Byte Magazine Volume 11 Number 06 - Computers and Music

This book was produced in EPUB format by the Internet Archive.

The book pages were scanned and converted to EPUB format automatically. This process relies on optical character recognition, and is somewhat susceptible to errors. The book may not offer the correct reading sequence, and there may be weird characters, non-words, and incorrect guesses at structure. Some page numbers and headers or footers may remain from the scanned page. The process which identifies images might have found stray marks on the page which are not actually images from the book. The hidden page numbering which may be available to your ereader corresponds to the numbered pages in the print edition, but is not an exact match; page numbers will increment at the same rate as the corresponding print edition, but we may have started numbering before the print book's visible page numbers. The Internet Archive is working to improve the scanning process and resulting books, but in the meantime, we hope that this book will be useful to you.

The Internet Archive was founded in 1996 to build an Internet library and to promote universal access to all knowledge. The Archive's purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. The Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages, and provides specialized services for information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities.

Created with abbyy2epub (v.1.7.0)

A single company has revolutionized

the business of language, the language of business,

and created the exciting new world of electronic

reference works—Borland!

Which isn't had for a 3-year-old.Turbo Pascal,® our first product,now has more than half a millionusers, and has become a world-wide standard And that was justtoe beginning.

Since then, the Turbo Pascalfamily has grown to a family of 9,and today we're announcing oursecond language, Turbo Prolog,™ thenatural language of ArtificialIntelligence.

We've also introduced amazingbusiness productivity tools likeSideKiek,8 Traveling SideKlck,"Keflex, The Analyst," andSuperKey."

We broke new ground In 1985with Turbo Lightning.'" It Includesthe Random House* dictionary andthesaurus. Turbo Lightning Is theforerunner of a complete electronicreference library, newly Joined bythe Word Wizard," which solves theunsolvable twists, and boggles andchallenges your mind. Word Wizard

Includes TurboPascal source codeo you can figure outhow the Turbo Lightrrung access system works.

And here Is a briefsynopsis of current offerings fromthe Borland library of history-making software...

Turbo Pascal" 3.0

The fastest Pascal compiler,plus an integrated pro-gramming environment.Includes a free MlcroCalc"spreadsheet, and 1,300 linesof annotated source code,ready to compile and run.Mmimum memory: 1S8K

Turbo Tutor"

Takes you from basic rightthrough advanced program-ming concepts and techniques.Includes 300-page tutorial andsource code for every exampleused in the reference manual.Mmimum memory: 1S8K

Turbo Graphix Toolbox"

Lets you create high-res-olution graphics. Includestools for complex businessgraphics, easy windowing,and storing screen images tomemory. Complete with sourcecode on disk, ready to compile.Mmimum memory: 19SK

Turbo Database Toolbox"

Perfect complement to TurboPascal. Contains completelibrary of Pascal proceduresthat allows you to search andsort data and build powerfuldatabase applications.Minimum memory: 138K

$0

Turbo Editor Toolbox"

It's all you need to build yourown text editor or wordprocessor. Provides all theroutines—you decide whichfeatures you want. Source codeincluded. Also includes theMicroStar'" text editor with pull-down menus and windowing.Interfaces directly with Turbolightning to let you spell-checkyour MicroStar files. Minimummemory: 192K.

Turbo GajneWorks"^'

Reveals the secrets andstrategies of game theory.Includes source code so youcan write your own games.Gives you ready-to-play Chess,Bridge, and Go-Moku, anancient Japanese game thatwill provide hours of fascinatingdiversion. Even if you don'twant to write your own games,it's a terrific value. Minimummemory: 19SK

jfBW!

jjggj

Turbo Prolog"

The natural lan-guage of ArtificialIntelligence, TurboProlog is our secondlanguage and thelatest product In theBorland software library. TurboProlog is a fifth-generation language,and probably the most powerful pro-gramming language ever conceived.Includes a SOC-page reference man-ual and free GeoBase," a naturalquery language database withcommented source code on disk,ready to compile. It's all you need toknow about Artificial Intelligence ata Humanly Intelligent price.Minimum memory: 384K.

Turbo Lightning"An electronicreference librarywhich includesthe 80,000-wordRandom HouseConcise DicUonaiyand the 50,000-word Random HouseThesaurus. Cheeks your spellingas you type. Gives you Instantsynonyms. Leads the revoluuonaryway in electronic publishing.Minimum memory: 256K.

SuperKey'

Amazing keyboardenhancer for yourIBM PC. With easy-to-wrlte macros thatcan turn 1,000keystrokes into 1.Also Includes powerful encryptiontechnology that keeps confiden-tial files confidential; locks yourkeyboard with secret passwordproteoUon. (Because of encryptiontechnology, SuperKey Is under a USGovernment export ban.) Minimummemory: 128K.

Word Wizard"

Intriguing newaddlUon to theTurbo LightningLibrary" Solvesunsolvablecrosswords, andchallenges your word skills andability to break codes and ciphers.Scrambles, twists, turns, and bogglesyour mind. Includes Turbo Pascalsource code and an the technicalinformation you'll need to figure outthe "nuts and bolls" of the TurboLightning access system. Minimummemory: 256K.

Si'd&KicJr

Powerfulmanagementprogram. *1 bestseLer for the IBM"PC. Includesnotepad, calculator,appointment scheduler, telephonedirectory and autodialer, and ASCIItable. RAM-resident, it'B always thereto help, and stays in the backgroundwhile you run other programs. Onekeystroke activates it. Minimummemory: 138K.

Traveling BSideKiek"

BlnderWare* thatIncludes an organ-izer, a binder, a^^^k software program,y[B^ a^d a report gen-erator that picksyour SldeKiek's electronic brain,then prints out your appointments,dally/weekiy/monthly/yearly cal-endar, phone lists, mailing labelB, orwhatever else you need when you'reaway from your desk. It's the smartnew way to take your computer withyou without taking your computerwith you. Minimum memory: 256K.

Beilex,The Analyst"Unique, easy-to-usedatabase manage-ment and analysis.Shows your spread-sheet data from1-3-3* dBase," and others In fivegraphic forms—Including bar charts,pie charts, scatter plots, line graphs,and stacked bar charts. Answers WhatifP questions. Minimum memory: 384K.

Special PpiCes/

see***-**

•'tato Juntas

Turbo Pascal, SideKlck, SuperKey, and Turbo Tutor are registered trademarks, ami Turin Llghmlug, Turbo Lightning Library, Turbo Prolog, Turbo Graphix Toolbox, Turbo Database Toolbox, Turbo Editor Toolbox, Turbo GameWorke, Word Wizard,Reflex, The Analyst, Traveling SideKlck, MlcroCalc, MicroStar, Oeo3ase, jukI BlntlerW(u\j tuxs u-iuifiiiuu-kii <jf jiurifiurl liitej™uonftl,Inc.orBorian<VAn^^ IBM la

trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. dBase Is a registered trademark of AshtonTate. 1-33 is a registered trademark of Lotus Development. Corp. Copyright. 1986 Borland International BI-1042E

Step-by-step tutorial, demo programs with source code included!

And now Borland introduces

Turbo Prolog, the natural language

of Artificial Intelligence^

Jtrolog is probably the mostpowerful computer programminglanguage ever conceived, which iswhy we've made it our secondlanguage—and "turbocharged" it tocreate Turbo Prolog.™

Our new Turbo Prolog bringssupercomputer power to your IBM®PC and introduces you step-by-step tothe fascinating new world of ArtificialIntelligence. And does all this for anastounding $99.95.

Turbo Prolog is toProlog what TurboPascal- is to Pascal!

Our Turbo Pascal astonishedeveryone who thought of Pascalas 'Ijust another language." Wechanged all that—and now TurboPascal Is the de facto worldwidestandard, with hundreds of

thousands of enthusiastsand users in| universities,researchcenters,schools,and with prc-^7?k fesslonal program-mers, students,and hobbyists.You can expect at least thesame impact from Turbo Prolog,because while Turbo Prolog Is themost revolutionary and naturalprogramming language, it is alsoa complete development environ-ment—Just like Turbo Pascal.Turbo Prolog radically altersand dramatically improves thebrave new world of artificialintelligence—and invites you Intothat fascinating universe for ahumanly intelligent $99.95.

^2h Even if you've neverp^ programmed before,^^ our free tutorial willget you started right away

You'll get started right awaybecause we have Included acomplete step-by-step tutorial aspart of the 200-page Turbo PrologReference Manual Our tutorialwill take you by the hand andteach you everything you're likelyto need to know about TurboProlog and artificial intelligence.

For example: once you'vecompleted the tutorial, you'll beable to design your own expertsystems utilizing Turbo Prolog'spowerful problem-solvingcapabilities.

Think of Turbo Prolog as ahigh-speed electronic detective.First you feed it information andteach It rules. Then Turbo Prolog"thinks" the problem throughand comes up with all thereasonable answers—almostInstantly.

If you think that this isamazing, you Just need toremember that Turbo Prolog is a5th-generatlon language—andthe kind of language that 31stcentury computers will useroutinely. In fact, you cancompare Turbo Prolog to

Turbo Pascal the way youcould compare Turbo Pascal tomachine language.

^-rs. You get the completeblQ Turbo PrologLXj pmgramming system^ for only $99.95

You get a complete TurboProlog development systemincluding:

■ The lightning-fast Turbo Prologincremental compiler and theInteractive Turbo Prolog editor.

■ The 200-page referencemanual which Includes the step-by-step Turbo Prolog tutorial

■ The free GeoBase™ naturalquery language databaseIncluding commented sourcecode on disk—ready to compile.GeoBase is a complete databasedesigned and developed aroundU.S. geography. It Includes cities,mountains, rivers, and highways,and comes complete with naturalquery language. Use GeoBaseimmediately "as Is," or modify itto fit your own Interests.

So don't delay—don't waste asecond—get Turbo Prolog now.$99.95 Is an amazingly smallprice to pay to become anImmediate authority—an instantexpert on artificial intelligence!The 21st centuiy Is only onephone call away.

^r

BORLAND

INTERNATIONAL

4585 SCOTTS VAILEYDRIVESCOTTS VALLEY. CA 950661403) 438-8400 TELEX: 172373

YES!$99;

I wantthe best

TurboPrologat only:

95

To order by phone, or lor a dealer nearest you.

call (800) 255-8008

in CA call (800) 742-1133

Copies

Product

Price

lurbo Proiogt

Turbu Pascal 3.0

rata Pascal »/80S7tt

Turbo Pascal ttlBCDn

Ttxbo Pascal wISOSl BCDtt

Turbo Database Toolbox

Turbo Giaphix Toolbox^

Turbo Tutor

— Turbo Editor Toolbox^

Turbo GameWorksl

Turbo Ligtitnmgt

Word WiardX

Rellex. The Analystt

SkteKlUt

Traveling SideKick^

— SuperKeyjTurbo Ligblning.

Word Wiiard

't

J99.95 J_S69.95 J _

JJ09.90 J.

SI0S.90 S-

tlH.95 J_IM.95 ;_JM.95 J _J34.95 J_J69.95 S-J69.95 J _J99.95 J_169.95 J_

SU9.S5 J_S84.95 !_

"J69.95 J_169.95 J _

'IH9.95 J_

SideKick.

Traveling SideKcki— SideKick. Sup&Key

Traveling SideKick!

Turbo Jumbo Pack!

Outside USA add $10 per copyCA and MA res. add sales tax

Amount enclosed

Ptices include snipping to all US cities.Carelully describe your computer systemMreii_8-M_f6-M

I use—PC-DOS —MS-DOS —CPIM-80 —CPIM-SMy computer's name and model is

sm.oo J_'J245.00 J _

J_»_

the disk sue I use IsO lb' 05'// OS'

Payment: VISA MC Bank DraftCredit card expiration dale I

Card*

I I I I I

NOT COPY PROTECTED AP15'60-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE

_#:.

City

Stale

Telephone:

CODs and purchase orders WILL NOT be accepted by Borland.

Outside USA make payment by credit catd or International Postal

Money Order.

'Limited Time Oiler until September 1,1986

' 'YES. it within 60 days ot purchase this product does not

pertonv in accordance with our claims, call our customer service

department and we will gladly arrange a refund.

VBM PC. AT. XT. PCf. and true compatibles. PC-DOS

{MS-DOS) 2.0 or later Turtn Grapttx requires IBM CGA,

Hercules Monochrome Card Or compatible.

tV6-bilonly.

Turbo Prolog 1.0 Technical Speculations

Projr immlut Sftlim FtilirttCompiler: Incremental compiler generating native in-line codeand linkable object modules. The linking format is compatiblewith the PC-DOS linker. Large memory model support. Compilesover 2500 lines per minute on a standard IBM PC.Intensive Editor: The system includes a powerful interactivelull-screen text editor if the compiler detects an error, the editorautomatically positions the cursor appropriately m the sourcecode. At run-lime. Turbo Prolog programs can call the editor.and view the running program's source codeType System: A lleiible object-oriented type system issupported.

Windowing Support: The system supports both graphic andtext windows.

Input/Output: Full 110 facilities, including tonvatted 110.streams, and random access files.Numeric ttangas: integers: -32767 to 32767; Reals:IE-307 to 1E+308

Debugging: Complete built-in trace debuggingcapabilities allowing single steppingol programs

IA*

fc^P**

Other Borland Products include Turbo Pascal; Turbo Tutor, Turbo lightning; Turin Database Toolbox; Turbo Graphlx Toolbox;Turbo Editor Toolbox; Turbo OameWorlta; SuperKay, SWeKlck; SideKick, The Macintosh Office Manager, Reflex, The Analyut* andTraveling SideKick-all of which are registered trademarks or trademarks of Borland InternaUonal, Inc. or Borland/Analyuca, InuTurbo Prolog and QeoBase are trademarks and Turbo Faecal lo a registered trademark of Borland InternaUonal Inc. IBM and ATare registered trademarks of Iruernauonaj Business Machlnea Corp. Copyright 1968 Borland InternaUDnal BM042E

Inquiry 46 for End-Users. Inquiry 47 for DEALERS ONLY.

N

82

142

FEATURES

Introduction 82

Product Description: The Macintosh Plus by Phillip Robinson 85

The enhanced Mac offers double-sided drives, an SCSI interface, a megabyte of RAM.and more.

Programming Project: A Simple File-Indexing Scheme

by Bruce Webster 92

An easy-to-implement technique for maintaining a sorted file.

Ciarcia'S Circuit Cellar: Adding SCSI to the SB180 Computer,

Part 2: Bus Phases by Steve Garcia 107

Steve explains how the SCSI's bus phases are managed by the NCR 5380 chip.

Sorting ProDOS Directories by Antonio C Silvestri 117

Written in Applesoft BASIC, this program is designed to eliminate long catalog searches.

Decoding MacPaint on the IBM PC by Mark Anacker 131

A Pascal program to transfer, decode, and manipulate graphics.

Programming Insight: Hilbert Curves Made Simple

by Michael Ackerman 137

Produce this elegant curve with a one-subroutine BASIC program.

THEME: COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

Introduction 142

The Challenge of Music Software by Roger Powell 145

A professional musician describes the current status of computers in music.

Digital Music Synthesis by Robert A. Moog 155

An overview of the general attributes of musical sound and how to produce it.

Digital Sampling on the Apple Macintosh by Christopher Yavelow 171

Some insight into digital synthesis and glimpses of available software.

Musical Fractals by Charles Dodge and Curtis R. Qahn 185

How to use fractal geometry to generate musical fractals.

A MIDI Project by lay Kubicky 199

This MIDI interface with software for the IBM PC costs less than S200.

MIDI Programming by Donald Swearingen 211

Turbo Pascal software tools for processing MIDI data stream information.

REVIEWS

Introduction 228

Reviewer's Notebook by }on Edwards 231

The Atari 520ST by Eric lensen 233

A good engine for bit-mapped graphics.

Compaq Deskpro 286 by Stan Miastkowski 243

An IBM PC AT compatible with an 8-MHz switch.

Tele-286 by Wayne Rash jr. 251

This IBM PC AT compatible from TeleVideo comes with a 44-megabyte hard disk drive.

BYTE liSSN 0360-52801 is published monthly with one extra issue per year by McGraw-Hill Inc. Founder- lames H McCraw H860-1948I. Executive, editorialcirculation, and advertising offices One Phoenix Mill Lane. Peterborough. NH 03d 58. phone (603) 924-9281. Office hours: Mon~Thur 8:30 AM - 4:30PM, Friday 8:30 AM - I 00 PM, Eastern Time Address subscriptions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 590. Martinsville. N| 08836. Postmaster: send addresschanges. USPS Form 3 579. undeliverable copies and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 596. Martinsville. N| 08836 Second-class postagepaid at Peterborough, NH 03458 and additional mailing offices. Postage paid at Winnipeg. Manitoba. Registration number 9321. Subscriptions are S21for one year. S38 for two years, and S55 ior three years in the USA and its possessions. In Canada and Mexico. S23 for one year. S42 for two years.S6I for three years. S69 for one year air delivery to Europe. 17,100 yen for one year surface delivery to lapan. S37 surface delivery elsewhere Air deliverylo selected areas at additional rates upon request. Single copy price is S3 50 in the USA and its possessions. S4.25 in Canada and Mexico. S4.50 inEurope, and S5 elsewhere Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Please allow six to eightweeks for delivery of first issue Printed in the United States of America.

2 BYTE- JUNE 1986

COVER PAINTING BY ROBERT TINNEY

VOLUME 11, NUMBER 6, 1986

Mix C by Richard Grehan 257

A full-featured C compiler with a very low price.

Four MIDI Interfaces by Roger Powell and Richard Grehan 265

Available interfaces for the Commodore 64, IBM PC. Apple II. and Macintosh.

ConcertWare+ and SongPainter by Mario Sergio Bernardo 273

TWo music programs for the Macintosh that have varying attributes.

The Kurzweil 250 Digital Synthesizer by Christopher Morgan 279

A system that offers sampling, sequencing, transposing, and more.

Review Feedback 289

Readers respond to previous reviews.

KERNEL

Introduction 292

Computing at Chaos Manor: Color and CP/M by \erry Pournelle 295

lerry looks at the prospects for color and sees a future in CP/M.

BYTE U.K.: Modem Mysteries Revealed by Dick Pountain 319

Dick adds a WS3000 modem to his system.

Applications Only: Upgrade Fever by Ezra Shapiro 329

Ezra talks about the latest versions of four familiar programs.

BYTE Japan: New Tools, New Challenges by William M. Raike 339

Bill gets used to two acquisitions: a modem and a C compiler.

According to Webster: Storage for the Masses by Bruce Webster 347

Two mass storage devices get Bruce's attention.

BEST OF BIX

Amiga 367

Atari ST 372

IBM PC and Compatibles 383

Macintosh 387

Editorial:Music and MIDI 6

Microbytes 9

Letters 14

Whats New 29

Clubs and Newsletters 48

Fixes and Updates 49

Ask BYTE 50

Circuit Cellar Feedback 54

Book Reviews 63

Event Queue 78

Chaos Manor Mail 359

Disks and Downloads 445

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box,BOMB Results 446

Reader Service 447

Address all editorial correspondence to the Editor BYTE, POB 372. Hancock. NH 03449 Unacceptable manuscripts will be returned il accompaniedby sufficient first-class postage Not responsible for lost manuscripts or photos Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTECopyright © 1986 by McGraw-Hill Inc All rights reserved Trademark registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Where necessarypermission is granted by the copyright owner for libraries and others registered with the Copyright Clearance Center ICCCl to photocopy any articleherein lor the flat fee of SI 50 per copy ol the article or any part thereof Correspondence and payment should be sent directly to the CCC 29 CongressSi, Salem. MA 0\970 Specify ISSN 0360-5280/83 SI 50 Copying done for other than petsonal or internal reference use without the perrrsion of McGraw-Hill Inc is prohibited Requests fot special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to the publisher BYTE is availablein microform from University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Rd. Dept PR Ann Arbor. Ml 48106 or 18 Bedford Row. Dept PRLondon WC1R 4E1 EnglandSubscription questions or problems should be addressed to: BYTE Subscriber Service. POB 328. Hancock. NH 03449

228

292

SECTION ART BY MACIEK ALBRECHT

IUNE 1986 -BYTE

Inquiry 216

wMetaComCo

Languages

Atari ST • Amiga • QL

lattice® c

The well known LATTICE® C compiler, fullfeatured portable implementation.

MCC PASCAL

An ISO/ANSI standard Pascal. A fast singlepass compiler, ideal for commercial, educationaland personal use.

MCC ASSEMBLER

A professional standard macro assembler withmany powerful features.

CAMBRIDGE LISP

LISP interpreter/compiler providing a completeLISP development environment.

BCPL

A powerful compiler offering the convenience ofa high level language with the flexibility of anassembler.

APL

Keyword and symbolic versions of this impor-tant language from MicroAPL.

MCC BASIC

68000 BASIC interpreters and compilers fromMetaComCo.

MENU*

An easy to use program environment, with pull-down menus.

TOOLKIT

Provides useful tools and utilities. From the peo-ple who wrote AmigaDOS.

Product

Lattice C

Pascal

Asembler

Lisp

BCPL

APL

Basic

MENU +

TOOLKIT

Atari Commodore Sinclair

ST

$149.95$99.95$79.95

TBA

TBA

TBA

t

$29.95

TBA

Amiga

*

$99.95

*

$199.95TBATBA

TBA$49.95

QL

$129.95$99.95$49.95$79.95$79.95TBA

* = available from Commodore

t = available from Atari

QL Lisp includes interpreter only

The Quality Source for 68000 Software

5353 #£ Scotts Valley Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95066Contact your local dealer or call:Tel: US 800-AKA-META

Cal 800-GET-META, Eur (UK) 44-272-428761

Add 6.5% tax if CA resident. Bg| j^g|

Lattice: registered trademark of Lattice Inc.

Amiga and AmigaDOS: trademark of Commodore-Amiga Inc.,

Atari ST: registered trademark of Atari Inc.

Sinclair QL: trademark of Sinclair Research Ltd.

BYTE

editor in chief

Philip Lemmonsmanaging editor. printGene Smarts:consulting editors

Steve Garcia

lERRY POURNELLE

Bruce Webster

senior technical editors

G. Michael Vose. Themes

Gregg Williams

technical editors

Dennis Allen

Ion R. Edwards, Reviews

Richard Grehan

Glenn Hartwig

Ken Sheldon

George Stewart

Iane Morrill Tazelaar

Tom Thompson

Charles D. Weston

Fva White

Stanley Wszola

associate technical editors

Margaret Cook Gurney. Book Reviews

Brenda McLaughlin. Applications Software Reviews, San Francisco

BYTE INFORMATION EXCHANGE

George Bond, Executive Editor

David Betz, Senior Editor

Tony Lockwood, Associate Editor

Donna Osgood, Associate Editor. San Francisco

NEWS AND TECHNOLOGY

Ezra Shapiro, Bureau Chief, San FranciscoRich Malloy. Senior Technical Editor. New YorkPhillip Robinson, Senior Technical Editor. Pah Alio

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS

Dennis Barker. MicrobytesCathryn Baskin. What's NewAnne Fischer Lent. What's New

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Ionathan Amsterdam programming projects

Mark Dahmkf, video, operating systems

Mark Haas, at large

RtK Iadrnicek. CAD. graphics, spreadsheets

Robert T. Kurosaka, mathematical recreations

Phil Lopiccolo, computers in medicine

Alastair |. W. Mayer, software

Alan R. Miller, languages and engineering

Dick Pountain. U.K.

Roger Powell, computers and music

William M. Raike. \apan

COPY EDITORS

Bud Sadler, ChiefFaith HansonNancy HayesCathy KingeryPaula NoonanIoan Vigneau RoyWarren Williamson

ASSISTANTS

Peggy Dunham. OffioMartha HicksIune N. SheldonJudy Winkler

Manager*

ART

Rosslyn A. Frick. Art DirectorNancy Rice. Associate Art DirectorIan Muller, Art AssistantAlan Easton. Drafting

PRODUCTION

David R. Anderson. Production DirectorDenise ChartrandMichael I. LonskyVirginia Reardon

TYPOGRAPHY

Sherry McCarthy, Chief TypographerLen LoretteDonna Sweeney

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER

Harry L. Brownpublisher s assistant

Beverly Iackson

CIRCULATION (800-258-5485)

Andrew Iackson. Subscriptions Manager

Laurie Seamans. Assistant Manager

Susan Boyd

Mary Emerson

Louise Menegus

Agnes E. Perry

Jennifer Price

Iames Bingham, Single-Copg Sales Manager

Cathy A. Rutherford. Assistant Manager

Claudette Carswell

Karen Desroches

advertising sales

Dennis J. Riley, Director oj Sales and MarketingSandra Foster, Administrative Assistant

ADVERTISING/PRODUCTION (603-924-6448)

Lisa Wozmak. Supervisor

Robert D. Hannings, Senior Account Coordinator

Marion Carlson

Karen Cilley

Lyda Clark

Michele Iackson

Wai Chiu Li. Quality Control Manager

Iulie Murphree. AdvertisingiProduction Coordinator

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Horace T Howland Director (603-924-3424)

Vicki Reynolds, Marketing Production Manager

Lisa [o Steiner. Marketing Assistant

Stephanie Warnesky. Marketing Art Director

Sharon Price. Assistant Art Director

Michele P. Verville. Director of Public Relations (603-924-9027!

Wilbur S. Watson. Operations Manager, Exhibits

RESEARCH

Patricia Akerley. Research Manager

Julie Perron. Marfef Research Analyst

Cynthia Damato Sands, Reader Service Coordinator

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Philip L. Penny. Director of Finance and Services

Kenneth A. King, Business Manaaer

Christine Lee, Assistant

Vicki Weston. Accounting Manager

Linda Short D/P Manager

Edson Ware. Credit

Marilyn Haigh

Diane Henry

Vern Rockwell

IoAnn Walter

planning and developmentMichele P. Verville. ManagerFaith Kluntz. Copyrights Coordinator

PERSONNEL

Cheryl Hurd. Office ManagerPatricia Burke. Personnel Coordinator

BUILDING SERVICES/TRAFFIC

Anthony Bennett, Building Services ManagerBrian HigginsMark Monkton

receptionist

Donna Healey

m

Officers of McGraw-Hill Information Systems Company: Presi-f dent: Richard B Miller. Executive Vice Presidents: Frederick P.| [annott. Construction Information Group: Russell C White Com-' puters and Communications Information Group: |. Thomas Ryan.Marketing and International. Senior Vice Presidents: Francis A. Shinal. Con-troller: Robert C. Violette. Manufacturing and Technology. Senior VicePresidents and Publishers: Laurence Altman. Electronics Week: Harry L.Brown. BYTE: David J. McCrath, Construction Publications Group Vice Presi-dent: Peter B. McCuen. Communications Information. Vice President: FredO. lensen. Planning and Development.

Officers of McGraw-Hill. Inc.: Harold W, McGraw. Jr.. Chairman: JosephL. Dionne, President and Chief Executive Officer: Robert N. Landes. Ex-ecutive Vice President and Secretary: Walter D Serwatka. Executive VicePresident and Chief Financial Officer; Shel F. Asen. Senior Vice President.Manufacturing: Robert J. Bahash. Senior Vice President. Finance andManufacturing: Ralph R. Schulz. Senior Vice President. Editorial: GeorgeR. Elsinger. Vice President. Circulation: Ralph I. Webb. Vice President andTreasurer.

Editorial and Business Office: One Phoenix Mill Lane. Peterborough. New Hampshire 03458 I603I 924-9281West Coast Offices: McGraw-Hill, 425 Ballery St. San Francisco, CA 94 I I 1, 1415] 362-4600

McGraw-Hill. 951 Mariners island Blvd. San Mateo. CA 94404 [4151 349-4100New York Editorial Office: 1221 Avenue of !he Americas New York NY 10020. 12121 512-2000

BYTE, BVTE . and The Small Systems Journal are registered trademarks of McGraw-Hill Inc.

1 YT E • JUNE 1986

Circuit-Board-Artwork Softwarefor the Design Engineer

in a Hurry

~<}t¥;

«H :

, jT\.

i >n=n

^r

• i« —

: (0 ■ —

e )

s: :

«.«

£~r

t\\

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

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

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

□ Complete interactive controlover placement and routing

□ Quick correction and revision

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

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

□ Easy to learn and operate, yetcapable of sophisticatedlayouts

□ Single-sided and double-sidedprinted circuit boards up to

10 x 16 inches

□ Multicolor or black-and-whitedisplay

System Requirements:

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

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

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

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

□ Optional Microsoft Mouse

The Smart Buy

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

Wintek Corporation inquiry "6

1801 South StreetLafayette, IN 47904-2993Telephone: (317) 742-8428Telex: 70-9079 WINTEK CORP UD

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

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

EDITORIAL

Music and MIDI

Have you noticed the stir going on in theelectronic music industry? Take keyboardsynthesizers. A significant drop in pricehas been accompanied by a dramatic risein capability and sound quality, openingthe doors of musical exploration to multi-tudes of newcomers. We've also seen com-puter technology claim new territories inmusic through the advent of MIDI (musicalinstrument digital interface), a data-communications protocol that lets youjoin synthesizers and computers into smallnetworks for composition or performance.MIDI has stimulated the entire musicindustry by providing a standard forhardware and software to be used for theproduction of music. Creativity, efficien-cy, and productivity are enhanced by thedevelopment of computer-based toolsaimed at the mystical process of musicgeneration.

The current specification for MIDI hasbeen in existence for four years. It cameabout through the cooperation of musicsynthesizer manufacturers around theworld, notably those from Japan and theUnited States. Essentially, a large group ofmanufacturers got together and decidedto add serial data channels to all futureelectronic music instruments so thatevents generated on one instrument couldbe played on remote instruments con-nected via the MIDI cable. Layers ofsound, for example, can be producedfrom a single keyboard controller by driv-ing multiple sound modules equippedwith MIDI inputs. By inserting a personalcomputer into the middle of all this sound-generating equipment, composers canrecord and manipulate scores much asword processors do text.

The Good News

So we now have a data-communicationsstandard for moving music event data be-tween a computer and sound-generatinghardware. We can buy instruments fromdifferent manufacturers and interconnectthem at once. Older versions of music syn-thesizers, having no compatibility to anyother device you might be using, weredoomed to eventual obsolescence asnewer products were released to replacethem. Now it's different—what you get

tomorrow can be integrated with what youhave today, and it's reasonable to considerbuilding an elaborate system over a periodof budget-controlled time. A variety ofgood MIDI software is now available. Wefind software that can act as a kind ofdigital tape recorder for music data; pro-grams that edit, store, and retrieve librariesof synthesizer voice parameters; and soft-ware that can display, print, and editscores rendered in traditional music nota-tion. It's a heyday for musicians of all per-suasions. Or is it?

The Bad News

While the MIDI specification goes a longway toward unifying the tasks necessaryto the production of music, it does notsuggest any format for the storage of MIDIdata files. Thus, developers of music soft-ware are on their own to adopt a struc-ture for disk files containing MIDI perfor-mance data created by the software. Andthat is precisely what has happened dur-ing the development of today's MIDImusic software: Each program on eachcomputer produces a data file that can-not be instantly read by any other com-bination of hardware or software. Further-more, few, if any, file-converter utilities areavailable to assist transportation of databetween environments. (Of course, thereis always the issue of differences amongthe underlying DOS formats for individualcomputers.)

A Data File Standard

Utility programs that convert music filesfrom one manufacturer's product to an-other must be seen as only an interimmeasure. A better approach would see allthe important players get together (in afashion similar to the one that led to theMIDI 1.0 specification) and hack out atarget format for file interchange. If soft-ware developers could produce a musicalequivalent of the DIF standard used fordatabase files in the business world, usersoperating in different computer and syn-thesizer environments would benefit im-mensely from expanded access to thelarge body of music data now being stock-piled. This tactic would also let existingproducts "speak'' to future programs de-signed to use the target file format.

A number of obstacles present them-selves when attempting to derive a con-venient, universal method of organizingmusic data files. That's not to say that noone is trying. Besides continuing develop-ment on the academic level at universitieslike Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, and MIT,commercial concerns like Roland andElectronic Arts have worked hard in an ef-fort to establish useful guidelines towardthe goal of increased music data sharing.In its own way, each organization hasfaced hurdles, including:

• Some computers have a lot more mem-ory, speed, and display resolution thanothers. How can a file produced on a morepowerful computer be rendered on a lesscapable machine? What should aminimum configuration consist of?

• Should graphic data for displaying com-mon music notation or some derivative beincluded with MIDI performance data?Since both types of data might exist in-dependently, and, given that some soft-ware does not recognize both, shouldthese two kinds of data be kept inseparate, parallel files?

• Should we go further and attempt todesign a full-blown operating system formusic that could be ported to variouscomputer architectures? This is ambitiousbut could produce long-term benefits.

Naturally, other important points needto be ironed out. At this time, we invitesoftware and hardware developers to plugin their irons. The success of the MIDIstandard offers hope for a standard for fileinterchange. At the moment, the con-sumer is getting shortchanged by the in-ability to move data between music-processing programs. The audience forcomputer music software is growing largerand more sophisticated, and it's up to theleaders in music technology developmentto provide software standards. We at BYTEwant to encourage all concerned to in-vestigate the work already done and thenhave a series of formal conferences involv-ing a variety of sources. It's not going tobe easy, but it has to happen (and soon,too, because I have a lot of music data onIMSAI-8080 cassettes waiting to be up-loaded to my Amiga).

—Xloger Powell, Contributing Editor

6 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Maxell Corp. of America, 60 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, NJ 07074

I

1

"])■

• -,

1

*]

IWHhk.

«f I

^^^BBI^H

Jk

■Fjm>*+

maxell

FLOPPY DISKSTHE GOLD STANDARD

Before you invest in a DEC*VT240 terminal,consider the software alternative.

Stop and think about what you reallyneed: A text terminal. Tektronix*graphics. ReGIS* graphics. File transfercapabilities. Communications.

Purchasing a state-of-the-art terminalmay be one option, but Persoft has asmarter solution—SmarTerm18 240,

the ultimate in terminal emulationsoftware.

SmarTerm can do everything the state-of-the-art terminal can do—and more.That's why we call it state-of-the-smart.

With SmarTerm 240, the emulation isso exact you'll forget you're using aPC. It features superior text emulation,ReGIS graphics, Tektronix graphics,outstanding communications and filetransfer capabilities.

You also get on-line help screens,remappable keyboard layouts andprogrammable softkeys which cansimplify your most frequently performedtasks. You can even customize yourown menus!

And because SmarTerm runs on yourPC, you've always got a wealth ofcomputing power right at your fingertips.

All SmarTerm products are backedby Persoft's strong technical supportnetwork. It's a service you expect fromthe industry leader in terminal emulationsoftware.

No matter which terminal you'recurrently using—Data General Dasher*D400, Tektronix 4010/4014, DEC VT100,VT125, VT220 or even the new VT240,

SmarTerm has a state-of-the-smartsolution for you.

To find out more about the SmarTerm

family of terminal emulation software,

see your local dealer. Or contact:

Persoft, Inc.

2740 Ski Lane

Madison, Wl 53713

(608) 273-6000 -Telex 759491

STATE

OF THE

ART

• ■

0^Kb^ H in

I

i

!

-

VT240; fe

~——

—-~

'SmarTerm <s a registered trademark at Persott, Inc. 'DEC, VT and ReGIS. are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corp.'DASHER is a registered trademark of Daia General Corp. 'Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix. Inc.© Person, inc. 1906. All rights reserved,

aerso/r

■U Inquiry 26I .

MICRO-BYTES

Staff-written highlights of developments in the microcomputer industry

New Geometry Could Have Implicationsfor Telecommunications

Dr. Donald Kreher and Dr. Stanislaw Radziszowski, assistant professors at Rochester Instituteof Technology's School of Computer Science and Technology, have discovered a non-Euclidean geometry that could enhance long-range satellite transmissions and telecom-munications. The two professors used a new basis-reduction computer-search technique tofind a simple 6-design, the smallest such design possible.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska discovered the first two 6-designs in 1984. Ac-cording to Kreher, "We were able to find this third design because the computer-searchtechnique that we created enabled us to search a larger space of possibilities than previous-ly searched anywhere in the world.'' Kreher and Radziszowski solved complex 99-integerequations in 12 hours, a process that they estimate would take several million centuries ofcomputer time if they used a "brute force" technique.

The new geometry could help in correcting transmission errors over long distances. Ac-cording to Kreher and Radziszowski, scientists can use the geometry to construct code forerror reduction. When errors are received, the geometry used to construct the code getsdistorted. Distortion characteristics let the scientist find and correct the error.

Teachable" Pattern-Recognition System on IBM PC AT

Nestor Inc., a small research and development firm in Providence, Ri, said it has successfullymoved its prototype self-adaptive pattern-recognition system from a minicomputer to anIBM PC AT. The Nestor System, developed by two Brown University physicists interested inanimal neuronal networks, is significant in that it must be taught, not programmed, torecognize new patterns. The system inherently makes use of parallel processing anddistributed memory but currently emulates these capabilities on today's serial-processingcomputers. Interestingly, a spokesperson from Nestor claimed that the system runs just asfast on an AT as it did on an Apollo minicomputer, primarily because of the Apollo'sgraphics-processing overhead.

Nestor is currently investigating using a bit pad with its system to analyze free-form hand-writing and is in negotiation to procure funding to develop a large-vocabulary voice-recognition system.

SIMMs: Denser Memories Through Packaging

If you think that a circuit board jam-packed with 256K dynamic RAM chips is the ultimate indense, solid-state memory, keep reading. The new generation of chip packages—leaded chipcarriers (LCCs)—is making a splash in memory chips for microcomputers. Because thesepackages take up far less space than their predecessors, the venerable DIPs, computerdesigners can fit far more memory in the same space on a board. But the chip and systemmakers are going even further. They are mounting several LCCs on a long, narrow circuitcard that has leads on one long side. That card, called a SIMM (single in-line memorymodule), can then be mounted vertically onto a standard circuit board.

The first well-known micro to use this form of memory is the Apple Macintosh Plus, whichhas a megabyte of RAM on four 256K-byte SIMMs. The SIMMs plug into special socketsand can be easily exchanged for 1-megabyte SIMMs to create a 4-megabyte Mac Plus.

One of the first semiconductor firms to announce SIMMs for the commercial market isNEC Electronics, Mountain View, CA. The NEC SIMMs come in five configurations: 256K by4, by 5, by 8, or by 9 bits, and 1 megabyte by I bit. Both 120-ns and 150-ns access timesare available. The SIMMs are standard epoxy-glass substrates with pins or edge connectorson one long side; they are based on 256K-bit dynamic RAMs in plastic LCCs.

{continued)

IUNE 1986 • BYTE

Hannover Fair: Atari Shows PC Box, German FirmAnnounces Supercomputer

At the opening of the Hannover Fair in West Germany, Atari exhibited its IBM PC com-patibility box for its 520ST and I040ST computers. The box had its own 8088. a socket foran 8087. and 512K bytes of RAM. It connects to the ST via the DMA port. With the prod-uct's introduction at least several months away, Atari representatives wouldn't discuss pric-ing except to reaffirm the company's policy of producing in "high volume at low cost."

IP Systems, of Karlsruhe, West Germany, announced but did not show the TX2 series ofsupercomputers. The result of work done by researchers at Karlsruhe University, theparallel-configuration machine is based on the 80286 and has at least 16 chips. It can per-form 10 million to 30 million instructions per second. The TX2 uses neither arrays nor vec-tors. Its parallel architecture is based on an extended tree structure. The machine repre-sents a new type of parallelism that could apply to functions beyond the typical uses infloating-point math, for example, in the types of calculations used in expert systems, op-timization, and other non-numeric tasks.

Toshiba exhibited three optical disk products it said will be available to consumers latethis year. Toshiba also showed two plasma-screen laptop computers, the T2100 and theT3100, compatible with the IBM PC XT and AT, respectively. Ing. C. Olivetti also brought PCcompatibles to the Fair. Sanyo showed for the first time its SPX-840 LED printer, said torival laser printers in print quality and performance. The unit's method of printing involveselectronic photography using an LED-array head and a selenium-tellurium photosensitivedrum. Resolution is 400 dots per inch, and print speed is rated at 20 pages per minute.

A Norwegian company, Ask LCD, has come up with a flat-screen display for the IBM PC.At Hannover, it was suspended from a desk-mounted support arm. The unit measures 330mm by 230 mm and is 25 mm thick. The screen surface is 250 mm by 160 mm.

Prospero Software, a British firm exhibiting at Hannover, announced a FORTRAN compilerfor the Amiga and the Atari ST. Called Pro Fortran-77, it could help open up the68000-based machines to technical and scientific applications.

NANOBYTES

Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, introduced the 80287-10, a 10-MHz version of its numericcoprocessor. The device operates at up to twice the speed of older versions.... In otherIntel news, the company has enlisted the support of four software developers to providecompilers for its 80386 32-bit chip. Silicon Valley Software, Cupertino, CA, and GreenHills Software, Glendale, CA, said they will develop FORTRAN, C, and Pascal compilers forthe 80386. Ryan-McFarland, Rolling Hills Estates, CA, said it's porting its standardFORTRAN and COBOL compilers to run on the chip. And Language Processors, Waltham,MA, announced it would develop COBOL, FORTRAN, C, Pascal, PL/I, RPG II, and BASICcompilers for the 80386. . . . Apricot Computers, Fremont, CA, said it will offer Microsoft'sMS-DOS 4.0 as part of its XEN Multiuser System.... NEC Electronics, Mountain View, CA,and Oki Semiconductor, Sunnyvale, CA, have developed a CMOS version of NEC's/iPD7720 Digital Signal Processor. The new chip, called the NEC /xPD77C2 or the OkiM77C20, is a pin-for-pin replacement for the 7720 and draws only 24 mA, 80 percent lessthan its predecessor . . . PicTel Corp., Peabody, MA, has a desktop videophone systemthat transmits color video images over dial-up digital lines. PicTel said calls cost just twicethat of ordinary phone calls, but the videophone setup costs $150,000. . . . SSI Software,Orem, UT, unwrapped an operating shell for its WordPerfect and other SSI packages. Word-Perfect Library is a RAM-resident program designed to enhance the performance of Word-Perfect, MathPlan, and SSIData.... Brown Wagh Publishing, San Jose, CA, has released aword-processing program for the Amiga. Besides standard editing capabilities. Scribble pro-vides four windows that can each hold a separate document. . . . Personal Composer,Honaunau, HI, has brought out version 2.0 of its Personal Composer music software. MIDIfeatures include a 32-track recorder and a patch recorder. . . . Two United Kingdom com-panies have released products based on the Motorola 68020 32-bit CPU. MicroAPL ofLondon launched a multiple-processor machine, the Aurora, that can handle as many as 64users. Although it was designed to run the company's APL interpreter, it can be pro-grammed in other languages. Another product using the VMEbus is the ET-68020 VMEcard from Integrated Micro Products Ltd., County Durham. IMP said it has managed tomake the 68020 run reliably at 25 MHz, at which speed it performs more than 10 MIPS inbursts. . . . Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA, is offering rebates to full-time teachersand college students who buy Apple hardware: $75 on a He, $150 on a Me, $175 on a 512KMac, and $200 on a Mac Plus.... IBM's PC Convertible is being built by robots at a plantin Austin, TX. The automated workers perform all assembly and test operations, and theassembly process reportedly takes 6 minutes.

10 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Next to your computer,

nothing beats a Tandy printer*

'■***' '*"'"■ •'.Tt

HPfi . HP g™*'jiuLifcaj

JM 1. <JI

E3 Haai

Tandy printers make fine print quality,graphics and high performance affordable*

For your best value and selection intop-quality printers, shop your localRadio Shack Computer Center. We'vegot what you need, whatever yourprinting requirements.

Dot-matrix power for business

The DMP 2200 (26-1279, $1695.00)gives you efficient, fast printing at 380characters per second. It supportselongated, double high, bold, under-line, super/subscripts, italics and dou-ble strike, plus bit-image graphics. Italso has a built-in tractor for perfectpaper alignment.

Versatile business printer

The DMP 430 (26-1277, $899) is a132-column dot-matrix printer with an18-wire print head that delivers supe-rior correspondence characters in asingle pass. Choose from micro, italic

Prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating stores and dealers. All printers shown are IBM®

order at some locations. IBM/Registered TM International Business MachinesInquiry 295

and double-high fonts, as well as bit-image graphics. In the draft mode, theDMP 430 delivers a fast 180 charac-ters per second.

Low-cost, triple-modepersonal printer

The DMP 130 (26-1280, $349.95)lets you choose from word processing,data processing and dot-addressablegraphics. Prints in four characterstyles: standard or italic cursive, indraft or correspondence modes.

Save time while printing

With a PTC 64 Printer Controller(26-1269, $249.95), you can print onejob while working on another. The"print buffer" accepts and stores infor-mation from your computer.

See the complete selection of printersand accessories at Radio Shack today.

Radio /hacK

The Technology Store'

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION

New 1986 Computer

Catalog!

Send me a copy.

Mail To: Radio Shack

Dept. 86-A-794300 One Tandy CenterFort Worth. Texas 76102

Name

Company_

Address_

City

State

1II

compatible. The DMP 430 requires specialCorp.

IUNE 1986 'BYTE II

Introducing SixFinally Performance

C.fMMH m I i LM I

WordStar." Write a letter whileup to eight ether applications.

- "ill i\\m

*t-»t* Mi M*tl».

— First Quxrter, 1%

1 Line* Sto

2 S« teuton. 3 FUlph Xspi.

lejlo* 4 levin StocM.le

- lea S RUa r"

'it SoeSf

i 7 Joafc III

i 8 warren khrou

9 URtUaea

ftl StanRobin SnyderBruce MM*"Wendy DockerDonf Br*ileyKen SprettxerFitly CooperH-flpr-66 69:28 fit

fc,l™2fcfio«3kilo* 4BajieaS

■ninehflnl«nlo.tk.lo.5

fcil™Ikiln■dim■nln

tllnl

■nl°°

ub. <al iniii mi in —»all M»■■ aa«a Ia.

Mtt I—■ llaHaflaUai ta*, ivItaitMvUlK

B. tllfaHHala. .U. Ax all at tta Eat— ■•»'

aaa la aajaat fia> mtm aajaUa aaMMallia maiiliF<IW aart. I aarlal part., a «a ran. a c'—-

ts /-J-.'." /I// ii'ktises Of I'iikPreinium's DESQvieiv"* wind

SaalfcaTaalte.Ia.rr!- Plrat " 'rlStar l&BK)I ; C:PKBIIUB PftGE 1 LINE 1 COL

loal iLrkMIl,.

Iaa2 8

. flan* tjaa for laajtriai alaat oar i —

aaltitaaklaf wlatlaa, tlrfakfraalaa.

-tou joim (ieex)| I

Witt IIAUrlalB aai KSfelai. I

9 Una nail ma ea soar K - at aaca

, <an to raa alrtaally all rofalar anaj

Dow Jones!' Monitor on-line stock i/iiotntionswhile working on other projects.

m

■

■

PakPremiunf^^^Exceeds Demand^

SixPakPremium, the new generation mul-tifunction board designed for new genera-tion IBM XTs, is here! Now one person andone PC have the power to meet the demandsof business. AST's newest solution for newXTs, existing PCs, XTs and compatibles,SixPakPremium offers all the popular multi-function features plus two megabytes ofexpanded memory and the powerful softwareto use it.

Premium Performance. Now, run up to nineapplications .■-

simultaneously. ' SSPAkPrEMIUMSort a data base,write a letter, cal- jgculate a spread- psheet, monitorstock quotations and print labels... all at thesame time... on the same PC! And, our win-dows let you view applications instantly.

SixPakPremium is fully compatible with allcurrent PC applications, including expandedmemory applications such as Lotus 1-2-3Release 2.0. And DESQview, our multitasking/windowing environment is compatible withmore than 200 of the most popular packages.

Premium Features. SixPakPremium offersup to two megabytes of expanded memory,two serial ports, parallel port, game port,battery-backed clock/calendar, DESQviewand SuperPak™ utilities.

Premium Quality. As the leader in PCenhancement, with over a million productsshipped, AST is known worldwide for itshighly reliable products.

Make The Premium Choice. For perfor-mance that exceeds demand, call our Cus-tomer Information Center (714) 863-1333. Orsend the coupon to AST Research, Inc., 2121Alton Avenue, Irvine, CA 92714.

RCSCRRCH INC.

r

Yes, I want to learn more about Premium Performance.Please send me your special SixPakPremium infor-mation package today!

Name

Title

Company-Address

City

_ State.

_Zip_

L

Phone_L

Inquiry 2 for End-Users. Inquiry 3 for DEALERS ONLY.

LETTERS

Atari 520ST Memory Upgrade

I recently completed the Atari 520ST1-megabyte memory upgrade modifica-tion as outlined by Gert Slavenberg onpage 372 of the February BYTE. (Editor'snote: Also, refer to the Atariltechst conference onBIX, message #239. and to ST.DOC fromBYTEnet Listings.) It wasn't as easy as ex-pected, and I'd like to share my experiencewith those tempted to add 512K to theirmachine for $50 worth of dynamic RAMand a few hours of free time.

After piggybacking the new 120-nano-second DRAMS, I quickly soldered themto the old ones using a 35-watt iron. Thejoints did not look that good, but I buzzedout the board with the ohmmeter and allconnections passed. When 1 finally bootedup, erratic operations resulted. Most com-mon among these were

• Black balloons on screen with systemkeyboard dead

• Display filled with dots

• Double menu images

After taking some aspirin, I proceededto troubleshoot the board. Could myproblems be traced to those DRAMS,which get very hot, making a cold-solderjoint "colder"? My suspicions were con-firmed when 1 shorted the connectionstogether, one by one, and rebooting or er-ratic symptoms were triggered. I was ableto get the modification to work properlyby resoldering every connection slowlyand carefully with a 15-watt pencil iron, ex-amining each joint with a magnifying glass.

Here now are some pointers I'd like topass on to anyone attempting to completethis memory upgrade modification.

Note 1: The modification does not workwith the 16 despiking caps unconnected.

Note 2: After turning on the power, tryto copy the system disk in one pass in-stead of two. If this works, run the memorytest program outlined below.

Note 3: If you have little experience indoing chip soldering and debugging, Istrongly suggest not doing this modifica-tion yourself. While being a major im-provement to the ST, it can easily destroyyour computer.

A simple test of system memory fromBASIC can be quite informative. Issuing

the command x = fre(0):print x returned529,492 bytes available on my system.This number may seem low, but withoutthe added memory only small programscan be written.

The following is a diagnostic program toquickly test out memory, 1K at a time. Thisprogram writes zeros and ones from theend of 512K bank 1 past the end (FFFFFhexadecimal) of 512K bank 2.

5 rem memory test should run untiladdress 1048574

6 rem test ability to write 0's and 1's toall blocks

10 for adr = 450000 to 2000000 step

102420 bits = 030 GOSUB 20040 bits = - 3276750 GOSUB 20060 next70 end

200 poke adr, bits210 j = peek(adr)

220 print "address = ",adr, "data = "J230 if jo bits then print "error ":stop240 return

Tom DolanFlushing, NY

Support Networkfor the homebound

As someone who has been disabled sincethe age of five and who is currently tele-computing full time for a Fortune 500 in-surance corporation, l would like to com-mend you for the excellent article "Work-ing at Home with Computers" by JaneMorrill Tazelaar, which appeared in theMarch issue.

Disabled people are indeed creative,motivated, productive people. We havedone excellent work in many fields overthe years. We have been lawyers, doctors,teachers, and even a U.S. president. Now,thanks to the microcomputer and themodem, even the severely mobility-limiteddisabled person—the homeboundperson—is showing his or her potential.

Some of these men and women have ex-pressed an interest in setting up a supportnetwork for homebound disabled workers.I think it is not only an excellent idea, but

it could open up new worlds for many ofus homebound workers who are brightand creative but also terribly isolated.Therefore, anyone interested in being apart of such a network can write to me atDisability News Online. 2 57 Center Lane.Levittown, NY 11756. They can also reachme via CompuServe at 76505.656, via TheSource at BCG138, or via PeopleLink atIQR860. I'd like to hear anyone's ideas,comments, or feelings about setting upsuch a network.

By the way, Disability News Online is a na-tional newsletter by and for the disabled.It can be read on The Source by typingthe following at the command prompt:

BASICV SFILES > BCG138 > DISABILITY-NEWS-ONLINE.

Robert MauroLevittown, NY

putting the amigato Good Use

What's an Amiga good for? I seriouslyasked an Amiga salesman that questionat a local Amiga Fest and the followingconversation ensued.

He told me that the Amiga is the bestpersonal computer ever made, and heasked me what I wanted a computer for.I said I was a scientist and did a lot ofnumerical work that required speed andaccuracy. He explained to me how muchfaster the 32-bit 68000 Amiga is over the8088 IBM PC family. I said that that maybe and asked if the Amiga is faster ormore precise than the 8087 in the IBMPCs. He admitted that the 8087 is fasterand more precise, and maybe the IBM PC

(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.

14 BYTE • |UNE 1986

^

Hard Drive Card

•TTTOT'l

Hard Drive Card

A Hard Drive The Easy Way.

Turn your PC into an XT in seconds with On Board, Maynard's new hard drive card!

So your PC needs a hard drive...

When you bought your PC, you never dreamedyou'd need more than floppy drive performance.But now, both you and your PC are ready for more.In fact, there's just one reason you've been puttingoff getting a hard drive. Admit it. It's the installation.Cables and controller and all that.

Well, relax. OnBoard is here. The hard drive cardthat boosts your PC's storage capacity to rival anyXT or AT* on the block! OnBoard snaps easily intoone of your IBM PC's expansion slots! Open yourPC, plug in OnBoard, and close your PC. Just likethat. Your PC will boot directly to OnBoard when youpower up — no more floppy disk maneuvering.

Powerful Self-Control.

If you already have a hard drive in your PC,OnBoard's controller card will double up and runboth hard drives. Which helps keep your expansionslots open for other business.

Lots of Head Room,Lots of Desk Room.

OnBoard puts up to 20MB of power into your PC,turning it into a hard drive heavyweight in seconds! Ifyou need less storage but the same speed and fineperformance, you can install OnBoard 10.

Single-Slot Installation.

Simply snap OnBoard into expansion slot 1 of yourIBM PC* or XT, leaving all your other slots free foradditional boards.

OnBoard is designed to work in today'sleading PCs and is available at thefinest computer stores. Contact yourlocal dealer or call us today for moreinformation.

"IBM PC. XT. and AT are trademarks of International Business Machines.

Inquiry 208

^! Maynard Electronics

Shaping tomorrow's technology.

460 E. Semoran Blvd., Casselberry FL 32707 305/331-6402

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 15

LETTERS

Supports up to 150 lbs.

All steel frame construction

5'A square foot footprint

is better for mathematical work.

I said that I run my own business andwould like to use a computer for account-ing. How would the Amiga be for businesswork? More than anything, I need thecomputer to be reliable and error-free. Ican't have the computer altering my ac-counting data. The salesman said theAmiga would be great for business use.I asked about error detecting or correct-ing memory, and he said the Amiga doesn'teven have parity checks on memory.

That meant that a memory bit changecould eat a hole in my business databasesand 1 might not discover the error formonths, and even then 1 won't know whathappened. I can live with a computer thatdies, but I can't allow it to take me withit. Business computers must have somekind of memory error detection and all thebusiness computers I use have errordetection and correction. In my opinion,lack of memory error detection rules theAmiga out as a business computer, espe-cially since I can buy computers that dohave memory error detection. The sales-man admitted that this was a valid point.

1 said that I do a lot of writing and coulduse a good word processor. The salesmansaid the Amiga would be a fantastic wordprocessor. After seeing good Amigagraphics, how about some good Amigatext? Wow! The Amiga has the worst80-column text quality I have ever seen onany computer. I couldn't write or programthat thing for more than two hours withoutdeveloping a bad headache. 1 suspectanyone could get around that problem bywriting a word-processing program thatuses the Amiga graphics to do the text.However, the lack of a connection for amonochrome monitor would rule out theAmiga as a good word-processing ma-chine anyway. The composite video out-put would not make as good a mono-chrome display as a real monochromeoutput signal. For those of us who spenda lot of time looking at the tube, thismakes a big difference. Well. Mr. Salesmandidn't know quite what to say except thatthe graphics are fantastic.

Amiga graphics may be fantastic for apersonal computer, but they are verymediocre for real graphics work. Amigagraphics are not good enough for image-processing work, and most engineeringworkstations in industry today have 1024-by 1024-pixel displays with 256 grayshades or colors per pixel. They cost a lotmore, but the applications require it andnothing less will be productive.

So. back to my original question: What'san Amiga good for? 1 am not trying to pickon the Amiga, but it looks like Com-

[continued)

ANTHRO

An thro Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tektron

Anthro is a registered trademark ot Anthro Corporation.

New! Windows-Compatible Iwa-Vision 1.1

Complex DrawinMad%JEasy

We created In-a-Visionjust for you. Theengineer who needsmore productivedrafting support.The designer whoneeds versatilityfor alternateideas or quick re-visions. The ar-chitect who needsto manage a vari-ety of workingdrawings. And thebusinessman whoneeds first-classpresentation mate-rials as welJ as de-tailed flow chartsand organization charts.

Point. Click. Draw.

Now all you do to create com-plex technical drawings, systemsdesigns, blueprints, diagrams, il-lustrations, and proposals is point,click and draw. With In-a-Vision'smouse support, windowing, icons,

and pull-down menus, youproduce drawings morequickly, accurately andefficiently than everbefore. In-a-Vision'sadvanced technologyincludes many featuresnot found on compar-able systems costing thousands more. For example, youcan pan around in a user-definabledrawing space up to 68" x 68" andzoom in on specific areas for

K

FREE Microsoft*Windowsfrom MICROGRAFXf

If you purchase In-a-Visiondirectly from MICROGRAFX,we'll give you a free retail copyof Microsoft Windows soyou can use In-a-Vision asV part of a fully integrated

working environment. Move■ instantly from In-a-Vision toM other applications and back ...■ cut and paste text and drawings

iT^T7

(Most popular graphics cards, plotters, and printers supported.)

Microsoft Windows-compatible. Call for specific operatingenvironment requirements.

' Demo requires MS Windows, Full demonstration system for userswithout Windows available for $49.00.

greaterdetail. Scale,rotate and dimen-sion symbols, fill anarea with yourchoices of pre-defined colors andpatterns, as well asdraw lines with multiple stylesand widths. Other features in-clude overlays, predefined anduser-definable page sizes, rulers,grids, and templates to speedpopular applications.

Multi-tasking in a PC-based CAD system.

In-a-Vision usesmulti-tasking toenable you tocontinuedrawingwhile printinghard copies or editmultiple drawings simultaneously.

MICROGRAFX

The Picture of Success.

Inquiry 225

between applications'•^ ... and more!

We're confidentyou'll agree — In-a-Vision willmake your complex drawing taskssimple and make you more pro-ductive. Satisfaction guaranteed.

TO ORDERCALL*

800-272-3729

Demo disk* orbrochure availableto qualifiedcustomers. InTexas or for cus-tomer support, call(214) 234-1769.MICROGRAFX, Inc., 1820North Greenville Avenue,Richardson, Texas 75081.

In-a-Vision and MICROGRAFX are trademarks ofMICROGRAFX, Inc.

Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft. Inc.

UNLOCK RemovesCopy Protection

RUNS YOUR SOFTWARE ON ANY HARD DISK

• Produce non-protectedDOS copies from popularsoftware programs

• For IBM® PC, XT, AT,compatibles

Guaranteed to work only with programs below:

UNIock ALBUM "A"

^i|A Ag (Plus $4 ship/handling.

Foreign orders $10)

• LOTUS 1-2-3™ (la, 1.A-, 2.0)

• dBASE III™ (i.o, 1.1,1.2 & plus)

• FRAMEWORK™ <i.o, 1.1, ii)

• SYSTAT™ (1.3 & 20)

• SPOTLIGHT™(i.o& id

• GRAPHWRITER™ (4.3 & 4.3i>

• REALIA COBOL™ (1.2, 2.0)

UNIock ALBUM "B"

$49.95

(Plus $4 ship/handling.Foreign orders $10)

• SYMPHONY™ (1.1)

• CLIPPER™ (Winter '84, Summer '85)

• ELECTRIC DESK™ <i.<>4)

• DOUBLEDOS™

• MANAGING YOUR MONEY™

(1.5 & 1.51)

• smARTWORK™(i.o rev s thru 10)

• DATA BASE MANAGER II™

(2.0, 2.02)

UNIock ALBUM "C"

<&AQ QR (Plus $4 ship/handling.ytSlSv Foreign orders $10)

• MICROSOFT WORD™

(1.5, 2.0, 2.01)

• MULTILINK ADVANCE™

(3.02 & 3.03)

• IBM WRITING ASSISTANTS 01)

• LOTUS 1-2-3 REPORTWRITER™(i.o)

• PARADOX™ (i.o)

• PFS ACCESS™ (1984 Edition)

• THINKTANK™ (2.0)

"Best of UNIock"ALBUM "D"

$74

AC fplL,s $A ship/handling.

Foreign orders $10)

• MICROSOFT WORD™

(1.5, 2.0, 2.01)

• dBase III™ (to, 1.1,1.2 & plus)

• LOTUS 1-2-3™ (la & 1.A-, 2.0)

• SYMPHONY™ (1.1)

• FRAMEWORK™ (1.0,1.1, n)

• CLIPPER™ (Winter '84, Summer '85)

• MULTILINK ADVANCE™

(3.02 & 3.03)

TranSec UNIock is a unique software copyingdisk that removes copy protection,

providing standard non-protected DOS copies.UNIock runs on IBM9 PC, XT, AT, andcompatibles with at least 256K (or morerequired for some programs), DOS 2.1 orhigher.

BACKUP COPIES. UNIock safely andeasily makes backup copies.

RUN ON HARD DISK. Programs loadfaster, use less disk space and work with anyhard disk, including Bernoulli Boxes. Nolonger do you need the original in drive "A".

RUN ON RAM DISK. UNIock is the onlysoftware that can run copy protected softwareon a RAM disk or micro-floppy.

EASY TO USE. 1) Type UNIock. 2) Selectprogram destination. 3) Insert program disk.

SAFE ORIGINAL. UNIock does not alteryour original distribution disk. UNIock worksby creating a copy of your distribution diskon a hard or floppy disk. It then removes copyprotection from the copy!

Choice of the Critics!

"UNIock 4.7 defeats the latestProlok and SuperLock typeof copy protection scheme. It's menu-driven andworks fine on the programs it's supposed towork on: Lotus 1-2-3, dBase III, Framework,Symphony, Paradox, and several others."

Jerry Pournelle, BYTE, Feb. '86

BYTE

El

>ERSONALj "UNIock has two particularlywj*ii\ii*l endearing characteristics: itworks, and works simply. I was able to quicklyproduce unprotected copies of Lotus 1-2-3release 2, Symphony 1.1, Microsoft Word 2.0,dBase III 1.1, and Framework II. These copiesperformed flawlessly, as did copies of thesecopies." Christopher O'Malley,

PERSONAL COMPUTING, April '86

NEW! SPECIAL OFFER"Best of UNLOCK"

ORDER BY TELEPHONE TODAY! §

1-305-474-7548 S3UNLOCK

TranSec Systems, Inc., 1802-200 North University Drive, Plantation, FL 33322

Trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners. • UNIock is For Use Only to Improve the Useability ot LegallyAcquired and Operated Software.

LETTERS

modore is caught in a sandwich (pokerterm). A poker sandwich is a situation inwhich you don't have a good enough handto win high and you don't have the rightcards to win low, but you definitely arecontributing money to the pot. Amiga istoo expensive for the average home com-puter, and it's not quite up to the IBM PCAT clones for business or scientific use.The most interesting thing about theAmiga will be the reason for its survival,if it survives.

Ronald R. MillerPoway. CA

Dvorak versus QWERTY

Your article about the Dvorak keyboard("Keyboard Efficiency" by Donald W.Olson and Laurie E. Jasinski, February)failed to mention one major limitation: Itis highly language-specific for the Englishlanguage only. To be used for the Germanlanguage, for example, it would have to bedrastically rearranged. This rearrangementcan be applied even to the "standard"QWERTY that became QWERTZ for theGerman typewriters, because Y is barelyneeded, but Z is used quite often.

This holds true, to a varying degree, forother languages as well, like Italian orsome northern and eastern European lan-guages. In addition, these languages needadditional characters that are not con-sidered in the QWERTY or Dvorak key-boards. These characters occur quite fre-quently in these languages. For example,a, 6, and u together make up about 3 to5 percent of the characters of German orSwiss German writing. (My computer doeshave these characters, but they are wellhidden in the graphic-shifted set.) Andonce we get into languages other thanEuropean, the Dvorak layout might haveto be modified into a completely newsystem. The QWERTY and its modified/ex-panded variants seem to be much moreusable and have found their way to theremote corners of the globe. The more ef-fective something is for a certain task, themore limited its scope, no matter what itis. Even human beings are this way.

A. MettlerMaluku, Indonesia

Macintosh Windows

While I'm not certain that the Macintoshwindowing environment is the ultimate. Iam sure that Alex Funk's proposals("Copyrighting Icons," March Letters, page14) are less intuitive and less useful.

His first complaint is about scroll bars.I have no idea what he means about go-ing right to go up, unless he is referringto positioning the mouse over the scroll

(continued)

Western Computer 286 Turbo™ Western Com

Standard Features Standard FeaturesIBM PC/AT Compatible with 512K RAM • IBM PC/XT corn-Up to 2 Megabytes of system memory on the patible with 256K

Western Computer XT Turbo1

main board

• Switch selectable 6 or 8 MHz operation withone wait state on memory access (80286-8)

• 6 or 8 MHz operation with no wait states onmemory access available

• 6 or 10 MHz operation with one wait state(80286-10)

• One parallel port and Clock/Calendar onmain board

• Mass storage options from 20 to 140Megabyte Hard Disk Drives and 20 to 60Megabyte tape backup systems

• EGA video options available for CAD/CAM,word processing, etc.. ..

• One year factory warranty

RAM on main boardUp to 640K on board4.77 or 8 MHz

operation

• Two 360K FloppyDisk Drives

• Hercules compat-ible monochromegraphics controller(720 x 350) or IBMcompatible color

Megabyte Hard Disk Drives and 20 to 60 graphics adapter (320

Megabyte tape backup systems x 200 - four colors or 640 x 200 - two colors) and

• EGA video options available for CAD/CAM, parallel printer portword processing, etc.... • Monochrome monitor (Composite or TTL input)

• One year factory warranty • IBM PC/AT style keyboard

• Various hard disk drive and tape backup options

Western Computer has high qualitycomputers at very competitive quantity pricing. availableEUROPEAN HEAD_0FF,CE r . . Qne Year Factory

at" Warrant.

BELECTRONIC SA, RUE CENTRALE 43

CH-1880-6EX, SWITZERLAND

PHONE (025) 631250

TELEX 456 168 ASWERBACK BELE CH.

TELEX 756731 -

estern omputet

' 'For High Technology and Performance''

IBM" , IBM PC" , IBM AT- .iretrademarks of International

1381 WARNER AVE., WARNER CORPORATE PARK, SUITE B TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA 92680 U.S.A. (714) 259-775

Inquiry 369 for End-Users. Inquiry 370 for DEALERS ONLY.

LETTERS

bar. Since this is the only way to indicatewhich window to scroll in multiwindow ap-plications (like QUED). it's hard to see howthis can be avoided. Although scroll barsdo take up space (16 pixels of width), thisis little more than 3 percent of the screenwidth (and you can often resize a window,so over half of this is off-screen).

I don't consider this a problem on theMacintosh, although it might be withgraphics environments like GEM, whichrun on low-resolution screens. The little

box gives an instant visual indication ofwhat part of the document the windowportrays. A major deficiency of the alter-nate to scroll bars in ThinkTank was thatthere was no way to tell if you were at theend of a document. Funk's proposal givesno feedback to this problem. Neither doesit give the ability to go instantly to an endof the document. Finally, I can't see howholding down an arbitrary key while mov-ing the mouse is intuitive. What happenswhen you run out of room? The scroll bars

Why buy 3packages to geta completemulti-user

dBASE* System?

$695

$2385

After all, FoxBASE is a compiler, aninterpreter and a multi-user dBASE sys-tem all in one. That means single vendorsupport and no problems with productincompatibility.

Not only that, FoxBASE actually outper-forms dBASE and other dBASE compilerproducts: its program execution speed isfar superior to the competition and itscompiler runs up to 60 times faster thanother compilers. And FoxBASE is available

FoxBASEdoes it better.

For less.

$995

for the widest variety of machines andoperating systems.

In addition, FoxBASE is interactive and100% dBASE compatible (including fullmacro usage). The only thing you won'tget is all those annoying dBASE bugs!

Best of all, FoxBASE costs less thanhalf the other packages.

So call (419) 874-0162 now, and ask fora copy of our comparative analysis(including benchmarks). After all...

Nothing Runs Like a Fox.

Fox Software, Inc.

27475 Holiday Lane, Perrysburg, OH 43551

(419) 874-0162

'dBase is a registered trademark of Astiton-Tate FoxBASE Is a trademark ol Fox Software, inc. Clipper'" is a trademark of Nantucket

allow continuous scrolling.

When I resize a window. I want to beable to resize it precisely. Funk's proposalseems to be a way to get relative sizing(wave the mouse pointer around to makeit bigger), rather than being able to posi-tion the window next to another. In anycase. Apple's method gives visual feed-back that a given window can be resized,rather than leaving the user wondering ifhe held down the wrong modifier key.

Funk's method for closing a window(waving the mouse pointer around with nokeys held down) seems reminiscent ofwhat I do when 1 want to make sure mymouse is clean and functional. Again, theclose box for a window gives a visual cuethat the window can indeed be closed,while if Funk's method failed, one wouldbe left wondering if he hadn't "erased" thewindow vigorously enough.

What is a global zoom? That seems toimply zooming every window, which hard-ly makes sense. The new Macintosh ROMsdo allow a window to have a zoom box.if Funk means a standard way of zooming.

I also wonder what a global abort is.Abort what? What kind of state shouldthings be in after an abort? If Funk reallywants to abort things, he can install theProgrammer's Switch and press Reset.

Since, in the real world, people will beswitching between different machines, itmakes sense for different windowing en-vironments to work similarly. (Since Ilearned the Macintosh first, 1 get very an-noyed at the differences in the way GEMand the Amiga handle things.) I still can'tfigure out why Digital Research caved into Apple's ludicrous claims to own thelook I first saw on a Xerox Star. PerhapsApple is considering the fact that theyspent a lot of time and money develop-ing a good user interface (rather than justcoming up with something that seemsgood, as I believe Funk has), and theydon't want someone stealing it. But anynew product is going to be copied—justlook at VisiCalc. What Apple needs to dois make sure their implementation is thebest, rather than trying to cripple all othersby making sure they're nonstandard.

David DunhamColeta, CA

Lengthening Short Delays

The notes in the February "Best of BIX"indicate that some users were havingproblems involving shortened delays ofone type or another when the NEC V20chip was installed in place of an 8088.Perhaps they can benefit from my ex-periences in solving a similar problemoperating under MS-DOS 2.00 and 2.11.

{continued)

20 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry 137

THE

MUTHF

PLOTTER

■'ii:!!

sSJIs

•■'*)>■ ■■',:

»

Enter the world of professionalCAD applications withHouston Instrument's low costDMP-41/42 series plotters. Thesesingle-pen plotters give you the fea-tures you need—C and D size plots,extensive software compatibility, andproven reliability—for a very afford-able no frills price of $3295.*

The DMP-41/42 series' large Cand D size formats are ideal for a widerange of CAD applications, fromarchitectural elevations to assemblydrawings. And a .005 inch resolutionensures crisp drawings on avariety of media—paper, matte film,or vellum.

Inquiry 155

With the DMP-41/42 series, youcan choose from an impressive selec-tion of off-the-shelf graphics softwarepackages such as VersaCAD,AutoCAD, and CADKEY. Or, byusing Houston Instrument's popularDM/PL™ language, you can createyour own custom software and beassured of upward compatibility withHouston Instrument's entire line ofplotters.

The DMP-41/42 series. The plottersthat offer superb reliability, comprehen-sive graphics capabilities, and a nofrills price. The proven performersfor low-cost CAD.

For more information, call

1-800-531-5205 (512-835-0900 if inTexas), or write Houston Instrument,8500 Cameron Road, Austin, Texas78753. In Europe, contact HoustonInstrument, Belgium NV.,Rochesterlaan 6, 8240 Gistel,Belgium. Tel.: 32-(0)59-277445.Tlx.: 846-81399.

*U.S. suggested retail price. Pricing subject to change.DM/PL is a trademark of Houston Instrument.

DQCDQaSGODQinstrument

A Division of AMETEK

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 21

LETTERS

For several months, I have used an NECV20 in an NCR Decision Mate V, and re-cently the hardware clock rate was in-creased from the stock 5 MHz to 7.3728MHz. The DMV uses a delay routine toallow time for the flex drive to get themotor started and to bring READY active.

After installing the V20, this delay was toobrief and caused a "Drive not ready" errorwhen the drive was accessed with themotor off. If (R)etry was pressed immedi-ately, the drive was accessed normally (asthe motor was already on) and READYwas active by that time. An increase in the

Listing 1: The results of

unassembling MOTORCK using Debug.

xxxx:2ED5 E413

IN

AL.13

get drive status

xxxx:2ED7 2401

AND

AL.,01

test MOTOR ON bit

xxxx:2ED9 E614

OUT

14.AL

switch motor onif off

xxxx:2EDB 7501

JNZ

2EDE

delay if motor off(jump to2EDE)

xxxx:2EDD C3

RET

return if motor on-end MOTORCK-

xxxx:2EDE BBFFFF

MOV

BX.FFFF

# of passes to BX

xxxx:2EE1 D40A

AAM

8088 = 83 cyclesV20 = 15 cycles

xxxx:2EE3 4B

DEC

BX

one less pass left

xxxx:2EE4 75FB

JNZ

2EE1

jump to 2EE1 ifnot last pass

xxxx:2EE6 C3

RET

end of last pass -return to 2EDD

hardware clock rate compounded theproblem; however, a patch to the delayroutine in IQSYS increased the delay afterwhich it worked properly. This will not bea total solution for many users, becausethe DMV start-up routines are called fromROM using a Z80A, and the V20 has nocontrol until after the operating system isloading. In most computers, the V20 al-ways has control, so delay routines inROM would be affected also.

MOTORCK is the routine in IQSYS thatstarts the drive motor, along with similarroutines in FORMAT.COM and a specialDMV utility called RDCPM.COM (for read-ing CP/M disks). Unassembling MOTORCKusing Debug yields the results shown inlisting 1.

Method #1—Use if the hardware clockrate is unchanged. Replace the AAM com-mand with IMUL AL 1MUL AL executesin 80 or more cycles on an 8088, and only38 on the V20. but provided enough delayfor my system even though the delay wasmuch shorter. The advantage of thismethod over #2 is that 8088 compatibili-ty is retained; so if it works on your system,use it.

(continued)

I™'■ tWS^^^^^lvWM r iP W V An intelligent function keyboard

for use with 1 _2~3 ™, Word Star ™, MultiMate™, Display Write 3Symphony™, WordStar 2000™, WordPerfect

IS

NO MORE MEMORIZING FOR SOFTWARE COMMANDS

The Dreamer is an intelligent function keyboard. It is pre-programmed with over 550software commands which it sends to the IBM PC at the touch of a single key.

The Dreamer's descriptive keys simplify the use of seven sophisticated business

program: Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony, WordStar, WordStar 2000, MultiMate,

DisplayWrite3 and WordPerfect.

Wouldn't it be easier to press a key "Bar" instead of typing "/ G T B V" to display

bar chart in Lotus 1-2-3? or a key "Save File" instead of searching for "Ctrl K-S"

to save a document in WordStar.

Increase your office efficiency by putting a Dreamer next to your PC system.

Dreamer is entirely a hardware device it will not occupy PC memory. It requires

no memory-resident programs and there are no pre-boot disk necessary.

OEMs and VARs: Our professional engineers can re-program the Dreamer to

fit your special application.

The Dreamer is available for IBM PC, XT, AT.

DREAMER FEATURES:

* 20-key numeric pad with seperate cursor controls.Lotus 1-2-3 lOOcommands MultiMate 58commandsSymphony 191 commands DisplayWrite 3 58 commandsWordStar 58commands WordPerfect 58 commandsWordStar 2000 58 commandsTemplate included for alternate command pages

" Easy selection between command pages

* Easy installation

* Full 90-day warrenty * Suggested retail price $259

T.S. MICROTECH INC. (213) 644-0859 12565 Crenshaw Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250

Registered Tradermarks: IBM, IBM PC, XT, AT, DisplayWrite 3-lnternational Business Machines Corp. 1-2-3, Symphony-Lotus Development Corp.WordStar, WordStar 2000-MicroPro International. MultiMate-MultiMate International.WordPerfect-SSI

Inquiry 403 for End-Users.Inquiry 404 for DEALERS ONLY.

Ven-TeFs Half Card" modemis in all the best computers,

Here's why. .^ —'

Ven-Tel gives you lots of reasons to buy our Half Cardmodem for your IBM PC or compatible. The Half Cardis a complete system that lets you communicate withother PCs, mainframes, and databases effortlessly.It includes Crosstalk-XVI® software. It's reliableIt's got all of the features you want. And it'sa good value.

Do You Own One of TheseComputers?

Chances are you do. And if you'rethinking of buying a modem, considerthe Half Card™. Because of its small size,the Half Card™ fits in more computers,including all of the models we've listedhere. The Half Card™ is small, so it fits inshort slots or long. That means you cansave your long slots for other expan-sion uses.

Effortless CommunicationEach Half Card "comes with Crosstalk-XVI®communications software, by Microstuf. It'sthe easiest to use, whether you're a beginneror an old hand, and the most powerful. A fullon-line help menu makes using Crosstalk® forthe first time a snap. It can turn your PC into aterminal on a mainframe computer with its power-ful terminal emulation feature. It will even oper-ate your PC when you're not there. You can callinto an information service such as The Source or Dow Jones NewsRetrieval, or transfer files and electronic mail, all at the touch ofa button. The Half Card™ connects your computer to the world.Effortlessly.

More Modem for Your Money

When you buy the Half Card™ you don't need anything else. TheHalf Card™ is a complete communications package that includesa full-featured modem and the best known software on the market.Complete easy-to-understand instructions with full technical supporton installation and use. And a very competitive price. The HalfCard™ with Crosstalk-XVI® software, retails for only $549.

Features

. 1200/300 baud auto-dial, auto-answer.. Uses the industry standard "AT"

command set.. Runs with virtually all communications

software, including Smartcom II and PC

Talk III and integrated packages such

as Symphony and Framework.. Includes Crosstalk-XVI® software.. On-board speaker and extra phone jack

for easy switching from voice

to data mode.. Selective tone or pulse dialing;

full or half duplex.. Automatic answer on any ring.. True ring or busy signal detection.

Reliability

Ven-Tel has been making

modems for 10 years. Our

experience shows. Ven-Tel's

Half Card™ only has about 70 parts, compared

to almost 300 on other modems. We reduced the parts

by building the first LSI modem chip using advanced

switched capacitor technology. What that means to you is

greater reliability and lower power consumption, so you can

load up your PC with expansion boards and not worry about

heat or power problems. And we back the Half Card™ with a full

two-year warranty on parts and labor.

You Can Buy the Half Card™Anywhere

You can get the Half Card™ at Computer-Land, Businessland, the Genra Group,Entre Computer Centers, Macy's ComputerStores and other fine dealers nationwide.Also from Ven-Tel: the 1200 Plus™ anexternal modem and the PC Modem1200™ an IBM internal with V.22 inter-national capability.

Effortless Communication

♦ Ven-Tel Inc.

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

Crosstalk is a registered trademark of Microstuf, Inc. Smartcom II is a trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products. Symphony is a trademark of Lotus Development. Framework is a trademark of AshtonTate.

Inquiry 36I

IUNE I986 -BYTE 23

LETTERS

Method #2—Use if the hardware clockrate is increased. Replace the AAM com-mand with DB 60 61. The V20 recognizes60 and 61 as PUSH R and POP R, respec-tively. While those commands are incom-patible with 8088 use, the V20 takes 67and 75 cycles to execute them, causing theduration of the delay to substantiallyincrease. If the delay is too long, changethe number of passes through the loopfrom FFFF to some smaller number (5FFFworked reliably at 7.3728 MHz, while

3FFF was marginal).

Incidentally, the 8087-3 is compatiblewith the V20 but couldn't keep up at7.3728 MHz. Probably an 8087-2 wouldhave worked at the higher clock rate, butthe upcoming NEC 8087 replacement chipmay be faster yet. Also, the DMV sloweddown markedly when the hardware clockrate was increased to 8 MHz, which is whyI settled on an odd rate. The crystals werepurchased locally in 22.1184- and 24-MHzfrequencies. The divide-by-three logic in

Here are 79 reasons tobuy at Elek-Tek, not tomention the fastestdelivery anywhere.

L'UHSGA

BERNOULLI BOX

1. 10 meg V2 height Drive forIBM-PC/XT/AT &compatibles $ 1599

2. 20 meg V2 height Drive forIBM-PC/XT/AT &compatibles 2275

3. 40 meg. (20 + 20) V? HeightDrive for IBM PC &compatibles 2899

5. 10 meg cartridges for above

(3 pak special) 125

Interfaces priced separately

14. Amdek 310A

Amber Monitor S 150

15. Generic MultiMultifunction Board OK ... .99

16. Generic Multi 384KMultifunction Board 384K . . 169

17. AST Six Pak +Multifunction Board. 64K . . .225

18. AST Six Pak + (loaded)Multifunction Board 384K . . 290

19. Quadram QuadboardMultifunction Board. OK 195

20. Multi Board 64K.384K ..215/260

21. Orchid Tech.

PC Turbo 186 350

22. ECCELLOK 399

38. SEAGATE

Internal H.D. Subsystem

20 Megabyte $500

Save 30% to 43%

off Manufacturer Suggested Ret. prices onAmerica's most wanted PrintersHuge Discount onTOSHIBA

OgLWA Site

EPSON

EPSON® FX85

6. LX80 SCALL

7. RX 100+ 299

8. FX 85 370

9. FX 286 550

10. LQ 800/1000 CALL

11. DX10 Daisy Wheel 10CPS ... 230

12. DX20 Daisy Wheel 20CPS ...320

13. Comrex CR420 400CPS ... 900

UNBELIEVABLE!!!XEROX/DIABLO D-36

DaisyWheel 35CPS

Mfr. Sugg. Ret. $1495

Elek-Tek Price $450

Diablo

P-38 Dot Matrix 400CPS

Mfr. Sugg. Ret. $1995

Elek-Tek Price $600

PRODUCTS FOR IBM-PC and COMPATIBLES

23. ECCELL Daughterboard ... 135

24. ECCELL I/O Board 99

25. Hercules

Monochrome Card 299

26. Generic version of above .. 90

26. Hercules Color

Color Graphic Card 155

27. Generic version of above . 100

27. Novation 4905921

1200B Int. No Software 150

with MITE Software 165

28. Novation 490605-12400BPS inc. Mite Software . 540

29. Novation 490603

Vz Card Modem 2400 BPS

No software 425

39. Intel Above Board

All Products CALL

30. Novation 490603-1

As above inc MS-DOS Software .. 490

31. Hayes 1200

External modem 380

32. Hayes 1200B

Internal modem w/software .359

33. Hayes 2400

External modem 599

34. Hayes 2400B

Internal modem w/software . 525

36. US Robotics Courier 2400

Ext 2400B Smart Modem . . 460

37. Toshiba ND04D

V? hi. DSDD Disk Drive 105

DISKETTES

Dysan

maxB*

3M

3V2" SSDD

20.00

19.00

21.00

DSDD

27.00

26.00

25.00

5 V." SSDD

15.00

12.00

11.00

DSDD

19.00

15.00

14.00

SSDD96TPI

24.00

22.00

23.00

DSDD96TPI

33.00

29.00

25.00

14" DSDDHD

33.00

28.00

26.00

(For IBM AT)

8" SSDD"

22.00

32.00

22.00

8" DSDD"

26.00

27.00

24.50

''Unformatted

Caff for Quantity pricing for 10 boxes or more.

40. XIDEX PrecisionDS/DD Diskette 10pk/S7.005 boxes minimum

3M DATACARTRIDGES

73. DC100A $ 13.50

74. DC300A 17.50

75. DC300XL 20.50

76. DC300XL/P 21.50

77. DC600A 23.00

78. DC1000 14.50

79. DC2000 19.50

Call for quantity pricing for 10cartridges or more.

CALL TOLL FREE 800-821-1269 EXCEPT Illinois, Alaska CANADIAN TOLL FREE 800-458-9133

Zmm m- bbb / nj Lincoln4 InC. [31216317B00

Chicago. IL 60645(312)677 7660

the clock circuitry yields clock rates of7.3728 and 8 MHz, respectively.

Chuck SterlingLas Cruces. NM

Misleading Statements

I'm writing this in protest of the JS&A adthat appeared in the March issue on page403. The ad speaks of "the memory re-quirements of the monitor which in theAmiga can eat up [as) much as 70% of theunit's cycle time or speed." This just isn'ttrue! The Amiga's memory runs at 14.2MHz, and the 68000 and custom chipstake turns accessing memory, as your pastarticles have explained. I think that youshould read your ad copy a little morecarefully.

Also, in the Atari 1040ST preview(March), you state that the Sieve ofEratosthenes runs in 85 seconds usingAtari ST BASIC. My Amiga does the Sievein 69 seconds with ABasiC and 57 sec-onds with AmigaBASIC. (I used your Atariversion.) I'm not knocking the Atari. I wishthat 1 could afford one, but when it isstated in the industry that the Atari is"faster" than the Amiga, I want to seeproof. Actually, I expected much betterresults from the Atari on the Sieve.

I appreciate your coverage of the Atariand Amiga, and perhaps now the stagna-tion that has plagued the micro industryfrom the premature fixation on a standardwill be overcome and we really will some-day own "mainframes on a desk." (Thisstagnation happened in the TV industry,with the unfortunate result that we arestuck with 50-year-old technology.)

Richard L. SmithTampa, FL

Problems with Smalltalk

Is Smalltalk a "dead" system? As a Small-talk fan, 1 would like to think not. Unfor-tunately, my recent experience with Small-talk-80 on a Xerox 1108 convinced me thatit has some serious failings. More impor-tant, the lack of progressive improve-ments gave me the strong impression thatactive development ceased some timeago; I was working with a "dead" system.It was the strong visual aspects of aproduct that I was designing that led tomy selection of Smalltalk for prototyping.While the prototype was completed in theexpected three months, the number ofconcessions I had to make to the systemalong the way left me unhappy. At first Iput these down to my lack of familiaritywith Smalltalk, but as my knowledge in-creased and the problems continued, itbecame clear that the system was themain source of the problems.

[continued on page 357)

24 B YTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 126

High-Speed Animation on Your IBM PC!

X-1 Graphics E

inexpensive, usar-l'

k^fc Ifum

fi

r

■

special hardware

3D Graphics Software for usewith the Standard IBM Color/Graphics Adapter or X-1Graphics Board

feLDGIC

1 I

I /wrt

I Mr

11' I

WE'RE OUT 10 SAVE ONE MILLIONFRUSTRATED PROGRAMMERS

You're on a roll, really pumped,writing the best code you have everwritten and then-AAARGHHH!

Freeze dried in your tracks becausethe language you're using just won'tlet you achieve what you can conceive.

And you wanted to be aprogrammer.

So your choices are:

1) write around the problem bycreating six pages of emetic code...

2) leave out that incredible ideathat really puts your stamp ofexcellence on this program or...

3) get yourself a world classheadache (or a stroke) by droppinginto assembler.

Whatever you choose, by now youfeel the language is out to get you—because it is.

Sure, no language is perfect, butyou have to wonder, "Am I gettingall I deserve?"

And, like money, you'll neverhave enough.

Pretty dismal, huh?

We thought so, too.

So we did somethingabout it.

We call it CLARION.

You'll call it incredible.

With CLARION you canwrite, compile, run anddebug complex applicationsin a New York afternoon.

Even if you're in Savannah.

It gives you the power andspeed to create screens, windowsand reports of such richnessand clarity you would neverattempt them with any otherlanguage.

Because YOU would have towrite the code.

With CLARION you simply design thescreens using our SCREENERutility and then CLARION writesthe source code AND compilesit for you.

In seconds.

Likewise, you can useREPORTER to create reports.Remember, only CLARION canrecompile and display a screen orreport layout for modification.

And with no time wasted.

All the power and facilities youneed to write great programs, faster

than you ever dreamed of.

Programs that are easy to use.

Programs that are a pleasureto write.

And to you that means truesatisfaction.

You've coveted those nifty pop-uphelp windows some major appli-cations feature. But you can't affordthe time and energy it takes to writethem into your programs.

That's the way it used to be.

So we fixed that, too.

CLARION HELPER is an inter-active utility that let's you designthe most effective pop-up helpscreens that you can imagine. Andthey're "context sensitive," meaningyou can have help for every field inyour application.

Unlike the other micro languages,CLARION provides declarations,procedures and functions to processdates, strings, screens,\ reports, indexed

files, DOS filesand memorytables.

SAY IT IN

9

CLARION

DEPT. A1BY/1

1-800-354-5444

■'■J,

Imagine making source programchanges with the CLARIONEDITOR. A single keystroketerminates the EDITOR, loads theCOMPILER, compiles the program,loads the PROCESSOR andexecutes the program. It's that easy!

Our data management capa-bilities are phenomenal. CLARIONfiles permit any number of compositekeys which are updated dynamically.A file may have as many keys asit needs. Each key may be composedof any fields in any order. And keyfiles are updated whenever thevalue of the key changes.Like SCREENER andREPORTER, CLARION'S FILERutility also has a piece of theCLARION COMPILER. To create anew file, you name the SourceModule. Then you name the State-ment Label of a file structurewithin it.

FILER will also automaticallyrebuild existing files to match achanged file structure. It creates anew record for every existingrecord, copying the existing fieldsand initializing new ones.Sounds pretty complicated,huh?

Not with CLARION'Sdocumentation and on-linehelp screens. If you arecurrently competent in Basic,Pascal or "C" you can bewriting CLARION applicationsin a day. In two days you won'tbelieve the eloquence of yourCLARION programs.Okay, now for the best part of all. Youcan say it in CLARION for $295.00-complete. All you need is an IBM® PC, XT,AT or true compatible, with 320 KB ofmemory and a hard disk drive.

And we'll allow a full 30 day evalua-tion period. If you're not satisfiedwith CLARION, simplyreturn it in its original conditionfor a full refund.

If you're not ready to take advantageof this no-risk opportunity, ask forour detailed 16 page color brochure.It vividly illustrates the elegance ofCLARION. Consider it a preview ofprogramming in the fast lane.Either way, the call's a freebie.

BARRINGTON SYSTEMS, INC. • P.O. BOX 5580 • POMPANO BEACH, FL 33074 • 305/785-4555

IBM* is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. CLARION'" is a trademark of Harrington Systems, Inc. ©1986 Barrington Systems.

Inquiry 36

. t i.y ............. . | .

//^■■■■•■■■■■■■■■■■v|l\(\\

One IBM PC, XT/AT or compat-ible, plus one Advanced DigitalPC-Slave II, now equals a com-plete 3-user (or more) system.

Do you need a true multi-user PC system?

If so, read on. The AdvancedDigital solution will simply addup in your favor.

To add two or more users toyour IBM PC, XT/AT or compat-ible, just plug in our PC-SLAVE IIand two low-cost monochromemonitors and keyboards. You cannow run PC-DOS~ or MS-DOS™on each user with PC-NET™ soft-ware to support your network.The end result is a true multi-processor system that allows eachuser to run independently ontheir own CPU and memory, yetsharing a common data base.

Do you need networkingcapabilities?

The realm of IBM networks isonly a step away with the

The Ultimate Two-UserIBM PC Card

PC-Slave II and PC-NET software.An expanding network of multi-user PC's is truly cost-effectivesince you will be sharing data andcommunication between users andPCs. File and record locking arealso provided so each user canrun independently of others whilestill tied through the network.

Do you need additionalusers?

Expand your existing supplyof PC standalones into multi-usersystems by simply adding morePC-Slave II's.

The PC-Slave II features twoIntel 80188 CPU's @8Mhz, two512Kb RAM per CPU and twomonochrome/keyboard controllersall on a single board.

MS-DOS is a registered trademark of MicrosoftPC-DOS, PC-NET are registered trademarksof IBM Corporation

PC-Slave II is a registered trademark ofAdvanced Digital Corporation

MONOCHROME MONITORS

□ Q

□

IB

MONOCHROME MONITORS

PC NET'

PC SLAVE II BOARD

-■-""_"■.-■: = >

IBM PC/XT/AT

m*wmm

:

/,;,v,v,v,v,v,'T\\\^

PC SLAVE [I BOARD

28 BYTE • IUNE 1986

To learn more about the multi-usersolution contact:

ADVANCED DIGITAL CORPORATION

5432 Production DriveHuntington Beach, CA 92649(714) 891-4004 (800) 251-1801Telex 183210 ADVANCED HTBH

ADVANCED DIGITAL U.K. LTD.

27 Princes Street, Hanover SquareLondon W1R8NQ-United Kingdom(01) 409-0777 (01) 409-3351TLX 265840 FINEST

<&> ADVANCED/DIGITAL

CORPORATION!

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

WHAT'S NEW

IBM IntroducesLaptop Computer

IBM's laptop computer,the PC Convertible, fea-tures a fold-up. removable,80-column by 2 5-line liquidcrystal display; two 3/2-inch,720K-byte floppy disk drives;and a rechargeable batterythat can power the unit for6 to 10 hours. Internally, thecomputer has a CMOS 8088processor and 2 56K bytesof static CMOS RAM thatcan be expanded to 5I2Kbytes. Other standard fea-tures are a 78-key keyboard,an AC power adapter, andsoftware that includes Sys-temApps, a package with ascheduler, notepad, phonelist, and calculator. The com-puter requires the recentlyannounced DOS version 3.2.

According to IBM. theConvertible's performance issimilar to that of the IBMPC, and in some tasks thelaptop may be fasterbecause of its static RAM.Reportedly, the static RAMalso allows you to turn onthe system and return to thesame point in a program atwhich you turned the com-puter off.

Without the AC adapterthe Convertible weighs 12.2pounds and measures 15 by12 by 2.6 inches. You canremove the LCD screen andattach a video displayadapter (S3 50) and either a9-inch monochrome monitor($180) with a resolution ofup to 640 by 200 pixels ora 13-inch RGB monitor(S400) with 320 by 200resolution. IBM says thecomputer's keyboard is com-patible with other IBM PCkeyboards. The laptop'skeyboard includes an

The PC Convertible. IBM's laptop computer.

The Bondwell 8, an IBM PC-compatible laptop.

inverted-T cursor keypad anda function shift key thatchanges the cursor keys toHome, End. PgUp, and PgDnkeys and sets up a slantednumeric keypad in the type-writer keys.

The back of the systemcontains a system bus con-nector to which you candaisy-chain a number ofadapters. These include aparallel/serial adapter ($195),the video display adapter,and a thermal-transfer dot-matrix printer ($295) that

can run off the computer'sbattery or with the ACadapter. The printeroperates at the rate of 40cps and can print on copier,thermal, or thermal-transferpaper.

Other options include aninternal 1200-bps modem($4 50) and battery charger($2 5). To allow easy transferof data between existingdesktop computers and thenew machine. IBM is offer-ing external 3'/2-inch floppydrives ($395) for the IBMPC, XT. and AT and an inter-nal 3/2-inch floppy drive($190) that can be con-nected to IBM's new version

of the PC XT with a20-megabyte hard drive.

Shortly after IBM unveiledthe new computer, most ma-jor software firms an-nounced the availability oftheir products in the same3/2-inch disk format that isused by the Convertible.AshtonTate, for example, an-nounced 3/2-inch versions ofFramework II. dBASE 111Plus, and MultiMate Profes-sional Word ProcessorSeries 3.3. Lotus Develop-ment Corp. announced3/2-inch versions of 1-2-3and Symphony, scheduled toship this summer and fall,respectively Similarly, Micro-soft Corp., which developedthe MS-DOS 3.2 operatingsystem for the Convertible,announced 3/2-inch versionsof Microsoft Word, Project,Chart. Access, and Multiplanas well as Windows andMicrosoft programminglanguages.

A PC Convertible with2 56K bytes of RAM ispriced at $1995; each addi-tional 128K bytes of RAMcosts $195. A TechnicalReference Manual sells for $75,and a Hardware Maintenanceand Service Manual costs $150.Contact IBM Corp., EntrySystems Div.. POB 1328,5201 South Congress Ave..Boca Raton. FL 33432, (305)982-3474.Inquiry 550.

Bondwell's Laptop

The Bondwell 8. an11-pound portable com-puter that's compatible withthe IBM PC, runs on a4.77-MHz 80C88 micropro-[continued)

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 29

WHAT'S NEW

cessor. The computer comeswith 512K bytes of RAM, abuilt-in 720K-byte 3'/2-inchfloppy disk drive, and a300-bps modem. The por-table's 80-character by2 5-line backlit LCD displaysgraphics with a 640- by200-pixel resolution and canbe switched on and off toconserve power.

Other features include abuilt-in rechargeable batterypack that provides up to 8hours of power, a real-timeclock, RGB and compositecolor video outputs that arecompatible with the IBMColor Graphics Adapter, anRS-232C serial port andCentronics parallel port, anda second disk drive port. Abattery charger is included.The computer also comeswith MS-DOS 2.11 and GW-BASIC 2.0 and runs all IBMPC-compatible software.

A second 3'/2-inch floppydisk drive and a 5W-inchfloppy disk drive are avail-able as options.

The laptop is priced at$1595. A second 3!4-inchfloppy drive sells for5399,95. and a 514-inch flop-py drive costs $379.95. Formore information, contactBondwell. 3300 SeldonCourt #10. Fremont. CA94539. (415) 490-4300.Inquiry 551.

Program for

Computer-aided

Mathematics

MathCAD. a softwarepackage for computer-aided mathematics, is de-signed for engineers andother technical users whoneed to perform numericalanalysis and document theresults. MathSoft says itsprogram works like a texteditor and lets you use amicrocomputer as a scratchpad. You can enter and editequations that appear onscreen just as they would onpaper; the software sizesbrackets and fraction barsinteractively as you enter anequation. MathCAD also

Specify range of hammics to siw:

Compute haiwnic series

Y^-sia 2 i I —

J L J 2J

Screen shot oj MalhSoft's MalhCAD.

automatically places ex-ponents, subscripts, squareroots, and summation signsin arbitrarily complex com-binations.

After you've entered equa-tions, you press the equal-sign key and the softwarecomputes the results, whichare displayed as a numberor a plot.

Math capabilities includereal and complex numbersin all expressions, iterativecalculations, full dimensionalanalysis and error checkingfor undefined variables andconstants and radices thatare improperly formed,hexadecimal and octal con-version, and variable namesof any length. Plots corre-spond to mathematics andchange as you modify equa-tions. You can plot data aslines, dots, steps, crosses, orerror bars.

MathCAD runs on the IBMPC line under MS- or PC-DOS 2.0 or later. It requires384K bytes of RAM and aHercules monochrome. IBMcolor, or IBM EnhancedGraphics Adapter card. Thesoftware works with Intel's8087 and 80287 copro-cessors. MathCAD sells for$189. Contact MathSoft Inc.,One Kendall Square. Cam-bridge. MA 02139, (617)577-1017.Inquiry 552.

Object-oriented LISPRuns on IBM PC AT

LISP Machine Inc.s Ob-jectLISP is an object-oriented LISP that runsunder Golden Common LISP(from Gold Hill Computers)on the IBM PC AT. LMI saysthat unlike other object-oriented dialects, which arebased on sending messagesbetween objects, its versionuses function calls. Becausethis "programmingparadigm" uses the samesyntax as normal LISP, youdon't need to learn aseparate syntax.

ObjectLISP's semanticsdon't distinguish betweenobject classes and instances.The regular LISP environ-ment is regarded as Ob-jectLISP's global object, andsymbols are bound there totheir ordinary global values.LMI says this function bind-ing is similar to variablebinding but associates asymbol with a definition in-stead of with a value.

ObjectLISP is written in.and is portable to any sys-tem that supports, Common-LISP. The software comes ona '/2-inch magnetic tape witha user's guide and sourcecode. A shipping and mediacharge of $195 applies tothe first copy, and you maymake subsequent copieswithout obligation to LMI.Contact LISP Machine Inc.,

Marketing Dept,. 6Technology Dr.. Bldg. #4.Andover, MA 01810, (617)682-0500.Inquiry 553.

ProgrammableCalculators Reside inPC Memory

Symsoft has developed apair of pop-up calcula-tors that reside in 95K bytesof RAM and give yourmachine the capability tosolve simple and complexmathematical problems.Pro/Sci, for engineering andscientific applications, andPro/Biz. for business com-putations, let you exit theprogram you're working in.solve a formula, and thenreturn to your program andbring the answer with you.And you can take a columnof figures you've typed inone program and use themas part of a calculationwithout retyping them.

The primary differencesbetween the two calculatorsare that Pro/Sci has optionsfor displaying results inbinary, octal, and hexadeci-mal and has trig and inte-gration functions: Pro/Bizhas predefined financial anddate functions.

The calculators have twoscreens for computation:The main screen providesspace for entering numbers,formulas, and values; thesecond screen replicates acalculator with an account-ing-style tape output. Bothprograms have standardmath functions, logicoperators, constants, andconditional statements builtin. They also offer functionsfor such calculations as stan-dard deviation, variance,min/max. and averages. Youcan use as many as 10 vari-ables and 100 characters(columns) per formula andloop groups of formulas in(continued)

30 BYTE • IUNE 1986

SuperKey, PC Magazine's "Product of the Year"

Without SideKick, SuperKey,

and Traveling SideKick,

your IBM PC is only half-awake

JLt's sleepwalking instead ofsprinting. Dawdling insteadof dashing, because it's notgetting the supercharge of ahigh-speed productivitybooster like SuperKey,8 PCMagazine's "Product of theYear." Or the real-time desk-top management of SideKick,®the #1 best seller for the IBM®PC. Or the electronic clout andComputerAge organizationalskills of Traveling SideKick'"

SuperKey "macros" areelectronic shortcuts tosuccess

You avoid repetition likegetting out of bed 47| times every morning,\ or cooking dinner 93times every night—when once isobviouslyenough. Butif you haven'tyet discoveredthe time-saving powerof SuperKey, you'll find yourselftyping the same set of keystrokesover and over again. Whichmakes no sense when aSuperKey macro cuts all that out.Macros are electronic shortcutsthat can turn 1000 keystrokesintol.

Aside from macros, SuperKeyalso gives you powerfulencryption technology thatscrambles your files and keepsconfidential files confidential Italso lets you lock your keyboard,and foils would-be intruders withsecret password protection.

Combine the electronicwizardry of SuperKey withthe practical efficiency ofSideKick

The best way to get the mostdone in the shortest time is to putboth SuperKey and SideKick towork. They're designed to workhand-in-hand, and their comple-mentary talents are astounding.

Traveling SideKick getspersonal organizers out ofthe Stone Age into theComputerAge

It you have SideKick, you needTraveling SideKick—and if you don'thave SideKick, you need Ihem both!Traveling SideKick is a revolutionary newcombination ol binder and sottware,making a completely new category inpersonal organizers: BinderWare" IIprints out information that's already inyour SideKick tiles, produces it inconvenient lamiliar lorms, then lets you

What's inside your Traveling Sidekick

What SuperKey brings to theparty includes time-savingmacros, encryption, secretpasswords, and programmableand re-programmable keys.

What SideKick brings includesa notepad with full-screen editingand wordwrap, a phone directory,autodialer, calculator, appoint-ment scheduler, and ASCIItable. (If you don't own a word-processing program, don't buyone, because with SuperKey andSideKick, you probably don'tneed one.)

Both SuperKey and SideKickwork with your existing software,like Reflex,™ 1-2-3," MultiMate,™Wordstar," Turbo Pascal,"and dBase."

• it all together into your TravelingSideKick binder and hit the road.

Traveling SideKick includes report-generating sottware which produces up-to-the-minute telephone lists, addresslists, meeting schedules, travel itineraries,calendars, and much much more. It alsoincludes instant reterence maps, airlineand hotel reservation numbers, inter-national telephone codes, and currencyunits. You get preprinted daily/weekly Imonthly/yearly calendar lorms, alpha-betic address book lorms, and even areceipt envelope that clips inside yourbinder. You can order relills at any time.

^r

TABLET OF EXTIIA FORMS

:U FViCKtr i jU BACK Flap for use in

w,M,\;i ii f.F.ciions

ADDRESS BOOK SECTION

PREPRINTED ADORESS FORMS WITH TABBED

DIvlDCRS I OH EASY REFERENCE

MISCELLANEOUS SECTION

TO SI ORE ALL EXTRA PREPRINTED FORMS AND

COMMONLY-USED RECORDS

! SECTION

CONTAINS MAP5 THAT SHOW AREA CODES ANDTiMEiOUES TOU FREE NUMBERS FOR TRAVELArXOMOPAHUNS METfl.^ CONVERSION CHARTSFINANCE SECTION

MULTI-USE LEDGER FORMS RECEIPT LOG AMDSIOHAGE LNVrl Q''t C=*EC(T CARD itff-C-i':" ■ ■ ■■■■CALENDAR SECTIONYEARLY. MOMHLY, WEEKLY. AND DAILYENQWI MOT CALENDARS SUPPLEMENT THOSEYOU PRINT OUT WITH TRAVELING SlOEKICK

PENDING SECTION

A TO BE CONTINUED SECTION FOR CURRENT

fmj.if'CTE MEETING NOTES. ETC

CALCULATOR

■ ,■, . a \^S-CAfiD.SIZESTORA3E

PiXpiUh

TRAVELING SIDEKICK SOFTWAREGENERATES. UPDATES! AND PRINTS YOUR

A[uiFtL'-.:.;AN[j<y.i.i.Nr»ARFiLES

Buy one, buy two, or allthree at spectacular savings

Sold separately—SuperKey Is$69.95, SideKick is $84.95, andTraveling SideKick is $69.95(until September 1,1986). Incred-ible values, but you can save evenmore. Here's how: SideKick andTraveling SideKick for only$125.00; you save $29,901SideKick and Traveling SideKickand SuperKey, all three for only$175.00; you save $49,851

Whichever combinationyou buy, your're boosting yourproductivity, Joining theComputer Age, prodding yourIBM PC awake, and getting it todo what it can do with the rightkind of help—SuperKey, SideKick

BORLAND

INTERNATIONAL

4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVESCOTTS VALLEY, CA 95066(408)438-8400 TELEX: 172373

Borlarid produce tiiclude Turbo Pe^r^T^^

Wizard; Reflex, Ths Analyst; SideKick; SideKick, The Macintosh Oftee Manager; Traveling SideKick; and SuperKey-all of which are trademarks or registered trademarks of Borland

International, Inc. or Borland/Anah/llcs, Inc.

SideKick, SuperKey, and Turbo Pascal are registered trademarka, and Traveling SideKick, Reflex, and BinderWare are irBdermarks of Borland International, Inc. or

Borlainl/AriatvUca, Inc. Eli IB a wgeJeaiizBdemarkof International Buatnees Machines Corp. 1-33 is registered trademark of Lotus Development, Corp. MuluMate Is a trademark

at iJUMAbuj toErnaucnal Corp. Wordstar la a registered trademark of MicroPro IntemaUonal Corp. dBASE la a registered trademark of Aahton-Tsie.

Cc(jjfllghtl9e£BorlflrrfInternaUonal BI-1040C

Inquiry 48 for End-Users. Inquiry 49 for DEALERS ONLY.

and Traveling SideKick!

VR1*

1 want

X Jjl

JI the best

To order by phone,or tor a dealer near you,

call (800) 255-8008

in CA call (800) 742-1133

Rush me:

Copies Product

Price Totals

Trio

•$m.oo $

SideKick and Traveling SideKick

■125.00 J

SideKick

84.95 S

Traveling SideKick

'69.95 J

SuperKey

69.95 J

Outside USA add $10

per copy

Amount enclosed

I

Prices include sapping

to all US cities.

Payment VISA MC

Bank Drall Check

Credil card expiration dale

1

CardU I I I I

1 1 1 1 1 1

L_L

I I I 1 I I 1

You must have an IBM or true compatible running

DOS 2 0 ot later, t

My computer's name ard model is:

The disk sue I use is: n 3Vr' D5W Tl

NOT COPY PROTECTED

"60-OAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE

Telephone

CODs and purchase oroers WILL NOT be accepted by Bodand.Outside USA make payment by credit card or International PostalMoney Order'Limited Time Oiler unfil September I, 1986

* * YES. il within 60 days ol purchase this product does notperform in accordance with our claims, call our customer servicedepartment and we wilt gladly arrange a refund.

fMlnlmum system raqulramants:

IBM PC. PCjr. XT. AT. or true compatible.

Ttia~384K, SideKick-I28K. Traveling SideKick—256K

SuperKey-l28K.

^JE322g^

WHAT'S NEW

order to run iterative calcu-lations.

Pro/Sci and Pro/Biz run onIBM PCs or compatibleswith 128K bytes of RAMand MS-DOS 2.1 or later.Each calculator costs $99(plus $5 shipping). For moreinformation, contact Sym-soft. POB 4477, MountainView, CA 94043. (415)962-9500. To order, phone(800) 227-6703; in California,(800) 632-7979.Inquiry 554.

UNIX for $99

Wendin's multitasking,multiuser operatingsystem for MS-DOS com-puters, PCUN1X, is packagedwith a version of the Bourneshell, more than 70 com-mands, and complete sourcecode for $99. It can supporttwo additional users onremote terminals connectedto your machine's asyn-chronous communicationsadapters; as a multitaskingsystem, it supports a mix oftimeshared and real-timeprocesses with an event-driven scheduler similar tothat of a mainframe.

Wendin's microcomputerUNIX can run MS-DOS pro-gram images in both COMand .EXE formats, and mostMS-DOS system calls aretranslated to PCUN1X systemservices automatically and inreal time. Extra system ser-vices for programming canbe called from BASIC, FOR-TRAN. Pascal, C, andassembly.

The operating system,packaged on four disks, runson the IBM PC family andcompatibles with at least384K bytes: it can be in-stalled and run on a5-megabyte hard disk. Con-tact Wendin Inc.. Box 266.Cheney, WA 99004, (509)23 5-8088.Inquiry 555.

Wl.

1 '

1

l r

HHHJU

->>>>>>"

The APC IV, NEC's 80286-based computer.

Relational DatabaseLanguage for Atari520ST

Mirage Concepts de-scribes its H & D Base,a relational database man-agement language for Atari's520ST. as a dBASE II work-alike that's more than astorage and retrievalpackage. Providing almost300 commands for manipu-lating data, the program canbe used for building systemsthat handle inventories, ac-counts, and lists.

H & D Base works withmost dBASE II commandfiles and with all SDF and"delimited" data files. It letsyou sort on any field to anylevel and provides full mathcapability on any field orvariable. The number ofrecords per file is limitedonly by disk capacity. You'reallowed 97 fields per record.2 50 characters per field, and2000 characters per record.Numeric accuracy is eightdigits.

The software incorporatesa basic text editor, a helpfacility, a report generator,and a sample mailing-listprogram. H & D Base is not

copy-protected and sells for$99.95. Contact Mirage Con-cepts Inc., 405 5 West Shaw#108, Fresno. CA 93711.(800) 641-1441: in California.(800) 641-1442; in a foreigncountry. (209) 227-8369.Inquiry 556.

NEC AnnouncesAT Compatible

NEC Information Systems'Advanced PersonalComputer (APC) IV is thefirm's first computer speci-fically designed for the U.S.market and its first com-puter inherently compatiblewith the IBM PC family.

The APC IV uses a NECequivalent of the Intel80286 microprocessor witha switchable clock speed of6 MHz or 8 MHz; an 80287math coprocessor is op-tional. The computer canaccommodate 10.5 mega-bytes of RAM, with up to 1megabyte on the mother-board itself (640K bytes isstandard). Other standardfeatures include two serialports, a parallel port, andeight expansion slots, of

which two are 8-bit full-sizeslots and six are 8/16-bitfull-size slots. The APC'sdetachable keyboard has 84keys and a numeric keypad.Display options include theAdvanced Color Displaymonitor ($800). which has aresolution of 800 by 560pixels. The Power GraphicsDisplay Monitor ($1495),scheduled to be availablenext month, has 1120- by750-pixel resolution. Bothmonitors have multiscancapability with a scan rateof 15.75 to 32 kHz.

The computer comes witha 1.2-megabyte floppy diskdrive and can accommodatea total of five internalstorage devices. Options in-clude a second 1.2-mega-byte floppy disk drive($350). a 360K-byte floppydrive ($300). and 20- and40-megabyte half-heighthard disk drives, which cost$1400 and $1800, respec-tively.

NEC offers three optionalgraphics boards with theAPC IV The Color GraphicsBoard ($22 5) supports 640-by 200-pixel resolution andis compatible with IBM'sColor Graphics Adapter. TheAdvanced Graphics Board($52 5) is compatible withboth the CGA and IBM'sEnhanced Graphics Adapter,supports all of the EGAsmodes as well as softwarewritten for the Herculesgraphics board, and comeswith 256K bytes of memory.NEC also offers the PowerGraphics Board ($995),which is compatible withIBM's Professional GraphicsAdapter. Available nextmonth, the Power GraphicsBoard provides a resolutionof 1120 by 750 pixels andcan display 16 colors from achoice of 4096 colors.

The APC IV sells for$3795 with a single1.2-megabyte floppy drive;$4645 with a 1.2-megabytefloppy and 20-megabytehard disk drive; and $504 5with a 1.2-megabyte floppyand 40-megabyte hard disk[continued]

32 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Reflex, The Analyst upgrades and adds the new Reflex Workshop!

Why riHHiing your business without

Borland's Reflex and the new Reflex

Workshop is an act of blind faith

Running a successfulbusiness isn't somethingyou can do with, your eyesshut, but no matter whatbusiness you're in, Reflex™and the new ReflexWorkshop'" give you allthe tools and views to seewhat all the numberslook like.

it

Using Lotus 1-2-3" or dBASE*without fleflax is like drivingat night without lights

Products such as 1-33 or dBASEcan do the numbers for you, but youmay still not get the plcture-slmptybecause they can't show youanalytical graphs and pictures ofyour data, nor can they analyze andsummarize all the Information youmanipulate like Reflex can.

Relief gives you live graphic ways ol looking at your data,live dillerenl ways ol analyzing your information.

The FORM VIEW lets you buildand examine your dalabase

*VL I.I hjtit, W^ Urt V* ■

u

The REPORT VIEW

allows you io generate

everything from

mailing labels to

sophisticated reports.

You can use dalabase

tiles created with

Reflex or transferred

Irom 1-2-3, dBASE,

PFS: FILE, and other

applicafions.

The LIST VIEW lets you/ pul data in tabular listform jusl like aspreadsheet.

The GRAPH VIEW gives

you inslanl interactivegraphic representations.

The CROSSTAB VIEW gives you

amazing "cross-referenced"

pictures of the links and

relationships hidden in your data.

The best databasearound... at any price.

Jean Uxkwood,Computer Retail NewB

Eveiyone agreesthat Reflex is the best-looMng database theyVeever seen

Mum B. Oreen, IrrfoWorid

Reflex excels as ananalytical tool... thisprogram can becomeeveiyman's databasemanager.

ftant J. flarflar, PC Magazine

Borland has done itagain

Sheldon L Richman, MWashington Post J J

SPECIAL OFFER!

If you already bought Reflex1.0,getBeflexl.landtheReflex Workshop for only$59.98

Because you bought Reflex fromus, you're "our kind of people." Andsince we're not the "take-the-money-and-run" kind of company, you canupgrade to Reflex 1.1 and the ReflexWorkshop for only $59.95. If youprefer to simply upgrade to Reflex 1.1,you can do that for only $ 10.

SPECIAL

OFFER!

I Introducing the■ Rellet Workshop

The best just got better. urti|1Introducing Reflex 1.1 "^

The new Reflex 1.1 with extendedmemory support allows you to man-age huge databases of up to 8 mega-bytes of RAM, 32,000 records, and250 fields per record with the now-legendary "Reflex Lightning Speed."

Furthermore, Reflex 1.1 withIts EGA support displays 40 linesof information In Its spreadsheetrstyle List View, compared to lessthan 25 lines displayed bytraditional spreadsheets.

NEW

Only $69.95

A major addition to Rellex, the new RellexWorkshop gives you a wide range oranalytical tools written lor specificapplications. You can use these tools "asis" or modify them to mil your analyticaland business needs. What you have towork with right away are 25 dillerenl tools:For Finance/Accounting:

• Business Expense Tracking

• Petty Cash Tracking

• Line ol Credit Tracking 4 Analysis

• Accounts Receivable Ttacking & AgingAnalysis

• Purchase Order Entry & Analysis

• Purchase Order Tracking System

• teasing Inventory Management

• Asset Inventory Tracking

• Cash Management Trial Balance

You get Reflex 1.1 and

the Reflex Workshop for only I

$199.95*

Sold separately, the new ReflexWorkshop Is $69.95 and Reflex is$ 149.95, totaling $219.90-but you ,can get them both for a limited tli -only, at an amazing $199.95. So act Inow, rush to your nearest dealer, call 11us, or clip the coupon and put Reflex I1.1 and the Reflex Workshop to work Ifor you right awayl

For Administration:

• Membership Dues Tracking andAnalysis

• Ma/7 Us/

• Time Management

• Appointment Scheduling

• Applicant Tracking & Inguiry System

• Facilities Planning

For Sales t Marketing:

• Sales Lead Tracking 4 Analysis

• Store Check Inventory Analysis

• Sales Analysis

• Trend Analysis

• Research Questionnaire Analysis

For Production and Operations:

• Manulacluring Quality Assurance

Tracking

• Assembly Repair Turnaround Tracking

• Commercial Real Estate Ttacking& Analysis

• Project Scheduling

• Product Cost Analysis and Control

^F

4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVESC0TTS VALLEY. CA 950661408) 438-8400 TELEX: 172373

BORLAND

INTERNA T I O N A L

Borland products include Turbo Pascal. Turbo Prolog. Turbo Dalabase Toolbox, Turbo Ligblning. TurboGraphix Toolbox; Tufbo Tutor, Turbo GameWorks; Turbo Editor Toolbox. Word Wizard; Rellex. The Analyst;Rellex Workshop; SideKicx, SideKicx. The Macintosh Oflice Manager, Traveling SideKick; and SuperKey—aitof which are ttademarks or registered trademarks ol Borland international, Inr. or Borland/Analylica. Inc.

Rellex and Retlex Ytahsnop aie Uademaiks ol Borland/Analytica, Inc. dBASE is a registered ttademark olAshton-Tate. Lotus i-2-3isaiea,istmdi(adematkal Lotus Oevetopemeni Corp Above Board is a trademarkol Intel Corp RAMpage) Is a registered trademark olAST Research Corp. Liberty is a trademark ol QuadramCorp Hercules is a trademark ol He/cules Computer Tech PFS: File is a registered trademark ol SoftwarePublishing Corp IBM is a registered trademark ol International Business Machines CorpCopyright 1986 Borland international 81-1052

Inquiry 50 for End-Users. Inquiry 51 for DEALERS ONLY.

YES!

I wantthe best

95'

Send me Rellex and Reflex Workshop at:

$199.

To order by phone,

or for a dealer nearest you,

call (800) 255-8008

in CA call (800) 742-1133

RellexiWorkshopls) at $199.95' $

Rellex at $149.95' $

Workshop at $69.95' $

Upgrade to 1.1 and Workshop al $59.95 $

Upgradeto l.latSIO.OO $

(you must return your disks)Outside USA add $ 10 per copyCAandMA res. add sales lax S

Amount enclosed S

Prices include shipping lo all U.S. citiest You must have an IBM or true compatible tunningDOS 2.0 or later.My computer's name ana model is:

The disk size 1 use is- D 3 W □ 5 W

Payment; VISA MC Bank Draft

Credit card expiration date 1

<*/• i i i i i i i i

Check

1 1

HOT COPY PROTCCTIO• 'M-DAY HONEY-BACK GUARANTEE

R15

Stole- 7in

Tplpphnnr

CODs and purchase orders WILL NOT be accepted by Bodand

Outside USA make payment by credit card or international Postal

Money Order.

'Limited time olter until September 1,1986

' *YES, il within 60 days ol purchase this product does not

perform in accordance with our claims, call our customer service

department and we will gladly arrange a relund.

fMlnimum System Requirements:

384K—fluns on IBM PC. AT. XT. and true compatibles. IBM

Color Graphics Adapter. Hercules Monochrome Graphics Card

or equivalent.

Rellex works with Intel's Above Board AT and Above Board/PC.

AST's RAMpage' and RAMpage! AT. Quadrants Liberty-PC and

Liberty-AT. Tecmar's 640 Plus. IBM's EGA

and 3270/PC. AT&T's 6300,

and many others.

WHAT'S NEW

drive. All models arebundled with MS-DOS 3.1and GW-BASIC. For moreinformation, contact NECInformation Systems inc..1414 Massachusetts Ave.,Box borough, MA 01719,(617) 264-8000.Inquiry 557.

MicrocodedIBM PC Board

Designed for buildingcustomized processors,the MVP MicrocodedCPU/16 from Mountain ViewPress is an add-on board forthe IBM PC that implementsa high-speed microcodedprocessor. A wire-wrappedprototype of the board,which MVP demonstrated atthe West Coast ComputerFaire in April, ran oneFORTH test program 50times faster than an IBM PCalone. According to thecompany, the processor canexecute over 2 million stackoperations per second.

The card's 74-chip designincludes a 16-bit ALU, twohardware stacks, an interfaceto the IBM PC. I28K bytesof static memory, a programcounter, two 16-bit dataregisters, and room for 2 56microcoded processor in-structions. Each microcodedinstruction is defined by upto eight 32-bit user-definablemicrocode instructions.

An Engineering PrototypeKit is available for $1500,and a printed circuit boardversion should be availablethis month. MVP includesthe following software withthe wire-wrap kit: MVPFORTH/16, a word-orientedFORTH that executes direct-ly in the processor; theMVP-FORTH Programmer'sKit; a Number Extensionspackage; a microcode as-sembler; a cross-compiler; aset of diagnostic programs;and source code for all thepreceding software.

For more information, con-

Rapitech Systems' Acticon serial connector.

tact Mountain View PressInc., POB 4656, MountainView, CA 94040, (415)961-4103.Inquiry 558.

Passport's SequencerRuns on Apple,Commodore

Passport Designs hasadded to its MIDI ProSeries with Master Tracks,sequencing software thatruns on the Commodore 64/128 and the Apple lie/ll+/llc. The package pro-vides real-time, step-time,and song modes.

In real-time mode, youhave access to all 16 MIDIchannels, with solo/mute oneach track and unlimitedoverdubbing with the mixfunction. MIDI thru lets youhear any of 16 soundsources from your masterkeyboard. Advanced tapesync writes a variable tempopulse to tape, readingtempo changes and allowingsynchronization to visuals.The memory can handle8000 events without loopsor repeats.

The step-time editor letsyou input and edit notes,rests, velocity, articulation,and tempo. You can alsocut, copy, and pastephrases.

Song mode lets youassemble songs using se-quences created in steptime or real time. It also letsyou build sequences as if

using a drum machine. Asmany as 2 56 sequences canbe assembled using any of2 56 steps. You can playback individual sequences inany order or tempo.

Master Tracks retails for$249.95. Besides a com-puter, the software requiresa Passport MIDI Interface orMIDI Pro Interface. ContactPassport Designs Inc.. 62 5Miramontes St., Suite 103,Half Moon Bay, CA 94019,(415) 726-0280.Inquiry 559.

Single-ChipEGA Controller

Paradise Systems intro-duced the PEGA 1video controller, a single-chip implementation of theIBM Enhanced GraphicsAdapter standard, which cur-rently requires a four-chipset on the IBM and otherEGA boards. According tothe company, the PEGA 1will run all EGA-compatiblesoftware, including MicrosoftWindows, and all previoussoftware written for the IBMPC and compatibles. Thechip supports high- andmedium-resolution IBMmonochrome and colorgraphics. Hercules mono-chrome graphics, PlantronicsCoIorPlus graphics, and

Paradise color simulation ona monochrome monitor.

Four main modules makeup the 84-pin PEGA 1.These modules replace thefive custom LSI parts onIBM's EGA board and adozen supporting TTL cir-cuits. The chip is availablewith a proprietary IBM-compatible video BIOSextension.

The PEGA 1 is available insample quantities at a priceof $900 per sample: produc-tion quantities are slated fordelivery by the end of thesecond quarter. For more in-formation, contact ParadiseSystems inc.. 217 East GrandAve., South San Francisco,CA 94080. (415) 588-6000.Inquiry 560.

Miniature SerialInterface

Rapitech Systems hasdeveloped a standard-sized serial RS-232C connec-tor that contains all of thecircuitry usually found on aserial interface card. Calledthe Acticon connector, thedevice replaces the serial in-terface circuitry that, thecompany says, normally oc-cupies 8 to 12 inches on acomputer's motherboard orexpansion board.

The Acticon connector isdesigned to attach to thememory bus on a mother-board through a series ofpins along the bottom ofthe connector. The companysays that the new connectorwill be incorporated intocomputers now being de-signed, and computers thatuse the connector may beavailable in less than a year.

The Acticon's patented de-sign can be licensed by anycomputer manufacturer; li-censing fees depend on vol-ume. For more information,contact Rapitech SystemsInc.. 75 Montebello Rd..Suffern, NY 10901. (800)367-8749; in New York. (914)368-3000.Inquiry 561.

(continued)

34 BYTE • IUNE

THE F-15 JET FIGHTER.

IF THE COMPUTER GOES DOWN

SO DOES THE PLANE

The F-15 served as a test bed for a flight eontrol system written in the Ada language.Ada was designed to meet today's demands for a standard computer language, producing efficient, reliable and maintainable code.

Does your compiler deliver?

Even if your programs don't do loops in mid air, and won't make aboom if they crash, you need a powerful programming language. Ithas to be easy to learn, structured yet flexible, compact and fast.Your programs should reflect the latest advances in hardware andsoftware and be portable.

Get your software off the ground!

Meet Ada. The DoD's new language of the future. Now you can runAda on your MS-DOS or PC-DOS computer. Artek Ada is the mostadvanced Ada compiler for PCs.

A new standard in software engineering

We invite you to learn, explore and use the most powerful general-purpose programming language ever, — with Artek Ada. Artek hasapproached the tradeoffs of Ada compiler design in a novel way.Modern software engineering techniques are applied to produce astate-of-the-art compiler.

Artek Ada is available now

You can order the Artek Ada compiler now for only $ 895.00 in-cluding a debugger and a screen editor. Outside the U.S.A. add$ 20.00.

For orders or information call toll free: 1-800-PC-ARTEK, inNew Jersey or outside the continental U.S.A. call (201>867-2900, orwrite to our adress.VISA, MC and AMEX accepted.

New Jersey residents add 6% sales tax. Please pay with credit cardor a bank draft in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank.

Dealer and distributor inquiries welcome.Inquiry 28

Artek Ada specifications

Artek Ada implements the Department of Defense 1983 Adastandard, including generics, derived types, overloading, packages,separate compilation, dynamic arrays, standard I/O, string handling,array and record aggregates and much more. The only major featueof Ada not implemented is tasking. Minimum hardware requirementsare: IBM PC or a compatible computer, running MS-DOS orPC-DOS (2.0 or later version) with 384 Kb RAM and one double-sided floppy-disk drive. Artek Ada works with the IBM PC network.For further information see our information kit.

A demo diskette is available for $ 29.95(including p&p anywhere in the world).Ask for our freeinformation brochure.

Artek Corporation 100 Seaview Drive SecaucusNJ 07094

Arlek is a trademark of Artek Corporation. Ada is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Defense, AJPO. IBM PC and PC-DOS are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.MS-DOS is a registered tradetnark of Microsoft Corp. Artek Ada was QOl used in making of the F-15 flight control system.

WHAT'S NEW

SYSTEMS

NEC V40-basedComputer

The JC LIPS computerfrom JC Information Sys-tems is based on a NECV40 processor running at9.54 MHz and compatiblewith an Intel 80186. Thecomputer comes with 2 56Kbytes of RAM that can beexpanded to 640K bytes onthe motherboard and two360K-byte half-height floppydisk drives. Other standardfeatures are a 14-inch mono-chrome monitor, an IBM PCAT-style keyboard, eight ex-pansion slots, an RS-232Cserial port, a battery-backedclock, a floppy disk con-troller, and a 135-watt powersupply. The computer is alsoequipped with a video dis-play card that provides aparallel printer port andsupports Hercules mono-chrome graphics and IBM-compatible color graphics.The LIPS computer runsunder MS-DOS versions 2.1or 3.0 and later. The basemodel costs $1495; modelswith hard disk drives, colormonitors, and other optionsare also available. For moreinformation, contact JC Infor-mation Systems, LIPS Divi-sion, 161 Whitney Place,Fremont, CA 94539, (415)659-8440.Inquiry 562.

The On! Computer,a CP/M Systemfrom Oneac

ACP/M-compatible com-puter from Oneac Corpis designed to survivepower-line glitches and tobe left on for long periodsof time. The computer,named On!, features a4-MHz Z80 microprocessorand 2 to 4 megabytes ofmemory. The computer'smemory, which is set up asa RAM disk, is intended to

The JC LIPS computer, based on a NEC V40 processor.

be the system's primarydata storage device. Thememory is backed up with asmall battery, which Oneacclaims can power thememory through outages ofup to 12 hours. The system's5^-inch, 800K-byte floppydisk is intended for backingup data in memory.

Oneac claims that theRAM disk causes the systemto perform eight times fasterthan an IBM PC runningequivalent tasks. And be-cause the system is alwayson, you never have to waitfor it to warm up.

The computer is bundledwith the New Word wordprocessor, the ZCPR oper-ating system, and a numberof utilities and menus. Thesystem has internal spacefor four modems, whichmakes it useful for unat-

tended bulletin boardsystems. The company saysthat On! is compatible withmost CP/M softwarepackages.

With 2 megabytes ofmemory, the On! computersells for S2000. It comeswith a TeleVideo 95 5 ter-minal, which will be pricedat less than $599 (exactprice was not available atpress time). For more infor-mation, contact OneacCorp., 27944 North BradleyRd., Libertyville, 1L 60048,(312) 680-5999.Inquiry 563.

Heath IntroducesAT-Compatible Kit

Heath's HS-241 AdvancedPC Desktop Computerkit is compatible with theIBM PC AT and uses an Intel80286 microprocessor run-ning at 6 MHz. Standard

features include a serial anda parallel port, a single1.2-megabyte 514-inch floppydisk drive, and 512K bytesof RAM, which can be ex-panded to 15 megabytes.The HS-241 uses a com-bined hard and floppy diskcontroller card that can ac-commodate two floppy andthree hard disk drives.

Priced at $2899. the kitcomes with an IBM PC-com-patible detachable keyboard.Options include internalhard disk drives with 20 or40 megabytes of storage.Contact Heath Co., Dept.150-745. Benton Harbor, Ml49022, (616) 982-3210.Inquiry 564.

Pick-basedMultiuser Systemfrom Fujitsu

Fujitsu Microsystems'System 2020 is an addi-tion to the company's Series2000 line of Pick-basedmultiuser computers. The2020 runs on an Intel 80286microprocessor and canaccommodate eight users. Ithas 5I2K bytes of RAM thatcan be expanded to 1megabyte and comes with a54- or 86-megabyte (unfor-matted) hard disk drive. Ac-cording to the company, thecomputer's operating systemis fully compatible with Pick-based software and featuresa number of enhancements,including electronic mail,full-screen editing, and acalculator function.

Prices begin at $8850 forthe two-user system with512K. bytes of memory and54-megabyte hard disk. Con-tact Fujitsu Microsystems ofAmerica, 302 5 OrchardParkway, San Jose, CA95134, (408) 434-1160.Inquiry 565.

[continued)

36

1YTE • |UNE 1986

Magic Card II ...Multifunction, $199

The EVEREX Magic Card II isthe multifunction card that hasthe features you want at a price youcan afford. It can even take anoriginal PC, with a 64K mother-board, to 640K of RAM. Installationis a snap with our unique TESTERprogram that runs independentlyand shows exactly where to installRAM and how to set the options.

Why pay almost twice as muchto get less? EVEREX combines in-novative engineering, technology,and quality manufacturing to bringyou a quality product that outperforms the competition at alower price. EVEREX engineeringis the key ingredient that deliversQUALITY and FEATURES withoutsacrificing PRICE.

'ItlS

Magic Card II in Action

See for yourself what theMagic Card II can do. Call EVEREXtoday for the name of the EVEREXdealer near you.You'll be convinced that—EVEREX is EVER for Excellencetoo!

1-800-821-0806

in California

1-800-821-0807

EVER lor Excellence

48431 Milmont Dr. Fremont CA 94539(415)498-1111

Magic Card II is a trademark of HVEREX SYSTEMS. Inc.SixPak Plus is a registered trademark of AST Research. Inc.

Inquiry 129 for End-Users. Inquiry 130 for DEALERS ONLY.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 37

WHAT'S NEW

PERIPHERALS

Roland's SoundSamplers and Drum

Roland announced twosound samplers, theS-50 and the S-10. Both cansample sounds with aresolution of 12 bits at arate of 32K per second,yielding a bandwidth of 17kHz, The S-10 can store 4samples at a time andcomes with a 49-key key-board. The S-50 can store61 samples, one each for its61 keys. The S-50 also hasan RGB and composite mon-itor connection that lets youconnect a monitor to displayinformation visually. Bothsamplers have MIDI connec-tions. The S-10 and S-50cost $1250 and $2695, re-spectively.

Roland's TR-505 MIDIdrum machine can emulatea wide range of drums, in-cluding Latin percussion in-struments. The machine alsogenerates MIDI information,which can be captured by aMIDI sequencer, modified,and pJayed back through theTR-505. The drum machinecosts $295.

Contact RolandCorp U.S.,7200 Dominion Circle, LosAngeles, CA 90040, (213)685-5141.Inquiry 566.

Dual Printer Buffer

The Proteus printer buf-fer and switch lets youconnect two printers orother peripherals withparallel ports to your com-puter. The unit provides abuffer for each of the twoperipherals. Both printersconnected via Proteus canprint at the same time, andyou can switch between thetwo through software ormanually by a switch on thefront panel of the unit.

The device is availablewith 64K bytes or 256Kbytes of memory. Each portis automatically allocated as

The TravelComm 1200 portable modem.

much memory as available,up to the maximum capacityof the buffer. With a 2 56K-byte unit, for example, ifyou print a 64K-byte file toone port, 192K bytes ofmemory are automaticallyallocated to the other port.Each port also has multiplecopy capability.

A 64K-byte version costs$199, and a 2 56K-byte ver-sion costs $299. ContactComputer Friends Inc., 6415Southwest Canyon Court,Suite #10, Portland, OR97221. (503) 297-2321.Inquiry 567.

Pocket-sized Modem

TouchBase Design an-nounced the Travel-Comm 1200, a pocket-sizedmodem that communicatesat 300 and 1200 bps. Youcan plug the 6-ouncemodem directly into a com-puter's RS-232C port or con-nect it by cable to a com-puter via a standardRS-232C connector.

To dial, you type a phonenumber on your keyboard:when the modem receivestwo carriage returns, it turnson automatically and selectsthe communication rate. Atthe end of a connection, themodem turns off automati-

cally. Other features includea call-progress indicator anda 9-volt battery with a 3- to6-month life.

The modem works withmost portable computersand sells for $299. ContactTouchBase Design, 1447South Crest Dr., LosAngeles, CA 90035, (213)277-1208.Inquiry 568.

Robotics System

The Microbot ARMLABSystem is a combinationof textbooks, software, andhardware designed to teachrobotics and automatedmanufacturing. Intended foruse in junior high and highschools, college, and in-dustry, the system leadsstudents through roboticstheory to the actual auto-matic manufacturing of smallproducts.

The hardware includes two5-axis, fully articulated robotarms: a vision system: CNCmill and lathe: rotary table:gravity feeder: conveyor:electronic and pneumatic ex-perimenter's kits: speechsystem: and workcell safetybarrier.

The texts include RobotLiteracy and Applied Robotics byDr. J. Larry Heath, RoboticsVJorkcells and Systems \nterfacingby Prof. R. Dean Eavey and

Dr. Heath, and The IndustrialRobot and Automated Manufac-turing by Dr. Del Kimbler.Prices start at $1430. Formore information, contactMicrobot Inc.. 453-H Raven-dale Dr., Mountain View, CA94043. (415) 968-8911.Inquiry 569.

40-megabyteTape Drive

The TD440 tape backupdrive provides 40 mega-bytes of backup capacity forthe IBM PC. XT, AT, andcompatibles. The drive uses!4-inch tape cartridges thatare formatted into one32-megabyte logical drive ortwo 17.8-megabyte drives.The unit comes with a cableand an interface card thatfits in a short expansionslot.

The TD440 emulates ahard disk drive, is file-addressable, and works withDOS 2.0 and later. Thismeans you can use DOScommands such as COPYand ERASE to manage datafiles and can also use thedrive to store large spread-sheets or databases thatmight not fit on a hard disk.You can run programs di-rectly from tape and storedata on tape directly froman application program with-out exiting the program touse a separate backup utili-ty. The company also pro-vides a sector-by-sectorbackup utility that backs upa 10-megabyte hard disk inabout 10 minutes.

The tape drive lists for$1490. Contact AdvancedDigital Information Corp.,POB 2996, 10201 WillowsRd„ Redmond, WA 98073,(206) 881-8004.Inquiry 570.

(continued)

38 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 235 for End-Users.

Inquiry 236 for DEALERS ONLY—►

Clipper is the fastest dBase III anddBase 111 Plus™ comp lable.

Nothing else comes close. Whenperformance counts, experts relyon Clipper for more speed, morepower, and more creative freedom.You can, too. Call for details.

• Clipper compiled programs

I to 20 t

• No royaltii

• Souro.

r defined functions.

• Simple menu commands.

• Context sensitive help can foeincluded with programs.

nemory

variables.

• Call C and Assembly progro

• Complete debugging facilities. A

• Multiple file relationships. /A&

• IBM PC, XT, AT, 3270 Mcompatible™.

• Multi-user capability.

Clipper

c «

CLIPPER. THE dBASE COMPILER.

A WINNING PERFORMANCE EVERY TIME.

r «.

gi^

Nantucket

Nantucket Corporation

5995 South Sepulveda Boulevard

Culver City, California 90230

(213) 390-7923

Outside California call toll-free:

1-800-251-8438

dBase, dBase 111, an

d an,

iae 1

U PI

us are trauema

rks

of Ashton-Tate, Inc

1BM PC, XT. AT, a

nd M

70 a

re tr

ade marks

of International Bu:

iiness

Ma-

;him

:s Corporation

Clipper and Nantuc

kct ai

re tr

adeti

larks

of Nantucket Corpt

>ratio

n.

WHAT'S NEW

A D D - I N S

Short-Slot EGA Board

Sigma Designs an-nounced the SigmaEGA!.a high-resolution graphicsboard. Based on SigmaDesigns' Color 3 50 board,the short-slot board sup-ports software that runs withthe IBM Enhanced GraphicsAdapter (EGA), the IBMColor Graphics Adapter(CGA), the IBM Mono-chrome Display Adapter(MDA), and the HerculesGraphics Adapter. The boardhas 2 56K bytes of on-boardRAM, which lets you run allEGA graphics modes with-out the need to add morememory.

The SigmaEGA! costs$595. It works with all IBMmonitors and compatiblemonochrome and colormonitors and comes with PCPaintbrush, a graphicspackage by Z-Soft. ContactSigma Designs Inc., 2023O'Toole Ave.. San jose. CA95131, (408) 943-9480.Inquiry 571.

Tecmar's MusicSynthesis Board

Tecmar has announced a16-oscillator music syn-thesis board for the IBM PC.Named the Music Synthe-sizer System, the new boarduses what Tecmar callsharmonic interpolation syn-thesis to create up to 16different notes in up to 16different voices at one time.If fewer voices are needed,oscillators can be combinedto form more intricatesounds. The board can holdup to 2 56K words of mem-ory, where each word is 12bits wide. This memory canbe used to hold up to 2 56wave tables, each compris-ing IK words. The board canalso play back sampledsounds that have beencoded at the factory.

Output signals can bedirected to either of two

The SigmaEGA! high-resolution graphics board.

stereo output ports. Inputcan be from either the com-puter keyboard, an externalpiano-style keyboard, or anexternal MIDI interface.Under MIDI, the board cansupport up to 16 channels.

The Tecmar board includessoftware that allows it tofunction as a 64-track noterecorder that can store upto 65,000 notes in a com-puter with 640K bytes ofRAM. Up to four boards canbe connected together,yielding 64 possible simul-taneous sounds.

The Music SynthesizerSystem costs $795 andshould be available thismonth. It runs on IBM PCsand compatible computerswith a minimum of 2 56Kbytes of RAM, a graphicsboard, and at least onefloppy disk drive. ContactTecmar Inc., 622 5 CochranRd„ Solon, OH 44139, (216)349-0600.Inquiry 572.

Z80 CoprocessorBoard for IBM PCs

Earth Computers intro-duced the TurboSlave-PC an 8-MHz Z80-basedcoprocessor board for theIBM PC, XT, AT, and com-patible computers. The

board features 128K bytesof RAM, two serial ports, aport-mapped FIFO, on-boarddiagnostics, monitorEPROM, and the SLR Z80assembler, Z80ASM.

The board can be con-figured as a coprocessorunder MS-DOS and is sup-ported by the TurboDOSoperating system. Compati-ble with CP/M and MP/Mprograms, TurboDOS willsupport up to 16 terminalswith TurboSlave-PC boards.

Suggested list price is$395. For more information,contact Earth Computers,POB 8067. Fountain Valley,CA 92728, (714) 964-5784.Inquiry 573.

Hard Disk CardOffers SCSI

The SCSI Hard DiskCard, from MicroDesign International, is a21-megabyte internal harddisk drive and SCSI interfacefor the IBM PC and compati-ble computers. The drivesupports the ANSI X3T9.2SCSI specification and isdesigned to plug into oneand a half slots on thecomputer.

The SCSI section of thecard can connect as manyas six more SCSI periph-erals, including internal orexternal tape or hard diskdrives, optical disk drives,and printers.

The company also sells aversion of the card for theTandy 1000 computer. Bothversions cost $675. Formore information, contactMicro Design InternationalInc., 6566 University Blvd.,Winter Park, FL 32792, (305)677-8333.Inquiry 574.

AT-Compatible Cardfor Kaypro PC

Kaypro Corp. announcedthe 286 PC Card, whichgives the 8088-based KayproPC compatibility with theIBM PC AT. The card retailsfor $1065; if you trade inthe Kaypro PCs 8088, thecard costs $799.

For more information, con-tact Kaypro Corp.. POB N,Del Mar, CA 92014. (619)481-4300.Inquiry 575.

Add Megabytes toMac Plus

The MaxPIus memorymodules plug into theexpansion sockets of theMacintosh Plus to provide 2or 4 megabytes of RAM. Ac-cording to the company, themodules require no specialsoftware and no hardwaremodifications and will workwith all Macintosh powersupplies.

Bundled with RAM diskand print spooling software,one set of modules provides2 megabytes of RAM. Max-Plus costs $499 for 2 mega-bytes of RAM and $998 for4 megabytes. Contact Mac-Memory Inc., 473 MacaraAve., Suite 701, Sunnyvale,CA 94086. (408) 773-9922.Inquiry 576.

40 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 172 •

THAT IS OUT OF THIS WORLD..

§m&

$389

MODEL 2000 20MHzDUAL TRACE

*549<

MODEL 3500 35MHzDUAL TRACE DELAYED SWEEP

.AT A DOWN TO EARTH PRICE

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

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

bandwidth and 20 calibrated |4P>T^^| I MHz bandwidth and exceptional

sweeps ranging from .2s to .2jus. mTf&f^M I 1mV//D,v sensitivity. Delayed

A convenient built-in component AXnj^M I sweep and variable holdoff allow

tester provides additional I stable viewing of complex

diagnostic power. itBUiiialJiiSi I waveforms.

ORDER TOLL FREE800-538-5000800-662-6279 (ca)

JDR INSTRUMENTS

1224 South Bascom AvenueSan Jose, California 95128 (408) 995-5430

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

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AND AIDS

Modula-2 forZ80 CP/M

Workman and Associ-ates is offering theFTL Modula-2 compiler forZ80 CP/M systems. A com-plete Modula-2, FTL hassuch features as separatecompilation, procedures asparameters, open arrayparameters, and copro-cesses.

The compiler supports realnumbers with 15-digit ac-curacy, 2-byte integers from-32.768 to 32,767, and2-byte cardinal numbersfrom 0 to 65,535. It doesnot offer a large integertype.

FTL provides version con- .trol through the linker, typechecking between modules,and chaining between pro-grams. It supports calls tothe BIOS and BDOS ofCP/M. The disk-based com-piler directly creates Z80code in the form of CP/MCOM files. Most of thelibraries are written inModula-2. The package'sassembler is not compatiblewith other assemblers.

The editor's commandstructure is similar to Word-Star's but adds the capabili-ty of editing three filessimultaneously. You cancustomize the editor withoutgetting into the sourcecode: The install programlets you choose such charac-teristics as placement of thearrow key.

Workman says FTL con-forms to the standard in thethird edition of NiklausWirth's Programming inModula-2.

FTL requires CP/M 2.2, 3.0,or later; a Z80; at least a58K-byte transient programarea; and one disk drive.Workman will supply thecompiler on any of 190CP/M disk formats.

For $49.95, you get thecompiler, linker, editor,assembler, library modules,library source code, manual,

and telephone support.Source code for the editorcosts $39.95. Or you canbuy it all for $79.95.Workman asks for no royal-ties on programs written inFTL. Contact Workman andAssociates, 112 Marion Ave.,Pasadena, CA 91106, (818)796-4401.Inquiry 577.

Modula-2 inSource Form

Modula-2 fans can nowget the latest versionof the compiler in sourceform. Modula Corporationsays the new compiler, writ-ten by Niklaus Wirth, isfaster because it's based onthe single-pass principle. Itcan recompile itself in 80seconds on a Lilith worksta-tion, the company says.

The package includes thesource to the compiler anda portable debugger in IBMPC or Lilith format, a copyof the third edition ofWirth's Programming inModula-2, and technicalreports on the structure ofthe compiler and debugger.The compiler consists ofabout 5000 lines ofModula-2 code.

Three versions are avail-able: for the Lilith, theMotorola 68000 family, andthe National Semiconductor32000 family. The Lilith ver-sion produces M-code, asymmetric machine languagefor a pure stack computer.The other two versions havebeen derived from the M-code version.

Modula has ported thecompiler to the IBM PC andthe Macintosh.

The price for each com-piler in source form is$1000. Contact ModulaCorp., 950 North UniversityAve., Provo, UT 84604, (800)545-4842 or (801) 375-7400.Inquiry 578.

Multitasking OSfor Atari ST

Micro RTX is a multi-tasking operating sys-tem kernel for the Atari STseries. Because it's compati-ble with TOS, it can runregular ST programs. Thesystem automaticallyhandles input, output, andmemory management in amultitasking environment.Programs can make standardTOS calls to perform I/O andmemory management.

Once you've installed theoperating system, the STbecomes a multitaskingmachine in which all ac-tivities are performed byprocesses running underMicro RTX. The number ofactive processes is limitedonly by available memory.The system uses round-robinscheduling to keep a pro-cess from consuming toomuch CPU time.

Micro RTX is priced at$69.95. Contact BeckemeyerDevelopment Tools, 592Jean St. #304, Oakland. CA94610, (415) 658-5318.Inquiry 579.

Library for

C Programmers

PforCe, a library packagefor programming in Coffers high-level functionsfor manipulating windows,screens of fields, and data-bases as objects. The object-oriented approach is de-signed to facilitatemaintenance of modulesand also to help you pro-gram in a structured style.Among the package's sub-systems for handling compli-cated tasks are a databasesystem with demand pagingand B-trees to store accessand index information; awindowing system; interrupt-driven communications; andbackground tasks. Sourcecode is supplied for all func-tions and bundled utilities.PforCe runs under MS-

and PC-DOS and can beused with Microsoft, Lattice.Computer Innovations, andWizard compilers. It sup-ports all memory modulesof each compiler. The librarycosts $395. Contact PhoenixComputer Products Corp.,320 Norwood Park S,Norwood, MA 02062, (617)762-5030.Inquiry 580.

FORTRAN Utilities

FORTRAN Cross-Refer-ence Utility, from PIN In-ternational, reads sourcefiles written in FORTRAN 77and generates a programlisting with symbol cross-reference maps of variables,subprogram calls, and labelsfor each subprogram. PJNsays its software generatescross-reference maps withthe same detail provided bymainframe compilers; for ex-ample, the variable cross-reference map also showsvariable type, length, alloca-tion (array/scalar), and scope(local/common).

FORTRAN Utility Library isa collection of assembly lan-guage subroutines that cangive programs such capabili-ties as screen and cursormanipulation, direct key-board access, command-lineaccess, memory peek andpoke, and sound generation.There's a version forMicrosoft/IBM FORTRANand one for Ryan-McFarland/IBM ProfessionalFORTRAN compilers.

Both utilities run on IBMPCs and compatibles underDOS 2.0 or later. The cross-reference package requires128K bytes. Cross-ReferenceUtility costs $49.95. UtilityLibrary costs $39.95. (Foreach, add $2 for shipping.)Contact PIN International.POB 201363, Austin, TX78720-1363, (512) 837-2888.Inquiry 581.

[continued]

42 BYTE • JUNE 1986

See What You Can Do

I-ontasy printed all of these.

sentations! Newsletters! Flyers!Signs! Overhead Foils! Invita-tions! Menus! Logos! An-nouncements! Banners! Layouts!When you need a good looking visualquickly you need FONTASY — superbtypefaces and simple drawing in oneeasy-to-use package.

FONTASY gives you a "what-you-sec-iwhat-you-get" picture, as you type and dron the graphics screen of your IBM-PC. Ycan create a page at a time, see a mini |ture of that page, print it, and save it on disk.Fage size is limited only by memory, not 1screen size.

Features

Proportional space, justify, kern, bold-face, rearrange, magnify, black white rever-sal, rotate, mirror image, lines, rectangles,ovals, draw, fill in, undo (and un-uhdo), on-line help, 200 page book, and easy controlfrom keyboard or mouse. Corporatelicenses available.

Fonts, fonts, and more fonts! We haveover 275 typefaces in our growing library;and will be happy to send you free printsamples on request.

When you deal directly with the manufac-turer (that's us), you pay rock-bottom dis-tributor prices. If you order FONTASY now,we will gjwe you 2H fonts (a $50 value) at noextra charge. With so many features at such alow price, FONTASY belongs in your software library even if you already have a"font" program,

Inquiry 279

With

Includes 28 Fontsand free ClipArt.

Equipment Needed

IBM-PC, XT, AT, or true compatible (Compaq,with IBM or Hercules graphics adapter andlies monitor. 256K memory needed for partialpages, 448-640K recommended for full pages.Dot-matrix printer. Mouse optional. MS-DOS2.00 or above.

FONTASY supports; IBM graphics printer.Proprlnter; Epson FX. JX, LX, MX, RX, andLQ-1500; C. Itoh 8510, 1550, 1570. Pro-writer-Jr; H-P LaserJet, Thinkjet; Mieroline 92,93; Gemini 10X, 15X; Radio Shack DMP 105-430, 2100; Toshiba 351, 1340-1351; Star; andmost Epson-compatibles.

Money-BackGuarantee

Fontasy is not copy-protected and has a30 day money back guarantee. So, takeadvantage of our breakthrough price andorder now TOLL-FREE:

1-800-824-7888, operator 669 (orders only)

For further information and same day shipping, call: (818)^65-4444

0

"II

7248 Bellairc Ave., Box 560No. Hollywood, CA 91603-0560

Name

FONTASY $69.95

Tax

Shipping

Total

Address

City, State, ZIP

Visa/MC

Computer.

Company _Telephone.

Kxp. Date

. Memory.

. Printer

Terms: M/C, Visa, checks. Please add 5J.00 shipping and handling in VS. orCanada. 520.00 overseas. S 2.0(1 for COD., and sales lax in Calif.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 43

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE • SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING

Talking ScientificCalculator

The Calc-Talk programfrom Computer AidsCorp. combines voice out-put and large-print displayon the Apple lie and lie. Itturns the keyboard into ascientific-calculator keypadand provides trigonometricand logarithmic functions.The voice-output facilityworks with most of thepopular speech synthesizersfor the Apple II, includingSlot-Buster, DecTalk, and theEcho line.

Calc-Talk causes each key-stroke to be voiced.Numbers, letters, and sym-bols are displayed in figuresalmost an inch high.

The software runs on a lieor He with 128K bytes ofmemory and an 80-columncard. It costs S75.

Also, the company hasreleased a new version ofBraille-Talk, its talking text-to-braiffe translator. Theenhanced edition is ProDOS-based and can translate 10double-spaced pages inslightly more than 2minutes. It costs $125. Con-tact Computer Aids Corp.,124 West Washington, LowerArcade, Fort Wayne. IN46802, (800) 647-82 5 5.Inquiry 582.

Data Grapherfor Scientists

Iandel Scientific hasdeveloped a program de-signed specifically for scien-tists who want to drawgraphs and charts of data.Sigma-Plot, which runs onthe IBM PC series and com-patibles and works with HP-compatible plotters, can pro-duce line, scatter, histogram,and bar charts. The programalso features error bars, log-log scales, semilog scales,independent x. y plotting,cubic spline curve fitting,and linear regression.

The software uses menusthat can be controlled withthe keyboard or the cursorof a digitizer. Data cancome from the keyboard,from files of programs suchas dBASE II/III or Lotus1-2-3, or from files oflandel's Sigma-Scan mea-surement system.

Sigma-Plot costs $350.Contact Iandel Scientific,2656 Bridgeway, Sausalito,CA 94965, (800) 874-1888;in California. Alaska, andCanada, (415) 331-3022.Inquiry 583.

Electronic DesignSoftware for Mac

Advanced EngineeringSolutions has releasedthe second product in itsParaGenesis series of CAEsoftware. Digital MacroScopelets you perform gate andfunctional-level digitalsimulations on a MacintoshPlus or a 512K Macintoshwith an external drive.

The package enables youto run three types of simula-tion: 12-state logical,physical, and parametric.The 12-state mode resolvestrue, false, strong, weak,conflicting, and undefinedlogic states. The physicalmode computes the gates'output rise and fall timesfrom the source and sinkcurrent driving load and in-put capacitances. Theparametric mode lets youvary voltages and tempera-tures and monitor powerconsumption in the network.

The package's SimulationDesign Language includesstate and parametric infor-mation that you can edit.You can describe logicalblocks or use standard gatesand MSI chips that aredefined in the componentlibraries.

You can enter the circuitto be simulated from the

keyboard or from the com-pany's Schematic Entrydrawing program. As youdesign the circuit, SchematicEntry compiles a databaseof parts, pins, and nodes.This database automaticallypasses the interconnect in-formation to Digital Macro-Scope.

Digital MacroScope sellsfor $1000, or you can buy itpackaged with SchematicEntry, normally priced at$700. for $1500. Contact Ad-vanced Engineering Solu-tions Inc., 7 5 Manhattan Dr..Suite 302, Boulder, CO80303. (303) 499-2910.Inquiry 584.

Package Turns Macinto Speech Lab

MacSpeech Lab fromGW Instruments con-verts the 512K Macintoshinto a workstation foranalyzing speech and testingpeople who are speech-impaired. The package letsyou view, edit, play, andstore speech. With GWsMacADIOS data-acquisitionhardware, you can digitallyrecord words at rates of upto 20,000 samples persecond.

You can view time and fre-quency representations ofspeech at positions youselect with the mouse. Seg-ments within utterances canbe amplified, offset, nor-malized, saved, and played.The software producessound spectrograms showingthe progression of frequencyspectra with time. It alsodraws pitch plots to showthe changes of frequencywithin an utterance.

A complete MacSpeechLab consists of software($300). MacADIOS hardware($2 500), and a Macintoshcomputer ($2000). ContactGW Instruments, POB 547.Cambridge. MA 02142. (617)577-1524.Inquiry 585.

Tools for Designing

Transformers,

Inductors

Tech Software is selling aprogram that automatesthe process of designingtransformers and inductorsfor switching power supplies.Applications include workwith push-pull, single-ended,and flyback transformers orbuck, boost, and filter induc-tors. The company says itsproduct relieves engineersof having to perform long-hand calculations or check-ing vendor catalogs tochoose magnetic cores andmagnet wire.

The software lets you ex-periment with input param-eter values (such as inputpower, core size, andnumber of windings) to findtheir effect on program out-puts. Tech Software saysmagnetics modeling andautomatic core selection aretwo essential features ofthese tools. The packageuses design equations thatdetermine core size, wiresize, magnetization induc-tance, permeability, flux den-sity, and air gap length.Lookup tables contain thephysical parameters thatcharacterize each magneticcore.

The software uses menuscreens to take you throughthe design process. Thesescreens show I/O param-eters, engineering units, cur-rent values, and programoptions.

The package costs $149and runs on these machines:IBM PC series and com-patibles with I28K; CP/M 2.2computers with 64K; andApple II+ . lie. and lie com-puters with 64K. ContactTech Software Corp.. POB3126, Redmond, WA 98052.(206) 483-9699.Inquiry 586.

