Byte Magazine Volume 10 Number 09 - Homebrewing

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No matter what 1

youteln

CandidateSearch Update I

flLgi Remna

SEARCH DATE: 5/20/SS

CLIENT:-Spttndom GourmtiBaby Foods

FIND

EXPERIENCE - Itofaag Hnggar

FIELD = F^HLIlnfum

SITE,SCO' Employ

SALARY REQ., S40.iSV.OXI F„ Amllm

LOCATION REQ.. Darai

RELOCATABLE^ Yes

Name Experience

Anlosz, Hank 1978—Present

Pinz-Pinz Baby Food

1976—1978

Healh Baby Products

Brown. Bob 1984—Present

Liz for Kids

1982—1984Bonnie Babe. Inc.

Hayden. Steve 1979—Present

Heath Baby Products1975—1979Nummy Tummies

Morrison, John

West. Nick

1977—PresentCamille Grocers. Ltd1974—1977Georgte Porgte ofLondon

1961—PresentBonnie Babe. Inc.

Salary Education

Age

$45,000 Harvard

MBA/Mktg.

S48.000 CSUN/Markeli:

543,000 UCLA/Sociology 35Harvard MBA

$40,000 Oxford/Marketing

I sing database management programs

vim can stun, retrieve and sort injbrmaHon in mi (dniitst unlimited numberof combinations. As opposed tothe way you re probablydtuna it now. Above, werelocated eligible candidates bysalary and work experiencetint database managementis alio hand\ fur things likegenerating master mailing listsCreating invoices. Sorting by zipcode. Checking inventory. Sofiles to lose. \o cross referencingyour Rolodex' .\o paperclips

May 20. 1985

Mr Greg HelmVice President. MarketingSplendora GourmBt Baby Foods2200 Michigan Place EastWinnetka. Illinois

Dear Mr. Helm

« , bos, ...cuw. .»" *»» - «»"<»**- """ ™"' P",,8SS'°"1

Our selective screeningprocesses help us locatecandidates who not only meetyour specified work experienceand salary requirements, but whoare well suited to the corporateculture ot your company.

On. m„. reason m 'SSSSSSS^SST

Tn0-nE„0«oS%S=o:9r™,a»rn,orcl,er.,.,.nc.s.case

nesitate to callSincerely.

C+*rCf&«*- <t&^*-

Cynthia ShernSenior Associate

^'%

In business, peopleoften meet your

letterhead before they meet you. Evertvondered what a typewritten page stiffuith white out says about your business?With The Macintosh Office you caneven design and print your. own letterhead, plus combinepublication qualitytext and graphics fora lasting fist impression. More important,you can send personal-ized letters to as manyprospects as you havepaper.

Personality

• Manufacturer s suggeskd retail price. 6S 19H5 Affile Computer. Inc Apple, tie Apple logo. laserWter. Appleliilk ami MacDmu are trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc Macintosh is a trademarkuf\hinio\l) laboratory. Inc and is being used with its express permission Saoisco is a registered trademark ofSabm>. Inc Rolodex is a registered trademark ojZephyrAmerican Corporation,a subsidiary oflnsilca '' MuMiplmi is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation

usiness yxte in,

I Candidate Profile Analysis i

EB

[ 1 Candidal* 1

^B Candldala 4

imTl Candldata S

Each graph represents sevento ten pages of test informationper candidate.

Individual tests are available

for your review at your request.

As these comparative charts

indicate, all candidates tested

competitively in the four areas.

However, based on further in-depth study, including extensivepersonal interviews, we highlyrecommend you interviewcandidates 4 and 5 as soon aspossible.

Our office will be contactingyou immediately to set up theseinterviews at your earliest con-venience.

Ifii picture is mirth a thousand wards,business graphics like tlxse could cutmeetings and presentations in haltWe're taken information on Jive* candidates stored in one sofltt arey program, copied it into' another program, where it!■ ii as used to create tlxse comparatire bar graph. Once. \vur (UiUi is entered, this1 particular software program\ litres you your choice oJ-t2I 'different graph configure-' lions, )'ou can preview youri material (umber it's candi-dates, casfi or cookies) ineach configuration todecide which chart orgraph most persuam t'/i ■makes your point

Recruil-A-Suit Income Statement 1Fiscal Year Ending 9/30/84 j

Q1

OS

Q3

Q4

Year-end

SALES

Arm Arbor

Fees

20.000

19.000

22.000

17,000

78.000

Commissioni

=■2.000

45,000

48.000

42.000

187,000

TG'l Ann A-bc'

72.000

M.OCO

70,000

59.000

265,000

Detroit

Fni

44,000

46,000

42,000

39.000

171,000

Comfmss-ori*

68.000

Tr.vza

64,000

62.000

266.000

Total Detroit

113,000

118.000

106,000

101.000

437.000

laa.ooo

178,000

180.000

702.000

OPERATING E X PE *J SE S

Ann ArtHM

Payn*

30,000

30.000

33,000

30,000

123,000

T&.HS

2,500

2.500

2,600

2.500

10 100

Aula

1.200

1500

1.200

1.200

».ecc

Telepnons

000

600

800

600

2,400

Rem

a.ooo

8.000

8.000

8,000

32.000

Uttri.es

soo

500

500

500

?ooc

Dues/SuDecno-

100

•oo

200

100

500

Advertising

3,000

3.000

4,000

4.000

14,000

Travel

1,000

1,000

1,000

1,000

4.000

Enlunainmeni

1.50O

1,500

1.75C

1,500

6.250

Office Supplies

300

300

300

300

1.200

Ann Aitrar Tow

48,700

48,700

63.150

49.700

200:250

Detroit

Payroll

50,000

52.000

50.000

50,000

202,000

Ta.es

4 200

4.400

4.200

4,200

17.000

Aulo

2,400

2.400

2.400

2.400

9,600

TriMham

1.200

1 500

1.500

1 200

5400

Rant

9.100

9.100

9,100

9.400

38.700

Utirt»t

no

600

BM

SCO

3.200

DueB/Subectlp.

200

250

200

200

850

AdvertKing

3.000

3.500

3.500

3,000

13,000

Travel

1.200

1.500

1,200

-.400

5.30C

ErttorMftment

1 600

i BOO

1,600

1,400

6.400

Otfice Suppllee

400

400

400

400

1600

Da** Total

74,100

77.650

74,900

74,400

301.050

EXPENSES TOTAL

122,600

128,350

128,050

124,100

501.300

NET PRETAX PFCFTT

St .200

55.650

47.950

35.900

200,700

As- you well know, business invokesinnumerable number related tasks, notthe least of which is generating incomeand expense statements like thisS / one. Should you want to> / change any of the entered'" /// items—to take a look at the" effects ofopening a newofficeor decreasing your staff— aspreadsheet program likeMultiplan* * will automaticallyrecalculate tlx entire document.(Here, ue'te copied it intoMacDrau ? and enhanced itfor presentation purposes. I- It not only saies hours ofentering, doulile checking" and erasing, but when teamedup irith our LaserWriter printer, itproduces a printout impressiiv enoughto show a bank president. Fast enoughfor this afternoon's meeting

.r^~^^.

Whether you're Nabisco*or Ms. Priss'Cookie Company you worry about the bottomline. Write letters. Keep track of inventory.Keep vour overhead under control. Pay taxes.Retrieve files. Schedule projects.

Which is why you can dramaticallyincrease your business' productivity with TheMacintosh™ Office.

The cornerstone of The Macintosh Officeis our Macintosh 512K computer. All you needto know about its powerful,32-bit, mouse-driven technology is that it reduces the timeit takes to become productive with a computerfrom well over a work week to just under alunch hour.

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problems.When

you team up Macintosh with the secondhardest worker in The Macintosh Office,our LaserWriter™ printer, you can bring a newlevel of professionalism to your paperwork.

It produces publication-quality textand graphics in letters, internal documents,presentations, even business forms. There'sno telling what it can save you in outsideprinting costs alone. And the laserWriter canbe shared with as many as 31 Macintoshcomputers. So it becomes more cost efficientwith everv Macintosh you connect to it.

Butcher, baker, candlestick-maker... orNabisco for more information about TheMacintosh Office call 800-446-3000.No job too big.Or too small.

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William C. Lowe, president of IBM Entry Systems Division was quoted in a recent NwYork limes interview as saying that the IBM PC II is a mythical product.' which seems toend any discussion of that matter. Another IBM spokesperson fingered a defective chip "inless than 10 percent of IBM's PC ATs as the culprit responsible for its notoriouscrashes International Measures and Communications (Meacomm) of Houston, TX. is

offering a 6502 and Applesoft BASIC emulator for Apples Macintosh computer, allowingmany Apple II programs to run on the Mac. Mac + || has communications software for theApple II and Macintosh so programs can be exchanged using the Imagewriter cable. . . .Personics of Concord, MA, offers a head-rotation-detection system that replaces the mouseon Apples Macintosh. The View Control System includes a small unit that generates high-frequency sound, a headband with three small sound detectors, and a two-button keyboardadd-on to activate the headband and simulate the mouse button. The $200 Macintoshversion is available now; an IBM PC version is also planned Graphic Software

Systems has developed software allowing microcomputers to act as intelligent graphicsworkstations when attached to a host computer that also uses the software. GSS-Grafstationemploys the Virtual Device Interface IVDI) developed by GSS. The company will license thesoftware to OEMs for $250 per copy. . Future Computers, Croydon, U.K., is offering toOEMs a low-cost computer compatible with IBM's PC AT. Called the FX I00. the machinefeatures a 10-MHz 80286. two l.2-megabyte floppy-disk drives, 512K bytes of memory, aproprietary display-adapter card compatible with the Hercules monochrome graphics card,and a mouse. End-user price is reportedly $2995 Korean electronics giant Samsung

has added its name to the long list of makers of IBM PC AT-compatible computers. With acolor monitor and a 20-megabyte hard disk, the Samsung OX-85 reportedly will cost$4895 .... Micrografx Inc., Richardson, TX, announced ln*a*Vision. a drawing programthat runs either alone or under Microsoft Windows using pull-down menus and multiple-window viewing. The $495 program is targeted at drafting and CAD applications. . . . McTelof Bala Cynwyd. PA, has a $50 program, Electronic Envelope, that encodes binary files fortransmission through electronic mail systems that permit only ASCII text to beexchanged Hitachi displayed a portable computer with a detachable keyboard and a

liquid-crystal display. The company predicted that OEMs could sell the system with 256Kbytes of RAM and one 3'/2-inch floppy-disk drive for less than $2000 NEC Electronics

said its two-chip set allows design of a hard-disk controller using only 10 chips. TheMPD7261 and /*PD9306 pair will sell for $25 in OEM quantities. Qume, San lose. CA,

has obtained exclusive rights to market a Hitachi 10-page-per-minute laser printer in theU.S. beginning in early 1986. No additional details about the printer were available at presstime. . . . Addison-Wesley said its Macintosh version of True BASIC would be available latethis year. . . . Digital Research formally introduced the GEM DOS operating system for the68000 series of microprocessors. The debut followed an agreement with NorthernTelecomm. whose 68010-based Meridien computer system will now support GEM and GEMDOS National Semiconductor's proprietary two-board computer includes its 32016

processor along with floating-point and memory-management chips. With 1 megabyte ofRAM, the board set is $2800. Charles River Data Systems has developed a UNIXSystem V computer system that uses Motorola s 68020 processor. Initial buyers will get a140-megabyte hard disk 4 megabytes of RAM. UNIX System V, 12 serial ports, and othersoftware for $24,900. . . . Sord Computer also has a six-user UNIX System V computer.Sord's 68010-based Unibox includes a 20-megabyte hard-disk drive, one 1.2-megabytefloppy-disk drive. 1-megabyte RAM. and ports for two users for $4695. A 68020-based

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 13

LETTERS

Evidence of Support

During the past few months I have readseveral letters from your readers com-plaining about the poor support that theyhave received from the manufacturers oftheir personal computers. Recently 1needed additional information about theI/O ports on my AT&T PC 6300. I triedin vain to find a computer store that soldthe System Programmers Guide or a personwho could answer my questions. Indesperation. I sent a letter to AT&Tdescribing my problem and asking for ad-ditional information. To my surprise. Ireceived a letter from AT&T less than 10days later. The letter explained that theSystem Programmers Guide had just beenreleased, so some computer stores wouldnot yet have it, and gave instructions onhow to order the manual directly. The let-ter also answered my technical questionscompletely and even included photo-copies of the pertinent pages from theSystem Programmers Guide. I ordered a copyof the manual over the telephone andreceived it less than a week later. Welldone, AT&T! Keep up the good work! I amvery happy with my AT&T 6300 and thesupport from AT&T.

Dr. Michael |. PelletierCincinnati. OH

Many times I have read about how a par-ticular software firm provided less thanadequate service. However. 1 would like tobe one individual from the silent majori-ty who speaks out for a company thatwent above and beyond the call of duty.

1 read an evaluation of a product fromMorgan Computing called Trace86. Thearticle described a save-screen functionthat Morgan Computing (MC) did not im-plement. I wrote to MC, and the peoplethere said it was their fault and that theywould provide an update with that featurewhen they had it working properly. Iwaited several months, and I had almostgiven up when I received the update anddocumentation free of charge (the call ofduty).

Later, I read about Advanced Trace86(AT86). I called MC. The cost of the updatewas $99. The people at MC must have re-membered me. since they provided mewith AT86, a letter stating they appreciated

my business despite the long wait for anupdate last time, and a complimentarycopy of Disk Toolkit, a $75 value (aboveand beyond the call of duty).

I feel that Morgan Computing deservesto be recognized as one company thatputs customer satisfaction high on its listof priorities.

Stephen MoffettBryan. TX

Both Sides of DEC'S Rainbow

I must take issue with lared Sherman's let-ter in the June issue (page 32) attackingthe DEC Rainbow 100. I own a Rainbow100B with 2 56K. CP/M. and MS-DOS. Ialso assembled, tested, and use severalof these in my job at the University ofLouisville. I must take exception to Sher-man's criticisms and to Rainbow critics ingeneral.

His first assertion was that CP/M-86/80'sBACKUP utility "eats" files. I have backedup hard disks on several occasions withabsolutely no problem. 1 have a feelingthat Mr. Sherman has not correctlyspecified all of the parameters in hisbackup setup commands. Digital does notknow of any errata in its documentationregarding the hard-disk backup.

MAI NT does have a known bug regard-ing hard disks. Digital should have toldSherman that MAINT was not designed tobe used with a full hard disk (by full I mean100+ files) to begin with.

I find it hard to believe that DEC'S cus-tomer-service line was purposefullyevasive in answering his questions. I havecalled the line on three separate occa-sions, and I found the people in Atlantato be both courteous and knowledgeable,even when one of my problems involveda non-Digital modem.

1 am writing this letter with WordStar 3.3.We use WordStar extensively here, and Ihave heard no complaints about it notediting a file over 30K. Again, I believe theuser and not the system to be at fault.

MS-DOS manuals are a problem. It is toobad that to get the programming docu-mentation, one must shell out $7 5 for theMS-DOS programming manual (not $2 50;the manuals have been repackaged andare now sold separately from DEC direct).However, the hierarchical directory struc-

ture is documented in the Advanced User'sGuide provided with MS-DOS in chapter 3,which is entitled "More About Files."

I recently purchased the $75 HardwareDocumentation set and find both manualscomplete and well written. Why DECdidn't include this with the machine isunclear to me. DEC would probablydevelop a real following among program-mers if it would include these with themachine. The Rainbow is a well-designedand well-documented machine, and Digitalshould take advantage of this more thanit does.

I was most interested in Mr. Sherman'sstory about his hard-disk upgrade. I per-sonally installed 2 5 hard-disk upgrades forU of L some months back with no prob-lem. The only thing I can figure is that hehad a 100A with a motherboard problem.Nowhere in the documentation that I havecan I find the fact that you need a newCPU motherboard to install that upgrade.According to the documents we received,to upgrade a 100A requires a new powersupply (included with the 100A hard-diskupgrade), the controller board (included),and the drive cable.

Like any complex piece of electronicequipment, proper maintenance is essen-tial. Mr. Sherman probably does not havehis system under any kind of maintenanceagreement with Digital. When 1 purchasedmy Rainbow, a year of on-site maintenancewas included. I believe the company hasdiscontinued that offer, but I plan to putmy system on depot (carry-in) main-tenance when my warranty expires. Mr.Sherman should consider doing the same.One bad system board will pay for theagreement for about a year and a half.

{continued)

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.

BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

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Inquiry 235

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Just what's in NewsNet's database? The full textof over 300 valuable business newsletters. In-depth news, written by experts, filled withanalysis and interpretation. News from 34 dif-ferent industries and professions—everythingfrom Computers to Investments, from Manage-ment to Telecommunications. Plus extras suchas wire services, online stock quotes, air fares,and business credit reports.

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Inquiry 272

LETTERS

It is unfortunate that horror stories likethis continue to plague the Rainbow. 1 haveowned my machine for about a year nowand have had no problem with it. TheRainbow is an excellent product for thoseof us who would rather use the machinethan spend our time buying upgradeboards to give our PC the functionalitythat the Rainbow comes bundled with.Digital should take note of the features theRainbow has and price it more compet-itively. Including the manuals would helpalso, because no one can know how goodthe machine is if Digital won't tell.

Michael E. HarpeLouisville. KY

As a DEC Rainbow owner. I sympathizewith Jared Sherman's difficulties. Unfor-tunately, not all DEC support people areequally knowledgeable and helpful. I canprovide answers to two of his complaints.I am not familiar with the others.

First, the WordStar bug is an "undocu-mented feature" of WordStar version 3.30that promiscuously destroys parts of fileslonger than 32K without telling the user.After several attempts at communication,I got the following cure from MicroPro,implemented using DDT86: First call upDDT86 with no command-line prompt. Atthe "-" DDT86 prompt, enter

RWSOVLYIOVR <return>

{to read WSOVLYl.OVR into

memory}S4A52 <return>

{to set bit at 4A52 hex}

The program will respond with "Bl." Enter"B2." a carriage return, and a "." to tellthe program you are finished changingbytes. Then enter

WWSOVLYI.OVR <return>{to rewrite the program on disk}

Finally, enter ~C to exit.

Obviously, this should be tried andchecked on a copy of the overlay file, noton the original.

Second, Mr. Sherman owns a Rainbow100A with MS-DOS version 2.01. whichhas a user's manual best described asabysmal. The software itself also hasseveral deficiencies (including an inabili-ty to work with a hard disk or use memoryas a "RAM disk") that are remedied inlater versions. If Mr. Sherman calls (800)DEC-8000 and asks for contract support,he can arrange to buy version 2.05 for $65or version 2.11 for $95. both of whichcome with adequate user's manuals. And

{continued}

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LETTERS

yes, I would agree that DEC is chargingtoo much for these upgrades. If Mr. Sher-man is happy with version 2.01. a cheapersolution would be to buy a book on MS-DOS from an independent publisher. Fileswith technical information on Rainbowfirmware interrupts are available on theVAX Forum (PCS 16) of CompuServe.

Mr. Sherman is correct that DEC madethe inexcusable decision to solder in theROM, at least on the 100A. This ROMrequires the system to be booted from afloppy disk at start-up but otherwise allowsinstallation and use of a hard disk.

That said. I should add that I am happywith my DEC Rainbow. It is basically a verygood machine. Its shortcomings seem toresult from Digital's being oriented to themainframe market. Its design approach aswell as upgrade and service policies aregeared toward corporate customers own-ing large machines. When you tell Digitalpeople that you're an individual owningone personal computer, they know notwhat to think.

Carl D. NeiburgerLos Osos. CA

The |une Letters column contained yet an-other blast at the DEC Rainbow. A Mr.Sherman decried "bugs" he had found,some so terrible one cannot imagine howanyone could use such a machine. I havebeen developing software on just such amachine day in, day out for more than twoyears, and I have never experienced anyof the bugs Mr. Sherman mentioned. Theonly bug I've ever found is a very minorone in the Rainbow Editor (RED), wherea randomly huge number of pages oftendisplay when one requests to pagebackward. The Rainbow works quickly,dependably, and effortlessly. 1 truly enjoyusing it.

I do. however, share Mr. Sherman's dis-dain for DEC'S documents. They are oftensinfully incomplete. But all in all, 1 findthem easier to garner information fromthan most.

Paul HendersonWaynesboro, VA

Enough on the IBM PC!

I greatly enjoyed the multiprocessor ar-ticles (May), Keep up the excellent cover-age of new technologies in hardware andsoftware.

Let me register a vote against IBM PCcoverage. It's available in overabundancefrom almost every other magazine. TheIBM PC was out-of-date technology theday it was released, and that was a long

{continued)

18 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 175 for End-Users Inquiry 176 for DEALERS ONLY

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LETTERS

time ago. I predict that the IBM PC AT willbe in the same position very soon.

Alan RobinsonJamaica Plain. MA

The History of 0

G. Michael Vose's conjecture (BookReviews. February, page 65) that AlanTuring originated the practice of writingzero as 0 to differentiate it from the letterO is wrong, and William D. A. Geary |Let-ters, (une. page 18| has correctly identifiedit as being common in telegraphy longbefore Turing. Military radiograms inWorld War II were always so typed. Butthere is more to the slashing story.

Telegraphic messages were chieflyalphabetic letters so the rarer symbol, thenumeral, was slashed. In early computingthe opposite was the case: the numeralswere common while the letters were rare,so for years it was considered good com-puting practice to slash the handwrittenletter O. As late as the 1970s programmingtextbooks gave this advice and furthersuggested putting a horizontal barthrough Z to distinguish it from 2 and put-ting a horizontal cap and foot on I todistinguish it from 1.

Now that the majority of the symbolsused in computing are letters, we havegone back to slashing the zeros, and sinceinput is increasingly entirely prepared ona keyboard and not handwritten we areless concerned with the Z/2 and 1/1confusions.

Eric A. WeissSpringfield, PA

More on StructuredProgramming

Nearly 20 years after the structured pro-gramming revolution began and roughlya decade since Pascal and C became im-portant languages and at a time whenalmost everyone recognizes the value ofstructured programming, it is sad to seea letter such as the one titled "Toward aLess Structured Approach" (May. page458) by Erwin S. Strauss. I'm sure that itis important that people who are new tothe field see the opposite point of view.There is hardly one sentence in the en-tire letter that can pass unchallenged! Mr.Strauss presents two programs side byside and claims that one is structuredwhile the other is not. In fact, both are ex-amples of structured "code—i.e., both usea counted loop, and one uses an IF.. .THEN. . . ELSE. The flow is from top tobottom, and neither uses a GOTO. I callboth of these examples "code" rather than

[continued)

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LETTERS

programs because both are terrible ex-amples of programs, structured orotherwise.

The attack by Mr. Strauss was promptedby the poorly designed index in theModula-2 book. Sequential entries in theindex are printed horizontally adjacent toeach other rather than vertically. As pooras it is, it is at least an index for the book.The first code segment presented by Mr.

Strauss works only for even values of N—arestriction stated by him but given in thesame breath that he attacks the othercode that works for all values of N. I dislikethis indexing scheme as much as anyone,and 1 haven't the foggiest idea why it wasdone this way. 1 am certain, however, thatthe strange form of the index has aboutas much to do with structured program-ming as does the color of the cover.

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The second code segment, which Mr.Strauss claims contains a higher level ofsensitivity to the user,'' is so bug-infestedthat it is insulting to the user! If N (thenumber of elements in the index) is lessthan or equal to PL (the number of lineson the page), it omits printing every otherindex element. If N is one greater than PLbut still less than 2 *PL, the program pro-duces a correct listing for indexes l, 2

N-PL. PL+\. PL + 2 N but again

omits all the even indexes between N-PLand PL. Finally, if N is greater than or equalto 2*PL, it will print out a correct indexfor the first few pages but will always foulup the last page. It turns out that this col-lection of code will produce the correctanswer only when N is an even multipleof PL. So much for sensitivity!

The letter continues stating that the firstis a structured program because it "hasfewer lines, fewer statements, fewer vari-ables, it's easier to read and understandat a glance, etc." (One could only imaginewhat "etc." includes.) I don't know of anytexts that claim any of these are charac-teristics of structured programming. Cer-tainly structured programs are easier tounderstand, although not necessarily at aglance. Often structured programs arelonger and use more variables than un-structured code! (See listing 1 for anexample.)

Clearly, structured programming hasnothing to do with sensitivity (or its lack)to the user. Years ago it was demonstratedthat any correct" program could be writ-ten in a structured fashion. Only program-mers are responsible for the program'ssensitivity to the user. The letter continuesby attacking structured programmersbecause they insist on producing bug-freecode! Bug-free code? I consider myself a"structured programmer" and 1 programthat way because it produces clean codeearly on in the code-development cycle;it gives me more time for other program-ming projects because I don't spend muchtime chasing down foolish bugs. The costof structured programming that Mr.Strauss speaks of is not one of sensitivitybut one of sitting down with a problemand solving it long before you begin totype characters at a computer. I enjoy pro-gramming so much that the satisfaction ofworking on many projects and producingwell-written programs is worth the so-called cost of thinking out ahead of time.Strauss's two code segments are prime ex-amples of what happens if you are notwilling to pay that price.

The rest of the letter's attack on struc-

[conlinued)

24 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 189 for End-Users Inquiry 190 for DEALERS ONLY

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LETTERS

Listing 1: David R. Stampfs example of a structured program.

PL := 60;

N DIV (2-PL);

FULI PAGES

START:= 1;

FOR PAGE := 1 TO FULI PAGES

DO BEGIN

FOR ENTRY : - START TO START + PL - 1

DO WRITELN(INDEX[ENTRY],'START := START + 2-PL;END;

{ Any partial pages? }

{ Lines/page }

{ N is the number of entries }

{ Full pages - Hmmm, maybe k columns?

{ Start with the first entry }

{ Full pages first - even if none }

MNDEX[ENTRY + PL]);

{ Find lines left to print }

{ Watch out for > half pages }

LINES := N - START + 1;IF (LINES > PL)

THEN LINES := PL;FOR ENTRY : = START TO START + LINES - 1DO IF (ENTRY + PL) < = N

THEN WRITELN(INDEX[ENTRY],'ELSE WRITELN(INDEX[ENTRY]);

{ The above works for all values of N - even/odd/big/small/ + /- }

,INDEX[ENTRY + PL])

tured programmers, gurus, and the like issimply redundant—Strauss has an equal-ly naive opinion of good programmers ashe does of structured programming.

Finally, the last paragraph seems to behedging a bit—structured programming isokay if ... . Evidently, he hasn't the fog-giest notion of what the goals of struc-tured programming are. I will never pro-gram my zillionth database application. IfI ever do it. I hope to do it once, thenreuse the same code. If I do it right thefirst time, I can use the same techniqueover and over, freeing up time for me toexplore new systems. Too bad Mr Strausswill be trying to debug his index program,for if you start by writing buggy programs,debugging always comes later.

David R. StampfShoreham, CT

Erwin Strauss seems to be confusing twoimportant ideas, that of the structure ofa program on the one hand and that ofits "usefulness for any specific purpose''(which most vendors go to a lot of trou-

(continued)

I

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 29

How to go

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LETTERS

ble to advertise but then disclaim in theirlicense agreements) on the other I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Strauss's viewthat a program should not be simplifiedto the point that it does no useful work.

In his example of two programs to printan index in two columns, he is in errorwhen he describes the first as structuredand the second as unstructured. In fact,his second program clearly shows thesame structure as the first, extended toadd the concept of a page and to re-arrange the data. I could give an un-structured version of the second program,but yours is a family publication. Sufficeit to say that it would use GOTOs in themanner Dijkstra considered harmful. Thetwo programs illustrate the concept ofstepwise expansion of a simple algorithmto solve a more complicated problem.Structured methods were developed inresponse to the problems of developinglarge, complex programs. Of course, if twoprograms solve the same problem, thesimpler one is to be preferred. If Mr.Strauss's gurus tell him his two programsdo the same thing, or that he shouldchoose the first anyway, then they are falseprophets and he should cast them out.

A programmer can be competent butfail to understand the methods he usesStructure in a programming language islike good grammar in a natural one. Itlends clarity of expression. Spokenlanguage may exhibit looser grammarthan formal written language, but aspeaker who has mastered grammar ismore likely to be correctly understood byhis listeners. Not all programs should bewritten in the formal style appropriate toa legal contract, but a programmer witha good grasp of structure can use it evenin his less formal utterances. If he does so.it is more likely that his program will tellhis computer what he really wants it to do.

Our choice of a language may be likeusing the jargon appropriate to a profes-sion. It can provide a useful shorthand forcommunication with other initiates, but itcan be limiting if used to express thoughtsin a wider realm, largon frequently readsas very poor English. Some computer lan-guages are also poorly suited to generalapplications, even though they may bequite satisfactory for chosen purposes.

If a language enforces a structure, an ex-perienced user will think within that struc-ture. That is why it is important to teachstructured languages like Pascal or Logoearly if possible. You can then learn otherlanguages as appropriate. For example.Pascal is not suitable for systems program-

{continued)

30 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

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LETTERS

ming (not because of the structures pro-vided for flow of control but because itimposes restrictions on access to memoryand I/O in order to guarantee correctmatching of data types in common ap-plication programming situations anddoesn't provide for multitasking). Whenusing an unfamiliar language, a program-mer may well display the accents of lan-guages he knows better. Perhaps a Pascal

accent could add real charm to a BASICor assembly-language program.

John MainwarincRaleigh. NC

Making BASIC MorePowerful

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1967 with BASIC. It's the language 1 cutmy programming teeth on.

BASIC didn't have a very good reputa-tion in those days. I taught after-hoursclasses in a largely FORTRAN-orientedcompany, and some of my students wouldcome to class shaking at their very foun-dations because their "sophisticated"FORTRAN colleagues in the terminal roomwould chide them about their choice oflanguage, even corrupting the BASICacronym to mean Baby's All-purpose, Sim-ple Instruction Code.

But we had an extraordinarily good ver-sion of BASIC at our disposal, and I wasa master of it. I'd accumulated many imag-inative and provocative tricks up mysleeves to use things like strings, logicalvariables, complex numbers, and matrixfunctions to solve complex problems inelegant, unexpected, and simple ways.Had any one of those 1960s computeryuppies challenged me to a FORTRAN-versus-BASIC shoot-out and let me pickany one of two dozen problems to solve,I'd have beat the diapers off them.

Since then. I've gone on to program afair amount in APL, FORTRAN, Pascal,Ada, some C, and bits and pieces of otherlanguages on UNIX and other operatingsystems. And what I've found is that eachlanguage has its application.

I don't do much hands-on programmingany more. But I make a hobby of devisingyet other new tricks for BASIC; these days.I get a kick out of programming it to mimicthe good software and engineering fea-tures of other languages. And that's whatdrew my attention to Arthur Huston's ar-ticle "Structuring BASIC" (lune. page 243).

Mr. Huston did a good service for theBASIC world with his article on buildinglibraries, but we can go farther than hewent when we start talking about mimick-ing the type-checking, procedure, error-processing, GOTO-less programming, andother features inherent in other languages.For (believe it or not) it is possible toemulate these things in a good BASIC andmake your programs incredibly readableand debuggable along the way. Why, I'veeven emulated, in a crude, first-cut way,Ada's generic package—not to mentionTBD's workers-and-managers architectureand the principles of top-down program-ming and interface development.

It's fun, intellectually stimulating, and do-able—if you set your mind to it and don'tvictimize yourself with that sense of BabyBASIC.

Gene Barnett

Redondo Beach, CA

{continued on page 424)

32 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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FIXES AND UPDATES

BYTE'S BUGS

Conversion Algorithm Bug

In Brief" Error

Mark Werley, a BYTE reader from Yuma,Arizona, reported a bug in David L. Kahn'sarticle "A Unit-Conversion Algorithm," (Seepage 151 of the March BYTE)

Line 310 in listing 1 (page 154) shouldread as follows:

310 IF MID$(I$,X,1)= "" OR X> = LEN(I$)THEN 320 ELSE X = X + 1:GOTO 310

Mr. Werley also modified the programso that it will run on his Commodore com-puter, which has neither an ELSE nor anELSE IF command. He recommendsinserting

310 IF MID$(I$,X,1) = "" OR X > = LEN(IS)

THEN 320315 X = X+1:GOTO 310

Mr. Kahn tells us that other readers havepointed out one more error. In line 7250(page 156). the DATA has an incorrectvalue statement. As it appears now. the

program will produce inaccurate answersin any conversion involving the termACRE. The correct value is 2.4710536E-4.

Our thanks to lack Heddon and RayIsenson for taking the time out to reportthis bug.

The PRINT CHR$(12) in lines 10. 130.and 4000 requires some clarification, ac-cording to Mr. Kahn. In most versions ofBASIC a CLS statement would have beenpreferable to the PRINT CHR$(12), butMr. Kahn's BASIC compiler does not sup-port the CLS statement. With both hiscompiler and his interpreter, the PRINTCHR$(12) worked just fine.

Also note that line 130 is unnecessaryin the MS-DOS version of the program. Inaddition, the TRS-80 version prints somematerial between lines 10 and 130 that isnot needed with MS-DOS. The line was leftin to minimize the differences between thetwo versions.

In the "In Brief" column that accompaniedLaine Stump's article "The Kit Solution."we supplied some erroneous information.(See page 196 of the March BYTE.)

The Slicer comes with a CP/M-86 BIOS.The operating system itself is $85. Con-current CP/M. as of press time, is unavail-able and unpriced.

AI Book Available

A number of readers have reported thatFocal Press of Stoneham. Massachusetts,no longer carries Mike James's Artificial In-telligence in BASIC, which was recentlyreviewed by Norman I. Chaplin. (See April,page 68.)

This book can be ordered from NewnesBooks, 84-88 The Centre. Feltham. Middle-sex TW13 4BH. England.

Our thanks to Norman I. Chaplin fortracking down a distributor for this book.

FEEDBACKAlternative Approaches to Structured BASIC Programming

lack M. Fischer, network manager for theTulsa Computer Consortium, recentlywrote us lauding Arthur Huston for the"excellent case |he makesl for writingstructured BASIC programs." (See "Struc-turing BASIC," lune. page 243.)

Mr. Fischer notes that Mr. Huston's ap-proach to structured BASIC programmingrelies heavily upon adherence to rules for

line numbering and for the naming of vari-ables and subroutines.

Programmers at the Consortium, reportsMr. Fischer, have developed a number oftools and techniques that eliminate theneed for strict rules. One such technique,FLOAT, lets you float BASIC subroutinesbetween programs and libraries by pro-viding you with an insert capability to

eliminate the need for line numbering.Another tool compensates for the lack oflocal and global variables.

If you want to learn about the Consor-tium's approach to structured BASIC pro-gramming, write to the Tulsa ComputerConsortium-Structured BASIC. POB 707,Owasso, OK 74055. Please enclose returnpostage.

UPDATESSystems Transfer Documents Between Word Processors

Flagstaff Disk Conversion Equipmentdistributes systems that transfer documentfiles between most word-processingequipment and the IBM PC. PC XT. andPC AT. Word processors supported includeCP/M systems, Displaywriter. OS/6. Wang,Xerox, and IBM S/32, S/34, and S/38.

The Diskette Connection lets you readand write most 8-, 5J4-, and 3!/2-inch disks.It comes with a PC controller card, an8-inch floppy-disk drive, and a cable.

The Word Connection, used in conjunc-tion with the Diskette Connection, lets youtransfer disk-based document files be-tween word processors. Word Connectionprograms use IBM-standard DocumentContent Architecture (DCA-RFT) to trans-fer document files and such parametersas page size, tabs, headers, margins, andtypesetting control characters. The conver-sion is said to take place at 40 pages perminute. Transferred documents can be

sent directly to a mainframe via IBM'sPROFS and DISOSS electronic mail.

Flagstaff Disk Conversion Equipment isa distributor for Flagstaff Engineering Inc..which produces the Diskette Connectionand the Word Connection. The DisketteConnection is $1099, and the Word Con-nection is $695. Contact Flagstaff Disk Con-version Equipment at 1805 North Beaver.Flagstaff. AZ 86001. (800) 821-7493. ext.236; in Arizona. (602) 774-5422. ■

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 33

Introducing The B

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER BT/AT

44 Mb Hard Disk Drive.640K Internal RAM.8 I/O Expansion Slots.1.2 Mb Floppy Disk Drive.2 Asynch SerialCommunication Ports.2 Parallel Printer Ports.

Monochrome Graphics

Adapter (720 x 348).Monochrome Monitor (Green).Tilt/Swivel Monitor Base.IBM PC AT Hardware and

Software Compatiblity.GW-BASICand MS-DOS 3.1.

PC KEYBOARD

BT5151

AT KEYBOARD

BT5161

Solid State CapacitiveKey Switches.

3-Position Height Adjustment.Keys In Standard Type-writer Positions.Seperate Cursor Controland Numeric Keypads.Easy-To-Read Key LegendsLED Indicators For All Lock Keys.

HIGH RESOLUTIONMONOCHROME MONITORS

HR 39 (Green)HR 134 (Amber)

Plugs Into The IBM Monochromeor Compatible Adapter.720 x 350 Resolution.12" Diagonal Screen.Super Crisp Text Capability.High Resolution TTL.Tilt/Swivel Base.

BACKUP POWER SOURCE

AT800XT300SB200

Battery Powered Up To

30 Minutes.

Surge Suppression/

Noise Filtering.

Brownout Protection.

800, 300, 200 Watt Models.

MONOCHROME CARDHR720

COLOR CARDHR640

Complete IBM Compatibility.High Resolution GraphicsCapabilities.

HIGH RESOLUTIONCOLOR MONITORSHR31 200HR31 350 (Enhanced)

.31mm Dot Pitch.14" Diagonal Screen.Black Matrix Picture TubePlugs Into IBM Color/Graphics orCompatible Adapter Card.Resolution (640 x 200).Enhanced (640 x 350).Tilt/Swivel Base.

PC HARD DISKSUBSYSTEMSBT20 (Internal)BT20E (External)

20 Megabyte Capacity.

Boot From The Hard Disk—No

Software Patches or Drivers.

Runs All The Popular Software

Designed For The XT.

High Reliability and Durability—

Specially Plated Drives.

Includes ldir "Visual Shell" and

Xydex Software, Bezels.

34 BYTE- SEPTEMBER

I/Integrator Series

PC MULTIFUNCTION CARDBT6Plus

Add 64K To 384K.

Parallel Printer Port.

Serial Communications Port.

Clock/ Calendar.

BTPak Sofrware-BTDrive

(Electronic Disk Emulation) and

BTSpool (Print Spooling)

Optional Game Port

EXTERNAL MODEMBT212A/1200E

Auto-dial, Auto-Answer.300/1200 Baud Operation.Runs All Hayes Compatible Soft-ware Like Crosstalk, Relay,Smartcom II, and Sidekick.RS-232C Compatible.Snap Hatch For Switch Access.Eight Status Indicator Lamps.External Volume Control Knob.

SPOOLING TAPE BACKUPBT/SP10E

10 Megabyte Capacity Reels.Backs Up 20 Megs In 30 Min.File By File Recovery.Uses Standard l/4"Tape Reels.

AT ENHANCEMENT KIT-1BT44 (44 Megabyte)BT70 (70 Megabyte)

Combined With The

AT4X4Plus-512K.

No Other Chips Needed.

Runs All The Popular Software

Designed For The AT.

High Reliability and Durability.

Faster Access Time

Than AT—30 msec.

INTERNAL MODEMPC212A/1200

Auto-dial, Auto-Answer.300/1200 Baud Operation.Runs All Hayes Compatible Soft-ware Like Crosstalk, Relay,Smartcom II, and Sidekick.Two Phone Jacks.Includes PC-TALK III Software,Modular Phone Cord.

AT MULTIFUNCTION CARDAT4X4Plus

Add 128K To 4 Mb.

Double Split Memory Addressing.

1 To 4 Serial Ports.

Parallel Printer Port.

Optional Game Port.

CARTRIDGE TAPE BACKUPBT60Streamer

60 Megabyte Capacity.Backs Up 20 Megs In 12 Min.Image Backup Capability.File By File Recovery.Uses l/4"Data Cartridge.

Peripherals designed to enhance systems and sales. BasicTime products are the latest technology and highest qualityavailable today, at prices that will make you competitive. Weonly sell to VARs, VADs and integrators—end users, contactyour dealer for more information.

3350 Scott Blvd., Bldg. 52Santa Clara, California 95054

Inside California(800) 841-2474

Outside California(800) 323-8437

basic Lime

Inquiry 310

SEPTEMBER 1985 "BYTE 35

We Ve Earned The Right To Be #1

By Being First So Often

When it comes to being FIRST with technology-leadingproducts Advanced Digital wears its #1 button with pride.We were FIRST to introduce an 8-Bit, single board S-100computer... We were FIRSTio introduce a 6MHz, 128KBytesingle board computer... We were FIRST to introduce a6MHz, 128KByte Slave Processor board. Our record ofFIRSTS continues with ...

• The introduction of .AVE - a 3 USER, 8MHzSLAVE card for the S-100 Bus systems running Turbo-Dos" or NETWORK/OS.'"

• The introduction of • :, the all new hard diskcontroller for the S-100 BUS.

• The introduction of , a 16-Bit, S-100 Slavecard for use with Turbo-Dos or NETWORK O/S.

• The introduction of our new -the FIRST16-Bit, single board S-100 computerthat performs attwice the speed of older technologies. Loaded withfeatures such as on-board floppy disk controller andup to 1 MByte of RAM, the SUPER 186 is designed tofunction as a bus Slave or Master. Advanced Digital'sSUPER 186 permits you to take advantage of vastlibraries of sophisticated applications software.

Again, we were # 1 with...

• The introduction of . an IBM PC Multiusr

card with 8088 (8MHz) CPU and 256-768K RAion board.

;tsin

fasr-i»H::i i'

■ i i

■ i »

When it comes to selecting your S-100 boards, go witAdvanced Digital - the recognized industry leader.

See your local computer dealer or contact AdvanceDigital today for more information on the new PC-SLAVEand the complete line of S-100 single board computers anmultiuser systems.

* ADVANCED Leading

the MicrocomputerTechnology

Advanced Digital • 5432 Production Drive. Huntington Beach. CA 92649 • Tel. (714) 891-4004 • Telex 183210 ADVANCED HTBHAdvanced Digital U.K. Ltd. • 27 Princes St, Hanover Square • London WIR8NQ • United Kingdom • (01) 409-0077 • (011409-3351 • Telex 265840 FINEST

-T-!_■;&,■-,, ,44^].

£f-r

mmnuunnm

SEE

US AT

LAS VEGAS

COMDEX

'85

(/

_tNfitwork O/S is a,trademark of dBIS*CP/M is a t>ad«»Wkj3f Digital fTrfsea*TurboDOS is-a trademark of Software

ADVANC

DiGiTAL

WHAT'S NEW

LOOK

Application Environ-ment for Apple He

The SwyftCard from In-formation ApplianceInc. is a text-oriented data-handling product based inROM that comes as an add-in card for the Apple lie.The brainchild of Jef Raskin,former head of the AppleMacintosh development team,the card offers word-process-ing, information-retrieval,program-development, cal-culation, and telecommunica-tions capabilities in an inte-grated package.

The SwyftCard environ-ment is designed for speed.Because the program re-sides in firmware, there isno need to access a disk forprogram information. Alldata manipulation occurs inmemory, roughly 40K byteson a 64K-byte Apple Me. TheSwyftCard uses a disk for-mat that equates one diskto that 40K-byte figure; thiswastes some disk capacity,but the only times the pro-gram really has to use thedisk drive are at the begin-ning of a work session(retrieving data) and at theend (saving It).

The program is availabledirectly from the card's firm-ware when you turn on thecomputer. Since the Swyft-Card serves as its own oper-ating system, you need asingle disk only to storedata. Thus you can use thecard with a minimal hard-ware setup: an 80-column64K-byte Apple lie, a mono-chrome monitor, and onedisk drive. The SwyftCarddoes not interfere with other

The SwyftCard add-in for Apple We computers.

Apple software; if you placea program disk in the drive,one keystroke removes theSwyftCard system and loadsthe new program.

The environment is essen-tially a continuous scroll oftext divided only by pagebreaks. You enter data aswith any word processor,and the SwyftCard providesall standard word-processingfunctions. There are no filesas such; if you wish to printa section of the scroll, youmark the top and bottom ofthe region and send theblock to the printer. Format-ting for printing is auto-matic, although you canchange parameters whenyou want. Rapid movementthrough the text scroll isprovided by a search algo-rithm that takes advantageof a peculiarity of the Applelie keyboard—two keys withapple symbols on eitherside of the space bar. De-pressing one of those keysinitiates a search for thenext letter or combinationof letters entered; you canabort the search by typing a

short string of gibberish.The right key searches for-ward; the left one movesbackward.

The SwyftCard interfacessmoothly to the lie's Apple-soft BASIC interpreter. Youenter programs as raw text.You highlight the programtext as you would for anyword-processing block oper-ation, press one commandkey. and the program ex-ecutes. BASIC can also beused as a shortcut for sometext manipulations. For ex-ample, you can store boiler-plate phrases or paragraphsas string variables. Typingthe variable name, markingit, and executing it recallsthe stored text; retyping orcomplex copying operationsare replaced by a few key-strokes. You follow similarmark-and-execute proce-dures for calculating numer-ic expressions in text andfor setting printer and tele-

communications parameters.

You do the same to dialthe modem. Once you areconnected, the text of youron-line session is incor-porated into the scroll. Ifthe modem is set to auto-answer, the SwyftCard willact as a rudimentary bulletinboard—it will accept an in-coming text stream. If youare at the keyboard, thecard stores the messagewithout interrupting yourwork.

Priced at $89.95. theSwyftCard package containsthe card itself, self-adhesivelabels for the nine commandkeys, a manual, a schematicdiagram and theory of oper-ation, a tutorial disk, and autility to convert SwyftCardfiles to Apple ProDOSformat.

Contact Information Ap-pliance Inc.. 530 UniversityAve., Palo Alto. CA 94301,(415) 328-5160.

—Ezra ShapiroInquiry 600.

{continued)

■>— Inquiry 10 for End-Users. Inquiry II for DEALERS ONLY.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 37

WHAT'S NEW

Spreadsheet Bridges1-2-3, dBASE

VP-Planner from Paper-back Software is anintegrated spreadsheet/data-base manager for the IBMPC and compatible com-puters. Its basic commandset, macro capability, anddata structure are compati-ble with Lotus 1-2-3: VP-Planner can process filesprepared with 1-2-3 andmake use of spreadsheettemplates developed forthat program. VP-Plannercan also import or exportdata as dBASE II or dBASE111 files without any specialconversion.

VP-Planner stores logicaloperations and formulas asspreadsheet macros—datacan be saved by choosingthe most efficient format.The program uses sparsematrix technology to op-timize memory use (emptycells or data fields areessentially ignored; only ac-tive cells require full spacein memory).

VP-Planner can organizedata and logic from eitherdatabase or spreadsheetfiles (or a combination) intowhat is called a multidimen-sional database. Up to fivedimensions are supported.The spreadsheet acts as awindow into two dimensionsof the five. Thus. VP-Plannercan perform complex sortsbased on multiple criteriaand can construct fully rela-tional database joins.

The primary user interfaceis that of a spreadsheet.However, the grid can beused for entering, viewing,and editing database infor-mation (either multidimen-sional or dBASEI in a tableformat.

Written in FORTH, VP-Planner also features auto-matic recognition and use of8087 and 80287 math co-processors, a "learn" func-

tion that records keystrokesinto macros, backgroundprinting of worksheets, zero-width columns, and pass-word protection of data-bases.

Suggested retail price forVP-Planner will be S99.95.which does not include agraphics print program. Noprice has been announcedfor VP-Graphics. a compan-ion product that will answerthat need. According to thecompany, VP-Planner will beavailable in late September;release of VP-Graphics willfollow shortly thereafter.| Editor's note: This item wasbased on prerelease software andpreliminary documentation. Finalproduct specifications are subject tochange. |

Contact Paperback Soft-ware, 2612 Eighth St..Berkeley. CA 94710. (415)644-2116.Inquiry 601.

Corvus CheetahUses 68010

Corvus Systems' Cheetahworkstation uses a10-MHz Motorola 68010 pro-cessor and includes a 15-inch monitor with a resolu-tion of 800 by 620 pixelsand a 1 -to-1 aspect ratio.Designed for computer-aided design, engineering,and electronic publishing ap-plications, the Cheetah alsofeatures a 20-megabytehard-disk drive, one 640K-byte floppy-disk drive, Imegabyte of RAM. fourRS-232C ports, one RS-422port, and an Omninet local-area network port.

Standard software includesthe UNIX System V operat-ing system, a C compiler, awindow display manager.

Megadata's Model Seven UNIX system.

and Corvus Connection net-work software. Up to 4megabytes of RAM. addi-tional mass-storage devices,and an optional floating-point math coprocessor canbe added.

With the 20-megabytehard disk and 1 megabyteof RAM. the Cheetah ispriced at $9995. For addi-tional information, contactCorvus Systems Inc.. 2100Corvus Dr., San lose, CA95124, (408) 559-7000.Inquiry 602.

8300 Model SevenUNIX Processor

Megadata's 8300 ModelSeven uses the 6800016732-bit microprocessor.The basic system featuresUNIX System V. 1 megabyteof RAM. a 26-megabyteWinchester disk, a 1-mega-byte floppy-disk drive, andtwo RS-232C ports. Thisdesktop computer is trans-portable.

An expansion board pro-vides eight RS-2 32C portsand an additional 512Kbytes or 1 megabyte ofRAM for a maximum of 2megabytes of system mem-ory and eight users. Otheroptions include increaseddisk capacity and streaming-tape backup.

The Model Seven sells for$4399. The expansion board

adds from $650 to $990 tothe basic system price, de-pending on amount of mem-ory. Contact MegadataCorp.. 3 5 Orville Dr..Bohemia, NY 11716. (516)589-6800.Inquiry 603.

HP Disks

Hewlett-Packard has in-troduced 10- and 20-megabyte hard-disk subsys-tems and a 14-inch stream-ing-tape backup designedfor IBM microcomputers andclose compatibles as well asHP's own personal com-puters.

The HP 9154A 10-mega-byte hard-disk drive stands4'A inches high, runs 3'72-inch platters, and has anaverage access time of 75milliseconds. In addition, thedrive has been modified towithstand shock and vibra-tion, head and bearing as-semblies have been re-designed, and the platterhas been coated with alayer of sputtered carbonfor added surface protectionand lubrication. The HP9134H 20-megabyte hard-disk drive stands 514 incheshigh, runs 5'/4-inch platters,and has an average accesstime of 85 milliseconds.

(continued)

38 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198^

INFOWORLDS SOFTWARE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

Borland's SideKick Will Clear

Your Desk In 30 Minutes And

Increase Your Productivity By 50%

SideKick is a combination of seven desktop accessories, which makes SideKick the

single most effective business tool. Just a keystroke suspends your application

program, giving you a window into Hm^ SideKick. Another keystroke brings

you back to where you were. £ ^ Instantly. It's that easy.

A FULL-SCREEN WORDSTARLIKE EDITOR

You may jot down notes andedit files up to 25 pages long

AN ASCII TABLE

for easy referenced

AN AUTODIALER

for all your phone calls.It will look up and dialtelephone numbers for you(A modem is required to usethis function.)

A PHONE DIRECTORY

for your names,addresses andtelephone numbers.Finding a name or anumber becomesa snap.

A MONTHLY CALENDAR

functional from year1901 through year 2099.

A DATEB00K

to remind you of

important meetings

and appointments.

mum 'xifflTJ l-J3

A FULL-FEATUREDCALCULATOR

ideal for business use.

It also performs decimal

to hexadecimal to

binary conversions.

COPY-PROTECTED

$54.95

NOT COPY-PROTECTED

$84.95

THE CRITICS1 CHOICE

"SIDEKICK deserves a place in every PC."SuryRiy.PCWEEK

"If you use a PC, get SIDEKICK You'll soonbecome dependent on it." J$rry Pnriulli, BYTE

"SIDEKICK is by far the best we've seen. It is alsothe least expensive." Km MinttllH. ENTREPRENEUR

"In a simple, beautiful implementation ofWordStar's™ block copy commands, SIDEKICKcan transport all or any part of the displayscreen (even an area overlaid by the notepaddisplay) to the notepad "

ctmm hum. n mmzm

B

DORIPHD

INTERNATIONAL

@ii»2:

Please send me s>u

fCA«>s. add*" $M95

Quantity-

Nc,Capy-P'°tecied*W;opy)

fCA.es add *5-""aa"(P$84.95

Quantity

60 OWf

Software for your

35536-

r-sePi-s^-Td^''

4585 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valiey CA 95066Phone (408) 438-8400 Telex 172373

Copyright 1985 Borland International BM008ASideKick is a trademark of Borland international. Inc.IBM and PC-DOS are registered trademarks of InternationalBusiness Machines Corp.

Infoworld b a trademark of Popular Computing, inc. a Subsidiary"^C^ Inc.

r is a registered uadernark of Micropro International Corp.

inquiry 37 for End-Users. Inquiry 38 for DEALERS ONLY

WHAT'S NEW

The HP 9142A '/4-inchstreaming-tape backup usesstandard 1 5- and 60-mega-byte cartridges, storing 2megabytes of data perminute. The 15-megabytecartridge has an average ac-cess time of I 5 seconds; the60-megabyte cartridge aver-ages 4 5 seconds.

The PC/T format (PersonalComputer/Tape, a registeredtrademark of Tallgrass Tech-nologies Corporation) thatHP has chosen is compati-ble with PC-DOS 2.0, 2.1,and 3.0, and MS-DOS 2.11.This lets you address fileson tape with DOS com-mands. It also means thatthe backup unit can emulatea hard disk. In fact, you canboot DOS from the tape.Other PC/T features includeselective backup and re-store, off-line tape format-ting, a media monitor thatcounts the number of timesthe tape is used, and theability to partition a car-tridge into one, two, or fourvolumes, each accessible byits own directory.

The drives can be hookedup to IBM personal com-puters and close compati-bles via the HP 88500A in-terface kit. The kit includesa short-slot card, cables, anddisk-utility software that cansupport up to seven harddisks and one tape backup.

The HP 9154A 10-mega-byte drive is priced at$1690, the 9134H 20-mega-byte drive is $2390, and the9142A cartridge-tape backupis $1690. The 88500A inter-face kit is $199. Contact In-quiries Manager, Hewlett-Packard Co.. 1820 Embar-cadero Rd., Palo Alto. CA94 303 or your local Hewlett-Packard dealer

Inquiry 604.

The LP3700 large-format plotter.

Large-Format Plotterfor Micros

IOLine Corporation'sLP3700 Plotter, a large-format $4995 plotter, hastwin RS-232C ports that letyou use it in most micro-computer-based CAD/CAEenvironments. It can drawon any size media, con-tinuously adjustable to full-size "E" (i.e., 36- by 48-inch)drawings.

Axial plotting is performedat 10 inches per second;diagonal plotting speed is14 inches per second (max-imum). Addressable resolu-tion is 0.001 inch. 0.002 5inch. 0.1 mm. and 0.005inch; mechanical resolutionis 0.002 5 inch. Repeatabilityis 0.002 5 inch, or, with apen change, 0.010 inch. TheLP3700's buffer can accom-modate 14,000 bytes (i.e.,approximately 1500 vectors).

Operator controls includeeight pen-move directions.

selectable pen-move rates,chart-hold actuation, penspeed, chart size, and plotlimits. Among the keyboardindicators are diagnostic testcodes, plot out of limits,command error, and view-ing/pause.

The LP3700's ASCII char-acter set is resident withinthe plotter. Its parametersare 8 bits, no parity, and 2stop bits at 300 to 9600bps. Since the LP3700emulates Houston Instru-ment's DMPL, it can beused with a wide wariety ofavailable software. It canuse both cut-sheet and roll-stock paper, vellum, mattepolyester, mylar, or acetate 'film. The LP3700 can usesuch pens as Hewlett-Packard-compatible liquidinks, disposable fiber-tippens, or roller balls. You canobtain custom pen adapters.

Oak and metal plotterstands are available. ContactIOLine Corp., Suite Dl,19417 36th Ave. W. Lynn-wood, WA 98036, (206)775-7861.Inquiry 605.

LISP Interpreter andCompiler

Levien Instrument Com-pany has introduced aLISP interpreter, BYSO LISP1.17, and a LISP compiler.BYSO LISP 2.17. The inter-preter uses lexical binding,and the compiler supportsboth lexical and dynamicbinding. All the features ofversion 1.17 are supportedby 2,17.

BYSO LISP 1.17 features afull-screen editor, a structureeditor that displays pro-grams in graphics format,and six prettyprinting styles.Among its file- and library-management capabilities areopen, close, define and savea library, read and writerandom-access files, readand write sequential charac-ters, atoms, lists, and strings.

Data types include inte-gers, multidimensional ar-rays, structures, and oblist.Such list-manipulation con-ventions as car. append,map functions, intersect, andremove are standard. Someof the control structures arecond, if, or, prog, return,let*, and apply.

BYSO LISP is compatiblewith LISP 1.5, MacLISP, andCommon LISP. It's designedfor the IBM PC and truework-alikes equipped with2 56K bytes of memory.

BYSO LISP 1.17 is $150.Version 2.17 is $395. Anupgrade for 1.17 is offered.Shipping and handling is $5within the U.S. and $15 over-seas. Contact Levien Instru-ment Co., Sittlington Hill,Box 31, McDowell, VA24458.Inquiry 606.

(continued)

40 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

ATTENTION SIDEKICK USERS: SUPERKEY ISSIDEKICK'S BEST COMPANION. GET SUPERKEY TODAY!

Borland's SuperKey

lets one powerful keystroke do

the work of hundreds and helps

keep your confidential files...

confidential!

SUPERKEY TURNS 7,000 INTO //Yes, SuperKey canrecord lengthy keystroke sequences and play themback at the touch of a single key. Instantly. LikeMagic. Say, for example, you want to add a columnof figures in 1-2-3. Without SuperKey you'd haveto type seven keystrokes just to get started.["shift-@-s-u-m-shift-("]. With SuperKey youcan turn those 7 keystrokes into 1.

SUPERKEY HELPS PROTECT YOURCAPITAL INVESTMENT, SuperKey, atyour convenience, will makeyour screen go blank after apredetermined time ofscreen/keyboard inactivity.You've paid hard-earnedmoney for your PC. SuperKeywill protect your monitor'sprecious phosphor. .. andyour investment. This featurealone justifies your SuperKeypurchase!

SUPERKEY KEEPS YOUR CONFIDENTIAL' FILES...CONFIDENTIAL!Time after time you've experi-enced it: anyone can walk up to your PC, and readyour confidential files (tax returns, businessplans, customer lists, personal letters .. .). WithSuperKey you can encrypt any file, even whilerunning another program. As long as you keepthe password secret, only YOU can decodeyour file. SuperKey implements theU.S. government Data EncryptionStandard (DES).

SUPERKEY PROTECTS YOURWORK FROM INTRUDERSWHILE YOU TAKE A BREAK.

Now you can lock yourkeyboard at any time. Preventanyone from changing hoursof work. Type in your secretpassword and everything comesback to life . . . just as you left it.

THE CRITICS'CHOICE

"It's unquestionably the best new program I'veseen since Borland's SideKick."Stephtn Maim, PC Magaiine

"The encryption features were extremely easyto use because of some elegant incorporation ofpull-down menus and clear prompts...SuperKey is a large amount of functionalityin a small amount of code at a low price."Victor MmttitU, PC TeehJournil

m BORlflflD

H> INTERNATIONAL

4585 Scotts Vailey Drive, Scotts Valley CA 95066Phone (408) 438-8400 letex 172373CompuServe - GO BOS

Copyright 1965 Borland International BI-1009B

SuperKey and SideKick are trademarks of BorlandInternational, Inc.

1 -2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corp.IBM is a regime red trademark of International BusinessMachines Corp.

Inquiry 39 for End-Users. Inquiry 40 for DEALERS ONLY

WHAT'S NEW

Modem Adapts toPhone Quality

Digital CommunicationsAssociates (DCA) andTelebit recently announcedIrma's Fastlink. an intelligenthigh-speed, packetizedmodem that transmits andreceives data over ordinarydial-up phone lines at up to10.000 bps. Telebit of Cuper-tino, CA, developed thepatented technology forhigh-speed, error-free datacommunications using theconcepts of packet switch-ing, dynamic multicarriermodulation, and digitalsignal processing. DCA. anAlpharetta, GA, companythat produces the Irma lineof micro-to-mainframe com-munications devices, ismarketing and distributingthe modem; Telebit ismanufacturing it.

The modem is available intwo versions. As a plug-inboard for the IBM PC. XT.AT. and compatibles, it costs$1995 and comes withCrosstalk-Fast from Micro-stuf. A stand-alone model ispriced at $2395: Crosstalk-Fast is optional.

Both versions provideasynchronous, dial-up con-nection: automatic errordetection and correction:automatic speed selection attime of connection; 300-bpsand 1200-bps full-duplexmodes for Bell 103 and212A compatibility; real-timeline analysis and adaptation;Adaptive Duplex for max-imized throughput; self-test;call progress monitoring andreporting; auto-dial andauto-answer; and a supersetof the Hayes command lan-guage.

When a Fastlink modemcalls a standard 300- or1200-bps modem, it adjuststo that speed and behavesas a like device. However.Telebit's Packetized En-semble Protocol (PEP) allowstwo Fastlink modems (orother PEP devices) to com-

^^

The Fastlink plug-in board for the IBM PC and compatibles.

The stand-alone version of the Fastlink modem.

municate at speeds of10,000 bps. When oneFastlink calls another, itanalyzes phone-line qualityto determine the maximumtransmission speed,

Fastlink works with a max-imum of 512 carriers (every8 Hz from 8 to 4000 Hz).The phone-line analysis tellswhich of those carriers isuseful at any given time.Three modulation schemesare used to encode data.The lowest density is forlow-quality carriers, and thehighest density is for car-riers with a high signal-to-noise ratio.

All of the hundreds oftones are then generated atthe same time, converted

through an inverse fastFourier transform into acomplex waveform, and sentas a packet to the otherFastlink. The packet is ac-companied by a 16-bitcyclical redundancy check. Ifany error is detected, thepacket is resent.

After each packet, theFastlink again analyzes thesignai-to-noise ratios on thecarriers and reassesses themaximum transmissionspeed. The previous speedis set back or increased bybetween 50 and 100 bps.

Fastlink depends on70,000 lines of code, a10-MHz 68000, and a TexasInstruments TMS32010digital signal processor forits processing speed and ex-ecution of PEP.

Crosstalk-Fast is a specialversion of Crosstalk-XVI.Besides high-speed file-transfer capability, it in-cludes terminal-emulationfeatures and access toFastlink's phone-line analysischaracteristics. Telebit hasno plans to license PEP.

Contact DCA Inc., 1000Alderman Dr., Alpharetta,GA 30201, (404) 442-4000.Inquiry 607.

Interactive SatelliteDish

Equatorial Communica-tions Company is offer-ing the C-200, a small satel-lite dish designed specifi-cally for personal computersand terminals. The C-200dish, which measures 4 feetin diameter, can send andreceive information at up to19,200 bps; the dish con-nects to a personal com-puter through a standardRS-232C cable.

The C-200 transmits infor-mation over the weather-tolerant microwave band Cto Equatorial Communica-tions' transponders on theWestar IV and Galaxy III sat-ellites. The information isthen sent back to one ofEquatorial's 36-foot dishreceivers, processed on amainframe computer, andretransmitted via satellite toanother C-200.

The approximate cost fora C-200 setup is $6000, orabout $22 5 per month, in-cluding charges for Equato-rial's network services. TheC-200 is designed primarilyfor large companies that useleased telephone lines. Theminimum order is approxi-mately 100 units. ContactEquatorial CommunicationsCo.. 300 Ferguson Dr..Mountain View, CA 9404 3.(415) 969-9500.Inquiry 608.

[continued on page 4311

42 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

PC WEEK'S PRODUCT OF THE YEARPC MAGAZINE'S AWARD FOR TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE

Borland Introducesthe Laws of TURBO DYNAMICS

Laws That Work Like Magic. Whether considering

technological excellence, or innovation in

areas such as pricing,

not copy-protection,

licensing agreements,

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2NTD LAW*

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We will always offer notcopy-protected versions of oursoftware. Also, our licensingagreement is now so simplethat even a child can under-stand it

J ST LAW*

SPEED, POWERAND PRICE.

Borland products are knownto be fast, powerful and todeliver an incredible price per-formance ratio. We only believein absolutely superb softwareat rock bottom prices.

I

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TURBO PASCAL" $69.95 TURBO GRAPHIX TOOLBOX" $54.95

The industry standard. With more than35O,0OOusers worldwide Turbo Pascal is the indus-try's de facto standard. Turbo Pascal ispraised by more engineers, hobbyists,students and professional programmersthan any other development environmentin the history of microcomputing. And yet.Turbo Pascal is simple and fun to use. Freespreadsheet included on every Turbo disk with ready-to-compile source code. Options: We offer the exciting BinaryCoded Decimal (BCD) option for your business applications aswell as an 8087 option for your number-crunching applica-tions at a very low charge. Please refer to the coupon.Portability. Turbo Pascal is available today for most computersrunning PC-DOS, MS-DOS, CP/M-80 or CP/M-86. JettOuntemann, PC Magazine: "In its simplicity it achieves anelegance that no other language compiler has ever displayed.''

TURBO DATABASE TOOLBOX" $54.95

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The Tuibo Graphix Toolbox will give evena beginning programmer the expert'sedge. It's a complete library of Pascalprocedures and functions. Tools that willallow you to draw and hatch pie charts,bar charts, circles, rectangles and a fullrange of geometric shapes. Procedures that will save andrestore graphic images to and from disk. And much, much,more. You may incorporate part or all of these tools in yourprograms and yet we won't charge you any royalties. Best ofall, these functions and procedures come complete withcommented source code on disk ready to compile.

Turbo Dynamics Applies to Turbo Pascal.

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TURBO TUTOR" $34.95

From sttrt to finish in 300 pages. TurboTutor is for everyone from novice to expertEven if you've never programmed beforeTurbo Tutor will get you started right away.A mutt You'll find the source code for allthe examples in the book on the accompany-ing disk ready to compile. Turbo Tutormight be the only reference on Pascal andprogramming you'll ever need.

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Copyright 1985 Borland International BI-1011

Turtw Pascal, lbrbo Database Toolbox, Turbo Graphix Toolbox. lurtx> Tutor andturbo Dynamics are trademarks of Borland International, inc.

Inquiry 41 for End-Users. Inquiry 42 for DEALERS OND

Telep"°ne

gSS£S5»«

NOT oe accel

„ add 6* sales !■

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F15 ■

ASK BYTE

Conducted by Steve Garcia

In a ConstellationFar Away. ..

Dear Steve,

The reason I am writing to you isbecause for the last three years a friendof mine and 1 have been designing theplans for the most elaborate starship everbuilt. To give you an example of the im-menseness of this ship, here are a few ofits dimensions:

length: 2 miles

height: 1 mile

width: 'A mile

gross deadweight in metric tonnage:

1.5O0.OO0-2.OOO.0O0number of main engines: six ion drivesbackup: four cyclotron drivesimpulse: 12 matter/antimatter drivesauxiliary power: 1500 fuel cellsnumber of decks: 373, from 0 (deck obser-vation) to 372 (laser weaponry)

Our problem is that we are going tobuild our own computer and electrical

layout of the ship. I have enclosed a blockdiagram of the computer as we need it(see figure 1). If you could give us any help,advice, or steer us to either books or peo-ple who could assist us, it would be greatlyappreciated.

Sean F. McCartneyNewton, KS

Your starship plans are very impressive.I congratulate you and your friend onyour ambitions. Ad astra per aspera.I Editor's note: For those of you whoseknowledge of Latin is as nonexistent asmine, that translates as "to the stars byhard ways," and it is the motto of Kansas!

On a less grand scale than yours, somepeople have already projected some ofthe computing needs of an old-style star-ship like the USS Enterprise. Check outthe December 1977 BYTE for an articlecalled "The Computer of Star Trek" byKurt J. Schmucker and Robert M. Tan(page 12).

Any contracts that I may or may nothave with certain unnamed agencies forwhich I consult may expressly forbid meto pass along any specific informationregarding starship computer systems onwhich I may or may not be working. How-ever. I would not be forbidden to pointout some general considerations thatmay be of interest to you.

While a centralized computer systemhas advantages in coordinating informa-tion from all over the ship, some seriousproblems must be overcome. Due to theship's size, information from a sensor (oranother computer) may have to travel upto two miles to reach the main computer.Even if transmission efficiency were 100percent—operating at the speed oflight—a signal would take from 5 to 10microseconds to make the journey in onedirection.

Commercial microprocessors nowoperate at a 10-MHz clock speed, soperhaps we could surmise that seventh-

{conlinued)

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Figure I: A block diagram of Sean F McCartney's computer for his proposed starship.

44 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

COPYRIGHT © 1985 STEVEN A. CIARC1A. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Clipper gives dBASE IIFusers mare time to do more. Or less.

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ASK BYTE

and eighth-generation computers Iwe arejust designing fifth-generation computersnow) would have a clock speed of 100MHz or greater with parallel processors.This would mean that the central com-puter was capable of operating so fastthat the 5-10-fis delay would be a verylong time indeed. Even if it could actupon the information in a picosecond ortwo, it would still face the same 5-lO-pspropagation delay in responding. It is asif you put your hand on a hot stove, andit took 5 minutes for the pain signal toget to your brain. Your brain could decideto move your hand in less than a second,but it would take another 5 minutes forthe signal to reach your hand and pull itaway. By that time, you would have beenin trouble for 10 minutes!

It would thus appear that a centralcomputer system would demand that allhigh-priority operation systems be withinreasonable proximity—no more than IOOfeet. Another alternative would be tohave local computers in control of theirown systems but also be in a local-areanetwork (star topology preferred) inorder to receive less time-crucial in-formation from other, farther-away,computers.

One other possibility comes to mind.About 30 years ago, Isaac Asimov wrotea paper titled "The Endochronic Proper-ties of Resublimated Thiotimoline,'' inwhich he described a chemical com-pound that dissolved a fraction of a sec-ond before it was added to water. Thiswas due to one of the chemical bondsbeing in the fourth dimension, givingtemporal instability to the compound. Ifthiotimoline can be made to act as asemiconductor, the propagation-delayproblem would be solved. It would thenbe possible for the central computer tobe synchronized to its peripheral units nomatter how close or far away they were.By cascading several thiotimoline-basedcircuits in series, you could effectivelyreduce the propagation delay to zero andhave the central computer act upon thevirtual information sent from the periph-eral device immediately. When the actualsignal was received 5-IO fis later, it couldbe relegated to the bit bucket becausethe central computer would already haveresponded! Naturally, the same circuitrywould be used in the opposite directionas well.

Of course, all this hinges upon makingsemiconductor devices from thiotimoline.As I recall, Dr. Asimov had some reser-vations about the use of this compound,and he is the only chemist I know of who

has synthesized it. Perhaps you couldcontact him and find out what the statusof thiotimoline is. If you find out. let meknow.Good luck with your project— Steve

PS. 1 checked again to see that you werewriting to me and not Pournelle.

S-lOO EMULATOR BOARDS

Dear Steve,

It seems that many types of add-onboards for Apple and IBM computers areavailable. 1 was wondering if any of theseboards allow S-lOO bus computers to runApple and IBM software?

1 would like such boards for my Com-puPro 8/16. since I would like to try manyprograms for the Apple and IBM.

Lee SiddowayKure. Japan

I agree with you that S-lOO Apple andIBM cards are a good idea. Unfortunate-ly, up to now no one has offered them.There have been S-lOO boards that usethe 6502 processor (as does the Apple)but without the necessary video or disk-controller circuitry to emulate the Apple.No one currently manufactures an S-lOOApple board as far as I know.

Fortunately for you, Viasyn will soon bereleasing an S-lOO board to allow yourCompuPro 8/16 to look more like an IBM,run PC-DOS, and read PC-DOS disks.Check with your local dealer or writeViasyn directly. Again, no other manufac-turer I know has plans for an IBM S-lOOcard— Steve

RADIO SHACK PC-3

Dear Steve.

I recently purchased a Radio Shack PC-3pocket computer. Because I want to pro-gram it in machine language, I would liketo know what microprocessor it has andwhere 1 can find information about it.

The PC-3's BASIC has the PEEK andPOKE commands, but it is missing theUSR function necessary to run a machine-language program. How could 1 getaround this problem?

Also, the computer has a dot-matrixprinter. Is it possible to write a machine-language program to produce graphics onthe printer?

Ralf-Eric Pieper

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Sharp Corporation has chosen to keepthe technical specifications of its PC-1250pocket computer (the same as the Radio

[continued]

•Mki

46 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Lots ofdollars.

Lots ofsense.

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They've been doing it for years. Sellingyou accounting software module bymodule, till before you know it you'vepaid up to five thousand dollars for acomplete system. That's a lot of dollars...which doesn't make good business sense.

Now, there's a better alternative. Dae EasyAccounting. For only $69.95, Dae Easyis a fully integrated accounting packageoffering instant access to General Ledger,Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable,Inventory, Purchase Order, Billing andForecasting. And Dae Easy has theflexibility to manage either product orservice oriented businesses.

It's not just the price that makesDae Easy better. Only Dae Easy savesthree years of history in all files, makingautomatic forecasting easier and moreaccurate. Plus, you can generate any of300 different reports for instant access tothe exact information you need.

Dae Easy is menu-driven for ease-of-use,and comes with easy-to-understanddocumentation inside a handsome slip-case binder. It's also non-copy-protected.

Listen to what experts are saying:

"Dac Easy Accounting is remarkable,amazing, revolutionary, sensational,.. "Computer Buyer's Guide& Handbook, September 1985

Find out for yourself why Dae Easy isthe fastest selling accounting packagein history. Compare Dae Easy's rangeof features against systems costingthousands more. You'll see how Dae Easycan save you lots of dollars. Which makesa lot of sense.

Inquiry 401

PARTIAL LIST OF FEATURESGeneral Information

• Menu driven

• Password protection

• File capacity limited only by disk space

■ Support contract availableGeneraJ Ledger

• Unlimited multi-level accounts

• Three-year account history for CRT inquiry

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• Unique budgeting routine

■ CRT transaction inquiry

• Activity report, trial balance, financial statements,unlimited departments and journals

Accounts Receivable

• Open invoice or balance forward

• Customized aging report

• Unlimited number of customers

• Flexible mailing labels and directories

• Supports partial payments & finance charges

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• Cash flow analysis sales analysis

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• Check printing with multiple invoices and cash availableroutines

• Aging reports with seven customized columns

• Unlimited number of vendors

• Flexible mailing labels and directories

• Three year vendor history

• Unlimited allocations per invoiceInventory

• Supports average, last purchase, and standard costingmethods

• Powerful physical inventory routines

• Accepts any unit of measure

• Three-year product history in units, dollars, cost, andprofits

• Automatic forecast of product sales

• Automatic pricing assignments

• Alert and activity reports with 11 sorts

• CRT shows on-hanuVonKirder committed/sales/costprofittums/GROl

Purchase Order

• Inventory and non-inventory items

• Allows up to 9*) lines per P.O.

• Per line discount in %

• P.O. accepts generic discounts- freight'taxes'insurance

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• Purchase journalBilling

• Service or Inventory invoicing on plain or preprinted formswith remarks

• Prints sales journal

• Allows return credit memoForecasting

Unique program that automatically forecasts using yourthree-year history:

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EifvE/Accounting

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i!&El Accounting

19

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 47

Inquiry 164

Brainy Buffer.

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

it frees vour computer in

Your waiting is over with the Universal Data Buffer •seconds while it handles the printing of your file.

And the Universal DataBuffer from HanZon issmarter than the averagebuffer. For one thing it hastwo inputs—one serial andone parallel, and two out-puts—one serial and oneparallel. Since all the ports ^" ^™

are active, it means the Universal Data Buffer can interface between serial andparallel devices — even at different speeds and protocols. All that is a bonus to

its standard function - as a 64K bufferexpandable to 256K. The buffer alsohas operator controls for

selecting additional copies,and pausing.

Call HanZon today foryour nearest dealer:(206) 487-1717.

Suggested Retail Price: $385 - 64K Buffer

ASK BYTE

Shack PC-3) unpublished, and to datethere has been no mention of the infor-mation that you requested. These ma-chines were designed to use the BASIClanguage and may not allow access tomachine-language programming.

You may be able to obtain some addi-tional information from Sharp. 10 SharpPlaza. Paramus. NJ 07652. Attn: ProductInformation.—Steve

MEMORY EXPANSION

Dear Steve.

I have two questions that may also beof interest to many of your readers. First,do you know of any memory-expansiondevice of at least 16K bytes that will pluginto my TRS-80 PC-2? Second, what wouldbe the best way for me to increase thememory of my TI-99/4A from 16K to 64 Kbytes now that no Tl factory expansiondevices are available?

Ed Rockwood

Portland HP

One Board...One Family

At the heart of every Stride 400Series microcomputer, from thefloppy-based 420 to the 448M byte460. is an identical CPU board.This guarantees compatibilitythroughout the entire product familyAnd it means, our CPU board wasdesigned with standard features thatare either options or simply unavail-able on other microcomputers:

□ 68000 microprocessor (10 MHzwith no wait states)

□ VMEbusD256K bytes RAM

□ 5'A" 640Kbyte floppy

□ Battery-backed real time clockD4K CMOS RAM

□ Four RS-232C serial ports (Stridemultiuser BIOS!

□ Centronics bi-directional parallelport

□ Omninet Local Area Network(Liaison LAN softwarel

With this basic design. Stride isable to explore the full range of68000 applications from an advancedmultiuser, multi tasking BIOS tobuilt-in local area networking. Noother microcomputer offers theflexibility to run over a dozen dif-ferent operating systems and morethan 30 languages/compilers.

The basic design is backed by arich option list:

□ 12 MHz 68000 processor

□ VMEbus (Eurocard) cage

□ Low cost, high speed graphics

□ NOD™ cursor control

□ 12M bytes of RAM

□ 448M bytes of hard disk storage

□ 22 serial ports

□ Floating point processor(NS16081)

□ Cartridge streaming tape backup

□ Memory Management Unit

ASK BYTE

EPROMs for software.

Could you please point me in the direc-tion of some reference materials that 1could study, especially some informationon the 8237?

Jay ShreeCambridge, MA

The hardest part of any hardwaredesign is developing the logic necessaryto execute each function. The next stepis to select the chips that will accomplisheach function. It's then just a matter ofconnecting these chips together withsome TTL "glue.''

It appears that you have already gonethrough these steps, as you have alreadyselected your ICs for the project. Sinceall the chips are from Intel, its datacatalog will be of great help. The Inteldata catalog gives complete chip speci-fications and pin-outs and shows samplecircuits. Contact Intel Corporation.Literature Department SV3-3. 3065Bowers Ave.. Santa Clara. CA 95051.

The Intel catalog also contains a gooddescription of the operation of the 8237DMA controller, which will show you howit is used in a circuit with the 8085.

You can obtain information about yourAID converter from its manufacturer. Forexample. Micro Networks makes AIDconverters and has a catalog of data-conversion products that contains an ex-cellent section called "Tutorial: Under-standing Data Converters." This shouldgive you most of the information youneed to use AID converters. You can ob-tain this catalog from Micro Networks.

When designing and building

the Stride 400 microcomputers,

why did you select the MC68000 Motorola

processor over the newer Intel iAPX 286?

[This isoneofa series of design philosophydiscussions with Rod Coleman. President ofStride Micro {formerly Sage Computer) |

RC: With the introduction of theIBM AT, many people have beenspending a lot of time comparingthe 286 with the 68000. We also

"... the 68000 is at leastone generation ahead ofthe 286 in terms ofmicroprocessor design!'

surveyed the marketplace closelywhen we decided to build asecond generation of our suc-cessful Sage computer, butcame to a quick conclusion: the68000 is at least one generationahead of the 286 in terms of micro-processor design. Admittedly,the Intel microprocessor was anewer chip, and it had animpressive pedigree from thepopularity of the 8088. But. inmy view, the 286 was so steepedin its own history that the archi-tecture suffered critically. Inreality, today's 286 is little morethan an 8086 with a memorymanagement unit tacked on.

Q: Whafs wrong with that?

RC: Well, it certainly maintainscompatibility with the Intel chipfamily, but it's not the way todesign a state-of-the-art micro-processor. I like to use theexample of a remodeled house.As your needs grow, you canbuild a new front porch, attacha garage, remodel the kitchen,and add a few bedrooms. But theend result never ends up asefficient as a larger house builtfrom scratch. The halls areoften too narrow and full ofannoying twists and turns. Thefolks at Motorola apparentlyfelt the same way. because theystarted with a clean sheet ofpaper when they designed their32-bit architecture with no con-cessions to an 8-bit past.

Q: Can you give us an example?

RC: lust look at the registersand addressing modes. They aremuch larger and far more flex-ible in the 68000 than in the 286.The 8086 design was based onthe 8080, which was an extensionof the world's first 8-bit pro-cessor, the 8008. Strange as itmay seem, the brand-new 286has, as a subset, the registersfrom a processor designed backin 1972. Intel's motive was com-patibility with current software:Motorola simply wanted tobuild the best possible chip. Bycreating a totally new designwith the 68000. they were alsoable to apply several new con-cepts undeveloped in 72. The68000 was designed from theground up to execute high-levellanguages, as opposed to the8008s roots as a simple industrialcontroller. Motorola provides16 general purpose 32-bit regis-ters to give greater flexibilityand a clean orthogonal design.Thus, it efficiently and directly

addresses 16 megabytes with nopreferred boundaries. The 286,by contrast, has only special pur-pose registers which can addressjust 64 kilobytes. It must use asegment register to exceed thoseboundaries, just as the earlier8088 did.

Sooner or later, evenIBM will be forced tobuild a PC using a pro-cessor with a largeregular addressingarchitecture!'

Q: Are there other criticaldifferences?

RC: Yes.There's also the questionof access. For a given generationof silicon design and feature size,any two contemporary pro-cessors should be able to doabout the same number ofinstructions per second. Unfor-tunately, the 286 has a bottleneckwhere it forces single pins intodouble duty. It shares the use ofits address and data bus whichmeans that, for a given bus

bandwidth, its transfer rate willalways by less than a non-multiplexed processor. The 68000escapes the problem by dedi-cating a single pin for eachfunction.

Q: What does it really meanto those on the software applica-tion level?

RC: As micros move into thelate 80s, software will have tolead the way by becoming morefunctional and less complicatedto use. Ironically, software that'seasier to use actually has to belarger and more complex inter-■nally It simply cannot be writtenwhen stifled by artificial hard-ware constraints like 64K byteboundaries. It's like buildinga new car with a one quart gastank. Sooner or later, even IBMwill be forced to build a PC usinga processor with a large regularaddressing architecture. But don'thold your breath; we got tiredofwaitingbackin 1981. Apparentlyso did several thousand others:they have beenbuying ourmachines for fouryears.

C R O

Formerly Sage Computer

For more information on Stride or

the location of the nearest Stride

Dealer call or write us today. We'JI

also send you a free copy of our

32 page product catalog.

Corporate Offices:

4905 Energy Way

Reno, NV 89502

(702)322-6868

Regional Offices:

Boston: (617) 229-6868

Dallas: (214) 392-7070

Inquiry 353

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 51

52 B YTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

ELECTRONICS I

Commodore" Accessories

RS232 Adapterfor VIC-20 andCommodore 64

tyk

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.■ Plugs 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 COMMODORE VIC-20 AND C-64

Plug-In — Talking in Minutes!JE520CM $99.95

TRS-80 Accessories

JtisGmk. MPI 5V«" DISK DRIVE

^CTjfmJ^Lmmmmmmmf ' ^se as a seconfl c!isk drive ■ Single-

aikatiaaw sided ' Sin9le/double density ■ Full-

^^m height drive - 46 TPI ■ Documentation

^*^^^L¥ included ■ Weight: 3.7 lbs

MPI51S $89.95

EXPAND TRS-80 MEMORY

TRS-80 MODEL I, III

Each Kil comes complete with eight MM5290 IUP0416/4116(16K DynamicRAMs and documentation lor conversion Model t 16K equipped with Ex-pansion interlace can be expanded to 48K with 2 Kits Model III Can beexpanded trom 16K to 48K using 2 Kits Each Kit will expand computer by

TRS-16K3 200ns (Model III) $6.29

TRS-16K4 250ns (Model 1) $5.49

TRS-80 COLOR AND COLOR II

Easy to install Kit comes complete with 8 eacn 4164N-20 (200ns) 64KDynamic flAMs and documentation lor conversion Converts THS-80 ColorComputers with D E, ET, F and NC circuit boards to 32K Also convertsTftS-80 Color Compute' II to 64K Flex DOS or OS" required 10 utilizetoil 64K RAM on all computers

TRS-64K-2 $11.95

Update! TRS-80 MODEL IV, 4P Update!

Easy to install Kits come complete with TRS-64K-2 <8 ea 4164N-20(200nsl64 K Dynamic RAMs I TRS-64K-2PAL (8 ea 4164 solus RAL chip) and docu-

TRS-64K-2 Expands Model IV from 16K-64K or Model iv

& 4P from 64K-128K (w/Mam Dm.. ...$11.95

TRS-64K-2PAL Expand* Modef iv iw/Btacx i White

Monitor* only) from 64K to 128K S29.95

• TRS-80 Model 100 • NEC • Olivetti

Easy to install module plugs right mlo the socKet increasing memory in 8Kincrements Complete wilh module and documentation lor installationM1 008K (TRS-80 Model 100 Expansion) $39.95 ea.

or 3 for $99.95

NEC8KR (nec PC-820U s oiiven. mio) $39.95 ea.

or 3 for $99.95

NEW! NEW! TANDY 200 NEW! NEW!

NEW! Easy to install module plugs ngm into the socket increasing memoryin 24K increments Complete with module 4 documentation lor installation

M200R (Tandy 200 Expansion) $149.95 ea.

or 2 for $274 95

PROMETHEUS MODEMS

Intelligent 300/1200

Baud Modem with Real

Time Clock/Calendar

The ProModem" is a Bell 212A (300/1200) intelligentstand-alone modem • Hayes command set compatibleplus an additional extended command set ■ Shown withalphanumeric display option.

PM1200 RS-232 Stand-Alone Unit $299.95

OPTIONS FOR ProModem 1200

PM-COM iProCom Communication Software). $79.95

Please specify Operating System

PM-OP lOotions Processor) $79.95

PMO-64K (Options Processor Memory - 64KI $ 8.49

PM-ALP (Alphanumeric Display) $79.95

(Inci Options Processor.

PM-Special STr,?X,», $149.95

DATA BOOKS

HEP

210*30 Intel Memory Components Hndbk. (1983/84) $14.9

Contains an Applications Notes Article Reprint*. Data Sheets A olfwdeugn information on Intel's RAMs DRAMs GPROMs E"PROMa inBubble Memories (880 pages)

230843 IrtW Microivfrtawn Coftipoti«ritt Hndt*. (1983/84) S19.9

Contains Data Sneeis on all of Intel s Microprocessors & penpnerils 2 volumes l?S75pagesl

30023 National Logic Data Book Sat (1984) $24.9

Volumes I a II 13486 pages)

Contains information on National s m prOOuCt line and CCM000 familThis .nciudes 7400. 7«L. S. AS. LS and ALS Series devices, gnMM54HC ' 74HC ■ S4HCT ' 74HCT High Speed Micro CMOS tamilMMS4C ■ 74C family and CMOS LS / VLSI

Q

Muffin-Style andSprite-Style Fans

MUF60 (SPN3-1S-2462)

Howard Industries (4.68"sQ.,60clm|. . . . $9-95

SU2C7 Reverse Flow

EG8.G Rotron (3.125" sq.. 32cfm) $9.95

APPLE8 Accessories * * * *

APPLE* Compatible

Key: a = Apple II or 11+b ■ Apple lie

CARDS

16K RAM Card (Language Card)

The ARC-16K RAM Card allows the Apple* II and 11+ computers to expand from 48K to 64KComplete with instructions. Key: (a)

ARC-16K. $39.95

Z-80CP/MCard

The AZ80-1 is Soft-card compatible Used with CP/M related programs Software not

included Key: (a.b)

AZ80-1 $49.95

EPROM Burner Card

The AEB-2 allows user to program and work with standard EPROMs (2716, 2732 & 2764)Easy to use, on-board firmware. Menu contains the following options: Write. Read, Copy,Compare. Blank-Check and Monitor Complete with instructions Key: (a.b)

AEB-2 $69.95

80-Column Card w/Soft Switch

The A80-C is an 80-column card designed for the Apple' II and II+ computers The card isequipped with a soft switch which allows easy hookup for any monitor The A80-C alsofeatures inverse video capabilities. This card is similar to the Videx*" 80 column cardComplete with instructions. Key: (a)

A80-C $74.95

Super Serial Card

The ASSC-P is a serial card with a printer mode It generates standard RS-232C signalsand is similar to the Apple* Super Serial Card. Complete with instructions Key: (a,b)

ASSC-P $99.95

Parallel Graphics Printer Card w/64K Buffer

The APC-64K is a parallel graphics printer card with a 64K buffer and graphic dumpcapabilities Complete with instructions Key (a.b)

APC-64K $129.95

80-Column/64K RAM Card

Extended 80-Column/64K RAM Card expands memory by 64K to give 128K when used

with programs like VistCalc" Complete with instructions. Key: (b)

JE864 $79.95

OlViSiCorp ll

APPLE ' Compatible5V Half-Height Disk Drive

f

mSSf*

S,*9.9S

• UsesCrimonPincti-type mechanics- 14 3K lor maltedstorage ■ 35 tracks • Super quiet - Works with AppleContrpllers or other compatibles lACC-' I right ■ Com-plete with connector - gust plug mlo your controller■ Sue ft W . l VH a 8"D ■ Wt 4 IDs Key (a.b)

ADD-12 $129.95

0

APPLE™

Compatible5V Disk Drive& ControllerCard

■ uses Shugart SA390 mechanics - 143K forrrstorage * Color matches Apple Computer ■ Works withApple Controller or oitierApple-compatiDle controllersIACC-11 ■ Complete wilh connector — just plug intoyour disk controller card ■ 35 tracKs - Size € W .3'i"H * 8-9/16-0 - Wt 4'4 lbs Key (a.b)

ADD-514 ,D.skOnvei $149.95

ACC-1 (Controller Card) $ 49.95

APPLE™ Ifc Compatible5'/4" Half-Height Disk Drive

■ Same specs as ADD-12 iieftie«cept

ADD-llc. ."°c."".°"er.?e."sf': $129.95

Additional Apple* Compatible Products

APF-1 Cooling Fan with surge protection ■ Key: (a.b) $ 39.95

JE614 Numenc/Aux Keypad-23 accessible functions ■ Key: (b). ... $ 49.95

EAEC-1 Expanded Apple Enclosure Case only • Key: (a) $ 49.95

KHP4007 Switching Power Supply • Key: (a) $ 59.95

KB-A68 68-Key Apple Keyboard only • Key: (a) $ 69.95

MON-12G 12" Green Monitor with swivel stand • Key: (a, b & lie) $ 79.95

JE520AP Voice Synthesizer - Plug-in. User Ready ■ Key: <a,b) $119.95

KB-EA1 Apple Keyboard and Case • Key: (a) $119.95

PM1 200A Prometheus Internal Modem - 2 cards • Key: (a,b) $299.95

PM1200M Prometheus Macintosh Ext. Modem ■ Key (Macintosh) $369.95

General Application Power Supplies

Power/Mate Corp. REGULATED POWER SUPPLY

•Input: I05-125/210-250VAC • 47-63HZ -Line regulation=0.05% • Three mounting surfaces • Overvoltage protection ■ ULrecognized ■ CSA certified

P»rt No Output Sue Weight Price

EMA5/6B

EMA5/6C

5V®3A/6V«2 5A 4<a"Lx4Wx2VH 2lbs5V@6A/6V@5A 5VLx4VWx2'*"H 4lbs.

$29.95

S39.95

KEPCO/TDK 4-OUTPUT SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY

* Ideal for disk drive needs of CRT terminals, microcomputers andvideo games • input: 115/230VAC, 50/60HZ ■ Output: +5V 0 5A.-12V 8 1.8A. +12V 0 2A, -12V @ 0.5A ■ UL recognized ■ CSAcertified • Size: 7 VL x 6-3/16"W x 1 VH • Weight: 2 lbs.

MRM 174KF $39.95

Congratulations BYTEOn Your 10th Anniversary!

IT'S JAMECO'S 12th!

Working Together Serving the Electronics Industry

$10 Minimum Order - US. Fund* Only CA R«idtxit» Add 6".«g Sale* Tax Spec Sheets - 30c each

Snipping: Add 5* plus S1.S0 Insurance Send $1 Postage tor FREE ' 985 Jameco Catalog Price* Subiect to Change

Send stamped, selt-addreised envelope fo receive a Monlfify Sales Ffyer - FREE!

ameco

■=n=M..M:im

VISA1

135S SHOREWAY ROAD. BELMONT, CA 940029/85 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME - (415) 592-8097 - Telex: 176043

I ELECTRONICS I

IBM" Accessories

IBM PC/XT CompatibleKeyboard

( l l I 1 J LL L 1 t II ; IIW U

IBM-5151 (EouivslenttoKeytrpnics-SISl) $129.95

Additional Add-Ons Available!

MEMORY EXPANSION KITS

IBM PC, PC XT and Compatibles

The IBM64K K ' w1 n^reas*.* —?~ r. " i;-k c.Te ;rcrement5 The Kit is Simple

IBM64K (Nine 200ns 64K RAMs) S9.95

IBM PC AT

Each kit comes complete with nine 128K dynamic RAMs and documentationlor conversion

IBM128K (Nine 250ns 128K RAMs) $79.95

IBM PCXT Equivalent130 Watt Power Supply(, UPGRADE YOUR PC!

■ Input: 110V 8 60Hz • Output: +5VDC 0 1 5A. -5VDC 80.5A, +12VDC 8 4.2A, --12VDC 8 0.5A • Plug compatibleconnectors ■ Fits into IBM PC ■ Weight: 6 lbs.

IBM-PS $119.95

Prometheus Modems

The ProModem 1200B/BS is a 1200/300 baud modemcard which plugs into IBM PC and XT Provides a thirdserial Comport. Two versions available: 1200B (withoutsoftware) and 1200BS (with software) The PM1200BSis supplied with powerful MITE communications softwarefrom Mycroft labs

PM1200B (without Software) $239.95

PM1200BS (with MITE Software) $274.95

i0Mtib.e! DISK DRIVES

DocumentationIncluded

RFD480 (Hemex 5 V DS full-M.) $ 79.95

FD55B (Teac 511" DS tialf-ht.) $119.95

SA455 (Shugart 5V DS half-m.). . . . $109.95TM100-2 (Tandon 5v DS full-M.) $129.95

5V." DISK DRIVE ENCLOSURES

Complete with power supply, switch, power cord,fuseholder and connectors

DDE-1 FH .Houses 1 luli-ht 5V- floppy dnvel . . $ 69.95

DDE-2HH iHous^haii-ms*.- . ,___

floppy drives - vertical) S f 9.93

HPDE-1FH iHuurni naraonw $219.95

General Application Keyboards

Mitsumi 54-KeyUnencodedAil-PurposeKeyboard

• SPST keyswitches • 20 pin ribbon cable connection■ Low profile keys • Features: cursor controls, control.caps (lock), function, enter and shift keys ■ Color (key-caps): grey • Weight: 1 lb. ■ Pinout incl. ■ Size: 13VL x4VWx VHKB54 $14.95

• 7-bit parallel ASCII • Full Upper Case, Full Lower Caseexcept I, m. n. o and p ■ Cursor keypad ■ SPST mechani-cal keyswitches • 26-pin header connector • Color: white

Size. 18"Lx6VWx 1VH • Spec includedKB8201 (1700 available) $19.95

UV-EPROM ERASER

8 Chips - 21 Minutes ]

i 1 Chip-15 Minutes

Erases all EPROMs Erases up to 8 chips within 21 minutes (1 chipin 15 minutes) Maintains constant exposure distance ot one inch.Special conductive toam liner eliminates static build-up Built-insafety lock to prevent UV exposure Compact — only 9 00"L x3 70"W x 2 60"H Complete with holding tray for 8 chips

DE-4 UV-EPROM Eraser $74.95

UVS-11EL Replacement Bulb $16.95

Inquiry I97

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 53

Inquiry 52

IBM SHOP

** BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL **

PANASONIC 1091 Printer 120cps NLQ $249.95

STAR MICRONICS SG-10 120cps NLQ 249.95

Cg 714/840-2406 g

* SYSTEMS *

ITT EXTRA PC-256K

Two 1.2 Ht 360K Drs, Monochrome Board, 12"Amber/Green Monochrome Monitor. Serial & Parallel

Port, DOS 2.1 $1,495.95

IBM XT 256K

One IBM 360K Floppy Dr, One 10 Meg Hard Disk.

Monochrome Board, Amber/Green Monochrome

Monitor. DOS 2 1 ONLY $2,895.95

IBM PC-256K

Two TEAC 360K Dr's.. Color/Monochrome Graphics

Board. Parallel Printer Port, Monochrome Display.

DOS 2 1 ONLY $2,045.95

IBM PC AT 512K

1.2 Meg Floppy. 20 Meg Hard Disk, Amber/GreenMonochrome Display, AST Advantage Board (PrinterPort, Serial Port. Clock Calendar, Print Buffering,

Etc ) ONLY $4,995.95

10 MEG Hard Disk Upgrade $575.95

20 MEG Hard Disk Upgrade $775.95

* TOP TEN SOFTWARE *

dBASE III IBM $369.95

BPI Accounting Modules 325.95

PEACHTREE Accounting Modules 295.95

Managing Your Money IBM/APPLE 115.95

Dollars & Sense IBM 113.95

Norton Utilities 30 IBM 59.95

PFS Write/File/Report 85.95

SIDEWAYS IBM/APPLE 39.95

Multimate IBM 269.95

Crosstalk IBM 104.95

Microsoft Word IBM 249.95

* HARDWARE *

AST Six Pack Plus 64K $259.95

STB Rio Plus II 64K 249.95

PARADISE 5-Pack 64K 179.95

QUADRAM Quadboard 64K 249.95

Monochrome Graphics Card 199.95

Monochrome Board With Parallel Port 159.95

HERCULES Monochrome Graphics 329.95

HERCULES Color Card 179.95

* PRINTERS DOT MATRIX *

PANASONIC 1090 80CPS $189.95

PANASONIC 1092 180CPS/NLO 33CPS 379.95

EPSON FX-80* 160CPS 389.95

EPSON FX-10O- 160CPS 644.95

OKIDATA 92P 160CPS 389.95

BROTHER 2024L 200CPS/NLQ 96CPS 995.95

* PRINTERS LETTER QUALITY *

BROTHER HR-15 17CPS $369.95

BROTHER HR-25 24CPS 519.95

BROTHER HR-35 36CPS 729.95

DIABLO Advantage 25CPS 589.95

JUKI 6100 20CPS 399.95

JUKI 6300 40CPS 759.95

* MODEMS *

HAYES 1200B Internal w/Smartcomm 2 ... $369.95

HAYES Micromodem lie 219.95

HAYES 2400 649.95

ANCHOR Volkfmodem 1200 199.95

U.S. ROBITICS 2400 475.95

* MACINTOSH/APPLE *

MACINTOSH 128K w/Macdraw $1,699.95

MACINTOSH 512K w/Macpaint 2,145.95

IMAGEWRITER Printer 495.95

MACINTOSH 2nd Drive 269.95

MICROSOFT Chart 79.95

MICROSOFT Multiplan 119.95

ENSEMBLE 189.95

HELIX 239.95

VIOEX Ultraterm 189.95

MICROSCI A2 Drive 169.95

THOUSANDS OF ITEMS AVAILABLE.CALL FOR COMPLETE PRICING.

CALIFORNIAMICRO HOUSE

16835 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach, CA 92649TELEX » 5101011798 CAL MICRO

Corporal* account* welcomed, purchase orders accepted with net 15 dayterms, tublect to credit approval To eipedite shipping ol purchase ordersplease use telei " Alio, use lelei * lor pnea quotation] All prices representcash, prepaid discount All Hem* shipped neil day in lac lory sealed packagesWe guarantee all items tor 3D day* California residents plaase add 6°° salesla. Prices subject lo change without notice

CLUBS &NEWSLETTERS

Chapter XI Osborne Users Group,Charles M. Greene. 18799 Rio Vista Dr.,Tequesta. FL 33458. Monthly meetings,newsletter.

Fort McMurray BBS, Peter Steeper, BrickShirthouse, 226 Gregoire Dr., Fort McMur-ray. Alberta T9H 4K6, Canada, (403)791-9388, Public-domain software BBS at(403) 791-9367.

Logic. Department B. Box 696. Station B.Willowdale. Ontario M2K 2P9. Canada. ForApple users. SIGs, technical assistance,public-domain software library, monthlymagazine, and 300-bps BBS at (416)445-5192.

Pioneer Valley PC Users Group(PVPCUG). Jeff Kane. POB H, NorthAmherst. MA 01059. (413) 549-4930.Monthly meetings for personal computerusers between Springfield, MA, and Brat-tleboro. VT. Affiliated with the BostonComputer Society.

Latham/Albany/Troy Kaypro UsersGroup (LATKUG), Paul Spannbauer. 16Maple St., Latham, NY 12110. Monthlymeetings and newsletter, public-domainsoftware library.

In Touch, 3632 CTH I, Saukville. Wl53080. Bimonthly newsletter listing user-written software and used hardware. An-nual subscription: S2.

TRS-80 Computer Society of DiabloValley, Susan Copeland. POB 2 3438.Pleasant Hill. CA 94523, (415) 372-7003.Monthly meetings in Concord. CA. BBS.bulletin, and library. Annual dues: S20:three-month trial: $5.

SCIENCEnet Omnet Inc.. 70 TonawandaSt.. Boston, MA 02124, (617) 265-9230. Anelectronic mail service for researchgroups. Subscription to bimonthly news-letter free to potential users.

Los Angeles Morrow Users Group,

Seymour Saks. 1072 Stearns Dr.. LosAngeles. CA 9003 5. (213) 939-3482.Monthly newsletter and meetings, public-domain software library.

Truly Portable. POB 1169. Berkeley. CA94701. (415)658-1889. Newsletter for NECPC-8201A. Radio Shack Model 100. EpsonGeneva. HP 110, and other portables. Sub-scription: S16 for 10 issues: $28 overseas:sample issue, S2.50.

Macintosh Computer Users Group ofthe Sangamon Valley, Mark Pence, 1540West Cook St.. Springfield, IL 62704, (217)546-2782. Informal monthly meetings todiscuss the Macintosh.

Greater Columbia Area Xerox UserGroup, Ed Bachman. HCFA. 2F3 MeadowsEast Building. 6300 Security Blvd., Balti-more. MD 21235. (301) 597-3069: loanMcGuire. (301) 594-0128. For users ofXerox 860, 820, 16/8, and Ethernet.

Iacksonville Atari Computer Enthu-siasts (|ACE), 1187 Dunbar Court, OrangePark, FL 32073. Monthly meetings anddemonstrations, newsletter, disk and cas-sette software library, 24-hour BBS at (904)733-4515. Annual dues: $10.

Future Generations Computer Systems,Karin van Schouten. North-Holland, P.O.Box 1991. 1000 BZ Amsterdam. TheNetherlands, lournal for scientists, mana-gers, and policymakers in the informationindustry. Subscription: $156.30. For a freecopy, write Elsevier Science Publishing Co.Inc.. POB 1663. Grand Central Station.New York. NY 10163.

Grand Rapids IBM PC Users Group.Steve Hickel. 6441 28th St. SE. GrandRapids. Mi 49506. (616) 972-2178. Monthlymeetings and newsletter. BBS, discountson disks. Annual fee: $20.

North Star BBS, Brian Holmes, POB 292,Lynwood. CA 90262. 24-hour. 300/1200-bps BBS in Downey. CA, on CP/M public-domain software, at (213) 861-2313. ■

CLUBS & NEWSLETTERS is an acknowl-edgment of new clubs and newsletters receivedat BYTE. Please allow at least four monthsfor your club's mention to appear. Send infor-mation to BYTE, Clubs & Newsletters. POB372, Hancock. NH 03449.

54 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

The C for Microcomputers

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

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

Manx Aztec C86

"A compiler that has many strengths ... quite valuablefor serious work"

Computer Language review, February 1985

Great Code: Manx Aztec C86 generates fast executingcompact code. The benchmark results below are from astudy conducted by Manx. The Dhrystone benchmark(CACM 10/84 27:10 pl018) measures performance for asystems software instruction mix. The results are with-out register variables. With register variables, Manx,Microsoft, and Mark Williams run proportionately faster,Lattice and Computer Innovations show no improve-ment.

Execution

Code

Compile/

Time

Size

Link Time

Dhrystone Benchmark

Manx Aztec C86 3.3 34 sees

5,760

93 sees

Microsoft C 3.0 34 sees

7,146

119 sees

Optimized C86 2.20J 53 sees

11,009

172 sees

Mark Williams 2.0 56 sees

12,980

113 sees

Lattice 2.14 89 sees

20,404

117 sees

Great Features: Manx Aztec C86 is bundled with a powerful

array of well documented productivity tools, library routines

and features.

Optimized C compiler Symbolic Debugger

AS86 Macro Assembler LN86 Overlay Linker

80186/80286 Support Librarian

8087/80287 Sensing Lib Profiler

Extensive UNIX Library DOS, Screen, & Graphics Lib

Large Memory Model Intel Object Option

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

ROM Support Package -c INTEL HEX Utility -c

Library Source Code -c Mixed memory models -c

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

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

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

Aztec C86-C Commercial System $499

Aztec C86-d Developer's System $299

Aztec C86-p Personal System $199

Aztec C86-a Apprentice System $49

All systems are upgradable by paying the differencein price plus $10.

Third Party Software: There are a number of high qual-ity support packages for Manx Aztec C86 for screenmanagement, graphics, database management, and soft-ware development.

C-tree $395 Greenleaf $185

PHACT $250 PC-lint $98

HALO $250 Amber Windows $59

PRE-C $395 Windows for C $195Windscreen $149 FirsTime $295

SunScreen $99 C Util Lib $185

PANEL $295 Plink-86 $395

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

Manx Aztec C68k

"Library handling is very flexible... documentation isexcellent ...the shell a pleasure to work in ... blowsaway the competition for pure compile speed ...an ex-cellent effort."

Computer Language review, April 1985Aztec C68k is the most widely used commercial C com-piler for the Macintosh. Its quality, performance, andcompleteness place Manx Aztec C68k in a position be-yond comparison. It is available in several upgradableversions.

Optimized C Creates Clickable Applications

Macro Assembler Mouse Enhanced SHELLOverlay Linker Easy Access to Mac Toolbox

Resource Compiler UNIX Library FunctionsDebuggers Terminal Emulator (Source)

Librarian Clear Detailed Documentation

Source Editor C-Stuff Library

MacRam Disk -c UniTbols (vi,make,diff,grep) -c

Library Source -c One Year of Updates -c

Items marked -c are available only in the Manx AztecC86-C system. Other features are in both the Aztec C86-dand Aztec C86-C systems.

Aztec C68k-c Commercial System $499

Aztec C68d-d Developer's System $299

Aztec C68k-p Personal System $199

C-tree database (source) $399

AMIGA, CP/M-68k, 68k UNIX call

Apple H, Commodore65xx, 65C02 ROM

Manx Aztec C65

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

NIBBLE review, July 1984

A vast amount of business, consumer, and educationalsoftware is implemented in Manx Aztec C65. The qualityand comprehensiveness of this system is competitivewith 16 bit C systems. The system includes a full optim-ized C compiler, 6502 assembler, linkage editor, UNIXlibrary, screen and graphics libraries, shell, and muchmore. The Apple II version runs under DOS 3.3, andProDOS, Cross versions are available.

The Aztec C65-c/128 Commodore system runs underthe C128 CP/M environment and generates programs forthe C64, C128, and CP/M environments. Call for pricesand availability of Apprentice, Personal and Developerversions for the Commodore 64 and 128 machines.

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

Aztec C65-p Apple Personal system $99Aztec C65-a for learning C $49

Aztec C65-C/128 C64, C128, CP/M $399

Distribution of Manx Aztec C

In the USA, Manx Software Systems is the sole and ex-clusive distributor of Aztec C. Any telephone or mailorder sales other than through Manx are unauthorized.

Manx Cross Development Systems

Cross developed programs are edited, compiled, assem-bled, and linked on one machine (the HOST) and trans-ferred to another machine (the TARGET) for execution.This method is useful where the target machine is sloweror more limited than the HOST, Manx cross compilersare used heavily to develop software for business,consumer, scientific, industrial, research, and education-al applications.

HOSTS: VAX UNIX ($3000), PDP-11 UNIX (S2000), MS-DOS ($750), CP/M ($750). MACINTOSH ($750),CP/M-68k ($750), XENIX ($750).

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

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

Call Manx for information on cross development to the68000, 65816, Amiga, C128, CP/M-68K, VRTX, andothers.

CP/M, Radio Shack,8080/8085/Z80 ROMManx Aztec CO

Toe had a lot of experience with different C compilers,but the Aztec CS0 Compiler and Professional Develop-ment System is the best I've seen."

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

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

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

C-tree database (source) $399

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

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

How To Become an Aztec C User

To become an Aztec C user call 1-800-221-0440 or call1-800-832-9273 (800-TEC WARE). In NJ or outside theUSA call 201-530-7997. Orders can also be telexed to4995812.

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

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

How To Get More Information

To get more information on Manx Aztec C and relatedproducts, call 1-800-221-0440, or 201-530-7997, or writeto Manx Software Systems.

30 Day Guarantee

Any Manx Aztec C development system can be return-ed within 30 days for a refund if it fails to meet yourneeds. The only restrictions are that the original pur-chase must be directly from Manx, shipped within theUSA, and the package must be in resalable condition.Returned items must be received by Manx within 30days. A small restocking fee may be required.

Discounts

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

Inquiry 229

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BOOK REVIEWS

A COMPUTER &COMMUNICATIONS NET-WORK PERFORMANCEANALYSIS PRIMERB. W. Stuckand E. ArthursPrentice-Hall

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1985624 pages, $38.95

APPLIED PROGRAMMINGTECHNIQUES IN CTerry A. WardScott, Foresman and Co.Glenview, IL: 1985268 pages, $19.95

DIAGRAMMING TECH-NIQUES FOR ANALYSTSAND PROGRAMMERSlames Martinand Carma McClurePrentice-Hall

Englewood Cliffs, NI: 1985416 pages, $40

INTRODUCTION TO COM-PUTER ENGINEERINGFranco P. PreparataHarper & RowNew York: 1985336 pages, $37.95

A COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKPERFORMANCE ANALYSIS PRIMERReviewed by Mark Klein

Many of us have struggled with performance prob-lems in computer systems. When CP/M version 2arrived, we worked to find the optimal sector size to usewhen formatting disks. Today we worry about effectivethroughput in local-area networks (LANs) as a function ofvariables such as transmission speed, message size, or net-work topology. In making these design decisions, manyof us have often relied on an intuition developed byexperience.

Of course, performance-analysis problems are notlimited to the microcomputer world. I met a BYTE reader

who built from scratch a68000 system as relaxationfrom his daytime job on ahuge SNA (IBM's SystemsNetwork Architecture) net-work; another computes forfun on an Apple II at homebut his vocation is design-ing on-line transaction-pro-cessing systems for a world-wide airline. One of my jobsas system administrator forthe two UNIX-based com-puters that host the BYTEInformation Exchange (BIX)was to help find the rightmix of port assignments(hard-wired, local network,public-switched network,leased lines, Tymnet) to op-timize access and responseand minimize cost.

A book that will appeal tomany BYTE readers is AComputer & CommunicationsNetwork Performance AnalysisPrimer by B. W Stuck and E.Arthurs, both computer sci-entists at Bell Laboratories.It is a guide to attackingperformance-analysis prob-lems in these and othertypes of systems. The book is not easy reading. It was writ-ten from material used to teach a graduate-level computerscience course within Bell Labs. The authors assume thatyou have basic math skills such as linear programming andcalculus, that you understand what operating systems aresupposed to do, and that you don't blink at terms suchas Poisson statistics, packet switching, link-level flow con-trol, blocking, and queueing networks.

But it would be a mistake for a reader to think that thisimportant material is inaccessible just because the bookis full of equations and strange terms. A manager withouta technical background shouldn't expect to find out fromthis book whether the planned order-entry system for acompany needs a microcomputer or a superminicom-puter. Someone else working for that company, however,

(continued)

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could use the book to assess the resource needs and offerdetailed quantitative support for a decision to buy, say,a VAX-ll/780 instead of an H/750.

Stuck and Arthurs take an engineer's approach. Thebook is, as the title claims, a primer. The authors teachby example and case study. They describe a computercommunications system using flow diagrams and systemdata (and they don't split hairs on what is computer andwhat is communications). They quantify performance witha list of measurements, present the results of a perfor-mance analysis, and discuss the significance of the results.They do this for systems ranging from secretaries liningup to use a photocopier to an on-line transaction-processing system to handle telephone repairs. Theanalyses are fascinating.

Practical Approach

To indicate the concrete, engineer's approach of this book,I include examples of the types of problems Stuck andArthurs pose.

—The writers describe an on-line point-of-sale computercommunications system for a widget retailer, down todetails such as mean time per disk access, what files arecreated and when (log files, credit-check files, inventory-control files), processor busy time per transaction, andnumber of disk spindles. The question follows: "Is thisdesign feasible? Will the system meet its performancegoals?"

—Another transaction-processing problem begins by sug-gesting alternative hardware configurations: a high-performance system costing $200,000 and a low-performance system at half that cost. After two morepages of system description, including possible combina-tions of the two basic hardware configurations that dividethe application programs and operating-system codeamong different subsystems, the reader is asked to "cal-culate the total cost to operate each [of four] configura-tion|s| for five years, and the ratio of cost divided bythroughput."

—The reader is asked to compare performance of twosystems. In the first system, one secretary is assigned to10 professionals and handles all document-preparationneeds. In the second system, a text-processing center isset up.

—Another problem deals with insurance agents who dialup through a voice telephone network to a central com-puter and then use a terminal connected to a modem toquery about different types of policies for potentialcustomers. After considerable details, the reader is askedto figure out "how many modems are needed if the frac-tion of queries blocked due to no modem being availableis no more than one query in ten."

Stuck and Arthurs subject packet-switching systems andlocal-area networks to this kind of nitty-gritty analysisthroughout the book. Several aspects of these systems are

(continued)

58 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

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Inquiry 154 for End-Users. Inquiry 155 for DEALERS ONLY.

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studied. The last chapter is devoted to an in-depth, use-all-the-tools analysis of LANs.

Office Communications

One particularly relevant and readable chapter coversoffice communications. The premise to this section is that"the fundamental idea in office automation is to moveideas or information to people and not vice versa." Foropeners, there is a quantitative analysis of telephone tag;the frightening conclusion is that when "the mean numberof tags increases to three, then the maximum meanthroughput rate (completed calls) drops to one call lastingten minutes every 203.5 minutes!" For comparison, theauthors cover a voice-storage system.

Other topics in this chapter include copying andreproduction, document preparation, LANs, workstationproductivity gains, and the interaction between secretariesand managers. Discussion of a sophisticated model of anautomated office system is accompanied by relevantgraphs of document-completion rate versus number ofsecretaries, questions pertaining to how many secretariescan be active inside a document-preparation systembefore congestion becomes unacceptable, and an analysisof the minimum set of numbers needed to say anythingpertinent about these kinds of systems.

Bottleneck Design

Office communications is just one of many systems towhich the authors apply their ideas about bottlenecks.Early on, the reader is cautioned to remember that therewill always be (by definition) some bottleneck; however,"the design problem is to choose where the bottleneckshould be." For example, in their analysis of potential pro-ductivity gains that might be achieved in an automatedoffice by giving workstations to professionals. Stuck andArthurs quantitatively examine the effect of voice and elec-tronic mail on three alternative bottlenecks: meetings,telephone calls, and documentation (filing, gaining accessto reports, etc.).

Later they study a proposal to add an LAN to an officesystem currently running from a central processor. Poten-tial bottlenecks are the clerks (who might not generateenough load to keep the system busy), terminals, centralprocessing unit, disk system, printer, or terminal controller.Putting in the numbers for this particular example showsthat the disk is the bottleneck. The authors conclude that"adding a local area network will not significantly improveperformance, because the terminal controller |does not]reach complete utilization first." Of course, differentnumbers might lead to a different conclusion; the authorsfrequently suggest plugging in the numbers for thereader's own situation.

It is this kind of practical, quantitative analysis that makesthe book so valuable. Many computer systems, large andsmall, are configured according to what feels right to thesystem designer. Stuck and Arthurs give us some sub-

{continued)

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BOOK REVIEWS

stance on which to base systems decisions. Even more,for someone willing to read the text and work the prob-lems, they offer a path to developing the intuition that issuch a crucial part of system design.

Mark Klein (8 Bay M., Newmarket. NH 03857) has been involvedwith the BYTE Information Exchange (BIX) since its inception. Heis BYTE's contributing editor on communications. His consulting firm,Channel Computing, specializes in communications technology.

APPLIED PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES IN CReviewed by Phil Hughes

Terry A. Ward's new book on the C language, AppliedProgramming Techniques in C. provides examples of real,useful programs written in C. It does not try to teach youthe C language. The people who might be interested inthis type of text are those with a basic knowledge of Cwho want to see some extensive programs written in thatlanguage. Another group is composed of owners of CP/Mor MS-DOS systems who want to add some UNIX-like utili-ty programs at little cost.

The first chapter presents basic information on operatingsystems and covers selection of a programming language.Ward limits his discussion of operating systems to AppleDOS, MS-DOS. and CP/M. I was disappointed to see UNIXignored at this point in the book. The conclusion is asexpected—use C—but Ward goes through the paces dis-cussing APL, FORTRAN, Pascal, PL/I. and, of course,BASIC. I take exception to several comments about FOR-TRAN and Pascal. In particular, Ward claims that few newapplications are being written in FORTRAN. This may bethe case in the microcomputer world but is certainly notthe case in advanced engineering work.

In the next chapter Ward presents a very condenseddescription of C. This description and the remainder ofthe book talk about BD Software's version of C (BDS C).This section is poorly written and has quite a few errors.For example, the first program will not compile becausethere are two statements in the wrong order. The fifth lineconsisting of a left brace should be moved up before line3 to correct this error. Another example is on page 23.There is no such operator as the Unary Plus. Also, thedescriptions of increment and decrement operators aremisleading. When referring to pointers, these operatorsmodify the value of the pointer by the size of the datumpointed to.

Even for the experienced C programmer, these errorsdetract from the value of the book; it remains difficult toseparate errors from dialect differences between C andBDS C.

Programming Tools

In the remaining chapters, the author presents various pro-gramming tools. He explains each program and docu-

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Inquiry 216

BOOK REVIEWS

ments the functions within programs. The first programsare simple utilities such as ones that handle word count-ing and file comparison.

When I started reading the section on text compression,1 thought we were going to get into a meaty program. AsWard suggests, if you want a real text-compression pro-gram, you should get it from a CP/M users group. He thengoes on with a set of programs to replace spaces withtabs and vice versa.

More than 100 pages are dedicated to a text editor,written by Ed Ream, called ed2. I have used a derivativeof this editor and found it to be fast and reliable. But toavoid typing more than 50 pages of source code, you caneither purchase it for almost nothing from the C Users'Group (POB 97, McPherson, KS 67460, (316) 241-1065) orbuy the fancy, updated version called RED (for areasonable price of $95) directly from Edward K. Reamat 1850 Summit Ave., Madison, WI 53705, (608) 2 31-2952.

Other areas Ward covers include text formatting,telecommunications, sorting, and the Othello game. Mybiggest negative comment on the listings is that each pro-gram is written in the style of the author of the programFor example, some listings use the brace matching con-ventions of Kernighan and Ritchie, while others use thematching indentation styles more common in newer Cbooks. Ward could have used these differences to his ad-vantage by discussing the issue of style, but instead heignored them. 1 expect this inconsistency will confuse thebeginner.

The appendixes are extensive and provide sources forbooks, periodicals, C compilers, and public-domain soft-ware. There is even a cross-reference for articles writtenabout C.

Ward offers notes on converting programs to and fromBDS C Unfortunately, some of them are wrong. For ex-ample, he claims that BDS C supports multiline commentsand standard C does not support multiline comments. Isuspect he confused this with nested comments. I canassure you that at least the C compilers that have atraceable parentage to Bell Laboratories support multilinecomments.

Applied Programming Techniques in C is a disappointment.The appendixes that show sources of software and articlesare the best part. It looks like Ward did a lot of researchbut then ran into a deadline and couldn't get the rest ofthe book together. For the newcomer to C who wants tolook at some code, Ward presents a lot of it. There arethings to be learned from the book. For the person whowants to get some tools up and running on a CP/M or MS-DOS system, I suggest they purchase the software fromthe sources of public-domain programs listed in theappendixes.

Phil Hughes [do Specialized Systems Consultants. POB 55549,Seattle. WA 98155) is a computer scientist who has worked withUNIX and C for more than five years.

[continued)

*— Inquiry 338

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Inquiry 224

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 67

Inquiry 86

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BOOK REVIEWS

70

BYTE- SEPTEMBER I985

Inquiry 113

personal experience. I think, however, that much of thetext is too technical for the majority of end users or forany DP managers who have not been involved in systemsanalysis or programming. It has been my experience thatthe latter is common because many managers who havebecome involved in DP operations do not have formal DPbackgrounds. Also, there are probably many people in thebusiness (like me) who became involved in systems anal-ysis and programming without a history of flowchartingand DP courses. For me, the text required careful atten-tion to follow the tutorials relating to each technique.

Does It Help?

I approached Diagramming Techniques with this question: Canit assist an individual or group with a design backgroundto actually use one of the methodologies? This approachled me to try the action-diagramming method (one theauthors highly recommend) for a complex project involv-ing the design of a computer-managed instructionalsystem for a large training project. Before selecting amethod, I thoroughly analyzed the type of system we weredeveloping. We needed a method that could lead to com-puter-generated code, one that could depict a highly com-plex system, and perhaps most of all, a technique thatcould communicate this system to managers and endusers with little or no programming or computer exper-ience. We also needed a methodology that could bequickly understood by other programmers.

The authors point out that some diagramming tech-niques are good for presenting the "overview" of programstructure, while others are good for describing thedetailed" program logic. The low level (details) shouldbe a natural extension of the high level (overview); actiondiagrams achieve this. My team found that the instructionsin the text were sufficiently clear to adopt this methodol-ogy. Action diagrams were quick and easy to draw. Ithelped greatly that they could be linked to a database.Although our experience with action diagrams has beenbrief, we are satisfied with both the technique and the in-struction provided by Martin and McClure.

The topics addressed in Diagramming Techniques are com-plex. A quick read-through is not sufficient to get anybenefit. The book is not intended as a general introduc-tion to the field, despite the lengthy introductory chaptersthat cover a rationale for selecting a standard method ofdiagramming. Because of the depth of detail, this text isalso not very good for presenting an overview of each ofthe techniques discussed. What this book is most usefulfor is presenting a complex analysis of the methods com-monly used in the field and helping the serious systemsanalyst or programmer prepare for the CASA/CAPrevolution.

Bonnie L. Walker (4101 VJoodhaven lane. Bowie. MD 20715) isa systems analyst/programmer and a consultant in telecommunica-tions and computer-based training.

[continued)

Inquiry 284 —►

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Inquiry 2I0

BOOK REVIEWS

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER ENGINEERINGReviewed by Brian Edginton

In the preface to Introduction to Computer Engineering, FrancoP. Preparata describes his book as a "first course text."The book is much more involved than that. Practicingengineers and advanced students could find it helpful forstudy and review. Used by a competent instructor, it couldserve as a good introduction, even though at times itsspeed and intensity are overpowering.

Each of the book's three parts has distinctly differentgoals. The first is an overview of information processing,taking the reader from the representation of informationthrough several number bases and base conversions. Thispresentation requires more mathematical backgroundthan most first-year students would normally possess.

Early in the text Preparata introduces binary-codeddecimal (BCD) codes, the Gray code, and parity-checkcodes. Though he mentions error-correction schemes atthis point, he never elaborates upon them. The rest of thefirst part introduces a computer model called theSimplistic Educational Computer (SEC). A description ofthis machine's logical and functional organization is fol-lowed by its basic instruction set and examples of howa microprocessor is programmed for problem solving inassembly or mnemonic-type language. Some readersmight consider this approach to be a rather rapid immer-sion into the complex realm of computer science; withoutadequate mathematical background or experience withcomputers, it might well be.

The author provides well-designed problems to explorethe concepts he discusses and to encourage thinkingabout logical solutions using the machine language of theSEC.

Boolean Algebra

The second part of the book is dedicated to one of thesubsets of Boolean algebra, switching algebra, and itsapplication to hardware and circuit design. This sectionis well presented and requires little or no knowledge ofalgebra. Preparata begins by defining the two values inBoolean math, 1 and 0, and logically develops the prin-ciples and rules used to define logic equations. Theseequations are used to develop combinational networks,groups of gates and switches that make up the basis ofcomputer systems. All the truth tables in this chapter arepresented in both standard conventions, allowing thereader to see the same rules in two different lights.

Next Preparata covers analysis and design of combina-tional networks. If the material he has presented previouslyhas not been understood, the rest may be incompre-hensible. Although the text is developed well and takesa logical approach to teaching a complicated subject, itis not for the lightweight.

Again in this section the author seems to have forgot-ten that his purpose was to write an introductory text. The

[continued]

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HflVCS 1200 379.00

1200B 345.00

2400 699.00

PAOM€THCUSPromodeml200 £93.00

Promodeml200FI £89.00

Promodem Moc Poc Kit 389.00

MONITORS

RMDCX 300 1£9.00

300FI 143.00

310FI Hl-Res Rmber 169.00

NCC1201 Hi Res Green 105.00

1260 Green 73.00

JC 1215 Composite Color uu/audlo . £13.00PRINCCTON GRAPHICS HX-12 469.00

SR-12 685.00

MflX-12 179.00

TRXRN 121/122 149.00

420 (RGB) 439.00

415 (RGB) 489.00

PRNRSONIC DT-S101 Color 179.00

DT-H10310"HlghflesRG8 499.00

DT = D1300D1J" RGB Color ....£79.00DT-M140 14" RGB Color 439.00

PRINTCRS

BROTHfRHP 10 CRll

HR-15 345.00

HR-25 499.00

HR-35 699.00

2024 LQ 879.00

TuulnuJrtter 615.00

€PSON LX-80 F/T CRll

FX-80 + 359.00

FX-100 + CRll

LQ1500 CRll

OHIDRTRML182P 817.00

ML192P 373.00

ML193P 533.00

PRNRSONIC 1091 ££9.00

TOSHIBA 1340 575.00

STRRMIRONICSSG-10 ££9.00

CITIZCN CRll

NCC2050 CRll

RPPIC PRODUCTS

RST Multl I/O CRll

RPPUCD CNOR Mega Ram CRll

MICRO SCI R2 Drlvelle 169.00

He drive 169.00

RPPIC Compatible Drive 119.00

REMINGTON RAND MAC DAIVC £89.00

HRBR Mac drive CRll

MRC Compatible iVt drive £79.00

BCRNOUllI 5MB MRC drive CRll

MACINTOSH Harddrlve CRll

MACINTOSH Software Jazz CRll

MICROSOFT Macenhoncer 189.00

Softcard II £49.00

Multi-plan //e & Mac 189.00

BaslcfMac) 109.00

RSCII XPACSS (communications) . . 69.00THCDCSHOAOANIZCR(Mac) 133.00

RPPIC MOUSC II 119.00

HRVfSMach III Joystick 39.00

SVSTCM SAVCR Fan 69.00

VI0CO7V-color7 105.00

V-color Ik 105.00

Mousestlck (Mac) 46.00

Titan Accelerator 119.00

VIDCX Ultraterm 179.00

APAICOAN (Lifetime Warranty)

Super Sertal Imager 79.00

Serial Interface 59.00

Graphics Interface 69.00

80 Column/64K 69.00

Crtend It 64K 39.00

Rprlcord He 39.00

lift SUPPOAT THCSC FINC SVSTCMS:HPPIC. IBM, COMPAQ,, in.AND MRNV MORC

TELEX #550757/ANSWER BACK—COMPUTERBANK UD

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Cosh prices indicated flll products ore in factory sealed packages life guarantee all Kerns For 30 daus.Within this period, defective merchandise returns must be accompanied by RMfl number, flll other returns millbe subject to o 50% restocking Fee. For prepaid orders, there will be o 3% shipping charge; 5% for UPS BlueLabel; $5 00 minimum, oil orders outside USA at 15% shipping California residents odd 6% sales taxPrices subject to change without notice

"=_'Copyright 1965 COMPUTtRBArMC flll Rights Reserved

Inquiry 85

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 75

TOTALCONTROL

with LMIFORTH"

FORTH

LMI Metacompiler §

For Programming Professionals:

an expanding family ofcompatible, high-performance,Forth-83 Standard compilersfor microcomputers

For Development:

Interactive Forth-83 Interpreter/Compilers

• 16-bit and 32-bit implementations

• Full screen editor and assembler

• Uses standard operating system files

• 400 page manual written in plain English

• Options include software floating point, arithmeticcoprocessor support, symbolic debugger, native codecompilers, and graphics support

For Applications: Forth-83 Metacompiler

• Unique table-driven multi-pass Forth compiler

• Compiles compact ROMable or disk-based applications

• Excellent error handling

• Produces headerless code, compiles from intermediatestates, and performs conditional compilation

• Cross-compiles to 8080, Z-80, 8086, 68000, and 6502

• No license fee or royalty for compiled applications

Support Services for registered users:

• Technical Assistance Hotline

• Periodic newsletters and low-cost updates

• Bulletin Board System

Call or write for detailed product informationand prices. Consulting and Educational Servicesavailable by special arrangement.

urn

Laboratory Microsystems Incorporated

Post Office Box 10430, Marina del Rey, CA 90295Phone credit card orders to: (213) 306-7412

Overseas Distributors.

Germany: Forth-Systeme Angelika Flesch, D-7820 Titisee-NeustadtUK: System Science Ltd., London EC1A 9JXFrance: Micro-Sigma S.A.R.L., 75008 ParisJapan: Southern Pacific Ltd., Yokohama 220Australia: Wave-onic Associates, 61.07 Wilson, W.A.

BOOK REVIEWS

science of designing combinational and sequential net-works is difficult to cover in 200 pages. The informationis presented tersely and, if the reader lacks substantialbackground in networks, can be hard to comprehend.

The next part concerns itself with minimization tech-niques, the reduction of Boolean equations to theirsimplest of forms, and Karnaugh mapping and a tabulartechnique (Quine-McCluskey). These are principles neededin circuit design, but they require more than a chapter tobe fully understood and used efficiently. Although theinformation is not very simple, it is accurate.

The balance of this section develops the basic buildingblocks of networks and designing with modules. Preparatadiscusses sequential networks, constructions that requireaction in preceding sections to cause a predefined chainof events to take place. These are the real techniquesnecessary in the decision-making circuits that make uppresent-day computers. Preparata does a very good jobof covering this subject matter.

System Plan

The third and last part of the book describes how to puttogether all of the information and circuit types that havebeen described previously. Here is where the reader buildshis own SEC and learns how to write programs for it. Ilike the idea of using a model for learning because it allowsme to grasp the concept of microprocessors or computerswithout the bias or commercial influence of using existingproducts. However, the problem with this teaching methodis the same as writing a trilogy: All the parts have to beconsistent and well developed or they lose credibility. Theauthor has succeeded. In fact, this section is where thebook excels as an introduction to computer engineering.Although Preparata here has a tendency to overwhelmthe reader with mathematics at first, he soon settles intoa comfortable description and analysis of a processingsystem. The programming language is expanded, and theprocessor (SEC) is developed to the point of actual im-plementation, with the registers and memory map beingexplained and documented as well as most real products.

This part contains one of the most straightforward andsimple explanations of adders and look-ahead systemsthat I have come across. The author explains how anarithmetic-logic unit is designed and how it functions. Hethen develops the CPU and demonstrates its use ofregister transfers and memory.

The SEC's architecture is a good example of current pro-cessor technology. It can serve as a good basis for learn-ing and using the microprocessors available on the markettoday as well as those we will see in the future.

Introduction to Computer Engineering is well written and welldocumented, but it is not suited for an introductory course.It would serve better at a second-year level or as a reviewfor people already working in the engineering field. ■

Brian Edginton (551 Ramona Ave.. Salt lake City. UT 84105) isa consultant specializing in multiuser business systems.

76 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 21 i

Since 1976

mm m©^i s

MORE THAN JUST PRICE! WE WON'T BE UNDERSOLD!

AB Computers' Own PC

100% IBM Compatible

• 256K RAM

• 2-DS DD 360K Disk Drives

• Serial b Parallel Ports

• Choice 20 MHz Amber or Green Monitor

• Pearl Database Free w/System

• Lotos 123 only S250 w/System

$1,475

Ask about Free Software

TgwTM i data

systems

More than IBM Compatible I

• 2-OS DD 360K Disk Drives ^

320K RAM

Amber 20 MHz Monitor - P3Pearl Database w/System

•TSjj(t\/« c$1,850 \%m

Ask about Free Software Package

Increase the Power of your P.C."N f

POWER PACK I

Quadram (384K) . 325.

or

AST Six Pack

(384K) 414

Includes: Double DOS

POWER PACK II

Quadram (384K) 469.

or

AST Six Pack

(384K) 595

Includes: Double DOS

Volksmodem 1200

POWER PACK III

Quadram (384K) .710.

or

AST Six Pack

(384K) 839.

Includes: Double DOSHayes 1200B Modem

More than IBM Compatible20 Mg Hard Disk System

320 RAM360 K Drive fds/dd|20 Mg WinchesterHard Disk

• Green 12" Monitor

• Serial/Parallel

• Lotos 123 OnlyS250 w/System

We will put the 20Mg hard disk drive (systemcompatible) in for your at no additional cost. Askabout free software package £rj CQC

Move up to Networking

If you currently have 3 IBM orComp, PC's, package inclodes:PC Net SoftwareOne - Master Board (for server)Two - Slave Boards (for IBM Comp.)One - 20 Mg Hard Disk Add-In

(for your server)Special $2,169

Optional - Novelle Oper Sys. SI. 199

HARD DISKS

10 Mg Add-in 629

20 Mg Add-in 796

53 Mg AT Kit Ctll

33 Mg 1,550

TEAC

OS DD Disk Drive Ctll

POWER PACK IV

Color Monitor

(BMC-Cotnposit)

Plus Color Card (Paradise)

Plus Cable

355

POWER PACK V

RGB Monitor (Zenith 133)Plus Color Card (Quadram)Plus Cable

785

POWER PACK VI

20 Mg Hand Disk Drive PlusController Card

745.

Move up to Networking

If you currently have 1 IBM orComp. PC, package includesPC Net SoftwareOne - Master Board (for server)Two - Slave Brds (inst in Clones)Two - IBM Clone 2/256K,

Monochrome Monitor, Keyboard,

and two 260 K DrivesOne 20 Mg Hard Disk Add-In

Special $5 287

Optional - Novelle Oper. Sys SI.199

RAM Riot - 4/64 - $9.00/Set 4/256 $42.90/Set

>4f\/1DEK

300 Green/Amber 129/149

300 Color/Audio 259

310 Amber IBM-PlugColor 500 Composite/RGB .Color 600 Hi-R«(B40i240)Color 700 Hi-Res(720x240)Color 710 Long Phosphor

US/

Hi Res Metal Cabinet

169389439.499579

10-19 70

20 up 68

Large Quantity Call

• TSbXAIV

115/116 12" Gm.Amb.Mono 99

121 Green TTL 139

122 Amber TTL 149

210 Color RGB 239

400 Med-Res RGB 319

415 Hi-Res RGB 399

420 Hi-Res RGB (IBM) 429

440 Ultra Hi-Res RGB 589

Macintosh Software

Typing Tutor III 40

Mutliplan 129

MacVegas Call

Software

dBaselll 458

Lotus 123 Ctll

Sideways Call

PFS Write/File/Graph/Plan . . . Ctll

Jtsm

*\

ZVM 122/123 Amb. Grn. .

. . 89

ZVM 124 IBM Amber. . . .

. 149

ZVM 131 Color

. 299

ZVM 133 RGB

. 429

ZVM 135 RGB/Color .

459

ZVM 136 RGB/Color ....

629

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9191U Color

. 199

V-

J

Apple Software

Sideways Call

Word Attack Call

PFS Write/Ftle/Graph/Plan Csff

Copy II 35

Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy. ... 28

ORDERING INFORMATION: Onto by check, Maiterard or VISA. Personal checks take 15 daysto da*, no waiting on ccftifwd checks or money uitka Add 3% (hipping and handling on all orders(minimum S2.00) Moil, AP0/FP0 Air may raouiri additional charges PA reiaJents add 6% uSas tax. MArttidetitt add 5%. Al items subject to aviaability Pricta subject to changes Additional discounts avaitabra toQualified educatnnaf ■nstrtutrons Requests for bid on volume requirements nvMad

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Nobody Beats ourPrice on Disks!

ABDISKETTES

with Media Mate

30 - 3.5" 100

100 - 5" 0S/DD 140

Amaray Disk Library

Media Mate 8 95

Rip N File/25 18.50

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EEsmaag

With IBM

Cable and Software disk

to change type size £r style

1090 80 cps 219

1091 120 cps 299

Specify computet

82, 83, 84, 92, 93, 182, 2350,2410.

0kimate-20 Ctll

Okimate {Specify C64 or

Atari) 199

EPSON

RX-80. FX-80+, LX-80,

JX-80 Ctll

FX-100+, RX-100, LD1500

Ctll

Homewrfler 10 Ctll

ADDON BOARDSowasiirl HerculesPARADISE

MODEMS

[JJr-iayes JInchor Call

PAPER

914" x 11" Keen Edge 29

SW x 11" Standard 27

14'/i" x 11' Standard 38

20 lb - other weights available2700 sheets per case

crraH

Prowriter 7500 219

Prowriter 8510P 299

Prowriter 1550P 469

Son ol Starwriter A10P 459

Hot Dot Matrix 459

F10-40P Starwriter 899

F10-55 Printmaster 1,049

CABLES

Parallel Cable (36 pin/36 pm).RS232 Male to Male 6'RS232 Male to Female 6Parallel Cable lor Columbia-IBM Cable

\

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17. 18

25

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AB SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

Every product sold by AB Computers is factory packed and comer* with tht manufacturer's warranty, However,rf an item is detective whan received, you may return rt to ui witheft 15 day* tot reps*, adjustment orreplacement at our option Returns musl be accompanied with copy of your invoice, letter detailing defect,blank warranty card and all onginel factory packing. To expedite banding pleaae ceil for return authorizationnumber (Sorry, no return on computer software once opened.)

COMPUTERS

Use our TOLL FREE Order Line Mon-Fri 9am-6pm EST

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IBM & compatibles 215-822-7727

Inquiry 5

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 77

Helps

simpletension.

We can't do any- Make a diskette every track, every hour

thing about mergers. that's certified 100% of every day.

Takeovers. Or elevators error-free and guaran- A little overkill,

that stick. teed for life. Which but nowadays, you

But we can do we conservatively can't be too careful,

something about the estimate to be 200 That's why every

nail-biting suspense of years at the rate of one 3M diskette must live

faulty floppy disks: read/write pass on up to 327 of the most

78 B YTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

relieve

nervous

demanding standards everdevised. Standards thateven reject a floppy ifthe label's a littlecrooked.

Which means,when a floppyleaves here,

we know it won't flop.

So you can find relieffrom nervous tensiondue to faulty floppies.

One less thing toworry about:

Inquiry 367

EVENT QUEUE

September 1985

Al and Expert SystemsSeminars. Glasgow,Scotland. The Turing Insti-tute, George House. 36North Hanover St., GlasgowGl 2AD. Scotland.September-November

Data CommunicationsWorkshops, various sitesthroughout the U.S. andCanada. Intel Corp., West-ford Corporate Center.Three Carlisle Rd.. Westford.MA 01880, (617) 256-1374.September-December

C Language Seminar andWorkshop. Sheraton-Commander Hotel, Cam-bridge, MA. The fee isS695. Beatrice Blatteis. CLPublications. 131 TownsendSt.. San Francisco. CA94107. (415] 957-9353.September 16-18

The Fourth Annual Data-Storage InternationalForum, Red Lion Inn, Sanlose. CA. Cartlidge &Associates Inc., Suite M2 59.1 101 South WinchesterBlvd.. San lose. CA 95128.(408) 554-6644.September 16-18

The Sixteenth ConventionInformatique. Palais desCongres, Paris. France. Con-vention Informatique. 4Place de Valois. 75001,Paris, France; tel: (I) 261 5242; Telex: 212 597 F.September 16-20

The Sixth AnnualSoftware/Expo, Infomart,Dallas. TX. ProfessionalExposition Management Co.Inc.. Suite 205. 2400 EastDevon Ave.. Des Plaines. IL60018. (800) 323-5155; inIllinois, (312) 299-3131.September 17-19

UNIX Expo; The UNIXOperating System Exposi-tion and Conference, NewYork Hilton and SheratonCentre Hotels, New YorkCity. Robert P. Birkfeld.National Expositions Co.Inc., 14 West 40th St.. NewYork. NY 10018. (212)391-9111. September 18-20

Eastern Computer Manu-facturing Expo. Charlotte.NC. Great Southern Shows.POB 655, Jacksonville, FL32201. (904) 743-8000.September 19-2 1

The Seventh AnnualFORTH Convention andBanquet, Hyatt Rickeys.Palo Alto, CA FORTH In-terest Group, POB 8231.San lose. CA 95155, (408)277-0668. September 20-21

The Tidewater Tenth An-nual Computer Fair, RadioAmateur Hamfest—ElectronicFlea Market, Virginia BeachPavilion, VA. Advancetickets are $5 for both daysor $6 at the door. |imHarrison, Tidewater RadioConventions Inc., 1234 LittleBay Ave.. Norfolk, VA23503. (804| 587-1695.September 21-22

Space Tech '85 Conferenceand Exposition. DisneylandHotel, Anaheim, CA. Societyof Manufacturing Engineers,One SME Dr., POB 930,Dearborn, Ml 48121. (313)271-1500. September 23-25

The Eighth NortheastComputer Faire. BaysideExposition Center, Boston.

MA. Computer Faire Inc..181 Wells Ave, Newton, MA02159, (617) 965-83 50.September 26-29

October 1985

UNIX Systems Expo/85-Fall, Bayside ExpositionCenter, Boston. MA. Com-puter Faire Inc.. 181 WellsAve.. Newton. MA 02159,(617) 965-83 50. October 3-5

The Fifth Annual Sym-posium on Small Com-puters in the Arts, Hiltonof Philadelphia, Philadelphia.PA. Small Computers in theArts Network, Symposium,POB 1954, Philadelphia, PA19105. October 5-8

The Sixth Annual Meetingof the American Societyfor Engineering Manage-ment. Portland. OR. Ameri-can Society for EngineeringManagement, 301 HarrisHall, University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, MO 65401-0249,(314) 341-4 560. October 6-8

The Fifth Annual Educa-tional Computer Fair.Cleveland. OH. EducationalComputer Consortium ofOhio. Teacher Center 2711123 S.O.M. Center Rd.,Cleveland, OH 44124. (216)461-0800. October 11-12

The 1985 Association forComputing Machinery An-nual Conference, DenverHilton Hotel, Denver. CO.ACM, 11 West 42nd St.,New York, NY 10036. (212)869-7440. October 14-16

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.

Computers and theDisabled Conference,California State University,Northridge. Dr. Harry I.Murphy, Conference Coor-dinator, Office of DisabledStudent Services, 18111Nordhoff St.. Northridge, CA91330. (818) 885-2578.October 17-19

Computers in Education,Sheraton Centre Hotel, NewYork. NY. Carole Dorn-blaser, Conference Manage-ment Corp., 17 WashingtonSt., Norwalk. CT 06854.(203) 852-0500.October 18-20

Northcon/85 and Mini-Micro Northwest-85,Memorial Coliseum, Port-land, OR. Electronic Conven-tions Management, 8110Airport Blvd., Los Angeles,CA 90045. (213) 772-2965.October 22-1A

The First Annual OpticalDisc/Read-Only MemoryForum, Pentagon QualityInn, Arlington. VA. LearningTechnology Institute. 50Culpeper St., Warrenton, VA22186. (703) 347-0055.October 23-25

The Sixth Annual FederalOffice Automation Con-ference. Convention Center.Washington, DC. FederalOffice Automation Con-ference. POB N, Wayland,MA 01778, (617) 358-5356.October 29-3 1

Computer Technology forthe Handicapped, RadissonSouth Hotel, Minneapolis,MN. Closing the Gap. POB68, Henderson. MN 56044,(612) 248-3294; in Minne-apolis/St. Paul. 341-8299.October 30-Hovember 2 ■

80 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

THE PROFESSIONAL'S CHOICE

Lotus1-2-3

$309

LotusSymphony

$489

dBase III I FrameWork I MultiMate

$369 $369 $249

WordPerfect

$209

Software

Word Processing Editors

FANCY FONT $139

FINAL WORD $189

MICROSOFT WORD $229

MULTIMATE $249OFFICE WRITER/

SPELLER $259

PFS: WRITE $ 95

SAMNA WORD III $259VOLKSWRITER

DELUXE $159VOLKSWRITER

SCIENTIFIC $279THE WORD PLUS

(OASIS) $105

WORD PERFECT $209

WORDSTAR $189

WORDSTAR 2000 $259

WORDSTAR 2000* $299

WORDSTAR PRO $259

XYWRITE II+ $199

Spreadsheets/

Integrated Packages

ELECTRIC DESK $209

ENABLE $359

FRAMEWORK $369

JAZZ $399

LOTUS 1-2-3 $309

MULTIPLAN $135

OPEN ACCESS $359

SAMNA PLUS $379

SMART SYSTEM $559SPREADSHEET

AUDITOR $109

SUPERCALC 3 $179

SYMPHONY $429

Accounting

BPI $319

GREAT PLAINS $479

IUS EASYBUSINESS $279

ONE WRITE PLUS $179

OPEN SYSTEMS $369

PEACHTREE $299

REAL WORLD $369

STATE OF THE ART $389STAR ACCOUNTING

PARTNER $249STAR ACCOUNTING

PARTNER II $549

Desktop Environments

DESK ORGANIZER $ 79

GEM DESKTOP $ 45

SIDEKICK $ 45

Database SystemsALPHA DATA BASE

MANAGER II $179

CLIPPER $499

CLOUT V 2.0 $139

CONDOR III $299

CORNERSTONE $289

DBASE II $299

DBASE III $369

KNOWLEDGEMAN $269PFS: FILE/PFS:

REPORT $169

POWERBASE $319

OUICKCODE III $169

OUICKREPORT $169

R BASE 4000 $249

R BASE 5000 $359

REFLEX $329

REVELATION $729

Languages/Utilities

CONCURRENT DOS $189

C86 C COMPILER $299DIGITAL RESEARCH

C COMPILER $219

OR FORTRAN 77 $219

LATTICE C COMPILER $299MICROSOFT C

COMPILER $249

MS BASIC COMPILER $249

MS FORTRAN $239

NORTON UTILITIES $ 69

TURBO PASCAL $ 59

XENIX Scan

Project ManagementHARVARD PROJECT

MANAGER $209HARVARD TOTAL

PROJECT MANAGER $259MICROSOFT

PROJECT $159

PERTMASTER $549SCITOR PROJECT

5000 W/GRAPHICS $251

SUPERPROJECT $189

TIME LINE $249

Communications/

Productivity Tools

CROSSTALK $105

PROKEY $ 89

RELAY $ 99

REMOTE $119

SMARTCOM II $109

SUPERKEY $ 55

Graphics/StatisticsABSTATAUTOCADBPS BUSINESS

GRAPHICSCHARTMASTERCHARTSTARENERGRAPHICSEXECUVISIONGEM DRAWGRAPHWRITER

COMBOMS CHARTOVERHEAD

EXPRESSPC DRAWPC PAINTBRUSHPC PAINTPFS: GRAPHSIGNMASTERSTATGRAPHICSSTATPAK-NWASTATPAC-

WALONICKSYSTAT

$279

SCall

$229$229$169$199$259$ 99

$359$159

$109$249$ 89$ 79$ 95$165$595$329

$349$419

Professional Development

EXPERTEDGE SCall

LIGHTYEAR $329

MANAGEMENT EDGE $159

SALES EDGE $159

THINK TANK $119

Personal FinanceDOLLARS AND

SENSE $119HOWARD TAX

PREPARER 85 $195MANAGING YOUR

MONEY $119

Hardware*

AccessoriesCURTIS SURGE

PROTECTORS Scan

DATASHtELD BACKUP

POWER SCall

GILTRONIX A/B SWITCH SCallMICROBUFFER INLINE

(64K) SCall

MICROFAZER INLINE

(64K) $219

256K RAM SET $ 49

8087 MATH CHIP $125

Multifunction Boards

AST ADVANTAGE $389

AST 6 PAK PLUS (64K) $259

AST 6 PAK PLUS (384K) $299ORCHID BLOSSOM

(OK) $209ORCHID BLOSSOM

(384K) $269

ORCHID PC TURBO $699PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM

(OK) $209PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM

(384K) $269

QUADBOARD (OK) $229

OUADBOARD (384K) $269TECMAR CAPTAIN

(OK) $189TECMAR CAPTAIN

(384K) $269TECMAR JR CAPTAIN

(128K) $329

TECMAR JR WAVE (64K) $249

TECMAR MAESTRO $429

TECMAR WAVE (64K) $209

Display BoardsEVEREX GRAPHICS

EDGE $329

HERCULES GRAPHICS

CARD $299

HERCULES COLOR

CARD $159

PARADISE MODULAR

GRAPHICS $275

PARADISE

MULTIDISPLAY CARD $295

DisplaysAMOEK310APRINCETON HX-12PRINCETON MAX-12EPRINCETON SR-12PRINCETON HX-12EPRINCETON HX-9QUADRAM

AMBERCHROMETAXAN 122 AMBERTAXAN 420/440ZENITH 124 AMBERZENITH 135 COLOR

$169$459$179$589

SCall

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ModemsAST REACH 1200HAYES 1200HAYES 1200BHAYES 2400VENTEL 1200HALF CARD

$179$159

$399/599$145

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Emulation Boards

AST

CXI 3278/9 Plus

IRMA

IRMALINE

IRMAPRINTNetworks

AST PC NET

CORVUS NET

ORCHID PC NET

3COM

$429

$199$529$289

$309

$469$399$349

SCall$959$799$999

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Mass Storage/BackupALLOY MT25 TAPE (EXT) $895

CORE 56MB (AT) $3595IOMEGA BERNOULLI

BOX $2595IRWIN 310A 10MB TAPE

(EXT) $850

SYSGEN IMAGE $850

TALLGARSS TG5025 $2845TECMAR OIC-60H TAPE

(EXT) $1499TECMAR QIC-60AT TAPE

(INT) $1199

Printers/Plotters

C. ITOH SCall

DIABLO SCall

EPSON FX-80* $349

EPSON FX-100+ $499

EPSON LQ-1500 $999

HP 7475A PLOTTER SCall

JUKI 6100 $419

NEC P3 $799

NEC 3550 $1139

OKIDATA SCall

PANASONIC SCall

QUME SPRINT 1155 $1569

TOSHIBA PI340 $629

TOSHIBA P351 $1279

Input Devices

KEYTRONIC5151 $179

KOALA SCall

MICROSOFT MOUSE $139

PC MOUSE W PAINT $159

TsengUltra Pak

$399

LOWEST PRICEGUARANTEE!!

We will match current

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$Call

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Smartmodem1200B

$365

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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 tax.Ail prices subject to change.

Mssm

MON.-THURS. 9:00AM-8:00PMSUN. & FRI. 9:00AM-4:00PM

Softline CorporationP.O. Box 729, Brooklyn,TELEX: 421047 ATLN Ul

11230

SEPTEMBER 198*> -BYTE 81

AT

(■HI

COMPAQ could have stopped here 'm

COMPAQ* is a registered trademark; COMPAQ PORTABLE 286'" and COMPAQ DESKPRO 286™ are trademarks of COMPAQ Computer Corporation. IBM* is a registered trademark; IBM Personal Computer AT" is a trademark ofInternational Business Machines Corporation ©1985 COMPAQ Computer Corporation

...but we didn't.

Introducing the new COMPAQ PORTABLE 286!More features, more speed.. .more useful.

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Room to grow

Once we got started, it was hard to stop.There's room for up to three internalstorage devices. Choose from 1.2-Megabyte or 360-K byte diskette

~ ni'

It simply works better.

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Add up to 640-K bytes of memoryon the main board. Then add up to2 more Megabytes using an expan-sion board. That gives you more mem-ory than most desktop computers.

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For a free brochure or thelocation of your nearest Au-thorized COMPAQ Com-puter Dealer, call toll-free1-800-231-0900 and ask foroperator 6.

comma

£

BYTE

Features

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar:Build the SB180 Single-BoardComputer. Part 1: The Hardware

by Steve Garcia 86

Programming ProiectAn Analysis of Sortsby \onathan Amsterdam 104

The DSI-32 Coprocessor BoardPart 2: The Software

by Trevor G. Marshall. George Scolaro.

David L. Rand, lorn King.

and Vincent P. Williams 116

An Algorithm for Disk Cachingwith Limited Memory

by Brian McKeon 129

ASTROPHYSICAL NUMBER CRUNCHING

by A. G. W. Cameron 141

Two Generalized Floating-PointRepresentations

by David Salomon 154

Turbo Pascal Drives the Mouse

by \ohn Figueras 161

IBM Compatibility for theNEC APC III

by Herbert Stein 171

Programming InsightBuild a Travesty Tree

by Peter Wayner 183

Programming InsightPrinting Pascal Graphics

by Kelly W. Davis 193

THE CIRCUIT CELLAR project this month is the innovative SB180 single-boardcomputer. Steve says that the SB180 reasserts 8-bit computing in a 16-bit world.This first part of a two-part article describes the HD64180 chip used, givesan overview of the evolution of CP/M, and describes the design of thecomputer.

In this month's Programming Project, lonathan Amsterdam discusses sort-ing in the context of three different algorithms: Selection Sort, for small lists,Quicksort, for larger lists, and Mergesort, for lists so large they can't fit intomemory all at once.

This month we have part 2 of a two-part series describing Definicon SystemsInc.'s DSI-32 32032 coprocessor board for the IBM PC. This part focuses onthe software available for the board.

"An Algorithm for Disk Caching with Limited Memory" by Brian McKeonpresents a set of C functions that use a small amount of memory to storecopies of disk sectors and improve floppy-disk performance. This algorithmis especially helpful when memory space is at a minimum.

Harvard astronomy professor A. G. W. Cameron describes his experienceswith number crunching on a progression of computers—beginning in themid-1950s, when he was working with an IBM 602A, to the present, with PCXT clones—in "Astrophysical Number Crunching."

"Two Generalized Floating-Point Representations" by David Salomon offerstwo designs, partitioned and variable-based, for support devices that handlefloating-point numbers in formats other than the traditional S E F.

In "Turbo Pascal Drives the Mouse," John Figueras details a procedure thataccesses MS-DOS functions and interrupts and interfaces the Microsoft Mousewith Pascal.

Herbert Stein made some changes to his APC III and ended up with whathe considers the fastest low-cost IBM PC clone currently available. His operating-system patch and other upgrades are described in "IBM Compatibility for theNEC APC III."

