, etc., asyou need using the information onthe videodisc. There are many appli-cations for such a system in all phasesof education—lab work, review,remedial help, self-paced courses,etc.—and at any grade level.

While pictures and animation mayserve many purposes, speech andsound are often invaluable. Mostvideodiscs have an audio track forrecording sound. But while sound canaccompany a sequence of frames(animation), such as a space-shuttlelaunch, it cannot accompany a single

still picture because a single framedoes not have enough space to holdit. There are two ways around this.One is to show many copies of thesame picture, one after the other, or,in other words, animate it. This is thesame as showing a sequence, andsound can accompany it. But even a15-second use of videodisc-recordedsound uses 4 50 copies (30 frames =1 second of motion) of one picture,an obvious waste of space. Sony has

[continued)\ohn lawler is currently a junior at theUniversity of Notre Dame majoring in elec-trical engineering with a concentration in com-puter engineering.

Paul Hairsine, who designed the boarddescribed in this article, has both a B.S. andan M.S. in electrical engineering from NotreDame and is currently working at McDon-nel Douglas.

Albert E. Miller is a graduate of the Col-orado School of Mines and has a Ph.D. from\owa State University. He is a professor inthe Department of Metallurgical Engineeringand Materials Science at Notre Dame anddirects a group involved with interactivevideodisc systems for training purposes. Allauthors can be reached at the University ofNotre Dame. Department of MetallurgicalEngineering and Materials Science, NotreDame. IN 46556.

108 BYTE • IUNE 1985

by John Lawler, Paul Hairsine, and Albert E. Miller

3@£!aKSHi

ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK LEVY

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 109

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

The Operationof the Search 40OR

The Search 400-R is a self-containedbox consisting of a cassette deckmounted on an electronics board, akeyboard control with a light-emittingdiode (LED) display, and a 16-pin dual-inline-package (DIP) cable connectedto a computer interface. You canoperate the unit manually or bycomputer.

The main difference between theSearch 400-R audio system and a nor-mal cassette player is in the way yourecord sound on the tape. Normalcassette tapes have only one track, orone recording surface, on which torecord sound. The Search 400-R audiobox, however, divides the tape intofour tracks, each of which can berecorded on separately. It sectionseach track further into either 2 5, 50,or 100 locations. Therefore, you candivide a standard CI20 (2-hour) tapeinto as many as 400 locations. How-ever, tracks have a finite amount ofrecording surface, so the more loca-tions you have per track, the less soundyou can fit into each location. With 100,50, or 25 locations per track, you canhave 0.5. 1.1, or 2.3 minutes of audioper location, respectively. A by-productof this recording scheme is an in-creased tape capacity—from theoriginal 2 hours to as much as 3.83hours (4 tracks x 2 5 locations per trackx 2.3 minutes per location).

The Search 400-R is especially usefulin a computer system because the tapelocations are accessed randomly. Thisshortens the time between requestinga location and playing it. Accessing alocation 2 5 minutes away from yourcurrent position takes about 12seconds; the search time between ad-jacent locations is substantially less—approximately 1 second for each loca-tion; i.e.. it takes 10 seconds to jump10 locations. These locations are in-dexed from 00 to 99 while track selec-tions are 1 through 4.

The deck finds various sections of

One by-product is a

greater tape capacity:

as much as 3.83 hours

on a 2-hour tape.

audio by counting the number of timesthe tape reel turns. This indirectmethod of addressing specific tapelocations results in high-speedsearches without tape-to-head contact.There are up to 100 locations per track,and each needs a particular number ofreel turns to be found; these numbersare stored in the Search 400-R's on-board ROM (read-only memory). Thedeck counts the number of reel turnsoptically and saves it in an up-downcounter, which is then compared to thenumber stored in ROM. Then the deckfast forwards or rewinds itself asnecessary to find the desired location.

One inherent source of error in suchreel-count methods is the variablepacking density of different tapes. Howtightly or loosely the tape is woundaround the reel can distort the reelcount enough to compare incorrectlywith the number stored in ROM. Thisresults in selecting the wrong audiolocation. Differences in packing densityarise because the take-up reel windsthe tape more tightly during fast for-ward than during normal play. Thereverse reel, however, maintains a con-sistent packing density regardless ofthe operation. The Search 400-R, there-fore, counts the number of times thereverse reel turns to minimize the dif-ferences in reel counts.

Another possible source of error isuneven braking. To stop the tape, thedeck sends equal amounts of brakingcurrents to the two reels. However,momentum causes the reel containingthe larger amount of tape to stop more

slowly. The Search 400-R alleviates thisproblem by boosting the braking cur-rent to this reel, so both reels stop atthe same time.

Counting errors can also occur if thedeck goes directly from, for example,fast forward to rewind. This doesn'talways allow enough time to properlyupdate the reel count. The Search400-R avoids this by not allowing theaudio deck to switch modes (i.e.. playto rewind) until it stops completely andupdates the reel count. Therefore, thedeck can search for specific audio loca-tions with a great deal of accuracy.

The audio deck has more than oneformat of operation, that is, 2 5, 50. or100 locations per track. A small rotaryswitch inside the audio box selects themode. You can access this switch byremoving the four screws on the backof the unit and sliding the deck out ofits housing. The switch simply selectswhich portions of the ROM will be ad-dressed, either manually or by com-puter.

The longest piece of audio any loca-tion can hold is 2.3 minutes. However,this does not preclude a 5-minute ex-planation. If the audio content in a par-ticular location exceeds the definedlength, the deck continues to record,but it erases whatever is in the nextlocation; likewise, it is erased if yourecord another piece of audio in thatnext location.

To facilitate manual operation of theSearch 400-R, the audio box isequipped with a 16-button keypad, anLED readout, a manual track selector,a volume control, and status lights. Thekeypad contains the following keys:

0-9

address digits

A

run

B

fast forward

C

stop

D

rewind

*

search

#

record

110 BYTE • IUNE 1985

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

The front panel also contains threeside switches: auto run. auto search,and auto repeat. When you set autosearch on. the deck begins to searchas soon as you enter the two locationdigits. When auto run is turned on, thedeck doesn't wait for the actual runcommand but plays the message assoon as it is found. Auto repeat con-tinues repeating the message until youenter a stop command. These threefunctions are useful in manual mode,but you should turn them off if you arerunning under computer control toprevent messages from playing beforeyou want them to.

The deck also has a silence-sense cir-cuit that detects the end of the audioand automatically stops the deck after2.5 seconds of silence. This circuitsenses the sequence of audio thensilence, so that the silence before theaudio doesn't stop the deck.

The following operating procedureapplies to both manual and computercontrol of the Search 400-R. It is im-portant to remember that you canmanually override computer control.When you insert a new tape into theaudio deck or turn the deck on, you(or the computer) first issue a rewindcommand to properly reset the reelcounter. Then you enter the appropri-ate track and location informationfollowed by a search command. Afterthe search completes, the bulb next tothe search button lights up to tell youthat the audio deck is waiting for a newcommand. If the box is under com-puter control, the bulb lights up, andthe computer is informed of its status.Then you enter the run command sothe message found by the search willbegin to play. When the message ends,the deck stops and the bulb next to thestop button lights up. indicating that itis ready for new selections and com-mands. If any of the side switches, suchas auto run. are on, some steps will bedone automatically. It is important thatthe track and location entered be con-sistent with the internal settings of themachine. In other words, you can't ef-fectively search for location 78 whenthe system is set up for 50 locations.

The audio deck can record tapes as

well as play them. When you press the# button—or the computer sends therecord command—the system entersrecord mode provided the record-protect tab on the tape has not beenremoved. The deck does have someidiosyncrasies that you need to under-stand. It has a four-track format butonly two tape heads. Each head coversa pair of tracks (tracks 1 and 2 andtracks 3 and 4). When recording instereo, this causes no problem becauseyou are recording two tracks simulta-neously. When recording in mono,however, you must be careful not toerase locations. The circuitry of theaudio deck requires that you selecttrack 2 or 4 to activate the tape heads.This means that you should recordtrack 2 before track 1, and track 4before track 3. Otherwise, while youare recording one track, you will beerasing the other. You also have anautomatic volume control when yourecord a tape. The Search 400-R user'smanual contains instructions on howto adjust it.

The general operating procedure forrecording a tape is basically the sameas for playing it. After you insert thetape in the deck, you fast forward it tothe end and then completely rewind it.This resets the reel counter and en-sures proper packing density. (It is notnecessary to fast forward and rewindthe tape just to play it, but it won't hurteither.) After the tape stops, you giveit the record command, either pro-grammatically or manually with the #button. Then you enter the track andlocation you wish to record. A searchcommand advances the tape to thatlocation, and when the search statuslight goes on, you enter the run com-mand to start recording. A built-indelay mutes the recording for two sec-onds to provide a gap between loca-tions; this allows for small deviationsin searching for a location. When thecommence light appears, you speakyour message into a microphone;when you finish, you enter the stopcommand. Pressing the # buttonreturns the deck to playback mode,where you can check the location andmessage you have just recorded.

a way of recording sound on a video-disc while showing only one frame,but it too uses a great deal of space.

Another problem with recordingsound on a videodisc is that oncerecorded, it is permanent. At the pres-ent time you cannot erase videodiscs.This is not a problem unless youdecide that some recorded sound se-quence isn't very clear; how can youchange it? You could make anothervideodisc for a few thousand dollars,or you could use an external audiobox.

The audio box described in this ar-ticle uses cassette tapes, so if thesound is not right, you can simplyrecord over it, allowing greaterpresentation flexibility. Indeed, thecombination of a computer and aseparate audio box means that youcan make one videodisc master anduse it for two completely differentgroups. Assume, for example, that youwant to use a videodisc about thespace program for both grammarschool students and aerospace engi-neering students. Since the twogroups have different comprehensionlevels, you would gear a different pro-gram and audiotape to each group—an easier one for the grammar schoolstudents and a more difficult one forthe college students.

Recording sound onto cassettetapes is not enough: you must inte-grate the audio box into the sys-tem—it must be controllable by thecomputer. It must also have facilitiesfor random access—given the loca-tion, to quickly find some piece ofsound without searching the entiretape. And there must be some sort ofinterface between the computer andthe audio box.

We decided to include audio capa-bilities in our interactive video systemand to begin with something simpleand inexpensive. And we wanted aneasily erasable, readily available re-cording medium—essentially a com-puter-controlled cassette tape re-corder. This need was met by theSearch 400-R by Phi Technologies.

The Search 400-R is a self-containedbox consisting of a cassette deck

{continued)

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INTERACTIVE AUDIO

mounted on an electronics board, akeyboard control with an LED (light-emitting diode) display, and a 16-pinDIP (dual-inline package) cable con-nected to a computer interface. Theunit can be operated either manuallyor under computer control. There are,however, differences between a nor-mal cassette player and the Search400-R audio system, which are de-scribed in the text box "The Opera-tion of the Search 400-R" on page110.

The 16-pin DIP connector lets youinterface the cassette deck with a per-sonal computer from which you canenter all necessary track and locationdata, as well as any desired com-mands. However, you must build aninterface for the two machines tocommunicate with each other. Thetext box "Designing an InterfaceCard" at right describes thisprocess.

Software Support

To make the hardware described inthe text boxes useful, it must be sup-ported by software. Luckily, simpleBASIC programs can provide suchsupport. Operating the Search 400-Rwith an Apple lie is a simple process.The peripherals are plugged into in-ternal expansion slots—called I/O (in-put/output) slots—numbered Othrough 7. The Apple lie treats its I/Oslots like memory locations (ad-dresses); therefore, to communicatewith a peripheral device plugged intoan I/O slot, the software program mustmerely access the address that cor-responds to the slot it wants. Table 1provides the slot numbers for theApple lie, along with their corre-sponding addresses in decimal form.

If the interface card between theApple and the Search 400-R is pres-ent in slot 3. for example, the programmust address location 49328. Sincethe Apple He accesses the I/O slots asmemory locations, you can establishcommunication with the audio box byusing the BASIC statements PEEK(x)and POKE(x) where x is a memoryaddress such as 49328.

To function properly, the program

(continued)

112 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 175

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

Designing an Interface Card

To design an interface card to con-trol the Search 400-R with a micro-computer, you must first understandthe microprocessor interface on theaudio deck. On the back of the deckyou will find a 16-pin connector that at-taches it to the computer. The pins areall 5 volts and compatible with TTL(transistor-transistor logic), Schottky,and CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor). (For more infor-mation, see table A.)

The first seven pins are used to entertrack and location data into the audiodeck. If you want to use an address,you enter two binary-coded-decimal(BCD) numbers sequentially into pins1 through 4, the most significant digit(MSD) first. Then you send a strobepulse through the address strobe at pin5 to inform the audio deck that an ad-dress, rather than a command, hasbeen entered. The track number isentered into pins 7 and 8 and must bethere when you input the first numberof the address. Remember that count-ing starts at 0 in this system: 0 repre-sents the first track, 1 the second, etc.Therefore, you must enter the loca-tion's MSD and the track informationinto the appropriate pins before youactivate the strobe. Then you can in-put the location's least significant digit(LSD) and strobe it as well.

You enter commands to the audiobox in exactly the same manner butyou don't activate the address strobe.Commands are entered as BCDnumbers with decimal values 10through 15, as follows:

search

10

record

11

run

12

fast forward

13

stop

14

rewind

15

These numbers must stay on the inputpins for at least 1 millisecond toregister the commands properly.

Pins 10 through 15 are known as thestatus outputs and are used for datacoming from the audio box. They areconnected directly to the LED (light-emitting diode) display on the Search400-R and can tell the computer what

the audio box is doing at any giventime. They are active low, so finding thepins at ground determines the statusof the unit. (The start run pin is usedby remote-control devices such astimers and therefore is not applicablefor computer control.)

Controlling the Search 400-R

Both the Apple lie and IBM PersonalComputer (PC) have internal expansionslots for plug-in circuit boards that aredirectly connected to the I/O (input/out-put) channels. Each slot consists of abidirectional data bus, address lines,and interrupt and DMA (direct memoryaccess) control lines. The channelshave I/O read or write lines, clock andtiming lines, and power and ground forthe circuit boards. You can put infor-mation on or take it off the I/O chan-nel's data lines by connecting them tothe clock's input lines, which allows thecomputer to control the deck, and by

connecting them to the deck's status-output lines, which allows the com-puter to monitor the status of the deck.Thus, by connecting the Search 400-Runit in this manner, you can—with theappropriate software—have two-waycommunications between the deck andthe controlling computer.

The Apple Interface

We purchased an interface card madeby Phi Technologies for the Apple lierather than designing one fromscratch. It uses only the data lines, aread/write line, a clock line, and thedevice-select line from the Apple's I/Ochannel to control the audio box. It isavailable as item #9000-009 from PhiTechnologies Inc. (4605 North Stiles,Oklahoma City, OK 73105) for $160.Each I/O slot in the Apple He has aspecific address and uses the device-select line for decoding instead of the

[continued)

Table A:

The functions and active levels of the 16 pins in the 16-pin

connector found on the back of the Search 400-R and used to connect it to

the computer. (LSB stands for

least significant bit, and MSB stands for

most significant bit.)

Pin 1

data bit 1 (LSB)

active high

Pin 2

data bit 2

active high

Pin 3

data bit 3

active high

Pin 4

data bit 4 (MSB)

active high

Pin 5

address strobe

active high

Pin 6

track bit 1 (LSB)

active high

Pin 7

track bit 2 (MSB)

active high

Pin 8

ground

Pin 9

start run

active high

Pin 10

search OK status

active low

Pin 11

rewind status

active low

Pin 12

fast forward status

active low

Pin 13

run status

active low

Pin 14

stop status

active low

Pin 15

record status

active low

Pin 16

+ 5 volts

Table B: The addresses you can use to activate two channels if you wishto attach two audio boxes.

A,

A,

A7

A6

A,

A4

A.,

A2

A,

A„

Channel 1

1

1

0

0

0

X

X

0

0

0

Channel 2

1

1

0

0

0

X

X

0

1

1

IUNE I985 -BYTE 113

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

address lines. When you wish to eithersend or receive data from the I/O slot'saddress, you activate that slot'sdevice-select line. Its data lines areconnected to the status-output lines,and to the deck's two input lines (pins1-7) via seven clocked D-type flip-flops. Of the seven data bits sentthrough the input lines, the four LSDbits are the address bits, the next twothe track bits, and the seventh the ad-dress strobe. Note that the MSD bit is

not used. The clock inputs to the sevenD-type flip-flops are connected to theoutput of another clocked D-type flip-flop that is further connected to theoutput of the decoding circuitry. Whenyou activate the device-select line, andthe read/write line is in the write state,the input to the lone D-type flip-flopgoes from low to high.

The corresponding clock line is con-nected to a system clock that goeshigh halfway through the I/O cycle. If

the input to the lone D-type flip-flophas been set high by the decoding cir-cuitry, when the system-clock line goeshigh, the output of this flip-flop goesfrom low to high. This is seen as a clockpulse that initiates the data transferfrom the data lines to the input lines.A series of three-state gates con-nects the status-output lines to thedata lines. These gates act as buffersand prevent the data from the statuslines from entering the data lines

e3

74LS424 TO 10DECODER

1I0R) B14 '(I0W) B13

3>H>

.J>

1=

74LS244BUS DRIVER

1h

0 Q

ICX^^

t:

~7h

TWO-CHANNEL SEARCH 400-R IBM PC INTERFACE

-m-CD

"CD \ TRACK-(T] j BITSH~5~] STROBEr—GO GND

I SEARCH OK-i

I REWIND

j F. FWD.-j 13 I RUN STATUS

-f 1* ] STOP

j RECORD

1+5

-m

HID I ADDRESS-fT] f BITS

<L\

"CD 1 TRACK-H~| J BITS

-{J] STROBE

£™

SEARCH OK -

REWIND

F. FWD.

RUN STATUS

n:

STOP

H

RECORD

Figure A: A logic diagram of Paul Hairsines interface card for the IBM PC.

114 BYTE

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

unless the interface card requests aread. When the computer asks for thestatus of the Search 400-R, the device-select line is activated and the read/write line goes to the read state, ac-tivating the three-state gates. This ac-tion puts the data from the status lineonto the I/O channel's data line. It re-mains there until the end of the I/O in-struction cycle, at which time the three-state gates deactivate. In this manner,the computer can monitor the statusof the audio box.

The IBM Interface

Although there was an interface for theApple He, there was none for the IBMPC, so we had to design one. We usedan IBM prototype card that plugs intoan expansion slot. The logic diagramsfor the designed interface and the pro-totype card are included in figure A.

The prototype card contains avoltage bus (+ 5 volts) that borders onits back and a ground bus on its front.It has a system-interface design that en-sures that you only use the I/O addressassigned for user design and protectsthe computer from faulty circuitdesigns. The prototype card's interfacehas five address lines not used as partof its decoding circuitry, allowing youto assign different addresses to dif-ferent cards or to different circuits onthe same card. The rest of the addresslines are decoded into an I/O decodeline, which activates the circuitry on thecard. The prototype card's interfacealso has eight data lines that are usedfor its circuitry.

Because the IBM PCs I/O channelcan address two different circuits onthe same board, we designed the in-terface card with two channels so youcan drive two Search 400-Rs with it.Two audio boxes on the same systemprovide faster access time to tape loca-tions and allow two separate videodiscsystems to share the same computer.Having only one interface card insteadof two also leaves one of the IBM PC'sfew expansion slots free for other uses.Its design is similar to the Apple's toallow easy software transfer betweenthe two systems.

We used a 4-to-10 decoder to createthe two channels. It uses the last threeaddress bits, E14-E12. and the I/O selectbit, E,,, from the prototype card for itsfour input lines (see figure A). The out-

Table C: The chips required tobuild the IBM PC interface card.

1 74LS42 4-to-10 decoder

2 74LS245 octal-bus transceivers2 74LS244 octal-buffer line drivers4 74LS175 quad D-type flip-flops

1 74LS74 dual D-type flip-flop

1 74LS04 hex inverter

1 74LS02 quad NOR gate

12 chips total

put lines that activate the two channelsalso determine their addresses. Out-puts O0 and 03 are used with the in-terface card and provide the possibleaddresses for each channel shown intable B. The Xs can be either Os or Is.If you use all possible combinationsand convert these binary numbers todecimal, you can address channel 1with 768, 776, 784, and 792 and chan-nel 2 with 771, 779, 787, and 795. Ifyou use these addresses properly, youcan easily transfer data to or from theappropriate audio deck. The two chan-nels are identical except for the ad-dresses that activate them.

Each channel uses an octal trans-ceiver to connect its data lines to theprototype card's data lines. A trans-ceiver is a device that allows one ofthree possible actions between the twopoints it connects: Data can flow fromA to B or from B to A, or A and B canbe isolated from each other. This isideal for the interface card; each chan-nel can be bidirectional when activatedor it can be isolated from the com-puter. The direction of the data transferthrough the transceiver is determinedby the I/O read line: If the line is ac-tive, the data is sent to the computer;if it is not, the information is sent onlyto the audio deck.

The deck's input lines for each chan-nel are connected to its transceiverthrough seven clocked D-type flip-flops, with the pin assignments iden-tical to those of the Apple lie interface.The clock of all seven D-type flip-flopsis connected to the output of anotherclocked D-type flip-flop, which in turnis connected to the output of the

decoding circuitry. The decoding cir-cuitry is simply a NOR gate whose in-puts are connected to the I/O write lineand the decoder output correspondingto that channel. Both inputs are activelow, so when both lines activate the in-put, the control D-type flip-flop goeshigh. Its clock is connected to the sys-tem clock, so after the I/O write and thedecoder output both activate, the out-put of the control D-type flip-flop goesfrom low to high on the next systemclock pulse. The track and locationdata are on the data lines when the I/Owrite line is activated; when thedecoder output activates, the trans-ceiver is activated. The seven D-typeflip-flops see this low-to-high transitionas a clock pulse and pass the data onthe data lines from the computer to theSearch 400-R.

An octal-buffer line driver connectsthe status-output lines for each chan-nel to its transceiver. This driver allowsonly two possible states: Data is trans-mitted from A to B, or A and B areisolated. When the computer requestsinformation from the audio box, the I/Oread line and its correspondingdecoder line are activated. Both are ac-tive low, and since the line driver ac-tivates on a low signal, you must ORthe two inputs to enable it. Since weused inverters and NOR gates todesign the interface board, we used aninverted NOR to implement the ORgate. This saved us from having to addan OR gate to the board. After the linedriver activates, data from the statusoutputs appears on the I/O channel'sdata lines and remains there until theend of the instruction cycle. This pro-vides the computer with enough timeto fetch the data and to monitor thestatus of an audio box on eitherchannel.

We built the interface card with thechips shown in table C The card is con-nected to the Search 400-R through a16-line flat cable. Each end of the cablehas a 16-pin DIP (dual-inline package)connector, which plugs into the 16-pinwire-wrapped sockets on the interfacecard and into the audio deck's inter-face receptacle. You can find a layoutof the card in figure A. The pin assign-ments of the 16-pin wire-wrappedsockets correspond to the numbers ofthe Search 400-R's receptacle shown intable A.

IUNE 1985

• YTE 115

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

needs the track and location of thedesired sound sequence. These twonumbers, track and location, first mustbe converted to binary-coded-decimal(BCD) numbers and then output tothe audio box through the interfacecard. The most significant digit (MSD)is output first and the least significantdigit (LSD), last. If you set the Search400-R audio box for computer con-

trol, you must set bits 4 and 5 of theinput data to the track number usedwhen the MSD is output; you must setbit 6 high on both the track and loca-tion address outputs. The Search400-R has six commands, and eachhas a two-digit code. Issuing a com-mand to the audio unit is simply amatter of implementing a POKE to in-sert its code into the address of the

audio system. The following is a listof the commands and their codes:

Table 1:

The slot numbers for the Apple

lie along with the corresponding

decimal addresses. [Note: Slot 0 is not present

in the Apple

\le but is present in

the Apple

II and the Apple II + .)

Slot

Decimal Address

0

49280

1

49296

2

49312

3

49328

4

49344

5

49360

6

49376

7

49392

Listing 1: The Apple We coderequired to tell the audio box tosearch for a specific location on thetape

100 INPUT "Enter track number: ";T110 INPUT "Enter location: ";L120 A = INT(L/10): B = L-(A*10)130 A = A+ 0"* 10)+ 64: B = B + 64140 POKE 49328.A: POKE 49328,0150 POKE 49328.B: POKE 49328,0160 POKE 49328,10: POKE 49328,0

Listing 2: This section of Apple

We code contains a

search

followed by a wait for the search

OK before issuing

the run

command.

10 POKE 49328,10:

POKE 49328,0

20 IF PEEK(49328)

<>110 THEN 20

30 POKE 49328,12

POKE 49328,0

Listing 3: The code required to establish communications between the audio box

and the IBM PC and the Apple

lie

respectively.

IBM PC

Apple lie

100 INPUT "Enter track: ";T

100 INPUT "Enter track: ";T

110 INPUT "Enter location: ";L

110 INPUT "Enter location: ";L

120 A = INT(L/10): B = L-(A*10)

120 A = INT(L/10): B = L-(A*10)

130 A = A + (T-10) + 64: B = B + 64

130 A = A + (T* 10) + 64: B = B + 64

140 OUT 768.A: OUT 768,0

140 POKE 49328.A: POKE 49328,0

150 OUT 768.B: OUT 768,0

150 POKE 49328,B: POKE 49328,0

160 OUT 768,10: OUT 768,0

160 POKE 49328,10: POKE 49328,0

170 IF INP(768)<> 110 THEN 170

170 IF PEEK(49328)< >110 THEN 170

180 OUT 768,12: OUT 768,0

180 POKE 49328,12: POKE 49328,0

Command name

Code

search

10

record

II

run

12

fast forward

13

stop

14

rewind

15

You must follow each POKE of a com-mand code with a POKE of 0, whichprepares the interface card to acceptanother command. For example, totell an audio box connected to I/O slot3 (address 49328) to rewind the tape(code 15) you would have to send thecommands POKE 49328,15: POKE49328,0.

Listing 1 provides a simple butworkable example of how to tell theaudio box to search for a certain loca-tion on the tape. Lines 100 and 110ask for the track and location of thepiece of sound desired. Line 120 setsA to the location's MSD and B to itsLSD. Line 130 sets up the data forproper output. This is done by settingthe address strobe (bit 6) high ( + 64)for both A and B. T* 10 sets bits 4 and5 of the first address digit to the tracknumber. Lines 140 and 150 output theaddress to the interface, and line 160gives it the search command. Thesefew lines can fully control the Search400-R audio box.

Occasionally, you might want tocheck for proper operation of theaudio deck by reading the status lines.Essentially, the status informationworks like a stoplight that tells thecomputer when the next commandcan continue to its destination. Thestatus line can tell you if everythingis running smoothly. If it is, you canhave the next command sent. If not,the computer delays the commanduntil it is ready for it. Reading thestatus is easy with BASIC'S PEEKcommand. Seven status lines provideinformation on the audio deck's oper-ation. Combined, they make up astatus byte. The Apple lie is an 8-bitmachine, and it reads 8-bit bytes, suchas the status byte of the audio box.

The status lines are all consideredactive low except for the power on line.

116 B YTE • IUNE 1985

INTERACTIVE AUDIO

This means that if a certain status ison, its particular bit in the status byteis equal to 0—just the opposite ofwhat you would expect—and if thestatus is off, the bit equals 1. The ex-ception lies in the status of power on,which follows the more commonusage; i.e., 1 means on and 0 meansoff. The following list shows what func-tions the various status bits imply:

Status

Data bit

search OK

0

rewind

1

fast forward

2

run

3

stoprecord

4

5

power on

6

Consider the status byte shown infigure 1. Bits 0 through 6 are thestatus bits, and each provides somepiece of information; for instance, bit4 tells you whether the audio deckhas stopped. Therefore, if you needinformation about the current statusof the audio box, your program mustaccess the status byte. This can bedone by looking at the address of theinterface using the PEEK command,which is the same process as usingPOKE to enter a command. However,PEEK(x) reads a decimal number x,while the status information is inbinary form. You must, therefore, con-vert the binary number to decimalform. Consider the status byte infigure 2. The binary number is1101110, telling us that the power ison, the search for a piece of soundwas successful, and the audio unit hasstopped doing anything and is readyto accept another command. The dec-imal equivalent of 1101110 is 110, sothe PEEK command would retrievethe number 110. Line 20 in listing 2demonstrates how you can make thecomputer wait until a search OK ap-pears after having issued a searchcommand.

The software used to control theSearch 400-R from the Apple He isstraightforward. Controlling the audiobox from an IBM PC requires basical-ly the same process; however, the IBMPC doesn't treat the I/O addresses asmemory locations, so the chart of slot

NOT

USED

POWERON

RECORD

STOP

RUN

FASTFWD

REWIND

SEARCHOK

Figure 1: The layout of the audio deck's status byte.

NOT USED

POWER ON

STOP

FAST FORWARD SEARCH OK

OFF

ON

Figure 2: An example of the status byte for the audio deck.

numbers and addresses given aboveis not applicable. POKE and PEEKwon't allow communication betweenthe IBM PC and the audio box either.Instead, you must use the commandsOUT x.y, and INP(x).

Listing 3 contains the programmingnecessary to establish communica-tions between the audio box and theIBM PC and the Apple He, respective-ly. Both programs need to have thetrack and location of the desiredpiece of sound, a search (code 10) forthe sound, a check of the status bytefor search OK, and if found, a runcommand (code 12). You can see fromthe similarity of the two programs thatyou can transfer BASIC programs writ-ten on either machine to the otherwith a minimum of translation.

While we have used BASIC in theexample, you can use any computerlanguage to accomplish the samething, as long as you know how to out-put data to the I/O channel and acceptinput from it. Furthermore, after theaudio box rewinds the tape to the be-ginning, approximately 100 millisec-

onds must elapse between stoppingthe tape and entering a command tomove it. This allows the counting cir-cuits in the audio box to reset. In ad-dition, the IBM PC changes its databits too quickly when trying to inputaddress locations. This means thatdata doesn't stay on the lines longenough to properly activate the audiodeck. You can correct this by writinga software delay into the program.

Conclusion

By using an interactive audio system,such as the Search 400-R, you cancreate more versatile interactive-videodisc training packages. Whilethis article describes using interactiveaudio in conjunction with interactivevideo, the concept can just as easilybe used in normal computer-basedteaching packages. ■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors wish to express their gratitudeto the IBM Corporation, the NationalScience Foundation, and the Notre DameCollege of Engineering for continued sup-port of this work.

JUNE 1985 -BYTE 117

Lotusl-2'3

asell

Wordstar

Crosstalk

Framewofk

r~nr

Symphony

m$\

I 1 I III II III)

I 1

IBM]

How do you get

your PC to wear

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at the same time?

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IUNE 1985 'BYTE 119

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•

BASI

CIARCIAS CIRCUIT CELLAR

BUILD THEHOME RUN CONTROL

SYSTEM

PART 3: THE SOFTWAREby Steve Ciarcia

Energy management, convenience,and security in one package

Over the past few monthsI've been describing theHome Run Control Sys-tem (HCS), my rendition ofa sophisticated yet cost-effective home-controlsystem. Briefly, the HCS isa single-board computer with the hardwareand software needed to control lights andappliances in a home or a specific produc-tion process in a small business. The systemuses BSR home-control modules that areactivated by signals superimposed on thehouse wiring and can also directly controlthe process through hard-wired inputs andoutputs. Home Run can accommodate 48BSR modules, 16 digital inputs, 8 TTL(transistor-transistor logicj-compatible out-puts, and 16 messages.

In the first two parts, I introduced you tothe overall system concept and the hard-ware. This month, I'll finish by describing theHCS's editing software and demonstratinga simple schedule entry.

Home Run Is Interrupt-Driven

The heart of the HCS is an interrupt-serviceroutine. All other HCS functions are subrou-tines that are called from this main routine.I have outlined the software in great detailbecause many readers can understand andappreciate the HCS better from that per-spective. Also, the control methodology can

be used as a model for more personalizedcontrol designs should you not care tospecifically build mine.

Figure 1 is the main interrupt handler.Each block in the flowchart represents aprogram action that in most cases is self-explanatory and requires few statements toimplement. In more involved tasks, subor-dinate flowchart sections (figures 2 through8) are referenced to explain those opera-tions in greater detail. Together, they func-tion as follows:

The timing-generator circuitry sends inter-rupts to the processor at approximately 601hertz (Hz). When the processor detects theinterrupt, it finishes the current instruction,saves its status, and gets the address of theinterrupt-service routine. The processor ex-ecutes the routine at that address until itencounters a return-from-interrupt instruc-tion. When that occurs, the processor willrecover its status and continue from whereit left off prior to the interrupt.

When the interrupt-service routine iscalled, it decrements the interrupt counter.When this counter reaches 0, one second

{continued)

Steve Ciarcia (pronounced "see-ARE-see-ah") is an elec-tronics engineer and computer consultant with experiencein process control, digital design, nuclear instrumenta-tion, and product development. He is the author ofseveral books about electronics. You can write to himat POB 582, Glastonbury. CT 06033.

COPYRIGHT © 1985 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE

121

CIRCUIT CELLAR

is added to the current time. If the time changes to a newminute, the routine will check the status of the CommandFIFO (first-in/first-out) buffer. If there are any commands(turning a module or output on or off), they are executedone at a time in the order they entered the FIFO buffer.When the Command FIFO buffer is finished, the pro-cessor checks the status of the Time FIFO buffer. If it isempty, the table of events is scanned to find events thatare activated by one of the input lines. When one suchevent is found, the appropriate input line is checked tosee if it has changed status within the last second. If it

has, the appropriate on or off command is placed in theCommand FIFO buffer for execution. The scan continuesuntil all input-activated events are checked.

If the Time FIFO buffer is not empty, the first time inthe FIFO buffer is saved, and the table of events is scannedto find events that are scheduled to occur at that time.If the time matches, the appropriate on or off commandis placed in the Command FIFO buffer for execution, andthe event scan continues until all events have beenchecked.

[continued)

INTERRUPT OCCURS

PREVENT FURTHERINTERRUPTS

NO^^

3 ^

YES

READ KEY AND SAVEFOR I/O ROUTINE

READ CURRENT STATEOF INPUT LINES

IF ANY LINE IS DIFFERENTFROM ITS REFERENCE LEVEL.THEN SET THE REQUEST FLAGFOR THAT LINE

SET FLAG FOR SERIAL I/O

j KEY PRESSED I'' ON KEYBOARD I

I 1

| CHECK IF A |__

, BSR COMMAND |

IS BEING1 TRANSMITTEDI I

I 1

| CHECK IF .

| THERE ARE ANY f*■ COMMANDS

WAITING

TO BE I

I EXECUTED I

I I

I 1

, IS TERMINAL OR

KEYBOARD

IN USEI P-

MS THE EVENT |

I TABLE

j CURRENTLY

| BEING

SCANNED ™»

I 1

DECREMENTJ INTERRUPTCOUNTERI I

ALLOW FURTHER INTERRUPTS

RESET THEINTERRUPT COUNTER

UPDATE THE CLOCK

TO FIGURE 2

CHECK IF ANY INPUT LINEIS REQUESTING RESTORE

-»• TO FIGURE 3

CHECK IF ANY INPUT LINESARE REQUESTING THAT HOLDBE APPLIED OR REMOVED

YES

*

■♦ TO FIGURE i

EXECUTE ONE COMMAND

TO FIGURE 5

SCAN THE EVENT TABLE

-*• TO FIGURE 6

RETURN FROM INTERRUPT

Figure I: Master Interrupt Handler flowchart.

122 B YTE • IUNE 1985

CfQ

C

n

"<3

a.

UPDATE THE CLOCK

ADD 1 TO SECONDS

ADD OR SUBTRACT CLOCKACCURACY VALUE FROMSECONDS

["start OF j

A\NEW MINUTE .

ADD 1 TO MINUTE

I MINUTE |

„-| DIVISIBLE j

L_BY_4___J

SET FLAG TO TRYAUTO RESTORE

"L

NO

{"start 0F~]

A NEW HOUR

ADD 1 TO HOUR

YES

J START OF I/•i NEW DAY

TEST 60Hz POWER AND SETFLAG IF MISSING

SAVE CURRENT TIME INFIFO FOR USE BYEVENT SCAN

SET FLAG TO UPDATEDISPLAY

ADD 1 TO DAY OF WEEK

DAY OF WEEK =SUNDAY

ADD 1 TO DAY OF MONTH

[~PAST END OF

ADD 1 TO MONTH

MONTH = JANUARY

ADJUST ON TIME OF DAYOF ANY EVENTS SELECTEDTO TRACK SUNSET

DONE

"•J

n

*3n

c

HO

mrr->

73

CIRCUIT CELLAR

If the time is the start of a new minute, the current timeis put into the Time FIFO buffer for use in the event scan.If the terminal is not currently being used for some otherdisplay, the main display is updated, and the programstarts checking the FIFO buffers.

When certain commands such as DIM, or functions suchas Restore or Manual Control, are executed, they use alarge amount of processor time. This can cause a conflictif the interrupt-service routine attempts to execute othercommands or scans the event table. To prevent this possi-ble conflict, the time-consuming routines set a priority flagthat prevents the interrupt-service routine from perform-ing any operations with the FIFO buffers. As soon as thepriority routines are finished and clear the flag, theinterrupt-service routine can begin processing the FIFObuffers again.

Whenever a function requires input from the terminal,it would be possible to miss a character that was typedif an interrupt occurred and a FIFO buffer required pro-cessing. To prevent this, routines requiring input set a flagthat gives input priority to the terminal. The interrupt-service routine is allowed to put the current time into theTime FIFO buffer every minute, but it is prevented fromtaking times out and scanning the event table. When theflag is cleared, the interrupt-service routine begins scan-ning the event table with the times that were stored inthe FIFO buffer. This means that if an event was sched-uled to occur while you were typing, it would not reallyoccur until after you had completed whatever you wereentering.

If for some reason the HCS is left waiting for terminalinput or in the editing mode and no characters are input

RESTORE BY INPUT

| IS RESTORE |

.-1

BY INPUT

.ENABLED

NO /

p ^

Tyes

[YES

',

NO /

EXECUTE RESTORE

SET SERVICED FLAGFOR THE INPUT LINE

r

i

i -,

'.-\ IS THE REQUESTFLAG FOR THEI INPUT LINE I

I THAT CONTROLS IRESTORE SET

| IS RESTORE ij CURRENTLY— | BEING DONE

IS 60HzPOWER■ AVAILABLE j

_J

YES

START WITH DRIVER 1.MODULE 1

| CHECK LAST L,KNOWN STATUS |OF MODULE

OFF

TURN MODULE ON

TURN MODULE OFF

NEXT MODULE

Figure 3: Restore Request Check flowchart.

124 B YTE • IUNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

for 5 minutes, it will return to the status display and beginprocessing the FIFO buffers.

Nomenclature

Before I can adequately discuss all the menu options andcontrol features of the HCS, the nomenclature must bedescribed in more detail.

A module can be a message, a BSR module, or someelectrical equipment connected to a direct output line.Each module is identified by a module number from 1to 16 (8 in the case of the direct outputs). For messages,the module number identifies 1 of 16 possible messages(each can be any length). For BSR modules, the modulenumber identifies the number you set on the BSRmodule's unit-code switch. For direct outputs, the modulenumber refers specifically to the l-of-8 output lines to

which directly controlled equipment can be connected.

An event is a set of actions that you want performedon a module. Each event has four parts: the driver, themodule, what turns the module on, and what turns themodule off. "On" and "off" actions result from coincidencewith a prespecified time and date, a logic-level transitionon 1 of 16 input lines, or a predefined time duration.

A driver defines what an event does when it is executed.Seven drivers are used in the HCS (an eighth driver is theSuperkey, which will be explained later), and their func-tions are as follows:

The Message driver (#7) displays messages on theterminal.

The BSR On/Off driver (#1, #4, and #5) turns a BSRmodule on or off.

(continued)

CHECK IF ANY INPUTLINES ARE REQUESTINGTHAT HOLD BEREMOVED OR APPLIED

r~ 1

I IS THE REQUEST |1 FLAG FOR THE. APPLY-HOLD J"««.,INPUT ACTIVE

L_ J

^y

a

\^ NO

I YES

SET THE SERVICEDFLAG FOR THEAPPLY-HOLD INPUT

SET THEHOLD-ENABLE FLAG

| IS THE REQUEST |

'-,

NO /

Tyes

^H FLAG FOR THE

,, "" REMOVE-HOLD"" INPUT ACTIVE

N.

SET SERVICED

FLAG FOR

REMOVE- HOLD INPUT

CLEAR

HOLD-ENABLE FLAG

DONE

Figure 4: Hold Request Check flowchart.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 125

CIRCUIT CELLAR

The BSR Dimmer driver (#2) lets you remotely controlthe brightness of a lamp connected to a BSR lamp module.The brightness of the lamp is defined by a level from 1to 16. Level 16 is fully on.

The BSR Cycler driver (#3) will turn a BSR module onfor a selected time interval and then off for the same in-terval. This cycle repeats until the event is scheduled tostop. The interval is specified in minutes and can have avalue from 1 to 180 minutes.

The Direct Output driver (#6) provides an open-collectorTTL-compatible control signal on each of eight outputlines. An 'ON' signal is a logical high, greater than 2.4 volts(V); an OFF' signal is a logical low, less than 0.4 V.

An input is an electrical signal that is less than 0.2 V(logic 0) or greater than 3.0 V (logic 1). The HCS can ac-commodate -9-V to +9-V input levels. When the HCS isfirst powered up or the manual Reset button is pushed,the current state of each line, either high or low, is savedand is considered to be the reference or nonactive stateof that line. The reference state can be changed at anytime by a command. If an input line changes from its ref-erence state, either a transition from low to high or highto low, an input is said to have occurred, and the HCS willreact accordingly.

Dimmer. Cycler, and BSR On/Off drivers are further de-fined by a house code. The house code determines whichBSR modules respond to a particular driver. On power-

up, the HCS defaults to house code A. It can be alternatelyredefined as any one of the 16 possible house codesthrough a menu-selected editing command. The first BSRdriver and the Cycler and Dimmer drivers use the A housecode, while BSR drivers #4 and #5 each use the next se-quential letters. This allows control of 48 BSR modulesindependently.

The Status Display

When the HCS is functioning, the current on/off status ofeach module is presented with the time and date in astatus display. Typically, it is a 24-line display that appearsas shown in listing 1 and photo 1.

The number in the left column is the driver number usedin input routines. The next column is the driver type andthe house code for those that designate BSR drivers.

The status of each module is represented by a symbol.A dash (-) means that no events are scheduled for thatdriver/module combination. (A dash appears only on aprintout or a terminal. A raised dot is used on the integralvideo display.) A zero (0) means that events are sched-uled for that driver/module and that the last commandexecuted was an off command (currently inactive). A one(1) means that events are scheduled for that driver/moduleand that the last command executed was an on command(currently active).

[continued]

SCAN

EVENTS TABLE

ARE THERE ANYTIMES STORED INTHE TIME FIFO

SCAN TABLE FORTIME-CONTROLLEDEVENTS ONLY

SCAN TABLE FOREVENTS CONTROLLEDBY INPUTS

IF SERVICED FLAGIS SET FORANY INPUT LINE.THEN CLEARREQUEST FLAGFOR THAT LINE

TO FIGURE 1

TO FIGURE 8

1 IS THE HOLD FLAG .. SET FOR THIS S.'DRIVER AND MODULE "■»

EXECUTE

ONE COMMAND

GET COMMANDFROM FIFO

**" S^ ^\

"\ YES

Y

ES /"

Tno

^IS^\

1

ON jS[NO

CLEAR STATUS FLAG

FOR THIS

DRIVER AND MODULE

.

SET STATUS FLAGFOR THIS

DRIVER AND MODULE

GET DRIVER ANDTURN MODULEON OR OFF

DONE

Figure 5: Execute Command flowchart.

Figure 6: Scan Events Table flowchart.

126 BYTE- |UNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

SCAN TABLE FOR EVENTSCONTROLLED BY TIME

GET TIME FROM TIMEFIFO BUFFER

POINT TO FIRST EVENTIN THE TABLE

- JlS THE BYPASS FLAG[SET FOR THIS MODULE '

NO

rDECREMiNT~BYPAS S~~1"""■ -• _| TIME COUNTER

LfOR THIS EVENT

CLEAR BYPASS FLAGFOR THIS MODULE

| IS ON-DELAY•~~j COUNTER RUNNING ,I FOR THIS EVENT

.'decrement I

I ON-DELAY COUNTER '

YES

| DOES ANY INPUT |i CONTROL THE ON i

PART OF THIS

EVENT

r

COMPARE THE ONI TIME OF THIS-J EVENT TO THE1 TIME TAKEN I

| FROM THE FIFO

| 1

IF ON DELAY |

I ENABLED AND NOT

--I COUNTING. THEN I

START COUNTING

IF THIS IS A CYCLER EVENT.GET LENGTH FOR ON TIME ANDSTORE IN CYCLER BUFFER

IF THIS IS A DIMMER EVENT.GET BRIGHTNESS LEVEL ANDSTORE IN DIMMER BUFFER

Figure 7: Scan for Time Events flowchart.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE

127

CIRCUIT CELLAR

The normal display will show the current time, any mes-sages, and the status of all 120 modules. To see a menuof the available commands, enter a space character. TheHCS will display an editing menu, as shown in listing 2.

To use one of the functions displayed, answer theprompt with the appropriate letter followed by a return.Each of the editing functions will be discussed further aswe attempt to actually run the HCS.

Firing It Up

Before starting to use your HCS for the first time, a fewitems must be considered. If you are using an externalterminal or computer for display, use table 1 to select thedata-transmission rate that your terminal or computer'sserial interface uses.

Set the selected switch ON, making sure that only oneswitch is on at any time. If you intend to use only the in-ternal video display and no serial peripherals, port con-figuration jumper II should be installed. If a modem orprinter is to be connected, however, )1 should be left out.If you intend to use the internal video output with a

Listing I: Status display.SUN FEB 3 3:37 PM

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A 00100-1-0 1

2 BSR DIMMER A 0

3 BSR CYCLER A 0

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT 01

7 MESSAGES 000 -

8 SUPERKEY 0

modem, set the data-transmission rate to that of themodem.

If you intend using a modem or just want additionalsecurity, installing configuration jumper 12 enables thepassword identification. Whenever the modem answersor a command entry is made through the terminal or key-board, the HCS will ask for your password (entered onpower-up). If entered correctly, it will allow you to proceed,otherwise, it will revert to the status display and inhibitcommand entry. Once the correct password is entered,further password identification is not required as long ascontinuous communication is maintained with the oper-ator. A lapse in command entry longer than 3 minuteswill cause the HCS to ask for the password again.

Two additional jumpers must be positioned accordingto the amount and location of the RAM (random-accessread/write memory) in the system. This area was coveredin detail in part 2, and I refer you to that section forexplanation.

After all the switches and jumpers have been set (I chose

[continued]

Listing 2: Editing menu.

A REPORT.CREATE.OR DELETE EVENT

B SET HOUSE CODE

C MANUAL ON/OFF

D MANUAL RESTORE

E AUTO-RESTORE

F RESTORE BY INPUT

G SET DATE AND TIME

H CLOCK ACCURACY

1 TIME FORMAT

J TRACK SUNSET

K DAYLIGHT SAVINGS

L LIST EVENTS

M SET LIST SPEED

N "TOTAL RESET"

O LINES PER SCREEN

P INPUT STATUS

Q HOLD BY INPUT

R DEFINE SUPERKEY

S BYPASS MODULE

T DELAY EVENT

U SET BEEPER TIME

V SET EVENT TO EXECUTE ONLY ONCE

ENTER LETTER OF CHOICE (A-V)?

1111111

1234567890ie3456

1 l:'.!■ HH III I ,i I 111 0

>.• 1C..K llIMMIR (t

I BSR CYCLER A•I l".l-' nil nl I B'. li'.k (IN-OFF Ci. DIRECT our

• III SSAGES 00

■■■ Mlf'ERKEY 0

Photo I: Status display.

Table 1: HCS data-transmission-rate settings.

Switch

Data-Transmission Rate

1

4800

2

2400

3

1200

4

600

5

300

6

150

7

75

8

not used

128 BYTE • IUNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

SCAN TABLE FOR EVENTSCONTROLLED BY INPUTS

„-|

IS THE ON-DELAY COUNTERRUNNING FOR THIS EVENT

I IS THE INPUT THAT CONTROLS THE i| ON PART OF THIS EVENT THE SAME■ AS THE ONE THAT CONTROLS THE •

| IS THE REQUEST FLAG FOR THE |j INPUT THAT CONTROLS THE ON I

" DA a T AC TLIIC CWCMT C CT T |

U

PART OF THIS EVENT SET

PUT ON COMMANDINTO COMMAND FIFO

IF DELAY IS ENABLED. THEN STARTON-DELAY COUNTER RUNNING

SET THE SERVICED FLAG FORTHIS INPUT

.S THIS EVENT SUPPOSED TO•—i TURN THE MODULE OFF AFTERA SPECIFIED LENGTH OF TIME

ADD SPECIFIED LENGTH OF TIMETO THE CURRENT TIME AND CREATENEW OFF TIME

IS OFF-DELAY COUNTER RUNNINGFOR THIS EVENT

I IS THE INPUT THAT CONTROLS |

I THE OFF PART OF THIS EVENT |

,1 THE SAME AS THE ONE THAT

. CONTROLS THE ON PART

YES __"

I IS THE REQUEST FLAG FOR THE |y\ INPUT THAT CONTROLS THE OFF iPART OF THIS EVENT SET

PUT OFF COMMANDINTO COMMAND FIFO

IF DELAY IS ENABLED. THEN STARTOFF-DELAY COUNTING

SET SERVICED FLAG

IS THIS EVENT SET TO

IS THE CONTROLLING

INPUT ACTIVE

I IS THE MODULE CURRENTLY ON k

PUT ON COMMANDINTO COMMAND FIFO

SET PRIORITY FLAG

SET SERVICED FLAG

I 1

I IS MODULE CURRENTLY OFF k^

PUT OFF COMMANDINTO COMMAND FIFO

SET SERVICED FLAG

SET INPUT-PRIORITY FLAG

Figure 8: Scan for Input Events flowchart.

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 129

CIRCUIT CELLAR

to include the password), the HCS is plugged in and thefollowing appears:

COPYRIGHT (C) 1985CIRCUIT CELLAR INC.

HOME RUN CONTROL SYSTEM

VER. X.XX

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ENTER NEW PASSWORD:

Since this is a cold start, you must enter the date andyour five-letter password:

ENTER NEW PASSWORD: STEVE

I chose my name as the password in this example, butany five printable ASCII (American Standard Code for In-formation Interchange) characters (such as @#%&N) canbe used. If you have enabled the password option, theHCS presumes it might have an auto-answer modem con-nected. The HCS will automatically send the necessarycommands to a Hayes-compatible auto-answer modemto set the proper number of rings. 1 chose eight rings.

HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE ANSWERING

0 = DON'T ANSWER (0-255)? 8

In general, whenever you must choose one of severalanswers to a question, each item will have a number tothe left of the item. To choose a particular item, enter thenumber when the prompt appears. In addition, theprompts themselves have the allowable entries in paren-theses. If you enter a value outside of this range, theprompt will repeat until you enter a correct value. You canreturn to the main display at any time by typing only acarriage return in response to a prompt. The displayprompts continue by asking the date and time as follows:

1 JAN 2 FEB 3 MAR 4 APR5 MAY 6 JUN 7 JUL 8 AUG9 SEP 10 OCT 11 NOV 12 DECENTER MONTH (1-12)? 2

ENTER DAY OF MONTH (1-31)? 3

1 SUN 2 MON 3 TUE 4 WED5 THU 6 FRI 7 SATENTER DAY OF WEEK (1-7)? 1

The final cold-start prompt will be

ENTER TIME AS HH:MM:AOR HH:MM:P

? 4:56:P

After this. HCS is ready to have events programmed, anda no-events-scheduled status display appears.

Command and Editing Functions

It's time to get back to an explanation of the editing-menuoptions. By selecting the different functions, you can

create, delete, bypass, hold, or restore an event. Themajority of these functions are different from typicalhome-control systems and are the essence of the HCS.

Entering Events

When you want to create a new event, an event-triggermenu will be displayed, showing you the combinationsof input and time used to start and stop an event:

1 ON AT SPECIFIED TIMEOFF AT SPECIFIED TIME

2 ON AT SPECIFIED TIME

OFF WHEN SPECIFIED INPUT OCCURS

3 ON WHEN SPECIFIED INPUT OCCURSOFF AT SPECIFIED TIME

4 ON WHEN SPECIFIED INPUT OCCURSOFF WHEN SPECIFIED INPUT OCCURS

5 ON WHEN SPECIFIED INPUT OCCURSOFF AFTER PERIOD OF TIME

ENTER NUMBER OF ON/OFFCOMBINATION (1-5)?

If you select one of these combinations, one or a seriesof events can be created that use those same on and offparameters without redesignating this choice each time(to select another trigger combination, you exit to thestatus display and then return to this menu and makeanother choice). Number l will create events that use atime for both starting and stopping the event. Number 2creates events that start at the specified time but will notstop until a specified input changes the logic state.Number 3 will create events that start when the specifiedinput occurs and will stop at a specified time. Number 4creates events that start when a specified input occurs andstop when another input occurs. If the same input-bitnumber is chosen for both conditions, it will constitutean "on while" state with the event activated only whilethe input bit is active. Number 5 creates a special typeof event that starts when a specified input occurs and thenwaits a predetermined period of time (up to 24 hours)before stopping the event.

After you have selected the on/off combination, thestatus display will appear, and you will be asked to selectthe number of the driver and module you want the eventto use. After entering these, if you did not select theMessage driver and the selected module has not beenused before, you will be asked to give it a name, or label:

216 CHARACTERS AVAILABLEENTER NAME OF MODULE

ONE RETURN STARTS NEW LINEAND TWO RETURNS ENDS? Front Porch Light

The first line indicates the number of characters set aside

130 BYTE- IUNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

for use as labels. The available space depends on thequantity of RAM in the system. If the module already exists(i.e.. you have already programmed the porch light to comeon by some other combination of parameters), the labelwill be displayed, and you will be prompted to add to ordelete these events.

Next, you will be asked to enter the parameters for theon and then the off part of the event. There will beprompts for either the time or input, depending on whichcombination you chose.

The prompts for a time look like this:

ENTER ON TIME

1 SUN 2 MON 3 TUE 4 WED

5 THU 6 FRI 7 SAT

8 REPEAT 9 DAY OF MONTH

ENTER DAY OF WEEK, REPEAT CODE,OR DAY OF MONTH CODE (1-9)?

If you enter a number from 1 to 7. the event will usethe day of the week that you select. If you enter a 9, youwill be asked for the day of the month:

ENTER DAY OF MONTH (1-31)?

If you enter 8. you will be prompted for how many daysyou want the event repeated:

HOW MANY CONSECUTIVE DAYS DO YOUWANT THIS EVENT REPEATED (2-7)?

For example, if you enter 5 and an event that starts onMonday, the event will occur every day from Mondaythrough Friday. Repeating an event for seven days makesit a daily program. (For all modules, a combination ofevents can be designated. We could, for example, havethe front porch light come on Monday through Friday from5 to 11 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.,for 10 minutes every time the front door opens |contact-closure input], and on one night for as long as necessaryuntil you get home.)

After the day is entered, you will be asked to enter thetime:

ENTER TIME AS HH:MM:AOR HH:MM:P

The time of day is entered on a single line, the sameway as setting the clock.

If input is selected as part of the combination, you willbe asked to enter the number of the input line that youwant to control the event:

ENTER INPUT # FOR ON (1-16)?

orENTER INPUT # FOR OFF (1-16)?

If you select the Message driver and a message alreadyexists for that module, you will be asked if you want to

delete the old message. If you enter Y or no messageexisted, you can enter a message in the same way thatyou enter a label. Messages can be any length but arelimited by available memory space. (Can't remember whento put the trash out? Have the HCS display PUT THETRASH OUT every Friday morning at 8 a.m.)

If you select the BSR Dimmer, you will be asked to enterthe brightness level (l to 16): if you select the BSR Cycler,you will be asked for the time interval you want to use.Along with the BSR driver, these routines will repeat theprompts to create a new event using the same driver andmodule unless you abort the routine.

Manual Control

Manual Control lets you turn modules on and off withouthaving to schedule an event. The routine will display thecurrent driver/module status table and ask for the drivernumber. The routine then displays which keys performwhich functions.

KEY ASSIGNMENTS:

1

-16

YNDR

- MODULE NUMBER

MODULE ONMODULE OFFDIM LIGHTNEW DRIVER

To turn a module on or off, you must type the modulenumber and the appropriate letter, such as 1Y to turnmodule number I on or 1N to turn it off. You can entermore commands on the same line, such as 1Y2Y3N, whichwould turn modules l and 2 on and module 3 off. If youwant to manually dim a light, you must first turn it fullyon and then type D until the desired brightness is reached.When you are finished with Manual Control, type a returnto exit to the status display.

The Restore Actual Status Function

The Restore function is one of the more unique functionsof the HCS. BSR control modules are notorious for ar-bitrarily turning on or off as a result of power-line tran-sients. While the HCS has direct outputs for the mostcritical control signals, it is disconcerting to find that BSR-controlled appliances and lamps are not in the desiredstate after a few hours. The HCS has the ability to restorethe current state of all modules on command, on input,or at regular intervals.

Restore lets you make sure that every module in use isset to the same status, on or off. that is currently in thestatus table. Since BSR modules can be manually con-trolled without the HCS (i.e., you can directly turn on thehall light by pressing the BSR wall-module button), it mightbe necessary to return the house or office to a knowncondition.

[continued]

IUNE I985 -BYTE 131

CIRCUIT CELLAR

If a power failure occurs and the HCS is equipped withbattery backup, a restore operation will be performedautomatically after the power returns (it allows a few extraminutes for the line to settle first). Or, at any time, youcan select the Manual Restore function to restore all out-puts to that status listed in the status display.

The Auto-Restore function causes the HCS to performa restore operation every 4 minutes automatically. Thisis useful, for example, if the HCS is being used to controlmodules that are unattended for long periods of time andwill not be manually overridden.

A restore operation can also be triggered by an input.On power-up, restore by input is preset to bit 14 and in-active. When selected through the editing menu, the se-quence is as follows:

RESTORE BY INPUT DISABLED

INPUT NUMBER FOR RESTORE IS 14

ENABLE RESTORE BY INPUT (Y-N)? Y

ENTER INPUT NUMBER THAT YOUWANT TO CAUSE RESTORE, ORRETURN TO USE THE CURRENTINPUT NUMBER (1-16)?

Hold by Input

An equally unique HCS function is the Hold command.Hold is used to stop modules from turning on or off. Forexample, in a security system, the alarm modules couldbe put on hold when the building is open. Hold is ac-tivated and deactivated by input lines that you select. Thelines default to 15 and 16 on power-up. The command dis-plays the following:

HOLD STARTED BY INPUT #15HOLD STOPPED BY INPUT #16HOLD INPUTS CANNOT CHANGE HOLD STATUS

MODULE(S) ARE NOT ON HOLD

INFUT STATUS

1111111

1^3-1567890 lco-456

REFERENCE 1111111111111111

CURRENT LEUEL 1111111111111111

i Nil it lockout 0000000000000000

A CHuNhL REFERENCE LEUELF CHANGE LOCKOUT STATUS

IIIUK IETTER OF CHOICE <.A-B>~

Photo 2: \nput status display.

0 REDISPLAY STATUS

1 ALLOW INPUTS TO CHANGE HOLD STATUS

2 STOP INPUTS FROM CHANGING HOLD STATUS

3 ASSIGN HOLD-INPUT NUMBERS

4 SELECT MODULES TO PUT ON HOLD

ENTER OPTION NUMBER (0-4)?

When selecting modules to put on hold, the statusdisplay will show the letter "H," indicating which modulesare set for hold. The "H" will toggle similar to the "S" insunset when you enter a driver and module. When in themain display, modules on hold in the on state will be rep-resented by an inverse "l." and a module in the off statewill be represented by an inverse "0" on the video displayWhen Hold is enabled, the above display will state thatinputs can change Hold status and whether they are orare not currently on hold.

In my application. I have the Hold input connected tothe alarm system. When I am not home and the alarm ison, the HCS simulates occupancy. When the alarm is offand I am home, these functions are put on hold.

Delaying and Bypassing Events

Delay Event allows you to postpone the actual executionof an event for a time period up to 23 hours and 59minutes. For example, if you have an event that is sched-uled to turn a light on when you return home in the eve-ning and you are going to be 2 hours late, instead ofcreating a new event for this one occurrence, simply delaythe event for 2 hours. If the light is scheduled to turn onat 18:00 and turn off at 18:15, a delay of 2 hours wouldcause the light to turn on at 20:00 and turn off at 20:15instead. After the delay has timed out, the event returnsto its normal schedule.

The Bypass Module function allows you to instruct theHCS to ignore a driver/module combination for a timeperiod up to 44 days. 23 hours, and 59 minutes. Duringthe time Bypass Module is enabled, the scheduled eventsfor that module will not occur. For example, if you havea large number of events for a driver/module, such asheating or cooling your home, and you are going to beaway for several days, instead of deleting all the eventsbefore you leave and reentering them when you return.you can bypass that module for the amount of time youwill be gone. The bypass time begins as soon as youenable it.

When selected. Bypass Module will display the currentdriver/module status and ask you for the driver andmodule to bypass. When you have entered these, it willask for the length of the bypass in days, hours, andminutes. If you wish to remove a bypass early, entering0 for the days, hours, and minutes will abort the bypassthat is in progress and restore normal operation.

Input Status

The current status of the input lines can be displayed bytyping the P option. It is displayed as shown in photo 2.

132 BYTE • IUNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

The row labeled REFERENCE is the nonactivated levelfor each input line. A reference level of 0 indicates a nor-mally low/active high input signal. A reference level of 1indicates a normally high/active low input. The row labeledCURRENT LEVEL is the current level of each input at thetime the input status-display command is called.

INPUT LOCKOUT (indicated by a logic 1 in the desig-nated display position) allows a user to selectively shutoff inputs without using the Bypass Module or Hold func-tions. In the following display, inputs 1 through 6 are ac-tive low, and inputs 7 through 16 are active high, inputs6, 8, and 10 are locked out. The current input levels areas displayed:

INPUT STATUS

1111111

1234567890123456

0000001111111111

0110000110001111

0000010101000000

REFERENCECURRENT LEVELINPUT LOCKOUT

SUPERKEYS

When I first started testing the HCS, it was necessary tocontinually preset the on/off conditions of many modulesso that I could observe specific functions. To facilitate this,l designed the Superkey. Superkeys enable you to performa large number of Manual Control operations with justtwo keystrokes. To create a Superkey, you specify whichnumber you want to define (16 Superkeys are designatedas #1—#16) and enter a list of modules you want to turnon or off. To execute a Superkey, you enter its numberfollowed by an escape. A typical Superkey list might ap-pear as follows:

8 SUPERKEY

BSR ON/OFFBSR ON/OFFBSR ON/OFFBSR ON/OFFBSR ON/OFFBSR ON/OFF

1AAAAAA

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

OFF

8 OFF

If you press 1, then Escape, driver 1 modules 1, 2, 5.and 8 would turn off and modules 3 and 4 would turn on.

Tracking Sunset and Onetime Events

One function that the HCS can perform is turning lightson at the same time relative to sunset each day. Sunsetchanges from day to day throughout the year. Ordinarily,fixed-time controllers would need to have their programmanually changed every few weeks in order to keep upwith the sunset. The HCS has a special menu selectionthat allows you to designate which modules will have theiron times changed, according to the long-term variationin actual sunset. Each month, on the 8th and 22nd, theHCS recalculates the on times of sunset-adjust-designatedmodules. (The calculation is accurate only for NorthAmerica at the present time.)

The 1-Time Event function allows you to create an eventthat will automatically delete itself after it executes theoff portion of the event. When selected, it will display thecurrent driver/module status table and ask you for thedriver and module numbers. After you enter these, it willdisplay all the events for that driver and module, each withan identifying number. To enable the 1-Time Event func-tion for an event, enter the number of the event. If theparticular event already has the 1-Time Event functionenabled, the HCS will ask you if you want to cancel it.

A Simple HCS Application

As 1 mentioned earlier, the Circuit Cellar and my homeare somewhat unconventional. While many of you will nodoubt find applications for the HCS as an environmentalcontroller or security system, my initial use is for automaticlighting (1 have a separate security system). Perhaps whenyou read this I'll have connected the air conditioning andvent fans, but right now I'm motivated by deadline andnecessity. I am tired of walking in the dark, and it's hardto think about air conditioning when it's 7° and snowingoutside. The only environmental control worth consider-ing right now as 1 write this is keeping the doors closedand all the heat on.

When I go from the kitchen down to the storage areabehind the Circuit Cellar, it is a long trek with six lightswitches along the way. In addition, there are a few otheritems I frequently switch on and off. If I assign a BSRmodule to each for remote control, the list could start asfollows:

Circuit Cellar floor lamp module #8

HCS CRT monitor module #6

Upstairs hallway light module #5

Staircase light module #4Circuit Cellar hallway/copier light module #3

Storage-area lights module #2

Garage light module #1

In a standard off-the-shelf open-loop BSR controller, we'dbe limited to timed activation of these lights or walkingaround with the BSR ultrasonic hand-held controller aimedat a command controller in each room. This is hardly con-venient. My idea of automatic lighting is noncontact andnot user-activated! I want a completely passive system.When I walk into a room, the lights come on. As long asI stay there, they remain on. When I leave, they turn offafter a reasonable period of time.

The HCS can be easily programmed to control lights andappliances in this manner by monitoring certain signalsthrough its direct input lines. In this instance, passive in-frared motion detectors are used to scan the affected areasand indicate to the HCS when a person walks into a par-ticular area. The motion detector senses a difference inheat level between the person and the surrounding areaand simply opens a relay contact. Using a + 5-V sourceand a pull-up resistor, the motion detector can be con-

(eontinued)

1UNE 1985 -BYTE 133

CIRCUIT CELLAR

nected to the HCS as a simple TTL input.

To control all the lights in the areas I listed above, it wasnecessary to run a few wires around my house. Fortunate-ly 1 already have an elaborate commercially installedsecurity system, and I was able to tap off many of the re-quired signals directly from the alarm box. Unfortunate-ly, security systems are perimeter-oriented and specific inpurpose. I had to add more motion detectors to cover allthe areas I wanted to control. I spent a few days stringingwires and drilling holes. There are now a dozen little in-frared eyes watching my every move. Now, as I walk downthe stairs, lights come on automatically, both on the stair-case and the top and bottom landings.

Some of you may not want a computer-controlled house,but connecting these inputs and controlling the lightingprovides a simple illustration of the HCS's capability anda process that I can describe. First, each motion detector

is attached to a separate input bit. No motion is a logic0 (gnd), and motion detected is a logic 1 ( + 5 V). The in-puts are as follows:

Input # I Garage-area motion detector

Input #2 Circuit Cellar storage-area motion detector

Input #3 Staircase motion detector

Input #4 Upstairs hallway motion detector

Input #5 Circuit Cellar office area

Next, we fire up the HCS and enter the statements thatturn on the appropriate light and extinguish it after theprescribed duration. For brevity, 1 have chosen to edit outsome of the more repetitive displays. In the following com-munication exchange (done with a live HCS via modem),HCS keyboard or terminal entries are in italics. The ex-planations I've added are presented in lowercase letters.

{continued)

Listing 3: Programming events on the HCS to occur when a certain input occurs.

COPYRIGHT (C) 1985CIRCUIT CELLAR INC.

HOME RUN CONTROL SYSTEMVER. 5.17

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ENTER NEW PASSWORD: STEVE

HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE ANSWERING0 = DONT ANSWER (0-255)? 5

1 JAN

2 FEB

3 MAR

4 APR

5 MAY

6 JUN

7 JUL

8 AUG

9 SEP

10 OCT

11 NOV

12 DEC

(password is asked for if lumper 2 has been installed)

(if your Hayes-compatible auto-answer modem is installed, the HCS willsend it ATS0=5 to tell it to answer at 5 rings)

ENTER MONTH (1-12)? 1

ENTER DAY OF MONTH (1-31)? 27

4 WED

1 SUN

2 MON

3TUE 4

5 THU

6 FRI

7 SAT

ENTER

DAY OF WEEK (1-7)? 1

ENTER TIME AS HH:MM:A

OR HH:MM:P

? 2:48:P

(the status display appears here with nothing scheduled; next. A is entered to create an event)

ENTER LETTER OF CHOICE (A-V)? A

ENTER YOUR PASSWORD: *****

* MEANS EVENTS ARE SCHEDULED

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

(the first time that you enter a command, the HCS requires a passwordverification: it will not be required again unless 3 minutes expire with nocommunication: an asterisk and not the password is actually displayed)

{continued)

134 B YTE • IUNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT -

7 MESSAGES -- --

8 SUPERKEY -

ENTER DRIVER NUMBER (1-8)? 1

ENTER MODULE NUMBER (1-16)? 1

THIS DRIVER/MODULE NOT IN USE

CREATE EVENTDELETE EVENT.ORREPORT EVENTS AGAIN (C/D/R)? C

(the event-trigger listing appears again here)

ENTER ON/OFF COMBINATION (1-5)? 5ENTER INPUT # FOR ON (1-16)? 1

ENTER PERIOD OF TIME TO WAITBEFORE TURNING OFF

NUMBER OF HOURS (0-23)? 0NUMBER OF MINUTES (0-59)? 5

374 CHARACTERS AVAILABLEENTER NAME OF MODULE

ONE RETURN STARTS NEW LINEAND TWO RETURNS ENDSGARAGE LIGHT

GARAGE LIGHT1 INPUT* 1 PERIOD 00:05

ENTER INPUT # FOR ON (1-16)?

(entering just a return redisplays the status menu)

SUN JAN 27 2:53 PM

(each time you enter the create or delete option, the HCS lists the statusdisplay with an asterisk to indicated modules that are in use—this is calledthe scheduled-events display)

(here we have selected to turn on BSR ,goes high: the time duration extends if5 minutes has expired)

■1 for 5 minutes each: input #1nput #1 is retriggered before the

(this is the form the HCS lists its programmed events)(more events could be added)

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A 0

2 BSR DIMMER A - --

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C - -

6 DIRECT OUT -

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY A

* MEANS EVENTS ARE SCHEDULED

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A *

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B -- -----

5 BSR ON/OFF C - -----

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES -

8 SUPERKEY -----

ENTER DRIVER NUMBER (1-8)? 1ENTER MODULE NUMBER (1-16)? 2

THIS DRIVER/MODULE NOT IN USE

(the event we just scheduled is shown on the status display: it is presentlyinactive)

(we can go directly to the create function without displaying the editingmenu: just enter A and return)

(scheduled-events display)

[continued)

JUNE 1985 • BYTE

135

CIRCUIT CELLAR

CREATE EVENT.DELETE EVENT.ORREPORT EVENTS AGAIN (C/D/R)? C

(the event-trigger listing is redisplayed here)

ENTER ON/OFF COMBINATION (1-5)? 5ENTER INPUT # FOR ON (1-16)? 1

ENTER PERIOD OF TIME TO WAIT

BEFORE TURNING OFF

NUMBER OF HOURS (0-23)? 0NUMBER OF MINUTES (0-59)? 5

358 CHARACTERS AVAILABLE

ENTER NAME OF MODULE

ONE RETURN STARTS NEW LINE

AND TWO RETURNS ENDS

STORAGE-AREA CEILING LIGHT

STORAGE-AREA CEILING LIGHT

1 INPUT# 1 PERIOD 00:05

ENTER INPUT # FOR ON (1-16)? 2

ENTER PERIOD OF TIME TO WAIT

BEFORE TURNING OFF

NUMBER OF HOURS (0-23)? 0NUMBER OF MINUTES (0-59)? 5

(this time we have scheduled the storage-area

light to come on

if either in-

STORAGE-AREA CEILING LIGHT

puts #1 or #2 are triggered!

1 INPUT* 1 PERIOD 00:05

2 INPUT# 2 PERIOD 00:05

ENTER INPUT # FOR ON (1-16)?

(enter return)

The HCS begins with a cold start, as shown in listing 3.Rather than bore you with continued display listings, I'lladd a bit more without repeating it. In a similar manner(using option 5 from the event-trigger listing in all cases)as presented in listing 3, the following is scheduled:

CIRCUIT CELLAR HALL LIGHT

1 INPUT* 3 PERIOD 00:03

2 INPUT* 2 PERIOD 00:05

STAIRCASE LIGHT

1 INPUT* 3

2 INPUT* 4

PERIOD 00:03PERIOD 00:03

UPSTAIRS HALL LIGHT

1 INPUT* 3 PERIOD 00:03

2 INPUT* 4 PERIOD 00:03

HCS CRT MONITOR1 INPUT* 2

PERIOD 00:15

CIRCUIT CELLAR FLOOR LAMP1 INPUT* 5 PERIOD 00:30

At this point, seven modules have been programmedwith all events of the "on-duration" format, lb give yousome traditional control reference, I'd also like to dem-

onstrate a time-on/time-off event as well. In my case, I'llturn the porch light on at 4:30 p.m. each day and off at6 a.m. the next morning, as shown in listing 4.

IBM PC HCS EXEC

While the menu-driven event programming is straight-forward in the basic HCS and requires no external sup-port hardware, the facilities afforded in a larger computercan greatly expand user-friendliness. An IBM PC HCS Execupload/download program written by Robin Computingtakes HCS programming from sequential menu entry to"paint by numbers." Shown in photo 3 (the display canbe either black-and-white or color), HCS Exec uses cur-sor positioning, return, and escape as its primary entrycodes. It can communicate with the HCS at up to 4800bits per second and upload and download the completeHCS event program sequence.

In Exec, drivers and module numbers are referred toas devices, selected by name, as shown in photo 4. Bypositioning the cursor over the "upstairs hall light" andpressing Return, we display that device's particulars, asshown in photo 5. In Exec, any time a device selectionis necessary a window with the device list appears, and

(continued)

136 B YTE • JUNE 1985

Inquiry 305

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Listing 4: Programming events on the HCS to occur at a certain time.SUN JAN 27 3:06 PM

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A 000000-0

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY A

* MEANS EVENTS ARE SCHEDULED

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A ......

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY

ENTER DRIVER NUMBER (1-8)? 1ENTER MODULE NUMBER (1-16)? 12

THIS DRIVER/MODULE NOT IN USE

CREATE EVENT DELETE EVENTORREPORT EVENTS AGAIN (C/D/R)? C

(the event-trigger listing shows up here)

ENTER ON/OFF COMBINATION (1-5)? 1

ENTER ON TIME

1 SUN 2 MON 3 TUE 4 WED

5 THU 6 FRI 7 SAT

8 REPEAT 9 DAY OF MONTH

ENTER DAY OF WEEK, REPEAT CODE,OR DAY OF MONTH CODE (1-9)? 8

HOW MANY CONSECUTIVE DAYS DO YOUWANT THIS EVENT REPEATED (2-7)? 7

ENTER TIMES FOR THE FIRST DAY

1 SUN 2 MON 3 TUE 4 WED5 THU 6 FRI 7 SAT

ENTER DAY OF WEEK (1-7)? 1

ENTER TIME AS HH:MM:AOR HH:MM:P

? 4:30:P

ENTER OFF TIME

1 SUN 2 MON 3 TUE 4 WED5 THU 6 FRI 7 SAT

ENTER DAY OF WEEK (1-7)? 2

(our status display indicatesthat we have seven modules inuse—none on)

(create an event by entering A)

(scheduled-events display again)

(this time we select item 1)

(I want the event repeatedseven days a week starting onSunday)

(turn on at 4:30 p.m. Sunday)

(continued)

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v. -^

IUNE 1985 "BYTE

137

Inquiry 90

,<S-

V*

.N^W^

#-v>*

«\S*S,

^

H^ti '

,.^e

s%

0°

.0^

iff

e*

^

* v,\ev .„\^ ^0°'

*yy

■?s£

CIRCUIT CELLAR

ENTER TIME AS HH:MM:AOR HH:MM:P

? 6:00:A

236 CHARACTERS AVAILABLE

ENTER NAME OF MODULE

ONE RETURN STARTS NEW LINEAND TWO RETURNS ENDSFRONT PORCH LIGHT

(turn off at 6:00 a.m. Monday)

FRONT PORCH LIGHT

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

4:304:304:304:304:304:304:30

PM

PMPMPMPMPMPM

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

SUN

6:00 AM6:00 AM6:00 AM6:00 AM6:00 AM6:00 AM6:00 AM

(the HCS automaticallygenerates the complete weeklyschedule)

SUN JAN 27 3:09 PM

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A 000000-0—0

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY

ENTER LETTER OF CHOICE (A-V)? JSUNSET ADJUSTMENT

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A •••

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY

ENTER DRIVER NUMBER (1-8)? 1ENTER MODULE NUMBER (1-16)? 12

SUNSET ADJUSTMENT

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A • S —

2 BSR DIMMER A

(turning on the porch light at4:30 p.m. in lanuary is fine butnot in )uly: returning to theediting menu, we select I andsunset-adjust the porch light)

(space brings up the edit menu.then the following)

138 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 71

CIRCUIT CELLAR

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY

ENTER DRIVER NUMBER (1-8)?

(the porch-light event schedulewill now be automaticallyadjusted every 8th and 22nd tofollow the change in sunset)

(just enter a return to get the statusdisplay again]

SUN JAN 27 3:10 PM

11111111234567890123456

1 BSR ON/OFF A 000000-0— -0

2 BSR DIMMER A

3 BSR CYCLER A

4 BSR ON/OFF B

5 BSR ON/OFF C

6 DIRECT OUT

7 MESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY P

INPUT STATUS

1111111

1234567890123456

REFERENCE 0000011111111111

CURRENT LEVEL 0000111111111111

INPUT LOCKOUT 1111100000000000

A CHANGE REFERENCE LEVELB CHANGE LOCKOUT STATUS

ENTER LETTER OF CHOICE (A-B)?

(at this point the lockouts are removed from input bits 1 through 5;the input status then appears as follows:)

INPUT STATUS

(input events take priorityover everything else: to keepthe status from changing while1 was communicating via a liveterminal to an installed HCS, Ilocked out inputs 1-5: enteringP displays the input status)

(for this illustration, I hadonly five inputs connected:6-16 are open and read logic 1)

1111111

1234567890123456

REFERENCE 0000011111111111

CURRENT LEVEL 0000111111111111

INPUT LOCKOUT 0000000000000000

A CHANGE REFERENCE LEVELB CHANGE LOCKOUT STATUS

ENTER LETTER OF CHOICE (A-B)?

(return entered to see status again)

SUN JAN 27 3:16 PM

(note that bit #5 is high)

1 BSR ON/OFF

2 BSR DIMMERBSR CYCLERBSR ON/OFFBSR ON/OFFDIRECT OUTMESSAGES

8 SUPERKEY

11111111234567890123456

A 001110-1 0

A

A

B

C

(while the input display showedonly me at the terminal in the CircuitCellar when I called it—motionsensors are short-pulse outputdevices—apparently the systemcaught me running upstairs to thebathroom: it turned the lightson, by the way)

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IUNE 1985

IYTE 139

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Photo 3: HCS Exec initial menu.

Photo 4: Device selection on Exec.

Photo 5: Device particulars as shown on Exec.

Photo 6: \nput selection on Exec.

Photo 7: Input particulars as shown on Exec.

Photo 8: Device status on Exec.

140 B YTE • IUNE 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

the cursor is merely positioned over the device to select it.

In a similar manner, Exec defines and designates inputsby name, as photo 6 shows. Ten of the inputs are shownat a time (they scroll up and down), and positioning thecursor over an input gives the particulars for that input.In photo 7. the "Circuit Cellar Staircase" input designatesa motion detector connected to input line #3. which is cur-rently enabled and is activated with a logic 1 input level.When all inputs are defined. Exec can monitor inputs ordevices in real time. The status display and input option(see photos I and 2) are polled once a second by Execand used to update a real-time display on the PC. Devicesthat are currently active are highlighted (see photo 8).

Once the devices, and inputs if necessary, have beendefined, events can be designated for each output device.In the case of the porch light (photo 9), seven daily eventsturn the light on at 7 p.m. and off at 6 a.m. For the upstairshall light (photo 10), 3-minute time periods are triggeredby either inputs from the "Circuit Cellar Staircase" mo-tion detector or the "Upstairs Hallway" motion detector.

One thing that I hadn't thought of until late in the pro-cess is shown in photo 11. Under program control, thisHCS option enables you to connect a parallel printer toproduce a permanent record of time, date, and events trig-gered by an input change of state.

In Conclusion

It's impossible to demonstrate all the features of the HCSin a few articles. My system has expanded considerablysince the first few automatically controlled lights. Now Ican call the Circuit Cellar from anywhere in the world,assess the situation, and modify the control accordingly.Of course, this same capability can be accomplished withyour average personal computer, an elaborate I/O (input/output) interface, and many programmer-months of effort.

The HCS is a stand-alone single-board realization of allthese fantasies. It is not an exercise left to the reader buta tried-and-proven design that allows control-happy com-puterists to come out of the closet at a reasonableexpense.

For those of us who are beyond help, the maze justkeeps growing. The 3- by 4-foot plywood area is full, asecond HCS is performing dedicated control tasks, and1 really am thinking about the air conditioning. Given allthe installed motion detectors, the HCS can make real-timedecisions and direct air conditioning only to inhabitedareas. What's another 18-lead cable strung through theCircuit Cellar?

Experimenters and OEM Users

As always. I try to support the computer experimenter byproviding sources for many of the components. The Cir-cuit Cellar HCS is suitable for OEM applications as well.It is available in various configurations that are all ultimate-ly upgradable to the same potential.If you plan on building the unit from scratch, good luck

Photo 9: Event triggers for a

Photo 10: Event triggers for a hall light.

Photo II: Printer-interface capability.

IUNE 1985 'BYTE Ml

Inquiry 234

Real-Time Multitasking Executive

i No royaltiesi Source code includedi Fault free operationi Ideal for process controli Timing control providedi Low interrupt overheadi Inter-task messages

Options:

■ Resource Manager

■ Buffer Manager

■ Integer Math Library

■ Language Interfaces:

C Pascal

PL/M Fortran

■ DOS File Access :

CP/M-80IBM PC DOS

I AMX L

Task Scheduler P

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AMX ServiceProcedures .

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User Device

ServiceProcedures

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Manual (specify processor) 75

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CIRCUIT CELLAR

and take heart. Send me a picture of your board, and I'llsend you a hexadecimal dump (16K bytes) of the controlsoftware (provided it is for noncommercial private use).If you're a bit more well-heeled, I'll supply the code ontwo 2764 EPROMs (erasable programmable read-onlymemories) and a manual for $32, postpaid in the U.S., $5extra overseas. (No picture is required.)

Circuit Cellar Feedback

This month's feedback begins on page 461.

Next Month

I'll present a collection of alarm and environmental moni-toring circuits. ■

Special thanks to Bill Summers and Leo Taylor for their software expertise-Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous Circuit Cellar articles. Mostof these past articles are available in book form from BYTE Books.McGraw-Hill Book Company, POB 400. Hightstown. N| 082 50.

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar. Volume I covers articles in BYTE from September1977 through November 1978. Volume II covers December 1978 throughlune 1980. Volume III covers July 1980 through December 1981. VolumeIV covers lanuary 1982 through lune 1983.

The following items are available from

The Micromint Inc.

2 5 Terrace Dr.

Vernon. CT 06066

(800) 635-3355 for orders

(203) 871-6170 for information

1. Home Run HCS—Complete assembled system with enclosure andparallel-encoded keyboard HCS01. $589

2. Home Run HCS—Populated PC board. Assembled and tested PCboard. No enclosure or keyboard HCS02. $429

3. Home Run HCS—Video-based kit. Includes PC board and all com-ponents except enclosure, keyboard, and serial-interface components(IC16. IC17. 1C20. and two DB-25 connectors) HCSV05. $329

4. Home Run HCS—Terminal-based kit. Includes PC board and allcomponents except video-display processor (IC22, IC2 5. and IC26).No keyboard, enclosure, or RF modulator HCST06, $289

5. 8K-byte static-RAM upgrade. Increases RAM to 16K bytes HCS20, $35

6. Apple ll-compatible ASCII-encoded keyboard. . . . HCS21, $79

7. Wall transformer/transmitter module (available separately) HCS22. $40

8. IBM PC Upload/Download event-schedule-storage software withterminal emulator, written in C. provided on IBM PC-DOS 2.0 disk HCS25, $49

All kits and assembled units include operators manual, power supplywith wall transformer/transmitter module, and 8K bytes of RAM. Allunits are supplied without keyboard-encoder chip (not necessarywhen using encoded keyboard. IC18—optionally available). All itemnumbers that list enclosures also include backup battery holder (sixC cells), less batteries. Serial-port and video-display-processor up-grades for items 3 and 4 and various other components are alsoavailable.

Please include $8 for shipping and handling in the continental UnitedStates, $12 elsewhere. New York residents please include 8 percentsales tax. Connecticut residents please include 7.5 percent sales tax.

To receive a complete list of Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar project kits, cir-cle 100 on the reader-service inquiry card at the back of the magazine.

. YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 304

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Inquiry 444

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 143

DOES WORKING ON LOTUS 1-2-3 MAKE YOU SEE RED?

Granted, Lotus 1-2-3™ can be a fast spreadsheet.

Except when you first buy it, take out the five floppydisks, study the manual to figure out which ones do what,put the plastic doohickey over the keyboard, and beginreading about all the installation procedures you need toget the thing up and running.

Or if you never make a circular calculation (any simul-taneous equation, even something as simple as "bonusequals 10% of profit after bonus") when doing a compli-cated spreadsheet.

By the time 1-2-3 calculates it correctly, you may haveretired.

Or if you'd like to plot your data with a single key-stroke, because it can take several minutes (including adisk change) just to start the process.

Or if you'd like to quickly create afile directory under program con- »,trol. 1-2-3 can't do that at all. *. ^

What's the point of all this?We'd like you to go down to

144 BYTE- IUNE 198?

'our software dealer and see a new product calledJuperCalc* 3 Release 2, which, unlike Lotus 1-2-3, doesill of the above.

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IYTE 145

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146 B YTE • JUNE 1985

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Software Designed for Decision Ma1

Inqi

by Samuel D. Fenster andLincoln E. Ford, M.D.

SALT

A threaded interpretivelanguage interfaced

to BASIC

for research laboratoryapplications

Research laboratories suchas ours have become in-creasingly dependent oncomputers. This spiralingdependence has been fueled by thedecreasing cost and increasing avail-ability and power of microcomputers.A major impediment to the furtheruse of computers is the lack of ade-quate software. To overcome thislimitation, we developed a method ofcombining compiled and interpretivehigher-level languages for general usein a diversity of laboratory applica-tions.

In our previous work with mini-computers, control programs werewritten in a higher-level language,such as BASIC, with assembly-lan-guage subroutines for each special-ized task. When two tasks were to beperformed in immediate sequence,we either wrote a new routine com-bining the two earlier versions ormade two separate calls to the rou-tines from BASIC. Rewriting programsrequires a great deal of programmingtime, but making repetitive calls fromBASIC frequently took unacceptablylong execution times. To eliminateboth of these problems, we decidedto develop a means of linking assem-

bly-language routines together so thatthey could be used in a single CALLstatement from BASIC. Before we hadprogressed very far, we found that wehad reinvented the threaded interpre-tive language (TIL), this time in a formthat was interfaced directly to BASIC.

Threaded InterpretiveLanguages

TILs consist of a set of "words."Primary words, called primitives, con-sist of machine-language subroutines.More complex words, secondaries, con-sist of a sequence of calls to primi-tives. Higher-level words may callprimitives or previously defined sec-ondaries in any order. They consistsimply of a list of calls to starting ad-dresses of the words. Program execu-tion is rapid because all the primitivesare run in machine language and theonly extra time is that which is re-quired to pass parameters to eachroutine and to proceed from oneroutine to the next.

A TIL has two distinct functions, com-piling and running. Compiling consistsof creating the lists of tasks to be per-formed in sequence and placing thenecessary parameters in a placewhere the primitives can obtain them.Running consists of carrying out thetasks in sequence. The major dif-ference between types of threaded in-terpretive languages is the way theprogram passes from one routine tothe next by a process called thread-ing (see reference 1). We use the tech-nique called subroutine threading.When running, the program simplymakes a subroutine call to each wordin sequence. Every word, bothprimary and secondary, ends with areturn (RET) instruction. Since the se-

quence of routines in our applicationis initially called from BASIC, the finalRET statement in the list returns pro-gram control to BASIC.

It might be asked why we do not useone of the existing TILs. The principalreason is that we require a more in-teractive control language in thelaboratory, where every possible turnof events cannot be anticipated whena program is written. Another reasonis that we find looping and conditionalbranching restrictive and difficult touse in other TILs. Finally, other higher-level languages contain commandsthat are convenient for performingroutine tasks but are not readily avail-able in most TILs.

BASIC

BASIC was developed as a languagefor beginners. In fact, most people canlearn to write programs in BASICwithin a few hours. This is an advan-tage in a university laboratory popu-lated partially by students, where in-experience is common and personnelturnover is high. It is not, however, themajor reason for using BASIC as theprincipal language in the laboratory.Its major virtue in this setting is a char-acteristic that might usually be con-sidered a drawback, namely, that it is

[continued)When Sam Fenster isn't working as a com-puter programmer at the University ofChicago, he is a sophomore majoring in math-ematics and computer science at ColumbiaUniversity. Lincoln E. Ford is associate pro-fessor of Medicine and Cardiology at theUniversity of Chicago.

You can write to the authors at the Univer-sity of Chicago. Section of Cardiology. Depart-ment of Medicine. Hospital Box 249. 950East 59th St.. Chicago. IL 60637.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 147

SALT

BASIC has becomethe standard languageof many smallcomputers, and thusis constantlybeing improved.

an interpretive language. This meansthat every command in a program istranslated to machine language im-mediately before it is carried out. Theneed for separately interpreting eachcommand slows program executiongreatly, but it also makes the pro-grams highly interactive. That is. a pro-gram can be stopped at any point andthe operator will know preciselywhere he is because his original pro-gram is unaltered.

Once a BASIC program has been in-terrupted, the computer can be runin immediate mode. The operator caninstruct the computer to carry outcommands one at a time. In this man-ner, it is possible for the operator todetermine the value of a variable,change a variable, or even change thepath of program flow. The ability tointerrupt a computer that is interfacedto laboratory apparatus is invaluablewhen the operation of the apparatusis not entirely predictable, as is oftenthe case.

A final advantage of BASIC is thatit has become the standard languageof many small computers, includingthe IBM Personal Computer (PC). Asa result, it is constantly being im-proved and has many useful features.

One disadvantage of some forms ofBASIC is their limited memory capa-bility. The version used on the IBM PCcan address only 64K bytes. Althoughthis is sufficient space for most pro-grams, laboratory apparatus can fre-quently generate enough data tomake this space seem cramped. Sub-sequent analysis can usually reducethe data to a more manageable size,

but it is necessary to find some wayto hold the data without severelylimiting the program area. To this endwe have designed SALT to store rawdata in areas of "high" memory abovethe BASIC space. An entire block ofdata can be transferred between thisspace and disk. Portions of the datain a block can also be transferred be-tween high memory and BASIC arrays.This ability to move large amounts ofdata between high memory and diskand to operate on smaller parts of itin BASIC arrays provides a type of vir-tual memory, greatly expanding thecapability of BASIC.

The major disadvantage of BASIC isits slowness. While running programsin an interpretive language, the com-puter cannot respond fast enough formany laboratory applications. To over-come this slowness, machine-lan-guage subroutines control the com-puter when it is interacting with thelaboratory apparatus. A difficulty withusing simple subroutines occurs whentwo or more of them are to be run insequence. Program control returns toBASIC after each subroutine call. Thisreturn costs valuable time, and moreimportantly, the time required may besomewhat unpredictable, especiallywhen parameters must be passedfrom BASIC to the subroutines. Fortime-critical operations in which sub-routines are to be run sequentially, itwas previously necessary to write ad-ditional subroutines, combining earlierones in the proper sequence. As thenumber of computer applications inthe laboratory increased, the con-tinued rewriting of subroutine se-quences became costly. To overcomethis difficulty, we have developed amethod of calling subroutines from amaster machine-language routine,with one CALL statement from BASIC

SALT

SALT is a laboratory TIL. As with allTILs, SALT'S two distinct functions arecompiling and running. All compila-tion is performed by a single assem-bly-language routine called fromBASIC. This routine, named LOADER,creates secondary machine-languagewords that are subsequently called

from BASIC. A secondary word con-sists of a sequence of CALL instruc-tions, each followed by the startingaddress of the routine being calledand any necessary parameters. Thus,a call from BASIC to a secondaryword initiates a second call to the firstword in a sequence. The final instruc-tion in a list is RET, bringing the pro-gram back to BASIC. It is not possibleto call any of the primitive subroutinesdirectly from BASIC. The LOADERroutine must first translate the nameof the routine to its starting addressand create a secondary word consist-ing of a machine-language CALL in-struction followed by all necessaryparameters and RET at the end.

The secondary words in a programare recompiled each time the pro-gram is run. Thus, programs in SALTare actually created and stored fromwithin BASIC programs. It is not pos-sible with SALT, and probably notdesirable in general, to create secon-dary words that retain their identityoutside the individual program. Touse SALT, a programmer must befamiliar only with the general re-quirements of the assembly-languageroutines he wishes to run and with therequirements of the LOADER com-mand. He need not know about anypreviously written programs or aboutthe specifics of the assembly-lan-guage programs. [Editor's note: See theend of the article for details on obtaining copiesof the SALT software package]

At present, we have more than 100separate assembly-language primi-tives. These are grouped into func-tional categories described in detailbelow.

Hardware

The software described here was writ-ten specifically for an IBM PCequipped with a Tecmar Lab Masterboard. 512K bytes of memory, andtwo floppy-disk drives. It was devel-oped out of a need for an easy andefficient way to make use of the LabMaster. The general principles can.however, be applied to any similarcomputer system. Almost all labora-tory applications can be described as

{continued)

148 BYTE- |UNE 1985

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SALT

a combination of the following func-tions: control of experiments, in-cluding timing and synchronization ofexternal events, and setting externalvoltages; data acquisition, usuallythrough the digital conversion of elec-trical analog signals; data storage; anddata analysis. All of these functionscan be implemented with the hard-ware and programs described here,except that the topics to be describedunder the heading of data analysis arelimited to a few routines for simplearithmetic procedures and displaythat might be used as part of moresophisticated analyses.

The Lab Master board has four dis-crete functions required for laboratoryapplication: an analog-to-digital (A/D)converter with 16 channels of input:two digital-to-analog (D/A) converters;a 24-channel digital input/output (I/O)device; and a chip with five program-mable counters and an internal 1-MHzclock, whose basic frequency can bedivided either by powers of 10 orpowers of 16. Most of the softwareroutines that we will describe aredirected at implementing the fourfunctions of the board. The remainderare used for performing simple arith-metic operations on blocks of num-

bers and for moving blocks of databetween storage areas.

Details of Operation

SALT consists of a single compilingroutine, LOADER, and a large numberof small subroutines that performvery specific operations during pro-gram execution. The small subrou-tines are no different from any othertype of assembly-language routine ex-cept that many are designed to beused in sets. For example, one subrou-tine may set up a counter for timingoperation and another may be re-quired to start the actual timing. Theaspect of SALT that makes it uniqueis the LOADER routine that estab-lishes the secondary words that arecalled from BASIC.

LOADER

The LOADER routine that compilesthe secondary words converts allother subroutine names to addresses,eliminating the time required to lookup addresses during execution. It thenuses the addresses in a sequencewhere each one is the operand of aCALL, which is followed by anynecessary parameters. A RET isplaced at the end of the sequence.

and the starting address of the entiresequence in memory is placed in atable. The use of memory by theLOADER routines, as well as thememory allocation for SALT and theA/D data operation, is shown in figure1. As illustrated, separate memoryareas are reserved for secondaryroutines and for their addresses whenSALT is loaded into memory. TheLOADER routine fills these areas asit compiles secondary words. In thepresent version of SALT, those re-served areas are relatively smallbecause there is no need in our ap-plication to have them any larger. Inprinciple, the only limitation to thesize of these areas is the amount ofavailable memory.

The parameters passed to the rou-tine can be of three types: fixed in-teger values placed after the routinecall; positions of binary bits to be setin a byte that is then placed after theroutine call; and BASIC integer vari-ables whose addresses are storedafter the call. The following exampleillustrates the operation of LOADER.

In this example, a word called DR.2(driver routine number 2) will first con-figure the 24 I/O lines into three 8-bit

{continued)

ADSET

OR

ALOAD

• • UNUSED

INSTALLSALT

primitive routines(9K bytes)

CALL

LOADER

(DR.n,...)

/////////

V///////,

table of primitiveaddresses

/////////

■/////////

1024 bytes reserved

secondary words

/////////

LOADER(3K bytes)

V//////A

/////////,

200 bytes reserved

table of secondaryaddresses

'///////A

channel 15channel 14channel 13

A/D DATA SPACE

programs and variables

BASIC

interpreter

V//////A

¥//////A

yyZyyyz

PC-DOS

V///////V

V///////j

/////////

interrupts

;////////.

'////////,

;////////,

Figure 1: Installing SALT with a BASIC BLOAD instructionputs the primitives and LOADER routines at the high end ofmemory and reserves space for the compiled secondary words andfor a table of addresses of the secondary words. A CALL to

LOADER creates a secondary word and places the startingaddress of the word in a table. The ADSET or ADLOADroutines allocate data space in memory immediately aboveBASIC. Trie data space is arranged into equal-size channels.

150 BYTE

IUNE 1985

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SALT

ports such that the first (A) port is in-put and the remaining two (B and C)are output. Second, DR.2 initializescounter number 1 to count 20 milli-seconds. Finally. DR.2 stops thecounter at its initialized value to waitfor the command START to begincounting. The BASIC command toperform this sequence is

CALL LOADER (DR.2.IOSET.1.0.0,TIME.1.20.3, STOP1).

LOADER would then create a secon-dary word in memory consisting ofthe following sequence:

CALL 1003

1

0

0CALL 1097

120

3CALL 2034

1RET

The starting address of this se-quence would be placed in the sec-ond position of the driver table, a posi-tion reserved specifically for the ad-dress of the secondary word calledDR.2. The value 1003 is the startingaddress of the IOSET primitive thatinitializes the I/O ports, and the pa-rameters 1.0.0. specify the desiredconfiguration. The value 1097 is thestarting address of TIME, the routinethat sets a counter to count from theTecmar clock. The parameter 1 spec-ifies the first counter, and theparameter 20 gives the number ofpulses to count. The parameter 3specifies the millisecond rate. TheSTOP routine, which begins at ad-dress 2034, holds counter number 1at its pre-set count until a START.1command begins the count.

Once the initialization is complete,another secondary word can useparts of the Lab Master board forother purposes. For example, a wordcalled DR.3 can be written to: wait forI/O line A2 to go high: read a voltagevalue on A/D channel 10: put thesame voltage on D/A channel 1; wait

Table 1: Functional categoriesof SALT'S primitive subroutines.

File and data management

Timing

Analog-to-digital conversion

Digital-to-analog conversion

Digital input/output

Arithmetic procedures

Miscellaneous routines

20 milliseconds using counter number1, which was initialized by DR.2, andset I/O channels B2 and B7 high. TheBASIC command to create this se-quence would be

CALL LOADER

(DR.3, RHA.2, VAD.10, D.VOLT,

VDAV.1, D.VOLT START.1, WAIT.1,

WHB.2.7)

The two secondary words DR.2 andDR.3 can be called from BASICseparately, or another secondaryword can be written to call them in se-quence with a single call. This latteroption would be compiled with thecommand CALL LOADER (DR.4,CDR.2, CDR.3). which would use theaddresses in positions 2 and 3 of thedriver table to create the assembly-language sequence

CALL 812CALL 871RET

CALL DR.4 is the BASIC commandthat would execute the entire se-quence of tasks before returning toBASIC.

The LOADER command has veryspecific requirements, some of whichhave been imposed for ease of the ini-tial programming, some of which havebeen created for ease of subsequentprogramming, and some of whichhave been imposed by the idiosyn-crasies of IBM BASIC. For example, allof the secondary words are calledDR.N where N is an integer between0 and 100, and the commands DE-FINT D and LOADER = 3 mustprecede the first call to LOADER inthe BASIC program. The starting ad-dress of the LOADER routine is 3. The

necessity for using the DEFINT Dstatement has been imposed toeliminate the need for typing the "%"character following each DR definitionand each BASIC integer variable pa-rameter, such as D.VOLT. The term DRis always used to name the secondarywords so that the LOADER programcan find the beginning of the param-eter list following the words CALLLOADER. A CALL statement fromBASIC pushes the entire parameterlist in the statement onto the stack.The LOADER routine examines thestack to find the first variable, whichalways begins with DR. Once this isfound, the integer following DR. isused to identify the secondary word.

Primitive Subroutines

The individual primitive can begrouped under the separate func-tional categories listed in table 1. Theyare described below in detail bycategory. The listings of the individualroutines are not given here becausethey require too much space andbecause they are. for the most part,specific to the Lab Master board.

When these routines were devel-oped, the highest priority was givento speed, because they were de-signed to be used in real-time applica-tions. To achieve this speed, the rou-tines were made as simple as pos-sible. The number of Test and Condi-tional Jump instructions was kept toa minimum because they take amoderate amount of program execu-tion time. The desired simplicity wasachieved at the expense of someredundancy in the program. For ex-ample, there are nine separate rou-tines to write nonvariable data to thethree digital I/O ports. These nineroutines differ from each other in on-ly two characteristics, the I/O port tobe written to, and the type of output,i.e., whether the specified channelsare to be made high, made low, or totoggle (change from the previousvalue). Since there are three alter-natives for each of the three channels,there are nine combinations. Each ofthe routines is short (about 18 bytes),so that the memory required for nine

{continued)

152 B YTE • IUNE 1985

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SALT

separate simple routines is not muchgreater than that for a single routinethat would accept the I/O port and thetype of output as parameters. Alarger, single routine would, however,require much more execution time.Execution times were measured for

all the time-critical routines that mightbe used during an experiment. Thesewere estimated in two ways. Some ex-ecution times were measured fromfailures to make A/D recordings on aregular schedule. A ramp voltage wasput into one channel of the A/D con-

A. 22MS/CONVERSION

I I I I

MM

I I I I

MM

MM

I I I I

-H-+

l I I

B. 20/iS/CONVERSION

I II I

\^

MM

W

II I I

-\^

I I II

-*^:

\--"

II II

\--*'

MM

\

MM

Figure 2: A voltage ramp was recorded at two sampling intervals, differing by only 2us. The digitized data was displayed at the same rate for both. Failure to make a con-version, indicated by the arrows in B. resulted in a complete sample being missed afterevery 5-8 conversions. The voltage step after a missed sample is twice normal.

verter, which was programmed tomake conversions at regular intervalsthat had been established by the fre-quency of the internal clock. The in-tervals between clock cycles weredecreased in increments of 1 micro-second (fis) until the A/D failed tomake a conversion. To detect a failure,the recorded ramp voltage was out-put to the oscilloscope using the D/Aroutine. A missed sample was recog-nized as a double step betweenvoltage levels in the displayed ramp,as shown by the arrows in figure 2.This method could also be used tomeasure execution times of routinesby directing the computer to performthe routines between samplingperiods. A second, more straightfor-ward, method of measuring executiontimes was to use a primitive calledCOUNT that returns the value in thebuffer of a specified counter withoutinfluencing the counter's operation.By setting the counter to count downfrom a large number at microsecondintervals, it was possible to estimateexecution times with a resolution of1 /xs. The COUNT routine took 68 /*s± 1 fiS each time it was called. The ex-ecution time of routines inserted be-tween two calls to the COUNTroutine was therefore calculated bysubtracting 68 /as from the measuredinterval.

It might be expected that the execu-tion time for a given routine could becalculated from the number of clockcycles required for each instruction inthe routine. In general, the routinetook 30 to 50 percent longer than ex-pected. A possible explanation forthese longer times has been given inPC TECH JOURNAL (see reference 2).Further explanations are beyond thescope of this article. In addition, theexecution times were somewhat vari-able. A possible cause of this vari-ability in timing arises from memory-refresh cycles that occur at unpredict-able intervals during program execu-tion. This variability may cause aroutine to take variable periods oftime, so that variations in executiontimes will not occur regularly or pre-dictably. Thus, it was necessary to

{continued)

154

I YT E • IUNE 1985

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SALT

measure execution times repetitivelyand to estimate an average and arange of speeds.

File and Data Management

All data is handled as 2-byte integersamples. A few primitives operate ona single number. For example, oneprimitive sets a voltage value on oneof the D/A channels and anotherrecords the voltage of a single A/Dchannel. Most data is handled as longarrays. Before such data can berecorded, a space must be reservedfor it in high memory using theADSET routine, as shown in figure 1.This primitive requires twoparameters to establish the numberof channels and the number of sam-ples per channel. Once recorded, thedata can be transferred to disk usingthe SAVEF primitive, which creates adisk file using a filename previouslyspecified as a BASIC string variable.

The first 2 bytes in the file are usedto record the number of samples perchannel. When a file is read from diskusing the LOADF primitive, a bufferof the correct size is first created inhigh memory, and the data is readinto it. To use the recorded data in aBASIC program, it is necessary tomove the data from its buffer in highmemory to a BASIC integer array (e.g.,DATAARRAY). This is done with theFETCH primitive, which requires twoparameters. The first is an integer thatdesignates the channel number, thesecond (e.g., D.N2) is a BASIC variablethat has been set by the BASICVARPTR function to the starting ad-dress of the BASIC array. The BASICinstruction

D.N2 = VARPTR(DATAARRAY(0))

should immediately precede a CALLto a secondary containing the FETCHprimitive because BASIC moves its ar-

rays around unpredictably. Thenumber of the first sample to betransferred from a channel is placedin the zero position of the BASIC ar-ray using a BASIC instruction. Sam-ples are transferred sequentially untilthe defined array is filled or until theend of the channel is reached. In thismanner, only a portion of a record istransferred at one time, so that onlya small amount of BASIC array spaceneed be used. Another instructioncalled STORE performs the inverse ofFETCH. It transfers data from a BASICarray to a previously defined dataspace in high memory.

Two additional routines, SAVEF andLOADF, transfer arrays of data in highmemory to and from disk. The ar-rangement of data into channels is thesame as that produced by the ADSETroutine (see figure 1).

There is a primitive called SWITCHthat allows the operator to switch be-

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SALT

tween two simultaneously existingbuffers in high memory. Since eachbuffer can be as large as 64 K bytes,a total of 128K bytes of high memoryis available. The combination ofADSET, FETCH, STORE, SAVEF,LOADF, and SWITCH greatly expandthe amount of space available toBASIC for handling data. Becausedata can be transferred between buf-fer and disk and then to and fromBASIC, the routines provide BASICwith a form of virtual memory.

Timing

Precise timing is essential in almostall laboratory applications. Such tim-ing is made available by a 1-MHzclock in the timer-counter chip on theLab Master board. The basic frequen-cy can be divided either by powers of10 or powers of 16. To keep the ap-plication simple, we have chosen touse only the decimal divisions. The

divided frequencies are available intwo forms. They can be divided fur-ther by numbers ranging from 1 to 16and made available externally as an"F-out" square wave. We have not yetfound this provision useful and in-stead have chosen to perform timingusing one of the five counters in thechip. There were two reasons for thisdecision: The F-out pulse is not avail-able internally to software, and moreimportantly, it cannot be synchron-ized to external events. The 1-MHzclock and its dividers operate con-tinuously so that they cannot be syn-chronized at all. The counter can,however, be made to begin countingin synchronization with an externallyapplied signal. By counting a largenumber of high-frequency pulses, it ispossible to synchronize the countersto within the limits of the basic fre-quency. Since the counters can countto two pulses, it is possible, in princi-

ple, to achieve 1-^s accuracy of syn-chronization. In practice, the accuracyis limited to 3 fis because about 3 outof every 15 jts (14 out of every 72central-processor clock cycles) areused by the computer for memoryrefresh, and it is not possible to con-trol when the 3-/*s interruptions willoccur.

The counters on the Lab Masterboard are complex and have 18 dif-ferent modes of operation. Despitethis complexity, the chip containingthe five counters, the 1-MHz frequen-cy generator, and the frequencydivider is controlled using two 1-byteports. While it would be possible toinitialize the counters directly fromBASIC by sending data to the twocontrol bytes, the complexity of thetimers makes it much easier to useseparate subroutines to establisheach of the modes of operation.

(continued)

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IUNE 1985 'BYTE 157

SALT

The complexity of the countersarises from the combinations of avail-able functions. Each counter cancount either internal pulses or exter-nal pulses, each can count repetitive-ly or give a single count, and eachcounter can be gated either internal-ly or externally. Finally, each counterhas two 16-bit registers from which it

obtains its count.

In our application the counters areused for two main purposes. The firstis the timing of D/A and A/D conver-sion. Since conversions are usuallymade at regular intervals, the countersare usually set to run continuously. Inmost cases, the duration of the pulsesis not critical because the digital con-

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versions are triggered on the chang-ing edge of the counter pulses, so thatonly one of the two counter registersis used at one time to generate thecorrect frequency. In one application,the counter pulses are also applied tosample-and-hold circuits used to syn-chronize the conversion. In this casethe pulses from the counter must besufficiently long to hold all the exter-nal circuits in the hold mode until theanalog values are converted. Bothcounter registers are used, one toestablish the frequency and the otherto set the pulse duration. In anotherapplication, the two counter registersare used to establish two separate fre-quencies. Switching between the twofrequencies is accomplished withgating pulses applied externally. Theuse of these gates eliminates the needfor reprogramming the counters andthereby hastens program execution.The second application of thecounters is to control external eventsby providing pulses of specified dura-tion at specified times. The counterregisters are used to establish pulseduration as well as the delay betweensome initiating event and the onset ofthe pulse. The counters can be veryuseful for this purpose because theyoperate independently of the com-puter's central processing unit oncethey have been started. This indepen-dent operation speeds program ex-ecution greatly.

A/D Conversion

The simplest A/D primitives converta single analog voltage value on oneA/D channel and place the digitizedinteger value in the BASIC variablespace. All the other A/D primitivesmake sequential conversions at a fre-quency determined by a counter onthe timer chip. The principal need forspeed in laboratory applications is inthe rapid accumulation of digitizeddata from electrical analog signals.There are four separate routines forthis purpose and each has separateadvantages with respect to simplici-ty, speed, and synchronization. All ofthe routines have been written in away that makes it possible to interrupt

(continued)

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SALT

The two main usesfor digital-to-analogconversion inthe laboratoryare settingcontrol voltage anddisplaying data.

recording to perform some task, suchas changing the speed of recording oroutputting a control pulse. This latterprovision makes it possible to exerta great deal of control over the exper-iments while collecting data.

All of the sequential A/D routinesrequire that a buffer for the digitizeddata be established in high memoryabove the BASIC program area. Thisis done with the ADSET primitive de-scribed above. If recording is stoppedbefore the buffer is full, data will beplaced in the next available spacewhen recording resumes. It is alsopossible to establish two buffers inthe present version of SALT. This pro-vision permits data to be collectedfrom a different number of channelsat different times. It also makes itpossible to transfer data from onebuffer to another while performingmathematical manipulations, withoutdestroying the original data.

The simplest sequential A/D primi-tive, AD1E, makes a single conversionfrom one channel on every clockpulse and the digitized data is sent se-quentially to memory. This is thefastest form of operation because theassembly-language instruction thatsends the data to memory incrementsautomatically and there is no need tokeep track of the memory location.The AD1E routine was used to collectthe data in figure 2. The minimumsafe time between conversions is22 /xs. Timing is accomplished by wir-ing the external output of a frequen-cy generator to the external start in-

put of the A/D converter. This modeof operation is used because it pro-vides the most accurate timing; eachconversion is initiated on a counterpulse without any program interven-tion.

The three other sequential A/Dprimitives collect data from multiplechannels in sequential order. The LabMaster board has a provision thatautomatically increments the channelnumber, beginning with a channelthat is specified by software and end-ing with a channel that is specified byswitches on the board. We keep ourswitches set at the highest channelnumber to be able to use all 16 chan-nels on the board. The simplest ofthese multichannel primitives, ADQE.sends data to memory as it is col-lected, so that the first sample ofchannel 1 is followed by a first sam-ple of channel 2, and so on. At theend of the period of recording, aroutine called SORT orders the databy channels so that the first sampleof channel 1 is followed by the sec-ond sample of channel 1 and the lastsample of channel 1 is followed by thefirst sample of channel 2, etc. Data ac-quisition with this routine is as fast asAD1E (22 jts per conversion) becausethe channel number is incrementedautomatically, without program inter-vention, and because the routines formemory storage are the same.

The remaining A/D primitives orderthe data as it is collected, sendingdata from each channel to its properplace in memory. Even though theauto-increment mode is used, the pro-gram must keep track of which chan-nel is being converted because thedata must be sent to the correct chan-nel block within the buffer. Thus, theprogram must use two counter regis-ters, one for the channel number andone for the sample number. The needfor two counters, as well as the addi-tional programming required to con-tinuously redirect data to differentparts of the memory slows programexecution substantially. The minimuminterval between conversions rangesfrom 40 /*s for 16 channels to 48 //sfor two channels. The main advantageof these routines over ADQE is that

the data need not be reordered afterrecording, so that a second buffer isnot needed. For many applicationsthis routine is more satisfactorybecause it is simpler.

The multichannel A/D primitivesdescribed above collect data from thedifferent channels at regular intervalsso that the first sample of channel 2is collected later than the first sampleof channel 1. and the first sample ofchannel 3 is collected later than thefirst sample of channel 2, etc. This isnot a major disadvantage because thevalues in any channel at any giventime can be estimated by interpola-tion. The final A/D primitive, AD, isdesigned to make nearly simulta-neous conversions from all channels.With this primitive, each round of con-versions is initiated on a single clockpulse and all samples are convertedas rapidly as the software will allow,thereby minimizing the intervals be-tween samples taken from differentchannels. The interval betweensamples is not critical because theroutine is designed to be used withexternal sample-and-hold circuits. Thisroutine uses a "software start" to ini-tiate each A/D conversion and insteadof detecting an "A/D done" flag, itdetects the presence of a pulse on thecounter output to start the round ofconversions. The same pulse is alsooutput externally to trigger sample-and-hold circuits for each channel.Synchronization occurs because thesample-and-hold circuits are triggeredto hold their values on the rising edgeof the pulse.

D/A Conversion

The two main uses for D/A conversionin the laboratory are setting controlvoltage and displaying data. Controlvoltages are set using one of threeroutines, which differ according to thetype of parameter they take.

Data is displayed on an oscillo-scope, as in figure 2, using sequentialD/A primitives. There are 2 D/A chan-nels and there are 16 A/D channels,so it is necessary to specify whichchannels are to be displayed. In ad-dition, it is necessary to specify the

[continued]

160

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SALT

rate of conversion. Since the outputis displayed repetitively on an oscil-loscope, it is important to make thisroutine as fast as possible. In addition,it is highly desirable to have the sam-ple output rate be a round number ofmilliseconds. The D/A routines canoperate without failure at 48 /*s perconversion and so can be used con-veniently at 50 ps per conversion. Atthis rate two channels of 1000 sam-ples each require 50 milliseconds fordisplay. The two-channel repetitionrate is thus about 10 per second. Therepetition rate is actually a little lowerbecause the oscilloscope requires afew milliseconds to reset its beam tothe beginning of each trace. A repeti-tion rate of 12 to 18 Hz is not flicker-free, but is also not too uncomfortableto scrutinize.

Digital I/O Primitives

The I/O ports are used in our labora-tory to transfer 5-volt TTL (tran-sistor-transistor logic] pulses betweenthe computer and other apparatus.This transfer of digital signals enablesthe computer to control the experi-ments, or in some cases, to bedirected by external events. Frequent-ly the digital pulses must be trans-ferred during other time-criticaloperations, such as making rapid A/Drecordings. For this reason, theseroutines were made as simple andtherefore as short as possible. As ex-plained above this need for simplici-ty resulted in a large number of verysimilar primitives. The simple routinestake about 31 fis. If the routine is tobe run during A/D sampling, an addi-tional 50 ixs is required to stop andstart the sequential A/D routines.

Arithmetic Primitives

A group of primitives perform simplearithmetic manipulations on entirechannels of data located in high mem-ory. The manipulations include addi-tion, subtraction, multiplication, anddivision by constants as well as inte-gration and differentiation. These rou-tines can be very useful in makingdisplays, finding maxima, and detect-ing trends.

[continued]

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JUNE 1985 'BYTE 163

SALT

There are a few miscellaneous rou-tines for operations that could also berun from BASIC, but which have beenincluded in SALT so that programcontrol would not have to return toBASIC each time they were to be run.These routines print messages on themonitor, sound the beeper, etc. Theycan be used, for example, to provide

warning sounds and error messagesin SALT.

Future Improvements

This first version of SALT contains allthe necessary routines for interfacinga computer to laboratory apparatusand for manipulating blocks of data,but it contains very little else. It is ob-

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vious that more primitive routines fordata analysis would be useful, andthat the language might be useful out-side the lab. Rapid routines for dis-playing records with cursors on thedisplays, finding maxima and minimain records, etc., would greatly speedsome types of analysis. High-speedmathematical routines, such as fastFourier transforms, could also be ex-tremely useful in some specialized ap-plications. Nonlaboratory applicationswould include all forms of assembly-language routines to be run inbatches under control of an inter-active higher-level language, such asBASIC. The use of assembly-languageroutines for performing repetitiousprocedures and for handling largeblocks of data can greatly hasten pro-gram execution time and expand thememory space available to BASIC,without sacrificing its interactivequalities. Fortunately, the structure ofthe language permits the simple ad-dition of the necessary primitives.Once the routine is written, its name,starting address, and parameter for-mat are simply added to the tables ofprimitives. Since the assembly-lan-guage routines are short, it willgenerally not be necessary to removeold routines to make room for newones. The current version of SALT oc-cupies about 12K bytes of instructionspace, of which 9K bytes are used forprimitives. As written, the programcan fill up to 64K bytes of highermemory with assembly-language pro-grams, so that the space occupied bythe primitive routines can be ex-panded over fivefold before economyof space becomes a consideration.| Editor's note: You can obtain a copy of SALTon disk and documentation of its operationby sending $50 to Sam Fenster, 4949 S.^Noodlawn Ave., Chicago. IL 60615.] ■

REFERENCES

1. Ritter, Terry, and Gregory Walker.

"Varieties of Threaded Code for LanguageImplementation." BYTE. September 1980,page 206.

2. Smith, Bob, and Tom Puckett. "Life inthe Fast Lane: Techniques for ObtainingTiming Information with MicrosecondResolution on the PC." PC TECH JOUR-NAL. April I984, page 63.

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By Phillip Robinson

The SUM: An

AI Coprocessor

Turning a commonAI operationinto silicon

Logic programming is astaple of artificial-intelli-gence (AI) software and isoften dominated by the pat-tern-matching process of unification(see the "Resolution and Unification"text box on page 173). In fact, whenlogic-programming languages such asProlog and LOGLISP are used, asmuch as 50 to 60 percent of a com-puter's processing time is spent onunification. When a single algorithmis used that frequently, it is natural toconsider implementing it as customhardware. When that same algorithmlends itself to parallelism and concur-rency because of its recursive, tree-search characteristics, it practicallybegs for VLSI (very large scale integra-tion) implementation.

SUM History

Professor lohn Oldfield and a team ofresearchers at Syracuse University aredeveloping the SUM (Syracuse Unifi-cation Machine), a coprocessor forcomputers geared toward AI pro-gramming. The project combines theresources of the Syracuse CIS (Com-puter and Information Science) de-partment. ECE (Electrical and Com-puter Engineering) department, andthe CASE Center (Computer Applica-tions and Software EngineeringCenter, set up by New York State). KeySUM individuals are Dr. Oldfieldhimself (who contributed CAD [com-

puter-aided design| and VLSI exper-tise). Professor Alan Robinson (whois the head of the logic-programmingefforts at Syracuse), and Kevin Greene(who made the initial designs of theSUM). Because of a famous 1965paper, Dr. Robinson is often creditedwith inventing unification. He is moremodest, pointing to the work of Her-brand in the 1930s and the studies ofPrawitz and Kenger concerning unifi-cation. Dr. Robinson contends that hewas just the first to formalize theunification process and apply it toresolution.

In 1981, the Syracuse CIS logic-pro-gramming group learned that Caltech(California Institute of Technology) stu-dent Sheue-Ling Lien had designed achip that embodied Dr. Robinson'soriginal unification algorithm (see the"Unification on a Chip" text box, page174). Dr. Robinson and his colleagueswere somewhat taken aback thatsomeone else had taken this step.Lien's report was a major inspirationfor the development of the SUM, eventhough the chip it described wasnever actually made. Because ECEhad been developing custom VLSI

chip-design capability and had astrong logic-programming group,combining the pursuits "seemed anatural thing" according to Dr.Oldfield.

Coprocessor Strategy

As Dr. Oldfield explains, "Although westarted talking about a unificationchip, following along the lines of theCaltech one. it soon became fairlyclear that at present levels of integra-tion that was fairly ridiculous. Youcould make a chip, but it would belimited to solving such small prob-lems that it wouldn't be worthwhile."The SUM group wanted to design afull-blown, practical processor. Be-sides. Lien's chip used Dr. Robinson'soriginal 1965 algorithm. Much moreefficient algorithms have been devel-oped since.

When they realized that a singlechip wasn't realistic, the members ofthe group looked at the possibility ofa coprocessor, initially for the LMI

(continued)Phillip Robinson is a senior technical editorat BYTE. He can be contacted at 1000Elwell Court, Palo Alto. CA 94303.

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THE SUM

(LISP Machine Inc.) Lambda com-puter. Dr. Oldfield continues, "Here'sthe LM1 Lambda executing a LISP pro-gram. When it comes up to the pointwhere it needs to do a unification,then that task is given over to theSUM,1' which would handle it more ef-ficiently than the Lambda could. TheSUM interface is tailored to the LMILambda's high-speed, parallel Nubus(developed by Texas Instruments) butcould easily be adapted to other ma-chines and buses.

Resolution, Unification,and Trees

Although the unification algorithmhas a number of uses, it is oftenemployed as part of a wider processcalled resolution. Resolution is a rule ofinference for constructing deductiveproofs from any number of acceptedclauses. Practical problems may in-volve thousands or millions of

clauses. One way to view resolutionis as the exploration of a tree of pos-sible proofs. Resolution uses unifica-tion to help reduce the number ofclauses. Unification, in effect, workson its own tree, moving downbranches and trying to bind—find ac-ceptable values for—variables. If unifi-cation is successful on one branch, itswitches to another branch fartherdown and binds some more variables.Failure of resolution on a branch ofthe resolution tree is not a disaster;it just means another branch must beexplored. Similarly, when unificationfails on a branch of the unificationtree, the process keeps all bindingsexcept the most recent and exploresanother branch.

SUM Architecture andOperation

Figure 1 is a block diagram of theSUM that Kevin Greene developed.

Unification tasks come into the SUMfrom the Lambda, are performed, andthe results are passed back. The com-munication agent, which is the inter-face between the Lambda and theSUM. passes unification tasks to thework manager. Initially, the workmanager's task pool will have onlyone task, but as processing continuesother tasks will come back from thebinding agents. Those tasks must becoordinated with the tasks comingfrom the communication agent. Thework manager pushes the unificationtask out into the analysis agent, whichexecutes the heart of the unificationalgorithm.

The analysis agent must decidewhat to do with the expressions itreceives. What it does depends on thetype of expression. If both expres-sions are simple constants, unificationsucceeds only if they are identical. If

{continued]

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170 BYTE- IUNE I98S

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THE SUM

the expressions are complex con-stants, such as floating-point numbersor strings, the analysis agent may begiven pointers to the data structuresrather than the data structuresthemselves. Since unification requiresan equivalency check, the SUM mustpass the pointers back to theLambda. As Dr. Oldfield says, "SUMdoesn't know anything about list

structures. All it can handle arepointers to structures that continue toreside in the Lambda." In this case, thecomparison is made by the Lambda,and the result is then returned to theSUM.

Finally, the analysis agent may en-counter the job of having to unify avariable and an expression. It can try

(continued)

Resolution and Unification

Many problems in AI are most ef-ficiently solved by logical oper-ations. In fact, the language Prolog isspecifically oriented to the use of prep-ositional and predicate logic. In theirsimplest forms, the rules of logic dealwith operators such as AND. OR, andNOT. However, complex problems inAI are nearly always solved by applica-tion of a more powerful logical tech-nique, a deduction method known asresolution.

Propositions are statements of factthat may be true or false. These arepropositions:

My hard disk just crashed.My warranty expired yesterday.

We frequently represent propositionssymbolically as single letters:

Atoms are propositions that cannotbe broken down into other proposi-tions. Atoms are also called positiveliterals: atoms preceded by the NOToperator are called negative literals.The propositions described above aYeatoms, while the following are not:

My hard disk just crashed AND mywarranty expired yesterday,p OR q

A series of literals connected by ORoperators forms a clause, and we canuse resolution to work with clauses inthis way:

If there is a clause p OR qand another clause (NOT q) OR rthen p OR r

follows by resolution. Resolution makesno statement about the truth of p, q,or r; it merely assures that we can per-form that particular manipulation of

the logical instructions.

Where does unification come in? Toresolve two clauses, two literals mustbe found, one in each clause, such thatone literal is the exact negation of theother. If the literals do not match, theycan sometimes be made to do so bysubstitutions that follow certain rules.You can replace a variable with a con-stant (this is called instantiation), with an-other variable, or with an expression(as long as that expression does notcontain the original variable). If youfollow the rules and find a substitutionthat resolves the two clauses, then youhave found a unifier and have per-formed unification.

In general, after you have convertedthe logical statements describing asituation into clauses, you can useunification to try to prove a theoremabout the situation. Resolution will ter-minate either when clauses remain thatare not resolvable or when resolutionis attempted on a statement and itsnegation—a contradiction (this pro-duces the empty clause, often calledNIL).

For instance, if a robot were under-water and wanted to know if its bat-teries were endangered by the water,it would first combine all the rules itknew about water and batteries withthe data from its sensors. That infor-mation would be put into clause formalong with the negation of the theorem"My batteries will be damaged." Therobot would then use unification sub-stitutions to attempt resolution. Theresult will either be unresolvableclauses, in which case the theorem isfalse and the robot can go on to worryabout something else, or an emptyclause, in which case the theorem istrue and the robot may be doomed.

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IUNE I985 -BYTE 173

THE SUM

to bind the variable to the expression,in which case the task is pushed outto the binding agent.

Parallelism and Recursionin Binding

The SUM team decided that the bind-ing process could exploit parallelismbecause many bindings can be doneconcurrently. The original design usestwo binding agents, but the work couldbe split up for four, eight, or more.Before you make a binding, youhave to find out whether the variableis already bound. For example, if A isalready bound to 15, or to a characterstring, you don't make a new bindingof A to 3. For efficiency, the SUM mustbe able to check bindings quickly inwhat is basically a table lookup. Asubsidiary unification task is gen-erated, goes back into the workmanager's task pool, and then goesaround the system again.

Unification Failureand Success

Unification can fail in only one of twoplaces: the Lambda or the analysisagent. If unification fails, all activity inthe SUM must cease. Then the SUMmust inform the Lambda of the failure.However, the Lambda may find out by

4096ENTRIES

NAME 1 EXPRESSION

—18—•*• 52 —

BITS BITS

Figure 2: A diagram of the binding agent.

itself. For example, in the case of thecomplex constants that are passedback to the Lambda, the Lambda rec-ognizes failure before the SUM does.In that case, the Lambda immediate-ly directs the SUM to move on to thenext task.

Unification has succeeded whenthere are no tasks waiting in theSUM—nothing in the analysis agentand no bindings in progress. In thatcase, any new bindings are extractedand passed back to the Lambda.

The bindings are made in a stackthat grows from the bottom up. Theshift-register-like organization of thestack pointer makes for fast and flex-ible manipulations. For example,

when unification succeeds and bind-ings have to be extracted for returnto the Lambda, you can unwind thestack without losing its contents. Thisis important if you are performingmore than one unification using thesame set of bindings. Also, in casessuch as failure of unification, theLambda can instruct the SUM torelocate its stack pointer and adjustto an earlier context.

Binding Agent-Custom CAMs

The asterisks in figure 1 indicate theparts the SUM team feels have themost promise for VLSI implementa-tion. While the cache and various con-trollers have had some development,"The binding agent is the part thatwe've done the most work on andwhere there seems to be a tremen-dous amount of payoff for customVLSI,'' according to Dr. Oldfield.

Figure 2 is a simple block diagramof the binding agent. It has 4096 en-tries, each with a name composed ofa 12-bit index and a 6-bit identifier.Associated with each name is a 40-bitexpression and another 12-bit index.In other words, the binding agent re-quires a lot of RAM. Rather than inte-

{continued)

Unification on a Chip

While many people have talkedabout putting unification on achip, a computer science graduate stu-dent's attempt was the charge thatgalvanized the Syracuse team to seri-ously address the challenge. As amaster's project in 1981 for ProfessorJim Kajiya, Caltech student Sheue-LingLien—now Dr. Sheue-Ling Chang ofSun Microsystems—designed a chipthat implemented Robinson's original1965 unification algorithm. She calledit the UNlF-chip.

Dr. Chang had been very interestedin Prolog and realized that unificationpresented a bottleneck to efficient Pro-log execution. She decided that a uni-fication-chip coprocessor, combinedwith Caltech's strong interest in VLSI,was just what the doctor ordered.

DARPA (Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency) sponsored theresearch. Dr. Chang designed the chipwith the idea that many of them mightbe linked together to concurrentlysolve unification problems on differentbranches of a Prolog tree structure.

About 18 months after the first designwas complete, Chang and Kajiyadiscussed the possibility of taking someof the stack memory off the chip tomake it small enough for actual produc-tion. They decided against it becauseChang had become ensconced in hersolid-modeling graphics Ph.D. work anddidn't have time to completely redesigna chip. The paper disappeared into theCaltech library.

Professor Kajiya says no one else atCaltech took up the challenge of silicon

unification because they were waitingfor better design tools. In his opinion,those tools haven't arrived yet. Still,when they do get here, he feels thatputting complex tasks such as unifica-tion into silicon is "definitely the wayto go." He points out that, while thepast 20 years has seen much effort inimproving algorithms, there is nowevidence that sheer processing speedand power can accomplish more thanwas previously thought. Kajiya pointsto the championship chess-playing pro-grams, such as Belle (which has its owncustom hardware) and Cray Blitz (forthe Cray supercomputer), which exploittremendous hardware power. Kajiyasays that the success of these chessmachines may "teach us that theeighties is the decade of brute force."

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THE SUM

SEARCH _J~\.MODE

PULLED LOWIF MATCHFAILS

Figure 3: A 9-transistor associative-memory cell. By adding another 3 transistors to abasic 6-transistor static RAM cell, you get a well-known but rarely used cell that is thebasis of the custom CAM. This cell has a very attractive search feature: Every word inthe memory can simultaneously be searched by a single read access that takes about100 nanoseconds.

52b

SEARCHPATTERN

CHIP

31

n

INPUTEXPRESSION

11

40b

128 x17 BITAM CHIP

n

CONVENTIONAL

STATIC RAM

e.g. IMS1420

45ns CHIPS

4K X52 BITS

Figure 4: Two parts of the binding agent: an associative-memory stack {left) and aconventional RAM [right).

grating it all on custom silicon, Dr.Oldfield decided to use conventionalmemory chips wherever possible.

A student's VLSI project on associa-tive memories gave Dr. Oldfield theclue to the fast table-lookup architec-ture he needed. An ideal CAM (con-tent-addressable memory) or AM (as-sociative memory) would allow you tosimultaneously search all entries fora name, an expression, or both. As Dr.Oldfield states, "It's very, very muchfaster than you can do by softwaretechniques" (see figure 3). Such amemory could even have wild-cardfields. Dr. Oldfield split the bindingagent into the two parts shown infigure 4: an AM stack (on the left) anda conventional RAM (random-accessread/write memory) (on the right).

To maximize the SUM'S perfor-mance, the designers squeezed asmany variable names as they couldonto the CAM chip. The result was128 entries of 128 rows by 17 bits.Each bit is implemented by a9-transistor AM cell. (If you recall thateach name entry is composed of 12+ 6 = 18 bits, you are probablywondering what happened to 1 bit.The explanation is that it has beensplit off and indicates which of thetwo binding agents to use.) The sys-tem of 4096 entries requires 32 of thecustom CAM chips.

CAD Problems

With a theoretical design for the bind-ing agent's CAM completed, the SUMteam decided to make the largest pro-totype chip possible with its CAD fa-cilities. But, as Dr. Oldfield admits, "Atthe time our CAD facilities were veryrudimentary." Most of the powerfultools (mainly computer-aided designand test programs) are written in C fora UNIX machine but were too big torun on Syracuse's DEC PDP-11. "It's afunny way to describe it." says Dr.Oldfield, "but you really have to havea VAX to do anything in this business.So we had to do all of our softwarelocally."

In fact, all of the students had to laychips out in CIF (Caltech IntermediateForm). CIF is a low-level, machine-

[continued)

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THE SUM

readable, layer-description languagethat, as Dr. Oldfield describes, is"painfully" written out by hand. For-tunately. Syracuse now has a set oftools from the University of Washing-ton running on a borrowed VAX andis installing its own VAX.

The experimental prototype has allthe features of the full-scale CAMchip. However, instead of having 128rows of 17 bits, it has only 8 rows of3 bits. According to Dr. Oldfield, it was"a very ingenious student named Ser-Hou Kuang" who designed the 8 by3 prototype memory. Kuang workedout a stretched version of the 9-tran-sistor cell that was as long and thin aspossible, yet still met MOSIS designrules. (MOSlS-Metal-Oxide Silicon Im-

plementation System—is a nonprofitintermediary organization affiliatedwith the University of Southern Califor-nia and DARPA that accepts prototypechip designs from universities, govern-ment agencies, and others, and ar-ranges to have those designs fabri-cated by Silicon Valley manufacturers.)Referring again to his group's poorCAD facilities, Dr. Oldfield said, "Infact, I would claim this is sort of arecord. This must be about the mostcomplicated chip anybody's everydesigned with such poor aids."

The University of Rochester, whichhad better CAD facilities, helped byrunning a design rule check on thechip. The design was then submittedto MOSIS and the sample chip shown

Photo I: Prototype content-addressable memory chip used in the SUM'S bindingagent.

INPUT BUFFER

AM CELL 1 1

WORDLINEBUFFER

ROWSELECT

ADDRESS

LINE

BUFFER

MASKREGISTER

ADDRESSENCODER

8 ROWS OF 3 | BITS

OUTPUT BUFFER

Figure 5: The 8 by 3 prototype associative memory.

The prototype has allthe features of thefull-scale CAM chip.

in photo 1 was fabricated. Figure 5 isa floor plan for the prototype.

All of the chips functioned exceptfor one problem: The address en-coder didn't work. As Dr. Oldfieldremembered, "You could write to thememory, you could search on it, youcould find the pattern you were look-ing for, and you could read stuff outof the memory. Everything workedfunctionally except it never set the ad-dress lines properly."

Finally, after using a mask-extractionprogram called MEXTRA, the SUMteam found a faulty part of the circuit.A depletion transistor was always onbecause it was connected by a lengthof diffusion to ground and had nogate. Apart from that trivial designmistake, the prototype chips per-formed excellently and proved theSUM concepts.

In December 1984, the full-size pro-totype design was finished and wait-ing for final design check. Assumingit works, the SUM team is thinkingabout the next phase, producingquantities of the chip. Dr. Oldfieldpoints out that university work often"leads to just one chip" and that it is"interesting to find a case where youcan usefully use a significant numberin an operation."

possibilitiesfor the Future

A negative aspect of the SUM con-cerns its overall impact on AI, Evenif unification takes up a full 60 percentof a LISP machine's time, an infinitelyfast SUM could speed up the overallprocess only by a factor of slightlybetter than 2. Coprocessors in othercircumstances sometimes speed pro-cessing on the order of hundreds oftimes. As Dr. Oldfield freely admits,this is "not the same story at all."Looking down the road, Dr. Oldfield

[continued]

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THE SUM

sees the SUM shrinking. He says thatwhile "this overall machine's not achip, at the beginning we sort ofhoped to have a chip.'' As it turns out.each binding agent comprises at least32 chips. But the chips are madeusing a fairly conservative 4-micronNMOS (N-channel metal-oxide semi-conductor) process. MOSIS already isoffering a 1.2 5-micron process thatcould substantially increase chip den-sity. And although it will be someyears, Dr. Oldfield explains that "It'snot unrealistic to think of the effect ofhigher packing density leading toSUM as a custom VLSI component. ■

REFERENCES

1. Robinson. |. A. "A Machine-OrientedLogic Based on the Resolution Principle."journal of the Association for ComputingMachinery, 1965, vol. 12, pages 23-41.

2. Mead, Carver, and Lynn Conway. Intro-Auction to VLSI Systems. Reading, MA:Addison-Wesley, 1980.

3 Clark. K. L. and S. A. Tamlund (eds.).Logic Programming. Orlando. FL: AcademicPress. 1982.

4. Robinson. I. A., and E. E. Sibert. "LogicProgramming in LISP." Syracuse Univer-sity: School of Computer and InformationScience. 1980.

5. Warren. D. H. D.. L. M. Pereira. and F.Pereira. "PROLOG—The Language and ItsImplementation Compared with LISP."Proceedings of the Symposium on Artificial In-telligence and Programming Languages (ACM).SIGPLAN Notices 12(8): and SIGARTNewsletter 64. pages 109-115. 1977.

6. Lien. Sheue-Ling. "Toward a TheoremProving Architecture." California Instituteof Technology. Computer Science Depart-ment. 1981.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS1 would like to extend special thanks toProfessor John Oldfield and ProfessorAlan Robinson of Syracuse University, Pro-fessor Jim Kajiya and Paula Samazan of theCalifornia Institute of Technology. Dr.Sheue-Ling Chang of Sun Microsystems,and Dr. George Lewicki of the USC/lnfor-mation Sciences Institute. They made thisarticle possible by their willingness tospend some of their valuable time discuss-ing or digging up information for me.Melgar Commercial Photographers ofSanta Clara. California, photographed theprototype chip.

180 BY T I • IUNE 1085

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V Color 7, lie. RGB CardVIDEX, UltraTerm (11 +/lie)

VideoTerm 80 Col. Card (ll+/lle)WICO, Smartcard (spec 11/11 + /He)

$ 115 1 85$ 140 S 99$ 199 $ 99$ 119 $ 29CALLS 90 $ 65S 298 $ 188S 80 $ 49$ 125 $ 75S 65 $ 35$ 50 $ 26$ 395 5 275$ 239 3 159$ 99 $ 59$ 375 $ 250$ 89 $ 59$ 319 $ 219$ 269 $ 189$ 149 $ 94S 40 $ 26I 35 $ 22$ 200 $ 139S 250 $ 169$ 379 $ 229$ 279 $ 175$ 199 $ 159

LIST

ALS, Word or List Handler, ea S 80

Handler Pak (Word/LislVSpell) $ 170

ASHTON-TATE, dBase II (Reg CP/M 80) $ 495

BPI, AR, AP, PR or INV, each $ 395

BRODERBUND, Print Shop $ 50

Print Shop Graphics Library $ 25

Bank St Writer or Speller, ea $ 70

Bank St Combo (Writer & Speller) $ 140

CDEX, for Visicalc. Multiplan. Apple lie. ea $ 60

DOW JONES, Market Manager Plus $ 249

Market Analyzer or Microscope, ea $ 349

HOWARD SOFT, Tax Preparer lor 84 taxes S 250

Kit for California $ 95

HUMAN EDGE. Sales or Mgmt Edge, ea S 250

LIVING VIDEOTEXT, Think Tank $ 145

MECA, Managing Your Money $ 200

MEGAHAUS. Megawriter $ 100

Megaworks $ 125

MICRO PRO, WordStar $ 350

WordStar w/ Starcard $ 495

WordStar Professional, 4 Pak $ 495

MailMerge, SpellStar or Starlndex, ea $ 99

InfoStar and StarCard Combo $ 595

MICROSOFT, Multi-Plan (Ap DOS) $ 95

QUARK, Word Juggler & Lexicheck (lle/llc) $ 189

SENSIBLE. Sensible Speller $ 125

SIERRA/ON-LINE. Homeword $ 50

Screen Writer II. 2 Pak w/Dictionary $ 130

SOFTWARE PUBL, PFS:File of Write, each S 125

PFS:Graph or Report, each $ 125

STONEWARE, DB Master, v 4 $ 350

CONROY

$ 36

$ 73$ 289

$ 240

291

45

85

40

159

219

$ 165

$

$ 16!