{continued)

44 BYTE • IUNE 1986

FILE RECOVERYSYSTEM

W*"-

FOR THE IBM-PC

"Brown Bag Software's"" File Recovery System™...more powerful than the Norton Utility Version 3.1."

—PCMagazine

We May Be Able To Save Your Job Or Your Life

w

95

Recover Erased Files * Wl W ^ W^ Fix A Damaged File

Edit Any Spot On A Disk V^F^r Menu-Driven and "Goof-Proof"

Change File Attributes ^^^ ^^ Context Sensitive Help

Recover Data From Physically Damaged DisksWorks On Hard And Floppy Disks

YES YOU CAN RECOVER ERASED FILES. Even*.*. WithBrown Bag Software's™ File Recovery System™ for the IBM-PCand compatibles, no programming experience required. If youcan erase a file, you can restore it

MENU-DRIVEN and "FOOL-PROOF.'.' Do you have"one-of-those"in your office...we do too! That's precisely why wedeveloped Brown Bag Software's™ File Recovery System™ for theIBM-PC and compatibles! Our menu-driven system is a snap.

FIX A DAMAGED FILE TOO! Sometimes files can get"glitched,"by a power spike, bumping into the hard disk, droppingthe computer on the floor, etc. We understand. That's why we'veincluded a full screen editor to repair any spot in any file, hiddenor otherwise.

IS IT HARD OR FLOPPY? We don't care. We work with floppydisk, most hard disks, and most IBM-PC compatible computers.

HELP IS ONLINE TOO! We know that most people don'tread manuals. (But we include a comprehensive one anyway.) Andwhen you erase a file and need it recovered NOW you're not inany frame of mind to pour through any manual. We understand.That's why we've put hand-holding online. Just hit the ? key andthe help appropriate to where you are and what you want to do isimmediately available. The only thing better would be two aspirins!

OTHER HANDY TOOLS... HELP: WHERE'D THE FILEGO? We provide menu-driven tools to change a file's attributes,change disklabels, modify screen color, locate a lost file that youknow is somewhere on the disk, but it's lost in a maze of sub-directories (you forgot which).

2105 SOUTH BASCOM AVE., CAMPBELL. CA 95008Inquiry 53

WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD, CALL NOW24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK

800-523-0764

IF LINE IS BUSY OR YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA

CALL: 408-559-4545

M986 SOFTWARE RESOURCE GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDIUNE 1986 -BYTE 45

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE • BUSINESS AND OTHER

MIDI Studiofor Amiga

SoundScape softwarecombines MIDI, sam-pling, and multitrack record-ing on an Amiga computer.Mimetics says its program isactually an operating systemthat resides simultaneouslywith the Amiga's DOS andWorkbench.

The main program consistsof a multitrack music se-quencer with an unlimitednumber of MIDI-compatibletracks. You can put eachtrack in play, record, mute,thru, or "match'' mode(Match mode can be usedto learn or practice a pieceof music; it stops playbackuntil you've played the notesin the selected track.) Atime-oriented editing systemlets you cut and paste usinga mouse.

SoundScape works withkeyboards plugged into thesecond game port, the inter-nal sound synthesizer, MIDII/O, pitch followers, and thecomputer's keyboard. Itcosts $149. ContactMimetics. 16360 StevensCanyon Rd., Cupertino, CA95014, (408) 741-0117.Inquiry 587.

Object-orientedDrawing Program Runson Atari ST

Easy-Draw, an object-oriented art program forthe Atari ST, can be used tocreate business and presen-tation graphics, line draw-ings, and multiple-layer il-lustrations. The package letsyou move and manipulateobjects, copy them, rotatethem, and stretch and sizethem. You can zoom in onany area, pick frompredefined patterns, useshadowing, and use rulesand grids.

The program provides twowindows for working in. Youcan move and copy draw-

Easy-Draw, an object-oriented program for the Atari ST.

ings between windows. Easy-Draw uses high-resolutionoutput for printing.

The sofware runs on acolor or monochrome STSuggested retail price isSI49.95, Contact MigraphInc., 720 South 333rd St.Suite 201, Federal Way, WA98003, (206) 838-4677.Inquiry 588.

Music Plotterfor Apples

Personal Music Engraver,described by developerNewgo Inc. as a professionalmusic calligraphy program,automates the process ofputting music to paper. Thesoftware, which works withan x, y plotter to producemusic characters, runs onthe Apple 1I + . lie. and lie.Newgo says the programworks like a word processor.It is smart enough to check

your "musical grammar"while you type, and it auto-matically displays notes withthe correct stem length anddirection. The editor letsyou change, delete, or insertmeasures anywhere in anypart. The package also letsyou transpose notes, controlpage format (including spac-ing between staves andnumber of staves per page),set horizontal spacing, anduse 10 font sizes. PersonalMusic Engraver can printcomplete scores (with an up-grade), lead sheets, charts,exercises, and templateswith blank measures.

The program requires anX-Y plotter with DMPL-IVlanguage (for example, theHouston Instrument PC-695or DMP-29). Personal MusicEngraver sells for $1395; theupgrade that lets it producecomplete scores costs$29.95. Contact MusicGraphics Inc., POB 22.

WHERE DO NEW PRODUCT ITEMS COME FROM?The new products listed in this section of BYTE are chosen from the thousandsof press releases, letters, and telephone calls we receive each month frommanufacturers, distributors, designers, and readers. The basic criteria for selectionfor publication are: [a] does a product match our readers interests? and \b)is it new or is it simply a reinlroduclion of an old item? Because of the volumeof submissions we must sort through every month, the items we publish arebased on vendors statements and are not individually verified. 1/ you wantyour product to be considered for publication [at no charge), send full infor-mation about it. including its price and an address and telephone numberwhere a reader can get further information, to New Products Editor, BYTE,One Phoenix Mill lane. Peterborough. NH 03458.

Winchester, VA 22601-0022,(703) 665-0239.Inquiry 589.

Mail Programfor LANs FeaturesMultimedia Messages

PCC/Systems has re-leased cc:Mail for local-area networks of IBM PCsand compatibles. The soft-ware lets you write, store,send, and receive electronicmessages that can consist ofanything you can create withyour microcomputer, in-cluding text, graphics, anddata files. The program hasa word processor and agraphics package, and it'scapable of capturing screensfrom application programs;you can then edit thesesnapshots and insert themin your messages. Eachmessage can combine asmany as 20 text, graphics,and file items.

It takes one keystroke tosend mail. You can requesta receipt telling you whenthe recipient got themessage. You can store mailin up to 100 personalfolders, each of which canhold 500 messages. Mailcan be exchanged betweencc:Mail systems on dissimilarLANs. The software isdesigned to operate on net-works with single or multiplefile servers. Communicationsuse X.PC error correction.All database files areencrypted.

The software runs underDOS 2.0 or later on IBMPCs and compatibles with atleast 320K bytes of RAMand a Hayes or compatiblemodem. A 10-user starterversion of cc:Mail for LANscosts $995. ContactPCC/Systems. 480 CaliforniaAve.. Suite 201, Palo Alto.CA 94306, (415) 321-0430.Inquiry 590. ■

46 BYTE • IUNE 1986

LOOKING FOR THE BESTVALUE IN PC/AT COMPATIBLES?

INTRODUCING THE $1495 A*STAR

Looking for a lower priced, higherquality PC/AT compatible than our newA*Star™is like looking for a needle ina haystack. You're more apt to come upwith a case of hayfever.

A*Star gives you features youwon't get from any other vendor. NotIBM. Not Compaq. Not even those for-eign manufacturers. Features like a 220watt power supply, eight available ex-pansion slots and "network ready"multi-user operation. All for only $1495.And that price includes a 1.2MB dis-kette drive, 512KB memory, a fixeddisk/diskette drive controller, a tactilefeedback keyboard (you'll love it!) and a6/8MHz switch/software selectable80286 CPU.

Best of all, A*Star is quality builtright here in America by Wells Ameri-can Corporation - an America StockExchange manufacturer. So now you

can buy with confidence from a vendoryou can trust, just like you've trustedIBM. And you'll get a genuine, top qual-ity product (not a cheap imitation) for aprice even less than those "questionable"mail order clones. And if that's not enough,it's all money-back guaranteed!

The $1495 Wells American A-A-Star.™

A PC/AT FOR ONLY $1495?THAT'S NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT!

[Hurry! This offer is limited.]

□ I'm tired of sneezing! Have someone callme immediately to take my order.

□ A*Star sounds terrific. Tell me more.

Name:

Company:

Phone:

Address:

City:

State:

■ Zip:-

<©► Wells American

^T 803/796-7800.TWX 510-601-2645Sunset Boulevard • West Columbia, SC 29169

IBM, Personal Computer AT and AT are trademarks ol International Business Machines Corpcra

Inquiry 367

IUNE 1986

IYTE 47

Inquiry 201

3.5" DISKDRIVE

FOR YOUR PCOR COMPATIBLE

vertible

r^AV MANZANA'sr<$>^v/Tine of 3.5 inch

* ■**/ External DisketteDrives now includesnew low-cost models

hich derive power fromthe host computer. Thesecarefully designed peri-pherals run on IBM PC,XT, AT and many com-patibles including AT&T6300, Compaq, Tandy1000.Prices from $355.

All Manzana systems comewith our sophisticated buteasy-to-use software package . . . allowing you toread & write to many 3.5"formats including:

IBM Convertible, ToshibaT1100, HP110 & 150, Atari520 ST, DG/One, GRiDCase,Kaypro 2000, Tandy 600.

Compatible with all DOS 2.0 and above.

CLUBS ANDNEWSLETTERS

Micro Musician, 11514 Ventura Blvd. #A-3,Studio City, CA 91604, (818) 508-8079.Monthly news on software, hardware, syn-thesizers, and MIDI information. Annualsubscription: $22.

INPUT/OUTPUT, Box 248. Station B.Ottawa KIP 6C4. Canada. Quarterly news-letter promotes peaceful uses of tech-nology, especially computer technology.

The Smart Apple Club (TSAC), 53 Hem-lock Ave.. Narragansett, Rl 02882. Publicdomain library, newsletter, and BBS.

Gulf Coast Computer Club, POB 1104,

Port Richey, FL 34288-1104, (813)868-0176. Meetings twice a month.

Apple Portland Program Library Ex-chance (APPLE), POB 1608, Beaverton,OR 97075. Monthly newsletter, public do-main software. Send SASE.

Commodore-Pet User Group (C-PUG),

lohn Palmer, 2308 Houma Blvd.. Apt. 724.Metairie, LA 70001. Send SASE for moreinformation.

Aviation and Computer Enthusiasts(ACE), Carl Bogardus, 1220 Birch Dr., LasCruces, NM 88001. Open to all; $5 annualdues includes quarterly newsletter.

Dellasonta Computer Club, 12 lalanTera, Bandung 40111, Indonesia. Specialinterest groups, regular meetings, monthlynewsletter.

MICROTheater. Room 146, Fine ArtsCenter Building, University of Massachu-setts, Amherst, MA 01003, (413) 545-0480.Free bimonthly newsletter for computer-ists in entertainment.

68000 Club, c/o Software Only, MeadowPark Plaza, 22753 Hawthorne Blvd.. Tor-rance, CA 90505, (213) 373-0466. Newslet-ter, public domain library, tech support.Annual dues: S2 5.

Pasadena IBM User's Group, Steve Bass,711 East Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91101.(818) 795-2300. Monthly meetings. Dues:S2 per meeting.

Tech Club, c/o Software Only, MeadowPark Plaza, 22753 Hawthorne Blvd., Tor-rance. CA 90505. (213) 373-0466. News.library, and support for scientists, mathe-maticians, engineers, and programmers.Annual dues: $25.

Denver Amateur Computer Society(DACS). POB 477, Wheat Ridge, CO80034. Monthly newsletters and meetings.

The Delaware Valley DEC PC UserGroup, c/o MICRODOC, 815 CarpenterLane, Philadelphia. PA 19119. Newsletterand meetings.

Bay Area NEC/Model 100 User's Group,

c/o Truly Portable. POB 2916, Oakland, CA94609. Meetings, newsletter, public do-main software library. Annual dues: $10.

Sanyo Users Group of Washington.

Douglas Webbink. POB 2468. Fairfax. VA22031. (703) 323-9663. Monthly meetings,newsletter, public domain library, SIGs;$15 annual dues.

Digital Encryption Standard UsersGroup, R. M. Richardson, POB 1065,Chautauqua, NY 14772, (716) 753-2654.Newsletter for microcomputer crypto-analysts. Send SASE for details.

MATAMATA Computer Club. C. lamesElliot, Alameda Junior High School, 1211CalleLuna, Santa Fe, NM 97501. Logo forstudents on HP 110 and Apple computers.

Public Domain Club, POB 6877. Dept.3. Hollywood. FL 3 3021. Free Apple andIBM public domain programs. Club mem-bership free with first order.

TUe III Magazine. 3201 Murchison Way.Carmichael, CA 95608. (916) 485-6525.Published monthly; support for Apple IIIloyalists. Annual subscription: $40. ■

CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS is anacknowledgment of new clubs and newslettersreceived at BYTE. Allow at least four monthsfor your club's mention to appear. Send infor-mation to BYTE, Clubs and Newsletters. OnePhoenix Mill lane. Peterborough. NH 03458.

48 BYTE- |UNE 1986

m Inside Apple

Vol. 2. No. 2

We're just notmaking Macintosh™computers like we usedto make them.

We're makingthem better.

Now they'retwice as powerful. They'remore expandable. And they'resignificantly faster.

We call our newest Macintosh,Macintosh Plus.

By Plus, we refer to a full

Home of the mouse andotter cursor look

Want to add it null full of

filing cabinets to yourMacintosh? Plug an 800K

external disk drire or HardDisk 20 here.

Tlx SCSI port lets you

transfer data to

peripherals faster than

you can say "transfer

data loperiplxrah"

By Plus, we refer to its new,800K double-sided disk drive, thatallows you to store twice as muchby using both sides of a floppy.

By Plus, we refer to 128K of

This port accepts cutisfrom most mat/ems.

Our LaserWriter Plusprinter goes here.

Look what ourown engineers didbehind our back.

megabyte of RAM that givesMacintosh the power to take ad-vantage of the most powerfulsoftware programs ever driven witha point and click.

ROM that makes Macintosh per-form more efficiently. And a sophis-ticated hierarchical filing systemthat enables you to find thingsfaster than you used to lose them.

Is there enoughstorage space inyouroffice?

It's only 7^x1^x43/4 incheson the outside, yet big enough tostore over 400 pages of data onthe inside.

We're talking, of course, aboutour new and faster 800K externaldisk drive.

Like the internal drive in ournew Macintosh Plus, our externaldrive also uses 800K double-sided3^" disks. Which virtually elimi-nate the words "disk is full" fromthe Macintosh vocabulary.

And you can even daisy chainan extra external drive off anApple® Hard Disk 20, giving you thecapacity to work at extraordinaryspeeds with larger documents.

Like your own personal copyof the Des Moines white pages.

And by Plus, we refer to theadded cursor keys and a built-innumeric keypad that let you doyour adding, subtracting, guess-timating and bottom-liningwithout lifting your hands fromthe keyboard. Or your eyes fromthe screen.

But to fully understand thebiggest turn-around in MacintoshPlus engineering, all you need dois turn around any Macintosh Plus.

And behold, a SmallComputer Systems Interface port.

Macintosh Plus.

Better known in computercircles as a SCSI port.

The SCSI port not onlyallows you to transfer data sixtimes faster, but lets you connect upto seven high-speed peripheralsat once. Including hard disks andtape drives.

Needless to say we've givenourselves a considerable kick in thebackside.

And if you read on, we'llshow you how to turn theMacintosh that's sitting on yourdesk into the Macintosh sittingon this page.

Nowyoucanbuyas much Macintoshas you need

Now that there's more thanone Macintosh to choose from,you're probably wondering whichone to choose.

Well, for you power-mongersout there, we recommend theMacintosh Plus. The computerwhose powerful features adorn theprevious page.

But if you don't need a frillmegabyte of memory, we recom-mend the newly enhancedMacintosh 512K

By enhanced, we mean we'vetaken our Macintosh 512K andadded an 800K internal disk driveand 128K of internal ROM.

Which makes it more thancapable of handling all yourcomputing chores. Even though it

costs considerably less than aMacintosh Plus.

Apple Hard Disk 20.

Macintosh Phe Disk. Drive Kit.

Macintosh Plus Logic Board.

Macintosh Pins Keyboard.

And should the day come thatyou want to sort out a databasefaster than you can take a sip ofcoffee, you can always upgradefrom a 128K, a 512K or enhanced512K to a Plus.

All at once. Or a little at a time.

We recommend you start withthe Macintosh Plus Disk Drive Kit.That's where we install the new128K of ROM, the hierarchicalfiling system and the 800K internal

disk drive (Of course, the enhanced512K already has these features).

After that, you can bump yourRAM up to 1Mb with the MacintoshPlus Logic Board Kit. And add anew rear housing and SCSI port.

And finally, you can attachour keyboard that comes with thekeypad and cursor keys.

The point being, the moreyou put into a Macintosh, the moreyou get out of one.

Disk space vs. desk space.

It used to be, adding a harddisk to your computer meantgiving something up: a big chunkof desktop.

Enter the new Apple HardDisk 20. Since it has the same foot-print as Macintosh Plus, it fitsdirectly beneath it.

This not only makesMacintosh Plus a few inches taller,but about 25 times bigger. Becauseyou can install all the programsyou currently keep on floppy diskson the Hard Disk 20s disk. So you

don't have to swap disks to switchapplications.

And the Hard Disk 20sWinchester, 20-megabyte technol-ogy allows you to cut and paste,switch from application to appli-cation, and access information upto three times faster than you canusing floppy disks.

The Hard Disk 20 really givesyou the best of two worlds.

You get more disk space towork with. And more desk space towork on.

Meet the press.

Here's all the news that's fit toprint about our new LaserWriter1Plus printer.

For starters, itisn't just a printer. -^p u/It's also a computer. "*^Inside is the same Motorola68000 microprocessor that's insideMacintosh Plus. Not to mention ahefty 15-megabyte of RAM and afull megabyte of ROM.

And inside the ROM isPostScript,® the page descriptionlanguage that is quickly becomingthe industry standard.

Translated, this meansLaserWriter Plus can quickly and

Put this LaserWriter Plus printer together with a Macintosh Phis and you eel a design studio,a type house and a print shop that Jits on J.1 square feet of desk

PostScript also allows theLaserWriter Plus to generate dozensof different type styles from its 11

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ITC Avant Garde Gothic

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghij klmnopqrstuvwxyz

ITC Bookman

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abCdefghijklmnOpqrStUVWXyZ Helvetica Narrow

Some of the newfacesyou 'It he seeing around the office.

quietly print an amazing 300 dotsper inch, and give you completecontrol over every single dot on thepage. Which allows you to coveran entire page with virtually anycombination of near typeset qualitytext and high resolution graphics.

built-in typeface families. Includ-ing popular business faces likeHelvetica^ Times? Palatino® andITC Avant Garde Gothic® And morefamilies are becoming availableall the time.

PostScript allows the Laser-

anc/a/

fic_

TOE WATKHMILI.■RgSTAUR ANT ■

JG RAN D OPEN ING

1CO.UPON l?

u-i.-l„,M„rJUUM.„i..Mi

ieo

SDK

Our Newest

Watcrmill Restaurant

is located at 101 Savoy Ave.

The Watcrmill Restaurant is located

between Olmstead St. and Taylor St.

on Savoy Ave. Plenty of Free Parking.

Open I lam-IIpm Mon. ihru Snt.

Writer Plus to generate hundredsof different type sizes, too. So youcan create legal documents withfine print as fine as 4-point. Orbanners with blocks of type as bigas 720-point.

But those aren't the onlypluses to the LaserWriter Plus.

When you hook one up to aMacintosh Plus, you become theproud owner of one of our DesktopPublishing Plus™ systems. A systemthat virtually puts a design studio,a type house and a print shopon your desk. Which means yournewsletters, flyers, forms andmanuals will stand out in a worldfrill of typewritten pages thickwith white-out.

We could easily go on and on.Instead, we'll let our LaserWriterPlus speak for itself in the form ofthe output pictured to the left.

While they may look like thehandiwork of a professional artist,typesetter, and printer, we assureyou they were created with noth-ing more than a LaserWriter Plus,a Macintosh Plus and softwarelike our own MacDraw™ andMacPaint™ Microsoft's Word andExcel, and Aldus' PageMaker.

And an ordinary pair ofhuman hands.

How the people who run things run things.

If there's one thing everybusiness person can use more of,it's power.

Which is why you'll be happyto hear that the most powerfulpersonal computer software beingwritten, is being written forMacintosh computers.

Take Excel from Microsoft, forexample. It's the first spreadsheetprogram to combine automaticmacros, user-defined functions,array-handling and two-way data

3Com

Omilis 3 from Blylh.

file compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3in one program.

Omnis 3 from Blyth is arelational database program thatlets you create your own pull-downmenus, on-screen buttons anddialog boxes. As well as share filesover our AppleTalk™ PersonalNetwork in the multi-user version.

And while we're on the subjectof sharing, we should tell you thatwe've entered into a working rela-tionship with what we consider

.

.jServerfrom 3Com.

to be one of the highest rankingdisk servers on the market. 3Serverfrom 3Com.

For the uninitiated, diskservers are storage devices thatallow your Macintosh Plus to shareinformation and other services

with other computers over anetwork.

Which, in conjunction withthe powerful new software we de-scribed earlier, makes it a lot easierto start running your business.

Instead of chasing after it.

Here's our new business card.

Now you can automate youroffice without draining your com-pany's checking account down tothe right side of the decimal point.

With our new Apple BusinessCredit Card.

As the name suggests, it's acredit card for your business,issued in your company's name.

Make an initial purchase of$2,500, and it gives your companya line of credit that can beapplied towards the Apple productsof your choice*

With the Apple Business CreditCard, there's never a down pay-ment on anything you buy. It'spossible to get credit approval in24 hours. And you don't have topay any interest if you pay yourbalance within 30 days.

To apply, visit any partici-pating authorized Apple dealer.

The Apple Business CreditCard. Don't leave the office with-out it.

^eCoinp;

'"referral

Business

c"s!omCT

Trade * |Apple sto(K^

IfyouownaLisa®oraMacintosh XL computer, this isyour lucky ad.

Because from April 14th toAugust 29th, you can trade-in thesecomputers for a Macintosh Plusand a Hard Disk 20 at the sug-gested retail price of only $1498.

So bring your authorizedApple dealer your Lisa andMacintosh XL computers.

And trade them forthe stock on his shelf.

© 1986 .typle Computer. Inc. Apple, the Axle logo and Lisa are registered trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc. LaserWriter. MacDmw. MacPaint. AppleTalk and Desktop PlibHsbing Plusare trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc. Macintosh is a trademark of Mcintosh Laboratory, Inc. and is being used with its express permission. Helvetica, Times and Palatino areregistered trademarks if Allied Corporation, ITC Annul Garde Gothic is a registered trademark of International typeface Corporation. PcaSaun is a trademark of Adobe Systems,Inc. Microsq/I is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PageMaker is a trademark of Aldus Corporation. Lotus anil 1-2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus DevelopmentCorporation. Omnis 1 is a registered trademark of Blyth Software. Inc. jServer is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. "Subject to credit approval. For an authorized Apple dealer nearyou. call (800) 446-3000. In Canada, call (800) 268- 7796 or (800) 268- 763 7.

FIXES AND UPDATES

BYTE'S BUGS

Three Wrong Notes

Three wrong notes in the April Editorialwe must correct:

Computers and music is not the themeof the July issue; it's the theme of the Juneissue, the one you're reading right now.Look at it this way: You don't have to waitanother month.

Keyboardist Roger Powell, a member of

■

Todd Rundgren's group Utopia, developedMIDI sequencer software, not MIDI squeezersoftware. The package, called Texture, runson the IBM PC. (You can contact Roger atPOB 328, Rhinebeck, NY 12 572.)

And the editor of Electronic Musician isCraig Anderton. not Craig Anderson.

Sorry, readers. Sorry. Roger. Sorry, Craig.

■■H BYTES BITS MM

Sorry, Wrong Number

In the April Fixes and Updates, in the tableof addresses and telephone numbers re-lating to computer conferencing systems,we gave the wrong number for the Newlersey Institute of Technology. (NJ1T runsthe Electronic Information Exchange Sys-tem.) The correct number is (201) 596-3437. Our apologies.

Hawaii Calling

Nauseating

The organizers of the Twentieth AnnualHawaii International Conference on Sys-tem Sciences are seeking papers for theirproceedings. HICSS, slated for nextJanuary 6-9 in Kona, is sponsored by theUniversity of Hawaii and the University ofSouthwestern Louisiana in cooperationwith the ACM (Association for ComputingMachinery) and the IEEE Computer Soci-ety. The stated purpose of the meetingsis "to provide a forum in which quality re-searchers and practitioners in the informa-tion, computer, and system sciences canexchange ideas, techniques, and applica-tions."

Topics for papers should focus on archi-tecture (including high-performance per-sonal machines, knowledge-based sys-tems, and VLSI and technology issues);software (including design tools, environ-ments, alternative language paradigms,and models of system and programbehavior); and applications (includinghealth care systems, legal information pro-cessing, and DSS model management).

The deadline for abstracts has passed,but full papers may be submitted until July7. Notification of accepted papers will bemailed in September. For more informa-tion on the conference, contact Ralph H.Sprague Jr.. conference cochairman. at thefollowing address;

College of Business AdministrationUniversity of Hawaii2404 Maile Way. E-303Honolulu, HI 96822(808) 948-7430

We get thousands of press releases everymonth, announcing all sorts of products.Some of the products sound an awful lotlike some of the other products, and someof the names sound an awful lot like someof the other names. So we paused a bitwhen we read the release describing theNauseater. We certainly can't explain it toyou as well as the folks at MachcTech In-dustries can; hence, we quote their an-nouncement.

"The Nauseater is a flashlight-typedevice that creates a slight feeling ofqueasiness in the stomach of any personin its path. The proprietary Nauseaterdesign (patent pending) utilizes a low-powered, frequency-modulated laserhumanely engineered to create just thedesired effect."

MachoTech suggests you might want touse this device when waiting for a tablein a restaurant. Aim it at a couple "linger-

ing over coffee" and one of them will say,"Honey, I'm feeling squeamish. Let's leave."

The Nauseater (which is also spelled theNauseator) is priced at $7995. And for thenervous kind of guy, MachoTech sells theAnti-Nauseater, a "belt-worn device whichis a must for anyone who doesn't own aNauseater." Only $995.

Uh, but before you rush out to buy, keepin mind that the announcement is datedApril 1.

Houston Atariasts BBS

HASTE (Houston Atari ST Enthusiasts) isoperating a public domain bulletin boardsystem running on a 520ST with an up-graded memory of 1 megabyte. The grouphas an electronic newsletter that's avail-able for downloading. The telephonenumber of the HASTE BBS is (713)955-9532.

How to Access and Use BYTEnet Listings

To access BYTEnet Listings, call (617)861-9764. When you get the carriertone, enter two or three carriagereturns so that our software can deter-mine your operating parameters.

Optimum modem settings are 8 bits.1 stop bit, and no parity at full duplex,or 7 bits. 1 stop bit. and even parityat half duplex. Acceptable operatingspeeds are 300 or 1200 bps. At thistime, BYTEnet Listings does not sup-

port 2400-bps transmissions.

The BYTEnet Listings software itselfis menu-driven. Programs may bedownloaded using ASCII, Kermit, Tele-Link, and XMODEM protocols.

BYTE listings are also available onBIX. After connecting with the system,type join listings at the main prompt.(For more information on BIX, phone(800) 227-2983 between 8:30 a.m. and11:00 p.m. Eastern time, weekdays.)

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 49

ASK BYTE

Conducted by Steve Ciarcia

Compaq Questions

Dear Steve,

I am not very hardware-oriented, but Ienjoy your articles very much, especiallythe one on keeping power-line pollutionout of your computer (December 1983).After reading your article, 1 went straightto Radio Shack and purchased a voltage-transient surge protector. Since we do nothave much lightning here (mostly irregularcurrent supply), will this device protect myCompaq computer adequately?

Also, do you know of any board thatwould transform my Compaq into a telexmachine so I can send telexes withoutdedicated equipment?

Daniel PohorylesHerzlya, Israel

The transient surge-protection devicewill protect your computer equipmentfrom transients produced by lightning aswell as those produced by the switchingof equipment connected to the samepower line. If your area suffers from fre-quent brownouts (sudden drops in thesupply voltage) or power outages. Iwould suggest that you purchase an un-interruptible power supply (UPS). A num-ber of UPS manufacturers advertise inBYTE.

To send and receive telex messages,you require a serial port, modem, com-munications software, and access toeither Western Union EasyLink or theMCI Mail Network. Both networks pro-vide access to the international telexsystem as well as the ability to send hard-copy letters and electronic messages toother network subscribers. Additional in-formation regarding these services canbe obtained by contacting

MCI Mail

2000 M St. NW, Suite 300Washington, DC 20036(800) 424-6677

Western Union

9229 LB) Freeway, Suite 234

Dallas, TX 75243

(800) 527-5184

(Western Union)

Ministry of Communications

POB 23179

Tel Aviv 61231, Israel(972.3) 28 12 61(972.3) 29 53 33

—Steve

Typewriter Conversion

Dear Steve,

1 have a Sperry/Remington Redactronword processor. I would like to convert theIBM Series 60 typewriter to stand aloneas a letter-quality printer. Do you know ofa company that has plans or parts to dothe conversion? I can do it from scratch,but 1 would rather save time.

Dennis A. PollockAlbuquerque, NM

Here is the name and address of acompany that advertises interfaces foryour IBM Series 60 typewriter:

California Micro Computer933 Warbler Ave.Fountain Valley, CA 92708(714) 964-9301—Steve

Apple Resolution

Dear Steve,

I have an Apple 11+ and feel envious ofthe 560-dot horizontal resolution availableon the Apple lie. I've had my Apple nowfor years, and 1 have accumulated co-processor cards, etc.. that use their ownmemory rather than the Apple's memory.

I am interested in any modification tothe Apple 11+ that would permit true560-dot horizontal resolution, either by al-lowing the display of both high-resolutionscreens at once or some other means. Iam specifically interested in hardwaremodifications that would allow dots to beindependently addressable.

Thomas DonaldsonCanberra, Australia

The Apple lie gets its 560-dot horizon-tal resolution by bank-switching the twobanks of video RAM and alternately dis-playing both banks slightly offset fromeach other. This produces the single im-age from the two 280-dot images. Sincethe Apple 11+ lacks the alternate bankof memory at the high-resolution screenaddresses, there is no practical way to

duplicate the effect.

While it is possible to rapidly switch be-tween the two high-resolution pages onthe 11+, it isn't possible to offset thepages horizontally to double the resolu-tion as with the lie.

The colors displayed by the Apple 11+are determined by whether or not agiven dot is on, the horizontal coordinateof the dot (even or odd column), whetheror not an adjacent dot is on, and whetheror not the high bit of the byte that dotoccupies in memory is on. Because ofthis, an individual dot cannot be changedwithout changing adjacent dots. I knowof no simple hardware modification thatwill alter this. Smooth animation isachieved on the Apple by shifting all thedots in the animated image. In order tosmoothly move an image across thescreen, seven different bit-mappedshapes are required for each image. Forinformation on this type of animation,see the article 'A New Shape Subroutinefor the Apple" by Richard T Simoni jr.in the August 1983 BYTE. Also refer toApple Graphics and Arcade Game De-sign by Jeffrey Stanton (1982, The BookCompany, 11223 South Hindry Ave., LosAngeles, CA 90045),-Steve

Free Bytes

Dear Steve,

I am currently using an IBM PC XT withtwo floppy disk drives, and 1 am program-ming in Pascal, CBASIC, and FORTRAN. I

{continued)

IN ASK BYTE, Steve Ciarcia answers questions onany area of microcomputing. The most representativequestions received each month will be answered andpublished. Do you have a nagging problem'? Sendyour inquiry to

Ask BYTE

do Steve Ciarcia

POB 582

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

The Ask BYTE staff includes manager HarvVJeiner and researchers Eric Albert. Bill Curlew. KenDavidson, leannette Dojan. Ion Eton, Roger \ames.Frank Kuechmann. Dave Lundberg. Edward Nisley.Dick Sawyer. Andy Siska. and Robert Stek.

50 B YTE • JUNE 1986

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

•ttdK

^

These and other powerful

Those who insist on C compiler performanceare very big on Mark Williams.

And the compiler is just part of our total C Programming System.

Mark Williams' C compiler has earned a placein some very big companies for some very good reasons:it proves the benchmarks right with the speed, codedensity, consistent performance and expert supportrequired in professional development environments.

But a total development tool shouldn't stop withcompiling. Or go on and on with extras that add up and up.

Only Mark Williams' C Programming Systemsincludes the csd C Source Debugger with true sourcelevel debugging to speed your programming job.

And only Mark Williams' new 30 version includesutilities like "make" to make quick work of even thelargest projects.

From source code to final product, only one takesyou all the way: Mark Williams' C Programming System.All for only $495. Ask about our 60-day money backguarantee when you call

1-800-692-1700 to order today.* (SBki MarkYou'll be big on the total C l|l Williams

Programming system from \A# Company

Mark Williams, too.

_^?cS>\/ utilities now included in the C^S^yr Programming System:jj?/ ' make: compiles only what's necessary^from multiple modules, a powerful pro-gramming discipline

• diff: identifies differences between two files

• m4: macroprocessor expression editingand substitution

• egrep: extended pattern search

• MicroEMACS: full screen editor with source

COMPILER FEATURES

• Runs under MS-DOS

• Full Kernighan & Ritchie C with recentextensions including void and enum

• Register variables for fast, compact code

• Full UNIX™ compatibility and completelibraries

• Large and small memory models

• MS-DOS linker compatibility

• 8087 Support

• One-step compiling

• English error messages

• ROMable code

• Linker, assembler, archiver

• Extensive third party library support

csd C SOURCE DEBUGGER

• Debugs at C source level without assemblylanguage

• Separate evaluation, source, program andhistory windows

• Can execute any C expression

• Capabilities of a C interpreter, but runs inreal time

• Set trace points on any statement or variable

© 1985 Mark Williams Company

UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Labs.

Inquiry 204

*ln Illinois call 312-472-6659.

1430 West WrightwoodChicago, Illinois 60614

IUNE 1986

ASK BYTE

Listing 1

: Assembly language

routine to determine free disk space.

mov

DL ,dr ive

;drive«0 - default drive;dr ive-1 - A dr ive;drive-2 - B drive

mov

AH.36H

int

21H

cmp

AX.0FFFFH

;If AX returns FFFF, then drive...;...designat ion was in error

je

error

mov

sec_cIust,AX

;AX contains number of sectors...;...per cIuster

mov

free_space,BX

;BX contains free space in clusters

mov

bytes_sec,CX

;CX contains bytes/sector

ret

error:

ret

Listing 2: Sample FORTRAN code to call the routine in listing

INTEGER*2 CLUST,SEC,BYTEINTEGER** FREECHARACTER*1 DRIVEDRIVE=CHAR(1)C SUBROUTINE DISK IS DEFINED IN LISTING 1CALL DISK(DRIVE,CLUST,SEC,BYTE)FREE=CLUST*SEC*BYTE

haven't been able to determine how manybytes are free on the disk from within aprogram. Do you know of a routine in anyof the above languages or assembly lan-guage that can solve my problem?

Also. I am interested in adding a remov-able hard disk subsystem to my computer.I have seen many ads for such systems inBYTE, but I don't know anything abouttheir compatibility, reliability, and speed.What is your opinion on some of thesedevices?

Ahmad RazaLahore, Pakistan

You can determine free disk space inFORTRAN or CBASIC by calling an as-sembly language subroutine that usesDOS function 36H (DOS 2.0 or higher).In Pascal, you can write a procedure inassembly language or use a built-in DOSinterrupt function call and retrieve theresults directly from the AX. BX, and CXregisters.

An assembly language code fragmentto get the disk's free space is shown inlisting I. In order for this code to work,you must set up addressing in the call-

{continued)

JDEALERS WELCOME!!

]iil.Mll.ll*TiIi7rFT?Ii1|

BEST ON THE MARKET

ONLY •

• Aulo dial, auto answer (lone or pulse)

• 8 status indicators & switch selectable

• Auto speed selection (0-300, 1200 bps)

• Speaker with volume control

• Aluminum case, wilh adaptor 6 MONTH WARRANTYModem board completely assembled

& guaranteed. 5 minutes assembly

ALPHA CONCORD

flKUHffl

$139

I SEMI-ASSEMBLED

J.

$129

NEW II 2400 MODEM

SEMI-ASSEMBLED

300/12002400

MODEM

$299

BUILD YOUR PORTABLE XT/AT

XT PORTABLE $199

(Price includes only case, full size keyboard,)(9" monitor, 130 wait power supply extra.)(Fit mega XT/AT m-board & standard cards)

Replacement & 99% Compatible

AT COMPATIBLEMOTHERBOARD

CONCORD Technology Ltd.

47 W. Broadway, Van., B.C. Canada V5Y 1P1Ph.(604)879-3555 or 879-7419

52 B YTE • IUNE 1986

FACTORY PRICES ON

AT/XT or lie cases, cards,keyboards (minimum 25) SCall

Inquiry 91

.■■....■■ .. :.'

GUARD

TOTAL DATA SECURITY

•Protects your data from illegal users.

'Impossible to access the system with a DOS diskette.

*Up to 16 users with ID codes and passwords.

•Automatically locks the system after a rione activity period

•Automatic screen saver.

"Audible alarm if an illegal user

tries to access the system:*ls a total hardware protection

system,*Loweost

Data Protection

System."Fully compatible

with the IBM PC,

XT.ATandcqmpa-

tibles.

of time.

For more •%,. ' ■''

information k,

and orders ^^N*. ^

call (809)767-0066 ^S-/^

VISA, MASTERCARD or COD cashier check:

IBM PC, XT, AT are registered trademarks of international Business Machines Carp.

Inquiry

Now the biggest name

in C compilers comes in a size

everybody can afford.

Let's C

$75

Introducing Mark Williams' $75 C compiler. Want to explore C programming for the first time? Or juston your own time? Now you can do it in a big way without spending that way. With Lets C.

This is no little beginner's model. Let's C is a powerful programming tool, packed with all theessentials of the famous Mark Williams C Programming System. The one chosen by Intel, DEC, Wang

and thousands of professional programmers. The one that wins the

benchmarks and the reviewers' praise:

"(This compiler) has the most professional feel of any package we tested.. ."—BYTE

"Of all the compilers reviewed, (it) would be my first choice for product

development."—David W. Smith, PC WORLD

And now for more big news. Get our revolutionary csd C Source

Debugger for just $75, too.Use this coupon or charge by calling toll-free: \^u can breeze through

1-800-MWC-1700. In 111. call 312-472-6659. . . ,+u r

debugging at the C source

level ignoring clunky

assembler code.

Affordable, powerful,

debuggable. Mark Williams

Let's C is the big name C

compiler at a price you can

handle. Get your hands on

it now.

Mark Williams Let's C

• For the IBM-PC andMS-DOS

• Fast compact code plusregister variables

• Full Kernighan & Ritchie Cand extensions

• Full UNIX" compatibilityand complete libraries

• Small memory model

• Many powerful utilitiesincluding linker,assembler, archiver, ccone-step compiling, egrep,pr, tail, wc

• MicroEMACS full screeneditor with source

• Supported by dozens ofthird party libraries

• Upgradeable to CProgramming System forlarge scale applicationsdevelopment

Let's C Benchmark Done onan IBM-PC/XT, no 8087.Program: Floating Pointfrom BYTE, August, 1983-

Exec Time in SecondsLet's C 134.20

MS 3-0 347.45

ORDER NOW! 60-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

Mark Williams Let's C

Please send me:

copies of Lets C and copies of csd (C Source Debugger)

at 575 each. (111. residents add 1% sales tax.)O Check O Money Order O Visa, MasterCard orAmerican Express

Tiry

State

Csrrl*

Signature

BY066

Mark

Williams

Company

1430 West WrightwoodChicago, Illinois 60614

Inquiry 205

) 1985 Mark Williams UNIX is a trademark of Dell Labs.

ASK BYTE

ing program for the drive designation

and the returned variables, sec dust,

bytes sec, and free space. These can

be multiplied together on return by thecalling program to get the free bytes.

The sample FORTRAN code in listing2 determines free space in drive A.

Your compiler manuals should give theinformation necessary to call assemblylanguage subroutines, and you can getmore information about using the DOSINT 21H functions from the IBM DOS

Technical Reference Manual.

The Bernoulli Box is reputed to be anexcellent device, as are the removablehard disk drives you mention. The Ber-noulli Box is a little slower than theothers, and 1 believe its disks are a littleless expensive. All are compatible withthe PC XT—Steve

IBM PC AT BUS

Dear Steve,1 was disappointed to find that the ar-

ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS

ARE 4f*?% PART

OF THE fchfaZt SAME

FAMILY fjfMP* TREE

COMPATIBLE, DEPENDABLE & AFFORDABLE

"...masterpiece of IBM imitation... minor masterpiece of the

circuit designer's

art."

"The most compati-ble IBM cloneI've ever workedwith."

MEGA-BOARD-XT™

Lee Konowe, AmericanSoftware Club, Ridgefield, Ct.

SWITCHING BUFFER

MEGA-KIT

Winn L, Rosch, Cloning Your OwnPC, PC Magazine, July 10, 1984.

MULTIPLE INPUT/DUAL OUTPUTSWITCHING BUFFER

4 computers in—2 printers out• Automatically routes com-puter to printer • Internal buf-fering 64K or 256K

MEGA-BOARDAT™

80286 CPU • Our ownDTC-AT-BIOS

MEGA-BOARD-XT™

The industry standard with ourDTC-XT-BIOS

■ MEGA-NET™

Token-passing ring LAN • IBMNETBIOS Compatible

OEM QUANTITY PRICINGAVAILABLE ON REQUEST

XT Bare Board

59.95

XT Assembled 256K

299.95

Mega-Case

69.95

Mega-Kit

750.00

DTC-XT-BIOS

29.95

Power Supply

89.95

Switching Buffer

399.00

AT-BIOS and XT-BIOS licensing.

: IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

Display Telecommunications Corporation

8445 Freeport Parkway • Suite 445 • Irving, TX 75063

1-800-227-8383 • For Technical Calls Only: 1-214-607-1382

TELEX 5106000176 DTC UD

Thanks for making us 1986 Small Business Exporter of the Yearfor the state of Texas.

tides in BYTE's \nside the IBM PCs issue didnot include any information on the PC ATbus. I haven't been able to find any infor-mation on this bus. Bookstores have atremendous range of material on PC soft-ware but nothing on the PC hardwaredesign. I am interested in adding a PC-typebus to my SB180 single-board computer.I'd like to be able to plug in a high-resolution monochrome controller, an in-ternal modem board, or any of the otherboards designed for the PC. Can you help?Peter LaughingwolfSanta Rosa, CA

IBM publishes detailed technical infor-mation on its personal computers in thehardware technical reference manuals.The company publishes a separatemanual for each model and sells themthrough authorized IBM dealers and IBMProduct Centers. The Graphics DisplayControllers used in the PC AT are theones made for the PC. The AT has a cou-ple of PC-type expansion slots for displayboards and other compatible PC add-ons, so if you want to add a PC GraphicsDisplay Adapter to your SB180, you needonly the PC bus information. This is avail-able in the PC Technical ReferenceManual and has also been publishedin a number of books and magazines.-Steve ■

CIRCUIT CELLARFEEDBACK

Installation Problems

Dear Steve,

Regarding your December 1983 article("Keep Power-Line Pollution Out of YourComputer"), I've already installed metal-oxide varistors in a Radio Shack four-outletpower strip. I also have a six-outlet stripthat is riveted together—this makes ittough to get inside the assembly to in-stall MOVs. Any ideas? Radio Shack nowcarries an SNR-20A130K MOV, catalog#276-568. Is it adequate as a substitute?

I'd like to hook the Osborne up to a Pro-writer printer via the Osborne's serial port(the Prowriter uses a parallel interface). Ihave read Alan Wilcox's "Serial to Parallel"article in the August 1983 issue of Dr.Dobb's journal, but I need some help. All Ineed is a simple serial-to-parallel box thatwill work with the Osborne.

Amer Nelson

Seattle, WA

(continued)

54 BYTE- JUNE 1986

Inquiry 117

%•>,

Princeton SR-12 and -«;\.Sigma Designs Color 400 *^

"The intimate in GraphicsResolution and Performance?..

%

-fc.

SR-12 and Color 400. A brilliant com-bination for super-high resolutiongraphics and a crisp character display

For a brighter, sharperdisplay with your IBMPC, XT, or AT, here's ateam that can't be beat.The SR-12 super-highresolution RGB monitorfrom Princeton GraphicSystems and Color 400,the advanced colorgraphics adapter cardfrom Sigma Designs.

A Revolution inResolution. Begin bysnapping the Color 400 intoyour PC. Without any soft-ware modification, text suddenlybecomes readable. Graphics turnsharper and cleaner. Jagged edgessmooth out, and annoying flickerfades away. Color 400automatically doublesthe number of lines onstandard line software.It allows true high

resolution display of

Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphonycharts, graphics from Dr. Halo,mHk^f\ggm CadPlan, Lumena 400, andill III ! otners- Also' create dazzlingw^Jp ^^0 business charts in 16 vibrant™ ^^ ^^ colors with Paintbrush 400,included with the card. Enjoy fully formed,monochrome quality characters in text mode. Forword processing, spreadsheet, CAD/CAM, or pro-

PC Products June 7985

fessional design applications, Color 400 is theanswer to your graphic needs.

Turn on SR-12 for the impressive

results. The SR-12displays your Color 400 im-age with unmatched clarityand brilliant color. Becausethe SR-12 combines a.31 mm dot pitch tube and anon-glare screen with anincredible 640 x 400 non-interlaced resolution, youget a flickerless imagethat's as crisp and clean asa personal computer canproduce.

See how impressive this state-of-the-art image can be on your ownPC system. Visit your local retailertoday and ask about this new colorgraphics team. Princeton GraphicSystems' SR-12 and Sigma Designs'Color 400. An unmatched, brilliantcombination.

L^W DESIGNS

SIGMA DESIGNS, INC., 2023 OToote Avenue, San Jose, CA 95131(408) 943-9480 Telex: 171240

PRINCETON

GRAPHIC SYSTEMS

AN INTELLIQENT SYSTEMS COMPANY

Princeton Graphic Systems, 601 Ewing Street, Bldg. A, Princeton, N.J. 08540(609) 683-1660, Telex: 821402 PGS PRIN, (800) 221-1490 Ext. 2204

Inquiry 272

Graphic Screens courtesy Mouse Systems, Inc. and Forthright Systems, Inc.

IBM PC, PC XT, and PC AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc.AutoCAD is a registered trademark of AutoDesk Inc. VersaCAD is a registered trademark of T and W Systems, Inc.

IUNE I986

IYTE 55

Escape the

Programmer's

Prison

Do you feel imprisoned by your IBM PC?Do you spend too much time wrestlingwith a rigid, unyielding programminglanguage? Are you tired of clumsy pro-gramming tools that straight-jacket yourcreativity instead of liberating it?

If so, you're ready for Methods—a Small-talk, object-oriented programming sys-tem for the IBM-PC and compatibles thatsets you free from the constraints ofother languages. Until you program withMethods, you don't know just how quickand creative programming can be on the.IBM PC.

Methods is...

. . . high-performance object-oriented pro-gramming. A powerful, language-compatiblesubset of Smalltalk-80'\... a toolkit of over 100 classes—easily-cus-tomized software building-blocks for rapid, in-cremental development of real-world applications.... an open-ended, window environment thatencourages exploration while allowing re-covery from any error.

mSMb

. . . extensively documented in a four-partmanual for everyone from beginners toexperienced programmers—the perfect in-troduction to Smalltalk programming.. . . ideal for software prototyping, simulation,databases, advanced user interfaces, andnumerous AI applications.

Methods also offers easy access to DOS, apowerful directory/file browser system, remoteUNIX1" access, an object-oriented shell forDOS programs, and much more.

Methods requires DOS and 512K RAM onIBM PC's (including AT) or "compatibles,"and can be used with or without a mouse.

digitalk inc.

5200 West Century Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90045 (213) 645-1082

Available from Digitalk for $250. Outside U.S. add$15.00 for shipping and handling.California residents add sales tax.Educational and dealerdiscounts available.

IBM is a trademark of

Internationa! Business Machines Corporation.Smalltalk-80 is a trademark of Xerox CorporationUNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories.

Inquiry 112

CIARCIA FEEDBACK

To install MOVs in your riveted powerstrip, you need to drill out the rivets. TheRadio Shack MOV you mentioned willwork fine.

The article in Dr. Dobb's Journal is whatyou need if the Osborne supports the useof the CTS (clear to send) signal, usuallyfound on pin 5 of the RS-232C connec-tor. This requires provision of thenecessary hardware and software byOsborne—check your manual.

Another way of controlling the data isby sending XON/XOFF codes back to thecomputer—often found as Control-S andControl-Q on many computers. An arti-cle describing a circuit for this appearedon page 225 of the April 28, 1983, issueof Electronic Design—Steve

Power

Dear Steve,

I design industrial control equipment.The company 1 work for has a steel-fabrication shop with a lot of heavy-dutyelectrical equipment. The utility bill for thisshop is around $5000 a month. I wasasked to look into the possibility of reduc-ing this monthly cost.

1 first looked at the cost calculations andfound that the amount due is not calcu-lated by multiplying the total kilowatt-hours used by the cost per kilowatt-hour;things like kilowatt demand and periodicaveraging are primary factors in the calcu-lations. The utility company was hesitantto discuss these subjects in detail. Fromwhat they did say, it seems that the cur-rent drawn is averaged every 15 minutes,and the highest average is used to deter-mine the kilowatt demand factor. Also, ifan average of any previous month ishigher than any of the present month, thehigher value is used. With all this equip-ment, it's obvious why the bill is so high.

I decided to build a power monitor,similar to the ones you described in theSeptember 1984 and July 1985 CircuitCellar articles. I am dealing with 440-V ACthree-phase power; the monitor thereforerequires three sensing resistors. I madethree sensing resistors (out of steel bolts)of 0.001 ohm each and three calibratedprecision rectifiers. 1 would like to get ananalog graph of the current waveforms. Doyou have any suggestions?

Do you know of any way to reduce theheavy currents drawn from the line at turn-on? I have devised a way to reduce surgesin single-phase circuits using rapidlyswitched capacitor devices to source cur-rent pulses when required, but this par-ticular device is not applicable with three-phase circuits.

Also, I would like to know the power

[continued)

WHY COPY

AFLOPPY?

■v

When you store all your files on floppy disks, problems pile up.First, there's time. You waste lots of it, transferring data.There's space. You sacrifice it to stacks of disks. And then,there's your mind. You lose it trying to find lost floppies.

And if you get sloppy, forget it. A scratch, a cigaretteash or punching the wrong key cancause electronic amnesia, wipingout days of hard work.

With the new NCR PC6,you're now protected.The PC6 offers a backuptape drive that insuresyou against data loss.It's super fast andsuper compact.You can back upa 10MB harddisk in roughly8 minutes-more than an

hour faster than with floppies. And one small tapecartridge stores as much as 27 floppy disks.

What's more, the NCR PC6 runs virtually everyimportant software program. It's megafast, hashigh resolution graphics, and is designed to grow as

you grow.

So droppy your floppies.You're in better shapewith tape. Especially- with NCR.

For your nearestNCR dealer, callI toll-free 1-800-544-3333?

A BETTER PERSONAL COMPUTER.

IT'S EXACTLYWHAT YOU'D EXPECT FROM NCR.

■J

t>

?

)

NCR

© 1986 NCR Corporation

* In Nebraska call 1-800-343-4300.

Inquiry 292

Try It.

Then Buy It.

PC-Write.

A fast, full-featured wordprocessing package for theunbelievable price of $10.Complete. You get a manualon disk, mail merge, splitscreen, keyboard macros,on-screen formatting, fullprinter support, and more.

Try PC-Write for $10.Then register for $75 to get:

• latest diskette

• printed manual

• two updates

• phone support

• newsletterRegistration supports our"shareware" concept thatkeeps our prices low, andallows our development ofPC-Write enhancements.

Shareware means you canget PC-Write from a friendor user group to try, andgive away copies yourself.Then register if you like it.No risk! />

CIARCIA FEEDBACK

ByteJune 1986

NOW

Version 2.6

with our great new manual,expanded formatting options,HP LaserJet+ support, andextended directory still $75.Prices going up July 1, 1986.

Older PC-Write Today.

Satisfaction Guaranteed.

(206) 282-0452219 First N. #224ySeattle, WA 98109

rating of the jumbo paper clip resistor ofyour September 1984 power monitor. Inthe current monitor in the July 1985 Cir-cuit Cellar, you state that currents up to100 amperes can be monitored; is thepower rating of the paper clip sufficientto keep it from heating at this current?Dale NassarAmite. LA

First of all, let me say that I am im-pressed with your application of thepower monitor circuit using steel boltsensing resistors. To obtain an analoghard-copy graph, you could use one ofthe commercial highspeed oscillographicrecorders. You can obtain theserecorders with a wide variety of chartspeeds and input voltage ranges. If youwant to record the current of each phaseat the same time, you can also obtainthese recorders with multiple pen capa-bilities. One commercial source for thistype of equipment is Hewlett-Packard. InLouisiana, you can contact

Hewlett-Packard Company3229 Williams Blvd.Kenner, LA 70062(504) 443-6201

Reducing the heavy current drawn fromthe line by a large three-phase motor atturn-on would wind up being a major job,and I couldn't attempt it here.

My paper clip was good for about 20 Acontinuous and 100 A with low-dutycycle.— Steve

BSR X-10

Dear Steve,

I am interested in building your HomeRun Control System. However, 1 rememberyou did not speak favorably of the BSRX-10 system in your July 1983 article onthe RTC-4 real-time controller. What hashappened to change your mind about theBSR X-10 units? If they have improved theirmodules, how can I tell if 1 have the up-dated units?

Clifton WoolmanColorado Springs, CO

The BSR problems that I mentioned inthat article were based on my experi-ences several years prior to that time.Since then, the modules have been im-proved significantly. The triacin the lampmodules was replaced with one havinga higher power rating. Over the lastseveral years, I have not had one fail, andothers report the same thing. Theoriginal appliance modules had asolenoid and microswitch combinationthat has been replaced by a latchingrelay. The only way you could tell if your

modules are the older types would be totake them apart and examine them. Ifyou bought them within the last coupleof years, however, you should have thenewer models. —Steve

SB180

Dear Steve,

Along with about 2 million other Amer-icans, I own a computer that runs CP/M2.2 as its primary DOS (the computer isan Epson QX-10, and it has a nice high-resolution display). I'd love to upgrade mycomputer for faster speed and a moreflexible operating system.

If the SB180 can be adapted as an out-board or in-board (my Epson has expan-sion slots) upgrade for CP/M machines, itwould really put a crimp in Big Blue'sbottom line by inhibiting sales to peoplewho would otherwise dump their CP/Mmachines to get better performance. I re-sent IBM's stifling of innovation in thefield. An upgrade board with the SB180would do more to shift the marketingtoward innovation.

I'm not technically competent in elec-tronics—even so, your purpose camethrough loud and clear. You stimulated myinterest in learning (rather than just using)computers; I've ordered ZCPR3 to explorethis system.

Michael LaskyBrooklyn, NY

Thank you for your kind words aboutthe SB180. While 1 haven't had the op-portunity to work with the QX-10,1 wouldguess that it might be possible to installan SBI80 in it. However, you would bewise to team up with an electronicshacker to determine the true feasibility.You just might be able to salvage the diskdrives, power supply, keyboard, anddisplay.

By the way, look for an article on add-ing a high-resolution graphics displayadapter to the SBI80. It should come outsome time this fall.

I hope that you continue using andlearning about computers. —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.

1 am interested in hearing from any of youtelling me what you've done with these projectsor how you may have been Influenced by thebasic Ideas. Write me at Circuit Cellar Feed-back. POB 582, Glastonbury. CT 06033,and fill me in on your applications. All lettersand photographs become the property of SteveCiarcla and cannot be returned.

58 BYTE • IUNE 1986

MICROSOFT LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER Vol. 1, No. 6

News about the Microsoft Language Family

Your Microsoft® FORTRAN Programs Can Call Microsoft C Library Routines

Microsoft FORTRAN'S long-established history includes powerful scientific subroutines drawnfrom a vast user community. Microsoft C has a rich operating systems background, strong stringand bit manipulation support, and growing strength in the program portability arena. The followingdemonstrates how easily one can call C functions from a FORTRAN program.

Spawnlp creates and executes a child process. In this example, we suspend the parent programwhile the child program executes. When the child program terminates, the parent programresumes execution.

Spawnlp is declared in C as follows:

int spawnlp (mode, path, argO, argl,..., argn)int mode; char *path, *argO,..., *argn;

We declare the interface to FORTRAN with this program fragment:

integer*2 spawn

interface to integer*2 function spawn [c, varying, alias: 'spawnlp'] (mode)

integer*2 mode

endSpawn is the function name we will use from FORTRAN. We declare the return type of spawn to beinteger*2. [c] indicates the C language, [varying] tells that a variable number of arguments may bepassed. An [alias] is used because the C name for the function spawnlp has 7 characters; names inFORTRAN are only significant to 6 characters. The string arguments are undeclared in the interfaceand assumed to be passed from FORTRAN by value.The function can now be invoked as follows:

i = spawn(0,loc( exemod'c), loc('exemod'c), loc('demoexec.exe'c), int4(0))

The C spawnlp function expects addresses of strings, not actual characters, so we use the LOC()function. C strings differ from normal FORTRAN strings; we specify these by the"c" after each closingquote. We use INT4(0) to pass the last parameter, a C NULL pointer (32-bit integer zero).

Starting with the release of Microsoft FORTRAN 3.3, Pascal 3.3, Macro Assembler 4.0, andC Compiler 3.0, these Microsoft languages are designed so libraries and subprograms written in anyone can be used in any other. Any C routine (not just spawn) can be interfaced to FORTRAN. Andthey are supported under both MS-DOS® and XENIX® for additional program portability.

For more information on the products and featuresdiscussed in the Newsletter,write to; Microsoft Languages Newsletter16011 NE 36th Way, Box 97017, Redmond, WA 98073-9717Or phone:

(800) 426-9400. In Washington State and Alaska,call (206) 882-8088. In Canada, call (416) 673-7638.

Microsoft. XENIX and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Latest DOS Versions:

Microsoft C Compiler

3.00

Microsoft COBOL

2.10

Microsoft FORTRAN

3.31

Microsoft Macro Assembler

4.00

Microsoft Pascal

3.31

Microsoft QuickBASIC

1.02

Look for the Microsoft Languages Newsletter every month in this publication.

f Select your ingredients fromhundreds of sources. Yourmainframe computer. Any data-base. Other workstations. Evenother networks in your office.

Xerox

makes

abetter

pie.

Lasography is the most revolutionary invention to hit theoffice since xerography.LSSOQtBPhV Xerox was responsible for both.

malroc tnt* ^ut wn*'e xer08raPhy faithfully copies your

Jj'4t documents, Lasography actually lets you create

OltfGrOnCG. original documents.

And that means more than producing a laser-sharp pie chart.

Lasography means creating graphics that make yourpoint more forcefully. It means writing better letters and morememorable memos.

It means not only manipulating your data in waysyou've never dreamed of. It means printing on paper exactlywhat you've created on the screen.

Your documents won't just look better. They'll bebetter.

Taken separately, these productsequal or surpass any on the market.Taken together, they become a wholenew way of working. And to keep your Lasographic systemworking, you can call on the team that invented it. Team Xerox.

Any way you slice it, you're better off with a Xerox piethan an IBM pie. Or even an Apple pie.

TeamXerox

2 Mix text and graphics anyway you like on the Xerox6085 Professional ComputerSystem. Create new charts.Write.'Edit. Re-edit.Draw a pie an Applecan never match.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE XEROX 4045 LASER CP AND THE 6085 PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM.CIRCLE CODE 380 ON THE READER SERVICE CARD.

XEROX

15%

XEROX*&Kl the identifying numbers are trademarks^XEROX CORPORATION.IBM* is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.Apple* is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc.

Personnel13%

Purch10%

asing

fjj* to ,'ncreased

^Petition in thic

<n4Q'8s J , thls market

b^inZldUdJ/tSh^2% each. uunt,r>g, cut

Manufacturing

fofneerin9

Acco

10%

anting

3 In the blink of oneye, an original pie.Whatever you'w createdon the screen, the Xerox4045 Laser CP can createon paper. Laser-sharp.Laser-perfect.

For information call Team Xerox, your local Xeroxsalesofficeor > 1^^TEM^XRX&^1WA_

Please send me more information on Xerox Lasography Send thiscoupon to: Xerox Corporation, RO. Box 24, Rochester, NY 14692.

D The Xerox 6085 Professional Computer System

□ The Xerox 4045 Laser CP

□ Please have a sales representative contact me.

NAM!

nan

C'CIMPANV

AlWKtSS

crrv

If you can't wait, call:

1-800-TEAM-XRX ext 160A

I-800-S32-6879.CXI. I60A

192 6/86

i Y T E 61

Put Us To Work For You

DATABASE SYSTEMS

ASHTONTATE$399. dBase 111 +BORLAND65. Reflex

MICROHM379. R:Base 5000

NANTUCKET359. Clipper

WORD PROCESSING

DAC

$ 39. Easy Word

LIVING VIDEOTEXT59. Ready109. Think Tank

MICROSOFT245. Word

MICROPRO85. Easy179. WordStar 3.3249. WordStar Professional295. WordStar 2000 +MULTIMATE65. Just Write229. Multimate245. Executive289. Advantage

SSI (Satellite)235. WordPerfect 4.1

SPREADSHEETS

S335.

r,5.

LOTUS

1-2-3

MICROSOFT

MultiplanPAPERBACK

VP Planner

INTEGRATEDPACKAGES

ASHTONTATE$415. Framework II

LOTUS459. Symphony

MICROSOFT65. Windows

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING57. Proof75. Report84. File, Write, Graph, Access or Plan

QUARTERDECK65. Desqview

GRAPHICS

DECISION RESOURCES

SI55. Sign Master209. Diagram Master235. Chartmaster245. Map Master

GRAPHICS COMMUNICATION215. Freelance329. Graphwriter Combo

MICROGRAFX109. Draw

115. Windows Draw (Req. Windows)229. PC Draw275. In-A-Vision

MICROSOFT199. Chart

ORDERINGINFORMATION

• Mail to: 12060 SW Garden PlacePortland, OR 97223

• We also carry products for the Apple II seriesand Macintosh

• Most orders shipped Federal Express StandardAir.

• Shipping Charges:

- US and Puerto Rico add 3% ($5 minimum)

- Canada add 12% ($15 minimum)

- Foreign add 18% ($25 minimum)

- APO, FPO & other US Territories add 6%($10 minimum)

- Call for rates on monitors, printers, andsystems

• We immediately honor cashier's checks.Fortune 1000 and Government checks. Wemust hold others for clearing.

• Advertised prices reflect a discount forConroy-LaPointe credit card or cash. Add 3%for Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

• Prices subject to change without notice.

• Customer Service Department: 503-620-98778-5 Pacific Mon-Fri

• Foreign & Local Sales: 503-620-9878

Conroy-LaPointe Computer Stores

Independently owned and operated byConroy-LaPointe Computer Stores, Inc.

• San Francisco, CA 415-982-6212

• Seattle, WA 206-455-0206

• Portland, OR 503-620-5595

62 BYTE- |UNE 1986

To Order:

1 -800-547-1289

Oregon: 1-800-451-5151 • Hours: 6-6 Pacific Mon-Fri, 8-4 SatBusiness Accounts Call 1-800-4-CONROY

PROGRAMMINGLANGUAGES

BORLAND

$ 22. Turbo Tutor

32. Turbo Toolbox

35. Turbo Graphix Toolbox

40. Editor Toolbox

46. Turbo Pascal

46. Traveling Sidekick

59. Turbo New Pack

63. Turbo Prolog65. Turbo Lightning

78. Turbo Pascal w/8087 & BCD

79. Traveling Sidekick Combo155. Jumbo Pack

LIFEBOAT

285. Lattice C Compiler

MICROSOFT

99. Macro Assembler

199. Pascal Compiler

275. C Compiler

229. Fortran Compiler

COMMUNICATIONS

HAYES$107. Smartcom II

KENSINGTON95. Easy Link Mail ManagerMICROSOFT169. Access

MICROSTUF105. Crosstalk169. Transporter

VM95. Relay135. Relay Gold

UTILITIES

ALPHA SOFTWARE

$ 57. Keyworks

AMBER40. Homebase

BORLAND46. Superkeys52. Sidekick (copiable)

CENTRAL POINT23. Copy II PC23. PC Tools81. PC Option Board

FIFTH GENERATION105. Fastback

FINOT GROUP

64. Keep TrackFUNK

39. Sideways

NORTON59. Utilities

ROSESOFT

80. Prokey

PERSONAL FINANCE

MECA

$ 85. Managing The Market109. Managing Your Money

MONOGRAM109. Dollars & Sense

SIMON & SCHUSTER55. J. K. Lasser Money Manager

TIMEWORKS75. Personal Financial Planner

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

HARVARD

$289. Total Project ManagerMICROSOFT265. Project

ACCOUNTING

BPl$325. GL, AR, AP or PayrollDAC39. Easy Payroll55. Easy AccountingEVERGREEN165. One-Write-PlusREAL WORLD339. GL, AR, AP, PR, Inv or Payroll

MEMORY CHIPS &COPROCESSORS

RAM CHIPS

$ 13. 64K, 200 NS Kits14. 64K, 150 NS Kits36. 256K Kits49. 128K Kits lor AT

HAUPPAGE119. 8087 Chip175. 8087-2 Chip229. 80287 Fast 5 for AT349. 80287 Fast 8 lor AT

EXPANSION BOARDS

AST

$275. SixPak Plus, 384K395. Rampage lor PC495. Rampage (or ATINTELCALL Above Board 64K For PCCALL Above Board 128K lor ATMAGNUM95. EconoRAM 384K139. PC MasterCard No RAM189. PC MasterCard 384K325. PC MasterCard 1.5 MB

ORCHID279. Conquesl No RAM

TALLTREE279. JRAM AT3, No RAM for AT279. JRAM 3, 256K EMS Board, PC

VIDEO BOARDS

EVEREX$265. The Edge

HERCULES159. Color Graphics309. Graphics Card

QUADRAM419. EGA+ Board

VIDEO 7429. VEGA Board

DRIVES &TAPE BACKUPS

CDC Floppy Drives

$ 95. Half Height 360K119. Full Height 360K

IRWIN549. 10 MB Tape Backup Kil

MOUNTAIN899. 20 meg DriveCard Hard Disk

SEAGATE Hard Drives489. 20 meg for PC649. 20 meg for AT789. 30 meg for AT

SYSGEN1085. 60 MB Internal Tape Backup1150. 60 MB External Tape Backup1225. 20 MB Hard Disk, 20 MB Tape (PC)1999. 30 MB Hard Disk, 60 MB Tape (AT)TEAC Floppy Drives99. 55-BV Hall Height 360K175. 1.2 MB Floppy Drive For AT

INPUT DEVICES &DIGITIZERS

HITACHI$969. Tiger Tablet II (4 Buttons)

KEYTRONICS185. KB 5151 Keyboard319. KB 5153 Keyboard

MICROSOFT129. Mouse139. Serial Mouse

MOUSE SYSTEMS129. Mouse With Software & PC Paint

MODEMS

HAYES

$419. 1200 External

379. 1200B Internal

629. 2400 External

579. 2400B Internal

US ROBOTICS299. Password 1200 External499. 2400 External499. 2400 Internal

PRINTERS & PLOTTERS

ENTER COMPUTER$299. Sweet P 100 Plotter849. Sweet P 600 Plotter

EPSON389. FX 85 160 cps, 32 NLQ419. HI 80 Plotter599. FX 286 200 cps. 40 NLQ649. LQ 800 180 cps, 60 LQ795. LQ 1000 180 cps, 60 LQ, 15"995. LQ 1500 200 cps, 67 LQ. 15"

OKIDATACALL 182 S or P. 192 S or P. 193

PANASONIC275. P1091 120 cps,439. P3151 Daisywheel

MONITORS

AMDEK$125. 300G 12" Green Composite135. 300A 12" Amber Composite159. 310A 12" Amber TTL409. Color 600549. Color 722609. Color 725795. Color 730

NEC125. 1280 Green125. 1285 Amber599. JC 1401P3A Mullisynch

PRINCETON179. MAX 12 12" Amber TTL459. HX-12 12" Color RGB559. HX 12e RGB for IBM-EGA599. SR-12 Hi Res RGB

POWER & SURGEPROTECTION

CONROY-LAPOINTE

$ 93. 130 Watt Power Supply

CURTIS Surge Suppressors

30. Diamond, 6 outlets35. Emerald, 6 outlets, 6' cord47. Sapphire, 3 outlets. RFI filter55. Ruby, 6 outlets, cord, RFI Filter

KENSINGTON92. MasterPiece129. Masterpiece Plus

DISKETTES &ACCESSORIES

CONROY LAPOINTE DISKETTES

DS/DD 10

DS/DD 100

DS/HD 10 for AT

DS/HD 100 for AT

GENERIK DISKETTES

DS/DD 10

DS/DD 100

DS/HD 10 for AT

DS/HD 100 for AT

DYSAN

DS/DD 10

MAXELL

DS/DD 10

DS/HD 10 lor AT

$ 16.

119.

29.

279.

28.269.

29.

128

LASER

Apple lie, lie Compatible

$ *%C|Ck Monitor%#^#^# & Software

• 128K RAM, 32K ROM

• 65C02 CPU

• 51/4" Floppy Drive

• 1 Expansion Slot, lie

• 1 Parallel, 2 Serial Ports

• External Drive Port

• Numeric Keypad

• 4 Cursor & 10 Function Keys

• Supports Double Hi Res

• Mouse/Joystick Port

$995 With Monitor, Printer,

2nd Drive, Software B39

Conroy*LaPointe

Inquiry 92 for Apple. Inquiry 93 for IBM Peripherals. Inquiry 94 for all others.

BOOK REVIEWS

MUSICAL APPLICATIONSOF MICROPROCESSORS,2nd editionHal ChamberlinHayden Book CompanyHasbrouck Heights, N|:1985802 pages, $39.95

COMPUTER MUSIC:SYNTHESIS.COMPOSITION, ANDPERFORMANCECharles Dodge andThomas A. lerseSchirmer BooksNew York: 1985381 pages, $29.95

FOUNDATIONS OFCOMPUTER MUSICCurtis Roads and)ohn Strawn. eds.The MIT PressCambridge, MA: 1985712 pages, $50

ELECTRONIC ANDCOMPUTER MUSICPeter ManningOxford University PressNew York: 1985291 pages, $29.95

MUSICAL APPLICATIONS OF MICROPROCESSORS

Reviewed by Donald Swearingen

The second edition of Hal Chamberlin's Musical Applica-tions of Microprocessors might be more accurately titledSound Synthesis from AloZ because the contents speak moreto seasoned electronic and computer music practitionersthan computerists. The book is filled with a myriad ofesoteric subjects ranging from the characteristics of opera-tional transconductance amplifiers to the properties ofbinary arithmetic. While the book's basic orientation is oftenmore in line with an engineering background than that ofa musician. Musical Applications is nevertheless valuable for

anyone interested in com-puter music applications.

The author offers back-ground material on thegoals, history, and practiceof music synthesis: funda-mental sound parameters,tape and voltage-control(analog) methods, directcomputer synthesis, andthe growing role of com-puters in sound processing.Although the material is notnew, it represents a fairlygood overview of basicsound synthesis issues. Abrief history of micropro-cessors and microcom-puters and a detaileddiscussion of the 6502 and68000 is also included.

Analog

If you're constructing andinterfacing to your ownanalog sound synthesis sys-tem, Chamberlin's discus-sion of computer-con-trolled analog synthesis willdelight you. He detailsanalog system hardwaredown to the level of tran-sistors and operationalamplifiers. While somereaders may not be excited by discussions of MOSFETswitches and R-2R resistive ladders, those with solidtechnical backgrounds will find a great deal of usefulmaterial. However, 1 found this discussion to be the mostexpendable. Chamberlin seems indecisive about the levelof detail he wants to expose readers to. As a result, hecombines a variety of topics under the general headingof controlled analog synthesis and even includes a discus-sion of vector and raster display devices (with circuitdiagrams). I doubt many people are interested in con-structing their own digital-to-analog converters, but thereis material here for those who are. In the end, however,much of this section seems vaguely dated in an era when

{continued)

ILLUSTRATED BY IULIE SCOTT

IUNE 1986

:YTE 63

BOOK REVIEWS

ACCESS TOFULL MEMORY,

STRUCTURE,COMPATIBILITY

WITHGW- & PC-BASICA,

AND WITH THEPOWER ANDFLEXIBILITY

OF C OR PASCAL

BetterBASIC runs

existing GW-BASIC/PC-

BASICA programs on IBM PCs

and true clones yet gives you structure

and access to full memory. BetterBASIC has more

than 150 statements in addition to the standard

Microsoft syntax. There is optional 8087/80287

math chip support. The Runtime System creates

stand-alone EXE. files. Call us or ask your local

dealer for.. .

BASIC

1-800-225-5800

In Canada, call 416-469-5244

Summit Software Technology, Inc'."

106 Access Rd. Norwood, MA 02062

BetterBASIC is a registered trademark of Summit Software Technology. Inc. IBM PC

is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft is a

registered trademark of Microsoft Corp,

sound synthesis is becoming almost exclusively the prov-ince of all-digital devices.

Digital

The largest and by far the most useful section of the bookfocuses on digital sound synthesis and modification. Ifyour primary interest is digital signal processing, this sec-tion provides a strong basis, both theoretical and prac-tical, to explore this increasingly prevalent technology.With an eye to the trade-offs between hardware and soft-ware to best solve signal-processing problems. Chamberlintakes us on an enlightening excursion through topics cen-tral to the discipline. These include digital-to-analog andanalog-to-digital conversions, digital filtering (including thesimulation of reverberation), digital tone generation, andsignal analysis.

In his discussion of the conversion between real-worldanalog signals and their numerical equivalents in digitalform, Chamberlin includes an excellent overview of thedifficulties involved in attempting to preserve the fidelityof the audio signal as it moves from one representationto the other. Since ultimately we perceive sound in analogform, the results of our processing of the digitized signalswill of course be limited by the quality of the hardwarehandling the conversion. Chamberlin's discussion makesit clear that it is no easy matter to provide high-fidelitysignals and that there is no one "best" approach to over-come all the difficulties inherent in the process.

The discussion of digital tone-generation techniquescovers a range of useful methods, from simple tablelookup to FM synthesis. Here, too, Chamberlin remindsus of the constraints imposed on our programmingmethods by the requirement that the signals mustultimately be converted to analog form: In the digital worldwe can never really ignore the fact that we are workingwith signals that have been sampled (or generated) indiscrete time increments rather than continuously. Fromthe generation of simple sine tones to the methods of per-cussive tone generation, Chamberlin provides the back-ground to realize these functions entirely in software. How-ever, with respect to the speed limitations of micropro-cessors faced with real-time signal-processing re-quirements, he includes a handy discussion on replacingsome digital signal-processing algorithms with actualdigital hardware, highlighting the trade-offs between ex-ecution speed and system complexity.

Chamberlin introduces us to digital filtering usingmodels for the digital equivalents of several analog filters.With signal flow graphs, he shows how to construct digitalfilters of many types and characteristics: state-variable, all-pass, notch, etc. Included are models for a practical filterfor "concert hall reverberation" and a parametric chorusgenerator. I was struck by the relative simplicity of thedigital filters as compared with their more complex (andcorrespondingly more difficult to implement) analogcousins.

If you're interested in digital signal analysis, you may findChamberlin's treatment of the subject brief: nonetheless.

[continued]

64 BYTE • iUNE 1986

Inquiry 332

THE PROFESSIONAL'S CHOICE

Lotus1-2-3

$319

Software

Word Processing Editors

FANCY FONT 1119

FINAL WORD II S219

MICROSOFT WORD $239

MULTIMATE $219MULTIMATE

ADVANTAGE $269OFFICE WRITER/

SPELLER $239

PFS: WRITE $ 89

SAMNA WORD III $259

THINK TANK $109

TURBO LIGHTNING $ 59

VOLKSWRITER 3 $159VOLKSWRITER

SCIENTIFIC $259

WORD PERFECT 4.1 $209

WORDSTAR 2000 $249

WORDSTAR 2000+ $289

WORDSTAR PRO $259

XVWRITE III $239

LotusSymphony

$449

dBase IIIPlus

$369

FrameWorkII

$369

MultiMate

$219

WordPerfect 4.1

$209

Graphics

Languages/Utilities

CHARTMASTER

$219

CONCURRENT DOS

$179

DIAGRAM MASTER

$199

C86C COMPILER

$299$ 99

EXECUVISION

$249

FASTBACK

ENERGRAPHICS

$179

LATTICE C COMPILER

$269$319

FREELANCE

$209

MARK WILLIAMS C

GEM DRAW

$149

MICROSOFT C

GRAPHWRITER

COMPILER

$249

COMBO

$299$259

MS BASIC COMPILER

$249$229

IN-A-VISION

MS FORTRAN

MS CHART NEW

$189

NORTON UTILITIES

$ 59

OVERHEAD

QUICKBASIC

$75$ 49

EXPRESS

$139

TURBO PASCAL

PC DRAW

$209

XENIX

$Coll

PC PAINTBRUSH

$ 89

PFS: GRAPH

$ 89

SIGNMASTER

$149

Accounting

Database Systems

ALPHA DATA BASE

MANAGER IICLIPPERCONDOR IIICORNERSTONEDBASE III PLUSKMAN2PARADOXPFS: FILE/PFS:

REPORTPOWERBASEQ&A

OUICKCOOE IIIQUICKREPORTR BASE 5000REFLEXREVELATION

Spreadsheets/Integrated Packages

ENABLE

FRAMEWORK II

JAVELIN

LOTUS 1-2-3

MULTIPLAN

OPEN ACCESS

SMART SYSTEM

SPREADSHEETAUDITOR

SUPERCALC 3

SYMPHONY

$179$359$339$259$369$269$499

$169$189$199$159$159$359$59$499

$349$369$549$319$135$259$489

$ 99$209

$449

Project ManagementHARVARD TOTAL

PROJECT MANAGER $279MICROSOFT

PROJECT $249PROJECT SCHEDULER

NETWORK $339

SUPERPROJECT + $269

TIMELINE 2.0 $259

Communications/

Productivity Tools

CROSSTALK $ 99

PROKEY $ 85

KEYWORKS S 59

RELAY GOLD $149

REMOTE $109

SMARTERM SCall

SMARTCOM II $ 99

SUPERKEY $ 49

Statistics

SPSS/PC $575

STATPAK-NWA $299STATPAC GOLD-

WALONICK $399

SYSTAT $419

Desktop Environments

DESK ORGANIZER $ 69

GEM DESKTOP $ 39

SIDEKICK $ 39

Network Applications

DBASE III LAN PAK $599

KMAN 2 $899

OPEN SYSTEMS $459

R BASE 5000 $799

REVELATION $999

WORD PERFECT $450

BPI

GREAT PLAINSIUS EASYBUSINESSONE WRITE PLUSOPEN SYSTEMSPEACHTREEREAL WORLDSTAR ACCOUNTINGPARTNER II

$299$479$309$159$409$259$399

$529

Hardware

Multifunction BoardsAST ADVANTAGE (128K) $359AST 6 PAK PLUS (OK) $229AST RAMPAGE PC $319

AST RAMPAGE AT $459

GOLD QUADBOARD (OK) $419INTEL ABOVEBOARD PS

(64K)JRAM AT-3 (OK)

JRAM 3 (OK)ORCHID CONQUEST

(OK)ORCHID ECCEL (OK)PC TURBO 286 (OK)PC TINY TURBO 286

$329$239$179

$279$459$899$549

PERSYSTTIME SPECTRUM

(384K)QUADBOARD (384K)SILVER QUADBOARD

(OK)TECMAR CAPTAIN

(384K)

$279$249

$269

Display Boards

HERCULES GRAPHICS

CARD $299HERCULES COLOR

CARD $159PARADISE COLOR/

MONO $169PARADISE MODULAR

GRAPHICS $259

OUADRAM EGA* $379

SIGMA EGA 350 $379

SIGMA COLOR 400 $449

STB EGA PLUS $399TECMAR GRAPHICS

MASTER $469

TSENG ULTRA PAK $429

TSENG ULTRA PAK-S $369

Emulation Boards

AST 5251-11* $649

AST 5251-12 $499

AST BSC $489

AST SNA $599

CXI 3278/9 Plus $849

IRMA $799

IRMALINE $999

Modems

AST REACH 1200 $359

HAYES 1200 $389

HAYES 1200B $349

HAYES 2400 $579

HAYES 2400B $549

TRANSNET 1000 $279VENTEL 1200

HALF CARD $369

WATSON $319

Mass Storage/Backup

EXCEL STREAM 60 TAPE

(INT) $899IOMEGA BERNOULLI

BOX-10+10 $2399

IRWIN 310A 10MB TAPE

(EXT) $850IRWIN 110D 10MB TAPE

(INT) $479MAYNSTREAM 60MB TAPE

(INT) $1199

MOUNTAIN DRIVECARD

20MB $899

PLUS HAROCARO 10MB $689PRIAM 42MB AT $1295SYSGEN SMART IMAGE

20 MB (INT) $625

TALLGRASS JCallTECMAR QIC-60AT TAPE

(INT) $1199

MonitorsAMDEK 600/722 $429/539

NEC MULTISYNC $599

PRINCETON HX-12 $449

PRINCETON MAX-12E $179PRINCETON SR-12 $579

PRINCETON HX-12E $539

PRINCETON HX-9 $529

TAXAN 122 AMBER $159

TAXAN 630/640 $469/539

Networks

AST PC NET $Call

ORCHID PC NET $Call

3 COM SCall

Printers/Plotters

BROTHER TWINWRITER $939

DIABLO $call

EPSON FX-85 $399

EPSON FX-286 $589

EPSON LO-800 $589

EPSON LO-1O00 $729

HP 7475A SCall

JUKI 6300 $699

NEC 3550 $869

OKIDATA192 $379

OKIDATA193 $519

Tl 865 $1025

TOSHIBA P321 $565

TOSHIBA P341 $829

TOSHIBA P351 $1069

Input DevicesKEYTRONIC5151KOALA

MICROSOFT MOUSEPC MOUSE WPAINTPLUS

$179$109$129

$139

Accessories

CURTIS SURGE

PROTECTORSDATASHIELD BACKUP

POWERGILTRONIX SWITCHESMASTERPIECE PLUSMICROFAZER INLINE

BUFFERSTRIPPLITE BACKUP

POWER256KRAMSET8087 MATH CHIP80287 MATH CHIP

SCall

SCollSCall$135

SCall

SCall$ 39$135$199

Mountain QuadramMultisync I Drivecard 20 I ^ EGA

^$599 K*$899 r $379

*™En llRAMAT-3

$539 $a39

IRMABoard

$799

•CALL FOR SHIPPING COSTS

LOWEST PRICEGUARANTEE!!

We will match current

nationally advertised

prices on most products.

Call and compare.

free

Diskette

Library

Case

with your order

TERMS:

Checks—allow 14 days lo clear. Credit processing—add 3%. COD orders—cash,M.O or certified check—add $5.00. Shipping and handling UPS surface—add $3.00per item (UPS Blue$8.00 per item). NY State Residents—add applicable sales tax.All prices subject to change.

1-S00-221-1260

In New York State call (718) 438-6057

ffl ^

PES*

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

Softline CorporationP.O. Box 729, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230TELEX: 421047 ATLN UlFAX: 718-972-8346

IUNE I986 -BYTE 65

^LOWEST PRICES

.*%/NO SURCHARGE=WON BANK CARDS

Mfi*

SILICON SP€CinLTI€S

PRINTERS

Anadex All Models Sawo

Brother All Models Save

Cannon Laser Printer 52099

Citizen MSP-iO 5255

MSP-15 5349

MSP-20 5319

MSP-25 5485

Premier 35 5409

south All Printer Models Save

Diablo D-25 ,, 5529

635 51079

Other Printer Models 5awO

HARDWARE

Silver Reed

EXP400 Parallel 5179

EXP550Porollel or Serial S409

EXP800 Parallel or Serial 561 9

Toshiba 321 Save

P351 Parallel S Serial 5969

AT&T

4000 External

Anchor Automation

Anchor Express

MODEMS

All Modems .

. Save

EPSON

All Printer Models ....

TOSHIBA

321 Parallel

. . . Save

321 Serial

. . . Save

341 Parallel

. SS29

341 Serial!, Parallel

S879

351 Serial & Parallel

$985

6100

6300

NEC3510,3550,3515,3530 .

8810,8830, B850

P5, P6, P7

Ell 360

EIF370

$3495669

5729510395ave53795379

OKIDATA

All Printer Models

Save

5219

$235

5309

5429

KXP3151

5399

STAR MICRON1CS

All Printer Models

. 5ave

DISKETTES

Maxell MD-2 Plastic Box (Qly 100)SonyMD/2{Qly 100)

MONITORS

Amdex All Monitors

NECAIIMonitors

Princeton Graphics

Zenith AllModels

VIDEO TERMINALS

QumeQVT Green 101

QVT Amber 101

Wyse30

50

75

Wyse 85

Wyse 350

Zenith Z-22Z-29A .Z-49 .

5859$455$559

Save

51255120

SaveSaveSaveSave

$29953145299$419$559S439

SOFTWARE

Prometheus All Models Save

US Robotics Courier 2400 5389

Password 1200 $180

Microlink 2400 $379

COMPUTERS

Zenith Computer ProductsSAVE up to 50%

2-158 All Models Save

Z-138 All Models Save

Z-148 All Models Save

2-171 Save

Z-200 Save

PANASONIC

Sr. Partner Dual Drive 11599

Exec. Partner Dual Drive $2 129

TOSHIBA

T-1100 11389

WYSE

Wyso pc 1100-1 5979

Wvse dc 1100-20 .S1539

DISK DRIVES

Alpha Omega Turbo 10 5515

Turbo20 $515

Turbo 30 5675

Iomega

Bernoulli Boxes For IBM Save

Bernoulli Boxes for Macintosh Save

Paradise Macintosh Hard Disk . Save

BOARDS

AST Advantage $389

Rampage PC $299

Six Pack Plus $219

Hercules Color Card 5149

Graphic Card 5305

Intel

Above Boards Save

Maynard Hardcard $549

Paradise Modular Graphic 06-1 5239

FivePak $115

Quadra m

Gold & Silver Boards Save

Quodlink 5329

Quad EGA -f 5365

Tec Mar Graphics Master 5445

Captain No Memory .51 55

PLOTTERS

Epson Hi-80 Save

KEYBOARDS

Keytronics 5151 5159

TRAINING

Flight Simulator 529

Typing Instructor $28

Typing Tutor III $28

INTEGRATIVE SOFTWARE

Enable 1.1 Save

Framework II Save

Smart Software System $399

Symphony Save

GRAPHICS

Chartmaster $205

Diagram Master $1 89

Energraphics $ 1 59

In-A-Vision $249

Microsoft Buss Mouse w/PC Paintbrush 3.0 $107

Microsoft Chart $ 169

Microsoft Serial Mouse 5120

Newsroom 532

PC Mouse w/Paint Plus 5119

PFS Graph 576

Printmaster 530

Signmasler SI 34

Turbo Graphix Tool Box $30

IBM PC AND 100% Compatibles

COMMUNICATIONS

CompuServe Starter Kit Best Price

Crosstalk XVI $92

MS Access $145

Remote $92

Smartcom II S83

UTILITIES

Copy II PC S19

1 DIR 547

Fastbaclf 587

Norton Utilities 3.1 548

Sidekick 530

Sidekick (Unprotected) 547

Sidekick — Superkey (Bundle) $85

Sideways 3.1 . $34

Superkey , $39

Travelina Sidekick $39

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Harvard Total Project Manager $262

Microsoft Project $229

Super Project Plus . . $237

b2.0

$219

WORD PROCESSORS

Leading Edge Word Processor $48

Leading Edge W/P w/Spell & Mail . S95

Lightening . 555

Microsoft Word 2.01 $228

Multimale 3.3 Save

PFS: Write w/Spell Checker 576

Wordstar Pro Pack $233

Word Perfect (Ver. 4.1). $196Wordstar 2000 2.0. . . $233Wordstar 2000 Plus 2.0 $278LANGUAGES

CCompiler(Microsoft) 5227

Fortran Compiler (Microsoft) 5203

Lattice C Compiler 5242

Macro Assembler (Microsoft) . . . 587

Pascal Compiler (Microsoft) .

Quick Basic

Run C Interpreter

Turbo Pascal 3.0

SPREADSHEETS

Lotus 1-2-3

Mulliplan

Spreadsheet Auditor 2.0VP Planner ^

Save

5112

582

$49

Supercalc 3(Ver.2.1). . $179

$174

$57582$38

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Dollars & Sense w/Forcast

Tobias Managing Your Money

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

dBase 111 Plus

Extended Report Writer

Knowledgeman II

Nutshell 2.0

PFS: File

PFS: Report

Qukkcode ..

QuickReport

Reflex

Think Tank

$94Save

$339

. Save

579

$279$95$76$67

$138

$138$55$92

MACINTOSH

Turbo Database Tool Box . .$30

R:Base 5000 $31<

UTILITIES

ConcertwarePlus

Copy II Mac ..,..,..

Music Works

Pro Print w/cable

Sidekick w/Phone Link .Smooth Talker

$36$19545$56$56$49

SPREADSHEETS

Chart 572

Click On $44

Mulliplan $110

TRAINING

Maslertype , 528

Mind Prober $26

Typing Intrigue $25

Typing Tutor III $33

COMMUNICATIONS

Smartcom II $84

DATA BASE MANAGERS

Business File Vision $199

FileMaker $96

I Know It's Here Somewhere $33

Microsoft File 5110

Omnislll 5243

Overvue 2.0 $ 144

Think Tank512 $96

LANGUAGES

Bask 2.0 587

ConsulairCw/F.P.(NewVer.) 5255

Experlogo 575

Microsoft Fortran 5170

Microsoft Logo . . $73

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Dollars & Sense $78

Dollors & Sense Forecast Module S38

Mac Home Accountant $72

ACCOUNTING

PolanlirG/L

PalantirA/P

PalantirA/R

Peachtree G/L

Peachtree A/R

UTILITIES/COMMUNICATIONS

Copy II Plus $19

Pin Point 535

Sideways S30

Turbo Pascal (Rep.cP/m) $35

Crosstack $94

TRAINING

FLTSimll $32

Typing Tutor II S29

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

PRS: File $68

PRS: Report $68

WORD PROCESSORS

Appleworks $189

Bank Street Writer $39

Bank Street Speller 539

PRS: Write S68

Think Tank $75

Word Perfect $79

Wordstar Professional (Rep. cP/m) $259

SPREADSHEETS

Supercalc 3A 598

PFS: Plan $68

Mulliplan $55

APPLE

$74

$74

$74

$84

$84

Peachtree A/P $84

RagstoRkhes-3Pak(G/L,A/P,A/R) $247

ACCESSORIES

Mac Tote Carrying Cose $56

MacVision $166

Mousfad (by Moustrak) $7

Printer Ribbon $6

The Easel $12

Pocket Pock $9

DISKETTES

SONY Disks( 10 Pack) S.S 518

SONY Disks (10 Pack) D.S 527

WORD PROCESSORS

Hayden Speller

Microsoft Word

MacSpell Plus

Moc Lightening

$45

$110

$53

$49

INTEGRATED SOFTWARE

Helix 2.0 $212

Microsoft Excel . $228

GRAPHICS

Accessory Pack I. . .

Click Art

Mac Draft

MocPicttl 8.2

Moc The Knife III 528

Ready Set Go 2.1 .... 596Video Works $55

GRAPHICS

Clip Art «1 $16

Clip Art «2 $21

Newsroom 532

PRS: Graph 568

Pdntshop 529

Prinlstiop Companion 523

MAC Draw $149

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Managing your money

$68Save

Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty. Please add 510.00 per orderlor UPS shipping. Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send cashier's check or money order... all other checks will delayshipping two weeks.

Inquiry 309 for MS DOS Products. Inquiry 310 for all others.

*e

BOOK REVIEWS

it is indicative of the discipline's broad scope of applica-tion. As with the filters, we are given the basis for an all-digital approach to the problem. The section on digitalsynthesis and modification concludes with a brief historyand discussion of several music software systems. The bulkof the discussion centers on several algorithms and pro-grams developed and used by Chamberlin in his own com-puter music applications.

The final section of the book concentrates on the designand workings of several real-world (commercially available)synthesizers and concludes with the author's view of thefuture of computer music synthesis.

In sum, the range of topics in the book is impressivelycomprehensive, though their treatment is not always asdetailed as you might wish. For instance, if your interestin computer music has been piqued by the recent pro-liferation of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface)equipment, you will be disappointed by the all-too-briefdiscussion of this important subject. On the other hand,newcomers to the field of computer music should beprepared for a challenge in assimilating the book's manytechnical details.

Although I found the analog discussion dated, the hard-ware versus software issues weighted too much in thedirection of hardware, and I would have liked to see morealgorithms and fewer circuit diagrams, the information con-tained in Musical Applications is useful and instructive. Youwould have to collect many reference works to amass thedetails provided in this single volume.

Donald Swearingen (100 Valencia St. #261, San Francisco, CA94103) is a freelance software developer, consultant, and musician.

COMPUTER MUSIC: SYNTHESIS, COMPOSITION,AND PERFORMANCE

Reviewed by Randall Graves

J

udging from the level of mathematics used in ComputerMusk: Synthesis, Composition, and Performance, the intendedreader will be significantly more a computer enthusiastthan a musician. Charles Dodge and Thomas A. Jerserecommend their book as a class text, but 1 think mostmusic students would have a hard time with much of thematerial. I envision the prime reader to be a personal com-puter hobbyist who would like to try some fairly involvedexercises in musical physics.

This volume covers most of the commonly usedmethods of music synthesis, and the level of detail enablesa reader to imagine what a variety of waveforms will soundlike. This task is not left to the reader's imagination, how-ever, as the authors supply several references to commer-cial music examples.

ISSUES

Several temperaments and the relative harmonic struc-tures of the intervals contained therein are explored, butthe authors withhold opinions on their merits or applica-

[continued]

ATTN: XT, AT CLONEINTEGRATORS & DEALERS

WE KEEP EVERYTHING IN STOCK• REASONABLE PRICES

• RELIABLE QUALITY- TRY OUR SERVICE -

POWER SUPPLY - U.L. Recognized,

Meet FCC Class B

it «

k

U.L. file #E-I0M 15(5]

I 15/230V AC

IBM* standard pin-out or

Faraday® pin-out

OVP. OCP

One year warranty

ADD-ON CARD - For XT, AT

& Compatibles

FC 1930 (PC AT|

• 1 EIA RS-232 port|2nd optional)

• Centronics port

FC 1730 |PC AT)

• I EIA RS-232 port|2nd optional)I28K to 1.5 MB

[AT Multi I/O)

With game port (Mu|Hftjnction card for memory

■ With cables

AT|

[XT Multi I/O)

[RS232/clock|

FC 740 |XT)

• I serial port[2nd optional)

• I Centronic port

• Clock/calendar

• w/floppy controller

FC 940 (XT)

• RS-232C port

• To 9600 baud

• Battery back-up

Expandable to 3MB[optional) piggybackboard1 Game port

FC 550 (XT/AT)

• 80x25 text mode

• 720x348 graphicmode

• Run Lotus 1-2-3auto cad. etc

• IBM® compatible

FC 230 (XT)

• Contrail 1 x S M"F.D.D.

• IBM® compatible

[Floppy controller)

KEYBOARD - FCC Approved

FC 427 FC 437 FC 447

(5150 Type) (5151 Type) PC AT

PC XT

PC XT

COMPUTER CHASSIS - For XT or AT

FC 620

FC 630 A-2

M$ FORTRON ORDERS ONLY: (800) 821-9771

3225 SELDON CT. IN CALIF: (415) 490-8171

FREMONT, CA 94538 TELEX: 559291 FORTRON U.D.

Inquiry 133 for End-Users.Inquiry 134 for DEALERS ONLY.

IUNE 1986

I YTE

JUST THE FACTS . . .The Finest Products Too!

SMD; SCSI; ESDI MultifunctionCONTROLLERS and Memory Systems

For all PC, XT, AT, RT, and compatible applications

FaCtS: NMS was and is first to:

1. Bring you SMD disk controller and systems with2.4mb/sec data rates and 17ms access times(8000A)

2. Provide SMD/SCSI single board, multifunctioncontroller compatible with all SMD disks

supports up to eightSCSI devices

!:-/,'1ft6BWW^iH88ilS>fc i

•!_ JB^itfMiifK

mm

! •'(SWiiPiSSti.KSI"

switch selectable DMA, port address

supports any2 SMD disks

3. Break the 32mb DOS limitation

4. Bring you storage of up to 1,600mb

5. Bring you file by file back up in quarter inch tapesystems

6. Bring you 1,000mb of laser optical storage thatreally does work

7. Support all major networks including Novell

8. Provide selection of 5V* inch and 8 inch memorysystems

9. Bring all of the above to the PC-AT and RT10. NMS provides the widest selection of, high capa-city, high performance, disk/tape/laser opticalmemory systems and controllers

You can buy our controllers . . .

or complete memory systems

WHAT'S NEXT? . . .

See us at the New York PC Expo!

OH YES . . . Fact #11...

No one is developing technology like NMS

CALL US TODAY415-443-1669

TWX 9103866006TELEX 821892 NMS UD

The finest controllers andmemory systems for:

Microvax

Multibus

NationalMemorySystems

CORPORATION

Livermore, California

BOOK REVIEWS

tions. This rather aloof and cool presentation gives thebook a somewhat stuffy feel.

A very good section covers the conversion of analogwaveforms to digital equivalents and back again, alongwith the various integrating types of functions used to ap-proximate the original signal when less than completedigital sampling is used. If your main interest is digitalaudio, you will find this section enlightening.

The thorough discussion of the ear and the hearing pro-cess contains sufficient examples to make clear some basicprinciples of "voicing." Voicing is the arrangement ofpitches within a musical piece so that a listener does nottire from inappropriate clustering of pitch groups.

Basics

Dodge and Jerse explain how the basic concepts of syn-thesis are interrelated. The components include amplitudeenvelopes, harmonic spectrums of different waveforms,and various styles of modulation, and the authors han-dle them in a manner that does not require a great knowl-edge of physics. Given the approach of the book, how-ever, they should have included some examples of howto implement these functions in software. The advent ofFM synthesis has caused many companies to rethink theirhardware products, and a very good section in this bookon FM will help both the computer owner and the userof performance-oriented synthesizers (such as the YamahaDX series) to understand the programming nature of theirinstruments.

Subtractive synthesis is covered both conceptually andpractically with the role of filters extensively discussedusing mathematical computation and algorithmic ex-amples. Music students might have trouble with this sec-tion, but I recommend it for an enhanced understandingof harmonic spectrums.

Gains and Losses

I found the chapter on speech synthesis useful only forsynthesizing telecommunication recordings. I think ageneral reader would be more interested in sampling andmusical-capture techniques whereby the limitless articula-tions of the human voice could be used as a direct sourceand. if desired, processed with a computer for a varietyof effects.

Once a musical example is composed, the next thingI want is high-quality production of the sound, and thatrequires a good delivery system. The psychoacoustics in-volved in hearing a replay of a computer music score andthe actual delivery itself are the focus of a section thatappealed to me greatly. Some very practical help wasoffered in these areas, which also introduce some elec-tronic signal processors for composition enhancement.

For my purposes, this book is strictly a reference. I wouldpoint the novice computer synthesist to a more example-oriented work. The few functional examples here are allin FORTRAN, which would not likely be the language ofmost personal computer owners, and they would requiretranslation. The comprehensive glossary, however, is

[continued)

68 B YTE • |UNE I986

Inquiry 239

OPEN ACCESS CUSTOMER RESPONSE

"While Symphony and Framework"

approach the functionality of Open Access*

neither delivers the full punch"

Kenneth M. LandWang Solutions

s

OPEN ACCESS / A /^/^/^/ / A / /£ /$ X&/

Lotus 1*2*3

V*

\S

f>

49500

Symphony

lS

\S

\S

lS

lS

iS

IS

69500

Framework

lS

iS

iS

iS

lS

iS

IS

69500

Open Access

lS

lS

V*

IS

iS

v*

iS

is

*>

V0

iS

\S

39500*

■ ■ ■ The bottom line is this: compare all you get with Open

Access—a powerful Relational Database, Spreadsheet,Graphics, Word Processing, Time Management and com-

_ _ B munications—add in anew low price and you'll see

why you can't afford to compromise any longer.

^(■Ir^ Vf^ TH *^k W® But just in case you don't need all that Open Access hasm M _ j|JrH Hr«i B ^^kj to offer . . . yet . . . we offer Open Access Entry lot just^L^^ . 1 ^B $195. You get all the Open Access modules on a less?z ^__ ^__ ^^ ^^^ sophisticated level, plus all the documentation necessary^A ^r^^T^ 1 U^^ m f°r upgrading to a complete Opera <4ccm package.

AIAX33 ~

INTEGRATED SOFTWARE ^'

SPI

r t \ r

1 SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL 1

^P H H ^^^ 10240 Sorrento Valley Road " San Diego, CA 92121

^vIN 619/450-1526

W J V FOR YOUR AUTHORIZED DEALER OR DISTRIBUTOR

U.S. Version only Open Access and jH are registered trademarks of Software Products International, Inc.;

Lotus, 1-2-3 and Symphony are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corp.;Framework is a trademark of Ashton-Tate.

Inquiry 317 for End-Users. Inquiry 318 for DEALERS ONLY.

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 69

DRIVE

INN

Enclosure &power suppliesfor

FLOPPY,WINCHESTER,TAPE DRIVES,SINGLE BOARDCOMPUTERS&S-100 SYSTEMS

8 inch5 inch3 inch

Call or writefor freecatalogs &applicationassistance

llllllllll. • ■ ■<

v fill!!

—~—»HUH

I

>

.'■■; j

III II

w

i\

liH

RESEARCH CORPORATION

8620 Roosevelt Ave. • Visalia, CA 93291

209/651-1203

We accept BankAmericard/Visa

and MasterCharge

BOOK REVIEWS

doubly useful, as it assumes the reader is new to the ter-minology. I recommend this book as an additional refer-ence to an existing computer music library, but not as afirst or only work on the subject.

Randall Graves (542 East 400 S, Sprinaville, UT 84663) is a pro-grammer/analyst for Dynix Inc. of Provo, Utah. He composes, records,and performs electronic music.

FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTER MUSIC

Reviewed by Stan Czarnik

In Foundations of Computer Music, editors Curtis Roads andJohn Strawn bring together 36 articles demonstratingthat the evolution of the "intelligent instrument" is des-tined to continue. The book is intended for both informedhobbyists and computer music professionals, but thesheer clarity of the contributions should quiet the fearsof anybody curious enough to pull the book off the shelf.

The Binary Beat

Computer music follows from a technology capable of rep-resenting sonic events in the form of binary digits. Indeed,digital conversion is what distinguishes computer musicfrom its analog ancestor, electronic music. The first sec-tion of Foundations amounts to a survey of various digital-synthesis techniques, including additive synthesis, frequen-cy modulation, and waveshaping.

The roots of the additive method go back to the ancientGreeks. This technique begins by decomposing sound inmuch the same way as a prism decomposes light into itsprimitive spectral components. The digital representationsof these elements can then be transformed into highlyprecise analog signals, or the representations can bemanipulated by the composer to make musical soundsnever before heard. As contributor Neil Rolnick tells us,the restrictions imposed by additive synthesis forced hiscomputer music team to do certain things "awkwardly ornot at all."

These difficulties are overcome to some extent by newermodes of control described by Curtis Roads in two elegantarticles on waveshaping and granular synthesis. Waveshap-ing operates directly on the waveform. The key to wave-shaping is known as the transfer function, which can bethought of as a line on a grid with values between -1 and+ l on the horizontal axis and corresponding values onthe vertical. Granular synthesis is another way of workingwith the waveform, only this time with little pieces of it.The number of ways in which grain samples can be re-arranged using a computer is endless, and the results areentirely unique. By systematic grain deletion a sound canbe made to "evaporate" or, by reversing the process,coalesce and crystallize from the inside out.

Dedicated to Music

Some sections of Foundations are devoted to computermusic hardware and software, and joint consideration

[continued)

70 BYTE- IUNE I986

Inquiry 163

Two great reasonsto buy Turbo Pascal:

System Buildei 99 5 and Report Builder 75

From the Designer Series™ by Royal American Technologies.

hrom tne Designer beries by Koyai American Technologies.

Now, experience the magic of 5th generation software.

a state-of-the-art program gen- _|_M^H|_^MM_M|_|H|MH

00

It's a state-of-the-art program generatorthat automatically builds arelational database application foryou in just seconds. You just paintyour screen and datafile layouts.

SO EASY... ideal for entry level "coders"to produce relational database systemswithout coding. (Entry level guide withsample On-disk systems is provided.)SO POWERFUL ... it provides program-ming professionals with more flexibilityand horsepower than any developmenttool on the market (guide is provided.)

REPORT BUILDER CYCLE:

Key in the report parameters on screen

Print your listingsNew report format for referenceReport element layout

Key in the report data elements on screen

Report Builder automatically writes theprogram code and links it to your datafile

Print your listing• Report program source code listings

Compile the report builder code using theTurbo Pascal" compiler

Attach the new report module to yoursystem menu

SYSTEM BUILDER CYCLE:

Paint the menu screens

V Paint the application screens

PressXDefine the datafile(s) on the screen

»k / System Builder automatically writes thewait 6 / program code and combines the datafiles

C8 / into a relational database

Print your listings

• Program source code listing • Datafilelayouts • Self-documenting program(includes screen schematics)

Compile the System Builder code usingTurbo Pascal'" compiler

Start using the completed system

♦System Builder will generate 2,000 lines of program code in approximately 6 seconds.

REPORT BUILDER FEATURES:

• Automatically generates Indented, Structured SourceCode ready for compiling Turbo Pascal (no program-ming needed)

• Automatically interfaces to a maximum of 16 Datafilescreated with System Builder

• Supports Global Parameters such as Headings, Footers,Lines Per Page, Print Size and Ad Hoc Sorting

• Produces reports containing an unlimited number ofSub-Headings, Sub-Totals and Totals

• Page breaks on Sub-Totals

• Report Builder will generate Report Programs whichcan contain Report Elements not just restricted to DataElements. Reports can also include Text Strings, Vari-ables or Computed expressions containing referencesfrom up to 16 Datafiles

• Use range input screens produced by System Builder toallow End Users to select portions of a report as needed(i.e. specific account ranges can be requested)

• Produces standalone Report Modules

• Easy-to-use Interface Program to access dBase Files

SYSTEM BUILDER PERFORMANCE

(Typical 10 screen 8 file/index application)

TASK

SYSTEMBUILDER

DBASE III"

Planning and Design

60 minutes

60 minutes

Screen Painting

15 minutes

3 hours

Programming

2 minutes

10 hours

Elapsed time tocompleted system

1 hour and17 minutes

14 hours

SYSTEM BUILDER FEATURES:

• Automatically generates Indented, Structured, CopyBook Source Code ready for compiling with TurboPascal (no programming needed)

• Paint Application and Menu screens using Keyboard orMicrosoft Mouse"

• Finished Application screens all use System Builder'sIn-Line machine code for exceptional speed

• Use fully prompted Screen Guidance Templates'** todefine up to 16 Datafiles per application, each recordhaving an Unlimited Number of fields

• Define up to 16 Index Keys per application database

• Paint functions include:

— Center, copy, move, delete, insert or restore a line.Go straight from screen to screen with one keystroke

—Cut and paste blocks of text screen to screen

— Draw and erase boxes, Define colors and intensities

— Access special graphic characters and character fill

• Supports an unlimited number of memory variables

• File Recovery Program Generator to make fixing ofcorrupted datafiles an automatic process

• Automatically modifies datafiles without loss of datawhen adding/deleting a field

• Menu Generator with unlimited Sub-Menu levels

• Experienced developers can modify the System Builder

• Develop systems for Floppy or Hard Disk

• Modify System Builder's output code to include Exter-nal Procedures, Functions and Inline Code

• Easy-to-use Interface to access ASCII and dBase Files

VARS, System Integrators and Dealers,let's work together. Your inquiriesare always welcome. (415) 397-7500.

AMEBIC^ ft^ Gy*<fio*

I think it's wonderful... prospec-tive buyers should seriously con-sider DESIGNER even beforedBASEIII." Mr. Greg Weale

Corporate Accounts Manager,Computer/and

"We used DESIGNER last year toprogram a major application. Itsaved our programmers so muchtime. We now use DESIGNERinstead of dBASK III as our devel-opment standard!'

Mr. Peter Barge, DirectorServices Division, Horwath & Horwath

"DESIGNER has resulted in signi-ficant time savings ... We use it onclassical database applications!'

Mr. Andy Rudevics, DirectorAndrasoft Corporation

. M Mi ■. M m* M Mi H ■■ «■■■ I

Royal American Technologies201 Sansome, Suite 500San Francisco, CA 94104

(800)654-7766

California (800) 851-2555Ask for Operator 105.

Please rush me: copies of SYSTEM

BUILDER at $99.95 per copy;

copies of REPORT BUILDER at

$75.00 per copy. I've enclosed $5.00for postage and handling. Californiaresidents add 6% sales tax.

Name

Address-

City-State _

-Zip_

Phone

Payment: □ Check D Money Order

□ Cashiers Check □ AMEX

□ VISA □ MASTERCARD

Expiration date

Card Number

Inquiry 299

Signature

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Not copyprotected. $10 restocking fee if envelope isopened.

System Requirements—System Builder/ReporlBuilder: IBM PC/XT/AT1, or similar, with minimum256K RAM, dual floppy drives, or hard disk, coloror monochrome monitor. MS: or PC DOS1 version2.0 or later. Turbo Pascal Version 2.0 or later(Normal. BCD or 8087 versions).'Trademarks of International Business Machines Corp."Trademark of Microsoft Corp.

"Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of norland International,'"dBASE is a rcgisiercd trademark of Ashton-Taie.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 71

Introducing theQassic PC/XT/ATMultiuserSystem.

It's the multiuser system that gives youwhat you've been looking for. Full IBM PC™software and hardware compatibility. High-speed performance. Cost savings.

It delivers full DOS 3.1 compatibility. Youcan run all popular PC/XT programs.

Even single-user programs run in truemultiuser mode. And you can run new pro-grams created for multiple users and networkingwith more sophisticated record-locking, includ-ing dBase™ RBase 5000™ Open Systems™

Word Perfect™ and more.

It's fast! Three users run at mere ATspeed, five users run at XT speed.

It's a true multiuser system, with DOS 3.1record locking and file sharing. You have all thebenefits of a multiuser system; Data, softwareand peripheral sharing. Better communication.Enhanced efficiency.

Each user is a complete PC. Simply con-nect an IBM or IBM compatible monitor andkeyboard to your PC/XT/AT and you've addeda new user with up to 640K. Each user rimsindependently while able to share files, records,programs and peripherals with other users.

IBM PC/XT/AT is a trademark of International Business Machines. dBase is a trademark ofAshton- Tate, RBase 5000 is a trademark of Microrim, Word Perfect is a trademark of SSf Software.

Get your hands on the multiuser systemyouVe been waiting for . . . the CLASSICPC/XT/AT Multiuser System.

Visit your local Computerland today orcall us for the name of your nearest dealer. Formore information call 800/ 392-8324, in CA800/ 338-0777. CLASSIC TECHNOLOGYCORPORATION, 2090 Concours Dr.,

San Jose, CA 95131,408/434-9333.

And to top it all off, its 40% the cost ofLANs. Now you can add more users to yourexisting PC/XT/AT instead of buying more PCsand LANs.

In a word, it's it. . .

CLASSIC...

Everything you alwayswanted in an IBM.

Inquiry 65 for End-Users. Inquiry 66 for DEALERS ONLY.

1UNE 1986

iYTE 73

Inquiry 179

Real-Time Multitasking Executive

i No royaltiesi Source code includedi Fault free operationi Ideal for process controli Timing control providedi Low interrupt overheadi Inter-task messages

Options:

■ Resource Manager

■ Buffer Manager

■ Integer Math Library

■ Language Interfaces:

C Pascal

PL/M Fortran

■ DOS File Access:

CP/M-80IBM PC DOS

IAMX L

Task Scheduler r~

| Interrupts

User Device

ServiceProcedures

AMX isTM of KADAK Products Lid.CP/M-80 isTM of Digital Research Corp.IBM. PC DOS are TM of ISM Corp.

AMX for 80808086680968000

$ 800 US9509501600

Manual (specify processor) 75

It KADAK Products LtdIF

(604) 734-2796

Telex: 04-55670

206-1847 W. Broadway, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6J1Y5

BOOK REVIEWS

ENHANCED GRAPHICSADAPTER

v--

SEGA Board

■ On Board 256K Display Memory

■ Compatible with the IBM EGA, CGA&MDA

■ Works with Monochrome, RGB &Enhanced Color Monitors

■ Runs the software supporting IBMEGA card

SEGA Board $395

SEGA with EGA Monitor $895

Order Toll Free |800) 826-0267In California Call (415) 651-3355

SOURCE ELECTRONICS CORP.

45277 Fremont Blvd., #6

Fremont, CA 94538

IBM is a registered/trademark of International Business Machines. Inc.

seems appropriate. This is because of a noteworthy trendin the creation of intelligent musical instruments: Whatonce went into software is now going into hardware—thedesign of dedicated real-time music computers.

One reason for this phenomenon is speed. The execu-tion of computer music in real time calls for as much pro-cessing power as performers can get their hands on. Thiswas one major impulse behind the well-known StructuredSound Synthesis Project (SSSP) at the University ofToronto. This need for speed is also behind the ap-pearance of Chuck Hastings's piece on do-it-yourselfemitter-coupled logic (ECL), some of the quickest stuffaround. The project described is a 24-bit stored-micro-program computer capable of 900,000 fixed-point multi-ply instructions per second.

Another reason for turning to hardware involves thenature of musical composition, as Otto Laske points out.Rarely does a composer stick very long to a "top-down"or "bottom-up" approach to the material. Abrupt shiftsbetween different musical perspectives lie closer to thenorm. A change desired in the "feel" of a score may re-quire subtle notational alterations: by the same token,replacing four eighth notes with eight sixteenths may af-fect the feel. This kind of flexibility is very difficult to getin musical software. Section III, "Software Systems forMusic," shows how complicated it can be to get aroundthis problem.

The joker in the pack is John Myhill's progress reporton the creation of a "semistochastic music language, acomputer program designed to produce sequences of fre-quencies that are neither random nor non-random." En-tirely random "music" is noise. No problem there. But whatis nonrandom music? Myhill found the answer lies inperiodicity: In a nonrandom series of sounds, any givensonic duration "says something" about the duration thatfollows it. Myhill can now program a computer to makepolyrhythmic music in which one voice becomes increas-ingly coherent while another voice disintegrates.

Perceptions

Roads and Strawn end the book with three articles focus-ing on how computers can not only help create music butunderstand it as well. Stephen McAdams and AlbertBregman, for example, explain how the automated manip-ulation of sounds can shed light on the workings ofmusical perception and illusion—why we hear what weseem to be hearing.

Foundations of Computer Musk is one of those rare com-puter books that will not be out of date by the time youget a chance to read it. The editorial philosophy is under-scored consistently from cover to cover. Foundations coversthe basic things that everyone with a serious interest inthe automation of music needs to know before breakingnew ground in this realm of limitless possibility.

Stan Czarnik (2716 West Evergreen Ave., Chicago, IL 60622) isa teacher, musician, and technical writer whose hobbies include ex-perimenting with high-voltage electricity.

(continued)

74 BYTE • JUNE 1986

Inquiry 3 22 for End-Users.Inquiry 323 for DEALERS ONLY.

THE

<

■■%

$1/300000

SWITCH K ON!

<&

'<?

^

Vr

o

SHARE THE EXCITEMENT!

Frustrated by the limitations of your currentsoftware? Try KnowledgeMan/2, the "FriendlySuperpower." We think you'll be so excited byits power and flexibility you'll never go back toyour present dead-end software. In fact, if you letus know why you prefer KnowledgeMan/2, youcould be a winner in our "$1,000,000 Switch!"

From accounting to manufacturing to sales,KnowledgeMan/2 is a data base managementsystem providing familiar business computingfeatures in one highly-fused software package:

D Extensive relational data base management

□ Spreadsheet features

□ Spur-of-the-moment inquiries

□ Forms management

□ Statistical analysis

□ Data security

□ Programming language and much more

Enhance your business presentations and com-munications with fully-integrated options for colorgraphics, text processing, forms painting, reportgeneration, remote communications, mouse pro-cessing, natural language processing, and others.Versions for local area networks are also available.

For the beginner, KnowledgeMan/2 has ourextensive menu system with supporting helpscreens and easy-to-use documentation. Theexperienced user may turn off the menus to useKnowledgeMan/2's power through its time-savingcommand language or procedural language. Every-one can use the optional natural language featuresto ask for information in plain English.

For details on how you can enter "The $1,000,000Switch," see your local dealer or write or call:mdbs/Marketing and Sales/P.O. Box 248/Lafayette,IN 47902; 317/463-2581.

KNOWLEDGE /^%®

m®n/2

THE UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

"mdbs" and "KnowledgeMan/2" are registered trademarks of Micro Data Base Systems, Inc.

Inquiry 218

Inquiry 115

BOOK REVIEWS

IBM PC AT performance!PCjr price!

AMPRO Little Board/186• 8Mhz 16 Bit 80186 CPU

• 512K RAM-No Wait-States

• 2 Serial Ports 50-38.4K Baud• Parallel Printer Port

• 4 Drive Mini/Micro-Floppy ControllerSCSI Bus Hard Disk Interface• DOS Compatible ROM-BIOS• Boots PC DOS 2.x, 3.xComputer Board Assembled and Tested withTech Manual and DOS utilities...$499

• DRI Concurrent DOS 4.1 Multi-User O/S...$395

• Expansion Board for 512K (1Mb total) 8087-2 Socket,Real-Time Clock, 8530 SCC 2 Channel RS232/422, BufferedExpansion Bus and more...from $295

• AMPRO Little Board (Z80) Same as 80186 board butZ80A CPU, 64K RAM, 16K EPROM, CP/M 2.2 & ZCPR3 andmanuals...$239 ($279 w/SCSI)

Enclosures w/Power Supply...from $99

Floppy Drives...call for current price

Xebec Owl SCSI Drive-Low power 1/2 Ht Drive w/built-in

Controller 10/20Mb...$499/$649

Terminals: WYSE, QUME, KIMTRON...from $395

Power supplies, cables, connectors in stock

Complete technical support. Assembled systems available. Write or call forfree catalog. Most orders shipped same day.VISA. MasterCard, Money Order, C.O.D. Checks allow two weeks.Purchase orders and bids welcome. Prices FOB. Prairie View, IL.

IBM PC AT PCjr PC DOS are trademarks ol International Business Machines CorporationConcurrent DOS is a trademark ol Digital Research. Inc Xebec Owl is a trademark ot Xebec, Inc

9ISKS PLUS

15945 West Pope Blvd.Prairie View, IL 60069(312) 537-7888

STOCK

23-640

DO-IT-YOURSELF KIT—NO SOLDERING

IBM@ PC/XT COMPATIBLE

ATTNDEALERS:

Send Us 3 Vendors'

Names From Which You

Now Purchase on Your

Company Letterhead w/a

Copy of Your Resale Card

$475$

You Assemble

YOU SAVE!!!

ALL

YOU

NEED

ISA

SCREW

DRIVER!!

^ffl ^^

I t I II I t I I l t I '. : I W'i

f I" lit I'll I i i 1 1,-t I t

( I I I' I i I I I I I t 1 1 \

, | I I I t i I I i I I 1 'I J \

/L_J „i-_ i-i i

■ PC/XT Compatible 8-Slot Motherboard

■ W/256K RAM & ERS0 BIOS on 640KMotherboard (8088 16-Bit 4.77 MHZ)

■ Floppy Disk Controller Card, up to 2 drives

■ One 360K DS/DD Slim Drive

■ Easy Assembly - No Soldering

I135W Power Supply

I Keyboard.. .Similar to Keytronics 5150

I Flip-Top Case

190 Days Warranty on Parts & Labor

1134-Page Computer Instruction Manual

■ Monitor Optional

OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA

1213-329-3384. 1-800-231-6491

NO COD, No Open Account - Only Prepaid or

Credit Card Orders. Add 10% Shipping & $2,00

Handling Fee. Credit applied if freight is less than 10%

California Residents Add 6'/2% Sales Tax

ASK FOR OUR 24-PAGE CATALOG

H MORE® Computer

DEFT. BYTE/MAG • P.O. BOX 2320

GARDENA, CALIF. 90247-0320OPEN: 8:30 - 5:00 Monday - Friday

Sorry, No Walk-In Orders - Strictly Mail Order Only.IBM* is a registered trademark ol Int'l Bus. Machines Corp.

ELECTRONIC AND COMPUTER MUSIC

Reviewed by Gregory Lent

In this informative treatise on the history of electronicmusic, Peter Manning takes us back to 1897, when theDynamophone was patented by Thaddeus Cahill inHolyoke, Massachusetts. It was the first fully developedsound-generator system that was operated via a keyboard.It weighed 200 tons and cost $200,000. Numerous interac-tions between composers and scientists prior to 1945 arehighlighted at the beginning of the book. The four sec-tions that follow cover developments from 1945 to 1960.new horizons in electronic design, the electronic reper-tory from 1960, and the digital revolution. A bibliographyand lengthy discography are included, but unfortunatelythis historical perspective does not mention MIDI.

After World War II, the revival of the arts was accom-panied by advances in technology that provided incen-tives for American institutions to support the developmentof electronic music. In Europe, Pierre Schaeffer's ex-periments led to the discovery of the amplitude envelope(attack, body, and decay). This work includes such tech-nological leaps as the birth of the transistor in the 1950sand the first voltage-controlled synthesizer. The book con-tains figures showing frequency and amplitude controls,waveforms, etc., that assume the reader has a backgroundin the science of sound. Conversely, there are also basic,almost mundane, descriptions of hardware, such as howjoysticks were used to control some early synthesizers.

Computers become the focus of the book in the digitalrevolution section, with descriptions of hardware, lan-guages, and the history of how computers were used tosynthesize music. It seems that most of the work in theearly 1970s was done at universities, with the exceptionof Bell Labs and IRCAM in Paris.

The desire to create interactive, real-time facilitiesresulted in systems such as the VOCOM, developed atEMS Studio in England, and the Synclavier, developed atDartmouth College. Other synthesizers are discussed, al-though most have more memory or have been super-seded since this book was written.

The main drawback of Electronic and Computer Music is itsfailure to mention MIDI, which became the standard afterthe winter NAMM (National Association of Music Mer-chants) show in 1982. Because this book was publishedin 1985, at least a mention in the "outlook for the future"concluding chapter would have contributed to its historicalrelevance. Of course, MIDI has advanced so rapidly since1982 that Manning could have written another book ofequal length on that topic alone.

Overall, this book is an excellent reference on the historyof electronic music from the late nineteenth century tothe mid-twentieth century. It fails, however, to bring thereader up to the present—an insurmountable task in anindustry that doesn't stand still long enough for analysis. ■

Gregory lent (POB 721, Peterborough. NH 03458) is a musicianand composer currently working with the Synclavier and other M1DI-equipped instruments.

76

1YTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 402

X A Q +

TA

J Base III Plus

$695

^

$695

$295

Before you buy DBaseIII, QuickCode andClipper, look atTAS-Plus

TAS-Plus just made it faster, easier andcheaper to build database applications.

TAS-Plus combines the power of aRelational Database with the ease of aProgram Generator. Then TAS-Plus addsa Runtime Compiler to producelightning-fast finished code.

Look at what TAS-Plus gives you:

Relational Database4th Generation LanguageScreen PainterProgram GeneratorReport WriterSource Code EditorRuntime Compiler

TAS-Plus gives you power where itcounts. You can store up to 65,000records, open up to 16 files at a time andenter up to 10,000 characters per record.TAS-Plus even reads your old DBase files.

BUSINESSTOOLSINC.

The following are registered trademarks of these companies:TAS-Plus, The Accounting Solution, Business Tools, Inc;DBase III, AshtonTate; CP/M, Digital Research; IBM PC/XT/AT,International Business Machines Corp; QuickCode, Fox&-Giller; Clipper, Nantucket Inc.

"' Copyright 1986 Business Tools, Inc.Inquiry 54

$69

/

"•"■"=■-•

•f§|

\

ijzlrrca?;

—

.*"■««!«,

"** '»■"• •

V

/

^ TAS-Pluswrites theprogramfor you

With TAS-Plus, you can start buildingprofessional database applications onday one. Just "paint" the screen theway you want and TAS-Plus writes theprogram for you. You can even paintusing different colors or graphiccharacters. And custom reports are justas easy.

TAS-Plus has over 86 commands and200 options available in its Source CodeEditor, so you won't run out of room togrow.

Easy to use features

Add new databases quickly and easily.

Add, change or delete records without

any programming at all.

Browse through your database and see

multiple records on the screen at the

same time.

Restructure capability allows you to

change existing databases without loss

of any data.

All this for just s69

TAS-Plus would be respectable at anyprice, at S69 it's awesome.

30 day Money Back Deal

7AS-Plus comes with a 30 day moneyback guarantee (less $15 handling fee).TAS-Plus is available for the IBMPC/XT/AT and fully compatiblecomputers. Limited versions availablefor CP/M and non-IBM machines.

Order Today1400-648-62&

8

Call our Toil-Free Hotline. Use yourVISA, MasterCard or American Expressto order today. For information orWashington residents call 1-206-644-2015.

TA

S

NOT COPY-PROTECTED

YES! Rush me the following items.Qty. Item Price

TAS+

Shipping add $8 USA,$25 outside USAWA res add $5.59 Tax

$69

Shipping .Tax

Amount Enclosed(US funds only)

Name:

Shipping Address:

City: _State:

.Zip:

Telephone:

Payment: VISA MC

Credit Card Expiration Date:

Card Number:

Name on Card:

BUSINESS TOOLS INC.4038-B 128th Ave. S.E., Suite 266Bellevue, Washington 98006(206) 644-2015

MasterCard

IUNE 1986

IYTE 77

EVENT QUEUE

)um 1986

Engineering Summer Con-ferences, Ann Arbor. Ml.Engineering Summer Con-ferences, College of Engi-neering, The University ofMichigan, 300 ChryslerCenter, North Campus, AnnArbor. Ml 48109. (313)764-8490. ]une-August

Vision '86: AppliedMachine Vision Con-ference and Exposition,Cobo Hall. Detroit. Ml.Vision '86. One SME Dr..POB 930, Dearborn, Ml48121, (313) 271-0777.June 3-5

1986 National Educa-tional Computing Con-ference (NECC '86), SanDiego, CA. NECC '86, Uni-versity of San Diego, Schoolof Education, Alcala Park,San Diego, CA 92110, (619)260-4539. June 4-6

Third Annual Conferenceon Writing for the Com-puter Industry, Plymouth,NH. Dr. Richard Chisholm.Reed House, Plymouth StateCollege. Plymouth, NH03264, (603) 536-15 50, ext.301. June 7

Association of Small Com-puter Users in Education19th Annual Summer Con-ference, Myrtle Beach, SC.Jack Cundiff, Horry-George-town Technical College, Con-way, SC 29526. June 9-11

National Database & 4thGeneration Language Sym-posium, New York, NY. Soft-ware Institute of AmericaInc., 8 Windsor St.. Andover.MA 01810, (617) 470-3880.June 9-12

Network Management/Technical Control, World

Trade Center, Boston, MA.CW/Conference ManagementGroup, 375 Cochituate Rd.,Framingham, MA 01701,(617) 879-0700. June 9-12

Summer 1986 UNIX Con-ference and Exhibition,Atlanta Hilton Hotel,Atlanta, GA. USEN1X Con-ference Office, POB 385,Sunset Beach, CA 90742,(213) 592-3243. June 10-13

24th Annual Meeting ofthe Association for Com-putational Linguistics,

Columbia University, NewYork, NY. Don Walker (ACL),Bell CommunicationsResearch, 44 5 South St..MRE 2A379, Morristown, N|07960, (201) 829-4312.June 10-13

Clinical Laboratory Com-puter Symposium, Ann

Arbor. Ml. Betty Phillips.The Towsley Center for Con-tinuing Medical Education,Box 057, The University ofMichigan Medical School.Ann Arbor. Ml 48109-0010,(313) 763-1400.June 12-13

C '86—International Com-puter Exhibition Cologne:Computer, Software, Elec-tronics, Cologne, West Ger-many. KolnMesse. POB210760, D-5000 Cologne 21,West Germany: telephone:(0)221-821-1: Telex: 8873426mua d: in the U.S., Hans I.Teetz, German AmericanChamber of Commerce Inc..666 Fifth Ave., New York, NY10103. (212) 974-8836.June 12-15

Managing InformationSystems Effectively.University of WesternOntario. London, Ontario,Canada. Canadian Informa-tion Processing Society, 243College St., 5th Floor,Toronto, Ontario M5T 2Y1,Canada, (416) 593-4040.June 15-20

Synergy '86: Conferenceon Functional Interfacingfor Computer-IntegratedManufacturing (CIM),Universal City CA. CheriWilletts. Society of Manufac-turing Engineers, One SMEDr.. POB 930. Dearborn. Ml48121. (313) 271-1500. ext.374. June 16-18

1986 National ComputerConference (NCC '86), Las

Vegas, NV NCC '86, Ameri-can Federation of Informa-tion Processing Societies(AFIPS). 1899 Preston WhiteDr. Reston, VA 22091, (800)622-1986. lune 16-19

Faculty Institute onStudent Centered Com-puter Education-Com-puters: Tools for ProblemSolvers, Lincoln, NE. MindyBrooks, Union College,Lincoln, NE 68506. (402)488-2331. lune 16-20

Second Annual ComputerUsers Conference forDelaware Teachers,Delaware State College,Dover, DE. Dr. William J.Geppert, Department ofPublic Instruction, TownsendBuilding, POB 1402, Dover.DE 19903, (302) 736-4885.

IF YOU WANT your organizations 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, One Phoenix Mil lane. Peterborough, NH 03458.

Computer Vision and Pat-tern Recognition. MiamiBeach. FL. IEEE ComputerSociety. 1730 MassachusettsAve. NW, Washington. DC20036-1903, (202) 371-0101.June 22-26

AutoCAD Expo '86.McCormick Place. Chicago.1L. Peggy Steffens, AutodeskInc., 2320 Marinship Way,Sausalito, CA 94965, (415)332-2344. ext. 703.lune 24-26

1986 International Con-ference on Computeriza-tion of Medical Records:Second Generation ofPatient InformationSystems, San Francisco. CA.Institute for Medical RecordEconomics, 121 Mount Ver-non St., Boston, MA 02108,(617) 523-4449.June 25-27

CAD and Robotics inArchitecture and Con-struction. Marseille,France. Viviane Bemadac,IIRIAM/CMCI. 2. Rue HenriBarbusse. 13241 Marseillecedex 1, France: telephone:91 91 36 72: Telex: Mistel440860. lune 25-28

1986 Carnahan Con-ference on HarmonizingTechnology with Society.

Lexington, KY John Jackson,Electrical EngineeringDepartment, University ofKentucky, Lexington, KY40506-0046, (606) 2 57-3926.June 26-27

Forestry MicrocomputerSoftware Symposium,Morgantown, WV. Divisionof Forestry. West VirginiaUniversity, Morgantown. WV26506. (304) 293-2941.June 30—July 2 ■

78 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Aztec C ... The Best C

Frees the genius iif you

You've got a great idea ...

... you're ready to write your programs.

You don't want to be sidetracked by all the paper-work. With Manx Aztec C and the ingenious makefunction, your creative processes won't get boggeddown in program administration and housekeeping.Manx Aztec C has the most sophisticated, hardwork-ing program administrator available to you. Onceyou've described your project, adding new features orenhancements is simple. You never have to concernyourself with the repetitive, tedious task of rebuild-ing your systems.

The development process moves quickly. Com-piles, assemblies, link edits ... all finish in recordtime.

Manx Aztec C is the fastest, most efficient C de-velopment system in the industry. Benchmarks showit... reviews commend it... users praise it.

You're ready to test the program. You're ahead ofschedule. The Manx Aztec C Source Level Debuggershows you the exact C language statement giving youa problem. You fix the problem quickly . . . you'restill ahead of schedule.

You've got some time for fine tuning.The Manx Aztec C Profiler examinesyour program, tells you where the slowspots are and validates your test pro-cedure. A few changes and it's exactlywhat you wanted.

You've made it!

Aztec C is available for MS-DOS/PCDOS. Call for details on Macintosh,Amiga, Apple II, CP/M-80,CP/M-86, TRS-80, ROM and others.

To order, or, for information

Call Today

1-800-221-0440

In NJ or outside the USA call(201)542-2121

30-day satisfaction guarantee. Special Discountsare available to professors, students, independentdevelopers, and on a "trade-in" basis. Site licenses.

"... a superb linker, a profiler, an assembler,and a set of development utilities are only the be-ginning of this package . . . performed admirablyon the benchmarks, with short compile times andthe best link times in this review .. . includes themost professional make utility ... documentationis clear and complete. There is no doubt that thisis a valuable and powerful programming en-vironment." Computer Languages Feb. '86

"... execution times are very good, close to thebest on most tests ..." PC Tech Journal Jan. '86

" Easily one of the fastest compilers overall. . .library provides a lot of flexibility ... generatessmall .EXE files." Dr. Dobbs Journal Aug. '85

C'Prime (Compiler, Assembler, Linker) $ 99.

Aztec C 86-d Developer's System $299.

Aztec C 86-c Commercial System $499.

PC ROM (8086, 68000, 8080, or 6502) $750.

Third Party Software for Aztec C: HALO, PHACT, C-tree,PRE-C. Windows for C, PC-lint, PANEL, Greenleaf, db Vista,C-terp, Plink-86, FirsTime, C Util Lib,and others.

MOTES

Manx Software SystemsOne Industrial WayEatontown, NJ 07724

MS is a registered TM of Microsoft, Inc.. CP/M TM DRI, HALO TM Media Cybernetics, PANEL TMRoundhill Computer Systems, Ltd.. PHACT TM PHACT Assoc. PRE-C, Plmk-86TM Phoenix, dbVista TM Raima Corp., C-terp, PC-lint, TM Gimpel Software, C-tree TM Faircom, Inc., Windows forC TM Creative Solutions, Apple II, Macintosh TM Apple. Inc., TRS-80 TM Radio Shack, Amiga TMCommodore Int'l.

Inquiry 199

UNE 1986 -BYTE

Simply put: THE "highest quality andbest value in computer products anywhere.

THE ™ commitment to our

customers is compatibility,

quality, value,

service and support

THE "backs

every product with a

45 DAY

MONEY BACK

GUARANTEE

and a

FULL 1 YEAR

PARTS AND LABOR

WARRANTY

THE™MULTI384

This multi-function card features0-384K memory, a parallel printer port,a serial port for communications,a clock/calendar with battery backup,and a software bonus that includesRAMdisk and other utilities. Retail $155.00

.00*

Special Wholesale Price

BESTBUY

Functional

Clone of

AST'"

SixPackPlus

THE "COLOR CARD

100% compatible with the IBM™colorcardwith display modes of 80x25 alphanumericand 320x200 graphic. Retail price $105.00

$60.00*

THE m576K MEMORY +

Supports 0-576K of available memory and iscompatible with all IBM™ PC's. Retail price $66.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

Special

Wholesale

Price

$37.00*

THE "PRINTERFACE

Supports all text and graphics featuresand is fully compatible with third party

Software. Retail Price $29.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

$18.50*

THE ™ MODEMS

100% Hayes compatible

THE ™ 1200 COM EXTERNAL

This self-testing 1200 BPS modem comeswith auto answer, auto dial, auto redial anda built-in speaker. Retail Price $275.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

$129.00

THE ™1200 COM INTERNAL

Features auto answer, dial and redial, witha built-in speaker, RS 232-C serial port

and PC Talk III. Retail Price $255.00"

Special

Wholesale

Price

$119.00*

THE™2400 COM EXTERNAL

Eight times the speed of a 300 BPS unitmakes this 2400 Baud modem trulyaffordable, and we've made it trulycompatible. With auto answer, auto dial,auto redial, and a built-in speaker with

Volume control. Retail Price $519.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

$277.00*

THE™H720 MONO

This monochrome graphics card withprinter port features 100% IBM™andHercules™ compatibility, at a fraction of

their prices. Retail Price $155.00

$73.00*

Special

Wholesale

Price

Special

Wholesale

Price

*AII Items Subject to Availability—Members Pay8% Over Wholesale Prices Plus Shipping

$269.00*

Thompson, Harriman and Edwards Computer

THE™20MB HARD DISK

Featuring a formatted 20MB halfheight IBM™PC compatible internaldisk drive, controller card, connectingcables and installation manual.

Retail Price $675.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

$395.00

THE™MULTII/0

Feature for feature, THE™matchesthe AST™ I/O + and comes up a winner,with serial/parallel and game portsstandard, (a second serial portoptional), a clock/calendar, RAMdiskand print spooler. Retail Price $110.00

$60.00*

THE™2MB RAM

This Intel ™ spec board will give you up to2MB's of expanded memory. Enough torun memory intensive software such asFramework, Symphony and Microsoft™

Windows. Retail Price $225.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

$129.00*

THE™EGA PLUS

With 256K and parallel port is ideal forhigh resolution graphics display ofMicrosoft Windows, ™ AutoCAD, ™ andother graphic software. IBM™EGA

Compatible. Retail Price $485.00

THE

TM

Thompson, Harriman and EdwardsComputer Products Company Ltd.

THE ™ PC + COMPUTER

THE™ + is compatible with all business,

professional and personal software written

for the IBM™PC. It will also enhance

your productivity with its ability to switch to

an 8 megahertz clock rate, enabling you to

run your software twice as fast as the

IBM™PC. THE™PC + also comes

standard with an "AT" style keyboard,

correcting the inefficiencies found by

IBM ™ on their regular PC keyboard.

640K standard on the mother board will

allow you to run memory intensive

programs such as Lotus 1-2-3, DBase III

and Framework without adding extra

memory cards. Plenty of power,

with a 135 Watt source and

lots of room for expansion

with 8 card slots is also

standard. Base unit

includes: 640K RAM,

Computer with

One 360K 5Va' Floppy

Drive, Dual Turbo Clock

Speed, 8 Expansion

Slots, 135 Watt Power

Supply, "AT" Style

Keyboard, Full

1 Year Warranty

and 45 Day

Money Back

Guarantee!

Retail Price S829.00

Special

Wholesale

Price

THE MOST INCREDIBLELIMITED TIME OFFER INCOMPUTER HISTORY, FROMTHE™and PC NETWORK...

THE

IM

i i

$469.00*

MTHEproductsin thisspecialsaleare

offered Jthru

PC Network

*AI1 prices in this ad are wholesale—PC NetworkMembers pay wholesale + 8% and shipping.

CALL TOLL FREE B376

(800) 621-SAVE

In Illinois (312) 280-0002

IHMHMA

tii r

1" f I' II" I I I

640KRAM,

IBM™ PCcompatible,

360K 5.25"Disk Drive,

Turbo Speed,"iff" StyleKeyboard

Special Wholesale Price

$469

Products Company Ltd.

TM - R«glit««dTr»ii«iu«r*« of IBM/ftST R«M»tch/Mlcro«oft/HercaIe«/H«Ye»

Dealer Inquiries Call THE™at (312) 642-9626319 West Ontario Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610

NETWORK

BUY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE AT WHOLESALE + 8%,AND GET 14-30 DAY SOFTWARE RENTALS*...

Listed below are just a few of the over 30,000 products available at our EVERYDAY LOW PRICES!The Network carries products for Apple, IBM, CP/M and most other popular computer families.

GAMES & EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

(Please ndd St shipping and handlingWholesale

Arrays Home Accountant-Mac Only S65.00*

Axlon Art Portfolio & Card Shoppe 31.00"

Bluochlp Baion'Millionaire/Tycoon 19.75*

Broderbund Lode Runner 17.25

Broderbund Choplifter 17.00*

Broderbund Print Shop 24.75"

Broderbund Dazzle Draw 31.97"

CBS Maslenng the GRE 53.50*

CBS Murder by the Dozen 20.97"

CBS Goren Bridge Made Easy 45.00"

Counterpoint The News Room 26.97*

Davidson Speed Reader II 31.00"

Davidson Math Blaster 21.50'

Davidson Word Attack! 21.50*

1st Byte Smooth Talker-Mac Only 44.00*Hayden DaVinci-House/lnlenors/Landscapes 24.75*

Hayden Sargon III 24.75*

Infocom Deadline or Suspended 24.00*

Inlocom Enchanter. Planettall. 19.75'

Cutthroats, Witness or Zork I

Inlocom Hitchhiker's Guide or Seastalker 19.75*

Infocom Suspect. Sorcerer or Intidel 21.75"

Infocom Zork II or III 21.75*

Layered Front Desk-Mac Only 65.00"

Mirage Concepts Trivia 21.00*

FOR YOUR APPLE // & MACINTOSH

for each title ordered from below.)

WholesaleMiles Computing Mac Attack-Mac OnlyPalatlr Mac Type-Mac OnlyPenguin Graphics MagicianPenguin Pensate or XyphusPenguin Transylvania-Mac OnlyProfessional Software Trivia FeverPryorlty Software Forbidden QuestScarborough Master TypeScarborough Run for the MoneySimon & Schustor Typing Tutor IIISir-Tech WizardrySir-Tech Knight of DiamondsSir-Tech Rescue Raiders

23.50"28.97*20.00*20.00"19.00'21.00*19.75'26.00*28.25*17.25*18.97*18,97"

Subloglc Night Mission PinballSublogic Flight Simulator II►Spinnaker Alphabet Zoo, Face Maker,Kinder Comp, Hey Diddle Diddle,Rhymes & Riddles. Story Machine►■Spinnaker The Most Amazing Thing►Spinnaker Delia DrawingT/Maker Click Ad-Mac OnlyWarner Desk OrganizerVide*. Fun Peck-Mac OnlyVldex Mac Checkers & ReversalVirtual Comblnatlcs Micro Cookbook

BUSINESS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II & MACINTOSH

(Please add $2.50 shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

19.25"27.25"15.25*

20.77*20.75"25.00"65.00*19.25*25.17"17.50*

►Apple Apple Works

Borland International Turbo Pascal

BPI GL. AP. AR. PR or INV

Broderbund Bank Street Writer

Central Point Copy II Plus or Copy II Mac

Funk Software Sideways

Funsott Macasm

Haba Habadex

Haba Quartet

Harvard Mac Manager

Human Edge Mind Prober► Human Edge Sales Edge

Human Edge Communication Edge►Living Videotext TlMnk-Tbank-Mac Too'

Main Street Filer-Mac Only►MECA M.viagmq your Money

S160.00" ►Microsoft Word lor Macrntosh S102.00"

30.00* ►Microsoft File lo'Macintosh 102.00"

190.00* ►Microsoft Multiplan lor Macintosh 102.00"

37.25' Microsoft Basic for Macintosh 79.00"

Microsoft Chart lor Macintosh 66.00"

Monogram Dollars S Sense lor Apple II 55.00'

Monogram Dollars S Sense for Macintosh 70.00'

Odesta Helix for Macintosh Reg's 512K 200.00'

Provue Overyue-Mac Only 130.00"

Sensible Software Sensible Speller IV 67.50'

Softcraft Fancy Fonts 109.00"

Softech Microsystems UCSD Pascal 37.00"

Software Arts TK Solver' lor Mac 134.00'Software Publishing PFS: File. Write, or Graph 63.50*

16.25*26.50*60.00*40.00"97.00"29.95"22.00'110.00'98.00"65.00"67.00*87.50"

Stoneware DB Master-Mac Too!Teloa Filevision for Mac

DISK DRIVES

Alps AP- 10QA Dual Apple Drives in

One CaseApple MAC 400KB External DriveCorvus 5 5W0 Hard DrivelOmegs Macnoulh 5MG Removable

Drive tor MacintoshMicro Sci A? 143KB Drive

Jusl like Apple's OwnMicro Sci Floppy Controller

► Paradise Mac 10MB Hard DriveSubsystem

► Paradise Mac COMB Hard Drive

Subsystem►PC Network 140K External Drivelot Apple lieBana Elite 1163K DriveTecmar 5MB Removable Drive for MACTecmar lOMBMACDnveTecmar 5MB MAC Drive Upgrade

HARDWARE FOR YOUR APPLE // & MACINTOSH

(Please add shipping and handling charges found in italics next to price.)

MODEMS

WholesaleS309.00* (7 00)

349.95* (7 50)

939.00" (20281

1.250.00* (27.001

Wholesale$125.00* (2 SO)

55.00' (2.50)569.00' (12.29)

Hayes Micromodem lie w/Smartcom

Novation npp'e Cat II 174.45'

Prometheus 1200 A 276.00'

LoivCosI 1200 Baud Internal Mnrfem tor Apple IIPrometheus Promodem 1200 299.00'

wl Mac PackZoom Zoom/Modem He 95.00'

Micromodem Compatible-Free Dow Jones

95.00' (2 SOI

ACCESSORIES

Apple Macintosh Carrying Case $69.00'

Apple Macintosh Security Kit 29.00'

Apple Macintosh Numeric Keypad 69.00"

Hayes Mach III Joystick 26.50*w/Fire Button for He

225.00" (500)

999.00' 121 S8) Kensington Dust Cover lor MAC999.00" (21 58) or ImageWriter1,235.00" (26.681 Kensington Starter PackBOARDS AND BUFFERS Kensington Surge Protector

Kensington System Saver FanKoala MacVisionKoala Koalapad Touch TabletM&R Sup-R-Mod RF Modulation

49.00"29.50*

(3 50)16 00)

(1.49)(1.50)(2.50)(1501

(3.00)(2.50)

ALS Z-Engme

$115.00"

(2.50)

AST" Mulli IIO-2 serial/Clock

155.00*

(2.50)

Microsoft Premium SoUcardlle

243.67"

(2 50)

Microtek Dumplmg'GX

55.00*

(2 50)

Orange Micro Grappler+

66.00"

(2 50)

Orange Micro Serial Grappler

66.00"

(2 50)

PC Network Z80 Card

35.00"

(2.50)

Quadra m APIC/G Graphics Interlace

62.00"

(250)

Quadram eP.AM-80

88.00*

(2 50)

Quadram Mullicore-1 Parallel/1 Senall

140.00*

(2.50)

Clock Expandable (o 256K

Thunderware Thunderclock

104.00"

(2 50)

56.97* /7.50V

150.00' (300)

78.00* (1.50)

44.00" (150)

PC Network Cooling Fan with Surge 25.00* (2.50)

Protector & Dual Outlets

PC Network SSDD Diskettes (Box of W) 7.95* (1.00)

PC Network Macintosh Diskettes 15.95* (1 50)Includes Free Flip & File Case

These Diskettes are Guaranteed tor Life! No Generics'

Sony Mac Diskettes (Box of 10) 19.00* (f.5f?J

GAMES & EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add SI shipping and handling tor each title ordered from below.)

Wholesale

ATI Intro to PC DOS Vol. I S II $23.00*

ATI Intro to BASIC 23.00*

Blucbush IChess (Your Toughest Opponent) 34.00"

Bluechlp Millionaire/Oil Baron or Tycoon 19.75*

Broderbund Lode Runner 17.25*

CBS Goren Bridge Made Easy 40.00'

CBS Mastering the SAT 50.00"

CDEX Training lor Wordstar 37.25*

Comprehensive Intro to Personal Computing 26.50*

Davidson Math Blaster. Word Attack! 21.50*

Davidson Speed Reader II 31.00'

Hayden Sargon III 24.00'

Individual Professor DOS 29,75'

Individual The Instructor 24.50'

► Infocom Zork lor Witness 19.75'

►Infocom Deadline or Suspended

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Mouse Systems PC Paint—Turn your PCInto A Color Macintosh!

Scarborough Master Type

Sierra On-Line Crossfire

Sierra On-Llne Kings Quest II

Spectrum Hoiobyte GATO►Spinnaker Alpharjet Zoo Kinder Comp.

Slo'y Machine, Face Maker Hey Diddle. LRhymes & Riddles►Spinnaker Delia Drawing► Spinnaker Most Amazing Thing

Subloglc Night Mission Pinball

Virtual Comblnatlcs Micro Cookbook

BUSINESS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add $2.50 shipping and handling tor each title ordered from below.)

►AshtonTate DBase III $345.00'

►AshtonTate Framework II 365.00"

Borland Turbo Pascal 30,00'

Borland SideKick (Protected) 24.50"

Borland SuperKey 29.75*

BPI G'L,A/RorA/P 262.00*

BPI Aura 262.00*

BPI Personal Accounting 43.75*

Breakthrough Timeline 230.00*

►Central Polnl Copy II PC 20.00"Conceptual Instruments Desk Organizer 157.00*

Digital Research DR Logo 75.00'

Digital Research Gem Desktop 25.00'

Digital Research Gem Draw 73.00*

Enertronlcs Energraphics 143.00'

Funk Software Sideways 32.00'

►Harvard Harvard Project Manager 175.00*

Harvard Total Project Manager 225.00'

► Hayes Smnrtcnm It-New VTW0 Emulator 68.00'

► Human Edge The Management Edge 22.00'

► Human Edge Mma Prober 22.00*

Infocom Cornerstone 65.00*

Lifelree VoJkstwt'er III 126.50*

► Lotus Development Lotus 1-2-3 285.00'MDBS Knowledgeman/2 229.00'

MicroPro Wordstar 2000

MicroPro Wordstar 2000 +

Microfilm RBase 5000

Microsoft C Compiler

Microsoft Word—Latest Version 2.0

Microsoft Multiplan

Microsoft Mouse

Monogram Dollars & Sense► Mulllmate Mullimale (Latest Version)

Norton Nodon Utilities 3 1

Oasis The Word Plus

Open Systems PO SalesAjR INV GL A'P Team Mgr

Power Base Power Base

Real World G/L A'P A'R or OEINV

Rosesoft ProKey Version 3

Ryan McFarland RM COBOL (Dev. System)►Samna Samna ill Word Processor►Samna Word +►Satellite Software Word Periect

Softcraft Fancy Fonts

Software Publishing PFSFtle. Wrile.Graph

Software Publishing PFSQsport

Sorcim Supercalc III

Xanaro Ability

$24.00"27.00*59.95"

19.75*18.00*24.75*18.00"15.25*

20.75*20.77*19.25*21.00*

2 09.00'

250.00'

285.00*

205.00*

202.00*

102.00*

107.00"

85.00*

180.00"

43.00*

75.00*

ea. 275.00*

1 55.00*

ea. 35 0.00*

65.00*

520.00"

207,75*

320.00'

180.00"

125.00"

68.00"

64.00'

169.00"

247.50*

HARDWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add shipping and handling charges found in italics next to price.)

DISK DRIVES wholesale MODEMS

lOmega Bernoulli Box $2,100.00"

Dual 10MB Drives

► PC Network 10MB INTERNAL 1 2 340.00"

Hoiqht Autoboot Drrve Now lower pricePC Network 10MB Tape Backup 395.00*

Same uml used in Compaq's DaskPro!PC Network^ T42MBInternal Hard Disk 1,050.00'

35MS Access Time-Comes CompletePC Network 20M5 Tape Backup 495.00*

Halt Height Internal w/controllerPC Nolwork20MB Internal 1/2 Height 395.00*

Hard Drive-By Seaqate or Microscience

► PC Network Hall Height DSDD Drives 85.00"►Tandon rM'CO^Ful/Heign'DS.ODDni-es 120.00"

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

(45 36)(734)(8.94)(24.95)(10.69)(9.48)

Wholesale

THE Internal 1200BPS Modem 119.00* (2.50)

Low Cost Shod Slot Hayes Compatible Modem

Hayes Smartmodem T200e win New 305.00* (2 50)

Smartcom IIIVT100 Emulator

Hayes Smartmodem 12Q0B Alone 265.00" (2 50)

Prometheus Promodem I200B Internal 225.00* (2 50)

Apparat AT Ram Expansion Card►AST* SixPakPlus ' With 64k

AST-I/O Plus II"

AST" Advantage lor AV

Everex Maoic Card/64K► THE 576K Memory Board w/OK

THE Multi-384 Board

A clone of the AST's ■ SixPakPlus.''Includes up to 3B4Kb ot expansionmemory. I serial, l parallel, Igameporl. a clock/calendar andsoftware standard► I HI-: Mum I O Plus I) CloneSer/PartGamelClock standard

Quadram Improved Quadboard w/OK

Quadram Quad Sprint Turbo Board

Tecmar Captain Multifunction Card wiOK

S139.00*195.00"120.00"355.00*160.00'37.00"72.00"

170.00*360.00"146.00*

(2 50)

12 50)(2 50)(2 50)(2 50)(2 50)(1.10)

(2 50)(250)(2 50,

VIDEO CARDS

HerculeB Color Card w'Parallel Pert $142.00' (2.50)

►■Hercules Monochrome Graphics Card 263.00' \2 50)

ParadlsB Modular Graphics Card 219.00* (2.50)

► THE EGA Clone 269.00* (2 50)

► THE H720Mono Card Clone 73.00' 1^50)

100% Hayes Compatible'

► THE Color Card 60.00* t2 50)Persyst BOB Card Ultra High Res Color 299.00* (2 50)Quadram Quad EGA + Enhanced 340.00' (2 50)

Graphics Adapter►STB Graohix Plus II 199.00* f? SO)

ACCESSORIES

► Brand Name DS/DD Diskettes S 8.95" (100)

Guaranteed lor Lite! No! Generic!►-DS/DD Bulk Rate Special .59'ea.

Packaged m 50 with sleeves and labels

Guaranteed tor Life!►PC Network Replacement 130 Walt 79.00* (5 00)

IBM-PC Power Supply-Gives your PC the same

Capacity as an XT Good lor add in Tape Drives

(without need lor a piggyback unit) and large

caoac\lv disk dnves.SMAPCDocumate:KeyboardTemplales 9.99*ea (1.00)

for Lotus/DBase/lvfuItimate and others

MEMORY CHIPS

►64K Memory Upgrade Krts 19 Ctiipsi $9.00" I * 00)

Quantity Discounts Available'

►64K Dynamic Ham Chips (Each) 1.00* (I 00)

►256K DynamicHam Chips tEactii 2.90* (I 00)

► 128K IBM AT Piggyback Chips (L.iclil 5.50' (I 00)

EXTERNAL MODEMS

Anchor Signalman Express $205.00" (5.00)

Hayes Smartmodem 300 125.00* (5.00)

Hayes Smartmodem 1200 340.00* (5.00;

Hayes Smartmodem 12O0B 305.00* (2.50)

with new Smadcom II VT 100 Emulator

Hayes Smartmodem 1200B Alone 265.00' (2.50,1

► Hayes Smartmodem 2400 525.00' (5.00)PC Network Internal 1200BPS 119.00' (2.50J

w/Bitcom Software. Short Slot Hayes CompatiblePrometheus Promodem 1200 247.00' (6.00)

External 100% Hayes Compatible

► U.S. Robotics Courier 2400BPS 395.00* (5.00)

► U.S. Robotics Password 1200BPS 195.00* (4.00)

MONITORS

Wholesale

Amdek Video 300G Composite Green $110.00' (3.00)

Amdek Video 300A Composite Amber 120.00* (3.00)

Amdek Video 31OA IBM Type Amber 130.00" (3.00)

Amdek Color 300 NEW! Composite 215.00* (4.64)

Amdek Color 600 NEW! High Res RGB 365.00* (7.88)

Amdek Color 722 Graphics Monitor 440.00" (9.29)

► Magnovox 12"TTL IBM Type Amber 79.00* (5.00)

A great looking performing monochrome

Princeton HX-12 RGB Monitor 399.00' (8.60)

Princeton MAX-i2e 132.00* (500)

Works with Color or Mono Card

Quadram Quadchrome II 289.00' (6.24)

640x200 RGB w/l4~ Screen/

Black, Phosphor Mask/IBM Case

Taxan 630 High Res RGB Monitor 383.00' (8.27)

Taxan 640 Highest Res (740x400) 439.00" (10.69)

Currently Available—Works with Persyst

BOB Card & the AT&T Computer

Zenllh ZVM 1230A Green 81.00" (2.S0)

High Res/Non Glare

Apple Macintosh Base SysiemsAT&T 6300 PC CPU2

I28K/2 Floppy/1 Serial/1 ParallelAT&T 7300 Unix PC

10MB Hart Disk/1 Floppy/S12KCOMPAQ DcskPro/Tape Backup System 1,940.00' f63 70)

W/W0AV / Floppy/ 10MB Hard Disk/

10MB Tape Drive/Monitor

COMPLETE SYSTEMS

Wholesale Wholesale

CALL ►COMPAQ Hard Disk Portable S1.999.00' (43 18)

S1.610.0O* (34 78) 10MB Hard Disk'Floppy)256K

► IBM PC Base System 2DSDD.'FDC/256K 1.159.00* t30 78)

3.699.00" (79.90; ►IBMPCPro/essiona'HardO'S* 1,499.00' (369H

IBM PC/AT Base System-1 2MB 2.B75.00* ,60 37)

F!oppy/256KIBM AT Professional System CALL

1 2MB Floppy!20MB Hard Disk/1 Sen 1 Par/512K

PRINTERS

TERMS* CONDITIONS

'PC NETWORK-Members pay just 6% above the wholesale price, plus shipping. All prices relied a 3% cash discounlMinimum shipping S2.50 per order International orders call for shipping & handling charges. Money Orders, personaland company checksplease allow 10 working days to clear All prices subject lo change without notice*t RENT BEFORE YOU BUY-Members are eligible lo join the NETWORK'S Business and Game software Renlfll Librariesand evaluate products lor a lull 14 (Regular) or 30 (VIP) days lo see ItII meets your needs And The NETWORK'S rentalchargesare far less than other software renlal services-JusI 20% OF THE MEMBER WHOLESALE PRICE. Rental titlesavailable in IBM/Apple/MAC and CP/M Formats. Hardware prices highltled by > reflect recent maior price reductions.