This month we have another follow-up to last November's "TravestyGenerator for Micros" by Hugh Kenner and loseph O'Rourke. In "Build a Traves-ty Tree," Peter Wayner explains that tree data structures handle large problemsmuch faster than the method described in the original article.

"Printing Pascal Graphics" by Kelly W. Davis presents a screen-dump pro-gram that simplifies graphics creation in Apple Pascal with any MX-seriesprinter from Epson.

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 85

86 BYTE' SEPTEMBER

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS

CIARCIAS CIRCUIT CELLAR

BUILD THE

SB180 SINGLE-BOARD

COMPUTER

PART 1: THE HARDWAREby Steve Ciarcia

This computer reasserts 8-bit computingin a 16-bit world

Newer, faster, better.These words are screamedat you in ads and reviewsof virtually every newcomputer that comes tomarket. Unfortunately,many of the proponentsof this rhetoric are going on hearsayevidence. While advertising hype has itsplace in our culture, a more thorough in-vestigation may lead you to alternativeconclusions.

Generally speaking, quotes of increasedperformance are basically comparisons ofCPU (central processing unit) instructiontimes rarely involving the operating system.The 68000 is indeed a more capable pro-cessor than the 6502, but that doesn't nec-essarily mean that commercial applicationprograms always run faster because theCPU has more capability. People owning128K-byte Macintoshes have discoveredthis.

The bus size of the processor is only onefactor in the performance of a computersystem. Operating-system design and pro-gramming styles contribute much more tothe overall throughput of a computer. It isnot enough to simply compare 8 to 16 bitsor 16 to 32 bits. For example, the Sieve ofEratosthenes prime-number benchmarkruns faster in BASIC on the 8-bit 8052-basedcontroller board presented in last month's

Circuit Cellar than it does on a 16-bit IBMPC.

The ultimate performance of a computeris the sum of its subsystem interaction timesand not just the CPU execution speed.Using a simple database-management pro-gram involves interaction among the userinput device, operating system, disk drives,firmware, system memory, and user outputdevices. Slow communication or a bottle-neck between any two of these subsystemscan degrade the performance of the entirecomputer.

In my opinion, the processor/operatingsystem connection contributes most to usersatisfaction. In the days before the IBM PC,the de facto computer standard was the8080/Z80 and CP/M 2.2. Unfortunately, soft-ware developers considered it difficult touse, especially in turnkey applications. Thefrustration of having to warm-boot the sys-tem merely to change disks and the lack ofa PATH command created many ready-and-willing PC-DOS customers. If only therewere an 8-bit operating system with thecapabilities and friendliness of MS-DOS.

[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

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 87

CIRCUIT CELLAR

The Z80 is still considered a high-performance CPU. In reality, the 8-bitprocessor is a cost-effective and effi-cient choice for personal computersand industrial controllers. (Rememberthat peripheral support chips such asPIAs Iperipheral interface adaptersland floppy-disk controllers are 8-bitdevices, as are many memory chips.)One problem is that the Z80 has anaddress limitation of 64K bytes, whichdiscourages the use of 50K-byte BASICinterpreters and lOOK-byte integratedspreadsheet programs common toIBM PC users. While additional mem-ory has been added through hard-ware bank switching, it has never beenproperly integrated into the CP/Moperating system, and its function iskludgy. If only someone would designa Z80 chip that directly addressesmore than 64K bytes.

The Circuit Cellar SB180

Hitachi has recently developed aCMOS (complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor) Z80-code-compatibleprocessor, designated the HD64180,that directly addresses 512K bytes.Echelon Systems has developed anoperating system for the processorthat is an amalgam of CP/M, MS-DOS.

and UNIX. This operating system iscalled the Z-System. Using theHD64180 and the Z-System. I haveproduced a computer that reasserts8-bit computing in a 16-bit world andoutperforms a standard IBM PC by 20to 100 percent.

In this two-part article. I take a lookat the Hitachi HD64180 and the evolu-tion of CP/M as embodied in theZ-System. The hardware project is asingle-board computer (4 by 7'/2inches) called the SB180, which is the29-chip equivalent of a large S-100system (see photos 1 and 2). Refer tofigure 1 for a block diagram of theSB180 board.

The Circuit Cellar SB180 has thefollowing capabilities:

• 2 56K-byte on-board RAM (random-access read/write memory), which canbe partitioned as 64K-byte systemmemory and 192K-byte RAM disk oras paged system memory

• 32K-byte EPROM (erasable pro-grammable read-only memory)

• full ROM-based monitor with sys-tem-disk boot

• two RS-232C serial ports, one withautomatic data-transmission-ratedetection

Photo 2: The SB180 shown beside a V/i-inch disk drive and an 8-inch disk drive.

• a Centronics parallel printer port

• single/double-density program-mable floppy-disk controller capableof handling a mix of up to four 3'/2-.5!4-. or 8-inch drives: different-sizedrives can run concurrently

• requires only +5 volts (V) and+ 12 V for operation (+ 12 V only forRS-2 32C)

• I/O (input/output) expansion bus

• fits on a 4- by 7/2-inch board thatmounts directly to a 5!4- or 3'/2-inchfloppy-disk drive

Disk-based software includes theZ-System DOS (disk operating sys-tem), a debugger, and HD64180 as-sembler.

While this is in fact a hardware proj-ect, true functionality would be an ex-ercise left to you readers were it notfor the operating system and BIOS(basic input/output system) specifical-ly written and adapted to the SB 180.The combination of the HD64180 andZ-System is what gives this tiny com-puter so much power. Much of theproject description therefore has tobe the software that uniquely sets per-formance levels far above traditional8-bit computer designs. I don't wantto diminish the significance of thehardware, but I am a realist.

This month, I'd like to describe theHD64180 chip and give an overviewof the changing evolution of CP/M asit pertains to this project. After that.I'll describe the design of the SB180.Next month will be dedicated to theoperating-system software and BIOS.

CP/M and Beyond

Anyone who has been involved withmicrocomputers for more than twoyears acknowledges the tremendousimpact of CP/M upon the history ofpersonal computing. While hobbyistswere still debating whether the "stan-dard'' tape format should be KansasCity CUTS (cassette user tape system)or Tarbell. Gary Kildall made CP/Mavailable at a reasonable price. Itquickly became the de facto standardDOS for 8080- and Z80-based micro-computers. With a "standard'' oper-ating system and a "standard" 8-inchdisk format, entrepreneurial program-

88

BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

mers saw the opportunity to writeserious business applications thatneeded disk capability to be viableand that could be sold to thousandsof CP/M machine owners.

The first major commercial releaseof CP/M was version 1.4. In an effortto fix some bugs and improve its file-handling capabilities and limits, it wasupgraded first to version 2.0 andquickly to version 2.2. Version 2.2 hasbeen a stable product that is familiarto most readers of BYTE. Version 3.0,or CP/M Plus, has been available forabout two years, but it hasn't matchedthe popularity of version 2.2. WhileCP/M Plus does offer some advancedfeatures, it is not significantly betterthan version 2.2.

CP/M has many quirks and short-comings. Having to warm-boot thesystem when changing disks is amajor inconvenience, and nameddirectories would be more convenientthan trying to remember disk designa-tors and user-area numbers. Almostno file or system security is provided.CP/M 2.2 does not support redirectionof I/O devices, as MS-DOS and UNIXdo. Even the MS-DOS batch facilitybeats CP/M's more primitive Submitand XSUB two ways from Sunday;CP/M lacks conditional testing at thecommand level.

Many system integrators decryCP/M's lack of a good menu utility tointegrate stand-alone, executable pro-grams. Command-line editing isprimitive, and multiple commands onone line would be appreciated;creating a single-name "alias" formultiple commands would be evenbetter. Since CP/M has no search path(a la PC-DOS and UNIX), you musteither keep multiple copies of often-used programs in many different userareas (wasting disk space) or patchCP/M with a software kludge to makeuser area 0 accessible from all userareas (even that doesn't help if youneed to access a file from user area3 while you are in user area 7). ManyCP/M users supplement their systemutilities with more useful public-domain programs like XDIR, DU, CRC,Help, Unerase, and Diff. It's too badthat CP/M wasn't upgraded more

CONSOLE SERIAL

PORT

RS-232C

AUXILIARY

SERIAL

PORT RS-232C

12.288MHz

I*,

8-32K

-BYTE

256K-

BYTE

HD64180

l

1

CONTROL

DATA

FLOPPY-DISKCONTROLLER

PARALLELPORT

i1!

'

' '

3 1/2 in. +5 1/4 in.DRIVES

8 in.DRIVES

CENTRONICSPRINTER

Figure 1: Block diagram of the SB 180 single-board computer.

regularly so that it could have evolvedinto a more mature product.

These observations are certainly notunique. When millions of people usea computer and its operating systemin an attempt to become more pro-ductive in some way, obstacles to ef-ficiency and productivity are boundto show up. Computer users who havehad experience with many differentoperating systems will miss certainfeatures to which they had becomeaccustomed. And creative individualsof all types always can think of a "bet-ter way" to perform some functionalready provided.

One of the best-known attempts toimprove CP/M was ZCPR (Z80 com-mand processor replacement), devel-oped under the direction of RickConn. ZCPR was written to replace theconsole command processor (CCP)supplied with CP/M. This public-domain software featured scaled-down features of UNIX appropriatefor a single-user CP/M system. How-ever, since it was designed to fit intothe same 2K-byte space as the CCP,it was limited in what it could offer.It did make user area 0 "public" sothat executable programs there couldbe invoked from other user areas. Italso changed the prompt so that it in-

dicated the user area as well as thedrive currently logged in. As a resultof user feedback, ZCPR2 evolved asan extended version of ZCPR. How-ever, it required much more technicalsophistication to install it into a CP/Msystem, and it started patching intoand replacing parts of CP/M itself.

Within the past year, Echelon Inc.released ZCPR3, a much-improvedversion of ZCPR2. which providessolutions to all the problems withCP/M 2.2 and adds more features.Echelon has also developed a com-plete replacement for CP/M 2.2 in theform of the Z-System. It is composedof two major sections: ZCPR 3 andZRDOS. ZRDOS completely replacesCP/M's BDOS (basic disk operatingsystem).

Written entirely in Z80 assembly lan-guage, the Z-System offers thebenefits derived from the expandedZ80 instruction set (CP/M is 8080code only) and from fixing bugs inCP/M 2.2 itself. It is downward-com-patible with all CP/M software andtakes advantage not only of the Z80instruction set but of the HitachiHD64180 CPU as well. Echelon pro-vides both the operating system anda macro-relocating assembly lan-

(continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 89

CIRCUIT CELLAR

guage with linker and librarian, trans-lators, and debuggers. The operat-ing-system utilities, based on manygood public-domain utilities, have allbeen rewritten to have a consistentuser interface and make optimum useof ZCPR3 facilities.

The Z-System will be discussedmore completely in next month's ar-ticle. Suffice it to say, it has significant-ly greater utility and functionality thanMS-DOS or plain CP/M. Table 1 gives

a comparison of the three operating

systems.

The Hitachi HD64180

The Hitachi HD64180 is based on amicrocoded execution unit and ad-vanced CMOS manufacturing tech-nology. It provides the benefits ofhigh performance, reduced systemcost, and low-power operation whilemaintaining complete compatibilitywith the large base of standard CP/M

Table 1: A comparison of the Z-System, CP/M 2.2, and MS-DOS.

Feature

Z-System

CP/M 2.2

MS-DOS

Software-compatible with CP/M 2.2

/e?

yes

no

No warm boot required when changing disks

yes

-z

yes

Multiple commands per line

yes

no

no

Named directories

yes

no

yes

Password protection for directories

yes

no

no

Dynamically variable user privilege levels

for commands

yes

no

no

Searching of alternate directories for invoked

programs and files

yes

no

partial

Terminal-independent video capabilities

yes

no

no

Input/output redirection

yes

no

yes

Conditional testing and execution at the

operating-system level (IF/ELSE/ENDIF)

yes

no

no

Shells and menu generators with shell variables

yes

no

no

Tree-structured on-line help and documentation

subsystem

yes

no

no

512-megabyte file sizes, 8-gigabyte disks

yes

no

no

Complete error trapping with recovery, customizable

messages, and prompts

yes

no

no

Screen-oriented file manipulation and automatic

archiving and backup

yes

no

no

Full-screen command-line editing with previous-

command recall and execution

yes

no

no

Table 2: A comparison of some 8-bit processors.

HD64180

8080/85/Z80

NSC800

Z800

80188

Process

CMOS

NMOS

CMOS

NMOS

NMOS

Power

100 mW

1 W

100 mW

2 W

2 W

Maximum clock

10 MHz

8 MHz

4 MHz

10 MHz

8 MHz

Address space

512K bytes

64K bytes

64K bytes

512K bytes

1 megabyte

UARTs

2-ch,

no

no

1-ch,

no

DMAC

2-ch.

no

no

4-ch.

2-ch.

Timers

2-ch.

no

no

4-ch,

2-ch.

Clocked Sl/O

yes

no

no

no

no

CS/wait logic

yes

no

no

yes

yes

DRAM refresh

yes

yes (Z80)

no

yes

no

Note The availability of the Zil

og Z800 is unknown, and specifications or

it are

subject to change.

software. The HD64180 can be com-bined with CMOS VLSI (very-large-scale integration) memories and pe-ripheral devices to form the basis forprocess-control applications requiringhigh performance, battery-poweroperation, and standard softwarecompatibility.

Performance is derived from a highclock speed (6 MHz now. 9 MHz in thenear future), instruction speedup, andan integrated memory-managementunit (MMU) with 512K bytes of mem-ory address space. The instruction setis a superset of the Z80 instructionset: 12 new instructions include hard-ware multiply. DMA (direct memoryaccess), I/O, TEST, and a SLEEP in-struction for low-power operation.

The HD64180 requires operation atspecific frequencies in order togenerate standard data-transmissionrates. The standard operating fre-quency for the SB180 is 6.144 MHz(12.288-MHz crystal). Other frequen-cies that maintain standard data-transmission rates are 3.072 MHz.4.608 MHz, and (later) 9.216 MHz.

System costs are reduced becausemany key system functions have beenincluded on this 64-pin chip. Table 2compares the HD64180 with other8-bit processors.

The block diagram in figure 2 showsthat the HD64180 CPU is composedof five functional blocks:

• Central processing unit: The CPU ismicrocoded to implement an upward-compatible superset of the Z80 in-struction set. Besides the 12 "new in-structions, many instructions executein fewer clock cycles than on a stan-dard Z80.

• Clock generator: This generates thesystem clock from an external crystalor external clock input. The clock isprogrammably prescaled to generatetiming for the on-chip I/O and system-support devices.

• Bus-state controller: This controllerperforms all status/control bus activi-ty, including external bus-cycle wait-state timing. RESET. DRAM (dynamicRAM) refresh, and master DMA busexchange. It generates dual-bus"control signals for compatibility with

90 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

both 68xx and 80xx family devices.

• Interrupt controller: The interruptcontroller monitors and gives priori-ties to the four external and eight in-ternal interrupt sources. A variety ofinterrupt-response modes are pro-grammable.

• Memory-management unit: TheMMU maps the CPU's 64K-byte logical-

memory address space into a 512K-byte physical-memory address space.The MMU organization preservessoftware object-code compatibilitywhile providing extended memory ac-cess and uses an efficient commonarea/bank area scheme. I/O accesses(64K bytes of I/O address space)bypass the MMU.

The integrated I/O resources com-prise the remaining four functionalblocks:

• Direct-memory-access controller(DMAC): The two-channel DMAC pro-vides high-speed memory-to-memorymemory-to-I/Q and memory-to-mem-

{amtinued)

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TIMINGGENERATOR

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INTERRUPT

CPU

A18/T0UT

TXSRXS/CTS1 ■CKS ■

DMACs(2)

■DREQ1

■TEND1

ASYNCHRONOUSSCI(CHANNEL 0)

ASYNCHRONOUSSC I(CHANNEL 1)

♦♦CKA0/DREQ0 RXAO

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— cTso

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INT2STAOCAlA2CA3CA4CZA5CA6A7A8

A9A10A11CA12CA13CA14CA15CA16CA17CA18/OUTCVccC

HD64180

1

2

3

4

5

S

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

2223242526272829303132

646362616059585756555453525150494847464544

43

42414039383736353433

3f_

3 RD

3 WR

3 Or

:e_

3 ME

310I3 RTF

3 HALT

3 TENDl3 DREQl3 CKSI] RXS/CTS13 TXS

3 CKA1/TEND0

3 RXAl

3 TXAl

3 CKA0/DREQ0

3 RXAO

3TXA0

3 DCDO

3 CTSO

3RTS0

3 D7

3 D6

3 D5

3 D4

3 D3

3 D2

3 Dl

3 DO

3VSS

Figure 2: Block diagram and pin-out of the Hitachi HD64180.

SEPTEMBER 1?

iYTE

CIRCUIT CELLAR

ory-mapped-l/O transfer The DMACfeatures edge or level sense-requestinput, address increment/decrement/no change, and (for memory-to-mem-ory transfer) programmable-burst orcycle-steal transfer. In addition, theDMAC can directly access the full512K bytes of physical-memory ad-dress space (the MMU is bypassedduring DMA) and transfers (up to 64Kbytes in length) can cross 64K-byteboundaries. At 6 MHz, DMA is 1megabyte per second.• Asynchronous serial communicationinterface (ASCI): The ASCI providestwo full-duplex UARTs (universal asyn-chronous receiver/transmitters) andincludes a programmable data-trans-mission-rate generator, modem-control signals, and a multiprocessorcommunication format. The ASCI can

use the DMAC for high-speed serialdata transfer, reducing CPU overhead.

• Clocked serial I/O port (CSI/O): TheCSI/O provides a half-duplex clockedserial transmitter and receiver. Thiscan be used for high-speed connec-tion to another microcomputer.

• Programmable reload timer (PRT):The PRT contains two separate chan-nels, each consisting of 16-bit timerdata and 16-bit timer-reload registers.The time base is divided by 20 fromthe system clock, and one PRT chan-nel has an optional output allowingwaveform generation.

SB180 Design Criteria

With all this functionality on one chip,you can see why so few additionalchips are needed to implement a trulysophisticated 8-bit single-board com-

puter in such a small space (less than30 square inches). In terms of theoriginal Altair microcomputer of 10years ago, the functionally equivalentmachine would have taken about 3 5S-100 boards for a total of 17 50square inches (and that's using 8K-byte memory boards!).

In order to reduce chip count fur-ther, I decided to use an enhancedfloppy-disk-controller chip (FDC) fromStandard Microsystems Corporation,the 9266 (see figure 3). This 40-pinDIP (dual in-line package) chip issoftware-compatible with the in-dustry-standard NEC 765A FDC andis actually an integrated combinationof SMC's 9229 digital data separatorand an NEC 765A FDC. It is compati-ble with single- and double-sided 3/2-,5/4- (40- and 80-track), and 8-inch

DB0-

DATA-BUSBUFFER

TERMINAL •COUNT

DRQ ■*-DACK —INT •»-RD —WR —Ao —RESET —

READ/

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GND

REGISTERS

SERIAL-INTERFACECONTROLLER

DATA

SEPARATOR

AND

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LOGIC

DRIVE-INTERFACECONTROLLER

INPUTPORT

OUTPUTPORT

-DSK DATA•WDOUT

-P0-PI-P2

■READY

•WRITE PROTECT/

TWO SIDE•INDEX

• FAULT/TRACK 0

■ MINI

■UNIT SELECT 0•UNIT SELECT 1•MFM MODE

■RW SEEK

. HEAD LOAD

• HEAD SELECT

•LOW CURRENT/DIRECTION

•FAULT RESET/STEP

FDC9266

RESET C

1

40

3

RD C

2

39

U

WR C

3

38

=1

CS c

4

37

=1

A0C

5

36

=1

DBoC

6

35

D

DBjC

^

34

=1

DB2C

8

33

=1

DB3C

9 r

-]32

D

DB4C

10 L

J 31

=1

DB5C

11

30

D

DB61Z

12

29

n

DB7C

13

28

D

DRQ C

14

27

=1

DACK C

15

26

=1

TCC

16

25

D

IDX d

17

24

Zl

INTC

18

23

D

TESTC

19

22

D

GND C

20

21

D

Vcc

RW/SEEK

LCT/DIR

FR/STP

HDL

RDY

WP/TS

FLT/TRo

P2

PI

WDOUT

US0

US,

HD

MFM

WE

P0

DSKD

CLK

MINI

Figure 3: Block diagram and pin-out of SMC's 9266.

92 BYTE- SEFTEMBER

CIRCUIT CELLAR

drives; the data separator handlesboth single- and double-density data.This means that it can be pro-grammed to read and write most soft-sectored CP/M disk formats.

With the HD64180's two-channelASCI built in, two serial ports were in-cluded in the design automatically.Provision was made for a Centronicsparallel printer port as well. Since2 56K-bit DRAM chips are now plenti-ful and inexpensive, eight were usedfor memory (64K-bit DRAMs can alsobe used). Because only 64K bytes isused for the logical-memory addressspace, you can optionally designatethe other 192K bytes as a RAM diskin the operating system, or you mayprefer to use if for other purposes(such as implementing banked mem-ory for CP/M Plus).

The SB180 Hardware

Figure 4 is the schematic diagram ofthe SB180 computer. Its design isprimarily characterized by the high-performance, high-density MOS(metal-oxide semiconductor) devices,including 2 56K-bit DRAMs.

In addition to the CPU elementspreviously discussed, the SB 180 sys-tem design implements the followingfunctional blocks: RS-2 32C interface,memory interface, Centronics printerinterface, floppy-disk interface, XBUSexpansion bus, and power supply.

RS-232C Interface

The HD64180 ASCI two-channelUART is connected to 1488/1489RS-232C line drivers/receivers to pro-vide two separate ports. ASCI chan-nel 1 is used for the console; ASCIchannel 0 is used for auxiliaryRS-232C devices like printers, plotters,and modems. This distinction is madebecause modems require the extrahandshake signals that are availablewith ASCI channel 0, while terminalsdo not. All primary RS-232C param-eters (data-transmission rate, hand-shaking, data format, interrupts) aresoftware-programmable.

Memory Interface

The SB180 incorporates a 28-pinboot-ROM socket that can be

jumpered to hold 8K by 8-bit, 16K by8-bit, and 32K by 8-bit memorydevices. The boot ROM (contains diskboot and ROM monitor) occupies thebottom 2 56K bytes of the HD64180physical-memory address space sinceit is selected whenever A18/TOUT islow. (Note: The TOUT timer outputfunction is not used.) Thus, the boot-ROM contents (whatever the size) aresimply repeated in the lower 2 56Kbytes. The boot-ROM outputJOE) isenabled by the HD64180 ME (mem-ory enable) signal. (As configured, themaximum RAM on the SB180 is 2 56Kbytes. To support larger memories,additional address decoding wouldbe required to designated RAM andROM areas in the current 2 56K-byteboot-ROM space.)

ROMs of 200 nanoseconds (and.marginally, 2 50 ns) can operate withone wait state.

At RESET, the HD64180 begins exe-cution at physical address 00000, thestart of the boot ROM. [Editor's note: Alladdresses are in hexadecimal]

256K-bit Dynamic RAM

Standard 2 56K-bit 150-ns DRAMs, re-quiring 2 56 refresh cycles (8-bit re-fresh address) every 4 milliseconds(ms) are used. These DRAMs occupythe top 2 56K bytes of the HD64180512K-byte physical-memory addressspace.

The interface is quite straightfor-ward. Complete DRAM refresh con-trol is provided by the HD64180 inconjunction with control logic IC14and IC22 and address multiplexersIC11, IC12, and IG3.

The HD64180 WR output directlygenerates DRAM WE. The HD64180ME output directly generates RAS.During normal read/write cycles (A18high, REF high), CAS goes low at thenext rising edge of <$> following the ris-ing edge of E (enable). This providesplenty of setup time for the addressmultiplexers since the rising edge ofE switches the address multiplexersfrom row to column addresses.

RAS-only refresh is used. TheHD64180 generates the refresh ad-dresses. During refresh cycles (REFlow), ME generates RAS, while CAS is

suppressed at IC22.

The HD64I80 can be programmedto generate refresh cycles every 10,20, 40, or 80 <f> cycles as well as select-ing a refresh every two or three clockcycles. Since the DRAM requires arefresh cycle every 15.62 5 microsec-onds (/xs) (4 ms/256). the HD64180 isprogrammed for 80-cycle refresh re-quest since 80 x (1/6.144 MHz) =13.02 ^s. Two-cycle refresh is also pro-grammed. Thus, refresh overhead isonly 2.5 percent (2 cycles every 80cycles).

Centronics Printer Interface

The Centronics printer interface iscomposed of the 8-bit latch 1C9 andflip/flop 1C10. The Centronics port isdecoded at I/O address 0C0 by IC26.To write to the printer, the followingsequence is used:

Write data to port 0C1

This sets up the data to the printerand asserts STB low. The followingsequence:

Write data to port 0C0

deasserts the printer STB signal high.

When the printer has processed thedata, it will return the ACK signal,which generates an external interrupt(INT 1) to the HD64180. The interrupthandler clears the interrupt by per-forming a dummy output to port 0C0.This clears the INT 1 interrupt request.

The printer interface is not buffered,so compatibility with all printer/cablesetups cannot be guaranteed. In prac-tice, however, problems should berare since the software scheme pro-vides adequate data-setup and -holdtimes. Also, note that this printer in-terface is interrupt-driven, whichallows high-performance operation. Ina more primitive polling design, ex-cessive overhead limits acceptableperformance in applications like back-ground print spooling.

Floppy-Disk Interface

SMCs 9266 FDC manages almost alldetails of the drive interface, includingdata separation and (with externallogic IC22 and IC23) programmable

[continued]

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 93

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CIRCUIT CELLAR

write precompensation. The 9266. asmentioned earlier, combines the NEC765A/Intel 8272 FDC with SMC's9229 digital data separator Thus,from the host CPU side, the 9266looks just like these devices, includinghardware and software compatibility.The 9266 clock is generated by an8-MHz oscillator composed of acrystal and IC21. lumpers are pro-vided to select write precompensa-

tion and allow 8-inch floppy-diskdrives to be interfaced.

On the CPU side, the key require-ments are interfacing the 9266 withboth programmed I/O (CS|. for thingslike initialization and status check, andwith DMA (DRQ. DACK). for datatransfer.

Programmed I/O is straightforward,with CS generated for I/O address 80,and RD and WR directly generated by

Table 3: Power connections for figure 4.

+ 5 V

GND +12 V -8V

IC1 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC2 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC3 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC4 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC5 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC6 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC7 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC8 50256 DRAM 150 ns

8

16

—

IC9 74LS374

16

8

—

•

IC10 74LS74

14

7

—

IC11 74LS157

16

8

—

IC12 74LS157

16

8

—

IC13 74LS157

16

8

—

IC14 74LS74

14

7

—

IC15 74LS74

14

7

—

IC16 2764 monitor ROM 200 ns

28

14

—

IC17 1488

—

7 14

IC18 HD64180

32

1,33

—

IC19 1489

14

7

—

IC20 (74LS156) optional

16

8

—

IC21 74LS240

20

10

—

IC22 74LS00

14

7

—

IC23 74LS240

20

10

—

IC24 FDC 9266

40

20

—

IC25 74LS158

16

8

—

IC26 74LS139

16

8

—

IC27 7407

14

7

—

IC28 7406

14

7

—

IC29 7660 regulator

-

3

-

Jumpers

JP1 (1x3) ROM size

JP2 (1x3) RAM size

JP3 (1x3) CTS0 disable

JP4 (1x5) RS-232C gate output

JP5 (1x3) RS-232C gate input

JP6 (1x2) Drive without ready

JP7 (1x3) Write precomp mode

JP8 (2x6) Write precomp value

JP9 (1x3) Single-/double-sided drive

JP10 2 - 1x3 TXS function/drive size

the HD64180. This is the samescheme used to interface with other80xx family peripheral devices.

DMA is a little more involved. First.DMAC channel l is used for the FDCsince dedicated handshaking lines(DREQl. TEND1) are provided on theHD64180. Since DMAC channel 0control lines are multiplexed (withASCI clocks), DMAC channel 0 is usedfor memory-memory DMA. Thismeans that the ASCI clock functionsare available, although they are notcurrently used in this design.

For disk DMA, the 9266 assertsDRQ, which in turn causes HD64180DREQl assertion. The HD64I80 per-forms DMA reads/writes to I/O ad-dress^ 0A0, which causes the 9266DACK to be asserted, completing thetransfer cycle. After the DMACs pro-grammed number of reads/writes hascompleted, the HD64I80 TENDl out-put is asserted and. after inversion,causes the 9266 TC (terminal count)input to be asserted, completing theDMA operation. This is typicallyfollowed by the 9266 generating anHD64180 INT 2 external interrupt.This interrupt-service routine can readthe 9266s status to determine iferrors occurred, etc.

However, one "gotcha." fixed by flip/flop IC14. conditions the 9266 DRQoutput. It turns out that if 9266 DRQdirectly generates HD64I80 DREQl,the HD64180 may respond too quick-ly. This is because HD64180 DREQ in-put logic was designed to minimizelatency, and DREQ can thus berecognized at a machine-cycle break-point. Unfortunately, the 9266 re-quires that at least 800 ns elapse fromthe time it asserts DRQ before theDMA transfer (DACK) actually occurs.In other words, when the 9266 "asks"for service, it really doesn't want it . . .yet! To prevent accessing the 9266 tooquickly after DRQ, DRQ from the 9266is delayed at IC14 before issuing theDREOT to the HD64180. DRQ isdelayed by one REF cycle time.

Minifloppy double-density datatransfers occur at a 2 50-kilohertz(kHz) data rate. Thus, each byte mustbe read within 32 /*s. The disk-driversoftware reprograms the refresh-

98 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

CIRCUIT CELLAR

request rate from every 80 </> cyclesto every 40 $ cycles prior to diskDMA and reassigns it back to 80 <t>cycles after the disk DMA is com-pleted. The 9266 DRQ is delayed frombetween 40 </> cycles to 79 <j> cycles.This is about 6 to 14 ^s. Therefore, the800-ns delay and 32-/xs data-transferconstraint are both met. Note that8-inch floppy double-density datatransfer is twice as fast (500 kHz) andrequires a refresh-rate increase toevery 20 <j> cycles.

EXPANSION^BUS

The spare CS from address decoder1C26 (I/O addresses 0E0 to OFF) andall major buses (address, data, con-trol) are routed to the expansion bus.This allows an I/O expansion-boardcapability. The full complement ofHD64180 control signals (IOE, E, RD,WR, etc.) allows easy interface to allstandard peripheral LSI (large-scale in-tegration) devices, including the 80xx.68xx, and 65xx families. Example ex-pansion boards could include a hard-disk controller, 1200-bits-per-second(bps) modem, or LAN (local-area net-work) interface.

Power Supply

The SB 180 requires +5-V and + 12-Vpower. A negative voltage isgenerated on board, which is usedonly by the RS-232C driver. Thenegative voltage is obtained by usinga Zener diode to obtain +9 V from+ 12 V which is then inverted using anIntersil 7660 converter. The +12-Vpower is used only for the RS-232Cdriver. Thus, the SB180 uses onlysignificant power from the +5-V sup-ply. Typically, this may be from 0.3 to0.6 ampere (A) (depending on theproportion of the TTL [transistor-transistor logic] and memory devicesthat are CMOS)—about the same asa 5!4-inch floppy disk.

The SB180 ROM Monitor

While my initial discussion espousedthe merits of the Z-System, everygood single-board computer needs aROM monitor that should be moreuseful than just booting the operatingsystem from a floppy disk. The SB 180

A ASCII table: Prints an ASCII table

B Bank select: Selects a 64K-byte memory bank

C Copy disk: Systems with 256K bytes of RAM can perform single-drive copies

D Display memory: Displays memory in hexadecimal and ASCII

E Emulate terminal: Console keyboard is echoed to the auxiliary RS-232C output,

and the RS-232C input is echoed on the console displayF Fill memory: Any portion of memory is filled with a data byteG Go to program: Starts program execution at specified address and optionally

includes a breakpointH Hexmath: Prints the 20-bit sum and difference and 32-bit product of the two

argumentsI Input port: Prints the 8-bit data input from specified portK Klean disk: Formats a specified driveM Move memory: Moves a block of memory

N New command: Enables new commands from extended ROM spaceO Output port: Byte is output to specified port addressP Printer select: Toggles printer selection between the Centronics parallel port

and the auxiliary RS-232C portQ Query memory: Searches memory for pattern of 1 to 4 bytesR Read disk: Reads specified sectors from drive into memoryS Set memory: Displays memory contents and allows new data to be enteredT Test system: Tests various system devicesU Upload hexadecimal file: Uploads Intel hexadecimal file from auxiliary

or console serial port

V Verify memory: Compares two blocks of memory

W Write disk: Writes specified sectors to disk from memoryX eXamine CPU registers: Displays main and alternate CPU registersand prompts for modification of main registers

Y Yank I/O registers: Displays the HD64180 on-chip I/O registersZ Z-System boot: Boots the Z-System from disk

Figure 5: A list of the monitor commands.

8K-byte ROM monitor includes com-mands for everything you need—fromA to Z. It is supplied on an 8K-byteEPROM. (The SB180 also supports16K- and 32K-byte ROMs, so addi-tional commands or application pro-grams can be supported.)

The SB180 ROM monitor providescommands to assist the design anddebugging of SB180-related hardwareand software. Also, it serves as astand-alone training vehicle for theHD64180 CPU.

The monitor supports the followingI/O devices:

CON: Console RS-232C serial portAUX: Auxiliary RS-232C serial portCEN: Centronics parallel printer port

DSK: Floppy-disk storage devices

The monitor supports one to four5!4-inch, 48- or 96-tpi (tracks per inch),40- or 80-track, double-sided double-density disk drives. During initialsystem checkout, such a drive shouldbe connected to verify operation ofthe disk interface.

At RESET, the monitor first checksfor fatal RAM failure. If the RAM isbad, the monitor waits for a carriagereturn to be typed on the console inorder to determine the console data-transmission rate and then prints 8binary digits—each corresponding toone DRAM chip. A chip associatedwith a l is faulty. The RAM-check se-

(continued)

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 99

CIRCUIT CELLAR

quence is repeated each time a car-riage return is typed.

If the RAM is okay, the stack is setup. and the monitor checks to see ifa disk is loaded in drive #0. If so. theDOS boot-load sequence (same asthe Z command) is started.

The monitor commands are shownin figure 5.

The Lunchbox Computer

The only things you need to turn theSB180 into a full-fledged stand-alonemicrocomputer are a + 5-V and + 12-V

Photo 3: The SBI80 can be packaged in many off-the-shelf enclosures advertised inBYTE. It fits comfortably to the left of a pair of half-height YA-inch disk drives in acase available from Disk Plus. This enclosure also includes the power supply.

Photo 4: The enclosure from photo 3 is shown with the cover on. The only additionalhardware necessary to use the system is a serial terminal.

power supply (or a 12-V battery and5-V regulator), at least one 5!4-inchfloppy-disk drive (initially), and a serialterminal.

You can mount such a small com-puter in many ways (see photos 3 and4). If you use a half-height drive, theSB 180 will fit on top of the drive in-side a single full-height disk-drivechassis including power supply! Sincethe console serial port can automati-cally detect the terminal's data-transmission rate, you can carry yourSB 180 with you and connect it to anyterminal (or computer emulating a ter-minal) running at 300, 1200, 9600. or19,200 bps (other rates are optional-ly selected).

It is possible to fit the SB 180, powersupply, and two 3'/2-inch floppies intoa lunchbox. If you want to get fancy,you could fit the SB180, power supply.one or two half-height floppies, theMicromint Term-Mite terminal board,and a keyboard into a small attachecase. Use any handy video monitor,and . . . voila! You have just out-Osborned Adam Osborne!

I can imagine many unusual ways topackage the SB 180. When good LCDs(liquid-crystal displays) come down inprice a bit more, I think the SB180 canform the basis of a functional note-book computer. The SB180 makesminimal use of the + 12-V supply (andonly for RS-232C operation) and canuse less than 1 A at + 5 V so batterypower is a real possibility. With justone floppy disk, the SB 180 can be-come a super data logger. While myZ8 BASIC or FORTH single-boardcomputer might ordinarily be used forsuch an application, not everyonelikes to program in FORTH or BASICWith a CP/M-compatible computer, adeveloper can now choose Pascal, C.FORTRAN, or even PL/1 for applica-tions. Since the data is already inCP/M format, it makes data analysisconvenient.

The Z-System is provided with thecomplete SB180 board and softwarepackage. While it comes with a utilityto read several other common5!4-inch formats (like Kaypro andOsborne), its native format is identicalto the well-optimized 386K-byte

100 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 24

CIRCUIT CELLAR

double-sided double-density formatof the Little Board from Ampro Inc.Provisions have been made to sup-port 8-inch drives as well. Of course,it is possible to implement CP/M 2.2.CP/M Plus. MP/M II, TljrboDOS, orOasis if you prefer.

Although simple benchmarks arenot to be taken as the last word indescribing a computer's performance.I did run the BYTE Sieve of Eratos-thenes prime-number program on theSB 180 and the MPX-16 (8088-basedwith a 4.77-MHz clock, same as theIBM PC) using appropriate versions ofMicrosoft BASIC. For one iteration,the MPX using GW-BASIC took 203seconds, while the SB180 using MS-BASIC took 147 seconds. An emptyFOR . . NEXT loop with 20,000 itera-tions took 27 seconds on the MPXand only 18 seconds on the SB180.Don't forget that these results arebased on the 6-MHz implementationof the HD64I80; with a 9-MHz clock,the results will be spectacular—notquite the speed of an IBM PC AT butclose!

Experimenters

As always, I try to support the com-puter experimenter by rewardingdiligence. If you build the SB180 fromscratch, send me a picture, and I'llsend you a copy of the BIOS andROM monitor on disk (SB180 format,double-sided double-density) at nocharge, provided it is for your per-sonal use. A printed listing is availablefor a modest charge.

If you build, buy. or otherwise as-semble an SB180 system. I would liketo know about it. I will be designingexpansion boards for the SB 180 andcan notify you of them in advance ofpublication. In addition, having yourname will greatly simplify the organi-zation of any users groups that mightarise.

Circuit Cellar Feedback

This month's Circuit Cellar Feedbackis on page 416.

Next Month

In part 2 of this article, I'll describe thesoftware for the SB 180. ■

Special thanks to Tom Cantreli Merrill Lathers,and Bob Stek for their contributions to this project.

The following items are available from

The Micromint Inc.

2 5 Terrace Dr.

Vernon. CT 06066

(800) 635-33 55 for orders

(203) 871-6170 for information

1. SB180 computer board with 256K bytesof RAM. Complete with user's manual andROM monitor.

assembled and tested. . .SB180-1, S369complete kit SB180-2, S349

2. SB180 boot disk. Z-System DOS withlimited utilities and BIOS. Provided on one5'/4-inch SB180 format double-sided double-density disk SB180-10, $49

3 Z-System. including ZRDOS. ZCPR3. aneditor and utilities. ZAS assembler. BIOSsource, and ZDM debugger. Complete withmanuals. Provided on four 5W-inch SB180format double-sided double-density disks SB180-20. S190

4. HD64B180 chip (6 MHz) with datamanual and 12.288-MHz XTAL $50

5. BYTE readers' special. Complete SB180computer board with 2 56K bytes of RAM.user's manual. ROM monitor, and all the soft-ware listed in item 3. (Available throughDecember 31, 1985.)

assembled and tested.SB180-1-20, S499complete kit SB180-2-20. S479

All boards are complete with the exceptionof the 50-pin, 8-inch drive and 44-pin expan-sion headers, which are not populated. Theyare optionally available. Printer, power, disk,and terminal cables are available separate-ly. Call for pricing.

Please include $10 ($7 less on item 4) forshipping and handling in the continentalUnited States, $18 elsewhere. Connecticutresidents please include 7.5 percent salestax.

Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previousCircuit Cellar articles. Most of these past ar-ticles are available in book form from BYTEBooks. McGraw-Hill Book Company. POB400. Hightstown. N| 082 50

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar. Volume 1 covers articlesin BYTE from September 1977 throughNovember 1978. Volume II covers December1978 through lune 1980 Volume 111 covers July1980 through December 1981. Volume IVcovers January 1982 through lune 1983.

To receive a complete list of Ciarcia's Cir-cuit Cellar project kits, circle 100 on thereader-service inquiry card at the back of

the magazine.

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104 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

ILLUSTRATED BY ALICE BRICKNER

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

AN ANALYSIS

OF

SORTS

by Jonathan Amsterdam

How to chooseone sorting algorithm over another

A friend told me recent-ly that 90 percent of allthe computer programsin the world sort. I canbelieve it. Our society'spassion for organizationhas elevated the simpletask of putting things in order to a positionof major importance. And who better tocarry out the job than those informationalbeasts of burden—computers?

Because of their significance, sortingalgorithms have been thoroughly studied.Some are slow and some are fast. Somesort a few items and some sort millions ofitems. Here I want to discuss sorting in thecontext of three different algorithms: Selec-tion Sort, for small lists. Quicksort, for largerlists, and Mergesort, for lists of a size somonstrous they can't fit into memory all atonce. But first we will need to develop somesimple tools to help us with our analysis ofthese algorithms.

Analysis

Our goal is to understand the efficiency ofsome sorting algorithms. But we are im-mediately faced with a problem: How canwe study an algorithm in the abstract with-out considering the language it's written inor the machine it's running on? For exam-ple, any algorithm written in a high-levellanguage will run faster when written in

assembly language. And any program run-ning on a microcomputer would run fasteron a mainframe. We want to abstract awayfrom these facts, to talk about an algorithm'srunning time independent of machine orlanguage.

Computer scientists have come up withsome simple rules that make this possible.The first is to measure running time by thenumber of key operations used in the al-gorithm rather than by actual speed onsome computer or by number of instruc-tions executed. For example, in sorting, thetwo key operations are comparing twoitems and swapping their positions. Theidea behind this rule is that any programthat implements the algorithm, regardlessof what language it's written in or what com-puter it's running on, will have to do thesame number of key operations. Thenumber of comparisons is usually a betterindication of the running time becausethere will almost always be more com-parisons than swaps in a sorting algorithm.

The second important rule is to measurean algorithm's speed in terms of the size ofits input. In a way, this is just commonsense: we wouldn't want to compare the

[continued]\onathan Amsterdam is a graduate student at theMassachusetts \nstitute of Technology Artificial\ntelligence laboratory. He can be reached at 1643Cambridge St. #34. Cambridge. MA 02138.

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 105

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

running time of an algorithm sorting

10 things to another sorting 100things. More likely, we would havesome kind of table that compared thealgorithms' times on lists of 10, 100,

1000, or more things.

But we'd actually want somethingmore than a table. Ideally, we want afunction that tells us, for any size in-put, what the running time will be.Then we can compare the rate of thefunctions' growth to see which doesbetter in the long run. For example,the function /(«) = n2 will "grow faster"than g[n) = \00n. That is, for sufficient-ly large values of n—in this case, whenn is greater than 100—/will be largerthan g. Comparing rates of growth ismade easier by looking at a graph,such as the one shown in figure 1. Itdisplays the graphs of several com-mon functions, including those we willbe discussing here.

This idea of the size of a functionin the long run—the so-called asymp-totic rate of growth—is central to theanalysis of algorithms. When we com-pare two algorithms, we usually don'tcare how well they do on small prob-lems because small problems areeasy. We want to know if they canmaintain their good performancewhen the problems start getting large.Sorting a list of 10 items is going totake practically no time regardless ofwhich sorting algorithm we choose.But as the lists get bigger, it becomesclear that the inherently sloweralgorithms are inferior.

To analyze an algorithm, then, wecan derive the function that relatesthe key operations of the algorithm tothe size of the input and obtain itsasymptotic rate of growth. But ofteneven this level of abstraction is toodetailed. After all, it hardly matters onbig problems if a sorting algorithmtakes 37« + 4 comparisons or 24m -6. The important point is that thenumber of comparisons is directlyproportional to the size of the input;that is. both functions have an asymp-totic growth rate on the order of n. Wewill rarely go astray in our analysis ofalgorithms if we ignore additive andmultiplicative constants and useorder-of-magnitude estimates. In fact,

300

' ni

250

^ 200^ 150

100

^—nLOGn

50

■——"—"~'/7

5

10

15

20 25

n

Figure I: Rates of growth of somecommon functions.

Listing 1: The algorithm forSelection Sort.

Selection Sort.

Input: an array, A, and its size, n.

Output: the same array A, in sorted

order,beginfor i : = 1 to n do beginm : = i;

for j : = i + 1 to n docompare A[j] to A[m], making jthe new m if it is less;swap A[i] and A[mj;endend.

there is a common and convenientnotation for this: Write "/ = O(n)" (or"function / is order n") if the growthrate of / is on the order of n. This so-called "Big O" notation has a morerigorous definition, which goes asfollows:

If f and g are two functions, then f =O(g) if and only if there are two con-stants, c and k, such that f < = eg + k.

For example, if / is the function 37'n+ 4, then / = O(n), because we canchoose c to be 37 and k to be 4, sothat 37n + 4 is equal to 37k + 4. Totake a less obvious example, the func-tion 1 50h2 + 97n - 34 is 0(n2). In thiscase, we could choose c to be 200 andk to be 13; many other choices arealso possible.

Big O notation has several advan-tages. It eliminates the distracting clut-ter of constants and slow-growing

terms in our functions, making iteasier to compare them. It abstractsaway from unimportant details, allow-ing us to study an algorithm in itssimplest form. And it simplifies ouranalysis by freeing us from the tediumof exact counting. To the trained eye,the "Big O" running time of an algo-rithm is often visible at a glance.

Selection Sort

Let's look at the algorithm for Selec-tion Sort (see listing 1). Given a list ofitems to sort in ascending order, theidea is to find the smallest item andswap it with the item at the top of thelist. Then the next time around wedon't have to consider the first itemagain; instead, we find the minimumof items 2 through n and swap it withthe second item. Finding theminimum is done as follows: Startwith the minimum set to the first item,go through all the items, and if anyone is smaller than the minimum,make it the new minimum.

Let's analyze the algorithm by see-ing how many comparisons it per-forms. The only place we do com-parisons is when we find the mini-mum. We do one comparison foreach of the possible values of i and/'. When lis 1,j ranges from 2 to n. fora total of n- 1 values, hence n- 1 com-parisons; when i is 2, / ranges from 3to n. or n-2 comparisons; when iequals n—1, /' only covers one value;and finally, when i equals n, we don'texecute the /' loop at all. The totalnumber of comparisons, then, is (n-1)+ (n-2) + (n-3) + ... + 1.

It is not hard to show that this sumequals

n[n-

or (Vi)[n2-n)l

From our discussion of Big O nota-tion, this is 0(k2). So the Selection Sortis an order n2 sort. That is, for a listof size n. Selection Sort will do on theorder of n2 comparisons. By the way,the famous Bubblesort algorithm isalso 0(«2).

Beating n2: Mergesort

Can we do better than 0(«2)? Yes, andthe algorithm that does it, Mergesort,

106 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

uses the technique of divide-and-conquer to solve a large problem:Divide it into smaller problems of thesame type, and solve the smallerproblems the same way.

Mergesort takes two sorted lists. Aand B, and merges them into a singlesorted list. C. We start by comparingthe first items of the lists. Since thelists are sorted, the smaller of the firstitems will be the smallest item overall.Say the first item of list A is smaller.We put this item at the start of C, thencompare the next item of A with thefirst of B. Again, we put the smalleron the C list. We continue in this wayuntil we've gone through both A andB. At the end, C will contain all theitems of A and B in sorted order.

Given that we can merge two sortedlists, here's how we sort: If the list tobe sorted is longer than one item, wesplit it in half (or as near as possible)and call Mergesort to sort the twohalves. Then we merge the two sortedhalves together. Listing 2 shows thealgorithm for Mergesort. If the list tobe sorted is one item long, thenthere's nothing to do: it's alreadysorted.

It is harder to analyze Mergesortthan it is to analyze Selection Sortbecause Mergesort is recursive. First,look at the merge part of the algo-rithm. It takes at most n comparisonsto merge two sorted lists each of sizenil into a single list of size n. To seethis, note that every time we do acomparison we add an item to ourfinal list, so we can't do more com-parisons than there are items. Themerge phase, then, is O(n).

What about the rest of the algo-rithm? In a sense, there really is no"rest of the algorithm—the only timeany real work (i.e.. comparison] getsdone is in the merge phase. So thequestions are, how often do wemerge, and how much do we mergeeach time?

The best way to view Mergesort isas a binary tree (see figure 2). Eachnode represents a call on the Merge-sort procedure. The top (root) of thetree represents the initial call of theprocedure with a list of size n.Mergesort is then called recursively

Figure 2: The Mergesort tree.

Listing 2

Mergesort.

The algorithm for

Mergesort.Input: a list, L.Output: a sorted list, S.beginIf L is one item long, then S = LOtherwise,split L into two lists L1 and L2,

each about half as big.Mergesort L1 into S1.Mergesort L2 into S2.merge S1 and S2 into S.end.

twice, each time with a list of size nil.Each of these invocations of the pro-cedure makes two other recursivecalls, until finally we reach lists oneitem long.

At each level of the Mergesort tree,we do O(m) comparisons. At the toplevel of the tree, the only comparisonsoccur when we merge two lists of sizem/2 into a list of size n: this operationtakes at most n comparisons. At thenext level, there are two merges, eachcreating a list of size nil. Since eachof these merges takes nil com-parisons and there are two of them,we again have n comparisons. At thethird level, there are four merges ofm/4 comparisons each, and the samething happens for the fourth level ofthe tree, etc.

We can now state that the runningtime of Mergesort is O(nfc), where k isthe number of levels of the Mergesort

tree. We can express k in terms of nby noting that the number of levels ofthe tree is just the number of timesyou can divide a list of size n in halfrepeatedly until you get a list of size

1. That's the same as the number oftimes we can divide the number n by2 until you reach 1: it happens to beabout logn (by which I mean thelogarithm to the base 2 of «). We canconvince ourselves of this easily if wechoose n to be a power of 2. For in-stance, 22 equals 4: 4 divided by 2 is

2, and 2 divided by 2 is 1.Armed with this fact, we can con-clude that Mergesort is an 0(«log«) al-gorithm—logn levels of the tree withn comparisons at each level. That'sbetter than 0(n2), and the larger n is,the better it is. A glance at figure 1will help you see that the function n2grows much faster than n\ogn. It alsohelps to look at some numbers: Forn = 8, n2 is 64 while nlogn is 24—notmuch of a difference. But for n = 2 56.n2 is over 65,000. whereas nlogn is justover 2000.

Again, the obvious question is: Canwe do better than Mergesort? If weknow beforehand that the values tobe sorted are in a limited range—say,the integers between 1 and 100—thenit's possible to sort in 0(«) time, andfurthermore, we never have to com-pare the items we're sorting. But if wehave no special information about thevalues to be sorted, then we can onlyuse comparisons to sort them. It canbe shown that if sorting is done bycomparisons only, then O(nlogn) com-parisons is the optimum. The proof isbeyond the scope of this article, butit is contained in the book Data Struc-tures and Algorithms by Aho, Hopcroft,and Ullman (Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley. 1983, page 282). The mostthorough treatment of sorting algo-rithms is contained in Donald E.Knuth's Art of Computer Programming.Volume 3: Sorting and Searching (Reading,MA: Addison-Wesley, 1973).

While Mergesort is theoretically asgood as possible, if we were to actual-ly implement it. we would discoverthat it has some hidden costs thatslow it down (particularly its need for

[continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 107

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

an extra array in the merge phase).There is an algorithm that, like Merge-sort, is O(ftlogH), but it will nonethe-less run faster by a constant factor onall present-day computers. (Remem-ber: 2nlogn and lOOOnlogK are bothO(nlogn).) The algorithm, calledQuicksort, is the fastest known com-parison-based sorting technique.

Quicksort

Quicksort works like this: If the list tobe sorted has only one item, we donothing. Otherwise, we pick an itemfrom the list and call it the pivot. Nowwe partition the list into two halves-items less than or equal to the pivotand items greater than it. Then wesort the two halves. We don't have todo anything after sorting the twohalves, since the partitioning hasalready made sure that all the smallthings are at the beginning and all thelarge ones at the end.

Quicksort is similar to Mergesortand, in fact, was inspired by it. The keydifference is that instead of a mergephase after the recursive sort, Quick-sort has a partitioning phase beforethe recursion. What makes Quicksortmore efficient than Mergesort is that,like Selection Sort, all the work can bedone in place: that is, we only haveto manipulate the original array.Listing 3 shows the Quicksortalgorithm.

We partition an array as follows. Westart by pointing to the beginning andend of the list to be partitioned. Say,for example, i points to the beginningand; to the end. Move i forward in thelist until we reach an element largerthan the pivot. Move / backward untilit reaches an element smaller than thepivot. Then swap the item i points towith the one / points to. Repeat thisuntil i meets / and then the list will bepartitioned. Figure 3 shows how a listwith five items would be partitionedby this method.

The analysis for Quicksort is similarto that for Mergesort. The partition-ing phase takes 0(«) comparisons,and if the list is partitioned into twoalmost equal halves, then the Quick-sort tree will have logn levels. SoQuicksort is 0{n\ogn). right? Well,

a 5

8

2 6 10

T

i

b 5

8

2 6 10

t

t

c 5

8

2 6 10

t

d 5

2

8 6 10

t

e 5

2

8 6 10

tt

Figure 3: Partitioning of an arraysegment in Quicksort. \n line a, i and jpoint to the beginning and end of thearray, respectively. The pivot is taken to bethe first element, here 5. \n line b.i moves forward until the element itpoints to is greater than the pivot. \nline c. j then moves down until it reachesan element less than or equal to thepivot. \n line d. the two elementspointed to by i and j are swapped. Andin line e. i then moves up again,becoming equal to j. This terminates thepartitioning phase.

Listing 3: The algorithm forQuicksort.

Quicksort.

Input: an array A, with items from

1 to n.Output; the same array, sorted,beginchoose a pivot;partition the list so that all

items < = pivot are < i;Quicksort A from 1 to i - 1;Quicksort A from i to n;end.

almost. Our analysis depends on thefact that the list will be split nearly inhalf. That, in turn, depends on how wechoose the pivot. Say we alwayschoose the first element as the pivot.Now, if we assume a random distribu-tion of lists, then on the average thefirst item will be somewhere comfort-ably between the largest and thesmallest, so the list will be partitionednearly in half. So, on the average,Quicksort is O(nlogn).

But let's look at the worst case: Saywe always manage to choose for ourpivot the largest (or smallest) item inthe list. Then we will partition the listinto two parts, one of size 1 and theother of size n- 1. We would then par-tition the second of those into lists ofsize 1 and n-2. etc.—a total of n par-titions that take times n-\, n-2. andso on. The analysis looks similar tothat for Selection Sort, and indeed theresult is the same. So the worst-casetime for Quicksort is 0(n2).

It should be clear now that thechoice of pivot is very important. If wechoose it wisely we can decrease ourchances of ending up with a slow sort.There are lots of ways to choosepivots cleverly. For instance, we mightchoose three items at random anduse the median (middle item) of thethree as the pivot. This would improveQuicksort's chances of running inQ(n\ogn) time without slowing it downtoo much. However, in my implemen-tation, I simply choose the first ele-ment as a pivot every time. Thisstrategy will give worst-case behaviorwhen the list is in either sorted orreverse-sorted order, so if you expectto be sorting a lot of nearly sortedlists, you should choose your pivotmore cleverly.

There is another problem withQuicksort that has to do with theamount of space it takes. We haven'tconsidered space utilization until now,but it can be important. Selection Sortuses a small amount of space and,more importantly, the space it uses isindependent of the size of the array.But because Quicksort is recursive,every time the procedure is invoked,some information is placed on the

{continued)

108 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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run-time stack. In the worst case,Quicksort can call itself recursively ntimes, so the stack will take up 0(«)space. There is a clever way aroundthe problem that will guarantee thatthe program uses no more thanO(logM) stack space. The trick involvesmaking the first recursive call on thesmaller of the two partitions andeliminating the second recursive callaltogether by incorporating it into aloop. It's a bit messy and probably notworth it unless you're really worriedabout the space.

Some Real Data

While the order-of-magnitudeestimates of running times are useful,it's often nice to have some real dataas well. With that in mind. I ran Selec-tion Sort and Quicksort on integer ar-rays of various sizes with itemschosen randomly. The results areshown in table 1. As you can see, thedifference on small lists is negligible,but on large lists it becomes enor-mous. The programs 1 used were writ-ten in MacPascal on a Macintosh com-puter. (They are available for down-loading via BYTEnet Listings at (617)861-9774.)

Sorting Big

Both Selection Sort and Quicksort suf-fer from a serious flaw. They bothwork best as internal sorts. That is, inboth cases we assumed that we couldfit the entire list of items to be sortedinto an array, which presumablywould be held in RAM (random-access read/write memory), and thatthe time required to examine andchange elements of an array is small,which indeed it is if the array is en-tirely in main memory. But what do

we do when you have to sort so manyitems they cannot all fit into memoryat once?

We need an algorithm to handle thisexternal sorting problem. For exam-ple, say we have a file of a millionrecords on disk. Now. we could treatthis file as an array and run Quicksortmuch as it is, but we would have anincredibly slow algorithm. The reasonis that accessing information from adisk is slower than accessing mainmemory What we would like to do isto take advantage of the fact thatreading a lot of information from adisk takes almost the same amount oftime as reading a little, if the informa-tion is stored consecutively on thedisk. That's because most of our timeis spent finding the information on thedisk, and only a small fraction of timeis spent actually reading it. The samegoes for writing. All operating systemsuse this fact: when asked to read abyte from the disk, they read in ablock of bytes containing the one bytedesired. Then if the next byte re-quested is within the block that wasjust read in, it will already be inmemory and a disk access can besaved. When asked to write a byte tothe disk, the operating system usesthe same trick.

We want an algorithm that exploitsthese facts about disks. The problemwith Quicksort is that it swaps itemsthat are distant from each other inmemory, so it doesn't exploit the se-quential organization of disk memory.Mergesort, however, reads and writesthe files in order, thus taking advan-tage of the disk buffering done by theoperating system. Recall that themerge phase expects two sorted lists

{continued)

Table 1:

A

comparison of runn

nq

times [given as minutes.seconds) of Selection

Sort and Quicksort.

List Size

Selection Sort

Quicksort

10

<0:01

<0:01

50

0:05

0:05

100

0:20

0:09

500

7:49

1:02

1000

31:01

2:10

110 BYTE • SEFTEMBER 198^

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Mergesort reads andwrites the files inorder, thus takingadvantage of the disk

buffering done by the

—i

operating system.

and produces another list. It does thisby scanning the two sorted lists inorder, choosing the smallest itemeach time. If the lists are files, then wehave a good way to merge two sortedfiles into a larger sorted file. We willneed to modify the merging algorithmslightly for our purposes, though. In-stead of taking two sorted files, it will

take two files, each of which containssome number of sorted runs of items.For instance, one file might containthe items 1.3,4. 2, 6, 5, 6, 8, 9. Whilethe whole file isn't sorted, it does con-sist of three groups of items, each ofwhich is sorted: 1, 3. 4; 2, 6; and 5.6. 8. 9. The merge phase will outputtwo files, each with half the numberof runs of either of the input files. Wethen feed these two files back into themerge algorithm and get two morefiles again. Eventually, the two fileswill each consist of only one run, andwhen we merge them we will have acompletely sorted file. The mergealgorithm needs to be modified onlyslightly to accommodate thesechanges. It merges items onto oneoutput file as usual until it notices thatan item is not in sorted order, then itwrites the remainder of the other runonto the first output file and switchesto the second one. (The program for

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sorting a file with Mergesort |writtenin MacPascal| is included in the list-ings that can be downloaded fromBYTEnet Listings.)

In analyzing the merging, we wantto consider the number of times wehave to read through the files, sincethat is the bottleneck of the pro-cedure. If we begin with a total of nruns, then we have to do O(logn)merges. The analysis is basically thesame as that for Mergesort andQuicksort: Each merge cuts thenumber of runs in half, and we candivide a number in half only logntimes before we get to 1. Each mergereads the files once, therefore thetotal number of file passes is O(logn).Since a single merge takes O(n)comparisons, the algorithm is, like ourinternal version of Mergesort,O(nlogn).

Only one problem remains: How dowe get the files into lists of sorted runsin the first place? Actually, we don'thave to. We could just take the originalfile, split it in half, and start merging,because the merge algorithm willwork even if the runs are only oneitem long. But we can actually domuch better, although only by a con-stant factor—the algorithm still takesO(logn) passes through the files.

The idea is to combine internal sort-ing with external sorting. We read inas much of the original file as we caninto memory, sort it using a fast inter-nal sort like Quicksort, then write itout to one of two output files. Thenwe read in the next chunk of theoriginal file, sort it. and write it to theother output file. We continue in thisway until we've gone through the en-tire file. Now we're left with two filesof sorted runs, ripe for merging.

Even though this is only a constantfactor better than the straight mergealgorithm, the constant is enormous-all of memory. For example, say wehave a million-item file to sort. Themerge algorithm alone would take 20passes in the worst case, but if we cansort 10.000 items at a time in memory,then in one pass we can break the fileup into 100 runs, which we can mergetogether into a single sorted file in an-other seven passes. ■

112 B YTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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Part 2: The Software

Plug a 32-bitmicrocomputer intoyour IBM PC

Editor's note. This is part 2 of a two-partseries describing Definicon Systems Inc'.sDSI-32 32032 coprocessor board for theIBM Personal Computer (PC). Part 1 in-cluded a description of the hardware, and part2 will focus on the software available for theboard. 1/ you are interested in a closer lookat National Semiconductor's 32000 series,refer to "The National SemiconductorNS16000 Microprocessor Family" by GlennLeedy. April 1983 BYTE, page 53. Youshould keep in mind that the 32000-serieschips are direct descendants of the16000-series chips, and that the designphilosophies and internal operation of bothfamilies are identical.

Definicon has developedan unusual software inter-face for the DSI-32. Thetraditional software en-vironment for a 32-bit computer hasbeen some version of UNIX; instead.Definicon opted for a "shell" programand compilers that emulated the im-portant UNIX calls. This lets theDSI-32 run both UNIX applicationsand existing MS-DOS applications. Anadditional advantage is that the32032 I/O (input/output) operationsare off-loaded to the 8088, which per-forms the file and I/O processingconcurrently.This interface consists of two pro-

The DSI-32

CoprocessorBoard

grams running in tandem. On the32032 side is a small operating sys-tem called 32IO. On the 8088 side isa program called LOADer, and thetwo programs talk via an interpro-cessor communications area in theDSI-32's memory (see figure I). Whenthe DSI-32 first starts, bootstrap codeexecutes 32IQ which waits until the8088 has loaded the 32032 programinto the DSI-32's memory. Once theprogram load is complete. LOADertells 32IO to execute the loaded pro-gram. Thereafter, if the 32032 pro-gram needs to open a file, write acharacter to the screen, or performany other I/O operation, it passes thatrequest to 32IO, which in turn passesit to the 8088.

The software interface uses the fea-tures of both the 8088 and 32032 en-vironments. LOADer, written in C, runsunder MS-DOS (or Concurrent PCDOS). Since it manages most of thefile I/O, it is relatively complex (about3 5K bytes of code). The 32IO modulehandles most of the computationallyintensive tasks. Together they form theinterface detailed in table I.

A program running on the DSI-32makes I/O requests to the 32IO pro-gram via the 32032 s SVC (supervisorcall) instruction. When an SVC instruc-tion is executed, it initiates a super-visor call trap. This causes the 32032to vector to a known location: it actslike a shorthand subroutine call. (TheSVC instruction is directly analogousto the INT software interrupt instruc-tion on the 8088/8086 processors.) Toexecute any of the 3210 program'sservice requests (as shown in table 1).

you simply load the 32032s R0register with a request number andexecute an SVC instruction. (See theApril 1983 article mentionedpreviously for more information onthe 32032's components.)

Device Drivers and Handles

The interaction between the 32032and the 8088 occurs at two levels.Some primitive 8088 functions, suchas reading and writing blocks of mem-ory or reading and writing I/O ports,have been made available to 32032programs, but the majority of the in-terface uses the MS-DOS device-driver concept.

Most users are familiar with MS-DOS devices such as CON: andCOML, but in addition to these basicsystem facilities, MS-DOS allows theinstallation of special device drivers,such as .SYS files, at boot time. Forexample, if a GP1B (general-purposeinterface bus) card has been installedin this way, a user program coulddefine a driver for a device calledGPIB:, open it in the same way asopening any other file, and access theGPIB card without any need to knowabout special memory locations, I/Oports, or other system-dependent pa-rameters. UNIX goes a step further,

116 BYTE • SEPTEMBER

by Trevor G. Marshall, George Scolaro,David L. Rand, Tom King, and Vincent P. Williams

treating even CON: as the standardinput device, which is labeled<STDIN>, so that all computer in-terfaces are accessed through thecommon file system. The DefiniconMS-DOS interface has been designedto be similar to UNIX in this respect.The supervisor request to open a file(see request 5, table 1) opens thedevice whose name has been passedto it and returns a "handle," which isa 16-bit number assigned by the MS-DOS operating system to every file ordevice that a program has opened.Subsequently, when the program per-forms an I/O operation, the programinforms the operating system wherethat I/O is to occur by passing it a han-dle. Detailed descriptions of handlescan be found in most technicalreference manuals for MS-DOS ver-sion 2.xx or higher.

Some handles are predefined andyou need not explicitly open them touse them. For example, the handle for<STDIN>, which is usually thekeyboard, is 0. The handle forthe standard output device,<STDOUT>, usually the CRT(cathode-ray tube), is I, and the stan-dard error device, < STDERR >, is 2.You may redirect all these channels ifyou desire.

Thus, to write a character to the CRTusing the interface, you would writein C

putc(char)

or in assembly language

(continued)Trevor G. Marshall, George Scolaro, DavidL. Rand, and Tom King are engineers withDefinicon Systems \nc. Vincent P. Williamsis president of Definicon. They can be con-tacted at 21042 Vintage St., Chatsworth,CA 91311.

FREE

DUART

EXPANSION

PORT

(GPIB)

DIA6

VECTOR

PAL

3210(32032I/OKERNEL)

INTERPROCESSOR

COMMUNICATION

AREA

MODULE

TABLE

AREA

RESERVED

BOOTSTRAP

Figure 1: The DSI-32's memory map. 3210 is the I/O kernel that resides betweenlocations 3000 and 4000. A/1 addresses are in hexadecimal.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 117

DSI COPROCESSOR

MOVB 9,R0 Supervisor request

9, write to deviceMOVW 1.R1 ;Handle of

<STDOUT> is 1ADDR char,R2 ;Point at char to

"put"MOVW 1,R3 ;Output only 1

characterSVC ;Do supervisor

call

The remaining supervisor calls mayrequire fewer parameters, but they areaccessed similarly.

Service Request Words

All interfacing between the 8088 and32032 takes place in the first page ofmemory, or physical address 002000through 0F2000 (hexadecimal) asseen by the 32032. |Editor's note: All ad-dresses appear in hexadecimal unless specifiedotherwise.] Figure 2 lists the significantlocations within that memory area.Two important communications areasin figure 2 are the service requestword (SRW), and disk service requestword (DSRW).

There is a 32032 SRW and an 8088SRW. As shown in figure 3. thesewords act as mailboxes, holdingmessages that the two processorssend to one another. For example,when the 32032 wants input from thekeyboard, it first checks the 8088SRW. If the SRW is clear—meaning noaction is pending—the 32032 sets itto l and issues an interrupt to the8088. The 32032 can then go dosome other task, or just wait in a soft-ware loop for the 8088 to service thekeyboard-input request.

The 8088, upon getting the 32032sinterrupt, checks its own SRW anddiscovers that it has been set to 1. The8088 then places the next charactertyped at the keyboard into the key-board queue, sets the 32032 SRW to1, clears its own SRW, and sends aninterrupt back to the 32032. When the32032 processes this interrupt, itclears the 32032 SRW, fetches thecharacter from the keyboard queue,and continues with the main program.(Normally, the 8088 puts all charactersin the keyboard queue anyway even

Table 1:

Functions

offered by the 32IO program. Each supervisor request is

called by placing the request number in the 32032s R0 register and executing

an SVC instruction.

32lO passes requests to LOADer (running on the 8088),

which accesses the actual device. Note that many supervisor requests require

additional

information in other registers.

Supervisor Request

Function

5

Open a file or device for I/O

6

Close a file or device

7

Create a file

8

Read from a file or device(up to 65536 bytes)

9

Write to a file or device(up to 65536 bytes)

10

Erase a file

11

Rename a file

12

Seek to a byte in a file(The offset to seek to can be from beginning of file,current position in file, or end of file.)

13

Return current position in file

14

Get command-line arguments

15

Terminate 32032 execution

16

Move data from IBM to DSI-32(up to 65536 bytes)

17

Move data from DSI-32 to IBM(up to 65536 bytes)

18

Input from port on IBM

19

Output to port on IBM

20

Execute a software interrupt on the IBM

if the 32032 does not specifically askfor them.)

There is only one DSRW, and it isa little more complicated than theSRWs (see figure 4). Basically, it holdsa code number corresponding to theparticular I/O operation that the32032 needs the 8088 to perform ona handle, which typically correspondsto a disk file.

Support for

IBM Bit-Mapped Graphics

System call 17 (see table 1) movesmemory from the 32032 to the IBM.This allows you to set up single ormultiple 16K-byte graphics screenimages in the 32032s memory spaceand swap them into the IBM PC'sscreen memory. It takes only a fewtens of milliseconds to totally replacea PC's screen in this way. Thus, an ap-plication that, for example, requiresanimation, can use the 32032 to setup successive backgrounds in its ownmemory space, swapping only thoseportions of the screen memory actual-ly necessary to update the foregroundmotion. When a background changeis needed, it can be transferred to thedisplay in a fraction of a second. Notethat it would be possible to set up alarge background space from whichthe 16K-byte screen display could be"zoomed," using the 32-bit integermanipulation capability of the 32032.Applications that have already beenwritten (in a high-level language) canperform bit-mapped graphics withnearly identical code in the DSI-32environment.

High-Level LanguageCompilers

Early in the DSI-32 design, Definiconbenchmarked a variety of hardware/software combinations. These bench-marks revealed huge speed variationsthat could only be attributed to com-piler efficiency. For example, therewas a large speed difference betweenthe various implementations of theUNIX portable compilers, a differencethat seemed to depend on the port-ing efficiency that the particular com-pany was able to achieve.

{continued)

118 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

DSI COPROCESSOR

32032-8088 Interface

Memory

Contents

2000

Service request word (SRW) indicates what 8088 wants

2002

8088 completion status

2004

Request word indicates what 32032 wants

2006

32032 completion status

2008

8088 queue pointer (- >2050) Keyboard queue

200A

32032 queue pointer (- >2050)

200C

8088 queue pointer Video queue

200 E

32032 queue pointer

2010

8088 queue pointer Printer queue

2012

32032 queue pointer

2014

Disk service request word (DSRW)

2016

Current handle

2018

Number of bytes to transfer

201A

DWORD (double word) pointer to DTA (disk transfer area)

201E

Disk completion status

2020

Heap low address

2024

Heap high address

2028

Stack low address

202C

Stack high address

2030...

Reserved for expansion

204F

Reserved for expansion (32 bytes)

2050

64-byte keyboard buffer

2090

2048-byte video buffer

2890

1024-byte printer buffer

2C90. . .

Reserved for expansion

2FFF

Reserved for expansion (880 bytes)

3000

Start of free memory

Figure 2: Memory on the DSl-32 can be accessed by either the on-board32032 or the PCs 8088, and the two processors use the memory forcommunication with one another. Some of the more important locations used areshown above.

Service Request Word (SRW) Definitions

SRW Action

1 Keyboard input

2 Video output

3 Printer output

4 Disk operation requested

5 Argument request (get command-line values)

7 Task completed normally

FFFF Abnormal task completion, see completion byte for details

Figure 3: Possible values for the service request word and their meanings. Eachvalue corresponds to a specific request made by one processor to the other.

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 119

DSI COPROCESSOR

The 32000 and High-Level Languages

The NS32000 instruction set easesthe task of writing efficient com-pilers. As an example, let's look at asimple subroutine in C that normalizesthe size of a positive floating-pointnumber to be between 0.5 and 1 andreturns the corresponding scaling ex-ponent such that

input argument = normalized result *2 "exponent

This subroutine, in C, might be writtenas shown in listing A.

A more efficient means of perform-ing this function is to examine the wayin which the IEEE (Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers) standardspecifies a floating-point number (seefigure A). The number is made up ofa sign bit. an 11-bit exponent, and a52-bit mantissa. We can write figure Aas a structure in C (using bit fields)-

typedef struct {

unsigned mantissa 1 : 32 :

unsigned mantissa 2 : 20 :

unsigned exponent : 11 ;

unsigned sign : 1 ;

} double precision leee:

When the Normalize subroutine iscalled, this number will have beenpushed onto the stack by the callingroutine. Ail the Green Hills compilersuse identical calling procedures, so thecode and subroutines from each canbe intermixed. Using this new structure,we could rewrite the subroutine asshown in listing B.

The Green Hills C compiler gen-erated the 32032 machine code inlisting C.

We leave it to you to check the as-sembler code your favorite compilergenerates with this routine. With our8088 and Digital Research C, thissource code generated about 22 linesof assembler, plus a call to a libraryfunction.

Listing A: A sample C

program

to normalize a

floating-point

number to

between 0.5 and I.

double normalize(y.exp)

double y;

int *exp;

int scaler = 0

if ( y > 1.0)

while(y>1.0) {sca!er =

scaler + 1

:y = y/2.0; }

else if (y<0.5)

while (y<0.5) {scaler =

= scaler-

1;y = y*2.0; }

*exp = scaler:

return(y);}

s

E

F

BIT:

63 62 51 0NUMBER = (-1)S X 2(E_1023) X l.F2

Figure A: IEEE standard for 64-bit floating-point number. The S bit indicatesthe number's sign—0 is positive and 1 is negative. The E or exponent field is inexcess— 102 3 form [subtract 102 3 from the value in the E field to get the actualexponent). The F field holds the fractional portion of the number.

120 B YTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

DSI COPROCESSOR

Listing B: A modified version of listing A. using a C data structure.

double normalize^,exp)double y;exp;

mt

2

/«

create a pointer to the argument passed on the stack */register double precision ieee "pointer = &y ;

calculate an exponent value by subtracting 1023 (all */ones) from the argument's exponent value "/"exp = pointer - > exponent - 1023:

and normalize the argument's exponent to all ones */

pointer - > exponent = 1023;

return the modified number (and of course, the exponent)*/

return(y);

Listing C: 32032 machine code generated by the Green Hills C compiler

for the program

shown in listing

B.

.module normalize.c

.program

normalize: -

addrd

8(sp),ri

first line of C code done

extsd

6(r1),r0,4.11

EXTract Short Doublefrom bit one, length of 11from the 32-bit word at (R1) + 6put them into bits 0-10 of RO

subd

1023,r0

next line of C code

movd

r0,0(16,sp))

put it onto the stack for return

inssd

1023.6(r1),4,11

INSert Short Doublesyntax similar to above extsdexcept that an immediate fieldinserted

movl

8(sp).f0

get Y to FO, the return codefor the calling program

rxp

0

; pointer r1

local

the compiler tells us where

;_y 8(sp)

local

it put the variables

; exp 6(sp)

local

endseg

To better evaluate compiler efficien-cy, Definicon examined the inter-mediate assembler source-code out-puts and was able to divide the dif-ferences into the following twocategories:

• degradations in floating-point per-formance due to a compiler's inabili-ty to produce in-line source code

• degradations due to the inability ofthe compiler to optimize its outputcode

Lack of in-line code often leads toa call to a subroutine every time amathematical operation is performed.With in-line code, the compiler pro-duces code to perform a mathemat-ical operation—such as multi-plication—every time it scans theoperation. With the compact instruc-tion set of the 32000 series, thisreduces several lines of code to justone or two.

Lack of optimization is easily recog-nized. For instance, when compilinga benchmark that Definicon had de-vised to test floating-point operations,the UNIX portable C compiler pro-duced the following code within theZ = Y * X execution loop:

MOVF _X,F0 ;get X from memoryto floating register0

;multiply it by Y;store the result inZ (in memory)

The Green Hills compilers shifted Xand Y into floating-point registers out-side the loop and then performed the

much faster

MULF _Y,F0MOVF F0,_Z

MULF F0.F2

MOVF F2.F4

;multiply where itstored X and Y

land store it whereit wants Z

(It was interesting to note that theVAX compiler optimizers were so ef-ficient that they removed any opera-tions that produced results that werenot used later in the program. Thiscaused a great deal of trouble untilDefinicon devised benchmarks toforce the generation of real code.)Several other differences between

{continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE

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DSI COPROCESSOR

compilers were also evident. The32032 has a "move quick" instructionfor immediate operators in the rangeof +8 to -7. For example:

MOVQD 6,R0

is only a 2-byte instruction that moves6 into register R0 as a 32-bit ("dou-ble") quantity. If the operand is out ofthis range, most other compilersgenerate:

MOVD 34,R0,

which takes longer to execute thanthe previous instruction because the34 is stored as a 32-bit. immediatedouble word.

The Green Hills compilers, however,generate

ADDR @34,R0,

which tells the CPU (central-process-ing unit) to calculate the effective ad-dress of 34. which is of course 34, andplace the resulting 32 bits in R0. Thisconstruct requires only a 1-byte fieldfor the immediate value and thereforeexecutes faster.

Consequently, Definicon selectedthe Green Hills C, Pascal, and FOR-TRAN compilers for the DSI-32. Sincethese compilers were written inPascal, Definicon attempted to portthem by compiling them in an 8088Pascal. This did not work because ofsegmentation constraints on the 8088(see the text box "The Need forSpeed" on page 124), so Definiconwrote an interface package that wasused to port the Pascal compiler tothe DSI-32. When Pascal was runningsuccessfully on the board, it was usedto bring up the C and FORTRAN com-pilers.

FORTH

FORTH-83 defines integers and ad-dresses clearly as 16-bit words. Thisseverely limits FORTH's usefulness ina full 32-bit environment. Becauseeach memory access on the DSI-32(including, of course, stack accesses)is 32 bits wide, it makes no sense fora 32032 FORTH implementation toobserve these restrictions.

[continued)

Disk Service Request Word (DSRW) Definitions

DSRW Action

1 Open a file, returning a handle of 1-0xFFFF, or 0 if not found. Thefilename desired will be in the DTA, with the number of bytes count set tothe length of the filename. Note that the DTA is a DWORD pointer, andthus the DTA may be anywhere in the 32032 address space.

2 Make a file, returning a handle of 1-0xFFF. or 0 if the disk system is full.Same notes as 1, except that if the file exists, it is truncated to a length ofzero.

3 Close a handle, returning the filename in the DTA, with the number ofbytes count set to the length of the filename. If an error occurs, then acompletion status will be nonzero.

4 Rename a handle. The new name is in the DTA, with length set as above.An error is shown by a nonzero completion status.

5 Read data from a handle. Data is read into the DTA, for a count of n bytes.Errors are returned as nonzero completion status.

6 Write data to a handle. Data is written from the DTA, for n bytes count.Errors are returned as nonzero completion status.

7 Seek to location The current handle file pointer is moved to the locationspecified by the value in the DWORD DTA pointer. This allows 2"31 filesize.

8 Tell current location. The current handle's file pointer location is returned inthe DTA pointer.

9 Delete a file. The DTA points to a valid filename. Status is returned in thehandle.

Figure 4: Values for the disk service request word and their meanings.

122 BYTE- SEPTEMBER

When you're building a new company, every pennyis important. So, when we were evaluating PC's and Irecommended the new high-performance Olivetti M24,my boss thought high-performance meant addedexpense. I explained that while the new M24 is fasterthan the new IBM PC, it costs about the same.

When I told him the M24 is fully compatible withIBM and comes from Olivetti, a world leader in hightechnology, I knew I had won his approval. But, myboss' eyes really lit up when I told him about all theimportant features that come with Olivetti's M24 ...features we need, but he'd pay extra for with IBM —like the super high-resolution monitor, a graphicsadapter, parallel and serial ports, and a perpetualclock calendar.

My M24 also has 7 expansion slots, not just 5! You'duse all those IBM slots just adding on the features ourM24 came with! Now we have a PC that can grow andexpand along with our company.

Fact is, my boss was so impressed with the M24, hesaid I deserve a raise. I didn't get one ... he just said Ideserve one.

Inquiry 122

Technology that makes a world of difference.

"Milium,.. , " T

"My boss never budgets for extras.But all the extras I need are alreadybuilt into the new Olivetti M24 PC"

For the Olivetti dealer nearest you, call l-o(J(J-447-47(JU.

Olivetti products are marketed in the l' S A In Docutel/( Hivetti Corporation. RO. Box r>f,l)2(>3. Dallas. Texas 75266-0203.

DSI COPROCESSOR

The Need for Speed

Early in 1984, Definicon SystemsInc. developed an advanced algo-rithm for spectral decomposition andperformed most of the developmentwork on a VAX-11/780. When thatbecame too expensive. Definiconturned to an HP9000 32-bit super-microcomputer. After a few monthsDefinicon realized that owning an IBMPC clone would be much cheaper thanleasing the HP9000.

Before deciding to go with the IBMPC architecture. Definicon performedbenchmarks on a range of machines,from the VAX minicomputer, through68000 UNIX-based machines, to PCs.The benchmark programs included theprime-number sieve, as well as a pro-gram devised specifically to test thearithmetic processing unit's speed. Theearly results indicated than an IBM PCclone was capable of providing aboutthe same performance as the more ex-pensive machines. So Definiconbought an Eagle Turbo, which hadabout twice the measured speed of abasic IBM PC XT.

When Definicon converted thealgorithms to Microsoft FORTRAN,they were unpleasantly surprised tofind that the benchmarking had beenmisleading. The algorithms took about90 minutes to run on the 8086—about5 times longer than the benchmarkshad indicated. It took Definicon severalmonths to find the problem.

The prime-number benchmark—thepopular "Sieve of Eratosthenes" (see'Eratosthenes Revisited: Once Morethrough the Sieve" by Jim Gilbreath andGary Gilbreath. lanuary 1983 BYTE,page 283)—initializes a Boolean (byte)array to logical TRUE then blanks outthe nonprime numbers one by one,leaving only the primes unmarked.

For several reasons, the Sieve ofEratosthenes turns out to be a par-ticularly bad indicator of advancedprocessor performance. For one thing,the usual array size is 8191 numbers,a value that exercises only the 16-bitarithmetic capabilities of the CPU. Inaddition, the array is Boolean, a bytearray that means the 32-bit processors

usually discard 3 of the 4 bytes theyfetch at each memory access.

The true measure of CPU perfor-mance, however, can be glimpsedwhen the array grows. When we try tofind the primes in the first 40,000numbers, for instance, a different pic-ture emerges. The IBM PC AT (and theXT) drops to about 1/8 the perfor-mance of the 32- and 64-bit machineswhen 32-bit arithmetic has to be used(numbers are larger than 32,767).

A fundamental limit of the seg-mented architecture (found in the8088/8086/80286 CPUs of the IBMPCs) is reached when the array extendsto 65.536 numbers. Definicon couldnot find a compiler for the 8088/8086that could deal with arrays with morethan 216 elements.

Another major limitation of the seg-mented architecture, however, is notshown by the Sieve. The 8088/8086and 80286 have a data space that onlyspans 64K bytes at a time. To handledata structures larger than 64K bytes,these CPUs must employ lengthy testswhenever a data byte is fetched. Thesetests check to see if the byte is fromthe current data segment and. if not,must switch the processor to theneeded segment.

Although Definicon was interestedprimarily in scientific applications, theperformance conclusions generallyapply to many business software ap-plications. In particular, spreadsheetsand database managers are slowedconsiderably by the 64K segmentationoverhead.

The 32032 architecture avoids thesegmentation delays. Every module ofcode written for the 32032 has amodule table. Each module table hasfour entries: static base, link table base,code base, and one reserved entry. The32032 supports a "call external pro-cedure" mechanism that uses themodule table for a fast context change.A routine may also access an externalvariable if it knows both the module inwhich the variable is declared and theoffset (to the variable location) at whichthe required data is stored.

A 32032 FORTH is available for theDSI-32 board from Symbolic Process-ing Systems of Orange, California.Symbolic Processing Systems' FORTHdefines all integers and addresses as32 bits wide. In addition, the storageorder of bytes in memory has beenchanged to match that of the 32032.\Editor's note: The 32032 stores all multi-byte quantities with the least significant byteat the lowest address.] This version in-cludes the FORTH editor string andfile support, together with all float-ing-point operations.

Serious FORTH programmers willbe interested in the upgraded FORTHpackage, complete with an assembler,debugging aids, the metacompiler,and FORTH source screens. The meta-compiler allows recreation of acustomized FORTH from its sourcescreens. The debugging tools, includ-ing TRACE and VIEW facilities and adecompiler, provide a full-featured32-bit FORTH programming environ-ment. In addition, this FORTH is multi-tasking, with the number of taskslimited only by the available memoryspace. (See the text box on page 134of the August BYTE for priceinformation.)

Additionally a small LISP interpreterand a small BASIC compiler, bothwritten in FORTH, are available for theDSI-32.

Conclusion

Coupled with the UNIX-like shell andhigh-level language compilers, theDSI-32 board performs on a levelpreviously occupied by expensiveminicomputers. It offers IBM PCowners 32-bit computing—an up-grade that doesn't cause the usualproblem of equipment obsolescence.A FORTH interpreter is available for$299 from Symbolic ProcessingSystems. 501 West Maple, Orange. CA92668, (714) 637-4298. ■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are indebted to Martin A.Lewis of Cambrian Consultants Inc. ofCalabasas, California, for his help andguidance, and to Les Wilson, an applica-tions engineer at National Semiconductor,for his untiring assistance.

124 B YTE ■ SEPTEMBER 1985

DATAEA5E

The Corporate Database Standard

DATAEA5E DATAEA5E DATAEA5E

#1 with Corporate users. #1 with Reviewers

Thousands of businesses, bothlarge and small, use DATAEA5Eto solve their needs. BecauseDATAEA5E, with its ideal combi-nation of power and ease-of-use,allows you to gather, link, calcu-late and report information keyto decision making — all withoutprogramming skills.

"We chose DATAEA5E overdBA5EII"" and Lotus 2-2-3™because most of the program-ming was already done"

Joe Dane, Human Resources DirectorMCI Telecommunications Corporation

"Office staff members with littleto no computer experience areactively using DATAEA5E toimprove productivity in handlinglarge amounts of information."

Louis M. Brigando, Senior VP,MetPath, Inc.

"We switched from a $250,000mini system to a $15,000 sys-tem of IBM PC's and DATAEA5E.Now orders, inventory, sales . . .everything is easier. All withoutthe help of a programmer."

"I was very impressed with itsoverall performance and features."

BillJacobsonBYTE, October 1984

'DATAEA5E is a true winner"

Business Computer SystemsApril 1984

DATAEA5E was rated good orexcellent in performance, docu-mentation, ease-of-use, errorhandling, support., in all areas.

InfoWorldMarch 25,1985

"DATAEA5E is perhaps the mosteffective blend of ease-of-useand performance available forPC users to date."

Data DecisionsJanuary 1985

For information or the dealer nearest you call:

800-243-5123

J.A. FulmerRobinsonFoundry, Inc.

#1 in Corporate sales.

According to several recent bestseller lists, DATAEA5E is now theindustry standard for corporateusers who want a database thatdoesn't require programming:

DATAEA5E tops dBA5EII, R:BA5E""in Corporate Software sales.

Infosystems, March 1985Corporate Best Seller List

DATAEA5E outsold all otherdatabase management systems -ahead ofdBA5EIII"", Symphony'"Framework"" and B-.BA5E 4000.

MIS, Inc., September 1984

A leading supplier to Corporate

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DATAEA5E ranked #5 on bestsellers list; outsellingLotus 1 -2-5 ™, B:BA5E andPowerbase ™

Software flews, March 1985Corporate Best Sellers List

Why settle for less? ContactSoftware Solutions, Inc. for moreinformation on DATAEA5E, the#1 choice of Corporate America.

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© 1985 Software Solutions, Inc.

Scandanayia

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South Africa

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United Kingdom West Germany, Austria

Sapphire Systems, Essex; 01-554-0582 M&T Software Verlag, Munich; 089-4613-0

Switzerland, France

Softsource, 5&A 1222 Vesenaz, Switzerland; 022-3518-55

Inquiry 341

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 125

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 128K of mem-ory. It operateswith any RS-232interface com-puter, and hasoptional accessorykits available forthelBrvTPCandPCXT, Macintosh'"andApple" lie. Kits contain the necessaryhost cable, a user guide and menu-driven software that lets yougraphically set up orcustomizeport ^rfflnl

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

Like all Hayes products.Transet 1000combines sophisticated capabilitieswith easy operation. Just 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 10520JAtlanta, Georgia 30348404/441-1617

©1985 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc.

Innovative products for enterprising people

Inquiry 166

CORVUS INTRODUCES

SHARED STORAGE.

FOR THE REST OF THE OFFICE.

□ □□

■1

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 fdls up with anentire workgroupcompiling data.To 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

Macintosh is ;i i rademark licensed to Apple i ompuierjnr.LiserWriUTi.salnuli'miirkiifApplel'iimpult'r.Iiii-.Umiiiliri^i'.iiifiUriiiuliilkiin'iniili'tiiiirkstirinrviMrn

128 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 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 offers^s/ more, 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(800)4-CORVUS.

Gorvus

Inquiry 93

by Brian McKeon

An Algorithmfor DiskCaching withLimited Memory

Efficient disk bufferingfor a small system

Reading and writing tofloppy disks is often time-consuming on microcom-puters. The increased useof 16-bit microprocessors has causedfloppy-disk delays to become a signifi-cant bottleneck in many programs forthese processors. One solution to thisproblem is to add a RAM (random-access read/write memory) disk, butthis is an expensive answer. This arti-cle presents a set of C functions thatuse a small amount of memory tostore (cache) copies of certain disksectors and improve the performanceof floppy-disk systems. The algorithmsused in these functions are suitablefor any situation in which only a smallamount of memory can be allocatedas a cache.

The routines were developed aspart of a multiprocessing operatingsystem, now dubbed "Tonto," for the8088/86 processor (see listing 1). Thegoal was to have multiprocessing andUNIX-like behavior on a system withfloppy-disk drives and 128K bytes ofmemory. Originally I added caching toread or alter single bytes in a diskblock (sector) without having to beconcerned with reading and writingthe whole block. Later, I improved theperformance of the operating systemsignificantly by the caching algorithmthat I will describe in this article.Disk-block caching is a technique

whereby copies of a number of diskblocks are kept in memory. If any re-quests are made to read from or alterthe blocks that are cached, then thedisk need not be accessed and thetransfers are so fast that they ap-proach memory-disk performance.

When designing a caching systemyou have to decide how much mem-ory, or number of buffers, will beallocated for disk-block copies. Deci-sions behind caching with large

amounts of memory allocated for thecache (2 56K bytes is typical) werediscussed in "Maximizing Hard-DiskPerformance" by Roy Chaney and

[continued]Brian McKeon is an Australian with a Ph.D.in medicine. He recently completed two yearsof research at MIT supported by a grant fromthe National Health and Medical ResearchCouncil of Australia. He can be contacted at1-18 Manion Ave., Rose Bay, Sydney.Australia.

ILLUSTRATED BY DAVE RIDLEY

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 129

DISK CACHING

Listing I: Routines for buffer manipulation, buffered block, and character 1/0.

/"

Suffer manipulation, buffered block, and character I/O routines.

*/

#include

#define BLKSIZ 512#defme NBUF 18

'xdefs.h"

#defme XBFLGS

#defi#defi#defi#defi#defi

#defi#ded

#defi#def

ne XBDEVne XBBLKne XBAGEne XBFREQne XBUF

/* system-wide definitions "/

/* disk-block size *//" number of blockbuffers in cache */

/* flags for a buffer */

/* device and block of which */

/* this buffer is a copy */

/* "time" of last access */

/* frequency-of-access parameter */

/* start of actual buffer */

/* buffer header bit flags */

ne XBFREAD 01ne XBFWRIT 02

ne XBUFSIZ (XBUF + (BLKSIZ/2)) /* buffer plus header size */

ne MINRDBUF (NBUF/3)

/' cache flush threshold */

/* debug tracing flag "/

/* ptr to system process descriptor */

/' free buffer list pointer */

/* pool of buffers and headers for each */

/* counter of calls to buffered I/O tunc "/

extern int traceflg.

'sysproc;int 'freebuf,

bufpool[NBUF*XBUFSIZ],

devioage;

/*

Initialization of buffer management.

'freebuf is a pointer to the first free buffer on the free list.

If the free list is empty, 'freebuf will be 0.

•/

bufinil()

{

int k. *ip:

printf("buffer pool at °/od/n",bufpool);

freebuf = 0; /" freebuf = = 0 will indicate end of free list */

ip = bufpool + XBUF, /" point at start of first buffer */

for(k = 0; k < NBUF ; k+ +)

{

buffree(ip); /* and free up all buffers */

ip = ip + XBUFSIZ,

}}

/*

Return a buffer to the pool.Range checking has been removedas this function is only called by the system*/

buffree(buf)int *buf; /* note usage as array of int for correct pointer maths */

{

buf = buf - XBUF; /* back up to address

of buffer header 7

buf[XBFLGS] = 0; /* clear all flags */

buf[XBFLGS + 1] = freebuf; /* link onto free list */

freebuf = buf;}

/*

Allocate a buffer from the pool

Look for the buffer with the lowest frequency of use and,if more that one with the same value, choose the leastrecently used (LRU) one.

{continued)

Random replacement,FIFO, and LRU aredecision algorithmsfor copy displacement.

Brian lohnson (May 1984 BYTE, page307). In the case of the Tonto operat-ing system, a large process and a cou-ple of smaller processes left littleroom for a large cache and forced an18-block (9K-byte) cache size. Thisrestriction of a small cache is typicalof many other applications wherecaching is implemented as part of aprogram, for example, programs forCP/M on 64K-byte machines.

The next design question—whichcopy should be displaced—ariseswhen all cache buffers contain copiesof disk blocks and a request is madefor a block that is not in the cache.The decision algorithms in commonuse are random replacement, first-in/first-out (FIFO), and least recentlyused (LRU). Chaney and lohnsondidn't find much difference in perfor-mance with large caches; however, thealgorithm becomes very importantwhen small caches are involved. Tosee why, we can look at typical activi-ty in a large cache.

Much operating-system disk activi-ty is concerned with opening, readingor writing, and closing files. It is ob-vious that a lot of this activity will in-volve reading and writing to directoryblocks: therefore, it is desirable to tryto keep copies of these blocks in thecache. After opening a file, the cachewill contain copies of directory blocks.Reading a file will cause copies of itsblocks to displace other copies in thecache. With large caches, the size islarger than most files and, when itcomes time to open another file, thecopies of directory blocks will prob-ably still be in the cache. This willapply to any blocks that are accessedoften; the chance of finding them inthe cache will be higher than for otherblocks that are used less.

[continued]

130 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98S

Non-stop flightstoXENIX.

The XENIX" market is takingoff. To keep up you've got toconvert your MS-DOS8 softwareto run on the new, faster 80286machines. Quickly Efficiently

Nobody makes portingsoftware to the XENIX environ-ment as easy as Microsoft; yousimply recompile the originalsource code.

Our full-featured XENIXlanguages use commands andsyntax identical to theirMS-DOS siblings. So you don'thave to rewrite your program tomove it.

Whether your applicationsare written MICROSOFT.

in MlCrOSOft The High Performance Software1"

versions of Pascal, BASIC,COBOL or FORTRAN, wehave the solution to your trans-portation problems.

For the name of your nearest

Microsoft dealer call (800)426-9400. In Washington State,Alaska, Hawaii and Canada, call

(206) 828-8088.

Overall features of XENIX Languages

♦ Shell support of syncronous and asyncronous tasks.

♦ Support of pipes for interprocess communication as ageneralized I/O device.

♦ Record and file locking:

— For sequential, random, dynamic and ISAM files.

— Blocked or unblocked file reads.

— Deny access, deny read and deny write lock levels.

— Automatic or manual record and file locking ofISAM files.

Microsoft FORTRAN Compiler

♦ Based on ANSI 77 (x3.9-1978) standard.

♦ Single-and double-precision for both real and complexdata types.

♦ Math packages: 287 support, alternative fast math andBCD decimal math.

♦ Large program support.Microsoft COBOL Compiler

♦ High Level 2 ANSI 74 standard features.

♦ Multi-key ISAM with split keys, alternate keys andduplicate keys.

♦ Interactive extended screen section.Microsoft BASIC Interpreter

♦ Standard Microsoft BASIC.

♦ Supports trace, single step and immediate execution.

♦ Supports random, dynamic, ISAM and sequentialfile I/O.

Microsoft Pascal Compiler

♦ ANSI and ISO standard with extensions.

♦ Math packages: 287 support, alternative fast math andBCD decimal math.

♦ Large program support.

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

DISK CACHING

If the number of read-type buffers is below the minimum,flush any write buffers.

bufalloc( ]

mt *ptr. *ip, k, age, oldest, freq, nrdbuf, nflush;if(freebuf) /* any buffers on free list9 */

{

ptr = freebuf; /* point free-list pointer to next on list "/freebuf = freebuf[XBFLGS + 1];

fillw(ptr + XBUF, SYSDSEG, 0 BLKSIZ/2); /* fill with null */return (ptr + XBUF);

}

ptr = bufpool, /* otherwise look for a 'READ' buffer */

nrdbuf = 0; /* counter of number of 'READ

buffers found */ip = 0; /* 'ip' will be nonzero if a READ'

buffer found */freq = 32767; /* hunt for XBFREQ less than this (a big

number) *//* hunt for a buffer older than this */

oldest = 0;

for(k = 0; k < NBUF ; k+ +)

{

if(ptr[XBFLGS] & XBFREAD)

/• a READ-type buffer */

nrdbuf + + ;if(ptr[XBFREQ] < = freq)

{

freq = ptr[XBFREQ],

age = devioage - ptr[XBAGE];

if(age > oldest)

\

oldest = age;

ip = ptr, /" save it */

ptr = ptr + XBUFSIZ;

i

if(nrdbuf < MINRDBUF)

nflush = bufsflushfj; /" record number flushed */if(ip) /' was a READ buffer found? */

{

buffree(ip +XBUF); /* free it up '/

return bufalloc(); /* and try again */

}else if(nflush) /* were any write buffers flushed? */

return bufalloc();else stop("bufalloc/problems");

/*

Buffered block I/O function.

Give device, read/write, desired block, address of data, and ID

of process requesting I/O.

Returns number of bytes transferred

*/

bufdevio(dev, rwfn, blk. addr. proc)

int *dev. rwfn, blk, addr, "proc

{

int "ip;

return cbufdevio(dev, rwfn, blk, 0, BLKSIZ, addr, proc);

[continued]

With small caches the reading ofmost files will displace any blockcopies that were in the cache beforethe file was read. This problem can beavoided for copies of directory blocksby having a separate cache for that in-formation. Instead I have developeda more general scheme that respondsto frequent demand for any blocks.The key to a better technique is tomeasure the frequency of access toa block copy and use this informationwhen deciding which copy to dis-place. The LRU and FIFO algorithmsare based on frequency of access, butthey are approximations of frequen-cy of access and they break downwith small cache sizes. I will describea simple technique that is more ap-plicable in these situations.

Algorithm andImplementation

Figure I shows the data structure ofthe cache used in the listing. The Ccompiler used to develop the routinesis a much-modified version of apublic-domain program ("A Small-CCompiler'' by Ron Cain, Dr. Dobb's jour-nal May 1980, page 176], which hasbeen tailored for the 8088/86 pro-cessor. It does not recognize structuresyntax, so the buffers and theirheaders are declared as integer arraysin the listing.

Each buffer in the cache has asso-ciated information that specifies theblock and device from which it hasbeen copied. In addition, flags are in-cluded to indicate if the buffer copyhas been altered and not yet writtento disk. The other parameters,XBFREQ and XBAGE, are used whendeciding which copy to displace whenthe cache is full and a buffer isrequested.

Whenever a block copy is found inthe cache (a "hit"), the frequency-of-use parameter (XBFREQ) is in-creased. When a block copy is not inthe cache (a "miss") and no buffersare free, the cache is scanned to findthe block copy with lowest frequen-cy of use (lowest XBFREQ) and thiscopy is displaced. If multiple copieswith same lowest frequency of use are

(continued]

132 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198S

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DISK CACHING

Buffered character I/O function.

Give: device, read/write, desired block, offset in block

at which transfer is to occur, number of bytes to transfer.

address of data, and ID of process requesting I/O.

Returns number of bytes transferred

*/

cbufdevio(dev, rwfn. blk. offset, nbytes. addr, proc)

mt *dev, rwfn. blk. offset, nbytes. addr. "proc:

{

int *ip, "buf, k, c locn;

if(traceflg > 2)

printf("cbufdevio(°/od, °/od. °/od, %d, %d, °/od, %d)/n",dev, rwfn, blk, offset, nbytes, addr, proc):if((offset < 0) | (nbytes < 0)) /" check for bad arguments '/

stop("bufdevio negative arg");if((offset + nbytes) > BLKSIZ)

stop("bufdevio request too big");if(nbytes = = 0)

return 0;devioage+ +: /" bump access counter */if((devioage & 017) = = 0) /' i e.. every 16 times called '/

{ /" decay' all XBFREQ values by one half (rotate) */

ip = bufpool,

for(k = 0: k < NBUF , k+ +)

if(ip[XBFLGS] & XBFREAD) I" a READ-type buffer */ip[XBFREQ] = ip[XBFREQ] >> 1: /" halve "I

1

if(ip = fmdblk(blk. dev)) /' this device block in a buffer7 "/

{

/"

increase frequency of access count and

reset time last accessed

*/

ip[XBFREQ] = ip[XBFREQ] + 128:

ip[XBAGE] = devioage.

c locn = ip + XBUF: /* get address of start of buffer */

c locn = c locn + offset: /* and transfer address "/

if(rwfn = = RDFN) /" transfer from buffer */

movsb(c_locn, SYSDSEG, addr, proc(PRDSEG), nbytes),return nbytes:

}

= = WTFN) /" transfer to buffer and mark as WRITE */

{

movsb(addr. proc[PRDSEG], c_locn, SYSDSEG. nbytes):ip[XBFLGS] = (ip[XBFLGS] & ("XBFREAD)) I XBFWRIT,return nbytes,}

if(rwfn

!

/•

the device block is not in the pool.

allocate a buffer and read the block

and do the requested transfer

*/

buf = ip = bufallocO;

ip = ip - XBUF: /* back up to start of buffer header */

ip[XBDEV] = dev; /* set up header except for flags "'

io[XBBLK] = blk.

ip[XBAGE] = devioage;

ip[XBFREQ] = 0,

/*

if a full block is to be written then

it is not necessary to read the old block

contents into the buffer

{continued}

Copies that stayin the cache havea better chanceof being hits.

found, then the copy that has notbeen used for the largest amount oftime is displaced. This latter decisionis made using the XBAGE parameter.

It's obvious that copies that stay inthe cache have a better chance of be-ing hits and. therefore, the XBFREQparameters of these buffers will con-tinue to increase. This parameter is"decayed" over time, otherwise someblock copies would become lockedinto the cache. The method used toperform this decay is to halve theXBFREQ parameter of all buffersafter every 16 calls to the buffered in-put/output (I/O) routine. Both halvingand testing for every 16th call are im-plemented by rotates and masking forspeed reasons. To gain better resolu-tion in the selection of which buffer todisplace, the XBFREQ parameter of abuffer is increased by 128 with eachhit.

If. for other applications, you alterany of these values, then see if over-flow of the XBFREQ parameter canoccur. This parameter cannot overflowwith the given values even if the sameblock is accessed repeatedly. (Themaximum value that XBFREQ canattain is 16*128 + 0.5*16*128+ 0.5*0.5*16*128. . .. which ap-proaches 2*16*128, a safe limit.)

The algorithm is best illustrated byan example: With the Tonto operatingsystem, when a file is opened, a direc-tory block will be accessed typically32 times as the directory entries inthat block are scanned. In the worstcase, this block would not have beenin the cache and would start withXBFREQ zero After the 32 accesses.XBFREQ would be 24* 128 (|16 + 0.5* 16|*128) and subsequent filereading will halve XBFREQ for every16 blocks read from a file. When the

{continued)

134 BYTE ■ SEPTEMBER 198^

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SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 135

DISK CACHING

*/

if((nbytes = = BLKSIZ) & (rwfn = = WTFN)) /' write full block'' */

movsw(addr. proc[PRDSEG], but, SYSDSEG, BLKSIZ/2):ip(XBFLGS] = XBFWRIT; /* mark as WRITE 7k = BLKSIZ, /• return value "I

}

I" fetch physical block for reading or updating */

{

if(devio (dev, RDFN, blk, buf, sysproc) = = ERROR)

else

return

else

buffree(buf):k = 0;

ip[XBFLGS] = XBFREAD;k = cbufdevio(dev, rwfn, blk, offset,nbytes, addr, proc);

If a device block is in the buffer pool, return

the address of the buffer, else 0.

*/

findblk(blk, dev)

int blk, dev;

{

register int *ip;

int k;

ip = bufpool:

for(k = 0; k < NBUF ; k+ +)

if(ip[XBFLGS]&(XBFREAD | XBFWRIT)) /* a device-block image */if(ip[XBBLK] = = blk) /* do more rare test first */if(ip[XBDEV] = = dev)

return ip; /* a hit "/ip = ip + XBUFSIZ:

return

0;

/* a miss "/

}

/"

Flush all pending writes in the buffer pool

and convert write status to read.

Return the number of buffers so changed.

Writing of buffers is performed in order to

minimize head movement across the disk.

Sectors on the same track will also be written

in order.

The order is from highest device ID to lowest

and lowest block number to highest

*/

bufsflush()

{

int * ip, nwrt,

nwrt = 0; /* counter of buffers flushed */

while(ip = buf w next()) /* find next in order */

{

devio(ip[XBDEV], WTFN, ip[XBBLK], ip + XBUF, sysproc);ip[XBFLGS] = (ip[XBFLGS] & ("XBFWRIT)) | XBFREAD:nwrt+ +;

[continued]

XBFREQ parameter of the directoryblock falls below 128, that block copywill be displaced in favor of blockcopies that have been accessed onlyonce (XBFREQ =128). This will notoccur until XBFREQ of the directoryblock has been halved 5 times, whichhappens after 80 (5*16) file blockshave been read. This is a distinct im-provement over simpler techniqueswhere the copy of the directory blockwould be lost after only 18 blocks (9K-byte cache] had been read. If anotherfile is opened before the copy of thedirectory block has been displaced.then the directory block's XBFREQparameter will be refreshed. Alter-natively, if some file blocks see a lotof accesses (e.g., parts of an editingprogram's temporary file), then thecache will try to hold onto the copiesof these blocks and it will displace thedirectory block copy.

If. in other applications, the size ofthe cache is increased, then the cacheshould respond more slowly tochanges in demand and the decayshould be decreased. One way toachieve this is to halve the XBFREQparameters less often (e.g., every 32or 64 accesses).

Another aspect of this caching sys-tem that leads to a dramatic speedimprovement is the way altered blockcopies are written to disk. Many pro-grams are concerned with the readingof one file and the writing of another.The ideal method to maximize speedis to have programs read and write inlarge chunks. In any multiprocessingsystem, this solution is inefficient, asall such programs would have largeI/O buffers built in and would requiremore memory to operate. It is morememory-efficient to centralize the buf-fering in the operating-system cache.(This has the added benefit that allprocesses "see'' the same disk image;this would not be true if each processhad a separate buffer.) In the cachingsystem described in this article,writing or "flushing'' occurs when abuffer is requested and the numberof altered buffers is found to exceeda predetermined threshold. (It is alsogood practice to flush the cache

(continued]

136 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198^

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DISK CACHING

return nwrt; /* number of buffers written */}

/•

Scan the buffer pool for buffers marked as WRITEand return the address of the one with greatest device IDand lowest block number. If none found, return 0.*/buf w next()

{

register mt *ip, k;

int *devmax, blkmin, rval;

devmax = 0; /* a small, impossible, ID number */

blkmin = 32767; /* the biggest block number */

rval = 0; /* default return value */

ip = bufpool;

for(k = 0; k < NBUF ; k+ +)

{

if(ip[XBFLGSJ & XBFWRIT) /' a WRITE buffer ? */

{

if(devmax < ip[XBDEV]) /* larger device ID? */

{

devmax = ipfXBDEV]:

blkmin = ip[XBBLK];

rval = ip: /" save it 7

}else /* same device, smaller block number? */if(devmax = ip[XBDEV])if(blkmm > ip[XBBLK])

{

blkmin = ip[XBBLK];rval = ip;

ip = ip + XBUFSIZ;

}

return rval; /* zero or ptr to next block/dev buffer */

struct xbuf

{

int

mt

int

int

int

char

}

/* a cache buffer */

xbflgs; /* buffer flags */

xbdev; /* device block of which the buffer is a copy */

xblk;

xbfreq; /* parameter for frequency of use algorithm */

xbage; /* parameter for LRU algorithm */

buf[BLKSIZ]; /* buffer proper */

bufpool[NBUF]; /" the cache of 'NBUF' buffers */

Figure I: Structure of the cache area.

periodically.) The cache is scannedand all altered buffers are written inorder from lowest block number tohighest. This minimizes head move-ment of the disk drive—a slow opera-tion. To the disk drive it appears asif the operating system is reading

large chunks from some files andwriting large chunks to others, theidealized arrangement mentionedearlier.

There is a penalty when writing inthis manner: Disk-write errors can oc-cur long after a program has per-

formed the write request. The disk-driver function devio goes to ex-tremes in the correction of writeerrors but for other applications thismay not be possible, and thus onlyblock-read caching would be appro-priate.

The listing should be largely self-explanatory except for three externalfunctions. One is movsb; this is a callto a machine-language function thattransfers a number of bytes from oneaddress and segment (8088/86) to an-other address and segment. A secondfunction is devio; it transfers a blockto/from a floppy-disk device from/toa given address and segment. Thepassed-process descriptor is used todetermine the transfer segment as forthe movsb function. All of the pro-cess/segment parameters and eventhe movsb function could be elimi-nated when using these routines inmany applications. A third function isstop: an error message is passed toit and it prints this message beforehalting.

Conclusion

This caching algorithm has provensuccessful on a small multiprocessingoperating system. It can be appliedwhen caching is desirable and mem-ory space is at a minimum, such asintelligent line buffering within editorsand record buffering in databasemanagers.

The routines help to illustrate ageneral point that has been made bymany authors: The use of a high-levellanguage enables the easy develop-ment of fast algorithms, often produc-ing an end product that has equal, ifnot better, performance than routineswritten in assembly language.

The full source code of the Tontooperating system (over 100K bytes)and various utilities (over 200K bytes)including file-system checker and file-system debugger are available inbootable IBM Personal Computer (PC)or Sanyo MBC 5 5X form (threedouble-sided double-density floppydisks) for S60. For further informa-tion, write to Brian McKeon, 1-18Manion Ave., Rose Bay, Sydney,Australia. ■

138

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Inquiry 92

by A. G. W. Cameron

astrophysical

Number

Crunching

My experiences witha progression of"personal" computersacross the years

I have used personal computersto do number crunching for mywork in theoretical astrophysicsfor rather a long time. It is onlyin recent years that I have used theterm "personal computers" to de-scribe the machines I used, but theyhad many of the attributes of per-sonal computers. The principal dif-ference was that the earlier machineswere not dedicated to only one user.However, in general, only one or twopeople could use one of these ma-chines at any one time.

The Fifties

In the early days of computing youdidn't have the option of using a com-puter like today's mainframes becausesuch machines did not exist. In themiddle and late 1950s, I was workingat the Canadian Atomic Energy Proj-ect at Chalk River, Ontario. We startedusing the IBM 602A accountingmachines for calculations. These weremechanical devices with relays,counters, and registers; they used aplugboard in which you inserted wiresto direct the operations to be per-

formed on the cards passing throughthe machine—at a rate of about sixcards per minute. One of my col-leagues converted these machines in-to card-programmed calculators byplacing germanium diodes in thewires. The machines then read theirinstructions from the cards them-selves. I would do calculations withseveral trays of cards. Apart from verylimited storage space, the principaldifficulty was the lack of any IF . . .THEN . . . ELSE capability.

Nevertheless, we did useful work. Iremember exploring the properties ofhelium thermonuclear reactions atthat time. At a somewhat advancedstage in the evolution of a star, thehelium in the interior burns into car-bon, oxygen, and small amounts of

neon. This gives three simple but non-linear differential equations to be in-tegrated simultaneously. I did theseon the computer for a variety of casesthat spanned the range of uncertain-ties in the parameters' values.

In 1958 we got a Datatron 205. oneof the new "small" computers thatcame out at that time: it was similarto. but better than, the IBM 650.which was then popular. The Datatron205 was an electronic-tube machine

{continued!A. G. W. Cameron {Harvard College Obser-vatory. 60 Garden St.. Cambridge. MA02138| is a professor of astronomy atHarvard University and a member of theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.He received his Ph.D. from the University ofSaskatchewan in Canada.

ILLUSTRATED BY IAMES ENDICOTT

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE

141

NUMBER CRUNCHING

For the first year wehad the Datatron205, not very manypeople knew what todo with the computer.

with 4000 words of storage on arotating mechanical drum; its speedwas similar to that of a modern micro-computer using interpreted BASIC.You programmed it in machine code,which wasn't too bad because every-thing was in decimal. It was a one-user-at-a-time machine, and youdebugged your programs at the con-sole, using absolute addresses. It wassubstantially interactive, since youcould pause it at any time to examinethe contents of any address locationsand output that information on an at-tached printer.

For the first year we had it, not verymany people knew what to do withthe computer, so I had it to myselfmany nights and most weekends, iwould come in to check on things onSaturday and Sunday, and if themachine was down I could generallyget it back up with a kick or by swap-ping out an electronic-tube modulethat showed an invalid combination oflights. In 1959 I went away for a year,and when I came back everything hadchanged. People then knew what todo with computers, and it was veryhard to get substantial access time.

The first year we had the Datatron205 was incredibly productive for mescientifically. I explored the stages ofnuclear burning beyond the heliumstage (carbon, oxygen, neon, mag-nesium, and silicon bumingl in the in-terior of a massive star. This involvedthe simultaneous integration ofsubstantial numbers of differentialequations for large numbers ofnuclear species, as the temperature inthe stellar interior rose and newsources of thermonuclear reactionsbecame active. By numerical integra-

tion I evaluated the rates of thosenuclear reactions that take placeunder conditions of very high densityrather than high temperature—pycno-nuclear reactions

I also began experimenting withmodels of neutron stars: this involvedintegrating two simultaneous differen-tial equations of stellar structure withan auxiliary equation for the relationbetween pressure and density—theequation of state. This work thor-oughly convinced me of the advan-tages of an interactive computing en-vironment where you can see what'sgoing on as your calculation pro-gresses.

The Sixties

During the next period of my life I didrelatively little computing, and noneof it "personal.'' This was the era ofthe mainframe with its accompanyingcrew of "high priests.'' I was at theNASA Goddard Institute for SpaceStudies in New York. At first we hadan IBM 7094. and later an IBM 36095. All our computing was batch pro-cessing using FORTRAN. I found thisenvironment so "unfriendly—a termnot used at the time—that I preferredto accomplish my projects throughthe students and postdoctoral re-search associates who were workingwith me.

The Early Seventies

In 1973 I came to Harvard University.The Center for Astrophysics was be-ing established at this time to coor-dinate the research activities of theHarvard College Observatory and theSmithsonian Astrophysical Obser-vatory. Our computing was still inbatch mode on a CDC (Control DataCorporation) 6400 mainframe, whichwas located about a mile away fromus. But the era of the small computerwas at hand. I obtained a Hewlett-Packard 9830 programmable desktopcalculator with an attached 5-mega-byte hard disk. I have often wonderedwhy histories of personal computingignore this machine and others like it.It used interpreted BASIC in ROM(read-only memoryl and had I6Kbytes of available user memory.

Shades of the old Datatron 205-butbetter—and all to myself! It was quitea while before the better-knownhobby machines, starting with theAltair, could match the capabilities ofthe HP 9830.

By this time, using computers intheoretical astrophysics was common-place. My interests had shifted into in-vestigations about the origin of thesolar system. This is a complicatedinterdisciplinary subject dealing witha complex physical and chemicalscenario, and much of the work in itinvolves computational simulations ofsystem structures and their evolutionacross time. These systems includethe sun and planetary bodies and thehypothetical solar nebula from whichwe believe they were formed.

The following are among the prob-lems I remember working on with theHP 9830:

• A series of Monte Carlo calculationsof collisions between small solid par-ticles (originally interstellar grains).The purpose was to see how the par-ticle sizes vary due to coagulation anddisruption during the collisions. Thisinvolves storing the abundance(amount of material present) of par-ticles of a given size in bins and mov-ing those abundances between thebins as particles grow or areshattered.

• Calculations of the periods of radialand nonradial oscillations of hot-whitedwarf stars. For a star of given massand for a given class of oscillations,the frequency of oscillation must bevaried in small steps so that you candetermine when the center and sur-face boundary conditions of theoscillations are satisfied. For thenonradial oscillations this involves thesimultaneous solution of five differen-tial equations.

• The structure and evolution of theprimitive solar nebula. In this problemyou must determine the structure inthe radial direction (along the radius)and. for each of a series of radialsteps, in the vertical direction. Mass.angular momentum, and energy aretransported in the radial direction as

^continued)

142 BYTE

SEPTEMBER 1985

PS Cc*yf44**i Piei&hti tit.

PS Turbo 640

For those of you thai mistook me for BillGates from Microsoft let me clarify thingsI'm Dave Carlin of PS Computers in PalmSprings. California The differences arepretty basic Bill reads the Wan Street Jour-nal, wears glasses and writes great software I read USA Today, wear soft con-tacts and build great hardware.

Now that you know who I am. or at leastwho I am not, let s get to the point

Problem. Since I got into computers twoyears ago they have been a constantsource of fascination and frustration

Fascination due to the immense powerand control that the personal computerhas allowed me over my daily businessactivities; frustration due to the hundredsof hours I've spent making hardware andsoftware cooperate with one another

No doubt about it, once you get all thepieces put together correctly you have atyour command an incredible tool There isabsolutely no limit to the number and typeof tasks that you can accomplish withgreater speed, better accuracy andstronger impact, all with far less effort Thetrade off however has been the time, ener-gy and uncertainty involved in finding thebest buy on the right equipment, then get-ting all the parts to function as one

Because I have personally gone throughhours of long distance phone calls to hardware manufacturers and waited days forcall backs that never happened BecauseI have found myself so many times in frontof a screen filled with meaningless greekcharacters at 2 AM unable to get the com-puter to print a simple business letter Be-cause I would not wish this type of agonyon anyone This is why I have put togetherthe PS Turbo 640

Solution. What happened was a fewmonths ago I discovered a source of com-puter mother boards that run IBM typesoftware faster than the IBM PC, They're agenuine product ot Taiwan and they arebeautiful I bought cases, keyboards,cables and disk drives, built the Turbo 640and put it to work Right now I have threePS Turbo 640s linked as a network runningDbase III and Lotus day in and day out inmy business The PS Turbo 640 works, itworks well and it works faster than the IBMPC

An orai surgeon friend saw my networkand asked me to build one up for him Oneof the Turbo 640s on the network is in hisoperatory. It runs a program I wrote in Tur-bo Pascal for his anesthesia records - not asingle glitch (The 640 seems totally im-mune to the effects of Nitrous Oxide)

More than compatible. Though I have aprivate pilot's license and quite a fewhours flying high performance aircraft. I'venever taken the time to learn to use theFlight Simulator program from MicrosoftSome of my friends have and it runsbeautifully on the 640

The phrase "IBM compatibility" is an under-statement with my computers; the PS Tur-bo 640 is just flat out a better machine

Peter Norton publishes a program thatrates computers as to speed and com-patibility with the IBM PC In the normalmode of operation the PS Turbo 640 ratesa 1 0 which indicates a 1 to 1 equivalencyIn the high speed mode (selected with twokeystrokes, no switches or rebooting) the640 scores a 1 4 that's 40% faster than anIBM PC

National Order Line800-654-7650

California Order Line800-231-8701

Inquiry 302

The specs. 640 K of memory (the maximum contiguous memory that the PC canaddress - and they re an 150 nanosecondchips). A keyboard that is very similar tothe Key Tronic KB5151 (yes all the horrorstories about the keyboards that comestock with IBM PCs are true) Two serialports, a parallel printer port and a gameport (you can't beat that) Battery poweredclock (keeps track of the time and datewhile the computer is ofi) A video cardthat gives you crisp monochrome text andalso displays color/graphic software on amonochrome monitor as sixteen shades ofgrey (amber) An amber monitor (verychic) Two 360 K disk drives (AK.A Ha fHeight DSDD) Two front panel LEDs (oneto indicate that you left the computer onfrom the night before [it's ok, that doesn thurt it] and the other to tell you if the proc-essor is in the high speed mode or |ustgoing IBM speed) Eight expansion slotsftwo are used by the multifunction cardand monitor card, four full sized and twoshort slots are available) Five availableROM sockets and two buss connectionpoints (load programs stored on your ownROMs) 135 watt power supply (ready forupgrading to a hard disk) User's book andcomplete technical information (the user'spart is easy - the tech part is very techni-cal)

A computer without software is basically asolid state boat anchor and a rather poorone at that When you buy the Turbo 640 Iwant you to be able to start using it themoment you take it out of the box

All this and software too. First theresPC DOS 2 10 DOS is the program thatbrings the computer to life Typically someversion of it is run on all IBM PCs prior torunning application programs, "And itcame to pass that this was called bootingthe computer" I'm not crazy about theterm, but everyone does it The full DOSmanual is included

There is complete software for the multi-function card that allows you to partitionthe 640's memory into RAM disks and aprinter buffer

Perhaps you ve heard about Sidekick fromPhilippe Kahn at Borland InfoWond votedit the Software Product of the Year Well it's

?ood code but I'm not including it with theurbo 640 What I am including is a prod-uct that I like better, has essentially thesame functions but in my opinion is easierto use - PopUps from Belisoft Regardlessof how deep into your spreadsheet, data-base or masters thesis (revisions) youmight be. two key strokes will put a note-pad, calculator or any of 5 other utilities onyour screen Make notes, perform calcula-tions, set an alarm, check your calendar orperform DOS functions. When you'refinished just hit the escape key: the PopUps disappear trom the screen and you'reback into your program This is the PopUpDeskset from Belisoft. it s potent softwareand it's part of the PS Turbo 640 system

Don t wait. If you re ready for this kind ofcomputing then the PS Turbo 640 is themachine you need Call me with yourAmerican Express Card account numberor mail me a cashiers check I will per-sonally see to it that a Turbo 640 is shippedto you via UPS the next business dayOpen the box, plug the monitor and thekeyboard into the computer then plug thecomputer into the wall socket Turn thecomputer and monitor on, stick in any soft-ware designed to run on the IBM PC andgo to work No chips to put in backwards,no little multicolored wires to push onto thewrong connector and no switches to set

Money back. If the PS Turbo 640doesn't perform like I've said then return itto me Just put one copy of your invoice inthe box and send it back I will make surethat credit is issued on your credit card or acashier s check is mailed out to you. thesame business day that we receive theunit

I've told you quite a bit about what you getwhen you buy the Turbo 640; now let metell about something you won't get. Youwon't get put on hold if you have occasionto call the technical support division num-ber That's because there isn't a technicalsupport number Once the machine is on itlooks like, acts like and runs like a properlyconfigured IBM PC |ust a little faster

This is the part where I have to get a littletough I've sold you what I feel is the idealconfiguration of an IBM type PC You havegotten the absolute best buy for yourmoney on earth I can not however, learnhow to use it for you Follow the directionsin the book, remember that no matter howmuch you pay for your software its prob-ably not perfect, and most of all don't giveup - whatever time it takes to get proficientat your particular software application willultimately be all worthwhile

If you have questions concerning opera-tion (that aren't answered by the manual),you have three options

One. write me a card or letter All corres-pondence is answered the same day asreceived via MCI Mail Two, sign onto thePS Computer 24 hour bulletin board, postyour message and then sign on later forthe answer (admittedly hard to do if youdidn't decide to get a modem or the com-puter I sold you broke [see option one]) Orthree, find out where I live (probably theleast convenient for both of us)

Warranty. The warranty on the Turbo640 is simple If anything goes wrong in thefirst six months, send it back The unit willbe repaired and shipped back to you twodays after we receive it After six months7Same thing, small charge

Placing your order. The 800 numberputs you in touch with an operator here atPS Computers whose function is to takethe necessary information, quickly andaccurately, period I've given you the high-lights oi the system in this ad If you need toknow more about specific features dropme a line Sure it seems like it might be a bitmore trouble than calling: but you wont bereaching a busy signal and your answerwill be in writing.

You have my word that the PS Turbo 640has been accurately represented on thispage and is in fact the absolute best buyfor your dollars If for any reason you don'tlike the 640 then you also have my wordthat upon our receiving the system, thosedollars will be returned to you, im-mediately

Safe bet. If you want to know for sure ifthe 640 is the computer for you. buy it Thelocal book is 100 to one that after you usethe PS Turbo 640, you'll never part with it

PS Turbo 640 System$1,700

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The (really) tine print. Might Simulator is a trademark otMicrosoft Corporation Lotus is a trademark of Lotus Develop-ment Corporation Dbase HI is a trademark o! Ashlon-TateTurbo Pascal and Sidekick are trademarks of Borland Inter-national The Popup series ot software are trademarks ofBellsoU Key Tronic Corporation is the manufaclurer of the KB5151 keyboard out keyboard is similar but is manufacturedabroad IBM is a trademark of a company called InternationalBusiness Machines InfoWorld The Wall Street Journal andUSA Today are nationally distributed publications

Canada & Export Line619-325-4856

Modem Line 300/1200619-323-4962

SEPTEMBER 198"* -BYTE 143

NUMBER CRUNCHING

a result of friction due to turbulentviscosity in the nebula, and. depen-ding on the rates of these transportphenomena, energy dissipation oc-curs in which the energy depositedmust be transported to the surfacesof the nebula and radiated away there.We ran a half-dozen cases with dif-ferent input parameter values.

The last problem took more thanhalf a year to run. I developed atechnique for starting and stopping aproblem. The HP 9830 had an at-tached thermal printer, so that I couldget a printout of the run status atvarious intervals: the current values ofall the variables were stored to diskat frequent intervals also. Thus, if a

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problem stopped, either by a delib-erate action or by a power failure orwhatever, it was a simple matter torestart it from the last disk-storageevent. In fact, a problem's initial con-ditions were usually stored in an ap-propriate disk file where the main pro-gram could read them as it began.

The Late Seventies

Nevertheless, the third problem ranalong interminably: we needed amuch faster machine—a minicom-puter. In 1976 we upgraded to a DataGeneral Nova 3/D computer. In itsfinal configuration the Nova 3/D had2 56K bytes of memory and ran adecent version of a FORTRAN com-piler. It supported up to two users,each using one "ground" (foregroundor background). After excluding theoperating system, each user had anaverage of 11 OK bytes of RAM(random-access read/write memory)using memory-mapping techniques.This was not quite as "personal" assome of the other machines I used.

Later we added a Data GeneralNova 4/X computer. Dual ports con-nected both of these computers totwo hard disks. By this time, theCenter for Astrophysics was runninga Digital Equipment CorporationVAX-11/780. Our benchmarks showedthe Nova 3/D to run a number-crunching problem typically at 2 5 per-cent of VAX speed and the Nova 4/Xat 45 percent, each running with on-ly one ground. When both groundswere active, a given ground ran moreslowly, but the total throughput wasabout 50 percent higher.

Our work was supported by govern-ment grants. On a given grant the bestyou could expect to have approvedwas a few thousand dollars—at themost about $10.000—for computingtime to be purchased from the cen-tral university computer. I have alwaysfelt that I can get much more com-puting per dollar by using smallmachines like personal computers;therefore, if 1 have to put up with cer-tain inconveniences in order to do so,I will. For example, note from thespeeds outlined above that if all four

{continued}

144 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198S

Inquiry 219

OEM & OWN BRAND

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SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 145

NUMBER CRUNCHING

grounds are used very efficiently, wecan get a throughput comparable tothat of our central VAX The com-puting budget for our central com-puting facility a few years ago. whenthese comparisons were made, wasabout $600,000 per year and oftenmore. This was financed by usercharges. Thus, we could claim that we

had the potential of doing the equiv-alent of $600,000 worth of computingper year. In fact, we were rarely thatefficient. It is probably closer to thetruth to say that we got about$200,000 to $300,000 worth of com-puting per year at a real cost equalto a tiny fraction of this. (Many otherinstallations have operated their

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VAXes at much lower costs. Oftenthey do not include depreciation ofthe original purchase in the runningcharges and use few if any hiredoperations personnel.)

The Novas were 16-bit machines,and the techniques of using memorymapping were anything but trans-parent to the user. Fortunately, theoperating system was not included inuser address space, but code anddata did have to fit into 64K bytes.There were various ways of doing thisfor a large program. You could dividethe code into overlays and explicitlyload each overlay segment asneeded: often the overlay schemebecame very complicated. You couldkeep the data in extended, or virtual,memory and access it by moving awindow around via calls to specialFORTRAN subroutines and functions.You could write (or read] the entirevirtual memory to (or from) disk. Wequickly learned the value of makingprograms restartable in case some-one or something crashed the system.

Despite these inconveniences, wedid a lot of sophisticated program-ming. The following are some of themajor programs we ran on the Novas:

• Neutron-capture nucleosynthesis ona rapid time scale. We investigatedwhether this process, which takesplace somewhere in stellar systems,could be taking place through theproduction of neutrons by heliumthermonuclear reactions, either in thehelium zones of supernova explo-sions or deep in the helium cores ofstars in an advanced stage of evolu-tion. Our conclusion was that it wasnot. We needed to solve a very largenumber of differential equations si-multaneously, since nuclear transfor-mations interconnect more than 6000nuclear species, and we had to evolvetheir abundances forward in time.

• Stellar evolution. Here a stellarmodel is divided into concentricspherical zones, and the four simul-taneous differential equations ofstellar structure are rewritten as dif-ference equations applied to the zoneboundaries. In effect, this produces

[continued)

146 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198?

Inquiry 409

Inquiry 339 -

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NUMBER CRUNCHING

four such equations per zone; wecould handle up to 200 zones. We ob-tained a satisfactory solution for astellar model by iterating changes inthe conditions at the zone boundariesand computing additional models asthe star evolved in time. If we hadused realistic input for the physicalquantities in this problem, the time re-quired to compute, for example, theequation of state or the radiativeopacity literally millions of timeswould have been too demanding. Sowe put these quantities into twotables on disk, each some 5 mega-bytes long, and read the records intowindows in memory so we could in-terpolate it. We also ran a similar kindof program to study the evolution ofgiant gaseous planets.• Astrophysical hydrodynamics. Thestellar-evolution program just de-scribed is an example of hydrostatics;when velocities and accelerations inthe system become important, thenwe have hydrodynamics. The hydro-dynamics of a spherically symmetriccase are similar to those of stellarevolution, except that the differentialequations have more terms. (We havestudied stellar oscillations this way.)However, we have run problems incylindrical geometry that are some-what more demanding. In such aproblem conditions along the cylin-drical axis differ from those perpen-dicular to that axis, so that you mustset up a mesh of points representinga grid laid out along the axis and rep-resenting concentric circles in planesperpendicular to that axis. In a typicalcase we used a mesh of 32 by 64—atotal of 2048 mesh points. Again, youmust solve differential equations ateach of the mesh points. We typicallyused this code to study the flow ofgas past a star, as when a supernovagoes off in a binary system or a staris immersed in a dense gas cloud ina galactic center. We have also useda different kind of hydrodynamic rep-resentation more suited to intrinsical-ly three-dimensional motions. Herethe available space is divided intocells, and the motions of test particlesare followed through these cells(hence, this method is called the

"particle-in-cell" method).• Structure and evolution of the primi-tive solar nebula. This is essentiallythe same problem I described earlier,but with the Data General Novas wecould do it with improved physics andin much greater detail,

The Early Eighties

With programs like these running, fre-quently for weeks on end, and withdemands on the Novas for word pro-cessing, graphics, and other programdevelopment, it had become difficultto get computing time by 1982. Atthat time Data General modified theoperating system for the Novas toallow RAM to be expanded to 512Kbytes. Although we would clearly havebenefited by adding the extra mem-ory, 1 decided not to. That marked thebeginning of our transition to micro-computers. The memory addition forthe Nova 3/D would have cost $3000.and for the Nova 4/X, $5000. But2 56K bytes of microcomputer mem-ory cost only a small fraction of thoseamounts at that time. (Today it wouldcost less than $100.) For a price com-parable to either of these memoryadditions, 1 could buy an entire micro-computer. So 1 started in that direc-tion, first with Otrona Attaches run-ning CP/M.

We did not intend to use the micro-computers for serious numbercrunching at that time, but rather tooff-load non-number-crunching tasksfrom the Novas. Foremost amongthese tasks was word processing; itwas surprising how much time thepreparation of scientific papers wastaking on the Novas. The benefits ofthe off-loading were immediate. Itbecame possible to run one or bothof the Novas with a single groundmost of the time; thus, we receivednearly the same benefit that we wouldhave gotten from the memory expan-sion. The Novas had essentiallybecome personal computers. And wecould use Microsoft CP/M FORTRANto do small problems or programdevelopment, tasks where speed ofexecution was not significant, on theOtronas.

The introduction of the IBM PC

did not affect us at first. But later, withthe availability of the Intel 8087 chipand the introduction of MicrosoftFORTRAN-77 for MS-DOS, which gen-erated in-line code for the chip, itbecame very advantageous to moveto MS-DOS machines. We upgradedour Otronas to their dual-processorconfigurations and added some harddisks. Our benchmarks showed theIBM PC with an 8087 chip to run at10 percent of the speed of the VAX,and the Otronas with their 8086/8087combinations to run at 12 or 13 per-cent. (Due to the lack of 8-MHz 8087s,we had to install 5-MHz chips in theOtronas.) The Otronas had a limit of2 56K bytes, but with IBM PCs wecould go to 640K bytes. The speedswere significantly less than we gotwith the Novas, but it became veryeconomically attractive to switch ournumber crunching to IBM PCs orcompatibles. The price is right: Todayit is possible to get IBM PC XTequivalents in the range of $2000 to$3000, including 640K bytes of RAMand the 8087 chip.

Due to the Novas' memory limita-tions, any problem that we could dowith them, we can now do with XTequivalents. We can trade memory forspeed in some instances; we areunlikely to need overlays unless ourproblems become much larger thanthey have so far; and accessing largeamounts of memory in arrays isessentially now transparent to theuser. We can also add additional RAMto be used as disk equivalents, thusspeeding up access to large storedtables and cutting down on the wait-ing time for FORTRAN compilations.

Even the speed deficiency will dis-appear with time. 1 was looking for-ward with keen anticipation to thearrival of the IBM AT with the 80286and 80287 chips, expecting that theperformance for number-crunchingproblems would rise to 2 5 percent ormore of that of a VAX. Alas! Thatproved not to be true, benchmarktests have shown that the AT runs atthe same speed as the XT for prob-lems that spend most of their time inthe 8087 or 80287.

{continued)

148 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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Inquiry 388

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n

NUMBER CRUNCHING

Therefore. I invested in a NumberSmasher board from Microway for in-stallation in our PC XT equivalentinstead (actually, it is a PC with a third-party hard disk). This board containsan 8086 and an 8087 running at 9.54MHz. Benchmarks have shown thatthis board operates typically at a fac-tor of 2.2 to 2.8 times as fast as theIBM PC. depending on application. Ingeneral, in our tests the board ran atapproximately 2 5 percent of the

VAX's speed, equivalent to our Nova3/D in the single-user mode.

Today and Tomorrow

I don't know whether the faster per-formance of the future will come fromchips in the Intel family, retaining PCcompatibility, or from chip familiesfrom other manufacturers. Some peo-ple at the Center for Astrophysics areenthusiastic at the prospect of theMotorola 68000 series with either the

Weitek or the Motorola numericcoprocessors, which are predicted tooutperform the VAX.

We are now using PC XT equivalentsfor most of our work, and the Novaswill be shut down soon. I have trans-ferred the more interesting softwareto PC floppy disks, and 1 am bringingup parts of it on the micros as need-ed for research. All of this should bevery helpful to our scientificproductivity. ■

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150 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 114

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Dynamic allocationof range andprecision fieldsin FP numbers

Two generalized floating-point representations aredescribed, analyzed, andcompared in this article.One is a partitioned representationallowing a trade-off between rangeand precision. The other is a variable-base representation that achieves alarger range but has fixed accuracy.Floating-point (FP) representationshave not changed much since theywere first introduced in the early1950s. The common floating-pointrepresentation consists of a fixed-point fraction F that determines theaccuracy (the significant digits) of thenumber and an exponent £ thatdetermines the range of the number.The number is defined as Fx2E or.more generally, FxBE, for some baseB. If the signed exponent £ is e bitslong, it uses an excess BE representa-tion (a format in which the highest bitdesignates the sign of the exponent).This, combined with an S E F format(where S is the sign of the floating-point number), makes it possible to

Two Generalized

Floating-Point

Representations

sign of the exponent for zero negativeto preserve the compatibility with in-teger format. These two features areuseful and should, in my opinion, bepreserved in any modification or gen-eralization of floating-point represen-tations.

In the past, alternative floating-pointrepresentations were not practicalbecause of the complex hardwarenecessary. Today, however, it is notonly possible but practical to designand build a support device to handlefloating-point numbers in formatsother than SE F. Such a device shouldbe able to

• Accept two floating-point numbers,compare them, or perform any of thefour arithmetic operations on them

• Accept one floating-point numberand normalize it (set E to the valuethat accommodates the maximumnumber of significant figures for F).convert it to integer, or test it for over-flow/underflow (if those values exist inthe representation used)

• Accept an integer and convert it toa normalized floating-point number

Another way of implementing thedesign I will propose here is by micro-programming it. Microprogramming isbeing used more and more, even onlarge, fast machines.

Partitioned Floating-PointRepresentation

Morris has suggested a three-field

the rest of the number into an e-bitsigned exponent and an /-bit signedfraction. This format is flexible, achiev-ing a trade-off between range (therange of values of 2E) and accuracy(which is determined by the length fof the fraction). However, it has thefollowing drawbacks:

• When G is small (G<4). the G fielditself uses less than 3 bits. The unusedbits could, in principle, be used to in-crease the effective size of the expo-nent E. thus increasing the range.

• The exponent ranges for differentvalues of G overlap. Thus the twonumbers 010 Oil x. . .x (G = 2. £=3)andOll 0011 x. . ,x(G=3, £=4) havethe same exponent. To achieve aunique representation (important forfloating-point comparisons), the expo-nent has to be normalized by shiftingit to the left and decreasing G.

• The sign of the entire number ispart of the F field and, therefore, isnot the most significant bit of thefloating-point number. This compli-cates comparisons again since, whencomparing G, Ei £1 and G2 E2 F2. veri-fying that G,>G2 and E,>E3 doesnot guarantee that the first number isthe greater of the two. Every compar-ison must include £, £2, and a simplebit-by-bit comparison from left to right(integer comparison) would not work.

by David Salomon

• A hidden bit is not used.

The modification proposed hereeliminates all these drawbacks exceptthe first one. The proposed format isS SeG E F, where S is the sign of thefraction, and Se is the exponent sign(using a sign convention of 0 fornegative and 1 for nonnegative ex-ponents). G is a g-bit field defining thelength e of the exponent as e=G + \.E is the two's-complement exponentfield, and the effective value of the ex-ponent is defined as E+{2e-2) whenSe= 1 (nonnegative exponents), andE-(2e-2) when Se=0 (negative ex-ponents). F is a twos-complement,normalized-fraction field, using a hid-den bit. The advantages are

• Since e=G+\. the effective value ofthe exponent is determined by bothG and E.

• This definition removes the overlap-ping in ranges of the exponent for dif-ferent values of G. For example, G= 1implies e=G+\=2. Thus e is a 2-bitfield ranging in value from -4 to 3.The effective value of the exponent isthus£+(2e-2) = (0:3) + (22-2) = 2:5for nonnegative exponents and E-(2e-2) = (-4:l)-(22-2) = -6:-3 fornegative exponents.

These ranges do not overlap withthe ranges for G=0 or G = 2 (see table3). In general, a given e results in thetwo ranges -(2e+1-2):-(2e-l) fornegative exponents and (2e-2):(2e+1-3) for nonnegative ones.

• The fraction F is n-e-5 = n-G-6

{continued)David Salomon is a professor of computerscience at California State University, longBeach. He received a PhD. in physics fromHebrew University (Israel). He can be con-tacted at California State University, Depart-ment of Computer Science and Engineering,bong Beach. CA 90840.

Table 1: Ranges

of floating-point

number representations on some computers.

Computer

n

Approximate range

PDP-11

32 or 64

1 Q-38.6 1QJB2

IBM 7000 series

36

10-"6 10"2

IBM 360, 370

32 or 64

10-js.j io"»

CDC Cyber

60

10-3°» -|0308

Cray-1

64

10-«67 10""

Table 2

: Representations of some floating-point numbers in the proposed system.

S Se

G

E

Value

Notes

0 10 10 10 10 00 0

000001001010000000

1

00

01

000

0

1

2-'x2' = 12"'x22 = 22-,x2] = 42-'x26 = 322-'x2-2 = 0.1252-'x2- = 0.25

1

22

S Se

G

E

Value

Notes

0 0

0 0

1 1

1 1

1 01 0

001001000000000000

00

01

0

1

0

1

2-X2"62-.x2-3

-2-X20-2-'x2'-2"'x2-2-2-'x2-'

22

33

2,32,3

Notes:

1. The fraction F in all the examples is all

2. Negative exponent

3. Negative fraction

zeros and, therefore, is equal to 0.5

Table 3

: Ranges for

Morn's and for the proposed system with different values of

the G field.

G e

E (Morris)

E-(2e-2)

£ + (2'-2)

0 1

-2:1

-2

-1

0:1

1 2

-4:3

-6

-3

2:5

2 3

-8:7

-14

-7

6:13

3 4

-16:15

-30

-15

14:29

4 5

-32:31

-62

-31

30:61

5 6

-64:63

-126

-63

62:125

6 7

-128:127

-254

-127

126:253

7 8

-256:255

-510

-255

254:509

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE

155

FLOATING-POINT

The Distribution of Leading Digits

In base B. a normalized fraction hasa leading digit in the range I to B-1.One might think that those valuesoccur with equal probability. However,it was observed long ago that this isnot the case. In 1881. the Americanastronomer Simon Newcomb noticedthat the beginning pages of books oflogarithms were the most worn. He in-terpreted this as an indication thatpeople were looking up more loga-rithms of numbers starting with 1 thanany other number. Consequently, heconcluded that numbers starting with1 were used more than other numbers.Knuth (see reference 3) brings detailedarguments supporting the claim thatthe leading digit of a floating-pointfraction is logarithmically distributed.The probability of the digit being i isp, = log,|l + Mi) = log2(I + l/i)/logj|Sl =log2(l + l/i)/6. Raimi's article (see refer-ence 4) gives a comprehensive reviewof literature on the logarithmic law.

The worst case of normalization iswhere the binary representation of theleading digit has 6- 1 leading zeros.This only occurs when the digit is equalto 1. and the probability of that caseis p, = log22/6 = Mb.

The next worst case, where the lead-ing digit has b-2 zeros, occurs whenit is equal to 2 or to 3. The probabilityfor that happening is p2+p3 = |log2(3/2)+ log2(4/3)|/6 = (log24 - log22)/6 = Mb.

In the general case, the leading digithas k zeros and can have values

0. . .010. . .00 = 2''-''-,

0.. .010. ..10 - 2"-*-' + 2

0...011..11 = 2"-*-' + (2*-*M-l)= 2""*- 1

Defining q = 2*"*"'. the leading digit

takes values q. q+ 1 2q- 1.

The probability of such a case is

i i

llOg;

log2(l -t+ log2

+ ^) + log2(l +^TT +

2q+

illq+\

|log2

<?+.

logil ^r Wb2q-\

= |log2(2<?) - log2(<?)]/6 = Mb

The probability does not depend onk. All probabilities for the location ofthe first nonzero bit are thus equal andhave the value Mb. The averagenumber of leading zero bits is there-fore the straight average (6-l)/2 =(log2B-l)/2.

It is interesting to note that, assuminguniform distribution of the leadingdigit, the probability of having kleading zeros in the binary represen-tation of the leading digit depends onk. There are 26"'"1 different numbers ofthe form

therefore

6-1 2*-i 6-1

£ kxpk = ■Jr—- £ kx2-k

6-1 l 26-1' 6

log2B

0...01*.

each occurring with probabilityl/(S-li The probability of having kleading zeros is thus 2*-*"'/(B-l).

The average number of leading zerosin the case of uniform distribution is

Figure A shows the average number ofleading zeros as a function of the baseB for both the uniform and the loga-rithmic distributions.

In the case of the uniform distribu-tion, that average asymptotically ap-proaches 1. This means that at most1 bit is "lost" when a floating-pointfraction is normalized, regardless ofthe base B used.

If one believes in logarithmic distribu-tion, however, then the result is that theaverage number of bits lost after nor-malization is proportional to 6 = log2S.

1

5/2

BITS

ro

^^^LOGARITHMIC^S DISTRIBUTION

OF ZEROhi

yS

AVERAGE NUMBER

1 " """ UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION

1/2

■ / f

0

8 16 32

-4

NUMBER BASE B

Figure A: The average number of leading zero bits in the fixed-point fractionassuming [a) uniform distribution of base B digits, and [b] logarithmicdistribution of base B digits.

156 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198i

Inquiry 75

FLOATING-POINT

bits long. Since the fraction is nor-malized and a hidden bit is used, theeffective length of the fraction isn-G-5 bits. The smallest fraction isalways 0.5 and the largest one is 1 -2-[n-<?-5] since the extreme values ofthe exponent occur when G = l, thelargest floating-point value possible inthis representation is (1 _2-i"-12i)x2509= 101533 and the smallest positivevalue is 2-'x2-510= lO"1539. The rangeof negative values is similar. Table 1gives the floating-point ranges forsome existing computers.

Floating-point numbers on theCray-1 computer far exceed the rangethat can be achieved in the proposedrepresentation with g=3. This sug-gests that large, scientific machinesuse a 4-bit G field. For g=4, the max-imum value of G is 1 5; thus e=\6, theexponent range is -131070 to131069. and the floating-point ex-treme values are (1-2-|"-20J)x213,06'=

JQ39456 and 2-X2-'31070z= | Q-39456

• Since both E and F are two's-com-plement numbers, comparisons canbe done bit by bit from left to right(integer comparisons). Table 2 listssome floating-point values to illustratethis point.

Representation Error

The maximum error in a floating-pointnumber is half of the least significantbit of the fraction or

If the floating-point number x rep-resents the real number x, then therelative error of the representation is

\x-x\

Since \x-x\ < t 2"/x2"p

we i -i L

have l*~*l < 2 2-'x2"" = 2 2^x2""

Fx2"p

< = 2'f

F S I

The conclusion, therefore, is that

incrementing G by 1 cuts the relativeerror in half (by decreasing /) whiledoubling the range (table 3).

Variable-Base Floating-PointRepresentation

The definition of a floating-point valueis FxBE where the base B is usually2. To explore the possibilities of dif-ferent bases, we can again use afloating-point format with fields S, Se,G, E, F and define the base B asB=2C*\ The G field now determinesthe base B and not the exponent size.The above definition allows for basesthat are powers of 2, from 2 to 2 56.There is little practical need, if any, forbases such as 8, 32. or 64, and I willshow that such a format is not as flex-ible as the one previously mentioned.The main advantage of such a de-sign is large range. The largest baseis B = 27+1 = 2 56, yielding a floating-point number in the range of 2 56"2to 2 562"', where e is the length of ex-ponent field E.

Effect of Base Selectionon Range and Accuracy

In examining the effects of base selec-tion, let us revert to the S E F formof floating-point representation. Theproblems associated with other basesare independent of the floating-pointformat, so we will allow ourselves theluxury of using the simplest represen-tation. Selecting a base greater than2 affects the floating-point number intwo ways. It increases the range from22'-1 to B2'~l. However, if one wants tomaintain the same range, the expo-nent field can be shortened to e' bitswhere 22'~l = B2'"'. Defining b=log2B,this implies 2'-l=(2"'-l)log2B=(2*'-l)&and the reduction in exponent size ise-e'=\og2b bits. This gain of Iog2b bitscan be added to the fraction to in-crease the accuracy of the floating-point number.

Normalizing a floating-point num-ber with base B is done by decre-menting E by 1 and shifting F to theleft b positions, repeating until the left-most b bits of the fraction are non-zero. Up to b- 1 zero bits may thus beleft unused in the fraction and, on the

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FLOATING-POINT

average [b- I )/2 zero bits will be left bits to the effective length of the frac- floating-point addition (for more infor-unused (see text box on page 164). tion. Since this quantity is always mation, see reference 2).This, added to the fact that a hidden negative, accuracy is. in fact, de-bit can no longer be used, decreases creased. CONCLUSIONSrf„. off~-th«, length nf thP fraction bv The main advantage of using a base The range and accuracy of floating-

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Turbo PascalDrivesthe Mouse

A handy procedureto interface theMicrosoft Mousewith Pascal

Two Turbo Pascal pro-cedures for accessing theMS-DOS functions and MS-DOS interrupts, MsDOSand Intr, have simplified the task of in-terfacing the Microsoft Mouse withPascal. It would have been muchmore onerous with expensive "full-scale" compilers. The two proceduresare not well documented in the Turbomanual, but two .DOC files on theTurbo (version 2) disk, INTRPTCL andDOSFCALL, give examples of theiruse. Documentation for Intr is con-siderably improved in version 3.0 ofTurbo Pascal, but not for MsDOS.This information, combined with thatprovided in the Microsoft Mousemanual (Microsoft Mouse Installation andOperation Manual, Microsoft Corpora-tion, 1983), was adequate to devisesimple Turbo Pascal routines that ac-complish the same actions as theBASlC-callable mouse routines sup-plied by Microsoft.

Interrupt calls in machine languageresemble ordinary procedure calls inhigher-level languages. Certain values

must be placed in the 8088/8086registers, and an interrupt procedureINT calls the desired procedure witha suitable code. The mouse uses INT51 (or INT 33 hexadecimal), whichwith proper values in the registersprovide particular Mouse functions.This is similar to passing a parameterto a function in Pascal or other higher-level languages. To program themouse, the Microsoft Mouse manualrequires the passing of the param-eters M1%, M2%. M3%. and M4%to 8088/86 registers ax, bx, ex, anddx, respectively, before issuing theINT 51. BASIC ordinarily uses CALLMOUSE (M1°/o,M2%.M3%.M4%).For example, if I want function

number I to show the cursor inBASIC. I would set M1% to l andissue a CALL MOUSE (M1%, M2%,M3°/o.M4%); in machine language, Iwould load the value 1 into registerax and call INT 51.

Turbo Pascal's function Intr (P1, P2)takes two parameters. The first param-eter, P1, selects the required interrupt,INT (decimal 51 or 33 hexadecimal for

{continued)Dr. ]ohn Figueras was a research chemist withEastman Kodak for thirty years. He has aPh.D. in organic chemistry from the Univer-sity of Illinois. Now retired, he is a part-timeinstructor of computer science at State Univer-sity of New York at Geneseo. He can bereached at 65 Steele Rd.. Victor. NY 14564.

.......

ILLUSTRATED BY PAUL MOCK

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 161

TURBO MOUSE

the mouse); the second parameter.P2. is a Pascal variable of record typethat references all of the registers andflags in the 8088/86 microprocessor.In listing 1. this record variable iscalled recpack and is given the typeregset. which comprises the registersintroduced above. To access a givenmouse function out of Turbo Pascal,

therefore, you must load suitablevalues of the mouse parameters intothe fields of the record variable andthen pass this record to the functionIntr Values are inserted into therecord recpack using either thePascal with construct or qualifiedlabels (dot notation). Listing I,MOUSE.PAS. contains the Pascal

Table 1: Using listing I, you can implement the functions below, listed accordingto their Microsoft function number. Pascal name, and action. \f you need them,you should have no trouble implementing the other nine functions discussed in theMicrosoft Mouse manual.

initialize mouse

display mouse cursor

hide mouse cursor

get mouse position; return coordinates

put the mouse at designated coordinates

limit mouse vertical position

assign a shape to the mouse cursor

0

m stat us

1

mshow

2

mhide

3

mpos

4

mput

8

mvlimit

9

mshape

equivalents for seven mouse functions(see table l). {Editor's note: Listings l and2 are available for downloading fromBYTE.net Listings. (617) 861-9774.|

The program MTR1AL (see listing 2)is a simple example of mouse pro-gramming in Pascal. The programuses the graphics routines supplied inversion 2 of Turbo Pascal. It puts abox-shaped mouse cursor on thehigh-resolution screen and uses twoaccesses to draw a line on the screen:the first with the left button and thesecond with the right button. A repeat. . . until loop monitors the mouse.The loop keeps an eye on the statusof the mouse button reported in thevariable mbt, which is returned by theprocedure mpos. When mbt has thecorrect value, mpos returns the coor-dinates of the mouse cursor at thetime that the button was pushed.

Notice that whenever the procedure

[continued)

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LDP is offering a compatibility upgrade package to convertyour current SI00 BUS system quickly and easily to IBM-PCcompatibility. This upgrade includes the high performanceTHUNDER 186 and COLOR MAGIC, IBM-PC compatiblecolor graphics board. You get 10 Mhz 8086 performance,256K bytes of no wait state RAM, two serial ports and aparallel printer port. No other S100 bus boards arerequired. Included with this set is the advancedCONCURRENT DOS operating system bringing PC-DOScompatibility and multitask-ing to the system. This boardout performs the IBM-PC by athree to one margin. GainIBM-PC compatibility withoutsacrificing SI00 bus compati-bility.

THUNDER 186/COLORMAGIC SET $1749.00

$

1749

kUser supplied keyboard and monitor required.

IBM COMPATIBLE S100BUS COLOR GRAPHICS

LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS presents COLORMAGIC, the most complete compatibility solu-tion for S100 bus computer products. COLORMAGIC includes three major hardware sub-functions which allow it to emulate the IBM-PC:An entirely compatible video function, anIBM-PC keyboard interface and an IBM-PCcompatible timer interface including IBM-PCsound compatibility. HOW COMPATIBLE IS IT'Currently we are running MICROSOFT'SFLIGHT SIMULATOR recognized as one of theseverest tests of compatibility. We can also di-rectly boot PC-DOS for the IBM-PC with no al-terations. Other programs which have beentested and function without problems are:LOTUS 1-2-3, DBASE III, WORDSTAR andVOLKSWRITER.COLOR MAGIC (16K byte version) . . $595.00

■THUNDER 186 single board computer pro-vides a high performance 16 bit computer all onone board. It is an ideal companion to theCOLOR MAGIC to provide a low cost, high per-formance IBM-PC compatible system. The8Mhz 80186 offers lOMhz 8086 performance.THUNDER 186 provides all the componentsnecessary to form a complete system includ-ing: 256K bytes of no wait-state RAM, 2 serialports, a parallel printer port, high performancefloppy disk controller controls both 8V<" and 8"drives simultaneously, full IEEE 696 (S100) bus

for system expansion. The COLOR MAGIC andTHUNDER 186 combine to provide perfor-mance you won't find in other compatibles. Theprice includes the powerful Concurrent DOSoperating system.THUNDER 186 $1195.00

■ NV DISK is a solid state memory with soft-ware to emulate a disk drive under MS-DOS,Concurrent DOS, and CP/M-86. NV-DISK is en-tirely COMPUPRO software compatible allow-ing COMPUPRO users to take advantage of thelower cost and battery protection support of-fered by NV-DISK. It offers the advantage ofhigh speed access and no moving parts. It canbe battery protected to allow data to stay evenwhile powered down. The board is available ineither 512K or 2 Megabyte configurations andmultiple boards may be used to create diskdrives with up to 16 Megabytes of storage.NV-DISK 512K. $595.00 2 MBYTE, $1695.00

■ MEGARAM is a high density, high perfor-mance dynamic«RAM board with up to twoMegabytes of storage. Megarain offers no waitstate performance in 8086 systems with up to 10Mhz processors at a fraction of the cost of com-parable performance static RAM.