$ 8L

125

65

80

LISTPRICE$ 15$ 601 $ 99

C0NR0YPRICE$ 7S 37$ 65CALL$ 70

EPSON, Graphics DumpFUNK, Sideways

HAYES, Terminal Prog for SmartmodemMICROSOFT, Full Line in StockOMEGA, Locksmith $ 100

PENGUIN, Complete Graphics System II $ 80 $ 49Graphics Magician $ 60 $ 40

QUALITY, Bag of Tricks $ 40 J 29

UNITED SWI. ASCII Express-The Pro $ 130 S 82UTILICO, Essential Data Duplicator III s 80 $ 49

HOME & EDUCATIONAL

BEAGLE BROS., Full line IN STOCK CALL

BRODERBUND. Print Shop $ 50 $ 29

CONTINENTAL, Home Accountant $ 75 $ 43

DOW JONES, Home Budget $ 99 $ 69

KOALA, Full line IN STOCK CALL

MICROSOFT, Typing Tutor II $ 25 $ 17

MONOGRAM, Dollars & Sense or S.AM . ea $ 100 S 59

Dollars & Sense for He S 120 S 69

Forecast $ 60 $ 38

SCARBOROUGH, Mastertype $ 40 $ 27

Your Personal Net Worth $ 80 $ 50

SIERRA/ON-LINE, Homeword S 50 S 45

SIMON & SCHUSTER, Typing Tulor III S 50 $ 33

PLUS: BARRONS. CBS. DAVIDSON, EDU-WARE,HARCOURT, LEARNING CO TERRAPIN

RECREATIONAL SOFTWARE

UTILITIES SOFTWARE

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

ProntoDOS. DiskQuK;k.Ap Mecri or 10 Silver, ea $ 30$ 19

Full line IN STOCK CALL

BORLAND, Turbo Pascal $ 55 $ 33

3 Pak (Pasc, Turbo Tut, Toolbox) NEW S 105 $ 59

CENTRAL POINT Copy II Plus (bit copier) S 40 $ 23

BLUECHIP, Millionaire, Squire, Barron, ea $DATASOFT, Aztec or Zaxxon, each $ELECTRON. ARTS, Sky Fox & others, ea $

HAYDEN, Sargon III (Chess) $

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

ORIGIN, Ultima III S

PENGUIN, Transylvania S

PROFESSIONAL, Trivia Fever $SPINNAKER, IN STOCK CALL

SUB LOGIC. Flight Simulator II $ 50 $ 30

PLUS: BRODERBUND, DATAMOST, MUSESIR-TECH

50 S40 S4C S50 S40 $60 $35 $40 $

DISKETTES

* CONROY-LAPOINTE' DISKETTES *

We guarantee these top quality products with our name5 YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY Discounts on orOers «b labels

10 ea. SS/SD. (Apple, etc) 35 Trk, W/FLIP BOX $ 12

100 ea SS/SD, (Apple, etc) 35 Trk $ 99

1000 ea SS/SD. (Apple, etc.) 35 Trk $ 840

10ea. DS/DD, (IBM. H/P) 48 Trk. W/FLIP BOX $ 15

100 ea DS/DD. (IBM. H/P) 48 Trk $119

1000 ea DS/DD. (IBM. H/P) 48 Trk $ 859

10 ea DS/DD. 3Vi" (MAC. H/P). W/FLIP BOX $ 29

50 ea DS/DD. 3VS" (MAC, H/P) $140

100 ea. DS/DD. 3Vi" (MAC. H/P) $ 270

CONROY-LAPOINTE" IBM PRE-FORMATTED

10 ea, DS/DD. 48 Trk W/FLIP BOX $ 19

100 ea, DS/DD, 48 Trk $ 149

1000 ea, DS/DD, 48 Trk $959

SINGLE-SIDED, DOUBLE DENSITY

LIST C0NR0YCDC, 10 ea, SS/DD. 40 Trk (Apple, elc) $ 55$ 19DYSAN. 10 ea. SS/DD, (Apple, etc.) S 40 $ 27MAXELL, 10 ea, SS/DD, MD1 (Apple) $ 55 $ 19VERBATIM, 10 ea, SS/DD, MD515-01. (Apple| $ 49$ 25

DOUBLE-SIDED. DOUBLE DENSITY

CDC, 10 ea, DS/DD, 40 Trk (IBM, H/P) $ 75$ 23DYSAN, 10 ea, DS/DD. (IBM, H/P) $ 69 $ 35MAXELL, 10 ea. DS/DD. MD2 (IBM) $ 75 $ 26VERBATIM. 10 ea. DS/DD. MD34 (IBM) $ 84 $ 29

3Vi° MICRO DISKETTES

CONROY-LAPOINTE, 10 ea, DS/DD (MAC, H/P) $ 29

MAXELL, 10 ea SS/DD (MAC, H/P) $ 60 $ 35

MEMOREX, 10 ea SS/DD (MAC, H/P) S 60$ 35

VERBATIM, 10 ea, SS/DD (MAC. H/P) $ 65 $ 35

HIGH DENSITY DISKETTES FOR IBM-AT

MAXELL, 10 ea DS/QD (IBM-AT) $ 77 $ 49MEMOREX, 10 ea DS/QD (IBM-AT) $ 84 $ 54

* GENERIK DISKETTES *

Top quality, w/jackeis, no labels. Quantity discounts.

90 day "No hassle, money back guarantee "

100 ea SS/DD, 35 Track (Apple, etc) S 80

100 ea. DS/DD, 48 Track, (IBM. H/P) S 95

MODEMS

PRINTERS

ANCHOR, Signalman Mark XII (IBM)HAYES, 2400B External Modem (IBM)Smartmodem 1200B (IBM)Smartcom II Software (IBM)Smartmodem 1200 (AP or IBM)Micromodem He w/Smartcom (AP)KENSINGTON. Portable Modem. 300 Baud (MAC)NOVATION, Apple Cat II 300 Baud (AP)212 Apple Cat, 1200 Baud (AP)SmartCat Plus w/software (MAC)ACCESS 1-2-31200B Modem + Crosstalk (I8M)PROMETHEUS, 1200 Standalone ModemProModem 1200 w/software (MAC)ProModem 1200A (AP)ProModem 1200B (IBM)QUADRAM, Quadmodem, Internal (IBM)Quadmodem, External (IBM)

S 399S 899S 549$ 149$ 599S 329$ 140S 389$ 725S 499$ 595$ 495$ 549$ 449$ 399$ 595$ 695

CONROY$ 259$ 699

389$ 107$ 429$ 239$ 109$ 219$ 419$ 349$ 369$ 345$ 429$ 349$ 289$ 425$ 495

DOT MATRIX:

LIST

EPSON. RX / FX Series - In Stock

LX80 - 100 cps DQ/16 cps NLQ $ 349

JX80 - Color Printer. 160 cps $ 799

LO1500 - 200 cps DQ/67 cps LO $1395

MANN.-TALLY, Spirlt-80 - 80 cps/80 col $ 269

OKIDATA, Okimate 20 - Color, Hi Res $ 268

PRINTER INTERFACESAND BUFFERS

MONITORS

AMDEK, Color 300 - Comp/Audio $ 349 $ 24S

Color 500 - Comp/VCR/RGB/Audio $ 525 S 375

Color 600 - Hi Res/RGB/Audio $ 599 S 449

300A - 12" Amber S 199 $ 139

300G, 12" Green S 179 $ 129

310A, 12" Amber/Comp $ 230 $ 159

PRINCETON, HX-12 - HI Res/RGB $ 795 $ 495

SR-12 - Hi Res/RGB S 799 $ 599

MAX-12 - Amber (monochrome) $ 249 $ 199

ZENITH, ZVM122 - 12" Amber $ 159 $ 95

ZMV123 - 12" Green $ 149 $ 89

ZMV124 & ZVM 135 20-30% OFF

CONROYCALLCALLCALLCALL$ 219$ 208$ 239$ 399$ 639$1975$ 249$ 459$ 395$ 249$ 419$ 379$ 509$ 549$ 679

182 - 120 cps/80 col $ 299

92 - 160 cps/80 col/para $ 499

93 - 160 cps/136 col/para. $ 7992410 Pacemark - 350 cps/para $2995

PANASONIC, P109O - 80 cps/10" S 349

P1092 - 180 cps/10" $ 599

QUADRAM, Quadjet-Inkjet Color $ 895

STAR MICRO, SG10 - 120 cps DQ/30 cps NLQ $ 299

SG15 - 120 cps DQ, 30 cps NLQ. 16K $ 499

SD10 - 160 cps DO. 40 cps NLQ $ 449

SD15 - 160 cps OQ. 40 cps NLQ. 16K $ 599

SR10 - 200 cps DQ, 50 cps NLQ $ 549

SR15 - 200 cps DQ, 50 cps NLQ, 16K $ 799

LETTER-QUALITY:

JUKI. 6300 - 40cps/para $ 995 $ 795

6100 - 18 cps/para/3 pitch $ 599 $ 439

PANASONIC. P3151 - 22 cps/15'/!" $ 699 $ 549TOSHIBA, Prop spacing & hi-res graphics

1351 - 192 cps DQ & 100 cps LQ $1895 $1375

1340 - 144 cps DQ & 54 cps LO $ 995 $ 659

Bi-direction Tractor Feed $ 195 $ 175

PLOTTERS:

EPSON, 4 Pen Plotter $ 599 CALL

PRINTER SUPPLIES:

Paper: White. Colored, Laser Cut, etc;Ribbons, Daisy Wheels

ARBO, IBM-PC to Para Printer Cable $ASSIH PROC, Mac to Epson Conn l/F $EPSON, Parallel Interface for LQ1500 $ '

Serial Interlace Board $ '

MPC, Apple II l/F & Cable lor Epson & Gemini $OKIDATA, Plug n Play, Traclors. Okigraph. ea. $ORANGE MICRO, Grappler Plus fo' Apple $ 1

Serial Grappler $ i

Buffered Grappler Plus, 16K $ ',

QUADRAM, Microfazers, lull line IN STOCK

Microfazers 8K, P-P, w/copy $ '

CONROY$ 30

■ $ 69S 79

i $ 105$ 59$ 42$ 99$ 79$ 159CALLS 139

CABLES

ARBO, IBM-PC to Modem Cable $ 29 5

IBM-PC to Para Printer Cable $ 60 S

ASTAR, RF Modulator lor TV. (Apple) $ 35 $

CURTIS, Monitor Extension Cable (IBM) $ 50 $

3'-9' Keyboard Extens. Cable (IBM) $ 40 $

RCA, Monitor Cable $ 15 $

ACCESSORIES

CURTIS, Diamond, 6 outlets, switched $

Emerald , 6 outlets, 6' cordRuby, 6 outlets, 6' cord, filler $

Sapphire, 3 outlets, w/filter $

EPD, Lemon, 6 outlets/wall $

Lime, 6 outlets/cord $

Orange, 6 outlets/cord $

Peach, 3 outlets/wall $

INNOVATIVE, Flip-n-File 50 (disk holder) $KENSINGTON. Masterpiece (IBM) $System Saver Fan (Apple) $

Printer Stand $

NETWORX, Wiretree, 4 outlet, w/till & surge $Wiretree Plus $

PERFECT DATA. Head Cleaning Kit $PROD TECH INTL. Uninterruptable Power Supply200 Walls, PC200 for IBM-PC $ 359 $ 229

300 Watts, XT300 for IBM-XT $ 499 $ 379

800 Watts, AT800 for IBM-AT, 72 lbs CALL

50 5

60 $

90 $

60 $

45 $

70 $

100 $

60 $

22 $

140 $

90 $

30 $

70 $

100 $

16 $

CONROY- <LAPOINTE ICREDIT CARD

Send me a Conroy-LaPointecredit application lorm so Iran gel cash discount priceswilh credil card

Lr

SIAK,raen Place

ORDERING INFO & TERMS:

MAIL TO: 12060 SW Garden Place, Portland, OR 97223 - include telephone number Checkyour figures for Shipping, Insurance and Handling (SIH). All items usually in slock. NO C.O.D.Cashiers checks, money orders, Fortune 1000 checks and government checks honored immediately Personal and other company checks-allow 20 days to clear Prices reflect3% cash & Conroy-LaPointe Credit Card discount, so ADD 3% to above prices for VISA/MasterCard/Amencan Express Your cards NOT charged til we ship. Add SIH CHARGES:U.S Mainland, 3% ($5 minimum) for standard UPS ground; UPS Blue, 6% ($10 mm); tor U.S. Postal AP0 or FP0 or Alaska, 6% ($10 min) Canada, 12% ($15 min). Foreignorders except Canada, 18% ($25 mm). Monitors by Postal or to foreign countries, 30% ($50 mm). Orders received with insufficient SIH will be refunded. All prices, availabilityand 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 andour assurance that you will get new unused products-ALL SALES ARE FINAL We do not guarantee compatibility Call before returning goods for repar or replacementORDER DESK H0URS-6AM to 6PM PST, Monday through Friday, Saturday 10 to 4. EconoAAM"" Pastrax'' and Genenk"" are trademarks of ComX Corporation

Inquiry 113 for Apple. Inquiry 114 for IBM Peripherals Inquiry 115 for all others

#B20

( TO ORDER, CALL (800) 547-12891FOR YOUR IIM-PC, XT, AT or JR

COMPUTER SYSTEMS OTHER HARDWARE OTHER HARDWARE

— Call for Details —256K TIM - PC

360K

Disk Drives

by CDC

co/twao. p0rtab<P

256K. 2 360K Disk Drives

Z150,

256K. 2 320K Disk Drives.

MS DOS 2 I 8088 Ch.p. 2 SrP

HARD DISKS &TAPE BACKUP

External 10 meg kit w/power $1295 $1049

MF-10/10. H Disk, tape back, corn, power $2295 $1795

MICRO SCIENCE, 10 meg w/controller $ 895 S 689

RANA, External 10 meg w/controller $1495 $1095

Internal 10 meg w/controller $ 995 $ 689

TALIGRASS, 25 meg diSK. 55 meg tape, irttf $3660 $3160

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

CDC, Limited 30 day warranty; Call (or quantity prices

Full Height $129

Half Height $109

MAYNARD, Controller Card w/para port $ 300 $ 185

Controller Card w/sehal port S 310 $ 195

Sandstar Cont Card (accepts 3 modules) $ 265 $ 205

PERFECT DATA. Head Cleaning Kit $ 16 $ 12

AST,

SixPak Plus, 64K

SixPak Plus, 256K. S/P/CC + SAWSixPak Plus. 384K. S/P/CC + S/WGame Port for SixPakPreview'" Graphics Card w/para, 64KAdvantage™ Multif Bd. for AT, 128KI/O Plus II, S/P/CCI/O Plus II. S/P/CC/GI/O Plus II. 2S/P/CC/GPort Kits ■ ser, para, or game, ea.MonoGraphPlus™ P/CC (for Lotus)COMX, NEW

EconoRAM™ Plus, 3WK to i

board, S/P/CC/G Fastrak & Spooler

EconoRAM". full 384K boardHAUPPAGE (HCW), 8087 Chip

8087 Math Pak (Chip & softw.)HAYES, Mach II Joystick

Mach III (PC or Jr.)HERCULES, Color Card w/para.

Mono Graphics CardKENSINGTON, Masterpiece"

PC Saver" Line Cord w/FirterKEY TRONIC, KB5151. Std. KeyboardKOALA, Speed Key System

Speed Key Tablet w/software

Koala Pad w/PC DesignMAYNARD, SAND STAR SERIES

Multifunction (6) Card

Memory Card no RAM

Memory Card 256K

Floppy Cont. Card (accepts 3 modules)

Hard Disk l/F Module

Hard Disk Cable

Serial Port Module

Para or Clock Cal Module, ea

Game Adapter Module

Memory Module. OK

Memory Module 256K

$259

$ 695 $ 395

$ B95 $ 465

S 50 S 39

$ 399 $ 299

S 595 $ 445

$ 215 S 150

$ 265 $ 185

$ 315 $ 215

$ 50 I 39

$ 495 $ 375

6me9$265

$ 295 $ 195

$ 175 $ 129

$ 295 $ 235

$ 45 $ 29

$ 55 $ 35

S 245 $ 169

t 499 $ 329

$ 140 $ 99

$ 50 $ 35

$ 255 t 195

$ 100 $ 63

i 200 $ 115

$ 150 I 89

$ 89 $ 79S 199 $ 139$ 495 $ 395$ 265 I 205I 499 $ 399$ 30 S 27t 95 $ 79$ 59 I 49$ 49 $ 43122 $

PRICE

MICROSOFT, Mouse (lor PC) S 195

Serial Mouse $ 195

MOUSE SYSTEMS, PC Mouse & Painl $ 295

PAHADISE, Modular Graphics Card $ 395

Parallel or Serial Port, ea $ 95

PERSYST,NEW

PC/Mono Board, w/para port $ 250

PC/Color Graphics Bd w/light pen & l/F S 244

BOB Board Color Adapter, hi res. $ 595

QUADRAM.

Quadboard 64K, to 384k, s/p/cc/g

Quadboard, no RAM. expand to 384K $ 295Quadboard 256K, to 384K, S/P/CC $ 395Quadboard, 384K (full), S/P/CC/G $ 795Quadboard II, no RAM, 10 256K $ 295Quadboard II, 64K. lo 256K, 2S/CC $ 395

Quadboard II. 256K. 2S/CC $ 595

Quad 512 + 64K w/serial port $ 325

Quadcolor I, board, 4 colors $ 295

Upgrade Quadcolor I to II kit $ 275

Quadvue. board. Mono. S/P/CC $ 345

Quad 3278 $1195

Quadnet VI $2295

Quadnel IX $1995

Quadlink $ 495

Quadsprint $ 645

TG PRODUCTS, Joystick $ 45

WICO, Smartboard Keyboard $ 400

CONHOYPRICE$ 135i 135$ 140$ 285$ 65

S 195$ 176$ 465

$245

$ 225$ 295$ 495S 215$ 265$ 395% 245$ 195% 199$ 269$1050$1545S1745$ 385S 495$ 29$ 279

• 256K*CHIP KIT

$14 ea.

10 or more

$ 422 $ 357

* * FORYOURPCJR * *

KEY TRONIC, KB5151 Jr Keyboard $ 255 5 195

Numeric Keypad $ 100 S 77

KOALA, Touch Tablet tor Jr. $ 125 S 75

MICROSOFT, Booster 128K w/Mouse $ 495 $ 339

MOUSE SYSTEMS. Mouse (for Jr.) $ 195 $ 125

QUADRAM, Expansion Chassis $ 695 $ 540

Memory Expansion Board (128K, PICC) $ 275 $ 215

TECMAR. Jr. Captain $ 395 $ 325

• ComXEconoRAM Plus

$265

384K Multifunction RAM Boardexpandable to 1.5 Megabyte

Works like AST StxPakPt(js''virth

capacity for up to 1 5 meg game port

Fastrak" RAM Disk and Spooler Software

EconoRAM" 384K

Single Function Board

$195

With Fastrak" and Spooler

Fully Compatible. 1 Year Limited Warranty

Works on DOS 1 1. 2 0 or 2 1

Pnces and availability subject to change Call

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

BUSINESS

BUSINESS

PRICE

ASHTON-TATE, Framework $ 695

dBase III $ 695

dBase II, (req. PC-DOS & 128K) $ 495

ATI, Training Programs —Large Inventory $ 75

BPI, General Acclg. AR, AP. or PR. ea $ 595

BRODERBUND. Bank St Wnter (PC or Jr.) $ 80

CDEX, Training Programs-Large Inventory $ 70

CONTINENTAL, Ultrafile (PC) $ 195

Tax Advantage (PC or Jr.) $ 70

Property Management (PC) $ 495

DATA TRANS., Fontrix NEW $ 125

DOW JONES, Investment Evaluator $ 149

Market Manager Plus $ 249

Market Analyzer or Market Microscope $ 349

Spread Sheet Link $ 249

FOX & GELLER. Quickcode III $ 295

HARVARD, Total Project Manager $ 495

HOWARDSOFT, Tax Preparer '85

Kit for California

HUMAN EDGE, Mind Prober (PC or Jr.) $ 50

Sales Edge or Management Edge, ea $ 250

Negotiation Edge $ 295

KENSINGTON. Easy Link Mail Manager $ 95

LIFETREE, Volkswriter Deluxe $ 295

LIVING VIDEOTEXT, Think Tank $ 195

LOTUS, 1-2-3 $ 495

Symphony $ 695

MDBS, Knowledgeman $ 500

MECA. Managing Your Money (PC) $ 195

Managing Your Money Cartridge (Jr) $ 199

CONROTPRICE$ 349$ 359$ 289$ 50$ 365$ 49$ 45$ 115$ 40$ 295i 75$ 99S 159S 219S 159$ 185295

$ 295$ 125

Vll

32

159

185

59

159

105

309

$ 465

$ 300

$ 125

$ 179

MICROPRO, WordStar (PC)WordStar (Jr)WordStar 2000 (copiable)WordStar 2000 Plus (copiable)WordStar Professional PlusWordStar Professional. 4 Pak

PRICE$ 350$ 195$ 495$ 595$ 695$ 495

MailMerge. SpellStar or Starlndex. ea $ 99

InfoStar Plus (+ Starburst) $ 595

Correct Star $ 145

MICRORIM, RBase Clout $ 195

Extended Report Writer $ 150RBase Series 4000 (New Version) $ 495

MICROSOFT. Spell $ 50

Multiplan (PC or Jr) $ 195

Chart or Project, each $ 250

Word $ 375

MONOGRAM, Dollars & Sense w/Forecast $ 180

MULTIMATE, Multimate Ver. 4.0 $ 495

PEACHTREE, Back 10 Basics $ 395

Peach Pak (GL/AR/AP) $ 395

QUE, Using 1-2-3 $ 15

1-2-3 for Business $ 15

Using Symphony $ 20

SAMNA. Word Plus $ 695

Word III $ 550

SATELLITE, WordPerfect (PC) $ 495

WordPerfect (Jr) $ 89

SOFTW. ARTS. Spotlight $ 150

TK Solver (specify DOS) S 399

189115295325395265

54315

77139

9525'

3:12!159235

99

295

239

S 225

$ 12

S 12

I 43i$ 27S$ 235S 45$ 95S 269

BUSINESS

SOFTWARE PUBL. PFS:Report

PFS:File

PFS;Write

PFS: Graph

PFS:Plan

PFS:Proof or PFSAccess, eachSORCIM, SuperCalc MlSTONEWARE, Advanced DB MasterTHORN EMI. Perfect Pak (Jr) {Wrte/SpeJl/Triesaurus)WARNER, Desk Organizer (PC or Jr)

UTILITIES

BORLAND. Sidekick or Toolbox, ea.

Sidekick (Copiable) (PC or Jr)

Turbo Pascal (PC or Jr)

Super Keys

3 Pak (Pascal. Turbo Tut. Toolbox)CENTRAL POINT. Copy II PCCOMX, Fastrak*, RAM/Disk emulator & printer

For any PC/DOS or RAM Card Menu DnvenDIGITAL RES., CP/M-86" (PC/XT)

CBASIC Compiler (CP/M-86 or PCDOS. ea)

DR LOGO-86 (CP/M-86)FUNK SOFTWARE, SidewaysIBM, BASIC Cartridge (Jr)HAVES, Smaflcom II (Data Comm )LIFEBOAT. Lattice C

Or HaloMICROSOFT, Macro Assembler

BASIC Compiler or C Compiler, ea

Business BASIC Compiler

COBOL Compiler

FORTRAN Compiler

PASCAL Compiler

UTILITIES

LISTPRICE$ 125$$$SS

14040 !

14095$ 395$ 595$ 139$ 195

CONROYPRICE$ 79$ 89S 89S 89$ 89$ 59S 245% 375$ 89$ 125

55 $

85 $

$ 70 $

$ 70 $

$ 105 $

$ 40 Ispooler

$ 100 I

$ 100 I

$ 600 I 395

$ 150 S 99

$ 60 $ 37

$ 75 S 69

$ 149 S 99

$ 500 S 250

$ 100 I 50

$ 150 $ 99

$ 500 S 259

$ 450 $ 300

S 700 S 459

S 350 S 229

I 300 S 199

LIST COflROY

PRICE PRICE

MICROSTUF, Crosstalk XVI (PC or Jr) $ 195 $ 129

MOUSE SYSTEMS, PC Paint $ 99 S 69

NORTON, Utilities (14 prgms) $ 100 $ 65

ROSESOFT, Prokey $ 130 $ 79

WESTERN UNION, Easy Link Mail Mngr $ 95 $ 59

HOME & EDUCATIONAL

BPI, Personal Accounting $ 99 I dj

CONTINENTAL, Home Accountant (Jr) $ 75 J 51

Home Accountant Plus (PC) $ 150 $ 9(

DOW JONES. Home Budget $ 139 $ 9)

KOALA, Graphics Exhibitor (Jr) $ 40 $ 2!

MONOGRAM, Dollars S Sense w/lorecast S 180 $ 95

SCARBOROUGH, MasterType (PC or Jr) $ 40 $ 2!

Your Personal Net Worth $ 100 $ 62

SIMON A SCHUSTER, Typing Tutor III $ 50 S 32

PLUS: BPI, CBS. COMPREHENSIVE. DAVIDSONHARCOURT, PBL CORP.

RECREATIONAL

BLUECHIP, Millionaire. Barron. Tycoon, ea. S 60 $ 3S

BRODERBUND. Large Inventory In Stock CALL

ELECTRONIC ARTS, Large Inventory In Stock CALL

HAYDEN, Sargon 111 (Chess) $ 50 I 34

INFOCOM, Large Inventory In Stock CALL

Hitchhiker's Guide $ 40 $ 25

Zork I. II. or III, ea. $ 40 1 25

MICROSOFT, Flight Simulator (PC or Jr) $ 50 $ 33

ORIGIN, Ultima III (PC or Jr) I 60 $ 39

SIERRA/ON-LINE, Ultima II (PC or Jr.) S 60 $ 44

SPECTRUM HOLOBVTE, Gato S 40 $ 25

SPINNAKER. President's Choice. Amazon

Fahrenheit, Rendezvous. Dragon, each $ 40 $

CASH-n-CARRY COMPUTER STORES, INC.

Retail Sales only. Store prices may vary.SAN FRANCISCO — 550 Washington Street (at Mont-gomery, opposite the Pyramid). Inlerstate 80. to Highway480; lake Washington Street Exit. CALL (415) 982-6212.PORTLAND. OREGON — At Park 217. Tigard at intersec-tion of Highways 217 and 99W CALL (503) 620-5595.SEATTLE, WASH. — 3540 128lh Ave SE, Bellrvue 98006.In Loehmanns Pla/a near Factoria Square. S[ of Highway405 «, 90 and .11 St ifelh ami Ru hards. CALL 641-4736.

«SS5v>

mmJIimuk

•"¥"€"

OUR REFERENCES:

We have been in computers and electronicssince 1958. a computer dealer since 1978 and incomputer mail order since 1980. Banks: 1st Inter-state Bank, (503) 643-4678. We belong to theChamber ol Commerce (503) 228-9411. and DirectMarketing Association; call Dun and Bradstreetif you are a subscriber Recipient of OREGONBUSINESS MAGAZINE'S 1984 Enterprise Award.

(MasterCard)

v_xLyj

CONROV-LAPOIHTECARD

NO SALES TAX

CALL(800) 547-1289

In Oregon: (800) 451-5151

QUESTIONS

(503) 620-9878Weekdays Only

Foreign t

Portland

Resident* Call

(503) 620-9877

ORDER DESK HOURS

Mon-Fri 6am to 6pm (PST)Saturday 10am to 4pm (PST)[6 am here is 9 am in New York)

INTRODUCING CONQUEST PC TURBO......

A COMPLETE AND POWERFUL COMPUTER SYSTEM

FEATURES INCLUDE:

16BitCPUWith 256k Memory -Expandable to 1 MegaBytes of Parity CheckedBuilt-in turboSwitchable, Dual SpeedOperation Regular 4.7MHZ or HighPerformance 8 MHZTwo 360k Slimline DiskDrives

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184 BYTE • IUNE 1985

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Inquiry 442 for End-Users. Inquiry 443 for DEALERS ONLY.

by David Ushijima

InsideAppleTalk

A closer look

at Apple's new link

In January Apple Computer Inc.unveiled its long-awaitedAppleTalk local-area network(LAN), designed to let Appleand non-Apple products communi-cate and share information andresources. (See "The Macintosh Of-fice" by )ohn Markoff and PhillipRobinson, February BYTE, page 120,for more information.)

Physically, AppleTalk consists of asimple shielded twisted-pair cablecalled a trunk cable. You attachdevices such as computers and pe-ripherals to the trunk cable using con-nection boxes (see figure 1). Each con-nection box contains two miniature3-pin connectors and a short lengthof cable terminating in a DB-9 connec-tor. With the connector modules join-ing the segments of the trunk cable,you can connect up to 32 devices toa single AppleTalk network over atotal distance of up to 300 meters. Inaddition, you can interconnect anumber of such networks using aspecial device called a bridge.

Electrically, AppleTalk is anRS-422A balanced transmission linewith a raw data-transfer rate of 230.4Kbits per second. The data is sent overthe bus in a synchronous format usinga bit-oriented protocol based on the

synchronous data-link control (SDLC)protocol. Currently, only the Macin-tosh has the hardware necessary tosupport this standard.

Serial port B on the back of theMacintosh (the printer port) can be at-tached to AppleTalk. The circuitry re-quired to implement the AppleTalkprotocols is entirely contained on theMacintosh's digital board. The heartof the serial interface is the Zilog 8530serial communications controller(SCC). This chip takes care of all thedetails necessary to send and receivedata in the format required by Apple-

Talk. The RS-422A drivers andreceivers (26LS30 and 26LS32) pro-vide the balanced line interface to thebus.

To allow IBM Personal Computers(PCs) to share resources and data withMacintosh office products, Apple ismarketing an interface card for theIBM PC that will let it communicatevia AppleTalk. While Apple has notannounced an AppleTalk card for the

{continued)David Ushijima (2600 Tenth St., Berkeley,CA 94710) is a technical editor at OsbornelMcGraw-Hill.

ILLUSTRATED BY ANDREW SHACHAT

IUNE 1985 -BYTE

185

APPLETALK

Apple II. it would be easy for the com-pany to add one.

Configuring the Bus

AppleTalk was designed specificallyas a network for personal computers.As a result, it is extremely flexible andcan be used in three ways: as a pe-ripheral bus, as a small LAN. or as apath to a large, complex network.

As a peripheral bus. AppleTalkallows the implementation of so-called virtual slots. While you cannotexpand the Macintosh by plugging inboards (as with the Apple lie or theIBM PC), you can add devices viaAppleTalk. Since the bus is fastenough to accommodate the connec-tion of devices such as hard disks, itprovides the functional equivalent ofslots—thus the term "virtual slots."

Although the speed with which theMacintosh can access a device viaAppleTalk is slower than that whichcould be obtained if you were to pluga controller card directly into a slot.the overall performance is still re-spectable (approximately 29K bytesper second).

The LAN configuration of Apple-Talk is probably the most common formost small- to medium-size busi-nesses. In this configuration Apple-Talk is used to connect small clustersof computers so that they can ex-change information and share harddisks and high-speed printers (such asApple's new LaserWriter).

Devices that let computers share aresource are called servers. A fileserver lets users share files on a harddisk and a print server lets them sharea high-speed printer. The LaserWriterand the as-yet unreleased file serverare examples of servers. An LAN con-figuration is shown in figure 2. In thiscase, a node is any device connectedto the bus. Thus, a node could be aMacintosh or an IBM PC with theproper AppleTalk interface card.

One variation of the LAN configura-tion would allow a local AppleTalknetwork to serve as a path to a larger,more complex network such as GTE'sTelenet. This would allow you to com-municate with computers that arelocated beyond the confines of thelocal area.

MACINTOSH

MACINTOSH

PRINTER

TXt

MODULE

TRUNK CABLE —^

HARD DISK

Figure I: The typical AppleTalk configuration.

The most complex configuration ofAppleTalk is that of a full-blown net-work such as the one shown in figure3. While AppleTalk was designed toaccommodate a large number ofcomputers configured in complex ar-rangements, most users will neverhave to deal with this level of com-plexity. Universities and large busi-nesses that need to incorporate alarge number of personal computersinto a unified network will be con-cerned with this configuration.

The AppleTalk Architecture

In the real world, the development ofa network can be likened to the de-velopment of a telephone system. Forcommunication to take place, youmust have a connecting link, the tele-phone cable. Before you can lay thecable, you must have a set of plansthat everyone agrees to follow. In thecase of AppleTalk, the plans for thesystem consist of a set of rules or pro-tocols that a device such as theMacintosh or Lisa must follow inorder to talk to other members of thenetwork.

The AppleTalk architecture consistsof a set of well-thought-out rules thatallow a wide range of devices to beconnected together. Apple has de-signed the architecture to be an opensystem, that is, one in which outsideor third-party developers are en-couraged to add to or modify the sys-tem according to their needs. Essen-tially. Apple is providing third-partydevelopers with a set of tools that willallow them to connect their devicesto the network and with a set of sug-

TO MAINFRAME

OR

REMOTE NETWORK

MACINTOSH

APPLE n

FILE SERVER

PRINT SERVER

b

1

MACINTOSH

MACINTOSH

LISA

COMMUNICATION

SERVER

(GATEWAY)

Figure 2: AppleTalk configured as a local network.

186 BYT E • IUNE 1985

APPLETALK

gested rules that will let them imple-ment various functions. Beyond thebasic rules, developers are free toselect and design their own protocolsto add to what Apple supplies.

The ISO Open Systems Model

To understand the workings of Apple-Talk let's take a look at the ISO (Inter-national Standards Organization)Open Systems Model. The ISO wasestablished to guide network devel-opers and promote compatibility be-tween networks. Since different net-works are designed with differentgoals in mind, one network may im-plement a number of features that arenot necessary on another network.However, it is desirable to have com-patible networks. To promote compat-ibility, the ISO Open Systems Modeldefines what it calls "levels" or"layers" of a network. Each layer con-sists of a particular set of rules. Thelayers at the bottom of the networkspecify the most elementary or basicrules or protocols. Each successivelayer, proceeding from bottom to top.adds a function or feature thatdepends on the mechanism definedin the layer below it.

Because the Open Systems Modelis based on logical rather thanphysical divisions, it can be somewhatconfusing when you are trying to in-terpret how a physical system is ac-tually put together. To get a feel forhow a model like this represents aprocess that occurs in the real world,consider the analogy of a telephoneconference.

Suppose you set up a conferencecall between members of differentcountries. For this to be possible, thebasic telephone equipment must becompatible. Furthermore, everyonemust agree to speak the same lan-guage. The participants must agree ona set of rules (formal or informal)detailing, for example, who may speakwhen, for how long, etc. Without thisgroundwork, the conference callcould result in a melange of voices. Inthis example you can see severallevels of protocol that must be in ef-fect for communication to take place.

The ISO Open Systems Model con-

TO-►REMOTEBRIDGE

Figure 3: An Applelalk internet.

APPLICATION LAYER

PRESENTATION LAYER

SESSION LAYER

TRANSPORT LAYER

NETWORK LAYER

DATA-LINK LAYER

PHYSICAL LAYER

NAME-BINDINGPROTOCOL (NBP)

APPLETALK TRANSACTIONPROTOCOL (ATP)

DATAGRAM-DELIVERYPROTOCOL(DDP)

APPLETALK LINK-ACCESSPROTOCOL (ATLAP)

RS-422A

ISO OPEN SYSTEMS MODEL

APPLETALK CORE PROTOCOLS

Figure 4: The ISO Open Systems Model and the Applelalk core protocols.

sists of seven layers: physical, data understand the workings of the sys-

link, network, transport, session, pre- tern, it doesn't necessarily reflect the

sentation, and application (see figure system's physical structure. Let's take

4). While the model allows you to {continued)

IUNE 1985

IYTE 187

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APPLETALK

a look at what each of the levels rep-resents.

The lowest level is the physical link.This is simply a set of rules specify-ing the electrical and physical connec-tion between devices. The physicallink specifies the cable connectionsand the electrical rules necessary totransfer data between devices. Typi-cally, the physical link corresponds toestablished interface standards suchas RS-232C, RS-422A, or RS-423A.

The next layer up is the data-link orlink-access layer. This layer specifieshow a device gains access to themedium specified in the physicallayer. With a number of devices vyingfor access, this becomes an importantissue. The data-link layer is alsoresponsible for framing—that is, en-closing the data in the electricalequivalent of the envelope you use tomail your letters. Finally, this layer isresponsible for addressing theenvelope to the destination device onthe link.

The network layer is responsible forsetting up a logical connection be-tween a source and a destination onthe network. In a complex network, asource and a destination may not bedirectly connected by a single path.Rather, the path may consist of manysubpathe. Thus, the network layer isresponsible for routing the data overthis path through the network system.

The transport layer is responsiblefor guaranteeing that a message iscorrectly received. This is often imple-mented by having the receiving partyreturn an acknowledgment uponreceipt of a message from the send-ing party.

While the first four layers are fairlywell defined, the top three layers mayvary depending on the network. Gen-erally, though, the session layer willallow two devices on the network tocoordinate their actions (for example,one device accessing the files of an-other device). Messages at this levelmay consist of commands that allowone device to control another overthe network.

The presentation layer is responsi-ble for formatting data in such a way

[continued]

188 BYTE- IUNE 198^

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IUNE

189

Inquiry 21

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APPLETALK

that information sent from one devicecan be properly used by the receiv-ing device. For example, the presen-tation layer would translate a docu-ment into a form that could be under-stood and printed by the LaserWriter.Finally, the application layer ensuresthat data from an application runningon one device is directly usable by anapplication running on anotherdevice.

A Closer Look at AppleTalk

Figure 4 shows the relationship of theprimary AppleTalk protocols to theISO Open Systems Model. The fivelevels of AppleTalk represent whatApple calls the core protocols. Theseare the protocols that Apple will beproviding for use by third-party devel-opers with computers such as theMacintosh and the Lisa. Since Apple-Talk was designed as an open system,developers are free to add to thebasic set of protocols. Similarly, a de-veloper may choose to use only thebottom layers provided by Apple andinstitute its own higher-level protocols.For example, by using the servicesprovided by Apple at the three lowestlayers of the ISO model, a developerwill still have the ability to send mes-sages, or "datagrams" in AppleTalkterminology.

Let's take a closer look at the majorprotocols or services that Apple willprovide.

The Physical Link

The lowest level or physical layer ofAppleTalk is the shielded twisted-paircable and the connection box.Through the use of the connectionbox, each node is coupled to thetrunk cable with a transformer. Thus,a missing node or one that is unableto receive or transmit will not affectthe performance of the bus. Also,transformer coupling provides groundisolation as well as protection fromstatic discharge. The physical link ofAppleTalk is also defined to beRS-4 2 2 A-compatible

So far we have a cable and a set ofpin definitions for the interface. To thiswe now add a method of bit encoding

[continued]

190 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 220 for End-Users. Inquiry 221 for DEALERS ONLY.

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Inquiry 327

APPLETALK

known as FM (frequency modulation)0 (see figure 5). With this method,there is at least one transition at thebeginning and end of each bit. A cellrepresenting a 0 will contain an addi-tional transition in the middle of thebit cell. This technique allows theclock to be recovered using a phase-locked loop at the receiving end.

The physical layer of AppleTalkdefines a synchronous RS-422A busupon which each succeeding layercan build. Notice that the physicallayer only provides for a series of Isand Os to be sent over the bus. Therules governing how a node gains ac-cess to the bus and how the Is andOs are to be interpreted are left tohigher levels of the architecture.

The Data Link

In the AppleTalk architecture, thedata-link layer uses the AppleTalk link-

access protocol (ATLAP). There arethree functions implemented in theATLAP: framing, bus-access control,and node addressing.

To send a message, a device musthave some way of putting the mes-sage into the equivalent of anenvelope. In the terminology of a net-work, an envelope is called a frame.ATLAP specifies a frame that is basedon a bit-oriented message; that is,messages are sent as pure sequencesof bits, not as individual characters.The ATLAP frame is shown in figure 6.

The ATLAP frame consists of threeparts: the header, the data, and thecheck field. At the beginning of eachheader are two flag bytes (hexadeci-mal 7E), followed by a single bytedestination and source address speci-fying the node number of the sourceand destination. This is followed by atype field used to specify the type of

Figure 5: An example of FM 0 modulation.

frame. ATLAP frames may be one oftwo types: control or data.

ATLAP uses control frames for its in-ternal functions such as assigning ad-dresses to nodes and controlling ac-cess to the network. A control frameis indicated by a type field value from128 to 2 55 (hexadecimal 80 to FF) inthe ATLAP type field. Values from 1to 127 (hexadecimal 01 to 7F) indicatea data frame.

In a data frame, up to 600 bytes ofuser data (provided by the higher-level protocols) can follow the ATLAPheader information. ATLAP controlframes do not contain a data field.Finally, following the data field is a16-bit frame-check character used toensure the validity of the data in theframe.

The second function of the ATLAPlayer, controlling who gets access tothe bus and when, is of fundamentalimportance because up to 32 dif-ferent devices may be trying to talkon a single AppleTalk network at thesame time. Suppose you have theconfiguration shown in figure 2. in thiscase you have many devices or nodesvying for access to the bus. In the realworld, that's like having several peo-

[ctmtinuedl

ATLAPHEADER

/ ATP

/ HEADER

LAP TYPE FIELD =1

/ DDP/ HEADER

0

0

0

0

0

0

DESTINATION ADDRESS

SOURCE ADDRESS

DATAGRAM LENGTH

DDP PROTOCOL TYPE =3

DESTINATION SOCKET*

LAP TYPE FIELD

COMMAND/CONTROL

SOURCE SOCKET*

DATA FIELD

(UP TO 600 BYTES)

BIT MAP/SEQUENCE NUMBER

DDP PROTOCOL TYPE

TRANSACTION ID

DATAGRAM DATA

(UP TO 586 BYTES)

TRANSACTION ID

FRAME CHECKCHARACTER

APPLETALKLINK-ACCESSPROTOCOL(ATLAP)

DATAGRAMDELIVERYPROTOCOL(DDP)

APPLETALKTRANSACTIONPROTOCOL(ATP)

DATA-LINKLAYER

NETWORKLAYER

TRANSPORTLAYER

Figure 6: The ATLAP packet format, DDP packet format, and ATP packet format.

192 BYTE- IUNL 1Q85

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^TeleVideo Systems, Inc.IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 193

APPLETALK

pie on a party line all trying to makea call at the same time. You needsome way of controlling who can usethe line and when.

In AppleTalk. the method used toresolve this contention problem iscalled CSMA/CA (carrier-sense multi-ple-access with collision avoidance).When two devices try to talk at the

same time, a collision occurs. Whena collision is detected, each sendingdevice must back off or wait somepredetermined amount of time beforetrying again.

One method to avoid collisions re-quires each device to listen to the bus.If a device hears some activity on thebus, it knows that the bus is busy, and

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When two devices tryto talk at once,a collision occurs.

it waits until the bus is free beforetransmitting.

One of the limitations of AppleTalkis that nodes do not have specialhardware to detect collisions. This istrue simply because of the limitationsof the serial interfaces used on mostmicrocomputers: A device (unlike aperson) can either be transmitting(talking) or receiving (listening) but notboth simultaneously. To overcome thislimitation, AppleTalk uses the schemedescribed above, whereby eachdevice must listen to the bus. If thebus is busy, the node must wait untilit is free before sending a message.Once the bus is free (that is, no ac-tivity is going on), a device must waitan amount of time based on thegeneration of a pseudorandomnumber before transmitting to avoidcollisions with other devices waitingto use the bus.

In our party-line analogy, this col-lision-avoidance method means thateach party must listen to the line. Ifthe line is busy, you must wait untilyou don't hear any voices. Once theline is free, you must wait some ran-dom amount of time before dialing.

The third function implemented bythe ATLAP is addressing. Each nodeon the AppleTalk network is assigneda unique 8-bit address known as thenode ID (identification). However, anode is not required to have a fixednode address. When a node isswitched on, it chooses a node ID byeither looking up a previously savedvalue from nonvolatile memory (likea disk file) or by generating a randomnumber. Once a node has chosen anode ID, it sends a special ATLAPcontrol frame called an enquiry (ENQ)frame to its own address. Any nodereceiving an ENQ frame must sendout a control frame called an acknowl-edge (ACK) frame. Therefore, if a node

{continued)

194 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 223

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Inquiry 348

IUNE 1985 -BYTE

195

APPLETALK

sends out an ENQ to the address ithas chosen and receives an ACK. itknows that the node ID is already be-ing used. If, after repeatedly sendingout ENQ frames, no ACK is received,the new node simply takes the nodeID as its own.

The DatagramDelivery Protocol

While the ATLAP provides a deliveryservice from one node to another,often a node may contain more thanone logical source or destination. InAppleTalk terminology, a logicalsource or destination is referred to asa socket. For example, consider thecase of a program that manages adisk-file system that can be accessedby many users. This program could behandling many requests for file readsand writes from many different users.To keep these requests straight, thefile manager could require many

sockets, in this case, one for each user.

To provide a delivery service thatextends the functions of ATLAP to thesocket level, AppleTalk provides aprotocol called the datagram deliveryprotocol (DDP). At the network layer,the DDP defines a packet of informa-tion called a datagram.

The format of a datagram is shownin figure 6. Note that the datagram isactually contained within the ATLAPframe—thus the concept of layering.The datagram is essentially enclosedwithin the envelope defined by theATLAP in the data-link layer.

You can also see that the datagramheader directly follows the ATLAPheader. If the ATLAP type field isequal to 1, the next 5 bytes are takenas the datagram header.

The datagram header consists of 5bytes. These bytes contain the follow-ing fields: a 10-bit length field, thedestination-socket number, the

source-socket number, and the DDPprotocol type field.

The first 6 bits of the datagram (DDPheader) are set to 0. The following 10bits contain the length of thedatagram (from the first byte of theDDP header to the last part of theDDP data field). A datagram packetarriving at a destination node is im-mediately checked for correct lengfhusing the value stored in the data-gram's header. If the length of thereceived datagram does not matchthe DDP length field, the packet is im-mediately discarded.

The next byte is the destination-socket number, followed by thesource-socket number. Finally, the lastbyte of the header is the DDP pro-tocol type field. This field specifies thetype of protocol used in the nexthigher layer; that is. it indicates to thedestination node the format of thedata contained in the DDP data field.

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196 BYTE • IUNE 198S

APPLETALK

Up to 586 bytes of data may followthe DDP header. Again, because ofthe layered protocol, the definition ofthis data depends upon the protocolused in the next higher level.

The DDP also allows for the deliveryof packets over a complex networkcomposed of what are called inter-nets. By connecting individual Apple-Talk networks (up to 32 nodes)through what are called bridges, an in-ternet is formed. A complex networkcan be formed by connecting manyAppleTalk buses this way.

To handle the addressing on a com-plex internet, the DDP uses an ex-tended form of the DDP header thatcontains a source and destination net-work number, node ID, and socketnumber. These six values completelyspecify the address of any source anddestination on an internet.

Suppose you have the followingsituation: A datagram is to be sent

from point A to point I on the com-plex network shown in figure 3. To getfrom one AppleTalk to another, thedatagram must pass through severalbridges. Each bridge contains routingtables, which contain the informationnecessary to forward a datagram toa destination network. By passingthrough various bridges, a datagramwill eventually arrive at the propernetwork, node, and socket.

There is one additional field in theextended DDP header: the hop count.Each time a datagram passes througha bridge, the hop count is incre-mented. A datagram containing a hopcount of 15 will not be forwarded butinstead will be discarded. Thisprevents a datagram from endlesslycirculating through the network.

The Transaction Protocol

At the next level up is the AppleTalktransaction protocol (ATP). This pro-

tocol corresponds to the transportlayer of the ISO Open Systems Model.The ATP guarantees that a packet sentto a node is correctly received. It im-plements this through a series oftransaction requests and responses.The requesting end sends a transac-tion request, specifying, for example,a command to be executed at thereceiving end. When the receivingend gets the request, it sends one ormore transaction responses, whichcarry data generated by the executionof the command. The responses alsoserve as acknowledgment of deliveryof the transaction request.

The format of an ATP packet (infigure 6) also consists of a header anda data field. Notice that the ATPheader directly follows the DDPheader: that is, the ATP packet sits ontop of the DDP packet. If the DDP pro-tocol type field is equal to 3, the

[continued)

tt

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 197

APPLETALK

receiving node knows that the DDPdata field contains an ATP packet.

The first 8 bits of the ATP headercontain a command and control field.The first 2 bits are used to identify atransaction request (01), a transactionresponse (10). and a transactionrelease (11).

The following 8 bits constitute a se-

quence bit map used to keep track oftransactions where multiple re-sponses are necessary. For example,a transaction request could be a readcommand to a disk. The transactionresponse would consist of a series ofpackets containing the data read fromthe disk. The bit map is used to keeptrack of what packets have been prop-

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erly sent. It also provides a means ofrequesting the retransmission ofselective packets, thus avoiding theneed to retransmit the entire se-quence of packets.

Finally, the last field of the ATPheader is the transaction ID. This is a16-bit number assigned to the trans-action request by the sending node.The transaction ID allows each nodeto accurately track transactions andresponses. This is done by includingthe same value in all requests, re-sponses, and release packets belong-ing to a particular transaction.

The Name-Binding Protocol

One service Apple provides at thelayer corresponding to the sessionlayer of the ISO Open Systems Modelis the name-binding protocol (NBP).Recall that in a complex network orinternet, the extended DDP headerspecifies a source and destination net-work, node, and socket number. Suchnumerical addresses are efficientwhen used by network protocols butinconvenient and clumsy for humanusers who prefer dealing with namesand strings of characters. The Apple-Talk architecture includes facilities inits NBP for the use of names.

The actual NBP functions are imple-mented in a series of lookup tablesdistributed throughout the nodes ina network. These lookup tables cor-relate names with networks, nodes,and socket numbers. Each node con-tains a socket dedicated to the NBPfunction. The user can issue a call tothe NBP process requesting the ad-dress corresonding to a name. Giventhe name, the NBP will search throughthe tables in all nodes in a zone andreturn the corresponding addressthat is, network, node, and socketnumber.

Higer-Level Protocols

AppleTalk's higher-level (presentation-and application-layer) protocols willallow the formatting of data forspecific devices and applications. Atthe presentation level. Apple has in-troduced a protocol in conjunctionwith the LaserWriter printer. To allow

[continued

198 BYTE ■ IUNE 1985

Inquiry 245

WLETT-PA

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Inquiry 209

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 199

Inquiry 455

Powerful in circuit emulation, pricedwell within your grasp. That's NICE.u

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APPLETALK

Plans for Apple's"telephone system"

are complete.

the Macintosh to send documents tothe LaserWriter, Apple has incor-porated the features of a languagecalled PostScript developed by AdobeSystems. PostScript allows all Apple-Talk devices to communicate with theLaserWriter via a programming lan-guage similar to FORTH. Similarly, theAppleTalk filing protocol will providehigh-level support for Apple's fileservers.

AppleTalk Software

While the hardware necessary to sup-port AppleTalk is built into the Macin-tosh, the software required to use thenetwork consists of a set of devicedrivers. On the Macintosh this is sim-ply a file that must be installed in thesystem folder of each Macintosh onthe network. This file contains thesoftware that implements the lowerlevels of the AppleTalk protocols andthe software to implement the higher-level protocols necessary to com-municate with devices like the Laser-Writer.

The core protocols are imple-mented in a driver referred to as theMacintosh protocol package (MPP).The MPP, along with the driver thatimplements the ATP, takes up lessthan 6K bytes on the disk. To use theLaserWriter, an additional driver, theLaserWriter print manager, is also re-quired.

Summary

Plans for Apple's "telephone system"are complete. At this point, the poleshave been set up, the cables strung,and conversational rules established.Apple and third-party developershave announced a series of AppleTalkproducts. Now, the time it takes forAppleTalk to develop into the elec-tronic counterpart of today's tele-phone system will depend on theavailability of network software. ■

200 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 240

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IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.Inquiry 210

•Suggested retail price.1UNE 1985 'BYTE 201

EP

Gone are the glory daysfor Apple. Because Europe'smost successful business com-puter company is now doingbusiness in America.

Introducing Apricot. Afull line of computers specifi-cally designed for business.

Not adapted to it.

In fact, the facts speakfor themselves.

Apricots are elegant andcompact, true 16-bit comput-ers. They employ the MS-DOSoperating system, and a mini-mum of 256K memory. One ofour models, the Apricot Xi,boasts an incredible 1 Mega-

byte of memory, and features aWinchester hard disk with 20Megabytes of storage. We alsohave models that featurespeech recognition, full-sizeLCD, and icon driven menus.In addition, you have achoice between 9" or 12" b/wor 10" color monitors. All of

i 1985, Apricot. Inc.202 BYTE- IUNE I985

utura

which have a higher screenresolution than Apple.

And as if all that weren'tenough, all of our models canbe networked from the momentyou take them out of the box.They're also capable of run-ning thousands of businesssoftware programs like Lotus',"

pfsf and d-Base III.""Speciallywritten for Apricot on 3 Viinch disks.

Now, how do you likethem Apricots?

Apricot, Inc., 3375Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA95054. Call 800-227-6703,orin California 800-632-7979.

The Apricot Portable. 512K RAM. 720K diskette.80x25 line LCD. MS-DOS. $2495.

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Inquiry J i

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 203

18 Megabytes and 6 expansion slots forthe PC, XT, or AT™. $1995.

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: YT E • IUNE 1985

by Michael Fichtelman

THe ExpertMechanic

Expert systems

needn't be esoteric orwaste resources

Most people who haveheard of Logo prob-ably think it is a pro-gramming languagefor kids. Likewise, most people whohave heard the term "expert system"

probably think it refers to somethingesoteric on the frontiers of computerscience. Both conceptions contain anelement of truth, but both are over-simplifications. In fact, Logo can beused to develop an expert system thatlearns.

Definitions

Expert systems are exactly that: sys-tems that do what an expert in a givenfield can do. One of the first expertsystems was a program called DEN-DRAL, developed by Edward Fiegen-baum of Stanford University. DEN-DRAL operated at the intellectuallevel of a chemistry Ph.D.

Most expert systems are developedusing languages like LISP and Prolog.With these languages it is relativelyeasy to write programs that modifythemselves—programs that learn. Ofcourse, you can write an assemblerprogram that dynamically modifies itsown code, but that involves consider-able effort. Unfortunately, few imple-mentations of LISP and Prolog areavailable for microcomputers sinceboth languages require fairly largeamounts of memory. Logo providesmany of their capabilities, and ver-sions of Logo are available for mostmicrocomputers.

Logo was developed by SeymourPapert, a professor of mathematics atMIT. Logo has some of the featuresof its parent language, LISP, in addi-tion to a powerful graphics capabili-ty. In Logo, a program or procedureis a list of lists. Because the process

[continued]Michael Fichtelman is a systems analyst atthe European American Bank in New York.You can reach him at 72-61 113 St., ForestHills, NY 11375.

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 205

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EXPERT MECHANIC

of recursion is easy to implement in expert system. Once the system is im-Logo. procedures or lists can refer to plemented, anyone can interact withthemselves. A complete discussion of and modify its knowledge base.Logo is outside the scope of this arti-cle, but for our purposes knowledge MAKING AN EXPERTof Logo is important only if you want Mechanic is an expert system thatto understand how to implement an {continued)

'"EXPERT MECHANIC***

WE WILL TRY TO DIAGNOSE

THE PROBLEM BY ASKING QUESTIONS.

DOES THE ENGINE START?

YESDOES THE ENGINE STALL?

NODOES ENGINE MISFIRE''

NODOES ENGINE LACK POWER/PERFORMANCE?

NODOES ENGINE IDLE ROUGHLY?

YESCOULD IT BE FUEL VOLATILITY?

NOWHEN YOU FIND THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM, ADD IT TO KNOWLEDGEBASE.WHAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM?

CHOKEPLEASE TYPE IN A QUESTION WHOSE ANSWERIS "YES" FOR THE CHOKE AND "NO" FOR THE FUEL VOLATILITY

LET'S DIAGNOSE THE NEXT PROBLEM.

Figure I: Building a knowledge base involves applying human expertise whenthe correct solution is not yet part of the knowledge base.

"'EXPERT MECHANIC***

WE WILL TRY TO DIAGNOSE

THE PROBLEM BY ASKING QUESTIONS.

DOES THE ENGINE START?

NODOES THE STARTER CRANK ENGINE?

NOARE BATTERY TERMINALS LOOSE OR CORRODED?

NODOES STARTER MOTOR FAIL TO OPERATE WHEN POWER IS APPLIEDDIRECTLY?

YESCOULD IT BE THE STARTER?

YES

CONGRATULATIONS! NOW FIX THE PROBLEM.LET'S DIAGNOSE THE NEXT PROBLEM.

Figure 2: Here. Mechanic already has the information to move directly to acorrect solution to the problem of why the car won't start.

206 BYTE- IUNE I985

NICATIONS BREAKTHROUGH!

iTHAT TAKES CARE OF ITSELF . . .

IN THE BACKGROUND

or, Lotus, a compiler or whatever.)

reason enough to own a modem."

With HOMHMr- Electron 1JR arrives, automatically, while you'reworking in anotheihpiece ot software. Up in the corner of your screen, asignal flashes to tel I you when there* incoming mail. You can choose toread it as it arrives, or you can ignore it, and your mail will automaticallydie itself... to be read at your leisure.

INSTANT DATABASES ... BECAUSE

OF US NEED INFORMATION ... INSTANTt1

Homebase provides you instant access to youruniverse of databases. Just hit the hotkey to freezesoftware you're working in, and you're ready to find, inseitmanipulate data. Hit it again, and you're back working in youroriginal software, without skipping a beat.

DOS SERVICES

Need to shift a file up a directory while you're working in Wordstar?It's just a keystroke away with Homebase. You can open multipledirectories and sub-directories onscreen, move, copy, view and evenedit files from within this powerful Homebase feature.

AND A VERY FULL TOOLCHEST

Tools that will save you time and help you organize information,schedule, calculate, file and notate. You can even set up your ownreference pages for Instant recall.

ORDER YOUpbOPY

AMBERS HOMEB^E-CHECKTHE DIFFERENCE IN VALUE!

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f Notepad

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Calendar

Kjgfcrrfnfftf HB*§P-'

Calendar

Calendar

DOS Services

Calculator

Calculator

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ASCII Table

Game

Phone Directory

: Databases

Phone Directory

Alarm

Card Printer

AutoDialer

Card Printer

File Cards

Hie Cards

1 Alarm

{ Phone Directory

I Card Printer

$49.95

i Tables & Paget

$49.95

$149.95

Template Maker

1 Data Transfer

Cut a Paste

Programmable Hotkey

Phone Message Pad

1 Time 4 Expense Diary

1 To-do List

j Electronic Mall

j Qulckterm Terminal

Mailing Label Printer

$49.95!

Sl0^lct(ISOT*c«Jerrx^c*Bo/lQr>dlntefnationallnc. f^WlnckT^isaTrodernorkrtFtoryTTonCorp. Spcfllr^tlsaTracle«KirttofSoftvva«©ArtsclBas«{llorxJlll)isatToctetTcrrk(jtAshton-Totei Uitui(t-2-3)isoiTC<»rrKrtc*Lc^usDevokX)nwn'Coip WbrO^ is a tixxJenxykc* MicroPro

For Visa and MasterCard Orders Call Toll Free: 800-538-8157 Ext. 824

Call Moa-Frl. 6 AM. to 12 P.M., Sat. & Sun. 6 AM. to 8 P.M. (P.S.T.) In CA 800-672-3470 Ext. 824

Or fill in this ORDER FORM and enclose a check, money order or your VISA or MasterCard number.

Homebase is available for the IBM PC, XT and True Compatibles — $49.95 + $5 for shipping and handling*

YESI Site licenses are available forcompanies... large and small. Ifyou would like to order a singlecopy, now, toexamine and showaround your company, its costcan be deducted, later on, fromyour site license.

For further information on sitelicenses call 408-996-1883.

Inquiry 24

COMPANY NAME ,

CITY

HOME PHONE (

. STATE .

. WORK PHONE (

)

. Exp. <

□ CHECK D MONEY ORDER DVtSA a MASTERCARD Card #

*** <*aV nnonayback Xalifornlarestdentscidd6%salestax.OutsideU.S.pleoseodd$15.Checksmust

flUCHOni©*! Q be on a U.S. bonk and in U.S. dollars. Sorry, no C.O.O. or purchase orders.

AMBER'S HOMEBASE

6 Aft AC and S5 tor shippingVH7.73 and handling-

SEND TO:

AK3EXI

Amber Systems, Inc.

AMBER SYSTEMS. INC.

1171 S. Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road

San Jose. CA 95129

For dealer and site license information,call 408 W6-1B83

Inquiry 102

MacInker

Re-ink any fabric ribbonAUTOMATICALLY for lessthan 5$. Extremely simpleoperation with built-inelectric motor. We have aMAC INKER for any printer:cartridge/spool/harmonica/zip pack. Lubricant ink safefor dot matrix printheads.Multicolored inks, uninkedcartridges available. Ask forbrochure. Thousands ofsatisfied customers.

$54.9S +

Mac

Switch

Mac Switch lets you shareyour computer with any twoperipherals (serial orparallel). Ideal for wordprocessors—never type anaddress twice. Ask us forbrochure with tips on how toshare two peripherals (or twocomputers) with MACSWITCH. Total satisfaction orfull refund.

$99.00

S5S- g

Order toll free 1-800-547-3303

CSamputerFriends

6415 SW Canyon CourtSuite #10

Portland, Oregon 97221(503) 297-2321

EXPERT MECHANIC

Listing 1: Procedure DISPLAY.KBASE shows you the entire knowledge-basebinary tree and includes both the information and its logical structure.

TO START UP

MAKE "STARTUP [MECHANIC]END

TO MECHANIC

ND

PRINT[—EXPERT MECHANIC***]

PRINT'WE WILL TRY TO DIAGNOSE]

PRINT [THE PROBLEM BY ASKING QUESTIONS]

PRINT []SEARCH ;KBASE

PRINT [LET'S DIAGNOSE THE NEXT PROBLEM]

HOLD 1000

MECHANICEND

TO HOLD:N

REPEAT :N[]END

TO SEARCH POSSIBLES

IF (WORD-? POSSIBLES) END.SEARCH:POSSIBLES STOP

LOCAL "RESPONSE

MAKE "RESPONSE QRYPOSOR.NEG (QUERYPOSSIBLES)

IF :RESPONSE = [YES] SEARCH POS.BRANCHPOSSIBLES STOP

SEARCH NEGBRANCHPOSSIBLESEND

TO END.SEARCH POSSIBLELOCAL "LASTQUESTIONLOCAL "RESPONSE

MAKE "LASTQUESTION (SE [COULD IT BE] ARTICLE POSSIBLE [?])MAKE "RESPONSE QRYPOSOR.NEG : LASTQUESTIONIF RESPONSE = [YES] PRINT [CONGRATULATIONS! NOW FIX THEPROBLEM.!

STOP

LEARN:POSSIBLE

END

TO QRYPOSOR.NEG QUESTION

LOCAL 'ANSWER

PRINT 1 QUESTION

IF "?=LAST LAST ^QUESTION PRINT [] ELSE PRINT"'

MAKE "ANSWER REQUEST

IF :ANSWER = [YES] OUTPUT [YES]

IF ANSWER = [NO] OUTPUT [NO]

PRINT (PLEASE TYPE 'YES" OR "NO"]

OUTPUT QRYPOSOR.NEG QUESTIONEND

TO QUERY :BTREE

OUTPUT FIRST BTREEEND

TO POS. BRANCH BTREEOUTPUT FIRST BUTFIRST BTREE

END

TO NEG. BRANCH BTREE

{continued)

208 B YTE • IUNE 1985

ate

So do

right software i:ioes WATCOM.

/^ / / /

ters in soft-ware for PC workstations and micro-to-mainframe communications. Networks,language interpreters and compilers.Text preparation and data management.All WATCOM products are humanengineered to provide the optimum inpeople efficiency and productivity. Andthey're designed to run compatibly onIBM mainframes and PC's, Digital main-

. and seminars will help^most out of your software investment.WKTCOM, Quality products. Professionalservice. And a reputation built on morethan J 50,000 licensed mainframe andmicro software programs throughoutthe world. So talk to'us before youdecide. After all, choosing the rightsoftware is serious business. For you.And for WATCOM.

Excellent error diagnostics make WATCOM Interpreters trieright choice in software for efficient program developmentin APL, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, or Pascal.WATCOM Interpreters emphasize error detection so thatprogram corrections are more easily executed. Hard-to-finderrors can be quickly located with the integrated debuggingsystem for COBOL, FORTRAN, and Pascal. And programscan be efficiently entered and corrected with the integratedfull-screen editor in all languages but APL

ETERS

COM Interpreters are available for IBM PC, IBM 370VM/SP CMS, and Digital VAX VMS*.Make the right choice. Call or write WATCOM today andwe'll tell you all about WATCOM Interpreters or any ofWATCOM'S other people-efficient products.

WATC

The right choice In software.

Inquiry 423

Yesl I want to make the right choice in software. Send me more information on:□ WATCOM INTERPRETERS D WATCOM Software Catalogue

Name:

Company:.Title:

Address:.City:

_State:

_Zlp:

WATCOM PRODUCTS INC.

415 Phillip StreetWaterloo, Ontario, CanadaN2L3X2

(519) 886-3700

Telex 06-955458

•WATFOR. WATFIV and WATBOl are registered trademarks of the University of Waterloo.

•IBM PC and IBM 370 VM/SP CMS are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

*VAX, VMS are registered trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.

T\wi T*rfiy>f*T% JjTvtfkWilG This humorous illustration is no comfort to-LriJ l\UA.\5\sih J\ltAjU/€$* those who have experienced the frustration oflosing hours of programming and data entry due to a power outage or surge. In additionto the inconvenience, such occurrences can mean lost programs and perhaps an expensivecomponent destroyed.

DynaTech boasts 25 years of engineering experience in power and data lineinterference problems. We are one of the largest manufacturers of products solving theseproblems-and, without question, the engineering trendsetter in the industry.

The latest DynaTech trendsetter is our PowerHouse" line of standby power supplies.Available in 300- and 500-watt models, PowerHouseprotects your computer in two ways. First, should power ifail, you instantaneously get clean, regulated power toyour system, allowing for an orderly shutdown. Second, \while on commercial power, our SurgeSentry" circuitryprotects your system from surges and other hazards.

To learn more about PowerHouse and other fineDynaTech products, call one of the dealers listed hereor call us toll free for one near you: (800) 638-9098.

Computer Power Inc.

4865 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066

Dyndlech Dealers

201/462-9696-CMI (COMPUTER MADNESS)201/487-0919-MICROMED205/355-4583-SEQUENTIAL SYSTEMS/COMPUTER

COTTAGE207/772-1622-ENTRE COMPUTER CENTER213/391 -6763-ELECTRONIC TRADING POST213/970-1242-STRICTLY SOFTWARE214/385-8885-MP SYSTEMS214/785-0041-BUSINESS SYSTEMS215/362-1888-COMPUTERS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL219/232-7921 -COMPUTER ASSOCIATES219/493-6505-COMPUTER CORNER303/761-5763-DATA SPECIALTIES305/894-3354-G M I DISTRIBUTORS309/346-5181-ILLINOIS VALLEY COMPUTER312/885-0008-DIEHL OFFICE PRODUCTS313/573-8120-COMMAND COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC313/694-3740-COMPUTER CONTACT316/564-3636-GENESYS SYSTEMS317/844-5960-HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS INC.319/236-3861 -DHEINS TRUE VALUE404/292-8050-PEACHTREE MICROSYSTEMS405/269-2554-PROCESS INC.405/332-5688-ADA TYPEWRITER SUPPLY405/373-3210-COMCON SYSTEMS INC.405/632-6007-COMPUTER SOFTWARE CENTER406/443-1710-MSD COMPUTER SUPPLY408/438-5971-PCLAND

414/276-5585-APPLIED DATA SYSTEMS CORPORATION415/383-8800-COMPUTERTIME415/397-6776-COMPUTERTIME415/459-8080-COMPUTERTIME415/864-3026-EXPRESS COMPUTER SUPPLIES4I9/224-3746-LIMA BUSINESS MACHINES419/625-2232-DATA DIMENSIONS INC.501/224-7770-ENTRE COMPUTER CENTER502/589-1258-COMPUTER EMPORIUM502/782-9466-COMPUTER MARKET503/754-4323-OSU BOOKSTORE INC.505/883-4545-OMEGA BUSINESS PRODUCTS609/922-6565-NOVA SYSTEMS509/943-5608-ALPHA COMPUTER CENTER512/226-8188-COMPUTER & BUSINESS SUPPLIES512/280-1183-RESPONSE TECHNOLOGIES INC512/682-2372-ADVANCED SYSTEM TECHNIQUES513/299-4594-THE BLUE CHIP COMPUTER513/548-3326-HOWELLS COMPUTER CENTER515/2241992-COMPUTER EMPORIUM515/288-6668-THE COMPITER SUPPLY STORE602/274-0124-STEWART TECHNOLOGIES602/990-7276-DAYZ SYSTEMS INC.605/772-5229-RESEARCH DATA SYSTEMS612/888-4444-ON LINE INTERNATIONAL614/895-7747-ON LINE COMPUTER CENTER614/774-6565-THE CHILLICOTHE COMPUTER STORE615/36R-3810-COMPUTER SHOPPE615/892-3253-COMPUTER CONNECTION616/243-1312-ADVANCED INFORMATION SYSTEMS616/924-0310-POS ELECTRONIC BUSINESS SYSTEMS617/342-9707-HYLAND/RICE SYSTEMS618/797-6640-METRO CONNECTION619/448-9240-COMPUTER KONTROLfi 19/450-0810-ALLEN MICROCOMPUTER SERVICES702/322-4559-HARRYS BUSINESS MACHINES702/737-1510-AMERICAN OFFICE EQUIPMENT702/870-4138-PC COMPUTERS704/6582795-COMPUTERAID/MICROMASTERS713/890- 1025-SOUTHWEST COMPUTER SUPPLIES713/988-8560-TYNER AND ASSOCIATES714/727 1142-COMPUTER KINGDOM714/969-2225-WEH COMPUTERS800/528-7100-SAFEGUARD BUSINESS SYSTEMS. INC800/528-7300-SAFEGUARD BUSINESS SYSTEMS. INC.801/224-8887-COM-TEL COMPUTER802/447-2I86-COMPUTER SUPPLIES INTERNATIONAL804/320-6496-FIRST STEP COMPUTERS805/658-0355-ENTRE COMPUTER CENTER806/935-7492-THE UNLAUB COMPANY OF TEXAS808/486 4848-PEARL CITY COMPUTERS808/969-1166-THE COMPUTER STORE814/472-6066-INFOCON CORPORATION816/891 -6512-TOTAL SOFTWARE INC.817/284-5251-TAYLOR COMPUTER PRODUCTS817/383-2631-AUDIO CONCEPTS ULTD DBA RADIO

SHACK ASSOCIATES817/429-9166-GEORGEDOWLING ASSOCIATES901/722-8280-MICROAGE COMPUTER STORE907/443-5111 -GOLD RUSH BUSINESS & ELECTRONIC

EQUIPMENT907/562-3900-ALASKA MICROSYSTEMS913/541 -0001 -MIDWEST COMPUTER ASSOCIATES915/563-1108-THE COMPUTER DIVISION OF I.C.I.918/687-3161-DIGITAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS919/799-0327-COMPUTER E'S

DynaTech Computer Power, Inc., was formed asthe result of the acquisition and merger of RKSIndustries, Inc., and Dymarc Industries byDynatech International, Inc.

EXPERT MECHANIC

OUTPUT LAST :BTREEEND

TO ARTICLE WORD

OUTPUT SENTENCE THE WORDEND

TO LEARN :MISTAKE

PRINT [WHEN YOU FIND THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM, ADD IT TO THE

KNOWLEDGE BASE. WHAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM?]

MAKE "RIGHT.ANSWER (LAST REQUEST)

PRINT [PLEASE TYPE IN A QUESTION WHOSE ANSWER]

PRINT ( SE [IS "YES" FOR} ARTICLE :RIGHTANSWER[AND])

PRINT( SE ["NOTOR] ARTICLE :MISTAKE)

MAKE "QUESTION REQUEST

INCREASE.KBASE :QUESTION :RIGHTANSWER :MISTAKE

END

TO INCREASE.KBASE :NEWOUESTION :POS.ANSWER :NEG.ANSWERMAKE "KBASE CHANGE :KBASE :MISTAKE(LIST :NEW.QUESTION:RIGHTANSWER :MISTAKE)

END

TO CHANGE :DATA WORD :NEW.BRANCH

IF:DATA = :WORD OP :NEW.BRANCH

IF WORD? :DATA OP :DATA

OP (LIST QUERY DATA CHANGE POS BRANCH DATA WORD

:NEW.BRANCH CHANGE NEG.BRANCH :DATA WORD :NEW.BRANCH)END

TO START KBASE

MAKE'KBASE [[DOES THE ENGINE START?] [[DOES THE ENGINE STALL?][[ANY AIR LEAKS IN OR AROUND INTAKE MANIFOLD?] MANIFOLD [[AREVALVES SET TOO TIGHT?] VALVES [[ARE IGN POINTS BURNED, PITTED,OR GAPPED IMPROPERLY?]POINTS [[IS IDLE SPEED SET TOO LOW?]IDLE-SPEED CARB-MIXTURE ]]]] [[DOES ENGINE MISFIRE?] [[ARE SPARKPLUGS FOULED, DAMAGED, TOO HOT TOO COLD, OR GAPPEDINCORRECTLY?] PLUGS [[IS HEAD GASKET BLOWN?] HEAD GASKET[[ARE POINTS BURNED, PITTED, OR INCORRECTLY GAPPED?] POINTS[[ARE VALVES WORN, STICKING, OR VALVE SPRINGS BROKEN, WEAK?]VALVES [[IS CARBURETION POOR DUE TO CLOGGED OR LOOSE JETS,AIR LEAKS, OR INCORRECT FUEL-TO-AIR MIXTURE?]CARBURETORIGNTIMING]]]]] [[DOES ENGINE LACK POWER/PERFORMANCE?] [[IS IGNTIMING OFF?] IGN TIMING [[HAS VACUUM ADVANCE FAILED?]VACUUM-ADVANCE [[ARE POINTS BURNED, PITTED, STICKING, ORBOUNCING?] POINTS PISTON-RINGS]]] [[DOES ENGINE IDLE ROUGHLY?]FUEL-VOLATILITY CYL-HEAD]]]] [[DOES THE STARTER CRANK ENGINE?][[ARE POINTS BURNED. PITTED, DIRTY, OR FAIL TO FUNCTION?]POINTS[[IS COIL RESISTOR BURNED OUT OR OPEN?] COIL [[ARE SPARKPLUGS DAMAGED, DIRTY, WET, OR GAPPED INCORRECTLY?] PLUGS [[ISFUEL PUMP WORN, LEAKING, CLOGGED, OR INOPERATIVE?] FUELPUMP [[IS CARB FLOAT LEAKING OR SET INCORRECTLY, ARE JETSCLOGGED IS NEEDLE VALVE OR SEAT DIRTY OR WORN, IS CHOKEINCORRECTLY SET OR INOPERATIVE?] CARBURETION [[IS DISTRIBUTORCAP, ROTOR, TERMINAL INSULATOR DAMAGED, IS DISTRIBUTOR WET?]DISTRIBUTOR [[ARE IGN CABLES CRACKED, WET, CORRODED?] IGN-CABLES [[DOES IGN SWITCH REMAIN OPEN WHEN KEY IS TURNED?IGN-SWITCH FUEL ]]]]]]]] [[ARE BATTERY TERMINALS LOOSE ORCORRODED?] TERMINALS [[DOES STARTER MOTOR FAIL TO OPERATEWHEN POWER IS APPLIED DIRECTLY?] STARTER [[DOES STARTER DRIVEGEAR FAIL TO ENGAGE FLYWHEEL?] SOLENOID BATTERY]]]]]

END

[continued)

Inquiry 157

IUNE 1985

1 YTE 211

Inquiry 215

NEW'

SINGLE

BOARD

COMPUTER

PC BUSSYSTEM

Put the power of the IBM PC intoyour OEM system with the new I-BusSingle Board Computer and Enclosures.Now you can make use of that vastarray of PC-compatible expansioncards—for communications, graphics,data acquisition, peripheral control, andevery other imaginable task.

I-Bus Systems has coupled Intel'spowerful new 80188 CPU with 64K ofRAM and up to 160K of on-boardEPROM, plus a serial console port totalk to a terminal or a PC. Just plug theSBC into an I-Bus 6-slot chassis or 9-slot card cage and you have the heartof a computer system, ready to run.

Best of all, the IBM PC works per-fectly as a software development sys-tem. You can assemble and test appli-cations programs on the PC, thendownload them to the I-Bus system fordedicated execution.

For all the details, give us a call todayat (800) 382-4229. In California, call(619) 569-0646.

SYSTEMS

9235 Chesapeake DriveSan Diego, CA 92123

s a trademark of International Business Machines

EXPERT MECHANIC

TO DISPLAY.KBASEDISP :KBASE 0END

TO DISP :KBASE .TIER

IF WORD? KBASE BDISP :KBASE TIER STOP

BDISP (QUERY :KBASE ) TIER

BDISP [IF YES:] TIER

DISP POS.BRANCH :KBASE TIER + 1

BDISP [IF NO:] TIER

DISP NEG.BRANCH :KBASE TIER + 1END

TO BDISP :BRANCH TIER

REPEAT 2- TIER [PRINT1""]

PRINT BRANCHEND

DOES THE ENGINE START?IF YES:

DOES THE ENGINE STALL?IF YES:ANY AIR LEAKS IN OR AROUND INTAKE MANIFOLD?IF YES:

MANIFOLDIF NO:ARE VALVES SET TOO TIGHT?IF YES:

VALVESIF NO:ARE IGN POINTS BURNED, PITTED, OR GAPPED IMPROPERLY?IF YES:

POINTSIF NO:IS IDLE SPEED SET TOO LOW?IF YES:

IDLE SPEEDIF NO:CARB MIXTUREIF NO:

DOES ENGINE MISFIRE?IF YES:ARE SPARK PLUGS FOULED, DAMAGED, TOO HOT, TOO COLD, ORGAPPED INCORRECTLY?IF YES:

PLUGSIF NO:IS HEAD GASKET BLOWN?IF YES:

HEAD GASKETIF NO:ARE POINTS BURNED PITTED, OR INCORRECTLY GAPPED1?IF YES:

POINTSIF NO-ARE VALVES WORN, STICKING, OR VALVE SPRINGS BROKEN,WEAK?IF YES:VALVESIF NO:IS CARBURETION POOR DUE TO CLOGGED OR LOOSE JETS, AIR

{continued)

212 B YTE • |UNE 1985

"leleteknology

One Success After Another. v^J /

Since 1978 Teletek has been a leader in the design andmanufacture of single board computers, controllers,memory boards and interface boards.

Teletek offers five distinct single board computers(SBCs), each with its own unique features, to meet thevaried needs of the system integrator. Based on the8086 16-bit and Z80 8-bit microprocessors, Teletek's SBCs

will run at 4, 5, 6, or 8MHz and are available with up to512K of,onboard dynamic RAM. The SBC 86/87 also offersan optional 8087 math coprocessor for numeric intensiveapplications.

Teletek's Systemaster II provides two RS232C serialports and two Centronics-compatible parallel ports ormay be optionally configured to provide a SCSI interfaceor an IEEE-488 interface to support many laboratorytesting and measuring instruments.

Teletek also offers a dual controller board, the HD/CTC, which will control any two ST506-compatible harddisk drives and any QIC-02/QIC-24-compatiblecartridge tape drive. This unique design saveshardware cost as well as space in the mainframe.

Teletek's IEEE 696/S-100 boards run underthe multi-user, multi-processing operatingsystem TurboDOS by Software 2000, support-ing up to 16 users andcapable of running PC-DOSapplication programs. Forsingle-user systems, Teletekis supported by the CP/Moperating system.

In Europe:Kode LimitedStation RoadCalne, WiltshireSN11 OJR Englandtel: 0249-813771telex: 449335

In Brazil:DANVIC S.AR. Conselheiro

Nebias, 140901203 S3o Paulo, Brazil <°tel: 221-6033 (PABX)telex: 1123888 CICPBR

Teletek provides a 30 day evaluationprogram to qualified customers. Formore information, call our Sales Department at 916-920-4600 or write for ourinformation package.

4600 Pell DriveSacramento, CA 95638916-920^600

© 1984 Teletek

Inquiry 405

Inquiry 408

PROGRAMMER'S UTILITIESespecially for Turbo Pascal onIBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles

MORE POWERFUL THAN UNIX UTILITIES!!!

Whether you are a

Student Hobbyist Professional Software Developer -

THESE UTILITIES WILL IMPROVE YOUR

PROGRAMMING PRODUCTIVITY"'

These Powerful, Ready-to-Use programs fully support Turbo

Pascal versions 2 0 and 30. and MSOOS 2 X and 30 Here's

what you get

Pretty Printer

Standardize capitalization, indentation, and spacing ofsource code Don'l waste your own lime' Several adjustableparameters to suit your tastes (works with any standardPascal source)

Program Structure Analyzer

Find subtle problems the compiler doesn't uninitialized andunused variables, modified value parameters, 'sneaky"variable modification, redefined standard identifiers Alsogenerates a complete variable cross reference and a pro-gram hierarchy diagram Interactive or write to file (workswith any standard Pascal source)

Execution Timer

Obtain a summary of time spent in each procedure andfunction of your program, accurate to within 200 microseconds Also counts number of calls to each subprogramFully automatic

Execution Profiler

Obtain a grjphic profile of where your program spends itstime Interactive, easy-to-use Identify weak code at the instiuction level (Profiler and Timer for Turbo Pascal Sourcecode only)

Command Repeater

Go beyond MSDOS batch files to combine a powerful textparser with general-purpose command execution capabilityUse to copy print or delete across subdirectories, make'programs and more

Pattern Replacer

Find and REPLACE versatile regular expression patterns inany text file Supports nesting, alternation tagged wordsand more Over a dozen programmer s applicationsincluded

Difference Finder

Find differences between two text dies, and optionally createan EDLIN script which rebuilds one from the otherDisregard white space, case, arbitrary characters and Pascalcomments it desired

Super Directory

Replace PCDOS DIR command with extended patternmatching, sort capability hidden file display, date filtering.and more

File Finder

Locate files anywhere in the subdirectory tree and accessthem with a single keystroke Display the subdirectory treegraphically

AVAILABLE IN SOURCEAND EXECUTABLE FORMAT

Executable: $55 COMPLETE including tax and shippingCompiled and ready to run includes user manual, referencecard and one 5'*" DSDD disk Ideal for programmers notusing Turbo

Source: S95 COMPLETE including tax and shipping In-cludes all of the above, and two additional DSDD disksDisks include complete Turbo Pascal source code, detailedprogrammers manual (on disk) and several bonus utilitiesRequires Turbo Pascal 2 0 or 30

Requirements MSOOS 2 X or 30. 192K RAM - programsrun m less RAM with reduced capacity Two drives or harddisk recommended

TO ORDER:

VISA/MasterCard orders call 7 days toll-free 1 800 538 8157x830 In California, call 1-800-6723470 x830 any dayOr mail cneck/money order to

TurboPower Software

478 W Hamilton Ave.. Suite 196

Campbell. CA 95008

EXPERT MECHANIC

LEAKS, OR INCORRECT FUEL-TO-AIR MIXTURE?IF YES;

CARBURETORIF NO:IGN TIMINGIF NO:

DOES ENGINE LACK POWER/PERFORMANCE?IF YES:IS IGN TIMING OFF?IF YES:IGN TIMINGIF NO:HAS VACUUM ADVANCE FAILED?IF YES:

VACUUM ADVANCEIF NO:ARE POINTS BURNED PITTED, STICKING, OR BOUNCING?IF YES:

POINTSIF NO:PISTON RINGSIF NO:

DOES ENGINE IDLE ROUGHLY?IF YES:

FUEL VOLATILITYIF NO:CYL HEADIF NO:

DOES THE STARTER CRANK ENGINE?IF YES:ARE POINTS BURNED, PITTED, DIRTY, OR FAIL TO FUNCTION?IF YES:

POINTSIF NO:IS COIL OUTPUT WEAK OR NONEXISTENT, IS COIL RESISTORBURNED OUT OR OPEN?IF YES:COILIF NO:ARE SPARK PLUGS DAMAGED, DIRTY, WET, OR GAPPEDINCORRECTLY?IF YES:

PLUGSIF NO:IS FUEL PUMP WORN, LEAKING, CLOGGED, OR INOPERATIVE?IF YES:

FUEL PUMPIF NO:IS CARB FLOAT LEAKING OR SET INCORRECTLY, ARE JETSCLOGGED, IS NEEDLE VALVE OR SEAT DIRTY OR WORN, ISCHOKE INCORRECTLY SET OR INOPERATIVE?IF YES:

CARBURETIONIF NO:

IS DISTRIBUTOR CAP, ROTOR, TERMINAL INSULATORDAMAGED, IS DISTRIBUTOR WET?IF YES:

DISTRIBUTORIF NO:ARE IGN CABLES CRACKED, WET, CORRODED?IF YES:

{continued)

214 BYTE" IUNE 1985

Sometimes the best way to get ahead is to go sideways.1

STL =5 58 58 55 -3 55 55 5= 5= 55 55 IV 55 ::= -5 55 5= 55 '55S=S= sj 55 5* 53 5.5 55 g g 55 5J 55 5= 55 5= 5= BgHf

^J-;—"" ss S£ :.£ ;-5 »5 *5 "5 ;:3 "a "E "~ ,:5 "2 i5 r'l 55 ;::c 58 58

55=ri S2 »s KB *s ;s h -i ;:: ;r. u ss :s m :;:.•; ksS55V i= I i= !S i5 13 -3 I 13 :i !5

The problem with spreadsheets is theyget printed the wrong way.

You still have a lot of stapling, gluing,

or taping to look forward to before yourprintout is readable.

To really get ahead, go Sideways."

Sideways is the clever software program that printsyour spreadsheets—you guessed it—sideways. So yourspreadsheet columns need never fall off the edge ofyour printer paper again.

With Sideways on your side, no spreadsheet you inventwith Lotus 1 -2-3,® Symphony,™ VisiCalc® Multiplan,® orSuperCalc" is too wide! And it's just as powerful anally when you're creating far-into-the-future schedulesand pert charts. So for a presentable printout, get ridof that glue stick and scotch tape—put your best footforward and go Sideways.

You can go Sideways today with an IBM® PC or anApple® II, and over a dozen different printers, includingEpsonf Okidata, IBM® Applef C. Itoh and Mannes-mann Tally. Ask for Sideways at your local Computer -Landf Entre, or other computer store. Or mail a $60check to Funk Software, P.O. Box 1290, Cambridge,MA 02238. Or call 617-497-6339. MC/Visa accepted.

SDEWiWS

SIDEWAYS PRINTS SPREADSHEETS SIDEWAYS.

Inquiry 189

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 215

EXPERT MECHANIC

IGN CABLESIF NO:DOES IGN SWITCH REMAIN OPEN WHEN KEY ISTURNED''IF YES:

IGN SWITCHIF NO:

FUEL

IF NO:

ARE BATTERY TERMINALS LOOSE OR CORRODED''IF YES:

TERMINALSIF NO:DOES STARTER MOTOR FAIL TO OPERATE WHEN POWER IS APPLIEDDIRECTLY?IF YES:

STARTERIF NO:DOES STARTER DRIVE GEAR FAIL TO ENGAGE FLYWHEEL?IF YES:

SOLENOIDIF NO:BATTERY

simulates an automobile mechanic.Due to memory constraints, 1 decidedto limit the knowledge base to includeonly the expertise required to diag-nose engine failure. If you haveenough memory, there is no reasonwhy you cannot extend the knowl-edge base to include comprehensiveautomobile diagnostics. An alter-native would be to build differentknowledge bases for each area—onefor the electrical system, one forsuspension, one for steering, and soon.

The Mechanic procedure appliesthe concept of the binary tree to per-form knowledge-base searches. Eachquestion is a node on the search tree,and every node has exactly twobranches. For example, the highestnode is the question "Does theengine start?" If the answer to thisquestion is "Yes," the next node is"Does the engine stall?" If the answeris "No," the next node is "Does thestarter crank engine?"

In this way, Mechanic navigates theknowledge base until the problem is

solved or a new node is added.Figures 1 and 2 are examples of thecomplete execution of Mechanic. Infigure 1, the solution to the problemis not in the knowledge base.Mechanic can take you only to thelimit of its expertise. However, the pro-gram asks to be informed if youdiscover a solution. It also asks youto formulate a question that willdistinguish the actual solution fromthe solution Mechanic proposed. Inthis way, the program learns and theknowledge base grows. The next timesomeone uses Mechanic, its ability tosolve problems can be extendedfurther.

In figure 2, Mechanic moves direct-ly to a solution. It simply suggests thatthe user fix the problem since com-puter programs cannot yet replacestarter motors.

The Procedures

The main procedure is MECHANIC. Itis recursive and calls the procedureSEARCH. SEARCH is also recursive;if the answer to a prompt is "Yes," it

calls the procedure POS.BRANCH.Otherwise, SEARCH calls NEG.-BRANCH to display the next node inthe binary tree. If the end of a par-ticular branch is reached before apositive reply is received, END-SEARCH is called to suggest a solu-tion to the problem. If ENDSEARCHproposes the correct solution, a con-gratulatory message is displayed andMECHANIC executes again. If END.-SEARCH is wrong, it calls the pro-cedure LEARN. LEARN asks the userif the solution was found and adds itto the knowledge base by calling IN-CREASE.KBASE.

To initialize the knowledge basebefore it is first used, execute START.-KBASE. This procedure sets the valueof the global variable KBASE. There-after, you can directly modify theknowledge base by altering the listsin this procedure.

The procedure DISPLAY. KBASE is autility you can use to display theknowledge-base binary tree. It callsthe procedures DISP and BDISP. List-ing 1 is this procedure's output, in-cluding both the information and itslogical structure.

New Directions

An expert system is only as good asthe expertise it contains. I deliberatelylimited the size of the knowledge baseto allow room for experimentation.Obviously, the knowledge base cangrow to fill a computer's availablememory. When you build your knowl-edge base, keep in mind that somebinary-tree structures are more logicalthan others. A carefully built structurecan expedite problem solving.

Mechanic is a model for developingexpert systems using Logo. You canuse the procedures described here asa shell for any area of expertise. Youcan easily modify them to conform tothe requirements of different applica-tions and to build a variety of knowl-edge bases. ■

BIBLIOGRAPHY

McCorduck, Pamela. Machines Wdo Think.

New York: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1979.Papert, Seymour. Mindstorms. New York:

Basic Books, 1982.

216 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Introducinthe newand improved

IBM PC.

IntroducingGEM.

"Suggested retail price. GEM requires that your computer have appropriate graphics capability and thar the pointing device be compatible. GEM, GEM COLLECTION, GEM DESKTOE GEM WRITE. GEMPAINT GEM DRAW, GEM GRAPH and GEM WORDCHART arc trademarks and Digital Research is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. GEM WRITE is by Lifetree Software, Inc. IBM is aregistered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. © 1985, Digital Research Inc. All rights reserved.

Congratulations.

You just found the perfect way to get abrand new and improved IBM* PC withoutbuying one.

Get GEM"' software from Digital Researchinstead. And your IBM PC, PC/XT, AT orcompatible will become something it's neverbeen before.

Easy to use.

Now instead of getting lost in PC DOS,

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It all starts with GEM DESKTOP^' a cleverlittle $49.95*program that hides the rigmaroleof PC DOS. And lets you work with a simpleheader menu, icons, drop-down menus anda pointer.

So opening a file, for instance, is as easy aspointing with your mouse (or your cursorkeys, if mice make you uneasy) to the filefolder you want to work on. And click.It's open.

That's how GEM works. Here's what itworks with. First of all, you can still run mostimportant programs ever written for the IBMPC. And GEM software will make themeasier to get into.

Then there are GEM programs we'vewritten ourselves.

Like the GEM COLLECTIONS a bundlethat includes GEM DESKTOP;' GEMWRITE''* and GEM PAINT? So you canprocess words and pictures together.

GEM DRAW" with an extensive galleryof art to help you create everything from fineart to line art. GEM GRAPH"' to turn num-bers into something more tangible. And GEMWORDCHART,M the simplest last word (andchart) in presentation graphics.

And soon you'll see important programsfrom a host of major software houses.

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Now, GEM is as easy to find as it is to use.Call (800) 443^200. Ask for our GEM bro-chure. The name of your GEM softwaredealer. Or simply place an order.

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Inquiry 3I2 for End-Users Inquiry 313 for DEALERS ONLY

by Werner F. Grunbaum

Use color and

monochrome monitorssimultaneously onyour IBM PC

Editor's note: \n November 1983, BYTEpresented an assembly-language program forthe IBM PC entitled Screen {"EnhancingScreen Displays for the IBM PC," by TimField, page 99), of which one function wasthe ability to connect both color and mono-chrome monitors to the IBM PC and switchback and forth between them. This articledescribes a simple program that allows youto do the same thing while developing BASICapplications.

Many IBM PC owners haveboth monochrome andcolor/graphics adapters intheir computers. Unfortunately, onlya few programs take advantage of theopportunity to use both a mono-chrome and a color monitor at thesame time. The programs that do,such as Lotus 1-2-3 and SuperCaIc3,simultaneously display graphics onone monitor and a spreadsheet onthe other when the monitors are con-nected to separate cards. Such asetup has advantages, as these twocases illustrate: You can check thespreadsheet data and the graphics atthe same time, and you can easily

SWITCH

change graphics commands on onescreen while viewing the graphicsthemselves on the other screen.

Switch enables you to write graph-ics instructions in BASIC on yourmonochrome monitor and to displaythe output on a color monitor con-nected to your color/graphics card.Minimum requirements for using thisprogram are an IBM PC with twomonitors connected to separate inter-nal cards, one disk drive, and BASICA.

Using the Program

Essentially, Switch is a program kernelto which you can add your own graph-ics applications. Once you have keyedin the 45 lines of code (listing 1), you

WORLD COORDINATES

can run Switch and begin to experi-ment, adding your own graphics ap-plication beginning at line 1000. Lines1000 to 7500 are reserved for yourapplication. Listings 1, 2, and 3 areavailable on BYTEnet Listings at (617)861-9774.

Two function keys control the pro-gram's operation, execution, andscreen display. Function key 5 trans-

(conlinued)

Werner F. Grunbaum. Ph.D. {Department ofPolitical Science, University of Missouri-St.Louis, St. Louis. MO 63121), is a professorof political science. He is a member of theAssociation for Computing Machinery and aregular reviewer of legal applications for ACMComputer Reviews.

IBM PC COORDINATES

Figure 1: Nine sample screen locations, shown with both the IBM PC screencoordinates and world coordinates.

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 221

STOP DATA LOSS.

As a computer maintenance profes-sional, you're well aware that most ofcomputer downtime and data loss arecaused by dust and dirt contamination.

That's why more and more com-puter servicing organizations are tak-ing Dust-Off® II with them on everyservice call. Unlike liquid cleaners,Dust-Off II is a safe, dry, "canned air"cleaning system for computers,printers, disk and tape drives, CRTs,media storage containers and modems.Dust-Off II's pa-tented valve gives youpinpoint fingertip-con-trol to blast away dust,dirt and grime beforethey cause downtime.Add the Stat-Off® II ac-cessory, and you havethe only dry, non-con-tact method for elim-inating dust-holding static electricity.The Dust-Off II system also includes theDual Extender and the Mini-Vac minia-ture vacuum for eliminating hard-to-reach dust.

Your customers depend on you tokeep their precision equipment in top

working order. You can depend on Dust-Off II to help you do it.

Dust-Off II can be a source of addi-tional profit for you. Sell it to your cus-tomers so they can maintain theirmachines between service calls.

Dust-Off II is as close as yourFalcon distributor. Contact us for hisname and details on the complete Dust-Off II line.

Dust-Offll

THE SAFE, DRY, "CANNED AIR "CLEANING SYSTEM.

SWITCH

Falcon Safety Products, Inc., Dept.B, 1065 Bristol Road. Mountainside. N.J, 07092, U.S.A.222 BYTE • IUNE I985 Inquiry 178

fers control to the graphics monitorand then executes the program, whichdisplays the graphics on the colormonitor. Function key 4 returns pro-gram control to the monochromemonitor and lists the graphics com-mands in lines 1000 to 7500, to whichyou can add new commands. You cantest these commands at any time bypressing function key 5.

Correcting errors, deleting un-wanted commands, and adding newcommands is easy with Switch, sincethe graphics (on the color monitor)are not obscured by commands andnew commands are not fouled up bythe inclusion of stray bits of graphicsor text, as can happen when you'reworking with one monitor. Screen-refresh time is quite fast for bothmonitors, and you can make changesquickly, without having to make print-outs or relying on your memory.

With Switch, you can make correc-tions on either monitor. Correctingminor errors is faster and easier onthe color screen than switching moni-tors. After you make the correctionson the color monitor, press functionkey 2 (RUN) to try the program again.To correct major errors, it is better toswitch back to the monochromemonitor, because the color monitorcan display only 40 characters of textand because the graphics display willbe at least partially blanked by majorcorrections.

If your graphics contain text, it isbest to position the text on the colorscreen as it will appear when the pro-gram is executed. This way you cancheck the layout before you write thecommands that will print the text.

Once the screen layout of the textis satisfactory, you can save it by usingthe LOCATE (row, column) statementimmediately before your normalPRINT statements. To do this, deter-mine the row number for screen textlocations by starting the cursor at theupper left-hand corner of the screen.Use the cursor to count down (rows)and to the right (columns) to wherethe text is located. Use the row andcolumn numbers in the LOCATE state-ment, which is placed just before theappropriate print statement, as in:

SWITCH

10 LOCATE {row, col.)

20 PRINT "Graphics Screen"

For another way to locate the row andcolumn, without counting, see thetext box on page 226 of this article.

When you are satisfied with the out-put of your graphics application—as-suming that you have run GRAPH-ICS.COM under DOS 2.0 before youwrote the application—you can pressShift-PrtSc and get a graphics dumpof the screen. If you do not have DOS2.0, several commercial graphicsdumps run under earlier versions.

A couple of warnings. Remembernot to execute graphics on the mono-chrome monitor. It can run graphicsonly if it is connected to a special carddesigned to run graphics on IBMmonochrome monitors, such as theHercules card. BASICA will respondwith an Illegal Function Call errormessage if you try to run graphics onthe monochrome monitor. If this erroroccurs, press function key 5 to runyour program on the other monitor.Also, don't try to use Switch withouta monochrome adapter, or the pro-gram will hang up when you press F4.

Program Description

Switch consists of a main section thatperforms the housekeeping functions,space for graphics commands, andtwo subroutines that transfer monitorcontrol. The code for the subroutinesthat transfer monitor functions ap-pears in the IBM BASIC manual. Ap-pendix l, page 1-8. The code instruc-tions to reset the monitor appear tobe straightforward. However, a pro-gramming trick is added to syn-chronize the color screen after switch-ing monitors. IBM's trick becomes ob-vious when the color screen rolls justbefore the screen is refreshed. Thereappears to be no way to overcomethis problem, but. fortunately, it isonly cosmetic. Finally, the main pro-gram and each subroutine containtheir own screen menus, which do notscroll.

Switch also includes a scaling func-tion, which allows graphics modecommands, such as LINE and CIR-CLE, to be expressed in what are

known as "world coordinates." Asshown in figure l, the usual IBM PCscreen coordinates start at the top ofthe screen (rather than at the bottom,as in normal graphics applications)and range from (0,0) to (319,199).World coordinates start at the lowerleft of the screen and range from (0,0)to (1,1). Neither of these coordinatesshould be confused with the coor-dinates for text, which range from (1,1)to (24,40) and are used with theLOCATE command.

In practice, it is easier to specify, forexample the midpoint of the screenby using (.5,.5) in world coordinates,rather than (160.100) in IBM PC units.However, you can use both types ofcoordinate systems in the program.You can use IBM's screen coordinateswithout modification, but world coor-dinates must follow this format:

FNY( y ) for the y-coordinateFNY( x ) for the x-coordinate

[continued)

Listing I: Switch, a monochrome to color/graphics monitor switching program.

102030

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

7960

7970

7980

7990

8000

8010

8020

8030

8040

8050

8060

8070

8080

809081008110900090109020903090409050906090709080909091009110912010000

REM "SWITCH" graphics design aid to support simultaneous graphics and text

REM display for the IBM PC by Werner Grunbaum, July I984.

REM *•*•*•*•«"*****•****"*"**"**•*•"*""**•«**"••"*••

KEY OFF

KEY 4,"GOSUB 8000"+ CHR$(13) 'Switch to monochrome monitor

KEY 5,"GOSUB 9000" + CHR$(13) 'Switch to color monitor, medium resolution

LOCATE 25,1

PRINT "1:LIST 2:RUN 3:LOAD 4:MONO 5GOLOR"

DEF FNY(Y) = CINT(199-(Y*199))

DEF FNX(X) = CINT(319*X)

IF FLAG = 1 THEN GOTO 150 'Displays graphics on color monitor

FLAG-1: GOSUB 9000

Begin graphics text at line 1000.

LOCATE 1,1 'Sets graphics image at Row 1, Col. 1, for printingGOTO 10000

Switch to monochrome monitor

DEFSEG = 0

POKE &H410, (PEEK(&H410) OR &H30)

SCREEN 0

WIDTH 40

WIDTH 80

LOCATE ,,1,12,13

LOCATE 25,1: PRINT "1:LIST 2:RUN 3:LOAD 4:MONO display 5GOLOR

display"

LOCATE 1,1: PRINT "Ready for text editing at line 1000": LIST 1000-7500

RETURN

Switch to color monitor

PRINT "Color subroutine reached."

DEF SEG = 0

POKE &H410, (PEEK(&H410) AND &HCF) OR &H10

SCREEN 1,0,0,0

CLS

WIDTH 40

LOCATE ,,1,6,7

COLOR 1,2

LOCATE 25,1 PRINT "1:LIST 2:RUN 3:LOAD 4:MONO 5:COLOR"

GOTO 100

RETURN

END

IUNE 1985 "BYTE 223

SWITCH

Listing 2: FLOWCHRT.BAS.developed using, Switch.

a flowchart application that describes, and was

1000 CIRCLE (FNX(.505),FNY(.9)),23,1

Flowchart application

1010 LOCATE 3,191020 LOCATE 7,141030 LOCATE 9,181040 LOCATE 10,13

PRINT "Start"PRINT "Initialization"PRINT "Display"PRINT "Graphics Screen"

1050 LOCATE 12,9: PRINT '1060 LOCATE 13.17: PRINTPRINT 'PRINT 'PRINT 'PRINT 'PRINT

Fn4

"Monitor"'Mono Mntr'Edits Text'at

'Line 1000ft'Retr

Select

Fn5'

Color Mntr,Displays"Graphics"Stop"Retr"

1070 LOCATE 15,5:

1080 LOCATE 16,4:

1090 LOCATE 17,8:

1100 LOCATE 18,4:

1110 LOCATE 22,7

1120 CIRCLE (FNX(.2),FNY(.14)),18,1

1130 CIRCLE (FNX(.8),FNY(.14)),18,1

1140 LINE (FNX(.295),FNY(.78))-(FNX(.7),FNY(.71)),2,B

1150 LINE (FNX(.295),FNY(.685))-(FNX(,7),FNY(,6)),2,B

1160 LINE (FNX(.295),FNY(.57 ))-(FNX(.7),FNY(.47 )),2,B

1170 LINE (FNX(.06),FNY(.28 ))-(FNX(.36),FNY(,44 )),2,B

1180 LINE (FNX(.64),FNY(.28 ))-(FNX(.95),FNY(.44 )),2,B

1190 CIRCLE (FNX(.5),FNY(.3)),24,1

1200 LINE (FNX(.5),FNY(.805))-(FNX(.5),FNY(.78)): DRAW

1210 LINE (FNX(.5),FNY(.71))-(FNX(.5),FNY(,685)): DRAW

1220 LINE (FNX(.5),FNY(.6))-(FNX(.5),FNY(.57)): DRAW

1230 LINE (FNX(.5),FNY(.47))-(FNX(.5),FNY(,4)): DRAW

NH4 E4"NH4 E4''NH4 E4"'NH4 E4"

1240 LINE (FNX(.7),FNY(.52))-(FNX(.8),FNY(.52)),,,&HCCCC1250 LINE -(FNX(.8),FNY(.44))„,&HCCCC: DRAW "NH4 E4"1260 LINE (FNX(.8),FNY(.28))-(FNX(.8),FNY(,21)): DRAW "NH4 E4'1270 LINE (FNX(.295),FNY(.52))-(FNX(.2),FNY(.52)),„&HCCCC1280 LINE -(FNX(.2),FNY(.44)),,,&HCCCC: DRAW "NH4 E4"1290 LINE (FNX(.2),FNY(.28))-(FNX(.2),FNY(.21)): DRAW "NH4 E4'

Photo I: A screen display of the flowchart application in listing 2.

The scaling function is performedby line 100 (listing 1), which scales they-coordinate, and by line 110, whichscales the x-coordinate, translatingthem into IBM PC screen coordinates.

Although using world coordinatesrequires extra keystrokes, it simplifiesgraphics layout. lust as important isthat, when you use world coordinates,programs require only minor changesfor adaptation to high-resolutionmode as well as adaptation to plot-ters, different computers, and othertypes of output devices.

An Application

Listing 2 is a sample application thatcreates a flowchart to illustrate Switch.The color graphics display producedby this application is shown in photo1. Note that the code in listing 2 usesworld coordinates for the graphicscommands, as discussed above.

Initially, 1 drew the flowchart onpaper and made a screen layout bypositioning the text on the screen. Idetermined the column and row cur-sor positions by moving the cursorand keeping a record of cursor posi-tions. Then I composed the appro-priate PRINT command statementson the monochrome screen.

I programmed the graphics com-mands around the text, then testedand corrected the instructions in smallgroups. Finally. 1 added the arrowswith the DRAW command and put inthe broken lines with the bit patternfound in the BASIC manual.

The same application could also beadapted to high-resolution mode,which allows more text to be shownbut provides only monochrome out-put. This would require makingchanges in the SCREEN and WIDTHcommands, deleting the COLORcommand, changing the text locationsto fit 80 columns, and so on.

Conclusion

In addition to developing your owngraphics applications, you can useSwitch to edit output from a numberof commercially available graphicspackages that provide output in theform of BASIC files. You can then

{continued)

224 B YTE • IUNE 1985

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SWITCH

Cursor Location Made Easy

If you'd rather not spend your timecounting rows and columns in orderto locate text in the right places foryour graphics applications, try Black-board (listing A). This add-on to Switchlets you position the cursor where youwant text to begin, hit Return andreceive the screen location from thecomputer. The code fits into the un-used lines 9500 to 9800 in Switch andadds line number 75 to initiate Black-

board when you press function key 6.You can also add to lines 90 and 9100of Switch so that function key 6 is iden-tified as the Blackboard key.

To use Blackboard, position the cur-sor using the cursor arrow keys and hitReturn. After identifying the desiredcursor location. Blackboard will switchyou back to the monochrome monitor,where you can incorporate the row andcolumn into a LOCATE statement.

Listing A: BLACKBRD.BAS, an optional cursor-location subroutine for Switch.

75 KEY 6.1 GOSUB 9500" + CHR$(13) 'Switch to Blackboard9500 ' .........

9510 ' Blackboard

9520 ' .........

9530 PRINT 'See color monitor and press F6 for Blackboard screen."

9540 DEF SEG= H800: Z = PEEK (&H410)

9550 IF Z = 125 THEN 9030 ELSE 9560

9560 ON KEY (11) GOSUB 9730

9570 ON KEY (12) GOSUB 9750

9580 ON KEY (13) GOSUB 9770

9590 ON KEY (14) GOSUB 9790

9600 SCREEN 1,0,0,0

9610 SCREEN 0: COLOR 7.0,1

9620 LOCATE 25,1: PRINT "Move cursor with arrows. RETURN to mark."

9630 LOCATE 1,1,1,2,6

9640 FOR 1 = 11 TO 14:KEY(I) ON:NEXT

9650 A$ = INKEY$:IF A$oCHR$(13) THEN 9650

9660 X = POS(0)

9670 Y = CSRLIN

9680 FOR 1 = 11 TO 14:KEY(I) OFF:NEXT

9690 LOCATE 25,1

9700 PRINT USING " Location ##.##. SWITCHED to monochrome.";Y;X;

9710 LOCATE Y.X: GOSUB 8000

9720 RETURN

9730 IF CSRLIN>1 THEN LOCATE CSRLIN - 1,POS(0),1 ELSE LOCATE 24,

POS(0),19740 RETURN9750 IF POS(0)>1 THEN LOCATE CSRLIN,POS(0)-1,1 ELSE LOCATE

CSRLIN, 40,19760 RETURN9770 IF POS(0)<40 THEN LOCATE CSRLIN,POS(0) + 1,1 ELSE LOCATE

CSRLIN, 1,19780 RETURN9790 IF CSRLIN< 24 THEN LOCATE CSRLIN + 1,POS(0),1 ELSE LOCATE 1,

POS(0),19800 RETURN

enhance or modify such files to suityour needs.

With Switch, you can use one of thefeatures of expensive CAD/CAM sys-tems in your office and home: display-

ing graphics on one screen and graph-ics commands on another. By experi-menting and adding a few routines,you should be able to add other fea-tures to the program. ■

dBASE III vs. dBASE III

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AFTER A TWO-HOURHANDS-ON SESSION WITH

dBASE.m,n ^ey/oeatt that

ASHTON-TATE HAS MADE A SIMF/CANT

ADVANCEMENT IN THE TECHNOLOGYOF MICROPROCESSOR-BASED DBMS.

-Robert Dew, Vice President/The Computer Society

RATHER THAN BEINGAN /MITATO*, ASHTON-TATEHAS ONCE AGAIN SHOWN ITSEAF TO I ASHTON-TATEBE AN /AWOYATOR. J HAS LISTENED TO

-Larry Heimmdinger/Origin, Inc ^ THEIR USERS. THIS

PRODUCT ADORES5ES EVERYITEM ON MY W/SH-LK7.-Mark DaVia/National Microware. Inc

ASHTON-TATE

HAS USHERED IN A RCYA/SMYC£THE NEXT GeN£*AT/<W OF SOFTWAREIS NOW A RBALtTY.

-Chris MacNeil/Abel Computers

THE NEW REPORTGENERATOR IS SUPER TOUSE AND MODIFYLABEL GENERATION ISALSO A NICE TOUCH.-Michael Broska/AgateSystems. Inc

dBASEm IS BYFAR THE EAS/ESZ MOSTCOS7-EFEECT/YEWAy TO MANAGE. ALARGE. DATA BASE.-Robb Auspitz/McEntyre Designs

dBASE III IS mXtMEAS/EPTO OPERATE AND UNDERSTAND.PROGRAMMING WITH IT ISA BREEZE.

-Michael Broska/Agate Systems. Inc

THE NATURAL CHOICEOF THE NOVICE. USERWITH EXPANDABLE NEEDS.dBASE III IS REALLYEASY TO USE IAlex Gersen/Alex Systems

dBASE 111SUCCESSFULLYCOMBINES THEFEATURES OF A POWERFULDATABASE MANAGER WITH THE SIMPLICITYAND USER-FRIENDLINESS OF A FILE MANAGERn SETS THE. STANDARD AGAINST WHICH ALLOTHERS WILL HAVE TO BE COMPARED.-Jerry Schneider. Vice President/WBS & Associates

ASHTON-TATE

HAS OBYfOt/SLY LISTENED

TO THE END USERS.

-Dave Browning. Chairman/Database SIG. Capital PC Users Group

THE DEGREEOF RESPONSIVENESSWHICH ASHTON-TATE HAS SHOWNIN ITS WUWO&ESS 70 L/STEAf AND ADAPTTO USER NEED SHOULD GUARANTEE IT ACOMMITTED FOLLOWING IN THEMICROCOMPUTER COMMUNITY-Phillip Wood. Director ot Data Processing/Search Institute

dBASE III™ is the powerful and easy-to-use relational database management system

you've been waiting for. You can use it without hesitation whether you're a beginner or an expert.

The big winner in the easy-to-use vs. more powerful controversy is you. If you want to know

all about dBASE III, come to your AshtonTate software dealer for a free demonstration.

For more information call (800) 437-4329 ext. 232 or in Colorado call (303) 799-4900 ext. 232.

Software from

dBASE III and AshtonTate are trademarks of AshtonTate. ©AshtonTate 1985. All rights reserved.

/SHTON TAIE

Ufell put you in control.

Inquiry 39

JUNE 1985 -BYTE 227

Publish the Most Imporl

Names. Addresses. Phone numbers.All those little notes... If you stop and thinkabout it, they're probably your most valuablebusiness tools. But if you're like most people,those little pieces of paper never seemto be quite where you need them. Whichmeans, they're everywhere. That's whywe created "The Little Black Book."™A practical little software package thattakes all those names and numbers andputs them together. Then, prints themout quick. In little black book size.

400 Entries. 30 Categories.

Think of The Little Black Bookas your personal contacts data-base. And it holds 400 of them.But what's really important isthat it lets you index yourcontacts. Set up 30 differentcategories (like sales offices,friends, customers, etc.).Call them whatever you want.Put 30 entries in each index.Even all entries in multipleindexes. Now, sort and printalphabetically; by index;addresses and phonenumbers... you name it.What you get is personalelectronic white and yellowpages for your PC. Oh, andone more thing. Each entrycan have a couple of lines of notes.So you can really make it personal.

Pops in. Pops out. Even dials.

Here's how it works. You're preparing aspreadsheet and you need to look up a phonenumber. Tap <Alt><Space bar> and up popsyour 30 most frequently used entries. Hit theview number function key and the two-digitcode next to the person you want, and there'sthe number. Tap <F1>, and you're back toyour spreadsheet. Exactly where you left it.

If you have a modem, here's a pleasantsurprise. The Little Black Book may also bethe most powerful autodialer you can buy foryour PC. Tap the two-digit code, and your PCdials automatically through the modem. Includ-ing all the access and security codes forSPRINT, MCI, etc. No modem? Use our inex-pensive Dialer Board accessory. With the

The Little Black Book

(Actual Size)

400 names,addresses,and notesnumbers

Prints entries in30 categories thatyou create

Includes a handsomecover and materialsfor your PC to makemultiple books

money you save on your calls, it'll probably payfor itself several times over.

And now the book. Included in our pack-age is a handsome cover for your very ownlittle black book. After you've entered yournames, numbers, etc., just tell it to print. Acouple of quick keystrokes and bingo, out ofyour printer comes your little black book. Onstandard printer paper. Just cut along thedotted lines, staple to the heavy backing weprovide and slip it into the cover. When you'vechanged a few numbers,or added a fewaddresses, print itagain. The wholeprocess only takes

Print, cut, staple,then slip into the cover

E 1985 Cygnet Technologies, lru\

The Little Black Book is a trademark and Cygnet is a registered trademark ot Cygnet Technologies. Inc. SBKINT is .1 trademark ol SB Communications.Lotus 123 and Symphony are trademarks ol Lotus Development Corp. The Little Black Boob works with IBM 1'C'sand lim'r 0 impatibles.

228 BYTE" IUNE 1985

rat Book\bu'll Ever Own.

ForofYou

Never

minutes. Think of it this way. If you lost youraddress book, how long would it take you toreplace it? Could you replace it? With TheLittle Black Book it's as easy as P RIN T.And it's always stored safely on diskette.

Use it Yourself.Share it with Friends.

Use The Little Black Book tokeep track of sales prospects. Printone book for the office, one for home,and another for the road. Buy one pro-gram and make books for everyone inyour company. Keep it in your pocket.On your desk. In your briefcase...enough already. The Little Black Bookis pretty flexible. And quite frankly, wecan't think of someone who wouldn'tbenefit from using it.

Bells. Whistles. And a Guarantee.

We want to tell you about our Area CodeDirectory window that pops in on command(know the area, find the city and vice versa).And about our screen dialerthat dials phone numbers fromother applications programs(like your existing database ofphone numbers, or an accountsreceivable program). And thatif you have a hard disk, youdon't have to keep our disk inyour A drive. But, we'realmost out of room. What isimportant is that we work inbackground just fine withLotus 123, Symphony, and vir-tually every PC-DOS programon the market (even Sidekick).

There are thousandsof reasons to buy TheLittle Black Book,but maybe the

most important is the On-Off switch on yourPC. With the switch off, other software isuseless. But your Little Black Book is inyour pocket.

Call in your order today and get the spe-cial introductory price of only $49.95. Your callis TOLL-FREE and RISK-FREE because if for any reasonyou don't like The Little BlackBook, simply return it within30 days. We'll refundyour money. No ques-tions asked.

Call today:1-800-621-42921-800-331-9113(in California)

CYGNET

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Charge By Phone or Send in the Coupon Today.

D Please send me The Little Black Book for $49.95. Name

If I don't like it. Ill send it back for a full refund.

□ Also send the optional Cygnet Accessory Dialer

Board for $(59.95. Ditto on the refund.(California residents add appropriate sales tax)

$ is enclosed/authorized

(include $5.00 for sfeppiisg and handling)

D Check or money order enclosed

D Please hill my Q Visa or D MasterCard

City.

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US funds only Outune US.iddSlOfor shipping and handling.Sorry, but no COII's or P.O.*. Corporate quantity discounts andsire ocerscs available. Dealer inquiries invited (408)734-9946.To: Cygnet Technologies. In».

Absolute

Inquiry 126

!UNE 1985 'BYTE 229

Two's-

complementNumbersRevisited

A new tool

for dealing withthe fundamentalsof number storage

Converting positive numbersfrom their binary to theirdecimal form (and viceversa) is generally easy tounderstand. Here, traditional conver-sion methods (and there are many)work just fine. One such method in-volves the use of a diagram known asa "value box" (see figure 1). Noticethat the value on the far right in thebox is 1 and each succeeding positionto the left is double in value.

For example, let's say that you wantto find the decimal value of the binarynumber 01011111. Since this is an 8-bitbinary number, you can use the8-position value box shown in figure1. Insert the binary number into theempty boxes from left to right; addthe numbers above each slot that con-tains a 1, and you'll arrive at theanswer, 95 (see figure 2).

It is also possible to convert decimalnumbers to binary using the box in

figure 1. For instance, to find thebinary number corresponding to 43,first see if there is a 43 on the top rowof the value box. If there isn't (andthere isn't), take the next smallernumber. This would be 32. Place a 1in the corresponding slot in the box,subtract 32 from 43, and repeat theabove process on the remainingamount (11) until 0 is reached. Final-ly, fill in the empty slots with 0s and"read out" the binary number (seefigure 3).

Conversion becomes more difficultwhen you consider negative numberson the computer. This involves findingthe number's "two's complement," arepresentation that handles the prob-lem of having to indicate a number's"negativeness" using only Is and 0s.At the same time, it maintains theproper functioning of mathematicaloperations, so that addition, subtrac-tion, etc., of positive and negativenumbers yield correct results. Ratherthan describe the traditional twos-complement conversion technique(which you can find in any introduc-tory programming book), we'll showyou another method that yields thesame result. We believe this newmethod is unique, easy, and more in-sightful than the traditional negative-number conversion method. For sim-

plicity, we will continue to use 8-bitbinary numbers.

lb find the two's-complement binaryrepresentation of both positive andnegative numbers, use the standardvalue box with one simple modifica-tion—change the largest (leftmost)value in the box to a negative number(see figure 4).

To illustrate the ease of convertingnegative numbers, we will use thevalue box in figure 4 to convert thebinary number 10000011 to itsdecimal form. We put the digits10000011 into the value box, and byadding up the slots with Is in them,we get -128 + 2 + 1 = -125. Thetraditionalists among you can verifythat 10000011 works out to -125using the conventional procedure.

The beauty of the value-box tech-nique is that it connects a two's-complement binary number visuallyto its decimal value. As you can seein figure 4, the most negative two's-complement binary number that canbe represented using 8 bits is -128.Any other nonzero bit will simply adda positive amount to the number. Ad-ditionally, it is clear that a negativenumber must have a 1 as its leftmostbit and a positive number must havea 0 as its leftmost bit. From this youcan see that the largest positive 8-bit

230 BYTE • JUNE 1985

by Gary Bronson and Karl Lyon

binary number is 01111111 or 127.

Do you want to find the twos-com-plement representation of -120?Using the value box illustrated infigure 4 reduces the conversion tofinding what positive values, whenadded to -128. equal -120. Since-128 plus 8 is -120. the twos-complement representation of -120is 10001000. Notice that you canalmost read 10001000 directly as adecimal number.

For the aficionados among you, thenew technique is related directly tothe original mathematical basis oftwo's-complement numbers. Actually,twos-complement numbers is amisnomer. Two's complement is a pro-cedure for converting a negativedecimal number into a weighted-signbinary number. Weighted-sign simplymeans that the leftmost bit of thebinary number represents both a signand a value. A 1 as the leftmost bitcorresponds to a minus sign and a 0corresponds to a plus sign. The valueassigned is equal to 2 raised to then-1 power, where n is the number ofbits in the binary number.

The value-box technique presentedhere is simply another procedure forperforming decimal to weighted-signbinary conversions and finding whatis commonly called two's-complementnumbers. ■

Dr. Gary Bronson is a professor in the depart-ment of computer and decision systems atFairleigh Dickinson University. He has beena regular visiting instructor to Belllaboratories in-house continuing educationprogram and is a consultant to AT&T docu-mentation and educational organizations. Hecan be reached at 891 Ridgewood Rd.. Mill-burn, N| 07041. Karl Lyon is currently asenior studying computer science at FairleighDickinson University. He is interested in allaspects of computer science and can be con-tacted at 21 Orchard Pi. E, East Hanover.NJ 07936.

128

64

32

16

8

4

2

1

Figure l: An eight-position value box.

128

64

32

16

8

4

2

1

0

1

0

1

1

1

1

1

64 +16+8+4+2+1 =

95

Figure 2: Using the value box to convert the binary number 01011111to its decimal equivalent.

128

64

32

16

8

4

2

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

1

1

43

= 32 +8 +2+1

Figure 3: Using the value box to convert the decimal number 43 toits binary equivalent.

-128

64

32

16

8

4

2

1

Figure 4: An eight-position two's-complement value box.

]UNE 1985 -BYTE 231

4r*

'*

BYTE

Programming

Techniques

Choosing a Programming Language

by Gary Elfring 235

Structuring BASIC

by Arthur Huston 243

Subroutine Libraries in Pascal

by Bruce Webster 253

Using Data Flow

for Application Development

by Wayne P. Stevens 267

Debugging Techniques

by Gregg Williams 279

6502 Tricks and Traps

by )oe Holt 295

SOFTWARE-1CS

by Yamar ledbetter and Brad Cox 307

LEO BRODIE SAID IT BEST in the preface to his book Thinking FORTH:"Building models in the mind is both the challenge and the joy of program-ming." It's true. For most of us, software reigns supreme—we like what it does,and we like to make it do new things. Of course, we can't do it without hard-ware, but hardware is more like the canvas and paint that makes the paintingitself possible.

Because it is such a complex activity, programming requires both craft andinsight. We hope that the articles in this theme section will help you becomemore intimate with both the theory and practice of programming.

"Choosing a Programming Language," by Gary Elfring, explores a decisionthat many of us usually don't think about: "What computer language shouldI use for this problem?" It is said that a (human) language determines thethoughts a person can have, and the same is true with programming languages.The fit between the language and the problem to be solved is only one ofseveral issues that Elfring talks about in his article.

Reinventing the wheel is a common human experience, bad enough whenI reinvent your wheel but even worse when I reinvent my own. With some plan-ning, you can develop a library of tested, reliable subroutines for your ownwork that reduce the amount of repetitive programming, allowing you to con-centrate on the novel aspects of your current program. Arthur Huston's "Struc-turing BASIC" and Bruce Webster's "Subroutine Libraries in Pascal" presenttwo schemes for doing this in two popular languages.

The flowchart is a ubiquitous but mediocre design and documentation tool,but the data-flow diagram is a simple, useful tool that too few people knowabout. Wayne P. Stevens's article, "Using Data Flow for Application Develop-ment," explains one use of data-flow diagrams in the design process.

Because we have not yet developed a computer that does what we mean,not what we say, program debugging still consumes a significant part of a pro-grammer's energy. In my article, "Debugging Techniques," I try to classify andexplain the debugging techniques available to most of us.

The 6502-family microprocessor is present in many of the most popularpersonal computers, but this relatively old chip still contains surprises for theunsuspecting programmer. Joe Holt's "6502 Tricks and Traps" explains howbest to use the 6502 if you have the occasion to program in 6502 assemblylanguage.

Finally, "Software-ICs," by Lamar Ledbetter and Brad Cox, describes an ap-proach to building reusable software. We asked the authors to describe thephilosophy behind their product, Objective-C, because it ties a conventionallanguage available on many microcomputers—C—to the increasingly popularconcept of object-oriented languages, which have traditionally been associatedwith more powerful machines than today's micros.

By learning more about programming, we become better programmers andcreate better software. Enjoy this month's theme section.

—Gregg Williams, Senior Editor

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 233

Gold Hill Computers brings the language ofArtificial Intelligence to Your Personal Computer.

Why every Computer Professionalshould know Common Lisp.

Yon know how frustrating it is todeal with programs that arc stupid andinflexible like those buried insideautomated bank teller machines andairline reservation systems. You alsoknow how frustrating it is to engineersolutions to today's information-processing problems with languagesdesigned mainly for number crunching.It doesn't have to be this way.

Programs based on the ideas ofArtificial Intelligence and implementedin Common Lisp can be intelligent, flexible, and human-like. When you useCommon Lisp in combination withartificial intelligence techniques, youwill be able to soh'e problems youcould never solve before. You will beable to write powerful programs thatcan accommodate naive computerusers who want intelligible answersto questions quickly.

The best way to get started is to buyGolden Common Lisp," the first Commi inLisp for personal computers.

Golden Common Lisp:The AI Tutor

Golden Common Lisp makes it easyfor you to learn to use Common Lisp, onyour personal computer, by yourself,at your own pace. The San Marco LispExplorer;" a 1000 frame interactive software slide show developed by Patrick H.Winston and San Marco Associates,takes you through Common Lisp andexciting artificial intelligence applica-tions like expert systems, intelligentdata access systems, and naturallanguage interfaces.

Golden Common Lisp requires anIBM. PC XT, PC AT, or 100"/,, IBM PCcompatible computer with 512K bytesof memory and PC DOS 2.0 or higher.More memory is recommended forapplications development.

ORDER GCLisp TODAY usingthe coupon below. Or call our Sales

Department at:

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Golden Common Lisp: TheComplete Lisp Environment

TheGoi.DFN Common Lisppackage includes:

• the GCLisp interpreter

• the GMACS editor

• the San Marco Lisp Explorer

• the On-line Help system

• Lisp, 2nd edition by Winstonand Horn

• the Common Lisp Reference Manualby Steele

• the G< ilden Common Lisp User'sManual

Golden Common Lisp: ThePowertool for Personal Computing

Golden Common Lisp is an extensive

subset of Common Lisp, supporting morethan 400 Lisp primitives. Advancedfeatures of Golden Common Lisp includeco-routines for multi-tasking, macros forcode clarity, streams for I/O, closuresfor object centered programming,and multiple value returning functionsfor efficiency.

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PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

CHOOSING A

PROGRAMMING

LANGUAGE

by Gary Elfring

It's a three-step process

IF YOU WERE a carpenter building anew house, the first thing you woulddo would be to collect your tools. Thetools you'd select would vary depend-ing on the type of job. The same thingshould be true if you are a program-mer. You have a wide range of toolsavailable, and you just choose theright tools for the job. Your tools arethe languages that you program inand the environments needed to sup-port those languages.

How do you go about selecting theright tool for the job? There are moreprogramming languages available formicroprocessors than most peoplecould learn in a lifetime. What youneed is a methodology that can beused to select one language from allthe rest for a given application.

This article presents a practicalmethod for comparing programminglanguages. It has an inherent biastoward compiled high-level languages.Compiled languages are faster thaninterpreted ones, and most inter-preted languages also offer a com-piler version. Since program speed isoften an issue, I chose compilers overinterpreters.

The actual process of evaluating agroup of programming languages canbe broken down into three majorsteps. The first step is to characterizethe application the language is beingselected for. Then you must identifythe features that a language shouldhave in order to deal with thepreviously described application.Finally, you should take into accountpractical considerations to further nar-row down the language selection.

The Application

You can't choose a tool unless youknow what you intend to do with it.You have to describe your application.Once you have this information youcan then proceed to determinewhether or not the existing languagechoices are the right tools for the job.To describe an application, youmust consider both the type and sizeof the application. These questionsmust be answered before you canproceed any further in the languageevaluation:

What is the type or class of application?What level of language is needed?

There are a number of differentclasses of program applications. Anapplication can belong to a singleclass or several. Identifying the classof your application is relatively sim-ple and helps narrow the list of ac-ceptable languages. Some of themore common classes include scien-tific, business, and system program-ming; text processing; expert systems;and real-time control.

Most programming languages arebetter suited to solving one particularclass of problem than another.COBOL is one example. While it iseasy to write maintainable businessprograms with COBOL, no one wouldexpect to use this language to solvereal-time control problems.

Another consideration is the level ofprogramming that the application willrequire. If you need low-level controlof various machine-dependent fea-tures, then a very high level language

[continued1,Gary Elfring (4N899 West Mary Dr., St.Charles. 1L 60174) is the president of ElfringConsulting \nc. a microprocessor consultingfirm. His interests include robotics and arti-ficial intelligence.

IUNE 198=5

iYTE 235

CHOOSING A LANGUAGE

would be a bad choice.

Is it too big to be expressed as one module?Is it too big to be fully understood by oneprogrammer7

lust how big is the potential applica-tion? Large programs should not besqueezed into a single module. Thisimplies that the language chosenmust support separate programmodule compilation. It is alwayseasier to compile many small pro-grams and combine them into onelarge version than to compile onegigantic program.

Related side questions consider thecomplexity of the application itself.Can a single programmer understandit? If not, then the language chosenmust support multiple programmodules and some way of managingthem. Also, remember that a numberof programs start out small and endup growing quite large.

Language Features

After characterizing the nature of thesoftware application, the next step isto identify what features are requiredor desired to implement it. This list offeatures can then be used to rate eachavailable language. The result of thisprocess will be a short list of accept-able programming languages.

What audience was the language designed for?What class of problems was the languagedesigned to solve?

Some languages were designed fora specific audience instead of a classof applications. This type of languagewas typically designed to do some-thing like teach programming tech-niques. A language that was designedto solve a specific class of problemswill generally do a much better job atthat task than one designed to teachthe techniques of programming.

Most languages were designed withsome class of applications in mind.This inherent bias toward certainclasses of problems will affect the waya language is used on other classesof problems. A short history of eachlanguage under consideration is nec-essary to aid in the evaluation of thatlanguage. For example, knowing the

history of COBOL and APL will allowyou to reject them immediately as lan-guages for programming a real-timecontrol application.

Can the syntax be understood?Is it terse or verbose?Is it consistent?

The syntax of a language should beboth readable and intelligible. A syn-tax should aid the mechanical aspectsof reading it and help you understandwhat the program is doing.

A syntax should be concise, yet ex-pressive. Verbose languages can turnwhat should be a one-page programinto a multipage listing. Since, general-ly, the longer a program is. the harderit is to follow, such verbose syntax canactually defeat its own purpose of in-creasing the understandability of aprogram.

Inconsistency in syntax makes a lan-guage hard to learn. It also increasesthe possibility of error significantly.The syntax should be an aid to pro-gramming, not a hindrance.

What data types are supported?How are data types treated?

The organization and representa-tion of data is an important part ofprogramming. Some basic data typeson microprocessors are 8-. 16-. 32-bitintegers, single- and double-precisionfloating point, records/structures,pointers, bit fields, and arrays of alldata types. Some compilers evenallow you to create user-defined datatypes.

Structures or records, in particular,are important data-handling tools.They let you group items of differentdata types together so they can bereferenced as a unit. The more con-trol a language gives over the use andconstruction of structures, the easierit will be to handle data.

The use of data types not only givesyou great flexibility in how you manip-ulate data but also lets a good com-piler do a considerable amount oferror checking. The compiler cancheck for mismatches in the use ofdata types and flag them as errors.This will catch a large percentage ofthe simple errors that a programmer

makes, well before the program entersthe debugging stage. For thesereasons a language should offer asrich a selection of data types as ispossible.

Does the language support structured

programming?Are exceptions possible?

Languages that support structuredprogramming are inherently moresafe to use than those that do not. Aprogramming language should atleast offer you the choice of usingstructured programming techniques.Modern structured programminggenerally requires, at a minimum, agrouping syntax (either functions orprocedures), two types of decisionstatements (generally the IF andCASE statements), and two types ofloops (counted and uncounted).

Sooner or later exceptions will arisethat must be dealt with in some man-ner. Languages that allow no excep-tions can make it quite difficult towrite certain kinds of programs. Somelanguages totally rule out exceptionsor can deal with them only in an un-controlled fashion such as with aGOTO. One structured way of han-dling exceptions, the BREAK com-mand, is used as an escape fromcounted and uncounted loops. It ispreferable to the use of a GOTO andis featured in languages like Ada, C,and Modula-2.

Is portability needed?

How portable is the language?

The portability of programming lan-guages is becoming more and moreimportant in the world of micropro-cessors. Large amounts of time andmoney are spent developing softwarethat becomes obsolete when the nextmicroprocessor comes out. Somemethod is needed to protect this largeinvestment in software. The answer isportability.

There are several levels of portabili-ty. At the lowest level, the languageis portable from compiler to compileron the same microprocessor. Thenext level of portability covers theability to port code from one micro-

(continued)

236 B YTE • IUNE 1985

COLOR MAGIC: IBM-PC compatibleS100 BUS graphics board.

Gives your 16 bit SI00 BUS system IBM-PC com-patibility ■ RGB and composite outputs ■ IBM PCkeyboard port ■ All IBM-PC display modes plustwo higher resolution modesPRICE 16K - $595.00 32K - $695.00

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Inquiry 256

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 2

CHOOSING A LANGUAGE

processor to another of the samelevel, for example, between 16-bitmicroprocessors. A final level of por-tability is between any two micropro-cessors.

If an application can be ported froman 8-bit microprocessor to a 32-bitone (say from Intel's 8051 toMotorola's 68020), then the language

is truly portable. Note that it is prob-ably unreasonable to expect that anyapplication be ported all the waydown from a 3 2-bit microprocessor toan 8-bit one, but you should expecta language to offer upwardly compati-ble extensions.

How is I/O [input/output) handled?

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Is access to other programming languages

needed?Is stand-alone product support required?Is real-time control needed?

Not all programs need file or ter-minal I/O. However, almost anyonewould agree it is a useful function.Device-independent I/O is preferableto any other kind. Languages thatmake no distinction between differenttypes of I/O devices are easier to pro-gram in. They are inherently moreconsistent since they don't differen-tiate between hardware devices.

Some applications require the useof more than one language. The sec-ond language is typically assemblylanguage. If your application needs aninterface to another language, thenthe amount and type of support forthe other language must be assessed.

Is the software application going tobe for a stand-alone product (such asa microprocessor-controlled blender)or a product run on a computer withan operating system (such as a data-base-management system)? A lan-guage for a stand-alone applicationmust be able to get "close" to thehardware: that is, it will need featuresthat allow absolute control over ad-dressing, I/O, and interrupts. It willalso generally have to run from somekind of ROM (read-only memory).However, a product such as a data-base-management system interactswith the hardware through the oper-ating system and runs from RAM(random-access read/write memory).

Yet another consideration is real-time control. Does the intended lan-guage support it, or will it at leastallow itself to be modified or ex-tended to do so?

Practical Considerations

There is more to selecting a program-ming language than a simple com-parison of features. In the real worlda number of practical considerationsenter into the picture. They rangefrom considerations about existingcompilers to questions about the de-velopment tools for a particular lan-guage. This series of qualifications is

(continued)

238 B YTE • IUNE 1985

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Inquiry 343

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Inquiry 353

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CHOOSING A LANGUAGE

used to further narrow the languagechoices based on real-world criteria.

How available is the language?How popular is the language?

How many different compilers areavailable for this language? Are theycompatible with each other? Howhard is it to locate compilers for thislanguage? Answers to these questionsdescribe the availability of a language.Generally, the more available a lan-guage is, the safer it will be to use.

It is important to choose a languagethat has an established history andpredictable future. Will the languageyou choose be around tomorrow ordoes it belong to the "Language ofthe Month" club? Brand-new lan-guages may offer many desirable fea-tures. But the future of both the lan-guage and its new features can be un-certain. If it doesn't catch on. thelanguage and its special features maydie.

How do you learn the language?What is the source of this information?

If the language chosen is not in yourprogramming repertoire, you are go-ing to have to learn it. How do youlearn to program in the language? Arethere good reference materials or out-side help available to teach you thelanguage? The best language in theworld is no help to you if you can'tfigure out how to use it.

What are the characteristics of the compiler?Is the code produced quick, compact, andpredictable?

Theory and practice must merge inthe creation of a compiler. The com-piler should operate quickly and bereliable. It should not require a greatdeal of memory or disk space. Final-ly, the amount of support from themanufacturer is important.

Compilers translate high-level in-structions into code that a particularcomputer can execute. The code thatthey produce must be efficient bothin size and speed. Furthermore, theexecution time and size of the codeproduced by the compiler should bereasonably predictable. That is, thecompiler should be consistent in the

quality of the code it produces.

What hardware-development tools are

available?What software-development tools are

available?What kinds of software libraries are

available?

The types of tools associated witha programming language are impor-tant considerations in that language'sevaluation. Tools make you significant-ly more productive and ease yourwork load.

Tools come in many different forms.Hardware-development tools, such asan in-circuit emulator, are indispens-able in the development of software-controlled products. The availability ofthis type of tool could easily alter achoice of a programming language.

Another form of tool is software-oriented. Software-development, de-bugging, and management tools arequite popular but not compatible withall programming languages. A gooddirectory program for file mainte-nance is also a tool. The purpose ofthese tools is to make the job of pro-gramming as easy as possible.

One final type of tool is the softwarelibrary. It is often more feasible to pur-chase a library of software functionsthan to write your own. Examples ofsoftware libraries include graphicsand real-time control packages. Theavailability of good software librariesat low cost is an important practicalconsideration in the choice of a lan-guage.

Language Suitability

Now that you know how to describethe application, programming fea-tures, and practical considerations,the selection process can begin. Theend result of this evaluation processis a list of from one to three languagesthat are ideally suited to your par-ticular application. If you end up withmore than one language on your list,then any one of these can beselected. This is the only point in thelanguage-selection process where youcan apply your own personal bias andnot affect the quality of the final lan-guage choice. ■

240 BYTE- IUNE 1985

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Inquiry 83

PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

STRUCTURING

BASIC

by Arthur Huston

Creating a libraryof subroutines

COUNTING ALL of its dialects. BASICis now among the world's major lan-guages. Even so, many programmerscomplain that it lacks features foundin more structured languages. Bycreating a library of procedures andfunctions, however, you can compen-sate for some of the language's short-comings and write more powerful pro-grams in less time.

Most structured languages have twotypes of library routines: functionsand procedures. In BASIC the formeris a subroutine that returns only onevalue; the latter returns more thanone, or none. It's not possible, how-ever, to incorporate into BASIC theconcept of local variables or to passvariables of different names into sub-routines. And since BASIC requiresline numbers, inserting a subroutineinto a program could overwrite exist-ing code.

For these reasons, BASIC program-mers usually rename the variablesand renumber the code when they re-use a subroutine in a new program or,worse, they only use subroutines toeliminate redundant code in one pro-gram. With some discipline, however,you can force BASIC to mimic trueprocedures and functions and thus

eliminate redundancy between pro-grams as opposed to within a singleprogram.

Newer dialects of BASIC, includingrecent versions of DEC VAX BASIC,the Microsoft Business BASIC Com-piler, Better BASIC from Summit Tech-nology, and True BASIC from TrueBASIC Inc., implement these conceptsand bring much-needed structure andpower to the language. I will concen-trate instead on the garden-varietyMicrosoft BASIC interpreter and suchoffshoots as GW-BASIC, ApplesoftBASIC, and Commodore 64 BASIC.