►Citizen MSP-10 rV£W S265.00" (5 72)

l60CPS/80COLiFnc * Irac►Citizen MS'! IS NEW! 350.00* (7 56)

IGOCPS/ 132COLIFnc • Trac►Citizen MSn-20 "JEW 350.00* (7 56)

200CPSI80COL/Fnc ■ Trar.►Cilizen MSP25 NEW 499.00' 11076)

200CPSI132COL/Fnc * Trac►Citizen Prvmiew 35 NEW 385.00' (8 32)

35CPSDaiseywheel/l32COL/Fnc * Trac►Epson L X-eo I00CPS 80COI10 Mode 199.00" (4 30)

New Mode'!'►Epson M-dS 299.00* (6 46)

►Epson FX2HC NEW 459.00* I99U

Epson LQ1000 NEW! 180CPS/60CPSNLQ CALLEpson SQ2000 NEW Inkjet Printer 1.359.00* (29.35;

fOfiCPS tO Model 176CPS Draff/ 132COLEpsonDX-3535CPS 569.00' (1229)

Letter Quality Printer►NEC 20 JO 2QCPS LO Parallel 5 70.00* II 'J 00)

► NEC -?05fl 20CPS Letter Quality Printer 5 70.00* (13 00)

►NEC 353033CPSLOParallel S 690.00* f"9 'Si

►NEC 3550 33CPS Letter Quality Printer 690.00* II7 87)

►NEC 8650 55CPS Printer 995.00* (28 73)

►NEC Pmwnter 2 New' Color Dot Matrix 599,00* (12 94)

Okidala ML 182 New 120CPSILQ CALL

Model Fnc/IBM Graphics i more

Okidata ML 192 New Sleek Design/ CALL

160CPS/LQ Mode/Fnc/IBM Graphics

Okidata Cotor 20 BOCPSI100 • CALLColorslLQ Mode/IBM Graphics/ 4 More(Requires Intedace)

Okidata IBM Intedace for Okimate CALL

Cotor 20

Okidata ML84P200CPS 132COL CALL

Okidata ML93P 160CPS Wide Platen CALL

Okidata 241 OP Pacemark 350COL CALL

QumeSprm< 11/40 40CPS Letter Quality 1.155.00" (24 00)

Star Micronics Power type IflCPS 300.00' (6 48)

Toshiba P1340 80COL1144CPS 430.00* (9 29)

Toshiba P34INew!210CPS/132COL 699,00" (f5.09)

Toshiba P351 New! 288CPS' 132COL 926.00* (2106)

Copyright C 1985. PC NETWORK, INC.

Prices subject to change without notice.

COMPLETE SYSTEMS

(Optional local warranty service available in most major metro areas)

NETWORK

IBM PC BASESYSTEM

IBM PC W/256K

Floppy Drive Controller

2 Double Sided Double

Density Disk Drives

Mix and Match with

your Favorite Monitor

and Printer!

$1,159.00*

CUSTOM

CONFIGURATIONS

WELCOME

Iff

PI

IBM PC

HARD DISK SYSTEM

IBM PC W/256KFloppy Drive Controller1 Double Sided Double

Density Disk DriveHalf Height Hard Disk

$1,499.00'

CALL FORLATEST IBM

ANNOUNCEMENTS

PORTABLEHARD DISK SYSTEM

256K/1 Floppy/Hard Disk

DESKPRO SYSTEM

256K CPU/1 Floppy/Hard Disk

comma

$1,999.00'

W/20MB

call for 10MB

APPLE lie

$1,940.00*$2,025.00*

W/10MBW/20MB

MAIm sv

Pri

;intosh

STEMS

■

64K IBM PC MEMORY EXPANSION KITSQuantity Discounts Available.

Guaranteed for Lifei j^ /&

£ £ w w &

4t* * *

$9.00*

Set of9 Chips

•ISKETTES

Guaranteed for Life!

Brand name diskettesavailable in boxes of 10of in bulk packs of 50

5V4"DS/DD

$8,952/

Bx. 10/Bx. 50

3V2"SS/DD

Bx. 10

$15.95*

Free Flip& File Case

1/2 HEIGHT DS/DDDISK DRIVES

The Network buys direct

and makes fantastic deals

with manufacturers tike MPI/

Tandon/CDC/Shugart/Qume/

TEAC and others to bring you

fantastic priceson Name

Brand drives for your PC/AT/

XT/jr/or Compatible.

$85.00*

Quantity Discounts Available

$280.00*

■^0

INTERNAL PC HARD DISK

Low Power/Automatic Boot. Works on standard PC's

and Compatibles. Includes drive/conlroller/cables/

mounting hardware and instructions.

Full one year warranty!10MB

%>

$340.00*

20MB

$395.00*

Quantity Discount Available

WordPerfect

$180.00*

MultiMate"

ea.

SEE WHY OVER 150,000 HAVE JOINEDMAKING US THE NATION'S #1 SOURCEFOR EVERYTHING IN COMPUTING

• Our 600 Page Wholesale Catalog

Over 30,000 products priced at Wholesale + 8%. Anythingyou will ever need at a Consistent low price...

• Quarterly Catalog Updates

Your Catalog is never obsolete! Keep on top of the newestproducts and latest price changes.

• The Printout

Our newsletter gives you fantastic specials alog withunbiased analysis of new products and industry trends.

• 10 Day Returns on any Hardware!!

If you don't like any hardware product—for any reason—return it for a refund.

• 1000 + Title Rental Library

14 to 30 day rentals on over 1000 different titles.Try before you buy!!

• Size, Strength and Stability

The Network has over 150 employees, 45,00 squarefeet of office and warehouse space, inventory valued inexcess of $15,000,000 and is ranked the largest computerproduct supplier in the nation! Our commitment is to serveour customers and our 90% repeat business rate is proof!!

• OnLine™Bulletin Board

Download "Freeware" from the nation's largest singleconcentration of Public Domain software available! Get tiedinto the nation's largest technical information network! Placeorders, get tech support or contact customer service from theNetwork's OnLine, '"not just a bulletin board but a completecustomer information network.

'Members pay 8% above this wholesale price plus shipping.CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-621 -S-A-V-E („£&«*.)

In Illinois call (312) 280-0002 Validation code: B366

Customer Service and Order Status (312) 280-1567

TM&R-Registered trademarks of IBM/COMPAQ/APPLE/AST Research/LOTUS/Multimatelnt./IOMEGA. Inquiry 2 58

Y(

mp y<

m ki

CALL TOLL FREE1-800-621-S-A-V-E

(Orders—Membership and Advice!)In Illinois call (312) 280-0002Your Membership Validation Number B366You can validate your membership number and. if you wishplace your first money-saving order over the phone by usingyour VISA, MASTERCARD or AMERICAN EXPRESS. Ourknowledgeable sales consultants are on duty Mon.-Fri. 8:00AM to 7:00 PM, SAT. 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM CST.PERSONAL COMPUTER NETWORKA 320 West Ohio

• Chicago, Illinois 60610 "

Call now.. .Join the PC NETWORK and start saving todayCustomer Service and Order Status (312) 280-15678:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Mon.-Fri. CST

PC NETWORK • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

YES! Please enroll me as a member in the PC Network" and send mycatalog featuring thousands of computer products, all at just 8% aboveDEALER WHOLESALE PRICES. I will also periodically receive "THEPRINTOUT" a special up-date on merchandise at prices BELOW eventhose in my wholesale catalog, and all the other exclusive, money-saving services available to Members. oee

I am under no obligation to buy anything. My complete satisfaction isguaranteed. Please check (•*) all boxes that apply:

Basic Membership

with optional 14 Day Evaluation.

D One-year membership for S8D Two-year membership for

$15 (Save $1)D Business Software EvaluationLibrary for $25 add'l. peryear—with 14-day returns

□ Games Software EvaluationLjbrary for $10 add'l. per year

□ Bill my credit card: DVISA

Special V.I.P. Membership*

with optional 30 Day Evaluation.

D One-year membership for $15

□ Two-year membership for $25(Save $5)

□ BOTH Business and GameSoftware Evaluation Libraries for $30add'l, per year—with 30 day returns*VI.Pmembers may receive

advance notice on limited quantitymerchandise specialsD MasterCard □ American Express

AccountNumber:

Exp. Date_

mo, year

□ Check or money order enclosed for $_Name_

City

State 7ip

)

My computer(s)

is: □ IBM PC D IBM-XT DIBM-AT □ Apple IIn Macintosh n Cither

Sinnatnrp

(Signature required to validate membership)

BYTE

Features

Product Description: IN THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION that leads off this month's Features section.

The Macintosh Plus Phillip Robinson introduces us to the Macintosh Plus. This enhanced Mac offers

by Phillip Robinson 85 double-sided drives, an SCSI interface, a megabyte of RAM, and a larger, faster

Programming Project: ROM, among Other welcome additions.

A Simple File-Indexing Scheme This month's Programming Project is an easy-to-implement technique for

by Bruce Webster 92 maintaining a sorted file that Bruce Webster discovered while working on a

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: mailing list program. He hopes that it will save beginning programmers time

ParTN2- BusVhases SB18° C°MPUTER' and frustration and help others improve their programming skills.

bu Steve Ciareia 107 ln tne Circuit Cellar, Steve Ciarcia concludes his project for adding an SCSI

nrvs'n interface to his single-board computer. Following up on last month's tutorial,

bu Antonio c Silvestri 117 Steve now discusses in greater detail the SCSI bus's operational characteristics:

' _ ,„,' __' the bus phases and how they are managed by the NCR 5380 chip.

Decoding MacPaint on the IBM PC _, r ., . . . '-,., . . =,. . ,. .. , . , ~ , .

bu Mark knacker 131 e Pr°grarn that Antonio Silvestri outlines in his article is designed to

eliminate long catalog searches by sorting the valid filenames in the volume

Hm-bert Curves Made'Simple anc' subordinate directories of the Apple ProDOS disk. Written in Applesoft

by Michael Ackerman. ..137 BASIC, the program provides you with extensive visual feedback as it reads,

^^—^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m^ sorts, and updates a disk.

If you are faced with the problem of transferring graphics created on a Macin-tosh to an IBM PC, you'll want to read "Decoding MacPaint on the IBM PC"by Mark Anacker. His Pascal program decodes and displays MacPaint imageson the PC, and, once you've accomplished the initial translation of the graphics,writing additional program code to manipulate the images is relatively easy,says Mark.

Looking for a less complicated way to draw a Hilbert curve, Michael Acker-man set out to write an Applesoft BASIC program that would have only onesubroutine with a single entry point. In this month's Programming Insight youcan examine his program for producing this elegant curve.

]UNE 1986

:YTE 83

Pickacard

and get $50?°

4a

Putting your money on aHerculesm Graphics Card or aHercules Color Card hasalways been a safe bet.

After all, Hercules isthe industry standard inhigh resolution graphicshardware. And we backeach of our cards with afull two-year warranty.

Which explains why we've alreadysold more than 500,000 cards to owners ofIBM® PCs, XTs, ATs and many compatibles.

But there are still some people out there whohave yet to buy a Hercules card.

So we're sweetening the pot.

Between now and August 31, when you buy aHercules Graphics Card or a Hercules Color Card

we'll send you a check for $50.00.See your local Herculesdealer. When you've made yourbest deal, ask him for one ofour rebate applications andsend it in with yourPurchaser RegistrationCard and dated salesreceipt.We'll pay off in short order.Your Hercules card, on the otherhand, will pay off for a lot longer than that.

HERCULES I ERCULESGraphicsCard Coloi Card

Hercules, Wre strong on graphics.

Trademarks/Owners: Hercules/Hercules Computer Technology; IBM/IBM. Offer valid in the United States, U.S. Territories and Canada from May 1 through August 31,1986. Rebate application, accompanied by Purchaser Registration Card and dated sales receipt must be sent to Hercules Rebate Offer, PROMARK Depot, P.O. Box 3947,Milford, CT 06461-0397 no later than September 15, 1986. Applications received after that date will not be honored. Rebate will be paid in the same currency in which thecard was purchased. Offer void where prohibited, taxed or restricted. Dealers are not eligible to claim rebate. Offer limited to one rebate per product serial number andoriginal Purchaser Registration Card. Each rebate must be applied for on an individual basis. Other application constitutes fraud. Rebate offer applies to Hercules GraphicsCard (model GB102) and Hercules Color Card (model GB200). Other Hercules products are not eligible. Allow 6-8 weeks for redemption. For additional information inthe United States call (8001 532-0600 ext. 708. In Canada call (8001 323-0601 ext. 708.

84 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 152

PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONby Phillip Robinson

The

Macintosh

Plus

It has more memory,double-sided disks,and an SCSI interface

Editor's note: The following is a BYTE prod-uct description. It is not a review. We pro-vide an advance look at this product becausewe feel that it is significant. A complete reviewwill follow in a subsequent issue.

The Macintosh introducedpersonal computer usersto technology that has nowbecome commonplace: bit-mapped displays, 3/2-inch floppydisks, and iconic desktop environ-ments. The Macintosh Plus adds wel-come double-sided drives, a mega-byte of RAM, an industry-standardSCSI interface, a numeric keypad, anda larger, faster ROM of operating sys-tem routines. The Mac Plus is alsomuch faster than the 512K Mac, part-ly because of new software routinesand partly because of the additionalRAM. One feature that the 512K Mac-intosh had—free MacWrite and Mac-Paint software—is missing from theMac Plus. Both programs are availableseparately for $125 apiece.

System Description

Most of the technical details in BYTE'sFebruary 1984 description of the orig-inal, skinny (128K-byte) Macintosh arestill apt descriptors for the Mac Plus.It is a desktop, 7.8336-MHz 68000-based microcomputer in a small-foot-print case containing a built-in 3Vi-inch floppy disk drive and a 9-inchdiagonal, bit-mapped, monochromedisplay of 512 by 342 pixels. It doesn'thave any expansion slots, and it

(continued)Phillip Robinson is a senior technical editorfor BYTE. He can be contacted at BYTE/McGraw-Hill, 951 Mariner's island Blvd..3rd Floor. San Mateo, CA 94111.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 85

MACINTOSH PLUS

doesn't have a cooling fan. It pos-sesses a number of I/O ports, a de-tachable keyboard, and a mouse.

Keyboard

At first glance, the Mac Plus keyboardlooks like a Mac keyboard with anadded numeric keypad on the right

side. But there are other changes aswell: Four cursor keys are located atthe bottom right of the alphabeticsection; there is only one Option key;the Enter key is placed with thenumeric keypad: and the Return keyis larger than on previous Macs. Otheradjustments in key size and position

IN BRIEF

Name

Macintosh Plus

Company

Apple Computer Inc.20525 Mariani Ave.Cupertino, CA 95014(408) 996-1010

Price

$2599

Microprocessor

Motorola 68000, 32-/16-bit microprocessor (32-bit internal data path and registers,16-bit external data bus) running at 7.8336 MHz

Main Memory

1 megabyte of RAM, expandable to 4 megabytes in the future128K-byte ROM containing operating system code256-byte EEPROM for user-settable parameters

Display

9-inch diagonal built-in screen that displays bit-mapped 512 by 342 pixels

Sound

Four-voice sound from 8-bit D/A conversion (22-kHz sampling rate)

Disk Memory

800K-byte 31/2-inch double-sided floppy disk drive built-in

Keyboard

Detachable 78-key typewriter-style keyboard plus numeric keypad and cursor keys;offers 2-key rollover and software mapping

Clock/Calendar

CMOS custom chip built-in with 4.5-volt battery

Ports

Two RS-232C/RS-422 serial ports with maximum speed of 230,400 bps

SCSI port capable of 320K-byte-per-second communications

Mouse port (for mechanical mouse)

External disk port

Synchronous serial keyboard port

Loudspeaker jack

Optional Peripherals

800K-byte 31/2-inch double-sided floppy disk drive

Imagewriter dot-matrix printer

Apple Modem 1200 (300/1200-bps modem)

Hard Disk 20, 20-megabyte hard-disk drive (operates through serial port)

Bundled Software

System tools

are minor. Incidentally the cursor keysaren't recognized by all applicationsor even by the Mac's own desktop.

RAM

The Macintosh Plus has two main cir-cuit boards, analog and digital. Al-though the analog board is littlechanged from the 512K Mac design,the digital board has been thoroughlymodified. It is still designed aroundthe 68000 CPU, but it has more RAMand more ROM—both socketed—thanprevious Macintoshes.

One full megabyte of RAM sits onthe Macintosh Plus digital board. Thismemory takes up less space and con-sumes less power than the 512 K. in theFat Mac. Apple's engineers accom-plished this by employing four CMOSSIMMs (single in-line memory mod-ules), each of which holds 2 56K bytesin eight 2 56K-bit CMOS dynamicRAMs. These RAM chips are enclosedin surface-mount packages and thensoldered onto tiny PC (printed circuit)boards.

The RAMs most of us are familiarwith are packaged in DIP cases.Surface-mount packages are smaller,so more chips can be squeezed intoless PC board space. They are called"surface-mount" because the legsdon't have to stick through a PC boardto be soldered on the opposite side(as DIPs are). Instead, the legs foldover and contact the same side thechip packages sit on. For the MacPlus, these packages are soldered on-to four small boards that insert at anangle—and overlap—into special sock-ets on the Mac Plus digital board.

When l-megabit surface-mountCMOS DRAMs are available, it will berelatively easy for manufacturers tocreate SIMM strips that hold a fullmegabyte. Such strips could replacethe current Mac Plus SIMMs to up-grade the system to 2 or 4 megabytesof RAM. Applications that followApple's design rules can use all of theadditional RAM.

ROM

With 128K bytes of ROM code, theMacintosh Plus has twice what the128K and 512K Macs had. The old64K-byte ROM contained equal parts

(continued)

86 BYTE • IUNE I?

gest sellingps modemDt smaller

i

U986 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.

.ory or networking. Or, ifer, you can continue to usenartmodem 1200B in oneslots. Hayes makes it easyidle to fit your needs,rere are many good reasons forising Hayes. Our new spaee-Lg Smartmodem 1200B is one ofm. Hayes Smartcom II® the

best selling communica-■/are, is another.m II for the IBM and^atibles makes short work of

is to the future

communicating, while allowingyou to take full advantage of thesophisticated capabilities of yourSmartmodem 1200B. Together, theycreate a powerful, yet easy-to-use,communications system for yourPC. They're made for each other,and customized for IBM PC's.

The best reasons of all for choos-ing Hayes are the "built-in" benefits.Advanced technology. Unsurpassedreliability. And a customer serviceorganization that's second to none.

So, when you see your authorizedHayes dealer ask for the largest sell-ing 1200 bps modem. Smartmodem1200B. And remember. Now it'ssmaller, too. Hayes MicrocomputerProducts, Inc. P.O. Box 105203, Adanta,GA30348. (404) 441-1617.

Inquiry 151

MACINTOSH PLUS

of Macintosh operating system,QuickDraw graphics routines, and theUser Interface Toolbox. The 128KROM keeps trimmed and optimizedversions of those routines, adds newroutines, and holds some routinesthat used to sit in the disk system files.

QuickDraw—which draws everythingyou see on a Macintosh display—wasrewritten to be faster. New ROMdrivers were written for the double-sided disk drives and for the HardDisk 20. The operating system nowallows the Mac Plus to boot from ahard disk, a feat the previous Macin-toshes couldn't perform. And the newROM has numeric computation rou-tines: Applications aren't forced tohave their own such routines and candepend on floating-point arithmeticand transcendental functions in theROM.

The operating system shows up insome subtle environmental effects.An icon called a "zoom box" togglesa window between full-screen sizeand whatever other size it was last setto. There is also an additional choiceunder the View pull-down menu:Small Icon. This menu selection pre-serves the information about the filetype that icons provide, but it allowsmany more icons to fit onto a singledisplay.

The System file is listed as version3.0, and the Finder is version 5.1. Mostprograms should work with both oldand new ROMs, but the 128K ROM

routines are still being integrated intothe calls from applications software.

Desk Accessories

The Control Panel desk accessorycontains some new controls. The big-gest change is the addition of a RAMcache controller that lets programsload, run, and quit up to twice as fastas conventional operational methods.Frequently used routines can be readfrom disk only once and then runfrom RAM. The cache can be turnedon or off and can employ anywherefrom 32K to 768K bytes of RAM.

The Choose Printer desk accessoryis replaced by the more generalChooser that lets you select any of theserial ports or the SCSI port. TheAppleTalk network is now connectedand disconnected via the ControlPanel instead of Choose Printer.

HFS

The HFS (Hierarchical Filing System)first appeared in Finder 5.0 in the fallof 1985 with Apple's HD20 external20-megabyte hard disk drive. It is nowbuilt into the new Finder 5.1 of theMac Plus ROM.

The previous Macintosh Findersused a flat filing system (now calledMFS for Macintosh Filing System). Allfiles were listed in a single directory.Now the HFS puts files within direc-tories and subdirectories, just as MS-DOS does for many microcomputers.You move through the directories by

LaserWriter Plus

Because Apple is so interested in"desktop publishing," it was nosurprise that the Mac Plus wasn't theonly enhanced product introduced in(anuary. Apple also introduced theLaserWriter Plus, an enhanced versionof the laser printer described in theFebruary 1985 product preview "TheMacintosh Office" by John Markoff andPhillip Robinson. Based on the popu-lar Canon laser engine, this printerprovides 300-dpi images from thePostScript printing codes sent by aMacintosh.The LaserWriter Plus has a full mega-

byte of ROM instead of the half-megabyte in the LaserWriter. The extraROM contains seven font families toadd to the four families harbored bythe LaserWriter. The new typefaces areAvant Garde Gothic, Bookman. Hel-vetica Narrow, New Century School-book, Palatino, Zapf Chancery, andZapf Dingbats. The LaserWriter Plus'sdriver supports the 128K Macintoshand offers downloadable fonts. TheLaserWriter Plus costs $6798. TheLaserWriter price dropped to $5999:for $799 you can buy a Font Kit thatwill upgrade the LaserWriter to the Plus.

The Mac Plus'sVh-inck floppy drivesare double-sided andcan read and write800K bytes per disk.

manipulating slightly more complexversions of the dialog boxes used byearlier Finders. You can pull down listsof the directories—shown ironically asnested folders on the Mac Plus—tosee a path list. The number of files theHFS can handle is limited only by thedisk space. Because it runs from ROMit is also faster than the MFS. Someprograms will have to be rewritten toavoid path problems with the sub-directories of HFS.

The Mac Plus comes with a disk ofsystem tools that includes an Installerutility for updating the system files onyour older start-up disks.

Floppy Disk Drives

The original Mac depended on 3 fl-inch floppy disk drives, built by Sony,that recorded 400K bytes on a singleside of the disk. The Mac Plus drivesare still 3 '/2-inch Sonys, but they aredouble-sided and so can read andwrite 800K bytes per disk. They canalso read and write the single-sidedformat of the older drives. In effect, thedouble-sided disks provide more thantwice the effective space of the old400K-byte drives because much of the400K was occupied by system files.The Sony drives use a special,variable-rate rotation scheme wherethe spin of the disk depends on thetrack being accessed. The new drivesuse the same scheme but are twiceas fast as the old drives for readingand writing. The transmission speedbetween the drives and the Mac(about 500,000 bits per second)hasn't changed.

PORTS

The biggest change in ports from the512K Mac to the Mac Plus is the ad-

(continued)

YTE • IUNE 1986

The only time ourcompetitor's display can match ours.

All color monitors basically look thesame. Until you turn them on. That'swhen their true colors really show.That is, if it's a Taxan. You see, the Taxan630 RGB color monitor is so advanced,no one can match its high performance.Or its low price.

What's behind all this is the Taxan555 Super Color Graphics Board. Inter-face it with the 630 and you'll get thesuperior performance you need for allyour business applications software.Like dBASE III. Lotus 1-2-3. Wordstar.And Symphony.

With pixel resolution of 640 x 400and a .37mm dot pitch, you'll get thesharpest text and graphics you've everseen. An 0 that really looks like an 0.And colors so vivid, so true, they makethe competition look drab by compari-son. What's more, Taxan gives you a 24.75Khz horizontal scanning frequency.Compared to 1575 Khz, it's no wonderour competitors can't keep up with us.

Best of all, the Taxan 630 and 555board are compatible with the IBM PC,AT and XT, the Compaq Portable andDeskpro, and other IBM compatibles.The 630 is also compatible with AT&T6300 computers and boards.

But we didn't stop there. The Taxan630 even gives you a choice of fourtext color modes. So if your eyes aretired of looking at amber, you canswitch to green. White reverse. Or whiteon blue.

The Taxan 630 has everything youcould ever want in acolor monitor. Superiorperformance. High-resolution. And compati-bility. Plus, it won't strainyour eyes. Or your budget. Andbecause it comes from Taxan—the leader in quality, technology andinnovation—you know it's reliable.Which makes it a color monitor that'struly worth looking into.

So go see the Taxan 630 for yourself.And you'll see a display that makes theothers pale by comparison.

tU/MI :,::1S:

'■IIIIMIIM'

18005 Cortney Court, City of Industry, CA 91748(818)810-1291.

Inquiry 336 for End-Users. Inquiry 337 for DEALERS ONLY

1UNE 1986 'BYTE 89

Inquiry 360

$49

Vantex|Qc Professional

Word Processor!

MACINTOSH PLUS

EXTRA FAST • FEATURE RICH

General: Document based • Unlimiteddocument size • Integrated spelling-checker (with suggestions) using anupdatable 90.000 word dictionary •True split-screen • Flexible main-editscreen: invoke or dismiss, in anycombination, the Command Line, TabLine, text borders, and InformationLine. Change the onscreen left andright margins. • Eight sorteddirectory-list formats (with one-lettercommands to load, copy, delete, andsearch) • 30 user-settable defaults(blinking or non-blinking cursor,automatic backup, automatic timedsave, etc.) • Macros (700 keystrokesper set) • Automatic ASCII import andexport (makes (or a solid programeditor)

Entering Text: Distinction betweenparagraph and line (lines may be 255wide)* No-hassles insert mode • Bothordinary and "magic diamond" cursormovement • Automatic paragraphreform • Decimal, right-justify, andbegm-column tabs (storable indocument) • Set boldface, underline,superscript, subscript, italics, andstrike-through (unrestricted overlap)Manipulating Text: Highlighted block-mode. Move and copy (with repetition,and across split-screen), delete, sort(by number or alpha), print, and quality(bold, underline, etc.. upper-case, etc.)• Flexible column manipulations (move,copy, delete, fill) • Full backwards-forwards search-replace (case, word)singly or globally (plus specialfunctions to search for format-objects,excessive paragraph-blanks, etc.)Printing: Preview page-breaks beforeprinting (visible, scrollable, hard andsoft page-breaks) • Super-easy format-control screen (automatic storageanywhere into document ofautomatically spelled-out tormat-obiects) • Valuable format-controlfeatures include margins, justification.microiustification. single, double ortriple line spacing, rows needed";paragraph indents, padding andsplit-minimum: line headings andcentering: row numbering, selectablestrike-through and hard-blankcharacters, multiple headers andfooters with variables for page-number(Arabic, letter. Roman), document,dates and time • Full widow-orphancontrol, including tables • Controllableprint-queue • Multiple printers andports • Edit while printing • IntegratedMail Merge • Selective page print •Drivers for Epson, Diablo 630. andother popular printers Completeinstructions allow the user to createnew drivers or modify old ones.Miscellaneous: Indefinable keys •DOS-pathname support • Context-sensitive Help • word, character,keystroke counts • Balance parenthesesand brackets • Documentation fields •Document-summary utility • Wordfrequencies • Printed manual •Not copy protected

Minimum requirements: IBM PC XT/ATor true compatible, monochrome orcolor, one disk drive. 256K and DOS2.0 or 2.1 (or320KandDOS3.X)

$49.95 Introductory OfferAdd $5.50 Shipping & HandlingN.J. Residents add 6% Sales Tax

Send orders to/or callVANTEX DATA SYSTEMS

P.O. Box 507, Chatham, N.J. 07928

Call 1-800-524-2838

In New Jersey call 1-201-635-5686

The SCSI interfacecommunicates at 320Kbytes per second-about 10 times fasterthan the old serial port.

dition of the SCSI port for fast com-munications. The other ports havebeen moved around, and some havedifferent connectors. The external diskport can handle single-sided ordouble-sided floppy disk drives aswell as the HD20 hard disk drive. Theaudio jack, the mouse port, and theexternal disk drive port retain theirshape and size but have been moved.The two serial ports typically usedfor modem and printer connectionsnow employ mini DIN-8 connectorsinstead of the 9-pin D-type connectorsused before. The new circular connec-tors eat up less room—a necessitywith the addition of the large SCSIconnector.

SCSI

The 128K and 512K Macintoshesrelied upon an Apple-specific serialport that communicated at 230,400bps using the Zilog 8530 SCC (serialcommunications controller) chip.Apple hoped that the general-purpose serial port would lead to "vir-tual slots." with add-on devices at-tached to the serial port instead of in-serted within the computer. Unfor-tunately, the port just didn't haveenough speed for many peripherals,including hard disks, tape backupsystems, and scanners. So the MacPlus design team looked around fora faster, more standard interface.

SCSI is an industry-standard, paral-lel, system-level interface bus for con-necting peripherals to a variety of per-sonal computers. It descended fromthe old SASI disk drive standard tobecome ANSI X3T9.2. Many periph-erals such as hard disk drives alreadycontain SCSI interfaces. All the Macin-tosh Plus needs to use those periph-erals is the proper software drivers.

Up to seven devices can be daisy-chained to the single Mac Plus SCSIport. If any SCSI devices are attachedto the Macintosh Plus, at least one ofthem must be switched on for theMac Plus to start.

The Macintosh Plus SCSI interfaceis designed around an NCR 5380 SCSIcontroller 1C and communicates at320K bytes per second: about 10 timesfaster than the old serial port. It usesan 8-bit parallel data connection, avariety of control lines, and a parityline for error checking.

Upgrades

Apple devised a thorough upgradeprogram for those who have 128K or512K Macintoshes and want Mac Pluspower. You upgrade a system by buy-ing and installing special kits.

The first kit—$299—includes thenew 128K ROM and an internaldouble-sided disk drive. This drivereplaces the single-sided drive andis only available to be installed bycertified Apple dealers. (Externaldouble-sided floppy disk drives sellfor $499.) This kit can be installed inMacs that have third-party RAM ad-ditions, but Apple doesn't guaranteethat the upgraded Mac will be able touse all of the third-party RAM.

The second kit—$599 for 5I2KMacs and $799 for 128K and third-party-enhanced Macs—contains anew digital logic board and a newbackpanel. The board replaces theold digital board. You need the panelwith this kit because the new set ofport connectors on the Mac Plusdemands differently placed and sizedopenings.

The third so-called kit—$129—issimply the Mac Plus keyboard.

The only way to get the new ROMis to buy kit 1. And you cannot usekit 2—the digital logic board—withoutkit 1: The new digital board is built fora system with the 128K ROM and thedouble-sided internal drive.

The 512K Macintosh suggestedretail price was dropped to $1999; the128K Macintosh is no longer availablefrom Apple. For Lisa or Macintosh XLowners, from April 15 through August31,1986, you can ante up$1498andyour machine and receive a Macin-tosh Plus with an HD20. ■

90

BYTE • IUNE 1986

NOW YOU CAN CREATE PROFESSIONALPRESENTATIONS FOR LESS THAN$1.00 PER SLIDE-USING SOFTWARE YOU ALREADY KNOW.

LIKE LOTUS 1-2-3 OR SYMPHONY.

.811213[415[6L718.910

SALES BY MONTH

NORTH

20

33

30

27

25

25

SOUTH

1 5

24

23

29

1 5

20

EAST

23

16

14

^Z1

8

1 5

WEST

5

13

7 ^-^

^k H.'

3

1 1

TOTAL

o

Develop your ideas on Lotus, Microsoft Chart,WordStar or other popular software programs asyou normally would. Then put the Bell & Howell slideprinter to work, creating a professional presentationwithout leaving your desk.

The Bell & Howell Color Digital Imager1" IVworks directly with your PC like a printer. It createsenhanced slides with the software you're using,so there is nothing new to learn.

The CDI-IV produces slides for less than $1.00each and will pay for itself in a few presentations. I

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER

See a demonstration of the CDI-IV slide printer mat a dealer near you and get a free MPopcorn Desktop"* organizer f

program worth $49.95.Call now for more information.

1-800-223-5231

EXT. 59.

o

~**»%%£.Wb'

Bell&HowsllCompany. QuinlarDivl9ion,411 Amapola Avenue, Torrance,CA90 roodwhilesuppl

Corporation. WordStar is a trademark of MicroPro Internalional Corporation. Microsoft Chart fsa trademark QfMInc. Boll 8 Howell, Mil' HOWEll, and Color Digital Imager are trademarks of Bell & Howell Compm i

Inquiry 408 for End-Users.

Inquiry 409 for DEALERS ONLY.

All slides shown were created directly from the same Lotusspreadsheet using the CDI-IV and are unretouched.

Be, all right

I Lotus DevelopmentarkotC.E.O. Management.

92 B YTE • IUNE 1986

ILLUSTRATED BY E. M. SCHONGUT

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

A SIMPLE

FILE-INDEXING SCHEME

by Bruce Webster

Learn how to maintain a sorted file and alsoimprove your programming skills

This month's program-ming project is a simple,easy-to-implement tech-nique for maintaining asorted file. It's the kindof thing programmersdiscover on their own; 1did so while working on a mailing-list pro-gram some years ago. Given the largenumbers of new programmers out there,this article just might save some of you timeand frustration.

The article has a second purpose as well,again geared toward those of you who arejust getting your feet wet in programming.An excellent way to improve your program-ming skills is to study code written byothers. This exposes you to solutions—bothbig and little—that others have hit upon,new approaches you may not have thoughtof. And you can even learn from others'mistakes. I trust that the short code ex-amples in this article will help you—thoughI hope you will find few mistakes to learnfrom.

The Problem

Let's say you have an application of somesort—mailing list, database, sales informa-tion—that requires you to keep files ofrecords in a certain order. The order isbased on some portion of the record, calledthe key. The records are arranged so that

the keys are ordered. For example, if thekeys are names, they'll probably be in alpha-betical order; if they're numbers, they'll bein numerical order.

You may be wondering why keeping therecords in order is important, it has to dowith searching for a given record, and,frankly, sometimes it isn't so important. Ifthere aren't many records, you can just doa sequential search on the unsorted recordsby starting with the first record and look-ing at each until you find the one you want.Of course, you're going to have to lookthrough the entire list to discover if the oneyou want isn't there—but that's why you dothis only if the list is short.

As the number of records increases, thebenefits of keeping the records sorted alsoincrease. At the very least, sequentialsearches become, on the average, a littlefaster: If the record you're looking for isn'tin the list, you'll know that as soon as youhit a record that would normally come afterit. For example, if you were looking for"SMITH" and got to "SMYTHE," you couldend your search, since "SMITH," if it werepresent, would have already been found.

Better still, though, is using a binarysearch to find the desired record. In a

[continued)Bruce Webster is a consulting editor for BYTE. Hecan be contacted do BYTE, POB 1910, Orem, UT84057, or on BIX as bwebster.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 93

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

binary search, you jump to the mid-dle of the list you're looking at andsee if that's the record you're lookingfor. If so, you stop. Otherwise, youdivide the list in half and pick the up-per or lower half, depending uponwhether the desired key is less thanor greater than the one found. Youthen jump to the middle of that listand repeat the whole procedure. Thiscontinues until you either find the keyyou're looking for or your list hasshrunk to a length of one, in whichcase the desired key is not in the list.

The advantage of a binary search isreadily apparent. If you are searchingthrough n sorted records, a sequen-tial search will average nil com-parisons, while a binary search will re-quire, at most, n log 2. Actual numbersmean more: For a list of 1000 records,a sequential search will average about500 comparisons: a binary search willrequire, at most, 10 comparisons.

One problem with sorting your listinvolves the size of the list itself. If the

file isn't large in size, you can keep allthe records in memory, as an array ora linked list. This lets you add anddelete records, as well as keep the listsorted, with little trouble. However, ifthe list gets too big to fit in memory,you'll have to store the list out on thedisk. Since sorting usually requiresswapping items in the list around, thiscould mean a lot of disk reads andwrites. And if you're adding or delet-ing records, things can rapidly gofrom bad to worse since you mayhave to "shuffle" large numbers ofrecords to accommodate the changes.How, then, do you deal with—andkeep sorted—a large file and/or a filewith a lot of records?

The Solution

The answer is quite simple: Don't sortall the records, just the keys. To dothis, you create an index list. Eachitem in the list contains a key and itscorresponding record number. Youkeep this list sorted and in memory.

Listing 1: Global definitions and declarations.

const

IndexMax = 1000

RecCountErr = -2

NewFi IeCreated = -1

NoError = 0

RecordNotFound = 1

NoMoreRoom = 2

AlreadyExists = 3

OutOfRange = 4

type

Keytype = string[40l;FileStr = string[80J;

DataRec = record

case Boolean of

True : (NumRecs : Integer);

False : (Key : Keytype;

theRest : Whatever;

j this represents the rest of your data fields { );

end;

IndexRec = record

Key : Keytype;

Num : Integer

end;

IndexList = array[1..IndexMax] of IndexRec;

var

KList : IndexList;

DFile : file of DataRec;

MaxRec : Integer;

To find a record, you do a binarysearch on this list, then you use therecord number to read in the corre-sponding record from the disk. Youcan easily sort and update the indexlist since it's always in memory. Youaccess the disk only when you needto actually read or write a specificrecord.

There are complications. If the keyisn't much smaller than the recorditself, this approach is pointless. Forexample, each record might containjust a name and a phone number,with the name as the key. The indexlist will then be almost as large as theactual record list—in which case, yourbest bet is some research into disk-based sorts and merges and an invest-ment in a fast hard disk.

Deleting records can also causecomplications. The simple solution isto delete the entry in the index list,then delete the record in the file bymoving all the records that follow itforward by one. Of course, that meansa lot of disk I/O, especially if thedeleted record is near the start of thefile. However, since the disk file isn'tsorted, a faster approach is to copythe last record in the file into the posi-tion of the now-deleted record.

Even with this approach, anothercomplication occurs: How do youknow where the "active" records endand the "deleted" records begin? Forexample, if you have 100 records inyour file and you delete 10 of them,you will still have 100 records sittingout in your file; it's just that the last10 won't mean anything. That's not aproblem until you close the file, thenreopen it later. The difficulty is reset-ting the "end-of-file" marker. MostPascal implementations have no easyway of doing that, short of writing anew copy of the file. That will work,but if the file is very large, it will taketime and disk space. Another solutionis to set aside the first record in thefile as a "header" record and store init the number of active records; that'swhat I will use here.

The Implementation

The implementation given here isneither complex nor overly devel-oped. Most of you are going to be

(continued)

94 BYTE- |UNE 1986

"

how people with commoninterests find an interesting

Common Ground.

Presenting CompuServe Forums.Where people from all over gettogether, without even leavinghome.

Now thanks to CompuServeForums, computer owners are sharingcommon interests by talking to each otherthrough their computer keyboards. Soft-ware users, computer enthusiasts, hamoperators, trench cooks, Ore fighters,science fiction lovers and other specialinterest groups are already in touch,online.

Because when you subscribe toCompuServe, you're able to reach peoplewho want to talk about the things you do.As many people as you like. For as longas you like. Whenever you wish.

Join a conversation already in

progress or start one on your own. Askquestions. And get answers.

All it takes is a modem, most anypersonal computer and CompuServe.

Forum members across the countryare as close as a local phone call.

You can go online with just a localcall in most major metropolitan areas. Andnormal usage fees for weekday nights andweekends are just IOC a minute

Of special interest to all Forumparticipants is software that's FREEfor the taking.

Public domain software. For allsorts of activities, from games to businessprograms. And it's just as easy to copy apiece of software as it is to participate ina Forum.

Become a CompuServe subscriber andget a $25 Usage Credit to start you off.

Becoming a subscriber is as easy ascontacting your local computer dealer. Oryou can call us and order direct. Suggestedretail price is $39.95.

And if you'd want more informationabout CompuServe, we'll be happy to sendyou a free brochure. Because with all thatCompuServe offers—we think it's in yourbest interest.

CompuServe

Informalion Services, P.O. Box 20212.

5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.. Columbus, OH 43220

800-848-8199

In Ohio, call 614-457-0802An H&R Block Company

Inquiry 76

IUNE I986 -BYTE 95

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

able to take what you see here anddevelop it into what" you need. I'vewritten it in (almost) standard Pascal;the only assumptions I've made arethat a built-in procedure, Seek, existsthat moves the file pointer to a par-ticular record and that the first recordis 0; that is, Seek(DFile.O) will positionthe file pointer at the first record inthe file.

Listing 1 shows the global declara-tions—constants, data types, and vari-ables—for these routines. An arbitrarylimit (IndexMax) on the number ofrecords has been set; I'll mention afew ways around setting this limit lateron. Also, four different error codes(used in the routines) are defined.

The data types are then defined.Keytype and DataRec are whateveryou want them to be; this is, after all,your application. You can even re-name the field Key in DataRec, butif you do, you need to change onestatement in InitStuff:

KUst[lndx].Key : =TRec.new name;

Since that's the only place in theseroutines that this field is actually ref-erenced, everything else can stay thesame.

You'll notice that DataRec is avariant record. It has two sets of fieldsoccupying the same space; that is, thefield NumRecs occupies the samespace as the field Key. This is doneso that you can use the first record inthe file to keep track of the numberof active records in the file. SinceNumRecs and Key occupy the samespace, the size of each DataRecrecord is not increased by the defini-tion of NumRecs. Also, note that thefield theRest is not an actual field; Ijust put it there to represent whateverdata fields you might define for therecord.

Three global data structures are de-clared in the variable section. KList isthe list of keys and record numbers;it's an array that will be kept sortedat all times. DFile is the actual file ofrecords that are being written or read.MaxRec is the current number ofrecords being used.

File I/O routines vary betweenPascal implementations, especially

(continued)

Listing 2a: File I/O routines specific to Turbo Pascal.

JcompiIer-specific file I/O routinesthese procedures are specific to Turbo Pascal. If youare using another Pascal compiler, you will need tomodify them appropriately. Note that Turbo Pascal doesnot support the standard routines GET and PUT, but insteaduses READ and WRITE. }

j$I-{ { turn off I/O error checking }

procedure FRead(RNum : Integer; var Rec : DataRec;

var Error : Integer);j reads record #RNum into Rec }beg i n

if (RNum < 0) or (RNum > MaxRec)

then Error := OutOfRangeelse begin

Seek(DFile.RNum);Error := IOResult;if Error = NoError then beginRead(DFile.Rec);Error := IOResultend;if Error > 0

then Error := 100 + Errorendend; j of proc FRead }

procedure FWrite(RNum : Integer; Rec : DataRec;

var Error : Integer);{ writes record #RNum into Rec j

beg i n

if (RNum < 0) or (RNum > MaxRec)

then Error := OutOfRangeeIse begin

Seek(DFile.RNum);Error := IOResult;if Error = NoError then beginWrite(DFile.Rec);Error := IOResultend;i f Error > 0

then Error := 100 + Errorendend; j of proc FRead (

procedure F0pen(FiIeName : FileStr; var Error : Integer);

tries to open FileName; if it doesn't exist, createsit with the appropriate header record

\const

TurboNoFile = 1; j "no file" error code for Turbo Pascal jvar

IOCode : Integer;TRec : DataRec;beg in

Assign(DFiIe,FiIeName);Reset(DFile);IOCode := IOResult;

if IOCode = TurboNoFile then begin } file doesn't exist jFiI I Char(TRec,SizeOf(TRec),0);Rewrite(DFile);TRec.NumRecs :- 0;FWrite(0,TRec,Error);

96 BYTE • IUNE I986

Inquiry 77

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Close(DFile);

Ass ign(DFi1e,Fi1ename);

Reset(DFile);

IOCode := IOResult;

i f IOCode = NoError

then Error := NewFileCrea

ted

end;

i f IOCode <> NoError

then Error := 100 + IOCode;

end; J of proc FOpen J

procedure FCIose(var Error : In

teger);

j cIoses file }

begin

Close(DFile);

Error := IOResult;

if Error > 0

then Error := Error + 100

end; j of proc FCIose {

j$I+i \ turn on I/O error check

ing }

Listing 2b: File I/O routines specific to UCSD Pascal.

jcompiler-specific file I/O routinesthese procedures are specific to UCSD Pascal. If youare using another Pascal compiler, you will need tomodify them appropriately.

j$I-} { turn off I/O error checking \

procedure FRead(RNum : Integer; var Rec : DataRec;

vor Error : Integer);| reads record #RNum into Rec }beg i n

if (RNum < 0) or (RNum > MaxRec)

then Error := OutOfRangeeIse beg i n

Seek(DFile.RNum) ;Error := IOResult;if Error = NoError then beginGet(DFile);Error := IOResult;i f Error ■ NoErrorthen Rec := DFiIe"end;if Error <> NoError

then Error := 100 + Errorendend; j of proc FRead \

procedure FWrite(RNum : Integer; Rec : DataRec;

var Error : Integer);{ writes record #RNum into Rec }

(continued)

YCenTecIi

America's

Premium Quality

Diskettes

*> TIMELESS WARRANTY

\* Performance exceeds A.N.S J. specification by88%

\S Each disk 100% tested and certified

v* 14 COLORS for data organization

k* Pkgs.oJIO, tyvek sleeves, w/p tabs, and ID labels

SS-DD

.78.99

EA.

QTY. 10 BOXES 5.25"

.Color, 48 TPI

03

EA.

-119

EA Color, 96 TPI I EA.

High Density, Color, 1.6mb, 029

IBM AT Compatible

CenTech Bulk

Includes Tyvek sleeves, w/p tabs, ID labels

SS-DD QTY. 100 5.25" DS-DD

■ I I Color, 48 TPI yi

.00 Color, 96 TPI I

Subtract .05 per disk for black disks

America's No. 1

Name-Brand Diskettes

Free! Headcleaning Disk

S2/box rebate on H/C

V LIFETIME WARRANTY

*S High quality and consistently reliable

SS-DD QTY. 5 BOXES DS-DD

.78 5.25,48 TPI 1.08

.78 5.25,48 TPI with H/C Kit 1.08

1.49 5.25,96 TPI 1.89

1.49 3.5", 135TPI 2.14

1.85 3.5", 135 TPI w/Flip'n'File 2.39

DS-HD 96 TPI, IBM AT Compatible 2.20

3M Headcleaning Kit . _ _

Plus$2.00Rebate D.Sy

3M Data Cartridges qtv. 5 qty. 1 o

DC-100A 12.10 11.99

DC-1000 12.40 12.29

DC-300XLP 19.00 18.80

DC-600A 20.25 19.99

Affordable QualityIncredible ValueBest Prices Ever!

t* LIFETIME WARRANTY

V Factory Fresh in BOXES of 10 with sleeves, w/p

tab. ID labelsSS-DD DS-DD

.69 5.25,48 TPI, box of 10 .74 EA.

1.59 3.5", 135TPI 2.19

High Density, IBM PC-AT Compatible 2.09

MadeinU.SA,H| ! | j ' Iff NamebrandQuality^^ ^* ■" "^ at Affordable Prices

V LIFETIME WARRANTY

l> Every diskette 100% tested and certified

l* Performance exceeds A. .V.S.J. specifications by 62.5%

t> Packaged in boxes of 100 diskettes with tyvek

sleeves, w/p tabs, ID labelsSS-DD QTY. 100 DS-DD

.55 EA 5.25,48TPI 69 EA.

.69 EA 5.25.96TPI 89 EA.

High Density, IBM PC-AT Compatible 1.89

Call for our low priced ribbon and disk storage boxes

ORDERING INFORMATION

TERMS: Free use of VISA, Mastercard, and American Express.P.O. orders accepted from recognized corporations rated 3A2 orbetter, government and schools on 2%-net 30. PAYMENT: Add$3.00 per 100 diskettes or traction thereof, add $3.00 for head-cleaning kit or dozen ribbons, add $3.00 for COD orders.PRICE PROMISE: We will better any lower delivered price onthe same products and quantities advertised nationally.

Toll Free Order Line: Information Line:

1-800-233-2477

1-801-942-6717

199 Cottage AvenueSalt Lake City. Utah 84070,'Sn?PUrer Hours: 8am to 5pm

Iffairs, inc. (mm.time)

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

beg i n

if (RNum < 0) or (RNum > MaxRec)

then Error := OutOfRangeelse begin

Seek(DFile.RNum);Error := IOResult;if Error = NoError then beginDFileA := Rec;Put(DFile);Error := IOResultend;i f Error > 0

then Error := 100 + Errorendend; { of proc FRead \

procedure FOpen(FiIeName : FileStr; var Error : Integer);| tries to open FileName; if it doesn't exist, creates

it with the appropriate header record }const

UCSDNoFile = 1; j "no file" error code for UCSD Pascal \var

IOCode : Integer;TRec : DataRec;beg i n

Reset(DFile.FileName);IOCode := IOResult;

if IOCode = UCSDNoFile then begin { file doesn't exist }FiIIChar(TRec,SizeOf(TRec),Chr(0));Rewr i te(DF ile.FiIeName);TRec.NumRecs := 0;FWrite(0.TRec,Error);Close(DFile.Lock);Reset(DFile.FileName);IOCode := IOResult;i f IOCode = NoError

then Error := NewFiIeCreatedend;if IOCode <> NoError

then Error := 100 + IOCode;end; { of proc FOpen \

procedure FCIose(var Error : Integer);\ closes file }beg i n

Close(DFile.Lock);

Error := IOResult;i f Error > 0

then Error := Error + 100end; j of proc FCIose \

{$!+{ j turn on I/O error checking }

those for opening and closing files.Also, standard Pascal does not definea method for random access of files,though almost every microcomputer-based Pascal compiler does. In addi-tion, Turbo Pascal—which has thelargest installed base of compilers-does not support the standard Pascalroutines Get and Put.

Because of this, I wrote four rou-tines—FRead, FWrite, FOpen, andFCIose—to handle all the compiler-specific code. FRead lets you read aspecific record (in the range0..MaxRec) from DFile. FWrite, inmuch the same manner, lets you writeout to a specific record, again in therange 0..MaxRec. FOpen accepts a

filename and tries to open it as DFile.If the file does not exist, it creates it,writing out a header record withNumRecs = 0. Likewise, FCIosecloses DFile, All four routines returnan error code in Error, either one ofthose defined in the global constantsection or a system I/O error code. Ifthe latter is returned, an offset of 100is added so as not to confuse, say, sys-tem I/O error 1 (whatever that may be)with RecordNotFound.

Listings 2a and 2b contain workingversions of these routines for TurboPascal and UCSD Pascal, respective-ly. If you're using a different Pascalcompiler, you'll have to write yourown versions, though chances arethey'll look pretty much like theseroutines.

A quick note on record numbers.The header record is assumed to berecord 0, the first record in the file. Allthe data records are stored as records1 through MaxRec. Both Turbo Pascaland UCSD Pascal consider the firstrecord in a file to be record 0; how-ever, some Pascal compilers considerthe first record to be record 1. To ad-just for this, just add 1 to RNum inyour call to Seek in FRead andFWrite, that is, Seek(DFile,RNum + 1).If you make the change here, you canleave the rest of the program alone.

Listing 3 contains the routines I nit-Stuff and CleanUpStuff. InitStuffshould be called before doing any I/Oon a given file. You pass InitStuff thename of the file you want to workwith; it then calls FOpen and readsthrough all the records, building thelist of keys and record numbers inKList. It then calls SortlndexList (alsoin listing 3), which sorts KList using asimple selection sort algorithm.CleanUpStuff saves the currentnumber of active records in theheader record (0), then closes the fileby calling FCIose. Both routinesreturn error codes, so that your pro-gram can detect and handle any prob-lems.

Listing 4 has three key routines:FindKey, GetRecord, and PutRecord.FindKey does a binary search onKList and returns the location in KListcorresponding to the key passed toit. If no key matches, it returns -l.

{continued)

98 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry 142

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Listing 3: Initialization and cleanup routines.

procedure SortlndexList;

jsorts the array KList using a selection sort technique!

var

I.J.Min : Integer;Temp : IndexRec;begi n

for I := 1 to MaxRec-1 do beginMin := I;for J := 1+1 to MaxRec do

if KList[J].Key < KList[Min].Keythen Min := J;Temp := KList[I];KList[I] := KList[Min];KList[Min] := Tempendend; \ of proc SortIndexList }

procedure InitStuff(FiIeName : FileStr;var Error : Integer);

I

sets everything up for indexing system. This assumesthere are no more than IndexMax (=1000) records, and therecords are numbered 1..IndexMax. Record #0 is the headerrecord and is used to store the current number of recordsactively being used in the file

: Integer;: DataRec;

var

Indx.TErrTRecbeg i n

Error := NoError;FOpen(FiIeName,Error);if Error <= NoError then beginMaxRec := 0;FRead(0,TRec,TErr);Error := TErr;MaxRec := TRec.NumRecs;for Indx := 1 to MaxRec do beginFRead(Indx,TRec,TErr);if TErr > 0

then Error := TErr;KListrindxl.Key := TRec.Key;KList[IndxJ.Num := Indxend;

SortIndexListendend; j of proc InitStuff }

procedure CIeanUpStuff(var Error : Integer);

Ithis just does an orderly shutdown and should be called

before you leave your program (or open another data file)

I

var

TRec : DataRec;

beg i n

TRec.NumRecs := MaxRec; { save out # of records ]

FWrite(0,TRec,Error);

FCIose(Error)end; j of proc CleanUpStuff }

STOP

SOFTWAREPIRACY...

... with one of ournew sophisticated copyprevention products.

For Hard Disk Protection

• Fixed Disk Locker

For Disk Security

High Level Security

• PADLOCK II DISK

• SAFEGUARD DISKS

• COUPON DISKS

Low Level Security

User Installable Protection

• PC-PADLOCK

Why should your valuable dataor useful software programbecome available in thePublic Domain?

Call or write formore information.

GLENCO

ENGINEERING INC.

3920 Ridge / Arlington Hts., IL 60004(312)392-2492

lUNE I986

VTE 99

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Listing 4: Basic record-access routines.

function FindKey(Key : Keytype) : Integer;

I

looks for Key in KList; returns location in KListif found; otherwise returns - 1

var

L

R.Mid : Integer;

beq

n

L

:= 1; R := MaxRec;

repeat

Mid := (L+R) div 2;

if Key < KList[Mid].Key

then R := Mid-1

else L := Mid+1

untiI (Key = KList[Mid]

Key) or

a

> R)

i

f Key = KList[Mid].Key

then FindKey := Mid

else FindKey := -1

end

■ { of proc FindKey {

procedure GetRecord(Key : Keytype; var Rec : DataRec;var Error : Integer);

I

looks through KList for Key; if found, returns in Rec.It and the routines that follow assume the procedure Seekfor random access of the file of records.

\

var

Item : Integer;

beg i n

Error := NoError;Item := FindKey(Key);i f Item > 0

then FRead(KList[Item].Num,Rec,Error)else Error := RecordNotFoundend; { of proc GetRecord }

procedure PutRecord(Rec : DataRec; var Error : Integer);

writes Rec out to the file. If a record with thatkey already exists, then overwrites that record;otherwise, adds the record to the end of the file.If there's no more room for records, exits with anerror code

I

var

Item : Integer;begin

Error := NoError;

Item := FindKey(Rec.Key);

if Item >= 0

then FWrite(KList[Item].Num,Rec,Error)else if MaxRec < IndexMax then begin

MaxRec := MaxRec + 1;

FWr i te(MaxRec,Rec,Error);

KList[MaxRecl.Key := Rec.Key;

KList[MaxRec].Num := MaxRec;

SortlndexListend

else Error := NoMoreRoomend; \ of proc PutRecord \

The code for thisproject was writtenwith conversion toC in mind andshould be prettyeasy to port.

GetRecord calls FindKey to get therecord number and, if found, reads itin from DFile and passes it back to thecalling routine in Rec. PutRecord triesto write Rec out to DFile. It checks tosee if a record with Rec. Key alreadyexists; if so, Rec gets written out tothat position. Otherwise, if there'senough space left, it puts the recordat the end of DFile and adds the ap-propriate entry to KList (which is thenresorted). If there's no room left, Put-Record returns an error code to thecalling routine.

Listing 5 has two higher-level rou-tines: AddRecord and DeleteRecord.AddRecord won't let you overwrite anexisting record. If a matching key isfound, it returns with an error code;otherwise, it just calls PutRecord.DeleteRecord checks to make surethat a record with the requested keyexists, then it deletes that record fromDFile and from KList. The file deletionis done by copying the last record inthe file over the record being deleted.If the last record is the one beingdeleted, no movement is done. Theappropriate entry is removed fromKList, with all following entries shuf-fled forward, and MaxRec is de-creased by 1.

A note for C users: This code waswritten with conversion to C in mindand should be pretty easy to port.You'll probably use fseek() for yourrandom access, which requires a byteoffset from the start of the file.Because of this, you may want to setup KList with byte offsets instead ofrecord numbers. You can do this bychanging the assignment toKList[lndx].Num in InitStuff and

[continued)

100 B YTE • IUNE 1986

THE NEW

PRIMAGElOO "DAISYGRAPHER""

PRINTER SYSTEM!

• 100 CPS • GRAPHICS • TRUE LETTER QUALITY • EASY LOADING

Now you can get a complete printer system (printer plus a two bin cut sheet and envelope feeder)that gives you true letter quality printing at 100 CPS AND sharp, accurate bit mappedGRAPHICS. Forget about the near letter quality printers at premium prices with theirexorbitant costs of ownership, service charges and supplies.

The Primage" 100 "DAISYGRAPHER"™ Printer System is the answer! Quality, Reliability, andEasy Loading Sheet Feeders all add up to a cost effective printer system. The user friendlyPrimage™ 100 "DAISYGRAPHER" "...spirited with office automation! Engineered to endure!Call Toll Free 800-821-0066 (in New York 516-585-8200) for more information and locationof the dealer nearest you!

PRIMAGESINC.

151 Trade Zone Drive, Plaza V, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779(516) 585-8200 TELEX: 221674 FAX: (516) 585-2134

Inquiry 266

• 1986 PRIMAGES INC.

SHOWN WITH PAGEMATE® III

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 101

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Listing 5: Higher-level record-access routines.

procedure AddRecord(Rec : DataRec; var Error : Integer);

\

adds a record to the file. If a record with the samekey already exists, then exits with an error code

I

var

Item : Integer;begin

Error := NoError;

Item := FindKey(Rec.Key);

if Item > 0

then Error := AlreadyExistselse PutRecord(Rec.Error)end; { of proc AddRecord {

procedure DeIeteRecord(Key : Keytype; var Error : Integer);

deletes the record with 'Key' by copying the last recordin the file to that slot, then modifies KList by shufflingall the key entries up

I

var

Item,Last,Max,MVaI : Integer;TRec : DataRec;

beg i n

Error := NoError;Item := FindKey(Key);if Item = -1

then Error := RecordNotFoundelse begin

Max := 1; MVaI := KList[Max].Num;for Last := 2 to MaxRec do

if KList[Last].Num > MVaI then begin

Max := Last; MVa I := KList[Last].Numend;if Max <> Item then begin

FRead(MVaI,TRec,Error); J get last record in file fFWrite(KList[Item].Num,TRec,Error); j write over it }KList[Max].N'jm := KList [Item] .Numend;for Last := Item to MaxRec-1 do j delete KList[Item] }

KListfLast] := KList[Last+1];MaxRec := MaxRec - 1 j adjust # of records }

endend; { of proc DeleteRecord {

PutRecord to read

KList[lndx].Num = (Indx) *sizeof(DataRec);

Similar adjustments to the calls tofread() and fwrite() should makethings work fine.

Variations

You may chafe a little under having toset an arbitrary limit (IndexMax) onthe number of records. The main

reason for this is that Pascal does notsupport dynamic array allocation, andyou thus have to fix the size of KListat compile time. There are a few waysaround this. One is to make KList alinked list rather than an array. Youlose the speed advantage of thebinary search, each entry in the listwill take up more space (because ofpointers) than the corresponding en-try in the array, and you will need theadditional code and data-type defini-

tions to support the linked list. On theother hand, you not only get rid of thearbitrary limit, but if you have a smallnumber of records, you allocate onlyas much space for the list as needed,instead of always setting aside spacefor the entire array.

A trickier approach involves thesemodifications to the declarations:

type

IndxList = array[1.,1] of IndxRec;

IndxPtr = "IndxList;var

KList : IndxPtr;

You now create KList on the heap inthe routine InitStuff with the callNew(KList), and all references to KListare modified to show that it's now apointer, for example, KList "[Indx].This is a somewhat dirty approach todynamic array allocation and requiresseveral things. First, you must be ableto turn off range checking when in-dexing into KList; that way, your pro-gram won't bomb when you try to ref-erence any element other thanKList[1]. Second, you must notdynamically create (using New) anyother data structure after creatingKList. Third, you must somehow verifythat KList has a large enough blockof contiguous memory to meet yourneeds. As I said, this is definitely atricky approach.

Conclusions

Please note that this solution is a sim-ple one. it is not the best or thefastest, but it is one of the easiest tounderstand and implement. Onceyou've mastered it, you can always goon to explore the indexed sequential-access method, virtual sequential-access method, B-trees, M-trees, andother techniques. But most program-mers will find that this is an accept-able solution that gets rid of manyproblems without a lot of work. Moreimportant, it will give you a workingfoundation to build upon as you de-velop your own more complex solu-tions.

The listings in this article, along witha miniapplication written in TurboPascal using them, can be down-loaded from BYTEnet Listings at (617)861-9764. They are also available ondisk (see page 445). ■

102 BYTE • IUNE 1986

ACRQ

Klone for

The Closer You Look, the Better We Look!

%ijr^-tf{£rK-1

FEATURINGForeground/Background Communications

MIRROR is the mirror image of Crosstalk XVI V3.6, the industry standard in data communications software for small business computers. MIRROR'S designclosely reflects Crosstalk XVI's menus, commands and features. In fact, if you have used Crosstalk XVI before, you will feel right at home with P"™one thing you will not find reflected in MIRROR is Crosstalk XVI's $195.00 price. Because we control the reflection, MIRROR costs only $49.95.

If you are new to data communications, it makes sense to go with the Industry standard In data communications software, but why pay the industry standardprice. MIRROR lets you have the industry standard at 1/4 the price. If you or your company have already standardized on Crosstalk XVI, then consider MIRRORfor future purchases and upgrades, you'll realize significant savings, without sacrificing on quality, standardization or features.

MIRROR.IAIII5I50I5

For New Users,MIRROR Provides:

• Menu/Command Driven

• Complete Crosstalk XVIV3.6 Compatibility

• New User Script File (Ena-bles you to sign-on to yourfavorite online service inminutes)

• Auto-dial/Auto-answer

• Alphabetized Help-Com-mand Summary

• Money Saving Offers FromOnline Information Ser-

THE BIGHT DATA COMMUNICATIONSCHOICE FOR ANY USER!

For Experienced Data CommunicationsUsers, MIRROR Provides:

Complete Background Operation (concur-rent operation/memory resident)Programmable Script/Command Language(Crosstalk XVI V3.6 compatible with exten-sions)

Extended Error-checking Protocol Support(XMODEM-single, XMODEM-multi-file, Cross-talk, HAYES and KERMIT)Integrated Wordstar-like Text EditorMultipleTerminal Emulations (VT-100752, IBM3101 Televideo 912C/920/925, Tl 940, ADDSViewpoint, ADM-3A)

Enhanced Individualized Password Protec-tion

SOHKLONE

To Order Call Toll-free.

1210 East Park AvenueTallahassee, Florida 32301For Information Call:1-904-878-8564TLX: 6714280 KLON

$49.95

Site Licensing Available60 Day Money back Guarantt

Nalional: Calilornia

1-800-538-8157 1-800-672-3470

Ext. 848 Ext. 848

$49.95, plus $5.00 postage/handling($8.00 for COD orders) ea.Florida residents must add 5% sales taxOverseas orders: Add $18.00 for shipping.

DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY:

Saraguay Software Distributors121 Avenue Road, Suite 202Toronto, Ontario, M5R 2G3Ph: (416) 923-1500

■-U • U. ■ ii '

■ : ? s ;. .1

~ .O W . . „ T V O. . O. J.. ! 1 .

~ •»- » ■» ' = "

P IheworlePs -iirstmusiccomputer« now has atjnoader repertoirci

When we introduced the CX5M™computer, it was the only computer dedi-cated to compose, record and play music.

And it's still the only music com-puter with an FM digital tone generatorbuilt into it. The same kind used in ourfamous DX synthesizers. So you get full,rich, authentic instrument sounds.

Now the CX5M is back for its firstcurtain call. With a broader repertoire.

THE SOFTWARE HAS GROWN.

As you know, a computer is only aspowerful as its software. And the CX5Mstarted with some powerful software.Like the FM Voicing program, the FMComposer program, the FM MusicMacro program and the DX7™ Voicingprogram.

Now, with TeleWorC the CX5M cando words as well as music. This powerfulword processing/telecommunicationsprogram has such features as globalsearch and change, cut-and-paste texttransfer and on-screen page layout. Aswell as auto-dialer with re-dial function,computerized "phone book" with 50-entry capacity and complete adaptabilityto all 300- and 1200-baud operations.

So whatever you create with Tele-Word's word processor (or other CX5Mprograms), you can send to computersanywhere in the world.

But back to the world of music withthe new MIDI Recorder program. Withits four banks, each containing four re-cording tracks, you can use this program

MIDI Recorder program.Graphic Artist program.

compose and arrange musictime or real-time from any MIDI key-board. Edit. Then synchronize playbackthrough DX synthesizers or FM tonegenerators such as the TXZ

And if you have an RX11, RX15 orRX21 digital rhythm machine, get thenew RX Editor program.Because it makes pro-gramming easier andmore versatile.

Other new programsinclude DX21 Voicing,Keyboard Chord Master,Keyboard Chord Progres-sion and Guitar ChordMaster. Even a GraphicArtist program. As wellas second generationFM Music Composer,FM Voicing and FM MusicMacro programs. And allthe other MSX™softwarethat MSX computers likethe CX5M can run.

THE HARDWARE HAS GROWN.

But the CX5M's hardware is notabout to be overshadowed by thesoftware.

Not with such new additions as theSFG05. This module has an FM tonegenerator with 46 of its own presetvoices, an 1800-note sequencer androom for 48 user-programmed voices.

Add the SFG05 to the CX5M anduse either the YK01 or YK10 keyboardsand you've got a real-time synthesizer.Or with any MIDI keyboard, it becomesa slave module with all the rich, accuratesound of FM digital.

To increase the storage capacity ofyour CX5M, add the new FD05 orFD03 Micro Floppy Disk Drives.

Each uses 3.5-inch floppy disksfor fast access and high storagecapacity And the MSX-DISK

BASIC

language is built into the disl

drive interface cartridge.

All you need now is a printer anda mouse.

Which is why we have the PN101dot-impact printer. It doesn't need anyspecial paper to print out your letters,compositions, voice dataand other music data tohard copy

And the MU01 Mousethat you can use to movethe cursor around quicklyand execute most com-mands without having to goto the CX5M's keyboard.THE PRICE HASN^T.Yet with all this goingfor it, the basic CX5Mcomputer doesn't go forany more than it did at itsdebut.

See your YamahaProfessional Productsdealer. Or write: YamahaInternational Corporation, ProfessionalProductsDivision, P.O. Box 6600, BuenaPark, CA 90622. In Canada: YamahaCanada Music Ltd., 135 Milner Avenue,Scarborough, Ontario MIS 3R1.

©YAMAHA w

CX5M and TeleWord are registered trademarks of Yamaha International Corporation.

MSX is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

The music sheet was produced using the Graphic Artist program.

MoiiiiawiutH

1 mm mum in iimm miiiiiiiiiiv.aiiuni ii i iinnmniii i

i.,,iinxrimiinii i iniii i,i, nun i in■I mi lui nil mi inn urn linn" mh inn nil iim mi t.i, uuiMnM'r-i h :.n nt in lann iii(i.

l«t>i,ll.l«l|U.««l

iiiiih.i KHKinniiniiiimii inn mm iii.i

■ >i i.u ii mini in ... ii

:=

:Ss

-ziezt,

. m

-—•-■•(

„;., ..

tL

: ;

b ■

:p<

:::<

i i

1

■Mi

*l >

-•••

1 1

Miminn ni^iinLt ihinnn uii-ii

inuii,i„|| IfllHHIIimilllllll iiii>W.M1M* MM I IIV.il UN iiuii imi

■iuiium*mhhmiii antiif»

liMIIIIMIIIMll .

II w

«n ■<«

A THOUSAND JOBS ARE RIDING ON THISPRESENTATION. AND THE

PRESENTATION IS RIDING ON YOU.

You've analyzed the research. You'veagonized the numbers. And plugged inevery "what if" scenario ever invented.Now all you have to do is convince thepowers that be that you're right.

So it's all down to you. And how wellyou present it.

That's where we can help. We'reOKIDATA. And we're introducingthe most exciting new series ofcomputer printers in years. TheMICROLlNEf 290's.

They're here to take a lot ofpressure off when the goinggets tough. For example, theM1CROLINE 290s will help youget your presentation word perfectby giving you more time to rehearse.

That's because they print presentationquality reports twice as fast as otherprinters in their class.

m

OKIDATA

^k an OKI AMERICA company

And everyone will know you've doneyour homework due to the more im-pressive report you'll leave behind.More impressive with beautiful crisptext, important points highlighted incolor, bold lead-ins, numbers under-lined and full color charts to top it off.We could go on, but, when a thousand

jobs are riding on your presentation,we don't think you need a million

• reasons to know we're the bestpeople to put it on paper for you.So remember . . . whenyou need all the help you canget, our new MICROLINE 290scan be there when you needthem. Call 1-800-OKIDATAtoday for the dealer nearest you.

We put business on paper.

OKIDATA is a registered trademark of Oki America. Inc Marque de'posee de Oki America, Inc MICROLINE is a registered U.S trademark of Oki America. !nc

Inquiry 243

CIARCIAS CIRCUIT CELLAR

ADDING SCSITO THE SB 180 COMPUTER

PART 2: BUS PHASES

by Steve Ciarcia

How bus phases are managedby the NCR 5380 chip

In this second half of myarticle on the SCSI bus, Iwill discuss in greaterdetail its operational char-acteristics: the bus phasesand how they are man-aged by the NCR 5380chip (see photo 1). I will even step throughwhat happens if we issue a command to ahard disk attached to the bus and requestthe disk to write a sector of information. Bewarned, though, that things will get intricate,and I urge you to keep last month's articleon hand as a reference.

Bus Phases

The bus protocol can be divided into thefollowing phases: bus free, arbitration,selection, reselection, command, data in,data out, status, message in, and messageout.

The arbitration, reselection, and message-out phases are used only in systems thatsupport multitasking. Since the SB180 BIOSsupports a single-user/single-tasking system,these phases are not supported. Also, in asingle-user/single-tasking system, the mes-sage-in phase is used only for sending thecommand complete message.

In my upcoming descriptions of thesephases, I will follow the common SCSIusage and refer to the host as the initiatorand the peripheral device as the target. The

directions in and out are always used withrespect to the initiator.

Bus Free

Bus free, as you might guess, is the idle stateof the SCSI bus. No device is actively usingthe bus, and it is available for subsequentusers.

Arbitration

Systems using the COMM180 with the cur-rent SB 180 BIOS enter the selection phasedirectly without going through the arbitra-tion phase. On systems that support multi-ple hosts or the disconnect/reconnect capa-bility (a configuration not supported by thecurrent SB180 BIOS), this phase is used todecide which device gains access to the buswhen two or more devices request use ofthe bus at the same time.

Once the bus is determined to be free, adevice may wish to arbitrate with otherdevices for use of the bus. For systems inwhich only one device initiates bus activi-ty, the arbitration phase is optional andneed not be implemented. A device places

(continued)

Steve Ciarcia (pronounced "see-ARE-see-ah") is anelectronics engineer and computer consultant with ex-perience in process control, digital design, nuclear in-strumentation, and product development. He is theauthor of several books about electronics. You canwrite to him at POB 582, Glastonbury. CT 06033.

COPYRIGHT & 1986 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 107

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Each device hasan ID between 0and 7 that correspondsto one bit on thedata bus.

the bus in the arbitration phase byasserting the BSY signal and the ap-propriate bit on the data bus that in-dicates that device's ID. Since up toeight devices can use the bus, eachdevice is assigned an ID between 0and 7 that corresponds to one bit onthe data bus. For example, if a device'sID was 3. it would assert bit 3 on thedata bus along with BSY during arbi-tration.

A device loses arbitration if itdetects either SEL true or a higher-priority ID active after allowing for anarbitration delay. Bit 7 is the highest-

priority device. If a device loses ar-bitration, it must wait until the nextbus free phase before reenteringarbitration.

If after allowing for an arbitrationdelay and a higher-priority ID is notactive, that device wins arbitrationand asserts SEL. This indicates to allother arbitrating devices that arbitra-tion has been won, causing them torelease the bus.

Selection

When the initiator has determinedthat the SCSI bus is free, SEL isasserted, and the initiator enters theselection phase, which is optional forsingle-user/single-tasking systems likethe SB180. The selection phase isused to establish a communicationslink between the initiator and a targetdevice for the purpose of performingan SCSI command. Where a hostcomputer needs to write a sector ofinformation to a disk drive, the host,acting as an initiator, would select theappropriate disk drive to perform thecommand.

Photo 1: The NCR 5380 SCSI chip, shown here next to an SCSHompatible\Q-megabyte hard disk drive.

An SCSI target is consideredselected when SEL, the target busdevice ID, and, optionally, the initiatorbus device ID are active. When theseconditions are met. the selectedtarget asserts BSY, and the selectionphase is complete. If the target is notready to be selected (e.g., it may berunning a power-up or reset se-quence), it cannot assert the BSY line.In this case, the SCSI specificationrecommends that the initiator abortthe attempted selection if the targetdoes not respond within 250 millisec-onds. This time-out is especially im-portant because a nonexistent devicewill act as one that is not ready to beselected.

Information Transfer Phases

The remainder of the bus phases arecollectively referred to as informationtransfer phases. The selected targetdevice controls the flow of informa-tion with the initiator by setting thesignals MSG, C/D, and I/O to theproper information transfer phase.These signals, known as phase signals,are used to determine the type of in-formation being transferred and thedirection of the data. Table I de-scribes how the phase signals arecoded.

These phases are used to transferthe necessary data and control infor-mation to complete an I/O operation.For each byte of information trans-ferred, the following sequence of ac-tions (called a REQ/ACK handshake)is required.

First, the target sets the phase lines(see table 1) to the desired bus phaseand asserts the REQ signal either torequest data from the initiator or tosend data to the initiator; the direc-tion is determined by the I/O signal.(I/O is true for in and false for out.) Ifthe data is being sent from the targetto the initiator, the data is asserted onthe SCSI bus at this time

Next, in response to the REQ signal,the initiator asserts ACK to send datato the target or accept data from thetarget. If the data is being sent fromthe host to the target, the data ispresented on the SCSI bus at thistime.

The target, in turn, will deassertREQ, and the initiator will respond to

108 BYTE • JUNE 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

a deasserted REQ by releasing ACK.This handshake is referred to as theasynchronous data transfer and isused in ail the information transferphases I will discuss below. A differenthandshake sequence is in effect whenthe synchronous transfer mode isused. However, since the COMM180does not support this mode, I will notcover it.

Command

An SCSI bus enters the commandphase when C/D is asserted whileMSG and I/O are inactive. This phaseis used to inform the target device ofthe I/O function to be performed. Thecommand blocks defined in the SCSIproposed standard are 6. 10, or 12bytes in length. The length is deter-mined by the group code located inthe first byte of the command block.

Data

The data phases are entered by de-asserting C/D and MSG. The state ofthe I/O line determines the directionof the data transfer. SCSI is a block-oriented bus, and data is usuallytransferred in segments. Consequent-ly, when a computer is communicat-ing with a disk drive via an SCSI bus,the data segment size is usuallychosen as a multiple of the physicalsector size.

Status

The status phase is entered when thetarget asserts C/D and I/O while MSGis inactive. The target uses this phaseto transfer a status byte to the initiatorat the termination of each command.

Message

The message_phase is_ entered byasserting MSG and C/D; I/O deter-mines the direction of the message.This phase provides a means of man-aging the SCSI bus in complex systemconfigurations. Only the commandcomplete message is required in allSCSI designs. SCSI-bus devices indicatetheir ability to support messages otherthan command complete by assertingor responding to the ATN signal.

Typical SASI Transfer

To give you a greater appreciation forthe SCSI bus. 1 will examine in detail

Table 1: The SCSI bus phase

signals

and what

they mean.

Phase

MSG

C/D

I/O

data out

0

0

0

data in

0

0

1

command

0

1

0

status

0

1

1

unspecified

1

0

0

unspecified

1

0

1

message out

1

1

0

message in

1

1

1

Table 2: The address location of the

NCR

5380

s internal registers. The R/W

column indicates whether the

register

s read

only,

write only, or readlwrite.

Add

ress lines

Register name

A2

A1

A0

R/W

current SCSI data

0

0

0

R

output data

0

0

0

W

initiator command

0

0

0

R/W

mode

0

1

0

R/W

target command

0

1

1

R/W

current SCSI bus status

0

0

R

select enable

0

0

W

bus and status

0

1

R

start DMA send

0

1

W

input data

1

0

R

start DMA target receive

1

0

W

reset parity/interrupts

1

1

R

start DMA initiator receive

1

1

W

what occurs when a computer re-quests a disk drive to write a sectorof information. I'll take the case of thecomputer and disk drive communicat-ing through a SASI bus first, and thenI'll look at a full SCSI implementation.

Selection Process

Since the system contains a singlehost and the peripherals are not ca-pable of disconnection and reselec-tion, the host is the only bus masterand can enter the selection phasewithout arbitrating. It does this byasserting SEE and the data bit of thedevice being selected (the disk drive).The peripheral device operating as abus target asserts BSY to completethe selection process.

To accomplish this with the NCR5380, you write the bus device ID ofthe controller to the output data reg-ister. Then, to assert this ID bit ontothe SCSI bus. you set the assert databus bit in the initiator command reg-

ister to a 1. Finally, you set the assertSEL bit, also found in the initiatorcommand register, to activate the SELline as described above. (Refer totable 2 and figure 1.)

SEL and the ID are concurrentlyactive, and only a BSY from the con-troller is needed to complete theselection process. The SB180 BIOSpolls the current SCSI bus status reg-ister waiting for the BSY signal tobecome active. If BSY is not assertedwithin 2 50 ms, the attempted selec-tion is aborted.

If everything is operating properly,BSY will go active, and the processorresets the assert SEL bit in the ini-tiator command register to 0. It thenresets the assert data bus bits in theinitiator command register to zeros.

Command Phase

Once connected, the target assertsthe C/D signal, indicating command

{continued)

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 109

CIRCUIT CELLAR

phase, and then asserts REQ to re-quest the first byte of the commandblock. The first byte (byte 0) of the6-byte command block contains theoperation code 0A hexadecimal forthe write command (see figure 2). Theinitiator sends the first byte by com-pleting the REQ/ACK handshake andwaits for the target to request the nextbyte. Upon receipt of the operationcode, the target determines howmany bytes to request from the ini-tiator and decodes the operation tobe performed. Using the REQ/ACKhandshake, the initiator sends the re-maining portion of the commandblock.

The information contained in bytesI through 3 of the command blockprovides the logical unit number andthe logical block address (by incor-porating the idea of a logical unitnumber, the SCSI protocol allows asingle controller to control severalphysical disk drives). The logical blockaddress is consequently converted bythe target into the physical head,track, and sector locations to be ad-dressed on the disk drive. Byte 4 con-tains the transfer length that specifiesthe number of logical blocks to betransferred. One logical block is oftenthe size of the physical sector on thedisk drive. The last byte of the com-mand block, byte 5. is the control byte,which may contain vendor-uniqueinformation.

The firmware now polls the currentbus and status register looking for thecommand phase and REQ to be as-serted. Once the bus is in the properphase, the software writes an 02 hexa-decimal to the target command reg-ister. The 5380 will not allow data tobe asserted on the SCSI bus unlessthe contents of the target commandregister reflect the current SCSI busphase.

The command block can be trans-ferred with the 5380, using pro-grammed I/O, pseudo direct memoryaccess, or normal DMA operation.Due to the small number of bytes tobe transferred, the BIOS uses thepseudo DMA mode, which acts asprogrammed I/O operation but doesnot require the SCSI REQ/ACK hand-shake to be implemented overtly inthe software. It therefore requires

fewer I/O operations.

To implement this mode, the systemasserts the DMA mode bit in themode register of the 5380, sets theassert data bus bit in the initiatorcommand register, and writes the

start DMA send register. When theCPU addresses the start DMA sendregister with a write strobe, the 5380begins the DMA process by assertingthe DRQ signal to request the firstbyte of information to be transferred.

INITIATOR COMMAND REGISTER7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 BITS

ASSERT DATA BUS - ALLOWS CONTENTS OF OUTPUT DATAREGISTER TO BE PRESENTED ON SCSI DB0-DB7

ASSERT ATN

ASSERT SEL

ASSERT BSY

ASSERT ACK

IF YOU ARE READING. THIS BIT IS THE LOST ARBITRATIONBIT. IF YOU ARE WRITING. THIS BIT IS NOT SIGNIFICANTON THE 5380

IF YOU ARE READING, THIS IS THE ARBITRATION INPROGRESS BIT. IF YOU ARE WRITING. THIS IS THE TESTMODE BIT. AND SETTING IT HIGH DISABLES ALL OUTPUTDRIVERS ON THE 5380.

ASSERT RST

MODE REGISTER7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 BITS

ARBITRATE

DMA MODE

MONITOR BUSY -IF SET. CAUSES AN INTERRUPT FOR ANUNEXPECTED LOSS OF BSY.

ENABLE EOP (END OF PROCESS) INTERRUPT

ENABLE PARITY INTERRUPT

ENABLE PARITY CHECKING

TARGET-MODE BIT- 0=5380 IS AN INITIATOR DEVICE.1=5380 ISA TARGET DEVICE.

BLOCK MODE DMA

Figure I: Internal detail of some of the 5380's more important registers:[a] The initiator command register, [b] the mode register; (c) the target commandregister, (d) the current SCSI bus status register, and (e) the bus and status register.Refer to table 2 for address locations.

110 BYTE" IUNE 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

(The data written to the start DMAsend register is not significant.) Thisinitialization sequence is identical tonormal DMA operation. The primarydifference is that the DMA channel isnot controlling the transfer of data,

the CPU controls the transfer.

The CPU samples the DRQ signal byreading the DMA request bit in thebus and status register. If this bit is ac-tive, the CPU knows that the 5380 isready to receive data, and the first

(d)

TARGET COMMAND REGISTER7 6 5 4 3 2 10 BITS

CURRENT SCSI BUS STATUS REGISTER7 6 5 4 3 2 10 BITS

ASSERT I/OASSERT 575ASSERT MSGASSERT REQ

DBPSEL

T7ocTb

MSGREQBSYRST

BUS AND STATUS REGISTER7 6 5 4 3 2 10 BITS

• ACKATN

BUSY ERROR-SET IF BSY IS LOSTPHASE MATCHIRQ ACTIVE INDICATORPARITY ERROR

DMA REQUEST-ALLOWS CPU TO SAMPLE DRO PIN.END OF DMA TRANSFER INDICATOR

Figure 2: Format of the write command. The op code (0A hexadecimal) is

in the lower 5 bits of the first byte. The command's group code, which indicates how

many bytes compose the command, is in the first bytes upper 3 bits.

BIT

BYTE 0BYTE 1BYTE 2BYTE 3BYTE 4BYTE 5

7 6 5 4 3 2 10

0 0 0

0 10 10

0 0 d

HIGH ADDRESS

MIDDLE ADDRESS

LOW ADDRESS

BLOCK COUNT

r 0 0 0 0 s s s

d = drive (0 or 1 )r = retries

s = step option

byte of the command block is writtento the output data register at I/O ad-dress FO hexadecimal.

Once the data is written, the 5380loads the data onto the SCSI bus andasserts ACK. In response to ACK, thetarget reads the data on the SCSI busand deasserts REQ. The 5380 subse-quently requests the second byte ofdata from the CPU by issuing the nextDRQ. (This also sets the DMA requestbit. BIOS polls this bit before issuingthe next byte.) After the 5380 receivesthe second byte from the CPU, it de-asserts the SCSI ACK signal, which hasremained active since the first trans-fer. Subsequent to ACK going false,the disk controller issues the second

REQ. The cycle above is repeated forthe remaining bytes of the commandphase.

As you can tell from the above de-scription, the ACK signal asserted forthe sixth command byte will remainasserted until an additional byte isissued to the 5380 or it is reset byother means. The SCSI bus, accordingto the proposed standard, cannot pro-ceed to the next bus phase until ACKis deasserted. The SB 180 BIOS resetsthe ACK signal by resetting the DMAmode bit in the mode register.

Data-Out Phase

Having received the command block,the disk controller knows the locationthe data will be written to and per-forms a seek operation to position theheads over the proper track. Since theseek operation requires many milli-seconds to complete, higher-perfor-mance controllers disconnect fromthe SCSI bus at this point and recon-nect once the head is properly posi-tioned. However, SASI designs remainconnected to the host for the durationof the seek. When the head is prop-erly positioned, the target changesthe information transfer phase to dataout and requests the initiator to sendthe number of bytes specified in byte4 of the command block.

While the seek is being performedby the attached disk drive, the SB 180BIOS prepares the 5380 and DMAchannel 0 of the Hitachi 64180 for thedata-out phase. The DMA channel isprogrammed to respond to DMA re-

(continued)

IUNE 1986 -BYTE HI

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Glossary

Byte: Eight bits of data.

Connect: This function occurs whenan initiator selects a target to start anoperation.

Disconnect: This function occurswhen a target releases control of theSCSI bus, allowing it to go to a bus freephase. This can be done at the end ofan operation or when a target releasesthe bus during an operation (such asduring a seek).

Initiator: An SCSI device (usually ahost system) that requests an operationto be performed by another SCSI de-vice. For this system, the NCR 5380 on

the COMM180 is the initiator.

Logical Unit: A peripheral device ad-dressable through a target.

Logical Unit Number: An encoded3-bit identifier for the logical unit.

LUN: Abbreviation for logical unitnumber.

Peripheral Device: A piece of equip-ment that can be attached to an SCSIbus, for example, a disk, streamingtape, optical disk, or printer.

Reconnect: This function occurs whena target reselects an initiator to con-

Table A: SCSI device IDs andtheir corresponding bits on thedata bus.

SCSI IDDDDDDDDDBBBBBBBBSCSI address 0 12 3 4 5 6 7

tinue an operation after a disconnect.

Reserved: Bits, bytes, fields, and codevalues that are set aside for future stan-dardization.

SCSI Address: The representation ofthe unique address (0 to 7) assignedto an SCSI device. This address is nor-mally assigned and set in the SCSIdevice during system installation.

SCSI Device: A host computeradapter, a peripheral controller, or anintelligent peripheral that can be at-tached to the SCSI bus.

SCSI Device ID: The bit-significant rep-resentation of the SCSI address refer-ring to one of the signal lines. Thistranslates into one SCSI bus bit beingset during the selection phase. TableA shows which bit on the SCSI bus(DBO to DB7) is set for the differentSCSI addresses. This configuration isplaced on the bus during the selectionphase to indicate which device is be-ing selected. The bits set to x in thefields are set to 0 by the SB180 BIOSbecause it supports only a single-user/single-tasking environment. Onsystems that support multitasking, theID of the initiator is also asserted sothat when the target disconnects andreconnects, it will know who to recon-nect to.

Signal Assertion: The act of drivinga signal to the true state.

Signal Negation: The act of drivinga signal to the false state or allowingthe cable terminators to bias the signalto the false state (by placing the driverin the high-impedance condition).

Signal Release: The act of allowingthe cable terminators to bias the signalto the false state (by placing the driverin the high-impedance condition).

Status: One byte of information sentfrom a target to an initiator upon com-pletion of each command.

Target: An SCSI device that performsan operation requested by an initiator.

Vendor-Unique: Bits, fields, or codevalues that are vendor-specific.

quests from the 5380 by fetching datafrom a defined memory location andwriting this data to the output dataregister of the 5380 (at I/O address F0hexadecimal).

With the DMA mode bit reset andthe assert data bus bit still active inthe 5380, the BIOS writes a 00 to the5380s target command register. Thistells the 5380 that the current phaseon the SCSI bus is data out (if it isn't,the 5380 issues a phase mismatch in-terrupt). The BIOS then reasserts theDMA mode bit and issues an I/O writeto the start DMA send register; thisinitiates the DMA transfer process. Asin the pseudo DMA transfer, the firstDRQ is asserted after writing this reg-ister. Since the seek being performedby the disk drive can be a lengthyoperation, it may be a long time be-tween the first and second DMA re-quests. Data is transferred identicallyto the pseudo DMA mode except thatthe DMA channel responds to theDRQ signal and transfers the datafrom the SBl80's memory to the 5380rather than the CPU polling for theDMA request bit being active.

The BIOS supports sector lengths of512 bytes. When the last byte is trans-feree^ the DMA channel asserts theTEND0 signal, which is fed to the EOPpin on the 5380. This sets the end-of-DMA bit in the bus and status registerand signals the completion of thedata-out transfer phase. The DMAmode bit is again reset to deassert thelast ACK signal prior to the ensuingstatus phase.

Message and Status Phases

The target then switches to the statusphase, sends a "good" status code tothe host, changes to the message-inphase, and transfers the obligatorycommand complete message to endthe I/O transfer. The BSY line is nowreleased, disconnecting the targetfrom the initiator and returning thebus to a bus free condition. Bus freeallows the initiator to begin the nextI/O transfer.

The SB180 reads the data of thestatus and message-in phases, usingthe pseudo DMA method previouslydescribed. In each case, the assertdata bus bit is reset and the targetcommand register is updated to the

112 BYTE • JUNE 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

proper phase before reading the datafrom the 5380.

SCSI Transfer

Now for the SCSI version of the ex-ample. The SCSI bus differs from SAS1in that it supports multiple busmasters through bus arbitration, andthe disconnection and reselection oftarget devices are supported throughthe optional message-in and mes-sage-out bus phases.

In full SCSI implementations, the ar-bitration phase precedes the selec-tion phase so that a device can gaincontrol of the SCSI bus. When theselection phase is entered, the hostasserts SEL, its device ID, the target'sdevice ID, and the ATN signal. Thehost presents its own device ID sothat the target can know which deviceperformed the selection. This is im-portant in case the target disconnectsfrom the SCSI bus for a lengthy I/Ooperation—it must know which hostto reselect (this might be a multipro-cessor system). The presence of theATN signal informs the target of theinitiator's desire to send a messageand that the initiator is capable ofsupporting more than the mandatorycommand complete message. If thetarget is capable of supporting the ad-ditional messages required for discon-nection and reselection, it respondsby entering the message-out phase.Otherwise, the target replies by enter-ing the command phase described inthe SASI example.

Once the target issues REQ for themessage-out phase, the initiatorsends an identify message to thetarget. The identify message estab-lishes a physical path between the ini-tiator and the target for a particularlogical unit and notifies the target ofthe initiator's ability to support dis-connection and reselection. This mes-sage is also used by the target to re-establish the physical path with theinitiator in a subsequent reselection.

After the identify message is trans-ferred, the target requests the com-mand block from the initiator byentering the command phase. (I willuse the write command for this exam-ple, as I did in the SASI example.) Ifwe assume that the write commandwill require the disk drive to perform

a time-consuming seek operation,once the target receives the com-mand from the host, it will disconnectfrom the SCSI bus. This frees the busfor other I/O operations. To discon-nect from the bus, the target switchesto the message-in phase and issuesa disconnect message to the initiator.If the target was transferring severallogical blocks of information anddecided to disconnect between seg-ments, it would issue a save datapointer message before issuing thedisconnect. After the message is sentacross the bus, the target releasesBSY to complete the disconnection.

Although the target has broken thephysical path with the host, the logicalconnection is maintained through theuse of data pointers supported by theinitiator. This concept is referred to asa logical thread. As long as the busis free, the host can establish as manylogical threads as can practically besupported by the system. Datapointers must be maintained for eachlogical thread.

When the head of the disk drive ispositioned over the correct track, thetarget attempts to reestablish thephysical path with the initiator by ar-bitrating for use of the SCSI bus. Once

it has gained control of the bus, itreselects the host to complete thewrite command. When the reselectionphase is complete, the target entersthe message-in phase and sends theidentify message to inform the ini-tiator which logical unit is reconnect-ing. Since the initiator may havestarted several I/O operations, it per-forms an implied restore data pointermessage to continue the I/O opera-tion at the point of disconnection.

After the identify message has beentransferred, the bus operation pro-ceeds identically to the SASI example.Data-out, status, message-in, and busfree operational phases are con-secutively performed on the SCSI bus,completing the write command.

In Conclusion

You'll be seeing many computers andperipherals that are SCSI bus-com-patible in the future, from peripheralmanufacturers and the Circuit Cellaras well (see photo 2). In the early daysof personal computing, it was enoughfor me to design projects that con-nected to a user's parallel port. Sincethen, however, personal computinghas evolved to include a cornucopia

(continued)

Photo 2: The complete COMM180 board installed in a functioning SB 180computer system. The SCSI controller chip (note white outline) can be seen next tothe larger MOSART modem chip.

IUNE 1986

IYTE 113

Inquiry 125

MIDI

EVERY

MONTH!

Don't stop nowl If you're enjoyingthis special Byte issue on Comput-ers & Music and want to take yourinterest further, here's the magazinethat will take you as far as you wantto go:

ElectronicMusician

•music jsy & <»*■*** '■■•micbos y • 4 :■•■■ ■-.■, ■ t- ,■

•MIDI .. . ; .■' :-- ,-.'< (';• MU1TI- ■',/■■ ■■ -' ■ :y -'

summi ■ M i.: J ■ C I A M |

JliS

■

tj

9* i

Electronic Musician is your com-plete guide to the use of electronicmusical instruments and personalcomputers in the creation and re-cording of music.

Edited by musician-author Craig An-derton, Electronic Musician bringsyou both basic and advanced arti-cles that de-mystify MIDI, Music Soft-ware, and Synthesizers.

Now you can face the music everymonth and enjoy itl

FREE Issue!

Send for a free issue and reserve your one-year subscription at the special introductoryrate of $14.95 (S24.95 foreign). You'll save over50 percent off the single copy price. Ifyou'renot completely satisfied with the first issue,simply write "cancel" on our invoice and thatwill be the end of the matter. The first issuewill be yours to keep.

Send coupon or facsimile to:Electronic Musician, Dept. B2608 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA 94710

CIRCUIT CELLAR

YES!

Send me a FREE Issue ofElectronic Musician and reservemy one-year subscription.

Name

I Address _City

State Zip-

114 B YTE • IUNE 1986

I expect that theSCSI standard willbe heartily adopted.I am looking forwardto using it again.

of backplane buses and interfacestandards that makes writing articlesmore like the Bus of the Month club.Presenting a project that is specificallyIBM PC-compatible negates its valueto Atari or Macintosh owners.

I expect that the SCSI standard willbe heartily adopted. I for one amlooking toward my next opportunityfor using it.

Software Black Belts TakeNotice

The current SB180 BIOS supportssingle-user/single-tasking systems.With thousands of SBI80s in useamong the software gurus of theworld, no doubt one of you is goingto implement the higher-level SCSIfunctions while I'm still drafting thespecification. If you do, the NorthAmerican One-Eighty Group (NAOG),software and hardware manufacturersassociated with the SB180, and Iwould be very interested in obtainingsuch driver code, either throughpublic domain or license.

Circuit Cellar Feedback

This month's feedback begins onpage 54.

Next month

I'll look at peripheral interfaceadapters. ■

Diagrams and information specific to theNCR 5380 are reprinted with the permis-sion of National Cash Register \nc.

Special thanks to Mike McBride and HarryMason for their contributions to this project.

There is an on-line Circuit Cellar bulletinboard system that supports past and pres-ent projects. You are invited to call and ex-change ideas and comments with other Cir-cuit Cellar supporters. The 300/1200-bps BBSis on-line 24 hours a day at (203) 871-1988.

The following items are available from

The Micromint Inc.

2 5 Terrace Dr.

Vernon, CT 06066

(800) 63 5-3355 for orders

(203) 871-6170 for information

1. SB180 computer board with 2 56K bytesof RAM. Complete with user's manual andROM monitor. Assembled and tested.

SB180-1 S369

2. Complete SB180 computer board with2 56K bytes of RAM, user's manual. ROMmonitor, and the Z-System, including ZRDOS.ZCPR3, an editor and utilities, BIOS source,ROM monitor source, ZAS assembler, ZDMdebugger, and user's manuals. Provided onfour 514-inch SB180 format DS/DD disks.Assembled and tested.

SB180-1-20 S499

3. COMMI80 SCSI-only expansion board forthe SB180 computer with hard disk BIOSupgrade (board can be upgraded to includethe modem at any time). Complete withuser's manual. Software supplied on 5 !4-inchDS/DD SB 180 format disk. Assembled andtested.

COMMI80-S S150

4. COMM180 1200-bps modem and SCSI ex-pansion board for the SB180 computer withTERM3 and hard disk BIOS upgrade. Com-plete with user's manuals. Software suppliedon two 5!4-inch DS/DD SB180 format disks.Assembled and tested.

COMM180-M01-S $479

SCSI hard disk drives, enclosures, cable sets,and various SB 180 enhancement productsare now available. Call for a price list.

Please include S10 (on items 1 and 2) or S6(on items 3 and 4) for shipping and handlingin the continental United States (S4 addi-tional for Canada), $15 for surface or S3 5 forair mail elsewhere. Connecticut residentsplease include 7.5 percent sales tax.

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, NJ 08250.

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar. Volume I covers articlesin BYTE from September 1977 throughNovember 1978. Volume II covers December1978 through |une 1980. Volume III covers July1980 through December 1981. Volume IVcovers January 1982 through lune 1983.Volume V covers July 1983 through December1984.

To be included on the Circuit Cellar mail-ing list and receive periodic project up-dates and support materials, please cir-cle 100 on the Reader Service inquirycard at the back of the magazine.

I

■ *v.-

Presenting four upstanding Citizens who give faithfulservice above and beyond the call of duty Citizen™ dot matrixprinters; precision-engineered by the people whoVe becomea wristhold word in fine; precision-engineered watches.The Citizens are sleel<; quiet; and reliable. They;reextremely easy to use. And feature a unique push-feedpaper system that makes paper loading a breeze. What'smore; the Citizens are IBM® and Epson® compatible. Can print graphics.

Can dash out output at 160 cps (40 cps correspondence-quality) ora blazing 200 cps (50 cps correspondence quality). And offer a comprehensive18-month warranty on all parts and labor, including the print head.The Citizen MSP-10/15 and MSP-20/25. Four solid reasons tostop by your dealer.

And watch what the Citizens can do for you.For more information, call 1-800-556-1234, Ext. 34.In California, l-800-441-2345; Ext. 34. ^=g PTTT7FN™Or write Citizen America Corporation, -^= v^J. 1 J.ZjAjJ.12425 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

1986 Citizen America Corporation. Citizen and the Citizen logo are trademarks of Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. IBM is a registered trademarkof International Business Machines Corporation. Epson is a registered trademark of Epson Corporation.

Inquiry 64

IBMPC/AT

ZOMPAQ

DESKPRO

286

d<&J^i

\ X

For $2495,*

what you see is what you get

MANUFACTURER

SUGGESTEDRETAIL PRICE*

PROCESSORSPEED

EXPANSIONSLOTS

MONEY-BACKGUARANTEE t

VICTOR V286

$2495

6to8Mhz

8

YES

IBM PC/AT

$4705

6Mhz

6

NO

COMPAQ DESKPRO 286

$4244

6to8Mhz

6

NO

The simple fact is, you get more with the Victor V286.™More speed. More features.More for your money. You also get more peace of mind. Because the Victor V286comes complete with nationwide servicing through Xerox®And a 30-dayMoney-Baek Guarantee, an offer you won't see from anyone else. You won'tsee any software compatibility problems either. The V286 runs most every programfaster than the IBM, but a flip of a switch will slow it down to mirror the AT and letyou run the most finicky programs flawlessly. We've also equipped the V286 withfeatures IBM considers options. Features you'll consider necessities. You can evenexpand the memory to 1 MB without using option boards. Those arejust a few ofthe reasons the Victor V286 should be your next computer. For a more completepicture, and your nearest Victor dealer, call Mart/ at 1-800-248-5252.

• DOES NOT INCLUDE MONITOR OR VIDEO BOARD.

Totals for comparably equipped models as of 3/26/86. IBM and IBM Personal Computer AT are trademarks of Internationa]

Business Machines Corporation. COMPAQ and COMPAQ DESKPRO are trademarks of COMPAQ Computer Corporation.

t Available from participating dealers.

116 BYTE • JUNE 1986

VICTOR

Scotts Valley. CA (408) 438-6680Inquiry 362

by Antonio C. Silvestri

SortingProDOSDirectories

Sort subdirectoriesand files for cleanercatalogs

If you use Apple ProDOS, youhave probably discovered thatas files are added to anddeleted from a disk its directorybecomes filled with filename entriesthat the CATALOG command displaysin a chaotic order. This is because Pro-DOS directories are simply built

sequentially—the operating systemdoes not sort by filename. Thus if youforget the exact spelling of a filename,you must catalog the disk and inspecteach filename until you find the oneyou want. This procedure can be anuisance when you are examining along catalog, but many micro userstake this in stride and dismiss it aspart of operating a personal com-puter.

The program I describe in this arti-cle is designed to eliminate longcatalog searches by sorting the validfilenames in the volume and subor-dinate directories of the ProDOS disk.It also permanently stores the sortedfilenames on the disk so that analphabetically sorted directory is dis-played each time you request acatalog.

Program Features

ProDOS, Apple's Professional DiskOperating System, is more sophisti-cated than its older but respectedcounterpart, DOS 3.3. Among Pro-DOS's features are an enhanced com-mand set and support of a hierar-chical directory structure that allowsseparate directories to coexist on thesame disk. My program, for Apple He,lie, and 11+ computers with 64K bytesof RAM, will individually sort thevolume, or root, directory and any ofits subordinate directories that reside

{continued)

Antonio C. Silvestri is a professor of computerand information science at Springfield Tech-nical Community College in Springfield, Mas-sachusetts. He is also president of SystemsConsultants Inc. (95 5 Sumner Ave., Spring-field, MA 01118-2146), an engineering corn-pang that specializes in the design of computerhardware and software interfaces that controlmanufacturing machinery.

ILLUSTRATED BY MIRIAM SCHAER

IUNE 1986 -BYTE

117

SORTING PRODOS DIRECTORIES

Table 1: The format

of a ProDOS directory block.

Byte Offset

in Directory Block

Entry Description

000-001

Block number of the previous directory block (low byte first).

These bytes equal 0 if this is the first directory block.

002-003

Block number of the next directory block (low byte first).

These bytes equal 0 if this is the last directory block.

004-042

Directory entry #1 or, if this is the first block of the directory

(bytes 000 and 001 equal 0), the directory header.

043-081

Directory entry #2

082-120

Directory entry #3

121-159

Directory entry #4

160-198

Directory entry #5

199-237

Directory entry #6

238-276

Directory entry #7

277-315

Directory entry #8

316-354

Directory entry #9

355-393

Directory entry #10

394-432

Directory entry #11

433-471

Directory entry #12

472-510

Directory entry #13

511

<Not Used>

Table 2: The format

of a ProDOS directory header. Notice the differences in

some bytes that distinguish a volume directory from a subdirectory.

Byte Offset

in Directory Header

Description

00

The high 4 bits equal 15 for a volume directory or 14 for a

subdirectory. The low 4 bits equal the length of the directory

name.

01-15

Directory name in ASCII.

16-23

Reserved.

24-25

The date that this directory was created

(format:MMMDDDDD YYYYYYYM).

26

The minute at which this entry was created.

27

The hour at which this entry was created.

28

The version number of ProDOS that created this directory.

29

The lowest version of ProDOS that is capable of using this

directory.

30

Directory access code.

31

The number of bytes occupied by each directory entry. This

byte equals 39.

32

The number of entries that can be stored in each block.

This byte equals 13.

33-34

The number of active files in this directory not including the

directory header.

35-36

If this is a volume directory, these bytes specify the block

where the volume bit map is located. If this is a

subdirectory, these bytes specify the block in which the

entry defining this subdirectory is located.

37-38

If this is a volume directory, these bytes indicate the size of

the volume in blocks and equal 280. If this is a subdirectory,

byte 37 is the directory entry number within the block

specified in bytes 35 and 36. Byte 38 contains the number

of bytes in each entry of the parent directory and equals 39.

on a ProDOS disk.

1 wrote the program in ApplesoftBASIC because speed is not impor-tant. The routine also includes somemachine language code that is pokeddirectly into memory.

To create a user-friendly utility, Ihave provided extensive screen out-put that allows you to monitor pro-gram execution. The routine takessome time to read, sort, and updatea disk, particularly when you areworking with a disk with numeroussubdirectories containing many file-name entries. This visual feedbackgives you confidence in the utility'sexecution.

Any files you delete from a directorywill still have an entry in that directory.However, since these entries are notviable files, the program does not in-clude them in the sorting process. Up-dated directories are purged ofdeleted entries, which results in moreefficient disk access.

ProDOS Disk Directories

ProDOS organizes disk files by blocks,a block being a group of 512 bytes.An initialized ProDOS disk has 280blocks numbered from 0 to 279 thatcan be used to store files, directories,etc. Any block can be allocated to afile or directory; this means that anylong file or directory can be physical-ly scattered throughout the disk.

All directories are accessed fromthe volume or root directory, whichalways resides at a fixed location,blocks 2 through 5, on the disk. Unlikethe volume directory, subdirectories,which are treated as files, can bestored anywhere on the disk.

Since each directory block can holdthirteen 39-byte file entries, thevolume directory can contain up to 52entries. These entries describe a file'sattributes by specifying its name, type,size, and disk location. The format ofa directory block is shown in table 1.

The first block allocated to thevolume directory (or a subdirectory)is called the key block and is arrangedslightly differently than succeedingdirectory blocks. The 39-byte entrythat normally describes the first filein the block is instead used todescribe the directory itself. This en-try is called the directory header. The

118 BYTE • [UNE 1986

SORTING PRODOS DIRECTORIES

format of a directory header is shownin table 2.

The remaining directory entries rep-resent binary, text, Applesoft pro-gram, or subdirectory files. The offsetbyte map for these entries is shownin table 3. To determine what type offile a particular entry corresponds to,simply examine the file-type code thatappears at offset 16 within the entry.Table 4 lists a few of the most com-mon file-type codes.

Disk Input/Output

Data transfers to and from the disk oc-cur on a block basis using the ProDOSML1 (machine language interface) pro-tocol. This standard makes it simplefor you to write small assembly lan-guage programs to perform disk I/Ofunctions.

A typical subroutine to invoke diskI/O looks like this:

JSR $BF00

DB command index

DB low para addr

DB high para addr

BCS error

ProDOS's entry point is at BFOO

(hexadecimal). Command index is

the command number assigned to a

ProDOS function. Low_para addr

and high para addr are, respec-tively, the least significant byte andthe most significant byte of the ad-dress of the parameter list associatedwith the command. The parameter listcontains the values of variables thatthe command needs to execute prop-erly.

After ProDOS executes the com-mand, control passes to the instruc-tion immediately after the 3 bytes thatfollow the JSR instruction. If an erroroccurs in processing the command,ProDOS sets the carry flag—hence theBCS instruction as shown in theexample.

The MLI command to read an in-dividual block on a disk is commandnumber 128. To write a block, youissue command number 129. The pa-rameter lists for these two commandsare identical and are constructed asshown in table 5.

Short machine language routinescan be safely loaded at 300 (hexadec-

(continued)

Table 3: The format

of a PraDOS directory entry.

Byte Offset

in Directory Entry

Description

00

The high 4 bits equal 0 for an inactive file or nonzero for an

active file. The low 4 bits equal the length of the directory

name.

01-15

Entry name in ASCII.

16

File-type code (refer to table 4).

17-18

If this entry is a subdirectory, these bytes specify the

location of its key block. If this entry is a standard file, this

entry points to the first block where file data is stored.

19-20

File size in blocks.

21-23

File size in bytes.

24-25

The date that this file was created (format:MMMDDDDD

YYYYYYYM).

26

The minute at which this file was created.

27

The hour at which this file was created.

28

The version number of ProDOS that created this file.

29

The lowest version of ProDOS that is capable of using this

file.

File access code.

30

31-32

If this entry specifies a binary file, these bytes contain the

load address for the file. If this entry specifies a random-

access text file, these bytes contain its record length.

33-34

The date on which this file was last modified

(formaCMMMDDDDD YYYYYYYM).

35

The minute at which this file was last modified.

36

The hour at which this file was last modified.

37-38

The key block number of the directory that holds this file

entry.

Table 4: Some

important ProDOS file-type codes.

File-Type Code

Catalog Mnemonic

File Description

001

BAD

Bad block file

004

TXT

ASCII text file

006

BIN

Binary file

015

DIR

Directory file

252

BAS

Applesoft program file

255

SYS

ProDOS system file

Table 5: The format of the parameter list used in ProDOS MLI calls to readand write disk blocks. (For disk block read and write calls, the first byte—thenumber of parameters—is always 3.)

Byte #

Contents

Number of parameters

Disk slot and drive to be accessed

(128 • drive # + 16 * slot #)Low byte of the address of a 512-byte data bufferHigh byte of the address of a 512-byte data bufferLow byte of the block number to be accessedHigh byte of the block number to be accessed

]UNE I986 -BYTE

WkaL

Let Lab Boss turn

your IBM PC into a powerful

instrument controller.

> "7 ou can spend thousands of dollarsy for a dedicated instrument controller.•A. Or a few hundred for a controllerthat's dedicated to you and your IBM PC.

Lab Boss™ from National Instru-ments puts you and your IBM PC (orcompatible) firmly in charge of GPIBinstruments. From sophisticated lab-oratory equipment, like digitizingoscilloscopes and spectrometers,to standard printers, plotters,tape drives and more.At data transfer speeds

that are the highest in the industry.

And Lab Boss products offer a directdata link from your measuring equipmentto a full range of analysis software, includ-ing RS/1, Lotus 1-2-3, and Symphony. Soyou can easily report your findings onthe same system you used for

instrument control, data acqui-sition and analysis. Try thaton a dedicated controller!So — you want to be theboss? Call National Instru-ments. 800/531-4742.

f

rr NATIONAL"INSTRUMENTS

12109 Technology Blvd.

Austin, TX 78727 512/250-9119

SORTING PRODOSDIRECTORIES

imal) since ProDOS reserves only afew bytes toward the end of thismemory page for its own purposes.You must allocate a 512-byte blockin memory for block transfers. A pro-gram can make use of the buffer thatis assigned for ProDOS activities. Thisbuffer is pointed to by the contentsof page zero locations 115/116 and isusually found at 38400 (9600 hexa-decimal).

The Sorting Technique

The task of sorting a single directoryinvolves three main steps. First, direc-tory blocks are read into memoryfrom the disk and the active directoryentries are placed in an array. Next,the array is sorted by an algorithmsuch as the bubble sort algorithm.Finally, the sorted array of directoryentries is written back in blocks to theoriginal directory locations on thedisk.

You have to modify this techniquein order to sort a disk with a hierar-chical directory structure. You musthave a data structure such as a stackto keep track of subdirectory entriesas they are encountered in the sortingprocess.

Each time a subdirectory entry isencountered, information about thesubdirectory is saved on the stack.This information includes the keyblock location of this subdirectory aswell as the path name of its parentdirectory. After sorting a directory, theprogram pops the next directory tobe sorted, if one exists, from the stack.The information removed from thestack will be sufficient to repeat thethree-step sorting process on this cur-rent directory. The entire sorting pro-cess ends when no directories are lefton the stack.

The Bubble Sort Algorithm

Although there are more efficientarray-sorting techniques, the bubblesort method is one of the easiest toprogram. The bubble sort is sonamed because it causes elements to"bubble" upward in the list beingsorted. The routine moves through alist, comparing adjacent pairs ofelements one at a time. If it finds anelement that is greater than its higher-

(continued)

120 BYTE • ]UNE 1986

Inquiry 238

Build your ownprogramming power house

With the Power System™from Pecan, you can nowcreate the Ideal environmentfor your programming needs.

Whether you're an experiencedprogrammer or an enthusiasticnewcomer, the right programdevelopment environment is essential tocreating software that effectivelydelivers the capabilities you need.The optimum development envi-ronment includes your choice oflanguage compilers, an integratedsystem of basic programmingcapabilities, and a speciallyselected group of utilities whic,fulfill your own uniquerequirements.

Start wKh a full-featured development 1environment

With the Power System fromPecan, you start with one of fourcompilers: Choose Pecan'spowerful and highly versatile UCSDPascal? or build your system on ourBASIC, FORTRAN-77 or Modula-2compilers. (Additional language compilersare on the way.) With your Pecan compiler,you get a total program developmentenvironment which delivers a full range ofintegrated development capabilities,including:

• Sophisticated text editor

• Versatile print utility

• Easy-to-use file managementsystem

• Program library manager

• Special program executionutilities

• TurtlegraphicsWith other program development

•systems, you'd have to purchase

some or all of these capabilitiesseparately. With the Power System fromPecan, they're standard equipment.

Add the specializedcapabilities you want

Developing specialized software calls forthe right tools. Pecan offers a wideselection of optional programdevelopment aids to help you writeprograms that work just the way youwant. These tools include:

• Program debugger

• Keyed file access (KSAM)

• Automatic print spooler

• Assemblers andbitm cross assemblers

• Speed and space optimizer

These and Pecan's many otherdevelopment aids

enable you to buildyour own "customized"Power System, a system which is ideallysuited to your individual programmingneeds.

Create multi-languageprograms

Some languages are better for certainkinds of programming than others. Forthis reason, the Power System lets youwrite part of any given program in UCSDPascal, additional parts in BASIC,FORTRAN-77 and Modula-2. All you needis a Pecan compiler for each languageyou want to use. Once you've written yourprogram, it can then be executed exactlyas if you'd written it all in one language.Only the Power System from Pecanoffers you this capability. -

Run programs on virtuallyany mini or micro

The programs you develop through theSystem are completely portable.This means that a program youwrite on one computer canactually be run on another-even if the second computeris not compatible with the'first. No other programdevelopment environmentgives you this kind of flexibility.

programmingI power at a price'you can afford

Build your ideal pro-gramming powerhousetoday. For the incrediblylow introductory price ofi only $79.95, you get the completePower System with its importantprogram development capabilities,including the compiler of your choice.You can add a second Pecan compiler forjust $59.95, or select two additionalcompilers for only $99.95. Once you havethe Power System, you can thencustomize it as your programmingrequirements demand-with Pecan'spowerful development aids.

Order the unique Power System -available exclusively from Pecan - bymail today. Or call us at 1-800-63-PECAN.You won't find a better price/performancevalue anywhere. And you'll never build abetter program developmentenvironment-no matterwhat price you pay.

Inquiry 260

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 121

SORTING PRODOS DIRECTORIES

Listing 1: The ProDOS Catalog Sort Routine.

10 REM20 REM30 REM

PRODOS CATALOG SORT ROUTINEANTONIO C. SILVESTRISYSTEMS CONSULTANTS INC.

40 CLEAR: TEXT: HOME: DB - PEEK(115) + 256*PEEK(116)

50 FOR 1-768 TO 792: READ H: POKE I.H: NEXT

60 DIM DIM NA$(55), ST(30). ST$(30), DL(10): N - 0:

V - 2: V$ - "": GOSUB 460

70 VTAB 2:HTAB 6:PRINT "PRODOS FILENAME SORT UTILITY":VTAB 9: HTAB 10: PRINT "INSERT DISK IN ";:FLASH: PRINT "DRIVE 1";: NORMAL: PRINT:HTAB 9: PRINT "HIT ANY KEY TO CONTINUE"

80 POKE - 16368,0: WAIT - 16384.128: POKE - 16368,0

90 HOME: PRINT "SEARCHING FOR VALID FILENAMES": PRINT100 IF N <= 0 THEN 450

110 GOSUB 480: BL - V: HE = V: HE$ » V$: CO « 0: BC = 0120 POKE 791,BL - 256*INT(BL/256):POKE 792,INT(BL/256):

POKE 776,128: CALL 768: IF PEEK(786) <> 0 THEN

PRINT "ERROR IN READING BLOCK NO. ";BL: STOP130 BC - BC + 1: DL(BC) - BL140 FOR J=0 TO 12: IF J <> 0 THEN 180150 IF BL-HE THEN DR$ - "":

FOR 1=0 TO 38:DR$=DR$ + CHR$(PEEK(DB + 4 + I)):NEXT:

HE$ = HE$+"/"+MID$(DR$,2,PEEK(DB+4)-16*

INT(PEEK(DB+4)/16)):PRINT "READING DIRECTORY: ";HE$160 PRINT "BLOCK NO. ";BL;" READ"170 IF BL - HE THEN 210

180 IF PEEK(DB + 4 + J * 39)-0 THEN PRINT "D";:GOTO 210190 PRINT ".";: CO - CO + 1: NA$(CO) -= "":

FOR 1=0 TO 38:

NA$(CO)=NA$(CO)+CHR$(PEEK(DB+4+J*39+I)): NEXT200 IF ASC(MID$(NA$(CO),17.1))=15 THEN

V - ASC(MID$(NA$(CO),18,1)) +256*ASC(MID$(NA$(CO).19,1)): V$ = HE$: GOSUB 460

210 NEXT J: PRINT: PRINT: X = FRE (0):

BL=PEEK(DB+2) + 256*PEEK(DB+3): IF BL <> 0 THEN 120

220 IF CO=0 THEN HOME: VTAB 10: FLASH:

PRINT "**WARNING**"; CHR$ (7);: NORMAL:PRINT "NO FILENAMES CAN BE FOUND": GOTO 290230 IF CO=1 THEN 290

240 HOME:VTAB 10:PRINT CO;" FILENAMES FOUND";: HTAB 29:PRINT "NOW ";: FLASH: PRINT "SORTING": NORMAL:NX = CO250 VTAB 17: HTAB 8: PRINT "FILENAMES HAVE BEEN PLACED"260 VTAB 17: HTAB 7 - LEN(STR$(CO - NX)): PRINT CO - NX270 FLAG = 0: FOR I = 2 TO NX:

IF MID$(NA$(I).2,15) < MID$(NA$(I-1).2.15) THENH$ = NA$(I): NA$(I) = NA$(I-1): NA$(I - 1) = H$:FLAG = 1280 NEXT: X = FRE(0): NX = NX - 1:

IF FLAG = 1 AND NX <> 1 THEN 260

290 HOME: PRINT "STORING PURGED AND SORTED DIRECTORY":

PRINT300 A = 1: B = 0: FOR J = 1 TO BC310 PRINT "NOW FORMING BLOCK NO. "j320 IF J = 1 THEN AX = 0: GOTO 340330 AX = DL(J - 1)340 IF J = BC THEN BX = 0: GOTO 360350 BX = DL(J + 1)360 POKE DB,AX-256*INT(AX/256): POKE DB+1. INT(AX/256):

POKE DB+2,BX-256*INT(BX/256):

POKE DB+3, INT(BX/256): POKE DB+511,0

[continued)

DL(J)

positioned neighbor, it exchangesthese elements. The algorithm com-pares the next two elements and ex-changes them if required. This pro-cess of comparing and exchangingpositions continues throughout theentire list.

If any exchanges are made, the listis processed again. However, not allthe elements need to be included insubsequent passes. Since each passassures that the largest-valued ele-ment has been moved to the end ofthe list, time need not be wasted onchecking these elements. When noexchanges are made in a pass throughthe list, it is sorted.

The BASIC Program Listing

The program is given in listing I.[Editor's note: The ProDOS Catalog SortRoutine and a short test routine are availablefor downloading from BYTEfiet Listings at(617) 861-9764 and are also obtainable ondisk; see page 445 for details.] Lines 40through 60 perform program-initiali-zation tasks, which include setting thevariable DB equal to the address ofthe I/O data buffer and poking theMLI interface routine into memory.Line 60 defines some important ar-rays such as NA$, which is used tostore directory entries.

Line 60 also defines and initializesa stack that is implemented using thestack pointer variable N and arrays STand ST$. Array ST holds the blocknumbers of subdirectory key blocks,while ST$ stores the path names of asubdirectory's parent directory. TheGOSUB 460 instruction pushesvalues on the stack and starts the sort-ing process with the volume directory.

Lines 70 and 80 give you the oppor-tunity to remove the program diskand insert in drive 1 the disk to besorted. The program issues a promptand waits for a key press before con-tinuing.

Line 100 checks the status of thestack: If it is empty, execution halts:if not, line 110 executes the GOSUB480 instruction to pop the stack. Line120 reads the retrieved directoryblock into the data buffer, and lines130 through 200 extract directory en-tries from the buffer and store themin array NA$. Notice that line 200 ex-

(continued)

122 BYTE • IUNE 1986

TEK

2213A/2215A/2235

DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPES

THE ANSWER

BY ANY MEASURE

Now! Tek quality and expert adviceare just a free phone call away!

The industrystandard in CRTperformance.

Crisp, easy-to-read, bright CRT;14kV acceleratingpotential, provideshigh writing rateand small spotsize. Full size 8x10cm display formeasurementaccuracy.

Display controlsare flexible andeasy to use. Sep-arate intensitycontrols reduceblooming in alter-nate sweep mode.Focus trackingminimizes controladjustment andBEAM FIND elimi-nates confusion.

Vertical sys-tem providesmeasurementassurance. Flattransient responseand high accuracyensures truereproduction ofyour signals. Fastrisetime and highbandwidth is wellsuited for a varietyof measurement.

Perform delayedsweep measure-ments accuratelyand easily. Both

sweeps can bedisplayed alter-nately making dif-ferential measure-ments easy andaccurate (1%).An interlockingSEC/DIV controlsimplifies set-up.

Stable hands-offtriggering. P-P

AUTO detects sig-nal peaks, thensets the triggerlevel for you. Dis-play asynchronoussignals usingVERT MODE trig-gering. Indepen-dent TV field andline selection.

Front panel laidout by functionfor ease of use.

Color coding aidsthe user in opera-tion. Functionsand modes areplaced logically.All nomenclatureis clearly labeled,and protectedbehind a scratch-less Lexan surface.

Our direct order line getsyou the industry's leadingprice/performance portables...and fast answers from experts!

The 60 MHz single time base delay2213A, the 60 MHz dual time base2215A and the 100 MHz dual timebase 2235 offer unprecedentedreliability and affordability, plus theindustry's first 3-year warranty*on labor and parts, CRT included.

The cost: just $1275 for the2213A, $1525 for the 2215A,$1750 for the 2235.t Even atthese low prices, there's noscrimping on performance. You

have the bandwidth for digitaland analog circuits. The sensitivityfor low signal measurements. Thesweep speeds for fast logic fami-lies. And delayed sweep for fast,accurate timing measurements.All scopes are UL Listed and CSAapproved.

You can order, or obtainliterature, through the TekNational Marketing Center. Tech-nical personnel, expert in scopeapplications, will answer yourquestions and expedite delivery.Direct orders include comprehen-sive 3-year warranty*, operator's

manual, two 10X probes, 15-dayreturn policy and worldwide ser-vice backup.

Order toll free:1-800-426-2200,Ask for Rick.

In Oregon, call collect:(503) 627-9000.Or write Tektronix, Inc.P.O. Box 1700Beaverton, OR 97075

Ttektronix

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

Copyright ° 1985, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. #TTA-439-3. tPrice F.O.B. Beaverton, OR. '3-year warranty includes CRT.Inquiry 344

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 123

SORTING PRODOS DIRECTORIES

370

380

390400410

420

430

440

IF J = 1 THEN

FOR K=1 TO 39: POKE DB+3+B*39+K,ASC(MID$(DR$,K,1)):

NEXT: PRINT ".";:B = B + 1

IF A <= CO THEN

FOR K=1 TO 39:

POKE DB+3+B*39+K,ASC(MID$(NA$(A).K,1)): NEXT:

PRINT ".";: GOTO 400FOR K=1 TO 39: POKE DB+3+B*39+K,0: NEXT: PRINT "Z";A = A+1: B = B+1: IF B < 13 THEN 380PRINT: PRINT: B = 0:POKE 791,DL(J)-256*INT(DL(J)/256):POKE 792. INT(DL(J)/256): POKE 776,129: CALL 768IF PEEK(786) <> 0 THEN

PRINT "ERROR IN WRITING BLOCK NO.";DL(J): STOPNEXT J: GOTO 90

DATA 169, 0, 141, 18, 3, 32, 0, 191, 0, 19, 3, 176,1. 96, 238, 18, 3, 96 , 0, 3, 96, 0, 150, 0. 9

450 END

460 IF N >- 30 THEN

PRINT "STACK OVERFLOW": STOP470 N - N+1: ST(N)-V: ST$(N)=V$: RETURN480 IF N <= 0 THEN

PRINT "STACK UNDERFLOW": STOP490 V - ST(N): V$ - ST$(N): N - N-1 :RETURN

Listing 2: This program creates a scratch disk that you can use to test the sortprogram of listing 1.

10 DATA "/SCRATCH", "/SCRATCH/MASS", "/SCRATCH/RHODE","/SCRATCH/VERMONT", "/SCRATCH/MASS/NY","/SCRATCH/MASS/NJ", "/SCRATCH/RHODE/PA","/SCRATCH/VERMONT/MAINE"20 DIM A$(40): D$»CHR$ (4): ONERR GOTO 10030 READ H$: PRINT D$;"PREFIX ";H$:

PRINT D$;"SAVE TESTFILE"40 J=0: L-INT(40*RND(1))+1: PRINT: PRINT:

PRINT L;" FILES TO BE CREATED": PRINT50 FOR K-1 TO L: TY$="": FOR 1=1 TO INT(10*RND(1)) + 1 :

TY$-TY$+CHR$(65+26*RND(1)): NEXT: X=FRE (0)60 PRINT K;" ";H$+"/"+TY$: PRINT D$;"OPEN "+TY$:

PRINT D$;"CLOSE "+TY$: IF RND(1) < .30 THEN J-J+1:

A$(J)=TY$70 NEXT K

80 PRINT J;" FILES TO DELETE": IF J=0 THEN 3090 FOR 1=1 TO J: PRINT D$;"DELETE "+A$(I):

PRINT I;" ";H$+"/"+A$(I): NEXT: GOTO 30100 END

plicitly checks each entry to see if itis a subdirectory. If it is, the programpushes that subdirectory's informa-tion onto the stack.

After the program processes eachdirectory block, line 210 checks to seeif that block is the last block of thecurrent directory. If not, executionloops back to line 120 to read andprocess the next block; otherwise ex-ecution continues with line 220.

When program execution reaches

line 220, variable CO contains thenumber of directory entries stored inNA$, DR$ contains the directoryheader, BC contains the number ofblocks in the directory, and array DLcontains the actual block numbersthat form the directory.

Lines 220 through 280 perform thebubble sort of array NA$. Lines 290through 430 write the sorted arrayback to the disk. After the programhas written the directory to the disk,

the entire procedure is repeated bya jump to line 90.

Testing the Utility

Because you are dealing with a pro-gram that directly accesses diskblocks, you should take care to verifythat the copy you have acquired(either by typing or downloading)works properly. One small error candestroy a disk containing weeks ofhard work. Listing 2 gives a small pro-gram you can use to test the utility.This program creates a dummy diskwith a random number of active andinactive entries stored in different sub-directories. To use this program, firstformat a disk with volume name/SCRATCH using the ProDOS UtilitiesDisk, then create the following sub-directories:

/SCRATCH/MASS

/SCRATCH/MASS/NY

/SCRATCH/MASS/NJ

/SCRATCH/RHODE

/SCRATCH/RHODE/PA

/SCRATCH/VERMONT

/SCRATCH/VERMONT/MAINE

Then run the program in listing 1.

Now run the sort utility program onthis disk. This will give you a chanceto get accustomed to the prompting.If the utility runs with no apparentproblem, catalog each subdirectory tosee if each catalog is sorted.

Next, go into each subdirectoryusing the PREFIX command and typeLOAD TESTFILE. TESTFILE is theBASIC program that created thedummy disk and is stored in each sub-directory. If you can successfully loadTESTFILE from each subdirectorywithout I/O errors, go through thefollowing final test, which checks ifdata can be stored on the disk. Try tostore a dummy program in each sub-directory, then reload the stored pro-grams and verify that they are uncor-rupted. If you can successfully storeprograms on the disk, this proves thatall data pointers on the disk are intactand that the utility works reliably. ■

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Little, Gary B. Inside the Apple We, Bowie, MD:

Brady Communications, 1985.ProDOS Technical Reference Manual. Apple

Computer Inc., 1983.

124 BYTE • IUNE 1986

SO YOU THINK

YOU KNOW ALL

THE REASONS

TO DUMP

YOUR OLD

PRINTER?

WELL, HERE'SONE MORE REASON.

■ ■■■■■

i

:

i® pt .«?#* l« <* b*t-t»* pr i«H

ALPSP2000

You can think of plenty of reasonsto dump your old printer.

It's too slow. Too finicky. Too limited.Or it's simply down too often.

Well, here's one more reason.

The new Alps P2000 Dot MatrixPrinter. It's everything your oldprinter's not.

P2000 is a trademark of Alps Electric Co.,Ltd.© 1986 Alps America.

It's dependable. If you give itreasonable care, it'll give you five ormore years without a breakdown.

It's fast. It prints drafts at 250 cps.Memos at 125 cps. And near letterquality correspondence at 50 cps. Allwith perfect clarity.

It's versatile. It prints everything

»f broc^u^ • #r*<3

t^i# rt«w«e o* our d»»i*f rt»»f «*t

ONLtE ERROR

ADJUST

«■». HOST —

• M061 ■«

• imn ■

HD ■

MOST m». H061MO MM NORM

■ « MM mo*

1

LF FF

TOF COPY

RESET

TYPESTYLE

■ MJQ ■

MODE

■1 ff

PITCH 8MONQ

,^^a ^/U&

^^pJ ,^^p- j-^

^0

V

<*0 40

f ,

wm—mmmm^mm—mmmm

from letters and graphics to 16-inchwide spreadsheets. And it runs with allthe most popular PCs and software.

What's more, it comes with allthe extras office automation gurus lookfor. Like a paper-saving push/pulltractor feed. Multiple type fonts andsizes. Bi-directional printing. And more.

We could go on. But you get thepoint. The best reason to dump yourold printer is a better printer.

Especially one from a betterprinter company.

TheP2000. AI DC

From Alps.

AMERICA

AND HERE'STHE BIGGESTREASON.

That's pronounced "Alps"

As in Alps Electric Co., Ltd., the

Japanese company that manufactures

the new Alps P2000™ Dot Matrix

Printer. Which happens

to be the perfect PC

printer for companies

who've outgrown their

old ones.

Fine. But who's Alps Electric?

And what difference does it make?

P2000 is a trademark of Alps Electric Co., Ltd. O 1986 Alps America.

Alps Electric is an InternationalFortune 500 company. A $1.5 billionmanufacturer of computer andelectronic products.

A company that has beenmaking computer printersfor a decade and selling themin countries throughoutthe world. Including this country(under the brand names of majorcomputer manufacturers).

What's more, Alps Electric isthe parent company of Alps America,the company that sells, services andsupports Alps printers in America.

And the difference all thatmakes is this.

Whether you're buying oneprinter or a thousand, you reallyought to buy them from a solid,experienced company you candepend on.

Which is exactly what we are.

Alps. Now that you know howto say it, perhaps you'd like to dial it.(800) 828-ALPS. In California, call(800) 257-7872.

Better yet, send us the attachedcoupon for a free Alps P2000demonstration. ^^

One given in ^\ \ I E#%

plain English.

AMERICA

' t

if"■

Finally you can get a complete CAD packageat a reasonable price! For only $299, ProDesignII provides the advanced features you get onCAD systems costing thousands of dollars. Butthere is another, very important reason youshould get ProDesign II. ProDesign D is veryunique among CAD packages. It is easy to learnand use. When we call ProDesign II "The Easyto Use CAD System", we're not joking. You willbe productive with ProDesign II in an hour ortwo instead of a week or two.

What else does ProDesign II offer? Compatibil-ity. Compatibility with over 100 printers.Compatibility with over 50 plotters. Compati-bility with most graphics adapters, digitizingtablets, and mice. Compatibility with mostdisplay adapters. Compatibility with any soft-ware that can produce HP plotter commands.Compatibility with mainframe CAD systems(IGES). All at no extra charge!

What additional hardware do you need? None!An IBM PC compatible and 512K RAM is all you

need. ProDesign II produces high resolutiondrawings on your dot matrix printer — better

than .005" resolution on an IBM/Epson com-patible printer. In fact, the drawings on thispage were printed on a $299 dot matrixprinter! You don't have to get a mouse ordigitizing tablet ProDesign II is designed foreasy and efficient keyboard use. You won't evenneed a math coprocessor, although it issupported. From a small drawing on a dotmatrix printer to an E-Size drawing on a largeplotter, ProDesign II is the one to use!

ProDesign II

Affordable, Compatible, and (Jsable!

Where can you get ProDesign IP

See your local computer dealer, or contact

American Small Business Computers

118 South MillPryor, OK 74361

(918) 825-4844 Inquiry 23

PRODESIGN II

ANYBODY CAN DO IT!

THIS DRAWING WAS PRINTED ON AN ORDINARY

EPSON/IBM COMPATIBLE DOT MATRIX PRINTER.

MORE THAN 4 MILLION DOTS PER PAGE!

0>=

DRAWN USING PRODESIGN II

THE EASY TO USE CAD SYSTEM

ONLY $299!

SR-7

BLACKBIRD

WORLD'S FASTEST JET - 3500+ MILES PER HOUR

by Mark Anacker

DecodingMacPaint onthe IBM PC

Transfer graphicscreated on theMacintosh andmanipulate themon your PC

You would be hard pressedto find two more dissimilarsystems than the IBM PCand the Apple Macintosh—especially when it comes to graphics.And that can be a problem in anoffice where both systems are used.With a little effort, however, you canbring them closer together.

I've written a Pascal program for theIBM PC called MacView that decodesand displays MacPaint images on yourPC display. [Editor's note: MacView, whichwas written in Turbo Pascal, is available fordownloading from BYTEnet Listings at (617)861-9764. It is also available on disk; seepage 445.] Moreover, this software pro-vides the foundation to a bridge be-tween Macintosh and PC graphics;once Macintosh graphics are trans-lated for the PC, it is relatively easyto write additional program code tomanipulate the images.

First, of course, you must get theMacPaint file from the Mac to the PC.For the Mac, you can use a commu-nications package such as MacLink orMacTerminal. For the PC, nearly anyof the common asynchronous PCcommunication packages will do. Asfor connecting the Mac to the PC, youcould use a dial-up modem link, buta direct cable between the two ma-chines is best. Figure 1 is a cableschematic for a direct hookup.

Once you have completed the trans-fer, the MacPaint file can be decoded.

(continued)Mark Anacker (4920 200 SouthwestA204, Lynnwood, WA 98036) studied com-puter science at Seattle Pacific University.

ILLUSTRATED BY STEPHEN GERVAIS

IUNE 1986 -BYTE

131

DECODING MACPAINT

Each image occupies 720 horizontalscan lines of 72 bytes each, for a totalof 51,840 bytes. Each byte represents8 horizontal points on the screen, withthe highest bit to the left (see figure2). A 1 bit indicates a dark pixel, anda 0 indicates a white one.

To save disk space, however, Mac-Paint stores its images in a com-pressed bit-map format—reducing theimage data to only about 10K bytes.(The subsequent decoding, which re-quires a great deal of processorpower, is the reason the Mac takes solong to bring an image up on thescreen.) The bytes in each scan lineare encoded into two types of

records: mixed-data and repeating-data (see figure 3).

A mixed-data record consists of abyte indicating the record length(from 1 to 72 bytes) and the raw data.This type of record is used when eachbyte in a scan line is different from itsneighbor. Such a record actually takesup one more byte than the originalscan-line data.

Repeating-data records are more ef-ficient. Most images consist ofrepeated bit patterns, which can berepresented easily with just a bytethat indicates the number of bytes torepeat, followed by the actual bit pat-tern. This method allows you to com-

Macintos

h 9-pin connector

IBM PC 25-pin connector

Pin 7Pin 3Pin 2

Pin 3Pin 5Pin 9

(DB9P)

IDB25S)

Figure 1: Schematic for direct cable hookup.

press as many as 127 bytes into asfew as 2 bytes. And you can store asingle scan line using a combinationof mixed-data and repeating-datarecords. The eighth bit in the first byteof the record, the counter byte,distinguishes the record type; speci-fically, that bit is set to indicate arepeating record.

In addition to image data, the first512 bytes of a MacPaint file containsome header information and the bitmaps of the paint patterns that aredisplayed along the bottom of theMacPaint screen. For our purposes,that information is not necessary, andMacView begins reading the MacPaintfile at the 513th byte.

As MacView reads the MacPaint fileone byte at a time, it decodes themixed-data and repeating-data recordtypes. Since the Mac has a black-on-white display, the program must flipthe bits with a NOT operator to makethe image appear the same on a PC.The program then puts the resultingbits in a buffer that can be accessedvia an array of pointers.

Once the image is in the buffer, theprogram displays part of it on thescreen. 1 chose to write the image

{continued}

Line 1Line 2Line 3Line 4

Line 720

Byte 72

Byte

71

Byte

70

Byte 69

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

I

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

I

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Byte 4

Byte 3

Byte 2

Byte 1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

[

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

I

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

I

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

I

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

I

Figure 2: The bit-mapped layout of a MacPaint image contains 51,840 bytes.

bit pattern to be repeatedfrom I to 72 times

r

~\

8th bit setindicates -repeating

counter byte(length + 128)

bit pattern(one byte)

r

from I to 72 bytes of Image data

A

~-\

counter byteI -72

data byte

data byte

Figure 3: left, repeating-data record; right, mixed-data record.

132 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Turbo Pascal® Source Code Included

Borland's new Turbo Editor

Toolbox, "Best of the Year"

award winner, lets yon build

your own word processor

for only $69.95!

JLurbo Editor Toolbox™ letsyou build the best of all wordprocessors into your ownword processor. All themodules, techniques,instructions, and TurboPascal source code are atyour fingertips. You'llquickly learn how tointegrate editor proceduresand functions into yourprograms, or you can useTurbo Editor Toolbox "as is,"because it has everything.

You get Turbo Pascal sourcecode and everything youneed to buildyour ownword processor

The modules, the manual, ready-tc-complle source code, and a full-featured word processor calledMicroStar,™ which we probably oughtto sell separately because it's anexcellent text editor. But anyway, youget It fee as part of our new TurboEditor Toolbox (Maybe this is whyJerry fturnelle of BYTE magazinerecently wrote that "BorlandInternational is a public benefactor.The company continues to pour outgood, well-documented products atreasonable prleea ") Your freeMicroStar includes a complete pull-down menu user Interface which youcan use "as is," or you can modifyit for inclusion In your TurboPascal programs.

As well as MicroStar, you also geta complete editor ready to includein your programs. Windows, blockcommands, and memory-mappedscreen routines come with it

How to do windows withoutjajnmingyour fingers back inyour wallet

State-of-the-art "windowing"techniques are part of our new TurboEditor's repertoire. Sophisticated buteasy-to-learn techniques let youdesign your word processor to show■ *- - several documents-or several partsa of the same document-all at once.H/ Turbo Editor Toolbox lets youopen the windows you want—mV wherever you want them—at aprice that won't make you wantto Jump out of them.

How to turn good stuff intogreat stuff-maybe evengreenstuff]

With your new Turbo Editor Toolbox,you can make WordStar* behavelike MultlMate.'" You can supportwindows Just like Microsoft's" WordAnd do It as fast as WordPerfect*does It In other words, you can dowhat they should have done. YouJust go in there, tinker, fiddle, foolaround, and come up with your ownversion-whlch will be the best wordprocessor you've never seen before.(And If you want to sell it, go for it;we're not the kind of company that'llsend bean-counters and ambulance-chasers after you for royalties.)

You get a lightning-fasteditor, innumerable features,and a 60-day money-backguarantee** for only $69.95

For only $69.95, you can build yourown word processor and make itdo whatever you want It to do. Thisalready popular new program Is Justone more way that Borland helps youhelp yourself. So call us or the dealernearest you. All the telephonenumbers and ordering informationare in the a4Jacent coupon.

EDTTORTtOLBOX

Standard Turbo EditoiToolbox features inch

iSp^

rtfe.-l s

t

SK Wordwrap

Bf UNDO last change

S^ Auto-indent

SK Tab, insert andoverstrike modes,

& Find& Find/Replace

with optionsB"' Set left and right

margins

centering, etc.Bf Multiple windows&~ Multitasking5K RAM-based editor

Sf Block mark, moveand copy

EK Paging, scrolling andtext display

■■The new TurboEditor Toolbox is theTurbo Pascal source codeto just about anythingyou ever wanted a PC-compatible text editor todo, along with a reallyexcellent book ofinstructions on whattext editors are and howto use the Toolbox tobuild a custom texteditor... you can't affordto be without this."

Jerry Pournelle, BYTE Magazine,discussing Turbo Editor Toolbox,to which he gave his "Best Of mmThe Year" Award S*

^r

BORLAND

INTERNATIONAL

4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVESCOTTS VALLEY. CA 95066(408) 438-8400 TELEX: 172373

Borland products include Turbo Pascal; Turbo Prolog; Turbo Database Toolbox, Turbo Lightning; Turbo GraphixToolbox; Turbo Tulor; Turbo GameWorks; Turbo Editor Toolbox; Word Wizard; Reflex. The Anaiysi; SideKick; SideKick.The Macintosh Olfice Manager; Traveling SideKick; and SuperKey—all ol which are trademarks or registeredtrademarks ol Borland International. Inc. or Borland/Analytica, Inc.

MicroStar is a trademark ot Borland International, Inc. WordStar is a registered trademark ol MicroPro InternationalCorp. MulliMale is a trademark ol MulliMale International Corp, Microsoft is a regislereb trademark ol Microsoll Corp.WordPerfect is a registered trademark ot Satellite Software International. Copyright '906 Borland InternationalBI-1055

Inquiry 395 for End-Users. Inquiry 396 for DEALERS ONLY.

Telephone:

CODs and purchase orders WILL NOT be accepted by Borland.Outside USA make payment by credit card or International PostalMoney 0

"YES, it within 60 days ol purchase this product does notperform in accordance with our claims, please call our customerservice department and we will gladly arrange a refund.fMlnimum System Requirements: 192KRuns on IBM PC, XT. AT. PCjr., andtrue compatibles

\

n^c

1&ASF

Th& data

you'll ^

°niorrow

j&ASF

BASF QUALIMETRIC'"5.25" FLEXYDISKS.

^fyo/sir

ill I\\\\\VV\\\\\\\v\V\V\

■HMM

LOOK

WHAT'S IN IT

FOR YOU!

<&^

^tyrfO

""'en

?c*toc

■Uje.s

'%«£S

>t^

Now more than ever, there's more for you when you buy BASFQualimetric'M FlexyDisks." There's a special two-part gameticket that not only gives you 100 chances to win an Apple" lieComputer in our Apple-a-Day Sweepstakes, but is also an excit-ing scratch-off game with 14,110 chances to instantly win cashprizes up to $1,000. What else is in it for you? Only the best...theBASF FlexyDisk, certified 100% error-free and warranted forever.See your BASF dealer today and look for the specially-markedboxes of 5.25" and 3.5" BASF FlexyDisks.

■I

BASF

DECODING MACPAINT

The one thing MacViewcan't handle is thedifference in aspectratio between thePC and the Mac.

directly to the graphics adapter mem-ory for faster performance and easierscrolling. You can scroll the imageusing the cursor keys, shifting the sec-tion of the image currently displayed.In this way you can quickly view theentire picture. When you scroll up ordown, however, the image moves twoscan lines at a time, which is due tothe way the graphics memory is or-ganized. So that you know what partof the image you are viewing, the pro-gram displays the number of the topscan line in the upper right corner ofthe display.

The one thing my program can'thandle is the difference in aspect ratiobetween the two systems. The pixelson the Mac screen are square, whilethe PC's are rectangular. This meansthat the images on the PC screen ap-pear vertically stretched. Of course,you could compensate somewhat forthe aspect ratio by skipping everyother scan line when the image is dis-played, but doing so causes a loss ofdetail. Some IBM PC compatibles—particularly those that use LCDs,which inherently use square pixels-may correct the aspect ratio problem.

I wrote the program in Pascal forspeed, but you could translate it intoBASIC or another language as well.But no matter what language you use,once you've made sense out of aMacPaint image on your IBM PC, youcan begin to do things with it. I havewritten programs that enlarge andcompress the images as well as printthem on an IBM PC-compatible laserprinter. I also use the large hard diskon my PC to archive the MacPaintimages. There's really no limit to whatyou can create when you combine thegraphics of the Macintosh and theIBM PC. ■

Inquiry 39

IUNE I986

135

»?:*4i^ ^

^

f

s

>V.v ' - ■'■■

With Network Revelation, you're not alone.

Span the void that separatesyou from other PC's. Be as one with auniverse of data. Be a true networkwith Network Revelation®

Network Revelation is more thana relational database managementsystem. It's a complete applicationsenvironment for most microcomputernetworks. That's not dreaming aboutthe future. It's low-key raving abouta capability of the present.

With Network Revelation, youcan send and receive data on local areanetworks and remote file servers. Rev'sdata dictionaries let you add or restruc-

Cosmos, Inc., 19530 Pacific Highway S.

136 B YTE • IUNE 1986

ture fields at will, saving ages ofprogramming time. And our menu-driven applications generator andprocedural language are eons aheadof other databases.

The possibilities are infinite.Distributed processing systems linkingworlds. Accounting, inventory andorder entry systems connected forinstant access to data by a galaxy ofusers. And your data is secure withcomplete file or record locking.

REVELATION co-exists withMS-DOS™ So you can transport Lotus1-2-3™ Multiplan® or other data from

COSMOS

PC to PC-using IBM®'s new PC Net-work or any network hardware runningNovell NetWare™ You can even evolvefiles from primitive, single-user data-bases into a powerful Rev application.

Encounter the future of distributeddata processing today. Revelation costsjust $950? And a four-user upgradeto Network Revelation is only $495?So call us and we'll arrange for anunforgettable demonstration with aCosmos rep in your area.

MS™ and Multiplan" of Microsoft Corporation.1-2-3™ of Lotus Development Corporation.NetWare™ of Novell, Inc. IBM" of InternationalBusiness Machines.

'Suggested U. S. list price.

Seattle, WA 98188, 206-824-9942

Inquiry 96

PROGRAMMING INSIGHT

HILBERT CURVESMADE SIMPLE

by Michael Ackerman

This one-subroutine BASIC program usesonly global variables

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED in fractalshapes, you are probably familiar withthe Hilbert curve. It was among thefirst of many wild but "self-similar"shapes that astonished mathemati-cians around the turn of the century.

Hobbyists have discovered thebeauty of David Hilbert's creation,and several have written programs todraw it on the high-resolution screensof personal computers. Unfortunate-ly, most of the programs that producethe curve are quite complicated. Thedemonstration program that comeswith the Apple Pascal system containsa procedure that itself contains twomore procedures. I had a difficult timefollowing the program's logic.

Niklaus Wirth, author of the Pascaland Modula-2 programming languages,includes a Hilbert curve program inhis book Algorithms + Data Structures -Programs (Prentice-Hall, 1976). Whilethis program is easy to understand, itcontains four procedures that calleach other again and again. 1 decidedthat there had to be a simpler way to

(continued)Michael Ackerman (1539 Van Dyke Rd.,San Marino, CA 91108) is a senior major-ing in history at the University of Californiaat Santa Barbara.

Listing 1: A simple Applesoft BASIC program tc

generate Hilbert curves.

1 GOTO 1000

2 REM *****************************************

3 REM * HILBERT BY MICHAEL ACKERMAN

- 8/27/85 *

4 REM *****************************************

100 RDER = RDER - 1

110 TURN = - TURN

120 TEMP = DY:DY = -

TURN * DX:DX -

TURN * TEMP

130 IF RDER > 0 THEN

GOSUB 100

140 X •» X + DX:Y - Y

+ DY: HPLOT TO

X,Y

150 TURN = - TURN

160 TEMP - DY:DY - -

TURN * DX:DX =

TURN * TEMP

170 IF RDER > 0 THEN

GOSUB 100

180 X = X + DX:Y - Y

+ DY: HPLOT TO

X.Y

190 IF RDER > 0 THEN

GOSUB 100

200 TEMP » DY:DY - -

TURN * DX:DX -

TURN * TEMP

210 TURN - - TURN

220 X - X + DX:Y « Y

+ DY: HPLOT TO

X.Y

230 IF RDER > 0 THEN

GOSUB 100

240 TEMP - DY:DY - -

TURN * DX:DX -

TURN * TEMP

250 TURN - - TURN

260 RDER = RDER + 1

270 RETURN

1000 TEXT:HGR:HC0L0R'

■3:INPUT "ORDER

<1-7>";RDER

1010 POKE 49234,1

1020 DY » 192 / 2 *

RDER

1030 TURN - - 1

1040 DX - X - Y - 0

1050 HPLOT X,Y

1060 GOSUB 100

1070 END

IUNE 1986 "BYTE 137

HILBERT CURVES

draw this elegant figure.

Since recursive programs are hardenough to follow, 1 decided to writean Applesoft BASIC program thatwould have only one subroutine witha single entry point. The final program(see listing 1) not only helped me tounderstand the Hilbert curve better,but also let me use some interestingprogramming tricks. {Editor's note:HILBERT.BAS is available on BYTEnetListings at (617) 861-9764. The programis also available on disk [see page 445).|

A first-order Hilbert curve is verysimple (see figure 1) and can be drawnby following the rough outline shownin table I. I inserted four recursivecalls into this outline so that the pro-cedure could draw higher-ordercurves. These calls are conditional onthe variable ORDER, which isdecremented each time the pro-cedure calls itself and incrementedeach time the procedure issues areturn. Thus, the number of nestedgosub statements is determined bythe original value of ORDER (seetable 2).

The final refinement was to insertcommands to swap left for right. Tounderstand this, it might be useful tocompare a first-order curve (figure 1)to a second-order curve (figure 2). Thefirst line segment in the first-ordercurve is horizontal, but the first seg-ment in the second-order curve is ver-tical. In a third-order curve (figure 3),it is horizontal again. To remedy thisflip in orientation, the program in-cludes the variable TURN, which in-

Table 1: A rough outline forgenerating first-order curves.

turn leftdraw forwardturn rightdraw forwardturn rightdraw forwardturn left

Table

2: A modified procedure

showing the placement of recursive

calls.

ORDER=2

hil

ORDER = ORDER-1

turn left

gosub hil if ORDER>0

draw forward

turn right

gosub hil if ORDER>0

draw forward

gosub hil if ORDER>0

turn right

draw forward

gosub hil if ORDER >0

turn left

ORDER=ORDER+1

return

dicates a left turn when it equals 1and a right turn when it equals -l.ltalso includes commands to invertTURN each time the curve routineflips direction.

You may notice that both table 1and table 2 are almost palindromes;

that is, they read the same backwardas forward. The main subroutine inthe BASIC program in listing 1 (lines100 through 270) is palindromic aswell. This symmetry is visible in theHilbert curve itself. You can take acurve of any order and fold it so thatone half exactly covers the other.

Another advantage of this programis that it runs well without using localvariables. Both Pascal programs thatI referred to earlier depend on localvariables, which are neatly storedeach time a procedure calls itself andrestored when it issues a return. Thisprogram has only global variables,which are not stored automatically.The other BASIC implementations ofthe Hilbert curve that I have seenstore variables in arrays each time theprograms recur. This programeliminates the need to store variablesby making sure that all relevantvariables have the same values at thebeginning and end of the mainroutine.

Since the program outline in table1 has two left turns and two rightturns, you end up pointing in thesame direction you started in.ORDER also remains the same intable 2 because it is first decre-mented, then incremented. In listing1, TURN is inverted four times, so ittoo is the same upon leaving theroutine as it was upon entering. Mostimportant, the variables are notchanged by the GOSUB statementsbecause they call only the routineitself. ■

Figure 1: A first-order Hilbertcurve. Note that the first line segmentis horizontal.

Figure 2: A second-order Hilbertcurve. Note that the first line segmentis vertical.

Figure 3: A third-order Hilbertcurve. Note that the first line segmentis horizontal again.

138 BYTE • IUNE 1986

d

■ Jf

!''!j!i!g

■ ■

■,.- *

i /

Tr/p/e your PC speed for only $599!

8087 Upgrades"

MicroWay is the world leader in 8087 support. Our8087 development software has been in use since1982. By 1984 we had become Intel's 97th largestOEM account. When you buy from us, you can be con-fident that you will receive the 8087 chip designed foryour PC and that our unique diagnostics will instantlyverify that your processor works correctly as installed.Call for current prices.

287Turbo

This card plugs into the 80287 socket on your AT orCOMPAQ, doubling the 80287 clock from 4 to 8 Mhz.It does not change the 80286 clock speed or affectyour warranty. The card comes with an 8 Mhz 80287and has provisions for faster crystals as better 80287sbecome available. It also has a reset button and circuitthat provide a hardware alternative to CNTRL-ALT-DEL.287Turbo with Diagnostics and Reset $395

Number Smasher"

Number Smasher gives you AT speed and 100% com-patibility with all PC software and hardware. It comeswith a 10 Mhz 8086 and 512K of no wait state RAM.Most are shipped with an optional matched 10 Mhz8087 and 1 28K daughterboard. The card runs pro-grams a factor of 2.5 to 4.0 faster than the PC, XT orcompatibles it runs in. Other features includeFASTROM, a Ram Disk, Print Spooler and Disk Cache.Revision 2 of the Smasher is designed and manufac-tured by MicroWay in the U.S.A. and has the bestservice and support of any accelerator card.

MegaPage"

MicroWay's "Lotus/Intel" extended memory card hasall the features of the others plus one: it uses lowpower, cool running CMOS DRAM. Ask for ourpamphlet "Extended vs Expanded Memory" and learnwhy MegaPage is the right card for you.MegaPage with 2 Megabytes CMOS $549

MicroWay-

Inquiry 229

Number Smasher, MegaPage and 287Turbo are tradei

P.O. Box 79, Kingston, Mass. 02364 USA (617) 746-7341Tempo House, London, U.K. call 01-223-7662

arks of MicroWay, Inc. MicroWay is a registered trademark of MicroWay, Inc.

Ada just moved

into a

smaller place.

We have some very good newsfor you.

You can now get a validated,full Ada® compiler for the IBM®PC AT. From the people whodesigned the Ada language. Forjust $3,000.

Which means you and yourcompany can now program in Adawithout tying up a big, expensivecomputer.

And you should program inAda. And not just because the DoDsays so.

140 B YTE • JUNE 1986

Ada & 4-MB of memory*for the price of 4-MB of memory.

The DoD mandates Ada fortheir software principally becauseAda is considerably easier and lessexpensive to maintain.

Does more reliable and easierto maintain code sound attractiveto you? If not, just look at how yourprogrammers are spending 80% oftheir time.

People who know Ada are call-ing it "the only logical language for

the eighties(and nineties."jThe point is,"they're notthinking ofAda as "the DoD language." It'ssimply because Ada supports good,solid software engineering practice.

And now you can try full Adaprogramming for less than the costof a two week training program.

The Alsys™ Ada compiler forthe PC AT is not only validated, it'sactually written in Ada. And pro-duces code so efficient it executesfaster than C or Pascal on testedbenchmarks. ^^

And if that's notenough, the Alsys PC ATAda compiler runs in pro-tected mode. So you canuse the full amount ofmemory available to thePC AT. This means youcan run a program using

alsi/g

1432 Main Street, Waltham, MA 02154

□ Send me more information aboutthe Alsys PC AT Ada compiler.

□ Send me more information about Ada

Title

-ompany

Addr.

Citv

State

Zip

[elephc

IBM

in

Ada

Knowledge is good.Especially when it's free.

up to 16

megabytes

of memory

for code

and data

without

worrying

about DOS,

overlays and

all that stuff. L^^ tx!1 _

Lastly this compiler to talk to

comes with a 4-megabyte

memory upgrade board.

That, by itself, is worth

the price of admission.At this point, we

suspect you might be

tempted to pull out a

credit card and give us a call.Or at least fill out the coupon.Write: Alsys, Inc., 1432 Main

Street, Waltham, MA 02154,

U.S.A., Telephone: (617) 890-0030,

Telex: 948536.

In France: Alsys, S.A., 29,

Avenue de Versailles, 78170 La

Celle St. Cloud, France, Tele-phone: 33(1)3918 12 44,Telex: 697569.