MEGARAM '/, MBYTE, $595.00

'/> MBYTE, $749.00 1 MBYTE, $1095.00

2 MBYTE, $1795.00

IBM-PC COMPATIBLES100-BUS SYSTEM

LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS offers IBM-PCcompatible systems with performance far ex-ceeding that available from IBM. You can pur-chase systems offering performance of an eightMhz 8086 or up the performance of an 8Mhz80286. Each system is capable of supporting8Mhz math coprocessors. Our 8Mhz 80286system offers IBM-PC compatibility while offer-ing up to 2 times the performance of theIBM-PC-AT. For applications where PC com-patibility is desirable but higher performanceis a benefit or requirement LDP offers the onlyviable solution.

WHO IS LOMAS DATAPRODUCTS...

LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS has been shipping16 bit microprocessor S100 bus products forfive years. We have earned a strong reputationfor reliability and performance over these fiveyears. We were running MS-DOS (SCP-DOS/PC-DOS) before IBM knew the operating sys-tem existed. We offer a wide range of 16 bitoperating systems including MS-DOS, CP/M-86, CONCURRENT CP/M-86 and CONCUR-RENT DOS. All our products are backed by aone year guarantee. We offer no 8 bit productsand concentrate entirely on high performance16 bit systems. If you are looking for the highestperformance possible on the SI 00 bus, you canbe sure LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS offers it.

Dealer inquiries invited.

MS-DOS, trademark of Microsoft

PC-DOS. trademark of IBM

Concurrent CP/M-86, concurrent DOS. trademark of Digital Research

LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS, INC.

182 CEDAR HILL ROAD, MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS 01752 TELEPHONE: (617) 460-0333 I TELEX: 4996272

For orders outside the U.S., contact our exclusive dealers:COMPUTER (m) SENDIRIAN BERHAD, 795284 I I EnglandLTD., 018764559.

Inquiry 222

Australia - LAMRON PTY. LTD., (02) 808-3666 i i Malaysia - EXARATIONAL SYSTEMS, 0908-613209 or 0908-611349; SHARPBORN

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE

163

Inquiry 102 for End-Users. Inquiry 103 for DEALERS ONLY.

The Ultimate Cable Assembly

Thumb wheelscrew head

22AWG

twisted

conductors

Integrated strainreliever

Heavy gauge

underhood

shield

Gold plated

Inside and Out

You've never seen a cable that looks or works quite like this. Theresult of extensive research into functional design, the DATA SPECcable assembly not only visually enhances your computer equip-ment, but provides superior quality with the following features:

• Full shielding (Exceeds F.C.C. • Gold plated pinsEMI/RFI emission requirements) • Exclusive P.D.T. underhood

• Positive strain relief for maximum integrity

• Large convenient thumbscrews • Lifetime warranty

DATA SPEC makes cable assemblies for all your interface needs:printers, modems, disk drives and monitors. For your IBM, Apple,AT&T and other popular PC's. Ask for DATA SPEC cables at yournearest authorized DATA SPEC dealer.

raonerar

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Hummer Street • Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

Patent PND, ©Copyright 1985 Alliance Research Corporation

When You Want The Best, Call...

mm

National Business Software and SuppliesORDER LINE 800-225-8800

JAZZ

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NUTSHELL

ABILITY

TURBO PASCAL 3.0

WORDSTAR 2000 +

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TURBO MOUSE

Listing 1: Turbo Pascal mouse procedures.

procedure mshape(xhot, yhot : integer; var cursor : curarray);

{ xhot and yhot pixel designations for the cursor hot spot,cursor is the array containing the cursor shape, curarrayis array type defined as ARRAY[0. .31] OF INTEGER }

integer

type

regset

= record

ax.bx

cx,dx,bp,di,si

ds

es,flags

end;

var recpack : regset;

begin

with recpack do

begin

ax

= 9.

bx

= xhot;

ex

= yhot;

dx

= Ofs(cursor[0]);

es .

= Seg(cursor[0])

end;

mtr($33

recpack)

end;

procedure mstatus(var mstat. nbuttons ; integer);

{ returns mouse status and resets mouse parameters,mstat = 0 if mouse is not installed. -1 otherwisenbuttons is number of buttons enabled, =2 }

typeregset = record

ax,bx,ex,dx.bp.di,si,ds.es.flags ; integerend;var recpack : regset;

beginrecpack.ax ; = 0;mtr($33, recpack);with recpack dobegin

mstat : = ax;nbuttons : = bxendend;

procedure mshow;

{ show mouse cursor }

typeregset ■ record

ax,bx,ex,dx,bp.di,si,ds.es,flags ; integerend;var recpack ; regset;

begin

recpack.ax = 1;

mtr($33. recpack)end;

procedure mhide;

{ hide mouse cursor }

typeregset = record

(continued)

164 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 265

• #*/»

A system that keeps

your private computer files

from becoming public.

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 217

flNAltDH|ON

jEh.t Bail? CVjronitU

n mis ml

If&WT FUJES STOLENBY PHONY PHONE CALL

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.

© Lockheed-GETEX 198S

Mail to:

Lockheed-GETEX, Suite 945,1100 Circle 75 Parkway, Atlanta.GA 30339. (4041951-0878.

Please send me:

□ GTX-100 brochure.D The name of my nearest salesoffice.

Name

Title

Company Name

Address

City State Zip

-^Lockheed-GETEX

m Giving shape to imagination.

II

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 165

Switch boxes are sold by manysuppliers, but by far the two bestvalues are from MFJ Enterprises.

yj

"The MFf RS-Z32 TransferSwitch. Buy it before the manu-facturer conies to his sense*!"

Joe Campbell. The RS-232 SolutionSybex Computer Books

Now you can have reliable and affordableand unplugging cables. You can easily switcletter-quality printer, modem, terminalTransfer Switches includes one toLook at these choices; then look atany price! Then ask them forshow you, call MFJ

When you need to switch between two peripheralscomputers sharing the same peripheral...

Never unplug a cable again Now. with the push of a button you can go from dot matrix to Lettquality printing, or go from your printerto your modem. MFJ's Model 1240Transfer Switch features a built-intransmit/receive switch allowing youtwo-way information flow LEDs moni-tor important data lines while a built-in

port expansion Don't keep plugging

>ur computer to your high-speed printer,

RS-232 peripheral device. MF)'s range of

your needs al a price you can afford

these prices Compare others at

their reviews When thev won't

or you need to have twoModel 124©/$79.95

surge protector guards them The 1240 inMUiU |also acts as a null modem. All this tor **r±just S79-95.No wonder its MFJ's No. 1 seller

When you need I to 4 computers to share one peripheral or 1 to* peripheralsto share a common computer... Model 1243/$ 119.95

The perfect office Transfer Switch Don't buy multiple printersor modems Jusi buy MFJ's Model 1243. Then you can connectone or all your computers to a singleprinter or modem. Or let your onecomputer share up to four peri-pherals Think of the money you'llsave LEDs monitor important data lines while a built-in surgeprotector guards them Two-way communication is allowed withno cornf)ticateti software to team-Just push a button!

Seven additional models to choose from. Each unit's casingis constructed from high-quality aluminum Printed circuit boardsassure maximum reliability by eliminating crosstalk, line interference and any need for wiringAli MFJ switches have IJiDs to monitor data lines and MOV surge protectors. Enhance theinvestment you've already made in your computer by then >sing from the finest line of TransferSwitches on the market, including MFJ's IBM & Centronics Parallel Snitches

You've got a lot of money tied up in your computer. /Htn't blow it!

Your valuable computer and peripheral equipment can he- damaged by electrical surgesmuch smaller than ynu'fe been led to beHei-e. Far more likely to happen is having your impor-tant data wiped out. These disasters, and others, can lx- prevented with MFJTs Power CentersRelay latches power off during power dropouts (Model 11 OH). Multi filters isolate equipment,eliminate interaction, noise and hash MOVs suppress spikes and surges. MFJ's PowerCenters also have 3 isolated, switched socketpairs, with at least one unswitched socket (soyou can add a clock, etc >. lighted power switch, fast-acting fuse, 3-wlre, 6-foot cords; ISA,12SV. and 18^S watts Although each model is attractivelyhoused in a protective aluminum casing, these arebeaiy-duty, commercial-quality power centersWatch out for fancy names that cost twiceas much, last half as long, and havehalf the features of MFJ's PowerCenters

Model 1107 k sockets,

1 unswitched; $79-95Model 1108 7 sockets, I unswitched;With dropout relay; $99-95109 is like 1107 hut intelligent (switchdevice that's plugged into the control socketcry thing else comes on) $129.95

There are other RS-232 Switches, Power Centers, and Computer Peripheral Pro-ducts available from MFJ Call and talk with us about all your computing needs, and whenyou do, ask for out latest catalog Both the call and the catalog are free.

1-800-647-1800

For technical repair information, or in Mississippi, or outside the Continental United Slates,please telephone

1(601)323-5869 .d» 53-4590 MFJSTKV

All MFJ products come with a double guarantee we think is unmatched Order from MFJand trv any product for 50 days If it doesn't satisfy your needs, just return ii for %fuU refund,less shipping. If you keep it you can be assured of continued service with our One YearUnconditional (iuarantee.

Call toll-free 1-800-647-1800 and charge the products you need to your VISA or Master-Card, or send a check or money order, plus J5-00 shipping, and our shipping department willpromptly have your computer peripheral on its way to you.

MFJ Enterprises Inc.921 Louisville RoadStarkville, MS 39759

TURBO MOUSE

ax,bx.ex,dx.bp,di.si.ds.es,flags : integerend;var recpack : regset;

begin

recpack.ax : = 2:

intr($33, recpack)end;

procedure mpos(var mbt, mx, my : integer);{ returns position of mouse, coordinates mx.my

if mbt= 1. left button was pressed

if mbt = 2, right button was pressed

if mbt = 3, both buttons were pressed }

typeregset = record

ax,bx.cx.dx.bp,di.si.ds.es,flags ; integerend:var recpack : regset;

beginrecpack,ax : = 3;intr($33, recpack);with recpack dobegin

mbt . = bx;

mx : = ex;

my : = dxendend;

procedure mput(mx,my : integer);{ put the mouse cursor at coordinates mx.my.legal values must be supplied }

typeregset = record

ax,bx,ex,dx.bp.di,si,ds.es,flags : integerend;var recpack : regset;

begin

recpack,ax : = 4:recpack.ex : = mx;recpack.dx : = my;mtr($33. recpack)end;

procedure mvlimit(minpos, maxpos : integer)

{ set mm and max vertical limits for cursor positions }

type

regset = record

ax,bx,ex,dx.bp.di,si,ds.es,flags ; integer

end;var recpack : regset;

begin

recpack.ax ; = 8;

recpack.ex := minpos:

recpack.dx :<= maxpos;

intr($33, recpack)end;

[continued]

166 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 238

There's a good chancethat a computer inyour future willcome withMicroware software

People who can't wait for thefuture 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.

Operating systems and programming languagesare the foundations upon which all otherapplications are built. Microware's OS-9operating system is the ideal base forinnovative fourth-generation applicationpackages. It provides many advancedcapabilities including true multitasking, auniversal file and I/O system, modularconstruction, powerful graphics, unlimitedcommunications gateways, and real-timeresponse. And it's so versatile it can be usedon almost any size system — from inexpensivepersonal computers all the way up to largemultiuser systems.

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

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.

MICROWAR€

MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORPORATION

1866 N.W 114th Street • Des Moines, Iowa 50322

Phone 515-224-1929 • Telex 910-520-2535

MICROWARE JAPAN, LTD.

41-19 Honcho 4-Chome, Funabashi City • Chiba 273,

Japan • Phone 0474-22-1747 • Telex 298-3472

OS-9 is a trademark of Microware and Motorola. Unix is a trademark of BellLaboratories VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. Multibusis a trademark of Intel Corporation,

Inquiry 255

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE

167

TURBO MOUSE

Listing 2: A demonstration

of mouse programming in Pascal.

{$1 MOUSE.PAS} is a co

mpiler

directive to bring the procedures in listing 1

into a program for implementation.

program mtnal;

{ demonstration program, get

two points with the mouse and

connect them with a line }

type

curarray = array[0. .31

] of INTEGER;

var

cursor : curarray;

i,nbut,mx,my,mbt,x,y : ir

iteger;

{$! MOUSE.PAS }

procedure bdraw;

begin

gotoxy(1,2);

write('Use left button for first point, right button for second point.');

mshow;

repeat

mpos(mbt,x,y)

until mbt= 1;

mhide;

plot(x,y,1);

mshow;

repeat

mpos(mbt,mx,my)

until mbt = 2;

mhide,

draw (x,y,mx,my,1);

end;

begin

{MTRIAL main line}

for i : = 0 to 3 do

{load cursor image in hexadecimal}

Cursor[i] ; = $FFFF;

{these values could be set up as typedconstants}

cursor[4] ;= $F00F,

for i : = 5 to 10 do

cursor[i] := $F7EF;

cursor[11] :■ $F00F;

for i := 12 to 15 do

Cursor[i] : = $FFFF;

for i := 16 to 19 do

cursor[i] ; = $0000;

cursor[20] : = S0FF0;

for i : = 21 to 26 do

cursor[i] := $0810;

cursor[27] : = $0FF0;

for i : = 28 to 31 do

cursor[i] : = $0000;

HiRes;

HiResColor(10);

{set color green}

mstatus(i.nbut);

{initialize mouse}

mshape(8,8,cursor);

{set cursor shape}

mshow;

{display cursor}

bdraw

{get 2 points and draw line}

end.

bdraw plots or draws, a call to the pro-cedure mhide turns off the mousecursor. With the Microsoft Mouse in-stalled, the cursor will tend to inter-fere with plotting if the cursor is onwhen plotting. After the plotting hasfinished, the cursor can be movedfreely over the plot without disrupt-ing it. Therefore, hide the cursor dur-ing the plotting.

In addition, pay attention to the set-ting up of the cursor array and thepassing of its location to the mouseroutine mshape. When the mouse isprogrammed in BASIC, the screen andcursor masks are set up in a two-di-mensional (16 by 2) integer cursorarray (see the Microsoft Mouse man-ual for an example), and the locationof this array in memory is passed tothe cursor shape function (number 9)as a parameter with the value cur-sor(O.O). where cursor is the name ofthe cursor array. The Microsoft Mousemanual warns that in machine lan-guage, the masks that describe thecursor shape must be assigned to twocontiguous arrays in memory, and theaddress of the first one goes inregister dx. Therefore, in the Pascalprogram, the screen mask is placedin a single-dimensioned array, and thecursor mask is placed in the same ar-ray, directly following the first mask.This ensures that the two masks oc-cur in contiguous arrays. In TurboPascal, the function Ofs returns thestarting address (offset) of the cursorarray required in dx, and the Turbofunction Seg returns the segment partof that address.

To use the Mouse from TurboPascal, load the mouse files onto theTurbo disk and include Microsoft'sMOUSE.COM in a boot-up AUTO-EXEC.BAT file, or MOUSE.SYS in aCONFIG.SYS file. Once these rou-tines are loaded at boot-up, TurboPascal can access all mouse functions.The Pascal mouse procedures arestored as ASCII (American StandardCode for Information Interchange)source code in a file MOUSE.PAS(see listing 1): the compiler directive{$1 MOUSE.PAS} brings the pro-cedures into a program for implemen-tation. ■

168 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

THE END OF SOFTWAREFREEBIES.

1 JNf

&

"* Ik Jt ik n

_UL -

Finally there's a foolproof way to protectsoftware against unauthorized duplication. Andthe technology is all on the disk itself.

The new Prolok™ disk doesn't need add-onhardware. Instead each diskette is marked witha unique, physical "fingerprint." No two are alike.A precise description of the individual print isencoded magnetically. The fingerprint AND thedescription must match exactly before the soft-ware is decrypted and released to the system.No match, no access.

Its genius is its simplicity and familiarity.Prolok looks like an unprotected disk, loads like anunprotected disk, works like an unprotected disk.The user feels immediately at home and in com-mand. It's as easy as A>PROLOK B: filename.

Backups are easily made via normalsystem utilities. However, to be read they mustbe accompanied in the system by the originalProlok disk.

Prolok puts the casual copier-and even thedeliberate pirate-out of business. It barely

increases the price of your product, yet it makessure your customers don't buy one program andcopy ten.

Several command line slash (/) options arebuilt into Prolok diskettes for customized security,depending on your needs.

Software can be loaded easily onto Prolokdiskettes using any system from a PC to commer-cial mass duplication equipment.

Prolok is an engineering breakthrough ofVault Corporation, which has been successfullysafeguarding software since the inception ofsecurity disk technology. Over 2000 businessesand organizations protect their valuable programswith Prolok.

Simply contact Vault Corporation at 2649Townsgate Road, Suite 500, Westlake Village,CA 91361. Or phone us at 800-445-0193 (U.S.) or 800-821-8638(California). And find out whysoftware freebies are becominga thing of the past.

PROLOK.S0FTMRRE PROTECTION, RIGHT ON THE DISK.

Copyright © 1984 Vault Corporation. Prolok is a trademark of Vault Corporation

Inquiry 410

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE

169

LeieviaeoAEThe Performance XE

The Performance AT™ is quite an appropriate namefor TeleVideoVnew computer. Especially when youmeasure performance by what's most important—memory,flexibility and speed.

30% Faster.

The Performance AT is designed around the Intel80286 running at 8Mhz—a third faster than the 6MhzIBM'AT A standard 640 Kbyte memory and eight ex-pansion slots give you better configuration flexibility. Andour AT has an edge with its 20 Mbyte hard disk andPersonal Mini network compatibility.

You'll run the popular PC software library, as well

as hundreds of powerful mini computer and multi-user programs. And the TeleVideo AToffers standardgraphics capability with remarkably enhanced 640x 400 display resolution.

Starts at $3395.

Innovative design brings you thesesignificant performance advantages at aprice that's a good deal less than theIBM AT.And this could be the least expensive AT-classcomputer to own. Because the quality of its componentspromises better reliability and less costly down time.Should you need it, the Performance AT carriesa complete warranty and easy TRW service around theworld.

Call toll-free (800) 521-4897 Or, in California,(800) 821-3774. Ask to see the Performance AT Acomputerwith the power to save you hundreds of dollars.

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines.

Regional Sales Offices: Northwest (408) 971-0255, Southwest (714) 476-0244, Southcentral (214) 258-6776, Midwest (312) 397-5400, Southeast (404) 447-1231,Mid-Atlantic (703) 556-7764, Northeast (617) 890-3282, East (516) 496-4777, Rocky Mountain (714) 476-0244.

170 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

by Herbert Stein

IBM

Compatibility

for THE

NEC APC III

This patch lets

the APC III runIBM software

When NEC announcedits new APC III. it wasdifficult not to beimpressed by themachine. The microprocessor, a 16-bit8086 running at 8 MHz. has the sup-port of two graphics controllerswhose customized hardware environ-ment works with a variety of screenformats. These graphics controllers letyou create the best graphics I haveseen on a microcomputer. (See "TheNEC APC 111" by )ohn D. Unger, MarchBYTE, page 2 56. for a more in-depthlook at the system.)

The problem with the APC III is thatit is not compatible with the IBM Per-sonal Computer (PC), although its diskformat is. Aside from getting the APCIII to read IBM PC files from IBM PC-formatted disks. 1 had little successgetting it to do anything else. Thesystem seemed to bomb out im-mediately after loading a program.According to the system manuals,NEC. not willing to produce anotherIBM PC clone, decided to give its APCall of the IBM PC display features butlocated the I/O (input/output) drivers(including the screen driver) at slight-ly different locations. Every call todisplay a character on the screenended in an interrupt-return instruc-tion. And, of course, with no driver

there was no screen output.

To work out the problem, I startedto rearrange interrupt locations. Afterexploring the APC Ill's capabilities. Iprepared an operating system patch(see listing 1) that gives some degreeof IBM PC compatibility.

With this patch I ran standard IBMsoftware (including Turbo Pascal |PC-DOS version 2.00|, the Sanyo MBC555 version of WordStar, and version1.0 of Perfect Writer and of PerfectSpeller) on the APC III without anyproblems. I was unable to use LotusDevelopment Corporations 1-2-3.

At first I couldn't run version 3.3 ofWordStar because this version writesvideo data directly to the hardware.However, the following patch willallow WordStar to revert to the moreconventional I/O methods it used inthe earlier versions, correcting theproblem:

A> debug ws.com

- e 2aa 00

- e 2b0 00

- e 2b3 00

- w

Writing 5380 bytes (debugdisplays this message)

-q

A>

The software executed faster on theAPC III than on the IBM PC. I mea-sured Turbo Pascal directly with theSieve of Eratosthenes benchmark|Editor's note: Turbo Pascal listings of thesebenchmarks are available for downloading viaBYJEnet Listings. The telephone number is(617) 861-9774|. The APC III ran oneiteration of the Sieve in 6.2 seconds.

while the IBM PC ran it in 12.6seconds.

Making the IncompatibleCompatible

The compatability problem involvesmore than reshuffling interrupt loca-tions. The screen attributes of theAPC III have nothing in common withstandard IBM PC attributes. Therefore,the patch also includes an attribute-translation program, which occupiesabout 200 bytes of memory space.

It is necessary to install the patch inthe interrupt table. The table, once setup. won't be overwritten by the oper-ating system or a compiler and pro-vides ample space for operating-sys-tem changes because the NEC micro-computer uses only 64 out of 2 55interrupt vectors (see figure 1). Thememory starting at address 10:0 (alladdresses in this article are hexadec-imal) up to the MS-DOS buffer areaat 40:0 can hold a maximum programof 768 bytes. The tiny compatibilitypatch fits easily into this memoryarea.

The run-time module contains twoprocedures: The first memory seg-ment (Copycode) contains the run-time environment for the screendriver: the second (Transfer) copiesthe first segment to address 100 andadds interrupt vectors to the NEC in-

[contmued}Herbert Stein (5/22 Hutton Ave.. FerntreeGully. Victoria 3156. Australia) is a memberof the computer science staff at TelecomAustralia Research Laboratories in Melbourne.His interests include writing computer booksand restoring furniture.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 171

Inquiry 239

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NEC APC III PATCH

Listing 1: To achieve IBM PC compatibility, this patch overlays the interrupt

table of the NEC APC III. The program makes use of undefined interrupt

locations and stores an attribute-translation subroutine at address (CS:IP) 10:0.

The first part c

)/ this program. Copycode. accepts the IBM character attributes

and translates them into NEC display standards. The second part of the

program, Transfer, patches the interrupt locations to suit the IBM PC keyboard,

disk, printer, and video drivers. Besides these connections. Transfer loads the IBM

compatibility subroutine and, after the copy operation, returns to MS-DOS.

. ...........

Standard NEC APC III BIOS calls won't be affected. **•*•*•«*•• ;

assume cs:code

code segment public 'code'

COPYCODE -

- NEC APC III patch at address 10H:0H (CS:IP)

copycode

proc

cmp

ah.O

In case an application program sets

jnz

nomode

a new video mode, the mode number must

mov

cs:mode.al

be stored (CS:MODE) before

db

Oeah

the JMP to the NEC APC III interrupt

dw

0f70h

subroutine can take place (F800H:OF70H).

dw

0f800h

nomode:

Otherwise, the service requested (passed

cmp

ah.Oeh

in register AH) indicates whether special

JZ

blreg

action is necessary or not. The codes

cmp

ah,09h

06H. 07H (scroll page). 09H. 0AH (write

Jz

blreg

character), and 0EH (Teletype) require

cmp

ah.Oah

patching

JZ

blreg

cmp

ah,6

Both scroll operations pass the display

|Z

bhreg

attribute in register BH. All other

cmp

ah,7

operations use register BL.

JZ

bhreg

db

Oeah

All other codes are directly passed

dw

0f70h

to the video-interrupt subroutine.

dw

0f800h

bhreg

push

bx

In case BH contains the attribute, the

mov

bl.bh

register is saved and BH copied into BL.

blreg:

Attributes are available only for

cmp

byte ptr cs:mode.4

text modes (0, 1, 2, 3).

JC

textmode

Text within a graphics mode (> 4)

mov

byte ptr cs:newattr,1

is displayed in one color only1

jmp

return

*"• CURRENT B/W LIMITATION *"-

textmode:

mov

byte ptr cs:newattr,0

Within the text modes, bit 7 of

test

bl.80h

BL specifies a blink bit, which

JZ

noblink

must be translated into the

or

byte ptr cs:newattr,2

appropriate NEC attribute

noblmk

test

byte ptr cs.mode.1

Color modes are treated differently.

JZ

mono

The patch rotates the

ror

bl.1

RGB information into the highest

ror

bl,1

NEC attribute positions, clears

ror

bl.1

remaining bits, and updates the

and

bl.OeOh

NEC attribute

or

byte ptr cs newattr.bl

imp

return

172 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 2!

NEC APC III PATCH

mono:

or

byte ptr cs

newattr,80h

In monochrome mode, the intensityis initially set to halt dim.

test

bl,8

jz

nointens

Full intensity requires a change

or

byte ptr cs

newattr,OeOh

of the preset value

nointens:

Having looked after blink and

and

bl.77h

intensity, the patch can forget

cmp

bl.O

about these bits.

jnz

underlin

In case no other bits are set.

and

byte ptr cs

newattr, 1fh

the intensity bits are cleared to

jmp

return

write black on black.

underlin.

cmp

bU

If an underline is requested, it

jnz

stdchar

must be translated into the

or

byte ptr cs

newattr,8h

appropriate NEC code.

jmp

return

stdchar:

cmp

bl.8

Because the attributes are set, no

|C

return

action is required for normal characters.

cmp

bl.70h

jnz

whitwhit

but the reverse attribute (70H)

or

byte ptr cs

newattr,4

requires attention again and must

jmp

return

be translated to suit the NEC.

whitwhit:

Whatever else might come along

or

byte ptr cs

newattr,0e4h

is interpreted as writing characters

return:

white on white

cmp

ah.8

jnc

newbl

Finally, the services 06H and 07H

pop

bx

require the new NEC attribute in

mov

bh.byte ptr

cs: newattr

register BH.

jmp

video

newbl:

All other services pass the

mov

bl.byte ptr

is: newattr

display attribute in register

video:

BL

db

Oeah

(Common NEC video interrupt at

dw

0f70h

location CS = F800H, IP = 0F70H.)

dw

0f800h

mode db

0

Current display mode.

newattr db

0

New attribute

copyend db

0

copycode en

dp

: TRANSFER th

e patch to th

e address 101-

:0H

transfer

proc tar

start:

xor

ax,ax

Start with relocation of interrupt

mov

ds,ax

addresses.

mov

ax,34dah

1. diskette, disk (no connection)

mov

bx,4ch

mov

[bx],ax

mov

ax,0a04h

2. keyboard (NEC 8087 interrupt)

mov

bx,58h

mov

[bxj.ax

mov

ax,2c5ch

3. printer (no connection)

mov

bx,5ch

mov

[bx],ax

mov

ax,0

4. video interrupt (no connection)

mov

bx,40h

mov

[bx],ax

mov

ax,10h

mov

bx,42h

[continued)

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SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE

173

NEC APC III PATCH

mov

[bx],ax

mov

ax,10h

Prepare registers for a string

mov

es.ax

; ODeration:

mov

ax.cs

ES — destination segment (= 10H)

mov

ds.ax

DS — source segment (= CS)

xor

ax, ax

Dl — destination index (= 0)

mov

di.ax

SI — source index (= address COPYCODE)

mov

si .offset copycode

. CX - length of COPYCODE

mov

cx.offset copyend —offset copycode

repz

movsb

COPY THE WHOLE LOU

mov

ax,4c00h

mov

dx,2fh

int

21h

. and return to MS-DOS

transfer endp

code ends

end start

LEVEL

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

1A

IB

IC

ID

IE

IF

20

NTERRUPT

NEC APC TH IBM PC

DIVIDE BY ZEROSINGLE STEP

NMI

BREAKPOINT

ARITHMETIC OVERFLOW

CRT DUMP

RESERVED

RESERVED

TIMER INTERRUPT

KEYBOARD INTERRUPT

1

RESERVED

EOI

COMMUNICATIONS

RS-232

COMMUNICATIONS

EOI

DISK

EOI

disc ;Tr

i 01

PRINTER

EOI

CRT- I/O

NEC 19

EOI

EQUIPMENT CHECK

DISKETTE

MEMORY SIZE

EOI

DISK I/O

NEC ID

EOI

RS-232C I/O

EOI

CASSETTE

8087- INTERRUPT

KEYBOARD I/O

NEC 18

EOI

PRINTER I/O

NEC IB

KEYBOARD I/O

RESIDENT BASIC

CRT I/O

BOOTSTRAP

EOI-END OF

RS-232C I/O

TIME OF DAY

PRINTER I/O

KEYBOARD BREAK

TIMER I/O

TIMER TICK

DISK I/O

VIDEO INIT

RESERVED

DISK PARAMETER

RESERVED

VIDEO-GRAPHICS CHAR

MS-DOS INTERRUPTS

00000000MS-DOS VECTORS0100 0000

0400.0000MS-DOS BUFFER AREA

Figure 2: The interrupt tables of the NEC APC III and the IBM PC. Note that theAPC III supports the 8087 with the IBM PC keyboard-Interrupt vector: the patchtherefore sacrifices the interface to the 8087.

Figure 1: The patch program makes useof undefined interrupt locations and storesan attribute-translation subroutine ataddress 0010:0000 [all addresses in thefigures are in hexadecimal notation).

terrupt table. | Editor's note: The source codefor the patch is also available for download-ing via EYTEnet Listings.|

Figure 2 compares the interrupttables of both NEC APC III and IBMPC and illustrates all of the neededchanges. You have to modify the disk,printer, video, and keyboard vectorsto obtain any sort of IBM PC com-patibility. However, the disk, printer,and video interrupts will be fairly easyto modify because these vectors arenot connected to existing interruptprograms. Rather, they address acommon end-of-interrupt (EOI) ser-vice that can be replaced with an ap-propriate driver address. Patching thekeyboard driver is more difficultbecause the APC III supports thenumber-cruncher 8087 with the IBMPC keyboard-interrupt vector. For now,achieving IBM PC compatibilitymeans giving up the interface to the8087.

Although there is little correlationbetween the IBM PC and the NECAPC III interrupt vectors, if youreplace only the APC Ill's disk-,printer-, video- and keyboard-driveraddresses, you will be able to executeTurbo Pascal, WordStar, and thePerfect Software series. As 1 men-tioned, the video interrupt requiresthat the patch translate all the IBM PCdisplay attributes into their NECequivalents. Therefore, the video-interrupt address, interrupt 10, refersto the patch program Copycode at ad-

(continued)

174 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

tomPUTCR WAREHOUSE

CALL TOLL

^¥1-800-528-1054

HARDWARE

Anadex All Models Call

Brother All Models Call

Canon LBP-8A1 Call

C-ltoh A 10-30 S439

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55 CPS Serial or Parallel S1035

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8510 BPI S315

Citizen MSP-10 S279

MSP-15orMSP-20 S409

MSP-25 S535

Comrex CR-2E S309

CR-4 Call

420 S1309

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Datasouth DS180 S1079

DS220 S1299

DS-PPH1 S449

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Diablo D-25 S549

630 API S1484

630 ECS/IBM S1659

Oiher Printer Models Call

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Juki 5500 Call

6000 S169

6100 S35S

6300 S679

NEC 2010.2015, 2050 S619

3510,3550 S989

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8810,8830.8850 S1379

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LANGUAGES

C Compiler (Microsoft) S239

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Turbo Pascal 3.0 S36

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Dollars & Sense w/Forcast S95

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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COMMUNICATIONS

CompuServe Starter Kit $18

Crosstalk XVI S9S

UTILITIES

$52

S20

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$53 $29

Sidekick (Unprotected)

$45 $33

S36

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. . S225

S75

Turbo Graphix Tool Box

S30

Word Perfect

(Ver.4.0)

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$209$159

WORD PROCESSORS

Leading Edge Word Processor $59

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Enable S329

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Many other titles available. ■

Inquiry 83 for MS DOS Products. Inquiry 84 for all others.

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NEC APC III PATCH

0000:0000

0000:0040

0000:0061

0100 0000

CRT I/O IBM

CRT I/O

^T-C

c

INTR 10H

IBM CRT I/O CALL

J

I NEC CRT I/O CALL*

INTR 19HS

F8OO:0F7O

ATTRIBUTETRANSLATION

<w>

NEC APC mCRT DRIVER

&

| MS-DOS/PC-DOS SERVICE |

APPLICATION PROGRAM

Figure 3: The program flow of the display I/O calls.

dress 10:0. which modifies the text at-tributes and, finally, passes control tothe NEC screen driver (see figure 3).

Unfortunately, not all attributes havea matching equivalent because thedisplay philosophy of the NEC micro-computer does not include back-ground colors and is limited to eightforeground colors. To compensate,APC III programmers can use under-lining, overlining, and reverse video inall eight colors. Figure 4 summarizesthe attributes and the colors or grayshades available.

To modify an IBM PC attribute, thepatch program has to recognize thedisplay mode as well as the requestedservice. Only text modes (modes 0 to3) and the selected services (06—scroll up screen, 07—scroll downscreen, 09—write character and at-tribute, 0A—write character only, and0E—write Teletype character) require

{continued)

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Inquiry 333

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Capture the printer output (even "Print Screen"data) from any program into a disk file. Great forcreating custom reports that can be printedwhenever desired.

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Use Best Friend even while running another pro-gram. "Pop-Back" to Best Friend from all yourfavorite programs including Wordstar™, dBASE™,Lotus 1-2-3™, BASIC, and many more. Return to yourprogram just as you left it. or let Best Friend return a filename to your program.

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Inquiry 134

File Services

•Copy, Delete, and Rename Files

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 177

NEC APC III PATCH

If a color text modehas been specifiedat an earlier stage,Copycode cannot makeuse of the intensityflag or the IBM PCbackground color.

program interaction. All other re-quests can be passed directly to theNEC CRT (cathode-ray tube), or dis-play, I/O driver.

If a color text mode has beenspecified at an earlier stage, the pro-gram Copycode cannot make use ofthe intensity flag or the IBM PC back-ground color. It generates the NEC at-tribute out of the remaining blink bitand the foreground RGB (red-green-blue) information (see figure 5).

In a monochrome mode, all IBM PCattributes can be displayed withoutproblems. Figure 6 shows that theNEC APC III supports display featureslike overlining and vertical bars in ad-dition to the IBM PC attributes.

The assembly-code listing providesa more detailed view of the attribute-translation process. Both programsegments, Copycode and Transfer, arewell documented and should providesufficient information for futureexpansion.

You might have a problem with themissing link to the arithmetic copro-cessor because the patch programoverwrites the 8087 interrupt loca-tion. I would not regard this as seriousbecause the 8-MHz version of thecoprocessor is hard to obtain (fewAPC Ills will come with the chip, andmost users will probably find it too ex-pensive). When the price comesdown, however, the 8087 will be amust for a graphics environment,especially for rotation, scaling, shear-ing, and translation of two- and three-dimensional images.

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

^ i

OVERLINE

BLINKING

REVERSE VIDEO

UNDERLINE

VERTICAL BAR

COLOR

BLACK a

WHITE

000

BLACK

BLACK

001

BLUE

010

GREEN

011

CYAN

GRAY

100

RED

LEVELS

101

MAGENTA

no

YELLOW

111

WHITE

WHITE

Figure 4: A summary of the NEC APC 111 display attributes and the available colorsand shades of gray.

0

IBM ATTRIBUTENEC ATTRIBUTE

| BL | BACKGROUND |

1 | FOREGROUND |

r °

—"N

<~

1

7

|FOREGROUND [ 0 |

0 | 0 | BL | 0 |

Figure 5: The translation of the color attributes. Note that the APC III cannot makeuse of the background color or the intensity flag.

M

BACK |

| FORE |

1

^j

1

4

3

2

7

6

5

0

000000000

111111

000001

111

000

111

NON-DISPLAY (BLACK ON BLACK)

NORMAL UNDERLINED CHAR

NORMAL CHAR

REVERSED CHAR

NON-DISPLAY (WHITE ON WHITE)

0XXX

1

0XXX

1

0XXX

1

00000

01000

000

11

< 0

< 0

< 0( 0

< 0

Figure 6: The translation of the monochrome attributes. \n addition to the IBM PCattributes, the APC 111 supports additional features like overlining and vertical bars.

178 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

NEC APC III PATCH

Graphics Enhancementsfor the NEC APC III

When the patch (see listing 1) ex-ecutes, the NEC APC III will ac-cept graphics commands and IBMscreen configurations without any sideeffects. To increase speed, replace theTurbo Pascal graphics primitives withspecific hardware drivers to handledirectly the following interrupt services:draw line, draw rectangle, fill rectangle,and draw circle.

A hard Pascal interface will speed upimage generation by about 20 times.

Both graphics controllers (text andgraphics) and their customized hard-ware environment occupy roughly two-thirds of the main board and make theAPC III superior to most other low-priced personal computers. The APCIII can produce complex drawings oreven animated graphics 40 times fasterthan the IBM PC. And, the APC IIImakes it possible to scroll quicklythrough WordStar text.

Another interesting aspect of theAPC Ill's graphics support is the GSX(graphics system extension) kernel. Thisadd-on to the operating system (MS-DOS 2.11) interfaces via interrupts tohigh-level languages and provides ser-vices similar to GKS (graphics kernelsystem) on a graphics workstation.

The basic system supplies two GSXdisks. One contains the GSX kernel andmouse and NEC printer interfaces. Thesecond keeps standard printer/plotterdrivers. Unfortunately. NEC doesn'tprovide information about the GSX in-terface in the documentation; the com-pany does discuss printers but not theprogramming interface. If the NECdoes support the interface to either theGSX package or the NEC hardware.

non-hardware programmers shouldhave no problem writing Pascal pro-grams for animation or complex dis-play applications. Many people work-ing in our lab who were unfamiliar withTurbo Pascal and graphics hardwarewere able to put together animationprograms in an hour or two.

For other graphics possibilities,Digital Research's DR Draw packagegives you a menu-driven interface andeases the generation of graphicsimages. But again, the APC III manualdoes not explain how to interface thegraphics files to a high-level language.Users unsatisfied with DR Draw mightuse GEM (Digital Research's GraphicsEnvironment Manager), which providespresentation graphics and Macintoshfonts as well as free-form drawing.GEM will use the standard Macintosh-type pull-down menus, icons, andpointing devices. With GEM, the NECAPC III will be able to compete withthe more expensive Macintosh com-puter without special print equipment.

Future Enhancements

With its graphics hardware the APC IIIwill challenge more computers thanjust the Macintosh or IBM PC. With theaddition of communications software,the graphics capabilities of the APC IIIare sufficient to emulate graphics ter-minals. The operating system, whicheven provides an XON/XOFF protocol,will handle most of the communicationinterface. Standard communicationpackages are available, but you shouldevaluate them and, if necessary,change the patch program to suit thenew application.

To increase the speed for trigono-metric calculations without having tobuy a special compiler, you will haveto replace the standard keyboarddriver of an IBM PC compiler with anadditional keyboard-input subroutine.Then you will need to remove the key-board-vector patch, leaving the 8087interrupt unchanged. But losing thecomfortable built-in keyboard inter-

rupt may be a reasonable sacrifice formuch faster (20 to 50 times) and moreaccurate calculations.

With this optional chip and bothgraphics coprocessors, the NEC APC111 seems to be the fastest low-costIBM PC clone (with patch im-plemented, of course) on the market,at least until the next supermicrocom-puter comes along. ■

Inquiry 4 7 for End-Users.Inquiry 48 for DEALERS ONLY.

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Inquiry 288

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 181

The First Idea-Processor For Programmers.

FirsTime

Has features no other editor has.

• Fast program entry through single keystroke statement generators.

• Fast editing through syntax oriented cursor movements.

• Dramatically reduced debugging time through immediate syntax checking.

• Fast development through unique programmer oriented features.

• Automatic program formatter.

FirsTime is a True Syntax Directed Editor.

As the world's most advanced syntax-directededitor, FirsTime lets you work with ideas by takingcare of the low-level syntax details of your program.For example, you can generate complete statementskeletons with one keystroke. Move the cursor fromone procedure to the next with one keystroke. Typein code, and it's instantly formatted (you specify therules). Type an error, and FirsTime warns youimmediately. You can continue working if you wish.Later, you can use the search-for-error command tofind the error and fix it.

FirsTime Has Thorough Error Checking.

FirsTime not only checks your syntax, but alsosemantics. FirsTime identifies:

• Undefined variables, types and constants.

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FirsTime is a trademark of Spruce Technology Corporation • MS-DOS is atrademark of Microsoft Corporation • IBM is a trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines Inc • Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International• dBase III is a trademark of Ashton-Tate

182 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1981

FirsTime Lets You Work With Ideas.

The Zoom command gives you a top down view ofyour program logic.

The View macro command shows the expansions of aC macro while in the editor.

The View include file command instantly shows youthe contents of an include file.

The Transform command allows you to change astatement to another similar statement, forexample, a FOR to an equivalent WHILE.

The Search for next error command allows you tofind errors throughout your program.

The Cursor movement commands let you traverseyour program by logical elements, not justcharacters.

FirsTime Works With Existing Files.

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Inquiry 347

PROGRAMMING INSIGHT

BUILD ATRAVESTY TREE

by Peter Wayner

A tree data structure improves search timefor travesty generation

THE TRAVESTY GENERATOR thatwas presented by Hugh Kenner andloseph O'Rourke ("A TravestyGenerator for Micros." November1984 BYTE, page 129) works well fortaking short initial texts, finding proba-bilities of various combinations, andgenerating a random output text. It il-lustrates the concept simply and useshardly any memory, but since itchecks the whole source text for eachand every letter of output, the timethat the program takes to finish thetask depends mainly on the productof the lengths of the input string andthe output string.

If a frequency table could be con-structed, the output could be gen-erated in a time that is proportionalto the sum of the lengths. The timeit takes to build the table would bedependent upon the length of thesource, and the time to write the out-put would depend on the sizedesired. So, using a frequency table,the time to write 10,000 charactersbased upon a sample paragraph sizeof 20,000 characters would take about10.000a+20.0006 seconds where aand b are constants. The simpler ver-sion offered by Kenner and O'Rourke,which depends on the product of the

lengths, would take about 108' sec-onds, where c is a constant. The linearbehavior associated with frequencytables would be very desirable forlarge runs.

The problem with frequency tablesis that they waste so much space.Combinations such as "qz" rarely (ifever) come up in English, but they stillrequire space in the table. Thememory that these combinations con-sume is immense. A paragraph of1000 characters has at most 997 dif-ferent combinations of four letters ina row. but a frequency table wouldtake at least 30\ or 810.000. units tostore this.

The best solution to this problem isto abandon the tables and replacethem with a forest of 60 data trees.The root of each tree is either a punc-tuation mark or an upper- or lower-case letter. The branches that are at-tached to each root are the variouscombinations of letters that follow inthe source string (see figure 1). In afourth-order run of the program, eachbranch is four nodes long, and eachnode contains one combination offour letters that is found in the text.The leaf at the end of the branch con-tains the number of times the com-

bination is found. Given three letters,a new letter to follow it can be chosenby finding the three letters in the treeand then randomly selecting one ofthe twigs attached to it.

A TRS-80 Model 100 BASIC pro-gram that generates travesty textusing the tree data structure de-scribed is shown in listing 1. It packsthe information in one long, three-integer-wide array, M. The first num-ber of the triplet of integers. M(n,1),stores the letter of the branch in theform of a number that refers to theposition of a letter in the string Q$.The second number points to anotherbranch on the same level, and thethird points to the next node in thesame branch of the tree. The programtakes the sample text from an inter-nal file, codes it into matrix T, andthen builds the tree. Finally, it writesthe output by examining the tree.

Since the Model 100 uses a BASICinterpreter, it runs much slower thanKenner and O'Rourke's Pascal pro-gram, but more abstract comparisons

[continued)Peter C Wayner is a senior majoring in mathat Princeton University. He can be reachedat the Department of Mathematics, PrincetonUniversity, Princeton. NJ 08544.

SEPTEMBER 1985 "BYTE

183

DeSmetC

150

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Street Address: 505 W. Olive, #767, Sunnyvale, CA 94086184 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

TRAVESTY TREE

LEAVES

e

ROOT

i'

r

- 0 1

i

-

fc r 0 1

» a .

i

* 1 '

1

s O

» h | 2

u

1

e 0 1

s

1 —• . o

1

a

0 ► 1 0

Figure 1: A diagram of the tree built for the letter "e" by the program when itprocesses the string '"Here are the shoes, the ships, and the sealing wax'.' Eachentry consists of one field that holds the character and two fields that holdpointers. (The root uses only one pointer field.) The last entry on a branch (its"leaf") uses the second pointer field to store frequency.We can see from the tree that the only characters that immediately follow "e"

are "r," " " "s," and "a." The string "e a" is followed only by an "r," and

this occurs only once. The string "e s" is followed by an "h" (occurs two times)

and an "e" (occurs only once).

Listing 1: The TRS-80 Model 100 BASIC program that generates travesty textusing the tree data structure described. The source code for this program isavailable for downloading via BYTEnet Listings under the name TRAV100.BAS.The telephone number is (617) 861-9774. A version of the program for theIBM PC is also available on BYTEnet under the name TRAVTREE.BAS.

10 REM A program to build a tree and then generate random text.

20 DEFINT T,M

30 DIM T(700),M(2000,3)

40 L = 4

50 N = 60

60 FOR X = 1 TO N - 1

65 M(X,1) = X

70 NEXT X

80 OPEN "ram:print.do" FOR OUTPUT AS 1

85 TIMES = "00:00:00"

[continued)

&J>

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TRAINING

Flight SimulatorTyping InstructorTyping Tutor III. . .

Gem Desktop.. SaveyGem Draw .. Save/

$239$209

532

Mr

&&*

Inquiry 330 for MS-DOS Products. Inquiry 331 for all others.

Prices reflect 3% to 5% cash discount. Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty. Please add $8.00 per orderfor UPS shipping. Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send cashier's check or money order... all other checks will delayshipping two weeks.

f

Inquiry 44

Al Language

Prolog-K ABA

IBM-PCversion

Prolog-KABA is a high performance Prolog system for microcom-puter developed by KABA (Kyoto Artificial Brain Associates) placingemphasis on user-friendly operation.

FEATURES

UEdinfourgh DEC-10 Prolog syntax

The syntax and must <>i Us built-in Predicates are based 1)11 KilmUiruh DEC ]fl Prultifijwhich is regarded as standard Prolog system

2)Screen Editor for easier modification of Prolog program

I'roloK KABA lias its nwn screen editor 'l*r«wdit pmvjdinti efficienl editing of program*r'roedil has the hasu facilities ul the EM ACS screen edtint which was developed al Ml!

3)High processing speed

I'mloy KAI'.A written all in assembly lanfiuage except fin the screen editor executesprograms at a verj fast speed

Copyrighted by Kyoto Artificial Brain AssociatesTechnically supported by ASTEC Inc.Distributed by BYNAS

Price: US $ 400

Common Lisp+CYKERNEL

(GKS)

Common Lisp + CYKERNEL can be used as a powerful tool fordevelopment of Al application. The graphic facility provides anexcellent means to interface the Al application and human.

• KCL (KYOTO COMMON LISP) can be usedas common Lisp interface of CYKERNEL.KCL was developed by Kyoto University.

Applicable machines

• SUN 2 »apollo

• USTATION E15 "VAX

LOVE ELECTRO LIFE -

BYNAS

BYNAS DIVISION. UNY CO.. LTD.

5F DAI-NAGOYA BLDG . 28-12. 3-CHOME MEIEKI.NAKAMURA-KU. NAGOYA. 450 JAPANTELEPHONE 052-581-7655 TELEX J59797 UNYHONSH

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Fast delivery — We manufacture and control every stageof design and production. Many outstanding and uniqueproducts never shown before.

We are willing to take care of small orders, too.

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TRAVESTY TREE

90 PRINT #1,"Beginning time:";TIME$

91 REM

92 REM Take the text from an internal file

93 REM and store it in array T.

94 REM This step can be eliminated if the

95 REM letters are processed

96 REM as they are read from the file.

97 REM

100 M = 1

110 OPEN "ram:mput.do" FOR INPUT AS 2

120 A$ = INPUT$(1,2)

130 T(M) = ASC(A$)-64

140 IF T(M)>32 THEN T(M) = T(M)-6

145 REM

146 REM These lines assign the appropriate

147 REM codes to punctuation.

148 REM-32 THEN T(M) = 53

-20 THEN T(M) = 54-18 THEN T(M) = 55-5 THEN T(M) = 56-25 THEN T(M) = 57

M = M + 1:GOTO 120

150 IF T(M) =

160 IF T(M) =

170 IF T(M) =

172 IF T(M) =

174 IF T(M) =

180 IF T(M)< >0 THEN

182 REM

184 REM Finally a wraparound pad is added just like

186 REM the original Travesty program.

188 REM

190 FOR X=1 TO L

192 T(M) = T(X)

194 M = M + 1

196 NEXT X

290 REM

291 REM Now build the tree using matrix M.

292 REM The letter at node n is stored in

293 REM M(n.1), the pointer to equal levels

294 REM is placed in M(n,2), and the pointer

295 REM to the next level down is M(n,3).

296 REM

300 FOR A = 1 TO M - L

310 D=1

315 Y = M(T(A),2)

320 IF Y = 0 THEN Y = T(A):GOTO 600

400 IF M(Y,1) = T(A + D) THEN 500

410 IF M(Y.2) = 0 THEN 600

420 Y = M(Y.2)

430 GOTO 400

500 REM

505 REM If there is a match then look further until a set

506 REM of matches reaches down to the bottom level.

507 REM If not. add a branch.

508 REM520 D = D+1

530 IF D<LTHEN Y = M(Y.3):GOTO 400540 M(Y,3) = M(Y,3)+1550 GOTO 999

600 REM

601 REM A subroutine to add a branch.

602 REM

610 P = L-D-1620 FOR X = 0 TO P630 Z = N + X640 M(Z.1) = T(A + X + D)650 M(Z.2) = 0

[continued!

186 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 403

MICRO CAP and MICRO LOGIC

on line...

C-

y

ROofi

4

1 /vt-xr/

1^

/ViyoJ-VfJ H/ORKSTsiTioH

How many long unproductive hourshave you spent "in line" for your simula-tion? Well, no more. MICROCAP andMICROLOGIC can put you on line byturning your PC into a productive andcost-effective engineering workstation.

Both of these sophisticated engineeringtools provide you with quick and efficientsolutions to your simulation problems.And here's how.

MICROCAP:

Your Analog Solution

MICROCAP is an interactive analogcircuit drawing and simulation system.It allows you to sketch a circuit diagramright on the CRT screen, then run an AC,DC, or Transient analysis. While pro-viding you with libraries for definedmodels of bipolar and MOS devices,Opamps, transformers, diodes, and muchmore, MICROCAP also includes featuresnot even found in SPICE.

MICROCAP II lets you be even moreproductive. As an advanced version, itemploys sparse matrix techniques forfaster simulation speed and larger net-

"Typical MICROCAP Transient Analysis''

works. In addition, you get even moreadvanced device models, worst case capa-bilities, temperature stepping, Fourieranalysis, and macro capability.

MICROLOGIC:Your Digital Solution

MICROLOGIC provides you with asimilar interactive drawing and analysisenvironment for digital work. Usingstandard PC hardware, you can createlogic diagrams of up to 9 pages with eachcontaining up to 200 gates. The systemautomatically creates the netlist requiredfor a timing simulation and will handlenetworks of up to 1800 gates. It providesyou with libraries for 36 user-definedbasic gate types, 36 data channels of 256bits each, 10 user-defined clock wave-forms, and up to 50 macros in each net-work. MICROLOGIC produceshigh-resolution timing diagrams showingselected waveforms and associateddelays, glitches, and spikes—just like thereal thing.

"Typical MICROLOGIC Diagram "

Reviewers LoveThese Solutions

Regarding MICROCAP ... "A highlyrecommended analog design program"(PC Tech Journal 3/84). "A valuable toolfor circuit designers" (Personal SoftwareMagazine 11/83).

Regarding MICROLOGIC ... "An effi-cient design system that does what it issupposed to do at a reasonable price"(Byte 4/84).

MICROCAP and MICROLOGIC areavailable for the Apple II (64k), IBM PC(128k). and HP-150 computers and pricedat $475 and $450 respectively. Demoversions are available for $75.

MICROCAP II is available for theMacintosh, IBM PC (256k). and HP-150systems and is priced at $895. Demoversions are available for $100

Demo prices are credited to thepurchase price of the actual system.

Now, to get on line, call or write today!

Spectrum Software

1021 S. Wolfe Road, Dept. BSunnyvale, CA 94087(408) 738-4387

Inquiry 346

Inquiry 236

New 128K SBC withHard Disk Controller

onh*595.

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• No Hard Disk Controller required

• No terminal required. IncludesVideo Controller and CP/M® 3.0

• ST-506 Interface on board

• Floppy Disk Controller runsany size floppy drive

• OEM Discounts Available

Other models include: CP/M® 2.2,64K or 256KRAM, Time of Day Clock, E2PROM, PeripheralExpansion & RGB Color Video Display

128K Sec includes:

• 6MHzZ80B*

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• Floppy and HardDisk Controllers

• CP/M® 3.0

To order or enquire, call us today. Megatel ComputerTechnologies Toronto Engineering Office (416) 745-7214. Orwrite our U.S. Sales Office 1051 Clinton St., Buffalo N.Y. 14206CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc.Z80B is a registered trademark ZHog inc.

megatel

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TRAVESTY TREE

660 M(Z,3) = Z+1670 NEXT X680 M(Y,2) = N690 M(Z.3)=1700 N=N+L-D710 GOTO 999990 REM

992 REM Close the loop and proceed on.

993 REM

999 NEXT A

1000 REM

1001 REM Generate a P-character-long text of order L,

1002 REM by searching the tree of (M)-tuples that match.

1004 REM Then choose one randomly,

1005 REM

1050 PRINT #VTtme to form tree::';TIME$

1060 P = 400

1100 PRINT #1,"M = number of seed letters=";M

1110 PRINT #VN = number of nodes used = ";N

1120 PRINT #1,"L-depth = ";L

1130 PRINT #VP = size of output = ";P

1140 GOTO 1300

1145 REM

1150 REM A short section to print the tree if needed.

1160 REM

1200 FOR X = 1 TO N

1210 PRINT #1 .USING "####";X;

1220 PRINT #1 .USING "###";M(X,1);

1230 PRINT #1.USING ,,#####,,;M(X.2);

1240 PRINT #1.USING '#####";M(X,3);

1250 NEXT X

1260 REM

1300 REM Begin the text generation using Q$

1301 REM whose i-th character corresponds

1302 REM with the tree code i.

1303 REM1310 DIM Q$(60)

1320 Q$ = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ,,;'"

1330 A = 0

1331 REM

1332 REM Use array S for sliding storage of

1333 REM the last I characters printed. Use

1334 REM modulo arithmetic to keep track.

1335 REM1340 DIM S(L)

1350 X = INT((M-L)*RND(1))1360 FOR Z=1 TO L1370 S(Z) = T(X + Z)1380 NEXT Z

1390 REM

1391 REM A letter has been found. Go down

1392 REM one level on the tree.

1393 REM1400 REM

1405 Y = M(S((A MOD L)+1),2)

1410 FOR X = 1 TO L-2

1420 IF M(Y,1) = S(((A + X) MOD L) + 1) THEN 1450

1430 Y = M(Y.2)

1440 GOTO 1420

1450 Y = M(Y,3)

1460 NEXT X

1500 IF M(Y,2) = 0 THEN 1570

(continued)

I88

BYTE' SEPTEMBER

Inquiry 393

XEROX

Three morefirsts fromthe peoplewhoinventedthe wheel.

From day one, Xerox and Diablohave been known as the two best namesin daisywheel printers. And now thereare three more in the Xerox line tochoose from.

The Xerox AdvantageD-25 Diablo printer turnsout letter quality documentsquickly and quietly. And it does all thatfor the price of a dot matrix printer.

At 80 c.p.s., the D-80IF is the fastestdaisywheel printer ever made byXerox. It has a built-in double bin

sheet feeder. As well as the capacity tohandle up to 16 computers at once.

Then there's the D-36. It's so reliable,it averages 4,000 hours of print ing

between maintenance calls.

And each of these newprinters is compatible withmost computers on themarket, including the IBM-PC.

So if you're looking for the latest indaisywheel printing technology, call1-800-833-2323. ext. 25, your localXerox office, an authorized Diabloor Xerox dealer or send your businesscard to Xerox Corporation, Dept.^ 25192, RO. Box 24; Rochester,

NY 14692.

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For more Information from Xerox, Circle 395 on the

8®5Sfl»-

TRAVESTY TREE

1510 Y1 =Y

1515 Z = 0

1520 Z = Z + M(Y,3)

1530 Y = M(Y2)

1535 IF Y>0THEN 1520

1540 Z = INT(Z"RND(1) + 1)

1545 Z = Z-M(Y1,3)

1550 IF Z>0 THEN Y1 = M(Y1,2):GOTO 1545

1560 Y = Y1

1565 REM

1566 REM A letter is found. Print it and add it

1567 REM to the list.

1568 REM1570Z=M(Y,1)

1574 S(((A + L-1) MOD L) + 1) = Z

1580 PRINT #1,MID$(Q$,Z,1);

1590 A = A + 1

1600 IF A<P THEN 1400

1610 PRINT #1,'' "

1620 PRINT #1 ."Finishing time:";TIME$

1630 PRINT #1," "

1640 PRINT #1," "

1650 END

can be made by looking at the in-creases in time the programs take toprocess larger input files. To do so, Itook the opening paragraph ofVladimir Nabokov's Pnin andgenerated 500 characters of fourth-order text. Then I took 1741 letters ofGeorge Bernard Shaw's introductionto Man and Superman and produced a10,000-character text.

Using the formula given by Kennerand O'Rourke for their Pascal pro-gram, the two runs would take O.&kand 27.6fe seconds, respectively.(Here, k is a system constant.) My pro-gram took 5.5 and 81.5 minutes, re-spectively. Consequently, while thesecond program would have taken 32times longer than the first with theKenner and O'Rourke program, it tookonly 14 times longer with mine. So asthe problems get larger, the advan-tage of using a tree structure becomesapparent. ■

Preserving your data is vitallyimportant. Lose it and you've lostboth time and money. That's whyVerbatim Datalife Diskettes have 6 data-shielding improvements for greater disk"^ durability and longer life. They come standardwith the 5 year warranty that's 5 times longerthan the industry standard—it guarantees troublefree recording, storage, and retrieval. And tohelp introduce you to the Verbatim quality standard we're running a special offer on many of theirproducts, including—Datalife and Verex Diskettes,Cleaning Kits, Disk Drive Analyzers.

What separates us from our competition? Simply a combinationof the best service in the industry, highly competitive pricing, andan ever widening range of products. Above all we care aboutour reputation and are willing to work on a lower margin whiledelivering what others only claim—and we do it all on a day-inday-out basis.

This fall Va million subscribers to Byte magazine will bereceiving our catalog with a special discount offer on the cover.We strongly feel that if you try us just once you'll join our listof satisfied confident customers. Lyben Computer Systems wantsto be your source for computer supplies and accessories.

Lyben

Computer

Systems

1050 E. MAPLE RD. • TROY, Ml 48083 • (313) 589-3440

190 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 22 5

H

inn

■

5*';^-!li:-: . ■ ' *' ii7 -

II

t*

The faster you can do a job,the faster you can do another.And the more jobs you da themore money you make.

A simple business principlearound which we've craftilydesigned the ITT XTRA™XP

A personal computer burst-ing with the speed and poweryou need to move ahead andstay ahead. Over three anda half times faster and fullycompatible with the IBM XT.Twenty-five percent fasterthan the AT. And twenty-fivepercent faster than the ATon a Lotus recomputation

Example. A spreadsheet

that once took 32 secondsto compute now takes a mere9 seconds.

Time savings for otherbusiness tasks are equallystaggering.

Imagine all the extramuscle of the 80286 Intelmicroprocessing chip conve-niently packaged in a verysmall space.

And imagine the very sametilt-and-swivel monitor, built-intelecommunications port, IBMcompatibility and the host ofother computer niceties thathave made the whole familyso successful.

Now stop imagining. Andstart dialing.

Call (800) 321-7661, or in Cal-ifornia, (800) 368-7300 today

We'll tell you your nearestITT authorized dealer of thefastest PC in the known world.

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And call quickly Beforethe rest of the business worldpasses you by

Faster than you can imagine.

ITT

PERSONAL COMPUTERS

HELPING AMERICA WORK SMART.

81985. ITT Systems. Inc.

IBM XT and AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines. Intel 80286 is a registered trademark ot Intel Corporation.

The new ITT XTRA.- XP is scheduled to be available summer oi 1985.

Inquiry 194 for End-Users. Inquiry 195 tor DEALERS ONLY

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 191

You can still buy

quality and dependability

at a reasonable price.

That's exactly what we drive home at Viasyn. We offer you a whole lineof CompuPro* IEEE 696/S-100 Bus boards. Along with single- and multi-usersystems compatible with over 3,000 standard business applications, plus a widevariety of scientific and industrial programs. Each one's a value our competitionfinds hard to beat.

You can choose from a broad range of CPU boards, memory boards, diskcontrollers, network and interface boards, plus PC Video, in color or black andwhite. You can mix or match 8-bit and 16-bit software on the same machine oron different machines. And pick just the power and memory you need. Object:to grow and multiply in capabilities, at optimum cost efficiencies. Without sacri-ficing quality or dependability » » m j± ^H^t jp»T>

If that's what you're driving for, write us for our new^^ Www\.^^^\.wmshort-form catalog or simply call our toll-free number. twww^^^ wU

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CompuPro is a registered trademark of Viasyn Corporation.

192 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 381

PROGRAMMING INSIGHT

PRINTING PASCALGRAPHICS

by Kelly W. Davis

A simple subroutine dumps Apple Pascal graphicsto any Epson MX-series printer

1 BOUGHT MY EPSON MX-80 printerand my Apple II computer with vi-sions of graphics like the Mona Lisadancing through my head. But I quick-ly discovered that Applesoft BASICdoesn't simplify graphics creativity. Infact, it forces any would-be da Vincito delve into the mysterious realm ofmachine language. As everybodyknows, machine language doesn'teven make addition look easy, muchless drawing complex pictures.

In desperation, I reverted to one ofmy favorite languages—Pascal. So far,Apple Pascal has met every creativeexpectation but one: It doesn't comewith a screen-dump command. Thismight not seem like a big deal to aperson who has never worked onmore than one picture at a time. Butafter 30 or 40 graphics creations, ascreen-dump routine comes in handy.

So I wrote one. Screendump(available for downloading fromBYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9774)takes whatever graphics are current-felly W. Davis (292 Howe Ave. Apt. G,Sacramento. CA 9582 5) works at McClellanAir Force Base as a field service engineer andis a part-time student, majoring inmathematics.

Figure I: An example of a graphics screen printed bg intrinsic unit Screendump.

ly on the screen and dumps them toany MX-series printer from Epson. Iwrote Screendump as an intrinsic unitunder Pascal and stored it in thelibrary. I can call my routine in anyprogram under the USES statementand after the TURTLEGRAPHICSdeclaration.

After I've programmed my graphicscreation, I type PRINTGRAPH. Screen-dump scans the screen from top tobottom 29 times. Each time it looksat the Boolean equivalent of either 2or 7 graphics screen bits, converting

them into their binary-coded equiva-lents. Screendump then stores themin a single-dimensional array (PR-ARRAY) 280 bytes deep, which is sentto the printer. Screendump takesabout eight minutes. An example ofthe graphics screen printed byScreendump is shown in figure 1.

Dumping Apple Pascal graphics toa printer can be helpful if you needto develop many graphics screens,because instead of keeping them inyour head, you can print each one outand enhance it individually. ■

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE

193

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BUY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE AT WHOLESALE + 8%,AND GET 14-30 DAY SOFTWARE RENTALS1...

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•

NO CELEBRATION of BYTE's 10th anniversary would be complete without theacknowledgment of some of the events and contributions that helped to shape themagazine. In the too-few pages that follow, we tried to capture some of the flavorof the past 10 years.

Special thanks to all contributors and to the BYTE staff, especially Gregg Williams,who chaired the project, Richard Shuford, Rich Malloy, Mark Welch, and Stan Wszola.

A Microcomputing Timeline

198

208

Evolution of the Microprocessor

209

216

217

219

220

Tinney Favorites

221

222

V

>3SM

^m

A

MICROCOMPUTING

TIMELINE

PHOTOGRAPHEDBY PAUL AVIS

JULY 1974 RADIO-ELECTRONICS'COVER STORY IS ON THE MARKS.

Radio Electronics

DON LANCASTER TELLS

How Calculator BUILD THE MARK-8

IC's Work Your Personal Minicomputer

NEW FM CIRCUITSFor Precise Tuning

DESIGN YOUR OWN

Direct-CoupledTransistor Amplifiers ]

WHAT YOU NEEDIn Hi-Fi Test Gear

WORKINGWITH SCR'sAn Experimenter'sGuide

PLUS

Appliance

Equipme

ieshooter's Guidei Transistor Directoi *

What follows is a modest and, we hope, correct timeline of personal com-puting. \f the number of entries per year is any indication, then the mostactive years of personal computing were 1975, 1976, and 1977 and 1982,1983, and 1984.

Although the roots of personal computing go back further, the excitementreally started in \anuary 1975, with the publication of Popular Elec-tronics' cover story on the Altair 8800. A slogan printed on the coverof the first three issues of BYTE said it all: "Computers-The World's GreatestToy'.' The slogan expressed the ideal that lured many, but few of us hadthe stamina and consuming fanaticism needed to make it happen: you hadto design and build everything yourself, hardware and software. Mostof you also had to learn electronics, mathematics, and the art of decipheringarcane, poorly written spec sheets—the phrase "by your bootstraps" tookon new meaning.

By 1978, things were different: you could buy microcomputers and theywould usually work, but it wasn't the same. Prior to 1978, the excitementwas in saying "book, my design worksl" But when you took it for grantedthat it worked, the auestion became "What can you do with it?": however,the answer was "Not all that much'.' Most systems lackeda disk drive and had 32K bytes of memory or less. The yearsbetween 1978 and 1982 were slow, evolutionary years—not too exciting, but necessary.

By late 1981, the industry was poised for growth, andIBM's introduction into the marketplace catalyzed that growthinto a bumpy, breathtaking ride that shows no signs of slow-ing {though it did take about a year to get started, that is,to produce a significant number of IBM-related products). Per-sonal computers finally could perform and were affordableenough to be used by people who weren't just hobbyists: thatprogress continues to build as computers become simultaneouslycheaper and more capable.

BYTE has kept a close watch on the computer industry'sgrowth, and we felt the need to annotate this timeline. Whendates have been difficult to pinpoint, we've approximated them.\n general, it has been an active and interesting first ten years.

—Gregg Williams and Mark Welch

198 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

194$ THE TRANSISTOR IS INVENTEDAT BELL LABORATORIES.

Pk-1975

1948 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William

Shockley of Bell Laboratories invent the transistor.

1959 Texas Instruments unveils the first integrated

circuit.

1964 John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz

develop the BASIC programming language at

Dartmouth College.

Digital Equipment Corp. advertises the PDP-8

minicomputer, which, at $16,200, is "a full,

general-purpose computer that scientists can

afford-but it gets personal."

1970 OCTOBER Scientific American publishesMartin Gardner's first "Mathematical Recreations"column on John Conway's game of Life.

1971 Intel Corp. puts the 4-bit 4004 micro-processor on a single chip. Its initial price is $200.

1972 NOVEMBER Intel Corp. introduces the 8008,their first 8-bit microprocessor.

Nolan Bushnell founds Atari and ships the Pongvideo game.

1973 Scelbi Computer Consulting offers the8008-based Scelbi-8H computer kit ($565 with 1Kbyte of memory).

FALL Intel Corp. announces the improved 80808-bit microprocessor.SEPTEMBER Radio-Electronics magazinepublishes Don Lancaster's TVT-1 computerterminal project.

1974 Brian W. Kemighan and Dennis M. Ritchiedevelop the C programming language.SUMMER Gary Kildall develops the CP/Moperating system.

JULY Radio-Electronics' cover story is "Build theMark-8: Your Personal Minicomputer."SEPTEMBER Creative Computing magazinefounded.

a new eraof integratedelectronics

A micro-programmablecomputeronachip!

intelcQivers.

NOVEMBER 1971 INTEL'S FIRST AD FOR THE 4004 MICROPROCESSOR IN ELECTRONIC NEWS.

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 199

■ I

1975

1976

WINTER Ziiog Inc. develops the Z80

microprocessor, whose instruction set is a

superset of the 8080s.

JANUARY Carl Helmers founds Experimenters'

Computer System (ECS), which lasts for five

issues before he moves to BYTE.

JANUARY Popular Electronics' cover story is

"World's First Minicomputer Kit to Rival

Commercial Models...Altair 8800." The Altair

8800 kit, with an Intel 8080 microprocessor, 256

bytes of memory, and a toggle-switch-and-LED

front panel, sells for $395.

MARCH Homebrew Computer Club founded.

MAY Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey

founded.

SUMMER IMS International announces the IMSAI

computer, which is essentially an improved clone

of the Altair 8800.

SUMMER MOS Technology announces the

MC6501 at $20 and the MC6502 at $25; at this

point, the 8080 costs about $150.

FALL MITS (the company that sells the Altair

8800) announces 4K-byte and 8K-byte BASIC

(from Microsoft's founders Bill Gates and Paul

Allen) for $350 and $500, respectively ($60 and

$75 for purchasers of complete Altair systems).

FALL Dennis Allison publishes Tiny BASIC-later

enhanced by many, including Tom Pittman and

Li-Chen Wang.

FALL Sphere Corp offers the Sphere I computer

kit (6800, 4K bytes of RAM, ROM monitor,

keyboard, video interface, for $650).

FALL MOS Technology announces the KIM-1

microcomputer, an assembled single-board

computer 16502, 1K byte of RAM, 2K-byte monitor

in ROM, keypad, LED readout, cassette and serial

interfaces, for $245).

SEPTEMBER IBM announces the IBM 5100, the

first briefcase-size computer (with BASIC, 16K

bytes, and a tape cartridge storage system, for

about $9000.

SEPTEMBER BYTE publishes its first issue.

SEPTEMBER Godbout advertises the Pace kit in

BYTE with "7 segment readouts for easy octal

debugging."

NOVEMBER Southwest Technical Products Co

advertises the M6800 computer kit (6800, serial

interface to terminal, monitor in ROM, for $450).

Unlike the Altair, it has no front-panel switchesl

DECEMBER MITS unveils the Altair 680 kit (6800,

1K byte of RAM, serial interface, for $293).

DECEMBER Microcomputer Associates Inc. offers

the JOLT kit (6502, 512 bytes of RAM, serial

interface to terminal, monitor in ROM, for $249).

DECEMBER Robert Tinney's first BYTE cover.

JANUARY Dr. Oobb's Journal of Computer

Calisthenics and Orthodontia /Running Light

Without Overbytel, a homebrew hardware and

software magazine, publishes its first issue.

MARCH David Bunnell of MITS organizes the First

World Altair Computer Convention in Albuquerque,

New Mexico.

SPRING Texas Instruments announces its

TMS9000, the first 16-bit microprocessor.

APRIL Apple Computer Inc. formed.

APRIL Cromemco Inc. advertises the Dazzler TV

interface board -the first color display for a

microcomputer.

SUMMER Keuffel and Esser (K&E) ceases its

production of slide rules and donates its last one

to the Smithsonian.

JUNE SwTPC M6800 ad promises "SOFTWARE -

The flood is near. Editor and assembler now

available. BASIC and more games right away.

Yours for the cost of copying. WE DON'T SELL

S0FTWARE-WE GIVE IT TO YOU. ENJOY IT,

COPY IT, WE WON'T COMPLAIN..."

JUNE Scelbi releases SCELBAL, a BASIC-like

language for $49 (includes source); it runs in 8K

bytes of memory or more.

AUGUST First floppy-disk-drive ad in BYTE (iCOM

Frugal Floppy, 8-inch, for $1195 [single quantity]).

AUGUST John Dilkes organizes the Personal

Computing Festival in Atlantic City; it is the first

microcomputer show of national scope.

AUGUST First portable computer: STM Systems'

BABY!' (6502, 2K bytes of RAM, bootstrapprogram in ROM, system software on tape, for$850 assembled).

FALL Steve Wozniak proposes that Hewlett-Packard Co, create a personal computer; SteveJobs proposes the same to Atari —both arerejected.

SEPTEMBER Ohio Scientific Instrumentsadvertises OSI 400 (6502, 6572, or 6800, paralleland serial ports, 1K byte of RAM, 512 bytes ofPROM, kit prices- $140 and up).OCTOBER Cromemco Inc. offers 4-MHz Z80 boardfor Altairs and other S-100 systems ($395 kit, witha monitor program on paper tape).OCTOBER PolyMorphic Systems advertises theS-100-based POLY 88 (8080A, 512 bytes of RAM,video/keyboard interface board, 1K byte of ROM,cassette interface, for $685 in kit form).NOVEMBER Steve Ciarcia's first article (not CircuitCellar).

DECEMBER Processor Technology advertises theSol computer (8080, S-100 bus, 1K byte of RAM,1K byte of PROM, 1K byte of video RAM,keyboard, cassette, serial, and parallel interfaces,BASIC-5 on cassette-kit, $995; with dual 8-inchdrives and operating system, $1895; an assembly-language TREK-80 game, PT 8K BASIC, and 8080FOCAL are also available). The machine wasinvented by Lee Felsenstein.DECEMBER Michael Shrayer writes ElectricPencil, the first popular word-processing programfor microcomputers.

DECEMBER Shugart announces its 5%-inch"minifloppy" disk drive for $390.

FALL 1975 THE SPHERE 1 COMPUTER KIT

200 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

1US ■■>..--

H5IM

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Which Microprocessorfor you?

I Cassette Interface - Your;y to inexpensive bulk memory

Assembling Your Assembler

Ian YOU use these SURPLUSKEYBOARDS?

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APRIL 1976 APPLE I BOARD

COMPUTERS-

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SEPTEMBER 1975 BYTES DEBUT

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At *995, your microprocessor's best friend.

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JUNE 1976 SWTPC SOFTWARE AD

AUGUST 1976 ICOM'S FRUGAL FLOPPY AD

SEPTEMBER 1975 GODBOUT PACE KIT AD

FALL 1975 THE KIM-1

JANUARY 1975 THE ALTAIR 8800

JANUARY 1975 POPULAR ELECTRONICS-FEATURES THE ALTAIR 8800

HOW TO "READ" FM TUNER SPECIFICATIONS

Popular Electronics

PROJECT tREAKTHROUGHI

World's First .Minicomputer Kitto Kiv.il Commercial Models..."ALTAIR mW" save over $1000

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1977

1978

1979

WINTER Ohio Scientific Instruments offers thefirst microcomputer with Microsoft (floating-point)BASIC in ROM; it is also the fastest.JANUARY Kilobaud (which later changed its nameto Microcomputing) publishes its first issue.FEBRUARY Computer Shack (which later changesits name to ComputerLand) opens its first store.APRIL Jim Warren organizes the 1st Wast CoastComputer Faire in San Francisco. The Apple II andCommodore PET (see below) are introduced there.APRIL Commodore Business Machines Inc. unveilsits PET computer (6502, 4K bytes of RAM, 14Kbytes of ROM, keyboard, display, tape drive, for$595 assembled). Its all-in-one packaging and 8Kbytes of Microsoft BASIC were innovative. Itscalculator-pad keyboard was (unfortunately) theprecedent for later microcomputers.JUNE Camp Retupmoc, the first week-longcomputer camp, is held in Terra Haute, Indiana.JUNE Apple Computer Inc. runs its first ad in•YTE (6502, 4K bytes of RAM, Integer ROM andmonitor in 16K bytes of ROM, keyboard, cassetteinterface, 8 slot motherboard, game paddles,graphics/text interface to color display, for $1298;with maximum 48K bytes of RAM, $2638).AUGUST SwTPC offers a two-drive 6800 systemwith terminal, monitor, and computer for $1999.AUGUST Microcomputers become mora widelyavailable (service does, too) through Radio Shack:their TRS-80 Model I (Z80, 4K bytes of RAM, 4Kbytes of ROM [Level I BASIC], keyboard, display,cassette interface, and recorder) costs $599.95.OCTOBER North Star Computers announces itsHorizon computer (Z80A, 16K bytes of RAM, one5Vi-inch floppy drive, 12-slot S-100 motherboard,serial interface to terminal, $1599 kit, $1999assembled).NOVEMBER Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar begins.

FEBRUARY Ward Christensen and Randy Seusscreate the Computerized Hobbyist Bulletin BoardSystem, the first major CBBS running on amicrocomputer.

MARCH Kathe and Dan Spraklen's Sargon winsthe 2nd West Coast Computer Faire chesstournament. (The 3rd takes place in Los Angeles inNovember.)

APRIL The Oigital Group advertises the Byte-master, a sewing-machine-size computer housing adisplay, keyboard, and disk drive. Never verypopular, it predates tha Osborne 1.MAY Ken Bowles first describes the machine-independent UCSD Pascal language/operatingsystem in BYTE.

JUNE Exidy unveils the Sorcerer (Z80, 8K bytes ofRAM, 12K bytes of ROM, keyboard, parallel, serial,and cassette interfaces, $895). The machine'sinnovations are its user-definable characters andits optional software on plug-in ROM cartridges.AUGUST MicroPro International unveils Word-Master, the precursor of the ubiquitous WordStarword processor (which appears in mid-1979).DECEMBER Epson America Inc. announces theMX-80 dot-matrix printer; its high performanceand low price stun competitors and forcecompetition and lower prices in the printer market.DECEMBER Atari announces the Atari 400 and800. The 800 has a full keyboard, 8K bytes ofRAM (expandable to 48K via memory slots), twoROM cartridge slots, and custom graphics andsound chips designed by Jay Miner (who laterdesigns the Amiga custom chips); it originallycosts $1000. The machines do not becomeavailable until late 1979. A derivative machine(now costing under $100) is still on the market,and ita graphics are unsur-passed in the 8-bit market.

SPRING CompuServe, a telecommunicationsutility, founded.

MAY Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston of SoftwareArts Inc. show the VisiCalc spreadsheet programat the 4th Wast Coast Computer Faire. Thisprogram caused many to take microcomputersseriously for the first time. VisiCalc was originallymarketed by Personal Software (which laterchanged its name to VisiCorp), but Software Artsregained the rights to VisiCalc in September 1984.(VisiCorp merged with Paladin in late 1984, andSoftware Arts merged with Lotus in April 1985.)MAY The FORTH Interest Group distributes thjfirst public-domain version of fig-FORTH, whichbegins the eventual widespread availability of thelanguage on microcomputers.JUNE The Source telecommunications utilityfounded.

JUNE Texas Instruments unveils the TI-99/4,which originally sold for $1150 (which included acolor monitor). The machine is slow (even thoughit uses Tl's TMS9900 16-bit processor), thebutton-style keyboard is oddly laid out, and Tldiscouraged third-party software. The revisedTI-99/4A solved some problems, but Tl finallydiscontinued the computer in late 1983; itscloseout price went as low as $50.SUMMER Magic Wand becomes the first seriouscompetitor to WordStar; it was just as powerfuland easier to use.

SUMMER Wayne Ratliff develops the Vulcandatabase program (AshtonTate later markets it asdBASE II).

You've )ust run out of excusesfor not own in$ a personal computer.

S.TrisssJsM' gsSssasr S~J";55:r

JUNE 1977 APPLES FIRST AD IN BYTE

202 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

JUNE 1979 THE TI-99/4A

DECEMBER 1978 THE EPSON MX-80

»77 77/F fWSr COMPUTER CAM?

DECEMBER 1978 THE ATARI 800

DECEMBER 1978 THE ATARI 400

APRIL 1978 THE BYTEMASTER

AUGUST 1977 THE TRS-80 MODEL I

APRIL 1977 THE COMMODORE PET

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 203

1980

FEBRUARY 1980 THE SINCLAIR ZX80

FEBRUARY InfoWoHd publishes its first issueFEBRUARY Sinclair Research announces its ZX80computer (Z80A, 1K byte of RAM, 4K integerBASIC in ROM, plastic membrane keyboard,$199). Its successor, the ZX81, was later marketedby Timex for under $100 before Timex left themicrocomputer market.

MARCH Microsoft Corp. shows its first hardwareproduct, the Z80 SoftCard for the Apple II at the5th West Coast Computer Fairs. The suddenavailability of CP/M business software for theApple contributes greatly to Apple Computer Inc. ssuccess.

MAY Apple Computer Inc. announces the AppleIII, which is delivered a year late and has, at first,a high failure rate. The machine never becomesthe replacement for the Apple II that AppleComputer wanted it to be.JUNE Shugart begins selling 5'/.-inch Winchesterhard-disk drives.

JUNE Commodore Business Machines unveils theVIC-20 (6502A, 5K bytes of RAM, BASIC in ROM,serial, cassette, and modem interfaces, ROMcartridge slot, color display, for $299).SUMMER Radio Shack announces its TRS-80Color Computer I6809E, "chicklet'-style keyboard,4K bytes of RAM, BASIC in ROM, color display,serial and cassette interfaces, for $399). They alsoannounce the TRS-80 Model III, which replacedand improved their original Model I.SUMMER "Zork, the Great Underground Empire"is first distributed by Personal Software Co. andlater by Infocom, its creators. Infocom changedthe nature of adventure games by allowing full-sentence input.

JULY Jerry Pournelle's "The User's Column"begins in BYTE.

MAY 1980 THE APPLE III

NOVEMBER 1981 THE EPSON HX-20

JUNE 1980 THE COMMODORE VIC-20

AUGUST 1981 THE IBM PC

APRIL 1981 THE OSBORNE I

SUMMER 1980

ZORK-AN EARLY ADVENTURE GAME

204 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

SUMMER 1981

THE HAYES SMARTMODEM 300

4

1981

WINTER Tracy Kidder'i The Soul of a NewMachint (New York: Avon Books) glorifies theinner workings of the computer industry endbecomes s netional bestseller.FEBRUARY Steve Wozniak, principal designer ofthe Apple II, crashes the airplane he was flying.After recovering from injuries and amnesia, hemoves to non-Apple tasks such as returning to theUniversity of California at Berkeley for hisundergraduate degree and (in September of 1982and 1983) sponsoring music/technology weekendscalled US Festivals.

APRIL Adam Osborne, publisher of microprocessorbooks, surprises the industry with the $1795portable Osbome 1 (Z80, 5-inch display, 64K bytesof RAM, keyboard and keypad, two serialinterfaces, and two 5'/.-inch disk drives). He alsoincludes an impressive collection of bundledsoftware whose list prices total mora than the costof the machine. The Osbome 1 had some flaws-low-density disk drives and a kludgy 52-chanctardisplay-but it was a good machine for the money,and it caused competitors to produce similarcomputers at a lower cost than was common atthe time.

MAY Xerox Corp. unveils the Star (later called the8010). This is Xerox's first commercial productderived from over a decade of work et Xerox PARC(Palo Alto Research Center). Costing over $50,000for the smallest usable configuration, the

computer has little direct effect; however, its useof icons, the "desktop metaphor," and the mousepointing device begin to influence themicrocomputer market in 1983 (with AppleComputer Inc.'s announcement of the Lisscomputer).

SUMMER Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.advertises the Smartmodem 300, which becomesthe industry standard.AUGUST IBM introduces the IBM PersonalComputer (PC) (8088, 64K bytes of RAM, 40Kbytes of ROM, one 5'/.-inch disk drive, $3005),which legitimized the microcomputer industry tothe rest of the world and established thepreeminence of the Intel 8086-family processorand the Microsoft MS-DOS operating system.SEPTEMBER BYTE publishes "A High-LevelLanguage Benchmark" by Jim Gilbraath. Thisarticle makes the Sieve of Eratosthenesbenchmark program infamous; it is later used totest hundreds of computer/language combinations.NOVEMBER Epson America Inc. shows the HX-20,the first laptop computer, at COMDEX. The unitweighs less than 3 pounds and runs a CMOS(complementary metal-oxide semiconductor)equivalent of the 6801 and 16K bytes of RAM oninternal batteries. Its 20-character by 4-linedispley, however, reduces its usefulness.

1982

JANUARY Radio Shack announces the TRS-80Model 16 (68000 and Z80, 128K bytes of RAM,one 8-inch disk drive, for $4999).APRIL BYTE's Famous Programmer's School ad.APRIL Non-Linear Systems (later named KayproCorp.) announces the Kaycomp II (later namedKaypro II), a portable computer with a full 9-inchscreen and considerable bundled software, meantto compete with the Osbome at $1795.APRIL GRiD Systems announces the Compass, afuturistic briefcase-size portable computer with anelectroluminescent display, for $8150. Despite

several price cuts and feature changes, thecomputer never becomes popular. (GRiD was toannounce a new product line in the summer of1985.)

APRIL Xedex Corp. builds the Baby Blue card (aZ80 coprocessor card) to ease the lack ofsoftware for the 9-month-old IBM PC.SPRING Franklin Computer Corp. unveils the Ace100, the first legal Apple II clone.JUNE Columbia Data Products Inc. advertises theMPC, the first IBM PC clone. Compaq ComputerCorp. follows in November, and IBM PC cloningand claimed compatibility become e wey of life inthe industry.

SUMMER Commodore Business Machines Inc.announces the Commodore 64 16510, 64K bytesof RAM, 20K bytes of ROM [including MicrosoftBASIC], custom sound chip, color graphics, serialinterface, for $595). During 1983, its price dropsto around $200 and it eventually takes the marketaway from the Atari 800-series computers.SUMMER The Logo programming languagebecomes readily available for several computers,most notably the Apple II and the TI-99/4A.JULY Motorola Inc. and Hitachi America Ltd.release preliminary specifications for 256K-bitchips (they become available in late 1983).JULY Intel Corp. announces the 80186 and 80286,more powerful processors that are compatible withthe 8086 and 8088.

FALL U.S. Customs refuses to allow the customchess-playing computer Belle to be teken toMoscow to play in exhibition. Ken Thompson, itsinventor, notes thst the only way it might be usedas a weapon would be "to drop it out of anairplane. You might kill somebody that way."OCTOBER Lotus Development Corp. announces1-2-3, a fast spreadsheet/graphing program withsome list-handling capability for the IBM PC. Itsspeed and capabilities allow it to replace VisiCalcas the industry standard, and its combination ofseveral functions into one program starts the"integrated software" movement inmicrocomputers.

DECEMBER Volition Systems announces the firstimplementation of the Modula-2 language. It runson an Apple II under the Softech p-System.

SUMMER 1982 THE COMMODORE 64

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 205

1983

AUGUST 1984 THE IBM PC AT

JANUARY Commodore Business Mechines Inc.sells its one-millionth VIC-20.JANUARY Ill-feted computers: Atari unveils the1200XL, and Mattel belatedly ennounces theAquarius. Both are later discontinued, and Mattelgets out of electronic products entirely.JANUARY Time magazine selects the Computer esits "Man" of the Year.

JANUARY Apple Computer Inc. unveils the Lisacomputer at its annual stockholders' meeting. Themachine is slow but innovative. It originally costs$9995, but its price goes as low as $4495 (with a5-megabyte hard disk). By this time, however, theMacintosh is in the news.FEBRUARY IBM announces the IBM PC XT. Itadds a 10-megabyte hard disk, three extra slots,and a serial interface to the basic IBM PC design.With 128K bytes of RAM end one disk drive, itcosts $4995.

MARCH Radio Shack announces the TRS-80Model 100, its first laptop. The unit weighs almost4 pounds and has an 40-character by 8-line LCD(liquid-crystal display). It becomes very popularwith journalists and businesspeople because of itsbuilt-in text editor and modem.APRIL Microsoft Corp. announces Multi-Tool Word(later shortened to "Word").MAY ATsYT Information Systems ennounces theUNIX System V operating system.JUNE Microsoft Corp. and numerous Japanesecompanies announce the MSX standard for low-cost Z80-based computers. It enjoys considerablesuccess in Japan but none in the U.S..JUNE Coleco ennounces the Adem, a Z80 basedcomputer with a daisy-wheel printer, 64K bytes ofRAM, and a tape-cartridge mass-storage device,for $600. Coleco delivers late, raises the system'sprice, repairs many defective units, anddiscontinues the product by the end of 1984.JUNE Apple Computer Inc. ships its one-millionthcomputer.

SEPTEMBER Hewlett-Packard Companyannounces the HP 150, later renamed theTouchscreen.

SEPTEMBER Osborne Computer Corp. files forprotection from creditors under Chapter 11.OCTOBER IBM announces the IBM PCjr. The128K-byte floppy-disk version first sold for $1269and was crippled by lack of expansion and acheap chicklet -style keyboard. Though theseproblems were fixed, IBM discontinued the PCjr inMarch 1985.

206 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

JANUARY 1983 THE LISA

JANUARY 1984 THE MACINTOSH

OCTOBER 1983 THE IBM PCJR

SEPTEMBER 1983 THE HP 150

MARCH 1984 THE AT&T 3B2/300

MAY 1984 THE HP 110

JANUARY 1983 TIMES MAN OF THE YEAR

OCTOBER Western Design Center introduces the65802 and the 65816, both 16-bit versions of thepopular 6502 chip. These chips were still notavailable in early 1985.OCTOBER Shugart Corp. announces a $76001-gigabyte write-once optical-disc drive.OCTOBER In Japan, Canon displays anunder-$2000 300-dot-per-inch laser printer forOEM (original equipment manufacturer) use.OCTOBER Borland International Inc. advertisesTurbo Pascal for CP/M and 8086-basedcomputers. Its quality, speed, and low price makeit a de facto standard, especially in the IBM PCworld.

OCTOBER Ovation Technologies announcesOvation, an ambitious integrated IBM PC softwarepackage that gets shown at several conventionsbut never gets shipped-the term "vaporware" iscoined to describe it and similar products.NOVEMBER Microsoft Corp. announces Windows,its multiple-window software product for the IBMPC, a package that became available in summer of1985.

DECEMBER Tandy (Radio Shack's parent)announces the Tandy Model 2000, a $2999 IBMPC clone with enhanced features and an 80186processor.

1984

JANUARY Apple Computer Inc. introduces theMacintosh. At $2495 for a computer that needsconsiderable expansion for many applications, it'shardly "the computer for the rest of us," but itsinnovations (which draw considerably from itsancestors, the Xerox 8010 and the Apple Lisa)continue to influence many other microcomputerproducts.

JANUARY Seiko Instruments U.S.A. Inc. displaysthe first wristwatch computer; it has a10-character by 4-line LCD, 2K bytes of CMOSRAM, and 6K bytes of ROM.JANUARY Sinclair Research announces theSinclair QL (68008,128K bytes of RAM, twocassette-loop mass-storage drives, bundledsoftware, and other features) for £399 in the U.K.The computer is not made available in the U.S.FEBRUARY Lotus announces Symphony, its $695spreadsheet-oriented integrated package whosecomplexity limits its success.MARCH AT&T unveils its 3B2/300 UNIX-basedsupermicrocomputer for $9950; the computeruses the Western Electric 32000 CMOS processor.

MARCH Ashton-Tate announces Framework, its

word-processor-oriented $695 competitor to

Symphony.

APRIL Mindset Corp. announces the Mindset PC,

a graphics-oriented microcomputer with custom

graphics chips and some IBM PC compatibility.

Although its enclosure won a design award that

put it in the Museum of Modern Art's design

collection, the microcomputer market in 1984 was

not able to support a new computer.

MAY Apple Computer Inc. unveils the Apple lie

with a morning-to-night publicity extravaganza that

sets a new standard for such things in the

industry.

MAY Hewlett-Packard Co. announces the HP 110,

a 9-pound $2995 portable that includes Lotus's

1-2-3 in ROM.

JUNE Motorola Inc. adds the 68020 32-bit

processor to its 68000 family.

JUNE Tom Jennings releases the Fido

computerized bulletin-board system, which runs on

many MS-DOS microcomputers, into the public

domain. By 1985 there are over 300 Fido "nodes"

in the U.S.

JULY Jack Tramiel (formerly head of Commodore

Business Machines Inc.) buys Atari from Warner

Communications.

AUGUST Commodore Business Machines Inc.

buys Amiga Corp. and its graphics-intensive 68000

computer design.

AUGUST IBM announces the IBM PC AT (80286,

256K bytes of RAM, one 1.2-megabyte floppy-disk

drive, and other items-minimum working system,

$5469) and its PC Network local-area network.

FALL Digital Research Inc. announces its GEM

icon/desktop user interface for 8086-based

computers. (GEM is later used by Atari in its $395

68000-based 'Mackintosh.")

OCTOBER Data General Corp. announces the

DG/One, a 10-pound, $2895 battery-powered

portable computer with most of the features of a

fully configured IBM PC. The machine is criticized

for an LCD that is hard to read, a point that DG

corrects to some extent in a later model.

DECEMBER IBM acquires Roim Corp., a

communications equipment company; this gives

IBM a competitive edge against AT&T, which has

entered the computer market.

DECEMBER Osborne Computer Corp. emerges

from bankruptcy proceedings with the Vixen, a

$1298 Z80-based, two-drive portable with bundled

software.

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 207

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

NOTABLE QUOTES

-James Finke, President, Commodore International Ltd.,

February 1982 BYTE

"What peripheral device most often describes the year it will be about half the size of the pet-foodhome hacker's ultimate system? \t is, if course, the market and is fast approaching the total worldwidefloppy disk'.' sales of panty hose'.'

-Ira Rampil, December 1977 BYTE

"In less than eight months, more than five thousandpeople have proudly purchased WordStar. . . '.'

-a MicroPro ad, April 1980 BYTE

"The sin of inefficiency is venial compared to themortal sin of "user-unfriendliness'.' Yd buy anoperating system any day that takes a long timeto run a given program but which makes me moreproductive by communicating with me in usefulways'.'

-Chris Morgan, June 1981 BYTE

"The current personal computer market is aboutthe same size as the total potato-chip market. Next

"CP/M 2.2. is extremely important, and the Z80chip will live forever because of it'.'

-Portia Isaacson, Future Computing Inc.,May 1982 BYTE

"To be a real hacker means to dedicate a substan-tial part of your life to the advancement of someapplication of a technology. \t means going behindthe backs of stuffed-shirt administrators who thinkthat, despite their inability to do the technical work,they have royal prerogatives to push thetechnologists this way and that to satisfy obscure,largely symbolic organizational needs."To be a real hacker means to make a magnifi-cent obsession of creating someeffect previously unknown,especially when others say youcannot or may not do it. You willimpoverish yourself, devote yourwhole being to the task, and gofar beyond the limits thatreasonable people place onunremunerative effort'.'

-Lee Felsenstein, 1985

A decade of personal computerdevelopment displayed at The ComputerMuseum in Boston.

208 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

Evolutionof the Microprocessor

An informal fiistory

by Mark Garetz

Author's note: The evolution ofthe microprocessor has followeda complex and twisted path. Tothose of you who were actuallyinvolved in some of the follow-ing history, I apologize if myversion is not exactly like yours.The opinions expressed in thisarticle are my own and may ormay not represent reality assomeone else perceives it.

THE TRANSISTOR, devel-oped at Bell Laboratoriesin 1947, was designed toreplace the vacuum tube,to switch electronic sig-nals on and off. (Al-though, at the time,vacuum tubes were usedmainly as amplifiers, theywere also used asswitches.) The advent ofthe transistor made possi-ble a digital computer thatdidn't require an entireroom full of vacuumtubes, relays, and specialair conditioning. Now acomputer would take uponly half a room andoperate much morequickly

It was not until I959thatengineers at Texas Instrumentsfigured out how to put more than onetransistor on the same material (calledthe substrate) and connect themtogether without wires. Thus was bornthe integrated circuit, or IC. Todaythese thin flat pieces of silicon cancontain millions of transistors, and wecall them chips.

Integrated circuits may range fromSSI (small-scale integration, contain-

ing relatively few transistors), throughMSI (medium-scale integration,around 50 or more transistors), LSI(large-scale integration, with thou-sands of transistors), to VLSI (very-large-scale integration, which can con-tain millions of transistors).

In 1969, a year-old company namedIntel announced a lK-bit RAM chip.There were not yet any microcom-puter chips to hook it to, but there

were many other applica-tions for the new memorychip, which was signifi-cantly larger than any thathad been producedbefore.

About this time, thesummer of 1969, Intel wasapproached by theJapanese calculator manu-facturer Busicom to pro-duce a set of custom chipsdesigned by Busicomengineers for the lap-anese company's new lineof calculators. Thecalculators would haveseveral chips, each ofwhich would contain 3000to 5000 transistors.

Intel designer Marcian(Ted) Hoff was assigned toassist the team of Busi-com engineers that hadtaken up residence atIntel. Hoff looked at theBusicom design and de-cided it was too complexto be cost-effective. Hehad worked before withDigital Equipment Cor-poration's PDP-8 mini-computer, which had avery small instruction set.He reasoned that much of thecalculator's complexity could bereduced if they used a small general-

(continued)Mark Garetz (Viasyn Corporation. 26538Danti Court, Wayward, CA 94545) is direc-tor of advanced projects at Viasyn. He hasbeen a computer hobbyist since 1974, he de-signed CompuPrds 8085/8088 computer,and he is chairperson of the IEEE 696Committee.

ILLUSTRATED BY WILLIAM LOW

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 209

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

purpose processor. Such a design,using software rather than electronicsto do the calculating, would greatly in-crease the memory requirements ofthe calculator—but then, Intel was inthe memory business. Hoff also real-ized that this processor could be putto other applications and he sold theidea to Intel management.

The Busicom engineers were stillpursuing their original design whenHoff and his group started work ontheir alternative design. And althoughthe Busicom engineers had simplifiedtheir design, each chip still had over2000 transistors, and it would take 12chips to make a working calculator.Hoff's team figured it would take 1900transistors to build their processor.

Hoff's general-purpose processordesign was chosen over the Busicomdesign, and Intel got a contract fromBusicom to produce the chip thatlater became known as the 4004.

Actually making the chip proved tobe difficult until Federico Faggin (wholater founded Zilog) joined Intel inearly 1970. He took the chip fromconcept to silicon in just nine months.At first Intel sold the 4004 exclusive-ly to Busicom, but in the summer of1971, it gained the right to sell thechip set to other manufacturers.

In November 1971 Intel advertisedthe 4004 as a four-bit processor thatperformed 60,000 operations per sec-ond. By February 1972 Intel had sold$85,000 worth of chip sets.

The Birth of 8-bits

At the same time the 4004 was be-ing developed, CTC (Computer Tech-nology Corporation, now Datapoint)asked both Intel and Texas Instru-ments to design LSI chips for a newintelligent terminal. Both companiesproposed an 8-bit general-purposeprocessor. Note the pattern develop-ing: 4-bits for calculators because theywork in BCD (binary-coded decimal)and 8-bits for terminals because theydeal with ASCII characters.

Interestingly, CTC chose neithersolution; it built its terminal with stan-dard logic ICs. But TI and Intel wentahead with their projects anyway. TIeventually got a patent on its chip

design and the project at Intel gavebirth to the 8008.

The 8008, introduced in April 1972,was the first 8-bit microprocessor onthe market. It required at least 20 sup-port chips, but it had 45 instructionsthat it executed at 300,000 instruc-tions per second, and it adddresseda whopping 16K bytes of memory.That was a lot of memory then, andthe 8008 was a considerable upgradeof the 4004.

The documentation for the 4004and 8008 was cryptic (at least itseemed so to me; I didn't have a com-puter background at the time). Thedocumentation assumed that youknew what everything was before youstarted reading it (a still-common fail-ing of technical literature).

Intel's primary goal with the 4004and 8008 was to replace "randomlogic—another way of saying "lots ofSSI and MSI wired together." Few peo-ple thought that these chips weresuitable for general-purpose comput-ing. But a few visionaries were in-trigued by the possibility of owninga computer that could actually dosomething. True, computer kits hadbeen offered previously, but theywere more useful for demonstratingcomputer principles than for doingcomputing tasks. The availability ofthe 8008 changed all that.

In 1973 Scelbi Computer ConsultingInc. announced the first general-purpose microcomputer based on the8008. This was followed by theRGS-008 from RGS Electronics. Then,in July 1974, Radio-Electronics magazineintroduced lonathan Titus's Mark-8 ina series of construction articles.

Until then, all computer articles andads had been confined to amateur-radio publications. The Mark-8 wasthe first computer to hit a general-interest electronics magazine. Theseearly microcomputers were still moredemonstration tools than useful, butthe small-computer revolution hadbegun.

The Mighty 8080

In April 1974 Intel changed the waywe think about computers forever.They announced the 8080, a signif-

icant upgrade to the 8008 that re-quired only six support chips, had 75instructions and a tenfold increase inthroughput over the 8008. and ad-dressed 64K bytes of memory. (Noprogram, most people thought, couldever be that large!)

The 8080 design was proposed byFaggin. but the design team washeaded by Masatoshi Shima, a youngengineer Intel had wooed away fromBusicom. Having learned from thelimitations of the 4004 and 8008, thedesigners made improvements tomake their new chip a truly usefulcomputing engine. The 8080, the firstmicroprocessor not aimed at logic re-placement, looked much more like acomputer than anything that hadcome before it, and it was much easierto use from a hardware standpoint.

The January 1975 Popular Electronicsmagazine featured the first in a seriesof construction articles on the Altair8800, a so-called "minicomputer"based on the 8080. The Altair was de-signed by MITS (Micro Instrumen-tation and Telemetry Systems), whichwas founded by Ed Roberts as a vehi-cle for supporting his experiments inelectronics. The whole Altair kit. in-cluding the 8080 processor, mother-board, power supply, front panel withlots of lights, and 2 56 bytes {not 2 56Kbytes) of memory sold for $395.

People thought it was a misprint.The 8080 chip, introduced just ninemonths before, had been selling for$360 all by itself. But MITS had madea special deal with Intel, and the priceof the Altair was real. MITS sold morecomputers in the first day than it hadhoped to sell during the whole life ofthe product.

The Altair played a significant rolein the success of the 8080, largelybecause programmers now had areason (and a good excuse) to writesoftware for a microcomputer chip.Also, the Altair's open bus architec-ture (an improved version of whichlater became the S-100/IEEE 696 bus)allowed people to begin making pe-ripherals for the computer.

One such peripheral was a disk con-troller from Digital Microsystems thatfeatured the use of a new operating

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$150

$120

system for the 8080 calledCP/M (Control Program forMicrocomputers.) CP/M,brainchild of Naval Post-graduate School instructorGary Kildall. sold for $70and played a major role inthe success of the 8080 andits architecture. As a result,a large portion of themicrocomputer software inuse today either runs onthe 8080 instruction set oris a direct upgrade of aproduct that did.

The Motorola Family

In response to the 8080ssuccess. Motorola beganwork on the 6800, whichwas designed by ChuckPeddle. Motorola was thefirst company to introducea line of peripheral chipsdesigned specifically to gowith its microprocessor.These chips includedparallel (6820) and serial(6850) I/O functions andmade the integration ofthese functions into asystem simple for systemdesigners.

Motorola produced oneother significant "periph-eral": a huge micropro-cessor applications manual, biggerthan all other microprocessor docu-mentation put together. And it wasalmost readable! Hackers and systemdesigners like myself rushed out andbought them at $2 5 each. True, themanual was still oriented toward logicreplacement, and you needed a mini-computer and expensive cross-assem-blers to write software. No one hadyet written anything that really ex-plained these new chips to peoplewho had no idea what they reallywere inside, or who had no computerexperience. But we read the Motorolamanual anyway. . . it was all we had.

Chuck Peddle left Motorola to joinMOS Technology (not to be confusedwith Mostek, the subsidiary of UnitedTechnologies), a leader in thescientific-calculator-chip field. In June

The costof the 8080Amicroprocessorplunged $146.

75 76 77 78 79 '80 81 '82 '83 '84 '85

The cost of the popular 8080A microprocessor

from 1975 to 1985. Note that in 1975

only the 8080 microprocessor was available.

or July 1975, MOS Technology ads ap-peared in the electronics trade jour-nals claiming that the company wouldbe introducing and delivering a $20microprocessor at the WESCON showthat September. The so-called 6501was to be pin-for-pin plug-compatiblewith the Motorola 6800—you couldunplug the 6800 from a circuit boardand plug the 6501 right into the samesocket and it would work—althoughthe software would also need chang-ing because of differences in the ar-chitecture and instruction set. MOSwas also planning a version of thechip with the complex clock circuitryrequired by other microprocessorsbuilt in. This would be the 6502 andwould cost $2 5.

The industry went into an uproar. Atthis time, Intel's 8080 and Motorola's

6800 were both selling for$179 in single-piece quanti-ty. I remember standing inthe lobby (actually a livingroom) of E-Mu Systemswith Scott Wedge and DaveRossum, who had just de-signed some 8080s intotheir synthesizers. We weretalking with an Intel sales-person who dismissed thead as a hoax. He said Intelhad assured him that MOScouldn't possibly do it atthat price, and that eitherthe ad was a publicity stuntor MOS Technology wasquoting the million-pieceprice. I said that there wasno reason that micropro-cessor chips wouldn't gothe same way as scientificcalculator chips had—orig-inally hundreds of dollars,now just a few dollars. Hesaid that the chips wouldnever go below $100.

The salesperson's attitudewas nearly universal inSilicon Valley-but MOSTechnology was on the EastCoast. 1 called them up, andthey insisted that they wereserious and that yes, thatwas the single-piece price.I, and the rest of the valley,would have to wait for WESCON tofind out.

WESCON finally came and therewas the MOS Technology booth—butno chips. The company had dis-covered when it got there that'ex-hibitors weren't allowed to sell any-thing on the show floor. The chips,company representatives said, wereavailable in their hospitality suite in anearby hotel.

I went to the suite that evening, andit was packed. The chips were in twolarge fishbowls. MOS also had hard-ware and software manuals availablefor $5 each. Ray Stevens, who ownedRGS Electronics and had designed theRGS-008, was tending bar. Steve Woz-niak was there, along with a lot ofother people including Chuck Peddle,

{continued)

BERGMAN HAKE DESIGN INC

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10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

who was happy to talk about his newprocessors.

I sat down on the couch and lookedat the two manuals. They were writ-ten in English and they made sense!

MOS was also showing one more in-novation in the suite that night—thefirst multifunction peripheral chips.The company had put RAM, ROM,timer, and I/O on one chip. One ver-sion was called the TIM (terminal-interface monitor) chip and con-tained a complete monitor for talkingto a serial terminal. The other was theKIM (keyboard-input monitor) chip,and it was designed into a microcom-puter board that had a keyboard, cen-tral processor, display, ROM, RAM.and parallel I/O. and sold for $245. Itwas a complete system. No othermicroprocessor vendor had doneanything like this before. It wasimpressive.

I went home that evening clutchingmy $2 5 6502 microprocessor and twomanuals. At the time I didn't realizeI would spend another $300 to makea working system, not counting theASR-33 Teletype l used as a terminal.

That first day of WESCON, Intel andMotorola lowered the price on theirchips to $69.95. The revolution wasin full swing. The industry would neverbe the same.

The 6501 was short-lived. Motorolasued MOS Technology charging thatChuck Peddle had stolen the tech-nology from Motorola and that the6501 infringed because it was plug-compatible. MOS Technology agreedto drop the 6501.

However, the many computers thatwere developed around the 6502 arenow legend: MOS Technology's ownKIM-l, the Apple I and II, the Atarimodels, and the Commodore PETand VIC-20, among others. Actually,the future of the 6502 was still ques-tionable when fledgling Apple Com-puter Inc. produced the Apple I. SteveWozniak put in a jumper connectionthat could be changed to allow the6800 to be used instead of the 6502.

Enter the Z80

Sometime in late 197 5 or early 1976,Federico Faggin left Intel and formed

his own company, Zilog Inc. He tookMasatoshi Shima with him. Their goalwas to build a super 8080.

In 1976, Zilog announced the Z80,a significantly enhanced 8080 that ranalmost all of the programs written forthe 8080. The company claimed itwould have parts that ran at 4 MHz,twice as fast as the 8080. In additionit had many more powerful instruc-tions—a total of 176. It sounded toogood to be true; the Z80 was treatedwith the same skepticism as the 6502had been.

But the Z80 turned out to be real,and there actually were some 4-MHzparts available. The early ones said"Engineering Sample" on them andwere manufactured in Dallas, not inSilicon Valley. Mostek, a Z80 secondsource, was actually building the chipsfor Zilog. Nobody minded becauseeverybody wanted one for their owncomputer.

Several Z80 cards for the S-100 buswere on the market shortly after thechip became available, and everybodyhad to have one. But even though theZ80 was a much more powerful chipthan the 8080 in terms of its instruc-tion set. very few people were writingsoftware to take advantage of theZ80's extra instructions. The reasonwas simple: The majority of themachines installed at that time were8080-based. and if you wrote codethat only ran on a Z80, your marketwould be considerably smaller. Thisproblem plagues the Z80 even today.

However, designers stopped usingthe 8080 in new computers The Z80was a far easier chip to use, requiringno support ICs and only a single-voltage power supply. And it wasmuch faster, even if you didn't use theextra instructions.

The Z80 introduced one other newconcept to microcomputer chips:built-in support for refreshingdynamic RAMs. Dynamic RAMs havealways cost about four times less perbit than their static counterparts, andthat made them very attractive to use.However, because you have to refreshthem (or else they forget their data),they are extremely difficult to use. andearly system designers viewed them

with some distrust. The Z80 gave thedesigner 90 percent of the solutionand made it possible to build systemsthat were significantly cheaper thanbefore. Computers such as RadioShack's original TRS-80, designed bySteve Leininger, took advantage ofthis fact.

Intel Strikes Back

Meanwhile, Intel had realized that the8080 needed upgrading. In 1976 Intelannounced the 8085. It had all the8080 instructions, plus a few more.But Zilog had taken Intel by surprise.The enhancements that the 8085 hadover the 8080 were nowhere near asextensive as those of the Z80. Froma purely hardware standpoint, the8085 was a much nicer chip than theZ80. but the Z80 had mass appealbecause it was faster. When intro-duced, the 8085 ran at 3 MHz, as op-posed to the 4-MHz chip that Zilogwas already shipping. Intel had tocome up with something else—a16-bit processor seemed like theanswer.

Sixteen-bit processors had beentried before. National Semiconductorhad started work on the IMP-16 chipset as early as 1972. The companyreduced it to one chip called the Pace,and Bill Godbout Electronics an-nounced a Pace-based computer, de-signed by George Morrow, in mid-1975. The unnamed system, a full-blown 16-bit computer with RAM anda built-in cassette interface, was adver-tised in the first issue of BYTE. Theyactually built one, but it never got tomarket. Bill Godbout said that themarket wasn't ready for a 16-bit com-puter, and he was probably right.After all, the Altair was only a fewmonths old itself. Neither the Pacechip nor the computer was ever a hit.

Other 16-bit chips included GeneralAutomation's LSI-16, a micropro-cessor version of its SPC-16 minicom-puter; DEC'S LSI-! 1. which was manu-factured by Western Digital and in-cluded the PDP-11 instruction set;Western Digital's own WD-11, whichwas only one instruction differentfrom the LSI-11; General Instrument'sCP1600; and Texas Instruments'

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TMS9900, which went intotheir home computer, mak-ing it the first mass-market16-bit computer.

Interestingly, the firstliterature released by MOSTechnology on the 6502showed some little dashedlines where the 16-bit ex-tensions to their registerswould go in their 16-bit ver-sion of the 6502, the 6516.But the 6516 was nevermarketed, and the littledashed lines soon disap-peared. The existence ofsuch a part was rumoredfor years, but it never sur-faced. Not until December1983 did the WesternDesign Center [not thesame as Western Digital| an-nounce a 16-bit version ofthe 6502.

Again, Intel neededsomething to compete withthe Z80. The companyfigured that most previous16-bit designs were flopsbecause they had no exist-ing software base thatcould easily be migrated toit—they were all the firstmicroprocessor offeringsfrom their respective com-panies.

But Intel had an edge: thegrowing base of 8080 soft-ware. The company decidedthat its 16-bit processor would be adirect enhancement of the 8080. In1976 Intel started work on the 8086.Unfortunately, the designers did notpreserve direct compatibilty with8080 code, but at least each 8080register had its 8086 counterpart,which made 8080-to-8086 code trans-lators possible and gave programmersa familiar starting point. This was a bigfactor in the success of the 8086,which was announced to the world in1978.

Then someone at Intel had an in-spiration. Why not make the hardwarealmost as easy to migrate as the soft-ware? Thus was born the 8088. The8088 is an 8086 on the inside but has

$1400

■

5260

$1000

A 1-kilobit chipcost $1280 in 1975.

$ 600

i 20075

.4116

^fc^ 4164

85

76 77

78

79

'80 '81 '82 '83 '84

The cost of 64K bytes of RAM from

1975 to 1985, as found on the pages of BYTE

magazine. Prices shown are for 512 of the

1-kilobit 5260 chip, 256 of the 2-kilobit

MM5262 chip, 32 of the 2K-byte 4116 chip, and

8 of the 8K-byte 4164 chip.

an 8-bit data bus on the outside.When the processor wants to fetch 16bits of data, it first gets 1 byte, thenthe second. The programmer doesn'thave to worry about it, it all happensautomatically in the hardware. The ac-tual signals coming out of the 8088look similar to the 8085, a chip thatdesigners were already familiar with.Thus, it was easy to upgrade an exist-ing 8-bit design to 16 bits.

You might think that by doing thisthe processor would run at half itspotential. But Intel had been cleverwhen they designed the 8086. Inter-nally it consisted of two different butlinked processors. One was the execu-tion unit, the part that actually pro-

cesses the data or executesthe instructions. The otherwas called the bus-interfaceunit (BIU). The BIU handlesall communications withthe outside world and is incharge of generating ad-dresses and storing andretrieving data from thesystem. Inside the BIU is aqueue. While the executionunit is busy crunching data,the BIU is out on the busgetting the next instructionand putting it in the queue.The 8086 BIU can stay upto 6 bytes ahead of the ex-ecution unit by keepingthose bytes in its queue.Because of the queue, the8088 performance only suf-fers an average of 20 per-cent compared to an 8086.(See "Benchmarking theIntel 8086 and 8088" byGregg Williams, July 1983BYTE, page 147.) The 8086/8088 processors were thefirst to use a queue mecha-nism.

Intel also introduced an-other new concept with its8086 family—coprocessing.The idea was to hang an-other processor right onthe bus of the main pro-cessor to extend its func-tions. The most significantof these coprocessors wasthe 8087, a math coprocessor thatadded a whole set of floating-point in-structions to the 8086/8088. Since the8087 was built solely to do math, itcould do so very quickly.

THE MC68000

In 1977, designers at Motorola wereworking on a new processor for the16-bit market but vowing to keep it 32bits internally. They also wanted toeliminate any special-purpose instruc-tions and allow the processor toperform all operations, on all reg-isters, on all data types, and in alladdressing modes. This is calledorthogonality. Programmers like

(continued}

BERGMAN HAKE DESIGN INC

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 213

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

orthogonality because it means theydon't have to memorize a bunch ofexceptions to the instruction set. Thefruit of Motorola's effort was the 1979release of the MC68000.

The MC68000 is one of those chipsthat some people love and othershate. There is very little middleground. Compared to the 8086/8088,it required a massive software effortto get it to do anything. But UNIX wasbecoming popular, and the 68000looked like a good UNIX machine. Anumber of 68000-based UNIX ma-chines were announced, althoughhardly any of them were successful.

Motorola also announced the68008. an 8-bit-bus version of the68000. similar in concept to the 8088.However, the 68000 had no real queu-ing, and that meant that the 68008ran half as fast as the 68000. Unfor-tunately, this made the 8088 lookeven better.

Internally, the 68000 was a micro-coded chip, which means that inter-nal functional elements are general-purpose. A ROM (which contains themicrocode) controls what the chipdoes. The processor's response toeach instruction is controlled by theROM. If an instruction doesn't do theright thing, you can usually fix it in theROM and, within limits, you can evenchange the instruction set of themicroprocessor if you want to. (IBM'sadd-in processor for the XT/370 isessentially a 68000 with custommicrocode.)

Up until this time, all other pro-cessors were generally random-logicdesigns that had a little bit of circuitryto perform each specialized functionwithin the central processor. Thereare advantages and disadvantages toboth types of microprocessordesign—microcoding offers flexibilityat the expense of speed, while arandom-logic design offers speed atthe expense of flexibility. It is also dif-ficult to fix errors in a random-logicdesign—especially when the designerof the chip leaves the company.

At Zilog, for example. MasatoshiShima had begun work on a 16-bitprocessor, the Z8000, using randomlogic. Random logic worked fine for

the 8080 and Z80 but, in hindsight,it is unfortunate that Shima designedthe Z8000 that way. After the firstZ8000 silicon was produced, butbefore his team had had worked allthe bugs out of the chip, Shima leftZilog to return to Intel. Zilog never didget all the bugs out of the Z8000. Inaddition, Zilog had set a standard byallowing the Z80 to run all the soft-ware for the previous-generation8080. Unfortunately, the companydidn't follow its own standard andmade the Z8000 completely differentfrom the Z80. Zilog was trying to puta minicomputer on a chip and, unfor-tunately, it didn't do a very good jobof it. The Z8000's lack of a similar in-struction set to the Z80, its built-inbugs, and its sacrifice in instructionpower due to its random-logic natureall played a great role in keeping theZ8000 from becoming successful.

In 1981, National Semiconductormade a second attempt at the 16-bitmarket with the 16032. The 16032was to be a 32-bit (internal data bus)microprocessor with a 16-bit externalbus. Since Motorola had never beenable to produce their promised mathcoprocessor, and Intel's 8087 so farcouldn't break the 5-MHz speed bar-rier, everyone was impressed whenNational announced its math copro-cessor, which would run at 10 MHz,giving it twice the performance ofIntel's 8087.

Unfortunately. National became thefirst microprocessor company to shipall its peripheral chips I00 percentfunctional before the processor wasavailable. Today the 16032 still has afew bugs in it. But programmers likeits instruction set, which remindsthem of a VAX (a series of high-performance DEC superminicom-puters). Because the VAX has been sosuccessful as an engine for runningUNIX, the 16032 may be a naturalsuccessor as the base for a UNIXcomputer. There may be some life leftin it yet.

In 1982. Intel one-upped the semi-conductor industry again. They an-nounced the iAPX 286. This newproduct was a vastly upgraded 8086architecture that included built-in vir-

tual memory management and manyother features designed expressly forsupporting a multitasking, multiuserenvironment. It has a mode that runsall 8086 code directly, and Intel hassignificantly sped up its throughput.Also, true built-in memory manage-ment is something that no othermicroprocessor has to this day. Themain advantage to having memorymanagement built in is that it canwork much faster than processors thatrequire external memory managers.The IBM PC AT's use of the 80286 hasensured the success of this processorfor at least the next few years.

32-bit Chips

In spite of problems with the 16032.National Semiconductor was the firstcompany to announce and ship a full-blown 32-bit microprocessor. The32032. which used to be the 16032,is code-compatible with the 32016.It's still early to tell how the 32032 willfare, but the popularity of UNIX willprobably be a major factor in its suc-cess, if indeed all the projections ofthe 32000 family being the ideal UNIXengine are true.

Motorola is now sampling its full3 2-bit extension to the 68000, the68020, which looks promising. It hasone new feature that will probably getit into lots of designs early. Rememberthat the 8088 was successful becauseit allowed an easy migration path dueto its 8-bit external data bus. The68020 lets you dynamically choosethe bus size you want—8, 16, or 32bits. Supposedly, it is able to run all68000 code, and it's fast. One of thethings that gives it great speed is itscache—the logical extension of thequeue used in the 8086/8088/80286processors.

The cache in the 68020 is 256 bytesdeep and works a little differentlyfrom a queue. If a jump occurs to apoint in the queue, the queue isflushed and reloaded. But the cachelooks just like memory, so a jump toa point in the cache would not causethe cache to be dumped and re-loaded. If loops are small enough,they can execute directly from thecache. The advantage is that the pro-

214 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

$2400

$2000

$1600

$1200

$ 800

$ 400

cessor can access thecache much faster than itcan access externalmemory, so programs runfaster if they stay mostly inthe cache. As with the32032. it's still early to tellwhat the eventual successof the 68020 will be.

National has alsoannounced the 32132 (notyet available), which is tohave multiple caches andsomething the companycalls a look-aside buffer.

Zilog had announced aproduct called the Z800, a16-bit upgrade to the Z80that was to be code-com-patible with it. The com-pany was never able to pro-duce working silicon, how-ever. Instead, it is trying toget the Z80 to work at 10MHz. Zilog has also an-nounced the Z80000, a32-bit version of the Z8000that 1 call the "kitchen-sinkprocessor" because it willhave everything, includingcode compatibility with theZ8000, which is the rightidea but the wrong pro-cessor.

Intel has been talking forsome time about the com-ing 80386, its 32-bit versionof the 80286. but to date it hasn't re-leased any hard data on it. Intel saidit will be 80286-compatible, and thatprobably means IBM will use it.

Faster or Smarter?

I can't end my discussion of micropro-cessors without mentioning a fewbizarre approaches. There is still adebate raging on whether micropro-cessor instruction sets should evolvetoward more complex and high-levelinstructions, or whether they shouldbe getting much simpler but muchfaster. So far, high-level instructionsets have not been winners. One ill-fated attempt was Western Digital'sPascal Microengine, which executedPascal pseudocode (the output of allloyal Pascal compilers) directly.

The costof an 8-inchfloppy-disk drivedropped $2150.

75 '76 77 78 79 '80 '81 '82 '83 '84 '85

The cost of an 8-inch single-sided double-density

floppy-disk drive from 1977 to 1985. Note that

such drives were not available in 1975 and 1976.

Unfortunately, Pascal compilers thatput out native 8080 code beat ithandily.

Similar in concept is the new FORTHprocessor from Novix, developedunder the direction of FORTH inven-tor Charles Moore. Instead of ex-ecuting the output of a compilerdirectly, this FORTH chip runsthreaded FORTH code directly—its in-struction set is FORTH. It's supposedto be very fast, and if you like FORTHit's great.

The FORTH engine is a custom ver-sion of a chip from National CashRegister called the NCR 32. It is amicrocode-executing 32-bit engine ontwo chips; a third chip is required tocontain the microcode. Essentiallyyou can "roll your own" instruction

set, which is what thedevelopers of the FORTHengine did. This techniqueopens up a whole realm ofpossibilities, such as beingable to emulate differentcomputers on the fly bydownloading different in-struction sets. The speed atwhich this will be accom-plished, however, will belimited by the fact thatmicrocoding is hard work.The Intel iAPX 432, prob-ably the first 32-bit micro-processor available, wasdesigned with very-high-level instructions to supportthe U.S. Department ofDefense's Ada language.

Opposite the high-levelinstructions' team are thosewho think that a small setof simple but extremely fastinstructions can outperformlarge and complex (slow) in-structions. Such are theRISC (reduced instructionset computer) fans. A RISCmachine was successfullyimplemented in silicon atBerkeley, amazingly on thefirst pass. They are current-ly working on speeding upthe chip, which has a 32-bit architecture. Hewlett-Packard is also rumored tobe working on several RISC machines.Last is a unique device just aboutto be sampled from INMOS called theTransputer (see "The Transputer" byPaul Walker, May BYTE, page 219). Itis designed to perform parallel pro-cessing. It will take many more yearsof software development and sophis-tication to take full advantage of theTransputer, but the possibilities arefascinating.

Meanwhile, a 4004 microprocessorstill controls a traffic light near my of-fice. It tends to put all the whizzy newthings in perspective, doesn't it? ■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Rebecca Wallo ofIntel and Jim Farrell of Motorola for pro-viding facts and figures for this article.

BERGMAN HAKE DESIGN INC

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 215

1 0 T H ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

INTERVIEW: H/xA *$ '^LaIc

ad Helmers'sinterest in electronics began early.An amateur radio operator in highschool, he put himself through theUniversity of Rochester by learningFORTRAN, COBOL, and PL/I[among other things), and writingprograms for various companies.After graduating with a physicsdegree. Carl went to work for anaerospace company called inter-metrics and became a frequenttraveler to NASA's lohnson SpaceCenter in Houston At BYTE, Carlintroduced many outstandingwriters to the BYTE readership, in-cluding Steve Ciarcia and JerryPournelle. Following his BYTEexperience. Carl founded NorthAmerican Technology Inc.. whichpublishes Bar Code News,Robotics Age and Sensorsmagazines in Peterborough. Hew

Hampshire. He talked recently with BYTE editors Richard Shuford andGregg Williams about how his interest and involvement with microcomputersdeveloped.

BYTE: How did you get started in microcomputing?Helmers: In January of 1972 there was a presentation given inHouston by the executives of a new company in California calledIntel. So I went and sat through a presentation about this wonder-ful thing called a microprocessor.

BYTE: Was this the 4004?

Helmers: The 4004 and the 8008. Actually, the 8008 was barelydiscussed, but it was the thing I zeroed in on. I knew that wasgoing to be my computer. You see I had tried to design my own.but I had a problem deciding what the instructions were to be.Along came Intel with this little box and the company was go-ing to hand me the instructions.

BYTE: How did you get into publishing''

Helmers: I sold 100 copies of a book on wire-wrapping. ThenI started adding to my library publications of things that I couldoffer for sale. The longest was the ECS Computer publication, whichwas about a central processor based on the 8008. I publishedthe 300 copies of the 72-page book in September 1974. andthen I did it once a month thereafter. Since 1 was doing it oncea month, I said. "Gee. this is a magazine, isn't it?" So I startedcalling it ECS Magazine in January of 1975.

BYTE: How did BYTE come about?

Helmers: Various people inPeterborough found outwhat I was doing. So I madea couple of trips to Peter-borough in May 1975. Wemade the decision to publishBYTE at a meeting on May2 5. 1975. That is the realbirthdate of BYTE. Within ayear and a half we had50.000 subscribers.

BYTE: What kind of magazine didyou conceive BYTE to be?Helmers: I knew that Iwanted a magazine that wasthe Scientific American of com-puter science with a vastlyexpanded amateur scientistsection. That was my originalconception, and the earlyyears of BYTE were verymuch like that.

BYTE: How did you find authorsin those early days?Helmers: By publishing themagazine. For the first coupleof issues I roped in acquain-tances at Intermetrics. and 1got my friends to write for us.

BYTE: When did Robert Tinney enter the scene?Helmers: Robert is an old friend from my Houston days in theearly 1970s. He did his first BYTE cover in December 1975. Atthe time he was constrained by our poverty to not using full color.

BYTE: A number of projects stood out in the early days of BYTE: the "LIFELine" series was one. the other was the infamous kludge harp.Helmers: The kludge harp was nothing more than a programto play music.

BYTE: It was different in that, at the time, most people were looking at com-puters as blinking lights, at the very most. You had a peripheral, simple asit was, that allowed you to play music.

Helmers: Actually, the reason 1 did that second 6800 system wasto develop a 6800 that would control a music synthesizer. Theother thing I did a lot of engineering on. early in BYTE, was thisslow biphased Manchester-code audio-tape interface.

BYTE: Are there any pioneers you'd particularly like to remember here?Helmers: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 1 think they are neatfrom several points of view. One is the naivete they exhibitedtoward meeting magazines.

BYTE: Is there anyone who has not received recognition that you think shouldhave it?

Helmers: Nat Wadsworth. a Scelbi computer consultant, who hadthe absolute first 8008 personal computer, and Lee Felsenstein,who started the Homebrew Computer Club. Then there are hun-dreds of authors who wrote for BYTE and other magazines. ■

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INTERVIEW:^^^^ A &y -

YTE: Steve,you are known for designing electronicand computer construction projectsand writing about them. How didyou get your start in this?Ciarcia: As far as electronicsgoes, I was just like any kid.When you're at a certain age,you find an electronic gadgetand you want to see what's in-side the box. So for years Ihad electronic parts lying allover the place at home. Inever actually could afford toown a lot of equipment whenI was a kid, so I had to builda lot of it.

Anyway, when I went to theUniversity of Connecticut, Istudied electrical engineeringand came out with a BSEE.Then I worked in several engi-neering jobs.

In the early 1970s, while I was working for Control Data, 1 hap-pened to see a construction article in Radio Electronics magazineabout a thing called a "TV Typewriter," Don Lancaster's TVT-1. So1 built that, and then 1 had the problem of "What do you do withthis thing once you've got it?" Then a few months later. Radio Elec-tronics ran another article, this one about building a small computer.

The project computer in the article was called the Mark 8.Jonathan Titus had designed it around the Intel 8008 micropro-cessor. I didn't want to build a Mark 8 because I felt its physicalconstruction was hobby-grade. Having been involved in the elec-tronics industry I knew what it took to make a computer stayreliable.

So I started hunting around for some other small computer thatwas also built around the Intel 8008.1 found an outfit called Scelbi(pronounced "sell-bee"] Computer Consulting in Milford, Connec-ticut, that also made an 8008-based computer. 1 went down andsaw Nat Wadsworth, the head of the company, and talked himinto selling me his boards. 1 bought five blank circuit boards at$125 per board and populated them with my own chips. I endedup buying my 8008 for $120.

So after a while I had the Scelbi computer with the TVT-1 ter-minal tied onto it, a cassette recorder, a printer, a paper-tapereader—everything you could imagine back then. I homebrewedthe cassette interface because Scelbi was using just paper-tapereaders. By the time I retired the system a year and a half later,it had all of 4K bytes of memory in it and 4K bytes of EPROM.That was the first and last computer I wrote my own operatingsystem for.

Next I got into graphics. I had bought a surplus Sanders

Associates 708 terminal. Thiswas actually built as an alpha-numeric terminal, but itformed its characters by draw-ing vectors on the screen. Idesigned an interface and D/Aconverter driver to change thescanning so it would be avector-graphics display, and Iattached it to my 8008 sys-tem.

Having put together what Ithought was a pretty neatgraphics system, I thoughtsomebody else might be in-terested in it, too. BYTE hadbeen out for a couple ofmonths by then, so I lookedon the masthead and calledup the editor, Carl Helmers.He liked the idea for an arti-cle. When the piece came outin November 1976, it got avery good response from thereaders.

1 then wrote a series of

three articles that appeared in

three consecutive months in

1977. After it turned out that

these, too, were well received,

I said to Carl. "Suppose I do

articles regularly?" Carl still

wasn't sure he could find anyone who could write for him on a

deadline and instead asked me if I would be an editor and work

for him on the magazine.

I didn't think I could do it. At the time I was working as a con-sultant to Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, where we built a com-puterized casting facility for jet-engine turbine blades. One of thePratt people who worked with me was a guy who could writewell and played the accordion. I told him about Carl's offer, andhe went up to New Hampshire and took the job. That's how ChrisMorgan, who later became editor in chief, came to BYTE.

I continued to do projects in my spare time and write them upfor the magazine. From November 1977 to date, I've done an ar-ticle a month.

BYTE: Hew do you work on your projects?

Ciarcia: There are two classes of projects, long-term and short-term, so there are two kinds of schedules.

To keep myself interested in the magazine articles, I have to dosome really way-out projects each year. But I try to balance themby putting together some lower-level projects for those peoplewho aren't ready for the big time.

A long-term project is essentially a significant computer prod-uct or system; like the home-control system I've been working onfor about six months. |See Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, April, May, andJune.| Or I should say "we've been working on." On these big proj-ects I have to have help. For instance, I have people who lay outprinted-circuit boards for me. For anything that needs more than100 lines of code, I hire a programmer to write it—that's the only

(continued)

PORTRAIT BY GREG SPALENKA

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 217

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

way I can get it done. But that doesn't make me hate program-mers. It's just that somebody else can do it faster and better thanI can. I think people should do what they are best at.

While all these people are working on a major project. I some-times work on a short-term project. I'll say. "Okay, what's in myjunk box that looks good?" Then I'll do an article that's mostlytutorial in nature or is about a smaller project that doesn't re-quire an elaborate circuit-board layout and is easy to put together.

BYTE: Whats a good example of a short-term project?Ciarcia: The Whimsi-Bell from luly 1984, which took about fivedays from conception to finishing the article. I stock common com-ponents in the Cellar so that if at 2 o'clock in the morning l getan idea about a good circuit I can just go build it. The inventorycosts a lot, but it allows me to live by my own schedule.

BYTE: Do people from semiconductor companies call you up and say. "Hey,I've got a wonderful new chip. Would you like to play with it?'Ciarcia: Yes and no. Most semiconductor houses don't have anyway to get to me directly so they don't. I purposely do thatbecause I don't want anybody sending me samples of their prod-ucts and giving me engineering advice, and then expectingsomething in return. Sometimes at the last minute I decide notto do a particular project because I don't see that the companythat I have been dealing with is going to support the BYTE reader,who maybe wants to buy just one chip to build a project.

There are a few companies I work with all the time. They under-stand what I'm doing and they also understand their ownbusiness—companies like Zilog, Analog Devices, or TexasInstruments.

BYTE: How do you handle working on many things at once?Ciarcia: You can't put together any kind of major project on aregular basis without having two or three running simultaneously.Sometimes readers ask me why my construction designs showup on the market as commercial products. One reason is that ittakes the resources only a company can provide to make the proj-ects as useful as possible. Take the home-control system I wroteabout for the April, May, and June issues this year. That had tobe tested for radio-frequency interference by an independent labto satisfy the FCC. Just that testing cost $5000. So by letting thesystem be put on the market, I enabled my readers to build alegal kit. And the companies can provide continuing support bet-ter than I can alone.

BYTE: With that in mind, how do you regard your projects?

Ciarcia: I think of them as what I personally want for toys, or to

use myself.

There is one thing I want to make clear: My chief interest isin designing computers. If I have a special task for a computer toperform. I build a specialized system for it. I don't take one com-puter and try to do everything with it. For instance, the home-control system. I didn't take an IBM PC and write a 2 5.000-lineprogram to make it control my home. I use an off-the-shelf com-puter only the way an average businessman would use it—for wordprocessing, spreadsheets, and some other little stuff.

I designed the Trump Card because I didn't want to learn C orPascal or mess around with assembly language. I knew BASIC.But BASIC was too slow—so I built a faster BASIC engine.

BYTE: Do you think that reading about your projects, like the home-control

series, becomes a kind of wish-fulfillment for people who tinker with electronics?Ciarcia: I'm sure there are many vicarious builders, but the coupleof hundred letters l get every month indicate that there are morepeople building this stuff than you might think. There are a greatmany technicians and software guys out there that just want tobreak in a little bit on building hardware but don't want toscrounge parts. They are 75 percent of the people who put myprojects together.

When l started on the recent home-control project, it wasbecause I was tired of changing BASIC statements in the existingsystem every time I needed to turn on a light, i wanted a closed-loop system, triggered by sensor inputs, and money was no object.The motion sensors, in particular, cost a lot. But I ended up put-ting them all over the house, except in places where I didn't needthem.

BYTE: Have you had any project ideas that you haven't been able to complete?Ciarcia: Yes. I'd like to build a 1200-bit-per-second modem. Anda lot of my readers would like to see me do that, too. The prob-lem is that the technology of modems is changing so fast. It couldbe done now, but not in the way I'd want to do it. Even if I didfind a good cheap modem chip. I'd want to have good softwareto drive it. I'd also want to get the modem FCC-tested—I'm tiredof projects that you have to connect to a telephone line throughan unregistered data-access arrangement. It's the difference be-tween hobby-grade and professional-grade stuff.

Most BYTE readers today are not hobbyists—I know that frommy mail.

BYTE: You attend computer shows and conventions. Do the questions you getat conventions differ from what you get in letters?Ciarcia: I get more hobbyists at conventions, often high schoolstudents who are working on a science-fair project. The lettersare frequently from business people or engineers.

I get between 200 and 2 50 letters every month. The majorityof these are legitimate questions, and, unfortunately, it can takehours of research to find out the answers. I've had to hire sevenpeople to help me answer letters. Even then we don't get to themall. We do try because the thousands of people whose letters wehave answered over the years have become the greatest sup-porters of the Circuit Cellar. I've got hundreds of pictures fromreaders showing the projects they have built.

BYTE: Do you think BYTE has had much effect on the development of per-sonal computers?

Ciarcia: BYTE was significant in being essentially the first in its field—Iknow you can argue about that—and in the formative years it stoodout in its journalistic integrity: It supported the experimenter. Itsupported the new industry without trying to exaggerate its ownvalue. It didn't work out any deals to trade advertising or goodreviews for computer equipment. I picked up that same attitudewhen I began to write for BYTE.

BYTE: Do you know of anybody who has picked up one of your ideas andmade a successful commercial product out of it?Ciarcia: At the West Coast Computer Faire this spring, I foundan exhibitor that had put together a computerized telephone mes-sage system, using the ADPCM (adaptive differential pulse-codemodulation) speech-digitization scheme I described in lune 1983.And there are a lot of my Z8 control computers out in the worldthat have been built into OEM products. ■

218 B Y T E • SEPTEMBER 1985

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

CIARCIA'S PRODIGIOUS OUTPUT

1976

Nov Make Your Next Peripheral a Real Eye Opener (vector graphical

1977

Mar Try This Computer on for Size (review of Digital Group 8080AI

Apr Having a "Private Affair" with Your Computer (humor)

May Come Upstairs and Be Respectable (terminal communication)

Sep Control the World! (Or at Least a Few Analog Points)

CIRCUIT CELLAR SERIES

1977

NovDec

Memory-Mapped I/O

On a Test-Equipment Diet? Try en 8 Channel DVM Cocktail!

1978

Jan Add More Zing to the Cocktail

Fab A Penny-Pinching Address-State Analyzer

Mar Program Your Next EROM in BASIC

Apr Tune In and Turn On, Part 1:

A Computerized Wireless AC Control System

May Tune In and Turn On, Part 2: An AC Wireless Remote-Control System

June Talk to Me: Add a Voice to Your Computer for $35

July Build a Keyboard Function Decoder

Aug Let Your Fingers Do the Talking: Add a Noncontact Touch Scanner

Sep Let Your Fingers Do the Talking: Scanner Applications

Oct No Power for Your Interfaces? Build a 5-watt DC-to-DC Converter

Nov I've Got You in My Scanner! (light-source tracking)

Dec Build an Octal/Hexadecimal Output Display

1979

Jan Build a Computer-Controlled Security System for Your Home, Part 1

Feb Build a Computer-Controlled Security System for Your Home, Part 2

Mar Build a Computer-Controlled Security System for Your Home, Part 3

Apr The Toy Store Begins at Home (Milton Bradley Simon game)

May Communicate on a Light Beam

June Mind Over Matter: Add Biofeedback Input to Your Computer

July Sound Off! (SN76477 and AY-3-8910 sound effects)

Aug Anyone Know the Reel Time? (MM5312)

Sep Joystick Interfaces

Oct Self-Refreshing LED Graphics Display

Nov The Intel 8086

Dec Add Nonvolatile Memory to Your Computer (EAROM)

1980

Jan Computerize a Home (BSR X-10 controller, the Busy Box)

Feb A Computer-Controlled Wood Stove

Mar Ease into 16-Bit Computing, Part 1:

Get 16-Bit Performance from an 8-Bit Computer

Apr Ease into 16-Bit Computing, Part 2:

Examining a Small Multi-User System

May I/O Expansion for the Radio Shack TRS-80, Part 1 (parallel ports)

June I/O Expansion for the Radio Shack TRS-80, Part 2 (serial ports)

July Handheld Remote Control for Your Computerized Home

Aug A Build-lt-Yourself Modem for Under $50

Sep Build a Low-Cost, Remote Data-Entry Terminal

Oct Make Liquid-Crystal Displays Work for You

Nov Home In on the Range! An Ultrasonic Ranging System

Dec Computerized Testing

1981

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1982

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1983

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1984

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1985

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Electromagnetic Interference

A Computer-Controlled Tank (Milton Bradley Big Trak toy)

Build the Disk-80: Memory Expansion and Floppy-Disk Control

Build a Low-Cost Logic Analyzer

DC Motor Controls: Build a Motorized Platform

Build a Low-Cost Speech-Synthesizer Interface (Micromouth)

Build a Z8-Based Control Computer with BASIC, Part 1

Build a Z8-Based Control Computer with BASIC, Part 2

Build an Unlimited-Vocabulary Speech Synthesizer (SweetTalker)

Build an Intelligent EPROM Programmer

Switching Power Supplies: An Introduction

Build a Touch-Tone Decoder for Remote Control (ITT MSD3210)

Analog Interfacing in the Real World (A/D conversion)

Build a Computerized Weather Station

Use Voiceprints to Analyze Speech

Use Infrared Communication for Remote Control

Everyone Can Know the Real Time (MM58167A)

Build an Interactive-Videodisc Controller

Add Programmable Sound Effects to Your Computer (SN76489A)

High-Resolution Sprite-Oriented Color Graphics (TMS9918)

Build the Microvox Text-to-Speech Synthesizer, Part 1: Hardware

Build the Microvox Text-to-Speech Synthesizer, Part 2: Software

Build the Circuit Cellar MPX-16 Computer System, Part 1

Build the Circuit Cellar MPX-16 Computer System, Part 2

Build the Circuit Cellar MPX-16 Computer System, Pert 3

Build a Hand-held LCD Terminal

Build the ECM-103, an Originate/Answer Modem

Build an RS-232C Breakout Box

Build an RS-232C Code-Activated Switch

Use ADPCM for Highly Intelligible Speech Synthesis

Build the RTC-4 Real-Time Controller

Build e Power-Line Carrier-Current Modem

Build the Micro D-Cam Solid-State Video Camera, Part 1

Build the Micro D-Cam Solid-State Video Camera, Part 2

Built the H-Com Handicapped Communicator

Keep Power-Line Pollution Out of Your Computer

Build the Term-Mite ST Smart Terminal, Part 1 (NS455)

Build the Term-Mite ST Smart Terminal, Part 2

Build a Third-Generation Phonetic Speech Synthesizer (SSI263)

Build a Scrolling Alphanumeric LED Display

Trump Card, Part 1: Hardware (Z8000 coprocessor for IBM PC)

Trump Card, Part 2: Software

A Musical Telephone Bell (AY-3-1350)

Circuit Cellar Feedback

Build the AC Power Monitor

An Ultrasonic Ranging System (SN28827)

The Lis'ner 1000 (SP1000 speech recognition)

Build the Power I/O System

Understanding Linear Power Supplies

Build a Serial EPROM Programmer

Build the Touch-Tone Interactive Message System

Build the Home Run Control System, Part 1: Introduction

Build the Home Run Control System, Part 2: The Hardware

Build the Home Run Control System, Part 3: The Software

Living in a Sensible Environment

Build the BASIC-52 Computer/Controller

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 219

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

INTERVIEW

rtist

Robert Tinney has provided mostof the illustrations that have ap-peared on the cover of BYTE duringthe past 10 gears.

Robert studied advertising art atLouisiana Tech and then beganworking m Houston. Texas, draw-ing and illustrating for variouspublishers and advertisers. Amutual friend introduced him toCarl Helmers, who at the time wasworking on software for NASA'sspace shuttle. The two becamefriends, and when Carl began atBYTE he called on Robert forillustrations.

Robert moonlighted on the BYTEcovers for the first few gears, but in1978 he moved to Baton Rouge.Louisiana, and began his computer-related illustrating full-time.

BYTE editors Richard Shufordand Gregg Williams talked with Robert about his \0-uear association withthe magazine and his thoughts about the future.

BYTE: How do gou work with the BYTE editorial staff to develop ideas forcover art?

Tinney: We almost always have an issue theme—a programminglanguage, computer graphics, or whatever. We start with that.I try to get as much input from the editors as possible; manytimes they will have visual ideas. After that phase, I do severalsketches and send them to BYTE. Sometimes the editors like asketch immediately. If they don't, they make suggestions and Itry again.

We start with the concepts and look for visual symbols to repre-sent the concepts. Often the editors suggest these. To get thebest effect you have to position or relate the symbols in unex-pected, humorous ways.

BYTE: Do gou sometimes wish that computers and their parts looked moreinteresting?

Tinney: Because computers mostly look like boxes with wires,I try to draw concepts rather than technical facts. I always tryto create a separate three-dimensional reality that the readerfeels drawn into. It may be a three-dimensional space that existson one small part of a circuit board somewhere, or it may befloating in infinite space, but it still has three dimensions.

I want the person viewing the cover to be imagining himselfdoing whatever the activity is in the scene. I don't often showpeople on the cover having a third-person experience. I like todraw the reader into the experience.

BYTE: What are gou especiallyproud of?

Tinney: I really liked the con-cept behind the February1985 "Computing and theSciences" cover, which hadthe ribbon cable and double-helix effect. There are otherpaintings, like the April 1984ssue, the "Real-World Inter-facing" theme, which showedall the world spinning undercontrol of a hand-held com-puter. Some readers didn'tke that one, probablybecause its appeal was morevisual than conceptual.

BYTE: Do gou personally own acomputer?

Tinney: It has been about ayear and a half now since Igot my first computer, a Mor-row Micro Decision. It's veryuseful and I love it. It camewith some bundled software,use WordStar to do all mybusiness correspondence.And I use Personal Pearl tokeep track of a database ofcustomers who have orderedBYTE cover reprints.

BYTE: Can you tell us something about your explorations into com-puter-assisted drawing?

Tinney: So far I've not used computer graphics for any coverwork, but I hope to get into it because it's obviously going tobe important.

BYTE: Are gou saying that as an illustrator or are gou saying that as anillustrator who does computer-related themes?

Tinney: Absolutely as an illustrator. Even as they stand today,computer graphics systems are to an artist what a word processoris to a novelist.

I'm sure that in the future a computer is going to be able tomimic a paintbrush, a pencil, charcoal, or pen and ink. It willbe easier, better, and more expressive to use a digitizing tabletand pen than it will be to actually use a pencil or a paintbrush.The hardware and software have a long way to go before theyget to the point that I am describing, but I believe that thesecapabilities are bound to come.

BYTE: What computer graphics equipment have you used?Tinney: I've had very limited hands-on experience with a TimeArts Lumena system and an Artronics Artron Studio Computer.These might be described as mid-range systems, yet I was justamazed at their capabilities. They have reached the point whereyou can get one for what you would pay for an expensiveautomobile.

BYTE: BYTE readers will be looking forward to seeing your work on thecover for years to come. ■

220 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

PORTRAIT BY GREG SPALENKA

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

TINNEY FAVORITES

*-«*«M«*i»l;«*«mO*

^n* ^K j I ^^ k<*i«M«>«\^i

July 1977Computer Engineering

October 1978Computer Chess

March 1980Computers in the Laboratory

April 1981Future Computer!?

'

May 1981Software Piracy

September 1982Computers and the Handicapped

June 1984Graduation Memories

April 1985Recursive Hands

BYTE COVERS PHOTOGRAPHED BY ED CRABTREE

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 221

10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

INTERVIEW: \J

*

YTE: }erry.how did you first get involved withpersonal computers?Pournelle: Back in 1976 mymad friend Dan MacLeanwas given a computer kit bysomeone who couldn't get itto work. The machine hadabout IK byte of memoryand you programmed it byendlessly throwing switcheson the front panel. It took meabout 10 seconds to decideI wanted nothing to do withthat thing.

Months later, though, I sawa demonstration at a com-pany called Computer Powerand Light. Their machine wasrunning Electric Pencil, thefirst true full-screen texteditor. It was love at firstsight: I realized instantly that

I could do all the revisions I wanted and never retype a pageof text again. By then MacLean had got his old lMSAl workingproperly. MacLean and a Caltech graduate student named TonyPietsch put together Ezekial, my friend who happened to be aZ80 computer. I've been writing my books with computers eversince.

BYTE: How did you get involved with BYTE?Pournelle: Personal computers didn't work very well in the earlydays. The machines were wonderful, they'd do things I neverthought possible, but they weren't very easy to use. In those timesyou couldn't just go to a store and buy a computer to take home.You got components and you tried to get them all to talk to eachother, but they seldom did. The software situation was prettygrim, too.

The situation changed fast, though. If you wanted to keep up—and anyone who had a computer in those days certainly wantedto keep up—you had to read the magazines. There were a numberof them, and I subscribed to all of them, I particularly recall onecalled ROM, the "Read-Only Magazine.'' It didn't survive.

One of the first magazines I subscribed to was BYTE—TheSmall Systems Journal." I particularly liked the What's New sec-tion. I also read BYTE for the ads. Sometimes the magazine woulddrive me nuts, though, because I knew I wanted to learn whatthe article was saying, but I couldn't understand it even afterreading it three times.

My oldest boy was in high school then and he was as interestedin computers as I was. Sometime in the 1970s, after Ezekial cameto live with me, my son Alex and I went to a computer show.

I was talking to someonewhen Alex came over to grabme and said, "You have tocome meet the fabulous CarlHelmers."

It turned out that Carl hadread some of my science fic-tion, so we got along fine.

Carl and I discussed thepossibility of my doing somearticles for BYTE, but we leftit pretty loose. Later I got tothinking about it. I didn'tknow very much about com-puters, but I did use them:Anything I wrote would haveto be user-oriented. 1 sent acolumn in. The readers likedit. At first I just sent in col-umns when I felt like it, butone day Chris Morgan |thenmanaging editor] called andsaid. "Your column is duenext week." After that TheUser's Column became aregular feature in BYTE.

BYTE: What milestones stand outin the history of the personalcomputer?

Pournelle: Oh. let's see—BillGates's BASIC. Before that wedidn't have any decent way to program small computers.

Then there was CP/M from Digital Research. Before CP/M noneof our machines could talk to each other.

The Osborne computer was terribly important. You could justbuy it and take it home and plug it in. More important, Osbornebundled in software.

dBASE II was the first really powerful database that ordinarypeople could learn to use on normal microcomputers. VisiCalcturned the Apple II into a viable business machine and intro-duced small computers into the business community.

The IBM PC changed everything, of course. Before the IBMPC, there was a definite microcomputer community. Before theIBM PC there were "hackers" and "users," and I wrote "the user'scolumn": but "users" in those days were still curious about theirmachines, what could be done with them, and where the micro-computer revolution was going. Many people who got computersafter the IBM PC revolution were just users who didn't know orcare that they were part of a revolution.

BYTE: How has that changed your column?

Pournelle: I'm still writing for the microcomputer user who'sseriously interested in learning more about his or her machine.1 guess my column is a little broader now: There's less out therefor the real hacker, so I try to include something for the hackercommunity: and there are more occasional users, so I try to in-clude something for them. Mostly, though, I write for the mid-dle ground. I guess the column is a bit less technical than it usedto be, which is strange, since The User's Column was supposedto be a nontechnical column in the first place. ■

222 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

PORTRAIT BY GREG SPALENKA

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megabyte hard disk with 18 mse>of average access speed.

Compatibility

To be sure that your hard disk i100 percent compatible with th<IBM XT you don't need to bu;the same hard disk that's in th<XT. You can't even be sure whabrand hard disk it is becausiIBM, like Express Systems, goeinto the marketplace and buyhard disks from several vendorsHowever, they buy their XThard disk controller from onl;one vendor—the same one w<do.

You can buy the IBM XT contrailer from IBM for $495 or yoican buy from us, the functionaequivalent, manufactured by thtsame company that makes it foIBM for only $195. Is it the exactly identical IBM XT controller? No, it's better. First, it take:less power, and secondly, it carcontrol from 5 to 32 megabytes—the IBM controller carwork with only 10 megabytes. Iis 100 percent IBM XT compatible, and 100 percent is 100 percent. If you want to save a slotwe carry a version that lets yoioperate two hard disks and twcfloppy disk drives.

More than 32 Megabytes

You can operate with more thar32 megabytes (the limit of DOSthrough the use of "device drivers." Express Systems can suppbyou with device drivers for ouihard disks for over 32 megabyte:formatted. But, if you don't haveindividual files, or databases thaare large, you might want to consider one of our controllers thacan divide our 65 megabyatt(formatted) hard disk into twcequal volumes of 32 megabyte:each.

Reliability

We offer you a choice betweeiiron oxide and plated media—the stuff that covers the haredisk and gives it its magneti(properties. Iron oxide is.—wellit's rust. If you inadvertentl;joust your disk, you may caustthe low flying head to dig ousome iron oxide. A little rusflake can ruin your whole dayPlated media is more resistant tcdamage, and if it happens, les:data is lost.

We offer both types of haredisks. The iron oxide is oldei

IBM® is a registered trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation. Express Systems, and Express Certified 555 are trademarks of Express Systems, Inc.

technology, and quite frankly,manufacturers understand it bet-ter. Their better understanding,combined with some of the spe-cial head locking mechanisms,gives us peace of mind when wesell you one.

Hard disks consume power. Oursmall, half-high hard disks con-sume so little power that you canuse them with your existing IBMPC power supply. If you plan touse lots of slots, you'll want toincrease your power supply to besafe. We offer the same amountof power for your PC that comesin the XT.

Our Customers

Some folks just never feel com-fortable buying mail order. Theyforget that Sears began as a mailorder house or that IBM is nowinto mail order. But, if it helps,here is a partial list of customerswho have felt comfortable to buyfrom us.

IBM

American ExpressU.S. ArmyAT&T (Bell Labs)Bausch & LombXerox

Sears

Honeywell

MIT

RCA

Lockheed

Sperry

Easv to Install

If you're like most of us, raisedon the boob tube rather than theGreat Books, you'd rather seethe movie than read the book.Well, now you can choose toread our installation manual orfor only $9.95 more, you can geta VHS or Beta video cassetteshowing the simple steps for in-stallation.

Warranty

We offer you a one year war-ranty on our hard disks—thesame as IBM on the AT and 90days on the tape drives. (It's allthe manufacturer gives us.) If

Complete Hard Disk Kits

Formatted

Plated

Average

Transfer

PC or PC/XT

AT

MB

Height

Media

Access

Rate

10

Vi

no

85 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 395

$ N/A

10

Vi

yes

85 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 495

$ N/A

21

Vi

yes

85 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 795

$ 595

21

Full

no

30 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 1,535

$ 1,340

32

V2

yes

85 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 995

$ 795

32

Full

no

30 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 1,775

$ 1,575

65

Full

no

30 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 2,295

$ 2,070

100

Full

yes

18 msec

10 Mbits/s

$ 4,995

$ 4.995

Removable Hard Disk

10

'/2

no

90 msec

5 Mbits/s

$ 1,095

N/A

DataTransferHeight Rate (k/sec)

PC or PC/XT

AT

>/: 8888

bsystem 2431

$ 995$ 1,295

$ 595$ 749

$ 995$ 1,295$ 595$ 749

Tape Systems and Subsystems

Formatted Storage Capacity

60 Mbytes

60 Mbytes Subsystem

21 Mbytes (unformatted)Start/stop Subsystem 24

26 Mbytes Floppy Tape® Subsystem

Controllers

All of our hard disk and tape controllers are available separately: Please call for prices.

Subsystem Chassis

Any of our disk or tape units are available in an external subsystem for an additional

$250.00. You can mix & match any of our Vz high hard disks or tape drives together or

add any single full height hard disk.