Mimicking more structured featuresrequires that you invent a set of pro-gramming rules and adhere to themrigidly. You may find at first that thediscipline required inhibits your pro-gramming, but consider the benefitsof assembling a library. When youstart a program you can concentrateon its purpose rather than worryabout chores like menus and date ma-nipulation. Your programs will have aconsistent user interface, and entiresections of code will be thoroughlydebugged before you start. Anyonefamiliar with your library can maintainyour code, and porting your programsto a different computer will be

easier—you simply convert yourlibrary.

Line-Numbering Rules

Without line-numbering rules, merg-ing in a subroutine might mean over-writing existing code or require scan-ning programs for a free set of linenumbers (and then loading, renum-bering, and saving the subroutine, re-loading the program, and finallymerging in the subroutine). With line-numbering rules, you need only breaka program into logical parts andassign line numbers to each part.

Programs always begin with ini-tialization, or declaration. A set ofremarks should tell you what the pro-gram does, and the early lines al-locate string space and dimension allarrays. Ideally, you should initializeevery variable with special meaning inthe program code and add a remarkthat explains its function. Reservingline numbers 0-999 leaves more thanenough room.

Some programmers like to put ini-tialization at the end of the program

{continued)Arthur Huston (154 Park St., Stoughton,MA 02401) is a programmer of financialsoftware in Boston.

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 243

STRUCTURING BASIC

and call it with a GOSUB. I find suchprograms less readable; more impor-tant, they are incompatible with mostcompilers, which require that thecode dimension arrays before refer-encing them.

Program code comes next. You willwant to make judicious use of yoursubroutine library; this code simplycalls the subroutines in the correctorder and gives your program itsuniqueness. Let's set aside lines1000-9999.

Next are program subroutines,which are not part of your library butare of use only to the program inwhich they appear. Line numbers10000-14999 should be enough.

Specific applications require ap-plication subroutines. A payroll sys-tem, for example, might use a routineto read employee names from a file;a stock portfolio might have a pro-cedure to calculate which stocks tobuy. Reserve lines 15000-24999.

Last are the system subroutines—your software library, which is usefulin every program you write. Let's setaside the lion's share of your pro-gramming space, lines 2 5000-65000.You'll be surprised at how quicklyyou'll fill it up.

We can differentiate the system sub-routines further into their logical func-tions. Lines 2 5000-29999 might han-dle user-interface routines such asmenus; 30000-34999 could be re-served for file handling; 3 5000-59999for all-purpose subroutines like data

handling and string manipulation;lines 60000-65000 for ON ERRORGOTO routines. See table 1 for a sum-mary of these line-numbering rules.

In some versions of BASIC, placingthe subroutines immediately after ini-tialization results in faster program ex-ecution. The BASIC code stored inmemory is simply a linked list, witheach line pointing to the next one; itfollows that lines near the beginningof a program will be found faster thanthose at the end. The current versionsof Microsoft GW-BASIC howeversearch for the line number the firsttime it is called and thereafter branchdirectly. The time saving is so minimalfor this popular version of BASIC that1 have not placed my subroutines atthe beginning.

There are, however, a number ofcaveats to using this system. Whenyou create your library, make surethere's no overlap from one routineto the next. If you must add featuresor debug a routine, insert new codebetween lines rather than extendingthe routine. Lastly, renumbering yourprograms in increments of 10 wouldrender the entire scheme useless. Youcan, however, renumber the programcode and program subroutinessections.

These line numbers are not cast instone; the point is to predict howmany lines each section of your codewill require and then allocate them ac-cordingly. You'll notice, for instance,that I gave the largest section to sys-

Table 1: This line-numbering scheme is only a suggestion: the important thing

to do is predict how many lines each section of your code will require. In

addition, the initialization part should always be the first section of code. Note

that in some versions of BASIC

placing the subroutines immediately after

initialization will speed up program execution.

Code Section

Lines

Initialization (declaration)

0 - 999

Program code

1000- 9999

Program subroutines

10000 - 14999

Application subroutines

15000 - 24999

System subroutines

25000 - 65000

—user interface

25000 - 29999

—tile handling

30000 - 34999

—all-purpose routines

35000 - 59999

-ON ERROR GOTO

60000 - 65000

tern subroutines. Few of these areused in any one program, but all ofthem will be needed to accommodateyour library

Some programmers never beginsubroutines with remarks becausemany compression programs deletethe REMs, leaving undefined lines. Ialways reference remarks, but I usemore sophisticated compression rou-tines that avoid the conflict. Some ofthese packages include The BASICDevelopment System from SoftToolSystems on the IBM PC, GPLE fromBeagle Bros, on the Apple, and theSnapp Utilities from Snapp Inc. on theTRS-80. All three packages containother utilities to ease programming.Note that an alternative methodwould place remarks just prior to thereferenced line (e.g., placing REMs onlines 5196-5199 for a subroutine be-ginning on line 5200).

Naming Rules

Giving subroutines descriptive namescertainly helps to explain their use,but the eight-character filename limitof many BASICS is severely restricting.For a naming convention, therefore,1 suggest that the starting line numberof the subroutine follow a two-char-acter prefix (SS, for example, for yoursystem subroutines). Application sub-routines could assume the prefix fromthe application's name (PR for payroll,for example). Using this method, youcan quickly identify the type of sub-routine—application or system—andits line numbers. Rely on your writtendocumentation to tell you what thesubroutine does.

Variable-naming rules prevent "col-lisions," or "side effects," which occurwhen program code and a subroutineuse the same variable for differentpurposes. For example, if the programcode used the variable PR to recordpayroll and a subroutine used PR asa flag to see if the printer were on line,calling the subroutine would changethe value of the variable.

To avoid the problem, you cansimulate the concept of local variablesby assigning groups of variables tological sections of code. For example,

[continued]

244 BYTE- IUNE 1985

ASYST multiple windows permit side-by- sidecomparisons. The two-dimensional FFIroutine,shown, is one of the many built-in functions.

w U*5! ;jw«i ftnilisis M

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Inquiry 260

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IUNE 1985 'BYTE 245

STRUCTURING BASIC

you can set aside variables beginningwith A-H for program code and pro-gram subroutines, [-J for programcode loops (following the program-ming convention started with FOR-TRAN), K-P for application subrou-tines, and Q-Z for system subroutines.Table 2 summarizes these variable-naming rules.

I suggest breaking variables downeven further. Each section of codeuses two sorts of variables: "throw-aways," which are used in calculationsand then discarded, and permanent

variables, which have a consistentmeaning throughout a program orwithin a given application. Programvariables, for instance, could useA-D as throwaways and E-H as per-manent variables. In addition, you canbreak down the system variables ac-cording to the same logical functionsas the corresponding line numbers.When you call a subroutine, simplyset the local variables required by thesubroutine to the values you want topass. On return, transfer the valuesyou want to save into program vari-

Table 2: Variable-naming rules give BASIC the ability to mimic local variables.

They ensure that the variables in your subrout

nes will not collide with program

variables and create bugs. You can differentiate variables further into throwaway

and permanent variables. You can also organize system variables according to the

logical functions of the system line numbers.

Code Section

Variable Name

Program code

A-H, l-J for FOR . NEXT loops

—Throwaway

A-D

—Permanent

E-H, descriptive variables

Program subroutines

A-H (shared w/program code)

—Throwaway

A-D

—Permanent

E-H

Application subroutines

K-P

—Throwaway

K-M

—Permanent

N-P

System subroutines

Q-Z

—Throwaway

Q-R

—Permanent user-interface variables

S-T

—Permanent file-handling variables

U-V

—Permanent all-purpose variables

W-X

—Permanent ON ERROR GOTO variables

Y-Z

—System variables like true, false,

screen-control strings, etc.

— Remarks to describe the purpose of the program

— DEFINT, DEFSTR, DEFSNG, DEFDBL, used to specify the data type of variableswithout constantly using the °/o, I, and $ notation

— DIM statements, to dimension your arrays

— COMMON statements, used to pass variables between programs

— ON ERROR GOTO

— DEF FN, to define functions

— Declare program variables, e.g.,

100 REM 100-199 Declare program variables

110 REM Today's date, user name, # of items changed

120 E0$=DATE$(0) : E1$«"" : E0 = 0

Figure !: I recommend this initialization order, which is similar to those of morestructured languages and will make your code compatible with most BASICcompilers.

ables before calling other subroutines,which otherwise might change thevalues.

I suggest using descriptive variablesonly in the program code, programsubroutines, and application subrou-tines, and then only for permanentvariables. Avoid using descriptive vari-ables in system subroutines becausethat eliminates their usefulness else-where (exceptions are variables liketrue and false that always have thesame definition. Be aware of poten-tial conflicts in BASICS in which onlythe first two letters of the variablenames are significant.

Starting Your Library

Now is the time to break your anti-documentation habit, To turn theseprogramming conventions to your ad-vantage, take the time to write themdown systematically (napkins are out).Having written copies of your line-numbering, subroutine-naming, andvariable-naming rules will make themeasier to apply. Make copies foreveryone who has to work with yourcode.

Once you have established yourprogramming rules, create a skeletonprogram to use every time you startdevelopment. The first part couldestablish a simple order for the ini-tialization process, to keep it logicaland to ease compilation of your pro-grams. Figure l contains a suggestedorder for this code. The second partof this program could contain a set ofremarks describing where everythinggoes. Line 1000, for instance, mightread 1000 REM MAINLINE CODE1000-9999.

Before adding a routine to yourlibrary, ask yourself whether it isuseful in many programs and whetherit is general enough without losingfunctionality. If the answer to bothquestions is "Yes," you probably havea good candidate. Some examples are"Press < Return > to Continue," stripleading and trailing blanks from astring, evaluate a string to see if it'sa valid numeric, and so on. Moreelaborate routines might include aclassy menu operating with the cur-

[umtimed)

246 BYTE

IUNE I98S

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Inquiry 207

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 247

STRUCTURING BASIC

sor and Return keys.

Use your imagination to put powerinto your programming. For instance,an input routine that takes a stringfrom the keyboard up to a givennumber of characters would be evenbetter if it allowed you to program thefunction keys, permitting messageslike "Enter Search Code, <F1 > to Go

Back. < F2 > to Go Forward, < F3 >to Quit."

You might create some subroutineswith the DEF FN construct, allowingyou to define functions similar tothose of structured languages. Manyversions of BASIC restrict you to aone-line equation, but even this wouldbe handy for a function such as

Subroutine Name

Line #s

Purpose

Required VariablesReturned Variables

CT35510

35510-35550

Compare a string to a list of valid passwords and return a

flag on the result

Q$ = String to compare to password list

QO = Number of the password, or zero if invalid

Notes: This subroutine requires that CT24340 (Input a string from keyboard) bepresent in the same program.

Figure 2: A subroutine documentation form should identify the purpose of theroutine, the required and returned variables, the line numbers it occupies, andany other prerequisite subroutines.

centering messages on the screen.

Document your routines both in thecode and on paper. The first threelines of each routine should list thepurpose of the routine and both therequired and returned variables. Thewritten documentation will allow youto identify subroutines and will ex-plain how to use them correctly.Figure 2 suggests a format for thedocumentation.

By providing everyday tools, thesubroutine library allows you to con-centrate on "the good stuff." Those in-terested in taking the concept a stepfurther can assemble a library of util-ities to handle large tasks like filemanagement. It would be a simplematter to decide what variables youneed to describe a file and its fields,to write subroutines to read the filedescriptors and file into memory, andthen to write a program to managethe file. ■

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PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

SUBROUTINELIBRARIESIN PASCAL

by Bruce Webster

A look at some of the facilities availablefor creating these libraries

ONE PHRASE OFTEN USED in soft-ware development—indeed, in almostall aspects of computers—is "reinvent-ing the wheel." It's what you often findyourself forced to do, over and over,with each new software project. Mostprograms need to perform certainfunctions, such as user I/O, file access,and specific types of computation.Fortunately, there's one way you canavoid rewriting the same routines: Usesubroutine libraries.

A subroutine library is basically acollection of useful, trustworthyroutines that can be used by differentprograms. The advantages of usingsubroutine libraries are obvious. First,you can break programs into smallerchunks that are more easily edited.Second, you can do the job right onceand then never worry about it again.It's as if you are extending the lan-guage to meet your needs. Third, allof your programs will behave in pre-dictable ways, at least as far as thelibrary routines are concerned. Eachprogram will carry out the same ac-tions in the same way. This not onlymeans that the user interface can beconsistent but also makes it easier for

different programs to share resourcesand information. Fourth, subroutinelibraries make group software projectseasier. Effort isn't duplicated by eachperson writing his or her own clear-screen routine.

To create a subroutine library, yougather together those routines thathave general use. It makes little senseto create a library of routines sospecialized that they will be used inonly one program. Then you test theroutines thoroughly to make sure thatthey are bulletproof. A subroutinethat can blow up or otherwise pro-duce poor results is a dangerous thingto place in a library. Finally, use thelibraries as often as you can, improv-ing and modifying them as errors anddeficiencies show up. Amending yourprograms will give you better librariesand will give your programs a degreeof consistency that will make themeasy to maintain.

The original definition of Pascaldoes not contain any provisions forcreating subroutine libraries beyondreusing the same routines in each pro-gram. However, most microcomputerimplementations of Pascal contain at

least one of two extensions to aid inusing libraries. The simplest involvesinclude files, which are files of subrou-tines that can be pulled in duringcompilation. The second uses units togroup related definitions and routinesinto precompiled chunks. Let's take alook at each method.

Include Files

Almost every version of Pascal thatruns on microcomputers lets the userdefine include statements that directthe compiler to read and compile thecontents of another file before con-tinuing. These statements take theform of a compiler option giving thename of the file to be read. Figure 1illustrates what a program containingan include statement might look like.When the compiler gets to the state-ment {$1 utility.lib}, it starts readingfrom the file utility.lib, just as if the

[continued)Bruce Webster (6215 Thorn St.. San Diego.CA 92115) is a consulting editor to BYTEand a charter member of the PMS Comman-do Team. His interests include programming,reading, weightlifting, go. war games, and ex-actly one attempt at skydiving.

IUNE 1985

IYTE 253

SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES

contents of that file were present afterthe declaration of Indx and Jndx andbefore the start of the procedureTestl.

The technique is simple enough, butit has some problems. The most com-mon is a conflict between identifiersin the library and identifiers in theprogram itself. (An identifier is thename given anything—a constant, adata type, a variable, a subroutine,and so on.] For example, if the file utili-ty. Iit> contained a subroutine namedInitialize, then the compiler wouldgenerate an error when it found theprocedure Initialize in the programTestLibrary Similar problems mightarise if you were using more than onelibrary and both libraries containedroutines, variables, or data types withthe same identifiers.

One solution to the conflicting iden-tifier problem is to have a uniqueprefix precede the identifiers in agiven library. For instance, all iden-tifiers in utility.lib could start with thecharacters Util. The library routine Ini-tialize would now become Utilinitializeand would not conflict with anyroutines in the main program. This

has the added advantage of remind-ing you from which library each rou-tine used in your program came.There are some problems, though.First, typing the extra four charactersfor each identifier may become tiringafter a while. Second, the version ofPascal that you are using has somelimit on the number of "significant"characters in an identifier. If this limitis small—around eight characters,say—then the prefix may significant-ly reduce what you've got to workwith.

Suppose you had two library rou-tines, ClearEOL and ClearEOS. whichcleared to the end of a line and theend of the screen, respectively. If youadd the prefix Util, then the resultingidentifiers are identical past the eight-character limit. Even if you reduce theprefix to Ut. you'll still have toshorten the names to something likeUtClrEOL and UtClrEOS. This raisesthe third potential problem: Shortidentifiers with prefixes may losesome of their mnemonic value. Clear-EOS explains itself more clearly thanUtClrEOS.

Another solution is to forget about

program TestLibrary;varIndx.Jndx : Integer;

{$l utility.lib} { pull in subroutine library}

procedure Initialize;begin

end; { of proc Initialize }

procedure DoTest,begin

end; { of proc DoTest}

begin { main body of program TestLibrary

Initialize;

DoTestend. { of program TestLibrary }

Figure I: Am illustration of how to include library routines in a Pascal program.

the prefixes and keep a list of all iden-tifiers within each library. You can dothis at the start of the library filewithin comment statements. Whenyou include a particular library file,you would then refer to its list to avoididentifier conflicts within the programusing it. This, of course, is not withoutits drawbacks. It may be tedious tomaintain the identifier list, especiallyfor large libraries. And it doesn't solvethe problem of similar routines withidentical names in different libraries:you have to solve that by choosingdistinct names for each.

A less common problem can occurif your library gets big. The compilermay not be able to handle all the ad-ditional identifiers, resulting in somesort of symbol-table overflow errorduring compilation. Or the programmay compile fine, but the resultingcode file may be too large for theavailable memory. If you have theseproblems, there's a good chance thatyour library contains unused orredundant subroutines. If that's thecase, you have several options. First,you can create another library thatcontains only the routines you needfor that specific program. Second, youcan break the library up into two orthree sublibraries: one could containthe most commonly used routinesand the others could hold less-needed functions. Third, you may beable to replace a large group of spe-cialized routines with a few routinesthat use parameters to choose thespecific action For example, insteadof having separate routines to per-form different screen actions—clearscreen, clear line, clear to end ofscreen, clear to end of line, and soon—you might have a single routine,DoScreen, that performs all of thoseactions based on one or twoparameters.

Yet another problem involves rou-tines that use a nonstandard datatype as a parameter or as a variablewithin the routines themselves. Thismight involve a specific example of apredefined data type (such as a set ofcharacters or a string of a certainlength), or it might require a user-

icontinued)

254 BYTE • IUNE 1985

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 255

SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES

defined data type, such as a recordof some sort. If the compiler allowsfree mixing of declarations and rou-tines, as do Turbo Pascal and a fewother implementations of Pascal, theappropriate declarations can be madeas needed. However, if the order ofdeclaration is more strict, then a sec-ond include file containing only dec-

larations (constants, data types, andvariables) can be created and in-cluded at the proper spot (usuallybefore all of the program's declara-tions).

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tations have a more sophisticatedmechanism for libraries, known asunits. Let's take a look at these.

Units

The UCSD p-System pioneered theuse of unit subroutine libraries. Unitscan also be found in the Apple andMicrosoft (IBM) Pascal implementa-tions. (An even more powerful form,the module, is found in the languagesModula-2 and Ada.) A unit is a sub-routine library with two parts. The firstpart, the interface, is visible to the pro-gram using the unit. It contains all thedeclarations that the program needsto use in that unit. The second part,the implementation, holds the actualcode of the routines declared in theinterface as well as any other routinesand/or declarations needed. Thoseother routines/declarations are invisi-ble to the program using the unit andcan be referenced only by the codefound in the implementation. Hence,you can hide how the routines in theunits are implemented.

The other great advantage of unitsis that they are compiled separatelyfrom the program. When a unit iscompiled, the text of the interface issaved, but the implementation is con-verted to machine code (or, in thecase of the p-System, p-code). Thecompiled unit is then placed in alibrary. When you compile a programusing that unit, the compiler just readsthe interface to get the declarationsit needs; the implementation is notrecompiled. This can save a lot oftime, especially if the unit or units in-volved are large.

Since the unit isn't recompiled, thequestion of what happens to the codearises. The answer depends upon theparticular implementation, but thereare two basic approaches. The first in-volves code-based units (in ApplePascal, this is known as a regular unit).The code from such a unit is directlycopied from the library into the pro-gram's code file, either at compilationtime or in a later linking step. This pro-duces a single executable file with allthe code needed to run. If severalsuch programs occupy the same disk.

{continued)

256 BYTE- IUNE 1985

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SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES

each will have its own copy of theunit(s). In Apple Pascal, all units arecode-based (regular) unless otherwisespecified.

The second approach uses library-based units (known as intrinsic unitsin Apple Pascal). Such a unit remainsin the library file until needed, whichmay be when the program using it isstarted or not until some routine inthe unit is actually called. At this time,the unit is loaded into memory. Thisrequires, of course, that the library filecontaining the unit be available (i.e.,on a currently mounted disk and ina known location) when the programis executed. All units in UCSD Pascal(version IV.O and later) are by defaultlibrary-based; a utility known as theLibrarian must be used to make themcode-based.

A library-based scheme works bestwhen several programs on the samedisk use the same unit(s). One "real-

world" example is the computer gameSunDog, of which I was the principalprogrammer. One side of the SunDogdisk contains three code files—ademo program, a utility program, andthe game itself—along with a libraryfile containing seven intrinsic (library-based) units. All three code files usemost of the units in the library. If theunits' code had to exist in each pro-gram file, an additional 20K to 30Kbytes of disk space would beneeded—space that just isn't there.Some of the problems mentionedwith include files also exist for units,though usually to a lesser degree.There is the same potential for con-flicts between identifiers, and thesame solutions are available. Overtax-ing the compiler becomes less likely,since only those identifiers absolutelyneeded by the program need bedeclared in the interface, and unitscan give you greater control over the

code size of the finished product. Theproblem of correct data types disap-pears altogether, since you can free-ly declare constants, data types, andvariables in both the interface and theimplementation sections. All in all,units tend to be easier and more flex-ible to work with.

Units represent a major step for-ward in subroutine libraries, but ad-ditional steps can yet be taken. Twonewer, Pascal-derived languages havemore powerful features for librarycreation. Modula-2, designed byNiklaus Wirth as a successor toPascal, can be thought of loosely asa language using nothing but units,allowing an entire program to consistof separately compiled chunks. Ada,designed by the Department ofDefense as a replacement for every-thing, also has units, which come inseveral flavors. (Both Modula-2 and

(continued)

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MICROWAY'S 8087 RUNS 1-2-3"!

MicroWay is the world's leading retail-er of 8087s and high performance PCupgrades. We stock a complete selec-tion of 8087s that run at 5 and 8mhz. Allof our coprocessors are shipped with adiagnostic disk and the best warrantyin the business - 180 days! We alsooffer daughterboards for socketlesscomputers such as the NEC PC andPCjr, and a board which increases theclock speed of the 80287 in the PC AT.Our new NUMBER SMASHER" in-cludes 512K ram. It will run the IBM PCat clock speeds up to 9.5mhz andachieves a throughput of .1 megaflops

87FFT Written in assembly language, per-forms Forward and Inverse FFTs on real and com-plex arrays which occupy up to 512K bytes ofRAM. Also does convolutions, auto correlations,hamming, complex vector multiplication, and com-plex to radial conversions. Callable from MS For-tran, 87MACRO or 87BASIC/INLINE $150

87FFT-2 performs two-dimensional FFTsIdeal for image processing Requires 87FFT...$75

MATRIXPAK™ manages a MEGABYTE!Written in assembly language, our runtime pac-kage accurately manipulates large matrices atvery fast speeds. Includes matrix inversion andthe solution of simultaneous linear equationsCallable from MS Fortran 3.2, 87MACRO, and87BASIC/INLINE each $150

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87 BASIC" includes patches to the IBM BasicCompiler and both runtime libraries for USERTRANSPARENT 8087 support Provides superfast performance for all numeric operations in-cluding trigonometries, transcendentals, addition,subtraction, multiplication, and division $150

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FORTRAN and UTILITIES

Microsoft Fortran 3.2 229

IBM Professional Fortran 545

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STRINGS and THINGS 65

C and UTILITIES

Lattice C 299

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Inquiry 294

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 259

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SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES

Unit subroutinelibraries allow forinformation hiding andseparate compilation.

Ada started with Pascal, but the twowent in opposite directions, Modula-2toward a simple language definition,Ada toward a complex one. It will beinteresting to see which proves to bemore successful.)

Updating Libraries

Like all other portions of your pro-grams, your libraries will change withtime. You will find and fix bugs, addand delete features, and generally im-prove your libraries. But if theychange, what of your programs thatuse them?

For include files and code-basedunits, the answer is the same: If youwant the changes reflected in yourprograms, you'll have to recompilethe programs. (For code-based units,you'll have to recompile the unitsfirst.) As a rule it is probably best thatyou recompile all programs using agiven library after each major changeto that library. This maintains con-sistency and predictability for each ofyour programs.

Library-based units are anotherstory altogether. If you make changesto the interface portion of a library-based unit, then you must recompileall programs using the library filewhere that unit resides. Failure to doso could cause the programs to crashor behave erratically. Why? Becausethe interface that the unit now hasand the interface that the program"remembers" are no longer the same.All sorts of problems may arise, dueto changes in data structures, dif-ferences in variable addresses, andrelocations of subroutines.

On the other hand, if you changeonly the implementation portion, youdon't need to recompile anything ex-cept the unit itself. This is the real vir-

Uontinued)

260 B YTE • IUNE I98S

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"Typical MICROCAP Transient Analysis"

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"Typical MICROLOGIC Diagram "

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True BASIC is still easy to learn and use yetoffers the following advanced features:

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• EXTERNAL PROGRAMS-lncrease yourprogramming efficiency by storing fre-quently used functions and subroutinesin user-defined libraries. True BASICsupports calls to assembly languagesubroutines.

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SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES

Subroutine librariesmaintain consistencybetween programs.

tue of the "hidden" portion of alibrary-based unit: You can implementthe unit however you want, and theprogram doesn't care as long as theinterface remains the same. This canmake a big difference when severallarge programs use the same libraryand recompilation might end up tak-ing a few hours.

Sample Libraries

Two actual subroutine libraries areavailable for downloading from BYTE-net Listings at (617) 861-9774. Thefirst—an include file—is a rather exten-sive 56K-byte source text librarydesigned for Turbo Pascal runningunder MS-DOS. I was unable to learnthe author of this public-domain file;it was uploaded to my bulletin board,and a copy can be found on theBYTEnet Listings bulletin board. Thefile is named TURBUTIL.PAS.

The second library, an intrinsic(library-based) unit designed forApple Pascal, contains a number ofroutines for low-level manipulation ofmemory, variables, and pointers. Theunit actually has two parts, one inPascal, the other in 6502 assemblylanguage. The first part must be com-piled, the second assembled, andthen the two are linked together.These files, too, are posted on BYTE-net Listings and are named LOWLIB.PAS and LOWLIB.ASM, respectively.

Conclusions

Subroutine libraries save time, main-tain consistency between programs,and speed up the entire software-development cycle. Their importanceis evident in the large role they playin newer languages, such as Modula-2and Ada. Take it from someone whospent over two years developing alarge (20,000+ lines), complex set ofPascal programs: Libraries can be areal lifesaver. ■

262 BYTE- |UNE 1985

Inquiry

Put your PCin Pictures"

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Inquiry 82

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by Wayne P. Stevens

This form of linkage results in functionsthat are easier to understand, develop, and maintain

DATA FLOW IS the technique of con-necting functions only by flows ofdata. Data-flow diagrams, whichdepict the flows of data among func-tions, are a natural way to documentand design applications. The resultingapplications are much easier todevelop, test, and maintain, and thevarious functions are easier to reusethan those connected in other ways.The terms "data flow" and "data-flow diagrams" have gained populari-ty in the last 5 to 10 years. However,the concepts they represent havebeen used in the computer industrysince its inception, lob steps are con-nected to each other by flows of datathrough the files and databases theyreference. And systems flowcharts, thediagrams that depict the flows of dataamong job steps, are not flowchartsin the normal sense, but rather chartsof data flow—data-flow diagrams (seefigure 1).

Kinds of Connections

Almost all connections between func-tions in computer applications in-clude the sharing of data. With dataflow, only one function can access the

data at a time. Connections betweenfunctions can also include passingcontrol or sharing a common dataarea, neither of which involves dataflow. The following are various waysin which one function in an applica-tion can relate to another:

• follow or branch to another functionin the same program

• do a source include or reference amacro

• perform or branch and link to an-other function in the same program

• call another function

• pass only data to another function

When functions follow each other inthe same program, the computerautomatically executes the secondone after executing the first. The con-nection consists of passing controlfrom the first to the second. Whilethey are also connected by any vari-ables they can both reference, thereis no flow of data. The same is true ifone function branches to the other.

Source includes, which bring areferenced function into the programat compile time, enable multiple pro-grams to include a particular function.

However, once included, its connec-tion to the functions around it is thesame as above. It is connected bypassed control and shared commondata rather than by data flow.

A perform or branch and link to afunction within the same program in-volves a more reusable routine. How-ever, the connection between thefunctions is still one of passed con-trol and shared common data.

When you package functions intoseparate modules, usually with aseparate compile, you can pass databetween them. A called functionreceives data from its caller, does itsjob, and can pass data back to itscaller. The data passed is accessedonly by the called routine until itreturns control to the caller. This pass-ing of control makes the functionsmore dependent on each other thanthose connected only by data flow.

Continued]Wayne P. Stevens (IBM Corporation, 1241East Main St., Stamford. CT 06904) worksin IBM's Information Programming Servicesdoing planning for future development tools.He has an M.S. in electrical engineering fromMIT.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 267

Inquiry 385

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DATA FLOW

Functions connected by data floware not dependent on adjacent func-tions. They simply do their jobs, send-ing and receiving data as available.This independence is what makes iteasier to develop and maintain data-flow-connected functions.

Connections that pass control re-quire that the functions be on thesame computer at the same time, andmany require that the functions bewritten in the same language.

In contrast, functions connectedonly by data flow, such as job steps,need not be on the same computerat the same time, or ever. For exam-ple, an independent job step can ex-

ecute as long as its input data is avail-able and it can dispose of its outputdata. It is not dependent on whetherthe previous step is or was ever on thesame machine, or even if it was ac-complished on any machine—it maybe a manual step. The only constraintis that the passed data be available.Actually, most connections betweenfunctions are data flow, lob steps aredata-flow-connected; so are com-mands in on-line development sys-tems. Consider the commands thatread in a file, sort it, and print. Thesecommands operate independentlyand can be used to process the data

[continued)

MERGE BYINVOICE

NUMBER WITHINCUSTOMER NUMBER

-Q

FLAG PAIDINVOICESUPDATE ANDFLAG

PARTIALLYPAID INVOICES

Figure I: A systems flowchart—also a data-flow diagram.

268 BYTE • IUNE 1985

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 269

DATA FLOW

the previous command produced asoutput, that is, read, sort, and printthe same file. Similarly, data flow con-nects the commands or transactionsin on-line applications. The interfacesbetween computer applications andtheir users are also based on dataflow. And functions in distributed ap-plications operate independently,passing data to one another.

The various commands within texteditors are also data-flow-connectedThey do not call each other, they justact on the data in the file beingedited. You can execute them in anyorder And the text editors are data-flow-connected to the text processorsthat format and print the data. TheUNIX shell can connect independentmodules with data flow via pipes. IBMPC-DOS uses a similar technique to letprograms pass data to generalized I/O(input/output) routines.

Using Data Flow

You and I use data flow every time wecommunicate with someone else,

pass a form or letter along, or enterdata into a computer. In fact, it is hardto avoid using data flow. Let's applythis inherent knowledge to the pro-cess of developing applications.

The basic tool for utilizing data flowis the data-flow diagram. This issimilar to a systems flowchart but withslightly different symbols. Data-flowdiagrams do not indicate the mediumon which the data will be passed(tape, disk, printer, etc.). Data-flowdiagrams using the Gaine and Sarsonnotation (see reference 1) include fivesymbols (see figure 2). Functions arerepresented by rectangles, and flowsof data among them by arrows. Filesand databases are represented by aU-shaped symbol on its side (or justparallel lines). Squares represent ex-ternal entities that are sources ortargets for data (e.g., user depart-ments). Small circles are used for off-page connectors. And typically, dataflows from left to right in thediagrams.

One advantage of this notation is its

ability to include both the limitedsystem name for a function or file anda longer, descriptive label. There areother notations (see figures 3 and 4),but the meaning is the same. They allshow functions connected by flows ofdata to other functions, to files, andto external entities.

The key to developing data-flowdiagrams that are easy to work withis to keep them to 7 ± 2 functions.Our short-term memory can handleonly 7 ± 2 chunks easily and accurate-ly. (This is why, for example, local tele-phone numbers were limited to 7digits.) An 8/2- by 11-inch piece ofpaper also contains approximatelythe amount of information we caneasily handle at one time. It is no ac-cident that data-flow diagrams kept to7 ± 2 functions will fit on a singlepage

You can represent larger numbersof functions without exceeding 7 ± 2functions in any one diagram by usinghierarchies (see figure 5). Any functionon a data-flow diagram can represent

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Figure 2: A data-flow diagram Rectangles represent functions(notice that each rectangle contains a short description of thefunction and. above it. the name of the computer module thatimplements it), arrows represent flows of data, squares represent

external sources or destinations of the data, and sideways Usrepresent files or databases. This figure was drawn byEXCELERATOR. a program that manages and manipulatesdata-flow diagrams.

270 B YTE • IUNE 1985

DATA FLOW

a lower-level data-flow diagram, andso on. The process stops when youare going to implement a function viaa different technique, for example, asan individual module or as a hierar-chy of called modules. It is not nec-essary to decompose all the functionsat any given level in the hierarchy. Anyone or more may be decomposed,while others in the same diagram canbe bottom-level modules.

In hierarchies of data-flow diagrams,a function's lowest-level diagram mustshow the data flows into and out ofit (see figure 5). However, higher-leveldiagrams can repeat files and exter-nal entities shown on a lower-leveldiagram or not, as desired. In fact,often the highest-level diagrams onlyshow the major flows of data. The filesare relegated to the lower-leveldiagrams. It is helpful, though, toshow files shared between two func-tions on the highest-level diagram thatcontains the two functions.

How do you design the flows ofdata within a single diagram? If youare documenting an existing manualor automated application, you can dothe following:

• Record existing functions and thedata that flows among them.

• Include existing files and externalsources and targets for data.

• Name each function, flow of data,file, database, and external entity.Note that functions do something tothe data, and thus typically theirdescriptions start with a verb (e.g.,READ THE SCREEN, EDIT THEDATA). Flows of data are objects. Theirdescriptions are usually nouns, oftenqualified by an adjective (e.g.,MASTER RECORD, FORMATTEDRESULTS, TRANSACTION). Files anddatabases typically have names thatindicate their contents (e.g., PAY-ROLL, ORDERS, TRANSACTIONLOG). An external entity can be amanual step, another application, in-put data, or an output report. Itsname usually reflects the name of theuser, application, data, or report.

Some approaches and tips that canhelp when you design a new data-flow

[continued)

SHIPPINGNOTK

SHIPPINGIN STOCK

'-'order]

ENTRY,/

INVENTORY

BACK ORDERS

BACK ORDER FILE

Figure 3: A Yourdon data-flow diagram. This diagram is equivalent to figure 2but is in the notation used by Yourdon Inc.

ORDER

2 O ORDER ENTRY

PRINT INVOICE

N STOCK

6A

5A

SHIPPINGNOTICE

Figure 4: A data-flow diagram in Swedish notation. This diagram is equivalentto figures 2 and 3 but uses a different notation. Note: The large boxes are formsand the small ones are functions.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 271

DATA FLOW

diagram are the following:

• When designing flows between newfunctions, do it as if the functions werepeople at desks who send forms toeach other.

• Group data that logically goestogether into forms (similar to design-ing a flat-file record).

• Do not try to send the minimumdata to each function, as in structureddesign (see reference 2). Sending sub-sets of data is only applicable wheneach function must return its data toits caller. In data-flow diagrams, afunction typically sends data forwardto another function rather than backto the function that sent its data. So,unless all the data is sent forwardtogether, it is usually necessary toreassemble it later in the diagram, andthis is a complex and unnecessarytask.

• Since a big advantage of data-flowconnections is easy reuse, take advan-tage of existing usable functions. Of

course, using an existing functiondetermines the data flows between itand adjacent functions.

• Draw data-flow diagrams to de-scribe either existing and/or newphysical systems. Drawing old andnew logical systems seems to be dif-ficult and creates unnecessary steps.

The Benefits of Data Flow

Connecting functions only by flows ofdata has several advantages.

• It is a consistent, natural way to viewconnections between functions.

• The resulting applications aresimpler to understand, develop, andmaintain.

• Testing and making changes areboth much easier.

• Such functions are easier to reusethan functions connected in otherways.

Developing applications involvesviewing them at several phases in thedevelopment process. First, there are

Figure 5: Skeleton hierarchies of data-flow diagrams.

the manual applications that are be-ing automated or to which an auto-mated application must interface. Youcan describe manual applicationswith data-flow diagrams. In fact, data-flow diagrams may be the best way topicture many manual applications sothat people not trained in data pro-cessing can easily understand andrelate to them.

The development phases includeapplication identification, analysis anddesign, implementation, and mainte-nance. The purpose of applicationidentification is to determine themajor functions to be performed andthe flows of data among them. Thisis the information that data-flowdiagrams depict. Structured analysisis the technique of using data-flowdiagrams for the analysis and designphase. Most of the advantages ofstructured techniques come from theability to consider part of the applica-tion relatively independently of therest. The segmentation of structuredprogramming, the modules of struc-tured design, and the functions ofH1PO (hierarchy plus input, process,output) provide the pieces we canconsider separately. Hierarchies pro-vide these advantages for data-flowdiagrams.

Functions must share data in orderto be part of the same application.Data-flow diagrams can picture theflows between many of the functionsduring implementation, for example,jobs, job steps, and on-line com-mands. And you can use the samediagrams for maintenance that youused for design and implementation.Often, applications in these variousphases are seen differently. This re-quires translating between the dif-ferent views as development pro-ceeds, which adds complexity and in-troduces errors. However, you can usethe data-flow view of an applicationin all phases of the developmentcycle.

There are significant advantages tousing data flow as a consistent ap-plication view. First, you can includeboth manual and automated func-tions in the same diagram. Second,

{continued)

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DATA FLOW

you can automate various functionswithin a diagram at different timeswithout having to modify it. And third,cycling back for corrections is mucheasier since it doesn't require trans-lating between various different ap-plication views.

Data flow is the natural way to con-nect functions because that is howpeople interact with each other. Wego about our business independent-ly until we exchange information withothers by talking with them, passingalong forms, etc. In the same way, ap-plication functions connected by dataflow operate independently and inter-act with each other by exchangingdata.

Data-flow diagrams can describe ap-plications from the simplest to themost complex, whether on-line, batch,or distributed. With data flow, on-lineapplications differ from batch only bydoing input and output to terminalsrather than to readers and printers.Distributed applications are natural-ly data flow since they consist of func-tions that execute independently andsend data to each other.

The complexity of developing appli-cations rises exponentially as theirsize increases. For example, a two-page program is more than twice ashard to develop as a one-page pro-gram. Not only must each of the twopages be developed, but the connec-tions between the two pages mustalso be handled, especially if differentpeople developed the two pages. Youcan reduce this complexity if you candivide the application into parts thatcan be developed relatively inde-pendently. The more independent thepieces are, the simpler the develop-ment.

Hierarchies of data-flow diagramshave a significant advantage over callhierarchies. With data-flow diagrams,you can consider each level separate-ly. But call hierarchies make senseonly if two or three levels are viewedtogether. You must consider at leasttwo levels of a call hierarchy in orderto even see the relationships betweenfunctions. Data-flow connections, onthe other hand, are between functionson the same level. Thus, you can con-

sider each level of a data-flow diagramindependently, making them easier towork with and understand.

The most easily reusable functionsare those you can use without havingto understand their internals. It iseasier to reuse modules that havebeen separately compiled so that youdon't have to synchronize the local

variables and labels with those of theincluding module. However, modulesin a call hierarchy have the definitionof the hierarchy imbedded withinthem. Thus, it is difficult to reuse anybut the bottom-level modules in an-other hierarchy without recodingthem; obviously, recoding requires

{continued]

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DATA FLOW

Recommendations

1. Use data-flow diagrams to documentall types of applications throughout thedevelopment process.

2. Obtain reference books on data flow(see references i and 3).

3. Keep data-flow diagrams to 7 + 2functions by constructing hierarchies.

4. Decompose functions to as small amodule as your environment allows. Ifthis is larger than one page of specifi-

cations (e.g., coding or generator in-put), implement the remainder usingcall hierarchies (see reference 2).

5. Design flows of data as though thefunctions were being done manuallyand connected by flows of forms.

6. Obtain a good tool to help draw thediagrams, and one that captures the in-formation for use later in the develop-ment cycle.

knowledge of their internals. Data-flow-connected modules don't evenknow the adjacent modules exist. Thismakes them more easily reusable.

Available Resources

Designers of data-flow diagrams have,up to now, struggled with several com-plications we no longer face, includinglack of education and documentationand lack of adequate automated toolsto help draw the diagrams. Todaythere are companies and consultantswho teach data-flow concepts; youwill probably find people in your owncompany who already use data flow.Good reference books include thoseby DeMarco (generally considered tobe the father of structured analysis-see reference 3) and Gaine and Sar-son (reference l). The text listed asreference 4 provides a description ofthe advantages of data-flow mech-anisms at the module level.

Several good products haveemerged in the past year or so thatautomate the process of drawing andmaintaining data-flow diagrams.Various personal computer softwarepackages are adequate for drawingand maintaining data-flow diagrams.I recommend you look for severalcharacteristics in such a tool. It shouldlet you enter and change the diagrameasily. It should enable you to con-struct hierarchies of data-flowdiagrams and, preferably, to move be-tween these hierarchies while drawingthem. It should allow you to enterdefinitions of functions and data intoa dictionary for later use in the devel-opment process. And it should allow

for selective input and output of suchspecifications so they can be sharedwith other people and used by othertools. One example of such a tool isEXCELERATOR, available from IndexTechnology Corp. (Cambridge, Massa-chusetts) for $8400.

Summary

Data-flow connections are the mostprevalent connection between func-tions in computer applications. Theyexist among job steps, on-line transac-tions, manual processes, jobs in thesame application, and distributed ap-plications. You can describe them withdata-flow diagrams (which are similarto systems flowcharts). These dia-grams provide a natural way todescribe applications. You can usethem throughout the developmentprocess and for all sizes and types ofapplications. Since we naturally inter-face with each other in a data-flowmanner, common skills are used todraw the diagrams. And applicationsconstructed from data-flow-connectedfunctions are easier to understand,develop, and maintain. ■

REFERENCES

1. Gaine. C, and T. Sarson. Structured SystemsAnalysis: Tools and Techniques. New York: Im-proved System Technologies. 1977.

2. Stevens, W. P. Using Structured Design. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons. 198I.

3. DeMarco, T. Structured Analysis and SystemSpecification. New York: Yourdon, 1978.pages 1-12 5.

4. Stevens. W. P. "How Data Flow Can Im-prove Application Development Produc-tivity," IBM Systems \ournal 2 I, No. 2, 1982,pages 162-178.

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PROGRAMMING TEGHNIQUES

DEBUGGINGTECHNIQUES

by Gregg Williams

There are no magic formulas but there are tools,and the most powerful one is your own brain

NOBODY LIKES TO debug a program.It is tedious, time-consuming, andoften maddening. Debugging yourown code is bad enough, but debug-ging someone else's (often someonewho is no longer available for ques-tions) can be argued to be cruel andunusual punishment—nevertheless, ithas to be done.

This article is a compilation ofdebugging techniques gathered frommy personal experiences program-ming in a commercial environment,the experiences of other BYTE editorsand programmers, and publishedtexts. The news is not good: There areno magic techniques; debugging is ac-complished mostly through the sus-tained use of a perceptive, disciplinedmind. Still, you will find the tech-niques described here useful if youaren't already acquainted with them.

Although 1 have tried to make thearticle as general as possible, I'llassume that you are running a high-level language—BASIC probably—andthat you don't have access to any so-phisticated debugging tools.

Before Debugging

If you are fortunate enough to bewriting your own code, you can make

the debugging process easier. Hereare some suggestions:

• Use structured programming. Thisdoes not mean that you have to giveup GOTO statements, only that younot misuse them. You can usestructured programming techniqueswith any computer language, not justso-called structured languages likePascal and Modula-2. Structured pro-gramming is a discipline; adopting itwill improve your programs morethan anything else mentioned in thisarticle. If you do not know muchabout it, you can find plenty of booksand articles on the subject.

• Design your programs modularly.Consider the program diagramed infigure 1 (each block is a module ofcode). If the program is considered asa monolithic whole, you will have totest the 30(3 x 2 x 5) separate pathsthe program can go through to debugit properly. If you debug the modulesseparately, you must test 11 things-each of the 10 modules plus the con-taining program that glues them to-gether.

• Program for clarity and optimizelater. Write your code to be readable,not clever—the performance gain

from terse code is usually not worththe extra programming time that thecode will consume over the life of theprogram. If you must optimize the pro-gram, get it working first, then ex-amine it to determine where optimiza-tion will be the most effective.

• Avoid—or at least isolate and docu-ment—system-dependent code. Thisis more important if you are writingprograms at work (where you mayswitch computers someday), but itnever hurts to call attention to pro-gram behavior that is not determinedsolely by the code itself.

• Document your program well, usingboth program comments and printeddocumentation.

Debugging Theory

Too many of us go about debugginghaphazardly and so spend more timeat it than we need to. To be effective,debugging must be led by the "per-ceptive, disciplined mind" mentioned

{continued)

Gregg Williams is a senior technical editor atBYTE whose programming credentials includean M.S. in computer science and several gearsprogramming COBOL, BASIC, and APL.He can be reached at POB 372, Hancock,NH 03449.

IUNE 1985

1YTE 279

DEBUGGING

above. But what discipline do wefollow'5

My experience leads me to say thatdebugging is best driven by a com-bination of the scientific method and

f BEGIN J

r1! r1!

i i i i

1 1 HT " 1

C END J

Figure I: A modular program diagram.To test the program as a whole, youwould have to test 30 (3 x 2 x 5)different paths.

hunch playing. The scientific method,which is the cornerstone of all scien-tific discovery, can be modified fordebugging and described as follows:

1. Describe the error.

2. Gather data about the program'sbehavior.

3. Guess what caused the error (con-sistent with all the data gathered sofar) and take steps to fix it.

4. Test your guess. (Does the programnow work?)

5. If your guess does not fix the error,go to step 2: otherwise, you have justfound and fixed the error.

Actually, confirming the error and fix-ing it may be two separate operations.You may confirm that a certain vari-able is causing the error by verifyingthat the variable contains an incorrectvalue at a certain point; in this case,fixing the error is a separate step.

In the scientific method, you are try-ing to find a hypothesis that fits all thefacts. In debugging, your hypothesisis "x is causing this error," and you testthis hypothesis by correcting x. If theerror disappears, your hypothesis iscorrect and you have found and cor-rected the error. If it does not (and thisis very important), you now have an-other piece of data—that is, "x doesnot cause this error"—and your next

Table I: An entry from my debugging log. Such entries may,help you debug later programs.

IH

the future.

Environment: While debugging a Microsoft (binary version) BASIC 2.0 program ona 128Kbyte Macintosh computer, I keep getting a 'Type Mismatch" error on theexecution of the SUB (subprogram) "get.field(new.item$,1)" (get.field is defined as"SUB get.field(msg.string$,button.pressed) STATIC); new.itemS can have any value(it goes m as a blank string), and 1 is a valid value for the second parameter(which can be either 1 or 2).

Debugging: I get the same error with any other value in the second place (2, 3,etc.). The program works fine when I assign the value to a variable and use avariable in the call, but I check the variable and determine that its value hasn'tsomehow changed. The program also works if I use "3/3" but not if I use "1 +0"Why?

Cause: It turns out that "1" is of type "integer" and "button.pressed" is of type"single-precision real" in this version of BASIC. This caused the type mismatchwhen I used the constant but not when I used the variable. I suspect that "3/3"evaluates as a single-precision constant but that "1 + 0" remains an integer result.

Solution(s): (1) Pass values only through variables. (2) Change the dummy variableto an integer using DEFINT or by appending "%" to it (i.e., "button.pressed°/o")(3) Change the constant to a single-precision real by typing it as "1.0" or '!!".

In the future: Be aware of variable types in Mac MBASIC 2.0.

hypothesis must be consistent withthis added data.

Assumptions in Debugging

An error (also called a bug) can comefrom several sources. It may becaused by errors in the syntax of theprogram, errors of logic that cause thecomputer to malfunction, errors oflogic that cause the computer to giveplausible but incorrect answers, anderrors generated outside the program(by the software or hardware used).Because of this, you must be carefulnot to eliminate any area that mightcontain the source of the error. On theother hand, computer hardware is notat fault 99.9 percent of the time, andsystem software (the operating sys-tem, language, and utilities) is not atfault 99 percent of the time. I havesummarized these realities in thefollowing three assumptions:

1. The computer is never at fault.

2. The system software is almost neverat fault.

3. Everything except this rule issuspect (even assumptions 1 and 2.but at different levels of probability).

In other words, never rule out hard-ware or system software errors, butpursue these hypotheses only afterextensive testing has failed to find allthe more probable causes of error.

Debugging Practice

Here are some collected notes ondebugging:

• Keep an interactive, written recordof your debugging. The form is irrele-vant, but it should include a statementof the error being sought: hypotheses,their tests, and the results; un-answered questions; and whateverelse comes to mind. (Table 1 showsan entry from my debugging log.)

• Equally important, always save acopy of your program before you addthe latest "fix.'' If the fix makes thingsworse, don't try to undo the damage.Instead, revert to the previous version.You might also profit from keepingversions of the program at differentstages of debugging.

• When you are reading a printed

280 H Y I I.

DEBUGGING

listing, make sure it is current. To besafe, print a new listing periodically.

• Test multiple variations of the pro-gram, each of which changes one thingabout it, and analyze the results care-fully. The effects can then be attrib-uted to the change itself. This maygive you a clue to the nature of theerror you are trying to correct.

• Learn from negative results—eventests that don't seem to tell you any-thing actually do.

• Don't ignore the possibility ofrewriting the code rather than debug-ging it; this is especially valid whenenough previous errors have beenpatched that the program is morepatches than code. If the code is inbad enough shape, you may be ableto rewrite it faster than you can debugit, and the resulting code will beeasier to read and maintain.

• Be aware of the particular problemsof the language being used (for exam-ple, inadvertently duplicated variablenames in BASIC, misuse of pointersin C, the peculiar behavior of aregister, flag, or instruction in assem-bly language).

• Watch out for often-confused sym-bols (the letters capital I, capital O,lowercase I, the numerals 0 and 1) andmissing spaces and carriage returns.

• Develop literal (for reading code)and speculative (for hypothesizingcauses) modes of thought and learnhow to strengthen each and switchbetween the two.

Debugging Techniques

1 have divided these techniques intothree broad categories: techniquesfor eliminating visible errors, findinghidden errors and verifying programcorrectness, and anticipating futureerrors. The sections that followdescribe techniques that fall intothese categories. The three categoriesbegin with the headings "IndirectMethods." "Testing vs. Debugging,"and "Preventive Debugging," respec-tively.

Indirect Methods

Many program errors are quitevisible—you know something's wrongbecause you can see it—but their

causes are not. One way to find thecause of an error is to play computer;in other words, with program listingand scratch paper in hand, you ex-ecute the program manually, keepingtrack of variable values on paper. Thismethod is time-consuming andtedious, but it often catches subtleerrors. However, you must know ex-actly what each program statementdoes, and you must be very literal insimulating code execution; otherwise,you will keep making the mistake thatis the cause of the bug. (A variant ofplaying computer is explaining theerror to someone else. Even if theother person doesn't know muchabout computers and can't offer asolution, you often discover the fac-tor you've overlooked.)

You can sometimes find an errorwhen you look at the structuredpseudocode, flowchart, or whateversimilar documentation you have.

Because this documentation is at ahigher level than actual program code,it may be easier for you to see alogical error in the design of theprogram.

Finally, browse through your debug-ging notebook for ideas; you mayrealize that your current problem issimilar to an error you have alreadyfixed.

PRINT Statements

PRINT statements are probably themost often used debugging tool, butthey are not often used effectively.They can be used to gather data aboutthe program's behavior (i.e., "Is thisvariable doing anything unusual?"), totest a hypothesis ("Is this variable giv-ing the incorrect value *?"), or to con-firm the correct operation of the pro-gram ("Is this variable now giving thecorrect value y?").

{continued)

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IUNE 1985

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282 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 233

DEBUGGING

PRINT statements are most valu-able when they are used effectively.Three factors are critical: what you areusing the PRINT statement for, whatvariables are being examined, and wherethey are being examined. If you mis-judge either of the last two factors,you will be gathering data that wastesyour time and gives you no insight in-to your situation.

PRINT statements can be either un-conditional, like this:

6808 PRINT "At 6808, X = '" A$ = ";A$

or conditional:

:X;

6808 IF A$ = "" THEN PRINT"At 6808, A$ empty, X = ";X

The unconditional PRINT statementis the simplest to insert into a pro-gram, but it may cause a distractingnumber of relatively useless diag-nostic statements—if, for example, line6808 is in the middle of a triple-nested DO loop. The conditionalPRINT statement is more usefulbecause it displays itself only whensome significant condition occurs (inthe second example above, the pro-grammer knows that A$ is of interestonly if it is empty).

Also remember that PRINT state-ments (and the print-oriented debug-ging techniques mentioned below)can go to at least three devices:screen, printer, or disk file. Video out-put gives you an interactive display ofthe relationship between cause (theprinted variable's value) and effect(the effect on the program), but it maydestroy the normal output to thescreen. Printed output gives you aprinted record that can be studiedlater along with the program code.Disk output is useful when you mustgenerate a lot of PRINT statements:it is faster than printed output and canbe searched and examined quicklyusing a word processor. It is yourresponsibility to choose the tech-nique best suited to a given situation.

You will sometimes have a visibleerror and no idea of its cause. You canthen use PRINT statements in a"divide and conquer" scheme. To dothis, find a point in the program where

things are okay and another onewhere they are not. Then repeatedlyplace a PRINT statement between thetwo and decide which half containsthe error. Eventually, you will haveisolated the error to a small enougharea that the number of possiblecauses is also small. (Here, you areadvised to consider—and apply—Sherlock Holmes's famous statement,"When you have eliminated the im-possible, whatever remains, however im-probable, must be the truth.")

Breakpoints

If you are able to stop your program,examine and change the values ofvariables, and resume execution atthe point you stopped the program,you have breakpoint capability. You cando this in assembly language if yourun your program along with somekind of debugger/monitor program. Inmost Microsoft BASICS, you can stop

a program with a Control-C from thekeyboard or a STOP from the pro-gram, then examine and even changevariable values and resume by ex-ecuting the CONT (continue) state-ment. In many cases, you will want toprint out the values of some variablesbefore you stop the program.

Breakpoints let you debug your pro-gram interactively. They have most ofthe characteristics of PRINT state-ments: They can be executed condi-tionally or unconditionally: they canbe used to gather data for your nextdebugging guess, to confirm a guess,and to pinpoint the location of anerror: and their effectiveness dependson the forethought used in planningthe breakpoint and evaluating itsresults. Many programmers use break-points as a mechanism through whichto do an open-ended exploration ofthe program in the hope that they will

[continued)

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Inquiry 154

IUNE I985 'BYTE 283

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284 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 129

DEBUGGING

stumble over some clue. This is usual-ly unproductive and should be at-tempted only when you are at a com-plete loss as to what to do next.

Through breakpoints, you usuallyhave access to the state of themachine—that is, all the data neededto completely recreate the computer'sconfiguration at a given moment-even though you may not make useof it. Because of this, a breakpoint isa measure halfway between a PRINTstatement and a snapshot, discussedbelow. Breakpoints and snapshots dif-fer in two ways: Breakpoints are notalways available, and snapshots areharder to use but more thorough.

Snapshots

A snapshot is a printed record of thestate of the machine. Because a snap-shot completely describes the programat the point it is taken, it is the finalauthority on what's "inside" the pro-gram at that instant. This is both goodand bad—good because you have allthe information you could possiblyneed, bad because you may not spotthe data you need in the sea of datayou have. A snapshot is also printeddocumentation of the program's stateat a given point; because it can bereferred to later, it may save you fromhaving to recreate the situation. (Inthe darker moments of debugging,when your current results seem tocontradict your memory of pastresults, a snapshot is often welcomeverification that you are not goingcrazy.)

Snapshots are usually not used in-teractively (but they can be if youwant to wait for the.printout). They areusually used with a fresh listing of theprogram to hunt for clues about thecause of the error. Because snapshotsare very long, they are also inconve-nient to set up and take a long timeto print out (in some cases, you mightconsider writing them to disk). For allthese reasons, snapshots are usuallyused as a last resort.

For a high-level language snapshot,make a list of all the system and pro-gram variables (a cross-referencingprogram will help in this); then writea subroutine that prints these (prefer-

ably in alphabetic order). To use thesnapshot, add a line to your programthat prints some reference to itselfand calls the snapshot subroutine—for example, in BASIC:

3305 PRINT "Snapshot at end ofinput routine":GOSUB 9950

When debugging assembly-lan-guage programs, capture the contentsof all memory and record the addressof the snapshot and the values of theprocessor's flags and registers. If youcan, store the contents of memory asa formatted dump that shows bytesas both hexadecimal numbers andASCII (American Standard Code forInformation Interchange) characters.You can make your snapshot shorterby not capturing certain areas (thosecontaining video-display memory orsystem ROMs—read-only memories),but always keep in mind that you haveleft something out—occasionally, it

may be what you need to find theerror!

Testing vs. Debugging

Before I can talk about finding hiddenerrors and verifying program correct-ness, I need to point out the dif-ference between debugging and test-ing. Debugging is the process of correct-ing all the errors you find in a pro-gram; it ends when you can find nomore bugs. Testing is a more deliberate,methodical process that attempts toprove that a program's behavior iscorrect in all cases; it ends after youhave devised tests that reasonablyjustify the claim, applied them (withpositive results), and documentedyour methods and results for currentand future critics.

Forcing and Checking

So you've found and corrected all the

[continued]

3M

protects disks

in sleeves of

^rf TYVEK.

Here's why.

Quality disks deserve a quality sleeve.Sleeves of TYVEK spunbonded olefinprovide unsurpassed data protectionbecause

1. TYVEK is strong—won't tear like paper.

2. TYVEK does not lint.

3. TYVEK is smooth, non-abrasive.

4. TYVEK is chemically clean, has aneutral pH.

5. TYVEK reduces static problems.

6. TYVEK is unaffected by water.

Take the first step to maximum disk dataprotection. Call 800-44 TYVEK for thenames of manufacturers who rely onsleeves of TYVEK.

TYVEK is Du Pont s trademark torspunbonded olefin. DuPont makesTYVEK, not sleeves.

Inquiry 155

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 285

HOW TO BUY SOFTWARE

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DEBUGGING

errors in your program—it's ready togo. right? Wrong. You've corrected allthe visible errors; the program's beendebugged, but it hasn't been tested.You can never be sure that a programis completely error-free, but you cantest it to be reasonably certain that itworks correctly. Forcing and checking withsample data are two methods used tofind hidden bugs and verify programcorrectness.Forcing involves simplifying the pro-

gram so that the relationship betweeninput and output is known or is easilycalculated; then you can exercise theprogram with test data and comparethe predicted output with the actualoutput. In some cases, you can entera set of data that is considerablysimpler than other sets might be (forexample, in a statistical-analysis pack-age, you might enter 3 data items in-stead of 10 or 100). In other cases,you may need to change the program

so that, at some point, it uses con-stant values instead of calculatedvalues in some places.

This second method is the type offorcing you'll use most often (this isa variation of the change-only-one-thing technique discussed above). Bysetting certain variables to constantvalues, you can observe the behaviorof the program as it is influenced bythe remaining variables. If you spot an

[continued)

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Inquiry 143

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 287

DEBUGGING

error in this way, you can use thisobserved relationship to infer whichvariables are causing the error. Onceyou have found them, force the otherrelevant variables to known values;then you should be able to find theerror by studying the actual behaviorof the system compared to its ex-pected behavior.

Another use of this method is toforce execution of a given section ofa program. When a program has fewenough alternate paths in it that youcan afford to test each one manually,you can use forcing to ensure that youare in fact testing each section ofcode.

Forcing is a special case of checking

Recommended Books

Much has been written about thetheory and practice of design,coding, and debugging. Here is aselected list of especially useful booksthat 1 have on my bookshelf. Some arehandy references, others challenge thevery foundation of your beliefs on howone should write a program.

Bruce. Robert C. Software Debugging forMicrocomputers. Reston. VA: RestonPublishing Company. 1980. A goodcatalog of debugging techniques.

DeMarco, Tom. Structured Analysis andSystem Specification. Englewood Cliffs,N|: Prentice-Hall, 1979. A very goodbook on the design of large systems:it contains extended information onthe use of the data-flow diagrams(DFDs) and data dictionaries.

Ledgard. Henry F. Programming Proverbs.Rochelle Park, N|: Hayden Book Com-pany, 197 5. A book of goodcommon-sense advice on program-ming.

Ledin, George lr., and Victor Ledin. TheProgrammer's Book of Rules. Belmont,CA: Lifetime Learning Publications,1975. A book of hierarchicallyordered rules that remind you of youralternatives at various stages of thedesign/code/debug cycle.

Meek, Brian, and Patricia Heath, eds.Guide to Good Programming Practice. NewYork: Halsted Press (division of lohnWiley and Sons), 1980, A good col-lection of essays on various topics:the essays do not fit into an or-ganized whole, but each has good in-formation in it.

Page-lones. Meilir. The Practical Guide toStructured Systems Design. New York:Yourdon Press. 1980. A detailed butpragmatic book on the proper de-composition of large systems intomodular subtasks: it has good sec-

tions on data-flow diagrams and thefactors that influence the effec-tiveness of a modular system orprogram.

Peters, Lawrence J. Software Design:Methods and Techniques. New York: Your-don Press, 1981. An invaluable surveybook that describes dozens of designmethodologies, techniques, andnotations—excellent for browsing tofind the method that makes the mostsense to you.

Smith, Truck. Secrets of Software Debugging.Blue Ridge Summit. PA: Tab Books.1984. A well-written book that digsdeeply into the psychology of debug-ging and illustrates its points withthree chapter-long microcomputerexamples; this is my favorite book ondebugging.

Ward. Paul T, Systems Development With-out Pain. New York: Yourdon Press.1984. Describes a new design tech-nique that emphasizes good com-munication between the designersand the users; the method modifiesand simplifies the concept of struc-tured analysis.

Yourdon, Edward Nash, ed. Classics inSoftware Engineering. New York: Your-don Press, 1979. Contains reprints ofand commentary about all the pivotalpapers on structured programmingand structured analysis, the debateamong Dijkstra, Knuth. and othersabout GOTO statements, and manyessays on structured programming.

Yourdon, Edward, and Larry L. Con-stant ne. Structured Design. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 1979. This isthe first major book on structuredanalysis; it uses data-flow diagramsbut puts heavy emphasis on structurecharts. It also contains severaltheoretical chapters that debate howbest to modularize a program.

with sample data, a method that is usedto rigorously verify the correctness ofa program. The design and selectionof test data heavily influences thevalidity of the testing process, so itshould be done with great care.

A meaningful discussion of this sub-ject is beyond the scope of this arti-cle, but 1 mention it to point out thatthe use of sample data is an impor-tant tool for even the most casual pro-grammer. When you are working witha program that deals with a range ofdata, take the time to run the programwith input data that is just inside, on,and just outside the range'of validdata. For example, if your programcomputes the average of between 1and 20 numbers, try it with 0, 1.2, 19,20, and 21 numbers. In general, youwill be surprised at the number oftimes that your program fails to actcorrectly.

Preventive Debugging

Two debugging techniques fall intothe category of preventive debugging—that is, practices that will alert thefuture user to the occurrence of anerror. The first is the simple techniqueof using "sleeping" debugging instruc-tions, while the second is a little-known technique called firewalling.Both techniques are available to peo-ple who are coding the program theywill later maintain, though they cansometimes be added to existing pro-grams. They are most useful in a pro-gram where error detection and quickdiagnosis and correction areimportant.

Sleeping debugging instructions are con-ditional diagnostic routines that ex-ecute only if a predefined abnormalcondition wakes them up. These canbe as simple as a PRINT statementthat notifies the user that an error hasoccurred or as complicated as a sub-routine that analyzes the state of theprogram and writes a file of usefuldebugging information to the disk.

The best time to add such instruc-tions into a program is when you arewriting (and, later, debugging) it, whileyou have the greatest insight into howthe program works. Ask yourself ques-

[continued)

288 BYTE- IUNE 198-5

INTRODUCING THE MERLIN ELECTRONIC LETTERING SYSTEM.IT BEATS THE HELVETICA OUT OF KROY.

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Inquiry 4I3

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Varitronic Systems, Inc.Response Center, Dept. 023705701 Decatur Ave. N„ Suite 205Minneapolis, MN 55427

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MERLIN

BY VARITRONICS

One Board...One Family

At the heart of every Stride 400 Series micro-computer from the floppy-based 420 to the448M byte 460, is an identical CPU board. Thisguarantees compatibility throughout theentire product family And it means, our CPUboard was designed with standard featuresthat are either options or simply unavail-able on other microcomputers

□ 68000 microprocessor(10 MHz with no wait states)

□ VMEbus

□ 256Kbytes RAM

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D 4K CMOS RAM

□ Four RS-232C serial ports(Stride multiuser BIOS)

D Centronics bi-directional parallel portD Omninet Local Area Network! Liaison LAN software)

With this basic design. Stride is able to explore the full range of 68000 appli-cations from an advanced multiuser, multi tasking BIOS to built-in local areanetworking No other microcomputer offers the flexibility to run over a dozendifferent operating systems and more than 30 languages/compilers.

The basic design is backed by a rich option list

D 12 MHz 68000 processor □ VMEbus (Eurocard) cage D Low cost, highspeed graphics □ NOD™cursor control □ 12M bytes of RAM □ 448M bytesof hard disk storage D 22 serial ports D Floating point processor (NS16081)□ Cartridge streaming tape backup □ Memory Management Unit

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Formerly Sage Computer

For more information on Stride orthe location of the nearest StrideDealer call or write us today We IIalso send you a free copy of our32 page product catalogCorporate Offices:4905 Energy WayReno, NV 89502(702)322-6868Regional Offices:Boston: 1617) 229-6868Dallas: (214) 392-7070

DEBUGGING

tions like these: "What's the mostdamaging thing that could happenwhile this program is running? Whatcan the program do to spot it? Whatranges of data will always be invalid?What could the user do that the pro-gram will have to guard against or cor-rect?" With careful planning anddesign, you can add sleeping debug-ging instructions that will alert you toprogram errors and help minimizetheir effect.

FlREWALLING

Firewalling is a preventive debuggingtechnique available to highly modularprograms. If you have designed yourmodular program correctly, eachmodule is completely self-containedand interacts with other modules onlythrough a known list of variables. Afire wall is a special kind of sleepingdebugging instruction that checks thevalidity of data as it comes out of amodule. The idea behind firewallingis to ensure that, even if an error oc-curs, it is not allowed to spread fromits origin to other modules. Thismethod is most useful in large sys-tems that pass data from one pro-gram to another, but you may find oc-casion to use it in smaller programsof your own.

Conclusions

As 1 said at the beginning of this arti-cle, there are no magic techniques—but there are tools, and the mostpowerful one is your own brain. De-bugging is part technique, part art,part luck, and the most difficult partof it is to be thinking hard when thesituation calls for it. 1 hope 1 havepresented some useful tools; if youhave any other useful techniques, Iwould enjoy hearing from you.

The temptation is to take it easy, toskip the hard parts, to keep rummag-ing through the program for moreclues instead of thinking about theones you already have—but all that islike the man who kept looking for hislost car keys under the streetlightbecause the light was better there. Al-though luck and intuition contributein debugging, there is no substitutefor thoughtful, sustained analysis. ■

290 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 390

"... compatibility has been a cruel hoaxused to mislead the public!'

\lhisisoneofa series of design philosophydiscussions with Rod Coleman President ofStride Micro [formerly Sage Computer).]

RC: One of the biggest mis-takes being made today is thatmany in this industry underes-timate how much the public iswilling to take. Today's micro-computer buyer is far moresophisticated than those whowere buying systems just 24months ago.

Q: How does that affect amanufacturer?

RC: In our case. I think it means

.. I'm often amazedthat our competitorscontinue to introduce

products that don'treally relate to their

own machinesabove or below them:'

that our designers and engineershave to be more honest. Bythat I mean that you can't simplyrely on clever marketing tech-niques to overcome hardwareshortcomings.

Q: Give me an example.

RC: The best one I can thinkof is the overused buzzwordof'compatibility." It has beena cruel hoax used to misleadthe public. Indeed, dozens ofthese compatible machinesare interchangeable with oneanother but in reality, users don'ttrade one system for anotherof the same capacity. Instead,they're looking to upgrade, linkor expand their capabilities.That's when the so-called com-patibility ends. One major man-ufacturer changes to a differentCPU chip between entry-leveland mid-range machines, andthen changes again to moveinto a high capacity environment.Another competitor is only com-patible until you decide youwant multiuser or local area net-working: at that point you'vegot to change operating systemsand software

Q: How has Stride approachedthis problem?

RC: From the start, we knew wehad to select a microprocessorand basic system design thathad enough power and flexibilityto meet the needs on both endsof the spectrum. Without a capa-ble CPU, your system will neverbe state-of-the-art. Thus allmachines in the Stride 400 Serieswere designed to accommodatethe same 68000-based CPUboard.This board provides forall the standard features suchas VMEbus, multiuser. LAN. etc.Then, when a customer decidesto move up, it's a simple matterof providing more RAM, storage,backup devices, etc. Since everysystem in the family has a com-mon CPU board, compatibilityis guaranteed. The idea is sobasic, that I'm often amazed thatour competitors continue tointroduce products that don'treally relate to theirown machinesabove or below them.

Q: Do most customers buyStride machines for thatflexibility to expand?

RC: Many do, but we are alsogetting a lot of response fromthose looking for a big systemas the cornerstone to a growingnetwork of smaller machines.This is where local area networksreally shine, but the incompati-bility between the large hard diskmachines and the smaller work-stations has prevented users fromcapitalizing on this technology.Again, since Stride's LAN is a stan-dard feature of all systems, andthey share a common board, thisis a natural application.

Q: Is the 68000 microprocessorthe key to that compatibility?

RC: To a large extent, yesAlthough it's been on the marketfor some years, we feel thisprocessor still holds a significantadvantage over other archi-tectures. When we evolved fromSage Computer to Stride Micro,we closely examined the state ofthe microprocessor market. Weelected to remain with the 68000family because it was the onlyproven product that would han-dle everything from our floppy-based 420 machine up to thetop-of-the-line Stride 460 with

22 users, 12M bytes of RAMand 448M bytes of Winchesterhard disk storage. An extra ben-efit of this is that we were ableto boost the already-impressiveperformance of the Sages byincreasing the clock speed from8MHz to the Stride's standard10MHz and optional 12 MHzwithout changing architectures.That would have been impos-sible with most other chips.

Q: Do you see others followingyour lead?

RC: Yes and no. The good signsare that more and more interestis being generated in portablelanguages and operating systemsthat work across a broad rangeof system capabilities. Yet. then1 see an announcement from aleading hardware supplier thattheir newest multiuser machineis only compatible with thesmaller systems when it's in sin-gle user mode. Overall, I thinkStride will remain unique forsome time to come.

STRIDE

^^/^ t c /? oFormerly Sage Computer

For more information on Stride orthe location of the nearest StrideDealer call or write us today. Wellalso send you a free copy of our32 page product catalog.Corporate Offices:4905 Energy WayReno. NV 89502(702)322-6868Regional Offices:Boston: (617) 229-6868Dallas: (214) 392-7070

Inquiry 391

IUNE 1985

IYTE 291

CALL FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS — I HtD-HOT RAM & EPROM PRICES

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30003 1982 Nat. Linear Data Book

292 BYTE ' IUNE I985

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ELECTRONICS

ansa!

ELECTRONICS

1

Commodore Accessories *** SUMMER SPECIALS ***

RS232 Adapterfor VIC-20 andCommodore 64

The JE232CM allows connection of standard serial RS232printers, modems, etc. to your VIC-20 and C-64. A 4-poleswitch allows the inversion of the 4 control lines. Com-plete installation and operation instructions included.

• Rugs into User Port ■ Provides Standard RS232 signallevels • Uses 6 signals (Transmit, Receive, Clear to Send,Request to Send, Data Terminal Ready. Data Set Ready).

JE232CM $39.95

VOICE SYNTHESIZERFOR APPLE AND COMMODORE

JE520AP

JE52QCM

• Over 250 word vocabulary -affixes allow the formation o( morethan 500 words • Built-in amplifier, speaker, volume control, andaudio jack • Recreates a clear, natural male voice • Plug-in userready with documentation and sample software • Case size:7V*"L x 3V«"W x 1-3/8"H

APPLICATIONS: • Security Warning • Telecommunication

• Teaching • Handicap Aid

• Instrumentation • Games

PaM No. Description Price

JE520CM For Commodore 64 & VIC-20 S114.95

JE520AP For Apple ll 11+ and He $149.95

Computer MemoryExpansion Kits

IBM PC, PC XT and Compatibles

Most of the popular Memory Boards (eg QuaO'em* Eipenson Boarosiallow you to add an additional 64K i28K. 192K o- ?$6« The >6M64k k.i w.ipopulate these boards <n 64K byte increments The Kit is simple to msiail -just insert the 9- 64K RAM chips in the provided sockets and set the 2 groups

IBM64K (Nine 200ns 64K RAMs) S 19.95

IBM PC AT

Each kit comes complete wtth nine 128K dynamic RAMs and documentation

IBM128K (Nine 250ns 128K RAMs).... $174.95APPLE He

extended 80-Column/64K RAM Card Expands memory by 64K to give 128Kwhen used with programs like VisiCalc"" Fully assembled and tesled

JE864 $99.95

TRS-80 MODEL I, III

Each Kit comes complete with eight MM5290 (UPD4 16/4116) 16K DynamtcRAMs and documentation lor conversion Model 1 16K equipped with Ex-pansion Interlace can be expanded lo 48K with 2 Kits Model III Can beexpanded Irom 16K lo 48K using 2 Kits Each Kit will expand computer byI6K increments

TRS-16K3 200ns (Model III) $6.29

TRS-16K4 250ns (Model 1) $5.49

TRS-80 MODEL IV & 4P

Easy to install Kit comes complete with 8 ea 4164N-20 (200ns) 64K DynamicRAMs and conversion documentation Converts TRS-80 Model IV computerstrom 16K lo 64K Also expands Model AP Irom 64K to 128K

TRS-64K-2 $17.95

(Converts the Model IV from 1BK to 64K or will expand the Model 4P from64Kto 128K)

TRS-64K2PAL (Model IV only) $38.95

(8 - 4164s with PAL Chip to expend from 64 K to 128K)

TRS-80 COLOR AND COLOR II

Easy lo install Kit comes complete with 8 each 4164N-20 (200ns) 64KDynamic RAMs and documentation tor conversion Converls TflS-80 ColorCompulers with D. E. ET. F and NC circuit boards to 32K Also convertsTRS-80 Color Computer II to 64K Flex DOE or OS-9 required to utilizelull 64K RAM on all computers

TRS-64K-2 $17.95

"SPlSj Ai£5

PROTECT YOURSELF...

DATASHIELDSurge Protector

PART NO

DESCRIPTION

UMtCE

MODEL 85

6 Sock . Super Fillers. On/Off Switch. ,

. SS9.95

MODEL 100

6 Sock , Super Filters, Low Volt Alarm.

$69.95

MODEL ' ihams

6 Sockets. Super Ft Iters.

Auto Master Switch

. 599.95

DATASHIELDBack-Up Power Source

surges and line noise PTl's PC200 is designed tor PCswith floppy disk memory. Ihe XT300 tor hard disk memoryand Ihe AT800 toi mulli-user systems A typical compatihlePC lor each ol Ihes.- -.Lirnibyi, will tip supported tor IS to26 minutes after powei is lost weight (PC200 24 IBs I -iXTJOO 37 •, ib$ . - (ATSOO 83 lbs i - I.AT800 83 lbs lPC200 (200 Watt Rating) $299.95

XT300 (300 Watt Rating) $399.95

AT500 (500 Watt Rating) $699 95

AT80O (800 Watt Rating) . $799 95

f!|- Intelligent 300/1200 Baud

PROMETHEUS „TellePn°n®1M°d/im with

Real Time Clock/Calendar

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IYTE 293

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Inquiry 117

PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

6502 TRICKSAND TRAPS

by Joe Holt

Tips for surviving6502 assembly-language programming

WITH THE ADVENT of complex microprocessors whoseoperation codes (op codes) begin to resemble some high-level languages, the days of the 6502 seem numbered.Indeed, a microprocessor with only three 8-bit registersand a 64K-byte address space is apparently no match fora piece of silicon that can walk through 4 gigabytes ofmemory in 32-bit strides and work with hundreds of bitsworth of registers. I won't try to fool you: The 6502 willnot be around forever. But when the last of its speciesemerges from the forge, it will be joining an installed baseof more than 3 million 6502-based computers. There ismerit, therefore, in discussing the peculiarities of this dyingbreed, the ins and outs of this most nonorthogonal micro-processor.

The 6502 has three 8-bit registers (only one of whichcan be used in arithmetic and Boolean operations), asingle-page (2 56-byte) fixed stack, and optimized perfor-mance when dealing with the first 2 56 bytes of memory.But what may be considered a tight architecture isbefuddled by an instruction set full of inconsistency andseeming favoritism to certain combinations of address-ing modes and op codes. Steve Wozniak even admittedthat the only reason he put a 6502 in his Apple II wasbecause it was cheap.

In order to gain the most benefit from the 6502, an as-sembly-language programmer must understand these idio-syncrasies and use them to his or her advantage.

Peculiarities

I will assume for the sake of brevity that you are alreadyfamiliar with the 6502's architecture and operation codes(and assembly language in general) and perhaps have ac-

cess to an Apple or Atari with a decent assembler. If not,you might want to pick up a good reference book on the6502 and sit down with an assembler and experiment.An intimate knowledge of your machine is the greatestboon to any programming task.

Zero Page

The first two pages (512 bytes) of address space havespecial meaning to the 6502. The first page, called theZero page, consists of memory addresses 0000 to 00FF[Editor's note: All addresses are in hexadecimal unless otherwise spec-ified.] and is considered prime real estate for variablestorage. Memory references to the Zero page by most opcodes can be reduced to 1 byte because the 6502 hasa special addressing mode strictly for this area of memory.Not only are programs that place variables on the Zeropage shorter, but they also run faster because the micro-processor need only fetch 1 byte from the program todetermine the memory address. The upper byte of theaddress (OOxx) is supplied internally. For example, thefollowing sequence assembles to 6 bytes and executesin eight clock cycles:

300:AD 80 03 LDA $380 ;get value

303:8D 81 03 STA $381 ;and stuff it elsewhere

The equivalent sequence using Zero-page variables assem-bles to only 4 bytes and executes in six clock cycles:

300:A5 80 LDA $80 ;get Zero-page value

[continued)\oe Holt is a freelance technical writer. He can be reached at 476West Main Rd.. El Centre CA 92243.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 295

6502 TRICKS AND TRAPS

302:85 81 STA $81 ;and stuff it elsewhere

Where speed and space are critical, there is no bettersolution than to put oft-used variables on the Zero page.But beware: Other programmers before you have donethe same, so it's important not to alter Zero-page memorylocations already used by your computer's ROM (read-onlymemory) routines or DOS (disk operating system).

The Stack

The second page consists of memory addresses 0100 to01FF and is the location of the 6502 s stack. Because theentire stack can be addressed by 9 bits, the stack pointeris 8 bits wide with the upper bit (01 xx) supplied internal-ly. You can only set this 8-bit stack pointer via the Xregister: you must place the value in the X register andtransfer it to the stack pointer with the TXS (transfer Xregister to stack pointer) op code. Because the stack growsdownward, it is good practice to initialize the stack pointerat the beginning of any 6502 program with the followingcode:

300:A2FF LDX #$FF ;set pointer to very top of stack302:9A TXS

Conversely, the only way you can read the stack pointeris through the X register, with the TSX (transfer stackpointer to X register) op code. This instruction is handyfor "locating yourself" in a relocatable program, a topicI'll describe later.

The stack never grows so low that it clobbers the Zeropage. Instead, the stack pointer wraps from 0100 back upto 01 FF, possibly causing confusion if you've already gota page full of variables or return addresses pushed ontothe stack. This situation can be kept in check by limitingthe use of recursive subroutines.

Flags

The 6502 is notorious for how it handles its flags, especial-ly the Carry flag. Where most processors set the Carryflag when a borrow occurs from a subtract operation, the6502 produces a clear Carry to indicate a borrow. Thefollowing is an illustration with the SBC (subtract withCarry) instruction:

300:38

SEC ;be sure the Carry's set

301 :E9 01

SBC #1 decrement the

accumulator

303:90 . .

BCC BORROW ;a borrow occurred

You've probably noticed the lack of add and subtractop codes on the 6502 that do not include the Carry flag.This oversight necessitates setting (for SBC, as above) orclearing (for ADC—add with Carry) the Carry before per-forming one of these operations.

The backward Carry for subtract operations is not in it-self confusing, that is, until you realize that compare opera-tions (CMP, CPX. CPY) are actually subtracts in compares'clothing. Logical compares are accomplished within most

microprocessors by simply subtracting from the value be-ing compared the value to compare with and tossing awaythe result. In other words, comparing 5 to 6 would be amatter of subtracting 6 from 5 and setting the appropriatestatus flags. In this situation (5 minus 6) a borrow wouldoccur, indicated by a clear Carry. Therefore, after a com-pare operation, a clear Carry indicates less than, and aset Carry indicates greater than or equal. This is backwardfrom the logic of all other popular microprocessors.

The other flag that you should be wary of is the Decimalflag. When set, all arithmetic operations are performedin BCD (binary-coded decimal). This is wonderful if youintend to perform BCD mathematics, but it can cause allkinds of unexplainable problems if not. Consequently, youshould start any 6502 program with a CLD (clear Decimalflag) operation. Set the Decimal flag only when necessaryand clear it immediately afterward.

The way the 6502 decides to set or clear its flags afterdifferent operations is not immediately obvious, and thelogic behind this is somewhat different from that of mostother microprocessors. For example, the Carry flag is onlyaffected by arithmetic (ADC, SBC, and compares) andshift operations (ASL, LSR, ROL, and ROR), except whenexplicitly changed (with CLC, SEC, or PLP). Operationsthat affect the Carry flag on many other processors, suchas Boolean operations (AND, EOR, and ORA), do notmodify the Carry at all. Increment and decrement opera-tions do not affect the Carry either, but this is only a prob-lem when testing if a register or memory value wasdecremented past 0, in which case you have to executean explicit comparison:

300:CA DEX ;count down

301 :E0 FF CPX #$FF ;past zero?

303:F0 . . BEQ ROLLUNDER ;yes

The two flags that are set or cleared in conjunction withmost operations are the Negative and Zero flags. TheNegative flag reflects the state of the eighth (most signifi-cant) bit of the result of the operation, and the Zero flagis set whenever the result is equal to 0 (all bits cleared).All operations that work with a value set these flags, in-cluding the load (LDA, LDX, and LDY) and transfer (TAX,TAY, TSX. TXA, TXS. and TYA) op codes.

The Bit Instruction

Although the 6502's instruction set includes no operationsfor bit manipulation (short of Boolean operations), aspecial instruction can be used to examine the eighth(most significant) and seventh bits of a value in memory.This is the BIT op code, and when used it will place theeighth bit of the memory referenced in the Negative flagand the seventh bit in the Overflow flag without affectingthe contents of any register. This has the most benefitwhen you use it to test if a Boolean variable (that is, onethat is either 00 or FF) is set or not:

{continued)

296 BYTE- |UNE I985

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(M) MOTOROLAIUNE 1985 -BYTE 297

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6502 TRICKS AND TRAPS

300:24 80302:30 . .

BITBMI

ALLDONEDONE

;are we done?;yes

The BIT operation also has the side effect of setting orclearing the Zero flag depending on the result of a logicalAND operator between the memory value and the ac-cumulator. This feature (really the main purpose of theBIT operation) has little use outside of testing status bitsin a memory-mapped I/O machine.

Saving X and Y

To complete the discussion of the 6502's peculiarities, Ishould mention that there is no provision to push or popthe contents of the X or Y registers. If you need to preservethe contents of either of these registers, there are twopaths you can take. The first and most logical one is tosave the contents on the stack, but you can only do thisby transferring the register to the accumulator and thenpushing the accumulator onto the stack. To restore theregister, you must pop the accumulator from the stack andtransfer its contents back to the appropriate register:

300:8A301:48

325:68326:AA

TXAPHA

PLATAX

;save the X register

;now restore the X register

The disadvantage of this method is obvious: The originalvalue in the accumulator is destroyed, and it is not a sim-ple matter of pushing and popping the accumulatoraround each sequence to preserve it. You must temporari-ly save the contents of the accumulator either in the re-maining register or in some memory location. Neithersituation is desirable. (Of course, if the accumulator isn'tholding anything of any consequence, then this disadvan-tage can be ignored.)

Your alternative is to store the register in memory some-where and then load it back when required. This has theadvantage of placing the register's content where it canbe easily accessed (by LDX, STX, LDY, and STY op codes),but it forces you to set aside a specific location just forpreserving a register. Things get really messy when thisoccurs in a recursive routine or if the location for savingthe register is also used someplace else for the same pur-pose. In either case, havoc will ensue. The bottom line isthat no solution is perfect, and you must examine thesituation carefully to decide what will work best.

Tricks

Tricks (or "hacks") are techniques that use a feature or defi-ciency in the programming environment to an advantagenot anticipated by the system designer. If you use themwith caution, they can result in faster, more compact ob-ject code.

In the 6502's case, there are dozens of these optimiza-tion tricks, each of which saves bytes and cycle time. Some

[continued)

298 B YTE • IUNE 198?

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6502 TRICKS AND TRAPS

of the tricks described here are not necessarily applicablejust to the 6502 but are simply good programming prac-tices. Nonetheless, they are essential to using the 6502'sfull potential.

Branching

One of the glaring holes in the 6502's instruction set isthe absence of an unconditional relative jump (or branch).This makes writing relocatable code difficult, and manytimes it seems a waste to have to use 3 bytes for a jumpinstruction just to skip over 1 or 2 bytes. One way youcan get around this is by using a conditional branch whenthe state of a flag is guaranteed. For example, becausea load operation always modifies the Negative and Zeroflags, this type of sequence is possible:

300:C9 05302:B0 . .304A9 01306:D0 . .

CMP #5

BCS NOTLESS

LDA #1

BNE CONTINUE

less than 5?

no

yes, set to 1

— always taken

Because the accumulator is loaded with l, the Zero flagwill always be clear, in which case the BNE (branch if notequal) will always be taken.

If you do not know the state of a flag for certain, butyou must use a branch instead of a jump (perhaps youare writing some relocatable code), you can always forceone of the flags to a known state and branch on that con-dition. Because the Overflow flag is seldom used, it findsitself the most likely candidate:

300:B8 CLV ;clear overflow for branch

301:50.. BVC SMORE ;—always taken

This sequence takes just as many bytes as an equivalentjump (JMP) instruction, with the one disadvantage com-mon to all 6502 relative branches: They can only jumpforward 127 bytes or back 128 bytes.

One other trick involves the misuse of the BIT opera-tion. Because the BIT operation does not affect anyregisters and only the Zero, Negative, and Overflow flags,it can be put to good use as a "skip over the next 2 bytes''instruction. For example.

300C9 05302: B0 03304 :A2 FF306:2C307:A2 00309:86 80

CMP #5BCS NOLDX #$FFDFB $2CNO: LDX #0

STX AFLAG

less than 5?

no

yes, set to true

— BIT trick

no, set to false

save true/false status

If the condition is true (less than 5), the X register willbe loaded with the value FF, then a nonsense BIT instruc-tion occurs, after which execution continues. If the condi-tion is false, NO will be branched to, which loads the Xregister with 00. In one sense, the operation immediatelyfollowing the LDX #$FF is a BIT operation with memoryaddress 00A2, but in another sense, that memory addressoperand (00A2) disassembles to the instruction LDX #0.

300 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 426

Inquiry 267

6502 TRICKS AND TRAPS

This trick of hiding code within the operand of other codeis an old one but should nonetheless be used with caution.This BIT technique can also be used to skip over 1 byteby using the Zero-page addressing mode for BIT, in whichcase the value for the DFB (define byte) pseudo-operationwould be 24.

Adding and Subtracting

Because of the lack of add and subtract operations thatdo not include the Carry the sequences CLC, ADC andSEC, SBC are common ones. There is one way to avoidhaving to explicitly set or clear the Carry, but only if theCarry is in a known state. For example.

300

C9 05

CMP #5

;less than 5?

302

B0 . .

BCS NOTLESS

;no

304

18

CLC

305

69 05

ADC #5

;yes, put it above 5

Because the Carry flag will always be clear if the branchis not taken, the CLC before the ADC instruction is un-necessary. You must be careful to ensure that the condi-tion of the branch does not change, however.

If the Carry flag is in the wrong (but known) state, it canstill be used to your advantage if the operand for the ADCor SBC is immediate:

300:C9 05302:90 . .304:69 04

CMP #5BCC LESSADC #5-1

less than 5?

yes!

(or 4)

In this example, the ADC operation will still add 5 tothe accumulator because the Carry will always be set andwill therefore be added along with the 4.

Initialization

There are many places in a program where a number ofvariables must be set to certain values. Usually, the codelooks like this:

300.A9 FF302:85 80304:85 81306:A9 00308:85 8230A:A9 0130C:85 83

LDA #$FFSTA VAR1STA VAR2LDA #0STA VAR3LDA #1STA VAR4

;set a few true/false vars

;clear this one

;and initialize another

If the X or Y register can be sacrificed, the fact that thevalues being stored are consecutive can be exploited:

300:A2 FF302:86 80304:86 81306:E8307:86 82309:E830A.86 83

LDX #$FF

STX VAR1

STX VAR2

INX

STX VAR3

INX

STX VAR4

;set a few true/false vars

;now we're up to 0;clear this one;now we're up to 1;and initialize another

[continued)

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IUNE I985

iYTE 30I

6502 TRICKS AND TRAPS

Note that this only reduces the size of the code: thereis no savings in speed (an INX op code takes just as manyclock cycles as an LDA #).

Locating Yourself

Often it is necessary to know the location of code thatis executing in a relocatable environment. If there is withinthe system the location of a known RTS instruction(perhaps in ROM), this can be accomplished by calling thisRTS, then examining the remains on the stack. The follow-ing example will determine what page the executing codeis on:

300:20 58 FF JSR KNOWNRTS

303: BA TSX

304:BD 00 01 LDA $100,X

;get return addresson the stack

;now get whatpage we're on

There is a special consideration when using this typeof code. If there is the possibility of a 6502 interrupt oc-curring (from a real-time clock or a communicationsdevice), the return address above the stack would bedestroyed by the 6502 s interrupt processing. It would bewise in this case to turn off interrupts before this bit ofcode (SEI), then reenable them immediately after the LDA$100,X (CLI). |Editor's note: These instructions are two more ex-amples of the 6502's confusing mnemonics. At first glance, you wouldthink that SEI would mean "set interrupts'.' However. SEI means"set interrupt disable flag": its execution shuts off the 6502 inter-rupts. CLI means "clear interrupt disable flag'.' and a CLI instruc-tion actually enables interrupts. \

NON1NDEXED INDIRECT

One of the nicest features of the 6502 is its abundanceof addressing modes, but there are times when even theseare not enough. A prime example is the situation whena nomndexed indirect reference must be made. Most ofthe time, the Y register is sacrificed in this way:

300:A0 00302:B1 80

LDY #0

LDA (POINTER),Y

:index of zero:nonindexed

But if the Y register is already being used, a similar methodinvolving the seldom (if ever) used preindexed indirect ad-dressing mode can be used, at the expense of the Xregister:

300:A2 00302:A1 80

:use some register

LDX #0

LDA (POINTER,X)

Of course, you should take advantage of an indexregister that already contains 00.

Indirect Jumping

Last but not least is a technique for branching to differentroutines depending on an index value. This can be usedfor interpreting keyboard commands or executing alter-nate parts of code based on a certain number. The onlylimitation is that all the routines must reside on the same

page in memory, but a little extra programming can over-come this. This technique uses an RTS instruction as akind of indirect jump:

300:A9 03

LDA #HIPAGE

302:48 PHA

303:BD 20 03 LDA ADDRTAB.X

306:48 PHA

307:60 RTS

high byte ofaddress routinesare on

stick it on thestack

X contains thefunction numberfake a 'return'addressgo to the routine

The table ADDRTAB would contain the low byte of eachroutine minus one due to the fact that the 6502's programcounter is incremented after the address is obtained forthe RTS. This portion of code expects the function numberin the X register. First, the high byte of the routines' ad-dresses is pushed onto the stack, then the low byte is ob-tained from the table and pushed onto the stack. At thispoint, the stack contains the address of a routine to ex-ecute just as if an instruction right before that routine hadbeen a JSR (jump to subroutine: note: JSR actually standsfor "jump and save return address"). When the RTS ex-ecutes, it pulls the address off the stack, increments it,then continues program execution at that address.

THE 65C02

lust when you get used to the idea of having to use allthese tricks and have plastered your wall with 6502peculiarities (as I've done), along comes the 65C02. The65C02 is a revision of the 6502 that is built into the Applelie, is offered as an upgrade to the Apple lie, and solvesmany of the problems and voids many of the hacksdescribed above. For example, the 65C02 includes abranch-always instruction, eliminating the need for theknown-condition branching tricks. Also included are pushand pop X and Y instructions, which eliminate the needfor all the tricky register transfers or loading and storing.Another nice addition is the inclusion of increment- anddecrement-accumulator instructions, so that it is no longernecessary to resort to arithmetic just for this. A few bugswithin the 6502 have also been fixed in the 65C02.

The Future of the 6502

After all is said and done, has all this been purelyacademic? I think not. Despite its simplicity and peculiar-ities, the 6502 is still an attractive microprocessor for semi-dedicated machines (that is. game machines, low-pricedhome computers, etc.). It is a fast microprocessor with avery efficient design. And to tell you the truth, I enjoy pro-gramming the 6502 for the very quirks I've been complain-ing about. I believe there are others who feel the sameway, and this if nothing else should guarantee a long andprosperous life for the 6502. ■

302 BYTE- IUNE 1985

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Inquiry 127

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PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

SOFTWARE-ICs

by Lamar Ledbetter and Brad Cox

A plan for buildingreusable software components

THE SOFTWARE WORLD has runheadlong into the Software Crisis-ambitious software projects are hardto manage, too expensive, of medio-cre quality, and hard to schedulereliably. Moreover, all too often, soft-ware delivers a solution that doesn'tmeet the customers' needs. Afterdelivery, if not before, changing re-quirements mean that systems mustbe modified.

We must build systems in a radical-ly different way if we are going tosatisfy tomorrow's quantity and quali-ty demands. We must learn to buildsystems that can withstand change.

Some system developers are al-ready building software much fasterand of better quality than last year.Not only that, the systems are muchmore tolerant of change than everbefore, as a result of an old tech-nology called message/object pro-gramming. This technology, madecommercially viable because of thecost/performance trends in hardware,holds the key to a long-awaiteddream—software reusability. A new in-dustry is developing to support thedesign, development, distribution,and support of reusable Software-ICs(integrated circuits). A forthcoming

series in UNIX/World will address mes-sage/object programming.

Message/Object Programmingand software-ics

In this article we'll look at the con-cepts of message/object programmingand how they support the building of"Software-ICs," as we call them, bysatisfying the requirements for re-usability.

A Software-lC is a reusable softwarecomponent. It is a software packag-ing concept that combines aspects ofsubroutine libraries and UNIX filterprograms. A Software-IC is a standardbinary file produced by compiling aC program generated by Objective-C.

The notion of objects that communi-cate by messages is the foundation ofmessage/object programming andfundamental to Software-ICs. An ob-ject includes data, a collection of pro-cedures (methods) that can access thatdata directly, and a selection mecha-nism whereby a message is translatedinto a call to one of these procedures.You can request objects to do thingsby sending them a message.

Sending a message to an object isexactly like calling a function tooperate on a data structure, with one

crucial difference: Function callsspecify not what should be accom-plished but how. The function nameidentifies specific code to be ex-ecuted. Messages, by contrast, specifywhat you want an object to do andleave it up to the object to decidehow.

Requirements for Reusability

Only a few years ago, hardware de-signers built hardware much as webuild software today. They assembledcustom circuits from individual elec-trical components (transistors, re-sistors, capacitors, and so on), just aswe build functions out of low-levelcomponents of programming lan-guages (assignment statements, con-ditional statements, function calls, andso on). Massive reusability of hard-ware designs wasn't possible until apackaging technology evolved thatcould make the hardware environ-ment of a chip (the circuit board andadjoining electrical components) rela-

[continued)Lamar Ledbetter is director of special projectsand Brad Cox is vice president of Productiv-ity Products International (27 Glen Rd..Sandy Hook, CT 06482), which producesObjective-C.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 307

SOFTWARE-ICs

tively independent of the detailedworkings of that chip. The 1C quicklydeveloped to the point that multiplechip vendors now vie to sell theirhardware design effort in a market forreusable hardware designs.

One concept that stands out inhardware systems is that many of thecomponents perform unique services.Services are provided upon request,and the requester need not be con-cerned with the interna] methods ordata used, only the result. The equiv-alent software concept, encapsulation, isfundamental to success in softwarereusability. Encapsulation defines adata structure and a group of pro-cedures for accessing it. Users accessthe data structure only through a set

of carefully documented, controlled,and standardized interfaces.

The concept of messaging is alsoprevalent in the hardware world. It isthrough messaging that the loosecoupling of components is achievedand the division of responsibility be-tween the user and the supplier isdefined and enforced.

The hardware industry has alsoachieved a high degree of reusabilitythrough the development of stan-dards. There are standards for inter-connection, power, and processing,for example. In contrast, in the soft-ware world standards for the syntaxand semantics of only a few lan-guages have been defined andadhered to across a range of hard-

MAILBOX DEVELOPER'SRESPONSIBILITY

^

A.

Mail box Implementation

select ItemForReoding/* select item */

switch (item ) ^—

cose MEMO.

case EXPENSE;-

FORMS DEVELOPER'SRESPONSIBILITY

MEMO

TYPECONTENTS

EXPENSE

displayMemoSubroutine

TYPE

CONTENTS

Figure I: Mailbox using the operator/operand model. The Mailbox developermust specify how to display the form by checking the form type and calling thecorrect subroutine. As a result, every form type must be enumerated and theimplementation changed as form types are added or deleted.

ware. There have also been many un-successful attempts to define stan-dards for the implementation of soft-ware algorithms and applications(such as GOTO-less programming, noglobal data, loose coupling, tightbinding, and data hiding, amongothers). Stressing strict static "typechecking" as a standard helps solvethe problems of integration and de-bugging but does not change thebasic operator/operand concept em-bodied in most languages; it onlymoves it to a higher level of abstrac-tion. To reuse modules developedusing the operator/operand concept,you have to hope that the output ofone module is compatible with the"type" of the input of the receiver,redefine the type of the operands ineither the receiver or sender, or trans-form the operands. Because of thecomplexity, there has been little prog-ress in the definition of standards forreusability in the operator/operandmodel. In contrast, useful standardsfor reusability are in use or beingdeveloped in organizations that haveembraced the message/object para-digm.

In the hardware world, the functionsof standard components are well de-fined and identifiable. Given a knowl-edge of the functions available and ahigh level of standardization, hard-ware designers routinely integrate re-usable hardware components intonew systems. Standard functions areeasy to identify because they mapinto the real-world model of hardwaresystems. In the software world, thedefinition of standard, identifiablefunctions is still a dream, even withour "standard" utility libraries. If soft-ware reusability is to become a reali-ty, languages must support a moredirect mapping from the model of thereal-world functions to the implemen-tation.

Hardware components are deliv-ered in an unmodifiable form. Thatmeans that standard functions areprotected. If Software-ICs are tobecome a reality, the languages andstandards must support the deliveryof components that operate as adver-tised and are immune to modification

J08 B Y T h • IUNE 1<)85

Inquiry 30

SOFTWARE-ICs

by the system builder. If the systembuilder wants different functions, hemust go back to a Software-IC "foun-dry" for a new component.

Reusability can have several mean-ings in both the hardware and soft-ware worlds. A hardware designerwould never think (as we do in soft-ware) of starting the design of amodification with a blank piece ofpaper or by looking at the design ofall of the connecting components. Adesigner also doesn't worry aboutneeding to modify the interfaces orcomponents not affected by thechange. Modified components "in-herit" most of the previous implemen-tation and contain only the changesnecessary to provide the requirednew behavior. The inheritance ofalready-working methods by a newSoftware-IC has tremendous produc-tivity implications.

Why Didn t Software-ICsExist Before?

One of the main reasons Software-ICsdidn't exist before is that the cost per-formance of hardware did not supportthe requirement that computer cyclesmust be used ("wasted") to enhancesoftware reusability. The cycles weretoo expensive, and performance op-timization was necessarily a primarygoal. Strict implementations such asSmalltalk-80 consume orders ofmagnitude in performance. Less rev-olutionary implementations of themessage/object paradigm, such asObjective-C while paying some per-formance price, are viable for com-mercial systems and are in use todayin companies building major softwaresystems.

Most of us have been taught tothink within the conceptual frameworkof operators and operands. Thatframework has led many to concludethat the complexity involved in re-using a software component far ex-ceeds the possible benefits.

In order for Software-ICs to work,the manner in which systems evolvehas to be fundamentally different. Theconcept of inheritance, discussed indetail later, is that fundamental dif-ference. The concept of Software-ICs

Encapsulation

is fundamental

to success

in software reusability.

also demands a level of standardiza-tion in system implementation thathas not been feasible until recently.Finally, the market for Software-ICs isa recent reality created by the recog-nition that what 1 call the SoftwareCrisis can be solved only by fun-damental changes in the way we buildsystems. It is no longer competitivelyviable to ignore the products of pre-vious development efforts if there isany way to reuse or reapply thoseproducts.

Objects, Messages, andEncapsulation

The distinction between specifyingwhat should be done as opposed tohow it should be done is subtle andoften misunderstood. It is, however, acrucial one because, as has beendemonstrated in the hardware world,it is central to reusability.

By way of example, imagine a pro-grammer building an electronic mail-box in an electronic office system, andfocus on the mailbox developer's roleas a user of services provided by hissupplier, the developer of the formsbeing mailed. The mailbox developermust provide a way to implement theintention to display the selected item.If he does this using the conventionaloperator/operand model and specify-ing how, not what, as depicted infigure 1, the code given in listing laresults.

Notice the separation of responsi-bilities. Because the mailbox devel-oper is responsible for deciding howto implement the function that iscalled selectltemForReading, thecode must enumerate every data typethe forms developers might provide.This results in code that is inherentlynonreusable; the case labels explicitly

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I Y T E 309

SOFTWARE-lCs

Listing I: Operator/operand versus message/object implementations. Listings \aand \b are, respectively, examples of portions of code that create an electronicMailbox using conventional {operator/operand) and message/object models.Comparing the two illustrates the difference between the Mailbox developerspecifying "how" versus "what"

(la)

selectltemForReading(theMailbox) {

/" Select an item in theMailbox and . . . *//* check the item type flag */

switch(item->type)/* Now call the appropriate display subroutine */

{case MEMO: displayMemo(item): break;case EXPENSE: displayExpense(item); break;

default: error("unknown contents"); break;

(lb)

selectltemForReading(theMailbox) {

/* Select an item in theMailbox and. . */

[item display]: /* Send item a message to display itself */

Listing 2: Using Software-\Cs. This message/object program counts the uniquewords in a file using preexisting Software-\Cs from the Objective-C library: Setand String.

// Reads words from stdin and counts unique ones main() {extern id String, Set: // Specify object (instance) factory idsid uniqueWords, currentWord; // Local object (instance) idschar bufjMAXBUF]; // Word buffer

uniqueWords = [Set new]; // Create a new empty set instance

while (nextWord(buf) ! = EOF) { // forEachWord . . .currentWord = [String stnbuf]; // Create a string instance for each word[uniqueWords filtencurrentWord];// Store unique ones in set

}

pnntf("The number of unique words is °/od \ n", [uniqueWords size]);

}

state that this mailbox is uselessexcept for memo and expensecontents.

Now notice what happens in the re-written code (listing lb) using mes-sages and objects as depicted infigure 2. The message expression,item display, commands the object,item, to display itself, thus specifyingonly what the object is to do. How theobject is to do it is decided by theforms developers so the mailboxcode becomes independent of itscontents.

The technical term for this is dynamicbinding. Dynamic binding and encap-sulation are at the root of the re-usability provided by this variety ofmessage/object programming.

Some modern programming lan-guages (Ada, Modula-2, and CLU, forexample) provide a different form ofencapsulation by binding statically atcompile time. While this certainly isan improvement over traditional lan-guages like C and Pascal, it providesno new help in solving the reusabili-ty problem. The mailbox examplecoded in any of these languageswould still need the switch statement.

The notion of a Software-lC, inwhich reusable code is built andtested by a supplier and thendelivered to consumers in binaryform, is not possible without dynamicbinding.

Using Software-ICs

We will demonstrate the use of Soft-ware-ICs by building a simple pro-gram that counts the unique words ina file. For the sake of comparison, wewill discuss two different solutionsbased on reuse of existing softwareand then turn our attention to theSoftware-lC solution.

The subroutine-library solutionwould reuse library functions formanaging files, printing results, andcomparing strings. Custom softwarewould be required for the wordparser, hash function, hash table/col-lision handling, counting words in thehash table, and printing the formattedresults. Much of the significant newdevelopment and debugging effortconcerns algorithms that have been

310 BYTE' IUNE 1985

SOFTWARE-ICs

implemented in many previous appli-cations. Once working, however, theimplementation should be fairlyefficient.

A UNIX-style solution would consistof small "tools" connected by pipes.The off-the-shelf utilities that could bereused include tr (translate charac-ters), sort (sorting utility), and wc(word-count utility). The programmerwould have to custom-build a scriptfor assembling the utilities. This par-ticular problem requires a good work-ing knowledge of applicable UNIXutilities but no custom software. Theimplementation would be noticeablyslower than both the subroutinelibrary and Software-IC solutions.

The Software-IC solution involvesassembling two prefabricatedSoftware-ICs from a library of com-

ponents. A String is used to holdwords, and a Set can be used to holdthe unique words. Both are standardcomponents in the library releasedwith Objective-C. The performance ofthe Software-IC solution would not beas good as the first solution, but itwould certainly be acceptable andcould be optimized by tuning. The fulltext for this solution, except for thesmall function nextWord(), whichparses words from the input stream,is presented in listing 2.

The two external symbols Set andString identify a pair of factory objectswhose function is to produce in-stances of their classes (Software-ICs).Each class defines behaviors anddeclares data for (a) its factory objectand (b) its instances. The two localsymbols uniqueWords and current-

ly notion of aSoftware-IC is notpossible withoutdynamic binding.

Word identify instances, which will bemanufactured by Set and String at runtime.

In this example, String responds toa str: message by allocating enoughspace to hold the characters in themessage argument buf. The nextstatement commands the set unique-Words to perform the filter: functionon currentWord.

[continued]

MAILBOX DEVELOPER'SRESPONSIBILITY

T

theMailbox

\

MEMO

EXPENSE

Mailbox Implementation

select I temForReoding/* select item */[item display]

FORMS DEVELOPER'SRESPONSIBILITY

MEMO

CONTENTS

MESSAGES

EXPENSE

CONTENTS

DISPLAY

INSTANCES OF A CLASS(OBJECTS)(OBJECT'S DATA)(INSTANCE METHODS)

CONTAINER

ADD

DELETE

(SUPERCLASS)

INHERITS FROM

i i

(METACLASS)

(METHODS)( BEHAVIORS)( PROCEDURES)

(CLASS)(FACTORY)

( ) EQUIVALENTS

Figure 2: Mailbox using the message/object model. The Mailboxdeveloper specifies what the form should do by sending it a

message to display itself. As a result, form types can be addedor deleted without changing the Mailbox implementation.

JUNE 1985 -BYTE 311

(3a)

CONTAINER

ARRAY

A

B

C

1

TO ARRAY'S

SUPERCLASS

(OBJECT)

"1

FILEFOLDER

MAILBOX

A

1

0

t

F

GH

CODE FOR H

(3b|

NAME OF CLASS ■

INHERITED METHODINAME. POINTER. ANDCODE ACTUALLY INSUPERCLASS)

POINTER TOSUPERCLASS

MODIFIED INHERITED METHOD(REPLACES METHOD OFSAME NAME IN SUPER- ^*CLASS)

INSTANCE METHOD •

YZ

POINTER TO CODE

Figure 3: \nheritance. New specialized classes can be, andalmost always are. defined by inheriting the data and behaviorsof older generic classes, then specifying only how the new onesdiffer. Figure 3a shows how the classes Container, FileFolder, andMailbox are created; 3b explains the notation used. Note that.

for example, the definition of Container includes only definitionsfor methods B and D. It inherits definitions for methods A andC from Array: these definitions do not need to be explicitlyspecified by the programmer, nor do they take any room in thedefinition of Container.

312 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 429

SOFTWARE-ICs

How are reusable sets possible,since they must work properly withmany different kinds of contents? Forexample, the same Set code mayneed to compare strings, points, sym-bols, and so on, often within the sameapplication. The answer is thatdynamic binding allows the Set tolegitimately consider equality testing,for example, none of its business. In-stead, it pushes that decision backonto its contents. When it needs totest the equality of two items, it mere-ly commands one of them to reportwhether it isEqual: to the other.

Classes, Methods, andInheritance

So far we have focused primarily onencapsulation. This technologyshould be thought of as an aid tousing the services in a system. It alsoprovides some advantages for thesuppliers (builders) of message/objectsystems as well. Consider the job fac-ing the builders of three familiar com-ponents of an office-automation sys-tem: Mailbox. Envelope, and File-Folder.

At one level a Mailbox is very dif-ferent from a FileFolder, but they aresimilar in that they are kinds of con-tainers. Each will have some amountof code involved in managing collec-tions of other objects.

Inheritance allows containmentcode to be built, stockpiled, andthereafter reused as often as needed.This is done by building a class

The manner in whichsystems evolve hasto be fundamentallydifferent.

named Container, whose methodssupport the operations we expect ofcontainers: adding elements, remov-ing them, expanding and shrinkingtheir internal capacity as needed.Thereafter, specialized containerclasses like Mailbox, Envelope, andFileFolder are built by describing onlyhow each subclass differs. They maydiffer by having additional privatedata fields or by having additional (ormodified) behaviors. Figure 3 depictsa typical inheritance hierarchy.

To design a new capability, the pro-grammer's thoughts turn immediatelyto "What do I already have that ismost like the thing 1 need?" (see figure4). For example, to develop an Enve-lope the programmer focuses ondescribing how Envelopes should dif-fer from Containers. Envelopes differfrom Containers by, for example, hav-ing additional data variables such asreturnAddress, targetAddress, andstamp. Envelopes also differ by ex-hibiting additional behaviors (ormethods), for example, mailTo:, open,and discard. Note that no methods

[continued]

COLLECTION

DICTIONARY BAG

EXPENSE ENVELOPE CONTAINER

MAILBOX FILEFOLDER

Figure 4: Opportunities to reuse work emerge. As the design proceeds,similarities to previously developed Software-\Cs become apparent, and a largedegree of reuse results.

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IYTE 3I3

SOFTWARE-ICs

Objective-C

Objective-C, a PPI product (Pro-ductivity Products InternationalInc.. 27 Glen Rd„ Sandy Hook, CT06482), is a hybrid language that com-bines the reusability, modeling power,and complexity-reducing attributes ofSmalltalk-80 with the portability, effi-ciency, compatibility, and access tomachine details of the C language. Asshown in figure A, the Objective-Ccompiler transforms the Objective-Clanguage into standard C statements.The message/object code examplesuse the Objective-C syntax.

While Smalltalk-80 attempts to revo-lutionize programming, Objective-Cseeks to change it through evolution.Objective-C provides a thin layer ofnew structure over its C substrate byadding classes, objects, messages,encapsulation, and inheritance. NoC-language capabilities are eliminated,

and none are changed. The pro-grammer can choose conventionalC-language tools when efficiency andportability are paramount and mes-sage/object power tools when encap-sulation, inheritance, and dynamicbinding are needed to enhance re-usability and reduce code bulk andcomplexity.

The hybrid approach of Objective-Cdoes breach the purity of the mes-sage/object paradigm. This means thatthe design and implementation rulesare not as clearly defined but mustevolve through experience. The hybridapproach will also require more man-agement diligence if the amount ofreusable code is to be optimized. Thecriteria for choosing messages/objectsor writing functions in C should beclearly defined and enforced. This willrequire standards and control.

/* Objective-C Program Source */

: Mai I box : Ordered Co II ection {short userld;,+ create { self = [super new]. userld = getuid ( )■. return self,}-addEnvelope { [anEnvelope sender: userld ] .return [super add anEnvelope];}

HANDLES ANY "#DEFINE"AND "#INCLUDE" DIRECTIVES

C PREPROCESSOR

MODIFIED OBJECTIVE-C SOURCE

TRANSLATES MESSAGE

EXPRESSIONS AND CLASS

HIERARCHY INTO C FUNCTION

CALLS AND DATA STRUCTURES

OBJECTIVE-C COMPILER

STANDARD C SOURCE

PARSING ANDCODE GENERATION

STANDARD C COMPILER

Figure A: Objective-C—a superset of the C language. Objective-C is actually ahybrid language whose message/object syntax is changed to standard C syntax bythe Objective-C compiler.

Message/object

programming allows a

more direct

representation of thereal-world model inthe code.

need be defined for adding and re-moving contents from envelopesbecause they, and the data variablesthat support them, are acquired auto-matically, or inherited, from Container.FileFolders and Mailboxes will havetheir own distinctive implementations.However, only their differences froma Container need to be designed,coded, tested, documented, deliv-ered, and maintained. Their contain-ment abilities were developed onceand thereafter reused. Containment isdefined consistently, systemwide. Youadd a letter to a Mailbox in preciselythe same manner as you add a letterto a FileFolder.

System Building withSoftware-ICs

System requirements normally modeldata, data flow, and actions on data.In traditional system building, the sys-tem requirements must then bemapped into the operator/operandmodel in order to optimize the imple-mentation on a computer. Message/object programming allows a moredirect representation of the real-worldmodel in the code. The result is thatthe normal radical transformationfrom system requirements (defined inusers' terms) to system specifications(defined in computer terms) is great-ly reduced.

Software-ICs directly support theconcept of rapid prototyping (or, inhardware terms, breadboarding). Theability to demonstrate a subset of asystem's final functionality (particular-ly the human interface) in a rapid pro-

icontinued]

314 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 190

SOFTWARE-ICs

Table I: Software-lC specification sheets. This is a condensed version of thespecification sheet for the Point Software-\C. The complete version contains 21methods {versus the 9 shown).

PointInstance variables: { short xLoc, yLoc; }

Inherits: Object

Inherited by:

Referenced by: Point Rectangle

Refers to: Geometry Point Primitive Object Object csav msg fprintf Imul sqrt

Discussion

Points are vectors (i.e., coordinates) on a two-dimensional plane. When displayed ona graphics terminal, the origin is at the top left; the horizontal axis increases to theright . . .

Instance VariablesxLoc A short integer specifying the value for the horizontal axis (e.g., column).xLoc A short integer specifying the value for the vertical axis (e.g., row).

Instance Creation+x:(int)xy=(int)y

Replies a new point at coordinates (x@y).+fromUserPrompts the user to specify the coordinates for a new point. The defaultimplementation is . . .

Instance Variable Access

Unless otherwise specified, these methods reply to the receiver.-(int)x Replies the x-coordinate of the receiver.—(int)y Replies the y-coordinate of the receiver.-X:(int)xy:(int)y

Sets the coordinates of the receiver to (x@y).

Conditionals

In the following, words like "isAbove" or "isLeft" are with respect to a screen-orientedpoint of reference, not the numerical magnitudes of the coordinates. For example,the point (0, 0) is above and to the left of all other positive coordinates.-(BOOL)isBelow:aPoint

Replies YES of receiver is below aPoint.

Equality Testing-(int)hash

Replies xLoc" yLoc.-(BOOL)isEqual:aPoint

The receiver and someObject are equal if and only if they are both points andhave equal coordinates.

Printing-printOn:(IOD)anlOD

Prints the receiver as: fprintf(anlOD,")%d@%d)", xLoc, yLoc);

{continued)

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,YTE 315

Inquiry 274

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SOFTWARE-ICs

Declarations:Point.m

= = Point:Object (Geometry, Pnmitive){short xLoc, yLoc;

}

+ x:(int)xy:(int)y-t-fromUser

-(int)x

120000

100000

u 80000

QO(_>

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_j

20000

0

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rp^ fF^

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

Figure 5: Productivity experiences. Actual decreases in lines of code experiencedby PPI customers using Objective-C in three different application areas.

totype helps ensure that the systembuilt is the system needed.

No matter how well the deliveredsystem satisfies the requirements,people usually have an immediatedesire to change/evolve the system.Fortunately, as we have seen, it ispossible to build changeable systems.

System builders using Objective-Cemploy a combination of aids toenhance the reusability of their Soft-ware-ICs. The standard libraries, forexample, are documented using acatalog composed of Software-ICspecification sheets. Table 1 sum-marizes the specification sheet for aSoftware-IC called Point.

Conclusions

The tools exist today in the softwareworld to build Software-ICs. They arein use in a number of major com-

panies and have demonstrated (seefigure 5) code bulk reductions of be-tween 2.5-1 and 5-1.

As the use of Software-ICs spreads,productivity in the software worldshould improve much as hardware ICsimproved productivity in the hard-ware world. The use of Software-ICsalso will promote the evolution of op-timized system-building methodolo-gies and tools. lust as semiconductorfoundries produce both standard andcustom ICs, Software-IC foundries willdo exactly the same in the softwareindustry. ■

REFERENCES

1, Love. T. "Application Development inSmalltalk-80." Arlington. VA: Proceedings ofSoftfair-83.

2. Objective-C teference Manual, Version 3.0,Sandy Hook, CT: Productivity Products In-ternational, December 1984.

316 BYTE

IUNE 1985

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IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc.

BYTE

Reviews

Reviewers Notebook

by Glenn Hartwig 323

The Mindset Personal Computer

by lorn Wadlow 324

Idea Processors

by William Hershey 337

Convenience Software

by Mark J. Welch 353

Building Expert Systems with M.l

by Bruce D'Ambrosio 371

HEWLETT-PACKARD'S

HP 7475A Plotter

by Rich Malloy 379

The IBM Quietwriter Printer

by \on R. Edwards 385

The Word Plus

by George Sheldon 393

Review Feedback 401

SOME ARTISTS SPEND A LIFETIME trying to get their work displayed in amajor gallery. The designers of the Mindset Personal Computer hit the bigtime with their first effort: This aesthetically appealing machine is part of thedesign collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Although theMindset is not as popular as Apple or IBM machines, its graphics capabilities,inspired by CAD/CAM minicomputers, deserve attention. We first looked atthis IBM PC work-alike in a product preview last year. Tom Wadlow now givesus an updated report.

Idea processors, tools for organizing text and thoughts, are growing inpopularity. William Hershey examines an outline arranger (ThinkTank), twoindex-card systems (Executive Writer/Executive Filer and THOR), and a packagethat can handle outlines and index cards (Framework). As Mr. Hershey pointsout, these tools are applied in as many ways as there are users.

Another type of package that seems to be appearing frequently is thememory-resident software that lets you interrupt your program in progressto write notes, calculate, or execute DOS functions. Mark Welch compares someof this "convenience software": Borland's SideKick, Software Arts' Spotlight,and Bellsoft Inc.'s Pop-Ups.

Bruce D'Ambrosio poses the question: Would anyone of sound mind pay$12,500 for a software program? Before you assume the answer is no, readhis review of M.l, a knowledge-engineering tool for the IBM PC from Teknowl-edge, a start-up company specializing in artificial intelligence.

Our two hardware reviews this month cover output devices. Our man in NewYork, Rich Malloy, plotted some graphs with Hewlett-Packard's HP 7475A anddescribes this six-pen graphics machine. Jon Edwards, one of our technicaleditors, reports on IBM's Quietwriter. Readers who think most letter-qualityprinters sound like chain saws might be glad to hear this unidirectional unitis neither loud nor slow. It's also not inexpensive.

Nothing can replace a good spelling teacher or proofreader, but accordingto George Sheldon, The Word Plus from Oasis Systems is the next best thing.This spelling-checker program includes a 45,000-word dictionary and runs onmost CP/M and MS-DOS computers.

—Glenn Hartwig, Dennis Barker, and Lynne Nadeau. BYTE

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 321

Resource Technology — What's it all about?

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REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK

TeleSoft (10639 Roselle St., SanDiego. CA 92121) recentlydropped the price of its Ada subsetcompiler for the IBM Personal Com-puter (PC) from $3030 to $1200.prompting us to take a look at it. Thefact that TeleSoft's Ada compiler forthe 68000 has been validated madeit seem possible that the company'sIBM PC compiler would outperformother efforts. When it arrived, the in-clusion of an 850-page manual alsoseemed promising.

The manual, however, carried on thetheme of the 68000 to such an extentthat much of the information it con-tained was specific to that processor.Inaccuracies and a cryptic style fur-ther inhibited understanding.

TeleSoft's Ada needs either an IBMPC XT with 3 2 OK bytes of memory oran IBM PC with dual floppy-disk drivesand at least 576K bytes of memory,much of which it uses as a RAM(random-access read/write memory)disk for its many system files. A callto TeleSoft was required to create thetwo working disks needed to run thecompiler (from the 10 floppy disksprovided); the manual's instructionswere mislabeled. Another call wasneeded to decode and correct themanual to learn to format and ini-tialize a disk using ROS (real-timeoperating system). TeleSoft's pro-prietary operating system. You have touse TeleSoft's screen editor to enterprograms since ROS can't read textfiles and disks created with PC-DOSeditors.

Once the system was ready, twomore calls to TeleSoft were needed tocompile a program; the system reallyexpects a hard disk and requiresspecial, undocumented efforts to runon a floppy-disk system. To its credit,TeleSoft provided extensive phonesupport.

Summarizing: The product costs

$ 1200, has cryptic and sometimes in-appropriate references in its docu-mentation, requires numerous long-distance telephone calls, makes youlearn a proprietary operating systemand a new screen editor, and gen-erates intermediate code that you caninterpret only from within the pro-prietary operating system.

A copy of SongPainter version 1.00for the Apple Macintosh camefrom Rubicon Publishing (La CostaCentre, 6300 La Calma Dr., Austin, TX78752) with copyrights crediting Star-cor J.V., also of Austin; the Regents ofthe University of California; and Ap-ple Computer Inc. Given that its ask-ing price is $59.95, it has generateda lot of curiosity in most of thosewho've heard it.

SongPainter's promotional materialsays it's for experienced musicians orusers with "virtually no knowledge ofmusic.'' Basically, it lets you write asong by picking a note from a "tonewindow" and transferring it to one offour tracks in a "song window." Notesare labeled, and each is distinguishedby its own visual pattern (dots, cross-hatching, stripes, in several varietieseach). You can paint single notes orchords. You get a choice of 32 horns,woodwinds, strings, percussion instru-ments, keyboards, and synthesizer-type waveforms.

The documentation that came to uswas a draft version, and the softwareitself was labeled "Not For Release"(although it is considered to be a full-fledged version 1.00). I certainly hopethat the real documentation has anindex.

When and if the manufacturerreleases a production version ofSongPainter, I hope it fixes a fairly ob-vious bug. Although you can copySongPainter (at least version 1.00)onto a backup disk, trying to use the

help function on the backup crashesthe system.

I saw the Ericsson gas-plasma-screenlaptop portable for the first time atthe West Coast Computer Faire. Iadmit I was intrigued. Actually, it's alaptop transportable since it doesn'thave batteries for truly independentoperation. Still, it claims full IBM PCcompatibility, weighs about 14pounds, has 2 56K bytes RAM, uses5'/S-inch disks, has an 80-column by2 5-line screen, and has a full-size,detachable keyboard. The wholepackage looks very nice except thatit has only one disk drive. I'm lookingforward to getting one for evaluation.Another nice item that was demon-strated but wasn't ready for sale wasa 2-megabyte Macintosh from LevcoEnterprises in San Diego. At the time.Levco said it had all the bugs out andwas just waiting for a reliable sourceof supply before setting a price andtaking orders. However, the vendorwas selling a Fat Mac upgrade kit for$23 5. It wasn't surprising that theLevco booth looked pretty busy formost of the show.

We've gotten a number of re-quests for the operating-systempatch that gives the NEC APC III par-tial compatibility with the IBM PC. Itworks with some packages but notwith others (for example, it works withPerfect Writer. Filer, and Speller ver-sion 1.0 but not with version 2.0).We've put the program listing for thatpatch on BYTEnet Listings, our elec-tronic bulletin-board system. If youcall (617) 861-9774. you can downloadthe patch and try it out on as manypackages as you like. An article detail-ing how the patch works is scheduledfor an upcoming issue.

—Glenn Hartwig, Technical Editor, Reviews

*— Inquiry 123

IUNE 1985

1YTE 323

A high-

performancegraphics

machine that

runs IBM PC

software

by Tom Wad low

SYSTEM REVIEW

The MindsetPersonal Computer

Tom Wadlow is an engineer and

freelance writer living in the San

Francisco Bat) area. He can be

reached at POB 275 5. Livermore.

CA 94550.

IBM Personal Computer work-alikes.often called "clones" by the industry,are designed to duplicate as many ofthe IBM PC's features as possible. Thereason they can compete in the market-place lies in their differences, however.Clones usually have a lower price, a fasterprocessor, or a better keyboard than theIBM PC.

The Mindset Corporation has chosen toenhance a different feature. The MindsetPersonal Computer system (see photo 1) dif-fers from the IBM PC primarily in the quali-ty and speed of its graphics display. TheMindset machine has the ability to do somegraphics operations in hardware rather thansoftware. This makes some sophisticatedand otherwise time-consuming graphicsprocedures run briskly on the Mindset PC.|Editor's note: Many IBM PC-compatible manufac-turers, Mindset included, have recently had somefinancial trouble. However, the Mindset's extensivegraphics capabilities deserve close examination.]

The System

As outlined in a BYTE Product Preview (see"The Mindset Personal Computer" by GreggWilliams. April 1984 BYTE, page 270), theMindset comes in five basic pieces: the sys-tem unit, the expansion unit (disk drives),the keyboard, a mouse, and the display. Ofthese, the expansion unit and the mouseare optional. A full system with two diskdrives and a monochrome display has a listprice of about $2900.

The system unit is the heart of the Mind-set and contains the processor. 32 K bytesof RAM (random-access read/write mem-ory), two cartridge sockets, I/O (input/out-put) module sockets, and system indicatorlights. The system unit also includes another32K bytes of RAM specifically dedicated tothe video display.

The Mindset uses the Intel 80186 micro-processor (with a 6-MHz clock speed),rather than the 8088 used by the IBM PCor the 8086 used by some of the otherclone systems. Since the 80186 is upward-

compatible with the 8088 (meaning that ithas all the same instructions as the 8088and a few more as well), quite a lot of IBMPC software runs on the Mindset.

The cartridge sockets were designed tohold preprogrammed memory cartridgesbut none are available from Mindset. How-ever, a programmable 8K-byte cartridge thatMindset calls an NVRAM (nonvolatilerandom-access memory) is available. Youcan store information in the cartridge, andit will retain this information when you turnoff the power or remove the cartridge fromthe machine. This cartridge consists of low-power memory with its own battery.

Mindset originally intended that it wouldbe possible to use the cartridge system inthe same way as you would a floppy-disk-based system. The Mindset's operationsguide gives the example of a cartridge con-taining BASIC in one socket, with anNVRAM cartridge in the other. Unfortunate-ly, the BASIC cartridge is not available.

The rear of the system unit contains theconnectors for an external video monitorand audio speaker. In addition, the Mind-set has space for several I/O modules at theback of the unit.

Mindset has covered all three display op-tions. The system unit has connectors forcomposite (NTSC) video, for RF (radio fre-quency) video on a regular television set.or for an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor. Thecomposite-video output is suitable for tap-ing on a videocassette recorder. The RF out-put can be seen on television channels 3or 4. And the RGB output is compatiblewith the IBM PC-type RGB monitor.

The Sync signal for the RGB is split intoseparate horizontal and vertical drives. It isnot difficult to convert these signals to com-posite sync, which is required by many non-IBM RGB monitors. A single NOR gate isall that is required I used a 74LS02 to in-terface my Sanyo DMC6I13 RGB monitor tothe Mindset. This is not necessary if youhave an IBM PC-compatible monitor.

You can add various interfaces to the

324 BYTE

IUNE 1085

Mindset by plugging special I/O modulesinto three slots on the system unit's rearpanel. Two of the slots can accommodateone double-width I/O module or two single-width modules. Mindset sells modules foran RS-232C interface, printer interface, andstereo sound. Each costs $99. A 300-bps(bits per second) modem module takes uptwo slots and costs $199. The Mindset hasno internal IBM-type slots for expansionboards. Most of the capabilities that thoseboards provide are handled by the I/Omodules.

The Mindset has three indicator lights onthe front of the system unit: a red light in-dicating that power is on, and yellow andgreen lights that can be accessed by soft-ware. Not many of the Mindset programsuse these lights. The lights on my reviewunit were visible only when the roomlighting was off.

Since Mindset does not offer any car-tridges, most users will need the expansionunit. Adding the expansion unit will bringthe total amount of RAM to either 128Kbytes or 2 56K bytes. Also, the expansionunit contains one or two 360K-byte floppy-disk drives. On the back of the expansionunit are three more slots for I/O modules.

The expansion unit sits on top of thesystem unit. The two are coupled togetherby a special connector that extends downfrom the expansion unit into a receptacleon the system unit. Other than the frictionfit from this connector, there is no mechan-ical connection between the two boxes, asyou will find out if you are careless in pick-ing up a Mindset.

The Mindset keyboard (see photo 2) plugsdirectly into the front of the system unit,unlike the IBM PC keyboard, which plugsinto the rear. The jacks on either end of theconnecting cord resemble those modularplugs used for telephone connections.

On the left and right sides of the keyboardare connectors for a mouse or some othertype of pointing device. A joystick is avail-able, and some software can use a bit pad.

Only the mouse was available for review.Having two connectors for the mousemeans that both left- and right-handed peo-ple will find the Mindset comfortable to use.The only people who will be inconven-ienced are those who like to put the key-board on their lap. Note that you cannotunplug the mouse and move it to the otherport once a program (such as Lumena) hasinitialized it.

As is the case with any mouse, the Mind-set mouse is useless unless a programknows how to access it. This means that themouse may not be usable in many pro-grams, such as spreadsheets or editors.Some mice for the IBM PC come with soft-ware patches that let you modify these pro-grams so they can be used with a mouse.There is no reason why a similar approachcould not be devised for the Mindsetmouse, but Mindset does not provide sucha patch.

The Mindset keyboard is slightly smallerthan that of the IBM PC and somewhatlighter. The keys all have a solid feel to them

[continued)

Photo 1: The Mindset Personal Computer with optional expansion unit, twodisk drives, and mouse.

IUNE 1985

IYTE 325

REVIEW: MINDSET

with good tactile feedback. Thoughthe Mindset is primarily a graphicsmachine, the keyboard is adequate forword processing or other applicationsthat demand a lot of continuoustyping.

A lot of thought went into the layoutof this keyboard. Mindset did notmake the mistake of duplicating theIBM PC's key layout that caused suchan uproar among touch-typists. Thekeyboard has the same functionalityas that of the IBM. retaining all the im-portant keys. There is no numeric key-pad, however, which may disturbsome. In its place, Mindset has put aninverted-T cursor-control set and theIBM's special-purpose keys such asIns. Del, PgUp, and PgDn. The 10 func-tion keys are arranged across the topof the keyboard. Since there is nonumeric keypad, the special NumLock. plus, and minus keys on the IBMkeyboard have not been duplicatedon the Mindset. The scroll-lock andbreak functions, which share a singlekey on the IBM, are separate keys onthe Mindset.

The Mindset power switch, by theway. is in an unusal place—the backof the keyboard. Certain parts of theMindset are powered up as long asthe unit is plugged into the wall. Theseinclude the on-board clock/calendarand the memory that holds the sys-tem-configuration information.

When you boot the system after ithas been unplugged, a built-in con-figuration program is run. This pro-gram lets you reset the clock, specifythe order in which the system checksthe boot devices, inform the systemof the particular display device youare using, and slightly modify the hori-zontal and vertical position of thescreen display to compensate for yourmonitor. The program also displaysthe available amount of RAM and letsyou turn the audible beeper on or off.

The configuration program is orga-nized as a visible menu with current-ly selected options highlighted incolor. Pressing the space bar cyclesthe current menu item through itspossible settings. Pressing Returnmoves you to the next menu item. Tofinalize the configuration, you justreboot.

Although the Mindset has three dif-ferent jacks for monitors, it has no wayof determining which jack is in use.Some programs, such as Lumena,need to know whether compositevideo or RGB is in use, since certaincolor combinations do not work wellon a composite monitor. Other videofeatures, such as the limited anti-aliasing (blurring the jagged edges ofa diagonal line so that it appearssmoother) available on the Mindset,will not work on an RGB monitor. Theconfiguration program lets you

I

LL-t-L-L-1 l l l M ■ l t^ |ay

O TW TE

\\\.ri:1111 r rr~r

tmt

Photo 2: The Mindset keyboard includes two connectors for a mouse or joystick. Notethe inverted^ cursor-key arrangement. The Sys Config key calls up the Configurationprogram stored in ROM.

specify which monitor will be used.

I was using an RGB monitor but Inoticed a little interference betweenthe RF output and my television. Avisible but fuzzy copy of the systemscreen was ghosted on top of the pro-gram on channel 3, about 20 feetfrom the computer. An RCA plug withthe center pin clipped out and theground shield soldered across theback cleared up this problem.

When you select the TV option(composite video or RF-modulatedvideo), the Mindset will start up in40-character by 16-line mode. Themonitor (RGB) option starts up in80-character by 2 5-line mode.

It was a pleasant surprise to findthat Mindset has designed a newtypeface rather than adopting theugly one used by IBM on its color dis-play. The Mindset font is similar, butmany of the irregularities, such as theshape of the lowercase letters, aresmoothed out The new font is pleas-ant to look at.

The Mindset can boot from eitherof the cartridge slots or drive A. If thefirst device on the priority list doesnot contain bootable code, it tries thenext device, then the third. You canset the priority of each device in theconfiguration program. If none of thedevices will boot, a picture of theMindset logo appears and begins torotate. This looks impressive andbeats an error message.

Software

The Mindset does not come with anysoftware. The operating system, MS-DOS 2.0, is a $60 option. The Mind-set version of MS-DOS is speciallywritten for it. In fact, the machine willnot boot an off-the-shelf copy of PC-DOS. Newer versions of MS-DOSmust be obtained directly from Mind-set or its distributors. The DOSmanual claims that this customizationis necessary to let the operating sys-tem take advantage of the Mindset's80186 processor. Although the DOSis a custom product, it can read andwrite disks from PC-DOS or other MS-DOS systems, and it uses much of thesame applications software.

[continued)

326 BYTE • IUNE 1985

AT A GLANCE

Name

Mindset Personal Computer

Manufacturer

Mindset Corporation617 North MarySunnyvale, CA 94086(408) 737-8555

Size

(with expansion unit) 16 by12.2 by 5.5 inches

Components

Display: Connects to RGB,composite, or TV monitorsText: 80 by 25 or 40 by 16Graphics: 640 by 400 pixelsby 2 colors, 320 by 400 by 4,640 by 200 by 4, 320 by 200by 16, plus IBM PC graphicsmodes

Keyboard: Detached, 84 keysProcessor: 16-/16-bit 80186,6-MHz clock speedMemory: (with expansion unit)128K or 256K bytesStorage: (with expansion unit)One or two 360K-byte,51/i-inch floppy-disk drives,MS-DOS formatInterfaces: Joystick or mouse,cartridge slotsOptions: 8K RAM cartridge($79), parallel port ($99), serialport ($99), 300-bps modem($199), mouse ($149), joystick($39), Genlock circuitry ($500)

Optional Software

MS-DOS ($60), GW-BASIC($79), Lumena ($399)

Price

With 256K, two drives,

monochrome display, paralleland serial ports, MS-DOS,and GW-BASIC, $2885

Comments

Well-built solid machine withgood keyboard; much bettergraphics performance thanIBM PC; recommended forartists, graphics enthusiasts

J

- I—.•vUUlli / i i i i I i i i i i i ill ill

MEMORY SIZE (K BYTES)

O 200 400 600

DISK STORAGE (K BYTES)0 400 800 1200

II

1

1

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES0 2 4 6

NONE

MINDSET PC

APPLE H E

The Memory Size graph shows the standardand optional memory available for the com-puters under comparison. The Disk Storagegraph shows the highest capacity for a singlefloppy-disk drive and the maximum standardcapacity for each system. The Bundled Soft-ware Packages graph shows the number of

software packages included with each system.The Price graph shows the list price of a systemwith two disk drives, a monochrome monitor,a printer port and a serial port, 256K bytes ofmemory (64K bytes for 8-bit systems), and thestandard operating systems and BASIC inter-preter for the computers under comparison.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE J27

The rear panel of the Mindset system unit and expansion unit.Note the three slots on each for I/O modules.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)250

150

5C

58 56

The inside of the Mindset Personal Computer.

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC)250

200

150

WRITESYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC

READ

IEVE

CALCULATIONS

SPREADSHEET (SEC)

MINDSET PC

The graph for Disk Access in BASIC shows how long it takes to writeand to read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank formatted flop-py disk. (For the program listings, see "The Chameleon Plus" byRich Krajewski, June 1984 BYTE, page 327, and October 1984, page33.) The Sieve column in the BASIC Performance graph shows howlong it takes to run one iteration of the Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. The Calculations column shows how long ittakes to do 10,000 multiplication and 10,000 division operations usingsingle-precision numbers. The System Utilities graph shows how long

it takes to format and to copy a standard text file to disk (adjustedtime for 40K bytes of disk data) and to copy a 40K-byte file usingthe system utility programs. The Spreadsheet graph shows how longit takes to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cell spreadsheet whereeach cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left. Microsoft Multiplanwas the spreadsheet used. The tests for the Mindset used MindsetDOS 2.0 and GW-BASIC. Tests for the Apple lie used ProDOS (ex-cept for the spreadsheet test, which was done with DOS 3.3). TheIBM PC was tested running under PC-DOS 2.0.

328 BYTE • IUNE I985

REVIEW: MINDSET

Although the primary purpose iscolor graphics, Mindset claims that itsmachine can run a large number ofIBM PC software packages. 1 have suc-cessfully run Multiplan, The FinalWord, dBASE II, PC/FORTH, Kermit,Turbo Pascal, and Starcross. However,I did not exhaustively test all thesepackages (especially the Starcrossgame, which I haven't solved yet). Oneunfortunate failure was the MicrosoftFlight Simulator, which I particularlywanted to see on this machine.

LUMENA

Two software packages that drive theMindset graphics particularly well areLumena and the special Mindset ver-sion of GW-BASIC. Lumena is a paintprogram, similar in principle but notin appearance to MacPaint. GW-BASICis the familiar Microsoft BASIC clonepackage with special additions to useMindset's display capabilities.

Lumena apparently runs on a widevariety of graphics machines, of whichthe Mindset is on the lower end. It waswritten by Time Arts Inc. of SantaRosa, California, and it is a real toolfor artists and illustrators. Time Artssells a range of products basedaround Lumena, including specialworkstations, animation tools, anddigitizers. On the appropriate hard-ware, you can create some truly spec-tacular artwork with this package.

A typical Lumena system uses agraphics screen with 512- by 512-pixelresolution and a choice of 2 56 simul-taneous colors. The workspace avail-able on the Mindset is limited to 320by 200 pixels and only 16 simul-taneous colors. While it is not possi-ble to duplicate the efforts of the pro-fessional system on the Mindset,some interesting and useful work canbe done with the Mindset/Lumenacombination (see photos 3 and 4).

Lumena (from now on, I refer to theMindset version) uses the graphicsscreen as a frame buffer to store animage the artist can work on. Most ofthe time the artist sees just his or herdesign with the Lumena cursor, asmall white cross, superimposed. Bybringing the cursor to the bottom ofthe screen, you get the Lumena com-

mand menu on the bottom third ofthe screen over part of the image.Moving the cursor out of the com-mand menu causes the menu to

vanish, and the portion of the imagethat was covered reappears.Lumena has a tree-structured menu

{continued)

Photo 3: An example of graphics produced by the Mindset using Lumena softwareand an IBM PC-compatible RGB monitor. The photo shows the Lumena control panel.This display is overlaid on your drawing when the cursor is moved through the bottomof the screen. Moving the cursor out of the control panel restores the screen to itsoriginal condition.