In England: Alsys, Ltd.,Partridge Hse, NewtownRoad, Henley-on-Thames,Oxon RG9 1EN,England, Telephone:44 (491) 579090,Telex: 846508.

Ada® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Government (Ada Joint Program Office). IBM® and PC AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.Alsys™ is a trademark, service mark, and trade name of Alsys S.A. *Memory board manufactured by Profit Systems, Inc.

Inquiry 16

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 141

V

-'.?

.1 »*

'v

//.■r

&

li

m

r

f

XX

fc

It

!**

L-

:>:

-

;:

.. ,■*■"

tf'

i

11

\

\

.^mmmmmiesaalumimmiim

)

^

?

. (I

A

<0

. *£

v

■-I.

'

*

J''

f.

E

■*

.

;

_

■■•

*

....

H

Uk

k'

h-

/

•<

BUTE

Computersand Music

The Challenge of Music Software

by Roger Powell 145

Digital Music Synthesis

by Robert A. Moog 155

Digital Sampling on the AppleMacintosh

by Christopher Yavelow 171

Musical Fractals

by Charles Dodge and Curtis R. Bahn .... 185

A MIDI Proiect

by lay Kubicky 199

MIDI Programming

by Donald Swearingen 211

THE LAST TIME BYTE PRESENTED a Computers and Music theme issue wasback in April 1980. Developments in that area have been so dramatic sincethen—particularly in the last two years—that we decided a concentrated lookat computers and music was long overdue.

Many of our readers are already aware of the growing enthusiasm generatedby the MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) specification: new softwareand MIDI-compatible devices seem to appear daily. However, if you need anintroduction to what the infusion of computers into the art of musicmakingis going to mean, refer to our lead article, "The Challenge of Music Software"by Roger Powell.

"Digital Music Synthesis" is an overview of the different techniques currentlyused by today's popular synthesizers. It is authored by Robert Moog, whosename is synonymous with music synthesizers.

Christopher Yavelow offers more insight into the realm of digital synthesis,in particular, digital sampling on the Macintosh. He even provides us withenticing glimpses of some available sampling software.

Fractals are always turning up in unusual and interesting places in the com-puter world. We often find them associated with graphics, but Charles Dodgeand Curtis Bahn introduce us to another application in "Musical Fractals."

We are particularly happy to present lay Kubicky's "A MIDI Project." Notonly does the author give an overview of the software end of MIDI and in-clude the schematic for an IBM PC MIDI hardware interface, he also throwsin multitrack MIDI recording and playback software.

Finally, Don Swearingen returns with a software follow-up to his MIDI recorderarticle, which appeared in the Fall 1985 special issue \nside the IBM PCs. Thistime, Mr. Swearingen shows us some Turbo Pascal software tools for modify-ing MIDI data stream information after it has been captured in your computer'smemory.

Other related articles in the Reviews section include an excellent review ofthe Kurzweil 2 50 by former BYTE editor in chief Chris Morgan and a lookat four MIDI interfaces by Roger Powell and myself. Mario Sergio Bernardoreviews the capabilities of two music software packages for the Macintosh,ConcertWare+ and SongPainter. In addition, four books dealing with com-puters and music are critiqued in this issue's Book Reviews section.

The industry is changing far too rapidly for us to examine every aspect ofcomputers and music, but I would like to take this opportunity to point outRoger Powell's appearance on the masthead as a contributing editor. We arefortunate to have someone with Roger's considerable talents associated withBYTE, and we hope to call on him regularly to provide ongoing coverage ofcomputers and music.

—Richard Grehan, Technical Editor

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 143

TO EXCEED

INDUSTRY

STANDARDS

Tech PC Desktop computers areengineered to exceed industrystandards. Each unit is housed inan attractive and sturdy steelcase designed to blend in withthe office or home environmentand at the same time protect thesystem components from damage.The units' built in fans are de-signed for maximal cooling andminimal noise. A full complimentof expansion slots and extracapacity power supply give eachof the Four Desktop models theability to add additional acces-sory boards and peripherals tothe unit without difficulty. TheIntel 8088 and 80286 micro-processor based motherboardsused in the Tech PersonalComputers meet or exceed IBMcompatibility standards withrespect to processing speed andmemory capabilities. All of thefour desktop models are de-signed to function for a widevariety of people in a widevariety of situations.

TECH PC DESKTOP COMPUTERS are avail-able now in 4 different base models:

TECH PC/XT DESKTOP $ 749

Options:Tech PC/XT with 20MB Hard Disk . .$1249Tech PC/XT with 20MB Hard Disk,Monochrome Monitor, Hercules® CompatibleMono/Graphics Card $1449

TECH TURBO PC/XT DESKTOP $899

Options:Tech Turbo PC/XT Desktop with 20MB Hard

Disk $1399

Tech Turbo PC/XT 20MB Hard Disk,Monochrome Monitor, Hercules® CompatibleMono /Graphics Card $1599

TECH PC/AT DESKTOP $1699

Options:Tech PC/AT with 20MB Hard Disk ... $2099Tech PC/AT with 20MB Hard Disk,Monochrome Monitor, Hercules CompatibleMono/Graphics Card $2299

TECH TURBO PC/AT DESKTOP $1799

Options:Tech Turbo PC/AT Desktop with 20MB Hard

Disk $2199

Tech Turbo PC/AT with 20MB Hard Disk,Monochrome Monitor, Hercules® CompatibleMono/Graphics Card $2399

All TECH PC DESKTOPS available with tapebackups, hard disks up to 280 megabytes,networking systems, and hundreds of otherhardware and software accessories.

TECH PERSONAL COMPUTERS is a full service manufacturer of Micro Computer Products and offers a

complete line of Desktop, Portables and Multi-User Computer Systems as well as an accessory

line of over one hundred enhancement products. TECH PERSONAL COMPUTERS are

all backed by a full one year warranty with additional maintenance coverage

and extended maintenance contracts available through Mohawk

Data Sciences. For more information concerning hundreds

of MDS Service Centers throughout the United

States, contact TECH PERSONAL

COMPUTERS at (714) 754-1170.

714/754-1170

2131S. Hathaway, Santa Ana, California 92705TELEX: 272006 Answer Back-TECH FAX: 714/556-8325

Inquiry 342 for End-Usere. Inquiry 343 for DEALERS ONLY.

COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

THE CHALLENGEOF MUSICSOFTWARE

by Roger Powell

An overview of the current stateof computers in music

THE MID-SIXTIES marked the begin-ning of an exciting new era in the fieldof music. At that time, both Dr. RobertMoog at his Trumansburg, New York,laboratory and Dr. Max Mathews atBell Laboratories in New Jersey werecreating electronic tools for the pro-duction of music. The Moog Synthe-sizer, although not the only device ofits kind under development at thattime, became universally accepted asa valid musical instrument, revolution-izing the electronic sound industry.But the Moog and other analog syn-thesizers are based on analogbuilding blocks like oscillators, filters,and amplifiers—circuits that may tendto drift out of calibration, especiallyunder environmental stress.

In another camp, Dr. Mathews andhis colleagues were exploring the pos-sibilities of digital sound reproductionusing a general-purpose computerequipped with a D/A converter. Theyreasoned that sound could be sam-pled at regular intervals, much like amotion-picture camera snappingframes of images. The resultingstream of audio data represents a plotof the amplitude over time and can

be faithfully "played back" by sendingthe data back out of the computerthrough the D/A converter. (This is theprinciple behind today's compact disktechnology.) Of course, the cost andsize of computing equipment at thattime posed a serious deterrent to theaverage musician's or composer'sdesire to use computer techniques inhis or her art. And, similarly, the earlyanalog synthesizers were bulky, ex-pensive instruments whose mostnatural environment seemed to bethe university laboratory, a domainnot normally frequented by the musi-cally inclined. However, the economicbarrier between sophisticated elec-tronic tools and musicians no longerexists in today's world of high-per-formance personal computers andthe new generation of music synthe-sizers, which now includes MIDI, acommunications standard for music.MIDI represents a formal set ofhardware and software rules for send-ing and receiving musical-event databetween computers and synthesizers.Music data such as notes or other per-formance parameters such as pitch-bending are typically input by the

musician using a keyboard synthesizerequipped with a MIDI hardware inter-face. This MIDI hardware encodes thekey depressions and transmits themserially at 31,2 50 bits per second overthe MIDI port. The output of this portmay be connected to the input of an-other MIDI port that is either attachedto a computer or another synthesizer.The ability to "slave" remote synthe-sizers to the movements occurring ona master instrument is reminiscent ofthe antiphonal design of early pipe

(continued)Roger Powell (Magnetic Music. POB 328,Rhinebeck, NY 12 572) is a professionalmusician and computer programmer. He hasbeen involved with music synthesis as a con-sultant for the Moog Synthesizer Companyand Bell laboratories, where he was intro-duced to computer music. A longstandingmember of Todd Rundgren's band Utopia.Roger has also played keyboards for DavidBowie and Meat Loa/ and has released twosolo synthesizer albums, Cosmic Furnace(Atlantic. 1973) and Air Pocket (Bearsville.1978). Recently. Roger has been producinghis own line of M\D\-related software toolsfor music, including Texture, a 24-track MIDIsequencer for the IBM PC.

]UNE 1986 • BYTE 145

MUSIC SOFTWARE

organs found in the world's greatcathedrals. The organist, seated at theconsole, could control distant multi-tudes of pipe ranks located through-out the building.

If you insert a computer into thisnetwork, data from the master instru-ment can be collected, stored, ana-lyzed, and passed on to otherdevices. Here it's important to distin-guish between musical-event data and

sound-sample information. The MIDIstandard currently focuses on slower-moving performance data like thatwhich the musician's keyboard move-ments describe. Musical notes consistof key numbers and times of depres-sion and release updating on theorder of seconds and milliseconds.Sound samples, on the other hand,represent a quantification of ananalog signal, and the data rate for

Hassle^FreeProgramming* ♦.

JCL FOR IBM®VSE SYSTEMSA Self-Teaching Guide

Ruth AshleyJudi N. Fernandez

Using the proven STG format of re-views, self-tests, objectives, and ex-ercises, this guide to the operatingsystem that controls IBM's new 4300series will enable application pro-grammers to handle virtually anycommunication and control require-ment encountered on the job. $12.95

THE 80286 ARCHITECTURE

Stephen P. MorseDouglas J. Albert

An in-depth guide to Intel's new 80286and 80287 microprocessors, thechips used in IBM's PC/AT and manycompatibles. Shows how to programthe chips to perform a wide range ofbusiness, scientific, and microcom-puter applications. $24.95

FILE FORMATS FORPOPULAR PC SOFTWAREA Programmer's Reference

Jeff Walden

Unlock the complex file formats ofprograms like Lotus 1-2-3, Multimate,and dBase. With this information —difficult to find and impossible to getin one place —you can easily move in-formation, intact, from one softwareprogram to another. $24.95

7/ It

Coming soon —two new titles onexpert systems...

EXPERT SYSTEMSAPPLICATIONS

Paul Harmon

PROGRAMMING

EXPERT SYSTEMS

Brian Sawyer andDennis Foster

Available now at your local book-store. For a complete list ofWiley's computer titles, write toGwenyth Jones, Dept. 6-0970.

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

Business/Law/General Books Division605 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10158.

Prices sub|ecl to change and higher in Canada

WILEY PRESS

.CO»IPUTER0@©KS

any degree of high fidelity must ap-proach the order of microseconds.MIDI encodes control signals thatmay be used to drive externalsound-generating devices or fed intomusic-processing software.

While performing, a musician nor-mally does more than just activate thenotes to be heard. Personal inflectionsmay be added by varying the "touch"or velocity with which keys are struck.Other devices on the synthesizer mayinfluence the brilliance of the soundor produce a steady vibrato. All theseparameters are defined in the MIDIstandard, although not all are imple-mented in every synthesizer. Con-tinuous controller devices such aspitch-bend and modulation wheelsgenerate large quantities of inflectiondata. Musicians must use thesedevices judiciously to avoid cloggingthe MIDI serial channel or using ex-cessive memory when recording intothe computer. Nevertheless, the Japa-nese and American synthesizer manu-facturers who cooperated to designthe MIDI specifications were wise toinclude the ability to "capture" thesemultiple dimensions of a real-timemusical performance as rendered ona MIDI-equipped instrument.

Once the synthesizer, performer,and computer have established aMIDI link, the musical process is opento deeper exploration through soft-ware utilities that manipulate musicalphrases. Of the many applicationsprograms that are presently offeredto musicians, the largest categorycould be described as "sequencers-programs that act as tapeless, multi-track recorders allowing you to createlayers of sound data one track at atime. Using the virtual tracks estab-lished in software, a single musician/composer can build and refine musi-cal structures in the same way that anauthor uses word-processing softwareto create literary works. Sequencerprograms generally offer a rich set ofediting and transformation functionsfor massaging music data into shape.There are cut-and-paste operationsthat allow you to move fragments ofmelody and rhythm around to desiredlocations earlier or later in the piece,copy functions for repeated phrases,

[continued)

146 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 374

^

m-

0

PROGRAMMEDFOR PROFIT.

NOW THE PANASONIC" SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOL MAKES IT EASYTO CREATE CUSTOM SOFTWARE-AND CUSTOMERS-FOR OURNEW HAND-HELD COMPUTER.

Introducing the Panasonic Software Development Tool(SDT) for our new 16-bit hand-held computer, thePanasonic® Personal Partner™

Designed to help you create new customers by provid-ing them with custom software, the SDT provides you with aprogramming environment which allows you to design,develop and de-bug customROM-based software on thePanasonic® Exec. Partner,™ Sr.Partner™ and other IBM-PC*compatible computers.

You'll be writing software forour one-of-a-kind PersonalPartner.It's the two-pound com-puter with the power of a desk-top,an 8-line by 80-character display

'IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, IncInquiry 255

and the option of expanding up to 128K memory. The PersonalPartner even has an optional 1200/300 baud modem formainframe communication (available 2nd half 1986).

The Personal Partner provides your clients with the on-siteanswers they need. And the optional 80-column battery-oper-ated printer makes it possible for them to create professional,computerized r"

presentationswherever they are.

When youdevelop softwarefor the PersonalPartner with thePanasonic SDT, youknow you're pro-grammed for profit.

Send for more information on the SDT, or call:

1(201)392-4645

Name

Company

Address

City

_State_

.Zip-

^^3IY3SOffllC ■

«&& Pkwy. •offic^Sr^on'ra

Secaucus, NJ.07094 WM

B686IUNE 1986 -BYTE 147

MUSIC SOFTWARE

Most popular musicfeatures repetition ofa few basic phrases.

transpose utilities for shifting the keysignature, and other tools modeledafter the text-editing environment.Beyond this, some programs havecommands to assist composing usingalgorithmic methods. This set of toolsperforms extended manipulations onthe phrases stored in memory;melodies may be rotated (end notesof phrase appear at beginning), in-verted (high notes become low notesand vice versa), and compressed orexpanded (pitch range of melodymade narrower or greater). Note andperformance streams of several tracksmay be merged into one for densepatterns, and phrases may be over-lapped with delays for echo effects.Most popular pieces of music featurerepetition and variation of a few basicphrases. The task of the composer isto develop these fragments into aseamless whole. By assigning themechanical work of actually movingand altering the note patterns to thecomputer, a high degree of spontane-ity can be achieved during the cre-ative process.

Music data can be representedgraphically in several different ways,each with its own benefits and draw-backs. Common music notation—thenormal character set of music sym-bols that musicians can read-provides a well-proven methodologyand is an obvious choice for anoperator interface given its large userbase. There are roughly 80 symbolsthat you should know to be able todecipher a musical score. Half ofthese symbols are used frequently,suggesting that some counterpart ofthe NAPLPS graphic-communicationsstandard could be adopted for low-level music-graphics applications. Theformatting of music data to a videoscreen seems straightforward untilyou want to translate real-time perfor-mance data into common notation.The problem is that a human cannotplay the prescribed notes of a musical

score precisely on time or for theexact duration indicated, forcing thecomputer that is reading the incom-ing events to make decisions aboutnote values and placement. The pro-cess of composing is reversed here(decomposing?) and the software hasto make musically appropriate deci-sions regarding the player's intentions.Dr. Roger Dannenberg of Carnegie-Mellon University has made signifi-cant progress in the development ofreal-time heuristic techniques in thisarea. He has produced algorithmsthat actually can follow a musician'sperformance and continuously ascer-tain the proper rhythmic context,speeding up and slowing down as ahuman accompanist might react tothe actions of a soloist. This informa-tion can also be used to draw ascreenful of music notation enteredvia a MIDI host instrument.

In some applications, commonmusic notation is either unsuitable orunnecessary and is replaced by otherdisplay means. Simple list editing oftimed events may be sufficient, or youmay be presented with a piano-roll-type notation where note events areshown as vertically spaced lines anddashes indicating pitch and duration.This depiction more accurately showsthe exact timing relationships be-tween notes and doesn't require famil-iarity with objects like stems anddotted 32 nd notes indigenous to stan-dard notation. Ideally, you would likethe ability to switch-select the ap-propriate view and produce hardcopy to match. I suspect that futuresoftware will support such options.

In a professional or semiprofes-sional studio environment, it is oftennecessary to synchronize the play-back of tape machines and computersequencers to run in tandem. Themotion-picture industry has been syn-chronizing sound to film for years andhas developed a time-code protocolcalled SMPTE (Society of Motion Pic-ture and Television Engineers) speci-fically to assist that procedure. Unlikesimple FSK (frequency-shift keyed)sync signals used to drive sequencerdevices from tape, each block ofSMPTE signal bits contains a uniquetime stamp to facilitate precise loca-tion for sound or film editing. In a

sound lab, one track of a multitracktape will be "striped" with SMPTEcode for the length of the musicalselection. Although MIDI does notrecognize SMPTE directly, any timecode may easily be translated into aMIDI-format message (the song posi-tion pointer) that the software mayuse to find a point in the score data.Several companies now manufactureunits to read SMPTE and generate theMIDI location data. By using only asingle track of tape, a computer se-quencer can be "clocked" and madeto send its data to an ensemble ofsynthesizers, freeing the other tapetracks for sounds that must be re-corded through microphones (vocals,guitars, flutes, etc.). Instruments canbe played by the computer as the finalmaster tape is created (mixdown)preventing the loss of fidelity causedby analog-tape limitations.

MIDI has become useful in other ap-plications in the sound and entertain-ment industry. MIDI control has beenbuilt into mixing consoles for auto-mating computer-controlled mix-downs. A special MIDI interface cancontrol stage lighting, both spotlightand laser-oriented. The growth in theuse of MIDI-controlled equipment hasalso made it clear that the MIDI stan-dard needs to be developed furtherto accommodate the things imagina-tive people have envisioned for it.Bandwidth will have to be increasedor multiport interfaces will have to bedesigned to overcome the bottleneckthat occurs at 31,2 50 bps when manydevices are interconnected. Datadelays are noticeable in large systems,especially when devices are "thru"-connected (chained). Several manu-facturers produce MIDI data-distribu-tion boxes to help eliminate thisparticular problem.

You may have the impression thatMIDI is useful only to those with ac-cess to keyboard-controlled synthe-sizers, but, in fact, there exists adevice that can track the soundsmade by acoustic instruments (includ-ing the human voice) and produceMIDI data signals. By using such apitch-to-MIDI converter, instrumen-talists or vocalists can access elec-tronic music tools without having to

[continued)

148 BYTE • JUNE 1986

NCE IN A LIFETIME A NEW PRODUCT APPEARS ONHE HORIZON THAT SHINE ABOVE ALL OTHERS

THE CREATOR™

\ APPLICATION GENERATOR .

by Advanced Development Technologies

V' • FOURTH GENERATION PRODUCTIVITY „

* ELIMINATE DATABASE MANAGMENT SYSTEMS

* A COMPLETE APPLICATION'. • GENERATION ENVIRONMENT

* DEVELOP APPLICATIONS IN LESS TIME

* REDUCE CODE REQUIREMENTS

BY 90 PERCENT

I,* TRAPS ERRORS WITH DETAIL ANALYSIS

* MULTIPLE FILE ACCESS *' • t • ,[<• WITHOUT PROGRAMING ■V;v

:<->m" •

* 99 INDEXES PER DATA FILE

* AUTOMATIC RECORD LOCK

* UNLIMITED FILE ANDRECORD SIZE

* PRODUCES COMPLETE 'DOCUMENTATION #

INCLUDES:

Internal Expression Compile

Relational File Structure

ISAM File Access Method

Screen and Report Generator

Rich Library of Functions

Data Dictionary

System and User Defined Variables

•; ■!; ' For Only $99 The CREATOR™ Lets You DevelopApplications Without Being Bogged Down By• ' : •' •'* A Lot Of Code. Regardless Of How Simple Or

Sophisticated The Applications, Save Hundreds Of//'." ■: Hours Of Programing By Using This Advanced Methodv ',' Of Application Development. Manages All Phases OfProgram Developments• Program Generation • Database Definition ■• Screen And Report Formation • Multiple Levels of Menus.A Complete Development System Available For IBM, PC, XT,and AT Requires 256K RAM Includes Unlimited Run Time

MASTERCARD/VISA &&;<

800-528-6060

' .>j|hI WK-'

EXT. 239

*

^m

CHECKS AND MONEY ORDERS ACCEPTED

•• * '

m*

©THE CREATOR™ IS A TRADEMARK OF

ADVANCE DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

2720 N. 68th St.. Suite 5379

Scottsdale, Arizona 85257

.602-945-1375 •

0

•

IBM PC. XT. AT is a

Copywright of International

Business Machines, Inc.

•

Inquiry 10

MUSIC SOFTWARE

CopyWrite

BACKS UPIBM PCSOFTWARE

Hundreds of the mostpopular copy-protectedprograms are copied readily.CopyWrite needs nocomplicated parameters.It needs an IBM PersonalComputer, or an XT or an AT,128k bytes of memory, andone diskette drive.CopyWrite will run fasterwith more memory oranother drive.

CopyWrite is revisedmonthly to keep up with thelatest in copy-protection.You may get a new edition atany time for a $15 tradein fee.

CopyWrite makes back upcopies to protect youagainst accidental loss ofyour software. It is not forproducing copies for sale ortrade, or for any other usethat deprives the author ofpayment for his work.

To order CopyWrite, send acheck for $50 U.S., or call uswith your credit card. We willship the software withina day.

Quaid Software Limited

45 Charles Street East

Third Floor

Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1S2

(416)961-8243

Ask about ZeroOisk to run copy-protectedsoftware from a hard disk without floppies.

learn keyboard techniques. The act ofplaying or singing into the convertercauses standard MIDI signals to begenerated and sent to a receivingMIDI port on a synthesizer or com-puter. A flutist, for example, may con-trol a bass-guitar sound on a synthe-sizer. The educational paths openedby the pitch-to-MlDl converter includeintonation training, sight-readingdrills, music theory, and tutoring of in-strumental techniques—in short, thelearning of any traditional instrumentcan be enhanced to make the processmore enjoyable and effective.

The history of MIDI software devel-opment can be compared to that ofbusiness software. During the earlyperiod, business software consistedof a host of stand-alone programs,each fulfilling a particular task such asword processing or telephone com-munications. Later, integrated pack-ages were produced that combinedthe most useful programs into one.MIDI software is currently undergoingthe transition from a plethora ofstand-alone products to integratedprograms that combine the featuresof sequencing, notation, and syn-thesizer voice librarians. As in thebusiness world, not everyone will bedrawn to an integrated package-some may prefer to use a collectionof favorite single-job programs in-stalled into a desktop or workbenchenvironment. In any case, the issuesof music data structures and file com-patibility gain more and more impor-tance as the industry evolves. At thistime, unfortunately, the musical-scoredata produced by most programscannot be shared by other programs,a factor that limits the usefulness ofthe data generated. Imagine the con-sequences if there were no acceptedstandard format for ASCII text files!Of course, music files are far morecomplex than simple text files and astandard is more difficult to design,although not impossible. Getting soft-ware developers to agree on a pro-posed standard is another matter.

The chief focal point of computersoftware up to now has been thevisual aspect. With computer hard-ware designers and manufacturersnow realizing the advantages of com-bining sound and visuals, you can ex-

pect more emphasis on this previous-ly overlooked asset in the form ofmore sophisticated internal soundgeneration for personal computers.

For example, software that allowscreation of animated musical story-boards is already available for Com-modore's Amiga computer. Thesestoryboards may be used in design-ing motion-picture scenarios or ac-tually producing complete video ani-mation segments accompanied by aprofessional-quality sound track.

There is little doubt about thestimulating effect that MIDI has hadon the electronic music field; activityamong manufacturers and consumermusicians is at an all-time high. It'shard to stay abreast of the new devel-opments in MIDI hardware and soft-ware occurring every few months. Theultimate beneficiary of this technolog-ical onslaught is the average personwho has always wanted to experimentwith music but felt there were toomany financial and psychologicalobstacles. By increasing the produc-tivity of professionals, the developersof music software have also providedaffordable, comprehensible tools forthe amateur. Flexible software can ex-tend the useful life of musical equip-ment by allowing older gear to beused with newer instruments. A usercan realistically plan to build a systempiece by piece over a period of timeand not be forced to discard lastyear's model because it can't talk tothe newcomers. For these promises tobe fulfilled, awareness of what'savailable and what it can do must in-crease among the targeted end users.This awareness must then grow intoa two-way communications channelbetween the developers of softwareand the artists who use it. The realmof music is no longer off-limits toanyone with a personal computer. ■

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buxton, W., and G. Fedorkow. The Structured

Sound Synthesis Project. Toronto. Ontario:

University of Toronto, 1981.Chamberlin. Hal. Musical Applications of

Microprocessors. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden

Book Co. Inc., 1980.Computer Music journal. Boston, MA: MIT

Press.Mathews, M V., et al. Technology of Computer

Music. Boston, MA: MIT Press, 1969.

150 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Orchid's TurboEGA

The world's fastest EGA

TurboEGA

EGA

Introducing the only Enhanced Graphics Adapterwith PCturbo speed.

The experts agree: the EGA is thebreathtaking new graphics standard,but the sophisticated software writtenfor it places a big burden on the PC'sprocessing speed. Beautiful graphics,crisp text, but too slow.

Everyone else rushed their EGAs tothe market, but Orchid Technologytook the time to do it right. Orchid'sTurboEGA™, from the inventors of PCTurboProcessing, packs a high-speedTurbo and an EGA into one slot, forthe world's fastest EGA.

Graphics with Speed

TurboEGA makes IBM PCs andXTs run faster than an AT. It bringsdazzling speed to sluggish graphicsprograms. All types of software runfaster, so you finish more quickly.Transparent to the user, you won'tknow it's there until you see its speed.

We are so confident that our TurboEGAis the ultimate graphics card that wedecided to give away a free copyof Microsoft's Windows with eachTurboEGA*. Even Microsoftrecommends that you run Windowson an AT. Now Orchid's TurboEGAgives you AT speed so XT users canuse this number one windowingsoftware at the speed they demand.

The Complete Solution

Only Orchid puts this muchperformance into one slot and comesfully loaded with 256K of RAM, sothere's no hidden cost. TurboEGAis the complete graphics solution.

Pick up the phone and find outhow you can have the EGA thecompetition wishes they had: Orchid'sTurboEGA, the world's fastest.

If you have an AT or a system with 80286 speed,ask about the Orchid EGA™—four graphic-card compatibility in one slot.

Features:

• Powered by 7.2MHz 80286

• Optional 5 or 8MHz 80287

• 256K of on-board RAM

• Four graphics modes: EGA,CGA, MDA, Hercules

• Supports the long list ofEGA software:

Microsoft Windows &Word

Lotus 1-2-3 & SymphonyTopviewFrameworkChart-MasterAutoCADPC Paint Plusand more...

47790 Westinghouse Dr.Fremont, CA 94536415/490-8586Tlx: 709289

TurboEGA, Orchid EGA, and PCturbo and trademarks of Orchid Technology.

All other product names are trademarks of their manufacturers. CGA screen by PC Paint Plus.

ORCHID

The Innovative Leaders

*Offer good only on TurboEGApurchases until July 31, 1986.

inquiry 245 for End-Users. Inquiry 246 for DEALERS ONLY.

At last, the world's

best-selling portable computer

has a little competition.

It's 30% smaller

17% lighter 400% faster"*

Introducingthe remarkable new

COMPAQ PORTABLE II

Now there's a portable per-sonal computer so small,so light, and so fast it defines anew industry standard. Fromthe same company that set thestandard-COMPAQ*

The new advanced-technologyCOMPAQ PORTABLE II™ hasall the advantages of the world'sbest-selling full-functionportable—the original COMPAQPortable—plus it's even moreportable. And it's far morepowerful than most desktopcomputers.

With its 80286 microproces-sor, the COMPAQ PORTABLE IIcan run all the popular businesssoftware written for IBM* Per-sonal Computers. At speeds threeto five times faster than theCOMPAQ Portable, IBM PC/XT,™and other compatibles.

It's more computerin less space

Never before has a computerthis small been capable of somuch. Making the COMPAQPORTABLE II 30% smaller and

It simply works better.

17% lighter—with no reductionin monitor size and a big gain infunctionality—was an engineer-ing triumph. The result is a full-function, advanced technologypersonal computer that's easy totake on business trips or carryfrom desk to desk.

A computer for nowand for the future

The COMPAQ PORTABLE IIexcels in compatibility. Andbecause of its standard 360-Kbyte diskette drive format,your data diskettes will be fullyinterchangeable with otherCOMPAQ, IBM, and compatiblepersonal computers.

Expandability? An optional10-Megabyte fixed disk drivestores over 5000 pages of data;the optional 20-Megabyte fixeddisk drive, twice that. RAMexpands to 2.1 Megabytes with-out an expansion slot, and withone expansion slot RAM canexpand to 4.1 Megabytes. Sinceinterfaces for the most popularperipherals are already built in,the two expansion slots can be

used for connecting your com-puter to others: add a modem, anetworking board, or a boardfor communicating with yourmainframe.

No compromises

The COMPAQ PORTABLE IIputs tremendous computingpotential within the grasp ofevery computer user. It's backedby the service and the supportof over 2900 AuthorizedCOMPAQ Computer Dealersworldwide. Plus, it's made bythe undisputed world leader inportable personal computers.And for that title, there's nocompetition.

For the name of the dealernearest you, call toll-free1-800-231-0900 and ask forOperator 16. In Canada, call(416) 449-8741. In Europe, telex84117898630AB; 898630COMPAQ TTXD.

IBM' is a registered trademark and IBM PC/XT™ isa trademark of International Business MachinesCorporation. ®1986 COMPAQ Computer Corpora-tion. All rights reserved.

comma

pmmmsir

<m>

Statistics, reports and plotshappen magically with SPSS/PC+"—the enhanced and expandedStatistical Package forIBM PC/XT/AT's?

SPSS/PC f is the most comprehensivestatistical program for performing simpleor complex tasks. For nearly 20 years,SPSS Inc.'s reputation and reliability as theleading producer of mainframe statisticaland reporting software is unsurpassed.SPSS/PC+ carries this reputation into thePC environment.

SPSS/PC+ -Fully integrated: report writing,plotting, file management, communicationswith mainframes. Statistics: descriptives,crosstabulation, multiple regression, ANOVA.Simple facilities allow transfer of filesbetween SPSS/PC+ andprograms like Lotus 1-2-3,dBASE III, and SAS."

SPSS/PC+ Advanced Statistics'" -

Factor, cluster, discriminant and loglinearanalyses, MANOVA.

SPSS/PC+ Tables'" - Presentation-qualitytabular reporting. Produce stub and bannertables. Handle multiple response survey data.Control content and layout completely.

SPSS/PC+ documentation is ratedNumber One by both novices and experiencedanalysts. SPSS Inc. also offers a full trainingschedule and a customer support hot-line.

To order, contact our Sales Department at

312/329-3500

SPSS Inc., 444 N. Michigan Avenue,Chicago, IL 60611, 312/329-3500.In Europe: SPSS Europe B.V, 4200 ACGorinchem, The Netherlands,Phone: +31183036711TWX:21019.

^'. t*

PRODUCTIVITY RAISED TO THE HIGHEST POWER

•SPSS/PC+ runs on the IBM PC/XT/AT with hard disk. Contact SPSS Inc. for compatible microcomputers.

IBM PC/XT and PC/AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. dBASE III is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation.SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute, Inc. SPSS, SPSS/PC i , SPSS/PC+ Tables, and SPSS/PC + Advanced Statistics are trademarks of SPSS Inc. for its proprietarycomputer software.

COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

DIGITAL MUSICSYNTHESIS

by Robert A. Moog

The many different shapes of the waveform of the present

MUSIC IS ONE of the most informa-tion-rich (wide-bandwidth) forms ofhuman communication. A compactdisk, for instance, uses nearly 1.5megabits per second to faithfullytransmit a stereo recording, as op-posed to the several hundred bits persecond needed to transmit a writtenmessage as fast as you can read it.Only video, the faithful transmissionof which requires over 50 megabitsper second, has a significantly higherinformation density.

Music is also a highly structuredform of human communication. Thehierarchy of a piece of music may beas deep as that of the federalbureaucracy: Notes, phrases, lines,sections, and movements are carefullyarranged to heighten and clarify theintent of the music.

These two general properties ofmusic, wide bandwidth and complexstructure, happen to match the infor-mation-handling capabilities of to-day's personal computers. In additionto the personal computer's widebandwidth (or high speed) and infor-mation-organizing and -processingcapabilities, you can access a grow-ing list of instruments, accessories,and components designed specifical-

ly to produce musical tones inresponse to high-level digital instruc-tions. These devices owe their ex-istence to rock 'n' roll, the con-sumerization of digital audio, anddramatic advances in LSI (large-scaleintegration). They employ a widevariety of sound-producing tech-niques, each with its own set offeatures and limitations. This articlediscusses the general attributes ofmusical sound and how to produce it,the capabilities of specific sound syn-thesis techniques, how musicians areusing these techniques, and what youcan expect the future to bring todigital music.

The Properties of MusicalSound

Music is an arrangement in time (and,to a lesser but still important extent,in space) of a collection of sonicevents generally called notes. This isactually a subjective description ofmusic. We hear individual notes onlybecause our ears and mind pickacoustic information apart into eventsthat we perceive to be distinct. Whatactually exists outside our ears is anongoing series of vibrations of the air.The graph of air pressure versus time

is the waveform, an unbroken pattern,present even in the quietest of sound-proof rooms. The ratio between theheight of a sound waveform that youcan barely hear and one that is soloud that it begins to hurt is aboutone to a million. That's about 120decibels. Music, speech, and othernormal sounds occur in the upper 60dB of your hearing range.

You can describe any waveform thattends to repeat as a collection of fre-quency components, each one ofwhich has a sine waveform. This is thespectrum of a sound.

Thus, any sound has two comple-mentary, equivalent representations:its waveform and its spectrum. Thewaveform is the sound's time-domainrepresentation; the spectrum is itsfrequency-domain representation.Together they are capable of fullydescribing a sound. The relation ofthe waveform to the spectrum is

(continued)Robert A. Moog is vice president of new prod-uct research at Kurzweil Music Systems (411Waverfy Oaks Rd., Vlaltham, MA 02154).Known as the developer of the first commer-cial electronic music synthesizer, he has aPh.D. in engineering physics from CornellUniversity.

-<— Inquiry 327

IUNE 1986 -BYTE

155

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

described by a mathematical relation-ship called the Fourier theorem.

The waveform of a very simplesound—for example, a tone from alaboratory audio oscillator—does notchange with time. Real musicalsounds, however, are never steady.They constantly change as theyevolve. Piano tones, for instance,begin loud and bright and then decayto silence in a complex way that'scharacteristic of the instrument. Thesevariations are essential determinantsof the sound's characteristic tonecolor. They are neither entirely ran-dom nor entirely regular, nor are theyundesirable deviations from a perfect-ly steady tone.

In the early days of musicalacoustics, the importance of thedetails of a tone's evolution was notgenerally recognized. Acoustics text-books often showed a single cycle ofa waveform and labeled it violin oroboe. Musical-instrument engineersnow recognize that, in determining asound's tone quality, or timbre, the

steady-state waveform takes a backseat to the parameters that describehow sound changes as it evolves. Forthis reason, many synthesis tech-niques are important primarily be-cause they allow important param-eters of the generated sounds to beprecisely and continuously varied.The exact shapes of the sound-parameter variations may be gen-erated explicitly by a musician's real-time control or may be determined bya set of function generators that areconnected to, but separate from, thesound-waveform generator itself.

Figure 1 illustrates this notion. Therightmost block indicates the audio-waveform generator, which producesthe audio waveform itself. It may, forinstance, be an analog synthesizermodule, a hard-wired digital oscillator,or a waveform-generating routine runby a microprocessor. The block to itsleft represents the control-functiongenerators, a set of time-varying func-tion generators whose outputs con-tinuously control the properties of the

audio waveform. In general, the con-trol functions are simpler and moreslowly moving than the sound wave-form and are often (but not always)produced by software routines.

The leftmost box on the bottom,representing coefficients and boun-dary conditions, produces the com-mands that specify the shapes of thecontrol functions. Generally (but notalways) these commands are a briefset of time-invariant numbers thatprovide the initial boundary condi-tions and coefficients of the controlfunctions. Finally, the box on the top,real-time control, represents time-varying functions of arbitrary shape,such as those that a musician maywish to impart by hand. Real-time con-trol may change the coefficients of thecontrol functions or may be added tothe control functions themselves todirectly modify the sound waveform.

Figure 2 shows one specific exam-ple of this type of control hierarchy.The waveform generator is an analog

[continued)

MUSICIAN'S

PERFORMANCE

INPUT

REAL-TIMECONTROL

TONE-COLORSELECT

COEFFICIENTSAND

BOUNDARYCONDITIONS

CONTROL-FUNCTIONPARAMETERS -

CONTROL-FUNCTIONGENERATORS

AUDIO-WAVEFORMGENERATOR

DIGITAL REPRESENTATIONOF AUDIO WAVEFORM

CONTROL

FUNCTIONS

I HOW THE SOUND CHANGES)

Figure 1: Control hierarchy of a typical sound synthesis system.The audio-waveform generator produces an evolving waveform inresponse to a set of slowly varying control functions. The control-function generator produces control functions in response to a setof numerical coefficients and boundary conditions. The real-time

control module allows the musician to shape continuous changes,either in the waveform itself or in the control-function parameters.The coefficients and boundary-conditions module defines theperceived tone color, while the real-time control module enablesthe musician to "play" the system.

156 BYTE • JUNE 1986

PC 3 780

FILE TRANSFERS STAYON THE TRACK

Emulation 2780/3780/3740All Features

File Transfer, RJE

PC to PC

PC to Any Mainframe(Using above Protocols)

Unattended or AttendedAuto Pilot, Remote Startup

Call Using Interface with UserApplication Program, Basic, Cobol,Pascal, C, Etc.

Uses Standard IBM Hardware(BSC Board)

Changeable TranslateTables

TO ORDER TOLL FREE1-800-826-7839

Inquiry 338

$149

305/372-9332Telex 4947306

GROUPINC.

444 BRICKELL AVE., #902,MIAMI, FLORIDA 33131

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)coupled to a voltage-controlledamplifier (VCA). Control functionsconsist of a low-frequency oscillator(LFO), two exponential rise-and-fall—or envelope (ENV)—generators, andslowly varying functions that controlanother VCA. The tone setup is a"tone-color preset" whose numbersgive the time constants of theenvelopes and the frequency of theLFO output. The real-time control isa keyboard controller whose outputsgive the VCO's center frequency(musical pitch) and provide the trig-ger that starts the ENVs. The resultanttone has a frequency modulation(vibrato) that builds up at the rise timeof the first ENV output; the tone itselfbuilds up at the rise time of the sec-ond ENV output.

Digitally ControlledAnalog Circuitry

The first synthesizers were analog. Inanalog synthesizers, VCOs produce

waveshapes such as sawtooth andsquare because they are easy to pro-duce and are rich in harmonics-spectrum components whose fre-quencies are whole-number multiplesof the waveform's repetition frequen-cy. One or more VCFs (voltage-con-trolled filters) alter the relativestrengths of the harmonics, therebymodifying the overall brightness orquality of the sound. VCAs dynamical-ly shape the amplitude of the tone aswell as the amplitudes of controlsignals. The resultant class of tonecolors from analog synthesis includessome interesting approximations oftraditional instrumental sounds. Morecommercially important, however,were new sounds that fit into theemerging electronic pop music of thesixties and seventies. Smooth pitchglides of swept VCOs, the vocal-like"wow" sounds of swept VCFs, and thefat, rolling sound of several sawtoothwaveforms at nearly the same fre-quency became basic weapons in the

PITCH CONTROL

START-NOTE GATE

TONESETUP

VIBRATOSPEED

VIBRATOATTACK

AUDIOATTACK

ENV —

VIBRATOCONTROLFUNCTION -

VCA

AMPLITUDE-ENVELOPECONTROL FUNCTION

> VCO

VCA

aa/W

AUDIOWAVEFORM

\

Figure 2: A simple analog-synthesis control hierarchy. The audio waveform isproduced by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) followed by a voltage-controlledamplifier (VCA). There are three control functions: a number from the keyboardthat tells which key is pressed {which pitch to produce), a slow periodic wave thatbuilds in amplitude to provide delayed vibrato, and an amplitude-shaping envelope(ENV) function. The tone setup provides values for vibrato speed, rate of vibratobuildup, and rate of audio-tone buildup. A gate signal that goes on when akeyboard key is pressed starts the two ENV function generators.

rock 'n' roll keyboardist's arsenal.

Microprocessor-controlled analogsynthesizers first appeared commer-cially just eight years ago and con-tinue to be popular today. TheOberheim Xpander, for example, is anadvanced six-voice instrument with itsown self-contained microprocessor-based programming panel (see photo1). The Xpander is specifically de-signed for sophisticated communica-tion with the outside world throughMIDI. In fact, you can activate virtual-ly all of the Xpander's panel featuresexternally through Oberheim's MIDIsystem-exclusive code set. The panelfeatures provide complete controlover 15 analog operating parametersper voice (one of which is a 15-posi-tion filter-mode selector), as well asliterally hundreds of microprocessor-computed control functions. Thus, al-though the actual generation andmodification of the Xpander's musicaltones are performed by analog cir-cuitry, the amount of control that isaccessible via MIDI gives this instru-ment (and many other contemporaryanalog synthesizers as well) the sameorder of programmability and versa-tility as many all-digital synthesizers.

Phase Distortion: The CasioCZ Series

About three years ago, Casio intro-duced the CZ-101, the first in its lineof fully digital, fully programmablesynthesizers (see photo 2). It is a four-voice multitimbral instrument that hassome similarity to analog synthe-sizers, both in the way it is pro-grammed and in the sorts of soundsthat result.

Like analog sound chains, the CZ al-gorithm has one parameter that deter-mines the tone's pitch, a second thatdetermines its brightness or tonecolor, and a third that determines itsoverall loudness. The main differencebetween the CZ and analog synthe-sizers lies in exactly how the tone'sbrightness is shaped. In the analogworld, the VCF performs brightnesscontrol. Analog filtering is a fre-quency-domain operation, which, inanalog technology, is no harder thantime-domain operations.

The digital world, however, generallyavoids frequency-domain operations

158 BYTE • IUNE 1986

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

because of the expensive hardwarerequired to perform the many high-precision multiplications per wave-form point. The time-domain opera-tion of waveshaping, on the otherhand, can achieve the same sort ofspectral variation as dynamic filteringwith little or no multiplication. Casioengineers designed their algorithm toproduce waveforms whose shapescan be swept continuously from puresine to one of eight user-selectablehigh-brightness "analog sound-alikes."The algorithm centers around a look-up table in which the instantaneousamplitude of a cycle of a sine waveis plotted against uniform incrementsof the sine wave's phase angle. Whena pure sine-wave output is desired.the phase angle is advanced in equalincrements per unit time; when awaveform of higher harmonic content(i.e., a somewhat distorted sine wave)is desired, the phase angle is incre-mented first more rapidly, then moreslowly, during each cycle. Figures 3aand 3b show how the resultant wave-form changes as the rate at which thephase angle changes is modulatedduring a single cycle. Casio calls thisalgorithm PD, for phase distortion.

By using the concepts of analogsynthesis as a starting point butemploying an algorithm that is effi-ciently matched to the capabilities ofdigital technology, the Casio CZ seriesinstruments offer the musician manystock synthesizer effects, with the ver-satility and accuracy of control thatyou associate with any well-designedmicroprocessor-based operating sys-tem, at a low price. The CZ-101, for in-stance, sells for less than $500, anamount that, just 10 years ago, wouldbarely have bought a medical mini-mum analog synthesizer with onevoice and no program memory.

FM Synthesis: The YamahaDX Series

Frequency modulation (FM) is thevariation of the frequency of one re-peating waveform, the carrier, by anamount proportional to the instan-taneous amplitude of a second wave-form, the modulating wave. The sim-plest application of FM is the modula-tion of one sine wave with another.

[continued)

Photo I: The Oberheim Xpancier microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizer.

Photo 2: The Casio CZ-101 phase-distortion, programmable digital synthesizer.

(a)

(b)

2ir

/\ L/«r PHASE ANGLE

0+ 1

t[\ /"\ WAVEFORM

0

-1

/ \l/ \ *'

Figure 3: Changing an audio waveform by varying the rate at which a sinelookup table is read out: (a) shows a constant rate of readout, while (b) shows areadout whose rate changes twice per cycle, distorting the sine wave into asawtooth waveform.

IIJNE 1986 -BYTE 159

MEETING YOUR COMPUTERNEEDS FOR OVER A DECADE

TURBO XT

Dual Spd CPU,2-FD, 640KGrn Monitor,complete

$995 I

Complete systemsshipped overnight.

SOFTWARE

ANDREW TOBIAS MANAGING

YOUR MONEY $129

ASHTON TATE FRAMEWORK $439ASHTON TATE dBASEIII plus $429BORLAND SIDEKICK $39

BORLAND TURBO PASCAL $45BORLAND TURBO LIGHTNING $45BORLAND SUPERKEY $35

BORLAND REFLEX $59

CLIPPER dBASE COMPILER callCOMPUTER ASSOCIATES

IUS Acctg Series from $299DECISION RESOURCES

CHARTMASTER $239

DECISION RESOURCES

SIGNMASTER $189

DECISION RESOURCES

DIAGRAMMASTER $259

DIGITAL RESEARCH GEM

DRAW/COLLECTION call

DIGITAL RESEARCH

GEM COLLECTION call

FUNK SOFTWARE SIDEWAYS $48HARVARD TOTAL PROJECT

MANAGER call

HAYES SMARTCOM II $89

IBM DISPLAYWRITER III $369LATTICE C-COMPILER $298

LIFETREE VOLKSWRITER

DELUXE call

MICROSOFT WINDOWS $179

MICROSOFT WORD call

MICROSTUFFXTALKXVI $99

MULTIMATE latest call

MULTIMATE ADVANTAGE call

NORTON UTILITIES $59

OPEN SYSTEMS ACCOUNTING

SERIES call

ROSESOFT PROKEY $99

SATELLITE SOFTWARE

WORDPERFECT 4,1 call

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING CO.

PFS SERIES from $79

SORCIM SUPERCALC III $197

AT&T*! 6300

2-FD, 256K,Keyboard, AT&THi-Res MonoMonitor

$1,795

MASS STORAGE

floppy drives

MITSUBISH11/2 ht 360k

(bl/gry) $98

■MITSUBISHI V2 ht

1.2mb(gry) $147

TANDONTM100-2 $125

TOSHIBA 1/2 ht. call

Internal hard drives

All hard drives complete withcontrollers, mounting hardware &instructions. All are formatted,tested & have 1 year warranty.

SEAGATE 10MB $497

SEAGATE 20 MB $596

SEAGATE 30 MB call

SEAGATE 20 MB for AT $689

SEAGATE 30 MB for AT $796

PRIAM 40MB/60MB $1395/1595PRIAM 40MB/60MB

for AT $1425/1625

disk cards

HARDCARD

10MB/20MB $625/895

CMS 10MB/20MB call

MOUNTAIN 10MB/20MB call

disk subsystems

BERNOULLI BOX 20MB/40 MB

$2695/3595SYSGEN FLATPACK call

TALLGRASS all models call

tape drives

IRWIN 10MB/20MB inter. call

IRWIN 10MB/20MB exter. call

TALLGRASS 4060 call

BOARDS

multifunction

QUADRAM QUADPORT AT $119

QUADRAM LIBERTY call

QUADRAM EMS+ call

AST SIXPAK 384k $288

AST RAMPAGE XT/AT callQUADRAM QUADBOARD

384k call; new low, low price

THESYS FASTCARD V Ok NEW1

RAM BOARD 384k half card $169

IBM* PC

2-FD, Graphicsmono monitor,256K, list 2810

$1,679

■EB I

IBM*AT-Enhanced

20-Megabyte HardDisk, 1.2-MB FD,512K, Keyboard,Amber Monitor

$3,995

video/graphics

AST PREVIEWHERCULES COLORHERCULES GRAPHICSIBM COLORIBM MONOCHROMEQUADRAM EGA +QUADRAM QUADCOLORI

COLOR CARD w/par.MONOCHROME GRAPHICS

Here comp.

network

ORCHID PCNETQUADRAM QUADNETIX

emulation

AST 5251 mod 11/12DCA IRMA

$289$188$319$198$198$399

call

$198

callcall

callcall

Specialists in complete computer

systems for business applications.

PRINTERS

dot matrix

BROTHER HR1509

$398

EPSON LX-80

call

EPSON FX-85/FX-286

call

EPSON LQ-800/LQ-1000

call

IBM PROPRINTER

$425

OKIDATA 182

$268

OKIDATA 192/193

$399/545

OKIDATA 2410

call

TOSHIBA 321

call

TOSHIBA 341/351

$859/1159

MONITORS

monochromeAMDEK310a $168

IBM MONOCHROME $224

PRINCETON MAX 12 $178

QUADRAM AMBERCHROME $166

color

AMDEK 600/772 call/$528

IBM ENHANCED COLOR $594PRINCETON

HX12/H12E $436/$526

QUADRAM QUADCHROME II callQUADRAM ENHANCED Color NEW!

MODEMS

HAYES 1200/1200B $398/329HAYES 2400/2400B $596/526US ROBOTICS PASSPORT

1200/2400 call

PEACHTREE P1200 exter. $196VENTEL 1200 w/XTALK call

SUPPLY HOUSE

PC MART DISKETTES box $18

case $159

VERBATIM DISKETTES box $28

case $258

laser/letter quality

BROTHER HR15 $198

BROTHER HR25/HR35 $568/798CORONA LP300 $2995

EPSON DX20/DX35 call

IBM QUIETWRITER II $1259

QUADRAM QUADLASER in stockl

plotters

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS callall models availablefor quick delivery

MISCELLANEOUS

MOUSESYSTEMS PC

MOUSE w/PAINT $159

MICROSOF MOUSE

serial/bus $129

KEYTRONICS

5151/5153 call

AT Keyboard $149

QUADRAM MICROFAZER 8k $129QUADRAM MICROFAZER II New!TRIPPLITE ISOBAR from $45TRIPPLITE UPS 400w/800w callCURTIS PROTECTORS from $29

CHIPS

64k/128k/256k

8087/80287

call formarket price

call formarket price

•Registered Trademark tSome systems available to qualified accounts only.

1-800-241-0286ORDERS

1-404-634-5995INFORMATION

Personal Computer Centers

1485 Northeast Express NE • Atlanta, GA 30329

Visit our showrooms in Atlanta, Charlotte, Durham and Raleigh

SALES • SERVICE • FINANCING • DELIVERY • SUPPORT

160 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 257

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

The mathematical expression thatdescribes this is W(t) = P sin (At + Isin Br). This equation tells us thatwaveform W is a sine wave of peakamplitude P and frequency A and isbeing sped up and slowed down apeak amount / at a frequency B. A isthe carrier frequency, B is themodulating frequency, and / is calledthe modulation index.

The spectrum of W is a series ofsidebands, or sum and difference fre-quencies: A ± B; A ± 2B, A ± 3B, andso on. Calculation of the amplitudesof each of the sidebands requires anunderstanding of Bessel functions,which are mathematical functionsdescribing how the amplitude of aharmonic changes. This is a complexsubject in itself. The general results ofthese calculations, however, can bestated simply.

1. As / increases, the amount ofenergy in A goes down, and theamount of energy in the sidebandsgoes up.

2. As / increases, more and more fre-quencies become audible. In otherwords, the bandwidth of the totalspectrum of W increases.

If you set the modulating frequencyB equal to the carrier frequency A, thesideband frequencies are then whole-number multiples, or harmonics, ofthe carrier frequency. Starting withtwo sine-wave generators and tyingthe instantaneous frequency of one tothe instantaneous amplitude of theother, you can generate a single com-plex tone with a large number of har-monics. Furthermore, you can changethe overall harmonic content of thetone simply by varying one param-eter, the modulation index /. By invok-ing this simple algorithm thatoperates in the time domain, you gainconvenient control over the sound'sspectrum.

The Casio PD algorithm uses time-domain processing to generate andcontrol harmonics too. But the advan-tages of FM over PD lie in what youcan do in FM by changing the ratiobetween the carrier and modulatingfrequencies.

Most acoustically generated musicalsounds have a complex internal mo-tion that makes them interesting and

pleasant to listen to. An importantpart of this motion is due to the slightdeviations in the frequencies of theharmonics from "perfect" whole-number ratios with the fundamentalpitch. For instance, the harmonics ofa piano tone are all slightly sharp(high). Translated into the time do-main, this means that a piano wave-form does repeat exactly every cyclebut changes slowly and continuously

as the tone evolves. The ability todetune the harmonics by slightly shift-ing the modulating frequency givesFM the ability to generate a widevariety of continuously changingwaveforms that musicians oftendescribe as warm, fat, or acoustic.Serious synthesists prize this capa-bility and spend a lot of time exploit-ing it.

{continued)

Inquiry 364

IUNE 1986

iYTE 161

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

The advantages of FM were under-stood by analog-synthesizer de-signers, but the analog technology ofthe sixties and seventies did not per-mit accurate, wide-range, and efficientproduction of FM waveforms. JohnChowning was one of the first peopleto experiment with digital productionof FM sounds. Using a research com-puter at Stanford University in theearly seventies, he systematically ex-plored the relationships between thevalues of the coefficients of the FMalgorithm (A, B, and I) and the resul-tant tone colors. His work led to thedevelopment of a series of commer-cial keyboard instruments by Yamaha,the latest of which are the DX and TXseries digital synthesizers. One ofthese, the Yamaha DX-7, has becomeenormously popular among elec-tronic keyboardists; well over 100,000DX-7s reportedly have been sold.

In the DX-7, the basic algorithmicelement is a digital oscillator whoseoutput is shaped by a four-segmentenvelope. Yamaha calls this elementan "operator." Six operators are

available for each voice; the completeinstrument can simultaneously pro-duce up to 16 voices. The musicianmay choose one of 32 prepro-grammed algorithms, which are con-figurations of operators. Figure 4ashows what an operator is; figure 4bis an example of a simple algorithm;and figure 4c is an example of a morecomplex algorithm.

Harmonic Synthesis

The most powerful of all synthesistechniques, and the least amenable tointuitive exploration, is harmonic syn-thesis. This is where the musician ex-plicitly specifies the amplitudeenvelope and frequency of each har-monic of the tone. In theory, harmonicsynthesis is the only way to accurate-ly synthesize arbitrarily complex,pitched tones. In order to do it, how-ever, you have to specify as many as100 or more harmonic amplitudeenvelopes for every tone color.

in the mid-seventies, Dr. Hal Allesof Bell Laboratories developed asophisticated music system based on

harmonic synthesis. The harmonicswere generated by incrementingthrough a high-precision sine-wavelookup table at different rates. Theproblem became how to shape theamplitudes of all those harmonicswithout spending a fortune on high-speed multipliers. Alles's solution wasingenious: For every harmonic, readout two sine waves that are of thesame frequency but displaced by aslowly varying phase angle. Subtractone from the other. The result is a sinewave whose amplitude is determinedby the phase angle.

Alles's design eventually enteredthe marketplace as the computer-based General Development Systemand later as the Synergy, a keyboardsynthesizer with limited internal pro-gramming capability but with a com-puter interface that provides full pro-gramming access (see photo 3). Fewpeople ever met the programmingchallenge of these instruments. Oneperson who did is Wendy Carlos,perhaps best known as the producer

[continued]

(a)

PITCH-FREQUENCY DATA

MODULATION DATA

THE FREQUENCY DATA AND

MODULATION DATA

ARE COMBINED HERE

OUTPUT

ENVELOPE DATA

(C)

1

OP 3

0P6

1

1

OP 2

OP 5

i

1

1

OP1

0P4

1

1

T

FEEDBACK

OUT

(b)

0SC

+

OPERATOR 2

E.G.

1

OUT

SIN

E-WAVE OUTPUT

H

(PURE TONE)

TIN

1

IN1

***

osc

+

OPERATOR 1

E.6

1

OUT

FU

NDAMENTAL AND

1

HARMONICS

1

(COMPLEX TONE)

TO AUDIO

OUTF

UT

Figure 4: FM waveform-generating building blocks used inYamaha DX and TX instruments: (a) shows the basic "operator','which uou can think of in analog terms as containing a control-summing circuit, oscillator, amplifier, and envelope generator, (b)

diagrams a simple FM algorithm in which one operatormodulates the frequency for another; (c) contains a more complexFM algorithm using six operators.

162 BYTE • IUNE 1986

You've chosen Reflex.™Now choose the fast way

to learn it:

FastStart REFLEX: the only wayto produce as you learn. OnlyMcGraw-Hill's FastStart has the ad-vanced technology that lets you reallyuse your software from the momentyou open the package. As soon as youstart learning, you start producingdatabases, reports, graphs, and charts-anything you've bought REFLEX to do!And only McGraw-Hill puts a trainingwindow right on REFLEX—actualon-screen instructions that guide youthrough the program.

FastStart REFLEX: the fun andfast way to learn. Only FastStartleads you gently through three levels oftraining: beginning, advanced, or ex-pert. Each lesson builds on the last,painlessly reinforcing what you've

FastStart is also available for Lotus1-2-3," dBase II,® and DOS.®In fact, FastStart tutorials are beingcreated for all the most popularsoftware programs. Look forFastStart dBase 111,"' MultiMate;™SuperCalc® 3, and Symphony"' soon.No matter how complex the program,FastStart makes learning simple.

learned as you go. And all along, you'reactually using REFLEX. With the helpof FastStart, even die most inexperienceduser can sum producing with REFLEX, fast.

' To order, call toll-free(800) 421-0833, Ext. 288 (inCalifornia, (800) 662-6222)or send in the coupon to:

S'j» McGRAW-HILL■■nil Trainings/stems

PO. Box 641, Del Mar, CA 920k

The fastest way to save up to $30:

ntk^n^tt0 start

FastStart:

the fast way

to learnyour software.

REFLEX is a trademark of BORLAND Analytica Inc. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. dBase II. dBase III, and MultiMate are trademarks of Asliton-Tatc.Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. SuperCalc 3 Is a registered trademark of Computer Associates International. Inc.

Inquiry 211 for End-Users. Inquiry 212 for DEALERS ONLY.

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 163

HI

HONEY! //'

Honeywell synchronousVIP emulation and filetransfer (FTF an option).Compatible with Topview.Honeywell VIPasynchronous emulationand file transfer.Compatible with Topview.

ASYNCHRONOUS $399SYNCHRONOUS $499

TO ORDER PHONE TOLL FREE1-800-826-7839

TOT

GROUP INC.

Rivergate Plaza, 444 Brickell Ave

Suite 902, Miami Florida 33131

Telephone 305/372-9332, Telex 4947306

Connections IBM PC—Honeywell mainframe

Inquir

DPS 4, 6, 7, 8, LEVEL 6, 66, ETC.

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

of Switched-on Bach. A few years ago,Wendy combined her programmingskills with unique musical intuition todevelop a set of orchestral-like tonecolors for the Synergy. She spentsome 3000 hours over a two-yearperiod to develop the sounds, whichhave been made available to Synergyowners. These sounds can be heardon Carlos's record Digital Moonscapes(the compact disk is Columbia MK39340).

More recently, harmonic synthesisis being used in commercially avail-able musical instruments whosesounds are preprogrammed by themanufacturer. One example is theKurzweil 150, a MIDI-controlled ex-pander that produces high-qualitypiano and similarly complex soundsby using proprietary synthesis tech-niques in addition to harmonic syn-thesis. Another recently announcedproduct along the same lines is theRoland MKS-20. Both instrumentsprovide the musician with access toa few global sound parameters butnot to the fine details of the envelopesof the individual harmonics, which arefactory-programmed.

Sampling Instruments

A sampling instrument records, en-codes, and stores one or moremusical sounds from the external"real world" and then replays thosesounds on command. Some samplinginstruments—for example, the Kurz-weil 2 50 (see photo 4 and "The Kurz-weil 2 50 Digital Synthesizer" byChristopher Morgan on page 279)—use proprietary data-compressionschemes to reduce the amount ofwaveform memory without degradingthe quality of the sound. All, however,produce their sounds from complete-ly general digital representations thatallow any sound short enough to fitin the instrument's memory to beplayed back. The differences amongthe various sampling instruments liein the sound quality an instrument'shardware is capable of and in thesound modification and manipulationalgorithms it can perform.

Some musicians assert that sam-pling instruments are not really syn-thesizers because the waveforms arenot generated by algorithms. I don't

believe that algorithmic generation ofwaveforms is a necessary feature ofsynthesizers. The term synthesizemeans "to produce by combiningseparate elements." The more sophis-ticated sampling instruments enablethe musician to mix waveforms,reverse their direction in time, dis-place them both in time and in fre-quency, and impart slow frequencymodulation and complex envelopes.All of these are perceived as "sepa-rate elements" that the musician com-bines at his or her discretion. Ergo,

sampling instruments are definitelysynthesizers.

Chip-level SynthesisHardware

There are also some music synthesischips available if you would like to ex-periment with high-quality music syn-thesis but would rather build it your-self.

Complete high-performance analogfunctional modules exist as singlechips that require a minimum of sup-

(continued)

Photo 3: Wendy Carlos, in her studio, illustrating the Synergy, Hal Alles'sharmonic-synthesis synthesizer. (Photo by Vernon L. Smith.)

Photo 4: The Kurzweil 2 50 sampling synthesizer, which includes an optionaluser-sampling program.

JUNE 1986 -BYTE

165

Inquiry 363

Copying diskettes will never be easierthan pushing one button.

While your computer isbusy doing other things,your Victory Duplicator canbe making as many as eightcopies of a diskette at once—producing up to 400 copiesin an hour. DualMaster1"models can even makemultiple copies of two differentdiskettes simultaneously.Just insert the diskettesand press one button.

Copy different formats,flawlessly.

An automatic format analysisprogram makes it possiblefor the Victory Duplicator to

' 1986 Victory Enterprises Technology, Inc.

copy virtually any 5'/i, 3Vs

"-inch diskette. The sysLcitests for quality and accuracy

/pn; cluap n{ ihp ru*iw»G(

ujjy vuLutuij any

or Srinch diskette

r quality au,t .at every stage of the process

copy protection, a commu-'he system nications port, a four-monthwarranty and much more—all for one low price.

It practically servicesitself. .

Each drive has a separatecontroller to maximize up-time. Simple diagnostics toverify drive alignment andindustry standard drivesallow you to maintain yoursystem without waiting foroutside service.

All at an attractive price.

Victory Duplicators offerfast copying, serialization,

Call 1-800-421-0103.

Call today for moreinformation. (In Texas,call 512-450-0801.)

w

•RYV

VICTORYENTERPRISES

Technology, Inc.

8910 Research Blvd., Suite B2Austin, Texas 78758

The 10-minute expert.

1st-Class"expert systemdevelopment program.

You can learn to use it inminutes, yet it can buildsystems of thousandsof rules.

Easy. As simple to use asa spreadsheet.Sophisticated. Capturesexpert know-how. works

as decision support, makesdiagnoses, controls pro-grams and equipment,and more.

Talks with software.Takes data from databasesor spreadsheets.Tells all. Tells how deci-sion was reached and givesprobabilities of success.

Finds correlations. Evenmakes predictions fromconfusing data.1st-Class. Only $495.

Demo disk available, S20.Call 617/653-5093 for lit-erature or to order.For IBM-PC

SC Programs in Motion9 r- 111 Sycamore Road^x| Wayland. MA 01778

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

port circuitry. Voltage-controlled oscil-lators, filters, and amplifiers, and anassortment of other musical functions,are available from Curtis Electromusicand Solid State Microtechnology. Youprogram these chips with analog-control voltages, so you will need ahigh-resolution (at least 12-bit] multi-channel D/A converter to go betweenyour computer and the chips. Thechip outputs are high-quality audio.

In the class of digitally controlledsynthesis chips, there are program-mable waveform generators that ac-cept high-level mode-select and fre-quency commands and deliver wave-form points in real time. The Cyber-netic Microsystems CY360, for in-stance, generates all the stock syn-thesizer waveforms, and much more,over the audio and subaudio frequen-cy range.

If you'd like to try your hand atsome sampling hardware, considerthe Oki MSM 5218 real-time data-compression/expansion chip. Usedwith a conventional audio A/D con-verter and a modest amount of sup-port circuitry, this chip reduces a12-bit data stream (representing theuncompressed audio waveform) intoa 3- or 4-bit data stream for efficientstorage in your computer's memoryand then restores the audio to its12-bit glory upon playback.

There are many more chips thatfulfill music synthesis functions. Manyare proprietary designs that are usedin commercial products. Generally,neither the applications data nor thechips are available to experimenters.For those of you who enjoy reverse-engineering custom LSI, that's an ir-resistible challenge.

Software Music SynthesisAlgorithms

Most music synthesis devices usededicated high-speed hardware toproduce sound waveforms in realtime. If you are interested in synthe-sizing music off-line at slower thanreal time, you need little more thana personal computer with plenty ofmemory and a high-quality D/A con-verter to turn the computer's wave-form data into audio. This is wheresynthesis programs come into play.

(continued)

166 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry 278

fe

SDQGRAPHICS:

ONE KEYSTROKE TURNSLIFELESS DADV...

$&

*fc

^ft

into viial smisncs.

Data. You live with it every day.What you need are the tools to make itcome alive. Comprehensive analyticaltools. Mathematical precision. Andgraphics capabilities to broaden yourinsights — to help you visualize,analyze, and communicate your find-ings quickly and convincingly.

And now you've got it. WithSTATGRAPHICS-a newPLUS*WARE™ product from STSC.STATGRAPHICS is the only PC soft-ware to fully integrate a wide varietyof statistical functions with high-resolution color graphics. Giving youthe power and precision you used tofind only with mainframe software.

STATGRAPHICS' unique inter-active environment allows you togenerate graphs from within thestatistical procedures. You can changea variable and see the effect—im-mediately. So your job is easier andyou're more productive.

MORE OPTIONS FOR MORECOMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS.

STATGRAPHICS features over250 functions for analyzing data—including analysis of variance, regres-sion analysis, experimental design,quality control procedures, multivariatetechniques, nonparametric methods,and extensive forecasting and timeseries analysis.

It also lets you enter data at thekeyboard or access data stored instandard ASCII files, LOTUS® 1-2-3worksheets, and DIF files used byother popular software packages.TELL A CLEARER, MOREDRAMATIC STORY.

STATGRAPHICS includes a widevariety of graphics programs such astwo and three-dimensional line and sur-face plots, bar and pie charts,histograms, time sequence plots, andquality control charts.

The graphics are supported oncolor and monochrome graphics boards,dot-matrix printers, and pen plottersfor presentation quality graphics.

SOPHISTICATED STATGRAPHICS

IS SURPRISINGLY SIMPLE

TO USE.

STATGRAPHICS is completelymenu-driven, and includes a com-prehensive user's guide, online HELPscreens, tutorial, and handy referencecard. And STSC's HELP-Line is only aphone call away—giving you ready ac-cess to our staff of technical experts.TAKE A LOOK ATSTATGRAPHICS.

AND LOOK NO FURTHER.

STATGRAPHICS is the most ad-vanced statistical graphics softwareavailable for PC's. And the completesystem is just $695.

To order STATGRAPHICS, orfor more information, contact yourlocal dealer or call 800-592-0050 (inMaryland, 301-984-5123). Or writeSTSC, Inc., 2115 E. Jefferson St.,Rockville, MD 20852. Major creditcards accepted.

Inquiry 330

Problem-solving at the speed of thought.

#■## STATGRAPHICS operates on IBM PC's and compatibles under DOS. Version 2.0 or later. A minimum of 384K RAM, a graphics adapter and compatible monitor, and two3^ I ^)%g double-sided disk drives or a hard disk are required. An 8087 math coprocessor and 512K RAM are recommended.

a Cornel Company STATGRAPHICS is a registered trademark of Statistical Graphics Corporation. PLUS * WARE is a trademark of STSC, Inc. LOTUS is a registered trademark of LotusDevelopment Corporation.

MUSIC SYNTHESIS

Pressure-sensitivekeyboards will allowkeyboardists to controlevery note expressively.

Vosim, which stands for voicesimulation, is a program that assem-bles waveforms from single sinecycles to create a wide variety ofvocal-like tones. You specify threeslowly varying control parameters: thenumber of sine cycles per waveformcycle, the time spacing between thesine cycles, and the rate at which thesine cycles die out within a singlewaveform cycle.

The Karplus-Strong algorithm pro-vides an easy way of synthesizingsounds that evolve from bright tomuted, like a plucked string. You startwith a wave table of a single waveformcycle, then read the numbers out tocreate the sound. As you take anumber from the table, you replaceit with an average of that number andthe one that was pulled out before it.This smooths out the sound waveform

as it evolves, thereby reducing thehigh-frequency content of the sound.FM produces a waveform by vary-ing the rate at which numbers froma sine-wave table are read out. A wavetable is a one-dimensional array. If youused a two-dimensional array ofnumbers instead and superimposeda closed, or almost closed, curve onthat array, you could read numbersfrom it by following the curve. Bychanging the shape, size, and positionof the curve, you change the resultingwaveform. This is called "synthesis byfunctions of two variables." This is awide-open area for exploration andwould certainly yield sounds that wehaven't heard yet.

Trends for the Future

As semiconductor memory pricescontinue to drop, it becomes feasibleto increase the amount of memorydevoted to waveform storage in sam-pling synthesizers and control-func-tion storage in harmonic synthesis in-struments. In both cases, the achiev-able sound quality improves.

Along with semiconductor memory,bulk data storage prices are droppingdramatically. In particular, the storagecapacity of CD-ROMs (over 500 mega-bytes) allows instrument manufac-

Photo 5: The Key Concepts Notebender keyboard with two axes of touchsensitivity. (Photo by Jonathan Goell.)

turers to supply enormous sound li-braries for any digital synthesizer, butespecially for sampling synthesizers.In the near future, we can expect CD-ROMs to be common components inmany types of synthesizers.

As the synthesis capability andsound quality of synthesizers con-tinue to grow and the hardware goesdown in price while traditionalacoustic instruments continue to goup in price, microprocessor-basedmusical instruments will assume an in-creasingly larger role in our everydaymusic making. The next few years willsee wide acceptance of home synthe-sizers, complete with authenticsimulations of traditional tones, user-friendly operating systems, and pro-vision for computer interfacingthrough MIDI.

More and more musicians of all per-suasions will come to regard com-puters as basic music-productiontools. Music will be composed directlyon the monitor screen, and publica-tion-quality scores will be generatedon a laser printer.

Finally, the proliferation of high-performance, 16-bit microprocessorsenables musical-instrument designersto build in sensitive, real-time perfor-mance control. More and more key-boards will be pressure-sensitive,allowing keyboardists to control everynote expressively. And, as musiciansaccept the idea of pressure-sensitivekeyboards, adventurous experi-menters will design and build multi-dimensional user interfaces, allowingmusicians to control several toneparameters with each finger. An ex-ample of this potential exists today inthe Notebender (see photo 5), a key-board on which each key moves upand down and back and forth, thusallowing the player to continuouslycontrol two parameters of each keythat he or she plays.

The popular attitude is that there issomething subhuman and mechanicalabout digital electronics. Today'smusicians know that just the reverseis true—that the fantastic capabilitiesof microprocessors and synthesizers,and all the devices they connect to,offer musicians new and excitingresources, greater human control, andheightened creative potential. ■

168 BYTE ■ |UNE 1986

THE

NEW

PAPYRUS

A fascinating, one-of-a-kind book onthe emerging compact disc read-onlymemory technology. Published inconjunction with Microsoft's FirstInternational CD ROM Conference,CD ROM: THE NEW PAPYRUS includes44 newly commissioned articles fromtoday's leading CD ROM authorities.Every facet of CD ROM technology isthoroughly examined: hardware, soft-ware, applications, publishing systems,marketing, the user interface, andopportunities for the future. Included isintroductory information for those newto CD ROM technology as well astechnical information for CD ROMspecialists. Edited by Steve Lambertand Suzanne Ropiequet. Foreword byWilliam H. Gates.

626 pages, 9-1/4 x 7-3/8

hardcover, ISBN 0-914845-75-6, $34.95

softcover, ISBN 0-914845-74-8, $21.95

Microsoft Press

16011 NE 36th Way, Box 97017

Redmond, WA 98073-9717

The current and future state of the art.

.Leonardo Da Vinci wasnot only a great artist,he was also a greatengineer and architect.His innovative designswhich blended art,science and technologystressed efficiency anddetail and were yearsahead of their time.Today, DaVinci'sispilives on in OtteCgm

tic' niAti/I

VIVA DaVINCI!

QDP PRESENTS

THE ULTIMATE IN GRAPHICS CARDS

puter Systerrls ttttvL™exciting graphics card. . . VIVAS H ,-L' 4-f-! H ' 1

VIVA was designed for PC grapHroWspft-pT |T~ 1! 'r""tware developers by providing gramiict j , I i (J ;' * f'~ " t*TT t 7]".primitives in hardware, increasing productivety and reducing application developrhftime.

VIVA was designed for graphics,users by providing compatibility wfcPC/AT software packages, ultra hi;lion color and vastly increased drS^v.over standard graphics cards. ,

VIVA, like DaVinci, is now thestandard by which all other grapjmust be measured. This is VIVAfa

• Compatible with IBM, PC/XT,and clones.

• On-board video multiplexer

Allows a single monitor to piboth normal text and grapmplug the output of your standardcolor graphics card into I'TjESport. The display selection p!trolled through software.

• On-board 16 bit graphics coprocessor,

Performs all screen drawing qAa disfikfunctions at high speed lea*ingZjinkir*computer's CPU free to perform ottasks. r

• Use with standard IBM color III. RGB

monitors. -*f-H

II ■ J W

• Supports analog RGB monitors on the,

(You get ultra high resolution colornormally only available on mini and\mainframe computers.)

• Standard resolution of 640 by 400, 16 co\or128K of video ram on the Silver Card

• Maximum resolution of 1024 by 1024, 16 Colorswith 512K of video ram on the Gold Card

• Expansion connector:

Allows upgrades which extend and enhancefeatures of the basic card—no more obsoletehardware. Planned extensions include:

• 256 colors (8 bits/pixel) displayable fro,pallete of 262,144 colors.

• 512 colors (9 bits/pixel) displayable from a palleteof 16,777,216 colors.

• Display characteristics are fully programmable

• Interlaced mode allows use of low cost monitors.

• Non-interlaced mode for flicker-free display

• Display size up to 1024 by 1024 (40MHz bandwidth.)

• Flash hardware enable/disable on 4 colors (Layers) allows any of.4 specified layers to be temporarily "disabled" i.e., erased, then •later can be "enabled", i.e., put back on the screen without beingredrawn. This greatly increases speed of use.

• Light pen input port. (Permits a light pen to-be used as a 'pointing or pick device) /

• Hardware pan and zoom support. (Allows smooth / /panning, and zoom up to 16 times magnification) //

• Compatible with existing software including AutoCAD; 'p-cad, VERSACAD, MasterCAD, etc.

• Software support. Planned software includesTektronix emulation, Graphics support library.

Get VIVA and bring your PCto life! VIVA is versatile, stateof the art quality at a priceyou can afford. Call todayand we'll be there—QDP.'VIVA Da VINCI!

fhis card

Zcepted by over

million PCs *"»*

m computer systems

QDP Computer Syilems, Inc.

10330 Brecluvllle Road

Cleveland, Ohlo44I4l

(216) 526-08.18 Telex 241596

Cable: Quudala, Brecluvllle

p-cad is a trademark of Electronic Design Automation • AutoCAD is a trademark of Autodesk Inc.VIVA and MasterCAD is a trademark of QDP Computer Systems, Inc. • IBM is a trademark

• VERSACAD Is a trademark of T&W Systems, Inc.of International Business Machines

COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

DIGITAL SAMPLING

ON THE APPLE

MACINTOSH

by Christopher Yavelow

Uses of digital sampling for music applications

THE APPLE MACINTOSH is widelyaccepted as the best microcomputerfor musical applications. If sheernumbers of software and hardwareproducts alone are taken into con-sideration, the past year's nearly fourdozen releases would provide ampleevidence that this micro is the com-puter of choice for developers ofmusicware. Contributing to this factare the Mac's high-resolution screengraphics, extra-friendly user interface,32-bit MC68000 microprocessor run-ning at 8 MHz, functional internal syn-thesizer, and portability.

Microcomputers are used to controlsound that they produce themselvesor to control other sound-generatingdevices. In either case, microproces-sors are used with oscillators to createsounds for musical use. Sound can becreated through additive or subtrac-tive synthesis, FM synthesis, andwaveshaping. Digital sampling andwave-table lookup are two similartechniques (see reference 1). In addi-tion, analog oscillators can be placedunder digital control and digitaloscillators can be operated throughanalog control.

Both sound generation and soundcontrol may play a role in computermusic applications, of which there arefive fundamental categories:

1. Score editing: to copy and editmusical scores for eventual printedoutput.

2. Performance: providing control ofan external sound-generating device.

3. Sound laboratory: as a sound-gen-erating/editing/analyzing device.

4. Composition/CAC (computer-aidedcomposition): to generate or assist inthe musical composition.

5. Music education: for a variety ofCAI (computer-aided instruction)purposes.

All of these types of applicationsare currently supported by Macintoshmusicware.

Macintosh Music Software

The first wave of Macintosh music-ware focused primarily on score edit-ing and secondarily on control of theMacintosh's internal four-voice synthe-sizer. Score editing, or using a Macin-tosh to deal with musical notes in amanner analogous to word process-

ing, was released with varyingdegrees of success within Mark of theUnicorn's Professional Composer,Great Wave's ConcertWare, UtopianSoftware's MacMusic, TriangleResources' MusPrint, South Bay'sMusic Character Set, Shaberazam'sMusic Type, and Hayden's Music-Works. While only Mark of theUnicorn's Professional Composer pro-vides score editing and printing capa-bilities on the level and qualitydemanded by serious musicians,other products such as ConcertWare,MacMusic, and MusicWorks offer in-tegrated manipulation of the Macin-tosh's internal synthesizer and scoreediting (reference 2).

The current second wave of musicsoftware for the Macintosh is focus-ing on using the Macintosh to controlexternal sound-generating devices.The three-year-old industry standardfor communication between com-

(continued)Christopher Yavelow (POB 821, Cambridge.MA 02238) is a professional performer/com-poser of computer-assisted music whose workshave received awards in 19 internationalcompetitions.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 171

MAC MUSIC

puters and musical instruments thatuse microprocessors is MIDI. Theprimary concern of MIDI is the re-cording of sequences of notes, includ-ing information about pitch, timing,on velocity, off velocity, patch change,and various front-panel synthesizercontrols. As the term suggests, MIDIsequencers allow for this informationto be played back precisely throughan external sound-generating deviceor synthesizer. In addition, becauseMIDI data consists entirely ofnumerical information, this data canbe edited and manipulated in realtime or as files at the composer's con-venience (reference 3).

MIDI sequencer software offeringboth MIDI in and MIDI out is availablewith Mark of the Unicorn's Performer,Southworth's Total Music, Opcode'sMIDIMAC Sequencer, Musicworks'MegaTrack, Great Wave's Concert-Ware + MIDI version. Creative Solu-tions' StudioMac, and Assimilation'sMIDI Composer. Electronic Arts'

Deluxe Music Construction Set andHayden's MusicWorks offer MIDI outonly. Some packages (e.g., Performer.Total Music, ConcertWare+, DeluxeMusic Construction Set, and Music-Works) provide for the conversion ofMIDI data into conventional musicnotation, or sheet music. Finally,Musicworks Inc. markets a utility pro-gram called MIDIWorks. which con-verts files to and from the various for-mats used by the different manufac-turers (reference 4).

The possibility for special "system-exclusive" (i.e., synthesizer-specific) in-formation is also built into the MIDIspecification. Through system-exclu-sive data, MIDI may also be used toedit patch parameters for specific syn-thesizers, usually of the FM synthesis-based variety. Opcode Systemsmarkets a patch editor for the YamahaDX/TX series and Casio CZ series ofsynthesizers. Patches may be saved toMacintosh disks providing storagespace for up to 50 or more banks of

its

TimeTo

NEW SLIMDESIGN and aLIFETIMEWARRANTY. . .

Two great reasons tomake the switch.Only 1 Vi" high, but stillwith the same highquality features youhave come to expectfrom DATA SPECSwitch Boxes:D Reinforced printedcircuit boards

□ Full shielding

□ Durable metalconstruction

□ Gold-platedcontacts

□ All pins switchedAnd now, backed by alifetime warranty.Visit your local DATASPEC dealer and seeour full line of slim styledata switch boxes andother computeraccessories.

asB&snogr

Switch Boxes

THE ULTIMATE IN COMPUTER ACCESSORIES

[HOT OlTOCT

" " ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORA1ION

20120 Plummer Street • P.O. Box 4029 • Chatsworth. CA 91313 • (818) 993-1202

A Division Of At i ianCE RESEARCH

patch information at a fraction of thecost of RAM cartridges. MusicworksInc. has released a Macintosh-basedpatch librarian program storing andmanipulating patches from theYamaha DX/TX series, and Opcodesells librarian software for practicallyall the major brands of synthesizers.

An even more recent developmentis the provision that allows passingdigitally sampled information via MIDIfor subsequent waveform editing.Both Emu's Emulator II (using Digi-design's Sound Designer) and En-soniq's Mirage (using Blank Software'sSound Lab) offer this capability. Othersampling keyboard manufacturerssuch as the renowned Kurzweil arefollowing suit using both MIDI andnon-MIDI communication (references5 and 6).

Last but not least, the Macintosh isa flexible sampling machine in its ownright. The remainder of this article willbe concerned with the sound-sam-pling capabilities of the Macintoshand the various uses of sounds digi-tized thereby.

Macintosh Sound HardwareCapabilities

To understand the Macintosh in itsaspect as a sound-sampling device,you must first consider the hardware.The Apple Macintosh generatessound in three ways. All Macintoshescome with a built-in ROM-residentsound driver that consists of three dif-ferent synthesizers:

1. The four-tone synthesizer, whichcan produce four tones simulta-neously and utilizes 50 percent of themicroprocessor's time.

2. The square-wave synthesizer thatdoes just what it implies, using about2 percent of the processor's time.

3. The free-form synthesizer that isused to generate complex music andspeech and requires about 20 percentof the processor's time.

Of these three possibilities, onlyitems 1 and 3 have serious musicalapplications. Furthermore, when con-sidering the Macintosh as a samplingmachine, an application may utilizethe free-form synthesizer or sendsound samples to the built-in audio

(continued)

172 BYTE • JUNE

Inquiry 106 for End-Users.Inquiry 107 for DEALERS ONLY.

We have over 1000 Software andhardware items in stock. Shipmentson almost all items within 24 hours!

Call for programsnot listed

FREE SOFTWARE!With over S100 purchase you willreceive a tree diskette for your IBMPC with label maker, checker gameand banner programs.

Technical & OtherInfo. (602) 246-2222

TOLL-FREE ORDER LINE 1-800-421-3135

SOFTWARE

DATA BASE MANAGERS

Clipper $345

Clout 2 129

Condor III 310

Fox and Geller Quickcode 145

Fox and Geller Quickreport 145

Knowledgeman II 299

K Paint 60

K Graph 135

KText 105

K Report 135

Nutshell Call

PFS: File 78

RBase 5000 329

Think Tank 93

Tim IV 169

WORD-PROCESSING

Easy (Micro Pro) 89

Leading Edge w/Merge/Spell 75

Microsoft Word 2.01 229

Multimate 3.31 Call

Multimate Advantage Call

Oasis Word Plus 85

Peachtext 5000 145

PFS: Write 78

Random House Spell Checker 36

Samna III 3.0 265

Volkswriter 3 Call

Word Perfect 4.1 199

Wordstar 170

Wordstar Propac 238

Wordstar 2000 238

Wordstar 2000+ 285

SPREADSHEETS

Microsoft Multiplan 115

PFS: Plan 78

Supercalc III 2.1 Call

VP Planner 69

ACCOUNTING

BPI Accounts Payable 299

BPI Account Receivable 299

BPI General Accounting 299

BPI Payroll 299

Cyma Call

Dollars and $ense 95

Tobias Managing Your Money 94

TCS. Big Four equivalent of PeachtreeSeries 4 - Specially augmented and cus-tomized for your IBM PC Terminal andPrinter - GL, AR, PA, AP, CP/M-80. CP/M-86 for PC XT, DOS 1.1, 2.0.Each Module $65 For All Four $249

INTEGRATED

Enable Call

Smart Software Call

TRANSFER PROGRAMS

Crosstalk XVI 89

Hayes Smartcom II 88

Microsoft Access 149

Move-It 79

Remote 89

GRAPHICS

Chartmaster 206

Dr. Halo II 99

Energraphics w/o Plotter 170

Energraphics w/Plotter 220

Fancy Font 129

Fontrix 99

Freelance 199

Graphwriter/Combo 310

Microsoft Flight Simulator 30

Printshop $36

PFS Graph 78

Signmaster 135

INCREDIBLEVALUE!

Nationally advertised boards forIBM PC and most compatibles atgiveaway prices. 1 year warranty

Keyboards (similar to 5151) $89

Monochrome Board

w/Printer Port $79

Graphic Board with parallel port

(similar to Hercules Graphics) $95

Expansion Board 0 to 576K $42

Multifunction Board w/game port

(similar to AST Six Pack) .... $99Four Drive Floppy Controller ... $45Color Card without printer port. $79Color Card with printer port.... $89MULTITECH IBM Compatible

Computer 256K, dual drives, 8MHZ,

Ports-parallel -2 serial-clock-game,

5151 type keyboard,

6 month warranty $995

LANGUAGES

Lattice C Compiler 3.0 Call

Run C Professional 169

Microsoft C Compiler 235

Microsoft Fortran 209

Microsoft Macro Assembler 89

Microsoft Pascal Compiler 78

Microsoft Quick Basic 59

Multi Halo 140

UTILITIES

Copy II PC 19

Copy II PC Board 79

Copywright 45

Desqview 59

Fastback 95

Norton Utilities 3.1 52

PC Tools 19

Prokey 4.0 75

Superkey 35

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Harvard Total Project Manager 269

Microsoft Project 235

Super Project Plus Call

HARDWARE

HARD DRIVES

Bernoulli 20 MB'v ht 2269

Seagate 20 MB Internal w/Controller ... 439

MODEMS

Anchor Express 235

Hayes 1200 Call

Hayes 1200B w/Software Call

Hayes 2400 599

U.S. Robotics Courier 2400 Call

U.S. Robotics Password 1200 Call

RAM

64K 150NS Chips (Japan - Set of 9) . 11.50256K Ram Chips (Set of 9) 32

BOARDS

AST Advantage 359

HARDWARE

AST Sixpack (384K) Call

Hercules Color Card 145

Hercules Graphics Card 299

J RAM III (Tall Tree) Call

J RAM III AT (Tall Tree) Call

J Lazer (Tall Tree) Call

Paradise Five Pak 119

Paradise Modular Graphics Card 249

Quadram Board with Par/Ser

and Game Port 199

Quadcolor I 185

Sigma Maximizer Multifunction 149

STB Chauffeur Board 249

STB EGA Plus 320

STB Mono Board 155

AB Parallel Print Switch w/cables 75

Mini Micro Parallel Print Buffer 69

IBM 120 Watt Power Supply 83

COMPUTERS

Corona PC Call

Sperry PC Mono 256K Dual DriveSerial Port, Clock, MS/DOS 2.11 Call

ITT Computers PC Compatible 256KDual Drive, Mono, MS/DOS Call

ITT XP 80286 IBM/PC Compatible, 512K,10 MB Winchester, 3 times faster than anXT. 30% faster than an AT Call

Sharp Portable Call

PRINTERS

FASTI ALL NEW PRINT SELECT PROGRAM VERS. 2.0

Written in assembly language for mostMS-DOS computers. With purchase of anyprinter you will receive at no charge thismenu driven program to set print charac-teristics or to make your computer func-tion as a correcting typewriter. Retail value$35.

CITIZEN

MSP-10 255

MSP-15 355

MSP-20 329

Citizen 120D 169

Premiere 35 Daisywheel 415

EPSON - Call on all modelsJUKI

Juki 6100 349

Juki 6300 685

NEC

3550 785

8850 1135

P5 Parallel 995

Elf 360 398

OKIDATA - Call on all modelsPANASONIC

1091 239

1092 316

1592 435

KXP3151 410

STAR MICRONICS - Call for pricesTOSHIBA

1340 460

P351 975

P341 799

MONITORS

AMDEK Call for price

Taxan 121 Green Call

Taxan 122 Amber Call

Princeton Max 12 159

TERMS: Add 3% lor C.O.D. orders. Shipping on most soft-ware is $5.00. AZ orders +6'/;% sales tax. Personal check-allow fourteen (14) days to clear. Prices are subject tochange. We accept purchase orders from authorized com-panies. All returns are subject to our approval. There willbe a 20% restock charge.

No Charge for MasterCard or Visa

TOLL-FREE ORDER LINE 1-800-421-3135WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS

2701 West Glendale Ave. • Phoenix, AZ 85051

Hours 7 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. M.S.T. - Mon. thru Fri.Saturday 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.

We do not guarantee compatibility

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 173

MAC MUSIC

output jack in a unique way to exceedthe four-voice limit that item 1 seemsto imply.

Due to hardware limitations, thehighest frequency the Macintosh cancurrently produce is 11.116 Hz. InsideMacintosh (reference 7) gives thefollowing explanation for this limita-tion: The sound driver and disk-motorspeed-control circuitry share a740-byte buffer, of which the sounddriver uses the 370 even-numberedbytes. Every horizontal retrace inter-val (i.e., every 44.93 microseconds,when the beam of the video screenmoves from the right edge of thescreen to the left), the MC68000automatically fetches 2 bytes fromthis buffer and sends the high-orderbyte to the speaker. Thus, all frequen-cies generated by the sound driverare multiples of this 44.93-microsec-ond period. The highest frequencyphysically possible for the sounddriver is twice this period, or 89.96microseconds, which translates to afrequency of 11.116 Hz. Likewise,every vertical retrace interval (every

16.6 milliseconds), the sound driverfills its half of the 740-byte buffer withthe next set of values.

These limitations notwithstanding,the Macintosh also comes with a built-in monophonic audio output jack thatcan be attached to any standardstereo system or cassette.

Introduction to DigitalSampling

Digital sound sampling is a newenough field that an explanation ofthe technique might be in order. It canbe easily understood by making ananalogy to motion pictures. In a film,many consecutive still photographs ofa continuous (analog) motion are pro-jected rapidly to recreate the illusionof continuous motion. Sound alsoexists within an analog continuum,and sound sampling, or digitizing,captures a specified number of "snap-shots" of a sound that are subse-quently played back at a rate typical-ly between 5000 and 100,000 samplesper second in order to recreate theoriginal sound (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Digital sampling of an analogsound wave: [a) The analog wave: (b) digitalsamples taken of the wave: (c) digitalreconstruction of original waveform.

Figure 2: The number of digital valuesused to represent samples affects theaccuracy of the reproduction of the soundwave. Note the difference in thereconstruction of the waveform, eventhough the sampling rate is identical.

Regarding questions of fidelity ofthe reproduction to the original, bothsound and film share common con-cerns. You must consider two factorswith respect to sound sampling: rateand resolution. To clarify these twoconsiderations, I will return to themotion-picture analogy. The size of asingle frame in a film represents itsresolution and thus places actualphysical limitations on the fidelity withwhich a film can reproduce visual in-formation. Varying degrees of quali-ty are dependent upon whether 8mm.16mm, 35mm, or 70mm film is usedto capture the still photographs ofanalog motion. Working hand-in-handwith resolution is the rate of speed atwhich the still photographs are pro-jected. Typical 3 5mm film used incommercial movie houses is pro-jected at 24 frames per second, andthe general audience accepts this rateas adequate to achieve the illusion ofcontinuous motion.

Sampling rate and resolution playan even larger role in determining thedegree of credibility within the do-

l/440th SECOND

f

%

1/8

aot

hSECON

D

Figure 3: A minimum of two samplesare required to represent a sound wave.

174 BYTE • JUNE 1986

MAC MUSIC

main of sound reproduction. Averagelisteners are far less forgiving thanfilm-goers. The "size" (or resolution)of each sound sample is analagous tothe size of film in a motion picture.Since a single sample consists of themeasurement of an analog (i.e., con-tinuous) voltage via an A/D converter,using a larger range of numbers formeasuring this voltage permits amore accurate representation of thevoltage. Digital computers use binarybits to represent numbers, so themaximum number of bits available foreach measurement will determine thehighest number of voltages that canbe represented and thus the in-cremental range within which allmeasurements must be scaled. Thelargest number that can be repre-sented by 8 bits is 2 56; thus, 8-bitsampling requires that all voltages berounded off to only 2 56 differentvalues. Twelve-bit sampling offersresolution to 4096 different steps and16-bit sampling provides a range of65.536 (see figure 2). Theoretically,each additional bit adds approximate-ly 6 decibels to the signal-to-noiseratio. However, in practice, manysampling devices periodically send anadditional 4. 6. or 8 bits of data alongwith their samples for the purpose ofproviding additional informationabout the sound's waveform. This pro-cess may raise the dynamic rangeconsiderably.

The rate at which sound samplesare captured, as well as how fast theyare output, is almost as important assample resolution when consideringthe fidelity of a digitally sampledsound to the original analog signal.According to Nyquist's theorem, aminimum of two samples per soundwave is necessary to represent a givensound wave. Therefore, to representa pure sound with a frequency of 440Hz (cycles per second), you are re-quired to sample that sound at aminimum rate of 880 samples per sec-ond (see figure 3). In reality, mostsounds are complex waveforms withovertones extending well beyond theaverage human range of hearing, or20,000 Hz. Thus, for the accuratereproduction of most musical sounds,a minimum sampling rate of 40,000samples per second would be op-

timum. On the other hand, the degreeto which overtones of frequencieshigher than 10,000 to 12,000 Hz con-tribute to one's perception isdebatable. These high overtones areof such low dynamic intensity (i.e.,volume) that many people argue thata sampling rate of 2 5,000 samples persecond is adequate. As a referencepoint, the fundamental frequency ofthe highest note on a piano (C8) is4186 Hz.

Sampling with the Macintosh

The hardware capabilities of a Macin-tosh computer limit the sampling rateto approximately 22,000 samples persecond with an 8-bit resolution. Theinternal speaker of the Macintosh isunable to handle sound of this quali-ty, although the backpanel mono-phonic audio output jack can send asignal of this quality to an externalamplifier such as a typical homestereo system. For purposes of com-parison, most CDs (compact disks)use a 44.1-kHz sampling rate with16-bit sample resolution.

At the time of this writing, there arethree sampling packages available forthe Apple Macintosh. All products in-clude both software and the neces-sary A/D-converter hardware. MacNif-ty's SoundCap is a low-cost hobbyist/hacker-oriented product with distinctthird-party applications. GW's Mac-ADIOS is a high-end digitizer gearedtoward scientific laboratory applica-tions. Finally, the Berkeley Mac Users'Group markets a low-cost do-it-your-self digitizer kit. Due to the fact thatthe purpose of this article is to ex-

amine computer music applications,MacADIOS will be described onlybriefly.

MACADIOS

MacADIOS (Macintosh Analog/DigitalInput/Output System) is a professionalhardware/software package consistingof a waveform-oriented, general-pur-pose data-acquisition system provid-ing oscilloscope, spectrum analysis,and XY recorder functions. In theoscilloscope function, 2 5 millisecondsof analog voltage data sampled at arate of 20,833 samples per second isplotted on the screen three times persecond. Other applications are limitedonly by the available RAM. Uses in-clude controlling and monitoringscientific experiments and processes.The hardware provides four analogvoltage outputs (12 bits), eight analogvoltage inputs (12 bits), 16 digital out-puts, 16 digital inputs, timer, program-mable clock, and a 20,83 3-values-per-second. maximum sample rate (seephoto 1).

Included with the hardware is ageneral-purpose data-acquisition pro-gram called MacADIOS Manager. Thissoftware provides a Monitor Window,a Graphic Editor Window, a ValueEditor Window, and a View 4 Window(similar to a programmable four-tracedigital oscilloscope). In some applica-tions, three snapshot windows may beopened to allow the user to quicklyview waves in low resolution. The soft-ware can also produce sonograms inseconds and spectrograms inminutes. Fifty routines are provided

[continued]

Photo I: The MacADIOS digitizer unit.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 175

MAC MUSIC

for executing highly specific tasks withMacADlOS from a user's C or Micro-soft BASIC program (see figure 4).

MacNifty Audio Digitizerwith SoundCap Software

The MacNifty audio digitizer packageconsists of a hardware digitizer (A/D)and associated SoundCap software.The hardware includes an RCA audioinput jack, a H6-inch remote-controljack, a gain control, and a 9-pin maleconnector with cable for the Macin-tosh's modem or printer RS-232Cports. The primary SoundCap pro-gram was developed by Fractal Soft-ware. Other secondary applications

included in the package are Sound-Init, Beeplnit, Type Writer, and Sound-Play.

The primary software, SoundCap,permits 8-bit sampling at four sam-pling rates: 22, 11, 7.4, and 5.5 kHz.Therefore, the Nyquist frequencies(the highest recordable frequency) are11, 5.5, 3.7, and 2.75 kHz. respectively.Because fewer samples are taken forslower sampling rates, as the Nyquistfrequency drops, the maximum sam-pling duration increases. With 512K-byte RAM, sampling at 22 kHz willallow 15 seconds of sound to berecorded. The lower sampling rateswill permit 30, 45, and 60 seconds of

6 Control Time Left Right Segment Record Utterance Layout

Figure 4: IWo of the many screens of MacADlOS.

sampled sound, respectively. Ownersof Macintoshes with more than 512KRAM can expect longer samplingdurations limited only by the amountof linear RAM available to SoundCapfor usage. Once sounds have beensampled, an option to save the sound-file using data compression is pro-vided for conserving disk space. Fur-thermore, an option to save thesoundfile as a "Studio Session" (dis-cussed below) instrument is available.In addition, you can open standardStudio Session instrument files forprecise editing in SoundCap (seefigure 5).

SoundCaps main screen displaysfive mode buttons. The buttons arelabeled with icons representingrecord, playback, oscilloscope, re-verberation, and spectrum-analysismodes. Pressing the record buttonwith the mouse pointer presents youwith a request for a record durationto be specified in seconds and milli-seconds. Pressing playback initiatesplayback. The other three buttons ad-dress real-time functions. One use ofthe real-time oscilloscope mode is toallow you to take accurate recordlevels prior to sampling. The re-verberation mode turns the Macin-tosh into a real-time digital reverbera-tor and also permits you to test outreverb parameter settings prior to ap-plying them to a soundfile (an opera-tion that cannot be "undone"). Thereal-time spectrum analyzer may beused to ascertain the optimum sam-pling rate for the sound being re-corded. Spectra are displayed as a barchart—the vertical axis representsamplitude, and the horizontal axis,frequency ranging from 0 to 9740 Hz.The user may specify the resolution,in samples (128, 256, 512, or 1024),used for the Fourier transform.

Sampled sounds are displayedgraphically on the main screen, withamplitude as the vertical axis andtime as the horizontal axis. The soundmay be both horizontally scrolledthrough or "zoomed" into or out offor viewing more samples on thescreen at once. As you zoom into thesound at various resolutions, thewaveform's amplitude envelope (at-tack or growth, sustain, and decay

[continued]

176 B YTE • JUNE 1986

>G

^fe

^v

<M

o

&

Macro Assembler

The quickest* Bar none*

Our Macro Assembler has long been themost complete package on the market. Nowit's also the fastest. Three times faster thanbefore. And faster than anyone else. Period.

Of course, it's still the most powerful assem-bler on the market. It supports the standard8086/8087 opcodes. And the new 186/286/287 instruction set. So you can make themost of the new machines.

Debugging is quicker, too. Thanks to ourinteractive symbolic debugger, SYMDEB.Now you can refer to variables and sourcecode instead of getting lost in hex dumps.And this debugger also works with Microsoftlanguages like C, FORTRAN and Pascal. Sonow you can set breakpoints and trace exe-cution—using source code for reference.

IB: DO 18 ! : 1,8191

11: 18 FUGS(I) : .IHIE,

12: M 91 I:1J191

13: MM, FMGS(I)) GO TO 91.

14; PMffi -" I * I t 1

IS: M fORHf)T(15U6)

17: K = 1 J PRIHE

-kp .14 V

il; FUME = 1 + 1 + 1 ■

im-.m1) H16248 HOU AX,[4H2]

lf)ET:8ttC 83C8 ADD AX,AX1AEi:B86E 48 INC AX

im:mi mm m mu,ni

16: COUNT : COUNT ♦ 1

1«EF:8872 FF8W848 INC Mord Ptr [4KB]

17: X : 1 ♦ PRINT

wwlh tfOwwwl (1)

16: COUNT ; COUNT » 1

Cut your development rime dramatically. Microsoft Macro Assembler'sSymbolic Debug utility lets you debug your Macro Assembler programs, ordebug your Microsoft C, FORTRAN or Pascal programs using your originalsource code or the resulting disassembly. For example, you can set break-points on line numbers and observe the contents of variables or expressions.

SYMDEB is just part of our complete setof utilities. Tools that make programming asfast as it should be. There are the linker andlibrary managers you'd expect. Plus a newversion of MAKE, our maintenance utility,with improvements like macro expansionsand inference rules.

We've also revised the manuals. Our newMacro Assembler has a lot to offer, so weadded more examples. Now our manuals are

not only thorough, they're clearer than everbefore.

For quick development and assembly, thechoice is obvious. Microsoft. There's nobodyfaster.

Microsoft "Macro Assembler Version 4.0 for MS-DOS*

Macro Assembler

♦ Fastest macro assembler for MS-DOS computers.♦Supports the 8086/8087/8088 and the 186/286/287.

♦ Define macros.

♦ Conditional assembly.

♦ Optional case sensitivity for symbols.

♦ 100% upward compatibility from earlier versions of both theMicrosoft and IBM*1 Macro Assemblers.

Interactive Symbolic Debug Utility

♦ Source level debugger for programs written in MicrosoftMacro Assembler, C Compiler, FORTRAN, and Pascal.

♦ Screen swapping helps debug highly visual applications.

♦ Set breakpoints on line numbers and symbols.

♦ Single step to follow program execution.

♦ Disassemble object code.

♦ Display and modify values.♦Full I/O redirection.Program Maintenance Utility

♦ Rebuilds your applications after your source files havechanged.

♦Similar to UNIX'" MAKE utility.

♦ Supports macro definitions and inference rules.Library Manager

♦Create, organize and maintain your object module librariescreated with Microsoft languages.

♦ Set page size from 16 to 32678, to create compact andgranular libraries.

Object Code Linker

♦ Simple overlaying linker combines relocatable objectmodules created using Microsoft languages into a singleprogram.

♦ Load Map generation.

♦ Specify from 1 to 1024 segments.Cross-Reference Utility

♦ Creates a cross-reference listing of the definitions andlocations of all symbols used in an assembly languageprogram, which makes debugging programs easier.

Microsoft EXE File Compression Utility

♦ Packs EXE files for smaller size on disk and faster loadingat execution time.

Microsoft EXE File Header Utility

♦ Display and modify EXE file header, allowing you to tunethe stack size and initial memory allocation.

For the name of your nearest Microsoftdealer call (800) 426-9400. In WashingtonState and Alaska, call (206) 882-8088. InCanada, call (416) 673-7638.

Microsoft.

The High Performance Software™

Microsoft and MS-DOS arc registered trademarks and The High Performance Software is a

trademark of Microsoft Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of

International Business Machines Corporation. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.

MAC MUSIC

phases) becomes evident.

Sounds may be modified in anumber of ways. Dragging over a por-tion of the sound with the mouseselects that region for editing andchanges the edit region into reversevideo. In this manner, regions ofsamples may be cut, copied, andpasted anywhere in the soundfile inthe norma! Macintosh fashion. A sec-ond horizontal scroll bar at the bot-tom of the screen (referred to as the"scratch bar") may be used to finelyadjust the output speed of thesamples and thus the pitch.

Once a soundfile or region of asoundfile has been selected forediting, a number of operations maybe applied to it. Accessing the SoundEffects menu presents you with 12 op-tions for sound modification. Soundsor portions thereof may be reversedor amplified. In the latter case, youcan specify the coefficient by whichall sample values will be multiplied foramplification. Reverb and flangeoperations may be applied to theselected region. You can also specifyreverberation parameters, delay (inmilliseconds), echo loss fraction, andregeneration normalization. In addi-tion, the flange delta may be definedin terms of a specified number ofsamples. The amplitude envelope of

a selected region of samples may beramped up or down and the soundmay be retuned via the scratch bar.Retuning recomputes the samples atthe selected rate. Other edit opera-tions include transferring sound to theclipboard for subsequent mixingwithin the same or a different sound-file. Mixing is accomplished throughadditive synthesis. Silence or digital-ly simulated "white noise" may be in-serted at any point in a soundfile ormay be used to replace a portion ofa sound.

Finally, two time-consuming editoperations may be performed on asoundfile or region thereof. Soundmay be "downsampled" to one of theavailable lower sampling rates for pur-poses of reducing the size (in kilo-bytes) of a soundfile. Also, a "low-pass" operation may be applied tothe sound while downsampling inorder to eliminate frequencies that ex-ceed the Nyquist frequency of thelower sampling rate.

The Options menu is where you setamplification, reverberation, andflange parameters as well as thenumber of repetitions of the sound-file (similar to looping an analog tape).Through this menu, it is possible tospecify a sustain loop in the sound-file of up to 6 seconds. A sustain loop

* File Edit I

/(<

ra

Sound Effects

SilenceBackwardsAmplifyReuerbRamp UpRamp Down

ScratchBar. :«S

Flange ~

Noise

MiH

LowPass

DownSample

Options Special

51 T

m

O

m

Figure 5: The main screen of MacUifty's SoundCap for editing of sounds sampledwith the MacNifty audio digitizer.

repeats a selected portion of thesoundfile indefinitely and is of par-ticular use when sampled sounds areto be sustained for varying rhythmicdurations in a musical context. This isan absolute necessity when savingsound files as "instruments" in theStudio Session format discussedbelow.

Uses of Macintosh-SampledSounds

Sound sampling is in its infancy andthus provides fruitful territory for awide range of applications. Many ofthe uses for sampled sounds have yetto be imagined by innovative thinkers.I will discuss a few of the current ap-plications in the following paragraphs.

Pitch Recognition and Transcrip-tion: Developers of Macintosh sam-pling software consider pitch recogni-tion and subsequent automatic tran-scription into conventional musicnotation (CMN) to be inevitable. Therelatively simple conversion of this in-formation into MIDI data would alloweasy control of much more complexsound-generating devices or an ex-pensive dedicated sampling keyboardsuch as the Kurzweil 2 50.

Through digital sampling, the Kurz-weil 2 50 can credibly recreate all thesounds of a full symphony orchestra,including any single instrument orcombination of instruments. Throughpitch recognition and MIDI conver-sion, it would be possible to accessthese sounds without using a piano-style keyboard. Vocalists could controlan entire symphony orchestra in thisway as well. The implications inherentin the freedom for creative expressionbrought about by the separation of in-strumental technique from soundsource are just beginning to be real-ized (reference 8).

Voice Recognition and Reproduc-tion: Other ideas related to pitchrecognition include MacNifty's plansfor voice recognition through its audiodigitizer. Using FFT (fast Fouriertransform) spectral data captured bySoundCap, it is hoped that the Macin-tosh will eventually become respon-sive to a library of voiced commands.The ability to sample the human

(continued)

178 BYTE • |UNE 1986

MICRO CAP and MICRO LOGICput your engineers on line

• ••

not in line. m$M

C~J>~

r-O

i?

'Mi

_H

ROQH lit

m

aayJEiiaa

j3 /vfxr/

iA^

/

vc

N>

/ViyoW/vJ ivo*?KST/=IT/oa1

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 and:ost-effective engineering workstation.

Both of these sophisticated engineering:ools provide you with quick and efficientsolutions to your simulation problems,^nd here's how.

MICROCAP:

Your Analog Solution

MICROCAP is an interactive analogcircuit drawing and simulation system.It allows you to sketch a circuit diagram-ight 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 Analysts"

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 326

MAC MUSIC

voice has other applications as well.Language instruction programs couldmake use of this feature to illustratecorrect pronunciation at the touch ofa button. There are applications forchildren's reading programs, too.Finally, the possibility for sendingvoice mail over a network is alreadya reality using MacNifty's digitizer.

Fun: The MacNifty audio digitizercomes with four additional applica-tions that use their sampled sound-files in purely fun ways. Soundlnitdoes to soundfiles what Bill Atkin-son's public-domain utility Screen-Maker did for MacPaint files. WithScreenMaker, you can substitute ascreen of your own creation for thenormal Welcome to the Macintoshstartup screen. With Soundlnit, boot-up will automatically be accompaniedby a soundfile of your choice thatcould be anything from AlbertEinstein saying "Good morning, let'sget down to serious business," splicedtogether in SoundCap from old video-tapes, to the full orchestral introduc-tion to Wagner's "Flight of theValkyrie" (as is the case with SiliconeBeach's Airborne game).

Beeplnit allows for similar per-sonalization of the Macintosh's beepsound. Instead of a dull computerbeep, you can substitute anythingfrom a digitized "Oops!" to the open-ing notes of Jimi Hendrix's PurpleHaze. Finally, the application TypeWriter allows the injection of user-sampled sounds at each keyboardstrike, providing for different soundsto be played through the space barand return keys. With an ironic senseof humor, the developers have in-cluded sample files for this purposethat substitute the sounds of a noisykeyboard, space bar, and carriagereturn typical of an IBM Selectrictypewriter.

Animations: The latest version ofMacroMind's popular VideoWorksprogram, which is currently publishedby Hayden Software, includes the op-tion to import sampled soundfiles forsynchronization with user-createdanimations. VideoWorks permits thequick and easy creation of WaltDisney-quality animations. Theoriginal release supported adding a

ProductsDiscussed

MacADIOS

Audio digitizer and

software $2500

GW InstrumentsPOB 547

Cambridge, MA 02142(617) 577-1524

Studio Session

Digitized sampled sound

editor $89.95

Bogas Software

(Distributed by the Kette Group;

see address below)

MacNifty

Audio digitizer with SoundCapsoftware $129.95

Kette Group Inc.

16860 Shingle Creek Parkway

Suite 110

Minneapolis. MN 55430

(800) 328-0184

synchronized soundtrack from aselection of 80 melodies and soundeffects provided in the program.Sounds could be synchronized toanimation in two ways. First, a soundor melody could be selected to playat a designated point, from beginningto end, at its original tempo and pitch.Secondly, sounds could be "synergis-tically interfaced" with the animation,in which case the position and motionof a specific sprite (animated object)would affect the pitch and/or tonequality of the sound attached to it.The new VideoWorks lets you incor-porate up to 16 digitizer soundfiles inthe VideoWorks music palette forsoundtrack use. Other new featuresinclude the ability to import wholemusic files from MacroMind's Music-Works application (mentioned above)and the ability for speech synthesisthrough use of either of the two avail-able Macintosh speech drivers: FirstByte's SmoothTalker or Apple's ownMacinTalk.

Software Authoring Systems:

MacroMind's VideoWorks Guided

Tour Authoring System has beenchosen by Apple for the creation ofthe company's popular "GuidedTours" of various software applica-tions for the Macintosh. Third-partydevelopers are taking advantage ofthis program as well. This authoringsystem, which is currently the only ex-tensive software authoring systemavailable for the Macintosh, is essen-tially identical to the new VideoWorksdescribed in the preceding section ofthis article and thus provides accessto all of the innovative approaches tosound offered by the Macintosh, in-cluding sounds sampled with Sound-Cap.

One significant feature makes thisan entirely new product: A Do menuis added to the VideoWorks environ-ment that permits the creation of in-teractive VideoWorks animations. Thismenu allows you to define any Video-Works object (sprite) as a button forbranching to other parts of the sameVideoWorks animation or to alto-gether different VideoWorks files. Inaddition, any screen object defined asa button may be set to cause anotherapplication or desk accessory toopen. Because of this feature, Macro-Mind has realized the possibilities forcreating interactive animated guidedtours of any software product avail-able, hence the name "VideoWorksGuided Tour Authoring System." Thistitle is perhaps a misnomer, since theprogram is equally applicable for ex-tending the range of interactiveeducational software to include trulyastounding possibilities. At least onethird-party developer is currently us-ing this system to author a software-based interactive music-theory in-struction program.

Music: At the time of this writing,only one music software applicationmakes use of soundfiles sampled withSoundCap. This program is BogasSoftware's Studio Session, and its im-plementation of digitized sounds istruly fascinating. Studio Session hasundergone some name changesthroughout its development, havingfirst been titled Sideman and later JamSession. The developers considertheir package to be "the MusicWorks

{continued)

180 B YTE • IUNE 1986

r you, good is just not good enough,

For serious programmers, good isn 't good enough. You need the best...the best tools, the best advice and the best support.

At Lifeboat, we've been selling to programmers since 1976, so weknow quality when we see it. And we're committed to a full-serviceprogram that goes beyond just selling you the best software atcompetitive prices. Our expert staff can help you decide whichprograms are best for your needs and provide you with all thetechnical support you may require. You can rely on Lifeboat for thecomplete solution to your programming needs.

INTERNATIONALSALES OFFICES

Australia:

Fagan Microprocessor Assoc.Phone: {61)3699-9899Canada: Scantel SystemsPhone: (416) 449-9252England: Grey Matter, Ltd.Phone: 144) 364-53499Italy: Lifeboat Assoc, S.p.A.Phone: 102) 656-841Japan: Lifeboat JapanPhone: 103) 293-4711Spain: Micronet, S.A..Phone: 134) 1-457-5056The Netherlands:

GIGA Computer Products

Phone: 131110-771846

SCOS Automation BV

Phone:131120-106922

Lifeboat

55 South Broadway

Tarrytown, NY 10591

LANGUAGES

Lattice CNew 3.0 Version

The best selling C Compiler has beenupgraded to give you more functions andfeatures. Lattice C 3.0 contains 200 newlibrary functions, better code generation,support for new data types (void, enum, un-signed char, unsigned long), support for the80186/80286 instruction set and the ability togenerate in-line 8087/80287 instructions.Lattice C is the C Compiler for professionaldevelopers.

RUN/C—The C Interpreter

Upgraded Version

Learn C the natural way with RUN/C. Theuser interface is similar to BASIC with easyfamiliar commands. The new 2.0 version ofRUN/C comes with a full-screen editor andother enhancements.

RUN/C Professional New

All RUN/C's capabilities plus powerfulfeatures for program development. Load yourfavorite object libraries with RUN/C Profes-sional. Contains a full-screen editor andsource code debugging facilities.

Mark Williams

C Programming System

A complete C development environment.

Pro Pascal

A truly standard Pascal. Produces fast, tightcode with plenty of compile time options andsimple one-line commands.

BetterBASIC/VeirV Version

Now you can program in BASIC and use thefull memory of your PC, create structuredprograms using functions and procedures,make your own library modules and more.Now compatible with Microsoft BASIC.

LANGUAGE UTILITIES

Plink86 Plus

An overlay linkage editor for linking8086/8088 object modules. Supports anunlimited size file, unlimited number ofmodules and up to 4095 hierarchical overlaysstacked as many as 32 levels deep. Plink86Plus contains new features for memorycaching, library allocation, file merging andoverlay reloading.

Pfix86 Plus

A symbolic and source level advanceddebugger for programming professionals.

Inquiry 186

The names of products listed ate generally the ttademarks el the sources of theproducts.

©1986 Lifeboat Associates

C-SPRITE

Symbolic debugging at both source level andmachine level. Monitor your program bysetting breakpoints, examining registers andvariables, or single-stepping through code.Handle a set of commands as a macro.C-SPRITE and the Lattice C Compiler area natural pair for program developmentand debugging.

BASTOC

A BASIC to C translator for the BASICprogrammer who wants to upgrade to C.

EDITORSLSE

A powerful yet inexpensive full-screen editordesigned for efficiency and ease of use. Itsspeed is optimized by writing directly to videomemory. The Lattice Screen Editor provides amulti-window environment, ability to repro-gram keys, support for keyboard macros, anundo command, an error tracking mode,on-line help and more.

VEDITPIus

A full-screen text editor for programdevelopment and word processing. It containspowerful features including use of macros,on-line help facility, paragraph formatting,and file comparison.

Pmate

The programmer's editor with an extensivemacro command language. Compile in thebackground while you continue to edit files.

EMACS

Customizable editor including windowing,multi-tasking and special modes for Cand Pascal.

FUNCTIONS

C-Food Smorgasbord

Library of time saving utility functionsincluding a BCD package, an IBM PC BIOSinterface, level 0 I/O functions, a terminalindependence package and more.

Essential C Utility Library

Over 300 functions, with special attentiongiven to screen handling, windows andbusiness graphics. Source code is included.

PforCe Brand New

An optimized library of an impressive 400 plusfunctions and subsystems. Included is awindow management system with overlap-ping or tiled windows and a database systemwith B-tree file structure. Several pre-codedscreens including "Lotus" style are supplied.And there's much more! Routines for interruptdriven communications, background tasks,and string/table parsing, along with functionsfor field/screen editing and validation are allpart of this superbly written and documentedsoftware. Complete source code is included.

The Greenleaf Comm Library

A library of over 120 communication routines.Contains functions to create interrupt drivenroutines or perform direct I/O to multipleComm Ports. Its strengths are in asynchro-nous communications, interrupt mode, mo-dem control, XMODEM, XON/XOFF and flowcontrol. Interfaces with Lattice, Microsoft,Wizard, Desmet, CI 86, Aztec and MarkWilliams C compilers.

The Greenleaf Functions

A mature library of over 200 functions.Version 3.0 offers all new indexed docu-mentation, with an abundance of examples.Source code included.

GRAPHICS andSCREEN DESIGN

GSS*CGI GRAPHICS New

The GSS Computer Graphics Interface isdesigned for creating high performancegraphics-based applications. GSS*CGI speedsup application development and providescompatibility with a wide range of peripherals.It's the only CGI implementation that providestrue device-independence for both raster andvector graphics. Language bindings areavailable to support development of GSS*CGIbased applications using Lattice C, MicrosoftC, FORTRAN, Pascal, BASIC Compiler andMacro Assembler. Products in the GSS*CGIGRAPHICS line include the GSS GraphicsDevelopment Toolkit, the GSS Kernel System,the GSS Plotting System and the GSSMetafile Interpreter.

Essential Graphics/VeirV

A brand new graphics library for Cprogrammers with the emphasis placed onease of use and portability. No royalties.

Multi-Halo

Library of over 200 graphics functions,supporting all of the popular graphics boards.

Panel

A powerful tool for interactive screen design.

For more information on these and otherproducts in our complete line call:

1-800-847-7078 In NY: 914-332-1875

UCCDQAT

The Full-Service Source for Programming Software.

MAC MUSIC

of sampled sounds," referring toMacroMind's largely intuitive musicediting program that uses the Macin-tosh's internal synthesizer for play-back.

Bogas's package includes a musiceditor (Studio Session Editor) andboth the player (Studio Session Player,see figure 6) and a miniplayer (whichallows for a larger number of sound-files or instruments to be saved on a

single disk by sacrificing some of theanimated graphics of the main playerapplication). With Studio Session it ispossible to play back pitched musicin six parts through the Macintosh'sinternal speaker or through an exter-nal sound system connected to theMacintosh's audio output. The soft-ware uses linear interpolation torecompute the sampled soundfiles atvarious pitches.

ATRON BUGBUSTERSGREASE BORLAND LIGHTNING

"If I were starting a software company again, from scratch, Atron's AT PROBE™ would be among my very firstinvestments. Without Atron's hardware-assisted, software debugging technology, the flash of Turbo Lightning™would be a light-year away'.' Philippe Kahn, President, Borland

i X

i3* 11 ;141 is;

1-2-3dfia;,'^)1

Pf=S:Rk .Symph IMicrc J -Micrc .SiPFS:VA\

ThinkTfc ■PFS:R«fc .Words*

4 R.BasoW

HaOX'S|

Hoyden j^

Frames,;,;.SuperC*' B

HOW BORLANDDOES SO MUCH,SO WELL, SO FAST

We asked BorlandInternational presidentPhilippe Kahn to sharehis secrets for rapidlytaking a good idea andturning it into rock-solidreality. How does theBorland team do somuch, so well, so fast?

He begins, "Iremember when Atronused the June 24, 1985Wall Street Journal chartof top-selling software inan ad!' [Note: At thattime, seven of the top tensoftware packages werecreated by Atron cus-tomers; it's now nownine out of ten.] "Side-Kick was number four,and I let Atron quote mein saying that therewouldn't have been aSideK ick withoutAtron's hardware-assisted debuggers.

"You might say light-ning has literally struckagain. Turbo Lightningmade number four onSoftSel's Hotlist within weeks of its introduction! Andagain, I say we couldn't have done it without Atrondebugging technology.

"Cleverly written code is, by definition tight, recur-sive, and terribly complex;' he continues. "Without theability to externally track the execution of this code,competent debugging becomes very nearly impossible!'

Concludes Philippe, "And after Turbo Lightning wassolid and reliable, Atron tuning software turned ourProbes into performance analyzers. How do you think wegreased our lightning?"

Philippe, along with a couple million or so of yoursatisfied customers, we say congratulations on yetanother best-selling product. We can't wait to see whatawesomely useful technology will come shooting out ofBorland International next.

Copyrighl 0 W85 by Alron Corp PC PROBE'" and AT PROUE" Alion SnlcKid

H|

WALL STR

HOW BUGBUSTERS KEEP YOU FROM GETTING SLIMED

The AT PROBE is a circuit board thatplugs into your PC/AT. It has anumbilical which plugs intothe 80287 socket andmonitors all 80286 activity.Since AT PROBE cantrace program execution inreal time, and display thelast 2048 memory cycles insymbolic or source-codeform, you can easily answerthe questions: "How did Iget here?" and "What arethose silly interruptsdoing?"

It can solve spookydebugging problems.Like finding whereyour program over-writes memory or I/O -impossible with soft-ware debuggers.

You can even dosource-level debuggingin your favorite lan-guage, like C, Pascal orassembler. And afteryour application isdebugged, the ATPROBE's performancemeasurement softwarecan isolate perfor-mance bottlenecks.Finally, the AT PROBE has its own 1-MByte of mem-ory. Hidden and write-protccted. How else could youdevelop that really large program, where the symboltable would otherwise take up most of memory.LOOK AT IT THIS WAY.

History shows that non-Atron customers don't stand avery good chance of making the Top Ten list. Lightningreally does have a way of striking twice!

The PC PROBE'" is $1595 and the AT PROBE is$2495. So call Atron today. You can be busting somereally scarey bugs tomorrow. And maybe, just likeBorland, you can also bust some records.

Mii<*\

THE DEBUGGER COMPANY

20665 Fourth Street • Saratoga, CA 95070 • 408/741-5900

' and Tmho LIghmlnV Holland Inlcmalicinal. In.:.. Adv hy TRIM. 4IIK'25K-270M

Several disks included with thepackage provide nearly 70 pre-sampled instruments, and you canedit these or create new instrumentsusing MacNifty's SoundCap .dis-cussed above). The program can ac-cess up to 16,000 different instru-ments, although between 20 to 2 5seems to be a practical limit for the512K Macintosh.

Music is entered using the StudioEditor program, which functions intwo modes. In the note-editing mode,notes and symbols may be draggedfrom a palette containing 32 items.The cursor assumes the symbol of theselected item until a new symbol isselected. Note values range from awhole note to a triplet 32nd note, andputting them on the staff is as easyas point and click with the mouse.Note placement is facilitated by thefact that the cursor jerks to bothhorizontal and vertical grid steps. Thehorizontal grid steps correspond to in-sertion or replacement locations andthe vertical grid corresponds tomusical half-steps on the staff. Duringediting, each instrumental voice isthought to be a separate track, withup to six tracks possible. Regions oftracks may be looped for up to 999repetitions, and loops of varyinglength may be occurring at differentplaces on separate tracks simulta-neously. Loops, which are repre-sented, by musical repeat signs, arenestable for up to 10 levels. Cut, copy,and paste operations are supported,as are transposition and the insertionof tempo indications on the score andin real time.

The second type of editing pro-vided by the Studio Editor is calledblock editing and is extremely in-novative. It uses a database approachto the organization of musical ideasand the manipulation of musical dataon the phrase level. 1 have repeated-ly stressed the necessity for incor-porating database-like library, sorting,and searching operations in MIDI se-quencer software, but it seems thatthe first constructive implementationof this concept is destined to cometo us from the sampled sound world.

The block-editing mode lets youview your musical composition in adisplay similar to a Multiplan spread-

182 B YTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 33

MAC MUSIC

sheet. Phrases are labeled with oneof 32 descriptive names (16 of whichmay be user-defined). The names ofthe phrases appear in the variousspreadsheet cells in the proper spatial(i.e.. temporal) relationship to oneanother. It is possible to zoom in orout of this display from 2-bar resolu-tion to 4-bar or 16-bar resolution.Phrases are stored in the phrase

library, which may hold up to 16.384phrases. Sorting and searching areavailable by specifying type, meter,phrase length, or multiple searchcriteria. Phrases may be dragged withthe mouse into the spreadsheet-likeblock editor display. In addition,phrases may be dragged around andplaced into new juxtapositions withinthe block editor itself in a manner and

« File Transfer The Jam Session Player 1.0

vp vuf

f| Drums 1

m

vuf vp

W Bass 11 El Rhu,

—7->+ -"—~/--+viy vi/

ON OFF SOLO CM OFF SOLO ON OFF SOLO ON OFF SOLO ON OFF SOLO ON OFF SOLO

0§U

Memory

D ^SE«KK

Figure 6: Bogas Software's Studio Session Player with animated cassette recorderemulation.

« File Edit Win

IbF4

Transfer

Block Editor

Instrument Palette

O

Instruments Ruailable

Phrase Library

clarin. Phrase 6Phrase 7Phrase 8

5

'"

Figure 7: Bogas Softwares Studio Session Editor showing typical database menus.

philosophy similar to dragging head-ings and text windows around in Liv-ing VideoText's ThinkTank idea pro-cessor. A "draft play" window on theleft of the screen includes the optionsof real-time soloing or muting for in-dividual tracks with the click of amouse. In the block editor display alllooped phrases display all their repeti-tions, but saving the file compacts theloops (see figure 7).

Such an approach to musical com-position is truly ground-breaking. Theability to organize musical ideas indatabase fashion fosters creativityand experimentation by allowing usto view our musical ideas on a moreglobal level. Bogas Software must bewholeheartedly commended for hav-ing the foresight to take the first stepin unlocking a door to the truecreative potential of a microcomputer.

Coda

The possibilities opened up by thecapability of sound sampling with apersonal microcomputer interpene-trate many different disciplines, bothmusical and otherwise. New and far-reaching applications for these tech-niques are being discovered everyday. As with any creative tool in its in-fancy, with respect to applications ofsound digitizing it is safe to say thatthe best may be yet to come withregard to music composition. ■

REFERENCES

1. Roads. Curtis, and |ohn Strawn (eds.).Foundations of Computer Music. Cambridge.MA: The MIT Press, 1985.

2. Yavelow, Christopher. "Music Softwarefor the Apple Macintosh." Computer Music\ournal. vol. 9, no. 3, 1985, page 52.

3. Loy. Gareth. "Musicians Make a Stan-dard: The Phenomenon of MIDI." ComputerMusk )ournal vol. 10, no. 1, 1986.

4. Yavelow, Christopher. "MIDI and theApple Macintosh." Computer Music journal.vol. 11, no. 4, 1986.

5. Milano, Dominic. "Digidesign SoundDesigner Emulator II Software." Keyboard.vol. 11, no. 10. 1985, page 112.

6. Aikin. Jim. "Sound Lab from Blank Soft-ware for the Ensoniq Mirage." Keyboard, vol.12. no. 1, 1986. page 126.

7. \nside Macintosh. Cupertino. CA: AppleComputer Inc., 1985.

8. Byrd. Donald and Christopher Yavelow."The Kurzweil 2 50 Digital Synthesizer."Computer Music journal vol. 10,no. 1, 1986.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 183

From the Father of Personal Computers Comes...

A New Set of Building BlocksFor The Creative Mind.

IntroducingDataBlocks™ - A Modular Computerized

PersonalCp&trol Sj/stqn. \

Dr. Ed Roberts,creator of the firstpersonal computer, theAltair, introduces a newfunctional concept forRobotics and ComputerEnthusiasts, OEM'sand Engineers.

The DataBlocks A-II™ modularcontrol system features stackablemodules (blocks), which plugtogether in any customizedcombination.

The A-II Control System interfaces with any-standard data terminal or terminal program.

The unique DataBlockshardware, coupled with its user-friendly PCL™ (Process ControlLanguage) make monitoring andpersonal control of virtually anydevice or function, easier and moreaffordable.

To order your A-II controlsystem and a free software tool kit,call today: DataBlocks toll-free1-800-652-1336. Georgia residentscall 1-912-568-7101.VISA and Mastercard accepted.

DataBlocks

DataBlocks, Inc.579 Snowhill RoadP.O. Box 449Alamo, GA 30411

Inquiry 104

Available blocks Include:

1. Central Processor Unit

2. System Memory

3. PROM/RAM Memory

4. RAM Disk

5. PROM Disk

6. PROM Programmer

7. Parallel Input/Output

8. Dual Serial I/O

9. Stack Power Supply

10. Floppy Disk Controller

11. Floppy Disk Drive

12. Hard Disk Controller

13. Hard Disk Drive

14. Voice Synthesizer

15. Voice Recognition

16. Control Master

17. Interrupt Expander

18. Stack LCD Display

19. Stack CRT Controller

20. Stack Graphics Control

21. Stack Relay

22. Stack 16 channel A/D

23. Stack Dual D/A Driver

24. Stack Dual D/A

25. Stack 1Amp Driver

26. Stack 4Amp Driver

27. Stack Wire Wrap Board

28. Slave Relay

29. Slave 16 channel A/D

30. Slave Dual A/D Driver

31. Slave Dual D/A

32. Slave Universal

33. Slave LCD Display

34. Slave Parallel I/O

35. Slave DC Driver 1Amp

36. Slave DC Driver 4AmpSpecifications subject tochange without notice.

Starter set (not shown) from $480.Additional blocks from $100.

EnergyManagement

Process

COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

MUSICAL

FRACTALS

by Charles Dodge and Curtis R. Bahn

Mathematical formulas can produce musicalas well as graphic fractals

FRACTAL GEOMETRY has exerted astrong influence on a remarkablevariety of disciplines in recent years.The sciences are using fractal struc-tures to study a diverse range ofphenomena from turbulence to bonestructure. In the arts, fractal geometryprovides computer graphics with un-precedented possibilities for creatinga new universe of visual forms, manyof which have an astoundinglyrealistic, natural look. In music, youcan employ the same principles totake advantage of a panoply of newrelationships.

In The Fractal Geometry of Nature (seereference 1), Benoit Mandelbrot iscareful to point out that the realisticand natural-appearing fractal graphicsare not modeled on photographs ofnature; rather, they are graphics ofmathematical relationships that comesurprisingly close to resembling occur-rences in nature. So it is with examplesof computer-aided composition. Theydo not sound like rock, or bebop, orsymphonies. Rather, they embodyabstract relationships that assume thecharacteristics of certain kinds of music.

There are a number of parallels be-tween computer graphics and com-puter music. Discussions about frac-

tals and computer graphics usuallydistinguish between the high-resolu-tion pictures made on powerful in-stitutional computers and those madeat home. The same schism exists be-tween highest-quality sound synthesisand home synthesis.

This article discusses some of thebasic techniques of computer-aidedmusical composition and includessome programs for generatingmusical fractals on home computers.[Editor's note: The programs WHITE.BAS,BROWN.BAS. lOVERF.BAS, VARI-ATN.BAS, and RANDOM.BAS are writ-ten in MSX BASIC using MUSIC MACROcommands for the Yamaha CX5-M musiccomputer. Their source code is available fordownloading from BYTEnet Listings at (617)861-9764. They are also available on disk[see page 445).| The output of the soft-ware shown in this article is a list ofcommands for the computer's inter-nal synthesis hardware rather than ac-tual music. Other details can be foundin the text box 'About the Programs"on page 196.

A LongstandingRelationship

Since the time of ancient Greece,Western music has embodied propor-

tions and abstract numerical relation-ships. There are many examples. Afamous motet of 1436, Nuper RosarumFlores by Guillaume Dufay, uses thesame relations of tempo between itssections as the ratios in size betweenparts of the Florentine cathedral forwhose dedication it was composed.Numerology played a part in certainchoices of elements in some of thereligious music of |. S. Bach.

In our own era, Bela Bartok, thegreat Hungarian composer and folkmusic expert, used the Fibonaccinumerical series to govern pro-

{continued)Charles Dodge is the director of the Centerfor Computer Music (Brooklyn College,CUNY, Brooklyn, NY 11210). He has aB.A. from the University of \owa and anM.A. and a DMA. from Columbia Univer-sity. He is a recognized composer of computermusic and coauthor of Computer Music:Synthesis, Composition, and Perfor-mance.

Curtis R. Bahn is a research assistant andstudent at the Center for Computer Music.We is also an adjunct assistant professorteaching computer music at NYU. He attend-ed Merlochen Arts Academy, has a B.A. fromIndiana University, and is currently workingon his M.A. at Brooklyn College.

]UNE 1986 -BYTE 185

WE TOP IBM BEAUTIFULLY

—

1's Personal Computer is the standard of the industry,| but a Thomson monitor gives your IBM's great body abeautiful face. A Thomson monitor atop your IBM simplyoutperforms the IBM Color Display.Here's proof:

FEATURE

Dot pitch (in mm/

Screen

Switch for green/amher text

All major controls op front

Warranty

List Price

THOMSON.3Bmm COLOR.38Non-glareYesYeslyr.$549

IBM COLOR DISPLAY.43GlareNoNo90 days$BBD

BENEFIT

Superior resolutionLess eyestrainImproved legibilityGreater convenienceGreater confidenceA bargain

Who is Thomson? Thomson is a six billion dollarmulti-national company. Unlike our competition, wedesign and build our own monitors with stringent qualitycontrol. We offer monochrome or color monitors fromTV-grade to high resolution.

Call 1-800-325-0464. InCalifornia call 1-213-568-1002(Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to5p.m. PST) for your localThomson dealer, and startlooking at a beautiful face.

THOMSON O

A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES.

TM

© 1986 Thomson Consumer Products Corporation 5731 W. Slauson Avenue. Suite 111, Culver City, CA 90230

Thomson is a trademark of Thomson S.A.I8M is a registered Irarlemaikot International Business Machines Corp IBM mot/el number 5153 list prices in ellecr on teburary IB. I9i

186 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 346 for End-Users. Inquiry 347 for DEALERS ONLY

FREE

FANTASTIC,

PRECISE,

ANIMATED

SOFTWARE

GRAPHICS.

FREE! WHENYOU BUY ATHOMSONMONITOR.

MUSICAL FRACTALS

The much-prized ShowPartner™ software. It givesyou scrolls. Wipes. Fades.Brilliant screen performances.

Normally, Show Partnercosts $149. But you canget it free when you buy aThomson CM36382SI orCM3I311SI high-resolutioncolor monitor.

See your Thomsondealer for details. And hurry!This offer is for a limitedtime only.

THOMSON O

A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES™

Show Partner is a trademark of Brwhtbili Roberts and Company. Ltd. anddistributed by The Marketing Channel Thomson is a trademark of Thomson S.A.

\; I98S Thomson Consumer Products Corporation

portions in a number of his works.More recently, Charles Dodge's com-puter music composition Earth'sMagnetic Field (Nonesuch Records.1970) interprets an index of solarradiation's effect on the magneticfield surrounding the earth tocreate its melodic and rhythmicactivity.

In the mid-fifties, Lejaren Hiller andLoren Isaacson wrote their first pro-grams for computer-aided composi-tion (see reference 2) and Max V.Mathews created his widely usedalgorithm for the digital oscillator (seereference 3). Today, computer-basedaudio synthesis, processing, andrecording pervade all styles of music.Even classical concert music now in-cludes a wide variety of computermusic, as evidenced by the New YorkPhilharmonic's three-day minifestivalof computer music within its landmarkcontemporary music festival, Hori-zons '84.

After an initial flurry of activity incomputer-aided composition (CAC),however, musicians and engineershave concentrated on digital synthesisand processing of sound. Only recent-ly have a number of composersbegun to reexamine some of the pos-sibilities of CAC. If you definecomputer-aided composition as theuse of a computer program tocalculate some aspect of a musicalscore, you can eliminate the commonmisconception that the words "com-puter music" are limited to the com-puter performance, or realization, ofmusic composed in the past (by thisdefinition, "switched-on" classics arenot new compositions but newrealizations). A composer commonlyuses computer programs to composeand then makes electronic realizationsof the composition on the computer.You can describe this process ascomputer-realized CAC.

There is an obvious analogy be-tween this and the field of computergraphics, in which you use computerprograms to create visual structuresto be realized by computer tech-nology. Because of the parallel struc-tures within the two fields, you canadapt recent applications of BenoitMandelbrot's fractal geometry tocomputer graphics (see reference 4)

for use in computer-aided composi-tion.

Composing by Computer

Using the computer to composeraises a number of issues about thenature of the creative process and thenature of music itself. Many of thebest musicians in various epochs haveincorporated mathematical relation-ships into their music. No one wouldargue, however, that all you need foreffective composing is a well-devel-oped mathematical technique. Anymusical application of mathematicalrelationships must take into con-sideration the interactions of the basicelements of musical texture: pitch,rhythm, loudness, and tone quality.The way in which a composer struc-tures these basic elements deter-mines to a large degree the nature ofthe music created. Figures lb, 2b, and3b come from random processes thatprovide the means of choosing valuesfor some of the necessary buildingblocks. Figure 4c is a musical fractalthat elaborates and builds on theelementary motivic structure shown infigure 4b. All the examples given usethe 12-tone equal-temperament pitchcollection. Mapping the results of theprograms given onto different pitchcollections will make a most signifi-cant difference in the sound of themusic.

Three types of random processesare often associated with CAC. Theseprocesses have been widely appliedto the choice of compositional param-eters—pitch, for example. You cancharacterize each process by its power-density spectrum, the variation of the ran-dom sequence's energy versus its fre-quency. The spectral characterizationapplies only to the random variable'ssequence of values; it says nothingabout the acoustical spectra of themusic's actual sounds. These spectradepend on the characteristics of theinstruments—electronic or other-wise—used to play them.

The first and most basic randomprocess is white noise, which bydefinition has a flat spectrum. Thismeans that its spectral energy isdispersed evenly with the frequency,and thus it varies with the frequency

(continued)

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 187

Inquiry 177

DO IT YOURSELF

IBIVI XT/AT COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS

Introducing XT64 Basic System

■ 640K Motherboard

• 135 Watts Hard DiskReady Power Supply

■ Color Graphic Card

i One DS/DD Slim Drivei Floppy Disk Controller

■ Assembly Instruction

MUSICAL FRACTALS

$595.00

POWER SUPPLY, CASE

• 135 Watts Hard Disk Ready

Heavy Duty Power Supply . JpOO.UU

• Flip Top Metal Cabinet

With Built In Speaker $45.00

XT/AT KEYBOARD

* Enlarge Return, Shift & Control Key &LED Indicators for Caps, Num Lock

& Scroll Lock a-rr- nr\

$65.00

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

• Pop-Up Mechanism

• Direct Drive Brushless

Spindle Motor

• High Speed Data Access

• All Japanese Name Brand

$85.00

■ 640K Motherboard. IBM XT FullyCompatible

• 8088 CPU.81/0 Slots

• Turbo 8 MHz

Optional

* W,0 Memory Chip $120.00

• W/Memory Chips $188.00

MONITOR, ADD-ON CARDS

• High Res. TTL Green/Amber .$95.00

* High Res. Color Monitor . . . $310.00

• Disk I O Card for 2 Disk DrivesW Serial, Parallel, Game Port

& Clock $108.00

* Color Graphic Card $70.00

•k Monochrome Graphic Card . .. $90.00+ Floppy Disk Controllers $35.00

JM SYSTEM INC.

1580 Industrial St., Los Angeles, CA 90021

* IMMEDIATE DELIVERY *

Please Call For Our Special Dealer PriceMail Orders Hoi Line

(213) 624-9986

European Customers Contact:

Hong Kong Office ■ FAX No. 7988360

U.S. Office FAX No. (213) 624-8826

IBM XT AT Are Registered Trademarks ofInternational Business Machines Corp.

188 BYTE • JUNE 1986

in a 1//° relationship. Figure la showsa graph of the power-density spec-trum of white noise (see reference 5).Figure lb is a musical example madeby selecting pitches and rhythms atrandom using the white-noise math-ematical relationship. The range ofpitches used is the two octaves abovemiddle C, using all chromatic pitchesof 12-tone equal temperament. Thefour rhythmic values used are thequarter, the half, the dotted-half, andthe whole note. The music notationshows conventional pitch andrhythmic values, along with bar linesand meter signatures.

As with all our BASIC language pro-grams, we used the internal clock toseed the random generator, resultingin a completely new sequence oneach run. Regardless of the seed, apassage of music generated by whitenoise exhibits little internal coherence

or relatedness. If you generate white-noise music several times with theprogram in listing 1, you will noticethat the melody is different each time.If you use the diatonic-pitch collection(the pitches of a major scale), for ex-ample, and a different group ofrhythmic values, you get othermelodies as well.

A random variable, whose nextvalue is generated by adding aGaussian-distributed random variablewith a mean value of 0 to the currentvalue, creates noise with a spectrumof Iff, Figure 2a shows a graph of 1/fnoise, sometimes called Browniannoise. Due to the Gaussian distribu-tion, small changes in value are morelikely than large ones. Figure 2 b is anexample of Brownian music. We chosethe same ranges of pitch and rhythmicvalues to project the musical line thatwe selected for figure lb. The Brown-

>■1-w

2UJD

a.

HI

So

Q.

FREQUENCY

Figure la: The power-density spectrum of white, or [If, noise

Figure lb: A musical example created by random selection of pitches and rhythmsusing the white-noise mathematical relationship.

Listing 1: WHITE.BAS, a program

to generate white noise.

10

INIT: INST(1)

20

X=RND(-TIME)

30

FOR X - 1 TO 25

35

REM notes In range of

25

to 120

40

N = INT(RND(1)*95)+25

45

REM lengths in range of

to 4

50

L - INT(RND(1)*4)+1PHRASE(1,"L»L;","N-N

60

")

70

NEXT X

80

_PLAY(1,1)

90

WAIT(1)

100 INPUT"AGAIN";DD:GOTO

80

MUSICAL FRACTALS

ian music moves along from one pitchto another within a small span of in-tervals. The music seems to wanderaround with no clear direction. Thecode in listing 2 will generate Brown-ian music.

Both white noise and Browniannoise are members of a class of pro-cesses called fractional noises, whosespectrum diminishes following the for-mula J//', where 0 ^ y ^ 2. A par-ticularly interesting case occurs wheny = \, also known as 1//noise. Figure3 a contains a graph of the power-density spectrum of Uf noise. Surpris-ingly, the 1// relationship occursnaturally in a great many ways: asvariations in annual amounts of rain-fall, in patterns of sunspot activity, andas noise in electronic devices, toname only a few. In fact, physicistsRichard F. Voss and John Clarkeanalyzed several recordings of non-random music in various styles andfound the loudness and frequencydistribution was nearly 1// (see refer-ence 6). Figure 3 b shows a musicalline with the same range as figures lband 2b but with a 1// correlation be-tween successive pitches andrhythms.

Values in a sequence generated bythe I//formula correlate logarithmical-ly with past values. Thus, for example,the averaged activity of the last 10values has as much influence on thecurrent value as does that of the last100, the last 1000, and so on. Thisremarkable property means that theprocess has a relatively long-termmemory. In fact, it has the best mem-ory of any fractional noise-generatingformula.

Figures lb, 2b, and 3b show mono-phonic (single-line) music. Since mostWestern music is polyphonic (morethan one line), these examples areperhaps better for illustrating the dif-ferences among the generating pro-cesses than for creating compositions.Because of l//'s superior memory,lines of music generated with 1//noise, such as the one shown in figure3b, have the best overall musical ef-fect of the lines created using frac-tional noises. Relating note andrhythm choices to both the recentpast and the more distant past seems

(continued)

>■1-co

z

IK

a

K

tu

oa.

FREQUENCY

Figure 2a: The power-density spectrum of Brownian. or I//2, noise.

Figure 2b: An example of Brownian music using the same range of pitches andrhythms as figure \b but with the Brownian formula.

Listing 2: BROWN.BAS. a program to generate Brownian noise.

10 _INIT: _INST (1)

20 X=RND(-TIME)

30 N=60:L-2

40 FOR X = 1 TO 25

50 R=3:G0SUB 130:N=N+D: REM R varies the range

60 IF N>120 or N<25 THEN N=N-2*D

70 R-.667:G0SUB 130:L-L+D

80 IF L<1 OR L>4 THEN L-L-2*D

90 _PHRASE(1,"L-L;",N-N;")

100 NEXT X

110 _PLAY(1,1):_WAIT(1)

120 INPUT"AGAIN";DD:GOTO 110

130 REM BROWNIAN ROUTINE

140 S»0:REM S is Sum

150 FOR I - 1 TO 12

160 S=S+RND(1)

170 NEXT I

180 D-INT(R*(S-6))

190 RETURN

>

1-tn

z

Id

a

a:Ul

o

Q-

FREQUENCY

Figure 3a: The power-density spectrum of \lf noise.

Figure 3b: A line of \lf music generated from the pitches and rhythms infigures \b and 2b but using the \lf-noise formula.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 189

MUSICAL FRACTALS

Listing 3: lOVERF.BAS. a program to generate \lf noise.

10 _INIT:_INST(1):LL=8:LN=16:S=60:X=RND(-TIME)

20 FOR X = 1 TO 25

30 D=N:GOSUB 130

40 N=D:SN=N+S

50 D=L:GOSUB 130

60 L«D:SL-LL+1

70 .PHRASE (1, "L-SL; ". "N-SN; ")

80 NEXT X

90 _PLAY(1.1)

100 _WAIT(1)

110 INPUT"AGAIN";DD

120 GOTO 90

130 REM 1/F ROUTINE

135 REM L is last value. K is 1/2 poss

136 REM values. PROBIT=1/K140 L=D:D-0:K=16:PROBIT=.03125150 J-INT(L/K)

160 IF J-1 THEN L=L-K

170 U=RND(1)

180 IF U < PROBIT THEN J=1—I

190 D=D+J*K

200 K=K/2

210 PR0BIT=PR0BIT*2

220 IF K>1 THEN GOTO 150

230 RETURN

Figure 4a: The Koch snowflake. a scaling fractal.

MOTIF

r-0

I \r^—

jf^*

P~^

1

-t^-4— °-

f-

—lr^

—+fc-o 1

L_yz_a

PITCH 3TIME 1

1 1

6 9

: 2 : 2

1 b-&

-3

: i

1—J4t V U

0

: l

Figure 4b: A "generating motif" of music composed of a few intervals and durations[analogous to the largest triangle in the Koch snowflake).

to be an important part of musicalcoherence. Listing 3 provides thecode to generate some 1// music.Even musical lines made from the firsttwo types of fractional noise havetheir possible applications. You canuse them in simple musical contextsand together with other lines in morecomplicated ones.

Although 1// noise may have thesame power-density spectrum as arecording of a symphony by Mozart,the raw application of \/f noise tocompositional choices leaves out animportant aspect of composition:musical structure. The application offractals can be significantly useful inthis area and provides an excellentpoint of departure for helping to moldthe overall form of a piece of music.

Fractals and MusicalStructure

Scaling, the space-filling curve, andself-similarity are three important con-cepts in fractals. Figure 4a shows avery regular fractal, the Koch snow-flake. It is made from an equilateraltriangle in the following way: Addanother equilateral triangle of smallerscale to each side of the original, thenadd still smaller and smallerequilateral triangles recursively downto the resolution of the display. TheKoch snowflake is a scaling fractalbecause it is made from the sameshape reapplied at different scales. Itis a space-filling curve because the edgeof the snowflake—when you add aninfinite number of triangles recur-sively—becomes infinitely long. (Theedge assumes a form in between aone-dimensional line and a two-dimensional plane. This defines thesnowflake as having a fractionaldimension—thus, it is a fractal.) TheKoch snowflake also exhibits self-similarity: that is, the small detail is

Figure 4c: The first and second layers of a polyphonic musical composition. The first layer is the original motif, while the secondlayer is merely a faster repetition of that motif added to each of its notes.

190 B YTE • IUNE 1986

MUSICAL FRACTALS

similar to the large detail. Self-similarity, although not a mathemat-ical requirement of a fractal, is char-acteristic of all the fractals that wehave found to be musically interest-ing.

The awareness of self-similarityabounds in studies of musical struc-ture. In the early twentieth century.Viennese music theorist HeinrichSchenker developed a way of analyz-ing classical music that reflects theparts of a musical form as self-similarstructures. Schenker's analytical tech-niques have had a growing influencein recent decades on a variety ofmusical ideas. Certain long-standingcompositional procedures, such asthose of canon, fugue, and motivicdevelopment, depend entirely onmaking new musical material by sys-tematically transforming previousmusical material. In many instances,these procedures result in clearly self-similar musical structures.

You can make an analogy in poly-phonic music to the space-fillingcurve. If you choose a "generatingmotif" of a few intervals and durations(see figure 4b), it will serve as theslowest moving line in your musicalfractal. (Its purpose is analogous tothat of the largest triangle in the Kochsnowflake.) Then, using the programin listing 4, you add a faster repetitionof the motif to each of the notes inthe original motif (see figure 4c). Thenyou add still faster motivic repetitionsto each of the notes generated in theprevious step as well. The result is atime-filling musical structure anal-ogous to the space-filling curve of theKoch snowflake.

The program in listing 4 generatesa three-line polyphonic composition.You can create an entire piece ofmusic out of essentially one motif.The program places that motif in aself-similar structure by displaying itsimultaneously in three different timespans.

You can change the nature of theresulting music radically by alteringthe motif. Changing only one pitch ortime relationship can result in very dif-ferent music because the change isperpetuated through every occur-rence of the motif in all three layers

(continued)

AP(6):DIM BP(36):DIM CP(216)~)(6):DIM BD(36):DIM CD(216)

Listing 4: VARIATN.BAS, a program for determinate fractal and Brownianvariation.

5 REM*****************************************************

6 REM Copyright 1986 Curtis Bahn, Creative Associates Inc.

7 REM*****************************************************10 CLS

20 DIM P(6):DIM

30 DIM D(6):DIM AD(6):DIM BD(36):DIM CD(40 DT=0:CC-0:BC=0:AC=0:GP=0:R=0:HP=10050 _INIT:_INST(1):_INST(2):_INST(3)

100 INPUT"HOW MANY NOTES IN SET?"; PN:

IF PN>6 OR PN<1 THEN GOTO 100110 PRINT"INPUT";PN;"PITCH RELATIONSHIPS"120 FOR L00P=1 TO PN130 INPUT P(LO0P):IF ABS(P(L00P))>12 THEN PRINT"TOO BIG":

GOTO 130135 IF GP<P(LOOP)THEN GP=P(LOOP):

IF BP>P(LOOP)THEN BP-P(LOOP)140 NEXT LOOP

150 PRINT "INPUT";PN;"TIME RELATIONSHIPS"160 FOR L00P=1 TO PN170 INPUT D(LOOP)180 NEXT185 INPUT"BROWNIAN RANDOMIZER APPLIED TO PITCH (1 OR 6)";

R:IF R>2 GOTO 185190 PP=ABS(BP)+ABS(GP)195 LP=HP-(3*GP):SK-100/(3*PP)200 REM FRACTAL ROUTINE205 PRINT"COMPUTING FRACTAL"210 FOR A=1 TO PN220 AP(A)=P(A)+RC:AD(A)=D(A)230 FOR B=1 TO PN

240 BC=BC+1:IF R -1 THEN GOSUB 700245 BP(BC)=AP(A)+P(B)+RC:BD(BC)=D(B)*D(A)250 FOR C=1 TO PN

260 CC=CC+1:IF R«1 THEN GOSUB 700

270 CP(CC)=BP(BC)+P(C)+RC:CD(CC)=D(C)*BD(BC):DT-DT+CD(CC)280 NEXT C: NEXT B: NEXT A290 TS=255/DT300 REM PLAYING ROUTINE310 BC=0:CC=0320 FOR A=1 TO PN

330 _SOUND(1,1,AP(A)+LP):CIRCLE(TC,90-(AP(A)*SK)),6340 FOR B= 1 TO PN345 BC=BC+1

350 _SOUND(2,1,BP(BC)+LP):CIRCLE(TC,90-(BP(BC)*SK)).3360 FOR C= 1 TO PN

370 _SOUND(3,1,CP(CC)+LP):CIRCLE(TC,90-(CP(CC)*SK)),1380 FOR L00P-1 TO CD(CC):TC-TC+TS385 REM all play statements for mono playback390 _SOUND(3,0,CP(CC)+LP)400 NEXT LOOP

410 NEXT C: NEXT B: NEXT A420 _ST0P(1): _ST0P(2): _ST0P(3)430 INKEY$=DD$:IF DD$="" THEN GOTO 430440 GOTO 300

500 REM BROWNIAN ROUTINE510 S-0

520 FOR 1= 1 TO 12530 S=S+RND(1)540 NEXT I550 RC=INT(2*(S-6))560 RETURN

IUNE I986 -BYTE 191

MUSICAL FRACTALS

of the musical structure.

In listing 4, we have limited thenumber of layers to three, but giventhe hardware, you could add layers tothe musical structure until you achievea point of aural saturation. You reachsaturation when the input exceedsyour aural resolution (when an addi-tional layer makes the music move sofast that its tones become blurs) orsurpasses the limitations of the syn-thesis system (when the tones in anew layer are too high for the syn-thesizer to play).

You can make a musical fractal thatsounds less mechanical by incor-porating a certain degree of ran-domness into the previous, non-random example. The idea is to pro-duce random offsets of the original,nonrandom values. The programshown in listing 4 gives you the op-

tion of calling for Brownian randomoffsets in the selection of pitch inter-vals on the second and third layers.For the second layer the program willimpart a change in the range of 0 to6 semitones above or below the pitchvalue specified. The same range anddistribution are applied for the thirdlayer to those tones produced for thesecond layer.

The technique for creating thismusical fractal is quite closely relatedto the technique in computer graphicsfor making fractal, Brownian mountainranges (see reference 7). This complexcomputer graphic is made by nestingtriangles, where the sides of thetriangles are offset by some randomamount proportional to the length ofthat side. In the musical fractals pro-duced by the Brownian variation thatis given in listing 4, an analogous

r ( 1 TIME UNIT EACH )

4th LEVEL: XXXXX XXXX XXX XXXXX XXX

3rd LEVEL:

I 5 TIME UNITS) (4 TIME UNITS) (3 TIME UNITS) (5 TIME UNITS) 13 TIME UNITS)

2nd LEVEL:

1st LEVEL:

(12 TIME UNITS)

18 TIME UNITS)

(20 TIME UNITS)

Figure 5a: The relationship in time of four levels of generated notes.

technique is applied.

The final musical fractal uses atechnique similar to the one de-scribed above: You generate anoriginal layer and then add fasterlayers to it. You generate all layersthrough a 1//-noise algorithm produc-ing self-similar patterns. Because it isa random process, its similarity isstatistically, rather than literally, thesame. This fact lends a varied yet con-sistent surface to the resulting music.(The code is provided in listing 5.)

A Layered Structure

To understand how the layers aremade, you need to understand theconcept of pitch class. A pitch class isa C or an F#, for example, withoutregard for its register. In other words,the highest and lowest Cs on thepiano keyboard share the same pitchclass, C; they differ only in octave.

You don't specify the number ofnotes in the first layer directly. Instead,you begin by specifying the numberof different pitch classes you want togenerate in the first layer. You mayhave noticed that the 1// algorithmcommonly produces repeated notes.Therefore, the contents of the layerare related to pitch-class diversity, notsimply to the number of pitches in thelayer. The number of pitches in thelayer does determine the perceived

(continued)

i

I

J p* * J b* jgj

1

P

P¥

*^

¥

£

£=

PP

I

LIMIT OF PITCH CLASSES FOR LEVEL 1 = 2, 2=2. 3=2, 4 = 3

Figure 5b: A four-layer musical structure generated using the \lf-noise algorithm.

192 BYTE • |UNE 1986

MUSICAL FRACTALS

Listing 5: RANDOM.BAS, a program to generate \/f random fractals.