Tape Cartridges

Express Certified 555 foot 310 Hci '/.-inch Data Cartridge $35.00

Power Supply

130 Watt Power supply $75.00*

150 Watt Power supply $125.00

*with the purchase of any drive

anything goes wrong with yourtape or disk drive or hard disk,send it back in the box it came in.However, we have found that wecan usually solve the problemover the phone. So call first for areturn authorization number be-cause we can't accept any returnswithout it.

Comes complete

All Express Systems productscome complete with the appro-priate software,tape and/or harddisk controllers, and cableswhere required. Hard disks areformatted and tested with the PCDOS of your choice. All drivesizes are formatted capacities.

If your application requires astacking kit, power splitter ca-bles, daisy chain cable, or someother variation, we'll supplythese items at a nominal charge.We even ship our hard disks withCommand Assist™ an on-lineDOS-like manual to give youhelp with your DOS commands.

More questions?

Because we spend so much at-tention on the front end with en-suring that our disks will arrivein working order, we have a cus-tomer service department that,unlike many of our competitors,has little to do. When you needus, you won't get a constant busysignal.

Call our friendly, knowledga-ble customer service staff to getanswers to your questions—be-fore or after the sale. Our peo-ple, who know the PC, can talkyou through the sticky parts, andthey'll respond to you quickly.Just call us.

How to order

Pick up the telephone and call 1-800-341-7549, to order. We ac-cept Master Card, VISA, Amer-ican Express and Diners Club.Or send a cashier's check or

.i

<»»

money order (We'll take acheck, but you'U have to wait forit to clear) and tell us if you wantone of our recommended config-urations or you want to mix andmatch yourself. Corporationswith a DUNS number may sendpurchase orders for quantitiesover five.

Call Toll Free 1-800-341-7549 Ext. 1400In Illinois call (312) 882-7733 Ext. 1400

Express Systems, Inc., 1254 Remington, Schaumburg, IL 60195

Inquiry 142

IBM

Command Assist is a trademark of Micro Design International

BYTE

Homebrewing

EGO: A Homebuilt CPU,Part 1: The Software

by Clifford Kelley 229

The Quarter-Meg Atari 800XL

by Claus Buchholz 247

A Parallelto-SerialPrinter Port Adapter

by Howard Austerlitz 257

Add Function Keys to YourMicrocomputer

by Mark Hanslip 263

IN THE PAST, THE ONLY WAY you could get hardware for your computersystem was to build it yourself. Today, you can get almost anything you mightwant for your computer, but for a price. Many people are interested in hard-ware projects not only because they are an inexpensive source of extensionsto their systems but also because of the experience they gain by building theseprojects.

We have several construction projects this month, ranging from the simpleto the complex. In his article "The Quarter-Meg Atari 800XL," Claus Buchholzdetails how to upgrade your Atari 800XL memory to 512K bytes and pro-mises to free users from the slow Atari disk-drive access time by providingsoftware for implementing a fast RAM disk that uses all the extra memory.

Today, many computers have a Centronics parallel printer port as standardequipment. If you happen to have a serial printer, your parallel port may gounused. Howard Austerlitz presents an inexpensive parallel-to-serial printerport adapter that will help you take advantage of your parallel ports.

Often, the main thing separating an $8000 commercial word processor froma word-processing program on a microcomputer is the presence of predefinedkeys for special functions on the dedicated systems. While most newermicrocomputers have 10 or 12 programmable function keys, many oldermachines don't. Mark Hanslip has designed a project that enables you to addup to 40 function keys to any microcomputer with a parallel-encoded keyboard.

And for the ambitious builder, Clifford Kelley's two-part article "EGO: AHomebuilt CPU" (to be continued next month) delves into the complexitiesof building your own microprocessor: designing the instruction set, systemarchitecture, and system hardware. While you may not want to build your ownmicroprocessor, you'll probably be interested in the considerations that gointo designing such a complex system.

Finally, be sure to check out Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar this month. Steve presentsthe SB180, a high-performance, HD64180-based, Z80-compatible single-boardcomputer kit with 2 56K bytes of memory: floppy-disk controller: one I/O, oneparallel, and two serial ports: and a lot of software. Don't let its 8-bitmicroprocessor fool you: the 6-MHz SB 180 turns in some impressive bench-marks.

SEPTEMBER

IYTE 227

Gold Hill Computers brings the language ofArtificial Intelligence to Your Personal Computer.

Why every Computer Professionalshould know Common Lisp.

You know how frustrating it is todeal with programs that are stupid andinflexible like those buried iasideautomated bank teller machines andairline reservation systems. You alsoknow how frustrating it is to engineersolutions to today's informationprocessing problems with languagesdesigned mainly for number crunching.// doesn't have to be this way.

Programs based on the ideas ofArtificial Intelligence and implementedin Common Lisp can be intelligent, flex-ible, and human like. When you useCommon Lisp in combination withartificial intelligence techniques, youwill be able to solve 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 CommonLisp 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 soft-ware 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 forapplicatioas development.

ORDER GCLisp TODAY usingthe coupon below. Or call our SalesDepartment at:

617-492-2071

Golden Common Lisp: TheComplete Lisp Environment

The Golden Common Lisppackage includes:

• the GCLisp interpreter

• the GMACS editor

• the San Marco Lisp Explorer

• the On line Help system

• Lisp, 2nd edition by Wiastonand Horn

• the Common Lisp Reference Manualby Steele

• the Golden Common Lisp User'sManual

Golden Common Lisp: ThePowertool for Personal Computing

Golden Common Lisp is an extensivesubset 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 efficiencv.

I Gold Hill Computers16-^ Harvard StreetCambridge. MA 02139

BI 8s

~l

Title

Department

Organization

Address

Phone

Today's Date

Type of computer

□ Enclosed is a check to Gold HillComputers for GCLisp.

□ Flense bill mvDMasterOardC VISA card.

Card #

Expiration Date

SignatureQuantity

Description

Unit Price

Total Price

Golden

Common

Lisp

S495

MA residents add S"iTots

Subtotal

Sales Tax1 Amount

G

Vie welcome inquiries about volume dis-counts, dealer discounts, and educationaldiscounts for university affiliated purchasersI □ Please send me more information

J

D

H I

COM

U

163 Harvard Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Inquiry 158

Golden Common Lisp and GC Lisp are trademarks of Gold H ill Computers. The San Marco Lisp Explorer is a trademark c >f San Marco Associates.

Lisp is copyrighted by Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. The Common Lisp Reference Manual is copyrighted by Digital Equipment

Corporation. IBM PC. PC XT. PC AT. and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines.

HOMEBREWING

EGO: A

HOMEBUILT CPU

Part 1: The Software

by Clifford Kelley

This homemade CPUsports a clever instruction set

Editor's note: Part 1 of this two-part series covers the instruction setand software aspects of the EGO computer. Next month the authorwill examine the EGO computer's hardware.

IT IS DIFFICULT TO JUSTIFY building a custom CPU (cen-tral processing unit). It won't cost less than an availablemicrocomputer; it will take many hours to design, build,and debug; and, most important, no software will be avail-able for it. However, there are the advantages of beingable to incorporate features not found on commercial pro-cessors, not to mention the education you would derivefrom undertaking such a project.

For many years I toyed with the idea of building a CPU.I studied the subject briefly, but reality intruded and I soonforgot it. Then, a few years ago, I took some digital designcourses that finally gave me the confidence to determinewhat my budget could take and to get on with it.

First. I set about defining the requirements. There wereonly two: Make it simple and make it powerful enoughto be useful. These are somewhat contradictory, but inthe end I believe EGO fulfilled both.

The Instruction Set

The most important part of designing a computer is devis-ing the instruction set. It is the major determinant of thesystem architecture. As I said, I wanted EGO to be simpleyet useful. My definition of useful is the ability to do float-ing-point operations efficiently. Thus, defining the ALU(arithmetic logic unit) operations was my first step. Iwanted the ALU to be able to load, shift, rotate, increment,decrement, add, and subtract at the very least. These,combined with some simple logic operations like AND.

OR, and exclusive-OR, gave me a list of 14 instructions.The 74381 4-bit ALU seemed the perfect device. I coulduse it for the logic and arithmetic instructions. This leftme with 16 basic instructions taking up 4 bits of instruc-tion space.

Next came the instruction types. These determine howan instruction defines where the data used by the ALUcomes from and where the results will be stored. In orderto keep the instruction set simple, I decided to keep allEGOs registers general-purpose. Consequently, there areno restrictions on which registers can be used in what in-structions, and the only special-purpose register is register0, which is used as the program counter. Although I couldhave constructed an instruction set that loaded data direct-ly to and from memory locations (known on most pro-cessors as direct addressing), I felt this would slow downthe computer and corner me into including two or threememory-pointing registers (like the HL register pair on the8080 or the SI and DI registers on the 8088/86) manipu-lated by a number of special instructions. The only rea-sonable solution was a large number of general-purposeregisters that programmers could dedicate as their needsrequired. This also forced me to design EGO so thatregisters could be used for direct addressing (in which theregister holds the actual data) as well as indirect address-ing (in which the register holds the address of the data).

I decided that EGO would have four different instruc-

[continued)Clifford felley has a B.S in physics and mathematics from MarquetteUniversity. He currently works on missile simulation systems atRockwell International He can be contacted at 4127/2 Maybank.lakewood. CA 90712.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 229

Inquiry 340

UNLOCK THE SECRETSOF MACHINE LANGUAGE.

Our Visible Computer teaching systems do more than tellyou about machine language, they show you - by turningyour computer into an animated simulation of its micro-processor chip. You'll actually see the registers change asthe processor executes instructions; you'll see howinstructions are executed, not just the result.

The extensive manual may just be the clearest tutorial onmachine language ever written. You'll work "hands-on-keyboard," at your own pace, as you progress through 30demonstration programs stored on disk.

Apple II version: $49.95. Commodore 64 version: $39.95 ^» C*.

NEW! II:- Visibll 8088 (IBM PI I <jO# IlCfIf*4?

better software dealers or direct from Software Masters, _ _ •

P.O. Box 3638, Bryan, TX 77805. (409) 822-9490. \f£* Cfd|«C "

MC/Visa accepted. Mail orders enclose $3.00 shipping. * MMBWm^frB »»

HARMONY VIDEO & COMPUTERS

2357 CONEY ISLAND AVE.. BROOKLYN. NY 11223

800 VIDE084 OR 800-441 1144 OR 718-627 1000

V«2 ^

IBM PC 256K

PANASONIC 1091

{ts

$1309.95

$221.95

,J&50

P

STAR SG 10

APPLE 2E w/DRIVE

<mZ*^

$207.50

$779.95

"PRINTER SPECIA

LS

Brother HfllS XL

328

NEC 2050

93

Panasonic KXP 1093

411

Brother HR 35

676

NEC 3550

31

Panasonic XKP 3151

379

Citizen MSP 10

266

NEC8850 1.

17

Powertype

275

Citizen MSP 15

406

NEC p3 or p2

58

Star SG10

208

Corona Laser

2444

Okidata 192

29

Star SG15

336

Daisywriter

71B

Okidata 193

10

Star SD10

306

Epson LX80

210

Okidata 182 ,

I9

Star SD15

404

Epson FIX 100

369

Okimale 10

19

Star SR10

435

Epson FX80 +

321

Olympai Compact 2

12

Star SR15

543

Epson JX80

S46

Olympai ro ,

50

Star SB10

671

Epson FX 185 +

4 73

Panasonic KXP 1091

22

Silver Reed Exp 550

364

Epson LQ 1500

910

Panasonic KXP 1090

61

Silver Reed Exp 500

208

HP Laser Jet

2704

Panasonic KXP 1092

31

Silver Reed Exp 770

650

Juki 6100

345

Toshiba 1340

515

Mannesman Spin

100

1

87

Toshiba 351

984

WOW! WOW! WOW!

IBM

APPLE

MONITORS

AT Enhanced

4218

2E w/Dtsk Drive

779

Amdek 300 Green

108

AT Unenhanced

2912

Apple 2C

863

Amdek 300 Amber

109

IBM Monitor

208

Imagewriter

468

310 Amber

129

PC 256 K

1309

Addt. Drives from 104

Color 300

149

PC XT

1666

Orange Interlace

■12

Color 500

280

IBM Drive

146

ATARI

Color 600

374

AST Six Pack

198

Color 700

395

Tallgrass 25 Meg

2396

Color 710

489

Quad Board

219

Pnncton HX12

Keytronics

129

Princton Max 12

Handi 1

269

Taxan 122A

Hercules Color

140

Taxan 420

Hercules Monochrome

260

Mitsuba Monochrome

159

MODEMS

SANYO

Paradise Graphics

Paradise Multi DisplaySTB Graphics * 2

'82202

Hayes 12O0B

326

MBC 775

1576

Tecmar Graphics

427

Hayes 2400

572

COMMODORE

Persyst Monocard

146

Micromodem 2EPromethias 1200B

254

Commodore 641541 Disk Drive

161

10 Meg DriveJoystick

Promethias 1200

.'89

1702 Monitor

26

800-441-1144

Indus. DriveCard co Interface

21334

Items rellec

cashdiscc

unt For your protection we check to

stolen credit cards

230 BYTE •

SEPTEK

4BER 1985

Inquiry 165

EGO

'auto

STEP*

ON

MHZ OFF

4 2 1 dp.. e»«eeeo9

* u. CWo'n * • • • • • ® ® ©

POWER ,.OFF

& EGCV

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1

Photo I: EGO, the author's homemade CPU sits atop aTandy 2000 that is used for uploading and downloadingprograms. The switch in the upper left corner allows the authorto run EGO in single-step mode, and the row of LEDs alongthe bottom can be used to read either EGO's data bus or theCPU's instruction register.

tion types: data, register, indirect operand, and indirectresult. The data instruction type (often referred to on otherprocessors as the "immediate" instruction type) is com-posed of two words; the first word holds the instruction,and the second is data. The operation is performed usingthe data word and the contents of a register, and the resultis returned to the register.

All other instruction types require only one word. In theregister instruction type, the operands are the contentsof two registers, and the result is stored in one of theregisters. Indirect operand instructions use the contentsof a register as one operand, use the contents of anotherregister as a memory address where the other operandis stored, and leave the result in a register. Finally, the in-direct result instruction type functions like the indirectoperand type, except that the result is returned to thememory address of the second operand.

The last major decision was how long the instructionword and address lengths would be. Actually, it was aneasy decision. To be useful, EGO had to be able to ad-dress a large amount of memory; to keep the registerstruly general, the instruction length must be the same asthe address length. For the address length, I felt the stan-dard 16 bits would be more than adequate. Since EGOwould be addressing words, this would give me a totalof 64K words, or 128K bytes of memory—twice that avail-able on 8-bit microprocessors. The instruction length isalso a multiple of 4, which would make the circuits easierto build and allow 10 bits for register addressing. 1 feltthat a two-address instruction set was a minimum for keep-ing the instructions general. 1 would have preferred a three-address instruction set. but that would have left me withonly enough bits in the instruction to address eight reg-

{continued)

AMAZING D\LSY

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

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 proportionalprinrwheel 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

i^^^

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

Accessories

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 MJC 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 <S CustomerService: (805) 987-2454 (8-5 PST)Dealer Inquiries Invited

APROTEK. All rights reserved.Trademarks: Diablo. Hytype U. 630-XeroxCorp: Wordstar-Micropro Corp.; PFS-Softwar* Publishing Corp.; MicrosoftWord-Microsoft Corp.; Apple, II.lie-Apple Computer. Inc.;IBM PC-IBM Corp.:PET. CBM.

(8-8 PST)

* dPROREK

1071-A Avenida Acaso, Camarillo, CA 93010

Inquiry

DYNAMIC RAMS

STATIC RAMS

27256 ! 32Kx8 250 ns j $ 7.2527128 16Kx8 250 ns, $2.9527C64

2732A

2732

25322716

8Kx8

8Kx£

200 ns $ 4.50

200 ns $ 2.75

250 ns $ 1.75

450 ns $ 1.75

4Kx8

4Kxt2Kxf

200 ns

450 ns

450 ns

$ 2.5

I 80

$ 2.85

$ 4.95

$ 2.15

8085A

8155

$ 7.25

$ 3.95

$ 8.75

$ 3.25

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8255A-5 $ 3.75

8748

$ 9.00

8749HD $12.00

8755A $16.75

• SPECIAL ITEMS

8087-2

$105.00

80287-3

$115.00$195.00

PRINTERS AND KEYBOARDS

'Made in Japan, high quality product with one year warrantee.SX-IOOcps PRINTER $189.00

SX-130cps PRINTER (IBM Compatible)

$199.00

SFK-201B KEYBOARD (IBM Compatible-Capacity Type) $119.00

I.C.EXPRESS

15358 Valley Boulevard, City of Industry, CA 91746Phone:818-369-2688 (Mon-Fri • 8-5)

ORDER TOLL FREE

800-892-8889- 800-882-8181

EXCEPT FROM CALIFORNIA

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS ONLY

Call lor currenl prices & volume discounls Prices are subject to change

TERMS Minimum order 110 00 California residents must add 6.5 o sates tax

Shipping & Handling UPS Ground S3 00. UPS Air $5 00 (under 1 lb.)

ALL MERCHANDISE IS 100% GUARANTEED.

Illllil

Ullll

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MAX. IBM® ATCOMPATIBILITYAVAILABLE NOW!

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Made In USA

AT/TURBO (6 MHz/8 MHz) System

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XT-2001 Complete System

PC-2001 Complete System

OEM BASIC System

$1995

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CORPORATION W™™£;smmTELEX 753197

\

232 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198^

Inquiry 181 for End-Users.Inquiry 182 for DEALERS ONLY.

EGO

EGO Instruction Set

1514131211109876543210 bit number

Word 1

bit numberWord 2

The condition bits refer to the four condition flags thatare stored after every ALU operation:

: 0 : 0 : Op Code : 1 : Condition

S2 :

15

0

Data :

Bit #

8765

OperationCode

0 0 0 00 0 0 10 0 100 0 110 10 00 10 10 1100 11110 0 010 0 110 1010 11110 0110 11110

1

1 1 1

Flag

z

NPC

Operation

S2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = S2 -S2 = S2 -S2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2=DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = DataS2 = Data

Set condition

ALU result is zeroALU result is negativeALU result is positiveALU result overflows ( carry )

Mnemonic

cy

cy

+ cy

+ 1DataData

- S2

- S2+ S2+ S2xor S2left shiftor S2left rotateand S2

1right shiftright rotate

LD S2INC S2SUBS2SBCS2NADS2NCAS2ADDS2ADCS2XORS2SL S2OR S2RL S2ANDS2DECS2SR S2RR S2

#Data#Data#Data#Data#Data#Data#Data#Data,#Data#Data,#Data#Data,#Data#Data#Data#Data

The **** is space for the condition mnemonic code.

Figure I: Data instruction types. These are the two-wordinstructions: all other instructions take only one word.

isters—not enough registers to allow for both dedicateduses and scratch-pad space for floating-point operations.A two-address instruction set allowed 5 bits to addressa register for a total of 32 registers, which appeared tobe more than enough to do the job.

Inevitably, I had to make some compromises in thedesign of the instruction set. The data instruction type wasnecessary to load constants into registers. Since I madethe program counter part of the general register set andwas able to set aside 4 bits in the data type instructionword for condition testing, EGO could perform conditionaljumps. This was in keeping with the general ALU struc-ture I had chosen, but some miscellaneous instructions,

(continued)

ntroducing the Most PowerfulBusiness Software Ever!

TRS-80™ (Model I, II, III, or 16) • APPLE" • IBM " • OSBORNE™ • CP/M™ • XEROX

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Each VERSABUSINESS module can be purchased and used independently,or can be linked in any combination to form a complete, coordinated business system.

VERSARECEIVABLES" $99.95

VERSA RECEIVABLES™ 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 IIt" and VERSA INVENTORY'".

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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.

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VerSAPayroll™ 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, automatically, 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 W system.

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VersaLedger IP" comes with a professionally-written 160 page manual de-signed for first-time users. The VersaLedger II™ manual will help you becomequickly familiar with VersaLedger II™, using complete sample data filessupplied on diskette and more than 50 pages of sample printouts.

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Every VERSABUSINESS™ module is guaranteed to outperform ail other competitive systems,and at a fraction of their cost. 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

To Order:

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(N.Y.S. residents call 914-425-1535)

" add $3 (or shipping in UPS areas * add $5 to CANADA or MEXICO

* add $4 (or C.O.D. or non-UPS areas ^ * add proper postage elsewhere

Inquiry 161 ^^&

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME

All prices and specifications subject to change Delivery subject to availability

' TRS-80 is a trademark of the Radio Shack Division ol 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.

Inquiry 70

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New cost was over $60,000.

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EGO

Condition Code

Condition

Bits

Execution Condition

Mnemonic

0 0 0

0

Not carry

I

0 0 0

1

Carry

C

0 0 1

0

Greater than 0

P

0 0 1

1

Greater than 0 or carry

CP

0 1 0

0

Less than 0

N

0 1 0

1

Less than 0 or carry

CN

0 1 1

0

Not 0

PN

0 1 1

1

Not 0 or carry

CPN

1 0 0

0

Equal to 0

Z

1 0 0

1

Equal to 0 or carry

cz

1 0 1

0

Greater than or equal to 0

PZ

1 0 1

1

Greater than or equal to 0

or carry

CPZ

1 1 0

0

Less than or equal to 0

ZN

1 1 0

1

Less than or equal to 0 or

carry

CNZ

1 1 1

0

Unconditional

'blank'

1 1 1

1

Unconditional

'blank'

Figure 2: Bit settings for condition-flag testing. \f the conditionis not met. then execution continues with the instruction followingthe data word.

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8

7 6 5 4 3 2 10

bit number

.0:0:0

: 0: 0.

0: 0

Operation Code :

Operation Code

Operation

Mnemonic

0 0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0

No operation

NOP

0 0 0 0

0 0 0

0 1

Set carry flag

SCF

0 0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0

Clear carry flag

CCF

0 0 0 0

0 0 0

1 1

Halt

HLT

Figure 3: EGO's miscellaneous instructions.

such as set carry, clear carry, halt, and no-operation, arealso useful. Fortunately, there was 1 bit left to distinguishbetween data and miscellaneous instructions.

Thus the instruction set is small but very general. Figures1 through 5 summarize the instruction set. Bits 15 and 14hold the instruction type. Bits 13 through 10 determinethe operation performed. The two-address instructions(figures 3,4, and 5) allow one operand from SI (source1) and the other from S2 (source 2). It is assumed thatthe result will be sent to S2. When only one operand isrequired, SI is the operand and S2 is the location in whichthe result is stored. Except for the data instructions, thelast 10 bits are divided into two groups: bits 9 through5 for SI and bits 4 through 0 for S2.

The first and most complex of the instruction types is

[continued]

234 B YTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

igi:i

? >v.

ii i' <

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RGB COLOR GRAPHICS BOARD

Programmable resolution up to 51 £ x 51=?pixels with A local video planes and on-boardgraphics processor. Color mapper allows 16colors from a palette of 409B. Light peninput. Plus more ...AST, P/fSJ 52748-300-101

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8 Channel A-D: 12 microsec. Conversion.50KHz Sample Rate, ProgrammableGains. Offset and Diff./Single Modes.8 Channel D-A: 2 microsec. Settling,Bipolar V or Unipolar I Output. Program-mable Reference levels. Dual-Ported Chan-nel Refresh RAM. 1B/8-Bit DataTransfers via I/O or Memory MappedAST, P/IM 52748-900-101

BAR CODE PROCESSOR BOARD

The BerTender is a stand-alone I/O Pro-cessor that reads and prints most commonBar Codes. Includes bi-directional reading,wand interface, clock/calendar with battery.Extensive documentation and software.AST, 58748-500-101 Without WandAST.52748-500-201 With Wand

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Inquiry I \"

maxell

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—

Announcing the First

OPTICAL DISC

READ ONLY MEMORY

FORUM

October 23-25. 1985

Pentagon City Quality Inn

Arlington. Virginia

Presentations Cover:

• Applications

• Market Potential, Investment Opportunities

• Computer Systems' Enhancement Potential

• Optical Disc-Read Only Memory Technology

• Standards & Specifications

Pre-conference tutorials are scheduled for October 22.

Exhibits of representative technology will be available toconference registrants in an adjacent exhibit area.

For further information contact:

LEARNING TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE

50Culpeper St., Dept B

Warrenton, VA 22I86(703) 347-0055

EGO

15 14 13 12 11 10 9

8 7 6 5

4 3 2 10

bit numberMnemonic

: 0 : 1 : Op Code :

S1

S2

Operation

Code

Operation

0 0 0 0

S2 = S1

LD S2.S1

0 0 0 1

S2 = S1

+ 1

INC S2.S1

0 0 10

S2 = S2

- S1

SUBS2.S1

0 0 11

S2 = S2

- S1 - cy

SBC S2.S1

0 10 0

S2 = S1

- S2

NADS2.S1

0 10 1

S2 = S1

- S2 - cy

NCAS2.S1

0 110

S2 = S1

+ S2

ADDS2.S1

0 111

S2 = S1

+ S2 + cy

ADCS2.S1

10 0 0

S2 = S1

xor S2

XORS2.S1

10 0 1

S2 = S1

left shift

SL S2.S1

10 10

S2 = S1

or S2

OR S2.S1

10 11

S2 = S1

left rotate

RL S2.S1

110 0

S2 = S1

and S2

ANDS2.S1

110 1

S2 = S1

- 1

DECS2.S1

1110

S2 = S1

right shift

SR S2.S1

1111

S2 = S1

right rotate

RR S2.S1

Figure 4: EGO's register instructions.

15 14 13 12 11 10 9

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

0

bit numberMnemonic

: 1 : 0 : Op Code :

S1 S2

Operation Code

Operation

0 0 0 0

S2 = (S1)

LD S2.(S1)

0 0 0 1

S2 = (S1) + 1

INC S2.(S1)

0 0 10

S2 = S2 - (S1)

SUBS2t(S1)

0 0 11

S2 = S2 - (S1) -

cy

SBCS2,(S1)

0 10 0

S2 = (S1) - S2

NADS2.(S1)

0 10 1

S2 = (S1) - S2 -

cy

NCAS2,(S1)

0 110

S2 = (S1) + S2

ADDS2.(S1)

0 111

S2 = (S1) + S2 +

cy

ADCS2,(S1)

10 0 0

S2 = (S1) xor S2

XORS2,(S1)

10 0 1

S2 = (S1) left shift

SL S2.(S1)

10 10

S2 = (S1) or S2

OR S2.(S1)

10 11

S2 = (S1) left rotate

RL S2,(S1)

110 0

S2 = (S1) and S2

ANDS2,(S1)

110 1

S2 = (S1) - 1

DECS2.(S1)

1110

S2 = (S1) right shift

SR S2.(S1)

1111

S2 = (S1) right rotate

RR S2.(S1)

Figure 5: EGO's indirect operand instructions.

data (figure 1). Since only one register is referenced, thereis room in the instruction for condition testing. Four con-dition flags are used to indicate the result of the previousALU operation: zero, negative, positive, and carry (over-flow). These can be tested in any combination, but youwill notice that the "no flags'' condition is used to test for"not carry" generated (see figure 2). If the condition isnot met, the data instruction is ignored and execution con-

[continued)

236

BYTE" SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 214

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INSTANT SLIDE-MAKERS

Make your slidesone by one,

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£3

The system includes KODAK INSTAGRAPHIC Copy Stand, KODAK INSTAGRAPHIC CRT Slide Imager and CRT Adapters, KODAK INSTAGRAPHIC Color Slide Film, and KODAK INSTACRAPHIC Slide Mounter and Mounts.

© Eastman Kodak Company, 1985Inquiry 129 SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 237

Enjoy full XT hardware

and software compatibility at PC/AT speeds

with the BULLET-286 motherboard

or get your money back?

The Bullet-286 is a new motherboard for theIBM PC/XT built with Intel's 80286 cpu andpacked with 640K on-board memory. Run yoursoftware up to Alk times faster. Recalculate agiant Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet l2 lk times faster. Norton'sspeed test ranks til^/a fasterthan the PC/AT!

Preserve your investmentin the XT and its software inless than 10 minutes withjust a screwdriver. And relaxduring our one year replacementwarranty. Extended warranty available at addi-tional cost.

Don't be fooled by add-ons or other boardsthat promise blinding speed, compromisecompatibility take up a slot, and have a tokenguarantee.

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"If any of your software doesn't run on the Bullet-286, we'll cheerfully refundyour money within 30 days of purchase. The only condition: your software hadto work on the original XT board and system, and not use IBM's ROM BASIC.

Lotus 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus CorporationBuller-286 is a trademark of ^ve Mate Corporation

EGO

15 14 13 12 11

10 987654321

0

bit number

: 1 : 1

: Op

Code : S1 S2

Operat

on Code Operation

Mnen

0 0 0

0

(S2) = S1

LD

0 0 0

1

(S2) = S1 + 1

INC v

0 0 1

0

(S2) = (S2) - S1

SUB (S2),S1

0 0 1

1

(S2) = (S2) - S1 -

cy

SBC (S2),S1

0 1 0

0

(S2) = S1 - (S2)

NAD(S2),S1

0 1 0

'

(S2) = S1 - (S2) -

cy

NCA(S2),S1

0 1 1

0

(S2) = S1 + (S2)

ADD(S2),S1

0 1 1

1

(S2) = S1 + (S2) +

cy

ADC(S2),S1

1 0 0

0

(S2) = S1 xor (S2)

XOR (S2),S1

1 0 0

1

(S2) = S1 left shift

SL (S2),S1

1 0 1

0

(S2) = S1 or (S2)

OR (S2),S1

1 0 1

1

(S2) = S1 left rotate

RL (S2),S1

1 1 0

0

(S2) = S1 and (S2)

AND(S2),S1

1 1 0

1

(S2) = S1 - 1

DEC(S2),S1

1 1 1

0

(S2) = S1 right shift

SR (S2),S1

1 1 1

1

(S2) = S1 right rotate

RR (S2),S1

Figure 6: EGO's indirect result instructions.

tinues. Also, when the data instruction is ignored, the ALUis not used, so the condition flags remain set at theirprevious values. This makes it easy to test and executeinstructions for different conditions.

The miscellaneous instruction set is a subset of the datatype. The instruction code is the same as the data instruc-tions, except that bit 9 is zero. These instructions do notfit the general pattern of the rest of the instructions. Theno operation, set carry flag, clear carry flag, and halt in-structions are defined in figure 3.

The register, indirect operand, and indirect result instruc-tions require only one word. For register instructions, SIand S2 are direct operands, and the result is stored inregister S2. For indirect operand instructions. SI operandis indirect, S2 is direct, and the result is stored in registerS2. For indirect result instructions, SI operand is direct,S2 is indirect, and the result is sent to S2 indirectly.

The 16 ALU operations are pretty standard. They includethe load, increment, subtract, subtract with carry, negateand add, negate and add with carry, add, add with carry,exclusive-OR. shift left, OR, rotate left, AND, decrement,shift right, and rotate right instructions. Although they'revery basic, these instructions allow you to perform anumber of powerful operations, especially when they'reused with the program counter.

The instruction set takes some getting used to. Since Imade the program counter a general-purpose register.data instructions can be used as direct or relative jumps.For example, the instruction LD0,#8 loads the program

(continued)

238 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 417

Inquiry 127-

_Dr _r M__V7J_>_r»Jl Tfm\~il1C* r^s humorous illustration is no comfort to

MJli§\AjUL\5\sf%/ J\jIAJU/&* 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.

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EGO

Listing !: EGO assembly-language code for direct andrelative subroutine calls. Registers 30 and 31 had to beused to manage a software stack. The instruction DEC0.#100 performs an unconditional jump to memorylocation 100.

Direct Address Call and Return

Program

LD 30.0

DEC 0,#100 »

Address of subroutineRest of program

Call subroutine program-100 ADD 30,#3LD (31),30DEC 31,31DEC 0,(30) ►Subroutine

Return program111 INC31,31-* LD 0,(31)

•DEC 0,#111

Relative Subroutine Call and Return

Program

LD 30,0DEC 0,#105-

Call relative subroutine program

—►I 05Relative subroutine addressRest of program

ADD 30,#3LD (31),30DEC 31.31ADD 30,(30)DEC 0,30 —

■ Subroutine

Return program,111 INC 31,31-*-— LD 0,(31)

■DEC 0,#111

counter with the value 8, which is actually an uncondi-tional jump to memory location 9 (since the programcounter is automatically incremented at the end of everyinstruction). I can use any register as an index register. Thesimplicity gained by my instruction set resulted in a fewstrange-looking instructions. I have not yet found a usefor some of the data instructions.

Since all of EGO's registers are general-purpose, itbecomes the programmer's job to dedicate and keep trackof any registers that may be needed for special purposes.Up to this point, I've dedicated only registers 30 and 31for handling a stack. One of the most important groupsof instructions a computer can provide is routine call andreturn instructions. EGO's flexible structure allows this,although it requires some extra code that most micropro-

[continued)

240 BYTE- SEPTEMBER I?

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EGO

Listing 2: EGO assembly-language code for [he interfaceprogram.

Comments

Load interface address into R3

Load instruction into R2

Use only lower order byte of R2

Multiply R2 by 2

Multiply R2 by 4

Add for multiply by 6

Add to PC for mem location

INST #0 NOP loop

Go to start of NOP loopINST #1 Load address into R3Load data into R4 (address data)Go to NOP loop

INST #2 Load address into R3

Load data into R3

Load data into (R4)

Go to NOP loop

INST #3 Load address into R3

Go to (data)

Go to NOP loop

INST #4 Load address into R3Load (R4) into R2Load R2 into interfaceGo to NOP loop

Memory location 8188 holds a number between 0 and 4This number vectors execution to routines at locations 9, 15,21, 27, or 33. The routine at location 9 executes NOPnstructions. The routine at location 15 loads register 4 withthe contents of register memory location 8189. The routine atlocation 21 stores the contents of memory location 8189 atthe address pointed to by register 4 Location 27's routinetransfers control to the program whose start address isstored in memory location 8189. Finally, location 33s routinemoves the data at the memory location pointed to byregister 4 into location 8188. By storing the properinformation at locations 8188 and 8189. another processorconnected to EGO's data bus can effectively move programsinto EGO for execution and retrieve the results.

Memory

Location

Instruction

0

LD 3#8188

2

LD 2,(3)

3

AND 2,#255

5

SL 2,2

6

SL 1,2

7

ADD 1.2

8

ADD 0,1

9

NOP

10

NOP

11

NOP

12

NOP

13

LD 0.#8

15

LD 3,#8189

17

LD 4,(3)

18

LD 0,#8

20

NOP

21

LD 3,#8189

23

LD 3,(3)

24

LD (4),3

2z

LD 0,#8

27

LD 3,#8189

29

DEC 0.(3)

3C

LD 0,#8

32

NOP

J3

LD 3,#8188

35

LD 2,(4)

36

LD (3),2

37

LD 0.#8

cessors execute implicitly. Listing I shows the direct andindirect subroutine calls and the return routine.

Programs and Benchmarks

Listings 2 and 3 are examples written in assembly lan-guage for EGO. Listing 2 is the source code for the inter-face program. It resides at the lowest part in memory sothat on an interrupt, this program controls what occurs.The interface program allows a simple means of commu-nicating with EGO using memory-mapped I/O (input/out-put). It recognizes five instructions: no operation, load ad-

Listing 3

: EGO asse

mbly-language code for an 8- by

8-bit multiply.

Memory

Location

Instruction

Comments

2048

LD 5.4

Load first number into R5

2049

LD 0,#8

Return to no-op loop in interface program

2051

LD 6,#8

Load number of bits into R6

2053

LD 8.#0

Clear result register R8

2055 loop

RR 5,5

Rotate rightmost bit into carry flag

2056

ADD 0,#1 I

Jump to shift on no carry

2058

ADD 8,4

Add R4 to R8 to generate the result

2059 shift

SL 4,4

Shift R4 one bit left

2060

DEC 6,6

Decrement the bit count

2061

SUB 0,#8 P If R6 is positive make another loop

2063

LD 3,#8188

Load address of interface into R3

2065

LD (3),8

Send result to interface

2066

LD 0,#8

Return to no-op loop in interface program

dress data, send data to memory defined by the addressdata, go to the address data location and run a program,and send data from the address location to the interfaceprogram.

Listing 3 is a simple 8- by 8-bit multiply program con-trolled by the interface program.

To get an idea of EGO's speed, I wrote a machine-lan-guage version of the Sieve of Eratosthenes program. Al-though EGO doesn't have enough memory to run the en-tire 16K-byte limit for primes, I ran it to 2K and extrapo-lated. Based on those calculations, it would take EGOabout 3.6 seconds to do 10 iterations up to 16384. Thisis approximately one-half the time required for a Z80 tomake the same calculation running at the same clockspeed. With the 4-MHz clock and the average instructiontaking between 6 and 9 clock periods, EGO can averageabout 0.5 million instructions per second.

Since I am interested in simulation and one of the pur-poses of EGO was to be useful, I wrote some integer andfloating-point routines to start an operating system. Thefloating-point variables have a 32-bit signed mantissa anda 16-bit signed exponent. This provides about ninedecimal places, or accuracy with an exponent greater than9000. Benchmarks on these routines provided theseresults:

Multiply

0.575 ms

Divide

0.955 ms

Add

0 1 15 ms

It is interesting to note that while the hardware for EGOtook only a few months to complete, the software hastaken much longer. Presently, on the Tandy 2000 I havean assembler, an editor, a tiny FORTRAN-type languagecompiler, and a linker written in BASIC.

Next month I'll discuss the design details of EGO's hard-ware. We'll take a tour of a machine cycle and see howthe hardware supports the EGO instruction set.' ■

242

BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

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Inquiry 350

HOMEBREWING

THE QUARTER-MEGATARI 800XL

BY CLAUS BUCHHOLZ

Upgrade your 8-bit microprocessor to 2 56K bytesand add a RAM disk

IT'S GETTING HARDER to find amicrocomputer with less than 64Kbytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory). A couple of years ago,the cost per bit of the 64K-bit RAMfell below its predecessor, the 16K-bitdynamic RAM, and the 64K-byte ad-dress space supplied by eight of the64K-bit chips is ideal for the mostcommon 8-bit microprocessors. Now,however, the cost per bit of the 2 56K-bit dynamic RAM is the lowest, andit is already common in powerful 16-and 32-bit microcomputer systems.

Since eight of these chips provideone-quarter of a megabyte and sincethey are so similar to their ancestors,it is tempting to upgrade an inexpen-sive 64K-byte micro to 2 56K bytes.Obviously, you cant fit 2 56K bytes ofmemory into the 64K-byte addressspace of a 6502 or Z80 all at once,but you can break it up into manage-able chunks, called banks, and allowthe processor to see one bank at atime. This method of interfacing RAM,called bank selection, requires somenew hardware and software support.

This article describes the upgradeand presents a RAM-disk controllerfor the Atari 800XL. However, you canapply the basic idea to any micro that

uses 64K-bit RAMs—the Apple lie, theCommodore 64, the MSX machines,and others.

The Atari 800XL

The 800XL is a modern version of thepopular Atari 800. |Editor's note: See }onEdwards's "Atari 800XL' system review,March BYTE, page 267.] Introduced in1979, the 800 was the first machineto use VLSI (very-large-scale integra-tion) technology to bring advancedgraphics and sound capabilities intothe low-price market. It was also thefirst to include a full operating systemin ROM (read-only memory) to sup-port the versatile hardware. RAM con-sisted of up to three 16K-bytemodules, each constructed aroundeight 16K-bit dynamic RAM chips.

In the 800. the 6502 processorshares the system with a program-mable video DMA (direct memory ac-cess) controller, which halts the 6502for one cycle of the 1.8-MHz clockwhen it needs to access a byte ofscreen memory. The 800XL incor-porates the same VLSI hardware withnewer, higher-density RAM and ROM.One 16K-byte ROM holds the entireoperating system, and another 8K-byte ROM contains the BASIC lan-

guage. The RAM consists of eight64K-bit dynamic RAM chips. UnderBASIC, 40K bytes of RAM are usable.The ROMs, which occupy high mem-ory space, can be disabled to gain ac-cess to the remaining RAM. The newdesign is smaller, cheaper, less power-hungry and more attractive. The Atariis unquestionably a very fine machine.

The Dynamic RAM

The industry-standard dynamic RAMchip is itself an example of superbdesign. It is small, dense, adequatelyfast, and cheap. In the last decade, itsmemory capacity has doubled eighttimes without the chip outgrowing its16-pin IC (integrated circuit) package.Each chip inputs or outputs one bitat a time, so each bit has a uniqueaddress.

For the 2 56K-bit chip, the addressrequires 18 bits. The chip has nineaddress inputs, each of which does

[continued)Claus Buchholz (201C East Edgewood,Lansing, Ml 48910) is a programmer forMeridian Instruments. He has a B.S. inastrophysics and computer science fromMichigan State University. He uses an Atari800 with a homebrew \92K-byte RAM andan ATR-8000.

SEPTEMBER

IYTE 247

QUARTER-MEG ATARI

double duty. During the first part ofa memory access, half of the addressbits are presented to the chip. Thishalf is called the row address. Later inthe access cycle, the chip receives theother half of the address, called thecolumn address. The storage cells in thechip lie in a matrix, and the cell beingaddressed lies at the intersection ofthe row and column specified. Tocomplete the access cycle, the chipreads or writes the selected bit.

The 800XL uses 64K-bit RAM chips,which have eight address inputs foran 8-bit row address and an 8-bit col-umn address. This is fine for the 16-bitaddresses the 6502 supplies. Thereare eight chips, and each contributesone bit to each byte of RAM.

The 2 56K-bit RAM is practicallyidentical to the 64K-bit RAM exceptthat it has one extra pin. #1 on thechip, to accommodate the two addi-tional address bits it needs. Pin #1 onthe 64K-bit chip has no function. Thefunctions of all the other pins on bothchips are identical. Therefore, ourupgrade involves unplugging the eight64K-bit RAMs and placing eight 2 56K-bit chips in their place. We must alsoadd some circuitry to provide twoextra address bits for pin #1.

The storage cells in dynamic RAMchips are actually microscopic capac-itors, storing an amount of electriccharge that represents a 0 or 1 bitSince capacitors leak charge, theymust be periodically recharged or re-freshed. The chip refreshes one ortwo entire rows when accessed. Everyrow must be accessed frequently tokeep the stored data accurate, but

normal operation of RAM can'tguarantee that. The computer systemmust therefore provide special accesscycles called refresh cycles, dummy readcycles in which refresh addresses areused as row addresses.

The 16K- and 64K-bit RAMs require7-bit refresh addresses. The computermust provide all 128 possible refreshaddresses every few thousandths ofa second to keep the RAM refreshed.In the Atari, the video controller,which provides refresh cycles in ad-dition to its screen-memory accesses,automatically provides 7 bits for therefresh address. The Atari, in fact,spends 8 percent of its time refresh-ing RAM.

One snag in designing the 2 56K-byte upgrade is that standard 2 56K-bit RAMs require an 8-bit refreshaddress. Older versions of the Atarivideo-controller chip provide only 7bits of refresh address; newer versionsprovide all 8 bits. Therefore. I have de-signed two versions of the upgrade'sinterface circuit. The more complexone must add another bit to theAtari's refresh address. (See table 1for a list of components.)

Bank Selection

To fit 2 56K bytes into the 6502 s 64K-byte memory space, you must divideit into banks. The upgrade uses eight32K-byte banks, numbered 0 through7 and selected by setting 3 bits in theAtari's memory-control register. Anyone bank can appear in the lower halfof the 6502s memory space. Atpower-up, bank #7 appears in thelower 32K bytes of RAM. bank #6 ap-

Table 1: Tine components

you'll need to upgrade the Atari 800XL.

Quantity Part Number

Description

8 41256

256K-bit dynamic RAM (200 ns or faster)

1 —

33-ohm, 'A-watt resistor

(following part for circuit in figure 1 only)

1 74LS153 Dual 4-to-1 multiplexe-

(following parts for circuit in1 74LS151

figure 2 only)8-to-1 multiplexer

1 74LS393

Dual 4-bit counter

1 74LS00

Quad NAND gate

pears in the top 32K bytes, and theAtari acts as a normal 64K-bytemachine. To access bytes in the other192K. a program must select one ofbanks #0 through #5, which wouldthen appear in place of bank #7. Afteraccessing the bytes, the programcould then switch bank #7 back in,restoring the normal configuration.

I used eight 32K-byte banks insteadof four 64K-byte banks for threereasons. If a program in RAM were toreplace the entire 64K bytes of RAMwith another bank, it would causeitself to disappear, crashing the sys-tem. Moreover, the top 32 K bytes ofthe address space is already clutteredwith hardware addresses and ROMsthat can be switched in and out. Final-ly, the screen RAM is usually in thetop 32K: switching it out would causeglitches to appear on the screen.

Even with eight 32K-byte banks, wemust be cautious. The operatingsystem keeps important data in thelower part of RAM. and it expects thedata to be there. Worse, interrupts fre-quently invoke routines that keep datain low RAM. Programs must thereforefollow a strict rule: Keep bank #7enabled as much as possible. If youselect another bank, you must firstdisable all interrupts and not call theoperating system until bank #7 isrestored. One further considerationinvolves the 6502's stack, which is inlow memory. The program should notuse the stack when bank #7 is notselected, unless it takes great care tokeep the stack valid.

Interfacing the RAM

Figure l is a schematic diagram of theinterface circuit for the 2 56K-byteRAM. It must be assembled on asmall circuit board and installed insidethe computer because the computer'sexpansion slot doesn't carry thesignals we need. The circuit consistsof two chips and replaces one of thechips on the motherboard. It also re-quires four jumper wires to variouspoints on the motherboard.

The circuit plugs into the socket atposition U27 on the motherboard.This gives it access to six important

{continued)

248 BYTE ■ SEPTEMBER 1985

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 249

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QUARTER-MEG ATARI

signals, including power and ground.The chip that was at U27 becomes IC!in the circuit. As U27. this chip wasone of the two responsible for select-ing which 8 of the 16 address bitswere passed to the 64K-bit RAMs atone time.

IC2 performs the bank selection bymodifying one of the eight originaladdress inputs to the RAMs and add-ing a ninth. The bank-selection cir-cuitry needs three jumpers from themotherboard to carry 3 bits from theAtari's memory-control register. Afourth jumper carries the ninth ad-dress input to the RAMs.

Figure 2 shows the four-chip inter-face circuit necessary for machinescontaining the older version of thevideo controller. IC3, an 8-bit binarycounter that counts the refresh cycles,supplies the eighth bit of the refreshaddress for the 2 56K-bit chips. The

refresh signal it uses comes througha jumper wire from the motherboard.Parts of IC1. 1C2. and IC4 perform thebank selection in this circuit.

Performing the Upgrade

To disassemble the 800XL. removethe six screws on the underside andseparate the top and bottom portionsof the plastic case. Be careful of theflexible keyboard cable. Pull it straightup out of its socket on the mother-board. To detach the motherboardfrom the case bottom, remove threescrews—one on the right side, one inthe right rear corner, and one in theleft rear. Gently pull the board free.Next, remove the small nuts andbolts around the metal shielding thatencases the motherboard. On the leftside of the exposed motherboard,locate the row of eight 16-pin RAMchips, lust to their right is U27 Behind

A15

A7

vCC

V(

MUX

A4

A12RA4

A5A13RA5

A6Al(RA6Vss

Vss

X

S IC1

74LS1580a

la

Za

Ob

lb

Zb

0c

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IC274LS153

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RAMs -PIN 1IC23 -PIN 14IC23-PIN 15IC23-PIN 16

MOTHERBOARD

JUMPER

CONNECTIONS

DIP HEADERAND RIBBONCABLE

Figure I: The schematic diagram of the interface circuit for the 256K-byteRAM. Use this circuit if the part number on the video controller is C021697.

250 BYTE • SEPTEMBER IWr>

QUARTER-MEG ATARI

U27 is a 3-inch square area that fitsinside the shielding. The circuit goesthere because the shielding is highesttoward the rear.

Replace the 64K-bit RAMs with the2 56K-bit RAM chips. The new RAMsare very easily destroyed by static dis-charges, so extreme care is necessaryin their handling. Lay aluminum foil onthe work surface and keep themotherboard, RAM chips, tools, andyour hands in contact with the foil atall times. This keeps everything at thesame potential, decreasing the pos-sibility of damage.

On the motherboard, locate thevideo controller, the 40-pin chip atU7. If the part number stamped on itreads "C021697," you can use thesimpler circuit shown in figure 1. If thenumber reads "C012296," you mustuse the larger circuit.

Assemble the appropriate circuit ona 2- by 3-inch circuit board (RadioShack's #276-150 is ideal). Use verylow-profile sockets or no sockets at allbecause the shielding severely limitsthe height. If you do not use sockets,be careful not to apply heat to the ICpins for too long. Keep the wiring onthe chip side of the board to conservespace. The wiring must be solderedbecause there is no room for wire-wrap posts.

The board plugs into the socket atU27viaa 16-pin DIP header and shortribbon cable. Finally, install thejumper wires. Find a resistor markedR32 immediately behind the row ofRAM chips and remove it. A tracefrom one of the holes runs to pin 1of the RAMs. Solder the first jumperto that hole. The next three jumpersrun to a parallel port that the Atariuses to control ROM switching. Weneed pins 14 through 16, which arenormally unused and not connectedto any traces. Locate U2 3 and care-fully pry the 40-pin chip from itssocket. Bend up pins 14, 15, and 16so that they point straight out. Re-insert the chip. Cut three adjacent pinpositions from an IC socket andsolder the three jumpers to them. Usethis custom socket to connect thejumpers to the three protruding pins.

[continued)

Inquiry 167

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 251

QUARTER-MEG ATARI

Cover the connector with electricaltape because the shielding is very lowat this point.

If you are using the circuit of figure2. you must install a fifth jumper.Locate a trace on the motherboardfrom pin 8 of the video controller. U7.Find a hole along the trace and solderthe jumper there. Finally, insert a thin

piece of stiff cardboard or plasticunder the small circuit board to avoidshorting the circuit. Refasten theshielding to the motherboard. If itdoesn't fit over the circuit, carefullypound a dent out of the shielding witha hammer. Reassemble the computer.If all has gone well, the computershould power up normally and per-

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form exactly as before, as long as the3 bits in the memory-control registerare left alone. The computer is readyto try some software that makes useof the large RAM space.

The RAM-Disk Software

Bank-selectable RAM is useless with-out software to control it. The soft-ware must obey strict rules as out-lined above to work properly. Thesoftware must also be tailored to fitthe application.

For example, you could store manygraphics screens in the RAM and usepage flipping to display them in quicksuccession for animation. Alternative-ly, the RAM could act as a printspooler. A word processor could printan entire document quickly into theRAM and go on to other jobs whilethe RAM emptied its contents slowlyto a printer.

A more universal application is theRAM disk, a RAM-based disk-drivesimulator. To DOS (disk operatingsystem) and to the user's programs,the RAM disk appears to be justanother disk drive, except that it isvery fast. Application programs couldthen use standard DOS commands toaccess the large RAM space. The192K bytes of available RAM holdmore data than two Atari 810 drivesor one double-density drive. I havewritten an assembly-language pro-gram that modifies the Atari'soperating system to treat the RAM aseither a single-density or double-density disk drive. The program isavailable for downloading asATARIRAM.ASM on BYTEnet Listings,(617) 861-9774. It works with AtariDOS 2.0. OS/A+ (versions through2.xx) and compatible DOSes. Assem-ble the source code with any assem-bler that accepts the syntax of theAtari Assembler/Editor. Assemblyproduces an object file that performsseveral tasks as it loads. First, it copiesthe operating system from ROM intothe underlying RAM. Next, the RAM-disk routines load into the RAM-based operating system, overwritingthe international character set. a little-used feature of the 800XL. Finally, it

{continued)

252 BYTE • SEPTEMBER IWi

Inquiry 332

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Inquiry 63

SEPTEMBER !985 -BYTE 253

QUARTER-MEG ATARI

patches the operating system to install tions: the drive number and the den-

the RAM-disk program and calls sity. The RAM disk can act as any

DOS's initialization routine to let DOS drive numbered 1 to 8. If you have

recognize the new drive. one real drive, you might want the

The source code provides two op- RAM disk to be drive number 2.

REF

U7-PIN 8

(JUMPER TO

MOTHERBOARD

A15A7

IC27

MUX

A4

A12

RA4

A5

A13

RA5

A6

A14

RA6

VssVss

r»

VccIC3_ 74LS393CI Q3

J

IC474LS00

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-< PB4-< PB5

-<PB6 IC23V

IC23 -PIN 14IC23 -PIN 15

-PIN 16

J

MOTHERBOARD

JUMPER

CONNECTIONS

DIP HEADERAND RIBBONCABLE

Figure 2: Use this circuit if the video controller part number reads C012296.

Remember that your DOS must be setup to look for the drive numberchosen. See the DOS manual for in-structions concerning drive numbers.

Like the Atari 810 disk drive, asingle-density RAM disk has 720 sec-tors of 128 bytes each, for a total of90K bytes. Like all double-density diskdrives for the Atari, a double-densityRAM disk has 720 sectors of 2 56bytes, for a total capacity of 180K.bytes. Atari DOS checks each drive ina system for its density and compen-sates. All DOS functions exceptduplicate disk operate with double-density drives. You obviously cannotduplicate a double-density disk to asingle-density disk and vice versa.

Boot in the RAM-disk object fileafter DOS by renaming the object fileAUTORUN.SYS. Once the file hasloaded, you must format the RAMdisk before use. You can do thismanually from DOS, use the BASICXIO command, use a call to CIO inmachine code, or rely on an applica-tion program.

RESET and warm starts won't harmthe contents of the RAM disk. If youreboot without powering down(through a POKE 580,1 and RESET orby jumping to SE477 in machinecode), you must reload the RAM-diskprogram to access the data, which willremain unharmed in the RAM disk.The RAM-disk program, therefore,does not automatically format theRAM disk upon loading.

The major disadvantage of theRAM-disk approach is that all data islost when the computer is turned off.You should therefore be sure to saveimportant data to a real disk beforeending. However, the speed, conve-nience, and versatility of the RAMdisk outweigh its drawbacks.

Uses

Assembly-language programmers,after studying the RAM-disk sourcecode and heeding the rules above,can devise many practical uses for aquarter-megabyte of RAM. The largeRAM space, joined with the Atari'sversatile hardware and low price, pro-vides a performance/price ratio thatis unbeatable in today's market. ■

254 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198i

Compare theHercules Color Card

to IBM's.

Five reasons why the Hercules Color Card is better.

h

1. Compatibility

3. Size.

4. Flexibility.

5. Warranty.

IBM Color Adapter $244

Runs hundreds of graphicsprograms.

2. Printer port. None.

13.25 inches. Limited to longslots.

Can't always work with aHercules Graphics Card.

90 days.

Hercules Color Card $245

Runs the same hundreds ofgraphics programs. "TheHercules Color Card is so nearlyidentical to the IBM Color/Graphics Card that it's almostuncanny." PC Mag.

Standard. Our parallel portallows you to hook up to any IBMcompatible printer.

5.25 inches. Fits in a long or shortslot in a PC, XT, AT or Portable.

Always works with a HerculesGraphics Card by means of asoftware switch.

Two years.

Any one of these five features is enough reason to buy a Hercules Color Card. Butperhaps the most convincing reason of all is just how easy the Hercules Color Card is touse: "Right out of the box, the Hercules Color Card goes into an empty expansion slot,ready for you to plug in. . . and go to work—no jumpers, no software. For mostapplications, it's just that easy." PC Magazine.

Call 1-800-532-0600 Ext. 421 for the name of the Hercules dealer nearest you andwe'll rush you our free info kit. tt l

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Inquiry 168Address: Hercules, 2550 Ninth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Ph: 415 540-6000 Telex: 754063 Trademarks/Owners: Hercules/Hercules Computer Technology: IBM/IBM.

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HOMEBREWING

A PARALLEL-TO-SERIAL PRINTERPORT ADAPTER

by Howard Austerlitz

Build this $3 5 adapterand use your parallel port for serial devices

MOST PERSONAL COMPUTERS haveat least one parallel (Centronics]printer port. But if your printer has aserial (RS-232C) interface, that parallelport is usually wasted. The adapterdescribed here can be built foraround $3 5 and will convert the out-put of your computer's parallel portto serial form for driving a printer,plotter, or any read-only device.

The only limitation of this device isthat it must use hardware as opposedto software (XON/XOFF) handshaking.However, software handshakingdetection can be added. While the cir-cuit shown in figure 1 was designedto work with the IBM Personal Com-puter and compatibles, it will alsowork with most other personal com-puters that have a Centronics-com-patible printer port. Best of all, it re-quires no extra software. It looks justlike a parallel printer to yourcomputer.

Circuit Operation

The heart of the adapter is 1C1, aUART (universal asynchronous re-ceiver/transmitter) that converts the 8parallel bits coming from the PC to a

serial bit stream driving the printer.The serial data rate out of the UARTis determined by IC2, the clockgenerator, which is a 555 oscillator setat 16 times the desired data-transmis-sion rate. Transmitter IC4 converts theUART's TTL (transistor-transistor logic)output to RS-2 32C levels.

Two control lines from the PCsparallel port are used—STROBE (out-put) and BUSY (input). At power-on,1C1 and IC5 are reset by R4, C3, andlC3c, initializing the BUSY line to low.After the PC has put valid data on theparallel port (output lines D0-D7), itsends a (low) pulse to STROBE. Thispulse loads the parallel data into 1C1and begins the serial data transmis-sion by activating its DS (data strobe)line. It also sets the flip-flop IC5, keep-ing the PCs BUSY line active (high).The PC will not send another charac-ter until its BUSY line goes low again.When IC1 has finished the serial trans-mission, its EOC (end of character)line outputs a high pulse that resetsIC5 and returns the PCs BUSY linelow. Now another STROBE pulse fromthe PC can begin the next character-transmission cycle. Switch SI allows a

manual reset at any time to turn offBUSY.

Some serial printers have a hard-ware handshaking (output) line ontheir RS-232C interface to tell thecomputer if it is ready, busy, or hasan error condition. This line, desig-nated READY/ERROR, is convertedto TTL levels by the RS-232C receiver,IC6, and then applied as one input toOR gate IC7b along with the outputof IC5 to drive the PCs BUSY input.This enables the printer to suspendthe PCs output when needed. If yourprinter or plotter doesn't have aREADY/ERROR line, you can leave out1C6 and IC7b (connect IC5 pin 5directly to CONN1 pin 11).

The adapter requires three power-supply voltages: + 5 volts at 150 milli-amps for most of the chips, and ± 5 Vto ± 15 V at 20 mA for the RS-232C

[continued]Howard Austerlitz is an instructor in theDepartment of Materials Science andEngineering at State University of New Yorkat Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY 11794)and a researcher interested in ultrasonics,signal analysis, and multiprocessor computersystems.

-*— Inquiry 240

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 257

Inquiry 149

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PRINTER PORT ADAPTER

To set the data rate,connect a frequencycounter or oscilloscopeto the output of IC2and adjust thetrimmer potentiometerto obtain 16 times thedesired data rate.

transmitter, IC4. You can either usecommercial power supplies or buildthe one shown in figure 2. This unituses an inexpensive, unregulated walltransformer power supply, nominally+ 9 V at 2 50 mA, which is filtered forIC4's + 9 V source and regulated byIC8 for the +5 V source. This +9 Valso powers IC9, a negative voltage

converter, which produces the(nominal) -9 V for IC4. R6 and Zenerdiode Dl protect the input to IC9,which is rated at 10 V maximum.

CONSTRUCTIOM

Figure 3 lists the parts necessary tobuild this parallel-to-serial adapter,and photo 1 shows a top view of theassembled adapter board. The con-struction method you use can be wire-wrap and/or point-to-point soldering.Use sockets for all ICs (except IC8, the+ 5V regulator). You can wire theparallel-port connector (CONN1) to aDIP header via ribbon cable, but tryto keep this cable as short as possible.

Setup

After wiring the adapter, test thepower supply before you plug in anyICs. If +9 V is not present, neither will+ 5 V or -9 V be (if you use the sup-ply from figure 2). LED1 ('Power')should light. Check for proper supplyvoltages at the IC sockets. Now turnoff the power and plug in the ICs. butdo not connect the PC or printer yet.

[continued]

DACOR

Photo 1: A top view of the parallel-to-serial printer port adapter. Notice the powertoggle switch, reset button, and BUSY LED indicator on the left side of the case andthe parallel cable and serial cable extending out the right.

258

SEPTEMBER 198^

PRINTER PORT ADAPTER

T

I,

BUSYtPENO

I

CONN1(PARALLEL POST)

|i6 I is \u |w at 37 b

Vcc sv»l RDAV CS NP TSBNB2NB1

READY/ERROR

I

CONN2(SERIAL PORT)

Figure I: A schematic for the parallel-to-serial adapter. The (CONN1) to a serial bit stream output at serial port CONN2

UART (IC1) converts the 8 bits coming in at the parallel port that can drive a read-only device with an RS-232C interface.

+ 9VA

S2"POWER"

117 VAC

PS1

(9VDC WALLTRANSFORMER P/Sl

^>—^

^>

CONN 3

+ 5V

R656SI

T\01

9 6VZENER

m

IC9

ICL7660

C+C-

J7

~~E]_C74 ^"piOMF

021N4148

C8

—r- 100MF

m

C4

'lOO^F

IC87805IN OUT

• C5•0 1MF

■ C6■10MF

rh

Figure 2: The power-supply adapter for the parallel-to-serial converter of figure I.

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 259

PRINTER PORT ADAPTER

First, the data rate has to be set.Connect a frequency counter or oscil-loscope to the output of IC2 (pin 3).Adjust trimmer potentiometer R3("Baud Adj.") to obtain 16 times thedesired data rate. For example, if youneed 300 bits per second for yourserial printer, adjust R3 for 4800 Hz(300x 16). If you're running faster thanabout 2400 bps. you'll have todecrease the value of C2 to get therequired frequency.

Next, wire in the RS-232C connec-tor (CONN2). Check the user's manualon your printer for information on wir-ing its serial interface. You may haveto jumper DTR (data terminal ready!to DSR (data set readyl on theprinter's connector to enable it.

Finally, wire in the parallel port con-nector. The pin numbers given infigure 1 are strictly for an IBM PC thatuses a DB-2 5 connector instead of thestandard Centronics one. Note that

One possible

PARTS LIST

Resistors ('A-W, 10 percent)

R1.R5

510 ohms

R2

2000 ohms

R3

50.000 ohms trimmer potentiometer—10 turn

R4

470.000 ohms

R6

56 ohms

Capacitors

C1

0.01 mR 50-V disc

C2

0.001 pJR 50-V metal film

C3

1 nF, 50-V electrolytic

C4.C8

100 /xF, 35-V electrolytic

C5

0.1 mR 50-V disc

C6.C7

10 fiF, 35-V electrolytic

Semiconductors

D1

9.6-V, 1-W Zener diode

D2

1N4148, general-purpose diode

IC1

AY3-1015D, UART

IC2

LM555, timer

IC3

74LS00, quad NAND gate

IC4

MC1488, quad RS-232C transmitter

IC5

74LS74, dual D flip-flop

IC6

MC1489, quad RS-232C receiver

IC7

74LS32. quad OR gate

IC8

7805. + 5-V regulator

IC9

ICL7660, negative voltage converter

LED1

Green light-emitting diode

LED2

Red light-emitting diode

Connectors and Switches

CONN1

DB-25P connector (for PC parallel port)

CONN2

DB-25 connector for printer (S or P depends on printer)

CONN3

Mating connector for PS1

S1

SPST momentary push-button switch

S2

SPDT mini toggle switch

Hardware and Miscellaneous

PS1

Wall-transformer power supply, 9 V DC at 250 mA (minimum)

Perfboard,

wire-wrap IC sockets, wire, ribbon cable, case, mounting hardware

Figure 3: A parts list for the parallel-to-serial converter of figure l and thepower-supply adapter of figure 2.

enhancement for thisadapter is to couple it toa serial-to-parallelconverter

+ PEND (pin 12) is grounded to en-sure that the PC doesn't think theprinter is out of paper.

Normally, when the adapter is firstturned on. LED2 (BUSY) should notlight if the parallel port is inactive.Regardless, pressing switch S2 (Reset)will turn it off. When the printer portis being used. LED2 will be flashingon and off. Remember that it onlygives an indication that the UART (IC1)is busy, not necessarily the printer (ifthe READY/ERROR line is used).

Other Notes

Some personal computers haveparallel ports that use a second inputcontrol line (besides BUSY), the ACKline. If required, a low pulse must bepresent on this line before the PC willsend the next character (even if BUSYhas been reset). Most PCs do not useACK since BUSY provides all therequired handshaking. However, ifyou need to use ACK, try adding aone-shot multivibrator (i.e.. a 74LS123)triggered by the Q output of IC5. Setit to produce a 1-microsecond nega-tive pulse on the ACK line.

If you need to support software(XON/XOFF) handshaking for a serialdevice, you can use the receiver halfof the UART (1C1) to detect the hand-shake characters from the printer. TheUART's DAV (data available) line canbe used to toggle a flip-flop, whoseoutput goes into an OR gate alongwith the BUSY line.

One possible enhancement for thisadapter is to couple it to a serial-to-parallel converter. This will produce aparallel port extender for long hauls.Use your imagination and see whatelse you can come up with. ■

260 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 19X5

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jr 425 First Street • PO. Box 1961 • Wausau, Wisconsin 54401

Inquiry 406 for Hardware. Inquiry 407 for Software Inquiry 408 for September Specials

HOMEBREWING

ADD FUNCTION

KEYS TO YOUR

MICROCOMPUTER

by Mark Hanslip

Expand your parallel keyboard

MOST MICROCOMPUTERS now com-ing into the market have built-in soft-ware-programmable function keys.Many applications require the use offunction keys, partly because theyprovide a consistent and quicklymastered user interface. Undoubtedly,many owners of older machineswould also like some of that simplicity.For those whose machines did notcome so equipped, the answer is afunction-key generator.

1 have designed a function-key-gen-erator circuit that will produce up to15 keystrokes with the push of onebutton. You can attach the circuit tothe parallel-encoded keyboard of anymicrocomputer or word processorand use it with any operating system.The design allows 40 function keysand can be expanded to 60. You canalso expand the 15-keystroke limit.The entire project involves two sepa-rate devices—a keyboard splitter anda function generator—and costs ap-proximately $20 to assemble.

Keyboard Splitter

The keyboard splitter is a very simpledevice (see figure 1). Its function is

analogous to a coaxial antenna split-ter, it combines two signals in one.When the keyboard splitter is con-nected, it allows the keyboard and thefunction-key generator to work with-out interfering with each other.

When both strobes are high, both74LS244 buffers go into a high Z state.When either strobe is low. the data ispassed through that specific buffer.The other buffer will still be in a highZ state and will not impair valid data.The pull-up resistor on the FKSTB(function-key strobe) line allows you todisconnect the function generator, soit will not trigger falsely. In an idlestate, the strobes from your keyboard(STB) and FKSTB are both high, gen-erating a low output at pin 6 of the7400 NAND gate. When either strobegoes low, the output at pin 6 will gohigh until both strobes go high again.I have included another 7400 gate toprovide an inverted strobe output (atCSTB) for those computers that re-quire it. The function-key generatorproduces a high-going-low strobe.Some keyboards are low-going-highand some are the opposite. Deter-mine which type you have before you

start. Check your computer's sche-matic or use a logic probe. For a high-going-low strobe from your keyboard,connect B to C and use output E toconnect to your computer. For a low-going-high strobe, connect A to C anduse output D.

The easiest method of constructionis to use a small perf board. It shouldbe large enough to hold all thesockets and the connector for the key-board and the function generator. Ifyour microcomputer has a keyboardconnector (as the Apple does), it isbest to use this connector so that thekeyboard splitter can be removedlater. Wire lengths are not critical, butit is best to keep them as short aspossible.

Function-Key Generator

The function-key generator's circuitryrequires a minimum of discrete com-

{continued)Mark Hanslip is a systems analyst with NCRin Dayton. Ohio. He is a graduate of theUniversity of Cincinnati and a past presidentof the Dayton Microcomputer Association. Hecan be contacted at 143 Schloss Lane.Dayton. OH 45418-2931.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 26J

ADDING FUNCTION KEYS

ponents and is easy to assemble. Atits heart is the 74C923 20-key en-coder chip. When you connect thischip to a 4- by 5-key matrix, it pro-vides switch debouncing, a latchedoutput, and a DAV idata available)signal—all on a 20-pin dual in-linepackage.

In figure 2. the data lines of the74C92 3 and SI connect to the upperaddress lines of the 2 716. When a keyis pressed, the output of the 74C92 3selects a 16-byte block in the 2716that holds the ASCII (American Stan-dard Code for Information Inter-change) codes corresponding to onefunction key. The DAV line from the74C92 3 goes high as long as a key isheld down, resetting the outputs ofthe 74193 counter to zeros andholding AIO of the 2716 high. Whenthe key is released, AIO goes low andthe 0 byte of the group appears on

the D0-D7 data lines. D7 is low on allvalid data, therefore, enabling theclock output from the 74121 to go tothe 74193. As the counter advances,each byte of the sequence is pre-sented on the data lines until a bytewith its high bit set to 1 is output. Thehigh on the D7 will turn off the flowof the pulses to the 74193 and ter-minate the current function key's se-quence. This condition lasts until anew key is pressed.

Construction of the function-keygenerator is easy. Most of the connec-tions are point to point. I found it bestto use project boards that have powerbuses running through the board(Radio Shack Part No. 276-154). Thismakes all the power connectionsmuch easier. A good source for key-boards is lameco Electronics. Thekeyboard can be any type. The bestones are low-profile calculator

NORMALKEYBOARD

VCC1A1 1Y1

74LS244

2Y4

2A4'.A.2A3I0 )2A21A42A1

Tg

1Y2

2Y31Y32Y2

1Y4

2Y1

2G GND

1

10K

PULLUP

RESISTOR

FUNCTION

ke reoARi

+ 5V19 |20

1G1A1

742A4

1A32A21A4

2A1

1Y3

2Y1

1'

TOCOMPUTER

I"

5.' " J»

I

"1

^Zh

i

Figure I: A schematic for the keyboard-splitter circuit.

264

BYTE • SEPTEMBER IM8r>

ADDING FUNCTION KEYS

"R-

5V

h5V20

(lari — —<■

~1

I 11

I 9

KEYBOARD

VCC

Yl

Y2

Y3 74C923 OEY4

Y5 0D

OCXI

X2 OB

X3 0A

X4

_ GND

OE

Y5 OSC DA

JOT

.01 ^tnIuF

16

A8

:

17

A7

2

18

A6

J

A519 4

AW

10K

24

21

VCC VPP00

2716 01

02

03

04

05

06

07

CL

OE

A10 GND

A3 A2 Al AO

I

JT

TO

KEYBOARDSPLITTERCIRCUIT

Q

\lrr 00 QC QB QA

CLR 74193

J-

KZ_P

+ 5V

6

vvi u<~

l'° 1"

14

R|NT CEXT Ri/CE vcc

AlA2GNDB

74121

FKSTB

TO KEYBOARDSPLITTER CIRCUIT

r y v

u

555

TIMER DISCHARGE

CONTROL THRESHOLDVOLTAGE

T

m

,10MF

Figure 2: A schematic of the function-key-generator circuit.

keyboards. The keyboard should bewired in a 5-row by 4-column manner.Connect the keyboard to the 74C923as listed in table 1.

Test the function-key generator verycarefully. Turn the speed of the 5 5 5down to very slow by adjusting thelOOk-ohm variable resistor. Using alogic probe, make sure that pin 13 ofthe 74C92 3 goes from low to highwhen a key is pressed and returns tolow when the key is released. Thencheck to see that pin 3 of the 74193

is changing state right after the key isreleased but eventually stops. Finally,verify that pin 17 of the "2716 goeshigh when the key is pressed andheld, goes low for several countswhen released, and then goes highand remains high. If your circuit failsto pass any of these tests, check forshorts, bad connections, and bad ICs.

Programming

When you program the codes in theEPROM, all you must remember are

a few simple guidelines. The function-key generator will not generate codesabove decimal 127. This is not a prob-lem for ASCII-encoded keyboards, butit can be for keyboards with specialencoding. The function-key generatorwill produce as many as 15 keystrokesfor any given key press. This includesspaces, punctuation, control codes,and carriage returns. Each set ofcodes must conclude with a hexadec-imal 80 to shut off the counter.

{continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 265

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ADDING FUNCTION KEYS

(3a)

000

12

80

8C

60

80

80

80

60

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

010

03

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

020

11

43

80

80

80

80

P,0

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

030

11

62

80

80

80

80

i~

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

040

OF

53

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

200

42

41

53

49

43

0D

80

80

80

80

80

60

80

80

80

80

210

46

49

4C

45

5.)

CD

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

220

46

49

4C

45

53

20

31

0D

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

230

4C

49

4E

45

45

44

49

54

0D

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

240

4D

4F

44

45

4D

50

0D

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

80

(3b)

ADDRESS

KEY

CODE

WORDSTAR COMMAND

000-

OOF

0

CNTRL-R

SCROLL DOWN

010-

01F

1

CNTRL-C

SCROLL UP

020-

02F

2

CNTRL-Q C

BOTTOM OF TEXT

030-

03F

3

CNTRL-Q R

TOP OF TEXT

040-

04F

4

CNTRL-0 S

SET LINE SPACING

ADDRESS

KEY

COMMAND STRING

200-

20F

0

BASIC

210-

21F

1

FILES

220-

22F

2

FILES

1

230-

23F

3

LINEEDIT

240-

24F

4

MODEMP

Figure 3: (a) A dump of a portion of the EPROM the author uses. Notice that eachsequence starts on address xxO. continues to xxF, and is terminated by a hexadecimal80. Although the EPROM actually holds sequences for two sets of function keys—thefirst set between 000 and 13F. the second between 200 and 3 3 F—only the first fivesequences of each set are shown here, [b] These two tables show what is actually storedin each key sequence.

QUANTITY

PART

QUANTITY

PART

1

74193

1

001 nF

1

74121

2

01 MF

2

74LS244

1 mF

1

74C923

10 MF 16V

1

2716

4.7k resistor

1

555

2

10k resistor

2

7400

100k potentiometer

1

24-pin IC socket

SPST toggle switch

3

20-pin IC socket

Project board

1

16-pin IC socket

20-key keyboard

3

14-pin IC socket

Enclosure

1

8-pin IC socket

Miscellaneous connectors

Figure 4: A parts list for the keyboard-splitter and function-key-generator circuits.

[continued)

, Y T E • SEPTEMBER I985

Now there is an even better structured,

compiled programming environment than PROMAL

Introducing PROMAL 2.0 for the IBM PC,

the Apple II, and the Commodore 64.

Until now, the best next languagefor the serious programmerwas PROMAL™ Now, it's the newPROMAL-PROMAL 2.0.

PROMAL 2.0 provides thesame sophisticated struc-tured programmingenvironment, thesame fast one-passcompiler, thesame speed ofexecution, the samepowerful commandsof the earlier release—plus a host of usefulnew features.

Not just a language.A completeprogramming environment.

PROMAL-the PROgrammer'sMicro Application Language —provides you with a complete pro-gramming environment, includinga structured, high level language, apowerful program Editor, and acompiler that quickly turns yoursource code into compact, rapidlyexecuting object code. Plus alibrary of integrated machine-language subroutines for fre-quently used tasks. And for theApple II and the Commodore 64,PROMAL provides a DOS-likeoperating system Executive.

PROMAL 2.0-Even more of a good thing.

In addition to all of the featuresthat have made PROMAL usersdeclare it "the best language I'veever used," PROMAL 2.0 provides:

• Overlays that can becompiled separately for modularprogramming.

• Program size greaterthan 64k. (IBM PC only).

NEW for PROMALThe Graphics Toolbox*

Twenty fast subroutines for creat-ing sophisticated, high-resolutiongraphics, including windows, clip-ping, scaling, and text-on graphicsusing scaled, rotated, user-definedfonts. $29.95.

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Inquiry 3^9

• True machine-to-machineportability.

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Let us prove that PROMAL isyour best next language!

Buy PROMAL 2.0 andtry it for 15 days. If youdon't believe it's yourbest next language, justreturn it for a fullrefund.

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• Compiler I/O from/to disk ormemory.

Executive*

Command oriented with lineediting.

Allows multiple user pro-grams in memory at once

Function key redefinition.

Program abort or pause.

22 resident system commands.Unlimited user-defined commands.Prior command recall/edit.I/O redirection to disk or printer.Batch jobs.

Editor

Full-screen, cursor driven.Function key controlled.Line insert, delete, search.String search and replace.Block copy/move/delete/

read/write.Auto indent, undent support.Edit after error.

Library

50 machine language commands.Memory resident.Call by name with arguments.Formatted real output, string oper-ations and much more.

'Apple II and Commodore 64 only. Requiresone disk drive and 80-column card forApple (lie. He only).

1-800-762-7874

In NC: 919-878-3600

Systems Management Associates3325 Executive Drive, Dept. PB-5Raleigh, North Carolina 27609

Order Form

My system is (check one)

□ IBM PC/100% compatibles D Apple Ilc/IIeD Commodore 64/128

□ Developer's Version-Compiler, Editor,Library, Demo disk, 280-page manual, (plusExecutive for Apple and C-64) and stand-alone program generation.

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□ End-User System for Apple II and Commo-dore 64-aIl features of Developer's versionexcept stand-alone program generation.$49.95+ 5.00 s/h.

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□ My check is enclosed.

□ Please charge to my Visa Mastercard

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NC residents add 4-1/2% sales tax.Foreign orders add $15.00 additional s/h.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 267

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Knowledgeman $225 R Base 5000 $339 ware programs-call for pricing

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Purchase an Okidata, Epson, Citizen. Geminior Toshiba printer and receive at no charge amenu driven program to set print character-istics or to make your computer function as acorrecting typewriter. Retail value $35.Available for most disk formats.

PRINTERS

CITIZEN

MSP-10 $279

MSP-15 Call

MSP-20 425

C-ITOH

F-10-55 1030

8510 Parallel (Pro-writer) 295

8510SEP 399

DAISYWRITER 2000 795

EPSON - Call on all modelsJUKI

Juki 6100 359

Juki 6300 685

Juki Tractors 129

NEC

3550 1009

8850 1349

P2 Parallel 525

P3 Parallel 725

OKIDATA - Call on all modelsPANASONIC

1091 258

1092 Call

1093 515

KXP3151 455

SILVER REED

EXP 400P 235

EXP 500P 289

EXP 550P 399

EXP 770P 699

STAR MICRONICS

SG-10 235

SG-15 369

Call for prices on other modelsTOSHIBA

1340 540

P351 1065

AB PRINT SWITCH 75

COMPUTERS

IBM PC Call

Sperry PC Mono 1650

— — MOUSE SYSTEMS — —PC Mouse w/Paintbrush 120

TERMINALS

Qume QVT-102 Green $448

WYSE 50 450

MICROSOFT

Bus. Mouse 110

Serial Mouse 129

MODEMS

Hayes 1200 Call

Hayes 1200B Call

Hayes 2400 595

Anchor Express 1200 Baud 245

Promodem 1200B 265

Promodem 1200 305

RAM

64K 150NS Chips (set of 9) 7.50

256K Ram Chips (set of 9) 39.50

BOARDS

AST Six Pack Plus w/384K 285

AST Advantage 395

Hercules Color Card 149

Hercules Graphics Board 295

Paradise Graphics Board 259

Paradise Five Pak w/64K 175

Quadram Board 199

Quadcolor I 179

Sigma 384K Expansion Board

w/64K and Clock 145

Sigma Maximizer w/64K 169

512K Expansion Board w/128K 145

STB Graphics Chauffeur Board 255

STB Mono Board 155

TEC Mar Graphics Master 465

DISK DRIVES

Iomega Bernoulli 20 mg 2450

Iomega Bernoulli Plus 20 mg 2625

10 mg External Hard Drive 825

33 mg External Hard Drive 1625

Teac 1/2 Ht. Drives 99

Turbo 10 Internal Drive 625

Turbo 20 Internal Drive 1010

MONITORS

AMDEK J Call for price

Princeton HX-12 449

Princeton Max 12E 179

Taxan 425 399

Taxan 121 Green 125

Taxan 122 Amber 134

CP/M SOFTWARE

Call us for pricing on CP/M Software! Multlplan.Wordstar, Propack, Fortran, Move-It, Crosstalkand more. Most disk formats available.

TERMS: Prices include 3% cash discount. Add 3% for charge orders. Shipping on most items$5.00. AZ orders ^6% Sales Tax. Personal check, allow ten (10) days to clear. Prices subject tochange,

TOLL-FREE ORDER LINE 1-800-421-3135

WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS

2701 West Glendale Ave., Suite 6

Phoenix, AZ 85021

ADDING FUNCTION KEYS

The function-keygenerator willproduce up to15 keystrokes forany given key press.

Figure 3 is a hexadecimal dump ofportions of the EPROM. My designuses SI to switch between two dif-ferent code sets. The first set of codesis stored between addresses 000 and13F and consists of WordStar com-mands. The second set goes from 200to 33F and contains CP/M and BASICcommands. In the lower address sec-tion, we see in line 020 an 11 43. Thisequates to a "Control-Q C." the Word-Star command to move to the bottomof the file. In the upper address sec-tion, look at line 220 and you will see46 49 4C 45 53 20 31 0D. whichequates to "FILES 1 <CR>". Both se-quences are generated by the samekey. but with switch SI set to a dif-ferent position. It is a good idea to getan ASCII chart and make a list of thecodes you want to use.

Conclusion

You can expand the function-key gen-erator. The design 1 have presentedhere uses 20 keys with two sets ofcodes for each, and each key genera-tor provides up to 15 valid keystrokes(see figure 4 for a list of parts). By add-ing a second 74193. you can increasethe number of keystrokes to 32, 64,or 128 per set. A 64-keystroke setwould require 12 bits of address or a2764 to hold all the output codes.Also, by using a three-position switchat SI you could expand to three setsof codes per key. However, this wouldrequire a 2732 EPROM in place of the2716.

The function-key generator is a veryuseful tool for almost any application,from word processing to general pro-gramming. In fact. I used it to help mewrite this article. ■

268 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 387

THE

ADVANTAGES

OF BEING

IN THE

• Earn free airfare andlodging faster.

• Preferred room rates.

• Automatic upgradewhen available.

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The Ramada Business Card. You'll comeout ahead when you're in the red. Call1-800-2-RAMADA for reservations.

NEXT TIME, RAMADA

Ramada Inns, Hotels and Renaissance Hotels 1-800-2-RAMADA

Inquiry 313

c Ramada Inns. Inc . 1985

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 269

Discover the most powerful

The IBMPersonal Computer AT.

Hold on to your hat.

The IBM Personal Computer AT (for AdvancedTechnology! is based on the advanced 80286 16-bitmicroprocessor. This remarkable computer willrun many of the programs written tor the IBM PC,up to three times faster. \ou"ll be able to recalculatelarge spreadsheets in seconds and retrieve files in aflash. And it's ideal for IBM TopYiew. the new kind ofsoftware program that lets you run and "window"several other programs at once.

The IBM Personal Computer AT has got thepower land price) to sui prise you. In many ways.

Compatibility, expandability,networking too.

With the IBM Disk ()perating System, the IBMPersonal Computer AT can use many programsfrom the fastest-growing library in the personalcomputer software industry.

The IBM Personal Computer AT is also availablewith up to 3 million bytes of user memory to runmultiuser, multitasking operating systems suchas XENIX™. Volume upon volume of information isavailable at your fingertips. You can customizeyour system to store up to 20.000 pages of infor-mation at one time. And its keyboard helps you useall of this computing power more easily.

This member of the IBM PC Family is a powerfulstand-alone computer that can also be both the

primary file server and a station on your network.With the IBM PC Network (which is so easy to

IBM Personal Co

User Memory

256KB-3MB*Microprocessor

16/24-bit 80286*

Real and protected modes*

Auxiliary Memory

1.2MB and 360KB diskette

drives*20MB fixed disk drive*41.2MB maximum auxiliary

memory*Keyboard

Enlarged enter and shift keys84 keys10-foot cord*Caps lock, num lock and scrol

lock indicatorsDisplay ScreeniBM Monochrome and Color

DisplaysOperating SystemsDOS 3.0, XENIX* PC/IX 1.1

mputer AT Specifications

Diagnostics

Power-on self-testing*

Parity checking*

CMOS configuration table with

battery backup*LanguagesBASIC. Pascal, FORTRAN. APL,

Macro Assembler. COBOLPrintersSupports attachment of serial

and parallel devicesPermanent Memory(ROM) 64KB

Clock/calendar with battery*Color/GraphicsText ModeGraphics ModeCommunicationsRS-232-C interfaceNetworkingHigh-performance, high-capacity

station on the IBM PC Network*

•Advanced Features for Personal Computers

connect you can do it yourself), the IBM PersonalComputer AT can share information with IBM PCs.PC/XTs and IBM Portable PCs.

Get a hands-on, hats-offdemonstration.

The IBM Personal Computer AT has the power,compatibility and expandability many PC usersneed, at a very appealing price.

For more information contact your authorizedIBM PC dealer. IBM Product Center or IBMmarketing representative. For a store near youcall 1-800-447-4700. In Alaska or Hawaii callL-800-447-0890. ===^= =l

270 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98i

Inquiry 405

personal computer IBM has ever made.

Little Tramp character licensed by Bubbles Inc . s.a.

XENIX™ is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. PC/IX is based on UNIX System III. which is

licensed to IBM by AT&T Technologies. Inc. Developed for IBM by INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 271

• ■ ■

! "■

BYTE

Reviews

Reviewers Notebook

by Glenn Hartwig 275

The Kaypro 16

by Steve McMahon 276

The Osborne 3

by Donna Osgood 284

WordStar 2000

by Malcolm C. Rubel 291

XyWrite II Plus

by Rubin Rabinovitz 297

Filevision

by Scott L. Norman 305

DB Master for the Macintosh

by kffreu M. \acgues 311

Paradise Modular Graphics Card

I'm Harry Krause 321

The RAMD1SK-64

by Warren Block 325

Keyport 717

by David L. Salahi 331

Review Feedback 335

TWO SYSTEM REVIEWS lead off this month's section. The transportableKaypro 16 is IBM PC XT-compatible and has many standard features at areasonable cost. Author Steve McMahon discusses this machine's strong andweak points. Associate Editor Donna Osgood reviews the Osborne 3, an IBMPC-compatible midsize portable system that doesn't include any extras.

WordStar 2000 is an enhanced version of the classic word processor.Malcolm C. Rubel explores its capabilities and concludes that it is easier tolearn but more difficult to use than the original. Rubin Rabinovitz reviews aWordStar competitor. XyWrite 11 Plus. This package has some sophisticatedfeatures, including a redefinable keyboard, macro routines, and programmingcapability, but it might be a challenge for the less experienced user.

A pair of database managers for the Macintosh completes September's soft-ware reviews. Both programs take advantage of the Mac's pull-down menus,icons, fonts, and other novel characteristics. Scott L. Norman describes File-vision's unique emphasis on graphics in data management. leffrey M. Jacques'sreview of DB Master indicates that it is a straightforward, easy-to-use databasemanager; however, it needs several improvements to become excellent Macin-tosh software.

The Paradise Systems Modular Graphics Card gives the IBM PC user bothmonochrome and color capability in a single add-in product. It also lets youplug in several modules to support other functions, such as serial and parallelports, a floppy-disk-drive controller, and extra RAM. Author Harry Krause hasbeen using the card for months with very good results.

Commodore 64 user Warren Block reviews RAMDISK-64, an expandable 64K-byte RAM disk with a $149 price tag. This product provides a considerableincrease in speed over Commodore's 1541 disk drive.

In our final hardware review, David L. Salahi reports on the Keyport 717 forthe Apple II family of microcomputers. A programmable keyboard with 717key locations, the Keyport can greatly improve the Apple's user interface.

SEPTEMBER

IYTE 273

2400 bps modems:Do you Really needanother speed?

• Is the shift from 300 to 1200 bps going to repeat itselfat 2400 bps? The answer is both yes and no. Therecertainly are applications for 2400 bps asynch dial-upmodems, but we shouldn't expect 1200 bps to dieovernight.

• 2400 bps modems can improve throughput, therebygetting tasks done quicker and more economically.However, 1200 bps has become the virtual standard forprofessional dial-up communications, and most usersare satisfied with it. So why consider a 2400 bps modemat all?

• One reason is flexibility. If the modem you selectoperates at all three speeds (300,1200 & 2400) inaccordance with accepted industry standards, it willserve virtually all dial-up applications now and in theforeseeable future.

• The modem you select should be theMultiModem224. It is Bell 212A and 103 compatible at1200 and 300 bps, and CCITT V.22b.s compatible at2400. It is also 100% compatible with the Hayescommand set, meaning that it will work with virtually allcommunications software packages, at all three speeds.Other features include both synchronous andasynchronous operation, full intelligence and a phonenumber memory.

• The MultiModem224 is available in both desktop andIBM PC1" internal card versions. (There is also a rack-mounted version for central sites.) And as a bonus, weprovide free offers from ten of the most popular on-lineinformation services, including CompuServe'" DowJones" and The Source.1"

• A 2400/1200/300 bps modem is just a plain goodinvestment. Why not let the MultiModem224 provide yourcommunications for both today and tomorrow?

Inquiry 262

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REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK

Hewlett-Packard has come upwith an interesting implementa-tion of the less-is-more approach toproduct development with its Por-table Plus, a new version of the HP110. HP says it's like buying a stripped-down car and putting on the optionsyou want instead of settling for thedealer's collection of prepackagedgoodies.

The whole idea of custom con-figuration is near and dear to thehearts of most microcomputer users,and the more freedom the individualhas. the better, but the Portable Plus'sequation is somewhat complex. Firstof all. you get a fairly basic system (noapplications software) for about thesame price as the HP 110. All thefeatures you might want to add willbring the cost up proportionately. Thisis not a way of getting the HP 110 ofyour dreams for the same price tagas on the model-year closeout.

On the other hand, the componentsof the basic system, as well as theavailable options, all indicate that agood deal of thought and preparationwent into the design and choices. Forexample, you don't get a modem withthe Portable Plus (you do with the HP110). But if you decide you want thisoption, you get a 300/1200-bpsHayes-compatible modem and func-tional software instead of the 300-bpsmodem and cranky software includ-ed as part of the HP 110*s standardequipment. If you want to write, youget Microsoft Word as an option in-stead of MemoMaker. I use both ofthese options, and they both repre-sent a substantial improvement. Idon't use spreadsheets much, so Idon't have an opinion about Lotus1-2-3 versus Multiplan.

The Portable Plus has 512K bytes ofmain memory. You configure it froma menu, so your ROM-based softwarehas enough to run and you're left with

the remainder as work space.Microsoft Word for the Portable Plustakes up 140K bytes.

One thing that is both welcome andslightly ironic is the improvement inthe documentation. Everything I havewanted to do with the portablemachine was clearly and conciselyspelled out. The irony is this: With theimproved software and hardware, Ineeded to refer to the documentationless. All things considered, however,I'd much rather have good documen-tation that I needed to consult infre-quently than an industry-standardcryptic manual that I needed to havegrafted onto the side of my arm.

Low-cost, high-volume massstorage is starting to take someinteresting turns now that laser discsare being seen more often. At the Na-tional Computer Conference inChicago, Optotech Inc. of ColoradoSprings, Colorado, was showing toOEMs a write-once/read-forever400-megabyte 514-inch unit integratedinto an IBM Personal Computer.Dealers could get one for $5000"almost immediately." The normalsmall-quantity price was $3000. Op-totech said large-volume orders couldbring the price down to less than

$1000 per unit. National MemorySystems of Livermore, California, wasreported to be the only customer asof mid-July.

What should be interesting toobserve in the coming months is (1)whether or not laser discs with hun-dreds of megabytes of storage catchon with users, and (2) if they do,whether or not this further drops theprice of magnetic hard disks. We'vealready seen and reported on30-megabyte 514-inch hard disks thatcost less than $1000. If people cansuddenly get 400 megabytes for thesame price, it could increase theirchoices. One thing that might comebetween many users and the abilityto take advantage of really high-volume mass storage could be thelimitations of their machines.

Priam Corporation of San lose.California, was showing to OEMs atNCC a 191-megabyte unformatted514-inch hard disk. The companypointed out that an IBM PC AT couldinterface with the hard disk butcouldn't address its entire capacity. Ifyou happen to have a high-endCAD/CAM intelligent workstation,you're home free.

—Glenn Hartwig, Technical Editor, Reviews

ILLUSTRATED BY MACIEK ALBRECHT

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 275

SYSTEM REVIEW

A low-costportable

compatible

with the

IBM PC

by Steve McMahon

The Kaypro 16

Steve McMahcm (POB 3262.

Berkeley. CA 94703) is an

independent software developer

specializing in systems for

small newspapers.

The Kaypro 16 is an IBM PC- PC XT-compatible computer packaged ina transportable box (see photo 1).The 16 comes complete with nearly all thecomponents most computer users willneed—two floppy-disk drives or one hard-disk and one floppy-disk drive, extensivesoftware, communications and printeradapters, a video monitor, and 2 56K bytesof RAM (random-access read/write mem-ory)—at a highly competitive price of $2295($3295 for a hard-disk system).

While comparing retail prices, you mightdiscover that you can buy a hard-disk PCXT without software or a floppy-disk IBMPC with software for the price at whichKaypro provides both hard disk and soft-ware. Many users will appreciate the Kaypro16's limited portability as a side benefit.

The Kaypro 16 (I reviewed the hard-diskmodel) comes in one package and is quiteeasy to set up. Its keyboard unlocks toreveal the built-in monitor and floppy-diskdrive. Connect the keyboard to the back ofthe computer, prop the main unit up on itsattached stand, plug it in, and it's readyto go.

Now the real fun begins: The 16 comeswith a lifetime supply of gray paperbackmanuals (I counted 13). Fortunately, on itscover one of them bears the words "Readme first"; it contains setup information. Un-fortunately, it's the worst manual of the lot.Some of the setup information was obvious-ly written with a Kaypro computer otherthan the 16 in mind.

The 16 also comes with nine disks con-taining MS-DOS and the computer's exten-sive bundled software. When you place thefirst of these disks in the floppy-disk driveand turn the computer on. the Kaypro 16formats the hard-disk drive and auto-loadsthe software bundle onto the hard disk, ef-ficiently organizing the programs intoseveral functionally defined subdirectories.This auto-load process prompts you to sup-ply the appropriate disks and finishes bysetting up the elaborate menu system to

automatically execute whenever you turnon the 16.

Menus

The hard-disk Kaypro 16 features a menusystem that lets you use the machine's re-sources without immediately learning thecomplexities of the MS-DOS subdirectorysystem. The master menu, which appearswhen you first turn on the machine or re-start it, presents you with a list of functional-ly organized submenus. When you select asubmenu by positioning a reverse-video barover it and hitting the return or right-arrowkey, the computer displays the submenu'soptions beside the main menu, which isdimmed. On the right side of the screen,the system also presents helpful explana-tions of what each menu selection will do.The hard-disk menu system allows accessto word-processing and other applications,DOS utility programs, and a large collectionof interactive tutorial programs from Micro-Pro. These tutorials cover everything fromusing the word processor and database pro-grams included with the 16 to getting usedto the computer and keyboard.

Compatibility

I'm convinced that the Kaypro 16 is substan-tially compatible with the IBM PC. I had noproblem running popular programs likeMicrosoft's Flight Simulator and Lotus 1-2-3,and such intimate DOS utilities as BorlandInternational's SideKick, keyboard-redefini-tion programs, and RAM-disk software. The16's BIOS (basic input/output system), de-signed by Phoenix and also used in IBMclones from Tandy and AT&T appears tomimic the IBM PC's BIOS service for service.As with any PC imitation, it is wise tocheck before you buy and make sure thatany vital program you need to run willoperate properly on the 16. Programswhere problems are possible include thosethat are subtly copy-protected, that makedirect use of the IBM BASIC read-onlymemory chip (usually graphics games), or

276 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

that might depend on unique hardwarecharacteristics of the IBM PC (such as a pro-gram that requires hardware or firmwaremodifications). The only program I couldn'trun on the 16 was a copy-protected gamethat also does not run on several othercompatibles.

Keyboard

The Kaypro 16 has the IBM PC's unpopularkeyboard layout (see photo 2). The returnand left shift keys are small and placed dif-ferently than many touch-typists would ex-pect. Typists with smaller hands might haveto move their fingers away from the homekeys to strike the return key

The 16 s keyboard offers an improvementover the PC and PC XT keyboards in an-other respect: Kaypro provides indicatorlights for the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys.However, each light's status is apparentlydetermined by the keyboard, rather thanthrough software control by the BIOS. Thismeans that it's possible to get the keyboardlights out of sync with the rest of the com-puter. Nonetheless, the indicator lightsshould prove convenient for most users.

The keys themselves have a very shortthrow and provide distinct tactile feedback.The noise they make is generally soft, withthe exception of the space bar.

Video Display

The Kaypro 16's built-in green-phosphor dis-play incorporates the strong and weakpoints of the IBM PC graphics standard. Youcan get medium-resolution (320 by 200pixels) and high-resolution (640 by 200)graphics modes, and a tremendous collec-tion of software is available for them.

However, as with the IBM PC graphicsstandard, the text this graphics monitordisplays is comparatively poor (see photo3). And when poorly defined characters aresqueezed into a 9-inch display, as they arein the 16, the result is a screen that is closeto unacceptable for long periods of textwork. The 16's low-quality text display is

ironic: All Kaypro's other computers that arenot IBM PC-compatible currently featuretext displays that would be better for ex-tended writing or editing sessions.

The 16's monitor shares another commondeficiency of IBM PC-type graphics displays:It flickers when rapidly updated by softwarethat directly manipulates the memory-mapped video. To avoid this problem, manyprograms slow down their video updatingwhen they detect that an unimprovedgraphics monitor (as opposed to improvedgraphics monitors, such as Compaq's) is inuse. The result of this slowdown is notice-able and can be annoying if you are ac-customed to the high-performance scroll-ing and paging available on high-resolutionmonochrome monitors or improved graph-ics monitors.

Another drawback is the placement of themonitor's intensity control. Kaypro put thisimportant control on the 16's back panel

{continued)

Photo I: The Kaypro 16, an IBM PC- and XT-compatible featuring twofloppy-disk drives or one floppy-disk and a \0-megabyte hard-disk drive [thelatter combination is shown).

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 277

REVIEW: KAYPRO 16

and then made matters worse byblocking it off with a plastic post (oneof two meant to hold a cable whenyou transport the computer). In myexperience, video intensity is not acontrol that you set once then forgetabout. I adjust it to different levels inthe morning, afternoon, and night andnearly always prefer different bright-ness levels from others who work onthe same machine. The Kaypro 16makes such adjustments difficult.A relatively minor problem is that

1 could distinguish only about four dif-ferent shades of video attributes onthe green-phosphor screen. Thismeant that a couple of programsdidn't look as good as usual. If youhave an application requiring thatmore than a few video attributes bedistinguishable, the 16's built-in moni-tor might not be satisfactory.

You can solve the problems with theKaypro 16's small screen in a simplethough expensive way. You can hookthe unit to an external monitor

Photo 2: The Kaypro 16 keyboard with 83 keys. 10 IBM PC-compatible functionkeys, calculator keys, and Caps Lock and Num bock indicator lights.

Photo 3: Text display on the Kaypro 16.

through the built-in RGB (red-green-blue) or composite-type video ports.On a larger monitor, the text resolu-tion would not cause an eyestrainproblem and, if you use an RGB colormonitor, many more video attributesshould be distinguishable. Presum-ably you could use the 16 with alarger, high-quality monitor at a homebase, so you would have to use thebuilt-in monitor only in the field.(Problems with flickering or slowvideo update do not go away with anexternal monitor; that's a fault of thevideo-board design, not the built-inmonitor.)

Portability

You can prepare the Kaypro 16 fortransport fairly easily. You put a trans-port card in the floppy-drive opening,lock the keyboard over the monitorand floppy drive, fold up the attachedstand, and wrap the keyboard andpower cables around posts at the rearof the computer. Plastic caps are in-cluded to cover the ends of the key-board cable. You can carry the com-puter by the handle at its rear, and itwill fit under many airline seats.

The problem is that the 16 is nolightweight. At 33 pounds, it's hardwork to carry it anywhere. Also, thehandle is nothing more than a flatmetal strip with plastic around it. Thistype of handle wasn't much of a prob-lem with the Kaypro 2. which weighedin at 26 pounds, but it is unsatisfac-tory on the heavier Kaypro 16.

Another transport problem arisesfrom the fact that the 16 has two setsof vents that leave its interior vulner-able to moisture and dust. Also, theI/O (input/output) ports and resetswitch on its side are completely un-protected. I suggest you budget in thecost of a good case if you intend touse the 16 as a portable.

The 16's optional, built-in, half-height, 514-inch Winchester hard-diskdrive is double shock-mounted towithstand the bumps that inevitablycome with transport. According toKaypro. the 16 parks the read/writeheads of the hard disk in a data-freelanding zone whenever they're not in

{continued)

278 BYTE • SEPTEMBER

AT A GLANCE

Name

Kaypro 16

Manufacturer

Kaypro Corp.533 Stevens Ave.Solano Beach, CA 92075(619) 481-4300

Size

18 by 8 by 15 inches, 33Vzpounds

Components

Processor: Intel 8088Memory: 256K bytesstandard, expandable to 640Kbytes

Mass storage: Two 360K-bytedouble-sided double-density51/i-inch floppy-disk drives orone floppy drive and a built-in10-megabyte hard-disk driveDisplay: 9-inch greenphosphor, 80 characters by25 lines, composite and RGBvideo output connectorsKeyboard: Detached, 83 keys,10 function keys, separatecalculator keys, Caps Lockand Num Lock indicator lightsExpansion: One availableIBM PC-compatible slotI/O interfaces: Asynchronousserial and parallel printer ports

Software

MS-DOS, WordStarMailMerge, CalcStar, Info-Star+, MITE, GW-BASIC andtutorials

Documentation

69-page Kaypro 16 User'sGuide, separate manuals forMS-DOS and each of thebundled software packages

Price

Dual-floppy system $2295

10-megabyte hard-disksystem $3295

MEMORY SIZE (K BYTES)0 2 00 400 600

DISK STORAGE (K BYTES)300 1000 0 400 800 1200 1600 2000

— r r

S

1

F

si

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES0 2 4 6

PRICE ($1000)10 0 2 4 6

10

F=

KAYPRO 16

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 capacityfor each system. The Bundled Software Pack-ages graph shows the number of softwarepackages included with each system. The Price

graph shows the list price of a system with twofloppy-disk drives, a monochrome monitor,graphics and color display capability, a printerport and a serial port, 256K bytes of memory(64K bytes for the Apple He), the standard oper-ating systems for the computers under com-parison, and the standard BASIC interpreter foreach system.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 279

On the back of the Kaypro 16 are the on/off switch, power supply,keyboard interface, and display brightness control. On the leftside are the parallel, serial, RGB, and composite video outputs.

DISK250

ACCESS

IN BASIC

(SEC)

200

150

100

50

57 56

30

46

r

37

L 36

y///

0

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC)50

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY 40K FILE COPY

KAYPRO 16

The graphs for Disk Access in BASIC show how long it takes to writeand to read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank formatted floppydisk, (For the program listings, see June 1984 BYTE, page 327, andOctober 1984, page 33.) The Sieve columns in the BASIC Perfor-mance graph show how long it takes to run one iteration of the Sieveof Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. The Calculations col-umns show how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplication and 10,000division operations using single-precision numbers. The System Util-ities graph shows how long it takes to format and to copy a disk

Removing the Kaypro 16 from its case reveals the expansionslot cage (bottom), the main memory board, and the hard-diskcontroller (left front).

BASIC PERFORMANCE250

(SEC)

I

1

I

245

■'■'/.;

Q/l

6Q

i

1

56 r

I

m

CALCULATIONS

SPREADSHEET (SEC25

RECALCULATE

^

APPLE II E

(adjusted time for 40K bytes of disk data) and to copy a 40K-bytefile using the system utility programs. The Spreadsheet graph showshow long it takes to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cell spread-sheet where each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left. MicrosoftMultiplan was used on the IBM PC and Apple He; CalcStar was usedon the Kaypro. Tests for the Apple He were done with the ProDOSoperating system, except for the spreadsheet test, which was donewith DOS 3.3 The IBM PC was tested running under PC-DOS 2.0,and the Kaypro 16 was tested running under MS-DOS 2.11.

280 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98S

REVIEW: KAYPRO 16

use. If that's true, minor jiggles won'tendanger data on the disk.

I'm still nervous about transportinga hard disk—the potential for expen-sive damage is great if anything goeswrong. The Kaypro 16 User's Guide of-fers no reassurance: It contains no in-formation about preparing the 16 fortransport, nor does it suggest whatthe machine should or should not beable to withstand.

Expansion

The 16's internal design is differentfrom any other PC-compatible I've dis-mantled. The main board is upsidedown (chips down) at the top of themachine, with the expansion cagebelow it and toward the back of thecomputer (see photo on oppositepage). The expansion cage and mainboard are held in place by four screwsin the computer's back panel.

Another surprise is that the mainboard does not actually contain theheart of the computer. The 8088microprocessor and nearly all of itssupport chips are on the board fillingthe first (rearmost) of the IBM PC-compatible expansion slots on themain board. It turns out that themotherboard contains very little butmemory chips and slots, some hard-disk adapter circuitry, and the bus andexpansion slots. Unfortunately, themost inaccessible of the 16s com-ponents are the ones you need to getat to expand its capacities.

The Kaypro 16 has one free expan-sion slot. (Three of four slots are oc-cupied by the logic board, floppy-diskcontroller and serial/parallel I/Oboard, and video board.) Also, it hassockets for an additional 2 56K bytesof RAM on the main board and an8087 numeric coprocessor chip onthe logic board. To add either of theseyou must remove the entire mainboard and expansion-cage assemblyand unplug seven cables.

This process is not documented inthe Kaypro 16 User's Guide, nor does theguide contain instructions for settingthe DIP (dual in-line package) switcheson the logic board to let the computerknow about the changes. Most usersshould not try expansion of the 16 on

their own but should reconcilethemselves to paying a dealer to do it.

Software

The 16s software bundle is extensive,including GW-BASIC and word-pro-cessing, spreadsheet, database, com-munications, and menu-constructionpackages. Unfortunately, the pro-grams are of very uneven quality andmight provide some unpleasant sur-prises. I liked only one program(MITE, the communications package)enough to consider using it regularly.

MicroPro's WordStar, the word pro-cessor, is a serviceable program thatsuffers only in comparison to themany editors available for PC-com-patibles that are both more versatileand easier to use. Not so with Calc-Star, the spreadsheet program: It isthe slowest, clumsiest program of itstype I've ever tried to use on an IBMPC-type computer. The principal defi-ciency of the bundled database pro-gram, lnfoStar + , is its formidable—and, in my opinion, unwarranted-complexity. Its training and referencemanuals run to hundreds of pages.

MITE's strong point is that it lets theuser set up parameter files, each ofwhich can contain information such asdata-transmission characteristics,phone number to dial, log-on proce-dure, and number of times to retry ifbusy for each bulletin board or ser-vice you call regularly. The communi-cations program's weak point is thatMycroft Labs has not yet adaptedeither the user interface or the manualsufficiently in transferring the programfrom CP/M to MS-DOS.

User s Guide

Most of the massive quantity of docu-mentation provided with the Kaypro16 is reprinted from the originalMicroPro and Microsoft manuals forthe bundled software. The only docu-mentation items provided specifical-ly for the 16 are the 69-page Kaypro16 User's Guide and a stapled leafletcontaining installation instructions forthe MicroPro software.

I found the User's Guide grossly in-adequate: It was poorly organized,omitted important subjects, and was

occasionally incorrect about what itdid discuss. A section labeled "Main-tenance" contained little more thaninstructions on how to clean the fanfilter. Explanations of MS-DOS com-mands were brief, sometimes mis-leading, and in at least one casewould result in a syntax error if fol-lowed precisely. Kaypro has receivedlots of criticism in the past concern-ing documentation: it's disappointingto see so little improvement.

Some Kinks

One difficulty 1 had with the Kaypro16 resulted from the fact that the 16sserial communications port was a9-pin female connector rather thanthe conventional 2 5-pin. This meantthat not one cable out of my collec-tion would connect my modem withthe 16. Any modem with a built-inserial cable will need modification oran extra cable to work with the 16.The reason for this nonstandard con-nector is that the port shares exter-nal space with a 2 5-pin parallel con-nector, which leaves no room for thestandard serial connector.

Perhaps a more serious complaintabout the serial port is that it is posi-tioned immediately next to the 16 sRGB port, which is also a female 9-pin.Neither is labeled. Fortunately, Kayprohas stated that it is changing the con-nector to a 9-pin male, making it com-patible with the 9-pin serial connec-tor on the PC AT.

Another mild source of annoyanceis the combination of a relatively loudfan and a quiet speaker, which makesit hard to hear the sounds that someprograms generate.

Conclusion

The Kaypro is a serviceable andeconomical alternative to the IBM PCor PC XT, particularly if you can usethe bundled software and you needlimited portability. But the computerdoes have a variety of rough spotsthat should be weighed against itscomparatively low price. Low text-display quality, limited expansionpossibilities, uneven software quality,and poor documentation all deservescrutiny from potential users. ■

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 281

T^o-for-onespecial.

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And through MacCharlie, you canlink Macintosh to IBM serial net-works and mainframes. Data filesare also transferable from Macintoshto IBM and vice versa. Even if youhave already taken the plunge intothe IBM PC world, you now havethe means to advance to Macintoshand still keep your software libraryintact.

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Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer. Inc Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.Inquiry 110 SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 283

I

SYSTEM REVIEW

The Osborne 3

A midsize,

no-frills

portable

by Donna Osgood

T

Dfliifw Osgood i> an associate editoi

foi BYTE [4JS Battery St. San

Francisco. CA 941111.

he Osborne 3 is an IBM PC-compatible midsize portable com-puter based on the 80C86—aCMOS (complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor) version of the 8086—run-ning at 3.5 MHz. No applications softwareis bundled with the computer, nor is a bat-tery included. Osborne ships the basicmachine and expects value-added dealersto provide the battery. RAM upgrade tos 12K bytes, modem, video cable, externalmonitor, applications software, and otherthings that make up a workable system.

The 03 has two 5'/4-inch floppy-diskdrives. 2 56K bytes of RAM (random-accessread/write memory), and a liquid-crystaldisplay (LCD) in a package that weighs lessthan 12 pounds (see photo 1).

Hardware

At its weight and with the dimensions of 9/2by 13 by 5/2 inches (closed), the 03 is ina class between transportables and brief-case computers. A removable shoulderstrap fits into slots in the machine's sides.With the shoulder strap adjusted so that theslanted front panel fits over your hip, the03 is very easy to carry, without the uncom-fortable corners a square-profile machinehas.

The front panel folds down to become thekeyboard, revealing the screen embeddedin the body of the computer. Two diskdrives occupy the right side of the machine,and the battery slot, power jack, switch, andscreen-contrast control are on the left. Therear panel contains the serial and parallelconnectors.

The built-in screen is an 80-character by16-line LCD with 480 by 128 addressablepixels (see photo 2). The character font issimple and readable. 5 by 7 pixels in a 6-by 8-pixel matrix, with true descenders.Under ordinary office lighting conditions(fluorescent light source from above), thescreen is just readable. Sunlight comingfrom any direction washes it out complete-ly, however. The screen is fixed; you can't

tilt it to suit your viewing angle. The con-trast control provides some flexibility, buteven at best the screen is a poor substitutefor a CRT (cathode-ray tube) screen.

Osborne offers a partial solution: an ex-ternal video adapter. The 1/2- by 9/2- by6/2-inch box includes a parallel port toreplace the one it uses, so both a printerand an external monitor can be connectedat the same time. On both monitors 1 tried,a Zenith monochrome and a USI Pi3. thepicture was slightly larger than the screen,and a character or so was lost on each cor-ner, even at optimum vertical and horizon-tal adjustment. This is not a problem on allmonitors, but it is something to watch for.

The 03's keyboard (see photo 3) is a com-pressed and slightly rearranged version ofthe IBM PC's. Shift and Return keys, thoughsmall, are in the Selectric typewriter posi-tions (with no annoying intervening keys).Scroll/Num Lock. Caps Lock, and Alt keysoccupy the left side of the bottom row, withfour cursor keys to the right of the spacebar. The cursor keys serve as Home, End,Pg Up, and Pg Dn keys when used in com-bination with the Alt key. A calculatorkeypad is an overlay to alphanumeric keyson the right side of the keyboard, activatedby the Num key. All alphanumeric keysrepeat when held down.

Some of the IBM PC's keyboard problemsare corrected in the Osborne. For example,the Prt Sc key, which causes a particularlyfrustrating delay when hit accidentally, ismoved away from the home keys and worksin combination with Alt.

A row of membrane keys above the key-pad holds 10 function keys and 4 icon keysfor the 03's built-in operations. Labels forthe function keys appear on the screenwhen an application that supports them isrunning. This works well with the built-in ap-plications, but function-key identifiers willnot be visible when using a program suchas WordStar, which puts them at the bot-tom of a 2 5-line screen. Shifting the screenback and forth from the top to the bottom

284 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

of the page is enough trouble to outweighthe convenience of the function-keyidentifiers.

The keyboard panel needs to be sup-ported on a solid surface—it jiggles unac-ceptably if it extends beyond the edge ofa table or desk. Even with the keyboard wellsupported, letters occasionally skipped onboth machines 1 used while writing thisreview. The R key was a problem on bothmachines.

Sources at Osborne assured me that the03s keyboard buffer is as large as the IBMPC's. However, when I use multiple-key-stroke commands, such as <Ctrl>111.which is NewWord's command to changethe help level, the last letter is often not ac-cepted. Occasionally, the lag between strik-ing a key and seeing a letter on the screenis noticeable.

The 03 is shipped with 2 56K bytes ofRAM. expandable to 512K bytes. The built-in calculator, scheduler, terminal emulator,and map-display programs use 16K bytesof ROM (read-only memory). To hold ap-pointment notes, 4K bytes of nonvolatileRAM is assigned to the scheduler.

A 100/220-volt AC-to-DC adapter supplies15 volts DC. A standard nicad video-camerabattery fits the 03, but it is not included.A full charge on the nicad battery shouldrun the machine for about five hours. Arecharge takes about eight hours, thoughthe battery will trickle-charge while in usewith the AC-to-DC adapter.

The 03 uses two double-sided one-third-height 5!4-inch floppy-disk drives (see photo4). The drive doors spring open to partiallyeject the disks when pressed and released.The doors cover the drive openings com-pletely, keeping dust at bay. The openingsare designed to guide disks into placewithout a struggle. I had no trouble insert-ing and removing disks from the side of themachine without peering around to seewhat I was doing. A red light glows whena drive is running.

The 03 has both a parallel and a serial

port. The RS-232C serial port uses the 82 51.a CMOS chip manufactured by Oki, ratherthan the 82 50 that is IBM's standard. A soft-ware front end in ROM makes the 03 com-patible with CrossTalk, but some programsthat talk directly to the serial port will notrun.

The internal clock is backed by a batteryand should keep time when the machine isunplugged. In one of the machines I used,however, the clock lost time when the ma-chine had neither AC nor DC power turnedon.

Software

The only software bundled with theOsborne 3 is MS-DOS 2.11. BASIC is not in-cluded, nor are any applications programs.Three "executive productivity" programsare resident in ROM: an appointment book,

[continued)

Photo I: The Osborne 3 with an 80-character by \6-tine liquid-crystal displayand two 5'A-inch floppy-disk drives.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 285

REVIEW: OSBORNE 3

a calculator, and a terminal emulator the world. By pressing a function keyprogram. at the map screen you can reach the

menu from which you set time andUSING THE OSBORNE 3 date, printer and modem parameters,

As the power comes on. the 03 dis- and screen type. Another function keyplays a calendar, clock, and map of (labeled on the screen) gives you the

Photo 2: Screen display of the Osborne 3 showing the world map and clock.

Photo 3: Close-up of the Osborne 3 keyboard shows the rows of special function andicon keys above the alphanumeric keys.

appointment calendar (which canhandle dates as far off as December31. 2099). You can set an alarm (aflashing message and beep) to remindyou of engagements.

To load a program from disk, yousimply push the disk icon key. Whileyou are using an application fromdisk, you can reach the 03's otherbuilt-in functions, like the calculator,terminal emulator, and calendar, bypushing their icon keys. When youhave finished your digression, press-ing the disk key returns the disk ap-plication to the screen

Flying with the Osborne 3

If your reason for buying a portablecomputer involves travel, you will beconcerned with the 03 s performanceon a plane. Its size and shape makeit easy to stow under a seat. It fits wellon a tray table and does not weighenough to endanger the table'shinges. Be careful in the aisles, how-ever. The 03 is no heavier than theaverage carry-on bag, but it is madeof hard plastic with square corners,and it could do damage to someoneif it slides around on your arm.

Airlines differ in their tolerance ofportable computers on board, socheck with your carrier before youplan to finish writing your big speechin the air. The 03 is rated with the FCCas a Class A machine, a rating that in-volves a less rigorous interferencestandard than Class B. Even so. usingthe computer in flight probably willnot cause problems with the aircraft'sequipment; Osborne reports that oneairline pilot uses his 03 in the cockpit.On the other hand, if you wind up inDetroit when you were headed forMilwaukee, you might reconsiderusing your computer on planes.

Compatibility

The 03 is an IBM PC emulator. It usesa software front end to simulate theoperation of an IBM PC. This meansthat no program that makes callsdirectly to hardware will work, whicheliminates many copy-protected pack-ages. The 03 doesn't have graphicscapabilities, even when using an ex-

(contmued)

286 BYTE • SEPTEMBER lQ8=i

AT A GLANCE

Name

Osborne 3

Type

Portable computer

Manufacturer

Osborne Computer Corp.42680 Christy St.Fremont. CA 94538(415) 887-8080

Size

91/2 by 13 by 51/2 inchesclosed; 11 pounds, 15 ounceswithout battery or AC adapter

Components

Processor: 80C86 16-bit, 3.5MHz

Memory: 256K RAM(expandable to 512K using256K DRAMs), 16K ROM, 4Knonvolatile RAMDisk storage: Two 360K5'A-inch floppy-disk drivesDisplay: 80-character by16-line LCD; 480 by 128addressable pixels withexternal video adapterKeyboard: 63 keys, including4 cursor keys, 10 flat-membrane function keys, and4 icon keys

Power: 15-volt DC from a100/220-volt AC-to-DCadapter; can use standardnicad video-camera battery(not included)

Software

MS-DOS 2.11; scheduler,calculator, and terminalemulator in ROM

Documentation

User's guide, 57 pages;manual for appointmentcalendar, 22 pages; MS-DOSuser's guide, 188 pages

Price

$1895 for two drives and256K RAM

MEMORY SIZE (K BYTES)

0 200 400 600

DISK STORAGE (K BYTES)800 1000 0 400 800 1200 1600

^+

I

1

— f I

^

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES0 2 4 6

PRICE ($1000)

0 2 4

I

nj

OSBORNE 3

IBM PC i §3 APPLE HE

The Memory Size graph shows the standardand optional memory available for thecomputers under comparison. The DiskStorage graph shows the highest capacity forone and two floppy-disk drives. The BundledSoftware Packages graph shows the numberof software packages included with each sys-

tem. The Price graph shows the list price of asystem with two disk drives, a color-displayadapter, a printer port and a serial port, 256Kbytes of memory (64K bytes for 8-bit systems),and the standard operating system and BASICinterpreter for the computers under com-parison.

SEPTEMBER 1985 "BYTE 287

The rear of the Osborne 3 holds the parallel and serial ports

Inside the Osborne 3. Parallel and serial connectors are at thebottom

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)250

50

59 56 56

1 m im

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC250

SIEVE

CALCULATIONS

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC50

SPREADSHEET (SEC)25

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY 40K FILE COPY

| OSBORNE 3 ^] IBM PC

The graph for Disk Access in BASIC shows how long it takes to writeand read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank formatted floppydisk. (For the program listings, see "The Chameleon Plus" by RichKrajewski. June 1984 BYTE, page 327, and October 1984 BYTE,page 33.) The Sieve column in the BASIC Performance graph showshow long it takes to run one iteration of the Sieve of Eratosthenesprime-number benchmark The Calculations column shows how longit takes to do 10,000 multiplication and 10,000 division operationsusing single-precision numbers. The System Utilities graph shows

how long it takes to format and to copy a standard text file to disk(adiusted time for 40K bytes of disk data) and to copy a 40K-bytefile using the system utility programs. The Spreadsheet graph showshow long it takes to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cell spreadsheetwhere each cell equals 1 001 times the cell to its left. Microsoft Multi-plan was the spreadsheet used. The Osborne 3 used MS-DOS 2.11and GW-BASIC The IBM PC used PC-DOS 2.0 and BASICA. TheApple lie used ProDOS. except for the spreadsheet test, which wasdone using DOS 3.3.

288 B Y

SEPTEMBER IW

REVIEW: OSBORNE 3

Photo 4: The right side of the Osborne 3 contains the two 5%-incfi floppy-disk drives.

ternal monitor, so only text-basedprograms and the text parts of in-tegrated packages will run. In somecases, the graphics portions of pro-grams confuse the machine; for exam-ple, loading a SuperCalc template thatcontains graphs crashes the system.The solution in this case is to load apartial file, large enough to containonly the spreadsheet.

While writing this review. I triedseveral versions of the Osbornemachine, each with enhanced ROMchips and each running more IBM PCprograms than the last. WordStar.Superwriter, PeachText, dBASE II,CrossTalk, Multiplan, and SuperCalc 3worked without a hitch on the latestand, according to Osborne, final ver-sion. All 03s shipped to dealers willhave the updated ROMs, and every-one who bought an earlier machinewill receive the new chips, I was told.

Another potential compatibility bar-rier is memory size. A 2 56K-byte 03

has about 30K fewer bytes of usablememory than a 2 56K-byte IBM PC.The extra space is taken up in thememory-mapped video display,screen buffer. ROM working storage,and memory for the icon functions.This size difference can be critical forlarge programs such as ThinkTank,which gave me an "insufficientmemory" message when I tried to runit on a 2 56K-byte 03. Other large pro-grams, such as Framework and Sym-phony, may be restricted in file size.

Documentation

Three manuals come with the 03: auser's guide for the computer, an MS-DOS guide, and a manual for the ap-pointment calendar.

The user's guide covers the usualdescription of the case and keyboard,instructions for loading MS-DOS andmaking copies, and highlights of MS-DOS. It also has instructions for thenonexistent modem.

The MS-DOS guide includes a shortsection on using the operating systemwith the Osborne 3. Rather thanlumping DOS commands into onealphabetical list, the guide breaksthem into sections on handling disks,handling files, general commands,directories, and input/output.

The manual for the appointmentcalendar provides instructions forentering appointments, setting alarms,changing calendar entries, and keep-ing archives of appointments. It has asummary of commands and a glossaryof error messages.

Support

Osborne has established a network ofabout 17 5 dealers across the countrywho will sell and service the 03. Twopeople in Osborne's offices willanswer questions over the phone,though there is no toll-free number.The company encourages dealers andusers groups to assume much of theburden of support.

Conclusion

Osborne and Morrow have built prod-ucts around a computer designed byVadem Inc. (Santa Clara. California).Morrow licensed the technology fromVadem and has since made its ownmodifications. Zenith, in turn, licensedthe technology from Morrow and sellsa similar machine. Osborne's relation-ship with Vadem involves manufactur-ing and system support. Vademengineers have made extensivechanges to the Osborne 3, mostly im-proving its IBM compatibility.

The 03 has two essential attributesof a truly useful portable computer:real portability and straightforwarddata storage. As long as your applica-tion does not involve graphics andyou can live without slots, you wouldprobably be satisfied with the 03. Itscompatibility is not complete, and yoursoftware may find a loophole that theOsborne engineers did not close.Another consideration is speed; the03 is slower than the IBM PC in allcategories. Within those limitations,however, the Osborne 3 is a solidmachine that provides the necessitiesin a very compact package. ■

SEFTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 289

WordPerfect 4j0.Our highest marks yet.

J\ perfect report card Itwasn't necessarily our goal whenwe added the most recent enhance-ments to WordPerfect. We weremore interested in responding tothe suggestions of our users anddealers.

But a perfect report card islike icing on the cake. And itmakes us more confident than everthat WordPerfect 4.0 is the mostperfect WordPerfect, yet

Easier.

Most WordPerfect 4.0 functionsrequire only one keystroke, asimple press of a finger. And newcomprehensive documentationmakes learning abreeze. ,,^ l'~'<•,,* 4.0

Faster.

Document orientation meansWordPerfect 4.0 never makes you

information, see your dealer.Or call or write:

matter howfast you type,WordPerfectwon't slow youdown.

Better.

InfoWorld

WordPerfect 4.0 includes severalfeatures not found on many wordprocessors. Like a 100,000-wordphonetic dictionary; multi-pagefootnoting capability; table ofcontents and index generation;automatic outlining and para-graph numbering;and a 4.0 net-work versionGet the wordprocessor thatlives up toits name (andits report card):WordPerfect 4.0. For more

resets

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oftware

Reaching for perfection.

290 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 3 26

SOFTWARE REVIEW

WordStar's

first offspring

is easy to use

but somewhat

slow

by Malcolm C Rubel

Malcolm C. Rubel is president ofPerformance Dynamics Associates1305 Madison Ave.. New York. NY10165), He is coauthor of ThePerformance Guides to Busi-ness Software, a series of booksbenchmarking word-processing,business-modeling, and database-management software

WordStar 2000

Although WordStar was not the firstword processor for microcom-puters and some people arguethat it is not the best, it is certainly the mostsuccessful. While hundreds of users wrotepatches to help the program do more thanit already could, the publisher of the pack-age made few changes or improvementsuntil now.

In response to a large number of com-petitors who claim that their word pro-cessors are easier to learn and use, Micro-Pro has released WordStar 2000 for the IBMPC and compatibles.

The new WordStar 2000 is available in thebasic version and as WordStar 2000 Plus.The basic version contains MicroPro's spell-ing checker, CorrectStar, and retails for$495. The Plus version includes MailMerge.Starlndex. and a new feature. Tel Merge.WordStar 2000 Plus retails for $595.

MicroPro has gone to considerablelengths to eliminate the difficulties that newusers have encountered with WordStar. Theproduct includes a new training guide ofover 200 pages and a guide to the pro-gram's advanced features (it's 217 pagesand included with WordStar 2000 Plus) giv-ing further lessons for TelMerge. MailMerge,and Starlndex. Also included is a new seriesof interactive disk tutorials that will providebasic information for beginners.

WordStar 2000 is easier to learn than theoriginal WordStar. For those with WordStarexperience, the program will look familiarbut the keystrokes will be different. Micro-Pro still uses control-key sequences to in-voke commands, but these sequences havebeen changed to resemble the commanda bit more closely. For example, Ctrl-C givesthe choices for moving the cursor, Ctrl-Pbrings up print enhancements, and Ctrl-L isfor locate. WordStar 2000 also uses Ctrl-Gto call up context-sensitive help virtuallyanywhere in the program (Ctrl-H is the back-space code, not the help code).

MicroPro has also assigned many morecommonly used commands to the function

keys (shifted and unshifted) and to thenumber keys at the top of the keyboardcombined with Alt. The assignments madeby MicroPro include some infrequentlyused commands such as Merge: Select DataFile and Merge: Next Copy, but leave outsuch commonly used commands as Locateand Remove Block.

MicroPro lets you change the commandson the function and number keys in its in-stallation program, but all the reference aidsthat the company provides have the basicassignments etched in plastic. When youmake changes, the cards become much lessuseful.

Those commands in WordStar that weresomewhat unusual have been straightenedout and are easier to remember. Dot com-mands and format changes are no longernecessary. WordStar 2000 contains pre-determined format lists that provide all thebasic setups for the user. You simply specifywhich one you want to use when you createyour document, and that format will beused each time you work with that file. Youcan also create your own format files.

Most of this is great, but what's the catch?Unfortunately, WordStar 2000 executesmore slowly than its predecessor and. insome instances, has become less easy touse because it's become easier to learn.

Starting Up

WordStar 2000 requires version 2.0 orhigher of MS-DOS or PC-DOS. two diskdrives, and a minimum of 2 56K bytes ofRAM (random-access read/write memory).More RAM can be assigned to buffers in theCONFIG.SYS file and speeds up executionconsiderably. Like WordStar, the new pro-gram makes heavy use of overlays.

The opening menu now takes up twoscreens: the user can toggle between themby using the space bar. WordStar's basic ap-proach is still there but MicroPro has spreadout the menu so individual entries areeasier to see. You activate menu choices by

[contmuedi

SEFTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 291

REVIEW: WORDSTAR 2000

typing a one-key mnemonic.

To edit a document, you strike E andeither type in the filename or movethe cursor to it. If you are creating anew document, you are also askedwhich format file to use. As men-tioned earlier, the format comes upwith the file each time you call it, sav-ing the initial formatting that was nec-essary with WordStar.

Text Entry

Once you choose the format, you arepresented with the editing screen. Themenu of the basic editing optionstakes up the top half of the screen,but you can set the program so onlythe submenus show after you strikethe initial menu key or so that nomenu shows at all.

Those familiar with WordStar willfeel at home with the editing screen;it looks the same. Tabbing, which isset every n spaces in the format files,can be reset as you wish. Decimal tab-bing is available with a choice of U.S.or European decimal points. Youmove the cursor either with the cur-sor keys or by using the traditionalWordStar control-key cursor "dia-mond." You activate large cursormoves by using the Ctrl-C submenuof commands. The commands mirrorthose available with WordStar.

Unfortunately, moving through aWordStar 2000 file can be a slow pro-cess. In all comparative tests, I founda substantial reduction in perfor-mance. The most serious problem isthe screen-rewrite time. It is so slowthat when you hold the down-arrowkey to scroll through the file, the

display goes blank as you move offthe current screen. You must releasethe key for a few seconds to let thescreen rewrite. In all cases, WordStar2000s times were slower than Word-Star's, even with a hard disk.

Text Editing

You can delete text using the back-space key for delete left or the deletekey for delete right. I found it unusualthat the delete left command is anoverlay: i.e.. it is not always in memory.The first time you use it. the programhas to load the code for this com-mand from drive A. That processtakes more than a second. Largerdeletions, such as delete word, sen-tence, paragraph, etc., are included inthe Ctrl-R (Remove) menu. The pro-gram also has an Undo command(Ctrl-U) that makes this function apowerful cut-and-paste option.

Block operations perform smoothly.Blocks can be either horizontal fornormal text or vertical for tables.WordStar 2000 has also provided forblock sorting (either numerically oralphabetically in ascending or de-scending order) for blocks up to 1 50entries and block arithmetic (horizon-tally and vertically).

One feature most people will likeabout WordStar 2000 is its dynamicjustification. As you insert and deletetext, the paragraph remains justified,and if you change your margins, textwill automatically be reformatted toyour new margin settings. However,the reformatting is not instantaneous.If you reset the margins and then tryto page through your file using the

Table I: A comparison of benchmarks obtained with WordStar 2000 andWordStar 3.3. A/1 tests were done on an IBM PC with PC-DOS 2.1. andtimes are in seconds.

WordStar 2000 WordStar 2000 WordStar 3.3

(Floppy)

(Hard disk)

(Floppy)

Load program

43.2

16.6

9.5

Load 4000-word file

14.4

11.7

9.9

Save 4000-word file

23.7

23.7

25

Move cursor down 40 lines

9.3

9.3

4.4

Go to end of file

73.1

67.3

9.9

Search

130

117

11

Replace string 400 times

217

204

34.7

PgDn key. the time it takes to write anew screen of text increases from 2.6seconds to 6 or 7 seconds.

A second feature that will be usefulto some users is the program's win-dowing capabilities. WordStar 2000will open up three different windowsto look at three different files. You canshift text from one file to another,making document assembly mucheasier. Window sizes are predeter-mined and cannot be changed.

Search and Replace operations arenow included in a single command,Ctrl-L (for Locate). To search, youenter the string and strike several car-riage returns to invoke. To replacetext, you type R after entering thesearch string and then, whenprompted, type in the replacementstring. A large number of options areavailable, including whole-wordsearch, case sensitivity, and wildcards. Unfortunately, the speed atwhich WordStar 2000 performs theseoperations is quite slow even with ahard-disk system. See the times intable 1.

Formatting and Printing

WordStar 2000 provides for multiple-line headers and footers that you canalternate for right- and left-facingpages, separate print offset settingsfor right- and left-facing pages, flexi-ble page-number placements, anynumber of different line lengths andtab settings in a document, and justi-fied and nonjustified text included ina single file. You indicate line spacingby selecting different line heights.They allow for single, double, and tri-ple spacing, as well as eight lines toan inch, but do not have the numberof choices that were available with theWordStar Line-height command.

WordStar 2000 has improved Word-Star's Hyphen-help function. The pro-gram has a function that will automat-ically insert hyphens where necessaryas part of the dynamic justificationprocess. Text looks better when youuse the function. It works well, but 1wish that MicroPro had given me thechance to define the decision criteriafor applying hyphenation. The algo-rithm is not accessible to the user.

292 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

AT A GLANCE

Name

WordStar 2000 and WordStar2000 Plus

Type

Word processor

Manufacturer

MicroPro International33 San Pablo Ave.San Rafael, CA 94903(415) 499-1200

Format

51A-inch MS-DOS, six diskssupplied, copy-protected

Computer

IBM PC and compatibles,256K bytes of RAM

Necessary Software

MS-DOS or PC-DOS version2.0 or higher

Documentation

Four manuals (five withWordStar 2000 Plus) coveringinstallation, tutorials, reference,and advanced features

Price

WordStar 2000 $495

WordStar 2000 Plus $595

Comments

WordStar 2000 is a full-function word processor thatprovides distinct improve-ments over WordStar. It iseasier to learn and, in somerespects, easier to use.However, the program is verylarge and slower than itspredecessor.

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N/A

WORDSTAR 2000 [II 1 WORDSTAR 3.3 Y///X XYWRITE II PLUS

A companspn of WordStar 2000 with WordStar3.3 and XyWrite II Plus. The graphs show theresults of performing various standard word-processing functions using a 4000-word textfile. The Load graph shows the time requiredto load a file from disk to memory. The Savegraph shows the time required to save the fileon disk. The Search graph shows the timing

results for a search starting at the beginningof a file and looking for its last word. The Scrollgraph illustrates the time required to scrollmanually from the first line of the file to the lastline. The manual scroll results for WordStar2000 are not shown because the program usesa screen rewrite function instead of line-by-linescrolling.

WordStar 2000 supports everythingfrom typewriter conversions to the HPLaserJet. It prints proportionally if thefeature is supported on your printer,but instead of adding microspaces be-tween the characters when perform-ing right justification on my testprinter (NEC 3 5 50), it added micro-spaces between the words. Interchar-acter microspacing gives a finished

document a better look.

WordStar 2000 supports chain andnested printing but, unlike WordStar3.3, does not do background printing.WordStar 2000 has a function calledPrint and Resume Editing that printsa copy of the file to disk and thengoes back to the opening menu. Witha file of any size, the time you spendwaiting is considerable. BYTE's

4000-word benchmark test file took199 seconds to format on a floppysystem and 168 seconds on a hard-disk system before bringing me backto the opening menu. You must alsomake sure you have enough space onyour logged disk drive to accom-modate the temporary print filesbecause they take up more space

(continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 293

REVIEW: WORDSTAR 2000

than the document file does. If thelogged drive does not have enoughspace, you will be presented with themessage: "An unrecoverable error oc-curred while printing (filespec). PressESCape to continue."

Advanced Features

WordStar 2000 has a new functioncalled a key directory that lets youstore either word or commandmacros in any number of files that youdesire. They are easy to set up and ex-ecute. You type in the commandstring under which the macro is storedand press Esc, and the macro will beexecuted. For repetitive procedures,this is a godsend.

The basic version of WordStar 2000comes with CorrectStar. MicroPro'sspelling checker. The programseemed to work well. You can createpersonal dictionaries to supplementthe basic dictionary. This program isalso slow, taking 305 seconds to makea single pass with no correctionsthrough a 5000-word test file on thefloppy system. When making correc-tions, CorrectStar ran even slower, re-quiring 17 to 30 seconds to readthrough I to 17 lines of text and high-light a mistake. Performance on a harddisk was not much better, althoughyou do avoid changing disks. Unfor-

tunately WordStar 2000, like earlierversions of WordStar, changes bit 8 ofthe last character in each word, somany of the other spelling checkerswill not work directly with its files.

WordStar 2000 Plus includes some-thing completely new, TelMerge. Italso includes new versions of Mail-Merge and Starlndex.

With a modem, TelMerge lets youuse your computer as a terminal andcall up several of the more popularon-line database systems, includingThe Source, CompuServe, OfficialAirline Guide, and others.

MicroPro has simplified MailMergeand put it into an easy-to-use format.The dot commands and bare filestructure are gone. The entry formatis predefined but has four variablesfor user-defined entries. You can printlabels, but only in predefined formats.If you can change your needs to suitthe program, it will be easy to use.WordStar's MailMerge was morepowerful and flexible, but it was alsomore difficult to learn.

Starlndex too is easier to use but,as with MailMerge, some of the pro-gram's flexibility, and therefore someof its usefulness, has been sacrificed.With WordStar's Starlndex, you couldeither type in entries or identify themin the text being indexed. Starlndex

for WordStar 2000 requires that youtype in each index entry.

Conclusions

People who are familiar with WordStarwill find the transition to WordStar2000 easy; its approach to word pro-cessing is similar to its predecessor's.For new users, the excellent tutorialssupplied with the program make a bigdifference in how easy it is to learn.

There is not much that WordStar2000 cannot do well. The problem isthat it will do it slowly and sometimeswith more intervention from promptsand confirmations than I would like.WordStar 2000 is written in C whichlets MicroPro transport it easily toother machines, but this results inslower program execution.

The program is so big that, likeWordStar, it must continually accessthe program disks to overlay programcode. With the original WordStar run-ning in a 64K-byte environment, thisproblem was understandable. Word-Star 2000. however, was designed inthe 16-bit world. Its minimum mem-ory requirement of 2 56K bytes shouldhave improved this disk-access prob-lem for program code and workingfile, but it has not. The program runsmore slowly. If time is money Word-Star 2000 is an expensive program. ■

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294 BYTE- SEPTEMBER

Inquiry 263

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Inquiry 205

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

XwWrite II Plus

Word

processing

from the

command

line

by Rubin Rabinovitz

Rubm Rabinovitz [Department ofEnglish. Campus Box 226, Univer-sity of Colorado. Boulder. CO80309) is a professor of English.He received his doctorate at Colum-bia University and has reviewedbooks for the New York Timesand New York magazine.

XyQuest Inc.'s XyWrite II Plus is an in-novative word-processing programfor the IBM Personal Computer (PC)and compatibles. An advanced version ofthe entry-level XyWrite II. XyWrite II Plus ispowerful and reasonably priced ($295), andit has many attractive features. WhileXyWrite (pronounced zye-write) can run oncomputers with 128K bytes, it needs morememory if you plan to work on documentslonger than, say, 30 to 40 pages. The pro-gram will make use of any extra memorybeyond the minimum 128K bytes, up to640K bytes.

XyWrite executes commands very quick-ly. The screen display can provide compre-hensive format information or a version ofyour text that's close to the printed output.XyWrite also has some interesting advancedfeatures, such as a redefinable keyboard,sophisticated macro routines, easy accessto DOS (disk operating system) or anotherprogram, programming capability, and afacility for reconfiguring printer files.

The authors of XyWrite helped designAtex, a large multiterminal text-processingsystem with editing and typesetting capa-bilities. (Atex is used mainly by large firms-publishers, insurance companies, and lawoffices—that routinely print a great numberof documents.) The two systems are in manyways similar, a factor that should makeXyWrite especially attractive to Atex users.

The Command Line

The most distinctive characteristic ofXyWrite is its reliance on a command linefor initiating major operations. Let's sayyou've finished editing a file and want tosave it. You move the cursor to a line re-served for entering commands at the topof the screen, type the command word forsaving a file, and then press Return. Display-ing another file or creating a new file in-volves different command words, but therest of the procedure remains the same.Some XyWrite routines are initiated by theIBM PC's function keys (Fl through F10), but

where other programs typically offer menusor screen prompts, XyWrite makes use ofthe command line.

Most of XyWrite's commands have logicalnames, which helps when you're learningthe program. For example, STORE lets yousave a file. CALL displays an existing file,and NEW creates a file. Once you'velearned the program you can save time byusing abbreviations of these commands. Inmost cases, entering the first two letters ofa XyWrite command word has the same ef-fect as spelling it out; either ST or STOREis a legitimate command for saving a file.

XyWrite has more than a hundred com-mands of this sort. While this leads to flex-ibility in some of the program's advancedroutines, it also introduces difficulties.Learning a great number of two-letter com-mands—as WordStar users know—can betime-consuming. Forgotten commandwords lead to annoying interruptionsbecause you have to consult the manual.Typing mistakes force you to back up torevise the command entry Such factorsmake working with a command line moredemanding than choosing from optionslisted on the screen. If your favorite pro-grams use menus extensively, you may notlike this aspect of XyWrite.

A related problem has to do with thenumber of keystrokes required to completecommand operations. In XyWrite the mini-mum number is usually four: one keystroketo move into the command line, two toenter the abbreviated form of the com-mand, and one to execute the command.Comparable operations in other programsoften involve fewer keystrokes.

However, once you've entered the com-mands they are executed very quickly;operations such as deletions, changes offormat, and cursor movements occuralmost instantaneously (see table 1). Suchspeed is possible because the programkeeps your file in RAM (random-accessread/write memory! until you decide to

{continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 297

REVIEW: XYWR1TE II PLUS

write it onto the disk. This, of course,makes your data vulnerable to loss incase of a power outage or a forgot-ten update command. But storingdata is simple, and XyWrite has a trickthat lets you keep updating your fileeasily. As long as you don t need thecommand line for another purpose,you can let the STORE command re-main there; then, with one keystrokeyou can update your file. This princi-ple applies to other XyWrite opera-tions: Whatever you've entered in thecommand line remains there until youreplace it. so you can easily keeprepeating commands.

Learning the Program

One flaw in a number of good pro-grams is instructional material thatlooks as if it were written by someonewhose native tongue is hexadecimal.While XyWrites documentation isn'tthe worst I've ever seen, clarity is notits strong suit.

Some sections of the XyWrite on-line tutorial flash by too quickly, whileothers merely repeat material that ap-pears in the printed version. Themanual's instructions are often in-

complete, and at times it uses newnames for familiar items (for example.the Backspace key is called theRubout key). Another shortcoming isthe manual's lack of illustrations andthe absence of a printed keyboardchart (the only key-definition chart ison a help screen).

Get the Update

When I first began working with theprogram I discovered some errors inthe manual, including misspelledcommand listings; I had been assum-ing that some mistake of mine washolding me up. I spoke about this withlohn Hild. one of the authors ofXyWrite: he assured me that a newversion of the program contained cor-rections. I duly tested this new versionand found that the errors had beeneliminated. In addition, although thetexts of the original tutorial andmanual have been retained, XyQuesthas added a new tutorial booklet forbeginners, entitled XyWrite level ITutorial. This booklet is clearly writtenand. unlike the manual, has easydirections for installing the program.If you're planning to buy XyWrite. be

Table I: Benchmark results using XyWrite II Plus on the IBM PC {with 640Kbytes and an adapter for a monochrome monitor) running a standard 4000-worddocument.

Test

Time(seconds)

Begin Program: time to load the XyWrite Editor programfrom the DOS A> prompt

4

Save Document: time to store the standard tile on the disk

7

Recall Document: time to retrieve standard file from disk anddisplay on screen

3.69

Search time to find the last word (the 4000th) of thestandard file

2

Scroll: time to scroll from the beginning to the end of thestandard file

31

End of File: time to go to the end of the file and reset thepage and line counter by pushing Ctrl-End

2 38

Delete, time to delete the first 5 words of a 100-wordparagraph and reformat

immediate

Insert: time to restore the 5 deleted words and reformat

immediate

Format Changes: time to change spacing, margins, lines perpage, margins, and pitch

immediate

Print File: time from entering the command to print a file tothe start of printing

2.52

sure you're getting the updated pro-gram, which isn't as easy as itsounds—the earlier release and theupdate are both labeled version l.OOon the opening screen and versionI 20 on the help screen, and neitherdesignation appears on the manual'sslipcase. In the newer version, how-ever, the copyright year on the disklabel is 1984 (versus I983|. and theaforementioned tutorial booklet is in-cluded with the program. If youbought the earlier version of the pro-gram and would like to have thisbooklet, XyQuest will sell you a copyfor $10.

Help Facilities

XyWrite has only four help screens:one with general information, onewith a keyboard chart, and two withlistings for the major commands. Thehelp screens are fairly elementary:displaying them is cumbersome. Thehelp information fills the entirescreen, so you can't see your file.Unlike many programs. XyWritedoesn t give you a specific messagewhen you need to correct an error orcomplete a command sequence.Some commands are missing fromthe on-screen keyboard chart: Xy-Quest seems to have used the samehelp screens for XyWrite II Plus as itused for the entry-level version of theprogram.

You can create your own helpscreens, but this hardly makes up forthe skimpiness of the ones provided.Asking users to write their own helpscreens seems a bit odd. somethinglike telling a drowning man where hecan get swimming lessons.

Cursor and Function Keys

In general. XyWrite follows the IBMkeyboard definitions: for complex cur-sor movements you use the cursorkeys in combination with Ctrl and Alt.XyWrite doesn t provide as much cur-sor control as some other programs;you can't advance the cursor bysentence or paragraph or move fromthe middle of a line to the beginningof the next one with one keystroke. Atthe same time, three keys on the cur-

[conl'mued\

298 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

AT A GLANCE

Name

XyWrite II Plus

Type

Word-processing package

Manufacturer

XyQuest Inc.POB 372

Bedford, MA 01730(617) 275-4439

Computer

IBM PC, PC XT, PCjr, andcompatibles with one diskdrive and at least 128Kmemory; Tl Professional,Hyperion, and DEC Rainbow

Format

One 51/4-inch double-sidedfloppy disk

Language

Assembly

Documentation

634-page indexed manual;71-page indexed beginner's

manual

Price

IBM version, $295 plus $5

shippingTl and Hyperion versions,

$325 plus $5DEC version, $350 plus $5demonstration disk, $7

Audience

Experienced users who wantan advanced word-processingprogram

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XYWRITE n PLUS

VOLKSWRITER DELUXE

WORDSTAR 3.3

A comparison of three word-processingprograms—XyWrite II Plus, Volkswriter Deluxe,and WordStar 3.3. The graphs show the resultsof performing various functions using a4000-word text file. The Load graph shows thetime required to load the file from disk to

memory. The Save graph shows how long ittakes to save the file to disk. The Scroll graphshows the time required to scroll through thefile manually. The Search graph shows the timeit takes to find the last word in the file, startingat the beginning.

SEPTEMBER

I Y T E 299

REVIEW: XYWRITE II PLUS

sor pad (5, +. and -) aren't used forcursor movements. This is an ineffi-cient arrangement. However, it seemsfrom the reserved function calls listedin the manual that XyQuest may addsome new cursor commands to futurereleases of XyWrite.

Normally. XyWrite operates in Insertmode. But the program also has an

Overstrike mode. You use the Insertkey to toggle back and forth betweenmodes, and the cursor changes froma box to a line to indicate that you'vegone from Insert to Overstrike.

XyWrite's definition of the functionkeys is somewhat unconventional.While some keys have many functions,others are redundant; for example.

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you can use either F5 or F6 to movethe cursor to the command line. Giventhe frequent use of the command line,the authors of the program must havefelt that this operation should beduplicated. But I didn't find thishelpful; I always used F6 and neverbothered with F5. In the same way,either F9 or the Return key can beused to execute commands.

XyWrite uses many of the otherfunction keys for its Define procedure,which involves highlighting a block oftext prior to performing some opera-tion on it. Moving, copying, and delet-ing blocks are done entirely with thefunction keys, which means you don'thave to go into the command line toperform these operations.

Assigning four operations to somefunction keys and only one to othersmakes it hard to remember somefunction definitions. Even so, beingable to redefine the keyboard meansthat you can remedy such problems.

Display

XyWrite reserves three lines on thescreen for program information. Atthe very top is the command line.Next is the prompt line: it contains in-formation about modes of operation,such as the status of the Caps Lockand Num Lock keys. For the third lineyou have some choices: You can dis-play a ruler with margin and tab in-formation, a summary of the functionkey commands, or a straight line. Therest of the screen is reserved for yourdocument.

XyWrite has three viewing modes,which permits you to look at text withor without control characters. PageReview mode shows you what theprinted document will look like. Ex-panded Input mode displays all of thecontrol-character information; this isthe mode you'd use to make exten-sive format changes. Perhaps themost useful is the Formatted mode,a compromise between the othermodes. In Formatted mode you seea bright triangle at each locationwhere format information has beenembedded. When you move the cur-sor under one of these triangles, the

(continued)

300 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 213

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Inquiry 80

SEFTEMBER I985 -BYTE 301

REVIEW: XYWRITE II PLUS

Word-processing

programs seldom let youchange their standardroutines. XyWrite II Plusis an exception.You can easily enterthe command words inexecutable files.

relevant format information is givenin the prompt line. This is a cleveridea: the triangular markers take upvery little space, yet the informationthey contain is readily available.

Major Features

XyWrite has many of the featuresfound in sophisticated word-process-ing programs. These include searchand replace, with uppercase andlowercase sensitivity, wild cards, andforward or backward search (becausethe working document is kept in RAM.search and replace routines are veryfast): microjustification, which lets youadjust the spacing between letters:special character display includingboldface and reverse video: auto-matic footnotes, printed at either thebottom of a page or the end of adocument: mail merge, including thecapability to transfer a list created inanother program (a database man-ager, for example) into XyWrite: twouser-defined windows, either verticalor horizontal, and a whole-screen win-dow that lets you toggle betweenpages from different files: extendedASCII (American Standard Code forInformation Interchange) charactersets, including foreign characters andscientific symbols: special keyboardlayouts, either user-defined, Dvorak,or Spanish/Portuguese (included onthe program disk, although there'snothing in the manual about these

keyboard files): 18 printer commandfiles that support some 30 printers (ifyour printer isn't supported, you cancreate your own command file orsend your printer manual and pro-gram disk to XyQuest and the com-pany will write one for you): book-editing functions, including tables ofcontents and indexes, arranged alpha-betically or in page order: and a mathfeature that lets you calculate and in-sert the results into text.

Though it can generate "softhyphens'' (hyphens that disappearwhen revisions make them unneces-sary), XyWrite does not have an auto-matic hyphenation utility XyQuestsays it will include this feature in anupdate of XyWrite II Plus, to be re-leased sometime this year.

The program also lacks a spellingchecker, but since its files are writtenin ASCII, many of the spelling pro-grams currently on the market arecompatible with XyWrite. XyQuestrecommends The Word Plus SpellingChecker (Oasis Systems) and WordProof (IBM)

Programming Features

Word-processing programs, unlikemany database-management pack-ages, seldom give you opportunitiesto change their standard routines.XyWrite II Plus is an exception. Its useof a command line contributes toXyWrites programming capability,since you can easily enter the com-mand words in executable files.

The advanced features are not fornovices: using them takes a certainamount of experience. Still, only a fewroutines require a knowledge of pro-gramming, and if you don't mindreading the manual and experiment-ing, you II appreciate what you can ac-complish with these utilities.

The save-and-get function, for exam-ple, lets you store a block of text (likea long book title or a boilerplateparagraph) and then insert it into thetext by pressing Alt and an alphanu-meric key If you create a number ofthese save-and-get blocks. XyWritecan display a directory to remind youof their contents.

Another advanced feature permits

you to remap the keyboard. For ex-ample, if you own an IBM keyboardand are irritated by the placement ofthe Backslash key. you can transformit into a Shift key. You can also re-define keys so they perform com-mand functions. These can be simpleoperations or fairly complex ones,where a short key sequence executesa file with many XyWrite letter com-mands. If you've used key-definingprograms like ProKey. you'll befamiliar with this routine. XyWrite alsohas a more complex macro functionthat lets you create executable filesmade up of a series of commandstogether with any data you may wishto enter.

XyWrite lets you use GoTo com-mands, variables, and command ex-pressions like "if" and greater than''in executable files. This adds up toreal programming capability: You cancreate routines that the off-the-shelfversion of XyWrite isn't capable ofperforming.

Finally. XyWrite lets you go into DOSwithout removing XyWrite from ma-chine memory. You can perform func-tions in DOS and then return to thedocument you're editing—with thecursor in the same position as it wasbefore you entered DOS. If your sys-tem has enough memory, you caneven run another program (such as aspreadsheet or a database manager)together with XyWrite and move backand forth between them.

Conclusions

Some portions of XyWrite are very im-pressive: others need to be improved.Experienced PC users who can makeuse of its advanced capabilities,especially its programming features,will doubtless become XyWrite fans.Other people may be better off witha word-processing package that pro-vides more user amenities.

In the world of word processors.XyWrite is like a sports car. It's fast: butthe ride can be a bit rough, and to getit going properly you may have to dosome tinkering. If you re not surewhether this much spottiness is foryou. I recommend a trial spin with theXyWrite demonstration disk. ■

302 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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Inquiry 169

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

Filevision

A graphicexample

management

on the

Macintosh

by Scott L. Norman

Telos Software's Filevision attemptsto apply the Macintosh's novel fea-tures—the desktop metaphor, pull-down menus, and icons—to a common task:Or Qdtd database management. Although limited infile size and reporting capability, Filevisionmight be the harbinger of a new generationof visually oriented software.

With Filevision you draw a picture, map,diagram, or other graphic image, then builda series of data files associated with vari-ous elements of the image. You can sortfiles and select items much as with conven-tional text-only database managers. You canhighlight items meeting the current selec-tion criteria on the pictorial display.

Filevision is not just another databasemanager with graphics tacked on as a gim-mick. The program's authors take the view-point that the text-and-number files shouldsupport and elaborate on the picture ratherthan the reverse. As such, the program isunlikely to be a general-purpose datahandler. I would not choose Filevision formanaging a mailing list, and it would not dofor keeping track of General Motors' partsinventory.

Data Organization

The concept of a "type," or distinct class ofobject, is crucial to Filevision's method fororganizing information. Every item in a File-vision drawing belongs to one type or an-other; even the background is assigned tothe default type, called Background, whenyou begin to draw. You can design a differ-ent form, or "information record," on whichyou enter the data for each type, and youcan specify "links," which are connectionsbetween an object in one drawing and anentirely different drawing file. Linked filesare the key to storing multiple levels ofdetail, and you can use them to give visualexpression to different ways of organizinginformation about a set of objects.

In Filevision, a field has essentially thesame meaning as in more traditional data-base software: an individual piece of infor-

Scott L. Uorman (8 Doris RdFramingHam. MA 01701) ismanager of the Solid State ScienceDepartment for GTE Laboratories.

mation about a given object. With File-vision, you can add fields to or delete themfrom a form at any time.

Filevision has overlapping specificationsfor capacity. The manual indicates that a filecan contain up to 999 objects that belongto as many as 16 different types. You canuse up to 30 data fields to describe eachtype, and the limit on the text associatedwith a single object is 2000 characters. A128K-byte Macintosh will not be able toreach all the limits that should be simulta-neously attainable. A Telos customer-service representative told me that small-memory machines might run out of storageat 200 to 400 objects. This depends on thecomplexity of the file structure and arisesfrom the fact that pointers to various ob-jects are maintained in RAM (random-access read/write memory) where they con-sume storage space. Macintoshes with 512Kbytes of RAM have no difficulty reachingthe published limits. The vendor shouldhave clarified this point.