Photo 4: Another example of Lumena on the Mindset. This picture is courtesy ofRebecca Wilson.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 329

REVIEW: MINDSET

interface. This means that some menuselections will bring up a submenu.You select an item by touching the ap-propriate menu entry with the cursorand clicking the left button on theMindset mouse. The left button isconsistently used to select or draw.The right button always repositionsthe cursor to the center of the screen.Clicking a command such as Air-brush causes the cursor to act assuch. Some commands, such asShape, have many possible subcom-mands, such as Circle or Ellipse.Selecting these commands places youin a submenu. Selecting the Menu op-tion (always the top left choice in eachsubmenu) returns you to the next

higher menu on the tree. Selecting the"<" option takes you to the mostrecently used submenu, so you neednot go up to the main menu and backdown the other side of the tree.

The basic drawing implements ofLumena are brushes and pens. Thedifferences between these two areslight. You can draw freehand withround circles, squares, and airbrushes(like spray paint). You can also drawstraight lines by specifying the endpoints, circles by specifying the centerand radius, ellipses by a center andtwo points on the circumference, andso on. All of this is done graphically.You do not have to enter numbers forsize or position. You point and click.

An ArtistReacts to the Mindset

by Carolyn King

Having been trained in the tradi-tional arts and crafts. I havealways tended toward an appreciationof handcrafted artwork and an appre-hension about things technological.Using a computer was something I hadavoided for years.

My training is mainly as a printmakerand painter. I have always felt that thevisceral side of art-making can be asimportant as the art itself. Manipulatingmedia such as clay, fiber, and paint cansomehow set up a bridge between ourawareness of ourselves and an aware-ness of the history behind the art.Although this account might seemquite familiar to other users of mouse-based systems, it is my way of under-scoring how surprised i was by the out-come of working on the Mindset withLumena.

I was surprised at how little time ittook to learn how to use the mouse asa drawing tool. In just a few hours. I feltrelatively comfortable with the mouseand the mechanics of the Lumenaprogram.

I enjoyed the blend of sculpture andgraphic arts used to create images.Bringing the image into view by

"sculpting" the negative space (i.e..using black or the background color tonibble away at the picture) is a wonder-ful addition to the usual technique ofpainting color on background.

i was surprised and relieved to findthat, although the computer is not a"plastic" medium to the senses in theway that paint and clay are, I was ableto slip into that "altered state" in whichthe images flow from me to the medi-um. This was an important discoveryfor me and eliminated most of my mis-givings about the computer as an arttool.

Finally, as far as the mechanics of thisparticular unit go. the screen doesn'thave good enough resolution, so theartist is limited in the ability to refinethe image beyond a certain point.

On the whole. I have been convincedthat the computer can be a tool the art-ist can use like any other. Working witha computer is full of a lot more sur-prises, however. I went into this with alot of resistance and preconceived no-tions. I came away with a much widerview of the computer as a tool for theartist and the stirrings of a serious ad-diction to the mouse.

With the exception of the Escape key,which is used to abort a command inprogress, the keyboard remains un-touched during a Lumena session.

In addition to pens and brushes,Lumena provides a wide selection oftransformations that you can apply toa portion of the image. You can easi-ly select a part of the display andenlarge, shrink, move, copy, make amirror image in either direction,rotate, taper, or render it in perspec-tive. You can even take a rectangularpiece of the screen and use that asa paintbrush. The special graphicshardware in the Mindset makes theseoperations happen fast. You can usethe mouse to select half the screenand move it around superimposed onthe rest of the picture. Lumena canoverlay an image using several logicaloperations, such as AND, OR, XOR.or their complements.

Like the Macintosh's MacPaint pro-gram, Lumena s command interfaceencourages playful exploration. It iseasy to try out a function just to seewhat it does. This feature is the mostaddictive in the program. Even if youare not an artist, you can have hoursof fun doodling on the screen. It is avery malleable medium and an easyone in which to correct your mistakes.

Having no artistic training myself,it seemed prudent to get an artist'sopinion. I asked graphic artist CarolynKing to try the system. She was reluc-tant, having managed to avoid com-puters up to this point. After a briefintroduction to Lumena. I left Carolynalone with the machine. In an hour 1returned to find her using sophisti-cated commands that she learned byplaying with Lumena. After minimaltraining and an hour of experience,she was making real pictures withoutresorting to the manual. She couldeven correct some of my mistakes.That is the mark of a well-designeduser interface (see the text box'An Artist Reacts to the Mindset" atleft).

BASIC

A strong point of the Mindset versionof GW-BASIC is animation. GW-BASIC

{continued}

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lets you define "objects' and movethem around the screen. During theirjourney, they may vary their ap-pearance using up to eight differentviews. They may collide with other ob-jects or perform a specific actionupon arriving at a destination. Objectscan also be clipped, which means thatthey can pass through a "window" onthe screen, becoming partially, thenfully visible as they move into view,and then gradually vanishing as theypass back out of view, much like a carmoving past a window.

A simple yet impressive demonstra-tion of the animation facilities comeswith GW-BASIC. Across a backgroundof words, a picture of a Saturn-likeringed planet slowly tumbles acrossthe screen. As it hits the edge, itbounces off toward another part ofthe display. The power of this systembecomes evident when you run thisprogram in high-speed mode. Saturnbecomes a streak, still bouncing andspinning but whipping across thescreen faster than an IBM PC userwould think possible.

As for non-graphics capabilities,GW-BASIC performs in the same ball-

park as the IBM PC. Mindset's GW-BASIC, together with some specialvideo interfaces Mindset has de-signed, might provide the basis forsome impressive video-productionsystems (see the text box"Update onMindset" below).

Problems

Every system has some flaws, and theMindset is no exception. One par-ticular annoyance is the insistence ofthe operating system to look for itsCommand program (COMMAND.COM) only in the current drive. For ex-ample, if you are running Multiplan ondrive B and you quit, the system willcheck only drive B for COMMAND.COM, never A. Fortunately, many ap-plications will be unaffected by this,since they leave the resident copy ofCCMMAND.COM in memory whilethey are running.

A slight but annoying feature in-volves the mouse's design. The mousecord is very thick, as big as the powercord for the system unit. The place-ment of the mouse connector on theside of the keyboard, combined withthis monstrous cable, means that you

Update on Mindset

by Rich Malloy

Mindset has recently been aimingits machine away from thegeneral consumer market and towardprofessional graphics designers. This isevidenced by the fact that consumer-oriented software such as games hasnot been developed for the machine,despite the fact that the Mindset'sgraphics hardware seems well suitedfor such applications. Instead. Mindsethas made available some specialvideo-related products that might bemore at home in professional videostudios.

A special version of the system unitincludes Genlock circuitry to let it inter-act better with video equipment. There

is also an external video-productionmodule that lets you mix the Mindset'scomputer-developed graphics withsignals from standard cameras andrecorders. According to Mindset, theseoptions let you superimpose Mindsetgraphics on video images. In addition,you can fade graphics in and out. Thespecial Genlock circuitry costs an ad-ditional $500; the video-productionmodule is $799.

I have not tested this equipment, butMindset claims that its system isalready being used for graphics in anew television game show entitled"Catch Phrase," which should debutthis fall.

constantly readjust the cord to get itout of the way. A thin mouse cordwith a connector on the system unitwould have been appreciated.

A major problem with this systemhas to do with copy protection. BothLumena and the disk-based version ofGW-BASIC are copy-protected. Youcan copy each disk, but neither willrun unless the original disk is in thedefault drive. I would be very hesitantabout buying software that does notpermit at least one working backupcopy.

Lumena appears to have a bug inthe way it writes to the disk. TheLumena manual says that the correctway to run the program is to keep themaster disk in drive A with the work-ing disk in drive B. Then you set B asthe default drive and you enterA:LUMENA. Thus, you are runningthe program from drive A but writingby default to drive B. This does workand it is the only way that it works.Reversing the disks or running fromdrive A and using the Lumena com-mand to change the current diskcause big problems. In particular, sav-ing a file to drive B will eat up all theavailable space on that disk andLumena will die. The disk can be fixedwith the Recover program.

Lumena also seems prone to "ZeroDivide" errors. These happen occa-sionally for no apparent reason. Theycause Lumena to crash and return toDOS. Luckily, the Mindset frame buf-fer is not cleared on each invocationof Lumena, so it is sometimes pos-sible to reenter the program and findyour work retained in the graphicsmemory. Still, I would prefer to avoidthe need for such error recovery.

Conclusions

All in all, the Mindset is a pleasantalternative to the IBM PC. If you haveno need for graphics, you have nocompelling reason to select this ma-chine over many of the other IBMcompatibles on the market. But if yourapplication requires fast, easy-to-use,medium-resolution color graphics,and particularly if you want animationcapability, the Mindset/Lumena com-bination is hard to beat. ■

332 B YTE • 1UNE 1985

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

ThinkTank

Executive Writer/

Executive Filer

THOR

Framework

by William Hershey

William Hershey (MITRE Corp.,

1820 Dolley Madison Blvd..

McLean. VA 22102) is a systems

engineer with a B.S. in engineering

from Princeton and an MA. in

computer and communication

sciences from the University of

Michigan. He is also an instructor

in computer literacy at the

University of Maryland's University

College.

Idea Processors

A:1

n idea processor is a tool fororganizing blocks of text. Because, text is a critical part of the finalproduct, idea processors incorporate sometype of text editor, even a full-blown wordprocessor in some cases. So far the prod-ucts that call themselves idea processorsseem to fall into two classes: outlineorganizers and computerized index-cardretrieval systems.

Like spreadsheets, these tools are appliedin as many ways as there are users. I preferoutline processors to index-card systems.They are better at giving you a top-downview of things, which is supposed to be thebest way to think. If you have a largeamount of textual reference material tomanage, an index-card system might bettermeet your needs. But keep in mind that itis easy to structure an outline to work likea deck of cards.

Idea processors are growing in popular-ity, and their range of capabilities varieswidely. This review examines four. One pro-gram is an outline processor, two are index-card systems, and the fourth can be usedboth ways. All four packages are availablefor the IBM Personal Computer (PC) andcompatibles; ThinkTank is also available forthe Macintosh. I tested the IBM versions ona Compaq with 640K bytes of RAM(random-access read/write memory) andtwo floppy-disk drives.

ThinkTank

Billed by Living Videotext as the first ideaprocessor, ThinkTank is a versatile outliningtool with a decent text editor. Since the pro-gram's introduction on the Apple II and III,reincarnations with varying capabilities havearrived for the Macintosh and the IBM PCThe command tree in the PC version is com-plex. But once you discover the shortcuts,you won't have any trouble using it. The ver-sion for the 128K-byte Macintosh, calledThinkTank 128, is like a sports car. It won'thold much, but it's fun to drive and gets youwhere you're going fast.

I first used and reviewed ThinkTank (on anApple III) more than a year ago (see myreview "ThinkTank" in the May 1984 BTYE,page 189). Now that the IBM PC and Macin-tosh versions have been on the market fora while, that review deserves an update. TheIBM version is much improved over the firstApple versions. Disk accesses are reduced,paragraph capacity is dramatically in-creased, and editing is easier. But the com-mands for the PC version could confusenovices. The initial Macintosh version haslimitations and design problems, but itssimplicity and speed make it effective.

ThinkTank outlines have just a few keyelements. You can enter headlines as longas 77 characters. Each headline can haveany number of subheadings beneath it and,with the IBM PC version, a "paragraph" ofup to 20,000 characters of text. You canbreak up ThinkTank's paragraphs into yourown smaller paragraphs by inserting "hard"carriage returns. The subheadings can havemore subheadings and paragraphs beneaththem, up to as many as 10,000 levels.

A bar cursor highlights each headline asyou scroll through the outline. You can "ex-pand" a headline (using the plus-sign keyon the PC's numeric keypad) to see thesubheadings and paragraphs beneath it, oryou can "collapse" it (using the minus-signkey) to hide all the subordinate levels.ThinkTank automatically precedes eachheadline with a plus or minus sign. A plusmeans that the headline has subordinatelevels or paragraphs. A minus means thatno deeper levels exist.

The ability to collapse or expand anoutline at any headline level gives you manyways of viewing the ideas that make up youroutline. This, combined with the ability tomove headlines and insert new ones at anypoint, is the essence of idea processing,ThinkTank-style. ThinkTank 128 does not letyou enter paragraphs under the headlines.That's a serious drawback, but the benefitis speed. With your whole outline in mem-

[continued]

■ Inquiry 295

IUNE 1985

iYTE 337

REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

Except for the lackof paragraphs,ThinftTank 128'sbiggest flaw is itsunconventionaluser interface.

ory and the mouse to guide youthrough the commands, the programis a joy to use (ThinkTank 512, withenhanced capabilities that includeparagraph and image handling,should be on sale by the time youread this but was not available for thisreview.)

In converting the program from theApple III to the PC, Living Videotextmade some commands easier to useby assigning them to the PC's functionkeys and the keys on the numerickeypad. Unfortunately, the company

left all the old commands intact andmixed function keys, the Insert andDelete keys, and single-letter com-mands in the same main commandmenu. This could make the commandstructure seem very complex to a first-time user. In some cases, there are asmany as three paths to travel to per-form a given operation. Once youhave learned the program, of course,you avoid the long detours and takethe express route. Replacing the oldmenu commands with function-keydefinitions at the bottom of thescreen might simplify the process.

The editor works well. You can movethrough a paragraph quickly and eas-ily by using the numeric keypad.Moving and copying text betweenparagraphs, however, is tedious. Onceyou leave a paragraph and go toanother one beneath a different head-line, you are effectively editing a dif-ferent document. Selected blockscan't go with you. Whole paragraphscan be merged, but only if theirparent headlines are adjacent.

Using ThinkTank 128 is quite easybecause of the Mac's pull-down

Photo I: \n the Macintosh version of Thinfflank, moving headlines and theirsubheadings is much easier than in the IBM PC version. When you hold the mousebutton down, a fuzzy box appears around the headline and everything subordinate to it.You can then drag it where you want it.

menus and the use of the mouse. Youcontrol the position of an arrow onthe screen with the mouse. When youclick the mouse button, a box appearsaround the nearest headline. Double-clicking makes a headline's subor-dinate levels expand or collapse. Finercontrol with the mouse lets you puta vertical bar inside the boxed head-line to set an insertion point forediting. Holding down the mouse but-ton changes the sharp box around theheadline to a fuzzy one, and you canthen drag it along with all of its sub-headings to a different spot in theoutline (see photo 1). Here the Macin-tosh really outshines the PC. You canalso move headlines the old way,using the keyboard. The keyboardcommands are most useful for insert-ing new headlines.

The Macintosh Clipboard works asexpected for some cut-and-pasteoperations, including sending all orpart of your outline to another appli-cation like MacWrite. But drag selec-tion for cutting and copying does notwork within a headline: the Backspacekey is your only deletion tool there.In fact, drag selection is not imple-mented anywhere in ThinkTank 128.Consequently you cannot selectgroups of headlines for deleting,moving, or copying unless they all fallunder a high-level headline.

Sorting of subheadings and search-ing for strings of text are available inanother pull-down menu. They areeasier to use here than in the PC ver-sion, which has them buried deep inthe menu tree. Unfortunately, how-ever, ThinkTank 128 has no Undo com-mand as do many Mac programs.When you delete part of your outlineor sort a set of subheadings in a wayyou don't like, you have no way torestore things to their previouscondition.

Except for the lack of paragraphs,ThinkTank 128's biggest flaw is its un-conventional user interface. Scrollingis one example. Instead of using thepredefined "scroll bars" from theMacintosh's built-in routines, the Liv-ing Videotext programmers inventedtheir own "hot" border surroundingthe text window. It's the same gray

338 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Executive Writer/Executive Filer

THOR

Framework

AT A GLANCE

Name

ThinkTank

Type

Idea processor

Idea processor

Idea processor

Integrated package

Manufacturer

Living Videotext2432 Charleston Rd.Mountain View, CA 94043(415) 964-6300

Paperback SoftwareInternational2612 Eighth St.Berkeley, CA 94710(415) 644-2116

Fastware

200 Freeway Dr. EastEast Orange, NJ 07018(800) 372-2345

AshtonTate

10150 West Jefferson Blvd.Culver City, CA 90230(213) 204-5570

Computer

256K IBM PC,

128K and 512K

Macintosh,

64K Apple II family,

96K Apple III,

384K Data General/One

192K IBM PC,256K PCjr

128K IBM PC

384K IBM PC

Features

Outlining, text editing,formatting

Index-card retrievaland word processing

Index-card retrievaland text editing

Integrated outlining,word processor, database,spreadsheet, graphics,telecommunications

Documentation

User's manual

User's manual

User's manual

Tutorial, reference manual

Price

IBM PC, $195;

128K Macintosh, $145;

512K Macintosh, $245;

Apple II family, $150;

Apple III, $150;

Data General/One, $195

Executive Writer, $69.95;Executive Filer, $49.95

$295

$700

pattern as the normal Mac desktopbackground. A press of the mousebutton when the arrow is on one ofthe four borders causes the text toscroll away from that border. Clickingon the corners causes diagonalscrolling.

It sounds easy and it is. But Macusers are used to seeing scroll barswith arrows and a "thumb" that canbe dragged to a relative position inthe document. Giving them a non-standard alternative to what theyalready know is contrary to Apple'sphilosophy of keeping the Macintoshuser interface consistent from oneprogram to another. This is one of thefew features I had to find in themanual before I could make full useof ThinkTank 128.

ThinkTank's diagonal scrolling is notavailable with standard Macintoshscroll bars. But how many times haveyou wished for diagonal scrolling?Another shortcoming is that you can-not drag or size the ThinkTank 128outline window (at least not in the ver-sion I tried).

Even the IBM PC version ofThinkTank does not claim to be a word

processor. Although it lacks advancedediting and formatting features, itdoes a decent job of putting an out-line on paper. For some features, theparagraph editor in the IBM PC ver-sion of ThinkTank is easier to use thanExecutive Writer (reviewed later),which does claim to be a full wordprocessor. Neither program formatstext on the screen as it will appear onpaper, but at least ThinkTank refor-mats paragraphs automatically to endlines at word boundaries. ExecutiveWriter requires the press of a functionkey for that.

ThinkTank lets you format output asDOS (disk operating system) text files(with hard carriage returns after eachline) for polishing with your favoriteword processor. WordStar users willappreciate the option that insertsWordStar formatting codes into theoutput file. ThinkTank's 17 format op-tions include outline-specific informa-tion, such as the number of spaces forindentation of the various levels andthe depth for printing headlines, para-graphs, and section numbers. Think-Tank will print a table of contents tothe level you specify and automatical-

ly insert the page number where eachsection heading will appear. The ver-sion for the 128K-byte Macintosh,however, severely limits printingcapabilities. You highlight a headline,and the program will print out thatheadline; all others become subor-dinate to it. You have no control overoutline depth and no table ofcontents.

The IBM PC version comes with twomanuals. The well-written user'smanual combines a tutorial approachwith a full account of how things work.The last 10 pages are reproduced asa separate quick-reference guide tohelp you keep track of commands.ThinkTank 128s documentation is ofsimilar quality but takes a different ap-proach. It has a tutorial section andtwo reference sections, covering thespecific and the general. ThinkTank'ssimplicity on the Macintosh elimi-nates the need for a Mac quick-refer-ence guide.

Both versions come with one diskthat contains the program and sam-ple outlines. Unlike the Apple III ver-sion that I reviewed earlier, the IBM

(continued)

IUNE 1985

IYTE 339

REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

and Macintosh disks are copy-pro-tected. With the IBM version you cancopy the program to your own disk(including hard disk) and execute itfrom there, but you must have themaster disk in drive A when you startthe program.

Executive Writer/Executive Filer

| Editor's note: Prior to January. ExecutiveWriter and Executive Filer were marketed asone package, called The \dea Processor. Thedeveloper. \dea Ware, split the package andsold the two programs to Adam Osborne'sPaperback Software international (PSI) fordistribution. \n its new incarnation, the prod-uct has been upgraded to version 2.0 and re-packaged as Executive Writer and Executivefiler. Each package consists of a manual witha software disk inside the back cover. The

packages sell for $69.95 and $49.95. re-spectively. Version 2.0's reported improve-ments include on-screen formatting, horizon-tal scrolling, and enhanced speed. Steve Cookof PSI said that version 2.0 provides on-screenhelp, printing from within the editor, andmany WordStar-like control-key sequences.Cook explained that the package is offered asseparate modules because PSI wanted a wordprocessor and felt that The Idea Processor'swas a good one. Buyers who purchase bothmodules integrate them by using a routine pro-vided by PSI that needs to be invoked onlyonce. PSI provides all support for bothpackages.

Mr. Hershey initially reviewed The IdeaProcessor but has added material to reflect thecapabilities of the new packages.]

Executive Writer and Executive Filercombine a flexible word processorwith an indexed "cardfile" system that

CARDFILE

Make NewCard

Main Document

Recall

... i^LB'ock

Get Card

EDITOR

Figure I: With Executive Writer and Executive Filer you can create andorganize blocks of text on "cards'.' You can move text back and forth between thecardfile and a document in the editor.

lets you search for cards by keywords.You can shuttle blocks of text quicklybetween the cardfile and your docu-ment. Features include keyboardmacros and the ability to store andrecall graphics images for insertion in-to your text.

In The Idea Processor, as well as inExecutive Writer and Executive Filer,the word processor and cardfile areintegrated. The cardfile resides in ahierarchical system of "drawers" and"cabinets," making it easy to relate tothe real world. Figure 1 shows an over-view of the system's operation.

Unlike ThinkTank, Executive Writerand Executive Filer do not help youvisualize the big picture. Your docu-ment consists of straight text, just asit would in any word processor. Youhave no tools to experiment with theoverall structure of your work. Thevalue of Executive Filer lies in findingblocks of text by keyword. Especiallyif you keep a large amount of refer-ence material on disk, this retrievalfeature could save you time.

Even if you don't need the cardfile.Executive Writer might meet yourword-processing needs. It has manyfeatures and is relatively easy to learnand use. When used with the Ctrl key,the cursor keys on the numeric key-pad and the Insert, Delete, Backspace,and Tab keys position the cursor tothe beginning or end of a line, to thetop or bottom of the screen, or to thenext or previous word. A status linenear the bottom of the screen showswhether the insert, wordwrap, bold-face, and underline features are on oroff.

Function keys handle most of theother word-processing commands. Aninformation line at the bottom of thescreen labels them. They work aloneor in combination with the Ctrl, Alt.and Shift keys to invoke 40 differentoperations. I found using the functionkeys cumbersome in some cases.Block operations, for example, useCtrl with the function keys. Copying ablock of text requires pressing Ctrl-F3to begin the block, moving the cursorto extend it, Ctrl-F4 to end it, movingthe cursor again to indicate where youwant the copy, Ctrl-F7 to put it there,

340 BYTE' |UNE 1985

REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

and Ctrl-F5 to make the highlight onthe original block disappear. Deletingand moving blocks requires similarfinger contortions. Fortunately, short-cuts with the Ctrl, Alt. Backspace, End,and Delete keys make it easy to deleteindividual words or all or part of aline, eliminating the need to select ablock for deletion.

Executive Writer's search andreplace capabilities are flexible. Thefunction keys work with the Shift keyto activate them. You can define upto 10 keyboard macros with as manyas 100 keystrokes each. They dis-appeared when you left The Idea Pro-cessor, but in Executive Writer youcan save them along with margin andtab settings. You assign each anumber from 0 to 9 and call them bypressing Ctrl and the appropriatenumber. You can nest macros withineach other as long as you don't aska macro to call itself. Macros workwith the cardfile's editor, too.

Besides the minor complaintsalready noted, The Idea Processor'sbiggest shortcoming was the editor'sinability to format text on the screenas it will appear on paper. Some for-mat features like boldface and under-lined text did appear on the screen,and Executive Writer adds on-screenmargin control to these. Page breaksare still left to your imagination.Another annoyance that remains inExecutive Writer is the need to pressF2 periodically to reformat the currentparagraph.

Each format command is a two-letter code. Pressing F6 generates aspecial "feather" symbol thatprecedes the code. There are 24 ofthem, giving you the usual formattingcapabilities plus special features likeeven/odd logic in headings andfootings, automatic numbering offootnotes, automatic counters any-where in the text (for sectionnumbers, etc.). and insertion ofgraphics images into text. A separatePrint program prints your document.If your printer is not one of the stan-dard ones supported, PSI supplies autility to help you create the neces-sary printer-configuration file.

The Idea Processor lacked a

graphics editor, and so does Ex-ecutive Writer, but the manual tellshow to save screen images from otherprograms. Idea Ware publishes onecalled The Graphics Idea, which in-cludes the SlideShow facility. Themanual provides examples of otherssuch as Lotus 1-2-3, VisiPlot, anddGRAPH II. The file format is thesame used by the BSAVE commandin BASIC. A SAVESCREEN utility letsyou save the graphics images for ac-cess from the editor or cardfile. Fileoperations, invoked with Alt and thefunction keys, let you save all or partof a document. After saving a docu-ment, The Idea Processor requiredyou to leave the editor and reload thedocument to resume work on it. Ex-ecutive Writer has an Update featurethat avoids this extra step. Once adocument is loaded, you can inserttext from other files and from cardsin the cardfile.

In the cardfile, provided by Ex-ecutive Filer, you can peruse your in-dexed ideas for just the right one toinsert in your document. Or you cantake a highlighted block of text fromthe main document to store on a cardfor later use. You won't have a splitscreen or windows to keep your docu-ment in view while you examine cards,but switching between editor andcardfile screens is nearly instanta-neous.

Instead of function keys the cardfileuses menus to help you organizecards. The first thing you do when ac-cessing the cardfile is make or unlocka cabinet. Each cabinet holds up toeight drawers, which in turn holdthousands of cards (depending on thespace available on your disk). Eachcard in the cardfile holds up to 8000characters. You edit the card with thefull set of commands used to edit

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REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

documents in Executive Writer. Aftercreating the card, you specify whichdrawer it's to be stored in and entera list of keywords to use in retrieval.

You can fetch a card or set of cardsby specifying a keyword or pressingthe tilde (~) as a wild card to fetchthem all. Then you can browsethrough them one at a time. Once acard is displayed, you can modify theselection criteria by specifyingBoolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)that combine the current list of key-words with others. With only thesesearch mechanisms. Executive Filerlacks power as a database manager.But the keyword retrieval scheme iseffective and simple and should meetmost people's needs.

In addition to Executive Filer's ob-vious text-classification uses, thepackage can be useful to program-mers. With wordwrap off and noboldface or underlined characters,files are standard ASCII (AmericanStandard Code for Information Inter-change) text files that can be read bycompilers and interpreters. You canuse the cards to organize and storesubroutines.

The two extensive demonstrationdisks that came with The Idea Pro-cessor are not included with Ex-ecutive Writer/Executive Filer. Thenew version does have a file illus-trating a simple application. The newmanuals have "quick courses" to getyou started, and the Executive Filermanual has an "expert" section withtips on various ways to use thepackage. The new software requiresyou to have the master disk insertedwhen you start the program. After youregister, you can get an unprotectedcopy for $10.

Although it lacks ThinkTank's out-lining and sorting capabilities, Ex-ecutive Writer is a better word pro-cessor. Executive Filer's retrievalfeatures are also more flexible thanThinkTank's, though limited in com-parison with most database mana-gers. It appears well suited to largewriting projects that require theassembling and indexing of much in-formation. The program would alsobe useful to reporters or authors who

want to keep a disk library of materialfor reference.

THOR

If you want a program that puts com-mands on the screen in color andgives you total control over the colorand intensity of your text as you type,this one from Fastware is for you.THOR stands for "thought organizer."According to the manual, it "com-bines the free format facility of a wordprocessor with the power of a data-base manager." Unfortunately, itdoesn't perform either function verywell. Commands are inconsistent withcommon sense, and the text editor isawkward to use.

For retrieval of text blocks, THORworks more like a conventional file-management program than ExecutiveFiler, which provides search capabilityon up to 10 keywords for each record.THOR stores a block of text, which it

calls a "thought." with up to 5categories or fields plus the date youentered the information. The totalnumber of categories in a databaseof thoughts can be as many as 2 55,but any given thought can use only5 of them.

Retrieval by category can occur attwo levels. You can search yourthoughts to find the ones that mere-ly have a category or a set of categor-ies. Or you can be more specific andsearch the contents of those categor-ies. You can thus mix several types ofrecords in the same database and stillfind what you want.

Two other selection criteria are avail-able. You can search for thoughtscreated within a specified range ofdates, and you can search forthoughts containing any of threespecified strings of text. If you wantto use combinations of the three

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1UNE 1985 'BYTE 343

REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

types of selection criteria, they areautomatically connected with ANDoperators—that is, a thought mustmeet all the criteria specified in orderto be selected. Selection of thoughtsis thus rather inflexible.

If I seem to be dwelling on the data-base aspects of this program, it isbecause the program authors havedwelled on them. The tutorial doesnot show how to classify and organizeblocks of amorphous text, brimmingwith intertwining ideas. A real"thought organizer" should do that.Rather, the tutorial illustrates in detailhow to work with a database ofrestaurants in New York City andselect the French ones in midtownthat serve duck (see photo 2).

The most annoying feature of THORis not its limited capability but its ter-minology. As I've noted, a block oftext is called a thought. This leads tothe terms "thought maintenance,"which you and I know as text editing;"thought categorization," which en-tails entering database fields and theirvalues; and "thought review," whichwe normally call record selection. Andit goes downhill from there.

Let's turn now to thought mainte-

nance (text editing). There are twoeditors—a "field editor" for fields anda "screen editor" for larger blocks oftext. They work differently. The fieldeditor works only with capital letters.No matter how you type them in, theyappear as capitals. I suppose this isto facilitate "BRAlNscanning" (retriev-ing records]. The Delete key erases anentire field, not a single character asit does in the screen editor. However,fields are limited to 12 characters, soyou won't have much to retype.

In the screen editor, the up anddown arrows take you to the previousor next line. In the field editor, it alldepends. If you have not made anychanges to the field yet, these arrowstake you to the previous or next field,respectively. Be careful using the uparrow, however; the manual warns,"Sometimes to insure data integrity,THOR will not allow you to do thisand will tell you so with a beep." Usingthe down arrow in this situation, themanual states, "is similar to using theRETURN key except on some screensthe down arrow key will jump over agroup of subsequent fields." If youhave made changes to the field, press-ing either the up or the down arrow-

Photo 2: THOR is pretty and colorful, but it lacks power in both its file-managementand text-editing operations.

or the Esc key—replaces the changeswith the original default value andmoves the cursor to the beginning ofthe field.

Now that you have mastered thefield editor, we can move to thescreen editor. Unlike Executive Writer/Executive Filer, THOR does not focuson a single main document that canbe assembled by the screen editorfrom smaller blocks of text. The onlyunit of organization for a THOR data-base is the thought. THOR's thoughts,however, can hold more than Ex-ecutive Filer's cards. Fastware claimsthat thoughts can be as large as40,000 characters, depending on yourmachine's amount of RAM.

THOR's screen editor has cut-and-paste commands, but they're not likethe ones in most word processors. Cutbreaks the current line into two linesat the cursor position. Paste reformatsa paragraph from the cursor position,like Ctrl-B in WordStar or F2 in Ex-ecutive Writer. There are no blockmove or copy commands, but you cansave a block of text to a file and loadit in again. The screen editor does nothave a destructive backspace, but ithas a typeover mode, called Editmode.

Although 1 am not fond of thiseditor, it does have a feature notfound in most word processors. In theupper right corner of the screen is thecurrent attribute character, whichshows the color, intensity, and othercharacteristics (like underlining,flashing, and reverse video) of thecharacters to be typed. By pressingthe Alt key in combination withothers, you can affect the way eachcharacter in your block of text will bedisplayed. The graphics attributeswork only within THOR and cannot besaved with text files for use in otherprograms.

THOR provides limited on-screenformatting in the form of margin andtab settings. Print-formatting com-mands must be inserted into text andare confined primarily to page-lengthsettings. The INCLUDE formattingcommand lets you string thoughtstogether as they are printed.

Like Executive Writer/Executive

344 BYTE- IUNE 1985

REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

Filer, THOR can save and load straightASCII text files. The jobs that THORclaims to handle best are some of thesame ones cited by PS1 for ExecutiveFiler. THOR's manual was 44 pages ofpoorly written dot-matrix printout ina loose-leaf binder. Fastware claims tohave improved the documentation. Itstill has no index.

Framework

The real champion of idea processingis Framework. The top level is an out-line organizer in the manner of Think-Tank but with more power and flex-ibility. It also offers screen-formattedword processing, a database managerthat you can use as a cardfile, spread-sheets, graphics, and telecommunica-tions with Macintosh-like pull-downmenus and consistent, easy-to-usecommands. Naturally, it's the most ex-pensive offering, and it requires lotsof memory (2 56K bytes minimum).

Framework's applications and capa-bilities extend far beyond those of theother programs in this review. Theoutline is the web that ties togetherall applications. As tempting as it isto dig into all of Framework's features,I will focus here only on the parts ofFramework that are similar to otheridea processors. (For more informa-tion, see the product preview ofFramework in the August 1984 BYTE,page 121.)

Just as ThinkTank can create head-lines with subordinate subheadingsand paragraphs, Framework cancreate an outline with many levels.Commands for expanding and col-lapsing work on any part of the out-line in much the same way they do inThinkTank. Each line in the outlinerepresents a "frame." A frame can re-main empty or contain text, a data-base, a spreadsheet, a graph, or otherframes.

To understand what Framework cando to help you process ideas, it is firstimportant to understand how frameswork. A frame is a box that you canresize and relocate anywhere on thescreen. Frames overlay each other asyou use them, but you can put themaway at any time. The only limit to thenumber of active frames is the

amount of memory in your IBM PC.

There are five types of frames. Yourtitle for each one goes into its borderat the upper left. You can have a "con-tainer frame" that merely holds otherframes. Each application also has itsown type of frame: word processing,spreadsheet, database, and presenta-tion graphics. The manual claims thata sixth type is the outline frame, butthat's not quite right. Outlines aremerely container frames displayed in"outline view."

When you decide to make an"empty/word" frame into a containerframe, you can put only other framesinto it. You cannot use it to storeblocks of text unless they are insideother frames.

If the screen weren't green, you'dswear that Framework was running ona Macintosh. The pull-down menusappear quickly. The function keyshave a single set of actions and

operate consistently throughout allapplications.

The top of the screen has a line ofnine menus. You will need most ofthem for idea processing. The Diskmenu loads and saves files and givesyou access to DOS and other pro-grams. (When you are done, youreturn to Framework with a frame fullof whatever DOS put on the screen.I even ran ThinkTank from withinFramework to compare some featuresof the two programs.)

The Create menu makes emptyframes. Creating an outline frame isthe logical first step in beginning aproject. The resulting container framehas empty section headings (eachrepresenting a frame) in a pre-determined format. After you learnFramework, you'll probably prefer tocreate your own container frame withyour desired outline format. The Edit

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REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

Framework outlineshave a trianglein front of frameswith subframes.

menu lets you choose Insert or Type-over mode and has an Undo com-mand. The Locate command is forsearching and replacing strings; it alsohas ascending and descending sortcommands that sort sections in anoutline as well as fields and columnsin databases and spreadsheets.

The Frames menu has a number ofcommands unique to Framework (seephoto 3). Normally when you addframes to an outline, the programputs one below another in "column"format. An alternative in the Framesmenu is referred to as "Allow FreeDragging." A better term would be"allow vertical dragging" because youcan always move frames horizontallyon the screen. Only when you haveallowed free dragging can you dragframes vertically.

Free dragging can come in handy

when polishing writing. If you havetwo alternative paragraphs you needto compare for the best wording of anidea, you can put them in frames andput the frames side by side. They willappear on the printed page in that ar-rangement until you decide whichone to delete. This is also a great wayto print multiple columns of text ona single page or print blocks of textscattered haphazardly over the page.

Although ThinkTank numbers thesections of your document and gen-erates a table of contents with pagenumbers, these features are availableonly on the printed output. Frame-work lets you view them on the screenas you work. When you add a newframe to your outline, the sectionnumbers are automatically adjustedto accommodate it. Both programsuse a hierarchical numbering scheme(for example, 1, 1.3, 2.4.1, etc.).

Framework outlines have a trianglein front of frames with subframes. Youhave the option to "Reveal Type" foreach frame. Frame types are empty/container, word, database, spread-sheet, and graph.

If you are writing a document witha block of text in each subframe ofyour outline, it is easy to see how well

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you are progressing. lust check thenumber of frames marked (W), forword frame, against the ones stillmarked (E), for empty/container frame.

Two especially useful keys withFramework are F9 (Zoom) and F10(View). When used with a typicaldocument consisting of an outlineand word frames, they can providefour different ways of looking at thedocument. The use of these keys canbe confusing at first because wherethey take you depends on whereyou've been. 1 tend to stick with F9most of the time to zoom back andforth between outline and full-screenviews of text. The view accessible viaF10 shows a nested set of frames withpart of the text visible inside eachone.

For linear narrative, in which oneidea flows logically to the next, youmay find the frames view unneces-sary: the outline provides a betteroverview, with the full-document viewproviding the detail. The frames viewlets you be very creative in usingFramework's display to show logicalor dependent relationships betweenframes of text. Framework can be atwo-dimensional tool for writers, justas spreadsheet programs are fornumber crunchers.

Framework uses margin settingswithin frames so you can see roughlyhow your text will appear on paper.You can scroll horizontally to 2 55 col-umns, and paragraph reformatting isautomatic when you insert new textinto the middle of a paragraph. TheWords menu at the top of the screenhas a few key attributes to controlmargin, justification, and tab settings.It also has switches for boldface,underline, and italic attributes. Youcan also select combinations of thesestyles, and the type on the screenreflects your choice. For other format-ting features, however, Frameworkuses formulas that you load into theframe border. These control paging,headers, footers, and the like.

The biggest formatting deficiency isthe lack of page-break lines on thescreen. Because a finished documentis likely to be produced from a series

[continued)

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REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

of frames, page-break lines would beunderstandably hard to implement.You can. however, use the "widow or-phan tolerance" parameter in Frame-

work's configuration file to set theminimum number of lines allowedstranded as a widow or orphan whena paragraph is broken. You also can

Photo 4: You can look at a Framework database in "forms view',' which lets you setup a database as a cardfile system to manage blocks of text. Every field in every recordis a frame.

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Photo 5: Am alternate view of the Framework cardfile database in photo 4 shows thefirst several words in each field and lets you scan through and sort your cards.

preview a document before printingby saving the formatted 'version intoa DOS text file and then loading thatfile as a new frame. Your printer-con-trol codes will show up as IBM screen-graphics characters, which can be abig help in debugging printer-format-ting problems. The spooling featureis nice, too. When you print yourdocument. Framework writes it to atemporary disk file and prints it fromthere, so you can get back to workright away.

Framework far surpasses all theother idea processors for straightword processing. Cursor movementsare clean, flexible, and fast. Selectionof blocks for moving, copying, anddeleting is simple and consistent withthose operations in other Frameworkapplications. When compared withother full-service word processors itstands up very well, and at the timeof this writing it is the only one withoutlining and other organizationalcapabilities.

As I stated earlier. Framework canhelp you organize text in the form ofan outline much as ThinkTank does.But it can also be used as a cardfilesystem. The key lies in Framework'sdatabase capabilities. Each field ineach record of a Framework databaseis a frame. This means, of course, thatyou can fill it with as much text as youlike (up to the 32,000-character framelimit). The forms view of a databasedisplays all field values of a givenrecord inside their frames (see photo4). You can arrange them on thescreen however you like.

By constructing a database withfields for categories (like title, author,and keywords), plus a large frame fortext, you can have a cardfile systemwith powerful retrieval capabilities.You can readily copy text from thetext frames of your cards into largerdocuments that reside in non-data-base frames. You can also view a data-base in a table format that shows oneline for each record. Here, you can seethe keyword fields plus the first fewwords of each text block (see photo5). (THOR provides a similar feature,but Executive Filer does not.) You can

[continued]

348 BYTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 377 ■

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REVIEW: IDEA PROCESSORS

quickly sort all your cards or a subsetof them on any category and scrollthrough them to get ideas.

Framework comes with well-writtentutorial and reference manuals andwas easy to learn despite all its power.It also has five disks, two of which areneeded to start the program and runit. (The second drive remains free for

a data disk.) There is a backup copyof disk 1, the only one with copy pro-tection. The two remaining disks con-tain a tutorial and utilities. As withThink^nk, you can copy the programfiles onto your own disks. But youmust have a system disk 1 in any drivefor the program to start. A new copy-protection scheme should be ship-

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ping with Framework by the time youread this. It will enable PC XT ownersto install Framework on their harddisks and boot the program withoutthe floppy system disk.

Framework's critics point out theprogram's thirst for memory. You musthave 2 56K bytes, and 384K bytes ifyou install the telecommunicationspackage. You will probably want more.Spreadsheets, especially, take a lot ofRAM. And everything you do has toreside in memory. Framework has noautomatic spooling of memory con-tents to disk files as WordStar anddBASE do. As a Framework docu-ment, the original manuscript of thisreview occupied about 95K bytes. Asa straight ASCII text file, it reduced toabout 56K bytes.

Conclusions

If you need a tool to organize blocksof text, whether for a doctoral disser-tation or a collection of subroutines,one of the idea processors presentedhere could help you. Framework is byfar the most capable; it gets my votefor most valuable program. It doeseverything the other three programscan do and more.

ThinkTank and Executive Writer/Ex-ecutive Filer offer slightly differentsolutions to the problem of manag-ing textual information. As an outlineprocessor, ThinkTank presents a bet-ter way of organizing ideas into astructure for writing. Executive Filerhas with its cardfile a more flexibleretrieval system for large volumes ofinformation, and Executive Writer isa more powerful word processor.

THOR offers some capabilities fororganizing blocks of text, but its limi-tations and awkward implementationshould eliminate it from serious con-sideration.

We obviously have not heard theend from developers of idea pro-cessors. As information continues tooverwhelm us, we will have to usemore tools like these to keep it allstraight. ThinkTank, like VisiCalc, mayhave really started something bycoming up with an easy way to dosomething for which pencil and paperare inadequate. ■

350 BYTE- IUNE

Inquiry 54

Now ShowingIn Black And White

If you own an IBM-PCor PC work-alike,Roland's new MB-142monitor lets you show offyour text and graphics intoday's hottest colors-black and white. That'sright! The MB-142 givesyou black characters on apaper-white background-just like people have beenreading for centuries. Youcan also have white char-acters on a black back-ground with just the touchof a button.

Both of these black andwhite display formats areeasier on the eyes andless fatiguing than the greenor amber phosphor used instandard monochromemonitors. The MB-142'slarge 14-inch screen, com-bined with its ultra-high720 x 350 resolution,can display charactersthat are larger andmore legible than whatyou can get with ordi-nary monochromemonitors. Anothergreat plus is that theMB-142 plugs directlyinto the monochromeboard of your IBM or com-patible—just like your pres-ent monochrome monitor,with nothing more to buy.

Because of the MB-142'sadvanced electronic cir-cuitry, you even have theability to mix graphics andtext on the same displaywhen using graphics and textboards from leading manu-facturers such as Persyst,STB, Paradise, Hercules, ASTand many others. What makesit all possible? The samesophisticated technologyused in color monitors.

Inquiry 447

the MB-142supportsall thewinningcards

the big difference is> that the MB-142monitor does the job forsignificantly less money.The MB-142 is designedto interface economically,too. Imagine seeing yourfavorite business graphicsor CAD/CAM packages,such as Lotus 1-2-3, Ener-graphics, Chart-Master,AutoCAD, CADDraft andVersaCAD, in ultra-highresolution black andwhite. Also, take fulladvantage of your pro-gram's windowingcapability using the large14-inch screen.Take a good look at thedifferences that set theMB-142 apart from the rest.No other monochromemonitor gives you thefatigue-free black andwhite viewing, text andgraphics capabilitiesand easy interface.Naturally enough,the MB-142 is fromRoland DG-thenew computerperipherals companythat's pointing the wayto the future. Look forthis and other Rolandproducts at fine com-puter dealerseverywhere.For more information,contact: Roland DG,7200 Dominion Circle, LosAngeles, CA 90040.(213) 685-5141.

The software programs listed are trademarksof the following companies: AutoCAD,AUTODESK, Inc.; CADDraft, Personal CADSystems, Inc.; Chart-Master, DecisionResources, Inc.; Energraphics, EnertronicResearch, Inc.; Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Develop-ment Corp.; VersaCAD. T&W Systems, Inc.

IUNE

BYTE

Put your blue boxout to pasture.

Genesis Has Better Choices forSuperior 8086 Designs.

Genesis development tools turn yourIBM PC or compatible computer into themost flexible, comprehensive developmentsystem made for 8086-family designs.Genesis offers the widest choice of provenlanguages, superior debugging tools, andeven in-circuit emulators. It all starts withACCESS, the superior Genesis operatingenvironment that allows Intel's 8086 devel-opment software to run under MS-DOS. Andnot only do we sell ACCESS and all the Intellanguages for 8086 and 80186 designs —we also offer an ACCESS system for 8-bitdesigns as well.

Genesis Is Faster.

You get performance as well as flexibilitywith Genesis. For example, in our tests theASM 86 assembler running under ACCESS onan IBM PC AT runs 4.7 times as fast as theassembler on a hard-disk based Series IIIand an incredible eleven times faster than a

floppy-disk based Intel system. The ASM 86assembler we tested under ACCESS evenran 1.53 times faster than aVAX 11/782running competing cross-software.

Genesis Is Easier to Use.

Of course, Gene'sis offers more than speedof execution. The GeneScope family of sym-bolic debuggers and in-circuit emulatorsshare the most powerful and easiest to usehuman interface available today. GeneScopeoffers high-level macro facilities, an on-linesymbolic assembler, alphanumeric andgraphic support, and many more featuresthat make Genesis tools a better solutionthan other systems.

Genesis Costs Less.

With Genesis you get all the flexibility ofa personal computer and all the power ofexpensive dedicated development systems.You can get your products to market faster,at a fraction of the cost.

Is there really any reason to keep usingobsolete, expensive equipment — when youcan have Genesis instead? Quit chewingyour cud—give lis a call and find out howGenesis toolscan make I

your lifeeasier.

Genesis Has a Better Solution.

<

Microsystems

Genesis Microsystems Corporation

1% Castro Street

Mountain View, California 94041

Phone: (415)964-9001

Telex: 4998095 GENMS UI

Inquiry 194

AUXSSjtnd GeneScope su^MjIlrol&ta ofUenesis MKnis^smfcHYr.g'r?lJgcrect trademark iif frigid I^uipntfMCoi:

* ^JnH

SOFTWARE REVIEW

Convenience Software

TUp latPQf Editor's note: Bellsoft claims that Pop-Up and Pop-'" a Ups are trademarks of Bellsoft inc. in this article

the author uses the lowercase term pop-up to referto any memory-resident program that can be invokedpr02r3mS flt m]i ^me- including Spotlight and SideKick. Pop-Up refers to Bellsoft's specific programs.

in pop-up

by Mark J. Welch

Mark I. Welch is a staff writer forBYTE. He can be reached atMcGraw-Hill Publications. 425 Bat-tori) St.. San Francisco. CA 94111.

Until recently, microcomputersusually handled spreadsheets,word processors, and databaseprograms one at a time. Now that memoryis relatively inexpensive, a number of pro-grammers have developed software that letsthe computer run more than one programconcurrently or switch activities instantly.Some integrated software packages andoperating systems let you load and run twoor more standard applications at once.However, integrated programs are general-ly expensive in terms of money andmemory.

Lately, several companies have introducedrelatively inexpensive memory-residentpop-up programs that let you interrupt yourcurrent program to calculate, write notes,check an appointment calendar, look up aphone number and dial it, or execute DOS(disk operating system) functions.

Borland International's SideKick includesa programmer's calculator, a WordStar-com-patible notepad, an appointment calendar,an auto-dialer, and an ASCII (AmericanStandard Code for Information Interchange)table.

Software Arts, creator of the VisiCalcspreadsheet program, has introduced Spot-light, which includes an appointment book/alarm, a DOS filer utility, a phone book, anotepad, a calculator, and an index-card file.

Bellsoft's Pop-Ups are 10 programs ineight packages, including an alarm clock, anappointment calendar, a calculator, a clip-board, a notepad, a DOS filer, an auto-dialer, a computer-use log, and a telecom-munications program. Because the pro-grams are sold separately, they are in-dividually less expensive than SideKick orSpotlight and reserve less memory.

No two people have the same needs orpreferences. In microcomputing, this hasled to a wide variety of word processors,spreadsheets, and operating systems. Thesame applies to memory-resident pop-upprograms. I began looking at the programsbecause I needed a pop-up phone direc-tory. You might find a pop-up notepad moreimportant. Others might think that no pop-up program is useful unless it includes aspreadsheet, a feature I haven't yet found.

I'll try to identify my personal preferencesand distinguish them from more generalperformance problems. I'll also suggestwhat uses might be best for each programmodule. Rather than review each programseparately, I'll give an overview of each,summarize major issues, and comparesimilar modules of each package.

SideKick

SideKick is the oldest and, in my opinion,the simplest of the programs. SideKick costs$50, which is less than comparable pro-grams. It appears to be designed for pro-grammers. The manual is good and includesan index and a "Quick Starter" chapter.

SideKick's ASCII table is a programmingfeature that isn't included in any other pop-up program. It is valuable for programming,but it isn't helpful in any other application.

Spotlight

Spotlight is easily the slickest, best-pack-aged program, and it features the best—and least necessary—manual. I found Spot-light to be the most intuitive program to useand the most attractive on screen. Its phonebook and index-card file can each handleup to 36 directories with up to 500 entrieseach (disk space permitting).

Spotlight costs $150, but it includes fea-tures SideKick doesn't have.

Pop-Ups

Bellsoft chose not to bundle its programstogether and instead sells eight separate

{continued)

IUNE 1985

IYTE 353

REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

Pop-Up packages for $19.95 to$149.95 each. (Pop-Up Alarm Clock isavailable for $5 shipping and handlingand is bundled with each of the otherprograms.)

PopDOS ($39.95) is a DOS utility.Pop-Up Notepad ($39.95) includesseparate notepad and clipboard pro-grams (see photo 1). Pop-Up Tele-Comm ($79.95) includes Modem, a

telecommunications program, andVoice, an auto-dialer. Pop-Up Calen-dar ($19.95) and Pop-Up Calculator($39.95) are separate packages.

While SideKick and Spotlight fea-ture professional, typeset manuals,the Pop-Up programs include shorter,typescript manuals. Also includedwith each program is a quick-refer-ence card that duplicates its on-line

Table 1

Memory allocation for pop-up programs.

Product

Programs

Memory Requirements

Spotlight

Full system

75K bytes (minimum)Users can reserve more(128K bytes is enough to haveall applications on screen)

SideKick

Full system

60K bytes

No calendar

51K bytes

No notepad

40K bytes

Only calendar

and ASCII table

23K bytes

Pop-Ups

DeskSet Plus

155K bytes

Notepad

20K bytes

Clipboard

15K bytes

Calendar

24K bytes

Calculator

18K bytes

Alarm Clock

13K bytes

Modem

28K bytes

Voice

15K bytes

PopDOS

23K bytes

This is an exaaple of the Pop-Up

Notepad, Calculator and Calendar

t tlM IS

Enter ne* tine: 1

' plate

ilendar alread( MIR.MI fileCwisM I'M

hHtoatm

Press MJ-i to

Photo I: Bellsofl's Pop-Up programs are typical of the convenience software available.

help function. All three programs hadfairly good on-line help.

Memory Usage

Money isn't the only price you pay forpop-up programs. You must also sacri-fice part of your RAM (random-accessread/write memory). If you use a 64K-byte IBM PC or compatible, beware:Few of the pop-up programs will func-tion with another program running.While the programs can run in a 128K-byte machine, few applications willrun simultaneously unless you have192K or 2 56K bytes of RAM. A fewprograms might have problems eventhen. 1 used a 2 56K-byte IBM PC withtwo floppy-disk drives.

You can use more or less memorywith each program, depending onyour needs and available memory.Spotlight lets you reserve from 75K to128K bytes; 75K bytes is the minimumnecessary to run the program andwith 128K bytes you can load all theSpotlight windows on screen simulta-neously.

You can load SideKick in one of fourversions: the full system (60K bytes),everything except the notepad (5IKbytes), everything except the calcu-lator (40K bytes), or just the calculatorand ASCII table (23K bytes).

You load the Pop-Up programs sep-arately. Each one uses up from 13Kto 28K bytes. If you load all of themat once, 155K bytes are reserved (seetable 1 for each program's memoryallocation).

Other Factors

All three systems are designed for theIBM PC but will run on some compati-bles. 1 tested all the software on mySeequa Chameleon and all the pro-grams ran. However, Spotlight's copy-installation program didn't work, andscrolling fuzzy lines appeared when-ever I invoked a Spotlight window.Software Arts says it is developing ver-sions that will work properly oncompatibles.

SideKick is copy-protected. To makebackup copies or to install it on a harddisk, you must buy the unprotectedversion for $79.95. Spotlight is alsocopy-protected, but the program lets

354 BYTE

IUNE 1985

SideKick

Spotlight

AT A GLANCE

Name

Pop-Up Programs

Manufacturer

Bellsoft Inc.

Borland International

Software Arts

2820 Northup Way

4113 Scotts Valley Dr.

27 Mica Lane

Bellevue, WA 98004

Scotts Valley, CA 95066

Wellesley, MA 02181

(206) 828-7282

(408) 438-8400

(617) 431-6500

(800) 862-6262

(800) 255-8008

Features

Programs available separately

Calculator, notepad,auto-dialer, ASCII table,appointment calendar

Appointment book, DOS filerutility, phone book, notepad,index-card file, calculator

Computer

IBM PC or compatible with

IBM PC or compatible with 128K

IBM PC or compatible with 128K

64K bytes of memory, monitor,

bytes of memory, one disk drive,

bytes of memory, one disk drive,

and one disk drive

and monitor; IBM PCjr, SeequaChameleon, and BytecComtermHyperion owners must buyunprotected version

and monitor

Price

Pop-Up Alarm Clock $5

(or bundled with

all programs)

Pop-Up Calendar $19.95

Pop-Up PopDOS $39.95

Pop-Up Notepad $39.95

(includes Pop-Up

Clipboard)Pop-Up Calculator $39.95Pop-Up TeleComm $79.95

(includes PopModem,

PopVoice, Simplicity

Modem, and Simplicity

Voice)TaxLog plus Pop-Up $39.95

CalendarPop-Up DeskSet $59.95

(includes Calendar,

Notepad, Calculator,

PopDOS, and Alarm

Clock)Pop-Up DeskSet Plus $129.95

(includes all of above

plus TeleComm)

Copy-protected version $49.95Unprotected version $79.95

$150

you make up to three working copiesfrom the master on either floppy orhard disks. Spotlight also lets you"uninstall" in case you want to re-format a hard disk or add a hard diskto a machine. The Pop-Up programsfrom Bellsoft are not copy-protected.

Calculators

All three packages are supplied withstandard four-function memory calcu-lators. I found Bellsoft's Pop-Up Cal-culator to be the best for office workbecause it features a scrolling "papertape" that you can echo to the printer.It also includes a 10-number memory;SideKick and Spotlight have a stan-

dard 1-number memory. Pop-Up Cal-culator also has a dollar mode; if youenter 4567 in this mode, the screendisplays $45.67.

For programmers, SideKick's calcu-lator includes decimal, binary, andhexadecimal modes and can performconversions and logical functions(XOR, AND, OR). It also lets you useparentheses to specify the order ofcalculations. SideKick's calculator keysare located all over the keyboard. Forexample, the C key clears all entries,E clears the last entry, and the bottomsix function keys (F5 to F10) are forhexadecimal numbers A through F(the keyboard letters A through F

won't work as hexadecimal numbers).Spotlight and Pop-Up Calculator letyou paste (or feed) numbers into anapplication program. SideKick is a bitmore obscure; it lets you programkeys that insert the calculated valuewhen hit. With SideKick's method,you can reposition the cursor andprogram multiple keys with values, buta key is unusable until depro-grammed.

Alarm Clock/Appointment Book

The price of the Pop-Up Alarm Clockis certainly the best; it's available for

(continued)

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 355

AHH. IT S LONELY WT THE TO

#1

TWAs FIRST CLASS SLEEPER-SEAT- TO EUROPEAND THE AMERICAN EXPRESS* CARD PUT YOU COMFORTABLY AHEAD OF THE CROWD.

Success has its rewards. And TWAs First Class andthe American Express Card are two rather impressiveexamples.

In TWAs First Class you can select from a menuthat includes caviar and champagne. Entrees likeChateaubriand. And vintage wines like Puligny-Montrachet.

Then stretch out comfortably in a Sleeper-Seat,and sleep the flight away.

And as a First Class passenger, you'll be treatedaccordingly from the moment you first reach the air-port. With a separate check-in desk for your con-venience. And a special invitation to relax in TWAsAmbassadors Club" lounge before your flight.

And when you take the American Express Cardalong, you have an ideal travelling companion. Becauseit's known and welcomed all over the world.

So you can use it to pay for your TWA tickets, yourhotel, rental car, meals- ^mmmmmmmm.

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And of course, when you i^™* ' * w'carry the American Express H■ ' __„Card, you carry all the

cachet that comes with it. Don't leave home without it.

And do take TWAs First Class on your nexttrip to Europe. It's in a class by itself.

LEADING THE WM. TWA.

356 BYTE • JUNE 1985

REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

$5 shipping and handling from Bell-soft, as a sort of "free sample.'' Theprogram is quite limited; it only letsyou program alarms for one day at atime. It's also not easy to figure out;even with the on-line help, I had torefer to the manual. Two problems:The alarm message is too short, andit is erased after the alarm rings andthe window is put away.

Bellsoft also sells a separate Calen-dar program that lets you enter ap-pointment information. The Calendarprogram is extremely difficult tounderstand and use. I quickly aban-doned it because it has such limitedmessage space per day. The separa-tion of the daily alarm and the long-term calendar also reduced each pro-gram's usefulness.

The Alarm Clock includes an optionto feed the current date and time toan application. It can also generate a"timed feed," which passes a series ofkeystrokes to an application at a cer-tain time.

SideKick's calendar is much better;you can list appointments for eachhalf hour. However, the message lineis very short, and the daily calendarruns only from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Theprogram does not have an alarm fea-ture.

Spotlight's appointment book is myfavorite. It contains an alarm optionso Spotlight beeps 10 minutes beforean appointment. It lets you set ap-pointments far in advance. A weeklyevent (a staff meeting, for example)only needs to be programmed once.You can set the calendar to displayappointments only or to show all ap-pointments and every hour, half hour,or quarter hour. A vertical bar showshow long an appointment will last;bars also graphically show when morethan one appointment is scheduledfor the same time.

When a Spotlight alarm occurs, theprogram generates a unique tone (nottoo irritating) but doesn't display theappointment information. You have toinvoke the appointment window tofind out what caused the alarm. If analarm sounds when you're notaround, everyone else in the office

{continued)

How Do IChoose the

PersonalmputerMonitor?

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 357

Introducing the Most PowerfulBusiness Software Ever!

TRS-80"(ModelI,II,III,or 16)• APPLE"• IBM™• OSBORNE"• CP/M™• XEROX1

The VersaBusiness™ Series

Each VERSABUSINESS module can be purchased and used independently,or can be linked in any combination to form a complete, coordinated business system.

VERSARECEIVABLES1" $99.95

VERSaReceivables"* is a complete menu-driven accounts receivable, invoicing, andmonthly statement-generating system. It keeps track of all information related to whoowes you or your company money, and can provide automatic billing for past due ac-counts. VERSA RECEIVABLES" prints all necessary statements, invoices, and summaryreports and can be linked with VERSALEDGER IF" and Versa Inventory'".

VERSAPAYABLES™ $99.95

VERSA PAYABLES'" is designed to keep track of current and aged payables, keeping youin touch with all information regarding how much money your company owes, and towhom. Versa PAYABLES*" maintains a complete record on each vendor, prints checks,check registers, vouchers, transaction reports, aged payables reports, vendor reports,and more. With Versa PAYABLES*", you can even let your computer automatically selectwhich vouchers are to be paid.

VERSAPAYROLL™ $99.95

Versa Payroll™ is a powerful and sophisticated, but easy to use payroll system thatkeeps track of all government-required payroll information. Complete employee recordsare maintained, and all necessary payroll calculations are performed automatically, withtotals displayed on screen for operator approval. A payroll can be run totally, automati-cally, or the operator can intervene to prevent a check from being printed, or to alterinformation on it. If desired, totals may be posted to the VERSALEDGER IT" system.

VERSAlNVENTORY™ $99.95

Versa Inventory"" is a complete inventory control system that gives you instant accessto data on any item. VERSA INVENTORY™ keeps track of all information related to whatitems are in stock, out of stock, on backorder, etc., stores sales and pricing data, alertsyou when an item falls below a preset reorder point, and allows you to enter and printinvoices directly or to link with the Versa Receivables™ system. Versa Inventory7" printsall needed inventory listings, reports of items below reorder point, inventory value re-ports, period and year-to-date sales reports, price lists, inventory checklists, etc.

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Versa LEDGER IP" is a complete accounting system that grows as your businessgrows. VersaLedger IP" can be used as a simple personal checkbook register,expanded to a small business bookkeeping system or developed into a largecorporate general ledger system without any additional software.

• VERSALEDGER IP" gives you almost unlimited storage capacity

(300 to 10,000 entries per month, depending on the system),

• stores all check and general ledger information forever,

• prints tractor-feed checks,

• handles multiple checkbooks and general ledgers,

• prints 17 customized accounting reports including check registers,balance sheets, income statements, transaction reports, accountlistings, etc.

VERSALEDGER IP" comes with a professionally-written 160 page manual de-signed for first-time users. The VersaLedger IP" manual will help you becomequickly familiar with VersaLedger IP", using complete sample data filessupplied on diskette and more than SO pages of sample printouts.

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!

Every VERSABUSINESS'" module is guaranteed to outperform all other competitive systems,and at a fraction of their cosi If you are not satisfied with any VERSABUSINESS™ module, youmay return it within 30 days for a refund Manuals for any VERSABUSINESS™ module may bepurchased for $25 each, credited toward a later purchase of that module.

Write or call Toll-free (800) 43 1-2818

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* add $3 for shipping in UPS areas * add $5 to CANADA or MEXICO

" add $4 for C.O.D. or non-UPS areas * add proper postage elseivhere

Inquiry 202 *£^

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME

All prices and specifications subject to change Delivery subject to availabil

• TRS-80 is a trademark of the Radio Shack Division of Tandy Corp. - *APPLE is a trademark of Apple Corp. *IBM is a trademark of IBM Corp. - *OSBORNE is a trademark of Osborne Corp.

*CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research *XEROX is a trademark of Xerox Corp.

REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

must suffer through the noise withoutknowing where it's coming from.When Bellsoft's Pop-Up Alarm Clocksounds, it also pops up its windowand highlights the current alarm, anapproach I much prefer.

Telephone Options

I must confess a bias; I can't live with-out Spotlight's phone directory, lbfind a number, 1 can locate a cardalphabetically or search all cards forspecific information (Joe Smith or(212) 555-1212), so I don't have to ad-mit to callers that 1 don't rememberthem. The phone cards are the sizeand shape of Rolodex cards; I wishthey were larger, perhaps even a fullpage. It would also be nice to havedistinct fields so searching would befaster.

SideKick's auto-dialer is similar butit's designed with a very small single-line format, and you can edit informa-tion in the directory only by using theseparate notepad. Of course, SideKickcan auto-dial the number as well,something Spotlight can't do. Side-Kick's notepad lets you sort entries sothe auto-dialer phone list can be inorder. I prefer Spotlight's automaticalphabetizing and editing from withinthe phone book.

SideKick can include pauses in num-bers. This is useful if you have a PBXor long-distance service and have towait for a dial tone before continuingto dial. SideKick also required that 1reset my modem DIP (dual in-linepackage) switches. More irritating, Ihad to "install" a modem on SideKick.This involves selecting the COM1: orCOM2: ports. I think SideKick shoulduse COM1: as the default port for amodem.

SideKick's documentation indicatesthat when you invoke the auto-dialerit reads a phone number at the cur-sor and can auto-dial it. I could notget this function to work.

Bellsoft's PopVoice, included in thePop-Up TeleComm package, is a lim-ited auto-dialer. When invoked, it dialsa phone number located at the cur-sor; it also stores three most frequent-ly dialed numbers. The limit of only

[continued!

Will It Workwith Nty PC?

Before you can experience the fullcapabilities a high performancemonitor offers, it has to work withyour personal computer. That's whyPrinceton Graphic Systems makeshigh resolution monitors compatiblewith most popular brands of personalcomputers. IBM, Compaq, Corona,Apple and more. But we go one stepfurther. By paying close attention toergonomic detail, we make PrincetonGraphic Systems monitors compatiblewith you, the computer system user.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 359

1^

i\EAR2000,THE WORLD

may catch up with the way

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CompuServe's Electronic Mall™ letsyou shop at your convenience in allthese departments:

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Take the CompuServe ElectronicMall 15-Minute Comparison Test.

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The Electronic Mall™ is a service of CompuServe Inc. and L M. Berry & Company.360 BYTE- IUNE 1985

An H & R Block Company

Inquiry 97

REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

A pop-up notepadlets me save my ideasand continuewithout losingmy train of thought.

three numbers is intolerable. Also in-cluded with TeleComm is SimplicityVoice, a stand-alone auto-dialer. Itallows longer phone lists, but it isn'ta pop-up program.

PopModem, also part of the Tele-Comm package, is a pop-up telecom-munications program. It has oneproblem: Normally the Escape keystops PopModem's dialing, but not ifother keys are stored in the keyboardbuffer. Also, when PopModem getsno answer, it hangs up without anyscreen message.

I can't anticipate needing telecom-munications from within another task,given the amount of time most on-linesessions take. Usually I find myselfwanting a notepad when I'm on line,not the other way around.

Spotlight also includes an index-card program that is identical to thephone directory. I used it to keep asecond address list from the Spotlightphone book. While you can select anyof 26 separate lists for each of the twoprograms, I prefer to use the defaultfile.

Notepad/Clipboard

When I'm using an application pro-gram such as a word processor, ideasoften pop into my head completelyunrelated to what I'm doing. A pop-up notepad lets me save my ideas andcontinue without losing my train ofthought. In a similar vein, when tele-computing I often want to save some-thing I see. I can use features in mytelecommunications software to cap-ture incoming text, or 1 can use a pop-up clipboard feature to "clip" informa-tion from a screen.

[continued)

Does It GiveMeABrightSharp Image?

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IUNE 1985 'BYTE 361

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REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

Spotlight features a simple eight-page notepad. 1 find the page size toosmall but still use it fairly regularly,even from within a word processor.Spotlight can print or save either onepage or the entire notepad. It doesn'thave any way to paste or feed infor-mation into an application or to cap-ture it from a screen.

Bellsoft's Pop-Up Notepad is quitesimilar. It doesn't break its contentsinto pages; instead, it scrolls througha hundred 35-character lines. It canalso print or save the information,though not a page at a time.

Also included in the Pop-Up Note-pad package is Pop-Up Clipboard,which I find quite useful. Clipboardcan capture any part of a text screenfor editing and paste it back into anapplication. Clipboard can't save thetext to disk or print it out, but the pro-gram can paste information into theNotepad to be saved or printed. Theflaw in this approach is the 3 5-char-acter line length in the notepad.

If you're including a list of numbersin a document, you can even use theClipboard to feed the numbers intothe Calculator, using plus signs to endeach line, and then feed the Calcu-lator's result back into the word pro-cessor. One problem with the Clip-board is that it can feed informationto another application very quickly soit overloaded my word processor.However, when you load Clipboard,you can select the feed rate.

SideKick's notepad can also captureinformation from a screen, but it can'tpaste or feed information into an ap-plication. It can save information, butit has no print feature, which is quitefrustrating. You can vary SideKick'snotepad size to fill the whole screenor any part of it. SideKick's is morepowerful than the notepads in Spot-light or Pop-Up Notepad, and it in-cludes many WordStar features. Ituses the WordStar command struc-ture, which would be helpful to Word-Star (or Turbo Pascal) users.

DOS Filer/Utility Window

Spotlight includes a DOS filer that youcan use to view text files or sorted

[continued)

How AboutDependability?

You rely on your personal computersystem to help get your work done.That's why it's important to choose amonitor built for reliability. PrincetonGraphic Systems monitors are builtunder the highest quality control stan-dards, backed by a full one-year war-ranty and supported by a nationwideservice network* The result: monitorsthat perform when you need them,day in and day out. . .

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 363

REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

A problem might bethe locationof a pop-up windowon your screen.

directories: to erase, copy, or renamefiles: to format a disk: or to changethe current directory. It can also pastea selected filename, with drive andpath information, into an application.I found the filer useful in checking filesbefore uploading them and deletingfiles to make room on a disk duringword processing.

PopDOS performs most of the samefunctions. When displaying a file.Spotlight pauses as the window fillseach time: PopDOS requires that youuse Control-S to pause. PopDOS adds

the ability to print a file, a time-savingfeature I used several times. You canalso use PopDOS to send controlcodes to the printer. If you have anIBM graphics printer, the program canselect the typeface.

SideKick doesn't include a DOS utili-ty, but it can view directories fromwithin the notepad.

Some Considerations

The pop-up programs must be user-invoked. Spotlight uses Shift-Alternateand a mnemonic key command. ThePop-Up programs use Alternate anda key. SideKick uses Control-Alternateto invoke its main menu. If for somereason your program is looking forthese keystrokes (and I don't know ofany that do), the invocation won'twork.

Bellsoft's Pop-Ups use an Alternate-key combination (Alternate-N forNotepad, for example). This can

create problems, so Bellsoft lets youtype the Alternate-key sequencetwice. Then the Pop-Up programfeeds the Alternate-key to the applica-tion program.

SideKick normally requires a two-step process to invoke a program.First, you must press Control-Alternate to bring up the SideKickmenu. Pressing a particular letter keybrings up a program, and the Escapekey puts the program away. If you useone program a great deal, you can putit away with the Control-Alternate se-quence: when you next type Control-Alternate, SideKick immediately re-stores the pop-up program you lastused.

Another problem might be the loca-tion of a pop-up window on yourscreen. All the programs let you movethe windows around the screen, butyou can locate Bellsoft's Pop-Ups only

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IUNE I985 -BYTE 365

REVIEW: CONVENIENCE

in a limited number of locations. Spot-light loses track of your preferredlocation when you put a windowaway, the next time you invoke it, itappears in its original place.

Spotlight's disk must be present inthe system at all times, since its pro-grams and some data are stored ondisk. SideKick also accesses the diskfor data files. The Pop-Up programsnever access the disk once loaded ex-cept to load or save a file at your re-quest. The Pop-Up programs also popup or go away more quickly. Spotlightcan be installed on a hard-disk sys-tem, as can the Pop-Up programs:however, hard-disk users need to buy

an unprotected version of SideKick.

In my opinion, Spotlight's programsuse the best mnemonics, since eachmatches an abbreviation. SideKick in-cludes both a calculator and a calen-dar: rather than calling the calendaran "appointment book" as Spotlightdoes, SideKick uses the letter L(caLendar). Bellsoft chose the letter Bfor clipBoard, but I often triedAlternate-C and got the Calculator.Bellsoft calls its Calendar a Dates pro-gram, so the command is Alternate-D.

You might decide you like some fea-tures of one program and other fea-tures of a different program. It ispossible to have Spotlight, SideKick,

New Versions

Since BYTE originally received thesoftware covered in this review,new products and improved versionsof older products have appeared.Here's the latest information I have asthis review was written.

Pop-Ups

Bellsoft has combined all its programsinto the Pop-Up DeskSet and the Desk-Set Plus (see the "At a Glance" pagefor a list of all the programs included).Another new package is TaxLog plusPop-Up Calendar. The TaxLog program,resident on your work disk but not inRAM, lets you keep a daily log of yourcomputer use.

Spotlight 1.1

Software Arts has released version 1.1of Spotlight. Its major enhancement isthe addition of an auto-dialer to thephone-book accessory program. Otherchanges include user-selectable colorsfor each accessory and support for MS-DOS 3.0 (including formatting IBM PCAT 1.2-megabyte disks) from the fileraccessory. The company said it wouldsend a free copy of the new programto every registered user of Spotlight1.0.1 had not yet received Spotlight 1.1when I wrote this review.

PCWINDOW

PCwindow is a less sophisticatedmemory-resident program, but its price

makes it quite attractive: it's free. Itsauthors are distributing it using the"user-supported software" approach.You can copy the program freely, andthe authors only ask that users sendthem a check for what they thinkPCwindow is worth ($10 is suggested).Going a step beyond the usual user-supported software approach, the pro-gram's authors also offer a copy of thesource code for $30.

PCwindow is less sophisticated thanthe other programs reviewed. It hasthree components: a one-page note-pad, an ASCII (American StandardCode for Information Interchange) table,and a clock/timer/alarm. The notepadlets you edit messages on a single 78-character by 12-line page. You can readnotes from or save them to disk files(you print by "saving" to the MS-DOSfile/device prn). The clock/timer/alarmincludes an alarm that rings once at thedesignated time and a timer accurateto one second (if your PC keeps poortime, so will this program).

By the time you read this. PCwindowshould be available through manyusers groups and other sources ofpublic-domain and user-supportedsoftware. You can also get a copy ofthe program by sending a self-ad-dressed, stamped, disk-mailingenvelope and a formatted 5 '/4-inch diskto Creative Freeware Unlimited, POB10047, Columbia. MO 65205.

and some Pop-Up programs residentat the same time. However, Spotlightcan be interrupted by SideKick, butnot by some Pop-Up programs. Side-Kick permits either Spotlight or a Pop-Up to interrupt it. The Pop-Up pro-grams won't permit any other pro-gram to interrupt them. It was im-possible to install all the pop-up pro-grams simultaneously in a 2 56K-bytemachine—they won't fit.

Summary

Each of these programs has good fea-tures (for an update, see the text box"New Versions" at left). A program-mer looking for an ASCII table or acalculator with hexadecimal andbinary capabilities will want SideKick.If you want to keep track of your cal-culations, you'll prefer the Pop-Up Cal-culator's tape feature.

If you want a sophisticated phonedirectory, you will probably find Spot-light the most helpful of the threeprograms.

Users who need to be able to cutinformation from an application won'tconsider Spotlight. If they also needto paste the information back, they'llforget about SideKick in favor of Pop-Up Clipboard. 1 wish one pop-up pro-gram combined the Pop-Up Clipboardfeatures with the ability to print andsave to disk.

I've settled on a combination ofSpotlight and Pop-Up Clipboard. Mypreference for Spotlight is based sole-ly on its phone-book feature, which 1need for work. At home, I prefer thePop-Ups and SideKick, since I do pro-gramming in addition to activitieswhere the Clipboard would come inhandy.

Someone suggested to me thatsome of these programs shouldn't benecessary. The DOS utilities, for exam-ple, merely compensate for programsthat can't take advantage of MS-DOSfeatures. The calculator shouldn't benecessary within a word processor,since word processors would be bet-ter if they included a calculator op-tion. But since everyone can't affordto own ideal software—even if itexists—it's good to be able to pop upa compromise. ■

366 B YTE • IUNE I98"i

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370 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 440

A knowledge-engineeringtool for theIBM PC

by Bruce D'Ambrosio

SOFTWARE REVIEW

Building ExpertSystems with M.l

Bruce D'Ambrosio (555 TWsa St.,

San Lorenzo. CA 94580) is

studying for his Ph.D. in computer

science at the University of

California at Berkeley.

Would anyone of sound mind andbody pay $12,500 for an IBMPersonal Computer (PC) pro-gram? An individual, no—but a company,maybe. If the program helped to design andbuild expert systems, maybe becomes might.If the program also included a trainingcourse in knowledge engineering, mightbecomes probably. Teknowledge, a start-upartificial-intelligence (AI) company boastingthat its founders constitute "one-third of theentire world's knowledge engineering ex-pertise," hopes to convince companies anx-ious to explore knowledge engineering thatits new product, called M.l, is worth sucha hefty investment.

M.l is not just a program but a carefullycrafted product that provides companieswith a moderately priced alternative (com-pared to hiring an AI professional and buy-ing a LISP machine) for exploring knowl-edge engineering. It consists of a one-weektraining course, an extensive set of trainingmaterials, and the M.l program itself. Noone of these three items can be consideredin isolation because the strength of theproduct comes from the design and integra-tion of the entire package.

M.l clearly shows Teknowledge's exper-tise in all aspects of both knowledge engi-neering and the technology-transfer prob-lem. At the same time, there are some dis-turbing flaws in the execution of the prod-uct, flaws that would be understandable ina $200-$300 package but are as out ofplace here as a door that won't close on anew Rolls Royce.

M.l—The Concept

Knowledge engineering is an outgrowth ofa technology developed in AI labs in thelate 1970s known as "expert systems." Thistechnology's basic goal is to free the expertfor other tasks or to transfer an expert'sproblem-solving skill to a computer-basedknowledge system for easy applicationwhen the expert is unavailable. One prob-lem with this approach is that building ex-

pert systems requires an extensive timecommitment from an expert, typically sixmonths to two full years.

The Teknowledge approach recommendsthat rather than attempt to build expert sys-tems, knowledge engineers concentrate on"knowledge systems," systems that containless rare, but no less useful, knowledge.

M.l is intended for what Teknowledgedescribes as a "structured selection" prob-lem, one of the best-understood problemsin AI. The signs of a structured selectionproblem, as described in the M.l course,are that it can be solved in a 20-minutephone consultation with an expert, it doesnot involve the use of diagrams or plans(such as circuit schematics), and the recom-mended solution is chosen from a smallnumber of options (a few dozen at most).A goal of the course is to bring the knowl-edge-engineer trainee to the point wherehe understands this characterization ofM.l's intended applicability well enough torecognize problems within his own com-pany that meet these criteria. In this thecourse succeeds well. Indeed, the courseis at its best when discussing the subtleissues of problem selection and design, andit shows Teknowledge's broad experience inthis area.

But is this enough? Or is this so limitedan area of applicability as to render M.luseful only for trivial problems? Here,Teknowledge's ambiguity regarding M.l isapparent. When asked directly whether ornot M.l is capable of supporting knowledgesystems complex enough to be worth field-ing, the official Teknowledge answer seemsto be "Yes, sort of, well, maybe. . . ."Teknowledge can't really seem to decidewhether M.l is a demonstration system in-tended for training and evaluation of thetechnology or a really useful tool in itself.

M.l is designed for the junior to mid-leveltechnical professional, typically with at leastone or two years of programming experi-ence. There is another aspect to the ideal

[continued)

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 371

REVIEW. M.l

AT A GLANCE

NameM.1

Type

Expert-system toolkit

Manufacturer

Teknowledge Inc.525 University Ave.Palo Alto, CA 94301

Format

41/2-day course, threedocumentation volumes, one5'/)-inch floppy disk

Computer

IBM PC, PC XT, and PC AT orcompatible

Features

Inference engine, debuggingtools, and sample knowledgebases

Documentation

Reference manual, trainingmanual, descriptions ofsample knowledge systems

Price

$10,000 for M.1 software andmaterials plus $2500 forcourse

Audience

Companies interested inexploring expert-systemstechnology and rapidprototyping of expert systems

Ml trainee. M.l can be thought of asa programming language, but withreservations. In programming-lan-guage terms. M.l supports a non-procedural language. Teknowledge em-phasizes that M.l knowledge baseshave declarative, as well as pro-cedural, semantics and must be con-sistent from both perspectives. Eachstatement must make sense by itselfand express some "fact" that youcould say to someone when teachingthat person about the problem area.What all this means in terms of choos-ing candidates for the M.l training isthat an extensive but narrow data-processing background may in fact bean impediment to learning some ofthe concepts embodied in M.l, Agood, solid exposure to computerprogramming and computer scienceconcepts, together with a general"liberal education." would be better.In particular, some exposure to thebasics of mathematical reasoning andlogic would be beneficial. M.l showsthe best preparation for the futuremay not be a crash course in the cur-rent technology (for example, the"computer literacy" craze) but rathera sound education in the old-fashioned "basics."

M.l—The Course

The course I attended (l actually at-tended only for a total of 12 hours)ran from Monday to Friday. It wasabout half lecture and half "hands-on"laboratory experience, with the lec-ture portion a mix of knowledge-engi-neering principles and M.l mechanics.The pacing was quite relaxed, and Irarely felt that I had less time thanneeded to complete the laboratorysections of the course. There werethree trainers for the six attendees:the architect of M.l, Steve Hardy ofTeknowledge, was the primary lec-turer, and the two main programmerson the M.l development team servedas laboratory assistants, guiding usthrough the exercises and answeringany questions. Hardy has all the at-tributes to make a superb lecturer:flair for teaching, enthusiasm for hissubject, and absolute command of hissubject matter, both M.l in particular

and knowledge engineering ingeneral. It was not clear that he wouldcontinue teaching the course (the ses-sion I attended was only the secondtime the course had been given), andI think it would be a loss should hedelegate that task to others.

Each attendee had exclusive use ofan IBM PC for the laboratory exer-cises. The course starts with a generaldiscussion of M.l, what it is and whatit can do, and then proceeds alongtwo interwoven tracks. Lectures andexercises introduce increasingly com-plex features of M.l, and the re-mainder of the course covers variousaspects of knowledge engineering,both theoretical fundamentals andpractical wisdom. Both parts of thecourse are excellent.

The instructional component of theM.l product is by far its strongest. Thematerial is organized and presentedsuperbly, and there are many gems ofwisdom scattered through every lec-ture. Anyone attending this courseshould take careful notes, or perhapsuse a tape recorder (Teknowledgepermitting), because the documenta-tion for M.l does not meet thesesame standards.

The course clearly communicatesthe essence of knowledge engineer-ing in a way I have seen no book do.

M. 1 —The Documentation

The M.l documentation comes inthree 3-ring binders. The first containsthe transparencies used during thelectures (about 2 50 slides) plus somediscussion material. The second con-tains listings of five sample knowledgebases that are part of the M.l pack-age. The third is the M.l referencemanual. While the volumes are nice-ly bound, reproduction quality is poor(but not bad enough to seriouslythreaten the readability of the text).The volume containing the slidesserves as an outline to organize yournotes around. It also provides a wayto effectively reduce the cost of M.l.Once a trainee has completed thethree-month training program, he canin turn train others. The slides providea detailed record of topics and theorder in which they were covered, and

372 BYTE- ]UNE IQ8S

REVIEW: M.l

the text of the exercises does a goodjob not only in describing each assign-ment but also in making clear whatthe student is supposed to be gettingout of it.

The volume containing the five in-creasingly complex sample knowl-edge bases is also well done. Thisvolume includes text describing eachof the laboratory exercises done usingthe sample systems as well as a com-plete listing of each sample knowl-edge base.

The first is called Wine and is a sim-ple wine advisor, criticized in priorreviews of M.l. The point of this sys-tem, however, is not sophisticationbut simplicity. It is the simplest pos-sible system that could be written inM.l to serve as an introduction. Twovariations of Wine follow, Vine andCwine. They differ from Wine solelyin their use of increasingly sophisti-cated features of M.l; they encodemore or less the same knowledgeabout wine.

Next is a knowledge base calledBanker. Banker represents the level ofcomplexity the trainee is expected tobe competent at upon completion ofthe three-month M.l program. It con-tains about 150 rules and facts andadvises clients on banking services.At the end of a consultation, Bankerrecommends a combination of ac-counts most suitable for the particularclient (for example, regular checkingplus money-market savings).

The final sample system is an ex-cerpt from Sacon, an early, landmarkexpert system. The most complicatedof the sample systems, it serves as abenchmark demonstrating use of themost complex features of M.l.

These samples are crucial for under-standing knowledge engineering andM.l, and they should be studied care-fully. Effective utilization of M.l relieson the user developing an intuitivefeel for proper style; some of theissues remain unclear until you actual-ly encounter them in attempting toconstruct a system of your own. Atthat time it is invaluable to have a setof samples to refer to.

The M.l reference manual is ade-quate. One reason I suggest careful

note-taking is that not all featuresdescribed in the course are clearlydocumented in the manual. Were M.la $500 product, 1 would praise themanual as quite adequate. However,as the price rises, so do expectations,and this manual does not meet them.

M.l—The Software

The software, while only one compo-nent of the total M.l product, is themost crucial. {Editor's note: A second ver-sion of M.l, called MAa, costs $2000 andis a scaled-down version of the program; it'ssuitable for developing prototype M.l applica-tions. M.l a cannot interface to other softwareand is not suitable for developing complexsystems. | Overall, the software is solidin concept. Again and again this prod-uct demonstrates Teknowledge's clearunderstanding of practical knowledgeengineering. However, its executionhas many minor flaws, as I will explain.In concept, it clearly owes much toEMYC1N, developed by the HeuristicProgramming Project at Stanford

University and the first "productized"knowledge-engineering system. How-ever, M.l incorporates many dif-ferences, and it certainly is not mere-ly a straightforward implementation ofEMYCIN for the IBM PC.

The major architectural componentsof M.l are a knowledge base, an in-ference engine, and a cache (seefigure 1). The knowledge base is builtby the knowledge engineer and con-tains the facts and rules needed forthe specific application. The inferenceengine is the software that "reasons"using the facts and rules provided inthe knowledge base. The cache is amemory-resident database in whichconclusions are stored as they occur.

The knowledge representation (lan-guage for expressing rules and facts)in M.l is based on a subset ofpredicate logic. While this is hiddenfrom the knowledge engineer by aneasy-to-understand syntax, there areseveral consequences nonetheless.

{continued)

ARCHITECTURE OF M.l

Figure 1: Block diagram of the components of M.

IUNE 1985

IYTE 373

Inquiry 74

An IEEE-488 interface for allIBM-PC's and COMPATIBLES

VERSATILE

Easy-to-use commands for allIEEE-488 (GP-IB, HP-IB) functions.

Resident firmware supportsBASIC, Pascal, C, and FORTRAN.

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Supports Tektronix* StandardCodes and Formats.

Print listings, plot graphs, and useLotus 123'" with IEEE-488peripherals.

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Tektronix is a trademark of Tektronix, Inc.

REVIEW: M.

Logic-based representations areknown for completeness and rapidprototyping rather than speed of ex-ecution. M.l, true to this tradition, isslow: It can evaluate about one logicalinference every 2 seconds (by my verycrude estimates). But this is adequatefor a typical consultation-style system;in the sample systems, I spent muchmore time thinking about answers toquestions than I did waiting for pro-gram execution.

Another consequence of the logicbasis of M.l is that knowledge struc-ture is implicit rather than explicit.While this is a rather technical point,an important result is limitation of thesystem's ability to provide any knowl-edge-base construction tools to aidthe knowledge engineer. This doesnot seem to concern Teknowledge,however. The company has made noattempt to provide construction toolsof any kind (as I'll explain).

A very interesting feature of M.l isthat the rule language has been ex-tended to be a complete symbolicprogramming language. You neverhave to use any other language inbuilding a knowledge base with M.l.Most rule-based systems (EMYC1N,for example) provide "hooks" to the

underlying language (LISP in the caseof EMYCIN) so that you can codedirectly in that language any functionsand tests that cannot be easily ex-pressed in the rule language. This isunnecessary in M.l. Any internal com-putation that can be expressed in anyprogramming language can be ex-pressed directly in M.l's rule lan-guage.

M.l's rule language provides cer-tainty factors using a modification ofthe "bounded sum" evidence-combination technique used inEMYCIN. Certainty factors are a stan-dard technique for representing par-tial information within an expertsystem. (Here's an example. 1 usuallyprefer sweet wines, but I sometimesprefer a medium-dry wine. This couldbe expressed in M.l as: Sweet CF 75,Medium CF 30). One distinction be-tween rule-based systems and moretraditional methodologies, such asdecision trees, is this ability to reasonwith partial or uncertain information.M.l's implementation of certainty-factor calculations is fairly straightfor-ward and intuitive. One potentialproblem is the handling of negation(if the client does not like sweet wine,then. . .). Negation is handled in a

Photo I: The windowed screen display of M.

374

IUNE 1985

Inquiry 239

REVIEW: M.I

way that generates discontinuousresults and is likely to produce con-clusions unexpected by the knowl-edge engineer.

M.l has a set of debugging tools in-cluding an "instrument panel," a setof four windows that appears at thetop of the screen (see photo 1) anddisplays the current activity of thesystem. One window shows the goalthe system is currently trying toachieve, a second shows the rule cur-rently being considered, a third showsthe conclusions the system hasreached, and a fourth shows the legalresponses that can be made to thecurrent question. The instrumentpanel is a wonderful idea, but it'ssomewhat limited in its utility by thesmall size of the windows. Teknowl-edge strongly recommends use of acolor display, and the panels do looknice in color, but they also workperfectly well on the monochromescreen of my Corona PC. In additionto the instrument panel, a set of in-quiry commands is available once arule base is loaded into M.l. The WHYcommand displays the rules leadingto a conclusion, the SHOW commandinterrogates the cache (the placewhere conclusions are stored), theUSES command displays all rules thatreference a particular fact, and theLIST command lists entries in the rulebase. There are some minor incon-sistencies in the arguments thesecommands take and when they canbe used, but nonetheless they arequite handy. Also, you can save thecurrent state of a consultation on diskand retrieve it later, helpful in inter-rupted debugging sessions as well asin saving test cases.

You can make small changes to therule base using a simple add/delete/replace facility within M.l. However,the utility of this facility is limited bytwo things. First, only entire rules canbe added, deleted, or replaced. M.lsample systems contain many rules of5 to 15 lines in length, an awkwardamount to key in simply to make aminor change. But even worse, thesechanges are made only to the copyof the rule base in memory. The onlyway to update the file copy of a rule

base is to exit from M.l, start up yourtext editor, and edit the file. Indefense of M.l, it would be almost im-possible to write a knowledge-baseeditor that more than two peoplewould like. Nevertheless, the lack ofeffort in this area seems to be a majorweakness of M.l.

Another deficiency I find in M.l isnot being able to add any documen-tation that can appear during a con-sultation. Rules are displayed in theform in which they were entered bythe knowledge engineer. Teknowledgeclaims the rule syntax is so flexiblethat self-documenting rules can bewritten. (The same claim was oncemade for COBOL.) Similarly, you canask why a question is being asked (andsee the rule that is being considered),but there is no mechanism for pro-viding you with more informationabout what is being asked. (For exam-ple, M.l asks for the client'spreference in wine "body." What if theclient doesn't know what body is?)

[Editor's note: The latest version of MA pro-vides an OPTIONS command that promptsthe user with a list of acceptable answers toa question. This version also provides a methodto call M.l from high-level languages like Cso that knowledge bases can be integrated withexisting applications to add intelligence todatabases or spreadsheets. M.l's most recentversion also can generate executable knowledgesystems for distribution.]

Conclusion

M.l is a fascinating product. Thecourse, the sample systems, and thesoftware combine to form an ex-cellent introduction to the capabilitiesof rule-based systems. For those withthe money to spend, M.l providesguidance to ensure that the knowl-edge-engineer trainee does not spendmonths or even years in a blind alleydue to a misunderstanding of thenature or purpose of rule-basedsystems. Nonetheless, serious defi-ciencies in the current software leadme to conclude that M.l, at least inits present state, is best considered anevaluation and training tool and nota product for developing knowledge-based systems that can be put in thehands of naive users. ■

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 375

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Inquiry 158

JUNE

SYTE 377

w.

WordPerfect is

just that

At SSI, we face a monu-mental challenge; living up tothe name we gave our wordprocessing software. After allwith a name like WordPerfect,the product had better mea-sure up. Obviously if s doingjust that For good reason.

Simplicity.

Most WordPerfect functionsrequire only one keystroke, asimple press of „

a finger. Andcomprehensive,well-writtendocumentation

text No matter how fast youtype, WordPerfect won't slowyou dowa

PC World

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can t

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In addition tostandard word -/processing functions,WordPerfect includes severalcomprehensive, useful featuresnot found on many wordprocessors. Like a 100,000-word phonetic dictionary;--Mjv. multi-page foot-

Speed.

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i

Get the word processor

that s living upto its name.WordPerfect.For moreinformation, seeyour dealer.Or call or write:SSI Software288 West Center StreetOrem, Utah 84057Information: (801) 224-4000Order Desk 1-800-321-4566,Toll-free

V*

SSISoftware

Reaching for perfection.

378

I YT E • JUNE 1985

Inquiry 364

HARDWARE REVIEW

Hewlett-Packard'sHP 7475A Plotter

An accurate

and versatile

machine

by Rich Malloy

Hewlett-Packard's six-pen plotter,the HP 7475A, can plot not onlyon the familiar 8/2- by 11-inchr~l paper but also on 11- by 17-inch paper. The

grapniCS 7475A has a suggested list price of $1895(the original price of its two-pen pre-decessor, the HP 7470A, which now has asuggested price of $1095). It's about thesame size as a wide-carriage dot-matrixprinter and is somewhat lighter. Paper isdriven in and out of the plotter by specialrollers having a high-friction surface. Thispaper movement in and out of the plotterforms one dimension of pen movement.Moving the pen across a track above thepaper surface forms the second dimension.

The plotter is available with either of twointerfaces. The one we received has anRS-232C serial interface with a DB-2 5 con-nector that's very easy to reach. Right nextto the connector is a group of eight tinyswitches used to control the serialparameters and some of the plotterdefaults. The HP 7475A is also availablewith a connector for the HP Interface Bus(HP-IB) for direct connection to other HPcomputers and devices. The model with thisconnector costs the same as the serialversion.

On the right side of the plotter is a seriesof push buttons to control the plotter.Several of these buttons are used to movethe pen position. Others change paper sizeand move the pen up or down manually.Two indicator lights signal error conditions.On the left side of the plotter is the pencarousel, a spool-like unit that has slots forsix pens, which are loaded in much thesame way as bullets into an old Colt .45revolver. The carousel gets its namebecause it rotates to place a new pen intothe moving pen holder.

Each pen slot has a rubber pen cover tokeep the ink from drying out. You can easilyremove the carousel to make quick penchanges. And you can buy extra carouselsand load them up with pens of other colors.

Speaking of pens, Hewlett-Packard sent us

Rich Malloy is a senior technical

editor for BYTE. He can be

contacted at BYTE. 43 rd Floor.

1221 Avenue of the Americas.

New York. NY 10020.

two types. Both types had felt tips. One kindwas fairly fine (0.4 mm) and came in a varie-ty of colors (black, red, green, blue, violet,etc.). The other kind was broader (0.7 mm)and came only in black.

Plotting

The HP 747 5A is controlled by a series ofcommands in the Hewlett-Packard GraphicsLanguage (HP-GL). All HP plotters use thiscontrol language, although the low-endunits may not be able to execute all of thecommands.

An HP-GL command consists of a two-letter verb usually followed by a numericargument or two. For example, the se-quence

PA 100,300

PD

PA 400,700

PU

draws a line from point 100,300 to point400,700. PA stands for "move to absolutepoint," and PD and PU mean "pen down"and "pen up," respectively.

The coordinate system is very large andeasy to use. On an 8'/2- by 11-inch page, youcan access any point within a 10,080 by7520 matrix. In addition, you can scalethese points to match your requirements.For example, instead of a coordinate systemof 10,080 by 7520, you can set up a matrixof 640 by 200 to match your computer'svideo screen. Also, you can use relativecoordinates.

The HP-GL commands can be generatedfairly easily on your computer with simpleBASIC commands. After a little experimen-tation, you can draw circles, arcs, dottedlines, and boxes filled with various textures(see figure 1).

Performance

Watching the HP 7475A draw a picture isjust short of fascinating. The pen is fast, and

[continued]

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 379

REVIEW: HP 7475A

AT A GLANCE

Name

HP 7475A Plotter

Manufacturer

Hewlett-Packard9606 Aero Dr.San Diego, CA 92123(619) 279-3200

Size

5 by 22.4 by 14.5 inches; 16 pounds

Price

$1895

Computer Needed

Any computer with serial or HP-IB interface

Features

Six pens, fast pen speed, high-qualitycharacter set

Paper Sizes

8V2 by 11 inches; 11 by 17 inches

pen changes are made quickly and ac-curately. A moderately complex graphtakes about 1 to 3 minutes.

There are a few things I would im-prove on the HP 7475A, however. Itcan be quite noisy even when it's notdoing anything. Also, I would like akey for aborting a bad plot. For exam-ple, suppose you forgot to put theright color pens in the carousel; youcould probably stop your graphicssoftware, but the plotter would con-tinue until it emptied its input databuffer.

Text

With a plotter, of course, you can drawany text character you want, but thisrequires a bit of programming. Tomake things easy, most low-cost plot-ters (including the two-pen HP 7470A)are programmed to be able to pro-duce the standard ASCII (AmericanStandard Code for Information Inter-change] characters. Unfortunately, tosave memory space, most of thesecharacters look fairly crude; for exam-ple, the numeral 0 may look like anoctagon.

One of the nice features of the HP7475A is its high-quality character set

GRAPHICS IMPROVES COMMUNICATION

SALES REVENUE DISTRIBUTION

IV

ADMIN 1%

■'M.

MANI w%

DIVIDEND HISTORY

Figure I: Graphs and text produced by the HP 7475A. This test plot is automaticallyproduced by a ROM [read-only memory) chip in the plotter.

(see figure 1). These characters can bedrawn at any height, width, or inter-character spacing.

If I had more time with this plotterI would write a BASIC program thatprints text characters in a flowingscript font. This would let me print ahandwritten note—or a close facsimilethereof. Well, I didn't have enoughtime to program all the characters ina script font, but I did create a shortprogram using the preprogrammedcharacters. This program, in effect,turned the plotter into one of theslowest printers around (about 3characters per second). But the quali-ty of the characters was very close tothat of a daisy-wheel printer, and Icould print them any size I wanted.

Compatible Software

In the very likely event that you do nothave enough time to write your ownsoftware, you need not despair. Alarge amount of software should beavailable to drive the HP 747 5A.Because of the popularity of the olderHP 7470A plotter, almost everygraphics program written for micro-computers comes with a driver for it.Since the 7475A is compatible withthe 7470A. it too can use this soft-ware (of course, this software cannottake advantage of the 7475As extracapabilities). Hewlett-Packard, how-ever, has been very successful in get-ting the major graphics-softwarehouses to write drivers especially forthe 7475A.

Other Features

Although 1 did not get to try this, theHP 7475A can be used as a digitizerof sorts. Instead of holding a pen, thepen holder can grip a set of crosshairs equipped with a magnifier. Youcan then insert a map, for example,into the plotter and, using the arrowkeys on the control panel of the plot-ter, move the pen holder to a specificpoint of interest. If you have yourcomputer set up to give the plotter acertain command, it will respond withthe coordinates of that point.

Another feature I have not tried isthe ability to use a wide variety ofpens. The HP felt-tip pens are fairly

380 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 98

REVIEW: HP 7475A

Photo 1: Hewlett-Packard's six-pen plotter, the HP 7475A.

good, but they do not produce a lineof sufficient quality to be used in amagazine, for example. HP claims,however, that certain art stores selladapters that enable you to attachtechnical pens to the pen holder.These pens are the same as thoseused by graphic artists, and whenused at a slow speed on the plotter,they should produce high-qualitylines.

Interfacing

The HP 747 5 A comes in two versions:one with an RS-232C serial interfaceand one with an HP-IB daisy-chain-type interface. I didn't use the HP-IBversion of the plotter, but I tested theserial version with the IBM PersonalComputer and the Tandy Model 100.It worked fairly well with both systems.For the IBM, there's a special nullmodem cable that switches pins 2 and3 and 6 and 20. The plotter uses pin6 to signal when its input buffer is full(which happens very quickly).

Unfortunately, the Model 100doesn't read pin 6 or 20 and keepsright on sending information to theplotter even when the buffer is full,causing some strange-looking plots.The only way I could get the plot tocome out right was to slow down myhomegrown graphics program with

frequent pauses. According to theplotter's documentation, it can usethe XON/XOFF protocol to signalwhen its buffer is full, but I couldn'tget this to work.

Documentation

By computer standards, the HP747 5As documentation is good. Itcovers all aspects of the plotter, itsorganization is coherent and logical,and the presentation is professional.My only complaint has to do with thechapters on interfacing. A few moreexamples and some simplified phras-ing would have helped immensely.

The documentation includes in-structions for interfacing the plotterwith all the major personal computers(except the Tandy Model 100).

Conclusions

The HP 7475A six-pen plotter is apowerful, accurate, versatile, and af-fordable graphics machine. It is welldesigned and well built. Its perfor-mance is practically flawless, and itseems to be expandable.

I wish the plotter had a key foraborting a bad plot. Another nice ad-dition would be an automatic paperfeeder—but for that you'll have to buythe new HP 7550A plotter for a signif-icantly higher price, about $3900. ■

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lYTE 381

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In just the last few months, The NETWORK has Listed below are just a few of the over 20,000 products availablesaved its members more than $24,000,000 and at our EVERYDAY LOW PRICES! All software below is priced inprocessed over 100,000 orders. IBM-PC format.

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On our corporate roster are some of the nation's largestfinancial industrial and professional concerns including someof the most important names in the computer industry:

AT&T

Barclays Bank

Bell & Howell

Citibank

Columbia University

Data General

Exxon

Farm Bureau Insurance

Frontier Airlines

General Mills

General Electric

General Motors

Gillette

Hewlett Packard

Hughes Aircraft

IBM

ITT

Kodak

Multimate

United Nations

Yale University

Veteran's Administration

plus thousands of satisfied consulting firms, small businesses,user groups, municipalities, government agencies and value-wise individuals ACROSS THE NATION! Their buyers knowthat purchasing or renting from PC NETWORK saves themtime, money and trouble. They also count on us for productevaluation, professional consultation and the broadest spec-trum of products and brands around.

t

CALL TOLL FREE1 -800-621 -S- A- V-E

In Illinois call (312) 280-0002Your Membarehip Validation Number: B365

You can validate your membership number and, ifyou wish, place your first money-saving order overthe phone by using your VISA. MASTERCARD orAMERICAN EXPRESS. Our knowledgeable serviceconsultants are on duty Mon-Fri 8 AM to 7 PM, SAT9 AM to 5 PM CST.

. PERSONAL COMPUTER NETWORKI 320 West Ohio

Chicago, Illinois 60610Call now . . . Join the PC NETWORK and start saving today!

PC NETWORK • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

YES! Please enroll me as a member in the PC NETWORK'- and rush mycatalog featuring thousands of computer products, all at just 8% aboveDEALER WHOLESALE PRICES. I will also periodically receive "THEPRINTOUT", a special up-date on merchandise at prices BELOW even thosein my wholesale catalog, and all the other exclusive, money-saving servicesavailable to Members. _ I I

365 |

I am under no obligation to buy anything. My complete satisfaction isguaranteed. Please check (****) all boxes that apply:

Basic Membership

With 14 Days Rental

□ One-year membership for $8

□ Two-year membership for$15(SAVE$1)

D Business Software RentalLibrary tor $25 add'l. peryear-with 14 day rentals

□ Games Software RentalLibrary for $10 add'l. per year

□ Bill my credit card: □ VISA

AccountNumber:

Exp. Date.

Special V.I.P. Membership*

With 3D Days Rantal.

□ One-year membership for $15

□ Two-year membership for $25(SAVE $5)

G BOTH Business and GameSoftware Rental Libraries for $30add'l. per year—with 30 day rentals*VIP members receive advancenotice on limited quantitymerchandise specialsG MasterCard □ American Express

mo. year

G Check or money order enclosed for $ _

Name

Address

City

)-

_ State _

_ Apt. No. Zip

Telephone (

My computers) is: G IBM PC G IBM-XT □ IBM-AT G Apple ID Macintosh □ Other _

Signature

(Signature required to validate membership)Copyright © 1984. PC NETWORK, INC

ES & EDUCATK

(Please add S

shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

Wholesale

Wholesale

Bluebush Chess (Your Toughest Opponent) S

34.00*

Sierra On-Llne King's Quest

S

27.00*

Bluechlp Millionaire/Oil Baron or Tycoon

31 75"

Sierra On-Llne Crossfire

8.00*

Broderbund Lode Runner

9.75"

Sublogic Night Mission Pmbali

23.00"

CBS Goran-Bridge Made EasyCBS Mastering the SAT

tsoo-

+-

Spinnaker Alphabet Zoo

5.97'

31.00'

►•

Spinnaker Delta Drawing

24.97*

Hayden Sargon Hi

26.97"

ft-

Spinnaker Face Maker

5.97*

"ft Infocom Zork 1 or Witness

20.50'

ft

Spinnaker Hey Diddle Diddle

5.97*

tft Infocom Deadline, or Suspended

27.00'

»

Spinnaker Kinder Comp

5.97*

Microsoft Flight Simulator

27.00"

ft-

Spinnaker Rhymes & Riddles

5.97*

Mouse Systems PC Paint-Turn your

59,95-

ft-

Spinnaker Story Machine

5.97*

PC into A Color Macintosh'

ft

Spinnaker Most Amazing ThingVirtual Comblnatics Micro Cookbook

20.77*

Scarborough Mastertype

27.00*

21.00'

BUSINESS S

(Please add S2.50 shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

ATI How to use Multimate

S 42.00'

Micro Pro Wordstar 2000

$222.00*

ATI How to use Microsoft Word

12.00"

MIcroRim RBase 4000

219.00*

ATI How to use Lotus 1 -2-3

12.00-

Microsoft C Compiler

275.00*

ft- Ashton-Tate

1

0 DC

ft

**• AshtonTate

3

o.oo-

Microsoft Multiplan

105.00'

Ashton-Tate Friday'

151.00*

Monogram Dollars & Sense

102.00-

Borland Side Kick (Protected)

J6.00'

ft-

Multimate '.

32.00*

**- Central Point Copy II PC

20.00'

Oasis The Word Plus

WOO*

Conceptual Instruments Desk Organizer

157.00*

Open Systems P 0 Sates A/RINV G/L AP Team Mgr 325.00- ea.

Digital Research CP'M-86

13.00-

Real World G/L A/P A'R P/R or OE/INV

387.50'

Digital Research DR Logo

,7.00*

Rosesoft Prokey Version 3

"4.00*

Digital Research PUI Compiler

399.00*

Ryan McFarlandflM COBOL fDev System)

570.00'

Enertronlcs Energraphics with Plotter Option 235.00*

ft-

Samns. i

270.00-

Funk Software Sideways

34.00*

ft

Satelite Software .'.

209 00'

1

35.00-

Softcraft Fancy Fonts

125.00-

Howardsoft Tax Preparer 1985

177.00*

Sottstyle SET-FX

J5.00-

"ft Hayes

S8.00'

Software Publishing PFS File

72.00-

► Human Edge

137.50'

Software Publishing PFS Report

34.00*

-ft Human Edge

1

),' 50'

Software Publishing PFS WriteSoftware Publishing PFS Graph

72.00*72.00-

J6.75*

265.00'

The Software Group Enable

417.00'

Lotus Development Symphony

385.00*

TCS Total Ledger

440.00-

MDBS Knowledgeman

245.00*

Verbatim Disk Drive Analyzer

25.00'

HARDWARE

(Please add shipping ant

handling charges found in italics next to price.)

COMPLETE SYSTEMS

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

Apple Macintosh Base System

CALL

Apparat 256K Memory Boara with b4r\ S

81 00

(1 75)

Apple Apple tic

CALL

Apparat Combo 11 wsen'par:game/

115.00

12 48)

Apple Apple lie

Columbia Desktop & PortaPte Systems

CALL

clock istwr

CALL

Apparat AT Ram Expansion card

136.00

(2 50)

*ft COMPAQ

S2.51t.50

ft*

AST Six-Pack Plus with 64K

222.00

(2 50)

' ' ■ ■ ■

AST I/O Plus II

120.00

(2 50)

Compaq All ModelsDATA General DG ONE

CALL

AST Advantage tor AT

CALL

1,999.00*

(43.20)

ft

EVEREX Magic Card 64K

128KH Drive "The Real Portable"

»- IBM

1,495.02

ft- IBM

1 906.62

■ -

r*> OB'.;hiu ■ ■

200.00*

(2 50)

IBM PC/AT All Conligs

CALL

Quadram Improved Quadboard w'OK

199.00

<2 50)

Sayno MBC 550 'Lowest Cost Compatible

620.00*

(1339)

■ft Tecmar Captain Multifunction Card 0/

146.00

(2 50)

Sayno MBC 775 Color Portable IBM Clone

1,775.00*

(38 00)

PRINTERS

2 Drives/Color MonitorI256K

Texas Instruments Professional

CALL

ft-

Citizen'.'1 S

310.00

DISK DRIVES & CONTROLLERS

ft-

Citizen M>

455,00

ft- PC Network

S 459.00

■

■

■ ■ . ■

ft

■

440 00

►* Maxtor 140MB External Auto Booting

4,900.00*

(106 00)

ft

C'tuen '.'

575 00

Drive with Controller for PC

Maynard Mainstream 20MG Tape Backup

950.00'

(20 52)

C. Itoh F10/40 Starwnter 40 CPS LQ

875.00*

(1890)

Maynard Floppy Disk ControllerMaynard WS-1 10MB Internal Hard Disk

92.00*

(2 50)

C.ltoh Prownter 8510 AP

285.00*

(6 16)

770.00*

(18 15)

Comrex CR420 420 CPS DP/LQ Printer

,533.00'

(33 12)

Maynard WS-2 same as WS-1 but with

930.00'

(20 30)

From the Epson Organization

Sandstar Floppy Controller (uses 1 slot)

219 00

Maynard Floppy ControilenSerial Port

145.00*

(2 50)

Panasonic Halt Height DSDD Drive Pan

145.00*

(3 W)

ft

Epson

319.00

145.00

ft

Epson

Epson LQ1500

Epson IBM-to-EPSON Parallel Cable

453.00CALL21.00'

(1 00)

■- Tandon TM 100-2 hull Height DSDD Drive

93.00*

(2 20)

ft-

NEC

61500

Tallgrass 25MB External/Hard Disk

2,445.00*

(46 44)

ft

NEC

615.00

with 60MB Tape Backup

ft

NEC

.125.00

ft- Teac FD 55-8 Half Height DSDD Drive Pair

180.00*

(3 90)

*ft

NEC -',.-;

222.00

Western Digital "Cobra" Hard Disk Controller 175.00*

(2 50)

ft

Okidata '

200.00

MEMORY CHIPS

ft

OWoatsV

340.00

•■ 64K Memory Upgrade Kits

$ 13.05

ft

Oktdala .

109 00

ft- 64K Dynamic Ram Chipsft- 256K Dynamic Ram Chips

1.45

5.75

Okidata NEW' IBM Interface tor Okimate

69.00*

(1 50)

»• 128K AT Mother Board Chips,

1 j 50

color 20

MODEMS

Anchor Mark XIIAnchor Volksmodem 300■ft Hayes Smartmodem 2400

LATEST IN COMMUNICATION TECHNOL

Okidata ML84P 200CPS 132 Col

620.00*

(13 40)

S 230.00'47.00*568.00*

OGY>

(5 00)(TOO)(5 00)

Okidata ML93P '60 CPS Wide PlatenOkidata 24 'OF Pact-mark 350CPSQume Sprint 11140 40CPS Letter QualityQume Sprint 11 /90 90CPS Letter Quality

New' Fastest Daisywheet Out'Qume IBM Cable and Interlace (required)

550.00*.640.00*.155 00*CALL

111 88)135 42)(24 00)

Hayes Smartmodem 1200B with new

Smartcom II VT100 EmulatorHayes Smartmodem 1200Prometheus Promodem 1200External 100% Haves Compatible

325.92'

(2 50)

72.00-

(100)

361.25*279.00*

(5.00)(6 00)

Silver Reed EXP 400 10CRS Letter QualitySilver Reed EXP 500 18CPS Letter Quality■*■ Texas Instruments 855 DP/LQ w/Tractor

230.00*280.00*679.00*

(4 99)(6 05)(14 70)

21 f) 00

Toshiba P 1340 80 Col Version otP-1351

530.00*

(11 45)

VIDEO CARDS

ft- U.S Robotics

525.00

Hercules Color Card wiParallel Port $

145.00*

(3 20)

MONITORS

Amdek video 300G Composite GreenAmdek Video 300A Composite AmberAmdek Video 310A IBM Type AmberAmdek Color 300 iNEW>) CompositeAmdek Color 600 (NEW) High Res RGB

ft-

Hercules Monochrome Graphics Cards

273.00*

(2 50)

S 110.00*120.00"130.00*215.00-395.00*

(3 00)(3 00)(3 00)(4 64)(8 53)

ft-

Paradise New Modular Muttidispiay CardPersyst Bob Card Ultra High Res Color

Carp with Mono Quality Text in ColorSTB Graphix Plus II NEW

(Simultaneous Mono Graphics & Color)

244.00*365.00*

235.00*

(2 50)(2 50)

(5 00)

Amdek Color 700 (NEW) Ultra High ResAmdek Color HO (NEW) 700 wiNon

455.00*485.00'

(9 83)(10 48)

ft

ACCESSORIES AND SUPPLIES

Brand Name DSDD Diskettes S 14.00

Glare/Long Phosphor

Princeton HX-12 RGB Monitor

CALL

32 50

Princeton MAX-12 IGB Mono

CALL

ft

PC Network ■

lasitu

Princeton Sfl-12 Ultra Hioh Res RGB

CALL

'■'■■■-

ft- Quadram

370 00

. ■

■

1

SMA PC Documate neyooard Templates tor

9.99*

(100)

ft- Samsung

89 50

Lotus/DBASE'Multimate and others (Each)

■' :

WP Printer Paper 2600 Sheets

17.00*

(10 00)

Microfine Perls (invisible when torn)

Taxan 420 Super High Res RGB MonitorTaxan 440 Highest Res RGB (720x400)

380.00'

(8 21)

525.00'

(11 34)

•PC NETWORK Members pay just 8% above the wholesale

Currently Available Works With Persvsl Bob Card

prtce. plus shipping AH in.

Zenith ZVM-123 Green High Res

76.00'

[2 50)

■ ■■

(Consumer Reports Rated Best Buy')

king riays lo clea'

tRENT BEFORE YOU BUY —Members are eligible to join The NETWORK'S Business and Game Sortware

Rental Libraries and evaluate products for a full 14 (Regular) or 30 (VIP) days to see if it meets your needs.

And The NETWORK'S rental charges are far less than other software rental services — JUST 20% OF THE

MEMBER WHOLESALE PRICE We feature over 1.000 available titles tn IBM Apple MAC and CP M

tats. Hardware prices highhted by ■*»*• reflect recent maior price reductions

COMPLETE

PC SYSTEMS

NETWORK

(32.55)

$1,906.62'

.Jigs]

(42.87)

IBM PC BASE SYSTEM A. .__ __4

IBMPCW/256K $1,495.02 (32.55

Floppy Drive Controller

2 Double Sided Double Density 320I360K Disk DrivesYour lowest cost starting point for the system of your choice. Combine it with any of themonitors, video cards, multifunction cards and accessories listed in this ad. and proveThe NETWORK can't be beat

IBM PC PROFESSIONAL A „ ^„

HARD DISK SYSTEM $1,906.62* (42.87

IBM PC W/256K

Floppy Drive Controller

1 Double Sided Double Density 320I360K Disk Drivew/Half Height Disk Subsystem.

Halt Height 10MB Drive Allows Roomfor Addition ol Tape Backup in PCI

IV, limes faster than XT

Automatic Hard Disk Boot Feature.Increase productivity in any business or professional situalion. The 10MB hard diskeliminates cumbersome floppy disk changes, simplifies operations and dramaticallyspeeds program execution time. The NETWORK'S buying power provides you with betterthan XT performance at a price lower than you'd expect to pay for a standard PC.

'PC Network Members pay just 8% above this wholesale price plus shipping.These prices have been prepared in April, 1985 and may have been changedwith new product announcements. Call for latest prices.

COMPAQ ™ HARD DISK SYSTEM (+ )—

PORTABLE HARD DISK SYSTEM

w/256K/Floppy/10MB Hard Disk $2,511.50 (54.24)

FEATURED PRODUCTS!

64K MEMORY EXPANSION KITS $ 13.05

Set of 9 chips Guaranteed tor Life. Quantity Discounts Available.

LOTUS 1-2-3 265.00*

DBASE III or FRAMEWORK Best Price!!!. 310.00*. INTERNAL PC 10MB HARD DISK 459.00*

tow Hawfi Automatic Bool works on standard PC's. Includes drive/controller/cables mounting hardware & instructions Full one year warranty!We use our clout with Brand Name suppliers like COGITO MMI TandonFujitsu Miniscribe Shugart and others to bring you the best products at theLowest Price in the Business! Call on the brand of your choice.

Va HEIGHT DS/DD DISK DRIVES 145.00* (Po

2 drives wlmounting hardware & complete instructions.

Just like our hard disks featured above. The Network buy's direct and makesfantastic deals with manufacturers like MPI Tandon CDC Shugart QumeTEAC and others to bring you fantastic prices and Name Brand drives foryour PC/AT/XT or Jr/or Compatible, yes, this price is lor two drives!!

EPSON PRINTERS Unbelievable Low Prices.'.'.'

LX-80 80COL/100CPS 219.00*

FX-80 80COL/160CPS 319.00*

FX-100 132COL160CPS 453.00*

AST SIX-PACK PLUS w/64K 222.00*

Fantastic Price!!!

EVEREX MAGIC CARD/64K 160.00*

Full six Pack Features—Game Port included Extra SoftwareFantastic Price!!!

HAYES 1200B 325.92*

with new Smartcom IIIVT100 Emulator

• BRAND NAME DISKETTES 14.00*

DS/DD Box of 10 Guaranteed for Life Not GenericTANDON TM100-2 FULL HEIGHT DRIVE 93.00*

160.00*

325.92*..14.00*

.... 93.00*... 130.00*... 235.00*

AMDEK V31OA IBM TTL AMBER 130.00*

STB GRAPHIX PLUS II 235.00*

Both Mono and Color Card wi'printer port. Run either Monitor type or both at once!

Gives 16 Colors wi Lotus

'NETWORK members pay just 8% above these wholesale prices plus shipping

CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-621-S-A-V-E (-3X)

• only *In Illinois call (312) 280-0002 validation code B365

TM—Registered trademark of IBM and COMPAQ

...WITH THESE 15UNIQUE BENEFITS

1COST + 8% PRICING —The NETWORK purchases mil-lions of dollars in merchandise each month. You benefit inreceiving the lowest price available and all at just 8% abovepublished dealer wholesale price.

2 OUR 600 PAGE WHOLESALE CATALOG—Members re-ceive our 600 page wholesale catalog containing over 20,000hardware and software products for the IBM PC, APPLE and over50 other popular computer systems. THE NETWORK'S CATA-LOG IS THE LARGEST SINGLE COMPILATION OF PERSONALCOMPUTER PRODUCTS AVAILABLE TODAY. NOW UPDATEDQUARTERLY!

3 IN-STOCK INSURED FAST HOME DELIVERY —TheNETWORK maintains a giant multi-million dollar inventoryof most popular products, allowing us to ship many orders fromstock. Non-stock items are typically maintained in local ware-houses just days away from The NETWORK and YOU. We pay allinsurance expenses on your shipment. EMERGENCY OVER-NIGHT SERVICE IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.

410 DAY RETURN POLICY —If you are not satisfied, forany reason with any hardware component purchased fromThe NETWORK within 10 days of receipt, we will refund yourentire purchase (less shipping) with no questions asked.

5 MEMBERSHIP SATISFACTION GUARANTEE—If forany reason you are not satisfied with your membership within30 days, we will refund your dues IN FULL.

6 EXPERIENCED CONSULTANTS—The NETWORK hiresconsultants, not order takers, to aid you in product selection.Our consulting staff possesses in excess of 150 man years of per-sonal computer product experience. We back our consultantswith our money back guarantee: IF ANY PRODUCT RECOM-MENDED BY OUR CONSULTING STAFF FAILS TO PERFORMAS PROMISED —WE WILL TAKE IT BACK AT OUR EXPENSEFOR A 100% REFUND.

7 FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT—The NETWORK supportsevery product it sells. Our qualified TECH-SUPPORT staff willhelp you assemble your system, interpret vendor documentationand get your software and hardware to work. WE WILL GIVE YOUALL THE HELP YOU NEED, WHEN YOU NEED IT —FREE!

+ Q OPTIONAL BUSINESS RENTAL LIBRARY—All mem-O bers can join our BUSINESS RENTAL LIBRARY featuringover 1000 available titles for just $25 PER YEAR above the basemembership fee This entitles you to rent business software ATJUST 20% Of the DISCOUNT PRICE FOR A 14 DAY PERIOD. Ifyou decide to keep the software, the entire rental fee is de-ducted from the purchase price. VIP MEMBERS GET A FULL30 DAYS for just $30 above the V.I.P. base fee. This also In-cludes the game library privileges for a $5 combinationsavings.

tQ OPTIONAL GAME SOFTWARE RENTAL LIBRARY —

5# The Game Rental library is available to members for just $10PER YEAR and permits evaluation (or just enjoyment) of anygame or educational software product as above.

1ft SPECIAL SAVINGS BULLETINS—THE PRINTOUT\r —Issued Quarterly at no charge to Network members only1The Printout contains all the New Product listings and pricechanges you need to keep your Catalog up to date Aiso, we buyexcess dealer inventories, and store bankruptcy closeouts, whichwe turn around and make available to our members at fantasticsavings via THE PRINTOUT.

14 DISCOUNT BOOK LIBRARY—Working with numerousI publishers and distributors, The NETWORK has assembleda library of over 1000 computer related books and manuals at sav-ings of up to 75% from the normal store price.

1Q MEMBERSHIP REFERRAL BONUS—Our most valu-£• able source of new members is you! To date almost 40% ofour members have been referred by word of mouth from other sat-isfied members. For those of you who refer new members, TheNETWORK will credit a cash bonus to your account applicable toany future purchase.

IO CORPORATE ACCOUNT PROGRAM—Almost 50% ofO The NETWORK'S members are corporate buyers and users(see opposite page left). The NETWORK can establish openaccount status and assign designated account managers to ex-pedite orders, and coordinate multiple location shipments.

1A QUANTITY DISCOUNTS—For large corporations, clubs,*T and repeat or quantity buyers The NETWORK can extendadditional single order discounts, when available to us from ourmanufacturers and distributors.

1C PRICE PROTECTION—The PC Industry is crazy!! Pricesyj change not yearly or monthly or even weekly but often dayby day! These changes are sometimes up but are mostly down!!!THE NETWORK GUARANTEES THAT IN THE EVENT OF APRODUCT PRICE REDUCTION, BETWEEN THE TIME YOUPLACE YOUR ORDER AND THE TIME THE PRODUCT SHIPSYOU WILL ONLY PAY THE LOWER AMOUNT!!

Inquiry 322

Here's The Sawy-est True Dual Trace 10 MHzDigital Storage Scope You Ever SawAt The Saving-est Pri

WftlMJIlMMW*]

PP

LogicScope "iJSJlii

UPPER iTRACE

1 ' 1 ' 1 '

1 1 '

I i I i I i l i I i

Jj

-r-^—H-—1 ■ i—■—H—1

AUTO SEEKUNCAL

1 1

1 ■ i ■ 1 ■ 1 1 1

I I i I 1 .

III.

1 i 1 i 1 . 1 i 1 i_

LOWERTRACE

ROY UNC

TRIGD UNCAL

1

10 US MS SEC

•

TIMFPERDIV

I ♦FAST

SLOW*

TRIGGER

TIME BASE AMO SAMPLE RATE

The Handy New LogicScope™ 136

True Dual Trace • 10 MHz Real Time Bandwidth • 3 Input Channels • I/O Port

Digital Waveform Storage • Boolean Waveform Operations • Audio Functions

8.0 (L) x 4.5 (D) x 1.75 (H) Inches • 1.25 Pounds • 9 Volt Battery/AC Operation

Consider the LogicScope 136

■ The LogicScope 136 is the next logical step in test instru-mentation for you. It combines many of the features and capa-bilities of sophisticated logic analyzers and oscilloscopes . . .and it fits in your hand. Never before has so much technologybeen available in so small an instrument, at such a low price.

■ The pocket-sized LogicScope 136 is made possible by apatented breakthrough in display technology. The conven-tional CRT has been replaced by a unique array of 400 LED'sthat permits simultaneous display of two digital waveforms.

■ The 136 can be used for viewing single shot events, orrepetitive waveforms. It can be operated in real time mode, orin memory mode which permits acquisition and storage of up to50-100 bit waveforms. These can be recalled, logically com-pared (AND, OR, EXCLUSIVE OR) to other input waveforms,or output to an external device via an I/O port. This I/O portwill also accept future add-on 136 Modules.

■ Its very low cost, convenience and ease-of-use make theLogicScope the ideal instrument, for designing, troubleshootingor repairing digital systems. Made in U.S.A.

384 BYTE' IUNE 1985

Consider its Engineering & Field Service Applications:

■ On microprocessor-based systems, check the timing rela-tionship of various parameters relative to the system clock andother key events. Its storage capability allows visual and logi-cal comparison of non-repetitive waveforms to known refer-ence signals. Output in the start-up of the digital device can becompared to reference signals to determine the operating stateof the device. Questionable waveforms can be stored for analysis.

■ Its light weight and small size make the LogicScope conven-ient to take on every service call. The 136 provides much moreinformation for trouble shooting a digital system or peripheralthan a logic probe or digital counter without having to lug anoscilloscope or logic analyzer along.

Contact us for the name of your local distributor

poccel lEo-noLOGV, inc.

7320 Parkway Drive, Hanover, MD 21076 U.S.A.301-796-3300 TELEX 908207Division of Renaissance Technology Corp.

Inquiry 329

HARDWARE REVIEW

The IBMQuietwriter Printer

Quietly

elegant

M

by Jon R. Edwards

\on R. Edwards is a technical editorfor BYTE. He can be contacted atPOB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

ost letter-quality printers I haveused are slow, loud, and expen-sive. IBM's new Quietwriterprinter (see photo 1) is not inexpensive atOUtpUt $1395, but it is neither slow nor loud.

The unidirectional printer uses an in-novative thermal-transfer process tosimulate letter-quality printing while main-taining excellent font flexibility, acceptablespeed, and a conspicuously quiet perfor-mance that justifies its name. For someusers, the printer's most important featurewill be the cartridge-based fonts, each ofwhich can generate letter-quality output ofthe entire IBM character set.

Description

The IBM Quietwriter is large, solid, and wellconstructed. It measures 21 by 6 by l4'/2inches and weighs 22 pounds without theoptional pinwheel form feeder. The housingis an off-white, high-impact plastic. The frontof the unit includes five membrane keys, fiveLEDs (light-emitting diodes) to indicate thestatus of the printer, and 10- 12- and 15-character-per-inch (cpi) rulers. The on/offlever is on the top left. To the right are thepaper-release lever and the paper bail.

The Quietwriter, which comes with a stan-dard Centronics-compatible parallel inter-face, uses unidirectional printing with fric-tion paper feed and a special IBM Quietnoncorrecting ribbon. The maximum print-ing width is 13 inches. The Quietwriter hasno option for a serial interface.

Unlike other thermal-transfer printers withprint heads that apply heat to the ribbon,the Quietwriter applies an electrical currentto the ribbon, which heats internally. Thetechnique, which IBM calls a resistive-ribbonthermal transfer, apparently speeds theprinting because the print head does notneed to cool between characters.

The print head contains 40 vertical circuitsthat form characters in a dense matrix asthe carrier assembly moves across the page(see photo 2). In 10 pitch, the matrix is 36by 40: in 12 pitch, it is 30 by 40; and in 15

pitch, it is 24 by 40. The print head pressesagainst the ribbon, selectively forcing thefour-layer ribbon to release ink in responseto pinpoints of current. A polymer materialheats up in the pinpointed areas. A metallicconducting layer then melts a third layer(another polymer), which releases thefourth layer, the film of ink. The technologyallows for correcting ribbons, although theage of word processing does not requirethem.

The printing process is amazingly quiet.Carriage returns are the loudest part of theoperation, save for the three warning beepsthat occur when the printer runs out of rib-bon, runs out of paper, or cannot sense thefont. The beeps effectively gain the user'sattention, but I'd prefer a quieter warningmore in keeping with the printer's name.

The five membrane keys on the front ofthe printer are easy to read and use. TheStop and Start buttons control on-line andoff-line status. The other front buttons(Paper Up, Paper Down, and Form Feed)function when the printer is off line. Also,when the printer is off line, the Stop but-ton becomes a Code button that providesa second, related function when used inconjunction with the other buttons: PaperUp and Paper Down work incrementally(rather than continuously), and Form Feedbecomes Form Feed Set.

All the keys work properly and easily.However, the only way to clear the buffer,which holds about a page of text, is to turnthe printer off and then on again.

Technically, the Quietwriter is a dot-matrixprinter but its characters appear as clearand clean as most letter-quality output (seefigure 1). All the characters are well formed;the dense matrix permits pleasant fontswith impressive curved detail on many char-acters.

Currently, IBM offers four fonts for theQuietwriter: Prestige (15-cpi), PrestigeElite (12-cpi), Courier (10-cpi). and Bold-face (12-cpi), which provides proportional

[continued]

1UNE 1985

IYTE 385

REVIEW: QU1ETWRITER

spacing. It's simple to insert the fonts,which come in matchbox-size car-tridge form, and you can switch be-tween two installed fonts with a com-mand from the computer. The printerhas two font holders; even when notin use. the second font holder pro-vides handy storage. The printer givesvisual and audible warnings if fontsare improperly installed

Printing speed depends upon thefont. Benchmark tests, which involvedprinting 4000 characters (50 lines of80 As each; see "The Art of Bench-marking Printers'' by Sergio Mello-Grand. February 1984 BYTE, page193). gave results of 2 5.2 charactersper second (cps) for the 10-pitch font,29.4 cps for the 12-pitch font, and33.7 cps for the 15-pitch font. Thetimes are well below press announce-ments of 40 to 60 cps, but the speedsare acceptable.

When you need to change the rib-

bon or if there are problems in the rib-bon mechanism, the printer againgives audiovisual warnings, goes offline, and gives you a chance to changeor fix the ribbon. The $12 ribbons areencased in sturdy plastic.

At first I had some small problemswith the ribbon, which tended to forma crease at the top and occasionallycut off the tops of letters. I quicklybecame proficient in loading the rib-bon properly and keeping it taut dur-ing installation, but I noted that thecreased ribbon did not activate theribbon warning. Changing the ribbon,at first a chore, now is quick andsimple.

The paper bail rolls the paper intothe printer quickly and easily, but Imiss having a roller knob to give memore direct control over the platen.The addition of the optional pinwheelform feeder would obviate the needto load paper before every use.

This

is the COURIER

font (10 pitch)

This

is the

PRESTIGE

ELITE font

(12 pitch)

This is the PRESTIGE font

(15

pitch)

This

is the

BOLDFACE

font (12

pitch)

Figure I: Samples of printout from the IBM Quietwriter using the four availablecartridge fonts.

Photo I: The IBM Quietwriter with the optional pinwheel form feeder attached.

The printer offers a contrast controlswitch with three settings to allow forchanges in paper, ribbons, or climate(see photo 3). I got the best resultswith the contrast control set in thehighest position. In the lower posi-tions, using standard white printerpaper, characters were unevenly thinor thick, and parts of some charactersoccasionally did not print. In thehighest setting, 1 experienced thesame problems but quite rarely. Thefinal output was always very good.Note that different contrast settingshave no effect on the benchmarktimes for each font.

IBM claims that print-head life is op-timized on the lower contrast settings.and that the higher position causesthe print head to wear out sooner.The latter might be the price usershave to pay for acceptable printer out-put. New print heads cost $20. IBMrecommends using its Quiet cleaningcartridge to preserve the head's life,which IBM rates in excess of4.000.000 impressions.

Through the use of printer controlcodes, the printer allows switchingbetween fonts, superscripting andsubscripting, setting and clearing ofhorizontal and vertical margins andtab stops, and variable line feeding.I had no difficulty subscripting, super-scripting, or underlining using PC-Write. To print in boldface, you haveto use the appropriate control codeto switch to the separate boldfacefont (available only in 12 pitch).

Without the optional pinwheel formfeeder, printing multipage documentsis likely to require the auto-stop func-tion, which stops the printing at theend of every page. You only order thefunction once; it remains active untilthe computer resets the printer or youturn it off.

Options

Serious office use will require theQuietwriter's optional pinwheel formfeeder ($75), which supports formswith widths between 3 and 15 inches.The form feeder is easy to install anduse. It locks directly onto the platenshaft and has a cable that plugs into

(continued)

386 B Y I E • IUNE 1985

AT A GLANCE

Name

IBM Quietwriter printer

Manufacturer

IBM National Distribution

Division

1000 Westchester Ave.

White Plains, NY 10604

(800) 426-2468

Type

Dot-matrix printer with letter-quality output

Size

21 by 6 by 14'/? inches

Weight

22 pounds

Computer

IBM Personal Computer orcompatible with a Centronics-type parallel interface

Features

The printer buffer holds 1800characters. All four cartridgefonts, including Courier (10pitch), Prestige Elite (12 pitch),Prestige (15 pitch), andBoldface (12 pitch) print theentire IBM character set.Ribbons have an approximatecapacity of 160,000 charactersdepending on pitch used.Supports underlining,subscripting, andsuperscnpting

Documentation

120-page guide to operations

Price

$1395

Options

Pinwheel form feeder $75Additional fonts $50 eachAdditional ribbons $12 eachAdditional print heads $20each

v

PRINT SPEED (CHARACTERS/SEC)

0 12 24 36 48

LIST PRICE ($100)60 0 6 12 18 24 30

IBM QUIETWRITER

Tl MODEL 855

TOSHIBA P1340

This is the

IBM QUIETWRITER printer.

This is the

Texas Instruments Omni 800/

This is the

Toshiba P1340 in high-quality

A comparison of the Quietwriter printer with theTexas Instruments Omni 800/Model 855 printer(see January BYTE, page 345 for review) andthe Toshiba P1340 printer, both in letter-qualitymode. The pitch for all the printers is 10characters per inch. The print speeds were

determined by timing how long it took theprinters to print 50 lines of 80 As each. Theprices shown are list prices. The price for theQuietwriter does not include the optional pin-wheel form feeder.

IUNE I985

I YTE

387

REVIEW: QUIETWRITER

Photo 2: A close-up of the IBM Quietwriter print head; 40 circuits press against theribbon to form a dense matrix as the carrier assembly moves across the page.

Photo 3: The inside of the IBM Quietwriter. The fonts are at the lower right.The contrast control and DIP switches are in the middle.

a connector on the rear of the printer.

You must use the Paper Up key andnot the paper bail to move paper withthe form feeder, but there are easy-to-follow instructions for insertingpaper. It is important to follow the in-structions carefully. For example, if thepaper-release bail remains shut,paper will gradually pull and tear offof the pinwheels. The manual, how-ever, contains proper cautions. IBMsays it will provide a cut-sheet feederfor the printer in the second quarterof 1985. Its estimated cost is $3 50.

With the optional pinwheel formfeeder attached, a light warningcomes on when the printer senses theend of continuous form paper. Theprinter beeps loudly, goes off line, andwaits for more paper.

The documentation is adequate,with simple, well-illustrated instruc-tions for unpacking and assemblingthe printer. There are adequate sec-tions on most aspects of printeroperation. A "Problem DeterminationProcedures" section helps you diag-nose problems. An appendix lists allthe printer control codes, the escapecodes used by word processors toengage the printer's functions. Toengage these functions from a BASICprogram, use LPRINT with the re-quired escape character codes.

There are easy instructions forchanging the DIP-switch settings to ac-commodate, for example, paperlength and width. The switches areconspicuously located left of the fontholders, but I would prefer a largerswitch to regulate paper width. Theprinter's self-test, in addition to print-ing the entire font, prints out the DIP-switch settings—a useful feature.

Conclusions

The Quietwriter's main strength is itscombination of acceptable letter-quality print, reasonable speed, andmerciful quiet. Undoubtedly, many of-fices could not sacrifice one of thethree. Others might welcome letter-quality output of the entire IBM char-acter set. Those who require letter-quality printouts of program listingsmight find an answer in the IBM Quiet-writer. ■

388 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Able to leap tall buildings

Standard unit:

MicroprocessorUser memorySystem expansionFloppy disk driveHard disk driveSerial portsParallel portsKeyboard

List price

Options:

128 Kb RAMMonochrome/printer adapter

text/graphics [720 x 348]Monitor [12" green]Tilt/swivel baseMS-DOS Software

Total price

Basic Time AT Enhancements

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Intel 6 MHz 80286

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1.2 Mb [read only 360 Kb]

20 Mb [enhanced model]

1

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Inside California(800) 841-2474Outside California(800) 323-8437

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included

includedincludedincludedincluded

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Inquiry 349

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 389

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INCORPORATED IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

KDWOO0C1TV

EVERYTHING FOR THE ELECTRONICS ENTHUSIAST

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Californian residents add 6.Vi%

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Inquiry 137

CORVUSINTRODUCES

SHARED STORAGE

FOR THEREST OF THE OFFICE.

□ □□(DQHS

w.

rithout mass storage that everyMacintosh can access, your net-worked office won't have a prayer.

Because you'll still have toshare data by swapping floppies.

And just considerhow fast a floppydisk fills up with anentire workgroupcompiling data,lb share information,you have to get thosefloppies neatlystacked, sorted andcataloged.

Somethingyour computershould do for you.

Which iswhy we've introducedOmniTalk software. Itlets you network your Mac-intosh Office and LaserWriterprinter with an Omni-Drive hard disk. So youcan store all your filesin one place. And shareinformation whenever you want,with whomever you want.

Without turning yourfloppies into little frisbees. Severalpeople can even access the sameinformation at once—something

Man nil >sli i*, a iriulenmrk hmist'du > Apple Computer. Inr

LaserWriter is a trademark of Apple ('<nnpuier,lnc.OmniDnve and OmniTalk are trademarks of O

392 B YTE • IUNE 1985

a floppy could never do. With Omni-Drive and OmniTalk,your MacintoshOffice has faster access tosoftware and data, greaterstorage capacity, eveneasier back-up

capability. Plus,you getthree levels of protec-tion to keep your files safe.And with the Corvus 126MBhard disk, it all costs less permegabyte than any othersystem. You see, Corvus hasmore experience net-working than anyoneelse. No one offersmore, because noone can.

So take it from us.If you're going to add peopleto your new MacintoshOffice, add the mass storagesystem that every-one can use.OmniDrivefrom Corvus.Then yourMacintoshescan reallystart talkin'business.For moreinformation, call(8()0)4-C()RVUS.

• *

Gorvus

Inquiry 119

SOFTWARE REVIEW

The Word Plus

An

easy-to-use

spelling

checker

by George Sheldon

George Sheldon is a freelancewriter whose interests includecountry music and personal com-puters. He can be reached at POB228. Hersheu. PA 17033.

A;i

spelling-checker program cannotreplace a stern spelling teacher.. But The Word Plus, from Oasis Sys-tems, is the next best thing. This program,which sells for $150. contains a 4 5,000-worddictionary. It is one of the older spellingcheckers on the market. The Word Plus isavailable for most CP/M, CP/M-86, and MS-DOS computers in both 5^-inch and 8-inchdisk formats, and it is compatible withWordStar and most other major word pro-cessors. For this review I used it on myKaypro 2.

The very idea of a spelling checker mayseem to some people to be an unnecessaryoption. Most people who use a word pro-cessor are satisfied enough with the for-matted text and easy editing their chosensoftware offers. For them, adding an elec-tronic dictionary is like extra icing on a cake.But owning a word processor and notusing a spelling checker is like buying abrand new automobile without shock ab-sorbers: You can use the car to get whereyou want to go, but getting there could bea whole lot smoother.

Two Types of Spelling Errors

All electronic dictionaries, including the oneincorporated in The Word Plus, have theirlimitations. This is caused by the fact thatthere are two types of spelling errors.

First, a word is simply misspelled becauseeither the writer did not know how to cor-rectly spell the word or the word was mis-typed. With the determination of a blood-hound on a fox hunt, The Word Plus willsearch out and locate these kinds of errors.

Second, a word may be misused. This oc-curs with words like there and their. Both arespelled correctly but are misspelled whenused in the wrong context. Unfortunately,a spelling checker cannot help with thesetypes of errors. The reason is obvious: Theword, according to the electronic dictionary,is spelled correctly. You are on your own tolocate and correct these types of errors.

The Word Plus measures up to what is ex-

pected of a spelling checker. Not only doesit find spelling errors, it helps to correctthem. It works fast, and unlike other dic-tionaries, it checks spelling in one sweep ofthe document. This feature is what puts TheWord Plus ahead of many other spellingcheckers.

Four Components

The package's strongest point is its modulardesign. Instead of being one large spellingchecker, The Word Plus is made of fourseparate tools: Spell, Review, MarkFix, andTW.

Spell finds spelling errors. Review showsthem to you and helps you correct them(more on this in a moment). MarkFix makesthe corrections within the document. TW issimilar to a batch program: Oasis Systemsdescribes it as the "orchestra leader.1' Itdirects the other three programs to do thework. TW is a real time-saver, and youseldom run the programs individually.