5 REM*****************************************************

6 REM Copyright 1986 Charles Dodge, North Cape Music

7 REM*****************************************************10 CLS

20 DIM APf10):DIM BP(100):DIM CP(255):DIM DP(2,255):TC=20

30 DIM BD(10):DIM CD(100):DIM DD(255)

40 DT=0:DC=0:CC=0:BC=0:AC=0:DIM CT(4)

50 DIM CF(4,12):DIM LAST(4):KN=50

60 X-RND(-TIME):LAST(1)=INT(RND(1)*32)

70 _INIT:_INST(1):_INST(2):_INST(3):_INST(4)

80 _MODI(1,5):_MODI(2,40):_MODI(3,15):_MODI(4,16)

100 FOR LOOP - 1 TO 4

110 PRINT"ENTER PITCH CLASS LIMIT OF LEVEL #";LO0P

120 INPUT PL(LOOP)

130 IF PL(LOOP)>6 THEN PRINT"TOO BIG":GOTO 120

140 IF PL(L00P)<1 THEN PRINT"TOO SMALL":G0T0 120

150 NEXT LOOP

160 L=1

170 FOR A = 1 TO 10

180 GOSUB 820

190 IF CT(L)>PL(L) THEN GOTO 230

200 AC=AC+1

210 AP(A)=LAST(L)

220 NEXT

230 REM FRACTAL ROUTINE

240 SCREEN 2

250 FOR A = 1 TO AC

260 CIRCLE(DI/2,197-(AP(A)*5+20)),9

270 LAST(2)=AP(A)

280 FOR B = 1 TO 10

290 L=2

300 GOSUB 820

310 IF CT(L)>PL(L) THEN GOTO 570

320 BI=BI+1:BP(BI)=LAST(L)

330 CIRCLE(DI/2,197-(BP(BI)*5+20)),6

340 LAST(3)-BP(BI)

350 FOR C = 1 TO 10

360 L-3

370 GOSUB 820

380 IF CT(L)>PL(L) THEN GOTO 550

390 CI=CI+1:CP(CI)=LAST(L):IF CI=255 THEN AC=A:GOTO 590

400 CIRCLE(DI/2,197-(CP(CI)*5+20)),3

410 LAST(4)=CP(CI)

420 FOR D = 1 TO 10

430 L=4

440 GOSUB 820

450 IF CT(L)>PL(L) THEN GOTO 530

460 DI=DI+1

470 CIRCLE(DI/2,197-(LAST(L)*5+20))..5

480 IF DI>255 THEN GOTO 500

490 DP(1,DI)=LAST(L):GOTO 520

500 DP(2,DI-255)=LAST(L)

510 IF DI=510 THEN AC ■ A: GOTO 590

520 DC=DC+1:NEXT D

530 DD(CI)=DC:DC=0:CT(L)=0:GOSUB 1020

540 CC=CC+1:NEXT C

550 CD(BI)=CC:CC=0:CT(L)=0:GOSUB 1020

560 BC=BC+1:NEXT B

570 BD(A)=BC:BC=0:CT(L)=0:GOSUB 1020

580 NEXT A

590 LINE (0.0)-(255,0):LINE (255,0)-(255,197):

LINE(255.197)-(0,197):LINE(0,197)-(0,0)600 DD$=INKEY$:IF DD$="" GOTO 600610 REM PLAY LOOPS640 FOR A - 1 TO AC650 _SOUND(1,1.AP(A)+KN)

(continued)

Inquiry 217

Switches to makeyour PCs powerful.

Reliable and affordable port expansion without memorizingcomplicated software commands. Switch four PC between per-ipherals with the push of a button. Is MFJ good? Joe Campbellin his book. The IiS-232 Solution said. "Switch boxes are soldby many suppliers, but by far the two best values are fromMFJ Enterprises." Below are just some of those values.

When you

MFJ Kf.213 TRANSFER SWITCH

J

need toswitch be-tween twoperipherals... or youneed to havetwo computers share thesame peripheral...MFJ-1240/$79.95

The 1240 has a built-intransmit/receive switch thatallows 2-way information flow. USDs monitor data lines whilebuilt-in surge protectors guard them. Can be used as a nullmodem. MFJ's No. 1 seller!

When you need l-to-4computers to share oneperipheral or l-to-4peripherals to share acommon computer...MFJ-1243/$119.95

The perfect office switch.Save money. Don't buyextra printers or modems,Connect 1 -tO-4 computers to a single printer or let a PC shareup to four peripherals, USDs monitor data lines: surge protectorsguard them. Two way communication is allowed.

When you need to Inter-connect four computersand four peripherals atone time! The MFJ-1294gives you a computersystem...MFJ-1294/S299.95

With the MFJ-1294 youcan create a mint-networkof computers and peripherals. All eight devices can be workingsimultaneously! Think of the production you 11 get with theMFJ-1294'S 16 possible combinations.

Seven additional models to choose From including MFJ's IBMand Cent ionics Parallel Switches. All RS-232 switches haveRS 232 connectors. LEDs to monitor data lines. MOV surgeprotectors and transmit/receive buttons that allow 2-waycommunication.

And Power Stripsto make them safe.

Your fine computer and peripheral equipment can bedamaged by electrical surges much smaller than you've beenled to believe. Save them and your valuable data with an MFJPower Center. Multi-filters isolate equip-nating noisc/hash/inter-MOVs suppress spikestnd surges. These areheavy-duty, commercialquality Power Strips.

MFJ-1107-'8 sockets: 2 tin-switched: $79.95MFJ-1108-7 sockets:unswitched. Drop-out relayprevents disk drive head fromuncing: $99.95MFJ-1109-llke 1107but intelligent(switch on the device that's plugged into the control socketand every! hing else comes on): $ 129.95

There are other Switches. Power Centers and ComputerPeripheral Products available from MFJ. Call and talk with usabout all your computing needs. When you do. ask for our latestcatalog. Both the call and catalog are free.

1-800-647-1800

For technical/repair information, or in Mississippi, or outsidethe Continental United States, please telephone...

1-1601)323-5869 ortelex 53-4590 MFJSTKV

All MFJ products come with a double guarantee we think isunmatched. Order from MFJ and try any product for 30 days. Ifit doesn't satisfy your needs, just return it for a full refundless shipping. If you keep it you can be assured of continuedsendee and our One Vear Unconditional Guarantee.

Call toll-free 1 -800-647-1800 and charge the products youneed to your VISA or MasterCard, or send a check or moneyorder, plus S5.00 shipping, and our shipping department willpromptly have your computer peripheral on its way to you.

MFJ Enterprises, Inc.921 Louisville RoadStarkville, MS 39759

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 193

MUSICAL FRACTALS

660 FOR B = 1 TO BD(A):BC=BC+1

670 _SOUND(2,1,BD(BC)+KN)

680 FOR C = 1 TO CD(B):CC=CC+1

690 IF CC>255 GOTO 770

700 _S0UND(3,1.(CP(CC)+KN)

710 FOR D - 1 TO DD(C):DC=DC+1

720 IF DC>255 GOTO 740

730 _S0UND(4,1,DP(1,DC)+KN):G0T0 760

740 _SOUND(4,1,DP(2.DC-255)+KN)

750 IF DC-510 THEN GOTO 770

760 NEXT D:NEXT C:NEXT B:NEXT A

770 _ST0P(1):_ST0P(2):_ST0P(3):_ST0P(4)

780 DD$=INKEY$:IF DD$="" GOTO 780

790 BC=0:CC=0:DC=0

800 GOTO 610

820 REM 1/F ROUTINE

830 LL=LAST(L):NP=0:K=16:PROBIT=.03125

840 J=INT(LL/K)

850 IF J-1 THEN LL=LL-K

860 U=RND(1)

870 IF U<PROBIT THEN J=1-J

880 NP-NP+J*K

890 K-K/2

900 PROBIT - PR0BIT*2

910 IF K>=1 GOTO 840

920 LAST(L)=NP:TEST=NP

930 REM PITCH CLASS TEST

940 FOR I = 0 TO 11

950 IF INT((TEST+I)/12)=(TEST+I)/12 THEN CF(L,I)=1:GOTO 920

960 NEXT I

970 CT(L)=0

980 FOR I - 0 TO 11

990 CT(L)=CF(L,I)+CT(L)

1000 NEXT I

1010 RETURN

form of the resulting composition,however, because each note of thefirst layer, when elaborated with thenotes of the subsequent layers, isheard as a section of the composition.

You choose the notes of the secondlayer by the same method as thefirst—indirectly—by specifying thenumber of new pitch classes togenerate before going on to the nextnote. Thus, each first-layer note will beelaborated, on the average, by a dif-ferent number of second-layer notes.Therefore, the whole composition willsound less geometrical and morenatural. The number of pitch classesyou specify for each second-layerelaboration of first-layer notes is im-portant. Too few (one or two) maysound too uniform, and too many(more than five or six) may make thefirst-layer notes too long. You use asimilar method to indicate the pitch-class diversity of the third layer. Hereagain, you specify the number of newpitch classes for the third-layer notesto be played in the same time spanas a second-layer note. The fourthlayer is also created in exactly thesame way as the earlier ones.

The means for calculating rhythm inthis example is quite simple. The pro-gram assigns a short duration to eachfourth-layer note. The duration of athird-layer note equals the total time

{continued)

FULL LINEADD ON CARD

We are the reliable manufac-ture of ADD-ON card andperipheral:

All our products are superiorthan our competitorsin multi-wise andfunction-wise.

FOR IBM

The products:1. ADD-ON card

a. Video card

b. I/O card

c. Memroy expension cardGood quality, Reasonable price. d Hard disk controiier card

WHOLESALER, DEALER, RETAIL, STORE AND 2. Peripheral:

OEM ENQUIRES WELCOME * Monitor, Keyboard.Driver, Modem,

Cable, Power supply, P/C case.

NIC TECHNOLOGY INC. ■ "STOCKS available

ADDRESS: 3020, SCOTT BLVD, SANTA CLARA, CA 95054, U.S.A.TELEX: 1561096 PECO UT TEL: (408) 980-9511 (2 LINES) ATTN STANLEY FAX: (408) 980-1530

• IBM is a regestered trade mark of international business machines corp.

194 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry 242

Turbo

A CV/UPIf ™ With Turb0 ASYNCH' y°u can be in constant

/■O I fffvfl touch with the world without ever leaving

the 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 io 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.+ XON/XOFF 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 ^

(415) 540-5441

TurboPOWER TOOLS

Turbo POWER TOOLS is asleek new series of proceduresdesigned specifically to complement Turbo Pascal on IBM and com-patible computers. Every component in Turbo POWER TOOLS isprecision engineered to give you fluid and responsive handling, withall the options you need packed into its clean lines. High perform-ance and full instrumentation, including...

♦ Extensive string handling to complement the powerful TurboPascal functions. ♦ Screen support and window management,giving 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.

I n"VuTb0, ,-raK N\ orders aau-»

. 6WVoSries«x. w phone-

\

trademark ol Borland/•• tOQLS, lotto

pmonmNO: packagem

ComputingM.IBMisaiegisieiisd

trademark of int&miiofil Business Machines Corporation.. MS-DOS is a trademark efMlctosofl Cpiporaticn.

BLAISE COMPUTING INC.

yL

«?

14, for End-Users. Inquiry 45 for .DEALERS ONLY.

JUNE 1986 * BYTE . 195

MUSICAL FRACTALS

About the Programs

The programs in listings 1 through5 are written in MSX BASIC ex-tended with the MUSIC MACRO com-mands for the Yamaha CX5-M musiccomputer. We chose this particularmachine because it is the most accessi-ble computer that allows polyphonic(multivoice) sound production. Sincemost BASIC dialects contain com-mands to generate only monophonic(single-line) music, we wrote these pro-grams so they could be modified easilyfor monophonic performance.

The programs in listings 1 through 3produce short, monophonic musicalsegments by applying random pro-cesses to the parameters of musicalpitch and time. In MUSIC MACRO, youprepare a short PHRASE that you thenPLAY. Depending on the requirementsof the system you use, you can fill anarray or character string and send itlater to your sound generator.

In listings 4 and 5, the longer fractalalgorithms, the 64 rhythmic values ofMUSIC MACRO were not enough forthe exponential character of the rela-tionships of the scaled time. Therefore,we introduced another scheme to pro-duce many more time relationships. Ituses a series of four nested loops, theindexes of which are either a result ofthe generating motif, as in figure 4b,or the result of a random process, asin figure 5 b.

If your machine allows only mono-

*

phonic sound generation, you can stillrealize the polyphonic music, lust placeall your sound generation statementsat the center of the nested loops, sep-arated by small time factors. This willarpeggiate the example. By listeningclosely you will hear the differing ratesof change of the layers articulated inthis single line.

The program in listing 4, for makingthe first fractal, scales a given motif tothree layers. The theme is entered asa series of relationships to an abstractreference pitch. This is like entering thex-axis values in relationship to zero fora linear graph in either a positive ornegative direction. For example, thevalues 0, 3, and -2 will create a stringof pitches starting on the referencepitch, moving to a pitch three semi-tones above it, and ending on the pitchtwo semitones below it. The programin listing 4 provides a "switch" to pro-

duce a Brownian random displacementof pitch on layers two and three. Usingthis feature will result in a less strictlypatterned musical segment.

The program handles time as a ratioof values greater than 1, such as1:1:2:3:1:1. Because of the exponentialcharacter of the relationships betweenthe layers of the fractal, small numbersseem to provide the best results. Rela-tionships of pitch and time are scaledto a range of values appropriate to thesystem. The notes of the score aredisplayed graphically during the per-formance. Hitting any key will repeatthe performance.

The program in listing 5. to producethe second fractal, asks for the limit ofpitch classes allowed for each layer ofthe fractal. A call to the 1//subroutinechooses a note based on the previousnote of that layer or the last note of theprevious layer. As the various arrays ofdurations and pitches are filled, theyare graphically displayed on thescreen. When the segment is complete-ly generated, a border appears aroundthe screen. Hitting any key initiates aperformance. If the number of notesin the fastest layer exceeds 510, theprogram stops filling arrays. The per-formance is truncated at the last noteof the first layer reached before the ar-ray of fastest notes was filled. You canalter the program for larger arrays, ac-cording to your machine's capabilities.

span of all the fourth-layer notesgenerated to play with it. Then, thetotal duration of all the third-layernotes for a given second-layer notedetermines its duration. Similarly, thetotal of all the second-layer notes fora given first-layer note determines itsduration, and so on until all notes inthe piece have an assigned duration.The relations in time of the variouslayers is illustrated in figure 5a.

We chose 1// noise to select theelements in figure 5b because of itsunique memory. However, you canobtain interesting results if you mixthe fractional noises used to generate

the various layers. For example, usingwhite noise to calculate the fourthlayer would lead to a greater diversityof timing.

Conclusion

The exploration of fractal geometry'smusical applications is in its infancy.The musical fractals offered above arerelatively simple. There remains alarge universe of fractal geometry yetto be broached by musicians. ■

REFERENCES

1. Mandelbrot. Benoit B. The Fractal Geometry

of Nature. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1982.

2. Hiller, Lejaren, and Loren Isaacson. Ex-perimental Musk. New York: McGraw-Hill,1959.

3. Mathews, Max V. The Technology ofComputer Music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,1969.

4. Sdrensen, Peter R. "Fractals." BYTE,September 1984, page 157.

5. Dodge, Charles, and Thomas A. Jerse.Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition, andPerformance. New York: Schirmer Books.1985.

6. Voss. Richard F. and John Clarke. "1//Noise in Music: Music from 1// Noise."journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 63(1),1978, page 2 58.

7. DeVries. Peter. "Computer Graphics."Scientific American, September 1984.

196 BYTE • IUNE 1986

dPOWER without dPRICE

,

"We rate the documentationas excellent; for novice dBase IIusers, the manual alone mightbe worth the price of thefull package." InfdWorld

"The PractiBase report writeris a decided improvementover dBase II!' PC Week

"PractiBase is an inexpensive butrelatively powerful data base managerthat provides a reasonably attractivealternative to dBase.. .And at the $99price it appears to be a real bargain!'New York Times

Until now, there wereonly two kinds of databases onthe market. Powerful databaseswith powerful prices. And file man-agers that cost very little—and gaveyou very little in return.

Now you can get the power youwant at the price you want to pay.With PractiBase! The first inexpen-sive database that truly compareswith any base at any price-especiallyat its low price of $99.95.

Skeptical? We don't blame you.But consider some of PractiBase'sfeatures:

• A powerful relational database man-agement system, including memowriter, forms generator, entry formsand page report generator

• Advanced dBase IP-compatibleprogramming language-includingJOIN, UPDATE and TOTAL commands

• Reads and writes dBase II files

• Runs dBase II programs! (.PRG and.FMT files)

• Sorts on multiple keys in a singleoperation

• Handles up to three data files at onetime

• Menu- or command-driven (younever have to stare at a dot!)

• Includes time-saving abbreviationmacros

©1986 PractiCorp International Inc.Inquiry 264

• Context-sensitive, multi-level HELP

• Includes 200-page manual, casestudy and command summary card

• NOT copy-protected

• For the IBM PC, XT, AT* and com-patibles

• Requires 256K minimum (hard diskoptional)

Whether you're a first-time useror a power user, we believe you'll findPractiBase the equal of databases cost-ing up to ten times its price.

You can buy PractiBase alone. Orsave even more by buying it withPractiWord*-our full-featured wordprocessor that gives you all the powerof WordStar*-for a combined price ofonly $149.95.

Either way, you'll get dPower youneed. Without dStroying your budget.

^PRACTICORP

No-Nonsense Software™

The Silk Mill, 44 Oak Street, NewtonUpper Falls, MA 02164 (617) 965-9870

'The following are registered trademarks of the respectivecompanies indicated: dBase and dBase II, Ashton-Tate;WordStar. Micro-Pro International; IBM, PC, XT and AT,International Business Machines Corp. PractiCorp,PractiBase and PractiWord are registered trademarks ofPractiCorp International Inc.

ORDER NOW!

To order by mail: Complete this couponand return to PractiCorp International,The Silk Mill, 44 Oak Street, NewtonUpper Falls, MA 02164To order by phone: Call TOLL FREE1-800-858-2727 or call 617-965-9870Yes! Rush PractiBase to me:

Quantity

_ PractiBase @ $99.95 each $_

_ PractiWord @ $99.95 each .

_ PractiBase/PractiWordbundle @ $149.95 each ... _

Subtotal

MA residents add 5% sales tax

Shipping and handling $5.00

TOTALS

Payment: □ Check □ Visa □ MasterCard

Card No

Expiration Date

Signature

Name

Shipping address-City

- Zip_

Phone no.i !

Allow four weeks for delivery. Outside U.S.A.. add $10and make payment by bank draft in U.S. dollars only.

IUNE 1986

iYTE 197

"Not durin

afullmoon

I wort"

—Computer backup excuse #243

People can get verysuperstitious about whenthey do their computer backup.Especially if it gives them anexcuse for not doing it at all.

Because, after all, backingup is about as exciting aswatching paint dry.

One way to take the curseoff is to do it first thing in themorning. If you're one of thoseslow starters who has to havecoffee and push some papersaround for awhile when you getto work, that dead time couldbe perfect for backup.

As for how to do it, thefloppy disk is fine if you have alimited amount of memory, andthe data cartridge for S to 10Mbytes or over.

To learn more about backupand other applications ofthe data cartridge, a3M developedtechnology

whose time has come, contactyour local computer productsdealer.

And maybe you won't beone of those peoplewho does his backuponly once in a bluemoon.

When yourun out ofexcuses:

198 BYTE • JUNE 1986

Inquiry 348

COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

A MIDI PROJECT

by Jay Kubicky

A MIDI interface with software for the IBM PC

BEFORE I DESCRIBE my project I'dlike to discuss the MIDI specification.This standard defines a hardware in-terconnection scheme with a softwarespecification for the purpose of con-necting electronic musical instrumentsto a computer.

As the name implies, an electronicmusical instrument is any instrumentthat produces sound electronically.The most common electronic musicalinstrument is the synthesizer. The firstsynthesizers looked like part of apiano keyboard attached to a long,flat box covered with dials andswitches. But today there are manyother forms; a modern synthesizermight well have no keyboard butmight have a MIDI-in jack.

All synthesizers produce soundthrough a system of oscillators, filters,and other wave-shaping devices. Oneway to classify synthesizers is by thenumber of voices they have. At anygiven instant, each voice can produceone individual note. For example, aneight-voice synthesizer can produceeight simultaneous notes. In synthe-sizers with multitimbral capabilityeach of these voices can produce adifferent sound.

On a modern synthesizer, the con-

trol values of the voices are storedwithin the synthesizer in what areknown as "patches" or "programs."These programs hold all of the valuesfor each sound the synthesizer canproduce. Different sounds can beloaded into the synthesizer's sound-generating circuitry by changing theprogram. Most synthesizers can storefrom 32 to 128 programs.

Sequencers are a particularly inter-esting class of devices associated withMIDI interfaces. These allow you tostore sequences of notes played froma MIDI-compatible keyboard or otherMIDI device. Since only the codes forthe notes are stored and not the ac-tual notes, the sequencers can laterplay back this music at any speedwithout altering the pitch.

Besides synthesizers, MIDI also tiestogether drum machines, guitar syn-thesizers, and other MIDI-compatibledevices.

The MIDI Protocol

The MIDI protocol is a complex set ofmessages pertaining, in general, tovarious functions of the MIDI system,and, in particular, to functions of syn-thesizers.Two types of bytes can be sent over

the MIDI interface bus—status anddata. Status bytes are 8-bit bytes withtheir most significant bit being bit 7,always set to 1. Data bytes may neverhave their MSBs set.

Messages are made up of a com-bination of these two types of bytes.The status byte is sent first, and usual-ly it is followed by one or more databytes. Real-time messages have no ac-companying data bytes and may besent at any time, even inside of othermessages.

MIDI messages are generally di-vided into two types—channel mes-sages and system messages. Thechannel voice messages are an impor-tant subset of the channel messages.They are used to alter the status of thesynthesizer's voices.

The note-on channel voice messageis sent whenever a key is pressed. Thedata bytes in this message specify thenumber of the note and its velocity,which is determined by how hard thekey was struck (this only applies tovelocity-sensitive keyboards). The note-

{amiinued)}ay Kubicky (934 North Orange St., Media,PA 19063) is a high school sophomore. Hehas studied music since age five and has beeninterested in computers for five years.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 199

MIDI PROJECT

When you use your AT&T Card at a publicphone, you don't have to hang up after each

call. Just hit this button after your

first conversation, and dial the number of your

next long distance call. The phone automatically

remembers your AT&T Card number. So you

have more time to take care of business.

AT&T

The right choice.

off message is sent whenever a noteis released. As with note-on, there isan accompanying note byte andvelocity byte (again, only pertinent onvelocity-sensitive keyboards). The pro-gram change message is sent whenevera program is changed. The data byteis the new program number.

The polyphonic key pressurelafter-touchmessage is sent after a key is pressedif the key pressure is reduced. Accom-panying the status byte is the notenumber and pressure. The channelpressure message designates thevolume for a given channel.

Most synthesizers have at leastsome sort of note-bender or pitchwheel built into them. In terms ofMIDI, this is known as a continuouscontroller. A special MIDI code knownas a control change pertains to allcontinuous controllers in the MIDIsystem. The control change message ismeant for any type of controller in theMIDI system other than the keyboardor pitch wheel (such as pedals, modu-lation controllers, etc.). After thestatus byte, the controller number andvalue is sent. Controller numbers 122through 127 are reserved (thesecodes are explained in the section onchannel mode messages).

Since the pitch-bender is the mostcommonly used controller, it is as-signed a pitch wheel change message ofits own. This message is sent whenthe value of the pitch-bending device(wheel, joystick, etc.) is changed. Twoaccompanying data bytes are sent,giving a 14-bit resolution.

Channel Control

Since the MIDI system can supportmany synthesizers at once, messagearbitration must be accomplishedthrough the use of "channels."

A channel is designated by thelower four bits of the first byte of anyof the channel voice messages. Thesefour bits direct the MIDI message toone of 16 devices that may be at-tached to the MIDI interface bus. Eachdevice is responsible for recognizingits channel number and responding toits assigned messages. This allows upto 16 separate parts (voices) to be si-multaneously played over a singleMIDI interface bus.

There are four channel modes gov-

I 1985 AT&T Communications

MIDI PROJECT

erning how devices will respond tochannel-oriented messages.

Channel Modes

The following four channel modesapply to transmitter/receiver voicemessages:

• Omni-on poly: Voice messages arereceived from all channels and are as-signed to the voices polyphonically.

• Omni-on mono: Voice messages arereceived from all channels and con-trol only one voice, monophonically.

• Omni-off poly: Voice messages arereceived from only one channel andare assigned to voices polyphonically.

• Omni-off mono: Voice messages arereceived in voice channels N throughN+M-1 and are assigned mono-phonically to voices 1 through M. re-spectively, where M is the number ofvoices and N is the start channel(usually 0).

Channel modes are set by sendinga control change message to con-trollers 122 through 127.

The channel-oriented scheme letsyou play up to 16 separate parts atonce. There are many ways this canbe accomplished. For instance, youcould have 16 synthesizers hooked upto a single MIDI system bus (a ratherexpensive setup), or you could con-nect a few multitimbred synthesizersto a single MIDI interface bus.

On a multitimbred synthesizer,voice one could be strings, voice twocould be brass, etc. A typical multi-timbred synthesizer allows you toassign each of its six voices to aseparate channel and to give eachvoice a different sound. Then yousimply play different parts over dif-ferent channels.

The only disadvantage with thistype of setup is that you can assignonly one voice per channel. Thisallows only one note to be played ineach channel at any given instant.

{Editor's note: Be sure to check your syn-thesizer channel numbers. Channel 0 in }ayYdtbicky's program corresponds to channel 1on most synthesizers]

System Real-Time Messages

System real-time messages apply to alldevices in the system and can be sent

(continued)

When you're traveling on business, look

for this friendly face—the AT&T Card Caller.

It'll give you simple instructions on any call, including

AT&T Long Distance Service calls. And you can

use it with or without your AT&T Card. The AT&T

Card Caller—a face you should get to know.

AT&T

The right choice.

MIDI PROJECT

any time, even between the bytes ofanother message. These messagescontrol timing and synchronization ofthe system and are especially impor-tant when dealing with sequencersand drum machines.

The timing clock message syn-chronizes all time-relevant devices inthe system such as sequencers, drummachines, etc. This message is sent atthe rate of 2 4 beats per quarter note.

The start message tells all real-timedevices in the system, such as se-quencers and drum machines, tostart. The continue message tells allstopped devices in the system to con-tinue at the time of the next clock.The stop message tells all real-timedevices to stop.

The active sensing message is optional.It is a dummy status byte sent at leastevery 300 milliseconds, regardless ofother activity on the bus. Once thefirst active sensing message is re-ceived, all other devices on the busthat are capable will respond. If 300milliseconds passes without the oc-currence of a data transfer, thereceiver will turn off all voices andreturn to normal operation.

The system reset message initializes allreceivers to the condition of just hav-ing turned on system power. It is tobe used sparingly, preferably under

manual control only. It should not besent automatically on power-up.

System-Common Messages

System-common messages are not chan-nel-oriented and apply to all devicesin the system. They implement thefollowing functions:

The song position pointer message setsthe internal beat-counter of se-quencers, drum machines, etc., to aspecific value. The two data bytes(with their MSB set to 0) contain thenew beat-counter information and aresent with this code.

The song position pointer is reallyan internal register that contains thenumber of MIDI beats since thebeginning of the song. It is normallyset to 0 when the start message issent.

The song select message defines thesong to be played in sequencers,drum machines, etc. The one databyte used allows one of 128 possiblesongs to be selected.

The tune request message requeststhat all analog synthesizers in thesystem tune their oscillators.

System-Exclusive Messages

The system-exclusive message makes upfor all of MIDI'S deficiencies. After asystem-exclusive message and appro-

Photo I: jay Kubicky's MIDI interface board.

priate manufacturer identification issent, any amount of any type of datacan be sent over the bus (just as longas the MSBs of all data bytes are setto 0).

Upon receiving any sort of statusbyte other than a real-time message,the receiver automatically terminatessystem-exclusive mode.

The main purpose of the system-exclusive mode is to send actual pro-gram and sequencer data to bestored, analyzed, or changed in an-other synthesizer or computer.

An EOX (end of exclusive) messageterminates the system-exclusive mode(manufacturer ID numbers are sup-plied by the MIDI committee).

The MIDI Project

My MIDI project consists of twophases. In phase one I will show youhow to build the hardware interfaceboard and explain its inner workings.In phase two I will describe the soft-ware, how it works, and how to use it.

Phase 1: Building theHardware

At the hardware level, MIDI is an asyn-chronous serial interface (see photo1). Typically, a MIDI-compatibledevice will have a MIDI-in port thatreceives MIDI data, a MIDl-out portthat transmits MIDI data, and op-tionally a MIDl-thru port that echoesdata received at the MIDI-in port backout again.

The operating speed of the serial in-terface is 31,2 50 bits per second (plusor minus 1 percent), with one start bit,eight data bits, and one stop bit. Thisspeed is a convenient breakdown of2 megahertz.

The interface circuit is a 5-milli-ampere current loop (see figure 1).The receiver is optoisolated andshould require no more than 5 mA todrive. The MIDI interface cables use5-pin DIN male plugs and the totalbus length should be no more than50 feet.

Since the MIDI interface transmitsin a serial data format, a UART isneeded to transfer data to and fromit. The Zilog DART (dual asynchronousreceiver/transmitter) serves this pur-pose nicely. The DART provides two

[continued]

202 BYTE • |UNE 1986

MIDI PROJECT

SYSADO

SYSAD1

SYSAD2

SYSAD3

SYSAD4

SYSA05

SYSAD6

SYSAD7

SYSAD8

SYSAD9

SYSAD10

SYSAD11

SYSA012

SYSA013

SYSA014

AEN

Figure 1: The MIDI 1.0 IBM Board.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 203

MIDI PROJECT

channels of asynchronous communi-cation at speeds up to 800,000 bps(only one channel of this chip isneeded for the interface).

One of the major software goals ofthis project is to implement a se-quencer that stores notes in a digitalformat for later playback. To do thisyou must keep track of when notesare received so you know when toplay them back.

To keep track of the incoming dataI used a dedicated timer, an Intel 82 53programmable interval timer (PIT), inthe IBM PC. This timer provides threeprogrammable down counters. ThisMIDI interface uses two of them.

The interface circuit consists ofthree major parts: selection circuitry,DART and MIDI bus interface circuitryincluding the synchronizer interface,and the 82 53 PIT and associatedcrystal oscillator.

Selection Circuitry

Almost everything else in the IBM PCuses nine bits to select an I/O address,but I used 1 5 bits to avoid having con-flicting addresses with anything elsein the system.

The DART has a status and a dataport for each channel. The data ports(for channels A and B) are located ataddresses FFA0 and FFA1 (all ad-dresses are in hexadecimal notation).The status ports are at addressesFFA2 and FFA3.

The counter has a port for eachtimer plus one control port. Thecounter registers are at addressesFFA4 and FFA6, and the control reg-ister is at address FFA7. The DART,not being native to the IBM PCs Intelheritage, requires an IORQ (input/out-put request) signal that is generatedby performing an OR operation onSYS1QRD (input/output read) andSYSIOWR (input/output write).

The DART serves as the main linkto the MIDI interface bus. Channel Areceive data (RxDa) of the DART isconnected to the bus by a SharpPC-900 optoisolator. The incomingMIDI signal is protected by a 1N751diode (Dl) and buffered by invertersIC3 pin 10 and IC3 pin 12.

(Note: The MIDI 1.0 specificationcalls for an interface circuit using theSharp PC-900 optoisolator. The

TIL-111 could cause problems whenused with certain synthesizers.)

Channel A transmit data (TxDa)drives NAND gate IC6 pin 11 and isthen buffered by inverters IC3 pin 4,IC3 pin 6, and IC3 pin 8. The outputsof these inverters are serially ter-minated by 220-ohm resistors tomatch the MIDI interface bus im-pedance. This configuration gives youtwo extra outputs at very little cost.Most experimenters will find theseextra outputs very useful.

The DART also provides sync out-puts from DTRa (data terminal ready)and DTRb. The sync output (DTRb)provides a constant pulse of 24 beatsper quarter note to external syncdevices such as drum machines.

The sync interface also uses a 5-pinDIN connector. Pin 1 (DTRa) is start/stop (which starts and stops the ex-ternal MIDI device), pin 2 is ground,and pin 3 is sync. Sync is a positiveTTL-level square wave pulse. DTRaand DTRb are inverted (and buffered)by IC4 pin 10, and IC4 pin 12,respectively.

The 8253 PIT is used by the 16-trackdigital recording software that I willdiscuss later. The PIT has three pro-grammable down counters capable ofcounting at over 2 MHz each. Note:The three gate leads (gate 0, gate 1,gate 2) of the PIT (pins 11, 14, and 16)must be tied to a logic high for thecounters to function properly.

Timer 0 is clocked by the 2-MHzcrystal oscillator circuit composed ofcrystal Zl, resistors R8 and R9, andIC6 pin 3, IC6 pin 6, and IC6 pin 8.Timer 0 divides the 2-MHz frequen-cy down to the 24-beat-per-quarter-note level, which is then used as theclock for timer 1,

Timer 1 is used in conjunction withthe music-recording software andsync interface.

Counter 2 (the third counter) maybe optionally tied to the 2-MHz clockalong with counter 0, and its outputmay be wired to the clock input ofchannel B of the DART, yielding anadditional high-speed serial port.

Phase 2: The MIDI Software

My software implements a 16-trackpolyphonic recording system (I willsometimes refer to tracks as buffers).

With this software you will be able torecord up to 16 tracks of polyphonicmusic and later play them all backtogether. Music can be entered to onetrack while other tracks are beingplayed. Combine this capability withmultiple synthesizers and you cansimulate a whole band.

This software is written in C and8088 assembly language and consistsof three major parts—the receive-MIDI-data portion, the transmit-MIDJ-data portion, and the support portion.[Editor's note: jay Kubicky's MIDI programsMIDI111.C (source code) and RXINT11.Acan be downloaded from BYTEwet Listingsat (617) 861-9764. They are also availableon disk as explained in Disks and Downloadson page 445, or in hard copy by writingBYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peter-borough, NH 03458.]

Receive Function

The receive portion of the program isresponsible for receiving all incomingMIDI data and then storing the datain a buffer in the correct format (withtwo accompanying timing bytes fromcounter 1 of the 82 53). Since counter1 is clocked by counter 0, the music'stempo can later be altered by chang-ing the preset of counter 0.

The receive portion of the programconsists of two function levels. Thetop level is the record function, knownas recbuff(), which asks you whichtrack you wish to record to. If thereis data already in that track, recbuff()gives you an option to abort. If youdecide to record to a track, recbuff()shows you the Track Enable screen.This screen allows you to choosewhich buffers are to be enabled toplay and which channels they will beplayed on.

After selecting a track (buffer) anda channel, you select a metronomespeed. This is presently from 40 to200 beats per minute but would prob-ably still work at around 300 beats perminute.

Next you are given various sync op-tions. The first is audio sync, whichbeeps the IBM PC's internal speaker.The problem with this option is thatit takes a long time, and if you are try-ing to play any other buffers while yourecord, it sounds choppy.

(continued)

204 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Why your next generation ofproducts should use our 5thgeneration tools.

& n *

co

The Arity Expert Systems DevelopmentPackage

I The Arity SQL Development Packag

Inquiry 27

arity

We design and distributehigh quality, seriousapplication software forthe IBM PC, XT, ATand all MS-DOScompatibles.

Arity/Prolog Compiler and Interpreter V4

>

>

-1

<?'

CO

(D

(D

3

(D

3

a>

<D

n

(0

3-0

cq'

3

3

COCD

o<

=H

o

CT0

7T-

yr

Arity s integrated family of programming tools allows you to combine software written inArity/Prolog, the best of the fifth generation languages, with Arity SQL, the best of thefourth generation languages, and with conventional third generation languages such asC or assembly language to build your smarter application.

You can use Arity/Prolog to build expert systems using the Arity Expert SystemsDevelopment Package. Or to build natural language frontends. Or to build intelligentinformation management systems. Arity/Prolog lets you build advanced technology intoyour vertical applications package.

And more...

That's not the whole story. Arity's products are all designed to be fast, powerful, serious.Each of our products contains unexpected bonuses. Such as a one gigabyte virtualdatabase integrated into Arity/Prolog. The most powerful of its kind on a PC.

Quality first. Then price.

In order to be the best, we had to prove it to our customers. Our tradition of qualitysoftware design is reflected in every product we sell. Quality first. Then price. And wealways provide the best in customer support.

Our products are not copy protected. We do not charge royalties. We offer generouseducational and quantity discounts. And we have a 30 day money back guarantee.

Try us to know that we keep our promise on commitment to quality and reliability. Tryus by using our electronic bulletin board at 617-369-5622 or call us by telephone—youcan reach us at 617-371-2422.

Or fill in this coupon. Whether you order today or not, let us send you full descriptionsof our integrated family of Arity products.

Please complete this form to place vour order and/or request detailed information. ,-. ■ , ,

r r ' Quantity Info only

Arity/Prolog Compiler and Interpreter V4 $795.00

Arity/Prolog Interpreter V4 $350.00

Arity Standard Prolog $ 95.00

Arity SQL Development Package $295.00

Arity Expert System Development Package $295.00

Arity Screen Design Toolkit $ 49.95 ,

Arity File Interchange Toolkit $ 49.95

TOTAL AMOUNT (MA residents add 5% sales rax) (These priees include shipping to all U.S. eitics) J

NAME

SHIPPING ADDRESS

CITY/STATE/ZIP

TELEPHONE

Payment: □ Check aPOD AMEX D VISA □ MC

Card # Exp. date

Signature.

ARITY CORPORATION • 358 BAKER AVENUE • CONCORD, MA 01742 = CH"lty

MIDI PROJECT

The next option is drum sync, whichsends 24 pulses per quarter note outover the sync-out connector. The lastoption is MIDI sync, which sends out24 MIDI timing clocks per quarternote, as well as accompanying MIDIstarts and stops.

When you have finished selectingoptions, the program lets you enablethe interrupt and start the play()routine. The receive function isinterrupt-driven so that data may beplayed and recorded at the sametime. The DART is programmed to in-terrupt on all RxDs (receive data) andthen Rxint (receive interrupt) is en-abled.

The receive-interrupt function isideal for this, since it operates in-dependently of, and concurrentlywith, the rest of the program, and ittakes up little time. The functionsetint() sets up Rxint as interrupt OA.The functions inton() and i ntoff() turnthe interrupt on and off by enablingit or disabling it in the DART. This isimportant because any extraneousplaying at the keyboard might other-wise prove disastrous.

The use of multiple segments in theprogram presents a problem to the in-terrupt operation. For instance, whenRxint is called, there is no telling whatthe processor was doing prior to theMIDI interrupt. Thus, the DS (data seg-ment) could be set at anything, andthe program would have no access to

external variables of buffer space. Toavoid this potential problem, I storethe DS at a fixed spot in low memoryso that Rxint knows where to find itwhen it is called. This spot is locatedat 04FA and is reserved by DOS as aspace for "intra-application commu-nication."

Since the 8088 disables further in-terrupts when it executes any inter-rupt, you must be careful to turn theinterrupts back on when enteringRxint so that system tasks such assupporting a timer can still be sup-ported. The program must also issuean EOI (end of interrupt) to the 82 59PIC (programmable interrupt con-troller) just before returning. The Rxintfunction records the following typesof MIDI data: note-on, note-off, pro-gram change, control change (alltypes), channel velocity, and note-bender. Figure 2 shows the formatused to store MIDI data in memory.

As you can see from figure 2, fourbytes are required for both note-onand note-off bytes. This stores a highresolution 16-bit timing byte and thenote velocity. I chose to implementthe sequencer this way because it isthe easiest and most straightforwardway possible. It is also possible tosimply store a note and a durationbyte (and perhaps one or two veloci-ty bytes), but this would require muchmore complicated software.

To save memory, 1 chose to store

[continued)

Message

First

Second

Third

Fourth Fifth

Type:

note-on

OOvvvvvv

LLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMM

Innnnnnn

note-off

OOvvvvvv

LLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMM

Onnnnnnn

control change

11000000

LLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMM

ONNNNNNNOccccccc

program change

01000000

LLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMM

Oppppppp

channel velocity

01000001

LLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMM

Oaaaaaaa

note bender

10wwwwww LLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMM

wvvv - top 6 bits of velocity byte

LLLLLLLL

- low-order byte

of time

MMMMMMMM - high-order byte of time

nnnnnnn -

note number

NNNNNNN - controller number

ccccccc -

controller value

ppppppp

- new program

aaaaaaa -

channel pressu

e

wwwww-

top 6 bits of high-order byte of pitch-bender

Figure 2: Memory format for MIDI program data.

Advanced

Authorized

Dealers

(Eastern U.S.)

Aardwolf Microsystems

217 East 85th, Suite 102

New York, NY 10028

212/538-7840

Advanced Information Systems, Inc.

1336 Edna S.E.

Grand Rapids, Ml 49507

616/243-1312

Corporate Micros, Inc.

333 West 52nd St., Suite 1204

New York, NY 10019

212/315-2853

Crest Systems, Inc.

2101 Magnolia Ave., Suite 208

Birmingham, AL 35205

205/328-4882

Fast Forward, Inc.

129 Adams Street

Louisville, KY 40206

502/589-0301

ICS Software

P.O.C. 359015

Brooklyn, NY 11235

718/743-4050

INACOMP Computer Centers

700 Remmington Road

Schaumburg, IL 60195

312/519-1900

Micro City Computers

110 West 31st Street

New York, NY 10001

212/563-6110

Mitech Corporation

#1 Perimeter Park South, Suite 335-S

Birmingham, AL 35243

205/967-0605

Modular Management Systems, Inc.

451 Bloomfield Ave.

Caldwell, NJ 07006

201/228-3838

National Al Lab, Inc.

1800 Century Blvd., Suite 770

Atlanta, GA 30345

404/633-3900

Network Data Systems, Inc.

3419 Pierson Place

Flushing, Ml 48433

313/732-6340

PRISM Computer & ConsultingServices, Inc.

2100 Riverchase Center, Suite 420Birmingham, AL 35244205/988-5111Southeastern Systems, Inc.

619 East Price Ave., Suite #12Gastonia, NC 28054704/866-8048

TRIMARC Systems, Inc.

11716 Parklawn DriveRockville, MD 20852301/231-4991

Upen Computer Systems

4701 N.W. 72nd AvenueMiami, FL 33166305/594-2980

206 BYTE • |UNE 1986

THE

SOFTWARE

LINK, INC.

To Over 30,000 Installations,MultiLinkMEANS Multi-User.

At over 30,000 sites, as many as one-quarter of a millionusers tap into the power of MultiLink® Advanced everyday.

Since 1981, they've come to rely on our multi-tasking,multi-user system for compatibility with their favoritesoftware, and the ability to share disks, files, printers,and programs in a true PC-DOS environment.

From the largest of the Fortune 500 to the smallest insmall business, MultiLink® has provided a cost-effectivemulti-user solution that's available from no one else.

MultiLink® Means Cost-Effective Timesharingon a PC. MultiLink® Advanced utilizes the principle oftimesharing by sharing a central PC's peripherals, files,and processor time among nine users. Up to eight in-expensive terminals can be connected to a single non-dedicated IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible usingstandard RS-232 ports. Each terminal effectively emu-lates a PC having up to 512K RAM.

PC-Shadow™ Workstations, shown below, even havean AT look-alike, as well as work-alike, keyboard, dis-play, and serial port. In addition, password-protectedremote access via modem can be made with either dumbterminals or PCs running our terminal emulation software.

MultiLink" Means PC-DOS Compatibility with aSoftware-Driven System. Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony,WordStar, dBASE III, & Multimate are just a samplingof the wide variety of PC-DOS software that's fullycompatible.

Our software-driven system is also IBM NETBIOScompatible, so programs that are written for IBM'sToken Ring will run on our multi-user system, as well.

MultiLink" Means Multi-User to LeadingComputer Publications. Whether you read PC Magazine,"MultiLink"" Advanced delivers on...convenience, speed,and flexibility," or InfoWorld, "If you want a low-costmultiuser system with up to eight terminals, MultiLink®Advanced is worth a serious look" it becomes clear thatMultiLink"" Advanced is a formidable contender in themulti-user marketplace.

See What MultiLink' Can Mean to You. Learn,firsthand, how our multi-user system can benefit yourcompany. Call The Software Link TODAY for completeinformation and the authorized dealer nearest you.MultiLink" Advanced is $495 and comes with amoney-back guarantee.

MultiLink' is a registered trademark ofThe Software Link. Inc. MultiLink' Advanced& PC-Shadow" are trademarks ot TheSoftware Link. Inc. IBM PC. XT. AT. PC-DOS.Token Rlnq, & NETBIOS are trademarks ofIBM Corp. WordStar, dBASE III, Multimate,Lotus 1-2-3 & Symphony are trademarks ofMicroPro, AshtonTate. Multimate International.& Lotus Development Corp., respectively.

^-JJthe software link, inc.

8601 Dunwoody Place, Suite 632. Atlanta, GA 30338 Telex 4996147 SWLINK

CALL: 404/998-0700Dealer Inquiries Invited

THE SOFTWARE LINK, INC/CANADA

250 Cochrane Drive, Suite 12 Markham, Ontario L3R 6B7

CALL: 416/477-5480

Inquiry 316

Inquiry 275

WALTZLISP

The universal, superefficientLISP for MS-DOS and CP/M.

Waltz Lisp is a very powerful and completeimplementation of Lisp. It is substantiallycompatible with established mainframe Lispssuch as Franz (the Lisp running under Unix),Common Lisp, and Maclisp.

In independent tests, Waltz Lispwas up to twenty(!) times fasterthan competing microcomputer Lisps.

Easy to use.

Built-in WS-compatible full-screen file editor. Full debug-ging and error handling facilities are available at alltimes. No debuggers to link or load.

Random file access, binary filesupport, and extensive stringoperations make Waltz Lisp suitable for generalprogramming. Several utilities are included in thepackage.

Functions of type lambda (expr),nlambda (fexpr), lexpr, macro.Splicing and non-splicing character macros. Fullsuite of mappers, iterators, etc. Long integers (upto 611 digits). Fast list sorting using user definedcomparison predicates. Built-in prettyprinting andformatting facilities. Nearly 300 functions in all.

Transparent (yet programmable)handling of undefined functionreferences allows large programs to reside partiallyon disk at run time. Automatic loading of initializa-tion file. Assembly language interface.

Each aspect ofthe interpreter isdescribed in detail. The 300+ page manualincludes an exhaustive index. Hundreds of illustra-tive examples.

Superbly documented.

Order Waltz Lisp now and receive free our

PROLOG Interpreter

Clog PROLOG is a tiny (but very complete)PROLOG implementation written entirely inWaltz Lisp. In addition to the full source code,the package includes a 50 page Clog manual.

16-bit versions require DOS 2.x or CP/M-86 and 128KRAM (more recommended).Z-80 version requires CP/M2.x or 3.x and 48K RAMminimum. Waltz Lisp runson hundreds of differentcomputer models and is

available in all disk formats.

$169

"Manual only: $30 (refund-able with order). Foreignorders: add $5 for surfacemail. $20 for airmail. COD add $3. Apple CP/M, hardsector, and 3" formats add $15. MC/Visa accepted.

For further information or to order call££1 1-800-LIP-4000 Dept. 31

In Oregon and outside USA call 1-503-684-3000.

ODE

15930 SW Colony PI.Portland, OR 97224

INTERNATIONAL-

MIDI PROJECT

only the top 6 bits of the 14-bit pitch-bender code. To store all 14 bitswould have required 5 bytes, andsince pitch-bends don't usually takeup a lot of space, 6 bits is. enough.Control changes, however, do take upa lot of space (5 bytes). So I recom-mend that anything- that outputs acontrol change be used sparingly.

Channel pressure (or velocity) issimply a way to transmit overallvolume control over MIDI and isgenerally implemented on remotekeyboards only.

Play Function

The play portion of the program com-pares the timing bytes of the datastored in each track against the valueof the 8253s counter 1 and sends outthe appropriate codes when it findsa match.

The playnote function consists offour levels. The first level (pbuffs()) isused for setup. This function asks youto select buffer assignments, metro-nome speed, and sync options, justlike the recbuff() function. When theselection process is completed, theprogram starts the play() routine.

This function loops through all theactive tracks (up to 16 tracks). (A trackdoesn't have to be active, even if it hasmusic in it.) If the program finds anactive track, the program then callsplayfrom(). If all active tracks, or justtrack 0 (the conductor track), have runout of data, the playfrom() functionreturns. Otherwise, it loops througheach track and checks timing informa-tion after each loop. Then after all 16loops, it polls the keyboard andchecks for a critical-error return fromRxint.

Playfrom() compares the next mes-sage stored in the buffer with the cur-rent timing value of the 82 53. Thenit decides if the counter value is equalto or less than the value in memory(remember, the 82 53 is a downcounter). If it is time for a given mes-sage to be sent out, the playfrom()function switches the top two bits ofthe first byte of the message to createthe necessary MIDI function required.

The final layer of the play loop con-tains three functions that are writtenin machine language for the speed ad-vantage. The rest of the program is

devoted to support and added fea-tures.

Running the Program

When executed, the program seizesall contiguous RAM until it runs outof either buffers or memory. A mini-mum of two and a maximum of six-teen 24K-byte (3200-note) buffers areavailable for recording and playback.

After the memory allocation, a mainmenu displays all available options:Erase a Track, Record to a Track, Playfrom a Track, Track Information, Savea Track, Load a Track, Set MIDIModes, Modify Input Filter, and Quit.

Only one option requires explana-tion. Track Information displays thetransmit channel number, the mem-ory used, memory remaining, andtotal memory in a given track. This isimportant information because Rxinthas no memory-size checking and willlet you play over track boundaries,"bleeding" onto the next track(s). Thismeans you must be careful not torecord onto tracks that have been"bled on." The input filter is as-sociated with the Rxint routine andfilters out certain commands (such aspitch-bend, etc.) before they are savedin the buffer.

My MIDI interface program pro-vides no editing capabilities, butthese could easily be added. It alsodoes not provide auto-correction,which is the process of roundingnotes off to the nearest eighth note,sixteenth note, etc., to make up forsloppy playing.

The entire MIDI interface programwas written with the DeSmet C com-piler, and certain elements of it maybe compiler-dependent.

Other MIDI interfaces are availablefor the IBM PC, and the softwareassociated with them provides addedfeatures, but they are often expensive.Typical MIDI interface hardware forthe IBM PC costs $200. The softwareneeded for the interface can cost from$50 to $500. This entire interface canbe built for under $75 including thesoftware.

Editor's note: Copies of the MIDI specifica-tion can be obtained by sending $3 5 to theInternational MIDI Association, 11857Hartsbrook St., North Hollywood. CA91607, (818) 505-8964. ■

208 BYTE- IUNE 1986

When a PC's Limited Turbo PC is on yourdesk, youll mink it's a headliner too.

"... a good machine. And aheck of a buy. . . a finebox. One I'd happilychoose over Big Blue'soriginal... no status. . .beyond the status that at-taches to getting twice asmuch for your money."

—Jim Seymour,PC Week,

August 13, 1985

"It almost sounds un-believable."

—MIS Week,

sounds un- ' 'We tested a wide variety of

," software on the machine

—MIS Week, and everything ran well. . .August 21, 1985 The bottom line for any-one considering buyingone of these computerswould seem to be this:PC's Limited sells qualitysystems for extraordinarilylow prices."

—PC Week,October 29, 1985

TOTAL SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

WARRANTY

rv.tc: One yen Limited Uinnii im PC*. l.tmiir.1 pr,..!in for * Return Authi-nciri..ii NtmfcM IKMAI. Iti-tun.by yuur RMA. the kaofcc, -..J ■ ! ri< I. ■pt.naiiun. Ihmi.(replace ijrmt at mtr oprion.

Perind. PCi Limited will

30-DAY TOTAL SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

Any item huufhi in.m PC'i LimilrJ mil hr nlumrj within 10 d»Y» fnim the dale■I »» .hipped f,i, * lull refund of |HI purchue price. Returned item, mini be u-tin*, nut modified M damaged, %**ih all warranrv can!., manual*, juJ packaging in-lact. Returned item. mn<l he .hipped p.Tpaid and ttm.rrj. and nuiu bear a PC**Limited Credit Return Amhiiriuhon IC HA) .m the .Uippin* label Call PC'»Umiied'. Cu.mmer Support Drpunmrnl fat CRA. No creJil. ii.ued after 10 day*Inn

CONSUMER Til*

topping In/ l*C product*. a*it MM CQHNMf&Ml PttOttl their refund polit

• 16-bit 8088-2 System Unit(runs at 4.77 or 6.66MHZ)

• 640K on Mother Board

• 360K Floppy Drive

AT KeyboardDOW Power SupplyOperations ManualOne Year Limited Warranty

$795

Microsoft GWBasic™ $95 • IBM DOS 3.1 $85 • 8087-2 $149

fflw?x&w*mv\\

".'

Our Turbo PC™ has sold in large quantities since the first week we introduced it. Of course, that's not surprising, since wewere the first company to break the $800 barrier with a machine that outruns the "Big" name by a 40% speed factor. Now,we're going to extend the margin even further by offering a 30-day money back guarantee. If that sounds good, it'll lookeven better when one of our Turbo PC's is on your desk. So call us today. We're guaranteeing you'll like what you get.

Some fuanlmc* mat be limurJ. fV*

be compliant .itk FCC CI... B KM*

wred : . PC". Limned kmi M «1■HillI crnilkatkm, PCi Limited

PC'S LIMITED

SALES CALLS OUTSIDE TEXAS, 1 '800-426-5150

SALES CALLS INSIDE TEXAS, 1 -800-252-8336

1611 Headway Circle, Building 3, Austin, Texas 78754

Sales Calls (rem anywhere in the country, (512) 339-6962

Technical Support Calls, (512) 339-6963 Customer Service Calls, (512) 339-6964

Telex No 9103808386 PC LTD FAX (512) 339-6721

•| iniiiid Watnats

Read what the experts sayabout the PC's Limited AT.

"I have no qualms recom-mending this system toexperienced users whoneed the added speed."

—Sol Libes,Micro/Systems Journal,January/February 1986

30 DAY

Money-BockGuarantee

"The PC's Limited AT™proved to be the functionalequivalent to the IBM®product, only faster. Pricedat roughly one-third less,it rates as one of the bestbargains available."

—Winn L. Rosch,

PC Magazine,

February 25, 1986

"If price is your primaryconsideration, skip bothAT&T® andTI® and choosethis issue's best buy, thePC's Limited AT™. Checkits benchmark results—you won't be sacrificingperformance to savemoney."

—PC Magazine,

Editor's Choice,

February 25, 1986

And if that's not enough to convince you,now we've got a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• One Year Limited Warranty

• 80286-based System Unit (Runs at 6MHZ. 8MHZ optionincluded at no extra charge.)

• 1024K on Mother Board

• 1.2 Meg Floppy Drive

• Combined Floppy/Hard Drive Controller Card

• AT Keyboard

• 192W Power Supply

• 2 Serials and 1 Parallel Port

• Clock/Calendar with Battery Backup

• Operations Manual

i^m

$1995

Microsoft GW Basic™ $95 • IBM DOS 3.1 $85 • 80287 $195

I'm Michael Dell, President of PC's Limited. And I want you to know about your latest industry-leading step. We're so surethat you'll like everything about our PC's Limited AT that we're willing to offer you a 30-day money back guarantee on it.This machine, with 1024K on the Mother Board and an 8MHZ option included at no extra cost, has been a standout sincewe introduced it. So give us a chance to show you what it can do for your operation. With a deal like this, there's no wayyou can lose. (And see the opposite side of this page for information about our Turbo PC™, plus details on our guarantee.)

Y1VI andTI a

Call lor latest prices.

FREE SHIPPING

in the Continental United States via UPS Ground.

NO SURCHARGE FOR B OR'S

Floppy Disk Drive "KB

Hall-Height, DS/DD

Also available for AT'~ m*mm* mm^m.m*min Gray Color. PANASONIC

Half-Height, DS/DD

TEAC

55-B, Half-Heighl, DS/DD

$109

64KRAM

S6t Of 9 ChipS, 200 or ISO Nanoseconds

$10

per set

256K RAM $29 15(LJl,p

PC's Limited ATMultifunction Card

• Expandable To 3 Meg

(1.5 on Board/1.5 on Piggy Back Board)

• Supports 64 or 256K Rams

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port (2nd Serial Optional)

Piggy Backw/0K Board 159 w/OK

PC's Limited Mini I/O

• Serial Port

• Parallel Port

• Clock

• Software

• Fits In Short Slot

$99

300/1200 Baud Hayes

Compatible Modem

Fits in Short Slot

$159

PC's Limited Monochrome GraphicsFully Hercules Compatible

$159

• Text Mode 80 X 25' Graphics Mode 720 X 3^8 Pixels

• One Parallel Printer Port

PC'S LIMITED Six Function Card

• Upgradable to 38-iK

• Clock/Calendar

• includes Software

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port

' Game Port

Two Year Warranty '

w/0K$99 w/384K$149

Seagate

20,30 and 40 MEG

High Speed40 MS Access TimeHard Drives lor AT™

PC's Limited PC-576 RAM Board

• Expandable to 576K

• Supports 64K or 256K RAMS §

• Fits in Short Slot

W/OK

Heads park automaticallyat power down.

20 MEG $57930 MEG $69940 MEG $819

Includes Seagate ,ult Heighi II Jul Disk.

Cable, and MiKiinim: n.iii-

Boots (mm Hard Disk, one Year Warranty,

SOLVE YOUR POWER PROBLEM.

XT POWER 130W

$99

Directly replaces power

supply in PC"

Fully XT'" compatible.

One Year Warranty '

PC'S LIMITED PC'S LIMITED

M0N0-1 MONITOR RGB-1 MONITOR

$169

$459

■ .il.MM dot pilch• RGB input

• f><)fJ>:2iDrrH)lul

TOTAL SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

WARRANTYFor Warranty Service; One year Limited Warrant)- <m PC'sLimited products. Contact lechnica! Support fur a ReturnAuthorization Number (RMA). Returns must be accompa-nied by your RMA, the invoice, and a brief explanation.During the Warranty Period, PC's Limited will repair or re-place items at our option.

30-DAY TOTAL SATISFACTION GUARANTEEAny item bought from PC's Limited mav be returned withinJO days from the date it was shipped for a full refund ofvour purchase price. Returned items musl be as-new, notmodified or damaged, with all warranty cards, manuals, andpackaging intact. Returned items must be shipped prepaidand insured, and must bear a PC's Limited Credit ReturnAuthorization (CRA) on the shipping label. Call PC'sLimited's Customer Support Department for CRA. Nocredits issued after 3d days from date of shipment.

CONSUMER TIPWhen shopping tor PC products, ask our competitor abouttheir refund policies.

Seagate H D -> Western Digital Controller

20 MEG Hard Disk System for PC

Internal$449

For Xebec 1220 Combined Floppy/Hard Disk Controller add $75.

Includes Seagate Hard Disk, Western Digital Controller. Cables.

Manual. Software, and Mounting Hardware.Boots From Hard Disk 65 MS Access Time One Year Warrant)

Our Hard Disk Systems art compatible nith the lates, vetIBM XT. AT&T b.WHJ.Compaq Dtilipro. Tandy 11)0(1. TandiZenith IM. LeadinK Edge PC iBoih Model*}. Sperr) PC. «-I oroiU Pi.. Eagle PC ITT PC. and mint ciihcr Ciimpitiblc

ions of ihr Following Computer* IBM P(.I>D0. PC's Limited Turbo P(./t-niih ISO.e PC. Teles ideo PC. (aradJi. Mother Board*.

PLEASE SPECIFY YOUR COMPUTER TYPE WHEN ORDERING.

'&&

l [railed warrant!

PC'S LIMITED

SALES CALLS OUTSIDE TEXAS, 1 -800-426-5150

SALES CALLS INSIDE TEXAS, 1 -800-252-8336

1611 Headway Circle, Building 3, Austin, Texas 78754

Sales Calls from anywhere in the country, (512) 339-6962

Technical Support Calls, (512) 339-6963 Customer Service Calls, (512) 339-6964

Telex No 9103808386 PC LTD FAX (512) 339-6721

Panasonic, TEAC, Mitsubishi, Intel.IBM. Hercules. PlantronicJ, Xebec.Seagate. Western Digital, ATe.iT, Com-paq, Tandy, Leadinc Edge, Sperry,Wyse, Televideo, Faraday, Corona,Eaele, ITT, and Zenith are registeredtrademarks ol their respective compa-nies. IBM PC. IBM XT. IBM AT, are-trademarks of IBM Corporation. Lead-inS Edge PC, Spcrry PC, Wyse PC,Compaq Deskpro, Zenith 150. Zenith151, Teleeideo PC, Corona PC. EaelePC. AT&T 6300. Tandy 1000 andTandy 1200 ate trademarks ol their

Ad Number 406/86 _

Inquiry 2 59

JUNE 1986 -BYTE 209

Unitex AT

^V$

»^^f?

UNITEX PC

* System Board Expandable to 640K

* 256k Random Access Memory

* 8 Expansion Slots

* 360k Floppy Disk Drive

* 135 Watt Power Supply

* 5150 Type Keyboard

* Runs IBM PC Software

* One Year Warranty*

TM

Same System Plus 10 MB Hard Disk

$

995

$

595

UNITEX s

AT™

1,695

* System Board Expandable to 1024K

* 512k Random Access Memory

* 1.2 MB High Capacity Floppy Disk Drive

* Combined Floppy and Hard Disk Controller

* 230 Watt Power Supply

* Battery Backup Clock/Calendar

* AT Keyboard

unitex senc

TURBO" °3J

* System Board Expandable to 640K

* Keyboard Selectable 4.77Mhz and8 Mhz Speeds

* 256K Random Access Memory

* 360K Floppy Disk Drive

* 135 Watt Power Supply

* 5150 Type Keyboard

T

4962 El ('amini

) Jve;i

,os Altos, CA 94022

iIiffiHiflryl

VISA

>ide California: 1-415-967-6465

IBM P(

I ted

Free i

AllUnauthorized retui

HHIH^HH

210 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 149

COMPUTERS AND MUSIC

MIDI

PROGRAMMING

by Donald Swearingen

Processing the MPl>401 track data stream

IN A PREVIOUS BYTE article ("A MIDIRecorder." Inside the IBM PCs, Fall1985), I described a software system,written in FORTH, for recording andplaying back keyboard music using aMIDI-equipped synthesizer andRoland Corporation's MPU-401 MIDIinterface for the IBM PC. The programin that article, MPU401.PCF, handlesthe communication requirements ofthe MPU-401 device and the MIDIprotocol to store and play back MIDIdata. MPU401.PCF stores the MIDIdata received from the MPU-401 foreach of eight "tracks" (which make upthe track data stream) in the memoryof the IBM PC as an array of 4096contiguous bytes.

In this article, I will present anumber of software algorithms, writ-ten in Turbo Pascal for the IBM PC, forprocessing such a track data stream.Among these are procedures fortransposing MIDI pitches, scalingMIDI velocity values, modifying MIDIchannel information, and quantizingtiming values.

MIDI Processing Constants

The MPU-401 track data stream con-sists of a succession of track events(see figure 1). To simplify the process-

ing of the track data stream, I havedefined a number of constants anddata structures that are useful in ma-nipulating the basic track events andMIDI information in the track datastream.

The program constants (listing 1)establish certain values that are usedthroughout the track data stream pro-cessing procedures. (Good program-ming dictates that you isolate suchvalues in a single section of the pro-gram rather than scatter "magic num-bers" throughout your code. This way,you only need to make modificationsto any quantities in question in oneplace.)

The MPU-401 constants are valuesexpected in track events receivedfrom the MPU-401. They representeither a special timing overflow byteor one of several MPU "marks" thatthe MPU-401 transmits in the trackdata stream. The MPU-401 defaulttimebase and tempo constants will beused to calculate actual track eventtimes as a function of the relativeevent timing bytes contained in eachtrack event.

The MIDI command constants rep-resent the eight basic MIDI com-mands that are contained within MIDI

status bytes (figure 2). Listing I alsodefines a text string for each MIDIcommand, to be used in translatingthe track events within a track datastream into a readable format.

Following the MIDI text, listing 1defines a number of general-purposeconstants that the MIDI processingfunctions require: error flags for func-tion results, the size of data files con-taining track data, some MS-DOS filesystem constants, and text for hexa-decimal conversions.

MIDI Processing Data Types

The MIDI data types (listing 2) definethe basic structures around which theMIDI processing functions will be de-signed.

The hex str type is used for con-version of a single byte to its hexadec-imal equivalent in ASCII.

The track event type summa-rizes the various types of track eventsthe program may expect to receive

from the MPU-401. The track event

structure is designed to store a single

(continued)Donald Swearingen (100 Valencia #261,San Francisco, CA 94103) is a freelance soft-ware developer, consultant, musician, andcomposer.

JUNE 1986

I YT E 211

MIDI PROGRAMMING

1-byte event

2-byte events

3-byte events

4-byte events

Track Events

Timing byte

Event message bytes

Event type

Description

F8

OVFL

Timing overflow

00-EF00-EF00-EF

F8F9FC

MARK

MPU Marks

NOP (F8), Measure end (F9)

Data end (FC)

00-EF00-EF00-EF

00-7F00-7FCO-DF

00-7F00-7F

MIDI

MIDI messages usingcurrent running status

00-EF00-EF

80-BFEO-EF

00-7F00-7F

00-7F00-7F

MIDI_RS

MIDI messages establishingnew running status

Figure 1: The MPU-401 track data stream consists of track events, which may be one of four types and may be from 1 to 4 bytes iong.

Listing 1: Constants used in processing the MPU-401 track data stream.

const

TIMING_OVERFLOW = 248;NOP = 248;MEASURE_END - 249;DATA_END = 252;MAX_TIMING_COUNT = 240;

TIMEBASE = 120.0;TEMPO = 100.0;

MIN_MIDI_DATA = 0;MAX_MIDI_DATA =127;

N0TE_OFF = 0;N0TE_ON = 1;AFTER_TOUCH_K - 2;C0NTROL_CHANGE - 3;PROGRAM_CHANGE = 4;AFTER_TOUCH_P = 5;PITCH_WHEEL = 6;SYSTEM_EXCLUSIVE = 7;

MIDI_MESS_TEXT :

array[0..7] of string[20](•Note Off,'Note On',

"After Touch (key)','Control Change','Program Change','After Touch (poly)',•Pitch Wheel','System Exclusive');

ERR = -1;NOERR = 0;

{ MPU-401 Constants \

\ MPU-401 Default Timebase |

\ MPU-401 Default Tempo }

\ Minimum MIDI Data Value {

| Maximum MIDI Data Value \

| MIDI Commands }

\ MIDI Command Text Strings }

} Function error flags }

TRACK_DATAFILE_SIZE - 4096; \ MPU-401 track data file \

FIL.ENAME_I.EN =14;RECORDJ.EN - 128;

DIGITS :

array[0..15] of char ='0123456789ABCDEF';

j MSDOS filename length }| MSDOS record length {

{ Hex conversion digits {

track event. The track event block

structure (figure 3) contains a singletrack event and the "environment" inwhich the event occurs, including therunning status for the track fromwhich the event was extracted, theevent length, and the event type.

The track data stream structure

simply provides storage for a single

track data stream. The track data

block structure (figure 4) contains acomplete track data stream (tds) andseveral other items useful in steppingthrough the track events contained inthe track data stream: a pointer to thenext byte to be accessed in the track

data stream (tds ptr), an end-of-data

indicator (edat), and the track eventcurrently being processed in the trackdata stream (curr).

A final track event block constant

(OVFI EVENT) is defined for use as

a timing spacer in a track data stream.

Simple MIDI Utilities

You can use the basic MIDI utilityfunctions (listing 3) apart from theMPU-401 processing environment.They operate strictly on MIDI data, in-dependent of track data stream con-siderations.

The Boolean function midi status

determines whether a prospectiveMIDI data byte is a MIDI status byte.

Function midi chan returns the MIDI

channel (0-15) from a MIDI status

byte. Function midi cmnd returns

the MIDI command portion from aMIDI status byte. Function nmdat

{continued)

212 BYTE ■ IUNE 1986

MIDI PROGRAMMING

Inquiry 350

BIT

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

VALUE

1

COMMAND

CHANNEL

Figure 2: A MIDI status byte contains a 3-bit figure that represents one of the eightbasic MIDI commands and a 4-bit figure that directs the MIDI message to one of upto 16 MIDI devices connected to the system.

Listing 2: Data types used in processing the MPU-401 track data stream.

{ Result of byte—>hex conversion\ MPU-401 Track event type

| Timing Overflow

] MPU mark

j MIDI using curr. running status

\ MIDI setting new running status

j Undefined track event

{ Single track event }

j Event relative time j} Event directive f

type

hex_str = string[2Jtrack_event_type ■

(

OVFL,

MARK,

MIDI,

MIDI_RS,

UNKNOWN

);

track_event =record

time : byte;

mess : array[1..3] of byte;end;track_event_block - { Track event access environmentrecord

running_status : byte;J Current track running statusevent_len : 1..4;jEvent Iength,incIuding timing byteevent_type : track_event_type;event : track_event;end;track_data_8tream » \ In memory track data stream file

array[1..TRACK_DATAFILE_SIZE] of byte;track_data_block »{ track data stream access environmentrecord

tds : track_data_stream; { track data

[ track data read pointertds_ptr : 1..TRACK_DATAFILE_SIZE;

edat : boolean; j indicates end of track datacurr : track_event_block; { current track eventend;

const

\ Track overflow event constantOVFL_EVENT : track_event_block -

( { used to insert timing spacers

running_statu8:0; \ into Track Data Stream

event_len:1;event_type:OVFL;event:

(

time:MAX_TIMING_COUNT;mess:(0,0,0)

4

Number Onein Performance

68010/68000Coprocessor for

IBM/AT/XT/PC-

8/10/12.5mz No Wfcilt States

$1295°°Qty.1

FEATURES

• 1-2 MB RAM (1MB Standard)

• 16K-64K EPROM

• 2-8 Serial PortsAsync/Sync/Bisync Communications

• Battery-backed Real Time Clock

• Battery-backed 2K-8K RAM

• 2 Parallel Ports•68881 Math Coprocessor

• Memory-mapped Dual-port BUS

• 3-9 Users Per Board (3 Standard)

• Up To 16 Boards Per AT/XT/PC

• Can Operate As Standalone Processor

SOFTWARE

• 0S9 (Powerful UNIX-like Multi-user OS)

• CPM/68K

• Software selectable OS including concurrentPC DOS/OS-9 or CPM/68K operation

• Support Module for IBM Graphics

• High-speed Local/Global Disk Caching

• Basic, Pascal, Fortran, C, and COBOL

Systems

West: 4704 W, Jennifer, Suite 105, Fresno, CA 93711, 209/276-2345East: 67 Grandview, Pleasantviile, NY 10570, 914/747-1450Distributor: Telemarketing Services, Inc.1897 Garden Ave, Eugene, OR 97403, 503/345-7395

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 213

MIDI PROGRAMMING

returns the number of data bytes as-sociated with a given MIDI running

status. Function midi data limit

limits MIDI data to values within theaccepted MIDI data range, as neces-sitated by certain types of processingof MIDI data values (e.g., scalingvelocity data).

Use of these basic MIDI utilitiesenhances the understandability of thesource code while providing for amore efficient MIDI programming en-vironment.

Managing the Track DataStream

The procedures and functions formanaging the track data stream(listing 4) move track data betweenMS-DOS files and track data blocks.They also provide access to databytes within the track data stream andallow you to display (dump) a trackdata stream in hexadecimal format.

The Turbo Pascal routines de-scribed in this article can process theunaltered track data stored by theFORTH program MPU401.PCF. How-ever, the data arrays used byMPU401.PCF for storage of track datamust somehow be made available inthe Turbo Pascal environment. To ac-complish this, you can store a trackdata stream array (all 4096 bytes)from the FORTH environment into anMS-DOS block file. Then you can easi-ly read the file into a track data blockstructure for processing in TurboPascal. You can then load the outputfiles created by the Turbo Pascalroutines back into the FORTH en-vironment for playback.

The procedure reset track data

resets the "environment" variables ina track data block so that the trackdata block can be accessed from the

beginning. Procedure load track

data prompts the user for the nameof the MS-DOS file to be loaded andthen loads the file into a target track

data block. Procedure save track

data saves a track data block in aspecified MS-DOS file.

The function this byte returns the

current data byte in the track datastream within a track data block. Theprocedure advance moves the trackdata stream pointer in a track data

(continued)

Running Status

Event Length

Event Type

T^ack Event

80-FF

1-4

OVFL,MARK,MIDI,MIDI__RS

Variable

length

track

event

Figure 3: The track event block contains the running status for the track from whichthe event was extracted, the event length (from 1 to 4 bytes long), the type of event,and the actual track event.

12 3 4 5 6 4095 4096

Track Data Streamtds

Track Data Stream Pointer

I - 4096

End-of-Data Indicator

T/F

tds ptr

edat

Current Track Event Blockcurr

1

1

1

1 1 1 1

Figure 4: The track data block structure (as defined by listing 2) contains a completetrack data stream (up to 4096 bytes long) made up of variable-length track events, apointer to the next byte to be accessed, an end-of-data indicator, and the track eventcurrently being processed.

Listing 3: Basic MIDI utility functions.

j Return true if input is a MIDI status byte

funct ion midi_status(midi_data_byte:byte):boolean;

begin

if (midi_data_byte > MAX_MIDI_DATA) then

mi di_status:=truee I se

midi_status:«false;end;

j Return the channel # from a MIDI status byte

function mid i_chan(runn ing_status:byte):byte;

begi n

midi_chan:»running_status and 15;

end;

j Return the command portion of a MIDI status byte

function mid i_cmnd(runn ing_status:byte):byte;

beg in

214 BYTE • IUNE 1986

MIDI PROGRAMMING

Inquiry 351

midi_cmnd:=(running_status shr 4) and 7;end;

i Return § of data bytes associated

with a given MIDI status byteI

funet ion nmdat(runn ing_status:byte):byte;begi nif (midi_cmnd(running_status) in

[PROGRAM_CHANGE, AFTER_TOUCH_P]) then

nmdat:=1e I se

nmdat:=2;end;

{ Limit input to valid MIDI data range

I

funct ion midi_data_limi t(midi_data_byte:integer):byte;

begi n

if midi_data_byte < MIN_MIDI_DATA then

midi_data_limit:=MIN_MIDI_DATAelse if midi_data_byte > MAX_MIDI_DATA then

midi_data_limit:=MAX_MIDI_DATAe I se

midi_data_lImit:=midi_data_byte;end;

Listing 4: Basic track data stream procedures and functions.

j Reset status and pointer variables in track data block

procedure reset_track_data(var tdt:track_data_block);

beg i n

with tdt do

begin

tds_ptr:=1;

edat:=fa Ise;

curr.running_status:=0;

cu r r.event_type:-UNKNOWN;

end;end;

{ Load track data stream from userspecified file into track data block

procedure load_track_data(var tdt:track_data_bIock);var

tdf : File;

tdfn : string[FILENAME_LEN];begin

reset_track_data(tdt);write('Track data filename: *);read In(tdfn);ass i gn(tdf,tdfn);reset(tdf) ;

blockread(tdf,tdt.tds,TRACK_DATAFILE_SIZE div RECORDJ.EN);c I ose(tdf);end;

{ Save track data stream from trackdata block to user specified file

procedure save_track_data(tdt:track_data_block);var

tdf : File;

{continued)

Number OneIn Performance

Hard DiskIntelligent

VCR Backup

for AT/XT/PC

FEATURES

• High speed microprocessorcontrolled backup (68000)

• Two channel interface

• Built in LAN channel

• Software control of most VCRfunctions including Fast Forward,Rewind, and auto backup using VCRtimer capabilities

• Economical VHS or Beta formats

Systems

West: 4704 W. Jennifer, Suite 105. Fresno, CA 93711, 209/276-2345East: 67 Grandview, Pleasantville, NY 10570, 914/747-1450Distributor: Telemarketing Services, Inc.1897 Garden Ave, Eugene, OR 97403. 503/345-7395

IUNE 1986

IYTE 215

MIDI PROGRAMMING

The track eventmanagement functionsconstitute the coreof the MIDI dataprocessing routines.

block forward to point to the nextdata value.The function itox and the procedure

dump track data work together to

provide a hexadecimal dump of atrack data block on the consoledevice.

Track Event Management

The track event management func-tions (listing 5) constitute the core ofthe MIDI processing routines. Thesefunctions and procedures serve tosimplify the actual processing of thetrack events in the MPU-401 trackdata stream.

The procedures track event

message and next track event

work together to copy the next trackevent in the track data stream withina track data block into its current trackevent block. The action of these pro-cedures is built entirely around thestructure of the MPU-401 track event(recall figure 1), which can be from 1to 4 bytes in length.

Procedure next track event

scans the next byte of the track datastream (assumed to be a timing byte)to determine the appropriate actionto take. If the byte represents a tim-ing overflow event, the procedureplaces the single-byte event in the cur-rent event block and the proceduretakes an exit. If the track event is amultibyte event, the procedure passes

control to track events message so

that the message bytes of the trackevent can be placed in the currentevent block.

Procedure track event message

handles MARK, MIDI, and MIDI RS

track event types. In the case ofMARK events, thepractice stores thesingle message byte in the current

[continued)

tdfn : string[FILENAME_LEN];beg i n

wr ite('Track data filename: ');readingtdfn);ass ign(tdf,tdfn);rewr i te(tdf);

blockwrite(tdf,tdt.tds,TRACK_DATAFILE_SIZE div RECORDJ.EN);c lose(tdf) ;end;

{ Return current track data byte from track data block

funct ion this_byte(tdt:track_data_block):byte;

beg in

this_byte:«tdt.tds[tdt.tds_ptr];

end;

| Advance pointer to next track data bytein track data block

procedure advance(var tdt:track_data_block);

beg in

tdt.tds_ptr:=tdt.tds_ptr+1;

end;

{ Convert byte to hexadecimal ASCII string

I

function itox(i:byte): hex_str;

beg i n

i tox

[01

:-chr(2);

itox

ir

:=DIGITS[i

div 16];

i tox

2

:=DIGITS[i

mod 16];

end;

j Dump track data stream in hexadecimal format

procedure dump_track_data(var tdt:track_data_block);label

return;var

n.st.off : integer;begi n

writeIn('Track Data Stream Dump...');wr i teIn;wr i te(' ') ;for n:=0 to 15 do

wr ite(itox(n):4);wr iteln;n:=0;

while (n < TRACK_DATAFILE_SIZE div 16) dobeginst :=n*16;

write(itox(st div 256):2,Itox(st mod 256)-2for off:-0 to 15 dobegin

write(itox(ord(tdt.tds[st+off+1])):4);if (tdt.tds[st+off+1] - DATA_END) then

goto return;end;wr i teIn;n:»n+1;end;return:wr i te In;end;

');

216 BYTE- |UNE 1986

MIDI PROGRAMMING

Listing 5: Procedures and functions for processing track events.

{ Fill in the message bytes of the currentTrack Event in a Track Data Block

procedure track_event_message(var tdt:track_data_block);var

i : byte; } index counter {label

return;beg in

with tdt.curr dobeg i ncase this_byte(tdt) of

NOP, MEASURE_END, DATA_END:beg i n

event_type:=MARK;if (this_byte(tdt) = DATA_END) then

tdt.edat:=true;event.mess[event_len]:=this_byte(tdt);event_I en:=event_len+1;advance(tdt);goto return;end;128..239: { MIDI status byte }begin

running_status:=this_byte(tdt);event_type:=MIDI_RS;

event.mess[event_I en]:=this_byte(tdt);event_I en:=event_len+1;advance(tdt);end;e I se

event_type:=MIDI;end; { case |

j fill in MIDI data bytes \

for i:=1 to nmdat(tdt.curr.running_status) do

begi n

event.mess[event_len]:=this_byte(tdt);

event_len:=event_len+1;

advance(tdt);

end;end; { with tdt.curr }return:end;

i Advance to the next Track Event in a Track Data Block

procedure next_track_event(var tdt:track_data_bIock);label

return;beg i nif (tdt.edat) then j end of data (

goto return;with tdt.curr dobeg i n

event_len:»1; I count event time }case this_byte(tdt) ofTIMING_OVERFLOW:begi n

event_type:»OVFL;event.t ime:-MAX_TIMING_COUNT;advance(tdt);goto return;end;0..239: j timing byte \

be9in (continued)

Inquiry 352

Number Onein Performance

Z80H

IBM/AT/XT/PC- 8mzNo Vtfait States

FEATURES

•64K-256KRAM•2K-8KEPR0M/StaticRam

• 2 Serial PortsAsync/Sync/Bisync Communications

• Real Time Clock

• Memory-mapped Dual-port BUS

• On-board/Remote Reset NMI capability

• Up To 32 Boards Per AT/XT/PC

• Can Operate As Standalone Processor

• Less Than Full Size Board(will fit other compatables.)

SOFTWARE

• ZP/M tm CP/M Emulation Software(Supports Most CP/M Software)

• Multiuser Capability if Used As ASlave Processor

Systems

West: 4704 W. Jennifer, Suite 105, Fresno, CA 937M 209/276-2345East: 67 Grandview, Pleasantville, NY 10570, 914/7471450Distributor: Telemarketing Services, Inc.1B97 Garden Ave,, Eugene, OR 97403, 503/345-7395

IUNE I986

217

Inquiry 89

1 -800-222-8324

^ATAI

TotallyIBMCompatible

A Full 1 YearWarranty

Basic Atai W/2 Drives .... $695.00Atai Super Unit

• MonochromeGraphics Card

• 100 CPS NLQ Printerw/tracror

• 2-360 K Floppy

• 135 Watt powersupply

• Amber tilt swivelmonitor

• 640 K memory

• Serial/Parallel Port

• Clock Calendar•MS/DOS 2.11

• 1200/300 InternalModem

1 All cables

' General Ledger

Software1 Word Processor' Database1 Communications

Software

A Truly Complete System, only $1495.

Compare Against IBM, Att, Leading Edge!!!

brother

BROTHER M-1509

180 CPS Wide Column

Beats Epson FX-286

For Price/Performance.

Standard NLQ mode w/tractor

Call For Lowest Price.

Brother Printers

•M-1109 $195

• HR-15XL $360

• HR-25 $499

• HR-35

• Twinriter-5 DualHead $ Call

EPSON

• LQ-800 $545

•LQ-1000 $765

• LQ-1500 $999

Accessories Available

Epson Products

• LX-80 $220

• LX-90 $240

• FX-80+ $259

• FX-85 $ Call

• JX-80 $349

• FX-286 $ Call

Panasonic

•KXP1080 $199

•KXP1091 $239

Okidata

• 182 $299

• 192 $399

• 193 $599

• 84 $699

•2410 $1499

HARD DRIVE & BACKUPS

10 Meg $385 • 20 Meg External Hard

• 20 Meg $475

• 30 Meg $690

• 40 Meg $795

• 10 Meg external Hard $545

$635

• 20 Meg Tape . $595

• 60 Meg Tape . $795All Drives Seagates w/

Controller

CARDS & ACCESSORIES for IBM

• RS-232 $59.00

• RS-232/Clock $69.00

• Parallel $59.00

• Mono/Printer $95.00

• Color/Printer $99.00

• Mono/Graphics/Printer $99.00

1 -800-222-8324CALL NOW!!!!

C O M P U T

INTERNATIONAL6619 U.S.I Miami, Fl 33143

MIDI PROGRAMMING

event.t ime:«thls_byte(tdt);advance(tdt);track_event_me8sage(tdt);end;end; j case }end; j with tdt.curr {return:end;

{ Store a Track Event in a designated Track Data Block

I

procedure store_track_event(var tdo:track_data_block;

eblk:track_event_block);var

i : byte; j Index counter jbeg in

case ebIk.event.time ofMAX_TIMING_COUNT:begin

tdo.tds[tdo.tds_ptr]:=TIMING_OVERFLOW;advance(tdo);end;0..239:begin

tdo.tds[tdo.tds_ptr]:=ebIk.event.time;advance(tdo);

for i:-1 to eblk.event_len - 1 dobegi n

tdo.tds[tdo.tds_ptr]:»ebIk.event.mess[i];advance(tdo);end;end;end; { case \end;

j Display a track event on the user console

procedure disp_event(ebIk:track_event_block);var

i : byte; j index counter {label return;begin

with eblk dobegin

wr ite(event.time:4);if (event_len - 1) thenbegin

write(* Timing Overflow':16);goto return;end;if (event.messtl] in [NOP,MEASURE_END,DATA_END]) thenbegin

case event .mess[1] ofNOP :begin

writeCNOP' :16);goto return;end;MEASURE_END:begin

write('Measure End':16);goto return;end;DATA_END:begin

write('Data End':16);goto return;end;end; {easelend; jiff

218

iYTE • IUNE 1986

MIDI PROGRAMMING

i: = 1;

if (midi_status(event.messfl])) thenbegi n

write(MIDI_MESS_TEXT[midi_cmnd(event.mess[1])]:16);i:=i+1;ende I se

wr i te(' ':16);while (i <= (event_len - 1)) dobeg in

wr ite(event.mess[i]:4);i:=i+1;end;end; \ with eblk {return:wr i teln;end;

} Display all of the Track Events in a Track Data Block

\

procedure disp_track_data(var tdt:track_data_block);

var

time : real; j Actual time of current track event \beg i n

t ime:=0.0;

reset_track_data(tdt);while not(tdt.edat) do

begin

next_track_event(tdt);

t ime:=t ime+tdt.curr.event.t ime;

write( ((time*60)/(TIMEBASE*TEMPO)):8:3 );

disp_event(tdt.curr);

end;end;

Listing 6: Procedures and functions for processing MIDI key (pitch) data.

\ Return offset of MIDI key data in

Track Event message, if present

function midi_key_offset(var ebIk:track_event_block;

chan:byte):integer;

beg i n

midi_key_offset:=ERR; \ default return value $

with eblk do

begi n

if ((event_type in [MIDI, MIDI.RS])

and (midi cmnd(running_status)

in [NOTE_OFF, NOTE_ON, AFTER_TOUCH_Kl)and (midi_chan(running_status) = chan); then

begin

midi key_offset:«1;

if (event_type - MIDI_RS) then

midi_key_offset:»2;

end;

end; { with eblk \

end;

{ Return MIDI key data from Track Event, if present

i

function get_midi_key(var ebIk:track_event_block;

chan:byte):integer;

war

key_offset : integer;

begin

Inquiry 296

Instant-C:

The Fastest

Interpreter for C

Runs your programs 50

to 500 times faster than

any other C language

interpreter.

Any C interpreter can save you compileLand link time when developing yourprograms. But only Instant-C savesyour time by running your program atcompiled-code speed.

Fastest Development. A programthat runs in one second when compiledwith an optimizing compiler runs intwo or three seconds with Instant-C.Other interpreters will run the sameprogram in two minutes. Or even tenminutes. Don't trade slow compilingand linking for slow testing and debug-ging. Only Instant-C will let you edit,test, and debug at the fastest possiblespeeds.

Fastest Testing. Instant-C immedi-ately executes any C expression, state-ment, or function call, and display theresults. Learn C, or test your programsfaster than ever before.

Fastest Debugging. Instant-C givesyou the best source-level debugger forC. Single-step by source statement, orset any number of conditional break-points throughout your program. Errorsalways show the source statementsinvolved. Once you find the problem,test the correction in seconds.

Fastest Programming. Instant-Ccan directly generate executable files,supports full K & R standard C, comeswith complete library source, and worksunder PC-DOS, MS-DOS, or CP/M-86.Instant-C gives you working well-tested programs faster than any otherprogramming tool. Satisfaction guar-anteed, or your money back in first31 days. Instant-C is S495.

Rational

Systems, Inc.

P.O. Box 480

Natick, MA 01760

(617)653-6194

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 219

MIDI PROGRAMMING

The range of actionsyou might want toperform on the trackevents is limited onlyby your imagination.

event block (edat is set to true if the

mark is a DATA END mark) and the

procedure takes an exit. For MIDIevent types, the procedure copies theproper number of MIDI data bytes forthe track data block's current runningstatus into the current event block's

message field. In the case of MIDI

RS event types, the procedure up-dates the track data block's currentrunning status.

Procedure store track event

stores a single track event from a trackevent block into a target track datablock. This procedure completes theset of functions for accessing and stor-ing track events contained within trackdata blocks. You can now manipulatethe track events between the timethey are accessed and the time theyare stored without considering the ac-cess and storage mechanisms.

I have included two additional utili-ty procedures for displaying a trans-lated track data stream: disp event

displays a single track event on the

console device, and disp track

data displays all the track events in a

track data block. Note that disp

track data makes use of the

MPU-401 TIMEBASE and TEMPOconstants to display the actual timeoffset (in seconds) of each event fromthe beginning of the track datastream.

MIDI Information Processing

Given the constants, data structures,procedures, and functions discussedabove, you now have the resources tobegin processing the track events inthe MPU-401's track data stream.While the range of possible actionsyou might want to perform on thetrack events is limited only by your im-agination, the following examples may

get_midi_key:«ERR; j default return value \key_offset:«midi_key_offset(ebIk,chan);if (key_off8et <> ERR) then

get_midl_key:-ebIk.event.mess[key_offset];

end;

{ Set MIDI key value in a Track Event,if Track Event is of appropriate type

procedure set_midi_key(var ebIk:track_event_block;

chan,key:byte);var

key_offset : integer;begin

key_offset:»midi_key_offset(ebIk,chan);if (key_offset <> ERR) then

ebIk.event.mess[key_offset]:=key;end;

{ Transpose all MIDI pitch (key) datafor a channel in a Track Data block

!

procedure transpose_pitch(var tdi,tdo:track_data_block;

chan,trans:integer);var

curr_key : integer; { MIDI key value from

current track event {beg i n

reset_track_data(tdi);reset_track_data(tdo);while not(tdi.edat) dobegin

next_track_event(tdi);curr_key:-get_midi_key(tdi.curr,chan);if (curr_key <> ERR) thenset_midi_key(tdi.curr,chan,

midi_data_Iimit(curr_key+trans));store_track_event(tdo,tdi.curr);end;end;

Listing 7: Procedures and functions for processing MIDI velocity data.

\ Return offset of MIDI velocity data inTrack Event message, if present

funct ion midi_vel_offset(eblk:track_event_block;

chan:byte):integer;var

offset : integer;beg i n

mi di_ve l_of f set :>=ERR; { default return value \{ only MIDI key events have velocity \offset:«midi_key_offset(ebIk,chan);if (offset <> ERR) then

midi_vel_offset:-offset+1;end;

{ Return MIDI velocity data from Track Event, if present

funct ion get_midi_veI(ebIk:track_event_block;

chan:byte):i nteger;var

vel_offset integer;beginget_midi_vel:«ERR; $ default return value J

220 B YTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 119

MIDI PROGRAMMING

vel_offset:=midi_vel_offset(ebIk,chan) ;if (vel_offset <> ERR) thenget_midi_vel:=eblk.event.mess[veI_offset];

end;

| Set MIDI velocity value in Track Event,if Track Event is of appropriate type

procedure set_midi_veI(var ebIk:track_event_block;

chan,veI:integer);var

vel_offset : integer;beg in

vel_offset:«midi_vel_offset(eblk,chan) ;if (vel_offset <> ERR) then

ebIk.event.mess[vel_offset]:-vel;end;

j Scale all MIDI velocity data fora channel in a Track Data block

I

procedure sea Ie_veI(var tdi,tdo:track_data_block;chan:integer ; vel_fact:reaI);var

curr_vel : integer;begi n

reset_track_dataftdi);reset_track_data(tdo);while not(tdi.edat) do

beg in

next_track_event(tdi);

curr_vel:=get_midi_vel(tdi.curr,chan);

if (curr_vel <> ERR) then

set_mi d i_veI(tdi.curr,chan ,trunc(curr_veI*vel_fact));

store_track_event(tdo,tdi.curr);

end;end;

serve as an introduction to thesubject.

One of the most common actionsyou might want to apply to MIDI datais to change the pitches in a track datastream by a constant factor (transposi-tion). The procedures and functionsfor processing MIDI key data (listing6) provide the necessary tools. The

functions get midi key and

midi key offset work together to

return the key (pitch) value from atrack event's message portion. Thesefunctions check to determine whetherthe track event is of the proper type(i.e., whether it represents a MIDI com-mand where a key value is present)and return an error flag if no key datais present so that the track event canbe skipped in any MIDI key process-ing. Procedure set midi key sets

the MIDI key value of a track event (ifthe event is of the appropriate type).Finally, the procedure trans-

pose pitch transposes the key

(pitch) values in all of a track datablock's (tdi) track events, creating anew track data block (tdo) containingthe pitch-altered track events. Notethat all the key processing routinesaccept a MIDI channel input (chan) asthe targeted MIDI channel for thetransposition action. Also note thatthe transpose pitch uses the func-tion midi data limit to ensure that

the transposed key data does not falloutside the range of valid MIDI data.Another useful MIDI processing ac-tion is to scale or change (multiplyingby a constant) all MIDI velocity (loud-ness) values in a track data stream.The MIDI velocity data proceduresand functions (listing 7) provide thiscapability. These routines are writtenand function analogously to the MIDIkey processing routines discussedabove.

(continued)

"pogfffe.

A completely integrated accountingpackage for MS-DOS computers.

EASY TO USE!

This is the accounting system for people who are nol accountantsl No debits, credits, accounting lingo, difficult reports towade through and become confused and frustrated.

Free VCR training tape.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Menu driven • Single or Multi-user (DOS 3.1) • CompleteManual • Phone support available • Not copy protected •Password protection

GENERAL LEDGER

• Complete chart of accounts. • Out of Balance entries notpermitted • Income Statement. Balance Sheet. ActivityReports ■ Entries can be corrected after posting • Cash orAccrual basis * Any fiscal period

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

• Aging Schedule • Single & multiple invoice statements ■Monthly Billing • Partial Payments • Customer List

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE

• Check printing • Vendor List • Multiple or single invoices

PAYROLL

• All federal and slate deductions • Customized deductions

• Quarterly reports • W-2, Payroll Liability Report

INVENTORY

• Point of Sale ■ Invoicing • Purchase orders • Activity reports

• Number of inventory items limited only by disk space

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

IBM or compatible with 256K RAM.DOS 2.1 or higher.

ACCOUNT-EZE

To Order Call Toll Free 24 hrs.

1-800-824-7888

Ask For Operator 137

M/C, Visa, Am. Exp., C.O.D. or sendcheck or money order to:

Doberman Software

3025 Alhambra Dr..Cameron Park, CA 95682Add $7.50 for shipping and handling.CA residents add 6% sales tax.

Satisfaction Guaranteed!

If for ANY reason you are unhappy withACCOUNT-EZE, we will gladly refund the pur-chase price within 30 days.

IBM Md MS DOS

m.,rk, of IBM and Mia

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 221

MIDI PROGRAMMING

Listing 8: Procedures and functions for processing MIDI channel data.

{ Redirect MIDI channel data in aTrack Data Block to a new channel

procedure change_chan(var tdi,tdo:track_data_block;

old_chan,new_chan:byte);begin

reset_track_data(tdi);reset_track_data(tdo);while not(tdi.edat) dobegin

next_track_event(tdi);with tdi.curr dobeg inif (event_type - MIDI_RS) and

(midi_chan(running_status) « old_chan) thenevent.mess[l]:»((event.mess[l] and $F0) or new_chan);store_track_event(tdo,tdi.curr);end;end;end;

| Extract a single MIDI channel from a Track Data Block

i

procedure extract_chan(var tdi,tdo:track_data_block;

chan:byte);begin

reset_track_data(tdl);reset_track_data(tdo);while not(tdi.edat) dobegin

next_track_event(tdi);with tdi.curr dobeginif (event_type in [MIDI_RS.MIDI])

and (midi_chan(running_status) <> chan) thenbegin \ convert to NOP {event_type:«MARK;event_len:»2;event.me8s[l]:»N0P;end;end;store_track_event(tdo.tdi.curr);end;end;

| Filter a MIDI channel from a Track Data Blockf

procedure fI Iter_chan(var tdi,tdo:track_data_block;begin chan:byte);

reset_track_data(tdi);reset_track_data(tdo);while not(tdi.edat) dobegin

next_track_event(tdi);with tdi.curr dobegin

if (event_type in [MIDI_RS, MIDI])and (midi_chan(running_status) ■ chan) thenbegin } convert to NOP }even t_type:-MARK;event_len:-2;event.mess[1]:»N0P;end;end;store_track_event(tdo,tdi.curr);end;end;

The channel processingroutines modify theportion of a statusbyte that sends a MIDImessage to one of 16possible MIDI devices.

The MIDI channel portion of theMIDI status byte directs a MIDImessage to one of 16 possibledestinations (synthesizers or otherMIDI devices). Often, you need tomodify the channel information inone way or another. The MIDI chan-nel processing routines (listing 8) pro-vide a number of useful routines of

this nature. Procedure change chan

redirects all of a track data block's (tdi)track events for a given MIDI channel

(old chan) to another channel

(new chan), creating a new track

data block (tdo). Procedure

extract chan extracts a single MIDI

channel's track events from a trackdata block. The procedure passes thatchannel's track events unaltered tothe output track data block while turn-ing track events for all other MIDIchannels into NOP (no operations)events. Procedure filter_ chan per-forms the inverse of the operation

performed by extract chan, passing

track events for all channels exceptthe channel designated for filtering.

Event Time Quantization

A final example of MIDI processing in-volves the "quantization" of therelative timing bytes in track eventsreceived from the MPU-401. This pro-cess consists of synchronizing thetrack event to the nearest multiple ofa fixed timing constant quantum.While there are many possible waysto approach this problem, I haveselected an algorithm that seeks tominimize the difference in the totalelapsed time between the input trackdata stream and the output track datastream.

(continued)

222 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Osborne/McGraw-Hill

Computer Books

Your Link to Future Technology

<*

The Practical Guide toLocal Area Networks

by Rowland Archer

Learn how to evaluate and selecta LAN so you can avoid unexpectedsurprises after you make a pur-chase. Archer discusses five of themost popular LANs available forthe IBM PC and compatible com-puters: 3Com Ethernet, CorvusOmninet; Orchid PCnet; NovellNetware," IBM PC Network andIBM'Token Ring.

S21.95, Order #0-07-881190-2,283 pp.6>4x9<A

«►

Desktop PublishingFrom A to Z

by Bill Grout, Irene Athanasopoulos,and Rebecca Kutlin

Create newsletters, catalogs,conference brochures, newsreleases,and more! This book helpsyou choose the software, equip-ment, and procedures you need toachieve professional-looking results.

S17.95, Order #0-07-881212-7,225 pp.

7y«x9«

Micro-to-Mainframe Links

by Ronald F. Kopeck

Sort out all the complex issuesinvolved in linking microcomputersto mainframes for sophisticated,high-powered applications.

l -MAINFRAME

Thoroughly explains the planningand evaluation process, the realand hidden costs of linking, mainte-nance, service, and monitoring.

S18.95, Order #0-07-881228-3,300 pp.7«x9tf

8 ^lll<

NKS

HI 11'"'

4

■ microcomputers

p ! ^

+

Project ManagementUsing Microcomputers

byHarveyA.Levine

Describes state-of-the-art projectmanagement techniques than canbe applied to every business andto almost every computer system.Includes many applicationexamples.

$18.95, Order #0-07-881221-6,350 pp.73/8x9K

♦ Osborne/McGraw-Hill books are avail-able at bookstores and computer storeseverywhere.

♦ To order by mail, complete the coupon andsend it to: Osborne/McGraw-Hill

P.O. Box 400Hightstown.NJ 08520

♦ All orders must be prepaid and shouldinclude local tax.

♦ Checks, money orders, VISA and Master-Card are acceptable for payment. No postageor handling charges are required.

♦ Books will be shipped via UPS. Allow4-6 weeks for delivery. Books will not bedelivered to post office boxes.

This order is subject to acceptance byMcGraw-Hill. Offer is good only in the U.S.A.

Osborne McGraw-Hill

NAME

ADDRESS! No PO Box) _CITY

STATE .

-ZIP_

INDICATE METHOD OF PAYMENT□ VISA/EXP. DATE

CARD H

DCHECK/MONEY ORDER_ D MASTERCARD/EXP. DATE-

SIGNATURE

QTY ORDER!

-PRICE-

Osborne/McGraw-Hill

PO Box 400, Hightstown.NJ 08520

Clip and send.42-Q-005-7000-1

SUBTOTAL

TAX

TOTAL

Inquiry 2 50

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 223

MIDI PROGRAMMING

Listing 9: A procedure for quantizing timing values for track events.

procedure quantize(var tdi,tdo:track_data_block;quantum:integer);

in_time :out_timeet ime

real;: real;integer;Integer;

Actual elapsed time,Input track data blockActual elapsed time,output track data blockTemporary storage foradjustment of event timeRounding term

qroundbegin

reset_track_data(tdi Jreset_track_data(tdo)qround:»quantum div 2in_t ime:»0.0;out_time:"0.0;while not(tdi.edat) dobegin

next_track_event(tdi);wi th tdi.curr dobegin

et ime:-event.t ime;J Adjust in/out time variance \etime:»etime - trunc(out_time-1n_time);{ quantize {

etime:~trunc(quantum * ((etime + qround) div quantum));ln_time:»in_time+event.t ime;out_time:»out_t ime+et ime;event.tlme:»etime;

while event.time > MAX_TIMING_COUNT dobegin

store_track_event(tdo,OVFL_EVENT);event.t ime:-event.t ime-MAX_TIMING_COUNT;end;store_track_event(tdo,tdi.curr);end;end;end;

Listing 10: A sample program using several of the MIDI processing routinesdiscussed.

track_data_block;

var

tdt1,tdt2

begin { main {load_track_data(tdt1hdisp_track_data(tdt1);read In;

writeln('Transpo8ing pitch for channel 0');transpose_pitchftdtl,tdt2,0,6);dump_track_dataitdt2);save_track_data(tdt2);

writeln('extracting channel 0');extract_chan(tdt1,tdt2,0);disp_track_data(tdt2};save_track_data(tdt2);

writeln('fiItering channel 0');filter_chan(tdt1,tdt2,0);disp_track_dataftdt2hsave_track_data(tdt2);

end. { main }

224 BYTE- IUNE I986

Procedure quantize (listing 9) main-tains running totals (in time, out

time) of the elapsed time in the inputtrack data stream and the output trackdata stream, respectively. The pro-cedure uses these totals to adjust therelative time of an output eventbefore actually quantizing the eventto the nearest multiple of the quan-tum value. If the quantization resultsin a relative time for the new eventthat exceeds the maximum possibletiming count, timing overflow (null)events are placed in the outputstream to represent the excess timingvalue before the track event in ques-tion is actually stored.

While the most accurate means ofquantizing timing values would be toconvert all the relative event times toactual event times before the quan-tization is applied, the algorithmpresented here yields acceptableresults.

MIDI Processing Example

Listing 10 illustrates the use of severalof the MIDI processing functions in anactual program. In each case, a trackdata block is read from an MS-DOSfile, the MIDI processing action is ap-plied, and the resulting track datablock is written to a new file for fur-ther usage. The routines dump

track data and disp track data

are used to display the results of thevarious processing actions.

Conclusion

While ambitious readers will surelyfind room for improvement and ex-pansion on the ideas 1 have presentedhere, these Pascal routines provide asolid basis for understanding the re-quirements of MIDI data processingin the MPU-401 environment. 1 hopethis introduction will serve as a usefulstimulus to further MIDI programmingactivities. [Editor's note: The programsdescribed in this article are available fordownloading from BYTEnet Listings at (617)861-9764 or from BIX (BYTE InformationExchange). The programs are LIST1.PAS,LIST2.PAS (etc.). through LIST10.PAS,written in Turbo Pascal for the IBM PC, andMPU401.PCF, written in PC/FORTH. Youwill need Turbo Pascal and PC/FORTH to runthem. The listings in this article are also avail-able on disk. See page 445 for details.] ■

Inquiry 233 for End-Users.

Inquiry 234 for DEALERS ONLY. —►

There's a Familar FaceBehind the New Name

mmspi—;

NANAO MONITORS. The name is new to the American rritaj ^That's because for the first time inhistory, a huge new line of computer monitors is available to the U.S.—factory direct. 26 differentmodels offered in three series, bringing you a range of features broader than any other. Colorresolution from 480 dots x 200 lines up to 720 dots x 480 lines. And Fh scanning from 15.75 to 24.75KHz. But the truth is that Nanao has been around for a long time. For over a decade we've suppliedOEM's worldwide, designing and manufacturing monitors recognized for their outstandingperformance and reliability. Now that same quality, selection and value is yours—right fromthe source. Nanao. The old standby with a new name.

NANAO CORPORATION NANAO USA CORPORATION

153 Shimokashiwano-ChoMatto-City, Ishikawa, Japan

373 G. Vintage Park DriveFoster City, California 94404Phone (415) 341-7055

Distributor Inquiries Welcomed

Princeton Gra

In a class ab

When you put Princeton Graphic Systems Monitors to workwith IBM's new graphics cards, you step up to a new class ofperformance. Exciting RGB color, sharp, crisp graphics and textand Princeton's quality and dependability...all at a great price!Our full line of monitors clearly demonstrates why Princetonis an industry leader in high-resolution technology.

Princeton SR- 12P Color Monitor

The first IBM compatible monitor available for the IBMProfessional Graphics Contro'ter.*

COMPARE:

PrincetonSR-12P

IBM5175

Dot Pitch

(The lower, the better.)

.26 mm

.31 mm

Sugg. Retail Price

(The lower, the better too!)

$999

$1295

Warranty

1 Year

90 Days

Designed for demanding professionals who won't settlefor anything less than the finest color graphic capabilities.Displays more than 4,000 brilliant colors... features ananti-reflective coated black matrix tube for less fatigueand eye strain. You get the sharpest graphics and text...at a substantial savings!

Princeton HX~ 12E Color Monitor

The superior choice for use with IBM's EnhancedGraphics Adapter.*

COMPARE:

PrincetonHX-12E

IBM5154

Dot Pitch

.28 mm

.31 mm

Sugg. Retail Price

$785

$849

Tinted Black Matrix Tube

Yes

No

Warranty

1 Year

90 Days

Ideal for most computing applications, the HX-12E offers64 high-resolution colors and easy-to-read text. It givesyou sharp colors, crisp characters... for less eye strainand easier viewing, hour after hour. Built-in versatilityalso allows you to display 16 colors with the IBM ColorGraphics Adapter* automatically.

226 B YTE • IUNE 1986

phic Systems

ove the rest

Princeton HX-9 Series

For more performance in less space, the PrincetonHX-9 series is in a class by itself.

Nobody else—not even IBM—offers a 9", high-resolutionRGB color display. The HX-9 and HX-9E feature a super-sharp ,28mm dot pitch tube for crisp, clear text andgraphics. Nonglare screens for less eye strain. The built-in tilt-and-swivel base allows you to adjust the screen toa comfortable viewing angle. Select green or amber dis-play modes with built-in green/amber switch.

Full IBM compatibility enables you to use the HX-9 orHX-9E with the IBM Color Graphics Adapter* The HX-9Egives you added flexibility of full compatibility with theIBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter*

Our other monitors also give you full IBMcompatibility:

Princeton SR-12 Color Monitor— boasts twice thevertical resolution of the IBM Color Display... when usedwith graphics adapter cards such as the Sigma DesignsColor 400.

Princeton MAX-12 Amber Monochrome Monitor—ergonomically designed to give you up to 15** shadesof high-resolution amber... plus high-resolution text andgraphics when used with a monochrome card.

7984 and 7985 winner of the

PC World "World Class PC Competition"

W^

Princeton HX-12 Color Monitor—16 sharp, clear colorsand superb character definition make the HX-12 thewinning choice among monitor users...

COMPARE go

Princeton HX-12

COrffARE coxpare

IBM 5153

COMPARE:

PrincetonHX-12

IBM5153

Dot Pitch

.31 mm

.43 mm

Nonglare Screen

Yes

No

Warranty

1Year

90 Days

See the clearly superior Princeton Monitors at your Autho-rized Princeton Graphic Systems Dealer, For the dealernearest you, please call: 800-221-1490 (Extension 1604),609-683-1660 (NJ only), Telex: 821402 PGS PRIN.

Princeton Graphic Systems, 601 Ewing Street, Bldg. A,Princeton, NJ 08540.

■ Or equivalents." When used with IBM Color Graphics Adapter or equivalent.

IBM is a registered trademark ot International Business Machines Corporation.

Sigma Designs Color 400 is a registered trademark of Sigma Designs, Inc.

PRINCETON

Inquiry 267

GRAPHIC SYSTEMS

AN I NT E LL I O e N T nVHTTMS COMPANY

JUNE 1986 -BYTE 227

. ■

....

MWrKdvrttU***

BUTE

Reviews

Reviewer's Notebook

by \on Edwards 231

The Atari 520ST

by Eric \ensen 233

Compaq Deskpro 286

by Slan Miastkowski 243

Tele-286

by Wayne Rash )r. 251

MixC

by Richard Grehan 257

Four MIDI Interfaces

by Roger Powell and Richard Grehan 265

ConcertWare+ and SongPainter

by Mario Sergio Bernardo 273

The Kurzweil 250 Digital Synthesizer

by Christopher Morgan 279

Review Feedback 289

ACCORDING TO ERIC JENSEN, the Atari 520ST is a very appealing machineand may well become popular. His praises and concerns are similar to thosevoiced in BYTE's product preview (lanuary, page 84), but Eric also adds somespecial insight. And while he concludes that he would not be comfortablewith the 520ST as his primary machine, the newly released Atari 1040ST doesaddress many of his concerns.

The Compaq Deskpro 286 resembles the IBM PC-compatible Deskpro buthas many more options. Stan Miastkowski reviewed the Model 1, whose basicconfiguration includes 2 56K bytes of RAM, a 1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive,and five expansion slots.

Wayne Rash reviews the TeleVideo Tele-286, an IBM PC AT compatible thatruns at 8 MHz and comes with a standard 44-megabyte hard disk drive. Heenjoyed working with the clone, although he found the documentation wanting.

The price of the Mix C compiler seemed too good to be true, so RichardGrehan, a BYTE technical editor, took a long hard look. He discovered thatthe product was full-featured and that the documentation alone was worthmuch of the cost. We should note also that Mix now provides a utility thatclears up one of Richard's main reservations. Using their $10 MASM utility,you can now link object files created by Microsoft's MASM or M80 assemblersinto your Mix C programs.

We have three reviews in support of the music theme. Roger Powell andRichard Grehan have investigated four MIDI interfaces that will allow you touse powerful MIDI-equipped keyboards and hardware with your Commodore64, IBM PC, Apple II, or Macintosh.

Mario Bernardo examines two music software packages for the Macintosh.As a musician, he recommends Concertware-i- as a fine tool for music com-position but has serious reservations about SongPainter.

Finally, Christopher Morgan presents the Kurzweil 2 50 Digital Synthesizer,an impressive, sophisticated machine with 3.6 to 6 megabytes of ROM,68000-based hardware, and a grand-piano sound. The price is high, but thetechnology providing the state-of-the-art music-development environment haslasting implications.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 229

A FRIEND INDEED.

Face it. Everybody needs somebody some-time. And even the best PC occasionallyneeds help with faulty power.

So give your hard disc or critical-usesystem LINE 2e power conditioning. Andeliminate those nagging problems that yourPC can't prevent. Like voltage sags andsurges. Brownouts. Spikes. *

LINE 2 Power Conditioners are designed

specifically with your PC in mind. Highinrush currents don't affect them. Neitherdo power problems. And they're amazinglyeconomical.

A LINE 2 Power Conditioner can beyour PC's best friend. And a friend inneed is a friend indeed. Call us today at(619) 279-0831, or contact your localSquare D distributor.

230 BYTE • JUNE 1986

TOPAZ

A Subsidiary at Square D Company

Inquiry 354 for End-Users.Inquiry 355 for DEALERS ONLY.

REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK

There were many interesting prod-ucts at the West Coast ComputerFaire in San Francisco. Without adoubt, the most intriguing was DavidSmall's MacCartridge, a cartridge-diskcombination that allows 1-megabyteAtari STs to run Macintosh softwarefaster, without modification, and usingAtari's excellent and larger mono-chrome monitor. The product is real,but it may never be marketed,because Apple must approve its useof the Macintosh ROM. Still, I had tosuppress a chuckle at the thought ofusing MacCartridge to run Meacom'sApple II emulator.

Speaking of which, I was also im-pressed with Mimic Inc.'s Spartan, anApple 11+ emulator for the Com-modore 64. The $299 unit includeseight standard Apple-compatible pe-ripheral slots, and it runs DOS 3.3.Applesoft, Integer BASIC, ApplePascal, and CP/M (with a Z80 card). ADOS card allows your 1541 drive toread both Apple and Commodoredisks and, because the emulatorshave their own CPU and two videooutlets, you can run both Commodoreand Apple software at the same time(to different monitors, of course).

There are yet more peripherals forboth the Amiga and the ST. MicroForge showed a seven-slot expansionbox for the Amiga. The system canhold two 10- to 40-megabyte harddisk drives and comes with a 130-wattpower supply. Developers in need ofRAM disks and workspaces for usewith audio and video digitizers mayalso appreciate Comspec's $10792-megabyte memory board, whichcomes with a pre-installed RAM test.

For the ST, Supra is now supplying10- and 20-megabyte hard drives, thelatter at the Faire for $799. Thedisplay unit at the Faire impressivelyflashed 32K-byte Neochrome imageson a color monitor. Finally, LogiKhron

has perhaps the first cartridge utilityfor the ST, a $50 clock card with aninternal battery that automaticallyloads the date and time into the STwhen you boot.

Two applications stand out. For theAmiga, there is Aegis's Animator,which is bundled with their Images.The Animator, a color animation tool,allows you to create 32-color objects,animate them, and create storyboardswith backdrops from Images. You canalter the position, shape, size, andcolor of objects and rotate them orplot their path around the screen.

For the ST, there is Migraph's EasyDraw, a "professional drawing pro-gram" that requires TOS in ROM. Thelist of features is very impressive. Inaddition to conventional capabilities,you can adjust the size of the draw-ing surface, add shadows, and usewedges and arcs. The software cansupport many professional needs,from the creation of floor plans to thepresentation of intricate three-dimen-sional shapes.

There were yet more IBM PC ATclones and at ever-decreasing prices.The Ceptre PC-galaxy is a $1995 ATcompatible with eight slots (three ofwhich are PC-compatible), a 6-MHzclock upgradable to 8 MHz, a1.2-megabyte drive, and a 195-wattpower supply. The Cranium 286/10 ATclone costs $3050, which includes a235-watt power supply, 12 slots,6-MHz or 10-MHz clock speed, and a31-megabyte hard disk drive.

For IBM users, there is SoftwareCarousel from SoftLogic Solutions, a$50 utility that accesses extendedmemory, allowing you to run up to 10programs, each at the touch of a key.Every program can use all availablesystem RAM because the softwareemploys a virtual memory managerthat can use lower RAM, AT extendedRAM, "above board" RAM, or even

disk space as a reservoir. And byestablishing the amount of RAM eachprogram will use, you can switch im-mediately among applications, paus-ing one while running the next.

And, for the PC, there is Finally!, asubroutine library for compiled BASICfrom Komputerwerk that containsover 100 utilities that you can includein your souce code or link to your ob-ject code at run time. The utilities in-clude a variety of general and geo-metrical mathematical functions, fileand directory control, medium- andhigh-resolution graphics, hardware in-terfacing, number conversions, key-board, printer and screen control,string handling, and sorting routines.

Lest Macintosh users feel slighted,I have enjoyed Affinity's Tempo, ver-sion 1.1, a macro facility that allowsyou to record and later replay key-strokes and mouse clicks. There aresome special features. For example,you can make the playback of amacro conditional upon text in adocument or the value of a spread-sheet cell. Macros are indispensablefor carrying out repetitive tasks, butyou will also enjoy automaticallyopening applications from the Finderand including dialog boxes withinyour macros. Unlike many macro facil-ities on the IBM PC. macros will onlyplay back within the application inwhich you created them. You can sus-pend them by simply holding downthe mouse button and even edit themduring the pause.

And the reviews business goes on.We are organizing a joint reviewof new Modula-2 compilers for theAtari ST, Macintosh, and IBM PC. ALaser 128 is en route to a reviewer,and we are preparing in-house the for-mal review of the Amiga.

—)on EdwardsTechnical Editor, Reviews

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 231

Amdek challenges youto read between the lines.

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

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

The high performance 722 features an etched glass,non-glare screen that's easy on the eyes, plus front-mounted controls that are easy on the operator. Thismeans less eye fatigue and greater productivity.

M2 W| | f\T f^tTl What's more, the 3-position textijJVJ vAL CHI* switch enables you to choose green,

amber or full-color type — up to80 characters in width x 25 lines of text. There'seven an optional tilt/swivel stand that allows you toselect a viewing angle that's most comfortable for you.It all adds up to more monitor for the money, and isbacked by more warranty for your peace of mind.Amdek's warranty protects your investment for threefull years on the CRT, and two years on all other partsand labor. No other monitor warranty offers you more.For high resolution performance, see the new AmdekColor 722. We know you'll be impressed. After all,everytime an Amdek monitor is sold, we know that weare putting our image on the line.

IBM Is a registered Ir.ukmarkofInternational Business Machine Corp.

Inquiry 19

Clearly the finest in monitors.

2201 Lively Boulevard. Elk Grove Village. IL 60007. Phone: 312/364-1180, TLX: 280-803

SYSTE

EVIEW

The Atari 520ST

by Eric Jensen

The Atari 520ST is a very ap-pealing machine. It is a goodengine for bit-mapped graph-ics, with a good user inter-face and an attractive price.Still, the review machine hadtoo many rough edges toserve as my primary ma-chine. It is far from portable.A two-drive system put sevenboxes on my tabletop andrequired four wall outlets.

The processor and eachdisk drive have separatepower supplies and the fourpower switches are incon-venient. I don't like leavingthe power supply plugged inwhile its output is turned off.It draws some power, and Iworry that the system willbe susceptible to power-lineglitches even while turnedoff. The practical solutionseems to be to use aswitched outlet box.

Hardware

The hardware appears clean. The8-MHz clock rate (a bit faster thaneither Macintosh's or Amiga's) prob-ably translates to about half a milliontypical instructions per second. Thereis no other special display supporthardware, and none is needed forwindowing applications. The displayappears to be properly interleavedwith the processor so that they do nothave to wait for each other. The dis-play generator is an interesting com-promise. For the monochrome dis-play, it fetches a word of data andshifts it out a bit at a time to deter-mine the color for 16 successivepixels. For the color displays, it fetcheseither two or four words in sequenceand shifts out a bit of each to developa color lookup-table index. Again,there are 16 shift cycles before the

A good engine

for bit-mapped graphics

at an attractive price

next words must be fetched. Thus youhave neither the situation in which allthe bits describing one pixel are inone word, nor that in which the mostsignificant bits for all pixels are con-tiguous in memory.

As long as this arrangement is hid-den under GEM—as it should be foralmost all users—this is fine, but thereare a couple of cases in which it couldbe inconvenient. If you were to usemultiple planes of memory (with adegenerate color map) to representmultiple overlayed images, then theimages would be inconveniently inter-twined. If you have to mask out an ir-regular region in a picture, then youhave to know not only the number ofwords in a scan line but also the spac-ing between words, which may not bethe same in the image and the mask.

The 512K bytes of RAM isenough for most program-ming, although the operatingsystem for the reviewed ma-chine used more than 200K.| Editor's note: The latest productionunits for the 520ST and 1040SThave TOS in ROM.| In addition,the screen uses at least 32Kmore.

The displays are very crispand clean, with enough res-olution to draw pictures ofgood quality. The 12-inchscreens provide almost twicethe area of the 9-inch Macin-tosh screen. The SMI24monochrome monitor pro-vides a 640- by 400-pixel dis-play. This allows 22 lines of110 characters in the direc-tory font, or 20 lines of 77 inthe standard font used inBASIC windows (allowingwindow borders), which isenough to do a fair job ofemulating a dumb terminal.There are about 77 dots tothe inch horizontally by 65 vertically,which is fine enough resolution tomake the jagged edges of diagonallines fairly unobtrusive.

You can run the SCI224 color moni-tor in two modes (640 by 200 pixelswith 4 colors or 320 by 200 pixelswith 16 colors). The lower resolutionmode is the operating system's initialchoice. This keeps the aspect ratio oficons the same as on the mono-chrome monitor and simply doublestheir sizes. The jagged edges arenoticeable here but not particularlyoffensive. I was very impressed by thelack of colored "shadow" edges on

{continued)Eric )ensen (50 Carriage lane. Bedford, NH03102) is a programmer for Hastech inc. Hisinterests include artificial intelligence, mathand logic, and displays.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 233

REVIEW: ATARI 520ST

Windows are not erasedas neatly as theymight be~you often seethat every underlyingwindow gets a "pleaseclean up" signal

window borders and characters. An-other plus is that you can work inblack and white on this color moni-tor without eyestrain.

The disk drives use 356K-byte VA-inch floppy disks. They seem reliable,but I had several problems. First, thecables are so short that most userswill choose to put the drives to theleft of the keyboard. If you try to putthem on the right, they will block themouse connector or sit at an uncom-fortable angle. Second, you can pressthe eject button to remove disks, butthe manuals do not explain whetherit is safe to reset the machine orpower down without first ejecting thedisk. The eject button was also a bitinconsistent—crisp one time andmushy the next. Finally, the documen-tation does not explain that, in a two-drive system, the drive closer to theprocessor automatically becomesdrive A. There are no switches to setor jumpers to connect. There is alsono comment indicating that you can-not daisy-chain a third drive.

The two-button mouse has a goodfeel. You can remove the ball forcleaning, which is a nice feature notpresent on some professional work-stations. However, 1 had one problem:1 found double-clicking the buttons tobe very difficult, even after adjustingthe delay with the control panel.Perhaps Atari should be measuringup-to-down transition time rather thandown-to-down. Perhaps button de-bouncing logic gets in the way.

Finally, the keyboard has about thesame key feel fand exactly the samekey spacing) as the Digital keyboardI use every day, so I like it. The oddestfeature of the keyboard is the rhom-

boid shape of the function keys, whichare almost impossible to hit withouthitting their neighbors.

GEM

GEM appears to be a solid product,with a few excesses and inconve-niences, but pretty well on target foranything short of animation. It in-cludes calls equivalent to most of theGraphics Kernel System (GKS) used inmany standard graphics programs,but it may be weak in the area of par-tially redrawn pictures.

Windows are not erased as neatlyas they might be—you can often seethat every underlying window gets a"please clean up" signal. And afterclicking the mouse on any of thewindow-change bars, the cursor wasnot redisplayed until the mouse wasmoved. One of the few bugs I en-countered here was a requirementthat a window be retitled after it ismoved. It seemed to acquire a newname on its first movement but notthereafter.

Atari's TOS, on the other hand, hasa number of holes. I haven't docu-mented any crashes. (It appears thatmemory may not completely recoverwhen you change disks, leading toeventually running out of storage, butI haven't proved it. If so, it takes quitea few disk changes to run out ofspace.) I have, however, stumbled overa fairly steady stream of minornuisances and cosmetic inconve-niences. Exiting from a program backto the operating system, for example,does not reinitialize the color map; if,therefore, a program changes thecolors to black and white, you mightget back to the desktop and not seeanything. Selecting textual instead oficon directory displays and thenchanging from low resolution tomedium resolution leaves both iconand textual formats selected for thenext directory display (and picks icon).

As a whole, though, TOS is a reason-able operating system. It provides afile system that looks almost identicalto that in MS-DOS, with directoriesand subdirectories (called "folders" inthe desktop idiom) and files with dateand time stamp. (This latter feature isless useful than it should be becausethe clock resets with the processor,

and it is easy to forget about it.)

The desktop command interfacedoes a pretty good job of providingmost of the commands possible withMS-DOS. My MS-DOS manual lists 31commands. Fourteen translate direct-ly, eight are simply calls to standardutility programs (two of which are pro-vided here), six make no sense intranslation (such as setting theprompt on the command line), andthe last three are more difficult.Renaming a file requires selecting thefile, getting a menu of "File Info," andovertyping the filename in the menu.Defining environment variables andcreating batch jobs seem impossible,and commands that take argumentsare a bit inconvenient. (The devel-oper's package includes most of themissing utilities and a textual com-mand interface that looks a lot likeMS-DOS.)

The desktop is clearly much simplerthan that provided with the Macin-tosh. Most of the basics are there, but,for example, there is no choice of fontor type size from the main menu bar.

Atari BASIC

The only languages that come bun-dled with the machine are Logo andBASIC. The BASIC on the review ma-chine is modern, flashy, and huge. Itwill be more usable with the operat-ing system in ROM. but with TOS inRAM, I had to disable graphics buf-fering and dimension the array as aninteger array in order to use an arrayof 7000 elements. Still, Atari BASICwas considerably more than theminimal textbook language. It per-formed the BYTE computationalbenchmarks about twice as fast as anIBM PC, while apparently accumulat-ing fewer floating-point errors, and itmoved files about a third as fast.

The most obvious feature of theBASIC is its use of four windows—acommand window at the bottom, alisting window at the upper left, anoutput window at the upper right, andan edit window pushed behind all ofthe above. Atari BASIC is smartenough to fill the screen on either themonochrome or the color monitor—a feature missing on the TOS desktop.There is an inconvenience here,

[continued)

234 BYTE • JUNE 1986

AT A GLANCE

Name

Atari 520ST

Company

Atari Corp.1196 Borregas Ave.Sunnyvale, CA 94086(408) 745-2000

Components

Processor: Motorola 68000

Memory: 512K bytes of

dynamic RAM

Display: 12-inch monochrome

or color

Graphics: Three modes, 640-

by 400-pixel monochrome,

320 by 200 with 16 colors,

and 640 by 200 with 4 colors

Keyboard: 94-key Selectric-

style QWERTY keyboard with

numeric keypad, cursor

controls, and rhomboid

function keys

Sound: Three independent

sound channels from 30 Hz

to 125 kHz

Floppy disk drive: Bundled,

external 31/2-inch single-sided

double-density drive with

capacity of 360K bytes;

system supports maximum of

two floppy disk drives

Interfaces

MIDI-in and MIDI-out ports

Monitor port (supports RGB

analog, high-resolution

monochrome)

Centronics parallel printer port

(supports Epson-compatible

printers)

RS-232C serial port

Floppy disk port

Hard disk port (10-megabit-

per-second DMA transfer rate)

128K-byte ROM cartridge port

Ports for mouse or two

joysticks

Bundled Software

Atari Logo, Atari BASIC

Optional Peripherals

SF354 single-sided

drive

$199

SF314 double-sided

drive

$299

Price

Monochrome system

$799

Color system

$999

^t-^^^-^^r ,-". <r- ^.. f"

,'.',, " ,', *

N

m^

MEMORY SIZE (K BYTES )

0 200 400 600

DISK STORAGE (K BYTES)800 1000 0 400 800 1200 1600 2000

__

II

_

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES0 2 4 6

PRICE ($ 1000)0 2 4

10

:

■

3

ATARI 520ST

APPLE HE

The Memory Size graph shows the standardand optional memory available for the com-puters under comparison. The Disk Storagegraph shows the highest capacity for a singlefloppy disk drive and the maximum standardcapacity for each system. The Bundled Soft-ware Packages graph shows the number ofsoftware packages included with each system.The Price graph shows the list price of a system

configured with two disk drives, a monochromemonitor with connection apparatus, a printerport and serial port, 256K bytes of memory(64K bytes for 8-bit systems), the standardoperating system for the computers under com-parison, and the standard BASIC interpreter.Note that the price of the Atari 520ST includes512K bytes of memory and a second single-sided drive.

JUNE I986

1YTE 235

The ST ports include MIDI in and MIDI out, a Centronics parallel Inside the Atari 520ST.printer port, an RS-232C serial port, and a DMA port.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)250

200

150

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC)250

200

100

150

100

READ

SIEVE

CALCULATIONS

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC)50

SPREADSHEET(SEC)25

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY 40K FILE COPY

~1 ATARI 520ST M IBM PC

The graphs for Disk Access in BASIC show how long it takes to writeand then read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank floppy disk.(For the program listings see BYTE's Inside the IBM PCs, Fall 1985,page 195.) The Sieve graph shows how long it takes to run one itera-tion of the Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. TheCalculations graph shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplica-tion and 10,000 division operations using single-precision numbers.

The System Utilities graphs show how long it takes to format andcopy a 40K-byte file using the system utilities. The Spreadsheet graphshows how long it takes to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cellspreadsheet in which each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left.Tests for the Atari 520ST were done using TOS and Atari BASIC. Run-ning the Sieve on the Atari required that we dimension the array asan integer array.

236 BYTE • IUNE 1986

This is the Modula 2

compiler everybody's

been waiting for...

Especially Turbo Pascal users!

CH MODULA

du can cross the bridge to Modula-2 with ease.

S*#~Modula-2 at its absolute best. It's a fully integrated developmentenvironment that takes into account what you need as a programmer. Without leavingthe Editor, you can call the compiler, linker and utilities.

With Logitech's Modula-2, you'll have the ability to edit several files at once,comparing, window to window, various code modules. You can even move fromwindow to window compiling, linking, debugging and running.

The compiler has the kind of power and room to breathe that you really need intoday's complex applications. It is as easy to use as Turbo Pascal, without yourprograms being limited to 64K of code.

At your command will be the libraries of modules that make Modula-2 aprogrammer's dream. It has essentially the same structure as Pascal with the majoraddition of a library organization of code modules that allow you to put togetherprograms on a solid, block-by-block, foundation of proven code.

Whether you're working with a module of your own making, or one of the many inour library, you'll find the system by which each module is identified, described andstored an organizational masterpiece. And that's at the heart of Modula-2.

Underneath the sophisticated system is a Modula-2 compiler that is the result ofyears of development and proven use in industry. We run on the Vax*, and we run onthe IBM PC. And the code is portable-from one to the other.

Best of all. . . you tan have it right now!

To place an order call our special toll free number

800-231-7717

in California

800-552-8885

Logitech Modula-2/86 Complete with Editor,<cqc\ ^un Time System, Linker, Cursor-posi-(jy tioning debugger, 8087 Software Emula-tion, BCD module, Logitech's extendedlibrary. Utility to generate standard .EXEfiles. Turbo Pascal (and standard Pascal,too) to Modula-2 translator (includedwithout charge until 8/1/86), and much,much more!Logitech Modula-2/86 with 8087 support Even ifHAnjou haven't yet gotten an 8087 co-pro-lZ,y cessor, you can still use this version.

Logitech Modula-2/86 Plus For machines with

^iq/-*5I2K or more. Takes advantage of the

ID? larger memory to increase compilation

speed by 50%! Supports 80186 and 80286

as well as 8086 and 8088. Includes 8087

and 80287 support, too.

Window Package Now you can build true win-

S,A Q dowing 'nt0 vour Modula-2/86 code with

nry ease, too. Very powerful and very full, yet

only 15K. in size. Features virtual screens,

color support, overlapping windows and a

variety of borders.

Please call our 800 line for: □ Information on our

Run Time Debugger (source level) Much more

,t/-q powerful than just a symbolic RTD.

0-7 Display source code, data, procedure call

chain and raw memory. Set break points,

assign values to variables, pinpoint and

identify bugs in your source. The ultimate

professional's tool!

Utilities Package Features a post-mortem de-

%A O bugger f°r stat'c debugging. If a program

H,7 you've written crashes at run time, the

situation is frozen, and you can pinpoint,

in source, the cause of the error and the

data at that moment. Also includes a

disassembler, a cross reference utility and

a "version" utility that allows conditional

compilation.

Make Utility Automatically selects modules af-

SOO ^-cted by c°de changes for quick and

Z/7 minimal re-compilation and relinking.

Even figures out dependencies for you.

Library Sources Sourcecodc for our major library

tQQ m°dmes is now available-for customiza-

77 tion or exemplification.ROM Package If you need to produce rommablecode, call our 800 number for furtherinformation on this package.

*VAX version □ Site License and University Discounts

\r I'd like to take the nextICo, logical step in programming.Please send my copy of Logitech Modula-2/86to the following address:

D VISA □ MasterCard D Check Enclosed

Card NumberSignature

Expiration Date

City _State .

-Zrp_

-Phone (_

-)-

Here's the configuration I'd like: And include the indicated items:

D Logitech Modula-2/86 $89 □ Window Package $49

D Logitech Modula-2/86 $129 D Run Time Debugger $69

with 8087 support (source level)

O Logitech Modula-2/86 Plus $189 □ Utilities Package $49

Ptease add $6.50 lor shipping D Make Utility $29

and handling. Q Library Sources $99

Total enclosed $

(California residents, please add applicable sales tax)

ffl LOGITECH

LOGITECH, Inc.

805 Veterans Boulevard

Redwood City, California 94063

Telephone (415) 365-9852

For European pricing, please conlacl:

LOGITECH SA

Box 32, CH-1143 Apples. Switzerland

Telephone 41 (21)774545

□ Dealer and Distributor information

Inquiry 195

"Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland InternationalIUNE 1986 • BYTE 237

REVIEW: ATARI 520ST

The developer's packageincludes a C compiler,linker, and debugger,and the glue to holdthem together.

though. The BASIC automaticallywraps text to the next line after 80characters, but a color window lineholds only 38. and monochrome 77,so you can never see all of a long linewithout panning. All the normal win-dow controls are available, so eachwindow can be repositioned, resized,or even closed. You will soon discoverthe convenience of being able to keepan old listing on the screen in onewindow while you type modificationsinto another.

The editing features are woefullyshort of general word processing. Youcan move the cursor (with the cursorkeys but not the mouse) and overtypecharacters fairly easily, but insertingnew characters requires cursor posi-tioning with the cursor keys, menuselection with the mouse, and finallythe insert from the keyboard.

Perhaps the most useful extensionof this BASIC is its ability to call alarge number of the standard GEMdisplay functions. For example, youcan draw graphs and pictures fromBASIC without resorting to obscurehieroglyphics or pokes. Other modernconstructs include named subroutinesand WHILE.

The developer's package includes aC compiler, linker, and debugger, andthe glue to hold them together. Thereis an adequate editor. It took meabout 8 minutes to get around theedit-compile-link-run loop, with a sur-prisingly large portion of that timespent in the linker searching the ex-

tensive GEM libraries. The compilerused the standard three passes andpassed its output to an assembler,resulting in at least four trips throughfiles. The linker took almost as long.Note in the benchmark graphs thatdisk I/O is about three times as slowas on the IBM PC; a hard disk wouldhelp considerably.

Conclusion

The Atari 520ST is a very appealingsystem in need of some further soft-ware development. The user interfaceis easy to learn and use, and the sys-tem is powerful enough for seriouswork. The developer's package ap-pears to offer enough tools and ac-cess to the system internals to suggestthat software will get written. Thecomputer brings the convenience andnaturalness of the "desktop meta-phor" down to a lower price bracket,and thus a larger audience. It has agood chance of becoming a verypopular machine. ■

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $100

HEWLETT-PACKARD

PACKAGE HP110,Thinkjet,Disc Drive. . . $ 2295.00*

2225B7440A9114A82143A82161A82162A82164A92285A92286A

Thinkjet Printer

8-Pen Plotter

710K Disc Drive

Thermal Printer

Cassette Drive

IL Printer

IURS-232 InterfaceLaser Jet Toner (Black)Font Cartridge

379.00969.00625.00295.00423.50346.50227.1579.20173.25

'(Limited quantities)

TERMS:

• Liberal Relirm Policy

• Frw Shipping On orders Over $100 /Conhnemal U $)

• NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE foi credrt ca'ds

• MD resrfents add 5^ sales lax

• Credit relerences required loi open account

• Allow 2 weeks lot peisonal checks

• C.O.D.'t ■ cash, money order, bank or certified check

COMPUTERS

Sperry "IT"

AT compatable

Monitor • 1MB RAM • 80286•1.2MB Floppy • 44MB Fixed

Drive $3695

Sharp PC7000

XT Portable

25 line LCD • Detachable Key-board • 320K RAM • 8086 • 2-360K Floppy Drives

$1395

AT&T

4000 Modem $ 349.00

Sottcalt $ 59.95

PRINTERS

Capitalmicro

P.O. BOX 29639WASHINGTON, D.C. 20017

(800) 544-4442

in Maryland, call

(301) 565-3595

Xerox/Diablo

D-25 25cps Daisywheel $ '449.00

635 55cps Daisywheel $ '895.00

4045CP Laserprint/Photocopier $ CALL

"Price After Rebate

Okidata

ML182 120cps Dot Matrix $ 219.00

ML192 160cps Dot Matrix $ 349.00

Ok 20 Color Dot Matrix $ 189.00

ML193 160cps Wide Carriage $ 499.00

ML292 200cps Dot Matrix $ CALL

ML293 200cps Wide Carriage $ CALL

Brother

M1109 100cps Friction/Tractor $ 209.00

M1509 180cps Wide Carriage $ 369.00

HR-10 10cps Daisywheel $ 249.00

HR-15XL 17cps Daisywheel S 339.00

HR-25 25cps Daisywheel S 489.00

HH-35 36cps Daisywheel $ 699.00

2024L 200cps & NLQ $ CALL

Twinrlter5 Daisywheel & Dot Matrix $ B15.00

Panasonic

KXP1091 $ 249.00

Citizen

120D 120cps Dot Matrix $ 179.00

MSP-10 160cps Dot Matrix $ 259.00

MSP-15 160cps Wide Carriage $ 365.00

MSP-20 200cps Dot Matrix $ 345.00

MSP-25 200cps Wide Carriage $ 499.00

Premier35 35cps Daisywheel S 439.00

Toshiba

P321 24Pin-head/216cps $ 479.00

LX-80 100cps & NLQ Dot Matrix f 215.00

JX-80 Color Dot Matrix $ 369.00

New LO-800. LQ-1000 CALL

FX-85. FX-286, HS-80. AP-80

DX-10, DX-20, DX-35 CALL

238 B YTE • IUNE I986

Look at what we're plugging now.

Plug-in Teacs.

We offer a full line of PC compatible components to increase your floppystorage, to add Winchester drives, or to include a streaming cassette back-up.

Our FD-55 Series, half-height, low power, S^-inch floppy disk drives arethe world-wide standard of excellence with over 3 million in service to date.A quick and easy way to double your capacity

Our MT-2st Kit is all you need to plug-in a streaming cassette back-upsystem. With 90 ips performance, you can store up to 20 megabytes of back-up incredibly quick.

Our PS-5250 subsystem is a completely self-contained,self-powered add-on that includes a 20 megabyte,Winchester drive and a 20 megabytestreaming cassette back-up.

With Teac, adding on morestorage capacity is anopen and shut case. . *-s^ii

■ -M> f

X

i\

^_JTi

- m?\

Inquiry 340

.4

tkWi'

/

M3f±\<

AND COMPUTER PRODUCTS DMSI>

SfA

RAPH ROAD, MONTEBELLQ CA 90640(602)242-4025 (303)337-6329 (801)532-2111mia (213) 726-0303 ©»«'

PROBLEM: There's just no easy way to move from onesoftware program to another*

THE SOFTLOGIC SOLUTION: Software Carousel

Now you can keep up to 10 programsloaded and ready to run.

Hard to believe, but some people arehappy with just one kind of PC software.Well, this is not a product for them.

But if you're someone whodepends on many packages, allthe time—someone whod useseveral programs at once if youcould, well now you can. WithSoftware Carousel.

Why call it "SoftwareCarousel"?

In some ways, SoftwareCarousel works like the slideprojector you're used to. Youload a handful of pictures, view one at atime, then quickly switch to another. Asimple idea, with powerful possibilitiesfor computing.

Here's how it works. When you startSoftware Carousel, just tell it how muchmemory you have, load your software andgo to work.

Need to crunch numbers? Switch to yourspreadsheet. Need your word processor?Don't bother saving your spreadsheet file.Just whip over to your document and doyour work. Snap back to your spreadsheet,and it's just like you left it.

With up to ten different programs at yourfingertips, you'll have instant access to yourdatabase, communications, spelling checker,spreadsheet, word processor, RAM residentutilities, languages, anything you like.

Reach deep into expanded memory.

This could be the best reason ever forowning an expanded memory card, like theIntel Above Board, AST RAMpage, or any

WordStar

1-2-3

4X

8X

12X

16X

BPI

Wi

run

load

afik

Teste

h Software Carouselling in,RAM, you cana program and retrieve>up!o 15 times faster.)nducted on an IBM XT

card compatible with the L/l/M Extended

Memory Standard.Software Carousel puts programs into

this "high-end" memory for temporary

storage when they're not in use. And

switches them back out whenyou want them. It's fast, effic-ient, and easy.

If you want, Software Car-ousel will even use your harddrive for swapping. Just allo-cate a portion for storage, andgo to work.

Sidekick, Superkey

and Ready. All at the

same time.

You know what happens ifyou try loading two or more RAM resi-dent utilities at once. Youget crashed keyboards,frozen screens, all kinds ofinterference between pro-grams fighting for control.

With Software Carou-sel, you can have as manyaccessories and utilities on-tap as you want. Just loaddifferent ones in differentCarousel partitions. Sincethey can't see each other,they can't fight.

Carousel will look for the programs youuse most often, and optimize them for thequickest access.

You can spend a lot more money, andstill not get the convenience and produc-tivity increase of Software Carousel.

The way we see it, there are certainthings you have the right to expect fromyour computer. Access to your software isone of them. And at our special introduc-tory priceof just$49.95* Software Carouselis the best way to get it.

But hurry. This price won't last long.

Order today at 800-272-9900 (603-627-9900 in NH) or send the coupon below.

Special combination pricing is availablefor the purchase of Software Carouseland other SoftLogic products, includingCubit, DoubleDOS and Disk Optimizer.

The easy way tomaximize PC power.

With all this power, youmight think Software Car-ousel is complicated anddifficult to use. Not so. Setit up once, and it will re-member forever. Better still

<^SoftwareCarousel$4995'

YES! Send me copies of Software Carousel at the

special introductory price of just $49.95*

Name

Company

Address

City State/Zip

Check Enclosed D

Card#

Signature

VISA □ MC D AMEX □Exp. Date

SoftLogic Solutions, In530 Chestnut StreetManchester, NH 03101800-272-9900(603-627-9900 in NH)

SoftLogic

SOLUTIONS

Call today: 800*272*9900

*plus $5.00 shipping and handling.

240 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 312

PROBLEM: The more experience your hard disk has,the harder it has to work,

THE SOFTLOGIC SOLUTION: Disk Optimizer™

100'.'. 50% 0%PERCENT FRAGMENTATION

iorc fragmented your files get, ththey take to retrieve.

Your hard disk will run faster when it'snot chasing around after files.

Remember the old days when your harddrive was new? Remember that smooth, fast,slick performance? Those quick retrievals,rapid saves, lightning-like database sorts?

Well ever since, DOS has been doing itsbest to slow your hard drive down. Notby slowing down the motor, but bybreaking your files up into pieces.Storing different chunks in differentplaces. Data files, programs, over-lays and batches that started outin one seamless piece are now-scattered all over.

Loading is slower.Sorting is slower. Then

Retrieving, backing-up.Everything takes longer becauseyour disk has to work harder.

Problem is, it's something that happens sogradually you may not notice the difference.At least, not until you see the dramaticimprovement after using Disk Optimizer.

File fragmentation—It's a problemyou can see.

Watch your hard drive the next time itreads or writes a file. Each "blip" of the LEDmeans the drive-head is moving to anotherplace on the disk—either to pick up or laydown another chunk of data.

And the truth is, head movement takestime. Far more time than actual reading andwriting. What's worse, all this head move-ment causes extra wear and tear that canshorten the life of your drive.

Disk Optimizer—Tunes up your diskhy cleaning up your files.

Disk Optimizer works by finding all thescattered pieces of your files and putting them

back together where they belong. Next timeyour drive reads it, there's just one placeto look.

And the results are oftendramatic. Reading and writingtimes may be cut by as much astwo thirds. Database sorts thatused to take hundreds of headmoves now proceed quickly andefficiently. And since head move-ment is now at an absolute mini-mum, your disk drive will leada longer, more productive life.

Analyze, scrutinize, optimize.

Before you optimize, you'll probablywant to analyze. So Disk Optimizershows you, in percentages, how muchfragmentation has taken place—on theentire disk, in individualdirectories, or for groups offiles you specify using globalor wildcard names.

Plus, there's built-in datasecurity that lets you assignpasswords to as many files orfile groups as you want.

And the File Peeker givesyou an inside look at thestructure of files. It's a greatway for non-programmers tolearn more about computers,and a powerful tool forprofessionals who want toanalyze the contents of theirdisks.

Get your hard drive back

in shape—at a special

low price.

When you think about it,it's simple. The longer you

own your hard drive, the more you come todepend on it. But the longer you wait to getDisk Optimizer, the less performance you'llhave.

And the less chance you'll have to buy DiskOptimizer at the special introductory price ofjust $49.95*

That's a small price to pay to get back thespeed you depend on. But it's a price thatwon't last long.

Ask for Disk Optimizer at your computerdealer.

Or order today by calling SoftLogicSolutions at 800-272-9900 (603-627-9900 inNH), or send the coupon below.

Special combination pricing is availablewhen you buy Disk Optimizer along withother SoftLogic products like DoubTeDOS,Software Carousel and Cubit.

Ask for details.

-^Disk Optimizer $4995^

YES! Please send me-

at this special introductory price.

Name

Company

Address

City

.copies of Disk Optimizer

Check Enclosed □

Card #

Signature

State/Zip

VISA D MC □ AMEX □ Exp. Date

SoftLogic Solutions, Inc.530 Chestnut StreetManchester, NH 03101800-272-9900(603-627-9900 in NH)

L

SoftLogic

SOLUTIONS

Call today :800'272*9900

j

* plus $5.00 shipping and handling.

Inquiry 313

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 241

- - * The C for Microcomputers

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

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

Manx Aztec C86

"A compiler that has many strengths... quite 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 -c 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 S499

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 Greenkaf $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 UniTools (vi.makcdiffgrcp) -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 UNK call

Apple II, Commodore,65xx, 65C02 ROM

Manx Aztec C65

"The AZTEC C system is one of the finest softwarepackages 1 hare 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, Persona] 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 TARCET 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 CFJ

"I've had a lot of experience with different C compilers,but the Aztec CH0 Compiler and Professional Develop-ment System is the best I've seen."

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

$349$199$399$299$199

Aztec C O-c (CP/M & ROM)Aztec C O-d (CP/M)C-tree database (source)Aztec C80-c (TRS-80 3 & 4)Aztec C80-d (TRS-80 3 & 4)

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

lb 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 200

To order or for information call:

800-221-0440

SYSTE

EVIEW

Compaq Deskpro 286

by Stan Miastkowski

The Compaq Deskpro 286comes in two standard con-figurations. The Model 1comes with 2 56K bytes ofRAM, a single 1.2-megabytefloppy disk drive, and five ex-pansion slots. It retails for$4499 with a dual-mode(green or amber) mono-chrome monitor that sup-ports graphics. The Model 2has 512K bytes of RAM, asingle 1.2-megabyte floppydisk drive, a 30-megabytehard disk drive, and four ex-pansion slots. It retails for$62 54 with a monitor.

Externally, the Deskpro286 bears a more-than-passing resemblance to thecompany's PC-compatibleDeskpro. It has a large 19.8-by 16.5-inch footprint, andheavy-duty construction isevident throughout.

The Keyboard

The Deskpro 286 keyboard's84-key layout is virtually identical tothe Selectric-style keyboard on theIBM PC AT. Unlike the AT's keyboard,which has LED indicators for the CapsLock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock keyslocated on a panel above the mainkeyboard, the Deskpro 286 has LEDsfor these functions physically locatedon the key caps. The keyboard weighs3 pounds, 6 ounces and has a slightlyspongy feel that I don't like. Thesharp-edged "ears" used to tilt thekeyboard upward left a series ofmarks on the furniture. Unlike the loud"clacks" that come from the IBM PCkeyboard, the Deskpro 286 uses softtones to let you know that you've suc-cessfully pressed a key. You can ad-just the volume of the key tones bypressing a combination of three keys.The partially coiled keyboard cable

An IBM PC AT compatible

with a switchable6-MHz/8-MHz clock speed

was a bother; it kept getting in the wayand made it nearly impossible topush the keyboard flush to the systemunit.

Basic Options

The unit I reviewed came with a single1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive, a30-megabyte full-height hard diskdrive, and a tape backup unit for thehard disk. If you're interested incustomizing your system peripherals,Compaq has a wide range of options(see the "At a Glance" box for details).There are three hard disk drives avail-able (20. 30, and 70 megabytes), andall are full-height, which generallyhave faster access times and greaterreliability than half-height hard diskdrives. You can fill the remaining twospaces with any combination of half-

height 1.2-megabyte drives,360K-byte drives, or themagnetic tape backup.

Like the IBM PC AT, theDeskpro 286 has a key lockon the front panel, which,when locked, disables thekeyboard and prevents thesystem unit cover from beingremoved. For most users, it'sprobably more trouble thanit's worth. It won't prevent theunit from being carted away;but since it's good standardoperating procedure to keepa hard disk unit running fulltime to minimize disk dam-age on power-down, the keywill enable you to leave theoffice at the end of the dayand keep unauthorized(though not malicious) handsoff your data. But woe beunto you if you loose thekeys; they're not duplicatableand you'd need to order anew set from an address sup-plied in the manual. All theseprecautions with the lock and keys areprobably necessary so that Compaqdealers bidding for corporate orgovernment business can match thespecifications of the IBM PC AT.

Inside the System Unit

The cover of the system unit slides for-ward after you remove three screwson the rear of the Deskpro 286. Thescrews, which are a strange combina-tion of slotted and Torx head, are alsoused to hold in the option cards. Ifyou purchase the Deskpro 286 witha hard disk, you'll need to remove the

(continued)Stan Miastkowski is a freelance writer, north-east bureau chief for Newsbytes, and editorin chief of the McGraw-Hill Microcom-puter Handbook. He can be reached atPOB 548, Peterborough, NH 03458.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 243

REVIEW: COMPAQ DESKPRO 286

The system runs IBMPC software so fast, it'shard to imagine what thespeed gain would be withthe 80287 coprocessor.

cover, unlatch the hard disk shippinglock, and then plug in the hard diskpower connector. This is a sensibleprecaution for making sure that thedrive isn't powered on before the lockis disengaged. It's a bit difficult for thelarge-fingered to connect the harddrive power, but it can be done.

The top of the massive power sup-ply (165 watts) is sloped slightly toallow easier (though not easy) accessto the rear connectors of the diskdrives. The high-capacity fan is ex-tremely quiet, and the Deskpro 286never became warm to the touch evenafter extended periods of use.

The processor board has the 68-pin80286 microprocessor and the pe-ripheral circuitry. Sitting next to theprocessor is an empty slot for the op-tional 80287 numeric coprocessor.Since the system runs IBM PC soft-ware so fast, it's hard to imagine thespeed gain using the coprocessorwith software designed to work withit.

Circuit Cards and Memory

There are eight slots in the systembus, six of which have the additional36-pin connectors for AT-type cardsthat contain extended address linesfor additional memory. One of thetwo 62-pin connectors is locatedbehind the floppy disk drive and canonly hold a half-length card. Compaqclaims that most PC-type I/O boardswill work in the Deskpro 286, al-though the high clock speed and dif-ferent timing can cause problems withsome. Memory-expansion cards de-signed for the IBM PC also won'twork. The same goes for multifunc-tion cards. These limitations shouldn'tbe a problem, however, since most ofthe functions those cards would han-

dle are already performed by cards in-cluded with the Deskpro 286.

The unit I reviewed came with fourcards installed: an RGB/composite/monochrome video graphics board,floppy controller with parallel andserial interface, hard disk controller,and the basic system memory board.The Deskpro 286 will handle a max-imum of 8.2 megabytes of RAM. Thememory board must be fully popu-lated with 2176K bytes before you canadd more memory-expansion boards.You can have up to three memory-expansion boards, each holding amaximum of 2048K bytes in 512K-byte increments.

Since PC-DOS currently supports amaximum of 640K bytes of RAM, theVDISK utility is included with PC-DOS,which enables you to use the extramemory as a virtual disk. VDISK letsyou specify the virtual disk size, sec-tor size, and the number of entries.Memory size in excess of 1 megabytemust be accessed by using a /E op-tion. The usual precautions aboutcopying data from virtual disk to flop-py or hard disk applies. If power is lostor you turn the machine off, the dataon the virtual disk will be lost. Witha system like this, a backup or uninter-ruptible power supply is an importantaccessory.

The Display

The Deskpro 286 comes with a 12-inchgreen or amber monochrome monitor.Compaq calls it "dual mode"—whenused in combination with the Desk-pro 286's monochrome/color graph-ics board (which is standard in the286), it will also display graphics asshades of amber (or green). You canchange display modes by keyboardcommands. Compaq eliminated agreat deal of confusion about displayboards by putting all the features onone board.

Speed

The Deskpro 286 runs with a primaryclock speed of 8 MHz. Toggling be-tween the primary and the secondaryspeed of 6 MHz is a simple matter ofpressing three keys simultaneously.You hear one beep when you're at 6MHz, two beeps for 8 MHz. I ran alarge variety of IBM PC software

(WordStar, MultiMate, R:base 5000,and Lotus 1-2-3) at the primary speedwith no problems whatsoever.

IBM's recent decision to change theROM BIOS on 30-megabyte versionsof the PC AT to prevent the installa-tion of "speedup" kits (the PC AT runsat 6 MHz) makes the Deskpro 286 aneven more attractive alternative to theIBM AT. Though most users can getalong fine with a 6-MHz machine, theextra speed afforded by the Deskpro286's 8-MHz primary speed is some-thing that you get used to quickly.

Disk Drives

The IBM PC AT-style 1.2-megabytefloppy disk drive is handy for storinglarge amounts of data, although withthe Deskpro 286's optional hard diskdrive, the floppy is not really needed.The 1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive iscapable of reading and writing either1.2-megabyte floppy disks or 360K-byte floppies. The disk-access lightglows green when the drive is writingthe high-density format and red whenit's writing a 360K-byte floppy. The 1.2-megabyte drive has no problemsreading 360K-byte format disks: butoccasionally when it was writing datato a 360K-byte disk, the disk was un-readable by the 360K-byte drive onanother machine. If you intend toswap data with another machine, youshould purchase a Compaq 360K-bytedrive.

My review unit came with a tapebackup unit for the hard disk. Thisunit uses 3M DC 1000 tapes and eachtape holds 10 megabytes of data.Compaq claims it takes about 16minutes to fill the tape, and it takes8 minutes to restore the data to thehard disk. The MS-DOS version 3.0 in-cluded with the unit has several tapecommands for formatting and usingbackup tapes. For all the operations,the tape command prints a bar acrossthe top of the screen to indicate howmuch longer the tape operation hasto go. The most time-consuming partof the process is formatting a blanktape, which takes about 40 minutes.I was slightly annoyed the first timeI formatted a tape because I had notnoticed that the tape's write-protectswitch was on and it was 20 minutes

(continued)

244 BYTE • |UNE 1986

AT A GLANCE

Name

Compaq Deskpro 286,Models 1 and 2

Company

Compaq Computer Corp.20555 FM 149Houston, TX 77070(713) 370-0670

Size

6.4 by 19.8 by 16.5 inches

Components

Processor: 80286, 6 MHz or8 MHz (switchable)Memory: 256K or 512K bytes,maximum 2176K bytes onsystem board; up to 8.2megabytes availableMass storage: Model 1: Onehalf-height 1.2-megabyte5V4-inch floppy disk drive;Model 2: One 1.2-megabytefloppy disk drive and a30-megabyte full-height harddisk drive

Display: 12-inch amber orgreen monochrome display;dual-mode display adaptermonochrome/color,text/graphics (switchable)Keyboard: IBM PCAT-compatible

Optional Hardware

360K-byte disk drive $3501.2-megabyte disk drive $65020-megabyte disk drive $209530-megabyte disk drive $259570-megabyte disk drive $5195Tape backup system for

hard disk

$899

80287 numeric

coprocessor

$195

128K RAM upgrade

$150

512K RAM upgrade

$695

Monitor tilt-and-swivel

adapter

$50

Optional Software

MS-DOS/BASIC version

3.0

or 3.1

$65

Documentation

Operations guide

Price

(standard configuration with

monitor)

Model 1 $4499

Model 2 $6254

.'y'lrm

MEMORY SIZE (K BYTES) DISK STORAGE (K BYTES)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 O 400 800 1200 1600 2000

32

8200

::vx|: ::■:

m

M

2400

m

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES0 2 4 6

PRICE (S 1000)0 2 4

NONE

COMPAQ DESKPRO 286 (MODEL 1) miim IBM Pc

APPLE TJE

The Memory Size graph shows the standardand optional memory available. The Deskpro286 Model 1 was used in this comparison. TheDisk Storage graph shows the highest capacityfor a single floppy disk drive and the maximumstandard capacity for each system. The Bun-dled Software Packages graph shows thenumber of packages included with each sys-

tem. The Price graph shows the list price of asystem configured with two drives (one 1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive for the Deskpro 286Model 1), a monochrome monitor, graphicsand color display capability, a printer port anda serial port, 256K bytes of memory (64K bytesfor 8-bit systems), and the standard operatingsystem for the computers under comparison.