Setting Up an Application

The best way to get a feeling for the data-management problems Filevision can ad-dress is to work through an example. I setup a small group of files for this review:maps of the orbits of planets and somemajor asteroids in our solar system, sup-ported by data sheets containing elemen-tary facts and figures about the bodies. Thisapplication serves as a modest model forapplying Filevision to teaching and alsodemonstrates how some of its featurescome into play as a result of graphicsconsiderations.

Filevision is quite flexible concerning theorder in which you perform the operationsnecessary to set up a database. One sensi-ble approach is to specify the types of ob-jects that will make up a file, define a dataform for each, and then draw the objectsand fill in the forms. Thus, a little pencil-and-paper planning is appropriate before ap-

{continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 305

REVIEW: FILEVISION

AT A GLANCE

Name

Filevision

Type

Pictonally oriented database manager

Manufacturer

Telos Software Products3420 Ocean Park Blvd.Santa Monica, CA 90405(800) 554 2496;in California, (800) 368-3813

Computer

Apple Macintosh

Minimum Hardware

128K bytes of RAM, one disk drive

Format

31/2-inch floppy disk; working copies canbe made, but original disk must be usedfor verification whenever a file is openedfrom the Finder

Documentation

154-page manual with glossary andillustrated guide to all menus andcommands; tutorial file on program disk

Price

$195 (backup master disk costs anadditional $15)

Audience

Anyone who wants to keep track of datathat can be conveniently expressed asparts of a drawing

Comments

Filevision is an innovative approach to themanagement of facts and figures thatadheres to conventions of the Macintoshuser interface; it includes its own drawingprogram, which is less flexible thanMacPaint, and its report-generation facilitiesare limited

proaching the keyboard, which is astrue of Filevision as it is of any data-base manager.

This might make it seem as thoughthe data forms have precedence overthe imagery, and that need not be thecase. You can draw a complete pictureand then define object types and theirassociated data forms; you can readi-ly change an object's type as you goalong. Form layout is quick and pain-less and uses typical Macintosh click-and-drag operations to set the sizeand position of data fields.

You do not need to identify the typeof information data fields will contain:string, integer, real number, and soon. This simplifies the process of set-ting up a form, although it ultimatelyrestricts the program's ability to selectobjects from a file.

For my example, I drew a few back-ground elements on the screen, de-fined data forms for the major typesof objects, drew the objects them-selves, and entered the relevant data.My view of our astronomical neigh-

borhood is shown in figure 1. 1 bun-dled the four inner and five outerplanets into two members of a data

type I called Planet type. At this

level, I lumped all the asteroids intoone type.

The three initial data forms—innerplanets, outer planets, and aster-oids—were quite skimpy. However,each was linked to another drawing,and the latter was backed up by con-siderably more detail: one recordsheet for each planet and one foreach major asteroid as in figure 2.

Why didn't I just define a nine-member data type called Planets anda six-member type called Asteroidsand designate them as separate ele-ments of one drawing? In best File-vision style, I made my choice basedon graphics considerations. It is im-practical to show all interplanetarydistances to the same scale on onedrawing: the solar system is too large.By using three subfiles, 1 could depictgroups of orbit paths in somethingapproaching true scale—although I

THE SOLAR SVSTEM^(Not to scale) /?

$7

w

\ \ \ \ \

\\\ \\

\\\v

^-^—

Figure I: The solar system file. The four inner planets are lumped together as one

member of the data type Planet type. The five outer planets constitute the other

member, and the asteroids [symbolized by the broad gray band) form a second data type.

306 BYTE" SEPTEMBER

REVIEW: FILEV1SION

had to cheat on the sizes of theplanets themselves.

Drawing with Filevision

Filevision's drawing screen (see figure3) bears a family resemblance to thatof MacPaint, but there are importantdifferences between the two. The kitof drawing tools is stripped down, asis the palette of fill-in patterns hiddenunder the Shades menu. Filevisiondoesn't have an eraser or Goodiesmenu, and hence no Fat Bits featurefor touching up the fine points. How-ever, Filevision gives you a selectionof 20 preset symbols to use in a draw-ing (such as the little symbol of a manin figure 3), and you can edit these ina manner somewhat like MacPaint.You can delete items from this file andreplace them with others of your owndesign.

You can also use pictures (or"glyphs") from some of the Mac'sdecorative fonts. The stars, sun, andringed planet in figure 1 all came fromthe Cairo character set, and I enteredthem with the Text tool (the A).

Filevision has one drawing tool thatI would like to see in MacPaint: a Re-shape command that lets you add"handles'' to any figure created free-hand or from straight line segments.You can use the handles to stretch thefigure into a new shape: in figure 3,1 used them to pull a freehand arc intoa reasonable orbit for Jupiter. Thisfigure also shows the optional gridused for alignment and scale setting.Note the typical distortion of videocircles into ellipses caused by print-ing the screen with command-Shift-4.The distortion is rectified when youuse Filevision's Print Display com-mand to produce hard copy of animage.

Filevision normally treats every ele-ment added to a drawing as anotherexample of whichever data type is ac-tive at the moment. For example, File-vision considers a planetary orbit andthe corresponding symbol as twoplanets, unless you instruct the pro-gram that they represent the sameobject. In this case, you can use aspecial Bind command to link ele-

Icontinued)

« File Edit

*V:% $U?f&b<B^ li^rS ^TUiis^^

« i

' "^ " v' y.'-'j-;a.;.HMMMW»w»sa»smT?^

information for this Inner Planet

Cancel

Pteu

Newt

| Done j

Figure 2: A full screen showing the data form for the \nner Planets data file. Note theLink box, which relates this file back to the Solar System file.

File Edit Types Tinker Tent Symbols Lines Shades

■■: ■ ■■■■.,.....,..,■...„

Figure 3: The Asteroids drawing taking shape on the Filevision screen. Mars's orbit andthe sun have been entered, and a portion of ]upiter's orbit is being pulled into shape withthe Reshape tool. Note the drawing tools, which will look familiar to MacPaint users.

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 307

REVIEW: FILEVISION

Highlight 'Outer Planet's meeting these conditions

□ Name

□ Link

□ Semimajor Axi

□ Period, yrs.M Albedo

j Choose other fields |

r" "" v

C anrel (

Period, yrs isbetween5 and 100

AND ~

Albedo is notless than or equal to0.5 AND -

-AND-

Done {

Figure 4: Selecting fields and relationships for a Filevision report involves the poinl-and-click technique You only need to type in numerical or text values for the comparisons.Objects meeting the two criteria shown here will be highlighted when the Done box isclicked.

List highlighted "Outer Planet's as follows

Order printing based on: Semimajor Axis

Page Header

SELECTED OUTER PLANETS

Page Footer: [3 Number pages

(Semimajor axis between 5.2 and 30.07 A U )

Column layout:

, ■

Name Period, yrs Eccentricity Obliquity,|Diarneter, km

mam

Camel

Remoue Field

Add Field

I Done

Figure 5: The screen form used to design a Filevision List report. You use the Arrowbox at the right of the "Order printing. . ." line to cycle through data fields until youfind the one you want to use for organizing the report. A similar control appears at thebottom of the "Column layout' area, along with selectors for justifying entries in eachcolumn. You use the black squares on the Diameter box to stretch and pull that columninto the desired position.

merits into a compound object so youcan treat them logically.

File Handling and Reporting

It is simple to reorder a Filevision file,select a portion of it, and set up areport. You pay a price for this sim-plicity: Reports lack many featuresthat users of more advanced data-base managers have come to expect.

You can select a single object byclicking on it in typical Macintoshfashion, but Filevision's Tinker menumust handle selecting groups of ob-jects. Objects meeting the selectioncriteria can be highlighted on thescreen: alternatively, either the selectsor the rejects can be hidden fromview. Selection operations only affectthe object type that the Types menucurrently specifies.

You set up selections on the specialscreen shown in figure 4 by using thepoint-and-click method. You can com-bine up to four criteria with the logicalAND operation and specify a com-plete range of equality and inequali-ty conditions (the special "--" symboldenotes the condition "between").You cannot link conditions by OR.

A Filevision selection always com-pares a field's contents to a fixednumerical value or to a specified char-acter string. Filevision allows wild-cardcharacters. You cannot compare onefield to another, which is probably aresult of the program using untypeddata fields: without this restriction,you might inadvertently try to com-pare a numerical field to text.

In addition to printing the screen,you can design three types ofreports—Info, List, and Labels—onvideo worksheets and then printthem: Filevision doesn't have a facili-ty for routing a complete report to thescreen. You can place objects selectedfor a report in ascending order ac-cording to the contents of any field.

A Print Info command produceshard copy of all the data for each ob-ject. Filevision positions all fields asthey were on the original data form,but the absence of field titles mighthamper interpreting the information.This is an informal report and thequickest way to get a record of every-

308 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I08S

Inquiry 61

REVIEW: FILEVISION

thing in a file. You can add pageheaders and footers.

A conventional columnar report iscalled a List in Filevision parlance. Al-though the Mac's click-and-drag tech-nology makes report layout easy (seefigure 5 for a sample screen), 1 wishthe List option were more potent. Forexample, you cannot find the total ofa numerical column, and multilevelsorts are out. It is also difficult tojudge how much room you are allo-cating to a given column. You reservespace for a field by stretching a textbox, and Filevision has no simple wayto determine its width in charactersuntil you release the mouse buttonand see how the title fits. Page spacecan become critical, since List reportsdevote only a single line to each ob-ject. The maximum width allotted toa printed List is tVi inches.

The third kind of report, a Label, letsyou print as many data fields as willfit into a space 5 inches wide and 2inches high, This time, scales appearon the layout screen. Since this is theoption you would choose if you weredoing mailing labels, field titles arenot printed.

It's good that Filevision makes set-ting up a report easy, because youcannot predefine several formats andsave them under their own names. Al-though the manual makes no mentionof the fact, Filevision saves your lastInfo, List, and Label formats when youquit the program, so people withmodest reporting requirements mighthave no trouble. However, any selec-tion criteria that might have precededreport generation are lost.

Conclusions

Filevision is an easy program to workwith provided your data-managementchores have the proper graphics ori-entation. In most respects, the pro-gram adheres well to the Macintosh'suser-interface conventions. You canperform many selection operations intwo ways: by clicking on an object andthen on a menu item or by double-clicking on the object. Picture ele-ments and text boxes respond as ex-pected to stretching and dragging,and anyone who has used MacWrite

Filevision is easyto work with providedyour database choreshave the propergraphics orientation.

will immediately feel comfortable withthis program's text-editing features.

Nevertheless, Filevision differs fromconventional Mac practice in a fewareas. I was surprised to find that itdoesn't have Save or Save As optionson the File menu; you must selectQuit to have the option of naming andsaving a newly opened file. The activefile is updated from time to time dur-ing a session, so the manual advisesmaking a copy when you begin workto preserve the starting configuration.

It would help if Filevision could im-port a MacPaint image as a startingpoint, but it cannot. You can transferimages the other way, though; youcan convert the Filevision screen to aMacPaint document with the com-mand-Shift-3 "write to disk" key se-quence. The images will appear ondisk as Screen 0, Screen 1, and so on.

You can also select individual ob-jects and store them in the Mac'sscrapbook. And you can carry out cut-and-paste operations in the usual way,but the clipboard itself is not availablefor viewing from the Edit menu. Final-ly, Filevision cannot use the clipboardto transfer data from a text file orspreadsheet.

Despite its departures from thenorm. Filevision is an exciting new ap-proach to information management.In my first real application, I used theprogram's graphics to organize somelaboratory data. Despite its lack ofcomputational power. Filevision wasa tremendous help. I deal with fairlysmall files and ask "What can you tellme about that?" questions. The "that"is often a piece of an image, so File-vision has found a home with me—even though it will not remain my onlyMacintosh database manager. ■

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Inquiry 177

4P019

SOFTWARE REVIEW

DB Master

for the Macintosh

An

easy-to-use

database

manager

with a

few flaws

BY

Jeffrey M. Jacques

leffrey M \acgues is a sociology

professor with extensive experience

on mainframes, minicomputers, and

microcomputers- He can be reached

at the Department of Sociology.

Florida A&M University.

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Stoneware's Macintosh version of DBMaster boasts easy access to theicon structure, pull-down menus,and a file size that any home or small-business user would be unlikely to out-grow—44 disks, or 20 megabytes on a hard-disk or cartridge system. Each record canhandle as many as 100 fields. 3000 charac-ters per record, and 20 complex computedfields that can include logical tests of otherfields (IF . . . THEN type) and arithmeticfunctions such as SQRT, ABS. and RND.Stoneware's program costs $195.

Upon booting, DB Master gives you twoapplication options. Create File and UseFile. Create File lets you define the fieldnames, data types, formulas for computedfields, and so on. Use File lets you use a filethat you have previously created. The pro-gram also comes with a test file, calledCities, with three dozen fields and recordsfor 82 cities.

When you double-click the Create File ap-plication, DB Master explains that you caneither design a new form for a file or re-design a previous form. The program thenpresents a gray screen with the title "DesignForm" and several menu options.

To design a new form, you simply click themouse anywhere within the screen and typein the name of your first field. The programallows both uppercase and lowercase char-acters, and you can change the way char-acters are displayed on the screen by pull-ing down a Print Style option from themenu. The program lets you display eachof the field labels (or the data in the field)in any of seven Macintosh fonts, five sizes,and six styles. Using one font for field labelsand a different font, size, or style for thedata lets you clearly distinguish field labelsfrom the data in that field. The programsupports the various fonts in data entry,editing, and retrieval, but not in printingreports (more on that later). Each field labelis limited to a maximum of 63 characters,and you are limited to a maximum of 100fields in a form.

When you are done entering the label,you click the mouse in another part of thescreen and DB Master automatically assignsa field number to the previous field. If youwish to move a field to another location onthe screen, you can choose Cut and Pastecommands from the menu.

You can also use pull-down menus to setfield types (alphanumeric, numeric with upto two decimal places, or date) and fieldlength (a maximum of 21 characters for anumeric field and about 3000 characters fora single alphanumeric entry). The morefields, the fewer the number of bytes pos-sible for any other field since the maximumrecord length is 3000 bytes.

Another field option. Enter Formula,allows a field to get its value from computa-tions based on another field or fields. Forexample, the value of Field 3. automatical-ly computed by DB Master at the time ofreport generation, might be "Field 1 - Field2." Each formula may be up to 240 charac-ters long, and you can have up to 20 com-puted fields in a form.

You can define a key field or fields, thefields by which DB Master will automaticallysort records as you enter them. The keymay include as few as one field or as manyfields as you wish, up to a total of 40 char-acters for the entire key. If you do notchoose a key field, the program selects thefirst field as the key by default.

Once you have defined all the fields, theFile menu lets you title and save your form.DB Master then takes you back to theMacintosh desktop, where you can beginusing your newly created form. Unfortunate-ly, the program doesn't ask you if you wantto quit Create File when you save the form:it automatically takes you out to thedesktop, which is inconvenient if you wantto create more than one form at a time.

Use File

When you double-click the Use File icon, DBMaster presents a dialogue box with the

{continued}

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 311

REVIEW: DB MASTER

names of files available for you to use.(You can also double-click on the iconfor a particular file, but the programstill requires you to choose the filefrom the dialogue box, an annoyingduplication of effort.) A menu selec-tion called Record lets you add newrecords, set selection criteria for aretrieval, delete records, and so on.You may also use command-key com-binations to select these functionsfrom the keyboard.

Adding a new record is straightfor-ward, although rather slow and some-times tedious. When you select theAdd New Records option, DB Masterpresents you with a copy of your formand white-boxed areas for data entry.You simply enter the essential infor-mation for each field and press Returnor click the mouse on a new field tomove on. You can shift back and forthbetween fields and edit the record atany time using keyboard commandsor a pull-down Edit menu to cut, copy,paste, or erase text.

When you've finished entering allthe data for the first record, DBMaster accesses the disk, saves thedata, and gives you another blankform to fill in.

To help with the drudgery of data

entry, you can select Set FieldDefaults. For example, suppose youare developing a mailing list and manyof the people on the list live in thesame city and state; you can store thecity and state names in the appro-priate fields. When you ask to addanother record, DB Master automati-cally fills in these fields with thespecified text. (You can easily edit thefields when the default values are in-appropriate.) This option can saveconsiderable time.

Report Generation

DB Master lets you generate colum-nar reports with a wide variety of op-tions (sort fields, column titles, tabdistance between columns, etc.). Theprogram makes it easy to select fields,organize them in order, title eachfield, compute sum totals and sub-totals for numeric fields and counts/subcounts for alphanumeric fields,and select records based on one orseveral criteria.

DB Master lets you store morereport formats than you are likely toever use—2 55 in any file—and youmay use up to 10 sort levels whencreating a report. You may printreports to the screen, the printer, or

05-17-85

Acme Widget

889.7?

01-29-84

910.44

09-29-84

951 .10

06-29-84

1343.22

03-29-34

1347.18

10-29-84

-6.56

12-29-84

-8.95

11-29-84

-62.22

08-29-84

-90.0 0

02-29-84

-110.44

07-29-84

-878.21

05-29-84

-1166.84

04-29-84

Figure I: W(icn sorting numeric data, as in this profit-and-loss report. DB Masterlists positive values first. Small negative values are listed before extreme negative values.

a disk file that you can edit with Mac-Write or Microsoft Word.

BYTE Benchmarks

An important feature of any databasesystem is how fast it can sort andretrieve stored information. The BYTEstandard database benchmark con-sists of 1000 records, each with 100characters divided into four fields. Thefirst field in this test was a 4-characternumeric field with values ranging from1000 to 2000. This was the key field,and the program automatically in-dexed records according to this fieldwhen they were entered. Conse-quently, sorting and retrieving recordswith this field was very fast.

A more accurate test is to measurea nonindexed field. For this reason,the remaining 96 characters of eachrecord were equally divided into threefields of 32 alphanumeric characterseach. The first of these three fieldshad 32 haphazard values enteredfrom the keyboard, and the bench-marks were conducted using this field.

BYTE's first benchmark measuressorting speed (see the graphs on the"At a Glance'' page). DB Master's sort-ing speed is difficult to judge since thesorting routine is couched within thelarger report routine. Therefore, theelapsed time included the amount oftime DB Master spent writing the out-put to the screen or into a text file ondisk. The program took 18 minutes toprint the report to the screen andmore than 12 minutes to print it intoa text file.

When I sort a numeric field in as-cending order. I expect the most ex-treme negative value to be listed first,followed by less extreme negativevalues, small positive values, and thenlarge positive values. DB Master, how-ever, sorts numeric data in ascendingorder by listing all the positive valuesfirst and the negative values next. Thepositive values are sorted as I wouldexpect. However, small negativevalues (for example, - 1, -5) are listedbefore the extreme negative values(-100, - 500). Figure 1 shows a profit-and-loss report for a small companyduring a year, sorted according to the

[continued]

312 B YTE • SEPTEMBER 198^

Want to heara demonstration of

Hewlett-Packard's

Thinkjet Printer?

AT A GLANCE

Name

DB Master (Macintoshversion)

Type

Database manager

Manufacturer

Stoneware Inc.50 Belvedere St.San Rafael. CA 94902(415) 454-6500

Format

31/2-inch disk

Computer

Apple Macintosh with 128K

Language

Pascal

Price

S195

SORT (SEC)1200 I

BOO

E00

200

DB MASTER

RECORD ACCESS (SEC)

MICROSOFT FILE

The graphs show the results of the BYTEbenchmark tests on DB Master and MicrosoftFile, using a standard database of 1000records, each with 100 characters. Tests wereperformed using the second field, a non-indexed. 32-character alphanumeric field. Sort

measures the time required to sort the records,and Record Access measures the time re-quired to find the last record, both using thenonindexed field. Note that the Sort time for DBMaster includes the time required to print thereport to the screen.

numeric field S Profit/Loss. Not quitewhat I expected.

The second BYTE benchmarkmeasures record accessing. This ismore straightforward. It involves find-ing the last record in the file (using anonindexed field), a task that took DBMaster approximately 40 seconds.Retrievals are faster when you searchusing the key—just about instantane-ous. That should not surprise anyonesince the program uses ISAM (in-dexed sequential-access method) filestructure. The actual elapsed time inretrieving a record has more to dowith time spent accessing the diskthan it has to do with the software. Ifyou have a hard disk, you'll find iteven faster.

DB Master lets you search forrecords using the logical operators =,< > < > and < >. You can alsoretrieve using multiple fields and linkthese fields using logical ANDs orORs. You may enter up to 20 selec-tion criteria for any retrieval.

Closer Examination

While DB Master can do many things,there are several things it cannot dowell, if at all. First, DB Master does notlet you join files; that is, you cannotmatch records from different forms by

a specific key and then retrieve uniquedata from more than one file. Second,designing noncolumnar reports isawkward and time-consuming and re-quires considerable effort. For exam-ple, handling invoice reports whenyou have many different entries forproducts for some people and few forothers, as well as the need to com-pute discounts, taxes, and totalsacross items, is not easy for a noviceuser. Furthermore, it is difficult to printthe field names and the associateddata for that field when designing areport. (You have to create a new fieldthat houses the field name as analphanumeric entry and then printboth fields if you wish to include fieldlabels.)

Producing standard mailing labels isnot difficult. You just choose the ap-propriate fields from your larger file,indicate that you want to start a newline for street-address information, setthe page length, number of blanklines, etc., and then print the report.But DB Master works only with singlelabels where each label is on aseparate section of the pin-fed paper.It does not let you perform any stringfunctions, so to sort on zip code orstate, you'd have to have a separatefield for each. Further, the program

lacks a mail-merge facility for match-ing names/addresses with a text or let-ter document.

Printed reports are strikingly limitedin output styles. Your reports, if youuse an Imagewriter, are limited tostandard text output of pica, elite,condensed, and so on. All those fancyMacintosh fonts are visible only onthe data-entry form, not on theprinted report. Although DB Mastersupports a LaserWriter and providesa small set of additional print stylesand sizes, it does not come near tousing the Mac's printer capabilities.Rather, you have to dump the outputto your word processor and use itsediting and printing capabilities.Pretty shabby for Mac software.

One of my common tasks, creatingannotated bibliographies, is difficultusing DB Master. While I can defineseveral fields as long alphanumericdata fields, thus allowing several linesof information for that field, editingfacilities are incomplete. It is easy toadd and delete information in fieldswhere the number of characters isconsiderably below the field-lengthlimit, but it's cumbersome to add in-formation when the stored data is atthe length limit. When I inserted ad-

(continued)

314 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

■: Want to. " :■'■ hear it again? :

^H|H You made about as much noise turning the page as theHHB Thinkjet Printer makes turning one out.

1 • So it lets you do two things at once. Print. And think. •1 # Without sound hoods. Without remote printing stations. »IBs|j^ Without aspirin. (And without a lot of clutter. The only thingab2l^£| * smaller than the Thinkjet Printer is its price: $495*) •f^yUl • Better still, it works with just about every personal computer. *HEj Hear the Thinkjet Printer sound off.

1 • Call (800) FOR-HPPC, Dept.276X, for the •1 * Hewlett-Packard dealer nearest you. *

■ . mag HEWLETT

m mLcM Packard ***,„

A

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1

trtZm HEWLETTmLEM PACKARD

I

1

"U.S. list [

PG02511 ^H H

REVIEW: DB MASTER

ditional information in a field that hadmany characters, the data at the endof the field was dropped immediate-ly. Even if I deleted some other char-acters, those dropped characters didnot reappear. There's no temporarystorage area that would have allowedme to modify the entry—enter theneeded additional information, re-examine the entry, and then deleteunneeded characters—the way Itypically work.

These limitations may not be impor-tant to some of you, but I found otheressential applications missing, too.Perhaps the most disappointing fea-ture of this version of DB Master isthat all data entry must be done fromthe keyboard. Currently there is noway to directly read data from anotherdatabase-management system, nor isthere any way to read DIF files froma spreadsheet program. The bottomline is this: If you have a new applica-

tion and have no other machine-read-able data sources, then this packagemight make sense: otherwise, you'regoing to be reentering a lot of data.

Documentation

The documentation provided with DBMaster is easy reading, is generallystraight to the point, and usually pro-vides backup for what may not be ap-parent when using the software andthe help screens. The documentationcomes in two parts. The first, a13-page document called GettingStarted, covers the essentials of howto back up your program disk, retrieveinformation using the Cities filetutorial, and design, build, andretrieve data with your own form. Thesecond and larger document, theuser's guide, is good at providingworked examples and serving as anoverall reference for creating a formand doing retrievals. It needs con-

siderable work (especially for thenovice user) on designing reports,thinking through issues, and develop-ing applications.

Along with the documentation, youget a single program disk. It is notcopy-protected. You also get a single-machine license agreement, a regis-tration card, and a telephone numberto Stoneware's technical supportpersonnel.

Conclusions

Although DB Master is easy to useand has some nice features, it doesnot meet my expectations for a data-base-management system on theMacintosh. The product has the basiccode to be a good file-managementsystem, but it needs better interfacingto other software, more regard forusers and their needs, better reportdocumentation, and better use of theMacintosh's printing potential. ■

THE $2995

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316 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 279

The next stepfor your PCisn't as big asyou think.

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The System/36 can handle allfacets of your business—distribution, sales analysis andgeneral ledger functions.Accounts payable, inventorycontrol and payroll.

318 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

IBM System/36 PC.

And you can get traditional PCfunctions such as spreadsheetsand word processing.

Software for the System/36 hasbeen developed over the yearsand has proven invaluable in allkinds of businesses of all sizes.And with the thousands ofprograms written for both IBMPC and System/36, the sky's thelimit for business and planningapplications.

The System/36 PC evenprovides you with data securityfeatures so that the right datagets into the right hands.

Small yet powerful.

All of this processing powercan sit right on a desk or under it—either horizontally or vertically.It measures a mere 21'/4"xl6%'x6!/£"—about thesize of a smallsuitcase.

Yet as small asit is, this little boxhas multiple processors, withmain memory that can bededicated to running yourbusiness functions. In plainEnglish, this means you can getbetter response time. TheSystem/36 PC comes with a1.2 MB diskette drive and either40 or 80 MB disk storage,depending on your informationstorage needs.

Easy to use.

The System/36 PC is easy tolearn and to use. If you needassistance, it has over 2,800"help" screens that take youstep-by-step through any roughspots. You can merge data you'vegenerated on your PC withinformation that's on yourSystem/36 PC. And you canshare information that is storedin the System/36 PC with otherattached IBM PersonalComputers or System/36terminals.

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Inquiry 180

SEPTEMBER

35 • B YT E 319

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320 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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Seattle, WA 98188, (206) 824-9942

Inquiry 94

A multi-

function

color/graphics

card for the

IBM PC

by Harry Krause

HARDWARE REVIEW

Paradise ModularGraphics Card

Harry Krause (POB 596. Great

Falls. VA 220661 is a marketing

consultant who claims he got

involved with microcomputers out of

self-defense after seeing them pop up

overnight on clients desks

Many owners of IBM PersonalComputers (PCs) face the prob-lem of wanting both the crispdisplay of a monochrome monitor for wordprocessing and the color and graphics avail-able with IBM's color/graphics-displayadapter. An obvious, but expensive, solu-tion is to have both the monochrome andcolor/graphics cards in your computer. Aless expensive solution is to use theParadise Systems Modular Graphics Card(see photo 1).

The Paradise card is functionally equiva-lent to both the IBM color/graphics card andthe monochrome-display card together. Itcan display color on an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor and display graphics on amonochrome monitor. Paradise's card trans-lates the 16 colors into levels of image in-tensity on a monochrome monitor.

The Modular Graphics Card lives up to itsname by letting you plug in modules forserial and parallel ports, a game-control in-terface, a floppy-disk-drive controller, aclock/calendar, and additional RAM(random-access read/write memory).

I have worked with the card for severalmonths and it has performed beautifully.Text-based programs are displayed with thesame high quality I expect from a mono-chrome monitor, and full-size graphics auto-matically pop up on the same screen. Thecard will properly drive any kind of moni-tor used with IBM PCs: TTL (transistor-transistor logic) monochrome, compositemonochrome, or RGB. There is no advan-tage, however, to using the card with eitherRGB or composite monitors because thedisplay quality with these devices is no bet-ter than with the IBM color/graphics card.

Installation

The full-length adapter card is packagedwith a 60-page instruction manual and asoftware disk. Many PC users who buy anew card just pop it into their machineswithout reading the manual. I wouldn'trecommend doing this with the Modular

Graphics Card. You have to check positionsof several switches or jumpers on the cardor in the PC before you do anything else.In fact, a headline on the first page of themanual warns: "If you read nothing else,read this!" The headline is followed by clear-ly worded instructions and an illustration ofthe card. Depending on the equipmentyou've got, some of the instructions willapply. First, you've got to let your PC know,by setting the proper DIP (dual in-linepackage) switch on its motherboard, thatthe Paradise card functions as a col-or/graphics adapter. Second, you must ex-amine the Paradise card and move a jumperor two to let it know whether you're usingan RGB or composite-video monitor or aTTL monochrome monitor.

Once you've set the switches andjumpers, you can insert the Paradise cardinto an empty slot in the PC.

For software installation. Paradise sup-plies a disk of files necessary to configurethe graphics board to the system beingused. You invoke most of these through anon-screen menu program called MGPREP.After providing instructions, MGPREP dis-plays the main menu, which appears as atable of configuration data. You can selecta monitor from a list of several selections,such as RGB/COMP. Taxan, Eagle/Amdek,and Princeton.

With the Mode option, you select thevideo-display mode. The list includes80-column text, black-and-white monitorwith 40-column display, and color monitorwith 40-column display. The Mono Cardselection is for cases where you also haveIBM's monochrome-display adapter in thecomputer and want the machine to boot upusing that card and the monochrome moni-tor.

The Centering menu selection lets you ad-just the display for use with a television set,composite monitor, or RGB monitor. Wheninvoked, the routine runs a centering pat-tern on the display. When the pattern is too

[continued]

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 321

REVIEW: PARADISE CARD

AT A GLANCE

Name

Modular Graphics Card

Type

Display adapter for text and graphics

Manufacturer

Paradise Systems Inc.150 North Hill Dr.Brisbane, CA 94005(415) 468-6000

Size

Full-size PC card, 13 by 4 inches; occupiesone slot

Equipment Needed

IBM PC or compatible with an available slotand one disk drive

Features

Invisible shitting between text and graphicsmodes on TTL monitors; modularconstruction to accommodate add-ons

Options

Add-on modules; parallel printer port ($95).game port ($95), serial port ($95),clock/calendar and 256K RAM ($275),384K RAM ($275), floppy-disk controller($275)

Documentation

60-page owner's manual

Price

$395 for fully functional display adapter

Warranty

One year, limited

far to the right or to the left, you cantap the appropriate arrow keys on thecomputer's keyboard in order tocenter it.

When you are finished configuring,you can select the Install option andMGPREP will create an MGC.COMdisk file incorporating your selections.MGPREP is clever enough to includeanother option that allows theMGC.COM file to be automatically in-serted into your computer's AUTO-EXEC.BAT file. MGPREP's menu alsolets you set parameters for many of

the options (additional memory, serialport, controller, etc.) available for theParadise card.

Resistors and Pixels

At this point, I ought to mention aninstallation anomaly. I had no diffi-culties installing the Paradise card inan IBM PC with an IBM green-screenmonitor. But I prefer amber displays,so I tried the card with an Amdek3I0A. The program loaded properly,but the screen remained blank, Iturned the monitor off and then

Photo I: Modular Graphics Card from Paradise Systems fits into any full-size slot inan IBM PC or compatible. The connector at the bottom right of the photo mates with acable from a monochrome TTL monitor. Also shown are two of Paradise's optional add-on modules: at the top is a combination RAM/clock card, and below that, a serialadapter card.

322 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

Inquiry 314

REVIEW: PARADISE CARD

turned it on again—it worked fine.Puzzled, I called Paradise and spokewith a technical representative. Ap-parently, early versions of the Amdek310A included a resistor-protectivecircuit that created a mode-shiftingproblem when used with boards likethose built by Paradise Systems. Thesolution is to snip off one end of theoffending resistor. Before hacking upmy monitor, I verified the informationwith Amdek. Sure enough, Amdekhad issued a service bulletin identify-ing the resistor as a special problemand recommended disabling it, Iopened up the monitor, cut a lead offthe offending resistor, and the prob-lem disappeared. (The monitor ispotentially the most dangerousperipheral because of high voltages.You might want to have a dealer makeany modifications.)

My AUTOEXEC.BAT file sets severalsystem parameters and leaves me atthe operating-system prompt. AddingMGC.COM to the batch file did notseem to change anything. The char-acters on the display, however, wereever so slightly different than what Iwas used to seeing. They looked a lit-tle more squared off but were stillvery readable; when I scrolledthrough a display of my hard-diskdirectory, there was no flicker. Readingthe Paradise instruction booklet, Idiscovered that, while the charactersdisplayed in the nongraphics modeare the same size as with the IBMmonochrome card (a 7 by 9 matrix ofpixels], the character matrix—thematrix in which characters areformed—is 8 by 14, a tad smaller thanthe IBM's. The squared-off charactersalso appear with the Paradise card'sgraphics mode. The displayed charac-ters aren't of a lesser quality thanthose generated by IBM equipment;they are just a little different.

I ran BASICA and then selected andinvoked a couple of programs I hadn'tbeen able to run before installing thenew card. They use graphics thatsimply won't display on the mono-chrome adapter/TTL monitor com-bination. These are simple graphicsdemonstration programs I download-ed from IBM PC-oriented bulletin

boards. They run now on my Amdekjust as I had seen them run ongraphics monitors.

I had to slightly reconfigure someof my nongraphics programs to ac-commodate the new setup. For wordprocessing, 1 use Volkswriter Deluxe,a program with an elaborate but easy-to-use setup file that allows it to becustomized for an assortment of IBMPC-compatibles and peripherals. Theprogram's configuration file asks youto specify what type of graphics card/monitor combination you're using. Ihad previously set a monochromecard/monochrome monitor combina-tion. With the Paradise card installed.I had to reconfigure and tell the pro-gram 1 was now using a graphics card/monitor combination. Once Volks-writer Deluxe was reconfigured, it ranwithout a glitch. If you're familiar withLotus 1-2-3, you know about the selec-tion of monitor drivers. If you've beenrunning 1-2-3 with a monochromeadapter/monitor combination and youinstall the Paradise, you'll have to usethe Lotus configuration program toselect another display driver. Thebenefit will be apparent; you will nowbe able to display the Lotus graphicsthat were previously unavailable.

Conclusion

Between my software and that ownedby my colleagues. I have access tohundreds of programs that run onIBM PCs and compatibles. I checkedseveral dozen graphics-based pro-grams with the Paradise and they allran as they should; I actually did notcome across a program that wouldnot. To check on compatibility withlesser-known computers, I opened upan Eagle Turbo and popped in theParadise card. It worked as it did onan IBM PC: beautifully.

In looking through my notes forways in which Paradise could improvethe product, I don't see much. If youfollow the directions, the card is easyto install. And it performs exactly asadvertised. Paradise Systems' Modu-lar Graphics Card is one of the fewproducts I've evaluated that I'd con-sider purchasing for my ownsystem. ■

C Programmers:

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Rational

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P.O. Box 480

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Inidniurks MS IMIS (.VfrnKoA Girp I 808~ (Intel Cnrp ). CP/M-86[Digilal Hc\r:irih Ini ) ln>unl<: (Rational Sxslcmv liu I

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE

323

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The IMiGIT PLUS color system iseasy-to-use and versatile.Completely icon-driven, you canquickly learn to master the powerfulediting tools. Also, you can select thevarious editing commands using thekeyboard, popular mouse devices ordigitizing tablets. Captured colorpictures can be displayed for editing,saved and retrieved from disk,printed, and recorded on 35mmslides for professional presentations.

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Inquiry 62

TM: IMiGIT PLUS. Colorverter and PC-EYE are trade-marks of Chorus Data Systems, Inc.*: IBM is a trademark of International BusinessMachines

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HARDWARE REVIEW

Fast disk

access on the

Commodore

64 at a

reasonableprice

by Warren Block

The RAMDISK-64

Warren Block is majoring in

computers and mathematics at

Chadron State College. He can be

reached at 645 King St.. Chadron.

NE 69337.

An alternative to Commodore's1541 disk drive for the Commo-dore 64 is P Technologies' RAM-DISK-64, which simulates a disk drive withdynamic RAM (random-access read/writememory) chips. Until now, most RAM disksthat imitate small-capacity disk drives hadat least 128K bytes of RAM and cost in theneighborhood of $400. RAMDISK-64 has64K bytes of RAM, is expandable to 2 56Kbytes, and costs only $149. RAMDISK-64 re-quires a motherboard expansion chassis forthe Commodore 64s cartridge port. C-64swithout the expansion will require an addi-tional extender board ($10). The RAM-DISK-64 with 2 56K bytes costs $350.

The RAMDISK-64 package includes theRAM disk itself (a rather small cartridge),a copyable disk containing the RAM disk'ssoftware, and a small user's manual. I alsopurchased the no-frills extender board.

First, I plugged the extender board intothe cartridge port on the C-64. Then 1plugged RAMDISK-64 into the extenderboard's socket. If you switch cartridges fre-quently, you should buy a motherboardwith enable/disable switches for each car-tridge; this makes life easier for you andyour computer. The manual, which is clearlywritten and easy to follow, suggested thatI load a test/diagnostics program from thedisk. When I ran the utility, it printed RAM-DISK-64 FUNCTIONAL!!! I then loaded theFast-Drive program and ran it as instructed.Everything worked the first time through:the computer displayed RAMDISK-64's di-rectory. In its 64K-byte configuration, theRAM drive has a capacity of 2 54 blocks, orabout one-third that of a normal disk drive.

Compatibility

1 used a straightforward procedure to checkcompatibility with programs that alter theC-64's operating system. After loading theversion of Fast-Drive that goes at the topof BASIC memory, I loaded and tried to ex-ecute such programs. Most worked withouta hitch. However, my word processor.

SpeedScript, begins by clearing memory; itrefused to work with the Fast-Drive soft-ware. The program worked as if RAM-DISK-64 were not present. Supermon, a ma-chine-language monitor, will not save filesto RAMDISK-64. This is minor since sendingobject files from the assembler to the RAMdrive is easier than saving them throughSupermon.

In the most difficult test. I ran my assem-bler's initialization program, which loads theDOS Wedge, the Supermon monitor, andthen an assembler. This is not a fair testbecause all three alter the C-64's operatingsystem in different ways. Nonetheless, all ex-ecuted perfectly, and 1 still had 28K bytesof BASIC memory left. This is sufficientspace for an assembler development sys-tem. If you need more free memory, youcan load a version of the Fast-Drive programinto the 4K-byte block of free RAM at 49152(C000 hexadecimal); this leaves the normal38K bytes free for BASIC programming. Iprefer to place Fast-Drive at the top ofBASIC, keeping the 4K-byte block free forassembler programs.

USING RAMDISK-64

The RAM drive is fairly simple to use. TheFast-Drive program installs the RAM driveas device number 15. making referencesvery similar to those used for the "real" diskdrive. For example, you can view RAM-DlSK-64's directory by typing LOAD "$",15.Unlike the 1541, the directory is not actual-ly loaded into program memory so it willnot erase your program—one example ofthe forethought that P Technologies put in-to the product.

It is just as easy to load and save pro-grams to the RAM drive. For example, toload the program Filename, you type onlyLOAD "FILENAME",15. As in the methodfor the 1541. you use the Open statementto scratch (delete) files. The Fast-Drive pro-gram recognizes "S:" to scratch a file and"C:" to change the RAM drive's device

[continued]

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 325

REVIEW: RAMDISK-64

AT A GLANCE

Name

RAMDISK-64

Type

64K-byte RAM disk for the Commodore 64

Manufacturer

P Technologies1555 Riverpark Dr., Suite 206Sacramento, CA 95815(916) 920-3226

Computer

Commodore 64 and 1541 disk drive

Documentation

21-page user's manual

Price

$149

Extender board $10

Audience

Programmers and software developers,home users

number. To scratch the file Filename,you type OPEN 1,15,0,"S:FILE-NAME". Typing OPEN 1,15,0,"C:20"changes the device number of theRAM drive to 20. Fast-Drive interceptsthe Open statements before they getto the operating system; since theynever actually open files, you don'tneed to close them.

The software also supports Commo-dore's "save with replace" command.To save a new file over an old one. youuse the conventional @: prefix beforethe filename. The method is easierthan scratching an old file and savingits replacement.

Fast-Drive includes two useful com-mands that let you transfer programsand text files to or from RAMDISK-64without going through program mem-ory. These Load and Save operationsare similar to the normal ones, exceptthat they cite RAMDISK-64's devicenumber at the end. For example, to

transfer a program called FILENAME.BAS to the RAM disk, you enter thecommand LOAD "FILENAME.BAS",8,15. Similarly, SAVE "FILENAME",8,15 saves the RAMDISK-64 contents ofthe Filename file to the disk in the1541 drive.

RAMDlSK-64's transfer commandslet you copy text and object-code fileswithout the usual hassle. Copying textfiles from disk to disk with a 1541 nor-mally requires entering a utility pro-gram, and copying object-code filesrequires that you know their startingand ending addresses. RAMDISK-64greatly simplifies the copying process.Even if you didn't know the length andstarting and ending addresses of anobject-code file on a disk in the 1541drive, LOAD "FILENAME",8,15would transfer it to the RAM drive.After you switch disks in the 1541,SAVE "FILENAME",8,15 will dupli-

{continued)

l/ir.*&. -Jk,

A Full C Compiler f JMI

Fot$4995 I

■■:™"™"l<

JHR.I

The Ecosoft Eco-C88 compiler for the 8088 and MSDOS is going to set a new

standard for price and performance. Consider the evidence:

Compiler

ECO-C88

Utice(l)

C86(l)

Seive

13

11

13

Fib

44

58

46

Deref

13

13

-

Matrix

21

29

27

Price

s49.95

•500.00

■395.00

(1) Computer Language, Feb., 1985, pp.73-102. Reprinted by permission.

Eco-C88 Rel. 2.20. on IBM PC with 2 floppy disks. 256K. Benchmarks from Feb.,1985 Computer Language.

Eco-C88 includes:

* All operators and data types (except bit fields)

* Error messages in English with page numbers that reference the CProgramming Guide - a real plus if you're just getting started in C.

* Over 170 library functions, including color and transcendental

* New Library functions for treating memory as a file

* User-selectable ASM or OBJ output (no assembler required)

* 8087 support with 8087 sensed at runtime

* cc and "mini-make" for easy compiles (with source)

* Fast, efficient code for all IBM-PC. XT. AT and compatibles using MSDOS 2.1or later.

* Complete user's manual

If ordered with the compiler, the C library source code (excluding transcen-dentals) is $10.00 and the ISAM file handler (as published in the CProgrammer's Library, Que Corp) in OBJ format is an additional $15.00. Pleaseadd $4.00 for shipping and handling. To order, call or write:

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Trademarks: Eco-C88. Microstat (Ecosoft). CP M (Digital Research). MSDOS (Micros

We've continually improved Microstat since it was introduced in 1978, andthe latest release includes many new features you've wanted.

Interactive and Batch Processing

Expanded Data ManagementSubsystem with New DataTransforms

Reading data files created by otherprograms (e.g., Lotus)

3 types of Analysis of Variance

Time Series

Crosstabs and Chi-Square

Factorials. Permutations, and

Combinations

Hypothesis Tests

Data sets that can exceed memory

Multiple Regression (includingStepwise)

Scatterplots (including best fit

regression)

Correlation Analysis12 Nonparametric tests8 Probability DistributionsDescriptive StatisticsEasy Installation

Microstat's algorithms have been designed to prevent numeric overflow errorsand yield unsurpassed accuracy. Microstat's price is $375.00 including theuser's manual and is available for the Z80. 8086. 8088 CPU's and CP/M80.CP/M86. MS-DOS. and PC-DOS. To order, call or write.

ift), PC-DOS (IBM), Z80 (Zilog), 8086. 8087. 8088 (Inte

326 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 131

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CompuServe's EasyPlex lets friends andrelatives, associations and club memberscommunicate any time of the day or night.And small business owners, real estateprofessionals, insurance agents, lawyers,writers, etc can communicate quickly andsimply—either interoffice or interstate"It's Easy." "Just Plex it!"

Best of all, EasyPlex is available to allCompuServe subscribers. And, along withEasyPlex, you get hundreds of valuable andentertaining computing options. Plus theassurance of belonging to the largest fastest

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800-848-8199 Inquiry 74

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REVIEW: RAMDISK-64

cate the file on the new disk. Your pro-gram in memory will remain un-disturbed.The Fast-Drive system does have a

few problems. Apart from "S:" and"C:". RAMDISK-64 does not have anyof the DOS commands available witha real disk drive. Moreover, the soft-

Listing I: The programs used to write (la) and read (\b) the sequential text file.\n both programs, line 110 was changed for RAMDISK-64 to read: 110OPEN 1,15,2/TEXTFILE". The Open statement used with RAMDISK-64does not have the ",S,R" or the ",S,W" for read and write, respectively, becauseRAMDISK-64 is always open for both.

(la)

100 REM OPEN A SEQ FILE FOR WRITE

110 OPEN 1.8,2,'TEXTFILE,S,W

120 REM WRITE 40,000 BYTES OF DATA

130 FOR L = 1 TO 1000

140 PRINT#1,THIS ISA LINE OF TEXT USED AS A TEST.

150 NEXT

160 CLOSE 1

(\b)

100 REM OPEN A SEQ FILE FOR READ

110 OPEN 1,8,2,"TEXTFILE,S,R"

120 REM READ 40.000 BYTES OF DATA

130 FOR L = 1 TO 1000

140 INPUT#1,A$

150 NEXT

160 CLOSE 1

Table I:

Times are

Write and read times forin minutes and seconds.

the sequential file

programs

in

listing l.

1541 Drive RAMDISK-64

WriteRead

2:071:54

1:221:24

Table 2: Save and load times for two files. Times are in minutes and seconds.

17K-byte assembler source

file in BASIC format

1541 Drive

RAMDISK-64

Save 0:46

0:02

Load 0:52

0:02

34K-byte BASIC program

1541 Drive

RAMDISK-64

Save 1:28

0:03

Load 1:22

0:03

ware supports only 16 files in RAM-DISK-64 at one time. With only 64Kbytes, the limitation is not a problem,but a lot of space might be wasted ifyou add the 2 56K-byte expansion.

Performance

RAMDISK-64 was quite impressive inthe speed test. To be consistent, 1 ranall the benchmarks with RAMDISK-64connected and Fast-Drive in memory.Listing 1 presents the programs usedto write and then read the files. RAM-DlSK-64's performance with sequen-tial text files was less than twice as fastas the 1541 drive (see table 1). Thisis peculiar, yet better than no increaseat all.

Then I loaded and saved a 17K-byteBASIC program for my assembler anda 3 4 Kbyte BASIC program to both the1541 and RAMDISK-64. The resultswere much more impressive (seetable 2). Using RAMDISK-64, I couldassemble my program to memory,test it, reload the source code, makechanges, save the source code again,then reassemble without going to the"physical" disk drive. And, as thetimes demonstrate, loading and sav-ing was very fast indeed.

Conclusions

RAMDISK-64 is a well-engineeredmodule, and the manufacturer pro-vides some software support. Still, PTechnologies could improve the prod-uct by including a separate powersupply to preserve RAMDISK-64'scontents when the computer is off, aprogram to use part of RAMDISK-64as a printer buffer/spooler, and a bat-tery pack to allow using the RAM-DISK-64 cartridge for file transfer be-tween computers.

RAMDISK-64 has enhanced my pro-gramming environment by providingunusual speed on the Commodore64. At last I can change and resave aprogram without the long wait for the1541 drive. At the end of a session,I can transfer the work from RAM-DISK-64 to an actual disk with littlebother. RAMDISK-64 is a solid addi-tion to the Commodore 64, and soft-ware writers will find it an indispens-able aid. ■

328 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198S

TIME & MONEY

SemiDisk is the disk emulator that saves you more of both.

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SemiDisk Systems builds fast disk emulators for moremicrocomputers than anyone else S-100, IBM-PC, Epson QX-10,TRS-80 Models II, 12, and 16. Up to 2 megabytes per board,standard. Up to 8 megabytes per computer, using only four busslots, max! Software drivers are available for CP/M 80, MS-DOS,ZDOS, TurboDOS, VALDOCS 2, and Cromix. SemiDisk turnsgood computers into great computers.GREAT NEWS FOR IBM PC AT USERS.

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IBM PC, Xflw

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Battery Backup Unit

1150

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SemiDisk Systems, Inc.

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Inquiry 328

Call S03-646-S510 [or CBBS/NW. W'S-WB for CBBS/PCS. and S03 649-832? for CBBS/Aloha. all SemiDisk-equipped computer bulletin boards(300/1200 baud) SemiDisk, SemiSpool trademarks of SemiDisk System CP/M trademark of Digital Research.

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Speeds Up Everything...Especially 1-2-31

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The heart of the NUMBER SMASHER is a 9.54 mhz8086 working with a matched high speed 8087. The cardcomes standard with 512K of 16 bit RAM and can be ex-panded to 640K. It triples the throughput of your original8088 by doubling the system clock speed and quadruplingthe data bus bandwidth.

Software compatibility is guaranteed by the nature ofour card. It does not augment the 8088, but replaces it witha special 8086 that runs as a true 16-bit processor in thefirst 640K of ram and as an 8-bit processor everywhere else.

Examples of software which show dramatic speed-upsinclude AUTOCAD, 1 -2-3 worksheets which depend heavilyon financial or transcendental functions, and multi-user oper-ating systems. Any program written with an MS-DOS compilerthat supports the 8087, such as MS-FORTRAN or 87BASIC,will run on the NUMBER SMASHER at least a factor of 2.5times faster! Software that comes with the card also in-creases the throughput of I/O bound programs and includesa disk cache routine, ram disk and print spooler.

The NUMBER SMASHER is an upgrade product for8088 based PCs and compatibles. It works on the IBM-PC and XT, the COMPAQ and compatibles manufacturedto the IBM-PC hardware standard. Contact MicroWay oryour local MicroWay Installation Center for technical speci-fications and supporting benchmarks.

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HARDWARE REVIEW

An alternative to the

standard Apple

keyboard

by David L. Salahi

Keyport 717

David L. Salahi is a programmer

with eight years of experience in civil

engineering applications and an

A.A. degree in computer science. He

can be reached at 90 Slreamwood.

\rvine. CA 92714,

The Keyport 717 from Polytel Com-puter Products is a touch-sensitivemembrane keyboard that you canuse as an alternate input device to the nor-mal Apple keyboard. It has 717 key loca-tions that you can program to meananything you desire. By using a plasticoverlay, you can develop custom applica-tions so you can execute functions by sim-ply pressing the appropriate spot on thekeyboard (see photo 1).

I don't expect any single applicationwould ever use all 717 keys; that would betoo confusing. Rather, you would leaveblank space between some keys and makeother keys "larger" by grouping two. three,or more locations together.

Using the Keyport 717 as an input devicelets you avoid using the regular computerkeyboard; non-typists can approach thecomputer much more easily. Also, with somany keys, you have that many more op-tions available all at once. This reduces theneed to traverse through menus or memo-rize command sequences. In addition, youcan label the keys with the actual function,obviating the need to remember that D isfor delete and L is for list. By grouping thekeys in a logical fashion and appropriatelyusing color and shape, you have the poten-tial to develop a user interface far superiorto anything currently available.

Description

Physically the Keyport 717 is a plastic boxmeasuring 26 inches wide by 13 inchesdeep by 7Vi inches high at the back, slop-ing to 1 '/2 inches high at the front. It plugsinto the Apple's game connector so it doesnot take up a slot. The connecting cable isonly about four feet long, however, and thislimits the Keyport's placement. Since Iwanted to place it on the left side of mydesk and since the cord was connected tothe opposite end of the Keyport, its place-ment was severely restricted. 1 would havewelcomed another two or three feet, par-ticularly when I wanted to remove it from

my desk to use the standard keyboard.

Also, the Keyport's active area is only 9by 22 inches. This amounts to about 40 per-cent of the top surface area that is essen-tially wasted space. If the unit could berepackaged without this excess, it would bemuch easier to fit onto a desk or otherworking area.

The key locations themselves are about% inch square and seem to be about theright size. In the front middle of the Keyportis a section devoted to a QWERTY keyboardso you can do all your work from it. Severalplastic overlay templates define the keyswith the desired meanings for variousapplications.

Since it is a membrane keyboard, theKeyport has no actual up-and-down key mo-tion, so it has no "feel." This is a distinctdisadvantange that 1 will discuss in moredetail below. The manual warns that the sur-face is sensitive and cautions users not toplace heavy objects, such as books, on it.If a heavy object is left on the unit forseveral days, a short or open circuit couldoccur and lead to malfunction. This char-acteristic of the unit excludes it from usein any environment where the risk of mis-treatment exists (such as schools).

The Keyport works with the Apple II, II +.or He. I tried mine on a Franklin Ace andit seemed to work, although 1 had troublerunning the Safari game. The Keyport doesnot work with 80-column cards or withlowercase.

For those who are not interested in pro-gramming new applications, the Keyportsupports several prepackaged ones. Theseinclude templates for VisiCalc, ApplesoftBASIC and a new one for Apple Writer lie.Also, two educational games for childrencalled Safari and Farm even feature on-screen graphics and sound.

BASIC Interface

The BASIC Interface is a prepackaged ap-plication with an overlay that lets you enter

[continued]

■*— Inquiry 256

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 331

REVIEW: KEYPORT

AT A GLANCE

Name

Keyport 717

Type

A 717-key programmable membranekeyboard that attaches to an Apple II, II + .or He through the joystick port

Manufacturer

Polytel Computer Products Corp.2121 South Columbia, Suite 550Tulsa, OK 74114(800) 245-6655

Size

26 inches wide. 13 inches deep, 21/2 incheshigh in back, sloping to IVs inches high infront

Options

VisiCalc Interface $39.95

Farm (educational game) Interface $29.95Farm Interface for ECHO II speech

synthesizer $39.95

Safari (educational game) Interface $29.95Safari Interface for ECHO II speech

synthesizer $39.95

Documentation

30-page manual

Price

Keyport 717 with BASIC overlay and diskwith configuration programs $179

BASIC commands by pressing a keyon the Keyport (reducing entire wordsto a single keystroke). All the standardcommands are available on the Key-port and are grouped logically to-gether into attractive color-codedareas. Areas are provided for low-resolution and high-resolution graph-ics, text display and printing, stringfunctions such as LEN and MID$,arithmetic functions, disk utilities, anddisk-access commands. A nice conve-nience is an area called Operatorsthat contains all the keys you mustnormally shift (!, @, #, $, %, and soon) that can be obtained from theKeyport without shifting.

To use the BASIC Interface, you bootDOS and then boot the BASIC Inter-face disk supplied with the unit. Atthis point, you may enter any BASICcommand by selecting it from theKeyport. For example, to set a colorin low-resolution graphics, instead ofcoding a statement such as COLOR= 3, you press the purple button onthe BASIC overlay. The phraseCOLOR = 3 automatically appearson the screen To code a FOR loop,press the button corresponding toFOR and the word appears. At theend of the loop, press the word NEXTand it appears.

Some useful command sequencesare programmed into the BASIC Inter-face, such as TEXT : HOME : LIST,making graphics programming mucheasier. Also provided are 16 addi-tional undefined keys that let you

define your favorite command se-quences.

A tutorial program on the disk walksyou through the construction of a pro-gram using the Keyport BASIC Inter-face. The tutorial is very well done,and by the end of it I found it simpleto construct programs using thedevice.

The drawbacks to programmingwith the Keyport have to do with twofeatures inherent in its design. One isthe keyboard's lack of feel. Since thereis no key motion, you are sometimesnot sure whether you have actuallypressed a key. Fortunately the Apple'sspeaker is used as a key click. Still, thelack of feel limits the speed withwhich you can press the keys, makingthe Keyport less comfortable than aconventional keyboard.

The lack of feel is compensated forin large part by the reduction of manykeystrokes to one or two for BASICcommands. However, you will stillhave to enter a fair amount of textwith the regular keyboard or theQWERTY keyboard on the Keyport.It's just not practical to switch be-tween the Keyport and the Apple'skeyboard unless you enter large por-tions of text relatively infrequently.This means that to enter little bits ofoften occurring text, you must use theQWERTY keyboard on the Keyport.For this purpose, the Keyport's mem-brane keyboard is very slow and un-wieldy. However, the user of an ap-plication program designed for the

Photo I: The Keyport 717 with the BASIC programmer's overlay.

332 BYTE • SEFTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 53

REVIEW: KEYPORT

Keyport would primarily be selectingfunctions. The entry of text would beless and the Keyport's use would bemore feasible.

The other drawback to the Keyportis its large size. It is about as large asan entire Apple computer and it's noteasy to find room on the average deskfor a device this size. This is especial-ly true if you want it to be in a posi-tion suited to comfortably viewing themonitor.

Board Definition Program

Developing a program that uses theKeyport as an input device involvesthree steps. First you must design anoverlay with the positions of thevarious functions located on the sur-face. For this purpose, two clearplastic overlay sheets are providedthat you can write on with a felt-tippen to lay out the positions of func-tion buttons.

Once you have designed the over-lay, you create a Key Data Table to letthe Keyport monitor know what func-tions you have placed at what posi-tions on the keyboard. You may assigna function number and a string of upto 2 50 characters to each key posi-tion. These two items will be returnedto the application program wheneveryou press a key. Each key may haveboth a shifted and an unshifted code.Key Data Tables are created by run-ning a Board Definition program. Thisprogram is very straightforward; youpress each key you wish to define andenter the associated function numberand string. When all the keys aredefined, the table is saved on disk.

Several tables may be stored on adisk. The Hello program specifieswhich one is to be used when youboot the disk. It is a simple matter tocreate a modified copy of the Helloprogram that you can run at any timeto load in a new data table.

Once the Key Data Table and theKeyport Monitor have been loadedfrom disk, an application programmay access the Keyport either byusing a Get or Input statement or bycalling an assembly-language routineprovided. Once a key has beenpressed, the key number, its function

The Keyport is aboutas large as an entireApple computer andit's not easy to findroom on the averagedesk for a devicethis size.

number, and its associated string maybe accessed. These parameters, aswell as the type of key (Keyport or key-board), are retrieved by a series ofPEEKs.

DOCUMENTATION

The small programmer's referencemanual is not at all clear on exactlyhow to make use of the Keyport'sfunctions. It seems to be disorganizedso you have to keep flipping back andforth. Also, you have to read betweenthe lines; some of the information isnot explicitly stated. A novice pro-grammer would have a difficult timetrying to use this manual.

A good working knowledge of theApple is helpful and, in fact, someassembly-language experience wouldbe useful. For example, when themanual tells you to PEEK(513),PEEK(514),. . ., to get the string cor-responding to the pressed key, itmakes more sense if you know thatthese locations are the keyboard in-put buffer.

Conclusions

The Keyport 717 is an interesting con-cept with great potential for improv-ing the human-machine interface.However, the execution of the con-cept leaves something to be desired,chiefly in the areas of keyboard feel,unit size, and ruggedness. With thesecaveats in mind, I recommend it forthose who are looking for an alter-native to the standard typewriter-stylekeyboard as an input device. ■

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 333

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REVIEW FEEDBACK

SideKick Commemtary

Mark-). Welch's "Convenience Software"review (lune, page 3 53) contained manyserious errors regarding SideKick.

First. SideKick is available in two ver-sions, unprotected ($84.95) and protected($54.95). There are currently more than300,000 SideKick users worldwide. The ar-ticle's statement that SideKick "appears tobe designed for programmers" is inac-curate. We are second in business softwareon the Softsel Hot List.

The ASCII table in SideKick hardlyrelegates the product's usefulness to thedomain of programmers. Many of our cus-tomers use the extended ASCII characterset for graphics purposes. You can drawboxes, bar charts, and the like for memosand other basic reports by marking thedisplayed symbols in the chart and import-ing them into SideKick's notepad. The Ctrl-Q-G command in the notepad will do therest.

SideKick's auto-dial facility does not re-quire resetting DIP switches (this changewas made in September 1984). The tele-phone dialer in the package actually picksnumbers off the screen, beginning at thetop and then scanning the screen. Theright-arrow key allows scrolling throughnumbers, and the space bar automaticallybrings up the Rolodex. The Rolodex func-tions like a free-form database and storesup to 1500 entries in any format. Ad-dresses and comments can have any for-mat whatsoever and take as many lines asyou want. These entries can be retrievedby a keyword or string. With the currentversion of SideKick (1.5) you can also usethe Rolodex with or without a modem.

SideKick does use many WordStar com-mands. However, you can redefine thosecommands through the installation pro-gram to look like your favorite word-processing programs.

In addition, SideKick provides two waysto print out information: Ctrl-K-P will printa marked block or the entire page if noblock has been marked and Ctrl-K-W letsyou write a block to any file or logicaldevice including a printer.

SideKick's window management is morepowerful than that of most products in thedesktop category. With SideKick, userscan shrink or expand windows and move

windows around the screen. In addition,the program's main menu will appear onthe screen if a hesitant user presses theAlt key without an identifier. In otherwords. SideKick "senses" that the user isunsure which window he or she wishes toinvoke and provides the main menu toassist the user in choosing. And at anypoint, the user can press Fl and get theon-line help window relative to the currentactive window.

SideKick 1.5 contains many new fea-tures, including automatic word wrap, set-ting of right margin for word wrap, and re-formatting paragraphs. You can also ex-port data from the notepad into other ap-plications in use for true cut-and-pastecapability and use the Rolodex with orwithout a modem hookup. SideKick 1.5supports more modems, including AT&TVOAD keyboard phone, PCjr internalmodem, and all Hayes-compatible mo-dems. SideKick recognizes a system withtwo active monitors, even if one is colorand one monochrome, and no reinstalla-tion is required. You can specify a hot keyto activate SideKick. Finally, this packageis compatible with SuperKey and can becalled from SuperKey, making SideKick aprogrammable desktop manager and pro-viding you with RAM-resident macrodefinition and encryption capability.

Philippe Kahn

Borland International

Scotts Valley, CA

As Mr. Kahn notes, the prices for bothversions of SideKick were raised earlythis year.

I can't dispute SideKick's phenomenalcommercial success, but I stand by myopinion that it was designed for program-mers.

The version of SideKick I reviewedII.IOC) required that I reset the DIPswitches on the modem. I'm glad this isnot required in later versions. As notedin the review. I was unable to auto-diala number picked out from another task;I assume I will be able to use this featurein the current version. I can't agree withMr. Kahn that the standard text file usedin the auto-dialer is best described as afree-form database, although he correctlypoints out that you can search the file for

text strings. While you can use multiplelines for an entry, you can only auto-diala number on the current line.

SideKick's notepad can print files. I'mnot sure why I believed that it could notdo so, but both the manual and help filesexplain that Ctrl-K-P will print the currentblock or file. I apologize for the error.

Mr. Kahn is correct in noting that youcan use SideKick's installation utility pro-gram to reconfigure the word-processorcommands; however, the product isshipped using the standard WordStarcommand set.

I'm glad SideKick has been upgradedto version 1.5 and look forward to see-ing the new version.

-Mark J. WelchStaff Writer

As a SideKick aficionado. I enjoyed the"Convenience Software" review. Mr. Welchstates that SideKick's notepad cannotpaste or feed information into an appli-cation. I share his disappointment. WhenI began using SideKick, I searched themanual for the documentation on thisfeature 1 knew had to be there. It wasn't.

As for printing, if you wish to print onlypart of the notepad file, you can use theWordStar block commands Ctrl-K-B andCtrl-K-K to mark the beginning and end ofwhat you want to print. Then press Ctrl-K-P to print. Be sure to include the carriagereturn at the end as part of the block. Ifyou fail to do so, your printer might notprint the last line of the block and thetabulation of the first line of the nextprinted block will be wrong.

Mr. Welch states that SideKick requiredhim to reset the DIP switches on his mo-dem and he could not get the auto-dialfeature to work. Without resetting the DIPswitches on a Hayes Smartmodem, I hadno problem with the auto-dialer after I in-serted a "P" (for pulse dialing) before eachof the phone numbers in my directory.However, after SideKick begins dialing anumber, it says, "Pick up phone and pressspace." If you pick up the phone beforethe dialing sequence is completed, the callwill be aborted.

I found the copy-protected version ofSideKick quite cumbersome. I quickly

[continued)

SEPTEMBER

I Y T E 335

REVIEW FEEDBACK

traded up to the unprotected version soI could copy SideKick and an AUTO-EXEC.BAT file onto each of my softwaredisks. Loading SideKick from a seconddisk is too much bother.

To invoke SideKick, you press the Ctrland Alt keys simultaneously or press bothshift keys. The first method is adequate.The second is a nuisance. More than a fewtimes I have typed a series of capital let-

ters and found that I had activated Side-Kick inadvertently when moving back andforth between the two shift keys.

I look forward to the promised releaseof SideKick Plus, an extended SideKickthat is supposed to offer multiple note-pads, a window manager, a business cal-culator, an IRS log system, DOS filers, built-in telecommunications, and true text refor-matting and blocking capabilities. Given

GIVEMJRPCTHE OFT OF SIGHT.

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But the Datacopy 700 changes all that.

turn your word processorInto an image processor.

This remarkable peripheral enablesyou to combine photos, diagrams, even3-D objects with word processing, database, CAD and communications applica-tions using standard software.

All you need to getthe picture is an IBMXT, AT, or compatibleOur friendly, yetpowerful, WordImage Processing 1System™ softwareis included in yourpurchase.

~~ DATACOPY

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For fastest response, call 1-800-556-1234 or in California 1-800-441-2345. Ask for extension 96.

Once installed, our elec-tronic digitizing scannerallows you to captureimages in high resolution.These can then be manipu-lated, stored, retrieved,and even printed.

But what's truly amaz-ing is the range of applica-tions for the Datacopy 700.Such as generating complexdocuments including text,drawings and pictures.Technical manuals. Catalogs. Personnel ordocument files. Or what ever you decide.The result is a visionary achievement:the power to give words and numbers farmore meaning. To publish information,not just data. And to extend the possibili-ties of your PC. All for a surprisinglylow cost.

For more details, call toll-free 1-800-821-2898 or in California 415-965-7900.Or write to Datacopy Corporation, 1215Terra Bella Avenue,Mountain View,CA 94043. Telex:701994 DATA-COPY UD.

SideKick's current capabilities, SideKickPlus might provide users more conve-niences than the long-awaited IBM Top-View and Microsoft Windows.

Jeffrey S. RoyerBurke, VA

The Mindset PC

I would like to correct a misleading impres-sion left by Tom Wadlow's recent review

The Mindset Personal Computer" (June,page 324). Limicon's $500 ProDrawgraphics software is the basis of the newtelevision game show "Catch Phrase." notLumena and GW-BASIC. In "Catch Phrase,"the contestants must guess the phrasesuggested by a short ProDraw "cartoon"containing a visual pun. Each day "CatchPhrase" will need 2 5 completely new, high-quality, animated puzzles. Only ProDrawgave the show's producers the ability toturn their idea into a television show.

A single studio technician uses other

Limicon software to control the various

puzzles and special effects in response to

the contestants' puzzle selections and

answers. The Mindset is being used on

"Catch Phrase" because ProDraw graphics

look better on it than on the IBM PC and

because it has a good NTSC video signal.

Howard Goodman

Limicon Inc.

Toronto. Ontario. Canada

Thank you for your review of the MindsetPC. It presented a good introduction toone of the best-kept secrets in com-puterdom.

I purchased a Mindset nearly a year ago.largely on the strength of BYTE's productpreview (April 1984, page 270). I was look-ing for a machine that provided a standardvideo output, a fast true 16-bit processor,and 16 colors in medium resolution. Iplanned to use the system to produce ani-mated software tutorials on video cas-settes. I looked at many other systems, butnot one met all my criteria in the form ofa single off-the-shelf package like theMindset.

This machine has far exceeded my ex-pectations. In addition to giving me every-thing I needed, it gave me a much-enhanced version of MS-DOS with built-in graphics primitives and animation func-tions, and graphics hardware features thatinclude double-frame buffering and agraphics coprocessor that is unmatchedin any other machine in the same pricerange. In spite of the many new graphicsproducts that have come to market sinceI got my machine, the Mindset is still a

(continued)

336 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 337

For IBM-PC Add-On Users

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REVIEW FEEDBACK

leader, and it's getting better all thetime

Mindset has recently released severalnew products that were not mentioned inyour review. They include a 128K-bytememory-expansion module, a 10-mega-byte external hard disk, an analog RGB in-terface, and a real-time color video-imagedigitizer.

Mindset is now marketing to video andgraphics professionals and other peoplewho realize that there is life after Mac-Paint. It is doing much better for thechange in focus. These are people whoneed a system like the Mindset and canappreciate its unique capabilities.

Tim Necris

First Mindset Users Croup

Walnut Creek. CA

Tom Wadlow's system review of the Mind-set Personal Computer contained manyerrors. Mr. Wadlow states that only amouse was available for review. Heneglected to say that it was his fault andnot Mindset's. I own a joystick along withthe mouse and so know that joysticks areavailable.

The BASIC Performance test states thatthe Sieve takes 301 seconds to calculateprime numbers. I used BYTE's correctedversion of the Sieve and it ran in 191seconds—the same as the IBM PC. Howcould this discrepancy occur? A readerwould conclude that the Mindset wasalmost 20 percent slower than an Applelie.

Next, the reviewer announces the Mind-set's failure to run Microsoft's FlightSimulator. Had he reviewed Mindset'scompatibility chart, he would haverealized that this software would not workon the machine. Most of today's bettersoftware addresses ROM. but FlightSimulator directly addresses the hardware,making it impossible for the program torun on anything but an IBM clone, which,fortunately, the Mindset is not.

In the text box. Rich Malloy states that"consumer-oriented software such asgames has not been developed.' Vyperfrom Synapse Software is an outstandingexample of the Mindset's graphics capa-bilities and it uses a joystick. Odesta hasa chess game with three-dimensionalgraphics.

In the "At a Glance" section, the optionalsoftware includes only MS-DOS. BASIC,and Lumena. Over 160 of the mostpopular PC titles run on the Mindset aswell as graphics programs such as 4-PointGraphics Plus (stores images and playsthem back sequentially), CADDraft (engi-

neering and architectural scaled drawingswith overlays!, and Designer (roughlysimilar to PC Paintbrushl. Also, the Pricesection incorrectly states that a mono-chrome display is part of the usualconfiguration.

In the future, please make sure that yourreviews have been well researched andprovide accurate and reasonably com-plete coverage of the product, I own a

Mindset, and I wouldn't want to own anIBM clone at half the price.

Mark JohnsonBryan TX

Mark Johnson raises some points that Ifeel I should address. First, authors donot deal directly with the company in-volved in a review. All equipment is sent

[continued)

POWERPROBLEMS?

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SEPTEMBER I985

339

REVIEW FEEDBACK

directly to BYTE and then shipped to theauthor writing the review. When I reviewa product. I can judge it only on the com-ponents that were shipped to BYTE.Mindset chose not to include a joystickin the review package The best I coulddo was mention the existence of such adevice.

Mr. lohnson and I agree that it is un-fortunate that Microsoft's Flight

Simulator does not run on the Mindset,although Mr Johnson seems annoyedthat I chose to point this out. I did notexpect Flight Simulator to run. In fact, Iexpected it to fail for the reasons that Mr.lohnson points out. Nonetheless. I triedit. rather than assuming it would fail, andreported the results. In the firstparagraph on page 329 of my article. Ipoint out that a great deal of IBM soft-

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,ark of H.ed irttdei

rks are acknowledged IBM PC

[Business Machines. Lotus I - land

lopnscnt Corp dBase II and Framework

vInternational, PFSHc Softwan

v Corp I r..,„alk -Microsiuf.lnt

Ml,

ware runs directly on the Mindset withno problems

Mr. lohnson also correctly points outthat 301 seconds is far too long for theSieve of Eratosthenes. However, 3 minutesand I second 1181 seconds/, which is thenumber I measured, is much morerealistic I apologize for the error, whichoccurred during the editorial process.

I am pleased that Mr. lohnson enjoysthe machine he chose to buy. I am sorryhe found so much to disagree with in areview that basically echoes his feelingson the Mindset PC.

-Tom Wad lowLivermore. CA

The Compaq Deskpro

I paid S2 370 for my Compaq DeskproModel 2 (two 360K-byte drives, 2 56K bytesof memory) from a full-service dealer, andit was a better buy than an IBM PersonalComputer comparably equipped atalmost any price. The engineeringthoughtfulness of the Deskpro speaks asloudly as its performance. I thought thatreviewer lerry Grady gave a fair assess-ment of it (May. page 260). However, Iwould like to emphasize some grievancesfor the benefit of potential Deskprobuyers.

Foremost, while the machine documen-tation is pretty, it is nearly useless. Thereis no technical manual and Compaq re-fuses to make one available. An exampleof frustration: The manual gives not a clueas to how to set the configuration switchesfor a third disk drive (e.g., RAM disk) andimplies that such a configuration is notpossible.

The keyboard is cheap-looking plasticthat actually rattles when it is moved. Thekeys are so difficult to use (especially thespace bar) that a touch-typist will certainlyhave to replace it The green monitor hadsuch a long-persistence phosphor thatscreen-update ghosts made word process-ing impossible. A second green monitorwas the same I finally switched to amberwhich is satisfactory. A Hercules high-resolution graphics card will not run onthe Compaq Deskpro because of an ad-dressing conflict. Other graphics boardswill run.

I have had significant problems runninglarge complex dBASE II programs on theCompaq Deskpro. Even in its retarded8088 mode, the machine seems to con-tuse dBASE on deeply nested procedurecalls and on rapid screen updates. Theprograms run fine on an IBM PC and aZenith 150. I have been unable to get

{continued)

J40

Inquiry 162

You were smart to buyTurbo Pascal back then.Now you'd be smart to sell it.

AND HERE'S YOUR CHANCE.TRADE IN YOUR TURBOPASCAL AND GET THEMODULA-2 SOFTWAREDEVELOPMENT SYSTEM(M2SDS) FOR JUST $50.88.

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Why switch? Because Modula-2was specifically designed by thedeveloper of Pascal, to replace thePascal language. So you already knowthe language basics that will help youstart programming right away.

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Just look at all the extras M2SDSincludes. And how it outperformsTurbo Pascal in independent studies.

So now that you're wise to TurboPascal, why not trade it in? And tradeup to the programming efficiency ofthe future. Get M2SDS for just $50.88when you send us your Turbo Pascaldiskette. Or, order M2SDS for just$80.88 without the trade.

Either way, it's one of the smartestmoves you can make in programming.And now, it's the best deal going.

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* Diskette will be destroyed immediately upon receipt,so that your Borland license agreement is not violated.

M2SDS

TURBO 3.0

COMPILE SPEED (MlTV SEC)

30 LINES

0:09.00

0:02.00

360 LINES

0:25.00

0:05.00

EXECUTION SPEED (MIN SEC)

SIEVE

0:13.92

0:15.26

FIBONACCI

0:53.49

1:49.74

30X30 MATRIX (8087)

0:08.84

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FP OPERATIONS

0:52.12

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FP OPERATIONS (8087)

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SYNTAX CHECKING EDITOR

YES

NO

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YES

NO

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MEMORY SIZE

64K

COMPILE ERROR CALLS EDITOR

YES

YES

LINKER

YES

NO

PRODUCES EXE FILES

YES

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DISK SPACE

64K

DOS ACCESS FROM EDITOR

YES

NO

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LIMITED

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YES

NO

COPY-PROTECTED DISK

NO

NO

COST WITH 8087 SUPPORT

$80.88

$109.90

r

Trade in your Turbo Pascal for M2SDS today.Or, order your copy by completing this coupon.

□ Enclosed is my Turbo Pascal disketteand a check for $50.88, plus $4 shipping andhandling.

H Enclosed is my Turbo Pascal diskette.Apply charges to the credit card indicatedbelow.

□ Please send me M2SDS for $80.88, plus $4shipping and handling. My check is enclosed.

□ Please send me M2SDS for $80.88. Applycharges to the credit card indicated below.

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Price does not include shipping and handling. Texasresidents add 6.125% sales tax. International ordersadd $30.

INTERFACE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION

3336 Richmond, Suite 200 Houston, TX 77098

Source: Software Resources, Inc.

Sieve program from BYTE, January 1983.

Fibonacci program from Dr. Dobb's Journal, February

1985

Matrix program from BYTE, October, 1982.

FP Operations program from BYTE, May 1985.

Turbo Pascal without 8087 uses only 6-byte accuracy

for type REAL: M2SDS with or without 8087 uses

8-byte accuracy.

Programs compiled with all checking options on.

All tests conducted on a standard IBM-PC'IXT with

5I2K of memory and an 8087 math coprocessor.

a,

INTERFACETECHNOLOGIES

3336 Richmond Ave., Suite 200Houston, Texas 77098

1-800-922-9049

(In Texas, call 713/523-8422) Telex: 322127Modula-2 Bulletin Board: 713/523-7255

L_.

J

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 341

REVIEW FEEDBACK

Listing I: A self-timing version of the Sieve of Eratosthenes benchmark.

2 REM '■SIEVE1'

5 CLSCLSCOLOR 15.1.1:WIDTH 40

6 KEY OFFCLS

10 PRINT;TAB(4) ,'The Sieve of Eratosthenes Benchmark' PRINT

20 SIZE = 7000

30 DIM FLAGS(7001)

40 PRINT "Start one iteration :PRINT PRINT TAB(4);TIME$

50 COUNT=0

60 FOR I = 0 TO SIZE

70 FLAGS(I) = 1

80 NEXT I

90 FOR l = 0 TO SIZE100 IF FLAGS(l) = 0 THEN 180110 PRIME = I + I + 3120 K = I + PRIME130 IF K>SIZE THEN 170140 FLAGS(K) = 0150 K = K + PRIME160 GOTO 130170 COUNT=COUNT+1180 NEXT I

190 BEEP PRINT PRINT Done: ' OOUNT; Primes found":PRINT:PRINT TAB(4),TIMES

Microsoft Word to use the 9 by 14 high-resolution character set, and the 8 by 8set that Word wants to use is intolerable.Word uses the 9 by 14 character set onthe Zenith 150.

Despite these problems, I can endorsethe Deskpro. Having graphics on themonochrome or color monitor is greatand compatibility is 99 percent. Themachine is fast, quiet, well crafted, and notfrom IBM.

William A. AdamsSeattle, WA

Another Sieve

Listing 1 is a small variation on the Sieveof Eratosthenes benchmark. I feel that anyself-respecting benchmark should at leastbe self-timing.

L. Craig RedmondChicago. IL m

REVIEW FEEDBACK is a column of readers tet-ters. Wf welcome responses that support or challengeBYTE reviews. Send letters to Review feedbackBYTE Publications. POB 372. Hancock. NH03449 Name and address must be on all letters.

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BYTE

Kernel

Computing at Chaos Manor:PCs. Peripherals. Programs.and People

by lerry Pournelle 347

Chaos Manor Mail

conducted by lerry Pournelle 382

BYTE U.K.: Seventh Anniversaryof Microcomputing

by Dick Fountain 385

BYTE Japan: A History of |apan sMicrocomputers

by William M. Raike 395

According to Webster: West CoastFaire. Mac Stuff, and the Amiga

by Bruce Webster 401

Mathematical Recreations:x, e, and All That

by Robert T. Kurosaka 409

Circuit Cellar Feedback

conducted by Steve Garcia 416

BYTELINES

conducted by Sol Libes 418

The ongoing construction work at Chaos Manor made it desirable for lerryto escape yet again. He attended a joint press conference held by Microsoftand Apple in New York. The product introduced at the conference, Excel, isa spreadsheet for the Macintosh. Comments made at the press conferencecaused lerry to put down some thoughts on software integration and whetheror not we need it. He also looked at several new products, including a newversion of BASIC from the inventors of the language.

This being our anniversary issue, Dick Pountain brings us a condensed historyof personal computing in Great Britain. He also introduces us to a ruggednew lap-held portable, the Husky Hunter.

From lapan, Bill Raike sends us an abbreviated history of that country'smicrocomputers and also discusses an innovative new product from BrotherIndustries—the SV-2000 Software Vending System.

In this month's According to Webster, Bruce describes his experiences atthe West Coast Computer Faire. He discovered that it isn't as much fun asit used to be, but he found some interesting products on display. He alsodiscusses Apple's plans for the Macintosh, predicts success for the Amiga,and looks forward to testing a host of new products.

Bob Kurosaka discusses the world of transcendental numbers inMathematical Recreations. Some of them are familiar to us, such as e, thebase of natural logarithms, and ir. He looks at some hiding places for thesetwo numbers and some ways to approximate their values.

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 345

SuperSoft Languages

When Performance Counts

SuperSoftBASIC 3.0

The Interpreter CompatibleCompiler

Now you can use the superior BASICcompiler for improved performance.SUPERSOFT BASIC. Compatible withthe most commonly used interpreter,it compiles larger programs thancompeting compilers. It comescomplete with:

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BCD math - for exact decimal numbers

in business applications

Fully implemented double precision - for unbeatable math accuracy

Precise error messages/codes and sub-codes - for simplified

debugging

SuperSoft BASIC is highly compatible with Microsoft's BASICinterpreter. For example, it supports the CHAIN with COMMON,COMMON, INPUT, INPUT*, and DEF FN statements in acompatible fashion. IBM's doesn't. It also contains criticalfeatures which the IBM BASIC compiler does not:

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y

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346 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Full overlay support - for extremely largeapplication programsInline assembly code interface - for easyinsertion of assembly code

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SuperSoftFORTRAN

For years, serious developers have been using SuperSoftFORTRAN to bring their large applications down to micro-computers. Why? Because SuperSoft FORTRAN offers majoradvantages over other FORTRAN compilers.

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SuperSoft's commitment to product excellence and service isunrivaled in the industry. Our technical hotline is staffed byprogramming professionals to provide prompt, expert assistance.We offer free update notification. And, we customize productsto meet your needs.

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Inquiry 357

Excel

Switcher

Integrated Software

Write-Hand-Man

GRAF 2.0

True BASIC

Gato

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Incunabula

By Fire and Sword

by Jerry Pournelle

lerry Pournelle holds a doctorate in

psychology and is a science-fiction

writer who also earns a comfortable

living writing about computers

present and future

COMPUTING

AT CHAOS MANOR

PCs, Peripherals,Programs, and People

More years ago than I care toremember, "Everything takeslonger and costs more" wasknown in the aerospace industry asPournelles Law of Costs and Schedules.(Poul Anderson claims independent dis-covery.) I've since seen it stated as Cheops'Law. and on reflection I'm willing to con-cede that since the old pharaoh had to dealwith architects and contractors, he probablywas aware of it

In other words. I'm still not in my new of-fices. I've moved upstairs, but everything—including me—is crammed into the storageroom. It's frustrating. Tony Pietsch has mynew PC Video board. Concurrent DOS. andeven an experimental UNIX for my Compu-Pro. A new Hewlett-Packard machine andThinklet. the AT&T 3B2/300, and the EagleTurbo PC all sit in my electronics room-but the room is so filled with boxes ofbooks that I can't get into it. Two Macin-toshes, one with HyperDrive. the other withMegaMac and a Corvus hard disk, sit in onecorner of this room, while on shelves abovethem is arrayed a vast quantity of new andwonderful MacSoftware—but I can't get tothe machines. Sigh. At least I don't have toput up with raspberry carpets.

There's not even an end in sight. The onlything left to do is the floor, but with the newparquet floor partially in place problemsdeveloped, and they may have to take it upand start over. Meanwhile, new crews showup on weekends without appointments. I'mfighting to stay sane. I really am.

Quest for Caffeine

Time was that computer companies madetheir major announcements at the WestCoast Computer Faire or the National Com-puter Conference (NCC). When COMDEXgot bigger than both NCC and the Faire. itbecame the place to show new wares. Late-ly I've noticed a new trend: companies holdtheir own press parties, sometimes in SanFrancisco often in New York.I seldom go to these things, which gen-

erally turn out to be long on hype and shorton information. However, when Microsoftand Apple announced a New York jointpress conference to be attended by Apple'sSteve lobs and Microsoft's William Gates.I was a bit intrigued. I was going to Atlantafor COMDEX three days later anyway. Aweek before the press conference. PamEdstrom of the Waggener Group PR firmcalled to ask if I'd be coming. lust as I pickedup the phone a carpenter began hammer-ing. The monitor screen flickered as some-one else turned on a buzz saw. Suddenlyit seemed like an excellent idea to be some-where else.

The conference started at 10:30 a.m. inthe Tavern on the Green in New York's Cen-tral Park. By my internal clock 10:30 was7:30. a ghastly hour under any circum-stances. Naturally 1 overslept. The front deskof the New York Athletic Club informed methat New York's taxi drivers were putting ona demonstration, and there were no cabsto be had. I'd have to walk to the con-ference, and there'd be no time for coffeeor breakfast.

That didn't seem important. This was apress conference, right? The first rule fordealing with the press, particularly out-of-town press people, is to have lots of strongcoffee. I walked briskly to the Tavern, arriv-ing at 10:15—and found to my horror thatalthough the PR staff had coffee, therewasn't any for the guests. There wouldn't beuntil after the press conference, at whichtime there would be an open bar and a freelunch.

I didn't think I'd live that long. As BarryWorkman says, "The first cup of coffeerecapitulates phylogeny." The prospect oflistening to speeches without that first cupwas more than I could bear. Fortunately, Ifound a sympathetic headwaiter, else I'dhave nothing to report.

The moral ought to be clear: they can skipthe open bar and free lunch, but it's crueland unusual punishment to invite people to

{continued}

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CHAOS MANOR

listen to any kind of speeches in themorning without plenty of coffee.

Look Out, Lotus

The conference began with a fairamount of hype. My notebook says:Claims they will set new standards.Most advanced product available.Most etc 'We sell lots of stuff. We'regoing to sell even more. Ten minutesof snow. 1 still don't know what theproduct is. More snow. Does he reallybelieve anyone is interested? YEGODS!!!'' Of course, it's possible thatI wasn't yet fully awake.

Eventually we were told what wewere going to see: Excel, a newspreadsheet for the Macintosh. Micro-soft President lohn Shirley said itwould be "the world's best spread-sheet." Somehow his saying thatdidn't surprise me.

In the midst of all the superlatives.Shirley showed an interesting chart. Itdidn't stay up long enough for me tocopy it: I wish it had. because with itcame the most interesting remark ofthe press conference. "Excel.'' Shirleysaid, "is an example of our new policyof producing appropriately integratedproducts." The accompanying chartcontrasted Excel with fully integratedprograms like Symphony andOvation.

Next up was Microsoft's founderWilliam Gates. "Why not do all-in-onefully integrated programs? Becausethere are limits,' he began, "Hardwarehas improved wonderfully, but if youtry to do everything at once you soonrun up against the limits. We've foundthat what users really want are a com-mon user interface so that the samecommand philosophy works with avariety of different kinds of programs:the ability to interchange data be-tween programs: and the ability to runseveral programs at the same time."

"Yeah, something like ConcurrentDOS, I thought to myself. But he wascertainly correct.

"Instead of trying to do it all in oneprogram, we're using the new Macin-tosh Switcher program, which will bebundled with Excel." Gates continued.

"Switchers not released, except to

[continued!

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 349

1 Exxon

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27 million

Americans can't read.

And guess who pays the price.

While American business is trying to stay competitive with foreign companies, it's paying anadded penalty. The penalty of double-digit illiteracy.

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What does illiteracy cost you? Get out your calculator. Illiterate adults make up 50°/o-75% ofour unemployed. Every year they cost us an estimated $237 billion in lost earnings. They swellour welfare costs by $6 billion annually and diminish our tax revenues by $8 billion.

Illiteracy costs you through your community, too. It robs the place where you work and live ofits resources. It undermines the potential of the people who make your products and the peoplewho buy them. No dollar figure can be assigned to this. But over the years, this may be thecostliest loss of all.

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CHAOS MANOR

some developers,'' thought I.Switcher—I haven't actually seen itoperate yet—is said to do for theMacintosh what Concurrent DOSdoes for the PC. but do it smoother,and of course it employs "the Macin-tosh philosophy.' Thinking aboutSwitcher lost me a couple of Gates'ssentences.

". . bringing out the world's bestspreadsheet and bundling in the Mac-intosh Switcher program. That wayusers can run Excel and their favoritetext editor, database, and communi-cations program. They're not lockedinto one program,'' Gates was saying.

I glanced at my watch. Sixteenminutes since the conference started.I had a page of notes, but nothingworth writing about. Even thespeakers sounded bored. Couldn'tthey see they were losing the au-dience9 But of course they couldn't.Every 20 seconds a maniacal photog-rapher with an incredibly noisythyristor popped his flash; once Icounted nine flashes in less than threeminutes. I came to New York for this?

Then, suddenly, the Macintosh pro-jector was fired up. "They've got agreat projector,'' I wrote.

"Excel has 16.000 rows and 2 56 col-umns," Gates said. I perked up. Therewas an unmistakable change to histone. He wasn't bored anymore.

Using a 512K-byte Macintosh anddual floppies, but no hard disk, BillGates put Excel through its paces.Numbers flashed up on the screen.Cells were recalculated. Now I wasreally interested. Those recalculationswent fast. "The 68000 is fast," Gatessaid. "And Excel keeps track of thedata structure so it recalculates onlythe relevant cells."

My next note says, "1 guess I'm im-pressed."

I was, too. Do understand, I waswatching a demonstration of a not-yet-released program running a live butwell-rehearsed (there were photo-graphs of the very same screens inthe press kit) demonstration. The pho-tographer maniac popped his flash sooften that not only couldn't 1 reflecton what Gates was saying. I found it

{continued)

350 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1Q8S

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CHAOS MANOR

hard to follow his talk. On the otherhand, after the conference wheneveryone else headed for the bar, Ifound |abe Blumenthal, the Excel pro-gram manager, and got my own dem-onstration on a machine that I knowwas a normal 512K-byte Mac withfloppies: and I was still impressed.

Excel is fast, it's simple to use, it hasreally impressive automatic chartingcapabilities, and. best of all, it turnsmacro building from a chore intochild's play. That is: a macro is a user-built procedure. Lotus 1-2-3's macrocapability is one of its most powerfulbut, alas, most difficult-to-learn fea-tures. Excel does things differently.You can cause Excel to rememberexactly what you're doing, includingthings like "increment date," and givethat set of procedures a name. Youhave now built a macro. You can runthe whole complex pattern againsimply by invoking the name. The ex-ample Gates showed was updatingmonthly sales data: input the newdata and invoke the macro. Themonths are incremented, everythingis shifted over a column, charts areprepared, averages taken, etc. In myown private play with labe Blumen-thal, I built a financially meaninglessbut highly complex macro involvingextensive calculations. It worked fine.

Something else impressed me. BillGates likes the program, not becauseit's going to make him a lot of money(although I'm sure it will do that), butbecause it's a neat hack.

Excel may just do for the Macintoshwhat VisiCalc did for the Apple II.Assuming that it works as I saw it,Excel will certainly make the Mac intoa serious business machine. Spread-sheets are important to business. I'mtold that about half the IBM PCs aresold with a copy of Lotus 1-2-3. Fromeverything I saw, I'd rather haveMacintosh with Excel than the PC withSymphony. I'd even prefer it to myCompuPro with SuperCalc.

What Do We Want. Anyway?

I don't usually write so much aboutan unreleased product, but JohnShirley's remark about appropriateintegration, followed by Gates's com-

ment on limits, set me to thinking.What do we—as users—really wantout of these machines, and what limitsour getting it? I've in no way reachedany final conclusions, but 1 do havesome thoughts.

I believe Bill Gates was right whenhe said that fully integrated softwareis a dead end. Even without machinelimitations it's going to be difficult tosell full integration to users. There'sjust too much to learn. Old handslooking for an improved text editormay not care to change spreadsheets.Newcomers almost certainly won'twant to learn about spreadsheets,databases, text editors, and commu-nications all at once: heck. I'm reluc-tant to take on such a formidable taskmyself. It's better to learn byaccretion.

When we look at the individualparts of integrated programs, thesituation is even worse. Perhaps youcould have 'the world's best spread-sheet" in your integrated package:perhaps you could even add theworld's best communications pro-gram": but what do you do about texteditors and databases'3 You can't in-clude "the world's best text editorbecause there isn't one. World's bestat what? I know of at least five texteditors that could claim to be "world'sbest" for one or another use, andwhile WordStar isn't "world's best" onany one feature, it's on so manymachines, and comes in second withso many features, that it's a contenderoverall. The same is true with data-base programs. Several are goodenough, and a couple are superb inone way or another—Savvy for exam-ple, is wonderful for people who can'tspell and can't remember preciselyhow things were stored—but if there'sone that deserves the title of "world'sbest" at every application, I don'tknow which one it is. How. then, canan integrated software package havethe "best" when you can't define what"best" means?

So. Fully integrated software isn'tthe answer, because users want to beable to pick and choose programs ac-cording to their particular needs. On

[continued]

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CHAOS MANOR

the other hand databases, text editors,spreadsheets, communications pack-ages, and chart-making capabilities areinterrelated It makes little sense tohave rudimentary capabilities for eachfunction in each of five (or more) dif-ferent programs, and it's sheerdrudgery to learn how to do the samething five different ways. Clearly, itwould be better to have a good chartmaker and pass it data from texteditor, spreadsheet, or database; touse your favorite editor to write thetext generated from a spreadsheetand be able to transfer both chartsand spreadsheet calculations into theeditor; and to be able to send thewhole jershlugginer mess out throughyour favorite communications pack-age. Full integration may be undesir-able, but some measure of integrationis still needed.

Second, it's still easier to learn byaccretion. Sure. I managed to learnCP/M. WordStar. WRITE, dBASE IISuperCalc, and a myriad of other pro-grams, but then I'm a computer en-thusiast. Moreover, having invested allthat time and energy into learning todo things in certain ways, I'm reluctantto spend the time it takes to learn alot of the new programs. Of course 1eventually bite the bullet because I'mnaturally curious, but I sure do gettired of learning new ways to do thesame old things. If programs did mostthings with the same commands andin a logical and consistent manner,reserving novelty for the uniquely newthings the program does. I'd be hap-pier and so. I suspect, would everyoneelse.

Finally, most of us might like to workon one thing at a time, but in the realworld we tend to be interrupt-drivensystems. Sit down to write, and thephone rings: someone wants some-one else's telephone number. Start towork on a spreadsheet, and you'resure to remember a phone call youought to make. Begin one task, andyou'll find a sheet of paper remindingyou of something that has to be takencare of right now.

It isn't so much that we want to beable to run more than one programat a time, but that we want to go back

and forth among tasks without longwaits and distractions. I don't like itmuch when the phone interrupts mywriting, but it's sure a lot better forme—and thus for whomever hascalled me—if I can deal with the callquickly and easily without having tosearch for notepaper. address book,calendar, and the like.

Epson tried to integrate all thosefunctions with Valdocs, and while theidea had merit, the execution wasfatally flawed. It took too long to saveoff the last job and get to the next,and it wasn't easy to transfer datafrom one task to another. Even inValdocs 2.0. they suggest that you in-tegrate the chart maker with the texteditor by means of scissors, paste,and a copy machine. Valdocs was anearly attempt at integration. Even inconception it had one major flaw. IfValdocs couldn't do the job youwanted—and certainly it couldn't doeverything—you had to exit theValdocs environment and cope withan entirely different operating systemunrelated to what you'd alreadylearned.

Another approach is typified byBorland's SideKick: use your favoriteprograms in conjunction with a set ofutilities resident in high memory. Theutilities can be called into a "window"on screen at any time. The job you'redoing is interrupted for the moment,but as soon as you exit SideKickyou're right back where you werewhen you called it. SideKick does anexcellent job of handling notebook,calculator, phone book, and schedule.It can even pass data around withinits parts. The new version has a lim-ited capability to pass data among"foreign'' programs like Lotus 1-2-3and WordStar. However, while Side-Kick's command structure is logical,it isn't necessarily related to the pro-grams you want to use. I'd rather useSideKick. 1-2-3 or SuperCalc. XyWrite.dBASE II. and MITE than any of theintegrated programs I've tried, but Ireally want a lot more integration thanthe combination gives me. The Side-Kick method is a good one. but itdoesn't go far enough.

{continued

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CHAOS MANOR

It seems clear to me that the bestapproach is to integrate softwarethrough the operating system. It'shardly a new idea. UNIX allows pipes.in which the output of one programcan become the input of another, andboasts a bewildering array of utilitiesthat programmers can call. Alas. UNIXis big. slow, and cumbersome. It's hardto use. UNIX has so many adherents,particularly among hackers, that itcan't be ignored, but I'll be much sur-prised if UNIX is the answer to soft-ware integration.

The Macintosh operating systemstarted out in the right direction. Itmay even get there. The problem wasthat the l28K-byte Macintosh had anumber of silly limitations that Appletried to pass off as features, when itwas plain to all that they were bugs.If they could try to make you believethat, what else were they doing toyou0

The 5l2K-byte Macintosh, especial-ly with hard disk, is a different prop-osition. There really is a lot to likeabout the Macintosh operating sys-tem. Not only is it easy to learn, it pro-vides a unifying approach to the com-mand structure of any applicationprogram. The Macintosh operatingsystem has an automatic means fortransferring data from one program toanother. Given that the Switcheroperates as advertised—and Micro-soft seems satisfied that it does—thenthe Microsoft/Macintosh path to in-tegration looks pretty good.

That's fine for Macintosh. Thosewho have IBM PCs and PCloneshaven't anything like the Macintoshoperating system just yet. but thereare plenty of developments. Microsoftpromises the often-announced Win-dows integration Real Soon Now.There are new signs of life at DigitalResearch. I'm not convinced that mak-ing the PC into a Macintosh look-alikeis the right way to go. but there'sanother. Concurrent DOS is reachingout to engulf PC-DOS. It will thenspread even further to integrate withUNIX. If AT&T can really develop astandard UNIX business shell, thePCommunity will be ready.

[continued]

356

MLPTtMBLR I985

Inquiry 78

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C-ITOH All Models SCall

CITIZEN

MSP-10 . S329 MSP-15 $489

MSP-20 SCall MSP-25 SCall

EPSON JX-80 Color $489

LO-1500 $899 LX-80 $229

FX-85 .. $350 FX-185 ... $490

NEC P2/P3 Pinwriters S525/S735

OKIDATA

192 ..... $359 ML84P

Okimate 20 SCall Pacemark

PANASONIC KX-P1091

STAR MICRONICS

Gemini 15X . $345 SG-10

SD-10715 SCall SR-15

TOSHIBA

P1340 $559 P351

SCall. SCall$249

$229

$1145

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BROTHER/DYNAX

HR-15XL/HR-35 $359/$729

Twinriter 5 SCall

HEWLETT-PACKARD User Jet . SCall

DIABLO 630 ECS/IBM $1779

EPSON DX-10/SQ-2000 SCall

JUKI 6100/6300 SCall

NEC

ELF 360 . $415 2050 . . . $6693550 . . $1069 8850. . $1499OUME Sprint 1140/1155/1190 . SCall

SILVER REED EXP 500/550 $250/5419STAR MICRONICS Power Type . $415

PLOTTERS & DIGITIZERS

GTCO All models SCall

HITACHI Tiger Tablet II. SCall

ENTER COMPUTER Six Shooter 5779

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS

PC-695 ... $645 DMP-41/42 $2369

DMP-29 . 51799 DMP-51/52 $3559

DT-11 Digitizer $679

TAXAN 710S SCall

ROLAND DXY-800/880 . $699/5920SUMMAGRAPHICS SummaSketch SCall

AMDEK

Video 300/3O0A/310A

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Color 500/710

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OUME All Models

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MB-1226 .

$155

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$559

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115

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116. .

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420/L . . .

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440

S559

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WY-50

$459

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ZVM 123A

$79

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DIGITAL RESEARCH CP/M Gold Card $269FOURTH DIMENSION 16k RAM Card $55

80 Column Card (lie)

HAVES

Micromodem lie w/Smartcom I

MICROSOFT Softcard II

MICROTEK Dumpling GX

$55

5136$339S69

NOVATION Apple Cat II $209

212 Apple Cat II (1200) . . $389ORANGE MICRO Grapplert $79

Bulfered Grappler + $145

PCPI Applicard 6 MHz SCall

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call for quantity pricing

DOUBLE SIDED DISKETTES

3M $27 Dysan

$30

Maxell . $25 Wabash .

$19

PRINT BUFFERS

0UADRAM Microlazer

Parallel/ Parallel 16k .

$139

64K . . . S185 128K

S239

Serial/Serial, Ser/Par, Par/Ser

8k . $139 64k

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INT. STRUCT. ShuffleBuffer 32K

$269

ACT Printer Optimizer

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$39/$55

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APO Orders Add 6% (minimum $7) Add 3%For Net Terms All Returned Non-DefectiveMerchandise Are Subject To A 20% RestockingCharge GenTech Reserves the Right to ChangeAdvertised Prices

PEB

9

CHAOS MANOR

There's another dark horse in thewings. The Modula-2 operating sys-tem, which grew from the same in-spiration as Macintosh's operatingsystem (namely, the work of Alan Kayat the Xerox Palo Alto ResearchCenter), keeps popping up in unex-pected places.

We don't as yet have an acceptablesoftware-integrating operating system,but maybe we won't have to wait for-ever to get one.

Does It Matter?

One final thought. One way to "inte-grate" programs is not to bother: doyou really care whether your programhas been interrupted and remainsresident in memory as opposed tosaving your work on disk, calling in anew program, and reinvoking theoriginal when it's wanted again? Orthat in order to transfer data from oneprogram to another, you must gothrough a disk file? Of course, we docare when disk access is slow; butwhat if it were nearly instantaneous?

Indeed, that's pretty nearly what Ido now. Despite the advanced ma-chines available. I still do all mywriting on Zeke II. a CompuPro Z80.This is partly sloth but mostly my at-tachment to my (alas, no longer avail-able) Archive Hall-effect keyboard andmy memory-mapped video broughtout on an ancient but incrediblyreliable Hitachi (4-inch monitor. (Itwas a I 5-inch monitor when I boughtit, but the measurement standardsseem to have changed) I supposethat some day I'll change to anothersystem, but so far I've no overwhelm-ing temptation to do so.

What makes this ancient systemtolerable is a megabyte of RAM(random-access read/write memory)disk. Mine happens to be CompuPro'sM-Drive/H. but I've also used Semi-Disk without noticeable difference.The result is that I can save this en-tire column in about 2 seconds. Ittakes about 20 seconds to save thecolumn, exit the editor, and bring inmy address book or a small database.I've also written filter programs thatconvert one kind of file to another, so

[continued)

BYTt • SEPTEMBtR 198=5

" l»MartMM tn miMBM0lfKaiff$*fttmiM>4*i1t&aalHOt0'lM MWMMMBWWMMBMl

,y

^iit more perfbmancz. in less space."

Look into the new Princeton HX-9 Series

See high-resolution RGB color with the Princeton HX-9and HX-9E Color Monitors.

Observe exceptionally sharp high resolution graph-ics and text created by color phosphor dots which arewithin a mere .28mm of one another.

Enjoy Princeton performance on a 9-inch screen inless desk space than most any other monitor on themarket today.

Display images of clearly superior qualityFlicker-free technology enables you to view colorfulimages with clear, sharp definition. Dark-glass, non-glare screens further enhance viewing clarity.

A built-in green/amber switchallows you to switch from multi-color to either a green or ambermode. It's like owning both acolor and a monochrome monitor.

^l

The Princeton HX-9 Color Monitor is perfect for view-ing up to 16 vivid colors with the IBM Color/GraphicsMonitor Adapter (or equivalent).

And, the enhanced member of the HX-9 Series, thePrinceton HX-9E Color Monitor, offers one big extra: Italso allows you to use the IBM Enhanced GraphicsAdapter (or equivalent) to view up to 64 brilliant colors.

What's more, they tilt. They swivel. Both have a built-in base to adjust your monitor to a comfortable viewingangle.

Princeton quality is built inBoth monitors in the Princeton HX-9 Series are manu-factured to provide years of reliable use. Verified bytough quality-control procedures. And backed by afull one-year warranty.Visit your local computer store todaySee the HX-9 Series and all other products bearing theworld-respected Princeton name. To find the Princetondealer nearest you, call: 800-221-1490 (Extension 404),609-683-1660 (NJ only), Telex: 821402 PGS PRIN.

Princeton Graphic Systems, 601 Ewing Street, Bldg. A,Princeton, NJ 08540.

PRINCETON

IBM is a registered trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines Corp.

Inquiry 298

GRAPHIC SYSTEMS

AN INTELLIGENT SVSTEM5 COMPANY

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 359

CHAOS MANOR

that the output of one program canbecome the input for the next: byusing the CP M Submit utility I can dohighly complex operations, and giventhe RAM disk they go fast. It's not in-tegration or anything like it. and I doindeed miss the SideKick utilities; butthe speed of the RAM disk takes a lotof the sting out of nonintegration

The major problem with the RAMdisk is that everything goes away dur-ing a power failure. However, memoryisn't the only thing that's gettingcheaper each year. So is the uninter-ruptible power supply (UPS); at COM-DEX I saw more than one UPS thatwould be better than adequate to runZeke II for half an hour or longer,plenty long enough to protect workin progress. There are still plenty ofincentives for integration, but with aRAM disk and a UPS I can afford tosit back and wait until somethingreally excellent comes along.

Poor What?

While we're on the subject of integra-tion, there is a program called Write-Hand-Man |WHM) from Poor Person'sSoftware. The name is a play on Side-Kick, of course. WHM attempts to dofor CP M 2.2 systems what SideKickdoes for the IBM PC. The problem isthat CP/M systems are already hurtingfor available memory; using up an-other 6K to 8K bytes for a residentdemon can present problems. Word-Star doesn't particularly notice theloss, but WRITE and other text editorsthat work only on text resident in

memory certainly do.

Another problem is the trigger char-acter. Few CP M keyboards cangenerate anything other than ASCII(American Standard Code for Infor-mation Interchange) characters 00through 127. which means that only32 control characters are available.Many of these, such as carriage returnand horizontal tab already have ac-cepted meanings, leaving even feweravailable characters to do specialthings, such as moving the cursoraround. To use WHM, you mustchoose something your terminal canmake that you won't normally use.Poor Person's Software suggestsASCII null (00). which is Control-®Whatever you select can never beused for anything else while you'rerunning WHM.

WHM gives you a notebook, aphone book, and a two-week appoint-ment calendar. It also gives you theoption of running any other programthat you've written and assembledand left on the disk as a .REL file. Ifyou want to write your own applica-tion programs, you'll need a relocat-ing assembler like RMAC or M80. (Ifthis means nothing to you. don'tworry about it.)

WHM is ingenious and works as in-tended. The manual is only abouteight pages long. Most of the informa-tion is more useful to hackers than tousers. You have to read through all ofit. then go back and start over, beforeyou get all the information needed toinstall the program. Even so. I'd guess

that all but the most naive userswould be able to get WHM installedprovided they don't mind making afew mistakes and doing some experi-mentation.

There was a time when I wouldeagerly have welcomed WHM; but. infact. I've found that the loss of mem-ory when I'm writing is too high aprice to pay for the limited conve-nience. It's possible that I'm spoiled.I also have plenty of RAM disk.

Terminal Advice

A book I wish I'd had years ago isDavid Stephens's A Programmers Guideto Video Display Terminals (Atlantis Pub-lishing Company. POB 56967. Dallas.TX 75220). It's priced a bit high at$30, and it's hardly light reading; butif you need it, you need it bad.

The book is mostly tables of controlcodes. What sequence erases to endof line for the Teletype 5420 terminal?What homes the cursor? How do youclear the screen on the Ann ArborGuru terminal? It's all here, page afterpage of information in readable form.Terminal manuals are notoriouslypoor, written by graduates of thatsecret school that teaches the blackart of incomprehensible technicalwriting. This book tables the informa-tion in a sane and clear-cut way. It'seven indexed several times in waysthat bring together terminals withsimilar command structures.

You can also get the data in thebook on disk; write Atlantis Publish-

icontmued)

GRAPHS WITHOUT GRAPHICS?

Printers 23.47.

Sodwire 15

No need for color monitor or graphics board.Make graphs on dot matrix printers.

Easy to L'se. No Programming., i^.ar. CPM 2.2.3. 80. or 86. MS-DOS or PC-DOS. -Excellent Manual. Most disk formats. »

Dataplotter

Line Graphs & ScatterploLs. .. .$69 "

Bar Graphs & Pie Charts $69 ;

Both for $99 ;

iPrice* include mamml)

SALES

\

Lark*

Software '

131 N. Leveret! Rd.Leverett. MA 01054

Add S3 shipping.$8outside I'Sand Canada.

Specify type of Printer.

(413) 773-8687 v

i E C O H D S

360

BYTE • SEPTEMBER N8S

Inquiry 212

TYP-SET

The Ultimate Software Solution for Lettering

TYP-SET'" is the ultimate,easy-to-use, high resolutiongraphic arts quality letteringsoftware for making presenta-tion material. With an IBM PCor compatible microcomputerand almost any plotter, youcan create beautiful graphicsusing different lettering styles,spacing and shading.By your-self, you can easily create re-port graphics, overhead pro-jections and signs of almostany size on many kinds ofmaterials.

CAN YOUR LETTERINGMACHINE CREATECHARACTERS THIS BIG?

TYP-SET's characters are de-signed mathematically to pro-duce presentation quality let-tering without distortion orloss of resolution.Lettering can be produced inany size from .05 inches to 72inches without any loss ofaesthetic quality, spaced pro-portionally with automatickerning or spaced forcolum-nized alignment.

QUICKLY PRODUCE ADLAYOUTS OR ARTWORKUPS?

Text can be mirrored and re-versed with spacing controlledto create gapped or over-lapped lettering.

CREATE BUSINESS CHARTSTHAT STILL LOOK GOOD ONTHE SCREEN?All fonts canbe presented asdesigned or incondensed, ex-tended or italicizedstyles withconcate-nated textmade upof mixed fonts.

TYP-SET "FEATURES

IBM compatible.Video or plotter output se-lectable.

Interfaces to Sweet-P, Hew-lett Packard and most popu-lar plotters for hard copyoutput on paper or trans-parencies.

Fully menu-driven for easyoperation.

High quality lettering from.05 inches to 72 incheswithout distortion or loss ofaesthetic quality.Automatic or selectable lineand character spacing.

Allows 360° line rotation,right, left and center justifi-cation.INCLUDES SIX DIFFERENT

FONTS

SGI101 HVLUGK7ICIIJ5

SGI112 ' WBXM

SGU2K3YM IMUC3S0I140 TOB MM5K

SGI145

Enter Computer, Inc.6867 Nancy Ridge DriveSan Diego, Ca. 92121

(800) 227-4375(800) 227-4371 (CA)(619)450-0601TLX-181740

'Wordstar is a registered trademark olMicroPro International; Lotus. LotusDevelopment Corp, AutoCAD, Autodesk;TYP-SET Enter Computer, Inc

TYP-SET'" generates graphicart quality lettering in manyfont styles.

DISTRIBUTORS: SOFTSEL COMPUTER PRODUCTS • EASTERN U S (800) 645-7779 (201) 575-5245 • CENTRAL U S (800) 645-7775 (312) 773-8888 • WESTERN U S (800) 645-7778(213) 412-1700 • CANADA (800) 268-0460 (416) 629-2222 • GEORGIA PRYOR CORPORATION, DECATUR (404) 987-0300 • ILLINOIS PRYOR CORPORATION. CHICAGO (312) 736-0855 • PRYORCORPORATION, PEORIA (309) 688-9585 • ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS. NORTHLAKE (312) 562-7300 • MARYLAND PRYOR CORPORATION, COLUMBIA (301) 992-0040 • NEW JERSEY PRYORCORPORATION, EAST RUTHERFORD (201) 935-2525 • NORTH CAROLINA ALLISON-ERWIN, CHARLOTTE (704) 334-8621 • OHIO PRYOR CORPORATION, POWELL (614) 436-8281 • PENNSYLVANIAPRYOR CORPORATION, LEETSDALE (412) 741-2920 • TENNESSEE MULTI COMPUTER PRODUCTS, COOKVILLE (615) 528-7777 • TEXAS AMCAD, Inc , CARROLLTON (214) 323-0700 ■ WISCONSINPRYOR CORPORATION, MADISON (608) 273-2050

Inquiry 137 for End-Users. Inquiry 138 for DEALERS ONLY

SEPTEMBER I985 • BYTE 361

CHAOS MANOR

ing for information. Anyone seriousabout writing install programs to put

software on a variety of terminalscan't afford to be without both bookand disk. Highly recommended torprogrammers.

Cheap Graphics

Hackers are probably familiar with thepublic-domain program GRAF 1.0. For$3 5 (well, it says S29.95 + $5 shippingand handling). Dr. Donald Brittain.who wrote the original GRAF, will sellyou GRAF 2.0, which does consider-ably more. The GRAF programs plotbar and line graphs on Epson andEpson-compatible printers if you haveone for a Z80 CP/M machine. GRAF2.0 needs a full 64K bytes of memory.Time was when those were seriouslimitations, but no longer. However, itwont work on the older CompuPro8 16 or the Zenith Z-100. which bothuse an 8085 rather than a Z80 for

their 8-bit processor. It seems to workfine with the new CompuPro 286 withthe Z80 SPUZ slave board.

Printers supported include theEpson MX-80 with Graftrax, RX-80.and FX-80: the Cltoh ProWriter(shades of the past!); and the Okidatawith Plug 'n Play chips (but not un-modified Okidata). The version 1 havecomes in the Kaypro 514-inch diskformat; you can also get it on 8-inchIBM single-sided single-density disks.Specify printer and disk format whenordering (there's no install program).

Writing the above paragraph takesme back to the days when nothingwas compatible with anything else,even though CP/M had become thestandard operating system. Things aresupposed to be much better now. Iwonder.

Anyway, GRAF 2,0 is simple enoughto use and produces charts andgraphs that are good enough for

academic reports and the like. Dotmatrix is dot matrix, of course; thisisn't going to be print-quality work. It'smore than good enough for termpapers though.

GRAF 2.0 has a lot of convenientfeatures, such as automatic scalingand labeling of graph axes, diskstorage of graphs, overlay capability,and ways to take data from other pro-grams. The manual is well written. Thisis one of those programs that doesa job well without fuss or bother. Ifyou need line or bar graphs and don'twant to spend much money, this is theprogram to get. Recommended,

Blinkers

Thanks. After my tirade about theTexas Instruments Professional's blink-ing cursor, I received more than 50letters with fixes for it. Some of themgot pretty elaborate, with full-screen

[continued]

VT100$150

•plus your IBM PC

Now with KERMIT

Use your IBM PC jr/XT/AT, or compatible withZSTEMpc-VT100 Smart Terminal Emulator.

Connect to PDP-11. DEC-10, VAX for on-line data input or editing.Use with ALL-IN-1. EDT. WORD-11. DEC CALC

Transfer files from your host for input to spreadsheet/word processingor local modification prior to transfer back to the host.

• 132-columns by windowing — no additional hardware •

• Double High / Double Wide Characters •

• Complete VT100 line graphics • Smooth Scrolling •

• International Font Support •

• Full Keyboard softkey / MACROS •

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• Bidirectional file transfer — including XMODEM and KERMIT •

• Baud rates to 38.4 KB with high throughput •

• Color/graphics, monochrome, and EGA adaptor support •

Call loday: VISA and MasterCard accepted

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Trademarks IBM PC |r. XT, AT — IBM Corporation, VT100. PDP DECVAX — Digital Equipment Corp ZSTEMpc — KEA Systems Ltd

Computers ForThe Blind

Talking computers give blind and visuallyimpaired people access to electronic infor-mation. The question is how and howmuch?

The answers can be found in "The SecondBeginner's Guide to Personal Computers forthe Blind and Visually Impaired" publishedby the National Braille Press. This compre-hensive book contains a Buyer's Guide totalking microcomputers and large print dis-play processors. More importantly it in-cludes reviews, written by blind users, ofsoftware that works with speech.

Send orders to:

National Braille Press Inc.,

88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115

(617) 266-6160

NBP is a nonprofit braille printing and publishing house.

362 H Y T E • SEPTEMBER 198=5

Inquiry 399

Powerful MS-DOS Software.

For the IBM -PC, XX AT & compatibles with MS-DOS/PC-DOS 2.0 or higher.

Only dtfc^fe^^^^ff? Each

UTAH

UTAH

COBOL

TM

ALL NEW! We believe this is the fastest COBOL compiler onany micro; for example, we have compiled 4500 statementsper minute on an IBM-AI Utah COBOL is based on ANSI-74standards with powerful level 2 features, including compoundconditionals & full CALL CANCEL. Speed and simplicity arecertain to make it a favorite in the classroom as well as withprofessional programmers. Package includes diskette, 165-pagemanual, many examples & 16 complete COBOL source codeprograms. $39.95.

COBOL Application Package, Book 1: $9.95.

UTAH

PASCAL.

Has many advanced features including: 14 digit precision,BCD math (no round-off errors), floating point + 63 -64,TRACE debugging, Arrays up to 8 dimensions, 64K strings,External procedures & Dynamic Module loading. Packageincludes diskette & 134-page mannual. $39.95.

PILOT

TM

Written by Prof. J. Starkweather, the language's creator,Utah PILOT exceeds all PILOT-73 standards. And it has anintegrated full-screen text editor for easy program develop-ment. Ideal for classroom instruction, business training & homestudy. Package includes diskette, 129-page manual & 10 sampleprograms. $39.95.

UTAH

EDIT

TM

A full-screen, video-display text editor designed specificallyfor computer program text preparation. Completely user-changable, it can be configured to almost any terminal & takesonly 12K disk space. Package includes diskette & 58-pagemanual. $39.95.

UTAH BASIC" $39.95Package includes diskette & 239-page manual.

BIG PRINT ™ DISKETTE $19.95Great for making signs. Requires 132-print position printer.

UTAH software requires 128K RAM (i.e., 90K user RAM) an IBM-PC, XT. AT, PCjr, or compatible (16-bit) microcomputer with MS-DOS or PC-DOS OperatingSystem, Rev. 2.0 or higher. For 8-bit CP/M-80 systems, ask about our NEVADA Software Series.

MS is a trademark ol Microsoft Corp. IBM is a registered trademark ol International Business Machines, Corp. Utah COBOL. Utah BASIC. Utah PASCAL. Utah PILOT. Utah EDITBIGPRINT & Ellis Computing. Inc are trademarks of Ellis Computing, Inc c 1985 Ellis Computing. Inc

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. If for any reason you re notcompletely satisfied, just return the Utah package within 15 days-in good condition, with the sealed diskette unopened-and we'llrefund your money. There's absolutely no risk to you, so whywait?-order today.

Please send me these UTAH Software packages

(IBM-PC diskette):

□ COBOL □ BASIC □ EDIT

Fl PASCAL □ PILOT L~l BIGPRINT

Send me —(how many) software packages: TOTAL $

Utah COBOL Application Book 1; BIGPRINT:

California residents add sales tax (6% or 6V4%)

HANDLING/SHIPPING: no shipping charge within U.S.;

Overseas add $10 for first package, $5 each additional.

□ Check

Send my UTAH order to:

CARD NO.

_EXP-

Checks must bein U.S. Dollars,drawn on a U.S. bank.

(Sorry, no C.O.D.s.)

VISA □ MasterCard

Enclosed: TOTALS-

SIGNATURE,

SHIPTONAME_

STREET.

CITY/STATE ZIP-

COUNTRY.

Order now from:

ELLIS COMPUTING, INC.3917 Noriega StreetSan Francisco, CA 94122

«| Phone (415) 753-0186SINCE 1977

ELLIS COMPUTING I

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 363

TS

THE CMO ADVANTAGE

,- THE BEST PRICES!

t* Next day shipping on all in stockitems.

*■ Free easy access order inquiry.

it Orders from outside

Pennsylvania ana Nevada savestate sales tax

^ Free technicial support with ourfactory trained technical staff.

^ There is no limit and no depositon COD orders.

^ There's no extra charge forusing your credit card. Your cardis not charged until we ship

>' No waiting period for cashierschecks.

v» We accept purchase orders fromqualified corporations. Subject toapproval.

►<■ Educational discounts availableto qualified institutions.

v FREE CATALOG MEMBERSHIP

ORDER LINE

CUSTOMER SERVICE& TECH SUPPORT

1-717-327-1450

MODEMS

Dept. A109

MAILING ADDRESS

Computer Mail OrderDept. A109

477 East Third StreetWilliamsport. PA 17701

MEMBER DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION

CREDIT CARDS

MoslefCanJ

1

"W Inquiry 79 < ijj

SHIPPING*" °

Add 30'o. minimum $5.00 shippingand handling on all orders. Largershipments may require additionalcharges

All items subject to availability andprice change.

Returned shipments may be sub-ject to a restocking fee.

1-800-268-3974

Ontario/Quebec

1-800-268-4559

Other Provinces

1-416-828-0866

In Toronto

TELEX: 06-218960

2505 Dunwin Drive,

Mississauga, Ontario

Canada L5L1T1

All prices shown are for U.S.A.

orders

Call The Canadian Office for

Canadian prices.

COMPUTERS

130XE 128K CALL

520ST 520K SystemCALL800XL 64K CALL

850 Interface $119.00

1010 Recorder $47.99

1020 Color Printer $69.99

1025 Dot Matrix $179.00

1027 Letter Quality $239.00

1030 Direct Connect Modem$59.99

5049 Atari Visicalc $45.99

8036 Atari Writer $24.99

BOARDS FOR ATARI

Axlon 32K $39.99

Axlon 48K (400) $69.99

Axlon 128K $269.00

Bit 3 Full View 80 $169.00

SPECIALS

Atari 800-48K $09b99Atari 835 Modem $29.99

4011 Star Raiders $5.99

4022 Pac Man $5.99

8026 Dig Dug S5.99

8030 Donkey Kong $5.99

8044 Joust $5.99

4013 Astroids S5.99

8130 Caverns of Mars..$5.99

4020 Centipede S5.99

4025 Defender $5.99

8030 E.T. $5.99

8039 Eastern Front $5.99

HOME COMPUTERS

APPLE lie CALL

APPLE lie CALL

MaclNTOSH CALL

lie LCD Display CALL

Macintosh Software

Lotus Jazz CALL

Microsoft Excel CALL

Microsoft Business Pak $375 00

Living Vldeotext

ThinkTank 512 S159 00

Manhattan Ready. Set. Go S79 99Crelghton Development

Mac Spell $69 99

Monogram Dollars & Sense $99.99Peachtree Back lo Basics - GLS109 00PFSFile& Report (New Version)$ 129.00Silicon Beach Airborn $25 99

PORTABLE COMPUTERS

[VI

HEWLETTPACKARD

41CV $189 99

41CX $249 99

HP 71B $419 99

HP 11C $62 99

HP 12C/15C/16C $89 99

HP 75D $999 99

HPIL Module $98 99

HPIL Cassette or Primer S359 99

Card Reader $143 99

Extended Function Module $63 99

Time Module $63 99

We stock the full line ofHP calculator products

NEC

PC-8401 CALL

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

SHARP

PC-1350

$159 99

PC 1261

$159 99

PC-1260

$109 99

PC-1500A

$165 99

PC-1250A

$88 99

CE-125 Printer/Cassette

$128 99

CE-150 Colo

' Printer Cassette $171 99

CE-161 16K

RAM

$134 99

f S commodore

C128 Computer $NEW

C1571 (Disk Drive lor C128) SNEW

C1902 (RGB 13" Monitor lor C128) ...SNEWC1670 (Modem lor C128) SNEW

SX-64 Portable $399.00

Commodore Pius 4 $199 00

CBM 64 $149.00

C1541 Disk Drive $199 00

C1530 Datasette $39 99

M-801 Dot Matrix Printer $169.00

MCS 803 Dot Matrix $179 00

C1702 Color Monitor $199.00

CI660 Auto Modem .... $59 99

DPS 1101 Daisy Printer . $339 00

DISKETTES

5'«'

. | ■■

maxell

SS/DD . $39 99

DS/DD $54 99

MD-1 w/Hardcase $1799

MD-2 w/Hardcase $23 99

MD-2-HD tor AT $44 99

ul Vferbalim.

SS/DD $21 99

DS/DD $29 99

Analyzer $24 99

$13 99$15 99

$16 99

''- B i I :':i1

Elephant 5V SS/SDElephant 5'A" SS/DD .Elephant 5Vi" DS/DDElephant Premium DS/DD

$23 99

5'V DS/DD Floppy Disks

(Box of 10) $25 99

DISK HOLDERS

INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS

Flip-in-File 10 $3.99

Flip-m-File 50 $17.99

Flip-in-File 50 w/lock $24.99

Flip-in-File (400/800 ROM) $11.99

AMARAY

50 Disk Tub 5'A" $9.99

30 Disk Tub 3Vfe" $8 99

UMlm(.vui i iiM<^

Wood Disk Holders CALL

aWNCHOR

Volksmodem $59.99

Volksmodem 300/1200 $189.99

Mark XII (1200 Baud) $259.00

Signalman Express $299.00

Lightning 2400 Baud $399 00

CD Hayes

Smartmodem 300 $139 00

Smartmodem 1200 $389 00

Smartmodem 1200B $359.00

Smartmodem 2400 $629 00

Micromodem lie $249.00

Smart Com II $89.99

Chronograph $199.00

Transet 1000 CALL

AST

Reach 1200 Baud Halt Card.... $399 00

map miCROBITS

MPP-1000E AD/AA (Atari) $79.99

MPP-1064 AD/AA (C-64) $69.99

[Novation -St

Smart Cat Plus $319.00

J-Cat $99.99

Novation 2400 CALL

Apple Cat II $229.00

212 Apple Cat II $379.00

Apple Cat 212 Upgrade $229.00

Macmodem $319.00

Quadmodem II

300/1200 $339.00

300/1200/2400 $499.00

TELELEARNING

C64 300 Baud (Closeout) $39.99

GRAPHICS

^hoala

BM $89.99

Apple/Franklin $79.99

■Polaroid

Palette $129900

DRIVES

HARD

Auoy

PC Stor CALL

luEAwniitns

5 meg Removable/Internal $1399 0010 meg Fixed/Internal $1249 00

15 meg 5 Removable/10 Fixed$2149 0025 meg 5 Removable/20 FixedS2499 00

HMSGrV

10 Meg Bernoulli Box $2099 00

20 meg Bernoulli Box. $2599 0C

5 meg MacNoulli $1599 00

JY/. TALLGRASS'// TECHNOLOGIES

12. 25 35 50, 80 meg (PCI

Irom S1499 00

FLOPPY

INDUS

Apple GT $20900

Atari GT $239 00

C-64 GT $259 00

A1 5 Apple $199 00

A2 Apple $19900

SD1 C-64 Single $21900

SD2 C-64 Dual $469 00

landon

320K 5V„" (PC) $119.00

TEAC

320K 5'/4M $109 00

MONITORS

PRINTERS

Inquiry 79

PC COMPATIBLES

300 Green $129.00

300 Amber $139.00

310 Amber IBM-Plug $169.00

Color 300 Composite $199.00

Color 500 Composite/RGB $389.00

Color 600 Hi-Res (640x240) $399.00

Color 700 Hi-Res (720x240).... $499.00Color 710 Long Phosphor $579.00

[coal

12" Amber/Green Composite. ...$99.9912" Amber/Green TTL (ea.) $119.00

IVfe'C

JB 1260 Green $59.99

JB 1201/1205 (ea.) $99.99

JB 1270 Green $139.00

JB 1275 Amber $149.00

JB 1280 G TTL/1285 A TTL $149.00

JC 1410 RGB $669.00

PRINCETON

MAX-12E Amber $189.00

HX-9 9" RGB $469.00

HX-9E Enhanced $519.00

HX-12 12" RGB $469.00

HX-12E Enhanced $559.00

SR-12 Hi-Res $599.00

SR-12 P Enhanced $649.00

• IOX4W

115 12" Green Mono $119.00

116 12" Amber Mono $119.00

121 Green TTL $139.00

122 Amber TTL $149.00

420 Hi-Res RGB (IBM) $429.00

440 Ultra Hi-Res RGB $559.00

8400 Quadchrome I $479.00

8410 Ouachrome II $429.00

8420 Amberchrome $179.00

8500 Ouad Screen $1499.00

'KITH

ZVM 1220/1230 $99.99

ZVM 1240 IBM Amber $139.00

ZVM 130 Color $269.00

ZVM 131 Color $249.00

ZVM 133 RGB $429.00

ZVM 135 RGB/Color $459.00

ZVM 136 RGB/Color $599.00

1220. 1230. 1240 CALL

INTERFACES

Graphcard. ~ .z7Z77!?. $79.99

Seriall Card $99.99

Microbutter II + $169 00

Microbuffer 32K $189.00

QljADRAM^||

Microfazer from $139.00

Etazer (Epson) from $79.99

j^Oronge micro

Grappler CD (C64) $99.99

Grappler + (Apple) $89.99

Grappler 16K+ (Apple) $159.00

DIGITAL DEVICES

Ape Face (Atari) $49.99

U-Print A (Atari) $54.99

U-A16/Buffer (Atari) $74.99

U-Cail Interface (Atari) $39.99

U-Pnnt C (C64) $49.99

P-16 Print Buffer $74.99

U-Pnnt II Apple lie $89.99

ro*> miCROBITS

MPP-1150 Parallel (Atari) $69.99

MP-1150XL (Atari 1200XL) $69.99

MicroStufter 64K Print Buffer ,.$109.00

■

CANNON

A40 CALL

LBP-8A1 Laser CALL

^CITIZEN

MSP-10 (80 col.) $349.00

MSP-15 (132 col.) $499 00

MSP-20 (80 col.) $489 00

MSP-25 (132 col.) $679.00

C.ITOH

Prownter 7500 $219.00

Prownter 851 OP $299 00

Prownter 8510 NLQ $329.00

Prownter 1550P $469.00

F10-40P Starwriter $869 00

F10-55 Pnntmaster $1049 00

corona

Lazer LP-300 $2799 00

DIABLO

D25 Daisywheel $599.00

630-109 Daisywheel $1749.00

D801F Daisywheel CALL

d*isywriter

2000 $749.00

EPSON

LX-80. LX-90. FX-85. FX-185JX-80. DX-10. DX-20. SQ 2000HS-80. Homewriter 10 CALL

.JUKI

6000 Letter Quality CALL

6100 Letter Quality CALL

6300 Letter Quality CALL

SEC

8027 Transportable $299.00

2000 Series $699.00

3000 Series $1099.00

8000 Series $1449.00

ELF 360 $449.00

OKIDATA

84. 182. 192. 193. 2410 CALL

Okimate 10 (Specify C64/Atan)$189.00Okimate 20 (IBM) CALL

OLYMPIA

Needlepoint Dot Matrix $299.00

Compact RO $339.00

Compact 2 $369.00

Panasonic

KX1091 $259.00

KX1092 $389.00

KX1093 $479.00

QUADRAT^

Quadjet

Quad Laser..

$399 00 CALL

52>SilYER-RE€0

500 Letter Quality $279.00

550 Letter Quality $419.00

770 Letter Quality $759.00

SG-10C (C64 Interface).$NEW

SB/SD/SG/SR Series CALL

Powertype Letter Quality CALL

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

T1865 $1049.00

TOSHIBA

1340 (80 column) $589.00

P351 (132 column) $1169.00

IBM PC SYSTEMS

Configured to your

specification.Call for Best Price!

IBM-PC, IBM-PC II, IBM-XT, IBM AT

SOFTWARE FOR IBM

Electric Desk IBM-PC $199.00

A^HTO\-WEB

Framework $369.00

dBase III $369.00

BBORIPDOIHTfRHATiONAI

Turbo Pascal 3.0 $49.99

Sidekick $39.99

CENTRAL POINT

Copy II PC-Backup $29.99

DECISION RESOURCES

Chartmaster $259.00

Signmaster $179.00

FOX & GELLER

Quickcode III $169.00

FUNK SOFTWARESideways $39.99

^51 larvard Software Inc.

Harvard Project Manager $209.00

Total Protect Manager $269.00

Human Edge™

Communication Edge $99.99

Management Edge $119.00

Negotiation Edge $139.00

Sales Edge $119.00

LIFETREE

Volkswriter Duluxe $159.00

LIVING VIDEOTEXTThink Tank $109.00

• Lotus

Symphony $43900

1-2-3 $309.00

MECA SOFTWAREManaging Your Money $109.00

fa :«i:>:-Tii.a

Crosstalk XVI $89 99

Microstuf Remote $89.99

SEE3S3E1

R:Base 4000 $259 00

RBase 5000 $399.00

Clout 2.0 $129.00

III MicroPro

WordStar 2000 $249.00

WordStar 2000 + $309.00

WordStar Professional $299 00

Word MICROSOn: $239 00

Mouse $139.00

Flight Simulator $39.99

MultiPlan $129.00

MoJtiMate

Multi Mate Word Proc $249.00

NOUMENON

Intuit $69.99

NORTON

Norton Utilities 3.0 $59.99

Peachtext 5000 $169.00

PeachPack (GL/AP/AR1 $219.00

R&:

IBM/APPLE

Access $54.99

Write/Graph/File/Plan (ea).$79.99

Report $74.99

Proof $59.99

Professional Software

Wordplus-PC w/Boss $24y.OO

ROSESOFT

Prokey $89.99

THE SOFTWARE GROUP

Enable $339.00

SATELLITE SYSTEMSWord Perfect 4.0 $219.00

SORCIM/IUS

Accounting

AP/AR/GL/INV/OE (ea.) $295.00

SuperCalc III $195.00

EasyWnter II System $195.00

Super Project $195.00

SPI

Open Access $379.00

THOUGHTWARE

Trigger $289.00

Sell. Sell, Sell

Training $299.00

Application $179.00

Safari (7300)

CALL

6300

CALL

corona

PPC400 Dual Portable

51799.00

PPCXT 10 meg Portable

S2399 00

PC40022 10 meg Desktop

S1999.00

ITT

ITT X-TRA

256K. 2 Drive System

CALL

256K. 10 meg Hard Drive SystemCALL

@SANYO

MBC 550-2 Single Drive 5699.00

MBC 555-2 Dual Drive 5969 00

MBC 775 Portable 5159900

MBC 511 10 meg CALL

MBC 675 Portable CALL

MBC 880 Desktop CALL

PC-151-21 Single Desktop CALL

PC-151-52 Dual Desktop CALL

PC-151-53 10 meg Desktop CALL

PC-161-21 Single Portable CALL

PC-161-52 Dual Portable CALL

Z-200 (AT) CALL

171 (Portable) o. CALL

138 (Transportable)... ,<£^ CALL

148 (DeskTop) Vj^ CALL

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

Six Pack Plus $239.00

Mega Plus II $269.00

I/O Plus II $139.00

Advanlage-AT $399.00

Graph Pak $599 00

Monograph Plus $399.00

Preview Mono $299.00

PC Net Cards $379.00

5251/11 On-line $799.00

5251/12 Remote $579.00

3780 Emulation Card 5639 00

BSC Bisync $489.00

_J__

IRMA 3270 ~~~ 5879.00

IRMA Print $999 00

=^VEREX—

Color Card (Graphics Edge) $299.00

Magic Card $199.00

HERCULES

Graphics..... $299.00

Color $159.00

IDFAssotimes

IDEAmax - ZPR, 64K, C, S. P.$229.00

IDEAmini ■ YPR, C. S, P $189.00

IDEAminimax - MPR 128K $229.00

IDEAshare Software $219.00

IDEA 5251 $699.00

MYLEX

The Chairman $489.00

PARADISH

Modular Graphics Card $274.00

Multi Display Card $289.00

Five Pack C, S $159.00

pensYST

Bob Board $389.00

PLANTRONICSColor Plus $369.00

II —

Captain - 64 $239.00

Captain Jr. 128K $339.00

Graphics Master $469 00

Quadport-AT $119.00

Quadmeg - AT (128K) $349.00

The Gold Quadboard $449.00

The Silver Quadboard $239.00

Expanded Quadboard $219.00

Quad 512 + $229.00

Liberty $309.00

QuadSprint $499.00

QuadLink $399.00

Quadcolor 1 $199.00

QuadJr. Expansion Chassis $469.00

Expansion Chassis Memory $199.00

Quadmem. Jr $199.00

Chronagraph $79.99

Parallel Interface Board $64.99

} bH<* nsHsW^ ■

Kiln

bTbTbTbT^"^"^b™

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1 II ^Bm^Bl

1 II ^>\M

( '1 bV ■

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CHAOS MANOR

Listing 1

: A simple

urogram to fix

the Tl Professional's blinking cursor.:CURSE COM

CUR

SEGMENT

;THIS PROGRAM SETS THE CURSOR

ORG

100H

JO FULL NO BLINK AND CLEARS

ASSUME

CSGUR

THE SCREEN. CONVERT AS FOLLOWS

MOV

AX,0100H

;USING DEBUG:

MOV

CX.000BH

; 1) RENAME FILE TO .COM

INT

49H

: 2) LOAD DEBUG WITH FILE

MOV

0AH.13H

3) AT-TYPE M 400 500 100

INT

49H

4) MODIFY CX FOR SHORT LENGTH

INT

20H

AT-TYPE RCX AT : TYPE 120

CUR

ENDSEND

5) ISSUE W THEN Q

control capabilities.

Bruce Neild of Cheshire, Connect-icut, sent in the simplest cursor fixer(see listing l). It's not fancy, but boundinto a start-up batch file it will makethe cursor bearable. Mr. Neild reportsthat he's happy with his Tl PC. but"One is hard-pressed to find adver-tisements in today's-magazines that

say they also have the Tl PC format.Oh. well, it keeps one from frivoloussoftware purchases."

We can hope that will change. Tldoes seem anxious to provide sup-port for software developers, and asI reported last month, I'm impressedwith the natural-language links. Tl alsohas an artificial-intelligence-based

pflO

j^sflo*-.:&**'

-*&&&**

"•^

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od

p(0'

dUC*

-Sft«

-tfe

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aPPu'

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j340A

decision-function generator I hope toreport on Real Soon Now.

True Madness

I've just spent one of the mostfrustrating hours of my life. I tried toget the new True BASIC to do some-thing useful. I didn't succeed. Myusual result was to get cryptic errormessages that are not indexed in themanuals: ask for HELP; get the mes-sage "Can't help with that. Try HELPTOPICS.'; type in HELP TOPICS; andagain get the message "Can't helpwith that. Try HELP TOPICS."

My first experiment was to try a sim-ple program:

10 FOR I = 1 TO 12820 PRINT I, CHR$(I)

30 NEXT40 END

The result of that was "Illegal linenumber."

The index shows that line numbersare covered in the reference manual,not in the tutorial. Turning to thereference manual. I see that linenumbers are said to be optional; Ialso see an example of a program thatuses line numbers beginning with 100.Could that be it? I changed my littleprogram's line numbers to HO, 120,etc. Ran program. Got "Illegal linenumber" message. Tried HELP. Got"Can't help with that. Try HELPTOPICS." This was not a message Iparticularly wanted.

At this point I was in zugzwang,because True BASIC has windows, butthere is no obvious way to get fromthe command window to the editingwindow. The index isn't helpful onthat, either. By fighting my wayabout—True BASIC uses function keys,but Control-C and the other thingsnormal BASIC users are accustomedto do not do anything like what youexpect—I managed finally to get somefamiliarity with the command system.For example, there is a way to getback to the command window: it's F2,the "history-window" key. The manualcalls it a command window, but whatthe hell.

{continued)

366 BYTE • SEFTEMBER 1Q85

Inquiry 96

IT'S NICE TO HAVEA WORKAHOLICPERSONALITYAROUND THE OFFICE.

shrss-'Sg^aar' "J

tx^"^

~^^^^^B

^ >

HIGH

PERFORMANCE

Ivelax.

When you need hard copy,leave the hard work to your officeworkaholic—a Datasouth printer.There's a high performance worka-holic Datasouth for every hardcopy job around your office.

Move mountains of wordsand data with a never-say-dieDS 180or a DS 220.Type outcorrespondence with a speedyDaisyWheel 36. Or get an all-purpose Personal Printer to workovertime next to your desktop PC.

And get personal supportdirect from Datasouth, toll-free.

Set up an interview with ahigh performance workaholictoday. Call for the name of yournearest Datasouth distributor.

ffl!/WII!IIIMIIIHI!!tlilU!imTi

AVAILABLE NATIONWIDETHROUGH OUR NETWORK OFSALES AND SERVICE DISTRIBUTORS

Datasouth Computer CorporationBox 240947 • Charlotte, NC 28224704/523'8500-Tlx 6843018 DASOU UW

south

PRINTERS

CALL TOLL FREE:

1-800-222-4528

Ext. 504

Inquiry I08

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 367

CHAOS MANOR

Once I sort of figured out how touse the editor—most of the com-mands aren't particularly intuitive—Iedited my little program to have noline numbers at all. Press F9. which isRUN. It didn't run. of course. I got theerror message "Ending doesn't matchbeginning.' After a moment's thought.1 made 30 (well, the statement that

used to be 30) read NEXT I. That ran.Then I tried inserting some REMARKstatements. They stopped the pro-gram. Try HELP. Couldn't help withthat. Found out that True BASIC wantsREM as the REMARK command. In-cidentally. True BASIC doesn't recog-nize "?" as a synonym for PRINT.Anyway, I edited my REMARK to a

/'/ ////^

J1cunajJ1o/rw *=2 U-1

mLWb

Social Imitations tLltiptlttSlS

L

0

u^X, Fancy Font tg Clea n /,«^w^SlIPlJIE

Dot Matrix Made Beautiful

All the type in this ad was printed on an inexpensive dot matrixprinter with Fancy Font, the program that works with almost any wordprocessor to produce high resolution, proportionally spaced, letterquality printing.

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

Fonts, including Roman, Sans Serif, Bold, Italic, tfcmtd, (91o£nnltsband more, from 8 to 24 points come standard with Fancy Font.FLEXIBLE. Fancy Font comes with a complete set of over 1500mathematical, foreign language and other special symbols.

Hundreds of additional fonts in sizes from 6 to 72 points areavailable, at a nominal additional charge, from our growing font library.

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You get near typeset quality at a small fraction of the time and costof using art or typesetting services.

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REM statement. Tried running theprogram. This stopped at the ENDstatement with the message "Endingdoesn't match beginning." No amountof spelunking in the indexes of thetwo manuals produced informationuseful in fixing the problem. Eventual-ly I had to go to command level, typeNEW, and begin all over again.

In other words, it doesn't matterwhether or not you're familiar withBASIC on microcomputer systems; ifyou want to use True BASIC, you'llhave to read, systematically, through theentire terminally chatty manual. Don'tskip. Some important points areburied in casual paragraphs. Eventhen you won't discover everything,and some things it tells you aren'ttrue. I never did find an explanationof why my END statement to a sim-ple program produced "Endingdoesn't match beginning."

I may have a broken version, but Idon't think I do; once I figure out thesyntax, the programs seem to run allright (except for line numbers, whichI can't get it to accept at all). Brokenor not, the editing features don't allwork. The manual says that Backspaceat a line marker will delete the line,but, in fact, 1 have found absolutelyno way to delete lines. (I can deleteall the text in a line with either Escape,to delete from cursor to line start, orControl-End, to delete from cursor toend of line; but the blank line markerremains no matter what I do. Goofy.)The manual says that the Delete keyworks. Mine doesn't, on either an IBMPC or a Zenith Z-160. The index is offby a page or so on most topics, too.You don't expect that sort of error inan Addison-Wesley publication.

True BASIC has about as dumb alicensing agreement as I've ever seen.The Addison-Wesley lawyers couldn'tfigure out whether they wanted toprotect their product—product is apretty apt name for this thing—bycopyright law, contract law, or tradesecret law; so they tried for all three.The resulting schizophrenia would behilarious if they weren't so seriousabout it.

If you get True BASIC be warned:

[continued]

<OH

BVTt • SEP! EMBER 1985

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 369

ipatible

rBuilding your own A'iis as easy as it looks.

Now, it's easy to have the IBM AT that you want bybuilding your own from ADTEK's SERIES 286AT" com-patible, board level kit. Choose from a complete kit(chassis, motherboard, cables, disk controller, keyboardand enhancement boards) and add your own moni-tor and disk drives. Or buy just the parts you need foryour project. Either way, all series 286AT products arehardware and software AT compatible.

But you won't be on your own. The ADTEK SERIES286AT comes with illustrated, step by step instructionsthat even a beginner can follow. (Some basic knowledge of electronics will be helpful.) With just a fewsimple household tools you can put your new compu-ter together in a Saturday afternoon. And you'll feelconfident about your SERIES 286AT because everyADTEK product is protected by a full, one year factorywarranty.

And amazingly frugal.

If you're ready for AT power and speed,but don't want to pay IBM's premiumprice, rest easy. A complete ADTEKSERIES 286AT kit is priced significantlyless than a comparably assembled IBMAT. That's engineering excellence at areal bargain! Call or write today for adetailed brochure and price liston the SERIES 286AT and other fineADTEK products.

«*£&

)mpatible keyboard. LED on, num and scroll lock keys.

80286

dard m„,..

Clock upgradable to 8MHz

Fully AT compatible chaoptional lock Mounts stafloppy and fixed disk drives.

Video display and printer ada

boards are fully interfaced wit

S 286AT system.

; a registered trademark of I

national Business Machines Corporation and SERIES 286AT is a registered trademark of ADTEK Corporation

CHAOS MANOR

in the unlikely event that you'd wantto. you are not allowed to "reverseengineer, decompile, or disassemblethe Software."

These are minor nits. The real ques-tion is: why do we need True BASICat all?

True BASIC doesn't seem to do any-thing regular BASIC doesn't do, andwhat it does do isn't attacked in alogical or intuitive manner. Escape todelete to end of line? REM but neverREMARK? And the most annoyingmisfeature of all: True BASIC pro-duces no output at all if it encountersan error! If, for instance, you don'thave an END statement, when you tryto run the program. True BASIC thinksto itself for a while, produces no out-put at all, and finally the cursor ap-pears at the end of the program withthe message "No END statement." Ifyou have syntax errors, the samething happens. No output. Only errormessages. No more hacking throughby inserting print statements as diag-nostics. True BASIC compiles to an in-termediate code, similar to the public-domain EBASIC and the earliest ver-sions of CBASIC. It then interprets theintermediate code line by line. Theresult is that it's not as fast as trulycompiled code, yet you don't have theconvenience of line-by-line interpreta-tion when writing code.

There are vast differences betweenTrue BASIC and what we microcom-puter people have learned. They'resupposed to be features. After all.True BASIC conforms to the standardsset by the American National Stan-dards Institute (ANSI), and indeed theAddison-Wesley press release pro-claims rather proudly that True BASICis the only microcomputer BASIC to be"true" to the ANSI standard. Why astandards institute would set stan-dards so at variance with the versionsof BASIC that microcomputer peoplereally use is not known to me. I don'teven know whom ANSI consults whenthey decide to set "standards." Theysure didn't talk to anyone I know.Maybe they spent all their time withmini and mainframe people.

What I do know is that MicrosoftBASIC is the microcomputer user's

standard BASIC. If it hadn't been forBill Gates and his early BASIC, thereprobably wouldn't have been a micro-computer user movement. Microcom-puters might have been captured bythe academicians and high priests,and we'd have no choice but to livewith their "standards": but that didn'thappen. Microsoft BASIC andBASCOM are a powerful package. Al-ternatively, there's compiled CBASIC.Why learn yet another?

True BASIC has a few interesting fea-tures. There are MAT (matrix) opera-tions: but since they're limited to add,subtract, and multiply, you'll have towrite matrix-manipulation proceduresbefore you can do any serious workwith matrices. If you must write themore complex ones, it's no work towrite the simple ones that come withTrue BASIC Still. True BASIC doeshave MAT commands. Also, thegraphics capabilities are good (or at

least the manual says they are: I gottired of fighting with True BASIC'S"features" after a couple of hours).According to the press release, thereal attraction of True BASIC is itsability to do structured code. Thereare special features for this. All verywell, but I don't see any control com-mands in True BASIC that we don'thave in extended BASIC for micro-computers. In the old days of littlemachines with small memories, oftenwithout disk drives, there was a flurryof tiny BASICS and small, limited in-terpreters. There had to be: our earlymachines wouldn't run anythinglarger. Those were days when dialectsof BASIC multiplied, and BASIC pro-grams weren't transportable Now,though, it's rare to find a BASIC thatisn't an extended, disk version. BASICprograms aren't totally portable, butI've found that conversion is general-

{continued}

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■*— Inquiry 9

Inquiry 252

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 371

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CHAOS MANOR

ly pretty simple. As an example, ittook me less than an afternoon totranslate lay Forrester's WorldDynamics model into MicrosoftBASIC.

The fact is that all modern micro-computer BASICS have IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE. WHILE, multilinefunctions, declarations, and a form ofCASE statement. My mad friend usedto hate BASIC because it made top-down code structures impossible; butbefore he died, even MacLean ad-mitted that modern microcomputerBASICs were plenty good enough. Hemuttered that Microsoft had ex-tended the language to the point thatit wasn't really BASIC any longer; buthe quit complaining about commandstructure.

True BASIC offers little that we don'talready have (except matrix opera-tions], but it does do things different-ly from the way microcomputer peo-ple have learned them. For example:there's a method for making variablestruly local, which is no bad thing. TrueBASIC'S method is similar to themethod used by CBAS1C—but with animportant difference. In True BASIC.in order to have true local variablesyou must define your functions outsidethe program, after the program ENDstatement. (Like CBASIC True BASIChas no procedures, but functions cando just about everything a Pascal pro-cedure can do.) 1 fail to see how thisis superior to the CBASIC method: inCBASIC, variables declared inside afunction definition are local to thefunction, and those declared outsideit (or not declared at all) are global;what could be simpler? I suppose it'sa matter of preference, but I prefer myfunctions to be inside my program:and if I'm going to use a compiledBASIC, I want one that compiles tonative code, not to some intermediatecode that it then interprets. It's prob-ably all prejudice on my part.

BASIC was written 20 years ago bylohn Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz, theauthors of True BASIC. Surely theyought to know what BASIC shouldlook like? Moreover, Dr. Thomas Kurtzchairs the Dartmouth Graduate Pro-gram in Computer and Information

Sciences and heads the ANSI commit-tee on standards for BASIC. Perhapsthat tells us something about themotivation of the standards commit-tee? In any event, we can see what itschairman thought.

In the introduction to True BASIC,Kemeny and Kurtz say. Today's per-sonal computers are large and power-ful machines that allow the implemen-tation of a full modern BASIC. Yet theversions most widely used are whatare called in the trade 'Street BASIC—a horrible dialect of a beautiful lan-guage. And since the authors of theselanguages violated the fundamentaldesign principles of BASIC, StreetBASIC is heavily dependent on thehardware being used. The sameBASIC program will not run on dif-ferent personal computers; indeed, ittypically does not run on two differentmodels from the same manufacturer.

"The time has come to replace the

obsolete and often ugly implementa-tion of BASIC with a well-designed,modern version.'

In other words, little microcomputeruser, you're terribly sick and don'teven know it. Don't worry, though.The high priests are coming to saveyou.

It's funny that so few of us micro-computer users understand howbadly we need help or how ugly ourBASIC has become. Now we have TheWord. Kemeny and Kurtz have calledfor "a rebirth known as True BASIC

Perhaps they'll get it. Me, I think I'llpass up the opportunity to becomea born-again True BASIC believer. 1enjoy my Microsoft and CBASICheresies.

Gato!

Years ago as a graduate student 1worked on a U.S. Navy research proj-

icontinued)

JL

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SEFTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 373

peripheral issues.

All too often, brand-name CPUs are "bundled"with mediocre peripherals—a practice that makesfor profitable sales, but does nothing for thesystem's performance.

In Japan, where most computer peripherals areactually built, NEC is the largest personal computercompany— by far. And NEC didn't make it to firstplace by offering second rate peripherals.

The monitors withthe broadcast video heritage.

While dozens of companies market displaymonitors, only a handful possess the tubetechnology and manufacturing capability to actuallybuild them. NEC is one of the few. In fact, NEC'scomplete line of color and monochrome monitorsreflects the professional and broadcast video

expertise that twice earned NEC Emmy Awardsfrom the National Academy of Television Arts &Sciences.

Winning the printer racetakes both speed and endurance.

Ask people who really know about printers, andthey'll tell you that NEC builds the best. They mayalso point out that NEC builds printers for othercomputer companies. And if you ask them tochoose one word to sum up what makes NECprinters stand out, it will probably be "reliable." Thisis why NEC has become the printer of choice for themost demanding installations.

So before you buy a peripheral from any namecompany, make sure the company puts more intothe peripheral than just its name.

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NEC Corporation, Tokyo,

CHAOS MANOR

ect at the University of Washington.The principal investigator was Dr. PaulHorst, but our immediate superiorwas Dr. August Dvorak, professor ofsociology, inventor of the Dvorak key-board, and uncle of the columnistJohn Dvorak. Dr. Dvorak was a NavalReserve captain and had been skip-per of a Gato-class submarine inWorld War II.

I'd read Run Silent. Run Deep (andseen the movie), of course, but other-wise I knew nothing of submarines.When Dr. Dvorak was in a chattymood, he tended to talk about hiskeyboard rather than telling warstories; but once in a while he'd spina yarn. Submarine duty was pretty ex-citing in those days. I suppose it takesa special kind of sailor to go to seain a ship designed to sink . . .

Anyway, that explains why 1 was in-terested when I saw a game simula-tion of World War II Gato-class sub-marine warfare.

My first reaction to Gato wasdismay. When you start the game,things happen fast. "I'm a Star FleetAdmiral. I don't know anything aboutthis wet Navy stuff," I protested, butit didn't do me any good. The enemycontinued to move, and my ship wasjust sitting there. The enemy shipswere moving fast.

Like many games of this type, Gatois a combination strategic and arcadegame. You have to think up what todo while you're doing something else.This kind of game gives me mixedemotions. Compressing a four-hourbattle into five minutes certainly putsyou under considerable pressure, butit isn't very realistic. On the otherhand, true realism would be boring:you don't want to spend hours on asingle attack. I do wish 1 could slowthe game down a bit. Even at thebeginner level the action is a bit fast.You can stop the game for a while toplan things out, but if you do, youcan't see any of the displays; as soonas you look at the chart, or your ownspeed and heading, or anything else,things start moving again. You getused to the command structure aftera few plays, but it's still pretty hectic.

Don't get me wrong, though. I like

the game. 1 must. I've certainly wastedenough time with it. The PC versionis in color. The Macintosh version ismore fun. Maybe I'm getting used tothe Mac? Recommended.

Spring COMDEX

Spring COMDEX in Atlanta this yearwas a mixed bag. I didn't find muchto write about, but I did see a numberof items that look pretty good. I useCOMDEX as an opportunity to meetpeople, see interesting items, andlook for things to review later.

One long-awaited item was a big dis-play of new Atari computers. Theylook pretty good for the price, butAtari isn't shipping them yet. and Ilong ago gave up being much im-pressed by items on a showroombench. Also it's difficult to see howthere's going to be much software forthem, since Atari was charging prettystiff prices for early development-sys-

tem copies of the machine. I'd havethought Atari would want to get a lotof those machines out in the handsof the hackers, but Atari's policy madeventure capitalists out of the softwaredevelopers.

Another hot item was the Zenith Ad-vanced PC, an 80286-based IBM PCAT clone. (Alex promptly dubbed itthe ZAT a name that I suspect willstick despite all effort on Zenith'spart.) I think I'm going to like the ZAT.I've been impressed with other Zenithequipment. We'll see when I get onehere. By the time it comes, I ought tohave the construction people out ofmy hair.