Learning to use The Word Plus is as easyas operating it. The user's guide is 48 pagesand fairly well organized, though it couldbe clearer. The instructions are completeenough so that a novice computer usercould quickly operate the program.

Within seconds after you enter the pro-gram it asks the name of the file to check.It then begins the task of checking yourdocument file against the contents of itsmaster dictionary and also any special dic-tionary you may have created.

The Word Plus does seem to take a longtime to check spelling, but in reality it is fair-ly fast. On my Kaypro 2, The Word Pluschecked a 22-page, 5500-word chapter in3 minutes 15 seconds. 1 doubt even a spell-ing teacher could work that fast.

As soon as Spell has completed itsscrutiny of your document, TW brings theReview program onto your screen. Reviewpresents each misspelled word along witha 10-option menu. Selections include thefollowing: show the misspelled word in the

[continued]

IUNE 1985

I Y T E 393

REVIEW: WORD PLUS

AT A GLANCE

Name

The Word Plus (version 1 22)

Type

Spelling checker

Manufacturer

Oasis Systems7907 Ostrow St., Suite 5FSan Diego, CA 92111(619) 279-5711

Computer

Kaypro 2 and most CP/M,CP/M-86. and MS-DOScomputers

Software Compatibility

WordStar. PeachText, ElectricPencil. Perfect Writer, andothers

Disk Format

51/4- or 8-inch, copy-protected

Price

$150

Audience

Users of compatible wordprocessors

context it was used; add the word tothe updated dictionary or a specialdictionary: mark the word for furtherconsideration: move to the previousor next word; or correct the word.

But the most remarkable feature ofReview is its look-up function. Whena misspelled word is presented on thescreen and you do not know how toproperly spell it. you can choose thelook-up function; it will search the dic-tionary for similar words and presenta list of possible choices.

Review also assigns a number toeach word in the list of possible alter-natives. When you locate the correctspelling in the list, you can then cor-rect the word by typing C (for correct)and the number. TWo keystrokes for a12-letter word is a real time-saver, andit also insures against a second mis-spelling.

When Review is finished, MarkFixtakes over. It quickly makes correc-tions to your document. If a correctedword is longer than the one it's replac-ing, the right margin of your docu-ment may no longer be justified, andMarkFix will remind you to reformatyour document.

Many proper names, specializedwords, and technical or medical termsmay have to be added to any spell-ing checker. Adding words to The

Word Plus is done quickly with asingle keystroke. The Word Plus willremember these words whenever itsearches a document.

The Word Plus has a lot of other fea-tures, including a word counter—greatfor writers and students who have tosubmit material of a specified length.Called Wordcount, this utility cancount all of your words within 15seconds. For people who like wordpuzzles, The Word Plus can help here,too. A program called Anagram un-scrambles any word. It's great for solv-ing the "lumble" game found in manynewspapers. A program called Findcan help you locate words containingcertain letters. For example, if youentered FIND ^OD, the programwould print a list of all four-letterwords ending in od. Unfortunately,with a dictionary of only 4 5,000 words[Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has about110,000), you may still have problemswith the unusual words that seem tocrop up only in crossword puzzles.

If you have a habit of overusing cer-tain words in your writing, the Word-Freq program can help. It lists thenumber of words in your documentand then tells you how many timesyou used each word

You can build customized diction-

[amtinued]

Quality PC Products from Multitech

Complete CPU Board with 256K Memory and up to 640K on board, serial and parallel ports.Runs MS-DOS and CP/M-86. Including floppy controller, BIOS, and complete documentation

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U.S. SERVEX

394 BYTE • IUNE I985

Inquiry 301

DATA BASE.

CARTRIDGE DATA MANAGEMENT COMES OF AGE

Today's business microcomputers have generated an informa-tion explosion that today's data storage devices-includingthe highly-touted, high-capacity Winchesters-have been ill-prepared to contain.

With one notable exception. The Bernoulli Box" fromIOMEGA. Available for the IBM PC, XT, AT, most compatibles,the Tl Professional, and Apple's Macintosh" the Bernoulli Boxdelivers unparalleled data base dynamics. Thanks to itsremovable 10-megabyte cartridges (5-megabyte for theMacintosh) and its proprietary removable disk technology.

And that, more and more, is what your business needs today.Not centralized, monolithic banks of information, but data

bases defined by job function and software application. Databases that give people the versatility to work more productively

But there is more. More performance and reliability. Transferrates and access times faster than most Winchesters. Nohead crashes ever. And cost per megabyte that Winchesterscannot touch.

The Bernoulli Box's cartridge capacity, portability, and absoluteinterchangeability give; your business more options. You caneasily build primary data bases. You can package individual-ized data bases, software and all—for payroll, accounting,marketing—in convenient, dedicated cartridges. You can securethem quickly and economically in backup. And you can packall of the data into a briefcase, an interoffice envelope, or evena file drawer.

For the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-556-1234ext. 215. In California call 1-800441-2345 ext. 215.

l-TAzGA

IOMEGA Corporation1821 West 4000 SouthRoy, Utah 84067

Inquiry 226

<r:

THE

BERNOULLI

BOX"

REVIEW: WORD PLUS

Often The Word Plussent me scramblingto the dictionary tocheck plural formsI thought were correctand found they were.

aries, including one that has a limitedvocabulary. This is ideal for a writerworking on books for juveniles, whereonly a certain grade-level of wordscan be used.

Problems

There are. however, several thingsabout The Word Plus that I do not like.

Its dictionary of a mere 45,000 wordsis small in comparison with otherspelling checkers. I dislike the way thedictionary does not know the pluralforms of some words. Often the pro-gram sent me scrambling to Webster'sCollegiate to check plural forms Ithought were correct and found thatthey were.

Also, there is a homonym helperthat does not seem very useful. Firstyou have to review a long list ofhomonyms: words like to, two, too:capital, capitol; waiver, waver. You thendelete those words you know how tospell and use correctly. The programwill then search your text and markthose words that cause confusion. Un-fortunately, by the time you delete allthe homonyms you know how to use,there are so few words on the list thatrunning the program is useless. And,if you are having that much troublewith a certain homonym, you will

either learn how to use the word cor-rectly or avoid it in your writing.

Conclusion

The Word Plus is compatible withseveral word-processing packages, in-cluding WordStar, PeachText, WordMaster, Electric Pencil, and PerfectWriter. It operates on almost any8080-. Z80-, or 8086-based computerand runs under MS-DOS or CP/M, aswell as most variations of CP/M.

Although I've never admitted it, thereal reason I bought my computerwas for the spelling checker. I like TheWord Plus. It's easy to use and easyto learn, and it does catch spellingerrors. For a serious word-processeruser, it will become as important asthe word-processing software itself.For anyone who wants to make a fin-ished document as perfect as possi-ble. The Word Plus is worth the invest-ment. ■

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Inquiry 2I6

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The pleasure of networking.

The IBM PC Network can support a wide varietyof powerful programs. Better still, it can save bothtime and money.

It can cut down trips to the file room because thefiles are now electronic and on-line.

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Inquiry 436

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REVIEW FEEDBACK

Support for Symphony

I enjoyed reading a review as thoroughand fair as the one written by Dick Poun-tain on Lotus's Symphony (lanuary, page317). With products of this complexity, afew inaccuracies creep in that might leavefalse impressions on the reader. I wouldlike to point these out.

The Search/Replace functions of theword-processing window are case-sensitive only when you enter uppercasecharacters in the search string. Thus, theuser has the choice. The user also candisable automatic rejustification.

Indented numbered or lettered sub-paragraphs are handled such that Sym-phony recognizes the characters (like a) b)c) or I. 2. 3.) automatically and puts themto the left of the margin setting providedthere is enough space. This is a very handyfeature, and the user can always overrunand control it by using hard spaces.

While it is true that a number of featuresusually found in word-processing pro-grams (like hyphenation] are missing,other features (like speed search with theEnd key or when selecting a block of text|were incorporated that make working withSymphony's word-processing windowsvery pleasant.

You cannot enter all Extended ASCIIcharacters. Instead, Symphony uses itsown extended character set called LICS(Lotus International Character Set). LICSdoes not contain the IBM PC's graphicscharacters, but it contains many charactersfound in different foreign languages. Sym-phony goes a long way to establish thecorrect telephone-book collating se-quence and to materialize the characterson screen and paper. If necessary it evenswitches character sets between two char-acters on a dot-matrix printer.

The inability to display color graphs andhigh-resolution text on the same screenlies entirely within the Color GraphicsAdapter. (Lotus recently hinted that it willprovide a driver for the new IBM En-hanced Graphics Adapter.)

The communication function does pro-vide a mainframe protocol. Symphonyemulates an ANSI-compatible terminal soa PC running Symphony acts like a VT-100or similar terminal. Thus, it is easy to in-

terface to a host providing ANSI signals(e.g., DEC mainframes or any other hostwith a suitable protocol converter) whileat the same time filing transfers in bothdirections without the need to install anyspecial software.

Symphony does use a rectangular "ac-tive area" beginning at the upper left cellAl. Whenever you enter something intothe spreadsheet outside this area itautomatically and invisibly expands tocover the newly used cell. When you erasesuch cells, the active area does not shrink.However, the spreadsheet is shrunk to itsminimum required size whenever you saveit to disk. It is not normally necessary touse XTRACT.

Be aware that even an erased cell cankeep your active area expanded if it con-tains formatting information or an allow-changes setting. (To find the lower rightcorner of your active area, press the Endand Home keys.)

While "sparse matrix" storage methodswould certainly save some memory undercertain circumstances. Lotus's methodcontributes to the program's speed. Notethat it outruns nearly all its competitors,often by a factor of three or more.

HANS-GEORG MlCHNA

Munich. West Germany

HP's ThinkJet

Your article on the HP ThinkJet printer byMark Haas (lanuary, page 337). while welldone, left out some information a pro-spective buyer should know. I've ownedone and used it heavily for four months.

Mr. Haas perhaps misleads your readersabout the paper required by the Thinklet,saying "the ink will bleed on paper thatis too absorbent—roughly equivalent towriting with a fountain pen on tissuepaper." This implies that the special HPpaper isn't very absorbent. The exact op-posite is true. If you write on HP paperwith a medium- or wide-line pen, you cansee the ink bleed through. The back of theHP paper should be, but isn't, treated toresist such wicking.

The ThinkJet cannot print acceptably onany paper that is not highly absorbent.From trials, I conclude that the tiny glob-ules of ink expelled by the ThinkJet must

spread by absorption to form a legiblecharacter. If the globules come to rest ona relatively impermeable surface, they re-main at original size—much too tiny toform characters of acceptable width.

I agree with Mr. Haas that the ink car-tridge is reliable even if not used for aweek or more. HP apparently employs eth-ylene glycol to keep its ink from evapo-rating. Unfortunately, the glycol creates aserious problem: The ink is not fast andit remains forever water-soluble.

Next, I cannot print mailing labels suc-cessfully. All commercial labels are treatedto resist staining from handling so they arenot absorbent. Labels printed with normaloutput are faint and illegible. Those inboldface smear either going through theprinter or when handled.

Because the Thinklet has no platen, youcannot use paper less than Vh incheswide (the two friction rollers that substitutefor a platen are set this distance apart)Therefore, you cannot print postcards,notes, or any small form unless it is madeup in special absorbent paper and isseveral forms wide. No such forms arenow commercially available.

The paper-loading arrangement in theThinklet is cumbersome. I don't mind thiswhen loading the first sheet of fanfold, butI gave up on loading cut paper. It takeslonger to load a sheet than to print it.

Last, my Thinklet has a paper-feed prob-lem. After fanfold paper sits overnight, thetop of the sheet takes on a permanentcurve. The next document then catches onthe paper separator, folds into a V. andarches the middle of print lines upwardAlthough a simple modification to thepaper guide prevents this, HP should havecaught it on the prototype.

In sum, the ThinkJet does a fast, reliablejob for quick drafts. It definitely isn't ageneral-purpose printer. If your readerswant one printer to handle everything. I'dadvise they look elsewhere.

Dick BarnesHatteras, NC

BASIC String Variables

I write in response to Robert S. Hunter'squery on page 3 56 of Review Feedback

(continued)

IUNE 1985 'BYTE

401

REVIEW FEEDBACK

(January) about how to use the OPENstatement in BASIC with a string variablefor the filename.

In any BASIC program it is possible tosubstitute a variable for a string when itis not acceptable to the BASIC interpretersby leaving blank spaces within the quota-tion marks that need the string, thenPOKEing the string variable into theblanks character by character This worksin any variation of any BASIC

Most BASICS store keywords like OPEN.CLOSE, and GOTO as a l-byte token in-

stead of correctly spelling the keyword.This saves memory and speeds searchesfor the correct routine to execute the com-mand. Some versions of Microsoft BASICuse 153 as the token for OPEN. Thenumbers are usually above the highestprinting ASCII codes (above 127) and ap-pear as graphics characters if you PEEKinto the spot where the OPEN token isstored. If you loop through the computer'smemory looking for the OPEN com-mand's token, you will locate the line ofcode that needs to have the variable

Listing I: Program to POKE FL$ into a filename.

105. GOSUB200

110: OPEN"0",#1," /DAT"

120. PRINT#1,"SOME DATA"

130: CLOSE#1

140: RETURN

200: FOR A = BST TO BEND

205: REM BST & BEND ARE START AND END OF BASIC BUFFER

210: IF PEEK(A) = (TOKEN FOR "OPEN") THEN 250

215: REM LINE 210 BRANCHES AT THE OPEN TOKEN

220 NEXT ARETURN

250 IF PEEK(A + 1) = 34 THEN 280

260: REM LINE 250 CHECKS CHARACTER AFTER OPEN

265' REM AND BRANCHES AT CHR$(34) OR " SIGN

270 NEXT A RETURN

280. IF PEEK(A + 2) = ASC("0") THEN 310

290 REM LINE 280 IS SECOND REDUNDANCY CHECK

300' NEXT A RETURN

310 FL = 8:IF LEN(FL$)< >8 THEN GOSUB 500

320 REM LINE 310 BRANCHES TO PADDING ROUTINE TO

325: REM BRING LENGTH OF FL$ TO 8 CHARACTERS

330. C = 0:FOR B = A + 9 TO A + 9 + FL

340' C = C+1:POKE B.ASC(MID$(FL$.C,1))

350: NEXT BNEXT A:RETURN

500 IF LEN(FL$)>8 THEN 550

510: FOR PAD = LEN(FL$) TO 7

520: FL$ = FL$+" "

530 NEXT PAD RETURN

550 FL$ = LEFT$(FL$.8):RETURN

Listing 2: Program to find the start address of the BASIC buffer and the tokenfor OPEN

I0: REM XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

20: OPEN"0",#1."DUMMY"

30 CLOSE#1

40: FOR X = 0 TO 65536

50: IF PEEK(X) = ASC("X") THEN 100

60 NEXT X:END

100: FOR Y = X TO X + 16

110 IF PEEK(Y)< >ASC("X") THEN 60

120 NEXT Y PRINT'START ADDRESS OF BASIC IS":X-8

130. FOR Y = X TO X + 25

140: IF PEEK(Y) = 34 THEN 200

150 NEXT Y

200 PRINT'TOKEN FOR OPEN COMMAND IS":PEEK(Y - 1)

POKEd into the blanks between thequotation marks. In other words, you tellthe computer to look through its memorystarting at the beginning of your programand find the line you need by searchingfor OPEN.

You need to look at a memory map ofyour computer to find out the address ofthe pointer that stores the address of thestart of a BASIC program. The BST vari-able in line 200 of listing 1 is the addressthat points to the start of the BASIC pro-gram area, sometimes referred to as theBASIC buffer. BEND is the variable foundby PEEKing the address of the start of thevariables found in the pointer table. SomeBASICs do not use a pointer to the endof your program: the end is simply definedby a series of zeros when the program isentered. You should find both BST andBEND before running the subroutine byPEEKing at the table of pointers and usingthe appropriate math. You can find themduring program execution if you know thepointers for sure.

If you do not have a memory map anddo not know what the token for OPEN is,loop through the entire memory lookingfor a dummy line of text, then branch outof the loop and get the address where thedummy text was found (see listing 2).

Listing I POKEs FL$ into the filenameafter OPEN in line 110. This whole sectionis treated as a subroutine and is exitedafter the CLOSE statement in line 130.More string manipulation could be doneto check for a filename extension in FL$instead of truncating FL$ when it is toolong and forcing the extension to DAT.BST. BEND, and FL$ must be initializedbefore entering the subroutine.

After you run this program, get a listingand see how line 110 is changed with FL$in place of the blank spaces.

Listing 2 should be run independentlyof the first program and run several timesusing different characters in the remarkstatement in line 10. and in lines 50 and110 to be certain there isn't a feloniousgroup of Xs. After finding the start ofBASIC, you find the end by adding theavailable memory in an empty buffer tothe start address.

Ierome P. CignaRochester. NY

NewWord

I must take you to task for |ohn Heilbornand Nanci Reel's review of NewWord(February, page 291). The reviewers makeit sound as though the installation pro-cedure is a terribly long process. To me.

402 BYTE- IUNE 198=5

REVIEW FEEDBACK

this is the strength of the program. Ver-sions of WordStar prior to the 3.3 releaseallowed little flexibility—they didn't evenlet you set the help level until you wereinto the file on which you were working

Further, the price of NewWord is abouthalf that of WordStar and includes Mail-Merge NewWord's powerful printing driv-ers are especially useful in an office en-vironment with several different printers.

The support offered by Rocky MountainSoftware is excellent. If one must find fault,one should complain that NewWord willnot support the Random House Thesaurusprogram, or that there should be a wayto delete the printing drivers one doesn'trequire from the working copy to make ad-ditional disk space.

NewWord's few shortcomings are minorcompared with its power, flexibility, andprice. I feel your reviewers should havegiven far more plaudits to this outstandingand relatively inexpensive program.

Hal RemmesHyde Park. MA

THE MT 160

In the review by Mark ). Welch of theMannesmann Tally MT 160 printer(February, page 32 5). there is one impor-tant bit of misinformation.

Mannesmann Tally does not provideend-user support. Service-departmentpersonnel insist that you direct your ques-tion only to your dealer. My dealer wasincredulous about this policy and refusedto call for an answer to my question abouthow to configure WordStar with thisprinter.

My question was how to obtain super-scripts. The answer (which I was forced todiscover on my own) might be of interestto others. Using WordStar's Install pro-gram, select the Epson MX-80 printer op-tion: you can then change the printername to Mannesmann Tally if you care to.Enter 1B, 53, 00 (hexadecimal) for -PT.Enter 1B, 53, 01 (hexadecimal) for -PV.Finally, enter 1B, 54 for "PR. If you type

the last time -PT1-PT-PR

in WordStar, a superscript l will follow theword time.

The printer has been reliable and theprint quality in correspondence mode isbetter than that of most other printers ina similar mode (although the quality ofprint in draft mode is below average).What I especially like is that the charactersare of normal typewriter size. However, thelack of user support makes the printer un-suitable for anyone inexperienced in con-

figuring software and printers.

Richard WagnerTallahassee. FL

Correction

We have been informed that the $7.95price paid by Mr. Dobson (NovemberReview Feedback, page 3 52) for a |ukidaisy wheel was erroneous. We apologize

for any inconvenience this may havecaused our readers. ■

REVIEW FEEDBACK is a column of readersletters. We welcome responses that support orchallenge BYTE reviews. Send letters to ReviewFeedback. BYTE Publications. POB 372Hancock. NH 03449 Name and address mustbe on all letters.

Here are 70 reasonsto buy at Elek-Tek,not to mention thefastest deliveryanywhere.

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S 1985 STB Systems, Inc.

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X

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Computinc at Chaos Manor:From the Living Room

by \erry Poumelle 409

Chaos Manor Mail

conducted by Jerry Poumelle 435

BYTE U.K.: Telephone Computers

by Dick Pountain 439

BYTE Japan:

New NECs and a Cartridge Disk

by William M. Raike 451

BYTE West Coast: A CEM Seminar

by ]ohn Markoff and Phillip Robinson 455

Circuit Cellar Feedback

conducted by Steve Ciarcia 461

BYTELINES

conducted by Sol Libes 468

CHAOS MANOR'S RENOVATION continues and likewise do Jerry Poumelle'simpressions of sundry hardware and software products. First, though, hediscovers why reliable of Zeke at last needed some attention, then proceedswith this month's offerings. Finally, as usual, he finds time to answer someof his mail.

From London, BYTE U.K.'s Dick Pountain takes a look at International Com-puters Ltd.'s One Per Desk telecomputer. This interesting piece of equipmentis built around the Sinclair QL and uses a real multitasking operating systemto expand computing and communicating capabilities.

Bill Raike muses about the continuing introduction of interesting new com-puter products in BYTE Japan. In this installment, he takes a look at threesignificant upgrades to NEC computers, an impressive hard-disk-cartridgesystem, and the escalating use of PCs as tour guides.

The troops at our BYTE West Coast outpost spent some of their time thismonth at a Digital Research seminar on GEM, a Macintosh-like environmentavailable for non-Macs. Our intrepid editors also comment on a Macintoshdisassembler and technological advances in disk controllers.

In Circuit Cellar Feedback, Steve Ciarcia also finds time to share some ofhis correspondence with readers who have built his projects.

Longtime BYTE readers will notice that Sol Libes's BYTELINES has returned.Sol offers us his perspective on the happenings in the personal computingworld with news and speculation on a wide variety of topics.

—Gene Smarte, Managing Editor

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 407

MACR0TECH-S7/LL THE S-100

PERFORMANCE

MSR. High performance andreliability in a memory so fastyou won't believe it's a dynamicram product. Compatible with allpopular S-100 environments, theMSR's low power consumptionand 120 nanosecond ramdevices set a new stan-dard for dynamic memoryproducts. The MSR is avail-able in quarter, half, oneand two megabyte configurationsat the lowest prices in the industry.

Dealers:

Gifford Computer Systems (415) 895-0798

Custom Cumputer Technology (800) 222-8686Priority One Electronics (800) 423-5922

John D. Owens & Associates (212)448-6298

In England; Fulcrum (Europe) Ltd. (0621) 828763

Macrotech dealers also include most Compupro Systems Centers. HeathkitElectronic Centers and Alpha Micro Dealers.

408 BYTE • IUNE I985

MI-286. Our 80286/Z80H Dual CPU Board is at least twice

as fast as Compupro's 8085/88 and it's a direct replacement.

The MI-286 has already become the standard by which other 80286

based systems are measured. Ask us for a complimentary

Benchmark Report.

ADIT. There's nothing else like it on the market. It's an Intelligent I/O

Board with its own real time firmware that lets you control up

to 16 different terminals, modems or printers all from a

single slot. ADIT is the performance standard in

environments such as Alpha Micro where I/O

speed is critical.

V-RAM. High performanceStatic CMOS system mem-ory/virtual disk in eitherquarter or half megabyteconfigurations. With its on-board battery and power-faillogic, the V- RAM sets a new per-formance standard at conventionalstatic memory prices. Whenaccessed through I/O portchannels, the half megabyteV-RAM becomes M Drivecompatible with truenon-volatile solid-state diskcapability.

MACROTECH International Corp.

9551 Irondale Ave.

Chatsworth, CA91311

(800) 824-3181 • in Calif. (818) 700-1501

Telex: 9109970653

Inquiry 26I

Reconstruction

Cleaning Zeke II

Z-100 Video Memory

Dysan's Interrogator

Zenith Z-160

HP LaserJet Fonts

Macrotech and Gifford

SPUZ

Mini/Micro Show

Hercules Color Board

More on Mac

More on Valdocs

Eagle

by Jerry Pournelle

COMPUTING

AT CHAOS MANOR

From the Living Room

\erry Pournelle holds a doctorate in

psychology and is a science-fiction

writer who also earns a comfortable

living writing about computers

present and future.

Readers sometimes ask if ChaosManor is really as disorganized asall that. They wouldn't if they'dbeen here this last month. lust today thecontractors got a roof on my house; for thepast week we have been naked to the stars.I am at present writing this in the livingroom because my office has no ceiling. Thestairway to the new upstairs suite goesthrough the old office—and although theupstairs now has a roof, it has no walls.

It's February, and even in Los Angeles itgets cold at night. I can put on enoughsweaters and vests to make it nearly en-durable, but it's impossible to write withgloves on, so after two nights of stiff fingers1 gave up. I've promised Mrs. Pournelle thatthe computers will be out of her living roomReal Soon Now. . .

Cleanup

Zeke II, the Viasyn CompuPro Z80 I donearly all my writing on, hasn't beenopened for two years. If it ain't broke, don'tfix it; but without a ceiling my office is ef-fectively broke, so we had to move Zeke. Ibrought him out to the living room, set himup, and turned him on.

There was a sharp click as he tried to ac-cess the disk, then blooey: a screen full ofgarbage. Resetting didn't help. Zeke justwasn't communicating.

I have a lot of computers, and I'm notusually nervous about opening them up;but one reason for my nonchalance is thatno matter what might happen to any of theother machines, I could always go back togood old superreliable Zeke to get my workdone. Now, with all my other machinescovered with plastic, my office two inchesdeep in sawdust and powdered plaster, andnearly everything I own packed away inboxes, Zeke wasn't working.

"Don't panic." I told myself that severaltimes, then opened the cover.

Zeke was full of dust and dirt. Dog hair,dust balls, you name it. The dust filter hadobviously died years ago. First thing, then.

was to use the vacuum cleaner. He stilldidn't work, so next I removed all theboards, flexed them a bit, pushed the chipsinto their sockets, and put them back. Thistime he booted up fine, and I was able toget some work done. Next day, though,when I tried to connect up the printer, wegot more garbage.

Up to then I'd hoped to solve the problemmyself, but I had no more time. What withthe new construction, plus a trip to NewYork to promote my new book, plus theMini/Micro show in Anaheim this week,Stride Faire this coming weekend, and a tripto Texas Instruments next week—I'm sched-uled to go directly from Reno to Dallas Sun-day without ever coming home—there wasno way to lose any more time and still meetthe deadline for the column. Nothing for it:I called Tony Pietsch, who built Zeke.

"Dust," he said. "Dust and dirt."

"But it worked fine—'

"While it was just sitting there. Moving itmoved the dirt. These machines aren'tmaintenance-free, you know."

"Tell me what to do—'

"lust stay there. I'll come over. You watch."

Just routine...

He had a box of solvents. The most impor-tant one is called DE-OX-IDE. There wasalso a standard tuner cleaner, a bottle ofalcohol, a can of compressed air, and a canof Instant FD Zero Residue Cleaner, whichcontains mostly trichlorotrifluoroethane.Some computer stores carry these, butmost don't; a big electronics supply houseis a more reliable source.

What Tony calls routine maintenance con-sists of using common sense and solvents.Tony knows what he's doing, but if I wereworking alone, I'd start by making a chartof every cable and board; it's amazing howeasily you can forget which way things arehooked up. Then disconnect everythingthat's easy to disconnect, remove all boards,and start in, using compressed air, solvents,

(continued)

IUNE 1985

: Y T E 409

Inquiry 50

Pop-Ups

take the

Sidekick

ideaone step

further.

//

-Info WorldJanuary 14,1985

Independent review-ers everywhere agree.When it comes to ashowdown on capa-bilities and ease of use,the winner is Bellsoft'sPop-Up DeskSet'.""

That's because DeskSet gives you more.Like standard and financial calculators.A clip-board for "cutting and pasting"information from one program toanother. An alarm clock that displaysthe time of day. On screen. In any pro-gram. And instant access to DOS com-mands for checking directories andcopying or deleting files.

Not to mention a 120 year calendar. Ahandy notepad. And Pop-Up Anythingthat lets you turn your word processor,spreadsheet or application program intoan instant, on screen Pop-Up.

DeskSet is everything Sidekick couldhave been.

But isn't.

All at a price that puts the competitionto shame. Only $69.95* and it's non-copy protected. (Or $129.95* for Desk-Set Plus that includes our powerfultelecommunications software.)

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Pop-Ups run great on the IBM PC, XT, AT, PCjr,3270PC and compatibles. Pop-Up, Pop-Ups andDeskSet are trademarks of Bellsoft, Inc. Sidekickis a trademark oi Borland International.''Plus $5.00 shipping and handling.

CHAOS MANOR

paper towels, and tissue paper. Besure to clean all cable connectors,board connectors, sockets, and any-thing else that comes apart easily andmakes electrical connection. First usesolvent, then the DE-OX-IDE.

You probably want to open a win-dow when you do, unless your officehappens to have no roof like mine.

Before replacing the boards, laythem down on a flat surface and care-fully push each socketed chip firmlyin place. Then put the boards in asthey were, replace the cables—

We did all that to Zeke. Tony, beingconfident that there was nothing ac-tually wrong with the machine, put thecover back on before testing it. Theuniverse generally punishes me forsuch arrogance, but it works for Tony.We fired up the machine and every-thing ran. Indeed, the letters on myscreen seem somehow steadier andcrisper, although that may be over-enthusiastic imagination.

Jazzing up Zorro

I'm told those with late-model Z-100machines don't need to do this.

Zorro. our Z-100. was one of the firstthat Zenith made. The Z-100 comeswith a color board. The early modelused 32K-bit memory chips. A 32K-bitchip is really a 64K-bit chip with prob-lems on one side of it. When 64K-bitchips first came out, the yields werelow and the chips were expensive. Itmade sense to use the partly defec-tive ones. The result was acceptablecolor resolution, but only half of whatthe machine was capable of.

There are two ways to find out if youhave the older model with 32K-bitchips. The complicated way is to dis-assemble the Z-100 and look at thejumper on the video board. (Thevideo board is the small upper up-side-down board you see after youremove the disk drives.) The jumperhas three positions: 32 K-bit upperbank, 32K-bit lower bank, and 64K-bit.If it's set for 64 K-bit. you have a newermachine.

You can also find out by runningone of the tests built into the Z-100ROM (read-only memory); just bootthe machine without a disk, and when

you get the "hand prompt'' deviceerror message, type H for help, andon the menu that follows, type S forsystem information. The machine willtell you what kind of video it has.| Editor's note: Early versions of the Z-100ROMs do not have this feature.]

Ours had the 32 K-bit variety. Omni-trend's Universe game is designed towork with an IBM PC color board ora full 64K-bit Z-100 color system. Iblush to say that after three years ofputting up with the 32K-bit video, theUniverse game was what finally in-duced me to buy enough chips—24of them—to bring Zorro up to fullvideo strength. We used 4164-type150-nanosecond parts. Replacing the32K-bit chips and changing thejumper takes about a half hour.

We had problems afterward, but itwasn't Zorro's fault. One wants to becareful when putting the Z-100 backtogether; it's fairly easy to crimp akeyboard cable or jam one of the keysso that it binds on the case. The key-board simply sits on foam in the case,so it's not surprising that it happens.The result isn't a disaster, but itseemed like one until we opened themachine and reassembled it with a bitmore care.

Alas, after all that I discovered thatI don't yet have Z-DOS II for the Z-100,so I still haven't seen how Universelooks on Zorro. I have Zenith disksmarked "MS-DOS 2.0 for the Z-100PC"; it seemed reasonable to supposethat would work with Zorro, but"Z-100 PC" refers only to Z-150 andZ-160 machines.

Dysan s Interrogator

One way to be sure your machine isin good shape is to run diagnosticprograms. You generally get a set ofthem with a DOS (disk operating sys-tem), but to really check out diskdrives you can't beat the Dysan diag-nostics programs. The Dysan Inter-rogator comes in both Z-100 (includ-ing Z-l 10 and Z-120) and IBM PC ver-sions. The IBM PC variety will workwith the IBM PC and the Zenith Z-l 50and Z-160 machines; 1 presume itworks with other PCompatibles. The

(continued)

410 BYTE' IUNE 1985

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CHAOS MANOR

only reason it wouldn't would be if thecomputer used a disk controllerradically different from what the PCuses, and anything that does that isn'tlikely to be PCompatible.

The Interrogator comes in two disks:the Interrogator disk, which you bootup, and the Digital Diagnostic disk(DDD). The DDD is a very precisely for-

matted disk. You want to be carefulto protect it. If it gets lunched, thereplacement costs 50 bucks. The diskisn't copy-protected, but copying it isa waste of time, since what you're pay-ing for is the precision formatting.

You can get DDDs for 40- and 80-track 5!4-inch drives and also for8-inch drives. Running the program is

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extremely simple: boot the Inter-rogator disk, and when prompted,remove the Interrogator and put inthe DDD. The test program is self-documented with on-screen help. Ifyou want to test for write-error prob-lems, you'll need scratch disks: theprogram will tell you when to insertthem.

Dysan also makes an Analog Diag-nostic disk (ADD), which, used with anoscilloscope, allows drive realign-ment. In my opinion, realigning diskdrives is a black art best left to ex-perts, but I'm told that anyone withthe proper tools can do it withenough patience. I'm unlikely ever tofind out.

The software agreement that comeswith the program says that you mayuse it on one and only one computer,and if you transfer the program toanyone else, your license is termi-nated. One supposes that the personyou give or sell it to thereby acquiressome kind of license to use it: andsince the program can't possibly beused on more than one computer ata time—as I said above, copying it isan exercise in futility—I can't see whatwould prevent a club from buying acopy, selling it to a member, and re-purchasing it after the member isfinished. The Dysan Interrogator is atool you won't need often, but whenyou do need it there's no real sub-stitute.

Have a Care ...

lust after they removed my roof, I(sensibly, 1 thought) took Mrs.Pournelle to New York. The ostensi-ble reason for the trip was to tapesome promotional materials for thelatest Niven and Pournelle novel {Foot-fall. Ballantine Books), but Robertaknew better. The real reason we wentwas to get away from the hammeringand sawing, and besides, the Metro-politan Opera was in season. (We sawAriadne auf Naws, which was good onlyif you like mountainous sopranos andsuperegotistical tenors, and Tales ofHoffmann, which was just plainwonderful no matter what you like.)Of course 1 worried: it doesn't often

[continued)

412 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 105

HEM FROM VMJLT:

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Proloader willprocess 150 5 V4"diskettes unattendedaccommodating anyjacket weight, withan audible alarm forjams. It automatically verifies each diskupon completion and rejects disks with bad sectors.

Proloader provides instant in-house disk loading,processing, formatting and duplicating,as well as providing software protectionand data security options.

Proloader is built with high qualitycomponents, time-tested fully internalpneumatic disk handling and modularconstruction for easy service andreplacement. It is fully automatic leavingyou and your staff free to attend toother duties.

Using Prolok software protection diskettes andProloker software from Vault, you can protect your

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Proloader is the least expensiveand most efficient office size automatic diskloadingmachine on the market. The complete Proloaderpackage consists of Proloader, theProloker Master Diskette, a supplyof Prolok or blank diskettes,according to preference,operating manuals, and a 90 daywarranty on parts and labor. CallVault for a demonstration of howProloader can improve yourproductivity at $3,495, the lowestdiskloading price in the market place.

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VLA-85U

Inquiry 414

CHAOS MANOR

rain in Los Angeles, but anything canhappen in February. Sure enough,during one of Roberta's calls to checkup on the kids, I heard what I'd feared:it was raining, the contractors hadn'tgot the plastic covering put up in time,and the office ceiling was dripping.Fortunately, nothing was spoiled ex-cept the newest version of Cygnus'sStar Fleet I. and I have backup copies.

Alas, that wasn't the entire story.The disk had been thoroughly wetted.The boys dried it out. When it was dry,not knowing where the backup copywas. they put it into the IBM PC. Theresult was a real disaster: media cameoff the disk, and no amount of clean-ing would restore the disk drive. We vehad to replace it. It may be repairable,but I have my doubts.

The moral of the story is clear: if thedisk is ruined, it's ruined. Trying tosalvage a $2 disk can be pretty expen-sive. Don't. For that matter, it doesn't

hurt to look at disks once in a while;if they look like they have crud onthem, you want to think hard aboutusing them.

Color and Cables andluggability

We're becoming increasingly fond ofthe Zenith Z-160. It's as PCompatibleas the Z-l 50, has the same great key-board, contains the same wonderfulROM-based diagnostics as the Z-l 50,has four totally empty slots, and, whilenot portable, it's luggable. The diskdrives pop down, the keyboard snapsinto place, and there's a handle. Youwon't quite get a sprained back fromcarrying it: indeed, when we had ourbig Space Conference at Larry Niven'shouse, we discovered just how easilymoved the Z-160 could be. Everyoneliked it.

Do understand what we mean bymovable: it weighs about the same as

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a PC, but it does fold up, has no sharpcorners, and has a handle. A nice bighandle. There are also some funky lit-tle compartments into which you stuffkeyboard and power cables. They'recovered with little sliding doors.Rachel Klau. one of the Zenith soft-ware gurus, claims they're fortoast. . .

The amber screen is a bit small forme, but it's 9 inches, as big as any por-table, and it will do. 1 managed towrite 10 pages or so with it and playUniverse for days. Universe requiresa color system for your IBM, and Idon't have color in Lucy Van Pelt, ourfussbudget genuine IBM PC. TheZ-160 doesn't care. Colors are shownas shades on the amber screen.

There are also composite and RGB(red-green-bluel color outputs on theback of the Z-160. When we first triedto hook up the color, it didn't work,even though we were using Zenithmonitors. I couldn't figure that oneout. I should have: we also have anSTB color board for the PC. and wecouldn't get that to work with theZenith monitor. 1 didn't figure it out,though, and asked Zenith's technicalgurus for help. They didn't quite laughat me.

As it happens, it's no wonder wecouldn't get the monitors to work: wewere trying to hook up the Z-160 (andthe IBM PC| with a Z-l00 monitorcable. The Z-100 and PCompatiblecables have exactly the same connec-tors, but the Z-100 uses different pin-outs from the Z-l 50 and Z-160. Thisis presumably because the Z-100 wasdesigned before the IBM PC cameout. and the Z-l 50 and Z-160 were in-tended to be as PCompatible as pos-sible. I can't think Zenith enjoys havingto stock two identical-appearing videocables. Anyway, if you use the wrongcable, you get video, but the verticalwon't lock and the horizontal is in thewrong place. Alex thinks you couldprobably reset the Z-100 pin-outs—theZenith technical documents set newstandards for what we mean bycomplete—but I'd think that more workthan it's worth. The cables appearidentical, but they do have different

{continued)

414 BY 1 L • 1UNE IIS1)

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 415

CHAOS MANOR

names marked on the connectorends. Do beware of the fact that toZenith a Z-100 is not a "Z-100 seriesPC."

The only complaint I have about theZ-160 is that the disks pop up out ofthe top at an angle that makes it verydifficult to figure out where to put anexternal monitor. I'm having the car-

penters make a gizmo that's open infront to give access to the disk drivesand sits above them so that the ZenithZM-13 5 color monitor is level whenput above the machine. I suspect thatanyone who gets a Z-160 will needsomething like that, and it's a pity thatZenith doesn't furnish a neat plasticthing made for the purpose.

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But Datacopy's new graphic scannerschange all that.Convert old drawings to your PC CADsystem. Quickly.

This remarkable peripheral enablesyou to move images from paper to yourCAD database. Without painstakingmanual digitizing.

When used with AutoDesk's CAD/camera'" and AutoCAD,'"Datacopv's scannerscan convert imagesto vector form fordrawings or sym-bol libraries. Orconvert CADdrawings to rasterformat for complexdocuments.

Thanks to our electronicdigitizing scanner, you cancapture images in high res-olution. Then manipulate,convert, store, retrieve, orprint them.

But what's truly amazingis the range of other appli-cations for Datacopy scan-ners. Such as generatingtechnical manuals includingtext, drawings and pictures.Catalogs. Personnel or doc-ument files. Or whatever you decide.

All you need to get in the picture is anIBM XT, AT, or compatible. Our friendly,yet powerful, Word Image ProcessingSvstem'" software is included in yourpurchase.

The result is a visionary achievement:the power to draft information, not justdrawings; to publish information, notjust data. All for a surprisingly low cost.But seeing is truly believing. Which iswhv you should call our toll-free numbertoday for more information—1-800-821-2898 or in California415-965-7900. Or1 write DatacopyJ Corporation, 1215*] Terra Bella Ave-nue, MountainView, CA 94043.Telex: 701994'■■'£f\V& DATACOPYUD.

DATACOPY

The Eye of the Computer™

Other than that, the Z-160 is a com-pact and luggable version of theZ-l 50. If you're in the market for a PCor PCompatible. 1 recommend eitherof these Zenith machines in prefer-ence to the genuine IBM PC.

FONTS

Unless this is the first time you've en-countered this column, you have toknow that I love the Hewlett-PackardLaser|et printer. Last month it goteven better: HP sent me four differentfont cartridges. You plug the cartridgein. send the printer a hideously com-plex sequence of codes preceded bythe escape character, and voila! Withproper controls you can make theLaserlet print on legal-size paper,print sideways—that is, across the longdimension of the paper—do italics andboldface, change from Gothic toHelvetic typeface, etc.

There is a catch. You have to figureout the HP documentation for thefonts. 1 couldn't. When the HP peoplecalled me to discuss the new fonts, Iread them their own documents andasked what they meant. The resultwas interesting: an engineer whoalready knew how to do everythinggot confused when I read him the in-structions. He had to forget what I'dread him before he could recall howyou really do it.

They claim they're going to rewritethe instruction sheets that come withthe fonts. 1 hope so. I've also sug-gested that they come up with a newfont cartridge that contains a com-plete font set: normal uppercase andlowercase, boldface, italic, smallcapitals, a symbol set, and the otherstuff that you find in a standard caseof type. The LaserJet isn't really up tobook standards. It is, however, morethan good enough for newsletters,manuals, manuscripts, and correspon-dence: it looks better than anythingthe Diablo or NEC Spinwriter everproduced.

Tony Pietsch has borrowed my newtype fonts; within a week or so he'llbring them back, along with a newversion of WRITE (my favorite texteditor) that makes use of them. I'll

[continued)

416 B YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 131

Your

Is Our

I

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J a -

Catch OurMagazine

Grab the brass ring throughMcGraw-Hill's COMPUTER CAREERS

McGraw-Hill's COMPUTER CAREERS magazine will be published inMay 1985. This McGraw-Hill publication, focusing on careerdevelopment, will be edited for computer specialists working in leadingedge areas such as computer graphics, communications and robotics,as well as mainstream design and application of computer technology.

You are only eligible to receive a free subscription if yougraduated between 1978-1985 with a:

Computer Engineering/Science major or ElectricalElectij

Engineering major with computer related curriculum,and/or

Are actively involved in computer technology in your job'

function.

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To receive this free subscription to COMPUTER CAREERS, fill in iof the attached postcards which will trigger an application form fcto complete. We must have your home address only. If both cards'Smissing, send your request to: Violet Frey, Circulation Manager,McGraw-Hill's COMPUTER CAREERS, McGraw-Hill PublicationsCompany, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

X

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COMPUTER CAREERS editorial content will focus on interests and concerns ofthe computer science/engineering specialist. Articles will sift through the maze ofcomputer-related jobs to show you what and where the opportunities are.. .tell youhow to weigh them now and in the future...offer expert advice that will help youmove successfully ahead in your career...identify areas where you can build yourpersonal attributes to enrich your career. In addition, the reader has available aResume Forwarding Service in each issue.

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Inquiry I99

Computer

CHAOS MANOR

then be able to send in book manu-scripts that greatly resemble the finalprinted work.

Resolved. ..

The new Apple printer has 300 dots/inch resolution. That means 90.000dots per square inch. Multiply that bythe 8[A x 11 inches of a standardsheet of paper, and you'll see whyApple needed so much memory in itsnew printer. The HP LaserJet is char-acter-oriented. It needs more memoryif it's going to do graphics. I'm sureHP will do something about that.

R£al typesetters consider 300 dots/inch to be far too little; but give themicro world a couple more years andnearly anyone will be able to typeseta book.

Macrotech and Gifford

In my review of the Macrotech 80286/Z80 board for S-100 systems. 1 said

that the CompuPro people have beenconcerned about using the "B-step"revision of Intel's 80286 chip for multi-user systems because the B-step hasknown bugs. On the other hand,Macrotech's engineers believe theyhave compensated for the chip'sproblems. Certainly I never had aproblem while using the Macrotechboard in my otherwise all-CompuProsystem with CompuPro single-usersoftware.

The Macrotech board was designedto drop into an existing CompuPro8/16 system, replacing the processorbut leaving the CompuPro Disk Con-troller, Hard Disk, System SupportBoard, memory boards, and commu-nications equipment intact; and theMacrotech system ran on 8/16 soft-ware as obtained from CompuProWhen CompuPro (well, Viasyn; I'll getused to using the new name one day)began changing over to Concurrent

DOS and the SPUZ concept (seebelow), they made significant changesin their software. Their latest stuffwon't work with the Macrotech board.I'm a CompuPro test site, and whatwith all the construction here I didn'thave room to set up two S-100 sys-tems, so in order to test the new Com-puPro software I switched back fromthe Macrotech board to my olderCompuPro 8085/8088 processor. Iwasn't too happy with the change; theMacrotech was significantly faster.

I've now heard from the people atGifford Engineering. They have multi-user software for the Macrotechboard, and they say they have neverhad any problems with what they'reshipping; they don't hesitate to rec-ommend the Macrotech system tocustomers. Gifford has done a lot ofwork with CompuPro equipment andsoftware and has a deservedly high

(continued)

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418 BYTE- IUNE I98S

Inquiry 99

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Inquiry 104

CHAOS MANOR

reputation for delivering qualitysystems. They will continue to providesoftware support for the Macrotechboard.

I'm no great fan of multiuser sys-tems. I continue to believe that "oneuser, at least one processor" is themotto to follow. The multiuser systemI use is the CompuPro C-10. betterknown here as Shirley. Each user hasa Z80 board and a block of memory,with yet another processor to networkthem together and do traffic manage-ment for access to common files andcommon equipment like the hard diskand printer. However, in my opposi-tion to timesharing I may be buckinga trend: the IBM PC AT is supposedto offer multiuser capabilities (al-though the last I heard there havebeen some problems), and Giffordreports good success with multipleusers on the Macrotech 80286/Z80board.

Anyway, I want to make it clear that1 liked the Macrotech board a lot; Inever had any problems with theirfinal version: and I haven't heard fromanyone who did have problems. I'vestill got mine, and when things settledown here I intend to set up twoS-100 8/16 systems—one based on theMacrotech, the other on Viasyn'slatest 80286 plus Z80H SPUZ-andflog the daylights out of them.

The SPUZ Is Here

While I was down at the Mini/Microshow my new 80286 and Z80Hboards arrived from Viasyn. Alas, Ihave to go to the Stride Faire tomor-row morning, and this has to get outtonight; Tony came over for an hourto set things up. It didn't take himmore than about 5 minutes; Viasyn'sdocumentation and installation in-structions are steadily improving,partly in response to my carping.

"INSIGHT is essentially the equivalent or better thanany other tool available for the personal computer."

Paul Ham

Turn your PC into an expert.

Give it Insight, or give it Insight 2.

Both let you create knowledge basesystems using any PC-compatibletext editor.

Insight not only simplifies accessto lots of information, it analyzesand offers solutions. For entry-leveloperators it's a perfect proceduraltraining package to help buildand implement knowledge basesoftware.

LevelFiveResearch, Inc.

Insight 2 is more than just an"expert." It's a knowledge baseengineering tool with applicationcapabilities. It can call up Pascalprograms, read and write dBASE 11"files, and its decision-making pro-cess can tie in directly to yourexisting databases. Run-only ver-sions also can be developed anddistributed.

Two unique packages from thesame expert idea.

Insight " ($95) and Insight 2 " ($485)run on the IBM "PC. DEC" Rainbow, andVictor " 9000.

4980 South A-l-A Melbourne Beach, Florida 32951

(305) 729-9046

Anyway. I was able to use the newsystem for spelling checking andsending this to New Hampshire onBYTEnet. but I haven't had time to domore extensive testing. On the otherhand. Tony has been running his Com-puPro 80286 and Z80 for nearly threemonths, so no one anticipates anyproblems—but we'll see. I often findglitches no one else does, which isone reason that Viasyn uses me as atest site.

Unlike the Macrotech 80286/Z80board, the new CompuPro 816/286system uses two different boards. The8-MHz Z80H board is a SPUZ, whichis CompuPro shorthand for Slave Pro-cessor Unit Z80. (There will be otherSPU boards, such as an 80186.) The80286 processor boasts the newest"C-step" revision 80286 chip fromIntel. Together, they make up a super-fast system with true concurrent oper-ations: the Z80 SPUZ can be doingone job while the 80286 is doinganother.

In fact, you don't need the 80286board to run the Z80 as a SPUZ.Before we installed the new 80286processor, we dropped the SPUZ intomy existing 8085/8088 system and in-stalled the new Switch! (that's gener-ally pronounced "switch-bang!") soft-ware that comes with the SPUZ, afterwhich all my 8-bit software (such asWRITE) ran on the newer and fasterZ80H. The 8085 aboard the 8085/8088 Dual Processor board isawakened on power-up, then im-mediately told to go to sleep; afterthat, the SPUZ handles all 8-bit opera-tions. So long as you stick to 8-bitstuff, the system is just as fast with aDual Processor and SPUZ as it is withthe 80286 processor; meaning thatyou can upgrade a Dual Processor instages, if you don't want to pop foreverything at once.

The 80286 runs 16-bit operations,like directory sorts, and PIP, and as-semblies, and disk accesses, at sur-prisingly noticeable higher speeds. Ihaven't tested the CompuPro 80286against the Macrotech. They're bothfast.

The SPUZ without the 80286

[continued)

420 H V T b • IUNL \W>

Inquiry 247

What every Apple 11+ and He

user should ask before

buying the "Sider" 10 MB hard disk:

When a company offers a superior qual-ity 10 megabyte Winchester hard diskfor only $695, it's bound to raise a feweyebrows... and a lot of questions. Thefact is, you're probably already wonder-ing "Can I really get a 10 megabyte harddisk that's reliable for only $695?" Theanswer is: ABSOLUTELY.. when youchoose the Sider from First ClassPeripherals.

What's so great about the Sider?

For starters, the Sider lets you boot yourApple 11+ or He directly off the harddisk—unlike some other Winchestersubsystems. Rebooting is also trouble-free. And the disk is partitionable,allowing you to allocate space to fouroperating systems on the same disk.The Sider supports: Apple DOS 3-3; ProDOS™; Apple Pascal; andCP/M®

What's more, a small "footprint"lets you incorporate the compact Sider intoyour existing computer set-up with ease.

In addition, with the Sider, you notonly pay far less for the subsystem, you alsosave money on installation. Because, unlikeother 10 MB systems that require thepurchase of expensive "extras," the Sideris plug and play. Everything you need isprovided, including cables, host adaptor,installation software and manual.

What makes it so reliable?

To start, the Sider is manufactured, andsold exclusively, by First Class Peripherals,an innovative computer company which isbacked by Xebec. The computer industry'sleading manufacturer of disk controllers,Xebec has over a decade of experienceserving customers like IBM, Toshiba, TexasInstruments and Hewlett Packard. It's thiskind of expertise that helps assure theSider's performance.

Special design features further en-hance reliability. The Sider's controller isthe field-proven, industry standard XebecS1410A. And Xebec's 3200 drive tester, the

Apple and Pro DOS are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. Inc.

«L

Onty$®5?"

toughest in the industry, ensures that theSider will operate reliably. One more assur-ance of the $695 Sider's quality: it's ULApproved and FCC Class B rated.

But why is it only $695?

You pay less for the Sider than for other 10MB hard disks simply because you're pay-ing for the superior quality componentsinside the unit, not for a lot of retail over-head costs. Since First Class Peripheralssells direct, you avoid dealer and dis-

tribution expenses, and pay only forthe product.

What about a guarantee?

Like many experienced Apple users, youmay be reluctant to buy a hard diskpriced at only $695 without first seeingfor yourself how it performs. That's whyFirst Class Peripherals offers you a re-assuring, money-back guarantee thateliminates any risk on your part. Simplyorder the Sider and use it for 15 days.Then, if you're not entirely satisfied,return it and receive a full refund—noquestions asked.

The Sider also comes with a fullone-year limited warranty. Plus, there'sa convenient, toll-free hotline you cancall anytime you have a technical orservice question, or need help.

Don't delay.Order the Sider now.

To receive the Sider 10 megabyte Win-chester hard disk subsystem for only $695,simply order using the coupon below. Forfaster service, order by phone and chargeto your VISA. MasterCard or AmericanExpress. (You can also call us if you haveany questions or technical concerns aboutthe Sider. We'll see you get the help youneed.) Call toll-free:

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Extension 205

I I IcS, please send me the Sider, including half-height 10 megabyte Winchester hard disk drive,

Apple adaptor hoard, cable, complete installation software and documentation.

I prefer to pay as follows:

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□ Please bill the following credit card accountfor $695* + SIS shipping and handling:

□ VISA □MasterCard □ American Express

Same

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Telephone (area code)Mail to:

■FIRST

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5579 Highway 50 East

Carson Citv. NV 89701

205

Inquiry 180

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 421

CHAOS MANOR

I saw little of

interest at this year'sMini/Micro show.All the exhibitswere in two largerooms of theDisneyland Hilton.

speeds up 8-bit operations somethingwonderful. WRITE blazes along; in-deed, the system drives the TeleVideo950 (connected up at 19,200 bits/sec-ond) almost as fast as Zeke II workswith memory-mapped video I guessit won't be long before I abandon myancient VDM (video-display module)memory-map board. That will severmy last link with Zeke I, my friend whohappened to be a Z80 computer. TheVDM board we use at present is notthe same one that we had in Zeke I,but the character-generator chips inthe board are.

Waiting. ..

What we're waiting for is the first pro-duction run of the CompuPro PC-Video board. You drop that into anS-100 system and connect up eithera color or a high-resolution mono-chrome monitor (both are combinedon the PC-Video board), after whichyour 80286/SPUZ, Dual Processor or8086 system can be made to think it'san IBM PC AT. Tony designed the PC-Video board to work with any PCom-patible keyboard, so I'll use the WicoSmartline Smartboard. My system willthen run under Concurrent DOS:meaning that I'll have available, onone computer system, the wholeworld of 8-bit CP/M software (such asWRITE, The Word Plus, and Calendar/1); all of my CP/M-86 16-bit software,including all the 8-bit stuff I wrote inCBASIC and recompiled with CBAS1C-86; and about 98 percent of the IBMPC software, including SideKick, Lotus

1-2-3. ThinkTank, Flight Simulator, andWordStar 2000. Moreover, I'll be ableto run 8-bit programs, such as WRITE,simultaneously with 16-bit, such aslong compilations.

I'd hoped to get Concurrent DOSrunning tonight, but it turns out thatthe version I have is intended for usewith a Dual Processor. Due to mybouts with flu and our constructionorgy it never got installed, and nowwe've retired the 8085/8088 Dual Pro-cessor board, hopefully forever. (Ac-tually, of course, that board, along with)im Hudson's 8087 board, will go to aneducational nonprofit organization,such as a school or the L-5 Society.That's what happens to all equipmentthat doesn't get returned to the sup-plier. We try not to let anything stayidle for long.)

I'd hoped to change to ConcurrentDOS because I wanted to send this at1200 baud. (I know, I know; themodern convention is to say "bits/sec-ond" rather than baud, and technical-ly that's a bit more accurate; but Ilearned the older terminology, and"baud" is much simpler and shorterto write. After all, we say "hertz"rather than "cycles per second.") Alas,this goes off at 300 baud. A storygoes with that.

I'm writing this column on Zeke II,a plain vanilla Z80 system. When I getdone, I transfer the text (with a1-megabyte 8-inch floppy disk) to thenew 80286/SPUZ machine for spellingchecking. (I've got to find out thatmachine's name: 80286/SPUZ isclumsy.) After that, it gets transmittedto New Hampshire via BYTEnet. WhatI'd hoped to do was use ConcurrentDOS to output the text onto a 5 ^-inchdisk in IBM PC-DOS format. I couldthen take that disk over to the ZenithZ-160, which has our OmniTel Encore1200-baud modem, and squirt thefiles off at 1200 baud. Alas, the onlymodem I had for the Dual Processor(and thus the only one 1 have for hissuccessor, the 80286/SPUZ) is an an-cient PMM1 (Potomac Micro MagicInc.) 300-baud system; it works fine,but 1 never knew how slow it was untilI started fooling around with theOmniTel Encore at 1200. Now though,

I'm anxiously awaiting ConcurrentDOS, because even with all thatmonkey motion it would be worth theextra effort to communicate at 1200.Of course, 1 could break down andget another modem. Tony tells me heno longer recommends an internalmodem for S-100 systems. Fortunate-ly, the people at OmniTel have sentme their Hayes-compatible external300/1200 modem. That will run MITEjust fine.

How Fallen Are the Mighty

The Mini/Micro show used to be com-bined with WESCON. I remember itas large and exciting. 1 first saw theZenith Z-100 at a Mini/Micro The DECRainbow was introduced at anotherMini/Micro. I first saw Modula-2 in ac-tion, and got Modula-2 and a Sage IIto run it on, at a Mini/Micro show.

This year there was nothing. At thelast Mini/Micro in Anaheim, WESCONfilled the Anaheim Convention Center,and Mini/Micro completely filled twofloors of exhibit space at the Disney-land Hilton. This year, all of theMini/Micro exhibits were contained intwo large rooms of the DisneylandHilton. One of those rooms was theballroom in which we held the ice-cream social, Meet the Pro's, at lastyear's World Science Fiction Conven-tion; and indeed, the World Con hadconsiderably higher attendance thanMini/Micro.

I saw little of interest at Mini/MicroThere were about 20 booths exhibit-ing VME and Multibus stuff, whichmay or may not be a portent of thefuture. I saw for the first time aMotorola 68000 computer intendedas a development system for 68000software; it has some of the finesthigh-resolution color graphics I'veever seen. Otherwise, nothing new,and little to grab my attention.

Price Gouging?

One thing I was looking for at Mini/Micro was an expansion box for ourIBM PC. Lucy Van Pelt is full, and wehave lots of new boards for her. in-cluding two Hercules boards (seebelow), modem boards, hard disk (we

{continued}

422 B YTE • |UNE 1985

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With Network Revelation, you're not alone.

Span the void that separatesyou from other PC's. Be as one with auniverse of data. Be a true networkwith Network Revelation?

Network Revelation is more thana relational database managementsystem. It's a complete applicationsenvironment for most microcomputernetworks. That's not dreaming aboutthe future. It's low-key raving abouta capability of the present.

With Network Revelation, youcan send and receive data on local areanetworks and remote file servers. Rev'sdata dictionaries let you add or restruc-

Cosmos, Inc., 19530 Pacific Highway S.

Inquiry 120

ture fields at will, saving ages ofprogramming time. And our menu-driven applications generator andprocedural language are eons aheadof other databases.

The possibilities are infinite.Distributed processing systems linkingworlds. Accounting, inventory andorder entry systems connected forinstant access to data by a galaxy ofusers. And your data is secure withcomplete file or record locking.

REVELATION co-exists withMS-DOS™ So you can transport Lotus1-2-3™ Multiplan® or other data from

COSMOS

PC to PC—using popular routes likeNovell, Ethernet or 3 Com™ You caneven evolve files from primitive,single-user databases into a powerfulRev application.

Encounter the future of distributeddata processing today. Revelation costsjust $950.00? Network Revelationstarts at only $1495.00* for a completefour-user system. So call us and we'llarrange for an unforgettable demon-stration with a Cosmos rep in your area.

MS" and Multiplan" of Microsoft Corporation.l-2-3m of Lotus Development Corporation. 3 Com7*'of 3 Com Corporation.

"Suggested U. S. list price.

Seattle, WA 98188, 206-824-9942

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 423

Inquiry 297

«549

10 MEG H.D. INT.

«79 $669

HH DRIVE JUKI 6300

WAREHOUSE EXPRESS$229 *149 $1049

WS PRO 5 PACK MAC 10 MEG

PRINTERS • PLOTTERS

C. ITOH (Riteman Epton Exacts) CALL

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ENTER (Sweel-P 6 Pen Plotter. HP) $729

JUKI

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6300

LEGEND (Square Dot, EPSON Compatible)

S69

1080

1380 160cps (IBM)

1385 I60..ps 17" (IBM) .SILVER REED

EXP400

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TOSHIBA

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$229. 259. LOW

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CHAOS MANOR

A lot of software,including manyspreadsheet programs,has special codeto make use of thegraphics capabilitiesof the Hercules board.

still have the bubble-memory hard-disk emulator), and such like. Therewas only one manufacturer of PC ex-pansion boxes at Mini/Micro (or atleast 1 saw only one, and I was look-ing). They want about $850 for a 6-slotbox with power supply. This seemsunreasonable.

After all, I can get a CompuPro21-slot S-100 box with the splendidCompuPro boat-anchor power supply(that power is so well regulated thatwe've actually had the power cord un-plugged by the kitten and got itplugged back in in time to avoid anyglitches; 1 don't recommend you dothat, but it did happen to us)—I canget that system for considerably lessthan $850. What is there about the PCbus and power supply that makes itworth so much?

Anyway, I'm still looking for an ex-pansion box. One day I suppose I'llgulp hard and pay the money, but Isure hate to.

Hercules Board

One thing I want to install in the PCis the Hercules color board. The otherday, quite out of the blue, there ar-rived two Hercules boards: the colorboard and the high-resolution graph-ics monochrome board. The mono-chrome board installs in place of theIBM high-resolution monochromeboard, so we put that one in almostinstantly. For some software the PCdoesn't know the difference, andneither will you: text and such like arecrisp and steady, but then they were

with the IBM board, too.

However, a lot of software, includingmany spreadsheet programs, has spe-cial code to make use of the graphicscapabilities of the Hercules board.The result is a dramatic improvement.

The Orchid Technology PCturbo 186board we're so fond of can also takeadvantage of the Hercules board.Alas, I've mislaid my PCturbo 186manual. It isn't lost; I'm sure it hasbeen packed in one of the innumer-able boxes that fill the office exten-sion. After all, I've mislaid almosteverything else I own. . .

More on the Hercules boards nextmonth; so far I like them.

A MacWarning

This comes from the ARPANET Mac-Enthusiasts.

The Macintosh Reset button (alsocalled the "Programmer's button")does not reset memory, nor does itcause the system to reboot. If used tobail out of certain kinds of systemcrashes, it can cause the Macintosh totrash disks.

The safest thing to do is to turn themachine off and make it reboot. Don'tuse the Programmer's button unlessyou really know what you're doing.Because it doesn't cause the systemto reboot, it can, of course, save time;but the cost can be high. I was taughtalways to open the disk-drive doorsbefore doing anything as radical asturning the machine off, or even reset-ting it, but of course you can't do thatwith the Macintosh, since there's nosimple mechanical way to make iteject disks; either you must plead withthe Macintosh to get it to give yourdisks back or use a hairpin on thedrive mechanism. As long as the diskis in the Macintosh it can be writtenon, and the Mac writes on disks a lot.The present Finder is pretty dumband doesn't check the disk directorybefore writing on the disk; the Resetoperation can get the Finder prettythoroughly confused. It's safer allaround simply to turn the machineoff, count five, and turn it back onagain. |Editor's note: A hardware engineerat Apple reports that the Reset button does

{continued)

424 B YTE • IUNE 1985

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426 BYTE • IUNE I985

CHAOS MANOR

in fact connect to the 68000's RESET pinand will cause the system to reboot]

Launch a Thousand Slips. ..

I reported in March on Mike Lehman'sFast Finder, which substitutes for theregular Finder program in the Macin-tosh operating system. We still like it.and anyone who writes programs forthe Mac would be well advised to getit. It is, however, pretty well a hacker'stool. There are very few built-in safe-guards.

It also uses Macintosh hacker ter-minology. In particular, there's theterm launch.

So far as 1 know, launch is a termpeculiar to the Macintosh andperhaps the Lisa. The Macintoshoperating system allows you to accessprograms that aren't really programs;that is, if you "double-click" a text filecreated with MacWrite, the Finder issmart enough to know that what you

really want is to load (launch) Mac-Write and have MacWrite read in thetext file so you can edit it.

Lehman's Fast Finder program givesyou another alternative. Fast Finderwill ask you if you want to launch yourtext file. The first time I was asked that,1 thought, "Well, of course I want to,"and said yes; whereupon Fast Finderdutifully tried to run the text file as ifit were a command file. The resultwasn't pretty, and 1 could recover onlyby turning the machine off. It turnsout that launch is a MacTechnical termmeaning "run independent of any-thing else." To launch a file means totreat it as a command file. If it isn'tone—if it's a MacPaint file or a docu-ment file—the result is unlikely to bewhat you wanted.

Fast Finder is a really convenientprogram, but it does give you the op-portunity to really screw things up.Fortunately, there's always a way out:

Fast Finder is

pretty well a

hacker's tool.

one option under Fast Finder is tolaunch the old Finder program.

Sick Jokes

Another bit of information I got fromthe. ARPANET: be careful what youput into your machine. There is outthere making the rounds of theremote bulletin boards a programcalled VDIR.COM. It's a little hard totell what the program is supposed todo.

What it actually does is trash yoursystem. It writes garbage onto anydisk it can find, including hard disks.

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE. 427

CHAOS MANOR

and flashes up various messages tell-ing you what it's doing. It's a timebomb: once run, you can't be surewhat will happen next because itdoesn't always do anything immedi-ately. At a later time, though, it cancrash your system. Does this remindyou of some of the imbecilic copy-protection schemes threatened bycompanies such as Vault and Defen-disk? Anyway, you'd do well to avoidVDIR.COM. I expect there are a cou-ple of harmless—perhaps even use-ful—public-domain programs floating

about with the name VDIR; and, ofcourse, anyone warped enough tolaunch this kind of trap once can doit again. Be careful about untested"free" software.

EEEEEK!

One more tip, which comes from, alas,practical experience: when you loada telephone number into a modemdisk file, double-check the number. Igave Alex the local ARPANET accessnumber to record for the 1200-baudmodem and inadvertently transposed

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two numbers. Alex dutifully put it intothe system. Then we tested it. Eachtime we'd see the number come up,hear it ring, be answered, hear ourown carrier—then no communica-tions. Nothing.

Eventually I listened on an exten-sion. To my horror I heard an ex-asperated lady answer the telephone.Naturally all she would hear would bethe high-pitched whine of our carrier.Since we'd "tested" the number fivetimes (at 0300, alas!), she was rapidlylosing patience. I can't blame her.Since then I've checked all themodem access number files threetimes.

VALDOCS 2.0

lust before going to Mini/Micro I hada talk with |im Bell of SemiDisk, thepeople who make RAM-disk hardwarefor S-100, IBM PC, and Epson com-puters. |im tells me he has been talk-ing to Roger Amidon of Rising Star,the outfit that is supposed to be sup-plying the Valdocs operating systemfor the Epson QX-10 computer line.Amidon says that Rising Star is work-ing on SemiDisk drivers for Valdocs1.19, which is, 1 guess, the currentlysupplied version of Valdocs. (The lastone I have is 1.18, and I suspect thatI don't really have 1.18. That, however,is another story.)

Anyway, Rising Star promises thatyou'll be able to use SemiDisk withValdocs 1.19 "within a week," which,given the track record of Rising Star,translates to Real Soon Now.

Rising Star also assures SemiDiskthat the drivers to make use of Semi-Disk are already built into Valdocs 2.0.Alas, SemiDisk doesn't yet have acopy of 2.0, nor, to the best of myknowledge, does anyone else.

Interestingly enough, there was anEpson America dealer at Mini/Micro:he had large posters proclaiming thevirtues of Valdocs 2.0.

"When will it be done?" I asked.

"It's done now."

"You mean I can buy it?"

"Yes."

"Can I take a copy home with me?"

"No, we're quoting 60 to 90 days

{continued)

428 BYTE • IUNE 1985

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CHAOS MANOR

delivery time."

"Wait;' says I. "You mean I can orderit now, but it will be 60 to 90 daysbefore you'll deliver it to me?"

"Yes."

In other words, Valdocs 2.0 will beavailable Real Soon Now. I surewouldn't hold my breath. If they everget things set up to use SemiDisk withValdocs in any form whatever, I adviseall Valdocs users to take advantage ofthe opportunity. Valdocs with a RAMdisk would be both simple to learnand conveniently fast; I'm amazedthat Rising Star hasn't done some-thing about the situation already.

Eagle Flies?

They didn't have an exhibit, but I didmeet Gary Kappenman, CEO of thenewly reorganized Eagle Computer, atMini/Micro. Eagle went through somehard times. As a result, they offeredreviewers the opportunity to buy theirreview machines at good discounts. 1bought both of mine, the Eagle 1600(a very fast 8086 machine) and theSpirit XL, an IBM PC XT work-alikethat's about 99 percent PCompatible.

Alex promptly borrowed the SpiritXL. The Spirit runs PC-DOS 2.0, whichallows tree-structured disk directories.Working late at night Alex managedto erase an entire disk directory. Hemakes backup copies, of course, buthe'd made the last backup just beforehis most productive hour of the week.When he realized he'd erased every-thing, he left the machine running andlocked up the room so no one wouldtouch it. The next morning he calledEagle and explained his problem.

"Norton Utilities," the Eagle peoplesaid. "Go buy them."

He went out and got Norton Utilities3.0; the program took care of hisproblem. Alex says the Norton Utili-ties are self-prompting, very easy touse, and let him completely recoverfrom his blunder.

We're still fond of the Eagle SpiritXL. I am told I will get Eagle's newestmachine, the Turbo, within a week orso. I'm looking forward to it; I've heardgood things about the machine.

Eagle always did have excellenthardware. The problem was that their

software was never complete andtheir documentation was wretched.Gary Kappenman tells me they hadtoo many bright people: before theywould get one development com-pletely finished, the hackers wouldrush off to invent yet another marvel.

"As technology improvement thatwas a great way to go," Kappenmansays. "As a way to generate market-able products it wasn't such hotprocedure."

According to Kappenman, Eagle hasstacks and stacks of excellent newtechnology on the shelf: they've cutway back on personnel and expenses;and they intend to concentrate onbringing their on-shelf technology tomarket, one finished product at a time.

I always did like their hardware andtheir protechnology attitude. I wishthem well.

Winding Down

It's 0200, and I have to catch a planeto Reno at 1000. The guest of honorat the Stride Faire this year is NiklausWirth, and I confess I'm greatly look-ing forward to meeting him. StrideMicro also promises a remarkablenew human/computer interface sys-tem based on cursor control througheye and head movement. It soundedlike a good idea when they told meabout it last year; and people Irespect at Stride Micro are en-thusiastic, so that's something else 1want to see.

After Reno I go to Dallas to seesome late developments at Tl. MyChrysler LeBaron convertible talks tome through a Tl Speech Synthesizerchip; 1 confess that one thing I'd liketo get from Tl is a way to program mycar so that it will say outrageousthings at the touch of a hidden but-ton. Things like "Beep Beep Beep:Your passenger is stupid," or "BeepBeep Beep: Passenger should preparefor extreme lateral acceleration," oreven "Beep Beep Beep: Ejection seatis armed." I'd also like to have a wayto connect the voice to the securitysystem so that it might say "Warning:Lethal gas now being released intodriving compartment." I don't sup-

[continued]

eople who can't wait for the:uture have Microwaresoftware now.

Right now, many of the biggest names in thebusiness have their next-generation personalcomputers on the drawing boards. Theseadvanced systems will have capabilities thatwill go far beyond what's available today.Many of these exciting new products willfeature high-performance system software byMicroware.

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Microware also has outstanding versions of themost popular programming languages. Forexample, Microware's extended, structured Basicis friendlier than an interpreter, yet it runs asfast as a compiler. And it's so smart that itactually reports bugs as programs are typed in.Or consider Microware's full-feature C Compiler.It can recompile almost any Unix applicationprogram to be much smaller and faster thanthe Unix equivalent. You can also chooseFortran and Pascal compilers of equal calibre.

Software like this doesn't happen by accident.Microware software is specifically designed tounleash the full potential of the extraordinary

Inquiry 292

68000 and 6809 microprocessor families.Microware works in close cooperation with thepeople who actually design the systems andsilicon in order to achieve maximum integrationand performance. That's why Microwaresoftware has already made a big impact withinthe scientific, engineering, and industrialcommunities.

Affordable, powerful personal computers withMicroware software are available now at mostTandy/Radio Shack retail locations, and throughFujitsu and Hitachi in Japan. Plus over ahundred innovative manufacturers worldwideoffer a veritable banquet of professionalsystems and software for VME, Multibus, STD,and most other popular standard busarchitectures. If you're technically oriented, youcan even get a reasonably priced MicrowarePortPak™ and install OS-9 on your own custom68000 system.

Some things change, others can't. Will Unixever become affordable and understandableenough for you? How long can MS-DOS keepup with new technology? You can wait andfind out, or you can step into the future today.Contact us today and we'll send you completeinformation.

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JUNE 1985 • BYTE 431

Inquiry 448

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CHAOS MANOR

pose I'll really be able to do that, butI can dream.

The game of the month is Universeby Omnitrend. I've put far too muchtime into it, despite the fact that thegame is completely menu-driven,which makes it very easy to learn andvery hard to use; I long to write a longcommand string, then go have coffeewhile the machine executes eachcommand in turn. The fact that I'mstill playing despite the tedious menucommand system should say volumesabout the game's complexity and in-herent interest factor.

The book of the month is byMichael Crichton (author of TheAndromeda Strain), Electronic Life (Ballan-tine, 1984, $3.95). Dr. Crichton hasmanaged to pack a great deal of use-ful information, philosophy, and com-mon sense into 2 50+ pages. Recom-mended for almost anyone; even ex-perienced hackers will find parts in-teresting and can then keep the bookaround to lend to beginners.

Next month I should have Concur-rent DOS and the PC-Video board.Tony ought to have the software tomake use of all the new type fonts forthe LaserJet. I also have a Hewlett-Packard 150 computer, which hasn'teven been uncrated; alas, I do notthink my upstairs suite will befinished, so I may not have a place toset it up. There's a strong possibilitythat I'll have the new HP portable aswell; I'm looking for a good portableto carry about on trips. I'll also havemore on the Hercules boards.

Seneca once said of relocating that"two removes are equal to one fire."1 find that rebuilding requires shiftingthings about like Chinese checkers, sothat we get the equivalent of threeremoves. I make no doubt it will all bewonderful when it's finished. It's agreat life if you don't weaken. ■

jerry Pournelle welcomes readers' commentsand opinions. Send a self-addressed, stampedenvelope to jerry Pournelle, do BYTE Publica-tions, POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.Please put your address on the letter as wellas on the envelope. Due to the high volumeof letters, jerry cannot guarantee a personalreply.

432 BYTE" IUNE

Inquiry 449

A

An estimated $3 billion plus annually.

What's more, there's practically no risk.Computer data thieves rarely get caught. Andwhen they do, inadequate laws and the fearof publicity keep most victims from takinglegal action.

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Computer thieves know that someone'salways willing to pay a handsome price toget confidential corporate and professionalinformation. Or pay to get it back.

AND THEY KNOW JUST WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

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Inquiry 369 for MS DOS Products. Inquiry 370 for all others.

Prices reflect 3% to 596 cash discount. Product shipped in factory carton* with manufacturer's warranty. Please add S9.00 per order for UPS ground shipping. Ordersunder you poy for ground service, receive air service at no extra charge. Available on orders 11-20 lbs. $15 for air service. Orders 21 30 lbs. $20 for iavailability subject to change without notice. Send cashier's check or money order...all other check* will delay shipping two weeks.

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CHAOS MANOR MAIL

German Queries

Dear Jerry,

As I sit here blinking at the screen of mycomputer, the screen is blinking rightback. There was a time when I had nosuch problem, but then I had a voltage-regulating gizmo. It was about the size ofa husky paperback novel and had twosockets. It set me back some, but it wasworth it, I guess. When Uncle Sam sent meto Germany. I left the voltage regulator inthe States—the juice here, after all, is220 V; 1 figured I would get one in a localcomputer store.

But that has not been easy. Do you knowanyone back there who sells a small,lightweight one for 220 V?

Another question. My thinking machineis an Actrix with CP/M. It cost me a for-tune, but I am a linguist, and a computeris the ideal thing for translations and formemorizing vocabulary. Unfortunately, allthe languages I speak use diacriticalmarks, and Russian uses an entirely dif-ferent alphabet. The questions: Is there aword-processing program available in Rus-sian? German? Italian? Is there a programI can hook into (with BASIC or Pascal) thatwill display foreign characters on themonitor?

Thanks.

Peter A. Kiss

18th Ml Bn

APO NY 09108

Alas, this sounds like a job for SuperGarcia!

As to part two, I can't help, but perhapsone of the readers can.—lerry

Lead Time

Dear lerry,

I must agree with Mr. Penner (ChaosManor Mail, September 1984) that the six-month lead time for your wonderful col-umn is outrageous. In your response tohis letter, you itemized the ordeal a BYTEarticle undergoes. It seems to me that theeditors of a magazine like BYTE coulddevise a more high-tech method for han-dling the column.

First, you could submit the column elec-tronically over the phone. The technicaleditor and copy editor could edit the copy

on their terminals and transmit it back toyou for corrections and approval. Oncefinalized, it could be proofread and type-set by computer. Meanwhile, the layoutpeople can reserve a fixed space for thecolumn in each issue and paste it in assoon as it is typeset. The entire processabove could be done in a week, it seems.I am by far no expert in publishing, butwhat I suggest seems completely possi-ble. 1 believe BYTE could halve the leadtime by making fuller use of the tech-nology they describe so well each month.What say you?

Claus BuchholzNew York, NY

P.S. I hope to find out what the lead timeis for a letter to Chaos Manor Mail.

We are reducing the time. We can't usetelephones, because the phone lines toNew Hampshire are, uh, interesting evenin good weather: but we can send disksFederal Express.

A week is too short a cycle time; butwe are getting it down to about six weeks,which is pretty good for a magazine thissize!

As to the letter cycle times, thatdepends on the phase of the moon—lerry

Editor's note: W? hope to have an integrated elec-tronic-publishing system installed before the end of1985. The money is budgeted. The only guestionis how soon the vendor can deliver what we need.—Phil Lemmons

Chinese Matters

Dear lerry,

I am writing to you concerning a smallinaccuracy on page 3 50 of your columnin February. It concerns your incorrectdating for Confucius. You said, "The / Chingor Book of Changes has been around a longtime; Confucius thought it was old at thetime of Christ. It is supposed to have beencomposed about the time of the TrojanWar." While I found the syntax of yoursentence about Confucius and Christ a lit-tle perplexing, I assume you mean thatConfucius lived around or after the timeof Christ. This is not true. While dates for

Confucius are not accurate, he is gener-ally thought (by sinologists) to have livedfrom 551 to 479 B.C. Dates for the / Chingare also not very accurate, but sinologistsgenerally accept that the book dates fromat least 1123 B.C.-the beginning of theChou dynasty (the book's other name isthe Chou I).

It was a book of divination. Confuciusis supposed to have done some editingwork on the book, writing the 10 wings,or appendixes, to it, but his authorship hasbeen disputed by Chinese scholars sincethe Sung dynasty (960-1123, 1125-1279A.D). especially in the works of Ou-yangHsiu. Most Chinese classics weredestroyed in a massive book-burning andcensorship campaign carried out by thefirst Ch'in emperor, Ch'in shih-huang-ti, in213 B.C. The / Ching was one of the fewbooks to have survived intact, and its lineof transmission from the pre-Ch'in era hasbeen documented in at least one source

I know that the above is probably morethan you need or want to know, but myscholarly training and perhaps a bit of lec-turitis compels me to run off at the key-board.

Thank you for your kind attention. I thor-oughly enjoy your columns and opinions;it is one of the reasons I get BYTE.

Ronald GansNew York. NY

I'm no sinologist, but the En-cyclopaedia Britannica gives the samedates for Confucius as you do. PerhapsI meant old before the time of Christ?The Trojan War is traditionally supposedto have happened about 1150 B.C., sothat part was right.

I gather there is considerable disputeregarding the proper use of the I Ching;divination can mean "prediction." but itcan also mean "determine the godlything to do,'' which is the way many peo-ple use the book. Thank you for thedetails on the I Ching's history— )erry

Copy-Protection Solution

Dear lerry.

For some time you and your readershave been frustrated by software copy

[continued)

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 435

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

protection. I gather numerous softwareproducers believe they will lose their in-vestment without it. Some time ago yousaid you did not know a solution. I thinkI might have one. As a user, you shouldcontinue to have access to the programonce you have bought it, unless you will-fully destroy or lose your disk. How canwe accomplish this and still protect thesoftware producer?

My suggestion is simplicity itself. Theterms of the sale should include duplicatedisks of the software, each protected if theproducer wishes. It should also include aguarantee by the producer to replicate theprotected program on either of these disksif their magnetic program becomes un-workable. In this way, both interests shouldremain protected.

There are. of course, operational details.The program would be replaced on anidentifiable disk originally supplied by thesoftware producer. The postage (ifneeded) might be borne by the buyer, thecost of duplication by the producer or hisagent. It seems gratuitous to fix the max-imum number of duplicates unless thisproves necessary. It should surely be 10or more to that unlucky user.

I get the impression that a similar pro-cedure is already followed by some com-panies, which update their software eitherfree or for some fixed fee. Obviously,replacement would not automatically en-title one to an update, but then someusers might be tempted to update at thetime of duplication if the price is right.There should be no obligation to do so.Francis MarburgFalls Church, VA

Your plan certainly seems viable. Mycolleague John Dvorak argues that anykind of copy protection is economicallycounterproductive: most software can'ttake off unless it is adopted by a lot ofold-time users, and the old-timers alreadyhave software that they're reasonablyhappy with. They won't buy expensivenew packages unless they're really good.However, if they try a free copy of some-thing new and like it enough, they will notonly buy that but influence a lot of othersto do likewise.

I think I agree with him.— Jerry

Technical-Support Solution

Dear lerry,

Your December 1984 column discussedthe support problem. I have a suggestionthat may solve the problem, and I havemy own story to relate.

A year ago I decided to buy a computer.My dad and I have shared a TRS-80 Model1 since 1978, and 1 had pretty much out-grown it. I had to get a new machine ina hurry—my parents were moving—because I wanted to transfer all my sourcefiles by an RS-232C interface, and I did notwant to type all the files in again.

I chose an Advanced Digital Super 6single-board computer. It is S-100-based,has all the I/O 1 need for now, and sup-ports CP/M 3.0. Priority One's price for thecomputer was steep, about $1000. Ifigured that before I sent away for a com-puter that I knew little about, I should atleast send away for the manual. (The adslooked great, but I wondered what kindof nightmare 1 would find when I actuallyfired the thing up.) I visited a local dealerwho gave a price of $1100. My first reac-tion was, "That's okay because if I needany help in bringing it up they could atleast help and make sure the boardworked.'' I asked about the high price,compared to Priority One, and they saidthey might cut it to $1000. However, thebottom line on support was that I couldget it only if I spent $3 500 on a completesystem from them! The complete systemwas a 12-slot mainframe and supply, two8-inch drives, and the processor card. ThisI could not handle.

I ended up buying the board fromAmerican Square Computers for $555 andCP/M 3.0 for $3 50. My total outlay for theprocessor, software, an 8-inch drive, amainframe, and a Qume terminal was lessthan $2400.

All I wanted was that the dealer sell meCP/M and the board and make sure itwould boot on a Shugart 801. I could getno answer from the manager as to whatthe cost of this onetime support would be.I was willing to pay $100 for it, figuringthat's a cheap way to find out if all thehardware is going to work.

I had to sweat a few details. The manualon the disk drive did not match the drivethat Priority One sent—all the jumperswere different when they made a printed-circuit-board change for a semicustomVLSI chip. The drive would not fit in themainframe without a slight amount ofmetalworking in the cabinet. The Super 6manual had a few errors, too.

The fact is. I got it all going in plenty oftime, and I am very happy with themachine. The only software that I pur-chased at the time was Turbo Pascal, onyour recommendation, and I am trulyimpressed.

What should the computer stores do?The one I went to lost a sale because they

could not handle the case of the knowl-edgeable customer who did not want toblindly buy their package. I was not will-ing to spend an additional $1000 for a sys-tem integration, which they had done hun-dreds of times before.

The computer store should determinewhat kinds of support they can provide,to whom they will provide it, and what itwill cost. Then tell their prospectivecustomers. The companies that do themail-order business should state the samein their ads. The computer-buying publicwill likely follow the lead if they know thata discount house will have limited serviceand that a full-service computer dealer willservice only its legitimate customers.

Clyde R. ShappeeWalpole, MA

Priority One would have sent you theproper manual if you'd asked: at leastthey tell me they would, and I believethem.

You do know what you're doing.

Best—lerry

Newmedia

Dear lerry,

Why did you describe the Newmediaprogram in the February issue ("SmallDisks!." page 3 52) and then list it as "notavailable' in the "Items Discussed" box?I have a Cromemco Z80 system with nosoftware support and need a program likethat.

Bill PinkertonPalm Bay, FL

When I put together the informationfor the "Items Discussed'' box I try to in-clude prices and telephone numbers, butI don't always have them. In those casesour intrepid and hardworking BYTEeditors have a go. They're usually suc-cessful. Sometimes, though, they simplycan t find anyone who'll answer the ques-tion, or a company won't have a firmprice at press time: in which case you'llfind "not available' in the slot whereyou'd hope to see the price.

In the case of Newmedia. alas, the pro-gram is available only as part of the Com-puPro 8/16 software-support package. Idoubt that it would run on your Cro-memco. My first computer was a Cro-memco Z-2. so I have considerable sym-pathy for you, but I fear there's little wecan do: Newmedia was written especiallyto run on a CompuPro 8/16 using a Com-puPro Disk Controller.

Wish I could be more help— Jerry ■

436 BYTE- ]UNE 1985

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• Parallel printer port with bidirectionalcapability.

V Full modem support.

• Parity checking and error reporting.

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• Optional game port.

Get IBM PC* maximum memory

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Inquiry 299

IUNE 1985 -BYTE

437

W w>rkinThe MacintosKQffice.

Control Room

This office is real. You can order it now*

It is brought to you by Odesta Helix.

The data-based system solution for people who take care of business.

What is Odesta Helix"*?

Helix is a data-based information man-agement & decision support system. Itprovides a data-based "pool" into whichyou may put all kinds of information

-text, numbers, pictures, or ASCII data-communications (via MacTerminal™)

-without having to know a programminglanguage or battle with command codes,modes, or imposed structure

A System Solution -Once & For All.

Once information is entered, it is thenjust as easy to examine from any angle,and use in any application. From reports,lists, and mail merge letters to analysesand interactive searches. All within Helix.And all without having to learn a querylanguage, spread-sheet formulae, reportformatting or data-base algebra.

Bridging the Gap & Closing the Circle.

If you manage resources or informa-tion, you are probably already asking thenext question:

"Since Helix lets us build applicationson top of a flexible data-based foundation,can we share that information within ourbusiness or department?"

Yes. Now you can haw direct accessto the real operational pulse of yourorganization—its contracts, orders, ship-ments, research or inventory. Informationthat you can easily query and evaluatewith visual tools so innovative that theyshould be seen rather than described. ITiatlet you schedule projects and allocateresources based on historical data—andthen re-formulate tactics and plans asconditions change.

And that let you close the circle byembedding your own flags in the systemto give direction to others, and to manageb\ exception rather than rule.

Control Room

* Odesta Corp.

I J186 MM Dr. Norttibrook. II60062

| □ Please send me your Control Room Brochure' D Please have a Salesperson call

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One of the acclaimed innovations of Helixis the nay you can visually manipulatepowerful concepts ana" calculations almostas easily as you can say them A managermay tunc build or specify applications usinghis or her oxen expertise — instead of hatingto team programming or rely on aprogrammer

Since numbers, uimts, and picturescommunicate more meaning when seen incontext Helix lets you work with them inany combination Illustrated {nice lists,ptrsonnel documentation trainingmaterials competitive analysis research

How Real is Real?

Visit a dealer who can demo Helix and The Macintosh™Office. Take a seat and make it real for yourself Or call us at1-800-323-5423 (Illinois: 1-312-498-5615)or send us thecoupon to get a free copy of our "Control Room" brochure,including samples of actual LaserWriter output.

% Available at any Businessland™ Center or Moore BusinessCenter. For the name of other Helix dealers near you, callSoftsel at 1-800-556-2283

' I9KS iKlc.LtCorp OtlestaHelh is .1 lr.iili-m.irkolOtlfsl.il jirnoratiufl (lie tpplelnen.MatTrmunal. MacWbrks, ami Lisa ari trademarks ot \pplc Computer, lot Macintosh is .1 [raoVmaiiliii'nsi'il m Apple Computer, Int (.onus tlniniDrm*. and Uinni'liilk an- irailt'iuarks nl (jirvnsSystems. Int Quark is a trademark ol Quark Peripherals. Iik HypeTDriw is a ir.uk mark nlcnicrali jimputer ("j> Businessland is a trademark til Buslnessiand, lot

Room With a View

Ask someone about Helix who is usingit, and you will understand why it hasbeen a best selling business program sinceit began shipping January 11,198S. Thencombine its dynamic flexibility and personalcontrol with the concept of sharedresources, and you may decide that ourversion of The Macintosh Office warrantsyour serious consideration.

Interior Design

As a manager, you practice the art ofhitting a moving target. The success ofyour aim depends on knowing where youstand. That is specifically what OdestaHelix is designed to provide, and what TheMacintosh Office offers as a cost-effectivevehicle. Existing mainframes, minis, andpersonal computers are either toounresponsive, inflexible, or limited toprovide you with the hour to hour, day byday answers you require. And since thesetwo types of systems are so different, andserve such different sets of needs, wesuggest that parallel installations willdevelop naturally, and complement oneanother.

Knobs & Buttons

D Odesta Helix drives the LaserWriterwith many Macintoshes at once, producingpublication-ready reports, documents withnumbers, text, and picture data, andirresistible mail-merge letters. 0 With theGirvus OmniDrive™ and OmniTalk™ Helixuses shared mass storage and supportssequentially shared files. 0 By fullysupporting the keypad. Helix makes numericdata entry completely independent ofkeyboard and mouse. Q Modem baseddata-communication for remote Helix filetransfers, as well as for ASCII file Dump &Load to other programs and machines.0 Helix supports the Macintosh XL (andLisa™ under MacWorks™). using its fullscreen and running unfettered on its harddisk (as well as such 3rd party hard disksas the Girvus™ HyperDrive™ and Quark™).

00£S/j4

Inquiry 310

BYTE U.K.

Telephone Computers

A look

at the One

telecomputer

by Dick Pountain

Of the areas in which nontechnicalpeople use personal computers,telecommunications has the mostpotential for expansion and improvement.PgJ" DeSK 'n the industrialized countries at least, morepeople own telephones than computers.

For the person with a computer at home,teleshopping, telebanking, and remotedatabase access seem more productivethan filing the stamp collection or storingrecipes.

Telecommunications can be advanta-geous for businesspeople in the same way.So much of the business day is spent onthe phone that much time can be saved bysimplifying the processes of establishingcontact and transferring information.

The quality of telecommunications facili-ties on general-purpose microcomputersstill falls somewhere between highly tech-nical and positively hair-raising. Even withan auto-dial modem, you are exposed tomore of the nasty details of the RS-232C in-terface than is necessary or wise. Mindfulof these facts, a number of manufacturershave recently turned their attention to pro-ducing dedicated "telephone computers-personal computers with built-in telephonehardware, tightly integrated telecommunica-tions software, and general-purpose desk-top computer facilities.

Two such machines have just been intro-duced in the U.S. by Rolm Corporation. Oneof the machines is a peripheral for theIBM Personal Computer (PC). Perhaps aharbinger of the growing importance of thistechnology, IBM has bought the companyoutright.

International Computers Ltd. (ICL), theU.K.'s largest national mainframe computercompany, has just produced an interestingand innovative telecomputer called the OnePer Desk (OPD). The name is suggestive ofICLs marketing strategy, namely, to get oneof these machines onto every executive'sdesk in the large corporations that ICL cur-rently services.

ICL, like many mainframe companies,

Dick Pountain is a technical author

and software consultant living in

London. England- He can be

contacted do BYTE, POB 372.

Hancock. NH 03449.

came fairly late into the personal computerarena and then made its entrance by"badge engineering" products from estab-lished U.K. personal computer firms usingindustry-standard software. (Badge engi-neering means buying a product and re-labeling it with your own "badge" forresale.) The first ICL offerings were 8-bitmultiuser systems running MP/M; morerecently, 8088- and 8086-based IBM com-patibles have been added.

The OPD, however, represents quite a newdeparture. It was largely designed in-houseby ICL, though it uses the processor board,microdrives, and custom gate arrays fromthe Sinclair QL, which is based around theMotorola 68008 8-/32-bit central pro-cessor. ICL has written its own truly multi-tasking operating system for the OPD thatpermits telecommunication to take placewhile running business-application pro-grams. Such an investment of corporateenergy suggests that the OPD is closer towhat ICL thinks businesspeople need ontheir desks than a conventional personalcomputer; the purchase of Rolm by IBMsuggests that at least one other large com-puter corporation may agree.

The OPD differs, however, from the Rolmofferings in an important way. It's cheap bybusiness computer standards (starting price£1200, approximately $1450 at the currentexchange rate), and it works on ordinaryphone lines, not special PBX (private branchexchange) systems. In other words, it comesclose to what you need for a domestic tele-computer.

Functions

The OPD is capable of acting as a sophisti-cated automatic telephone and as quite apowerful desktop computer and calculator.It also contains a battery-backed clock andcalendar.

In its role as a telephone, it allows directdialing of calls, storage and retrieval oftelephone numbers for automatic dialing,

[continued]

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 439

BYTE U.K.

monitoring of the cost of phone calls.and a limited form of automaticanswering. It also contains a twin-standard modem (300 bits per second|bps| and the 1200/75 bps used forViewdata systems in the U.K.) that canaccess remote computers using all theabove automatic facilities.

When making ordinary phone calls,you can switch on an internal loud-speaker to monitor the progress ofyour call, but there is no internalmicrophone. Therefore, upon connec-tion, you must revert to the telephonehandset. The OPD remembers the last10 numbers dialed and allows single-key redialing by selecting one of themfrom the screen.

A built-in voice synthesizer acts asa simple answering machine. You canchoose two different messages for ap-propriate times of day (e.g., hoursspent in and out of the office), but theOPD can't record messages fromcallers.

When using the OPD as a terminalfor data communications, you cancreate a directory of frequently usedservices and have them automaticallydialed, complete with appropriate log-on procedures. In addition, the OPDcan auto-answer a data call.

ICL is also developing an optional

message system, a ROM (read-onlymemory)-based application thatallows electronic mail to be sent be-tween OPDs with full auto-answercapability. It wasn't ready at the timeof this test.

Since an OPD can control twophone lines (plugging straight into thewall sockets), you can make a voicecall simultaneously with a data trans-mission. In general, you can alwaysmake or receive a voice phone call,regardless of whatever else you aredoing on the OPD, and then when youhang up, return to where you left off.

The Hardware

The OPD bears no external resem-blance whatever to the Sinclair QL. It'spackaged as two units: a console unitcontaining the keyboard, telephonereceiver, central processor, and twomicrodrives; and a VDU (visual-display unit), which contains thepower supply as well as a 9-inch high-definition black-and-white monitor(see photo 1).

The VDU is small and neat, onlyslightly larger than that of the Applelie. It has only two controls, a sliderto adjust the contrast and the mainpower switch. The black-and-white-monitor tube is of very high definition

Photo I: The One Per Desk from Mernational Computers Ltd.

and has two display modes: 26 linesby 80 characters and 26 lines by 40characters. It can display a gray scale,with two shades of gray in 80-columnmode and six shades in 40-columnmode, which lets you create nicescreen designs.

The OPD can support internally allthe colors and font sizes of theSinclair QL, and ICL does offer an op-tional color monitor: however, it ismuch larger than the black-and-whiteunit, and the company feels that mostbusiness users will prefer the lowercost and smaller size of the latter.

The bottom two lines of the screenare dedicated to the notice-board, astatus area where various messages—as well as date and time—are dis-played. And when you dial a phonenumber—either manually or automat-ically—the digits of the number ap-pear in this area as they are dialed.

The console unit has a removablesloping cover over the microdrives,which you must remove to install thedry-cell backup battery. The rear ofthe case contains huge slots toreceive the ROM mounting moduleand the telephony module, which aresupplied separately. The advantage ofthis arrangement is that you can sub-stitute a new telephony module whenthe OPD is sold in different nationalmarkets: it contains the modem aswell as the connectors for two tele-phone lines.

The keyboard has typewriter-stylekeys of normal pitch and feel and isquite suitable for word processing.The separate numeric keypad differsin function from that on an ordinarycomputer: rather than being a meresupplement to the top-row numerickeys, it is a telephone-dialing pad.Special keys surrounding the pad per-form functions like last-number-redialand select-the-internal-loudspeaker.

The telephone handset sits to theleft of the main keyboard in a cradlewith a conventional receiver-restswitch. Lifting the receiver interruptsthe computer and prompts you to diala number: the call is disconnected byreplacing the receiver or throughsoftware.

[continued)

440 B YTE • IUNE 1985

At last — an expert systemthat's easily affordable

Now you can explore the world of expert systems,creating your own knowledge bases, for only $49.95.

Expert systems — programs that can make logical infer-ences from a database of rules — are among the hottestdevelopments in software today. They greatly simplifycomplicated problem solving for a wide variety of profes-sionals . . . from the engineer troubleshooting complexmachinery to the investor making critical financial deci-sions. But they ordinarily cost thousands of dollars, whichis too much for most individual users to pay.

Here for the first time is a full, open expert system at afraction of the usual cost. MICRO EXPERT, running onApple or IBM PC, gives you the problem-solving capabili-ties of systems costing thousands . . . for less than $50!

Among its many useful features . . .

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• it contains complete source codes and descrip-tions of program designs for easy modifications

• it overlooks nothing— makes the cross connec-tions that people miss unless they work throughevery possible combination of the facts and allpossible relationships

• it allows you to include calls to Pascal proce-dures within rules

• it lets you trace inferences, find out why anygiven inference was made

• it lets you find out how questions are asked andhow any given inference was made

An invaluable affordable aid to every professional whomust solve problems in situations where there are a lot ofpossibilities, the MICRO EXPERT package includes a 64-page guide with detailed instructions on everything fromstarting the system to developing and writing rule bases.

Si!

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Inquiry 269

IUNE 1985

I Y T E 441

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442

1YTE

'UNE 1985

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( VISIT OUR DISCOUNT SHOWROOMS! )

BYTE U.K.

If you should hear a modem whis-tling at the other end of the line whenyou pick up the receiver, the Auto but-ton will switch that line over to dataauto-answer, while the Hold key holdsa voice or data call and switches youto the other line.

The OPD is principally a ROM- andRAM (random-access read/writememory)-based computer, with thetape-cartridge microdrives servingonly as backup devices. The machineshould be left connected permanentlyto a main power supply and notswitched off at the end of the day. Tosave wear and tear on the VDU, thescreen blanks itself when not used for10 minutes and is restored either byan incoming call or by pressing anykey. There's no power switch on theconsole unit; the one on the VDU letsyou switch the monitor off (over week-ends or holidays) but leaves the con-sole energized.

The machine comes with 128Kbytes of RAM and an expansion boxat the rear of the console that acceptsROM capsules containing the operat-ing system and optional applicationprograms. Telephone numbers andother data used in telephone com-munication are stored in RAM mostof the time. Obviously, it's essential tomake a microdrive backup to guardagainst power failure. (An internal bat-tery ensures that the telephone partof the OPD will function even in theevent of a power failure.) Some ap-plications require more data than

RAM can hold (word processing, forinstance), and you can store less fre-quently used telephone directories onthe microdrives to save RAM space.

ICLs idea is that the average userdoes not want to be involved withoperating systems, files, and mass-storage devices, and it's a sound idea.Most of the time the OPD behaves likea telephone that remembers things;in other words, it behaves like a con-sumer appliance rather than a com-puter. When the microdrives must beused, the filing system is of a fairlyrudimentary and obvious sort thatmerely dumps a memory image totape, driven by menu selections.

Apart from considerations of opera-tional simplicity, this RAM-based wayof working overcomes most of the ob-jections to the Sinclair QL micro-drives; namely, their relatively slow ac-cess speed and questionable long-term reliability. (ICL has made someinternal modifications that it claimshave improved reliability.) In normaluse you might only use the micro-drives once or twice a day.

You can also connect a serial printerto the OPD. Pressing the Print keyprints the current screen contents;continuous print is available when youare using the word processor or moni-toring a remote computer session.

System Software

The ROM-based operating software ofthe OPD is controlled by a combina-tion of screen menus and dedicated

keys. Its design looks rather staid inthese days of overlapping windowsand icons, but it is nevertheless wellthought out and easy to use with fewexceptions.

The three fundamental controlkeys—Start, Resume, and Review—aresituated on the main keyboard. Press-ing Start brings up the top-level menu,which is the starting point for allactivities.

The OPD operating system is fullymultitasking and distinguishes twotypes of applications called transient orextended, respectively. Transient ap-plications stop dead when you pressthe Start key and can only be rerunby selecting them again from a menu.

Extended applications, on the otherhand, will, if possible, go into thebackground when you press Start andcontinue running there. For example,if you were connected to a remotedatabase and downloading data tothe OPD, this activity would continueeven if you pressed Start to do some-thing else. Some extended applica-tions (e.g., a word processor orspreadsheet) require the use of thekeyboard and screen, however. Theseare suspended rather than put into thebackground and can be restartedwhere they left off by pressing theResume key. If there are several sus-pended applications, Resume pre-sents a screen menu of them so youcan choose which one to restart.

The top-level menu provides access

[continued]

GRAPHS WITHOUT GRAPHICS?

Disk Drive

nters 25.4V.

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Inquiry 244

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 443

BYTE U.K.

to the telephone directory, BASIC, adesk calculator, and submenus thatcontrol voice and data automated-callfacilities, the microdrive utilities, andROM applications software.

The telephone directory is a built-in database that acts as an electronicphone book. In addition to the name,phone numbers (both voice and data,and extension numbers for PABXIprivate-area branch exchange|). anda descriptive comment for each per-son or firm, you may store a shortcodeand a telephone charge band. The short-code is a three-letter abbreviationused for ultraquick dialing, while thecharge band permits the OPD to cal-culate the cost of calls made to thisnumber.

You can display the directory on thescreen as a list of single-line entries.A keypress expands these to givemore information (eg., the identifyingcomment) or to retrieve a whole

record for amendment. You can diala number by selecting it from this listin one of two ways, either by movinga block cursor to the appropriate en-try or by using a search commandthat can match words or parts ofwords anywhere in a record.

To dial numbers using a shortcode,lift the receiver and type the code:you don't have to access the directoryat all.

The telephone-control submenupermits you to set up voice auto-answer messages and to inspect thetotal cost of calls made in all the dif-ferent charge bands. You can set theattributes call-timing and auto-answeron or off for a particular telephoneline with this menu.

The voice synthesizer integratesnicely into the system. Answer mes-sages are named and stored in alibrary. You can create a new one withan editor that offers a screen display

of all the words available. (The wordswill more than fill the screen, so it canbe scrolled.) You compose your mes-sage from this vocabulary by typingit on the input lines at the foot of thescreen. Once it's entered, a singlepress of the key makes the OPD speakthe message so you can see how itsounds and edit it immediately. Thevocabulary contains most of thewords you need to compose politebusiness-type messages, plus all theletters of the alphabet, the digits, thenumbers up to 59, the suffixes "ing"and "s" (hard and soft), and "breath''pauses. The speech quality is clearand intelligible but somewhat expres-sionless.

You may select a message from thelibrary and assign it to a telephoneline. By specifying a start and finishtime it's possible to allocate two dif-ferent messages for different times of

{continued)

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Inquiry 437

a message toour subscribers

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HanZon's 64K Universal DataBuffer is the only self-configuringintelligent device that gives youuninterrupted use of yourpersonal computer.

With four standard interfaceports, now you can share outputdevices with two micro systems.Just plug them in and you'reready to go. And it's expandableup to 256K.

Call HanZon today for moreinformation and the name of yournearest dealer: 206-487-1717.

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day. e.g., hours you are in and out ofyour office.

The computer-access submenu con-tains another database similar to thetelephone directory, to hold phonenumbers of remote computer ser-vices. An entry is much like a tele-phone-directory entry except that itcontains a field for the profile, a

named file of communications param-eters (parity, stop bits, etc.) and log-on information. The system providestwo skeleton profiles, one for a300-bps "glass Teletype" and one fora Viewdata terminal to the U.K. Prestelstandard: other types will becomeavailable later as ROM capsules. Byediting these skeletons, you can

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create and store profiles for specificsources; you can apply a single pro-file to more than one source.

Data captured from a remote sourcecan be stored in the page store, whichis yet another database holdingnumbered, screen-size pages of data.It can store up to 99 pages for laterinspection or printing.

Logging on to a remote source isnot quite fully automatic. The OPDdials the number automatically, butyou must manually press a functionkey to send the log-on sequencestored in its profile once connectionis established—hardly an oneroustask.

The last option on the top-levelmenu is Housekeeping, which coversall the utilities, such as setting the dateand time, saving and loading memoryimages to the microdrives, and view-ing a directory of the RAM contents.This latter option shows how many512-byte blocks each memory file oc-cupies and allows manual deletion offiles to free up space.

The OPD As a Computer

In the rare moments when you are notusing the OPD as a telephone, it canserve as a desktop calculator andcomputer.

You access the calculator from thetop-level menu; it has a full-screen dis-play that emulates a printing desk cal-culator whose printout shows the last16 results, complete with memoryoperations.

BASIC, also accessible from the top-level menu, is Sinclair's SuperBASICa superior but rather slow structureddialect, which I examined in somedetail in my September 1984 BYTEU.K. column (page 415).

Although the OPD derives some ofits components (especially the customgate arrays that handle analog controlof the microdrives) from the SinclairQL. it uses a completely differentoperating system and therefore, ingeneral, it cannot run QL software. Bychoosing to implement SuperBASICin full, ICL hopes to provide a high-level language bridge to QL compati-bility; BASIC programs written for the

[continued)

446 BYTE- JUNE 1985

Inquiry 185

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PRINTERS

Anadex

9625B S1089

WP6000 S2039

DP6500 S2179

Brother

HR-15XL S345

HR-25 SSS9

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Canon

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A-10-30 S469

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55 CPS Serial or Parallel S103S

8510 Parallel (Prownter) S295

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Citizen

MSP-10 S329

MSP-15 $509

MSP-20 S469

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Comrex

CR-2E S364

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420 Call

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latter should run, although I wasunable to get hold of any samples totest this.

The OPD can be optionally suppliedwith Psion's Xchange suite of applica-tions in ROM. This is based on thefour-program suite supplied with theSinclair QL, but is, in fact, a later ver-sion that is more integrated and fea-tures a limited form of multitasking (inaddition to that provided by the OPDoperating system).

The QL versions are bedeviled byslowness caused by their heavy useof overlays from the microdrives; run-ning from ROM on the OPD rendersa significant improvement, though thescreen updating in Quill (its word pro-cessor) is still irritatingly slow.

The four component programs,Quill, Archive (database manager),Abacus (spreadsheet), and Easel(business graphics), are run from anexecutive program called Xchange.which allows you to create namedtasks. For example, you could havetwo Quill tasks in existence at oncewith different names. These tasks are,strictly speaking, interruptible ratherthan truly multitasking; a single key-press suspends the current task andreturns you to Xchange, from whichyou can enter another task. Xchangealso facilitates the exchange of databetween different applications, e.g.,from a spreadsheet to the word pro-cessor.

Xchange applications can use filesthat reside either in memory or on themicrodrives. However, the programisn't fully integrated with the OPDoperating system, in the sense that itsapplications can use only Xchange-created files and cannot access thememory files used by, for instance, thetelephone directory or the page store.

Overview

Having to revert to a boring ordinarytelephone after several weeks with theOPD came as somewhat of a shockto me. It seems so right that my tele-phone should be part of my com-puter, or vice versa. Certainly, it'spossible to buy fancy phones that dolast-number-redial and store a fewnumbers, but to call up a remote data-

base with a single keystroke and thenreturn immediately to where you leftoff typing a document is somethingelse.

ICL has aimed the OPD at the busi-ness market, where its small size—don't forget it can replace two tele-phone receivers as well as a personalcomputer—could make it an attractivepurchase for managers and execu-tives whose desks have begun toresemble a TV studio floor.

There are some things that the OPDlacks that I would eventually like tosee in such a product. In particular,I should like to download documentsfrom a remote source and incorporatethem directly into a word-processingdocument, which requires a texteditor that is more fully integratedinto the system. Also, given that itsRAM-based way of working is very ef-fective, it could use more RAM.

The lack of an industry-standardoperating system could be perceivedas a weakness, but ICL is adamantthat the OPD is not aimed at com-puter buffs, nor at those with sophis-ticated computing requirements; thesupplied ROM software should pro-vide all that's needed in its intendedmarket.

Such doubts apart, playing with theOPD has convinced me that it's asmuch of a milestone in personal com-puting in its own way as the Macin-tosh. It's hard to imagine how a futurepersonal computer can avoid havingintegral telephone facilities; plug-inmodems and acoustic couplers sud-denly seem very clumsy.

With post-Macintosh user interfacesand possibly video as well as voicechannels, the personal computers ofthe future could at last become trulyuseful in the home as well as the of-fice. Remote banking and shoppingare already with us in a limited way.Downloading books and pictures(maybe movies, too?) from the world'slibraries could soon follow, as couldwholly electronic mail (with photo-graphs as well as text).

The OPD will be available in theU.S.—with a suitable U.S. telephonymodule—probably in the latter half ofthis year. ■

448 B YTE • |UNE I985

Byte Book Club

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BUSINESS INFORMATIONPROCESSING WITH BASIC By G

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BOWKER'S 1985 COMPLETESOURCEBOOK OF PER-SONAL COMPUTING By R

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IBM PC By D. J. Bradley583050-7 $19.95

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MICROCOMPUTER GRAPHICSAND PROGRAMMING TECH-NIQUES By H. Katzan, Jr.582576-7 $22.50

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Bonus books! You will immediately begin to participate in our Bo-nus Book Plan that allows you savings up to 70% off the publishers'prices of many professional and general interest books!

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and alternate selections. A dated Reply Card is included. If you wantthe Main Selection, you simply do nothing—it will be shipped auto-matically. If you want an alternate selection—or no book at all—yousimply indicate it on the Reply Card and return it by the date speci-fied. You will have at least 10 days to decide. If. because of late deliv-ery of the Bulletin you receive a Main Selection you do not want, youmay return it for credit at the Club's expense.

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IUNE 1985 -BYTE 449

THKB

PROTECTION.

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Inquiry 371

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Computer Accessories Group300 Harvard AvenueWestville. NJ 08093Toll-free (800) 257-8384In NJ (609) 456-5400

Nobody does it better. Nobody can.

jUb

BYTE JAPAN

New NECs

and a Cartridge Disk

PC-8801 Mk II SR

Mr. PC

PC-6001

Tomas drives

Shoppers' guides

Readers' queries

by William M. Raike

William M. Raike, who has a Ph.D.in applied mathematics from North-western University, has taught opera-tions research and computer sciencein Austin. Terns, and Monterey.California. He holds a patent on avoice scrambler and was formerly anofficer of Cryptext Corporation inthe U.S. \n 1980. he went to ]apanlooking for 64K-fe RAMs. He hasbeen there ever since as a technicaltranslator and a software developer.

I'm always impressed by the pace of in-troductions of new computer productshere; not a month goes by without atleast one noteworthy new computer orperipheral device appearing under exhibi-tion spotlights or on dealers' shelves. Thismonth's newcomers include three substan-tial upgrades of NEC computers and an im-pressive new cartridge hard-disk systemfrom Tomas. In this month's BYTE Japan I'llalso comment on a growing applicationarea here: computers as neighborhoodguides.

New Trio from NEC

(apan's leading personal computer manu-facturer, NEC, recently introduced, of allthings, three 8-bit personal computers. Thefirst is an upgrade of its PC-8801 Mk II,based on NEC's version of the Z80 micro-processor and now more than a year old.The older version of the PC-8801 Mk II isstill selling well at the major computeroutlets in Tokyo's madhouse Akihabaraelectronics district, with discount prices inthe under-$800 range.

The new version is called the PC-8801 MkII SR. It's a mystery why NEC didn't simplycall it the Mk III; I'm not even sure I wantto know what the "SR" stands for.

Like its predecessor, the SR comes inthree versions (with zero, one, or two floppy-disk drives) and has 64 K bytes of user RAM(random-access read/write memory), plusan extra 48K bytes of graphics video RAM.The SR also has the same multiple per-sonality as the earlier PC-8801 systems,which allows it to maintain compatibilitywith its ancestors all the way back to thePC-8001 computer that first appearedalmost six years ago. In addition to its 64Kbytes of N88-BASIC ROM (read-only mem-ory), the SR also has the older N-BASICROM; you select one bank of ROM or theother by an external DIP (dual-inline pack-age) switch.

The SR isn't identical to the plain old MkII model, though. For one thing, it offers a

3000-plus-character kanji ROM as standard.This feature is currently almost universal;even the low-priced MSX machines (now inthe $100 to $3 50 range) offer some kanjisupport. The SR also has a switch that letsyou select between two different versionsof N88-BASIC

The SR handles graphics several timesfaster than the old Mk II and supports ad-ditional color graphics features. In either the640- by 200-dot (low-resolution) or 640- by400-dot (high-resolution) mode, each dotcan assume any of eight colors. You canselect the eight colors on a charac-ter-by-character basis from a total of 512 col-ors. Finally, the computer includes a pro-grammable sound synthesizer with an eight-octave range, offering piano brass, and per-cussion effects along with insect sounds,bird calls, and others.

There's very little software to run on theSR, except for the lapanese-language word-processing packages from outside vendorsthat also run on the older versions of thePC-8801 with optional kanji boards in-stalled. I can't imagine anywhere exceptlapan where hardware of this caliber wouldbe sold completely unsupported by corre-sponding graphics software (except forBASIC), leaving it up to the hobbyists tofigure out whether they can do anythinguseful with their $1000 new computer, fudg-ing from the rapid turnover in used com-puters, many users discover that they'relimited to buying commercial games or key-ing in thousands of lines of BASIC codingfor public-domain games that appear incomputer magazines every month. (There'sonly one magazine here that's published ondisk as well as paper.)

It's revealing that, with all the hype sur-rounding the graphics and sound-synthe-sizer features of this computer, including ex-tensive magazine advertising, there is ab-solutely no mention of an operating system.Having owned an earlier PC-8801, I knowit can run CP/M, but there's not much in the

{continued)

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 451

BYTE JAPAN

The Tomas drives arequieter, offer morecapacity than afloppy-disk drive, andprovide a reasonableway to maintainbackup storage.

way of vendor support for users whowant access to that software base.

MR. PC

Another NEC entry is apparently de-signed to attract people who want asystem one step above the low-pricedMSX machines. It's called the Mr. PC.and advertising for the machine isdirected toward young people; maga-zine ads and brochures feature peo-ple dressed in the latest teen-agefashions and bill the Mr. PC as theRoppongi pasocom (personal computer),a reference to one of the more bus-tling disco and nightlife districts of cen-tral Tokyo. The computer comes ineither red or black. A major feature isits cordless keyboard, doubtless alsodesigned for people who want todance with the keyboard. The list priceis just under $600, although 20 or even30 percent discounts are almost uni-versal at most of the major Akihabaracomputer department stores.

The Mr. PC is an enhancement ofthe NEC PC-6601 computer 1 talkedabout in the September 1984 BYTEjapan ("Show Time," page 407). Itcomes with one 320K-byte 3!/2-inchmicrofloppy-disk drive and 64K bytesof RAM as standard; you can add an-other drive for about $150 extra.There are five banks of ROM, includ-ing two versions of BASIC, a ROM forthe sound synthesizer (which isn'tquite as elaborate as the one in thePC-8801 Mk II SR), and a 1024-char-acter kanji ROM. Even without anyseparate graphics video RAM, the

color graphics capabilities are ade-quate: 320 by 200 dots, with a15-color palette.

The main processor is a ^PD780Cequivalent to a Z80. and runs at 3.58MHz. The Mr. PC also uses three sub-processors; one 8049 for controllingcassette and RS-2 32C serial I/O (input/output) (the RS-2 32C board is a $2 5option), one 80C49 for a timer andtelevision controller (a video super-impose feature is standard), andanother 80C49 used as a keyboardcontroller.

This machine's software situation isonly marginally better than that of thePC-8801 Mk II SR; the Mr. PC comeswith a Japanese-language word pro-cessor, a music software packagecalled Musicwriter, and a game. Thecomputer stores are jammed withgames for the PC-6601, all of whichrun on the Mr. PC.

PC-6001 Upgraded

Although NEC doesn't have an entryin the MSX market (there are over twodozen competing MSX machinesnow), it recently upgraded its slow-selling PC-6001 computer; the resultis the PC-6001 Mk II SR. Similar to theMr. PC but without a disk drive, it of-fers 80-column display capability andaccepts almost all of the Mr. PC pe-ripherals and options. It costs about$3 50, the same price as the top-of-the-line MSX computers. Since itdoesn't accept MSX software car-tridges, though, it's hard to imaginethis machine finding much ac-ceptance.

Cartridge Hard-Disk System

A new disk system from a small com-pany called Tomas Electronics hasreally big potential. The Tomas car-tridge-disk system incorporates thebest features of floppy-disk systemsand hard disks. Most floppy disks arelimited to about a megabyte (althoughthe new Hitachi 6.5-megabyte 5!4-inchfloppy-disk drives I talked about in theFebruary BYTE lapan |"Disks andPrinters." page 367) should start ap-pearing before long); as density in-creases, manufacturing quality controland the sensitivity of the disk to dust

contamination and wear become in-creasingly serious problems. And theidea of keeping a box or more of flop-py disks as backup for a hard-disk sys-tem deserves to become obsolete.

Besides being quieter and offeringmore capacity than a floppy-diskdrive, the Tomas drives offer a reason-able way to maintain backup storage.The Tomas disk cartridges consist ofa 3.9-inch Winchester-type hard diskenclosed in a protective cartridge; thecartridges are about Vi inch thick andabout 4'/2 inches square. The rigidityof the cartridge allows the drives touse a fast rotational speed (just over3 500 revolutions per minute) and ahigh recording density (12,000 bitsper inch). The cartridge also protectsthe sensitive magnetic surface fromcontamination or careless handling.

The individual cartridges plug intothe front of the Tomas drives (single-and dual-cartridge drives are avail-able), giving the same flexibility andease of backup as floppy-disk drives.Each cartridge holds 5 megabyteswhen formatted; the average time toaccess a track is only 90 milliseconds,and the high rotational speed andhigh recording density combine togive a data-transfer rate of 5 megabitsper second. According to Tomas, acarbon-coating technique and im-proved manufacturing facilities con-tribute to making the system highlyreliable.

The price of the system is compar-able to the price of a hard-disk sys-tem of similar capacity; the list pricesfor the single- and dual-drive versions(the RX-0600 and RX-0606) are about$1750 and $2450, respectively. An in-dividual 5-megabyte cartridge, calleda Q-Pak, sells for about $80; that'smore than floppy disks on a per-bytebasis, but Tomas claims the life of aQ-Pak is several times longer than thelife of a floppy disk, and the speed ad-vantage more than offsets the pricedifference.

The drives have built-in controllers;from the computer's point of view,they work just like conventional hard-disk units. According to Tomas, youcan connect either the single- or dual-disk drive to an IBM Personal Com-

452 BYTE • IUNE 198S

BYTE JAPAN

puter (PC) or PC XT with a hard-diskinterface, as well as to the NECPC-9800 series computers (runningunder CP/M or MS-DOS), the IBM5550. the Oki if800 series, and theDEC LSI-11 (running under the RT-11operating system). The company saysa Fujitsu version will be out soon; I'dwelcome the chance to try one on myown system.

On the Street

As still another sign of the diffusionof personal computers into everydaylife in lapan, video-display units arestarting to appear on Tokyo sidewalks,used as directories and guides to localservices and businesses. They areusually found in relatively shelteredlocations near subway stations ormajor shopping districts. The hard-ware, based on standard personalcomputer technology, is usuallyhoused in protective plexiglass, andthe weather has dictated the use ofsealed membrane-type keyboards ortouchpads. Other than that, the sys-tems have no particular anti-vandalism or security precautions.The software is all menu-driven; itallows you to select from categoriessuch as "restaurants," "shopping,""services." "entertainment," etc., andthen to request more detailed infor-mation about particular listings. Colorgraphics are both eye-catching and in-formative, and the systems usuallyprovide maps to guide the user to in-dividual establishments, an essentialfeature in view of Tokyo's sometimeschaotic street addresses. Some sys-tems are free, others are coin-oper-ated; I don't know what it costs anestablishment to be included in thedirectory.

These high-tech directories aren'tlimited to Tokyo; for example, I sawa particularly handy system in Mat-sumoto, a scenic city in north centrallapan. Installed next to the maindowntown train station, the systemdidn't have a video display: instead,a menu with a hundred or so three-digit codes was posted on a largeboard, similar to the type of buildingdirectory used in most large officebuildings. When I keyed in my desired

code, the system produced a one-page information brochure, includingmaps and other graphics. It wasprinted on a high-speed 24-pin dot-matrix kanji printer. This particularservice was free, and I noticed thatover a period of 20 minutes or somany of the system's users werechildren, some obviously in the pro-cess of showing their parents how touse the directory.

Answers

I get a number of questions fromBYTE readers, but it's impossible forme to answer all of them personally.One question that comes up re-peatedly is whether you can get aboard for the IBM PC that will let ithandle Japanese characters. Accord-ing to the president of the local IBMPC users group, the answer is no, al-though it is rumored that Chinese-language systems exist in Taiwan. The

language gap is not surprising in viewof the many technologically superiorlapanese personal computers that sellfor a fraction of the price of the IBMPC and the computers sold by IBMlapan Ltd. that have Japanese-lan-guage capability. As I've mentionedbefore, the IBM PC and compatiblesare not in widespread use in lapan.If you have a question about thelapanese personal computer world, orcomments or suggestions about pastand future topics for the BYTE lapancolumn, you can write to me do BYTE,POB 372, Hancock, NH 03449. I'll tryto reply to as many queries as pos-sible here in the column.

Next Month

In the luly BYTE Japan I'll tell youabout the new Silver-Reed EB50, abattery-powered, lap-size, four-colorprinter/plotter/typewriter, the ongoingbattle of memory chips, and more. ■

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IUNE 1985

iYTE 453

A COMPUTER

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YOUR LANGUAGE

IW»> ^"J^yAPAM-* * 9 wm

The ComputerChronicles, a half-hour weekly televisionseries brings you newsand information fromSilicon Valleyandaround the world.CorrespondentStewart Cheifet andGary Kildall, creator ofCP/M cover today'sheadlines and thestories behind them.Find out what is, whatwas and what will be,with the onlycomputer programyou're ever goingto need. TheComputerChronicles,every week ona public tele-vision stationnear you.

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M

454 BYTE' IUNE 1985

BYTE WEST COAST

A GEM Seminar

Also, a Macdisassemblerand advances in disk-controllertechnology

by John Markoff

and Phillip

Robinson

BYTE West Coast is prepared

monthly by BYTEs editors and staff

in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

Correspondence should be addressed

to BYTE West Coast, BYTE

Magazine. 42 5 Battery St.. San

Francisco. CA 94111.

In the March BYTE West Coast (page355) we mentioned GEM (Graphics En-vironment Manager), a new programfrom Digital Research (DR) that gives a com-puter a Macintosh-like face of icons, win-dows, multiple fonts, and pull-down menus.In February we attended the GEM Seminarin Monterey, California, where DR beganteaching programmers to adapt their soft-ware to the GEM environment. What beganas an interesting and impressive technicalpresentation gave way to a marketingbrouhaha, which in turn led to a demonstra-tion of DR's flexibility.

Why is GEM so important? DR's lohnHiles claims that personal computers withGEM will not only reach the people whoread PC. MatWorld. and Scientific American butalso will reach those who read Time and TVGuide. Those people will be more at easewith GEM than with standard operating-sys-tem interfaces. DR. the company that onceruled the microcomputer roost with itsCP/M operating system for 8-bit microcom-puters, hopes to set a new standard withGEM. The Digital Research folks want toprovide the advantages of the Mac (andmore, such as color displays) to people withother computers. Although the new AtariInc. under lack Tramiel (former head ofCommodore) is the only company that hascommitted itself to building GEM into itscomputers, DR is clearly hoping topenetrate the software-rich, business-standard world of the IBM Personal Com-puter (PC).

To do this, DR has to do two things. First,it must convince people to use GEM, tobuild it into hardware and to adapt softwareto it. Second, DR must teach hardware andsoftware developers how to do those things.Programs will not automatically run on acomputer that is equipped with GEM; spe-cial files must be added, icons must bedesigned, and program connections mustbe developed. (By the way, the bindings forGEM are written in C, though Pascal will beadded later. If you want to work with GEM,

you certainly should learn C.)

DR decided to begin its education effortwith seminars. The one we attended inMonterey was followed by one in London.The seminars had three goals: to continueto pitch GEM. to demonstrate some of thefundamentals of GEM programming (andhand out a software toolkit full of program-ming utilities and sample code), and toshow doubters that GEM is real. That lastgoal may seem unnecessary, but the fate ofDesq, Visi On. and Windows seems to showthat such software environments have beenjinxed. Visi On disappeared and almosttook one of yesterday's largest microcom-puter software firms (VisiCorp) with it. Desqhas lapsed into limbo, and Microsoft Win-dows, from one of today's largest softwarecompanies, has been repeatedly delayed.In fact, because GEM competes with Win-dows as much as it does with the Macin-tosh. DR was clearly happy to be handingout kits and discussing a real product whenMicrosoft was still months away from itsplanned summer release of Windows.

To stress the importance of the seminar,DR handed out a list of the attending com-panies. These were broken into threegroups: software houses, original equip-ment manufacturers (OEMs), and the press.In all. more than 200 people from 30 OEMsand 105 people representing various soft-ware firms were there. However, not every-one came with firm intentions to adapt toGEM. In fact, many would only admit com-ing to have a look at it or check it out. Thelist of firm commitments is short butsubstantial. Atari. ACT (makers of theApricot computers). Commodore, NorthernTelecom, and Texas Instruments have allbought licenses to use GEM. Atari hasalready employed the license to put GEMin its new ST series of computers. We'veheard rumors that Atari isn't alone. The soft-ware companies—known at the seminar asISVs (independent software vendors)—whohave announced that they will write to GEM

{continued)

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 455

BYTE WEST COAST

MacNosy is a

sophisticated

disassembler written

by veteran

compiler designer

Steve )asik.

are Blue Chip. Chang Labs, Hayden,Lifetree, Matrix/Systems Group, Pro-Vue. Quadratron Systems, Schoen-burg and Hoxie. Software Products,Spinnaker, and Thorn EMI.

Most of the two-day seminar wasdevoted to explaining GEM architec-ture and to walking through GEM pro-gram code. Throughout the sessions,the DR team demonstrated GEM run-ning on a variety of IBM machines in-cluding a PC AT, a PC XT, and an IBMPC with two floppy-disk drives and2 56K bytes of memory. (The PC ATused IBM's advanced graphicsadapter with the 640- by 200-pixelresolution.)

A description of GEM's VDI (virtualdevice interface), which allows pro-grams to think they have control ofthe terminal when they are in fact be-ing handled by GEM, was followed bya short discussion of fonts. As LeeLorenzen, senior software engineerfor DR, explained, DR is only pro-viding a sans-serif font called Swiss(which looks like Helvetica) and a seriffont (which looks like Times-Roman)but is encouraging third-party fonts.In fact, the folks from DR started refer-ring to IFVs (independent fontvendors).

Tom Rolander of DR explainedsome of the tough technical stuff,walking through the code of a sam-ple GEM application he had written(a simple paint program). Then DR'sTim Oren began a detailed overviewof the RCS (resource construction set).On Friday morning we completed theRCS overview and then quicklylearned how to use the Icon Editor

from Greg Morris of DR (he wrote theeditor). Rolander returned to walk usthrough some more C listings for asimple desk accessory.

Friday afternoon's discussion ofmarketing set off a small explosion.Have you ever seen a room loadedwith loud, hostile, and sometimes pro-fane programmers? Except in soft-ware project-status meetings, ofcourse. We witnessed one after theDR marketing team presented thelicensing facts about GEM. Basically,we were told that there will be twoways for software developers to workwith GEM. They can develop GEM-compatible applications and sell themto people who already have GEM ontheir computers. That's no market atall right now: No one has GEM. Orthey can pay DR a license fee that willallow them to sell the application andGEM in a bundle. This license costs$1000 per product per year (with noguarantee that it won't rise)—so far,not so bad. But then DR mentionedthat GEM would only run on IBM (PC,PC AT. and PC XT) equipment. Itwouldn't even run on compatibles likethe Compaq. Why? Because DR didn'twant it to. DR deliberately wroteGEM—crippled it—so it wouldn't runon clones. Again, why? Because DRwanted hardware manufacturers topay OEM license fees to have GEMrun on their computers. All OEMs ex-cept IBM, that is.

DR didn't mention this until the finalhours of the seminar. In fact, the DRmarketing people didn't hand out thesheets detailing licensing until justbefore this session. Did they an-ticipate the attendees' reactions? Thesoftware developers certainly didn'tanticipate having to support differentGEM versions of their applications forevery compatible and clone. Whathad seemed up until then a crowd ofprogrammers willing to give GEM ashot quickly changed. While noteveryone objected to the IBM con-straint, there were a number of hostilequestions from the audience. In fact,when one person asked how manythought GEM's inability to run on theCompaq was a serious limitation, 50to 60 percent of the attendees raised

their hand. DR responded that it hasto make some money on the productand OEM fees are a place to do so.While some developers felt this wasreasonable, many others seemed tothink they'd been bushwhacked.

Gary Kildall, the president andfounder of DR, tried to calm the at-tendees. Discussions after the con-ference centered on the marketingplans and what a pain they were.Things looked black for GEM.

Then DR changed its mind. In lateFebruary, the folks in Monterey de-cided to change the code in GEM thatchecks for machine type. Now, GEMwill run on IBM compatibles andclones. Imagine, a sizable softwarecompany that really pays attention toits developers and makes majorchanges because of what it hears.

We were impressed by GEM, aswere a number of the developers atthe seminar. Everyone went homewith two big binders full of someuseful information and some fluff, alot of C code, an invitation to a Com-puServe GEM support group, a toolkitdisk, and a list of toolkit bugs. WhileGEM had been in beta test for a cou-ple of months, the toolkit had justreached the beta-test stage and hada number of bugs. For instance, in acertain circumstance, if you tried todrag something out of a menu andthen accidentally dropped it on adivider line, the entire computer sys-tem would hang and have to be reset.

GEM lets you have the same kindof fun as working with a Macintoshand yet lets you step back into theIBM PC world with a quick exit instruc-tion. GEM even has a limited multi-tasking facility (it can handle somebackground processes). It is reason-ably quick and thorough, but it doeshave limitations. For example, it hassome arbitrary limits, such as a maxi-mum of four open windows at a timeand no more than six desk accesso-ries (and a memory-limit size forthose).

At press time DR was planning torelease its own GEM applications, in-cluding GEM Draw (April), GEM Writeand GEM Paint (June), and GEMGraph and GEM Wordchart (July).

456 BYTE • IUNE 1985

BYTE WEST COAST

How will GEM impact the micro-computer world? Right now thatdepends mainly on DR, Atari, andApple. Can DR convince developersto work in a GEM world? Will Atari beable to produce huge numbers of in-expensive GEM machines, as Tramielclaims? And finally, how will Applerespond? If people can have theMacintosh juice in a cheaper com-puter, or on an IBM PC-compatible,will they continue to buy Macs? DoesApple have the next evolution orrevolution (like a cheaper or morepowerful Mac) up its sleeve? If so. theCupertino Corps may well find thatGEM's imitation has confirmed Macideas and put Apple out in front ofthe microcomputer race. If Apple isn'tready to take the next step, it may berun over by a horde of "Macalikes"egged on by a smiling DR.

MacNosy: "A Disassemblerfor the Rest of Us"

Better software-development toolshave become available for the Macin-tosh during the past half year. Cur-rently there are a number of C pro-gramming languages, several assem-blers, several BASICS, LISP, Logo,FORTH, Modula-2, and an interpretivePascal to name just a few. Add alicensed version of Xerox Small-talk-80, which Apple is rumored tohave in the works for release soon,and the Macintosh becomes a reason-able programming environment.

For those who want to go further,programming editors and a variety ofdebugging tools are now readily avail-able. Possibly one of the ultimateMacintosh "exploring" tools is Mac-Nosy, a sophisticated disassemblerwritten by veteran compiler designerSteve lasik.

lasik has written compilers for Con-trol Data Corporation for a number ofyears and is best known for his workdeveloping a global optimizing FOR-TRAN compiler for the Control DataCyber 170 system. While attemptingto gain a clearer understanding of theMotorola 68000 and the Macintoshoperating system, he grew frustratedwith the poor quality of the documen-tation and the general lack of source

CompaniesMentioned

Digital Research Inc.

POB DRI60 Garden CourtMonterey, CA 93942(408) 649-3896

Jasik Designs

343 Trenton WayMenio Park. CA 9402 5(415) 322-1386

Sunol Systems1187 Quarry LanePleasanton. CA 94566(415) 484-3322

listings. So he decided to writeMacNosy.

Jasik considers his program to be asmuch a "decompiler" as a disassem-bler. MacNosy, which consists of morethan 7000 lines of Pascal code andabout 300 lines of assembly-languagecode, contains many features asso-ciated with compilers including atable manager, symbol-table enter/lookup routines, a reference map, andglobal flow analysis.

MacNosy runs on either a 512 K-byteMacintosh or a 1-megabyte Lisaunder the Workshop operating systemor the MacWorks environment. It iscapable of disassembling theresource fork of an application, ROM(read-only memory), or variousresource types in the system file(DRVR, PACK, INIT CDEF, WDEF etc.).

A partial list of MacNosy featuresalso includes symbol dictionaries ofthe ROM names and global symbols(0 to hexadecimal BOO) with value-to-symbol substitution, selective listingof procedures in a file by procedurename or substring, the ability tosearch a program file for referencesto selected addresses, ROM calls,resource-type references, constant orstring references, a full or selectivelisting of the resources in a file in aformat similar to that of the Macin-

tosh Resource Mover, and the abilityto translate the segment-relative ad-dress of an instruction to the disk-filerelative address for code-patchingpurposes. MacNosy also records itsinput on a text format .jrnl file for laterplayback. A future program additionwill be a built-in mini-editor for view-ing and modifying files while inMacNosy.

Jasik claims that MacNosy is setapart from other disassemblersbecause it treats a program as a treeof procedures. It begins at the mainentry point and does a tree walk tomark the program areas that are pro-cedures. Areas not included are con-sidered data. Currently the programdoesn't reconstruct enough informa-tion about data areas that are actual-ly code (procedures passed as ad-dresses), and programmer interven-tion is needed to decode these areas.

In addition to its use as an educa-tional tool and as a tool for devel-opers who want to examine theMacintosh ROM to find out what theROM routines are doing and for thosewho want to learn advanced 68000/Macintosh programming techniquesby examining others' code, MacNosyhas a more controversial use. Ad-vanced programmers can use it toremove copy-protection schemesfrom commercial software, lasik takesthe position that he is not opposedto copy protection as long as it is not"obnoxious" in the sense that it pro-hibits the user from booting an ap-plication from a hard disk withouthaving to insert a key disk each time.He is also critical of Apple's decisionnot to make more information aboutits ROM-based operating system avail-able for the Macintosh.

Faster and FatterWinchesters

Personal computer hardware de-signers are constantly confronted withthe task of squeezing increased per-formance from limiting standards. Par-ticularly in the area of mass storage,personal computers are bumping upagainst I/O (input/output) bottlenecksimposed by existing floppy-disk and

{continued)

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 457

BYTE WEST COAST

An RRL data-encodingtechnique improves ontraditional techniquesbecause it representsa given bit streamusing significantlyfewer flux reversals.

Winchester fixed-disk technology.

To at least partially get around theserestrictions it is possible to designnew disk controllers that extract moreperformance out of current-genera-tion Winchester disks. Large perfor-mance gains will soon be made by anew generation of disk controllersthat offer higher data-transfer ratesand greater storage capacity based inpart on new data-encoding tech-niques.

One interesting example of thistrend is a new two-chip mass-storagecontroller set recently announced bySunol Systems of Pleasanton. Califor-nia. The DC1001 disk-controller chipplus the RB1002 RAM (random-access read/write memory) buffersupport chip are based on CMOS(complementary metal-oxide semi-conductor) custom gate-array tech-nology and can be designed into a

single controller card that will handlea hard-disk drive, a floppy-disk drive,and even a file-addressable tape back-up system. Because it is fabricated inCMOS technology, the chip set willconsume far less power than othercommercial controllers. Each chipconsumes just 100 megawatts whenoperated from a 5-volt power supply.

The chip set implements the ST5065!4-inch, theST412 buffered-seek, andthe ST412HP high-performance hard-disk interfaces, the SA 514-inch,SA80O and SA850 8-inch floppy-diskinterfaces, as well as the ESDI (en-hanced small-disk interface) file-addressable tape, and the QIC 36streaming-tape interface.

The new controller set is address-able in a fashion similar to otherpopular controllers such as the NECj*PD765. It is simply necessary tosend a byte sequence through a hostcentral processor or a local controlmicroprocessor.

The key feature that lets the Sunolcontroller set achieve increasedcapacity and faster transfer rates thanstandard Winchester and floppy-diskcontrollers is the use of an RLL (run-length limited) data-encoding tech-nique that offers significant advan-tages over traditional MFM (modifiedfrequency modulation) or FM (fre-quency modulation) methods.

RLL improves on traditional tech-niques because it represents a givenbit stream using significantly fewerflux reversals. According to Dr. RobertMcCullough, Sunol's founder, RLL

permits recording up to 60 percentmore bits than MFM and can transferdata 50 percent faster.

FM is a self-clocking encoding tech-nique that is used to record bit-serialdata on magnetic media. Clocking isdone by first writing a flux reversal todefine the leading edge of a bit cell.If the value of the cell is 1, a secondflux change will occur midwaythrough the cell; however, if the valueof the cell is 0, a second flux reversalwill not take place until the leadingedge of the next bit cell.

MFM keeps the flux reversals for Isbut removes the clock bits exceptthose between two consecutive logic0s. Rather, the MFM bit cell is definedby an external phase-locked oscillatorsynchronized with the data-bit stream.

In contrast, in RLL encoding thereis nothing that can be identifiedseparately as a "clock bit" or a "databit." Instead there are only data pat-terns and corresponding code pat-terns. Each binary data string can berepresented as an RLL encoded datapattern. A minimum and maximumnumber of 0s are inserted betweenflux transitions. McCullough claimsthat RLL offers the best trade-off avail-able between flux-reversal densityand bit density.

Ultimately, this will translate intosignificant performance increases.When used as part of a newer high-performance interface standard suchas the ST412HP, for example, RLL en-coding can permit a 15-megabit-per-second data throughput. ■

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458 BYTE' IUNE I985

Inquiry 31 5

Structural AnalysisSoftware for Micros

A book/disk pkg that shows how to writestructural analysis software. Uses the'direct stiffness' method of analysis withGauss Jordan sol'n of eqn's. Eleven pro-grams show how to plot 3D structures,rotate in 3D, store on disk, analyze withforce and moment loads. Handles linearand non-linear structures (plastic mat Is.large displacements) via incremental solu-tion strategy. Can be used for professionalanalysis of small structures. Book withtheory, operating instructions. Disk withBASIC source code.

I ] IBM version $96

□ Apple version $96

□ Z-100 version $96

S/SAM

3D truss and frame analysis with graphicsEasy method of describing structure viakeyboard input, store structure on disk,recall and modify. Loadings include forcesand moments at nodes, prescribed nodedisplacements and rotations, thermal loadsS/SAM gives node translations and rota-tions, member forces and moments inglobal and member coordinate systemsHandles up to 150 degrees of freedomGraphics shows original structure in 3dimensions with deflected shape superim-posed in color (dotted lines is b&w), scaledeflections up or down, rotate in 3D.Features stress post-processor whichdoes accurate stress analysis onmembers, material properties and beamcross section disk catalogs, multiple loadcase analysis. Source code in BASIC ondisk. Manual. Demo kit available.

□ IBM S/SAM $365

□ Apple S/SAM $385

□ Z-100 S/SAM $385

□ IBM dem kit $35

f] Apple demo kit $35

Q Z-100 demo kit $35

Designer30

A 3-dimensiona! CAD program. Interactive-ly create 3D drawings on screen viakeyboard commands. Position points, con-nect by lines, fit curves through points withB-spline routine, scale, rotate in 3D,translate, view in perspective, store ondisk, recall up to 5 drawing simultaneous-ly. Move each independently. Move a pointand all lines, curves move with it. Input datais in terms of real physical dimensions suchas inches or millimeters. Drawingsautomatically scaled to fit on screen. At-tach physical data to drawing elementssuch as weight, resistance, etc. Use diskfiles as input to your own applications soft-ware. ..inexpensive, versatile, a verypowerful design package..can dothings Autocad can't..-BoatbuilderMagazine. Programs on disk in BASIC ful-ly documented. Manual.