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 245

The back pannel of the Compag Deskpro 286. Note the 3-pinDIN power connector for the Compaq monitor,

Inside the Compaq Deskpro 286.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)250

200

50

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC)50

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC250

150

100

SIEVE

CALCULATIONS

SPREADSHEET (SEC)25

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY 40K FILE COPY

■ COMPAQ DESKPRO 286.8 MHz

LOAD RECALCULATE

COMPAQ DESKPRO 286, 6 MHz HJlBMPC \///% APPLE DE

The graphs for Disk Access in BASIC show how long it takes to writeand read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank floppy disk. (Forthe program listings, see "Benchmarking the Clones" by Jon R.Edwards and Glenn Hartwig, BYTE's Inside the IBM PCs, Fall 1985,page 195.) The Sieve graph shows how long it takes to run one itera-tion of the Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. The Cal-culations graph shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplicationand 10,000 division operations using single-precision numbers. The

System Utilities graph shows how long it takes to format and copya disk (adjusted time for 40K bytes of disk data) and to transfer a40K-byte file using the system utilities. The Kaypro was tested usingthe drives in double-density mode. 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. Thespreadsheet used was Microsoft's Multiplan. A 360K-byte disk wasused in the Deskpro's 1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive.

246 BYTE • |UNE 1986

REVIEW:COMPAQ DESKPRO 286

into the formatting before the opera-tion failed. It would have been nice ifthe write-protect status of the tapecould have been sensed earlier.

Software

The only software that comes stan-dard with the Deskpro 286 is a self-booting User Programs disk that con-tains both demonstration and diag-nostic programs. Included on the diskare graphics, word processing, andmusic demos, as well as an arcade-type game and biorhythm chart. Allare impressive examples of how fastthe Deskpro 286 runs. The diagnosticprogram is a complete system test,though the status messages leavemore than a little to be desired. In-stead of telling you which test is be-ing performed, you're told to refer toa number, which you'll find in theoperations guide. Tests that take agreat deal of time (such as thememory test) display a cryptic mes-sage that says, "This test may take anextended period of time. Please standby." There are no messages to in-dicate the status of the test.

Compaq sells their customized DOSversion 3.0 for $65. Version 3.1 is alsoavailable for the same price. Includedare BASICA and the usual contingentof utilities and sample programs.

Documentation

Documentation is one area where theDeskpro 286 doesn't shine. The onlymanual that comes with the unit is an80-page operations manual that isgrossly inadequate. It contains a bareminimum of information designed forthe naive. Numerous pages are in-volved with showing how to hook upthe system. After that, you're prettymuch left on your own. Gorgeouscolor photographs show you whatwonderful add-ons you can spendyour money on, but there's no addi-tional information. The only usefulpart of the manual is a section on key-strokes needed to change processorspeed, key-click volume, etc. It couldhave been better covered on a refer-ence card, and one isn't included.

The MS-DOS manuals (includedwith the purchase of the operatingsystem) are much better. Three

(continued) I

A fully compatible 256k EGA card with a parallelport for only $259. If you buy any display card:Color, Monochrome, Hercules, or EGA, withoutreading this ad, you're probably throwing away alot of money.

BT/EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter:

256k of memory, and parallel printer port.Works with all standard IBM displays,and compatible displays.5150 Monochrome Display: Both text and640x350 bit mapped graphics.

A Clear Upgrade Path i

This really is the only displayboard you may ever need. Regard-less of what monitor you buy today,this card is a clear upgrade path forthe future, and the best choicetoday, even if you are only going touse a Monochrome Display. Thismeans one board today doesmonochrome 640x350 bit mappedgraphics and text, and provides aclear upgrade path to 640x350Enhanced Color Display with nochange of display board. It alsoruns with the 640x200, 320x200Color Display.

Killer Features

All boards come with a full 256k ofmemory, and a parallel printerport. That means no extras for later,and 16 simultaneous colors dis-played from a palette of 64 colors,and crisp clear text on both Mono-

No Risk Guarantee

If you are not completely satisfied with yourpurchase, you may return it within 30 days otpurchase tor a complete refund, including thecost to send it back. If you can get any dealer orcompetitor to give you the urns Mi His Gurutn,buy both and return the one you don't like.

VISA

For fastest delivery, send cashier's check,money order, or order by MasterCard/Visa.Personal Checks allow 18 days to clear.Company purchase orders accepted, call forprior authorization. California residents add6% saleB tax.

5153 Color Display: 640x200 and320x200.

5154 Enhanced Display: Color 640x35016 simultaneous colors from a palette of64.

chrome and Enhanced Color Dis-plays - features or options that arenot available on other EGA boards.Since all your current software willrun, you're set for today, andprepared for the standard of thefuture.

The Display Deal

Of course many of you will want totake advantage of the EGA cardright away, so we are offering aspecial deal when you buy theboard together with a Basic TimeHR 31-350 monitor - you get bothfor just $749, or the card only for$259. This means that you canequip all your PC's now and in thefuture with displays and EGA cardsand get the Qubie' "No RiskGuarantee", our one year warranty,and 48 hour turnaround on war-ranty repairs. The price is the wholeprice, there are no extras for freight,insurance, or credit cards.

QUBIE

Department B

S07 Calle San Pablo

Camahllo, California 93010

Inside California

805-987-9741

Outside California

800-821-4479

London (01) 223-4569 Sydney (02) 579-3322Paris (01) 321-5316 Canada (403) 434-9444

Hours: M-F 8am - 5pm PTZSat 8am - 12pm PTZ

Inquiry 288

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 247

Now withFreelance

VideoShow MAKESPresentations

With VideoShow you'll make the best presen-tations of your career.

VideoShow is the only complete hardware andsoftware presentation system available today.VideoShow:

Makes Your Presentations Powerful

Use 1000 colors to brighten your images-hundreds more than with any other PC-basedsystem. Plus 5 times better resolution. AddVideoShow's dynamic visual effects and you areguaranteed high impact and professional quality.

Makes Presentations Easy

Select from a variety of software, and use yourIBM® PC or compatible to create or update anychart, graph, diagram, or illustration in minutes.Even if you've never used a computer before and

can't draw a straight line. All you do is fill in theblanks.

Makes Any Kind of Presentation

VideoShow lets you use any color monitor orvideo projector. Plus, you can get slides, over-heads, or hardcopy. All in 1000 brilliant colors.

VideoShow Makes Sense

At $3150* it pays for itself after just a few pre-sentations. And you get the superior quality pre-viously available only from expensive services.

VideoShow Puts You in Control

No longer will your presentations be a terrificstruggle. They'll just be terrific!

Find out about it. Call 1-800-556-1234, Ext.234. In Calif., call 1-800-441-2345, Ext. 234.

1

WW

from General Parametrics, Berkeley, CA

*Suggested retail price for VideoShow 150.

IBM is a registered trademark oflnlcmational Business Machines Corporation.

248 BYTE • JUNE 1986

Inquiry 397

REVIEW:COMPAQ DESKPRO 286

The Deskpro 286has nearly all thefeatures that aserious user needs.

manuals are included: a 527-page MS-DOS version 3.0 reference guide, a182-page BASIC reference guide, anda 311-page BASIC guide to statements,functions, commands, and variables.All three are well written and orga-nized so that information is easy tofind. The examples used are a far cryfrom the head-scratching ones in earlyPC documentation.

All Compaq manuals are in a spiral-bound 7/2- by 9-inch horizontal for-mat, which is handy for use on acrowded desk. A technical referencemanual is available for $60.

Summary

The Compaq Deskpro 286 is a high-powered professional-quality com-puter that has nearly all the featuresthat a serious business or scientificuser needs. In keeping with Compaq'sreputation, it's extremely well thoughtout and built to withstand full-timeheavy use. Its speed advantage alonerecommends it over its closest com-petitor-the IBM PC AT. The price ofthe Deskpro 286 is slightly higherthan a comparably equipped PC AT,and unlike the AT, the Deskpro 286is unlikely to be available at anythingother than list price.

If you buy a Deskpro 286, the usualcaveat applies about choosing yourdealer carefully. (Compaq has over2 500 in the United States alone.) Com-paq has been very successful and hasacquired some of the arrogance thatoften comes with success. They'vecontinued to be secretive about tech-nical matters, and getting informationover the telephone is often difficult.A knowledgeable dealer can helpCompaq Deskpro 286 users deal withany problems or questions. Despite itshigh price, the Deskpro 286 is an out-standing personal computer. It's a sys-tem whose technology will not quicklybecome obsolete. ■

Hard Solutions

Expanding your PC to include aS^O Megabytehard drive has never been simpler with Qubie'internal or HardPack 20 slot mounted drives.

PC 20: Standard, internal mounted 1/2 height

Data Transfer Rate:

5 Megabits/Sec

unit for use in floppy disk area of a PC, PC XT

Access Time:

65 Milliseconds

or compatible.

Power Requirements:

+S VDC 2.0 A

HardPack: Card Mount for elot mounting, 1/2

+ 12 VDC .9 A Max

slot length to mount behind floppy drive, on a

Capacity:

20 Megabytei

PC, PC XT or compatible.

Reliability:

14,000 Hours

The Pentagon Ashtray

The military is famous for paying$450 for ashtrays. A lot of com-panies are asking the same kind ofoutlandish sums for a hard diskmounted on a card. You get a harddisk, a controller, and a bracket,and they charge you hundredsmore than you pay for a Qubie' 20Megabyte hard disk system. Unlikethe others, our HardPack 20 fitsinto a single slot and nestles inbehind your floppy drives. If youbuy any other hard drive, you maysimply pay more and get a wholelot less.

The Choice

We offer both typeB, an internalmounted like your floppy, or a cardmount for the same $499 price.Let's face it, the bracket doesn't costus 450 bucks. While some peopleprefer the standard mounting, (likea floppy) so they can see theread/write light, others want a cardmount so they can use both floppiesthey now have. Both drives bootdirectly from the hard disk, andrequire no software patches. Theyrun all the popular software, and

No Risk Guarantee

Ii you are not completely satisfied with yourpurchase, you may return it within 30 days ofpurchase tor a complete refund, including thecost to send it back. If you can get any dealer orcompetitor to give you the same No liii Gurutn,buy both and return the one you don't like.

VISA

For fastest delivery, send cashier's check,money order, or order by MasterCard/Visa.Personal Checks allow 18 days to clear.Company purchase orders accepted, call forprior authorization. California residents add6% sales tax.

Inquiry 289

are low power. Our format softwareallows changeable interleaving thatgives you noticeable speedimprovement over the standard XTdrive. Both have the ability to run asecond drive from the controller,(Part Number 2nd-20HP $399),giving you 40 megabytes of stor-age for under $900.

The Goodies

We give you some software thatreally enhances the use of a harddisk, ldir is the hard disk organizerthat really makes DOS a snap, andour special Qubie' version ofZylndex, the super searcher isalso included. Easy to read manu-als make installation a snap. Ofcourse the drives are backed by our"No Risk Guarantee", our one yearwarranty, and 48 hour turnaroundon warranty repairs. The price isthe whole price; there are no extrasfor freight, insurance, or creditcards. Order part numbers PC20for IBM PC and compatibles. PC20-1000 for Tandy 1000, or HardPack20. By popular demand we stilloffer the matching ashtray for just$450, (Part No. PCKIDDING).

QUBIE'

Department B

507 Calle San Pablo

Camarillo, California 93010

Inside California

805-987-9741

Outside California

800-821-4479

London (01) 223-4569 Sydney (02) 579-3322Paris (01) 321-5316 Canada (403) 434-9444

Hours: M-F 8am • 5pm PTZSat 8am - 12pm PTZ

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 249

5 M€GRftYT€S

of ^--.^fflCv software

M

PC HARDDISK KITS

10 MEGABYTES$475

20 MEGABYTES

$495

30 MEGABYTES$675

AT HARDDISK KITS

33 MEGABYTES$750

HIGH CAPACITY

AT&XTHARD DISK KITS

70 MEGABYTES

$1995

120 MEGABYTES$3995

TAPE BACKUP

40 MEG INTERNAL

MT40 $59540 MEG PORTABLE

MT40P $695

TAPE BACKUP

60 MEG INTERNALMT60 $795

60 MEG EXTERNALMT60E $895

TANDY 1000

MULTI-FUNCTION

CARD

SERIAL PORT/

DMACONTR/

UPTO512KRAM

TMF-1 $255

PC/AT OR

TANDY 1000

HARD DISK CARD I

21 MEG HARD DISK |

FREE SCSI PORT

THC-21 $675

PCHC-21 $675

MASTER MEMORY |SYSTEM

HARD DISKS:

30 MEG FIXED

15MEGREMOVABLE|

POWER

DISTRIBUTION

$2295

SCSI HOSTADAPTER CARD

CONNECTS YOUR

PC TO 7 OTHER

DEVICES

scsi-i $190

CALL FOR OURFULL LINE OFHALF CARDS

COLOR GRAPHICSMEMORY CARD

FLOPPYCONTROLLER

CALL

21 M€GflGYT€

SCSI

HRRD DISK CARD

for your PC, fiT or TRNDY 1000

[ v.,/ Micro Devion international Inc.

SCSl-WarpDrive 21MB J

'/iiiiiifiiiiHiiiiiiilfir^i

onluEES

IMRGINCH! MDI'S 21 M€GflBVT€ HARD DISK CARD

simply plugs into your system and is ready to run!!!The hard disk card also contains a...

"FR€€ SCSI PORT":fl SCSI port which allows you to tie (daisy chain)up to seven external (peripheral) devices to yourcomputer. rf\rr

INCLUDED Hitt

Direct/Assist

$4995

R/Rssist

$4995

Light Speed

$7995

SCSI Board

$19900

TANDY 1000

HARD DISK CRflD

21 M€G HARD DISK

MasterCard

VISA

ORD€R LIN6 800-228-0891305-677-8333

1 Y€fifl WARRANTY, 30 DAY MON€'

EBBjlf"\ AiiBEHjBhl-TlCT

6566 University Boulevord, UJinter Park Florido 32792 305-677-8333 telex 332559 MOII ORLUD

SYSTE

EVIEW

Tele-286

by Wayne Rash Jr.

The TeleVideo Tele-286 isdesigned to be compatiblewith the IBM PC AT. Like theIBM, the Tele-286 is largeand heavy, and its hard diskis hidden within the cabinet,with space for two floppydisk drives in the upper rightof the front panel. Also likethe IBM machine, the Tele-286 is based on the Intel80286 microprocessor, and itaccepts an 80287 math co-processor. However, bothprocessors in the Tele-286run at a clock speed of 8MHz—about one-third betterthan the IBM PC AT.

For this review I used theTele-286 Model 2 ($5395),which is roughly equivalentto the enhanced IBM PC AT.The Model 2 system includesone high-capacity floppy diskdrive that holds 1.2 mega-bytes, a 44-megabyte harddisk, and 512K bytes of RAM,which can be expanded to 15megabytes. The monitor I tested wasTeleVideo's optional HRM-100, a high-resolution monochrome graphicsmonitor.

Examining the Hardware

The system unit measures a whopping21 by 16 by 6.5 inches, and it willdominate any regular-size desk. Youcan open the case by removing fourscrews at the rear of the machine andsliding the cover forward. Inside, youwill find eight expansion slots, two ofwhich accept standard IBM PCboards. The other six are designed toaccept boards made for the 16-bit busof the IBM PC AT. The disk drive con-troller board is already installed in aslot.

To the right of the expansion-cardarea is the power supply. In front of

An IBM PC AT compatible

with a standard 44-rnegabyte

hard disk drive

the power supply are the disk drives.The primary hard disk is mounted inthe front center and does not showwhen the cover is in place. To theright of the hard disk drive, the sys-tem can accommodate two half-height floppy disk drives placed oneabove the other. Below the floppydisk drive locations is room enoughfor a concealed half-height hard disk.The system provides sufficient cablesto support two floppy and two harddisk drives.

The high-capacity floppy disk driveis similar to that of the IBM PC AT's—itcan read from and write to a standarddouble-density (360K-byte) MS-DOSdisk. Some other computers may havetrouble reading data written by theTele-286 to 360K-byte disks, however,since the tracks created by the high-

capacity disk drive are morenarrow than those used bydouble-density disk drives.TeleVideo also warns thatfloppy disks formatted on thehigh-capacity drive will notwork on other machines, al-though they worked fine onmy Zenith Z-100. To ensuredisk compatibility. TeleVideooffers a standard double-density disk drive.

The front of the machine isunremarkable except for thelack of the key-operatedpower switch that the IBM PCAT and most other compati-bles have. With the Tele-286,you have to be content witha rocker switch on the rear ofthe machine.

On the rear, next to thepower switch, is the powercord and an additional ACpower outlet, which is thesame kind used by the IBMmonochrome monitor. Alsoon the back panel are con-nectors for the serial and parallelports and the keyboard. Like the IBMPC AT, the Tele-286's RS-232C serialport uses a 9-pin connector, and theparallel port is Centronics-compatible.The keyboard connects to the com-puter via a six-foot coiled cord and ismuch like that of the IBM PC AT. Theonly difference worth noting is thatthe LEDs indicating the position ofthe Caps Lock, Num Lock, and ScrollLock keys are on the keys themselvesrather than the keyboard bezel. Likethe IBM PC AT, the Tele-286's key-board is somewhat larger than that of

(continued)Wayne Rash \r. (10431 Collingham Dr.Fairfax, VA 22032) is a member of the pro-fessional staff of American Management Sys-tems Inc., where he consults with the federalgovernment on microcomputers.

■>— Inquiry 219

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 251

Inquiry 391 for End-Users.Inquiry 392 for DEALERS ONLY.

SHIPPING NOW !!!

The power of dBASE IIIfor the Macintosh hasarrived!!!

This new software product,named dMac III, is fullycompatible with dBASE IIIand is three times faster.

dMac HI features a powerfulprogramming language thatoffers its owners the abilityto develop professionalbusiness applications forthe Macintosh.

In addition, you can transferyour dBASE III applicationsand databases to the Macintoshwhere dMac EI will allow youto use them without modi-fication.

Of course you can use dMac IEalong with the other popularMacintosh software productssuch as Microsoft WORD andMicrosoft FILE.

As a dMac III owner you getthe best of both worlds. All ofthe features of the most popularprogrammable database for theIBM PC plus the user friend-liness of Apple's Macintosh.

To order dMac III contact:FORMAT SOFTWARE

11770 BERNARDO PLAZA CT.

SAN DIEGO, CA 92128

(619) 487-6946

vppie

Manntosl^^atraQemar^or^

Computer

dBASE III is a trademark of Ashton-Tate

IBM PC is a trademark of IBM

Microsoft WORD and Microsoft FILE

are trademarks of Mircosoft

dMac III is a trademark of FORMAT

Software

REVIEW: TELE-286

the IBM PC—meaning, of course, thatsome keyboard templates designedfor the PC may not fit.

TeleVideo's HRM-100 monitor sellsfor $595 and comes with its owndisplay adapter, which providespower and video signals to themonitor through one 9-pin connector,freeing your computer table of onemore cable. You may want to checkthe pin assignments before you attacha monitor from another manufacturer.Another nice feature is its attachedstand that allows the monitor to tiltand swivel. The display adapter allowsthe monitor to display color imagesas shades of green with a resolutionof 640 by 400 pixels. Its character setis crisp and much easier to read thanthat of the IBM. In fact, the clearcharacters coupled with the 14-inchdiagonal measurement of the screenmake for one of the best monitors Ihave used.

Slow Starting

The hardest part about using theTele-286 is setting up the system andformatting the hard disk—tasks thatcan be made simpler with clear in-structions. Unfortunately, the instruc-tions provided with the Tele-286 areno help.

The problem is letting the operatingsystem know the system configura-tion—specifically, what kind of diskdrives are installed in the unit. Aspecial setup program stores that in-formation in a section of memory thatis kept alive by a lithium battery, whichalso powers the clock. Without theproper configuration data, the harddisk cannot be formatted or used.

First, 1 had to hook up the battery.The battery is attached to the side ofthe power supply with Velcro, and ithas a connector that you attach tosome pins on the motherboard—a jobthat requires a pair of long-nose pliersand a great deal of patience.

When you connect the battery, youhave to be particularly careful tochoose the correct set of pins. Thedirections in the manual are less thanexplicit, and you might accidentallyconnect the battery to what appearsto be a set of jumper pins on the diskcontroller only an inch away. The bat-tery connector will indeed fit onto the

disk controller, and it would be aneasy mistake to make. While I didn'twant to find out what happens whena battery is connected to the disk con-troller, I suspect it's not good.

Then 1 had to run the setup pro-gram. On the face of it, the processseems simple; you simply indicate tothe setup program which disk drivesare installed. But the setup programdoes not provide a menu of choices.And although the manual depicts amenu, the choices listed do notinclude a 44-megabyte hard disk,which is standard equipment on aModel 2.

To make matters worse, the driveselections are listed by the number ofcylinders and the number of heads onthe disk—information that's not readi-ly available. It's not even clear whetherthe disk drive capacities that are listedare formatted or unformatted capac-ities. (The 44-megabyte hard disk inmy review unit has an unformattedcapacity of 53 megabytes.) After twoweeks of frustration and telephonecalls to TeleVideo, I managed to par-tition and format the hard disk, whichtook about an hour with the properinstructions.

Software Compatibility

The Tele-286 comes with MS-DOS 3.1and GW-BAS1C 3.1. Both of these areversions of the software offered forthe IBM PC AT. Unfortunately, the ver-sion of MS-DOS I received could notaccess all 44 megabytes on the harddisk—it was limited to only 32 mega-bytes, which makes disk partitionsnecessary. TeleVideo says it has amodified version of MS-DOS 3.1 thatwill support all 44 megabytes, butnone was available for this review.

Like the IBM PC AT, the Tele-286 isnot fully compatible with the IBM PC.For example, some versions of Micro-soft's Flight Simulator will not run onthe Tele-286, nor will some gamesand educational programs. However,the most serious compatibility prob-lem is the Tele-286's failure to runDigital Research's Concurrent PC-DOS. However, every other IBM busi-ness program that I tried did run.

This deficiency suggests there mightbe compatibility problems with other

(continued)

AT A GLANCE

Name

Tele-286 Model 2

Company

TeleVideo Systems Inc.550 East Brokaw Rd.San Jose, CA 95150-6602(800) 521-4897(800) 821-3774 (California)

System Unit Size

21 by 16 by 6.5 inches45 pounds

Components

Display: Text 80 columns by25 lines; graphics resolution640 by 400 pixels withshades of green usingoptional TeleVideo HRM-100Keyboard: Detached 84-keyIBM PC AT-style QWERTYkeyboard with 10 functionkeys; numeric/cursor-controlkeypad; LEDs in Caps Lock,Num Lock, and Scroll Lockkeys

Processor: 8-MHz Intel 80286Memory: 512K bytesexpandable to 15 megabytes

Mass Storage

44-megabyte hard disk drive1.2-megabyte floppy diskdrive

Expansion

Six IBM PC AT-compatibleplug-in board slots, two IBMPC-compatible plug-in board

Software

MS-DOS 3.1GW-BASIC 3.1

Options

Memory expansion360K-byte floppy disk driveAdditional hard diskColor monitor

Documentation

Owner's manualMS-DOS 3.1 manualGW-BASIC manual

Price

Model 2HRM-100

$5395$595

mm

MEMORY SIZE (K BYTES) DISK STORAGE (K BYTES)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 400 800 1200 1600 2000

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES0 2 4 6 8

PRICE ($ 1000)10 O 2 4

8 10

TELE-286 |jj||| IBM PC

APPLE HE

The Memory Size graph shows the standardand optional memory available for the com-puters under comparison. The Disk Storagegraph shows the highest capacity for a singlefloppy disk drive and the maximum standardcapacity for each system. The Bundled Soft-ware graph shows the number of softwarepackages included with each system. The Pricegraph shows the list price of a system with two

disk drives, a monochrome monitor with con-nection apparatus and graphics capability, aprinter port and serial port, 256K bytes ofmemory (64K bytes for 8-bit systems), the stan-dard operating system for the computers undercomparison, and the standard BASIC inter-preter. Note that the Tele-286 Model 2 comeswith 512K bytes of RAM and one of its two disksis a 44-megabyte hard disk drive.

IUNE I986 -BYTE 253

11

The rear of the Tele-286 showing the power cord receptacle, monitorpower cord socket, serial and parallel ports, and access slots forexpansion boards with the TeleVideo HRM-100 monitor adapterinstalled.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)250

200

150

ioo

50

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC)

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY

40K FILE COPY■ TELE-286

The graphs for Disk Access in BASIC show how long it takes to writeand then read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank floppy disk.(For the program listings see BYTE's Inside the IBM PCs, Fall 1985,page 195.) The Sieve graph shows how long it takes to run one itera-tion of the Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. TheCalculations graph shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplicationand 10,000 division operations using single-precision numbers. TheSystem Utilities graphs show how long it takes to copy a 40K-byte

■

The inside of the Tele-286 showing the floppy and hard disk drives,power supply, and main circuit board with expansion slots.

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC)250

100

SIEVESPREADSHEET (SEC)

CALCULATIONS

file using the system utilities. (The Disk Copy test was not run becauseour review unit had only one floppy disk drive.) The Spreadsheetgraph shows how long it takes to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cellspreadsheet in which each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left.The spreadsheet used was Microsoft's Multiplan. Tests on theTele-286 were done using MS-DOS 3.1 and GW-BASIC 3.1. Ourreview system had 512K bytes of RAM, a 44-megabyte hard diskdrive, and a 1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive.

254 BYTE • IUNE 1986

REVIEW: TELE-286

programs. You should have yourdealer demonstrate any software youare considering using on a Tele-286.

The Benchmarks

The machine's speed is noticeablygood with programs such as WordStar2000, which is sluggish on the IBMPC. The benchmark tests support thatfeeling of speed. Memory-residentprograms execute in one-third to one-fourth the time required on an IBMPC. Operations requiring floppy diskaccess execute in about half the time.

Some of the benchmark times de-pend heavily on the type or format ofthe disk drive being used. For exam-ple, the load time for Multiplan tookonly about one second from the harddisk. (Of course, timing accuracy islimited at such short intervals becauseof the time it takes to actually startand stop the stopwatch.)

Format and file-transfer times varywith the format in use. Naturally, for-matting the 1.2-megabyte high-

capacity disk takes longer than the360K-byte double-density disk. Also,file transfers took slightly less timewith the high-capacity disk.

Conclusions

The Tele-286's most glaring weakpoint is its documentation. The prob-lems I had in getting the machine run-ning were entirely due to an inade-quate owner's manual, and the sameproblems await any user who tries thedo-it-yourself route. Once you get pastthe problems with setting up the sys-tem, the owner's manual improvessome. The book is well illustrated andcovers most routine activities ade-quately. There is also very completecoverage for such activities as addingadditional disk drives and memory.The manuals for MS-DOS and forGW-BASIC are also adequate. It ap-pears that TeleVideo has simplyreprinted the standard Microsoftmanuals and has made no effort toexpand or clarify them or to give ad-

ditional instructions. As a result, newusers will find the manual tough tounderstand at first, but experiencedusers will be disappointed by the lackof advanced programming support.

Still, the Tele-286 performed mostof the tasks 1 tried, endured frequentmoves between my home and office,and persisted through days of con-stant disk-drive activity while 1 devel-oped a diagnostics program that ex-ercises the disk drives.

There are a number of good reasonsto consider the Tele-286. The stan-dard hard disk is considerably largerthan that supplied with the IBM PCAT. The machine operates faster thanthe IBM, the monitor is easier to read,and it costs less. Cost may well be themajor factor, since TeleVideo equip-ment is frequently sold at a consid-erable discount. While there are anumber of IBM PC AT compatiblesavailable, and more are on the way,it's difficult to find one much betterthan the Tele-286. ■

ADDANEWMERCEDES-BENZTO YOUR EUROPEANVACATION PLANS.AND SUBTRACTSOME OF THE COST.

Plan to make European delivery of anew Mercedes-Benz part of your 1986European vacation plans. Select any1986 gasoline or diesel model; pick itup at the factory European DeliveryCenter—and embark on a deluxe driv-ing vacation. Avoiding costly rentalswhile saving on the price of your newMercedes-Benz. Send coupon for a freeEuropean Delivery brochure today.

*Subject to availability.

Send coupon to: MHMA86-5

Mercedes-Benz of North America. Inc.Marketing Communications DivisionOne Mercedes Drive, Montvale, NJ 07645

Name

Address.

City

State

.Zip_

a 1986 Mercedes-Benz of N.A., Inc., Montvale, NJ.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 255

MAKE THE CONNECTION . . .

Our Connection systems will solve your problemof trying to read and write diskettes or tapes fromalmost any computer system using your PC.

The Diskette Connection is a hardware systemthat enables the IBM PC or compatible to read andwrite most 8 inch, SlA inch, or 3Vi inch diskettes.

With our File Connection software programs youcan transfer data files between most computersystems, including CP/M, DEC, Honeywell, Univac,IBM 3740, S/l, S/3, S/23, S/32, S/34, S/36, and S/38.

Our Word and TyPesetting Connection programsuse IBM standard Document Content Architecture(DCA-RFT) to transfer document files betweenmost word processing and typesetting systems,including Compugraphic MCs, CPT, Displaywriter,OS/6, Multiset, NBI, Quadex, Xerox, and Wang.

Our Tape Connection system will read andwrite IBM or ANSI standard Vz inch 1600 BPImagnetic tape. A full size 2400 foot tape canstore a 45 MByte file and be written in 6 minutes.

Since 1982, we have supplied thousands ofsystems to customers around the world, includingIBM, NASA, AT&T, Kodak, and General Motors.

Our specialty is conversion systems and we canprovide a solution to your problem. Call us todayto discuss your requirements.

This ad is one of a series featuring NASA missions.Foi a free poster, send us youi written request.

Box 1970 Flagstaff, AZ 86002(602) 774-5187 Telex 705609

Inquiry 131 for End-Users.Inquiry 132 for DEALERS ONLY.

FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING

SOFTW

REVIEW

Mix C

by Richard Grehan

Not long ago I was perusingBYTE and discovered an ad-vertisement for a $39.95 Ccompiler. 1 was struck by thepotential value of a standardKemighan and Ritchie C com-piler for the IBM PC for lessthan $50. Of course, it's wiseto be wary about a software productthat promises so much at such a value,so I ran both versions of Mix C downthe guantlet. (They also make a versionfor Z80 CP/M machines-I got the Kay-pro version and ran the CP/M bench-marks on a Kaypro 10.)

What You Do and Dont Get

What arrived were two shrink-wrapped large blue-covered manualsof over 400 8'A- by 11-inch pages.Stuck within the pages of one of themanuals were two Kaypro-readablefloppies, and within the other was oneIBM PC-compatible floppy. The disksare not copy-protected, so you canmake backups or copy the contentsonto a hard disk (which 1 did for theKaypro 10). It isn't possible to get allthe files plus boot information ontoa single floppy disk, even for the MS-DOS version. Fortunately, the manualsaved me from having to experimentwith the distribution of files ontomultiple disks; there is a section inchapter 1 that gives a file-by-file listof the recommended disk arrange-ment.

Many C compilers extend the com-piler across several programs that areexecuted in succession. Mix C's com-piler is an all-in-one file for the MS-DOS version and two for the CP/Mversion, a root file and an overlay. Thedisks also contain the Linker programand RUNT1ME.OVY (both describedbelow), as well as Mix C's library file,CLIB.MIX, and the standard I/Oheader and library files: STDIO andSTDLIB.H, respectively..

A C compiler

for the IBM PC that costsless than $50

an abstruse exercise, and itcertainly gets you no closerto the generation of machinecode that would be useful fordebugging.

Other files present on the MS-DOSdisk (and on the second of the twoCP/M floppies) consist of programsused for code optimization—bothspeed and size—and source files.STDLIB.C, PRINTF.C, and SCANF.Ccontain most of the source code forthe standard C system; you can actual-ly add or modify routines to thesefiles and use them to create your ownCLIB.MIX library file.

What you don't get with Mix C isany assembly source code outputfrom the compiler that might aid youin debugging programs. Nor do youget the ability to link object files writ-ten in assembly language with Mix Cfunctions. Additionally, as you mayhave guessed, you don't get a sepa-rate assembler program with Mix C,as you do with some of the otherpopular C compilers.

A peculiar program, CONVERT.COM,can be used, according to the manual,to convert object files to ASCII andback. 1 assumed that by this themanual meant CONVERT.COM couldtransform unreadable object code totext that was more or less understand-able and from which 1 could glean themachine code generated by the com-piler. However, what comes out ofCONVERT.COM is a file consisting ofstreams of ASCII digits with functionnames sprinkled throughout. The onlyapparent use of an ASCII object file-as outlined in the manual—was thatit provided a means for you to actual-ly use a text editor to cut and pastefunctions from one object file to an-other. This seems to me to be at best

Compiling

Producing an executable pro-gram from a source code file istypically an easy two-step processwith Mix C; you simply execute the CCprogram to generate an object file,then execute Linker to create the finalCOM file. There are, however, a varie-ty of options available that enable youto optimize the resultant code foreither space or speed.

Executable files created as de-scribed above do not contain low-level run-time routines (system I/O. forexample) and as such they require thepresence of a run-time support filecalled RUNTIME.OVY. The obviousadvantage of this arrangement is thatthe resultant .COM files are smaller;a disk with numerous program fileswill show a real space savings due tothe factoring out of common systemroutines. You can, however, requestLinker to include run-time support inthe resulting .COM file and so elimi-nate the necessity of moving RUN-TIME.OVY about with all your C pro-grams. Any gain in execution time isalmost negligible, as demonstrated inthe benchmarks, but the ability tocreate programs not requiring thepresence of RUNTIME.OVY is certain-ly a necessity for anyone consideringmarketing products developed withMix C.

If you are really cramped for space,you can optionally replace RUN-TIME.OVY with SMALLCOM.OVYThis is a file identical to RUN-

[continued)Richard Grehan is a BYTE technical editor.He can be reached at One Phoenix Mill Lane,Peterborough, NH 03458.

1UNE 1986 • BYTE 257

REVIEW: MIX C

AT A GLANCE

Name

Mix C

Type

Language

Company

Mix Software2116 East ArapahoSuite 363

Richardson, TX 75081(214) 783-6001

Computer

PC-DOS and MS-DOS machines (DOSversion 2.0 or later) and CP/M 80 (version2.2 or later)

Documentation

Mix C reference manual, bound, 400 +pages

Price

$39.95

TIME.OVY except that it is missingroutines for long and floating-pointdata types.

Two programs provided with Mix C,Shrink and Speedup, allow you to op-timize an object file for size or speed,respectively. The documentation ismysterious about the internal goings-on of Shrink, and I wasn't very im-pressed with its results. Speedup,however, improved execution timesremarkably and at a small expense ofspace. The manual indicates thatSpeedup will have its most dramaticeffects on integer arithmetic.

I ran the benchmarks with Speedupand Shrink files; you should note forthese particular benchmarks I did in-clude run-time support in the finalexecutable files and that l did notspeed up or shrink the system librarycode.

I was curious about the effects ofspeeding up and shrinking a file, so Itried running both programs on theSieve object code on the IBM PC.

After shrinking and then speeding up,Sieve weighed in at 13,058 bytes andran in 20 seconds; after speeding upand then shrinking, Sieve was 13,064bytes and ran in 21 seconds. 1 won'teven begin to try to explain the sig-nificance of the figures, but I wouldlike to know what those 6 bytes are.

Linker

Not only does the Linker programoperate similarly to other object codelinking programs of its kind (Micro-soft's Link, for example), but if yousimply execute Linker with no file-names as arguments, it enters a spe-cial menu-driven mode. Commandsfrom Linker's menu allow you to selec-tively load object files, specifylibraries to search for unsatisfied ref-erences, and build executable files.There is even a timesaving Find Allcommand that will search and re-search a library file until all referenceshave been satisfied. (The necessity for

(continued)

Sourcecode Software for Computer-Aided-Design

CAD/BASIC is a professional quality CAD program withsource code supplied fully documented in BASIC. Create any2-dimensional drawing using simple keyboard commands. Usereal physical units - feet, millimeters, etc. Move a cursoraround the screen with X,x Y and y keys. Coordinates areprinted on the screen as it moves. Place node points, connectby solid or dashed lines, arrows or dimension lines, drawcircles and arcs, add text, symbols and dimensions. Fitcurves through node points with a unique B spline curvefitting routine. Create standard shapes and store on disk.Recall and place them anywhere on the screen. Scaledrawings, rotate, store on disk, dump to a dot matrix printeror pen plotter. CAD/BASIC is the perfect low-cost solution forprofessionals and educators.

□ IBMpc(64K) CAD/BASIC- $120 □ Z-100 CAD/BASIC- $120

□ MAC(512K) CAD/BASIC- $120

D IBMpc/Hewlett Packard 7470A Interface- $50

□ IBMpc/Houston Instruments 595 Interface- $50

is a 3-dimensional CAD program with sourcecode supplied fully documented in BASIC. Interactively create3D drawings with keyboard commands. Move cursor withX,x, Y,y and Z,z keys. Real physical coordinates (feet,millimeters, etc) printed on the screen as cursor moves. Placenode points and connect by lines. Fit curves with automatic3D B-spline routine. Move a point and all drawing elementsmove with it. Rotate, translate, scale, store drawings on disk.Recall and display up to 5 drawing simultaneously. Addphysical data to drawing elements such as weight, inertia,resistance etc. to create a true graphics data base. "..inexpensive, versatile, a very powerful designpackage..can do things Autocad can't."-Boatbuilder Magazine.

□ IBMpc(64K) Designer30- $120 □ Z-100 Designer30- $120

□ MAC(512K) Designer30- $120 □ Apple Designer30- $120

□ IBMpc/Hewlett Packard 7470A Interface- $50D IBMpc/Houston Instruments 595 Interface- $50

Kern International, Inc, P0 Box 1029, Duxbury, MA 02331 (617)826-0095

258 BYTE • IUNE

Inquiry 180

This is all you'll

ever need to use the

System 488 Instrument

Control Computer.

If you need to solve engineeringproblems you want System 488™.System 488 is faster than an IBMPC/AT® and more powerful andflexible than dedicated instrumentcontrollers. System 488 is com-plete and ready to run when it ar-rives, yet there's plenty of roomfor future expansion.

Ready To Use

Finally, an IBM PC/AT® compat-ible designed for engineering ap-plications. System 488 is packedwith all of the hardware and soft-ware you need to meet a tightschedule on a low budget.

I I

V

I I

Easy To Use

System 488 was designed for you.Our Co-Operator™ software andhelp windows are included to putproblem solving information onyour screen at the touch of a key.

High Power, Low Price

System 488 has the power you

need, backed by a technical staff

that can give you straight answers

to tough questions.

The complete system is just

$3980.

Call today

Capital Equipment Corp.99 South Bedford St. #107Burlington, MA. 01803(6l7)-273-1818

Hardware

8 MHz 80286 processor

512KRAM

Serial and parallel ports

Floppy disk drive

IEEE-488 interface

Mono/color/EGA display interface

Monochrome monitor

Built-in...

notadded on.

Software

MS-DOS and BASIC

Superkey®

Full feature wordprocessor

hp85 graphics emularion

IEEE-488 applications library

Co-Operator™

Superkey is a crademark of Borland International. IBM PC/AT is a trademark of IBM.

Inquiry 58

REVIEW: MIX C

this is as follows: Suppose the Linkeris searching a library file for routineA. It locates routine A and links it intothe final run-time code. However, rou-tine A calls routine B, which is definedin the same library, but appearsbefore routine A. Linker will have tomake another pass through the libraryto find routine B. The Find All com-mand tells Linker to make multiplepasses through the library file as re-quired.)

Linker's Build command offers addi-tional options: You can specify howmuch stack space the execution filewill be allotted and whether or not itwill include run-time support.

A special section in the manual de-scribes the mechanics behind over-lays and how you command Linker to

create overlay files. This is a tricky pro-cess and requires that you give someforethought to how your program willjuggle overlay modules in memory,but the instructions are laid out in astep-by-step fashion and I had notrouble building several programswith overlays.

Machine Language Interface

Arising out of the fact that Mix Coperates with its own peculiar formatfor object files are the difficulties youface when you try to interface a C pro-gram to an external routine. Specifi-cally, the object file of an assemblylanguage program processed through,for example, the MS-DOS MASM as-sembler (an equivalent example forCP/M would be the M-80 assembler)

Table 1: Benchmarks for Iv1

ix C run on a Kaypro 10. The

benchmarks were

run on the Kaypros hard disk. Also, the benchmarks using Speedup and Shrink

did include run-

time support

Note that no compile times were given

in the last

three sections, as these compilations required considerable operator in

ervention.

The benchmark

programs are

available on BYTEnet Listings,

(617) 861-9764.

Mix C Benchmarks — Kaypro 10

Without Run Time Support Included

Benchmark Compile time (seconds) Execute time (minutes:seconds]

File size (bytes)

Sieve

:39

3:22

13056

Fib

:41

16:09

4864

Intmath

:51

2:28

5120

Sort

:56

5:31

9216

Fileio

:58

9:02

6016

With Run Time

Support Included

Benchmark

Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

3:22

31232

Fib

16:09

23040

Intmath

2:28

23296

Sort

5:31

27392

Fileio

9:02

24192

Using Speedup

Benchmark

Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

:41

31488

Fib

13:23

23168

Intmath

1:14

24320

Sort

3:42

28160

Fileio

8:46

24960

Using Shrink

Benchmark

Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

3:31

31232

Fib

15:57

22912

Intmath

2:33

23168

Sort

5:34

27392

Fileio

9:04

24192

cannot be linked to the object file ofa C program created by the Mix Ccompiler. Also, the Mix C compilerprovides no #asm directive found onmany other C compilers for in-lineassembly source code.

This means that if you have somemodule that requires coding in as-sembly language, you are faced witheither hand-assembling your code in-to an array or explicitly poking it intomemory from some external file.

However you manage to get a ma-chine language routine into memory,at least Mix C provides functions fortransferring control to your routine.You call your machine language sub-routine using functions asm() andasmx(), and these functions acceptarguments used to transfer the con-tents of the CPU registers to and fromthe routine.

Mix C also includes functions forcalling the operating system's BDOSdirectly from C. The MS-DOS versionof Mix C has functions for calling theBIOS (specifically, the IBM PC's BIOS,though most compatibles have identi-cal BIOS entry points) in addition tofunctions for controlling system firm-ware such as the cursor and soundchannels on the IBM PC.

DOCUMENTATION

The Mix C manual is a large boundvolume that actually consists of fivemanuals in one. It begins with "Get-ting Started," a 19-page guide to thebasics of using the Mix C package.This section touches on some of MixC's optimization abilities and how tomanipulate heap and stack space.

The "Tutorial" section follows, andit is an admirable 120 pages includingan index. I was especially impressedby the range of topics covered: theseinclude pointers, dynamic memoryallocation, and structures. The level ofpresentation seems aimed for inter-mediate programmers.

Next is a 178-page reference man-ual that also contains an index. It isa robust guide to the use of C in gen-eral, dealing primarily with the stan-dard function calls. "Functions," the99-page section that follows, includesdescriptions of the other functionsthat Mix C supports: UNIX functions,

[continued)

260 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Multiuser & LAN Solutions

For IBM PC/XT/AT

MULTIUSER

KT-7/PC2 PC Work-a-like TerminalCompatibility: Multilink Advanced3,

PC-Slave/164Display: 80 x 25, IBM PC character

set, PC look-a-like attributes, 14"

green or amberKeyboard: AT style std. IBM

scan/ASCII codes. 5161/AT and

RT style opt.Pages of memory: 1 std. 2 or 4 opt.Communications: 2 bi-directional

RS-232C serial (data & printer)

portsOperating systems: works with

PC-DOS', MS-DOS5, QNX6,

UNIX7, XENIX5, THEOS8, PICK9,

and Concurrent DOS10.Retail price: $695.00

QUARTET2 4-port I/O card,

RS-232CRetail price: $299.00

LAN

K-Net2 Local Area NetworkCompatibility: NETBIOS, Token-Ring1 software, (Advanced

Netware11 8/86)Data Rate: 1 million bpsCable: Twisted-pair/phone wireDistance: Up to 4000 ft.Addressable users: Up to 255Physical: Half-sized cardOperating systems:

PC-DOSVMS-DOS5 2.0 or laterDedicated file server: Not neededMessage communication:

InteractiveMultiuser solutions supported:

Multilink Advanced3

PC-Slave/164Other features: electronic mail

work data management, and

print spoolingRetail price: $395.00

net-

WORKSTATIONS

KW-l 8088, 4.77 MHz, 512 KbytesRetail price: $995.00

KW-2 8088-2, 8 MHz, 512 KbytesRetail price $1,195.00

KW-3 80286, 6 or 8 MHz,

640 KbytesRetail price $1,995.00

All the above include: monochromemonitor with video board, AT stylekeyboard, 8 slots, built-in K-Net2with remote boot, upgradeable to"complete" PC.

(800) 828-8899(408) 436-6550 (In CA)1705 Junction Ct., Bldg. #160San Jose, California 95112

r a

Kimtron

Trademarks: 'IBM zKimtron 3Software Link 'Alloy ''Microsoft 'Quantum 'Bell Labs "THEOS Software 'PICK Technologies "'Digital Research "Novell © Copyright 1986

by Kimtron Corp.

Inquiry 181 for End-Users. Inquiry 182 for DEALERS ONLY. IUNE 1986 -BYTE 261

REVIEW: MIX C

Table 2: The same benchmarks run on a dual-floppy IBM PC

using PC-DOS

version 2.0.

Mix C Benchmarks —

IBM PC Version

Without Run Time

Support Included

Benchmark Compile t

me (seconds) Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

38

3:20

12921

Fib

40

12:14

4682

Intmath

51

1:46

5017

Sort

55

4:56

9122

Fileio

58

8:54

5922

With Run Time Support Included

Benchmark

Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

3:23

31628

Fib

12:12

23389

Intmath

1:45

23724

Sort

4:55

27829

Fileio

8:48

24629

Speedup

Benchmark

Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

:20

31771

Fib

3:51

23675

Intmath

:11

24002

Sort

1:07

28489

Fileio

7:55

25406

Shrink

Benchmark

Execute time (minutes:seconds)

File size (bytes)

Sieve

3:28

31571

Fib

12:00

23355

Intmath

1:47

23581

Sort

4:58

27770

Fileio

8:49

24569

functions specific to the operating sys-tem (MS-DOS or CP/M-80), and a spe-cial chapter on functions for directcommunication to the IBM PC BIOS.Finally, the 17-page "Tools" sectionis a close look at the Mix Cs softwarecomponents. It is really an extensionof the first section, with the additionof a description of the overlay mecha-nisms provided with Mix C.

Conclusion

I ran the benchmarks on a Kaypro (seetable 1) and an IBM PC dual-floppysystem with 512K bytes of memory(see table 2). For the Kaypro, I ran allthe benchmarks on the computer's in-ternal 10-megabyte hard disk. Therewas no 8087 math coprocessor in theIBM PC; in fact, if Mix C provides 8087support, it isn't mentioned anywherein the documentation.

Compared with other C compilersI have seen, Mix C doesn't break anyspeed records. Devoted programmerswill be unhappy with its inability togenerate machine source code, thelack of a compiler directive for in-lineassembly code, and the fact that ob-ject files created by other compilersor assemblers cannot be linked withMix C object files.

Still, the compiler supports theK & R standard, it works, and it is cer-tainly affordable. Therefore, I am will-ing to overlook its inadequacies. ■

CLEVELAND CODONICS, INC.

18001 Englewood Dr. • Cleveland, Ohio 44130

(216) 243-1198

Tektronix, Wyse Technology, Codonlcaare registered tradenames

262 BYTE- JUNE I986

Inquiry 67

Hl&H-

RESOuJTlQMtAU--PblNT<£ -APPRES&AgLEGRAPHIC^ FOR.SHARP PETA/L.

THE "QtS/ETWRtTBR" PRINTER'SELECTRONIC PRlNTf4EAP THATMAKES FOR. WHlSPER-Q/JlBTPRINTING.

'I^MB^^Bi

The IBM QuietwriterePrinter Model 2for whisper-quiet quality graphics and text.

Quality. That's the word thatsprings to mind when describingthe "Quietwriter" Printer Mode

Its letter-quality printing, forexample, gives you all the crisp-ness and deep, rich gloss of IBMSelectric® Typewriter printing.The quality of its high-resolutiongraphics makes for full curvesand sharp detail. And, of course,its whisper-quiet operation im-proves the quality of your workenvironment.

The "Quietwriter" Printersother qualities? Speeds of up to12. 60 characters per second, depend-ing on pitch and application. Andinterchangeable plug-in fonts thatsupport the full 252-character setof the IBM Personal Computer.(Perfect if you need output inmore than one type style.)

The IBM "Quietwriter"Printer attaches to IBM PCs and tomany other personal computers.And it's part of our growing

family of personal printers.All designed to serve a singlepurpose: To give everything youdo the finishing touch.

For the authorized IBM dealeror the IBM Product Center nearestyou—or for free literature—call1800 IBM-2468, Ext. LC/104.Or contact your IBM marketingrepresentative.

Inquiry 157

IBM Personal Printers...The Finishing Touch

15,000 SAVED FROM CRASH.

No hysteria. No panic. Noreports of data loss. No won-der more than 15,000 AlphaMicro users have chosen ourVideotrax™ backup technologyover streamer tape or floppies.

The best news is it's nowavailable for the IBM* PC-AT,XT and true compatibles.

BETTER TO BE FAIL-SAFETHAN SORRY.

Exhaustive testing andlong term use of Videotraxtechnology prove it morereliable than any other backup

High-tech.

Open yourPC and slidethe controllerhoard into anyexpansion slothow-lech.Hook up VCR tocomputer withstandard con-nector cables.

option available.Even more reliablethan the hard disk you'rebacking up.

At the heart of the systemis a patented video tape con-troller board that employsa standard video cassetterecorder for copying data.Which means Videotrax offersthe sophisticated technology oftoday's VCRs. And the depend-

ability of a durable consumergood.

EASY DOES IT.

If you own a VCR, youalready own half the system.And you already know howto use it. Or you might opt forthe complete subsystem(controller boardplus enhancedVCR) andexperi-ence the

Your basic videocassettes. Reliable,cheap, easy to find

joy of its

automatic, unattended backup

capabilities.

Either way, our menu drivensoftware, clear documentationand wide range of backupmodes keep it simple: Inserta blank video cassette tapeand follow the directions thatappear on your screen.

You can copy or restore yourentire hard disk, specific files,or only files modified since thelast backup, while the systembusily self-monitors for properfunctioning.

And for the price of tapingyour favorite TV shows, youcan record your most valuedcomputer data. Up to 80MBcan be stored on a single cas-

sette at less than a third of thecost of streamer tape.

Of course, if you ever requireservice, your authorized AlphaMicro dealer and our world-wide network of factory servicecenters will provide allthe support you need.For more informa-tion on how Video-trax can keep you offthe crash course, callyour local dealer orAlpha Micro at1-800-992-9779(in California call1-800-821-0612).

DATA BACKUP FROMALPHA MICRO.

V^^^^^^^jjA Sn

alpha micro

Corporate Headquarters: 3501 Sunflower, P.O. Bat 25059, Santa Ana, CA 92799 © 1986, Alpha Microsystems. All rights reserved. IBM is a registered trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines. U.K. Headquarters: Berkshire House, 56 Hershel SI., Slough, Berkshire, Great Britain. European Headquarters 130 Cluivssee de la Hulpe, Box 141050 Brussels, Belgium.

264 BYTE • IUNE 1986 Inquiry 15

HARDW

REVIEW

Four MIDI Interfaces

by Roger Powell and Richard Grehan

Let's assume you have a per-sonal computer and youwant to connect it to a MIDI-equipped keyboard or otherinstrument. One of the firstthings you will need is inter-face hardware to send yourMIDI signals through yourcomputer. The MIDI specification re-quires a current-loop serial interfaceoperating at 31,2 50 bits per second,so it is going to take something morethan just retrofitting an RS-232C port.In this article, we will look at fourMIDI interfaces currently available forsome of the most popular microcom-puters. The TDS-AP for the Apple 11+/lie and the TDSC-64 for the Com-modore 64 are from Syntech Cor-poration. The MPU-401 for either theIBM PC or the Apple 11 machines isfrom RolandCorp. The MIDIMAC forthe Macintosh or Mac Plus is fromOpcode Systems. The interfaces all in-clude at least a high-speed UART withsome sort of clock-generation cir-cuitry, a buffered output stage, and anoptoisolated input stage. (The MIDI-MAC is an exception; it requires nospecial UART, since the Macintosh'sserial ports can operate well abovethe speed required by MIDI.) How-ever, most of the interfaces we'll lookat in this article add extra featuressuch as drum machine trigger signaloutputs and tape synchronization in-puts and outputs.

Of course, if you are an Atari STowner, you are probably reading thiswith a bit of smugness, because theAtari ST has built-in MIDI ports.

TDS-AP

Syntech Corporation's TDS-AP is aMIDI interface on a board that plugsinto the Apple II+/IIe. It includes apair of DIN jacks—one for MIDI in andone for MIDI out—as well as five miniphone jacks: tape in, tape out, foot-

MIDI interfaces for the

Commodore 64, IBM PC,

Macintosh, and Apple II family

switch, clock out, and start/stop.

The tape-in and tape-out jacks allowfor synchronization with a tape deck.If you have a multitrack tape recorder,you connect the tape-out signal to aline-in signal on a track of your tapemachine; this track will become theclick track. You then program whateverMIDI software you're running to out-put a sync tone and record this on theclick track. Now connect the line-outsignal from the click track to the tape-in port on the MIDI interface, and thesync tone that you have just recordedbecomes the master clock for the sys-tem when you begin to record ontothe other tracks of your tape recorder.

You can opt for some hcmds-off eventcontrol by attaching a footswitch tothe TDS-AP's footswitch jack. For ex-ample, we tested the interface withmultitrack recording and sequencersoftware that enabled us to halt therecording process by pressing thespace bar or footswitch. If you haveboth hands busy on a synthesizer'skeyboard, it's much easier to operatea footswitch than an Apple II's spacebar.

The clock-out and start/stop lines ofthe interface can be used to drive adrum machine. The clock-out line con-nects to the clock-in line of the drummachine, and pulses on this line con-trol the machine's tempo. The start/stop line—just as its name implies—provides trigger signals to begin andhalt whatever sequence you haveprogrammed into your drum machine.Of course, you could also use theclock-out and start/stop lines to con-

trol a sequencer.

The clock-out and start/stop lines add features thatmay not be immediately ap-parent. Not only do they per-mit you to control drum ma-chines that are not equippedwith a MIDI interface, butthey provide a direct control path toa drum machine that might otherwisebe at the end of a line of daisy-chained MIDI devices (and wouldtherefore suffer from signal-transmis-sion delays). They also alleviate theproblem that arises if you don't haveenough MIDI-thru connectors avail-able and are unable to hook the drummachine into the MIDI circuit at all.The TDS-AP's documentation is asmall 10-page pamphlet filled mainlywith simplistic diagrams showing howto connect the interface to a tapedeck, a drum machine, and a se-quencer (they presume you alreadyknow how to connect the MIDI portsto whatever musical instrument you'reusing). We were happy to find anelaborate description of the pro-cedure you must go through to createa click track. We rate the documenta-tion as adequate: It provides you with

(continued)Roger Powell (Magnetic Music, POB 328,Rhinebeck, NY 12572) is a professionalmusician and computer programmer. He hasbeen involved with music synthesis as a con-sultant for the Moog Synthesizer Companyand Bell Laboratories, where he was intro-duced to computer music. A long-standingmember of Todd Rundgren's band Utopia,Roger has also played keyboards for DavidBowie and Meat loaf and has released twosolo synthesizer albums. Roger has been pro-ducing his own line of M\D\-related softwaretools for music, including Texture, a 24-trackMIDI sequencer for the IBM PC. RichardGrehan (One Phoenix Mill lane, Peter-borough, NH 034 58) is a technical editorat BYTE.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 265

AT A GLANCE

Name

Type

TDS-APDS-APTDSC-64DSC-64

TDS-AP: for Apple 11 +/He,with tape and drum syncDS-AP: for Apple 11 +/He,with drum sync onlyTDSC-64: for Commodore 64,with tape and drum syncDSC-64: for Commodore 64,with drum sync only

MPU-401

MPU-401: External processingunit, requires interface card forattachment to host computerMIF-IPC: Interface card forthe IBM PCMIF-APL: Interfacecard for the Apple II

MIDIMAC

MIDIMAC: one in, three outMIDI interface for Macintosh

Company

Syntech Corporation23958 Craftsman Rd.Calabasas, CA 91302(818) 704-8509

RolandCorp U.S.7200 Dominion CircleLos Angeles, CA 90040(213) 685-5141

Opcode Systems707 Urban LanePalo Alto, CA 94301(415) 321-8977

Documentation

10-page pamphlet includedTechnical documentation for anyof Syntech's interfaces $5

Prices

TDS-APDS-APTDSC-64DSC-64

$199.95$129.95$199.95$129.95

MPU-401

MIF-IPC

MIF-APL

$200$110$110

MIDIMACMIDIMAC version for

Mac PlusMIDIMAC upgrade for

Mac Plus

$125$175$50

just enough to get going. If you area programmer anxious to do someMIDI application software of yourown, Syntech will send you the TDS-AP's technical documentation for anadditional $5.

TDSC-64

The TDSC-64 MIDI interface for theCommodore 64, also from SyntechCorporation, is functionally almostequivalent to the TDS-AP interface (infact, the same manual is packagedwith both devices); the only major dif-ference is that the Commodore ver-sion does not have a footswitch jack.

The TDSC-64 is about the size of adeck of playing cards and plugs intothe Commodore 64's cartridge expan-sion slot. It has three DIN jacks andtwo mini jacks. One DIN jack is MIDIin, another is MIDI out, and the thirdcarries the clock-out and start/stopsignals. The phone jacks provide con-nections for tape in and tape out.

The third DIN connector mentionedabove is compatible with Rolanddrum machines, but with some minorcable building you should be able toadapt the TDSC-64 for use with otherbrands of drum machines. You have

to bring out the clock-out and start/stop signals to a pair of phone plugs.Fortunately, the pin assignments forthe DIN connector, along with a briefconstruction guide, are provided inthe manual.

MPU-401

Roland has been manufacturing theMPU-401 MIDI interface in versionsfor both the Apple and IBM PC forabout three years. The package con-sists of an internal interface card thatis specific to the host computer bus(called the MIF card), a multiwirecable with DB-2 5 connectors, and anexternal box (the MPU or MIDI pro-cessing unit) containing the actualMIDI serial hardware and custom sup-port circuitry. [ Editor's note: For more in-formation on the MPU-401, see "A MIDIRecorder" by Donald Swearingen in BYTE'sInside the IBM PCs, Fall 1985.] TheMPU-401 was designed to offload tim-ing and synchronizing operationsfrom the computer and is, therefore,known as an intelligent interface ascontrasted with other passive, UART-only devices used for MIDI commu-nication between synthesizers andcomputers. However, the MPU-401

may also be used in UART mode forapplications that do not require theadditional intelligence that the customROM and timers provide. Straightfor-ward jobs like sending and receivingbulk voice data to and from synthe-sizers can easily be accomplishedusing only the basic UART.

For applications such as recordingand playing MIDI data sequencesback, the MPU-401 provides eightprogrammable timers and circuitry forinterrupting the host computer to ini-tiate data transfers. Normally, eachtimer is associated with a single trackof MIDI data to be sent from the hostto the MIDI receiving channel of anexternal synthesizer. As data is con-sumed by the receiver, the timer forthat track will interrupt the host com-puter and request new information.This information packet starts with atiming byte to indicate an entry delayfor the MIDI event that follows. Thetimer is armed with a countdown andwill not send the MIDI packet until thecount reaches zero. Thus, the MPU-401 acts as an event scheduler andallows the host computer to do othertasks in the foreground, such as dis-continued)

266 BYTE • IUNE

State of the Smart,

SmarTEAM 2400

* Bell 103/212A. CCITT V.22, V.22 bis (V.21 optional)

* Auto speed selection (300. 1200 or 2400)

* Auto answer, auto dial (tone or pulse

* Hayes compatible

* Call progress detection (dial tone, ringing, busy)

* Speaker with volume control

* 8 LED status indicators

* 6 self test modes

* 2 YEAR WARRANTY

SmarTEAM 1200AT(BELL)

100% compatible with Hayes 1200 plusfull call progress detection (dial tone,ringing, busy). 300, 1200 full duplex.

SmarTEAM 1200BH(BELL)

Half card for IBM PC. XT. AT andcompatibles,Communication software included.300, 1200 full duplex.

SmarTEAM 2400B

Short card version of SmarTEAM 2400for IBM PC, XT, AT and compatibles.Communication software included.

SmarTEAM V.21/22(CCITT)

300, 1200bps full duplexHayes commands compatible.

E9

Quality Communication Products

HEAD OFFICE:

TEAM TECHNOLOGY INC.

10F, 270, NANKING E. RD„ SEC. 3. TAIPEI.

TAIWAN, R. O. C.

TLX: 19725 PETRCHEN ATTN TEAM

TEL: (02)7414270, FAX: (02)771-2985

Inquiry 341

U.S SALES & SERVICE

MORRISON&DEMPSEy

COMMUNICATIONS

19209 Parlhenio Si Sle DNorlhridge, CA 91324TEL: (818)993-.0195FAX: (818)993-7209TLX: 325524 MODEM NTGE

SINGAPORE:

PET Computsri Service (S) Pte Ltd.

Tel: 5331313

HONG KONG:

RAINBOW COMPUTER PERIPHERALS

Tel: 3-7281819

SOUTH AFRICA:

SPARTAN MICRO MANAGEMENT

Tel: (011)788-5177

* Hayes .s a registered trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.

* iBM PC XT AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.

* MITE is a registered trademark of MYCROFT LABS INC

CANADA

BUDGETRON INC.

1320 Showson Drive Unit 1Mississaugo, OnlorioCanada L4W 1C3TEL: (416)6737800TLX: 06-968080

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 267

Get the Picture with

GL PHOTOBASE

PHOTOBASE is a soft-ware package that workswith data base manage-ment systems such as:dbase II*, R-.Base 4000*and the IBM FilingAssistant*.

Roy's Real Estate 'flfl

addwss: 27 Lilac st, ■ jTaw: HudsonPrice: $ 235,888Lot Six: 3 acres

i&v 1^

n

ULSJJftSLt!• i.V UP

Ower: Philbrtck

K Ft: 3BW sq ft Style: contw.

BeJpoow: 11 Baths: 6Basenent; yes Garage! yesHeat: oil Canslr: stucco

1

Taxes: $ 35B8 Use: 38

Schools: Hudson school district

Renarks; Executive heme

PC-EYE is a high speed,high resolution videodigitizer board that letsyou capture anything youcan see.

K5M Previous Search Hodifu Zoo* Exit

Use cursor keys to Hove selection, press EHIER to select

Now you can open up a wholenew dimension in data baseapplications by merging real-lifecolor pictures with popular database management systems.Pictures of people, products,diagrams, maps, company logos —whatever you want to photograph— can be integrated with yourdata base. Consider these typicalapplications:

Security — verify those employeeswho have authorized clearance tolimited access areas. A data basecontaining employee pictures andpersonnel records can be searchedand displayed for visual verification.

Real Estate — add pictures ofhouses to on-line real estate listingsfor faster property identification andimproved sales presentations.

Electronic Cataloging — picturesof products can be combined with adata base system containingproduct specifications, pricing,availability and much more.

Medical Files — Existing data basesystems containing patient historiescan incorporate pictures of x-rays,cell slides and external bodydisorders. The ability to visuallyinspect previous medical problemsof patients can greatly enhance thespeed and accuracy of futurediagnosis.

Customers, distributors and salespersonnel can quickly search dataand view the resulting product/picture information on one screen.Files can be updated easily,quickly.

It's Easy

With a simple keystroke, pop-out ofyour data base system and into thePHOTOBASE menu. Captureimages of text, photos, artwork and3-dimensional objects with anordinary video camera and ourhigh resolution PC-EYE™ videodigitizer. Pop back into your database system and add the picturename to your data base like youwould any other piece ofinformation. The full functionality ofthe data base system is preserved,but the resulting display is text andpicture information on one screen.

Pictures are displayed in the upperright quadrant of the screen or at afull screen resolution of 320 x 200with 256 optimized colors. Screendisplay can alternate with text,images, or both simultaneouslyviewed.

Call or write and we will send youinformation on PHOTOBASE,PC-EYE, compatible cameras andother imaging equipment in theChorus Family of products.(603) 424-2900 or1-800-OCHORUS.

TM PHOTOBASE and PC-EYE are trademarks ofCHORUS Data Systems.♦dBase II is a trademark of Ashton-Tate; R-Base4000 is a trademark of Microrim, Inc.; IBM FilingAssistant is a trademark of International BusinessMachines Corporation.

Inquiry 63

CHORUS

CHORUS Data Systems, Inc., 6 Continental Blvd., P.O. Box 370, Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054

■■MHH^Hi^HSHBE

REVIEW: FOUR MIDI INTERFACES

playing a musical score or loadingdisk files, while the playback pro-gresses in the background via inter-rupts.

In actuality, a ninth timer exists forwhat Roland calls a conductor track.This counter operates similarly to theother timer tracks, but it is suggestedin the MPU-401 reference manual thattempo changes or other events out-side the data streams of the individualmusic tracks be scheduled using thistimer.

The MPU external box is outfittedwith one MIDI-in jack, two MIDI-outjacks, tape-sync-in and -out connec-tors. Roland DIN-sync output jack, anda metronome audio-out connector.The functions of the MPU-401 may becontrolled by sending one of a num-ber of specific commands to it. Thesecommands break down into severalcategories, which are describedbelow.

Start/Stop, Record, and Playback:

After the host has initialized MIDIevent data pointers for each track,sending a START command will com-mence playback of the MIDI datastreams. You restart playback after aSTOP command by sending CON-TINUE, which does not reset anytimers or status registers before be-ginning to play again. By sending aRECORD command, the MPU-401will interrupt the host whenever datahas been received from the MPU-401's MIDI-in port, typically comingfrom a MIDI keyboard device. Thehost must save the incoming eventdata in a buffer in order to have itavailable for further processing.

Enable/Disable MIDI Thru: Since theMPU-401 is connected between thehost computer and MIDl-equippedsynthesizers, there is a choice ofwhether or not data received fromMIDI in is to be echoed to MIDI out.If. for example, a remote keyboardcontroller is being used—one whichcontains no sound-generating cir-cuitry of its own—then you want thedata sent from the keyboard to bepassed on to the synthesizer receiv-ing on the proper channel. On theother hand, if the control keyboard isalso a sound synthesizer, you do not

want the data sent from the keyboardto be returned, which would createdouble-triggering of notes.

MIDI-format system-exclusive mes-sages dealing with synthesizer voice-parameter data may also be echoedthrough to instruments that are con-nected to the MPU-401 MIDI-out port.

Timebase: The internal counting func-tions of MPU-401 must be based on

a standard timing interval, and thereare seven selections ranging from 48pulses per beat to 192, graduating byincrements of 24. A whole beat is thussubdivided for rhythmic accuracy intotimebase units. Roland recommendsa setting of 120 pulses per beat inorder to provide high enough resolu-tion for real-time sequencing opera-tions.

{continued)

USRobotics' COURIER 2400™.. .The most dependableat 2400- or 1200-bps

You get 2400/1200/300-bpsdata communications andevery first-class feature you'dexpect in an auto-dial, auto-answer modem...at a surprisinglyaffordable price.

But a modem at any price is onlyas good as its performance...Andthat's where Courier 2400 really shines.Don't take our word for it. Ask any ofthe nearly 2,000 electronic bulletinboard system operators who havechosen the Courier 2400 for one ofthe most demanding modem applica-tions imaginable.

Listen to the unanimous chorus ofpraise for the Courier 2400 from toughreviewers at more than a dozen highlyrespected computer magazines.

Consider Courier 2400's perform-ance record—less than one percentof all Courier 2400s sold have beenreturned for service, a record we chal-lenge the industry to match. And weback up our confidence in Courier 2400

with a full two-year parts and servicewarranty.

Quality, performance, value—yourmodem should be this good. It is, ifit's the Courier 2400 from USRobotics.

tfltobotics

The Intelligent Choice in Data Communications

8100 McCormick Blvd., Skokie, Illinois 60076Phone toll free 1 (800) DIAL USRIn Illinois (312) 982-5001

To learn more, send for ourFREE booklet: "24 Questionsand Answers on 2400-BPSModems:'

NAME.

annnrw

riTv

<5TATF

7IP

CniulPANlY

TITI F

PHONE(

PERSONAL USE D BUSINESS USE □

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 269

REVIEW: FOUR MIDI INTERFACES

Tempo and Metronome Functions:

One of the most significant featuresof the MPU-401 is its ability to con-trol the speed of playback automati-cally by sending simple tempo-settingcommands from the host. Not onlycan you set tempo from an absoluterange of 8 to 240 beats per minute,but you can specify relative temposusing signed offsets. Additionally, youcan control the rate of the new rela-

tive tempo, producing gradual speed-ups or slowdowns (accelerando ordecelerando) in the music.

The MPU-401 has an internal, audi-ble metronome with an external out-put jack for connecting to a mixingconsole. The metronome has severalprogrammable modes for modifyingthe number of beeps per beat andplacement of metric accents by alter-nating metronome pitches.

Are you a lictim of the RS-232

CABLE FABLE?

Which one have you heard? For example:"It has a 'standard' RS232 interface," or "All youneed is a standard printer cable," or "If you havethe manuals, I can probably figure it out with mybreakout box."

The truth is that RS232C is one big non-standard. There are literally hundreds of possibleconfigurations. Which one's for you?

THE SMART CABLE 817 — Here's the onecable to connect virtually any computer to nearlyany serial peripheral. No more "standard" cables.It's easy! It's the SMART CABLE SC817 from IQTechnologies. Just plug it in, flip a switch, and its ingenious electronicsdo the rest. Instantly. Automatically.

SMART CABLE 817 is lightweight and compact and has a built-inmale or female connector (you specify). The cable end has both a maleand a female connector. Smart Cable does not require batteries or its ownpower source.

Smart Cable is the first truly universal connector for RS232 interfaces.Use it to connect any computer to any RS232 device. Don't let "cablefables" confound you any longer. Start making intelligent connectionswith Smart Cable.

"Another heaven-sentaccessory." —PC Week

"A marvel of ingenuity. "—Microcomputing Magazine"4 excellents, 1 good. "

—Info WorldReport Card Rating"Tl)e answer to a costlyproblem." —PC Magazine

Just $49.95 plusshipping

Suda^xia^>&^

Call 1-800-227-2817

Dealer inquiries invited

MASTERCARD/VISA ACCEPTED

IQ TECHNOLOGIES, INC. BELLEVTIE, WA

OTHER SMART PRODUCTS: SC 807 (IBM PCjr), SC 809 (Apple lie), SC 821 PLUS (SmartCableMaker), SC 880 (IBM PC-AT), SMART SWITCH BOX 1 000, SMART SWITCH BOX 1300,SMART DATA METER 931.

Internal Parameters: A variety ofcommands, such as read, set, andclear, are provided for altering thecontents of the parameters internal tothe MPU-401. Reference tables arekept for keeping track of notes-on forcertain MIDI channels as well as buf-fers for the play timers. Note-on tablesare necessary for producing notes-offin the event of stopping play whilenotes are locked on.

Synchronizing Functions: TheMPU-401 may be used as the sourceof all timing signals in a multi-instrument MIDI system, or it may beslaved to the timing output of an ex-ternal device. For using the unit as amaster timing source, you may opt forMIDI timing clocks, which are trans-mitted over the standard MIDI-outport: FSK (frequency shift key) tapesync coming from the tape-out jack:or Roland DIN sync coming from theDIN-sync output jack. External syncsignals may be derived from eitherMIDI timing clocks received at theMIDl-in port, or FSK tape sync com-ing into the tape-sync input jack froman audiotape track. (DIN sync refersto a voltage-pulse output signal at arate of 24 pulses per quarter note[beat] and conforms to the stan-dard that is used in many drummachines.)

By using tape sync, you may drivethe computer sequencing softwareto play back along with the tape-recorded tracks, which has beensynchronized via the click track.Likewise, MIDI timing-clock sync maybe employed to lock the computersequencer to the clock of anothersequencing device. SMPTE time code,which is used throughout the filmindustry, can be translated toMIDI timing clocks through an addi-tional piece of hardware (such as aRoland SBX-80) and sent to theMPU-401, thus linking the computersequencer to any other SMPTE-oriented device.

MIDI Data Filtering: The MPU-401can be set so that the generousamounts of data created by con-tinuous controller devices (includingpitch-bend wheels, modulation

(continued)

270 BYTE- |UNE 1986

AMERICAS NEXTWOETTF MOUSE

The bestprice: $99

THE BEST HARDWARE:

LOGITECH has been the leading OEMmouse company for years, quietly providingmice to companies like AT&T, DEC, and H-P.We've designed LOGIMOUSE C7 just for theretail marketplace. And poured all our years ofhardware engineeringinto it. You simply can'tfind a better mouse.

■ IBM PC/XT/ATcompatible throughany serial port

■ NO pad, NO externalpower supply

LOGIMOUSFC7

LOGIPAINT SET ~iAn

With Base Package jlrn

With Plus Package $169

LOGIMOUSE C7 plus PC Paintbrush 3.0 is themost advanced paint set available for the PC.Use LOGIPAINT to design a logo, paint, or drawa picture of a productyou're developing. Youwon't believe its powerwith either free handdrawing or graphics.

HIGH (200 dpi) resolutionTactile feedback switches

THE BEST SOFTWARE:

LOGIMOUSE is now available with all new software that setsnew performance standards for the mouse:

LOGIMOUSE Base Package $99

■ LOGIMOUSE Driver Version 3.0: Faster and smaller. MakesLOGIMOUSE compatible with all Microsoft applications.

LOGIMOUSE Plus Package $119

■ LOGIMENU—Programmable Pop-Up Menu System:Customizable for all your favorite keyboard-based applica-tions. Fully compatible with Microsoft Menu, only better.

■ CLICK: A new concept in mouse software! It resides inmemory, detects which application you are running and setsthe mouse to your predefined setting. You define macros forthe mouse buttons, set the mouse baud rate and protocol,define the pop-up menus to be used by LOGIMENU. Justadd CLICK to your autoexec file and LOGIMOUSE willbe ready to go with each of your favorite applications.

So you can get down to work.II POINT-AND-CLICK SHELL for Lotus 1-2-3: No morejerky cursor movement, no more delays, no morebeeping.To select a cell, execute a command, scrollyour spreadsheet, or call up context sensitive pop-upmenus, just point with the mouse and click!

■ POINTEDITOR-Mouse Based Program Editor:If you think a mouse was not meant for editing,POINT will change your mind.

To place a credit card order Call toll-free

call our special toll-free number: in California:

800-231-7717 800-552-8885

YES

I I want America's next favorite mouse!i Please send me:

□ LOGIMOUSE Base Package

□ LOGIMOUSE Plus PackageD Plus Package Software

□ Base LOGIPAINT SETD Plus LOGIPAINT SET

□ VISA □ MASTERCARD

$ 99$119$ 29S149$169

Add S6.50 (orshipping & handling.Calif, residents addapplicable sales tax.

MONEY BACKGUARANTEE

□ CHECK ENCLOSED

Card NumberSIGNATURE.

NAME

Expiration Date

ADDRESS-

CITY. STATE.

ZIP.

.PHONE.

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME

ffl LOGITECH

LOGITECH, Inc.

805 Veterans Blvd.,Redwood City, CA 94063, USA

Telephone: (415) 365-9852

LOGIMOUSE is;i registered trademark of LOGITECH, Inc. Lotus and 1-2-3 arc trademarks of Lotus Development Corp. Microsoft is;i trademark of Microsoft Corp.

PC Paintbrush is a registered trademark of ZSoft Corp.

Inquiry 196

JUNE !986 -BYTE 271

REVIEW: FOUR MIDI INTERFACES

wheels, keyboard pressure sensors)will not be transmitted to the host. Incertain cases, the sequencing soft-ware does not want to receive all thisdata in order to conserve memory forhigher-priority note data.

Another type of filtering, calledchannelizing, may also be enabled. Bytelling the MPU-401 which channelsare acceptable to receive from, it'spossible to reject or reassign signals

emanating from particular sourcechannels.

MIDIMAC

Opcode System's MIDIMAC interfaceis the ultimate in simplicity. It is a nar-row metallic box measuring I Vi by 6/2by 1 inch that attaches to either theMac's modem or serial printer port,lust plug it in and tighten it with a cou-ple of large thumbscrews. The MID1-

Does your interface give you

A LONG FACE?

It's sad! The hours that people spend tryingT fir Jk t0 §et two pieces of hardware interfaced through

■i * )■ the serial ports. They buy "standard" cables that

don't work! They call the "Tech Assistance" lineand diat's busy. They fiddle for hours with abreakout box and still don't get the correct pinconfiguration.

Well, now diey can smile and use thosehours for something productive!The SMART CABLEMAKER SC821 has arrived

Unlike other cable devices claiming toresolve RS232 connections, SC821 PLUS'S LEDdisplay gives a complete graphic display of die interface. And you knowthe interface is correct because your system is already up and running.

Total time to interface 2 pieces of equipment and figure the correctinterface? About 30 seconds! Try diat with a breakout box.Features:

Instantly interfaces all RS232 serial asynchronous equipment.

Displays the correct cable configuration of the equipment being

interfaced.

Reconfigures for each

RS232 application needed.

Comes with 2 cables with

male and female DB25

connectors on each end.

Does not require batteries

or power supply, derives

power from attached

devices.

• Tri-state LED's. SmartCable logic.

.11181*149.95

plus shipping

SpH04&/l6i&^~

Call 1-800-227-2817

Dealer inquiries invited

MASTERCARD/VISA ACCEPTED

IQ TECHNOLOGIES, INC. BELLEVUE, WA

OTHER SMART PRODUCTS: SC 807 (IBM PCjr), SC 809 (Apple lie), SC 817 (Universal RS-232Interface), SC 880 (IBM PC-AT), SMART SWITCH BOX 1 000, SMART SWITCH BOX 1300, SMARTDATA METER 931.

MAC box houses four MIDI jacks-one MIDI in and three MIDI out.

There isn't much we can say aboutthis device: You plug it in and it works.Since the Macintosh is equipped withserial ports that can operate well be-yond MIDI'S 31.25 kHz, the only hard-ware required for a MIDI interface willbe clock circuitry and optoisolators,hence MIDIMAC's compact design.There are no extra features on theMIDIMAC beyond the two extra MIDf-out ports; we were particularly un-happy to find no drum machine andtape-sync signal jacks available.

Also, if you have purchased theMIDIMAC interface and decide to up-grade to a Mac Plus, you will discoverthat not only has Apple made thePlus's new serial ports' mini D1N-8jacks incompatible with MIDIMAC'sconnector, but even if you could makean adapter cable, the Mac Plus doesnot provide 5 volts on any of the newports' pins. (The Macintosh does, andthis is where the MIDIMAC gets itspower.) Opcode Systems will upgradea MIDIMAC to function with the MacPlus for $50, and since this requiresmodifications to the MIDIMAC's cir-cuit board, you have to mail it in tohave it "fixed." (You can purchase theMIDIMAC in a Mac Plus-compatibleform to begin with for $50 more thanthe Macintosh version.)

Conclusion

Since we purposefully selecteddevices for different machines, itwould not be fair to perform head-to-head comparisons; an interface'scapabilities depend largely on themachine for which it is designed. Forexample, although we mentioned ourdispleasure with MIDIMAC's lack ofanything beyond MIDI ports, it's ob-vious that MIDIMAC's limitation isdue to the fact that the only kind ofports Macintosh provides are serialports. (If you're going to have a foot-switch connector, a clock out, and astart/stop trigger as on the TDS-ARyou're either going to have to use aparallel port or a very high-speedserial port with some serial-to-parallelconversion hardware.)

Still, we hope that we have givenyou an idea of some of the interfacesavailable for your computer. ■

272 BYTE

IUNE 1986

OVERNIGHT DELIVERY

& GUARANTEED

LOWEST PRICES ON

IBM-PC & COMPATIBLE

HARDWARE AND

SOFTWARE.

FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY

Buy it today ... use it tomorrow! Only Logicsoft ships your order thesame day via overnight courier*... at no additional cost to you.

OUR LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE.

We're so confident about our low prices that if you can find a lower

price, we'll beat it by $10T. This includes any bonafide advertised price

or quote on any of the hundreds of products we stock. Our Corporate

Accounts Program also offers attractive volume discounts.

Credit cards and PO's accepted.

TOLL-FREE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Customer service and technical support are only a toll-free call away.

It's another reason why Logicsoft has become the major supplier of

hardware and software to more than 50,000 companies worldwide,

including over 90% of the Fortune 1000.

To order or receive technical assistance, call our National Hotline:

110 Bi-County Blvd., Dept. 543 | 0#%/fc * M f* )JA| EUROPE: 020-83 48 64

Farmingdale. NY 11735 |-OUU~04#~ J4VI Telex: 10759 Logic NL

CANADA: 416-283-2354 NY STATE: 1-800-235-6442 (516) 249-8440 Mail orders to:

Domestic/lnt'l Telex Customer Service: 1-800-431-9037 LOGICSOFT EUROPE BV286905 SoftUR FAX# 516-249-5289 pb 9460, 1006 AL Amsterdam, Holland

Circle #400 on reader service card.

'Applies tp prder totaling over $100. Shipped UPS—free if under $100 (within Com. U.S.). Due to weight restrictions, printers and monitors are shipped UPS—free.'This offer does not apply to items under $100, American Express or Terms orders. In these instances, we will meet any lower price. (We reserve the right to request a current written price quote.)

NOW LEASEOR PURCHASESYSTEMS FROM

LOGICSOFT.

THE ECONOMY AND FLEXIBILITYOF A LOGICSOFT LEASE.

High tech without high cost. Outstanding flexibility. Plus substantial taxbenefits. Logicsoft's new leasing program gives you them all and much more.Lease the computer system you need now for 36 months (customized leaseprograms also available) at one of our low, low rates. At the end of the term,you can purchase the system for only 10% of the original purchase price. Ornegotiate a lease extension. Give Logicsoft a call. We'll begin processing yourlease agreement right over the phone. And deliver your system within three•days. First and last lease payments required in advance. Lease proposalssubject to credit approval. Rates based on current cost of funds.

FREE 90-DAY,ON-SITE SERVICE ON ALL SYSTEMS.

Whether you lease or purchase a system from Logicsoft, you get a uniquebonus: a free 90-day, on-site system hardware service contract. We'vecontracted with one of the nation's largest and most respected independentcomputer maintenance firms to provide you free service in most metropolitanareas. If a problem arises, it'll be corrected quickly and efficiently. At yourfacility. And at no additional cost to you. There's no inconvenience oftransporting your system to and from a service center Wherever you are.Whatever the problem. Expert assistance is only a phone call away.

To order or receive technical assistance, call our National Hotline:

110 Bi-County Blvd., Dept. 543 | Qg%g\ g^MjT 9i|A| EUROPE: 020-83 48 64

Farmingdale, NY 11735 I'OvV'OtJ1" JX7l Telex: 10759 Logic NL

CANADA: 416-283-2354 NY STATE: 1-800-235-6442 (516) 249-8440 Mail orders to:

Domestic/lnt'l Telex Customer Service: 1-800-431-9037 LOGICSOFT EUROPE BV

286905 SoftUR FAX# 516-249-5289 Pb 946°. 1006 AL Amsterdam, Holland

Circle #400 on reader service card.

No surcharge (or MasterCard, VISA, American Express, C.O.D., money order, check or POs (please call for price verification) • No sales tax on orders shipped outside N.Y State • Please add 2% forinsurance and handling (Int'l orders add'l) • We do not bill until we ship. All products covered by mfg's warranty Defective merchandise may be returned for repair or exchange only. We do notguarantee compatibility. Any goods returned for credit are subject to a 15% restocking charge.

SOFTWARE REVIEW

V^

ConcertWare+and songpainter

by Mario Sergio Bernardo

The ConcertWare+ andSongPainter software pack-ages for the Apple Mac-intosh allow you to experi-ment with sound and learnmore about composingmusic. ConcertWare+, whichincludes a complete sound-manipulation toolkit for experimenta-tion, can be educational for both ex-perienced and novice users. TheSongPainter software package, on theother hand, has serious limitations.

Concert Ware+

ConcertWare+ includes three inte-grated music utilities, Music Player,Music Writer, and InstrumentMaker. aswell as 22 demonstration selectionsand 40 preset instrument sounds.

Music Player

Music Player is a separate song-playing file with over one hour ofdemonstration musical selections.Short sentences identify each selec-tion and its composer. Also, thesound quality is very good. You can-not edit the music from the playermode, but you can select demon-stration songs, repeat them, and com-bine the songs in any order. You canchange the tempo and choose anyfour instruments for playback. Unfor-tunately, the Music Player's "scrollingdisplay" does not display real musicnotation; it displays only dots anddashes.

One other annoyance with MusicPlayer is the lack of a volume controlon the play-mode screen: you have toexit to the Apple control panel inorder to modify volume. If you con-nect the audio output in the back ofthe Macintosh to your stereo unit, youcan control the volume from the

Two software

packages for making musicon the Macintosh

stereo as wellsound quality.

as produce better

Music Writer

With the Music Writer utility, you caninput traditional music notation usingthe complete 88-key piano range. Youcan use all note and rest values fromsixteenth to whole notes (includingdotted notes and triplets), dynamic(volume) markings, all major andminor key signatures, as well as anyindividual pitch or accidental (sharp,flat, or natural). There is also a modefor quick vertical chord entry. You canplay every possible combination offour-voice parts for any of the dem-onstration or user-created musicalselections.

Music Writer's display supports realmusic notation with a large staff for-mat appropriate for those unfamiliarwith music notation. An additional,smaller split-screen format above thescore displays the voice part current-ly being edited. Unfortunately, the dis-play does not scroll the music as it'sbeing played. You hear the entireselection, but you are left looking atthe first few measures of the writtenscore.

The creators of Music Writer tookcare to use terms and procedures thatlet you edit music without great dif-ficulty. There are shortcuts for ex-perienced users, including keyboardentry for note and rest durations,accidentals, and octave shifts, and a

very useful sound-with-entrymode that uses the bottomtwo rows of the Macintoshkeyboard as piano keys. Youcan use this feature to reviewchanges you make to an in-strument's vibrato, to a wave-form, or to an attack-decay-sustain-release (ADSR) envelope.Another welcome feature for ex-perienced users is a basic form ofreal-time input of note values usingthe keyboard or mouse. However, youmust insert rest values manually, andyou can only input one voice at atime.

In entry mode, a rhythmic auto-correction feature will correct notes tovalid values. The program supportstime signatures from 1 to 16 beats permeasure and the choice of half,quarter, eighth, or sixteenth notes asthe beat unit. Tempo control in Con-certWare-)- could be improved. Theprogram has 14 stepped values withgaps between values. Since there are34 traditional metronome markings,many of these fall between Concert-Ware-t-'s values and are not available.The editing features in Concert-Ware + are easy to use and includecut and paste, transpose, delete,slurred and tied notes, and a quickway to change multiple note durationssimultaneously. You can change in-strument sounds and dynamic mark-ings anywhere in the score. You canalso edit and manipulate Music Writerscores with MacPaint, perhaps to in-

(continuei)Mario Sergio Bernardo (35 Hill St.,Naugatuck, CT 06770) is a concert saxo-phonist and instructor of music at Keene StateCollege in Keene. NH. He is currently per-forming and doing music research on aFulbright Grant in Portugal.

IUNE

BYTE 273

REVIEW: CONCERTWARE+ AND SONGPAINTER

sert lyrics, note beams, and so on.^Editor's note: Beaming is a new feature inthe latest release of Music Writer. |

ConcertWare+ has excellent print-ing options. It allows full use ofmargins and varied paper and typesizes (see figure 1). It also lets youprint individual voices or any com-bination of voice parts, providing abasic version of instrumental-part ex-traction. This is useful for chamberensembles, quartets, or four-partvocal scores. You can print entirescores or just specific pages.

InstrumentMaker

InstrumentMaker lets you manipulatethe sound parameters of the Macin-

tosh sound chip. You can create newor edit existing instrument waveforms,ADSR envelopes, harmonic-overtoneenvelopes, and vibrato, all by drawingthe desired contour on the screen.You can combine different parametersof existing preset instruments into anew sound and get instant soundfeedback, on your changes by usingthe keyboard.

You can draw waveforms with themouse on screen or create them fromtheir individual harmonic content,starting with the fundamental toneand adding the next 19 harmonicovertones in any mix you desire.Similarly, you can draw the ADSRenvelope directly on screen, without

in

Concerto In D minor (for two violins)Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Now known as a composer, Bach was renowned by his

contemporaries as a violinist and organist. This "Bach

Double" concerto is a favorite among violinists.

J'">//

s

1 iiim9*' *9**iA9i

C I t MM Ms

i Jfc * Jfi ** 'V' t j«i

m

*T

I

9 IS 9 * 9 *p

fire f

Figure 1: Aw example of a printout using ConcertWare+'s printing options, whichallow full use of margins and varied paper and type sizes.

getting directly involved with numericvalues or parameters as on profes-sional music synthesizers.

The vibrato controls are equallyflexible. You can change width,modulation midpoint, length, andsustain.

Concertware+'s documentation isgenerally excellent, although it wouldbe helpful to first-time users to includemore detailed backup proceduresand directions for the organization ofworking disks. This information isfound in an appendix, not at thebeginning of the manual.

SongPainter

SongPainter has very attractive screengraphics, packaging, and an im-pressive manual, but it is a disap-pointing program. The SongPaintermanual cover claims that you will beable to write from "simple songs tosoftware symphonies." The maximumcomposition length, however, is 48measures in 4/4 time. At the slowestof tempos, 48 measures generally ac-counts for only a few minutes ofmusic. Traditional symphonic formranges from 20 minutes on up in dura-tion and includes hundreds orthousands of measures and complex-ities in harmony, rhythm, and or-chestration, beyond the very rudimen-tary capabilities of SongPainter.

SongPainter is an icon-driven musicpackage that represents instrumentsounds and note lengths on thescreen with icons rather than tradi-tional music notation. The instrumenticons are placed in "frames" alongfour horizontal "tracks," each repre-senting an available voice part. Youselect notes by their names (C, C#, D,etc.). When selected, each notesounds so that you can determine itsappropriateness. There are also helpmenus with descriptions of thevarious options available. The manydemonstration selections are groupedby category.

Default Value

A control window lets you select notevolume levels and durations. However,SongPainter's default duration valueof one frame equaling a sixteenthnote can be rather awkward, since

{continued)

274 BYTE • JUNE 1986

YOUR PC WANTS YOU

TO GIVE IT THE SAME ADVANTAGE

YOU GIVE YOUR TAPE DECK

AND VCR.

It's only fair. Not to mention logical. PC's want toperform as well as all your other sophisticated elec-tronic equipment. If you're like millions of informedpeople throughout the world, you rely on theultimate in audio and video recording performance.You rely on TDK.

Well, you should also rely on TDK when it comesto your computer. TDK's Floppy Disks provide thesame consistently high performance. The samelevel of absolute quality. Which is understandablesince all TDK products share an unparalleled levelof technical superiority that spans over 50 years.

&TPK

THE NO-RISK DISK

In fact, TDK is the world's largest manufacturerof magnetic media.

What's more, they're also a major producer ofelectronic component parts, including the mostsophisticated heads for disk drives. What a stra-tegic advantage! With vital "inside" information likethat, it's no wonder their disks provide error-freeperformance.

So, if you want to put a smile on your computer'sface, choose from TDK's family of 5.25-inch stan-dard, 5.25-inch High Density and 3.5-inch No-Risk™Disks. It's to you and your PC's advantage.

1986 TDK Corporation

Inquiry 388

IUNE I986 -BYTE 275

REVIEW: CONCERTWARE+ AND SONGPAINTER

SongPainter

AT A GLANCE

Name

ConcertWare +

Type

Music processor

Music processor

Company

Great Wave Software

Rubicon Publishing

POB 5847

6300 La Calma, Suite 123

Stanford, CA 94305

Austin, TX 78752

(415) 325-2202

(512) 454-5004

Disk Format

one 31/2-inch disk

one 3V2-inch disk

Computer

128K Apple Macintosh

128K Apple Macintosh

Features

40 preset instrument sounds,

32 preset instrument sounds,

custom instrument sounds,

37 demonstration songs,

23 demonstration songs,

playback of individual parts. 3

keypad play and real-time

meters, 7 tempos, all minor

input, playback of individual

keys available, and

parts, visual metronome, 64

miniature dictionary definitions

meters, 14 tempos, all major

and minor keys available,

output as MacPaint document,

and traditional music

notation including ornaments

and special markings

Documentation

Manual

Manual, help function

Price

$69.95

$39.95

music usually uses both longer andshorter note values than a composi-tion's basic beat. It would have beenmore practical for the default value toequal a quarter note (four SongPainterframes), a more usual beat in popularmusic. As it stands, if you decidetoward the end of a composition thatyou need a faster note value than thepresent one-frame value, you have tofirst convert the entire song by dou-bling all the note durations and thetempo, followed by your new quickernote values. If the quarter note werethe default value, you would have twofaster values to fall back on.

Writing a Song

To write a song, you first select an in-strument (perhaps a clarinet) from thevoice window. To enter a sixteenth-note D for the first voice, you wouldchoose the note name D from thetone window and the desired volumeand duration (in this case one frame)from the control window. Finally, click

the mouse over frame 1, track 1 of thesong window (the grid of four horizon-tal tracks upon which you place theinstrument- duration- and pitch-iconinformation). For an eighth note, youwould select a duration of two(frames) from the control window. Aplayback window allows you listen to.pause during, or repeat your song.

The height of each instrument iconcorresponds to the individual notevolume; a blank frame indicatessilence or rest. SongPainter remem-bers the last combination of selectedvalues, allowing you to enter repeatednote characteristics very quickly. Inaddition, you edit on the same songwindow used for writing. You can seethe names of the notes you havechosen, but this does not, in my view,serve as a satisfactory substitute forreal music notation.

Some basic elements of music, suchas measure and beat, have beenstretched to accommodate Song-Painter's bizarre method of music

notation. The frames used in Song-Painter's notation do not correspondto beats. They are subdivisions of thebeat, usually one real musical beatequal to four of SongPainter's frames.In addition, the completed song, oftenwith dozens of different icon blockson the screen, makes it impossible todetect music elements such as pitch,duration, and rhythm. The tapestry oficon shapes is a nice effect but has lit-tle or no value musically.

There are many other problems.There are only seven tempos avail-able, with wide gaps between them.The only time signatures available are4/4, 3/4, and 2/4. Therefore, you can-not set such important and often usedtime signatures as 6/8 and 2/2.Similarly, there are only nine presetchanges available to modify the tim-bre envelope. Also, the only four-partharmonies allowed are major, minor,augmented, diminished, and seventhchords. More disturbing still, thechords labeled as major seventhsound like dominant seventh chordsand vice versa, a very serious mistakesince both serve different musicalfunctions.

Unlike ConcertWare + 's musicaldynamic markings (pp, p, mp, mf, etc.).SongPainter's volume markings arelabeled quiet, medium, and loud.With accenting on. you can em-phasize any sixteenth division of ameasure, one of SongPainter's nicerfeatures.

Conclusion

In conclusion, 1 would highly recom-mend ConcertWare + for educationaland musical exploration. Its strengthsare the InstrumentMaker section andMusicWriter's ease of editing and en-try of music. In addition, Concert-Ware + is also compatible with profes-sional music synthesizers that haveMIDI-to-Macintosh interface capa-bility.

I find SongPainter restrictive andconfusing, and I cannot recommendit, especially not for educational pur-poses. Those with the slightestmusical knowledge will find them-selves bored and frustrated by thismusic package, and novices will er-roneously believe they are learningcorrect musical concepts. ■

276 BYTE • |UNE 1986

THIRD GENERATION PROGRAMMERS FROM GTEK

GTEK MODEL 9000 (E)(E)PROM/MPU PROGRAMMER

If time is money, then let us save some for you. Thenew model 9000, using its quick pulse algorithms, canprogram a 2764 in 10 seconds. The 9000 offershigher performance than the competition has even be-gun to think about. Baud rates to 57,600. Supportsthru 5.12K standard, 8 meg wordwide parts withadapter, Cypress proms, mpu's. NO personalitymodules. As with our other programmers, RS-232, ASCII data formats, and flexible hand-shaking make the model 9000 compatible withvirtually any computer. Introductory price $749.

MODEL 7228 (E)EPROM/MPUPROGRAMMER The standard by which otherother programmers are judged. With thousandsin the field, the time proven 7228 has becomeour most popular programmer. Intelligent al-gorithms standard. Programs a 2764 in one min-ute. Supports devices thru 512K, mpu's. eeproms.cmos. NO personality modules. ^. Price $599

MODEL 7956 GANG(E)EPROM/MPUPROGRAMMER

The 7956 can program eight2764's in one minute using intelli-gent algorithms. Standard supportthru 512K, eeproms, cmos, mpu's. A mustfor production emvironments. Available in

stand alone only configuration for $979

or with RS-232 interface for $1099

MODEL 7128 (E)EPROM/MPU PROGRAMMER The programmer that won't die.Thousands manufactured since 1982. Supports thru 256K. PRICE REDUCED to $389including free PGX communications software, a $95 value.

MODEL 705 Motorola 68705 family programmer. Transfers object code to 28 and 40 pinmpu's. Single key stroke operation $299

MODEL 7324 PAL PROGRAMMER The 7324 has a built-in compiler. It supports 20 and24 pin pals by MM1, NATIONAL, and TI, including the new shared product parts 20S10,20RS10, 20RS8, 20RS4. It operates stand alone or via RS-232 with PALX communicationspackage. Functionally tests parts after programming and securing. External compilers aresupported thru JEDEC and AHS object formats $1499

MODEL 7322 Same as 7324 but no stand alone capability $1249

UTILITY PACKAGESPGMX High Speed Communications Package. For IBM PC, AT and compatibles. Bi-directional data rates to a scorching 57600 bps. Provides flexible manipulation of Intel Hexfiles, both 8 and 16 bit formats, and binary files. Use with model 9000 $149

PGX Utility Package. For PCDOS, CPM, TRSDOS, ISIS, MSDOS. Use with 9000, 7956.7228, 7128 $95

PALX Utility Package. Provides communication, download of Palasm source. JEDEC andAHS object files to models 7324, 7322. 7316 pal programmers $95

CROSS ASSEMBLERS and SIMULATORS

You name the cpu, we've got the assembler. Simulators allow target software developmentand testing on your computer. Versions available for PCDOS, MSDOS, CPM. . Start at $200

ERASERS—We stock both Ultra VioletProducts and Spectronics for your selection.MODEL CHIPS TIMER LAMP PRICE

ACCESSORIES

CABLES—serial $30, parallel $30,custom Call For Quote

MODEL481/482/483 8048familyadapters $98

MODEL511/5128051 family adapter $174

MODEL 755/756 8755adapter... $135

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS? Call Us For A Quote On Custom OEM Programmers.

DE4

8

N

Tube

$80

PE14T

9

Y

Tube

$129

C25

25

Y

Grid

$349

C50

50

Y

Grid

$599

Run CPM Softwareon Your IBMor IBMCompatible

If you are a CPM user who wants to convert toMSDOS or PCDOS or a PC user who wouldlike access to the thousands of CPM programsin existance. here is the perfect solution to theproblem:CPEmulatorfrom GTEK.

CPEmulator is the only field proven emulatorwhich emulates the complete Z-80 instructionset. Terminal attribute emulation is Televideo,Lear Siegler. or the AMS1 standard. CPMCOM programs reside under PCDOS and areexecutable under PCDOS as well as 8086 por-grams.

Comes complete with COPYCPM. a disk con-version utility which allows transferring dataand programs to and from 54 different CPMdisk formats. Free CPM utility programs arealso included.

Need speed? CPEmulators Speed Kit includesNEC V20 processor. (8080 opcodes only)

CPEmulator Z80 emulator $ 199

CPEmulator 8080emulator w/V20 $199

Both versions $298

Call GTEK's CPM Hotline 1-601-467-9019

The Printing Solution:Model 8014 ProgrammablePrinter Switch

V

Finally a way to have asmany parallel printers asyou need even whenyou only have oneparallel port. WithGTEK's program-mable parallelswitch, you canexpand as you re-quire. Perfect for net-works.With the spooling version,you can allocate available memory to fit yourrequirements, get multiple copies and more.

Both use ordinary IBM type parallel printer ca-bles, expand one port to four, and may be cas-caded in Star or Daisy Chain configurations foras many ports as desired. The desired port isselected with a simple escape sequence. Fornetworks, previous selected port is saved onPort Stack and returned to with Return EscapeSequence. Complete with power supply.

Model 8014 Four port programmable reducedswitch $199

Model 8014-128K with 128Kspool memorymemory $399

TEK

Development Hardware/SoftwareP.O. Box 289, Waveland, MS 39576 U.S.A.601/467-8048; telex 315-814 (GTEK UD),INC.

GTEK, PALASM, CPM, MS-DOS. PC-DOS, ISIS, TRSDOS, & CPEmulator are registered trademarks.

Inquiry 148

IUNE I986 -BYTE 277

I

i

The ITTXTRA XP desktop personal computer

You can't buy time.

Long before Queen Elizabeth I, manbegan his quest to hoard that most preciousand elusive of commodities. Time.

He can only makebetter use of the fewhours he already has.Hence, the devel-opment of today'sbusiness computer.

The ITT XTRAtmXP. Ourcrowning achievement.

By matching memory to the muscle ofthe Intel 80286 microprocessor, we're ableto achieve "no wait states!'

Processing never pauses for slowermemory.

Making the ITT XTRA XP thirty per-cent faster than the IBM AT. And fullyXT-compatible.

Giving you speed and flexibility.

Because, being a corporation of manybusinesses, we're in a unique position tobetter understand what you need to grow.

Today, as well as tomorrow.

ITTXTRAXP

COMPAQ286

IBMPC/AT

Lotus 1-2-3 Usee

13sec

15sec

dBase 36sec

52sec

56sec

FormSort 52sec

lmin 5sec

lmin lOsec

All comparisons arc (or purposes of illustration only User's application performance isdependent on application.

A moment's investment todaycan pay off royally tomorrow.

Call (800) 321-7661. In California,(800) 368-7300.

And call quickly. Every moment wastedis a potentially profit-able moment you'llnever possess again.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS

BECAUSE TIME IS THEULTIMATE BOTTOM LINE.

i L9S6, ITT Information Systems, IBM, PC/AT and PC/XT are registered trademarks oi

International Business Machines, Intel 80286 is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation,

Compaq 286 is a registered trademark oi Compaq Computer Corporation, Lotus and

l-2-J an- registered trademarks "I Lotus Dewlopmeni Corporation. dBase is a registered

trademark of Asbton-Tate.

Inquiry 166 for End-Users. Inquiry 167 for DEALERS ONLY.

ITT

HARDWA

REVIEW

The Kurzweil 250 Digital

Synthesizer

by Christopher Morgan

The Kurzweil 2 50 Digital Syn-thesizer means many dif-ferent things to differentpeople.

• For the performing musi-cian, the 2 50 is a fullyequipped real-time perfor-mance instrument that letsyou switch instantly from onevoicing to another. No diskcalls are involved, since themachine has no disk drives;digital samples come directlyfrom RAM and 3.6 to 6megabytes of ROM. The 2 50also lets you store customvoicings on disk using an op-tional Macintosh interface.

• For hardware and digital-sound aficionados, the 2 50'sstate-of-the-art software and68000-based hardware pro-duce a fine imitation of anine-foot concert grand—tosay nothing of other instru-ments and effects. (It doesnot imitate all of thesesounds consistently well, but who'squibbling when the results are thisspectacular!)

• For sound engineers and musicians,the 2 50 has an excellent sequencerprogram for digital recording and mix-ing of tracks. You can easily recordyour own sounds and add them to thesynthesizer.

• The Kurzweil 2 50 gives would-bemusicians the chance to sound likevirtuosos by using tricks like speedingup the music without raising its pitch,quantizing sequences of notes toclean up the rhythm, and so on.

• The 250 is a first-class MIDI machinethat can drive or be driven by dozensof other MIDI devices, including

A system that

offers users sampling,

sequencing, transposition,

MIDI, and a grand-piano sound

scores of MIDI software programs forthe Mac and other computers.• For programmers, composers, andstudents, the 2 50 offers a completemusic development language.

Design Methodology

Designer Raymond Kurzweil wantedto develop a machine capable of re-producing the subtle tonal complex-ity of a piano or other instrument andalso allowing you to create, edit, andperform new sounds with completeartistic freedom and control. TheKurzweil design team has succeededon virtually every count.

The main problem with digitallysampling and reproducing a complex

sound like the piano is thatthe tone changes dramatical-ly when the notes get louderand louder. The ratios of theovertones and the quality ofthe attack change, so that aloud piano-tone waveform isnot a linear extension of thesame note struck softly. Ifyou have access to a piano,try hitting one key progres-sively harder and harder.Note that even the hammerhitting the string becomes afactor in the overall sound asvolume changes, particularlyin the treble notes.

Such complexity poses adilemma to the digital de-signer: How do you capturethe sound of the piano with-out digitizing the entire rangeof dynamics for each note—a process that would requirehuge amounts of ROM stor-age (30 billion bits accordingto Kurzweil)? The 2 50 solvesthis problem with novel data-compression techniques that use pro-prietary algorithms.

The technique is briefly describedin "The Kurzweil 2 50 Digital Syn-thesizer" by Donald Byrd and Chris-topher Yavelow (Computer Music journal,September 1985). "The K250 storessamples in a modified floating-pointformat with 18-bit words. In effect, thefractions contain the waveform withits dynamic range compressed asmuch as possible; most of the

(continued)Christopher Morgan is a part-time profes-sional musician and a former editor in chiefof BYTE. He is currently the editorial direc-tor of lotus Publishing. He can be reachedat POB 829, Brookline, MA 02146.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 279

REVIEW: KURZWEIL 250

AT A GLANCE

Name

Kurzweil 250 Digital Synthesizer

Company

Kurzweil Music Systems Inc.411 Waverly Oaks Rd.Waltham, MA 02154(617) 893-5900

Size

Keyboard, 57 by 27 by 9 inches; pedalpod, 17% by 11% by 41/a inches

Components

Keyboard: 88 notes, velocity-sensitiveChannels: 12

Power: AC 110 volts, 50/60 Hz, 380 watts(220-volt option available)MIDI (in, out, thru): 16 channels, user-assignable; each sequencer track can beassigned to a separate MIDI channel;special MIDI mode slaves one Kurzweil 250to another

Price

Basic Kurzweil 250, $12,970; sound-modeling program, $1995; Sound BlockModule A, $1995; MacAttach software andinterface, $195; stand, $195; plexiglassmusic rack, $75

An expander system is also available andcomprises a Kurzweil 250 without the key-board unit. Three versions can be supplied:a basic system ($9980); base system plusenhanced instrument voices ($11,975); anda base system plus voices, sampling,sound modeling, and Macintosh software($13,970)

dynamic information is in the ex-ponents. For typical musical sounds,the K2 50's separation of the originalsound into compressed waveformand exponent uses the sample bitsmuch more efficiently than would bepossible through uniform compres-sion systems such as those of dbx orsimilar compandors."

Besides its data-compression capa-bility, the 2 50 offers new levels ofperformance in sound quality, usersampling, sequencing, transposition,and MIDI utilization.

Overall Design

The Kurzweil 2 50 is a true digital in-strument. That is, it contains millionsof digital samples of musical-instru-ment sounds (called "soundfiles" inKurzweil nomenclature) stored inROM. Pressing a musical key on the2 50 causes the processor to extractdigital samples from ■ ROM. Thesamples are converted to analogsignals in the channel board.

The basic instrument contains 40soundfiles in ROM—including thegrand piano. Also built into ROM isa series of factory-generated "in-struments," Kurzweil's term for the ef-fects (envelope, tremolo, vibrato, etc.)used to alter a soundfile that affectsits sound.

To hear sound on the Kurzweil, youassign a keyboard setup to the physi-cal keyboard. The keyboard setupcontains one or more instruments,each of which is a modified soundfile.A keyboard setup can be simple (thegrand-piano soundfile by itself, for in-stance), moderately complex (pianoon the right side of the keyboard,string bass on the left), or quite com-plex (clarinet, oboe, stereo vibes, andbass on one layer, and organ on theother, with the restriction that theorgan will sound only if you press thevelocity-sensitive keys with sufficientforce). It's easy to edit keyboardsetups with the keyboard editor.

Hardware

The Kurzweil 2 50 Digital Synthesizercomes in a compact case that lookslike an electric piano or an organ atfirst glance. It is quite a handful totransport and requires two people tolift it. Beneath the main unit is a

separate module, or pod, containingthe power supply and two footpedalsthat normally control sustain andmute. The functions of these twopedals, like virtually every other knoband slider on the 2 50, are user-assign-able. By isolating the power supply inthe pod, the designers have helped toreduce possible hum in the system.

The action of the 88-note, velocity-sensitive wooden keyboard is striking-ly similar to that of a grand piano.Directly above the keyboard is thecontrol panel containing 38 buttonsand sliders and, in the center, a24-character-per-line, two-line LCDthat serves as the main user interface.(A close-up of the 2 50's keyboard andcontrol panel is shown in photo 4 of"Digital Music Synthesis" by RobertMoog on page 165 of this issue.) Astandard calculator-style keypad isused to maneuver through commandmenus.

At the far left of the control panelare four sliders used to tune the in-strument, to pan sounds between thetwo stereo output channels, and toadjust overall volume. To the right ofthese sliders is a group of six buttonsand three more sliders used to con-trol chorusing (a whole set of pseudo-reverberation and echo effects toenrich the sound of the synthesizer),to assign alphanumeric names to filesand keyboards, and to adjust bright-ness, detuning, etc. Buttons in thecenter of the panel control transposi-tion, the footpedals, and so on.

To the right are the controls for thesequencer, the sound-modeling pro-gram (digitizer), the various editors,the MIDI interface, and the interfaceto the optional Macintosh computer(via Kurzweil's MacAttach software).The interface is used to store customsoundfiles, keyboards, and keyboardsetups on Macintosh disks, enablingyou to build up a library of customsounds and to trade sounds withother users via disk or modem.

There are three main microcom-puter boards inside the Kurzweil 2 50:the central processor, the channel-group processor, and the channelboard (see figure 1). The central pro-cessor is a Motorola 68000 runningat 10 MHz. It has 128K bytes of ROM

[continued)

280 B YTE • JUNE 1986

Remember the first time you

upgraded your

color graphics hardware?

The thrill is still the same.

The discovery of color graphics.As a child, it was a significantevent. As a business person, itwill change the way you useyour personal computer.

Genoa Systems proudly in-troduces a new and colorfultechnology for the PC calledSpectra EGA. The EnhancedGraphics Adapter that lets yourediscover the benefits, and thethrill, of color graphics on yourPC.

An EGA with a bettervision.

EGA compatibility is an art thatonly Spectra has mastered. And,while other EGA hardware is in-compatible with current in-dustry standards, Spectra EGAfully supports hardware andsoftware designed for the IBMEnhanced Graphics Adapter,Color Graphics Adapter andMonochrome Graphics Adapter.And the Hercules Board.

This means that you don'thave to wait around for new

software updates in order tobegin enjoying your EGA today.

A lot more than just prettypictures.

The first thing you'll rediscover

with your Spectra

EGA is color. There

is a whole lot more

than ever before.

Sixty-four separate

colors, in fact, from

which any sixteen

can be displayed at

once.

Next, you'll notice

a higher resolution in

both text and graphics modes.

The real fun comes in puttingthe board to work. You'll seesoft scrolling, panning and win-dowing that was never beforepossible on a PC. And theflicker-free display will allowyou to regulate thesemovements at any speed, or inany direction.

There are 512 characters carriedin Spectra's memory that can all

be displayed at once. Which istwice as many as previouslypossible on a PC.

And if you wish to use othercharacters, or even create yourown alternate character set,Spectra will support those, too.

More colorful features.

Each Spectra EGA comes fullyequipped with a parallel printerport, light pen interface and256K RAM on the single board.This is especially good newsbecause a full 256K RAM isneeded to run most populargraphics software effectively.

One thrilling price.

Perhaps the best news isSpectra's price.

Upon first glance you may findthat the Spectra EGA and theIBM EGA seem to be veryclosely priced. But look again.Because the standard IBM EGAonly comes with 64K RAM,whereas Spectra EGA comeswith a full 2 56K.

Now, you may purchase the ex-tra memory board you'll needfrom IBM at an additional costof about 70-80 percent. Or youcan buy Spectra EGA fromGenoa... and rediscover thethrill of a bargain.

Spectra Enhanced Graphics Adapter

To find out more aboutSpectra, or a qualified Genoadistributor near you, call408-945-9720. Or write toGenoa Systems Corporation,73 E. Trimble Road, San Jose,CA 95131.

Spectra EGA from Genoa.Evolution in color graphics.

Genoa

We make PCs better.

Inquiry 141

IBM, Hercules and Crayola are registered trademarks of IBM Corp., Hercules, Inc. and Binney & Smith, Inc. respectively.

REVIEW: KURZWEIL 250

Pitches can be changedon each channelindependent ofthe other channels.

and 128K bytes of battery-backedRAM for sequences, keyboard setups,instrument definitions, and generaluse. The system is extremely fast:Switching from one instrument soundto another is virtually instantaneous.By comparison, the MacAttachprogram plods along, taking from 2to 4 minutes to load a custom sound-file.

The conversion to analog soundtakes place in the channel board,which contains 12 channels, each withits own digital-to-analog converter,low-pass filter, and voltage-controlledamplifier. A mixer combines the 12tracks down to 2 stereo outputs. Forstudio sound work, the Kurzweil offersbalanced XLR inputs and outputs aswell as unbalanced high- and low-level

connections. The Kurzweil 2 50 sam-ples at a variable rate, meaning thatpitches can be changed on each chan-nel independent of the other channels.

The entire main chassis slides outof the unit at the rear for easy access.The engineers obviously put a lot ofthought into the design of the boardsand connectors. They are particularlyeasy to remove for servicing or up-grading.

To augment the sounds describedfor the basic 2 50, you can add the op-tional Sound Block A or B modules,which contain a set of 15 additionalvoices and 84 new factory-definedkeyboard setups. The new keyboardsetups also combine several of thenew and old sounds. Further soundblocks are planned for the 2 50,including the recently introducedSound Block C, which features severalnew pipe-organ sounds.

Software

The possibilities for sound control onthe Kurzweil 2 50 are virtually limitless.You control it by selecting commandsfrom a large menu tree. The com-mands appear in the two-line LCD.

The simplest way to move around themenu is to use the four cursor-controlarrows. Pressing the left and right ar-rows moves you back and forth withina given level of the tree: pressing theup and down arrows shifts you up anddown the various levels of the tree.You can also access any functiondirectly by punching its code numberinto the numeric keypad or by using"shortcut" keys, a technique similar tothat used in the Apple Macintoshwhen you want to avoid using themouse to click on menu items. Youcan then access commands withouthaving to step through the menus.However, you need to remember thatcertain Kurzweil keys get reassignedwhen you're using the various soft-ware editors.

Keyboard-Setup andInstrument Editors

The keyboard-setup editor lets youcreate your own keyboard setups outof combinations of instruments andsoundfiles. Up to 40 such keyboardscan be stored in the keyboard library,which is in battery-backed RAM, or on

(continued)

FRONT PANEL »

MUSICALKEYBOARD

PROGRAMROM

MIDI ■•

COMPUTER PORT

SOUND-CARTRIDGE

ROM

(NOT IMPLEMENTED)

CPU

SOUNDROM

CHANNEL-GROUPPROCESSOR

RAM

FOR SYSTEM.

SEQUENCER,

KEYBOARDS,

AND INSTRUMENTS

CHANNEL BOARD(WITH 12-CHANNELTO 2-CHANNEL MIXER)

,STEREOOUTPUTS

TODIGITIZER

SOUND-MODELINGRAM

Figure I. Block diagram of the Kurzweil 2 50 Digital Synthesizer, showing the three main microcomputer boards: the centralprocessor, with its on-board Motorola 68000 microprocessor: the channel-group processor, used to extract and combine soundfiles:and the channel output board, which mixes as many as 12 channels of information into 2 and also serves as the input section forthe digitizer.

282 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 17 for End-Users. Inquiry 18 for DEALERS ONLY. —►

AT ONLY 80K

♦ ♦ ♦

IT'S A

WHOLE NEW BALLGAME!

Multiple Calendars... a system sopowerful that it can keep track of a wholeoffice, or a busy individual. Daily, weeklyand monthly ... you can track appoint-ments and business expenses... even setalarms that show text from appointmentslots, (alarm now automatically re-sets atre-boot.) Includes full search facility andcoupled, daily to-do list.Online Databases ... both free-formand structured databases available at thetouch of a hotkey. The template makerallows you to create structured entryforms for your Homebase databases inminutes and the full search facilities letyou manipulate the data easily.Phone Message Pads... justlike the paper ones, but search-able, sortable and printable.On-Screen ClockCut and PasteScrajen Saver

Mobile Homebase ... Homebase'sReport Generator sorts, composes andprints information from your Homebasedatabases and calendars to clip into yourappointment book when you're on theroad. In addition, it can print out mailinglabels, continuous form Rolodex™ cards...it can even do mail merge.DOS Services ... View up to fourdirectories onscreen at once, copy or erasegroups of related or unrelated files, viewand even edit ASCII files... and lotsmore. Create, delete and move betweensubdirectories visually.

PhoneiDirectory ... you can search,sort, Autodial from and even print yourphone directory.

^*v Available at better dealers... worldwide.

PC Magazine

Top Software

Product of the Year!

ase

Now, you can have it all... all thesoftware you need resident in RAMand plenty of memory to spare!Because if you've got a hard disk,RAM disk or extended memory,Homebase now sets up a data spaceto swap data out when you call upone of Homebase's features. It'ssimple, very powerful and verysophisticated. And it allows us togive you the kind of Homebase you'vebeen asking for... one that needsless than 80K!

In February, PC Magazine said,"Homebase is so elegant that it hasone up on SideKick. One way to lookat it is to say that Borland's productis a first generation organizer, whileAmber's is second or third generation.This is one of those rare softwareofferings you have to see to believe.Each of Homebase's services couldmake it in the marketplace as a fullfeatured stand alone product." Andthat was before we reduced theimpact on RAM from 176K to80K (and added a voice autodialerand an online editor)!

Imagine all these features,with so little overhead:

Type-Ahead KeyboardBuffer ... User definable size,accepts control characters.Online Editor ... Open anotepad, or edit a text file.Autodialers ... (voice and data)ASCII Table... and Home-base allows you to add any othertable you'd like, easily.

Quickterm Terminal... Now, you'llhave the ability to set up your computerto answer the modem and receive Elec-tronic mail in the background whileyou're working in another application.You'll even be able to bring up Lotuswhile you're online!

Hit Alt Shift Q and jump right into theterminal no matter what other softwareyou're running or plan to run while you'reonline. Includes Autodialer that savesand implements entire configurations.Scroll-back, X Modem file transfer andmore.

On-Line Context-Sensitive HelpCalculator ... handles formulas,simple and complex math. Onscreen tapekeeps track for you, converts between hexand dec, adding machine mode ... andmuch more. Variable window displays up Dealer, distributor and corporate quantity discounts phone: 408-996-1883

to 26 variable values at once. "Orders outside the U.S., please add $20 shipping and handling. (U.S. funds, please)

SideKick is a trademark ol Borland International. Microsoft Word is a trademark ol Microsoft WordStar 2000 is a trademark o! MicroPro. Lotus 1 -2-3 is a trademark ol Lotus Corporation. dBase lll-t- is a Irademark ol Ashlon-Tate.

SAFE!!!

Homebase Version 2.0 is compatible withmost popular software, including Lotus,Word, DBase III+, WordStar 2000, andperipherals such as the Hercules mono-graphic card, and EGA.

Call Toll Free800-538-8157 ext. 824

SPECIAL OFFER

Trade in your SideKick!

Get Homebase 2.0 for $49.95

(until July 15,1986)Just Send Us Your SideKick Disk!

in California

800-672-3470 ext. 824

Please enclose cheque or money order or...

□ Visa d MasterCard a American Express

Card#

Exp. date

Send to:

Amber Systems

1171 South Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd.

□ Homebase $69.95* per copy (Not copy-protected) San Jose, CA 95129

D SideKick Trade In $49.95

D Homebase Update $29.95

Please add $5 shipping and handling D CA residents add 6/2% sales tax. 30 day money-back guarantee.

Amount enclosed $ For the IBM PC, XT, AT and compatibles.

Name

Address

City

Phone: (Home).

State.

Phone: (Office) _

.Zip.

Ext:

Inquiry 41

More terminalswithout more computer

The advantages are clear. A Bay Tech port contender addsmore users to your computer and does it at a price that's farless than expensive hardware or software modifications. AModel 5218B, for example, doubles your users by allowing12 terminals to contend for 6 ports. Simple to set up anduse, with easy-to-understand messages, the port contendersfeature protocol conversion; user queue; disconnect byoperator, computer or time-out; hardware or X-ON/X-OFFhandshaking; and more. lonen c%n t-ir\-»

Seven models, $629 to $1,750. (oUUJ SZ3-Z/UZ

•►

BayTech

DATA COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS

Bay Technical Associates, Hwy. 603, P.O. Box 387, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi 39520(601)467-8231 Telex: 9103331618 (BAYTECH)

DO YOU KNOW WHEREYOUR PROGRAM HAS BEEN?

If you know where your program is spendingits time, you can improve its performance.

The Watcher makes it easy.

The Watcher collects data from one or more runs ofyour program. You can then instruct it to display asa histogram the percentage of time spent in differentparts of your program and in DOS functions.

The Watcher uses symbolic information from the linkmap, including line numbers, or information you pro-vide to relate the data to your source program.

THE WATCHER KN WS!

MasterCard

tyo*«f

IIMC

39

95

SOFTWARE

Forest Road, P.O. Box 107Wilton, New Hampshire 03086MC or Visa orders: (603) 654-2525

For any . COM or .EXE on PC. XT AT or compatibles DOS 2.X or 3.X. Not for use with Basic or other interpreters.

REVIEW: KURZWEIL 250

a Macintosh disk using the MacAttachinterface program.

The degree of freedom you have increating keyboard setups is almostfrightening. You can create your ownsounds, musical or otherwise, andassign them to keyboards.

The instrument editor lets you con-trol the chorusing, vibrato, tremolo,voicing, global parameters, and, viathe envelope editor, the shape of theenvelope waveform. The latter canconsist of up to 2 55 separate seg-ments, each of which can be a loga-rithmic-attack, exponential-growth,exponential-decay, or delay segment.Throughout, you have precise controlof how quickly segments change inamplitude, what their absolute limitsare, and so on.

Global Parameters

There are 10 user-controllable func-tions that affect the Kurzwei! 2 50globally. They are sustain, brightness,keyboard dynamics, tremolo, vibrato,pitch-bend, channel stealing, main-tenance, chorus, and transposition.Some are straightforward, such astremolo and vibrato. Others, such aschorus, are complex and can have aprofound effect on the 2 50's sound.

Chorusing, as defined on the 2 50.involves combining a sound with al-tered versions of itself that aredelayed in time or changed in pitchor volume. Chorusing can create theimpressive illusion that an entiregroup of instruments is being playedinstead of just one.

Chorusing should always be appliedjudiciously, since certain keyboardsetups used in the chorus modequickly use up the available 12 chan-nels. At that point the software must"steal" channels by selectively silenc-ing some of the notes currently beingplayed in order to play the newlystruck keys. You have control overwhat algorithm the software uses tochoose the notes to be "abandoned."Channel stealing is helpful in somesituations but cannot get around theabsolute hardware limitations of thebasic system. (Still, compared to themonophonic, or one-note-at-a-time,synthesizers of the 1960s, today'spolyphonic synthesizers are a plea-

\continued)

284 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 329

y^

I

, 0cJ0

A stnicturectprogramming languagyou'll really feel comfortable with.

Suggested retail price $ 149.90Educational site licenses available fromAddison-Wcsley Publishing.

True HASH; Language Sv.ti.-ni is.i tradcmarKoiTruc Basic, Inc.Macintosh iiurradcmarkofAppte Computer Corp,Amiga is:i trademarkotX!ontriiod<)rc Business Machines.IBM isatradcfnarkot International Business Machines Corp.

You know John Kemcny and Tom Kurtz. Theydevebped the original BASIC. Now they'reback with an even better version: a flexible,easy-to-use structured programming languagethey call True BASIC

True BASIC oners a Mill selection of controlstructures. External procedures can becompiled into libraries,makingTrue BASICfaster and more powerful than anv otherprogramming language.True BASIC has a complete matrix algebrapackage and die best graphics ever in a higherlevel language. And there are optional librariesfor tilings like sorting and searching and 3-D

True BASIC programs run on any computerwhich runs True BASIC, good news for userswith more than one kind of PC.

You'll love True BASIC. Whether you'reprogramming for your own applications,teaching others, or developing products to go

to market, send in the coupon below to receivea free demo disk.

,,,

Available for the IBM-PC'" and compatibles,Apple Macintosh,™ and Commodore Amiga.'

To order, talk to your local

dealer or call (603)

643-3882 TODAY! —-

39 South Main Street,

Hanover, NH 03755 (603) 643-3882

Mv computer is: D IBM-PC/compatible□ Apple MacintoshD Commodore Amiga

□ I'D LIKE TO GETMYFREEDEMO DISK.

D I'd like more information on the True BASIClanguage products.

□ I m ready to buy. Call me and tell me how.

□ I'd like information on True BASIC'Mathematics Scries and other products.

Name

Title

Company/University

Address

City, State, ZIP-

Telephone

Inquiry 357

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 285

REVIEW: KURZWEIL 250

sure.) One way to get around the limi-tation of 12 channels is to use the2 50's MIDI capability to drive exter-nal slave synthesizers such as Kurz-weil's expander (which is essentiallyanother 2 50, but without the key-board).

Transposition

The 2 50's transposition feature is aparticularly successful design. Let's

say you learned a piece of music inthe key of C, but you need to accom-pany someone in the key of B-flat.Simply hit the transpose-down keytwice, and the synthesizer will play inB-flat. There's no need to learn a newarrangement of the piece. Then if youhit two more keystrokes on the trans-pose-up key, you're back in the key ofC. There are five modes of transposi-tion: octave-pitch shift, chromatic-

Don't get burned bysurge protection alone*

Now get total power protection... for as littleas $139... with the Personal Computer Line Tamer™Power Conditioner.

Why risk any powertrouble?

You will if you buy justa surge protector.Transients and spikescause less than halfof all power prob-lems. Overvoltages,brownouts and justplain power noisecan mess up yoursystem just as badly-and they're much more fre-quent, Only Line Tamer's ferro-resonant technology protectsyou from any conceivable power problem, short of a blackout

Line Tamers have protectedthe big boys for years, on allthe big mainframes and minisThose guys would laugh atsurge suppression alone.

SHAPE

MAGNETRONICS. INC

Choose from 150,300,450,or600VAmodels for the LineTamer that's right foryou,

Does it make senseto you to be half safe... especially whenso few dollars are in-volved?

You won't find this to-tal power protectionfrom anyone else at anywherenear the price, so contact us forcomplete specifications and thedealer nearest you.

THE CLEAN

POWER

SOURCE

9CM DuPage Avenue, Lombard, IL 60148Phone 1 312 620-8394-TWX 910-991-2352

pitch shift, octave transpose, chro-matic transpose, and timbre shift.

Sequencer

The 2 50 comes with a sequencingprogram that lets you store note se-quences in much the same way as youwould with a tape recorder, althoughthe process is entirely digital. The se-quencer does not record actual tones.Instead, it records which keys arestruck on the keyboard and how hardthey are struck. It also preserves theeffects associated with each voice be-ing played. You can play a piece ofmusic, then replay it to edit mistakesor change effects. The sequencer isextremely easy to use; it even lets youstore a sequence on a Macintosh diskusing the MacAttach interface pro-gram. You can control every parame-ter of a sequence with great precision.With the 2 50 sequencer, you don'tneed a separate drum machine, sinceyou can quickly create your own"loops." A loop is a sequence ofmusic that repeats continuously. Youcreate the first loop, then instruct thesequencer to play it over and over.Also, since the sequencer is recordingkeystroke events rather than actualmusical pitches, you can speed up orslow down a sequence with a few key-strokes. This enables you to recorddifficult passages at a slow tempo andthen speed them up to VladimirHorowitz specifications. Anotherpractical application is the so-called"time-compression/expansion" tech-nique used to create commercials thatare exactly one minute long. The se-quencer lets you lengthen a piece ofmusic that is, for example, 58 secondslong to exactly 60 seconds.

The Sound-ModelingProgram

The sound-modeling program, ordigitizer, lets you create your ownsoundfiles from tape recordings, rec-ords, or even a live microphoneplugged into the 2 50. The user inter-face for the digitizer is cleverly de-signed and particularly easy to use. 1found I could create an entirely newkeyboard of sounds in just a fewminutes. You can have someonespeak or sing into a microphone, thendigitize that voice into the 2 50 to

286 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 308

REVIEW: KURZWEIL 250

create an Uncle Harry voice, or what-ever. The 2 50 automatically calculatesthe pitches of adjacent notes. Theprocess is the culmination of thevenerable practice of composing with"musique concrete," or modifiedsounds taken from nature.

You can store user-created sound-files on disk (through MacAttach) andmodify them just like you can thefactory-installed files, and you cancombine them with the factory-in-stalled files to create striking effects.

Several features are worth pointingout in the digitizer. One is the highfidelity that is possible with thehighest sampling rate of 50 kHz. Theother is the ease with which you canedit the sampled sound. Once sam-pled, a sound can be "trimmed" toremove unwanted material at the be-ginning or end of the sample.

You can trade soundfiles. instru-ments, and keyboard setups withother Kurzweil users via disk ormodem. I belong to PAN (the Per-forming Artists' Network), a databasebulletin board for electronic musi-cians and audio engineers. The Syn-thesizer and MIDI Development Net-work keeps several soundfiles in thelibrary, which members can down-load. I recommend PAN to anyoneseriously interested in computermusic synthesis. For more informa-tion, call (215) 489-4640.

MIDI Interface

MIDI is the ubiquitous communica-tions scheme for digital music devicesthat has become a de facto standardin the music industry.

The Kurzweil 250 offers a particular-ly full implementation of the MIDIspecification and allows the synthe-sizer to control or be controlled by avariety of other synthesizers, hard-ware devices, or computers. The 2 50has MIDI-in. MIDI-out, and MIDI-thrujacks on the back panel.

Documentation

Considering the complexity of themachine, the 2 50's documentation issurprisingly good, although therewere gaps in the earlier versions—nocomprehensive diagrams of the soft-ware command trees, for instance.

{continued)

Need Research That UtilizesComputer-AssistedTelephone Data Gathering?

Want to gather information rapidly using state-of-the-artcomputer-assisted telephone interviewing? Need fastaccess to tabulated results? Require integrated graphicswith sophisticated analysis? Are you seeking real-timeinformation?

Call R=s=&chN=T atMcGraw-Hill Research

ResearchNet is the leading edgeapproach to research that integratesstudy design, computer-assistedtelephone interviewing, on-linetabulation, and report analysis capa-bilities as well as real-time data gath-ering. ResearchNet links togetherMcGraw-Hill Research projectteams, interviewers' terminals, re-spondent input, and you—to producetimely, accurate and meaningfulstudy results.

For a quote or proposal callSheryl R. Fox (609) 426-5946(Information Data Gathering) orJoseph T. Collins (212) 512-3264(Full-Service Research) orwrite David R Forsyth atMcGraw-Hill Research, 1221Avenue of the Americas, NYNY 10020

m

If it's a marketing research problem,we probably pioneered the solution.

ISN'T IT TIME TO TRADE INYOUR NORTON UTILITIES™*

/ other favorite utility, for the next generation disk and file management system?

DMS/The Disk Management System is THE ANSWER!!

DMS is an Easy to Use, Menu-Driven, Full Screen softwarepackage that will help you:

INCREASE SYSTEM SPEED AND RELIABIITY using the

Align and Pack Commands

EFFICIENTLY LOCATE AND REORGANIZE

INFORMATION with Search and Sort commands.

QUICKLY EXECUTE applications using function keys.

GET A FULL PICTURE of information on your disk with

Tree, Dump, and Map commands.

RECOVER WITH EASE, erased files using the Recover

command.

CUSTOMIZE attributes of files and directories.

INCREASE YOUR EXPERTISE with these and many more

functions.

Over 40 Disk and File Management Functions at your finger tips.

WARNING: YOU MAY NEVER HAVE TO BUYANOTHER DISK/FILE UTILITY AGAIN!!

* In tact, you can lave an additional J10 by mailing in the distribution diskette of your obsoleteutility. Norton Utilities Is a trademark or Peter Norton.

All these features normally priced at $99.00 now only $94.00 with this ad

Demo diskette available for only 55 Maryland Residents please add 5% sales tax

To order direct call: (301) 384-1425 or Toll Free: 1-80O-524-1081Send order and payment to

12904 Olivine Way

Silver Spring, MD 20904

<£&T9ystems Inc.

DMS runs on IBM PC. PC/XT, PC/AT and most compatible systems, running DOS 2.0 and above.

Inquiry 393

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 287

Inquiry 184

REVIEW: KURZWEIL 250

rSB*er

* wrfterv P°^ere ,a an off»ce

an extra toucn

mice condensed. ting

SssSsss5

rjecenders« rantv

.«*«"£I grantee

„« MEMORY^ for-anew 600 s89

Lap

T/ie £>f^^est bottleneckto using the 250 istAe IvkcAttac/i program.

This situation has since been allevi-ated by the excellent diagrams in theByrd and Yavelow paper, copies ofwhich have been sent to all Kurzweilowners.

One drawback to the documenta-tion is that it's hard to find thingswhen you need them. However, thosesections describing the sequencerand the sound-modeling programsare particularly well written.

New Developments andMiscellaneous Notes

The biggest bottleneck I found tousing the 2 50 is the MacAttach pro-gram. At 56.700 bps. MacAttach ver-sion 2.0 (which I used for this review)is far too slow, taking from 2 to 4minutes to load one custom sound-file. This would be prohibitively slowfor the live performer. To compoundthings, MacAttach makes no use ofthe Macintosh's graphics, and its func-tions are restricted to loading files toand from the synthesizer's memoryand making disk copies. However, thispast winter the Kurzweil people toldme that they plan to announce Fast-link, an interface card for the Kurzweilthat will increase MacAttach datatransmission tenfold, making it pos-sible to load a file in 5 to 10 secondsinstead of 2 to 4 minutes.

They are also optimizing the Kurz-weil 2 50 for use with a Macintoshequipped with a hard disk drive, andin particular, to work more efficientlywith sophisticated MIDI-based musicsoftware such as Mark of the Uni-corn's Performer and Southworth'sTotal Music.

In response to criticism that thepiano voice has some weaknesses(slight pitch aberrations, certain tub-biness in the midrange, and slight dis-continuities from one keyboard regionto the next), the company has re-masked the ROMs containing thepiano voice (and several others). It isnow much smoother and more ac-

curate. The new harpsichord voice isalso excellent, as are several othernew voices in the upgraded software.The approximate charge for retrofit-ting to the new voicings is $2 500.

Redoing the ROMs gave the de-signers the chance to convert from2 56K-byte chips to 1-megabyte chips,freeing up several slots on themotherboard for more sound blocks.Announcements of new sound blocksshould be forthcoming.

The currently available Sound BlockB features 10 new rock-drum sounds.all recorded in New York with the helpof such musicians as Phil Collins andthe Thomson Twins. It also includesan electric piano, electric guitar, andother voices.

I have a library of about 20 customsounds for the 2 50 that 1 obtainedfrom the company and from usersgroups. Most of them are adequate;a few are standouts. It's great fun tocreate your own.

Conclusions

For a variety of reasons. I feel theKurzweil 250 Digital Synthesizer is themost important advance in the art ofcomputer music synthesis in the past10 years. Other approaches may havetheir particular advantages, but no-where else have I found a machinethat can do all the things the 2 50 cando for the price.

The 2 50 is not cheap, but combinedwith a good analog or digital multi-track tape recorder, it's just about allyou need to create a high-poweredelectronic music studio. The design in-novations contained in the 2 50 willundoubtedly be copied by others, andit's only a matter of time before thelapanese begin to upgrade their de-signs. (Kurzweil is in fact working witha lapanese company to create a new.lower-priced design.) When the nextwave of machines arrives, the state ofthe art will really take off. ■

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kurzweil, Raymond, "The Goals of theKurzweil 2 50." August 1984. unpub-lished.

Loy. Gareth, "Musicians Make a Standard:The Phenomenon of MIDI." ComputerMusic \oumal. Winter 1986. (This articleis the best treatment of MIDI 1 haveseen to date.)

288 B YTE • IUNE 1986

STANDARCEE

BRAND PRODUCTS

STD-AT

IBM. PC-AT

TM

COMPATIBLECOMPUTING

AT AN

AFFORDABLE

PRICE...

• Intel 80286 Processor

• MS DOS 3.1 Included

• 640K RAM On Mother Board

• 1.2 MB Floppy Drive

Dual Floppy & Hard DriveController

Clock/Calendar WithBattery Back-Up

Optional 80287 Math Co-Processor Available

STANDARDEE PC/XT

• Intel 8088-3 (4.77 MHz)

• STD-5150 Keyboard

• 1-Half-Height Floppy Drive

• 640KRam

• 135 Watt Power Supply

• 8 Expansion Slots

$629

lllltllllllll

i

if i v v v ] i i v i r t i ■ i f-nri-t-i

j£5~f / I I M I ! F I' i I I

-J I i i i i ! I I 1 IElULElL T M

, i r r it r i r t t j i r:

tsj I' I I ! I I I 1 1 1 1 '

r 7 i ; i i i't i i i i as!

HLi i i i i i r i i i [. '~

rr i -i

"Runs Major Software Written ForThe IBM- PC&XT"

$1699

is Compatible <^ Full Documentation

v* Reliable is Extended Bum-In Testing

STANDAROEE Turbo-XT

• Intel 8088-2 (4.77or6.66Mh2)

• Keyboard SelectableClock Speed

• Up To 40% FasterProcessing Speed

• STD-5160 AT Style Keyboard

• 640KRam

• One Half-Height Hoppy Drive

• 8 Expansion Slots

$729

TM

All Standard BrandProducts Cany A1 Year Warranty!

jpa

SOURCE

CALL TOLL FREE:800-626-4027

OutsideTexas

512-331-6700

InsideTexas

Setting The Import Standard!!

Enhancement Products ForBRAND PRODUCTS The IBM. PC Market...

STANDARCKEE MFC

Multifunction Card

w/384K

• 384KRam

• Clock/Calendar

• Serial Port

• Parallel Port

• Game Port

• Software

$129

FDC

Floppy Disk Controller

Controls Up to

4 Floppy Disk. <£AQ

includes Internal Cables. . . . ^T"l7

Monitor

Monochrome Monitor

12" Amber Screen80X25 Lines720X350 Pixels.

$99

5151 Keyboard

ForThelBM- PC or XT

ill! U f I l l.l II l I r£ tlt3-ti rnn ' m i BSjt&fcJBEaasi

With SeparateNumeric AndCurser Keypad.

$99

Serial Port,Parallel Port &Clock/Calendar.

$99

STANDARTJ^ MonoGraphicCard

Hercules* Compatible Monochrome Graphics Card

• Text Mode 80X85 Characters

• Graphics Mode 720X348 Pixels

• Parallel Port

$119

AT-MFC PowerSupply

Multifunction Card for IBM AT

Up To 1.5MB

Memory Expansion.

Serial & Parallel <t1 QQ

Portfor IBM AT.. uj/OKvP AO V

ColorCard

Color Display Card

150 Watt

ColorCard

w/Parallel Port.

$99

Replacement ifcfi ET

PowerSupply \J)OJ

MonoCard

Monochrome Display Card

MonoCard

w/Parallel Port.

$89

PowerMasterAC Center

Three Important FunctionsInOneUnit!

$89

• 4 Separate Power Outlets WithOn/Off Switch On Front Panel

• Surge Suppressor

• Swivel Base Monitor Stand

FrontPanel

No Charge For UPS GroundShipping. No Surcharge ForMasterCard or VISA. Fortune 1000Purchase Order Welcome.Warranty Work Requires Proof-Of-Purchase And ReturnAuthorization Number.

Our "Standard Brand Products" are not sponsored or endorsed byBM. ISM. PC. PC-XT I. PC-AT are registered trademarks ofi! Business Machines Corporation.

pa

SOURCE

12303-GTechnology Blvd. Austin,TX78727

CALL TOLL FREE:800-626-4027

OutsideTexas

512-331-6700

Inside Texas

REVIEW FEEDBACK

Pocket APL

In response to the review of STSC lnc.'sPocket APL (March, page 237), I think Ericlohnson should have made the followingtwo points: One, the program does takeadvantage of the 8087, if installed. Thereis a section in the supplied manual thatshows the user how to change the pro-gram to software floating-point math if the8087 default is not installed.

Two, APLs strength is in array process-ing, and the Calculations benchmark, aswritten, is not the best test of the calcu-lating power of the program. For example:

?CALC2

[1]

A«-1000*>*1

[23

B«-1000pal

C3]

OlOOOfl

[43

N*5

[53

1*1

[63

CKxA

[73

C*CxB

[83

C*C*A

[93

C*C^B

[103

1*1 + 1

[113

+6xvI<N

[123

'DONE'?

This function performs 10,000 multipli-cation and 10,000 division operations in64-bit double-precision numbers in 12seconds. Compare this with the 7:18 time(see table 1, page 238) in the review. Also,with an 8087 installed, the correct figurefor the Calculations benchmark as writtenin the review is 6:16, which illustrates howmuch time is spent calculating.

Kevin DowningEvanston, IL

The review gives examples of APLs useof arrays. The benchmark was structuredto compare APLs mathematical abilitieswith BASIC'S.

|on EdwardsTechnical Editor, Reviews

Color Fox

We would like to correct one minormisconception and point out one major

(and almost universally overlooked) virtuein )ohn D. Unger's review of the Color Fox(January, page 301).

He states that the machine without thevideo board is slower for screen opera-tions because it uses BIOS scrollingroutines. It is definitely slower, but that'snot the reason. The unaugmented Sanyoactually has to draw the dot configurationfor each character on the screen using themain CPU.

A unique capability is buried in theSanyo equipped with a video board, how-ever. If you have two monitors availableyou can configure it as a two-screen sys-tem (e.g., text in monochrome using thevideo board and high-resolution colorgraphics using the Sanyo video circuitry:that's 640 by 200 pixels by 8 colors). Wehave recently sent some notes and soft-ware to SanPic Users Group (1967 De-fiance Avenue, Las Cruces, NM 88001)showing how to use this capability for 320by 200 pixels by 27 colors. We are notaware of other available software that ex-ploits this capability.

Kurt Rudahl

Sally Goldin

Bangkok. Thailand

Eco-C88 C Compiler

In the review of the Eco-C88 C compiler(January, page 307), David D. Clark usesa popular factoring algorithm—the Pollardrho method—as a benchmark (listing 3) totest the implementation of long integers.While the program may have dubious use-fulness as a benchmark, it is not a correctimplementation of this algorithm. Theproblem arises in the line

x = (x*x + 2) °/op;

and in the two subsequent similar lines.The variable x may take any value less thanp; therefore, the multiplication x*x willeventually cause an overflow if p2 is muchgreater than 2" - 1, the greatest positivenumber that can be represented in 32 bits.This is true for the number given, and in-deed for most larger numbers of interest.Most C compilers do not incorporate thecode necessary for overflow checking, sono error is reported.

For the number used, 1394761, andusing the program given, the factor 1181

is found after 871 iterations. A correct im-plementation takes only 38 iterations. Itis a credit to the robust nature of thisalgorithm that it still works at all! A cor-rect implementation can be obtained bydeclaring a double variable d. and byreplacing the above line (and the twosubsequent lines analogously) by

d = (double) x*x + 2;

x = d/p;

x = d - (double) x*p;

This is awkward and will not work for thelargest values of p, but it works correctlyfor the given number.

Since the way in which a program reactsto an overflow situation may vary fromcompiler to compiler (and certainly will fordifferent sizes of long int), I think it isdangerous to use this program as a bench-mark.

Michael ScottDublin, Ireland

The changes you suggest do correctthe overflow problem and cause the pro-gram to operate as it should. Of course,they also destroy the utility of the pro-gram as a long integer benchmark. Also,if an argument in the range appropriateto the program is used, the program runstoo fast to be useful as a benchmark.After experimenting with several otherarguments, I am also amazed that theprogram works when overflow occurs.The value in the program is not uniquein that respect. Factors of other largenumbers can be found even when inter-mediate calculations overflow. The onlydifference is the unusually large numberof iterations required to find a factor (thenumber of iterations required shouldhave been a clue that the original pro-gram was not functioning as expected).I am not mathematically astute enoughto explain why the algorithm still workswith a pathological argument.

David D. Clark ■

REVIEW FEEDBACK is a column of readers' let-ters. We welcome responses that support or challengeBYTE reviews. Send letters to Review Feedback,BYTE Publications. One Phoenix Mill lane. Peter-borough, NH 03458. Name and address must beon all letters.

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 289

The database usee

nowbeusec

Introducing dBASE III PLUS!"

The PLUS stands for all the improvementsweVe made to the world's number one sellingdatabase management software.

Jp

Create

Update Position Ret

Database file

Format

Uiew

Query

Report

Label

The Assistant kelps beginning users accomplish day-to-day datamanagement tasksmthoutprogramming.

Mind you, dBASE III PLUS still has thepowerful dBASE programming language, dotprompt, and all the features that have madedBASE III the standard of the industry

WeVe simply raised the standard.

And just as dBASE III introduced morepower to the people, our new dBASE III PLUSintroduces more people to the power

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

The Assistant feature in dBASE III PLUSnow provides them with new easy-to-usepull-down menus for creating, using andmodifying multiple databases.

So now anyone who can manage asimple cursor can manage day-to-day datamanagement tasks. Without programming.

And by using our new Screen Painter,

anyone can create custom screens. Withoutprogramming.

Or using View, access related informationin several databases at one time. Withoutprogramming.

With Advanced Query System, anothernew non-programming feature, any user canbuild complex queries just by selecting fromthe dBASE III PLUS pull-down menus.

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

And for all those who wish to learn toprogram, the Assistant can be of furtherassistance. By teaching you programmingcommands as you go along. Without disruptingyour work flow

These are only a fewof the dBASE III PLUSfeatures that can help new users quickly getup to speed. And experienced users quicklyincrease their speed. (Sorting, for example,is up to two times faster and indexing up toten times faster than dBASE III.)

Esunnn Not

lisp

au Exit

l.banHll

HBH

Field Nan STATEOperator HatchesConstant/Expression "HY"

No combinationCombine with .AND.

Line Hunker 1

Coabine uith .OH..HOT.

Line

Field

Operator

Const an t/Express ion

Connect

1

2315t7

STATESTATEF«OD DESCORSIB DATE

HatchesHatchesHatchesHare than

or equal

"HY"

"BE"

"LH Bass Lures"

11/81/85

.OH..AND..AND.

s. Select a logical

Set Filter:onnector For the Filter condition. .

Advanced Query System lets you set up and answer complexqueries mthoutprogramming.

290 BYTE • |UNE 1986

3y more people can3y more people.

And it's the fastest way to network thoseusers, too. Because now, true multi-user capa-bilities for local area networking are built right in.

dBASE IE PLUS can also help put developersin the fast lane. With a new Data Catalog andmore than 50 new commands and functions.Plus code encryption and linking, improveddebugging aids, assembly language calls andmuch more.

ASHTON TATE

Fbr the name of the AshtonTate® dealernearest you; call 800-437-4329, Extension0282*

And get your hands on dBASE III PLUS.

It's the software more people can lookforward to using.

Inquiry 30

•Upgrades are available to all dBASE III owners. "In Colorado call (303) 799-4900,Extension 0282. Requires IBM'PC or 100% coinpatible.TVademarks/owners: Ashlon-late,dBASE III I'LUS/Ashton Tate; IBM/International Business Machines Corp.© AshtonTate. All rights reserved. 1986.

dBASE III PLUS

The data management standard.

BITE

Kernel

Computing at Chaos Manor: COLOR AND CP/M ARE the major themes of Computing at Chaos Manor this

Color and cp/m month. Looking at a new color monitor from NEC, the MultiSync, leads Jerry

by \erry Poumelle 295 t0 (jje conclusion that the era of color text is here. And wondering whether

BYTE U.K.: he should finally retire Zeke, he comes to the conclusion that CP/M isn't dead.

modem Mysteries Revealed Tnere are a |ot 0f cp/M machines out there, they're good at what they do,

by Dick Fountain 319 and there's p|enty of Cp/M software ]erry a]so \OQks for a macro ec|itor and

Applications Only: Upgrade Fever has the BDS 630/8 laser printer fixed.

by Ezra Shapiro 329 |n ByTE y R Djck td|s ug wha(. happenec| when ne addec| a WS3000 multi-

BYTE |apan: standard modem to his computer system. Miracle Technology Ltd.'s new family

^Eu,I00Lf; NdEV! Challenges „_ of WS3000 modems are just about the state of the art in personal computer

by William M, Raike 339 , ' r r

modems.

StorageTortheEMames ln APP|ications 0nlv' Ezra tells us about four new versions of old, familiar

by Bruce Webster 347 programs: WordStar 2000 Release 2, dBASE 111 Plus, Volkswriter 3, and Keep-

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ track Plus.

Our correspondent in Japan also added a modem to his system this month.Bill describes his experiences with his new Hayes Smartmodem and also withthe DeSmet C development package, a C compiler.

Bruce Webster takes another pause from the 68000 wars. He begins thearticle with an industry update, in which he looks at what some of the majorcomputer companies are up to. Bruce then looks at a couple of storagedevices: MacBottom and the DASCH external RAM disk. MacBottom provesto be his product of the month. Bruce concludes by making some comparisonsof mass storage devices, including a correlation between speed and fragility.

IUNE 1986

i Y T E 293

I

I

■ i M

il

i

I

I

I

I

That's right! Now up to eight PCs, word processors,CAD systems, or whatever can share two printersautomatically.

In addition to eight serial input ports, thePSU-81B gives you two output ports—one serial,one parallel—that can operate simultaneously.

You also get lots of other convenient features,including a pause button, clear button, memory test,TOF, and of course, a 256K dynamically allo-cated buffer.

So for under $800, make your laser printer eighttimes more cost effective.

294 B YTE • IUNE 1986

Check into our new PSU-81B, and other low-costautomatic printer sharing units, from the leadersin data communications technology.

Call or write WTI today for a complete catalog.In California, call (714) 979-0363. Telex 467741.

800-854-7226

wifc

n western

iU telematic inc.

2435 South Anne St., Santa Ana, California 92704

Inquiry 371 for End-Users. Inquiry 372 for DEALERS ONLY.

COMPUTING AJWCHAOS MANOR

Color and CP/M

by Jerry Pournelle

I've started this four times.There's no easy way. I endedlast month's column just be-fore going out to Caltech's letPropulsion Laboratories forthe Voyager encounter withUranus. It was an absolutelywonderful weekend. Manyfriends and colleagues came down forthe encounter. We had a wild partyhere at Chaos Manor, and then all gottogether out at JPL to watch Voyagerdo its stuff. Charley Kohlhase, whoseprograms control Voyager's flight,joined us—Voyager arrived one minuteearly after more than five years andbillions of miles in transit! MarvinMinsky showed up at JPL, found outwhere the science fiction writers were,and spent the rest of the day with us.We ended up at Burger Continentalfor dinner. Sunday was similar. Awonderful weekend.

Then came Tuesday morning andChallenger, and it wasn't so much funanymore.

Since then I've received a lot of mailfrom readers saying the same thing:we've always thought we ought to sup-port the space program, but we nevergot around to it. What should we do?

I've no room for the long answer.The short answer is, send $30 to jointhe L-5 Society Promoting SpaceDevelopment, 1060 East Elm St., Tuc-son, AZ 85719. Tell 'em Pournelle sentyou. They'll tell you the rest.

Meanwhile, I've been busy. Thespace movement has known for along time that we'd lose a shuttle oneday; but we weren't really preparedwhen it happened. There's so muchto do: press releases; news interviews,some sane and some absurd; andorganizing the policies we ought toadvocate. You can see what's coming:I didn't do anywhere near as muchputtering around with small com-puters as I would have liked. On the

jerry looks at the

prospects for color and shows

that CP/M isn't dead

other hand, by making use of BIX,BYTE's electronic conferencing sys-tem, I was able to put together a na-tional conference bringing togetherpeople from the White House staff,the National Commission on Space,the aerospace industry, major univer-sities, and the space advocacy groups.I expect something will come of allthat.

Multisync

The official name is the NEC JC-1401P3A MultiSync Monitor. With aname like that, it's got to be good? Inany event, it certainly is. NEC calls theMultiSync "the intelligent monitor,"and it pretty well lives up to thebilling.

The MultiSync isn't very large: Imeasure 12 inches diagonal of usefularea. It comes with a neat swivelstand; when you set it up, it's about14 inches high by 14 inches wide bysome 18 inches deep (if you leaveroom for the cables). The standswivels and tilts so that you can par-tially pack a keyboard under it forstorage.

The MultiSync's resolution is 800horizontal dots by 560 lines. Eighty-column text could have 10 dots hori-zontal width per column by as manyvertical dots as you like. I've no realfeel for those numbers. Subjectively,it looks good; more on that later.

The distinguishing feature of theMultiSync is that you can use it witha wide range of color boards. 1 tookmine out of the box and plugged itinto Big Kat, the Kaypro 286i IBM PC

AT clone that normally drivesa 19-inch high-resolutionZenith monitor. No adjust-ments needed: MultiSyncworked fine.

Not only did it work fine, butI was tempted to leave it inplace. The MultiSync displayis crisp and sharp. Text looks good onthis monitor. The only problem, forme, is that the text is a little small. I'mfarsighted, sufficiently so that I'mmost comfortable sitting 30 to 35inches from an eye-level monitor. TheMultiSync is sharp enough that I cansee and read text at those distances,but it's not really large enough forcomfort; and due to the layout of myoffice, the screen for Big Kat is mostconveniently placed 36 inches frommy schnozz. I left the MultiSync con-nected to Big Kat for a day or so, buteventually I went back to my enor-mous Zenith, which doesn't look assharp but is certainly large enough.Next 1 connected MultiSync to theGolem, our monster CompuPro S-100286/Z80 SPUZ system. The Golem candrive up to four physical consoles.One of those consoles is Old Reliable,the TeleVideo 950 I bought the firstyear I did this column. (Incidentally:anyone out there know where I canget some key caps for a 950? The onlyproblem with my Telewidget is thatthe housekeeper dropped the key-board last month and lost two keycaps.) The other physical console forthe Golem isn't exactly a console. It'sthe CompuPro S-100 PC Video board,which apes the IBM PC color system.With the PC Video board, a properlyequipped CompuPro running Concur-rent CP/M will also run about 85 per-

lamlinued)

\erry Pournelle holds a doctorate In psychologyand is a science fiction writer who also earnsa comfortable living writing about computerspresent and future.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 295

CHAOS MANOR

cent of the software developed for theIBM PC including Lotus 1-2-3 andFlight Simulator.

The MultiSync works splendidlywith the PC Video board. Text looksnice—once again, a bit small for peo-ple who like to sit as far away as I do;but it's readable, and everything is assteady as if it were painted on.

MultiSync will, without modification,work with the Enhanced GraphicsAdapter PC board that is rapidly be-coming the business standard; andalso, I'm told, with the ProfessionalGraphics Controller. I'm getting a Pro-fessional Graphics Controller, and I al-ready have a Princeton Graphic PGCmonitor; I'll provide a comparisonwhen the Princeton board comes.

Meanwhile, the MultiSync is trouble-free. The instructions are clear. Itworks fine with the Perma PowerColor Commander gadget (which letsyou reprogram the color outputs; seelast month's column). MultiSync hasa text mode that lets you add colorto text or background; not as flexibleas the Color Commander, but likely tobe all you'd need. Finally, MultiSyncruns cool compared to some colormonitors I've had here. I do wish itwere about two inches larger.

Color Text?

I'm convinced that the era of colortext is here. On the other hand, I'vebeen convinced before. Maybe it's theatmosphere at computer shows—1 goto them, see text in color on screens,and come away convinced that it'ssomething I could work with. Then Iget it home, and it isn't.

It's likely I'm not trying the rightstuff. It has taken me a long time torealize that the problem isn't themonitor, it's the computer hardwarethat drives the monitor. The standardPC color boards, including Compu-Pro's PC Video board, just are notgood enough; not for me at any rate.Examining them closely shows why.My ancient Processor TechnologyVDM board—probably one of the lastin the world still in operation—hasabout 11 vertical by 9 horizontal dotsin the matrix that forms each letter.(I don't know exactly; I've mislaid thedocuments, and it's nearly impossibleto count them on screen because they

run together, which, of course, is whatyou want them to do.)

While the MultiSync monitor couldhandle that, the IBM PC color and PCVideo boards don't have that manydots forming each letter. The edgesof the letters are therefore fuzzier. Thebetter the monitor, the less fuzzy it is,but even with the best monitorsthere's still too much fuzziness. That'ssomething I should have known (andheaven knows enough people tried totell me); I can only plead that with theconstruction and other distractions, Iwasn't paying attention. Worse: lastspring during construction a Herculescolor board came in here, but it gotseparated from its documents, andboth got lost in the swim. I've starteda search, but it hasn't turned up, andit's deadline time; so I can't evenreport on how that board looks withMultiSync.