Read That Manuscript

One of the more interesting items atCOMDEX was the Omni-Reader byOberon. This is a gizmo into whichyou can insert a page of typescript,

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 375

The fastest micro in the world

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Its awesome fire power isprovided by the superb Motorola68000 charging along at 12MHZwith no wait states (giving about3MIPS).

And Pinnacle's ammo belt is justbristling with high powered optionsto give rapid fire to all seven users.

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Inquiry 295

CHAOS MANOR

then by drawing a mouse-like gadgetacross the paper line by line, get thetext into machine-readable form. Iwrote several books back beforeEzekial. my friend who happened tobe my first Z80. came into my life. Itwould be nice to get those booksonto disk so they could be painlesslyrevised. The Omni-Reader looked likea godsend.

Alas, it's not quite that simple. TheOmni-Reader accepts only certaintypefaces. Fortunately, 12-pitch LetterGothic from a Selectric is one of them,since that's what I wrote all my earlybooks in. (I didn't then realize that it'sbetter to use 10-pitch and save youreditor's eyes than 12-pitch and savepaper. Live and learn.) However, theOmni-Reader is a bit tricky. You haveto move the reader across each lineat a fairly constant speed: wait; tryagain if you went too fast; and ingeneral deal with the text line by line.After a while it gets easier, becauseyou get a feel for how fast to drag thereader and thus don't make as manymistakes.

After that it's faster than retyping.Not a lot faster, but enough so that itwould probably be worth using to getmy early books into machine-readableform—except that any editorialchanges made in manuscript, and allrewrite in galley, would have to beentered by hand anyway. The Omni-Reader can't read the finished bookbecause typesetters deliberately varythe spacing between characters, andthis bothers the heck out of the Omni-Reader. By the time I've compared thetypescript to the printed material, I'veused up the time the Omni-Readersaved. Simpler to hire someone totype directly from the printed matter.

The result is that it's hard to seewhat to use the Omni-Reader for. Onepossibility would be in an office thathas both typewriters and computers;letters written on a typewriter couldlater be read into the machine. I dowonder, though, if it wouldn't be bet-ter to write the letters on a computerto begin with. On the other hand, ifyou want to put letters that you'vereceived from someone else intomachine-readable form, Omni-Reader

would save you considerable time.

There are versions of Omni-Readerfor both Macintosh and PClones. Themachine reads manuscripts written inCourier 10 and 12; Letter Gothic; andPrestige Elite. Oberon promises addi-tional font selections on disk in thenear future.

It's a neat gadget. I'm very fond of

the concept. It's well made. It's justthat it's not that much faster than re-typing, and after the novelty wearsoff—say, after about five pages—notmuch more fun. The Omni-Readerworks as advertised, and Oberon hasbeen very careful not to make un-justified claims for it. It's a pity that

[continued]

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SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 377

CHAOS MANOR

someone hasn't developed an easyway to scan books. Oh. well.

have a need for an optical en-

der that reads typescript line by

then this one certainly does the

Winding Down

I suppose one game of the month isGato (although the boys continue to

rise through the ranks in Cygnus's StarFleet 1). The other game of the monthisn t really a game. That is. Blue ChipSoftware, makers of the neat stock-market game Tycoon, have a financial-planning simulation called Squire thatcan teach some valuable lessonsabout retirement funds, tax sheltersand the like The version I have is forMS-DOS: I expect there is, or shortly

Items Discussed

By Fire and Sword

S25

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Incunabula

S30

in Hill Company

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4 517 Harford Rd

1408) 438-8400

Baltimore. MD 21214

|30l) 254-5300

Squire

$49 95

Blue Chip Software

Excel lincludes Apples

6740 Eton Ave.

\ her|

S395

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1818) 346-0730

10700 Northup Way

POB 97200

; WA 98009

Star Fleet 1

$49 95

Cygnus

1800] 426-9400

POB 5782 5Webster, TX 77598

Gato Price

unavailable

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True BASIC

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will be. a Macintosh version as well.If you don't have a feel for compoundinterest and the effects of taxation onwealth accumulation, you owe it toyourself to get this one.

Two other interesting games for theIBM PC are Incunabula and By Fireand Sword, both from Avalon Hill.Both can be fun played solitaire butare really better if there are multipleplayers. Incunabula starts with clans-men struggling to build a civilizationwhile avoiding destruction at thehands of nomads and raiders. Ac-cumulate enough wealth and you caninvest in various arcana such as ar-chitecture, mathematics, or music. ByFire and Sword is a game of medievalcombined-arms armies, diplomacy,and treachery. Both of them snaffledoff more of my time than I couldafford.

The books of the month are StockSelection: Buying and Selling Stocks Usingthe IBM PC by leremy C. lenks andRobert W. lenks (Wiley. 1984. SI 7.95.$67.90 with programs) and The SeriousAssembler by Charles M. Crayne andDian Girard (Baen Books. 1985). Fairwarning: the latter book is a PournelleUsers Guide. It's also the bestintermediate-level book on IBM PCassembly-language programming I'vecome across If you're seriouslythinking of doing such programming,look at this one. It has useful pro-grams as examples. The lenks bookhas a revealing discussion of the realworld of Wall Street, as well as com-mon sense on using computers andsome good practical programs. Fairwarning: if you buy the lenks bookand end up losing your shirt, it's notmy fault.

With any luck, next month's columncomes from my new office. I candream, can't I? ■

\ernj Pournelle welcomes readers com-ments and opinions. Send a self-addressed,stamped envelope to terry Pournelle. cioBYTE Publications. POB 372. Hancock.NH 03449. Please put your address onthe letter as well as on the envelope. Dueto the high volume of letters, terry cannotguarantee a personal reply.

378 B YTE • SEPTEMBER \Wi

Kimtron

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Inquiry 207

1705 Junction Court

Building #160

San Jose, CA 95112

Kimtron

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 379

Announcing 4 New Collector Edition

T

The ■» Byte covers shown below are the newest additions to the Collector EditionByte Cover series. Each full color print is 11" x 14". including a 1 1 '2" border, and ispart of an edition strictly limited to S00 prints. Each print is a faithful reproductionof the original Byte painting, printed on museum quality acid free paper, and ispersonally inspected, signed and numbered by the artist, Robert Tinney, ACertificate of Authenticity accompanies each print

Collector Edition Prints are carefully packaged flat to avoid bending, and areshipped first class within one week of receipt of order The price of each print is $30.All 4 prints are available as a set (Set 21-24) for only $100.

Other Collector Edition Bvte Covers are also available from Robert TinnevGraphics. For a color brochure, or to order one or more of the prints shown, pleasecheck the appropriate box in the coupon below.

#21

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Inquiry 421

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 381

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

Editor's note: Due to space limitations, we areable to publish only a sampling of the greatamount of mail \erru receives each month.

Will You Still Love It Whenthe Commodore is 64?

Dear Jerry,

I've been reading your column forseveral years. I'll agree wholeheartedlythat anybody who writes every day needsa computer.

What I do question are your commentsabout "toy" computers. For what it'sworth. I put out a 64-page quarterlymagazine, a number of freelance articlesa year, speeches, special pamphlets, andthe equivalent of an average paperbackbook in other publications a year on aCommodore 64.

In fact, circulation, mailing lists, billing,payroll, bookkeeping, and a tournamentrecord of about 500 competitors in 3 5events is kept on the 64,

I've got a S50 word processor that keepsup with my writing gusts and has more for-matting potential than most "professional''programs and can even be used with 80-coiumn software, (I'd love faster diskspeed, but what's 5 extra minutes a daywaiting for a disk compared to tripling theprice of the hardware and quadrupling thecost of software^)

What's more, we have three workstations|C-64s) with disk drives, two printers andinterchangeable software and files. Any-time machines are run 8 to 10 hours a daythey may go clown—so we have backupson line all the time. I can replace any com-ponent other than printers for less thanS250

Mouse technology? Icons? 80-columnhardware and superfast disks0 I'd love itBui I seriously question that it would bea significant enough increase in produc-tivity to be as worthwhile as a printerbuffer or two.

Yes I think also that we're probablyusing the little Commodores to nearpotential. But until dollars justify chang-ing and until Apples or Oranges or BigBlues can offer a better per-dollar value,we'll stick with what we have.

Milo Dai leyMemphis. 77V

I guess I both agree and disagree. It ispossible to do productive work withprimitive equipment, and indeed theworst computer system is likely to be bet-ter than the best nonelectronic type-writer. On the other hand, ballpoint pensare preferable to quill pens.

I can live without icons, but surely youdo not mean that a writer will not bemore productive when enduring less eye-strain? Or that writing time is lessvaluable than time spent waiting for diskaccess?

A penny saved is a penny earned: butthose who save pennies seldom becomewealthy. I'll bet you a fair amount that afew thousand spent on updating yourequipment will make those three work-stations as productive as six would beusing what you have.

Stay we//.—|erry

Transferring Files

Dear lerry.

In reference to Mark E. Cornell's letterregarding use of the SAVE command totransfer files from the NEC PC-8201AI NEC PC-820IA." February, page 359), Iroutinely use this command to transferfiles from my NEC to an S-100 system run-ning ASCOM The form is SAVECOM:abcdef where a is the data-trans-mission rate b is the parity etc Thismethod of transferring a BASIC programcan save many minutes over the alter-native of using Telcom

The only trouble I have encountered wasin transferring from the S-100 to the NECat 19 2 kbps. In this case. I lose an occa-sional byte, even with XON/XOFF protocol.

I'm not sure what the source of the prob-lem is for Mr. Cornell's application.Perhaps it is the form of the SAVE com-mand that he used I am not familiar withthe one he gives in his letter. If the formI have given above still does not resolvethe problem. I suggest that he check hiscable grounds (pins 1 and 7| and makesure XON/XOFF protocol is activated onboth the NEC and the Kaypro.

Incidentally. I give you an "F" on thisone, lerry—you didn't do your homework.The use of SAVE is documented in theNEC manual under SAVE and OPEN Mr.

Cornell's letter deserved a few minutes ofyour time to consult the manual and sug-gest some alternatives a bit more mean-ingful than your response of "Alas. I thinkyou have no choice but to save your pro-grams in ASCII and use Telcom."

Cort CooperPonca City. OK

Guilty as charged, but with an explana-tion: as I said. I don t use Percy, our NECPC-820IA. except for writing while ontrips: so I've not had reason to investigatesome of his other capabilities.

Thanks.—lerry

Keyboards

Dear lerry.

In reading your columns, which I enjoygreatly, 1 get the impression that you arenot altogether satisfied with the IBM key-board but that you are reluctant to switchto the Key Tronic 5151, despite its superiorlayout, because you dislike the light feel.

My 5151 was shipped with 1.5-ouncesprings in the keys, although I have beentold by the manufacturer that they havesince switched to 2-ounce springs. In anyevent, it was a simple matter to removethe light springs and install a new set of3-ounce springs supplied by the manufac-turer, along with a tool for removing them.

As a result, the 5151 has an altogetherdifferent feel, much more like the IBM. Asa professional writer. I can attest that thechange has given me the best of bothworlds.

Andrew J. GlassWashington. DC

I'm glad to hear that Key Tronic hasmade some improvements. It turns outthat I wasnt the only one who found thatthe original 5151 had a "dead ' feeling.

Alas, for the moment the Wico Smart-line Smartboard keyboard has made thequestion moot Beyond the Wico is a newkeyboard under development by TexasInstruments: if the production model isanywhere near as good as the prototypeI've seen, nothing will be able to touchit. Of course, Key Tronic isn t going to sitstill either.

Best— lerry ■

382 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

"Without question [NFL Challenge]is the finest computer game I've everseen—but then I like football."John C. Dvorak San Francisc

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4

Put the NFL at your fingertips.

Hands-on pro football excitement is asclose as your keyboard with NFL Chal-lenge from Xor. This is the officiallylicensed NFL action computer game withoffensive plays and defensive sets basedon the ones in NFL playbooks, plus com-plete updatable rosters for all 28 NFLteams. All impressively packaged.

Every game can be the Super Bowlwhen you take the field with Xor NFLChallenge software. Feel the pressure asyou choose starting lineups, drive down-field against the clock, and go head-to-

head, down-by-down against theleague's most innovative offenses andformidable defenses. It's the mostintense computer simulation of the profootball experience ever devised.

Xor's NFL Challenge requires IBM"PC or PC/XT with DOS 2.0, 256K bytesof memory, monochrome monitor withIBM" monochrome card or RGB colormonitor with IBM* color graphicsadapter. Also runs on the IBM® PC/AT.

With NFL Challenge from Xor, youhave 50-yard line seats for every game!

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business MachinesNFL Challenge is a trademark of NFL Properties, Inc.■) 1985. All rights reserved.

Ordering Information

NFL Challenge will be in short supply.To kick off your NFL season, send us$99.95, or if you're in a hurry-up offense,order by major credit card:

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Inquiry 397

The ARC turbo

personal computer combines 8088-2turbo speed and 640K memory to take youfurther, faster....

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with 640K on-board memory you get high speed and maximum memory on one board.>• More CPU speed means you can reduce the valuable time you now waste waiting for your PC to record, retrieve and process data.>■ The 640K on-board memory makes it easier to design your own customized testing programs and eliminates all those time-consuming memory/diskette data transfers. Any excess memory can be used for RAMdisk or spool programs.>• The X-turbo was designed to be used in conjunction with all PC compatible software, which means access to nearly all the

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Inquiry 17 for End-Users. Inquiry 18 for DEALERS ONLY.

BYTE U.K.

Seventh Anniversary ofMicrocomputing

A brief

history

of U.K.

computing

and a look

at the Husky

Hunter

by Dick Pountain

Dick Pountain is a technical author

and software consultant living in

London England. He can be

contacted do BYTE. POB 372.

Hancock. NH 03449

This being the 10th anniversary issueof BYTE. I have been asked to offera condensed history of personalcomputing in Britain.

I became involved with computers in 1977when a friend, who was a mathematicsteacher, told me that he'd just seen ademonstration of a "personal computer''(the Commodore PET) that fit on the topof a desk. I recall asking him "Why wouldanyone want a computer?'' The answerbecame obvious to me a short while laterwhen I purchased a programmable calcu-lator (a Casio fx-201p) to help with print-costing computations. Within weeks I wasaddicted to programming, on a device with127 bytes of memory and no editing facili-ties. I even wrote games for it.

Personal computing started in the UKabout three years behind the U.S.. so. strictlyspeaking, we can celebrate only our seventhanniversary. U.S. personal computers beganto arrive in Britain in 1977, but those firstmachines (Altair. South West Technical Pro-ducts, and Sol) were just too expensive tocreate a hobbyist following.

In 1978 the PET. the Apple II. the TRS-80Model 1, and the Exidy Sorcerer arrived,but at £500 and upward, they were still tooexpensive for the average hobbyist. Theirentry prices had profound significance,though. At over £1000 the Apple II was soexpensive that the cheaper, all-in-one PETbecame the dominant machine in Britain.Germany, and Scandinavia, keeping Com-modore comfortably afloat during thoselean years when Apple was cleaning up inthe U.S.

The real pioneers of personal computingin the U.K. needed something muchcheaper The U.K. computer industry wasborn in the form of kit computers, such asthe Nascom I. the Science of CambridgeMk 14, and later the UK101, which sold for£200 and under. They were single-boards,with typically 2K to 4K bytes of RAM(random-access read/write memory), ahexadecimal keypad (the Nascom's ASCII

|American Standard Code for InformationInterchange! keyboard was quite a luxury),and a machine-code monitor in ROM (read-only memory). Having built the kit, you thenhad to write the system software—startingwith an assembler if you were feeling lazy.

To service those intrepid hackers, the firstU.K. personal computing magazine, PersonalComputer World, was published in 1978.

The first packaged U.K. home computers,the Acorn Atom and the Sinclair ZX80,arrived in 1980. Both were offered in kit orprebuilt form, had BASIC in ROM, and intro-duced a second generation of slightly lesscrazed hackers to computing.

The Atom was a 6502-based machinewith 2K bytes of memory, expandable to12K bytes, and monochrome output to atelevision set including "high-resolutiongraphics. It grew out of a system of single-board modular computers that hadlaunched Acorn into the industrial-controller market the previous year. TheAtom's success put Acorn on the road tothe BBC Micro.

Sinclair Research and its founder. CliveSinclair (now Sir Clive Sinclair), were alreadyknown for dramatic interventions in the low-cost consumer-electronics market. Earlierproducts had included a £2 5 programmablecalculator (when everyone else chargedover £100). the infamous Black Watchdigital-watch kits, and a range of miniaturehi-fi equipment produced 15 years beforethe Japanese got there.

To the ZX80 fell the honor of breaking themagic £100 price barrier. This tiny sliver ofwhite plastic contained a Z80 with IK byteof RAM, integer BASIC, and television andcassette interfaces, and it hinted at the eraof mass-market computers. A year later itwas replaced by the ZX81 with floating-point BASIC and an astonishing price of just£70. or £50 if you wanted to solder ityourself. Inside the ZX8I were just 4 chipscompared to 21 in the ZX80; the uncom-mitted logic array had arrived in the home.

[continued]

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 385

BYTE U.K.

This machine isdesigned to keep alldata and programs innonvolatile CMOSRAM and to downloadto a desk computerback at "base camp!'

Another year later Sinclair followedup with the 48K-byte color Spectrumat £12 5 and proceeded to multimil-lionairedom The Spectrum (marketedfor a while in the U.S. as the TimexSinclair 2000) still dominates thegames-playing home market in theU.K.. with hundreds of thousands ofsales. Only recently has the Com-modore 64 come close to challengingit in sales and volume of software.

Meanwhile Acorn produced theBBC Micro to the BBC's (British Broad-casting Company's] specifications fora computer that could be used in con-junction with an educational televi-sion series. (The competition for thatBBC contract had been bitter.) TheBBC Micro, with its fast 2-MHz 6502and fine color graphics, quicklybecame established as a favoriteschool and college computer. Despiteits high price, it also became themachine that serious hobbyistsaspired to, filling the slot left open byApple's relative marketing failure inthe U.K.

Unfortunately, Acorn rode that basicdesign too long. Announced en-hancements were continually delayed,resulting in Acorn's near collapse andrescue in March of this year byOlivetti.

Another prominent U.K. manufac-turer, ACT. started by selling PET soft-ware and importing the CompuThinkMinimax CP/M machine. ACT thentook the wind out of IBM's Europeansales by importing Chuck Peddle'sVictor 9000 as the ACT Sirius. and

now manufactures and markets theApricot range of microcomputers withconsiderable success.

The threatened lapanese invasionnever quite happened in the U.K.,though Sharp made some impacthere in the early 1980s with its PETcompetitor, the MZ-80K. I did all myserious learning on a Sharp MZ-80Brunning CP/M 2.2; after all thosequirky home computers with theirproprietary operating systems (oftenincompatible between versions), itwas a real liberation. Suddenly com-pilers for all the interesting languages(except Smalltalk) were within reach.

It seems only right to pay tribute tosome of those who fell by thewayside. Quite a few interesting andsome downright cranky machineshave come and gone in our sevenyears of personal computing. Therewas the Newbrain, half the size of anNEC lap-held computer, with its built-in display and battery pack that neverquite arrived. With a very advancedspecification for its time (Z80, in-definitely expandable RAM and ROM,graphics), it was to be the BBC Micrountil production difficulties decreedotherwise.

Then there was the lupiter Ace. atiny ZX80 look-alike with a rubberkeyboard and FORTH instead ofBASIC in ROM. The fact that FORTHis not a beginner's language killed it,though it still has its fans andbankrupt stock still surfaces occa-sionally for about £30.

There was the Dragon 32 with itsestimable 6809 processor and anupgrade path to the OS-9 operatingsystem. It was the best value for themoney for six months in 1982. Whatabout the Oric. whose very name wasan invitation to prepare the headlineAlas, poor Oric . . ."? It became themost popular home microcomputerin France. And there was the Lynxremembered chiefly as the first com-puter whose BASIC had floating-pointline numbers.

Indestructible Computing

This condensed history of U.K. per-sonal computing leads me rathernicely into my next topic. It is prob-

ably not well known that the first lap-held computer was made—and is in-deed still made—in the U.K.

The reason that the machine, theHusky from Husky Computers Ltd., isnot more widely known is that it's notaimed at the mass market. It is a rug-gedized computer intended for militaryor outdoor scientific and engineeringuses. It made quite an impression(literally) when Husky's representativehurled a Husky Hunter onto my floorto demonstrate its tolerance of abuse;I doubt that a Tandy or an NEC wouldappreciate such treatment.

The first Husky was manufacturedin 1981 and captured some attentionby virtue of the press photos of it be-ing run over by an Army truck. Sincethen the design has been refined anddiversified, though the basic elementsremain the same. It is available in theU.S. from Sarasota Automation Inc.(1500 North Washington Blvd..Sarasota, FL 33 577).

The Husky is driven by a CMOS(complementary metal-oxide semi-conductor) Z80-compatible chip, theNational Semiconductor C800,clocked at 4 MHz, and uses the CP/Moperating system.

Husky's designer made a very im-portant decision right from the begin-ning. For use in rough or hazardousenvironments, no mechanical mass-storage device is sufficiently robust orreliable. This machine is designed tokeep all data and programs in non-volatile CMOS RAM and to downloadto a desk computer back at "basecamp" using a built-in serial link.

This decision required the provisionof plenty of RAM; from the first, theHuskies had a paged-memory systemof 144K bytes. In 1981 memory wasconsiderably more expensive than itis now, and this guaranteed a high unitcost of over £1000.

Users who needed a machine of theHusky's ruggedized quality were notdeterred by the price, and the ordersrolled in from day one. Users includeregional water authorities (for on-sitereservoir-volume calculations), theGreater London Council (for welfare-benefit calculations), various airlines.

[continued]

386 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

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 Technn/qgy. 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

Tdki

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dealer yourself by calling toll free:(800) 255-3999, or writeCenTech, 185 Cottage Avenue,Sandy, Utah 84070.Telex: 499-6093

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© 1985 Cenna Technology, Inc.

Inquiry 57

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 387

BYTE U.K.

the British Army, and a Canadian log-ging company that uses them forcounting and cataloging trees.

Husky Hunter

The latest model, which I borrowedfor this article, is called the HuskyHunter (see photo 1|.

The first feature you notice is itssize: it's almost exactly half the sizeof a conventional A4-size lap-heldmicrocomputer. This small formatprecludes the use of a full-size type-writer keyboard, so the Hunter is nota machine for portable word process-ing. Instead it has a calculator-stylebutton keyboard, with an undersize.noncentral space bar.

The second thing you notice is itsconstruction. Like all Huskies, theHunter has a cast light-alloy casing ofa thickness that would not be out ofplace in a hand grenade: the com-puter, nevertheless, weighs only 1.2kilograms and can be easily held inone hand. The removable bottom of

the case is secured by 12 recessedAllen bolts and sealed with a rubbergasket, which makes the whole thingwatertight.

While Husky does not recommendthat you use the Hunter underwater,it will certainly stand up to being acci-dentally dropped into a tropical tor-rent. Another feature is an internalhumidity indicator in the corner of thedisplay. This warns you if moistureenters the case, which is normallykept dry by silica gel.

The battery compartment holdsfour AA penlight batteries (good for50 hours) and is capped by a hugealloy screw plug with another rubbergasket. The removable batteries arebacked up by an internal rechargeablebattery that protects stored data inthe event of a low-battery conditionoccurring in the field. The manualwarns that power loss could be expe-rienced in the proximity of "nuclearevents," but I feel that damage to thewarmware" would concern me more

Photo I: The Husky Hunter.

in such circumstances.

Since the Hunter's case is hermeti-cally sealed. Husky gives instructionsfor releasing over- or underpressureconditions, for instance, if you're inorbit, or in a diving bell, by momen-tarily loosening the battery plug.

A sturdy wrist strap for carrying theHunter attaches to either side of thecase by a swivel mounting. The caseis not perforated by the various I/O(input/output) connectors found onordinary computers. A single 2 5-pinmale "D" connector for the serial linkis recessed and sealed into the other-wise unbroken metal surface.

The 40-character by 8-line LCD(liquid-crystal display) lies beneath aflush plastic window that appears tobe more than V* inch thick. The view-ing angle can be adjusted from thekeyboard, thus eliminating anothersource of holes in the case. Thisdisplay provides a window onto a vir-tual 80-character by 24-line standardCP/M screen, but it can also present240- by 64-dot high-resolution graph-ics from BASIC

The Hunter contains 48K bytes ofROM firmware, including a text editor,communications program, BASIC in-terpreter, and the file managerDEMOS, which is fully compatiblewith CP/M 2.2 but works from a RAM-disk emulator instead of a floppy disk.

You select the ROM programs fromthe menu presented when you turnon the computer by pressing thenumber keys in conjunction with afunction-shift key. The bottom line ofthe display shows you the function-key assignments. Ordinary CP/M pro-grams are run from a " >" prompt asusual.

A 54K-byte transient program areais supported for CP/M programs, withthe rest of the memory, up to 208Kbytes, devoted in 48K-byte pages tovirtual disk-file storage.

The BASIC, which looks much likea very extended Microsoft version 5.does not run under CP/M and there-fore has the entire 54K bytes free forprograms. It does, however, use thesame file store as CP/M programs.

The text editor is a full-screen editor

{continued)

388 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

New from McGraw-Hill.

(X-VIEW 86

Lets you observe theinternal operationsof DOS applicationsoftware.

Application Program

UnmoaifieaDOS Application

IVa aybe you've never put it into words. But youknow the feeling.

It's the frustration that gets you every time youanalyze, debug, test, port, or convert DOS appli-cation software.

To do the job right, you need something no onehas invented.

You've got to see what's going on inside thesoftware, how it's acting and reacting.

You need something that gives youx-ray vision.

Now you've got it

X-VIEW 86T", new fromMcGraw-Hill, lets youobserve the internal opera-tions of DOS applicationsoftware.

Developed, tested, andrefined in the highlyrespected technical labs ofFuture Computing, it helpsyou generate a thorough, ^U*™

reliable technical analysis. mmtm

Much faster than what youcould produce on your own.

The data X-VIEW 86 gathers will help youd find code hotspotsd improve program performance

□ discover and eliminate unwanted side-effects

□ find bugs in areas beyond DEBUG's reach

□ port or convert software

Future Computing Incorporated is a unit of McGraw-Hill InformationSystems Company.

4-

X-VIEW 86

i »-

This powerful new tool — we call it a softwareanalyzer — is an affordable $59.95.

It runs on any member of the IBM PC family —or any operationally compatible machine thathas at least 64 Kbytes of memory. You use it withPC-DOS DEBUG 2.0 or 2.1.

Single-stroke commands allow you to interruptthe application program

□ on any processor I/O access

□ on any processor interrupt instructionD when its execution reaches a specified

addressd when it uses a specified memory location

In addition, you can:n automatically collect

- memory map references

- I/O space references

- interrupt usage

- instruction set usage

- segment usage information

d start execution at a specified addresso display analysis results on screen

X-VIEW 86™. A new kind of software. For devel-opers and engineers with vision.

1-800-221-VIEW. Texas call 1-800-233-VIEW

m

Inquiry 151

IBM is a registered trademark and PC-DOS is a trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines Corporation.

r

L.

Order Form

To order X-VIEW 86"

by credit card, call toll free

1-800-221-VIEW.

In Texas call:

1-800-233-VIEW

or send the coupon today.

Customer ServiceMcGraw-Hill Inc.8111 LBJ FreewayDallas. Texas 75251

Fees & PaymentInformation

X-VIEW 86'" is $59.95. All orders aresubject to acceptance by McGraw-HillInc. Prices are subject to changewithout notice.

P Check enclosed (Make checkpayable to McGraw-Hill Inc. Orderspaid by check are subject to delay.)D A.E. □ M.C. D VISA 0 D.C.

"I

Name.Title _

Company .Address _City

_Zip_

Phone J

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$59.95

Shipping ($2.00 per copy)

Texas sales tax ($3.67 per copy)

Signature

Name on card-Credit card no.

Expiration date

,J

BYTE U.K.

with simple functions such as FIND—quite adequate for small documents,though the keyboard militates againsttouch-typing.

Both file-transfer and asynchronousterminal programs are included andcan be operated at up to 4800 bitsper second. A special disk programis available to transfer data to and

from an IBM PC or a Sirius'Victor. Apermanent clock/calendar is includedoffering a typical accuracy within twoseconds per day.

I found operating the Hunter to bejust like using a full-size CP'M machinewith a single drive. It ran standarddBASE II satisfactorily. The keyboardtakes some getting used to because

The

Line Tamer-UPS speaksfor itself.

Its on-board micro andRS-232 port let it talkwith your computer forpower system monitorins andcontrol. And its enersy-efficient design slashes youroperating cost.

A,

i conventional UPS calls for thebattery and inverter to run constantly,wasting up to 40% of the power used.The Line Tamer Uninterruptible PowerSystem for microcomputers is up to80% efficient because it bypassesthe battery and inverter duringnormal operation. Its unique designwill save you money without sacrific-ing the performance of an on-line UPS.

The built-in Line Tamer PowerConditioner cleans and regulatesAC power, removing spikes,transients, noise, overvoltages andundervoltages. When a blackoutoccurs, or line frequency variesbeyond specified tolerances, thebattery and inverter activate inphase, with no break in the sine waveoutput to your equipment.

The on-board microprocessor andRS-232 port let the Line Tamer UPS alertyou automatically in the event of apower emergency, so you can beginan orderly shutdown. Among theuser-defined warning and alarmparameters are High or Low BatteryVoltage, Over or Undervoltage, Over-temperature and Battery Capacity.

It also keeps you informed of SystemStatus, including Number of PowerOutages, Number of Minutes onInverter, Number of Hours on System,Number of Overloads, and BatteryTime Remaining.

The Line Tamer UPS also features fivefront panel LED's for System Ready,Inverter On, Charger On, AC Presentand Alarm. An audible alarm backsup the LED and automatic interrupts.

The complete specifications for theLine Tamer UPS for microcomputersspeak well, too. For your copy, call orwrite Shape Magnetronics today.

SHAPE

MAGNETRONICS, INC

THE CLEAN

POWER

SOURCE

901 DuPage Avenue, Lombard. IL 60148Phone 1 312 620-8394 • TWX 910-991-2352

Line Tamer is a trademark of Shape Magnetronics. Inc

it is small and requires very positivekeypressing to work. The LCD qualityis neither better nor worse than thaton the Tandy Model 100

Husky supplied me with a sampleof a real application program that hadbeen developed in BASIC for an over-seas airline. It acts as a portable cashregister for in-flight refreshment sales,with the unusual twist that it can ac-cept payment in a mixture of differentcurrencies. The Hunter has an auto-run feature that lets you set up suchprograms as turnkey applications. Youcan use the function keys to avoid typ-ing commands on the small keyboard:16 such functions are available.

Special Huskies

In addition to the Hunter. Huskymanufactures several special-purposevariants based on the same architec-ture. Each of these is packaged in asomewhat larger case (still of thickcast alloy) with a membrane keyboardfor complete sealing and lack of mov-ing parts. Husky has discovered thatsuch membrane keyboards are easierto operate when wearing protectivegloves.

The Husky SP (Special Performance)has a larger memory (352K bytes] andtwice the battery life of the Hunter. It'sintended mainly for running expert-system programs with large RAM re-quirements.

The Husky IS (Intrinsically Safe) iscertified to meet the stringent stan-dards for electrical safety laid downin the U.K. for the petrochemical, gas.oil. and mining industries. It uses theRS-422 interface for serial communi-cation, with lower voltages—henceless spark risk—than the RS-232C.

The Husky A/D (Analog/Digital) haseight channels of A/D conversion builtin and is intended for data logging atremote sites. It also features auto-answer modem handling so that youcan interrogate and control it over atelephone line.

The military-specification HuskyM-208 claims to be the first general-purpose computer in the world tomeet DEF-STAN 66-31/1 and 07-55standards for resistance to vibration,

(continued)

390 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 329

Attention

Earth. The BDS

Laser invasion is

proof that all 8-page/minute

laser engines are not created equal.

BDS Corporation is the planet's largest

manufacturer of devices using the Dataproducts

printer mechanisms. And now, at the risk of causinc

permanent brain damage to anyone with a large stocl c

laser or daisy wheel printers, we are proud to an

laserprinter, the BDS Laser 630/8.

OFFICE-READY AT $3495, BATTERIES NOT IKCl

As the designation "630/8" implies, the new BDS lais Diablo 630-compatible and operates at 8 pages per nS3495, this is exactly what you need for a clean landingoffice and word-processing environment. No jofiversions. No retraining all the secretaries. No more cut1sound-proofing enclosures or long walks to the priri(the BDS laserprinter is quiet enough to sit next to youlibrary). And no surprises. Like paying $4750 by the tirall the options you really need for your office.

Now however, the distance between BDS and theftdaisy competition really starts opening up.

You'll start out using your standard word-processinc sEven before you teach people how to imbed typefori"codes into their text, they'll be able to customize djocunthe intelligent control panel.

For example, they may want to change magnificatjer ILike blowing up text size for speeches and overheadsfor text compaction, or printing sideways for spreadthe BDS laserprinter will remember these new setting* ea power failure (we don't even need batteries, becinon-volatile memory)!

Nine typefonts are provided in the basic configuraplete, for $3495. With optional font cartridges, uptypefonts may be simultaneously online for use in any <

Competitive distance becomes parsecs with thearchitecture. One of the optional font cartridges allows <tuuser-defined typefonts to be downloaded from the host (Which ought to create a brisk third-party business for supcorporate logos, bar codes and special-purpose cfiaracf

The final leap into hyperspace, and ahead of the comeachieved with dual-porting. Two computers can corlaserprinter, via one parallel and one serial interface. Yep

For the office which hasn't yet standardized on a Icnetwork, two independent workstations can be connected. Itually, one of the laser ports can connect to a LAN priiwhile the other can connect to a Diablo-compatiblehost supermini or PC.

All of the above capabilities combineto open up vast possibilities. Bothfor today and tomorrow.

TAKE THIS ADTO YOUR LEADER |

If you're a For-tune 1000-sizecompany, we canFederal Expressyour BDS Laser630/8 the sameday you call us

with your pur- ■E-"' km ->«.•<

chase order

number? If you're a smaller company, we'll launtf <tion probe in your direction, that will give you the iour nearest, authorized dealer.

Oh. We don't mind landing the BDS unit nextto the other, inferior daisy wheels or lasersyou may already have. Of course, afterrunning them side by side, you maywant to shoot your old printerstraight out of (no punintended) a cannon.

Inquiry 33

i

k

'FOB Mounlamvie*. CA '- by BDS Corp Multiple-unit end-user discounts upto 32°q and OEM discounts up to36% -Artwork by Geoffrey Chandler, ', llluminanum Gallery, Larkspur, CA Adv by TRBA, 408 258-2708

r>

BYTE U.K.

shock, and temperature, and its ap-pearance suggests that it might be theonly object to survive World War III.It uses a military-standard 19-waybayonet socket for serial communica-tion; the British Army uses it to testguided-weapon systems in the field.Although Husky emphasizes theuse of RAM storage in the field, thecompany supplies both a disk driveand a digital-tape data recorder forbackup and archiving data from the

computers. The disk unit uses 3-inchfloppy disks.

Summary

The Husky Hunter makes every othercomputer that I've handled feel quiteflimsy. It isn't suitable for word pro-cessing, but is intended to run CP/Mapplications in outdoor or otherhazardous environments that couldquickly destroy a conventional plasticlap-held portable.

Huskies are not really computers forthe office-bound. They go better withtravel-stained jungle boots and a tinof mosquito repellent. Nevertheless,it amuses me to think that it mightsomeday become chic to saunteraround with a khaki M-208 on ashoulder strap.

In short, the Husky computers areserious tools; not everyone needsone, but if you do, you really needone. ■

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $100

— HEWLETT-PACKARD—

10 Series

HP-11C Scientific S 55.95

HP-12C Financial $ 87.95

HP-15C Scientific $ 87.95

HP-16C Computer Science $ 87.95

Solutions Books

HP-11C Solutions $ 15.00

HP-12C Real Estate $ 15.00

HP-12C Leasing $ 15.00

HP-12C Cash Flow Analyzer $ 32.95

HP-15C Advanced Functions. . . S 15.00

—H E WLETT-PACKARD—

40 Series

Free 12K Rom with HP-41CV/X

HP-41CV Scientific S 149.95

HP-41CX Scientific $ 239.95

Accessories

82059D Battery Recharger $ 16.00

82104A Card Reader $ 150.15

82120A Battery Pac $ 28.00

82160A HP-IL Interface $ 96.25

82181A E>rtend Memory $ 60.00

92266A Extended Use Battery. ., . $ 39.95

Software

41-15002 Statistics $ 28.00

41-15003 Math $ 28.00

41-15004 Financial Decision $ 28.00

41-14005 Surveying $ 28.00

41-14006 Circuit Analysis $ 36.00

New Advantage Rom $ 39.95

— HEWLETT-PACKARD—

70 Series

HP-71B Handheld Computer, $ 389.95

HP-750 Handheld Computer... S 858.75

Peripherals

82400A Card Reader $ 127.05

82401A HP-IUnterface $ 96.25

82420A 4K Memory Module $ 60.00

82441A FORTH Assembler $ 115.50

82483A Surveying $115.50

82490A 41/71 Translator Pac. $ 96.25

92198A II 80 Column Interf $ 250.25

82489A Statistics Pac $ 96.25

TERMS:

"Free Shipping on orders over $100.

- NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE tor credit cards

'MD residents add 5% sales tax.

'Credit references required tor open account

'Allow 2 weeks for personal checks

HEWLETT-PACKARD"

Thinkjet

Thinkjet Printer ....

$ 379.00

82199A92261A92261N92261S82167B

Accessories

Battery Pack

Ink Cartridge

Fantold Paper (2500).

Printer Stand \ .

\l Cable (1 meter).

39 95

7.95

44.95

39.95

6.40

—HEWLETT-PACKARD L

Additional Items

7470A

2-Pen Plotter

S 843.15

82143A

Thermal Printer

$ 295.00

82161A

Cassette Drive

$ 423.00

82164A

IL/RS-232 Interface....

$ 227.15

82166C

1 Interface Kit

$ 304.15

82168A

Acoustic Coupler......

S 389.95

9114A

710K Disc Drive

$ 625.00

92192A

Box of 10 Discs

$ 55.20

82162A

IL Printer

$ 346.50

TEXAS INSTRUMENT

TI-35II Scientific $ 15.79

TI-55II Programable Scien $ 32.95

BA-35 Student Financial t 16.29

BA-11 Financial $ 32.95

TI-5310 Printing Financial $ 99.95

APITAlvMICRO

7600 FLOWER AVENUEWASHINGTON, D.C. 20912

(800) 544-4442

Maryland

Call Collect

(301) 565-3595

EPSON

LX-80 100cps & NLQ $ 239.00

LX-90 100cps & NIQ CALL

HS40 Inkjet CALL

FX-S5 160cps Dot Matrix CALL

JX-80 Color Dot Matrix $ 469.00

RX-100 100cps Dot Matrix $ 369.00

FX-185 160cps Dot Matrix CALL

LQ1500 NLQ Dot Matrix $ 895.00

HI-80 Plotter $ 369.00

DX-10 Daisywheel CALL

DX-20 Daisywheel CALL

Q.X-16 Computer CALL

XEROX"

1020 Copier M1cpm) $1295.00

1025 Copier (21cpm) $1795.00

610 Memorywriter $ 750.00

620 Memorywriter $1195.00

640 Memorywriter $3675.00

PRINTERS

Diablo

D-25 25 cps Daisywheel $ 550.00

D-80 80 cps Daisywheel $2195.00

630ESC 45 cps Daisywheel $1679.00

Okidata

ML182 120cps Dot Matrix $ 219.00

ML192 160cps Dot Matrix $ 359.00

Okl20 Color Dot Matrix $ 199.00

ML193 160cps Wide Carriage $ 499.00

Brother

HR-15XL 17cps Daisywheel $345.00

HR-35 36cps Daisywheel $ 689.00

2024L 200cps & NLQ $ 825.00

CF100 Sheet Feeder $ 199.00

Twlnwrtter 5 Daisywheel/Dot Matrix CALL

Panasonic

KXP1090 $ 185.00

KXP1091 $ 255.00

Citizen

MSP 10 160cps Dot Matrix $ 299.00

MSP-15 160cps Wide Carriage. $ 439.00

MSP 20 200cps Dot Matrix $ 439.00

MSP-25 200cps Wide Carriage, $ 569.00

392 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

Inquiry S4

An unbelievable number ofsoftware companies will try to tellyou their word processors are easy touse. But one look at even the simplestcommand calls their bluff.

The boldface feature, forinstance. This "simple" commandcan require up to six keystrokes onsome systems. You could spendmonths learning to use them. Andthat's no exaggeration.

Boldfacing with our systemrequires only one keystroke: b toboldface. Just as c will copy text, d willdelete it, and e will end the edit.

Our system is Final Draft. Andwe spent months designing it to bethe best system on today's market.Best because our edit commands arealphabetically-assigned so that youcan remember them easily. Bestbecause we have only 35 commands,not 305. Best because you can learnour system the first day and master itthe second.

But let's not distort the facts:Final Draft isn't just simple. It'spowerful. Features like thethesaurus, floating footnotes, cannedparagraphs and automatic

red-lining are no myth.

There's only one thing aboutFinal Draft that's hard to believe: theprice. It's $395.

So if you're tired of hearing oneboldface lie after another, just heedthis simple truth: Final Draft is agreat word processor.

FINAL DRAFT"

The word processor

from CYMA/McGraw-Hill.

Call 800-292-CYMA.

Inquiry 98 for End-UsersInquiry 99 for DEALERS ONLY

:<•

IT'S ADFACE LIE

TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERS

HAYES

The Future Of Telecommunications~3ttlanta-OT-Sanr*ancisco

The commitment is here. The

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have been assembling the Hayes engineering and technical support team

lead a telecommunications revolution from either Adanta or San Francisco.

Not simply to compete, but to set the standard for others to follow. To that end,

we have designed an engineering environment superior to any in the industry^

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2§e among you who have searched for just such an oppor

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• VSLI/DSP DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERS

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Dept. 92-232, PO Box 105203. Atlanta. GA 30328. An Equal

394 byte. September ,985 Opportunity Employer M/F.

Innovative -/productsfor enterprising people

Inquiry 413

BYTE JAPAN

jUb

A History

of japan's Microcomputers

TLCS-I2

jtCOM-4. -8, & -16

NEC 700

TK-80

MZ-80

PC-8001

And a new idea:

A software

vending machine

by William M. Raike

William M. Raike. who has a Ph.D.in applied mathematics from North-western UmVersity. has taught opera-tions research and computer sciencein Austin. Texas, and Monterey.California. He holds a patent on avoice scrambler and was formerly anofficer of Qryptext Corporation inthe United States. \n 1980. hewent to ]apan looking for 64K-6itRAMs. He has been there ever sinceas a technical translator and a soft-ware developer. He can be contacteddo BYTE. POB 372. Hancock.NH 03449.

When Gregg Williams, a seniortechnical editor at BYTE, men-tioned that the SeptemberBYTE was going to be the 10th anniversaryissue and suggested that I devote this col-umn to the history of microcomputers inJapan, my first reaction was "Great idea!"My next thought was "Where on earth canI find any information about that?" Luckily,thanks to Asao Ishizuka at BYTE's Japanese-language sister publication, Nikkei BYTE. Ilocated a gold mine of computer-relatedreference material. It's a small, out-of-the-way library in Tokyo's Gotanda district that'soperated as a public service by the Fujitsupeople. Besides having all kinds of technicalbooks and catalogs, the periodical filesyielded just what I was looking for.

You can trace the ancestry of most oftoday's personal computers back to Intel'soriginal 4-bit microprocessor, the 4004.which first appeared in November 1971. In-tel's 8-bit 8008 microprocessor appearedthe next year, followed by the landmark8080 in 1973. In 1975, Zilog introduced theZ80, still in use today.

it didn't take the Japanese long to developtheir own microprocessors. Toshibadeveloped Japan's first microprocessor chip,theTLCS-12. Announced in May 1973, onlya year and a half after the Intel 4004 ap-peared in the U.S., the TLCS-12 was a 12-bitmicroprocessor that was intended primari-ly for industrial control applications. OEM(original equipment manufacturer) samplesof the TLCS-12, including a circuit board inkit form, cost well over a thousand dollars.NEC announced its ^iCOM-4 in September1973, followed in late 1974 by the 8-bit/xCOM-8 and the 16-bit /iCOM-16. If youreally want to be picky, though, you can call1972 the year of the first Japanese micro-processor; in the spring of 1972 NECstarted shipping its NEC 700 series tolapanese manufacturers. Although the 700series consisted of a set of two special-purpose LSI (large-scale integration) chipsinstead of a one-chip microprocessor, the

two chips together were functionally equiv-alent to the Intel 4004.

Although other lapanese manufacturersintroduced microprocessors of their own inthe mid-1970s, NEC has consistently led theway in lapanese microcomputer technology.It started an intensive VLSI (very-large-scaleintegration) research program in 1975. In1976, responding to the MITS Altair kit thatappeared in the U.S. the previous year, NECintroduced a microcomputer kit forlapanese hobbyists, the TK-80.

In the late 1970s, as interest in microcom-puters continued to grow everywhere,hobbyist-oriented microcomputer showsbegan to appear. In 1977 in Tokyo, 36 com-panies participated in what was apparent-ly lapan's first microcomputer show. Al-though the featured products were mostlykits, chips, memories, interface boards, andthe like, 3 5,000 people attended the show.During the same period, office computersbegan to appear at business shows, alongwith peripheral equipment like printers thatcould print lapanese characters.

Meanwhile, personal computers like theearly TRS-80s, Apples, and PETs were be-ing introduced in the U.S.—and marketed inlapan soon afterward. Predictably, after alag of a year or two, the first lapanese per-sonal computers appeared. In 1979 Sharpintroduced the first machine in its MZ-80series. Based on the Z80 processor, it wasa single unit containing a keyboard, display,and cassette tape drive, and it came sup-plied with a version of BASIC An externaldual-floppy-disk-drive unit was available, butit cost about $1200 extra. The same year,NEC introduced its PC-8001. the computerthat was to begin its dominance of thelapanese personal computer market.Despite competition from its own newermodels, NEC has continued to modernizethe design of the PC-8001 and recently in-troduced the PC-8001 Mk II SR, which issoftware-compatible with the originalmachine. The original PC-8001. like its newer

{continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 395

BYTE JAPAN

cousin, has a separate display Mostpeople use cassette tapes for exter-nal storage, but you can buy externaldisk drives. It can even run the CPMoperating system.

Both the Sharp and NEC machinescame with versions of BASIC, likeHitachi's ill-fated (and glacially slow)BASIC Master series. Thev were sold

mostly to technically oriented hobby-ists, although games soon began toproliferate.

The lapanese-language display andprocessing capabilities of these earlymachines ranged from rudimentary tononexistent. Perhaps mostly for thatreason, the explosive growth in ap-plications software that took place in

Yodre inGoodCompany

WhenMxi Program

inBetterBASIC

All of these companies relv on BetterBASICto write their software programs. They havefound that BetterBASIC combines the featuresthey need from BASIC, Pascal. C and Forth inone familiar environment. Some of these fea-tures include the following.640K Now you can use the full memoryof your PC to develop large programs.STRUCTURED Create well organizedprograms using procedures and functionsthat are easily identified and understood andcompletely reusable in future programs.MODULAR Use procedures and functionsgrouped together to form "library modules."INTERACTIVE BetterBASIC acts like aninterpreter, responding to the users commandsin an immediate mode. However, eachstatement is actually compiled as it is entered.EXTENSIBLE Create your ownBetterBASIC modules which containBetterBASIC extensions(ideal for OEMs).COMPILED Each lineof the program iscompiled as it is entered

into the computer's memory rather thaninterpreted at runtime. The optional RuntimeSystem generates EXE. files.BetterBASIC Runs on IBM PC. IBMPC/XT and compatibles.CALL 1-800-225-5800 (In Canada:416-469-5244) Order BetterBASIC now. orwrite Summit Software Technology, Inc.'".P.O. Box 99. Babson Park. Wellesley. MA 0.2157Prices are listed below.BetterBASIC: $199 Runtime System: $250808^ Math Module: $99

Order the BetterBASIC sample disk whichincludes a demo, a tutorial, compatibilityissues and more Only S10.MasterCard MSA. P() Checks. Mone\ Order. CO D

accepted

BetterBASIC is a registered trademark of SummitSoftware Technology lnc

IBM PC and IBM PC XT are registered trademarksof International BusinessMachines Corp Tandy is a regis-tered trademark of Tandy CorpIllustrated above are registeredtrademarks of the following com-panies Mobil Oil Corp.: AT&T:(ieneral F.lectrtc Co Westing-house Electric Corp : TRW. lnc

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR THE TANDY 2000. 1200 AND 1000

the U.S. in the early 1980s didn't hap-pen in lapan. Hobbyist-oriented hard-ware has continued to dominate thelapanese personal computer scene. Inthe last two or three years the avail-ability of fast, powerful, cheap hard-ware with extensive lapanese-lan-guage capability has begun to changethat, and competition is now mush-rooming in lapanese-language appli-cations software. Some of it is home-grown and some, like dBASE II. Multi-plan, SuperCalc. and others, is im-ported under license with lapanese-language features added.

I think that the most importantaspect of lapanese microcomputerhistory is what didn't happen here inthe early 1980s. As regular readers ofBYTE lapan know, the powerful in-fluence of the IBM Personal ComputerIPC] and compatibles on the U.S. per-sonal computer market has been ab-sent in lapan. Although NEC is theleader in lapanese personal com-puters, largely as a result of thePC-9801 series, its leadership is notundisputed, and competitors chooseto compete technologically ratherthan to imitate like the IBM PCclones—apologies to Apple and theMac. There are two sides to this coin:The lack of hardware standardizationmakes it tougher for software vendorsto develop third-party application-software packages (although com-puter manufacturers sometimes offerinducements to cooperating vendors),but, at the same time, consumers getthe chance to buy much more power-ful and up-to-date hardware at verylow prices. When 1 visit the U.S., peo-ple are impressed when they hear, forexample, that lapanese users can buycomputers (such as the latest NEC orFujitsu machines) that run two to fourtimes faster than the IBM PC. Thesecomputers are based on the 8086-2or 80186 microprocessors, have ahalf-megabyte of RAM (random-access read/write memory] and a cou-ple of 1-megabyte floppy-disk drives,run MS-DOS or CP/M-86. support thefull lapanese language, have impres-sive color graphics capabilities, andare available for about $1300. A built-

{continued}

396

SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 35S

Tools Tliat Make Your Job Easier

For PCDOS/MSDOS (2.0 and above/128K) • IBM PC/Compatibles, PCjr., Tandy 1000/1200/2000, & othersFor CPM80 2.2/3.0 (Z80 required/64K) • 8" SSSD, Kaypro 2/4, Osborne ISD/DD, Apple II, & others

MIX EDITOR

Programmable, Full/SplitScreen Text Processor

95

IntroductoryOffer

29

Great For All Languages

A general purpose textprocessor, the MIX Editor ispacked with features that makeit useful with any language. Ithas auto indent for structuredlanguages like Pascal or C. It hasautomatic line numbering forBASIC (255 character lines). Iteven has fill and justify forEnglish.

Split Screen

You can split the screenhorizontally or vertically andedit two files simultaneously.

Custom Key Layouts

Commands are mapped to keysjust like WordStar. If you don'tlike the WordStar layout, it'seasy to change it. Any key can bemapped to any command. Youcan also define a key to generatea string of characters, great forentering keywords.

Macro Commands

The MIX Editor allows asequence of commands to beexecuted with a singlekeystroke. You can define acomplete editing operation andperform it at the touch of a key.

Custom Setup Files

Custom keyboard layouts andmacro commands can be savedin setup files. You can create adifferent setup file for eachlanguage you use.

MSDOS Features

Execute any DOS command orrun another program frominside the editor. You can evenenter DOS and then return tothe editor by typing exit.

MIX C COMPILER

Full K&R Standard C LanguageUnix Compatible Function Library

95

IntroductoryOffer

39

Complete & Standard

MDC C is a complete andstandard implementation of Cas defined by Kernighan andRitchie. Coupled with a Unixcompatible function library, itgreatly enhances your ability towrite portable programs.

The Best C Manual

MDC C is complemented by a400 page manual that includesa tutorial. It explains all thevarious features of the Clanguage. You may find it morehelpful than many of the bookswritten about C.

Fast Development

MK C includes a fast singlepass compiler and an equallyfast linker. Both are executedwith a simple one linecommand. Together they makeprogram development a quickand easy process.

Fast Execution

The programs developed withMK C are fast. For example,the often quoted primenumber benchmark executesin a very respectable 17seconds on a standard IBM PC.

Standard Functions

In addition to the functionsdescribed by K&R, MK Cincludes the more exoticfunctions like setjmp andlongjmp. Source code is alsoincluded.

Special Functions

MK C provides access to yourmachine's specific featuresthrough BDOS and BIOSfunctions. The CHAIN functionlets you chain from oneprogram to another. TheMSDOS version even has onefunction that executes any DOScommand string while anotherexecutes programs and returns.

Language Features

• Data Types: char, short, int,unsigned, long, float, double(MSDOS version performs

BCD arithmetic on float anddouble-no roundoff errors)

• Data Classes: auto, static,extern, register

• Struct, Union, Bit Fields(struct assignment

supported)

• Typedef, Initialization

• All operators and macrocommands are supported

30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

Orders Only: Call Toll Free 1-800-523-9520, (Texas only 1-800-622-4070)

MIX Editor $29.95 + shipping ($5 USA/110 Foreign) Texas residents add 6% sales tax

MIX C J39.95 + shipping (15 USA/125 Foreign) Texas residents add 6% sales tax

Visa MasterCard Card # Exp. Date

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Computer Operating System: MSDOS PCDOS CPM80

Name

Street

City/State/Zip_

Country

Phone

TUX

MSDC)S is a tractarurk of Microsoft PCDOS is a trademark of1 KM CPM80 is a trademark of Digital Research « urtisur is a tradenurt of MicroPro

21 Hit. ArapihoSute 363

Richardson, Tx-"SOS 1

software

Dealer Inquiries WelcomeCall (214) 783-6001

B

SEPTEMBER

35 • BYTE 397

BYTE JAPAN

in 10-megabyte hard-disk drive bringsthe price up to about $2400.

Oh. Brother—

A Software Vending Machine

Brother Industries makes some real-ly neat products. My little EP-44 por-table electronic typewriter/serialprinter has worked perfectly since theday I bought it, and the newest model,the WP-600 portable word processorI wrote about last month, promises tobe even better. This month 1 walkedinto the showroom lobby of Brother'sheadquarters in the Kyobashi districtof Tokyo, near the Ginza, to get a lookat Brother's latest brainchild, theSV-2000 Software Vending System.Brother has no plans to export it, butI think it's the most intriguing softwaremarketing idea I've seen in a longtime.

In lapan, when you want to buy anew computer game, you go to a

Made of molded

white plastic, the

SV-2000 Software

Wending System looks

like a telephone booth

without sides.

computer-software store that has rackafter rack displaying hundreds ofcassettes and floppy disks, just like arecord store. The stores have no wayto demonstrate most of the games,and new games are being publishedconstantly. Word of mouth andmagazine reviews can popularize onlya few products, so buying new games

can be an expensive gamble, evenapart from the risk that the media youbuy (the tapes or disks) might bedefective.

Brother has come up with itsSV-2000 Software Vending System asa new marketing approach. Made ofmolded white plastic, the SV-2000looks like a telephone booth that hasonly a front, a back, a ceiling, and afloor—no sides. It reminds me of oneof those arcade-type race-car drivinggames, except that you sort of slouch/stand against the back of the booth.The front of the booth has a displayscreen, a Start button, two cursor but-tons, a Confirm button, a Cancel but-ton, and slots for inserting coins, tapecassettes, floppy disks, and creditcards, as well as a printer slot. Thebooth works like a terminal: It's con-nected via telephone lines to a main-frame computer located somewhereelse. The remote system controls the

Last year the experts tested

thetop-of-the-line

Toshiba 3-in-One printer.

Here's what they said.

■■When Toshiba America called to seeif there were problems testing their printers,I responded, You bet—I can't get the P1351off Bill Machrone's desk long enough to getits picture taken1' It's that good.MM

/Dill N A ■—!/-• l—i rt~\<rsf-\ \r- k\-\r\

(Bill Machrone is theeditor of PC Magazine.

PC MagazineMovember 27 1984

■■It is setting new standards for quality andperformance in the dot matrix arena.M

Computers & Electronics MagazineNovember 1984

398 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

BYTE JAPAN

interaction with the user, handles thefinancial transaction, and downloadsselected software from its databaseonto the user's own tape or floppydisk inserted into the appropriate slot;the media (blank tapes or disks) arenot sold through the SV-2000.

After pressing the Start button, amenu display asks you to specifywhich type of computer you own; youselect a game from the next menu.Right now, the system covers only ahandful of the NEC personal com-puter models. I would have thoughtit worthwhile to provide for the MSXcomputer family, in which there aredozens of models, all compatible witheach other. Presumably, if the systemis successful. Brother will extend it toadditional types of computers.

After you pick a game, using thecursor buttons to select a title fromthe menu, the SV-2000 displays ademonstration screen from the ap-

After you pick a game,

the SV-2000 displays

a demonstration

screen to give you

some idea of what

the game is all about.

propriate game to give you some ideaof what the game is all about. If youwant to buy the game, you press theConfirm button and follow the instruc-tions for depositing money or a creditcard and inserting your blank tape ordisk into the appropriate slot. TheSV-2000 prints the appropriate infor-mation onto a blank label you insert

into the printer slot and then down-loads the game onto your tape ordisk Typically, it takes about 3minutes to download the software.So far, the only SV-2000 booths inexistence are the ones in the Brotherheadquarters in Tokyo and in Nagoya.but since the booth is so compact andplugs into an ordinary power outlet.Brother hopes to arrange with soft-ware manufacturers to install them incomputer-software shops and invideotape and record stores. Brotherexpects the booths to cost some-where between $8000 and $12,000each.

Coming Up

Next month I'll tell you about theTokyo Microcomputer Show, where Ihad a chance to see the NECPC-98XA and PC-9801U2, the 286XENIX System V and a new Hitachidrive. ■

Li.

W

Imagine what they will say

its successor.

z • •

The New Toshiba P351 3-in-One printer. They couldsay that inside the sleek new Toshiba P351 you'll find theultimate 3-in-One printer. Because it offers a combination of:

Letter-quality printing. Perfectly translated graphics.And speed. (100 cps letter. And draft speed improved to288 cps.)

They could say you'll appreciate the 24-pin dot matrixhead that gives the P351 its exemplary letter and graphicquality

They could say the new P351 gives you an almostunlimited number of ways to express yourself. With bothdownloadable software fonts and new plug-in fontcartridges.

they could say Ionly the best looking printer in the $1,000 to $2,000 rangeBut also the most reliable.

Of course, we're not putting words in their mouths.Just the ultimate 3-in-One printer in their hands. And yours.

For complete information call 1-800-457-777ZOperator 32.

In Touch with Tomorrow

TOSHIBA

TOSHIBA AMERICA. INC Inbrmalion Syslems Division

Inquiry 368

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 399

Your System/Controller should fit you

like a good suit.

LET MICROMINTCUSTOM FIT YOU

Whether it's suits or system controllers,you can't buy off the rack when youneed a custom fit.

That's why Micromint individualizesits system controllers to meet your par-ticular needs and budget. What's mostimportant to you? Software compati-bility? Speed? Everything on oneboard? Economical computing power?

jfl'."/ want softwarecompatibility."Solution:

THE SB180

COMPUTER/CONTROLLER

The SB180, only 4" by 7V-", offers aZ80 compatible CPU running at 6MHz,256K bytes of RAM, up to 32K bytesof ROM, two serial ports, a parallelport, Z80/6800 I/O expansion bus,and an industry standard 765A-com-patible disk controller for up to fourdisk drives — any combinations of3%", 5Vi" or 8" drives. The SB 180 isbased on the Hitachi HD64180 CPU.a microcoded CMOS chip which pro-vides high performance, reduced systemcost, and low power operation whilemaintaining complete compatibilitywith the large base of standard CP/Msoftware.

$369 00

language with a full screen editor,cassette I/O driver primitives, EPROMprogrammer primitives, and other util-ity words. It also contains up to 4Kbytes of RAM or EPROM, an RS-232serial port with selectable baud rates,and two parallel ports. Additional Z8peripheral boards include memory ex-pansion, a smart terminal board, serialand parallel I/O, real time clock an A/Dconverter, and an EPROM programmer.It's perfect for data reduction andhigh speed control applications.

BCC21 w/utilities . . . $225.00

$3: "Let me have an entiredevelopment system onone board."

Solution:

THE BCC52SYSTEM/CONTROLLER

The BCC52 is a new stand alone singleboard microcomputer which is buscompatible with the Micromint BCC11BCC21 Z8 System/Controllers and ex-pansion boards. The BCC52 featuresthe Intel 8052AH-BASIC micropro-cessor which includes a ROM resident8K byte floating point BASIC inter-

SB180 1SB1805

w/8K ROM monitor.

w/8K ROM monitor,

BIOS source and

Zsystem $418.00

ff2: "I need speed."Solution:

THE Z8 FORTH

SYSTEM/CONTROLLERThe Z8 FORTH System/Controller isonly 4" by 4'/2" and includes a custommasked Z8 version of the FORTH

400 BYTE • SEPTEMBER l"8ri

prefer with extensions for process con-trol work. It contains sockets for up to48K bytes of RAM. EPROM, an "intel-ligent" 2764 128 EPROM programmer,3 parallel ports, a serial terminal port,and a serial printer port.

BCC52 . . .$239.00

tf A'. "Give me lots of economicalcomputing power."

Solution:

THE BCC11 BASICSYSTEM/CONTROLLER

The Z8 BASIC System/Controller isnearly identical to the FORTHSystem/Controller but contains a tinyBASIC interpreter, up to 6K bytes ofRAM and EPROM, an RS-232 serialport with switch selectable baud rates,and two parallel ports. Add a powersupply and terminal to start program-ming in BASIC or machine languagePrograms can be transferred to 2732EPROMS with the optional EPROMprogrammer for auto-start applications.It can also use any of the expansionboards mentioned under the Z8FORTH System/Controller.

BCC11 . . .$149.00

Additional information on peripheralboards and OEM pricing is available.

Order Toll Free

18006353355

In Connecticut call 1 871 6170

For a System Controller suited toyour needs, give us a call.

MICROMINT, INC.25 Terrace DriveVernon, CT 06066

Computer Faire

Ericsson Portable

AT&T UNIX PC

Mac RAM Upgrades

BMUG

Apple

Amiga

TeamMate

by Bruce Webster

Bruce Webster is a charier membero\ the PMS Commandos and a con-sulting editor for BYTE. He can becontacted do BYTE. 425 BatterySt.. San Francisco. CA 941 11.

ACCORDINGTO WEBSTER

West Coast Faire,

Mac Stuff, and the Amiga

This month's column will includesome commentary and have less ofa product-review emphasis. Trips outof town have kept me away from the com-puters. Also, the pipeline of hardware andsoftware dried up for a while, leaving me withlittle to talk about. However, BrendaMcLaughlin of BYTE's West Coast office hasworked hard to fill up the pipeline again, andI now have enough to keep me busy for sometime. Look for lots of products to be coveredduring the next few months.

West Coast Computer Faire

I went up to San Francisco for the Tenth WestCoast Computer Faire. now run by Prentice-Hall. Jim Warren sold it to that company twoyears ago. The Faire is legendary for thenumber of major firms that got their startthere. Apple and Digital Research are a fewof them. A friend of mine delights in tellingof an experience at one of the first Faires. Hebought an early copy of CP/M (for $75) froma small booth staffed by Gary Kildall. (As faras I know, my friend still uses that version ofCP/M on his IMSAI 8080.) This was my fourthFaire in a row, but it was my first as somethingother than an exhibitor, and I was looking for-ward to really enjoying it.

My impression after a day or so was thatWarren sold out just in time. The Faire isshrinking. It may not be dying, but it is nolonger the important trade show it was twoshort years ago. Without the giant boothsfrom IBM. Apple, and AT&T the Faire wouldhave looked like any other small, local, end-user show. The move to the Moscone Centerdidn't help that impression; a large chunk ofthe main floor was unused, adding to the im-pression of the Faires shrunken size.

Several reasons can be given for the Fairesdiminishing stature, but they all sound likecliches: the rise of COMDEX, the invasion ofmicrocomputers at NCC the proliferation ofspecialized computer shows (like the Mac-World Expo), the maturing of the industry. Aless-mentioned reason is that many exhibitorslast year were outraged by high drayage fees

(the cost to move goods and equipment onand off the exhibit floor) and hostile behaviorfrom members of the labor force. I know ofseveral exhibitors who swore that they wouldnot come back this year, and they didn't. Theresult is the same: The Faire—and theindustry—just aren't as much fun as they usedto be, at least for those directly involved.

End users, on the other hand, are still hav-ing a great time. Some terrific bargains wereto be found at the Faire. I bought 128K bytes(18 64K-bit chips) of RAM (random-accessread/write memory) for my SixPakPlus boardfor only $21: 256K-bit chips were selling foras little as $5.50 in quantity one. I drooleda long time over a 21-megabyte internal harddisk for my Compaq that was selling for just$675 (with controller and cable). Completecomputer systems were going at low prices.One example was a 512K-byte Macintosh withan external disk drive and an Imagewriterprinter for $2 594. Modems, printers,monitors, and graphics cards were selling forno-margin prices. I'm not sure if the vendorsmade any money, but I saw a lot of happybuyers walking out with large boxes and bags.

Some interesting products were on display.Ericsson, a Swedish company specializing inergonomic (body-friendly) IBM PC-compatibles, showed a portable compatiblewith one 5!4-inch disk drive. 2 56K bytes ofRAM. parallel and serial ports, and a plasmadisplay for just $2995. If you're not aware ofhow expensive plasma displays usually are,here's one clue: IBM was showing one thathooks up to the IBM PC and that has aboutfour times the resolution of the Ericsson (i.e.,double the width and double the height). TheIBM unit cost $3000 by itself. Ericsson is sup-posed to be sending an evaluation unit; if andwhen it shows up. I'll let you know just hownice it is.

AT&T—which has generally failed to live upto anyone's expectations as to how it woulddo in the computer market—displayed theUNIX PC (formerly known as the 7300). Thisis a 68000-based box with windows, lots of

{continued}

SEPTEMBER

BYTE 401

IT JUST GOTTOUGHER

TO BUG

dBASE

PROGRAMMERS

dBASE is a registered trademark of Ashton-Taie.

© 1985, WallSofl Systems, Int.. 233 Broadway, New York, NY 1027!

402 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

You wrote a good PRG. But nowyou're patching in the 23rd "exception."your indentation is shot and one littleENDIF is missing.

dFLOW CAN HELP

Ask dFLOW for a quick errorcheck. Call up your PRG's control flowdiagram, and watch that open IF state-ment stand out.

You've made the fix. Now havedFLOW re-indent your source and printa flow diagram. And if that isn't enough,dFLOW will cross-reference yourfull system and give you a variableconcordance.

SWATS BUGS FAST

dFLOW is so fast that, from floppy,you can read and check a 100 line PRGin seven seconds plus 14 keystrokes-DOS to DOS. And it's menu driven, sothere's no need to read the manual.Unless of course, you want to rundFLOW in batch.

dFLOW has a suggested retail priceof $129, and comes with a six-month,money back guarantee. Call for your freedemo'disk. (800) 23d-Flow. In New York,(212) 406-7026. Visa, MC, AE, DC.

Woft

SYSTEMS, INC.

Inquiry 386

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

RAM, a hard disk, telecommunicationshardware, and the UNIX operatingsystem. The windows are an attempt tomake UNIX palatable; however, withoutsufficient third-party software (everUNIX's bane), there still won't be muchdemand for the machine Again, anevaluation unit is supposed to arrive ina few months: I'll let you know morewhen I get it.

A number of interesting Macintoshproducts were there. Everyone and hersister seems to be offering RAMupgrades for the Macintosh, mostlybecause Apple still insists on chargingthe ridiculous amount of $700 for its512K-byte upgrade. Competition isheavy; most firms are charging about$300, which is still high, given recentdrops in 2 56K-bit chip prices. The cur-rent winner for biggest upgrade isLevco, which offers a 2-megabyte up-grade for less than $1000; the actualcost is dependent upon current chipprices. A friend of mine sat down atone of the 2-megabyte Macs, set up a1.4-megabyte RAM disk (with the As-similation Process software), and stillhad a full 512K-byte workspace leftover. Not too shabby. (However, somedark clouds are on the horizon for Macowners using third-party or do-it-your-self upgrades; see the "Mac RAM Up-grade Alert" section below.)

A variation on the Mac RAM disk isavailable from Western AutomationLaboratories. This company is produc-ing the external DASCH (disk accelera-tion/storage control hardware) RAMdisk, something the Mac could haveused a year ago. Several sizes are avail-able, ranging from 500K bytes to 2megabytes; ironically, the low-end(500K-byte) $500 drive is probably yourbest value, since you could buy a10-megabyte hard disk for less than theprice of the high-end RAM disk ($2000for 2 megabytes).

A large number of users groups hadbooths, another indication that theFaire had a hard time selling its floorspace to dealers and manufacturers. Igladly joined the Berkeley MacintoshUsers Group (BMUG) (1422A WalnutSt., Suite 153, Berkeley, CA 94709. (415)849-9114); for $17, I got a 120-page"newsletter" (printed on a LaserWriter)

and a disk of public-domain software.Another users group—Atari—had prob-ably the most crowded booth at theFaire. They had two Atari 520STs (thelackintosh) up and running for hands-on demonstrations, one running GEM(Digital Research's Mac-like environ-ment) and the other running FORTH,more evidence that the machine is forreal.

This, of course, is the spot where 1should stop and pontificate about thefuture of the West Coast ComputerFaire. However, most of you can guess(and "guess" is the right word) just aswell as 1 can where things are going,and with just as much validity, so I'llskip the dramatics and move on to thenext topic.

Mac RAM Upgrade Alert

It is now late April, and I just found outthat this column won't see print untilSeptember. I wish it were otherwise,

because I've recently come acrosssome very disturbing news. A veryreliable source has told me that a majorROM (read-only memory) upgrade forthe Macintosh will happen this fall,about the time you read this. The newROM will be 128K bytes (the currentone is 64K bytes) and will incorporatefixes and changes to the operatingsystem and Toolbox, support double-sided disks, and so on. This has beenconfirmed from other sources and ishardly disturbing news. However, thissame source told me that Apple wasinstructing all its dealers not to performthe ROM upgrade on any Mac that hasbeen upgraded or modified in any wayother than the official Apple 512K-byteupgrade (board swap). In other words,if you were not willing to pay the $700Apple wanted, but instead have doneit yourself or gone to a third party, youare out of luck.

[continued)

M/4

USRobotics' swift new Courier 2400'" modem cuts data transmissiontime in half, decreasing phone costs and increasing productivity. Theauto-dial, auto-answer Courier adjusts itself from 2400 to 1200or 300 bps. And if you prefer an internal slot modem for IBM-PCs orcompatible computers, the Microlink 2400" gives you the same great

features at the same great price.

""H^ ^,H"?TfOT"*f 'W~ 1 Courier and Microlink 2400 modems.

They're going fast.

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Phone:(312)733-0497

Outside Illinois: 1-800-Dial-USR

Inquiry 37!

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 403

MICROWAY'S 8087 RUNS 1-2-3"!

MicroWay is the worlcf 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 - one year! We alsooffer daughterboards for socketlesscomputers such as the NEC PC andPCjr, and a board which increases theclock speed of the 80287 from 4 to 6mhz. Our NUMBER SMASHER" in-cludes 512K ram. It will run the IBM PCat clock speeds up to 10mhz andachieves a throughput of .1 megaflops

NUMBER SMASHER' The Worlds Fastest Accelerator Card for the IBM PC. XT. and Com-patibles! Includes an 8086 and 8087 pair testedto 10mhz, and 512K bytes of high speed ramCompatible with all software, operating systemsand hardware! Your program speed is increasedby a factor of 2.5 to 4.0. Floating point programsrun up to 2.8 times faster on the PC than on an80287 equipped PC AT $1590

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 3.3, 87MACRO, and87BASIC/INLINE each $150

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 correlationshamming, complex vector multiplication, and com-plex to radial conversions. Callable from MS For-tran, 87MACRO, C, TURBO PASCAL or87BASIC/INLINE $200

87FFT-2" performs two-dimensional FFTsIdeal for image processing Requires 87FFT $100

GRAPHICS PACKAGES

Grafmatic for MS Fortran or Pascal $125

Plotmatic for Grafmatic $125

MultiHalo (one language) $189

DFixer" - Eliminates the AT hard disk pro-blem! A disk which thoroughly checks PC or AThard disks for bad sectors and updates the MSDOS file allocation table accordingly $149

87DEBUG " - a professional debugger with8087 support, a sophisticated screen-orientedmacro command processor, and trace featureswhich include the ability to skip tracing throughbranches to calls and software and hardwareinterrupts Breakpoints can be set in code or onguarded addresses in RAM $150

MicroWay

P.O. Box 79Kingston, Mass02364 USA(617)746-7341

with 87BASIC/INLINE Intel Fortran, orMicrosoft Fortran. Software reviewersconsistently cite MicroWay softwareas the best in the industry! Our cus-tomers frequently write to thank us forrecommending the correct softwareand hardware to meet their specificneeds. They also thank us for our sameday shipping! In addition to our ownproducts which support the 8087 and80287, we stock the largest supply ofspecialized software available any-where. For information call us at

617-746-7341

FASTBREAK™

MicroWay's software turns on your8087 during 1-2-3'" execution. Recal-culations run up to 36 times faster.When used with the NUMBERSMASHER" it can provide a total in-crease in 1 -2-3'" execution speed of upto 79 to 1. FASTBREAK provides youwith the unique capability for runningother programs on top of 1 -2-3. Theseprograms can be written in BASIC,PASCAL, Fortran or C and can accessthe current values in your 1 -2-3 work-sheet $149.

MicroWay

8087 Support

For the IBM PC, PC XT,

87BASIC/INLINE" converts the output ofthe IBM Basic Compiler into optimized 8087inline code which executes up to seven times fas-ter than 87BASIC. Supports separately compiledinline subroutines which are located in their ownsegments and can contain up to 64K bytes ofcode. This allows programs greater than 128K!Requires the IBM Basic Compiler and MacroAssembler. Includes 87BASIC $200

87BASIC" 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

87MACRO" - our complete 8087 softwaredevelopment package. It contains an objectlibrary of numeric functions including transcen-dentals, trigonometries hyperbolics, encoding,decoding and conversions which take full advan-tage of the 8087's capabilities 87MACRO willsave you man years in development time!. For theIBM or MS Macro Assembler, Version 1.0, 2.0, or3.0 $150

OBJ—ASM™ - a multipass object moduletranslator and disassembler. Produces assemblylanguage listings which include public symbolsexternal symbols, and labels commented withcross references Ideal for understanding andpatching object modules and libraries for whichsource is not available $200

RTOS - REAL TIME OPERATING SYSTEM

RTOS is a multi-user, multi-tasking real time oper-ating system. It includes a configured version ofIntefs iRMX-86, LINK-86, LOC-86, LIB-86, OH-86,and MicroWay's87DEBUG. Runs on the IBM-PC,XT, PC-AT and COMPAQ $400

INTEL COMPILERS'

FORTRAN-86 $750

PASCAL-86 $750

PL/M-86 $5O0

ASM-86 $200

'Requires RTOS or iRMX-86 All Intel compiler names andiRMX-86 TM Intel Corp.

The World Leaderin 8087Support!

404 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98S

PC AT and Compatibles.8087 5mhz $109

Including DIAGNOSTICS and one-year warrantyFor IBM PC and compatibles

8087-3 5mhz $175

For the Tandy 1200.

8087-2 8mhz $175

For Wang, AT&T, DeskPro. NEC, Leading Edge

80287-3 5mhz $199

For the IBM PC AT and Compaq DeskPro 286.

287Turbo" 6 mhz $37564KRAMSet $7

256KRAMSet $49

256K CMOS RAM Set $49128K RAM Set pc at $150

AST Advantage" $439

JRAM-2"(0K) $169

J RAM" AT(0K) $229

MAYNSTREAM™ 60 meg $1695

FORTRAN, C and BASIC

Microsoft Fortran Version 3.3 $229

IBM Professional Fortran 545

Ryan-McFarland Fortran 399

FORLIB+ or STRINGS and THINGS 65

Lattice C 299

Microsoft C Version 3.0 299

C86 279

FLOAT87 1 50

IBM Basic Compiler Version 2.0 CALL

87BASIC/INLINE 200

Summit BetterBASIC" 175

Summit 8087 Module 87

True Basic 105

MACRO ASSEMBLERS

IBM Assembler with Librarian V. 2.0 155

Microsoft Assembler Version 3.0 125

PASCAL and APL

Microsoft Pascal Version 3.3 199

Borland Turbo with 8087 Support 85

STSC APL*PLUS/PC 450

Pocket APL 85

COSMOS Revelation 750

SPSS/PC 595

FASTBREAK and NUMBER SMASHER are trademarks ofMicroWay, Inc Lotus and 1 -2-3 are trademarks of Lotus Devel-opment Corp.

Inquiry 257

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

I would like to dismiss this informa-tion as another crazy rumor, but I can't.First, my original source is someonewho should know and claims to get thisstraight from Apple. Second. I havesince heard the same news from twoor three independent sources. Third, itfits in too well with other events atApple, such as Steve lobs forcing FrogDesigns (the firm that did the lie design)to stop all work on Steve Uozniak's newproduct, even though that productdoes not appear to be in any way com-petitive with Apple.

Apple shot itself in the foot last fallwith the overpriced 512 K-byte upgradeand has let the wound fester by keep-ing the price too high. This policypunished those who did the most tohelp the Mac succeed: Those whobought the Mac in its first few months,paying too much money for a machinewith too little memory and almost nosoftware. If Apple carries through onthis latest plan, it will be hurting thosesame people again. What an irony!Apple (especially Steve lobs) takespains to paint itself as the "people'salternative" to IBM; yet IBM has shownmore consideration for PCjr ownersthan Apple has for Mac owners.

All these problems and incidentsmake it appear as though Apple is indanger of self-destructing. I truly don'twant that to happen; 1 prefer morecompetition in the field, not less.Besides that, I have a sentimental at-tachment to the company The firstcomputer I ever owned (though just fora few months) was an Apple II; the sec-ond was a Macintosh; and I bought alie late last year. So it saddens me tosee the direction the company is go-ing. Apple may have shot itself in thefoot last year, but it now appears deter-mined to shoot itself in the head.

Amiga

Among its other faults, Apple has beenshamelessly neglecting the Apple IIfamily, and specifically the Apple He.When the lie came out a year ago,Apple cut the price of the lie andslowed production, figuring themachine would die of its own accord.Instead, He sales jumped dramatically,easily outselling the lie People would

see the He ads, come into the computerstore, and walk out with a lie. Why?Because the He had slots, while the lie(like the Mac) was a closed machine.The lie is a chameleon: With the rightset of boards, you can make it look likeand do just about anything. Case inpoint: The nicest development systemI've ever used, including mainframesand minis, was an Apple lie with 128Kbytes of RAM, an Accelerator He card(3.5-megahertz 65C02), and two Axlon320K-byte RAM disks (configured asfour 160K-byte floppy disks). Apple'sresponse to the increased He sales wasto cut back on production and raise itsprice (while discounting the lie). Evenso. it wasn't until late 1984 that the liefinally started outselling the He.

What does this have to do with theAmiga? Well, several machines arecompeting in the low-end market: theAtari 520ST the Apple He, the Mac (toa lesser extent), and the Amiga. Guess

how many of these are easily expand-able? lust one: the Amiga. Guess whichmachine will probably end up beingthe Apple II of the late eighties? I don'tthink the lie will, nor the Mac. and theST is a tightly closed, nonexpandablebox. My vote is for the Amiga. Fromwhat I can see. the Amiga's graphics,sound, 68000 processor, memory map(allowing up to 8 megabytes of RAM),and expansion bus give it the poten-tial of a long and successful life. There'salways the chance that Apple will, in-deed, come out with a souped-upApple II next year, but even with theWestern Design Center chips (65816.etc.) and the nifty 3/2-inch Duodisk (1.6megabytes of storage), it will probablybe too little, too late.

Updates

I talked last month about TeamMate,the repackaged version of |ack2—a

[continued)

mnw

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Inquiry 372

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 405

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406 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198ri

Inquiry 364

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

Items

Discussed

Amiga

$1295

Commodore/Amiga

983 University Ave.

bos Gatos, CA 95030

(408) 395-6616

Atari 520ST

$799

Atari Inc.

1265 Borregas Ave.

POB 3427

Sunnyvale. CA 94088

(408) 748-2000

AT&T UNIX PC

10-megabyte hard disk .

$5590

20-megabyte hard disk .

....$6590

American Telephone and

Telegraph

1 Speedwell Ave.

Morristown. Nl 07960

(201) 898-2000

DASCH Mac RAM Disk

500K bytes

$495

1 megabyte

$975

2 megabytes

....$1785

Western Automation Laboratories

POB 3438

Boulder. CO 80307

(303) 449-6400

Ericsson Ergo-Screen

Portable

. . . $2995

Ericsson

Greenwich Office Park 1

Greenwich. CT 06836

(800) 367-3746

Monster Mac Upgrade

without RAM

. . .$499.95

with 1 megabyte

. . .$624.95

with 1.5 megabytes . . .

. . .$749.95

with 2 megabytes ....

. . .$874.95

installation charge

$100

Levco Enterprises

6160 Lusk Blvd.. #C-203

San Diego. CA 92121

(619) 457-2011

TeamMate

. $69.95

SofTech Microsystems

16875 West Bernardo Dr.

San Diego, CA 92127

(617) 451-1230

$500 product—released by SofTechMicrosystems at $69.95 for the IBM PC.Since then, I've had a chance to playwith it. It has an easy-to-use, easy-to-grasp user interface and appears to bea truly integrated package, i.e., not justa few programs strung together bydata-transfer modules. Unfortunately,I've never used Framework, Symphony,lazz. Ovation (sorry, bad joke), or even(gasp!) Lotus 1-2-3, so 1 don't havemuch basis for comparison. On theother hand, at this low of a price youcan hardly lose. I think it would be greatfor small businesses (or small depart-ments in large businesses) that need apackage to do invoices, financialreports, letters, and the like. All in all,it looks like a real bargain.

In the Queue

As I said at the start, I've been receiv-ing a steady stream of hardware andsoftware from the San Francisco office.

A number of C compilers, for both theMac and the IBM PC, have shown up,and my education in C is lurching for-ward. The GEM Programmer's Toolkithas come from Digital Research: maybenow my attendance at the GEM semi-nar will pay off. Sunol Systems has senta disk-server network, with interfacesfor the Compaq, Apple II, and Macin-tosh, but I haven't got it up and run-ning yet. Two new languages for theMac have arrived: ExperLisp, a compil-ing LISP from ExpefTelligence. andRascal (real-time Pascal), an l/O-orientedlanguage developed at Reed College.Several information-managementpackages for the Mac are showing upas well, including Filevision andTimeBase. And Brenda just informedme yesterday that more boxes are onthe way. Getting through all this may killme. but, hey, I knew the job wasdangerous when 1 took it. Take care,and I'll see you on the bit stream. ■

MM

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Inquiry 373

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 407

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408 BYTE' SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry I60

MATHEMATICALRECREATIONS

7r, e, and All That

Sneaking

up on

transcendental

numbers

by RobertT. Kurosaka

Robert T Kurosaka teaches

mathematics in the Massachusetts

State College system. He invites

uour correspondence do BYTE

POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449

God made integers, all else is the work of man.

—Kronecker

This famous quote of LeopoldKronecker serves as the startingpoint for this month's column. Theintegers (the whole numbers) can be usedto construct other numbers.

We can construct rational numbers bydividing one integer by another. When wedo so, we get either a terminating decimal(1/4=0.25) or a nonterminating, repeatingdecimal (7/18 = 0.388888 . . . ). Repeating,or cyclic, decimals are a fascinating studyI may explore in a future column.

Irrational Numbers

We can also construct numbers that areboth nonterminating and nonrepeating. Itis a rather amazing notion that a string ofdigits may go on forever without having toestablish a pattern. It's such an odd notionthat the ancient Greeks originally did notbelieve it possible—or even imaginable.When it was established that the squareroot of 2 was such a number, the Greekscalled this kind of number irrational. Theroot meaning of irrational is "without ratio,''or unable to be expressed as a fraction. TheGreeks found such numbers irrational notonly in the sense of "non-ratio-able" butalso in the sense of "nonsensical."

The differences between rational and ir-rational numbers are substantial. It can beshown that no more rational numbers existthan do whole numbers, but irrationalnumbers outnumber rational numbers. Thisfact, which is often presented as a paradox,is not especially surprising when you lookat how we have constructed rationalnumbers. They are built up out of wholenumbers and can be expressed as integerfractions. As I said above, irrational numberscannot be so expressed.

TWO TYPES

There are two different kinds of irrationalnumbers. The first, like the square root of

2, is called an algebraic irrational number.In algebra, we are restricted to some basicoperations: addition, subtraction, multipli-cation, division, raising to a power, andtaking roots. An algebraic number is onethat can be obtained by a finite number ofalgebraic operations.

An alternate definition states that an alge-braic number is one that is a solution of apolynomial equation. By definition, a poly-nomial is an expression that has rationalcoefficients and integer exponents. For ex-ample, the square root of 2 is one of thesolutions of x"2-2=0. Similarly, 2+\/5 isa solution of the equation x~3-5x"2 + 3x+ 1=0. There are many algebraic numbers.

However, there exists a second class ofirrational numbers that are not algebraic.They are not solutions of any polynomialequation, nor can they be calculated by afinite number of algebraic operations. Thesenumbers, higher in the constructivist hierar-chy of real numbers, are called transcenden-tal numbers. Not only are you unable towrite down the decimal value of a tran-scendental number, you are unable to ex-plicitly write down how to calculate it. Odd-ly some of these numbers are familiar tous. Among them can be found e, the baseof natural logarithms, and x, or pi.

In this column. I'll look at some surpris-ingly ordinary hiding places for these ex-traordinary numbers, I'll also take a look atsome ways of approximating the values ofthem. A well-known, but still amazing,equivalence is worth a quick mention. 1 havementioned e and w. There is yet anothernumber that is not irrational but imaginary(it's hard to keep your prejudices out ofnumbers). That number is, of course, i, thesquare root of - 1. which stands at the doorto complex numbers. Between v, e, and i,we seem to have the numerical equivalentof a circus freak show. But put them alltogether in the form of e'\ and you endup with the ordinary number - 1!

Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of

[continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 409

7T, e, AND ALL THAT

transcendental numbers is that,although there are infinitely many ofthem, only x and e are immediatelyrecognized by most educated peopleas transcendental. What makes thesetwo the celebrities of thetranscendental set? We'll try to get asense of that as we proceed

Pi and Coffee

Enough. On to the business at hand.The transcendental number x is equalto 3.1415926535. . . . This value canbe easily memorized by learning thisexchange: "May I have a large con-tainer of coffee?" "Cream and sugar?'Count the number of letters in eachword and get the sequence: 3. 1.4.1. 5. 9. 2. 6. 5. 3. 5.

Pi occurs in circles and circularfigures—ellipses, cycloids, and soon—but it also turns up in highly im-probable situations. For example, ifwe calculate the area between thecurve y = 1 /V1 -x2 and the x-axis forx=- I to 1 (see figure I), we find twosurprises. First, the area is finite: sec-ond, the area is x square units.

If we consider the curve y=llx fromx= 1 to oo (see figure 2a). we are notsurprised to find that its length is in-finite, nor that the area between thecurve and the x-axis is infinite. If werevolve the curve about the x-axis,forming a long funnel (see figure 2b),its surface area is also infinite (hohum!). However, we get a pi in the face

when we calculate the volume of thisfunnel: It is exactly x cubic units. Theparadox is truly mind-boggling. Wecannot paint the inner surface of thefunnel—there isn't enough paint in theuniverse—but we can fill it!

Buffon s Problem

In 1760. Comte Georges-Louis Leclercde Buffon devised an empiricalmethod for determining the value ofx Parallel lines, spaced equally at adistance d, are drawn on a sheet ofpaper. A needle of length !. where /is less than d. is tossed onto thepaper. Now consider the probabilityof the needle crossing one of theparallel lines. The "Buffon needletheorem" assures us that this prob-ability is 211 vd.

We can recreate this classic experi-ment by computer simulation. Usinga needle exactly half the length of thedistance between the lines (l=d/2). theratio of tosses to crosses shouldapproach x.

1 had hoped to tell you about anItalian mathematician, Lazzerini, whoperformed this experiment in 1901. Iwas disappointed to find that threebooks that discuss him give contradic-tory information and inaccurate arith-metic. One book gives 3400 tossesand 1082 crosses and notes that3400/1082 differs from x by less thanone-tenth of one percent. So far, sogood. Another source gives 3407

tosses but not the number of crosses,yet it claims 3.1415929 as the ratio.(Can you find the number of crosses?)The third book gives 3408 tosses and2169 crosses, using a needle equal inlength to the distance between thelines. That author attains a certainmeasure of immortality by actuallypublishing the "fact" that (2x3408/2169 = 3.1415929. Two of the authorshint broadly that Lazzerini's resultshave been looked upon with suspi-cion all these years—and smallwonder!

You may already know that 3 55/113,or 3.1415929 .... has been noted asthe "best" rational approximation ofx because it provides eight-digit ac-curacy using only three-digit numbers.The fraction is easily memorized onceyou note the pattern 113355. Itsdiscovery is credited to a Chinesemathematician. Tsu Ch'ung-chih.about the year 480.

Back to Buffon. In figure 3. the linesare d units apart. The needle haslength d!2: the half-needle. dIA. Whentossed at random, the needle will landwith its midpoint a random distancex from the left-hand line and will makea random angle a with the horizontal.We want to know whether the left halfof the needle crosses line 1 or theright half crosses line 2. We may there-fore limit our attention to one-half ofthe needle, dIA. and ask whether the

[continued]

Figure I: Area under u = r-—- . Figure 2a: Graph of y - — »n |l,oo)

Figure 2b: The funnel formed byrevolving 2a around the x-axis.

410 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198S

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SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 411

7T, e, AND ALL THAT

\n Buffon's needleexperiment, thetranscendental numberit emerges fromoperations involvingonly integers {tossesand crosses) andstraight lines.

projection of dlA onto the x-axis isgreater than or equal to x (in whichcase the left half of the needle inter-sects line 1) or is greater than or equalto d-x (in which case the right half ofthe needle intersects line 2). Listing 1presents a program that performs thesimulation for us. {Editor's note: Thelistings in this article are available for down-loading via BYTEnet Listings. The telephonenumber is (617) 861-9774.]

I find something less than satisfyingabout this program. In Buffon's exper-

LINE 1

iment, ir emerges from operations in-volving only integers (needle tossesand crosses) and straight lines. Thepleasure we take in it is akin to thatwe get when a magician pulls a rab-bit out of a hat. In our simulation pro-gram, however, we use the number1.57079633 in generating our anglemeasurement. As you may havenoticed, this is nothing other than n72to nine-digit accuracy. In our program,we see the magician put the rabbitinto the hat before the show begins.

Getting

to First Base

Perhaps we can do better with e, thebase of natural logarithms, which is

equal to 2.718281828459045

This value can also be memorized.After mastering the initial 2.7, recite"lackson, [ackson wore a pair of 4 5suntil he was 90." Andrew Jackson waselected president of the United Statesin 1828; hence, two 1828s. Since hewore a pair of 4 5s," the questionarises, "Shouldn't the next digits be4 54 590?" The reply is, "He wouldn'twear both guns on one hip, wouldhe0" This silly story was given to meby my good friend and colleague |ohnC Jacobs. As all good mnemonics do,

its sheer absurdity hard-wired the in-formation into my brain.

Check Your Euler

The number e turns up unexpectedlyin a classic problem called The Care-less Hatcheck Girl. This absentmind-ed woman checked n hats for n menduring a banquet. At the end of theevening, she returned the hats ran-domly to the men. What is the prob-ability that no man received his ownhat?

This seems to be a problem in ele-mentary probability. The hats can bedistributed in n\ \n factorial) ways. Wemust find the number of ways that nhats can be arranged so that no hatis given to its owner (the number ofcomplete permutations). This is not anelementary task.

The derivation of the complete per-mutation formula is complicated anduses some rare and exciting tech-niques. 1 will make it available to in-terested readers on request. The for-mula is given here without proof. Theprobability of a complete permutationof n objects is

1/2!-1/3!+1/4!-1/5! +

. +

-l)"«/«![continued]

Figure 3: The geometry of the Buff onneedle experiment.

Listing 1: T/te Buffon needle experiment in BASIC,

10

2030405060708090

100

110120130140150160170180190200

210

BUFFON'S NEEDLE EXPERIMENTBY BOB KUROSAKA

CLS

PRINTPRINTPRINT

'THIS PROGRAM APPROXIMATES THE NUMBER PI"'BY SIMULATING BUFFON'S NEEDLE-DROPPING EXPERIMENT,'PRINT

REM USE THE COMPUTER CLOCK TO SEED THE RANDOM-NUMBERGENERATOR.

SEED = VAL (RIGHT$(TIME$.2))RANDOMIZE(SEED)INPUT "NUMBER OF TRIALS";TRIALSFOR 1 = 1 TO TRIALS

ANGLE = 1.57079633#-RND(1)

X = RND(1)

PROJ = .25*COS(ANGLE)

IF PROJ > = X OR PROJ > = 1 - X THEN CROSSES = CROSSES + 1NEXT I

PRINT "NUMBER OF CROSSES "CROSSESPRINT "THE CALCULATED APPROXIMATION OF PI FROM THISIS:";TRIALS/CROSSESEND

412 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98S

Turbo

A CVJl//1!!™ With Turb0 ASYNCH- y°u can be m constant

/JO I If l/fl fouc/) w/tfj /te wor/rf iv/'f/iouf ever /eawrfgtf»e console. Rapid transit at its best. Turbo ASYNCH is designedto let you incorporate asynchronous communication capabilitiesinto your Turbo Pascal application programs, and it will drive anyasynchronous device via the RS232 ports, like printers, plotters,modems or even other computers. Turbo ASYNCH is fast, accurateand lives up to its specs. Features include...

♦ Initialization of the COM ports allowing you to set all transmis-sion options. ♦ Interrupt processing. ♦ Data transfer between cir-cular queues and communications ports. ♦ Simultaneous bufferedinput and output to both COM ports. ♦ Transmission speeds upto 9600 Baud. ♦ Input and output queues as large as you wish.+ X0N/X0FF protocol.

The underlying functions of Turbo ASYNCH are carefully craftedin assembler for efficiency, and drive the UART and programmableinterrupt controller chips directly. These functions, installed as aruntime resident system, require just 3.2K bytes. The interface tothe assembler routines is written in Turbo Pascal.

The Turbo Pascal PERFORMANCE PACKAGE'" is for the seriousTurbo Pascal programmer who wants quality tools to develop appli-cations. Every system comes with a comprehensive User ReferenceManual, all source code and useful sample programs. They requirean IBM PC or compatible, utilizing MS-DOS version 2.0 or later.There are no royalties for incorporating PERFORMANCE PACKAGEfunctions into your applications.

Turbo POWER TOOLS and Turbo ASYNCH sell for $99.95 each,and they may be ordered directly from BlaiseComputing, Inc. TO ORDER, call ^

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Turbo POWER TOOLS is asleek new series of procedures

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♦ Extensive string handling to complement the powerful TurboPascal functions. ♦ Screen support and window management,giVjing you fast direct access to the screen without using BIOS calls.

♦ Access to BIOS and DOS services, including DOS 3.0 and theIBM AT. ♦ Full program control by allowing you to execute anyother program from within your Turbo Pascal application. ♦ Inter-rupt service routines written entirely in Turbo Pascal. Assemblycode is not required even to service hardware interrupts like thekeyboard or clock.

1 n Turbo ^=1.™ mi orders aou •»6Vtfy. Sates T»-Wl phone--

a ttaamm* q! BorlandPOWER JOOLS. hfboAS YNCH and PERFORMANCE PACKAGE ire. !nc !8M n 3 registeredtrademark of iniemaiionl Business Machum CaisxnatHm.MS- DOS is a trademark ot Microsoft C

7T, e, AND ALL THAT

Many of you may recognize the pat-tern and rhythm of this formula—it isthe first n terms of the Maclaurinseries for e'x, where x = - 1. That is,as the number of hats increases, theprobability of a complete permutationapproaches 1/e.

In our program (see listing 2), we willsimulate the permutations of n hats.For n= 12, there are 176,214,841 com-plete permutations out of a possible12!, or 479,001,600 permutations. Theprobability is 03678794413 .... and

its reciprocal is 2.7182818274accurate to the eighth decimal place.As in Buffon's needle experiment, theprogram allows us to repeat the ex-periment any number of times. It willrandomly permute the n hats andcount the number of complete per-mutations that occur. Then it will printthe results and the ratio of number oftrials to number of complete permuta-tions, which should approximate e. Inthis program, we have managed to ef-fect our simulation without sneaking

Listing 2: The BASIC hakheck girl simulator.

10203040

5060

70

8090100

110120130140150160170180190200210220230240250260

270280290300310320330340350360

370

380390

THE TRANSCENDENTAL HATCHECK GIRLBY BOB KUROSAKA

CLS

PRINT "THIS PROGRAM APPROXIMATES THE NUMBER 'e' BY A MONTE

CARLO SIMULATION"

PRINT "OF A HATCHECK GIRL WHO RANDOMLY RETURNS HATS TO

CUSTOMERS."

PRINT :PRINT

INPUT "HOW MANY HATS SHOULD I USE";N.HATS

DIM HAT (N.HATS)

RANDOMIZE (VAL (RIGHT$(TIME$,2)))

INPUT "NUMBER OF SIMULATIONS TO RUN";N.TRIALS

CLS

REM RUN THE SIMULATION N.TRIALS TIMES

FOR TRIAL =1 TO N.TRIALS

REM ASSIGN THE HATS TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS

FOR OWNER = 1 TO N.HATSHAT(OWNER) = OWNERNEXT OWNEROWNER = 1 :FOUL.UPS = "PERFECT"

REM RANDOMLY RETURN THE HATS. IF NO ONE GOT THE RIGHTHAT. ADD ONE TO THE COMPLETE PERMUTATION COUNTER(COMP.PERM).

WHILE OWNER<= N.HATS AND FOUL.UP$ = "PERFECT"RECIPIENT=INT(RND(1)*N.HATS) + 1

IF HAT(RECIPIENT)<>0 THEN HAT(RECIPIENT) = 0 ELSE 290IF RECIPIENT = OWNER THEN FOUL.UP$ = "IMPERFECT"OWNER = OWNER+ 1WEND

IF FOUL.UP$ = "PERFECT" THEN COMP.PERM = COMP.PERM + 1NEXT TRIAL

PRINT "WITH A TOTAL OF";N.HATS;" HATS AND";N.TRIALS;"SIMULATIONS,"

PRINT "THE HATCHECK GIRL GAVE EVERYONE THE WRONGHAT";COMP.PERM;" TIMES"

PRINT "THE APPROXIMATION OF e THIS GIVES IS ;N.TRIALS/COMP.PERMEND

The transcendentalnumbers -k and eseem to be woveninto the very fabricof mathematics.

the answer into the program before-hand.

Winding Down

It is both amazing and amusing that7T. which is found in that most sym-metric figure, the circle, should be anonterminating, nonrepeating deci-mal number—a most unattractivenumber. Yet x is somehow fundamen-tal to mathematics. All angles aremeasured in radians (2x radians equal360 degrees); otherwise, awkward ad-justment factors must be introduced.The same holds true for e. As anundergraduate, I wondered whatcould possibly be "natural" aboutnatural logarithms. Yet calculus dem-onstrated that e is the most conve-nient base of all. The symmetry of eis perhaps more abstract than that of7r. For the curve defined by e'x, theslope of the tangent at the y-axis is45 degrees. But this is also a funda-mental kind of symmetry. All otherbases would require adjustmentfactors.

It appears that -w and e are con-stantly lurking in the shadows, snicker-ing as we trip over them. More seri-ously, these two powerful numbersseem to be woven into the very fabricof mathematics.

In closing, I want to at least men-tion my favorite irrational number: thegolden mean. <$> = (\ +vr5)/2 =1.6180339887 .... As you can see,it is an algebraic irrational number,not a transcendental number. But italso turns up in surprising places. Onehiding place is the Fibonacci se-quence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. 13, 21

a purely additive sequence of in-tegers. I leave you with the challengeof discovering <f> in that sequence. ■

414 BYTE- SEPTEMBER

XEROX

in

Store this inyour memory:buy two packsof Xerox FlDiskettesand get onepack free.

It's true. When you buy two packs of our new 3Wmicro diskettes or selected 5W diskettes, you'll receivean additional pack absolutely free* It's our way of intro-ducing you to our superior new floppies.

Try them out on your IBM-PC, PC-AT, Macintosh,Compaq, AT&T, ITT, Olivetti, HP or on our own PC'sand word processors. You'll see how superior they are,both in quality and performance. And they're packed in adurable library case as well.

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□ 8R2467:5'/4" high densitydiskettes (10 per pack) for yourIBM-AT

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This offer ends December 31,1985 and is limited tofive free packs per customer.

So remember, call 1-800-822-2200 Dept. 20 and orderyour free diskettes today. That's a pretty memorable offer!

'Your free pack will be of comparable or lesser value than the two you purchase.XEROXS is a 1 rademark of XEROX CORPORATION.

For more information from Xerox. Circle 396 on the Reader Service card.

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 415

CIRCUIT CELLAR FEEDBACK

Conducted by Steve Garcia

TI-99/4A Memory Expansion

Dear Steve

I own a TI-99 4A home computer. I ampresently using a cassette for additionalstorage. I would like to build my ownmemory-expansion board and/or floppy-controller board because the built-in 16Kbytes of the 99 4A is too small for whatI want to do.

I read your article "Build the Disk-80:Memory Expansion and Floppy-Disk Con-trol (March 1981. page 361. It seems thefirst thing I need to do is define the I Opins on the edge connector However. Tl'sdocumentation does not describe thesepins in any way. I am reluctant to disman-tle my computer, which would allow meto trace the 9900s I/O lines to the edgeconnector, because Tl used a somewhatbizarre construction that shields the mainPC board

David GehlyLittleton. MA

You re right about the bizarre construc-tion of the TI-99/4A.

Before attempting any interfacing tothe TI-99/4A. you should obtain a copyof the TI-99/4A Console Technical DataManual. The manual describes the ad-dress locations to be used for memoryand I/O additions. You can obtain thismanual from Texas Instruments Inc..Dealer Parts Department. POB 53. Lub-bock TX 79408.

I am not aware of any articles onbuilding a memory expansion or afloppy-disk interface for the TI-99/4A.However, a good source of informationon the TI-99/4A is the series of articlesbeing written for Computer Shoppermagazine by Randy Holcomb calledRandy's Ravings.' These articles covermany of the technical aspects of theTI-99/4A and the peripherals available forthe system. You can probably obtain thistype of information by writing to RandyHolcomb at Computer Shopper. 407South Washington Ave. POB F. Titusville.FL 32781.-Steve

Call-Status Monitoring

Dear Steve.

I have built a 6809 single-board com-puter to use as a household controller/'

burglar alarm. The program flow followsyour outline in "Build a Computer Con-trolled Security System for Your Home"(January through March 1979) exactly andruns like a charm.

Accessory boards add BSR lighting-system control and inputs for a wirelessalarm receiver similar to the one you usedin your articles. An SC-01 speech syn-thesizer will deliver a message uponacknowledgment of an alarm condition toany phone number(s| I choose.

The only problem I'm having is monitor-ing the status of a phone call from thecomputer. If the computer calls a numberand it's busy, it will go ahead and deliverthe message regardless. The same thingwill happen if the call wasn't switchedproperly by the phone company andnever gets through.

Your article in a recent BYTE detailed thefrequencies of the tones to monitor idialtone. busy, ringing). I haven't had any luckusing NE567 tone decoders, possibly dueto the slow response at lower frequencies.

Could you please tell me how to monitorthe progress of these status tones? Doesanyone make a chip that performs thisfunction0

Stephen |. BlairAPO San Francisco

I am glad to hear that you are gettingsuch good performance from my com-puter-controlled security system, and Ihope the following information will helpyou in expanding the system.

Special chips are available that recog-nize dial tones, busy signals, ringingtones, and recorder tones (commonlyknown as call-progress tones!. TheJanuary BYTE detailed the informationthat you are looking for in the CircuitCellar Feedback column.

See Do I Have Circuits?'' on page 414for complete information on the chipsyou need. Also see Build the Touch-ToneInteractive Message System (March,page 981—Sieve

Searching for Books

Dear Steve.

I want to build my own computer, butI need help in obtaining good books onthe subject. You see, English books on

computers are rare here, must be ordered(which takes centuries!|, and once orderedmust be bought even if the book turns outto be a lemon.

I am interested in what operating sys-tems I can run on a Z80. what softwareis available, and which controllers (for disk,video, etc.) I can interface to it. I wouldalso appreciate any information on 16-bitcomputers, since I cannot go into my localbookstore and browse through books ofthis kind in English.

D. KOOHDOR

Bern. Switzerland

The books below should be helpful.

Practical Interfacing Techniques forMicroprocessor Systems by lames W.Coffron and William E Long (Prentice-Hall. 19831. Written for the serious hob-byist who is exploring interfacing tech-niques for the first time, it is a very com-plete yet clear description of the require-ments to interface memory and periph-eral devices to a microprocessor.

Microprocessor Interfacing Techniquesby Rodnay Zaks and Austin Lesea (Sybex1979). This book covers much of thesame material as the above-mentionedbook but complements it by extendingthe discussion to cassette tape recordersand floppy-disk drives.

A more advanced but clearly writtenbook that covers many of the topics youmentioned is Microcomputer Interfacingby Harold S. Stone (Addison-Wesley19821. In addition to many practical ex-amples, the book also features state-of-the-art information so that an apprecia-tion of the sophistication of new devicescan be obtained —Steve ■

Over the years I have presented many dif-ferent projects in BYTE. I know many of youhave built them and are making use of themin many ways.

I am interested in hearing from any of youtelling me what you vc done with these projectsor how you may have been influenced by thebasic ideas. Write me at Circuit Cellar Feed-back. POB 582. Glastonbury. CT 06033and fill me in on your applications. All lettersand photographs become the property of SteveCiarcia and cannot be returned.

416 BYTh • SEPTEMBER WSS

COPYRIGHT <£ I98S STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WE WROTETHE BOOK ONHIGH PERFORMANCE

VOLUME I

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The DS 180 Plus. The latest edition of thebook we wrote on High Performance.And that's only half the story

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Inquiry 109

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 417

BYTELINES

Conducted by Sol Libes

Verbatim recently demonstrated a pro-totype 3 i/j-inch erasable optical disc toprospective OEMs. It stores 47 megabytes(unformatted). That's not much as optical-disc drives go. but the current opticals areall write-once, read-only. Verbatim is re-portedly shooting for third-quarter 1987production with an OEM price of S300and $20 to S30 for the removable discs.OEM prices for 10-megabyte hard-diskdrives are now well below S200. with 20-megabyte drives below S300. Prices areexpected to go even lower in the next 12months as lapanese and Korean makersstart competing with U.S. vendors. Evenprices on larger drives should be affectedin what some feel will be a bloodbath forU.S. hard-drive makers . . Within twoweeks of Lotus shipping Jazz, some WestCoast dealers were advertising 40 percentdiscounts on the product.... Now thatIBM is beginning to ship PC network sys-tems, dealers are finding that many popu-lar software products, such as Lotus 1-2-3,Framework, and dBASE, do not work prop-erly in a network environment. No doubtthese vendors will have to bring out spe-cial versions of their software for thesesystem users.... Several Lotus 1-2-3 clonesare shortly expected to hit the market andsell for a fraction of the cost of the realthing; expect Lotus to announce a new.greatly enhanced version. The questionnow is: Will users go for expensive bellsand whistles or low-cost compatibility?

Table I: lop 10 microcomputermanufacturers as compiled buDatamation magazine. 'Revenues arefor 1984, in millions of dollars.

1 IBM

2 Apple Computer _

3. Commodore

International

4. Hewlett-Packard

5. Sperry

6. Tandy

7 Convergent

Technologies

8 Compaq Computer

9 Ing. C. Olivetti

10. NEC

_$40000_1897.9

_1129.5

510.0

503.4

_402.8

_361 7_329.0_2896_258 9

Experts are predicting that 1986 will bethe year of the low-cost 3'/2-inch hard disk,lust as no manufacturer would think of in-troducing a computer without at least onefloppy drive, all new systems will containa hard-disk drive. The reason is that pricesfor 3 W-inch drives should be far lower thanthe current 5W-inch units. Using a smallfraction of the parts employed in currenthard-disk drives, occupying less than athird of the space (say goodbye to sepa-rate controller cards and expensive ca-bling) and less than a quarter of theweight, the smaller drives are expected toprovide a greatly improved level of reli-ability.

Rumor has it that AT&T is getting readyto enter the optical-storage arena via acheap wallet-size card holding 2 mega-bytes or more of data. The product isprobably an option for AT&T's 6300 and7300 desktop systems.

The Top Ten

Do you know the top 10 microcomputermakers? Without looking at table 1, takepaper and pencil and write their names.Now look at the list in table 1 compiledby Datamation magazine (June 1985, page38).

Apple Bytes & Pits

Apple recently showed its first quarterlyloss ever and is experiencing severe belt-tightening as it. and the industry as awhole, attempts to weather a slackeningof growth in the personal computer in-dustry. Apple laid off 1200 employees inlune, only a month after laying off 1600employees. It has trimmed about 40 per-cent of its staff, closed three plants, andconsolidated operations.

Working on the cutting edge of tech-nology, as Apple has traditionally done,is a good strategy in a young, rapidlygrowing market. As the personal computerindustry matures and supply catches upwith demand, marketing becomes moreimportant than technology. The pioneerseither reorient their efforts from productinnovation to product selling or fail tocompete. Apple now appears to be goingthrough that transition and remolding itsoperation into the IBM-type marketing-oriented computer maker.

Apple is expected to introduce severalnew products that will upgrade the powerof the venerable Apple II. Anticipated thisfall are plug-in cards that can increase theunit's memory up to 1 megabyte in 2 56K-byte chunks and a 3/2-inch disk drive thatstores nearly a megabyte. Also expectedearly next year is the 16-bit micropro-cessor upgrade.

IBM Watching

Even IBM is feeling the current recessionin the computer business. IBM presidentlohn Akers recently said that business forthe first nine months of 1985 will notmeasure up to the same period last yearand profits for the year will be lower thanlast year.

Did you know that IBM has 394.930employees and. according to Datamation(June 1985, page 42), the average revenueper employee was $112,200 for last year?That makes IBM one of the most profit-able computer companies in the world.

According to PC Week magazine (June 111985, page 1), IBM's highly automatedproduction line enables the company tomake a 55 percent profit on each PC sold.A $2 520 PC with 2 56K bytes of RAM. a360K-byte floppy drive, a disk controller,and a monochrome-display controllercard costs IBM about $700 to produce.

IBM is now marketing the IX in Australia.The IX is made in lapan and has been onsale there for almost a year. It runs MS-DOS: contains two 360K-byte 3/2-inchfloppies, 512K bytes of RAM, and a car-tridge slot: and is not expandable The unitis seen as a lower-cost, lapanese versionof the PCjr. There are rumors that IBM isseriously considering marketing the unitin the U.S. (after selling out its current in-ventory of PCjrs).

Incidentally, after the recent backlash to

{continued)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 Festival. 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.

418 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198^

-NOSEDDATABASE *99.

If You Liked DBase III,You'll Flip Over TAS"

Hard-nosed businessownershavebeen asking for the power of DBaseIII™ and RBase 5000™ but withoutthe high price. That's why BusinessTools, Inc. created TAS™

Compare TAS with DBase III andRBase 5000. You'll see why we thinkTAS is a better "Hard-Nosed" valuethan DBase or RBase. TAS includesa data dictionary. TAS includes a trueprocedural language. TAS includes arun-time compiler. PlusTAS supports multi-userrecord and file locking.

TAS lets you to developyourown professional menu-driven business applica-tions. And not just simpleones either. TAS applicationscan hold up to 17 millionrecords. And because TAScompiles them, they run fast.

(relational database). Now he'staken the next big step by creatingTAS, the affordable software for yourbusiness. And it's backed with Phil'sreputation and personal service.

TASM Runs OnThese CPUs

TAS is available for the IBMPC/XT/AT™ Compaq™ AT&T 6300™Tandy 1000, 1200, 2000™ and mostMS-DOS™ CP/M™ and MP/M™systems.

Multi-User

Data Dictionary

Procedural Language Yes

I Compiler

•| Records Per File

M

■M Field Size'■M Prices

But Why Is ItOnly $99?

We could have pricedTAS at $695 like the otherguys, it's well worth it. Butwe happen to believe"Hard-Nosed" businesspeople are looking for realsoftware value today, sothat's what we've given you.

Take It From Hard-Nosed Phil Mickelson

If anyone's "Hard-Nosed" aboutgood software, it's Phil. In 1982, hecreated The Sensible Solution™

■£ Files Openv| Fields Per File

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$99

TASr

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10,254

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No

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10

128

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4,000

Get TASM AccountingSoftware for $249

But why stop with just a database?For just $249, you get TAS RelationalDatabase/Language plus GeneralLedger, Accounts Receivable andAccounts Payable. And for $399 youget all the above plus Inventory,Sales Order Entry, Purchase OrderEntry, and Payroll.

Source code Included FREE! Soyou can even modify the accountingto fit your business.

Call Today1-800-648-6258

Call our Toll-Free Hotline.Use your VISA or MasterCardto order today.Outside Washington call1-800-648-6258. Washingtonresidents call 1-206-644-2015.

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RBASE5000

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Unlimited

40

400

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1,530

MoitefCord

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MplM

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^countingSolutio

Copyright 1985, Business Tools, Inc

The following are registered trademarks of these com-panies TAS. Accounting Solution Business Tools IncRBase5000 Micfonmlnc.DBaselll.Ashton-Tatelnc.CP/Mand MP/M. Digital Research Inc: IBM PC/XT/AT, Inter-national Business Machines Corp. Compaq. CompaqComputer Corp; AT&T 6300 AT&T Information Systemslnc.Tandy 1000.1200.2000. TandyCorp, MS-DOS MicrosoftCorp, The Sensible Solution trademark rights are claimedby O'Hanlon Computer Systems Inc

O 8t"1a Qpc-oos

• nCP/M.M

1 ci**»*

■ compute"18\ Name

t StreetCUV■ state* Phone

16 bitC MS-0°sa cP/W'86

C8"

(Foieig""

(Ml a

c,ed,tC»oW«*'°nLcaK!NurnW-

Payment

Signature

Inquiry 43

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 419

BYTELINES

IBM's announced cessation of PCjr pro-duction, IBM adopted the policy of notcommenting as to whether any product isin production. It will only confirm whetheror not the product is being shipped.

IBM is also rumored to be planning theintroduction of several coprocessor-equipped ATs, in addition to the already-announced desktop 36. These are ex-pected to include a UNIX (Berkeley 4.2)

unit based on the National Semiconduc-tor 32032 32-bit microprocessor and an801 unit for the scientific market. Thesemachines would be sold by IBM's ad-vanced dealer program available only tolarge chains.

Continuous-Speech Input System

Kurzweil Applied Intelligence Inc. (411Waverly Oaks Rd.. Waltham. MA 02154)

YOU CAN'T TRANSFERFILES FROM APPLETO IBM...

WRONG!

A "wireless file transfer" package for the IBM PC® to Apple11 and back, and back again. Turnover is a firmware boardwhich fits into any slot in the IBM PC® or compatible, andsoftware running under MS-DOS®. No modems, no seriallinks, no hassles, no problems. TURNOVER™ will formatApple CP/M® , Apple DOS 3.3, Pro Dos, Apple 111 andP-System disks. Leave your IBM and Apple computerswhere they are. Put Your Apple Disk In Your IBM-PC andtransfer your file to a PC-DOS disk. Allows for modifica-tions to text and data files. It's a simple, inexpensive, fasthigh performance alternative to complicated serial linksand modems.

See your dealer or call for information. (213) 938-0857

ex

ll/systi

6022 W. Pico Blvd . Los Angeles, CA 90035

MS DOS is a registered trademark of MicrosoftCorporation

APPLE is a registered trademark of APPLE Computers. Inc IBM PC 6 PC DOS are registered trademarks of

Internauonal Business Machines Corporation.

pSvstem is a trademark of SofTech Microsystems. Inc

has introduced the first commercial voiceinput system capable of handling con-tinuous speech. It can learn speech frommany users in several languages with a1000-word vocabulary (a 10,000-word beta-test unit is expected later this year). Thecompany claims 100 percent accuracy.Units that are currently on the marketwork only with interrupted speech, havesmaller vocabularies, and have far lessaccuracy.

The unit is a board-level product that willsell to OEMs for as low as $3000 in quan-tity. PC, multibus, and RS-232C versionsalready exist in which the unit acts as akeyboard input device. The unit is speaker-adaptive and performs better the more ittalks" with the same user.

Called the KVS3000, the unit comprisesthree boards, an input analog-to-digitalconverter with signal conditioning, anacoustic pattern processor recognizing3000 utterances, and a speech processor(using a 68000) that assembles recognizedstrings of speech and handles I/O to thehost system.

CD-ROM Update

At the recent Consumer Electronics Showin Chicago in |une, Activenture Inc. (PacificGrove. CA) demonstrated the first compactdisc containing the complete text for anencyclopedia. It used less than a quarterof the 5 50-megabyte storage capacity ofthe 4M-inch-diameter disc (using theSony/Philips standard). Activentureshowed an improved retrieval system thatallowed retrieval of data in less than 3seconds. The technique employed an in-dex file as large as the 60-megabyte datafile.

And Reference Technology Inc. (Denver,CO) announced the availability of the firstCD-ROM drive with an IBM PC interfaceand software driver. The unit lists for $1535plus $100 for the software. National Deci-sion Systems (Encinitas, CA) announceda 1-gigabyte disk for that drive that con-tains marketing and demographic data-bases previously stored on a large mini-computer.

Both Sony and Philips are shippingevaluation samples of the bare drives toOEM customers. It is believed that theseinclude Atari. Commodore, IBM, and Ap-ple. Atari is already promising such a unitfor its new ST computers with an expectedselling price of $500.

Credit-Card Software

Mitsubishi Plastics Industries Ltd. incooperation with Hudson Soft Ltd., both

(continued)

420 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98S

Inquiry 377 for End-Users Inquiry 378 for DEALERS ONLY.

Avocet turns an ordinary PCinto an extraordinary development system.

And saves you $20,000 in the process.

Now, there's a way to see all yourbest microprocessor designs takeroot, easily and effectively. Avocetcross-assemblers, simulators,

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8085

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XASM400

COP400

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XASMFB

F8/3870

300 00

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XASMZ8

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Inquiry 29

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 421

BYTELINES

of lapan. has introduced a new way todistribute software. The software is con-tained in a plastic credit-card-like packageabout twice the thickness of a standardcredit card. The card contains either a1-megabyte masked ROM or a 2 56K-byteprogrammable ROM or EEPROM. The 32plated traces at one end of the card formthe edge-card connector. You can insertthe card into your personal computer's in-terface adapter.

The first software card to be introducedcontains a game and costs $19.20. Anadapter for MSX-based systems costs 55.An adapter for Commodore 64 systemsis expected shortly.

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. (Osaka,lapan) has already constructed an experi-mental automatic blood-pressure mea-suring system that writes data to anEEPROM-type card. The card is then in-serted into an interface adapter connectedto a personal computer for read-out andanalysis.

Hudson Soft is planning to install vend-ing machines with cards that are pro-grammed when a purchaser buys an item.

The purchaser will probably be able to usea credit card to buy the card.

Microcode Copyright Dispute

A court battle with far-reaching implica-tions is in progress. Intel Corp. is suingNEC charging that NEC's new V series ofmicroprocessors violates its microcodecopyright. Microcode determines the fun-damental instruction set for a processor.NEC claims that it did not copy Intel'smicrocode for the 8086 16-bit micropro-cessor, that microcode is not protectedanyway, and that Intel is harassing NEC'scustomers with this suit. A win for Intel willgreatly strengthen the position of com-panies with proprietary computer architec-tures. A loss will let competitors freelyemulate computer designs.

MSX UPDATE

Over one million Z80-based MSX systemswere sold in the last 12 months in the FarEast and Europe. Over a dozen companiesmanufacture consumer-oriented MSXcomputers.Now the developers of MSX (Microsoft

and ASCII lapanl are promising to short-ly release MSX-2, supporting 3/2-inch flop-pies and a 512- by 512-pixel 2 56-colordisplay, with a base price below S400.Preproduction models are expected to beshown at the October lapan electronicsshow. And IBM is known to be taking avery close look at MSX.

As yet. MSX has not made any inroadsin the U.S., primarily because of the highS200 to $300 retail price and lack offloppy disks.

The One Stop Shop

Where else but in Silicon Valley can youmake a quick trip to an all-night marketfor a quart of milk or loaf of bread andalso pick up some EPROMs. a PC or two.some memory chips, or a copy of Lotus1-2-3 at discount prices? If you are in Sun-nyvale. California, head for Fry's Elec-tronics, a part of the Fry's Food and Drugsupermarket chain advertised as the placefor "fast, one-stop shopping for the SiliconValley professional." where you can getyour three Cs: computers, components,and convenience foods. ■

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a message toour subscribers

From time to time we make the BYTE subscriber listavailable to other companies who wish to send oursubscribers material about their products. We take greatcare to screen these companies, choosing only thosewho are reputable, and whose products, services, orinformation we feel would be of interest to you. Directmail is an efficient medium for presenting the latestpersonal computer goods and services to oursubscribers

Many BYTE subscribers appreciate this controlled useof our mailing list, and look forward to findinginformation of interest to them in the mail. Used areour subscribers' names and addresses only (no otherinformation we may have is ever given)

While we believe the distribution of this informationis of benefit to our subscribers, we firmly respect thewishes of any subscriber who does not want to receivesuch promotional literature. Should you wish to restrictthe use of your name, simply send your request to thefollowing address.

BYTE Publications Inc.

Attn: Circulation Department,

70 Main St., Peterborough, NH 03458

422 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 116

UPAND uc UPAllDCOMING "' RUNNING

g>1985 AT&T Information Systems

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BUT AT&T HAS IT TODAY.

If you're tired of waiting for a way to build yourcompany's information network, AT&T offers aready solution.

It's called AT&T Information Systems Network(ISN), the versatile, cost-effective local area net-work that's available now.

RUN AS ONE.

Think of the time, effort and money you'llsave as ISN links together terminals, work-stations, personal computers, minicomputers,and mainframes to give your company a co-hesive, efficient information network. And ISNlinks to your PBX as well. So your people canshare information, resources, data bases andfiles with the efficiency of a single system. Andbe more productive by getting the informationthey need when they need it.

Also, ISN is easy to run. Its unique central-ized administration and control capability lets youmonitor network performance, pinpoint malfunc-tions, take corrective action, and prevent unau-thorized access to information, all from onecontrol console. And its open architecture givesyou the flexibility to design a network that linksAT&T's products and those from other manufac-turers across any number of locations.

THE FAST TRACK.

ISN not only puts your data on a fast track, itputs your business on one too. It's cost effectivefor as few as 50 connections, and can expand toseveral thousand. Easy and inexpensive to install,ISN uses optical fiber to move data fast. And withcopper wire connections to your workstations,moves and changes are no longer a problem.

Add to this the fact that ISN is backed by thelargest, most experienced sales and serviceforce in the industry, and it's clear that the AT&TInformation Systems Network is the right choicefor your company.

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Inquiry 71

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 425

LETTERS

LETTERS

novation is that it is not a computer! Atleast, most are not using it as one; it is anexpensive drafting aid. Also the degreeof proprietariness" in the Mac (ROMs,custom chips, disk format) means that trueclones will not appear to drive the pricedown and the performance up, as hashappened with the IBM PC and the AppleII. The Mac will remain as limited and asexpensive as It is today, and the Stride 420will remain the best 68000 computer, asevidenced by the number of blatantclones emerging (not to be advertised byme). Please note I am not a Strideemployee, just a satisfied and partisancustomer.

P. MatsonReno. NV

More Structure. Not Less

From his letter. I fear that Erwin S. StraussI Toward a Less Structured Approach.'May. page 4^8) has not fully understoodstructured programming. Structured pro-gramming has never been an attempt tohave "fewer lines, fewer statements, fewervariables"; although he is correct that itis supposed to be easier to read andunderstand

His examples are too small to say any-thing about structured programming. Anydiscipline, or no discipline, will work forsufficiently short programs: if you can holdthe program in your head as you're writingit, you don't need any help. But if the pro-gram is too large to know entirely, if you'renot the only person working on it, if youexpect to change it three years from nowto run on a different computer you mustbe able to understand it from reading thecode.

The essence of structured programmingis that a program should be composed ofsmall building blocks, each with someclear and understandable function, con-nected in an understandable way Repeatthis as often as you want: The buildingblocks of one level are themselves com-posed of smaller subprograms. The ad-vantage of this is that you. the program-mer, can understand the program (or anysubprogram) on its own ground; you needto know what the subprograms do. but nothow they do it.

Most languages have primitive opera-tions, like input and output: would youwant to have to know how your OPENstatement does disk accesses before youcould use it? Probably not. The ideal struc-tured program treats any complicatedoperation—the ones that you wrote your-self—the same way. You don't want to haveto think about how your B-tree algorithm

works except during the algorithm; the restof the program should treat it as a magicalamulet that does disk lookups.

This has a number of advantages. It'seasier to write programs. You can write thetop level of a program as if in an ultrahigh-level language with commands that doprecisely what you want. Then write eachof those commands as a subroutine in aslightly lower-level language, and so on,until you're writing in the real computerlanguage. For example, the top level of aspreadsheet might be

Initialize Everything

LOOP

Display The Changes That Affect

The Screen

Get A Command

If The Command_ls_Quit THENEXIT

ELSEDo The Command

END_IFEND_LOOPFinish Up

That is the main routine.

It is also easier to debug programs. Witha moderate amount of care, each of thecommands is independent of all theothers except those that it calls (strictly,that it or any of its callees, recursively,calls). If you want to rewrite yourGet A Command, fixing bugs or add-ing features or moving it to anothermachine, you will know that your changeswon't damage any of the rest of the pro-gram. You don t have that guarantee in anonstructured program; it is quite likelythat you will have to make changes in allthe rest of the code.

Structured programming encouragesmodifying parts of the code to make themwork better and be friendlier. When thedetails of entering a command can con-found the screen-refresh routine. I'm goingto hesitate a long time before I touch thecommand-reader If they're separate. Iwon't worry. Also, when I change thingsin the command-reader, a lot of its sub-routines will still be useful: I'll already havemost of the tools 1 need

In fact, structured programming is a wayof avoiding discipline on a small scale.When I wrote the body of the spread-sheet. I didn't think in any especially struc-tured way or make any particular attemptto make it easy to understand. It's only 11lines of code and not very dense at that:there's not enough there to have troublewith.

If every routine is too small and too easyto understand to have trouble with, where

are you going to have trouble? (That s way.way oversimplified, but it has the rightidea. You will still have bugs—there arealways bugs—but they're easier to fix.)

I cannot understand Mr. Strauss s objec-tion to structured programming from hisletter. In one paragraph, he seems to thinkthat "one of the costs of structure isinsensitivity to the end user."' In another,"structured programming is a fine thing ina production-type environment."' Thisseems to imply that it is a fine thing forwidely distributed programs to be insensi-tive to the end user, but local and tem-porary programs should be friendly. Irather doubt that he intended this. Say-ing that "debugging can come later' israther peculiar: it is very easy to write aprogram that does great things—exceptthat it doesn't work.

The quality of a program doesn't haveanything to do with its programmingdiscipline. Designing the program (espe-cially the part the user sees) and writingit should be as separate as possible; in hisexample, the style of printing the indexshould have been chosen at leisure by thedesigner, not on the fly by the program-mer. I guess that Wirth didn't do this:shame on him.

I suggest that anyone critiquing struc-tured programming (or anything else) cri-tique the discipline itself, rather than avague impression of it.

Bard BloomCambridge, MA

Can This Puzzle Be Solved?

It certainly is no secret that this world con-tains more than its share of frustrations.However. I'd sooner take on writing a pro-gram in BASIC to calculate to the last digitof pi than try to solve the Rubik's Cubeon the cover of your lune issue. How canthis puzzle be solved with two bluesquares in the middle?

Suzie R. MacallanesScoffs Valley. CA

Gregg Williams replies:Thanks for allowing me to say "I told youso.' When Robert Tinney came up withhis Rubik s Cube idea for the lune BYTEcover II was the theme editor). I told himhed better base his painting on a realRubik s Cube. Otherwise. I told him.there d probably be some inconsistencyin the image he came up with, and someBYTE reader would surely find it. Whenhe declined to do so. I found a few edge-and corner-cube errors, but I complete-ly overlooked the fact that each center

{continued)

426 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

REAL-TIME INNOVATION

Computer professionals work with advanced equipment and technologiesat Northrop Advanced Systems Division.

Northrop Advanced Systems Division is advancing aviation intothe 21st century by successfully interfacing human creativity withpowerful sophisticated computer systems. Here, utilizing latestand often revolutionary equipment and techniques, our inno-vative Information Resource Management (IRM) organizationattracts the nation's finest computer professionals. Join ourteam and work in one of the worlds most advanced hightechnology environments.

Our facilities are ideally situated midway between Los Angeles and Orange Countyin Southern California. We have immediate openings for the following:

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Northrop provides our employees a competitive, comprehensive benefits package. Pleasesend your resume to: Bill Hargen, Computer Systems Employment Office, Dept.B 686, P.O. Box 1138, Pico Rivera. CA 90660-9977.

PROOF OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED. Northrop is an Equal OpportunityEmployer M/F/H/V.

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We're within your reach.

Inquiry 273

SEPTEMBER I985 -BYTE 427

LETTERS

face must be a different color! Thanks forconfirming my high opinion of the BYTEreader.

Paying Extra for Manuals

Yesterday, the disk I use for word process-ing gave me a system error number 10.However, when I tried to find the Englishtranslation of this error message. I dis-covered that the manufacturer had notbothered to document any error mes-sages, so as to enhance' the user-friend-liness of its manuals

No, this was not some lapanese import.It was that bastion of user-friendliness,Apple Computer.

I later learned that Apple did in factdocument the Macintosh system errors ina separate manual, which costs an addi-tional S100. No other personal computercompany in the world would charge mefor an essential reference manual after I'dspent $4000 on a computer system. Itappears that Apple should take somelessons from its more experienced com-petitor. IBM. IBM documented all possibleerror messages for the IBM PC in its stan-dard manual and charges only $39 for itstechnical reference manual for truehackers.

Richard SingerBerkeley, CA

Yet Another Gem

I found "Public-Domain Gems'' by lohnMarkoff and Ezra Shapiro IMarch, page2071 to be both interesting and valuable,but I want to point out one gem that theyoverlooked.

No Visible Support Software (Box 1344Berkeley. CA 94704) distributes a public-domain FORTH called F83 that fullyobserves the FORTH 83 standard. F83 waswritten by Henry Laxen and Michael Perry

and is available for a variety of micropro-cessors, including a version that runsunder PC-DOS. (In the DOS version, all I/Ogoes through DOS. except cursor position-ing and clear screen, which go throughBIOS.)

F83 from No Visible Support costs $2 5for disk and handling (the software is freel.The source disk sent to the purchaser iscompacted by means of a Huffman code:the unpacking program is on the disk andproduces two disks" worth of code. Thecode is also found on various bulletinboards: the most recent version of F83 isversion 2.1.

Because F83 is an exceptionally cleanand powerful implementation, it is becom-ing widely used as the basis for a varietyof languages and products.

Michael HamSanta Cruz. CA

Computers in )apan

As far as I can tell from sources who aretamiliar with lapan. the personal computerboom has soured in lapan While themajor contenders try in vain to stir interestamong buyers with new product offerings,NEC is stili strengthening its full nelson'on the market inearing 70 percent share.with Fujitsu taking up second with some20 percent).

The home/game market that the MSXtechnology was supposed to spark is stale:all the talk of "new media" and "INS" stillseems to elude the family market. The re-maining game machines are now in the$4 5 range, rather than the $360-to-$4 50range of the MSX machines.

Sord—Japan's Apple and crown princeof that country's fledgling venture busi-ness—is in deep trouble with a devastatedearnings picture and deep internal rifts inmanagement. Its proprietary PIPS operat-

ing system has been more or less aban-doned. Sord's forthcoming $600 large-screen LCD word-processing portable maybe its last hurrah as a player in the exportmarket.

Apple-lapan, along with its partnerCanon Hanbai in lapan, has run intotrouble with its attemps to develop func-tional kanji firmware for the Macintosh: at-tempts to generate kanji character sets onthe Mac would end up entirely incompati-ble with the existing Mac operating sys-tem. The project seems to have beenshelved, and Apple is resigned to marginalsales performance. But even the unmodi-fied Macs were selling for astronomicalprices-698,000 yen list ($3150).

The lapanese have so far found com-puters best suited to the office environ-ment (with suitable clerical staff to operatethem). Their impact has unquestionablybeen solid and is still widening. If andwhen the lapanese "invasion" ever arrivesin the U.S., it will be in integrated OA sys-tems (word-processing, optical filing, fac-simile). But even then, the software re-quirements for the U.S. and lapaneseoffice environments are virtually incom-patible. In the long run, we may see astrong presence in lapan only by IBM (withits successful 5550 series) and, converse-ly, in the U.S. only by the local subsidiariesof NEC and Fujitsu. The Sharps, Epsons,Mitsubishis, Sords. and Kay Nishis are notlikely to remain as long-term competitors.

I may well be wrong on a number ofcounts, so I look forward to reading moreupdates in BYTE on the lapanese situa-tion.

Peter E. Fuchs

The Program on U.S-lapan Relations

The Center for International Affairs

Harvard University

Cambridge. MA ■

MASTERBYTE.

Computer Consultants.

Clonum Orientae »

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1984

Unixorous Cigantous

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COMPUTER SYSTEMS

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Inquiry 312

Inquiry 226

Inquiry 136

Software forEngineers

Electronic Circuit Analysis

• Nonlinear transient, DC, AC analysis

• Worst Case, Monte-Carlo

• Frequency, time dependent parts $450.

Logic Simulation System

• Full delay analysis

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Tatum Labs33 Main StreetNewtown, CT 06470(203) 426-2184

Inquiry 363

64K«128K«256K

DRAMS

80287-3

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Inquiry 34

SI 00 boards

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Inquiry 282

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Inquiry 324

WHAT'S NEW

NEW SYSTEMS

VersaBraille II

Telesensory Systems hasintroduced the Versa-Braille II system, a portable,disk-based electronic infor-mation processor for theblind. This braille computerlets you electronically store.process, and retrieve infor-mation. A special telephonemodem can link VersaBrailleII to other computers.

VersaBraille II consists of astandard 3'/2-inch micro-floppy-disk system and abraille display that sub-stitutes for a video monitor.Its memory holds up to30.000 characters; disk sup-port boosts the unit'scapacity to 77,000 charac-ters. This is adequate formany word-processing pro-cedures, such as formatting,high-speed searching, andinserting, deleting, andrelocating text. The systemcan simultaneously outputbraille and print information.

VersaBraille II is fully pro-grammable. Menus guidethe user to each of the sys-tem's programs. The manu-facturer provides specialsoftware that converts Versa-Braille II into a four-functioncalculator with algebraiclogic, floating decimal point,square root, and percent.Plans for other softwarepackages include a 50,000-word spelling checker, atwo-way braille translator.and a language interpreter.

The price of a VersaBrailleII system is S6995 plus ship-ping and handling. For moreinformation, contact Telesen-sory Systems Inc. 455 NorthBernardo Ave, POB 74 5 5,Mountain View, CA94039-7455, (415) 960-0920.Inquiry 615.

HP's Series 300 technical workstation.

Hewlett-Packard'sSeries 300

The Series 300 technicalworkstations fromHewlett-Packard expand theHP 9000 family. A modulardesign lets you choose theCPU, display, systems soft-ware, programming lan-guage, and peripherals.

For an entry-level to mid-range system, you canchoose a 10-MHz Motorola68010. If you require high-speed processor perfor-mance, a 32-bit 16.6-MHz68020 is available. Withboth CPU configurations,you get 1 megabyte ofRAM. expandable to IVimegabytes.

Low-resolution displaychoices include two 12-inchmonitors with 512 by 400pixels in black and white orcolor. You can also choose a19-inch color or 17-inchmonochrome high-resolutionmonitor with a 1024- by768-pixel display.

The Series 300 runs mostSeries 200 applications soft-ware. Packages are availablefor word processing, spread-

sheets, database manage-ment, project management,and graphics. You canchoose an integrated word-processing/spreadsheet/database package or pro-grams for electrical andmechanical engineering.BASIC 4.0, Pascal 3.1, andHP-UX are also available.

Peripheral options includedigitizer tablets, mice, mass-storage subsystems, printers,and plotters. Two IEEE-802.3standard cabling optionsallow linking up to 30 sys-tems over a distance of 185meters or up to 100 com-puters over a distance of500 meters. Series 300 net-work software provides filetransfer, file access, anddirectory access within theHP 9000 system.

Series 300 prices start atS3 500. A typical systemranges from S5 500 for anentry-level configuration to$55,000 for a high-end sys-tem. Contact your localHewlett-Packard sales office.

Inquiry 616.

Micro FiveAT-Compatible

Micro Five's Series 5000is compatible with theIBM PC AT. It features an8-MHz 16-bit Intel 80286and 150-nanosecond in-terleaved memory with nowait states. You can select 6-or 8-MHz 80286 operation.An optional 80287 numericcoprocessor is available.

DMA controllers let thehard-disk subsystem readand write a track of data ona single disk revolution.Average disk-access time is30 milliseconds.

Available with the Series5000 are MS-DOS 3.1 andXENIX 3.2, which supportsup to 16 users. You can alsoget GW-BASIC 3.1 and avirtual-disk program.

The Series 5000 Model100 has 512K bytes ofmemory, a 1.2-megabytefloppy-disk drive, anRS-232C serial port, a Cen-tronics parallel printer port,a clock/calendar with batterybackup, and an AT-compatible keyboard. TheModel 200 has the samefeatures plus a 27-megabyteformatted 5'/4-inch hard disk.Both models have nine ex-pansion slots.

Options include memoryexpansion to 2 megabyteson the motherboard and 15megabytes for the system:disk-drive formatting capaci-ties of 27, 45. 62, or 116megabytes; 60-megabyte5/4-inch streaming-tapebackup; 360K-byte floppy-disk drive: and up to fivethree-port I/O cards.

Series 5000 list prices areS3395 for the Model 100and $5215 for the Model200. Contact Micro FiveCorp., POB 5011, 3 560Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa.CA 92626, (714) 957-1517,Inquiry 617.

[continued]

SEFTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 431

WHAT'S NEW

A D D - I N S

FFT CoprocessorCard

The Ariel PC FFT cardperforms fast Fouriertransforms by executing asingle program line in inter-preted and compiled BASIC,IBM Pascal and FORTRANLattice C, and Turbo Pascal.The card's disk-based assem-bly-language driver routinesmake the host/peripheral in-terface transparent to theuser. PROM-resident algo-rithms include forward andinverse FFT. hamming win-dow, and power spectraldensity.

The PC FFT transforms16-bit integer data arrays ofup to 2048 complex pointsin less than 20 milliseconds.The pipelined architecturelets you fit all the hardwarenecessary to perform com-plex signal-processing algo-rithms inside the computer.The PC FFT's low powerconsumption lets you installtwo or more FFT processorsin a single host.

The PC FFT card plugsinto the IBM PC. XT. AT orcompatible computers andcosts $1850. Contact ArielCorp., Suite 84. 600 West116th St., New York, NY10027, (212) 662-7324.Inquiry 618.

Apple EPROMProgrammer

Apparat's Apple 28-pinProm Blaster is a menu-driven EPROM programmerthat will burn the followingEPROMs: 2764. 2764A27128. 27I28A, 27256,27C256. and 27512.

The Prom Blaster has anedit function for the databuffer and can move systemmemory into the data buf-fer It provides 12'/!- or

PC FFT coprocessor card from Ariel.

Writable ROM Board from Douglas Electronics

21-volt programming voltageand + 5 or +6 volts for Vcc.

The Apple 28-pin PromBlaster is SI 19. It requires48K bytes of RAM and onefloppy-disk drive ContactApparat Inc., 4401 SouthTamarac Parkway. Denver,CO 80237. (800) 525-7674;in Colorado. (303) 741-1778.Inquiry 619.

Interface Breadboardfor IBM, Commodore

Group Technology hasput together the BG-Board, an interface bread-board that lets you con-struct circuits and use BASICprograms to control the flowof information between amicrocomputer and externaldevices. BG-Board providesaccess to your machine'sdata, control, and addressbuses so you can build in-terfaces for monitoringhome appliances, analyticalinstruments, securitysystems, and so on.

Interface cards calledCableCards let you use theBG-Board with an IBM PC.Commodore 64, or VIC-20CableCards are also avail-able for the TRS-80 Models

I, 111. and 4 and the Apple11+ and lie

The BG-Board is bufferedto protect the microcom-puter if a wiring erroroccurs. It provides up toeight decoded address out-puts in either the device- orthe memory-addressingmodels. You can address upto 2 56 I/O devices by usingBASIC software. A built-inlogic probe permits detec-tion of logic levels andpulse edges.

The Model BC-I01A as-sembled interface bread-board for the IBM PC Com-modore 64. or VIC-20 sellslor $280; the ModelBG-10IK kit is $205. Formore information, contactGroup Technology Ltd., POB87, Route 1 Box 83. Check.VA 24072. 17031 651-3153.Inquiry 620.

Apple IIWritable ROM

The Writable ROM Boardfrom Douglas Elec-tronics lets an Apple II, II+ ,or lie function as a 2K-byte

ROM The board fits into anexpansion slot on the Appleand connects to the ROMsocket on a destination com-puter or device with a12-inch 24-pin jumper cable.

To test a program, you usesoftware to switch theWROM Board to its RAMmode, copy the program tothe board, and switch theboard back to ROM mode.The destination computersees the program as onboard in ROM. You executethe program by pressing thedestination computer's resetbutton. For further editing,repeat the process. Afteryou debug the program aROM is burned.

You can also use theWROM Board to program a2816A EEPROM. When youprogram the EEPROM. youcan place it in the destina-tion computer's PROMsocket, letting the remotemachine function inde-pendently.

Model 5010-DE-12 WritableROM Boards are $95. Con-tact Douglas Electronics Inc.718 Marina Blvd.. SanLeandro. CA 94 577, (415)483-8770,Inquiry 621.

Single-board80286 Computer

Transtec Technology'sHydra SBC is based onthe Intel iAPX 286 micro-processor. It includes 1megabyte of on-board RAMexpandable to 4 megabytesfrom 16K to 2 56K bytes ofROM, an on-board floppy-disk controller, an SCSI in-terface, four serial ports, andone bidirectional parallelport. An 80287 numeric co-processor is optional.

Graphics resolution is ashigh as 1024 by 768 pixels.Graphics features includepanning, smooth scrolling,and programmable character

432 B YTE • SEPTEMBER

WHAT'S NEW

A D D - I N S

sizes or fonts. A 4-colordisplay is standard; with anoptional card, you candisplay 16 colors from a4096-color palette

The Hydra SBC's operatingsystem is Concurrent DOS3.3 with GSX. The board,with 512K bytes of memoryand the operating system,sells for SI WO. ContactTranstec Technology. Unit 5Ida Complex Macken St.,

Dublin 2, Ireland; tel:718521/719800.Inquiry 622.

VideotapingGraphics Board

New Media Graphics' PC-VideoGraph is an add-on board for the IBM PC.XT, and AT that allows video-taping of computer-gener-

ated graphics and text. ThePC-VideoGraph has a 6845microprocessor and I28Kbytes of display memory. Itruns IBM graphics and text-generation software andoperates in a 640- by400-pixel mode. The boardcan display 16 colors: withdittering, it can display up to136 colors simultaneously.Demonstration softwareand graphics libraries for

BASIC. Pascal. FORTRAN,and C are included. A lightpen, mouse, touchscreenand interactive paint andfont software are among PC-VideoGraph's options.

Single-quantity price forPC-VideoGraph is S695. Con-tact New Media GraphicsCorp., 279 Cambridge St.,Burlington MA 01803, (617)272-8844Inquiry 623.

P H ERALS

—^i

Bus and ModemSupport forIntegral PC

Hewlett-Packard has in-troduced two optionsfor its Integral PC; the HP82904A bus expander andthe HP 8291 5A 300/1200-bps modem.

The bus expander plugsinto one of the Integral PC'stwo I/O ports with a 1-metercable and expansion inter-faces. It has its own powersupply and provides fiveextra ports. Price for the busexpander is S1295.

The serial modem is anasynchronous, full-duplex in-terface that features auto-dial and auto-answer modes.You install it in one of theIntegral PC's I/O ports andcan connect it to a tele-phone network with a stan-dard modular jack. Built-incommunications softwarelets you switch from 300 to1200 bps, provides auto-dialing, and uses menu-driven configurations. Themodem's protocol isUMODEM.

List price for the HP8291 5A serial modem is$595. Contact your localHewlett-Packard dealer orsales office.Inquiry 624.

The HP 82915A modem for the \ntegral PC.

MIDI Processor

Hinton Instruments'MIDIC is a MIDI pro-cessor that contains its ownsoftware in ROM. It has aMIDI 1.0 specified interfacewith an optoisolator forminimum data corruptionand an RS-2 32C/423-com-patible interface for connec-tion to a computer. You canuse the computer to selectcommands from a menu.MIDIC s expansion socketallows for software exten-sions or custom packages.The MIDIC 1.1 softwarehas two modes of opera-tion. In the process mode,you can insert MIDIC in thedata stream of a MIDIequipment setup and pro-cess the data as directed bythe setups. All setups canbe uploaded and down-

loaded between MIDIC anda host computer. In the in-terface mode, MIDIC canbuffer and convert MIDIcodes in 8-bit binary orASCII hexadecimal format.Both modes permitautomatic generation of ac-tive sensing clocks and MIDItiming clocks. Tempo isvariable from 30 to 279crotchets per minute.

MIDIC costs £300: with abattery backup, it is £3 50.For more information, con-tact Hinton Instruments, 168Abingdon Rd., Oxford OX14RA England; tel: Oxford(0865) 721731Inquiry 625.

Portable Battery andCase for Laptops

The Prairie Power por-table battery systemhelps to extend continuoususage of laptop computers.LEDs on the charger in-dicate when the unit ischarging and when the bat-tery is full. The charging unitalso allows for emergencypower backup.

The battery is a sealedlead-acid unit that hasDepartment of Transporta-tion approval for air trans-port. Custom cables are in-cluded in the package.

Prairie Power's water-resistant carrying case (17by 13 by 5 inches) featuresa removable insert panelthat you can use as a laptopworkstation. It holds the bat-tery, charger, and computer,and it has a padded pocketwith room for acoustic cups,cables, a small recorder,or 3'/2-inch disk drive.

The complete ensemblesells for SI69. Componentsare available separately.Contact Prairie PowerSystems Inc. 768 TwelveOaks Center, 15500 WayzataBlvd., Wayzata, MN 55391,(800) 435-8721: in Min-nesota, (612) 475-1793Inquiry 626.

[continued]

SEPTEMBER 1985

IYTE 433

WHAT'S NEW

PERIPHERALS

Interface for HomeControl

X-10's Powerhouse inter-face for the Apple lieand lie and the Commodore64 provides automatic con-trol of electrical devices inthe home. It has its own80C48 processor, on-boardROM RAM chip, and real-time clock. Its batterybackup can sustain the unitwithout AC power for morethan 100 hours X-10Powerhouse sends signalsover AC wiring to control upto 72 lights and appliancesplugged into System X-10modules, which are pluggedinto 120-volt outlets

The interface comes with ahome-control software pack-age that uses a color-graphics interactive ap-proach to programming.After you complete installa-tion and programming, youcan disconnect the Power-house from the computer.The interface will continueto run the control system ac-cording to the program.

The X-10 Powerhouse (in-terface, software, and con-necting cable) retails forabout $120. Contact X-10Inc. 185A Legrand Ave.,Northvale. Nl 07647 (201)784-9700,Inquiry 627.

RS-232C to IEEE-488Controller

The CmC RG interfacelets any personal com-puter control the IEEE-488bus. You can connect up toIS IEEE-488 devices to oneRS-2 32C port by using theinterface. In the CmC RG stransparent mode, anIEEE-488 device looks likean RS-232C device to thecomputer.

GTCO's Macintizer. a digitizer for the Mac.

You can configure this in-terface for talk and listencommands for all primaryand secondary addresses.You can also use a talk-onlymode with any listen-onlydevice. The CmC RG under-stands simple ASCII com-mands and works with anycomputer language.

The CmC RG comes withcase, power supply, andstandard IEEE-488 andRS-232C connectors. TheRG4 is for device number 4only and costs S495; theRGA supports devices 0 to30 and costs $695. ContactConnecticut microcomputerPOB 186, Brookfield, CT06804, |203l 354-9395.Inquiry 628.

Macintosh Digitizer

The Macintizer fromGTCO Corp plugsdirectly into the Macintosh'smouse port and operateswithout any modification tothe Macs operating systemor applications software.GTCO says this elec-tromagnetic digitizer re-quires no preventivemaintenance and will notskip (as a mouse can). Itconsists of an electronicwork surface and a hand-held stylus

The Macintizer works in anabsolute coordinate mode.so pointing to the center ofthe tablet always puts thearrow in the center of thescreen. You can use thedigitizer to trace maps,drawings, and other non-metallic material. The Macin-tizer's surface has two workareas that provide a one-to-

one screen correspondenceand a 33 percent reduction.An optional mouse cable isavailable.

The Macintizer sells forS599. Contact GTCO Corp..1055 First St.. Rockville, MD20850, 1301) 279-9550.Inquiry 629.

IBM PC MemoryMachine

Peachtree Technology'sMemory Machine forthe IBM PC is an externaldual-drive subsystem thatresides between the PC andits monitor. You can choosefrom several combinationsof disk drives, including514-inch Winchester drives,removable Winchester car-tridge drives, and backuptape-drive systems. Variousconfigurations provide up to20 megabytes of fixed-driveand 60 megabytes of tape-drive capacity.

The Memory Machine con-tains a power supply cool-ing fan. overload power-surge protector, and multi-function power director. Itsfive front-panel powerswitches and 15-amp three-prong connectors let yousupply power to five otherperipherals.

Sold as a kit, the MemoryMachine's two drives, cables,and instructions cost S3695.Contact Peachtree Tech-nology Inc.. 3020 BusinessPark Dr.. Norcross, GA30071, (404) 662-5158,Inquiry 630.

434 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE

A P P L E

Musical SpeechSystem

The Voice Master is adigital speech/voicerecognition system for theApple II line. Commodore64. or Commodore 128. Butit's also a music-synthesisprogram that converts hum-ming and whistling into amusic score. The packageconsists of a hardwaremodule, a headset/micro-phone, system software, andcables.

The system basically worksas a digital tape machine,recording the user's voice asdigital information and stor-ing it in vocabulary files ona disk. Each file can containup to 64 distinct words,sounds, or phrases. The usercan control the recordingrate, playback speed, andvolume.

The accompanying VoiceHarp program lets you com-pose music in real time byhumming or whistling; itconverts your vocal inputinto musical output. As youhum or whistle notes, theyscroll by on the display instandard musical notation. Inediting mode, you can playback and rearrange orchange notes. In perfor-mance mode, you canchange octaves and addchords. When you finish,you can save your composi-tion and print out the score.

The Voice Master costs$89.95. Sound Master, anoptional plug-in card for theApple 11+ and lie. providesthree-part harmony andsound effects: it costs$39.95. A Voice Master forthe Atari 800XL 65XE. and130XE reportedly will beavailable soon. ContactCovox Inc.. 675-D CongerSt., Eugene. OR 97402. (503)342-1271.Inquiry 631.

Covox's speech system for Apple Us and Commodores.

KnowledgeIntegration Toolkit

MacKIT Level 1. a pro-gram for the 512K-byteMacintosh, is designed toserve as an introduction toknowledge engineering andhelp you build expert sys-tems. It features a backward-chaining inference engine, aproduction rule compiler, aquestion generator, and agraphics window.

You code your pertinentknowledge into productionrules using English and aword processor (MacWritewill do). Employing a back-chaining method. MacKITstarts with conclusions, findsrules that support the con-clusions, and tries to verifythe premise by searchingthe knowledge base for rele-vant facts. The process con-tinues until the conclusionsare verified or disproved.

MacKIT is written in Mac-FORTH. It costs $149. Con-tact Knowledge System En-vironments Inc.. 201 SouthYork Rd.. Dillsburg. PA17019. (717) 766-4496.Inquiry 632.

Expert-SystemsBuilding Tool for Mac

ExperTelligence hasdeveloped a microcom-puter version of OPS5, atool for building expertsystems. ExperOPS5 runs onthe 512K-byte Macintosh andfeatures a forward-chaininginference engine coupledwith a pattern-matchingalgorithm. It also has an in-terface designed to providecomplete access to Exper-Lisp. the vendors LISPdevelopment environmentfor the Mac.

ExperOPS5 has a sug-gested retail price of $32 5and requires an add-onfloppy-disk or hard-diskdrive and ExperLisp soft-ware ($495). Contact Exper-Telligence Inc. 5 59 SanYsidro Rd.. Santa Barbara,CA 93108. (805) 969-7874,Inquiry 633.

Mac Meets Juki

Juki's LetterPrint kit givesMacintosh users the op-tion of sending output toJuki 6100 and 6300 letter-quality printers. The soft-ware is capable of drivingMacWrite word-processingfunctions directly onto theJuki printer.

The kit contains a disk andinstructions. It has a sug-gested retail price of $75. Aconnector cable costs $20more. Contact Juki OfficeMachine Corp.. Printer Divi-sion. 299 Market St.. SaddleBrook. N| 07662. (800)932-0590: West Coast. (800)32 5-6134: in California. (800)435-6315.Inquiry 634.

Alternatives forIconoclasts

PBI Softwares IconSwitcher lets you alterMacintosh icons or fashionones of your own design.The program comes with 20icons and a tutorial and hasa suggested retail price of$19.99.

PBI sells additional sets oficons at $19.99 each. IconLibrary #1 is a collection ofbusiness and utilitiesimages. Icon Library #2 con-sists of "fun and games"icons. Icon Switcher canchange the images in bothlibraries.

Contact PBI Software Inc.,1155B-H Chess Dr., FosterCity, CA 94404, (415)349-8765.Inquiry 635.

Spelling Checkerfor Appleworks

Spellworks proofreadsdocuments preparedwith the Appleworks word-processing program. It has a90,000-word dictionary andchecks spelling at a rate of10 words per second.

The spelling checker retailsfor $49.95. Contact AdvancedLogic Systems Inc.. 1195East Arques Ave., Sunnyvale,CA 94086. (408) 730-0306.Inquiry 636.

{continued)

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 435

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE

IBM PC

Scientific SubroutineLibrary

Wiley Professional Soft-wares BASICA Libraryconsists of 114 pretestedand precompiled mathe-matical and statisticalsubroutines. The subroutinesperform tasks involving themost commonly used com-plex number operations insuch areas as matrices withreal or complex elements,polynomials, differentialequations, analysis of vari-ance, solution of equationsand general statistics.