□ IBM version $85

□ Apple version $85

□ Z-100 version $85

CAD-BASIC

A professional quality CAD program withsource code in BASIC fully documented.Use keyboard commands to create any 2Ddrawing, store on disk, recall, store stan-dard shapes, scale, rotate, automatic curvefitting, semi-automatic dimensioning.Perfect low-cost CAD system for profes-sionals, software hobbyists, educators.Screen dump or plotter versions available.

□ Screen Dump CAD-BASIC $120

□ For Houston Instruments Plotter.. $120; J For Hewlett-Packard Plotter $120

BASIC AircraftPerformance

A system of 8 programs to estimate theperformance of aircraft on prescribed mis-sions and in maneuvering flight at prescrib-ed conditions. Features state-of-the-artdrag prediction program, thrust/fuel inputand evaluation program, simple method ofdescribing complex missions. This systemwill take you from a 3-view drawing of anaircraft to a completed performanceenvelope and a mission performancedescription. Use of thrust/fuel flow tablespermit any engine type - turboprop, turbo-jet, etc. All programs in BASIC, sourcecode on disk, 240 pg manual with theory,operating instructions

□ IBM version $120

□ Apple version $120

P Z-100 version $120

Engineering Softwarefor Micros

A collection of programs for engineeringapplications of micros CAD graphics,mechanisms, Fourier Series. FourierTransforms, Guass Jordan sol'n of eqn's,Monte-Carlo optimization. Emphasis ongraphics.BASIC source code on disk.

I IBM version $50

! I Apple version $50

i I Z-100 version $50

Visual Vibrations

Solves 1 and 1 degree of freedom dampedoscillator problems with emphasis ongraphics. Response to applied harmonicforce, foundation motion, impulse and steploading, response spectra, log plots, com-plete description of system includingnatural frequencies, time constants, dam-ping factors, etc. Book reviews theory withoperating instructions. BASIC source codeon disk.

D IBM version $75

G Apple version $75

I I Z-100 version $75

Visual Statistics

Statistical analysis with emphasis ongraphics. Create data files interactively thrukeyboard. See x,y data points on screenas entered. Add, delete, move points,store on disk, recall and merge data files.Customize plots - define axes, flash pointnumbers, define grids, connect point withlines, bar charts, sort, percent betweenlimits, running average, x-mean, y-mean,weighted x-mean, standard deviation. Z-values, correlation coeff, coeff' of deter-mination, linear regression thru specifiedpoint. BASIC source code on disk. Manual

□ IBM version $65

[ J Apple version $65

□ Z-100 version $65

Statistics Softwarefor Micros

19 programs for statistical analysis: summany statistics, binomial and normal propabilities, ch, -square test, 1 and 2 samplehypothesis testing and confidence intervals, multi-factor ANOVA, comparison procedures, latin squares, cross-over designs,repeated measures design, simple andmulti-linear regression, regression thruorigin, logistic response analysis, graphicswith profile of means, scatter plots, residualplots, histograms. Numerous example pro-blems. 320 pg manual, BASIC sourcecode on disk.

Z IBM version $62

□ Apple version $62

□ Z-100 version $62

Graphics for theIBMpc, Apple, Z-100

64 programs that show how to writegraphics software. They advance fromelementary graphics to advanced conceptsin small steps. Shows how to create 2Dand 3D shapes, rotate, translate, scale,stretch, store on disk, view in perspective.clip, window, remove hidden lines. Applica-tions to CAD/CAM, business, games. Nam-ed 'the best book on microcomputergraphics' -Creative ComputingMagazine.. Book with BASIC source codeon disk.

D IBM version $50

n Apple version $50

□ Z-100 version $50

Sections

Calculates properties of composite oruniform beam cross-sections. They canhave any shape, regions of differentmaterial properties, reinforcing rods andholes. Properties calculated: area, wgt/unitlength, centroid coord's, bending and polarinertias, principal angle, inertias about prin-cipal axes, axial stiffness, bending stiff-ness, torsional stiffness, distance to outer-most fibers. Create shapes via keyboardinput using real physical dimensions, plotsection on screen with principal axes,outermost fiber shown in color or b&w,store on disk, recall and modify. BASICsource code on disk. Manual.

□ IBM version $65

G Apple version $65

[ ! Z-100 version $65

Stress & Strain

Solves 2 and 3 dimensional combinedstress problems. In 2D case, specifystresses, program draws stress elementwith Mohr's circle. Rotate element, newstresses are calculated, Mohr's circle isredrawn, stress vectors drawn to scale onrotated element. Also get principalstresses, strains, principal angle, maxshear. 3D case is similar but no Mohr's cir-cle. Principal stresses found via matrixiteration. BASIC source code on disk.Manual.

□ IBM version $85

D Apple version $85

□ Z-100 version $85

C Graphics

A collection of programs that show how towrite graphics software in C on an IBMpc.Learn how to turn on the graphics modeand place a point on the screen at x,y coor-dinates with assembly language, thendevelop SCREEN, PSET and LINE func-tions in C. Develop C functions to create2D and 3D shapes, rotate, scale, translatein 3D, store drawings on disk. Build yourown graphics language. Book with C andBASIC source code plus compiled moduleson disk.

D IBM version $66

KERN

INTERNATIONAL, INC

433 Washington Street, Po Box 1029Duxbury. MA 02331 (617)934-0445

To Order: Add $4 for first item, $2 each ad-ditional item for UPS shipping in US; $1 2and $6 Europe; $6 and $3 Canada, Centr'land S. America; $14 and $7 elsewhere.Use check drawn on US bank. int. moneyorder or VISA/MC number with expirationdate- Returns allowed in 10 days if diskenvelope is not opened Shipping must beprepayed Mass. residents add 5% salestax. Use this form or call for faster delivery.

_Exp Date_

Inquiry 235

iUNE 1985 • BYTE 459

OUR MODULA-2 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMTURNS "WAIT TIME" INTO "WORK TIME/

»

When Modula-2 was introduced asthe programming language of thefuture, it no doubt whet your appetitefor greater efficiency.

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BUILD UP PROGRAMS. SDS-XP lets youcreate programs using your compu-ter's full capabilities. With extensivelibraries, you can develop several,

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IF YOU'RE TIRED OF WAITING ON YOUR COMPILER AND WANT TO LOSE WAIT,

CALL 1-800-922-9049

(IN TEXAS, CALL 713/523-8422.)

460 BYTE* IUNE 1985

Inquiry 225

CIRCUIT CELLAR FEEDBACK

Conducted by Steve Garcia

Offer Extended

Dear Circuit Cellar Project Builders,

In my November 1984 article on theLis'ner 1000 voice-recognition board, I of-fered the software separately to CircuitCellar project builders for $17 throughMarch I, 1985. Requests have poured inthroughout the offering period, but themajority of foreign mail has just startedto arrive. To give everyone time to prop-erly evaluate the project and respond, Iam extending the availability of the soft-ware through August I, 1985. Thanks foryour support—Steve

Trump Card Questions

Dear Steve.

I recently read your articles in BYTEabout the Trump Card, and i am consider-ing the purchase of the board. However.I have several questions I would like tohave answered before I make such aninvestment.

You mentioned that there are a fewminor differences between IBM BASICAand TBASIC. What are these differences?Does TBASIC support the 8087 math co-processor? How long can I expect TrumpCard to take to compile very large andcomplicated programs? Our IBM PC sys-tem has an expansion unit. Can TrumpCard be placed in the expansion unit, ormust it be put in the system unit as is thecase with the monochrome monitoradapter and some other cards? Is it pos-sible that some IBM software will not runproperly when Trump Card is in the sys-tem? Is it possible that some of the othercards we have in our system will interferewith Trump Card?

Grieg A. OlsonTucson, AZ

The Trump Card manual supplies a list-ing of the IBM BASIC statements, func-tions, variables, and commands that areeither fully supported, supported withsome differences, or not supported byTBASIC. The items not supported byTBASIC generally comprise the specialPC BASIC commands associated with in-put/output control. For example, some ofthe items not supported by TBASIC areDEF USR, DELETE, KEY, LLIST, MERGE,MOTOR, PEN, STICK, TRON, and

TROFF. In some cases, the item is notsupported because it is handled in a dif-ferent manner by TBASIC. For example,items like DELETE, LLIST, and MERGEare handled by the built-in EE editor thatcomes with TBASIC and are not neededby the TBASIC compiler. A chapter onthe EE editor is included in the TBASICmanual.

TBASIC does not support the 8087math coprocessor. However, the increasein speed acquired by using TBASIC isremarkable without the 8087 co-processor.

The compilation time for large pro-grams is still quite fast. A 25K-byte BASICprogram will compile in about 8 seconds.

The Trump Card should be able to beplaced in an expansion unit, since thememory associated with the Trump Cardis on the Trump Card itself.

The Trump Card should not affect theoperation of any IBM software packages,and the Trump Card should not interferewith any of the other cards in yoursystem. At least, it has never interferedwith any of my hardware or software.—Steve

British Sweet Talker II

Dear Steve,

I thoroughly enjoyed the article that youwrote in the March 1984 BYTE regardingthe new Sweet Talker II.

I am a beginning computer enthusiast,and I have just ordered this board to beginexperimenting with a number of projects.

One of the more involved projects is tocreate a computer-generated British voice.While I will be experimenting with theSweet Talker II to learn a lot of the basicsand further understand that the chip canbe best utilized by programming it withan assembly language to take advantageof its many features, I am wonderingwhether it will be possible to get a Britishaccent out of its synthesized voice.

George E. HandleyShawnee Mission, KS

It may be possible to obtain a Britishaccent from the Sweet Talker II, but Ihave not tried to do so. The Apple II text-to-speech algorithm generates somewords that have a distinct (though un-

intentional) Irish brogue, and somephoneme changes might produce theBritish accent. It would be strictly a trial-and-error approach, however.

Each of the methods of speech syn-thesis is a compromise. The phoneme ap-proach allows an unlimited vocabulary atthe expense of accuracy. The linear-predictive-coding ILPC) method offers ac-curate speech reproduction, but thevocabulary is limited, since the coding foreach word must be computed. The adap-tive differential pulse-code modulationIADPCM) method, described in my June1983 Circuit Cellar article, may representan acceptable solution, but it uses largeamounts of memory. As the 256K- and!024K-byte memory chips become avail-able in quantities to drive the price down,this may be a cost-effective approach toyour application— Steve

Audio Down-Converter

Dear Steve.

I am an avid reader of your articles inBYTE, although I'm not quite a projectbuilder. Your recent articles on "talkers"and "listeners" prompted me to write toyou regarding my friend's hearing prob-lem. It has seemed to me that her hear-ing could be enhanced by some of thetechnology that goes into your projects.

Her problem is that she hears onlysounds below 700 cycles. It seems to me(quite possibly because of my lack ofknowledge) that it might be possible tobuild a device that would take in all noiseand shift it to a frequency where she canhear. Do you have any suggestions?Thanks.

Ralph M. CarlsonPoulsbo, WA

Though the Lis'ner 1000 (November1984, page 1101 has the capability to ex-tract filter coefficients from speech in realtime and also synthesize speech, theroutines required to lower the frequen-cy spectrum make it impossible to do inreal time. The speech would have to bereceived, analyzed, and synthesized inchunks. Also, it would not be very por-table.

A technique that might work was

{continued)

COPYRIGHT © 1985 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IUNE 1985 "BYTE 461

CIARCIA FEEDBACK

described in "Listen to a New World ofSounds with an Ultrasonic Detector" inthe luly 1978 issue of Popular Electronics.Though the circuit described would notwork for your particular frequencies, thetechnique of heterodyning might be ap-plied. If you have had any trigonometry,you have seen this identity: (sin x)(sin y)" '/i cos(x-y) - 'A coslx+y). Multiplyinga signal of constant frequency lyl by asignal of varying frequency (x) producestwo signals having a frequency equal tothe sum and difference of the inputsignals. If you choose 1000 Hz as fre-quency y. all frequencies in the signal xwould be increased and decreased by1000 Hz. The component that is in-creased in frequency would be rejectedby your friend's ears, leaving only thelower frequencies.

The resulting signal would not be thesame as playing a record at half speed,because that process divides all frequen-cies by two. In fact, the resulting signalmay be less intelligible than the original.By changing the frequency and filteringthe results, some intelligible signal maybe produced.

Books on operational-amplifier circuitsare available from advertisers in BYTE.One such book. Design of Op-Amp Cir-cuits, with Experiments by Howard M.Berlin /Howard W. Sams & Co.. 1978).gives a circuit for multiplying two signalstogether using two logarithmic amplifiers,a summing amplifier, and an antiloga-rithmic amplifier. A hitch in using the cir-cuit is that a DC offset must be addedto the two signals before they can bemultiplied, since you can't take the logof a negative number. It is easy to addthe offset, but the resulting signal willhave components of x, y, and x+y left,which may need to be filtered out.—Steve

Whither Signals?

Dear Steve,

I enjoyed your article about the TrumpCard (May and lune 1984). Your system in-terests me because it improves BASIC ex-ecution time, supports CP/M-80, and pro-vides development tools. It also is a directdemonstration of how to build qualityhardware.

I am interested in using the Trump Cardto run real-time data analysis in electro-physiology. But before I can I need toknow several things. First, what is the exactmeaning of the connecting symbols in theschematic? Second, I had trouble follow-ing the signals in the schematic. Can youtell me their origins and destinations? The

signals are HOLD. HOLDPC. LA1-LA11.MRFSH. R/W. Z. AD8-AD15. BIOR, CAS,INC. INTOP. SPIO, MREQ. MUX, andRESET.

F. MarionParis, France

The connecting symbol notation usedin my articles is as follows:

An arrow with a line emitting from itspoint means that a connection to thatpoint comes from some other point inthe schematic.

An arrow with a line entering the flatside means that signal goes somewhereelse in the schematic.

An arrow with a number in it means theconnection comes from or goes to an ex-ternal connector.

A double-pointed arrow denotes an in-tersheet connection.

Now that the connecting notation is ex-plained, let's address your list of TrumpCard signals.

The HOLD line that goes to 1C24.1C31.and ICIO is generated at pin 3 oflCIOandis shown on page 48.

The HOLDPC line is generated at pin8 of 1C35 and goes to pin 2 of ICIO onpage 48.

The LAI through LAI I signals aregenerated by IC5 and 1C6 on page 45.

The MRFSH signal is generated at IC1Ipin 6. It does not come from anothersource, as indicated on page 46. Also, theline shown between pins 10 and 12 ofIC20 should not be there, and theMRFSH signal should also be connectedto pin 10 of 1C20.

The R/W signal is generated at pin 30of ICI and connects to pin I of IC23.

The Z signal is generated at pin 10 ofICI3 and connects to pin 9 of IC3I andto pin 3 of IC32.

The AD8 through AD15 lines are theupper data lines of the Trump Card andconnect to all locations with the samelabels on pages 45 and 47.

The BIOR line is not used in the TrumpCard. _

The CAS signal is generated at pin 3 ofIC33 and connects to pin 4 of ICI 5 andpin 4 of ICI 6 (the arrows on ICs 15 and16 are reversed).

The TNC, INTOP, and SPIO lines are notused.

The MREQ line is used only as shownon page 46. It does not go anywhere elsein the circuit.

The arrow on pin I of ICI 7 should bereversed. The MUX line is generated atpin 5 of ICI 9.

The RESET signal is generated at pin

13 of IC9 on page 49.

I hope these comments will make con-structing your Trump Card a little easier—Steve

Trump Card Users Group

Dear Steve.

As one of the original users of the TrumpCard, I'd like to take this opportunity tobring you up to date on currentdevelopments.

We have a Trump Card Users Group(TRUG) in San lose, California, and we arein the early stages of setting up a TrumpCard software exchange on my BBS. I havechosen what I believe is the best BBS soft-ware. Tt>m Jennings's Fido system. The BBSis Fido #13. With the support of SweetMicro Systems, much of the software thatcomes with the Trump Card is available fordownloading. Also, one of the chartermembers of TRUG, Lloyd Zusman ofMaster Byte Software, has written somenice C utilities and enhancements to theC library that you can download as well.

Currently, we are running version 1.6 ofZoom, the operating system that comeswith Trump Card. It supports contextswitching on the Trump Card itself, but asof this writing, it doesn't yet support con-current processing between the Z8000and the 8088. We are slowly working onthat capability and we hope to have it inthe near future.

We'd like to invite any and all Trump Cardusers to call in and download what wehave. Also, we'd like to invite any of youwho are interested to help us develop anice repertoire of software for this niceprocessor. We are ultimately looking fora bunch of UNIX-like utilities to make theZoom system appear closer to UNIX, butfeel free to upload anything you'd like.

Call Fido #13 at (408) 923-5565.

300/1200 bps, 8 bit, 1 stop, no parity. Or

you can drop a line to TRUG. 3152

Penitencia Creek Rd.. San lose, CA 95132.

Vernon Crawford

San lose, CA ■

Over the years 1 have presented many dif-ferent projects in BYTE. I know many of youhave built them and are making use of themin many ways.

1 am interested in hearing from any of youtelling me what you've done with these proj-ects or how you may have been influenced bythe basic ideas. Write me at Circuit Cellar Feed-back. POB 582. Glastonbury. CT 06033,and fill me in on your applications. All lettersand photographs become the property of SteveCiarcia and cannot be returned.

462 BYTE." IUNE 1985

Lyco Computer Marketing & Consultants,

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GP 550 AT (Atari) 249

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Software DevelopmentEngineers

• BS/MS CS/EE/Math

• Unix* and C, Pascal, ADA

• Call Processing, DataCommunication orMaintenance SoftwareExperience

•TM Bell Labs

464 B YTE • IUNE 1985

System Engineers

• BSEE/MSEE, BSCS/MSCS

• High Level Project Planning,Systems Architecture

• Product LeadershipResponsibility

CAE Engineers

• BSEE/MSEE

• Digital Circuit Simulation

• Gate Array Design

• Test Vector Design

• Schematic Capture

• CAE Tool Selection

ProjectEngineers

• BSEE, MSEE

• Experience In Data Communi-cations/Transmission/Signaling

Software ToolDevelopers

• BSCS/MSCS

• Unix and C

• Data Communications

• Networking Applications

Unix SystemAdministrators

• Unix and C

• Graphics Applications

• Group Leadership Exposure

Sales AccountExecutives

• BS, MBA

• Telco Sales

• Key/Major Accounts Ex-perience

TelecommunicationsFuturists

• MSEE/MSCS/MSCE/PhD

• TelecommunicationsExperience

• Systems Architecture

Hardware DevelopmentEngineers

• BSEE/MSEE

• Digital Signal Processing

• LSI/MicroprocessorTechnology

• CMOS/TTL Digital Filters,Digital Tone Detection,Gate Array

Senior Designers

• Interactive CAD/CAM DesignExperience (ComputervisionCADDS 4X Preferred)

Engineering Managers

• BSEE, MSEE, MBA

• Telephony Experience

• Supervisory Experience

*

Rockwell International

. . where science gets down to business

MarketingProfessionals

• BS Business/BSEE orEquivalent

• TelecommunicationsMarketing Experience

Rockwell International

employees benefit from excitingchallenges and outstandingrewards. We offer an excellentsalary and complete benefitspackage including company-paidlife, medical and dental insurancefor employee and dependents.We also offer a choice of 2 HMO'sas an alternative to our medicalinsurance. In addition, theprogram includes 100% tuitionreimbursement (including IIT/Von-site courses), 12 paid holidaysand a generous vacation plan.Also provided is a company-paidpension program and a 75%matching savings plan and stockownership plan.

We encourage you touse our toll free number

1-800-835-5567

between 9am — 4pm (CST) formore information.

If you are interested in any ofthe positions listed above,please send resume incomplete confidence to:Employment Manager, SectionB685, Rockwell International,Switching Systems Division,1431 Opus Place, DownersGrove, Illinois 60515. EqualOpportunity Employer M/F.

Inquiry 355

BOOKS RECEIVED

THE ABCs of Lotus 1-2-3. BillKling. Glenview. IL: Scott.Foresman and Co.. 1985: 432pages, 21 by 23 cm. spiral-bound. ISBN 0-673-15996-5,$18.95.

Ada Software Tools Inter-faces. Peter I, L, Wallis. ed. Lec-ture Notes in Computer Science#180. New York: Springer-Verlag,1984: 168 pages. 16.5 by 24 cm.softcover, ISBN 0-387-13878-1.SI 3

Apple Software for Pennies.Bertram Gader and Manuel V.Nodar. New York: Warner Books.1985: 320 pages. 13.5 by 20.5cm. softcover. ISBN 0-446-38206-X. $9.95.

Apple He. Vincent Kassab.Englewood Cliffs. N): Prentice-Hall. 1985: 238 pages. 17.5 by23 5 cm, softcover. ISBN 0-13-039421-1. $16.95.

Applied Calc Result, ErikFagerland. Mount Laurel, Nl:handic Software. 1984: 176pages. 17 by 23 cm. softcover.ISBN 91-7880-001-5. SI9.95.

Applied Programming Tech-niques in C. Terry A. Ward.Glenview. IL: Scott. Foresmanand Co., 1985: 368 pages, 19 by23.5 cm. softcover. ISBN 0-673-18050-6. $19.95.

Artificial Intelligence: HowMachines Think. F. David Peat.New York: Baen Enterprises.1985: 384 pages. 13 by 21 cm.softcover. ISBN 0-671-55933-8.$8.95

Basic BASIC Programs for theAdam. Timothy Orr Knight andDarren La Batt Blue Ridge Sum-mit. PA: Tab Books. 1984: 124pages. 18.5 by 23.5 cm. soft-cover. ISBN 0-8306-0716-1.$8.25.

Basic Statistics: An Introduc-tion to Problem Solving withYour Personal Computer.lerry W. O'Dell. Blue RidgeSummit. PA: Tab Books. 1984:

462 pages. 13 by 21 cm. soft-cover. ISBN 0-8306-1759-0.

$1595.

Before You Buy Word Pro-cessing Software. Dona Z.Meilach. New York: CrownPublishers, 1984: 208 pages. 15by 22.5 cm. softcover. ISBN0-517-55340-6. $8.95.

Business Applications for theApple II & He Under CP/M.Steven Zimmerman. LeoConrad, and Donald Smith.Bowie. MD: Brady Communica-tions. 1985: 272 pages.17.5 by 23.5 cm. softcover.ISBN 0-89303-354-5. $15.95.

C: An Advanced Introduction.Narain Gehani. Rockville. MD:Computer Science Press. 1985:352 pages. 15.5 by 23.5 cm.hardcover. ISBN 0-88175-053-0.$29.95.

Children's Programs for theCommodore 64. Susan SutphinEnglewood Cliffs, N|: Prentice-Hall, 1985: 190 pages. 17.5 by23 cm, softcover, ISBN 0-13-132499-3. $12.95.

COCO Loco FOR the TRS-80Color Computer. Dale Peter-son. Don Inman. and RamonZamora. New York: lohn Wiley& Sons. 1985: 136 pages. 21 by28 cm. softcover. ISBN 0-471-87921-5. $12.95.

The Complete InvestmentBook. Richard Bookstaber. Glen-view. IL: Scott. Foresman andCo.. 1984: 416 pages. 19.5 by23.5 cm. softcover. ISBN 0-673-15952-3. $19 95

Computation and ProofTheory, M. M. Richter. E. Borger.W. Obershelp. B. Schinzel. andW. Thomas, eds. Lecture Notesin Mathematics #1104. NewYork: Springer-Verlag. 1984: 488

pages. 16.5 by 24 cm. softcover.ISBN 0-387-13901-X. $22.50.

Computer and MicrocomputerSystems for Small Businesses.Russell E. Wilcox. Phoenix, AZ:Oryx Press. 1984: 2 56 pages15.5 by 23.5 cm, hardcover.ISBN 0-89774-131-5. $27.50.

Computer Culture: The Scien-tific. Intellectual, and SocialImpact of the Computer. HeinzR. Pagels. ed. Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences,Volume 426. New York: TheNew York Academy of Sciences,1984: 300 pages. 15 by 23 cm.softcover. ISBN 0-89766-245-8.$66

Computer Software. ScientificAmerican New York: W. H.Freeman and Co. 1985: 132pages. 21 by 28 cm. softcover,ISBN 0-7167-1712-3. $13.95.

Cracking the "Peanut": YourIBM PCir Companion. HankMishkoff. Piano. TX: WordwarePublishing. 1984: 248 pages.19 by 23.5 cm. softcover.ISBN 0-13-188319-4, $16.95.

Data Administration, WilliamR. Durell. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1984: 222 pages. 16 by2 3.5 cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-07-018391-0. $32.95.

Data and Computer Communi-cations. William Stallings. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing.1985: 608 pages. 18.5 by 26cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-02-415440-7. $38.50.

Data Communications: AUser's Guide. 2nd ed.. KennethSherman. Reston. VA: RestonPublishing. 1985: 464 pages.18.5 by 24 cm. hardcover.ISBN 0-8359-1226-1. $32.95.

Database for the IBM PC.

THIS IS A LIST of books received at BYTE Publications. II is not meant to be exhaustive:its purpose is to acquaint BYTE readers with recently published titles in computer scienceand related fields. We regret that we cannot review all the books we receive: instead, thislist is meant to be a monthly acknowledgment of these books and the publishers who sent them.

Sandra L. Emerson and MarcyDarnovsky. Reading. MA:Addison-Wesley. 1984: 336pages. 19 by 23.5 cm. softcover,ISBN 0-201-10483-0, $14.95.

Digital Logic Design:Tutorials and LaboratoryExercises, ]ohn F, Passafiumeand Michael Douglas. New York:Harper & Row. 1985: 128 pages.21 by 28 cm, softcover.ISBN 0-06-045028-2. $17.50.

Effective Design of CODASYLData Base. George T Fadok.New York: Macmillan Publishing.1985: 160 pages. 16 by 24 cm.hardcover. ISBN 0-O2-94953O-X.$29.95.

The FFT Fundamentals andConcepts. Robert W Ramirez.Englewood Cliffs. N|: Prentice-Hall. 1985: 192 pages. 18 by 24cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-13-314386-4. $26.95.

First Nibbles of the AppleComputer. Melba Bennett.Bowie. MD: Brady Communica-tions. 1985: 288 pages. 21.5 by28 cm. softcover. ISBN 0-89303-456-8. $17.95.

THE FORTRAN Cookbook. 2nded.. Thomas P. Dence. BlueRidge Summit, PA: Tab Books.1984: 238 pages. 18 5 by 23 5cm. softcover. ISBN 0-8306-1737-X. $11.95.

From BASIC to FORTRAN.Alfred |. Bruey. Blue Ridge Sum-mit. PA: Tab Books. 1984: 144pages. 18.5 by 23.5 cm. soft-cover. ISBN 0-8306-1753-1,$9.95.

Fundamentals of OperatingSystems. 3rd ed.. A. M. Lister.New York: Springer-Verlag. 1984:176 pages. 15 by 23 cm. soft-cover. ISBN 0-387-91251-7.$13.95.

Getting Started withMicrosoft Word, lanet Rampa.Bellevue, WA: Microsoft Press.1984, 312 pages, 19 by 23.5 cm,[continued]

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 465

■ Votrax Announces

VOTALKERIB&AP

New Industry Standards For TalkingPersonal Computers. Exclusivelyfor IBM PC and XT, Apple II, andCompatibles. From Votrax, ThePioneer in Synthetic Speech Systems.

Give your IBM PC andXT^and Apple II thePower of Speech

Until Votalker IB and AP, synthetic speechsystems for personal computers were like apiano with 50 keys, an eagle with a brokenwing, and a singer with a two-octave range.When Votrax developed the SC02 speechsynthesis chip, it was the classic case ofadvanced technology in need of supportsystems to unlock its dormant powers. Now,Votalker introduces a revolutionary family oftext-to-speech translators — the key to thelock. First members of the family are theVotalker IB for IBM PC and XT and theVotalker AP for Apple II, Apple lie, andApple Plus. With Votalker these units playthe piano with all 88 keys. Soar throughunlimited vocabulary, using 32 inflectionsand 4,100 pitch settings. Sing in five octaves,and generate sound effects in 16 amplitudes.

A Newly Designed Circuit Board includes:

• SC02 chip • speaker • audio amplifier

• volume control • external speaker jack.The board operates in the host computerslot, eliminating the need for serial ports andcable hookups. Internal editing and smoothingensure clarity and integrity of speech.

The Text-To-Speech Translator sets Votalkerabove all other synthetic voice products.Text is generated through programs orkeyboard and translated directly into spokenlanguage. The sophisticated software on adiskette offers: • unlimited vocabulary

• little use of system memory • exceptiontable that stores and accurately pronouncesdifficult words.

Other Votrax Products — the stand-alonePersonal Speech System and Type 'N Talk —are currently used in thousands ofapplications.

Votalker Prices Begin at $179

Call Votrax at (800) 521-1350*

VOTRAX, INC.

1394 Rankin

Troy, Michigan 48083

(313)588-2050

*ln Michigan, Call Collect

(313)588-0341

V

BOOKS RECEIVED

softcover, ISBN 0-91484 5-13-6,$16.95.

A Handbook of SoftwareDevelopment and OperatingProcedures for Microcom-puters, Paul Holliday. New York:Macmillan Publishing. 1985: 208pages, 16 by 24 cm hardcover,ISBN 0-02-949510-5. $24.95.

THE Hewlett-Packard Soft-ware Catalog. Summer 1984.Hewlett-Packard New York: lohnWiley & Sons. 1984: 384 pages.17,5 by 23 cm. softcover,ISBN 0-471-81912-3, $9.95.

The Human Factor in Com-puter Crime, lulia Van Duyn.Princeton. N|: Petrocelli Books.1985: 168 pages, 16 by 24 cm.hardcover, ISBN 0-89433-2 56-2S24.95,

The Illustrated MS/PC-DOSBook. Russell A Stultz. Dallas.TX: Wordware Publishing. 1985:224 pages, 19 by 23.5 cm, soft-cover, ISBN 0-915381-53-2,SIS,95.

INC Magazines Databasics:Your Guide to OnlineBusiness Information, DoranHowitt and Marvin I, Wein-berger. New York: GarlandPublishing. 1984: 638 pages.15.5 by 23 cm. softcover.ISBN 0-8240-7287-1, $16.95.

Interactive Media. DianeGayeski and David Williams.Englewood Cliffs. N|: Prentice-Hall. 1985: 240 pages. 17.5 by23.5 cm, softcover, ISBN 0-13-469131-8. $12 95

Interfacing Your Microcom-puter to Virtually Anything,loseph |, Carr. Blue Ridge Sum-mit, PA: Tab Books, 1984: 336pages, 13 by 21 cm, softcover,ISBN 0-8306-1890-2, $13.95,

Introduction to ComputerEngineering. Franco P.Preparata. New York: Harper &Row. 1985: 336 pages, 16 by 24cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-06-045271-4, $37.95

Introduction to Logic Pro-gramming, Christopher lohnHogger APIC Studies in DataProcessing #21 Orlando. FL:Academic Press, 1984: 296pages. 15.5 by 23,5 cm, hard-cover, ISBN 0-12-3 52090-8,$46,

Introduction to Robotics: ASystems Approach, lames RehgEnglewood Cliffs, N|: Prentice-Hall, 1985: 240 pages. 18 by 24cm, hardcover, ISBN 0-13-495581-1. $29,95,

Introduction to Simulationand SLAM II. 2nd ed., A AlanB. Pritsker. New York: lohnWiley & Sons. 1984: 638 pages,19.5 by 24 cm. hardcover.ISBN 0-480-20087-1. $29.50.

Introductory theory ofComputer Science, E. V.Krishnamurthy. New York:Springer-Verlag, 1985: 224pages. 15,5 by 2 3,5 cm, soft-cover, ISBN 0-387-912 5 5-X, $15.

the Kaypro Plain & Simple,William Houze and DavidLenfest. Blue Ridge Summit, PA:Tab Books, 1984: 208 pages.18.5 by 23 5 cm, softcover,ISBN 0-8306-1802-3. $12.95.

Learning BASIC on the IBMPCir, Thomas C Bartee. NewYork Harper & Row. 1985: 384pages. 18.5 by 23 cm, softcover.ISBN 0-06-04052l-X. $14.95.

Logo Fun, Pat Parker andTeresa Kennedy. New York:Scholastic, 1985: 118 pages.20.5 by 27,5 cm, softcover,ISBN 0-590-33243-0. $5.95

Mac Multiplan. David Lenfestand Linda K. Woods. Blue RidgeSummit, PA: Tab Books, 1984:272 pages, 18,5 by 23.5 cm,softcover, ISBN 0-8306-1851-1$16,95.

Making MS-DOS & PC-DOS

Work for You. The HumanConnection. Blue Ridge Summit,PA: Tab Books, 1984: 222 pages,18.5 by 23.5 cm. softcover.ISBN 0-8306-1848-1, $13.95

Mastering the Commodore 64,Mark Greenshields EnglewoodCliffs. N): Prentice-Hall. 1984:208 pages. 15 by 22.5 cm, soft-cover, ISBN 0-13-559535-5.$12.95.

Mastering Your Macintosh.William Skyvington EnglewoodCliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall. 1984:272 pages, 17 by 23 cm, soft-cover, ISBN 0-13-5 59527-4,$15.95,

Microcomputer Programming

in BASIC with Business Ap-

466 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 450

BOOKS RECEIVED

plications, 2nd ed, GeorgeTsu-Der Chou. New York: Harper& Row. 1985: 316 pages. 18.5 by23.5 cm. softcover, ISBN 0-06-041298-4. $18.95.

Microcomputers in EducationConference: Literacy Plus+.Ruth A. Camuse. ed. ComputerScience Press. 1984: 480 pages,15.5 by 23.5 cm. hardcover,ISBN 0-88175-077-8. $35,

More from Your Micro,Charles Piatt New York: AvonBooks. 1985: 192 pages, 10.5 by17.5 cm. softcover, ISBN 0-380-89529-3. $2.50.

New Computer Architectures.|. Tlberghien, ed. InternationalLecture Series in ComputerScience. Orlando. FL: AcademicPress, 1984, 304 pages. 15 by23.5 cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-12-690980-6. $28.50.

Omni Complete Catalog ofComputer Hardware and Ac-cessories. Owen Davies. ed.New York: Macmillan Publishing.1984: 3 52 pages. 21 by 28 cm.softcover, ISBN 0-02-008300-9.$13.95,

Omni Online Database Direc-tory 1985. Owen Davies andMike Edelhart. New York:Macmillan Publishing. 1984:336 pages, 21 by 27.5 cm. soft-cover, ISBN 0-02-079920-9.$14.95.

1001 Things to Do with YourApple, Mark R. Sawusch andTan A. Summers. Blue RidgeSummit. PA: Tab Books. 1984:2 56 pages, 18.5 by 23.5 cm.softcover. ISBN 0-8306-1816-3.$9.95.

1001 Things to Do with YourMacintosh, Mark R. Sawuschand Tan A. Summers. BlueRidge Summit. PA: Tab Books,1984: 250 pages. 18.5 by 23.5cm. softcover. ISBN 0-8306-1846-5. $9.95.

PC TELEMART/VANLOVES IBMSoftware Directory, XeroxCorporation. New York: R. R.Bowker Co., 1984: 966 pages,21,5 by 27.5 cm. softcover,ISBN 0-8352-1969-0, $24.95.

Powerful Proiects with YourTimex/Sinclair. lim Stephens.Glenview. IL: Scott. Foresmanand Co., 1985: 238 pages, 19 by

23 cm. softcover. ISBN 0-673-18038-7. $12.95.

Practical Programming inPascal. Kent Porter. New York:New American Library. 1984:272 pages, 18.5 by 23.5 cmsoftcover. ISBN 0-452-2 5568-6.$14.95.

Problem Solving withFORTRAN. Richard W. Dillman.New York: Holt. Rinehart andWinston. 1985: 368 pages,16 by 23.5 cm. softcover.ISBN 0-03-063734-1, $22.95.

Ready to Run Accountingwith Lotus 1-2-3 & Symphony.William Urschel. Sherman Oaks.CA: Alfred Publishing Co.. 1984:226 pages, 21.5 by 27.5 cm,softcover, ISBN 0-88284-330-3.$39.95. Includes floppy disk.

Resumes for Computer Pro-fessionals. Arthur R. Pell andGeorge Sadek. New York: Simon& Schuster. 1984: 128 pages, 21by 28 cm, softcover. ISBN 0-671-50338-3. $7.95.

Robotics and ArtificialIntelligence, M. Brady, L. A.Gerhardt, and H. F. Davidson,eds. New York: Springer-Verlag,1984: 722 pages. 17 by 24.5cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-387-12888-3. $62.50.

School & Home Guide to theIBM PClR. E. Murdock and S.Sudbury. Englewood Cliffs. N|:Prentice-Hall. 1985: 208 pages.18 by 24 cm, hardcover. ISBN0-13-793654-0. $21.95.

Software Lifecycle Manage-ment: The IncrementalMethod. William C. Cave andGilbert W. Maymon. New York:Macmillan Publishing. 1984: 192pages, 16 by 24 cm, hardcover.ISBN 0-02-949210-6. $27,95.

Solving Elliptic ProblemsUsing ELLPACK. lohn R. Riceand Ronald F. Boisvert. NewYork: Springer-Verlag. 1985: 512pages, 16 by 24 cm, hardcover.ISBN 0-387-90910-9. $46.50.

Techniques of EDP ProiectManagement: A Book ofReadings. Alan E. Brill, ed. NewYork: Yourdon Press, 1984: 312pages, 17.5 by 25.5 cm. soft-cover, ISBN 0-917072-42-1, $29

Tim Hartnells Executive

Games for the IBM PC & XT.Tim Hartnell. New York:Ballantine Books. 1984: 312pages, 15 by 22.5 cm, softcover,ISBN 0-345-31940-0. $9.95

Using and Programming theAdam. Timothy Orr Knight. BlueRidge Summit, PA: Tab Books,1984: 128 pages, 18.5 by 23.5cm. softcover. ISBN 0-8306-1706-X. $7.95.

Using Small Computers toMake Your Business StrategyWork, Richard M, Koff. NewYork: lohn Wiley & Sons. 1985:408 pages. 15 by 23 cm. soft-cover. ISBN 0-471-87502-3,$19.95

VisiCalc Made Simple, ThomasM. O Donovan. New York: lohnWiley & Sons, 1984: 168 pages.16.5 by 24.5 cm, softcover,ISBN 0-471-90457-0. $18.95.

The Wiley Science Calendar,1985 New York: lohn Wiley &Sons, 1985: 168 pages, 20.5 by

26 cm. hardcover. ISBN 0-471-87849-9. $16.95.

Word Processing on the IBMDisplaywriter. |. M. Williford.New York: |ohn Wiley & Sons,1984: 144 pages, 21 by 28 cm.softcover. ISBN 0-471-88256-9.$14.95.

Word Processing on WangSystems. I. M. Williford. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons. 1984:130 pages. 21 by 28 cm, soft-cover. ISBN 0-471-882 58-5,$14.95.

Word Processing on theXerox 860. I. M. Williford. NewYork: lohn Wiley & Sons, 1984:112 pages, 21 by 28 cm, soft-cover. ISBN 0-471-88257-7.$14.95.

Working with 1-2-3 on theIBM PC and Compatibles,Richard Startz. New York:Harper & Row. 1985: 144 pages,18.5 by 23.5 cm. softcover,ISBN 0-06-046426-7, $14.95. ■

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I bKMb- Minimum20disks or S350i> — VISA or MasterCard acceptedCOD. orders add 2* for special handling. SHIPPING1 3!jj 4 s\ Diskettes;Add 3°-° for every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof. 8'Diskettes; Add4*** for every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof We ship UPS; ordersrequiring other delivery methods add shipping, plus 2% of total order.

Inquiry I45

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 467

BYTELINES

Conducted by Sol Libes

Watch out Commodore and Atari. IBM isrumored to be working on a low-end con-sumer computer to be sold as a mass-market machine It is believed to beZ80-based; employ the Microsoft MSXoperating system; and include ROM ap-plication packages, a built-in disk drive,and a port for a read-only laser-disk unit.IBM is reportedly aiming at a $300 listprice. . . . AshtonTate is reported to beworking on a Macintosh version of itsFramework integrated software package,which might be out by the time you readthis. . . . Zenith is said to be negotiatingwith Morrow Inc. to distribute the portablePivot IBM PC-compatible computer underits own name. . . . Expect IBM to bringout a System/36 board for the PC AT andcall the system the AT/36. The System/36is IBM's lowest-cost office minicomputersystem. The pricing of the AT/36 is ex-pected to be in the $10-15.000 area....Intel is expected to finally start shipping"samples" of its 80386 32-bit micropro-cessor in August, more than a year behindMotorola (68020) and National Semicon-ductor (32000) The 64K-bit RAM

chips, which were selling in the $3 range,now cost less than $2 in quantity as IBMcanceled orders for more than 1.5 millionchips. . . . Zilog has pushed back intro-duction of its Z800 microprocessor (an up-graded Z80) to this summer. The companyhad announced the unit about three yearsago. Hurry up. the window is closing fast!And don't expect Zilog's Z80000 32-bitmicroprocessor to be released until thefall, at the earliest.... Boeing is reported-ly testing pilot-voice command recogni-tion, instead of switches, for the 747... .Digital Equipment Corporation is rumoredto be testing the desktop Microvax 111, aneight-chip version of the VAX-11/780 (itsbig system) for introduction next year. . . .Prices of 1200-bps modems are droppingas the market reaches the saturation pointand 2400-bps units begin arriving. Manypurchasers are holding off, waiting to seeif the 2400-bps units take hold.... TexasInstruments and Radio Shack are reportedto be getting ready to implement DigitalResearch's GEM (Graphics EnvironmentManager) on systems they will be an-nouncing soon. Atari and ACT have al-ready declared their intention to use it on

new systems. GEM creates a color Mac-intosh-like environment.

Osborne and FranklinExit Chapter 11

Hurrah! With the way IBM and Apple havebeen pushing competitors out of the busi-ness, it is terrific to see two companiesreturn from bankruptcy proceedings.Osborne and Franklin were both reor-ganized, have straightened out theiroperations, worked out arrangements withtheir creditors, and got some financing.Both are now active and in there com-peting again. Give them three cheers andsome support.

Osborne has released two new systems,which reportedly are selling well, primarilyoverseas. Franklin is promising to releasea new system shortly.

It Was a Very Good Year

For many manufacturers, 1984 was a verygood year. Future Computing, a Texas-based market research firm, reports thefollowing sales for the 15 industry leaders(reported in millions of dollars):

IBM

$2750

Apple

710

Tandy

420

Compaq

300

Hewlett-Packard

260

Wang

2 50

DEC

240

Zenith

210

Kaypro

110

Sperry

90

Altos

<;0

TeleVideo

90

Texas Instruments

90

Corona

80

Epson

80

If someone had told me five years ago thatin 1984 one company would do $2.75billion in personal computer sales. 1 wouldhave said they didn't know what they weretalking about. Boy, would I have beenwrong.

IBM UPDATE

IBM has begun cracking down on dealerswho resell PCs to nonauthorized dealers—the so-called "gray market." In an effort tocontrol this practice, IBM canceled 40 of

its value-added retailers and instituted apolicy of prohibiting lateral shippingamong dealers without its approval. Thenet effect will no doubt be a decrease inselling of systems at discount prices bynon-IBM dealers.

IBM was blamed for stimulating the graymarket by forcing dealers to order largevolumes of machines with lead times thatmany dealers call ridiculous.

IBM is expected to reduce the prices ofthe IBM PC and IBM PC XT once again assome reports indicate that IBM has ware-houses full of these products. In the mean-time, an enhanced version of the PC ATis expected in the late summer. IBM hasbegun shipping XENIX (UNIX System III),which turns the PC AT into a three-usertimesharing system. Several companiesare introducing plug-in cards that allowXENIX with a 40-megabyte disk to han-dle up to 16 users.

Computers forVision-Impaired Users

Maryland Computer Services. Forest Hill.MD reports that it has taken a Hewlett-Packard HP 150 and enhanced it for useby blind computer users. The computernow speaks any information appearing onits screen, allowing blind users to createand manipulate material. The system wascreated with the aid of several blindengineers and programmers. A separatekeypad enables the user to review materiala word, line, or screen at a time; changethe speech rate: and even announcescreen enhancements such as underliningand boldface. An optional braille printerand software for blind users are alsoavailable.

NEC has also introduced a version of itspersonal computer in lapan that operatesas a lapanese-language word processorwith braille output. (This computer is dis-tributed by the Y.D.K. Co. and the Voca-tional Development Center for the Blindin Tokyo.)

Apple Bytes and Pits

Word is that sales of the Macintosh haveflattened out and that even Apple's offer-ing to lend a Mac overnight to prospec-tive purchasers was not a tremendous suc-cess. Looks like people are waiting for the

468 BYTE- IUNE 1985

software that will take advantage of theMac's hardware and operating system. Atthe end of 1984, Apple claimed that therewere some 300 Mac software packages,but many of these existed only in demoform, as far as I can tell.

Apple shipped about 275,000 Macs inits first year, less than was promised, butmore than IBM shipped in the first yearof the PC (fewer than 100,000). But by theend of IBM's first year with the PC. severalhundred software packages were avail-able. This was due mainly to the fact thatIBM had three different operating systemsfor the PC (PC-DOS. CP/M-86. and thep-System) that already had applicationsoftware available or that could be easilytranslated from 8-bit versions of the oper-ating systems.

The Mac being such a radical departurefrom preceding products and its being avery powerful and sophisticated program-ming environment have delayed softwaredevelopers. Apple's promised stand-alonedevelopment software is still not available,and the 3!/2-inch 800K-byte double-sidedfloppy disk announced last year has stillnot appeared.

The street price of the Mac has alreadydropped to less than $1400 for 128K bytesand less than $1900 for 512K bytes. Moreprice cuts are expected shortly.

Also, reports have surfaced of interfaceproblems encountered by outside vendorsattempting to connect hard-disk drives tothe Mac. The problem appears to be inthe Mac's ROM, and there is talk of a newversion of the ROM for systems usinghard-disk drives.

There are rumors of the "SuperMac" indevelopment, based on the 68020,Motorola's true 32-bit chip, it should havetrue DMA capability, multitasking ability.a color screen, and a bus for plug-in com-ponents. There are also rumors of the"FlatMac," a portable Mac using a CMOS68000 chip, flat display, 3 /2-inch drive, andinternal battery Expect at least one ofthese products to be announced at thenext Apple stockholders meeting inlanuary Apple is known to be evaluatinga new 5-megabyte 3/2-inch Sony floppy-disk drive for use on the Mac that can alsoread and write the present 400K-byte diskformat.

The Apple lie is also due for an upgradeto use the same internal circuitry as thelie with 128K bytes (expandable to 512Kbytes) of RAM. This will soup up its opera-tion. An 8-/16-bit microprocessor chip isexpected as an option. The case shouldremain essentially the same. Expect it tobe promoted as an office machine, and

the cost of the lie and lie machines shouldbe cut.

Almost a year after Apple announcedand demonstrated the flat display for theHe. it began shipping the unit. This display,in effect, converts the lie into a portablemachine, if you also buy the carrying case.Just one problem—Apple does not havebattery power for the lie. However, youcan buy battery units for the lie from thefollowing two companies: Power Systems,Wayzata, MN, and Discwasher of Colum-bia, MO.

While on the subject of the Apple, it isreported that it sold 430,000 lis in the firstquarter of fiscal 1985 and that the II ac-counts for nearly 85 percent of Apple'shardware sales. Also, some rumors saythat Apple will change to 3'/2-inch driveson the II later this year. The company isexpected to offer both single- and double-sided quad-density drives storing up to800K bytes per drive. Apple hopes thatthis will put the II in a "business product"class.

Is the PC WindowReally Open?

Windowing software for the IBM PC isavailable, but acceptance in the market-place still appears to be far off becauseof a lack of application software to utilizewindows. The problem is that softwaredevelopers are unsure of which way to goand a huge investment in time and moneyto develop windowing versions of theirsoftware is required. IBM's Topview is outbut of limited capability, and rumors saythat Topview-11 is just around the corner.Digital Research has decided not to direct-ly market its powerful Macintosh-like GEMpackage but will rather sell it to OEMs.GEM software-development packageswere delivered to software developers inFebruary. Microsoft has been demonstrat-ing Windows for nearly two years and hasalso shipped software-developmentpackages. The final product is expectedto be out this month.

Once software developers make a deci-sion on how to proceed, it generally takesthem a year to create a product, debugit. and get it to the marketplace. Since Top-view, GEM, and Windows are all differentfrom the software developers' point ofview, many are sitting on the fence waitingto see which product will succeed. By thistime next year, we should all know theanswer.

The Housekeeping Computer

Mitsubishi and General Electric will shortlyintroduce home-management computers.

The Mitsubishi machine, using a pro-prietary bus, will link sensors, appliances,telephone, alarm, temperature control,and entertainment systems to a distributedprogrammable microprocessor controlsystem. The Mitsubishi home-manage-ment system is already being sold in lapanand is expected to reach our shores nextyear.

GE will soon introduce a system basedon the BSR X-10 wireless system (whichhas been out since 1979, sans computer).Although not as powerful as the Mit-subishi system, it will control lights, ap-pliances, heating, and cooling. GE hasadded graphics software and circuitry touse a television as a monitor and a hand-held remote-control unit to controldevices.

BSR already sells a software package toenable the Radio Shack Color Computerto communicate with the X-10 system.PCjr. Apple lie. and Commodore 64 pack-ages are expected to appear within a shortperiod of time.

And the Electronics Industry Associationhas a committee working on the develop-ment of a consumer electronics bus (CEB),with participation from approximately 50companies.

Random Bits

The Commerce Department recentlyreleased a competitive impact study onthe world software market that found theU.S. in very good shape vis-a-vis foreigncompetition. They found that the U.S. heldabout 70 percent of the world's softwaremarket with a dollar volume 10 timesgreater than either Japan or France, itsnearest competitors. . . . Future Com-puting contends that 50 percent of all per-sonal computer software has been pirated(unauthorized use of backup copies). Thisis based on 45.000 responses from a mail-ing to 70,000 households. . . . AT&T ispromising initial shipments of 1-megabitmemory chips early next year. IBM.Toshiba, NEC, and Fujitsu are also work-ing on 1-megabit devices with productionpromised for 1987. ■

BYTELINES. news and speculation about personalcomputing, is conducted by Sol Libes. the authorof numerous books and articles on computers. Heis the founder of the Amateur Computer Groupof New jersey and a coorganizer of the TrentonComputer Fair. He edits and publishes Micro/Systems Journal, a bimonthly publication forsystem programmers and integrators. He can be con-tacted do BYTE. POB 372, Hancock. NH03449.

1UNE 1985

. Y T E 469

WHAT'S NEW

NEW SYSTEMS

The FD-1000 kit for building an IBM PC XT-compatible computer.

PC XT-Compatiblein a Kit

PC Designs' FD-1000 kitlets you build a com-puter that is compatiblewith the IBM PC XT. TheFD-1000 uses an 8088-2microprocessor with a 4.77-or 8-MHz clock speed. Itfeatures up to 1 megabyteof on-board RAM, oneparallel and two serial ports,a clock/calendar with batterybackup, a hardware resetbutton. Princeton GraphicSystems' amber mono-chrome monitor, and allnecessary cables. TWo 360K-byte floppy-disk drives anda built-in floppy-disk con-troller are standard.

The FD-1000 supports PC-DOS. MS-DOS, CP/M-86.Concurrent DOS, and an op-tional 8087-2 math copro-

cessor. It also has five ex-pansion slots and 52K bytesof user-definable ROM forcustom applications. Avail-able enhancements includea 10-megabyte low-power in-ternal Winchester disk drive,the internal tape backup forthe hard disk, and a colormonitor.

The FD-1000 costs $1650in its standard configurationand $22 50 with an internal10-megabyte Winchesterdrive. Contact PC Designs.8238 South Gary, Tulsa. OK74137, (918) 481-1734.Inquiry 615.

Kaypro's 16

Kaypro recently intro-duced the IBM PC XT-compatible model 16. TheKaypro 16 uses an 8088processor. It comes with2 56K bytes of RAM (ex-pandable to 640K bytes), a10-megabyte hard-disk drive,a 360K-byte floppy-diskdrive, and a green-phosphormonitor.

Several software packagescome bundled with theKaypro 16, including Word-Star, MailMerge, InfoStar +,CalcStar, MITE telecommuni-cations, MS-DOS with utili-ties, and GW-BASIC

The Kaypro 16 is priced at$3295. Contact KayproCorp., POB N, Del Mar. CA92014, (619) 481-4300.Inquiry 616.

Multillser-16Computer System

Inner Access Corporation'sMultiUser-16 has time-sharing and multitaskingcapabilities. It uses theMotorola 68000 processorrunning at a clock speed of8 MHz: the 68010 processoris also available as an op-tion. The system supports 8users but expands to

accommodate 64 users.

The MultiUser-16 has 2.76megabytes of floppy-diskstorage and Vi megabyte ofmemory expandable to 16megabytes. You can expandthe standard 40 megabytesof hard-disk storage withvoice-coil seek to 1 giga-byte. The motherboard haseight slots. Included with thesystem is the Mirage multi-user, multitasking operatingsystem.

Suggested retail price forthe MultiUser-16 is $13,495.Contact Inner Access Corp..517K Marine View, Belmont,CA 94002. (415) 591-8295,Inquiry 617.

DEC OffersRainbow 190

Digital Equipment Cor-poration's Rainbow 190is compatible with the restof the Rainbow family. It in-cludes a 10-megabyte hard-disk drive, 640K bytes ofmemory, a monochromemonitor, and a DEC GoldKey keyboard. The 190'stechnical character set ROMscontain 96 letters and sym-bols for scientists andengineers.

Three software packagescome with the Rainbow 190:MS-DOS 2.11. WPS-Plus/Rain-bow, and Rainbow OfficeWorkstation. WPS-Plus/Rain-bow is compatible with theword processors offered onDECmate and VAX systems.Rainbow Office Workstationintegrates Rainbow functionswith VAX and All-in-1 en-vironments.

Single-quantity price forthe Rainbow 190 system is$6495. The manufacturer ex-pects the system to be avail-able in July. Contact DigitalEquipment Corp., Maynard,MA 01754. (800) 344-4825.Inquiry 618.

470 BYTE • IUNE 1985

WHAT'S NEW

NEW SYSTEMS

KTX-1350N VideotexWorkstation

The KTX-1350N fromSony lets you interfacewith NAPLPS and ASCIIdatabases. In addition,you can use the unit todisplay composite-videosignals such as output fromvideo cameras, videodiscplayers, and videocassetterecorders, as well ashigh-quality RGB signalsfrom computer graphicssystems.

This videotex system fea-tures a built-in NAPLPSdecoder, a 13-inch diagonalTrinitron color monitor, twostandard RS-232C communi-cation ports, Centronics andVideo/Graphic Printer ports,dual 3'/2-inch microfloppy-disk drives, and a full-size

Sony's KTX-1350N videotex system.

detachable keyboard. TheKTX-13 50N'ssetup andoperation are menu-driven.

You can select a systemcommunication rate from 75to 19,200 bps.

Graphics on the worksta-tion are 2 56 by 210 pixels.The display can use up to16 colors simultaneouslyfrom a 2048-color palette.You can also choose a split-screen display feature.

MS-DOS and a 2 5-pin con-nector for RGB superimposecapability come with theKTX-13 50N. CP/M-86 is anoption. The KTX-I3 50N isdesigned to work withSony's MDM-1200 TelephoneModem and UP-103 Video/Graphic Printer.

Suggested list price for theKTX-1350N Videotex Work-station is $3750. ContactSony Communications Prod-ucts Co., Sony Corp. ofAmerica. Sony Dr., ParkRidge, NJ 07656. (201)930-6432.Inquiry 619.

PHERALS

PERI

UDS Series ofFasTalk Modems

Universal Data Systemshas bundled SignOncommunications softwarewith its line of FasTalkmodems. The models avail-able include FasTalk 300, astand-alone 300-bpsmodem; FasTalk 1200. astand-alone 300/1200-bpsmodem; and FasTalk 1200PCa 300/1200-bps plug-in cardmodem for the IBM PC andcompatibles.

All models are Hayes-com-patible. The modems featureauto-dial/auto-answer, auto-matic selection of pulse- ortone-dialing modes, a talk/data toggle, a built-in audiospeaker, and true call-progress detection.

The list price for FasTalk300 is $345; FasTalk 1200and FasTalk 1200PC are$52 5 each. Contact Univer-

sal Data Systems, 5000Bradford Dr., Huntsville, AL35805-1953, (205) 837-8100.Inquiry 620.

Priam Hard Diskfor the AT

InnerSpace is a 514-inchadd-in disk-drive kit thatenhances the IBM PC AT'sstorage capacity. The kit in-cludes hardware, cables, in-stallation software, instruc-tion manual, and referenceguide, InnerSpace is avail-able in the 1D40-AT version,a 43-megabyte drive, andthe 1D60-AT version, a60-megabyte drive. Bothmodels access data at about30 milliseconds.

InnerSpace protects databy providing automaticdefect management andguards against data losswith a dedicated head-landing zone, shock mounts,and spindle and head locks.The ID40-AT is priced at

$2195. and the ID60-ATcosts $2 595. Contact PriamCorp., 20 West MontagueExpressway, San Jose, CA95134, (408) 946-4600.Inquiry 621.

IEEE 488 Interfacefor the Macintosh

IOtech's Mac488A cancommunicate at up to57,600 bps. It lets you inter-face more than 4000 dif-ferent instruments to theMacintosh. The unit is com-patible with all languagesthat can access the Mac'sserial port.

Bus commands and pro-tocol for the Mac488A arethe same as those used byHewlett-Packard computers.High-level commands aresent from the Macintoshserial port to the Mac488A.

The interface unit's micro-processor interprets thecommands and controls thebus.

With the power supplymanual, and 12-foot cable,the Mac488A costs $595.Contact lOtech Inc., POB21204, Cleveland, OH 44121,(216) 831-8646.Inquiry 622.

HP-Compatible Series8000 DiskSubsystems

Bering Industries' Series8000 line of hard diskscomprises 12 models withstorage capacities from 10.4to 70.4 megabytes. A3 W-inch double-sidedfloppy-disk drive with a for-matted capacity of 788Kbytes is available as a built-in option.

The Series 8000's Opt. 7xxmultiport configurations lettwo or three computers ac-cess a common disk drive

{continued)

]UNE 1985

471

WHAT'S NEW

PERIPHERALS

and share files. A dedicatedand a shared disk area ateach port support the basicfeatures of a local-area net-work. The configuration isset up by using standardHP-IB/GP1B cables in acluster.

This disk subsystem imple-ments HP's CS/80 andSubset/80 disk-drive com-mand sets. It works with HPtechnical and business com-puters, development sys-tems, and personal com-puters such as the Touch-screen. Portable, andIntegral.

Prices for the Series 8000range from $1790 for a10-megabyte subsystem to$6090 for a 70-megabytesubsystem. The floppy-diskoption costs $300. A two-port disk-sharing option is$980 and a three-port op-tion is $1280. Contact BeringIndustries Inc.. 1400 FultonPlace, Fremont. CA 94539,(415) 651-3300.Inquiry 623.

MicroTouch Screenwith Glass Sensor

MicroTouch Systemsuses a solid glasssensor as the basis for itscontinuous touchscreen. TheMicroTouch Screen has aresistive coating bonded tothe surface of its glassoverlay. The glass surfaceallows transmission of up to85 percent of the displaylight.

The MicroTouch Screenhas a resolution of 2 56 by2 56 touch points. An in-telligent controller transmitstouch data over an RS-232Cserial line to the hostcomputer.

The manufacturer pro-duces the screen in 12-, 13-and 19-inch sizes. Single-quantity cost for the 13-inchsize is $995. Contact Micro-Touch Systems Inc., 400

The MicroTouch Screen.

West Cummings Park,Woburn, MA 01801, (617)93 5-0080.Inquiry 624.

Tandy 1000 Hard-Disk Upgrades

Osicom has introduced aline of hard-disk up-grade products for theTandy 1000. Fixed-diskdrives for internal installa-tion come in 10- and20-megabyte configurations.External drives are availablewith 10- 20- and 30-mega-byte capacities.

Each upgrade packagecontains the drive hardware,a controller card, cables,and the manual. After in-

stallation, your 1000 willboot directly from the hard-disk drive once you loadDOS from a floppy disk.

Suggested list price for theinternal drives is $999 for10 megabytes of storageand $1199 for 20 megabytes.The external drives cost$1009 for the 10-megabyteversion, $1229 for 20megabytes, and $2239 for30 megabytes. ContactOsicom Inc., Suite 300, 18Bank St., Morristown, NI07960, (800) 922-0881; inNew Jersey, (201) 540-0144.Inquiry 625.

40-MegabyteHard Disk forAT&T UNIX PC

40-megabyte hard-disk drivefor AT&T's UNIX PC system.The B40 fits inside with nomodifications. It has anaverage access time of 85milliseconds.

Users can trade in theirexisting drives for a $300 re-fund for 10-megabyte unitsand $500 for 20-megabyteunits. The B40 sells for$2995. Contact Bell Tech-nologies Inc., POB 8323,Fremont, CA 94537, (415)792-3646.Inquiry 626.

Multi-User DiskServer for IBMsand Apples

The Multi-User DiskServer from SpaceCoast Systems lets AppleI1 + . He, and III. IBM PC, andPC XT users share the samehard-disk subsystem. Withthis unit, eight computerscan use a 10- to 84-mega-byte Space Coast SystemsStorage Module. An ex-tender unit allows connec-tion of eight morecomputers.

The Multi-User Disk Serverrequires no communicationssoftware and is compatiblewith several multiuser soft-ware packages, includingGreat Plains accounting soft-ware, WOSbase database,Omnius 1-2-3, and SunDatabulletin-board communica-tions systems.

Retail pricing for the Multi-User Disk Server is under$2000. Contact Space CoastSystems Inc., 301 SouthWashington Ave., PO Drawer2767, Titusville, FL32781-2767, (305) 268-0872.Inquiry 627.

B

ell Technologies hasdeveloped the B40. a

472 BYTE • IUNE 1985

WHAT'S NEW

D D - I N S

SolderlessBreadboard

The HB-7215 Titansolderless breadboardfrom Handy Products hasenough space for you tobuild a complete computer.It features a 63 14-pin ICcapacity of 48 distributionstrips and 5680 plug-in tiepoints.

When your paper designis complete, you don't needsoldering to insert ICs.diodes, transistors. DIPswitches. LED/LCD displays,capacitors, resistors, andother components. Boardmarkings code the compo-nent positions. You intercon-nect components with#22-24 AWG solid hookupwire, and you can test theboard by plugging in youroscilloscope, power supply,frequency meter, signalgenerators, and so on.

The HB-7215 Titan is avail-able for $129.95. ContactHandy Products. 7 BusinessPark Dr.. POB 699. Branford.CT 06405. (800) 344-2639.Inquiry 628.

ATI-1000

AT-CompatibleMotherboard

ATronics International'sATI-1000 motherboardis compatible with the IBMPC AT. It has up to 640Kbytes of main memory ex-pandable to 16 megabytes.1 megabyte of on-boardmemory is optional. Its 64Kbytes of system ROM/EPROM is expandable to128K bytes.

Other hardware featuresinclude the Intel 80286 pro-cessor (the 80287 is op-tional), eight I/O slots, threeprogrammable timers, a 6-to 8-MHz clock, seven-channel direct memory ac-cess, an on-board battery,and a speaker attachment.

The HB-7215 Titan solderless breadboard.

Suggested retail price forthe ATI-1000 is $1995. Con-tact ATronics InternationalInc., POB 296. Mount Eden.CA 94557-0296, (415)538-2844.Inquiry 629

MultifunctionMemory Card forTandy 1000

The 4N1-1000 card fromMicro Mainframe letsyou add up to 512K bytesof memory to your Tandy1000. provides DMA capa-bility, and includes anRS-232C serial card. The4N1-1000 also accepts op-tional real-time clock andmouse modules. This multi-function card uses only oneof the Tandy 1000's expan-sion slots.

You can purchase thebasic 4N1-1000 with OKbytes for $259.95. with 128Kbytes for $309.95. with 2 56Kbytes for $469.95. or with512K bytes of RAM for$649.95. Contact MicroMainframe. 11285-E SunriseGold Circle, Rancho Cor-dova. CA 95670, (916)635-3997.Inquiry 630.

3 Megabytes of RAMon the IBM PC AT

Emulex's Mega Memoryboard provides up to 3megabytes of RAM for theIBM PC AT. It fits into any ofthe AT's 16-bit slots. Theboard has a total of sixbanks, representing 12 rows,that you can populate with64K- or 256K-byte chips de-pending on your AT'sconfiguration.

Mega Memory comesstandard with two softwarepackages: Wait-Less Printing,a print spooler, and Insta-Drive, a RAM-disk emulator.

List price for Mega Mem-ory ranges from $395 for OKbytes of RAM to $5495 for3 megabytes. ContactEmulex Corp., 3545 HarborBlvd.. POB 6725, CostaMesa. CA 92626, (714)662-5600.Inquiry 631.

Controller for Floppy-and Hard-Disk Drives

The Xebec SI220 single-board controller elim-inates the need for separatefloppy- and hard-disk con-trollers. It plugs into a full-length I/O slot in the IBMPC, XT, and compatibles.

The unit will support up totwo 5'/Hnch floppy-diskdrives or two 5!4-inch fixed-disk drives. It has a drivetransfer rate of 5 megabitsper second.

The SI220 has a micropro-cessor-based architecture,full-sector buffer, and auto-matic seek and positionverification. Its program-mable features include sec-tor interleave, sector size,and auto-initialize on power-up or restart for floppy andhard drives.

The SI220 IntegratedHard/Floppy Disk Controllercosts $295. Contact Xebec.3 579 Highway 50 E. CarsonCity, NV 89701, (800)982-3232.Inquiry 632.

Color Computer Data-Acquisition System

The Data Gatherer fromGreen Mountain Microis a 16-channel. 12-bit data-acquisition system with anon-board clock/calendar andparallel printer port. Thesystem is designed for usewith Tandy's TRS-80 ColorComputer. TDP-100, or ColorComputer 2.

A ROM-based operatingsystem lets you program inExtended Color BASIC. TheData Gatherer is intendedfor economical testing andmeasurement, sensing,monitoring, robotics,laboratory control, andmusic synthesis.

The Data Gatherer sells for$330 assembled and $220in kit form. The manual isavailable separately for $15.Complete with 64K-bytecomputer, the system costs$550. Contact Green Moun-tain Micro, Bathory Rd.. Rox-bury, VT 05669. (802)485-6112.Inquiry 633.

{continued)

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 473

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE • APPLE

Graph Numeric Dataon the Macintosh

With Engineering ToolKit (ETK), you can usea Macintosh to recordnumeric engineering data,translate this data intographics forms, andgenerate statistical reports.The types of graphs you canmake include trend charts,scatter plots, and histograms(with optional best-fitcurves|. You can plot a max-imum of 200 points andprint out the statistics thatgo with those graphs.

Functions provided aremultiple linear regressionand analysis of variationreports (correlation coeffi-cients, standard error ofestimate, F-ratio, degrees offreedom, standard deviation,and other statistics). ETKalso has a scientific cal-culator with logarithmic,'arithmetic, and trigonometriccomputation capabilities.

The Engineering Tool Kitruns on either the 128K or512K Mac with single ordual drives. Microsoft BASIC2.0 is required. List price is$99. An Apple II versionlists at $59. Contact Sof-Tools. POB 8751, Boise, ID83702, (208) 343-1437.Inquiry 634

LISP DevelopmentEnvironment for Mac

Available as a completeworkstation or a stand-alone software package,ExperLisp brings a LISP en-vironment to the Macintosh512K. The program, a com-plete implementation ofLISP, provides access to theMac toolbox, compilesdirectly to MC68000machine code, and hasthree-dimensional andspherical graphics capa-bilities.

An ExperLisp Workstationincludes the software and aMacintosh XL with up to 4megabytes of RAM and a!0-megabyte hard-disk drive.Workstations configured with2 megabytes of RAM costless than $7000.

The software alone costs$495. You need an externaldisk drive to run it. ContactExperTelligence Inc., 559 SanYsidro Rd., Santa Barbara,CA 93108, (805) 969-7874.Inquiry 635.

Demographicson a Disk

What's the ratio ofwomen to men inBaltimore? How many Viet-nam veterans live in NewHampshire? How many peo-ple voted against the winnerof the 1980 Presidentialelection?

Answers to these ques-tions, as well as otherdemographic data, areavailable from People inPlaces, an information pro-gram for the Macintosh. Thepackage contains figuresfrom the 1980 U.S. Censusrelating to population, in-come, employment, housing,businesses, and vitalstatistics. You can have infor-mation listed or displayedon maps or graphs. Data ispresented for each state andregion, urban counties andrural areas, and the CensusBureau's metropolitanstatistical areas. Some sub-jects have comparative datafrom 1970 and 1960.

People in Places sells for$3 5. Contact Data & Infor-mation Software Co., Suite1633. 235 Montgomery St.,San Francisco, CA 94104,(415) 391-7670,Inquiry 636.

Talking Apple II

For less than $40, youcan give voice to yourBASIC programs on anApple II. Speak Up is avoice-synthesizer packagethat requires no additionalhardware and packs a text-to-speech converter into 7Kbytes. You can embed theutility into your programs oruse it alone to pronouncethe text you type.

Speak Up has a suggestedretail price of $39.95. Fordetails, contact EducationalMicro Inc., 1926 HollywoodBlvd., Hollywood, FL 33020-4524. (305) 920-2222 ext.620.Inquiry 637.

Mac CommunicationsPackage

Dow Jones InformationServices and PrenticeCorporation have developeda complete communicationspackage for the Macintosh.Called Ml25, the packageincludes Straight Talk, aPOPCOM X100 modem,phone cables, and amodem-to-Mac cable.

Straight Talk communicateswith Macs and provides ac-cess to Dow (ones News/Retrieval, The Source. Com-puServe, and other services.It also supports MacWrite,MacPaint, and other Macconventions.

The POPCOM modem hasa feature that automaticallysets modem switches, deter-mines which cables to use,and locates the properphone network. The modemalso has an auto-voicefeature.

Ml25 retails for $495. Formore information, contactPrentice Corp., 266 CaspianDr., POB 3 544. Sunnyvale.CA 94088-3 544.Inquiry 638.

Mac Cross-Compiler

Pterodactyl Software'sPCMacBASIC cross-com-piler creates Macintosh pro-grams from BASIC sourcecode using the Pascal Work-shop and Mac Supplementon a Lisa. The programs runon a Mac or Mac XL. Twoconfiguration tables in theResource file, one for eachmachine type, control mem-ory allocation and screenparameters. They can adjustfor screen and memory sizeand compensate for rec-tangular pixels.

Features include multiplewindows that update auto-matically. Dialog and Alertboxes configured in theResource file, sequential orrandom disk files, and anextended CALL statementthat accesses Pascal pro-cedures and functions.

PCMacBASIC includes arun-time license and sells for$1000.

Pterodactyl has also re-leased PC BASIC Compiler,which has a syntax compati-ble with BASICA on the IBMPC but also includes exten-sions. It generates assemblylanguage and an EXEC fileto automatically assembleand link. You can call Pascal,assembly-language, andQuickdraw subroutines fromBASIC. The compiler is avail-able for the Lisa in severalversions. A protected com-piler (unprotected run timefor one machine) is $2 50.With a run-time license, theprice is $750. A cross-compiler that runs on theLisa and creates programsfor the Mac costs $1000, in-cluding a run-time license.

Contact Pterodactyl Soft-ware, 200 Bolinas Rd. #27,POB 538, Fairfax, CA 94930,(415) 485-0714.Inquiry 639.

474 BYTE

IUNE 1985

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE • APPLE

MockingboardEnhancements

Sweet Micro Systems hasreleased three packagesfor its Mockingboard syn-thesizers. These programslet Mockingboard userscreate customized speech,speak in three Europeanlanguages, and access thesecapabilities through BASIC.Speech Development Sys-tem (SDS) lets you add ordelete phonemes and ma-nipulate the six variablesassociated with eachphoneme. These variables

include inflection, rate ofspeech, amplitude, filter fre-quency, rate of articulationtransition, and rate of inflec-tion transition. SDS costs$39.95.

Foreign Language RuleTables (FLRT) provides thebasis for converting text intospeech. The vendor hasdeveloped a set of rulesthat, when used with theText to Speech Algorithm,enables the computer tospeak in French, German, orBritish English. You can usethese rules alone or incor-porate them into programs

that teach foreign languagesor are used for translationpurposes. FLRT, which canbe used in conjunction withSDS, retails for $24.95.

Developers' "toolkit con-tains utility programs tofacilitate development ofmusic, sound, and speechsoftware. Rule Editor letsyou print the rule table onany printer. It works withMockingboards B, C, and D.A new version of the Text toSpeech Algorithm accessesa rule table located abovethe normal 48K-byte mem-ory, giving you more room

in which to place other pro-gram code. It also workswith Mockingboards Bthrough D. Ampermock isan ampersand utility de-signed to simplify incorpora-tion of sound and speech inBASIC programs. It workswith Mockingboards Athrough D. The toolkit,which retails for $29.95,contains five otherprograms.

Contact Sweet Micro Sys-tems Inc.. 50 Freeway Dr.,Cranston, Rl 02920, (401)461-0530.Inquiry 640.

SOFTWARE • CP/M/MS-DOS

Program forProgrammers

FABS (Fast Access B-treeStructure) Plus is an as-sembly-language programmodule designed to main-tain key files for quick dataretrieval in large files. Thepackage has an auxiliaryprogram that lets you con-struct tightly packed indexfiles directly from a datafile; the program extractskeys from the nondeletedrecords, sorts them, andpacks them into the B-tree.

FABS Plus does not sup-port paths to files whenusing MS-DOS 2.0. Files tobe accessed must be in thecurrent directory. The pro-gram reportedly has specialcommands that permit itsuse in a network or multi-user environment. Featuresinclude generic searches,multilevel sequencing, andsupport of duplicate keys (aswell as ASCII or integer keytypes).

The vendor claims accesstimes of less than 1 secondon a floppy disk and lessthan Vi second on a harddisk.

Suggested retail price is$195. Contact ComputerControl Systems Inc., 29821st Terrace SE, Largo, FL33541. (813) 586-1886.Inquiry 641.

Development SystemUnder RM/COBOL

C/Script II is designed toautomate applicationsdevelopment under Ryan-McFarland's COBOL environ-ment. You can use thesystem to specify all data,screen descriptions, andprogram-specific informa-tion. RM/COBOL source-code programs are pro-duced through the use ofmaintainable skeleton files, adata dictionary, and threesource-code generators.

You can access applica-tions produced with C/ScriptII through the Variable MenuSystem. Menu options arearranged in a logical, hier-archical structure. A security

system interactively monitorsall terminals and allowsreporting of operator activi-ties. The package reportedlylets you enter an unlimitedamount of code to cus-tomize generated programs.C/Script 11 runs on all IBMPCs and compatibles andother MS-DOS or UNIXmachines supportingRM/COBOL version 2. Pricesrange from $1540 to $5385,depending on environment.Contact C S. LaboratoriesInc.. 459 North Dean Rd.,Auburn, AL 36830, (800)626-0381; in Alabama, (205)821-1133.Inquiry 642.

PIP Utility

A system utility for inter-facing to microcom-puter operating systems,XP1P combines functions ofmany operating-system com-mands with additional capa-bilities. Once you'veselected a command andoptions. XPIP displays thecorrect command-line syntaxbefore executing thecommand.

XPIP lets you displaydirectories with file at-tributes, file size, and crea-tion date and time sortedby name, extension, or size;search a set of files for theoccurrence of a string; per-form arithmetic in any basefrom 2 through 16; and ex-ecute a list of XPIP com-mands in a text file. You canhave any file displayed, 128bytes at a time, in hexa-decimal and ASCII. XPIPuses English messages.

XPIP for MS-DOS or PC-DOS 1.1 or later requires128K bytes of memory andat least one disk drive. XPIPfor CP/M requires version2.2 or later and at least44K. Both versions cost$29.95. Contact SystemFacilities Inc.. POB 7079.Charlottesville, VA 22906.(804) 977-5245.Inquiry 643

{continued)

IUNE 1985

:YTE 475

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE • IBM PC

Local Networkon a Disk

LANLink is a software-driven local-area net-work (LAN) for IBM PCs andcompatibles. Instead of re-quiring you to install net-work interface boards inyour computer, LANLinkuses RS-232C ports for allnetwork communications.The logic that normallyresides on boards is onLANLink's server andsatellite disks.

The Software Link ex-plained that it has pro-grammed the 82 50 universalasynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) chip,standard on serial ports, tohandle the same tasks as-signed to controller chips onnetwork boards. Using theseports, the company hasrealized a data-transfer rateof more than 115.000 bps.

The program is capable oflinking multiple servers forhard-disk backup. It alsoprovides R-LAN. a remote-access feature that lets youinteract with the networkthrough a modem in realtime to work with files, pro-grams, and peripherals.

LANLink runs on all PC-DOS machines and someMS-DOS compatibles. Astarter kit that includesmodules for both a serverand a satellite is $495. Addi-tional satellite modules cost$195. Contact The SoftwareLink Inc.. Suite 336. 8601Dunwoody Place, Atlanta.GA 30338. (404) 998-0700.Inquiry 644.

Expert-Systems Shell

An Al package designedfor commercial users.TESS (The Expert SystemShell) lets you build expertsystems on an IBM PC or

compatible. You don't needto know Prolog or LISP tocreate a TESS system; whatyou need are facts, rules,and probabilities.

TESS is a Bayesian-in-ference shell that can alsooffer some Prolog features.You can load large batchesof rules into the shell fromsequential files. The packageis written in C.

The program includesmodifiable windows andhelp facilities and comeswith tutorials and descrip-tions of techniques used tomake expert systems. Mini-mum hardware configurationis a PC with monochromedisplay two 360K-byte diskdrives, and 2 56K bytes ofmemory. TESS sells for£650. Contact Helix ExpertSystems Ltd., 11 LudgateCircus, London EC4M 7LQ,England: tel: 01-248 1734;Telex: 296119.

In North America, thepackage is marketed as Ex-pert Edge and costs $795Contact Human Edge Soft-ware Corp.. 244 5 FaberPlace, Palo Alto, CA 94303,(415) 493-1593.Inquiry 645.

GPIB Utility

Tektronix has developeda toolkit designed tosimplify integration of anIBM PC into a GPIB instru-ment system. Called GURU(GPIB Users Resource Utili-ty), the package consists of

a GPIB interface board withself-test and diagnostics, ashielded GPIB cable, and atutorial manual.

GURU'S support softwareincludes a tool that lets yougenerate a program for ex-ecuting a prescribed test se-quence without writing anycode. You can call and useinteractively a BASIC libraryof 16 subroutines for instru-ment selection and setup,range and tolerance tests,waveform acquisition andstorage, and waveformgraphs and statistics.

Tektronix plans to estab-lish an application programlibrary for GURU users.

GURU costs $600. ContactTektronix Inc.. MarketingCommunications Dept., POB1700, Beaverton, OR 97005,(800) 547-1512; in Oregon,(800) 452-1877.Inquiry 646.

Debug dBASE

A utility program de-signed to help dBASEprogrammers debug codeby locating control-statementerrors, dFLOW graphicallyillustrates program loops,IF... ELSE conditionals, andcase constructs. Thepackage produces correctlyindented listings for in-dividual files and for entireapplications systems. dFLOWalso cross-references allmodules in a full system andcompiles a variableconcordance.

WHERE DO NEW PRODUCT ITEMS COME FROM?The new products listed in this section of BYTE are chosen from the thousandsof press releases, letters, and telephone calls we receive each month frommanufacturers, distributors, designers, and readers. The basic criteria for selectionfor 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 volumeof submissions we must sort through every month, the items we publish arebased on vendors statements and are not individually verified. 1/ you wantyour product to be considered for publication {at no charge), send full infor-mation about it. including its price and an address and telephone numberwhere a reader can get further information, to Nw Products Editor. BYTE,POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

dFLOW works with dBASEII and III on an IBM PC. PCXT, PC AT, and most com-patibles. Suggested retailprice is $129. ContactWallSoft Systems Inc.. Suite869, 233 Broadway, NewYork. NY 10279. (212)406-7026.Inquiry 647.

ATLAS Helper

Developed to help trainengineers and techni-cians in the generation ofATLAS (Abbreviated TestLanguage for All Systems)code. ATLAS Tutor elim-inates the need for a teststation or compile facility.The menu-driven program-generation tool producescode that's in accordancewith IEEE Standard 716.

The tutor leads you step-by-step through the state-ment-generation process.Each ATLAS statement youconstruct is stored in a user-defined file so that thestatements are linked into atest program. Proper punc-tuation is inserted auto-matically.

Examples in the user'smanual are organized byATLAS verbs. The manual in-cludes references to com-ments about the verbs andreferences to other structureelements.

ATLAS Tutor runs on anIBM PC or compatible withtwo disk drives (360K bytesper disk) or one floppy-diskdrive and one hard-diskdrive. The price is $400.which gets you the programand manual and a copy ofthe document "IEEEStandard 716 C/ATLAS TestLanguage'' Contact DubertInternational Inc., 8858Gienhaven St.. San Diego,CA 92123, (619) 277-4700.Inquiry 648

476 BVTE • IUNE 1985

m

'icro

products'nter national

Li714/898-0840

^V/o^/A00 ty IBM PC-XT SELECTRIC KEYBOARDS

Flower Specials

fflSB New Hayes SmartModem Compatible! JMMS

\'<i>0.

Finally a price brHkthrough on a Hayes compahtne. external 300 1200baud modem This low price is withoutdriver software, but if you need it add $25.00CaM for a 26 page catalog of our special dealsLook m ttns spot every monfti for Hot. New items kssure to catch your interesl

■ Huns me popular

Hayes communications software» FCC apprvd for direct RJ-11 connection• All cables 4 power supply included for this

onetowpnee *07Q nti*

MOD-8100-00 frZf M.UU

VA^t

Wfc •

°^

Our volume purcnase ot these excellent Selectnc type keyboards will rjnng tneKrmurw you nave oeen wanting down to a pnee you cant resist So many featuresyou'll Jove it1' • Sngle Key reset

exv °-v

^VcP.^

• separate numenc keypad

* Separate Arrow keypad• Dimple marked "5' F. & J keys

v-1051 00 Selectnc $129.00

KEY-1050-00 Standard 89.00

I

° ^

IBM STYLE MOTHERBOARD

Micro Products artnouncesa powerful new IBM XT type motherboard. 4 layers for superior reliability& speed. Turbo mode allows 75% higher thru-put by increasingsystem clock to 7.0MHz under software control Designed to usenew 256K RAM chips or 64K chips. WOK memory expansion doesnot require useof valuable card slots Many outstanding featurescombined with our new 7 PAK Multifunction board make previous-ly expensive options standard features at a LOW LOW Cost.BOA-6068-00 Supplied with OK $349.00

**

ADD-ON POWER SUPPLY

Power SuDpfy with Fan and PowcFilter Uses 140 watts runs HardOsk & Tape Back-upIBM Replacement type tor Hard MNew High Velocity Fan!New Low Price!

pow-1040-oo $99.00

«.

v

SUPER 12 PAK MULTI-FUNCTION

This one is really loaded! Features One Parallel Port. One RS232-CSerial Port, One Game Port, Real-Time Clock / Calendar with Bat-tery Back-up, Expandable to 384K of Parity-checked Memory, Supplied OK Memory, all cables, PrintSpoolerand RAM Disk Software.

BOA-6335-00 $199.95

'Additional (9) 64K Memory ChipsKIT-8000-00 $ 15.00

%.

Do it Yourself!

i think of this System as a "Do it Yourself" System. Start by choosing>r 8 Slots Some of the standard Features • 64K RAM expandable256K • 4 DMA Channels • Runs MS-DOS™ and CP'M-86™iftware not indudedl • Multi-function Keyboards CableHard Disk Ready Po*er Supply • And MORE1S-6000-00 Only$525*/695

OEMs1245Singles1495System! XPC Turbo!

Add-On H.D. & Tape

1 type Case only

Slot CAB-3065-00 $65'/99

Slot CAB-3068-00 $65* (99

This is OUR Junior!

2 this Omefess workstatiemfor low-cost Networkingitures: • 4-slot IBM™ compatible Motherboard

28K Standard Memory • 8088.8087 Math Co-pro-isor • Optional Floppy Drive with ControllersS-8100-00 S475-/675

I System w Keyboard, Mono Monitor, Video Displayrd. 128K RAM t Dnve SYS-8725-00 $895 */950

NEW

Features!

BJRAM DiskMGame PortW640K epetytPrintSpoolerITurbo mode!4.77MHz to7.00MHz!

*Ser,Par

MClock

'OEMQty 12 +

10 Meg H.D.

Complete System!

M99500*

20 Meg Color

Complete System'

$255000*

10 Meg $129520 Meg $139526 Meg $1595

10 Megabyte Irwin on thetop, your chore of Hard Diskon the bottom Super ap-pearance! Requires one slotin your PC for SASI interfaceand an extension connectoron tne floppy card Every-thing else is supplied by us

40 Meg $1995105 Meg $4395140 Meg $4995

mV

40 Meg w/Tape

Complete System!

$303500*Software

• XWORD

• XBASIC

• XBASE

• XCALC

• XCOM

Add-On Hard Disk

Two ways to go Trie internal system s cheaper Because it does Inot need a P S & Chassis Trie same P S & Chass.s can rje med tor a 10 Meg Tape Back-up on your XT!

10 Megabyte•595int/'895ext

20 Megabyte■795int;'1095«t

26 Megabyte'995int/'1295ext

40 Megabyte•^gSint/MSgSext

105 Megabyte■3795 int/'3995 ext

140 Megabyte•4395 int/'4695 ext

Check These Standard Features:

» Full-Size. Feather-Touch. Capacitance KeyDoa'd. 10 Function Keys. Calculator-Type Numeric Keypad •

• Parallel a Serial I/O • Real Time Clock • Game Port • 2-Slimline 5VS" DS/DD 48 TPI360K Drives •

•8 IBM expansion slots • RAM Disk "PrintSpooler • 4 DMAS 3 Timer channels •

• Full 640K capacity on-board • 808816-bit CPU • Monochrome Video Card-

• Up to 32K of EPROM (full 8K supplied) • Supports PC-DOS - MS-DOS - CP/M-86 •

• Power Supply Hard-Disk-Ready, no need lo add-on additional power •

'High resolution 12" Monitor Green Screen, 22 MHz bandwidth*

Add-On 10 Meg Tape

■

Jf your IBM-XT needs a little j

help in the Bacn-up categoryyou won I De awe lo Deal this Iprice1 Cables, software and |everything1

SUB-8300-00 '

$495*/695

Not enough room here - Call for Catalog

MITQ MultiMedia InteractiveI I U Training Systems

INTERACTIVE

Video or Audio Tape Training!That's Right!

Learn at home - at your own pace -Lotus 1-2-3™ Framework™ WordStar™IBM-PC DOS™ dBase II™ Symphony™

SuperCalc™ BusinessMaster™

Kt last! An inexpensive, convenient means of lear-ling how to use a Computer and Software. Withhis System you sit comfortably in front of yourComputer, watch a demonstration, and then, theTape system (Audio or Video) actually IN-TERACTS with you! Telling you what keys tostrike, waiting for you to do the exercises at your>wn rate. As much practice time as You want. A)ace that you set. Some classes 10 hours in length!"antastic detail and tips! Call us for more informa-ion and practical demonstrations. Nothing like itinywhere else!

he following are registered Trademarks and men Companies 1-2-3, Symphony Lotus DevelopleniCompwiy MS-DOS PC DOS FlightSmolatdf Microsoft dBaseII Asnton-Tale WordSlaiMicroPro International Corp SuperCalc Sorcim Inc VTsiCalc VisrCorp Inc CP'M-86 DflitalISM IBM PC IBM-PC XT Internahona! Business Machines

POWER BACK-UP

Protect your Data! DatashieU* is a battery operated Fbwer Generator which in-stantly supplies even, uninterrupted ACPower to a Microprocessor in the event of 'a Rower Drop or Outage. Also provides 3Surge Protection, which filters and Beliminates voltage spikes {surges) above140 VAC.

200 watts POW-2000-00 .. $299.00300 watts POW-2050-00 $399.00

INTERNATIONAL ORDERS

Micro Products is ready to serve your needs in several countries. Each Office hasSales Literature. Local Pricing, Inventory and Technical Service available to sup-port your needs. There ate no problems with U.S. Export Forms.

HEAD OFFICEDarryl R. Green

15392 Assembly Lane. Unit AHuntington Beach. CA 92649Phone: 7141898-0840Telex: 887841 XOR0ATA HTBHAMSTERDAM OFFICECynthia ClarkBuilding 70,4th Floor1117ZH Schiphol-EastAmsterdam, The NetherlandsPhone: 1020)45 26 50Telex: 18306

AUSTRALIAN OFFICE8 Irwin Street, BellevueW. Australia 6056Phone: 274-3701

TAIPEI OFFICEWilliam Wang

Suite 605, Worldwide House

685MinShengE. fid.

Taipei. Taiwan. R.O.C.

Tel: (021712-8877 Tlx: 21405

MARACAIBO OFFICE

Jim Stevens

Av. 3FEsq CalleSI

Centro Com. Maelga - Local #5

Maracaibo, Venezuela 4001-A

Phone:061-913328

Telex: 62344 PEMIN

CANADIAN OFFICE

■ -PENDING --

PROM LASER

This ii the Ont! Our PROM Burner allows reading storing-to-disk, recalling, and

iaj_^p_^p_^p_«ajKjajQjMr, burning Hi-speedalgonthmesbums2764

tSi i J 1 t I in45seconds'AJsohandles2716.2732,

■"taj.,. (). , , j 27126 27256 Features: Zero insertion

torce sockets: On-board Voltage Generator

No Interference with normal computer

operations

BOA-8640-00 $199.00

MISCELLANEOUS $$$ SAVERS

7 PAK Multifunction Floppy. RTC. 2 Serial. 1 Parallel. Game. RAM Disk

BOA-6250-00 $189.00

64KMemoryChipsl9)NECforlBM KIT-8000-00 $ 15.00

2S6K DRAM Memory Chips (9) = 256K KIT-9000-00 $ 81.00

AdlKIn Memory iuplo512K) supplied OK BOA-6350O0 $ 99.00

Floppy Controller, Controls up to four drives. 5'«' 48/96 TPI

BOA-6100-00 $ 95.00

Monochrome Graphics Card (Hercules typel (1-2-3 compatible) 720h x 348v

BOA-6150-00 $175.00

Color Graphics Card. 320 x 200 Res. Color, 640 x 200 Monochrome

BOA-6200-00 $145.00

Clock Calendar Board, fits in "short slot" w/battery Back-up

BOA-6375-00 $ 55.00

Hard Disk Controller, standard ST-506 interlace for DOS 1,1 & 2.0

BOA-8050-00 $245.00

30011200 Baud Modem Internal w/PC Talk III Communications Software

BOA-8725-00 $239.00

Monochrome Monitor, 22MHz bandwidth, composite input or TTLMON-1725-00Green/Comp 99.00 MON-1700-00 Amber/Comp 104.00MON-1775-00Green/TTL. 104.00 MON-1750-00 Amber/TTL .109.00

Inquiry 2 78

Micro Products

15392 Assembly Lane • Huntington Beach, CA 92649 • 714/898-0840 ■<

Inquiry 394

SUftiTRONiCS CO.,il\IC.

12621 Crenshaw Blvd.. Hawthorne. CA 90250

s = ==£ XT Compatible Products

' 800-42' b77b lO'der On yt2t3l 644-! t40 (CA Orde' & Info I

STORf HOURSWon Fn g a m 10 6 p n

■0 dm loSprr

TERMS .i-.a MASTER) AMD ( ID Casf " CerCheck Requitedi Cnsck A»0* -' i Weet>s fcsi eaSfiDpifg & h c S3 00 'of 3 Los pius 50c 'o' eacf addCalil resxtenisaadCaiil SaiesTaaSiO OOMir-imumOrc(BM and App't- a"' regtsierea fade marks ■>< ihm & Appif

Compatible Products

CPU Board (w128K) $350.00

Computer Cabinet $69.00

83 Key Full-Function Keyboard $85.00

Monochrome Graphic Card (w/parallel printer port) . $175.00

135 Watt Power Supply $129.00

150 Watt Power Supply $135.00

Color Graphic Card $129.00

FDD Controller Card $179.00

Parallel Printer Card $49.00

ASYIMC & RS232 Card $69.00

360KB DSDD (SlimlineiDisk Drive, TEAC $99.00

IBM Parallel Cable S19.00

IBM Prototype Board S9.00

Apparat EPROM Blaster S129.00

MicroLog Z-80B Baby Blue II Co-Processor. Multi-Function

[Run CP/M Software, Require B4K RAM) S499.00

IBM Up-Grade Kit (41 64-1 50NS) 12.50 per kit

IBM Up-Grade Kit (41 256-1 50NS).... $65.00 per kit

10MB Hard Disk (w/Controller) $595.00

Hard Disk Drive Controller (1 0MB & 20MB)... $229.00

IBM PC Mouse S147.00

Koala Graphics Table (w Software) S105.00

Keyboard Extension Cable S9.00

Multi-Function (384K w/64K RAM. 1 Serial* Parallel. Clock Calendar... $169.00Multi-Function iFDC, Serial 8. Parallel. Clock Calendar. Game Portl . .. S199.00

Sun Z80 Card (w o Software APPLE II & II * only) S49.00

Sun 80 Column Card tw Soft Switch) S85.00

Power Supply (5 Amp) S59.95

Cooling Fan S42.00

Floppy Disk Controller $42,00

16K RAM Card S49.00

128K RAM Card S159.00

Parallel Printer Card S49.00

Serial Printer Card S89.00

RS232 Card for Modem 599.00

EPROM Programmer (2716 32 64) S75.00

Apple Disk Drive [Full height) S159.00

Apparat EPROM Blaster S119.00

Grappler $75.00

SPECIAL SALE ITEMS

S-100 Single Board Computer (Z80AJ b/b $49.oo

S-100 Clock Calendar b/b $42.00

S-100 64K Static Memory Board (wo RAM) b/b $49.00

S-100 Prototype Board (Sun-721) S9.95

12" Amber TTL Hi-Res Monitor (20mHz) (tor IBM)... $115.0012" Green TTL Hi-Res Monitor (20mHz) (for IBM) ... $109.0012" Green Composite Hi- Res Monitor i22mHz)(IBM & Apple)... $85.0014" Super Color Monitor (RGB 654(H) x 490(V) $385.00

SKC DS/DD 5V4" Diskette $13.95 per 10

IBM PC, 256 K, One Half Height 320 K Disk Drive DS/DD,Persyst Color Card, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1PLUS a 10MB Hard Disk Sub System all for:

$2690.00

IBM PC, 256 K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, PersystColor Card, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1, 130 WattPower Suply PLUS a 10MB Hard Disk Sub System all for:

$2980.00

IBM PC, 256 K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, PersystColor Card. Taxan Green Monitor. DOS 2.1, 130 WattPower Supply, 10MB Hard Disk Sub System. PLUS10MB Tape Back Up System all for:

$3579.00

IBM PC. 256 K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD, PersystColor Card, Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1, 130 WattPower Supply. 20MB Hard Disk Sub System all for:

$3380.00

IBM PC, 256 K, Two Half Height Drives DS/DD. PersystColor Card, Taxan Green Monitor. DOS 2.1, 130 WattPower Supply, 20MB Hard Disk Sub System PLUS 10MBTape Back Up System all for:

$3979.00

(We configure and test the system for you at no extracost.)

SOMEBODY Has To Have The Lowest Prices!

MONITORS

IBM MONO PRINTER ADAPTERPERSYST COLOR ADAPTER

ampf* inn

$135.00

prm hy-1?

$475.00

pr-is mav-19

$190.00

pris SR-1?

$625.00

TAXAN GREEN COMPOSITE

$125.00

TAXAN AMBER COMPOSITE

$135.00

TAXAN GREEN W/TTLPLUS

$149.00

TAYAN AMRFH W/TTI PI I IS

$159.00

IBM MONOCHROME DISPLAY

$260.00

irm mi OR nispi ay

$590.00

PRINTERS

EPSON FX 80

$425.00

fpsdn fv mn

$625.00

FPsnM ry m

$245.00

EPSON RX SOFT

$295.00

OKIDATA H2A

$299.00

OkinATA MA

$56900

OKinATA D?P

$399.00

DKinATA Q.3P

$62500

OKinATAIUP

$759.00

OKIDATA ?4mP

$1959.00

TOSHIBA P1351

$1295.00

WFP SPINWRITFR 3550

$1595.00

urr pinwritfr nn mi

$699.00

NF<~ PINWRITFR 136 COI

$S99 on

RRDTHFR HB-K

$699.00

RROTHFR HB.H

$925.00

(Accessories on NEC & OKIDATA printers available)

DRIVES

TANnnN TM-inn-9

$179.00

SI IMI INF - TOSHIBA

si imi inf - TFAr 55n

$155.00$155 00

MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

AST l/n+1 SFR * 1 PAR

$179.00

AST SIX PACK 64K, 1 SER & 1 PAR

$269 00

OIIAnROARnRdK

$269.00

irm r.ni or rtRAPHin adaptfr

$225.00

PERSYST MONO PRINTER ADAPTER .

HERCULES GRAPHIC ADAPTER

HERCULES COLOR CARD

STB GRAPHIX PLUS II

MODEMS

HA YES SMART MODEM 1200 _HAYES SMART MODEM 300 _HAYES 1200B PLUG IN CARD

QUBIE PC 212A/1200 INT

QUBIE PC 212E/1200 EXT

64K RAM UPGRADE KIT

128K RAM UPGRADE KIT (For AT)_IBM PC POWER SUPPLY (Original)63.5 Watts-IBM KEYBOARD FOR PC (Original)

. $230.00. $190.00.$210.00. $349.00. $210.00. $375.00

. $469.00. $209.00. $429.00. $275.00. $299.00

HARD DISKS

IIIMB SIIR SYSTFM INT

$fi50 on

10MB SUB SYSTEM EXT

$1025 nn

imm tapf rat.k up

*59B nn

GENERAL

rnNTRDI nATA niSKFTTFS

$25.00/box

KFVTRONin KR5151

Simon

PARAI I Fl CARI FS

$25 00

_ $50.00. $199.00

(714) 838-7530

2640 Walnut Avenue, Unit K,Tustin, California 92680(Prices & availability subject to change without notice-IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation.)

478 BYTE- IUNE 1985

Inquiry 441

What the world really needs

is a 99 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 diskettesevery month, we've learned something; higher prices don'tnecessarily mean higher quality.

In fact, we've found that a good diskette manufacturersimply manufactures a good diskette...no matter whatthey charge for it. (By way of example, consider that noneof the brands that we carry has a return rate of greater than1/1,000th of 1 percent!)

In other words, when people buy a more expensivediskette, they aren't necessarily buying higher quality.

The extra money might be going toward flashier adver-tising, snazzier packaging or simply higher profits.

But the extra money in a higher price isn't buying betterquality.

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 theprice 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 othercompany's components, possibly doing one or more stepsof the processing themselves and pasting their labels onthe finished product.

The new Eastman Kodak diskettes, for example, are oneof these. So are IBM 5'/." diskettes Same for DYSAN,Polaroid and many, many other familiar diskette brandnames. Each of these diskettes is manufactured in wholeor in part by another company!

So, we decided to act just like the big guys That's howwe would cut diskette prices...without lowering thequality

We would go out and find smaller companies to manu-facture a diskette to our specifications, specificationswhich are higher than most.. and simply create our own"name brand" diskette.

Name brand diskettes that offered high quality at lowprices.

DISKETTE STORAGECASES

PERFECTDATA DIAL N FILE

Terrific! Holds 10 5V diskettes. Just flipthe lever and they all slide up for easy accessand identification. Grey with smoked plasticfront.

$2.75 Ea. + .35 Shpng.

DISK CADDIES

The original flip-up holder for 10 5'/4"diskettes Beige or Grey only.

$1.65 ea. I .20 Shpng.

DISKETTE 70 STORAGE

Dust-free storage tor 70 5'/." diskettes.Six dividers included. An excellent value. $11.95 ea. ■ $3.00 Shpng.

HOURS:

Human: 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday through Friday

Answering Machine: 6PM-8AM, All Times

MCI MAIL: 24 hours a day.

| SUPER |

■ STAR ■

■ diskettes*

1 HWfl

51/4" ™

W 51/4"

SSDD

DSDD

.91 ea.

I .99 ea.

Qty. 50

1 Qty. 50

Super Star diskettes are sold in multiples of 50 only Diskettes areshipped with white Tyvec sleeves, reinforced hubs, user ID labelsand 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 ofour dreams, we found something even more interesting.

We found that there are several manufacturers whodon't give a hoot about the consumer market for theirdiskettes. They don't spend millions of dollars in advertis-ing trying to get you, the computer user, to use theirdiskettes.

Instead, they concentrate their efforts on turning out thehighest quality diskettes they can...because they sellthem to the software publishers, computer manufacturersand other folks who (in turn) put their name on them.. .andsell them for much higher prices to you!

After all, when a software publisher or computer manu-facturer or diskette marketer puts their name on a diskette,they want it to work time after time, everytime. (Especiallysoftware publishers who have the nasty habit of copy-protecting their originals!)

HOW TO ORDER:

ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827

(In Illinois: 1-312-944-2788)

INQUIRIES:

1-312-944-2788FOR FASTEST SERVICE. USE NO-COST MCI MAIL:Our address is DISKWORLD. It's a FREE MCI MAILletter. No charge to you. (Situation permitting, we'llship these orders in 24 hours or less.)

SHIPPING: 5'/." & 3W DISKETTES-Add $3.00 per each100 or fewer diskettes OTHER ITEMS: Add shipping chargesas shown in addition to other shipping charges PAYMENT:VISA, MASTERCARD and Prepaid orders accepted COD OR-DERS: Add additional $3.00 special handling charge. APO,FPO, AK, HI & PR ORDERS: Include shipping charges asshown and additional 5% of total order amount to cover PALand insurance We ship only to United States addresses, exceptfor those listed above TAXES: Illinois residents, add 8%

MINIMUM ORDER: $35.00 or 20 diskettes.

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 Pago-Pago or emerge from a basement plant |ust east ofNowhere.

Super Star diskettes have been around for years...andyou've used them for years as copy-protected softwareoriginals, unprotected originals Sometimes, dependingon which computer you own, the system master may havebeen on a Super Star diskette. And maybe more than once,you've bought a box or two or more of Super Star disketteswithout knowing it. They just had some "big" company'sname on them.

Super Star Diskettes are good. So good that a lot ofmajor software publishers, computer manufacturers andother diskette marketers buy them in the tens or hundredsof 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 differentnames.

Now, you can buy the real McCoy, the same diskette thatmajor software publishers, computer manufacturers anddiskette marketers buy...and call their own.

We simply charge less.

Super Special!

Order 50 Super Star Diskettesand we'll be happy to sell you anAmaray Media-Mate 50 for only$8.75, shipping included...a lotless than the suggested retail priceof $15.95.

"k>

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Regular DISK WORLD! price: $10.95 ea.+ $2.00 Shpng.

The Super StarLIFETIME WARRANTY!

Super Star Diskettes are unconditionally warrantedagainst defects in original material and workmanshipso long as owned by the original purchaser. Returnsare simple: just send the defective diskettes with proofof purchase, postage-paid by you with a short expla-nation of the problem, and we'll send you the replace-ments. (Incidentally, coffee stained diskettes anddiskettes with staples driven through them don'tqualify as "defective".)

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY

ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES

SUBJECT TO THE SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

Suite 4806

30 East Huron Street

Chicago, Illinois 60611

Inquiry I47

IUNE 1985

I Y T E 479

IDEAL FOR OEM MANUFACTURERS, UNIVERSITIES,RESEARCH LABS ETC.

THE ULTIMATE PC COMPATIBLE ENCLOSURE

IDEAL FOR MEGA-BOARD™ XT OR ANY IBM-PC PC-XT COMPATIBLE BOARDS

OEM AND DEALERQUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE

EASY ACCESS!!

FLIP-TOP-CASE"OPENS FOR EASYACCESS TO INSIDE!!

Bus Expansion Slot

Allows ExternalAccess To PC Bus

Blank Label InsetFor Your Company OrUniversity Name Here

EXCLUSIVEFLIP-TOP-CASE™

Overcomes ProblemsWith PC Case

POWER SUPPLY

Mounts StandardHalf or Full Height

Floppy Diskor Hard Disk Drives

Rugged Heavy Gauge Steel Construction

ONLY

$9995

ADVANCED KEYBOARD

COMPLETE

FEATURES: • Horizontal Return Key

• Caps Lock and

en o/-^ /^«^^„*;k;i;».. Num. Lock Indicators

Full PC Compatibility . Emer Key for Numerjc Keypad

ONLY

$14995

Fully Assembled and Tested with One YearLimited Warranty

DISPLAY

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

CORPORATION

4100 SPRING VALLEY ROADSUITE 400DALLAS. TX 75234(214)991-1644

TERMS: We accept cash, checks,money orders, or purchase orders fromqualified firms and institutions. Pricesand availability subject to change withoutnotice. Shipping and handling chargesextra.

*IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of International Business Machines

480 BYTt • IUNE I985

©1984 Display Telecommunications Corporation

Inquiry 149

CHOICE OF MAJOR OEM MANUFACTURERS, UNIVERSITIES,RESEARCH LABS ETC A THOROUGHLY FIELD PROVEN DESIGN.—**" m *" HIGH VOLUME PRODUCTION ENGINEERED.

• FULL IBM PC-XT* COMPATIBILITY!

• FULL MEGA-BYTE RAM CAPACITYON MOTHERBOARD!

DEALERS AND OEM MANUFACTURERSQUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE

Standard Key-board Interface

(Full PC compatible)

THOUSANDS

SOLDWORLD WIDE!

Eight CompatibleI/O InterfaceConnectors

(Full PC compatible)(compatible with allIBM-PC plug-in cards)

Special J1Interface

(Allows horizontal mount-ing of compatible expan-sion cards for easy busexpansion and customconfiguring) (Board has62 pin gold plated compat-ible connector)

Extended ROMCapability

(Runs all compatible PCROMS) (Jumper program-mable to accommodate allpopular 8K, 16K, 32K and64K ROM chips and NEWEE ROMS! VPP power pinavailable for EP ROMburning!) (ExternalVPP voltage required)

B

Hardware Reset

(Overcomes reset flawin PC)

Power Connector

(Full IBM* pinoutcompatible)

8088 Processor

(Same as PC)

8087 NumericProcessor

(Same as PC)

PeripheralSupport Circuits

(Same as PC)

ConfigurationSwitches

(Same as PC)

Speaker/AudioPort

(Same as PC)

Wire Wrap Area

To facilitate special customapplications!

Full Mega-Byte Ram Capacity!On board!

(With parity)

□ 256K Bytes using 64K chips

□ 1 Mega Bytes using 256K chips

Mega-Board1" Triple-tested, fully

socketed and assembledwith IC's.

Includes highest quality PC boardwith gold plating, silk screen,solder mask

Board Size 10.5 inch x 13.5 inch

3 MEGA-BOARD- — XT

BARE BOARD KIT $ 99.95

ASSEMBLED AND TESTED

SOCKETKIT $199.95

(LESS IC'S) (FULLY SOCKETED)□ ASSEMBLED AND TESTED —

COMPLETE $499.95

(INCLUDES USERS MANUALAND MEGA-BIOS ROM)

□ USERS MANUAL WITH THEORY OF

OPERATION, SCHEMATICS, BLOCK

DIAGRAM, APPLICATION

NOTES $ 19.95

□ MEGA-BIOS'" ROM (2764) FULLY XT

COMPATIBLE, MS-DOS,

PC DOS $ 29.95

3 HARD TO GET PARTS CALL

FREE! Displaytel™

Exclusive.

Our Commitment to

Microcomputer

Education!

FREE Intel 8088Data Book with eachMega-Board™ Order!

ORDER NOW!!! Fast friendly service

CALL 214-991-1644

Immediate shipment!Most instock items shippedsame or next day!

10 Day money back guaranteeif not completely satisfied!

DISPLAY

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

CORPORATION

4100 SPRING VALLEY ROAD "RMS: We accept cash, checksquite Ann money orders, or purchase orders from

bul 11 40U qualified firms and institutions. Prices

DALLAS. TX 75234 and availability subject to change without

(214) 991-1644 notice. Shipping and handling charges

extra.

"IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of International Business Machines

Inquiry I49

©1984 Display Telecommunications Corporation

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 481

Inquiry 124

^■^t Aff^JkWJm JB OVOTW Ml The latest CCT implementation of the new

■ ^■■^■^■^ ^1 NTNI rllVI generation Intel 16-Bit Processor technology.

B B I ^mm_m £% mm ■% ■ mm f% This means extreme speed, unequaled power,

^Ljf^LiV fBHI aFR F^ and the ultimate in reliability, and of course, the

^kW ^kW M B vtlllLv 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 CPUboard. This combination, along with CompuPro DMA controllers and I/O boards, yields a dramatic improvement in systemthroughput speeds, from basic CP/M operation, up to large powerful multi-user/multi-tasking machines. The CCT-4represents the most advanced hardware presently available in a microcomputer to run the thousands of CP/M typesoftware programs on the market, and with CONCURRENT DOS 8-16 and the CompuPro PC Graphics board (whenavailable), 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 Com-puPro: Enclosure 2 Desk (21 slotMF), Disk 1 A, System Support 1, Interfacer 4, the CCT-2.4 floppy drive system, andCP/M 80 and CP/M 86, and with SF-200 surge suppressor system $5,495.00

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 $4,375.00

(Example: CCT-4B Mainframe with CCT-10/1 = $6,548.00) plus cost of selec,ed 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 in-stead of Interfacer 4; SF-400 instead of SF-200, plus Concur. DOS 8-16 QS. (6 user system) $6,075.00

(Example: CCT-4C Mainframe with CCT-40/1 = $9,248.00) Plus cost °f selec,ed drivesubsystem

\^«w Limited Time Offer - FREE Supercalc 86 with any CCT-4

v$&ojr^ The above systems include all necessary cabling, assembly, testing, minimum 20 hour burn-in,

™ and the CCT unconditional 12 month direct warranty.

CCT-M512 CCT introduces it's 512K static RAM board. IEEE Standard 12MHz. 512K in one slot! Introductory Price: $1,899

CCT-M256 256K version of M512 upgradeable to full 512K. Perfect 256K RAM board for any CompuPro system $979

CUSTOM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY / BOX 4160 / SED0NA, ARIZONA 86340

TOLL FREE ORDERING: 800-222-8686 / For technical support / service: 602-282-6299

WE LOCALLY DEVELOP& MANUFACTURE

SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES

WITH ONE YEAR WARRANTY& PROMPT LOCAL SERVICE

SW40W

SW70W

SW80W

SW138 (XT200W)

CONN.

SW150

S3& S4

R1 & R1A

ITEM

-12V

±16V WxDxHin.

TERMINALS

PRICE

SW40W TERM. & 2 ALPS DRIVES 2TJA 2/2.5A pk.

SW70W APPLE M", II + 7A ,3A 2.5/3.5A pk.

SW80W PC WITH SOFT DRIVES 8A .3A 3/4A pk.

SW138 IBM PC-XT" P/S RPLCMNT. 15A 1.0A 4/6A pk.

XT200W XT W/2 HARD DISKS 20A 1.0A 7/9A pk.

3A.3A.3A

1.0A1.0A

6.3 x 3.9 x 1.99.6x4x2.4

7.4 x 4.5 x 2.3

9.5 x 5.6 x 4.6SAME AS SW138

MOLEX5051MOLEX 126-P1

MOLEX2139MOLEX. AMP.MOLEX, AMP.

$ 49.95

59.95

74.95

129.95

189.95

S3

S4

R1RlA

c64

SPECS. OF ABOVE SWITCHERS: 117/220 VAC SELECTABLE, INPUT 90-132 VAC/180-275 VAC, EFFIC 75% TYPICAL, LINE REGUL. 0.3%, LOADREGUL. 1% ON +5V. 5% ON OTHER VOLTAGES, 6.2 OVP SETTING ON +5V, OVERLOAD & SHORT CIRCUIT PROTECT, LOW OUTPUT RIPPLE &NOISE, 1% MAX, 50,000 HRS. MTBF RELIABILITY, UL, FCC & VDE SAFETY & NOISE STANDARDS.

FOR S-100, 10 SLOTS 5A 1A * - 5/7A pk. 12A 3A 10x6x5 SOLDER POST $105.95

FOR S-100, 6 SLOTS 4A 1A * - 4/5A pk. 8A 2.5A 8.4x5x4.8 SOLDER POST 89.95

2 FLOPPY DRIVES 3A 5A * - 3/4A pk. - 8 x 4 x 3.4 SOLDER POST 44.95

APPLE II PC" 3A ,5A 3/4A pk. .5A 8x4x3.4 SOLDER POST 46.95

COMPATIBLE TO COMMODORE C64 (OR C + 4)" POWER SUPPLY: +5V/1.7A, 9 VAC/1A & 117 VAC IN, POTTED, U/L & CSA. 19.95

S299.95 & UPS-200W @ $399.95 EA.

*: +24V CAN BE CHANGED TO + 12V BY FACTORY. PLEASE SPECIFY WHEN YOU ORDER.

THE ABOVE 5 LINEAR P/S ARE WITH 3% LOAD REGUL., OVP ON +5V, FUSED: INPUT & OUTPUTS.

UNINTERRUPTIBLE A. C.POWER SUPPLY: UPS-90W,

SAVES YOU FROM LOSING DATA DURING AC POWER LINEFAILURES OR TRANSIENT OVER VOLTAGES CAUSED BY OFFICEEQUIPMENT, HOME APPLIANCES. LIGHTNING, ETC.. SPECS:CUT-IN VOLTAGE, 102V; TRANSFER BACK TO LINE, 106V; BAT-TERY BACKUP IN 4 MS TYPICAL, OUTPUT VOLTAGE 102-132VSTEPPED SINE WAVEFORM, BATTERY OPERATING PERIOD; 5MIN. AT FULL LOAD & 15 MIN. AT HALF LOAD, EXTERNAL 12VBATTERY TERMINALS, ALARM ALERT, FULL PROTECTIONSONE-YEAR WARRANTY UPS-90W IDEAL FOR APPLES PC WITHMONITOR; UPS 200W IDEAL FOR IBM PC/XT/AT WITH MONITOR

#*

SHIPPING $16.00 EA.SIZE 4H x 6W x9L

tCi

UPS-90W

•UPS-200W

JBl^' ^

SHIPPING:

FOR EA. POWER SUPPLY: $6.00 IN CALIF;$8.00 IN OTHER STATES; $18.00 IN CANADA.FOR EA. TRANSFORMER: $6.00 IN ALLSTATES; $12.00 IN CANADA. CALIF.RESIDENTS ADD 6.5% SALES TAX.

IBM PC/PC XT'. APPLE ll/lll" & COMMODORE C64/C + 4" ARE TRADEMARKS OF IBM CORP, APPLE COMPUTER INC. & COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES, RESPECTIVELY.

MAILING ADDRESS:P.O. BOX 4296TORRANCE, CA 90510

TELEX. 182558

SUNNY INTERNATIONAL

IN BUSINESS SINCE 1975(213) 328-2425 MON-FRI 8:30-5:30

SHIPPING ADDRESS:22129V2 S. VERMONT AVE.TORRANCE, CA 90502

482 BYTE- IUNE I985

Inquiry 393

TOLL-FREE

ORDERING:

800-222-8686

FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT/

SERVICE / IN ARIZONA:

602-282-6299

CCT

CUSTOM COMPUTERTECHNOLOGY

1 CCT PLAZA — P.O. BOX 4160 — SEDONA, ARIZONA 86340

Purchase your Hardware and Software directly from an OEM / Systems Integrator. Take advantage of our buying power! We stock afull line of Board Level Components, Software and Peripherals. Call for your needs. We'll give you the Lowest Prices, and the TechnicalSupport and Know-How we are quickly becoming well-known for. Satisfied Customers Nationwide. The Nation's Custom Systems Housefor Business, Education and Science. Call for a system quote. CCT implements tomorrow's technology today!

FOREMOST QUALITY • ADVANCED SUPPORT • REASONABLE COST •

CCT

©

(Q

ompuPro

80286 NOW!

□ CCT-286Z is our model designationfor the MI-286 dual processor boardfromMacrotech. It features the superhigh speed combination of Z-80H and80286, with provision for the 80287math chip. Directly replaces 8085/88and 8086 CPUs running CP/M, MP/MConcurrent DOS, and MS-DOS, atthroughput increases of 3X to 5X!SPECIAL PRICE $99580287 Option - Installed - $250

SEE THE CCT-4 SERIES

USING THIS BOARD

DETAILED ON THE FACING PAGE

NEW-TRUE

IBM PC INTERFACE

ULTRA HI-RES GRAPHICS!

CCT S-100/PC is a break-through for theScience/Business user Mini-enclosure ac-cepts PC & compatable boards and direct-ly connects to your S-100 system, runningPC-DOS or Concurrent DOS. Hercules™Graphics System—Coming this May!!! THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!!

LIBERTY TERMINALS

• Superior Reliability •

110-14"GREEN-80/132Column .... $499

110-14" AMBER $519

200-14" GREEN-80/132 Super Deluxe $569200-14" AMBER $589

OKIDATA PRINTERS - Top Quality82 - 80 Col. . $329 83 -132 Col. . $61992 - 80 Col . $429 93 -132 Col. .. $65984 -132 Col/200cps—Top of the Line $799

For Serial Interfaces — Add $100

TOSHIBA P351 - 288 CPS/24 PIN - $1499

DIABLO — Letter Quality SeriesModel 620 $969 Model 630 $1799

WE HAVE ALL SOFTWARE-CALL

$ ACROSS THE BOARD PRICE REDUCTIONS $

INDUSTRIAL GRADESUPERIOR QUALITY

CCT DISK DRIVE SYSTEMS

S-100 HARD DISK SUBSYSTEMS

ROLLS R0YCES OFTHE INDUSTRY

Professionally engineered ST-506 type systems for the business market S-100 Computer user. In-cludes industry top quality drives, CompuPro Disk 3 DMA controller, all cabling, A&T, formatted,burned-in. Provisionsfor up to two hard disks in each system. We include operating system update.CP/M 80, CP/M 86, CP/M 8-16, MP/M 8-16, CP/M 68K. (/1 Systems are CCT innovated hard/floppycombinations, 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) (New) $3699

CCT-90 (87 + MEG) (New) $4909

CCT-125(123 + MEG) (New) $6099

NEW

CCT-10/1 $2049

CCT-20/1 $2569

CCT^O/1 $3049

CCT-60/1 $4249

CCT-90/1 $5459

CCT-125/1 $6649

10 MEG REMOVABLE CARTRIDGE DRIVE SYSTEM

for hard disk back-up — DMA using Disk 3 controller.Super fast/Ultra reliable — Available April

CCT-2.4 • Dual 8" DSDD FL0PPY SYSTEMS CCT.5 . 5y4» DSDD

Mitusbishi 2.4 Megabyte in Extra Heavy horizontal enclosure, IBM Compatible Tandon 320K. Extra Heavy Cabinetremoveable filter airsystem, all cabling, A&T, Burned in. The accommodatestwodrives. hard orfloppy. All cabling, A&T,

fastest system available: $1229 Burned-in. Perfect for our PC-DOS Package . . $399

CCT-8/5 • FULL IBM C0MPATABILITY

One Mitsubishi 8" DSDD (1.2 Meg)/One 5-'A " DSDD (360K) IBM Drive

Both 3ms step rate — For Concurrent DOS and PC DOS $1029

• SUPERPRICES • COMPUPRO COMPONENTS* INST0CK *

CPU-Z-$229 • Disk 1A - $399 • Disk 1A w/CP/M - $499 • CPU 8086/10 - $359 • SPU-Z-?

CPU 8085/88 - $229 • CPU 286 $849 • CPU 68K - 10Mhz - $359

PC Graphics-$399 • Disk 3-$459 • RAM 22 (256K) - $1179 • RAM23/64K-$309/128K-$579

MEW - M-Drive/H - 512K - $599 / 2 Meg - $2099

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/M86(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 $729 n CP/M 8-16 - Kit - $753

CCT-1 - ENTRY LEVEL S-100 BUSINESS SYSTEM

• Enclosure 2-Desk-21 Slot Mainframe <' CPU 8085/88 - 6Mhz 8085/8Mhz 8088 •

• 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" MitsubishiDSDD 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

$3,375

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 testedand 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 ComputerTechnology

Inquiry 125

IUNE I985 'BYTE 483

100% GUARANTEED ICs - MONEY BACK!

1-800-245-2235 r

SPECIALS*

14164 250ns .751

14164 200ns I

9/11.50

141256 150ns

7.50

MISCELLANEOUS

DS0026

AY5 1013

AY3 1015

MC1408

PR1472

MC1488

MC1489

TR1602

AD1691

FD1771

F01791

F01795

F01797

BR194!

WD2143

SY2158

XR22XX

INS2651

COM2661

CA3XXX

D3232

D3242

MC3470

MC4024

MC4044

LF412

CRT5027

CRT5037

TMS5501

IM6402

D7201

SN754XX

SN76477

SN76489

0765

Z8001

8031

8035

8039

8050

8060

8080A

8085

8086

80873

8088

COM8116

DM8131

DM8136

1 501.501.501.0020050502005.2565010 00100010 002505751 751 004004 00501004.001 502002003005.0050012.002004.50.252.003.504007.505002.002002002.0015020040099007505002254.00

8155

81C55

8185

8202

8216

8224

8228

8237

8238

8243

(!250

8251

8253

8254

8255

8257

8259

8272

8273

8274

8275

8276

8279

8281

8283

8284

8288

8291

8292

DP8303

8304

MC8501

MC8504

DM8556

8741

8748

8755

88XX

8TXX

8X300

AY38910

AY3-8912

AY5-9200

FDC9229

9517

9602

96L02

96LS02

96S02

2.00

3 257 00

14.00

1 00300300300250150

4 002.002.006 00

2 00200200400

10 009 009 00

15 00

3 50750

5 50200

4 00

20 00

21 00300175

15.00

200

300

1000

10.00

1900

50

50

600

200

200

275

4.00

3 00

75

1 50

1.50

1 50

ADC/DAC

ADC08XX

OAC08XX

DAC08

DAC80

1408

3.501.501.008.001.50

That's rlghtl . . . 100% money-back guaranteed ICs at prices neverbefore posslblel Krueger Technology's unique patented IC removal pro-cess Is the key to our ability to sell so low. The fact Is, It costs less toretrieve and refurbish an IC from an obsolete PC board than manufac-ture a new one. Since we maintain an Inventory In excess of six millionICs and process over 100,000 ICs per day (over thirty million In the pastten years) we can supply you with most. If not all of your IC needs.

Until this year our vast Inventory of ICs was available to onlymanufacturers and distributors. The phenomenal growth of thecatalog market has allowed us to open our Inventory to you. You cannow buy direct and cut out all middlemen.

Call today and discover what seven of the ten largest computermanufacturers already know . . . The Krueger Alternative". Don'tforget, you get an additional 30% discount on orders over $5001

DYNAMIC RAMS

64K

150ns

1.50

64K

200ns

1.35

32K

(4332)

3.00

16K

120ns

1.00

16K

150ns

.75

16K

200ns

.50

16K

250ns

.35

STATIC RAMS

16Kx4.8Kx8)4Kx4. 2Kx8)

64K

(64Kxl

16K

(16Kxl

8K

2147.2148.2149

2114,4044,5257

ECLRAMS.93XXX

ALL OTHERS

2002.00200.503001 00

SPECIALS*

27128 450ns 5.001|Z80ASI0/0 3.75FDC1793 5.00

I68000G8 18.00

74 SERIES

74XX .25 74SXX .35

741XX 35 74S1XX .45

742XX .50 74S2XX .60

743XX 50 74S3XX .60

D/\OiL DISCOUNT ON

D\J /O $500 ORDERS

EPROMS

27128

27128

2764

2764

2764

68766

68764

2732

2732

2732

2716

2716

2716

2708

68708

300ns250ns450ns300ns250ns

450ns300ns250ns650ns450ns350ns

CMOS

6.00*

7.00*

250

3.00

3.50

6.00

6.00

2.50

3.00

350

1.35

2.00

2.25

200

400

ANY 4000 SERIESANY 4500 SERIES

ANY 10K LOGICANY 100K LOGIC

Z80 SERIES

2.5 MHZ

CPU.CTC, PIO 100

DMA, DART, SIO 3.00

4.0 MHZ (A)

CPU.CTC, PIO 2.00

DMA, DART, SIO 4.50

6.0 MHZ (B)

CPU.CTC, PIO 3.00

DMA, DART, SIO 9.00

TMS 9900 SERIES

ALL OTHER 99XX3.00

30% Discount does not apply

74LSXX 25

74LS1XX .35

74LS2XX 50

74LS3XX .50

74FXX 35

74F1XX .45

74F2XX .60

74F3XX .60

74ALSXX 35

74ALS1XX .45

74ALS2XX .60

74ALS3XX 60

74HCXX 35

74HC1XX 45

74HC2XX .60

74HC3XX .60

74HCTXX .35

74HCT1XX 45

74HCT2XX .60

74HCT3XX 60

6500/6800 SERIES

ANY65XX 2.00

ANY65XXA 2.50

ANY65XXB 3.00

ANY68XX 2 00

ANY68AXX 2.50

ANY688XX 3.00

6810 75

OUR POLICY

Delivery; Orders normally shipped within2 business days Add S3 for UPS ground-S#& under Add $4 for UPS t)iue (air), 2# &under, for eacti additional air pound addSI Arizona residents add 6% sales tax

Payment Visa, MC, cashiers check, cer-tified check, money order, persona) check

accepted (Allow to days for personalchecks to clear) No surcharge on creditcard orders CODs welcome with cash, cer-tified check, cashiers check or money orderAdd S3 COD handling charge

Pricing: Minimum order S20 30% dis-count on orders over $500 Prices subjectto change without notice All items limitedto stock on hand

We reserve the nght to limit quantities

KRUEGER Technology, Inc

2219 South 48th Street • Tempe, AZ 85282

800-245-2235

In Arizona 602-438-1570

HOURS: 7a.m.-5:30p.m.(MOUNTAIN TIME)

Monday Thru Friday

484 BYTE- JUNE 1985

Inquiry 238

TM

ESTABLISHED 1877

Computer Systems

Please call w/ your System Requirements so that we mayquote the configuration that best fits your needs.ADVANCED DIGITAL Call lor Custom ConfigurationsCOMPUPRO 816/C-H40 w 5'k" x 8" FLPYS $6,795COMPUPRO 816/10-H40 wl Two 5'/<" FLPYS $5,395CALL FOR OTHER SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONSCROMEMCO 10MHz 68000 UNIX-5 SystemsCS-100H50X20E 2Mb ECC RAM 50Mb H.D. $13,849CS-300H50X20E 2Mb ECC RAM 50Mb H.D-CanExpand To 16 Users w 16Mb ECC RAM $16,295

INTERCONTINENTAL MICRO SYSTEMS 12 User Hi-Speed 16 Bit System. Includes 1Mb Automatic CacheBuffer. Dual 8" Floppies. 25Mb Fixed and 25MbRemovable Hard Disk (Complete Back-Up in 5-10 Min.)256K Ram Per User, Turbodos 1.41, NewWord WordProcessor, w Spelling Checker & Merge Print $19,095MORROW PIVOT 256K RAM. PC-Compatible. Back-LitScreen. Dual 5'/." DSDD DRVS, Modem, MS-DOS,NewWord. Etc. Etc. CALL

MORROW PIVOT 640K RAM CALL

MORROW MD3. MOTTO Terminal 4 HR15-XL Printerand all Bundled Software $1,845

MORROW M05, MOTTO Terminal & HR15-XL Printerand all Bundled Software $2,025

MORROW MD11. MOTTO Terminal & HR35-XL Printerand all Bundled Software $2,979

MOTOROLA 16 User MEGAFRAME with ParallelProcessing. UNIX System 5 & VAX 750 PWR CALLZENITH 150-PC COMPATIBLE SEEPAGE-

298

S-100 Bus Boards

If you purchased before calling us. you probably paidtoo much' Westock ACKERMAN DIGITAL, ADVANCEDDIGITAL, CCS, COMPUPRO/VIASYN, CROMEMCO,ELECTROLOGICS, HUDSON, INTERCONTINENTALMICRO SYSTEM, KONAN, MORROW. MULLENCOMPUTER, NORTH STAR, PICKLES a TROUT,SYNTECH DATA, TARBELL, TECMAR, TRANSENOA Few Of This Month's SPECIALS Are:COMPUPRO/VIASYN RAM 23, 128K STATIC $495COMPUPRO/VIASYN RAM 22, 256K STATIC $1,080COMPUPRO/VIASYN PC-VIDEO BOARD $395

ELECTROLOQIC S4K CMOS STATIC RAM BD. $175ELECTROLOGIC QUASl-DISK 2Mb RAM-DISK $99$SYNTECH DATA SYS. XRAM-IV EDC 256K $1,298

PC-Slave Boards

ADVANCED DIGITAL PC-SLAVE W/256K, 8 MHz 8088CPU, 2 S Ports. RTNX S/W-For Multi-User PC $750

PC-Multlfunctlon Boards

We Have a Good Selection of Multifunction and MemoryBoards for PC. XT, AT. JR, AT&T, and PC Portables.STB RIO PLUS IIIPC & XT 384K $369

STB BIG BYTE 384K $269

STB GRANDE BYTE!PC-AT 2.5Mb $1,419

STB RIO GRANDEIPC-AT 1.5Mb, 2 S, P, & G $1,095TECMAR CAPTAIN 384K w/Treasure Chest $259

TECMAR JR. CAPTAIN 128K w/Treasure Chest $269TECMAR RGB Long Persist Phos. 640x480 $525

TECMAR WAVE 256K Fits XT Short Slot $219

TECMAR MAESTRO 2.5Mb $875

TECMAR EXPANSION CHASSIS W/8 Slots $849

TECMAR DYNAMIC MEMORY 256K $99

PC-Video/Graphics Boards

STB GRAPHICS PLUS II w/ Paral. PRT Port $289

STB MONO PLUS II w/ Paral. PRT. Port $169

STB SUPER RES 400 16 Color Hi-Res $399

TECMAR GRAPHICS MASTER 16 Color Hi-Res $439TECMAR GRAPHICS TENDER RGB/PRT. PORT $195

PC-Sclentiflc/lndustrial Boards

TECMAR IEEE-488 Board $259

TECMAR DADIO D to A Up to 24 Devices $259TECMAR WDEO VAN GOGH with Software to Digitize

TV Images $275

TECMAR E*EEPROM PROGRAMMER/READER $309

TECMAR E'EEPROM EXPANSION 192K Ext. $375

TECMAR E+EEPROM SOFTWARE $59

TECMAR BASE BOARD 96 Digital I/O Lines $225

TECMAR LABMASTER w/ TM40 Option $665

PC-Data Security

WESTERN DIGITAL WD200 w/ Incrypt-Decrypt S/W -Absolute Security For Stored or Transmitted Files. CanBe User Transparent & Automatic. $139

S-100 DIV./696 CORP.

14455 NORTH 79th ST.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85260

Inquiry 359 for End-Users.Inquiry 360 for DEALERS ONLY.

Floppy Disc Drives

TANDON 100-2 A $125

SANYO BF5-540D $99.95

TEAC FD55B 4 MITSUBISHI 4851 $99.95

MITSUBISHI 2896, OUME 242. TANDON 842-E $369MITSUBISHI 2894 & OUME 842 STD. 8" $395

Hard Disc Subsystems

Using AMCODYNE, MAXTOR, MITSUBISHI,QUANTUM a RODIME Drives. SEE PAGE Si!

SALES 800-528-3138

CUST. SERVICE/TECH. 602-991-7870TELEX 9103806778 SONEHUND

Chips

We Have Some ol the LOWEST PRICES in the Nation!!INTEL 8087, 8028T MA TH CO-PROC. CALL

64K and 256K RAM CHIPS CALL

Modems

PROMETHEUS PROMODEM 1200 Hayes Compatiblew/ Built-in PWR Supply-RS232 Stand Alone Unit $295OPtlONS FOR PROMODEM 1200 ARE:OPTION: PROCESSOR $75

OPTION: 64K MEMORY $35

OPTION: ALPHANUMERIC DISPLAY $79

PROMETHEUS 1200A Apple II. II+. lie Card w/TerminalSoftware in ROM $295

PROMETHEUS 1200B Card for PC Compatibles withProcom Software $265

PROMETHEUS 1200M Stand Alone MAC Modem withCable and Communications Software $348

U.S. ROBOTICS PASSWORD 1200 $235

U.S. ROBOTICS AUTO DIAL 212A CALL

U.S. ROBOTICS S-W0 BOARD 300/1200 $295

U.S. ROBOTICS PC MODEM W Telpac Software $249U.S. ROBOTICS PC MULTIFUNCTION MODEM withClock-Cal Battery Back-Up. Printer Port, 84K-256KRAM, Telpac Software $459

U.S. ROBOTICS COURIER 2400 Baud Modem $499HAYES SMART MODEM 1200. RS-232 $449

HAYES SMART MODEM 2400. Universal $869

Monitors & Terminals

AMDEK 300GI300A $129/$139

AMDEK 310 AMBER For PC w/ 3 Yr. Warranty $159AMDEK T10 Ultra Hi-Res RGB Color $595

TATUNG CM-1322 640X400 RGB Monitor - SAMEASTHEY MAKE FOR IBM $395

TATUNG CM-1360 RGB w GRN./AMB Switch $419TATUNG CM-1370 720X480 31.5KHz Scan RGBMonitor with Green Switch $499

TAXAN MONITORS CmM for Low Price*

TECMAR 640X480 RGB w Green Switch $519

ZENITH ZVM122A AMBER Non-Glare $89

ZENITH ZVM123A GREEN Non-Glare $85

ZENITH ZVM135 HI-RES RGB w/ Green Switch $459LIBERTY TERMINALS w Variable Scrolling. Green,Amber, 14", DEC Compatibility Extra Pages of Memory,and Graphics Options in Stock at Unbeatable PricesTATUNG TVT-T210 Terminal 14'GRN. EMUL TVI924 4LSI ADM31 w/ Prog Keys & ERGO Design $569

TATUNG TVT-T220 Same Features But DEC VT220,100& 50 Compatible $599

WYSE 50 / 75 TERMINALS In Stock $489/$649

ZENITH Z29/Z49 TERMINALS $649/$895

Printers & Plotters

EPSON LX80, RX100*. FX80*. FX100*. LQ1500 CALLOKIDATA Mew 182 Quiet 120 CPS & 60 CPS $249

We Also Stock OKIDATA 92, 93 & AccessoriesCOMREX 425 420 CPS DATA to 107CPS NLQ CALLBROTHER HR-15-XL 17CPS Daisywheel S or P $365BROTHER HR-35 36 CPS Daisywheel S or P $649

BROTHER HR-10 12CPS Daisy w/ TRAC , SAP $299BROTHER 2024L 24 PIN TOSHIBA TYPE PRT. $935BROTHER M1009 50CPS Dot Matrix 6.6 Lbs. $195

BROTHER Tractor 6 Cut-Sheet Feeders CALL

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 800 SERIES CALL

NEC DATASOUTH DIABLO Available Upon RequestHOUSTON INST. PLOTTERS S, DIGITIZERS CALL

Printer Buffers

JOHNATHON FREEMAN UPB 64K FORMERLY TTXin and/or Out Serial and/or Parallel $169

PRACTICAL PERIPH. MICROBUFFER 64K CALL

Testing Devices & Software

DATACOM TRI-STATE RS232 V.24 Breakout $175RID-DYMEK FLPY DRV DIAGNOSTIC DISKETTE $25FLUKE TT DVM w Holster $119

Networking & Switch Boxes

STANDARD DATA STANDARD NET LAN for PCsIncludes Manual 10' Cable 4 Board $598 ea.

INTERCONT. MICRO SYS LAN-PC w/o RAM $469INTERCONT. MICRO SYSTEMS LANS-100 $359

COMPUPRO/VIASYN NET 11 For 816/10 Sys. $425COMPUPRO/VIASYN NET 101-96 For S-100 Bus $425GILTRONIX MANUAL AND AUTOMATIC SWITCHINGUNITS to Fit all of Your SHARED Printer. Terminal.Modem and Other Peripheral Needs. From $79

Software

We Have Access to all Well Known Brands - ORDERCORRECTLY - SOFTWARE IS NOT RETURNABLE!

Accounting

REAL WORLD GL, AP, AR, PR, OE, INV, SASTAR SOFTS Accounting Partner CP/M80

$425

$235

Spreadsheets & Integrated Pkgs.

ASHTON-TATE Framework CALL

MICROSOFT Multiplan $129

MDBS Knowledgeman $319

SORCIM Supercalc-3 Better Than 1-2-3111 $209

Operating Systems & Utilities

DIGITAL RESEARCH Complete Line up to 35% OffCOMPUPRO/VIASYN CPM at Affordable PricesCENTRAL POINT SOFTWARE Copy II PC $35

CROMEMCO COMPLETE LINE at GOOD ECONOMIES

Languages And Tools

DIGITAL RESEARCH Most Products in Stock CALLMICROSOFT Complete Line CALL

BO SOFTWARE "C Compter 8" SS SD $95

LATTICE "C" Compiler (Ask About Options) $299COMPUTER INNOVATIONS C-86 "C Compiler $299COMPUVIEW Vedit-ae/Vedlt-MSDOS $150/$120

Data Base Managers

DATA ACCESS Dataflex Multi-UserASHTON-TATE dBaae IIS, III

Graphics And CAD

. BEST PRICE

$275/$385

VECTRlX Graphics Systems Utilize 9 Bit Planes andhave384K RAM to Operate Independently of HostVideoController and RAM Memory

VECTRlX VX/PCA BD. SET - 512 Colors $1,995

VECTRlX VX384A Stand Alone RS232 Co-proc $3,395VECTRlX VX1301 13" RGB Analog Monitor $1,295VECTRlX VX/PCB 512 $2495

VECTRlX VXTB 11 "X11" Graphics Tablet $895

DIGITAL RESEARCH DR. GRAPH AND DRAW $189MICROPRO CHARTSTAR

Communications

MYCROFT LABS MITE AND MITE PLUS From $79MICROSTUF CROSS TALK XVI $98

Word Processors

NEWSTAR NEWWORD w/ Money Back Guar $95

MICROPRO PROPAK 8" CP/M86 $239

OASIS THE WORD PLUS Spelling Checker $49

Power Solutions

SOLA MINI UPS 750 Watt Sine Wave HIGH INRUSH(4500 Watt) CALL

TRIPPLITE LC-1800 Conditioner/Stabilizer $215

TRIPPLITE BC-425-FC 425 Watts 1&-20 Minutes $449TRIPPLITE SB-400 Wart w/ 30 Min. Back-Up $459

TRIPPLITE ISOBAR Line Suppressor-Filters Irom $40

Mainframe & Drive Enclosures

INTEGRAND 2915 - 2 5'/." Winchester DRVS $144

INTEGRAND 1100 7 Slots and 2 X 8" Drives $475

PARA DYNAMICS 2810 MINI-PRONTO $796PARA DYNAMICS 3820S PRONTO $1,150

PARA DYNAMICS 4500D To 4 Sequenced H.D. $675

MESA POWER SYSTEMS 5401 5%" Hard Disk $209

MICROWARE 511001 Dual Hor. '/i Ht. 5'/." FIPY $75

Diskettes & Cartridges

DYSAN Hard Dish Cartridges 5%" & 8" $99/$145

DYSAN DISKETTES Low Prices From $19.50

FUJI FILM FLOPPY DISKS Low Prices From $16403M TAPE CARTRIDGES 300XL & 600A in Stock$29.95.

FULL DEALER SUPPORT

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM

HRS. 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM M-F

AM merchandise new. Advertised prices are cash prepaid only. M C, Visa &P.O's from qualified firms - add 3%, Wires, COD'S ($5 min, tee) withCashiers Oeck/MO. 6 APO't accepted. Shipping: minimum $4 first 3 lbsTax: AZ RES ONLY add 6*c sales las. All relurns sub|ect to 20% restockingfee. Retail prices slightly higher.