I've more to confess. For months wehave had a Princeton Graphic SR-12color monitor sitting in the storageroom. It arrived during hectic con-struction, when I was hounded fromroom to room by carpenters tearingdown walls faster than I could movecomputers. At a show, I thought thatthe Princeton monitor had some ofthe best color text I'd ever seen; it ar-rived and wouldn't work with the stan-dard color board in Big Kat. It isn'tsupposed to, of course. It needs aspecial color-video board. Somehowthat board never arrived, and due toalternate waves of sloth and frantic ac-tivity here we forgot to remind any-one. Consequently, the SR-12, whichfriends assure me is one of the world'sgreat monitors, has blushed unseenlike the flower in the crannied wall.That too will be remedied, but notbefore I turn in this column.

So: it's probably my fault I don'thave good color text for a PC AT. Onthe other hand, when I check withknowledgeable friends, they say theyhaven't really solved the problemeither. On the gripping hand, as theMoties say, I know it can be done. By"good" color text I mean letters largeenough for me to see and as wellformed as those I have on my 1978VDM board and my even older14-inch Hitachi monitor; in otherwords, text that I could stand to look

at hour after hour; text that won'tdistract me when I'm trying to writebooks. I know it's possible, for tworeasons.

First, the standard color output fromthe Kaypro 286i is almost good enoughnow. It would be good enough formost people, I think. I use Big Kat formy on-line communications, particu-larly BIX. I spend at least an hour aday at that. It doesn't take the concen-tration that creative writing demands,but I'd much rather write books on BigKat than on, say, the original KayproII with built-in screen, and 1 didmanage a novel on the Kaypro. Notonly that, but a number of goodwriters, including Norman Spinradand Roland Green, have done thesame, and indeed continue to workwith the older Kaypro machines tothis day.

Second, the color outputs of boththe Atari 520ST and the Amiga arealready good enough to write bookson. So far I haven't found a goodenough (for me) text editor for eithermachine, but that's only a matter oftime. Not only are there some reallygood programmers writing editors forboth machines, but some of thoseprogrammers are in communicationwith me through BIX. They may notfollow all my prejudices, but they'reat least aware of them.

Looking Ahead

"I'm getting old, boss'.'

"Eh?" I woke from dozing. Zeke wasnattering.

"Old. You just said it yourself. My VDMboard was part of Zeke I. That's nine yearsold] I've got &-inch disk drives. Noisy. AndI'm big. huge, take up a whole corner of yournew office. Big Kat there is no bigger thanmy disk drives1. Time to retire. The boys wouldlike to have me. Or Mrs. Pournelle. Or NotreDame. It's silly. All those columns about thefuture of computers written on an obsoleteCP/M wreck like me'.'

"You're no wreck, and you're notobsolete," 1 shouted, and woke up; butit gave me pause to think. Not thatZeke II can't do everything he wasbought for. He can. Visitors are gen-erally startled at just how fast he is athandling text and at saving it, ifthey're used to 514-inch floppies;

[continued)

296 BYTE • IUNE 1986

yyiiMumiHiiunnnfcEnnTB

helps save time, money and cuts frustrations. Compare, evaluate, and find products.

RECENT DISCOVERY

dBASETools forC - incorporate Cfunctions as extensions to dBASEIII Plus. Also functions for businessgraphics, arrays, math, stats.MSC, Lattice, Aztec. PCGraphics $ 79

Tools $ 79

Al-Expert System Dev't

Arity System- incorporate w/C. PC $295Experteach - Improved, samples PC $399EXSYS - Improved, Debug, file &

external program access. PC $339

1st Class - by example, interfaces $250Insight I - Probabilities, fast MS $ 79Insight 2 - dB2, language MS $399

Others: APES ($359), Advisor($949),

ES Construction ($ 100), ESP($845),Expert Choice ($449)

AI-LISP

List

Our

Call

Call$199

$225$ 75

$149

GC LISP Interpreter- "Common", rich

Interactive tutorial $495

GC LISP 286 Developer- 2 to 15 meg

RAM, compiler & interp. $1195Microsoft MuLisp 85TLC LISP - "LISP-Machine" - like,

all RAM, classes, compiler. MSTransLISP - Good for learning MSWALTZ LISP - "FRANZ LISP" -

like, big nums, debug, CPM-80 MSOthers: IQ LISP ($ 155), BYSO ($ 125),

UNX LISP ($59), IQC LISP ($269)

AI-PROLOG

ARITY Standard - full, 4 Meg

Interpreter - debug, C, ASM PC $ 350

COMPILER/lntcrprctcr-EXE PC $ 795

With Exp Sys, Screen - KIT PC $1250

MicroProlog - enhanced MS $ 229

MProlog - Improved, Faster PC $ 475

Professional MicroProlog MS $ 359

Prolog-86 - Learn Fast MS $ 95

TURBO PROLOG by Borland PC $ 85

Others: Prolog-I ($365), Prolog-2 ($1795)

Editors for Programming

BRIEF Programmer's Editor -

undo, windows, reconfigure PC CallC Screen with source 80/86 $ 75

EMACS by UniPrcss - powerful,

multifile, MLISP. Source: $949 $299Epsilon - like EMACS PC $169

FirsTime by Spruce - Improve

productivity. Syntax directed for

Turbo ($69), Pascal ($229), or C ($239)Kedit - like XEDIT PC $115

Lattice Screen Editor-multiwindow

multi-tasking Amiga $100 MS $125PMATE - power, multitask 80/86 $159VEDIT - well liked, macros,

buffers. CPM-80-86 MS $119

XTC - multitasking PC $ 85

FEATURE

Dan Bricklin's Demo Program. Prototypequickly. User feedback without pro-gramming. All 250 ASCcharacters plusattributes. Subsetting, macros. PC $ 75

Free LiteratureCompare Products

Evaluate products. Compare competitors. Learnabout new alternatives. One free call brings infor-mation on just about any programming need. Askfor any "Packet" or Addon Packet □ Al □ ADA,Modula D BASIC D"C" n COBOL □ Editors□ FORTH o FORTRAN D PASCAL D UNIX/PCora Debuggers, Linkers.

Our Services:■ Programmer's Referral Lisl ■ Dealers Inquire

* Compare Products • Newsletter

* Help find a Publisher • Rush Order

• Evaluation Literature FREE • Over 700 products

• BBS-7PMto7AM617-826-l08« • National Accounts

C Support-Systems

Basic-C Library by C Source MS $139C Sharp - well supported, Source,

realtime, tasks PC $600

CToolSet-DIFF, xref, source MS $135Lattice Text Utilities PC $ 99

The HAMMER by OES Systems PC $179PC LINT- checker MS $125

SECURITY LIB - add encrypt to MSC.

C86 programs. Source $250 PC $125

Fortran & Supporting

ASC Time Series $469

Forlib-t- by Alpha - graph, comm. $ 59

MACFortran bv Microsoft - full '77 $229

MS Fortran $219

No Limit - Fortran Scientific $129

PolyFortran - xref, pp, screen $149

Prospero - '66, reentrant $349

RM Fortran - enhanced "IBM Ftn" $399

Scientific Subroutines - Matrix $149

Strings and Things - registers, shell $ 59

MultiLanguage Support

BTRIEVE ISAM MS $199BTRIEVE/N - multiuser MS $469CODESIFTER - Execution PRO-FILER. Spot bottlenecks. MS $109HALO Graphics- Multiple videoboards, printer, rich. Animation.Any MS language, Lattice, C86 PC $249Pfinish Performance Analyzer MS $279PLINK-86 - a program-independentoverlay linker to 32 levels. MS $279PLINK-86 PLUS - incremental MS $369PolyLibrarian MS $ 85PVCS Version Control MS $359Screen Sculptor-slick, thorough PC $ 99ZAP Communications- VT 100,TEK40IOemulation, full xref. PC $ 85

ATARI ST & AMIGA

Wecarry full linesof Manx, Lattice,Metacompo and Prospero.

Call for a catalog, literature and solid value

800-421-8006

THE PROGRAMMER'S SHOP™

128-B Rockland Street, Hanover, MA 02339Mass: 800-442-8070 or 617-826-7531 4/86

RECENT DISCOVERY

dBrief, the dBASE Assistant -optional syntax directed editing,screen gen, graphics, speed coding.dBASE II, III, Clipper. PC $ 95

C Language-Compilers

AZTEC C86 - Commercial PC $399

AZTEC C65 - Personal Apple II $199C86 by CI - 8087, reliable MS $299

Consulair Mac C w/toolkit MAC $299Lattice C - from Lifeboat MS $289

Lattice C - from Lattice MS $339

Mark Williams - w/debugger MS $399Megamax - tight full ATARI/ST $179Microsoft C 3.0 - new MS $259

Q/C 88 by Code Works - Compiler

source, decent code, native MS $125Wizard C - Lattice C compatible,

full sys. Ill, lint, fast. MS $389

C Language-Interpreters

C-tcrpbyGimpel-fullK&R,

.OBJ and ASM, large progs. MS $249INSTANT C - Source debug,

Edit to Run-3 seconds MS $399

Interactive C by IMPACC Associates.

Interpreter, editor, source, debug. PC $225Introducing C - learn C

fast, self paced tutorial PC $109

Professional Run/C - Run/C plus

create add-in libraries,

load/unload them. MS $199

Run/C - improved MS $109

C Libraries-General

Application Programmer's Toolkit MS $349Blaise C Tools 1 ($109), C Tools 2 $ 89C Essentials by Essential PC $ 85

C Food by Lattice-ask for source MS $ 109C Power Windows by Entelekon PC $119C Utilities by Essential - Comprehensive

screen graphics, strings. Source. PC $139Entelekon C Function Library PC $119Entelekon Supcrfonts for C PC $ 45

Grecnlcaf Functions-portable, ASM $139Polytron - for Lattice, ASM source $ 85Software Horizons - Pack I PC $129

C Libraries-Communications

Asynch by BlaiseGrecnlcaf - full, fastSoftware Horizons - pack 3

C Libraries-Files

$149$139$119

FILES: C Index by Trio- full B +Tree, vary length field, multi compiler/File is object only MS $ 89

/Pro is partial source MS $179

/Plus is full source MS $349

CBTREE- multiuser record locking,

sequential, source, no royalties MS $ 99

CTree by Faircom - no royalties MS $339

dbVISTA - full indexing, plus optional

record types, pointers. Network.

Object only - MS C, LAT, C86 $179

Source - Single user MS $429

Source - Multiuser MS $829

Inquiry 2 77

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 297

Inquiry 320

"BRIEF has improved my

productivity tenfold.It paid for itself in 2 weeks!"

David Norwood, Microsystems Manager

Tailor Editing to Your Style

A high-level, readable MacroProgramming Language - allowscustomization for programminglanguages . . . Complete, unlimitedvariables, etc.

Edit multiple files of unlimited size(2 Meg is OK)

Multiple Windows on screen withdifferent or same file, fragments, etc.

A bona-fide UNDO stack (up to 300)of ail operations: deletions, readingfiles, search, translate, more.

For PC, AT, compatibles and.Tandy 2000.

Only $195

Full "regular expression search" -wild cards, complex patterns

Reconfigurable keyboard

Adjustable line length - up to 512.

Keystroke macros - for commontyping sequences

Suspend BRIEF to execute, exit toDOS - run another program (like acompiler, dir, XREF, DIFF, orDEBUG) then resume BRIEFsession

Compiler-specific support like autoindent, syntax check, compile with-in BRIEF

JEiolution.Systems

335-B Washington St.. Norwcll. MA 02061617-659-1571

CALL 800-821-2492.

CHAOS MANOR

LEARN LISP

Interactively and Write Real Programswith TransLISP for Only $75

A "COMMON LISP" compatible Tutorial, Interpreter, Debugging, andPretty Printer plus a Fast, Full Screen Editor, Samples and help

I ) Start Easily and Quickly:

A complete, modular tutorial helps youlearn LISP at your own pace. An in-tegrated, interactive environment providesall of the elements needed to enter, modify,analyze and debug programs.

I i Natural Language, Expert Systems andSymbolic Manipulation:

Natural Language concepts are illustratedby a phone number retrieval program.Choose the best word processing programfor you with the Expert System. Arithmeticexpressions are translated to Assembler usinga code generation program.

□ Write Realistic Programs:

Short examples and substantial programs ofabout 10 pages in length help you learn bymodifying, studying and using the key con-cepts needed to write programs of 1000lines or more.

□ The "COMMON LISP" Standard:

TransLISP includes a 300 t functionsubset of the "COMMON LISP" Standard.Use extras like the MSDOS interface andgraphics. Or use "strict compatibility" tomake programs written in TransLISP,upwardly compatible with otherCOMMON LISP systems like VAX LISP,

GC/LISP or LISP Machine LISP.

Recent Improvements: 640K Memory use supports 12000 line programs.Full 8087 and 8086 floating point included.Runs on any MS/PCDOS System with 256K. It is not copy protected.'The best LISP I've ever used. Three times before, I tried toJearn LISP, but until now 1 couldnever break through the surface." t-j • L Whipple User

ONLY

-Solution<Systems

335-B Washington St.Norwell, Mass. 02061617-659-1571800-821-2492

Zeke's 1.2-megabyte 8-inch drives arejust about twice as fast as Big Kat'sfloppies. I'm used to him.

On the other hand, Zeke has be-come a dedicated word processor.Not that he cant do anything but write.I still have lots of CP/M Z80 programsfor accounting, making calendars andkeeping my schedule, and all theother things I expect small computersto do for me; but both PC-DOS andConcurrent DOS are so much faster,and it's so much more convenient tohave those programs memory-resi-dent and readily available, that Ihaven't fired up Zeke for anything butwriting since we moved upstairs.

In fact, when I finish this column, I'llsave it on Zeke's 8-inch disk, then turnaround and put that disk in the Golemto check the spelling. I check spellingwith The Word Plus, and, frankly, Idon't even remember if 1 have a Z80version or if it was upgraded to runon the 8086 family. The Golem hasboth, and they operate invisibly; andhe's terribly fast, especially when I runthe spelling program from the Com-puPro M-Drive/H memory drives. I canthen save the corrected column onthe Golem's 5 !4-inch drive in PC-DOSformat, insert the PC floppy into BigKat, and send it all off to Peter-borough through BIX.

That's absurd. Three computers toget the column out? Surely one cango—but which?

Probably Zeke. What I should do isstart a quest for a really good terminalI can run off the Golem at 38.4kilobaud (or kilobits per second, asthey want you to say now, althoughI can't guess why). Last time 1 looked,there weren't any that would scrolltext fast enough for me: when I flipa screen page, I want that to happenright now. But surely there are new ter-minals that will do the job. Once I'vefound one, I'll have to look at thekeyboard. Of course, the screen hasto be large enough, and brightenough, and the letters properlyformed, and—

And if we're going to do that, it can'tbe long before we have good colorboards and monitors and editors forthe AT, and-

And at that point I say to heck with

[continued)

298 B YTE ■ IUNE 1986

Inquiry 321

4

DOM'T LOOK ^

FOR PRODUCTIVITY IN A PRODUCT.

S

The purchase of adata base systemshould be the beginningof a relationship.

That relationship shouldinclude planned productupgrades, experiencedtechnical support, verticalapplication templates, infor-mational seminars, trainingprograms, user groups,newsletters, special market-ing programs...and much,much more.

Demand a Relationship

At Software Solutions, therelationship begins as soonas you contact us. We'llhelp you find answersto your questions aboutDataEase™—or aboutany information manage-ment issue.

The product evaluator at

Manufacturer's HanoverTrust summed up the expe-rience of tens of thousandsof users by calling DataEase"the most impressive pro-ductivity tool I have seen."

When you talk to us, ask forour sample diskette. See foryourself why Data BasedAdvisor points to DataEaseas "the easiest to understandand use full-featured database program," calling it "aprogram which could easilyset the industry standard."

Discover us. Find out howimportant the companybehind the product can be.

Send information and a free DATAEASEsample diskette for my PC (check one):

□ IBM D WANG □ DEC □ TlInclude materials relating to:

□ Corporate Client □ Retailer

□ MIS/DP/IC Professional D VAD

D Other

BYT 6/86

"I

Name:.Title:_

. Phone:.

Company:.Street:

City:.

. State:.

Mail to:

Software Solutions, Inc.12 Cambridge DriveTrumbull, CT 06611

_Zip:

Telex: 703972800-243-5123

Software Solutions. Get into a relationship that works for you.

Canada

Computerlinks, Toronto. Ontario: (416) 231-1270

United Kingdom West Germany, Austria Scandinavia Switzerland. France

Sapphire Systems, Essex: 01-554-0582 M&T Software Verlag, Munich, 089-4613-0 West Soft A/S. Alesund, Norway: (47) 71-46166 Softsource, S.A. 1209 Geneve, Switzerland: 9851524985-153

Inquiry 319

|UNE 1986 -BYTE 299

CHAOS MANOR

it and do nothing. Which brings meto the point: CP/M isn't dead.

Very Much Alive

Mrs. Pournelle has finished the outlineand several chapters of a new book.She's using an Ampex terminal and aCP/M system built out of Ampro Lit-tle Boards by Don Castella of DisksPlus in Chicago. For some time, she'shad her pick of computers and sys-

tems to use as word processors. Shehas used a Z-l 50; a Z-160; Adeline theOtrona (about whom more later); aZ-l00; Lucy Van Pelt, the IBM PC; anda Macintosh. The system she likesbest is the one she has now: CP/M,hard disk, Ampex terminal, and theWRITE text editor. Of course, all shedoes with that machine is write andedit, so it's hardly a fair test; but itdoes confirm my impression: given a

For your

or or Compa,

THE IntelligentGrammar and Style Checker

RightWriter is a new tool to help you produce lean, powerful BUSINESSWRITING. RightWriter uses advanced artificial intelligence technologyto flag errors in GRAMMAR, STYLE, USAGE, and PUNCTUATION.RightWriter is the first office auto-mation package aimed atproducing better writing,not more writing.

• Messages are Inserted

directly into text to pointout possible errors andproblem areas.

• Easy to Use — only onecommand to learn, yourword processor does therest.

• Works with LeadingWord Processors —

including WordStar®,Volkswriter®, PFSwrite®,MultiMate®, and others.

• Readability Index —

measures the readinggrade level of the docu-ment using the D.O.D.standard Flesch-Kincaidformula.

Uncommon Word List

— lists misspelled, slang,and uncommon words.

Recommends — neverdecides. RightWriter is awriting aid. The finaldecision is always leftto you.

300 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Price$95.00

Available from your local dealer or:DECISIONWARE, INC/RightSoft Division2033 Wood St. • Suite 218Sarasota, FI_ 33577Phone Orders Call: (813) 952-9211Add $4 for shipping and handling.VISA & MASTERCARD accepted30 Day Money Back Guarantee

RightWriter Is a trademark of DecisionWare, Inc., WordStar is a trademark ofMicroPro International Corporation. MultiMate is a trademark of MultiMateInternational. PFSwrite is a trademark of Software Publishing Corporation.Volkswriter is a trademark of Ufetree Software, Inc.

Inquiry 110 for End-Users.Inquiry III for DEALERS ONLY.

number of systems to choose from,a good CP/M system with WRITE isstill about the best creative writer'sword processor around.

Incidentally, her Ampex terminaldoes run at 38.4 kilobaud. It won'tscroll as fast as Zeke does with hismemory-mapped video, but then noterminal does. The amber screen isnice, the letter set is pleasing, and theletters are large enough. 1 could cer-tainly live with it as my major systemfor writing books. I'm not too happywith where the arrow keys were puton the keyboard, but I'm not too hap-py with anybody's keyboard arrange-ment. She likes the terminal a lot, andI'm sure I would once I got used toit. Maybe I ought to get one and hangit on the Golem. But that's for anothertime. The point is that for writers aCP/M machine is not only goodenough, there are ways in which it'ssuperior to more "advanced" equip-ment: and built up from Little Boardsthe way Castella built Roberta's ma-chine, a CP/M system certainly costsless than most comparably equipped"advanced" systems.

Don Castella periodically shows methe new stuff they're doing with Am-pro Little Boards. There's a LittleBoard using the Intel 80186 chip; Donbuilt up a system with a hard disk anda Link PC-emulation PC-Term terminaland brought it around. It seems quitenice. Castella and the Ampro peopleclaim they can put together fast multi-user PC-DOS and Concurrent DOSsystems at a lower cost per user thananyone else in the business, and I ex-pect that's right. Of course, the LittleBoard systems are no more than 85percent compatible with an IBM PC;about like a CompuPro, although theincompatibilities aren't the same.

Some of the incompatibilities maybe due to the terminal. The Link PC-Term is supposed to emulate the IBMPC monochrome system, and perhapsit does; I haven't done any extensivetests. In fact, I have a confession: I'vedone almost nothing with the LittleBoard/186 system.

It isn't the Little Board's fault. If Idon't sound enormously enthusiasticabout partial clone systems, it's notbecause I don't think they have their

(continued)

c&c

Computers and Communications

Your first color monitor shouldbe good enough to be your last.

NEC introduces the onlycolor monitor you need.Superb resolution plusMultiSync for across-the-board compatibility with allthree PC graphics boardsmade by IBM, for businessgraphics, CAD/CAM,computer art, and text.

Now there's one highresolution colormonitor that doesthings your way.The MultiSync™monitor from NEC.

It gives you thebest color resolu-tion available atthe price.• Compatibility with the IBMProfessional GraphicsAdapter, the IBM EnhancedGraphics Adapter, and theIBM Color Graphics Adapter.

Compati-bility withthe IBM®EnhancedGraphicsAdapterBoard

• MultiSync, the NECfeature that automaticallyadjusts to color adapterboard scanning frequenciesfrom 15.75 KHz to 35 KHz—suggesting the possibilitythat the MultiSync monitormight be compatible with allcolor graphics boards thatare fully compatible with theIBM PC, PC/XT, and PC/AT,now and in the future.

• Full implementation ofhigh resolution graphicssoftware for business andother applications, nowand in the future.

• And color capabilitylimited only by the boardbeing used.

See Things Our Way

Until now, you had to choosedifferent color monitors for

l«»"B

lllllllll

lllllllll

Milium

U L -T IS Y-N C

The Intelligent Monitor

«

compatibility with all threePC color graphics boardsmade by IBM. With so manyboard and monitor configura-tions, folks didn't know whichway to look.

The new MultiSync colormonitor gives you uniquecompatibility. As well as TTLand analog color. With 7switchable text colors. Andresolution up to maximum 800horizontal dots and maximum560 vertical lines, on a large,13" diagonal viewing area.

~~^% All that, priced at justI s# $799. All from NEC, aname respected aroundthe world for advanced,reliable products backedby nationwide service.

It's the one color monitor thatdoes everything your way.

Compati-bility withthe IBM®ColorGraphicsAdapterBoard

%:^V

a

Compati-bility withthe IBM"'Profes-sionalGraphicsAdapterBoard

But why talk more about it?Visit your nearest dealer andsee a graphic demonstrationof the new NEC MultiSyncmonitor's capabilities. Thendraw your own conclusions.

For information dial

1-800-447-4700

NEC HOME ELECTRONICS (U.S.A.) Inc.

Personal Computer Division

1401 Estes Avenue

Elk Grove Village, IL60007

SEC

Inquiry 240

IUNE I986 -BYTE 301

The only breaksprinters are the

"^ Malcolm Xarlin

8 Tanglewood RoadStamford, ct 21860

681

••500.00 "500.00!

00VS7«

Xerox Rebate Check

mas «n»> "««<• •«*• M0

11470001

04/1/86

o«oe» 23 Sunset Avcnuf,,„,W Bay Shore, NY S1706

hot IW«HS2SJSI«iii<

POUT) vmBMDMS'P™7'7"*3

Rebate for the D80

681 "400.00/ "400.00

~ . mot VftLlDOV^K! DAYS

Rebate for the D80IF

&2fiS*o**

**>*»

001885

.ft.

V

» i;g?aaBn«B&BaB?t.

Rebate for the 635

C*»erart McNaughtan

72 Btsrger taneRochester, My 1017?

001884

®

^assaguaaaB*.

ntri

11470001

M/1/St

681 J-100.00J -100.00

team vimzoooaas-.ooafnv

Rebate for the 630ECS

* Average mean lime between failure is 4000 hours.

Xerox; Diablo* and the identifying numbers herein are trademarks of the XEROX CORPORATION.IBM'*' is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.Apple* is a trademark of Apple Computers, Inc.

302 BYTE • lUNE I986

Xerox Rebate Check

zoeo fctognyfe Bwkl swte *oc

BhxtmfinW WHt. Ml 4*013

001880

I04/1/B6:

Diana Lynn

2607 Thomas Drive

i,os Angeles, CA 16412

68! ! **75.00 **75.00

0BWMO 1:075000405-0

" #WTWUJtJO*t(l»Q»yS

DOOrVvObO

IB

Rebate for the P32CQI

When you buy a Xerox printer, what you get arebreakthroughs. Not breakdowns.

You see, Xerox has been a leader in developing hard-working, reliable printers from the very beginning. We eveninvented daisywheel printing.

One of our latest printer innovations, however, doesn'tstress higher tech, but rather lower prices.

Because from now until July 31 we're offering substantialrebates on our entire line of Xerox Diablo dot matrix and daisy-wheel printers.

So you'll be able to save from $25 up to $500, depending oithe model you choose.

And choosing is easy since all of these Xerox printers arecompatible with a wide range of personal computers, includingXerox, Apple and IBM.

Our Xerox Diablo dot matrix printers let you print in near-letter quality, or high-speed draft quality. And graphics can bemerged right in with the text.

you'll get on Xeroxones you want

Xerox Rebate Check

P»Y Catherine Morns

TO

0411,'6

£bateforthe34LQ

681 " "100.00 "100.00

KsaKssa—

ra Andrew Weber

<>4/1/«6

lebanon, on 226H

_an«» i.<ffamw«;iiaWt.

Rebate for the PIOI

Xerox Rebate Check

001883

20#0 Telegjapft Road. 5i>ile 20OBtoomMd H*«. Mt 48013

Jill Brubaker

ol^H 6 4 Cowan Boulevard

Baltimore, MD 19173

;11470001

04/1/8B

MMxati

j 681 |*

■50.00 •

•50.00 |

. MOT V*M> OVER ■#*>

0COM3 l:O73DDtMO5;a0OO7t7C»«3

Rebate for the D25

The Xerox Diablo daisywheel printers offer letter quality print-ing that can easily meet all your word processing needs.

You'll also have your choice of today's most advanced features.Like extended character sets, varied printing styles, and flexible pa-per handling capabilities.

And every Xerox Diablo printer is backed by a one-yearlimited warranty on parts and service.

So why not get a big break on the printers that don't break? *

Call your local participating Xerox dealer or sales office fordetails today. Or call 1-800-TEAMXRXext. 158A. Or just fillout the coupon and send it in. We'll takecare of the rest.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON XEROX DIABLO PRINTERS.CIRCLE CODE 398 ON THE READER SERVICE CARD.

Xerox Rebate Check

2990 TWagraph Road. Suite SODMmmhMU ttfa. m 4*0*3

Madigan Pratt

THE

f***** 164 5 Lenore Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 22I.6X

001881

■J

**t*m

caro ijj^ n

681 j "25.00

"25.00

0D1M1 l:Dr7a0DOaO5:OO0tr?»

Jw MIINOMHWHWMnMKII

mm v •■-..

Rebate for the PI 2CQI

XEROX

Xerox, g/Ve me a drea/c.

D Have a dealer or Xerox Sales Representative contact me.□ Send me more information on Xerox printers and theXerox Rebate Program.

Name

Title

Company

Address

Citv

State

( )

Zip Phone

Send to: Xerox Corporation, P.O. Box 24, Rochester, NY 14692

1-800-TEAMXRX,«i58A

call

or call l-800-832-6979e*f. 1584

192/0601

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 303

CHAOS MANOR

place. They do: it's just not here. 1don't much like multiuser systems(One user, at least one CPU!), but thenI don't have to. I operate a smallbusiness, but it's not like most: I havea small number of products, not manycustomers (i.e., publishers), and a verysmall staff. 1 don't have inventories tomaintain or shared databases to up-date, nor must I find the lowest-costcomputer system to do the job. If I did,I'd look at the situation a lot different-ly. As it is, though, I'm much more ex-cited about Roberta Pournelle's LittleBoard Z80, and what I'd like to seewould be a Little Board 8/16 thatwould run both Z80 and 8086/8088software.

There is, after all, a lot of CP/M soft-ware out there. You don't see it somuch because dealers don't stock it.Dealers don't stock CP/M softwarebecause the word is out that CP/M isdead or dying; and as that wordspreads, fewer dealers stock CP/Msoftware. The spiral is deadly.

I don't know if the trend can behalted. I do know it's wrong. There area lot of CP/M machines; they're verygood at what they do; and you canget an awful lot of bang for the buckfrom them.

Not Exactly Free ...

There's plenty of CP/M software, too.Much of it is in the public domain:free if you can find it. The trouble withfree software is that it's not generallyin anyone's interest to tell you aboutit. Dealers like Don Castella try to pro-vide it with systems they sell. BarryWorkman bundles some into pack-ages he calls the Software AnthologySeries. There are users groups, too, al-though fewer than there used to be.

Besides the public domain stuff,there's a mountain of CP/M softwarethat has become what I call "pseudopublic domain." I guess I can best ex-plain that by an illustration.

Consider the Scrimshaw Company.Scrimshaw was started in a garage by

A small priceito pay for a full-duplex2400' bps dial modemthat lets you operate synchronously, or asynchronously with a.unique auto dial feature, on virtually any computer.

Plus it's Hayes compatible. And available as a standalone unitor dual modem card, which lets you pack 32 modems into a single

Codex nest. C'C^C^&^C

The Codex 2233 dial modem. Find out \*\J\J\S\ut it, Call 1-800-4264212. Ext. 230. ®

MOTOROLA

Motorola and® are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. Codex is a registered trademark of Codex Corporation.

© 1986 Codex Corporation.

four guys. One had a CompuPro"boat anchor" S-100 system; theyused it to develop a Pascal compiler.The compiler worked and was outthere early: if you wanted to do Pascalon your 8080 system, you boughtScrimshaw or you went without. Theysold a lot of them.

Eventually competition came along.But by the time better compilers hadappeared, the Scrimshaw people hadgot into another kind of programmingentirely. Their new stuff—call it theSuperDuper Accounting System-took off like a rocket. Then came theIBM PC. SuperDuper got ported overto the PC and continued to sell likefury.

For a little while they continued tosell the Scrimshaw compiler, but itwasn't really worth the effort. It costtoo much to update and support forthe revenue it brought in. Theystopped selling it and eventuallyceased to support it.

The Scrimshaw compiler is nowpseudo public domain. It isn't reallypublic domain, because Scrimshawnever officially put it there; but it mayas well be, because they don't carehow many people pass it around.They'll never give you permission tocopy it and give it away, because theydon't want to support it; and if allcopies are in theory illegally obtained,they have no obligations toward itwhatever. On the other hand, theysure aren't going to waste resourcestracking down and suing pirates.

That's one case. Less complex is thecase of the FuddyDuddy calendarprogram. The FuddyDuddy Companyconsisted of Duane and Arlene Good-hacker working off their kitchen table.They sold 71 copies of FuddyDuddyat $87.50 each (thus doing better thana lot of start-up companies). Nobodywas unhappy with the program, butit never took off. Expenses, includingadvertising, came to 93 percent ofwhat they took in, so their effectiveremuneration was on the order of 40cents an hour. Eventually, Arlene wentinto real estate sales, and Duanebecame a programmer at the HugeAircrash Company. The FuddyDuddyCompany never exactly went out ofbusiness, it just ceased to operate for

[continued]

304 BYTE • IUNE 1986

7

The Word is Out,

It's going to break yourheart if you alreadyown a PC.

JC LIPS provides a new experience inpersonal computing.,Our third generationpersonal computer brings yon technologies

been possible in the past. It runs allpopular IBM PC software 2 to 4 timestaster than other compatibles. It will

performance and cool reliability.15est lit all, it is available to yon at

MSSSS

JC LIPS teatures theadvanced-technology C1MOSNEC V-10 processor running at 8

795

throughput ol at least 4.5 Ml I/.The systemboard has 25bK ofRAM, expandable to 640K, a

V T I

ff

background non-glare screen and a tilt

a socket for a high speed floating

point processor, and 8 I/O expansion slots. Also

included as standard on systems are 360K flopp)

battery backed-up clock, a keyboard, and a 135 Wattpower supply, capable of handling all of this plus anyaccessories you may add later.

JC LIPS' display system includes a quality 14" highresolution monochrome monitor, with a dark

multifunction display card provides

an IBM PC compatible interface for

a monochrome display with

a 1 lercules compatible graphics or

a RGB color graphics display.

JC LIPS is also available with

high speed 20 MB hard disk

with 2K cache buffer memory

controller, Enhanced Color

Graphics display adapter, high

resolution RGB color monitor,

local area networking controller,

and more. These options can be

added at any time, and with the

leatures we supply as standard, it

will be a difficult system to

outgrow.

NOW the word is out. Another superb product is

uailable from the high-performance, multi-user systems

company, JC Information Systems.

JC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Fremont, CA 94339

(415) 659-8440 TWX 910-381-7043

IBM, PC, andA'l .nvtivl li'iviili'N is .1 trad

larks ol NEC Electronics tntSystems Corporation.

CHAOS MANOR

There are a lot oforphan programs outthere in the CP/M world.

lack of interest; and FuddyDuddy be-came an orphan program.

There are a lot of orphan programsout there in the CP/M world. Some arereally excellent. The real problem isfinding them.

One solution would be for peoplelike Duane and Arlene to turn theirprograms into shareware and let peo-ple who sell CP/M systems knowthey've done it. The word can be putout on bulletin boards, too. Share-ware works this way: you can get acopy of the program from anyonewho has it. You can pass it on toanyone you like. If you do like it anduse it. send some money to theauthors of the program.

Of course, the Scrimshaw peoplearen't about to make their programsshareware. On that one, you just haveto let your conscience be your guide.The important thing is that there's alot of CP/M software. Some is not bad,some is very good, and nearly all ofit is cheap.

V Weapons

Into that complex situation comes theNEC company with its V20 and V30chips. These chips replace the CPUchip in PClones and do two things:they make the PClone run a bit faster,and they emulate an 8080 so that youcan run very nearly all the old CP/Msoftware. The V20 replaces an 8088,and the V30 replaces the 8086. V20chips work fine in PClones, includingthe Zenith Z-100, Z-150, and Z-160.They don't work in partial clones, in-cluding the DEC Rainbow, TI Profes-sional, and Victor 9000.

Accelerate 8/16, which is CP/M soft-ware for using NEC V-series chips, is

A small price to pay for a full-duplex 2400'bps dial modemfrom the company preferred by more communications managers

than any other. f^f^f^t^ltC

The Codex 2233 dial modem. Find out vvv/V/\

about it. Call 1-800-426-1212. Ext. 230. (g)

Motorola and® arc trademarks of Motorola, Inc. Codex is a registered trademark of Codex Corporation.© 1986 Codex Corporation.

MOTOROLA

available from Walt Bilofsky's SoftwareToolworks. Intersecting Concepts ofMoorpark, California, has a coopera-tive arrangement with Software Tool-works to copublish; the Media Masterprogram lets a V20-equipped PClonehandle a wide variety of 5lA- and8-inch disk formats, including, ofcourse, PC-DOS. About the only ma-jor format it can't handle is Osbornesingle-density. Double-density worksfine.

The result is wonderful for ownersof CP/M machines: if you want to up-grade to a PClone, send $99.95 toSoftware Toolworks and you get Ac-celerate 8/16, which includes the V20chip, instructions, and Media Master.With that, you can not only transferall your old CP/M files onto your newZenith or Compaq or whatever, youcan also run all your old CP/M pro-grams. You don't need to go buy allnew software.

Now for the bad news: we don'tknow precisely what CP/M software willrun on the PClones. We do know thatmost will. If a program doesn't makereally tricky BIOS calls, or subroutinesembedded in specific locations inCP/M, it should work fine. Barry Work-man reports that he has sold anumber of copies of FTL Modula-2,his low-cost CP/M Modula-2 compilerwith integral editor, to people withV20 PClones. I haven't tried that my-self, but so far Barry has heard nocomplaints.

It's a bit hard to estimate the effectof the V-series chips. They don't costa lot, and they definitely improve theperformance of PClone machines.Reports of 20 to 25 percent speedimprovements are probably exag-gerated, but certainly WordStar andother I/O-bound programs go 10 to 15percent faster; a significant upgradefor 20 bucks or so. Walt Bilofsky hasdone a lot more testing than I have;he reports that nothing runs slower,and most things run somewhat faster.

Thus, it makes sense to upgradeyour PClone just for the speed im-provement; and it also gives you ac-cess to a vast array of CP/M software.

If you have a PClone, you could doa lot worse than to get Accelerate8/16. Then send for Workman's cata-

[continued)

306 BYTE- 1UNE 1986

MORE PERFORMANCE

In a multi-user system, performance is the most important ingredient.

Introducing the top-of-the-line in our286 series, the CompuPro 286/8(1™ with moreperformance built in than ever. Forstarters, our new 8 MHz 80286 processorgets data from memory in only two clockcycles, compared with the three or fourrequired by other systems. In addition tothe 768K of high speed memory, thesystem's high performance 80 Megabytehard disk has a dedicated 512K byte cachebuffer that boosts its performance evenmore. Tape back-up and floppy drives areincluded along with nine serial ports, Con-current DOS 816™ multi-user multi-taskingoperating system and NewWord™ word processingsoftware. The system includes a 16 slot S-100Rmotherboard, which means there s plenty of room for adding options such as memory expansion to a megabyte, more cache memory,additional I/O ports, slave processors, graphics, networking and more.

All this tech-talk translates simply to this: The CcmpuPro 286/80 has the power to solve your business computing needs today and tomorrow as your business grows.

The price? A lot lower than you'd expect to pay for all this performance. Just $12,500 suggested list. To find out how the CompuPro 286/80(or any of our other multi-user systems) can give your business more performance, call today for the name of your nearest CompuPro dealer.

10 MHz available with AMD 80286! Dealers have details.

"'Lhmi ,).wiw«i

mr**

MORE NET PERFORMANCE

CompuPro has been providing networking solutions for years withour NET 100™ and NET 10™ products, and we're proud to introduce thelatest member of our network family—The NET PC™. Simply plug theNET PC into your IBM® PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible and yourpersonal computer now becomes an integrated part of high performancemulti-user network. The NET PC includes the CPLINK™ requestorprogram that lets your PC become a part of the network while stillrunning DOS.

CompuPro multi-user systems (like the 286/80) make ideal file-serversfor networked PCs, and they're still fully functional as multi-usercomputers. Your problem of how to move up to a true multi-user system and keep your existing PCs is now solved.

TECH-TALK: All our network products use the high speed (2.5 MBPS) ARCNET® token passing hardware protocol and DR NET™software protocols (except a PC with CPLINK, which emulates DOS 3.1 conventions). The network may contain up to 255 nodes. TheNET PC is a fully compatible super-set of the SMC ARCNET card and therefore may be used with other network software systems.

NET PC with CPLINK: $550. NET 100 (for S-100 systems and the 286 series): $495. NET 10 (for the CompuPro 10 Plus™): $495. All prices arc-suggested list.

AT COMPUPRO, PERFORMANCE IS NOT JUST ANOTHER BUZZWORD.

fompuPro

Viasyn Corporation, 26538 Danti CourtHayward, CA 94545-3999 (415) 786-0909

SWt'SSRss-**

CompuPro, 286/80, 10 Plus, NET 100, NET 10 and NET PC are trademarks of Viasyn Corporation. Concurrent DOS 816 is compound trademark of Digital Research, Inc. and Viasyn Corporation.DR NET is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc. NewWord is trademark of NewStar Software. Inc. CPLINK is a trademark of ComputerNet A/S. IBM is registered trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines Corporation, ARCNET is a registered trademark of Datapoint Corporation. Prices and specifications subject to change without notice.

CHAOS MANOR

log of CP/M software: there's an amaz-ing amount of it, much of it packed20 programs to a disk, and all cheap(Workman and Associates, 112 MarionAve., Pasadena, CA 91106). SoftwareToolworks also has a ton of CP/Mstuff.

NEC sent me a pile of V20 chips,which we're busily installing in everyPClone we have. The Challenger disas-ter interrupted our tests. Full reportsanother time, but we're very excited.

Integration?

When IBM brought out the PC withPC-DOS rather than CP/M-86, it splint-ered the micro community. Nowadays,it's no big deal to transform files fromCP/M to PC-DOS (although not every-one can do it), but for a while it was.PC-DOS, warts and all, became themainstream. CP/M didn't vanish, butit sure got a lot less attention.

The V-series chips can bring thosestreams back together. There mayeven be a sort of renaissance through

hybrid vigor. More: I'm told that NECis working on a chip that can runeverything from Z80 through 80386software. And someone will bring outa chip that has 68000 capabilities.

Integration of the micro communitymeans larger customer bases for soft-ware. A larger market base meanslower prices. Lower-priced, powerfulsoftware interests more people insmall computers.

The only real question is, why didit take the Japanese to bring ustogether?

The Great Editor Hunt

It all started when I was talking withDon Castella about what I might dowith the Little Board/186 machine.

"I do have an idea," I said. "I've col-lected some enormous files of stuffoff BIX. I'd like to go through and editthem down. Delete blocks of non-sense. What 1 really need is a goodmacro editor, like WordMaster. Whatdo we have?"

A small price to pay for a full-duplex 2400 bps dial modemthat gives you better performance, better features, and bettersupport than anything else available. f*f\r\&yt

The Codex 2233 dial modem. Find out ^VjVVNabout it. Call 1-800-4264212. Ext. 230. ®

MOTOROLA

Motorola and(g)are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. Codex is a registered trademark of Codex Corporation.© 1986 Codex Corporation.

It turns out that I don't have any-thing. I might be able to tailorBorland's Turbo Editor Toolbox: al-though it won't hold files larger thanmemory, that's not such a severe limi-tation for PC-DOS as it was for CP/M.Alas, 1 haven't time to do the tailor-ing. I want something 1 can use now.WordStar in nondocument modedoesn't have proper macros. VEDITwould probably work—I recall I waspretty happy with it under CP/M-86—but 1 don't have a PC version.

Don suggested Pmate, which appar-ently is quite popular with program-mers: but, alas, that's one of the feweditors I don't have, and I'm not con-vinced it has the command process-ing I want.

Connie Kageyama brought over aneditor called KEDIT which looks allright: but in reading the manual I can'tfind out how the macro system worksand whether search-and-replacemode lets you match control charac-ters and delimiters and suchlike. I'mtold that you can, but the documentsdon't explain it very well. I'll try again.

One problem is that I've beenspoiled by WordMaster. (My madfriend MacLean dubbed it WordMasher long ago, and to this day I in-voke it under the command MASHftle.ext.) WordMaster not only lets yousearch and replace for carriagereturns and linefeeds and other con-trol characters, but it also has a wayto insert any character you like intothe text stream. (Well, there is one ex-ception: if you try to insert a Control-Z, which is the CP/M "end-of-file"mark, WordMaster not only won't doit, but the screen flashes "Turkey!")There is a small buffer in which youcan set up quite complicated com-mands, including conditionals. Final-ly, WordMaster lets you edit as longa file as your disk can hold. It was anearly CP/M version of TECO and is, ina word, one of the best programmingeditors ever written.

There's only one problem. Word-Master was the first CP/M programpublished by MicroPro. When Word-Star took off, MicroPro abandonedWordMaster. Not only is there no PC-DOS WordMaster, you can't get any-one at MicroPro to admit they ever

[continued]

308 BYTE • IUNE 1986

MICROWAY'S 8087 RUNS 1-2-3"!

MicroWay is the worlds leading retail-er of 8087s and high performance PCupgrades We stock a complete selec-tion of 8087s that run at5and8mhz. Allof our coprocessors are shipped with adiagnostic disk and the best warrantyin the business - one year! We alsooffer daughterboards for socketlesscomputers (NEC PC) and 287Turbowhich increases the clock speed of the80287 from 4 to 8 mhz. Our NUMBERSMASHER™ includes 640K ram. It willrun the IBM PC at clock speeds up to10mhz and achieves a throughput of .1megaflops with 87 BASIC/IN LINE Intel

Fortran, or Microsoft Fortran. Softwarereviewers consistently cite MicroWaysoftware and 8087 expertise as thebest in the industry! Ourcustomersfre-quently write to thank us for recom-mending the correct software andhardware to meet their specific needsThey also thank us for our same dayshipping! In addition to our own pro-ducts which support the 8087 and80287, we stock the largest supply ofspecialized software available For in-formation call us at

617-746-7341

■fniiiin ii '•

SPEED UP YOUR ATOR AT COMPATIBLEWITH 287TURBO" - 8mhz

MicroWay

FASTBREAK™ employsthe8087 to in-crease the speed of Lotus 1 -2-3™ Ver-sion 1A or 1 A* by up to 36 to 1 $79FASTPAK™ includes FASTBREAK soft-ware and a 5mhz 8087 $179

87SFL™ MicroWay's Scientific Func-tion Library contains 170 scientific andengineering functions Callable frommost 8087 compatible compilers FirstLanguage $250; Additional $100A2D-160™ MicroWay's Data Acquisi-tion Board performs 160,000 12 bitAnalog to Digital conversions persecond! Includes software drivers Thefastest 12 bit A to D board available.For the IBM PC or XT $1295

8087S

For the IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT and Compatibles.

NUMBER SMASHER™ The Worlds Fast-est Accelerator Card for the IBM PC, XT, and Com-patibles! Includes an 8086 and 8087 pair testedto 10mhz, and 640K bytes of high speed ram.Compatible 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. One of the few accelera-tors on the market which is compatible with allEMS cards. Includes FASTBREAK $1099

87/88TurbO™ isastubby card which includesa clock calendar and a speed controller whichchanges the speed of your motherboard from 4.77to 7.4mhz. Its use requires your PC to have a soc-keted 8224. Typical speed increase is 1.6. Someprograms run up to 2.5 times faster. The card over-comes the problem of slow hardware by slowingup only when slow devices are accessed andrunning at full speed otherwisa It includes an8087-2 $350

286TurboCache™ This new MicroWay ac-celerator uses 8K of cache memory and 80286/80287 processors to provide an average speedincrease of 3 to 1 for most programs Call forspecifications benchmarks and price.

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 equationsCallablefrom RM or MS Fortran, MS Assembler, or87BASIC/INLINE each $99

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 most8087 compatible compilers $200

87FFT-2™ performs two-dimensional FFTsIdeal for image processing Requires 87FFT $100

l/\lay°

P.O. Box 79Kingston, Mass02364 USA(617)746-7341

MegaPage Our Intel-Lotus specificationmemory card. The only EMS board which comeswith two megabytes of cookunning, low powerdrain CMOS ram installed Includes ram disk, printspooler, disk cache, and EMS drivers For the IBMPC, XT, AT and compatibles $549

DFixer™ Our disk utility which thoroughlychecks PC or AT hard disks for bad sectors andupdates the MS DOS file allocation table accord-ingly. Solves the AT hard disk problem! ... $149

DOptimizer" Optimizes the way your harddisk or floppy stores its files Speeds up accessesby recombining fragmented files $49

DCache™ Our disk caching software speedsup your I/O by storing repetitively used tracks inmemory. The amount of memory used can beselected in 64K byte banks $49

87 Verify™ For users who have to be absolutelysure of their results! This background task periodic-ally performs an 8087 accuracy and stress test$49

87MACRO/DEBUG™ Contains all thepieces needed for writing 8087/80287 assemblycode including 8087 macros, object libraries forcommonly used functions including transcen-dental trigonometries conversions and Micro-Way's debugger- 87DEBUG $199

OBJ -* ASM™ A multipass object module trans-lator and disassembler. Produces assembly lan-guage listings which include public symbols ex-ternal symbols and labels commented with crossreferences Ideal for patching object modules forwhich source is not available $200

87BASIC™ includes patches to the IBM Basicor MS Quick Basic Compiler for USER TRANS-PARENT 8087 support. Provides super fast per-formance for all numeric operations including trig-onometries transcendentals, addition, subtrac-tion, multiplication, and division each $150

87 BASIC/IN LINE" 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 Version 1 andMacro Assembler. Includes 87BASIC $200

MICROWAY UDI runs RTOS or RMX com-pilers under DOS $300

8087 UPGRADES

All MicroWay 8087s include a one year warranty,complete MicroWay Test Program and accurateInstallation Instructions

8087 5mhz $109

For the IBM PC, XT and compatibles

8087-2 8mhz $149

For Wang, AT&T, DeskPro, NEC, Leading Edge.

80287-3 5mhz $179

For the IBM PC, AT and 286 compatibles

80287-8 8mhz $295

For the Tandy 3000 and ITT-XP.

287Tu rbo™ 8 m hz if you own an at,

Deskpro 286 or AT compatible, this is the card youneed to get reasonable numeric performance. Itplugs into your 80287 socket and includes a spe-cially driven 8mhz 80287. The card comes in threeconfigurations The IBM AT version includes ahardware RESET button $395

NECV20, V30 CALL

64KRAMSet150ns $10

256K RAM Set 150ns $34

128KRAMSetPCAT $49

JRAM, AST, INTEL call

DCache plus 64K ABOVE BOARD PS 375

DCache plus 128K AT ABOVE BOARD 475

Microsoft Fortran Version 3.31 209

IBM Professional Fortran 565

Ryan-McFariand Fortran Version 2.0 399

FORLIB+ or STRINGS and THINGS 65

Grafmatic for Fortran or Pascal 125

Plotmatic 125

NAG Fortran Library 300

Lattice C 269

Microsoft C or QuickBasic CALL

IBM Basic Compiler Version 2.0 465

Summit BetterBASIC™ CALL

IBM Assembler w/Librarian Version 2.0 155

Microsoft Assembler Version 3.01 99

Microsoft Pascal Version 3.31 199

STSC APLA-PLUS/PC 450

Phoenix Plink86 or Cosmos Revelation... CALL

SPSS/PC+ 595

EPSILON Text Editor 195

LABTECH NOTEBOOK 745

MultiHalo (one language) 189

Fifth Generation FASTBACK 150

Inquiry 230

IUNE I986 -BYTE

309

fomPUTCR WARSHOUSE

CALL TOLL

^E1-800-528-1054

FREE SfrWfefH HARDWARE |

Air Express Shipping

See Details Below

Anadex All Models Call

Brother All Models Call

Cannon Laser Printer $1949

Citizen MSP-10 S2S0

MSP-15 $349

MSP-20 S315

MSP-25 S485

Premier 35 S409

Datasouth All Printer Models Call

Diablo D-25 S519

635 S1079

Other Printer Models Call

EPSON

All Printer Models

Call

.. Call

Juki

S349

S669

NEC

3510.3550. 3515. 3530

S729

S1039

Call

S379

S379

OKIDATA

All Printer Models

...Call

S199

$239

S309

S42S

S399

STAR MICRONICS

All Printer Models Call

$449

... S769

P351 Parallel & Serial

$969

MONITORS^

AmdexAII Monitors Call

NEC All Monitors Call

Princeton Graphics Call

Zenith All Models Call

VIDEO TERMINALS

Qume QVT Green 101 S299

QVT Amber 101 S314

Wyse 30 $299

50 S419

75 S559

Wyse 85 $439

Wyse 350 $859

Zenith z-22 S455

Z-29A SS39

z-49 Call

jS

BEST PRICES '/

NOW) No Charge for Bank Cards

MODEMS

AT&T

4000 External

Anchor Automation

Anchor Express

PANASONIC

Sr. Partner Dual Drive $1599

Exec. Partner Dual Drive $2129

TOSHIBA

T-1100 51389

WYSE

Wyse pc 1100-1 8979

Wyse pc 1100-20 St 539

Zenith Computer

ProductsSAVE up to 50%

Z-AII Models Call

Maxell MD-2 Plastic Box (Qly 100)Sony MD/2(Qty 100)

S125S120

S23S

AST Advantage S329

Rampage PC S295

Six Pack Plus S210

Hercules Color Card S149

Graphic Card S303

Intel

Above Boards Call

Maynard Hardcard S549

Paradise Modular Graphic 06-1 . S239FivePak S115

Quadrant

Gold & Silver Boards Call

Quadlink S329

Quad EGA+ S36S

Tec Mar Graphics Master S44S

Captain No Memory S155

PLOTTERS

Epson Hi-80

KEYBOARDS

Keytronics 5151

HAYES

All Modems

Call

Prometheus All Models Call

US Robotics Courier 2400 $379

Password 1200 $175

Microlink 2400 S379

Alpha Omega Turbo 10

Turbo 20

Turbo 30

Iomega

Bernoulli 10 meg

Bernoulli 20 meg

Bernoulli 40 meg

Paradise Macintosh Hard Disk .

$465S509$659

$1659

$2289

$3039

$609

COPIERS

Canon cct t?©)H

Canon PC-10 S509

Canon PC-14 $649

Canon PC-20 S719

Canon PC-25 S939

XEROX

1020w/Toner $1099

SANYO

SFT600 Call

SOFTWARE

Flight Simulator .

PC Logo

Typing Instructor .Typing Tutor III . .

S29S75

$28

S28

IBM PC and 100% Compatibles

SPREADSHEETS

Lotus 1-2-3

Multiplan

Spreadsheet Auditor 2.0.. .VP Planner .

Call

$112

S82

S49

LANGUAGES

C Compiler [Microsoft)

Fortran Compiler (Microsoft).

Lattice C Compiler

Macro Assembler (Microsoft).Pascal Compiler(Microsoft)..

Quick Basic

Run C Interpreter

Turbo Pascal 3.0

Turbo Database Tool Box

S227

S203

S242

$87

S174

S57

$82

S38

S30

INTEGRATIVE SOFTWARE

Enable 1.1 Call

Framework II Call

Smart Software System Best Price

Symphony Call

Harvard Total Project Manager .

Microsoft Project

Super Project Plus

Timeline 2.0

S262S229S237S219

Chartmaster

Diagram Master

Energraphics

Energraphics w/Plotter Option .

In-A-Vision

Microsoft Buss Mouse

w/PC Paintbrush 3.0

Microsoft Chart

Microsoft Serial Mouse

Newsroom ....PC Draw.

$205S189$159S205$249

Leading Edge Word Processor...Leading Edge W/P w/Spell S Mail

Lightening

Microsoft Word 2.01

Multimate3.3

PFS: Write w/Spell Checker

Wordstar w/Tutor

Wordstar Pro Pack

$48S95

...MS$228S203$76$162S233

S107S169$119S32S199

Word Perfect (Ver.4.1 )$196Wordstar 2000 2.0.. $233Wordstar 2000+ 2.0 $278

CompuServe Starter Kit Best Price

Crosstalk XVI $92

MS Access S145

PFS Access S76

Remote S92

Smartcom II S83

PC Draw Light Pen $102

PCMousew/Dr. Halo II S104

PC Paint w/Mouse S119

PFS Graph S76

Printmaster $30

Signmaster $134

Turbo GraphixTool Box S30

Copy II PC

1 DIR

Fastback

Norton Utilities 3.1

Printworks

Sidekick

Sidekick (Unprotected)

Sidekick-Superkey (Bundle) .

Sideways 3.1

Superkey

S19S47$87S48$36S30S47S85$34$39

| Supercalc3(Ver.2.1).$179"l

Dollars & Sense w/Forcast S94

Tobias Managing Your Money Call

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

Clipper S339

Cornerstone S75

dBase II Call

dBase III Plus Call

Extended Report Writer S79

Knowledgeman II S279

Knowledgeman Upgrade Kit S145

Nutshell 2.0 S95

PFS: File S76

PFS: Report S67

Quickcode SI 38

QuickReport S138

Reflex ...-. S55

Think Tank S92

I R:Base5000 $3191

Many other titles available.

Inquiry 83 for MS DOS Products. Inquiry 84 for all others.

GOmPUTCR

WAREHOUSE

Order Line: 1-800-528-1054Order Processing: 602-224-9345

2222 E. Indian School Rd.Phoenix, Arizona 85016602-954-6109

Store Hours: Mon-Fri 10-5:30

Saturday 9-1Order Line Hours: Mon-Fri 7-5:30

Saturday 9-1Order Processing Hours: Mon-Fri 10-3

Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty. Please add $6.00 per order for UPS ground shipping on orders up to 10 lbs. Orders 10 lbs.and under you pay for ground service, receive air service at no extra charge. Available on orders 11-30 lbs. $17 for air service. Prices & availability subject tochange without notice. Send cashier's check or money order..all other checks will delay shipping two weeks.

^ffl ^B

CHAOS MANOR

published Word Masher in the firstplace. It has become pseudo publicdomain.

The Golem lets me edit PC-DOSfiles: which is what I finally ended updoing. 1 capture the file on Big Kat'shard disk; write to a PC-DOS floppy;take the floppy out of Big Kat and in-sert into the Golem; copy the file in-to RAM disk (because I sure don'twant to scroll back and forth throughlong files on 5!4-inch floppies!); useWordMaster to do the edit; copy backto floppy; put floppy in Big Kat; copyback to hard disk. . .

It all works, but I keep thinking therehas got to be a good macro program-ming editor for a PC AT. 1 do wishMicroPro had ported WordMaster toPC-DOS. 1 wonder-what editor dothey use for programming? I'm sure it'snot WordStar. Oh well.

Get It Fixed!

We dearly love the BDS Model 630/8laser printer. Some of you may recallthat we temporarily connected it tomy wife's system. The idea was thatwe'd later set her up with a good dot-matrix printer and move the 630/8 infor the staff. I suppose you can guesswhat happened next. Just as jewelryis never really an investment—youcan't ever sell it ("You want to sell mydiamonds?")—there is no such thingas "temporarily" connecting a reallyfirst-class bit of machinery to yourwife's computer.

However, compromise is possible.The BDS 630/8 has both serial andparallel input ports, and both can beactive. Given a long enough shieldedcable, we can connect the staff's PCup to Roberta's BDS machine whenshe isn't using it. A better solution isto network the printer using AppliedCreative Technology's Systemizers.These are wonderful little boxes thatlet you connect up to 15 computersto a number of different printers sothat you can choose whether to getfast, low-quality dot-matrix listings orhigh-quality stuff from the laserprinter. The Systemizers have theirown memory, too. You'll hear a lotmore about the Systemizers in afuture report; meanwhile, if you've gotprinter network problems, you could

(continued)

Introducing the Lattice MS-DOSC Compiler, Version 3.

There's never been a better time to buy Lattice C.Professional programmers the world over have madeLattice C the standard compiler for serious MS-DOSprogramming. Now Version 3 offers even more of thefeatures that have made our previous versions sopopular. Our new compiler features include:

ANSI language constructs including, unsigned as amodifier, void data type, enum data type, structureassignments, structure arguments, structure returns,and argument type checking.

The compiler also contains better aliasing algorithms,more efficient code generation, and more flexiblesegmentation, in-line 8087 code generation, and 80186/80286 code generation.

The library contains more than 200 new functions,including: ANSI/UNIX/XENIX compatibility; extendedsupport for MS-DOS; extended support for networkingincluding file sharing, file locking, and I/O redirection;and flexible error handling via user traps and exits.Plus the library has also been re-engineered toproduce much smaller executables.

Try the new Version 3 C Compiler from Lattice.Because C-ing is believing.

Lattice

Lattice, IncorporatedP.O. Box 3702Glen Ellyn.IL 60138312/858-7950 TWX 910-291-2190

INTERNATIONAL SALES OFFICES:Benelux: Ines Datacom (32) 2-720-51-61Japan: Lifeboat Inc. (03)293-4711England: Roundhill (0672)54675France: SFL (1)46-66-11-55Germany: (49)7841/4500 (49)8946/13290

Inquiry 185

IUNE 1986

iYTE

CHAOS MANOR

do a lot worse than call Tim Wylde'speople at Applied Creative Tech-nology.

All very well; but the bottom line isthat Roberta has become dependenton the laser printer. The other nightshe was using it to do the final sub-mission copy for her book outlinewhen it unaccountably stopped work-ing. It would print a couple of pagesof text, then rapidly go through aseries of error messages and shut it-self down in the middle of the thirdpage. Turning it off and back on natu-rally got a "paper jam" error. Whenwe cleared that it would work again,but only if we sent it fewer than twopages of text.

Roberta thought something waswrong with her file and tried fixing

that, but the problem persisted, soshe called me. It took me about fiveminutes to deduce that the problemhad to be the printer: it simply wasn'tdoing the hardware handshaking withher computer. The result was hercomputer kept pumping text out; theBDS printer's buffer would overflow;something within the BDS woulddetect that; and wham, it would shutitself off.

We solved the immediate problemby taking her text upstairs and print-ing it on my Hewlett-Packard LaserJet.(I've offered to swap with her: I get theBDS and she gets the HP. She isn't in-terested.) The next morning I calledBDS. I described my problem to thetelephone receptionist; a minute later,I had someone from technical sup-

Items Discussed

Accelerate 8/16 $99.95

NEC MultiSync Monitor .... $799

Software Toolworks

NEC Home Electronics Inc.

15233 Ventura Blvd., Suite 1118

1401 Estes Ave.

Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

Elk Grove Village, 1L 60007

(818) 986-4885

(800) 323-1728

Ampro Little Boards, start at $289

•

Ampro Computers Inc.

SR-12 Color Monitor $799

67 East Evelyn Ave.

Princeton Graphic Systems

Mountain View, CA 94041

601 Ewing St., Bldg. A9

(415) 962-0230

Princeton, N) 08540

(800) 221-1490

BDS 630/8 Laser Printer . .. $2995

BDS Corporation

800 Maude Ave.

Systemizer $300

Mountain View, CA 94043

Applied Creative Technology Inc.

(415) 964-2115

2156 West Northwest Highway

Suite 303

Dreamer $2 59

Dallas. TX 75220

T. S. Microtech Inc.

(214) 556-2916

12 565 Crenshaw Blvd.

Hawthorne, CA 902 50

(213) 644-0859

Uniform $69.95

UniDOS $69.95

)anus/Ada Compiler C-Pak . .$99.95

with V20 microprocessor . . . .$95

RR Software

Micro Solutions

POB 1512

125 South Fourth St.

Madison, Wl 53701

DeKalb, IL 60115

(608) 244-6436

(815) 756-3411

Media Master

for most PCompatibles . . . .$39.95

V20 and V30 Chips . . .Prices vary:

for DEC Rainbow $99.95

call for nearest distributorNEC Electronics

Intersecting Concepts

4573 Heatherglen Court

401 Ellis St.

Moorpark, CA 93021

Mountain View, CA 94039

(805) 529-5073

(415) 960-6000

port. Two minutes after that, they notonly understood the problem butknew what to do about it. So far, noone at BDS had the remotest idea ofwho I was.

I had two choices. They'd send mea kit I could use to fix the machinemyself, or they'd send a local techni-cian out. I was ready to choose thedo-it-myself route, but when theyfound out who I was they insisted onsending the technician.

They needn't have bothered. All, ornearly all, the electronics in the BDSlaser printer is contained in the "lid."This two-inch-thick lid sits on top ofthe machine and is connected witheight screws. Remove the screws andthe lid lifts off. There are some cables,well marked, that you must discon-nect. You then put the new lid on, con-nect the cables, and replace the eightscrews. It took the technician nineminutes. It would have taken eitherme or Roberta no more than doublethat.

The BDS 630/8 is built around theCanon laser-printer engine. Most ofthat is in a cartridge. With 85 percentof the electronics in the lid, fixing theBDS is a breeze. Their normal policyis to send you a new lid; you replaceyours and send them the old one intheir box. They fix the lid at their shopand recycle it. Fascinating. I wish morecomputer companies had a systemlike that.

Except for that incident—which wascovered by warranty—the BDS 630/8has been in heavy use for five monthswith nary a glitch. We've even dis-covered the secret of making it feedenvelopes, which it does very well.

The BDS laser printer is terrific. It'squiet and fast, and it turns out good-quality work. As 1 noted in a previouscolumn, the computer thinks it's aDiablo 630, meaning that almosteveryone has software that can driveit; it took us about five minutes tohook it up. 1 can now testify that it'sboth reliable and easy to fix. If youneed a good printer, be sure to con-sider the BDS.

Ada

It was a Sunday morning. 1 was water-ing my lawn. Up pulls a rented Buick.

[continued)

312 BYTE • IUNE 1986

• I

I

I

I

This is good news for anyone who owns a Macintosh. Ora HyperDriven Macintosh. And an act of unprecedented gener-osity for those who own both.

General Computer introduces HyperNet, software thatgives other Macs access to HyperDrive's vast 10 or 20 mega-bytes of hard disk storage.

It means that, using the AppleTalk network, you can link aHyperDriven Mac with other Macs in your office. Creating a net-work you can easily expand, adding Macintoshes and/orHyperDnves as your needs change.

It means that you can use any Mac in your network to callup files from your HyperDrive. Editing, transmitting and other-

*ln Canada, call our distributor al (800) 5651267 ©19B6 General Computer Corp HyperDrive. HyperNel. The leading edgare trademarks 0) Apple Computer, Ine Macintosh is a trademark licensed In Apple Compuler, Inc

wise managing the data they contain. (It also supports multi-user database software.)

And it means that you can not only multiply the amountof information your Macs can manage, but divide the cost ofHyperDrive accordingly

Which could leave you with no economically viable alter-native but to visit your

authorized GeneralComputer dealer Orcall (800) 634-9737(In Illinois, call (800)854-9737)*

\

Inquiry 140

GENERALCOMPUTER

The leading edge starts here.

|e slans hf*ru, and tha General Computer Corp logo are iraclernarks of General Computer Corp Apple and AppleTalk.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 313

CHAOS MANOR

It was Randy Brukardt, one of theR's of RR Software, the company thatproduces the best—darned near theonly—Ada compiler for PCompatibles.Randy lives in the land of ice andsnow, which is probably why hespends nearly all his time writing com-pilers. He was in town for the AdaFaire.

Randy had a bone to pick: when Imention low-cost Modula-2 compilers,I generally haven't mentioned RR'sJanus/Ada Compiler C-Pak. It's alsolow-cost. Randy says, "The real warisn't between Ada and Modula-2, it'sbetween modular languages andeverything else. Ada and Modula-2have much more in common thanthey have differences."

Niklaus Wirth, inventor of bothPascal and Modula-2, would disagree.To him, Ada is a language designedby a committee and, horror of hor-rors, includes exception handling.Wirth's opinion of exception handlingis somewhat lower than my opinionof Boy Scouts who put live frogs in mysleeping bag.

On reflection, though, 1 think Randyis right. There really is more in com-mon than in contention betweenModula-2 and Ada. They have manyof the same strengths and weak-nesses. In both cases, the weaknessesare generally solved with faster ma-chines and more memory—modular

programs sacrifice both speed andmemory to ease of comprehensionand maintenance. Both languages areworth knowing, and if you have towrite a very large program and co-ordinate the work of many program-mers, either is better than any otherlanguage that 1 know of.

If you want to know more aboutAda, you could do a lot worse thanto buy the RR Janus starter package.(They no longer sell the CP/M version,but you can get it through Workmanand Associates.) The Janus packagehas good introductory materials andis more than enough to let you learnquite a bit about the language. Sincethe Department of Defense has man-dated Ada for many of its programs,and the Janus/Ada package is nowused as the teaching program in manymilitary programming schools, itmight be a good investment in jobsecurity as well.

Spin and Pop?

The Otrona Attache was one of thenicest small computers ever made.When it first came out I called it the"BMW of the portables," and I've hadno real reason to change that view. Itreally was the best small CP/M ma-chine ever made. If Otrona had juststuck to developing portables, they'dhave come up with a laptop machinecompatible with the Attache and

gone on from there, and they'd haveowned the portable market. Alas, thecompany abandoned its safe nicheand tried to swim out in the big oceanwith the other IBM PC compatibles—and is no more.

Unlike those who bought other or-phans, Otrona owners are in luck. JimPope and his partners have acquiredthe manuals, spare parts, and partiallycompleted machines dumped whenOtrona's assets were liquidated. Jimtells me it was a real horror story:mounds of unsorted manuals, circuitdiagrams, component boards, all in aheap in a warehouse, all sold by thepound. The result was good, though:they founded Spin and Pop Enter-prises (POB 6458, Denver, CO 80206).I have mixed emotions about thename.

Spin and Pop can service, refurbish,and upgrade your Otrona. They evenhave a few Attaches to sell. Do under-stand: buying an Otrona Attache now-adays is a little like buying an oldDuesenberg. It looks great and it willwork fine, but it won't have a stereotape player or fuel injection. I wouldn'tgive up my Attache for anything, and,indeed, we often carry her along ontrips.

If you have or want an Otrona, yousimply must make contact with Spinand Pop. Get your Otrona upgradedand use it! That machine is far too

DEVICE PROGRAMMING WORKSTATION: $2900.

14 DAY FREE TRIAL OFFER

ALLPRO—a total PROM/PLD/PAL* software driven deviceprogramming workstationwhen integrated with anIBM PC.

*Each socket pin is individuallyprogrammable for voltage,current, and slew rate toeliminate the need for activemodules/adaptors*l\lew devices require onlysoftware updates via floppydisc and/or modem

Compare features, compareprice; then make the Logicalchoice

ITS LOGICAL

For details, write or call:1321 NW 65th Place,Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309;(305) 974-0975;toll free 800-EE1-PROMTELEX 383142

•PAL Is a registered trademark ofMonolithic Memories, Inc.

LOGICAL DEVICES, INC

314 B YTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 189

CHAOS MANOR

nice to be left languishing in acloset.

Beautiful Dreamer

Are you tired of trying to rememberWordStar commands? Are you wearyof asking Lotus 1-2-3 for help? Doesthe IBM PC keyboard drive you nuts?Are you often in Num Lock when youshouldn't be, and vice versa? Is thatyour trouble, Bucky?

If so, help is at hand.

T. S. Microtech's Dreamer for theIBM PC is a neat little 7- by 10-inchbox that plugs between your PCkeyboard and the PC. It has a numerickeypad, plus arrow keys and 30 morekeys. These do about 70 WordStarand Lotus 1-2-3 functions.

There are things about the Dreamerthat I'd have done differently, but if Iwere running a data-entry shop, I'dcertainly look into this gadget. It takesup room, and you'd want to thinkabout the design of workstation furni-ture; but properly used, it could savea lot of time. TSM keeps upgrading tomake other business programs easyto learn and easy to use. Definitelyworth looking into. You'll hear moreabout this in the future.

Winding Down

As usual, there's a huge mess of stuffI ought to look at and won't be ableto get to. Real Soon Now.

The book of the month is John Mc-Phee's la Place de la Concorde Suisse,which isn't in French; it's about theSwiss military defense system. With apopulation no larger than New Jer-sey's, the Swiss can put a fullyequipped army of 650,000 in the fieldin less than 48 hours.

Addison-Wesley has a bunch of newcomputer books, all excellent. There'sa new edition of Programming in Ada byJ. G. P. Barnes ($21.95), the book forexperienced programmers who wantto learn what Ada is all about; and anew release of Peter Grogono's Pro-gramming in Pascal ($24.95), one of thebest introductions to that languageyou'll ever find, and certainly the bestexplanation of pointers and eventrings I've seen. Finally, Grogono, withSharon Nelson, has written ProblemSolving and Computer Programming($18.95). Carefully read that as well asNiklaus Wirth's Algorithms + Data Struc-tures = Programs (from Prentice-Hall),and you'll have a better computerscience education than many univer-sity graduates.

Today's mail disclosed another V20chip and CP/M program from MicroSolutions, another outfit that I knowproduces good stuff. Their UniFormprogram enables Kaypros (and othermachines) to read and write foreigndisk formats, and it was nearly uniquewhen it first came out; I thought it a

real boon at the time, and I wouldprobably still use it if the Golem didn'thave the ability to read a variety ofdisk formats. Now they have UniDOS,which they claim will run unchangedCP/M programs on an IBM PC. Youdon't even have to copy the data toPC format; Micro Solutions' new Uni-Form can run CP/M programs fromabout 200 different disk formats as ifthey were native to the PC. The MicroSolutions package can also run Z80CP/M programs on an AT (no V20there, but the program checks for thepresence of a V20 or an 80286, aswell as whether or not your programexpects a Z80). It does this in soft-ware, of course, and slows thingsdown, but actually, a fast PC AT canemulate a 3-megahertz Z80 prettywell. More on that next month, andnow I'm really out of time.

Do write the L-5 Society. What if welose another shuttle? The nation mustalways have access to the frontier. Idon't expect I have to explain that tomicro people. ■

jerry Pournelle welcomes readers commentsand opinions. Send a self-addressed, stampedenvelope to jerry Pournelle, do BYTE Publica-tions, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough,NH 03458. Please put your address on theletter as well as on the envelope. Due to thehigh volume of letters, jerry cannot guaranteea personal reply.

The Advanced Programmer: $895

14 DAY FREETRIAL OFFER

!~. h

%

PR0MPR0-8X—an advancedEPROM, EEPROM and SingleChip Micro programmer with a5l2k-bit RAM buffer

'Supports MOS, HMOS, andCMOS 2716 thru 27512 and mostother available EE/EPROMs

*RAM image editing via keypad/display in 8 or 16 bit wordformats.

*Mini-gang, set program twoEPROMs simultaneously.

"Complete Stand-Alone andRS-232 interface capability.Compare Features, compareprice; then make the Logicalchoice

IT'S LOGICAL

For details, write or call:1321 NW 65th Place,Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309;(305) 974-0975;toll free 800-EE1-PROMTELEX 383142

LOGICAL DEVICES, INC

Inquiry 190

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 315

THE CMO ADVANTAGE

TO ORDERCALL TOLL FREE

1-800-233-8950

DEPARTMENT A206

OR MAIL YOUR ORDER TO:

COMPUTER MAIL ORDER

Department A206

477 E. Third Street

Williamsport, PA 17701

HOME COMPUTERS

MODEMS

fl

POLICY Inquiry 80

Add 3% (Minimum $7.00) shipping and handl-ing. Larger shipments may require additionalcharges. Personal and company checks require3 weeks to clear. For faster delivery use yourcredit card or send cashier's check or bankmoney order. Pennsylvania residents add 6%sales tax. All prices are subject to change andall items are subject to availability. Defective soft-ware will be replaced with the same item only.Hardware will be repaired or replaced at ourdiscretion within the the terms and limits of themanufacturer's warranty. We cannot guaranteecompatibility. All sales are final and returnedshipments are subject to a restocking fee.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

CALL TOLL FREE1-800-221-4283

CUSTOMER SERVICE

& TECHNICAL SUPPORT

1-717-327-1450

CANADIAN ORDERS1-800-268-3974

Ontario/Quebec

1-416-828-0866

In Toronto

1-800-268-4559

Other Provinces

TELEX: 06-218960

2505 Dunwin Drive,

Mississauga, Ontario

Canada L5L1T1

All prices shown are for U.S.A. orders. Call theCanadian Office for Canadian prices.

THE CMO ADVANTAGE

k" Next day shipping on all in-stock items.

^ Free easy access order inquiry.

^ Orders from outside Pennsylvania save

state sales tax.*■ Free technical support from our factory

trained technicians.^ There is no limit and no deposit on C.O.D.

orders.*■ There is no extra charge for using your

Visa or MasterCard and your card is not

charged untii we ship*■ No waiting period for cashier's checks,r- We accept purchase orders from qualified

corporations. Subject to approval..' Educational discounts available to

qualified institutions. (See the toll free

educational phone number above.)^ FREE CATALOG MEMBERSHIP

ATARI

65XE (64K) $89.99

130XE (128K) $139.00

520ST (512K) $369.00

5205T Monochrome System

• 520ST with modulator

• disk drive

• mouse LOW, LOW

• logo SYSTEM PRICE

• Basic $64900

• 1st Word

• monochrome monitor520ST Color System

• 520ST with modulator

• disk drive

• mouse (_ow, LOW

' logo SYSTEM PRICE

• Basic $70900

• 1 St Word

• color monitor

800XL 64K CALL

1010 Recorder $49.99

1050 Disk Drive $149.00

1020 Printer $29.99

1027 Letter Quality Printer $129.00

1030 Direct Connect Modem $59.99

Comrex 220 Atari $69.99

APPLE

APPLE lie CALL

APPLE lie CALL

He LCD Display $329.00

COMMODORE

Amiga Package

• 512K -2 Drive

• RGB Monitor $1599.00

C64 Package

■ C64 • C1541

• Taxan 220 $499.00

C12B Package

• C128 • C1571

• NAP8562 Monitor $779.00

C128 Computer $269.00

C1571 (Disk Drive

for C128) $249.00

C1902 (RGB 13" Monitor

tor C128 CALL

C1670 (Modem lor C128)$179.00

C1530 Datasette $39.99

C1660 Aulo Modem $59.99

DPS 1101 Daisy Printer $339.00

Comrex 220 (C64 Interface) $89.99

Xetec SuperGraphix 8K $69.99

PORTABLE COMPUTERS

ACCESSORIES

NEC

PC-8401 LS $699.00

PC-8201 Portable Computer....$339.00

PC-8231 Disk Drive $599.00

PC-8221A Thermal Printers $149.00

PC-8281A Data Recorder $99.99

PC-8201-06 8K RAM $79.99

SHARP

PC-1350 $149.00

PC-1261 $149,00

PC-1500A $169.00

PC-1250A $89.99

CE-125 Printer/Cassette $129.00

CE-150 Color Printer Cassette.$149.00CE-161 16K RAM $129.00

AMARAY

80 Column Printer Stand $14.99

CURTIS

Side Mount SS-1 $19.99

Side Mount AT SS-2 $34.99

Universal Sland SS-3 $19.99

Diamond SP-1 $29.99

Emerald SP-2 $39.99

Sapphire SPF-1 $49.99

Ruby SPF-2 $59.99

DATA SHIELD

300 Watt Backup $379.00

500 Watt Backup $589.00

Turbo 350 Watt Backup $449.00

P125 Power Director $99.99

P150 Power Director w/Modem$119.00

KENSINGTON

Master Piece $99.99

Master Piece + $119.00

KEYTRONICS

KB5150/KB5151/KB5151Jr CALL

KB5152B/KB5153/KB5149Jr CALL

MEMORY CHIPS

4164 RAM Chips (ea.)$1.99

128 RAM Chips (ea.) $12.99

256 RAM Chips (ea.) $10.99

■Pdaroid

Palette $1399.00

Power Processor $229.00

Illuminated Slide Mounter $39.99

Polacolor 2 Pack film $18.99

What HEWLETT

mLfiM PACKARD

41CV $139.00

41CX $199.00

HP 11C $49.99

HP 12C $75.99

HP 15C $75.99

HP 16C $89.99

HPIL Module $98.99

HPIL Cassette or Printer $359.99

Card Reader $143.99

Extended Function Module $63.99

Time Module $63.99

We stock the full line ofHP calculator products

aWNCHOR

Volksmodem $59.99

Volksmodem 300/1200 $189.00

Signalman Express $259.00

Lightning 2400 Baud $399.00

Expressi (PC Hallcard) $189.00

6470 (64/128) 300/1200 Baud..$139.00

/isr

Reach 1200 Baud Half Card....$399.00

DIGITAL DEVICES

AT300 - 300 Baud (Atari) $99.99

EVEREX

1200 Baud Internal (IBM/PC)...$179.00

CD Hayes

Smanmodem 300 $139.00

Smartmodem 1200 $389.00

Smartmodem 1200B $359.00

Smartmodem 2400 $599.00

Micromodem lie $149.00

Smart Com II $89.99

Chronograph $199.00

Transet 1000 $309.00

j Novation [ffi

Smart Cat Plus $299.00

J-Cat $99.99

Novation 2400 $499.00

Apple Cat II $219.00

212 Apple Cal II $379.00

Apple Cat 212 Upgrade $229.00

Ouadmodem II

300/1200 $339.00

300/1200/2400 $499.00

■»^ SUPRAMPP-1064 AD/AA (C-64) $69.99

DISKETTES

DRIVES

Elephant S%" SS/SD $9.99

Elephant BVi" SS/DD $11.99

Elephant 5<A" DS/DD $14.99

Elephant Premium DS/DD(50)....$69.99Elephant 314" SS/DD $24.99

S%" DS/DD floppy disks

(Box of 10) $26.99

GENERIC

DS/DD w/Flip'n'File 10 $11.99

maxGll

3Vz" SS/DD (10) $18.99

3V2II 5 pack SS/DD/Case $9.99

3'/2" DS/DD (10) $29.99

5'A" MD-1 SS/SD (10) $11.99

514" MD-2 DS/DD (10) $16.99

5V4" MD-2-HD for AT (10) $29.99

*A Verbatim.

5'A" SS/DD $12.99

5'/4" DS/DD $24.99

Disk Analyzer $24.99

DISK HOLDERS

AMARAY

50 Disk Tub 5'A" $9.99

30 Disk Tub 3'/2" $9.99

INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS

Flip'n File 10 $2.49

Flip'n File 50 ! $14.99

Flip'n File 50 w/lock $19.99

Flip'n File Data Case $9.99

DEPT. A206

HARD

CORE

AT20-AT72MB CALL

EVEREX60 Meg Internal Backup System$799.00

IOMEGA

A110H Single 10 CALL

A210H 10 + 10 CALL

A120H Single 20 CALL

A220H 20 + 20 CALL

Save on 10 & 20 Carls CALL

IRWIN

Tape Backup CALL

KITS

10 Meg with controller $399.00

20 Meg with controller $499.00

PRIAM

40. 60 MB Inner Space CALL

Shared Data CALL

Shared Space CALL

TALLGRASS25. 35. 50. 80 meg (PC) from $1299.00

FLOPPY

ALLIED TECHNOLOGY

Apple II.II+ .lie Vi height $109.00

INDUS

Atari GT $199.00

C-64 /128 GT $199.00

MSD

SD1 C-64 Single $219.00

SD2 C-64 Dual $469.00

TANDON

320K 5'A" (PC) $119.00

TEAC

320K 5'A" $119.00

—1=

SOFTWARE FOR IBM

ANSA SOFTWARE

Paradox $499.00

ASHTON-TATE

Framework II $389.00

dBase III Plus $389.00

BATTERIES INCLUDEDIsgur Portfolio $159.00

BORLAND

Lightening $59.99

Sidekick (unprotected) $57.99

Reflex $59.99

Travelling Sidekick $44.99

CENTRAL POINT

Copy II PC-Backup $29.99

PC Option Board $84.99

DECISION RESOURCES

Chartmaster $229.00

Signmaster $159.00

Diagram Master $209.00

FIFTH GENERATION

Fast Back 99.99

FUNK SOFTWARE

Sideways $44.99

HARVARD SOFTWARE INC.

Total Project Manager $269.00

Presentation Graphics $239.00

LIFETREE

Volkswrilei III $159 00

LIVING VIDEOTEXT

Think Tank $109.00

Ready $64.99

LOTUS

Symphony CALL

1-2-3 Version 2 CALL

MECA SOFTWARE

Managing Your Money 2.0 $99.99

Manage Your Market $89.99

MICROPRO

Easy $94.99

WordStar 2000 $239.00

WordStar 2000+ $289.00

WordStar Professional $189.00

MICRORIM SOFTWARE

R:8ase 4000 $249.00

R:Base 5000 $359.00

Clout 2.0 $129.00

MICROSOFT

Flight Simulator $34.99

MultiPlan $129.00

Word $249.00

Mouse $139.00

MICROSTUF

Crosstalk XVI $89.99

Crosstalk Mark IV $149.00

Remote $89.99

M ULTIMATE

Multi Mate Word Proc $219.00

Advantage $289.00

On File $89.99

Just Write $89.99

NOUNEMONIntuit $69.99

NORTON

Norton Utilities 3.1 $57.99

ONE STEP

Golf's Best $34.99

PFS: IBM

Proof $59.99

File/Graph (ea).$84.99

Report $74.99

Write/Proof Combo $84.99

PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE

Write-N-Spell $89.99

THE SOFTWARE GROUP

Enable $329.00

SATELLITE SYSTEMS

Word Perfect 4.1 $219.00

SORCIM/IUSAccounting

AP/AR/GL/INV/OE (ea.) $299.00

SuperCalc III $199.00

EasyWriter II System $239.00

Super Project $199.00

SUBLOGICJel $37.99

PRINTERS

Canon

A40.A50.A55 CALL

LBP-8A1 Laser CALL

#CITIZEN

MSP-10 (80 col.) $279.00

MSP-15 (132 col.) $389.00

MSP-20 (80 col.) $349.00

MSP-25 (132 col.) $509.00

crroH

Prowriter 7500 $169.00

Prowriter 1550P $349.00

Starwriter 10-30 $399.00

3500 Tri Printer $1499.00

corona

Lazer LP-300 $2799.00

DIABLO

620 Daisywheel $299.00

D25 Daisywheel $549.00

635 Daisywheel $1099.00

D80IF Daisywheel CALL

d*svwriter

2000 $699.00

EPSON

Homewriter 10, LX-80 CALL

FX-85, FX-286, RX-100 CALL

DX-10, DX-20, DX-35 CALL

SQ-2000. Hi-80, HS-80. AP-80 CALL

LQ-800, LQ-1000 CALL

JUKI

6000 Letter Quality CALL

6100 Letter Quality CALL

6200 Letter Quality CALL

6300 Letter Quality CALL

6500 Letter Quality CALL

5510 Dot Matrix Color CALL

LEOEND

808 Dot Matrix 100 cps $179.00

1080 Dot Matrix 100 cps $259.00

1380 Dot Matrix 130 cps $289.00

1385 Dot Matrix 165 cps $339.00

NEC

3000 Series $779.00

8000 Series $1099.00

ELF 360 $399.00

Pinwriter 560 $999.00

OKJDATA

182. 183. 192. 193, 2410, 84 CALL

Okimate 10 (Specify C64/Atari)$189.00Okimate 20 (IBM) CALL

Panasonic

KX1080 NEW

KX1091 $259.00

KX1092 $389.00

KX1592 $469.00

KX1595 $659.00

Quadjet $399.00

Quad Laser CALL

ii SiLYER-REeO

500 Letter Quality $219.00

550 Letter Quality $419.00

800 Letter Quality $699.00

stair

SG-10C (C64 Interface) CALL

SB/SD/SG/SR Series CALL

Powertype Letter Quality CALL

Ttexas Instruments

TI850 $529.00

TI855 $639.00

TI865 $799.00

TOSHIBA

P321 (80 column) $499.00

P341 (132 column) $799.00

P351 (132 column) $1049.00

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

AST

RamVantage $349.00

Rampage-PC $379.00

Rampage-AT CALL

Six Pack Plus $229.00

I/O Plus II $139.00

Advanlage-AT $399.00

Preview Mono $299.00

PC Net Cards $379.00

5251/11 On-line $669.00

5251/12 Remote $579.00

IRMA 3270....._.__ $879.00

IRMA Print $999.00

IRMA Smart Alec $779.00

=^VEREX—

Edge Card $259.00

Graphics Edge $219.00

Magic Card II $159.00

Magic Card I $99.99

HERCULES

Graphics $299.00

Color $159.00

IDEAssocialES

IDEA 5251 $549.00

INTEL

PCNC8087 5MHz

PCNC8087-2 8 MHz CALL

PCNC80287 6 MHz FOR

1010 PC-Above Board YOUR

1110 PS-Above Board PC

2010 AT-Above Board

MYLEXThe Chairman $439.00

PARADISF

Color/Mono Card $149.00

Modular Graphics Card CALL

Multi Display Card $199.00

Five Pack C. S, 0-384K $99.99

High Res Mono CALL

PEBSYST

Bob Board $359.00

QUADRAM

Quadport-AT $119.00

Liberty-AT (128K) $349.00

The Gold Quadboard $449.00

The Silver Quadboard $239.00

Expanded Quadboard $199.00

Liberty $309.00

QuadSprint $499.00

QuadLink $399.00

QuadColor $199.00

Quadboard-AT $399.00

8600 E.G.A. card $399.00

STBEGA Plus $379.00

TECMAR

Captain - 64 $199.00

Graphics Master $469.00

VIDEO-7EGA $429.00

/ST

Multi I/O (Apple II) $149.00

DIGITAL DEVICES

Ape Face (Atari) $49.99

U-Print A (Atari) $54.99

U-A16/Buffer (Atari) $74.99

U-Call Interface (Atari) $39.99

U-Print C (C64) $49.99

P-16 Print Buffer $74.99

U-Print 16 apple lie $89.99

MICRO R&D

Apple lie Parallel $49.99

Kaypro 2000 Parallel $49.99

C64/128 $59.99

JjJOrartge micro

Giappler CD (C64) $89.99

Grappler Plus (lie. He) $89.99

Grappler C (lie) $89.99

Grappler 16K (Me, II + ) $139.00

MMPHACTKALVH3WWCR4XS

Graphicard $69.99

Seriall Card $99.99

Microbuffer II+ 64K $169.00

QUADRAM^

Microlazer from $139.00

Efazer (Epson) from $79.99

INTERFACES

Inquiry 80

IBM PC SYSTEMS

Configured to your specifications.

Call for Best Price!

ibm-pc, ibm-xt, ibm-at

Aaw

Safari (7300)..~. CALL

6300 CALL

corona

PPC400 Dual Portable $1289.00

PPCXT 10 meg Portable $1989.00

PC40022 Dual Desktop $1389.00

PC400-HD2 10 meg $1989.00

ITT X-TRA HI

256K, 2 Drive System CALL

256K.10 meg Hard Drive System CALLXP5, 20 meg CALL

KP-2000 Portable CALL

Kaypro PC CALL

§SANVO

MBC 550-2, MBC 555-2, MBC 675 Por-table. MBC775, MBC 880 DesktopCALL

=4=SPEFRV

Sperry-AT as low as $1749.00

Sperry-IT as low as $2699.00

Call for Specific Configuration!All Models CALL

J/b#rm

PC-138 Series, PC-148 Series, PC-158Series, PC-160 Series, PC-171 Series,AT-200 Series CALL

X\M£JEK

Video 300 Green $119.00

Video 300A Amber $129.00

Video 310A Amber TTL $159.00

Color 600 Hi-Res. RGB $399.00

Color 722 Dual Mode $529.00

Color 725 CALL

Color 730 CALL

MAGNAVOX

8562 RGB/Composite $279.00

613 TTL Green $99.99

623 TTL Amber $99.99

NEC

JB1205A $79.99

JB1270G/1275A (ea.) $99.99

JB1280G TTL Green $129.00

JB1285A TTL Amber $129.00

JC1401 Multi Sync RGB CALL

PRINCETON

MAX-12 Amber $179.00

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 S599.00

SR-12P Professional $699.00

QUADIWI^

8400 Quadchrome I $499.00

8410 Quadchrome II $339.00

8420 Amberchrome $179.00

8500 Quad Screen $1449.00

115 12" Green $119.00

116 12" Amber $129.00

121 TTL Green $139.00

122 TTL Amber $149.00

220 14" Color Composite $179.00

620 640x200 RGB $439.00

630 640x200 RGB $489.00

640 720x400 RGB $539.00

ZVM 1220 Amber $99.99

ZVM 1230 Green $99.99

ZVM 1240 IBM Amber $149.00

ZVM 135 RGB $459.00

ZVM 1330 RGB $459.00

ZVM 1360 RGB CALL

ZVM 1380 E G Comp CALL

i!

LH

=====

NEW RELEASE

Ecosoft's Eco-C88 Rel. 3.0 C Compiler

$5995

Release 3.0 has new features at an unbelievably low price. ECO-C88 now has:

■ Prototyping (the new type-checking enhancement)

■ enum and void data types

■ structure passing and assignment

■ All operators and data types (except bit fields)

■ A standard library with more than 200 functions (many of which are System Vcompatible for greater code portability)

■ cc and mini-make that all but automates the compile process

■ 8087 support (we sense the 8087 at runtime - no dual libraries)

■ ASM or OBJ output for use with MSDOS linker

■ Tiered error messages - enable-disable lint-like error checking

■ Fast compiles and executing code

■ Expanded user's manual

■ Enhanced CED program editor (limited time offer)

We also offer the following support products for Eco-C88.

CED Program Editor $0095

CED now supports on-line function help. ^_/ ^

If you've forgotten how to use a standard library function, just typein the name of the function and CED gives you a brief summary,including function arguments. CED is a full screen editor withauto-flagging of source code errors, multiple windows, macros, andis fully configurable to suit your needs. You can edit, compile, link,and execute DOS commands from within the editor. Perfect for usewith Eco-C88. For IBM PC. AT and look alikes.

$20

C Source for Standard

Contains all of the source code for the libraryfunctions that are distributed with Eco-C88, ex-cluding the transcendentals and functions writtenin assembler.

Developer's Library

Contains the source code for all library functions,including the transcendentals and those written inassembler. Perfect for the developer that wish towrite their own custom functions or learn howwe implemented the Eco-C88 library.

ISAM Library

Contains the code from the C Programmer's

Library in relocatable format (i.e., .OBJ) includ-ing the delete code for the ISAM file handler.

Library $ 1 f\

ie library _L \J

C Programming Guide

After reading the 1st edition,Jerry Pournclle (BYTE Magazine) said: "I recom-mend this book... Read it before trying to tackleKernighan and Ritchie." The second editon ex-pands this best seller and walks you through the Clanguage in an easy-lo-understand manner. Manyof the error messages include references to thisbook making it a perfect companion to Eco-C88for those just starting out with C.

(s20 if notwith order)

$25

(s50 if notwith order)

H5

(s30ifnotwith order)

$17

C Self-Study Guide

(Purdum, Que Corp.). Designedfor those learning C on their own. The book is filledwith questions-answers designed to illustrate manyof the tips, traps, and techniques of the C language.Although written to complement the Guide, it maybe used with any introductory text on C.

$22

C Programmer'sLibrary

(Purdum, Leslie, Stegemoller, Que Corp.). Thisbest seller is an intermediate text designed to teachyou how to write library functions in a generalizedfashion. The book covers many advanced C topicsand contains many useful additions to your libraryincluding a complete ISAM file handler.

Eco-C88 C compiler requires an IBM PC, XT, orAT (or compatible) with 256K of memory, 2disk drives and MSDOS 2.1 or later. Call today:

1-800-952-0472

or

1-317-255-6476

(for orders)

(tech. info.)

Ecosoft, Inc.

6413 N. College Ave. • Indianapolis, IN 46220

TRADEMARKS: ECO-C88, ECOSOFT

.

318 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 123

BYTE U.K.

Modem Mysteries Revealed

by Dick Pountain

BYTE U.K. has finally beendragged kicking and scream-ing into the electronic age.This is the second column tobe wholly transmitted to theU.S. over the telephone,using a 1200-bits-per-secondmodem, British Telecom's In-ternational Packet Switching Service,and a BIX (BYTE Information Ex-change) mailbox. The changeover wasrelatively painless despite a certain in-itial apprehension on my part. Never-theless, it did uncover one of thosewonderfully obscure hitches thatseem to accompany serial communi-cations the way that black cats usedto accompany witches.

I have owned a 300-bps acousticcoupler for several years now, but I'venever really used it much. One reasonis that until recently there has beenlittle worthwhile to access in the U.K.The bulletin boards that do existseem to be filled either with informa-tion relevant only to various com-puters that I do not own, or with triviaand a puerile form of humor thatmight have escaped from the pagesof a school magazine.

But another reason is that the U.K.has a lot of catching up to do in com-munications. Until two years ago thestate-owned telephone authorities for-bade private citizens to connect anyapparatus directly to the telephonenetwork. As a result, the 300-bpsacoustic coupler represented the stateof the art in hardware for quite a while,unless you were a corporate user witha leased line. In addition, the low-costhome computers that have dominatedthe market here are seldom equippedwith serial ports as standard features,and this also hindered the growth ofcommunications.

Since the privatization and subse-quent liberalization of the telephonenetwork, some progress has been

Our U.K. correspondent

struggles into the electronic age

with the WS3000 modem

made. Direct-connect modems arenow becoming available at reason-able prices, and we are even startingto see speeds of 1200 and 2400 bpsfull duplex in the latest models. Britishmodem manufacturers still complainthat the approval procedure requiredby British Telecom takes too long andhinders their competitive efforts, butmovement is visible nevertheless.

Also complicating the matter is thefact that the U.K. has a wider varietyof communications standards to sup-port than the U.S. does. Moreover,even when our standards appear touse the same speed as yours, ours arein fact based on different carrier fre-quencies than yours. Ours are basedon CCITT standards rather than Bell;for example, our 300-bps standard isCCITT V21, whereas yours is Bell 103.

Although our bulletin board sys-tems are mainly 300 bps, we have amajor public teletext network calledPrestel that uses the CCITT V23 stan-dard, which operates at the split rateof 1 200/75 (that is, 1200 bps receiveand 75 bps transmit). This curiousstandard was chosen because Prestelwas not designed to be a fully interac-tive system. It is mainly an informa-tion source for business data, weatherreports, and the like. The 1200-bpsreceive speed gives reasonably quickscreen updating, while the 7 5-bpstransmit rate is adequate for sendingshort command sequences to turn tothe required page.

With the advent of home com-puters, several vendors rented spaceon Prestel for electronic computer

magazines and encouragedhome computer owners touse the service. So for severalyears one was faced with achoice of buying either a300-bps or a 1200-/75-bpsmodem. The split tended tobe 1200775-bps modems forhome computers such as the SinclairSpectrum and Commodore 64, and300-bps modems for CP/M users whowere probably using U.S. telecommu-nications software.

In 1984 the British firm Miracle Tech-nology Ltd. produced a multistandard(i.e., 300 and 1200/75 bps) modemcalled the Minor Miracle at what wasthen a very competitive price of justover £100. In 1985 the firm followedup on the success of this model witha new family of WS3000 modemsthat, in their various configurations,are just about state of the art in per-sonal computer modems.

Strange Interactions

The basic model in the WS3000 seriesoperates with the V21 (300 bps fullduplex) and V2 3 (1200/75 bps) stan-dards as well as the equivalent Bellstandards, at a price of £2 50. It comeswith auto-dial and auto-answer facili-ties, uses the widely accepted Hayesprotocols, and is highly intelligent. Italso has internal storage for 60 tele-phone numbers.

The two more expensive models areidentical to this model, except thatthey add 1200 full duplex (the V22model) and 2400 full duplex (theV22bis model). Both lower-pricedmodels can be upgraded to higherspecifications after purchase.

I decided to purchase the V22

[continued]Dick Pountain is a technical author and soft-ware consultant living in London, England.He can be contacted do BYTE, One PhoenixMill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 319

BYTE U.K.

model, at a cost of £495. because Ianticipate using BIX a lot, and upload-ing large text files at 1200 bps ratherthan 300 bps will save money in thelong run. And to be honest, using BIXat 300 bps with my old acousticcoupler is a real pain. Most of thesystem's interactivity evaporates whenyou have to sit drumming your fingerswaiting for the text to unfold on thescreen.

My purchase decision was slightlycomplicated by the fact that Hayeslaunched a U.K. version of their best-selling Smartmodem 1200 just aboutthe time I decided to buy, pricedalmost exactly the same as MiracleTechnology's V22 model. However, acouple of factors (patriotism apart)made up my mind. The U.K. versionof the Hayes operates only at 1200bps full duplex, whereas the WS3000operates at every standard you canthink of, including Prestel's split rate.At a more trivial level, the WS3000comes with a built-in phone jack to

connect the telephone handset,whereas the Hayes doesn't and soforces you to buy a doubling adapter.

I received my WS3000 V22 in thelast week of 1985, after a lengthy waitdue to production delays with theplastic cases. It's a smart-looking unitand, like the Hayes, slim enough to situnder the telephone, it has nomechanical controls, just a set of redlights that reveal the current status ofthe lines and operation modes.

I quickly got the unit set up andworking faultlessly at 300 bps andspent a couple of days playing aroundon BIX and various U.K. bulletinboards. But try as I may, I simplycould not make it work at 1200 bps.It took a while to discover this factbecause a lot of commands and vari-ous registers can be altered on thedevice, and 1 had to play around forseveral days to be convinced that 1was using the modem correctly. It is,in fact, very easy to use. and most ofthe stuff I was doing was quite irrele-

vant, but 1 discovered that only later.

The symptoms were simply that atany speed involving 1200 bps (includ-ing 1200/75 and 1200 full and halfduplex) only garbage appeared onthe screen, even though it was clearthat the modem was dialing correct-ly and logging on successfully to thevarious services (including BIX). Theobvious conclusion to draw was thatthe 1200-bps chip in the modem wasfaulty, but some hunch told me thatthis wasn't so. If that were the case,how could the modem dial and log oncorrectly? A painful process of detec-tive work began, which involvedseveral phone calls to Miracle Tech-nology's patient and helpful customerservice department.

The first two things to suspect whenfaced with an RS-232C-related prob-lem are always communications pa-rameters and cabling. It was easyenough to try all the possible com-binations of parameters, and the

(continued)

Application Program

4,—

UnmodifiedDOS Application

—*4>

X-VIEW 86

—n-

DOS Debug

Dynamic ExecutionInformation

X-VIEW 86 profiles theexecution of DOS software,and displays informationneeded to improve programperformance, identifycompatibility issues, andpinpoint conversionproblems.

X-VIEW 86

Profiles DOS application software and solvesproblems Debug can't touch.

X-VIEW 86 is a DOS software X-ray machine.

X-VIEW 86 monitors internal software operationsduring execution to help you debug, test, port, orconvert programs. X-VIEW 86 adds new features toDebug to profile either your own applicationssoftware or top-sellers like 1-2-3®. You get fast,reliable results.

Real solutions to technical challenges.

Save hours of time-consuming, tedious work usingdata from X-VIEW 86's built-in reports that identify:

■ Execution hotspots ■ I/O port references

■ Segment usage ■ Interrupt calls

■ Memory map references ■ Instruction set usageReport information is displayed on screen. And newbreakpoint commands added to Debug stop aprogram on:

■ 1/0 port references ■ Memory data

■ Interrupt calls references

Hardware and software requirements.

X-VIEW 86 runs on the IBM PC and compatibles withDOS Debug 2.0 or 2.1. Even if you use a differentdebugger, X-VIEW 86 turns Debug into your programprofiler. And it's not copy protected.

Priced at an affordable $59.95.

Get a whole new outlook on your work with X-VIEW86. We've made it easy. Order today by calling 1-800-221-VIEW (in Texas, or outside the U.S., call 1-214-437-7411). We accept Visa, MC, DC, and AmEx cards.Or order by writing to: McGraw-Hill CCIG Software,8111 LBJ Freeway, Dallas, Texas 75251. X-VIEW 86 isjust $59.95 plus sales tax and $3.00 shipping($9.00 outside the U.S.). Be sure to include creditcard number and expiration date with mail orders.Orders paid by check are subject to delay. To order call

1-800-221- VIEW

ftfi» McGraw-Hill CCIGlinil Software

8111 LBJ Freeway, Dallas, Texas 75251

X-VIEW 86 is a trademark of McGraw-Hill, Inc.; IBM is a registeredtrademark of International Business Machines: 1-2-3 is a registeredtrademark of Lotus Develooment Corporation.

320 B YTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 210

■El E3tf

JQ*

•«««j; '

u

.3*. .

--*V S*a

J?

HE

♦" ?.&4$y,|/TJEJ XH. /T^

-" 1

! vj* 18*

'Mention shoppers.Our image processing dept.has been expanded again.Repeat..."

Welcome to Data Translation, home of the image processing board.Here you'll find the industry's most complete line of products for theKM PC, IBM PC AT and the MicroVAX II.

Data Translation can furnish high and low resolution products for

real-time applications requiring user-defined convolutions, histo-grams, frame averaging, windowing, arithmetic and logic operations,graphic overlays, and even video animation. And all at prices that areoften assumed to be misprints at first glance.

Naturally, you can depend

DT2803LowCosIFrame Grabber

IBM PC.PC XT.PC AT

256x256

64

Y

'S

Y

'S

8"

Y

s

Y

s

1 buffer256x256x8(64 Kbyles)

VIDEOLAB

PC SEMPER

$1495

DT2851 +DT2858

High ResolutionFrame Grabberand AuxiliaryFrame Processor

IBM PC AT

512x512

256

Yes

8-

2 buflers.512x512x8 each(512 Kbyles),and 1 buffer.

512x512x16(512 Kbyles)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

DT-IRIS

DT2851$2995DT2858$1495

DT2603LowCosIFrame Grabber

MicroVAX II

256x256

64

1

r

1

r

4

^

'

1

r

1 bulfer256x256x8(64 Kbytes)

ComingSoon

$1895

on our standard five-daydelivery and extensivesoftware support.Have a productive day and thankyou for shopping Data Translation.

Call (617) 481-3700

■With DT2859 Eighl Channel Video Multiplexer ($395)

"All Irame processor boards operate in near-real-lime wilh 16-bil inlernal accuracy; all 512x512 Irame grabber boards process in real-lime with 4-bit and8-bil inlernal accuracy.

See our new 646 pg.catalog/handbook orsee us in Gold Book1986. Or call for yourpersonal copy today.

DATA TRANSLATION

World Headquarters: Data Translation, Inc., 100 Locke Dr., Marlboro, MA 01752 (617) 481-3700 Tlx 951 646. European Headquarters: Data Translation, Ltd.,

13 The Business Centre, Molly Millars Lane, Wokingham Berks, RG112QZ, England Tlx: 851849862 (#D) In Canada (416) 625-1907. IBM PC and IBM PC ATare

registered trademarks of IBM. MicroVAX II is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. Data Translation is a registered trademark of Data Translation, Inc.

Inquiry 108

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 321

BYTE U.K.

cable had been specially made to fitmy serial port. Both checked out OK.

Next I presumed that my commu-nications software was at fault. Tryingseveral different packages, includingthe communications module of Sym-phony, convinced me that this was notthe case.

Then a clue appeared. After abenchmarking session one evening,while the stopwatch was still in myhand, it occurred to me to time therate at which the garbage emergedfrom the modem. A convenient stan-dard text source was at hand in theshape of the modem's internal tele-phone directory. This can be listed bysending the command ATN? to theWS3000, and it worked fine at 300bps but produced garbage at 1200bps. The stopwatch revealed that thegarbage was indeed being trans-mitted at 1200 bps, and a charactercount of the directory revealed thatonly one character in four was gettingthrough properly, hence the garbage.This suggested that my serial portmight not be receiving properly at1200 bps. Discussions with MiracleTechnology further encouraged thistheory.

My workhorse computer is an IBMPC with a serial port provided by aMicrosoft Systemcard multifunctionboard. A friend lent me a brand-newserial card, and I replaced mine withit. It displayed exactly the samesymptoms. At this point, having putmy own board back in place, I gaveup rational thought and howled at themoon for a while.

Eventually, my courage returning, Idecided that since the top of my com-puter was still off. I would take thewhole darned thing apart bit by bituntil I made it work. One by one, Iremoved boards from slots and testedthe modem by logging on to BIX.When 1 removed the Microsoft Mousecard, the modem worked like a charm.

Those of you who have the bus ver-sion of the Microsoft Mouse knowthat the interface card has a jumperon it with four positions that let youchoose which hardware interrupt themouse will operate with. My mouseis an early version, and the jumper isnot documented in the manual (it wasmentioned on a piece of loose paper

ItemsDiscussed

WS3000 V22 Professional

Modem £495

Miracle Technology (U.K.) Ltd.

St. Peters St.

Ipswich 1P1 1XB

England

Tel: (0473) 216141

British Telecom Packet

SwitchStreamBritish TelecomCustomer Service GroupG07 Lutyens House1-6 Finsbury CircusLondon EC2M 7LYEnglandTel: (01) 920 0661

in the box, which I lost within a week).The jumper had actually been movedonce, when 1 tried out DigitalResearch's GEM, because the GEMmanual clearly tells you to set themouse on interrupt 3. I had. though,subsequently moved it back to 4.Moving it onto interrupt 3 againsolved my problem, and both mouseand modem now work just fine.

There must be a moral to this story,but I don't know what it is. Perhapsyou could say it's a warning that theseopen-architecture machines, of whichwe are all so much in favor nowadays,are not an altogether unmixed bless-ing. Maybe the ideal would be aclosed machine that got everythingright the first time.

The WS3000

The phantom bug having beendefeated, I am now very happy withmy choice of modem. The WS3000 isa very smart modem indeed, and thedays of wrestling with an acousticcoupler (the handset popping out ofthe cup halfway through a call) seemlike the dark ages.

The modem responds to com-mands that for the most part are thesame as those of the Hayes Smart-modem. All such commands are pre-fixed by the letters AT (for attention),and the modem squeaks through itsloudspeaker to acknowledge that its

attention has been gained. A set of32 nonvolatile internal registers holdsall the modem's parameters, and mostof them can be read and written bythe user. After you've messed themup so badly that the modem nolonger works, the command ATZ willrestore the, original factory settingsfrom ROM, for which I have been trulygrateful several times.

The WS3000 differs from the HayesSmartmodem in that it supports manymore communications modes. Thereare 21 in all. when CC1TT and Bell, halfand full duplex, originate and answer,equalized and unequalized are takeninto account. The six registers S25-30hold codes that determine what set-tings will be used for each of thespeeds: 75, 150. 300, 600. 1200, and2400 bps. When the modem receivesits first AT command during a session,it senses the speed being used andcopies the appropriate code from oneof these registers into SI8, the current-mode register. So the user can fillregisters S25-30 with the codes to beused as default settings. If visitingAmerica, for example, I would loadthe appropriate Bell standard set.

In auto-answer mode the WS3000is speed-sensing; in other words ittries to determine what speed thecaller is using by comparing the car-rier tone with all the ones it knowsabout, starting with the fastest. 1haven't yet been able to test this facil-ity as 1 don't get many calls from othermodems.

One very powerful feature is theprovision of a parallel control port.This port is brought out on the backpanel of the case as a 26-pin connec-tor and can be configured by soft-ware to emulate a Centronics printerport or a variety of other 8-bit ports.By writing suitable software (whichcan be put in ROM and added to thecommand set), you can use the portfor remote control of machinery andinstruments. It's possible for an instru-ment hooked up to the port to auto-dial a number and send its readings,or for a machine to auto-dial engi-neers and make a fault report. Thosewho are enthusiastic about the homeof the future could use it to alter thecentral heating, for example, or reset

(continued)

322 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Actually, we give you two things free.

Our source code. And your freedom.

Just buy part or all of our excellent integratedbusiness accounting system, the SBT DatabaseAccounting Library.

We'll give you our source code absolutely free.

Which, in turn, gives you the freedom tocustomize our software to fit your business needs.

Say, for instance, you want to change theway a management report is formatted. Our freesource code enables you to change it.

What's more, the change will be quick andsimple because our software is written in easy-to-use dBASE.

In fact, the entire SBT Database AccountingLibrary runs with dBASE III or dBASE II, * so youget the power and flexibility of those best-sellingprograms. Plus the freedom to use any computerthat runs dBASE.

The SBT Database Accounting Library.Great software and freedom. All in the same box.

Call today for our demo disk and brochure.

(415) 331-9900.

THE SBT DATABASE ACCOUNTING LIBRARY.

dProfessional

Time & Billing

$395

dOrder

Sales Order processing

$195

dlnvoice

Billing/Inventory Control

$195

dStatement

Accounts Receivable

$ 95

dPurchase

Purchase Order

$195

dPayable

Accounts Payable

$295

dPayroll

Payroll/Labor

$395

dLedger

General Ledger/Finance

$395

dAssets

Asset/Depreciation

$295

dProject

Project/Job Accounting

$395

dBackup

Menu/Backup

$ 65

SBT

■wiaa»BMi»Bl

Three Harbor DriveSausalito, CA 94965(415)331-9900

Call today for the name of the SBT consultantin your area.

Free source codein every box.

Accounting Software Libraryin dBASE H7dBASE III®

Compiled and Multi-User versions also available. dBASE III and dBASE II are registered trademarks of Ashton-Tate, Inc. Copyright 1985, SBT Corporation.Inquiry 305 IUNE I986 -BYTE 323

BYTE U.K.

the burglar alarm while on vacation.

1 have found the WS3000 to be astransparent as a modem can be. 1 usea simple dumb-terminal program,configured to 1200 bps full duplex;the WS3000 then sets itself to thisspeed automatically. My keyboardenhancer program, Software ResearchTechnologies' SmartKey, assignsmodem command strings (e.g.,ATDN1 for "dial stored phone number1") and log-on strings to single keys,so I can get onto BIX with just twokeystrokes, one to get a PSS (PacketSwitchStream) line and the other todo all the logging on. Borland's Side-Kick serves as an editor and, with itsPaste facility, a means of transferringdocuments.

A nice bonus is that SideKick letsme use the WS3000 as an auto-dialerfor both voice and data calls. By keep-ing all my phone numbers in Side-Kick's PHONE.DIR file, 1 can searchthe directory for a number and dialit by hitting a carriage return. This isa pretty good test of the WS3000'sHayes compatibility, since SideKick isdesigned to work with the latter.

This string-and-sealing-wax setupworks just as well as any of the expen-sive blockbusting communicationsprograms I've seen. The only featureI miss is the ability to call the terminalprogram, SideKick-style, from insideanother application, and I understandthat there are now products in the U.S.that will do this.

Communicating in the U.K.

Before I finish, a little elaboration onBritish Telecom's Packet SwitchStream

network would be useful, especiallyfor British readers who are con-templating joining BIX.

The British Telecom services arecalled Packet SwitchStream (PSS) andInternational Packet SwitchStream(IPSS), and both can be obtainedmerely by opening an account, justlike a regular telephone account. Thecost of opening such an account isvery reasonable indeed—a one-timeconnection charge of £2 5 and aquarterly rental charge of £6.2 5. Forthis you receive a password calledyour NUI, or network user identity,which will be recognized at one of thePacket Switching Exchanges that aresituated in all the U.K.'s major cities.You also get an NUA, or network useraddress, by which other modem userscan reach you.

By dialing the number of yourPacket Switching Exchange (a localphone call) and giving your NUI, youwill be connected to a computercalled the PAD (packet assembler/dis-assembler). Once connected to thePAD you can gain access to otherusers or networks in the U.K., orabroad by entering their NUA just likea telephone number. For example,BIX can be accessed via the U.S.Tymnet network, whose NUA is31069.

With packet switching, your mes-sage is chopped up into small packets(usually 128 bytes), and these packetsare then mixed in with packets fromother users and sent over a high-speed data link. Each packet containsan address that enables your wholemessage to be reassembled again at

the other end. By this means the datarate of the system can be kept veryhigh, and so the cost to you is low.

For example, if you dial the U.S.directly by public telephone it costsabout £4 5 per hour; most of the timeis wasted, too, since the gaps betweenwords (or typed characters in a datacall) are much longer than the actualinformation. With packet switchingthere is no such waste, and the costis much less. Tymnet, for example,costs £4.80 per hour and £3 perkilosegment (1000 packets) trans-mitted. To that you add the cost of thelocal phone call to your PAD, whichgoes on your ordinary phone bill. In-land calls on PSS and European callsare much cheaper still.

Assuming you have an IPSS ac-count, the complete sequence to ac-cess BIX from the U.K. is as follows:

<your own NUI>

A9 31069 to get onto Tymnet

BYTENETI at the Tymnet prompt

MGH password

BIX to log onto BIX

To go through the registration pro-cedure, type new when BIX asks foryour user name. You'll need a Master-Card or Visa (Barclaycard) credit-cardnumber to pay the registration fee, sohave it on hand before you start. AnyBIX users who want to reach me cansend mail to dickp.

(Editor's note: Starting with last month'scolumn, BYTE U.K. is available on BIX inthe Bute.uk conference. Dick encouragesreaders to add comments and queries abouthis columns to the conference] ■

mainframe powered CROSS ASSEMBLERS now under ms-dos

The UniWare family of cross as-semblers. Fully relocatable, of course,but absolute listings are no problem,even in loads with many source files.With a linker so capable that even mul-tiple overlays are a breeze. Lots ofmacro power. And all tools have un-limited symbol capacity.

$295

COMPLETE

Includes One Assembler

Software DevelopmentSystems, Inc.

(312)971-8170

Visa & Master Charge Accepted (U.S.A.)England: Unit-C, Ltd., (0903) 205233

Minimum 320K memory recommended; discounts available onpurchases of multiple assemblers; prices subject to changewithout notice. MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft.

324 BYTE- JUNE 1986

HOW 10 GET

A FREE COPY OF

I.-BASE 5000.

LEGALLY.

I

t's simple. Buy one copy of R:base™ 5000through any of the regular retail channels,from April 15th until June 30th. Then,send us your proof of purchase, and bingo!We'll send you another copy, free. Docu-mentation and all. Just like that.

Here's your chance to double yourproductivity with the database manage-ment program that Datapro calls the bestin the business. Use both copies at theoffice. Or bring one home. Give one to a

friend (or split the cost!). There are lots ofways you'll come out ahead.

Just send us your warranty card and acopy of the sales invoice (showing yourname and date of purchase) to Microrim,P.O. Box 2606, Redmond, WA 98073. Andstart enjoying twice the benefits of the bestDBMS around.

Oh sure, there are probably other waysyou could get free copies of R:base 5000.

But none lets you sleep so well at night.

RBASE 5000

FROM MICRORIM

Datapro Report on Microcomputers is published monthly by Datapro Research Corporation.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 325

The personal computer that

continues to raisehigh performance to new heights.

If you work with high volumes ofinformation, you need answers fast.

Which is why IBM created the PersonalComputer AT.® The PC designed to pushhigh performance even higher.

The power ofAdvanced Technology.

Turn on the power, and you'll notice theadvances right away.

To begin with, the Personal Computer ATcan compute with astonishing speed. That'ssomething you'll appreciate every time yourecalculate a spreadsheet. Or searchthrough a data base.

It can store mountains of information—up to 15,000 pages' worth—with a 30-megabyte "hardfile" (fixed disk). Andwhen business gets bigger, you can doubleyour capacity to 60MB with a second hardfile.

Advanced Technologyadvances again.

Fast as it is, new models of the PersonalComputer AT run up to 33% faster.

Plus, you can now select an enhancedkeyboard. It has separate cursor keys, aseparate numeric keypad (for easier dataentry) and twelve function keys. It also has amain typing section patterned after the classicIBM Selectric® keyboard, which makes wordprocessing easier than ever.

In addition, you can also choose a newoption that lets you use 3.5-inch disketteswith your Personal Computer AT.

Family ties.

The Personal Computer AT is compatiblewith the IBM PC and PC/XT. So it can runmany of the thousands of programs writtenfor the IBM PC family.

And with new IBM products, the PersonalComputer AT can more easily communicatewith other PCs.

IBM's networking options, for example,let you share files from a variety of popularprograms.

While the IBM PC 3270 Emulation pro-grams let you retrieve information from amainframe.

You can also use the Personal ComputerAT to run IBM PC XENIX ™-an enhancedmulti-user, multi-tasking operating system.

A powerful value.

Only the Personal computer AT offersthese capabilities and IBM's commitment toquality, service and support. A combinationthat can't be cloned.

Better still, you'll find that the newmodels offer higher performance without ahigher price. And if you qualify, you canconveniently charge your Personal ComputerAT on IBM's Credit Card. Or lease one withthe IBM Commercial Lease Agreement.

See the Personal Computer AT at anAuthorized IBM PC Dealer or IBM ProductCenter. Or call your IBM representative.

For the name of a store near you, call1-800-447-4700. In Alaska, call 1-800-447-0890.

The IBM Personal Computer AT,for Advanced Technology.

Little Tramp, character licensed by Bubbles Inc., s.a.

IBM, PC/XT and Personal Computer AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. XENIX'" is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Based on SYSTEM V.

326 BYTE • JUNE 1986

Inquiry 159

*"--??»

I

©Copyright IBM Corporation 1986IUNE 1986 -BYTE 327

KissVbur DaisywheelGoodbye Forever

It's had a good life, but it's time to bury your oldprinter. Because now you can have a KISS™ instead.It can take the place of your dot matrix anddaisywheel printers—and you'll never miss them.

KISS is the first intelligent laser printer that's bothsmart and simple. And at the unbelievably lowprice of $ 1,995 *, it won't put you in the hole.

KISS is sophisticated. It's ten times faster thanyour old daisywheel and dot matrix printers. Andit's very quiet. It produces crisp, near typeset-quality output at up to 400 characters per second.And it has its own cut-sheet feeder.

KISS has nine resident fonts. You can mix themon a single page, and even on one line for a livelystyle of your own.

Plus, it's smarter than yourold printer. It works withWordStar® Lotus® and anyother software that will printto a Diablo 630® EpsonFX 80® and QUME Sprint.®And at up to 6ppm, KISS isunmatched in efficiency andversatility.

Aren't you dying to have a printer that canperform like that?

KISS is just one way QMS is meeting today'sneeds with proven technology.

Call us toll free at 1-800-245-KISS. Or write:QMS INC., P.O. Box 81250, Mobile, Alabama 36689.One Magnum Pass, Mobile, Alabama 36608.

QMS

Print Systems With Imagination

.•*--n/ittr*«[ Hln

I

'5! SE

i

■

TM

Inquiry 282

• This price good in the domestic United States only.

WordStar is a registered trademark of Micropro International. Lotus is a registered trademark of LotusDevelopment Corporation. Diablo is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation. Epson is a registeredtrademark of Epson America. Inc. QUME Sprint is a registered trademark of QUME Corporation © 1986QMS® Inc

APPLICATIONS ONLY

\r

Upgrade Fever

by Ezra Shapiro

Writing this month's column

has not been fun. None of

the products is new; you and

1 have seen them all before.

So I've been faced with a

tough question: Should I

base my evaluations on how

the products have changed.

or should I treat them as if they were

brand new? Well, I've taken the dumb

way out and tried to do both.

In the Center Ring

Imagine you're at the circus. It's timefor the moment you've been waitingfor—the elephant act. The elephantscome marching out. They dance. Theywave their trunks in the air. They rollgiant colored balls across the ring.And then—the grand finale! The over-head lights dim. A spotlight shines ona curtain at the far side of the ring,which opens to reveal an elephant onroller skates1. Fantastic! The crowdcheers! The elephant raises his trunkand slowly, majestically, skates aroundthe ring. He's not very steady, but hemanages to maintain his balance. Younotice the expression on his face; helooks sad. Everyone applauds; you gohome thinking about that poor, sadelephant.

A year later the circus comes totown again. You've been readingreports in the local paper about howthe elephant act has been improved(or "enhanced," as we say in the com-puter biz). You go to the performance.You watch the elephants; strangely,nothing seems very different from lastyear. On schedule, the lights dim, thecurtain opens, and out comes thatsame forlorn elephant on rollerskates, only this year the roller skates aremotorized] The sad elephant buzzesaround the ring (steadier than lastyear because he doesn't have topump his legs). The crowd cheers. Youfeel cheated. You shake your head in

WordStar 2000 Mease 2dBASE III Plus, Volkswriterand KeefiTrack Plus

disbelief, and. . .

. . .and you put WordStar 2000Release 2 back on the shelf, that'swhat.

Yes, friends, WordStar 2000 Release2 (MicroPro, $495) is with us at last,with all the charm of an elephant onmotorized skates. It's faster than lastyear, to be sure, although it's still soungainly and hungry for disk spacethat I wouldn't recommend running iton anything less than an IBM PC ATwith a fast hard disk. The fact thatMicroPro is so concerned aboutspeed that it's offering a RAM versionfor users with 512K bytes or more(sent as a premium when you mail inyour registration card) is a signal to methat the program still has problems.

After several weeks with the prod-uct. I find it clumsy, overdesigned, anduninviting, although the list of featureslooks terrific on paper. The programisn't absolutely ghastly, but I can'tcome up with a reason why I'd wantto use it.

In all fairness, the program does giveyou everything you need for profes-sional word processing, plus anumber of bonuses. The documenta-tion is clean, and the tutorials on diskare helpful. CorrectStar is still anexcellent—and possibly the best—in-tegrated spelling checker. The data-base-like mail-merge feature is verynice, as is the ability to store layoutformats. You get great macro/abbrevi-ation facilities. Two new features,arithmetic functions and multicolumnlayouts, are welcome additions. AndMicroPro supports just about every

printer ever made.» Yet 1 remain unsatisfied.

Part of the problem is the in-3 , terface, loosely (very loosely)based on original WordStar'suse of Control-characterprefixes. The prefixes havebeen changed to be moremnemonic; block operations are trig-gered with Ctrl-B, exit, options withCtrl-Q. This makes more sense thanthe original, which used Ctrl-K forboth. As a result, a veteran WordStaruser like myself finds the landscapeof WordStar 2000 familiar but unset-tling. MicroPro contends that the tran-sition is easy; I argue that if I'm goingto have to learn a new system, 1 mightas well learn something entirely new.Menus or submenus fill nine linesat the top of the screen. Add thestatus and ruler lines, and nearly halfthe display is gone. This was uglywhen WordStar did it; why not changewith the times? I'd vastly prefer almostany other system—pull-down menus,pop-up menus, a command line, oranything that doesn't cause as muchvisual clutter.

1 suspect that what I'm encounter-ing is part of a master plan to makethe program easily grasped by thecomputer-uninitiated in the businessenvironment. After they becomeadept, the theory goes, they can turnoff all the visual noise and get on withlife. Well, I'm what is known as a"power user"—I don't need all thehelp—but I'm learning, too, and everytime I have to ask a question I'mforced to confront all this stuff. There'sno way around it.

Drawing another analogy, 1 expecta top-of-the-line word processor to

(continued)Ezra Shapiro is BYTE's West Coast bureauchief. He can be contacted do BYTE,McGraw-Hill, 42 5 Battery St.. San Fran-cisco, CA 94111.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 329

APPLICATIONS ONLY

behave like a luxury sports sedan. 1want good handling, quick response,fast acceleration to cruising speed, asense of security and comfort, and 1don't want convenience features todistract me from driving. The parallelsto word processing are obvious. IfWordStar 2000 were a car, it would bea limousine with tail fins.

With Release 2, WordStar 2000 hasbecome an acceptable word pro-cessor at last, but there are at leasthalf a dozen word processors on themarket I rank as outstanding, includ-ing WordPerfect, XyWrite, MultiMate,Framework, Volkswriter, and even low-ly, original WordStar (which you canget with CorrectStar). If you want tosettle for "acceptable," be my guest.But think about that elephant.

An Important Product

Make no mistake, when you buydBASE III Plus (Ashton-Tate, $695),you're not just purchasing a databasemanagement program—you're joining

an institution. Over the years, thedBASE phenomenon has grown froma small cult happening to a massivesuperstructure. Although Ashton-Tatehas built strong customer loyalty byproviding excellent support for theproduct, you don't need it. Just lookat the number of dBASE books,dBASE users groups, dBASE bulletinboards, dBASE consultants, dBASEutilities, dBASE program generators,dBASE compilers, dBASE . . . you getthe idea. I often find myself recom-mending the program not because it'sparticularly suited to a given use, butbecause of all the support. There's asnowball effect, too. As dBASEbecomes increasingly dominant,fewer competitors have the guts (orthe budget) to challenge it head on,so they attempt to chip away at theedges of AshtonTate's market. As aresult, 1 could probably pick out prod-ucts that beat dBASE in any specificcategory (this one has a better querylanguage, that one is more portable

to minicomputers and mainframes,the other one is easier for a novice,and so forth), but nobody beatsdBASE overall.

Each upgrade to the original dBASEproduct has broadened its scope. Thecurrent move, from dBASE 111 todBASE III Plus, adds the regular per-formance improvements (has a data-base manager ever been enhancedwithout an announcement of fastersorting and indexing?), networkingcapabilities, a few new programmingcommands, rewritten documentation,and a mild sprucing up of the user in-terface.

The networking will further solidifythe product's position in the businesscommunity. You have file and recordlocking, eight levels of password pro-tection, and encryption/decryption onany network that runs with PC-DOS3.1, including networks from 3Com,Novell, AT&T, and IBM. Since I didn'thave access to anything but a fewsingle-user computers, I have no ideawhether any of this works, but it suresounds impressive.

As to the other stuff, I have mixedreactions. I've never found dBASE allthat difficult to use in its rawest form,the infamous "dot prompt" interface.At that level, the program works likea language, and you can accomplisha lot with a limited number of com-mands. It's a bit confusing at first, butyou can build a pretty straightforwardcard file without too much effort.Things get trickier as your needsbecome more complex, but if you cantake the time to learn gradually it's nobig deal.

However, software companies seemto feel that they have to prove thattheir products can be operated by thesubaverage dunderhead, so Ashton-Tate has bolted on a "Framework-like"menu system, a query aid, a viewmode, a Screen Painter, and an Ap-plications Generator. It's here thatdBASE III Plus lacks punch.

The menu system is okay, but data-base manipulations are rather arcane,and the menus will not save you fromyourself if you don't have a clear ideaof what you're trying to accomplishand how the program works. They dosave a little time when you're building

(continued)

330 B YTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 99

The Best c Book

A Powerful C Compiler

One Great C Value $39.95

A good C book just isn't complete without a good C compilerto go with it. That's why we give you both. You get a comprehensive450 page book and a standard, full feature C compiler. It'severything you need to take advantage of this powerful, portablelanguage.

Our book is filled with sample programs. You'll learn how touse pointers to functions with a program that computes the timevalue of money. A simple data base program illustrates dynamicmemory allocation and linked lists. Sample programs are includedwith the description of all functions.

Our compiler works fast because it makes only one passthrough your program. Unlike other C compilers, it doesn't requirea separate program to control the compile process. And it won'twear out your disk drives creating intermediate files. One fast passand you've got an object file that's ready to be linked.

You also get our fast linker and an extensive library of standardC functions. In addition to the portable C functions you get a largenumber of computer specific functions so you won't have to writethem yourself. The library includes an interface to the BDOS andBIOS routines so you can easily add your own special functionswhen the job demands it.

You can't learn to program in C without a good book and agood compiler. You can buy other C books but they don't include acompiler. You can buy other C compilers but they don't include abook. Either way you spend a lot of bucks and the compiler mightnot do what the book says it should. With MIX C you don't have toworry. You get both a good book and a good comiler for just a fewbucks. And we guarantee that the compiler does what the book saysit should.

Language Features

Functions

abs

conbuf

feof

getcseg

Isascil

movmem

replace

strcat

• Data Types: char, short,

asm

cone

ferror

getdseg

iscntrl

open

repmem

stremp

int, unsigned, long, float,

asmxatan

cos

cpystr

fflushfgets

getd

putd

isdigitislower

outppeek

rewindright*

strcpystrlen

double, void

atof

creat

tilt-no

get date

isprint

perror

rindex

strncat

atoi

cursblk

flletrap

gettime

ispunct

poke

rmdir

strnemp

atol

curslln

find

geti

Isspace

poseurs

scanf

strncpy

• Data Classes: auto,

bdos

curscol

floor

put!

i supper

pow

setbuf

strsave

bdosx

curs row

fopen

getkey

Itoa

printf

setbufsiz

system

extern, static, register

bios

cursoff

fprintf

getmode

keypressleft?

putc

setcolor

tolower

biosx

curson

fputs

setmode

putchar

setdate

toupper

talloc

delete

trend

gets

len

puts

senime

ungetc

• Typedef, Struct, Union,

ceil

drand

free

getw

heapslz

heaptrap

log

putw

setj nip

ungetch

unlink

write

Bit Fields, Enumerations

cfreechain

execexcel

freopenfscanf

loglOlongjmp

randread

setmemsin

character

execv

fseek

hypotindexinp

lseek

readattr

sound

writechs

• Structure Assignment,

chdirchmod

exitexltmsg

fell

fwrite

mallocalloc

reachwritech

sprintfsqrt

xmembegxmemend

Passing/Returning

clearerrclose

expfabs

getcgetch

insertiofilter

mathtrap

inidS

readdotwritedot

srandsscanf

xmemgetxmemput

Structures

clrscrn

fclose

putch

Isalnum

mkdlr

realloc

stacks iz

xmovmem

cmpstr

fdopen

get char

Isalpha

modi

rename

str$

-jexit

MIX Editor $29.95

When you're programming in a highlevel language you need a high powerededitor. That's why we created the MIXEditor. It's a powerful split screen textprocessor that works great with any lan-guage. It has auto indent for structuredlanguages like Pascal or C. It has automaticline numbering for BASIC. It even has filland justify for English.

You can split the screen horizontallyor vertically and edit two files at once. Youcan move text back and forth between thetwo windows. You can also create yourown macro commands from an assortmentof over 100 predefined commands. It

comes configured like WordStar but youcan customize it to work like other editorsor word processors.

The editor works terrific with our Ccompiler. The MSDOS/PCDOS version hasa macro for compiling direct from memory.If your program has an error the editorpositions the cursor to the error anddisplays an error message. You can also runother programs and execute DOS com-mands. Because the editor works so wellwith our C compiler we want to make sureyou have both. For a limited time we'reoffering the editor for only SI5 whenpurchased with the C compiler.

ASM Utility $10

The ASM utility allows you to create your ownassembly language function libraries. It workswith Microsoft's MASM or M80 assemblers. Itprovides macros for function entry and exit soyou don't have to worry about environmentdetails. It also provides a macro for calling Cfunctions from assembly language. Lots ofuseful assembly language functions are in-cluded as examples.

ORDERS ONLY

-800-523-9520

IN TEXAS

1-800-622-4070

30 Day Money Back Guarantee NOT COPY PROTECTED

Canadian DistributorSaraguay Software: 416-923-1500

Editor

C

C & Editor

ASM Utility

TX Residents

Shipping

Total

D Check D

(29.95)

(39.95)

(54.95)

(10.00)

(6.125% sales tax)

(see below)

Money Order D MC/Visa

* Exp —

Shipping Charges: (No charge for ASM Utility)

USA: J5/Order Canada: »10/OrderOverseas: tlO/Editor • S20/C • S30/C & Editor

PCDOS/MSDOS ( 2.0 or later)

□ IBM PC Single SideD IBM PC Double SideD Tandy 2000

□ 8 Inch

□ Other

CPM 80 (2.2 or later/Z80)

D 8 InchD Kaypro II

Kaypro 4

Apple (Z80)

Osborne I SD

Osborne I DD

Morrow MD II

Other

Name

Street

City

State

Country .Phone _

Zip_

PPPPPD

2116 E. ArapahoSuite 363Richardson, TX 75081

(214) 783-6001Ask about our volume discounts.

CPM is a trademark of Digital Research. MSDOS is a trademark ot Microsoft. PCDOS is a trademark of IBM. WORDSTAR is trademark of Micro Pro.

Inquiry 394

1UNE 1986

IYTE 331

APPLICATIONS ONLY

or editing a simple database, but ifyou want a full accounting system youhave to read all the documentationanyhow.

The query thing (is "structurer" areal word?) is a good shortcut. You getto select fields and filter criteria, andyou can get your results much fasterusing it than you could if you had totype out queries in the dBASE lan-guage.

The view mode is merely a euphe-mism for file-join capabilities. You canbuild new tables from as many as 10open files. I do not see this as help-ing the dunderhead; again, you haveto know what you're doing.

The Screen Painter is a full-screenreport/entry form editor. It's usefuland self-explanatory.

The Applications Generator is a de-velopment tool aimed at helping peo-ple who don't know what they're de-veloping. That's a snide remark, butthis add-on is not going to constructa project that requires any real sophis-tication with no assistance from theoperator. It's helpful for quick anddirty development, and I suppose youcan use it to generate some blocks ofcode that would be boring to writeout, but I still see the heavy-duty stuffas requiring programming expertise.

So, conclusions.

One: Database management is notan arena for idiots. It takes planningand intelligence.

Two: dBASE III Plus is not a programfor idiots either. It comes with toolsthat make it simpler to build a baby

accounting system or an automatedaddress book, but if that's all you'reup to, there are cheaper, friendlierproducts on the market.

Three: If you use the tools as short-cuts while developing something,you're pretty smart. I salute you.

Four: The main point (to me) of thisupgrade is the network support. If youneed those capabilities, or want tobuy into the dBASE culture, check thisone out.

A Solid Performer

Volkswriter 3 (Lifetree, $295) is oneof the great forgotten programs. Peo-ple don't seem to get excited aboutit, probably because it doesn't do any-thing flashy. But I don't know if youwant fireworks in your everyday wordprocessor; Volkswriter 3 gets the workdone and lets you move on to thenext job. It's a good product thatshouldn't be neglected, particularlyconsidering the price tag.

Basic features: Function-key com-mand set. Uncluttered screen. Decentmail merge. Remapping of ASCII keys,import and export. Support for a widevariety of printers. TopView-com-patible.

New features in this version: Auto-matic paragraph reformatting. Quickspelling checker with large dictionary.Ability to store multiple layouts, eitherwithin individual documents or astemplates. Columnar math functionsthat make it possible to create a smallspreadsheet within a document.

Liabilities: There are three things

Item*

WordStar 2000 Release 2 .

(MS-DOS)

MicroPro International Corp.

33 San Pablo Ave.

San Rafael, CA 94903

(415) 499-1200

DBASE 111 Plus

3 Dl

. $495$695

SCUSSED

Volkswriter 3

$295$79

(MS-DOS)

Lifetree Software Inc.411 Pacific St.Monterey, CA 93940(408) 373-4718

Keef^Track Plus

(MS-DOS)

The Finot Group

2390 El Camino Real, Suite 3

Palo Alto, CA 94306

(415) 322-6161

Orders: (800) 628-2828, ext. 700

(MS-DOS)

Ashton-Tate

20101 Hamilton Ave.

Torrance, CA 90502-1319

(213) 329-8000

about the program that I don't like.First, I wish it were possible to remapthe command keys. 1 have a toughtime with more than a couple of levelsof function keys; Volkswriter 3 uses allfour levels. Even though punching Flgives me a diagram of the layoutacross the top of the screen, I stillhave trouble remembering the dif-ference between Alt-something andCtrl-something. Second, if the spellingchecker decides that what you'vetyped is a botched abbreviation, it willdemand that you repunctuate it. If themistake is just a typo, you can't askVolkswriter 3 to suggest alternatives.Finally, it's another one of those pro-grams that lets you put a characteranywhere on the screen. You positionthe cursor, type a character, andVolkswriter 3 fills the intervening areawith spaces or returns as necessary.I'm willing to accept this as a mode,but in general I prefer having to putin the spaces myself so 1 can use theright arrow key to get from one lineto the next.

Overall reaction: Volkswriter 3 is asolid workhorse of a word processor.If you demand lots of zippy featureslike windows and outlining and such,look elsewhere. But if you're on a tightbudget (and who isn't?) and you needa businesslike editor, Volkswriter 3 isworth a long look.

Cute and Handy

There are dozens of hard disk man-agement utilities for MS-DOS ma-chines. As a rule, these programs aredesigned to simplify file handling anddirectory organization, and they alllook pretty much alike. You can usual-ly show the tree structure of yourdirectories in some sort of graphicsrepresentation (useful!) and movefrom one directory to another by cur-soring around the branches of thetree. Individual directories can be dis-played when sorted by any reason-able criterion (name, size, age, at-tributes, etc.). Specific files can beviewed on screen, sent to your printer,copied, moved, deleted, renamed,tagged for mass operations (copyinga selected group of files to a floppydisk, for example), and so on, and soon, and so on. In practice, the novice

[continued)

332 BYTE- IUNE 1986

SAVEBIG

ON 1200 AND 2400 BAUD MODEMS

Now you can save big bypurchasing a modem for yourpersonal computer DIRECT.

Sunnyvale CommunicationsCompany has aquired a wide rangeof products that will enable yourcomputer to communicate with theoutside world. These products areof outstanding quality and value.

Check these features:

1200 LC $199

• Hayes"' command compatible

• 1200/300/110 bps

• Auto dial, Auto answer

• Built-in speaker

• RS-232 to any computer

1200 TPC $129

• Hayes™ command compatible

• 1200/300/110 bps

• Auto dial, Auto answer

• IBM™ internal

• Built-in speaker

• Software included

1200 SPC $175

• Hayes™ command compatible

• 1200/300/110 bps

• Half-slot size

• Auto dial, Auto answer

• Built-in speaker

• Built-in diagnostics

Hayes is a registered trademark of HayesMicrocomputer Products. Inc. IBM is aregistered trademark of InternationalBusiness Machines Corp. Apple and Macare registered trademarks ol AppleComputer. Inc. Crosstalk is a trademarkof Microstuf, Inc.

Inquiry 60

AppleMate1200 $199

• Apple"' II , II + , lie internal

• Hayes™ command compatible

• 1200/300/110 bps

• Auto dial, Auto answer

• Built-in speaker

• Super serial card equivalent

• Built-in diagnostics

2400 $495

• Hayes™ command compatible

• 2400/1200/300 bps

• Auto dial, Auto answer

• Synch or Asynch operation

• Originate and Answer buttons

• Built-in speaker

MacModem1200LC $229

• Mac™ compatible standalone

• Hayes™ command compatible

• 1200/300/110 bps

• Auto dial, Auto answer

MIRROR $40

• Crosstalk™-like software

• Multi-tasking

• Menu-screen command structure

Sunnyvale

Communications

Company

1398 Borregas AvenueSunnyvale, CA 94088-35654081752-5095

Built-in speakerMac modemincluded

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 333

Inquiry 121

Attention all FX80, FX100, JX, & RX owners:

You already own naif ofa great printer

NowOnl

EPSON

Now for $79.95 you canown the rest. You see,today's new dot matrixprinters offer a lot more.

Like an NLQ mode thatmakes their letters printalmost as sharp as a daisywheel. And font switchingat the touch of a button -

in over 160 styles. But now,a Dots-Perfect upgrade kitcan make your printer worklike the new models inminutes. At a fraction oftheir cost.

Call now and use your Visaor Master Card. Don't replaceyour printer, upgrade it!

1-800-368-7737

In California: 1-800-831-9772

6 SSL (Dots-Perfect)

Sample of

letter without

Dots-Perfect

g

>Dresselhaus

837 E. Alosta Ave., Glendora, CA 91740 Tel: (818) 914-5831

An upgrade kit for EPSON FX, JX and RX printers

q^MjPf1 ' I EPSOt

PSON is a trademark ofEPSON America. Inc.

KEYS CAN TALK TOO!

Function-Kease™ make yourkeyboard talk at a glance.

Function-Kease™ for:1-2-3 Wordstar

MS-DOS Symphony

Framework dBase III

Crosstalk Pfs: Write

Microsoft WordIBM Filing/Reporting Asst.

IBM-PC, XT, ATCompaqEpsonApple HeSharp PC-7000

Function-Kease'" are solidplastic keycovers molded to fityour computer.

$19.95

When Ordering specify software

and computer model. Check,

Visa, Mastercard and approved

POs are accepted.

Custom and dealer inquiries

welcome.

Pictured is example ol Function-Kease"' lor 1-2-3.

SyncTronics

^4901 Morena Boulevard, Suite 302San Diego, California 92117619 692-0695

APPLICATIONS ONLY

user is insulated from the crypticworld of the DOS command line, andthe expert is given a shortcut throughtedious disk-maintenance tasks.

I usually don't recommend payingmoney for any of these programs fortwo reasons. First, a lot of goodpublic-domain and shareware utilitiesdo exactly what the commercial onesdo. Why pay for a commercial prod-uct when most of your money is go-ing for packaging and promotionalcosts? You sure aren't buying originali-ty or brilliant programming. The sec-ond reason is a matter of personalhonor—I don't recommend productswhen I can't keep their names straight.

At first glance, KeepTrack Plus (TheFinot Group, $79) is yet another pro-gram of this type. It does all the ex-pected things, and does them well,and who cares?

However, buried somewhere off ona submenu is a nice file-by-file back-up-and-restore system that I haven'tseen anywhere else yet. You select abranch of your directory tree (or yourwhole disk) for backup, and KeepTrackPlus duplicates your disk structure onthe backup medium. That is, it willcreate the necessary directories sothat the file C:\COrvtM\TALK\BIX.DOC will be copied to A: \COMM \ TALK \ BIX.DOC. KeepTrackPlus creates a master index in yourroot directory that shows where thebackup of each file has gone andanother index file on your targetmedium that shows what it contains.Both indexes are in plain ASCII, andthey can be edited or viewed with nohassle. If you want to exempt certainfiles from the backup process, youcreate an ASCII file in your root direc-tory that lists exceptions. The systemis ideal for backing up on sequentiallynumbered floppies but will work withstreaming tape, cartridge hard disks,and so on. I am far more comfortablewith this file-by-file arrangement thanwith the standard DOS process thatdoes not let you get at individualfiles.

The original KeepTrack is still avail-able at $39, but it lacks the backupsystem, and I won't recommend it forthe reasons stated previously. Forconvenience software, KeepTrack Plusis pricey, but it makes life easier. ■

334 BYTE • IUNE I986

Inquiry 334

640x350 16 COLOR

EGA PAINT

GEM

FLIGHT SIMULATOR

PAINT BRUSH

Auto CAD

Xw^^Low-End Graphics Adapters.

MORE

Why Settle for Less?

IBM sets thestandards forMonochrome,Color/Graphicsand the EnhancedGraphics Adapter.Hercules sets theMonochromeGraphics standard. | And theMegraGraph-Plus simply redefines thestandard for what the Graphics Adapteris supposed to be: Monochrome text,Hercules graphics, color graphics,enhanced graphics. And mostimportantly . . . No software driverpatches required.

Fully Compatible

You can run almost all software fromyour early investment. Including FlightSimulator, Pin Ball, Jet and Lotus 1-2-3Version 1A.

And it will still run all the businesssoftware packages written for IBMEnhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA).Examples include Auto CAD, IBMDrawing Assistant, Gem Draw,Microsoft Window, Word & Chart, Lotus1-2-3 and Symphony, Dr. Halo, PC PaintBrush, EGA-Paint and many, manymore.

ATronics is dedicated to the technicalexcellence of computing devices. To findout more about ATronics and our super-high performance ATI-1000 & ATI 2000AT system compatible boards call orwrite:

Features

Half size, fits in any slot of PC/XT/AT

X

X

EGA compatible

X

X

X

X

CGA compatible

X

(1)

(2)

(2)

MDA compatible

X

X

X

X

Chip count

24

29

86

40

Hercules compatible 720 x 348 graphics

X

X

No Software Patches required

X

X

X

Boot from:

— Flight Simulator

— Pin Ball

— Jet

X

X

X

Runs Lotus 1-2-3 version 1A:

— Hercules mode

— Color mode

X

(1)

X

(1)

Two Video Jacks

X

X

X

Display Memory

256K

256K

64K

256K

Light Pen connector

X

X

X

X

List Price

$549

$599

$624

$595

(1) Needs software driver patches.

(2) Compatible only to the BIOS level, but not the hardware level. Will not be compatible with most games software.

fmmww*

I ATI

ATronics International Inc.

491 Valley Way

Milpitas, CA 95035

(408) 943-6629 TLX: 510-600-6093

PLUS

Inquiry 34

IBM. Hercules. Flight Simulator, Pin Ball, Jet. Lotus 1-2-3 Version A, Auto CAD. Gem Draw. Window. Word & Chart. Symphony. Dr. Halo. PC Paint Brush. t£GA Paint, Quadramand STB EGA+ are all registered trademarks of their respective companies.

BYTE Invites You to join BIX

BYTE is the world's leading high-tech microcomputer magazine. Its readerscollectively possess more information about personal computers andrelated topics than any other group in the world. BIX is BYTE's brand-newelectronic information exchange, a computer conferencing system thatputs you in touch with BYTE readers and other computer enthusiastson a daily basis.

YOU AND BIX

BIX goes far beyond .electronic bulletin boards togive you all the advanced features of true com-puter conferencing. It's the first major systemdedicated to microcomputer information. Checkthese features:

• You can join ongoing discussions about yourfavorite computers, programming languages, op-erating systems, and applications programs, ex-change information, ask questions, and offeropinions.

• You can read what others have already entered,add your own thoughts, and download information.

• You can participate when it's convenient for you,from home or office or while you're traveling.

• You also get electronic mail with BIX, putting youin direct, private contact with BYTE editors and BIXusers everywhere.

Customize BIX to Meet Your Needs

As a BIX user, you select only the conferences andtopics that are of real interest to you. You may joina new conference or leave an old one anytime youwant. Each time you log on to BIX, you're im-mediately notified of any electronic mail messageswaiting for you, and you see which of the con-ferences you've joined have had new activity sincethe last time you logged on. BIX keeps track ofyour interests.

With BIX, you're an active participant in a giantmicrocomputer information exchange.

What BIX Costs. . .How You Pay

ONE-TIME REGISTRATION FEE:

BYTE Subscriber $2 5

Nonsubscriber $39

BIX HOURLY USAGE FEES (All times are local):Off Peak (6 p.m.-7 a.m. plus weekends

and holidays) $9

Peak (7 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays) $12

TELECOMMUNICATIONS CHARGES:

BIX is available via Tymnet from anywhere in the

United States.

TYMNET (Continental U.S.):

Off Peak $2/hr. Peak $6/hr.

PAYMENT

BIX and Tymnet charges are billed through either

VISA or MasterCard. No cash, checks, or money

orders.

Start Using BIX Now!

With our easy on-line registration, you can startusing BIX in the next few minutes. No lengthywaiting for your registration to be processed bymail. (Step-by-step instructions on how to log onto BIX follow. Reading this material before youlog on will speed you through the registrationprocess.)

log-on Instructions

and Registration information

BEFORE YOU CALL BIX:Having your credit card handy (VISA/MasterCard)before you log on will speed you through BIXregistration. You will not be billed for the time you spendon line registering for BIX. 1/ at any time during the on-lineprocess you decide not to register for BIX, just hang up.

HOW TO LOG ON TO BIX:

Step I: Set your computer's telecommunications

program for full duplex using 8-bit words, no parity,

336 B YTE • |UNE 1986

and 1 stop bit, or 7-bit words, even parity, and 1stop bit. You may call at either 300 or 1200 baud.

Step 2: To reach BIX via Tymnet*

• BIX is accessible from anywhere in the country throughlocal Tymnet numbers. 1/ you don't know the Tymnetnumbers for your area, contact the BIX Customer Ser-vice Line (see below). At other times, numbers can be ob-tained by calling Tymnet at 800-336-0149.

• Call your local Tymnet number and log on.

• Depending on your baud rate, Tymnet will re-spond with "garble" or request a terminal iden-tifier. Enter the letter "a". (Ignore quotation marksin this and succeeding entries.)

• Tymnet will ask you to log on. Enter "byteneti"and a carriage return (CR).

• Tymnet will ask you for a password. Enter "mgh"and (CR). You will then be at the door to the BIXcomputer.

Step 3: (If there is no prompt requesting a loginat this point, hit a (CR) which should produce it.)When you see a phrase ending in "login:", enter"bix". (Echoing of this response is normal.)

You should now see the BIX logo scroll onto thescreen and a prompt asking you to enter yourname. Since this will be your first time on thesystem, enter "new" and a carriage return. This will

take you to a special section where you enter theinformation we need to register you as a BIX user.Follow the on-line prompts and supply the infor-mation requested. BIX lets you re-enter data if youmake a mistake.

When you've completed your registration, BIX willautomatically take you to a special "Learn" con-ference where you'll get a quick tutorial on howto use the system. (Typing "help" or "?" at anyprompt while you are on BIX will give you an im-mediate review of available commands.)

ACCESSING BIX FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES

To reach BIX from other countries, you need anaccount with your local Postal Telephone &Telegraph (PTT) company. From your PTT, enter310600157878. Then follow instructions starting atStep 3. A list of PTT addresses and contacts formost foreign countries is available by calling orwriting BIX.

Customer Service

If you follow these instructions but still are unableto log on to BIX, call the BIX Customer ServiceLine for assistance at 800-227-2983, 8:30 a.m-11 p.m. eastern time weekdays. In New Hampshireand outside the U.S., call (603) 924-7681.

Well Send You a BIX User'sManual and Subscriber AgreementAs Soon As Wve ProcessedYour Registration

BYTE Information ExchangeOne Phoenix Mill LanePeterborough, NH 03458(603) 924-9281

Inquiry 450

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 337

OEM & OWN BRAND

COMPOSITE & TTL COMPATBLECOLOR & MONO MONITOR

TERMINAL

SAMSUNG

Electron Devices

SEOUL OFFICE

6-8TH FL.THEJOONG-ANG DAILYNEWS BLDG., 7 SOONHWA-DONG,CHUNG-KU, SEOUL, KOREATEL: 7516-955/7, 7516-959/961TLX: STARNEC K22596CABLE: "STARNEC" SEOUL

LONDON OFFICE

6TH FLOOR, VICTORIA HOUSESOUTHAMPTON ROW W.C.1 LONDON,ENGLANDTEL: (01) 831-6951/5TLX: 264606 STARS LGFAX: (01) 430-0096

SANTA CLARA OFFICE I TOKYO OFFICE

3003 BUNKER HILL LANE,

SUITE 201 SANTA CLARA,

CAL. 95050, U.S.A.

TEL: (986)8473

TLX: 171685 SAMSUNG SNTA

KASUMIGASEKI BLDG., 2522KASUMIGASEKI 3-2-5 CHIYOTA-KU,TOKYO, JAPAN

TEL: (03) 581-5804, (03) 581-9521-4TLX: 228009 SANSEI

338 B YTE • lUNE I986

Inquiry 4II

BYTE JAPAN

/H>

New Tools, New Challenges

by William M. Raike

Bill's conversion process

Last month I went into detailabout EM/3 + , the "oper-ating-system unification ,. / j. - .,adapter from Megasoft that COMinUeS dS He CtadS fl C COMpller

lets me run both MS-DOS

and CP/M-86 software and and 0 modem tO klS SUStem

handles disks recordedunder either operating sys-tem in more than two dozen formats.After living with it for another month.I'm even more enthusiastic thanbefore; I've gained all the benefits ofMS-DOS while retaining the use ofmuch of my CP/M-86 software library.And I've had time to get used to twonew acquisitions—a C compiler and amodem. But converting to a differentoperating system hasn't been allpeaches and cream. . .

The DeSmet

C Development Package

Almost all of my CP/M-86 softwarenow runs under the combination ofMS-DOS and EM/3 + on my computer(see May BYTE Japan, page 329) ex-cept for the Digital Research C com-piler. It had been cumbersome to use,yielding bloated object code, so I wel-comed the excuse to switch to a moresuitable compiler. I finally decided toorder the latest version (version 2.5)of the DeSmet C development pack-age from CWare (POB C, Sunnyvale,CA 94087, (408) 720-9696). It includesa full C compiler, assembler, linker,and library files; I added the optionalD88 symbolic debugger. Consideringthe compilation and linking speed,the small size of the compiled objectprograms, the exceptionally cleardocumentation, and especially thetremendously useful symbolic debug-ger, the whole package is a terrificbargain at $159.

This column is definitely not in-tended as a full-scale product review,but I can't pass up the chance to givethe DeSmet C compiler/debugger

combination a pat on the back. Ifyou've ever gritted your teeth in ex-asperation because of your C com-piler and linker while tracking downsome elusive bug in a C program,you'll greet the D88 symbolic debug-ger with a huge sigh of relief. Whenyou run your C program under thedebugger, you can set breakpoints;list the C source code; display thecontents of variables, registers, andmemory; calculate the values of C ex-pressions; and stop your program atcrucial points to see what it's actual-ly doing instead of what you think it'ssupposed to be doing.

Although the DeSmet C package isreally designed for use with the IBMPC and compatibles, the compiler andlinker ran with no modifications at allon my Fujitsu FM-16/3 computer,which makes no pretensions at alltoward IBM PC compatibility. To usethe D88 symbolic debugger, I had tomake some minor modifications tothe CONFIG.C file that's supplied onthe distribution disk. Although thestandard library has console functionsthat are specific to the IBM PC, thedistribution disk includes easilyunderstandable assembly languagesource code you can modify for anymachine. And my Fujitsu, now runningunder the combination of MS-DOSand EM/3 + . had no trouble readingCWare's IBM PC-formatted disks. Thepackage even has a full-screen editor,but I prefer to stick with my usualeditor.

I haven't run extensive benchmarks,but some statistics follow to give you

a rough idea of the DeSmetC compiler's performance.One of my small text post-processor utility programs,XPAG.C, contains 167 lines ofC code. The DeSmet C com-piler and linker took 5.36 and2.95 seconds, respectively, ora total of 8.31 seconds, to produce anexecutable program file. The size ofthe executable file was 12,288 bytes,compared to 22,528 bytes underDigital Research C (Digital ResearchC produces over 10K bytes of codeeven for the smallest possible C pro-gram: main(){ }. DeSmet C produces1536 bytes for the same program,partly because the compiled programdoesn't need to keep track of I/Oredirection, which is handled auto-matically by MS-DOS.) 1 never did runDigital Research C on the well-knownSieve of Eratosthenes benchmark, butDeSmet C produced an executableprogram file only 7168 bytes long; ittook 2.24 seconds to compile and2.44 seconds to link. The printf() func-tion accounts for over 5000 bytes ofthe final program size; it also repre-sents about half of the compilationtime. The execution time (to find 1899primes 10 times) was 4.46 seconds.The times I've just quoted weremeasured on my Fujitsu FM-16/3,which has an 80186 main processorrunning at 8 MHz, with all filesresiding in a RAM disk.

A New Modem and ItsDocumentation

During a recent trip back to the U.S.,I bought the Hayes Smartmodem2400, and I'm already spoiled. After

(continued)William M. Raike. who has a Ph.D. in ap-plied mathematics from Northwestern Univer-sity, went to japan in 1980 looking for 64K-bit RAMs. He has been there ever since asa technical translator and a software developer.

IUNE 1986 • BYTE 339

BYTE JAPAN

using my old Epson 300-bits-per-sec-ond acoustic coupler, it's a real joy tobe able to sit down at the computer,let the Smartmodem dial the numberfor me, and then communicate at1200 bps, four times faster thanbefore. I wonder how 1 ever put upwith waiting for characters to plodacross the screen at 300 bps.

Since the Smartmodem supportsboth the U.S. and international CC1TTmodem standards at 1200 bps andthe CCITT standards at 2400 bps, Ihave no problem using it over here.Although there are still few chancesto use the 2400-bps rate here inlapan, I now routinely use 1200 bpswhen communicating with BIX andother information utilities. It looks asif this modem will meet my commu-nication needs for the foreseeablefuture.