BASICA Library comes onthree disks containingsource code, compressedsource code, and test pro-grams and results. Systemrequirements are an IBM PC,XT. AT. or compatible withat least I28K bytes, adouble-sided disk drive, andPC-DOS or MS-DOS 1.1 orlater. The price is SI25. Con-tact Wiley Professional Soft-ware, lohn Wiley & SonsInc.. 60s Third Ave.. NewYork. NY 10158 (212)850-6788.Inquiry 637.

Fourier Transformswith Graphics

Alligator Transforms hasreleased a package thatperforms one- and two-dimensional Fourier trans-forms and displays theresults graphically FourierPerspective can handle one-dimensional real or complexdata sets up to 8192 pointsand two-dimensional arraysas large as 128 by 128Reported typical times are0.5 seconds for a 2 56-pointl-D transform and 11 sec-onds for a 64 by 64 2-Dtransform with an 8087math coprocessor The pro-gram can also plot in-dividual rows.

Fourier Perspective plotsreal and imaginary parts.The amplitude and phase ofboth the input and thetransform are available. Two-dimensional input and trans-form files can be displayedwith a hidden line plot,which removes concealedsegments, or a nonhiddenline plot. No programmingor compiling is necessary.The package contains utili-ties that let you create ar-bitrary input data files andcheckerboard data in orderto center the transforms inthe frequency domain.

The software runs on theIBM PC. XT, AT. and com-patibles and requires DOS2.0 or later, at least I92Kbytes of memory, two diskdrives, and a graphics card.Options are a screen-dumputility and an 8087 math co-processor. List price is $99Contact Alligator Transforms.POB 271505 Houston, TX77277, (713) 665-3855.Inquiry 638.

Table-basedCross-Assembler

Cross-8 from UniversalCross-Assemblers uses aflexible instruction-tablestructure to produce codefor most microprocessorsand microcontrollers with an8-bit data word and an ad-dress word of 16 bits orless. You can specify the for-mat of the hexadecimalmachine-language file asIntel. Motorola, or Tektronix8-bit format

You can prepare the as-sembly-language source fileusing any ASCII text editorCross-8 ignores the most-significant bit of all ASCIIcharacters. It selects the cor-responding processor in-struction file by using theCPU directive within thesource code.

Assembly errors are

marked with I of 14 alpha-betic codes in the first col-umn of a listing and are dis-played on the screen. A pro-gram that sorts instructiontables checks them for for-mat errors.

Among the assemblerdirectives that Cross-8 sup-ports are processor declara-tion, define byte, datastorage, and word: end ofassembly, and hexadecimaloutput format declaration. A30-page manual contains in-structions for writing newtables or modifying existingones.

Cross-8 is about 2 5K byteslong and requires 17 bytesper label and 3 5 bytes foreach instruction in the table.For IBM PCs and compati-bles with PC-DOS and MS-DOS 2.0 lor higher), at least128K bytes of RAM is rec-ommended: an Apple 11+ orlie with CP/M-80 needs atleast 48K bytes The pro-gram costs S99 95 in U.S.funds and $12995 in Cana-dian. Contact UniversalCross-Assemblers POB 384Bedford. Nova Scotia B4A2X3, Canada,Inquiry 639.

Software EmulatesIntel 8051 Family

HiTech Equipment's8051SIM emulatesIntel's 8051 family of micro-processors and providessome of the debug and testfacilities of an in-circuitemulator. The menu-drivenprogram accepts Intel HEXfiles and features a "hexcalculator' mode.

You initiate a typical ses-sion after the assembly ofan 8051 program by invok-ing the emulator with thename of the object file. Thedisplay is formatted asseveral windows into the

central processor, and themain menu is displayed. Youcan single-step or trace (withbreakpoints) your programwhile watching the effectson the screen.

The package is availablefor IBM PC XTs with PC-DOSand Z80 machines withCP/M for $199. ContactHiTech Equipment Corp.,9560 Black Mountain Rd..San Diego, CA 92126, (619)566-1892Inquiry 640.

BASIC MatrixCommands

Designed to enhanceBASIC on the IBM PC.Matrix 100 provides matrix-manipulation capabilitiesthat you can call with asingle statement for eachoperation. Besides the stan-dard operations, the pack-age has commands to invertmatrices, solve equations,perform multiple regression,and obtain LU and QRfactors.

Matrix 100 also has sourcecode for an interactive linearprogramming package andan eigenvalue solver for realsymmetric matrices.

According to StanfordBusiness Software, its pro-gram calculates up to 100times faster than BASIC. Indouble precision. Matrix 100with the optional 8087 sup-port is reportedly 2 5 timesfaster than the standardpackage.

Matrix 100 runs on anyIBM PC with BASIC orBASICA and at least 128Kbytes of RAM (192K bytes isrecommendedl. It costs $80With 8087 support, it costs$12 5. Additional compilersupport raises the price to$2 50. Contact Stanford Busi-ness Software Inc.. Suite215, 4151 Middlefield Rd„Palo Alto. CA 94303. (415)424-9499Inquiry 641.

436 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198S

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE • OTHER COMPUTERS

Locus of Root Solver

Locipro provides control-system and electronicengineers with a means ofquickly determining closed-loop system stability fromopen-loop transfer functions.The stand-alone programsolves the locus of roots forsystems up to the 26thorder and 10 loop elements.

Output data can be vec-tored to a line printer or todata files. All program in-puts are free-format andmenu-driven.

Locipro, priced at $72.95,is available for PC-DOS. MS-DOS, CP/M-80, and TRSDOSmachines in 121 differentdisk formats. Contact BVEngineering, Suite 207, 2200Business Way, Riverside, CA92501, (714) 781-0252.Inquiry 642.

Cross-ReferenceGenerator

Dalsoft Engineering hasdeveloped a cross-ref-erence generator that'sdesigned to work with mostprogramming languages.UCRF comes with configura-tion files for BASIC, C,Pascal, Modula-2, FORTRAN,COBOL, IBM Macro Assem-bler, and dBASE II. You canmodify these files to accom-modate specific languageimplementations or developnew files to support otherlanguages.

UCRF accepts multiple in-put files from anywhere ondisk and produces programand cross-reference listingswith page numbers, user-defined title lines, and dateand time stamp. Full direc-tory and path support areprovided for input andoutput.

The program can be oper-ated either from the DOS

command line or activatedfrom batch files to automatethe compilation/assemblyand listing of groups of pro-gram modules. UCRFhandles symbol lengths ofup to 128 characters andautomatically folds longinput lines.

Minimum system require-ments are 128K bytes ofRAM, one disk drive, andPC-DOS 2,0 or higher. UCRFcosts $39.95. Contact Dal-soft Engineering. 3 565 HighVista. Dallas. TX 75234.(214) 247-7695.Inquiry 643.

Low-CostVideo Digitizer

A video-digitizer systemfor the TRS-80 ColorComputer and the Com-modore 64 uses a com-posite standard NTSC video-input source—a videocamera, video-cassetterecorder, or videodiscplayer—to construct gray-level images in less than 5seconds. The package, con-sisting of software, assemblyplans, documentation, and ablank printed circuit board,costs $39.95. You must sup-ply the other components.

The Color Computer ver-sion provides a resolution of2 56 by 192 pixels in selec-table gray levels of three,five, or seven shades. Thejoystick and cassette portsare used for interfacing.

The Commodore 64 ver-

sion provides resolution of160 by 200 pixels with graylevels of four, six, or eightshades. Interface is via theuser I/O port.

Both versions are menu-driven. Brightness and con-trast are adjustable.

Contact Kinney Software,Dept. B, 121 North HamptonRd„ Donnelsville, OH 45319,(513) 882-6527.Inquiry 644.

Design Tool for68000, 68008

Orion Instruments hasdeveloped a disassem-bler/debugger program forproducts based onMotorola's 68000 and68008. The package, calledDDB68K. runs on Orion'sUniversal DevelopmentLaboratory (UDL).

UDL is a compact devel-opment system that inte-grates a 48-channel bus-state analyzer, an 8-bit anda 16-bit real-time emulator,an EPROM programmer, anda stimulus generator. Thesystem interfaces with anyMS-DOS or CP/M machineand enables software andhardware debugging ofmore than 30 processors.

DDB68K augments thetrace-analyzer features ofUDL with multiple break-points and single-step capa-bilities. Hexadecimal orbinary files can be directlydownloaded into the inter-nal emulation memory of

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 lb)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. \f 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 New Products Editor. BYTE,42 5 Batteru St.. San Francisco. CA 94111.

UDL. The software permitsthe execution of a programfrom emulated memory ortarget-system memory (RAMor ROM) with the capabilityof memory patching.

The internal registers of aprocessor can be displayedor modified. A debuggedprogram can be stored ondisk or burned directly intoan EPROM. The standardUDL supports operation ofthe 68000 up to 10 MHz:optionally, it can support upto 13 MHz.

DDB68K costs $395. Thestandard UDL is $2995. Con-tact Orion Instruments Inc.,6th Floor, 702 Marshall St.,Redwood City, CA 94063,(415) 361-Inquiry 645.

LISP Interpreter

CLISP is a LISP inter-preter written in C andrunning on MS-DOS systems.It has more than 40 built-infunctions for list manipula-tion, arithmetic, and rela-tional and Boolean opera-tions. The package containswhat Westcomp calls a"modest" library of LISPfunctions.

Complete source code forthe interpreter is included(C86 by Computer Innova-tions was the compilerused). With the informationin the manual, a user canadd in almost any combina-tion of functions, windows,graphics, and so on.

The package costs $150and consists of documenta-tion, CLISP source code,run-time program, and LISProutines. Contact Westcomp,Suite 229, 517 North Moun-tain Ave., Upland, CA91786-5016. (714) 982-1738.Inquiry 646. ■

—Compiled by Dennis Barkerand Lynne M. Hadeau

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 437

-The Buyer's Mart-

A Directory of Products and Services

THE BUYER'S MART is a new monthly advertising section which enablesreaders to easily locate suppliers by product category. As a unique feature, eachBUYER'S MART ad includes a Reader Service number to assist interestedreaders in requesting information from participating advertisers.

RATES: 1x—$350 3x-$325 6x-$300Prepayment must accompany each insertion.

AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Advertisers must

furnish typewritten copy. Ads can include headline (23 characters maximum),descriptive text (250 characters maximum), plus company name, address andtelephone number. Do not send logos or camera-ready artwork.

DEADLINE: Ad copy is due 2 months prior to issue date. For example: Decemberissue closes on October 1. Send your copy and payment to THE BUYER'S MART,BYTE magazine, 70 Main Street, Peterborough, NH 03458. For more informa-tion call Karen Burgess at BYTE 603-924-9281.

ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

DISK CONVERSION

SOFTWARE PACKAGING, DISKS

Cloth binders & slips like IBM's. Vinyl binders, boxes, andfolders-many sizes. Disk pages, envelopes. & labels. Lowqty. imprinting. Bulk & branded disks. Much More! Lowprices Fast service Call or write tor FREE CATALOGAnthropomorphic Systems Limited376-B East St. Charles RoadLombard. IL 60148 (312) 629-5160

Inquiry 702

ADAPT-A-DISC $19.95

With an ADAPT-A-DISC coupler, any economicaldisk drive compatible with the Apple II + or liecan be put to work as an EXTERNAL disk drivefor the lie.

COMPUTER ACCENTS, INC.

P.O. Box 5307 / Kingwood, TX 77325(713) 664-9727

CONVERSION SERVICES

Convert any 9 track magnetic tape to or from over200 formats including 31/a", S'A", 8" disk formats &word processors. Disk to disk conversions alsoavailable. Call for more info (312) 459-6010

Pivar Computing Services, Inc.

47 W. Dundee RoadWheeling, IL 60090

• *

BOOKS/DISKS/VIDEOS

MAINTENANCE PRODUCTS

FOR THE MAINTENANCE & OPERATION OFCOMPUTERS AND COMPUTER ROOM EQUIPMENT

CRT Cleaner • Hood Cleaner • Anti StaticKeyboard Duster • Ann Glare • Print OffInternal Cleaner • Head & Disc Cleaner

ROCKWELL CHEMICAL

22 JERICHO TURNPIKE - MINEOLA, NY, 11501516-742-0500

We Wrote THE BOOKS

"The Book of" series:The Book ot KnowledgeMan (BK/DISK)The Book of KnowledgeMan vol 2 (BK/DISK)The Book of R:base (BK/DISK)NEW! The Book of DOS-WINDOS (disk only)-The best DOS manual, and its on disk!S49.95 (+■ 4 S&H + 2.50 in MA)VISA / MC / PO / CHK

ALL-HANDS-ON PRESS

3 Courthouse Lane — Chelmsford, MA 01824

(617)-458-1130

CHANGING WORD PROCESSORS?

We convert to and from: XEROX, DEC, IBM,

LANIER, WANG, PC-DOS, WORDSTAR,

MULTIMATE, STRAIGHT ASCII, MICOM.

Also most CP/M systems.

LOWEST PRICE

DATA CONVERSION INC.

6310 Caballero Blvd. • Buena Park, CA 90620

(714) 522-7762 (800) 824-4851 In CA.

DUPLICATING SERVICES

STANDS & COVERS

Quality, Selection & Low PricesAcrylic Printer Stands 80/132 col T/B feed

From $29.95 + S&H

Custom, Antistatic Vinyl PC & Printer Covers

From $10.95 + S&H

SGW

PO Box 29249 San Diego, CA 92129619-755-8324

C LANGUAGE VIDEO

Want to learn the hottest new language? Use the bestand most professional video training package1Complete 5 hour video production Learn all aspectsof C from basics through pointers.INTRO. OFFER $495 (+ 12 S&H + 25 in MA)(EXP 9/6/85) VISA / MC / PO / CHK

ALL-HANDS ON PRESS

3 Courthouse Lane — Chelmsford. MA 01824(617)-45e-1130

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

Why risk duplicating your important programs on your com-puter, when our equipment is designed solely to duplicate disks& verify their perfection 100%'' Over 600 formats 3Vz\ 5Va"& 8". Plus serialization, copy protection, labeling, packaging,shrink-wrapping and fast, personalized service.

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

1701 E. Edinger Ave. A-7Santa Ana, CA 92705714/547-3383 (collect)

COMMUNICATION

GRAPHICS SOFTWARE

KEY TRONIC 5151 TEMPLATES

Keyboard overlays tor the Key Tronic'" 5151 key-board. A one-sided template with all the com-mands and functions controls to your favoritesoftware like Lotus. WordPerfect 4.0. etc. Pricedat $14.20 each + $1.80 shp/hdl

INTERSTATE SOFTWARE, INC.

P.O. Box 40398 — Raleigh, NC 27629 (919) 266-5608

BARR/HASP RJE ADD-ON BOARD

For use in IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT.

Use as a 2400 LPM Printstation or

4800 BAUD Dial-Up Workstation

Supports MVS/JES, CDC/NOS, VM/RSCS

$890

BARR SYSTEMS, INC.

800-BARR-SYS or 904-371-3050

inquiry 718

ATTENTION ENGINEERS

Easy-to-use graphics software for the IBM PC. XT.AT, and compatibles. Full 2-D and 3-D screengraphing capabilities including contours. No pro-gramming needed! Interface to pen-plotter.

OMNIPLOT [S] $195

OMNIPLOT [P] $195

BOTH $295

MICROCOMPATIBLES

301 Prelude Drive * Silver Spring, MD 20901(301) 593-0683

nquiry 726

CONTRACTS

BLANK FUNCTION KEY TEMPLATES

Write convenient commands next to your (unction keys on re-versible plastic templates Styles to fit IBM-PC, Compatibles.HP-150, Keytronics 5151. and others Custom also available$4.95 Pkg. of 3 (Plus $1 s&h)1-800-231-5413In CA 1-800-523-5441Free catalog of other helpful products available bycircling number below on inquiry card.

Inquify 707

438 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 198S

FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Legal contracts lor hardware/software developers Employeeagreement, non-disclosure form, contracts lor sale (hardwareand/or software), consuming, development, hardware & softwaremaintenance, non-competition, protect delivery & more

$50

Waters Publishing

8235 Douglas - Suite 1000

Dallas, TX 75225

(214) 369-8108

$50

THE DRAWING TABLET

Draw lines, circles, parallelograms, arcs. Paintwith 100 different brush sizes in four shades.Block functions with the ability to replace, overlay,inlay Save to disk or printer. Store symbols inlibraries. Text capability Only $49.95 + 3.00 s&h

K SOFTWARE HOUSE

Rt. 2, Box 83B1 Unionville, TN 37180

(615) 294-5090

Inquiry 720

The Buyer's Mart-

GRAPHICS SOFTWARE

HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

GRAPHICS PRINTER SUPPORT

AT LAST! Use the PrtSc key to make quality scaledB&W or color reproductions of your display on anydot matrix, Inkjet, or laser printer. GRAFPLUS sup-ports all versions of PC or MS-DOS with IBM, Tec-mar, and Hercules graphics boards $59.95

Jewell Technologies, Inc.

4302 SW Alaska St., Suite 207

Seattle, WA 98116

(206) 937-1081

POWERLINE GREMLINS??POWER FAILURES??

The MEIRICK STANDBY POWER SYSTEM

is the TOTAL SOLUTION to your

powerline problems.

240 watt system - $365: 400 watt system - $495:

800 watt system - $795

MEIRICK Inc., POWER SYSTEMS DIV.

Box 298, Frisco, CO 80443 303-668-3251

Inquiry 725

RATS!

RATS is a fast, accurate & complete regression pack-age with unsurpassed POWER Has both time-series& cross section analysis Includes Box-Jenkins, logit& probit Spectral analysis & graphics also availableRequires 256K RAM, IBM PC or compatible $200MC/Visa,

VAR Econometrics

P.O. Box 19334, Minneapolis, MN 55419(612) 822-9690

HARDWARE SECURITY

PLOTTER SOFTWARE

For the IBM PC or APPLE computer and the Hewlett-Packard or Houston Instrument plotter. The DGISignmaker will make text slides for presentations.The DGI ORGANIZATION will graphically show yourorganization and quickly make updated charts

Decision Graphics, Inc.

P.O. Box 2776-B, Littleton, Colorado 80161Phone (303) 796-0341

SECURITY SAM

■'BOLT-THROUGH-TABLE" LOCK SYSTEM pro-vides high security for personal computers at lowcost. Group keying, quantity and educational dis-counts available Now for IBM PC, XT, AT, AppleII, & Zenith 150, Ideal for schools. Retail $99

SAM SYSTEMS INC.

P.O. Box 2339 Hammond, Ind. 46323

219-844-2327

MY WORD!® is just $35.00

Complete word processing plus sort, add rows & col-umns, mergeprint, quickprint, macros, math, micro-justify, use all 256 char. Source: add $35, 150 pageprinted manual. 30-day money-back guaranteeIBM PC or compatible, 128K, one drive, any printer.

T.N.T. SOFTWARE, INC.

34069 Hainesville Road. Round Lake, IL 60073

(312) 223-8595

Inquiry 709

Inquiry 745.

HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

1/2 IN. 9 TRACK COUPLER

READ and WRITE 1/2 in magnetic tape with format-ted 9 track drives Runs all speeds and densities inPC. XT, & AT running MS-DOS or IBM XENIX. Datatransfers up to 904K bytes/second. Couplers start at$880. Complete sub-systems start at $2995

Overland Data, Inc.

5644 Kearny Mesa Rd., Ste. A, San Diego, CA 92111(619)-571-5555 and TELEX 754923 OVERLAND

• * MODEM SALE • *

MAJOR BRANDS FOR IBM PC & APPLE lis

Hayes compatible plug-ins

IBM 300/1200 baud $149 w/sw $199

APPLE 300 baud $79 w/sw $109

TRANSEND CORP.

For info: 408-435-0701

To order: 1-800-227-2400 X959

In CA: 1-800-772-2666 X959

Credit cards accepted 30 day MONEY BACK GUARANTEE.

MILP88-MIXED INTEGER LP

A general-purpose system for solving mixed integerlinear programs with up to 45 integers, 255 con-straints 1255 variables. Solves problems by apply-ing the branch and bound method. Menu-driven withmany useful features similar to LP88. Requires 192K.$99 with 8087 support, user's guide. VISA/MC.

(703) 549-5469

EASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, INC.

POB 15328, Alexandria, VA 22309

Inquiry 711.

LP88-Linear Programming

A powerful menu-driven system for solving linear programs w/up to 255 constraints & 2255 variables. Features include interac-tive & batch operation, spreadsheet-style input & editing, storageof problems & bases, Simplex Algorithm restart, report generator,sensitivity analysis. Req. 192K. $99 w/8087 support, user's guideVisa/MC.

Eastern Software Products

P.O. Box 15328, Alexandria, VA 22309(703) 549-5469

PERSONAL RESEARCH STATISTICS

APPLE & IBM program will calculate totals, means {averages),standard deviations, medians, averages and much more.Calculates a least square linear regression when drawing scattergraphs. Data totals, displays, prints $199.00 VISA/MC/CODCALL FOR FREE ELECTRONIC MAIL BOXES

SOFTWEST PROGRAMMING

4418 E. CHAPMAN - SUITE 156

ORANGE, CALIFORNIA 92667

TEL (714) 380-9437 • TELEX 6502502780 MCI • E-MAIL 250-2780

DATA REPORTER I

APPLE & IBM program can create any databaseManipulate data quickly and easily No programm-ing knowledge necessary. Data is processed in RAMand on disk. Sorts in less than 5 seconds Searchless than 3 seconds $99.00 VISA/MC/COD/CHECKCALL FOR FREE ELECTRONIC MAIL BOXESSOFTWEST PROGRAMMING4418 E. CHAPMAN - SUITE 156ORANGE. CALIFORNIA 92667TEL (714) 380-9437 • TELEX 6502502780 MCI • E-MAIL 250-2780

Inquiry 742.

PROM/PAL BIPOLAR PROGRAMMERIBM PC

EPROM PROG—$250, PAL OPTION—$250,MP OPTION—$100, BIPOLAR OPTION—$350

•MS-DOS, CP/M-86 Software handles 2716 through 27256

EPROM ■ 16, 20 and 24 pins BI-POLAR PHOMS • From MMI,

SIG. HAR. Tl & AMD • 20 and 24 pins PAL from MMI, AMD,

NAT & Tl • Also 6741/48/49/51 MP

Advanced Microcomputer Systems Inc.

2780 SW. 14th St. • Pompano Beach, FL 33069 (305) 975-9515

• FORECASTING • MODELING • PLANNING •

Compatible w

ith IBM PC I Apple II

MICRO-BJ-

NUAMETRICS"

■ Box-Jenkins ARIMA

• Econometrics package

• Identify, estimate, forecast $195.00

PROFESSIONALS CHOICE

XTRAPOLATOR"

• Link to Lotus. Visicalc

• Automatic forecasting

Multiple order discounts

$195.00

50% off Apple II orders

STRATIX

P.O. Box 4413 ■

Burlingame, CA 94011

(415) 697-0573

MC/VISA

CP/M Calls from CB80

Access the FULL power o! CP/M or MP/M direct from yourCB80 progs Execute BDOS or XDOS calls. Get such info asuser or CP/M version number, time of day. directory, etcBDOSMASTER consists of CB80 Basic code lo be INCLUDED"in your prog and a module for use by LK80 Complete package$7500

Practical Solutions, Inc.

134 S. Central Ave.. Valley Stream, NY 11580

FOR INFO CALL 1-516-561-0566

TO ORDER: 1-(800)-227-3800 ext 983

TURBOCHARGER FOR IBM

y- Increases processing speed over 300%>»- Full software compatibility with PC and XTs Supports Intel 10 MHz 8087 coprocessor

Everett/Charles Marketing Sen/ices

6101 Cherry Avenue

Fontana, CA 92335

800-443-1860 Calif 800-821-0589

TURN ON YOUR PRINTER

Eleven printer fonts and printer control menu. In-cludes Italics. Script, Correspondence. Optional FontsScientific, Russian, Greek and Hebrew ($20 @).Okidata 92. 93. Epson FX80, 100, Star Micronics. MS-DOS, CPM-80» CUSTOM CHARACTER SET $4650

WOODSMITH SOFTWARE

Rt. 3-Box 550A, Nashville, IN 47448(812) 988-2137

PortaAPL

APL for the Macintosh is here!$275 + $10 S&H Demo $10

Portable Software

60 Aberdeen Ave. • Cambridge, MA 02138(617) 547-2918

Inquiry 715.

Inquiry 731

SEPTEMBER

439

The Buyer's Mart

SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

CBTREE FOR C PROGRAMMERS

Provides enhanced file handling calls directly into Cprograms Maintains balanced B-trees, supportsunlimited number of keys, data records, and keylengths. Fast, Flexible. Efficient No royalties SourceCode Included New Low Price $99

PEACOCK SYSTEMS, INC.

2009 Hileman Road

Falls Church. VA 22043

(703) 893-0118

Footnotes for s6995

Complete word processor for Apple II or IBMdoes automatic footnoting, alphabetical index-ing, table of contents, etc With optional spell-ing checker—HO" VISA or Mastercard 15 daymoney-back guarantee

SOF/SYS, Inc.

4306 Upton Ave. S.. Minneapolis. MN 55410

(612) 929-7104

ENHANCE YOUR PRINTER!!

Print in a variety of fonts and sizes with your Epson(or compatible) printer. Prints SIDEWAYS too Greatfor letters, spreadsheets, even signs and banners1Create your own fonts to print DigiCon PrintPackage-$49.95 (for IBM PC)

Digital Concepts, Inc.

P.O. Box 8345, Pittsburgh. PA 15218

(412) 823-8314

inquiry 710

Or. HALO II $139.00

Dr. HALO II, the paint program designed for busi-ness Merge word processing files and graphics,draw, cut and paste, use 20 fonts to create yourpresentation/report. Runs on IBM PCs, compatibles,most input devices, graphics cards and printers.

Media Cybernetics, Inc.

7050 Carroll Ave. • Takoma Park, MD 20912(301) 270-0240 (800) 446-HALO

HP-PC HYPER-CALCULATOR

MS-DOS emulation of HP-11C programmable scien-tific calculator available inside any program, permitsdata return. Program & data disk storage, indirect ad-dressing, alpha prompts, printing, HELP 100 regis-ters, 1000 program steps, utility programs $39.95

SUNDERLAND SOFTWARE ASSOCIATES

PO. BOX 7000-64

REDONDO BEACH, CA 90277

(213) 540-2567

IBM DOS DEBUGGER WITH SOURCE

PC-Test Symbolic Debugger so friendly you hardlyneed the manual Multi-window memory display, textfile browse, port I/O, screen save, 16 breakpoints,loop breaker. With optional commented sourcenovices can learn/developers can customize. $39or $129 (w/SRC) + $4 shipping.

AJM ASSOCIATES

10917 Northndge Square, Cupertino. CA 95014

(408) 996-7249

Inquiry 724

nquiry 744

dWINDOW for dBASE II

9K assembly language program adding windowingsyntax to dBASE: create database windows—retrievedata full screen at a time—programmable windowstructure—256 character & color attributes—exe-cutable DOS commands under dBASE programcontrol—$165 + $4 s&h

LIBERTY BELL PUBLISHING

4640 SW Macadam Suite ^50 Portland, OR 97201(503)-221-1806

PIK'r data editor

CONVERT Mainframe Reports! A very easy-to-useeditor lets you scan ASCII report files and extract onlythe data you need Data assembled and edited infull screen cut & paste environment, then written outfor Lotus. dBASE. Multipian, etc

SAMKHYA Corp.

47 Sixth St., Suite 3

PO, Box 142, Petaluma, CA 94953

(800) 442-0012 U.S. (800) 442-5544 CA

PLEDGE REPORT for Churches/Fraternal Organizations

' stores pledge amounts and payment increment * calculates

and pnnts a monthly delinquency list alphabetically' maintains

up to 20 separate accounts ' statements are formatted to a

business-sized window envelope, ready for mailing' statements

may be cumulative or itemized, or any combination of both

' many more features $495.00

DEMO PROGRAM-S29.95 'or more information write

CHILCOAT MICROWORKS

17813 PlumTee Lane Yorba Linda CA 92686

(714) 528-5276

nquiry 704

UTILITIES

► SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR -*

Pop-up emulation ol the HP-11C plus direct insertionof results in foreground program, 17 digits, 512 pro-gram steps, number base conversions, and moreMouse support included 8087 or Standard versions$4995 + 3,00 s&h.

K SOFTWARE HOUSE

Rt. 2, Box 83B1 Unionville, TN 37180(615) 294-5090

PERSONAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT

THE PROGRAMS UNIQUE FEATURE IS THE ABILITY TO USETHE PRINTOUT FOR LOAN APPLICATIONSUse when submit-ting one's financial statement to a financial institution whenapplying for a mortgage loan, personal note, or installmentloan CPA Tested. IBM version- $89.00 Apple Version: $69.00

KISS Computer Company

"Keep It Simple Software'""

P.O. Box 1341, Cape Coral, FL 33910

813-481-2092

THE C UTILITY LIBRARY

Make C program development easy on PC & AT300 documented, tested functions: pop-up windows,fast graphics, data-entry, time/date math, muchmore SOURCE (95°/o in C) included NOROYALTIES Most compilers, memory models£185.

Essential Software, Inc.

P.O. Box 1003, Maplewood, N.J. 07040(914) 762-6605

Inquiry 721

Inquiry 722

THE GREENLEAF C FUNCTIONS

Library of over 200 C functions has every capability ofihe IBM PC for all popular C Compilers, all memorymodels Strength in DOS. Disk. Printer. Color Text, Ex-tended Keyboard and Time/Date Also has video effects,cursor equipment interfaces, and serial I/O $185

Greenleaf Software Inc.

1411 LeMay Drive, Suite 101, Dept. B, Carrollton. TX 75007(214) 446-8641

PC-Writev Shareware

Fast, friendly, flexible word processor and texteditor for IBM PC Easy to use. Advancedfeatures like macros, split screen, footnotes,mailmerge. Many good reviews, thousands soldAll software, manual on disk $10. OK to copy'Register for full manual, support, source $75

Quicksort (206) 282-0452 Visa/MC

219 First N. S224J. Seattle. WA 98109

MEDIA MASTER PLUS

READ. WRITE, ana FORMAT over 60 CP/M disks andrun most CP/M-80 programs on your IBM PC Two pro-gram package includes ZP/EM. a CP/M-80 emulator pro-gram thai transforms your IBM PC into a 1 -2 MHZ CP/M2 2 computer $59.95 + $3.00 S/H (CA 6%)

Intersecting Concepts, Inc.

4573 Heatherglen Ct Ste 10

Moorpark, CA 93021

(805) 529-5073

Inquiry 716

Inquiry 733

Inquiry 717

CROSS ASSEMBLERS with"UNIVERSAL" LINKER and

POWERFUL LIBRARIANSfor IBM PC MS-DOS

Full featured for most microprocessors

ENERTEC, INC.

BOX 1312, Lansdale, PA 19446215-362-0966

Inquiry 713440 BYTE- SEPTEMBER 1985

DATA ENTRY SYSTEM

Heads-down data entry with two-pass verification forthe PC/XT/AT & compatibles Loaded with featureslike: Auto dup & skip, verify bypass, range checks.& table lookups Fully menu driven only $395Call for free 30 day trial period

COMPUTER KEYES

6519 193 SW, Lynnwood WA 98036(206) 776-6443

UTILITIES

• Turbo-Plus™ (Version 3) $59.95• HardRunner™ $39.95

• NoBlink/Accelerator'" $39 95

TO FIND OUT MOHE ABOUT OUR PRODUCTSSEE OUR ADD ON PAGE 113.

NOSTRADAMUS INC.

5320 South 900, East Salt Lake City, Utah 84117(801) 261-0769

Inquiry 727

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 5V 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.

^ II I I I I I I I I I II I |fc

CASES

DISK CADDIES

The original flip-up holder for10 5V4" diskettes. Beige or Greyonly.

S1.65 ea. .20 Shpng.

DISKETTE 70 STORAGE

Dust-free storage for 70 5V4"diskettes. Six dividers included.An excellent value.$11.95 ea. +S3.00 Shpng.

1)

HOURS:

Human: SAM 6PM Central Time, Monday through Friday

Answering Machine: 6PM-8AM, All Times

MCI MAIL: 24 hours a day.

SUPER |STAR ■■ DISKETTES^

51/4" ™

W 5V»"

SSOD

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 wnte-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: 1-312-256-7140)

INQUIRIES:

1-312-256-7140FOR FASTEST SERVICE. USE NO-COST MCI MAILOur 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: 5V." 8 Vh" 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 COO 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 onty to United States addresses, exceptfor those listed above TAXES: Illinois residents, add 8%

MINIMUM ORDER: S35 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 just 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 lust 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.

fe*.

Regular DISK WORLD! price: $9.69 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.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay RoadWilmette, Illinois 60091

Inquiry

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 441

Inquiry 415

^nt jJr^imb jh OVOTEUJI The latest CCT imp|ementation °f the new

■ ^^■^BTp^ MM NTNl If*Iy| generation Intel 16-Bit Processor technology,

li S I mmWM Y ■ »L ■ ■ a This means extreme speed, unequaled power,

laljl j I ^flLUB ^ F" R I F ^ and the ultimate in reliability, and of course, the

^■^ ^bW ■ ■ vLlllEv 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 slot MF), Disk 1A, 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 s"bsystem

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 O.S. (6 user system) $6,075.00

(Example: CCT-4C Mainframe with CCT-40/1 = $9,248.00) Plus cost of selected drive subsystem

\^«W Limited Time Offer - FREE Supercalc 86 with any CCT-4

^S&ftY^ 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: $1,799

CCT-M256 256K version of M512 upgradeable to full 512K. Perfect 256K RAM board for any CompuPro system $949

CUSTOM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY / BOX 4160 / SED0NA, ARIZONA 86340

TOLL FREE ORDERING: 800-222-8686 / For technical support / service: 602-282-6299

3UNTRON1CS CO.JIMC.

1 2603 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250

1 80O-421 t>7^ lOrde' Onlyli?13i 64d-i 140 .CA Order & Into i

STORE HOURSMon Frt 4arnlo6prr

Sat *0 d rn lo b pi

TERMS VISA MASTF«CARD C O D rCaSft Of Cefli'Kt-feck Requnedi Cier* iAhow ? i Weeks '01 Oeanr-iShipping a h e SJ 00 'or i I bs plus Wc 'oi earr adO LIi d"' residents aOd Can' Saies Tat S'O 00 Minimum OdeiiHM and Apple ate 'eqis'e'ed fade marks rii IBM 4 App t-

SUN-XT

SUN-XT COMPUTER

(IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE)

□ RAM EXPANDABLETO 640 K

D USES MS S PC-DOSOPERATINGSYSTEMS

: RUN LOTUS 1-2-3,FLIGHT SIMULATOR,SYNPHONY, DBASEII & 111, AUTO CAT,WORD STAR, MULTI-PLAN . . . ETC.(DOES NOT RUN PROG.REQUIRE ROM BASIC.)

D CPU BOARD W/256 K RAM

D COMPUTER CABINET

D FULL FUNCTION KEYBOARD

D 135 W/POWER SUPPLY

D 2 DSDD DISK DRIVES

D FDC W/CABLE

a TTL MONITOR (AMBER OR GREEN)

D MONOCHROME GRAPHICS CARD

W/PARALLEL PRINTER PORT.

(IN KIT VERSION)

only $959.00

DEALER &OEM INQUIRES INVITED!!

SUN-XT CPU

] S0S8 CPU |80B7 OPTION]RAM EXPANDABLE TO B40KD FULLY IBM COMPATIBLE- DIMENSION SAME AS IBM PC/XTNO RAM INCLUDED

$195.00

FLOPPY DISKCONTROLLER

STANDARD DOUBLE SIDEDOUBLE DENSITYRUN 2 INTERNAL S

2 EXTERNAL -.____WITH CABLE $33.UU

IBM STYLE CABINET

a 8 8L0T BACK PANEL

D COMES WITH MOUNTING

BRACKET £ HARDWARE: FITS IBM POWER SUPPLY

$59.00

COLOR GRAPHIC CARD

G RGB S COMPOSITE VIDEOa 840 i 200 HIOH-RESD 320 I 200 L0-RE8

□ 80 > 25 TEXTMOOE

□ LIOHT PEN INTERFACE

$99.00

"SAM SUNG"MONOCHROME MONITOR

D 12" AMBER OR QREEND 1000 LINES AT CENTER

20MHZ BANDWIDTHG SEPARATE TTL SIONAL INPUT0 OUAL INTENSITY SIONAL LEVELD HIGH PERFORMANCE SHARP

IMAOES

$105.00

MONOCHROMEGRAPHIC CARD

: HIOH-RES CHARACTERa 720(H) « 348(V)

80 ■ 25 TEXT MODEn RUN LOTUS 1-2-3 ETC.G WITH PARALLEL PRINTER PORT

$149.00

MULTI-FUNCTIONBOARD

G RAM EXPANDABLE TO 384(0 K)

n 81'RIAL PARALLEL PORT

G CLOCK CALENDAR W/BATTERY

BACKUP0 GAME PORT, SPOOL & RAM DISK

$159.00

MULTI-I/O BOARD

a FLOPPY DISK DRIVE CONTROLLERPARALLEL PRINTER PORT

n SERIAL I/O PORT ■ VT JU DUEL)

G CLOCK CALENDAR W/BATTERYBACKUP

G QAMEPORT

$169.00

RGB COLOR MONITOR

U 14" DISPLAY DB-8 CONNECTOR

G 840 « 240 HIGH-RES

G 2500 CHARACTERS (80 X 32)

G RGB TTL LEVEL. INTENSITY

SIGNALG 0 38 mm DOT PITCH

H-8CANNING 14.5K-17.8KHZ

$365.00

FULL FUNCTIONKEYBOARD

G S3 KEY FULL FUNCTION. POWER. CAPS. NUM LIGHT

INDICATOR

MECHANICAL TYPE SWITCHG WITH CABLE .i.-.-, „_

$79.00

135W POWER SUPPLY

$37.00

1S0W POWER SUPPLY

S119.00

MONO GRAPHIC (w/o PARALLEL PP)

$99.00

10MB HARD DISK w/CONT

$495.00

20MB HARD DISK w/CONT

$699.00

ASYNC R8232

$59.00

PARALLEL PRINTER CARD

$39.00

TEAC 5SB DISK DRIVE

$89.00

HARD DISK DRIVE CONTROLLER

(10MB OR 20MB) $199.00

64K HAM KIT (9 EA)

S8.50/KIT

256K RAM KIT (9 EA)

$39.00/KIT

APPARAT EPROM BLASTER

(FOR IBM) $129.00

CITIZEN MSP-10 PRINTER

$313.00

TOSHIBA 1340 PRINTER

$533.00

DSDD 5% DISKETTE

$13.95/per 10 ea

PARALLEL PRINTER CABLE

$15.00

442 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 356

CCT

CUSTOM COMPUTERTECHNOLOGY

TOLL-FREE

ORDERING:

800-222-8686

FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT/ 1 CCT PLAZA — P.O. BOX 4160 — SEDONA, ARIZONA 86340

SERVICE / IN ARIZONA:602-282-6299

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"

j CoT»P"P»'0

80286 NOW!

□ CCT-286Z is our model designationfor the MI-286 dual processor boardfromMacrotech. It features thesuperhigh 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-S89580287 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-80/132 Column .... $499

110-14" AMBER $519

200-14" GREEN-80/132 Super Deluxe $569200-14" AMBER $589

OKIDATA PRINTERS - Top Quality82-80 Col. CALL 83-132 Col. CALL92-80 Col. CALL 93-132 Col. CALL84-132 Col/200cps-Top of the line.. CALLFor Serial Interfaces—Add CALL

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 ROYCES 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.Provisionsforupto two hard disks ineach 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-40/1 $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 rjCT-5 • 5%" DSDD

Mitusbishi 2.4 Megabyte in Extra Heavy horizontal enclosure, IBM Compatible Tandon 320K. Extra Heavy Cabinetremoveable filter air system, all cabling. A&T. Burned in. The accommodates two drives, hard orfloppy. All cabling. A&T,

fastest system available: $1229 Bumed-in. Perfect for our PC-DOS Package $399

CCT-8/5 • FULL IBM COMPATABILITY

One Mitsubishi 8" DSDD (1.2 Meg)/One 5-Va " DSDD (360K) IBM Drive

Both 3ms step rate — For Concurrent DOS and PC DOS $1029

• SUPER PRICES • COMPUPRO COMPONENTS • IN STOCK •

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 • RAM 23/64K - $279/128K • $469

NEW - M-Drive/H - 512K - $469 / 2 Meg • $1989

Enclosure 2 Desk - $699/Rack - $749 • Interfacer 3 - $409 • Interfacer 4 - $289 • System Support 1 - $299

Concurrent DOS 8-16 (CCTCMX)-$309 • CP/M 80 (CCTHMX) - $125 • CP/M 86 (CCTTMX) - $175

CP/M 8-16 (CCTTMX) - $199 • CP/M 68K (CCTCX) - $279 • Operating System Updates/Remakes - $30

16 Bit Upgrade Kit: CP/M 86, RAM 23, System Support 1, Cable $729 □ CP/M 8-16 - Kit - $753

CCT-1 - ENTRY LEVEL S-100 BUSINESS SYSTEM

• Enclosure 2-Desk-21 Slot Mainframe • • CCT-2.4-Dual 8" Mitsubishi1 CPU 8085/88 - 6Mhz 8085/8Mhz 8088 • °SDD Drive System - 2.4 Megabytes •

• Disk 1A - DMA Floppy Disk Controller • • CP/M 80 - 2.2 HMX - CCT Modified •

• RAM 23 - 64K Static RAM - 12Mhz • . M Cab|ing Complete CCT Assembly,

• Interfacer 4 - 3 Serial/2 Parallel I/O • Testing, and Minimum 20 Hour Bum-in •

RUNS ALL STANDARD 8" CP/M SOFTWARE - INCLUDES OUR EXCLUSIVE 12 MONTH DIRECT WARRANTY

SPECIAL PRICE

$3,375

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; IBM1" Trademark —International Business Machines; CompuPro® Trademark - W.J. Godbout; CP/M* MP/M® Trademarks — Digital Research; HERCULES™ Trademark — Hercules ComputerTechnology

Inquiry 416

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 443

CHOICE OF MAJOR OEM MANUFACTURERS, UNIVERSITIES,RESEARCH LABS ETC A THOROUGHLY FIELD PROVEN DESIGN."COCM"^n u™° c' **■ 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)

_C

Special J1Interface

(Allows horizontal mount-ing of compatible expan-sion cards for easy busexpansion and customconfiguring) (Board has62 pin gold plated compat-ible connector)

r

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)

Full Mega-Byte Ram Capacity!On board!

(With parity)

□ 256K Bytes using 64K chips

□ 1 Mega Bytes using 256K chips

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!

Triple-tested, fullysocketed and assembledwith IC's.

Includes highest quality PC boardwith gold plating, silk screen,solder mask

Board Size 10.5 inch x 13.5 inch

MegaBoard Products On

Display at the following

locations:

Hawaiian Industrial Instruments

11 54 Fort Street Mall, Suite 200

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

808 533-4132

Electronics Projects Inc.

30 Airport Blvd

Mobile, Alabama 36608

FREEOFFER

FREE! Displaytel™

Exclusive.

Our Commitment to

Microcomputer

Education!

FREE Intel 8088Data Book with eachMega-Board™ Order!

ORDER NOW!!! Fast, friendly service

»CALL: 214-607-WTC\

Immediate shipment!Most instock items shippedsame or next day!

10 Day money back guaranteeif not completely satisfied!

DISPLAY

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

CORPORATION

"IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of International Business Machines

444 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

InterFirst Place

8445 Freeport Parkway, Suite 445

P.O. Box 27

Irving, Texas 75062

(214) 607-1382

Telex 510600176 DTC UD

©1984 Display Telecommunications Corporation

Inquiry 120

8051

8048

SIMULATORS - CROSS ASSEMBLERS -PROGRAMMERS - S1M51 and SIM48 Soft-ware Simulators run on IBM-PC. CP/M-80.MS-DOS. Designed for validation & debug-ging application software. Simulationincludes all on chip functions plus expan-sion chips. $250, one year FREE updates.Formats: PC-DOS 2x DSDD. CP/M-80 8SSSD. many 5 v." formats. Cross Assemblersand EPROM pgmrs also available LogicalSystems Corp. 6184 Teall Station, Syr. NY13217. (3151 457-9416.

logical Systems

Advanced DOS Utilities

Pf is an execution prolner/analyret

ATTRlB staius/sel/reset tile altntwtes

CAP caps a pioe leg sod < tiien cap tiie*>

DFREE ■ displays tree disk space on current drive

DUMP is a he> dump utility (lor printing quickly)

DKNUM displays number ol diskettes needed to hokl liie(s)

KEVBUF - expands keyboard butter tor type-ahead

LOCATE ■ finds litefsl in tile System

MFREF - displays next available and total available memory

MOVE - renames tile(s) into anotnei directory

TAIL displays last lines tn file

TO - displays curreni time and dale (tor BAT tiles)

TEE tees" a pipe (eg. son - lile-y tee z ■ ttle-y)

TREE ■ displays tree diagram below current directory

WAIT - delays execution toi speolied interval

XCOPY - is an advanced version of DOS copy (lor archiving)

Most utilities are recursive Each has been tested under DOS 2 x/3 x(including DOS 3 1) on ihe IBM" PC/XT/AT

The price (or all 16 utilities, postpaid is

S59 for unprotected binaries isources are avaitabiei$10 tor manual only

For quickest response order wilh VISA/MC by calling

800-621-2283 ext 912

In TX 800-442-5321 exl 912

Or send check/money order to address belowTX orders add 6 ifS0.*) sales tax

PC Network Specialists, tnc.

Dept B59. 13109 Chandler Drive

Dallas, TX 75243

214-373-2386

DISKETTECONVERSION

DIICPN

Solve your PC compatibility problems withDISCON, the complete turnkey system withCPU, software, terminal and four disc drives.

DISCON can format, read and writehundreds of MS-DOS and CP/M 8". 5U" and3V2" floppy diskette formats. Programs, databases and documents can be transferreddirectly disc-to-disc.

Pacifica Technology

11696 Sorrento Valley Rd.. Suite A

San Diego, CA 92121

619-453-2945

Inquiry 22I

Inquiry 287

Inquiry 283

Fantastic Price!

NASHUA

DISKETTESFIVE VTAR WARRANT*

75

4

eachQty. 100

5V SS/DDor DS/DD. your choice, withhub ring and Tyvek sleeve, bulkpackaged, no labels Shipping extra Forquantity 50. add 10C each.

Get the same low price our high-volume duplication customers get!

CALL TOLL FREE

1 -800-321 4668

in Colorado. 303-234-0871ALF Products Inc • Denver. CO

KING OFTHE ELECTRONICS JUNGLE"

LEO ELECTRONICS. INCP 0 Box 11307TORRANCE CA 90510-1307PHONE 213/212-6133 oroutside CA 800/421-9565TLX 291 985 LEO URFAX 213.212-6106

WE WILL BEAT ANY PRICEON MEMORY EXPANSION CHIPS

UPGRADE YOUR IBM OR OTHER PC WITHMORE RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY

RAMS

41256-150ns4164-I50ns■Jl64-200ns4128-150ns UBW ATTMM6116P-3

4 25

■ 2Q

6 752 50

SALE PRICING:

It these prices are not tnelowesl in iriis publication.we will meet anylegttamale" price

EPROMS AND MATHCO-PROCESSOR CHIPS

2708. S2 80

2716 2 80

2732 3 00

2764 3 30

27128 $4 50

27256 900

8087 CALL

80287 CALL

WE NOW CARRY.

DiSK drives power supplies384K Multifunction DoarOSCokMvgrapnics boards and

CALL FOP BROCHURE

I'M

RobotExperimenter

The only monthly magazine dedicated todesigning, constructing, and using personalcind educational robots

Experimenter's will find all the diagrams andsoftware necessary to construct their ownrobots

Early issues contain articles on inexpensiveinfrared ranging systems, single-chip microcom-puter controllers, simple pneumatic controlsystems, voice & vision systems, and Al pro-gram design technigues for microcomputers

Subscribe now and receive our introductoryrate of S18 for 12 issues (offer good until 1October 1985)

To subscribe, send name and address alongwith SI8 in check or money order If you preferto use MasterCard or Visa, include your cardnumber and expiration date

174 Concord St.. Suite 31

PO Box 458

Peterborough. NH 03458-0458

603/924-3843

Inquiry 215

Inquiry 317

SCIENTISTS!

IBM PC & APPLE II USERS

Dramatic advances are beingmade in scientific tools for per-sonal computers. Jandel Scientificspecializes in software andperipherals for:

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CALL TOLL-FREE 800-874-1888IN CALIF. CALL 415-331-3022Jandel Scientific2656 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA94965.

DISKS58<

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AS

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AS

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Send Orders & Payments To: CompuSave, 3010 S. 48th Street, Suite 8, Phoenix, AZ 85040.For Customer Service & Other Information Call Mon-Fri (602) 967-3533.

Prices reflect a cash discount of 3% to 5%. Prices and availability are subject to change without notice. Merchandise is shipped in factory cartons withmanufacturer's warranty. Minimum shipping charge is $4. Pay by wire, cashier's check, money order, or charge. Business or personal checks delay

shipment 2 weeks. CompuSave is a Division of Adlanko Corporation. (85-9) inquiry 73

ATTENTIONBERNOULLI BOXERS

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Inquiry 159

Inquiry 305

Inquiry 336

Use the Powerof Your Computer

... to automatically look upcity, state and county informa-tion based on zip code. Table of48.000 zips allows significantsavings on data entry, error cor-rections and file maintenance.This set of floppy disks, includ-ing easy instructions, is justSI49. Most popular 5'/)" and 8"formats are available. Hard diskrequired. Call or write for freeinformation.

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1990 M Street. N.W., Suite 610Washington, D.C. 20036

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I EM100-4010 for IBM PC, XT. AT

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Inquiry III

Inquiry 23

Inquiry 121

RS-232 to RS-422ACONVERTER

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Dealer Inquiries Welcome

AN I/O ap-8

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Inquiry 31

Inquiry 81

Inquiry 418

DISK WORLD! is proud to introducethe lowest-priced, LIFETIME-WARRANTY

diskettes Gver!And they're BRAND NAME PRODUCT to boot!

5.25 SSDD^.79 ea. 5.25 DSDD-r .89 ea.

5.25 DSDD HD-rs2.35 ea.

3.50 SSDD-f$2.25 ea. 3.50 DSDD->S2.65 ea.

Based on multiples of 100 each.

Boxed in 10's with heavy-duty cardboard sleeves, user ID labels,

reinforced hubs (where appropriate) and write protect tabs.

Introducing Wabash Pinnacle Series Diskettes.

Two years ago. if you'd told me I'd be writing this ad, I wouldhave laughed

At that time, Wabash diskettes were synonymous with"s—t".

Just saying that quality control was poor would becharitable.

So much was wrong that DISK WORLD wouldn't sell them

That was yesterday.

Kearney-National Inc. a $202-million division of a mucharger company, came into Wabash.

Out went the old management, the old methods, the oldproduction techniques .and in went a lot of new people, ideas,production lines and some really imaginative thinking.The end result.

Today, I'm proud to offer you the Wabash Pinnacle Series ofdiskettes at the prices shown.

This isn't evolution in diskette manufacturing- it's revolution

Here's what you get.

Wabash Pinnacle diskettes are..certified 100% Error Freeare coverd by a LIFETIME WARRANTY.meet or exceed all industry specifications (by quitesome distance)

and are simply the best value in diskettes availabletoday.

The torture test.Considering Wabash's earlier dubious reputation. I wasn'texactly a true believer when their Director of Marketing cameinto my office with samples.

So I took a box at random, selected a disk, bent the thingevery which way and slipped it into my IBM-PC.It formatted. It booted It stored and retrieved data

That wasn't enough.

I gave samples of the diskettes to Curt Rostenbach and, inturn, to Tom Streit, both hackers of long experience and mem-bers of the Waukegan (Illinois) Apple Users Group.

Tom really went at it

He took a quartz-halogen lamp, aimed it at the diskette untilit started to smoke (and melt) .and then formatted, bootedthe diskette and stored and retrieved data!

The same terribly (and intentionally) mutilated diskette ranon an ITT. Corona and IBM.

Curt was nicer.

He simply bent the diskette every which way and it stillformatted, booted and ran on his Apple

The best buy I've ever seen.

DISK WORLD1. Inc. sells more flexible magnetic media bymail-order than anyone else in the world.

I, as President of the corporation, won't tolerate a productwith a failure rate of more than 1/1000th of 1 percent

I also don't like companies who try to milk a "quality" or"premium" image tor a higher price like Dysan and Verbatimdid until they failed

As President of DISK WORLD!. Inc., my motto is simple: "thebest diskette for the least amount of money."

Wabash is it.

Right now, there is no better value than the Wabash PinnacleSeries of diskettes.

Granted, you have to buy a hundred at a time, but so what?Split the order with friends, relatives, co-workers or even yourworst enemies.

The key thing is to get the most diskette for the money

And this is it

(Incidentally, as a corporation, we put our money where our

mouth is Our first order for Wabash Pinnacle Diskettes was1 5-million units.)

That's an awful lot of faith and confidence.

But. then again. I have the diskette that Tom Streit literallymelted...and kept on running.

The truth about $1.00 or less diskettes.

More and more ads are popping up offering diskettes for$1.00 or less.

By the same token, more and more people who were sellingused cars a tew months ago are now selling diskettes by mail

We did a little survey of current ads for diskettes advertisedfor a dollar or less and did some analysis of the market andhere's what we found as it applies to 5.25" DSDD diskettes"supposedly" selling for a dollar or less.

ACTUAL

ADVERTISED

PRICE

ACTUAL

VENDOR:

LOW PRICE:

PER 100

MFGR.:

Unitech

89 ea

.92 ea

Unspecified

Datatech

.99 ea.

.99 ea

Unspecified

Computer Club

.95 ea.

98 ea.

Unspecified

.99 ea.

1.02ea.

Unspecified

Communications

& Electronics

.49 ea

80 ea

Unspecified

Precision Data

89 ea

93 ea

Unspecified

Diskette Connec

93 ea

93 ea.

Unspecified

CompSoftServ

.77 ea

77 ea.

+ shpg

Unspecified

Computer/Computer

.99 ea.

99 ea

Unspecified

DISK WORLD

89 ea.

92 ea

WabashDatatech

The real truth about $1.00

or less diskettes.

It costs all diskette manufacturers about the same to pro-duce a diskette. Some may charge more because they want toproiect a "premium quality" image, ala the late, lamentedDysan who bought their basic media from 3M

Some charge less because they sell a sub-standard prod-uct.. .and we're not foolish enough to name names here.

But here's the truth about the $1 00 or less diskette market

It falls into four categories.

1 The DISK WORLD'S of the universe who simply are so bigthat they can buy first quality product in massive quantities andchoose to pass on the savings to you (Precision Data andDiskette Connection on BRAND NAME products also fall intothis category.)

2. The people who buy "cosmos".. .stuff from ma|or manu-facturers that usually hits quality control standards, but iscosmetically blemished and thus can't be packaged and soldunder the manufacturer's own name.

3. "Duplicator Quality". Uncertified media, usually belowmanufacturer's own standards and frequently below ANSI andIBM standards Sold on an "as-is" basis with the understand-ing that the manufacturer's name will never be divulged Usual-ly about a 20% reject rate ..as compared to DISK WORLD'Sstandard of less than 1/1000th of 1 % reject/return rate Next togarbage, this is the source of most diskettes advertised at adollar or less.

They may work...and then again they may not. (Frankly, theodds at the Blackjack table in Las Vegas are more in your favor.)

4. Garbage. Stuff that shouldn't be sold at all. But somemanufacturers are hurting for cash, so they sell it anyway(After all. they want to meet their payroll. Look what happenswhen you don't: you become a Dysan or Verbatim. Lots ofhistory, but no money.) More and more garbage is beingdumped into the market as manufacturers become pressed forcash and are motivated into selling anything and everythingthey can manufacture. (Read the article in FORBES aboutVerbatim and its "Bonus" brand )

Finally, the Taiwanese counterfeiters are moving into the act.Perfect duplicates of the packaging of maior manufacturerswith one exception: the quality isn't there.

The Critical Factor.

Only DISK WORLD!, Inc. offers fully brand-identified.LIFETIME-WARRANTY product for less than a dollar.

Every one else offering 5.25" product for less than a buckdoesn't tell you who makes it

We do

And that ought to tell you a lot right there

Ordering & ShippingInstructions

SHIPPING: Wabash Pinnacle Diskettes are sold in mul-tiples of 100 only Shipping charges are $3.00 per 100,regardless of type or size.

PAYMENT: VISA, MASTERCARD and PREPAID ordersaccepted Corporations rated 3A2 or better and govern-ment and quasi-government open accounts are acceptedon a NET 15 basis

COD. orders are subject to a $5.00 special handlingcharge (Sorry for the increase, but too many people havebeen refusing CO D orders or using bad checks It's aclassic example of a few "bad eggs" making lite moreexpensive for everyone else.)

APO. FPO, AK. HI & PR ORDERS: Include shipping asshown and an additional 5% of the total amount of theorder to cover PAL and insurance.No other non-continental U.S. orders are acceptedTAXES: Illinois residents only, add 7%.

All orders subject to acceptance.

Not responsible for typographical errors

ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140)

INQUIRIES & INFORMATION

1-312-256-7140

FOR FASTEST SERVICE,

USE MCI MAIL:

Just address "DISKWORLD"

(24-hour shipping on any item in stock

v if you order via MCI MAIL.) J

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay RoadWilmette, Illinois 60091

448 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I98=>

Inquiry 118

maxell disks

LIFETIME 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.

AM w

NORTH HILLS CORP.INTERNATIONAL

3564 Rolling View Dr.

White Bear Lake, MN. 55110

MN. rail collect—612-770-0485

Get the Proportional PrintingProgram which Really Works!

Get type-set quality true proportionalspaced printing from unmodified Word-Star and NewWord document files.PropStar prints on most daisy-wheelprinters with ps type-wheels includingDiablo, Qume, NEC, Brother, Juki, S-R,C.Itoh and many others.

PropStar is a stand-alone program, nota patch to your w.p. program, it main-tains correct letter spacing, nevercrowds capitals (even on short lines),gives higher quality print than modi-fied WordStar. PropStar supports mostof the common WordStar and NewWordprint enhancements. No installationpatching required. For CP/M-80 sys-tems on 8" and 5-1/4" media, also forMS-DOS systems on 5-1/4" PC media.Only $ 49.95, Visa & M/C o.k. Specifycomputer and printer. Dealers wanted.

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COMPUTINGCORPORATION

I Research Drive Suite I

Nil mARYfTlAC INDUSTRIES INC

800-231-3680

Radio Shack TRS-80 sEpson Printers

People you Trust to give you the very best!

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• QualityProducts

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Inquiry 64

Inquiry 232

9-TRACK MAG. TAPE SUBSYSTEMFOR THE IBM PC/XT/AT

»4757

For inlormatron interchange Backup and archival storage.IBEX otters a 9 -track IBM tormat-compaiiDte V magnetictape subsystem tor Ihe IBM PC featuring.

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reel.a IBM format 1600 cpl.

IEEE!

IBEX COMPUTER CORP

20741 Manila StChais worth. CA 913111818) 709-8100TWX 910-483-M71

The Statistician

CPM IBM-PCTRS-DOS XENIX

Multiple Regression

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' Survey Research' Nonparametrics' X-Y Plots' ANOVA

' Random Samples' Data Base' Search & sort' Hypothesis tests

Please call TOLL FREE1-800-334-0854 (Ext. 814)

Q

for more information

or write:

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Box 628

Charleston, SC 29402

VISA-M/C Accepted

.ROSE DATA SWITCHES

'ELECTRONICS .,.,.,

SHARE computers, printers,y parallel or serial deviceELIMINATE cable swappingINEXPENSIVE way to nelworkCOMPATIBLE withall computers

Businesses, Schools. HomesWE ALSO OFFER

--.afSsfiifi^^^7 Dala BlJ,,ers Lme Dnvers>^i»***L^... Modems. Protocol Converters.

Parallel - Serial Converters.Cables. Computers. Printers.Disk Drives, and moreAUTOMATIC - CARETAKER is ideal tor a business orschool to share a printer or modem among many computersOperation is fully automatic with no software requiredParallel or Serial 4 channels - $295 8 channels - $395MANUAL HARDSWITCH is operated with the flip of aswitch 2:2 and 2 4 models allow simultaneous commun-ication

Serial 1 2 - $59 1 4 - $ 99 2:2 - $109 2:4 - $169

Parallel 1.2 - $99 1 4 - $159 2:2 - $189 2 4 - $279LED and sptke protection on serial models add $20CODE ACTIVATED - PORTER connects one compuier tomultiple peripherals A software code selects the peripheralParallel or Serial 4 channels - $295 8 channels - $395Buffer option 64K - $100 256K - $250REMOTE - TELEPATH connects multiple computers tomultiple peripherals A selector at each computer or terminalchooses up to 4 peripherals and displays busy status4 4 $495 4 8 - $795 selector - $39

^^^^^^^^= 0tu€ i JPiw U ywt* e»mA-trt -■ ■ROSE ELECTRONICS (713) 240-7673P.O. BOX 742571 MC A VISA AccapledHOUSTON. TX 77274 Dealer inquiries InvitedCALL US FOR ALL YOUR INTERFACE NEEDS

Inquiry 178

Inquiry 306

Inquiry 3I9

# PC/XT USERS!

#

COGTREE Utilities by

Cogitate

S129.95

#

LYNC by Norlon-Lamber. . .

S199.95

#

DATAFLEX by Data Access.

. Varies

1

RM/COBOL by Ryan/

McFarland

.. Varies

#

Universe by Omnitrend. . .

S 98.50

1

Blue Mad by Cogitate. . . .

S 599.00

#

CadPower + by Trilex

S 995.00

B

Softext Teaching Aids

S 95.00

#

PrintSet by Cogitate

S 79.95

B

CogiTAPE by Cogitate

CALLII

#

Anti-Static Products

..Varies

B

Uninterruptible Power

Backups

. Varies

B

TeleVideo Software

CALLII

"A Higher Form of Softwa

re"

24000 Telegraph Road

Southfleld. Ml 48034

(313] 352 2345 Telex 3S6S8I

VISA/MASTERCARD ACCEPTED

Dealer Inquiries Welcomed

IBM Enhancements

Monochrome/Graphic Printer Card $169.00

Iruns Lotus 1-2-3. 64K, 720x3481

384K Multifunction Card $139.00

(Parallel/Serial/Game/Clock/Calendar/384KI

Floppy Disk Controller Card lw/cable)$69.00

384K RAM Card (W/64K) $99.00

Switching Power Supplies192.5 w for IBM AT.

Call

130 w for PC/XT.... -^/a-.

$109.00\"^^

Internal replacement,

4 drive connectors, K

ETRI, fan ~

12V/4.5A 5V/15A

110V/220V

Case for AT ... . Call

Case for PC/XT IFIiptop or Slide) $64.00

Game Card (2 Joystick Ports) $39.00

5151 Compatible Keyboard $139.00

Distributors/Dealers/OEM Inquiries InvitedCall 408-249-4512 Telex 172412Supreme Company

1101 S. Winchester Blvd., F166San lose, CA 95128

DATA ACQUISITION ID GO

INTERFACE FOR ANY COMPUTER

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

(201) 299-1615

P.O. Box 246, Morris Plains, NJ 07950

ELEXOR

Inquiry 65

Inquiry 358

Inquiry 133

FORTRON CORPORATION

3797 YALE WAY, FREMONT, CA 94538

FOR YOUR IBM PC, XT, AT OR COMPATIBLES-Dealer & OEM Are Invited-

INFORMATION S. CALIF. RES. [415] 490-8171

ORDER TOLL FREE:[800] 821-9771

POWER SUPPLIES

For PC/AT

?*

169.

00

#FC 5192,200 WATTS (max.]

+ 5V/19.8A, +12V/7.3A

-5V/1A, -12V/1A

110/230 VAC Switchable

Come with 4 Drives Connector

ffi Pending

ONE YEAR WARRANTY

Fully Tested in U.S.A.

#FC-130 40

130 Watt power supply for

.Jv 119°°

• Fully Tested in U.S.A.

• Good for Faraday, DTCMegaboard, and other PC/XTcompatibles

• Back side on-off switch

• Use cabinet FC 630

• 110/230 VAC convertible

• U|_' Pending

140 W.(MAX)POWER SWITCHER

#FC 135-40 Fully Tesledin U.S.A.

12900

KEYBOARD

#FC 527

Direct replacement toIBM PC power supplyHigh air flow, low noise fan(U|_j PendingOutstanding quality,1 yr. warranty

#FC 630 A-T

COMPUTER CHASSIS

^

13g.oo

IBM® PC/AT identical dimensionHeavy duty metal frame & frontplastic panel

Completed hardware and accessoriesUse our power supply FC-5192 andkeyboard FC 527

#FC-630 A-2

99.00

IBM® PC/XT identical dimension

Righthand side on-off switch

position

Hardwares included

7 & 8 slot rear panels. Good for

0.75" or 1" apart slot connectors

Use FC 135 40 power supply

• IBM® PC AT key layout

• Enlarge return & shift key

• Capacitance low profile key switch

PC/AT 129.00

#FC 427

• IBM* PC/XT compatible

• Light on num. & caps lock keys

pcxt 99.00

#FC-G30 A

IBM PC, XT ADD-ON CARDS

FC 230 FloppyDisk Controller

• Drives 4 x S'/4" FDD

• IBM fullycompatible

• w/cable

59.00

DTC 5150 BX Hard

Disk

Controller

• Up to 2 HardDisk Drives

• Fully BufferedI/O Bus

• Built-in ECC

199.00

Monochrome/Graphic withPrinter Port, CT-6040

• 80 x 25 Text mode

• 720x348 Graphic mode

• Can run Lotus 1-2-3

• 64K Graphic Display memory

• Monitor & printer interface

149.00

MONITOR

Monochrome

109.0°

12", TTL Level1000/800 Lines2000 (Characters)

[film 4-1

FC 530MonochromeControllerw/Printer port

• 8 x 25 Screen

• 9 X 14 Character Box

• 7 X 9 Character

• TTL level of output

99.00

FC 940 RS232C/

REAL TIME

CLOCK

• To 9600 Baud

• Battery Back-up

G9.oo 49.00

Clock Only

MORE.

384K Multifunction Card 119.00

RS232/Printer Card 79.00

Color Graphic Card with

Printer Port 159.00

FC 830 (512K Memory Exp 89.00

Card tyC)

DRIVES

Hard Disc Drive Cable (34 pin-34 pin) 19.95

Floppy Drive Cable 11.95

9 Pin D Type to 25 Pin D Type for PCAT 29.00

Printer Cable 25 Pin D Type to Centronics 19.00

RS232 to RS232 Cable 19.00

AC Input/Output Power Cord 3.00

5%" FLOPPY

Teac/Panasonic

DS/DD

95 00

(Drive Only)

■MANJ

Teac. Vz Height489.oo

(w/CableController)

—EEB3

Teac. Vz Height659.00

(w/CableController)

79.00

<c^<M*UW<M«<&<«&*&ci&4ci&ti^

Rear side on-off switch positionGood for Faraday, DTC megaboardand other compatibles6 or 8 slot on rear panelUse FC-130-40 power supply

Get a Full FunctionPRINTER at 99.00

(Listed 199.00)

Comes • 25-36 pin cable adapter

with:

• 4 Batteries

• 1 roll paper

• ll'/4"X4»/2*Xl3/4"

• 2.2 pounds weight

• Dot Matrix Thermal Printer

• 80 Standard Character/Line

• 40 cps (DC 6V) 50 cps (AC)

• Battery Back-up

• 55 db noise

• Centronic Type Parallel Interface

Limited Stock On Hand!

64K RAM (150 ns) 8°°/9 pes.

Piggy back 128K RAM

for PC/AT 53M/9 pes.

256K RAM (150 ns) .... 44°°/9 pes.

8237A-5 3K/»a.

8284A lM/ea.

2764 3M/ea.

TERMS:

Minimum handling & shipping $6.00

1. Please call for actual charges.

2. CA Res. add 6.5% tax

3. A RMA NO. is required for returnmerchandise, unauthorized returngoods will be refused.

4. Restocking charge 15°/o

5. Prices subject to change without notice

6. Not responsible for typos

450 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 147 for End-Users. Inquiry 148 for DEALERS ONLY.

RS-422

Communications Board

• For IBM-PC/AT/XT and

compatibles

• Dual RS-422 serial interface

• Programmable to 56k baud

• Differential drivers to 4000 ft.

$345.00QUA TECH, INC.

476 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

0

Inquiry 304

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 S5O0

SOLUTIONWARE

1283 ML View-Atvino Rd.

Suite B

Sunnyvale. Calif. 94089

408/745-7818 • TLX 4994264

Inquiry 344

USR Courier 300/1200/2400

USR Password 300/1200

USR IBM 300/1200 IBM int

Anchor Express 300/1200

Anchor Volksmodem 12 300/1200 ..

Anchor Mark XII 300/1200

Anchor Mark X 300

Hayes 1200 The standard

Hayes 1200B IBM int

Multitech MT 212AH2 300/1200

Multitech MT 224AH 300/1200/2400 ..Cermetek Security w/caiiback securityCermetek 1200PC IBM int

$469$229$299$279$179$220$ 99$399$379$349$559$599$349

DATA BROKERS THE MODEM EXPERTS

3535 Roundbottom Rd. Cinti., OH 45244

Inquiry 106

_Saufe§MnW

KEYBOARD PROTECTOR

Remains in place during keyboard use. Preventsdamage from liquid spills, dust, ashes, etc. Fitslike a second skin, excellent feel. Available for:IBM-PC. AT, Apple (all), Compaq. Model 100,NEC 8201. C64, Zenith 150. DEC. Kaypro andmany others. Send $29.95, check, M.O., Visa& MC include exp. date. Specify computer type.Dealer inquiries invited. Free brochure avail.

Merritt Computer Products, Inc.

2925 LBJ Fwy. *180 / Dallas, Texas 75234

(214) 942-1142

DvUBLc

THE OPTION CAPACITY

OP YOUR IBM MRSONAL COMPUTER

PC-XTRA

• DIRECT EXTENSION OFIBM PC BUS

• NO SOFTWARE CHANGES

• NO HARDWARE MODIFICATION« STYLING CONSISTENT WITH IBI

Add all those special options trial yo<M,rRifig without worrying aDout tilling yoptug-in and back pansl space

DEALER INQi

"0«H» F.OB SANTA ANA —

•C*i.lr<0«NiA RESIDENTS ADD 6% SALES TAX

PC HORIZONS, INC.

1701 E. Edinger, Ste. A6, Santa Ana. CA 92680(714) 953-5396

Real-Time Multitasking Executive

• No royalties

■ Source code included

■ Fault tree operation

■ Ideal for process control

■ Timing control providedl Low interrupt overhead

■ Inter-task messages

Options:

■ Resource Manager

■ Buffer Manager

■ Integer Math Library

■ Language Interfaces:C Pascal

PL/M Fortran

I DOS File AccessCP/M-80IBM PC DOS

AMX for 6080 $ S00 US

8086 950

6809 950

68000 1600

Manual (specify procesSO') 75

Jlc KADAK Products Ltd.

•

(604| 734-2796

Telex: 04-55670

206-1847 W Broadway Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6J1Y5

Inquiry 237

Inquiry 281

Inquiry 206

AMBER CRTs

□ Eliminates strobe,

D Ideal for word processing

flicker, and eye fatigue

and programming, yet

□ Made with Lead/Stron-

fast enough for games

tium impregnated glass

and graphics

that stops X-ray

□ Warranted for one full

emission

year against manufactur-

G Available in slow decay

ing defects or tube

green or medium decay

"European Amber" (the

□ Comes with a 30-day

standard in Europe)

money back guarantee

□ High-contrast double

D Easily installed (comes

dark face glass that also

with premounted

cuts U V radiation

hardware)

□ Tube face is etched to

stop glare

Now. you can easily up-

Call now id order your Soft-

grade your monitor to ex-

View'" CRT from Lang-

ceed European standards for

ley-St. Clair - $99.95

persistence and color with

Plus $7 for packing and

the installation of a Lang-

UPS Shipping ($17 for Over-

ley-St Clair Soft-View'"

seas. Parcel Post or UPS

CRT! Available for the TRS-

Blue Label) Add sales tax

80,'" TeleVideo,'" Kaypro,'"

where applicable Visa/ Mas-

Heath,'" DEC" Zenith,'"

terCard orders welcomed

IBM PC,'" Apple III'" and a

wide variety of other

monitors. «

to nnriPR •g»u«|hMta*

lUUnUCn. • Initrumcnlitlon Syilimi. Inc.

CALL 800

132 W 24th SI

221-7070

Now York. NY 100) 1

In Now York call 212 989-6876

FREE SOFTWARE

FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

User Group Software isn't copyrighted, so no fees topay! 1000's of CP/M and IBM software programs in.COM and source code to copy yourself! Games,business, utilities! All FREE!

Rent Buy

IBMPC-SIG 1-370 Disksides 400. 800.

IBMPC-BLUE 1-116 Disksides 145. 375.

SIG/M UG 1-222 Disksides 130. 625.

CP/M UG 1-92 Disksides 45. 250.

PICO NET 1-34 Disksides 25. 100.

KAYPRO UG 1-39 Disksides 45. 90.

EPSON UG 1-39 Disksides 45. 90.

Commodore CBM 1-28 Disksides.. 25. 65.

Public Domain User Group Catalog Disk $5 pp.

(payment in advance, please)Rental is for 7 days after receipt, 3 days grace to

return. Use a credit card, no disk deposit.

Shipping, handling & insurance $9.50 per library.

(619) 941-0925 Orders & Technical (9 to 5)

(619) 727-1015 24 Hr. 3 Mln. Info Recording

Have your credit card ready!

National Public Domain Software

1533 Avohill Dr.Vista, CA 92083

BBB

AM EX.

Macintosh"

Call for prices on other Macintosh products.

m PC'S LIMITED

OWTUM TUUU, OIDHS OMIT, UU I -800-434-5 ? 50.

TMI M. la**, #t>M0, faith, T.

■ nib i*t MtoM MM ■! h

tad (SID 451-0373.

Ad number 407 A

^m i ,11 (ethnical ■■,;.;..-: to, i. „., r .gihoriutloD number M all warn..,, .^mI repair. |rq unitithuriied return >ub|eii 10 a 10V reiiocklni let I

irehirfc lnr VIM or Miitertird. J

Inquiry 268

Inquiry 289

100% GUARANTEED ICs - MONEY BACK!

1-800-245-2235

SPECIAL64K DRAM

FULLY FUNCTIONAL

WITH SLIGHTLY

SHORTER LEADS

200ns or FASTER

MICROPROCESSORS

2901

2903

68000-8

68008-8

Z8001

80186-3

8031

8035

3.00 80395.00 8080A18.00 808518.00 80867.50 8086-215.00 80885.00 8X3002.00 8741A

2.00.752.004.005.007.506.00100

ADC/DAC

CONTROLLERS/UARTS

1691 5.25 2661 4.00

1771 6.50 5027 3.00

1791 10.00 5037 5.00

1793 500 7201 4.50

1795 10.00 765 4.00

1797 10.00 COM8U6 5.00

2651 4.00 3250 4.00

SOUND CHIPS

82XX PERIPHERALS

8202

8212.

821S

8224

82a

8237

8237A-5

8243

8251

82S3

8254

8255

8257

TMS 9900 SERIES

9901 1.50

9918 20.00

9927 5.00

9980 10.00

AIL OTHER 99XX SERIES 3.00

14.00

8259

2.00

too

8272

4 00

100

1273

1000

3.00

8274

9.0S

3 00

8275

9.00

3 00

8276

15.00

4-00

8279

3.50

1.50

8281

7.50

2 00

8283

5.50

200

8284

2.00

4.00

8288

4 00

2.00

8291

20.00

2.00

8292

21.00

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".

DYNAMIC RAMS

4164120ns

4164150ns4164200ns4164250ns4416150ns4116150ns4116-200ns4U6-250ns

1.75.95.85.65

150.75.35.25

STATIC RAMS

6264150ns

6.00

6116-150ns

1.25

6116200ns

.90

6116250ns

.65

1420-55ns

2.00

2147,2148,2149

2.00

2114300ns

.50

2114-FASTER

.80

1-800-245-2235

EPROMS

27128-250ns 5.00

27128350ns 4.00

27128450ns 3.002764,2732, 2716

250ns300ns350ns450ns650ns170227086876668708

3.50

3.00

2.75

2.25

1.751.502.006.004.00

CMOS version at doublethe above prices

25 Series EPROMS arethe same price as 27Series EPROMS

ANY 10K LOGICANYECLRAMANY 100K LOGIC

Z80 SERIES

2.5 MHZCPU.CTCPIODMA, DART, SIO

4.0 MHZ (A)CPU.CTCPIODMA, DART, SIO

6.0 MHZ (B)

CPU.CTCPIO

3.

DMA, DART, SIO

9.

MISCELLANEOUS

0026

1.50

1488

.50

1489

.50

3232

1.00

3242

4.00

3470

1.50

3486

1.00

3487

1.50

CA3XXX

1.00

MC4024

2.00

MC4044

2.00

555

.35

75XXX

.50

8131

2.25

8136

4.00

8303

3.00

8304

1.75

88XX

.50

8TXX

.50

9602

.75

96LS02

1.50

SPECIALS

2114300ns .50FDC1793 5.0074LS322 .506116-120ns 1.758080A .75

Z80ASI0/0 3.75

74 SERIES

74XX .25

741XX .35

742XX .50

743XX .50

74LSXX .25

74LS1XX .35

74LS2XX .50

741S3XX .50

74SXX .35

74S1XX .45

74S2XX .60

74S3XX .60

74ALSXX .35

74ALS1XX .45

74ALS2XX .60

74ALS3XX .60

74FXX .35

74F1XX .45

74F2XX .60

74F3XX .60

CMOS

ANY 4000 SERIESANY 4500 SERIES

6500/6800 SERIES

ANY65XX

ANY 65XXA

ANY65XXB

ANY68XX

ANY 68AXX

ANY68BXX

6810

2.002.503.002.002.503.00.75

OUR POLICY

Delivery: Orders normally shipped within2 business days Add S3 lor UPS ground-it

4 under. Add S4 for UPS Wue fait], 2# &under; for each additional air pound addS). Arizona residents add 6% sales tax.Payment: Visa. MC cashiers check, cer-Sfjed check, money order, personal checkaccepted. (Allow to days for personalchecks to clear.) No surcharge on creditcard orders. COOs welcome with cash, cer-tified check, cashiers check or money order.Add S3 COD handling charge.

Pricing: Prices subject to change withoutnotice. All items tented to stock on hand.We reserve the riant to limit quantities.

KRUEGER Technology, Inc

MasterCard

2219 South 48th Street • Tempe, AZ 85282

800-245-2235

In Arizona 602-438-1570

HOURS: 7o.m.-5:30p.m.(MOUNTAIN TIME)

Monday Thru Friday

452 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 208 for End-Users. Inquiry 209 for DEALERS ONLY.

<0

RS232C IBM PC CompatiblePaper Tape Transmitter/Model 612Stops and starts on character at all speeds,uses manual control or X-on, X-oft 90-260volt. 50-60 Hz power 50-9600 baud, up to 150char/sec synchronous or asynchronous;gated Internal or external clock. RS 232C.current loop or parallel output, reads 5-8 leveltape, 7-11 frames per character, even or oddparity. Desk top or rack mountAddmaster Corporation, 415 Junlpero SerraDrive, San Gabriel, CA 91776, (818) 285-1121,Telex 674770 Addmasler SGAB

6800 Family

Software

Software for 6800/01/05/09

microprocessors.

SOFTWARE: C compiler, Pascal.

multitasking DOS, macro-assemblers.

FORTRAN, 16K BASIC

FIRMWARE: Fantom monitor debugger.

math library. 4K BASIC

CROSS-SOFTWARE: Assemblers. PL/W

Compilers, Linker. Simulators

W'lvrri: ,80isoum*"-■1*1 ■'" Lafayette. IN 47904

Universal MachineIndependent Assembler

MOPI:

A unique software developmentsystem.

The only assembler capable ofgenerating machine code for any 8-or 16-bit micro using; a universalset of instructions, including proce-dural, the manufacturer's or userdefined instructions.

The first assembler to implementa proposed AL Standard, applicableto anv computer; simplifies learn-ing AL, reduces development time,offers limited portability.

Simple enough for a beginning pro-grammer, sophisticated enough forexperienced computer professionals.For CP/M or PC-DOC - $195

fS51 vocs

{[vocsjf P.O. Box 3705

?Sl? Mpls.. MN 55403

Inquiry 8

Inquiry 392

Inquiry 385

SAVE TIME AND MONEY WITHLOW COST PI-SWITCH BOXES.

I j ,-f\ Starting at $59.95 I-'. 1

tit*.* fca

•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)

PMM switches 2 to 1 JS9 95

PI-03-S switches 3 to 1 79.95

PI-05-S twitches 5 to 1 109.95

• Parallel models have tern. 36-Pin cent. conn.

PI-02-P twitches 2 to 1 94,95

P1-04-P swilches 4 to 1 1S4JS

• Dealers, schools & custom inquiries welcome.•One Year Warrantee. COD. VISA. M/C.•Shipping UPS S2 0O/ea AIR S4 00/ea

\K S~l 7301 NW 41 St.mmJ MIAMI, FL 33166II In (305)592-6092

Call For

Inquiry 323

DEALERSADVANTAGE

Add-on Products for IBM PC®

10 Mb Hard Disk Kit (wtth nntrollvl (500.

20 Mb Hira Ollk Kit (wtth unlrollarl J65II

Floppy Controlln Ctrd S50.

Coin Graphics Card (RGB nil NTSC Comp | 195.

MonoclKomt Supines Card sum

Mimory Card Willi 256K II 50

MINIMUM OF TEN BOARDS

IBM ts a (registered irademark ol InternationalBusiness Machines Inc

CRANE Associates, Inc

3928 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Ste. 12

Culver City, CA 90230

(213) 390-9840

Inquiry 95

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 VDC) is S490. Detailedmanual. $6. Phone our applicationsengineer at 617-899-8629 or write:

w M. STARBUCK w w

"T1 T" DATA COMPANY T "T"

225 Crescent St.. Waltham. MA 02154

Inquiry 348

F> . O . O . CABLES

3821 PURDUE ROADDAYTJN. OHIO 45420

f J cz- h I Qher qua 1 I t y<z. om p u t ^ r- cabl e 5 onthe- m «l r- K a> t today ' I

METALIZED HOODSFULLY S MI E€ l_ O E OPOSITIVE s-TRAir-J

RELIEF1 0 0% G l_l*^> RANT EED

5 ! E.T-1 PmPmlLEL CENTRONICS «25.09

f IBM SERIAL PPIrjfER CABLE »I?.0e

f ISM SERIAL FOR MODEM tlP.00

6 STRAIGHT PARALLEL CENTP0MICS-%29.006' RS232C S19.00

IF -THERE IS A CABUEr-JEEOED, R.D.O. C<=«MCON STRUCT <2.rvlDGUARAMTEE IT!

CALL< 51 3 > 254- BT'SS

IC

PROMPT DELIVERY!!!!

S SAME DAY SHIPPING (USUALLY)

8087-3

MATH

5125.00

8087-2

COPROCESSORSDYNAMIC RAM

150.00

256K

256Kx1 120 ns

$ 4.49

256K

256KX1 150 ns

2.95

64K

64Kxt 150 nsEPROM

1.10

27C256

32Kx8 250 ns

$17.50

27256

32Kx8 250 ns

9.10

27128

i6Kxe 250 ns

3.30

27C64

BKxB 200 ns

5.25

2764

8Kx8 250 ns

2.95

2732A

4Kx8 250 nsSTATIC RAM

2.75

6264LP-158Kx8 150 ns

$4.75

i 6116LP-3 2Kx8 150 ns

1.95

E3

nil ViV.

MasterCard VISA Of UPS CASH COO n

Factory New, Prime Parts -U^co

MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED

NO EXTRACOST ONf EX SAT

DELIVERY

BEGGS. OK 74421Prices shown above are for July 30,1985

Pan caf >.» cunen: pnoat Si-, auCajacl c cnanue Pteaaa eajjad ttajwi oj ™«- proas onsoma pars due Ic suppty ft damanr] an our Jwyq costs Sncpng ft nauranca «•*> Caoridscnrt prcas stwn OrOers -omrwn! rjy b PM C!T car usuaa> M aatwjad IB yci. by •» nanamomtng. *a FaOafai Expraaa Standard Atr .. M00. or Prtortry On» | i'. 5 UO1

Crescent Com, Inc.

CONTACT US TODAY!RemarkablyLOW Prices-Very Competitive

IBM PC, XT, AT and peripheralsALL APPLES including"Fat" MAC and peripheralsCOMPAQ ComputersMost Popular Software

Call TOLL-FREE

1-800-325-1287

California Only

1-800-492-3003

Telex 855771

Crescent Com, Inc.

3517 Ryder Street

Santa Clara, CA 95051

408-738-2480

Inquiry 290

Inquiry 249

IBM PC SPECIALS!

IBM PC, 256K, One Half Height320K Disk Drive DS/DD, PersystColor Card With Printer Port,Taxan Green Monitor, DOS 2.1,PLUS a 10MB Hard Disk SubSystem All For:

$2599.

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half HeightDrives DS/DD, Persyst Color CardWith Printer Port, Taxan GreenMonitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt PowerSupply, 10MB Hard Disk SubSystem, PLUS 10MB Tape BackUp System All For:

$3499.

MONITORS

AMDEK 300 Green

AMDEK 300 Amber

AMDEK 310 Amber W/TTL Plug.

PGS HX-12

PGS MAX-12

PGS SR-12

TAXAN #115 Green Composit

TAXAN #116 Amber Composit

TAXAN #121 Green W/TTL Plug_TAXAN #122 Amber W/TTL Plug .TAXAN #425 COLOR MONITOR .TAXAN #440 COLOR MONITOR .IBM MONOCHROME DISPLAY _IBM COLOR DISPLAY

$135.00

$149.00

$165.00

$465.00

$185.00

$625.00

$125.00

$135.00

$149.00

$159.00

$449.00

$569.00

$260.00

$590.00

PRINTERS

OKIDATA182

OKIDATA192

OKIDATA 193

OKIDATA83A

OKIDATA 92P

OKIDATA 93P

OKIDATA 84P

OKIDATA 2350P_OKIDATA 2410P-NEC3550

NECPINWRITER8OC0I. .NECPINWRITER 130 Col.

EPSON LX 80

EPSON FX 80

EPSON FX 100

EPSON RX 100

EPSON JX 80

EPSON LQ 1500

COMREX CR 420

TOSHIBA 351

STAR MICRONICS SG 10 _STAR MICRONICS SG 15 _CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-10.CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-15 .CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-20 .CITIZEN PRINTER MSP-25.

JUKI LQ 6100

JUKI LQ 6300

BROTHER HR-25

BROTHER HR-35

DYNAX DX 15X1

_ $235.00_ $385.00_ $599.00_ $555.00_ $385.00_ $599.00_ $725.00.$1925.00$1899.00.$1550.00_ $699.00_ $899.00_ $249.00_ $399.00_ $525.00_ $399.00_ $525.00_ $925.00.$1895.00.$1275.00_ $259.00_ $395.00_ $375.00- $585.00_ $545.00_ $740.00_ $425.00_ $745.00_ $665.00_ $895.00_ $389.00

«S»t.

ifMiiiiiimuii

mm

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half HeightDrives DS/DD, Persyst Color CardWith Printer Port, Taxan GreenMonitor, DOS 2.1, 130 Watt PowerSupply PLUS a 10MB Hard DiskSub System All For:

$2899.

MODEMS

HAYES SMART MODEM 1200_HAYES SMART MODEM 300_HAYES 1200B PLUG IN CARD .HAYES 2400 BAUD MODEM _

POP COM 1200 EXTERNAI

AST REACH MODEM

QIC MODEM INTERNAI

. $459.00. $209.00. $399.00. $714.00. $375.00. $389.00. $275.00

DRIVES

TANDON TM-100-2 DS/DD

$155 00

TORHIRA SI IMI INF DS/Dn

$13900

TFACRI IMI INF DS/DD

$139 00

HARD DISKS

10MB SUB SYSTEM INTERNAL^EXTERNAL.

20MB SUB SYSTEM INTERNAL.EXTERNAL _

40MB SUB SYSTEM INTERNAL.EXTERNAL _

_ $750.00

_ $925.00

_ $975.00

$1150.00

$1295 00

$1475.00

HARD DISKS & TAPE BACK-UP UNITS (EXTERNAL)

10MB HARD DISK

W/10MB TAPE BACK UP .20MB HARD DISK

W/10MB TAPE BACK UP .40MB HARD DISK

W/10MBTAPE BACK UP .

.$1250.00.$1475.00

$1795.00

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half HeightDrives DS/DD, Persyst Color CardWith Printer Port, Taxan GreenMonitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt PowerSupply, 20MB Hard Disk SubSystem All For:

$3299.

IBM PC, 256K, Two Half HeightDrives DS/DD, Persyst Color CardWith Printer Port, Taxan GreenMonitor, DOS 2.1,130 Watt PowerSupply, 20MB Hard Disk SubSystem, PLUS 10MB Tape BackUp System All For:

$3899.

MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

AST I/O MINI CARD, 1-SER.

AST SIX PACK 64K, 1-SER., 1-PAR

ART PRFVIFW

$150.00

. _ $265.00

$309 00

AST ADVANTAGE CARD12RK FDR AT

$495 on

ALR CHALLENGER CARD12RK FOR AT

$395 no

PERSYST COLORPRINTFR ADAPTFR

$179 00

PERSYST MONOCHROMEPRINTFR AnAPTFR

$199 00

PFRRYST RDR CARD

$395 00

HERCULES COLORPRINTFR ADAPTFR

$179 on

HERCULES GRAPHICPRINTFR ADAPTFR

$325 on

RTR GRAPHIC PI MR II

S32S on

IBM COLOR GRAPHIC ADAPTER $225.00

IBM MONO PRINTER ADAPTER $230.00

GENOA SPECTRUM GRAPHIC CARD $349.00ORCHID TIIRRD-IRfi 1 2RK $975 00

ORCHID DAUGHTERTIIRRD-IRfi 12RK

$219 00

GENERAL

MAXFI I niRKFTTFRMD?

$35.00/box

MAXFI I MD2-HDM FOR AT

$65.00/box

CONTROL DATA DISKETTES _$30.00/boxKEYTRONIC KEYBOARD KB 5151 $189.00

Many other products available, Please call for Low, Low Prices!

(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

454 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 250 for End-Users. Inquiry 25I for DEALERS ONLY.

Get the ProDOS™ advantage for

+all your AzteC C65 programs

VIX is a UNIX like operating systemdesigned to run Manx's Aztec C65 softwareunder ProDOS. With VIX, programsrunning under the SHELL will run underProDOS including c65, cci, as65, asi. In,mklib and others. System includes:

• Standard utilities: cat, cp, date, I, mkdir,ren, rm and stty.

• An improved library written in 6502assembly.

• A fast screen editor with undelete, auto-indent, work wrap and more.

• Source code to entire system excepteditor.

VIX - $49.95 + $3.50 shippingBalanced binary tree data base library- $75b-tree with source-$350

Eclipse £ Systems

223 Matthew Road

Merion Station. Pa. 19066

(215) 664-2419

BAR CODE READER*

• IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE (AND MOST CLONES)

• CONNECTS BETWEEN KEYBOARD AND THE PC

• NO CARD SLOT REQUIRED/SIMPLE INTERCONNECT

• NO CUSTOM SOFTWARE DRIVERS REQUIRED

• HIGH FIRST READ RATE

• READS DOT MATRIX S PRINTED BAR CODE LABELS

• CODE 3 OF 9, INTERLEAVED 2 OF 5 UPC

• AUTOMATIC BAR CODE SELECTION

• AUDIO AND VISUAL INDICATORS

• READS HIGH. MED AND LOW DENSITY LABELS

• SWITCH SELECTABLE OPTIONS <£y/I A C•SELF-TEST DIAGNOSTICS 9*199 Ca.

PC/MS DOS BAR CODE PRINTING SOFTWARE $79 ea.

AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS

P.O. BOX 830551. RICHARDSON. TX. 75080j| (817) 834-9659 __. I MASTEflCARO AND VISA ACCEPTEO ■*■■

CONVERSES COMPUTER

AT LAST? A FULL IMPLEMENTATION of the original ELIZA program isnow available to run on your microcomputer!

Created a! MIT in 1966, ELIZA has become the worlds most celebratedartificial intelligence demonstration program ELIZA is a no- ■■■■-. -psychotherapist who analyzes each statement as you type it in and thenresponds with her own comment or Question-and her remarks areoften amazingly appropriate1

Designed lo run on a large mainframe. ELIZA has never before beenavailable to personal computer users except in greatly stripped downversions lacking the sophistication which made the original program sofascinating

Now our new microcomputer version possessing the FULL power andrange of expression of the original is being offered at the introductoryp'icp of only $25 And tl you want to find out how she does >I lor teachher lo do more), we will include the complete SOURCE PROGRAM loronly 120 additional

Order your copy of ELIZA today and you'll never again wonder how torespond when you hear someone say, Okay, lets see what this com.Putei ol yours can actually do1

ELIZA IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING FORMATSi i>'<. inch disk for the 48K Apple II. II Plus, lie or lie

*2b for Protected Version —S45 for Applesoft Source Version2 '■'■ inch disk lor the 64K IBM Personal Computer

J?S lor Protected version-J45 tor IBM Disk BASIC Source Version

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH GROUP

i^^^^m 921 North La Jolla Avenue. Dept B^^ff^" Los Angeles. CA 90046

l_jS£L_| 1213)656-7368 (213)654-2214^^^^^^B MC. VISA and checks accepted

Inquiry i 30

Inquiry 16

Inquiry 26

<

PC EXPANSIONS

AST SixPakPlus (64k) $259

SlxPakPlus (384k) $299

MegaPlus (64 k) $269

Advantage (128k) $419

Advantage (1.5 M) $679

I/O Plus $129

PCnet - starter kit $809

Quadboard (64k) $199

Quadboard (384k) $249

Quadmeg-AT(128k) $319

Quadmeg-AT (2M) $669

Quadport-AT. $105

HERCULES graphics board $319

Color Card with PP $159

HAYES Modems: 2400 Scall

Smartmodem 1200 $409

Smartmodem 1 200B $379

Set of 9 chips (64k) $10

256k chips (each) $5

8087 chip $119

Maynard Disk Controller $100

Sandstar Series Scall

Internal Hard Disks from $679

MaynStreamtapebackupfrom . $979

Qume 142A $109

Teac FD55B $109

Tandon TM100-2 $109

CDC 9409 $119

Verbatim Datalife disks (10) .. . $25

VLM Computer Electronics

10 Park Place • Mornslown, NJ 07960(201)267-3268 Visa MC. Check or COD

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.

NORTH HILLS CORP.INTERNATIONAL

3564 Rolling View Dr.

White Bear Lake, MN. 55110

MN. call collect—612-770-0485

controls up ^O^ -^

to 4 motors

from any CRT,

terminal or

computer

STEPPINGMOTORCONTROLLER

• powerful 5 amps/ • accelerationwinding deceleration

• RS232 interface • 1-4 axis movesStandard Version with BASIC $98516K BASIC with Battery Backup $1335CNC VERSION $1950Stepping Motor Tips Cookbook $8CNC Manual $12

CENTROID (814) 237-4535Box 739, State College, PA 16804

Inquiry 58

' Multi-user Database!

'Powerful!

1 Multiple Operating

System Compatibility!'Attractive Dealer

Pricing!1 Full Dealer Support!

Dataflex is a trademark of Data Access

Dealer Inquiries Invited

Elite

24000 Telegraph Road

Southfield. Michigan 48034 USA

[313| 352-2345

5K

BASF

FLEXYDISKS

SS/DDSoft

DS/DDSoft

High Density $<) IF(IBM-AT) 0.10

10-90M.11.

•1.29.

1.09.1.25.

$3.05 .

$2.1(L $2.05

3.5 / SSMicro

In Stock — Immediate Shipment.

Mastercard, VISA, Check or Money Order

Add $3.00 shipping charges per each 100 or part.

Add $2.50 additional for C.O.D. shipments.

N.J. residents add 6% sales tax.

Data Exchange

Dept. B. P.O. Box 993178 Route 206 SouthSomerville, N.J. 08876

(201) 874-5050

NEW LOCKIT II

• Password Protected Subdirectories

• Hides files-makes files Read-Only

• Runs on any PC or compatiblewith Hard Disk under DOS 2.0 orHigher—

• Easy to use - only $79.95

LOCKIT I

Password Enabled Boot-upFor IBM PC or PC/XTOptional Hard-Disk-Only Boot.Invulnerable! $129.95

PC RESET/QUICKON

• Reset without turning off power

• Eliminate turn-on & Reboot wait

• Saves time, frustration & damage toPC & PC/XT $89.95

Specify PC or XT, MC/VISASecurity 16 Fiagg Place

Microsystems suite 102B

Consultants s.i., ny io304

(718) 667-1019

Inquiry 66

Inquiry 101

Inquiry 327

PRIORITY m ELECTRONICS

ONE

TANDON 55-25Vi" - 40 Track

5'A" Floppy DiskDrive Cabinet

Double Sided1/2-Height Drive

DRIVESr NOT

INCLUDED

i ) Dual

$79 $69 EachEACH FOR 2 OR MORE

^U 1/2- Height

5V @ 1A 1 2V @ 1.5A

BUTNDS52 (Sh. wt. 3 lbs.)

BUJMR2SV5 (7 lbs.) S65

M DWVE®/HT

VIASYN/CompuPro

• Increase System Speed 3500%!• Auto Format • Auto Size• IEEE696/S-100

$499 Ea $450 Ea,

FOR 2 OR MORE

BUGBTA072 List Price: $695.00

HERCULES Vjde;0Cards

High-Res MonochromeGraphics Card

BUHECGC

NEW Color Graphics Card^ . _Q XT-Compatible!

V * m " BUHECCOLOR

20Mbyte Add-On Hard

Disk For Your IDM PC

ond Compatibles

Comes Complete With Half HighDisk Drive, Controller, & Cobles

INTERNAL EXTERNAL

$599 $799

BUPRIPCSUB20I BUPRIPCSUB20X

Include $5.00 (Internal), $3.00 (External) lor Shipping.

,;>Lliq;.'|.!'.;S-100

■TO^liiJU Videommwm card

VIASYN/CompuPro

• Bit-mapped graphics• PC Compatible monochrome

and RGB text graphicsBUGBTA356List: $495.00

WYSE50

$499 E. $479 Ea

FOR 2 OR MORE

BUWYS50 LIST PRICE: $695.00

(Shipping weight 32 lbs.)

25 Pin D Connectors

MALE FEMALE

BUCNBDB25P BUCNBBB25S

50:$ teach 50: $f.50 each

100:95<* each 100: $f.25 each

1000: 90$ each 1000: $Y each

SHIELDED HOODS

25 pes 100 pes 1000 pes

$1.20 $1.10 $1.00

each each each

BUCN0P25HS Order In uict multiples ol luairtltles shown

IRVINE

18241 Mc Durmott,Irvine, CA 92714(714)660-1411

PRIORITY

Inquiry 299

VIASYN/CompuPro

INTELLIGENT DMA HARD DISK

CONTROLLER FOR ST500-

COMPATIBLE DRIVES

$499

BU6BTA087 Retail: $595.00

ELECTRONICS

,^^^^ffi

Mail Your Order To:

9161 Deering Ave., Chatsworth, CA 91311INDUSTRIAL: (616)709-5111 RETAIL (818)709-5464

SAN JOSE

452 W. Trimble Rd.,

San Jose, CA 95131

(406)946-7010

MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER S25.00. Terms U.S. VISA. MC. BAC. Check. Money Order,US. Funds ONLY. CA residents add 6%. 61/2%, or 7% Sales Tax, depending on your localrates. Include MINIMUM SHIPPINGS HANDLING ol $3.00 for the first 3 lbs, plus 50C foreach additional pound (25C it within Calif) Plus 25c per $100.00 value of your order for

insurance. Orders over 70 lbs. sent freight collect. Just in case, include your phonenumber Prices subject to change without notice We will do our best to maintain pricesthrough September 1985 Credit card orders will be charged appropriate freight We arenot responsible for typographical errors.

^ ORDER TOLL FREE (800)423-5922 (NOW IN CALIF. TOO!!)

MBASIC

programmers

save Time & Money with

Help Message System™B- Plus Tree Sub- System™Screen Builder System™EZ Screen™

Priced as low as $59 each

Money Back Guarantee

Not Copy Protected

No Royalty

STERLINGCASTLE

702 Washington Street Suite 174

MarinaDel Rey, CA90291

(213)306-3020

ROM DISK

IBM PC* COMPATIBLESAND APPLE He*

ROMDISK is an EPROM diskette anddisk drive emulator.

• Diskless control and communicationssystems

• Dedicated workstations for improvedproductivity

• Solid state reliability and performance

• Self contained control and EPROMprogram circuitry

• PC and MS DOS* compatibleROMDISK PC-1 (180KJ S495ROMDISK PC-2 |360K) S595ROMDISK A for //e (144K) S349

CURTIS, INC. 22 Red Fox RoadSt. Paul. MN 55110 612/484-5064

"IBM PC and PC DOS is .1 registered trademark ol IBMCorporation. MS DOS is a registered trademark olMicrosoft Corporation, Apple //e is a registeredtrademark of Apple Computer Corporation

6809-B ASED SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER

The PT69, a powerful computer system on a singleboard, performs equal to larger and more expensivesystems. It features:

• OS-9 L1 Operating System available ($200)

• 2 RS232 Serial Ports (6850)

• 2 8-bit Parallel Ports (6821)

• Time-of-Day Clock (146818)

• 56K RAM; 4K EPROM (2732)

• DS/DD Floppy Controller Chip (2797)

PRICE: $289

FLOPPY/HARD DISK SYSTEMS AVAILABLE!

PERIPHERAL TECHNOLOGY

1480 Terrell Mill Rd., Suite 870

Marietta. GA 30067

VISA/MASTERCARD/COD 404/973-0042

'"OS-9 is a trademark of Microware and Motorola

Inquiry 351

Inquiry 97

Inquiry 291

IBM AT 3MbCOMBO CARD

MWTTH UFEnME WARRANTY*

The AT Multifunction Caid that can gh* you up to3Mb of added memory plus added I/O features.

Expandable from 128K to 3Mb. Add memory as you need it • IBM AT Compat-ible • Parallel Port • Serial Port • Spooler • Supports IBM VDISK • UserUpgradable • Parity Checking Standard • Split Memory Addressing.

Complete with I28K RAM. Serial and Parallel Port $299

AT RAM Expansion Card (0K) $109

Additional RAM available al our low prices OTHER ADD ONS WKRAM/ Clock, 512K RAM Card, Spoolers, RAM Cards for PPCs and more.

JBkApparat.lnc.

ADD CM AND ON AND ON AND ON AW ON

4401 So Tamarac Parkway / Denver, CO 80237/ 30.V74I-1778

ORDERING AND DEALER INFORMATION

800/525-7674

Stores in Denver & Chicago/"On all cards sold after June 1,1984

JT7n t"7I 1 il

THE PROFESSIONAL

Now UNIFORTH is better than ever'

Its been upgraded to lh* fORTH-83 Standard and extended witn lots ornew programming tools that will save you time and frustration

- No vague error messages

- No jumping back and forth between UNIFORTHand your operating system

it's all there, in one comprehensive package

■Prioritized Multitasking "Multi-file Video Editor

•Floating-Point Arithmetic * Powerful String Package

■Text File Support

Plus, the ability to copy (i)es, search directories, compile whatever'

The Professional comes with a unique 5O0-page Users/ProgrammersGuide that will lead you painlessly from the basics to the heart of FORTHYou'll rind lots of examples and programming hints inside the ivory slip

Meed more'' Some of the options we offer include

* Telecommunications " Graphics

* Cross-Compilers * Star Catalogs

The UNIFORTH Professional Is available for most

personal computers and DEC mini-computers

Prices Start at only J195!

For more information, call or write for our free lb-page catalog Weguarantee that you'll enjoy using UNIFORTH . or your money back'

UNIFIED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

P 0 Box 2644, New Carrol Iton. MO 20784(301)552-9590

<s;

QV TRANSWJ5ST

COMPUTER PRODUCTS

PC/XT

compatible

to

IBM

(1800.00

• 640KRAM • 130W Power Supply

• 2 HH FDD/CTR • 2 parallel 29 game port serial ports9 case 9 keyboard

9 Clock calendar

Options: 9 8087 9 color adaptor9 HDD w/CTR card

9 64K DRAM9 256K DRAM(Dealer Inquiries Invited)

C408) 898-4500

Inquiry 22

Inquiry 374

Inquiry 369

I.B.M. Compatible

Case $ 65.00

Motherboard (256K RAM space,

RAM not included) 200.00

Color Graphic Adapter 150.00

floppy Disk Driver Controller Card 65.00

Plotter (4 colore) 495.00

Computer (2 DD Drivers, Color Graphic Adapter,

256K RAM Case, Keyboard and 135 W Power Supply) 995.00Keyboard 9500

APPLE Compatible

Z SO Card 40.0080 Column Card 45.00

I.C Tester 75.00

fill Writer Card 299.00Graphic Pad Card (includes graphic program) 220.00Prom 8200 Programmer (Fast Universal Type

Eprom & Prom Programmer)For Eprom: 236-2732; 2516-25512; (No Adapter Needed)

For Prom: 63xx, Kxx, l4Sxx, WSxx, 2J&B, 28Sxx,

82Sxx, 87Sxx,

Include RS232 Interface lC's Available

CALL NOW (312) 280-7610

Telex 280208 HFFMN INT CGO

DIST. WANTED

1 HOFFMAN INT'L

1 600 N McClurg CI. Ste. 309A

Chicago, Illinois 60611

ft

merica.iv

SEM [CONDUCTOR

IBM Compatible^ Q WV% h WmchesrorHARD DRIVE

nn -xx ■-. IBM CompatibleCU ITID HARD DRIVE

41256

NAT I HIT

1/2 HEIGHT Floppy D

80287 FOR AT

8087 Math Coprocessor

AT TURBO KITS

Winchester Controller Card

4164

EPSON FX-iooCOLOR CARDSHAYES1200BAT 360K 1/2 Height

1-800-237-5758

Wm»»i>Um SALES EXT. 503

813-949-3193

RS-232T09-TRACKTAPEST-1 Streamer Interfacefor Streaming Tape Drives

a o

Baud Rate to 19.2 KBASCii or EBCDIC Code7 or 8 LevelBlock Length to 4096Read and Write

Gentian Electronics Ltd.

1-613-836-3987

Inquiry 174

inquiry 19

Inquiry 156

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

. ... .,,,• ATHANA

Authorized Distributor MAGNETIC

MEDIA

DISKETTE

DISK WORLD!. Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

PRINTER

TrTTTTrTl

these supplies are used up, the pricesstay the same...but there's no freeFlip n' File.

The last time we ran an offer likethis, everything was sold out in aboutsix weeks.

Sn rlnn't wait firrler nnui

ESTABLISHED 1S77

"Computer Systems

Please call w/ yourSystem Requirements so that we mayquote the configuration that best fits your needs.Ill XT-256 w/ Dual 'A HT DRVS, 256K, 8 slots, Mono.Monitor. PRT Ports. PC-DOS $1,189

INTERCONTINENTAL MICRO SYSTEMS CALL

MORROW PIVOT II

S-100 DIV./696 CORP.

14455 NORTH 79th ST.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85260

Inquiry 121 for End-Users.Inquiry 322 for DEALERS ONLY.

SALES 800-528-3138

CUST. SERVICE/TECH. 602-991-7870TELEX 9103806778 SONEHUND

PC-Multifunction Boards

We have a Good Select ion of Multifunction and MemoryBoards for PC. XT. AT. JR. AT & T. and PC PortablesLASER DISK I/O FLPY CTRL. S. P & G Ports. CLK-CAL.Ram-Disk & Print Spool/MS-DOS $175/$40

STB BIG BYTE 64K $155

STB GRANDE BYTE/PC-AT 128*. $249

STB RIO GRANDE PC-A T 128K 2 S. P. & G $330

STB RIO PLUS ll/PC & XT 64K S240

TECMAR CAPTAIN UNPOP. w/ Treasure Chest $160TECMAR JR. CAPTAIN 128K w/Treasure Chest $289TECMAR EXPANSION CHASSIS With 8 Slots $675TECMAR MAESTRO Unpopulated For PC/AT $335TECMAR WA VE 64K Fits XT Short Slot $179

PC-Video/Graphics Boards

STB GRAPHICS PLUS II I MONO PLUS II $240/$155STB CHAUFFER No Video Drivers Needed $255

TECMAR GRAPHICS MASTER/TENDER $439/$189

Software

We have Access to all Well Known Brands - ORDERCORRECTLY - SOFTWARE IS NOT RETURNABLE!

Accounting

Graphics & Cad

MORROW PIVOT I 4 // Portable 11 5 Lb w/4 HR BatteryIBM Compatability. Expansion Capability. S/W & MoreCat For Our Dual Drive Lumicon Screen SpecialMORROW MD3 MDT70 & HR15-XL Printer $1,595

MORROW MDI1 MDT70 & HR15-XL Printer $2,295ZENITH Z-1S8 PC-DESKTOP SYSTEM 2DRVS 256K.S&P Ports. Includes MD-DOS, MS-WORD MS-MULTIPLAN 5 4 8 MHz Switch $1,849

640K RAM OPTION / </, HT 10Mb TAPE $99 $495

2 FLOPPY A 10Mb Drives / 20Mb Drives $2,449/$2,589VIASYN 8)6/286 w/ 40Mb 8 Tape $8,095

VIASYN 816/C-H40 w/ 5V4" & 8" FLPY'S $6,795

VIASYN 816I10-H4O */ Two 5'/." FLPY'S $5,395

PFS Grapn CALLVECTRIX HIGHEST QUALITY FOR YOUR PC ORTHROUGH SERIAL PORT

VECTRIX VX384A Stand Alone RS232 Co-proc CALL

VECTRIX VX1301 13" RGB Analog Monitor CALL

VECTRIX VX1901 19" RGB Analog Monitor CALL

VECTRIX VXIPCB 512 Col /Pall of 16.800,000 CALL

VECTRIX VXTB 11"X1V Graphics Tablet CALL

CORE SOFTWARE'S FASTRAK: A DATA FLEXApplication for all Your Accounting Needs SupportingAll Networks & Operating Systems CALL

Spreadsheets & Integrated Pkgs.

ASHTON-TATE Framework CALL

LOTUS 1-2-3ISYMPHONY $299/$429

MDBS Knowledgeman $319

SORCIM Supercalc-3 Better Than 1-2-3!!!! $209

Operating Systems & Utilities

BORLAND SideKick Windows & Calculator CALL

COMPUPRO/VIASYN CPM at Affordable Price,

CROMEMCO COMPLETE LINE GOOD ECONOMIESDIGITAL RESEARCH Complete line up to 35% Off

Language And Tools

BD SOFTWARE "C" Compiler 8" SS SD 8 BIT $95

COMPUTER INNOVATIONS C-86 "C" Compiler $299COMPUVIEW VEDIT/VEDIT-PLUS $115/$169

DIGITAL RESEARCH Most Products in Stock CALLLATTICE "C" Compiler (Ask About Options) $299MICROSOFT Complete Line CALL

PC-Scientific/ Industrial Boards Data Base Man«9ers

TECMAR BASE BOARD 96 Digital I/O LinesTECMAR DADIO D to A Up to 24 DevicesTECMAR IEEE-488 BoardTECMAR LABMASIE&*/ TM40 PGLQolion

$219$249$249

iocs.

ASHTON-TATE dBASE II A III BEST PRICE

DATAPLEX FILE/RECORD Locking Multi-User CALLPFS FILE/REPORT CALL

DISK DRIVES

TandonTM 100-2

• 360K

• Full Height

$99

Hard Disk

10 Meg w/cont. & pwr supply

S 995

Apple Compatible Drives

Micro sci

A-2

Controller

ecu

FD525ASIimlineforllE

FD525CfOrllC

S 15960

S 129139

5V4" Disk DrivesTeac

FD55A, 160K S 99

FD55B,360K 99

FD55F, Quad Density 129

All Teacs are Half Heights

Tandon

TM10O-2,360K S 99

TM101-4, Quad Density 269

Mitsubishi

4851, 360K1/2 Height S 129

4853, Quad Den. y2 Height 139

Hard Disk

lOMegw/iBMController S 499

1/2 Height 360K

Sanyo

S 89

8" Disk Drives

Siemens

FDD-100-8SglSide S 129

FDD-200-8Dt>ISide 189

Tandon

848-1 E.Sgl Side, v2Ht S 279

848-2E, Dbl Side, W Ht 379

Mitsubishi

M2894-63, Dbl./Dbl S 399

M2896-63,Dbl./Dbl.VjHt 399

5V4" & 8"Power Supply & cabinets

JMR 5V«"

SingleCabinetw/pwr S 79

DualThinlineCab w/pwr 89

Dual Cabinets Power 89

All have 6 month warranty

JMR 8"

Sgl. Cabinet w/pwr & fan S 229

Dualw/pwrfor2thinlines 239

Dual w/pwr & fan 279

PRINTERS

Brother HR-15XL

• 18cps• Letter Quality

$349

we willBeat ALL Pricing

P1340P351

Toshiba

S 5591095

Brother Dist. by Dynax

HR15XL, 12CPS S 349

HR25.25CPS 549

HR35 36CPS 769

Epson

LX-80PX-100 +FX-80 +FX-185 +101500JX-80

We are an Authorized Dealer

Okidata

OK1182 , S 229

OKI83A ,ROtf* 535

0KI84P oVvaSr 669

OKI84S rfpWQ,M\0^S 749

OK1192 c*fc* -jjl^ 349

OK1193 585

OKI MATE20Color Printer 199Call for other Models

A B SWITCHBOX

Par. orSer S 69

PRINTER INTERFACES

Fourth Dimension

Cards Cable (For Apple) S 45

Microtek

DumplingCX(CrapplerCompatible) S 75

Dumpling CXexpto64K 145

DumplingCXl6Kw/l6Kexpto64K 160

Okidata Options

Tractorfor82&92 S 59

Serial Interface 85

Orange Micro

Crappler + $ 84

Crappler + W/16K 149

Epson Accessories

Epson Serial interface S 99

Letter writer NLQ Kit 59

LX-80 or FX-80 Tractor 39

li1!'.','!..'.]•;-

SYSTEMS

IBM XT

• One 360K Drive• One 10 Meg Hard Disk

$2495

IBM AT

• Enhanced

$4295

Compaq

Portable (PC Compatible) 2, 360K Drives

Apple

HE CPU S 790

Macintosh 1895

lie Portable 899

256K of Memory

S1895

Compaq + w/iOMeg

3300

Deskpro 1

1945

Deskpro 2

2250

Deskpro3

2900

Deskpro4

Call

IBM

PC256K,2Drives

$1499

XTW/10Meg.256K

2495

Additional Memory 64K

6 50

ATStandardConfig.

Call

ATw/20meg

Call

Add S50 for configurations & Testing

MODEMS

Hayes 1200B

* 1200 Baud

* internal for IBM

• Hardware Only

$319

Hayes

Micro Modem ME S 169

300Baud 169

12006 IBM Internal 349

1200 379

2400Baud 599

Anchor Automation

Mark xii, 1200 Baud S 225

Mark x. 300 Baud Stand alone 149

Express 1200 Baud 269

Prometheus

Promodem S 299

Proi200AApplemtw/sw ...... 329

Prol200BIBMlntw/SW 299

Pro Mac w/cable &sw 379

No. C Cable 12

Alpha Disp 89

Options Proc 89

U.S. Robotics

Password S 219

Courier 2400 Baud 569

IBM & APPLE ACCY'S

64K upgrades

• Nine 4164, 200ns

* 1 Year warranty* Nine to a Set

$6.50

APPLE EXTRAS

ALS

ZEngine S 119

CPM3.0Card 240

ecu

RF Modulator S 9

Fanw/Surge 34

16K Mem. Card lyr war S 45

Micro Max

Viewmax80,80col.card S 135

viewmax80E(FforiiE)64K 120

Micro Soft

Premium Soft Card HE S 369

SoftCard(Z80)W/64K 279

Micro Tek

Serial interface S 89

IBM EXTRASAst Research

Six Pack + W/384K S 299

Hercules

ColorCard S 149

Craphicscard 304

Helix Technology

Memory Board 0-K to 512K . .. (O-K)S 119

IBM

Monochrome Adapter S 219

ColorCard 225

Paradise Systems

Multi-display Card S 329

New Modular Card 260

5 Pack Multifunction 160

Quadram

Ouadlink S 349

64K upgrade AT Upgrade

64k of Mem $6.50 200ns. S69

Ports . „

Parallel S 79

Serial 79

ecu

Color Graphics Card S 119

Everex

Graphics Edge S 329

ecu Multifunction Card

Par. & Ser. Ports W/64K exp 384k

Clock, Calendar. Sftwr& Manuals S 155

W/384K ... 2098087S

8087-2 S 129

8087-3 115

8087-6 109

51/4" DISKETTES

ecu

Sgi/Dbi reinforced hub $11 lOOfonoo

Dbl/Dbl reinforced hub 13 lOOforno

Not Bulk Packed

Dysan

Sgl/Dbl S33 100fOr300

Dbl/Dbl 39 100for370

verbatim

Sgl/Dbl S26 I00for240

Dbl/Dbl 36 100for340

8" Diskettes Available — Call

DISK ACCESSORIES

verbatim

8 or 5V« Head Cleaning Kit S 9

Flip Tub

51/4 Holds 60 disks, plexiglass S 9

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

ah merchandise ,iew we ac. ept M< i/is.i Wnff'.insfpi COD can certified Chech r 0 - fromQualified firms APOanpptefl ShipDinq Minimurv'■a 50 first '> Bounds Tax California >?r< only addb ■ - sale" rax All returns subject to 15 restorking charge Advertised prices for Mail Order onlyPetaii nnce1 slightly (iighei

Pores Suhiert ro 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)8471718 (213)618-0477

(OutsideCalifornia) (insidecalifomia)

to

B^gg LIQUIDATION

Retail Value $5000Save up to 60%ACP PRICE

NOW ONLY!

10 Mb $449.00

HARD DISK

w/Controller for IBM PC and

Compatibles.

At This Price, Supply

Is Limited.

$

1985

00

Color 14" RGB Included10 Mb Hard Disk

ACP is proud to make this one-timespecial offer for a complete IBM PC™ Com-patible Computer System. This is by far themost significant bargain that we at ACPhave offered in our 10 year history. Thissystem was successfully designed and manufactured to exceed IBM's PC™ in terms of quality, ex-pansion modularity and capability, aesthetic appearance, and performance.The system design utilizes the latest in state-of-the-art technology including:

• VLSI - Large Scale Integration Circuit Design • High Quality 100 Watt Switching Supply |

• Ergonomic CRT Design with Tilt Screen • Complete Integrated System

• Professional Molded Packaging and Design • Microsoft Compatible Mouse FunctionThe system is not a Taiwan or Korean knock-off. Each component is specifically designed and specified

to meet the highest performance and reliability standards in the industry. It represents the best that Japanesecraftsmen have to offer and you will be equally proud to own one of your own. ACP has a limited quantityof these systems in several different configurations. IBM PC-DOS™ v1.1/2.1, MS-DOS™ v2.11 and Con-current v3.1 compatible. We have found no known incompatibility with any IBM PC application. Our technicalstaff has 8.5 Megabytes of various MS-DOS software packages installed including Lotus 1-2-3 and Flight |Simulator. Each system comes complete with a 90 day warranty.

ACP Base System Consists of:

• (1) 360K DD/DS Floppy Disk Drive

• Mouse with Software

• 256K Memory Expandable to 640Kon the Motherboard

• Deluxe Keyboard with LEDs

• Serial Port and Parallel Port

• Color or Monochrome Controller

• 4.77MHz, 8088 CPU

• 100 Watt Switching Supply w/Fan

• Three Expansion Slots

• Optional 6 Slot Expansion Chassiswith Power Supply (add $399)

Base System A (as above) $995.00

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Est IBM List* Your Price

SYSTEM A

Base System (see left) PC with360K Floppy. Keyboard & Mouse.

$210000 $995.00

SYSTEM B

Base System (see left) plus Add'l360K Floppy Drive

$2295 00 $1099.00

SYSTEM C

Base System plus 12" Green Monitorwith Detachable Tilt/Swival Base

$2575 00$139900

SYSTEM D

Base System plus 12" Color Monitorwith Detachable Tllt/Swival Base.

$2995 00 $1599.00

SYSTEM E

Base System plus Clr Monitor, 10MbHard Disk and Boot Diagnostics.

$5000 oo $1985.00

SYSTEM F

Base System plus 80 Col. x 25 LineLCD Screen

m $1299.00

'Assumes required add-in boards to provide same capacity

IBM PC ts a trademark of IBM Corp

LQP PRINTER

Major Manufacturer

Daisy Wheel Model 620

Letter Quality Printer

with Serial Interface.

Perfect for IBM PC and

Compatibles. Prints 25cps and

comes with 90 day warranty.

List $1495

$

495

OO

PC UPGRADE SPECIAL

I W SET OF (9) 64K RAMS

OO

SETOF(9)256KRAMS$5.95 128K PIGGYBACKS

DELUXE JOYSTICK$11.95

Compatible w/Atari2600, 400, 800, VIC-20/64 and Apple. Apple re-quires optional cableadapter. Add $2.95

APPLE DISK DRIVE$115.00

High quality V4 highdrive for Apple II, II +,He or lie. Apple lie re-quires optional cableadapter. Add $10.00

iir

ts

UPS POWER SUPPLY

DRIVE CABINETS

UPS-PC ZOO Walts

UPS-XT 435 WHUUPS-AT 1000 Watt*

(277 00455 00975 00

A 8 PRINTER SWITCH

An AB Swtttfl aaows us* Ol two onnlars wioiyour computer sysMm Wa slack aw 15 drf-

AB Switch (Cantronic*) $59.00

AB £-■'■:•■ (OB25) 59.00

COLOR VIDEO CARDS

Plantromct Color Plus 937500

IBM Color Card 227 00

IBM Mono Card WpviiC 219.00

STB Qraphtca Plus 389 00

Paradraa MuRxMplay Card 345 00

Eva**. Orapnrca Edga 3*5 00

IBM Si vie Hard Its! with power

supply and Ian

SI9S00

Dual Hard Disk "'power sup 8 Ian

295 00

Dual 5V Ful HsiQhl vertical mounl

•J M

Dual 5W" Full Herghl rionionlai mount

90.00

Dual IB«™ Thmlirw w'power sup 6 tan

80 00

Singt* 5m" Full Haioht Wpower sup 4

an 56 00

Single 5'i" Thmiine w/pewer sup 8 Ian

60 00

PERSVST CARDS

Persyst Mono Combo — NEW1

(336 00

Persy* Cokx Comoo — NEW)

336 00

Persy*) Bob Board

445 00

Persy*! Snonpon Co*>

Cat

MODEM SPECIAL

rt*t*« tmmtmmttm ciwpbhoi

INTERSIL STD BUS BOARDS

TRANSISTORS/DIODES

3 750 CPUI ZBOUnrv CPU1 8085 CPU3 10K CMOS RAM9 10K Static RAM■ 18K CMOS RAM5 750 PIO (O maung)1 Universal PtO3 Oplo Para Inpul

0 Floppy Control la r

d SASI (DMA) WINI lnl(

J Triae

3 Oplo-lao Inpul3 SPST Relay

1 DPDT Relay

7S.BS

93 M30.96119.9640.96

149 9579.9589.96

ISB3810 EPROM Program*' 2f

ISB3700 Sync/Aaync 2*

ISB3711 Untv Sync/Aaync 2'

ISB3720 REMOACS 31

1SB3830 12 Brl A/D 7!

CAPACITORS

01uF DISC BVPASS CAPACITOR 100/95 50

1 uF DISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100/6 50

OluF MONOtrTHIC CAPACITOR 100/11.25

1 uF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100/14 25

CORCOM EMI FILTER

STD CORCOM 3 Conductor FttMr 94 50

L*n* Cr>0 tor above 6 too" 149

Una Cert 2 Conductor - 6 toot 36

Lin* CoW 3 Conductor — 8 tool 96

MUFFIN FANS

Toon 3' TA-300 Fan

Tom 4 SB" Muffin Fan

12VDCFan

Frngrjr QuarOa added

Power Cord* Added

NEW 99 95NEW 1295NEW 1995

IC SOCKETS

SOLOCRTAJL i 99

9 Pm ST/LP 9 13

14 Pin ST/LP 15

10 Pat ST/LP 17

10 Pin ST/LP 20

3D Ptn ST/LP 28

22 Pin ST/LP 29

24 Pm ST/LP 29

28 Pm ST/LP 39

36 Ptn ST/LP 45

40 Ptn ST/LP 48

64 Ptn ST/LP 3 95

WWtWRAP (GOLD) t-99

8 Pin WW/3L 9 49

14 Pm WW/3L 82

16 Pm WW/3L 65

18 Pm WW/3L SB

20 Ptn WW/3L 99

22PlnWW73L 119

24 Pm WW/31 1 25

2BPmWW/3L 149

40 Pin WW/3L 1 89Tl»TOOLJl\f ZERO INSERTION

16 Pin 96 75 24 Pin 97 85 28 Pm 9

(Wa Stock All Type* of Sockets)

PN2369A

PN91B

2N221BA

2N2219A

2N2905

2N2907

2N3055

2N3565

2N3638

2N3772

7/91 005/1 003/1.00

2N39042N3908TIP29ATIP30AT1P31ATIP32A1N41481N7511N40021N4004MPQ2232

11/91 0011/1 00

2/1 00

an oo

2/1.252/1.26

25/1.005/1.00

OPTO ISOLATORS

MCT-2

MCT-8

MCT-68

MCA255

4N26

4N77

Mini Sue RedMmi So* GreenMini Sue Veeow

4N334N3S«N87

9 09 9 08

SPECIAL VALUES!

MCMS8705 EPROM 99 95

6116/2016-ISOmS 10/19 95

DB-25PMate 10/17 50

DB-25S Female 10/19 95

2732A-2 10/29 95

27teOC-450mS 10/24 50

27B4-450mS 10/29 95

CALL ACP FOH ALL YOUR

VOLUME IC REQUIREMENTS

EDGE CONNECTORS

199 100

93 25

260

S-100ST

9396

S-100 WW

475

44 pin ST

2 '5

44 Pm WW

4.75

72 Pm ST

I m

72 Ptn WW

7 25

D-SUBMINI

1-24

DB25S (Female

Vi !0

D625P|Ma»e)

240

Hood 91 2S

Mtg H/W 9 99

DE37S (Female)

95 95

OE37P (Mate)

525

Hood 91 75

Mtg HAN 9 99

DD50S (Female)

98 95

DD50P (Mate)

6.00

Hood S3 25

Mtg H/W 9 99

(CALL TOLL FREE FOR IDC's)

IDC CONNECTORS

Sok*H Hrjader

Ht Angttt Solder Header

Ribbon Header Socket

Ribbon Edgecard

Wirewrap Header

Rl Angle W* Header

NUMBER OF CONTACTS10 20 26 34 40 SO

79 1.20 165 2 10 2 40 3.00

3.10 4 10 420 460 715

NOTE: To order insert number of contacts hi place crl u in ACP pan) numberORDER QUANTITY OF 50pc* (mixed) AND TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 10*i OFF.

OKI DATA PRINTERS

9139 00

Plug-N-PtM lor Okroaia 20

09 00

Okrdala 182 (120cp*. Orapnrca)

259 00

Okrdata 192 'IBOcpa. Graphics)

349 00

Okidaia 93 (ISOcpa. 15" Paper)

599 00

Eitra Fubbon

6810 9 2 BS

8292 1295

8741 27 96

B74S 2450

B749 2450

8755A 34 95

DISK CONTROLLERS

UPD765 924.95

1797 92195

2791 3295

2793 3295

2795 32 95

CRT CONTROLLERS

6845 9

1.96

S275 92850 1 TMS9916

in n

68B45

7.95

7220 3495 8350

39 96

6847

1-50

5027 1795 6645

14.96

48505

4.75

5037 21 95 1 8002

■9 9*

68047

9.50

NEC7220 Graphics

KM

UARTS/USARTS

>5 I 2350 9 8 95 1 IM64015 8250 10 50 TMSS!

'5 I IM6402 775 I 2651

1702 (ImS)

9 390

2732A-4 (4S0nS)

I 450

2708(450nS)

385

2732A(250nS)

| 95

2758(5V)

5.50

2732A-2 (200nS)

1 H

2718 <450nS)

375

27S4(450nS)

450

27ia<350nS)

h t>0

2764<250n5>

I 50

2516 (5V)

550

2764(200nS)

8.50

TMS2716

7.S0

TMS2564 (450nS)

99*

TMS2532

^60

MCM88764 (450nSi

1995

2732{450nS)

460

MCM68766 (350n5)

n 95

2732(250nS)

• 00

27128-3 (300nS)

950

2732(200nS)

BOO

27128 (250nS)

1595

STATIC RAMS

(450nS)

IL02 (450nS)

102-1 (450nS)

IL02-2 (250nS)

It (450nS)

12 (450nS)

14 (4S0nS)

I4L-* (450n)

I4L-3 (300n)

I4L-2 (200n)

l47(55nS)

4044-4 (450nS)

4044-3 OOOnS)

4044-2 (200nS)

UPO410 (100nS)

5101 (CMOS)

1 45 819.5069 B/12 50

79 B/13.3089 B/13.90

MK4116 94 96

TMM2016-2 (200nS) 3 10TMM2O1S-15{150n) 3 96TMM2016-1 HOOnS) 3 00

HM6116P-4 (200nS) 4 75HMS11BP 3 <150nS) 3.2SHM6116P2 (120nS) 5 75HM6116I '■ « '.'■ 360HMSnf.iC .i i » 396HM61I6LP-2(U>) 3 95Z6132(300nS) 32 96

MM6264P1S (150) 14 95HM6264LP-15 (LP) 16 9574S189 <35nS) 1 85

93415 (50nS) 3 95

93425 (50nS) 3 95

DYNAMIC RAMS

4027(250nS)

03(300nS)

16N-2 (150nS)

16N-3 (200nS)

16N-4 (250nS)

64N-150(150n) 1.59 9/"

64N-200 <200n) 1 " "

64N-120 <120nS)TMS4164 (150nS)

29 6/ 9.95

19 8/82589 8/ 5.99

TMS4406 (200nS) 96 95

TMS4416't50nS) 97 75

41256-150 (150n) 8 96

41256-200 (200n) 7 96

TMS405O {300nS) 1 85

TMS4060 ISOOnS) 1 86

MM52B0 (3O0nS) 185

UPD411 (300nS) 1.85

MM5298 (2S0nS) 1 85

DISK SPECIAL (ibm pc osdd)

$«|00 ,BMPC**"

■ «*» H^Htnc,PACKAGE Tyvac Cover

OF 25 " Maror Mlgr

wowt

Supply Limited

SW DI1KETTE9VERBATIM 525-01 SS/DDVERBATIM 550-01 DS/DO (IBM)MAXELL MO-1 SS/DO I All,MAXELL MD-2 DS/DD (IBM,MAXELL DISKS kx AT : 961 p.DYSAN 104/1D SS/DD (AM)DYSAN -04/20 DS/DO (IBM)ACP SS/DD (AI|ACP DS/DD (IBM)JV." D4SKETTUVERBATIM 3VS"' MF350 (MAC)MAXELL 3Vi ■■ MICRODISK (MAC)

VERBATIM 8' SS/DOVERBATtM 8" DS/DODYSAN 6" SSrDODYSAN 81' DSrDD

4000 9 26

4028 9 65 4059 97 90

*5»

895

4001 22

4029 75 4060 85

*506

1 10

4002 22

4030 39 4068 39

4607

1 10

4006 79

4031 325 4069 28

1^06

190

4007 22

4032 2 IS 4070 36

4510

70

4008 95

4034 1.91 4071 2B

4511

TO

4009 30

4035 79 4072 28

4512

.70

4010 30

4037 1 96

•VM

1 10

4011 24

4040 75 4075 28

4515

4012 24

4041 75 4076 75

4518

1 10

4013 36

4042 65 4077 36

4518

85

4014 75

4043 85 4078 35

4520

75

4015 39

4044 89 4Q81 29

*555

96

4016 36

4048 80 4082 29

4556

95

4017 65

4047 89 4085 95

4b66

135

4018 79

4048 99 4066 95

S0C95

ISO

4019 39

4049 35 4093 45

60C97

.40

4020 89

4060 34 4094 2 95

MC14408

U 95

4021 89

4051 75 4098 1 90

MC14409

1295

4022 69

4052 75 4099 1 85

MC14410

9 95

4023 25

4053 75 4501 69

MC14411

11 95

4024 59

4055 395 4502 95

MC14412

12 95

4025 25

4058 295 4503 49

MC14419

495

4027 45

CALL FOR 74HC

74C00

74CO0 9 29

74C74 9 65 1 74C161 91

15 I74C373 92 36

74C02 29

74C85 1 89 74C175

15 74C37*

2 35

74C04 29

74C90 1 15 74C240

89 74C901

JO

74C08 35

74C93 1 IS 1 74C244 1

89 I/4C922

4.45

74C10 36 MORE 74C IN STOCK - ALSO IN CATALOG

UNEAR

LM108AH 93.95

NE590 9245

LM3B09

.00

LM300H 99

NE592 270

LM3014

S2 95

LM301N 35

LM709N 55

LM3915

2 95

LM304H 1.S9

LM709H 1 90

LM3916

2.06

LM305H 95

LM710 .68

MC4024

3.75

LM308H 4 75

LM711 75

MC4044

4.36

LM307N* 40

LM715 395

RC4131

LM308CN 65

LM723N .55

RC4136

1.10

LM310CN 1 65

LM723H .75

RC4151

3.75

LM311CN 62

LM733 98

CA3023

2.75

LM739 1 85

CA3039

1.35

LM31BCN 1 45

LM741CN 33

CA3046

1.25

LM31BH 1 55

LM741H 40

CA3059

2.05

LM319N 1 19

LM741N 29

CA3060

2.06

LM747 .66

CA3065

1.00

LM324N 55

LM748 56

CA3080

1.10

LM339N 95

LM1014 1 15

CA30B1

1.00

LM340 (see VRs)

LM1303 190

CA3082

1.00

LM348N 95

LM1310 145

CA3083

1.66

LM358CN 85

MCI 330 1 65

CA3066

80

LM359 1 75

MCI 349 185

CA3089

295

LM360N 295

MC1350 115

CA3096

3.46

LM370N 4 95

MC1358 185

CA31X

120

LM373N 3 95

MC1372 675

C A3140

1 15

LM1414 155

CA3140

■ n

LM377N 1 90

LM1558H 2.99

CA3160

140

LM380CN 85

LM1800 235

LM13080

1 25

LM360N 1 05

LM1812 810

LM13S00

LM381N 1 59

LM1B30 340

LM13700

145

LM382N '35

LM1671 545

LF347

210

LM383N 1 95

LM1B72 545

IF 351

60

LM384N 1 75

LM1877 330

LF353

M

LM386N 89

LM1889 190

LF356

i 10

LM387N 1 29

LM1896 1 70

LF3S8

1.10

LM3B9N 1 15

ULN2001 1 95

LF3S7

■ 39

LM392N 69

ULN2003 1 49

TL07ICP

.70

LM723N 48

XR22D6 375

TL072CP

1 35

LM723H 55

XR2207 290

TL074CN

100

NE531 2 85

XR2208 240

TL081CP

JO

NE565 36

XH2211 375

T\084CN

ISO

NE556 66

LM2877P 2 00

TL49*

4.10

NES5B 1 49

LM287BP 225

TL498

i 65

NESSt 23 50

LM2S00 83

TL497

J20

NE564 265

LM2901 99

UC3423

1 43

LM565 95

LM2S03 89

MC3453

495

LM566 1 45

LM2907 245

MC3456

iao

LMS67 86

LM2917 2 85

MC3459

3.75

NE570 3.86

LM3900 55

MC3489

525

NE571 2.90

LM3905 i 15

MC3470

795

VOLTAQE REQULA

TORS

7B05TAW0 „_8. 12, 15. 24V .Oa

7905K A

12 IS

5* 1.39

78L0S. 12. 15V 65

2. 15V

75

7BM06C 89

LM309K

125

78MG/79MG 1.40

LM317F

K 1 25/3 85

7BH05KC 8.75

LM323K

4J5

12.15.24V 1 ,<£9

LM337H

3 75

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79°5TMk> -TO

8, 12, 15, 24V ./y

LM360T

4.55

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4.76

SPECIAL PURPOSE

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MC14411 91150

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BR1941 1150

5832 3 75

76477

3.75

34702 1250

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70488

6.75

5016 14.96

AY53600 1150

76489

875

8116 10.50

2513001U 950

AY3B910

7.05

5307 10.50

2513-002L 9 50

AY38912

7,06

MC4024 3 75

UPO7201 27 96

SSI-283

"36 95

8038 3 75

3341 4.50

Votrax ■

:iy95

5369 350

11C90 13.25

Dtgilalkar

34.05

58187 12.25

MC1590B 295

LM136D0N

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SP1000 Speech 99 95 TR1863 i

VUART

U ?5

DATA AQUISITI

9N

ACC0B00 914 95

ADC0817 99 75

1408L8

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AOC0804 345

DAC0800 4 75

1408LB

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DAC0606 1 90

0AC08O8 285

DAC1M

?95

ADC06O9 445

DAC1020 7 95

DAC06

7.05

ADC0616 1425

DAC1022 585

DAC01

695

AD7523JN 1 99

LF353N 1 99

LF13201N

100

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Some warranties up to 5 years.•Pricing subject to change w/o notice.•Returns or cancellations may be subject

to restocking fee.

•ACP Retail Store pricing may vary.•We are not responsible for typos.

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I

STATIC RAMS

2101

256 i 4

450m

2102

IK 11

450ns

2I02L-4

IK 11

450>i

21021-2

IKl 1

250n

2111

256 i 4

450>l

2112

256 I 4

450n

2114

IK i 4

450«

2114-25

IK I 4

250>l

2I14L-4

IK i 4

450ns

21I4L-3

IK I 4

3110ns

2II4L-2

IK I 4

20011

2147

4K> 1

55ns

SI0I

256 i 4

450u

CMOS

TMS4044-4

4K> 1

450ns

TMS4044-3

4Kil

300u

TMS4044-2

4Kil

200ns

■Mill

IK i 8

250111

TMM20I6-20

2K.8

200u

TMM20I6-I5

2Ki6

150m

THH20I6-IO

2Ki6

1 in 11s

NISI 16-4

2Ki6

200M

CMOS

HMO 116-3

2Ki8

15011

CMOS

HM6II6-2

2Ki8

12 Oil

CMOS

HM61I6LP-4

2Ki8

20011

CMOS

HM6I16LP-3

2Ki8

I50u

CMOS

HM6II6LP-2

2Ki8

120ns

CMOS

2-6132

4K i 8

300ns

HM6264P-I5

8K ■ 8

I50>!

CMOS

HM6264LP-I5

IKll

I50n

CMOS

NM6Z64LP-I2

IK i 8

I20n

CMOS

DYNAMIC RAMS

TMS4027

4Kl 1

25011

UPD4II

4Ki 1

300u

UN 52 BO

4Kl 1

300n

■HIM

IK I 1

200n

nan

>Ki 1

250n

4116-20

I6K1 1

200n

4116-15

I6K1 1

15011

4116-12

I8KI 1

I20n

2116

16111

50ns

5.

4164-25

64Ki 1

250n

5i

4164-20

64Kil

200n

5i

4164-15

64Ki 1

15011

5.

41256-20

256 i 1

20011

41256-15

256 i 1

15011

EPROMS

1702

256i 8

1 us

270B

IKll

45011

2 758

ik i a

45011

2716

2Ki8

450II

5.

2716-1

2Ki 8

350ns

5.

TMS25I6

2Kil

450m

5.

TMS27I6

2K I 8

450ns

TMS2532

IK It

45011

5v

2732

4K>6

450ns

5.

2732 A-4

4Kil

450ns

til

2732 A-35

4Kll

350u

21i

2732 A

IKll

250n

21.

2732 A-2

IKll

200n

21.

2764

IKll

450ns

5.

2764-25

IKll

250ns

Si

2764-20

SKi 1

200m

5.

TMS2564

IKll

450n

5.

MCM68764

IK i 8

45011

5.

MCM68766

IKll

350n

5.

27128-45

I6K18

450n

5.

27128-30

IHll

30011

5.

27126-25

I6K18

250ns

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27256-25

32Ki8

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58

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1.45

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3.30

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74LS490

190

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74L8624

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74LS7G

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74LS640

2.15

74LS78

48

74LS195

68

74LS645

215

74LS83

59

74LSI96

78

74LS668

165

74LSB5

68

74LS197

78

74LS669

1.85

74LSI6

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74LS22I

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74LS670

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74LS240

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74LS674

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74LS9I

88

74LS24I

98

74LS682

3.15

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74LS242

98

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3.15

74LS93

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74LS243

98

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3 15

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74

74LS244

175

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3 15

74LS96

88

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74LS689

315

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58

2SLS252I

2.75

74LSI24 2.85

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270

25L82569

4.20

6500

We will try to BEATAll Competitor's Prices

CALL for Quote!

DISC CONTROLLERS

169117711791179317951797214327912793

6.90 279514.90 279722.9022.90229022.90

6.9038.9038.90

38 90. 38.90

6843 33.90

8272 19.90

M88876 22.90

M88677 22.90

MC3470 4.90

UPD765 19.90

CRT CONTROLLERS

6845664768047688457220 .8275 .

11.9010.90

23.9018.9038.9028.90

CHT5027 10.90

CRT5037 28.90

0PB350 38.90

H046505 11.90

MCI372 6.90

TMS99I8A .... 38.90

UV ERASERS

quv-t8/i $49.95

ECONOMY Model

...... ass

• Erases 15 EPROMS In 20 minutes■ Plastic Enclosure

6500

6500 A

650265046505650765206522653265456551

4.90 6502A 5.90

6.90 6520* 5.90

8.90 6522A 9.90

9.90 6532A 10.90

4.30 6545A 12.90

4.90 6551A 10.90

g gg 6 500 B

9.90 6502B 7.90

6800

1 MHz

6B00

6802

6803

6808

6B09E

6809

6810

6820

6821

6828

6840

6843

6844 .

6845

6847

6850

6852

6860

6862

6875

6880

6883

2.907.9017.90

12.90

8.90

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2.90

4.30

2.90

13.90

11.90

33.90

2490

11.90

10.90

2.90

5.90

7.90

10.90

6.90

190

2190

68B002 MHz

68B0068802

68B09E

68BI0

68B21

68B40

68B45 .

68650

11.9011.90II 905905.9018.9018.905.90

68000

66000 t

68047

68486

68652

68661

68764

68766

349023.9018.90149089017.951995

8000

8031 1490

8035 5.90

8039 5.90

INS 8060 16.90

INS-8073 29.90

8080A

8085

8085A-2

8086

8087-3 15 MH;I8087-2 |8MHr)

8088

8089

3.14!

11.9024.90124.95199.9519.9059.90

6.90

7.90

4.45

4.90

7.90

8.90

5.90

6.90

69.90

19.90

28.90

28.90

6.90

8279-5 7.90

8253

8253-5

8255. .

8255-5

8257..

8257-5

8259...

8259-5

8271 ...

8272. . .

8274

8276

8279

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8100

8131

8155

8155-2 7.90

8156 6.908185 28.908185-2 38.90

82828283828482868287.828882898292

8200

8300

6.45

6 454.906.456.4512.90449012 90

8202820382058212821482168224822682288237

23.9038.902.901.753.751.752.201.753.4512.90

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82381243875082518251*

4454 459 903 904.45

8700

8741 28.90

8748 19.90

8749 28.90

8755 23.90

80000

80186-6 99.90

80IB8 8990

2-80

Z-80

zao-cpu

Z80-CTC

7B0 IIABl

Z80-0MA

Z80-PI0

ZBO-SIO/O

Z80-SI0/1 .

Z80-8IO/2

ZB0-SI0/9

1.951956.951951.15695895895895

Z-80 A

ZB0*-CP0

Z80»-CTC

2B0A-0A8T

2.452.457.9b

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Z80A-PI0

Z80A-SI0/0

Z80A-SI0/1

ZBOA-SIO/2

Z80A-SIO/9

Z-80 B

Z80B-CPU

Z808-CTC

Z80B-PI0

ZB0B-0ART

Z80B SI0/0 ....Z80SIO/2

8.952.459959.95995995

7.958 958.9518.9528.952895

MEMORYEXPANSION KIT

4164 200ns69$ each!

DIP SWITCHES

4 POSITION 7'

5 P0SITI0K 81

6 POSITION 8

7 POSITION 8'

8 POSITION 8

ZIF SOCKETS

• ♦ * 1

I1

»•«ummmwvisS

14 pin ZIF 4.1

16 pin ZIF 4.1

24 pla ZIF 5.1

28 |ll ZIF 6.1

40 |ll ZIF 9.1

ZIF = TEXTOOL (Zero Insertion Force

IC SOCKETS

(1 to 99)

8 ill ST 12

14 |hl ST 14

16 |li ST 16

IB |li ST 19

20 |ll ST 21

22 |ll ST 20

24 |ll ST 29

28 |ll ST 39

40 |ll ST 41

ST = Soldertall

8 |ll WW 51

14 |li WW 61

16 |li WW .6:

18 |li WW I:

20 pll WW 1.0

22 pll WW 1.3.

24 |li WW 1.4

28 ill WW 1.6

40 |ll WW 1.9

WW = Wlrewrai

CRYSTAL CLOCKOSCILLATORS

NO. FREQUENCY

1000

1.0000 MHz

6 9!

1843 18432 MHz

6.9!

2 000 2.0000 MHz

69!

4.000 4 0000 MHz

69!

8.000 8.0000 MHz

6.9!

10.000 10.0000 MHz

6 9!

16.000 16 0000 MHz

6 9!

18.432 18.4320 MHz

69!

19.660 19.6608 MHz

69!

20.000 20.0000 MHz

6.9!

32.000 32.0000 MHz

6 9!

CRYSTALS

1.0000 MHz ...

. 2 69

8.0000 MHz.

.. 1.9

8432 MHz

2 69

10.0000 MHz.

11

2 0000 MHz .

. 1.95

10.7386 MHz.

IS

2.0972 MHz

. 1.95

12 0000 MHz.

It

2.4576 MHz .

. 1.96

14.3182 MHz.

11

3.2768 MHz .

1 95

15.0000 MHz.

II

3.5795 MHz

. 1.95

16.0000 MHz.

11

4.0000 MHz4.1943MHz ...49160 MHz

195. 1.95. . 1.95

17.4300 MHz..18.0000 MHz.

.. 1.1

.1.9

5.0000 MHz

. . 1.95

18.4320 MHz.

.. 1.9

50688 MHz

1.95

19.6608 MHz.

.. 1.8

51850 MHz

1 95

200000 MHz.

. 1.1

5.2429 MHz

1.95

22.1184 MHz.

.. 1.1

5.7143 MHz ...

1.95

32.0000 MHz.

. 1.9

6.0000 MHz

.. 1.95

36.0000 MHz.

.. 1.1

6.1440 MHz

. 1.95

46.0000 MHz.

>«

6 4000 MHz . .

. . 1.95

494350 MHz.

.1.9

6.5536 MHz ...

.. 1.95

49.8900 MHz.

..1.1

3

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99

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

78M05IIC 34

7MST 74

780IT 74

7812T 74

7I15T 74

7824T 74

7905T 84

790IT 14

79I2T 84

79I5T 34

7924T 14

7I05K 1.34

7II2K 1.34

7I15K 1.34

7824K 1.3

7905K 1.4

7912K 1.4

7915K 1.4

7942K 1.4

78L05 6

79L12 6

79115 6

79L05 7

79112 7

79L15 7

78H05K 9.1

78H12K 9.9

UABS40 1.9

0C.T=TO-22O K=TO-3 L = TO-92

464 BYTE • SEPTEMBER

:-'":':'?i':C:::.:::-:

Am

Orbital ///

Systems, Inc.

\yr

EXTENDED 80-Column Cardfor APPLE Me

• 64K to 128K Upgrade

• 2-Year Warranty

$69.95

Z-80 (CP/M) CARDAPPLE II+, ME

• Compatible w/all Apple CP/M

• Lifetime Warranty

69.95

LOGICALDEVICES, INC.

Q23G82G

Low Cost EPROM ProgrammerThe "SHOOTER" ...$395.°°

• 32K, upgradableto 128Kbit memory

• Built-in Serial RS232 port

• Program and verify 2716 thru 27256e Intelligent, fast programming

• Up/download Hex, Binary, ASCII etc.

• Serial HS232 Interface compatible

\*mmi

PR0MPR0-8 64K version

• Powerful EPROM/Microment programmer

• Keypad simulations

■ 2S6K memory buffer option

$689. °°develop-

-.ANGPRO-8 " $995.°°

ophisticated capability to program and ver-/ 8 EPROMS or EEPROMS at once Can beonfigured to program any of the standardngle voltage 2K, 4K. 8K or 16K EPROMSr EEPROMS. Separate power circuitry forach of 8 ZIF sockets with isolation, over-iltage and overcurrent protection 4-digitIpha-numeric display, self-contained withower supply.

High through-put1 Reliable, user-friendly1 Intelligent algorithmProgram and verify 2716 thru 27256Stand alone (RS232 option $185)

APPLE & IBMACCESSORIES

APPLE ACCESSORIES

Parallel Printer Card 49.95

BO-Col. card lor Apple 11+... 149.9580-Col. card for Apple lie... 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 Adapter Apple lie— 14.95

RF Modulator 13.95

Diak Drive Full Height 169.95

Disk Drive1/? Height 169.95

Controller Card 49.95

Apple Paddles 5.95

16K Card 39.95

16K Bare Board 13.95

Extond-A-Slol 34.95

Paddle Adapple 29.95

Koala Touch Pad 99.00

Magic Touch Pad w/Joystick... 79.95

Keytronlc Keyboard 219.00

Apple Keyboard (Taiwan). . 149.95

micronMX

INNOVATORS IN MICRO COMPUTER TECHNOLOCV

VIEWMAX-80 149.95

The right 80-column card for yourApple II +

• Soft video switch

• Built-in inverse video

• Shift key support

• 2 year parts & labor warranty

VIEWMAX-80e 129.95

Most advanced 80-column

extended video card for

Apple lie

• Expands memory up to 192K

• Double high resolution

e 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

APPLE or IBM JOYSTICK

$29.95

Compatible for either:APPLE II and APPLE lie

ORIBM-PC, JR., & IBM-XT

MULTIFUNCTION CARD

• 64K to 384K RAM

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port

Clock CalendarSoftware Included1 -Year Warranty

$199.00MEMORY CARD

• Expandable to SI2K

• Fully compatible witt. IBM software

• Fully compatible w/IBM diagnostic utilities

• Serial Pert Available

• 1-Year Warranty

$149.00

MEMORYEXPANSION KIT

4164 200ns69$ each!

8087

MATH CO-PROCESSOR

8087-3 (5 MHz) 1 24.95

8087-2 (8 MHz) 199.95

NO LABEL:(

SOFT SECTOR./HUB RING

)

25 per packageSS/DD...24.75or .99ea.

DS/DD... 28.75 or 1.19ea.

2-YEAR WARRANTYON ALL BULK DISKETTES

1985THE IC MASTER

\

u

mU • t*Jtt 'i

Your ticket to fast andeasy IC selections

$89.95DB25 Connectors

MALE 1.75

FEMALE 1.95

The Flip Sort PLUS™

The new Flip Sort PLUS"" addsnew dimensions to storage. Itssmoked acrylic elegance holdsover 100 diskettes with all thefeatures you expect from the FlipSort Family- $24.95

CALL or WRITE

for ourFULL CATALOG

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00For shipping and handling include$2.50 for UPS ground or $3.50 forUPS Blue (air). For each additionalair pound, add $1.00. Californiaresidents must include 6% salestax; LA., 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 change.Typographical 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 HDIMS: 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

Inquiry 123

SEPTEMBER 1^85 -BYTE 465

ahfarnia

17700 Figueroa Street % Carson, California 90248

F10 DAISY WHEEL PRINTER

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 printerLegal counsel tor 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 complexityIndustry 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 $1400. Through a

special arrangment California Digital has purchase these units from

a major computer manufacturer and is offering these printers at a

'raction of their original cost.

Options available include tractor feed, buffered memory and an

assortment of printer cables for a variety of computers

UHraiink 1200

DUAL SHUGART

SUBSYSTEM

*159 *239

The UltraLmk is a Hayes compatible 300/1200 modem designedfor the IBM/PC market place The UltraLmk adds a voice/datademension to your PC. Manufacturers original suggested priceon this modem is $795. California Digitals price $159

The dual Shugart subsystem featurestwo SA465 (96 tpi) SU double sideddisk drives Also supplied within thesubsystem is 50 watt power supplyand a shielded signal cable

MEMORY

416

DYNAMIC f CAncMEMORY lOUnS

>' I

*

Quantity

100 *

99

DYNAMIC MEMORY

4164 i SOns MK 128 refresh

412561 SOns. 256K

4116 ISOns 16K

4116200ns16K

4128 lor IBM/AT

DP6409 dynamic controfer

m " ■; ■

tCM-41256150

■ u ■- ■■ ..IC14-4116200rCM-4126150ICT-6409

STATIC MEMORY

21L02 2O0OS IKstatoe21L02 450ns IKHMK2112 4S0ns2K static2114 300ns. IK s 44044TUS 450ns 4K 1 15257 300ns 4K I 16116 P4 2O0n* 2K .86116P31S0ns 2Ki8

2706 450n* IK .82716 450ns 2K ■ 62716IMS 450ns. TrvwoRags2732 450ns. 4K l S2764 350ns OK I 827128 350ns. I6K I 8

1C 14-211.02200v ■ | ■f ■■ ,- ■■ICM-2114300ICI4-40444S0ICM- 525 7300IC14-6116200:. w ■■ .::

EPROMS

rCE-i709

ICE-2716

ICE-2716THS

tCE-2732

tCE-2764

ICE-27128

J 49

1 503954SS

125

2 251fl5

I ?\12S

7453.75

s n

4.5S

3.977.25

3 55

6.96

Shusia

4 WINCHES

These""B.7 Megabyte 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

-. j Inch 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 13 Meg.' Ht 495 465

SHUGART 604 6.7 Meg. 99 89

TANDOH 502 10 Meg. 419 395

TANDON 503 19 Meg. 695 675

SEAGATE 225 25 Meg. 695 625

TEAC

48TPI

One Two Ten

Five Inch Double Sided Drives

TEAC FD5SB half height 99 95 89

TEAC FD55F 96 TPI, half ht. 119 115 109

CONTROL DATA 9409 PC 169 159 155

SHUGART SA455 Half Height 99 95 89

SHUGART SA465'?Ht.96TPI 99 95 89

TANDON 10O 2 full height 129 125 119

TANDON 101-4 96TPI full ht. 199 189 179

MITSUBISHI 4851 half height 139 135 129

MITSUBISHI 4853 96/TPIV2 Ht. 155 149 139

MITSUBISHI 4854 8" elec. 295 285 275

QUME 142 half height 119 105 99

Eight Inch Single Sided DrivesSHUGART801R

SIEMEHS FDD 100-8 119 115 109

TANDOH 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 </2 Ht. 459 449 409

Shipping First five pounds S3 00. each additional pound S.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.