Q) ->**88S8S (Q

~ m

'COMPUTER ENGINEERING"- July 1977 Byte Cover

One of the truly classic Byte covers—and boy, does it look great on aT-shirt! The vivid colors really jumpout. But don't mistake this for one ofthose rubbery patches that crackand peel off after a few washings.This is true four-color process: theinks are silk-screened into the fabricof the shirt, resulting in a beautiful,full-color image that lasts.

You'll also appreciate the shirt itself:a real heavyweight made of 50%cotton, 50% polyester. You'll enjoycotton comfort in a tough shirt thatkeeps its crisp, fresh look throughmany washings—with almost noshrinking! The price for each ByteClassic T-Shirt is only $9.50 ($8.50each for 3 or more). Your order willbe shipped within a week.

Please send me the following T-shlrt(s) at$9.50 each, or $8.50 each for 3 or more. I haveincluded $2.00 for shipping and handling.

Qty.

Size

_ Adult—Extra Large

_ Adult—Large

- Adult—Medium

_ Adult—Small

_ Child—(sizes 10-12)Shipping and Handling(Overseas add $3.00)

Amount

$

$

$

$

$

$200$

TOTAL $

□ I have enclosed check or money order.

D VISA □ MasterCard Q Send Dealer Info.

Card*: ,

Exp. Date:

Ship my T-Shirt(s) to:

Name:

(Business):

Address:

City:

State:

Mail this coupon to:

Robert Tinney Graphics

1864 North Pamela Dr.Baton Rouge, Louisiana70815

-Zip:

486 BYTE • IUNE I985

SINCE

Computer Discount Products

Monthly Mail-Order ListingFor Apple, IBM & Macintosh Users

Retail Showrooms In California:San Jose • San Mateo • San Francisco

UTILITIES &ENHANCEMENTS

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

Ap

IBM

IBM

IBM

IBM

IBM

IBM

IBM

IBM

Ap/IBM

Ap/IBM

BEAGLE D/Code/GPLE

Dos Boss

FalCatEASTSIDEWikfcaid2VIDEX Enhancer II

Function Strip

Hardswrtch

PSIO

Soft Video Switch

Ultratefm

VKteotermw/Softsw.GET ORGANIZEDNORTON UTILITIESSIDEKICKSIDEWAYSOUADRAMOuadlink

PCjr Expans. Chassis

Quadsprint

Quadvue MonochromeBORLANDTurbo Pascal

Toolbox/TutorCopy II ■ PC MAC 25.99

ea29.9915.9921.99111.9999.9931.9914.99145.9925.99229.99175.99149.9955.9935.9939.99399.99549.99

35.99ea29.99

GRAPHICS

Ap BEAGLE Graphics 35.99

Ap Triple Dump 27.99

Ap BRODERBUND Dazzle Draw 44.99

Ap Graphics Library 19.99

Ap PnntShop 29.99

Ap FONTRIX 59.99

Ap PENGUIN Complete Graphics 49.99

Ap Graphics Magician 37.99

IBM FONTRIX 99.99THE NEWSROOM-Ap 39.99

APPLE PREBOOTS

AppleWriter 14.99

Apple Writer for Utoaterm 23.99

Visicalc 39.99

Expansion 66.99

Visicalc tor Uttraterm 54.99

Home & BusinessSOFTWARE

Ap ASCII Express 84.99

Ap CONTINENTAL Hm.Acct. 44.99

Ap Tax Advantage 39.99

Ap FINANCIAL COOKBOOK 39.99

Ap MONOGRAM Dollars/Sense lie 69.99

Ap Forecast 49.99

Ap PFSRept, File, Graph, Write ea79.99

IBM ASCII Express Pro 139.99

IBM ASHTON-TATE dBase II 289.99

IBM dBase Ill/Framework 389.99

IBM CONTINENTAL FCM 71.99

IBM Home Accountant t 84.99

IBM Tax Advantage 45.99

IBM LOTUS 1-2-3 299.99

IBM MONOGRAM Dollars & Sense 109.99

IBM PFSRept, File, Graph, Write ea89.99

Ap/IBM MICROSOFT MULTIPLAN 169.99

Mac CONTINENTAL Hm.Acct 63.99

Mac FILE VISION 139.99

Mac MICROSOFT Basic 94.99

Mac Chart 74.99

Mac File Multipart eat29.99

Mac MONOGRAM Dollars & Sense 94.99

Mac Forecast 59.99

Mac PFS File or Report M79.99

Mac FileANDReport 155.99

Mac THINKTANK128K 115.99

WORD PROCESSING

Ap BANKSTREETWrite/Spell ea43.99

Ap KENSINGTON Format II 99.99

Ap MICROPRO Wordstar 169.99

Ap Wordstar Pro w/CP-M 265.99

Ap SENSIBLE SPELLER 79.99

Ap SIERRA HomeWord 44.99

Ap Screenwriter II 89.99

IBM BANK STREET Writer 49.99

IBM LIFETREEVolkswriter Deluxe 159.99

IBM MICROSOFT Word w/Mouse 289.99

IBM MICROPRO Wordstar 2000 259.99

IBM Wordstar 2000 Plus 325.99

IBM Wordstar PCjr 149.99

DISKETTES - STORAGE & MORE

DYSAN5'//SS/DD

5'A'DS/DDMAXELL 5'/.'SS/DDVERBATIM 5VSS/DD

5%'DS/DD

3'/S"ForMACAMARAY 5%- Disk Bank System

SW* Disk Bank Singles

Media Mate 50-5Vi" Original

Media Mate 30-3'A'FLIP'nFILE50-5'//Original

50-5%-WftLock

24.9931.9918.9921.9927.9932.9922.994.9914.9911.9914.9925.99

LIBRARY CASE HoWs10PRINTER STAND-Regular

TiltedPRINTER STAND-Large

TiltedRIBBONS Epson MX/FX80

Epson MX/FX100

Oki 82,83,92,938 Gemini

1.9924.9929.99

29.9932.994.997.992.99

$CALL

For Diskette Case PRICING!!

w<?~

<fc

%v

J PRINTERS & MONITORS \

j TAXAN

EPSON X

1 #115 Green 12" - Apple

129.99

FX-80*160CPS 375.99 \

i #116Amber12"-Apple

139.99

FX-100+ 160 CPS-Wide Carriage 559.99 1

| #121 Green 12--IBM

149.99

LX-801 CO CPS - Near Letter Quality 249.99 j

li #122AmbeM2"-IBM

159.99

FINGERPRINT tor EPSON 44.99 I

JHI #220 Color Composite

289.99

PGS

—J #420 Hi-Res RGB 12"

399.99

J #425RGBWithAudio12'

459.99

HX-12Hi-ResRGB12- 459.99 \

s #440 Ultra Hi-Res 12"

599.99

MAX-12EAmber12- 179.99

~| #555 RGB Card For #440

299.99

SR-12SuperHi-ResRGB12' 599.99Scan Doubler 299.99 i

-| OKIDATA 92 m

459.99

USI Pi 4 &£ 99.99

■

I.. .. . «

EDUCATIONAL

Ap

BARONS SAT

59.99

Ap

CBS SAT

94.99

Ap

DLM Alien Add/Minus Mis.

ea21.99

Ap

Alligator/Dragon Mix

SS21.99

Ap

HLS Crossword Magic

39.99

Ap

LEARNING CO. Rocky Boots 31.99

Ap

Robot Odyssey

31.99

Ap

SPINNAKER Grandma

19.99

Ap

Kids On Keys/Kidwriter

ea19.99

Ap

Sum Ducks/Trains

ea24.99

Ap/IBM LEARNING CO. Add. Magic. 27.99

Ap/IBM

Magic Spell/Number Stump 25.99

Ap/IBM

Moptown/Reader Rabbit

ea25.99

Ap/IBM

SPINNAKER Facemaker

19.99

Ap/IBM

Presidents Choice

25.99

Ap/IBM

Snooper Troops

28.99

ENTERTAINMENT

Ap

CHAMPION Lode Runner

24.99

Ap

SIR TECH Knight ot Diamond 34.99

Ap

Wizardry

34.99

IBM

GATO

29.99

IBM

MASTERTYPE

32.99

IBM

SIR TECH Wizardry

44.99

Ap/IBM

BRODERBUND Lode Run

24.99

Ap/IBM

ELECTRONIC ARTS Archon 29.99

Ap/IBM

Pinball/MusiflSkylox

ea29.99

Ap/IBM

TLIGHT SIMULATOR

35.99

Ap/IBM

SARGON III

31.99

Ap/IBM

TRILLIUMRama/Fahrenheit 25.99

Ap/IBM

ULTIMA II or III

ea44.99

Ap/IBM WINDHAM Swiss Fam. Robin 18.99

Mac

BRODERBUND Lode Runner 27.99

Mac

MACFUNPAK

31.99

Mac

MAC VEGAS

47.99

Mac

SIERRA Frogoer

29.99

Mac

TRIVIA FEVER Vol. 2

19.99

INFOCOM - Ap, IBM & MAC

HitchhikerCutthroats

Seastalker ea,

27.99

HARDWARE

Ap

CDP16K Ram Card

39.99

Ap

Parallel Interface w/Cable

39.99

Ap

DAN PAYMAR Lower Case 1

25.99

Ap

Lower Case 2, Rev 7

19.99

Ap

EXTENDED 80 Col. Card-lie

129.99

Ap

JOYSTICK Kraft or TG

39.99

Ap

KENSINGTON System Saver

65.00

Ap

KOALA Touch Pad

75.99

Ap

MICRO-SCIA-2 Drive

195.99

Ap

MOCKINGBOARD Sound

79.99

Ap

Speech Chips

79.99

Ap

Sound AND Speech-He

145.99

Ap

Sound AND Speech-lie

145.99

Ap

ORANGE MICRO Grappler +

99.99

Ap

Buffered Grappler

159.99

Ap

THUNDERCLOCK

109.99

Ap

TITAN Accelerator lie

219.99

Ap

Neptune 64K

199.99

IBM

AST Six Pack Plus 64K

245.99

IBM

KENSINGTON PC Saver

29.99

IBM

Masterpiece

100.00

IBM

KOALA Touch Pad

89.99

IBM

PLANTRONICS Color + Board

375.99

IBM

QUADRAM512 + 64K

229.99

IBM

ERamSO

129.99

IBM

Microfazer8K-AIIConfig.

139.99

IBM

Quadboardlorll-NoK

219.99

IBM

Quadcolori

195.99

IBM

Quadcokx Upgrade to II

199.99

IBM

TEAC'/S Height Drive #55B

VIDEO 7

159.99

RGB 80/64 lie

189.99

Slot7RGBCardll+/e

109.99

RGB Adapter lie

149.99

Mappler Connector

39.99

MODEMS

HAYES 300 Baud

209.99

1200 Baud

474.99

1200BlorlBM

359.99

Micromodem lie

239.99

NOVATION Applecat II300 Bd.

198.99

Expansion Module

29.99

J Cat

104.99

x*3k

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ORDER# B-6

i Computer Discount Products ■

[V/TiTh lltWi

*%

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(408) 985-0400 from 8am pst inquiry >0i

Purchase Order Prices Differ - Call First • Prices Sub|ect To Change • Software Sales FinalPlease Allow Time For Personal Checks To Clear - * We Reserve The Right To Charge For Freight On Orders Less Than $100^k U.S. Mail - $10 Minimum Chg. • Hardware Shipping - $CALL

IBM AT 3MbCOMBO CARD

WITH LIFETIME WARRANTT

The AT Multifunction Card that can give you up to3Mb of added memory plus added 1 (> features.

F-Xpainiahle from 12SK to 5Mb Add memorv as vou need it. • IBM AT Compat-ible • Parallel Port • Serial Port « Spooler • Supports IBM VMSK • TierUpgradable ■ Paritv Checking Standard • Spin Memory AddressingComplete with I28K RAM. Serial and Parallel Port $449

AT RAM Expansion Card <0K) $129

Additional RAM available at our low prices OTHER ADD ONS J8ttRAM. Clock. 512* RAM Card. Spoolers. RAM Cards for PPCs and more

Apparotlnc.

ADO ON AND ON VJO ON AHO OH AND OH

■HOI So Tamarac Rufcnj Denver, CO 80237 J0J 741-1ORDERING ANT) DEALER INFORMATION800/525-"'674

Stores in Denver & Chicago *Oi. all cards soli! after June I,

'KING OF THE ELECTRONICS JUNGLE"

LEO ELECTRONICS, INC

P.O. Box 11307

Torrance. CA 90510-1307

Tel: 213/212-6133 800/421-9565

TLX: 291 985 LEO UR

FAX: 213/212-6106

MEMORY EXPANSION CHIPS

RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY

4164150ns .4164.200ns * ***

4i28-150ns |IBM/AT)

4l256-l50ns}256K

HM6116P-3

PRICE EACH190

■ at

13.657503.50

S14.40J1520

S60 00$28 00

SET OF 9

16 20

S122B5S 67 50

eproms price WE NOW CARRY:

2716 S 2.80 Disk drives. Power supplies

2732 S 3.50 384K Multifunction boards.

2764 S 4 50 Color/graphic boards, and

27128 S 7 00 more .

27256 S15.00 CALL FOR BROCHURE

Inquiry 31

Inquiry 246

DISKS

Ao Wl"j rfi SS/DD

LOWAS

Q

$

"low-end"

"Vid- by top USA Makers, notOur suppliers won't allow us to reveal theibut when you receive the* you'll recognize the* asdisks that sell for auch, Mich More' Certified,guardnteed 100X error free. H0HEY BACK SATISFACTION§UARAHT££' Full one year replacement warranty1MJD1D SS/DD +SLEFVF.S-H ABfl 10/84***, 500/79<*a•UD1N SS/DD NO SLEEVWLABEl 10O/70<ea, 1000/72^ea•UDZD DS/DD +SLEEVE*LABEL 10/*1.0<Jea,500/99OatUD2N DS/DD NO SLEEVE/LABEL 100/99*ea, 1000/95*ea

RFS

ZBOA .99

Z80A-PI0 1.50

Iflfl uPD765 9.99

100 2107 .50

2114

■ SO

2708

.77

2716 <5V)

.99

4116-200

.34

4164-150 1.44

8251 2.50

8255 2.50

50256 9.99

Pay by HC/Visa/Aaex, COD, or send check with order.W* charge std UPS/Postal shipping, no handlingcharge. On ALL orders, include daytiae phone nuaberand STREET address, rhniaua order tlS.

Honey-back 30 day satisfaction guarantee1

#^1800)343-0472

|5ft|]S§(SJ§i20B HURLEY ST. CAMBRIDGE, MA 02141

HI MBSS:[ei7)"UNl-TECH"

Stfid for FREE CATALOG listi

Inquiry 412

5V*" FLOPPYMOTORS

Now BuehlerOEM replace-ment spindle motors for allmajor 51/4-inch, full-heightfloppy disk drives areavailable for fast delivery.Built to exact OEM size, per-formance and quality stan-dards. Pulleys included.

For details and prices,contact:

Buehler Services. Inc.PO. Box A. Hwy 70-EKinston, NC 28501Phone: 919/522-4300

RAMMemory Expansion Kit

4264/4164 CompatibleFits Major PC Brands

FACTORY DIRECTHIGHEST QUALITY!

MICRON DRAMS

LIST

OUR PRICE!

9 64K DRAMS9 128K DRAMs9 256K DRAMs

$ 25.S3 59.$369.

$ 20.$125.

$149.

150 ns Access Time

lullCRON Marketing Department"hXogY,™ 2805 E. Columbia Rd.Boise. Idaho 83706

(208)386-3900 TWX 901-970-5973

IMMEDIATE SHIPPING!

VISA. MasterCard, Certified Check.COD & Money Orders

Sureits insured?

SAFF.WARE8 Insurance provides fullreplacement 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:

1800848-3469

In Ohio cull 1-614-262-0559

SAFEWARE, The Insurance .Agency Inc

Inquiry 282

Inquiry 362

VTAPE WORLD

MD-lMD-2FD-1FO-2MF 1MD2-H0

maxell.

It's Worth it

1-800-245-6000

© Dy§an

5V.". SS0D5".". DSDD8' SSDD8.DSOD3: r. MICRO5'.". DSHD

BASF

5'.. SSDDS»" DSDD

VERBATIM

5M"SSDD5V DSDD

I 19

1 992.693.29

2 994 99

1.34

1 54

UK

2 )•!

104,'ID 5W. SSDD

104/2D 5'.", DSDD

3740/1D 8 SSDD

3740 2D 8 DSDD

MEMOREX

5'VSS0D5'.' DSDD

SCOTCH

5'. SSDDW DSDD

ELEPHANT

5K"SSDDSH" DSDD

'

1892.69269U9

1 69

[99

1491.99

1.S9

2 19

WE WILL BEAT ANY PRICE BY 3%

Factory Sealed. Shipping 3.75 any size order.

Pre-paid. COD. or credit card COD add 1.95

SCHOOLS & GOVT. ON PO

Also. TDK. and Maxell audio and video cassettes.

220 SPRING ST. BOX 361 BUTLER, PA 16001

412-283-8621 M-Fri. 8:30-5:00

MicroprocessorSoftware Developmenti VAX or PDP-11.

You canfor 280. 8080. 8085, NCS800, and8086 using native mode compilers and assemblers

Use low-cost cross tools tor other micropro-cessors. Interface in-circuit emulators perfectly Youcan run Intel development tools under ISIS or UD1.

Our plug-in processor cards let vou run CP'M-80,CP/M-86, or MS-DOS from any terminal on yourVAX or PDP-11 system

Prices start at just $1295. Ask for our FREEcatalog of 350 development and cross development

tlKlls

n

3375 Scoil Blvd.. Suite 236Santa Clara. CA 95054®@glffi)®tfll®tul <408) 980-1678

a I Eqmpmrnl Corporal

Vi1 Verbatim

Data

Lll<

Diskettes

Lifet

me

WarrantyCatalog *

Box ot 10

5 •"5 ."5 V

SSDDDSDDDSQD

181581818818239

$1550S1995S28 50

Minimum Quantity 100Disk Drives

5 ." '. heightsTEAC 55B $119

Panasonic/Shugart $109

3V SS Shugart SA 300 $110 limited quantity

hfimtron

KT-7* Terminal

Compatible to Televideo" 925 $545Also carry complete line of computer products

MICROSCRIBE, INC.

3350 Scott Blvd , Bldg 15 Santa Clara. CA 95054Call M-F 8.00 - 5 00 (408) 748-1333

inquiry 400

Inquiry 135

Inquiry 284

Sav-On Computers 800-345-7100

ORDERS INSIDE CALIF - 213-675-2115

CUSTOMER SERVICE & TECHNICAL HELP - 213-675-2382

WE HAVE THE LOWEST PRICES IN BYTE - WE HAVE MOST ITEMS IN STOCKAND WE WILL BEAT ANY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME TERMS!

DISK DRIVES

TEAC 55B

Vz HIGH DRIVE

$95.00

55A55F

169.00CALL

DISK DRIVES

IBM CONTROLLER

HANDLES 4 DRIVES

$69.00

MANY MORE CALL

IBM

IBM PC$1549.00

W / 2 DR & 256K

COMPUTERS

SANYO 555-2

W/MON. & SOFTWARE

$1099.00

SANYO PARTS AVAIL.

MODEMS

HAYES 1200B

INTERNAL W/S.W.

$345.00

ALL HAYES AVAILABLE

PRINTERS

OKIDATA

FOR IBM

$345.00

HARD DISK

CAL PEK

10 MEG HARD DRIVE

W/CONTROLLER120 DAY WARRANTY

$729.00

DISK DRIVES

TANDON 100-2

FULL HEIGHT FOR PC

$109.00

101-4 CALL

DISK DRIVES

OTHER

DRIVES

AVAILABLE

CALL

IBM

TO PRINTER

$15.95

OTHER CABLESAVAILABLE CALL

COMPUTERS

COMPAQ PORT.

2 DRIVES & 256K

$1995.00

wow

MODEMS

ANCHORMARK XII

$219.00

ALL ANCHOR AVAILABLE

PRINTERS

JUKI

6100 (18cps)

$379.00

CALL FOR 6300AND TRACTORS

MONITORS

AMDEK

310A MONOCHROME

$165.00

DISK DRIVES

MPI

FULL HEIGHT FOR PC

$75.00

'/2 HIGH CALL

MEMORY64K $12.00128K $20.00

DEALERS CALL

IBM

MONO CARD

$219.00

CALL FOR MONITORSNOT LISTED BELOW

COMPUTERS

APPLEPRO SYSTEM

$1249.00

WHILE THEY LAST

MODEMS

VOLKS MODEM

$199.00

WHILE THEY LAST

PRINTERS

EPSON

FX80T

$379.00

CALL FOR LQ-80LOW LOW PRICE

MONITORS

PRINCETON

HX12

$439.00

SR-12/SCAN DOUBLERMAX-12 ALL AVAILABLE

DISK DRIVES

MICRO SCI

A2 FOR APPLE

$179.00

OTHERS CALL

IBM PC

CALL FORBEST PRICE

IBM PC

2 DRIVES & 256K

SAVON COLOR CARDAND AMBER MONITOR

$1699.00

COMPUTERS

APPLE MAC

1 DRIVE & 256K

$2095.00

FATMAC AVAILABLE

SOFTWARE

LOTUS1-2-3

$299.00

WHILE THEY LAST

PRINTERS

GEMINISG-10 $229.00SG-15 $379.00

COLOR CARD

HERCULES

COLORW/PARALLEL PORT

$179.00

MONO CARD $315.00

DISK DRIVES

RANA

DRIVE CONTROLLER

$85.00

RANA DRIVES CALL

IBM XT

$2095.00

BARE BONE

COMPUTERS

COMPAQDESK PRO 2

$2295.00

WITH MONITOR

COMPUTERS

CALL

FOR

OTHER

CPU's

SOFTWARE

SYMPHONY

$399.00

WHILE THEY LAST

PRINTERS

BROTHER

HR15XL

$389.00

EXPANSION CARD

DATA PLUS

256K EXP CARD

FOR PC / COMPATIBLES

$169.00

FINANCING AVAILABLE—with approved creditDEALERS: Open Accounts available, call tor applicationsTERMS: We accept VISA, MASTERCARD, COD's, and WireTransfers. UPS, Federal Express and Emery shipping available-California residents please add 61/2% sales tax to order. Pricesare subject to change without notice. Not resposible fortypographical errors-Inquiry 365

Sav-On Computers, inc.

12595 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250

OPEIY:7:30am till 6:00pm Monday-Friday and 9:00am till 2:00pm Saturday

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 489

IC.

PROMPT DELIVERY!!!

SAME DAY SHIPPING (USUALLY)

OUTSIDE OKLAHOMA: NO SALES TAX

DYNAMIC RAM

256K

256Kx1 150 ns

$ 5.00

128K

128Kx1 150 ns

10.99

64K

64Kxl 120 ns

2.10

64 K

64Kx1 150 nsEPROM

1.40

27C256

32KX8 250 ns

$20.99

27256

32Kx8 250 ns

13.95

27128

16Kx8 250 ns

448

27C64

8Kxe 200 ns

7.85

2764

8Kx8 250 ns

3.45

2732A

4Kx8 250 ns

395

2716

2Kx8 450 nsSTATIC RAM

2.95

6264LP-15 8Kx8 150 ns

$8 15

i 6116LP-3 2K*e 150 ns

2.50

MasterCard VISA ot UPS CASH COD n

Factory New, Prime Parts -uHco

MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITEDffiTCsSo7°"wr (918) 267-4961

DOS UTILITIES

Attrib" - set/reset file attributesCrypt - file encryptionDSort - sort directory filesFind* • find strings in filesLog - log computer usage for IRSMove" - rename across directoriesTree • disk/file usage statistics* supports DOS wildcards

SEE - Full screen editor:

supports optional microsoft mouse;block pick, put, cut, paste; search1000 wps; single & global replace;multiple windows & files; center,justify; spell check, correct 300 wpsfrom supplied + user dictionary;32000 lines/file, 32000 chars/line;Instruction course included

$49 for all 8 programs

$79 unprotectedVisa/MC - CA add 6% sales tax

California Scientific Software

25642 Hazelnut, El Toro, CA 92630(714) 581-7654

controls up

to 4 motors

from any CRT

terminal or

computer

STEPPINGMOTORCONTROLLER

• powerful 5 amps/ • accelerationwinding deceleration

• PS232 interface • 1-4 axis movesStandard Version with BASIC $98516K BASIC with Battery Backup $1335CNC VERSION $1950Stepping Motor Tips Cookbook $8CNC Manual $12

CENTROID (814) 2374535Box 739, State College, PA 16804

Inquiry 283

Inquiry 69

Inquiry 79

:::: ibmpc/vhoo

EM100 tor IBM PC, XT, AT, JR.

• VTI02 emulation

• File Transfer

• 132 Column modes

• Color Support

■ EM100-4010

• Tektronix 4010 emulation

• VT/02 emulation

• Picture files

• High resolution hardcopy

• Supports IBM, IBM Enhanced,

• Hercules and Tecmargraphics cards.

Multicopy discounts

Diversified ComputerSystems, Inc.

100 Arapahoe, Boulder, CO 80302(303) 447-9251

Trademark VTI(H) - Digital Equipment; IBM PC, XT— IBM Ci>rrHenitlr* - Hvryutes GimpulerTi-thru'loyy

Inquiry 150

NOW C HERE!

CROSS SOFTWAREfor the NS32000

Also Available for IBM PCINCLUDES;

* Cross Assembler ** Cross Linker *

* Debugger *

* N.S. ISE Support *

* Librarian *

* Pascal Cross Compiler *

* C Cross Compiler *

U.S. prices start at S500

SOLUTIONWARE

1283 ML Virw Alvis.. Rd.

Suite B

Sunnyvale. Calif. 94089

408/74S-781S • TLX 4994264

Inquiry 381

VT100orD200

on your

PC, jr, XT, ATor 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 file transfers incl. XMODEM

Full keyboard soflkeys/MACROS

Speeds to 38.4KB. High Throughput

NOW both Color/graphics and Monochrome Support

ZSTEMpc-VT100 $150. ZSTEMpc-D200 $125.

30 day money back guarantee. MC/VISA.

KEA SYSTEMS LTD.

#412 • 2150 W Broadway

Vancouver, B.C. CANADA V6K 4L9

Support (604) 732-7411

Orders (800) 663-8702Zstcm lUCn

Inquiry 427

AFFORDABLE M-68000COMPUTER SYSTEM

M6SKCPU6I0 MHz CPU, 20K static RAM. I6KEPROM, on board monitor. two HSU12.

serial ports. 16-bit parallel port, 5 timers-counters expansion bus.

Bare board 9 99.95

Complete Kit 9S9S.OO

MDS12K 128-5 1 2K Static RAM. floppy disk controller

Chard disk interface Bare board 9 99.95

Complete Kit(128K) 9725.OO

M68KE Enclosure with power supply, fan. filter. 4 slot

card cage

9249.00

M68KASM M68000 Macro Cross Assembler for CP'MSO.IBM PC. TRS-80 and Apple II computers

9199.00

UPS shipping E, handling 9 4.00

COD orders add « 3.00

Foreign orders add 920.OO

California residents add 6.5% tax

CHifC Educational „ _ . _

ClTlO Microcomputer (714)854-8545

Sytems

P.O.Box 161 15- Irvine. CA 927 13

1 Multi-user Database!

'Powerful!

< Multiple Operating

System Compatibility!• Attractive Dealer

Pricing!' Full Dealer Support!

Dawflex ts <i trademark of D.-t!.1 Ai i CSS

Dealer Inquiries Invited

24000 Telegraph Road

Southfield, Michigan 48034 USA

1313] 352-2345

Inquiry 163

Inquiry 88

Inquiry 28

SUPER SUMMERCLEARANCE SALE

PRINTERS

OKIDATA

ML182P120cps 229

ML182 IBM Graphics Comp 229

ML182S10"Carriage 279

ML83A, 15" Para & Ser 545

ML192P,160cps 375

ML192 IBM Graphics Comp 375

ML192S, 160cps 449

ML193P, 160cps 559

ML193IBMGraphicsComp 559

ML193S, 160cps 599

ML84P, 200cps 669

ML84IBM 669

ML84S,200cps 769

STAR MICRONICS

SG-10,120cps,2Kbuffer $ 249

SG-15.120cps,2Kbuffer 399

SD-10,160cps, 10" carriage 369

SD-15, 160 cps, Corr, Qual 479

SB-10 Draft &NLQ24 wire printhead 799

C. ITOH

7500 APw/trac1.(better than RX80). .$ 225

Prowriter8510AP+ , 120cps 335

Prowriter8510BC2,120cps 389

Prowri(er8510SP, 180cps 399

8510 BPI (IBM Compatible) 335

Prowriterll1550P, 15" 120 cps 449

Prowriterll1550BCD,15"120cps .. 499

1550 EP(IBM Compatible) 445

1550SP, 180cps 525

Starwriter F10-40PU, 40 cps 949

Starwriter A10-30 499

PrintmasterF10-55PU,55cps 1029

BROTHER

HR25,25cps $ 669

HR35,36cps 839

DYNAX

DX15XL,20cps ByBrother $ 379

JUKI

6100. L.Q. 18 cps w/proportional spc $ 399

6300 699

TOSHIBA

P1340P $ 595

P1340S 595

P351 P, Faster than 1351 ".'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 1229

P351 P/S, Faster and More Versatile 1299

PANASONIC

1091 w/Tractor. 120 cps, 1 yr. war, . .$ 279

1092 439

1093 669

LEGEND

880,80 cps. FT & Graphics $ 229

1080.120 cps. FT & Graphics 275

DISK DRIVES

TANDON

TM100-2torlBMPC $ 114

ALPHA OMEGA

10Megw/ControllerCard $699

20Megw/ControllerCard Call

33Megw/ControllerCard Call

TEAC

55B Double Sided 360K $ 99

Quad Density 169

MPI

55S Dbl/Dbl for IBM $ 80

Drives For Apple & FranklinRANA SYSTEMS

Elitel $ 199

Elite II 339

Elite III 389

SControlleradd 75

MICRO-SCI

A-2 $169

A.5C for lie w/cable

A.5 V; height for HE 199

NControllerAdd 59

PRINTERACCESSORIES

ORANGE MICRO

Grappler + $ 89

Buffered Grappler + . 16K exp. 64K . 155TOSHIBA

Bi-Direchonal Tractor $ 149

Font Disk for Down loading P1351 . . 50MICROTEK

DumplingGX(sameasGrappler + ) $ 69

DumplingGXw/16Kbuffer 135

Dumpling GXW/32K buffer 147

Additional Buffering 16K 12

FOURTH DIMENSION

Par Card&CableforApple $ 47

OKIDATA

Plug and Play for IBM $ 49

Okigraph I for82A/83A 49

Tractor for 82A & 92 49

JUKI

Bi-Direc. Tractor for6100/6300 $ 125/135

Serial Interface 65

CABLES

IBM PC to Parallel Printer $ 18

Serial Cable 18

DISPLAY MONITORS

QUADRAM

Amber chrome IBM compatible . . . .$ 165AMDEK

V300G $ 125

V300A 135

V310AforlBMPC 159

Color500Co!orComposite 339

Color600 RGB Hi-Res 429

Color710SuperHi-Res 545

TAXAN

IBMGreenMonochrome#121 $ 139

IBMAmberMonochrome#122 145

RGBIBMw/Cable#420 419

RGBSuperHi-Res.#415 393

RGB Super Hi-Res. #440 499

RGB/Comp. Med. Res. #210 259

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12forusewithlBMPC $455

Max12EAmberforlBM 179

SR12SuperHi-Res 565

Scan Doubler 185

X-TRON

AG-12,1000x450Hi-Resw/tlt swvl.S 130AA-12, 1000 x 450 Hi-Res w/tlt. swvl,. 135

SIZZLING SPECIALS!!

IBM PC

2 Drives, 256K

S1639

CC MULTIFUNCTIONCARD

Par., Ser., C/C w/384K

S249

CC COLOR

GRAPHICS CARD

S139

CC MONO

GRAPHICS CARD

S179

135 WATT

POWER SUPPLY

S139

APPLE PROF.

SYSTEM

S1345

ML192PS379

TOSHIBA 351

$1229MICRO-SCI A2 |100% Apple Comp.S169

IBM PC ACCESSORIES

IBM

IBMDos3.0 $ 69

IBMTechRef. forPC 85

PARADISE

ModularGraphicsCard $ 269

Module A 79

Module B 120

5-Pak 175

G4K MEMORY UPGRADE

64K (9 chips) 200ns $ 17

PERSYST BOARD

Bob Hi-Res Display Adaptor $399

QUADRAM

Quad Color 1 Board $ 199

Exp. Quadboardw/64K& Game Port 239Quadlink3000RunApplesftonlBM 359

VUTEK (2 yr. wan

Vutek - CPS Board, RGB & Composite

w/Par. 8. Ser. Ports, 2 Yr. War $ 239

Color Card (Here, comp.) 175

Monographic Card (Here comp.). . . 275AST RESEARCH

Six Pak + W/64K $ 239

Preview Cal I

KEYTRONICS

KB5151 $ 189

MICROTEK

Monochrome Text Par. & Ser $ 195

Color Graphics Card 165

DATA PLUS

384K Mem. Board w/OK $ 119

XT Short Card, 384K Mem 185

APPLE & FRANKLIN ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

Kensington System Saver . . .Fan for Apple tl & HE w/surge .

MICROMAX

Viewmax 128K extended 80 col. card

for Apple IIEW/64K $ 124

80col.cardforApplell&ll+ 139

ADVANCED LOGIC SYSTEMS

ZEngine2.2 $ 119

APPLE

SuperSerialCard $ 135

ASTAR

RFModulator $ 17

MICRO-SCI

64K, 80 Col. Card $ 85

V

PERSONAL SYSTEMS'

APPLE

Professional Sys. incl: Apple HE W/128K &80 col., tilt mon,. duo disk w/con't kit $1345

Apple lie Lightweight Portable Call

IBM

IBM PC Bare w/cont.& keyboard . .$1370

IBMPC64K. 1 Drive 1499

IBM PC64K. 2 Drives 1599

iBMPC,2Drivesw/256K 1639

IBMX1,10Meg.,360KDr.w/256. . . 3195

IBMATBase Call

IBMATEnhanced Call

Call About All "AT" SystemsSANYO

MBC550-2w/1 320K Drive&sftwr $ 895MBC 555-2 w/2 320K Drives 8.

more software 999

Portable Call

Serial Port for Sanyo 79

TAVA

TAVA PC1 Par & 1 Ser. Ports. 128K, 2-320K

Drives. Color Card & Monitor $1499

COMPAQ

256K. w/2-320K Drives $1945

Desk Top Model 1 1725

DeskTopModel2 2150

Desk Top Model 3 Call

Desk Top Model 4 4495

SOFTWARE

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.

Lotus 1-2-3 $ 295

Symphony 437

ASHTON TATE

DBaseII $ 329

DBaselll 419

PRINTER SWITCH BOX

EXPONENT

CentronicsTwoSwitch $ 84

Centronics FourSwitch 110

Serial Two Switch 75

Serial FourSwitch 99

MODEMS

ANCHOR

Mark XII $ 219

Volksmodem XII 185

Anchor Express Call

HAYES MICRO

300 Baud Smart Modem $ 189

1200 Baud Smart Modem 389

1200BforlBMPC 379

2400 Baud Modem 645

MicroModemllE 259

Chronograph 189

300ForApplellcw/Sftwr Call

DISKETTES

PC DISKETTES

Sgl /Dbl (Box of 10) $ 16

Dbl./Dbl.(Boxof 10) 18

COMPUTER CONNECTION

Dbl./Dbl. (Bpx of 10) $ 16

Sgl./Dbl.w/DiskContainerdO) 20

Dbl./Dbl. w/Disk Container 20

Bulk50 & Up — Dbl./Dbl 1.35ea.

5 yr. warranty

GIVE US A CHANCE TO BEAT THE

COMPETITION'S ADVERTISED PRICE.

IF YOU SEE IT ADVERTISED FOR LESS. CALL

COMPUTER CONNECTION FIRST FOR LOWEST QUOTE!

MAILORDER:

17121 S. Central Avenue. Unit LCarson, California 90746

NO SURCHARGE FOR CREDIT CARDS

We accept VISA, MasterCard, COOfw deposit), Certified Checks orWire Transfers. Minimum ShippingCharge S4.00. Some items subjectto back order. California Res. add6Vi% Sales Tax. All returns aresubject toa15% restocking chargeand must be authorized by storemanager within 10 days. Pricessubject to change without notice.This Ad supersedes all others.

ORDER LINE[800) 732-0304

(Outside California)

[213] 635-2809

[inside CJ3lifornia|

Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:[S13] 635-S065

Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Inquiry 42£

IUNE 1985 • BYTE 491

maxell

PERSONAL COMPUTER PRODUCTS

The floppy disks that meet orexceed every standard of quality.

MD1-D 5y4"KKS»- $1§!

■ «»»» ■ +•* •* «*• SOFT SECTOR ?.

MD2-D 51/»'

$OQ?

SOLD IN BOXES OF TEN ONL

tremendous selection of softwarebooks, accessories and supplies

UP TO 50 70 OFF'

„ Software for IBM PC_

dBaselll 349 Multimate 269

Framework 349 Symphony 419

Home Acct. Plus 89 Wordstar 2000 279

w/Ultralile 149 Wordstar Pro Pac 249

ABC data products

3311 ADAMS AVE. SAN DIEGO, CA 92116

619-283-5488 Q 800-854-1555

6809

Single Board Computer

Inquiry 8

6809 IvlPO, 2 WftcH pjbrii, 4?pcjrailettodjrijt \RAM, EPROM, real-time'Cldcic wdtchddg Vtimer, 44-pin 4.5"» 6.6" PCSEXPANSION MODULES: RAM, EPROM, CMOSRAM/battery, analog I/O, serial I/O,parallel I/O, counter/timer, IEEE-488,EPROM programmer, floppy disks,cassette, breadboard, keyboard/display.

wtntek c

H1* ■ ■» * .1 Lafayette, IN 479M1 317-742M28

Inquiry 424

PRINTER RIBBONS

PRICE PER PERRIBBON DOZEN

ANADEX 9500 10.50 109.80

APPLE DMP 5.50 58.80

BROTHER HR-15/25 MS 5.95 68.40

C. IT0H PR0WRITER 5.50 58.80

COMMODORE MPS-801 8.00 90.00

EPSON MX-FX 70/80 5.00 48.00

EPSON MX-FX 100 6.95 75.00

EPSON LQ-1500 9.75 111.00

GEMINI 10-10X-15-15X 2.50 23.40

IBM/IDS 4-COLOR 15.75 180.00

IDS MICROPRISM-480 5.75 58.80

NEC-3500 M/S Non Flip 6.25 69.00

NEC-3500 NYLON 9.00 96.00

NEC - 8023A 5.50 58.80

OKIDATA 80/82/83/92 2.50 23.40

RADIO SHACK DMP-2100 7.50 87.00

RADIO SHACK LP VI & VIII .... 5.75 58.80

RITEMAN 8.50 96.00

SILVER REED EX 550 M/S 8.50 90.00

SILVER REED EX 550 NYLON . 6.95 75.00

TALLY SPIRIT - 80 M/S 7.50 84.00

TALLY - MT-160 8.00 90.00

TALLY - MT-180 8.50 96.00

TOSHIBA - 1350/1351 7.50 87.00

Add $3.00 Ship. & Hand. — To Order Call

Toll Free 1-800-742-1122

In Ml (313) 569-3218 or Write for our Catalog

DWIGHT COMPANY, INC.

15565 Northland Drive - West TowerSouthfield, Michigan 48075-6496

Inquiry 156

NDARDNTER

' CONNECTOR

$99

MW-I0O 23I-C SERIAL TO CENTRONICSPARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACEFOR ALL MAJOR CENTRONICS PRINTERS

INTERFACES THE APPLE 1IC. EPSON PXS.AND HX20 TO STANDARD PARALLEL PRINTERS

MW-200 UNIVERSAL INPUT-OUTPUT BOARDBOARD FOR IBM PC

16 EIGHT BIT ANALOG INPUTS

14 HI VOLTAGE/CURRENT OUTPUTS

BASIC DEMO PROGRAM INCLUDED

I ANALOG OUTPUT-- PROTOTYPING AREA

10 PROGRAMMABLE DISCRETE INPUTS/OUTPUTS

MW-IOI UNIVERSAL SERIAL I/O BOARD

WITH RS-232 INTERFACE16 EIGHT BIT ANALOG INPUTS14 HI VOLTAGE/CURRENT OUTPUTSONE ANALOG OUTPUTAPPLEIBM KAYPRO- COMPATIBLETALKS TO ANY SERIAL RS-232 PORTMICROPROCESSOR CONTROLLED - 651 IQAUTO BAUD RATE SEEKING - AUTO DAT

Micro World Eiectronix, Inc

3333 S. Wadsworth Blvd. #C105

Lakewood, CO. 80227

(303) 987-9$31 or 987-2671

A

HeathUsers

Double Your5%" disk storagecapacity without adding a drive.

Get twice as much from your H88 orH89 microcomputer. Our FDC-880Hfloppy disk controller, in conjunctionwith your 5V," drives, for example,expands memory capacity from 256bytes to 512 bytes per sector.

And it handles single and double-sided, single and double-density, 8" and5%" drives — simultaneously.

Or

C.D.R. Systems Inc.

Controlled Data Recording Systems Inc.

7210 Clairmont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92111

(619) 560-1272

3M DiskettesLifetime Warranty

TIRED OF WAITINGFOR SERVICE AND PRICE?

9 out of 10 SURVEYEDDISK BUYERS PREFERRED

NORTH HILLS

#1 IN SERVICE AND PRICE

1-800-328-3472

Formatted and hard sectored disksin stock-Dealer inquiries invited.

COD, VISA, MASTERCARDAll orders shipped within 24 hrs.

JU

m

NORTH HILLS CORP.INTERNATIONAL

3S64 Rolling View Dr.

White Bear Lake, MN. 55110

MN. call collect—612-770-0485

Inquiry 279

Inquiry 77

ScotcK Diskettes

Rely on Scotch* diskettes to keep your valu-able data safe. Dependable Scotch diskettesare tested and guaranteed error-free. The lowabrasivity saves your read/write heads.They're compatible with most diskette drives.

(800)235-4137

Dealer Inquiriesinvited

| The Statistician |

CPM IBM-PCTRS-DOS XENIX

* Multiple Regression * Survey Research\ Stepwise * Nonparametrics

Ridge * X-Y PlotsAll Subsets ' ANOVABackward Elimination * Random Samples" Time Series Analysis * Data Base

* Descriptive Statistics " Search & sort

* Transformations * Hypothesis tests

Please call TOLL FREE1-800-334-0854 (Ext. 814)

^^J ^^^ for more informationjfl ^^K orH H Quant SystemsV W Box 628

^^^^W__ Charleston SC 29402^•■^^^P VISA-M/C Acceoiec

*-"£££

DATA

SEC

FiXT endsboot hassles,stops datathieves—

DATAMAC, DAVONG,

GREAT LAKES, IOMEGA,

XEBEC, ZOBEX, others.

No-Slot Installation forIBM PC, COMPAQ, COLUMBIA

$70 - $95 + tax/shpg

GOLDEN BOW

SYSTEMS

Box 3039

San Diego

CA 92103

619/298-9349

Inquiry 319

Inquiry 346

Inquiry 198

ADMVNCEDCOMPUTER

PRODUCTS, r

1985

MAIL ORDER PRICING ONLY

NOW LIQUIDATING GAVILAN COMPUTERCALL FOR GAVILAN 8/16 LINE COMPUTERS]See Below - GAVILAN SPECIALS

AlS Cf"M 3 0 PLUS CARO S2W

COE" IW RAM CARO SALE *

COEX PAR PRINTER CARD -CABLE 4fCOE* 80 COL EXT 64K CARO SALE 99 95

SERIAL

is pkaso i/o (ikennsington system saverkennsington pc saverkraft joystickmct speed demonmicrosoft 2 80 softcarograppler plus

139 9669 9539 9536 95249 95247 9599 95

APPLE Hi SERIAL CABLEAPPLE I If KEYBOARDAPPLE ll/lle POWER SUPPLYAPPLE IIMe DISK CONTROLLERAPPLE HIM COOLING FAN SYSTEMSTREET ECHO ll SPEECH SYSTEMTITAN ACCELERATOR II CARD

$!B9 9S

SALE H'995

189 95

49 95

49 9549 9599 95449 95

WIZARD 80 COLUMN CARD SALE 99.00

FARADAY IBM Pt>

CPU Board w/64K MS DOS Compatible

ROCKWELL AIM

503 Single Board Computer

IBM PC HARDWARE

AST COMBOPLUS' 64K $199 00

SIGMA MAXIMIZER 84K 249 95

SIGMA DISK CONTROLLER 169 95

HARD DISK CONTROLLER 249 95

10 Mb INTERNAL HARD DISK 695 00

10 Mb EXTERNAL HARD DISK 869 00

15 Mb INTERNAL HARD DISK 649 00

15 Mb EXTERNAL HARD DISK 104900

60 WATT BOOSTER SUPPLY 149 95

130 WATT IBM SUPPLY 15995

PC COMPATIBLE KEYBOARD 99.00

IBM PC CHASSIS 129 95

PIANTRONICS COLORPLUS 389 95

10 Mb INT TAPE STREAMER 115000

PERSyST MONO CARD 199.00

PARADISE MONO/COLOR 409 95

HERCULES MONO CARD 369 00

IHkHiHIttHttl'HW.lil*!

199 00149 95263 00499 003190039 0090021 0021 00

(MlilOMISB3101ISS3110ISB3216ISB3218ISB3220ISB3330ISBJ131IS83340ISB3400ISB3410ISB3500ISB3510ISB3630ISB3521

IS83610ISB3700ISB3711IS83720

nasac

280 CPUZBO Univ CPU8065 CPU18K CMOS RAM16K SUtic RAM16K CMOS RAMZ80 PIO 10 malmg|U"i..r«l PIO

Opli Par* InputFloppy ConlroBarSASI (DMA) WINI mie

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89 95149 95269 95

AMDEK 300G iGREEN) S13995

AMOEK 300A (AMBERi 149 95

AMOCK 310A |IBM AMBER. 169 95

CALL FOR COLOR I • NEW MODELS

PCS NX 12 HBMCOLORl 469 95

PCS SR 12 (HIRES! 599 95

PGS MAX i .■ nBM GREENi 196 95

PGS DOUBLER BOARD 227 00

TAXAN 420 (HI RES IBM| 399 00

ZENITH 122A/123G 89 95

ZENITH ZVM131/135 Call

SANYO 8500 IMED RES) 279 00

SANYO 7500 (HI RES) 379 00SANYO ILOOKALIKE) 12 AMBER SALE 74 95

BIZCOMP PC INTELLIMODEM (INTiHAYES SMARTMODEM 1200 1EXT1HAYES SMARTMODEM 12008 (INT)HAYES SMARTMODEM 300 (EXT)MICHOMODEM APPLE liePROMETHEUS 12O0M [MACINTOSH)PROMETHEUS 1200 IPC EXT)NOVATION ACCESS 12 3CA1 COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMAPPLE COMP LOW COST MODEM |3

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S269 00449 00449 00

KEYTROMIC 5150/51 15800.

MOUSE SYSTEMS MOUSE W/SW

QUAOBOARD W/64K

TECMAR GRAPHICS MASTER

TECMAR CAPTAIN 64K

CURTIS PC PEDESTAL

PGS or OUADCHROME ADAPTOR

TILT and SWIVEL STAND

SYSTEM STAND

EXTENSION CABLE IBM MONO

KEYBOARO EXTENSION CABLE 2800

SURGE SUPPRESSORS

DIAMOND (LEMON) 39 00

EMERALD (LIME) 40 00

SAPPHIRE (PEACH) 59 00

RUBY (ORANGEI 69 00

COEX 364K MULThCARO wW 169 00

■ si:r;'in'':M

64K STATIC RAMCARD $199.95

PLUS MAJOR OEM PURCHASE

WHILE SUPPLY LASTS

ALL NEW WITH DOCUMENTATION

• TUART BOARD SALE 99 95

• FRONT PANEL BD IIMSAI) SALE 79 95

• 8080 MPU BOARD SALE 49 95

• 8 FLOPPY CONTROLLER (Mot-owl 149 95

• S 100 EXTENDER CARO 24 95

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Corporate Buyers ...Call For Volume Quotes!

I.Vi'rV.IM:M'.n

LM108AH

$3 95

LM300H

99

LM301N

35

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1 89

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OS

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4 75

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40

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65

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1 65

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2 95

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395

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3 75

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1 90

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1 59

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290

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2 70

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LM710

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MC4024

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75

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98

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33

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40

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29

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85

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55

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LM1014

1 15

CA3081

LM1303

190

CA3062

LM1310

1 45

CA3063

MCI 330

CA3086

MCI 349

185

CA3089

MC1350

1 15

CA3096

MCI 358

1 65

CA3130

MCI 372

6 75

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1 55

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299

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235

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LM1B12

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3 40

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LF347

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5 45

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1 90

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1.70

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3 75

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200

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2 25

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83

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99

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SSt-263VOK4.

DISKETTES

$1 . 1 9ea 1000

IBM PC-DS/DD

Hub Rings $1 .35ea/2S0

Tyvac Cover ^ . _Major Mlgr $1 .S5ea/2S

5'A" OtSKETTES

VERBATIM 52501 SSS>D

VERBATIM 550-01 DS/DD

MAXELL MO-1 SS/OD

MAXELL MD-2 OS'DO

DYSAN 104/10 SS/00

DYSAN 104/2D DS/DD

GENERIC SS/SS

GENERIC DS/DD

3'-j DISKETTES (MAC elc)

5% HEAD CLEANING KIT

8 HEAD CLEANING KIT

DYMEC IBM PC DIAGNOSTIC

APPLE II DIAGNOSTIC DISK

MACINTOSH DISKETTE HOLDER

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Now, the lowestprices ever on

3M Scotch

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

$-149 $199

f Qty 50 5VVDSDD I Qty 50

5*' SSDD-96TPI -» $2.29 ea 5V DSDD-96TPI — $2.85 eaSOFT SECTOR ONLY! MINIMUM ORDER: 20 DISKETTES

ADD 3% FOR ORDERSUNDER 501

\sm

FLIP N FILE 151/10 DISKETTES(Eft. Thru 5 3D 8b

These are factory! resh 3M diskettes packed in boxes of 10 withTyvek sleeves, reinforced hubs, identification labels and wnte-protect tabs. „,„ -„

3.5- MICRO-DISKETTES—SS 135 TPI -» $2.89 eaLIFETIME WARRANTY ON ALL 3M SCOTCH DISKETTES!

HOURS 8AM-5PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago. Illinos 60611

DISK

UIOFV Authorized Dittributor

Information Processing

WORLD! Producto

BASF

DISKETTES!

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

ylfaWssDD Q |"§5J

I Qly 20 DSDD I Q'Y 20

5V SSDD 96TPI . $1.46 ea. 5Vi' DSDD-96TPI . $1.75 eaPACKED IN CARDBOARD CASES!

BASF OUAUMETRIC DISKETTES have a LIFETIME WAR-RANTY with Tyvek sleeves, reinforced hubs user identificationlabels and write-protect tabs

SOFT SECTOR ONLY! MINIMUM ORDER 20 DISKETTESBASF 3 5" MICRO-FLOPPIES BASF 5%"HIGH DENSITY

SSDD-135TPI -$2.50eaFOR ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827

(In Illinois: 1-312-944-2788)

FOR IBM PC-AT

DSDD-HD - $4.91 ea

INFORMATION &

INQUIRIES:

1-312-944-2788

HOURS: 8AM-5PM Central Time. Monday-Friday

WE WILL 8EAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISKWORLD!

Authorized Resetter

Information Processing ■ RASP

Media

Incredible value!

Nashua.Diskettes

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

O jUO 5V4"SSDD 5 | 15

I Qty. 50 5y„" DSDD I Qty. 50

These are poly-bagged diskettes packaged with Tyvek sleeves,reinforced hubs, user identification labels and write-protect tabs

NASHUA Corporation is a half-billion dollar corporation and arecognized leader in magnetic media.

SOFT SECTOR ONLY! Sold in multiples of 50 only'

for orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois 1-312-944-2788) 1-312-944-2788

HOURS: 8AM-5PM Central Time. Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PROOUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago, Illinos 60611

DISK nashua

■»«*■» Authorized DI «trl butor MAGNETIC

WORLD!

BETTER MODEMS

AT LOWER PRICES!

.. .and get 24-hour shipping

on your DISK WORLD! orders

1200/300 Baud 300 Baud

Avatex Modem ^^ Avatex Modem

$189.95 ea --^ $59.95 ea

Avatex Modems have everything. They're inexpen-sive. Hayes-compatible, Auto Dial. Auto Answer andhigh quality (hacked by a one-year warranty).

Best ot all. our combination includes a One-Year FREEsubscription to MCI MAIL and special communicationssoftware for placing TOLL-FREE orders with DISKWORLD'.

Orders received via MCI MAIL are shipped within24-hours (subject to product availability)(Cables are net included.)for orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois 1-312 944-2788) 1-312-944-2788HOURS 8AM-5PM Central Time, Monday-FridayWE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISEO PRICEON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!DISK WORLD!, Inc.Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago, Illinos 60611

DISK

Authorized Distributor

AVATEX

DISK WORLD!

Ordering & ShippingInstructions

Shipping: 5K" & 3.5' DISKETTES—Add $3.00 per each 100 orfewer diskettes Other Items: Add shipping charges as shown inaddition to other shipping charges Payment: VISA and MASTER-CARD accepted COD Orders: Add additional $3 00 Special Han-dling charge APO, FP0, AK, HI & PR Orders: Include shippingcharges as shown and additional 5% of total order amount tocover PAL and insurance Taxes: Illinois residents only, add 8%sales tax

Prices subject to change without notice.

This ad supercedes all other adsNot responsible tor typographical errorsminimum total order: $35,00

for orders only: information*

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-944-2788) 1-312-944-2788

HOURS 8AM-5PM Central Time

Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806• 30 East Huron Street• Chicago. Illinos 60611

PRINTER

ATHANA

DISKETTESThe great unknown!

99

5W SSDD

Qty. 50

$109

SDD-I Q'*5°

You've used these diskettes hundreds oftimes.. as copy-protected originals on some ofthe most popular software packages. They'repacked in poly-bags of 25 with Tyvek sleeves,reinforced hubs, user identification labels andwrite-protect tabs.

LIFETIME WARRANTY

SOFT SECTOR ONLY! Sold in multiplesof 50 onlyfor orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois 1-312-944 2788) 1-312-944-2788

HOURS' 8AM-5PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERT I5HJ Tftitt

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago. Illinos 60611

DISKWORLD!

ATHANAAuthorized Distributor MAGNETICMEDIA

Nail down

1A804 (5Mb) t

REMOVE ABLE'.ALL FOR QUOTE ON HIGHERCAPACITY HARO DRIVES'

->UPER SAVER

SHUGART SA604 HARD

5Mbsi299s5

MHM.HWM

TEAC 55BMITSUBISHI 4851SHUGART 455TANDON TM1O0 2

B" DISK DRIVESSHUGART 801ftSIEMENS FOO10OBSIEMENS F00200 8 DS/DOMITS M2884MITS M2898 HtMTANDON 848E '.MIOUME 242 j HI

S269 95129 95'95 00439 95430 95369 95399 95

■ Mill Mill IC

SU CASE POWER SUPPLY $69 95

•A DUAL /> HI w/POWER SUPPLY 79 95

DUAL CASE w/POWER SUPPLV 279 95

THINLINE DUAL w/POWER SUPPLV 199 95

H HARD OISK w/POWER SUPPLY 199 95

Vi <i, HIQH HARD DISK 199 96

APPLE IIAle COMPATIBLE JIM 95

APPLE 1111a COMPATIBLE '<> HIGH 104 96

MICROSCI APPLE Ik DRIVE 219 95

APPLE II to APPLE He ADAPTOR IB 95

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1-24$310 1240Mlg WAV S 99

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(OTHER STYLES IN CATALOG)CENTRONICS

(DC 36 Pin MaleIDC 36 Pin femaleSolder 38 Pin MoleSoldut 36 Pin Female

(CALL TOLL FREE FOR lOC'U

M

■ HH.W^H

< MACHINED

HIGH'RELIABILITY. SOCKET

I SALE

CALL FOR

I SPECIAL

RATES

14 Pm ST/LPlePmSTiLP18 Pin ST/LP20 P>n STA.P22 FVi ST/LP24 fhn ST (LP28 Pm ST/LP36 Pin ST/LP

J P

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64 Pin ST/IP 3 95

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8 Pin WW/3L $ 49

14 Pin WW/3L 82

16 Pin WW/3L 85

20 Pm VVW/3L 99

22 Pm WW(3L t 19

24 Pin WW/3L 1 25

28 Pin WW/3L T 49

40 Pm WW3L 1

IEIIOOL 2if ZERO INSERTION

16 Pin $8 75 24 Pin $7 85 28 Pit

IWt Sloe* AH Typej ol Sockati)

'7 (250nS) SI 29

03 i300nS) 70

16N-2ll50nS> 180 8/1395)8N3l200nS) 165 8/12 50ieN4|2S0nS) 145 8/10 5064N- 150 1150m 5 95 9/29 9564N-200 |200m4 95 9/24 9564NI20 H20nS| 8 4S

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GAVILAN SPECIALS

8 Of 16 LINE COMPUTERS18 LINE BY 80 LCD DISPLAY8 LINE BY 80 LCD DI5PLAVTHERMAL PRINTER MECHANISMCiAVILAN/IBM KEYBOARDS8Vt > 11 THERMAL PAPER (500 sdPASCAL SOFTWARE w/MANUAL12V Nt-CAD BATTERY PACK

J 79 9539 95

:.-- I'

SUPER SAVER

IBM PC-

Camp OS/DO Oil* D-,e

$899

HI-TECH SPECIALS

AMD7910

30C BAUD MODEM .C

s299

I.T.WrWMIIH.lM.I

ADC06O0S14 95 j AOCO817S0 75

ADC0804 3 45 OAC08O0 4 75

OAC0806 1 90 OAC08O8 2 85

ADC0609 4 45 DAC1020 7 95

ADC0816 14 25 I OAC1022 5 85

1408L6 $1 951408L8 2 85DACTOO 7 95OAC08 7 05DAC01 6 05

LF132Q1N 1 09

64K UPGRADE iset oi S24.95

256K RAMS $15.95

■MamH«BM.i:iiJ

IBM PARALLEL iSlna.OeC' S29 95

IBM SERIAL (SnwkJeC' 24 95

KEyBOARO EXTENSION 9 95

RS232 GENDER CHANGER Mae Malt 14 95

RS232 GENDER CHANGER FemaleFemale 14 95

NULL MODEM ADAPTOR '4 9i

SPECIALS OF THE MONTH

8087 - 80287 SALE

Call

AB PRINTER SWITCHBOX (Parallel) $69 95

TELEDATA MODEM VIC 20164

42 95

APPLE lie KEYBOARD

49 95

IBM COMPATIBLE KEYBOARD

99 95

POTTER POWERLINE MODULE

599

CALL FOR DEC RAINBOW BLOWOUT

NEC8201 PORTABLE

369 95

NEC8027 PORTABLE PRINTER

369 95

ZENITH Z1S1PC COMPUTERSALE

1995 00

IBM PC, 256K 2 ^/DRIVES

1795 00

IBM PORTABLE

1850 00

COMPAQ PORTABLE

2195 00

800-854-8230

TWX

910-595-1565

Mail Order. P.O. Box 17329 Inline. CA 92713

Retail: 13108 E. Edinger. Santa Ana. CA 92705

(714) 558-8813

402!

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wnnvi

AMARAY MEDIA-MATE 50: A REVOLUTION^^ IN DISKETTE STORAGE

^H Every once in a while, someone takes the

Wf^y simple and makes it elegant! This unit holds

■fc 50 5 V diskettes, has grooves tor easy

^^ Jr stacking, inside nipples to keep diskettes

from slipping and severa1 other features. We

like it' CHI 0*1 ' $200

0 IU.3U ea Shpng

DISKETTE 70 STORAGE: STILL A GREAT BUY.

^^flf Dust-free storage tor 70 5W diskettes

j^HQ. Six dividers included An excellent value

■-im * VDISK HAnniFR 511.95 Shpng

VDISK CADDIES

■ The original (lip-up holder (or 10 5V"'diskettes Beige or grey only CI CC

• 20C Shpng

fob orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois 1-312-944-2788) 1-312-944-2788

HOURS 8AM-5PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago. Minos 60611

DISKWORLD!

at

extraordinaryprices!

Brand new ribbons manufactured to Original EquipmentManufacturer's specifications, in housings (Not re-inked orspools only.)

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Epson MX-70/80 .. $3.58 ea. + 25c Shpng

Epson MX-100 $4.95 ea. + 25<t Shpng.

Okidata Micro83 $1.48 ea + 251 ShpngOkidata Micro84 . $3.66 ea. + 25c Shpngfor orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois 1-312-944-2788) 1-312-944-2788

HOURS: 8AM-5PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PROD UCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago. Minos 60611

MEM

The value leader ,n I DISK

ComputerMippliw II ,.,__, _,And«cce..orie.. I WORLD!

diskettes!

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

S128L „$17(T

|oty.20 csoD | Qty. 20

MEMOREX DISKETTES come withheavy, lintless paper sleeves, reinforcedhubs, wnte-protect tabs and user IDlabels.

3 5" MICRO FLOPPIES .„„«„„„„„,», 5'. DSDD-H0

SSDD I35TPI SOFT SECTOR ONLY! FOR IBM PC AT

S2.44ea MINIMUM ORDER 20 DISKETTES $3.89 ea

INFORMATION & INQUIRIES:

1-312-944-2788

HOURS: 8AM-5PM Central Time

Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

Suite 4806 • 30 East Huron Street • Chicago, lllinos 60611

DISKWORLD!

496 B YTE • JUNE 1985

Inquiry 148

PRIORITY ConeJ ELECTRONICS

9161 Deenng Ave., Chatsworth, CA 91311-5887

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY FROM A DIRECT MAIL MERCHANT?

Special trips to hole-in-the-wall stores in quest ofshallow promises? Limited brand choices within eachproduct category? Shelves sparingly stocked? Salesclerks who make you wait while they finish their game ofspace invaders — and then make you wish they'd go backto their game because they know less about the productsthan you do!

Are any of these reminiscent of your last shopping tripto a local computer store? Deciding which computercomponent you want to buy is complicated enoughwithout the added frustrations you often face whenshopping in a store.

Maybe, its time you tried a better way to shop. It'snothing new — millions do it every day with surprisingsatisfaction. It's called direct merchandising, catalogselling, or simply shopping by mail order.

Direct mail retailers allow you to shop from theconvenience of your home or office, and more often, canprovide products faster than if you had ventured out tohunt them down by yourself. Shopping by mail (or betterstill by phone) saves you gas, parking fees, and mostimportant — your valuable time. In addition, you'll haveaccess to thousands of items you may never find in yourlocal store.

Priority One Electronics did not invent this method ofselling, but we have invested over $1,000,000.00 refin-ing it to better serve you. The efficiencies of our directmail marketing are passed along to you in the form ofbetter service, more support, and lower prices.

How much can you save? Plenty! Our unequalledpurchasing power assures you of the lowest possibleprice. Also, you don't have to pay the 10% franchising feethat is passed along by your local chain store.

Our customers range from companies, like IBMpurchasing the latest, state-of-the-art disk drives; toindividuals buying add-ons for their own IBM-PCs. Wehave earned the confidence of our customers by thor-oughly testing and evaluating each new product before itis added to our line. If we wouldn't use it ourselves, thenwe're not going to try and sell it to you!

We publish a colorful, 'Catalog of Values' every sixweeks. Each new Flyer, resembling a 30 or 40 pagenewspaper, is certainly not 'junk mail'. Our hundreds ofthousands of satisfied customers look forward to receiv-ing the next edition — and then take the time to read itcarefully. It is your direct link to our new products, specialpromotions, and sale items. If you are receiving thesemailings, take the time to review each page. Or you maymiss the 'deal of the year'!

If you're among those who haven't yet discovered howeasy and secure it can be to buy by phone or mail — giveus a chance to prove ourselves to you. Just fill out thecoupon below and we'll mail you our next Sales Flyer.

Better still, give us that chance today. If you are aboutto make a purchase of any computer related product, callus now — Toll Free (800) 423-5922 — and ask one ofour courteous, well trained, sales professionals for a pricequotation. We are here to serve you.

The Sensible Way To Shop In Today's World

Call For

DEALERSADVANTAGE

Add-on Products for IBM PC®

10 Mb Hard Disk Kil (with controller) S550 00

20 Mb Hard Disk Kit (with controller) 1650 00

Floppy Controller Card $50 00

Hard Disk Controller Card SI 70 00

Color Graphics Card (RGB and NTSC Comp | $95 00

Monochrome Graphics Card $100 00

Memory Card With 256K $150 00

MINIMUM OF TEN BOARDS

■ IBM is a registered trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines Inc

CRANE Associates, Inc

3928 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Ste. 12

Culver City, CA 90230

(213) 390-9840

Inquiry I2l

•IBM' PC'XT AT Compatible

Jpcpipeunejl

c-ji i i O

'4164-120/150/200 I29

•128K-150 200for AT 995

•256K-150 533

•Teac half-height for AT 119°°

*20 Mb Hard disk for AT 695°o

8087-3 119°°

Apple Drives — half heights 124°°

*Tandon/CDC full height drives 109°°

*CDC/Teac half height drives 109°°

'Micro Science 20 Mb kit for PC/XT 839°°

*10 Mb Hard Disk Sysfem 649°°

"20-100 Mb Hard Disk Drives Lowest Prices/Call•Everex Magic Card 0-384 expansion . 179°°"Everex Magic Cara w 384K RAM populated 259°°

•Everex Graphic Edge Color Cards 339°°

•Drive Installation Kits Call

Ado $3 95 sh pping to all orders • Pnces sobjecl to change • PO son approval • C 0 D OK • All new no surplus no secondsQUANTITY DISCOUNTS • Corporate accounls invled3310 West Main St Tampa. FL 33607In FL and for info call 813-875-0299FOR ORDERS ONLY, 800-237-8910

-S- TELEX 330690

— FAX LINE: 813-876-7194

\ferbatim

flexible disks

Call Free (800) 235-4137 for

prices and information. Dealerinquiries invited. C.O.D. andcharge cards accepted.

VISA-

PACIFICEXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd.San Luis Obispo. CA93401. InCal. call(800) 592-5935 or(805) 543-1037.

Inquiry 32?

Inquiry 319

Erases Most Epromsin 3 Minutes ^

Solid State 2-8 Min.

Timer Version $54.95

For all 24 or 28 pin devices—2 at a time

90 DAY WARRANTEE SHIPPING & HANDLINGDEALERS WELCOME

WILLING CO.

$2 50

AZ RESIDENTS

ADD 6% TAX

4401 S JUNIPER • TEMPE, AZ 85282 • (602) 838-1277

DOUBLE

THE OPTION CAPACITY

OF YOUR IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER

PC-XTRA

• DIRECT EXTENSION OF

IBM PC BUS

• NO SOFTWARE CHANGES

• NO HARDWARE MODIFICATION

• STYLING CONSISTENT WITH I

Add:all dose special options that you've b<wanting without worrying about filling youplug-in and back panel space

F.OB SANTA ANA —

•CALIFORNIA SESIDENTS ADD 6% SALES TAX

P C HORIZONS, INC.

1701 E. Edinger, Ste. A6, Santa Ana. CA 92680(714) 953-5396

Ml mflRYmflC INDUSTRIES INC

800-231-3680

Radio Shack TRS-80's'Epson Printers

People vou Trust to give vou the very best!

Lowest

Discount

Prices

• ReliableService

» QualityProducts

"Worlds largest volume TRS-80 dealer:'

22511 Katy Fwy , Katy (Houstoni Texas 77450(713) 392-0747 Telex 774132

Inquiry 420

Inquiry 3I7

Inquiry 264

"—■-i •* ■lllllll I m Parallel

i r

Contact us for other low prices on hardware and software

Nent Day Air Extra

FREE SHIPPING.NO SURCHARGE FOR E3 OR &.

Call for latest prices.

10, 20, 33 AND 42 MEG INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL HARD DISK SYSTEMS

• • • Microscience

• • • International•• • Corporation'

10 MEG

20 MEG

33 MEG

44 MEG

Brand of Hard HA

Mkrwcience(Half Height)

Mfcrrocience1 Half Height)

K.iJlilK

Rodirar

Internal

$529//WW

$679//$669

$1195//$1095

$1495//51395

External

$729/

$879///$869

$1295/

/$H95

$1595//$I495

RpDIME

Externals mounted with independent power supply and fan. Fully DOS 2.1 or 3.0 compatible. Both Internals and External* horn fromHard Disk. 33 and it Meg Inlernal Disks include extender power supply. The system COOKS complete and ready to install with the HardDisk, Controller. Cables, Manual. Software, and Mounting Hardware. One Year Warranty.

10, 20, and 33 Meg Hard Disks are available with combined Floppy/Hard Disk Controller Card for additional $75.

comPAa

$2595 EH

256K, 1/360K drive,10 Meg Internal

Now using 314" shock-mounted Winchester drives. Thesame as used in the Compaq Plus™. Also available with2 half-height drives and 10 MEG MU $2795.

Quantities of 10 or more $239$ eachOr upgrade your Compaq to a Compaq Plus" equivalentwith our 3'V shock-mounted Winchester disk kit. In-cludes Hard Disk. Controller, Cables. Manual, software,and Mounting Hardware. One year warranty, a —A —Quantities ol 10 m more $545 each 3^ " ^

comPAa

li -mifly v>\>ik> IvtKt

Wffl?

640K, One 360K Mm,

On* 10 NUg Internal Hard Drive

Tap* Backup Unit.

$3495

Includes Monitor

With 20 Meg Internal Hard Drive--$3641With 33 Meg Internal Hard Drive»S4141With 44 Meg Internal Hard Drive--$4541

IBM |PCAr-J:

IBM AT

CALL "* —"

i

HM„. rrnn* wt ■( IIM Carp

Call ui for competitive price* on larger quantities of RAM chips.

•-»- ^ ^ «•■ *r *• # r»

$14

64KRAM

Set Of 9 CnftpSr 200 or ISO NaoosccortJs $12 $ TO

256K RAM 1-9 sets $69 per setSetofOthips 50 or more sets $49perset

AST SixPak Plus"

PC'S LIMITEDSix Function Card

w/64K$249w/384K$319

One Year Varranit

* t puradihlrn> (M-ik

* tlnck/Ciiendar

* Mifl*ire iniluuYd

w/OK $149W/384K $233

l»n War MrfMlj

• Parallel Port

• Serial Part

• Opiumjl dime Port. \l\

+g*^fc> DISK DRIVES

MITSUBISHI

(Japan's Best)lalf Height, DS/DE

$89

(Japan's Best)ft AC Half-Hdght, DS/DD

. HlllHclghl, DS/DD

$99

to <

$79

INTEL 8087Math Co-processor

10 or more chips$89 each

SOLVE YOUR POWER PROBLEM.

XT POWER 135W

Fully XT'* compatible.

One Year Warranty.

Directly Replaces Power Supply in PC,

10 or more $85

m

IBMPCAFPRODUCTS

128KRAM $89

20 MEG Inlcriul Hard Disk $64932 MEG Internal H.rcDIlk $995

-ull> uimpaliblr » IBM P< tf Dish t onlrollrr. IM1S t (I or V

These are high-performance dink drive,well lulled for the AT™

iPfe

«==

PC'S LIMITED

• l Vs Floppy (onirolle r Card * HalfHrlflht■ 10.31 Meg Formatted Capacity ' U» Power

• l*ed In ( Dmpaq Deskpro

Compaq, Mlcrosclcnce, Rodimc,

TEAC, IBM, Irwia. Intel, and

Mitsubishi are trademarks of their respective

companies. All brand names are registered

trademarks.

OUTSIDE TEXAS, ORDERS ONLY, CALL 1-800-IBM-51507801 N. Lamar, #E-200, Austin, Texas 78752

All calls for technical support and inside Texas, f

call (512) 452-0323. ''

Tele* No. 9103808386 PC LTD

Ad number 406

Inquiry 324

IUNE 1985 'BYTE

TALL TREE JRAM-2

1HLL i ni_i- » -

2 MEGABYTE

Multi-Function Board for yourIBM, PC, XT, AT

$19995

■t II n, ■ If *m.

■» II "-' M B. HI

.Bl IB • IBI

in w u ««r m

■i w w ntw m\■at l lr Biir a is

IB T 1 I Jit B IBBl 1 IBB 1

WITHOUTMEMORY

. Up to 2 megabytes of RAM

. Optiona/ Parallel, Serial & Clock

. Free Jet Drive/J Spool Software

• Uses only 1 slot

• No loose cables! list jade

j RAM 2 without memoryJ HAM-2 with 1 megabyteJ RAM-2 with 2 megabytesSerial/Parallel/Clock moduleSerial/Serlal/Clock moduleI J RAM-AT without memoryJ RAM-AT with 1 megabyteJ RAM-2 with 2 megabytesAT Serial/Parallel moduleAT Serial/Serial moduleJet Drlve/J Spool Software

'219

•519

•819

'180

'180

'269

'569

'869

•130

'130

'120

fL=5=^

I .' V- I i iTiJfl -1 J:l i To I

:

New! from JADE

IBM Multifunction Card

Up to 384K, parallel printer port, RS-232 serial port,serial cable, clock/calendar. RAM disk/spooler anddiagnostic software package.

GET YOUR IBM PC-AT THE

AST Advantage

• Up to 3 Megabytes of RAM

• Uses standard 64K or 256K chips

• Has PAL for split-addressing

• Low power. IBM-AT high speed bus

• One parallel & one serial port

• 2nd serial or game port optional

LIST128K, 1 serial, 1 parallel512K, 1 serial, 1 parallel1.5 MB, 1 serial, 1 parallel3.0 MB. 1 serial, 1 parallel

Expansion Boards

^rlL^BKTiJ^M fi>J

"Bl It»* II fll

■■' Jl Bl

«BBJBI

=#SISth1

riTTITHiniT

»<BKTcl IM FzT* IT*Ti Bl

New Products toExpand Your PCjr.

AST S12K (rCombo w 128K512K Multilunc. Card wiOKExternal 360KB Disk DriveParallel Printer Port

'595'1395'2195'4145

JAOE'479,95>679.95'989.95'1689.9s

. s395

. 5295

s499

'120

'199

'299

Simultaneous Disk/Keyboard '59

AST-PCnet lljr LAN . s495

TECMAR CAPTAINjr. W/128K '49g

8087 Co-Processor CardLight Pen System

•299.-J-,■229.95'369.95

'94.95•149.95

'229.95

'44.95

'399.95'349.95

169g5

YOUR CCHOICE V

HA vff mTcVo^^300HAYpI ™lcromodem Me

0K64K256K384K

LIST

'349!449'549'649

AST for IBM PC

Six Pak Plus 64KSix Pak Plus 256KSix Pak Plus 384K

Mega Plus 64K

Mega Plus 256KMega Plus 512KI/O PlusPreview

LIST

. '395'695. '945. '395. '665'1095. '165'399

JAOE•198.95'219.95

'269.95'299.95

JADE'249.95

'319.95

•349.95•269.95'349.95'699.95

•119.95

'309.95

LIST

'495'495

JADE AT-Expando Plus

AT-Memory Master plus

AST Advantage-AT '595

STB Rio Grande 128K to 1.5M '495

STB Grande Byte 128K to 2.5M _ '395

Ouadport-AT 1S, 1P

4 Serial Port Option

Quadmeg-AT 1 MEG

Quadmeg-AT 2 MEG

Ouadmeg-AT 4 MEG

128K Upgrade Kit

20 Megabyte Hard Disk360K Disk Drive for AT

IBM Video Boards

'154_ '195_ '2465

'3495

'7490

'395

'1790

'395

135 WATT

Drop-in replacement

POWER SUPPLY

ForyourJB^Cgg5

List Price

*199

Hercules Color

Hercules Graphic

Plantronics Color PlusAST Preview

AST Monograph PlusTecmar Graphics Master

Quadcolor I

Ouadcolor II

PC Peacock

Paradise Graphics Card

Paradise Module A

Paradise Module B

Everex Graphics Edge

LIST

'245'499'549'399'595'699•295'275-299'395_ '95'275'599

JADE•395.95'429.95•479.95•359.95'299.95

'139.95'179.95

'1995.95

•2995.95

CALL

'129.95

'895.95

•119.95

JADE'189.95'339.95'379.95•309.95'449.95•499.95•209.95'209.95'239.95'319.95

'87.95

'239.95'349.95

JADE 1200 BAUD MODEM

I Hayes Smartmodem compatible. 1200 BAUDmodem at a fraction of the price FCC approved.JADE 1200 BAUD MODEM $399 '22995

10 Megabyte Hard Diskfor Your IBM PC s599^

Plug-n-run, ready to go, complete with controllercard, data cable, and mounting hardware, totallyPC/XT compatible, faster than XT, handles 4different operating systems, streamer tape back-upavailable. External model includes cabinet & powersupply Full one year manufacturers warranty

10 MEGABYTE Internal % High

10 MEGABYTE External

15 MEGABYTE Internal

15 MEGABYTE External

20 MEGABYTE Internal

20 MEGABYTE External

33 MEGABYTE Internal

33 MEGABYTE External

10 MEGABYTE Half-High Tape20 MB Disk with 10 MB Tape

LIST

'1350'1585'1765'1897'1800

2060'3298'3388•1000

2980

JADE•599.95•799.95•879.95•1049.95•999.95

'1199.95

•1569.95

•1799.95

•579.95

•1799.95

HAYESSmartmodems

Sophisticated direct-connect autdial modem, touch tone or pulseinterface programmable

HAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYESHAYES

Smartmodem 2400

Smartmodem 1200

1200B w/o Smartcom II

1200B for IBM PC

Smartmodem 300

Chronograph

Micromodem 100

Micromodem lie

Smartmodem lie

PLEASE Software

Smartcom II

PR0M0DEMSfrom PROMETHEUS

o-answer'auto |

dialing

RS232

LIST

JADE

899

'629.95

'699

•389.95

'539

'339.95

'599

•359.95

289

'169.95

•249

•199.95

399

•299.95

299

•169.95

•399

•169.95

^95

•299.95

'149

•99.95

i:u'H;Mui*i

1200B ProModem for IBM PC1200 RS-232 ProModem

5150 Improved IBM Keyboard

5151 Deluxe IBM Keyboard

LIST

JADE

'209

'159.95

'299

•>99.95

LIST JADE

399 '289."

'495 '299.95

449 '349.95

'495 '349.95

. '99 '79.95

. '99 "79.95

64K Mem Expansion for Above '99 '19.95

1200A ProModem for Apple1200 ProModem for Macintosh

Alpha/num Display Option

Options Processor

Mouse by MOUSE SYSTEMS MICROSOFT for IBM PC

PC MOUSE with Pop-upsPC MOUSE with Paint

FIELD MOUSE (male or female)PC PAINT Software

MOUSE WINDOW SoftwarePOP-UP MENU Software

LIST

s195'220s175

_ '99'150

_ '50

JADE'139.95'159.95'129.95

'69.95'109.95

'39.95

QUADRAM for IBM PC

Quadboard Wo RAM

Ouadboard 64K

Quadboard 128KQuadboard 256KQuadboard 3B4K

Quadlink

Quadcolor I

Quadcolor II

LIST

'269'395'495'595s795'680'295'275

JADE'234.95'275.95

'319.95

'399.95'469.95•349.95'209.95'209.95

^C$QQ95

360K ****

Disk Drive for IBM PC

Double-sided, double density

TANDON 100-2TEAC 55B

CDC 1/2 HeightCDC Full Height

LIST'299'249'279'299

JADE

'119.95

•99.95

«139.«

'149.95

SHUGART 8 Disk Drives

SHUGART SA 801A SS/DD (Limited Supply)

LIST '502 '399.95 ea. 2 for '389.95 ea.

SHUGART SA-851R DS/DD

LIST '605 '459.95 ea 2 for 5454.9s ea.

Mouse with WordMicrosoft WordMouse a la carte

LIST JADE

'495 '319.9s

'249 '339.95

'199 '129.95

ISO-BAR

;--■>

64K RAM Upgrade Kits

IbVpT *1795 I

High speed RAM upgrade kit with FREE! parity(error detection) and one year warranty. We shipthousands of these kits to satisfied customers everyweek.

LIST JADE

128K RAM Chip Kit for AT '359 '129.95

256K RAM Chip Kit '495 '78.95

HIGH RESOLUTION

| 640 x 260, .38 Dot Pitch

TAXAN

RGB COLOR

MONITOR

LlST PRICE H599 $OQQ95

For cable add '19°° £3%*

High ResolutionVideo Monitors

These industrial quality ISO-BARs look like aI I I I ! ■ standard multi-outlet power strip but contain surgesuppression circuitry and built-in noise filters pi us a15 amp circuit breaker.

LIST JADE

4 Receptacle Iso-Bar '89 '59.9S

8 Receptacle Iso-Bar '99 '69.95

UNINTERRUPTABLE POWER SUPPLY

Emergency back-up power to save your computersystem and your valuable data. A must for everycomputer system

Disk Drivefor YourApple He

$12995

Disk Drive for Apple HeFull Height Disk Drive _Half Height Disk Drive

ALS Z Engine

16K RAM Card

200 Watt UPS425 Watt UPS1000 Watt UPS

_ '359. '539'1179

'279.95'459.95'995.95

64K 80 Column Card for HeBest 80 Column Card ll/il

Printer Card ft Cable

Fan with Surge Protection _Grappler Plus

64K Buffered Grapplert W/16K

LIST

'249'299'249'299

_ '99'219'219'109

_ '99'175'275

JADE•129.95

'139.95

•129.95

'145.95

'39.95

'119.9S•139.95

'49.95

'59.95

'99.95

'149.95

Amdek 300G

Amdek 300A

Amdek 310A

Amdek Color 300Amdek Color 500Amdek Color 600Amdek Color 710PGS MAX-12

PGS HX-12 640x240

PGS SR-12 720x480

PGS Scan-Doubler

14 inch Quadchrome II

Taxan 440 Ultra Hi-res RGB

Taxan 210 RGB/Composite

Taxan TV Tuner for RGB Monitor

PERSYST Boards

LIST

'179'199'230'349'525'650'799'269'699'799'299'599'799'34999

JADE'139.95'149.95'179.95

'269.95'399.95'449.95'589.95'179.95•449.95•629.95

'199.95

'499.95

'599.95

'289.95

'89.95

[JADEXPC IBM PC

I ^^ ™ w iRitK nf RAM Maximurr

► 256K of RAM Expandsto 640K on Main Board

► 140 Watt Power Supply

► 4.77 or 7 MHz Clock

► 8 Expansion Slots

► Deluxe Keyboard

► 90 Day Warranty

» 256K of RAM Maximumon Main Board

► 63 Watt Power Supply

► 4.77 MHz Clock

► 5 Expansion Slots

► IBM Keyboard

► 90 Day Warranty

;56K :, RaZtw. 360K Di.k Drive., .«- Conner

$1295

Mono display adapter

LIST

JADE

'225

•189.95

'250

•199.95

'595

•469.95

'395

'299.95

Mono display adapter w 'parallel

BoB Hi-res display adapter

j Time Spectrum SB 384 W/64K _

High Speed 8087 APU

ILIST PRICE s293 SALE PRICE '139.95

OPTION #1

256K of RAMTwo 360K DrivesHercules CardAmdek 300

OPTION #3

256K Expands to 640K10 Megabyte Hard DiskOne 360K Drive130 Watts of PowerMultifunction CardHercules CardAmdek 300

M695

OPTION #2

256K of RAMTwo 360K DrivesHercules CardPGS HX-12 Monitor

,„„ „r no IBM PC '2995 IBM PC '2395

JADE XP-T-'1695 JADE XpF-'2695 JADE XPC -»20!«

Place Orders Toll Free!

Computer Products

Continental U.S.A. Inside California Los Angeles Area

(800)421-5500 (800)262-1710 (213)973-7707 4901 West Rosecrans Ave Hawthorne. California 90250

EPSON LX-80 100 cps. NLQEPSON RX-100F/T+ 100 cpsEPSON JX-80+ 160 cps, ColorEPSON FX-80FT+ 160 cpsEPSON FX-100F/T1 160 cpsEPSON LQ-1500 200 cps, NLQEPSON HI-80 4 Pen PlotterEPSON/COMREX 420 cps2K Serial Board tor RX/FXNLQ Board for RX/FXLetlerWriter NLQ Kit for FXLX-80 TractorFX-80 Tractor

LQ-1500 TractorLQ-1500 Sheet Feeder

■499 '399.95

NEW! OKIDATA PRINTER

™ $34995

CITIZEN Printers

Best Near-Letter-Quality printers for under $1000

■ The LITTLE BOARD withI FREE! CP/M 2.2

160 CPS. Near Letter Quality, & Graphics

CITIZEN MSP-10 FT 160 cpsCITIZEN MSP-15 FT 760 cpsCITIZEN MSP-20 FT 200 cpsCITIZEN MSP-25 FT 200 cpsCITIZEN Serial Option

LIST

'499

'749

5699

'949

'60

JADE'349"'529.95'489.95'669.9s

S49.95

C. IT0H Printers

C. Itoh's best-selling ProWriter and StarWriterprintersarenowavailablewith parallel interfacesforApple & IBM, or a serial interface for Apple lie,Macintosh, Data General, etc. Full one yearmanufacturers warranty.

OKIMATE 20 Color printer .PLUG-N-PRINT for OKI 20 .OKI 182 120 cps. graphics _OKI 192 760 cps. graphics _OKI 193 760 cps. 75" paper

OKI 92 760 cps. graphics

OKI 93 760 cps. 75" paper _

OKI 84 200 cps. parallel

OKI 84 200 cps. serial

Tractor for OKI 192

Tractor for OKI 92

2K Serial Board for 192/193

2K serial Board for 92/93

Extra Ribbon

LIST

. '150_ '75, '299. '499. >699. c599. '995M399'1499_ '50_ 89_ s99. s120_ '9

JADE'139.95

s69.95»259.«

'349."'549.95>349.«

'599.95'799.95'949.95

S44 95'54.95

«69.M

>99.95S495

Printer Accessories

IBM PC style cable

Standard parallel cable _Dual Printer Switch Box

Apple Card & cable

RS-232C serial cable

Ribbons

Apple lie cable

LIST

_ '54_ s40

'149

'109_ '30_ as low as'4.99- '39 s19.

JADES19.95

S1995

s89.95549.95s24.95

ProWriter 7500 FT 705 cps

ProWriter 8510 AP 720 cps _ProWriter II 1550 FT 720 cps

StarWriter Y10-20 20 cps

StarWriter A10-30 29 cps

StarWriter F10-40 40 cps

StarWriter F10-55 58 cps

StarWriter F10 Tractor

StarWriter A10 Tractor

LIST

. '289. '429. '619. '489. s669'1199'1449. '249. '199

JADES209.955299.95•439.95'359.95'479.95'899.95'1089.95

'159.95

'139.95

Miniature single board CP/M computer designed tomount directly on top of a 5%" floppy disk drive(7.75" x 5.75"). Contains Z80A, CPU, 64K RAM,Boot EPROM, terminal port, modem port, parallelprinter port, floppy disk controller, and CP/M 2.2included FREE!

LIST JADE

Little Board with CP/M '400 '339.95

Support Package s59 '48.95

Serial Cable '13 11.»<

Diskless Monitor Eprom s30 s24.95

SCSI/Plus I/O Adapter '99 _'89.9s

QUA0RAM ,

MICR0FAZER Buffers1

Data Switches

LIST JADE

'129 '99.95

'129 '99.95

'175 '139.95

'175 '139.95

SERIAL A-B Switch

PARALLEL A-B Switch

SERIAL A-B-C-D Switch

PARALLEL A-B-C-D Switch

A-B Printer Switch

Fully bi-directional switch allows your computer torun either of two printers, or allows two computersto share one printer, standard parallel switch box.

LIST JADE

Printer Switch s149 '89.95

Extra Cable s40 '29.95

DOUBLE-SIDEDDOUBLE-DENSITY

DISKETTES

I Letter Quality! Printers On Sale!

pandable to 64K (parallel model expands

_ '169_ s225_ '445

to512K)

990

In Bulk PackagesEACH of 125 pes

lnc,udes envelopes & jrabe,s

I Single-sided, double-densiW *4 WJDouble-sided, double-density

Doub.e-sided1.2MB.o'AT ^ ^

31/2" Single-sided tor Mac — m?,

3V Double-sided for DG/1 - ™ ^Bulk Diskettes as low as

LIST

JADE

.IIJKI 6100 7fl CPS

'59P.

'399.95

.MIKIR3nn40 CPS

'995

'849.95

COMREX CR-lle 20 CPS

'599

•399.95

NFC 3550 33 CPS

'225D

'1399.95

diabi n fi.in 40 cps

'2340

•1569.95

TOSHIBA P1340 780 CPS

'995

'599.95

TOSHIBA P1351 780 CPS

'1R95

'1249.95

TOSHIBA P351 288 CPS

'1850

'1299.95

T.I. 855 750 CPS

'935

•689.95

T.I. 865 750 CPS

'1299

•949.95

LIST

JADE

Sfi-10 720 CPS

'299

•239'5

SR-1S 720 CPS

S499

•39995

POWERTYPE 78 CPS

'499

'35995

8K Parallel in/Parallel out64K Parallel in/Parallel out128K Parallel in/Parallel out8K Serial in/Parallel out64K Serial in/Parallel out

Parallel in/Serial out64K Parallel in/Serial out8K Serial in/Serial out

We accept cash, checks, credit cards, or purchase orders from qualified firms and institutionsMinimum prepaid order$15.00 California residents add 61/2% tax. Export customers outside the US orCanada pleaseadd 10% to all prices. Prices and availibility subject to change without notice. Shipping and handling chargesvia UPS Ground 500/lb. UPS Air $1.00/lb minimum charge $3.00

32K Parallel in/Parallel out64K Parallel in/Parallel out32K Serial in/Serial out64K Serial in/Serial out64K Add-on Board

Computer Products

m

Apple II + Paper Tape I/O Is This Easy

10101011010001010:.:.:.:.::.::.:.:.::.:.:01010101010010100.:.:.:.:.::.:..:.::.:.:One minute you're without, the next you'reup and running! Just plug into your APPLEII PLUS. A neat and complete package.

• Model 600-1 Punch — 50cps, rugged

• Model 605 Reader — 150cps

• Parallel Interface Board/Cable

• Data Handling Program

Code conversion available. TRS-80 pack-age soon. ADDMASTER CORP. 416 Juni-pero Serra Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91776 *213/285-1121.

SAVE TIME AND MONEY WITHLOW COST PI-SWITCH BOXES.

» a a

l j j-fl Starting at $59.95 l~t. _ I

•Quickly shares your computer amongmultiple terminals, printers, moderns, etc.with just a flick of the wrist.

• Compact black & beige aluminumenclosure features a high quality rotaryswitch with rear mounted connectors.

•Serial RS 232 Models have fern. 25-Pin Conn.(Lines 1-7 & 20)

PI02-S switches 2 to 1 $59.85

PI-03-S switches 3 to 1 79.95

PI-O^S switches 5 to 1 109.95

• Parallel models have fern. 36-Pin cent. conn.

PI-02 -P switches 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 00/ea:HK jT-I 7301 NW 41 St.' "' MIAMI, FL 33166

(305) 592-6092

Electronic

Circuit

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• New release

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• Full nonlinear

• Over 200 nodes

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• Macro circuits

• Worst case, Monte-Carlo

• Temperature effects

• Frequency dependent parts

• Time dependent parts

For MS-DOS. 128k minimum.$395.00

Tatum LabsP.O. Box 698Sandy Hook, CT 06482(203) 426-2184

Inquiry 12

inquiry 361

Inquiry 401

PC EXPANSIONS

Qume 142A

$189

Teac FD55B

$129$129$239

Tandon TM100-2 . .

Tandon TM101-4

CDC 9409

$129

Maynard Disk Controller

$114

Sandstar Series

Scan

internal 10MB HDsystems WSi

$769

WS2 . .

$929

MaynStream tape backup

$1229

Quadboard >

$254

Quadboard I384K)

$349

Quadcolor 1 ...

$199

ASTSixPakPlus (64K)

$259

SixPakPlus (384K)

$354

MegaPlus(64Kl

$269

Advantage ...

$419

I/O Plus

$129

PCnel starter kil

$809

HERCULES graphics board

$339

Color Card with PP

$169

HAYES Modems 300

$199

Smartmodem 1 200

$429

Smartmodem 1 200B

$389

Setol 9 chips (64 K)

$19

256K chips (each)

$6

8087 chip

$139

Verbatim Dalalite disks (20)

$49

VLM Computer Electronics

10 Park Place • Mornstown. NJ 07960

(201)267-3268 Visa, MC. Check

or COD

Inquiry 4I9

WHY YOURFLOPPY DISKSHOULD BE ABASF FLEXY DISK

qualimetricl

• Lifetime warranty.

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PLUS BASF special Offer

Call, write, or utilize reader service — wellsend you our full-range catalog of computersupplies with a special offer enclosed.

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1250-E Rankin Dr., Troy, Ml 48083

Phone: (313) 589-3440

Simply #1 in Service & Reliability

Authorized ResellerInformation Processing Media

Inquiry 258

BASF

NEW I/O BUS

FOR DATA ACQUISITION & CONTROL

Now available(or IBM PC,XT, AT &Apple II

The Local Applications Bus,LAB 40, is a versatile computerto peripheral interface and aproduct development system. Itis optimized for connectingdirectly to micro-processor com-patible I.C-s & hybrids. Applica-tions: data acquisition, robotics,instrumentation, control, conven-tional peripherals. Capabilities: access up to64 sixteen bit ports. 8 interrupts, DMA speeds,more. Presently available Applications modulesinclude 8 & 1 2 bit high speed A/D w/program-mable gain. Prices for the LAB 40 developerskit (circuit, software & manual) start at $200.

(omputer^(f ontmuum

75 Southgate Ave.. Suite 6

Daly City. CA 94015 (415)755-1978

©ffil

yperon

Software

Specializing in innovative programmingtools

■ Complete documentation andC-source provided (presently DOSonly).

■ Reasonable prices

■ High quality and goodperformance

Products currently availableC Preprocessor Features includevariables and expressions loops,and full macros Price - $39 95General purpose editor Line orientedcommands with a screen orientedsubmode Command window Price— $29.95Order from:

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P.O. Box 3349Costa Mesa, CA 92628

money order California

Enclose checkresidents add 6°4

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maxell disks

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TIRED OF WAITINGFOR SERVICE AND PRICE?

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DATA ACQUISITION TO GO

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Connects via RS-232. Built-in BASIC.Stand alone capability. Expandable.Battery Option. Basic system: 16 ch.12 bit A/D, 2 ch. D/A, 32 bit Digital I/O.Expansion boards available. DirectBus units for many computers.

SPECIALISTS IN PORTABLE APPLICATIONS

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ELEXOR

Inquiry 2I4

Inquiry I66

l*U*CO™ is the best thing to happen

to personal computing

since the invention

of the personal computer!

l*U*CO is an idea whose time has come.

l*U*CO is the International Union of Computer Owners, an organization designed to protectthe interests of personal computer owners and users against those who would take their

money...and then deliver less than they promised.

Here's an overview of some of the vital services l*U*CO provides:

1. Access to the lowest priced, reputable vendor fornearly every computer related need; and,

2. Protection from the rip-off artists, vaporwarespecialists, false advertisers and other creepy, crawlycreatures who have been attracted to the computerindustry by the scent of your money; and,

3. Constantly updated information on software,

|*U*CO™:

hardware and peripheral releases, upgrades, bugreports, bug fixes, reviews, letters to the editor andother data individually tailored to your needs throughthe exclusive l*U*CO COMPUTER REGISTRY™; and,4. Finally, a chance to get even with those charactersout there who promised a lot, took your money...andthan delivered less than they promised.

a lynch mobwith a purpose.

Every computer owner has been ripped offat least once.

Or maybe a dozen times or more might be amore appropriate number.

In any event, we've all been victimized bythe computer industry.

And It wasn't accidental.

Today"s computer industry is filled withhypesters, rip-off artists, vaporwarespecialists and other s whose sole functionin life is to part you from your money bydelivering a little less than you bargainedfor...or by charging you more than you wouldotherwise have to pay.

The rip-off might have been a computer thatwasn't quite as "compatible" as advertised.Or it could have been a well-known computerthat was to be delivered at the same time that"hundreds" of programs would be availablewith it...if you consider the same time to be ayear-and-a-half later.

Or the rip-off might be in the form ofmeasures taken by certain manufacturersand software publishers to limit sales of theirproducts through "authorized" dealers only.

This is, of course, designed (they say) toget you better service.

But it's also a neat way to keep prices

artificially high by restricting competitiveforces in the market place.The number of ways you're being ripped offgrow everyday, as greed becomes the majormotivating factor in the computermarketplace.

Possibly, you've been had by a softwaremanufacturer who continuously upgradestheir software...charging you a pretty pennyfor the elimination of bugs which shouldn'thave been there in the first placet

In a few cases, it's nothing more complexthan a vendor who takes your money andsimply takes their time in delivering.

If they ever get around to delivering at all.

In any event, the computer industry justisn't the friendly place it used to be, wheneveryone was trying to help each other learnabout their machines.

Today's computer market has been aninvitation to be ripped off.

Until now, that is.l*U*CO

means protection.

|*U*CO™ subscribes to some very ancientwisdom: there's strength in numbers.

Labor unions learned the lesson a long timeago.

The individual worker had no clout.

But when the workers organized, they got alot of power.Even automobile owners learned the lessona long time ago. Back when the early driversgot tired of dirt roads, they organized theAmerican Automobile Association...andthat's part of the reason the United States islaced with an incomparable highway andstreet system today.

Needless to say, the computer industryknows the value of organization as well.

Computer manufacturers, softwarepublishers and others eager to get as muchas they can from you have formed variousassociations to acheive such lofty goals asmaking sure that they can' be heldresponsible when their products don't work orto prevent you from copying the software you"licensed" from them...so they can sell you aback-up disk.

In short, everyone seems to have learnedthe benefits of getting organized and gainingpower.

Except the personal computer owner anduser.

And that's why there has to be an I'U'CO™.

502

IUNE 1985

I'U'CO™ is designed to be whatevery collective organization Is: ameans to protect the specialInterests of its own membersl

And, in this case, the members are thevictims...the people who own and usepersonal computers.

The people who until now have beenpowerless.First of all,I'U'CO™means low prices.The first benefit an l*U*CO™ member gets isthe opportunity to save money.Lots of it.

While certain manufacturers of software,peripherals and hardware are trying hard toirack down on what they call the "greymarket" (thus keeping prices higher thanthey should be), l*U*CO™ will maintain adatabase of every mail-order advertisementthat appears in the major national computernagaazines. A similar database will also be<ept for selected major retail markets, so/ou can take advantage of special sales and: h e like.

When you want the lowest price onsomething, just (electronically) mail yourshopping list to l*U*CO™.Within a day, you'll get the three lowest andmost recently quoted prices...and, quiteDossibly, special prices that haven't beenadvertised anywhere!

I'U'CO™ protects you.

Of course, buying by mail or from a supplier/ou don't know can get you more than lowprices.

It can get you problems in delivery, serviceand general dissatisfaction with the product/ou bought.

So, along with the low price quotations, youalso get l*U*CO™ member evaluations of theproduct and the vendor and a bibliography of'eviews, letters to the editor, articles andDther information that just might convince/ou not to spend the money in the first place.

(Remember, most sellers are prettyestrictive about returns, particularlysoftware returns. )

So, as an l*U*CO™ member, you get:1. The lowest possstbie prices.

2. An assessment of both the productand the vendor.

3. Information on the actual use valueof the product. (An awful lot of prod-ducts sound better in their advertis-ing than they are in reality. Thafswhy so few companies offer amoney-back guaranty.)

Continuing protection

from I'U'CO™:

the Computer Registry™.

As an l*U*CO™ member, you can alsobecome part of our exclusive ComputerRegistry™.

You simply register the appropriateinformation about all the hardware, softwareand peripherals you own with l*U*CO™.

Then, as updates are announced, bugsdiscovered or fixed and so on, youautomatically get this information as part of acustomized and individualized monthlybulletin.

No more finding out a year after the factthat you're still using Version 1.00 andeveryone else has Version 9.4! Or, youmight find out that the problem you thoughtwas yours alone is actually widespread.

(As a personal note, you'll find that thisTU'CO™ service is invaluable.

In the past few weeks, I found out that a)the ROMS in my Anadex printer have beenupgraded, b) there's at least oneundocumented bug in running MacPaint withthe 512K upgrade, c) the ROMS in myIOMEGA Bernoulli Box were upgraded, andd) [best of all] MicroPro knew of a bug inInfostar 1.6 which they didn't tell anyoneabout for 18 months!)

In none of these instances did themanufacturer tell the consumer.

As an l*U*CO™ member, you could getthis information on a customized andindividualized basis, each and every monthfor every piece of hardware, software andperipheral equioment you own or acquire.

I'U'CO™:the Iron fist.

The best part of l*U*CO™ has been savedfor last.

Yes, l*U*CO™ will help you get the lowestprices on everything you want to buy for yourcomputer.

And l*U*CO™ will give you solidinformation on the integrity of products andvendors.

Finally, if you choose to become a part ofl*U*CO's™ exclusive Computer Registry™,you can also stay current with the productsyou own or acquire.

But with I'U'CO™,you also get power!

But, more importantly, your membership inru*CO™ gives you the power of belongingto a community...a community of personalcomputer owners and users who need toprotect their rights.

For instance, a group of softwarepublishers managed to get the Louisianalegislature to pass a law "legalizing" thenon-warranties they provide with theirsoftware. (You know, "this software is soldwithout any guaranty that it will work.* Justpay your money and take your chances.)

I'U'CO™will fight for youl

|*U*CO™ will fight that kind of nonsense bylobbying against it, organizing PAC's and, ingeneral, by doing what every other specialinterest group does: fight for its own specialneeds and interests.

As one person, there is little you can dowhen you're ripped off by a vendor. Thepowers that be...such as the FTC...donl paymuch attention to one person.

But when a special group like I'U'CO™ hasa lot of members which can be translatedinto publicity and political pressure, you'd besurprised what can be done.

There's a lot more to the I'U'CO™ story.More than we can afford to tell here.Complete information costs only $ 1.00.So, fill in the coupon below.

Free!

A guide to your legal rights as a

personal computer owner!

Send a dollar for more information on l*U*CO™ membership and we'll include FREE a guide:o your legal rights (and obligations) as a personal computer owner.

This synopsis, written by an attorney who also happens to be an electrical engineer willjive you helpful information on questions such as using copy programs for making your own)ack-up copies, how to complain effectively and other issues which affect you as aDersonal computer owner.

Ifs a slim volume, to be sure, because unless you 're both rich and tough , you'rejoing to learn that you haven't got all that many rights.

International Union of Computer Owners, Inc.30 East Huron StreetChicago, Illinois 60611

YES, I'm tired of being ripped off. Enclosed Is$1.00. Please send Information on I'U'CO™I understand that I am under no obligation toenroll as a member.

Reese print all information!

Name

Company.Address _City.

State ZIP

Make of computer:.

Inquiry 224

IIJNE I985 'BYTE 503

COMPUTERPRODUCTS.Inc.ORDER TOLL FREE

(800)538-8800

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

(800)848-8008

r^"fl

MasterCard

c

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RAMS

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256 ■ 4

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450m

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450m

21141-3

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21141-2

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200m

2147

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5101

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450m

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TMS4044-4

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HM6I16LP-4

2K I 8

200m

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HM6II6LP-3

2K I 8

150m

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HM6116LP-2

2K i 8

120m

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150m

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HM6264LP-I5

8K i 8

150m

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120m

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DYNAMIC RAMS

TMS4027

4K > 1

250m

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4K I 1

300m

MM5280

4K I 1

300m

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74LS260

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48

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54

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74L8275

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1 74LS04

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38

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98

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1 96

1 74LS08

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290

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1 74LS74

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190

I 74LS75

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3 95

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215

741S78

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1 45

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74LS240

94

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74LS24I

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3.15

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54

74LS242

98

74LS883

3.15

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98

74LS684

3.15

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1.25

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3.15

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88

74LS245

1 45

74LS688

235

74LS107

38

74LS247

74

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3.15

74LSI09

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74LS248

98

74LS783

23.95

74LSII2

3H

74LS249

98

81L895

1.45

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74LS25I

58

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251S2S89

420

6500

We will try to BEATAll Competitor's Prices

CALL for Quote!

DISC CONTROLLERS

1691177117911793

17951797214327912793

14.9022.902290229022906.0038.9038.90

2795279768438272

38.9038.9033.901990

M88876 22 90

MB8877 22.90

MC3470 4.00

UP0765 19.90

CRT CONTROLLERS

S845

6B47

68047

68B45

7220

8275

119010.9023.9018.9038.9028.90

C8T5027 1190

CRT5037 28 90

0P835O 38.90

HD4650S 11.90

MCI 372 6.90

TMS99I8* 38.90

UV ERASERS

QUV-T8/1 $49.95

ECONOMY Model

• Erases 15 EPROMS in 20 minutes

• Plastic Enclosure

650265046505650765206522653265456551

6500

65O0 A

4.90 6502A 5.90

6.90 6520A 5.90

8.90 6522* 9.90

9.90 65324.. . 10.90

4.30 6545* 12.90

4 90 6551* 10.90

g gQ 6500 B

i.m 65028 7.90

6800

1 MHz

6802

6803

6808

6809E

6809

6810

6820

6821

6828

6840

6843

6844

6845

6847

6850

6852

6860

6862 .

6875

6880

6883

2.9079017.9012.908.908.902.904.302.9013.9011.9033.902490119010.902.905907 9010.9069019021.90

68 BOO2 MHz

68B0068B02

11.9011 90II 905.905 90IB.90

68B09E .

68BI0

68021

68840

68B45 18.90

68850 5.90

68000

68000-8 34.90

68047 23.90

68488 18.90

68652 14.90

68661 8.90

68764 17.95

68766 19.95

8000

8031 .

8035 .

8039 .

INS-8060

INS-8073

8080*

8005 ...

8085»-2 11.90

8086 24.90

8087-3 |5 MHzl 159.908087-2 IBMH2) . 279.90

8088 19.90

8089 59.90

14.905.9059016 9029.903 90

4

6253

8253-5

8255

8256-5

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8259-5

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8274

8275.

8279

8100

8131 ..

81558155-2 .8156 . .8185 . .8185-2 .

2 905 907.906.9028.903990

. 69.9

. 19.9

. 28.9

. 28.9

. 6.9

8279-5 7.9

8282 0.4

8283 0.4

8284 4.S

8286 6.4

0287 6.4

B2B8 12.1

B289 44.8

8292 12.1

8200

8300

8202 . .

8203 .6205821282148216 . .82248226 .B228

8237 . .8237-5 14.

8238 4.45

8243 4.45

8250 9.90

B25I 3.90

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23.9038.902.901.753.751752.201.753.4512 90

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2.901.902.902.903.903.90

8700

8741 28.9

8748 19.9

8749 20.1

8755 23.9

80000

80186-680188

Z-80

Z-80

Z80-CPU 1.95

Z80-CTC 1.95

Z80-0MT 6.95

Z80-0M* 7.95

ZBO-PIO 1.95

ZB0-SIO/0 8.95

Z80-8I0/1 8.95

ZB0-SIO/2 8.95

Z80-8I0/9 8.95

Z-80 A

Z80A-CFU 2.45

Z80»-CTC 2.45

Z80*-0*BT 7.95

Z60A-DM* 8.95

Z80*-PI0 2.46

Z80«-8IO/0 9.95

Z80A-SI0/I 9.95

Z8D»-SiO.'Z 9.95

zsot-sio/g 9.95

Z-80 B

Z80B-CP0 .Z80B-CTCZBOB-PIOZ80B-DARTZ80B 810/0Z80 SI0/2

7 958956.95IB.9528.95Z8.95

MEMORYEXPANSION KIT

4164 200ns9 for $15.75

DIP SWITCHES

.fA-v'T^ > V-,".

4 POSITION 79

5 POSITION 05

6 POSITION 85

7 POSITION 89

8 POSITION 89

ZIF SOCKETS

■ .* # a & * » * » w s* « « »Ksi(

14 pin ZIF

16 pin ZIF

24 pin ZIF

28 pin ZIF

40 pin ZIF

ZIF = (Zero Insertion Force)

IC SOCKETS

(1 to 99)

8 pin ST 12

14 pin ST . 14

16 pin ST 16

18 pin ST 19

4.894.895.89

6 899 89

58

68

20 pin ST22 pin ST24 pin ST26 pin ST40 pin ST.

ST = Soldertail

282929

3948

8 pin WW14 pin WW .16 pin WW18 pin WW

20 pin WW 1.04

22 pin WW 1.34

24 pin WW 1.44

28 pin WW 1.64

40 pin WW 1.94

WW = Wire wrap

CRYSTAL CLOCKOSCILLATORS

PAflT NO FREQUENCY

1.000 1.0000 MHz

1.843 1 8432 MHz

2 000 2.0000 MHz

4000 4 0000 MHz

8.000 6 0000 MHz

10.000 10.0000 MHz

16.000 16.0000 MHz

18.432 184320 MHz

19660 19 6608 MHz

20.000 20.0000 MHz

32.000 32.0000 MHz

PRICE

699

6 996 996 996 99

6 996 996 996 99

CRYSTALS

1 0000 MHz1.8432 MHz

2 0000 MHz2.0972 MHz2.4576 MHz3.2766 MHz35795 MHz4 0000 MHz4 1943 MHz4 9160 MHz5.0000 MHz5.0688 MHz5.1850 MHz5.2429 MHz5.7143 MHz6.0000 MHz6 1440 MHz64000 MHz6.5536 MHz

2.692.691.95

. 1.951.951.951.95

. 1.951.95

. 1.95

. 1.951.95I 951.951.951 951951 951 95

8.0000 MHz

..1.9!

10.0000 MHz

. 1.9!

10 7386 MHz

.. 1.9!

12.0000 MHz .

.. 1.9!

14.3182 MHz

.. 1.9!

15 0000 MHz

.. 1.9!

16.0000 MHz

..1.95

17 4300 MHz

. .1.9!

18 0000 MHz

.. 1.95

16.4320 MHz

. . 1.95

19 6608 MHz

.. 1.95

20 0000 MHz .

.. 1.95

22 II84 MHz .

.. 1.95

32.0000 MHz

.. 1.95

36.0000 MHz .

.. 1.95

48.0000 MHz

. 1.95

49.4350 MHz . .

. . 1.95

49.8900 MHz

. . 1.95

99

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

78M05UC 34

7805T 74

7808T 74

78I2T 74

7815T 74

7824T 74

7905T .84

7900T 04

79I2T 04

7915T .04

7924T 04

7B05K 1.34

7012K 1.34

78I5K 1.34

7024K 1.34

7905K 1.44

7012K 1.44

7915K 1.44

7D42K 1.44

'8105 60

78LI2 08

70L15 00

79L05 70

79L12 70

79L15 70

78H05K 9.90

7IH12K 9.90

U*6S40 1.90

UCT=TO-220 K=TO-3 L = TO-92

Inquiry 151

ROBOT KITS!

PEPPY

2-way sensor detects noise or solid objectsin its path When front sensor contacts anobstacle or hears a loud noise ihand-clap)Peppy automatically turns to the leftUses 2 AA and t 9V battery (not included)

MV-916 $24.95

RESISTORS

CARBON FILM V* WATT 5%ALL STANDARD VALUES

25 PCS 75

50 PCS 1.25

100 PCS 2.00

1,000 PCS 15.00

RIBBON CABLE

Solid Color

Color Coded

Size

1 ft.

10 ft.

1 ft.

10ft.

10

.17

1.55

.78

7.20

16

.27

2.45

95

8.70

20

.35

3.15

1.15

10.90

25

.45

4.00

1.22

11.50

26

45

4.00

1.27

11.50

34

.60

5.35

1.55

14.40

10

.70

6.35

1.82

16.70

50

.88

7.40

2.40

21.90

i

Checkmate

Techno

logy

i

Bfct^i

Inc

t\PPLE lie Special

Extended 80-Col.

VIDEO CARD

$6g 95

• 64Kto 128K •IULTIVIEW 80/160 249.00

0-160 columns with any monitor!

> Screens: 80x24, 80x32, 80x48,96x24,132x24, 132x30, 160x24

■ On-screen BOLD and Underline

■ Reverse scrolling

1 Easy-to-read Wide-angle mode' Apple II and lie compatible' Prompt lines1 Upper & lowercase letters

APPLE & IBMACCESSORIES

APPLE ACCESSORIES

Parallel Printer Card 49.95

80-Col. card lor Apple 11+... 149.9580-Col. card lor Apple He... 1 29.95Checkmate 80-Column Card... 69.95Serial Card (communication)... 69.95

Clock Calendar card 79.95

Cooling Fan 38.95

Power Supply 69.95

Joystick 29.95

Joystick Adopter Apple He 14.95

RF Modulator 13.95

Disk Drive Full Height 169.95

Disk Drive'2 Height 169.95

Controller Card 49.95

Apple Paddles 5.95

16K Card 39.95

16K Bare Board 13.95

Extend-A-Slot 34.95

Paddle Adapple 29.95

Koala Touch Pad 99.00

Magic Touch Pad w/Joystick... 79.95

Keytronic Keyboard 219.00

Apple Keyboard (Taiwan). . 149.95 * —

INNOVATORS IN MICRO COMPUTER TECMNOIOCV

VIEWMAX-80 149.95

The right 80-column card for yourApple ll +

• Soft video switch

• Built-in inverse video

• Shift key support

• 2 year parts & labor warranty

i

■w

VIEWMAX-80e 129.95

Most advanced 80-column

extended video card for

Apple He

• Expands memory up to 192K

• Double high resolution

• 2 year parts & labor warranty

DISK DRIVES

Apple and IBM

compatible

Apple full height 159.95

Apple half height 129.95

Teac 55B 115.95

Tandon TM100-2 149.95

mm>3 ■ ■ " $

APPLE or IBM JOYSTICK

$29.95

Compatible for either:APPLE II and APPLE He

ORIBM-PC, JR., & IBM-XT

MULTIFUNCTION CARD

"A

- J.

64K to 384K HAM e Clock CalendarParallel Port • Software Included

Serial Port e I Year Warranty

s199.00MEMORY CARD

e Expendable to 512K

e Fully compatible with IBM software

e Fully compatible w/IBM diageeitic utilities

• Serial Pert Available

e I -Year Warranty

$149.00

MEMORYEXPANSION KIT

4164 200ns9 for $15.75

DISKETTES

5W'

a-i-i ■ a e.i a / SOn SECTOR .

ATHANA: ( ./hub ring )25 per package

SS/DD 29.75 or 1.19 ea.

DS/DD 34.75 or 1.39 ea.

LIFETIME WARRANTYON ALL ATHANA DISKETTES

«.!/-» a Ani-i , SOFT SECTOR .

NO LABEL:( ./hubring)

25 per package

SS/DD 24.75 or .99 ea.

DS/DD 29.75 or 1.19 ea.

2-YEAR WARRANTYON ALL BULK DISKETTES

«*: j:X

IBM SWITCHINGPOWER SUPPLIES

130 Watt IBM PC XT 139.95

200 Watt IBM PC AT 179.95

Reg. Power Supply

Model 4A/PS (9g/4)3 DC Outputs:

12V @ .4A, +5V @ 1.1 A-5V @ .2A Highly Filtered

6.95

mA

KEYBOARD (99/4)

MrVejrW.e1

|48kevs4"x10" 6.95

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00For shipping and handling include$2.50 for UPS ground or $350 forUPS Blue (air). For each additionalair pound, add $1 00. Californiaresidents must include 6% salestax; L.A., S.F., S. Cruz & S. Mateocounties include 6.5% sales taxand Santa Clara include 7% salestax. All items subject to availabilityand prices are subject to changeTypographical errors are not ourresponsibility.

No additional charge for Master-card or Visa. We reserve the rightto substitute manufacturers andto limit quantities.

CALL for VOLUME Quotes

NEW HOURS: M - F 7:30 am - 5:00 pm

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

2100 De La Cruz Blvd.

Santa Clara, CA 95050

(408) 988-0697

ALL MERCHANDISE IS100% GUARANTEED

Telex: 756440

■ . . ■ .... . ,. ■:

COASTLINE COMPUTERS

800-2284615

Please call collect if 800 number not in service.

213-329-4828213-324-8087

1956 W. 153 St., Gardena, CA 90247

COASTLINE COMPUTERS GUARANTEES THE BEST OF SERVICE WITHEXPERIENCED SALES PEOPLE, LOWEST PRICES AND FAST DELIVERY!

IBM PC

• 2 Vz High Drives, 256K

• 10 Meg Hard Disk

• Mono Card & Monitor

$2499IBM PC

• IBM PC w/256K

• 2 Half High Drives

• 256K Memory

• Coastline Computer ColorCard w/Parallel Port

• 12" Green Monitor

$1699

IBM XT

1 Drives 128K Memory10 Meg Hard Disk

$3295

IBM PC

• 2 Full Height MPI Drives

• 512K, Okidata 192P

• Monitor & Interface

$2499IBM PC

• IBM PC w/256K

• 2 Teac 55B Vz High Drives

• 256K Memory

• AST SixPac Plus with 64Kbringing system up to 320K

• Gemini SG 15 Printer

Price Too Low - Call

WE WILL BEAT ANY PRICE (same terms)

MI

COMPAQPORTABLE

2 Drives & 256K$1995.00

AST SIXPAC +

Comes with 384K

Expandable

Clock Calendar, Par/Ser Port

Plus Software

$359.00

PRINCETONGRAPHICS

HX-12 Color Monitor

$439.00

IBM CABLE

Computer to Par Printer6 Foot Long

$14.50

BMC

13" Amber Monitor

$89.00

IBM DOS 2.1

IBM PC & XTOperating System

$54.99

QUANTITY ORDERS

Call for Bigger Discounts

Corporate & School AcctsCall for Information

Dealer Programs Avail - P.O.s Expedited

Star Micronics

GEMINI

SG-10 Printer

Lowest Price - Call

Other Product LinesAvailable from Coastline

Amdek • Princeton Graphics • Techmar • TeacHercules • Compaq • Tandon • NEC • IntelOkidata • Quadram • Hayes • Alpha Omega

Anchor • Bizzcomp • Juki • Epson • Plus More!

CAL DEK 10 MegINTERNAL HARD DISK

For PC or CompatibleComes w/Drive Controller

vj> Dyt) .LIU (120 day warranty)

OKIDATA192P

160 cps for IBM PC

$369.00

CALL FORNEW PRICING ON . .

STAR MICRONIC

GEMINI'S

Mail Orders To: 1956 W. 153 St., Gardena, CA 90247. Terms: Visa, Mastercard, COD;s and Wire Transfers. No surcharge for credit cards.UPS, Federal and Emery shipping available. Calif, residents add 6'/2% sales tax. Prices subject to change without notice. Not responsible for typos.

506

:YTE • IUNE 1985

Inquiry 80

BLOW OUT SPECIALS YOU WONT BELIEVE

HAYES MODEM

1200 Baud Internal Modemw/SmartCom 1 Software

$qoQ aa 2400 Baud4>OOy.UU $639.00

ANCHOR MODEM

Mark 12External 1200 Baud Modem

$219.00

ANCHOR MODEM

Volksmodem 12300 - 1200 Baud Modem

$189.00

AMDEK MONITOR

Color 710Superior RGB Resolution

$559.00

AMDEK MONITOR

310A Monochrome

$159.00

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12 (Hi Res Color) $439.00MAX-12 (Mononchrome) $169.00SR-12 & Scandouble Call

BMC MONITOR

Color Monitor

$189.00

TAXAN MONITOR

Model 122

$139.00

GORILLA MONITOR

Green Monitor

$89.00

DRIVES (IBM Compatible)TEAC 55B $99.00MPI B-52 $89.00TANDON 100-2 $139.00

DISKETTES

DYSAN DS/DD $29.95COASTLINE DS/DD $19.95

DISK CLEANERSHEAD CLEANERS

CALL

OKIDATA PRINTER

192P (160cps)Streamline, Near Letter Quality

$369.00

GEMINI PRINTER

SG 15 (lOOcps)

$389.00

JUKI PRINTER

6100 (18cps)

(tQQQ AA Juki TractorfrOOiMJU $129.00

MEMORY UPGRADES

64K $10.00128K $20.00

DEALERS NOTE

1000 pes 4164 $ .95 ea.5000 pes 4164 $ .90 ea.

HERCULES

Color Card w/Par. Port $169.00Monocard $309.00

INTERFACE

Techmar Graphics Master $449.00Quadram $199.00

AST SIXPAC

Par./Ser. Port Exp to 384K

$239.00

QUADBOARD

with Game and 64K

$249.00

MATH COPROCESSOR

Intel 8087-3

$119.00

VOLT GUARD

Surge Protector

$39.00

LOTUS 1-2-3

$289.00

IBM PC's

Quantity Orders Welcome

CALL

IBM PC's

Barebone Available

CALL

CALL FOR LATESTPRICE CHANGES

The Only Friend You need When Buying a New PCIs Coastline Computers. Call Today!

COASTLINE COMPUTERS V 800-228-4615

Bfl|B^3^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^3^^^^^^^^^^^^^^3 EjE 'fr"--"H" . H Please call collect if 800 number not in service.

213-329-4828213-324-8087

■*te

Inquiry 86

1956 W. 153 St., Gardena, CA 90247

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 507

For the IBM PC XT AT PCjr, and Compalifcles

PC102 precisely emulates DEC VT102,101. 100. and VT52 terminals

PC4010 includes all PC102 featuresplus Tektronix 4010 graphics

A lew reasons why thousands of customers —including GE. Dow Raytheon. Westmqhouseand Stanford University - prefer our products

• Complete keyboard and screen emulationw line graphics (optional 132-coiumns!

> Guaranteed compatibility with an DECapplications including EDT WORD-11ALL-IN-ONE DEC-CALC UNIXvi

PC102-JRPC102 _

C and ASM up to 38 4 KB

30-DAY

money oack

[uaranjM

S69 00S89 00

1 $ 139 00

Suite 205 ib---i

Minneapolis. MN 55344 (612) 944-0593

MEMOREX

FLEXIBLE DISCS

WE WILL NOT BE UNDER-SOLDtl Call Free (800)235-4137

for prices and information Dealerinquines invited and CO.D.'saccepted

vr$A

pacificexchanges

100 Foothill BlvdSan Luis Obispo. CA93401 In Cal. call(800)592-5935 or(805)543-1037

DISK DRIVES

Half HeightIBM Compatible

ONE YEARWARRANTY

40 tr. DS/DD $115.00

80 tr. DS/DD $139.00

1.2 meg. floppy .... CALL

Enclosures and mounting kitsSpecial bracketed pair pricing

INSTOCK

2 DAYSHIP

IP ALLIED MICRO DEVICES

2809 Boardwalk, Ann Arbor, Ml 48104

(313) 996-1282:TX 2907707 AMEL

■Manufactured by SANYO

Inquiry 192

Inquiry 319

Inquiry 19

EPROM

PROGRAMMER

APPBOTEK 1000

$249.95

COMPLEtE WITHPERSONALITYMODULE1 1 7 AC POWER-RS232-6 BAUD RATES HANDSHAKE TO HOSTALLOWS READ. WRITE. VERIFY & COPYComes complete with CPM & BASIC DriverProgram Listings for most small micros

Full 1 Year Warranty

"- ring 5 Volt 24 or 28 prns through 27256.25xx series. 68766 plus othersSpecify Personality Module desired with orderAdditional Personality Modules only S 1 5 00 ea

TO ORDER CALL OR WRITE

APROPOS TECHNOLOGY

1 07 1 A AVENIDA ACASO Add

CAMARILLO. CA 93010 »4.00 Shlpplnfl USAIB06I 482-3604 VISA or MC Add 3%

48tpi and'"' 9W> 50Utcecoae

. SVSTEM SUPTO«1 ,es

015^^537.7888

60069" I-2'5 _. ||f

»l|t*fVf*

Quelo

680,00

Software

Development

Tools

68000/68010 Assembler Package

Assembler, linker, object librarian and extensive indexedtypeset manuals.

Conforms to Motorola structured assembler, publicationM68KMASM[4) Macros, cross reference and superb loadmap, 31 character symbols

Optimized fof CP-M-80. 86, -68K. MS-DOS. PC-DOSPortable Source written in X"

$595

$1495

Complete 68000 Development Packagefor MS-DOS

Lattice 68000 "C" Compiler and

Quelo 68000 Assembler Package $1095

68200 Assembler Package

Assembler and linker tor Mostek MK68200

Optimized for CP'M-80. MS DOS. PC-DOS $595

For more information contact

Patrick Adams

COD, Visa, MasterCard

Quelo Inc.

2464 33rd W Suite #173

Seattle. WA 98199

Phone (206) 285-2528

telex II (TWX) 9103338171

CP'M, TM DHL MS-DOS TM Microsoft. PC-DOS TM IBM.

Inquiry 34

Inquiry 146

Inquiry 350

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 2000point buffer. Suitable for field data loggingor lab use, the 1232 costs only $690. The8-bit system (0-5 VOC) is $490. Detailedmanual, $6. Phone our applicationsengineer at 617-899-8629 or write:

w w STARBUCK w w

"T "T" DATA COMPANY "T" 'T*

225 Crescent St., Waltham, MA 02154

Inquiry 388

OH -> WINDOWS (for C) |

OH—>WINDOWS is a complete progranlibrary of window presentation and manipu-i lation functions for use in C programs.

Over 60 powerful primitives available to create,

fill, move, save and print windows with single

calk as simple as using Printf and Scanf

Full color control and cunversion (or B&W|

displays

65 windows on four pages

Detailed manual which fully describes all of the

available functions (examples provided)

Runs on IBM. PC, XT. AT and all Compaq|

models under DOS. 1.1. 2.X. and 3.0

Minimum system overhead (4K-10K bytes)

Works with Microsoft. Lattice, and C86 C |

compilers.

$74.95 (Visa. MC accepted)Demo available $5.00Call or Write SofTron. Inc.

109 E Scenic Dr

Pass Christian. MS 39571

(800) 824-3609

Developed by

CAB Concepts

Macintosh"

Call for prices on other Macintosh products.

01 PC'S LIMITED

OUTSIDE TIMS, MMIS ONIT. CALL 1-BO0-4 J6-S1 50.

TtOl N, Iom, I( 300, Imttm. T«.u 7ITS3

MiilhillllNlMKLn ■■ ■■"■»• '—"W

Inquiry 375

Inquiry 451

DISK DRIVES

we will Beat all Competitor's Pricing

Teac 55B

• 360K Half Height

• 1 Year warranty

$93

Tandon TM100-2

• 360K Full Height

• The "IBM" Drive

• Tested

$100

MPI B-52

• 360K Full Height• PC Compatible

$70

10 Meg Hard Disk

• For IBM• W/Hard Disk Controller

$590

Apple compatible Drives

OUANTITY

1 2 10

Micro sci

A-2OrA-20FullHT $160 $155 S150

Controller 65 60 50

Rana Systems

Elitel . . $195 $195 $190

Elite II, Obi. Head 335 330 325

Elite ill, Quad Density 380 380 375

ControllerControls4 Drives 75 75 70

ecu Half Height

FD525ASlimlinew/cable S140 $135 $130

FD525Cforllc 140 135 130

ecu Full Height

FD555AW/cable $130 $125 $120

Hard Disk

10Megw/controller S590 $580 S570

ecu

YOUR LARGEST

DISK DRIVE

SUPPLIER

Apple Full Height

• Drive w/Cable• Ready to go

$130

5W Disk Drives

OUANTITY

1 2 10Teac

FD55A, 160K $100 $100 $100

FD55B, 360K 93 93 93

FD55F, Quad Density 130 125 120

All Teac s are Half Heights

Tandon

TM100-1.160KTM100-2.360KTM101 -4, Quad Density

TM65-2,360K"i Height

$150 $140 $130

100 100 100

280 270 260

185 180 175

MPI

B-52,360K PC Compatible

$ 70 $ 70 $ 70

Shugart

SA400.160K

SA455.360KV'! Height

SA465, Quad Den. Vi Height

$190 $180 $170

89 89 89

200 190 180

Mitsubishi

4851,1/2Height $130 $130 S130

4853, Quad Den.'; Height 140 140 140

Control Data Corp.

CDC9409.360K $170 $165 S160

Drive for Apple

• y2 Height for ll or lie

$140

8" Disk Drives

OUANTITY

1 2 10

Siemens

FDD-100-8FDD-200-8

801R,Sgl./Dbl.851R, Dbl./Dbl.

S129 $120 $111180 170 160

Shugart

$350 $340 $330480 470 460

Tandon

TM848-1E.Sgl./Dbl.V2Ht

TM848-2E, Dbl./Dbl. ViHt

Mitsubishi

M2894-63, Dbl./Dbl

M2896-63.Dbl./Dbl.V;Ht.

S270 $265 $260370 360 350

$400 S390 $380400 390 380

51/4" & 8"Power Supply & Cabinets

OUANTITY

1 2 10

JMR 51/4"

SingleCabinetw/pwr S 70 $ 60 S 50

DualThinlineCabw/pwr 80 70 60

Dual cabinet & Power 80 70 60

All have 6 month warranty

JMR 8"

Sgl. Cabinet w/pwr& fan $220 $210 S200

Dualw/pwrfor2thinlines 230 220 210

Dual w/pwr& fan 270 260 250

CALL TOLL FREE

(800)847-1718

Computer -ComponentsUnlimited

A California Corporation

RETAIL STORES:

11976 Aviation Blvd.inglewood, CA 90304

16129 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite ELawndale, CA 90260

MAIL ORDER:

P.O. BOX 1936Hawthorne, CA 90250

Customer service & Technical(213) 618-0487

Sales Desk

(800)847-1718

Outside California

(213) 618-0477

Inside California

PRINTERS

we will Beat ALL competitor's Pricing

Epson Fx-80

• 160 cps • Friction Feed

• Letter Quality Mode

• IBM & Apple Roms

$349

PRINTERSEpson

LX-80

RX-80I120CPS)

RX-80FT

RX-100 +

FX-80 + We Will

FX-100+ Beat all Pricing

LO150OJX-80

we are an Authorized Dealer

Okidata

OK1182 S 229

OKI83A 535

OKI 84P 669

OKI84S 749

OK1192 349

OKI193 585

OKI MATE20Color Printer 129

Call for other Models

free Plug n Play Roms w/92 & 93

JUKI

6100,18 cps Ltr. Quality S 398

6300,40 cps New w/3K Buffer

Letter Quality 795

Brother Dist. by Dynax

HR15XL.12CPS S 359

HR25.25CPS 625

HR35.36CPS 835

Panasonic

I09l,l20cpsw/tractor S 259

1092,180 cps 429

C. ITOH

8510AP S 299

F10.40CPS 895

PrintmasterFl055pu 1050

Toshiba

P1351,196cps $1219

P1340.180CPS 639

A B SWITCHBOX

Par. orSer $ 69

PRINTER INTERFACES

Fourth Dimension

Card&cable(ForApple) S 45

Microtek

Dumpling ex (CrapplerCompatible) S 75

Dumpling CXexpto64K 145

DumplingGXl6Kw/16Kexpto64K 160

Okidata Options

Tractor for 82 & 92 S 55

Serial interface 85

Orange Micro

Crappler + S 84

Crappler + W/16K 174

Epson Accessories

Epson Serial interface S 99

LetterwriterNCOKit 59

Lx-80 or Fx-80 Tractor 39

Taxan 425

• RGB Hi-Res Color or Green• PGSHxi 2 Compatible

$399

lit

MONITORS

MONITORS

Amdek

300C,Hi-ResCreen S 125

300A, Hi-ResAmber 134

310A, Monochrome Amber 158

300 Hi-Res Color Comp. 275

500RCB Composite 399

dvm Board for Apple RGB 119

425 Color RGB440Ultra Hi-Res

Tilts Turn Stand

Taxan

Stand

S 399539

S 19

Princton Craphics

MAX12, Monochrome Amber S 169

HX12,RGBCOlor 449

SR-i2w/DoublerBoard 775

IBM

Monochrome Green S 219

ColorHi-Res 559

zenith

ZVM122 S 95

ZVM123 95

BMC

12AUW Hi-Res Green S 79

9191 ColorComposite 199

MODEMS

U.S. Robotics

• 1200 Baud• Hayes Compatible

$219

MODEMS

Hayes

Micro Modem HE S 229

300Baud 195

1200B internal 359

1200 385

2400Baud 639

Anchor Automation

MarkForTl S 59

Mark vi 300 Baud IBM 79

MarkXii,i200Baud 219

Mark x, 300 Baud Stand alone 149

Express i200Baud 269

Prometheus

Promodem S 289

Prol200AApplelntw/sw 329

Prol200BlBMintw/sw 299

Pro Mac w/cable &sw 329

No.CCabie 12

Alpha Disp 89

Options Proc 89

Password

U.S. Robotics

S 219

ComputerComponentsUnlimited

A California Corporation

No Surcharge for Credit Cards

All prices Reflect a Cash,

pre-paid Discount

This Ad Supersedes All others

Customer service & Technical(213)618-0487

Sales Desk

(800) 847-1718

Outside California

(213)618-0477

Inside California

SYSTEMS

IBM PC System

• 256K Memory• Two 360K Disk Drives

$1499

Add $50 for configuration &testing

Apple

HE CPU S 790

Macintosh 1895

lie Portable 899

Compaq

Portable (PC compatible) 2, 360K Drives

256KofMemory $1950

Compaq + w/iOMeg 3700

Deskprol 1640

Deskpro2 2250

Deskpro3 3900

Deskpro4 Call

<&

jf

IBM XT

• w/i0Meg

• 360K Drive

$2895

Sanyo

MBC 550-2

MBC555-2

Optional Serial Port

Optional360KDrive ...

Kaypro

Kayrpoll

Kaypro4 (in Retail

Kaypro 10 stores Only)Kayproiix

699

999

69

129

CallcallcallCall

IBM PC System

• 256K, Two 360K Drives

• Hercules Clr. Graphics Card

• Taxan Hi-Res Cr. Monitor• Epson LX-80 Printer

/cable & nlq Mode

$2127

IBM

PC256K,2Drives 1499

XTw/10Meg,256K 2895

Additional Memory 64K 105°

ATStandardConfig Call

ATw/20meg Call

Add S50 for Configurations & Testing

Tava

PCCompatiblew/Monitor $1100

IBM & APPLE ACCY'S

we will Not Be BeatOn 64K upgrade Prices

• Nine 4164, 200ns

• 1 Year Warranty

130

$102

APPLE EXTRAS

ALS

ZEngine $ 119

CPM3.0Card 240

ecu

RFModulator $ 9

Fanw/Surge 34

ecu

16K Mem. Card 1 yr war S 45

Micro Max

Viewmax80,80col. card $ 135

Viewmax80E(FforllE)64K 120

Micro soft

Mouse $ 139

PremiumSoftCardllE 369

Multiplan 149

SOftCard(Z80)W/64K 279

Micro Tek

Serial interface S 89

IBM EXTRASAst Research

Six Pack + W/384K S 299

Mega + 265

Add on Ports 49

Hercules

ColorCard S 149

Graphics Card 304

Hard Disk

lOMeg. External w/powersupply .. .$999

IBM

Monochrome Adapter $ 219

ColorCard 225

Paradise Systems

Multi-display Card $ 329

NewModularCard 260

Module A 74

ModuleB 175

5 Pack Multifunction 160

Quadram

Quad ColorCard S 199

Quadlink 349

64K upgrade

64KofMemory $ 1030

AT upgrade

Upgrade 200 ns $ 89

PC Products

PC Peacock Color card w/Par. Port $ 175

Ports

Parallel S 79

Serial 79

ecu

ColorCraphicsCard $ 119

ecu Multifunction Card

Par. & Ser. Ports w/64K cxp 384K

Clock Calendars

Software & Manuals $ 160

W/384K 220

Everex

Graphics Edge $ 329

8087-2 8087S $ 149

8087-3 104

8087-6 95

SV*'DISKETTES

ecu

Sgl/Dbl reinforced hub. $11 lOOfonoo

Dbl/Dbl reinforced hub 13 lOOforno

Not Bulk Packed

Dysan

Sgl/Dbl $33 100fOr300

Dbl/Dbl 39 100for370

verbatim

Sgl/Dbl $26 100for240

Dbl/Dbl 36 100for340

8 DISKETTESDysan

Sgl/Sgl $34 I00for320

Dbl/Dbl 53 100for480

verbatim

Sgl/Sgl $30 100for280

Dbl/Dbl 40 100for360

DISK ACCESSORIESVerbatim

8" or 5V«" Head Cleaning Kit .... $ 9

Flip Tub5V4" Holds 60 disks, plexiglass ....$ 6

RETAIL STORES:

11976 Aviation Blvd.inglewood, CA 90304

16129 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite ELawndale, CA 90260

MAIL ORDER:

P.O. BOX 1936Hawthorne, CA 90250

Retail Hours:

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. sat.

All merchandise new. we accept MC, visa, WireTransfer, COD Call, Certified Check, PO.s fromqualified firms, apo accepted Shipping: MinimumS4.50 first S pounds. Tax: California Res. only add6'/2% sales tax. All returns suoject to 15% restocking charge. Advertised prices for Mail Order onlyRetail prices slightly higher.

Prices Subject to Change

Customer service Hours:

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

John Aurentz

(213)618-0487

Mail Order Hours:

8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Sat.

(800)847-1718 (213)618-0477

(OutsideCalifornia) (insideCalifornia)

64K & 256K

DRAMS

8087-3

8087-2

BITTN6R

6L6CTRONICS

1287 CLIFF DRIVE

SUITE ONE

LAGUNA BEACH, CA 92651

(714)497-4910

Inquiry 53

imam

// FREE tl

FLOATinG-POirvr forth

Interested In having a FOHTH-83

implementation with a video editor

and an assembler

that will do floating-point arithmetic'?

Dow you can have such a system (or yourIBm PC or Z80 CP/m computer for freel

Look for the public domain Ufll FORTH Sampler or.your local BBS. or send us just 135 for the lalesl diskversion in your format The Sampler is a subset ofour more powerful Professional Series 'availablelor most processor'operating system combinations!

It won't cost you a penny to try UniFORTH and see

for yourself the power of trie FORTH language!'

eall or write for our free ZO page catalog

UniFIED SOFTWARE SYSTEmS

PO Box 2644. new Carrollton.mD 20784(301)552-9590

BAR CODE READER

. IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE (AND MOST CLONES)

. CONNECTS BETWEEN KEYBOARD AND THE PC

. NO CARD SLOT REOUIBED/SIMPLE INTERCONNECT

• NO CUSTOM SOFTWARE DRIVERS REQUIRED

. HIGH FIRST READ RATE

i READS DOT MATRIX 8 PRINTED BAR CODE LABELS

i CODE 3 OF 9. INTERLEAVED 2 OF 5, UPC

i AUTOMATIC BAR CODE SELECTION

i AUDIO AND VISUAL INDICATORS

READS HIGH. MED. AND LOW DENSITY LABELS

SWITCH SELECTABLE OPTIONS I

SELF-TEST DIAGNOSTICS

$495

AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS

PO BOX 830551. RICHARDSON. TX 75080

^^1 (817)834-9659 ■■gf

MASTERCARD AND VISA ACCEPTED

Inquiry 27

NOW MAKE SOLID

CONNECTIONS .. .

Male or Female

RS-232 GENDER REVERSERS

$1895

each

Order either two male ortwo female connectorswith all 25 pins intercon-nected. Order Now Only$18.95. AM cash orderspostpaid (IL res. add 6%sales tax). MC. Visa ac-cepted.

Ask for Free Catalog 0Phone: (815)434-0846

PAL EPROM

& UV ERASERSfrom $49.95

LOGICAL DEVICES INC.

WkeAe, ReliaUfy andti, o£ utmost 9mfbtvdaHC&

SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 24

mwm

ORDER TOLL FREE

1-800-EE1-PROM

(1-800-331-7766)

Inquiry 255

__ FOR THE BEST OF US. . . __

"*■ THCCVPHa ■".

A COMPLETE 68OO0 & Z80ASINGLE BOARD COMPUTER SYSTEMWITH ULTRA-HIGH-RES GRAPHICS!!

MOTOROLA 111 INTfL

MOTEL COMPUTERS LIMITED

1 T4 BETTY ANN DRIVE W1LLOW0ALE.

TORONTO. ONTARIO. CANADA M!N II.

Inquiry 410

Inquiry 45

Inquiry 298

I.B.M. Compatible

Gjk J

6.5.00

Motherboard (256K RAM spaa.