California Digital

17700 Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

XEROX *299

SUNRISE COMPUTER

80 ColumnLCD Display

10 Function Keys

, Optional Printer

Microphone forSpeaker Telephone

•

Internal 1200Baud Modem

/CentronicsPrinter Port

Optional DiskDrive Port

MonitorOutput

The Xerox Sunrise 1810 is by far the best value we have ever seen in amicro computer This is a self contained battery and AC operatedportable. The Sunrise was originally priceo at $2995. Xerox has sinceelected to drop the computer from their product list. California Digital haspurchased all the remaining inventory and is making the unit available ata fraction of its original cost.

This portable features a built in 80 column liquid crystal display, alongwith both RF monitor and television outputs The internal 300/1200baud modem includes an auto dial telephone assembly The units hasboth Centronics parallel and a serial port programmable to 19.200 baud.The self contained micro cassette is capable of capturing data from thekeyboard as well as doubling as an recorder for dictating messages.An optional dual floppy disk drive module, pictured above, is availablefor only S219 (when purchased with the Sunrise 1810). Also available,for $59 is an 80 column printer that mounts in the drive module. TheSunrise features a CP/M operating system which allows the operator touse any CP/M program in Xerox 5W disk format and over 5000 CP/Mprograms available in public domain.

PRINTERS

MATRIX PRINTERS

Slat Gemmi-SGIO 120char sec STR-SGI0

SMi GemmiSG15 lOOchar s<>c lb paper STBSGilS

MarGemin.Deli.itO l60Char sec STR 010

(ili/t-riMSP 10FT 160char.sec CIT MSPiO

Toshiba PHIil 192 Chit sci loiter quality TOS 1351

Outlaw 18?A serial A (>.»mN('|'V ■ paper OKI 182A

OH«J,ital9?Ap.aFliliehoi«'r(,1M> 160char.sec OKI i92A

(JkKja!.!84Pp;iullf>( !:, |i.ii»>i OKI-B4P

EpsonLX-80 10 IPO Char sec EPS 1X80

I i.sonfXSOFT i0 160 chat sec wnhqraphira- EPS FX80

fcpvinRXlOO 15 wilhC.raphlra. EPS RX100

Epson FX100FT IT Ii.lchat -sec will><jrap»n;u EPSFX100

IpsonLQi'iOO 15 co. .pondericeq.t.iiity EPSLOiSOO

f .iscin JX81I Cokw pfinii t E PS JXB0

Prow'Het85i0p.i>allei V ■ papei PRO-8510P

ruaptodurisBbOO-rt Dand printer 600 LPM nPS B600

; untroni* P 'OOlmjh siimpcIpnnri't .!(»'lines pei Mnuft PTX P300

rinfronin Pi.On .ilira high ^peed TOO mm per "'mule PTX-P60Q

WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS

PRO F1QPNEC 8810NEC 8830NEC 3550NEC 2050SR0EXP500SRO EXPSSO061 63020 cp* OBL'620JUK-6100JUK6300

Sr.wwrrier F1 ij (Mt.iitei JOctvNEC88I0 55ch.ir second s>NEC8830 55ch.ii sar par I m reflateNFC3S50 popular printer designed lor itx BM PCNl C2050 Or ugnod lot IBM PC 20 char -..-c pa> is ^er Reed F XPSOO i '• cftar wc vti i mi. dace• -er Reed E xrs&O i ' Char set pa' i nertaca[> .Dlo 630 JO chat set seriali ibKi620 propridnKtal spacing hot/&

J. .6100 18lh.tr «C

Ju 6300 40 chat ?>ec

O. ntfli CR? 5k butler piaportionai spacing pari

1 rx cm

159 fit289 001495 0025?00345 00789 00,'39 110169 1X1

380 Of)189 00995 0051900329 006985 003995 005-95 00

499 001659 001659 00159900689 0031900429 001569 00769 00399 00699 00395 Oil

TERMINALS

Freedom H-'' apM M-'een detaiLhaWe ke,* LlB-FiOO

Quote 10? gt- .-n thosptior terminal QUM in?

Arnpen O-aKx ue 125 green soe*n APX D'.'SG

Ampen (ii.-toi, ge 17' an*** sawn two page tunc key* APX 01 ^5A

Wyse50 14 green phosphu. WYS-50

Wyse300 Eight coKMOsptav spin screen WYS 300

ZemlN,>g terminal VTi>2i,om .aiible detatch (,«keyDoatcl ZTH-Z29

Ti.-levideo910 Pius Nock mcie TVI 91 OP

TekvKteo 925 ChjUIChablek-ybo.itd 22 tunc 1 ion keys TVI 925

Tt-ievrOWo 950 .;■ *ph«;rh,f phi screen 22lunr TVI 950

Mibtt>970 il green 1 column European TVI 970

C3900675 OO71900495 00

115900765 00575 00759 0095-.100

lOf'-iOO

1200 BAUD

UNIVERSALDATA

S'^^M^^M '■■ a ofnpal ! Beskioi

» U U ^^m modem designed lo obtain all its operatingS S ^T ■■■■•a entirely Irom the telephone line thus

^ ^ ^ eliminating the need to connect toanexter-

nal AC power source NOT Hayes compatible but the ideal 1200 baudmodem to connect to any CRT terminal or computer when accessingdial up data bases

The Universal Data Division of Motorla original suggested list price onthe 212' LP was S 495 but California Digital is offering al only SI19

The Team 212A otters all the features of the Hayes Smart Modem1200 for a fraction of the price Now is your opportunity to purchase a1200 baud modem at the pnee of a 300 baud modem

599 on439 00189 00159 00259 00

35 0031900279 00239 00

59 00429 00399 00229 0027900199 00395 00

39 0011900179 00

Hayes Smartmodem 2400 baud modemFujitsu 2400 1200 baud aulo even/thingTeam 1200 Hayes ComparCeUllraLin* 1200 data and voce on same faneCTS212AH1200baud autod.ai

Terminal software lor CTS 212AHPtomeineus 1200 super featuresPrometheus 12006 mietnal PCSignalman Mark 12 1200baud Hayes compatibleSignalman Mart VI 300 baud.metnai PCHayes Smart Modem 1200 bauO autoanswer autodialHayes 12O0BlorusewiththeiBM PC I200baudHayes Smattmodem 300 baud only aulo answer auiodtalHayes Micromodem II 103 Apple direct conneaHayes Chronograph lime & dalePenn1300 1200industtialQualityUntvers.il Dala I03JLP imepower autoanswerUniversal Daia212LP full 1200 baud duplex line powerUniversal Dala 212A 1200baud mduslrial Line

HVS2400

FUJ-19350

TEMSM1200

UTL-1200A

CTS-2I2AH

CTS2I2SFT

PRMP1200

PRMP1200B

SGL-MK12

SGL MK6

HVS-212AO

HVS-1200B

HVS 103AO

HVS-MM2

HYS-CHR232

PEN-12A0

HDS 1u;tLP

UOS212LP

UDS-212A

PLOTTER

The Comrex Comscnber I is the ideal solution to make shon work of translating financial and

numeric dala 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 Comscnber I features programmable paper sizes up to 8'-? by 120 inches, 6 inch per

second plot speed and 0.004" step size.Easy to implement Centronics interface allows the

Comscnber I immediate use with the pnnter port of most personal computers

The Comscnber I is manufactured for Comrex by the Enter Computer Corporation The

plotter is marketed by Heath Kit and also sold under Enters own Sweet P' Label This is

your opportunity to purchase a plotter which was originally priced at $795 for only $219

Also available is a support package which includes demonstration software, interface cable.

a multicolor pen assortmeni and a variety of paper and transparency material

SEC RGB

COLORMONITOR

*2t9

TheNECX-i40lDisa 13 medium/high resolution RGB monitor suitable tor use with theSanyo MBC-550/555 or the IBM/PC The momior features a resolution of 400 dots by 240lines Colors available are Red. Green. Blue. Yellow. Cyan, Magenta. Black and WhiteThe NEC monitor carries the Litton-Monroe label and was originally scheduled for use intheir Office of the Future equipment A change in Monroe s marketing strategy has madethese units excess inventory which were sold to California Digital We are oftenng thesenew RGB monitors at a fraction of their ongmal cost Sanyo compatible NEC-1401/SIBM/P/C Computer compatible NEC 1401/PC

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800)421-5041

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213)217-0500

PERSONAL SYSTEMS

APPLE

Apple Professional System incl: Apple ME. 128K. Till

Monitor Duo Disk. 80col. card $1350

Mac 128K w/Dnve. Mac Write. Mac Paint and

mage Writer 2425

Fat Mac 512K, same as above 2995

Applellc 989

Apple lie w/Momtor & Stand 1059

IBM

IBM PC Barew/Cont, &64K $1345'

IBM PC64K. 1 Drive 1475-

IBM PC64K. 2 Drives 1575"

IBM PC 128K. 1 Drive 1495"

IBM PC 256K. 2 Drives 1599"

IBM XT, 10 Meg. Floppy & 128K 2695'

IBMXT,Barew/256K&IBMFIoppy 1999"

IBM AT Base 3125 •

IBM AT Enhanced 4199'

" Call For Current IBM Prices

SANYO

MBC 550-2 W/1320K Drive & sftwr $750

MBC 555-2 w/2 320K Drives &

more software 990

775 Portable Call

Serial Port lor Sanyo 69

Sanyo Video Board 175

COMPAQ

256K.W/2 320K Drives $1985

Desk Top Model 1 1699

Desk Top Model 2 1999

Desk Top Model3 3795

Desk Top Model 4 4495

Call about 286s

SOFTWARE

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.

Lotus 1-2-3 $299

Symphony 434

Jazz 399

ASHTON TATE

DBasell $299

DBaselll 389

Framework 429

PRINTER SWITCHBOX

SRS-2Senal $ 69

SRS-4Senal 99

SCN-2 Parallel 79

SCN-4 Parallel 105

Run 2 to 4 Printers off 1 Computer

ACCESSORIES

8087MalhCnip $ 99

COMPUSERVE

Starter Kit includes, tntopiex. Electronic Conlerencing. Professional Forums and Mucn More $ 39

Executive 55

20% to 40%OFF LISTALWAYS

Giant System Sale

200 Systems Must Go!

PRINTERS

OKIDATA

ML182P120cps 219

ML182IBMGraphicsComp 219

ML182S 10 "Carriage 265

ML192P. 160cps 359

ML192IBMGraphicsComp 359

ML192S. 160cps 419

ML193P. 160cps 499

ML193IBMGraphicsComp 499

ML193S. 160cps 569

ML84P.200cps 655

ML84IBM 655

ML84S.200CPS 775

Okimate20 129

Interface Module tor OKI 20 79

EPSON We are an Authorized Dealer

LX80.120cpsNLQ Call

FX80 + .160cps 10' carr Call

JX80 Call

RX100 Call

FX185 Call

LQ1500 Call -

SQ2000 Call

QUME

Letterpro 20P Prop Spc. Enh Prnt $ 399

Sprint 1140* . 2K. 40 cps.

132 col width 1229

STAR MICRONICS

SG10Ft.l20cps.corr qual . $229

SG15Ft.120cps.corr.qual . ...... 389

SD10Ft.160cps.corr qual 359

SD15F1, 160cps.corr qual 475

SR10Ft, 200 cps. corr. qual 499

SR15Ft.200cps.Corr qual 629

SBIODralt. 144cps, NLQ60cps 795

Powertype. 18 cps Bi-Di 359

C. ITOH

7500 AP. Parallel $219

7500EP.IBMCompatible 219

7500 AR. Serial 265

8510 AP. Parallel 299

8510AP+ NLOMode 319

8510 BPI. IBM Compatible 319

1550 P. Parallel 440

1550 BP + NLQ Mode 460

1550 EP, IBM Compatible 440

1550 BCD Serial 499

BROTHER

HR25.25CPS $629

HR35 36cps . 839

DYNAX

DX15XL By Brother, 20 cps $ 379

JUKI

6100.L.Q 18cpsw/proportionalspc $ 369

6300.40cps 689

TOSHIBA

P1340P $575

P1340S 575

P351 P. Faster than 1351 1229

P 351 P/S. Faster & more versatile 1250

PANASONIC

1091 w/Tractor. 120 cps. 1 yr. war $259

1092.10 car,i80cps 439

1093.15 car 160 cps 669

COPAL

SC-1200. 120 cps FT & Graphics $215

SC-1200L. 120cpsw/NLQ 245

SC-1500. I80cps FT & Graphics 295

SC-1500U1.180cpsNLQ&IBMcomp 335

SC-5500U1.15 NLQ&IBMcomp 475

Very Quite — 1 Yr Warranty

SYSTEM

EXECUTIVE COMPAQ

Compaq Desktop w/640K

1 Two 360K Disk Drives

10 meg Hard Disk

• Tape Backup

» Taxan Green Monitor

> Epson FX185 w/Cable

$3995

COMPAQ STARTER

Compaq Desk Top I

• 128K1 Dbl/Dbl Disk Drive• Taxan Amber #116$1899

"THE COMPANY

PRINTERACCESSORIES

ORANGE MICRO

Grappler + $85

Buffered Grappler + . 16K exp. 64K 150

TOSHIBA

Bi Directional Trac 1351/351 $ 149/155

Font Disk for Down loading P1351 50

MICROTEK

DumplingGXIsameasGrappler +) $ 69

DumplmgGXw/16Kbuffer 135

Dumpling GXW/32K buffer 147

Additional Buffering 16K 12

FOURTH DIMENSION

Par Card & Cable for Apple $ 47

OKIDATA

Plug and Play for IBM $ 49

Okigraph I for82A 49

Okigraphllor83A 49

Tractor for 182 39

JUKI

Bi Directional Tractor. 6100/6300 .. $125/135

Serial Interface 65

BROTHER

Tractor lor DX-15 . $ 99

Tractor lor HR25 129

Tractor for HR35 129

Cut Sheet Feeder tor DX15 175

Cut Sheet Feeder for HR25/35 199

Keyboard for DX15 165

STAR MICRONICS

Graphstar Apple Interface $ 69

Sena' to Parallel Converter 79

Universal Commadore 59

Serial InterfaceCard 59

CABLES

IBM PCtoParallel Printer $ 18

Serial Cable 18

Cent toCent M/MorM/F 18

We Stock What We Sell!!

IF YOU SEE IT ADVERTISED FOR LESS,

CALL COMPUTER CONNECTION FIRST

FOR LOWEST QUOTE!

GIVE US A CHANCE TO BEAT THECOMPETITION'S ADVERTISED PRICE.

NO SURCHARGEFOR CREDIT CARDS

We accept VISA, MasterCard. COD [w/deposit],Certified Checks or Wire Transfers MinimumShipping Charge $4 00. Some items sub|ect toback order California Res. add 6'/j% Sales Tax.All returns are sub|ect to a 15% restockingcharge and must be authorized by store managerwithin 10 days. Prices sub|ect to change withoutnotice. This Ad supersedes all others.

468 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 77

We Are Overstocked

IMo Reasonable Offer Refused

SPECIALS

EXECUTIVE IBM

• IBM ATW/512K

• 33 meg Hard Disk

• 1.2 meg FloppyMonochrome Monitor Card

• Parallel & Serial Ports

• Amdek V310A

$4695

IBM STARTER

• IBM PCW/256K

• Two 360K Disk Drives

• Color Card

• Taxan. Amber #116

51799

THAT DELIVERS"

APPLE & FRANKLINACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

Kensington System Saver S 69

Fan tor Apple It & HE w surge 45

APPLE

Super Serial Card S 139

Monitor II 159

8OC0I Card 65

ASTAR

RF Modulator , $ 17

MICRO-SCI

64K. 80 Col Card $ 85

Pac Para & Ser converter tor tic 75

ADVANCED LOGIC SYSTEMS

ZEngine22 $ 115

CPM/3 0 245

MICROMAX

Viewmax 80e, 128K extended 80 col. card

lorApplellEw/64K $ 124

Viev»max80.80Col.CardlorApplell&M+ 139

MICROTEK

Serial Int tor Apple $ 75

DISKETTES

PC DISKETTES

Sgi rObi tBox ot 10) S 16

Dbl (Dbi (Box ol 10) 18

COMPUTER CONNECTION

Sgi/DbltBoxol 10) $ 14

DbuDbi.(BoxotiO) 16

Sgt/Dbi w/DiskContamer(iO) 20

Dbl./Dbl w/DiskContainer(10) 22

Bulk 50 & Up — SgUDbl 1.25 ea.

BuikSO&Up — Dbl./Dbl 1.35ea.

An Diskettes come w/5 Year Warranty

IBM PC ACCESSORIES

IBM

IBM Mono Card w/Printer Port $ 245

IBM Mono Monitor 265

IBM Dos3.1 69

IBM Tech Ref. for PC 85

AST RESEARCH

Six Pak + w/Sidekick $ 255

PARADISE

Modular GraphicsCard $ 265

Multi Display 249

Module A Paralell or Serial 75

Module B 189

5 Pack 175

PC PEACOCK

Color Graphics Card w/Par. Printer Port, Compat.w/AII IBM Software, 2 yr. war $ 199

64K MEMORY UPGRADE

64K (9 chips) 200 ns, 90 day war $ 15

QUADRAM

Quad Color 1 Board S 179

Exp. Quadboard W/64K & Game Port 199

Ouadlink 3000 Run Apple sftwr on IBM 329

VUTEK

Vutek - CPS Board, RGB & Composite w/Par. & Ser.

Ports, 2 Yr. War $ 199

Color Card (Here, comp.) 159

Monographic Card (Here, comp.) 275

TECHMAR

Graphics Master $ 449

PERSYST BOARD

Bob Hi-Res Display Adp $ 365

KEYTRONICS

KB5151 $175

HERCULES

Monoch-ome Graphics Card $ 345

Color Card w/Printer Port 185

ORCHID

Blossom, like Six Pak + w/Network capabilities $ 245

DATA PLUS

384KMem. Board w/OK $ 115

XT Short Card, 384K Mem 183

Multiplus, same as Six Pak 199

MICROTEK

Monochrome Text Card Par & Ser $ 185

Color Graphics Card 165

Serial Port tor IBM 75

MODEMS

ANCHOR

Mark XII $217

Volksmodem XII, 5 yr. warranty 185

Express 1200 265

HAYES MICRO

300 Baud Smart Modem $ 149

1200 Baud Smart Modem 389

1200 B for IBM PC 379

2400 Baud Modem 645

Micro Modem ME 149

BIZCOMP

Intelli Modem ST $ 299

Intelli Modem XL w/Voice 339

Intelli Modem XT Short Modem 369

HARD DISK DRIVES

RODIME

10 meg. w/cont. 1 yr. warr $ 595

SEAGATE

10 meg w/cont 1 yr warr $ 650

ALPHA OMEGA

10 meg w/cont $ 625

20 meg w/cont 1099

30 meg w/cont 1395

20 meg tor AT 699

33 meg for AT 899

13 Month Warranty

TALL GRASS

25 meg w/55 meg Tape B.U.. $2795

DISK DRIVES

TANDON

TM100-2forlBMPC $ 95

TEAC

55BDbl/DblforlBM $ 99

MITSUBISHI

VjHt.360K $110

Drives For Apple & FranklinMICRO-SCI

A-2FullHt 100% comp $ 159

A.SCforllcw/cable 169

A.5 Vi HI. forllE 185

Controller Add 55

IBM

IBM Logo Disk Drive $ 160

DISPLAY MONITORS

QUADRAM

Amber chrome IBM compatible $ 169

AMDEK

V300G $119

V300A 129

V310AforlBMPC 149

Color300 235

Color600 399

Color 710 545

TAXAN

Composite #115, Green $ 115

Composite#116. Amber 120

IBM Green Monochrome #121 129

IBM AmberMonochrome«122 139

RGBIBMw/Cabie#420 389

RGB Super Hi-Res. #415 393

RGBSuperHiRes #440 499

RGB/Comp Med Res #220 245

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX 12 for use with IBM PC ..$425

Max 12AmDerlorlBM 175

SR12SuperHi-Res 575

ScanDoubier 185

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SHIPPED

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MAIL ORDER & WAREHOUSE:

17121 South Central, Unit LCarson, California 90746

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Inquiry 77

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE 469

INTEL/LOTUS"

4 MEGABYTE »

*34995 TZVoMM"

' For Your IBM PC-AT

For Your IBM PC

256K *399*

512K *2"

1MB *M9'6

«749«

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1MB

12BK512K -1 MB2MB4MB

529"

. »629»

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_'1599»5

TALLTREE JRAM-2/JRAM-3

2 MEGABYTE card

*199

1 MB JRAM-2

2 MB JRAM-2

256K JRAM-3

1 MB JRAM-3

> MB JRAM-3

95 JRAM-2

Without Memory

«399»

»599"

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'499*

«629*

JADE ExpandoRamMultifunction Card

Up to 384K. parallel printer port. RS-232 serial port,game port, clock/calendar. RAM disk/printer bufferand diagnostic software package list jade

OK JADE Expando RAM '299 '169."

64K JADE Expando RAM '449 '194."

256K JADE Expando RAM s549 '259."

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150 Watt *249

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'4145_ s154_ '395

51790

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COLOR CARDFOR YOUR IBM

tmmam .»_ LIST JADE

JADE RGB w/Parallel Port '199 -99 95

JADE RGB w/Parallel A Serial __'299 »199.95JADE TTL Monochrome720x348 '299 '149.95

IBM Video Boards

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Paradise Graphics CardEverex Graphics Edge

JADE'189."'339.951499.95'209.95'209.95

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10 MEGABYTE

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FOR YOURIBM PC

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16995

YOUR CCHOICE *

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Complete with controller careI. data cable

power supply10 MEGABYTE internal V2High ;1350

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15 MEGABYTE Internal 17» ~ -

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20 MEGABYTE Internal - - 1800 9OT

20 MB Di»k w/ 10 MB Tape^^^^^^__

HAYESSmartmodems

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Modem Cable

'699'539'5992895249'299>399

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JADE 1200 BAUD External '349 »179«

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Copyllnk Software for IBM PC '99 »29»«

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LIST_'199_'399_'495_s449

JADE•529.95•389.951339.95•359.95

'169.95•199.95

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Options Processor >99

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'79.95

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wwaawum

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_ '195 '139 «

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FIELD MOUSE (male or female) _ '175 '129."

PC PAINT Software >99 *69."

PC MOUSE with Pop-upsPC MOUSE with Paint

256K RAM ChipUpgrade c

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64K RAM Chip Kit For PC «49 «14.»»

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Quadboard W<> RAM

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LIST

5269*395s795s680

JADE•214"•235."•299.95•349."

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360K ****

Disk Drive for IBM PC

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s299 '119«s249 «99.»»

snaa

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KBS152B & KB5152V Also Available

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s495'199s199

Disk Drivefor YourApple lie

$12995

Video Monitors

Amdek 300GAmdek 300AAmdek 310A

HIGH RESOLUTION640 x 260, .38 Dot Pitch

TAXAN 415

RGB COLOR

MONITOR

LIST PRICE »699For cable add $19°°

Disk Drive for Apple lie

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PORTABLE

• 256K Expands to 512 Ke 600 x 400 Hi-Res Video

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• 90 Day Warranty

$*fl ff)Af ' Includes Two 36I CMI Disk Drives &j aaLa9f«ajF14aF Disk Controller

10 MEGABYTE PORTABLE

64K 80 Column Card for lieBest 80 Column Card 11/11 +

Printer Card & Cable

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LISTs249

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JADE•129«•59."•139»•129."•145.«

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Amdek Color 500Amdek Color 600Amdek Color 710PGS MAX-12

PGS HX-12 640x240

PGS SR-12 720x480

PGS Scan-Doubler

Taxan 440 Ultra Hi-res RGBTaxan TV Tuner for Monitor.

LISTM79s199'230'5254650s799s269699799!299s799_s99

JADE•139.95 I'149.95'179.95 I

'399.95'449.95•589.951•179.95 |•449.95•629.95 I

'199.95 |

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LIST PRICE s293

SALE PRICE '119."

512Kof RAM10 MB Hard DiskOne 360K Drive

'1995

JADE XPC IBM PC

^■^ m ^^ - oesif «i ram Maximum

• 256K of RAM Expandsto 640K on Main Board

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• 90 Day Warranty

256K of RAM, Two 360K Disk Drives & Disk Controller

e 256K of RAM Maximumon Main Board

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$1295

OPTION #1

256K of RAMTwo 360K DrivesColor CardAmdek 300

IBM PC M995

JADE XPC _$1595

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Color Card

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IBM PC $2995

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Computer Products

Continental U.S.A. Inside California Los Angeles Area

(800)421-5500 (800)262-1710 (213)973-7707 4901 W. Rosecrans Ave. Box 5046 Hawthorne. CA 90251-5046

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LetterWriter NLQ Kit lor FXLX-80 Tractor

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'89

499

JADE'99.95•99.95'59.95'29.95

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NEW! OKIDATA PRINTERMICROLINE -»,

Call For Price160 CPS. Near Letter Quality. & Graphics

OKIMATE 20 Color printer .PLUG-N-PRINT lor OKI 20 .OKI 182 120 cps. graphics .OKI 192 160 cps. graphics .OKI 193 160 cps, 15" paper

OKI 92 760 cps. graphics

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OKI 84 200 cps. parallel

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2K Serial Board for 192/193

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Extra Ribbon

Double-sidedDouble-density *■Diskettes %

In bulk packages of 125 pes

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3'/2" Single-sided for Mac

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800-262-1710

For Technical Inquiries

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C JADE

p '809."O '349."

These industrial quality ISO-BARs contain surgesuppression circuitry and built-in noise filters plus a15 amp circuit breaker. list jade

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8 Socket, 4 Filter ISO-BAR "99 '69.»*

UNINTERRUPTABLE POWER SUPPLY

Emergency back-up power to save your computersystem. A must for every computer system.

200 Watt UPS s359 $279.'s

425 Watt UPS s539 '459.95

1000 Watt UPS 51179 J995.95

Printer Accessories

IBM PC style cable

Standard parallel cableRS-232C serial cable

Ribbons

Apple lie cable . _

s54 '19.95

40 >19.95

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as low as'4.9939 '19.95

SHUGART851R

Double-sided, Double-density

8" DISK DRIVE$24995

LISTPRICE

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Dual 851 Sub-System Kit ; ««

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fan. etc.

WHY PAY $1149 FOR A C. ITOH

STARWRITER F-10

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' StarWriter is a Trademark of C. Itoh Digital Products. Inc.

C. ITOH Printers

C. Itoh's best-selling ProWnter and StarWriter

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ProWriter 7500 FT f05 cps '289 '209.95

ProWrlter 8510 AP 120 cps '429 '299.95

ProWriter II 1550 FT 120 cps '619 '439.95

CITIZEN Printers

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s499 '349.95

s749 '529.95

s699 '489.95

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_ s60 '49.95

Letter QualityPrinters On Sale!

jiiki fimn 7fl r.psCOMREX CR-lle 20 CPSDIABLO 630 40 CPSTOSHIBA P1340 130 CPSTOSHIBA P351 288 CPS

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s599

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T.I. 855 150 CPST 1 Hfi5 150 CPS

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STAR Printers

SR-in 120 cpssfi-15 t?o r.ps

POWERTYPE /S CPS

LIST

s299'499'499

JADE'23995'39995•35995

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 !149 '69.95

Extra Cable s40 '29.95

Data Switches

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LISTs299'349s299'349s179

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We accept cash, checks, credit cards, or purchase orders from qualified firms and institutions.Minimum prepaid order $15.00 California residents add 6%% tax. Export customers outside the US or Canada pleaseadd 10% to all prices. Prices and availibility subject to change without notice. Shipping and handling chargesvia UPS Ground 50C/lt>. UPS Air $1 00 lb minimum charge $3.00

[Computer Products

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PROGRAMMER

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Lotus™ User?

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68000 Cross AssemblerMotorola VERSAdos + Compatible

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CORONA F-ORTAOLE F»C

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PROFESSIONALCONTOURING

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Not just another gridding package, and no polynomi-als running wild. TRJMAP is the PC implementationof sophisticated contouring algorithms used in mult ikilohuck geophysical/geological packages over thelast 10 years It honors all data points (griddingpackages can't) and does not introduce artificial searchparameters. Runs under MS-DOS with 256K andsupports HP 7475A, HP 7580 and other plotters.Your valuable data deserves TRIMAP's professionalquality.

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Inquiry 245

Inquiry 126

Inquiry 4I9

1st PLACE

COMPUTER SYSTEMS13422 N. CAVECREEK RD.PHOENIX, AZ. 85022

CALL FREE 1-800-841 2748

Hi - I'm Joan,

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ANCHOR VOLKSMOOEM12 ... 164

AUTOCAD CALL

(DIGITIZERS, PLOTTERS) PENCEPT HOUSTONHITACHI. CALCOMP. NIC0LET. ENTER. GTCO

JUKI 63oo 639

MAC 3.5 FLOPPY DRIVE 279

CALL FOR LATEST PRICE

APPLE

AXIOM

CITIZEN

C. ITOH

COMPAC

EPSON

HAYES

IBM

JUKI

LEGEND

LOTUS

NEC

PANASONIC

PARADISE

PRINCETON

SILVER REED

TAXAN

TOSHIBA

NOVATION VENTEL

MICROPRO ZENITH

MINORITY INDUSTRIES

Inquiry 402

Inquiry 46

ORDERS ONLYOTHER INFORMATION

Inquiry 420

1-800-428-7979(602) 890-0596

Osborne

As available only! Very limited quantity.

Important:Always call tocheck availa-bility beforeordering.

To fix yourself,or for parts.Complete, butknown notworking.

Guar anteday* Maor returbding onExch/Repair

ad for 30/ be new. depen-rvail.Outright

Mam Board OS-1

m

S79

$139

Mam Board Exec.

SI 59

$139

$299

Battery Pack, 40 Watt

—

$49

Double Dens,tv Kit **** Includes board, cablt

doc ume

ntation &

$79 1disk 1

5" CRT (Grn/Wh.u)

$9 95

S19

$29

7" CRT (Amber)

S19

S49

$99

15" CRT, no case

$85

Drrve Analog Card

$9 95

$29

$59$59$29

Drive Mechanism

$19

S2S

Power Supply

14.95

$24

Keyboard INo enclos.)

$995

—

$99

Shipping charged on all orders

Computer Parts Mart 415-493-5930200 Park Blvd ■ Palo Alto * CA 9430

.

i.ow OOSTH ( h: ) PROM

I ■ --4

IINIVR RS A I.PROGRAMMER

fl. •* =

• SUPPORTS: EPHOMS. 2518 THRU 64, 2716 THRU 512.27C16 THHI 128, 68732 THRU 66 (KEPHOMS 52B13THRU 33. ..'HIM THRU 64A (MICROS) 8741 THRU 49H

• NO PERSONALITY MODULES, ONBOARD POWER SUPPLY« RS232C INTERFACE. XON XOFF. RTS, CTS. DTR

« ACCEPTS KEYBOARD ENTRY WITH LIMB EDITING

• ACCEPTS ASCII, INTEL, AND MOTOROLA FORMATS■ USER FRIENDLY MONITOR FOR I/O DEBUGGING

• FAST PROGRAMMING SUPPORTED: 2764 UNDER 3 M1N.

• LOW/HIGH BYTE PROGRAMMING FOR 16 BIT DATA PATH

• BYTE. BLOCK, Oft CHIP ERASE <EEPROMS ONLY)« LIST IN INTEL OH MOTOROLA HEX FORMAT

• VERIFY PROGRAM AND VERIFY BLANK COMMANDS

1409-01: 4K FIRMWARE, PCB. XFORMER. DOC

1409-02: 1409 01 • RILL SET OF PARTS

1409-03: ASSEMBLED AND TESTED UNIT

1409-11: 8X FIRMWARE. PCB, XFORMER. DOC

1409-12: 1409 11 • FULL SET OF PARTS

1409- 13: ASSEMBLED AND TESTED UNIT

• COMMUNICATION DRIVERS FOR MOST PC'S

!•*-• MICROSYSTEMS

6322 M0JAVE DR. SAN JOSE. CA 95120

Tel.(408)997 7685, TWX 4995363

$90.00$200.00$300.00$125.00$250.00$350.00

$35.00

Inquiry 82

20% DISCOUNT

SEMIDISK

lor S-100, IBM-PC, QX10, TRS-80 II

S-100 EQUIPMENT

Incl. MACROTECH, LOMAS,

ILLUMINATED TECHNOL.

IMS. INTERCONTINENTAL MICRO

DIGITAL GRAPHICS SYSTEMS

NEC APC III IBM PC Compatible

IBM PC Enhancements

(it varying dlacounta)

[incl. Emerald Sys., ALLOY. AST, QUAD, etc!

We Discount Software

Modems, Printers, CRTS

Plotters & Digitizers

1 Prices & avail, subject to change without noticej

WE EXPORT Telex:

710 588 2844 (OWENSASSOC)

I JOHN D. OWENS associates, inc.'

12 Schubert St. Staten Island NY 10305

(718) 448-6298(718)448-6283

Inquiry 422

.cro AS4C/C 70 SCHOOL SPECIALS*.. + ^

mdurt<5 /xP£/¥•* Wayes SmartModem Compatible! XPC \ V*. >5* V* ^

^-,_ ™ ,--\ \¥^y%

• * * ** «a^*.

finally a prte* breakthrough on a Hayes compatible, external 300/1200baud modem This low price is withoutdriver software but it you need it add $25.00lor a 26 page catalog of our special dealsLook m this spot every month for Hot. New items 1sure to catch your interest

international

^714/898-0840fjb Jt(P^/'^^J^r IBM PC-XT SELECTRIC KEYBOARDS

„* ▼ O ,^^^-op ^ *$fOv volume purchaseol these excelent Selectnc h/pe keyt>c«ds will bring the^^^rteatures you nave been wanbng down to a pnce you can't resist So many features~ you'Hoveit" • Single ney reset gmmnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilH

• Separatenumenckeypad -t_. , , , , L_L_. ( „,,,M ._,

• Separate Arrow keypad . . , ,-, p .• Dimpte marked "5". F i J keys Jfa-

£

'KEY-1051-00 Select*KEY-1050-00 Standard

$129.0089.00

J?

MOTHERBOARD

Micro Products announces a powerful new IBM XT type motherboard 4 layers for superior reliability& speed. Turbo mode allows 75% higher thru-put by increasing sys-tem clock to 7 MHz under software control. Designed to use new256K RAM chips or 64K chips. 640K memory expansion does notrequire use of valuable card slots. Many outstanding features com-bined with our new 7 PAK Multifunction board make previouslyexpensive options standard features at a LOW LOW Cost.BOA-6078 00 Supplied with OK $349.00

• Runs the popularHayes communications software^

• FCC apprvd direct RJ-11 connection^

• Phone Cable & power supplyone low pnce

MOD-8100-O0 $199.00"

^

ADD-ON POWER SUPPLIES

Two new, thoroughlytested IBM PC/XT powersupplies for your systemupgrade. Best price in

Byte with ONE YEAR

• ^ warranty!!

POW-1040-00 135 watt S 99.00'

POW-1044-00 150 watt $115.00

SUPER 12 PAK MULTIFUNCTION

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 384Kof Parity-checked Memory, Sup-plied OK Memory, all cables, PrintSpoolerand RAM Disk Software.

BOA-6335-00 $129.95

Additional (9) 64K Memory ChipsKIT-8000-00 $ 10.00

Do It Yourself!

■ v\

e ways to begin - an Empty cabinet ■ a "Basic"ji system ■ all that you assemble yourself!CABINET ONLY

ot CAB-3068-00 $75.00

"BASIC"net, Keyboard, Power Supply, Motherbrd w/OK>-8000-00 $525.00

This is OUR Junior!

Hi 'Owefass' workstation tor tow-cost Networking.urti: • 4-slot IBM™ compatible Motherboard8K Standard Memory • 8088.8067 Math Co-pro-or • Optional Floppy Drive w* Contrders

810000 $475.00

System w; Keyboard. Mono Monitor, Video Display, 256K1 RAM Drive ... SYS-873rV00 S895.00

*1395°°WOW!

Complete ^p^.^ —,——.^

System! --- '-— I UnBU

NEW 17,000 in Service! 1SJ?,ffFeatures!

Add-On H.D. £ Tape

$199500

20 Meg Color

Complete System!

*255000

40 Meg w/Tape

Complete System!

$303500Software

• XWORD

• XBASIC

• XBASEk • XCALC

• XCOMCheck These Standard Features:

• Full-Size. Feather-Touch. Capacitance Keyboard, 10 Function Keys, Calculator-Type Numeric Keypad •

• Parallel & Serial I/O • Real Time Clock • Game Port • 2-Slimline 5V, - DSIDD 48 TPI360K Drives •

• 8 IBM expansion slots 'RAMDisk "PrintSpooler • 4 DMA S3 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 to add-on additional power •

* High resolution 12" Monitor, Green Screen, 22 MHz bandwidth *

ml RAM Disk

KGame PortM640K cpctyWPrintSpoolerI Turbo mode!

4.77MHz

to 7MHz!MSer,ParMClock

10 Mag $109520 Meg $129526 Meg $1395

10 or 20 Megabyte on the Itop, your choice of Hard IDisk on the bottom. Super Iappearancel Requires!one slot In your PC for ISASI interface and an ex- [tension connector on the Ifloppy card. Everything |else is supplied by us.40 Meg $1695105 Meg $4195140 Meg $4695

Add-On Hard Disk

Two ways to go. The Internal system is cheaper becauseitdoesnotneedaPrS&Chassis-ThesamePrS&Chassis |can be used lor a 10 Meg Tape Back-up on your XT!

10 Megabyte'525lm7'695«t

20 Megabyte»650lnt/*795ext

26 Megabyte•795 lnu"895 ext

40 Megabyte•1195int/'1295.<i

105 Megabyte•3795lnt/>3995eit

140 Megabyte•4395 inu"4695 ail

Add-On 20 Meg Tape

SUB-8300-00 .

IfyourlBMATneedsaut-tie help in the Back-up Icategory, you won't be |able to beat this price!Cables, software and |everything! $595.00 I

Not enough room here - Call for Catalog

PROM LASER

s is the One! Our PROM Burner allows reading, storing-to-disk, recaing. andburning Hi-speedatogrithmes burns 2764in 45 seconds! Also randies 2716,2732,27128,27256. Features: Zero insertionforce sockets, Orvboard Voltage GeneratorNo Interference with normal computeroperatorsBOA-8640-00 $199.00

MISCELLANEOUS $$$ SAVERS

UX Multifunction Floppy, RTC, 2 Serial. 1 Parallel. Game. RAM Disk

V6250-00 $189.00

Memory Chipi (9) NEC for IBM KIT-800OO0 $ 10.00

< DRAM Memory Chips (9) = 256K KIT-9000-00 $ 45.00

On Memory, (up to 512K) supplied OK BOA-6350-00 $ 99.00

e>y Controller, Controls up to four drives, 5V.' 48796 TPI

W100-00 $ 95.00

ochroma Graphics Card, (Hercules type) (1-2-3 compatible) 720h x 348v

W15O00 $175.00

■ Graphics Card, 320 x 200 Res. Color. 640 x 200 Monochrome

i-6200-OO $145.00

k Calendar Board, fits in "short slot" w/battery Back-up

,-6375-00 $ 55.00

I Disk Controller, standard ST-506 interface tor DOS 2.1 & 3.1

i-8060-OO $1 55.00

11200 Baud Modem Internal w/PC Talk III Communications Software

i-8725-OO $210.00

ochrome Monitor. 22MHz bandwidth, composite input or TTLvM725-00Green/Comp 99.00 MON-1700-00 AmberlComp 104.00vM775-0OGreen/TTL.. 104.00 MON-175O-00Amber/TTL .. 109.00

We want your DRIVE business!

Mill

Shugart 360K TEAC 360K NEC 10meg Tulin 2«meg Memtek m,g•85" '95" '345" '695" '495"

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 are no problems with U.S. Export Forms.

USA OFFICE

15392 Assembly Lane. Unit AHuntington Beach. CA 92649Tel: 714 / 8980840Tlx: 887841 XORDATA HTBHAMSTERDAM OFFICEBuilding 70,4th Floor1117ZHSchiphol-EastAmsterdam. The NetherlandsTel: (020) 45 26 50 Tlx: 18306AUSTRALIAN OFFICE8 Irwin Street, BellevueW.Australia 6056Tel: 274-3701

MARACAIBO OFFICEAv. 3F Esq. Calle 81Centro Com. Maelga - Local #5Maracaibo. Venezuela 4001-ATel: 061-913328 • Tlx: 62344 PEMIN

BOMBAY OFFICE

311 Sindhi LaneNanubhai Desai Rd.Bombay 400-004 IndiaTel: 357172-Tlx: 011-2866CANADA OFFICE264 Principale. St. Blaise,Quebec. Canada J0J1WOTel: 541/291-3118

Now XPC-XT in a Kit!

Completely XT Compatible

$1095°°

ii'

Why didn't anybody think of it before? if

you have a phillips screwdriver and 1 - 2 hoursavailable, SAVE yourself a bundle of MONEY! No-where will you beat this deal on a complete 8 slotready-to-assemble and run XT compatible.

• Cabinet • 2-360K Shugart Drives

• 135 watt Power Supply • Floppy Controller &

• Keyboard Cable

• 8 Slot Motherboard • Mono Video Card

• 256K RAM • TTL Amber Monitor

Micro Products

Huntington Beach, CA 92649

714/898-0840

IBM PC

256k. 2 floppies

IBM PC 10 MB

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

IBM PC 20 MB

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

IBM PC 30 MB

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

IBM PC 10 ♦ 10

256k. 1 or 2 floppies10MB HD & 10MB Backup

IBM PC 20 ♦ 20

256k. 1 or 2 floppies20MB HD & 20MB Backup

IBM XT

256k. 2 floppies

IBM XT 10 MB

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

IBM XT 20 MB

256k, 1 or 2 floppies

IBM XT 30 MB

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

IBM XT 10 + 10

256k, 1 or 2 floppies10MB HO & 10MB Backup

IBM XT 20 ♦ 20

256k. 1 or 2 floppies20MB HO & 20MB Backup

IBM AT 20 MB

512k, 1 or 2 floppies

IBM AT 30 MB

512k, 1 or 2 floppies

IBM AT 40 MB

512k. 1 or 2 floppies

FOR EXTRA SAVINGS

Call for the latest prices for your customconfiguration. All systems are configuredand tested at no extra cost and comeonly with Compumail's 90 day warranty.

IBM AT 20 * 20

512k, 1 or 2 floppies20MB HD& 20MB Backup

IBM AT 30 ♦ 60

512k. 1 or 2 floppies30MB HO & 60MB Backup

IBM AT 40 ♦ 00

512k. 1 or 2 floppies40MB HD& 60MB Backup

COMPAQPORTABLE

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

COMPAQPORTABLE 10 MB

256k. 1 or 2 floppies

COMPAQOKSKPRO 10 MB

640k. 1 or 2 floppies

COMPAQDESKPRO 10 • 10

10MB HO & 10MB Backup

COMPAQDESKPRO 20 MB

Backup Available

COMPAQDESKPRO 30 MB

Backup Available

COMPAQDESKPRO 40 MB

Backup Available

COMPAQPORTABLE 286

Custom Configurations

COMPAQDESKPRO 286

Custom Configurations

IBM XTCOMPATIBLE

Custom Configurations

IBM ATCOMPATIBLE

Custom Configurations

IBM COMPATIBLES

ARE YOUR LOW COST

ALLTERNATIVE

• PRICE WAR • LAST

WITH YOUR BEST QUOTES

PRINTERS

EPSON Daisy Wheel DX-10/DX-15 CALL

FX-85 + NL0 $339 FX-185 + NL0 $459ShtFdrFX-85/FX-185 $249/$299

NLQ Upgrade Kit for FX-80/FX-100 CALL

LX-80/HI-80/JX-80 $219/$359/$469

Tractor LX-80/FX-80/HI-8O $50/$60/$70

LQ-1500 w/Parallel Module . $889

LQ Tracl/Sing/Dual Sht Fdr $70/$450/$750LX-90 w/Par Interface & Tractor $279

OKIDATA TOO LOW TO QUOTE

OKIMATE 20 w/IBM Plug & Print

182-P/182 IBM 192-P/192-IBM

193-P/193-IBM 84-P/84-IBM

192 Tractor $70 84 Sht Fdr $390

TOSHIBA 1340P $499

TOSHIBA 351P REDUCED' I100Q.

351 Tractor/Sht Fdr $190/$790

JUKI 6100/6200/6300 $349/$549/$679

6X00 Iractor/ShtFdr $150/$250

5510P(160cps) $369 5510Co)or Kit $150

BROTHER TOO LOWTO QUOTE

HR-10/HR-15XL TOO LOW TO QUOTE

HR-15 Trac/Kybrd/Sht Fdr $110/$160/$190

HR-25P/HR-35P $439/$639

HR-25/35 Tractor/Sht Fdr $120/$200

2024L LQ/Graphics-24 pin. 160/80 cps $8992024L Sh! Fdr-Narrow/Wide $220/$290

TWINRITER 5 World's First Oof Matrix &

Daisy Wheel combined m ONE Best Price

TWINRITER 5 Trac/Sht Fdr $150/$250

C. ITOH ProWnter Jr w/NLQ $219

8510BPI $309 8510SEP + NL0 $379

8510SCEP+NLQ $449 1550-EP $429

1550SEP+NLQ $519 1550SCEP+NLQ $61924LQP $949 A10-30SP $439

Y10-20P $379 A10 Tractor $160

F10-40P $869 F10-55P $1069

F10 Tractor/Sht Fdr $190/$290

CX-4800P 4 Pen Plotter $429

QUMELetlerPro20P(20cps) ... $399

20P Trac/ShtFdr $150/$390

SPRINT 1140 + /1155+. $1299/$1399

SPRINT Interface Module $80

SPRINT Trac/Sht Fdr $210/$690

PANASONIC KX-P3151 L0(22cps) $459

KX-P1090/91/92/93 $179/$249/$349/$449

STAR Power Type/SB-10 S329/CALL

SG-10/SG-15(120cps) $239/$389

SD-10/SD-15(160cps) $349/$459

SR-10/SR 15(200cps) $499/$599

NEC PINWRITER P-2/P-3 $499/$699

Sht Fdr for P-2/P-3 $350/$420

2050/3550/8850 $649/$999/$1399

SPINWRITER Trac/Sht Fdr $190/$790

ELF360Par(16cps) ... $419

DIABLO Advantage D-?5 $499

630 API $1599 630ECS-IBM $1799Trac/Mech Single Bin Sht Fdr $230/$470

CITIZEN: 18 months manufacturer warrantyMSP-10/15(160/40cps) $299/$449MSP-20/25 (200/50cps) . $439/$589Sht Fdr (Specify Model) $229

LEGEND CP VII $899 1200 $259

880/1080/1380/1385 $199/$219/$259/$319

ANADEX 9620B/9625BPLUS $1199/$1299

9725B COLOR $1399

WP6000/DP6500 $2299/$2569

Anadex Tractor/Sht Fdr $150/5950

SILVER REED Daisywheel ■ Parallel Models400/500/550/770 $189/$269/$379/$669

TELEVIDEO 750 Daisywheel-50 cps CALL

AB/ABC/ABCD Switch Boxes CALL

KENSINGTON Universal Printer Stand $20

FLOPPY/HARD DISKS

CDC/MITSUBISHI/PANASONIC/TANDON/TEACHalfHIDSDD REDUCED -$90

Free Mounting Kit with 2 Drives

CDC/TANDON Full Ht DSDD ^ -$§9

HARD DISKS tor IBM PC/XT

MONITORS

REDUCEDREDUCED'REDUCED'REDUCED'REDUCEDREDUCEDREDUCEDREDUCED

-$449-

-$649-

«99-

-$799-

-$849

-$W49

-$-W49.

-$+248-

CALL

CALL

CALL

10 MB Int w/Controller

10 MB Ext w/Controller

20 MB Int w/Controller

20 MB Ext w/Controller

33 MB Inl w/Controller

33 MB Ext w/Controller

44 MB Int w/Controller

44 MB Ext w/Controller

70 MB Int or Ext w/Controller

140 MB Int or Ext w/ControllerHARD DISKS/BACKUP FOR IBM PC ATBACKUP for IBM PC/XT

10 MB Int/Ext REDUCED

20 MB Int/Ext REDUCED

40/60 MB Int/ExtTALL GRASS NEW PC/T FORMAT

25/35 MB w/60 MB Backup

50/80 MB w/60 MB Backup

60 MB Tape Backup only

Controller $140 Cartridge (60 MB) $40EVEREX 10/20 MB Int w/Cont $579/$699

EXCEL 4500 45MB B/U- Int/Ext $949/$999

APEX MEG 1000 100MB Tape B/U-EXT $1399

EXTERNAL EXPANSION SYSTEMS CALL

INTERDYNE TAPE BACKUP

10 MB Int/Ext REDUCED $460/1040

20 MB Int/Ext REDUCED $509''$749HARD DISKS/BACKUP FOR COMPAQ CALL

IOMEGA Bernoulli Box 10 + 10 CALL

Auto Boot also AvailableAMPEX PC Megastore CALL

EMULEX JAVELIN HD& BACKUP CALL

PWR SUPPLY 130/150 Watts $89/$109

MULTI-FUNCTION CARDS

$499/$009

$599/$749

CALL

$2599/$3399$4299/$5499CALL

ASTSiXPAKO-K $229 384K $259

Rampage' Advantage 0-K $379

ORCHID Blossom OK $169 384K $199

Conquest tor IBM PC/XT (up to 2MB) CALL

Cram-RAM lor IBM XT short sWIup to 2MB) CALL

Eccelltor IBM AT (up to 4MB) CALL

TECMAR Captain 0-K $169 384K $199

MAESTRO AT w/Treasure Chest Best Price

INTEL Above Board (up lo 4MB) CALL

PARADISE 5-Pack 0-K $159 384K $189

BT6Plusw/64k $175 384 k $199

MF-100 0-K $179 384k $209

Par, Ser 8, Game Ports. Clock/Cat

OUADBOARDOK $189 384K $219

Silver Quadboard 0- K to 640k CALL

Gold Quadboard Multifunction & Color CALL

Quadmeg-AT (up to 4 MB) CALL

Quadport-AT/Expansion Kit CALL

INSTALL RAM & test brd for PC/AT $20/$40

PGS MAX-12/HX-12/HX-12E $169/$419/$499

HX-9/HX-9E/SR-12 $419/$499/$549

SR-12w/Scan Doublet $699

SR-12w/Sigma400 $999

TAXAN COMPOSIT 115 Green/116 Amber $129

MONO 121 Gr/122Amb $139/$149

COLOR 410 $289 COLOR 411 $299

COLOR 420 $359 COLOR 420L $369

I COLOR 425 $369 COLOR 440 $489

COLOR 440 w/TAXAN 555 RGB Card $749

COLOR 440 w/Persyst BoB Brd $799

COLOR 440 w/Sigma 400 $939

COLOR 440 w/Sigma 400 & PC Mouse $1039

AMDEK 30OG/3O0A/310A(M| $139/$149/$159

COLOR 300/500/600 $239/$349/$419

710 $489 w/Tecmar Graphics Master $899

QUADRAM AMBERCHROME $159

ROLAND MB-142 14" Mono B/W Best Price

TECMAR Color $529 w/Graphlcs Master $939

TILT/SWIVEL Monitor Pedestal $30

DISPLAY CARDS

HERCULES MonoGraphics $279 Color $149

HERCULES COMPATIBLE MonoGraphics $199

EVEREX The Edge Best Price Ever

Graphics Edge Even Better Price

AST Monograph Plus $339/$369

Preview for Mono Graphics $279

Graphpack w/64k $549

PERSYST Short Color/Mini Mono S159/CALL

Color Combo Multifunction & Color from $299

Mono Combo Multifunction & Mono from $299

PERSYST BoB Board $339

PERSYST w/TAXAN 440 $799

QUADRAM Quadcolor I $179

Gold Quadboard Multifunction & Color CALL

STB Chauffer REDUCED'' $299

PARADISE Modular Brd from $259

ORCHID Turbo Graphics Controller CALL

TECMAR Graphics Master $429

G Master w/TECMAR Color Monitor $939

G Master w/AMDEK 710 Color Monitor $899

GENOA Spectrum Best Price

MYLEX Chairman $399

SIGMA COLOR 400 (specify Monitor) . $479

COLOR 4O0W/PGSSR-12 $999

COLOR 400 w/TAXAN 440 $939

3 Button PC Mouse w/PC Paint Add $100

CHIPS ETC?

HIGHEST

MajorQUALITY! Brands

6*KRAMSet $7 10+Sets $6 50+ $5128KRAMSet $35 10+Sets $33 50+ $30256K RAM Set $30 10+ Sets $28 50+ $258087-3 for IBM PC REDUCED' -$4+9

8087-2 for COMPAQ REDUCED' CALL

80287-3 for IBM AT REDUCED' -$*3»

ORCHID PCturbow/128k^«S49- 640k -$699QUADRAM QUADspnnt REDUCED -*W9-

MICROWAY S Fastbr»ak/#Smasher CALL

MODEMS

EasyOata 12B 300/1200 Bd Int w/PCTalk III $199

SnurTEAM212A1200BdExtw/os!t $209

HAYES 1200 B w/SmartCom II $319

HAYES 1200 Ext w/o Software $339

Smartcomll $89 NEW 2400 Bd Ext $589

HAYES Transet 1000 REDUCED'' -$999-

P0PC0MC-150lntw/PFS:Access $289

POPCOM X-150 Ext w/PFS:Access $299

AST Reach! 1200 Bd short card w/Crosstalk $359

PROMETHEUS PROMODEM 1200 Ext $279

Options Processor $89 w/Modem $75

Alphanum Display $89 w/Modem $75

PROMODEM 1200 Ext + Both Options $419

PROMODEM 1200Blntw/MITEsottware $249

QUADMODEM II shortcard w/Crosstalk XVI CALL

2400 Bd Upgrade Kit for Quadmodem II CALL

Ven-Tel Half Card w/Crosstalk XVI $379

1200 Plus Ext w/o software $349

BIZCOMPIntelliModemEXT $319

ST/XL/XT $289/$319/$359

WATSON Integrated Voice Data Modem CALL

RIXON Complete Line . . CALL

U.S. ROBOTICS Complete Line CALL

SPECIAL ITEMS

DCA: IRMA. IRMAIette, IRMAIine. IRMApnnt

Emulates 3278, 3279CXI: PCOX Emulates 3274. 3278. 3279FORTE: PJ Card Emulates 3278. 3279. 3287

3270PC. 278RJE. 3780RJE (Specify)AST 3780. 5251/11. 5251/12. BSC, SNA. PCOXORCHID PCnet Plus Complete Line .. . . CALLOBERON OMNI READER Optical Character Reader

w/lBM Interface Software ... CALL

POLAROID Palette $1249

General Parametric'sVideoShow CALL

CHORUS PHOTOBASE/PC-EYE CALL

MISC. ADD ONS

CABLE Parallel. 6ft $20 Serial. 6 It . $25

Keyboard Extension. 6 ft . . $10

FLOPPY Drive Controller $109

FLOPPY Controller w/P.S.G & Clock/Cal $199FLOPPY & HD Controller "REDUCED'' -$*99HAYES Transet 1000 . REDUCED -$299

MOUSE SYSTEMS PC Mouse w/PC Paint $129MICROSOFT MOUSE w/PC Paintbrush

Bus/Serial $129/$139

KEYTRONIC KB 5151 $165 AT Upgrade Kit $15

CALLCALL$299$129$89$20S9u

KB5153Tw/TouchPadAB/ABC/ABCD Switch Boxesi COMPUTER ACCESSORIES P 1-2-3

POWER DIRECTOR P2(5) $89 P12(6)KENSINGTON Master Piece (5 outlets)KENSINGTON Universal Printer StandPC Keyboard Storage DrawerSTANOBY PWR SUPPLY w/surge protection

200 Watts $269 300 Watts CALL

800 Watts (Sine Wave) $679

TILT/SWIVEL Monitor Pedestal $30

PWR SUPPLY 130/150 Watts $89/$129

COMPANY POLICY Mm order $100 Pnces (4 ava«*y sutteci to change V* ship UPS only Shppnq/hanctng charges varyPnces reflect cash dscount en prepaxl orders Add 1% lor COD orders. 3% tor MC/VISA & 5% lor AMEX (MO roqures cashescheck Ai mercnanctse sow s new and a) sales are final Refused shonerts subject to 20% charge («*n $501 Products shppsd intactiry cartons come wffi manutachier warranty For others, nctodng IBM systems, cat tech support tar return auth # tor warrantyrepars l^cmBectw tens returned as oetedw suoject to10*/. serwe charged* $50) Not response* tor hardware or softwareojujdtiuityof any product No cpen acd PO s cr toreign orders No showroom, damonstratnns or wafc-fi sates Personal or companyctacks take 3 weeks to dear FOR ADVANCE PAYMENTS or PICKUP PLEASE CALL FIRST FOR VWRKORDER I

^ CALL FOR OURW^ WEEKLY

■ UNADVERTISED

■ SPECIALS

m

FOR OUR ^||EKLY ^ERTISED]CIALS I

406-C CONSTITUTION AVE., CAMARILLO, CA 93010

805-987-7015

WHEN ORDERING PLEASE REFER TO AD #B804

476 BYTE • SEPTEMBER I985

JUST IN TIME FOR OUR 6 YEAR ANNIVERSARY.

JDR HAS JUST

SLASHED THE PRICES

ON OUR MOST POPULAR

ifflfc

FOR EXAMPLE:

IHTE8UTE0 CIRCUITS

4164 200ns 790

41256200ns$3.19

27256250ns$9.95

8088

8251

8253

8255

8284

8288

68000

6821

6845

7.951.951.951.952.954.959.951.954.95

MSM5832

UPD765

74LS00

74LS74

74LS244

4011

UM555

7805T

CRYSTALS

2.954.95.16.24.69.19.29.491.95

L Z80A-CPU 1.89 OSCILLATOR 4.95 J

CONNECTORS

DB25S RS232 FEMALE $1.50

D B25 P RS232 MALE $1.25

25 PIN HOOD 650

62 PIN EDGECARD FOR IBM $1.95

16 PIN IC SOCKET 12C

GENDER CHANGER $7.95,

100 CPS PRINTER

PARALLEL & SERIAL INPUT

IBM COMPATIBLE CARDS

TEAC DRIVES

348K MUTIFUNCTION CARD $129.95

1200 BAUD MODEM CARD $195.00

COLOR GRAPHICS CARD $99.95

MONOCHROME/PRINTER CARD $129.95

L FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER $59.95 J

IBM COMPATIBLE CASE

NASHUA DS/DD DISKETTES

9.90 .89 .79

BOX OF 10 BULK OH 50 BULK QTV 250

300 BAUD MODEMFOR APPLE OR IBM

SOFTWARE INCLUDED

PRINTER CABLE

FOR IBMDB25 TO CENTRONICS

FD-55B.FD-55F

DRIVE CASE

WITH POWER SUPPLY

FITS TWO SV." V, HT. FDDs

MONITORS

TAXAN RGB $289 95

1 MONOCHROME for IBM $99.95 .

HALF HEIGHT DRIVE

FOR APPLE

$149,951 $/|g_g5 N $g_g5 ■ $gg_g5

III 1224 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-VV-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 $2.50for UPS Ground and $3 SO lor UPS Air Orders over 1 lb. and foreignorders may require additional shipping charges - please contact oursales department tor the amount CA. residents must include applicablesales tax. All merchandise is warranted lor 90 days unless otherwisestated. Prices are subject to change without notice. We are notresponsible tor typographical errors. We reserve the right to limitquantities and to substitute manufacturer All merchandise subject toprior sale

© COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICROOEVICES

Inquiry 200

SEPTEMBER I985 'BYTE 477

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE FOLKS AT BYTE MAGAZINE

STATIC MMS

2101

256x4

|<—Ml

1 95 I

5101

256x4

(450ns)[ CMOS)

3 95 |

2102 1

1024x4

<450rw)

89 I

2102L-4

1024x1

|450rts(|LP)

99 I

2102L-2

1024x1

(250n»||LP)

145

2125

1024x1

(45ns)

1 95

2111

256x4

(450ns |

2 49

2112

256x4

(450nsl

299

2114

1024x4

(450ns)

99 |

2114L-4

1024x4

(450na)(LP)

109

2114L-2

1024x4

(200ns)(LP)

1.49

21141-15

1024x4

(150n»i(LPI

1 95

TC5514

1024x4

(6S0fts)(CMOS)

4.95

2141

4096x1

(200ns)

295

2147

4036x1

(55ns)

3.95

! 2148

1024x4

(70ns)

4 95

TMS4044 4

4096x1

(450ns)

1.95

TMS4044 2

4096x1

(250ns)

2.95

UPD410

4096x1

(100ns)

3.95

MK4118

1024x8

(250ns)

9.95

TMM2016 150

2048x8

(150ns|

1.69

TMM2016 100

2048x8

(100ns)

2.49

HM6116-4

2048x8

(200ns)|CMOS)

1.79

HM6116-3

2048x8

(150ns)(CMOS)

1.89

HM6116-2

2048x8

(120ns|(CMOS)

2.95

HM6116LP-4

2048x8

(200nsl(CMOS|(LP|

1.89

HM6116LP 3

2048x8

(150ns|(CMOS)(LP)

1.99

HM6116LP-2

2048x8

(120ns)(CMOS)(LP)

2.95

TC5516

2048x8

(250ns)(CMOS)

3.95

Z-6132

4096x8

1300ns HOST AT)

19.95

HM6264P-15

8192x8

(1S0ns)|CMOS)

4.75

HM6264LP-1S

8192x8

|150ns)(CMOS)(LP)

4.95

HM6264LP-12

8192x8

(120ns)(CMOS)|LP)

5.95

LP=Low power

Q • ta t Quasi- Static

DYNAMIC MMS

TMS4027

4096x1

(2S0ns)

.95

2107

4096x1

(200ns)

1.95

MM5280

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

TMS4050

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

UPD411

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

TMS4060

4096x1

(300ns)

1.95

MK4108

8192x1

(200ns)

.19

MM5298

8192x1

(250ns)

.19

| 4116-250

16384x1

(250ns |

.49

4116 200

16384x1

(200ns |

89

4116-150

16384x1

(150ns)

.89

4116-120

16384x1

(120ns)

1.49

2118

16384x1

(150ns)(5v>

1.95

MK4332

32768x1

(200ns)

6.95

4164200

65536x1

(200ns)(5v)

.79

4164-150

65536x1

(150ns)(5v)

89

4164-120

65536x1

(120ns)(5v)

1 95

MCM6665

65536x1

(200nsM5v)

1 95

TMS4164

65536x1

(150ns)(5v)

1 95

j 4164 REFRESH

65536x1

(150ns)(5VMREFRESH) 2 95 |

TMS4416

16384x4

H50ns)|5vi

4.95

41128 150

131072x1

(150ns)(5v)

5.95

| 41256-200

262144x1

(200ns»5v)

3.19

| 41256-150

262144x1

(150nsK5v|

3.29

iSv-Smgl* 5 Vott Suppty

REFRESH Pin 1 Refresh J

EPROMS

1702

256x8

due)

4.95

2708

1024x8

<450ns)

3.95

2758

1024x8

|450ns)(5V)

4.95

2716-6

2048x8

(650ns)

2.29

2716

2048x8

|450ns)|5V)

2.49

2716-1

2048x8

<3S0ns)(5V)

396

TMS2516

2048x8

<450ns)(5V)

3.95

TMS2716

2048x8

(450ns)

6.75

TMS2532

4096x8

|450ns)|5V)

3.95

2732

4096x8

|450ns)(5V)

2.49

2732A

4096x8

[250ns)|5V)(21VPGM

2.69

2732A-2

4096x8

l200ns)(5V)(21VPGM

4.95

27C64

8192x8

|250ns)(5V)(CMOS)

7.95

, 2764

8192x8

|450ns)(5V)

2.29

2764-200

8192x8

(200ns|(5V)

4 95

TMS2S64

8192x8

(450ns)(5V)

8.95

MCM68764

8192x8

(450ns)(5V)(24 pin)

16.95

MCM68766

8192x8

(350ns)|5V)(24 pin)

1795

27128

16384x8

(250ns)(5V)

3.49

27C256

32768x8

(250nsl(5V>(CMOSl

15.95

27256

32768x8

(250ns||5V)

9 95

I 5 V=Single 5 VoM Supply 21V PGM Program at 21

Volts J

• •••HIBH-TECH****'NECV2GVPD70108 $20»

REPLACES BO88 TO SPEED UP IBM PC 10-40%

HIGH SPEED ADDRESS CALCULATION IN

HARDWARE

PIN COMPATIBLE WITH 8088. SUPERSET OF 8086/8088 INSTRUCTION

SETi LOW POWER CMOS

• * • • SPOTLIBHT* • • *J

* COMPUTER MANAGED INVENTORY -VIRTUALLY NO BACK ORDERS!

* VERY COMPETITIVE PRICES

* FRIENDLY STAFF

* FAST SERVICE - MOST ORDERSSHIPPED WITHIN 24 HOURS!

* WE ACCEPT VISA AND MASTERCARD

280-CPU

1 79

280-CTC

185

780 DART

4 95

/SO DMA

4 95

280 PIO

1.85

Z80 SIO 0

4 95

/RO SIO 1

4 95

780 ■ SI0 2

4 95

780 SIO 9

4 95

4.0 MHZ

Z80A-CPU

1 89

Z80A-CTC

1 95

Z80A DART

5 95

Z80ADMA

5.95

Z80A-PIO

1 95

Z80ASIO 0

5.95

Z80A SIO 1

5.95

Z80ASIO 2

5.95

Z80ASIO 9

5.95

6500

1.0 MHZ

6502

2.79

65C02{or

am) 12.95

6504

6-95

6505

8.95

6507

9.95

6520

1.95

6522

4.95

6526

26.95

6532

6.95

6545

6 95

6551

595

6561

19.95

6581

34.95

2.0 MHZ !

6502A

2.95

6520A

2.95

6522A

595

6532A

11.95

6545A

7.95

6551A

6.95

3.0 MHZ

6502B

6.95 J

7808 CPU 4.95Z80B-CTC 8.95/BOB PIO 8.95780B DART 14 95780B SIO 012.95Z80B SIO 212.95

MM5369 1.95

MM5369 EST1.95MM58167 12.95MM58174 11.95I MSM5832 2.95 J

[ 6800

680O0 8

9.95

6800

1.95

6802

4.95

6803

9.95

6808

4.95

6809

5.95

| 6809E

5.95

6810

1 95

6820

2.95

6821

1.95

6828

1495

6840

6.95

6843

19.95

6844

12.95

6845

4.95

6847

11.95

6850

1.95

6852

4.95

6860

7.95

6875

6.95

6883

22.95

, 68047

12.95

68488

1495

6800

MHz

68B00

4.95

68B02

5.95

68B09E

7.95

68B09

7.95

68B10

3.95

68B21

4.95

68B40

14.95

68B45

8.95

68B50

395

68B54

7.95

I 68B0O

2 MHz

8200

8202

9.95

8203

34.95

8205

3.29

8212

1.49

8214

3.85

8216

1.49

8224

2.25

8226

1.69

8228

3.49

8237

4.95

82375

695

8238

4.49

8243

2.95

8250

6.95

8251

1.95

8251A

2.49

8253

1.95

8253-5

2.49

8255

1-95

8255-5

2.49

8257

2.49

82575

295

8259

249

8259-5

2.96

8271

49.95

8272

4.95

8274

4.95

8275

2695

8279

2.95

8279-5

3.49

8282

395

8283

395

8284

2 95

8286

395

8287

3.95

8288

495

8289

19 95

8292

12.95 J

8000

8031

9.95

8035

195

8039

2.95

8080

2.95

8085

2.95

8085A 2

495

8086

9.95

8087-2

139 95

8087

12995

8088

7.95

8088-2

9.95

8089

49.95

8155

2.95

8155-2

3.95

8156

2.95

8185

26.95

8741

995

8748

9.95

8749

1295

8755

19.95

80286

129.95

80287

229.95 J

UMTS

AV5-1013

395

AY3-1015

4.95

PT1472

1 95

TR1602

3.95

2350

495

2651

4.95

IM6402

695

IM6403

995

UPD7201

495

INS8250

695

CRYSTALS 1

32 768 KHi

95

1.0 MHi

2.95

1 8432

2.95

2.0

1.95

2.097152

1.95

2.4576

1.95

32788

1.9S

3579545

1.95

4.0

1.95

4032

1.95

SO

1.95

50688

1-95

5.185

1.95

5.7143

1.95

60

1.95

6.144

1.95

65536

1.95

8.0

1.95

10.0

1.95

10 738635

1.95

12.0

1.95

1431818

1.95

15.0

1.95

16.0

1.95

17.430

1.95

18.0

1.95

18432

1.95

200

1.95

22.1184

1.95

240

1.95

320

1.95 J

' BIT RATEGENERATORS

MCI 4411BR19414702COM5016COM8116.MM5307

9954.9599516.95895495

r CRT

CONTROLLERS

6845

4.95

68B45

8.95

6847

11.95

68047

12.95

HD46505SP

6.95

MC1372

2.95

8275

26.95

7220

19.95

CRT5027

12.95

CRT5037

9.95

TMS9918A

19.95

. DP8350

39.95

DISKCONTROLLERS

1771

1791

1793

1795

17971 2791

2793

2795

2797

6843

8272

UPD765

MB8876

MB8877

1691.2143

4.959.959.9612.9512.9519.9519-9529.9529.9519.954.954.9512.9512.956.956.95 ,

TMS99531

TMS99532

ULN2003

3242

3341

MC3470

MC3480

MC3487

11C90I 95H90

2513 001 UP

2513 002 LOW

AY5-2376

AY5-3600 STDI AY5 3600 PRO

995

19.95

.79

7.95

4.95

1.95

8.95

2.95

13.95

7.95

6-95

9.95

11.95

11.95

11.95 ,

CRYSTAL

OSCILLATORS

I.OMHi 5.95

80

4.95

18432 5.95

100

4.95

2.0 5.95

12.0

4.95

2.4576 5.95

12480

4.95

2.5 4 95

15.0

4.95

4.0 4.95

160

4.95

5 0688 4.95

18.432

4-95

6 0 4 95

20.0

4.95

6144 4.95

24.0

4.95 J

74LS00

74LS00

16

74LS191

49

74LS01

18

74LS192

69

74LS02

17

74LS193

.69

74LS03

18

74LS194

69

74LS04

16

74LS195

69

74L505

.18

74LS196

.59

74LS08

18

74LS197

59

. 74LS09

.18

741S221

59

74LS10

16

74LS240

69

74LS11

22

74LS241

69

74LS12

22

74LS242

69

74LSI 3

26

74LS243

69

74LS14

39

74LS244

.69

74LS15

26

74LS245

79

74LS20

17

74LS247

.75

74LS21

22

74L5248

69

74LS22

.22

74LS249

.99

74LS26

23

74LS251

.49

74LS27

23

74LS253

.49

74LS28

26

74LS256

1.79

74LS30

17

74LS257

39

74LS32

18

74LS258

49

74LS33

.28

74LS259

1.29

74LS37

26

74LS260

49

74LS38

26

74LS261

1.49

74LS40

-17

74LS266

39

74LS42

39

74LS273

.79

74LS47

59

74LS275

1.95

74LS48

69

74LS279

39

74LS49

69

74LS280

1.98

74LS51

17

74LS283

.59

74LS54

.22

74LS290

89

74LS55

22

74LS293

89

74LS63

89

74LS295

69

74LS73

29

74LS298

69

74LS74

24

74LS299

1 49

74LS75

29

74LS322

395

74LS76

.29

74LS323

2.49

74LS78

49

74LS324

1 75

74LS83

.49

74LS348

1.29

74LS85

.49

74LS352

1.29

74LS86

22

74LS353

1 29

74LS90

39

74LS363

1.35

74LS91

89

74LS364

1 95

74LS92

49

74CS365

39

74LS93

39

74LS366

39

74LS95

49

741S367

.39

74LS96

49

74LS368

39

74LS107

34

74LS373

79

74LS109

36

74LS374

.79

74LS112

29

74LS375

95

74LS113

34

74LS377

.79

74LS114

.34

74LS378

1.18

74LS122

45

74LS379

95

74LS123

49

74LS385

3.90

74LS124

275

74LS386

.45

74LS125

39

74LS390

119

74LS126

39

74LS393

.79

74LS132

39

74LS39S

1.19

74LS133

49

74LS396

1.89

74LS136

39

74LS399

1.49

74LS137

99

74LS424

3.95

1 74LS138

39

74LS447

.95

74LS139

39

74LS490

1.95

74LS145

-99

74LS540

1.49

74LS147

-99

74LS541

1.49

74LS148

99

74LS624

1.95

74LS151

39

74LS640

.99

74LS153

39

74LS645

99

74L5154

1 49

74LS668

1.49

74LS155

59

74LS669

1.29

74LSI56

49

74LS670

.89

74LS157

35

74LS674 14.95

74LS158

29

74LS682

3.20

74LS160

29

74LS683

3.20

74LS161

.39

74LS684

3.20

74IS162

49

74LS685

3.20

74LS163

39

74LS688

2.40

74LS164

49

74LS689

3.20

74LS165

.65

74LS783 22.95

ML SI 66

95

81LS95

1.49

74LSI 68

95

81LS96

1 49

74LS169

95

81LS97

1 49

74LS170

85

81LS98

1.49

74LS173

49

25LS2518 4.13

74LS174

39

25LS2521 2.80

74LS175

39

25LS2538 3.74

74LS181

1.49

25LS2569 2.80

74LSI 89

4.95

26LS31

1.95

. 74LS190

49

26LS32

1.95

*!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 CUS TOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Mlnirlof UPS Grotorders may require isates department tor I

the right to Ithandise subject to

ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUARANTEED

©COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES. INC. THE JDR MICRODEVICES LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES JDR MICRODEVICES ANDJDR INSTRUMENTS ARE TRADEMARKS OF JDR MICRODEVICES. IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES

APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER

478 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 20I

order toll free 800-538-5000 800-662-6279 <ca>

7400

7400

19

74(3

50

74172

5.95

7401

19

7485

59

74173

.75

7402

19

74M

35

74174

89

7403

19

7489

215

74175

89

7404

19

7490

39

7417*

.89

7406

25

7491

40

74177

.75

7406

29

7492

50

74178

1.15

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

2-75

74184

2.00

7412

30

74100

229

74185

2.00

7413

35

74105

1.14

74189

2.99

7414

49

74107

30

74190

1.15

7416

25

74109

45

74191

1.15

7417

25

74110

45

74192

.79

7420

19

74111

55

74193

.79

7421

35

74116

1 55

74154

.85

7422

.35

74120

1.20

74195

86

7423

29

74121

29

74196

.79

7425

29

74122

45

74197

.75

7426

.29

74123

49

74198

1.95

7427

29

74125

45

74199

1.35

7428

45

74126

45

74221

1-35

7430

.19

74128

.55

74246

135

7432

29

74132

.46

74247

135

7433

45

74136

SO

74248

1 85

7437

29

74141

65

74249

1.95

7438

29

74142

2.95

74251

.75

7439

79

74143

5.95

74259

235

7440

19

74144

2.95

74266

1.35

7442

49

7414S

60

74273

1.95

7443

65

74147

2.49

74276

135

7444

69

74148

1 20

74278

3.11

7445

69

74150

1 35

74279

.75

7446

89

74151

55

74283

2.00

7447

.89

74152

.65

74284

3.75

7448

.89

74153

55

74285

3.75

7450

19

74154

1 49

74290

.95

7451

23

74165

.75

74293

1 29

7453

23

74156

.65

74298

.85

7454

23

74157

55

74351

2.25

7460

23

74159

1 65

74365

.65

7470

35

74160

85

74366

.65

7472

29

74161

69

74367

.65

7473

34

74162

85

74368

.66

7474

33

74163

69

74376

2.20

7475

45

74164

85

74390

1.75

7476

35

74165

.85

74393

1 35

7480

59

74166

1 00

74425

3.15

7481

1.10

74167

3.75

74426

85

7482

.95

74170

1.65

74490

2.55 J

74SO0

74S00

29

74S134

.50

745241

1.49

74S02

.29

74S135

89

745244

1.49

74503

29

74S138

79

74S251

79

74S04

29

74S139

79

74S253

79

74S05

29

74S140

55

745257

.79

74S08

35

74S151

79

745258

95

74S09

40

74S153

79

745260

79

74510

29

748157

79

74S273

2.39

74511

35

745158

95

74X274

19.95

74515

35

745161

139

745275

19.95

74520

29

74S162

1 95

745250

1.95

74S22

35

74S163

1 29

74S283

339

74530

29

748165

395

74S287

1.55

74532

35

74S169

395

74S288

1.69

74S37

69

74S174

79

745289

2.95

74538

69

745175

.79

745299

2.95

74540

29

74S180

11.95

74S301

6.95

74S51

35

745181

3.95

745373

1.59

74S64

40

745182

295

74S374

169

74S65

40

74S1S8

1 95

74S381

735

74574

49

74S189

1 95

745387

1.55

74585

95

74S194

1 49

74S399

2.95

74S86

35

74S195

1.49

745412

2.98

745112

.50

74S196

1 49

74S470

6.95

745113

50

74S197

1 49

74S471

4.95

745114

.55

74S201

695

74S472

4.95

74S124

2.75

745226

795

74S474

4.95

74S132

134

74S226

3.99

745570

2.95

74S133

45

745240

1.49

745571745573

2.952.95

CMOS

4000

35

4528

79

4001

19

4529

299

4002

22

4531

95

4005

69

4532

1.95

4007

22

4538

.96

4008

89

4539

1.96

4009

39

4541

1.29

4010

39

4543

99

4011

.19

4553

5.79

4012

25

4555

.95

4013

.35

4556

.95

4014

69

4558

2.46

4015

29

4560

4.25

4016

29

4569

3.49

4017

49

4581

1.95

4018

69

4582

1.95

4019

35

4584

69

4020

59

4585

.75

4021

.59

45151

12 95

4022

69

4702

12.95

4023

35

4724

1.50

4024

49

74C00

29

4025

25

74C02

29 1

4026

1 49

74C04

29 1

4027

39

74C08

39 1

4028

65

74C10

39 1

4029

69

74C14

.59 1

4030

39

74C20

29 1

4034

1 45

74C30

29 1

4035

69

74C32

.35 1

4040

69

74C42

1 19 1

4041

75

74C48

1 79 1

4042

59

74C73

.65 1

4043

85

74C74

.59 1

4044

69

74C76

SO 1

4045

1 98

74C83

1.95 1

4046

69

74C85

1.49 1

4047

69

74C86

35 1

4048

69

74C89

4.50 I

4049

29

74C90

1.19

4050

39

74C93

1 19 1

4051

.69

74C95

.99 1

4052

69

74C150

5.75 1

4053

.69

74C151

235 1

4056

2.19

74C154

336 1

4060

.69

74C157

1.75 1

4066

29

74C160

1 19 1

4068

39

74C161

99 1

4069

19

74C162

1.19 1

4070

29

74C163

99 1

4071

32

74C164

1 39 1

4072

22

74C165

2.00 1

4073

22

74C173

.79 1

4075

25

74C174

.99 1

4076

.59

74C175

.99 1

4077

29

74C192

1.49 1

4078

29

74C193

1.4* 1

4081

22

74C195

1.39 1

4082

22

74C200

5.75 1

4085

79

74C221

1.75 1

4086

89

74C240

1.89 1

4093

.49

74C244

1.89 1

4094

2.49

74C373

1.99 1

4098

1.49

74C374

1.95 1

4099

1.45

74C901

.39 1

14409

12.95

74C902

85 1

14410

6.95

74C903

85 1

14411

995

74C90S 10.96 1

14412

6.55

74C905

79 1

14419

455

74C907

.79 1

14433

14.95

74CS05

2.00 1

14490

4.95

74C909

2.75 1

4502

95

74C910

9.95 1

4503

.49

74C911

8.95 1

4507

.99

74C912

8.95 1

4508

1.49

74C914

155 1

4S10

69

74C915

1.1* 1

4511

69

74C917

8.95 1

4512

79

74C918

2.75 1

4514

99

74C922

4.49 1

4515

1.79

74C923

4 95 1

4516

79

74C92S

5.95 1

4518

85

74C926

7.95 1

4519

79

74C927

7.95 1

4520

.79

74C925

7.95 1

4621

499

80C95

.86 1

4522

79

80C96

.96 1

4626

79

50C97

.95 1

4527

1.95

80C98

1.20 I

| HIBH SPEED CMOS

A — t*5j*J Bl high B155i CMOS logic lMan*3J

the speed o* low poorer Schonky 18ns Typical B**J prop

asA«>ond<ejyl

6efeeee7ewe*Ji

rheadvarrregesotCMOS

1 very tow power constimpl'on

supanor noen enmundy.

1 end snuiuved output drive

74HCO0

74HC: Operate el CMOS log. -

ere ideal

for new. al-CMOS designs

74HC00

.59

74HC166

2.95

74HC02

59

74HC174

99

74HC04

5*

74MC175

.99

74HC0S

5*

74HC193

135

74HC10

59

74HC194

1.04

74HC11

59

74HC19S

1.09

74MC14

79

74HC238

135

74 HC20

59

74HC240

1 89

74 H C27

.59

74HC241

1.89

74MC30

.5*

74HC242

159

74HC32

59

74HC243

139

74HC51

59

74HC244

1 89

74HC74

75

74HC245

1.89

74HC75

85

74HC251

59

74HC5S

35

74HC257

35

74HC8*

69

74HC2S9

139

74HC93

1.19

74HC273

1 89

74HC107

79

74HC259

45*

74HC109

79

74HC367

59

74HC112

.79

74HC368

39

74HC12S

1 19

74HC373

239

74HC132

1 19

74HC374

239

74HC133

69

74HC390

139

74HC138

99

74HC3S3

139

74HC13*

99

74HC4017

1.99

74HC148

1.19

74HC4020

1.39

74HC1S1

89

74HC4024

1.59

74HC153

89

74HC4040

139

74HC154

2.49

74HC4049

89

74HC157

39

74HC40S0

39

74HC158

M

74HC4O60

139

74HC161

1.15

74HC4075

3*

74HC163

1.15

74HC4511

23*

74HC164

135

74HC453S

23*

74HCT00

74HCT: Deed, dropet reptaceiiraiits Im LS TTL and

can be aiaensjeml vwrrh 74LS

rfl tteS SeHTeP? CeTCliWl

74HCT00

.69

74HCT193

139

74HCT02

59

74HCT194

1.1*

74MCT04

69

74HCT19S

139

74HCTOS

39

74HCT23*

13*

74HCT10

69

74HCT240

2.19

74HCT11

59

74HCT241

2 19

74HCT20

69

74HCT242

219

74HCT27

69

74HCT243

219

74HCT30

69

74HCT244

2.1*

74HCT32

79

74HCT245

219

74HCT74

85

74HCT2S1

139

74HCT75

95

74HCT257

.99

74HCTSS

79

74HCT2S9

139

74HCT138

1.15

74HCT273

2.09

74MCT139

1.16

74HCT299

535

74HCT151

1.05

74HCT357

1.09

74MCT154

2.99

74HCI373

239

74HCT157

3*

74HCT374

239

74HCT158

.99

74HCT393

139

74HCT161

139

74HCT4017

2.19

74HCT164

1.39

74HCT4020

139

74HCT1S5

3 05

74HCT4040

139

74HCT174

IM

74HCT4060

13*

74HCT175

1.09

74HCT453S

239

INTERFACE '

8T26

139

8T28

1.29

STSS

89

8T96

.89

8T97

39

8T98

89

DM8131

2 95

DP8304

229

OSS833

235

D5SS35

1.99

DS8836

59

DS3S37

135

DSS838

130 1

INTERSIL

ICL7106 935

ICL7107 1235

ICL75S0 2.55

3038 435

I ICM7207A 559

ICM7208 15.95

EXRR

0PT0-IS0U.T0RS

4N26

69

MCA 7 435

4N27

69

MCA 255 1.69

4N2S

69

111 135

4N33

89

ILA-30 135

4N35

89

IL0.-74 335

4N37

1.19

H11C5 135

MCT-2

.59

Til 111 .99

MCT-6

139

Til 113 13*1

' DATA ACQUISTION

ADC0500 15.55

DAC08O6

1.95

ADC0804 3.49

DAC0808

2.95

ADC0809 4.49

OAC1020

635

AOC0516 1435

DAC1021

7.95

ADC0817 935

DAC1022

5.95

AOC0831 835

MC1408L6

1.95

DAC0800 4.49

MC1406I3

2.95

r 9000 SERIES

9304

.95

9316

1.00

9328

1.49

9334

2.50

9368

3.95

9401

9.95

9601

.75

9602

1.50

9637

2.95

L96S02

1.95

XB2206 3.75

XR2207 23*

20* 1.79

XR2211 235

. XR2240 1*5.

SOUND CHIPS

76477 3 95 AY3-S910 12.95

I 76489 535 AY3-8912 1235

SSI 263 39.95 MC3340 1-49SPIOOO 39.00 J

DIFFUSED LEDS

JUMBO RED TV-

JUMBO GREEN TV,JUMBO YELLOW TV.MOUNTING HDWIV.MINI RED T1

MINI GREEN T1

J MINI YELLOW TlRECT RED 2x5mm

RECT GREEN 2xSmmRECT YELLOW 2xSmm

a

LED DISPLAYS

FNO-357I3S9I CC 362" 135

FNO50O(503> CC 5" 135

IND 5071510) CC .6" 1.49

MAN 72 CA .3" .99

MAN 74 CC .3" .99

MAN 8940 CC 5" 139

Til 313 CC 3" .45

HP5082-7760 CC .43" 139

HEX DISPLAYS WITH LOGIC

TIL 311 4«7 370" 9.95

HP5082-7340 4»7 390- 7.95

m

lRJ

Mill,

III I

tiUU

RECT TV/. Tl

' IC SOCKETS

1-99 100

8 PIN ST

.11 .10

14 PIN ST

.11 .09

16 PIN ST

.12 .10

18 PIN ST

.15 .13

20 PIN ST

.18 15

22 PIN ST

.15 .12

24 PIN ST

.20 .15

28 PIN ST

32 .16

40 PIN ST

30 32

64 PIN ST

1.95 1 49

ST SOlOtflTAIL

8 PIN WW

.59 .49

14 PIN WW

.69 .52

16 PIN WW

69 .58

18 PIN WW

.99 50

20 PIN WW 1.09 .98

22 PIN WW 1.39 1.28

24 PIN WW 1.49 1 35

25 PIN WW 1.69 1 49

40 PIN WW 1.99 1.80

L WW W1REWRAP

TIAMSISTORS

2N91S

SO

2N3772

135 1

MPS91*

35

2N3903

35 1

2N2102

75

2N3904

10

2N2216

50

2N390*

10

2N2218A

SO

2N41Z2

95

2N2219

50

2N4123

.25

2N2219A

50

2N4249

25

2N2222

25

2N4304

.75

PN2322

10

2N4401

.25

MPS23S9

35

2N4402

.25

2N2454

35

2N4403

25

2N290S

30

2N4857

1.00

2N2907

35

PN4916

35

PN2907

13

2N50S6

25

2N3055

79

PN5129

35

3055T

69

PN513*

-25

2N3393

JO

2NS209

35

2N3414

35

2816023

35

2N3S53

.40

2N6043

1.75

2N3565

40

2N6045

1.75

PN366S

25

MPS A05

25

MP5363S

25

UPS A06

35

MPS3640

25

MPS A13

.40

PN3643

-25

MPS A55

35

PN3644

-25

MPU 131

99

MPS3704

15

TIP29

65

MPS3706

.15

TIP31

49

TIP32

.49

V0LTA8E REOULATORS

TO 220 CASE PACKAGE

7S05T .4* 7905T .59

8T 49 790ST 59

1 7812T 49 7912T 3*

7815T .4* 7»15T 59

I 7S24T 49 7924T 59

TO-3 CASE PACKAGEI 7S05K 1.39 7905K 1.49

7512K 1.39 7912K 1.49

7S15K 1.39 7915K 1.49

[ 7S24K 139 7924K 139

TO 92 CASE PACKAGE78L05 .49 79135 .69

78L12 .49 79L12 3*

78115 .49 79L1S 59

OTHER VOLTAGE REGS

M05C SvoH '/ramp TO 220 39

LM323K SwoH 3amp TO 3 4.7*

LM338K Adj. Samp TO 3 3.55

I05K 5vo*t Sssnp TO 3 735

78H12K 12ve*t5emp TO 3 8.95

75P05K 5vort lOemp TO 3 1435

. UA78S40 FAIRCHILO DIP 1.95.

LIREAR

UM301

.34

NE570

2.95

LM301H

79

NE671

2.49

LM307

40

NE590

2 SO

LM308

65

NES92

.98

LM308H

1.15

LM709

.59

U8309H

1 95

LM710

.75

LM309K

1 26

LM711

.79

LM310

1.75

LM723

,49

UH311

59

LM723M

55

LM311H

89

LM733

98

LM312H

1 75

LM741

39

U8317K

349

LM741N 14 .35 |

LM317T

95

LM741H

40

U431S

1 49

UW747

.69

LM318H

1 59

LM748

59

LM319M

1 90

LM1014

1.19

13831*

135

I3J1303

1.96

IseeTn mm

.79O0

LM1310

1.49

131322

135

MCI 330

1.69

IM323K

479

MCI 349

139

131324

.49

MCI 350

1.19

13*5*4

65

MC13S5

1.69

LM331

395

MC1372

6.95

laTaseal

1 19

IM1414

1.59

una

1 40

IM1458

-4*

um

1 75

LM148S

.49

133*371

1 89

LM1489

49

LM337K

395

LM1496

85

IM338K

395

LM1558H

3.10

|3J*33

.59

IMISOO

2.37

LM340 s»

•7500

LM1812

8.25

lee*H

35

UH1B30

3.50

LM3SOK

495

IM1871

5.49

LM350T

4.60

LM1872

5.49

larysa

59

LM1877

3-52

LM359

1 79

LM1889

1-95

LM376

375

1M1896

1.75

LM377

1 95

ULN2003

.7*

U53T7S

2-50

XRZ20S

3.75

13137*

450

13*2*77

2.05

IM380

89

131737*

235

LM380N 8

1.10

LM2900

55

LM381

130

LM2901

1.00

leeeett

1 49

MPO3907

1.95

LM383

1 95

LM2917

135

iaeeeH

135

MC3407

2.95

13J3M

89

LM3900

49

1313*7

1 39

IM3905

135

MJfe*J

1 35

LM3909

.98

UH390

1 95

LM3911

235

UH392

59

LM3914

2.39

U8393

45

LM3915

239

IM394H

460

LM3916

2.39

LM399M

500

MC4024

3.49

NE531

1 79

MC401I

3.99

NE555

29

RC4136

135

NES55

.49

RC4151

3.9S

NE35S

1 29

LM42S0

1.75

NE364

1 95

LM4500

335

ueSSS

95

RC4558

.69

I3SSC*

1 49

LM13600

1.49

UWS67

.7*

UX1370O

1.46

H TO 5 CAN. K TO 3. T TO 220 1

RCA

CA3023

2.75

CA30S3

.99

CA3C39

139

CA3086

30

CA3045

89

CA3039

1.95

CA3059

290

CA3096

1.69

CA3060

230

CA3130E

-9*

CA3086

13*

CA3140E

.79

CA3O80

89

CA3146

139

CA3061

99

CA31S0

1.19

CA30S2

99

CA31S3

.99

Tl

TL494

430

75365

1.95

TL496

135

75450

.59

TL497

325

75451

39

75107

139

75452

39

75106

139

75453

39

75110

1.96

75454

■*»

75150

1.95

75477

1 29

75154

1 95

75491

.79

75160

4*5

75492

79

75188

135

7S493

89

751*9

135

75494

89

BIFET

TL066

3*

LF347

2.19

TI371

69

LT351

59

TL072

1 09

LF353

59

TL074

135

Lf355

.99

TL081

55

LF3S*

.99

TUNC

39

LF357

-9*

TUM3

1.19

LF411

139

1TUM4

13*

LF412

139 1

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES

£ COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry 201

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 479

#JDR Microdevices

1224 South Bascom Avenue,San Jose, CA 95128 (408) 995-5430

DIODES

1N751 5 1VOLTZENER .25

1N759 120 VOLT ZENER 2b

1N4148 <1N914)SW1TCHING 25/1.00

1N4001 50P1V1ARECT 12/1.00

1N40O4 400PIVRECT 10/1.00

1N5402 20OPIV 3A RECT ?S

, KBP02 20OP1V 1 5A BRIDGE .45

i KBP04 40OPIV 1 5A BRIDGE .55

KBUSA 50PIV HA BRIDGE .95

MDA990-2 100PIV27A BRIDGE 2.25

| VM46 r-, DIP BRIDGE .35

ft %\ »

■•■:;:^) || TI vm-48

KBP KBUMOA990 2

TRANSISTOR MT6. HDW.

ELECTRONIC SOLDER

• .025" 01 AM.

* ROSIN CORE

* 60% TIN40% LEAD

• 1 lb. SPOOL

$9.95

DIP SWITCHES

4POS

5 I'OSI 6POS

85

90.90

7POS8POS10POS

95

95

1.29

25 PIN D SUB

BENDER

CHANGERS

$7.95

SHIELDED ROUND CABLE

.11 CONDUCTOR• COLOR CODED

SWITCHES

HEAT SINKHEAT SINKHEAT SINKINSULATOR TO 220I INSULATOR TO 3SOCKET

TO 220 SCREW ONTO-220 CUP ON J

TO-3 SCREW ON J

10/1.00 !

10/1.00TO 3 .39

SPOT MINI TOGGLE ON ON

I TOGGLE ON ON 150

I TOGGLE ON-OFF ON 1.75

I SPST MINI PUSHBUTTON NO. .39

SPST MINI-PUSHBUTTON N.C. .39

SPST TOGGLE ON-OFF

BCD OUT 10 POSITION 6 PIN DIP

99C/FOOT

D SUB ACCESSORIES

STAINLESS STEEL . y

WALL PLATE

BYPASS CAPACITORSPECIALS

CERAMIC DISC

01 lit 50 VOLTS 100/S5.00.1 ,4 12 VOLTS 100 S6S0

MONOLITHIC.01,4 50 VOLTS 100/S10.0050 VOLTS 100/*12.50 A

MOLDED RF CHOKES

] SINGLEDOUBLE

SI. 95S1.95

(_

SCREW ON

HARD TO FINDSNAPABLE" HEADERS

CAN EASILY BE SNAPPED APART TO

MAKE ANY SIZE HEADER.

ALL WITH .1" CENTERS

1 «40 STRAIGHT LEAD 39

1 x40 RIGHT ANGLE 1.49

I 2x40 STRAIGHT LEAD 2.49

2x40 RIGHT ANGLE 2.99

SHORTING BLOCKS

I GOLD CONTACTS SPACED AT .1"CENTERS IDEAL FOR DISK DRIVES.OR ANY V HEADER ffJP~~~l

5/$1.00 i -

36 PIN CENTRONICS

| IDCEN36IDCEN36 F

I CEN36CEN36PC

RIBBON CABLE MALE 6.95RIBBON CABLE FEMALE 7.95SOLDER CUP MALE 4.95

RT ANGLE PC MNT MALE 4.95

MOUNTING HARDWARE

INCLUDES2 BOLTS,2 NUTS.j 4 WASHERS$1.00 PAIR

CRIMP STYLED-SUB CONNECTORS

9 PIN MALE SHELL

9 PIN FEMALE SHELL

25 PIN MALE SHELL

25 PIN FEMALE SHELL

CRIMP PINS MALE

CRIMP PINS FEMALE

WALE FEMALE

CRIMP PINS

EMI FILTER

• MAJOR MANUFACTURER

• LOW COST &&i;> FITS OUR LINE * 3

CORD LC HP

$4.95

TRANSFORMERS

FRAME STYLE

12.6V AC CT12.6V AC CT12.6V AC CT25.2V AC CT

2 AMP

4 AMP

8 AMP

2 AMP

9VDC12V DC, 12V AC12V AC12V AC12V AC

PLUG CASE STYLE

350ma380m«

250ma500m*

1 AMP

2 AMP

DIPCf

INNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

S

14

16

16

20

22

24

28

40

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLEDSTIC SOCKETS

AUGATxxST

.62

.79

89

1.09

1.29

1.39

1.49

1.69

2.49

HIGH REUABIUTY TOOLEDWW IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxWW

1.30

1 80

2.10

2.40

2.50

2.90 3.15

3.70

5.40

COMPONENT CARRIES(DIP HEADERS!

ICCx.

AS

.59

69

.99

99

.99

.99

1.09

1 49

RIBBON CABLEDIP PLUGS (IDC)

IDPxx

~

.95

.95

...

~

-

1.75

295

«L^

•:.«■*■:*.>*..«:-:;>.«» <§

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE DSUBMINIATURE BELOW

Vm iiiniir

AUGAT24ST

^■■M FRAME STYLE

PLUG STYLE

RIBBON CABLE

CONTACTS

SINGLE COLOR

COLOR CODED

V

10'

V

10'

10

18

1.60

.30

275

16

28

2.50

48

4.40

20

.36

3.20

, 60

5 50

25

.45

400

.75

6.85

26

.46

4 10

.78

7.15

34

.61

5.40

1.07

9.35

40

72

6.40

,1-20

11.00

50

89

7.50

1.50

13.25

D-SOBMINIATI

IRE

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

9

15

25

37

50

SOLDER CUP

MALI!

DBxxP

82

90

1 1-25

1.80

348

FEMALE

DB..S

.95

1.15

1 50

2.35

432

RIGHT ANGLEPC SOLDER

MALE

DBxxPR

120

1.49

1.95

2 65

FEMALE

DB..SR

125

1.55

2.00

279

WIRE WRAP

MALE

DBxxPWW

1.69

256

389

5 60

FEMALE

DBxxSWW

2.76

4.27

684

995

IDCRIBBON CABLE

MALE

IDBxxP

2-70

295

3.98

570

FEMALE

IDBxxS

2.92

3.20

4.33

6 76

HOODS

METAL

MHOODxx

125

125

1.30

—

—

GREY

HOODxx

65

.65

65

.75

.95

L—

TEXTOOL ZERO INSERTION FORCE

SOCKETS AND RECEPTACLES

3@

a

UIHIIIII

ZIF SOCKET

ZIF RECEPTACLE

ORDERING INSTRUC TIONS: INSERT THE NUMBER OF CONTAC TS IN THE POSITIONI MARKED -xx'OF THE 'ORDER BY~ PART NUMBER LISTED.I EXAMPLE A 15 PIN RIGHT ANGLE MALE PC SOLDER WOULD BE DB15PR

*+x.x,.;,+^+^W-£4l>i'£>t-*

TYPE

CONTACTS

14

16

24 | 28

40

ZIF SOCKET

4.95

4.95

5.95

6.95

9.95

l/IF RECEPTACLE^

8.25

8.75

9.75

10.50

12.75

IDC I

iONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

10

20

26

34

40

50

SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxS

-82

1-29

1.68

220

2.58

3.24

RIGHT ANGLE SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxSR

-85

1.35

1.76

231

2.72

3.39

WW HEADER

IDHxxW

1 86

298

3.84

4.50

5.28

6.63

RIGHT ANGLE WW HEADER

IDHxxWR

2.05

3 28

4 22

4.45

4.80

7.30

RIBBON HEADER SOCKET

IDSxx

.79

99

1.39

1.59

1.99

2.25

RIBBON HEADER

IDMxx

—

5.50

6.25

7.00

7.50

850

RIBBON EDGE CARD

IDExx

1.75

2.25

265

2.75

380

395

■ gB8fM '

IDS34

ED6ECARD CONNECTORS

"""■"'

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE DSUBMINIATURE ABOVE

100 PIN SOLDERTAIL100 PIN WIREWRAP72 PIN SOLDERTAIL72 PIN WIREWRAP62 PIN SOLDERTAIL50 PIN SOLDERTAIL44 PIN SOLDERTAILPIN WIREWRAP

S-100S 100STDSTDIBM PCAPPLESTDSTD

ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUARANTEED

©COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

480 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 202

order toll free 800-538-5000 800-662-6279 <ca>

CAPACITORS

SILVER MICA

ELECTROLYTIC

±5% TOLERANCE

RADIAL

AXIAL

10|)l

100V

.35

lOOpf

100V

.40

.47frf

50V

.14

47;/l

SOV

.14

12

100V

39

120

100 V

.40

1

SOV

14

1

SOV

.14

22

100V

39

180

100 V

.40

2.2

35V

15

4.7

16V

.14

27

100V

.39

220

100V

50

4.7

SOV

15

10

16V

14

30

100V

.39

330

100V

50

10

SOV

15

10

50V

16

33

100V

39

470

100V

60

47

3SV

18

22

16V

14

39

100V

.39

510

100V

60

100

16V

18

47

50V

20

47

100V

39

560

100V

60

100

SOV

23

100

15V

20

56

100V

39

620

100 V

60

220

35V

20

100

35V

25

65

10OV

.35

680

100V

.75

470

16V

25

220

25V

30

68

100V

.35

820

100V

75

470

2SV

.30

470

SOV

50

82

100V

35

1000

100V

75

1000

16V

60

1000

16V

60

3SV

75

MUN LITH

4700

25V

1 45

2200

16V

70

.01</l

50V

.14

•1«<

SOV

18

4700

16V

1 25

.04

SOV

15

.47

SOV

25

COIYIPU

T.WTAI 1 IN!

32.000//1 2

295

44.00Quf 30V

395

.22|/f.27

35V

3SV

40

40

3.3,/f4.7

35V10V

65.55

CERAMIC DISC

33

35V

40

4.7

25V

65

lOpf

50V

OS

560pf

50V

05

.47

35V

45

47

35V

85

22

50V

05

680

50V

05

68

35V

45

6.8

15V

.70

27

50V

05

820

50V

05

10

15V

35

6.8

25V

75

33

SOV

05

OOluf

50V

05

ID

20V

38

10

10V

65

47

SOV

05

.0015

50 V

05

10

25V

40

10

15V

80

56

50V

05

0022

50V

05

1.0

35V

45

10

20V

85

68

50V

OS

005

50V

.05

2.2

15V

40

10

25V

90

82

50V

05

01

50V

07

2.2

20V

45

10

35V

1 00

100

50V

05

02

50V

07

22

35V

65

22

10V

1 00

220

50V

05

05

50V

.07

2.7

35V

65

22

15V

1 35

330

50V

05

.1

12V

.10

3 3

15V

.50

27

15V

2.25

470

SOV

.05

.1

SOV

12

RESISTOR NETWORKS

SIPs

10 PIN 9 RESISTOR .1-24 25 UP I I

.89 .45 "■'

8 PIN 7 RESISTOR1 24 25 UP

59

DIPs

14 PIN 7 RESISTOR1-24 25 UP

99

73

16 PIN 8 RESISTOR1-24 25 UP

109 .82

14 PIN 13 RESISTOR

\\ 1 1

f ;

PAGE WIRE WRAP WIRE

PRECUT AND STRIPPED

I Note 1 inch of insulation is stripped oneach and. 3.5" wire has only 1-5 inch* ofinsulation.

LENGTH

QUANTITY

(INCHES)

100 5O0

25

1.60 4.70

3.0

1.60 4.70

3 5

1.65 5.00

40

1.75 5.40

4 5

1.80 5.75

50

1.85 6.10

55

1.90 6.50

60

2.00 6.85

65

2.30 7.80

70

2.40 8.20

80

2.60 8.95

90

2.70 9.80

10.0

2.90 10.50

RESISTORS

M WATT 5% CARBON FILM

ALL STANDARD VALUES

FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG. OHM

10 PIECES SAME VALUE

SO PIECES SAME VALUE

100 PIECES SAME VALUE

11000 PIECES SAME VALUE

16 PIN 15 RESISTOR1-24 25 UP

1.09 .85

AVAILABLE VALUES: 100. 220, 330. 470.680. IK. 2.2K. 3.3K. 4.7K. 6.8K. 10K, 22K.33K. 47K. 100K

16 PIN 14 LINE TERMINATOR

AVAILABLE IN ONLY1801390. 220/270. 2201330

TRIMMER POTENTIOMETERS1SINGLE TURNS ,72PRxx

1-24 25 UP

99 85

15 TURN [89 PR xx

1-24 25 UP

w

SINGLE TURN91ARxx

88

AVAILABLE VALUES: 100. 500. IK. SK.I0K. 20K. 50K. 100K. I MEGORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: INSERTRESISTANCE VALUE IN PLACE OF -jr»"EXAMPLE A 500 OHM 89 SERIES PO TENIIOMETER WOULD BE 89PR500

THUMBWHEEL POTSTHUMBxx

49

.45

1-24

, UP

m

■

AVAILABLE VALUES: IK, 2.5K. SK, 10K.25K. 50K. 100K. 250K, 500KORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: SEE TRIMMERI POTENTIOMETERS ABOVE

IC EXTRACTION TOOL

| ONE PIECE METAL CONSTRUCTIONEXTRACTS 8-24 PIN DEVICES

MUFFIN FANS

[MADE BY

JDR «

SIZE

CFM

VOLTS

PRICE

MASUSHITA

MUFFIN-DC

3.1l"ia«1.2S"

16

12VDC

♦ 16.95

ROTRON

MUFFIN.ROTRON

3.15' so x 1 66"

34

115AC

414.95

lira

MUFFIN 3

3.63 .<l»1.0O"

32

115 AC

S12.9S

ETUI

MUFFIN-4

4.70"»<l » 1 52"

55

11SAC

S1495

I TORIN

MUFFIN 230 4 70 w x 1 50

60

230 AC

54 95

$1.49

PRECUT ASSORTMENTIN ASSORTED COLORS 827.50

tOOu 5.5". 6.0". 6.5". 7.0"250« 2-5". 4.5". S.O"500m: 3.0". 3.5". 4.0"

SPOOLS

100 tot 44.30500 I.M 413.25

Please specify color:Blue, Black, Yellow or Red

TWO LEVEL WIRE WRAP SOCKETS

I THESE SOCKETS HAVE .SO" LEADS. JUST A LITTLE BIT SHORTERTHAN THE 3 LEVEL WIRE WRAP SOCKETS WITH .6" LEADS

1-99

100-UP

8 PIN WW 2

.40

.35

14 PIN WW 2

45

.39

16 PIN WW 2

45

.39

20 PIN WW 2

75

59

22 PIN WW 2

50

39

24 PIN WW 2

.69

75

28 PIN WW 2

89

75

WIRE WRAP PROTOTYPE CARDS

FR-4 EPOXV GLASS LAMINATEWITH GOLD-PLATED EDGE-CARD FINGERS

IBM

BOTH CARDS HAVE SILK SCREENED LEGENDS

AND INCLUDES MOUNTING BPACKET

I IBM PP.1 WITH -5V AND GROUND PLANE .... 527.95

I IBM PR2 AS ABOVE WITH DECODING LAYOUT S29.9S

S-100

I P100-1 BARE ■ NO FOIL PADS »15.15

P10O-2 HORIZONTAL BUS 921.80

I PI 00 3 VERTICAL BUS 521.80

PI00 4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE S22 75

APPLE

P500 1 BARE NO FOIL PADS 815.15

I P5O0-3 HORIZONTAL BUS 522.75

P500 4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE 521 80

7060-45 FOR APPLE lie AUX SLOT 530.00

GENERAL PURPOSE

22/44 PIN EDGE-CARD (.156~ SPACING)

P441 -1 4.5" x 6.0" BARE NO FOIL PADS *9.45

P441 3 4.5" «6.0' VERTICAL BUS *13.95

P441-4 4.5" x 6.0" SINGLE FOIL PADS 414.20

P442-1 4.5" x 9.0" BARE • NO FOIL PADS .... 410.40

| P442-3 4.5" x 9.0" VERTICAL BUS 414.20

{ P442-4 4.5" x 9.0" SINGLE FOIL PADS 413.50

36/72 PIN EDGE-CARD ( 1" SPACING)

I P721-1 4.5" x 6.0" BARE - NO FOIL PADS 49.45

P721-3 4.5" x 6.0" VERTICAL BUS 513.25

P721-4 4.5" > 6.0" SINGLE FOIL PADS 514.20

P722-1 4.5" x 9.0" BARE - NO FOIL PADS .... 510.40

P722-3 4.5" x 9.0" VERTICAL BUS 514.20

| P722-4 4.5" x 9.0" SINGLE FOIL PADS 515.15

NO EDGE-CARD FtNGERS

{ P25x45 2.5" x 4.5" BARE - NO FOIL PADS 52.40

P45.65 4.5" x 6.5" BARE - NO FOIL PADS 54.70

1 P45x85 4.5" x 8.5" BARE ■ NO FOIL PADS 56.20

| P45»17 4.5" x 17.0" BARE - NO FOIL PADS . . . s 11.35.170 8 5 x 17.0" BARE - NO FOIL PADS . . . 518.95

■g>r»M<~~t

OK INDUSTRIES

EX-2 IC EXTRACTION TOOL

• EXTRACTS 24-40 PIN DEVICES

• HEAVY DUTY METAL CONSTRUCTION

■ GROUND LUGS FOR MOS EXTRACTIONS

• EASY ONE HAND OPERATION 512.74

IC INSERTION TOOLS

INS 1416 for 14-16 pin IC* 55.15

MOS 1416 for 14-16 pin NTs 410.92MOS 2428 for 24-28 pin IC* 510.92MOS 40 for 40 pin IC * 512.43

MOS series insertion tools have metal constuctionand incluoe grounding lug tor CMOS applications

BW-630 WIRE WRAP GUN

■ BATTERY POWERED-USES 2 NI-CADC CELLS|NOT INCLUDED)

- POSITIVE INDEXING

• ANTI-OVERWRAP DEVICE $41.55

WSU-30 WIRE WRAP TOOLS

• WRAPS, STRIPS. AND UNWRAPS

• WSU-30M WRAPS AN EXTRA TURN OFINSULATION

WSU-30 $8.84/WSU-30M $10.14WIRE WRAP TERMINALS

WWT-1 SLOTTED 25 s / 06

WWT-2 SINGLE SIDED 25/54.25

WWT-3 IC SOCKET 25/57.06

WWT-4 DOUBLE SIDED 25/2.80

INS-1 INSERTION TOOL 53.64

WIRE DISPENSER

• WITH 50' ROLL OF WIRE

■ BUILT IN PLUNGER CUTS WIRE

• BUILT IN STRIPPER STRIPES 1"

• REFILLABLE

WD-30 $6.50 WD-30TRI $9.50

Specify Blue, vrfwt*. With 50 of each

Yellow or Red Red. Blue end White

SOCKET-WRAP ID™

• SUPS OVER WIRE WRAP PINS

• IDENTIFIES PIN NUMBERS ON WRAPSIDE OF BOARD

- CAN WRITE ON PLASTIC; SUCH ASICs

WSU 30 30M

INS

PART-

PCKOF

PRICI

8

ID WRAP 08

10

1.95

14

IDWRAP 14

10

1 95

16

IDWRAP 16

10

1 95

1H

IDWRAP 18

5

1 95

20

IDWRAP 20

5

1.95

22

IDWRAP 22

5

1 95

24

IDWRAP 24

5

1.95

28

IDWRAP 28

5

1 95

40

IDWRAP 40

5

1.95

2 il :.

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES

PLEASE ORDER BY NUMBER OFPACKAGES iPCK OF)

t COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry 202

SEPTEMBER 1985 • BYTE

481

#JDR Microdevices

1224 South Bascom Avenue,San Jose, CA 95128 (408) 995-5430

LITHIUM BATTERY

AS USED IN CLOCK CIRCUITS

3 VOLT BATTERY 83.95

L BATTERY HOLDER »1.49 1

RELAYS

VOLTAGE

CONTACTS

FITS

PRICE

5 VDC

SPST REED

DIP

3.95

12 VDC

DPDT 2 AMP

DIP

3.95

6 VDC

6PDT 3 AMP

RELAY SOC

2.95

12 VDC

4POT 3 AMP

RELAY SOC

3.95

24 VDC

DPDT 3 AMP

RELAY SOC

3.95

48 VDC

4PDT 3 AMP

RELAY SOC

3.95

120 VAC

4PDT 3 AMP

RELAY SOC

3.95

RF MODULATOR

ASTEC MODEL UM1082

I PRESET TO CHANNEL 3

. USE TO BUILD TV-COMPUTER

INTERFACE. tS VOLT OPERATION

GROUND - 4

$6.95

6E NICKEL-CADMIUMRECHARBABLE BATTERIES

Nl CAD CHARGER PACKAGE

AAA CELLS

QTY 2

S11.71

AA CELLS

QTY. 2

•11.71

CCELLS

QTY 2

• 13.21

D CELLS

QTY 2

• 13.21

9 VOLT

QTY. 1

♦ 13.21

BATTERIES ONLY

AAA CELLS

PKG 2

$6.07 pr.

AA CELLS

PKG. 1

$3.03 sa

C CELLS

PKG. 1

S3 78 «a

D CELLS

PKG. 1

$3.78 t»

9 VOLT

PKG. 1

•7.57 ea

SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES

| PS-IBM $99.95

• FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE

• 130 WATTS

• 5V . 1 bA, • 12V . . 4.2A-5V @ 5A -12V (ffl -SA

i ONE YEAR WARRANTY

| PS IBM 150 $129.95 m

• FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE

• -I2(. 5.2A. «5@1GA

■ 12 <g> .SA. -S <5> .SA

> ONE YEAR WARRANTY

I PS 100 $89.95

] • 100 WATTS

• SWITCH ON REARi FOR USE IN OTHER IBM

TYPE MACHINESi 90 DAY WARRANTY

|PS-130 $99.95

I 130 WATTSr SWITCH ON REARi FOR USE IN OTHER IBMTYPE MACHINES

• 90 DAY WARRANTY

| PSA $49.95

. USE TO POWER APPLE TYPESYSTEMS

i SV i 4A. 12V @> 2.5A-5V <g> .'.A. -12V <a> .5A

• APPLE POWER CONNECTOR

PS-3 $39.95

• AS USED IN APPLE III

> *SV @ 4A. H2V @ 2.5A-SV <S> .25A. -12V @ 30A.

. 15.5" « 4.5" » 2.0". .884 LBS.

PS-ASTEC $19.95

• CAN POWER TWO 5V." FDDS

> SV (g> 2.5A. 12V <S> 2A-12V (3 .1A

i SV <g> 5A IF 12V IS NOT USED6.3" « 4.0" x 1.9". 1 LB.

| PS-TDK $29.95

■ SV i 4A, *12V(S) 2A

■ t12V <S> 2.8A. -12V @ .30A

• 6.2" X 7.4" x 1.7". 1.6 LBS.

IV

S!

■J

- m

PS PLUG $9.95

> SPACE SAVING DESIGN -POWER SUPPLY HOUSED INPLUG STYLE CASE

. *5V (ffl 6O0ma

12V 20O..W.

l.'V ■ 200ma■ 5.5" x 2.5" x 2.0". 2.0 LBS.i UL APPROVED

SIX FODT LINE CORDS

LC-2 2 CONDUCTOR .:

| LC-3 3 CONDUCTOR 99

LC-HP 3 CONDUCTOR WITH

STANDARD FEMALE SOCKET 1.49LC CIR CIGARETTE LIGHTER PLUG 2.95

NEW BOOKS BY STEVE CIARCIA

I BUILD YOUR OWN Z80 COMPUTER $19.95CIRCUIT CELLAR VOLUMN 1 $17.95

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOLUMN 2 $18.95

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOLUMN 3 $18.95

[CIRCUIT CELLAR VOLUMN 4 S18.95 ,

MICROCOMPUTER HARDWAREI HANDBOOK FROM ELCOMP $14.95

OVER 800 PAGES OF MANUFACTURER'S DATA SHEETS ON| THE MOST COMMONLY USED ICs

. TTL 74. 74LS 8, 74F • CPU'S 6800. 6500. Z80,

. CMOS 8080. 8085 & 8086/8

• Voltage Regulators • MPU Support & Interface.

• Memory RAM. ROM. EPROM 6800. 6500. Z80. 8200. etc.

DATA RASE EPROM ERASER

• ERASES 2 EPROMS IN 10 MINUTES ,

• LOW COST

■ COMPACT NO DRAWER

• SUDE EPROMS INTO CASE

• THIN METAL SHUTTERPREVENTS UVUGHTFROM ESCAPING

$34.95

EPROM ERASERS

£

Model

Timet

CapacityChip

Intensity

luW Cm'l

UnitPtice

PE-14

NO

9

8,000

S83.00

PE-14T

YES

9

8.000

$119 00

PE-24T

YES

12

9,600

517500

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• ATTRACTIVE TWO COLOR SHARP PRINTING

• CLEARS WORKSPACE OF BOOKS AND MANUALS

• NOTE: MPU CARDS COVER FULL INST. SET(OESCR.. HEX. CYCLE. FLAG). DISASSEMBLY,ASCII. HEX DEC. INTERRUPT STRUC. PINOUT.DIAGRAMS. NOTES AND MORE

AVAILABLE TITLES

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8086 AND 8088 MPU*ZSO MPU6502 <65u)MPU>8080A AND S085A MPUa8048 SINGLE CHIP MPU FAMILY"C" LANGUAGE-COMPREHENSIVE REFERENCEFOR PROS AND BEGINNERSFAST AND EASY INTRO TO BASICPROGRAMMINGPINOUTS AND FUNCTIONS OFVIRTUALLY ALL 54/7400 TTL INNEW COMPACT TABLE FORMAT(REG. H. L. LS. SiBASIC OPERATION OF DIODES.TRANSISTORS. THYRISTORS.OP AMPS AND MUCH MOREWORDSTAR MAILMERGEREFERENCE - TWICE THE INFO OFKEYBOARD OVERLAYSHOW TO GENERAUZE FROM SMALLSAMPLES - FOR Q C. TESTING.RESEARCH. POLLING, ETC.ALGORITHMS (PROGRAMS) INBASIC FOR SORTING. SEARCHINGPLOTTING. ETC.

IC MASTER $79.95

THE INDUSTRY STANDARD

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A COMPLETE LISTING OF CURRENTLY MANUFACTURED INTEGRATED CIRCUITS FROM OVER 225MANUFACTURES IT INCLUDES A PART NUMBERINDEX. AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE GUIDE AS WELLAS SPECIFICATION AND APPLICATION NOTES ONI THOUSANDS OF DEVICES

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OSBORNE

APPLE II USERS GUIDE

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S995

MS DOS USERS GUIDE

$16.95

68000 ASM PROGRAMMING

SIS 95

THE 8086 BOOK

S18.95

UNDERSTANDING DBASE II

$22.95

SYBEX

,/PROCESSOR INTERFACING TECH.THE MS DOS HANDBOOK

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516.95

THE RS232 SOLUTION

516.95 |

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517.95

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515.95 J

WISH SOLDERLESS BREADBOARDS

PARTNUMBER

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ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUARANTEED

IB COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

482 BYTE- SEPTEMBER I985

Inquiry 203

Inquiry 203

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 483

484 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

Inquiry 204

UNCLASSIFIED ADS

WANTED: Nonprofit educational institution seeks tax-deductible contribution of a disk-based microcom-puter with printer (Apple, IBM. or TRS-80 preferred]for classroom use with handicapped students. RisaK Allen. Midway Elementary School. Milledgeville.GA 31061, (9121 452-2413.

WANTED: Nonprofit school for disadvantaged adultsseeks tax-deductible donation of personal com-puters or stand-alone machines. Dr. Dodd. OmahaOpportunities Industrialization Center. 2724 North24th St.. Omaha, NE 68110, (402) 457-4222.

WANTED: Catholic Social Services needs tax-deductible donation of IBM PC or equivalent withprinter for spreadsheet, database word processing,and mailing list to use in family-focused adolescentsexuality program. Gail Zettel. Catholic Social Ser-vices. Wayne County. 9851 Hamilton Ave., Detroit,Ml 48202. (313) 883-2100.

WANTED: Tax-deductible contribution of operationalword processor. Rev. Virginia (ones, AshburnhamCommunity Church, Ashburnham, MA 01430, (617)827-5553.

WANTED: Hard-disk microcomputer, preferably aVector Graphic, for a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit publicpolicy research and education organization. Tax-deductible. API Education Fund, Suite 218, 806 15thSt. NW. Washington. DC 20005.

NEEDED: Nonprofit educational group devoted toWestern mysticism and new science needs word-processing equipment (two or more terminals withprintersl. IBM PC-compatible or CP/M. Tax-deductible. Contact |im Holland. Friends of CreationSpirituality. POB 19216. Oakland. CA 94619.

WANTED: Computer engineering student would liketo exchange public-domain programs and informa-tion for the NCR Decision Mate V computer, luanFdo. Tbro G.. Apartado Aereo 52020. Medellfn, Co-lombia, South America

WANTED: High-technology student needs Apple IIor 11+ public-domain software for education. Willsend in return programs from my public-domainlibrary. Would also like to buy a used graphic light-pen system, loakim Lindberg. Hokvagen 20, 93143Skelleftea, Sweden.

WANTED: Computer enthusiasts worldwide to ex-change views and ideas. 1 am an Apple II user. OscarLau. P.O. Box 1133. Sibu. Sarawak. Malaysia.

FOR SALE: MPX-16 microcomputer. IBM-compatiblePower supply, case, Micromint ST-1000 smart ter-minal board, I28K. support ROMs for terminal orIBM-type keyboard and keyboard adapter, two Tan-don SS/DD disk drives in separate case with powersupply, and more. S1400. Richard Bryant. 1631 KingsDr #411. Bartlesville, OK 74006. (9181 335-0888

FOR SALE: Auto-dial/auto-answer, direct-connect300-bps modem for Apple. Bare PC board withEPROM and TMS99 5 3 2: S 50. Tab and Heath books,assorted electronic components: will sell or tradefor back issues of BYTE, pre-1981 Radio-Electronics, orApple books, magazines, or hardware. Send list.Michael Schwarz, POB 146. Danville, WA 99121,

FOR SALE: TRS-80 Model 100 with 32K RAM, DCpower supply, cassette (CCR-82) with cable and DCpower supply, direct-connect modem cable, ciga-rette lighter DC adapter, and two cassette pallets.Books, manuals, and more. S600 or best offer. Ken-neth Humbard, POB 4-972. Anchorage. AK 99509.(907) 563-4376.

FOR SALE: Osborne 1 computer with tan case andSS/DD drives. Excellent condition, recently under-went preventive maintenance $500. leremy Kezer,(203) 535-2623.

WANTED: Persons wishing to correspond with in-dividual just learning BASIC on a Timex Sinclair1000. Interested in exchanging information on prac-tical usages, new modes, and "living symbols."S. Steps, c/o POB 163777. Sacramento. CA 95816.

FOR SALE: Early BYTE issues, from number 1 to1980, Also early issues of Kilobaud and 80 Microcom-puting Greg Ludwig. 910 Soo Blvd.. Rice Lake. Wl54868. (715) 234-2680.

FOR SALE: Alphacom printer, datasette. TV/monitorfor Commodore 64-compatible, and public-domainsoftware: S470. New; good condition. Wish to buyCommodore 64 disk drive and monitor in good con-dition. NicoleTaroin, 52-06 Skillman Ave. 2R. Wood-side. New York, NY 11377. (718) 507-2484,

FOR SALE: Intel SBC/Multibus System: SBC 80/20-4board with 8080A CPU, clock, 4K RAM, 8K ROM,48 I/O lines, RS-232C drivers and receivers: SBC016A 16K RAM expander board; SBC 204 disk con-troller: Vector plugboard, mounted in Intel 4-slotcard cage, manuals: S850 plus shipping. Rich Myers.3211 Standish, Cleveland. OH 44134, (216] 845-1015,

FOR SALE: Ohio Scientific C8P computer system. In-cludes 48K RAM. dual 8-inch disk drives, EpsonMX-80 printer with serial interface card and ribbons,RF (TV) converter, 12-inch black-and-white TV. allcables, manuals, and more. We will pay to ship inoriginal cartons. Asking $2000. Brad Chase or Timlones. POB 321. Epping. NH 03042. (603) 679-2404.

WANTED: Information, manuscripts, and reprints ofarticles dealing with software copyright protection,software law, and software piracy. D C Eshbaugh.Department of Anthropology. Arizona State Univer-sity, Tempe, AZ 85287.

FOR SALE: Cromemco Z-2D 64K with dual 5-inchfloppies. Spare I6K board and many other extras.No reasonable offer refused Steve Robinson.Precept Ministries. POB 2 3000. Chattanooga. TN37422. (6151 892-6814.

FOR SALE: First three and a half volumes (missingvolume 3. number 3) of S-100 Microsystems magazine.First offer over $60. C Hill. Apt. #312, 27904 PacificHighway S, Federal Way, WA 98003.

FOR SALE: S-100 Sol-20 computer: $500. 64K staticmemory board: $150. Morrow controller: $150.8-inch SS/DD enclosed drives: each $3 50. Sanyo9-inch black-and-white monitor: $75. Andersonlacobson 841 Selectric with parallel interface: $400.BYTE. 1978 through 1983: $125. lohn Ross. 327Chestnut St.. Batavia. IL 60510. (312) 879-2583.

WANTED: Broken Apple lis, II+s, or lies and brokenperipheral devices (cards, drives, etc.). Good price;I will pay shipping. Gary Raabe. 4729 Broughton,Corpus Christi. TX 78415

FOR SALE: Video-display terminal. Model ADM I A.full keyboard with numeric pad, special functionkeys, block and line transmit functions. Excellentcondition. $2 50. T. Kruckewitt. 7749 College TownDr. #130. Sacramento, CA 95826. (916) 383-0782.

FOR SALE: Used 192K-byte memory-expansionmodule for DEC Rainbow 100A (PCIXX-AB): $200.Henry Suzukawa. 22266 Schoenborn Canoga Park.CA 91304.

FOR SALE: IBM PC Portable with 2 56K. two DD/DSdisk drives, serial port, and more Excellent condi-tion: $2700. |oe Decker, 93-95 Lake St.. RousesPoint. NY 12979. (518) 297-7933.

FOR SALE: Big Board II with two Shugart SS/DD 600Kdrives. 15-inch monitor, and keyboard: $850; twoMPI DS/DD 360K disk drives in a Heath Z-37 caseand power supply: $250: Centronics One parallelprinter. Silver Paper: $50. lohn Wytsma. 9 Pitch PineDr.. Tbpsham. ME 04086. (207) 725-4209.

FOR SALE: Commodore 64 system. Includes 1541disk drive. 1701 color monitor, 152 5 dot-matrixprinter, KoalaPad graphics tablet, 80-column card,other add-ons. joysticks, etc Light use; $900 or bestoffer. Michael Feldman. 615 Finch Ave. W. Tbronto.Ontario M2R IN8. Canada. (416) 633-1750.

FOR SALE: Motorola 68000 VERSAmodule com-puter system with 5l2K-byte RAM. universal I/O.universal disk controller. I6-megabyte hard disk,card cage, and power supplies: $3000. Hugh Shane.7 Green Meadow Rd.. Pleasantville, NY 10570.

FOR SALE: Hewlett-Packard 87XM computer. 82905B

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 organizations. 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. Wfen you submityour ad (BYTE. Unclassified Ads. POB 372. Hancock.NH 03449), allow at least four months for it to appear.

printer. 82936A ROM drawer. 00087-15002 plotterROM. 00087-15012 electronic disk ROM. and more.Perfect condition. |. A. Henebry, (518) 371-0423.

WANTED: lune and September 1981 BYTE. Firstresponse gets $6 check for each; you forward pre-paid. Ed Niebuhr. 15 Springhill Lane, Lafayette. CA94549. (415] 283-2644.

WANTED: Motorola MEX 68KECB 68000 educationboard. Don Lewis. 606 Hazel Ave.. Folsom. PA19033. (215) 586-5212.

FOR SALE: S-100 cards. IMSAI MPU-A: $35. MPU-B:$200. PIC-8: $3 5. Processor Technology 8K staticRAM: $20. CUTS cassette interface: $20. As is. lohnLin, 5 501 South Kenwood. Chicago, IL 60637, (312)684-3689, evenings.

WANTED: Spectravideo 328 user seeks corre-spondence with other SV users. R. A. Fortune, 46West 17th St., New York, NY 10011.

WANTED: Schematic/documentation on VectorGraphic Flashwriter IV card and Micropolis PCBtransmitter and bus receiver cards. Will reimbursecosts. G. Carroll. 4915 Berryman Ave.. Culver City.CA 90230, (213) 398-9110

WANTED: KIM-I ROMs or complete board The two6530s must be in good working condition. Also in-terested in any information about dynamic memorycontroller chips Glenn Valenta, 1626 ConnecticutAve,, Joplin. MO 64801, |417| 782-3008.

FOR SALE: Sage II with I28K. two 640K disk drives,TeleVideo 92 5 green terminal, and more. Runs at 8MHz Perfect for programming Like new AskingS2 300 or best offer. Gordy Kastner, 4760 NorthCreosote Place, Tucson. AZ 85749. (602) 749-1739

FOR SALE: Four Intel 86/12 A CPU multibus boardswith 16-bit 8086, 32K dual port memory, 24 digitalI/O lines. RS-232C port: $200 each or $725 for allTwo TRS-80 Model Is. Level II, I6K CPU and monitor,expansion interface, serial interface, and DDadapter: two SS/DD floppy drives; PROM program-mer and 80 Micro $1000 Steve Wiisel. 5472 DelhiPark. Cincinnati OH 34238. 15131 922-64 50.

FOR SALE: Smoke Signal Broadcasting 6809 2-MHzSS-50 with 4-megabyte hard disk. DS/DD floppy.96K. and more. Best offer. Also DS/DD drive. SS-50chassis. SwTPC boards, two terminals, and EpsonMX-80 printer. Robert Field, 1228 Carlotta Ave,,Berkeley. CA 94707. (415) 527-7962.

FOR SALE: Four floppy drives. TEC-FB50I. half-height. SS/DD direct drive, like new: $70 each or $65each for two to four. Also, four Shugart 8-inch 800-2drives: $75 each or $70 each for two to four. I payshipping Two Condor power supplies: $2 5 each.Steve Gilley. POB 810. Hermosa Beach. CA 90254

FOR SALE: Hayes Smartmodem, 300 bps: $125. Rare-ly used. Overseas Crusades. 2 5 Corning Ave.,Milpitas. CA 95035. (408) 263-1101 or DavidNesmith. (408) 270-1185.

FOR SALE: Two IMSAI S-100 housings, two 8080CPUs. 4K static RAM. and two MIOs. Dual North Stardrives with interface. Ithaca Audio Z80 CPU. CCC64K dynamic RAM. Four Godbout 8K RAMs. Twovideo interfaces. Extender/probe. Monitor. 8-inchdrive. Best offer. R. Trinko, 185 Walnut St. #3. NewOrleans. LA 70118. (504) 464-3368 or 866-0233.

WANTED: DDDC Disk Control Board; 32K, 48K, or64 K memory board and SMB2 I/O board for Tech-nical Design Labs Xitan computer. William Leonard.14956 Ronda Dr.. San lose. CA 95124. (408)377-8582. evenings.

FOR SALE: IMSAI 8080 with ZPU processor board,22-slot motherboard, 48K RAM, ROM monitor, oneserial and three parallel I/O ports, cassette interface,Vistar GTX CRT, many extra boards, and more. As-sembled and working. Asking $1100. Steve Dover,821 Laramie, Wilmette. IL 60091. (312) 251-4683

WANTED: Owners of true IBM-compatibles and usersgroups worldwide for exchange of opinions and self-written or public-domain software. Languages:BASIC, Pascal, assembler. Write in English, French,Spanish, or Italian. Mario Manuzzi. Via Serraglio. 371-47023 Cesena (FO|, Italy.

WANTED: LNW-80 users to exchange software (user-writtenl and hardware modifications. Have writtenfast graphics printer dump that III supply sourcecode for; also designed speech board and drivesoftware HI supply design for. Neil Breeden II. 2916West 3875 S #4. West Valley City, UT 84119,

SEPTEMBER 1985 'BYTE 485

BOMB

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box

ARTICLE*

PACE

1

9

2

37. 431

3

44

4

57

ARTICLE AUTHORIS)

Microbytes staff

What s New staff

Ask BYTE Ciarcia

Book Reviews Klein. Hughes.

Walker.

Edginton

St

ARTICLE*

PACE

17

229

18

247

19

257

20

:m

SBI80 Single-Board Computer

21

27fi

Part 1: The Hardware

Ciarcia

22

284

6

104

Programming Project

23

2vi

An Analysis of Sorts

. . Amsterdam

24

297

7

"Ifi

The DSI-32 Coprocessor Board

25

305

Part 2: The Software

. Marshall,

26

311

Scoiaro. Rand.

27

321

King. Williams

28

325

8

129

An Algorithm for Disk Caching

29

331

with Limited Memory

. . McKeon

30

347

9

41

Astrophysical Number Crunching

. .Cameron

10

154

Two Generalized Floating-PointRepresentations

Salomon

(1

385

II

161

Turbo Pascal Drives the Mouse

. Figueras

<-'

395

12

171

IBM Compatibility for

the NEC APC III

. Stein

33

401

13

181

Build a Travesty Tree

Wayner

14

193

Printing Pascal Graphics

. . Davis

34

409

15

197

10th Anniversary Section

. staff

6

209

Evolution of the Microprocessor

. Garetz

ts

418

ARTICLE AUTHORISI

EGO: A Homebuilt CPU.

Part 1: The Software Kelley

The Quarter-Meg Atari 800XL Buchholz

A Parallel-to-Serial

Printer Port Adapter Austerlitz

Add Function Keys

to Your Microcomputer Hanslip

The Kaypro 16 McMahon

The Osborne 3 Osgood

WordStar 2000 Rubel

XyWrite II Plus Rabinovitz

Filevision Norman

DB Master for the Macintosh lacques

Paradise Modular Graphics Card Krause

The RAMDISK-64 Block

Keyport 717 Salahi

Computing at Chaos Manor: PCs.Peripherals. Programs, and People PournelleBYTE U.K.: Seventh Anniversary

of Microcomputing Pountain

BYTE lapan: A History of

lapan s Microcomputers Raike

According to Webster West Coast

Faire. Mac Stuff and the Amiga Webster

Mathematical Recreations:

ir e. and All That Kurosaka

BYTELINES Libes

BOMB Results

June's Seating Arrangements

Computing at Chaos Manor, composed by lerry Pournelle From the

Living Room." wins June's top seating Runner-up is Gregg Williams's

Debugging Techniques.' followed by What's New in third. Steve Ciarcia's

wrap-up on how to "Build the Home Run Control System. Part 3: The

Software' is fourth. Arthur Huston wins S100 for placing fifth with

Structuring BASIC' In sixth: staff-written Microbytes Ask BYTE

conducted by Steve Ciarcia. is next, and "Choosing a Programming

Language not only wins eighth but its author. Gary Elfring, wins S50.

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486 BYTE • SEPTEMBER 1985

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No. Page No.

402 1ST PLACE COMP SYSTEMS. . 474

2 4-5-6 WORLD 473

3 AST RESEARCH 19

4 AST RESEARCH 19

5 AB COMPUTERS 77

7 ACS INTL INC 241

8 ADDMASTER CORP 453

9 ADTEK 370

10 ADV DIGITAL CORP. 36

11 ADV DIGITAL CORP 36

12 ADVANCED COMP PROD 462. 463

• ALF PRODUCTS INC 445

13 ALLIED MICRO DEVICES 473

• AMBER SYSTEMS 102. 103

411 AMERICAN MICRON1CS 162

16 AMERICAN MICRO SYSTEMS . . 455

17 AMERICAN RESEARCH 384

18 AMERICAN RESEARCH 384

19 AMERICAN SEMICONDUCTOR 457

21 AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 173

22 APPARAT INC 457

• APPLE COMPUTER INC CM. I

• APROTEK 231

23 APROTEK 447

24 ARCTEC SYSTEMS 101

25 ARK ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS 353

26 ARTIFICIAL INTL RESRCH .455

• AT&T INFORMATION SYS 423

28 ATKINS ASSOCIATES 119

29 AVOCET 421

• AWESOME TECHNOLOGY. INC 473310 BASIC TIME 34. 35

31 B&B ELECTRONICS 447

• B&C MICROSYSTEMS 474

32 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 23

33 BDS CORPORATION 391

34 BINARY TECHNOLOGY 430

35 BITTNER ELECTRONICS 430

36 BLAISE COMPUTING INC 413

37 BORLAND INTL 39

38 BORLAND INT L 39

39 BORLAND INT L 41

40 BORLAND INTL 41

41 BORLAND INTL 43

42 BORLAND INTL 43

43 BUSINESS TOOLS INC 419

44 BYNAS DIV'UNY CO LTD . 186

• BYTE SUBSCRIBER MESSAGE . 422

• BYTE SUBSCRIBER SERVICE 342

45 BYTEK COMP SYS CORP. 32

• C WARE/DESMET C 184

46 C DA INT L SOFTWARE 474

47 CI COMPUTERS 179

48 CI COMPUTERS 179

49 C R E WHOLESALE 445

50 CALIF COMPUTER COMPONENT266

51 CALIF COMPUTER COMPONENT266

• CALIF DIGITAL 466. 467

52 CALIF MICRO HOUSE 54

418 CANETICS. 447

53 CAPITAL EOUIPMENT CORP 333

54 CAPITAL MICRO 392

55 CARINT LTD 68

57 CENNA TECHNOLOGY INC 387

58 CENTROID CORP 455

• CERMETEK MICROELECTRONICS41I

61 CHILTON BOOK COMPANY 309

62 CHORUS DATA SYSTEMS... . 324

63 CHRISLIN INDUSTRIES INC 253

64 CIVIL COMPUTING CORP 449

• COALITION FOR LITERACY 350

• CODEX CORPORATION . 295

65 COGITATE 449

66 COGITATE 455

• COMMODORE BUSN MACHINES 2568 COMP. COMPNTS UNLTD 460, 461

• COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP 82. 83

70 COMPETITIVE EDGE 234

71 COMPUADD CORP 425

• COMPUMAIL 476

73 COMPUSAVE 446

74 COMPUSERVE 327

75 COMPUTER AFFAIRS INC 157

Inquiry No Page No.

Inquiry No. Page No

76

COMPUTER BOOK CLUB, THE

243

146

FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING .

223

77

COMPUTER CONNECTION 468COMPUTER INNOVATIONS .

469356

409147

FORTH INC

146

78

FORTRON, INC

450

79

COMPUTER MAIL ORDER 364

365

148

FORTRON. INC

450

80

COMPUTER MART

301

149

FOX SOFTWARE INC

25R

81

COMPUTER MEDIA MARKETING447

150

FREELANCE NETWORK INC.. .

473

82

COMPUTER PARTS MART ....

474

152

GENERAL MICRO SYSTEMS .

473

83

COMPUTER WAREHOUSE

175

153

GENERAL TECHNOLOGY

358

84

COMPUTER WAREHOUSE

175

154

GENEST TECHNOLOGY INC

60

85

COMPUTERBANC

75

155

GENEST TECHNOLOGY. INC

60

86

COMPUTRADE

68

156

GENTIAN ELECTRONICS LTD

457

87

CONCORD TECHNOLOGY INC

473

157

GIFFORDCOMP SYS

5

88

CONROY-LAPOINTE 72. 73

158

GOLD HILL COMPUTERS .

228

89

CONROY-LAPOINTE 72. 73

159

GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS

447

90

CONROY-LAPOINTE 72. 73

160

GTEKINC

408

419

CONTOURSOFT CORP.

474

161

H&E COMPUTRONICS

233

91

CONTRIVER ENTERPRISES

473

162

HAMMER COMP SYS

340

92

CORE INTERNATIONAL

140

164

HANZON DATA INC

48

93

CORVUS SYS. INC

128

165

HARMONY VIDEO & COMP

230

94

COSMOS

320

166

HAYES M1CROCOMP PROD 126

. 127

95

CRANE ASSOCIATES

453

413

HAYES MICROCOMP PROD .

394

CRESCENT COM. INC

CUESTA SYSTEMS

453366

167168

HEATH COMPANY

251

96

HERCULES COMPUTER TECH

755

97

CURTIS INC

457

169

HERCULES COMPUTER TECH

303

415

CUSTOM COMP TECH

442

•

HEWLETT-PACKARD

313

416

CUSTOM COMP TECH

443

171

HEWLETT-PACKARD

315

98

CYMA CORPORATION

393

172

HEWLETT-PACKARD

133

99

CYMA CORPORATION

393

HI TECH INTL INC

314

401

DAC SOFTWARE INC

47

174

HOFFMAN INTL

457

101

DATA EXCHANGE

455

175

HOOLEON COMPANY

18

102

DATA SPEC

164

176

HOOLEON COMPANY

18

103

DATA SPEC

16460

177178

HOUSTON INSTR/BAUSCH&LOMIBEX COMP CORP

B3I0

104

DATA SPEC

449

105

DATA SPEC

60

179

IBM CORP 1

2. 13

106

DATABROKERS

451

405

IBM CORP 270

271

107

DATACOPY CORP

336

180

IBM/SMALL SYS. DIV. 317. 318

319

108

DATASOUTH COMP. CORP . .

367

181

IBS CORP.

737

109

DATASOUTH COMP CORP. . .

417

182

IBS CORP.

232

110

DAYNA COMM 282

283

183

IC EXPRESS

232

III

DCC DATA SERVICE

447

185

INMAC

112

112

DELUXE COMP FORMS

62

187

INPUT/OUTPUT TECHNOLOGY

235

113

DIGITAL RESEARCH COMPUTERS70

188

INTEGRAND

58

114

DIGITALK

150

189

INTERCONTN MICRO SYS . .

24

115

DISK MERCHANT

236

190

INTERCONTN MICRO SYS

24

116

DISKETTE CONNECTION

422

191

INTERFACE INC

31

117

DISKWORLD1. INC

441

192

INTERFACE INC

11

118

DISKWORLD!. INC

448

INTERFACE TECH CORP

341

119

DISKWORLD! INC

459

193

IOMEGA

137

120

DISPLAY TELECOMMNTNS

444

194

ITT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

191

121

DIVERSIFIED COMPUTER SYS

447

195

ITT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

191

421

DIVERSIFIED GROUP

381

196

IADE COMP PROD .470. 471

472

122

DOCUTEL/OLIVETT1

123

197

IAMECO ELECTRONICS 52. 53

123

DOKAY COMP PROD INC 464

465

198

IANDEL SCIENTIFIC

445

124

DOW IONES NEWS RETRIEVAL

69

199

IC INFORMATION SYSTEMS .

343

125

DOW IONES SOFTWARE

22

414

IDR INSTRUMENTS INC

196

126

DYNA SYSTEMS

474

200

IDR MICRODEVICES INC ... .

477

127

DYNATECH

239

201

IDR MICRODEVICES INC . 478

479

403

EAST DIGITAL CO. LTD.

186

202

IDR MICRODEVICES INC 480

481

129

EASTMAN KODAK CO . . .

237

203

IDR MICRODEVICES INC 482

483

130

ECLIPSE SYSTEMS

455

204

IDR MICRODEVICES INC

484

131

ECOSOFT

326

400

IEDEN

377

132

ELEK-TEK

377

422

IOHN D OWENS

474

133

ELEXOR INC :

449

205

IUKI INDUSTRY OF AMERICA

796

134

ELITE SFTW DEVELOPMENT

177

206

KADAK PRODUCTS LTD

451

•

ELLIS COMPUTING INC .

363

399

KEA SYSTEMS LTD.

362

135

ENERTRONICS .

28

29

207208

KIMTRON CORP

KRUEGER TECHNOLOGY INC

379

423

ENERTRON1CS

452

137

ENTER COMPUTER

361

209

KRUEGER TECHNOLOGY INC

452

138

ENTER COMPUTER

361

210

KUSTOM ELECTRONICS

74

140

EVEREX SYSTEMS

56

211

LABORATORY MICROSYS .

76

141

EXPRESS BUSINESS SOFTWARE

110

•

LANGLEY-ST CLAIR

451

142

EXPRESS SYSTEMS INC.. .224

225

212

LARK SOFTWARE

360

144

FARBWARE

473

213

LATTICE INC

300

145

FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING .

223

214

LEARNING TECHNOLOGY INST 236

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.

215 LEO ELECTRONICS 445

216 LINTEK INC 67

217 LOCKHEED-CETEX 165

218 LOGIC SOFT INSERT 32 A-B

219 LOGICAL DEVICES 144

220 LOGICAL DEVICES 473

221 LOGICAL SYSTEMS INC 445

• LOGITECH INC 352

222 LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS 163

• LOTUS DEVELOPMENT 152.153

224 LYBEN COMP SYS 67

225 LYBEN COMP SYS 190

226 LYBEN COMP SYS 430

227 LYCO COMPUTER 429

229 MANX SOFTWARE SYS 55

230 MARK WILLIAMS CO 59

231 MARK WILLIAMS CO 61

232 MARYMAC INDUSTRIES INC . . 449

233 MASTERBYTE COMP OF NY . 428

234 MAXELL DATA PRODUCTS 7

235 MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 15

• MCGRAW-HILL CEC 369

151 MCGRAW-HILL/

FUTURE COMPUTING 389

236 MEGATEL COMPUTER TECH 188

237 MERR1TT COMP PRODUCTS 451

238 MFI ENTERPRISES INC 166

239 MICRAY ELECTRONICS 172

424 MICRO BUSINESS PRODUCTS . 162

425 MICRO BUSINESS PRODUCTS. 162

240 MICRO DATA BASE SYS 256

241 MICRO DESIGN INT L 139

242 MICRO MART. INC .... 64. 65

243 MICRO PRODUCTS INC 475

244 MICRO SOLUTIONS 158

245 MICRO-SPEC 474

246 MICROCOMPUTER ACCESSORIES III

247 MICROCOMPUTER ACCESSORIES 111

248 MICROGRAFX 17

■ MICROMINT INC 400

249 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD.. . .453

250 MICROSHOP 454

25: MICROSHOP 454

• MICROSOFT CORP. 131

252 MICROSTUF, INC 371

253 MICROSTUF, INC 373

254 MICROSTUF INC 375

255 MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP. . 167

256 MICROWAY 330

257 MICROWAY 404

420 MINORITY HI-TECH INDUSTRIES474

• MIX SOFTWARE 397

260 MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS 261

261 MTI SYSTEMS CORP 48

262 MULTI-TECH SYSTEMS 274

266 NANTUCKET 45

267 NANTUCKET 45

268 NATL PUBLIC DOMAIN SFTW ... 451

269 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 4

265 NBS INC 164

270 NEC HOME ELECTR. USA ... . 374

271 NEC INFORMATION SYS . . CHI

272 NEWSNET INC 16

• NORTH HILLS CORP 449

• NORTH HILLS CORP 455

273 NORTHROP DEFENSE 427

274 NOSTRADAMUS INC 113

• NRI SCHOOLS ELECTR DIV . 337

275 OKIDATA 244. 245

277 OLDEN 46

279 ORION INSTRUMENTS 316

406 ORYX SYSTEMS 262

407 ORYX SYSTEMS 262

408 ORYX SYSTEMS 262

281 PC HORIZONS. INC 451

290 PD.O CABLES 453

282 PACIFIC EXCHANGES 430

283 PACIFICA TECHNOLOGY 445

284 PANASONIC EXEC PARTNER 71

• PASCOM 63

286 PC NETWORK 194. 195

287 PC NETWORK SPECIALISTS .445

288 PC S LIMITED ISO. 181

SEPTEMBER 1985 -BYTE 487

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No. Page No.

Inquiry No. Page No

289

MITED

451

327

SECURITY MICROSYS CONSULT455

Ml

PERIPHERAL TECHNOLOGY

457

328

SEMIDISK SYSTEMS

329

."<.'

PERSOL

8

329

SHAPE MAGNETRONICS

390

»3

PI RSONICS CORPORATION

109

330

SILICON SPECIALTIES

185

.>ii

■ ESS TROUT

122

331

SILICON SPECIALTIES

185

.'■>-,

-,ll MS INC

376

332

SILICON VLY LIQUIDATORS

252

29t

lOI.AROID CORP

304

333

SLICER COMPUTERS

176

297

ETON GRAPHIC SYS

151

SOETCRAET INC

368

2MK

PRINCI TON GRAPHIC SYS

359

SOFTLINE CORP

81

291

PRIORITY ONE

456

336

SOFTRONICS

447

101

PROGRAMMERS SHOP .

349

338

SOFTWARE LINK THE

66

10.>

PS COMPUTERS

143

339

SOFTWARE LINK THE

147

10)

QIC RESEARCH

338

340

SOFTWARE MASTERS .

230

iOI

OIIA TKH IV.

451

341

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC

125

OUAII) SOFTWARr LTD

250

342

SOLUTION SYSTEMS

348

10'.

OUAUTY PRIMERS

447

343

SOLUTION SYSTEMS

348

lot.

OUANT SYSTEMS

449

344

SOLUTIONWARE CORP

451

10?

OUANTEK CORP

351

345

SONY CORP OF AMERICA 114

. 115

iOX

OUANTEK CORP

351

SOURCE TELECOMPUTING CORP

!(]9

QUANTUM SOFTWARE . .

159

OF AMERICA

357

111

RADIO SHACK

CIV

346

SPECTRUM SOFTWARE

187

11.'

RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES

430

347

SPRUCE TECHNOLOGY CORP

182

in

RAMADA INNS

269

348

STARBUCK DATA CO

453

11!

RATIONAL SYSII MS

323

350

STATSOFT

246

ir,

RELATIONAL DATABASE SYS

30

351

STi RUNG CASTLE

457

317

ROBOT EXPERIMENTER . . .

445

352

STRIDI MICRO

50

119

ROSE ELECTRONICS

449

353

STRIDE MICRO

51

J 20

SC DIGITAL

430

354

STSC INC

354

121

S-100 DIV 696 CORP

458

355

SUMMIT SOFTWARE TECHN IN<

396

322

S 100 DIV 696 CORP

458

356

SUNTRONICS CO INC .

442

121

SAB-LINK INC

453

357

SUPERSOFT.

346

121

SALE WARE

430

358

SUPREME COMPANY

449

121

SAMSUNG HCTR DrVICIS

145

SYSC.f N INC

249

120

SATELLITE SOFTWARE

290

359

US MANAGEMENT

267

Inquiry No. Page No.

360 IS MICROTECH NC 26

3*1 TALLGRASS TECH 20 21

362 TALLGRASS TECH 20.21

363 LATUM LABS 430

364 TDK ELECTRONICS 406

365 TtCMAR INC II

• TEKTRONIX INC 135

• TELEVIDEO SYSTEMS 170

366 THOMSON CONSUMER PROD 160

367 THREE M COMPANY 78. 79136 TICERTRONICS 430

• TINNEY ROBERT GRAPHICS 380

368 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC 398. 399

369 TRANSWEST COMP PROD 457

370 TURBOPOWER SOFTWARE . 335

371 US ROBOTICS 403

372 US ROBOTICS 405

373 US ROBOTICS 407

263 US SERVEX 294

374 UNIFIED SOFTWARE SYS 457417 UNISOURCE 238

375 UNITECH 445

410 VAULT 169

376 VEN-TEL INC 27

377 VERTEX SYSTEMS 420

378 VERTEX SYSTEMS 420

379 VERTEX SYSTEMS . . 339

380 VERTEX SYSTEMS 339

381 VIASYN CORP 192383 VIDEO TECHNOLOGY 18

• VLM COMPUTER ELECTR 455

385 VOCS 453

386 WALLSOFT SYSTEMS 402

387 WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS 268

Inquiry No Page No.

388 WATCOM PRODUCTS INC . 149

389 WESTERN COMPUTER 240

390 WESTERN COMPUTER 240

391 WINTEK CORP 49

392 WINTEK CORP 453

393 WRITINC CONSULTANTS 188

395 XEROX CORP 189

396 XEROX CORP 415

397 XOR CORP 383

' Correspond direttly with (Ompanif

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SECTION

501 AMERICAN BUYING & EXPORT

SERVICES I28E

• BYTE I28A. 1281 I28K

502

CASIO

I28L

501

COMMUNICATIONS

ELECTRONICS . . .

I28F.

I28G

504

FORTH-SYSTEME

I28H

505

GREY MATTER

I28H

506

KCSYSTEMS

I28H

507

L F TECHNOLOGIES

1281

•

MICRO MINT

I28B

508

MULT1TECH INDUSTRIAL CORP

I28C

509

OLIVETTI

I28D

510

WINTECH CORP

I28H

N[i domestic inquiries please

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l.DDDIffl 6. □ □ □ LB HI 10. □ □ □ LB LB

7. □□□LBLB 11. □□□LBLB

8. □□□LBLB 12. □□□LBLB

9. □□□LBLB 13. □□□LBLB

2. □ □ □ LB LB

3. □ □ □ LB LB

4. □ □ □ LB LB

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14. □ □ □ LB LB

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188

BYTE' SEPTEMBER 1985

NEC PRINTERS.

THEYONIYSTOPWHEN

TOUWANTTHEMTO.

r Pinwriter CP2dot matrix printer.

NEC printers are incredibly reliable.

In fact, with normal use, an NEC printer can run an average of 5 years before it needs arepair. And chances are, that repair will take only about 15 minutes.

To become that reliable, an NEC printer has to go through some of the most demandingtests in the industry.

First, we test every single part before it goes into the printer. Then we test the printer itself.Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is left to chance.

But reliability is only part of the story. There's much more. Our printers work with everypopular PC. With more leading software programs. And with more forms handlers to makepaperwork a snap.

So no matter what your printing needs - and no matter what size your budget - NEC hasa printer for you. Our full line of Spinwriter® printers, for low to high speed letter quality printing.And our versatile Pinwriter™ and Color Pinwriter printers, for high resolution dot matrix printing.

To find out more about NEC printers, call 1-800-343-4418 (in Mass. 617-264-8635).Or write: NEC Information Systems, Department 1610,1414 Massachusetts Ave., Boxborough, MA 01719.

NEC PRINTERS.THEYONLY STOP WHEN YOU WANTTHEMTO.CMC

Computers and Communications

Spinwriter is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation Pinwriter is a trademark of NEC Corporation.

SEC

NEC Information Systems, Inc.

Inquiry 271

Another Price Breakthrough from Radio Shack!

f IN ALLY... A HIGH-PERFORMANCE1200-BAUD MODEM FOR UNDER s400

Save money on long-distancetelephone service and on informa-tion network connect time with our1high-perfermance DC-2212 Modem.

Superior Performance forLess than Lesser Modems

You can find other modems witfionly some of the same features asthe DC-2212 selling elsewhere for*$500, $600 and more. But why paythat much? The DC- 2212 (26-1176)is just $399.95 and includes thefeatures you need to save timeand money. And the DC-2212 iscompatible with any personal com-puter equipped with an RS-232C

communications interface (just addappropriate software arid cable).

Advanced Features forConvenient, High-SpeedData Communications

The DC-2212 is easy to use andwilt automatically dial or answertelephone calls, receive and trans-mit data and then hang up. Justconnect the DC-2212 to a modulartelephone jack for menu-driven, Bell212A-compatible asynchronous orsynchronous operation.^ThetDC'2212 automatically selects 300or 1200 baud operation to match in-coming calls and lets you download

at 1200 baud to save time andmoney. The DC-2212 is fully com-patible with Xenix systems and isperfect for use with any of ourVideotex telecommunicationssoftware packages.

See It Today t

Step up to high-speed data com-munications with the DC-2212.

Available at over 1200

Radio Shack Computer Centers.and at

participating Radio Shack stores and dealers.

Radio /hack

COMPUTER CENTERS

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATIONInquiry 311

Prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating Radio Shack stores and dealers. FCC registered. Use only with Bell-compatible equipment.

Not for multi line use without optional-extra controller. XENIX is a trademark ol Microsoft.