RAM not included)

2S0.00

Color Graphic Adapter

15000

Floppy Fhsk Dmrr Controller Card

75.00

Plotter (4 aim)

495.00

Computer (2 DD Drivers, Color Graphic Adapter,

256K RAM Case. Keyboard andl35WFrjL.tr Supply) IjOOOO

Keyboard

MM

APPLE Compatible

ZWCM

40.00

80 Column Card

50.00

I.C Tester

125.00

Pal Vfnler Card

:**)

Graphic Pad Card Includes graphic program)

220.00

Prom S200 Programme (Fast Unmrsal Type

Iprm & Prom Programmer)

For Fprm 2716-27512; 2516-25512, (No Adapter Heeded)

For Prom: 63a, »Sn. MSn, Ufa. 24Sn, 2ISn.

S2Sn, STSn.

Include R5232 Interface

CALL NOW (312) 280-7610Telex 280208 HFFMN INT CGO

DIST. WANTED

HOFFMAN INT'L

600 N McClurg Ct Ste 309AChicago. Illinois 60611

CHIPS'n DIPS

QUANTITY ONE PRICES

8087-3

$99.00

8088

29.00

256K DRAM

6.00

64K DRAM 150 ns

1.35

64 K DRAM 200 ns

1.35

128K DRAM

Mostek 150 ns

18.00

5W' Diskettes

1.75

FREE UPS SHIPPING

All parts in stock, first quality.

No seconds or surplus.

Same day shipping!

CHIPS'n DIPS

P.O. Box 2517 . The MallDuxbury, MA 02331

617-934-2414

MetalCE-31

Powerful Real Time 8031 EmulatorThat Runs on your IBM PC

The MetalCE series of emulators providefull speed, real time, transparent m-circuiemulation capability for either the 80318032 or 8344. Many unique features areprovided including over 16,000 hardwarebreakpoints. MetalCE emulators simplyconnect to your IBM PC or compatiblethrough an RS232C interface EachMetalCE emulator includes an advancecmenu driven host interface Prices start aunder $1,500.00. A Demostration Packageis available for $35 00 Call toll free for moreinformation 1-800-METAICE.

MetaLink Corp.

33 W Boxelder Place

Chandler, AZ 85224

1-800-METAICE In AZ (602) 926-0797

Inquiry 212

Inquiry 81

Inquiry 272

aiifarnia Digital

7700Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

Fully IBM/PC Compatible?

XEROX

When the June Issue of Byte went to press we were in the process of

negotiating for the purchase of 5000 Xerox Computers. The units were

manufactured by Toshiba and were to be marketed under the Xerox

Label. At press time we had not received sample units and consequently

was unable to have an actural photograph of the computer.

The Xerox Computer is purported as being 100 per cent IBM/PC

Compatible. Obviously without having an actual unit to test. California

Digital is unable to substantiate this fact. The Computer is supplied with

two double sided disk drives and 256K of memory.

Also available, are about 1000 of the same machine which include a 10

Megabyte Winchester hard disk and a floppy drive.

By the time this Issue reaches your desk we should have the Xerox

Computers in our warehouse and be able to provide more information.

Please telephone for additional details.

WINCHESTER

SUBSYSTEM

he California Digital Winchester subsystem provides over 10 megabytes oflemory for only $519. This low cost external hard disk systems is suppliedilh controller card and operaling software

verything you need to install this Winchester on your IBM/PC is included withte subsystem kit. And at only $619, this is by far the best value that has ever=en offered in a hard disk system.

TELETYPE I

ANCHORAUTOMATION

MODEM

ie Anchor Aulomation Mark VI is direct conned modem that plus into any:>t ofyour IBM/PC. This modem supports aulo answer and autodial capabil-2S Other features include telephone number storage, send / receive text3S. single key-stroke dialing along with many other functions provided on5k The Mark Vl^ag originally priced at over S300

FREE

Plastic library

case supplied

with all diskettes

purchased from

California Digital.

ten sector Each box 10 Boxes 100 Boxes

FIVE INCH DOUBLE SIDED DOUBLE DENSITY

MMM-74S/0MMM 745/10MMM-745/16VRB-55O/01VRBSSO'IOVRB 550/16MXL-MD2/96

19.9529.9529.95

18.7527.9527.95CALL

17.8524.7523.75

SCOTCH

ERBATIM

1AX ELL/HD

IYSAN

lYSAN / 96Other diskettes available include 8%" andall 8" formats. Please phone for prices.

DYS-105I2DDYS-204/2D

KS 49.95 47.95 45.75

DUAL TEACSUBSYSTEM

*■

m

The dual Teac 55F subsystem features two 96 track per inch 5' 4 double sideddisk drives. Also supplied within the subsystem is 50 watt power supply and afour foot shielded signal cable.

Fujitsu 1935D

2400

'$19

Mgrman;

An exciting new modem from the telecommunication experts at Fujitsu Reli-able 2400BPS communication over public phone lines. Automatically selects2400 or 1200 baud depending incoming terminal speed Integral speakerallows monitoring call progress. Will work in full and half duplex as well assimplex modes, both Synchronous and Asynchronous communication pro-tocols are available. Switch selectable lest modes available for digital loop-back, analog loopback. as well as remote loopback. Four microprocessordesign assures reliable operation over noisy phone lines at both 1200 and2400 baud Switch selectable Bell 212A or CCITT V.22 compatible. Sleepmode can be enabled through (he use of the DTR line. This effectively turns themodem off between calls. The Fujitsu 1935D is an excellent choice for upgrad-ing bulletin boards to the higher speed operation UEX overlays are currentlybeing written and will be available shortly

w

BAR CODE READER

For IBM/PC,

The Teletype Model 40 printer is continuous heavy duty communication equip-ment that have recently come off lease from a Cado Computer customer. It isseldom that California Digital becomes involved in the marketing of recon-ditioned equipment but we felt thai this printer represented such an excep-tional value that we had to offer this equipment to our customersThe full character chain printer is capable of printing text in excess of 300 linesper minute. This printer, long used in high speed mini-computer applications,will provide Ihe small business user with good quality multi-part pnntouts alspeeds that can not be attained by dot matrix printers

This unit also has a four channel vertical forms feed controller that allows forquick change of various form lenghts. The Teletype Model 40 printer has aproprietary serial Teletype SSI interface and DIP switches are provided forsetting baud rates to 9600. An optional RS-232 serial interface is availableplease phone for details

western unionEasyLink

EasyLmk gives any personal computer access to over 1.5 million WesternUnions World Wide termimals. With EasyLink service you can send Telexs,Telegrams and Mailgrams from your own computer Through the use of theMailbox messages can be received even when your computer is turned off,and "picked up" at your convenience.

Joining the World of Western Union's EasyLink is FREE of charge and there isno monthly service fee. Sending a domestic Telex is about $1 75 and aMailgram has an adverage cosl of $250 Western Union does require aminimum usage of $25 per month Call California Digital to receive yourEasyLink subscriber number. ^

The DataLogic bar code reader plugs directly between the keyboard and themainframe of your IBM/PC. All instructions are supplied in firmware built intothe reader device By the flip of a dip switch this bar code reader is capable ofreading eight different formats of code including UPC, 2/5 and many more.Bar code is suitable for inventory control, freight and invoice records, personalrecords and other application limited only by imagination.Other DataLogic bar code readers are designed lor the Apple II and RS-232serial terminals. Please phone for list of other bar code products available.

DIGIGRAPHICS

MULTIFUNCTION

'179

The Digigraphic 384M multifunction card is a work-a-like to the over pricedAST Sixpack Plus bul at a much more attractive price.Memory is expandible to 384K/byte. battery backed up clock/calendar, fullyprogrammable RS-232 communication port. Centronics parallel port, andgame pod as standard equipment making this card an outstanding value.Software is also provided for clock/calendar functions. RAM-Disk up to 360K.prim spooler for up to 3 printers, as well as diagnostic memory testsS17900 nomemory DGC-384/0; $219 00 64K/byte memory DGC-384/64.

CONNECTORS

DB25P

S-100Gold

5T"

=*B

RIBBON CONNECTORS

DB2SPmale CND-r25P 5 65 5 25DB25Slemale CND-r25S 5 95 5 59 - _57-30360 male CNC-r36P 7 95 6 75 5 90

-303601 male CNC-r36S

30 pin edge CNI-DE2020 pin sock el26 pin edge

26 pm socket CNI-OS26 3 50 2 40 2 15

34 pin edge CNI-OE34 4 95 4,60 3 50

34pmsockel f!NI-DS.14 4 SO T '50 pm edge

SQppnsockel CN1-DS50

AMPHENOL / CENTRONICS TYPE

57-30360 36'P CNC-36P 7 95 6 35 3 97IEEE488.Cdor CND-24P 7 95 6 35 5 35

7 95 6 75 5 90

35 3 30 2 50

CN1-DS20 2 75 1 BS 1 60

CM-OE26 4 95 3 50

CNI-DE50 5 95 5 60 4 90

D' TYPE catalog

DE9Pmale CND-9P

DE9Slemale CND-9S

DEhood CND-9H

DAl5Pmale CND-15P

DAISSIemale CND-15S

DAi5hood CND-15H

DB25P male CND-25P

D02SSIemale CND-25S

D825 hood CND25H

DC37P male CND-37P

DC37Slemale CND-37S

DC37 hood CND-37H

DD50P male CND-50P

DD50 hood CND-50HJ1CND-2HS

eicn 10-99 100*

1 60 1 40 1 30

2 25 2 00 1301 50 1 35 1.20

2 95 2 55 1.65

1.35 1 15 -77

4 20 3 95 3 65

5 95 5 75 5502 25 1 95 1 655 50 5 10 4 752 60 2 40 2 10

Shipping: First five pounds $3.00, each additional pound $.50.Foreign orders: 10% shipping, excess will be refunded.California residents add 6V2% sales tax. • COD's discouraged.Open accounts extended to state supported educational institu-tions and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800)421-5041

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213)217-0500

California Digital

17700 Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

SEC RGB+^-m

color fy£Q

MONITOR m^w

The NEC JC-1401D is a 13 medium'high resolution RGB monitorsuitable (or use wilh the Sanyo MBC-550'555 or the IBM/PC Themonitor (ealures a resolution of 400 dots by 240 lines. Colors availableare Red. Green, Blue. Yellow, Cyan, Magenta, Black and WhiteThese monitors are currently being used in applications far morecritical than microcomputers

The NEC monitor carries the Litton-Monroe label and was originallyscheduled lot use in their Office of the Future equipment A changein Monroe s marketing strategy has made these units excess inven-tory which were sold to California Digital We are offering these primenew RGB monitors at a fraction of their original cost Sanyo com-patible NEC-1401 /S; IBM/P/C Computer compatible NEC-1401 /PC

MONITORS

BMC 12A green phosphor 15MHz composil video

BMC 12 high resolution aOMHz

AmOek 300G 12 green phosphor

Amde-300A t2 ambetphos ,fH■■•

Articled 310A designed (or IBM PC amber

Zenith ZVM12:'Amher Phosphor 12 40-80 columnswitch

Zer-111 /VMl.' ■■ ,n--hT' Li" uSi'ho- 12 -10 W .loli.rnn >,wilci-'NEC.IB 1201 green phosphor 18 MH/ composil videoNEC JB1260commerciargraae composilConracS openlramereauireshor2 sync & 12v supply

COLOR

NEC JC140 ID Medium. High 13 RGB

BMC AU9191U Coloi composil video w.in sound

BMC 9191M RGB designed tor use wiih the IBM nomputei

NEC JC1203DM. RGB color monitor

NEC JCl 215 color composil

Zemin ZVMI35 RGB & composite suitable lor IBM PC

ArndekCoiQrl 13 composil video

Amdek Color II- 13 RGBhi'resoluIion

Amdek Color III - 13 RGB medium resolution

Princeton HX-12 RGB IBM PC compatible

BMC-12A

BMC-12EN

AMK-300G

AMK-30OA

AMK-310A

ZTH-122

ZTH-Z123

NEC JB','01

NEC-JB1260

CON-BW9

NEC-Urn X

BMC-9191

BMC-9191M

NEC-1203

NEC-JC1215

ZTH-Zt35

AMK-100

AMK-200

AMK-300PRNHX12

119 00I28 95

! jfc :■■:■

158.95

'-.H Oil

■ ■•• :■■.... ..■

259 00238 953 75 00t.MM i m339 00.; -■■ M299 00419 95... ., ,,A ':■. )S

PRINTERS

MATRIX PRINTERS

Star Gem.n. 10X120 char sec STRGI0X

SiarGemmt-15X lOOchar /Sec 15 paper STR-G15X

Star Gemini Delia 10, leoCnaivsec STR-Dio

ToshibaPl35i I92char'sec letter quality TOS-1351

Ok.data82A serial & parallel 9'; paper OKI-B2A

Okidata 92A parallel interlace. 160 char, sec OK1-92A

Okidaia83ASparaiieM5 paper OKI-63A

Okidaia 84A & parallel 15 paper OKI-84A

Epson RX-BO 10 120 Char, sec EPS-RX80

EpsonRX80 FTInclionSlracloi EPS RX80FT

EpSonFXSOFT 10 I60ehar .sec wilhgrapntrax EPS-FX80

Epson FX100FT 15 160ehar sec with graphirax EPS-FX100

EpSonLOl500 15 corespondence quality EPS-LQ1500

Epson JX80 Color printer EPS-JX80

Prowmer85t0parallel9'.- paper PRO 85.1 OP

Prownterli parallel 15 paper graphics PRO 2P

Dataproducts B-60O-1 band pnntei 600 LPM DPS-B6O0Prmkomx P300 mgh sp-'M primer 300 lines per minute PTX-P300Pnntronix P600 ultra high speed 600 lines pe' minute. PTX-P600

WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS

PRO-F10PNEC-B810'.l ■

NEC 3550NEC-2050SRD-EXP500SRD-EXP550DBL-63020CPS DBL-620JUK6100JUK 6300CRX GR2P

249 00

:i65 00

iV'i 00

1495 on299 00379 00549 00929 00239 00279 00399 0059900

■f.,Mi>0579 00

599 00

. .... ,(■><!', or,■,,. ..„■_,

COMPUTER PLOTTER

The Comrex Comscriber I is the ideal solution to make

short work of translating financial and numeric data into

a graphic presentation

Many ready to run programs such as Lotus 1-2-3.

Visi-on and Apple business graphics already support

this plotter.

The Comscriber I features programmable paper sizes

up to 8V2 by 120 inches. 6 inch per second plot speed

and 0.004" step size.

Easy to implement Centronics interface allows the

Comscriber I immediate use with the printer port of

most personal computers.

The Comscriber I is manufactured for Comrex by theEnter Computer Corporation. The plotter is marketedby Heath Kit and also sold under Enters own Sweet P"Label. This is your opportunity to purchase a graphicplotter which was originally priced at $795 for onlyS219.

Also available is a support package which includesiemonstralion software, interface cable, amulticolorpen assortment and a variety of paper and transpa-rency material.

1200 BAUD

MODEM

The Team 212A offers all the features of the Hayes'Smart Modem 1200 for a fraction of the price, Now isyour opportunity to purchase a 1200 baud modem atthe price of a 300 baud modem.California Digital is so confident of your completesatisfaction that we will allow the return the Team212A and apply the full credit towards the purchaseof any other 1200 baud modem TEM-SM1200

Slarwnter F10 parallel. 40 char/sec

NEC8810 55char/second serial interlace

NEC8830 55 Char sec. pari interlace

NEC3550 popular primer designed lor me IBM/PC

NEC2050 designedtor IBM/PC 20 Char/sec pat I

Silver Reed EXP500 14 char;sec par I interface

Silver ReedEXPS50 17 Char/sec par I interlace

Diablo 630 40 Char/sec serial

Diablo 620 proportional spacing no'/ 8 vert

Juki6100 18char /sec

Juki B3Q0 40 char /sec

Comrex CR2 5k Duller ptoportiona. spanng

TERMINALS

499 001659 00

-,.■ . ■■1599 00689 00319 00

429 001569 0C769 00

J9'> OC,,.,■....,■.395 00

PROMETHEUS

ProModem 1200

The Prometheus Promodem 1200 is best value that we have seen in a300/1200 baud modem This Hayes compatible modem featurescompletely unattended operation, auto answer/auto dial and evenincludes redial number when busy Internal diagnostics makes thePromodem 1200 an easy modem lo install Help commands, real limeclock and internal speaker add to the ease of use of this unitAn optional processor accessory allows battery back up. extra mem-ory space for storing additional phone numbers, messages received.and can act as a transfer buffer when exchanging programsThe Alphanumeric display option allows messages saved to be dis-played when they were received, diagnostic test results, numbers inthe directory, as well as modem status

Freedom 100 sphl screen, detachable Keyboard

Qume 102 green phosphor terminal

Ampex Dialogue 125 green screen.

Ampei Oialouqe 175 amber screen two page lunc keys

Wyse50, 14" green phosphor

Wyse300 Eighi color display spin screen

Zenith 29 terminal. VT52 compatible delalch He keyCu.frri

Televicteo9i0Pius. block mode

Televideo 925 detatchaDle keyboatd 22 function keys

Toievideo 950. graphic, chat .spin screen 22 tunc

Televideo970 14 green 132column European

LIB-FiriO

OUM-102

APXD125G

APX-01 75A

WYS-50

W¥S 300

ZTH-Z29

TVI-91QP

TVI-925

WI-950

rvi-970

.19'' On

539.00

6?5 0071900595.001159 00765 00575 00759 00

1095 00

ream 1200 Hayes Compatible

C is.-'i2AH I200baud autodial

1 ..■.■run,.ii software lorCTS21SAHPromelheus 12Q0 super leaturesPrometheus 1200Biniei

Signalman Mark 12 1200 baud Hayes compatibleSignalman Mark i direct connect with terminal cableHayes Smart Modem 1200 baud, auto answer aulo diaHayes i200BlorusewnnihelBM PC 1200 MudHayes Smartmodem 300 baud only autoanswer autoHayes Miciomodem II 103 Appledifaci coi I

Pennl300. I200mduslnaiquaiityUniversal Data 103LP line power answers originateUniversal Daia 202. I POO baud halt duplex onlyUniversal Dala212LP lull 1200 baud duplex line powerNovation J Cal direct connect autoanswer

TEM-SM 1200

CTSi't^AH

CTS-212SFT

PRM-P1200

PRM P12008

SGL-MK12

SGL-MKl

HYS-212AD

HYS-1200B

HYS-103AD

HYS MM2

HYS CHR232

USR-212A

PEN-12AD

UDS 103LP

UDS 202LP

UDS212LP

NOV JCAT

.■'."i 00

-■■■■- ■ j■:.-

35 00319 00279 00

.' H'...-/'5 00129 00J'Kt 0022$ 00279 00'.99 00439 00ty :■:■169 00,-vi '.0

11500

ETi.lir1

IIE/2 Computer features a 12 non-glare green phosphor CRT, typewriter stylr.1keyboard with separate numeric cluster This unit provides two 5 1 '4 drives for acombined storage capacity of 780 K/Byte The computer conlams a 4Mhz Z-80A. DMAdisk interface, two RS-232C serial pons, Centronics printer interface, along with anauxiliary parallel port

Software included consists of ULTRACALC electronic spread sheet, SPELLBINDER wordprocessor. CBASIC2 CP'M 2.2, and an exclusive Eagle menu driven utility packageThese units are all factory new ' and are being offered far below their suggested price of$2495 This is your opportunity to purchase a complete CP/M system for only $895

Return of a \Smash Hit Sellout

DRAGON

99

Compatible with most Radio Shack Color Computer software The world famous Dragoncompuler is now available in the United Slates Manufactured by the Tano Corp underlicense of the British Broadcasting Company The Dragon comes complete with 64K Byte ofmemory, serial modem pod along with a Centronics printer interface This unique micro-computer features Motorola s advanced 6809E microprocessor and comes standard withMicrosoft Color Basic, data base manager, and a complete word processing package Thecomputer outputs color composite video along with R F. video that allows the unit to be usedin conjunction with any color television This is the Ideal low cost computer to be used withany diaj up information system such as the Source. Western Union's EasyLmk or any otherlime share service

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800)421-5041

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213)217-0500

California Digital

17700Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

F10 DAISY WHEEL PRINTER

.1*

CnffftiiTiM un*jt*«Bi

J

LETTERQUALITY

The TEC F-10 Daisy Wheel printer is the perfect answer to a rea-sonably priced 40 character word processing printer. While thisprinter is " extremely" similar to C.ltoh s F-10/40 Starwriter printer.Legal counsel for the C.ltoh Company have advised us that weshould refrain from referring to the TEC printer as a Starwriter.This 40 character per second printer auto installs with Wordstar andPerfect Writer. Features extensive built-in word processing func-tions that allow easy adaptability and reduced software complexity.Industry standard Centronics interface provides instant compatibil-

ity with 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 S1400. 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 tractor feed, buffered memory and an

assortment of printer cables for a variety of computers.

10 MEGABYTEWINCHESTER

SPECIAL

California Digital has re-cently purchased severalthousand 10 MegabyteWinchester disk drives.The manufacturer hasasked us not to advertisetheir name. Please tele-phone for details

MEMORY

4154 »"?? 150ns

Quantity100

US

DYNAMIC MEMORY

4164 150ns 64K 128 refresh tCM-4164150

41256150ns 2S6K ICM-41256150

4116150ns. 16K ICM-41161S0

4116 200ns. 16K ICM-41162004128 to* IBM/AT M ■-■.-' -■

DP8409 dynamic controller ICT-8409

STATIC MEMORY

21L02 200ns. IK sialic21L02 450ns. IK sialic2112 450ns. 2K statu;

2114 300ns m ■ 44044TMS 450ns. 4K . 15257 300ns. 4K I 16116 P4 200ns 2K « 86116 P31S0ns 2K ■ 8

2708 450ns IK i 82716450ns. 2K i 82716TMS4S0ns Tn2732 450ns. 4K ■ I2764 350ns 8K « 82712B 350ns 16K *

ICM-21 L02200ICM-21L02450ICM-2112450ICM-21143001CU-4044450ICM-5257300ICM-6116200ICM-61161S0

EPROMS

ICE-2 70S

ICE-2716

ICE-2716TMS

ICE-2732

ICE-2764

ICE-27128

1-312.29

ay.i re

1.75

ass

Ml

2.503.95

32 *

1JM

850

2.65i ■&2S2.25

"5 AS

i n

5.757.85

J97

7.251 M6.256.95

Shugart

These""6.7 Meg3byte drivesare new units recently re-leased by the Shugart divisionof Xerox. The Shugart 604 isfully 506 industry compatible.Each drive is tested beforeshipment and is supplied witha 90 day warranty SHU-604

>lnch Winchester Hard Disk Drives

FUJITSU M2235AS 27 Meg. 899 859

RODIME RO-208 53 Meg. 1589 1493

MAXTOR XT10140 140 Meg. 3895 3785

SHUGART 712 13Meg.V2Ht 495 465

SHUGART 604 6.7 Meg. 99 89

TAHDON502 10 Meg. 419 395

TAHDOH 503 19 Meg. 695 675

SEAGATE 225 25 Meg. 695 625

TEAC

Your Choice

>5B 55F

48TPI-96TPI

One Two TenFive Inch Double Sided Drives

TEAC FD55B half height 119 115 109

TEAC FD55F 96 TPI, half ht. 119 115 109

CONTROL DATA 9409 PC 169 159 155

SHUGART SA455 Half Height 119 115 109

SHUGART SA465 V: Ht. 96TPI 119 115 109

TAN DON 100-2 full height 149 145 139

TANDON 101-4 96TPI full ht. 299 289 279

MITSUBISHI 4851 half height 139 135 129MITSUBISHI 485396/TPI'2Ht.155 149 139

MITSUBISHI 4854 8" elec. 295 285 275

QUME 142 half height 219 205 199

Eight Inch Single Sided DrivesSHUGART 801R 159 159 154

SIEMENS FDD 100-8 119 115 109

TANDON 848E-1 Half Height 369 359 349

Eight Inch Double Sided DrivesSHUGART SA851R 495 485 475

QUME 842 "QUME TRACK 8" 319 319 313TANDON 848E-2 Half Height 459 447 435REMEX RFD-4000 219 219 209

MITSUBISHI M2896 63? Ht. 459 449 409

Shipping: First five pounds $3.00, each additional pound $.50.Foreign orders: 10% shipping, excess will be refunded.California residents add 6'/2% sales tax. • COD's discouraged.Open accounts extended to state supported educational institu-tions and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.

• PRICE WAR • callus LAST

PRINTERS

EPSON FX-80 » $349 FX-100+ $479

LQ-1500 Parallel $939 Serial $989

JX-80 160 cps, dot-matrix/7 color graphics . $479

HI-80 4 Pen Plotter $369

LX-80 draft (100 cps) & NIQ modes $239

EXCLUSIVELY FOR IBM PC

OKIDATA 92P/92-IBM $339

93-P/93-IBM $549 84-P/84-IBM $649

OKIMATE 20-IBM Parallel with Plug & Print . $219

182-IBW Parallel Personal Printer $239

92 Tractor $70 84 Sheet Feeder $390

TOSHIBA 1340P (80 column) $549

TOSHIBA 351P (132 column) $1149

Tractor $170 Sheet Feeder $799

JUKI 6100 (18 cps),JUKI 6300 (40 cps),Tractor 6100/6300

widewide

$379$699

$I30/$140

BROTHER HR-1S XL (20 CPS) .£ 339 $**?"HR-15 Tractor/Keyboard/Sheet Fdr. $ 110/$ 160/$ 190HR-25 (23 CPS) $559 HR-35 (36 CPS) $769Tractor/Sheet Feeder lor HR 25/35 $120/$200

TWINRITER5 CALL

2024L LQ/Graphics 24 pin, 160/80 cps $999

2024L Cutsheet Feeders - Narrow $220 Wide $290

C. ITOH8S10-BPI8510-SCEP $429

1550-P $429

Y10-20-P $409

F-10-40-P $849

$299 8510-SEP

1550-EP

1550-SEP

A10-30-P

F-10-55-P

$369$419$509$459$999

QUME LETTERPRO 20P 20 cps $399

20P Tractor/Sheet Feeder $140/$380

SPRINT 1140 + $1299 SPRINT 1155+ $1419

INTERFACE MODULE IBM Parallel $80

SPRINT Tractor/Sheet Feeder S210/S690

PANASONIC KX-P3151 LQ 22 cps $479

KX-P1090/91/92/93 $199/$269/$399/$589

STAR MICRONICS NEW 10" & 15" MODELS

S6-10/15I20CPS S229/S379

SD-10/15 160 CPS $339/$449

SR-1O/15 200CPS $489/$599

NECP-2 $499 P-3 $699

NEW ELF 360 (19 CPS) $449

2050 $649 3550 $999 8850 $1399Spinwriter Tractor/Sheet Feeder $190/$790

DIABLO 630 ECS/IBM $1699 630 API $1529Advantage D-25 $549 Series 36 $1199

DATA PRODUCTS Makers of IBM color printerSPG 8051 (Same as IBM Color Printer) $1349

SPG 8071 (Same as 8051 at twice the speed) $1699

DISPLAY CARDS

EVEREX Graphics Edge

Best Price Ever

AST Monograph Plus w/clock, Por & Ser Ports

$399

PERSYST BoB Board

Short-Port Color $159 Mini-Mono CALL

Color Combo: Multifunction & Color Adapter from $349

Mono Combo: Multifunction & Mono Adapter from $349

MYLEX Chairman

$429

PARADISE Modular Brd $259 Modules CALL

INTELLIGENT B-450 Mono/Color/printer

$249

TECMAR Graphics Master w/PC Paintbrush $449HERCULES MonoGraphks $289 Color $149

GENOA Spectrum Multi Display Card

CALL

IBM Color Card

$229 Generic

$129

QU ADRAM QuadColor I or II $ 199 Both $390

WITH YOUR BEST QUOTES

MODEMS

MICROCOM ERA-2 Int. w/stt

.$339

HAYES 1200 B Internal w/software $345

1200 Standalone w/o software $375

NEW 2400 Baud Ext CALL

POPCOM C-lOO/X-100 Special Low Pnces

PROMETHEUS PROMODEM 1200 Ext $285PROMODEM 1200 B Internal w/software $255

NOVATION SmartCat w/sft - Int or Ext $365

QUBIE Standalone

$309 Internal $279

CALL FOR LATEST SYSTEM PRICES

FLOPPY/HARD DISKS

Veit-Tel Half Card w/Crosstalk XVI $359

1200 Plus External w/o software $329

MONITORS

PGSMAX-12E $169

SR-12 $599

HX-12 $429

ScanDblr CALL

TEACHalfHtFD55B-DSDDf?EPUeE» -$9*-(Warranteed for IBM PC only) 10+ CALL, -$9fl-

TANDON 100-2 Full Ht - DSDD $ gfl ^m-

IBMFull Ht-DSDD

$129

HARD DISKS/BACKUP for IBM PC

lOMBHDIntw/Controller ^"$489

20 MB HD Int w/Controller ~REDUtEj) —3WCall for larger size Hard Disk/Backup CAt-L-

TALL GRASS NEW PC/T FORMAT DRIVES/BACKUP25MBw/60MB $2699 35 MBw/45 MB $349950MBw/60MB $4399 80 MB w/60 MB $5599Controller $140 Cartridge(60 MB) $35

TAXAN COMPOSIT 115 Green/116 Amber $129MONO 121 Green/122 Amber (1000x360) $139COLOR 411 (510x260) $349 425 (640x262) $449COLOR 440 (720x400) $529 W/Persyst BoB Brd Wty

SAKATA SG 1000 Green Composit $ 119

COLOR MONITORS CALL

AMDEK 300G/300A/31OA (M) $ 139/$ 149/CALLCOLOR 600 (640x240) $429 710(720x480) $539

QU ADRAM AMBERCHROME (720x350) CALLQUADCHROMEII (640x240) Color Graphics & Text $429

TECMAR Color Monitor

$529

QUBIE 10/20 MB Internal or ExternalAll Oubie Hard Drives include 1 Dir software

CALL

ROLAND MB-1 42 14 Mono B/W CALL

MULTI-FUNCTION CARDS

MAYNARD10MB/WS-1$799 10MB/WS-2 $89920MB/WS-1 $1099 20MB/WS-2 $1199

30MB/WS-1 $1699 30MB/WS-2 $1779

Gemini WS-1 $1019 Gemini WS-2 $1129

The "Gemini" includes 10MB Hard Disk & Half Ht. floppyMaynStream System 20 $999 Data Cassette 20 $30MaynStream System 60 $1299 Cartridge 600 $50

EVEREX 10MB Int $599 20 MB Int $799EXCEL 4500-PC Internal 45MB Tape Backup $949

EXCEL 4500 External 45MB Tape Backup $999

ASTSIXPAKw/64k $239 Exp to 384k

$329

QUADBOARD O-k $209 Exp to 384k $313

ORCHID Blossom 0-k $175 Exp to 384k $279

BT 6 PLUS w/64k $199 Exp to 384k

$289

IDSB-5120-k $199 Exp to 512k $339

P/S/G/ Ports, Clock/Cal, disk emulation 8, Sockets for 512k

PARADISE 5-PackO-k $149 Exp to 384k $253

TECMAR Captain 0-k $169 Exp to 384k $273

IRWIN MAGNETICS

10 MB Internal Tape Backup $569

10 MB External Tape Backup CALL

• SUPER SPECIALS*

$ 1OOO + SINGH ORDER ENTITLESYOU TO THESE SPECIAL PRICES

JUKI 6100/6300

$369/$679

OKIDATA 92P/93P/84P

$329/$535/$635

BROTHER HR-15/25/35

$329/$539/$749

PGSMAX-12E

$159 HX-12

$399

HAYES 1200B w/sft

$335 1200 Ext

$365

PROMETHEUS 1200LV1200 Ext

$249/$279

TECMAR Graphics Master w/PC Paintbrush $429AST SIXPAK 384k $309 QUADBOARD 384k $293

ORCHID Blossom 384K $?59 BT 6 Plus 384k S269

PARADISE S-Pk 384K $233 TECMAR Captain 384k $253

COMPANY POLICY: Mm order SIM Prices S availability ,unKi Id

change We ship UPS only Shipping/handling diorges vary COO requires cashier,check Ml merchandise sold is new and all sales are final Products shipped in factorycartons come with manufacturer s warranty For others indudincj IBM PC coll techsupport for return auth tt for warranty repair Non defective items returned asdetective subject to 10% service charge (Min $50) Not responsible for hardware orsoftware compatibility of any product No open ocrt PO s or foreign orders Noshowroom, demonsfratocts or walk in soles For odvonce poymenl (personal/companychecks take 3 weeks to dear) oi PICKUP Please coll first for workorder tt

AMERICANEXPRESS

COD NO SURCHARGE. VISA I MC 3V AMEX 5'-.

PERSYST Display & Multifunction Brds from $349

MISC. ADD ONS

64KRAMSet $14 10+Sets $13 50+ $12

8Q87-3/8087-6 $125/$95

ORCHID POurbo w/128k $699 640k $999QU ADRAM QUADsprint $499

CABLE Parallel, 6 ft $20 Parallel, 8 ft. $25

Keyboard Extension, 6 ft. $10 Serial, 6 ft. $25

MAXELLMD-lSSDDBox $20 10+ Boxes $17

(10 per box) MD-2 DSDD Box $25 10+ Boxes $22

IBM floppy Controller $ 115 Generic $75

PC Mouse & Micro Systems Mouse CALL

QUBIE Keyboard 5150 $119 5151 $149

KEYTRONIC Deluxe Keyboard KB 5151 $165

QUADRAM Mkrolaier 8k to 384k CALL

COMPUTER ACCESSORIES P2 (5) $99

POWER DIRECTOR P22 (4) $75P12(6) $139

KENSINGTON Master Piece (5 Outlets) $89

PC Keyboard Storage Drawer $89

STANDBY PWR SUPPLY w/surge protection

200 Watts $279 300 Watts $379 800 Watts $779

KOALA Touch Tablet w/softwore $79

KENSINGTON Universal Stand $20

CURTIS Surge Protectors & Accessories CALL

TILT/SWIVEL Monitor Pedestal $30

406-C CONSTITUTION AVE., CAMARILLO. CA 93010

805-987-7015

WHEN ORDERING PLEASE REFER TO AD #B799

516 BYTE" IUNE 1985

Maxell Floppy Disks

The Mini-Diskswith maximum quality.

Dealer inquiriesinvited CO.D'saccepted CallFREE (800) 235-4137.

PACIFIC EXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd. San LuisSan Luis Obispo. CA 93401In Cal. call (800) 592-5935 or(805)543-1037

NEW!

_£o3eSfeinL_

KEYBOARD PROTECTOR

Remains in place during keyboard use.Prevents damage from liquid spills, dust,ashes, etc. Fits like a second skin, excellentfeel. Homerow and numeric locators.Available for: IBM-PC, Apple He, RadioShack Model 100, Commodore 64.Send $29.95, check or M.O., Visa & MCinclude exp. date. Specify computer type.Dealer inquires invited. Free brochureavailable.

MERRITT Computer Products, Inc.

2925 LBJ, »180 / Dallas, Texas 75234

(214)942-1142

Monitor MoverGives Back the Desk

• Models to fit most CRTs

• Rotates 360° on base

• Adjustable height

• Support tray swivels and tilts

• Holds up to 50 lbs

• Clamp, screw and wall mountings

LirffekHiiiiii

P.O. Box 8056

Grand Rapids, Ml 49508

(616) 241-4040

Inquiry 3I9

Inquiry 271

Inquiry 250

A New Text Editor

for the DEC® Rainbow®

and IBM* PC

• Edit many flies at once

• Memory mapped video display

• BufffTed input

• Context sensitive help

• Undo deletions

• Create, edit & save scratch buffers

• Powerful buffer operations

• Keystroke macros

• Easily configurable

• Fast. Small for its power (38K)

• Utilizes all memory available

• Not copy protected

• Much more

Also included: A speller with a 25000* wordexpandable dictionary, and a text formatterredefinable to familiar commands.DEC: Both MS DOS* & CP'M*. manualIBM & compatibles: MS DOS version, manual

$49.95 M/C. Visa accepted

Plus S3 shipping. IA its add 4% sales tax.

Orders: 1 800-227-2400 ext 97S

1 800 772-2666 ext 97S (within CA)

College Software • 911 Clark Avenue

Ames, IA 5001 0 • (515)233 4023

8051/52 DEVELOPMENT BOARD

8051-Based Single-Board Computer with

Monitor/Debugger

■4 28-pin byte-widesockets; monitor willprogram EEPR0MS.■Perfect tor SystemDevelopment andEducational Applications

S335

BBinary Technology

aaW—1««^ J P.O. BOX 67 • MER1DEN. NH 03770 • 603/469-3

One-of-A-kind DataManagement ProgramDeveloped Especiallyfor You.r^$175.00

STOP thinking about any other programs

STOP worrying about custom programmingSTART saving lime and moneySTART being your own MASTER

Cal.orna (800) 423-0320

ou.sde(800) 482-DATA .

C.D.A. INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE CORP.

(818) 986-3233 Telex: 215666

inquiry 89

Inquiry 52

Inquiry 76

DATA ACQUISITION

•••RS232CV0LTMETERF0RY0URPC*«*

8 channel, 4tt digit AC/DC voltmeter & controllerSEN3ATR0L talks your computer's language! Sen-sors hook up easily to differential inputs providing 15bits of 100uV. Special tri-state serial output allowsnetworking, Includes seven binary control outputsUses simple PRINT and INPUT with BASIC Detailedmanual starts amateurs in sensor hookup & applica-tions. 8385 COMPLETE!

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME.

603-588-3746

BOX 33, FRANCESTOWN, NH 03043

DATA WORLD PRODUCTS

Two DollarsSALE

SUPER BOOK FOR THE APPLE I

The Great Book of Gairm16 games. 144 pages

3rd*- No 182 wail 9 95 now f 7

More on the Sixtyfour

Machine Language Program* lor the

advanced user.

Order No 183 was 8 9.95now 8 2

Machine Language Programming on

the C 64

Order-No 184 Mil 12 95

now S 2

Commodore 64 Tone-upHardware expansions. I/O program

Order No 185 WW 8 12.95

now 8 2

The APPLE -n your HandAdvanced BASIC programs, iniroduct ion into machine language.FORTH. Tips & Tricks (220 pagesiOrder No 178 mi S 12 95

now 8 2

BOOKS FOR ATARI 800 XL

Games for the ATARI

112 pages full of super games

Order No 162 was 8 7.95 now 8 2-

ATARI Machine Language

Programming

Order-No 169 was 89.95now8 2 •

Hackerbook for The ATARI

Order-No 172 was 8 9 95 now 8 2.

The programs from the books are also available on disk Each disk it 8 9.95

ELCOMP PUBLISHING. INC3174 Wen Foothill Bind.. IMI E

Upland CA9W86

Phone: (714198S-4477 ,TI».: 29 HI 81

Inquiry 130

Inquiry 164

Inquiry 265

Lotus™ User?

Free Mail Order Catalog for LotusSoftware users, includes:

■ Lotus Programs

■ Lotus Enhancement Software

■ Books arid Training Aids

■ Hardware and Utilities

We are a unique mail order companyspecializing in Lotus related products.

4-5-6 WORLD

Dept. A-108

RO. Box 22657

Santa Barbara, CA 93121

(8001 524-5678 Toll Free

(805) 564-2424 In California

>sggs

Your definitive Ijotus enhancement sour

FORTRAN

PROGRAMMERS

Discover why

vou should be using

F77L

the complete implementation

of the ANSI FORTRAN 77Standard for the IBM PC and

compatibles.

If you are serious about your

FORTRAN programming, you

should be using F77L.

$477

' Lahey Computer

^M£iJ Systems, Inc.31244 Palos Verdes Drive Weil, Suite 243Ram ho Palos Verdes. California 90274

[213| 541-1200

Serving the IORTRAN community

since l%9

ComputerSystem Sale

Lowest Price ComputerSystem in the U.S.A.

OO

Includes Atari 800X1 88K Computer127K Disk Drive 20 CPS Letter QualityPrinter Beginners Basic Book, ondmore. List S852 90

All for only S449~152K System S499°°

312/ 382-5050

• Over 1000 programs ovailable • free catalog

COMPUTER DIRECT

22292 N. Pepper Rd„ Barrington, IL 60010

Wc Love Our Customers

Inquiry 2

Inquiry 241

Inquiry 341

8051SIMULATOR

for the IBM-PC $ A QQ

or Z80 CP/M uC ■ **

SIM51 is a screen oriented program thatsimulates the Intel 8051 family of singlechip microcomputers. It accepts Intel HEXfiles (produced by most cross assemblers)and features both a menu and a com-mand driven user interfaceCall today for complete information

(nW@@!}u i(cpu[pR)©IJDli©®L?[p)®L7S]ttu®[ID

9560 Black Mountain RoadSan Diego. CA 92126

For Immediate Action Call:(619) 566-1892

THE WORLD'S FASTESTS-100 Z-80 SLAVE PROCESSOR

TurboSlave I

8 Mm l 80M

•

t^Bk Ham *itfi 83

Data fans'eis to <

•

2 HS232 Ports

mbytesecono

--....

. 696 compat-we

•

UFO COmmun.c

4k Monitor 'Of

•

On boa'd diagnos

l m ^d'Ts unt

•

LO* uo*e' COnson

hh uacMie ooa'di

•

TurboDOS compat

INTRODUCTORY PRICE $495

includes TurboDOS drive's (a $100 value) andTurboSlave I with 1 28k ram

~~tAKTH COMPUTERS ~

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND QUANTITY DISCOUNTSCALL: (714)964-5784

Registered trademarks I BOH. Zilou Int TurboUOS 5ol1ware 2000 Iflc

PERCON" E-Z READER"BAR CODE READERS

$595

Quantity one

QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, PRICE

IBM* PC/XT KEYBOARD COMPATIBLE VERSIONWofks win mosi compatibles

-OR-

RS 232C SERIAL VERSION

READS UPC A'E CODE 39 CODABAR ABC. I 2 OF 5DECODES BOTH DOT MATRIX & HIGHDENSITY PRINTED LABELS ACCURATELY

MS/PC DOS Bar Code Printing Software $99

503/344-11892190 W. 11th St.Eugene. OR 97402

n Sloch VISA MrC Of COD

Inquiry 2II

Inquiry I60

Inquiry 325

SL MICRO

STATISTICAL LANGUAGEfor MICROCOMPUTERS

featuresFREQUENCIES FULL LABELING

CROSSTABS TRANSFORMATIONSPEARSON CORR * DATA EDITORREGRESSION CONDESCRIPTIVE• ANOVA • BREAKDOWN

Only S250. Manual $1 5

Available for IBM PC. CP/M,

MS-DOS or CP/M-86.

QSC BOX 778

. LANSING. Ml 48823(517) 641-4428

GDC Clearance SaleNew Modems

208 Micro-processor «cnn nn4800 bps $500.00

201C *Annnn

2000 or 2400 bps $429.00

212A 1200 bps full duplex

synch, or asynch. */>/»/» r\n

300 bps asynch. 5299.00

9600 Point to-PoInt $1395.00

Various other models also avaitable-

Call Toll Free 1-800-842-3672

Connecticut residents call203-758-1811 ext. 7535

General DataComm

Middlebury, CT 06762-1299

Add $5.00 shipping and handling. Conn res. add sales tax.

HAYES 1200 $399

HAYES 1200B $379

VOLKSMODEM 1200 S189

ANCHOR MARK XII $225

MARK X 300 $ 99

PASSWORD 1200 $229

COURIER 2400 II4T9

CERMETEK 1200 JI439

CERMETEK 1200PC !I349

CERMETEK 2400 II489

CERMETEK SECURITY . $599

3535 Roundbottom Rd. Cinti.. OH 45244

Inquiry 35!

Inquiry I9I

Inquiry 174

nnrcm

MODEM $6995

FOR APPLE OR IBM

nsciL^s^v

INCLUDES ASCII PRO-EZtm MENU DRIVEN SOFTWARE(AT LEAST A $100 VALUE IN ITSELF!)

* FCC APPROVED

* BELL SYSTEM 103 COMPATIBLE

* 300 BAUD

* AUTO-DIAL/AUTO-ANSWER

* DIRECT CONNECT

* INCLUDES AC ADAPTOR

SPECIFY IBM OR APPLE WHEN ORDERING

TAXAN MODEL 415

VISION IIIMONITOR

ORIGINALLYMADE FORACORN COMPUTERSAME SPECS ASTHE TAXAN 420

• 18 Mhz BANDWIDTH

• 640 x 262 PIXEL RESOLUTION

• 16 COLORS

WITH INTENSITY CONTROL

• 12" BLACK MATRIX

• IBM AND LOTUS COMPATIBLE

$299

95

RGB MONITOR CABLE FOR IBM

$15.95

INTERFACE CARDS

MADE IN THE USA BY INTERSIL SYSTEMS

COLOR/GRAPHICS

* SUPPORTS COMPOSITEOR RGB MONITOR

* OPERATES IN ALPHANUMERICOR ALL-POINTS-ADDRESSABLEGRAPHICS MODE

* SUPPORTS 16 COLORS

* CONTAINS LIGHT PEN INTERFACE

$12995

MONOCHROME

DISPLAYADAPTOR

* 720 x 350 PIXEL SCREEN

(80 CHARACTERS x 25 LINES)

* CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES:BLINK, UNDERLINE, REVERSEVIDEO, INTENSIFIED

* STANDARD TTL OUTPUT

$14995

JDR Microdevices

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

Copyright 1985 JDR Mlcrodevlc

Inquiry 229

RETAIL STORE -1256 S. BASCOM AVENUEHOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling include$2.50 tor UPS Ground and $3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. andforeign orders may require additional shipping charges - pleasecontact our sales department tor the amount. CA. residents mustinclude 6% sales tax. Bay Area and LA residents include 6W„. Allmerchandise is warranted for 90 days unless otherwise stated. Pricesare subject to change without notice. We are not responsible fortypographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and tosubstitute manufacturer All merchandise subject to prior sale.

IUNE I985 'BYTE 519

4164 MK2iKM,c9/14.95

41256 ""fflr 5.95

STATIC RAMS

2101

256x4

(450ns)

1.95

5101

256x4

(450nsHcmos}

3.95

2102-1

1024x4

(450ns)

.69

2102L-4

1024x1

(450ns)(LP)

.99

2102L2

1024x1

(250ns)(LP)

1.45

2125

1024x1

(45ns)

2.95

2111

256x4

(450ns)

2.49

2111L

256x4

(450ns)|LP)

2.95

2112

256x4

(450ns)

2.99

i 2114

1024x4

(450ns)

8 9.95

2114-25

1024x4

(250ns)

8 10.95

2114L-4

1024x4

(450ns)(LP)

8 12.95

I 2114L-3

1024x4

(300ns)(LP)

8/13.45

| 2114L-2

1024x4

(200ns)(LP|

8 13.95

2114L-15

1024x4

(150ns)(LP)

8/19.95

TC5514

1024x4

(650ns)(cmos)

4.95

2141

4096x1

(200ns)

2.95

2147

4096x1

(55ns)

4.95

2148

1024x4

(70ns)

4.95

TMS4044-4

4096x1

(450ns)

3.49

TMS4044-3

4096x1

(300ns)

3.99

TMS4044-2

4096x1

(200ns)

4.49

TMS40L44-2

4096x1

(200ns)(LP)

4.95

UPD410

4096x1

(100ns)

3.95

MK4118

1024x8

(250ns)

9.95

TMM2016-200

2048x8

(200ns |

3.25

TMM2016-150

2048x8

(150ns)

3.75

TMM2016-100

2048x8

(100ns)

4.75

HM6116-4

2048x8

(200ns>(cmos)

3.69

HM6116-3

2048x8

(150ns)(cmos)

3.95

HM6116-2

2048x8

(120ns)(cmos)

5.95

HM6116LP-4

2048x8

(200ns)(cmos)(LP)

3.95

HM6116LP-3

2048x8

(150ns)(cmos)(LP)

4.25

HM6116LP-2

2048x8

(120ns)(cmos)(LP)

6.95

TC5516

2048x8

(250ns)(cmos)

9.95

TMS4016

2048x8

(200ns)

695

Z-6132

4096x8

(300nsHQstat)

34.95

HM6264P-15

8192x8

(150ns)(cmos)

10.25

HM6264LP-15

8192x8

(150ns)(cmos|(LP)

10.95

HM6264LP-12

8192x8

(120ns){cmos|(LP)

12.95

LP= Low power

Qstat= Quas i- Static

DYNAMIC RAMS

TMS4027

4096x1

(250ns)

1.99

2107

4096x1

(200 ns |

1.95

MM5280

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

rMS4050

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

UPD411

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95 I

TMS4060

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

MK4108

8192x1

(200ns)

.49

MM5298

8192x1

(250ns)

.49

4116-300

16384x1

(300ns)

8^6.95

4116-250

16384x1

(250ns)

8 6.95

4116-200

16384x1

(200ns)

8 8.95

4116-150

16384x1

(150ns)

8 10.95 I

4116-120

16384x1

(120ns)

8/12.95 I

2118

16384x1

(150ns)(5v)

4.95

MK4332

32768x1

(200ns)

9.95 I

4164-200

65536x1

(200ns)(5v)

9/14.95 1

4164-150

65536x1

(150n*)(5v)

9 16.95

4164 120

65536x1

(120ns)(5v)

3.95

MCM6665

65536x1

(200ns)(5v)

4.95

TMS4164-20

65536x1

(200ns) (5V)

4.25

TMS4164-15

65536x1

(150ns)(5v)

4.95

4164-REFRESH

65536x1

(150ns)(5V)(REFRESH) 8.95 |

TMS4416-20

16384x4

(200ns)|5V)

8.95

TMS4416-15

16384x4

(150ns)(5v)

9.95

41128-150

131072x1

(150ns)(5v)

13.95

41256-200

262144x1

(200ns)(5v)

5.95 |

41256-150

262144x1

(150ns)(5v)

6.45

l 5v= Single 5 Volt Supply

REFRFSH -Pin 1

Refresh J

EPROMS

1702

256x8

(1us)

4.50

2708

1024x8

(450ns)

3.95

2758

1024x8

(450ns)(5VI

5 95

2716-6

2048x8

(650ns)

2 95

2716

2048x8

(450ns )(5V)

3.95

2716-1

2048x8

(350ns)(5V)

4.95

TMS2516

204Bx8

(450ns )(5V)

4.95

TMS2716

2048x8

(450ns)

7.95

TMS2532

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)

4.95

2732

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)

4.25

2732A-4

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)(21VPGM)

4.95

2732A 35

4096x8

(350ns)(5V)(21VPGM)

4.95

2732A

4096x8

(250ns)(5VH21VPGM)

6.95

2732A-2

4096x8

(200ns)(5V)(21VPGM)

10.95

2764

8192x8

(450ns|(5V)

4.95

2764-250

8192x8

(250ns)(5V)

5.25

2764200

8192x8

(200ns)(5V)

895

TMS2564

8192x8

(450ns|(5V)

10.95

MCM68764

8192x8

(450ns)(5V)(24 pin)

24.95

MCM68766

8192x8

(350ns)(5V)(24 pin)

42.95

27128-45

16384x8

(450ns)(5V)

7.50

27128-30

16384x8

(300ns )(5V)

7.75

27128

16384x8

(250ns)|5V)

7.95

27256

32768x8

(250ns)(5V)

19.95

5 V- Single

5 Volt Supply

21V PGM-Program at 21 Vorts J

• •••HIGH-TECH****

8087-6 $119.00

• 4.87 MHz VERSION OF 8087MATH COPROCESSOR

• IBM-PC COMPATIBLE

• RUNS TURBO PROGRAMS ASMUCH AS 100 TIMES FASTER THAN8088 ALONE

• •••SPOTLIGHT****

ORDER TOLL FREE

800-538-5000880-662-6279

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

Z 802.5 MHz

Z80 CPUZ80-CTCZ80 DART780 DMAZ80-PIOZ80 SIO 0Z80-SIO 1780 SIO 2Z80 SIO 9

4.0 MHz

Z80A CPU' Z80A-CTCZ80A-DARTZ80A-DMA280A PIOZ80A SIO/0Z80A SIO 1Z80A-SIO/2Z80A SIO 9

2.953.958.95

9.953.9510.9510.9510.9510.95

r 6500

1.0 MHz

6502

4.95

65C02(CMOS) 12.95

6504

6.95

6505

8 95

6507

9 95

6520

295

6522

5 49

6532

9 95

6545

9.95

6551

9 95

2.0 MHz

6502A

5.95

6520A

5 95

6522A

9.95

6532A

11.95

6545A

12.95

6551A

11.95

3.0 MHz

[6502B

8.95

6.0 MHz

i Z80B CPUZ80B-CTCZ80B-PIOZ80B-DARTZ80B SIO 0 29.95Z80B-SIO .2 29.95

8.959.959.9519.95

ZILOG

Z6132

. Z8671

r UARTS

AY5-1013

3.95

AY3-1015

r. 95

PT1472

9.95

TR1602

3.95

2350

9.95

2651

8.95

IM6402

7.95

IM6403

8.95

UPD7201

19.95

. INS8250

10.95

6800

j 68000-8

39.95

! 6800

2.95

6802

7.95

I 6803

19.95

6808

13.90

6809

895

6809E

8.95

I 6810

2.95

1 6820

4.35

6821

2.95

6828

14.95

6840

12.95

6843

34.95

6844

25.95

6845

12.95

6847

11.95

6850

3.25

6852

5.75

6860

7.95

6875

6.95

6880

2.25

6883

22.95

68047

24.95

68488

19.95

6800

MHz

68B00

1095

68B02

11.95

68B09E

11.95

68B09

11.95

68B10

5.95

68821

5.95

68B40

19.95

68B45

19.95

68B50

5.95

68 B00

2MHz

8000 1

8031

29.95

8035

5.95

8039

5.95

INS 8060

17.95

INS-8073

49.95

8060

3.95

8085

4.95

8085A-2

11.95

8086

24.95

80872

199.00

8087-3

129.00

80876

119.00

8088

19.95

8089

69.95

8155

6.95

8155-2

7.95

8156

6.95

8185

29.95

8185-2

39.95

8741

29.95

8748

24 95

8749

39.95

8755

24.95 J

r MISC

TMS99531

9.95 i

TMS99532

29.95

ULN2003

1.29

3242

7.95

3341

4.95

MC3470

4.95 1

MC3480

9.00 1

MC3487

2.95

11C90

13.95

95H90

7.95

2513-001 up

9.95

2513-002 low

9.95 J

8200

8202

24 95

8203

39.95

8205

3.50

8212

1.80

8214

3.85

8216

1.75

8224

2.25

8226

1.80

8228

3.49

8237

13.95

8237-5

15.95

8238

4.49

8243

445

8250

10.95

8251

3.95

8251A

4.49

8253

6.95

6253-5

795

8255

4.49

8255-5

5.25

8257

795

8257-5

8.95

8259

690

8259-5

7.50

8271

79.95

8272

19.95

8274

39 95

8275

29 95

8279

6.95

8279-5

7.95

8282

650

8283

6.50

8284

5.50

8286

6.50

8287

650

8288

14.95

8289

49.95

8292

14.95

CRYSTALS

32.768 KHz

1.95

1.0 MHz

3.95

1.8432

3.95

2.0

295

2.097152

2.95

2.4576

2.95

32768

2.95

3.579545

2.95

4.0

2.95

4.032

2.95

5.0

2.95

5.0688

2.95

5.185

2.95

5.7143

2.95

60

2.95

6.144

2.95

6.5536

2.95

8.0

2.95

100

295

10.738635

295

14.31818

2.95

15.0

2.95

16.0

2.95

17.430

2.95

18.0

2.95

18.432

2.95

20.0

2.95

22.1184

295

24.0

2.95

32.0

2.95

[GENERATORS ]BIT RATE

I MC14411BR19414702

COMS016I COM81161 MM5307

11.9511.9512.9516.9510.951095

FUNCTION

MC4024LM566XR2206I 8038

' DISKCONTROL!

.fcRS

1771

15.95

1791

23.95

1793

23.95

1795

23.95

1797

2395

2791

39.95

2793

39.95

2795

39.95

2797

39 95

6843

34.95

8272

19.95

UPD765

19.95

UB8876

29.95

MB8877

34.95

1691

7.95

2143

7.95

KEYBOARDCHIPS

j AY5-2376 11.95

AY5-3600STD 11.95

I AY5-3600 PRO 11.95 ,

r CLOCK

CIRCUITS

MM5314

4.95

MM5369

1.95

MM5369 EST

1.95

MM5375

4.95

MM58167

8.95

MM58174

11.95

MSM5832

3.95

CRYSTALOSCILLATORS

1.0MHz

7 95

1.8432

7.95

2.0

7.95

2.4576

7 95

2.5

7.95

4.0

7.95

5.0688

7.95

6.0

7 95

6 144

7.95

8.010 012.015.016.018.43220.024 0

74LS00

r CRT

CONTROLLERS

6845

12.95

68B45

19.95

6847

11.95

68047

24.95

HD46505SP

15.95

MC1372

6.95

8275

29.95

7220

39.95

CRT5027

19.95

CRT5037

34.95

TMS9918A

39 95

DP8350

49.95

74LS00

74LS01

74LS02

74LS03

74LS04

74LS05

74LS08

74LS09

74LS10

74LS11

74LSI 2

74LS13

74LS14

74LS15

74LS20

74LS21

74LS22

74LS26

74LS27

74LS28

74LS30

74LS32

74LS33

74LS37

74LS38

74LS40

74LS42

74LS47

74LS48

74LS49

74LS51

74LS54

74LS55

74LS63

74LS73

74LS74

74LS75

74LS76

74LS78

74LS83

74LS85

74LS86

74LS90

74LS91

74LS92

74LS93

74LS95

74LS96

74LS107

74LS109

74LS112

74LS113

74LS114

74LS122

74LS123

74LS124

74LS125

74LS126

74LS132

74LS133

74LS136

74LS137

74LS138

74LS139

74LS145

74LS147

74LS148

74LS151

74LS153

74LS154

74LSI 55

74LS156

74LS157

74LS158

74LS160

74LS161

74LS162

74LS163

74LS164

74LS165

74LS166

74LS168

74LS169

74LS170

74LS173

74LS174

74LS175

74LS181

79

.79

99

.99

.59

.89

2 15

74LS189 8.95

74LS190 .89

74LS191 .8974LS19274LS19374LS19474LSI 9574LS19674LS19774LS22174LS24074LS24174LS24274LS243

74LS244 1.29

74LS245 1.4974LS24774LS24874LS24974LS25174LS25374LS25774LS258

74LS259 2.75

74LS260 .59

74LS261 2.25

74LS266 .55

74LS273 1.49

74LS275 3.35

74LS279 .49

74LS280 1.9874LS28374LS29074LS29374LS29574LS298

74LS299 1.75

74LS322 5.95

74LS323 350

74LS324 1.75

74LS348 2.50

74LS352 1.29

74LS353 129

74LS363 1.35

74LS364 1.95

74LS365 .49

74LS366 .4974LS36774LS368

74LS373 1.39

74LS374 1.39

74LS375 .95

74LS377 1.39

74LS378 1.18

74LS379 1.35

74LS385 3 90

74LS386 .45

74LS390 1.19

74LS393 1.19

74LS395 1.19

74LS396 189

74LS399 1.49

74LS424 3.95

74LS447 .95

74LS490 1.95

74LS540 1.95

74LS541 1.95

74LS624 3.99

74LS640 2.20

74LS645 2.20

74LS668 1.69

74LS669 1.89

74LS670 1.4974LS674 14.95

74LS682 3.20

74LS683 3.20

74LS684 3.20

74LS685 3.20

74LS688 2.40

74LS689 3.20

81LS95 1.49

81LS96 1.4925LS2518 4 13

25LS2521 2.8025LS2538 3.7425LS2569 2.80

26LS31 2.19

26LS32 2.19

.45

SftsJDR Microdevices

■ ■ 1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

Copyright 1985 JOR MIc

RETAIL STORE - 1256 S. BASCOM AVENUEHOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERINGTERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling include$2.50 (or UPS Ground and S3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. andforeign orders may require additional shipping charges - pleasecontact our sales department for the amount. CA. residents mustinclude 6% sales tax. Bay Area and LA residents include 6Vi%. Allmerchandise is warranted for 90 days unless otherwise stated. Pricesare subject to change without notice. We are not responsible fortypographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and tosubstitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

520 BYTE- IUNE I985

Inquiry 230

HM6264P-158Wc 10.25 SSI263 A. 39.95

74S00

74S00

32

74S135

.89

74S244

2.20

74S02

.35

74S138

85

74S251

95

74S03

.35

74S139

85

74S253

95

74S04

35

74S140

.55

74S257

95

74S05

.35

74S151

.95

74S258

95

74S08

.35

74S153

.96

74S260

.79

74S09

40

74S157

.95

74S273

2.45

74S10

35

74S158

95

74S274

19.95

74S11

35

74S161

1 95

74S275

19.95

74S15

35

74S162

1 95

74S280

1.95

74S20

35

74S163

1.95

74S283

3.29

74S22

35

74S168

3.95

74S287

1.90

74S30

35

74S169

3 95

74S288

1.90

74S32

40

74S174

95

74S289

6.98

74S37

88

74S175

.95

74S299

7.35

74S38

85

74S180

11.95

74S301

6.95

74S40

35

74S181

3.95

74S373

2.45

74S51

36

74S182

2.95

74S374

2.45

74S64

40

74S185

16.95

74S381

7.95

74S65

40

74S188

1.95

74S387

1.95

74S74

50

74S189

6 95

74S399

2.95

74S85

1 99

74S194

1 49

74S412

2.98

74S86

50

74S195

1 49

74S470

6.95

74S112

50

74S196

1 49

74S471

4.95

74S113

.50

74S197

149

74S472

4.95

74S114

55

74S201

695

74S474

4.95

74S124

275

74S225

795

74S570

2.95

74S132

1 24

74S226

3 99

74S571

2.95

74S133

45

74S240

2.20

74S573

9.95

74S134

.50

74S241

2 20

87S18187S185

16.2516.95

CMOS

7400

7400

.19

7483

50

74172

5.95

7401

19

7485

59

74173

.75

7402

.19

7486

35

74174

.89

7403

.19

7489

2 15

74175

89

7404

.19

7490

35

74176

89

7405

.25

7491

40

74177

75

7406

29

7492

50

74178

115

7407

29

7493

35

74179

1.75

7408

24

7494

65

74180

.75

7409

19

7495

55

74181

2.25

7410

19

7496

70

74182

.75

7411

.25

7497

275

74184

2.00

7412

30

74100

1 75

74185

2.00

7413

35

74105

1.14

74189

2.99

7414

49

74107

30

74190

1.15

7416

.25

74109

.46

74191

1.15

7417

.25

74110

45

74192

79

7420

.19

74111

55

74193

.79

7421

35

74116

1 55

74194

85

7422

.35

74120

1.20

74195

85

7423

29

74121

29

74196

.79

7425

29

74122

45

74197

.75

7426

29

74123

49

74198

1.35

7427

.29

74125

.45

74199

1.35

7428

45

74126

45

74221

1.35

7430

.19

74128

55

74246

1.35

7432

29

74132

45

74247

1.25

7433

45

74136

50

74248

1.85

7437

29

74141

65

74249

1.95

7438

29

74142

2 95

74251

.75

7439

79

74143

495

74259

2.25

7440

19

74144

2 95

74265

1.35

7442

49

74145

60

74273

1.95

7443

65

74147

1 75

74276

1.25

7444

.69

74148

1.20

74278

3.11

7445

.69

74150

1 35

74279

.75

7446

.69

74151

55

74283

2.00

7447

.69

74152

65

74284

3.75

7448

.69

74153

55

74285

3.75

7450

19

74154

1 25

74290

.95

7451

23

74155

.76

74293

.75

7453

23

74156

65

74298

85

7454

.23

74157

55

74351

2.25

7460

23

74159

1 65

74365

65

7470

.35

74160

.86

74366

65

7472

29

74161

69

74367

65

1 7473

34

74162

85

74368

.65

7474

33

74163

69

74376

2.20

7475

45

74164

.85

74390

1.75

| 7476

35

74165

.85

74393

1.35

7480

.69

74166

1.00

74425

315

| 7481

110

74167

2 96

74426

.85

L 7482

.95

74170

1.65

74490

2.55

4000

4001

4002

4006

4007

4008

4009

4010

4011

4012

4013

4014

4015

4016

4017

4018

4019

4020

4021

4022

4023

4024

4025

4026

4027

4028

4029

4030

4034

4035

4040

4041

4042

4043

4044

4046

4047

4048

4049

4050

4051

4052

4053

4060

4066

4068

4069

4070

4071

4072

4073

4075

4076

4077

4078

4081

4082

4085

4086

4093

4094

4098

4099

14409

14410

14411

14412

14419

14433

14490

4502

4503

4507

4508

4510

4511

4512

4514

4515

4516

4518

4519

4520

4521

4522

4526

4527

4528

4529

12.95

12.95

1.50

4531

4532

4538

4539

4541

4543

4553

4555

4556

4558

4560

4569

4581

4582

4584

4585

45151

4702

4724

74C00

74C02

74C04

74C08

74C10

74C14

74C20

74C30

74C32

74C42

74C48

74C73

74C74

74C76

74C83

74C85

74C86

74C89

74C90

74C93

74C95

74C1S0 5.75

74C151 2.25

74C154 3.25

74C157 1.75

74C160 1.19

74C161 1.19

74C162 1 19

74C163 1.19

74C164 1.39

74C165 2.00

74C173 .79

74C174 1.19

74C175 1.19

74C192 1.49

74C193 1.49

74C195 1.39

74 C 200 5.75

74C221 1.75

74C244 2.25

74C373 2.45

74C374 2.45

74C901 .39

74C902 85

74C903 .85

74C905 10.95

74C906 .95

74C907 1.00

74C908 2.00

74 C 909 2.75

74C910 9.9S

74C911 8.95

74C912 8.95

74C914 1.95

74C915 1.19

74C918 2.75

74C920 17.95

74C921 15.95

74C922 4.49

74C923 4.95

74C925 5.95

74C926 7.95

74C927 7.95

74C928 7.95

74C929 19.95

74C930 4.95

30C95 .85

80C96 95

80C97 .95

80C98 1.20

HIGH SPEED CMOS

A new family of high speed CMOS logic featuringthe speed of low power Schottky (8ns typical gate prop-agation 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 are idealfor new. all-CMOS designs

74HC00

74HC02

74HC04

74HC08

74HC10

74HC11

74HC14

74HC20

74HC27

74HC30

74HC32

74HC51

74HC74

74HC75

74HC85

74HC86

74HC93

74HC125

74HC132

74HC138

74HC139

74HC151

74HC153

74HC154

74HC167

74HC161

74HC164

74HC166

74HC174

74HC175

74HC193

74HC194

74HC195

74HC238

74HC240

74HC241

74HC242

74HC243

74HC244

74HC245

74HC251

74HC257

74HC259

74HC273

74HC299

74HC367

74HC373

74HC374

74HC393

74HC4017

74HC4020

74HC4024

74HC4040

74HC4049

74HC4050

74HC4060

74HC4511

74HC4S38

74HCT: Direct, dropcan be intermixed with

74HCT00 .69

74HCT02 .69

74HCT04 .69

74HCT08 .69

74HCT10 .69

74HCT11 .69

74HCT14 .89

74HCT20 .69

74HCT27 .69

74HCT30 .69

74HCT32 .79

74HCT51 .69

74HCT74 .85

74HCT75 .95

74HCT85 1.49

74HCT86 .79

74HCT93 1.29

74HCT125 1.29

74HCT132 1.29

74HCT138 1.15

74HCT139 1.15

74HCT151 1.05

74HCT1S3 1.05

74HCT154 2.99

74HCT157 .99

74HCT161 1.29

74HCT164 1.39

74HCT166 3 05

74HCT174 1.09

74HCT00

-epiacements for LS TTL and74LS in the tame circuit.

74HCT175 1.09

74HCT193 1.39

74HCT194 1.19

74HCT195 1.29

74HCT238 1.49

74HCT240 2.19

74HCT241 2.19

74HCT242 2.19

74HCT243 2.19

74HCT244 2.19

74HCT245 2.19

74HCT251 1.09

74HCT257 .99

74HCT259 1.59

74HCT273 2.09

74HCT299 5.25

74HCT367 1.09

74HCT373 2.49

74HCT374 2.49

74HCT393 1.59

74HCT4017 2.19

74HCT4020 1.59

74HCT4024 1.79

74HCT4040 1.59

74HCT4049 .99

74HCT4OS0 .99

74HCT4060 1.49

74HCT4511 2.69

74HCT4538 2.59

BSPECTRONICSCORPORATIONEPROM ERASERS

Capacity Intensity

Timer Chip |uW/Cm>)

PE-14 9 8,000 $83.00

PE-14T x 9 8.000 $119.00

PE-24T x 12 9,600 $175.00

PL-265T x 30 9,600 $255.00

PR-125T x 25 17.000 $349.00

. PH-320T x 42 17,000 $595 00 A

TRANSISTORS

2N918 .50

MPS918 .25

2N2102 .75

2N2218 .50

2N2218A .50

2IM2219 .50

2N2219A .502N2222PN2222

MPS2369 .25

2N2484 .25

2N2905 .50

2N2907 .25

PN2907 .13

2N30S5 .79

3055T .692N33932hl34142N35632N3565

PN3565 .25

MPS3638 .25

MPS3640 .25

PN3643 .25

PN3644 .25

WPS3704 15

MPS3706 .15

25

.25

25

2N3772 1.85

2N3903 .25

2N3904 .102N39062N41222N4123

2N4249 .25

2N4304 75

2N4401 .25

2N4402 .25

2N4403 .252N4857 1.00

PN4916 .25

2N5086 .25

PN5129 .25

PN5139 .25

2N5209 .25

2N6028 352N6043 1.752N6045 1.75MPS A05 .25MPS A06 .25MPS-A13 .40MPS A55MPU-131TIP29TIP31TIP32

99

IC

SOCKETS

1

-99 100

8 PIN ST

.13 .11

14 PIN ST

.15 .12

16 PIN ST

.17 .13

18 PIN ST

.20 18

20 PIN ST

.29 .27

22 PIN ST

.30 .27

24 PIN ST

.30 .27

28 PIN ST

.40 .32

40 PIN ST

.49 .39

64 PIN ST 4.25CALL

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 '

.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

INTERFACE

8T26

1.59

8T28

1.98

8T95

.89

8T96

89

8T97

89

8T98

.89

DM8131

2.95

DP8304

2.29

DS8833

2.25

DS8835

1.99

DS8836

.99

DS8837

1.65

DS8838

1.30

INTERSIL

ICL7106

9.95

ICL7107

12.95

ICL7660

2.95

ICL8038

3.95

ICM7207A

5.59

ICM7208

15.95

DATA ACtV

ADC0800 15.55

ADC0804 3.49

ADC08O9 4.49ADC0816 14.95

ADC0817 9.95

ADC0831 8.95

DAC08O0 4.49

DAC0806 195

DAC0808 2.95

OAC1020 8.25

DAC1021 7.95

DAC1022 5.95MC1408L6 1.95MC1408L8 2.95

EXAR

XR2206 3.75

XR2207 3.75

XR2208 3.75

XR2211 5.25

XR2240 3.25 ,

r 9000 "

9304

.95

9316

1.00

9328

1.49

9334

250

9368

3.95

9401

9.95

9601

.75

9602

1.50

9637

2.95

. 96S02

1.95

SOUNDCHIPS

76477 3.95

76488 5.95

76489 8.95SSI 263 39.95AY3 8910 12.95AY3 8912 12.95MC3340 1.49

kSP1000 39.00.

OPTO-ISOLATORS

4N26

1.00

MCA 7 4.25

4N27

1.10

MCA 255 1.75

4N28

.69

IL-1 1.25

4N33

1.75

I LA-30 1.25

4N35

1.25

ILQ-74 2.75

4N37

1.25

H11C5 1.25

MCT-2

1.00

T1L-111 1.00

MCT-6

1.50

TIL-113 1.75

VISA

I have had no thing but good experienceswith JDR and look foward to more of thesame . It'snotoftena company is willingto help customers to the extent JDR has .

- Stephen £ Uajo

Copyright 1985 JOR Mlcrodevice*

VOLTAGEREGULATORS

TO 220 CASE PACKAGE780ST .75 7905T .85

7808T .75 7908T 85

7812T .75 7912T .85

7815T .75 7915T .85

7824T .75 7924T .85

TO 3 CASE PACKAGE7B05K 1.39 790SK 1.49

7812K 1.39 7912K 1.49

7815K 1.39 7915K 1.49

7824K 1.39 7924K 1.49

TO 92 CASE PACKAGE78L05 69 79L05 .79

78L12 .69 79L12 .79

78L15 .69 79L15 .79

OTHER VOLTAGE REGS

78M0SC Svolt V,amp TO 220 .35

LM323K Svort 3amp TO 3 4.95

LM338K Adj. 5«np To 3 3.95

78H05K Svolt 5amp TO 3 9.95

78H12K 12voH5amp TO 3 9.95

78P05K 5volt lOamp TO 3 14.95

UA78S40 FAIRCHILD DIP 1.95 .

LINEAR

LIW301

.34

NE570

3.95

LM301H

.79

NE571

2.95

UH307

45

NE590

2.50

LM308

69

NE592

.98

LM308H

1.15

LM709

59

LM309H

1.95

LM710

75

LM309K

1 25

LM711

.79

LM310

1.71

UM723

49

LM311

64

LM723H

55

LM311H

89

LM733

98

LM312H

1 75

LM741

35

LM317K

3.95

LM741N-14 .35

LM317T

1 19

LM741H

.40

LM318

1.49

LM747

69

LM318H

1.59

LM748

.59

LM319H

1 90

LM1014

1.19

UW319

1.25

LNI1303

1.95

LM320 M..79O0

LM1310

1.49

LM322

1.65

MC1330

1.69

LM323K

4.95

NIC 1349

1.89

LM324

59

MCI 350

1.19

UM329

65

MCI 358

1.69

UM331

3.96

MCI 372

6.95

UH334

1 19

LM1414

1.59

LM335

1 40

LM1458

.59

LM336

1 75

LM1488

69

LM337T

1.95

LM1489

69

UV1337K

3.95

LM1496

.85

LM33SK

395

LM1558H

3.10

LM339

.99

LM1800

2.37

LM340 sa.7800

LM1812

8.25

LM348

.99

LM1830

3.50

LM350K

4.95

LM1871

5.49

LM350T

4.60

LM1872

5.49

LM358

.89

LM1877

3.52

LM359

1.79

IM1889

1 95

LM376

3.75

LM1896

1.75

LM377

1.95

ULN2003

1.29

LM378

2.50

XR2206

3.75

LM379

4.50

UW2877

2.05

LM380

89

LM2878

2.25

LM380N-8 1.10

LM2900

.85

LM381

1.60

LM2901

1.00

UVI382LM383LM384] LM386LM387LM389LM390LM392LM393LM394HLM399HNE531NE555NE556NE558NE564! LM5651 LM566LM567

295

.59

1.25

MPQ2907 1.95

LM2917 2.95MC3487LM3900LM3905LM3909

LM3911 2.25

LM3914 3.95

LM3915 3.95

UW3916 3.95

MC4024 3.95

MC4044 4.50

RC4136 1.25

RC4151 3.95

LM4250 1.75

LM4500 3.26

RC4558 69

L Ml 3600 1.49

LM13700 1.45

H-TO-S CAN. K-TO 3, T=TO-220

RCA

CA3023CA3039CA3046CA3059CA3060CA3065CA3080CA3081CA3082

CA3083CA3086CA3089CA3096CA3130CA3140CA3146CA3160CA3183

Tl

TL494

4.20

75365

TL496

1.65

75450

TL497

325

75451

75107

1.49

75452

75108

1.49

75453

75110

1.95

75454

75150

1.95

75477

75154

1.95

7S491

75160

4.95

75492

75188

1.25

75493

75189

1.25

75494

TL066TL071TL072TL074

TL081

TL082

TL083

.TL084

BIFET

.99 LF347

.79 LF351

1.19 LF353

2.19 LF355

.79 LF356

1.19 LF357

1.19 LF411

2.19 LF412

Inquiry 230

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 521

RS232 O OR

FEMALE SOLDER CUP L.L\3

MALE SOLDER CUP

1.90

BARGAIN HUNTERS CORNERDYNAMIC RAMS

**!' id'

4164 200ns $.99 ea100 PIECE MINIMUM

41256150ns $5.99 ea.

27 PIECE MINIMUMSPECIALS END 7/31/85

HARD TO FIND"SNAPABLE" HEADERS

Can easily be snapped apart to makeany size header, all with .1" centers1x40 STRAIGHT LEAD .99

1x40 RIGHT ANGLE 1.49

2x40 STRAIGHT LEAD 2.49

2x40 RIGHT ANGLE 2.99

SHORTING BLOCKS

C SPACED AT .1" CENTERS

7. IDEAL FOR DISK DRIVES

OR ANY.1" HEADER5/1.00

DIPSWITCHES

I 4 POSITION .8!

5 POSITION 9(

| 6 POSITION 9<

I 7 POSITION .9!| 8 POSITION

.10 POSITION 1.29 ,

RFMODULATOR

(ASTECUM1082)QUANTITIES LIMITED

* PRESET TO CHANNEL3

• USE TO BUILD TV-COMPUTER INTERFACE

. '5 VOLT OPERATION

$6.95

--Gnouivo

EDGECARDCONNECTORS

S-IOO ST

s-iooww

72 PIN ST72 PIN WW62 PIN ST I50 PIN ST44 PIN STL 44 PIN WW

36 PIN CENTRONICS

IDCEN36 RIBBON CABLE MALE 8.95

IDCEN36 F RIBBON CABLE FEMALE 8 95

i CEN36 SOLDER CUP MALE 7.95

DIP CONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

8

11

IS

18

20

22

24

28

40

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLEDST IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxST

99

.99

.99

1.69

1.89

1.89

1.99

249

2.99

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLEDWW IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxWW

1.30

1.80

2.10

2.40

2.50

290

3.15

3.70

540

COMPONENT CARRIES(DIP HEADERS)

ICCxx

49

59

.69

.99

.99

.99

.99

1.09

1.49

RIBBON CABLEDIP PLUGS (IDC)

IDPxx

.95

.95

1.75

2.95

EMI FILTER

■ MAJOR MANUFACTURER

■ LOW COST• FITS IX HP BELOW

$4.95LINE CORDS

LC-2 2 CONDUCTOR 6 ft .39

LC-3 3 CONDUCTOR 6 ft .99

LC-HP 2CONDUCTORWITHSTANDARD

FEMALE SOCKET 6 ft 1.49

LC cm CIGARETTE LIGHTER

PLUG WITH 6 FOOT CORD 2.95

MUFFIN FANS

| 4.68" SQUARE 14.95

• SQUARE 14.95 .

RESISTORS

V. WATT 5% CARBON FILM

ALL STANDARD VALUES

FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG OHM

50 PIECES SAME VALUE .025

100 PIECES SAME VALUE

t 1000 PIECES SAME VALUE .015

BYPASS CAPS

.01 .'DISC 100 S6.00

.01 lA MONOLITHIC 100/S12.00

.1 yf DISC 100/S8.00

1 tii MONOLITHIC 100/S1S.00 t

CAPACITORS

TANTALUM

DIODES

1N751

5.1 VOLT ZENER

25

1N759

120 VOLT ZENER

.25

1N4148

(1N914)SWITCHING 25

1 00

1N4001

50PIV 1A 12

1 00

1N4004

400PIV RECTIFIER 10

1.00

1N5402

200PIV 3A

.25

KBP02

200PIV 1 5A BRIDGE

45

KBP04

400PIV 1.5A BRIDGE

55

MDA801

50PIV 12A BRIDGE

1.39

MDA980-1

50PIV 12A BRIDGE

1.95

MDA9SO-2

100PIV 12A BRIDGE

2.25

VM48

DIP BRIDGE

35

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE IDC CONNECTORS BELOW

HEAT SINKS

SCREW ONCLIP ONSCREW ONINSULATOR 10

INSULATOR 10

SWITCHES

SPDT MINI TOGGLE ON-ONDPOT MINI-TOGGLE ON ONDPDT MINI TOGGLE ON OFF ONSPST MINI PUSHBUTTON N.O.SPST MINI-PUSHBUTTON N.C.. BCD OUT 10 POSITION 6 PIN DIP

1.0^1

15V

.40

-47yf

35V

50

6 8

15V

70

1.0

35V

45

10

15V

.80

2 2

35V

.65

22

15V

35

4 7

35V

K5

.22

35V

40

10

35V

00

DISC

lOpI

50V

.05

560

50V

05

22

50V

05

680

50V

.05

25

50V

05

820

50V

.05

27

50V

05

.oo vi

50V

.05

33

50V

.05

0015

50V

05

47

50V

.05

0022

50V

06

56

50V

.OS

.005

50V

.06

68

50V

.05

01

50V

.07

82

50V

05

02

50V

0 7

100

50V

05

.05

50V

.07

220

50V

05

.1

12V

.10

MONOLITHIC

in.1 50V .14 1.- 50V

047/jf 50V .15 47yf 50V

ELECTROLYTIC

RADIAL

25V .14

35V .15

50V .15

50V .15

35V .18

16V .18

35V .20

COMPUTERGRADE

L 44,000/jf 30V 3.95

100

100

220

330

500

1000

2200

6000

AXIAL50V16V

16V50V16V50V15V35V25V16V16V16V16V16V

LED DISPLAYS

HP5082 7760 CC .43"

I MAN-72 CA .3"

| MAN-74 CC .3"

FND -357(359) CC .375"

FND-500(503) CC .5"

FND-507(510) CA .5"L TIL-311 4x7 HEX W LOGIC .270"

DIFFUSED LEDS

1-99 100-1

I JUMBO RED T1V, .10 .09

JUMBO GREEN T1V« .18 .15

J JUMBO YELLOW T1V« .18 .15

MOUNTING HDW TtW -10 09

RECT RED 2x5mm

RECT GREEN 2x5mm

. RECT YELLOW 2x5mm

D-SUBMINIATURE

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

9

15

25

37

50

SOLDER CUP

MALE

DBxxP

1.19

1.59

1.90

2.85

4.25

FEMALE

DBxxS

1.50

1.85

225

3.90

525

RIGHT ANGLEPC SOLDER

MALE

DBxxPR

1.65

220

3.00

4.83

FEMALE

DBxxSR

2 18

303

3.00

619

WIRE WRAP

MALE

DBxxPWw

1 69

2.66

389

5.60

FEMALE

DBxxSWW

2 76

4.27

684

9.95

IDC RIBBON CABLE

MALE

IDBxxP

2.95

3 90

4 75

6.95

FEMALE

IDBxxS

3.25

4.29

52b

795

HOODS

BLACK

HOOD B

.99

GREY

HOOOxx

I . -

.89

.99

99

1.09

1 19

MOUNTING HARDWARE-SI .00

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE IDC CONNECTORS BELOW

TEXTOOLZERO INSERTION FORCESOCKETS AND RECEPTACLES

SCREWDRIVER CLAMPECONOZIF

LEVER CLAMPZIF SOCKET

WW RECEPTACLESZIF RECEPTACLE

TYPE

CONTACTS

14

16

24

28

40

ECONOZIF

4.95

6.75

7.75

9.95

ZIF SOCKET

4.95

495

5 95

695

9.95

ZIF RECEPTACLE

8.25

8.75

975

10.50

12.75

IDC CONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

10

20

26

34

40

50

SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxS

82

1 29

1.68

2.20

258

3.24

RIGHT ANGLE SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxSR

.85

1 35

1.76

1.31

2 72

3 39

WW HEADER

IDHxxW

1 86

2.98

3.84

4.50

5.28

663

RIGHT ANGLE WW HEADER

IDHxxWR

2.05

3.28

422

4 45

4 80

7.36

RIBBON HEADER SOCKET

IDSxx

79

.99

1 39

1 59

1.99

5.55

RIBBON HEADER

IDMxx

550

6.25

7.66

7 50

8 56

RIBBON EDGE CARD

IDExx

1 75

225

265

275

380

395

ORDERING INSTUCTIONS: INSERT THE NUMBER OF CONTACTS IN THE POSITION MARKED "XX" OF THE■ORDER Br PART NUMBER LISTED. EXAMPLE: A 10 PIN RIGHT ANGLE HOLDER STYLE WOULD BE IDH10SR

RIBBON CABLE

SINGLE COLOR

COLOR CODED

*!JDR Microdevices1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

RETAIL STORE - 1256 S. BASCOM AVENUEHOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling includeS2.50 lor UPS Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. andforeign orders may require additional shipping charges - pleasecontacl our sales department for the amount. CA. residents mustinclude 6% sales tax. Bay Area and LA residents include 6Vi%. f "'—' for 90 days unless otherwise stated. Pricesrjthout notice. We are not responsible fortypographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and tosubstitute manufacturer. All merchandise Subject to prior sale.

Copyright 1985 JDR Mlcrode1

522 B YTE • JUNE I985

Inquiry 2M

IBM PC PROTOTYPE CARD

WITH DECODING CIRCUITRY

$29.95

WIRE WRAP

PROTOTYPE CARDS

FR-4 EPOXY GLASS LAMINATE

WITH GOLD-PLATED EDGE-CARD FINGERS

^BSW tl^BSSrSSr^S* r«efc IHbssIbsH1* T'^'^'W^

■nnii

1

m*» |BM

BOTH CARDS HAVE SILK SCREENED LEGENDSAND INCLUDES MOUNTING BRACKET

IBM PR1IBM-PR2

WITH -5V ANO GROUND PLANE . . .AS ABOVE WITH DECODING LAYOUT

8-100

527.95S29.95

P10O-1PI 00-2P100-3PI 00 4

S15.15$21.80$21.80$22 75

HORIZONTAL BUS

SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE

APPLE

P500-1P500-3P500-4

$15.15$22.75$21.80$30.00

SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE

FOR APPLE lie AUX SLOT

GENERAL PURPOSE

22/44 PIN EDGE-CARD (. 156" SPACING)

P441-1P441-3P441-4P442-1P442-3P442-4

$9.45$13.95$14.20$10.40$14.20$13.50

SINGLE FOIL PADS 4.5" x 6.0"

BARE NO FOIL PADS 4.5" x 9.0" . . .

VERTICAL BUS 4.5" x 9.0"

SINGLE FOIL PADS 4 5" x 9.0"

36/72 PIN EDGE-CARD ,. 1" SPACING)

P721-1P721-3P721-4P722-1P7223P722-4

$13.25$14.20$10.40$14.20$15.15

SINGLE FOIL PADS 4.5" x 6.0"

BARE - NO FOIL PADS 4.5" x 9.0" . . .

VERTICAL BUS 4.5" x 9.0"

SINGLE FOIL PADS 4.5" x 9.0"

BARE GLASS BOARDS EXTENDER 1

NO EDGE-CARD FINGERS OR FOIL CARDS '

P25x45

P45x65P45.85P45x170P85»170

2.5" x 4.5" S2.40 IBM4.5" x 6.5" S4.70 APPLE4.5" x 8.5" $6.20 MULTIBUS4.5" x 17.0" $11.358.5" x 17.0" S18.95

$45.00$45.00$86.00

DISK DRIVES

TANDON

TM 100-1 5TM 100-2 5

. ' {FOR IBM) SS DD S139.95

«" (FOR IBM) DS DD $159.95

MPI

MPI-B52 5' I" IFOR IBM) OS DD

TEAC

FD-55B i HEIGHT DS DOFD-55F 11 HEIGHT DS QUAD

SHUGART

SA 400L 5'." 140 TRACK) SS DDSA 460 5' V 180 TRACKI DS QUAD

8" DISK DRIVES

FD100-8 BY SIEMENS. SHUGART 801 EQUIV

SS DO $129.00

FD200-8 BY SIEMENS. SHUGART 851 EQUIV

DS DD $180.00

JFORMAT 2 $49.95

SUPPORT FOR QUAD DENSITY DRIVES

FROM TALL TREE SYSTEMS

S109.95

S119.95$139.95

S199.95$19995

TEAC FD 55B

TANDON TM100-2

PLEASE INCLUDE SUFFICENT AMOUNT FOR SHIPPING ON ABOVE ITEMS

DISK DRIVECABINETS

CABINET #1 S29.95

• Fits one full height 5 .disk drive

• Color matches Apple

CABINET #2 $79.00

• Fits one full height 5'«"disk drive

• Complete with power supply, switch,line cord, fuse and standard powerconnector

• Please specify Grey or Tan

CABINET #3 $89.95

• Fits two haH height 5' *"disk drives

• Complete with power supply, switch,line cord, fuse and standard powerconnectors

8" DISK DRIVE CABINETSALSO AVAILABLE PLEASE CALL

PLEASE INCLUDE SUFFICIENT. AMOUNT FOR SHIPPING ON ABOVE ITEMS

SWITCHINGPOWER SUPPLIES

PS-IBM S159.95

• FOR IBM PC.XT COMPATIBLE

• 130 WATTS

. +5V@ 15A, *12V@4.2A

-5V@.5A.-12V@.5A. ONE YEAR WARRANTY

PSA

$49.95

• USE TO POWER APPLE TYPESYSTEMS

» .5V @ 4A. -12V @ 2.5A

• APPLE POWER CONNECTOR

PS-3

$39.95

• AS USED IN APPLE III> SV 4A. 1 2V 2.5A

-5V ■ J5A. -12V 0 30A.. 15.5" x 4.5" x 2". 884 LBS

PS-ASTEC

$19.95

WIRE WRAP WIRE

PRECUT AND STRIPPED

Note- 1 inch of insulation is stripped oneach end. A 3,5" wire has only 1.5" of irtsu-

TRANSFORMERSFRAME STYLE

LENGTH

QUANTITY

INCHES)

100

500

1000

2.5

1.60

4 70

8.20

3

1 60

4 70

8.20

3.5

1 65

5.00

8 90

4

1.75

5.40

9 60

4.5

1.80

5.75

10.30

5

1.85

6.10

11.00

5.5

1.90

6 50

11.75

6

2.00

6.85

12.50

65

2 30

7 80

14.30

7

2.40

8.20

15.05

7.5

2.50

8 55

15.85

8

2.60

8.95

16.60

85

2 65

9.30

17.40

9

2.70

9.80

18-15

12.6V AC12.6V AC CT12.6V AC CT12.6V AC CT25.2V AC CT

2 AMP

2 AMP

4 AMP

8 AMP

2 AMP

PLUG CASE STYLE

12V AC12V AC12V AC12V AC

250ma500.na

1 AMP

2 AMP

DC ADAPTER

• CAN POWER TWO ■**" FDDS

• -5V vj 2.5A, *12V <a 2A-12V @ ,1A

■ -5V a 5A IF -12V IS NOT USED- 6.3" x4.0" x 1.9"

MICROCOMPUTER

HARDWARE

HANDBOOK

FROM ELCOMP $14.95

Over 800 pages of manufacturer'sdata sheets on the most commonlyused IC's- TTL 74. 74LS & 74F

> CMOS

• Voltage regulators

• Memory - RAM, ROM, EPROM

• CPUS - 6800. 6500. Z80.8080, 8085 & 8086/8

> MPU Support & Interface,6800, 6500. Z80, 8200. etc.

VISA

ORDER TOLL FREE

ill

III

PRECUT ASSORTMENTIN ASSORTED COLORS $27.50

100ea:5.5". 6". 6.5". 7"250ea: 2.5", 4.5", 5"500..., .3", 3.5". 4"

SPOOLS

100 feet S4.30 250 feet $7.25500 feet $13.25 1000 feet 521 95Please specify color:Blue, Black, Yellow or Red

GE NICKEL-CADMIUM

RECH ARGABLE BATTERIESMl CAD CHARGER PACKAGE

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

20 MHz DUALTRACEOSCILLOSCOPE

AAA CELLS

QTV.2

$11.71

AA CELLS

QTV.2

$11.71

C CELLS

QTV.2

$13.21

D CELLS

QTV.2

$13.21

9 VOLT

QTV. 1

$13.21

BATTERIES ONLY

AAA CELLS

PKG. 2

$6.07 pr.

AA CELLS

PKG. 1

S3 03 ea.

CCELLS

PKG. 1

$3.78 ea.

D CELLS

PKG 1

S3 78 ea.

9 VOLT

PKG. 1

S7.57 ea

UNSURPASSED QUALITY AT AN UNBEATABLE PRICE

• BAND WIDTH- DC: DC TO 20MHz |-3db]

AC: 10Hz TO 20MHz (-3db)

• SWEEP TIME- .2 ,SEC TO .5 SEC DIV ON 20 RANGES

• VERT./HORZ. DEFLECTION: 5mV TO 20V DIV ON 20 RANGES

• COMPLETE MANUAL AND HIGH QUALITYHOOK-ON PROBES INCLUDED

• INPUT IMPEDANCE: 1 MEG OHM

• TV VIDEO SYNC FILTER

• X, Y AND Z AXIS OPERATIONI 110 220 VOLT 50'60Hz OPERATION

• COMPONENT TESTER

• LP CONSUMPTION 1 9 WATTS

• BUILT IN CAUBRATOR

• AUTOMATIC OR TRIGGERED TIMEBASE

$399.95

WITH PROBES

FULL ONE YEARWARRANTY

OK INDUSTRIES

EX 1 IC EXTRACTION TOOL

• ONE PIECE METAL CONSTRUCTION

• EASILY EXTRACTS 8-24 PIN DEVICES■ LOW COST $2.19

EX 2 IC EXTRACTION TOOL

• EXTRACTS 24-40 PIN DEVICES

• HEAVY DUTY METAL CONSTRUCTION

• GROUND LUGS FOR MOS EXTRACTIONS

• EASY ONE HAND OPERATION $12.74

IC INSERTION TOOLS

INS-1416 for 14-16 pin IC's $5.15

MOS-1416 for 14-16 pin IC's $10.92MOS 2428 for 24 28 pin IC's $10.92MOS-40 for 40 pin IC's $12.43

MOS series insertion tools nave metal constuctionand include grounding lug lor CMOS applications

BW-630 WIRE WRAP GUN

• BATTERY POWERED USES 2 Nl CADC CELLS(NOT INCLUDED)

• POSITIVE INDEXING

• ANTI-OVERWRAP DEVICE $41.55

WSU-30 WIRE WRAP TOOLS

> WRAPS. STRIPS. AND UNWRAPS

• WSU-3QM WRAPS AN EXTRA TURN OFINSULATION

WSU-30 $8.84/WSU-30M $10.14WIRE WRAP TERMINALS

INS 1416 INS-2426

WWT-1

WWT-2

I WWT-3

WWT-4

INS 1

SLOTTEDSINGLE SIDEDIC SOCKETDOUBLE SIDEDINSERTION TOOL

25 $7.06

25 $4.25

25 S7.06

25 2.80

$3.64

WIRE DISPENSER

• WITH 50' ROLL OF WIRE

• BUILT IN PLUNGER CUTS WIRE

• BUILT IN STRIPPER STRIPES V

• REFILLABLE

WD 30 $6.50 WD-30TRI $9.50

Specify Blue, white. With 50' of each:Yellow or Red Red, Blue and White

WSU 30 30M

SOCKET-WRAP ID

TM

■ SLIPS OVER WIRE WRAP PINS

• IDENTIFIES PIN NUMBERS ON WRAPSIDE OF BOARD

• CAN WRITE ON PLASTIC; SUCH AS IC '■

>iim;

PART'.'

PCK. OF

PRICE

a

IOWRAP 08

10

1.95

14

IDWRAP 14

10

1.95

1fi

IDWRAP 16

10

1.95

18

IDWRAP 18

5

1 95

10

IDWRAP 20

5

1 95

22

IDWRAP 22

5

1.35

24

IDWRAP 24

5

1 95

2«

IDWRAP 28

5

1.95

40

IDWRAP 40

5

1.95

PLEASE ORDER BY NUMBER OF

PACKAGES IPCK. OFi

MULTIMETER PEN

^r

AUTO RANGING, POLARITY & DECIMAL!

• LARGE 3' \ DIGIT DISPLAY

• DATA HOLD SWITCH FREEZES READING» FAST. AUDIBLE CONTINUITY TEST

• LOW BATTERY INDICATOR> OVERLOAD PROTECTION

• ONLY 1 Vt" x 6Vi" x ¥f

• DC VOLTS .1mV-500V■ AC VOLTS 1mV-500V

• .1 OHM-20 MEG OHMS

• WEIGHS ONLY 2.3 OUNCES

• LOW PARTS COUNT-CUSTOM 80 PIN LSI INSURES RELIABILITY

• INCLUDES MANUAL. BATTERIES. SOFT CASE, 2 PROBE TIPS.AND ALLIGATOR CLIP

ONLY$49.95

Copyright 1985 JDR MIc

Inquiry 231

|UNh IQ8S -BYTE 523

TEAC-FD55B%KK 119.95

MPI-B52DS«CHT 109.95

EPROM PROGRAMMER

FOR APPLE COMPUTERS

■^^ZZ 5. *>

MM^Jrrpgj*.',

RP525$79.95

■ DUPLICATE OR BURN ANY STANDARD

27xx SERIES EPROM• EASY TO USE MENU-DRIVEN SOFTWARE

INCLUDEDi MENU SELECTION FOR 2716. 2732. 2732A.

2764 & 27128i HIGH SPEED WRITE ALGORITHM. LED INDICATORS FOR ACTIVITY. NO EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY REQUIRED

DISK DRIVES

FOR APPLE COMPUTERS

_

nan

BAL-525$139.95

Vi HEIGHT-ALPS MECHANISM100% APPLE COMPATIBLEFULL 1 YEAR WARRANTY

TEAC MECHANISM- DIRECT DRIVE100% APPLE COMPATIBLEFULL 1 YEAR WARRANTY

MITAC

AD-1

$149.95

FULL HT. SHUGART MECHANISMDIRECT REPLACEMENT FOR APPLEDISK IISIX MONTH WARRANTY

DISK DRIVE ACCESSORIES

DISK CONTROLLER CARD. APPLE tic ADAPTOR CABLE

$49.95$19.95

NEW FOR APPLE lie

ftffi^ AD-3C

$139.95

100% APPLE lie COMPATIBLE.

READY TO PLUG IN W SHIELDED

CABLE & MOLDED 19 PIN CONNECTOR

FAST. RELIABLE SLIMLINE

DIRECT DRIVE

SIX MONTH WARRANTY

DISK DRIVES FOR IBM

TEAC

FD55B

$119.95

; :^

TANDON

TM100-2

$159.95MPI

MODELB52

$109.95

m

«&^=

IBM ACCESSORIES

MAXIMIZER $259.95

SIGMA MULTIFUNCTION CARD

HAYES SMARTMODEM $419.95

1200B FOR IBM

PRINTER CABLE $19.95

PARALLEL 6' SHIELDED CABLE

KRAFT JOYSTICK $39.95

I* BMC MONITOR STAND

MODEL PA-900

TILTS AND SWIVELsCITO PROVIDEOPTIMUM VIEWINGANGLE. REDUCESOPERATORFATIGUE

FACTORY SPECIAL $14.95

ORDER TOLL FREE

WEWETiIiIi

800-662-6279!

16K RAM CARD $39.95

BARE PC CARD AND INSTRUCTIONS $9.

* 2 YEAR WARRANTY

* EXPAND YOUR 48K APPLE TO 64K

* USE IN PLACE OF APPLE LANGUAGECARD

DISKETTE FILE

IF PURCHASED

WITH 50 DISKETTES

OR MORE

$9.95 IF PURCHASED ALONE

HOLDS 70 BWDISKETTES,WITH ROOMTO SPARE

NASHUA DISKETTES

5V*" SOFT SECTORDS/DD WITH HUB RINGS

BULK PACKAGED IN FACTORY SEALED BAGSOF 50 INCLUDES DISKETTE SLEEVES ANDWRITE PROTECTTABS. IDEALFOR SCHOOLS.CLUBS. AND USERS GROUPS. THIS IS ASPECIAL PURCHASE. SO QUANTITIES ARELIMITED THERE IS A S YEAR WARRANTY.

$1.39ea. $1.49ea. $1.59ea.

APPLE ACCESSORIES 1

VIEWMAX 80

$159.95

VIEWMAX 80e

$129.95

GRAPHMAX

$129.95

THUNDERCLOCK

$129.95

KRAFT JOYSTICK

$39.95

POWER SUPPLY

$49.95 J

QH 250

QTY 100

QTY50

NASHUA DISKETTES WERE JUDGED TO HAVE

THE HIGHEST POLISH AND RECORDED

AMPLITUDE OF ANY DISKETTES TESTED.

(SEE COMPARING FLOPPY DISKS' , BYTE 9 84)

VERBATIM DATALIFE DISKETTES

SS/DD SOFT SECTOR $29.95

SS/DD 10 SECTOR HARD $29.95DS/DD SOFT SECTOR $34.95 .

IBM COMPATIBLEPOWER SUPPLIES

130 WATT$159.95

«•;»•'

XT COMPATIBLE

• 5V(a 15A, »12 (5 4.2A-5 (Si .5A, -12 @ .5A

• UPGRADE YOUR PC, POWERS HARD I

• POWER CABLES FOR 4 FDDs

• ONE YEAR WARRANTY

• SWITCH ON SIDE (FITS IBM CASE)

100 WATT$99.95

• SWITCH ON REAR

• FOR USE IN OTHERIBM TYPE MACHINES

■ AVAILABLE IN 1 OOWOR 130W VERSIONS

• 90 DAY WARRANTY

130 WATT MODEL

a

$129.95.

SJtSJDR Microdevices

■ ■ 1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

Copyright 1985 JDH Mlcrodevlces

RETAIL STORE - 1256 S. BASCOM AVENUEHOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling include$2.50 for UPS Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. andforeign orders may require additional shipping charges - pleasecontact our( sales department for the amount. CA. residents mustinclude 6% 'sales tax, Bay Area and LA residents include 6Wft. Atlmerchandise is warranted for 90 days unless otherwise stated. Pricesare subject to change without notice. We are not responsible fortypographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and tosubstitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER CO.

524 BYTE

Inquiry 232

UNCLASSIFIED ADS

WANTED: Apple lie public-domain software or infor-mation on programs to help teach non-English-speaking six-year-old Korean boy English, math, orany basic learning materia] David Harbour. Route4. Box 49. Ava. MO 65608. (417) 683-5201.

WANTED: Inner-city school needs donation of IBM,Apple, or compatibles plus peripherals in exchangefor tax-deductible donation verification. Donationwill enable students to receive hands-on experienceotherwise not available. Rama Lahori. Chicago Voca-tional High School. 2100 East 87th St.. Chicago, IL60617. (312) 978-1600

WANTED: Nonprofit agency needs word-processingequipment to expose Austrian older youth to themedia and develop employable skills. Tax-deduc-tible. The Institute for Cultural Affairs, Lilienbrunn-gasse 15/8, Wien, Austria, tel: (433-222) 24-69-234

WANTED: College computer club looking for tax-deductible donation of computer with word-pro-cessing. Florence V Ward, lohn lay College Com-puter Club. 445 West 59th St., New York, NY 10019.

WANTED: Donation of disk-based computer system(IBM PC. IBM-compatible, or CP/M) with program-ming tools (assembler, compiler, etc.) for effort tohelp blind people understand programming and todevelop learning tools for them. Piotr Bednarski, ill.Ryemonta 10m92. 01-842, Warsaw, Poland,

NEEDED: Hardware reference manual and operator smanual for Intel's Intellec 8/MOD 80 system (nolonger available). Will pay postage R Hu. 1467 Bor-tolotti Crescent, Gloucester, Ontario KIB 5C1,Canada.

NEEDED: Information, schematics, etc.. for Infoton1-100 terminal manufactured about 1979. Also samefor Vector Graphic S100 Z80 Rev. 3 board. )im Wolfe.POB 6601, Torrance. CA 90504, (213) 376-2931.

WANTED: If you have had problems (corrected ornot) with your Pixel computer or if your service con-tract has not been honored, send details to S. E.Rudlin. 4600 Grove Ave, Richmond, VA 23226,

FOR SALE: Columbia VP portable, amber screen.I28K to 5I2K. extras: S1600. Also. TRS-80 Model100. 24K, brand new. modem, cable. AC adapter:S500. Dan Gammon, (3011 946-7370

FOR SALE: 8K RAM module for Radio Shack PC-2or Sharp PC-1500 pocket computer: asking S50.Need I6K RAM module with battery backup for theRadio Shack PC-2 or Sharp PC-1500. Also, would liketo form users group for pocket computers. RobertLerner, 23 Mayed Dr., Suffern, NY 10901.

WANTED: One AIM 65 micro, two (or more) MTU 32KBanker boards, one MTU card cage (or backplaneonly), one MMS Inc. Mach-9 6809 adapter for AIM,and one 2031 (or 4040) Commodore IEEE diskdrive. Don Lewis. 606 Hazel Ave. Folsom, PA 19033,(215) 622-5495 or 586-5212.

FOR SALE: BYTE, all volume 3: volume 2. numbers2, 5, 6, 7, 9-12: volume 4, numbers 1-4, 6, and 9:and issue 14 (October 1976) Also Commodore PET8K with original keyboard and ROM. Best offer.Prefer local buyer. Shigeki Misawa, 37 Penwood Dr.New Providence. N] 07974. (201) 464-1359.

FOR SALE: 1979 through 1984 of BYTE. Creative Com-puting. Microcomputing, interface Age. and Personal Com-puting. Will sell volumes or single copies. Wanted:BYTE. October and November 1977 issues, limReeb. 8392 East Inspiration Dr.. Parker. CO 80134

FOR SALE: Sweet Talker computer speech syn-thesizer, cabinet, built-in speaker, power supply, andribbon cable for parallel interface, plus schematicsand documentation: $95 Mike Hagerman, 1704Mars Ave, Loves Park, IL 61111, (815) 633-3382.

WANTED: Help in finding a BBS public-domain or in-dividually written program for an Atari 800 withMicroperipheral modem, model UM-I. one diskdrive, and 820 printer, lim Klein, 48 102nd Ave. NW.Coon Rapids, MN 55433

WANTED: Schematics and parts list for an IthacaAudio (Intersystems), EPROM burner board, partnumber IA-1200. Need same information for thefront-panel board. Paul Detzel. 2263 5 Southwest65th Way, Boca Raton, FL 33428, (305) 487-4222,

FOR SALE: Hewlett-Packard 86A with 12-inchmonitor. 5K-inch disk drive, auto-dial modem.82905B printer, I/O. ADV. and more. All manuals.Retail value $4900. Best offer. Winston Chung. 702Harvey Rd„ Claymont, DE 19703. (302) 792-2921.

WANTED: International computer hobbyists to cor-respond with in English. French, and German. Ex-change information on microcomputer applications,engineering, robotics, R/C electric model planes,travel, national cultures, etc. Bob Saxer. 704 EastCedar Ave. St. Charles, IL 60174.

FOR SALE: CompuPro IEEE-696 CP/M system.Enclosure power supply and 21-slot motherboard.6-MHz Z80, AMD 9511 floating-point board, dualQume 842 disk drives and power supply, and more:$1800. TeleVideo 910+ terminal: $300. David A.Danello. POB 784, Dahlgren, VA 22448. (703)775-4915 or (814) 643-3387.

WANTED: New Zealand University student would liketo correspond with others who have an interest inApple II computers and the expansions and lan-guages available for them. Sean Fennell. 15 BuckleyRd.. Epsom, Aukland 3. New Zealand.

FOR SALE: IBM film ribbons, stock number 1136108.for Selectric typewriters. Clear spool, not gray car-tridge. Expired in 1976-1977: all 24 only $20. FredRobinson. 7580 Honeysuckle. Orchard Lake. Ml48033

FOR SALE: SD Systems RAM Disk-2 56. never used:$500 D. Boone. POB 330, Valley Mills, TX 76689

FOR SALE: Never used 1983 Cromemco System HD3.DPU 2 56K bytes of RAM, 20-megabyte hard diskTU-Art, Cromix 68000. C-language compiler:$10,000 or best offer. Dr. leppesen, POB 270. OakView, CA 93022.

FOR SALE: Fidelity Electronics Elite A/S ChessChallenger. USCF rating 1850, upgradable to latestmodel, like new: $300, Also. Novag Constellationchess computer, USCF rating 1800+, perfect con-dition: $150, lohn A. Henderson. 526 South Divi-sion St. #9. Ann Arbor, Ml 48194, (313) 995-4106.

FOR SALE: CompuPro 85/88 S-100 system, completeand working Includes 15-slot Integrand chassis,128K-byte RAM, PMMI modem, two Shugart 851s,Wyse 100 terminal, and more. Asking $3000. DavidLangmann, 2900 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington,DC 20008, (202) 232-7999.

WANTED: High-school student seeks correspondencewith people interested in computer graphics andsimulation in Pascal, C. and assembly language,Mariusz larzebowski. al. Wilanowska 364 m 81.02-655, Warsaw, Poland,

FOR SALE: Computer Continuum A/D, D/A boardwith box, Timex computer, various Z80 and Timexbooks: SI 50 or best offer. Rob Forbes, POB 4826.Boulder. CO 80306.

FOR SALE: IBM 160K-byte disk drive (TM100-1): $95BIOS ROM and 8088 from IBM PC: $45. loe Gunter,RR 2. Box 823. Lot 125, Pompano Beach, FL 33067,(305) 421-6301.

WANTED: Manual for IMSAI S-100 board. Will payall copy and mail expenses. Steven McClain, 10428Mull Ave. Riverside. CA 92505. (714) 354-6979.

WANTED: California Computer Systems boards foran S-100 bus as follows: Z80 processor board2820-00001 and floppy-disk controller board2411-0001 rev. B. Lee D. Miller. 932 North LakeshoreDr.. Lincoln, NE 68528, (402) 435-3864.

FOR SALE: Sanyo 12-inch green monitor, new: $85.Smith-Corona TP-1 daisy-wheel printer (like new)with serial interface, two extra ribbons: $2 50. Net-work hardware to connect up to eight Commodore64s to single disk and printer: $12 5. Other equip-ment available. Mike Schary. 110 Bel Air Lane, Fair-field, CT 06430. (203) 333-6034.

UNCLASSIFIED ADS MUST be noncommercial, fromreaders who have computer equipment to buy, sell or tradeon a onetime basis. All requests for donated computerequipment must be from nonprofit organiiations. Programsto be exchanged must be written by the individual or bein the public domain. Ads must be typed double-spaced,contain 50 words or less, and include full name and ad-dress. This is a free service: ads are printed as space per-mits. BYTE reserves the right to reject any unclassifiedad that does not meet these criteria. When you submityour ad (BYTE. Unclassified Ads. POB 372. Hancock.NH 03449), allow at least four months for it to appear.

FOR SALE: Micromint MPX-16 single-board computersystem, MPX-17 IBM keyboard interface, and MPX-30BIOS EPROM set for PC-DOS/hardware, unused inbox: $900. Lee W. Sorensen. 6555 Lawndale Lane,Maple Grove. MN 5 5369. (612) 420-242 5.

FOR SALE: Apple 11+ with GE good resolution12-inch TV/RF modulator, shift modification. 64KRAM total, Apple disk drive, working well. Price: 60percent of cost Newt Steers. (301) 320-5820.

FOR SALE: New Apple-compatible disk drives, Teac(red) half-height, direct drive, one-year warranty:$195 or best offer Saturn 32K card: $75 or best of-fer. Hayes Micromodem II: $175 or best offer. Also,need inexpensive Apple lie. W. Ostlund. 140 Oak-view. Pittsburgh. PA 15218. (412) 242-5688

FOR SALE: Xebec model SI410 hard-disk controllerwith manual, new. never powered up: $295 PhilipNunn, 201 Netherfield. Comstock Park. Ml 49321,(616) 784-5732

FOR SALE: Atari 800 with 48K, 850 interface module,cassette player, paddles, joysticks. Analog and Anticmagazines, over 2 5 books Send SASE for completelist, Robin lapins, POB 472, Olathe, KS 66061-0472.

FOR SALE: OSM ZEuS-4 multiuser computer with6.3-megabyte hard disk and 8-inch floppy-disk drive.Heath terminal, manuals, and more: $4500. R. P.Perkins, M.D.. OB/GYN. 2211 Lomas Blvd. NE, Albu-querque, NM 87106. (505) 277-4158.

FOR SALE: North Star Horizon 18-megabyte harddisk, complete with North Star and Soroc terminals:$4200 or best offer, B. Tooley. (806) 655-7121,

FOR SALE: LA34 terminal, tractor option included,mint condition: $400. Robert Lund, 34 Lorna Dr..Auburn, MA 01501, (617) 832-2611.

WANTED: Apple II+ . lie. or lie computer. Include listof peripherals and cards. Indicate age. conditionasking price. Ken Hamel. Route 5. Box 162. Water-town, Wl 53094.

FOR SALE: Hewlett-Packard HP 85a computer with32K bytes of RAM. I/O ROM. case, and more Mustsell, make offer, lohn M. Uber, 1154 North HowardSt.. Akron. OH 44310. (216) 923-2074.

FOR SALE: Seattle Computer RAM+ expansionboard for the IBM PC: $100 (RS232. 256K maxi-mum, no memory included) Dane Laun. 14052Southwest Stampher Rd.. Lake Oswego. OR 97034

FOR SALE: Netronics 64K S-100 memory board with16K: $100. One Vector ll-slot S-100 motherboard:$100. One solid-state music I/O board, two paral-lel/two serial, partially populated: $50. Ron Rogers.Apt. 2028. 652 5 South Gessner, Houston, TX77036, (713) 541-3208,

FOR SALE: DEC PDP-8A-500 classic configurationDual 8-inch single-density floppy drives with con-troller, CPU card, MM card, two 8K core boards,DKC8A option card, serial card, plotter controllercard, VT50AA terminal, manuals, and more. Work-ing. $600 plus shipping or best offer for part or all.Don Taylor, 12270 Southwest Center St. #63, Beaver-ton, OR 97005, (503) 627-0231.

WANTED: BYTE issues 1 through 12. and pre-1984issues of Microsystems. Send list with prices. BarneyFlusche. 98-82 5A Iho Place. Aiea. HI 96701. (808)488-32 59, evenings.

WANTED: Anyone wishing to trade public-domainsoftware for the Apple II series. Send name, address,and a list of programs. Enclose SASE. lason Pilnock.5930 South 5th St.. Pocatello, ID 83204.

WANTED: Computer science student seeks informa-tion for project concerning computer music syn-thesis and computer/synthesizer interfacing. Also,looking for others interested in starting a computermusic group leffrey Ring, 519 Shook, San Antonio,TX 78212, (512) 737-2387. evenings and weekends

WANTED: Spectravideo owner seeks correspondencewith other SV owners. R. Fortune, 46 West 17 St.,New York. NY 10011.

FOR SALE: Cromemco C-10 SP with two 390K diskdrives. Novation I-CAT and more: $1000. RonaldGans. 350 West 55th St. #2-E, New York. NY 10019,(212) 957-8361.

FOR SALE: Tl TM990 board-level computer. 16-bit9900-based. 8-slot card cage. I0OM and 101MA CPUboards, 64K memory. 303 floppy controller, muchdigital and analog I/O, manuals, and more. Willsacrifice. Dwight Aussieker, Varna. IL 61375. (309)463-2318.

IUNE 1985 -BYTE 525

BOMB

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box

riCLE#

PAGE

16

267

17

279

18

295

19

307

20

324

21

337

22

353

23

J71

24

ARTICLE* PAGE ARTICLE AUTHOR(S)

1 9 Microbytes staff

2 39. 470 What's New staff

3 48 Ask BYTE Ciarcia

4 65 Book Reviews Martinez, Avila.

Hinshaw.Lowans.Campbell.Alexander

5 108 Interactive Audio

in a Videodisc System Lawler

Hairsine. Miller

6 121 Ciarcia s Circuit Cellar:

Build the Home Run Control

System. Part 3: The Software Ciarcia

7 147 SALT Fenster. Ford

8 169 The SUM: An Al Coprocessor Robinson

9 185 Inside AppleTalk Ushijima

10 205 The Expert Mechanic Fichtelman

11 221 Switch Grunbaum

12 228 Twos-Complement

Numbers Revisited Bronson. Lyon

13 235 Choosing a Programming

Language Elfring

14 243 Structuring BASIC Huston

15 2 53 Subroutine Libraries

in Pascal Webster

March BOMB Results

THE BEST BARGAINS

Steve Ciarcia wins first place in the March issue for the first of severalhome-control projects from Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar Aptly entitled Buildthe Touch-Tone Interactive Message System." this article tells you howyour answering machine can do a whole lot more. In second place isComputing at Chaos Manor: and this month lerry Pournelle composedit while "On the Road: Hackercon and COMDEX, lohn Markoff and Ezra

30

J79

25

385

26

393

27

409

28

439

29

451

455

468

ARTICLE AUTHOR(S)

Using Data Flow

for Application Development Stevens

Debugging Techniques Williams

6502 Tricks and Traps Holt

Software-ICs . . Ledbetter. Cox

The Mindset Personal Computer Wadlow

Idea Processors Hershey

Convenience Software Welch

Building Expert Systems

with M.I DAmbrosio

Hewlett-Packard's

HP 7475A Plotter Malloy

The IBM Quietwriter Printer Edwards

The Word Plus Sheldon

Computing at Chaos Manor:

From the Living Room Pournelle

BYTE U.K.:

Telephone Computers Fountain

BYTE |apan:New NECs and a

Cartridge Disk Raike

BYTE West Coast:

A GEM Seminar Markoff.

RobinsonBYTEL1NES Libes

Shapiro's Public-Domain Gems' wins third in the lineup. Fourth placegoes to Richard S. Shuford. author of "Two Flat-Display Technologies.And winner of the SI00 prize is Laine Stump, for his fifth-place themearticle. The Kit Solution." His was the first nonstaff-written article toappear in the BOMB. So Peter Rice, whose article Arithmetic on YourPC" placed sixth, wins the second-place bonus of $50. Congratulations.

BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF:

1 Peter Huestis Advertising Sales Manager, 70 Main Street,

Peterborough, NH 03458. tel. (603) 924-9281

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NY. NYC. CT. Nl [NORTH)

MIDWEST

SOUTH PACIFIC

Bill McAfee (4151 964-0624

Dick McGurk 12121 512-3588

IL MO. KS, 1A. ND. SD MN. Wl. NB, IN

SOUTHERN CA. AZ. NM. LAS VEGAS

McGraw-Hill Publications

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AND RETAIL ACCOUNTS

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National

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BYTE Publications70 Main Street

International Advertising

Sales Representatives:

Peterborough NH 03458

Mr Hans Csokor

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Seavex Ltd

Publimedia

Pedro Teixeira 8. Off 320

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

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PO Box 2 1 56

Finnbodavagen

Via Flavio Baracchini 1

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Bat Yam, 5912] Israel

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Telex: RS35539 SEAVEX

526 BYTE- 1UNE 1985

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No. Page No.

429 1ST PLACE SYSTEMS 313

2 4-5-6 WORLD 518

3 800 SOFTWARE 2S6

4 AST RESEARCH 19

5 A ST RESEARCH 19

6 AB COMPUTERS 172

7 AB COMPUTERS 173

8 ABC DATA PRODUCTS ... 492

9 ACM SIGCRAPH '85 362

11 ADDISON-WESLEY PUB. CO. . . . 262

12 ADDMASTER CORP 501

13 ADV. COMP PROD 495

15 ADVANCED LOGIC RESEARCH . . 26

16 ADVANCED LOGIC RESEARCH . . 26

17 ADVANCED LOGIC SYSTEMS 55

18 ALF PRODUCTS, INC 60

19 ALLIED MICRO DEVICES 508

20 ALLOY COMPUTER PROD 95

21 ALLOY COMPUTER PROD 190

22 AMARAYCORP. 156,157

24 AMBER SYSTEMS 207

27 AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS 512

28 AMERICAN SEMICONDUCTOR 490

29 AMPERE INC 52

30 AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 309

31 APPARAT INC 488

• APPLE COMPUTER INC . . . Cll. 1

32 APPLIED SOFTWARE TECH 165

33 APRICOT INC 202. 203

34 APROPOS TECHNOLOGY ... , 508

• APROTEK 97

• ARK ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS 368

36 ARK ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS 369

37 ARTISOFT 164

38 ARTISOFT 164

39 ASHTONTATE 227

40 AT&T GENERAL 347

41 AT&T INFORMATION SYS . 49158 AVATEX MODEMS 376. 377

42 AVOCET 171

43 AWARD SOFTWARE, INC 276

44 AWESOME TECHNOLOGY. INC. 430

45 B&B ELECTRONICS 512

• B&C MICROSYSTEMS 430

46 BASF SYSTEMS 120

349 BASIC TIME 389

47 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 23

48 BDT PRODUCTS 71

49 BDT PRODUCTS 71

50 BELLSOFT INC 410

51 BEST POWER TECHNOLOGY 68

• BEST WESTERN INTL 414

52 BINARY TECHNOLOGY 517

53 BITTNER ELECTRONICS . 512

54 BLAISE COMPUTING INC 350

55 BORLAND INTL 41

56 BORLAND INTL 41

57 BORLAND INTL 43

58 BORLAND INTL 43

59 BORLAND INTL 45

60 BORLAND INTL 45

61 BORLAND INTL 46, 47

62 BORLAND INTL 46, 47

• BUEHLER SERVICES 488

65 BUSINESS TOOLS INC 83

• BYTE BK CLUBS/MCGRAW-HILL,449

• BYTE BACK ISSUES 445

• BYTE SUBSCRIBER MESSAGE 444

• BYTE SUBSCRIBER SERVICE ... 445

66 BYTEK COMP SYS. CORP . . 68

• C WARE/DESMET C 206

67 C ITOH DIGITAL PRODUCTS . 38

68 C. ITOH DIGITAL PRODUCTS .38

• CALIF DIGITAL .513.514,515

71 CALIF MICRO HOUSE 139

69 CALIF SCIENTIFIC SOFTW 490

72 CANON USA 179

74 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT CORP ... 374

76 CDA INTL. SOFTWARE 517

77 CDR SYSTEMS 492

78 CENNA TECHNOLOGY. INC. ... 103

79 CENTROID CORP. 490

80 CHINA EXTERNAL TRADE 30

81 CHIPS N DIPS 512

82 CHORUS DATA SYSTEMS 263

83 CITIZEN AMERICA 242

Inquiry No.

Page No.

84 CLEVELAND INSTIT OF ELECT . 257

86 COASTLINE COMPUTER . 506. 507

• CODEX CORPORATION 297

87 COEFFICIENT SYS. CORP 278

88 COGITATE 490

89 COLLEGE SOFTWARE 517

90 COMARK INC 138

92 COMP COMPNTS. UNLTD. 509

93 COMP. COMPNTS. UNLTD 510. 511

94 COMPETITIVE EDGE 94

95 COMPLETE MANAGEMENT SYS.96

96 COMPLETE MANAGEMENT SYS.96

• COMPUMAIL 516

97 COMPUSERVE 360

98 COMPUTER AFFAIRS INC 381

199 COMPUTER CAREERS 417

99 COMPUTER CHANNEL 418

• COMPUTER CHRONICLES. 454428 COMPUTER CONNECTION 491

• COMPUTER CONTINUUM 501

341 COMPUTER DIRECT 518

101 COMPUTER DISCOUNT PROD. . 487

102 COMPUTER FRIENDS 208

103 COMPUTER HUT OF N E 277

104 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS .419

105 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS .412

106 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER . . 92. 93

107 COMPUTER SOFTW DESIGN 36, 37

109 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 447

110 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 447

111 COMPUTERBANC 66

112 COMPUTRADE 78

113 CONROY-LAPOINTE 182. 183

114 CONROY-LAPOINTE 182. 183

115 CONROY-LAPOINTE 182. 183

116 CONTROL DATA 400

117 CONTROL DATA MICRO SERV . 294

119 CORVUS SYS. INC 392

120 COSMOS 423

121 CRANE ASSOCIATES 494

122 CUESTA SYSTEMS 163

123 CUSTOM COMP. TECH 322

124 CUSTOM COMP TECH 482

125 CUSTOM COMP TECH 483

126 CYGNET TECHNOLOGIES . 228. 229

127 DAC SOFTWARE INC 303

128 DATA BANK 301

174 DATA BROKERS 518

129 DATA TRANSLATION INC 284

130 DATA WORLD PRODUCTS 517

131 DATACOPY CORP. 416

132 DATASOUTH COMP CORP 22

133 DAYNA COMMUNICATIONS 80. 81

134 DECISION RESOURCES 146

135 DECMATION 488

136 DELUXE COMP. FORMS 76

137 DICK SMITH ELECTRONICS390. 391

138 DIGITAL PRODUCTS INC 262

139 DIGITAL RESEARCH 101

141 DIGITAL RESEARCH . 217. 218. 219

142 DIGITAL RESEARCH COMP 74

143 DICITALK 287

• DISCOUNT COMPUTER CENTERS 442

145 DISKETTE CONNECTION 467

118 DISK IOCKEY 100

146 DISKS PLUS 508

147 DISKWORLD!. INC 479

148 DISKWORLD!. INC 496

149 DISPLAY TELECOMMNTNS. 480. 481

150 DIVERSIFIED COMPUTER SYS. . 490

151 DOKAY COMP PROD. INC 504, 505

152 DOW IONES NEWS RETRIEVAL 317

153 DUPONT COMPANY 281

154 DUPONT COMPANY 283

155 DUPONT COMPANY 285

156 DWIGHT CO, INC 492

157 DYNATECH 210. 211

160 EARTH COMPUTERS 518

Inquiry No.

Page No.

161 EASTMAN KODAK CO 342

162 ECOSOFT 163

163 EDUCATIONAL MICROCOMP 490

164 ELCOMP 517

165 ELEK-TEK 403

166 ELEXOR INC 501

• ELLIS COMPUTING INC 189

167 ENERTRONICS 334.335

170 ENTER COMPUTER 61

171 ENTER COMPUTER 61

173 EVEREX SYSTEMS 64

175 EXPRESS BUSINESS SOFTWARE. 112

176 EXSEL INC 448

177 FACIT AB 411

178 FALCON SAFETY PROD 222

179 FIDELITY-FIE 453

180 FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS .421

181 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING 275

182 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING ... 275

185 FOX & GELLER INC 446

186 FOX SOFTWARE INC 494

189 FUNK SOFTWARE 215

190 G & L COMPANY 315

191 GENERAL DATA COMM 518

192 GENERAL MICRO SYSTEMS .508

193 GENERAL TECHNOLOGY 180

194 GENESIS MICROSYSTEMS 352

195 GENICOM CORP. 162

196 GIFFORD COMP. SYS 5

197 GOLD HILL COMPUTERS 234

198 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 492

200 GREYWOLF MARKETING 98

201 CTEK INC 70

202 H&E COMPUTRONICS 358

203 HAMMER COMP SYSTEMS 118. 119454 HANZON DATA INC 445

204 HARMONY VIDEO & COMP .102242 HARRIS/LANIER EOS DIV . 166, 167

205 HAYES MICROCOMP. PROD . 56, 57

207 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH. . 247

208 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH. . 249

209 HEWLETT-PACKARD 199

210 HEWLETT-PACKARD 201

211 HITECH EQUIP. CORP. 518

212 HOFFMAN INTL 512

214 HYPERON SOFTWARE 501

215 l-BUS 212

216 ID.SYSTEMS 396

217 IBM-dSGI SERVICES 175

218 IBM CORP. 62, 63

• IBM CORP. 397

436 IBM CORP. 398. 399

434 IBS CORP 88

435 IBS CORP. 88

220 ILAR SYSTEMS. INC 190

221 ILAR SYSTEMS. INC 190

222 INMAC 54

223 INOVION CORP. 194

225 INTERFACE TECH CORP .... 460

224 INTERNATIONAL UNION OFCOMPUTER OWNERS INC 502. 503

226 IOMEGA 395

227 IADE COMP. PROD. 498. 499, 500433 IAMECO ELECTRONICS . . 292, 293

229 IDR M1CRODEVICES INC 519

230 IDR MICRODEVICES INC . 520, 521

231 IDR MICRODEVICES INC 522, 523

232 IDR MICRODEVICES INC 524

233 IUKI INDUSTRY OF AMERICA . 282

234 KADAK PRODUCTS 142

427 KEA SYSTEMS LTD. 490

235 KERN PUBLICATIONS 459

236 KEY TRONIC CORP. 177

237 KIMTRON CORP. 367

238 KRUEGER TECHNOLOGY INC. . 484

239 L-COM INC 375

240 LABORATORY MICROSYS 200

241 LAHEY COMPUTER SYSTEMS. . 518

TO GET FURTHER information on the products advertised in BYTE, eitherpick 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 pro-vided following this reader service index which is provided as an addi-tional service by the publisher, who assumes no liability for errors oromissions. 'Correspond directly with company.

Inquiry No. Page No.

• LANGLEY-ST.CLAIR 260

244 LARK SOFTWARE 443

245 LATTICE INC 198

246 LEO ELECTRONICS 488

247 LEVEL 5 RESEARCH 420

248 LIFEBOAT ASSOCIATES 18

249 LIFEBOAT ASSOCIATES. . 429

250 LINTEK INC 517

444 LIVING SOFTWARE 143

251 LIONHEART PRESS 82

252 LOCKHEED-GETEX 91

253 LOGIC PROGRAMMING ASSOC 102

254 LOGICAL DEVICES 24

255 LOGICAL DEVICES 512

256 LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS . 237

257 LYBEN COMP SYS 298

258 LYBEN COMP. SYS 501

259 LYCO COMPUTER 463

260 MACM1LLAN SOFTWARE 245

261 MACROTECH INTL 408

262 MANX SOFTWARE SYS 53

263 MARK WILLIAMS CO. 75

264 MARYMAC INDUSTRIES INC. . 494

265 MASTERBYTE COMP OF NY 517

266 MAXELL DATA PRODUCTS 7

267 MAXI-SWITCH COMPANY 301

268 MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 15

269 MCGRAW-HILL BOOK CO . . . 441

270 MECATEL COMPUTER TECH 96

• MERCEDES-BENZ OF NA . . . 248

271 MERRITT COMP. PRODUCTS . 517

272 METALINK CORP 512

273 MFI ENTERPRISES INC 77

297 M.H.I 424

274 MICRAY ELECTRONICS 316

318 MICRO CITY 52

275 MICRO DATA BASE SYS 161

276 MICRO DESIGN INTL 331

277 MICRO MART. INC 72, 73

278 MICRO PRODUCTS. INC 477

279 MICRO WORLD ELECTRONIX . , 492

438 MICROCOMPUTER ACCESSORIES . 159

439 MICROCOMPUTER ACCESSORIES 159

281 MICROGRAFX 59

• MICROMINT INC 426

403 MICROTERM 300

282 MICRON TECHNOLOGY 488

283 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD.. . 490

284 MICROSCRIBE 488

441 MICROSHOP 478

442 MICROSHOP 184

443 MICROSHOP 184

• MICROSOFT CORP. LANG 151

• MICROSOFT CORP LANG 153

• MICROSOFT CORP LANG 155

• MICROSOFT CORP. 79

• MICROSOFT CORP 241

• MICROSOFT CORP. 333

288 MICROSTUF. INC 341

289 MICROSTUF INC 343

290 MICROSTUF. INC 345

291 MICROTIME 100

292 MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP 431

293 MICROWAY 94

294 MICROWAY 259

295 MICROWAY 336

172 MIDWEST COMPUTER & VIDE0226

296 MIDWEST MICRO-PERIPHERALS 34

• MIX SOFTWARE 425

298 MOTEL COMPUTERS LTD 512

299 MTI SYSTEMS CORP 437

300 MULTI-TECH SYSTEMS 266

303 MYTECH DATA AB 98

304 NATL. PUBLIC DOMAIN SFTW 142

305 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS. .137

306 NEC INFORMATION SYS CHI

307 NESTAR SYSTEMS INC 299

308 NEW GENERATION SYS 364

309 NEWSNET INC 168

455 NICOLET PARATRONICS 200

• NORTH HILLS CORP. 492

• NORTH HILLS CORP. 501

310 ODESTA PUBLISHING 438

320 OKIDATA 318. 319

311 OLDEN 50

312 OFTO-22 220

IUNE 1985 'BYTE 527

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No.

Page No.

in

314

115430411432317319

321322123

124

451

32532b32732812V330131311114135

3 36337340342151343

144

34 5346

347148

OPTO-22 220

ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 255

ORION INSTRUMENTS 458

ORYX SYSTEMS 252

ORYX SYSTEMS 252

ORYX SYSTEMS 252

P.C HORIZONS, INC 494

PACIFIC EXCHANCES

. 492, 494. 508 517

PASCOM COMPUTING 51

PC DESIGNS. INC 258

PC NETWORK .... 382, 383

PC PIPELINE 494

PCS LIMITED 497

PC'S LIMITED 508

PERCON

PERSOFT INC

PINNACLE SYSTEMS. INC

PLUM HALL INC

POCKET TECHNOLOGY . . .POLAROID CORP,

5188

191

90

384

28. 29

POLAROID CORP 264. 265

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS 433

PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS . 273PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS . .

357. 359. 361. 363. 365

PRIORITY ONE 493

PROGRAMMERS SHOP 415

PROMETHEUS PRODUCTS. . 17

QIC RESEARCH 306

OSC 518

QUADRAM CORP 239

OUADRAM CORP 12, 13

QUALITY PRINTERS 430

OUANT SYSTEMS 492

OUBIE' ... 104. 105

OUBIE' 195

Inquiry No. Page No.

350 QUELO 508

• RACAL-VADIC ... 250

• RACAL-VADIC 251

352 RADIO SHACK CIV

353 RATIONAL SYSTEMS . . 240

354 RING KING VISIBLES, INC 32

• ROBERT TINNEY 486

355 ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL. 464447 ROLAND CORP 351

356 ROGERS LABS 54

357 S-100 DIV 696 CORP 60

358 S-100 DIV 696 CORP . 298

359 S-100 DIV 696 CORP 485

360 S-100 DIV 696 CORP . 485

361 SAB-LINK INC 501

362 SAFEWARE 488

445 SAFT AMERICA INC 225

446 SAFT AMERICA INC 225

364 SATELLITE SOFTWARE 378

365 SAV-ON COMPUTERS . 489

• SCOTTSDALE SYSTEMS 89

366 SEMIDISK SYSTEMS 274

367 SENTINEL TECHNOLOGIES. . .30

368 SHERREX SYSTEMS LTD. 88

369 SILICON SPECIALTIES 434

370 SILICON SPECIALTIES . 434

• SILVER FOX 4

371 SL WABER 450

372 SLR SYSTEMS 427

• SOFTCRAKT INC 158

374 SOFTCRAFT INC. (TXl 16

• SOFTLINE CORP. 87

375 SOFTRON INC 508

376 SOFTWARE BOTTLING 69

377 SOFTWARE LINK. THE 349

378 SOFTWARE SERVICES. . 494

379 SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC 269

Inquiry No. Page No.

380 SOLA ELECTRIC 31

448 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 432

449 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 432

381 SOLUTIONWARE CORP 490

382 SORCIM 144, 145

384 SPECTRUM SOFTWARE 261

385 SPRUCE TECHNOLOGY CORP 268

386 SPSS 149

387 STAR MICRONICS 84, 85

388 STARBUCK DATA CO . 508453 STARSHINE 437

389 STB SYSTEMS 404, 405

390 STRIDE MICRO 290

391 STRIDE MICRO 291

392 SUMMIT SOFTWARE TECHN. INC 256

393 SUNNY INTERNATIONAL ... 482

394 SUNTRONICS CO INC 478

397 SUPERSOFT 181

437 SWISTEC 444

• SYSGEN INC 204

• SYSTEMS STRATEGIES . 238

399 TALLGRASS TECH 20. 21

400 TAPE WORLD 488

401 TATUM LABS 501

• TEKTRONIX INC 99

404 TELEBYTE TECHNOLOGY INC 78

405 TELETEK ENTERPRISES. INC 213

• TELEVIDEO SYSTEMS 193

' TEXAS INSTRUMENTS II

■ TEXAS INSTRUMENTS . 304. 305

169 TIGERTRONICS 494

• TINNEY. ROBERT. GRAPHICS 486

• TOSHIBA AMERICA INC 196

407 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC 197

• TRANS WORLD AIRLINES. . .356

408 TURBO POWER SOFTWARE 214

409 U.S. ROBOTICS 67

Inquiry No. Page No.

301 US SERVEX 394

410 UNIFIED SOFTWARE SYS 512

411 UNISOURCE 25

412 UNITECH 488

413 VARITRONIC SYSTEMS 289

414 VAULT CORP 413

415 VEN-TEL INC 27

416 VERTEX SYSTEMS 260

417 VERTEX SYSTEMS 260

• VIASYN/COMPUPROINSERT32 A-H

419 VLM COMPUTER ELECTR 501

450 VOTRAX. INC 466

420 WALLING COMPANY 494

421 WALONICK ASSOCIATES 82

422 WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS 188

423 WATCOM PRODUCTS INC 209

424 WINTEK CORP. 492

425 WINTEK CORP. 35

440 WORDTECH SYSTEMS 370

426 WRITING CONSULTING 300

" Correspond directly with company

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505 ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL

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500 AMERICAN BUYING & EXPORT352E• BYTE 352A. 352F 352C

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502 CASIO 352H

504 GREY MATTER 352B

503 MULTITECH INDUSTRIAL CORR352D

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ONLY PINWRITER DOT MATRIXPRINTERS CAN SAY AIL THIS.

M

Pmwiler printers are

available in black & whiteand color models

u

The reason most people buy a dot matrixprinter is for versatility.

And that's exactly why you should buyan NEC Pinwriter''printer.

Pinwriters are the final word inversatility.

The Pinwriter lets you do more than any

other dot matrix

printer. Three different

speeds cover all your

needs—300, 900 or

1800 words per minute

Pinwriter printersalso let you create

unbelievably cleargraphics. In black andwhite. Or in sevencrisp colors.But that's not all.Every Pinwriter gives youa choice of 8 differenttype styles. Plus, you canchoose from a widerange of easy-to-use NEC formshandlers.

i CAN PRINT PICA HIGH SPEED.

OR PICA CORRESPONDENCE QUALITY

OR PICA NEAR LETTER QUALITY

OR ELITE CORRESPONDENCE QUALITY1

OR ELITE HEAR LETTER QUALITY

OR PROPORTIONALLY SPACED CORRESPONDENCE

OR PROPORTIONALLY SPACED NEAR LETTER QUALITY

OR ANY PROGRAMMABLE TYPEFACE

The Pinwitet prints in 8 different typefacesat the touch ota button

>*9»9

With Pins.' '■ ■ .can change spacmg fypepitch,and speed withone finger

And to make things even easier,Pinwriter printers work with the mostpopular PCs and software packages.

All the controls at your fingertips.

The Pinwriter is also much easier to use

than any

other dot

matrix

printer.

Press abutton andyou canchangetypefaces.Or speeds.Even spacing

and pitch selection. And that's a refreshing change.

Of course, you can do it through yoursoftware, too.

^^ See your dealer

The quicker brown fox for a (JU()t(*.

The quickest brown fox For all this versatility,

you might expect topay a bundle for a

Pinwriter printer. Not so. Pinwriter

prices are also easy to handleFor more

information, call

1-800-343-4418

(in MA call 617-

264-8635). And

find out why

more and more

PC owners are

saying, "NEC

and me'.'

H

The quick brown fox

Three printing speeds cover all your needs

Mfc

Pinwriter is a trademark ot NEC Corp

4

NEC InformationSystems, Inc.

1414 Massachusetts AveDepartment 1610Boxborough, MA 01719

Inquiry 306

OUR IBM8 PC XT "MIRROR IMAGE'HAS JUST BEEN CUT $1000

The Tandy 1200 HD is now only $1999

Get PC XT Power fora Fraction of the Cost

How would you like a sys-tem that does everything anIBM PC XT does—but coststhousands less? Now theTandy 1200 HD is only$1999 (was $2999 in Cat.RSC-14). That's $2396 lessthan the XT!

Expand Affordably

If you're already using anIBM PC, the Tandy 1200 HDlets you expand for less—and you can continue usingthe same software designedfor the PC. The Tandy 1200HD is compatible with ex-pansion boards designed forthe PC, too.

The Features You

Demand

The Tandy 1200 HD (25-3000) comes with 256KRAM, a built-in 360K floppydrive and an internal 10-megabyte hard disk. Thatmeans you get the same per-formance, expandability andfeatures as the IBM PC XT. . . but for a lot less.

Stop by your local RadioShack Computer Center to-day. We invite comparison.The Tandy 1200 HD isClearly Superior!

Available at over 1200

Radio Shack Computer Centers and at

participating Radio Shack stores and dealers.

Radio /haek

COMPUTER CENTERS

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION

Tandy 1200 HD prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and atparticipating stores and dealers. IBM/ TM International Business Ma-chines Corp. Savings based on manufacturer's pricing as of 3/1/85.

Inquiry 352