Not only is the Smartmodem 2400a well thought out, flexible, andpowerful device, but it has the best

hardware documentation I've everseen, bar none. In addition to the sec-tions that provide clear descriptionsof the operation of each of the com-mon commands used for ordinarycommunication tasks, the manualcontains detailed technical sectionsand appendixes that explain how tomake the modem do practically any-thing imaginable. There's even atechnical appendix that gives connec-tion diagrams for modular telephonejacks (which I found essential to makethe two-wire connection to my tele-phone junction box, since modularjacks aren't yet in widespread use inlapan). I also found specifications forpulse dialing, tables of touch-tone fre-quencies, and detailed descriptions ofthe RS-2 32C signals and how themodem uses them.

The descriptions of the RS-232Csignals turned out to be indispensablefor me. After rewriting my communi-cations program in Turbo Pascal

under MS-DOS, I discovered that Icould communicate readily with mylaptop computer, but not with theHayes modem. I eventually deducedthat the RS-232C driver under Fujit-su's MS-DOS, unlike the CP/M-86driver, won't output a character unlessit senses that the DSR (data set ready)line (pin 6) is active. Since the Smart-modem holds pin 5 (the CTS, or clearto send line) active at all times butonly activates the DSR line when avalid phone connection has beenestablished, I surmised that every-thing would work just fine if I cut theDSR line (pin 6) in the cable andshorted pins 5 and 6 together at thecomputer side. This would fool thecomputer into thinking it had a validDSR signal. It was a satisfying, ifminor, bit of detective work. Sureenough, after minor surgery on theribbon cable, I was able to communi-cate just as well under MS-DOS (andEM/3 + ) as I had before making the

The Canon Bubble-Jet Printer

is very compatible with all these units.

— —^ ~.

B

I

?***

•B*

, * ■'

1

*

•r-.t

-3E'-

340 BYTE- JUNE 1986

BYTE JAPAN

conversion from CP/M-86.VAudge that worked!

had a

Some Kludges Work BetterThan Others

But it turned out that I had con-gratulated myself just a wee bit early.The next problem that emerged wasa direct result of what is, in my opin-ion, poor software design.

It seems obvious to me that device-driver routines ought to be "quiet"programs. That means that theyshouldn't do anything that isn't ab-solutely necessary, and in particularthey shouldn't produce any consoleoutput and shouldn't interfere withthe execution of an application pro-gram, except in the event of an ab-solute catastrophe. The serial portdriver under Fujitsu's version of MS-DOS displays a message on the con-sole, in ever-so-polite Japanese, anytime I turn the modem power on oroff. Not content to foul up the screen,

any application program that happensto be running is interrupted and con-trol returns to the operating systemcommand processor. I was notamused one day when I flipped themodem power switch to "off" and myword processor immediately bombedout, returning me to the operating sys-tem minus the text I had created.

The solution seemed easy: Insteadof using a modem signal line (pin 5)to pull up the DSR line, make a cableadapter that shorts pin 4 to pin 6 onthe computer side. The computeralways holds pin 4 (RTS. or request tosend) high, so this second solution ac-complishes the same thing, regardlessof the state of the modem. But somuch for theory; the problem persists,and I may just have to learn to livewith it.

But I'm still annoyed by the softwaredesign process that allows such"error" handling in the first place. Thesame kind of problem crops up in

other places. For example, if 1 try towrite a block of text to a disk file fromwithin my word processor and makea typing mistake that indicates I'm try-ing to access a nonexistent disk drive,the operating system (again, politely)informs me of that fact and aborts theword processor without saying somuch as "Excuse me." The sensibleway to handle such errors would havebeen to have the operating system (orthe BIOS) return from the I/O servicerequest with an error indication andlet the application program (word pro-cessor, communications program, orwhatever) handle the error gracefully.There's no need for gratuitous mes-sages on the screen, and certainly noexcuse for aborting a program.

Function Keys Don t

It seems to me, for Japanese com-puter companies to compete success-fully in the world software arena, they

[continued)

Because high-speed, high-qualityprinting should be seen, not heard.

The Canon Bubble-Jet Printer uses an exclusivesystem that combines thermal and ink-jet technologyto print an ultra-fast 220 cps. While keeping thedecibels down to a whisper.

For professional word processing, the Near LetterQuality mode (NLQ) churns out crisp, clear copyat a brisk 110 cps. And the BJ-80 has three graphic

image modes for high-resolution printouts of charts,graphs and diagrams.

Of course, the Bubble-Jet is fully compatible withCanon's fine line of Personal Computers and plug-com-patible with the IBM PC. It's compact, lightweightand surprisingly affordable.

Ask your dealer about the full line of fast, efficient,economical Canon Printers. />^hah«Find out what all the quiet ^^-C»ll\j Iexcitement is about. PRINTERS

Printouts that stand out.

© 1986Canon U.S.A., Inc.

For more information: call 1-800-441-1313. (Or in Utah, call 800-922-3131.) Or write Canon U.S.A., Inc.. Printer Division, P.O. Box 619865, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, TX 75261.

Inquiry 56

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 341

Inquiry 300

BYTE JAPAN

What is a Best Western?

"My home

office

wherever• I travel."

The right place at the right price.

Make reservations at any Best Western,see your travel agent, or call toll-free

1-800-528-1234

INDEPENDENT

WORLDWIDE

LODGING

"World's largest chain of

independently owned

and operated

hotels, motor inns and resorts"

should pay more attention to designcriteria that avoid such problems.Another criticism I have concerns thekeyboard driver for my machineunder MS-DOS. My Fujitsu has 10 pro-grammable function keys. UnderCP/M-86. 1 used them frequently andeffectively at both the level of theoperating system and the level of ap-plications programs. Fujitsu chose,under MS-DOS. to dedicate all 10function keys for use with a "feature"that lets you edit the command linesyou enter for the operating system.But Fujitsu's documentation doesn'tmention any way to redefine them.either.

Under CP/M-86, it was possible tomake BIOS system calls to have com-plete control over the console co-processor (an MBL68B09) thatmanages the keyboard and the screenin the FM-16/3. You'd load some reg-isters, execute software interrupt 220,and the function keys get set towhatever you want. Obviously. Fujit-su must use some kind of BIOS inter-face to the coprocessor to accomplishthe same functions under MS-DOS,but the documentation should saysomething about how it's done. I'llfind out eventually, but in the mean-time, no one I've been able to reachseems to know anything about it. Andnow, because the tricks you can usewith the IBM PC to redefine keys usingANSI escape sequences don't workon the Fujitsu (see Best of BIX,February BYTE, page 386), I've got acomputer with 10 useless functionkeys.

This kind of shortsighted design,combined with poor or nonexistentdocumentation and technical supportfrom the factory, is a real problem.Hopefully, computer manufacturerswill realize that foresight, good tech-nical documentation, and support forsoftware developers sells more com-puters.

Next Month

I'll discuss a couple of new computersfrom NEC that retain their compatibil-ity with earlier models, and I'll tell youabout a new laptop from Oki that hasa built-in modem. I'll also share aquick overview of my reactions to theCOMDEX show in Japan. ■

342 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Conquest:Two Cards for the

Price of One

One Card, One Slot, One Choice

Introducing Orchid'sConquest, the first PCmultifunction card with2 megabytes of the newLotus EMS ExpandedMemory. It's like havinga multifunction card andan EMS card in one slot,but it costs less than you'dexpect to pay for either.

Multifunction Card

Conquest is a multifunctioncard with serial/parallel

Borts, clock/calendar, andOS Memory. And Orchid'sSwitchless Installation gets youup and running in minutes.

Expanded Memory Card

Conquest breaks the 640KDOS memory limit with 2megabytes of Lotus EMSExpanded Memory. Orchid'sProductivity Software lets youuse this memory for RAMDisk and Caching, so you takeadvantage of it with yourexisting software.

Whether you're buying thefirst expansion card for yourPC or an add-on for Lotus EMSExpanded Memory, Conquestis your choice:

▲ First Card Buyers: Conquestis a multifunction card withEMS.

▲ Multifunction Card Owners:

Conquest is an EMS cardwith ports.

Features:

up to 2 megabytes of RAMDOS & EMS Memory1 Serial, 1 Parallel PortClock/Calendar

Productivity Software:RAM DiskDisk CachingPrint SpoolingAlarm & clock display

Optional PCnet connection

. 47790 Westinghouse Dr.V Fremont, CA 94536415/490-8586Tlx: 709289

ORCHID

The Innovative Leaders

Conquest and PCnet are trademarks of Orchid Technology. All other product names are trademarks of their manufacturers.Inquiry 247 for End-Users. Inquiry 248 for DEALERS ONLY.

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 343

HAVE YOU STRIPPED YET?

It's a question more and more PC owners are asking. And no wonder.What everyone is talking about is Softstrip™. The revolutionarytechnology that is changing the shape of computer software.

The Cauzin Softstrip System is more than just software or data onpaper. Because when you invest in this system, you can do much morewith your computer, and for far less than you are probably spendingnow. You can even create and print out your own data strips.

But that's only thebeginning of an offerthat's going to makeyou wonder why youhaven't strippedyet...

TAKE OUR ADS(SUCH AS THIS ONE)

It's part of our expanding StripWare™ Library containing programs,data, art, spreadsheet, macros and templates. The Library features avariery of software applications and you'll find new material appearingeach month in such leading computer magazines as Lotus, PC, PCTechJournal, and PC World.

BUT THERE'S STILL MORE...

When you invest in the Softsttip System, you get the Softstrip reader,a special storage base, and a full one-year replacement warranty. Alsoincluded with your purchase is a complete Accessory Kit for your PCcontaining connector cables and communications software to link yourcomputer to the reader.

In addition, you'll find a StripWare Sampler with 48 programs froma line-up of popular authors and publishers that includes Addison-Wesley,

Epson is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc.IBM and IBM PC are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc.,Softstrip8 and the Softstrip8 System Reader are trademarks of Cauzin Systems, Inc.

344 BYTE • IUNE 1986

David Ahl, Family Computing, Tim Hartnell, Hayden Books, PC TechJournal, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, The Waite Group, and John Wiley& Sons.

When you become a Softstrip reader owner, you also get a FREE oneyear StripWare Club membership with programs mailed to you monthly.You'll even receive a FREE Cauzin Effect Newsletter filled with thelatest updates and news about Softstrip developments.

AND IF THAT'SNOT ENOUGH TOSTART YOU STRIPPING...

You'll find StripWare brand software in authorized Softstrip dealersacross the country. Our collection of titles include everything from

utilities, graphics and

entertainment to

business programs. All

for only $2.98 to

$19.98!

Do you want to

create your own data

strips? Well, now you

can with a special

StripWare package

called "STRIPPER"

that lets you ptint

your disk files as

strips using your

own Epson dot

matrix printer.

The printing

software is only $19.95,

but just think of the things you could be stripping. Store backup files

on paper. Print, copy and mail your own programs to others easily and

inexpensively..,,,.

The Cauzin Softstrip System is just that, a complete system thatopens up a new world of computer programs and data on paper. Andit's all yours for only $199.95!

For rhe Softstrip Sysrem Dealer nearest you, (ot if there isn't one inyour area, to order), call toll free: 1-800-533-7323 (in Connecticut:203-573-0150)

StripWare packages offer utilities, games, businessprograms, templates and much more.

Softstrip

COMI'UTf.li Hf AUAIH F PRINT ■

Cauzin Systems, Inc.835 South Main St., Waterbury, CT 06706

BIORHYTHM CHART

What kind of day is it going to be for you today? Ate you at your peak physically, emotionally ot intellectually?Which day this week will be ideal for beginning that new project you've been putting off? Is next Tuesdaythe right night to take that cettain someone out to dinnet, and pop "the question"?

Let's face it, on given day of out life there are any number of important decisions or options to consider.The data strips on the right contain a Lotus template, from the public domain, called BIORYTHM CHARTthat could help.

Use the Cauzin communications program to read the strips to a data disk. The Lotus Retrieve commandbrings the model into Lotus 1-2-3™. Enter your birthdate and the currentdate into the appropriate cells andyour personalized BIORHYTHM CHART will appeal on the screen. You are given data fot 15 days ptior,and after, the current date which is shown as zero.

Run your spouse's, ftiend's, ot child's chatt and figure out which days you should be doing things together,and which days to avoid one another. If you know your boss' birthday, you can figure out what mood he'll bein before he comes to work... and plan accordingly.GOOD LUCK!

WORKSHEET OPTIONS VERSION 1.0

8 19M STELEE MANAGE

IBM is » trademark of International Businesi Machine! Corporation.

1-2-3 ij a trademark of Lotus Development Corp. All rights reserved.

HI I Hill

mini tin im

StripWare Library No. 250

3

§

iiiii

|i,V

i|p

a

lilil

lift

ills

ill

I

■

■■,:■:■;■

Inquiry 59

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 345

AMttMBt

IM

I ML •#11' Albl.

r f r r tu

r t t" r f . i~i. r \ tEi

; I I ! I [ I I I I A

i r r t. i ii i i

THE IBM XT

nttZM.^*]^A>

MORE SPEED

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

■ 640K-bytes RAM on a four layer high reliabilitymotherboard

■ 2 Megabytes of expanded memory on thethe American Above-Function Card™

■ Turbo speed 4.77 to 7.37 MHz selectable withoutpower down

■ High Performance, high speed 8088-2microprocessor

■ Eight expansion slots; power-on auto self-test ofsystem components

■ Two 360K-byte DS/DD diskette drives

■ 20M-byte hard disk drive

■ lOM-byte formatted tape back-up included

■ Serial, parallel, game ports, graphics card andreal-time clock

■ American Mouse'" with American Paintbrush™for CGA and EGA graphics

■ MS" DOS 2.11 and Macro-Assembler softwarek included

■ 1 year limited warranty covering parts & labor

Salesman Incentive Program Available.FREE American Paintbrush Software.

AMERICAN XTsr.™ PERFECT SYSTEM

MAXIMIZE

iEE

WITH THE

Increase memory to 2Megabytes RAM

Based on Lotus", Intel® andMicrosoft® specifications

Serial, parallel and game ports andreal-time clock

One year limited warranty

AMERICAN ABOVE-FUNCTION CARD7

CARD!

Authorized Distributor and Service Center:

Computer WholesalersLincoln. NE (402) 466-1692

PC Land, Inc.

Tustin, CA (714) 730-6723

D.L MacNeil

Elk Grove, IL (312) 952-8300

Computer ProfessionalsLakewood. CO (303) 232-4009

Micro Configuration East. Inc.Brooklyn. NY (718) 941-2512Computer Peripheral Warehouse. Inc.Deerfield Beach. FL (305) 481-2170

The Super SourceNorcross. GA (404) 441-3451Power House SalesSioux Falls, SD (605) 335-7181

Omega Data

Kirkland, WA (206) 823-9769

California Micro. Inc.

Los Angeles, CA (213) 671-6075

PC Express

Burnsville. MN (612) 894-9153

Good Pasture ComputerDallas. TX (214) 986-1151

Mid America

Carmel. IN (317) 846-3101

Columbia Dala Systems. Inc.Columbia. TN (615) 3814650

Omega Dala

Hillsboro. OR (503) 640-3995

Paris Sud Electronigue ComposanlsParis, France (1) 692066.99

Imagine ComputersGolela. CA (800) 344-2964

Microsel

Bethany, OK (405) 787-4354

Inter-Micro Distributor. IncAlberta. Canada (403) 436-6393

IBM XT. MS DOS. Lulus. Intel. Microsoft are registered trademarks r

Manufactured by:

COMPUTER & PERIPHERAL, INC.

2720 Croddy Way, Santa Ana, CA 92704Tel: (714) 545-2004 • Fax: (714) 545-2146

Inquiry ,)H4 lor End-Users. Inquiry 3B5 lor DEALERS ONLY.Microsoft. Lotus Developmenl. Intel and Microsoft Corporations respectively.

ACCORDIN

^

WEBSTER

Storage for the Masses

by Bruce Webster

I'm writing this column in thelast half of February, and theindustry seems to be largelycatching its breath after theChristmas season and theJanuary trade shows. I'm do-ing a little breath-catchingmyself, after juggling dif-ferent languages, compilers, and machines for last month'scolumn. Once again, it's time to pause from the 68000wars and look at a few of the products that have shownup over the past few months.

Industry Update

Apple, much to its dealers' surprise and delight, haswasted little time shipping the Macintosh Plus in signifi-cant numbers. No indication yet as to how the Mac Plusis selling with its hefty $2600 price tag; I would suspectthat dealers are having little trouble selling what they canget, though. In the meantime, some interesting rumorsabout the Apple Ilx (next generation of the Apple II line)continue to surface. Over on BIX, one alleged descriptionwas posted that made the Ilx appear to leapfrog theAmiga and the Atari ST machines: 4-megahertz 65C816processor (which has a 16-megabyte address space anda 6502 emulation mode), Mac-equivalent ROMs, 4096colors, high-resolution display, 32-voice sound synthesizer,1 megabyte of RAM (expandable to multiple megabytes),Apple II and Macintosh emulation modes, and an afford-able price tag (less than $1500).

That rumor is wild enough to just possibly be true, espe-cially if Steve Wozniak is indeed involved in the machine'sdesign. Woz knows what hackers and developers wantand—more important—knows that hackers and developersare the ones who write all the software that sells the ma-chines. Rather than deliver a closed, crippled machine likethe original 128K-byte Macintosh, which has gone throughtwo generations in two years, Woz and Apple together justmight have the brains and vision to put together a machinethat can survive through the next ten years, just as theoriginal Apple II has survived the last ten.

Atari, in the meantime, is having delays in shipping the1040ST and the new 520ST. The word from Atari is "anyminute now," and I suspect its people are working veryhard to meet that, lest they fall victim to the famedOsborne syndrome. For those of you unfamiliar withmicrocomputer history, the Osborne 1 was a marketinginnovation: a cheap, portable CP/M computer with lots ofbundled software. Unfortunately, it had a number of limita-

hn industry update,

and Bruce also looks at some

storage devices

tions. like a tiny screen (5inches) that displayed only52 characters on a line anddisk drives that didn't hold awhole lot (90K bytes). Os-borne, feeling the heat ofcompetition from Kaypro(which had entered the mar-ket with a similar but better system), announced theOsborne Executive, which corrected most of the problemsof the Osborne 1. Unfortunately, production problemsprevented Osborne from shipping the Executive for a fewmonths, and sales of the Osborne 1 dropped to almostzero as dealers and customers waited for the new, im-proved version. Osborne was already on shaky financialground, and that turned out to be the coup de grace,pushing Osborne into Chapter 11 financial reorganization(i.e., bankruptcy). Osborne emerged from bankruptcy ayear or two ago but hasn't been able to make any signifi-cant market penetration.

So why would the people at Atari announce the 1040STand the new 520ST before they could ship them? A com-bination of reasons, probably. Conflicting reports continueto come in on how the Amiga and the 520ST did duringthe Christmas season, but most sources indicate that theAmiga outsold the 520ST Whatever the actual numbers,the 520ST was not the runaway success that many (in-cluding myself) thought it would be. That, combined withApple's pending announcement of the Mac Plus and thelack of a good trade show forum during the spring, prob-ably enticed Atari to make the announcement at theWinter Consumer Electronics Show in early January, eventhough they weren't ready to ship yet. At that time, theywere saying "end of lanuary," which was a reasonable andacceptable delay. Unfortunately, it's now late February,significant editorial coverage of the 1040ST has been ap-pearing for a month now—with more to come—and themachines still haven't been shipped. I'll wager that 520STsales have dropped off sharply, partly because of the an-nouncements and partly because inventories of the "old"520ST have been exhausted and Atari is (very understand-ably) unwilling or unable to produce more "old" units.It would be a shame to see Atari hurt by this delay, espe-cially since the 1040ST and the revised 520ST possiblyrepresent the best price/performance deals in the historyof microcomputers. Atari is probably better able to sur-

[conttnued]Bruce Webster is a consulting editor for BYTE. He can be contacteddo BYTE, POB 1910, Orem, UT 84057, or on BIX as bwebster.

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 347

PROLOGAPPLIED!

The FIRST InteractiveProlog for the IBMand Macintosh.

PROLOG/i

A new enhanced InteractiveProlog for MS-DOS. $£^Q95Upwardly compatible Ov/with PROLOG V and V-plus.

PROLOG/m

Prolog for the Macintosh!Edinburgh syntax. $QQ95Floating point, \3\J

math functions.

THREE GREATAPPLICATIONS

READY TO RUN

NO PROGRAMMING

EXPERIENCE NECESSARY.

NFL X-pert $4995

Expert system for professionalfootball handicapping.

TOOLBOX $2995

Including subroutines that speedand compress list handling,searches, sorts, reversal algorithms.

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

$2995

TOYBOX

A collection of games and puzzlesthat make learning Prolog fun.

MIX AND MATCH FOR ADDED SAVINGS

PROLOG/i PROLOG/m 'SAVE*Interpreter plus-Toolbox or Toybox $ 79.95Toolbox and Toybox 99.95NFL X-pert 99.95NFL X-pert andToolbox and Toybox 119.95 149.95 30BUY ALL 4 AND SAVE $50 129.95 159.95 50Applications OnlyToolbox and ToyboxNFL X-pert and Toolbox or ToyboxBUY ALL 3 AND SAVE $20

$109.95129.95129.95

149.95159.95

COMPATIBILITYApplications iullycompatible withProlog compilersand interpreterswith Edinburghsyntax.

CHALCEDONY

System Requirements

PC-DOS/MS-DOSVer. 20 or later256K HAM512 Macintosh

r-1

5580 LA IOLLA BLVD.SUITE 126 DLA JOLLA, CA

SOFTWARE, INCS cassis

PHONE ORDERS: 1-800-621-0852 EXT 468 m am

I

D PAYMENT ENCLOSED $

CA residents add G'fo sales lax□ CHARGE MY: D MasterCard

DVim

I Card No.

Signature

I Mr./Mrs./Ms.i Address

Exp. Date .

(please print lull name

'Ciry/State/Zip

PROLOG/i $69.95

" PROLOG/m 99.93

If you own PROLOG V orPROLOG V-plus. call lorupgrade intormation.

SKIPPING:. $ 5.00 U.S.7.50 Canada10.00 Carribean,Hawaii Air20.00 Overseas Air

COD Orders Nol Accepted. 15 day check clearance

vive the sudden drop in sales than Osborne was, but theyneed to get those machines out the door soon; no com-pany can survive dramatically reduced sales for long . . .except, possibly, IBM, which reputedly has a few billiondollars in the bank.

Commodore, in the meantime, seems to keep dodgingthe bullet that everyone thought would have been fatalby now. The bankers are apparently convinced that a livebut ailing Commodore stands a better chance of payingoff its debts than a dead one and that sales of the C-64,C-128, and Amiga are sufficient to keep Commodore alivefor now. Smart folks, those bankers. The two big problemsstill appear to be lack of software and Commodore itself.Little new software has shown up in the past month,though a number of companies (like Aegis) claim to beon the verge of shipping several titles, and I still don't knowif a decent word processor is available for the Amiga—especially critical because of Commodore's attempts toposition the Amiga as a business machine.

Commodore seems to be hurting its own cause bythrowing up roadblocks for developers. The latest ob-stacle: Commodore apparently wants software firms to pay$500/product/year for the privilege of putting the Work-bench (desktop interface) on their product disks. Thisstrikes me as unnecessary and counterproductive, sinceevery Amiga owner already has the Workbench. Devel-opers can, of course, not put that stuff on their disks andjust have the users make working copies, like most CP/Mand MS-DOS software, but it is in both Commodore's andthe developers' interest to make things as easy as possible.

IBM, as always, goes right along being IBM, comfortablein its view of the marketplace and its position therein. Thequestion is how closely that view corresponds to reality,since the clone makers continue to eat away at IBM'smarket share. On the other hand, the real question mightbe whether or not it matters, since for large sections ofthe computer market, IBM has the apparent power todefine just what reality is, with hordes of analysts and MISmanagers following in its wake. Still, it was Zenith's por-table, not the much-rumored (and still unannounced) IBMlaptop computer, that won the key IRS contract. And thelarge inventories of unsold IBM PCs and XTs appear tobe keeping IBM from introducing any new PC systems. BigBlue may just have painted itself into a corner.

Product of the Month: MacBottom

To be honest, I was hesitant about picking the MacBot-tom 20-megabyte hard disk as product of the month. I'msure there are Macintosh hard disks that are newer, orcheaper, or faster, or have more sophisticated system soft-ware. And there isn't much about it that's flashy or ex-citing. In fact, in the few months I've had it, I've given verylittle thought to it. Ironically, that's exactly why I did pickit as product of the month: because, day after day, weekafter week, it has quietly, unobtrusively done its job anddone it very well. No crashes. No bugs. No lost files. Nolost desk space. No power switches to fiddle with. Easyboot-up. Nice utilities. Fast performance. In short, just

(continued)

348 BYTE • (UNE 1986

Inquiry 61 for End-Users.Inquiry 62 for DEALERS ONLY.

Amazing New Advance -ments for an Old Friend.

ZBasic is an incredibly advanced andpowerful BASIC—but—it's still Ihe old BASICyou're used to. Instead of spending 6 months ofyour life learning another complicated language, letZBasic put your programs into light-speed, now!(If you know BASIC, you know ZBasic)

How Fast is ZBasic?

Lightening fast. Four years of intensedevelopment have produced the ultimate BASIC.ZBasic Is "Compiled BASIC," and generates stand-alone applications that make any other BASICcompletely obsolete. Just look at these speedcomparisons,

1MSTESX EASIEST MOSTPOWERFUL BASIC EVER!

Sieve Benchmark on Different PC's

Macintosh™

Apple lie, He

ZBasic™ 7.4 sec.Mbasic™ 684 sec.

ZBasic™ 486 sec.Applesoft™ 5,401 sec.

IBM1 PCieoeai

Z-80 (CP/M™-80, trs-bo™)

ZBasic™ 13.7 sec.BASICA™ 2,190 sec.

ZBasic™ 30 sec.Mbasic™ 2,520 sec.

Customized for YOUR Computer:

MSDOS™ and Compatibles: Including PC, XT, AT,jr., Tandy™ 500-1200-2000-3000 and all Compaqs™.Creates fast stand-alone .COM files. Supports a mouse,highlights keywords and lots more.

Macintosh™: Complete Toolbox ROM calls support,creates 68000 Native Code, Macintalk and Appietalksupport, program size to 4 megabyte, math accuracyfrom 8 to 240 digits. Incredible program speeds!

10 iterations of the Sieve from Byte, January, 1963

Compiler Speed/Interpreter Ease.

Like a BASIC interpreter, ZBasic allows youto write and execute your programs immediately! Nomessy "Linkers," "Loaders," or clumsy "SubroutinePackages" like most other compilers. To compileand edit, simply type "RUN." Debugging works thesame as the interpreter, too. Just type "BREAK" or"CTRL C" to get back to the editor.

Lightning-Fast Compilation.

Computer Language Magazine says."Compilation is amazingly fast..." After typing"RUN," ZBasic compiles your program at blindingspeed—40 lines per second.

Works the Same on AllComputers.

If you're tired of throwing away your oldprograms everytime you switch to a new computer,ZBasic is for you. Source code is portable from onecomputer to another, and since ZBasic uses DeviceIndependent Graphics and Disk File commands,your programs automatically "Adapt" to any othercomputer. And the ZBASIC editor is the sameon all versions—regardless of the computer.

Einstein Math.

ZBasic offers programmers a mathpackage that surpasses anything else in theindustry! (Yes, ZBasic is even better thanFORTRAN, PASCAL, MODULA-2 or any otherlanguage available!) You will have up to 54digits of user-selectable accuracy at your power.

"Superb Documentation!"

"The 387 page ZBasic manual is a modelof clarity and organization. The documentation issuperb, solidifying our impression that someoneworked incredibly hard to make ZBasic abenchmark for all other BASIC Compilers."

PC WEEK, Nov. 12,1985

Easy Structure—If You Want It.

ZBasic helps you "Structure" yourprograms in a way that's easy and simple.. .youmay use GOSUB or GOTO with names or linenumbers. Supports multi-line LONG IFs andLONG FNs. LIST programs with—or without— linenumbers! ZBasic automatically indents loops andstructures in LISTings, too.

ZBasicUsers Say:

'' Awesomel It's about timel-Great!Unbelievablel " J.R.CPA

Seymour, MO

" ....fast, generates stand alone programs,requires only modest amounts of memory, hasoutstanding compilation speeds and...was bugfree and felt solid. And the price is veryattractive. " Bruce W. Tonkin

COMPUTER LANGUAGE

" ZBasic is a powerful offering for BASICprogrammers. It provides the flexibility of TurboPascal and the speed of compiled BASIC, all at aprice that can't be matched. Kudos to Zedcor and toall users who make wise decisions to use ZBasic tothe fullest. " Garry Ray

PC WEEK

'' The best I have ever seen. I love it! You shouldbe proud of this product. " R. R. Manager

Mesa, AZ

" Mind-blower! Easily the best BASIC I've ever

Apple™ He, He: Mouse support for both the lie and lie,Super Hi-Res graphics support (560x192 and 280x192and lo-RES support tool). Advanced Graphics com-mands like CIRCLE, BOX, FILL etc. and you can MixGraphics and Text on the screen like a PC. DOS 3.3support (PRODOS coming this summer) Requires Apple//e or lie with 128K but programs created with ZBasic™will run on a 64K Apple II +.

Z80™ Machines: CP/M™-80 2.0 +, TRS-80™ model 1,3 or 4 and a special graphic version for Kaypro CP/M.

seen!

J.D.Baltimore, MD

Versions shipping now!

Macintosh , Apple lie - lie (128K & DOS 3.3) •'-"5 2.1 *vers

greater (Z80only)1 4/4p

& Compatibles •Kaypro Graphics version (CP/M-80)

IBM PC and MSDOSayi

CP/M-80 2.0 orTRS-80 Mode:95"

1/3, Model

ONLY ZBASIC GIVES YOUTHESE FEATURES:

Highlights errors...makes debugging easyl

Not Copy Protected

Never any Royalties or Runtime fees for

programs you sell.

Direct commands (Speeds logic testing like an

Interpreter)

Super Single-Step debug

CHAIN with variable passing. (Share all or some

variables)

Create transportable subroutines end functions

Multi-line LONG IF. Multi-line LONG FNs

(argument passing)

Decimal, HEX, OCTal or BINery support.

Device-Independent Graphics and File I/O.

Never does String "Garbage Collection"

Comes with "Quick" and "Shell" sort source

code

Built In "HELP" screens lets you get answers

fast.

Long variable name (15 characters)

Loops: WHILE-WEND, DO-UNTIL, FOR-NEXT-

STEP

Serial Port and Modem support

Easily load your old BASIC programs saved In

ASCII

CREDIT CARD—MASTERCAROA/ISA/AMEX/COD

i complete.

plus shipping

- _ -"S Send me ZBasic right away! $89.95 complete.

III

Card Expiration Date:My computer is a

MAIL TO: ZEDCOR, INC.

Name

Address

APT. #

City

State

Zip

Inquiry 382 for End-Users. Inquiry 383 for DEALERS ONLY

IUNE I986 -BYTE 349

Compatibility

withoutCompromise!!

—PC/AT, XT Compatible

All included50%FASTER

$1995

^_,

TOMCAT3200-AT MODELIII

■ CPU INTEL 80286 6/8MHz

■ RAM 512KB on Mother Board

■ 2 X 1.2MB (360KB) Floppy Drives

■ Floppy and Hard Disk Controller Card

■ Turbo Display Color/Monochrome Card

■ 1 Serial and 1 Parallel Card

■ AT Keyboard

■ Monochrome Display Monitor

■ User's Manual & Technical Reference

■ System Utility Disk (Setup, Diagnostic)

TOMCAT 3200-AT MODEL II (Hard Disk System 20MB) $2,795

TOMCAT

OEM Acceptable

Dealer Inquiry

"Welcome"

TOMCAT CORPORATION

Suite 304.3820 Del Amo Blvd.. Torrance. CA 90503

TEL:(21 3)542-6846 FAX:{21 3)214-0276

TOMCAT COMPUTER Inc.

Yaguchl Bldg., 3-6-4 Nlshiwaseda Shinjuku-ku. TOKYO

TEI_:(03)208-251 1 TELEX:J28984 FAX:(03)208-2662

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

about everything I want out of a hard disk, and all doneso well that I take it for granted ... or, at least, 1 will untilI have to send it back and suddenly do without.

The MacBottom (built by Personal Computer PeripheralsCorporation) sits underneath the Macintosh. It has thesame "footprint" as the Mac; that is, it takes up the sameamount of desk space. It's about two inches high, which—by adding that much height to the Mac—only serves tomake the screen easier to see. It plugs into either theprinter or modem port. If the printer port is used, the Mac-Bottom will act as a printer buffer. You never have to turnthe MacBottom on or off; instead, it senses (through theRS-422 port) whether or not the Mac is on and turns itselfon or off accordingly. As most (all?) hard disks do, it makessome noise, but not an objectionable amount. It has asmall, pleasantly green LED on the front that blinks dur-ing disk access (just so that you know it's doing some-thing). The unit I have holds 20 megabytes; a 10-megabyteversion has been available but is being phased out.

Since there is no way (at least none I know of) to bootoff a hard disk connected to one of the serial ports, youdo have to use a special boot disk to start things up. How-ever, the boot-up program is smart enough to make a user-defined volume on the hard disk the default (start-up)volume and to eject the boot disk, leaving you with a harddisk-based system and no dreary floppy disks lying about.

MacBottom comes with MB Utilities. The boot-up pro-gram installs an important utility, the MacBottom Panel,as a desk accessory. You'll use this utility most often. Assuch, it is the easiest to access. It lets you "insert" (mount)or "eject" (dismount) volumes at will. It also shows anyprint buffering in progress and allows you to flush the buf-fer if desired. Three other MacBottom utilities let youcreate and delete volumes, change their size, change(without rebooting) the default volume, change the sizeof the printer buffer, and modify the boot sequence (whichvolumes are to be mounted, which one is the default,which port to use). Volumes do not automatically grow

(continued)

JL_li!£ KililUlU

Create G- Grow Uolumes

O

| TMl Pascal |*»eeebbe

♦ ♦ bbebb bb

* » OBBBBI Write/Paint ~I ♦ • dbbbe

MDS

O

Print buffer: « » bbb

fluailable space: ebbed bbebb bbebb b

j

Figure I: The Create & Crow Volumes Utility of MB Utilities.You can allocate and deallocate space for a volume 400K-bytechunks at a time. These chunks are shown as little floppy disks.

350 BYTE ■ IUNE 1986

Inquiry 353

■1

Unix System Power For People WithBiggerThings In Mind.

You know what UNIX™ System Vcan do.

But now you don't need a mini to doit. The AT&T UNIX PC puts room-sizecomputing power right on a desktop.

Its Motorola 68010 chip, 10 MHzclock speed and up to 4MB RAM—with virtual memory support and inter-nal hard disk options from 10 to67MB—give you 75% of the power ofa VAX* 11/780.

For only 7% of the cost.

Development tools? The AT&TUNIX PC puts you in a UNIX System Venvironment complete with system util-ities, the shell, C compiler and 68010assembler. As for languages, you get thefull range: C, Cobol, Fortran, Pascal,BASIC and the LPI* * high-performancesuite. Not to mention C-ISAMT,INFORMIX? and sort/merge fordatabase development.

All, with the convenience of built-intext editors, debuggers and graphicstools, including the GSS VirtualDevice Interface.

Up- and downloading your workfrom minis or mainframes is easy.Thanks to the standard internal 300/1200 bps modem, RS-232 port, VT100* terminal emulation software andoptional 3270 terminal emulation. Youalso get two jacks for phone lines andbuilt-in communications software.

All of which make the AT&T UNIXPC ideal for ongoing voice/data com-munications and remote access toshared corporate databases.

ONE OF THE COMPUTERSWITH THE FUTURE BUILT IN.

Even with all its available powerand storage options, the AT&T UNIXPC still has room to grow. With three

expansion slots and the ability to con-nect up to seven serial devices.

Because when you have big ideas,accommodating them shouldn't be abig deal.

To find out about the AT&T UNIX PC and ourSPECIAL LIMITED TIME OFFER

call your AT&T Account Executive, authorizedAT&T supplier or 1800 247-1212.

"VAX and VT100 are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. "LPI is a trademark of Language Processors, Inc.TC-ISAM and INFORMIX are trademarks of Relational Database Systems, Inc. © 198(5 AT&T Information Systems.

AT&T

The right choice.

AT LAST: Professional

Typesetting Capability

For PC Users

With PCT^X™ - - the best-selling fullimplementation of Professor Don Knuth'srevolutionary typesetting program TgK.

FINEST Typeset Quality Printing From:

dot matrix laser phototypesetter

00 .

( on

0-11

Vomi

O-ln \&2n

J

/:

dx

WIDEST Range Of Output Device Drivers:

• Epson FX, LQ • HP LaserJet*

• Toshiba • Apple LaserWriter

• Corona LP-300* • APS-5 phototypesetter

• Screen preview, with EGA or Hercules card

MOST COMPLETE Product Offering:

PC TjtX (not copy protected) includes the following:

• Our specially written PC TfeX Manual, which en-ables you to start using TjrjX right away.

• Custom "macro packages" that provide formatsfor letters, manuals, technical documents, etc.

• The IATeX document preparation system, a full-featured macro package for preparing articles,books, reports, etc., and LyigX User's Manual.

• ^S-TjrjX, developed by the Amer. Math. Societyfor professional mathematical typesetting.

Site licenses, volume discounts, and interfaces toPC Paintbrush, PC Palette, FancyFont and Fontrixare also available.

PRICED FROM ONLY $249.00!

(Printer drivers and interfaces additional.)

Laser printer,fonts & softwarefrom $2995.00

For IBM PC/XT, AT or compatible, DOS 2.0 or higher, and512K RAM. Hard disk required for printer drivers and fonts.*HP LaserJet and Corona require additional interface boards.

For more information call or write:

Personal TfrjX, Inc.

20 Sunnyside, Suite H, Mill Valley, CA 94941 (415) 388-8853

This ad, with space for the photograph, produced by PC TeX-

Typeset on the Epson FX80, the Corona LP-300 laser printer,

and the Autologic APS-5 phototypesetter.

TeX is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society. Manufac-turers' product names are trademarks of individual manufacturers.

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

and shrink; instead, you allocate space in 400K-bytechunks, shown as little floppy disks (see figure 1). Also,shrinking a volume will cause the files thereon to be lost.since there is no clean way of "compacting" the volumebefore lopping off chunks of it.

This isn't as convenient as systems that handle all thisautomatically, but I've had no directory or file problems-nothing lost—so 1 can't complain. Besides, you can in-crease the size of a volume without affecting the files, andthat's usually what you want to do anyway. One other func-tion of the utilities: You can lock or unlock the Finder ona given volume. If you lock the Finder on the defaultvolume, it will remain the default volume, even if you useapplications on other volumes and those volumes havetheir own copies of system files. If you unlock the Finder,when you run an application on another volume, the Macoperating system will select that volume as the new default(provided the system files are there as well).

The backup program, MB Backup, is intelligent and easyto use. You can back up an entire volume, just files thathave been changed since the last backup, or files of yourown choosing. If you select the entire volume option, Back-up prompts you to put in and label as many disks as areneeded, since the contents of a given volume probablywon't fit on a single 400K-byte disk. As Backup fills eachdisk, it ejects the disk and asks for a new one. If the diskis unformatted, Backup automatically formats it for you.My only quibble is that for each file it copies to the floppydisk, it puts up a box on the screen with the filename init, then erases the box when the file has been copied. Alot of time is spent erasing and redrawing this box. I wouldhave preferred the box to remain and just the name ofthe file to change or—better yet—that the names of thefiles being copied should form a scrolling list.

The changed files option lets you update the disks thatform a complete volume backup by saving out (to theappropriate disk) just those files changed since the lastbackup. The selected files option, as you might guess, letsyou scroll through a list of all the files on that volume andselect which ones are to be saved onto the disk.

Backup has three restore options. If a file being restoredalready exists, a dialog box prompts for an overwrite/skip/cancel decision; if the file is in use, the options are justskip and cancel. This lets you restore to the volume in use,that is, the default volume. One important fact to be awareof: The files backed up on a floppy disk are special "MBBackup documents" and can be restored to normal for-mat and use only by the restore options.

Another utility included with the MacBottom is FloppyCopy, which uses available disk space to speed duplica-tion of floppy disks. This is intended primarily for single-drive systems and does a single-pass copy in around 1minute 45 seconds. It does this by copying the source diskonto the hard disk itself, then writing the disk "image"onto the destination floppy disk, doing any initializationor formatting necessary. Having done that once, it asksif you want to make another copy of that same disk andwill format and write a new copy of the disk in a little morethan a minute.

352 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 262

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

1 am pleased with the MacBottom hard disk. It does whatI want it to. and it does it well and (to date) with no failures,problems, or glitches. The folks at PCPC assure me thatit works fine on the Mac Plus and that they have a newsystem software release to support Apple's HierarchicalFile System; I may have a follow-up on that in a monthor so. At $1595, MacBottom is a bit pricey, but if you'reinterested in worry-free, thought-free hard disk usage, it'sworth it.

DASCH RAM DISK

If. on the other hand, you're more interested in speed thanin storage space, you might want to look at the DASCH(disk acceleration/storage control hardware) external RAMdisk from Western Automation Laboratories Inc. Now,RAM disk software for the Macintosh is nothing new, butthis is an actual external box that—like the MacBottom—connects to the printer or modem port and looks to thesystem like an extra disk drive. Also, like the MacBottom,it can double as a printer buffer. It has its own externalpower supply, so you can crash or turn off the Mac withoutaffecting what's being stored on the DASCH. Unlike Mac-Bottom, the DASCH is not made to fit under the Mac. Itsdimensions are VA inches wide by 9 inches long by 2inches high, and it must be placed either on top of or tothe side of the Mac. It comes in three versions: 500K,I000K, and 2000K bytes (the prices are $495, $795, and$995); the smaller versions are upgradable to the largerversions for the difference in price plus 10 percent of thatdifference.

The start-up program. Start, will automatically copy filesfrom the boot disk (or any other disk) to the DASCH, after-ward selecting the DASCH as the default volume and eject-ing whatever disk is in the drive. Again, like the MacBot-tom, this makes the start-up process relatively painless.Even more interesting is that the DASCH remembers whatdisks its files came from. If you then run the Backup util-ity that comes with the DASCH, you'll be prompted foreach disk, and the appropriate files will be copied out.Another program, Configure, lets you modify Start in allsorts of ways: which port to use, whether or not disks otherthan the start-up disk are to be copied, whether or notexisting files on the DASCH should be overwritten by theircounterparts, and so on.

The DASCH is fast, easy to use, and can save lots of time.While my experience with it hasn't been quite as flawlessas with the MacBottom, the few problems I've experiencedhave been minor and were easily dealt with. My only realcriticism is the lack of a battery backup to protect againstpower drops and outages. Aside from that, I really likethe DASCH.

One interesting problem I've had with both the DASCHand the MacBottom deals with restoring files previouslybacked up (or, in the case of the DASCH, copying filesonto a "blank" RAM disk). If those files were originallyin folders, they end up in folders on the destinationvolume. Unfortunately, those folders are unnamed (literal-ly: "Unnamed #1," etc.), and they overlap with icons of

[continued]

SUPER DISCOUNT WHOLESALER

p TE c°mputers' inc-

c

ALL

IBM XT 512K Floppy $1988

IBM XT 512K 20 Meg Hd $2488

IBM AT 512K Floppy $3288

IBM AT 512K Floppy 20 Meg Hd. ..$3788

512K (OK) Memory Card $ 48

384K (OK) XT Mltilct. Card $ 98

ZENITH 148 $1098

ZENITH 158 $1598

ZENITH 177 $1988

ZENITH 200 AT $2888

20 MEG Seagate Hd w/Cnt $ 448

10 MEG Irwin Tape Back-Up $ 448

MONITORS

PRINTERS

AMDEK Color 600 $388

SONY IBM Hi Res Color $398

SONY w/V Tuner $498

TAXAN IBM Hi Res Color $395

ZENITH Amber ITL $159

RF MODULATOR IBM or Apple $9."

Color Graphics Card RGB $ 78

APPLE Video 7 $158

CITIZEN MSP10 $ 248

EPSON FX85 $ 368

OKIDATA 182 $ 216

IBM Printer Cable (Hi Quality) $ 15

DAISY Laser Printer (Cannon) $2098

APPLE 2 + or 2e Cable $ 15

NP Laser Printer $2535

OTHER PRICES CALL

PRICE SLASH

INTRODUCING THE NEW SUPER SPC -XT PORTABLE NIT

FITS ANY IBM, PC, XT or APPLE II + , HE or (AT - CALL) COMPATIBLE MOTHER BOARDSKIT INCLUDES:

3 DISK DRIVE SLOTS

• TTL or COMPOSITE (AMBER/GREEN)

• HARDWARE RESET

• POWER ON INDICATOR

• KEYED POWER SWITCH

• AUTOMATIC BRIGHTNESS CONTROL

• EASY TO ASSEMBLE

INCLUDES:

• 9" HIGH RES. MONITOR '

• 135 W. SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY

• KEYBOARD

• ABSCASE, ACCESSORIES, MOUNTINGHARDWARE, ASSEMBLY MANUAL,UP TO 6 EXPANSION SLOTS

ONLY ,

$398

SUPER SPC AT

TOTALLY IBM AT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE

MOTHER BOARD

80286 MICROPROCESSOR

80287 COPROCESSOR (OPTIONAL)512K STANDARD MEMORY8-1/10 EXPANSION SLOTS

ONLY (OK) $688

• SUPER AT KEYBOARD $ 89

• SUPER AT CASE $ 89

• SUPER AT 200 WATT

POWER SUPPLY $149

• 25M MULTI-FUNCTION

CARD (OK) $229

DRIVE F

0RMATTED

ACCESS

MFG

CAPACITY

SPEED

PRICE

SEAGATE

21

65

$ 448

SEA/CDC"

21

40

S 688

SEA/CDC

30

40

$ 845

CDC

40

28

$1145

SEAGATE

40

40

$ 988

CDC

50

28

$1399

CDC

70

28

$1598

SUPER COMPATIBLE PC-XT MOTHERBOARD

TOTALLY IBM XT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE

' 256K MOTHER BOARD (OK) $108

■ MONOCHROME GRAPHICPRINTER CARD $ 98

■ MULTI I/O CARD $108

i PARALLEL PRINTER CARD $ 28

' SERIAL CARD $ 38

i GAME PORT ADAPTER $ 19

■ EPROM WRITER CARD $108

SPECIAL THIS MONTH ONLY!

5150 KEYBOARD $54.00

5151 KEYBOARD $88.00

XT CASE (Flip Top) $48.00

135 WATT XT

POWER SUPPLY $78.00

• APPLE COMPATIBLE PRODUCTS •

• APL. Ile+ Compatible Mother

Board $228

i APL. lie + Compatible 80 ColumnCardw/64K Memory $ 48

• APL. Ile+ Case, Keyboardw/Keypad $119

• SS SERIAL CARD $ 68

» APL. Ile-t- Replacement

Keyboard $ 58

• APL. lie Replacement Case $ 58

► Power Supply (replacement

ll + orlle) $ 39

► APL. lie -t- Detachable Keyboardw/Keypad $ 99

• APL. II + Compatible Mother

Board $189

•APL. II + Replacement Case $ 38

■ APL. II + Replacement Keyboard$ 38

■APL. II + External Keyboard $ 79

' APL. [I + Functional, Numerical

Keypad & Case $ 79

• EPROM Writer Card $ 68

• Z-80 CP/M CARD $ 38

► GRAPPLER Compatible PrinterCard $ 39

> PRINTER CABLES

> 80 COLUMN CARD FOR II + ....

• Disk Controller Card II + or lie...« 16K Memory/Language Card....1 Joystick II + or lie

• Fancy Joystick 11+ or lie

■ Halt Height Disk Drives II + or Ik

» lie Drives

« Supercooling Fans 11+ or lie...

■ APL. Video7RGB

$ 13$ 42$ 39$ 29$ 15$ 19$118$138$ 24$158

2e CASE & KEYBOARDw/KEYPAD

MAIL TO BTE Computers, inc.

14644 N. CAVE CREEK RD. #6 • PHOENIX, AZ. 85022P.O. BOX 30705C • PHOENIX, AZ 85046-0705 • PHONE (602) 867-8962

MASTER CHARGE. VISA, ARE WECLOME. COD 3.9%. S5.00 MINIMUM SHIPPING S HANDLING

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. ALL PRODUCTS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY

OR STOCK ON HAND. ALL PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE!

ALL SALES ARE CASH DISCOUNT PRICES! REFUNDS ARE CREDITED ONLY.

Inquiry 88

IUNE I986 -BYTE 353

DARE TO COMPARE!

IBM® PC/XT-COMPATIBLECOMPUTER SYSTEM

COMPARE OUR SYSTEM COMPONENTS TOOTHERS& SAVE!

THEIRS

OURS

-Only 128KorOK

-135-Wattunit

-w/o Graphics or Print

capability-Brand XYZ, "Mama-

san," or worse

-Low resolution,no-name monitors

-90-day Warranty{if you're lucky)

■25K Memory included-150-Watt Power Supply-Monochrome Graphic

Printer included-Name-Brand Disk

Drives such as TEAC

&QUME

-MAGNAVOX High-Resolution TTL Monitor-Full Warranty on all

products: 1 yr. Warranty

on boards, 2-yr. on

MAGNAVOX monitors

IBM PC-XT Type Case no. 90180 s 33.00

150-Watt Power Supply No. 90155 65.00

5150 IBM-Type Keyboard No.90130 45.00

Mother Board expandable to 640K

with 256K installed No. SPCL03 135.00

Monochrome Graphic Printer Board No. 99010 75.00

Floppy Controller Board no. 92260 29.00

2-Floppy Disc Drives at $95 each No. 93140 190.00

12" TTL High Resolution Monitor

by MAGNAVOX no. 96710 67.00

Complete with Instruction & Assembly Manuals.

YOUR COST

s639

00

Any of these components may be purchased separately. All boards guaranteed

fori year. IBM, PC/XT are trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc.

Some assembly required.

SmarTeam Modem

Uses RS 232-CConnectorNo. 91990

103/212A—Operatesat 300 Baud& 1200BaudHayes Compatible•Auto Answer, Dial& Redial

$165.00

Avatex 1200 Modem

•Auto Answer, Dial & Redial•FCC Approved•PC TALK III Software included•Automatic Self Test on Power-Up

COMPAREAT$199.00

No 97070 $87.00

MAGNAVOX Color

ii^ .-,.- Monitor

No. 97890

•RGB High Resolution•14'* diagonal•640 Dots/H-240 lines/80 column#" 'Built-in Tilt Stand

$318.00

KeyBoards

5151 IBM Type Key Board Caps andNum Lock <C7C C\f\

No.51515 3>/O.UU

5150M XT Key Board—looks like AT, hasbig return key & LED indicators

No. 99020 $59.00

ADD-ON BOARDS FOR IBM®COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS

Monochrome GraphicPrinter Board

•Built in Parallel Printer Port 'Text:25 line x 80 column 'Graphics: 720x348resolution •TTL High Resolution Outppt

No. 92270 J|>f D.UU

Multifunction Board

•Expandable to 384K RAM 'Serial Port,Game Port 'Parallel Printer Port 'ClockCalendar w/Battery Backup 'Software,Manuals and Cables ^__ /%-.No.92290 $75.00

Color Graphics Board

•RGB and Composite Port 'Light PenInterface 'Graphics: 320x200 (color);640x200 (BW) 'Text: 25x80

No. 92280 «J>OO.00

Multi I/O Card

•Built-in Floppy Controller that candrive 2 floppy drives *Two RS 232 SerialAdapters 'Timer Port -Parallel PrinterPort ^Joystick Adapter

No. 96770 $84-00

RS 232 Serial Board

•1 Serial Port '2nd Port optionalNo.92310 J|)^f .UU

Parallel Printer Card

•Also may be used as I/O PortNo.92700 3>tl .00

Floppy Disk Controller

•Drives 2 internal drives •Includes cable•IBM PC compatible «k/>o f\r\No.92260 Ip^y.UU

PLUS A HUGE SELECTION OF CABLES & ACCESSORIES!

MMMW THE WHOLESALE OUTLET

fl W^BDEPT. BY, 1 INTERSTATE AVENUE, ALBANY, NY 12205. To order

^MM W^M call 1-800-344-4387 (Non-NYS Res.) or 518-459-7883 (NYS Res.)^M ^m Personal and company checks accepted (on mail-in orders).

jfl ^m Customer pays freight & handling FOB Albany, NY. Non-credit

^■^■^■^» card orders shipped UPS, C.O.D. Minimum order $25. Dealer andlarge quantity orders call 518-459-7883. Ask for Computer DeptSome items not as pictured. Prices subject to change.

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

benchmarks that I ran

on different mass storage

devices showed an

interesting correlation

between speed and fragility.

files already on the volume. Furthermore, when you openthe folders on the DASCH, the icons inside are widely scat-tered, requiring (at least) a "Clean Up" command to getthings straightened out. The clue seems to be in how thedesktop file is created or restored. If you're doing aRestore command on the MacBottom, answer "yes" whenit asks you if you want to update the desktop file. Ofcourse, if you have folders already sitting on that volume,they'll end up being unnamed, and special icons may belost. All in all, it points to some inadequacy in the utilities,the Mac operating system, or both.

Mass Storage Comparisons

lust to compare the relative speeds of different massstorage devices, I ran a set of "benchmarks" consistingof performing typical user actions: copying a file, duplicat-ing a file, opening an application, opening a document(by double-clicking it), and exiting back to the desktop.I used Microsoft Word (version 1.00), which fits the billnicely because of its size and popularity. Note that all testswere run after having opened Word a few times, so thatit no longer checked for the master disk.

The tests were run on a standard 5l2K-byte Mac. exceptfor the internal RAM disk, which was run on a LevcoMonster Mac (2 megabytes) using Assimilation Process'sMac Memory Disk software. For that test, l sized the RAMdisk so that only 512 K bytes of application memory wasleft, so that there would not be an "unfair" advantage incopying files. All tests were run under Finder 4.1; bothMacs had the old (64K-byte) ROMs and single-sided (400K-byte) drives. The hard disk was the 20-megabyte MacBot-tom, and the external RAM disk was the 1-megabyteDASCH.

Part of what made the timings so difficult was theirvariability. Generally, times tended to get better when theywere repeated with few or no actions in between. For ex-ample, repeatedly opening a document, then exiting backto the desktop, tended to yield the best time for both ac-tions. However, the times didn't always keep going down;they would occasionally jump back up by a second or two(or more).

A few interesting features of Word showed up as well.For example, the time to open Word on a two-drive floppydisk-based system is shown as 12.4 seconds. That waswith disks in both drives. If I removed the disk from the

[continued)

354 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry 373

QUANTUMXT TURBO$899°°

a 8088-2 Processor (CPUBOARD, MADE IN USA)

□ 4.77-8 MHz speed switchselectable

D 256K expandable up to1MB on board

□ Two-360K Floppy Drives

□ Mono or Color GraphicsCard

D Hi-Res Mono Monitor

□ Parallel Printer PortD AT style keyboard

□ Full (1) One Year Warranty

□ 80286-8 Processor (CPU

BOARD MADE IN USA)

□ 6-8 MHz speed switch selectable

□ 512K RAM expandable up to2MB on board

□ 1.2 MB Floppy

□ 20 MB Hard Disk

□ Parallel Printer Port on board

□ 200 W. Power Supply

□ AT style keyboard

□ Fully assembled, tested and 48hour burn-in.

QUANTUM XT

$79900

D 8088 ProcessorI I 256K expandable up to 640Kon board

□ Two 360K Floppy Drives

! I Mono or Color Graphics CardU Hi-Res Mono monitor( I Parallel Printer Port

□ AT style keyboard

I l Full (1) One Year Warranty

G 20 MB Hard Disk Sub System (Controller & Cable) $ 465.00

□ 20 MB Hard Disk (40MS) For AT $ 650.00

□ 33 MB Hard Disk Sub System (Controller & Cable) $ 695.00

□ 33 MB Hard Disk (40MS) For AT $ 750.00

D 68 MB Hard Disk (25MB Voice Coil) $1499.00

D 60 MB Tape Streamer Back Up $ 899.00

D Mono or Color Graphics Card $ 110.00

□ 14" TTL Mono Monitor $ 149.00

□ 12" TTL Mono Monitor $ 99.00

THE

MOST

AFFORDABLE.

IBM AT

COMPATIBILITY

40% FASTERQUANTUM™AT TURBO

'with

20MB

HARD DISK

and

FULL ONE

YEAR

WARRANTY$199500

call

(714) 259-U37

for

QUANTITYDISCOUNTS

AFTON COMPUTER INC.

24825 CALLE EL TORO GRANDE • EL TORO, CALIFORNIA 92630 • TELEPHONE (714) 259-1127

Inquiry 12 for End-Users. Inquiry 13 for DEALERS ONLY.

IUNE I986 -BYTE 355

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

Table 1: Some comparative times indicating relative performance of different types of mass storage on the Macintosh. The file usedis Microsoft Word (version l.OO) and is 125K bytes. The document is the Memo file included on Word's master disk. The figuresin parentheses are normalized times that tell you how much faster the internal RAM disk is than the other means of storage.

Floppy Disk (single-sided) Hard Disk (MacBottom)

External RAM Disk(DASCH)

Internal RAM Disk(Assimilation Process)

Copy File from Floppy

35.0

23.6

13.2

7.9

Duplicate File

16.9

9.2

4.3

0.7

Open File (application)

12.4

7.9

5.2

5.0

Open File (document)

23.6

10.6

6.8

. 6.4

Exit to Desktop

29.0

11.6

6.8

4.7

Combined Time(copy, open doc, exit)

87.6

(4.6)

45.8

(2.4)

26.8

(1.4)

19.0(1.0)

external drive but left the drive connected, the time in-creased to 20.6 seconds. If 1 then disconnected the exter-nal drive, the time remained about the same (i.e., around20.5 seconds). However, no such variation occurred withthe other configurations, except that the time to openWord increased somewhat the first few times it wasopened with disks in the drives. Strange.

The timings, found in table 1, confirm what you'dsuspect: Internal RAM disks are faster than external RAMdisks (though not by much), which are faster than harddisks, which are faster than regular floppies. The last rowin the table—Combined Time—adds together the first,fourth, and fifth rows to give you a feeling for just howthese time differences can accumulate.

The interesting correlation here is between speed andfragility. An internal RAM disk is the fastest form of massstorage, but it's also the most vulnerable. Files can be ir-reparably lost or damaged by power glitches, systemcrashes, or even programs that run amok. And, of course,if you turn the machine off without saving all your filesto more permanent storage, they're gone for good. Somefirms are developing software to preserve the contentsof RAM in case of a system crash, allowing you to do a"warm" boot and still find the RAM disk and your filesthere, but that's no help against the other dangers.

External RAM disk's shouldn't be affected by systemcrashes, rogue programs, or turning the computer off.Power glitches and outages can still cause a problem,though, unless the RAM disk has some sort of batterybackup. As mentioned, the DASCH unit I have has no bat-tery backup, though the folks at Western Automation claimto be working on one.

Hard disks shouldn't be affected by much of anything,but. unfortunately, they are. Power glitches at the wrongtime (e.g.. during a write operation) can cause problems,as can turning off the computer at the wrong moment.Physical shocks or movement can also affect them, caus-ing the dreaded head crash, where the read/write head ofthe disk drive actually touches the surface of the disk itself.The MacBottom has some protection against both prob-lems. The desktop Special menu has a Shut Down option

that moves the heads off the disk, then reboots the system;you should select this before turning the Mac off. I wouldbe happier with a design that didn't require this shutdownstep, but the MacBottom has survived power glitches andmany power-downs without the Shut Down, so it doesn'tappear to be overly sensitive in this area. As for shocksor movements, the under-the-Mac location does a greatjob of preventing accidental bumping or jostling.

Floppy disk drives are the heartiest form of mass storage(except, of course, for cassette tape, which we can safelyignore), least affected by crashes and other physical events.What few floppy disk problems I've had are relatedprimarily to software (usually operating system) errors dur-ing reads and writes—and those will affect all forms ofmass storage equally. Of course, the floppy disks them-selves can be physically damaged, but the advent of the3'/2-inch not-so-floppy disk has done much to eliminatethose dangers. (A friend of mine. Matt Yuen, once put anaddress label and a stamp on a 3'/2-inch disk and droppedit in a mailbox. It arrived at its destination in working con-dition, with all data intact.)

So which is best for you? Well, that depends upon whatyou want and how much money you have to spend. Thesefour options are not mutually exclusive; as I type this, theMac at my left shows on its desktop three hard diskvolumes, a floppy disk volume, and two RAM diskvolumes, one internal and one external. My personalpreference would be a 1- to 4-megabyte Mac with a20-megabyte hard disk and running an internal RAM disk.On the other hand, if you have a lot of Macs in a networksharing a hard disk, giving each Mac an external RAM diskwould improve performance of each workstation whilereducing susceptibility to crashes and (with batterybackup) power glitches or failures.

Wrap-up

Next month. I will continue my attempt to catch up withthe backlog of new products. I may also start a follow-upon last month's 68000 benchmarks, giving timings com-paring different compilers on the same machine. But nopromises. Until then, I'll see you on the bit stream. ■

356 BYTE • IUNE 1986

LETTERS

[continued from page 24)

Let me describe some of the specificproblems, such as the one with overlap-ping windows. This occurred specificallywith small windows that had completelydisappeared behind larger windows. Thereis an "under" menu selection to bring outhidden windows, but the mouse must bepositioned over the hidden window, whichis hard to do and rather frustrating. Thereare much better ways to do this. Overlap-ping windows represent sheets of paperlying on top of each other. The way onelooks for hidden papers is to move the toppapers. This suggests a simple solution:Move the top window to the bottom andthus uncover the hidden windows.

The window-frame moving algorithmfollows the mouse while continuouslyflashing or painting the entire frame inwhite, which presents another problem.Since it takes a noticeable length of timeto paint the frame, it is impossible for thesystem to follow the mouse with accept-able speed. The flashing effect is unpleas-ant, and in larger windows it deterioratesinto nauseating waves of white. A simplerectangular outline is fast and adequate,as demonstrated by the Macintosh and

a number of other systems.

The Smalltalk-80 documentation is farfrom adequate. The system is not self-explanatory. Despite heavy use of the "ex-plain" tools and the various books andmanuals, figuring out what classes andtheir methods actually did was a frus-trating experience.

On the other hand, the power and ele-gance of the documentation tools is quiteimpressive. Perhaps someone mistakenlythought that automatic documentationmight make up for a lack of standarddocumentation. The fact is, Smalltalk re-quires documentation every bit as muchas any other large system, and perhapseven more so because Smalltalk isdynamic. The Smalltalk books are ex-cellent, but the nature of the systemdemands far more internal referencematerial.

I find it surprising that graphics are solittle used for documentation. Smalltalk-80suffers from a lack of graphics tools ingeneral and is desperately in need ofpainting and drawing facilities along thelines of MacPaint and MacDraw. The exist-ing paint facility is too slow and cumber-some for any significant work. With basic

graphics tools, it would be possible to addgraphic documentation tools, which inturn would make high-quality internaldocumentation possible.

After years of work with various low- andhigh-level systems. I am quite used toworking with poorly documented ones.There is no doubt that much of Small-talk-80 is better documented than theaverage system. What is different, though,is the dramatic contrast in relative qual-ity of various parts of the system. The text-oriented documentation tools are out-standing, but the documentation itself ispoor. Smalltalk is a graphic system, butgraphics are used only minimally for docu-mentation. When a system has so manyfine components, any flaws stand out.Smalltalk-80 did make me more produc-tive; possibilities were opened that I wouldnot have considered otherwise. Yet, 1should have been even more productive.The flaws were so much in evidence thatusing Smalltalk was not the enjoyable ex-perience it should have been. Such a sys-tem is unlikely to enjoy any significant suc-cess with a wider audience.

I. GanapathyVancouver, British Columbia, Canada*

Princeton Graphic

Systems-the choice in

PC monitors.

High resolution.Sharp, crisp text.Bright, vibrant colors.Full PC compatibility.Rugged dependability.We design ourmonitors to meet yourmost demanding com-puter needs.

From sophisticatedbusiness graphics tobasic word process-ing, we make surethere's a Princetonmonitor for you.

II

PRINCETON

GRAPHIC SYSTEMS

AN INiSJlLISgNT SYSTEMS COMPANY

SIxm, BEST &Ao4c*,!

run ONMM

PRINCETON

For the second year in arow, you Ve voted our highresolution HX-12 RGB colormonitor the number onecolor monitor in the world. *Thank you lor your vote ofconlidence...

• Results of PC World's "World ClassPC Goriest" lor 1984 and 1985.

JUNE 1986 -BYTE 357

This is all it takesto get IBM, Apple,Tand$Macintosh ana Compaqtalking to each other.

And it's simple and inexpensive.

Now a powerful GridNet™Local Computer Communica-tions Network is as close as yournearest electrical outlet.

Thanks to GridComm'sCommunicators, virtually anyoffice can create its own highspeed, error-free GridNet™...instantly! There's no need topurchase special system software.And there's none of the expense

and inconvenience of installingadditional wiring. Because aGridNet™ utilizes your existingelectrical grid as a highly-effectivedata transmission medium.

And a GridNet™ will sup-port IBM PC, XT, AT, and all IBMcompatibles, Apple and Macintosh,Hewlett-Packard, Tandy, AT&T,Epson, NEC.. .all the most popularmicros and peripherals, in the

same.networldata, with coand effective coi

The cost? As muchbelow that of specially-wiredsystems.

Find out just how easy it isto increase your office's produc-tivity. See your local dealer, orcontact "The Great Communica-tor" for more information.

■■■

Ban

V

' gmt ii

L 4 1.

1 m M My<l IP 11 W v

1 ^ . k

r li i

>i

§11

m

Inquiry 401

TKOSATCDMVaNKAroR

EO. Box 2779, Danbury, Connecticut 06813-2779. For information call 203-790-9077

Trademarks: IBM, PC, XT, AT/lnternattonal Business Machines Corp —Apple, Macintosh/Apple Computer Int.—Tandy/Tandy Corp —Compaq/Compaq Computer Corp — Hewlett-Packard/Hewleti-Packard Co.—Epson/Epson Amenta Inc — AIVT/Amencan Telephone and Telegraph Co.—NEONEC Home Electronics (U S.A) Inc

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

Conducted by jerry Pournelle

Creativity or Structure?

Dear ]erry.

I couldn't help writing after reading theletter to you in the March BYTE ("Lan-guage,'' page 293). As best I can tell.David Suits and you share the view thatthe balance between creativity and struc-ture in programming leans more towardcreativity than structure. Both of you seemto find that structure is at least as muchof a burden as it is an aid. Truly, with nooffense intended, this makes no sense tome—and I suspect at least a few othersfeel the same. After some thought. I thinkI have the real answer to the creativity/structure debate.

When 1 read the letter, I considered howI might make the light of reason dawn onboth of you. Now I am sure that I cannot.

I am convinced that my best argumentsin favor of structure (as embodied in myfavorite language. Modula-2) would makeonly a little sense to you. It could not makesense because 1 claim that structured pro-gramming provides exactly those benefitsMr. Suits claims for his approach.

There must be at least two differentkinds of programmers in the world. I don'tmean good ones and bad ones. The dif-ference is not one of skill, but of approach.Some prefer a structured approach, andsome prefer a fluid approach. Since I findthe structured approach the only reason-able way to program. I cannot imaginewhy anyone would willingly suffer underthe anarchy of fluid programming. Nodoubt, I seem to Mr. Suits to be willing togo through my programming life wearing

the straitjacket of structure. (I refer toDavid Suits because 1 have his letterbefore me. although I also remember yourarticle ("Come to the Faire," July 1985).

I think I see this difference between ourtwo camps most strongly in Mr. Suits's useof the term uncreative to describe those ofus who thrive on the structure of Pascaland Modula-2.1 resented the use of sucha pejorative term when I first read it. but1 suddenly realized that I was thinking ofequally pejorative terms to describe theapproach to programming that Mr. Suitsadvocates. I think we're dealing with arelative issue here.

I'm not alone in thinking the only real wayto program requires structure. I work withpeople who love Modula-2. To us. the

(continued)

Princeton monitorsset the pace.

To become a leader, you'vegot to keep ahead of thecrowd. At Princeton, we setthe pace. We delivered a colormonitor for the IBM PC beforeIBM. And continue with a fullline of state-of-the-art qualitymonitors. Monitors that deliverthe features you demand.

High resolution.Sharp, crisp characters.Bright, colorful graphics.

Take a close look at aPrinceton monitor. You'll seethe sharp, crisp charactersand fully formed graphicsthat make our monitors standout against the competition.

Add to it a fine dot pitch. A

nonglare screen.Our flicker freetechnology.And you'vegot an imagethat makes you

more productive, less fatigued.

Easy to use.

Our monitors are compatiblewith the leadingbrands of per-sonal computers.IBM'", Compaq'"and more. Butwe go one step jammfurther. By paying "close attention to ergonomicdetail, we make monitorscompatible with you.

Dependability.

You can counton Princetonmonitors whenyou need them.They're rigor-ously engineeredand manufac-tured under thehighest quality control stan-dards. Backed by a full one-year warranty. Supported by anationwide service network.The result: monitors you candepend on.

Princeton'sHX-12Egivesyou brilliant64-colordisplays andextra sharptext.

Bringing you the future.

Princeton continues to set theindustry pace with productslike our HX-12E, the first IBM-compatible high resolutionRGB color monitor with a.28mm dot pitch to supportIBM's Enhanced GraphicsAdapter. And our SR-12P, thefirst IBM-compatible analogcolor monitor, with a .26mmdot pitch to support IBM'sProfessional Graphics Con-troller...

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 359

Buy The New

Toshiba P351C

Get Mcrosoft Chart

Ree.

SALES BY MAJOR MARKETSQuarterly for 19B5

f

IN ONE

"""'""pSsTc

l_

iiJ«'H!ll--T|l

—I

111 ■ ' "

Introducing a P351 that will make you look great in black andwhite and in color—P351C.

It sells for only $150 more than the industry's best sell-ing full-function dot matrix printer, our own P351.

Toshiba 3-in-One printing means striking letter qualitytext, high speed drafts, and graphics that make your mes-sage crisp and clear.

Like the P351, the P351C is very compatible, gives youa 24-pin printhead, and our 200,000,000-character printheadlife—the most reliable printer you can buy.

And if you buy before September 30,1986, you get Microsoft Chart version2.01, for free.

Microsoft Chart makes it easy to create avariety of commanding graphics. And Toshiba gives you thepersuasive power of color. You'll be printing high-quality

360 BYTE • IUNE 1986

presentations, business graphics and overhead transparen-cies in no time.

Microsoft Chart is just part of a terrific $350 value StartUp Kit, which also includes ribbon, overhead transparencysheets, and handy starter guides. Mfree if you buy theP351C before September 30,1986.

Act now. Call for the name of your nearest Toshibaprinter dealer. See this great new printer. And take advan-tage Of this great Offer fast. Micros,,!. IsareitiaisreitmidHiiiiiliorKnmffliin Corporaita,

Call 1-800-457-7777.

In Touch with Tomorrow

TOSHIBA

TOSHIBA AMERICA, INC., Information Systems Division

Inquiry 407

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

structure built into Modula-2 lets us ex-press our creative ideas more quickly,make modifications more easily, and avoiddetails that detract from the problem athand. David Suits (and the people whofeel as he does) expresses exactly the op-posite experience when working in ahighly structured language.

I'm almost sure that this is a never-the-twain-shall-meet issue. The only remain-ing question is to decide whether it's amatter of nature or nurture. (This couldtake a few hundred years!)

I want to go on record as coming downon the nature side: I think preferences inapproach to programming are due totemperament more than to whatever tradi-tions are passed down to us or the long-term consequences of first experiences.I first learned BASIC and then dabbled inFORTRAN. My first experience withALGOL was a great relief; 1 had found thelanguage I'd been wanting all along with-out knowing it. Now, although I get alongall right in Pascal. I like Modula-2 best.

It is possible that appreciating structureis an acquired taste and that enough ex-perience with it might change the mindof some of Mr. Suits's camp. This is the

common assumption of people in thestructure camp, but I suspect they may bedead wrong. Proponents of both campsmay be speaking only to those whoalready agree with them.

For instance, in the March issue you sayyou still use BASIC for much of your workin spite of expressing an affinity forModula-2. I have a friend who may be amore extreme case, he programs in BASICand then converts to Pascal. BASIC is hisworking language, but he likes the speedof Pascal. My friend also finds Modula-2attractive, but he plans to continue devel-oping in BASIC and then translating intosome other language.

I simply could not function that way. Iwould not dream of using BASIC for morethan 2 5 or 30 lines of code (and wouldprefer to never be stuck with using it). Ijust can't follow BASIC. Unlike you. I wouldnever choose BASIC over Modula-2. Al-though I am willing to allow that other fac-tors are involved, part of that differencein the way you and I operate seems to bea matter of temperament. You and I bothprofess a liking for Modula-2, but that lik-ing means quite different things to the twoof us.

By the way, I think the analogy to thewriting process that you presented in July1985 ("How Do We Really Do It?" page322) was quite apt. I didn't agree with theconclusions you drew with regard to pro-gramming; now that I think about it, I don'tapproach writing in the way you describedeither. (Writing is my profession, too,)

It seems clear to me that different ap-proaches to programming can be at-tributed (at least in part) to temperament.This suggests that particular programminglanguages are best suited to particular pro-grammers, not to programming per se.

John M. Craig

Technical Support Specialist

Modula Corporation

Provo, UT

You Ve misunderstood, which is prob-ably my fault. First: I don't do much pro-gramming any longer. Id very much liketo. and now that I'm not fleeing carpen-ters every couple of days, I may have timeto: but until then, any programs I do arevery much in the quick-and-dirty cate-gory. Often they can be tacked onto astructure I've already written: and since

{continued)

Princeton

outperforms the

industry.

- St'fp

w*

MljgyUM

:-

i^liF

Only Princeton delivers theoutstanding price/perfor-mance value you've come toexpect from an internationalmonitor company.

When we set out to design aPrinceton Graphic Systemsmonitor we do it right. Wecombine ad-vancedtechnology(like a finedot pitch)with

modern ergonomics (like anonglare screen) for a superiorperformance monitor.

We build them with qualitycomponents to work day inand day out, even in thetoughest conditions.

We're looking better andbetter.

Your support during 1985enabled Princeton to growthree times faster than thepersonal computer industry asa whole. Our installed base ofhigh resolution monitors in thissegment alone grew beyond aquarter of a million...

IUNE I986 -BYTE 361

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

those are mostly in CBASIC. I can eithertake time off to convert everything toModula-2 or continue with CBASIC. Ihaven't time to make the conversions. Ivery much wish I did.

Second: it's only recently that therehave been implementations of Modula-2that provided an endurable program-ming environment. When I had the Lilithhere—alas, your company has reclaimedit—it was a snap to do programming inModula-2. Given that kind of environ-ment where the machine manages all thegory details, you can be quite creative;but alas, most people in the micro worldfind that structured programming re-quires that we keep track of some prettyonerous details by hand.

Lately I find myself more a moderatorthan a participant in language debates.Programming is fun, and I try to keeptrack of what's going on. But until I havemore time, I'm likely to remain a mod-erator. Alas.—Jerry

Caveat Emptor

Dear Jerry,

The trouble with Pournelle's law (Feb-ruary Chaos Manor Mail. "Know YourDealer." page 315) is the assumption thatthe average home computer buyer can finda vendor whose staff knows anythingabout computers, much less a vendor withmore expertise than the purchaser. The in-dustry may have been started by hobby-ists who understood every solder joint, butit has long since been taken over by busi-ness types whose idea of "long term" is90 days and whose idea of "technical" isthe copious use of buzzwords (note thatI said use, not understanding!). The in-dustry is now dominated by mass mer-chandising operators, many of whom aresnake oil salesmen. So even if you find astore with knowledgeable personnel, youmay have serious problems.

My advice to a new buyer is to adoptan attitude of caveat emptor. More con-cretely, do all the following:

Learn about the hardware and softwarebefore you do anything rash.

if you somehow find an honest and com-petent dealer, stick with that dealer; it'scheaper than mail order in the long run.

Pay by credit card (not debit card); thiswill give you certain legal rights you willnot have if you pay by check or cash. Ifyou can arrange for the purchase to belegally considered a mail-order transac-tion, you can get the USPS to help you ifyou are sold a lemon.

If you don't have a trustworthy dealer,order from the cheapest source you canfind: You probably won't get any mean-ingful support anyway. The well-knownand high-priced manufacturer will swindleyou on service as cold-bloodedly as any-one else. But forget the Brand X productthat is not serviced by any independents.

Read the instructions. Follow them, evenif you know "shortcuts." You can alwaysburn out your motherboard later, if theneed arises.

Order all available documentation. Yes,I know it's expensive; so is not having itwhen you need it!

If a dealer proposes a package, ask fora demonstration that will show if all thepieces work together. If the dealer startsto tell you that the "ABC 666" monitor is"just the same" as the "XYZ 456," that "Idon't have this but do have that," that acertain printer is equivalent to another, ortries any other substitution, walk out. Ifyou don't, you will learn more than youever wanted to know about the Tower ofBabel.

Ask somebody who owns one, especial-ly if that person is dissatisfied. Get intoa BBS and ask about skeletons in thecloset.

Find out what the vendor means by"compatible"; it may not be what youmean.

Get it in writing. Make sure that you in-clude all representations made by thedealer and that you specify both a full re-fund and a penalty for delay. But don't ex-pect the dealer to stand behind claimsmade by the manufacturer: The dealercan't afford to and has no control over themanufacturer's flackery anyway.

Don't buy any copy-protected software.It will interfere with backup; it will causeyou problems if you go to a faster ma-chine, a faster disk, or a faster clock onthe same machine. It may even give yougrief just for installing a new version ofyour operating system.

Beware of terms like "high-res": They arejust so much snake oil. In practice, "high-res" means "the resolution offered bywhat I am pitching." Metz's law states: "Ifit's really high-res, the manufacturer willtell you what the resolution is: if numbersaren't given, the manufacturer is ashamedof them." Practically, anything less than640 by 200 in color or 720 by 350 inmonochrome is suitable only formasochists.

Consider your intended use, then evalu-ate the trade-offs of resolution versusnumber of colors versus speed. Also con-sider the relative importance of horizon-tal and vertical resolution for your appli-cation.

Don't equate a requirement with a pro-posed solution. For instance, you do notrequire a mouse, but you may require theability to point at data and to drag itaround the screen. A mouse is a solution,but so are other methods. Identify all solu-tions, then select the one that best fitsyour needs and budget. The first solutionproposed by a vendor will be the one thatbest achieves the vendor's objectives,

{continued)

NEW! DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM

Value-rich, low-cost UniLab II Universal DevelopmentLaboratory turns your IBM PC or look-alike into acomplete Development System. Supports more than120 microprocessor types!

•

ORION Universal Development Laboratory

Instruments

l

EPROM/EEPROM PROGRAMMER I

I wwifiwmwiw

KB* :;»H

_ •

Up to 128K bytes of EMULATION ROMallows you to make program patchesinstantly. Since the target ROM socketconnects data and address lines to boththe analyzer and the emulator, noexpensive adaptors or personalitymodules are needed.

The powerful BUS STATE ANALYZERfeatures four-step sequential triggering,selective trace, and pass and delaycounters. Symbolic trace disassemblersand debuggers are available for Z-80,8048, 6500, 6800, 8031, 8085, Z-8, 1802,8088/80188,8086/80186,68000 & more!

Bonus! Built-in PROM PROGRAMMERand STIMULUS GENERATOR.Call today, toll free 1-(800) 254-8500 or(415) 361-8883 (in CA)

QRION 702 Marshail StreetInstruments Redwood City, CA 94063 USA

362 BYTE ■ IUNE I986

Inquiry 249

Princeton

is the best choice

in PC monitors.

When you're looking for a personalcomputer monitor, look atPrinceton Graphic Systems. Ourgrowing family of high qualitypersonal computermonitors deliverscompatibility,brilliant colors,high resolution,and dependability.Whether you'redesigning sophisti-

cated business graphics ornumber-crunching a financialspreadsheet. That's why Princetonis number one in the minds of more

and more personal computer

owners every year.For the very best in PC monitors,

the choice is clear: Pick the com-pany that's at thetop. PrincetonGraphicSystems.

HX-12E. Our EGA-compatible monitor givesyou 64 vivid colors. Extrasharp text and graphicdisplays. The finest dotpitch (.28mm) ot any IBM-compatible enhancedmonitor. Nonglare screen.Fully compatible withIBM's™ Enhanced GraphicsAdapter (or equivalents).

SR-12P. Top-ot-the-lineanalog color monitorfeatures ultra high resolution(640x480). 4.096 colorsfor superb graphics. Thefinest dot pitch (.26mm) ofany PGC-compatiblemonitor. Laminated nonglarepanel.

HX-12. High resolution RGBcolor monitor with .31mmdot pitch gives you bettergraphics, better text thanIBM's Color Monitor (5153).Nonglare screen. Voted"Best in the World" twoyears running in PC World's"World Class PC Contest".

SR-12. Super high resolu-tion RGB monitor with a.31mm dot pitch. Compati-ble with Sigma Designs Col-or 400 board and others.Gives you 400 lines otresolution. Nonglare screen.

All monitors come with tree data and power cables.

MAX-12. High resolutionamber monitor. When usedwith an IBM-compatiblemonochrome adapterdelivers 720 x 350 resolu-tion. With an IBM-compatible color adapter,640 x 200 resolution with 15shades of amber. Themonitor automatically ad-justs to either card.

HX-9/HX-9E. Compact nine-Inch high resolution RGBmonitor. Perfect for worksta-tions where space is at apremium. Both feature a .28dot pitch and an etched darkglass screen. Eco-nomic features like a built-in tilt/swivel base, non-glare screen, and a built-in green/amber switch. HX-9Eis compatible with IBM's EGA(or equivalents).

Visit your local computer store today and ask about our full

line of high resolution color and monochrome monitors.

Monitors that live up to the Princeton Graphic Systems

tradition of quality, performance, and value. ^^ i^p-rrvv i

PRINCETON

Princeton Graphic Systems, 601 Ewing Street, Bldg. A,Princeton, NJ 08540; (609) 683-1660; TLX821402PGSPRIN; (800) 221-1490, ext. 104.

IBM is a trademark ol Internationa) Business Machines. Inc. Color 400 is a trademarkol Sigma Designs, Inc. QuadEGA+ is a trademark of Ouadram Corp. Compaq is atrademark of Compaq Computer Corp

Inquiry 27!

GRAPHIC

AN INTELLIGENT E

SYSTEMS

YBTBMO COMPANY

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 363

He who travels muchappreciates daily service.

You don't need an ancientproverb to know daily service isimportant to business travelers.

That's why United offers dailyservice to Tokyo, Hong Kong,Osaka, and Sydney from more topbusiness centers than any otherairline.

And United offers dailynonstop service to Tokyo from fiveU.S. gateways.

You'll enjoy all the conve-nience of one-airline servicefrom Tokyo to Seoul, Manila,

Singapore, Bangkok, Beijing andShanghai.

And now, Mileage Plus offersa 50% bonus in First Class, a 25%bonus in Business Class and severalother generous Royal Pacificmileage bonuses.

United's Royal Pacific Service.

Call your Travel Agent.Or call United, f

You're not just flying,you're flying the friendly skies.

United

CHAOS MANOR

which may not be compatible with yours.Once you have your system, get in thehabit of backing up disks.

Seymour J. MetzAnnandale, VA

Well—there are still some dealers whounderstand what they're doing; as yousay, if you find one, it's worth a lot to keepthat dealer. But recall that Pournelle's lawsays: "If you don't know what you're do-ing, deal only with people who do.'' Itdoesn't condemn you to perpetual ig-norance.

It's still a good idea to learn somethingabout these little machines. It's fun, too.-Jerry

p-System

Dear Jerry,

I've read BYTE for years and love it: I'veread your column since it started andloved it. Yes, loved it, because today I readthat the p-System is "the original user-hostile operating system." Never! It maybe unconventional—after all. a prompt linethat shows you all the possible options atany stage is not like CP/M's or MS-DOS'swonderfully user-friendly A> prompt.After all, the standard p-System screeneditor isn't at all like those with 574 dif-ferent keystrokes, and it does work wellwith both free text and programs, and itdoes leave the cursor at a syntax error(optionally, not compulsorily). Different-yes; user-hostile—never! You praiseMOSYS. but its editor is reported to havemany shortcomings.

Finally, at $79.95 (available from PecanJ,the UCSD p-System with compiler, editor,and native code generator (with 8087 andBCD support! should have been namedproduct of the month.

Stuart A. BellCambridge, United Kingdom

Surely you are not so fickle as to aban-don me after all this time? I do agree:with the new price and, more important,the new support provided by Pecan, p-System is quite a bargain.

As to its hostility, I remain unrepentant.The problem with p-System is that it'sthoroughly menu-driven: and while thatdoes give you lots of onscreen prompts,it also makes you go around red robin'sbarn to get anything so simple as a direc-tory. Indeed: it's the problems I have get-ting a directory (call the filer: specifydevices by number, and the device num-ber is never intuitive) that caused me toneglect p-System. You will note, though,that I always try to point out that a lotof people do love it, and they're not allmasochists.— Jerry ■

3^"

SINGLE-SIDE

95

14

DOUBLE-SIDE

229-5

Old Reliable TgT

DisEette-f*

Connection"

U

HIGH DENSITY

95

23

VIDEOCASSETTES

469

-Delaware 1 800-451 1849

•Oklahoma J 800 654 4058

* Nevada' 1-8ti6"621* 6221

TERMS: Minimum20asks of *350>' VISA or MasterCard ...... -■■ led

COO orders add 2* lor special handling SHIPPING^ 3'^s b\ Diskettes.Add 3"? for every 100 Diskeitesor any fraction (hereof U Diskettes. Add4<* lor every 100 Diskettes or any fraction IftereQl We ship UPS. ordersrequiting other delivery methods add Shipping plus 2"„ ol total order

O Dysan

lifetime m/cORPORATION

LIFETIMEWARRANTY

5VDISKS

1395179-52095

25»

3Q95

S-SideDDen.

D-SideD-Oan.

S-Side96tpi

D-Side96tpi

HIGHDEN.

312 DISKS

SSide I DSide

20»|259-58 DISKS

17*

1995

22*

S-SideS-Don.

S-Side

D-Oen

D-SideDDen.

Dysan

Interrogator

105"

Add 309 Shipping

PHEONIX

16me»CART,

[QO

error

Add 69° Shipping

Bmeg- CAF

145'

-Delaware 1800-4511849

*0klahomrrpl5°i'4058

• Nevada' 1 800 621 6221

1 Old Reliable

Diskette"?

Connection"

TERMS- Minimum20 disks or *35°*> — VISA or MasterCard acceptedCOD orders add 2*> lor special handling.SHIPPING: 3J£l 6$ Diskettes;Add 3ap for every 100 Diskettes or anv fraction thereol 8'Diskettes. Aod4^ foi every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof We ship UPS: orders.requiring other delivery methods add shipping,plus 2% of total order -

maxell

®

FLOPPY DISKS

LIFETIME5VDisksS-Side 795

D-Den.D-SideD-Den.

S-Side96tpi

D-Side96tpi

HIGHDen.

11»

16*19*2395

WARRANTYI3*2 Disks

m i49-5

?3lipdr229-5

8"Disks

S-Side 1Q95D-Den. 19 -D-SideD-Den.

21*

Old Reliable

DisBettenL*

Connection"

•Delaware 1 800 4511849 ,•OklahomaT8006544058*H*eHda"H00B2T-6221

TERMS- Minimum20 disks or *3S0*' — VISA or MasterCard accepted!SOU orders add 2* for special handling SHIPPING* 3£t 5jf Diskettes!Add 3'-:i for every 100 Diskettes or any traction thereof B'Diskeltes; Add!A°f tor every 100 Diskettes or any f. action thereof We ship UPS, orders i

equinng other delivery mnthods add shipping plus 2%ol total order

DISKETTES

FACTORY SEALED IN PACKSOF TEN, WITH TYVEK SLEEVE,

ID LABEL & WRITE PROTECTTABS. "LIFETIME WARRANTY'

I No Manufacture Label or Pretty Box I

Single SideDouble Density

Double SideDouble Density

.53ea " .64ea

Manufactured 100% by one of the BIGBOYS. IF you need a good Disk this is it.IF you need a name,we call them GOOD.

Old Reliable B

Diskette"!'

uonneciion

* Delaware 1-800 451-1849 I

* Oklahomaflj 00654 -4058* Nevada' rif()0-62l" 6221

TERMS: Minimum 50 Diskettes. — VISA or MasterCard accepted!COD.orders add 2*1 lor special handling SHIPPING: b\ Diskettes!

I COD orders add 2* lor special handlingI Add 3"-° for every 100 Disker

OW Reliable WM»j

DisBette-^

Connection

•Delaware J-800-451;[849

Oklahoma i-800 654 '4058

* Ihinda" V800-62l'- 6221

TERMS: Mmtmum20disks or *35°p — VISA or MasterCard acceptedCOD orders add 2* (or special handling SHIPPING: 3^ i 5\ Diskettes.Add 3°e lo« every 100 Diskettes or any traction thereof 6' Diskettes, Add4(*) toi every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof We ship UPS. ordersrequiring other delivery methods acd shipping, plus jt%oj total order

\ferbatim

DataLife,

LIFETIMEWARRANTY

SUPER QUALITY

5V

7P

I mln4

usid. -|-|95

DDen. I I _

SSide96lpi

DSide

96tpi

HIGHDEN

,16*199-523^

S-SideS-Den.

S-SkfeD-Den.

D-SidoD-Den.

S"

15*20*

DigitalCassettes

3V

SSide , DSicie

159_5|22«>

HEADCLEANERS

5V'Kit 43,

^"Refills- 7°°

8"Kits 5°-s

8"Refills-8°-°

Diskette"?

•Delaware 1 800 4511849

•OWahojjaTMfill^;40S«

- Nevada * r 800-621" 6221

■'Ml....-:, HouO- C«r. KV «Pi

TERMS: Minimum20 disks or *35°p — VISA or MasterCard accepted ICO0 orders add 2* for special handling SHIPPING: 3!^ 4 5% Diskeiies; I

Add 3°f- for every 100 Diskettes or any traction thereof 8 Diskettes. Add I4°° for every 100 Diskettesorany fraction thereof We ship UPS. orders Irequiring other delivery methods add shipping plus 2% of total order I

Connection'"

Inquiry 114

IUNE I986 -BYTE 365

McGraw-Hill introduces

the affordable solution

to the 640K limit.

Why spend more than $700 for anexpanded memory board with 256K andnew software versions that may beincompatible with your current software?

MAXTT" is a 256K memory board, withsoftware, that works above or below 640Kto increase memory for 1-2-3® 1A andother popular memory-intensiveprograms, and allows RAM-resident andcustom programs to run above 640K.

It's priced at an affordable $195.

With MAXTT, you don't have to buy newsoftware versions like 1-2-3 Release 2.

No matter how much memory yourcomputer has now — even 512K or 640K— MAXTT can increase available memory.It can workabove 640K,using memorythat wasreservedfor theoperatingsystem butisn't beingused.MAXTTsoftwareaddsmemoryabove 640Kto DOS, andenables1-2-3 1A,memory-resident software,or custom programs to use it.

And if you already have software thatworks with expanded memory, you canuse MAXTT's special driver software.It emulates costly expanded memoryboards — giving you increased powerat a fraction of the cost.

MAXTT works on the IBM PC, XT, thePortable PC, and many compatibles. Itreguires DOS 2.0 or above.

MAXTT works on the IBM PC AT too. ItMs out the AT's memory from 512Kto 640K, and even goes beyond that.

366 BYTE • IUNE 1986

MAXTT includes a 256K parity-checkedmemory card that uses the latest tech-nology. It's a half-size card, too, so you canuse it in a short XT slot.

Installation is a snap. Just follow theinstructions in the illustrated Owner'sManual. The menu-driven setup softwarealso gives you screen prompts. And if youhave questions, our customer servicedepartment will answer them fast.

Once installed, MAXTT loads auto-matically. You don't have to learn a singlenew command to use it to its fullest.

Get the affordable solution to your PC'smemory crisis. We've made it easy. OrderMAXTT today by calling our toll-freenumber 1-800-221-8439. (In Texas, call1-214-437-7411.)

We accept VISA,MasterCard, AmericanExpress, and DinersClub cards.

Or order bywriting to: McGraw-Hill CCIG Software,8111 LBJ Freeway,Dallas, Texas 75251.

MAXTT is just $195plus $4.00 shipping($12.00 outside the U.S.)and applicable statesales tax.

Be sure to includecredit card number andexpiration date withmail orders. Orders paidby check are subject to delay.

MAXTT is covered by a 30-day money-backguarantee and a one-year warranty.

1-800-221-8439

(In Texas 1-214-437-7411)

McGraw-Hill CCIG

B'ja McGraw-linii Software

8111 LBJ Freeway, Dallas, Texas 75251

MAXIT is a trademark of McGraw-Hill CCIG Software. IBM is a registered trademarkor International Business machines Corporation; 1 -2-3 is a registered trademarkof Lotus Development Corporation.

Inquiry 209

Best of BIX • Best of bix • Best of bix •

BIX

• Best of BIX • Best of bix • best of bix

THE BEST OF BIX is a selection of the most interesting messagesfrom BIX, the BYTE Information Exchange conferencing system. Theconferences covered for this month include those for the CommodoreAmiga, Atari 520ST and 1040ST, the IBM PC family and compatibles,and the Macintosh computers. These pages represent only a smallfraction of the material discussed in these conferences.For information on joining BIX, see the instructions on page 336.

AMIGA

The highlights of the Amiga conference this month include a bench-mark comparison of two popular C compilers for the Amiga, 68020upgrade VMEbus adapters, and GenLock and LIVE! digitizers.

Bugs and Fixes includes discussion of Amiga ABasiC speech func-tions, Alink linker improvements, disk "hashchain" tables, and moreabout the terminal program MaxiComm. Bugs and Fixes concludeswith a short tutorial on Tymnet log-on procedures and file chopping,and the author of the Aegis Animator describes a minor glitch.

Compiler Benchmarks

amiga/product.dcsn #706, from ricks [Rick Schaeffer]

Benchmarks for Aztec C versus Lattice C CompilersWell, I finally got my Aztec C compiler! Of course, the first thing I didwas run a whole series of benchmarks to compare it with my Lattice Ccompiler Since there's been so much interest in Lattice vs. Aztec. I ran

all the benchmarks I could get my hands on and made up the tablebelow for anyone else who is interested.

The rules under which the benchmarks were run were as follows:First, I used the default selections of both compilers as far as compile-time options go, since I wanted to compare "apples to apples" asmuch as possible. The Aztec compiler comes set up to take advantageof RAM disk during compiles, so I used the "cc2" program with Lattice(which I've modified to, likewise, take advantage of RAM disk for tem-porary files).

The Aztec C compiler automatically runs all passes of its compiler;cc2 does the same thing except it costs time to load cc2 itself, so I rancc2 from RAM disk, again attempting to compare apples to apples.Compile times and link times were timed with a stopwatch, and timewas measured from hitting Return after typing the command line to see-ing the CLI prompt after the compile completed.

Run time was obtained by calls to the AmigaDos Current_Timefunction. The source code for all the programs except the Dhrystoneprogram was obtained from the November 1985 BYTE. The sourcecode for the Dhrystone program was obtained from the CompuServeAmiga Forum database. A large comment header was removed fromthe Dhrystone program. Other than that, the programs were enteredverbatim as published in BYTE except for the timing routines, whichwere for the Macintosh. I modified these to work with the Amiga.

The Aztec compiler, by default, generates code that uses 16-bit in-tegers, and the Lattice compiler uses 32-bit integers. However, theAztec compiler has a compile-time switch that causes it to use 32-bitintegers, and there is a set of 32-bit libraries supplied with which to linksuch a program.

[continued)

Benchmark Results (seconds)

Frame

Intmath

Pointer

Qsort

Sieve

Float

Fib

Dhrystone

Compile

Aztec(16)

21.44

26.58

23.29

27.07

24.70

26.07

23.67

36.26

Lattice

44.16

61.42

45.00

70.74

76.60

48.03

45.49

68.46

Aztec(32)

23.48

26.19

23.96

26.78

26.01

25.23

23.74

35.14

Link

Aztec(16)

33.95

33.47

33.97

43.79

39.11

38.92

31.52

42.64

Lattice

112.34

109.79

111.73

112.00

116.49

114.34

115.35

112.64

Aztec(32)

35.52

30.64

33.64

41.86

40.49

38.42

32.99

39.47

Executable Module Size (no registe

■ variables)

Aztec(16)

5012

5532

4996

9504

13432

5428

5124

6488

Lattice

13470

14108

13712

18224

22216

14336

13876

16040

Aztec(32)

5212

5772

5196

9684

13640

5628

5328

6812

Executable Module Size (with register variables)

Aztec(16)Lattice

501213744

525214088

498813704

9448

13380

N/A

N/A

632815996

18204

22184

N/A

N/A

Aztec(32)

5208

5488

5184

9628

13588

N/A

N/A

6644

Run Time (no

register variables)

(Dhrystone

in Dhrystones/second)

Aztec(16)

0.00

4.34

19.77

55.23

4.80

15.90

19.55

1000

Lattice

0.10

21.77

16.85

56.40

5.96

118.32

22.70

454

Aztec(32)

0.10

9.82

19.88

61.55

5.87

15.90

22.59

704

Run Time (with register variables)

(Dhrystone

in Dhrystones/second)

Aztec(16)

0.00

2.70

10.54

42.00

2.68

N/A

N/A

1041

Lattice

0.00

21.40

10.53

44.60

3.98

N/A

N/A

462

Aztec(32)

0.00

7.38

10.51

42.95

3.28

N/A

N/A

769

IUNE I986 -BYTE 367

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX •

BIX

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

Therefore, I ran the benchmarks twice for the Aztec compiler: oncewith the default of 16-bit integers and again with the 32-bit option andlibraries selected. All timings are in seconds and hundredths except therun time for the Dhrystone benchmark, which is in Dhrystones per sec-ond. I did not include timings for compile and link of the registervariables versions of the benchmarks. They were insignificantly differentfrom the times shown, which are for the nonregister versions.

A couple of notes about these timings:

First, the run times are shown to the hundredth of a second, but Idoubt the accuracy of the Amiga's clock at that resolution. I am confi-dent, however, that the timings are accurate to the tenth of a second.

Second, the Aztec compiler supports and uses the Motorola FastFloating Point (FFP) library, whereas the Lattice compiler uses Lattice'sown IEEE-compatible floating-point library. The Lattice compiler can belinked with the FFP libraries, but it doesn't use them by default (youhave to do the function calls yourself). That is the reason there is sucha large difference in the floating-point benchmark for run time. It is myunderstanding that the FFP library will be supported by the Latticecompiler in a future release.

The Lattice compiler version I used for these benchmarks was 3.02. Iunderstand that Lattice is now shipping version 3.03, but I have not, atthe writing of this message, received my upgrade. The Aztec versionused for the benchmarks was 3.20a.

amiga/product.dcsn #708, from duck [Dale Luck, Commodore-Amiga]a comment to 706

The Green Hills C compiler, running on a 14.4-MHz CSA board gives2100 Dhrystones per second. I just found this out yesterday. For thosewho do not have the source code, a VAX-11/785 pumps them out atabout 2050 per second.

amiga/product.dcsn #709, from ricksa comment to 708

You might be interested to know that a Convergent TechnologiesMightyframe (12-MHz 68020) running their flavor of UNIX (called CTIX)checked in at 2931 Dhrystones per second.

Tenfold Performance Boost

amiga/tech.talk #407, from theo [Ted Inoue, Universal Imaging Corp.]

Anybody know of a Multibus adapter for the Amiga? Our company islooking into making the Amiga the front end to an image-processingsystem, but the boards come in Multibus format.

We'd like to use the Amiga to talk to our set of Multibus image-processing boards, and it would allow a really nice system for a rea-sonable price (reasonable being relative; in this market, $25,000 to$35,000 is very reasonable). So, if anybody knows of some way toadapt the output from the Amiga to talk to a Multibus system, I'd like tohear about it. Also, if there is any info on VMEbus capability, thatwould be nice. However VME has a full 32-bit data and address path,so things might have to be hacked very hard to squeeze the Amiga totalk to VME boards.

amiga/tech.talk #410, from sassenrath [Carl Sassenrath]a comment to 407

Commodore-Amiga in Los Gatos, California, makes boards that inter-face the Amiga to Multibus. This is how the Amiga talks to the Sunhosts. Send mail to "duck" for more info.

amiga/tech.talk #411, from jdow [Joanne Dow]a comment to 410

Better yet—please, Dale, post the info in Amiga/hardware if this can be

used as a special-purpose product. There are many, many here who'dlike to do such a thing. I can see multiprocessing on the horizon.

amiga/tech.talk #413, from ducka comment to 407

Maybe this would be another application for our "BillBoards"; they areboards that we hacked together. One plugs into the Amiga and theother board plugs into our Sun-2's Multibus. We run "wack" remote onthe Sun-2, peering into the Amiga's memory. Call Bill Kolb at Amiga,(408) 395-6616. Maybe he'd be willing to let out the design orschematics. The Amiga board does not run with anything else exceptour kludge-o RAM cards.

amiga/tech.talk #415, from sparta [Gary Bonham, Sparta Inc.]a comment to 407

You might try CSA (Computer System Associates) in San Diego, (619)566-3911. They make the 14.4-MHz 68020/68881 board that I have inmy Amiga. They have been working on coming off of their piggybackboard with a full 32-bit VMEbus (they already have a 32-bit-wide RAMboard up there). They may repackage the entire system in a larger boxto accommodate it.

amiga/tech.talk #416, from sparta

68020

Yesterday I took my friend (Amiga) to CSA in San Diego for open heartsurgery. It had already had a transplant a while ago resulting in a68020/68881 running at the usual 7 MHz. Now, all operations up onthe 68020 board occur at 14.4 MHz. At this rate there are not manycomputers out there that can keep up (in the price range). TheMandelbrot timing (in P3 mode) I have quoted before is now down to ashade over 3 minutes (versus about 37 minutes on a normal Amiga).

Genlock and Amiga-Live!

amiga/product.dcsn #710, from duck

There seems to be a little confusion regarding these two separateperipherals. They are each complete peripherals in their own right.Neither depends on the other being on the Amiga. You can GenLockAmiga graphics to external video without doing frame-grabbing. Con-versely, you can do video digitizing with Amiga-LIVE! without theGenLocker. They each have their own synchronizing circuitry. Thesetwo peripherals can also be coupled to achieve certain effects notpossible when using either of them separately.

BUGS AND FIXES

Sound Advice

amiga/softw.devlpmt #1067, from duck

Audio Response, from a conversation with Sam Dicker,Commodore-Amiga

QUESTION: Why can't I SAY 'UAH4'? When I TRANSLATE$ "ja", it printsJAH4"; but when I SAY 'JAH4", I get an illegal function call message.ANSWER: You have found a bug in the SAY command which will befixed in the next release. It looks like SAY can't handle strings ending ina number (the 4 in 'JAH4'). I recommend, as a work-around, that youappend a space to all strings that you SAY. The TRANSLATE$() func-tion does this for you, which is why the bug was never reported.

QUESTION: Can WAVE be used to get very different sounds?ANSWER: All square, sawtooth, and random waves sound alike.

QUESTION: Please excuse the following waveform ignorance, but

{continued)

368 BYTE • IUNE I986

StAf&a ^DwrifwUeA, ^Ma^Ae^na, $P 9D<mto4dtcm<fo

mm \

1091

$228

PANASONIC

109' 228

3131 (NEW) 264

1092 325

3151 .409

1080 (NEW) 209

1592 NEW . 439

JUKI

Juki 6100 344

RS232 Serial Board 55

6100 Traclor 119

6100 Shee! Feeder 209

Juki 6300 757

C. ITOH

Prowriler 8510 sp+ Call15505 sp+ Call

Pnntmasler Call

SAVE ■= PRINTERS

LEGEND

808 148

1080 197

1380 224

1385 268

EPSON

LX80. 209

FX85 333

jxao ... can

Homewriter 10 193

0X10 207

DX20 297

DX35 597

AP-80 244

HI-80 355

HS-80 298

FX-286 (NEW) 489

LQ-800 NEW) 529

LQ-1000(NEW) 659

BROTHER

HR-15XL-P 359

HR-15XL-S 359

SEIKOSHA

SP-1000 VC(C-64) 185

SP-1000 A Centronics ... 199

SP-1000 I IBM 199

SP-1000 AS RS-232 199

SP1000AP Apple lie . . 199

BP-5200I 649

BP sheet feeder 199

SP-1000 ribbon 8.50

BP-5200 ribbon 12 50

CORONA

LP300 2495

200361 Toner Cartridge...89

SILVER REED

EXP400EXP500EXP550EXP770

249295

399749

OKIDATA

Okimate 10 179

182 214

192 343

193 563

DIABLO

D25

549

630 API

1599

630 ECS

1759

D80 IF

2395

P32CQ1

699

P38

1749

C 150

999

COLOR RIBBONS NOW AVAILABLE!!

SG-10 $205

STAR MICRONICS

SG-10 205

SG-10C 219

SG-15 367

SD-10 319

SD-15 438

SR-10 469

SR-15 578

SB-10 589

Powertype 297

NX-10(NEWJ CALL

NB-15JNEW) CALL

CITIZEN

MSP-10 255

MSP-15 355

MSP-20 337

MSP-25 495

120D 188

Premier 35 429

MONi

TORS

PANASONIC

SAKATA

DTH103 10" RGB Hi Res

.395

SG 1000 12" Green

99

TX12H3P 12" Color

419

SA 1000 12" Amber

109

TR120MBPA 12" Amber

109

SG 1500 12" Green TTL

119

TR122M9P 12" Green IBM

.148

SA 1500 12" Amber TTL

129

TR122MYP 12" Amber IBfv

...148

SC 100 13" Color Comp

209

SC 200 13" RGB

389

STS1 Till Sland

29

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

COMMODORE

1902 Color CALL

HX-12 RGB

46o

1802 Color CALL

3R-12 RGB

595

THOMSON

TEKNIKA

CM36512V1

CM36632

269

159

MJ-10 Composite

179

i MJ-22

255

ZENITH

| AMDEK

ZVM 122A AmberZVM 123G Green

75

75

300 Green

118

ZVM 124 Amber IBM

129

300-Afnbef

128

ZVM 131 Color

275

310 Amber IBM

155

ZVM 133 RGB

389

Color 300 Audio

234

ZVM 135 Composite

449

Color 500 Composite

369

ZVM 136 Hi Res Color

589

Color 600

397

ZVM 1220

95

Color 700

495

ZVM 1230

95

Color 710

.569.

ZVM 1240.

149

DRIVES

INDUS

GT Atari

GT Commodore

195195

TYMAC

MDD-640 3'/i"

Apple Drive 640K

289

TANDON

'320K or, 'j" Drive

115

DISKETTES

MODEMS

DENNISON

cLEPHANT 5';" SSSD 1199

ELEPHANT 5V SSDD 12 99

ELEPHANT 5';" DSDD 1499

SUNKYONG

SKC SVt" SSDD

SKC 5Vi" DSDD

11.9913.99

MAXELL

ANCHOR

Volksmodem

Volksmodem 12

.55

186

HAYES

Smartmodem 300

Smartmodem 1200.

Smanmodem I200B

Sman modem 2400

!33.377

.347598

DIGITAL DEVICES

Pocket Modem AT Call

CompuServe 18.95

RACAL-VADIC

2400PC 549

2400PA 799

2400V 559

1200PC 329

KYOCERA

1200S 309

US ROBOTICS

Password 1200 229

Password 300 139

Courier 2400 469

IBM-PC COMPATIBLE

BRODERBUND(IBM)

Bank St. Writer 48.95

The Print Shop 34.95

Graphics Library 1 22.95

Ancient Art of War 27.95

Champ Lode Runner..22.95Karateka 22.95

LEADING EDGE

Nutshell 69.95

Nutshell Filer 149.00

SUBLOGIC (IBM)

Jet Simulator 34.95

Scenery Disks EA... 14.95Set 1-6 69.95

MICROPROSE (IBM)

F-15 Strike Eagle 20.75

Solo Flight 20 75

Silent Service 20.75

Decision in Desert....24.95Crusade Europe 24.95

TOLL FREE 1-800-233-8760

TO ORDER

CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-233-8760

In PA 717-494-1030Customer Service71 7-494-1670

or send order to

Lyco Computer

P.O. Box 5088

Jersey Shore, PA

17740

RISK FREE POLICY

In-slock ilems shipped within 24 hours ol order No deposit on COD orders Freeshipping on prepaid cash orders within ihe conlinenlal US Volume discountsavailable PA residents add sales tax. APO. FPO and international orders add$5.00 plus 3% lor priority mail service. Advertised prices show 4% discount torcash, add 4% for Mastercard or Visa. Personal checks require 4 weeks' clearancebefore shipping Ask abpul UPS Blue and Red label shipping All merchandisecarried under manufacturer's warranty Free catalog with order. All items subjectto change without notice

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 369

Best of BIX • Best of bix • Best of BIX •

BIX!

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of Bl

could I get a piano sound out of BASIC?ANSWER: AmigaBASIC has very limited sound capabilities. It is de-signed to play fixed sine or custom waveforms at a fixed volume andfixed frequency. Fixed, that is, during the duration of the musical note.The sine or custom waveform represents one cycle of the "fundamen-tal." This severely limits how interesting you can make your sounds.

The WAVE command defines the waveform before the SOUND com-mand starts it playing. This makes it impossible to modify the waveformwhile the sound is playing. The SOUND command sets a constantvolume for the entire duration of the sound. You cannot define anenvelope (i.e., attack-decay-sustain-release). This gives all sounds anorganlike quality.

The SOUND command also sets a constant frequency for the entireduration of the sound. You cannot add vibrato or bend the pitch of anote. AmigaBASIC is really designed to support only one synthesistechnique: using the waveform to represent one cycle of the fundamen-tal. This turns out to be the most serious restriction. A custom waveform(nonsinusoidal) can produce any set of harmonics. But they are fixedfrequencies and exact harmonics, and not very interesting to the ear.

These are, by no means, limitations of the Amiga hardware and ROMkernel software. Dedicated music programs and even high-level lan-guages can provide much better access to the hardware. For example,ABasiC, the BASIC that was shipped with the first machines had noneof these limitations. Simply adding the ability to play a large waveform,either recorded digitally or synthesized, as the entire sound can pro-duce just about any sound, including a piano sound.

Despite my criticisms of the design of AmigaBASIC's sound support,there are ways of 'tricking it" into producing more interesting sounds.This may give you some ideas:

DIM waveform%(255)FORi°/o = OT0 255waveform°/o(i%)=127NEXT

FORi°/o = OT0 255waveform°/o(i°/o) = 0WAVE 0,waveform%WAVE 1,waveform°/oSOUND 60,.5,255-i°/o,0SOUND 60,.5,i%,1

NEXTGood luck.

Alink Problems

amiga/main #2371, from jrileya comment to 2367

FFP support is ready. Dropping Alink is in the works, but you gottarealize that you pay a price for playing by AmigaDOS's rules. No libraryformat?

Editor's note: Jriley is the log-on for the Lattice Support Group. LatticeTech Support can be reached through the Lattice conference, the Lat-tice BBS [at (312) 858-8087 2400 bps, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit],and voice [(312) 858-0073]. Jriley is here to answer any questions youmay have on Lattice products.

amiga/main #2372, from jdowa comment to 2371

Even with no library format, Dale let slip that Alink can be sped upmaterially by allocation tricks. If the hacks that allocate OK but don'tdeallocate on exit are cleaned up, Alink might not be quite soobjectionable.

amiga/main #2376, from jrileya comment to 2372

The price you pay for that hack can be more than it's worth. With alarge link job going, Alink will effectively kill any multitasking due tolack of memory.

We don't need to complain about Alink, we need to fix it. After all, weare programmers (I hope).

amiga/main #2377, from jim kent [Jim Kent]

a comment to 2376

I am not very familiar with linkers. However, I believe that they wouldnot start freeing memory until they started resolving references, after thehigh point of memory allocation, if this is the case, then they reallymight as well hang onto everything until the end, in which case a

AC/FORTRAN

Mainframe quality, full feature ANSI FORTRAN 77

compiler includes: Debugger, Linker. Library Manager,Runtime Library, IEEE math, and C interface. SupportsComplex numbers. Virtual arrays, Overlays and Dynamic

Unking, Not copy protected. Available now.J29S. TurboAmiga version also available

AC/BASIC™-Coming Soon

From the authors of Microsoft BASIC for Macintosh,conies AC/BASIC for the Amiga. Companion compiler to the.Amiga BASIC interpreter: has more features and includes aDebugger, includes BLOCK IF, CASE statement, andSTATIC keyword extensions and executes up to 50i fasterAC. BASIC is the new BASIC reference for MC68000 basedpersonal computers. Not copy protected. $29S.

Telephone orders welcome

absssft

Scientific, Engineering Software

426H N. Woodward. Royal Oak. Ml 48072/(31.1) 549-7111

Amiga trademark of ftRramxtan Amiga

MicraStifl ir;nleimrk of Microsoft Corp

QuelO® OoUUU Developmentvi5 Tools

• Motorola compatible macro assembler

• Industry standard

• Mature—first release January 1983

• Source code available

Amiga and Atari 520/1040ST68000/68010/66020

Native and Cross Assemblers

68000/68010 68020

Host Target package package

Amiga Amiga $ 99 $149

Atari Atari $ 99 $149

MS-DOS/PC-DOS Amiga/Atari 199" 249*

CP/M-80 Amiga/Atari 199' —

CP/M-86 Amiga/Atari 199* 249"

CP/M-68K Amiga/Atari 199" 249"

'Includes corresponding native assembler.

Additional hosts and targets available:

UNIX 4.2, UNIX V, VAX VMS and external 68xxx boards

Contact Patrick Adams today

Quelo, Inc.

2464 33rd Ave. West, Suite 173

Seattle, WA 98199

phone 206/285-2528 telex 910-333-8171

m LIONHEART

BUSINESS S STATISTICAL SOFTWARE

PC/MS-DOS. AMIGA, MACINTOSHATARI S20ST. CP/M. COMMODORE 128

Inquiry 399

Inquiry 290

ai compiled software, the

standard lor statistical use. The influential Seybold Reporton Professional Computing has this to say about t: "*

ic statistical concepts.„ The thinking is that the com-puter merely facilitates the calculations: the important thing isto be able to formulate a problem correctly and to determinewhat type of analysis will be most valuable." Let Lionheart helpyou get ahead or the competition!

• BUSINESS STATISTICS $145

• EXPERIMENTAL STATISTICS 145

• MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS 150

• QUALITY CONTROL & INDUSTRIALEXPERIMENTS 145

• FORECASTING AND TIME-SERIES 145

• SALES AND MARKET FORECASTING .. .145

• DECISION ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES 110

• LINEAR & NON-LINEAR PROGRAMMING... 95

• PERT & CRITICAL PATH TECHNIQUES .. .95

• OPTIMIZATION 110

PC/MS-DOS. Amiga. Macintosh, some CP/M

y\S\ MasterCard. AMEX, Check

P.O. Box 379, ALBURG, VT 05440

(514)933-4918

Inquiry I88

EST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX •

BIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

sttghtty modified hack of the faster option would be OK. I wonder whatAztec's secret is.

amiga/main #2379, from jdowa comment to 2376

I said the hack had to be cleaned up properly so that things workedcorrectly. The ideal algorithm might be this: Allocate in 128K hunks untilthey don't have room, then try 64K on down until memory is gone.

Keep careful track of the allocations granted and deallocate on theway out. The way I understand things, Alink wastes an excessiveamount of time allocating and deallocating small pieces of memory.Done slightly differently this could be made faster without significantlyaltering the operation of Alink.

Of course, an even faster linker has its advantages as well. The fix toAlink could proceed very quickly. The other, maybe and maybe not.

Rehashing Disks

amiga/main #2351, from gsipko [Gord Sipko]

I am the not-so-proud owner of a "corrupt" sys: disk. I've been usingDiskEd to repair the pointers and have been having great success. Ialmost have the disk usable again—only the :c directory to finish.

Now, here's the problem: When I recalculate the hash numbers foreach of the commands in :c, I end up with 11 pairs of commands thathash to the same number and three other commands that have thesame number. What gives?

Presumably the hash number must be unique! Does DiskEd have aproblem? I'm stuck! Is there anyone out there that will own up toDiskEd?

amiga/main #2352, from mmorris [Martin Morris, Computer

Toolsmith]

a comment to 2351

The hash numbers are not unique; those files with the same hash codeare chained together. The "hashed" entry points to the first file with thathash code. The "hashchain" field in the first file header points to thenext, and so on. "Hashchain" is word 124/128 in the file header block,described on pages 1-4 and 1-5 of the Amiga technical referencemanual.

More About Maxi

amiga/main #2375, from jdowa comment to 1435

Here's a reposting of 1434 and a couple of notes to help people doingAmiga downloads (thanks again to Willie):

amiga/main #1434, from langeveld [Willem Langeveld]this version is for MaxiComm format uploads

a$ = INPUT$(128,1)FOR 1 = 1 TOn

a$ = INPUT$(10000,1)

PRINT* 2,a$:

discard these 128

n is determined by the file size

' 10000 seems like a good number

Don't forget the ";'—it will insert a space

otherwise

NEXT I

a$ = INPUT$(<nnn>,1)' <nnn> is the number of leftover bytes to becopied

PRINT* 2,a$; ' Seems to work also without";" you get one

byte extra

CLOSE etc.

this version is for normal XMODEM uploads with no MaxiCommheader blockFOR l = 1 TO n ' n is determined by the file size

a$ = INPUT$(10000,1) ' 10000 seems like a good numberPRINT* 2,a$; ' Don't forget the ";—it will insert a space

otherwiseNEXT Ia$ = INPUT$(<nnn>,1)' <nnn> is the number of leftover bytes to be

copiedPRINT# 2,a$; ' Seems to work also without ";" you get one

byte extraCLOSE etc.

Hope this helps. The version of TxEd currently in Listings needs thesecond version (above) with the length mentioned in the txed.doc file.

Chopping Files

amiga/main #2339, from efreedus [Eric Freedus]

Running TxEd

I ran TxEd through the AmigaBASIC program listed to trim off the end.Apparently I had to allocate enough memory first. In any event, now Ican't get it to run. I'm getting an "Unable to load TxEd: file is not an ob-ject module."

Second, when logging in through Tymnet, if I use the Backspace keyto correct a typo, all console output is shut down thereafter. I'm send-ing, but I don't see my own keystrokes. Is there a key sequence to cor-rect that during the Login procedure? The shutdown carries rightthrough to when I'm on-line with BIX.

amiga/main #2340, from torn.

Editor, BYTE]

a comment to 2339

.thompson [Tom Thompson, Technical

A backspace entered on the Tymnet log-on sequence kicks the system(for you) into half-duplex mode. Solution: Either abort the log-on if youmake an error, or put your terminal program into half-duplex mode.

As for the chop problem, what was the file size of the output file ver-sus the input file? The error message you're getting indicates that thechop failed (this is also the same error message you get with the un-chopped file, that's why I suspect chop).

Also, TxEd may be one of those files where some of the code lookslike an end-of-file character, so BASIC quits prematurely. Suspect this asthe problem if your output file is a lot smaller than the input file.

amiga/main #2342, from jdowa comment to 2340

Make sure the chop number is the same as the chop number inCharlie Heath's message re TxEdDemo. He has uploaded two versions,and the BASIC program trimmed the "old" TED version to working size,not the new TxEd version.

amiga/main #2343, from jdowa comment to 2340

Also re Tymnet Log-on

"H sets Tymnet into a mode where you must generate a local echo ofcharacters you send. If your terminal program can do this, I highlyrecommend it for good typists (or even mediocre typists). A "X and "Renables XON/XOF ("Q/*S) flow control through the Tymnet node.

The only way to abort the "H mode is to hang up and redial Tymnetfor a fresh start.

Animator

amiga/product.dcsn #685, from jim kent

My First Bug

Actually, this is just my first documented bug. When running Animator

[continued)

IUNE I986 -BYTE 371

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

NOVAS

BEYOND IBM COMPATIBILITY

MORE POWER PLUS RELIABILITY AT LESS COSTNOVAS TURBO 286 MOTHERBOARD

* Fewer ICs For Greater Reliability—Only 36 Compared to IBM's 131

* Dual Speeds—6 & 8 MHz—Keyboard Selectable

* 4 Serial and 1 Parallel Ports On Board

* Expandable to 1 Megabyte RAM

* Fully Compatible BIOS

* Socket for 80287

* Complete with Installation Program A' One Year Warranty

$595 OEM Quantities

NOVAS 1000 EGA BOARD

* Supports EGA, RGB, & Monochrome Monitors

* 640 x 350 Pixels EGA640 x 200 Pixels Color320 x 200 Pixels Color720 x 350 Pixels Monochrome

* Parallel Port on Board' 256K RAM on Board

* One Year Warranty

$250 OEM Quantities

NOVAS

COMPUTER SYSTEMS& COMPONENTSSince 1983

COMPUTRADE COMPANY

780 Trimble Road, Suite 605San Jose, CA 95131 Tel: (408) 435-2662Fax: (408) 435-5458

CALL FOR OTHER COMPONENTS & SYSTEMS' IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

• BEST OF BIX •

BIX

• Best of BIX • Bes

or Images from the Workbench, if you change directory, you mustchange directory back to "sys:" or the Workbench will crash when youexit. CLI is fine. I'm not sure if I will be able to fix this bug as it appearsto be in the Workbench. See topics "software" and "flames" for morediscussion of this problem.

In the meantime I would really suggest for this and many otherreasons that you get rid of the Workbench and run things from the not-as-pretty but far more reliable CLI. There is a batch file "noworkbench"included on the Animator disk that when run should keep Workbenchfrom appearing when you reboot.

amiga/product.dcsn #686, from jdowa comment to 685

Rather than having the program automagically relog to "sys:" the moreproper route is to note where it is when your program starts and relogto that. Somehow, I agree with you. A well-behaved program shouldnot have any effect on the underlying system parameters after it exitsunless it is something like CD, which must have that effect because ofits function.

(CP/M is something like that—a program can log new "drives" and"users" all it wants. The only way it affects the CLI environment is tochange the value at location 4. Well-behaved programs leave this aloneunless appropriate.)

amiga/product.dcsn #687, from jim kent

a comment to 686

Well, anyway, got my CD back to work. Bug fixed in 1.10 release ofAnimator.

ATARI ST

This month's discussions include answers concerning Atari ST graphicsand programming languages. Once again, the problem of resolutionswitching is addressed, and several conference members have madeconsiderable progress in solving the problem. Also, a few helpful hintsin graphics programming are offered. But the debate over whichlanguage to use rages on, as conference members discuss the prosand cons of Modula-2, C, and Pascal.

Graphics Coprocessor

atari.st/main #28, from dbetz [David Betz, Senior Editor, BIX]

Are the 1040STs being delivered with the sockets for the enhancedgraphics chip?

atari.st/main #29, from neilharris [Neil Harris, Atari Corp.]a comment to 28

According to Sam Tramiel, the graphics chip is not intended for the1040ST. It will go into a future product in the ST line, at a higher pricepoint than the current model. However, the graphics coprocessor willbe available as an upgrade board for the current models.

atari.st/main #30, from jruley [John Ruley, University of Dayton]a comment to 29

Whoa! That is directly opposed to what we've been hearing here and inthe BYTE article [March 1986]—are you sure you mean that?

If it is a board-level operation, then is there going to be an upgradefor the 520ST as well? You could make a lot of friends that way!

372 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry 90

SIX • BEST OF BIX •

EIX

• Best of BIX •

atari.st/main #36, from neilharrisa comment to 30

Coprocessor Upgrade

If you read the BYTE article carefully, you will see that the interview[with Shiraz Shivji] mentions a possible socket, not a definite one. Thereis no socket in the production 1040ST. The official Atari response on thecoprocessor upgrade board is that it will be available for the 1040ST.

atari.st/main #40, from cheath [Charlie Heath, MicroSmiths Inc.]a comment to 36

How does one access the coprocessor? Is it a switch in ROMs, and dothe ROM calls use the coprocessor instead of the CPU? Is the softwareready? Does the coprocessor give any new video output modes, or isit just a fast memory mover and line drawer?

atari.st/main #41, from neilharrisa comment to 40

The coprocessor requires a new set of ROMs, currently under develop-ment. All system calls are identical, but some work faster. The extrafunctions will be accessible through the BIOS. In addition to the blitfunctions, the chip will handle halftoning and horizontal and verticalline drawing.

atari.st/main #43, from jim kent [Jim Kent]

a comment to 41

So it looks like no lines and much less fills. I assumed the blitter wouldpick up on the unused instruction trap that now calls the a-line. Ohwell. We are still going to get some blazing graphics on this beast if wehave to code it in 68000 ourselves.

atari.st/main #59, from philemon [Philip Lemmons, Editor in Chief,

BYTE]

a comment to 29

In Hannover, I spoke to Shiraz Shivji, the principal 1040 designer. Hesaid future 1040s will have the socket for the graphics coprocessor. Healso promised us an article on how the coprocessor works.

atari.st/questions #15, from dnorton [Duane Norton]

Could someone in the know give us all some hard information on thecapabilities of the graphics coprocessor which may or may not be onthe 1040ST? Is it just a boundary-oriented blitter, capable of moving ar-bitrary blocks of memory from here to there, or will it be more like aNEC 7220, with line-drawing primitives and its own op codes?

atari.st/questions #19, from neilharrisa comment to 15

The graphics coprocessor is primarily a blitter, with the usual comple-ment of move functions with Boolean operators. It is also capable ofhalftoning during the blit. Horizontal and vertical line drawing are in-cluded (actually, these are subsets of a blit anyway—rectangles with awidth or height of 1). Graphics operations are between two and tentimes faster with this chip. We expect this to be most noticeable in theday-to-day text operations (including scrolling) as well as graphicsanimation.

atari.st/questions #20, from dnortona comment to 19

Many thanks for the information, Neil. Hmmm.. .so is this new chip atruly general memory-to-memory DMA device? On a bit, not word,boundary? Sounds like it could be used for more than graphics, such

[continued]

HARMONY COMPUTERS

2357 CONEY ISLAND AVE.. (Bet. Aucs.

T & U)BKLYN. NY 1 1223

i

800-VIDE084 or 800-441-1144 or 718-627-1000

JL?r

Commodore 128

PANASONIC 1091

$232.95

$219.95

STAR 10X

IBM RC. Bare No. Drives

'•w7'

$159.00

$1084.50

"PRINTER SPECIALS

Brother HR 15XL

294

3lar SG 15

331

Star SD 10

254

Brother HH35

594

■JEC 8850

989

Star SD 15

386

Citi2en MSP 10

232

Dkidala 192

319

Star SR 10

418

Epson LXBO

205

Dkidala 2410

1639

Star SR 15

539

Epson LQ80O

508

Dkidata 193

449

Slar SB 10

489

Epson LQ 1000

544

Dkidata 182

208

Silver Reed Exp 550

279

Epson FX 85

349

Panasonic KXP 1091

220

Silver Reed Exp 500

149

Epson 286

509

Panasonic KXP 1092

292

Silver Reed Exp BOO

619

HP Laser Jet 2288

Panasonic KXP 3151

369

Silver Reed Exp 400

189

IBM Proprinter

359

Panasonic KXP 1080

187

Toshiba 1340

349

Juki 6100

332

Panasonic KXP 3131

238

Toshiba 341

699

NEC 2050

593

Panasonic KXP 1592

399

Toshiba 35!

963

NEC 3550

389

Star SG103lar SG15

197331

Toshiba 321

445

■LiHslW

lVZ«Vi

'i

iVZ«\V

'!

IBM

IBM

MONITORS

~1

AT Unenhanced 2912

Hard Drives w/o controller

Amdek 300 Green

104 ■

AT Enhanced by IBM 3563

10 Meg

229

Amdek 300 Amber

109 I

IBM Monitor

219

20 Meg.

299

310 Amber

129 ■

IBM PC No Drives 1065

30 Meg.

599

Color 300

146 ■

PC XT

459

40 Meg.

699

Color 600

364 ■

PC XT Clone

419

Color 722

452

IBM Pro Printer

358

ATARI

Princeton HX12

390

AST Six Pack 64K

198

130 XE

119

Princelon HX12E

459

Tall Grass 25 Meg 2392

65 XE

82

Princeton Max 12

142

Quad Board

164

1027 Printer

89

SR12

519

Hercules Color

139

1050 Drive

112

Scan Doubler

159

Hercules Monochrome

269

Indus Drive

189

EGA Card

292

Color Card

109

Graphic Printer

109

Taxan 200

149

Multifunction Card

109

520 ST Color

759

Taxan 620

349

Paradise Graphics

169

520 ST B.W.

629

COMPAQ

Paradise Mulli Dis

162

Paradise 5 PackSTB Graphics * 2STB R10 * 2

109202172

MODEMS

Hayes 1200

349

286

PortableDeskpro I

439925992319

STB Mono BoardTecmar Graphics

146411

Hayes 12O0B w■Smartcom

Hayes 300

Hayes 2400

Hayes 2400B W'Smartcom

Micromodern 2E

323123549

Panasonic Exec. Part.

COMMODORE

1799

Tecmar CaptianPersysl Monocard

139122

489123

Commodoro 1281571 Drive

233

205

Bornouli Box

589

Promelhias 1200

259

Commodore 64

149

Tallgrass 35 Meg

3120

1541 Disk Drive

172

8087 Chip

108

APPLE

1802 Monilor

168

80287 Chip

174

1902 Monitor

275

Everex Graphics Edge

Eve rex Edge

Ei/ofex Graphics Pacer

199221219

2E

649

MSP 1000 PrinlerComrex PrinterIndus. Drive

228

109195

800-441-1144

Items reflect 4% cash of check discount. For your protection we check (or stolen credil cards.

M/C & VISA welcome. Personal checks cause 4 week delay. Shipping & Handling charge extra.Price and avalaMty subject to chang* without notice.

New Quark/PC^,,.

Base model 5.75" x 8"

Only $AQI%

3 8t 3|feii ^^ *^a

iWiiSBBuP II Quantity discounts available

• IBM PC® compatible single boardcomputer mounts to 51M" drive

• Includes Floppy Disk & Color GraphicsCRT Controllers plus more

AISO includes: Legal BIOS • Boots PCDOS® 2.1 • PrinterPort • 2 Serial Ports • 256K RAM • Clock Speed at 4.77 MHz •Alphanumerics and Graphics Modes for Color VideoController • Standard IBM® Keyboard Port.

Options include: 512K RAM • Piggyback I/O channelOEM Expansion Board • XT - Compatible Hard Disk SCSIInterface • Real Time Clock with battery-back-up • Clockspeed of 9.5 M Hz (Twice as fast as a PC)

The Megatel Quark/PC is for OEM and end userapplications that require PC compatibility in a compactsingle board computer. The Quark/PC BIOS will run mostIBM PC® software including Flight Simulator and Lotus*'. Tomeet your specifications a set of options let you addmemory, speed and an XT-compatible hard disk interface.Not only does it quickly mount to a 5 Vt" drive, it also comeswith floppy disk and CRT color graphics controllers — all forjust $495.

To order or enquire call us today. Dealer enquiries welcome.Megatel Computer Technologies (416) 745-7214150 Turbine Drive,Weston, Ontario M9L 2S2 Telex: 065-27453 US. Address:1051 Clinton St., Buffalo NY. 14206 Distributors: NCS Electronics -Varese, Italy • SES Electronics - Nordlingen, Germany • PerdixMicrotronics — Biggin Hill, UK. • Microcomputing - Ghent, Belgium.

Quarkis a registered trademark ol F and K MFC CO LID IBM. IBM PC and PCDOS dre reglstetedtrademarks ol International Business Machines Corp latus is a registered traaemarkol LalusDevelopment Corp. MSDOS is a registered trademark ol Mrcrosott Corp.

megatel

Inquiry 214

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 373

Inquiry 273

So you can't getToshiba PrinterAccessories, Bunkie?

Any lime (24 hours) grab your VISA or MasterCard

ffi 800/854-0561 S

IN CALIFORNIA CALL 800/432-7257 EXT 837

Type Font Cartridges for

Toshiba P35t, P341 and P321 Printers

Type Font Disks (Downloadable)

T/FC011 $69Bold Letter77FC012 $69

Elite Gothic

T/FC013 $69Greek/Math/AplRibbon for 3-in-One Printers

T/FC015 $69OratorI Orator2T/FC016 $69OuftHna ScriptT/FC017 $69Iheme Litalic

T/R 001 $12: Ribbon fits Toshiba dot matrix printers.Start-Up Kit

T/SK $99: Accessory sample kit contains Type FontCartridge (Bold Face, Letter Gothic). Type Font Disk(Extended Word Processing), Printer Ribbon, DataDisk, Enhancement Catalog, Type Font Catalog andmuch, much more.

P3S1 Dual Emulation Kit

T/DE351 $99: Upgrade your early model P351to add IBM Graphics Printer emulation. Completeinstructions included.

User's & Technical Reference Manuals

G/FD051G/FD053T/FD016

T/FD011T/FD014T/FD0I5

$50:

$30:

$69:

$49:

$49:

T/FD013 $69

T/FD021F/FD001

F/FD002 $95

Complete line ot manuals to support ToshibaPrinters: P1340. P351, P341. P321. Write lorcomplete catalog.

A minimum shipping and handling charge ol $4.75 will be added

: Designed especially for scientific

applications; 4 fonts.: Maxiset (oversized characters

for headlines); 1 lont.I: Extended word processing

package. Ideal for desktop

publishing; 5 fonts.$49: Standard word processing

packaging; 3 fonts.

Presentation size type fonts;

2 Orators & 1 Outline.

Correspondence quality type

fonts; 1 Roman, 1 Script &

1 Italic.Math and Scientific fonts;

2 Math; 1 Application &1 Scientific.

$49: Qualify Pack; 1 Regular and

1 Bold Italic & 1 Gothic.$95: 2 Micro (10 & 20 cpi), Copper.

Reg. Italic. Bold Italic, Zip &

Science.

Demi Gothic. Gothic (15 cpi).

Boss, Serif Italic, Golhic Italic,

Fathead. Greek.$95: Roman, Elite Italic. OCR A & B,

Pres. Pica, Greek, Micro (15 cpi).

F/FD004to each order. 6% sales lax will be added lo California orders.

ACCEDES WRITE F0R A C0MPLETE CATAL0G

Direct inc./p.o. box 196O8-347, irvine, ca 92713

FORTRAN PROGRAMMERS

Downloading from mainframes or developing onthe PC the choice is F77L — Lahey Fortran.

"Lahey's F77L FORTRAN is the compiler of choice. . .FjjL compiled the five files in a total of 12 minutes whichwas 4 times as fast as MS FORTRAN and an astounding6 times as fast as Pro FORTRAN." PC Magazine

The manual that comes with this compiler is well puttogether. The messages are clearly explained, the com-piler's unique features are well documented. . . All inall, FjjL is a fine, well supported product that we thinkwill do very well in the marketplace.''

Computer Language

VERSION 2.0 NOW AVAILABLE — $477

Full ANSI FORTRAN-77

Source On-Line Debugger

Extensions for easy mainframe porting

Common/Array greater than 64K

Lattice C and other 3rd Party Compatibility

To order or for more information(213) 541-1200

Lahey Computer Systems, Inc.

31244 Palos Verdes Drive West, Suite #243Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90274

Requires MS-DOS and 8087

MS-DOS and MS FORTRAN are trademarks of Microsoll Corporation

Pro FORTRAN is a trademark ol International Business Machines

• Best of bix •

BIX

• Best of BIX • Bes

as quick structure assignment in languages and operating system jobssuch as garbage collection and memory reorganization. Oh joy!

Resolution Switching

atari.st/tech #23, from swestrup [Stirling Westrup, Xuclid Research]

According to previous messages in the technical section of the oldAtari conference (see April BYTE, page 367), you can change from lowto medium resolution without rebooting if you poke the desired screenresolution into the hardware register ShiftMd. What is the address ofthis register? The only reference I could find to it was in the Hitchhiker'sGuide to the BIOS, where they say that it is shadowed by SShiftMd atlocation $44C.

atari,st/tech #25, from jtuermer [Joerg Tuermer]a comment to 23

The address of ShiftMd is SFF8260. I have no color monitor, so I canmake no tests, but the XBIOS function 5 (_SetScreen) also mentionedin the Hitchhikers Guide should do the changing without booting.Changing by direct setting of ShiftMd may leave the machine withsome problems concerning cursor, fonts, etc.

atari.st/tech #55, from swestrupa comment to 25

Of course _SetScreen should change resolution without rebooting, butit doesn't! And here I am wanting to change resolution while booting.That's so programs in the Auto directory come up in the rightresolution.

atari.st/main #39, from cheath

We asked Digital Research Inc. if it was possible under software controlto even switch from 320- by 200-pixel, 16-color resolution to 640 by200 resolution so we could present 80-column text and then switch to amulticolor graphics display. The folks at DRI told us wed have toreboot.

atari.st/main #44, from swestrupa comment to 39

I have now successfully switched the Atari from low to medium resolu-tion and back again without crashing the system or rebooting. My cur-rent problem is that GEM still thinks it's in the wrong mode and all ofthe fonts and windows are garbled. I tried poking the correct resolutioninto SShiftMd, but that didn't work.

atari.st/tech #70, from swestrup

I am uploading a listing of a 68000 assembler program that switchesthe Atari ST into medium-resolution mode without going through BIOSor XBIOS. It can be assembled and linked with the standard DRIassembler and linker that come with the developer's package. I haveno idea what this program will do to a monochrome monitor. Are thereany brave souls out there?

atari.st/listings #5, from swestrup

FIXSCR.S

I wrote this test program to change the screen resolution from low tomedium without having to reboot the system. This program has tooperate in supervisor mode so that the hardware register ShiftMd($FF8260) can be set. The value $F9 corresponds to Medium Res,while $F8 is Low Res. Unfortunately, GEM does not recognize thechange and behaves as if the old resolution is still in effect. In addition,this program will occasionally cause a few bombs to appear on thescreen. I don't know why.

374 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Inquiry 183

BIX • BEST OF BIX •

BIX

• Best of BIX •

TEXT

MOVE.L

#0.-(A7)

* PUSH A REQUEST FOR

MOVE.W

#$20, -(A7)

• SUPERVISOR STATUS

TRAP

#1

* AND TRAP FOR IT

ADDQ.L

#6,A7

* THEN FIX UP THE STACK

MOVE

SR.DO

* READ THE STATUS REGISTER

MOVE.B

#$F9,$FF8260

* GO TO MEDIUM RES MODE

AND

#$DFFF,D0

* CLEAR THE SUPERVISOR BIT

MOVE

DO.SR

* AND SET US BACK IN USER' MODE

RTS

atari.st/tech #71, from jtuermera comment to 70

My documentation says that a return from supervisor mode should bemade with another call to Super (BDOS $20). After the first trap youshould save DO and push it on the stack before the second one. Thisis the old value of the supervisor stack pointer (SSP). The present pro-gram leaves the SSP at the same value as the User SP before the RTS.Maybe this is producing the bombs.

I have looked carefully through a BIOS listing and cannot find wherethe _SetScreen routine could possibly reboot. But if you try to set to aresolution not supported by your monitor, the next Vertical Blank Inter-rupt will branch through the routine pointed at by swv_vec ($46E),which is initially pointing to the system reset handler.

This is in fact what happens to the "brave souls." The system rebootsand they are back in monochrome.

atari.st/tech #77, from sak [Sal Magnone, CIA Software]

I read the messages about changing screen resolution withoutrebooting or other troubles and thought Id mention a new program. Ijust got a demo of a game called Pawn that's got some really greatlow-resolution pictures. The significance is that the game operates inmedium resolution. It pulls the low-resolution 16-color picture downfrom almost the top of the screen, waits, then slides the picture backup, revealing the medium-resolution text that it covered coming down.My guess is raster interrupts, Can an ST do that? When you try anddump the pictures, they get scrambled as though the interrupt gotturned off. The dump routine probably does kill video interrupts,because the picture looks like someone just switched modes on it.Then it goes back to normal after the dump stops.

atari.st/tech #78, from jtuermera comment to 77

You can enable the HBLANK (autovector level 2) interrupt. This will giveyou an interrupt on every scan line. If you revector it to your ownhandler, you can decrement a counter set at VBL interrupt to thenumber of the scan line you want to change resolution, color, and soforth. If your counter reaches zero, make your changes. You may haveto revector the other interrupts. This is described in the Hitchhiker'sGuide to the BIOS (August 26, 1985, page 30).

atari.st/questions #22, from jruley

Do you still have to turn the machine off to switch between the high-resolution monitor and the modulator output? That is, can you have ablack-and-white monitor and the RF modulator on at the same time? Iknow that would mean youti have garbage on one or the other—butyou'd be able to switch from the desktop.

[continued]

Inquiry 25

Little Board /186... $495

High Performance, Low Cost PC-DOS Engine

Boots IBM PC-DOS(not Included]

• Three times the COMPUTING POWER of a PC

• Data and File Compatible with IBM PC, runs"MS-DOS generic" prosrams

• 8 MHz 80186 CPU, DMA, Counter/Timers,128/512K RAM,zero wait states,16-128KEPROM

• Mini/Micro Floppy Controller (1-4 Drives,Single/Double Density, 1-2 sided,40/80 track)

• 2 RS232C Serial Ports (50-38, 400 baud),1 Centronics Printer Port

• Only 5.75 x 7.75 inches, mounts directly toa 5-1/4" disk drive

• Power Requirement: +5VDC at 1.25A;

+12VDC at .05A; On board -12V converter

• SCSI/PLUS'" multi-master I/O expansion bus

• Software Included:

• PC-DOS compatible ROM-BIOS bootsDOS Qjc and 3.x

• Hard Disk support

• OPTIONS:

• Expansion board with:

• 128 or512K additional RAM

• 2 Sync/Async RS232/422 serial ports

• Battery backed Real Time Clock

• 8087 Math Co-Processor

• Buffered I/O Bus

• STD Bus Adapter

• Utilities source code

• TurboDOS / Networking

IBM*, IBM Corp.; 80186*, Intel, Corp.;Turbo DOS', Software 2000, Inc

^

COMPUTERS. INCORPORATED

67 East Evelyn Ave.. Mountain View, CA 94041 . (415)962-0230. TELEX 4940302

J

BUILD YOUR OWN IBM XT &AT COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS

XT AT Case

$59.00 FLIP-TOP (XT look like)

$65.00 FLIP-TOP (AT look like)

(in eluding keyboard lock & reset SW)

$65.00 SLIDE-IN (XT look like)

$69.00 SLIDE-IN (AT look like)

(in eluding keyboard look & reset SW)

$109.00 SLIDE-IN (AT)

XT AT Power Supply

$89.00 XT135W

$159.00 AT200W

XT AT Keyboard

$75.00 5160 XT (AT look like)

$109.00 5160 AT

XT AT Mother BoardXT 640K (0K RAM)

2 layers 4.77 MHZ $159.00

4 layers 4.77 MHZ $195.00

XT 640K (*K RAM) Turbo

2 layers 4.77 MHZ/8MHZ....$195.00

4 layers 4.77MHZ/8MHZ $229.00

AT (1MB/0K) 4 layers $ CALL

PCfXT AD-ON-CARD

Floppy Controller $49.00

Disk I/O Card $129.00

Color Graphics Card $85.00

Monitor

Color RGB (TVM) 14" $395.00

TTL Monitor (Mctek) 12" Amber..$110.00

U.S.A. OFFICE SKY IIK.II « «>.. INC.

WHOLESALE (415) 549-3472 RETAILER (415) 843-0714Sd'micro wholesale a DISTRIBUTION

01A MCNICOLL AVENUE WIULQWDiLE ONTARIO N13H SEI CANADA TELI41 31 A B A 3 2 3 O

MANUFACTURER EAST IMI.I I VI CO.. III).

2ND Fl_.. NO. A3E KUANB-FU s. RD. TAIPEI. TAIWAN. R.TE1_:I02I 703-HSA3. 703.2A71, 708-2010 TI_X; 10B31

IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

Inquiry I47

IUNE I986 -BYTE 375

Inquiry 97

NEW PRODUCTS

SOFTWARE & PERIPHERALS

NEW CHIP RUNS CP/M ON IBM PC's

Your IBM PC or compatible can run 1,000!s of CP/M80 pro-grams with NEC's new V-20/30 microprocessor andRUN/CPM software interface from Micro Interfaces Corpora-tion. Features include ability to run CP/M or MS-DOS pro-grams from same prompt, disk emulation allows PC to runCP/M programs from CP/M disks and directly READ, WRITE,and FORMAT approx. 100 of most popular formats, ability torun CP/M from Hard Disks or Ram Disks, run MS-DOSbackground programs on top of CP/M programs, 13 Logicalor Physical drive assignments, approx. 100 CP/M terminalsemulated. RUN/CPM sells for $99.95 and includes NECV-20/30, to order contact M.I.C. at 1-800-637-7226 or for TechInfo 1-305-823-8088.

NEW Z-80 COPROCESSOR BOARD ONLY $199.95

Lowest priced Z-80 board currently available runs CP/M pro-grams on IBM PC's and AT's. Comes complete with 5.0 Mhzclock, 64 K of memory, and includes all of the features of theRUN/CPM product listed above. Price is only $199.95 and in-cludes RUN/CPM software interface. Contact Micro InterfaceCorporation, 6824 N.W. 169th St. Miami, Fl 33015,1-800-637-7226 or 1-305-823-8088

Advertisement

• Best of BIX •

EIX

• Best of BIX • Bes

atari.st/questions #24, from neilharrisa comment to 22

Since the video shifter puts out a 60-Hz signal for color and a 71-Hzsignal for monochrome, the two modes are not at all compatible. If youfed the wrong signal into a monitor, you would be likely not only to getgarbage on the screen but also to damage the flyback transformer

atari.st/questions #26, from al [Alastair J. W. Mayer, author of BIX'sCoSy software]a comment to 24

That's no worse than feeding a 50-Hz PAL signal into an NTSC monitor(or vice versa), something I've done more than once. Garbage, yes-like a severe case of out-of-adjustment horizontal and vertical hold—butmy monitor still works fine. (Mind you, I don't make a habit of it andonly did it for a few minutes at a time.)

atari.st/questions #27, from jim_a comment to 26

.kent

What sort of plans does Atari have for a standard video output? As it is,video-types are the only people left I can in good conscience recom-mend an Amiga to. (I'm a concerned animation programmer with aVCR.)

atari.st/questions #28, from neilharrisa comment to 27

The latest model of the 520ST has both RF and composite videooutputs.

Languages

atari.st/main #52, from swestrup

Modula-2

Where can I get a good book on Modula-2? I'd like to decide whether I

like the language before I go out and buy a copy of it.

atari.st/main #53, from jruleya comment to 52

As to a book—it sounds corny, but I recommend Modula-2: ASeafarer's Guide and Shipboard Manual by Edward Joyce (Addison-Wesley, 1985). Not only is it a fairly complete reference on Modula-2with a good index, it is actually fun to read!

atari.st/main #54, from neilharrisa comment to 53

Personally, I found the [Niklaus] Wirth book, Programming in Modula-2,2nd edition, indispensable as a reference, and the Knepley and Prattbook, Modula-2 Programming, a good tutorial textbook. I will try toupload the sample program that comes with TDI's Modula-2/ST whichthey have permitted to be passed around. It does use the GEMfeatures.

atari.st/tech #33, from wbaker [Bill Baker]

Just started playing with Lattice C from Metacomco. My overall first im-pressions are that the language implementation is good, but I think thelinker is a dog. A small hello-world program took five minutes to link. (Iuse double-sided drives.) There is a full AES and VDI library implemen-tation with source in assembler but no real documentation other thanfunction names and arguments.

Having tried Hippo C, Megamax C, and now Lattice, [I find] none ofthe C implementations anywhere near as good as TDI's Modula-2/ST.Looks like I may have to learn a new language if I want to have

376 BYTE • IUNE 1986

inquiry 220

BIX • BEST OF BIX •

EIX

• Best of BIX •

development tools anywhere near as good as others I am used to (IBMPC family, Microsoft C, Brief editor, Make, and PLINK86).

atari.st/tech #34, from dmenconi [Dave Menconi]a comment to 33

Everyone is raving about Modula-2. My problem is that I will have tolearn a new language. I will probably go for it because I really likedeveloping in Ada, and I understand that Modula-2 is like Ada. Until Iget around to it, I plan to develop in Personal Pascal by OSS. ThisPascal is out for the ST and is coming out for the Mac RSN. They saythat something that runs on the ST can be compiled and run with nomodification on the Mac (of course it will need to be tweaked to beaesthetic and efficient). If true, OSS is really going to clean up!

atari.st/tech #49, from bwebster [Bruce Webster, Consulting Editor,

BYTE]

a comment to 34

No, no, no. Modula-2 is not like Ada, though both are derived fromPascal. In fact, Modula-2 and Ada represent diametrically opposedtrends. Modula-2 is a very minimal language; just about everythingbeyond the basic language syntax is a user-defined library, thoughmost Modula-2 implementations come with a set of standard libraries tosave you the hassle of writing them yourself. Ada is a "kitchen sink"language, as in having everything but the kitchen sink. Modula-2 reallyresembles a hybrid of Pascal and C.

atari.st/tech #52, from wmiller [William Miller, Stratus Computer]a comment to 49

The similarity is in the concept of modules (Ada "packages") withseparate definition and implementation sections. Other similarities existdue to the fact that both have Pascal as an immediate predecessor.But, as Bruce said, there is a major difference in the designphilosophy.

atari.st/tech #54, from bwebstera comment to 52

Thanks. Couldn't have said it better myself. I haven't done any actualAda programming, though I was almost on the industry review board(read: "enormous group") back in 79 when I was leaving GeneralDynamics and they were offering that as an incentive to stay. (Almostworked.) I have gone through a few books on Ada, though, and havecarefully read Tony Hoare's talk, "The Emperor's Old Clothes," in whichhe describes his horror at the thought of ICBMs guided by programswritten in Ada. There is a definite dichotomy of design, despite theresemblances.

atari.st/tech #61, from jerryp [Jerry Pournelle, Consulting Editor,

BYTE]

a comment to 52

There are great similarities between Ada and Modula in that they areboth highly structured and programs can conveniently be written insmall independent packages or modules.

The difference is that Ada was designed by a committee of brightpeople, and Modula was designed by a single genius.

atari.st/tech #38, from jruleya comment to 33

Looks like it's Modula or nothing. That really gripes me—is there no de-cent C for the machine short of the $300 Alcyon in the developer's kit?I'd appreciate any comments—I am trying to replace Hippo C on my

[continued]

DESMET C compiler

AFFORDABLE WORLDWIDE

Australia Micromart, N.S.W. Tel: (02) 568 2564 (pamo

Botswana Hi-Tech Services, Gaborone Tel: 4540 (pc>

Britain MLH Tech., Cheshire Tel: 0606-89 11 46 (pamo

Denmark Ravenholm Comp., LyngbyTel: 02-88 72 49 ipci

Finland Holosoft, Toivakka Tel: (9) 41 871 201 <pc>

France PG Soft, Paris Tel: (1)205.39.47 (pc>

France R. P. M. I., Vincennes Tel: (1) 43654056 tmc)

Iceland Hugbunadur, Kopavogur Tel: (354)-1-64 10 24 fpci

Japan JSE International, Tokyo Tel: (03) 478-8271 (po

Norway Abacus Data, Oslo Tel: (472) 38 50 20 ipci

Sweden Escort Data, Vallingby Tel: 08-87-33-55 ipcimao

U.S.A. C Ware Corporation, California (408) 720-9696Ask about distributors in Germany rpcj, and New Zealand (Pclmao

C Ware Corporation

505 W. Olive, Suite 767, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 U.S.A.

(408) 720-9696 Telex: 358185

We accept VISA, MasterCard & American Express

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.

IUNE 1986

IYTE 377

Expansion Chassis/Sub-System

Specification

ModelNo.

No. ofSlot

Half HeightDrive

PowerSupply

DimensionDxWxH(cm)

Price

M-r

0

1

AorB

30x15x6.5

S149

M-2

3

3

C

42x25x16

S299

M-3

5

3

C

39x30x15

$259

M-4

12

2

D

40x39x14

S299

M-5

0

2

E

39x18x15

S149

M-6

0

1

A or B

26.5x18x13.5

S169

M-7

5

2

C

38.5x30x13.5

S299

M-8

0

2

E

39.5x18x13.5

S149

M-9

0

2

F

38.5x49x9

S249

M-10

8

4

Gor H

43x49x14

S259

' Extra space for a stand alone controller

EXT and RCV Adapters

• Connecting master expansion chassis to PC, XT or AT

• Fully buffered address, data and control signals.

• 3 feet shielded flat cable.

Price S159

Power Supply

Watt

+5V

+12V

-12V

-5V

A

50

5.0

2.5

B

50

1.8

3.5

C

100

8.0

5.0

0.3

D

100

10

3.5

0.5

0.5

E

45

4.0

2.0

F

60

5.0

3.0

G

135

15

4.2

0.3

0.3

H

150

15

6.0

0.3

0.3

ORDER TOLL FREE: (800) 826-0267In California Call (415) 651-3355

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

SOURCE ELECTRONICS CORP.

45277 Fremont Blvd., Unit 6

Fremont, CA 94538

Telex: 279366 FAX: (415) 791-0935

• BEST OF BIX •

BIX

• Best of bix • bes.

520ST. If I don't get any kind of good news on a C by next weekend,I'm going to get Modula and chuck C for good.

atari.st/tech #46, from dmenconia comment to 38

I am going to do my first project on the ST in Personal Pascal. I think itis a strong alternative to Modula-2 because it has a nice library for theST and I understand it will soon be implemented on the Mac. As far asI know, Modula-2 isn't out on the Mac yet, and when it is, there will stillbe the question of portability.

The questions that remain are: How optimized is the code generatedby these two languages? Personal Pascal has an optimizer, and fromthe manual it looks like they did some intelligent things. How soon willcompilers for other machines be out?

So far I have rooted for this Pascal for a couple of reasons: comingsoon on the Mac, nice ST interface, most people know Pascal betterthan Modula-2, and Pascal's been around longer, so its compilers arebetter understood. But Modula-2 has some nice features, too. First, it islikely to be more portable on future machines because there is onecomplete language definition instead of several (the original Pascaldefinitions had neither strings nor good I/O). Second, Modula is, Ibelieve, more structured than Pascal. For instance, it has packages thatallow a programmer to divide a program into modules and really keeptrack of which packages use which routines. This is a tremendous aidin avoiding spaghetti code.

A disadvantage that awaits the unsuspecting C programmer whowould use either of these languages is that they're designed to protectthe programmer from himself. For example, consider the strong typing:characters are type "char—not integer or "char" depending on how theprogrammer feels that day, as in some languages.

So, there you have it, a long-winded dissertation on the other twochoices. I highly recommend a careful examination of both languagesbefore a choice is made.

atari.st/tech #48, from jruleya comment to 34

Well, I went with the Modula—maybe we should compare notes afterwe've both had some time to work with them. With respect to choosingbetween the two, I spent today reading a book on Modula-2, and itlooks to me like it's possible to do anything in Modula-2 that you cando in C—although the implementations vary, they have all the samefeatures. It's been awhile since I looked at Pascal, but unless yours hasa lot of extensions (separate compilation, based variables, coroutines),there are quite a few things that will give you trouble if you try to dolow-level stuff.

RAM Disk and C Functions

atari.st/tech #40, from mmanlove [Mike Manlove]

Here are a couple of problems that have been bugging me for a week.I'd sure appreciate any insights that you might have.

First, is there a RAM disk that works with the TOS ROMs? I've got theHippo RAM disk, which works fine with TOS.IMG but bombs when Iboot ROM. Thinking about it, it seems like most RAM disks would per-form brain surgery on the BIOS/XBIOS, which is most likely in ROM.

Second, has anybody had any luck with the C library functionsMalloc() and Calloc() which come with the developer's kit? The ap-plication I'm working on really wants to play around in the heap, butright now it can't. Even a trivial program can get only a little memoryallocated (504 bytes for my Malloc tester), and you don't get a nullpointer if there's not enough memory—you get cherry bombs. Do Ineed to do something magical before using these functions?

Random comments: I'm running a 1-megabyte ST with the ROMs,two double-sided floppy disk drives, and both monitors (I couldn't

378 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 324 for End-Users.Inquiry 32 5 for DEALERS ONLY.

BIX • BEST OF BIX •

EIX

• Best of BIX •

decide). I've been having a fine old time with the developer's kit. butthe compile/link times off floppies are getting out of control, which iswhy I'm after all the RAM disk I can get. The TDI Modula-2 compilermay be the next step.

Thanks again for any help you can offer. I just got here, and BIXlooks great!

atari.st/tech #42, from jim kent

a comment to 40

\ use the Michetron RAM disk with the same hardware configuration(except only a color monitor). Works like a charm. I'm also curiousabout Malloc problems.

atari.st/tech #56, from swestrupa comment to 40

As to the Malloc/Calloc problem: I am told that when your C programis loaded by TOS, it gives all of the memory to the program, whichdoesn't want it. In order to have Malloc have something to allocate, youhave to do a Memfree call (I think that's what it's called) so that thememory is given back to TOS. The kicker is that the call requires theaddress of the last byte of memory that you want to keep. I have yet tofigure out how to get this address from either the compiler or the linker.

atari.st/tech #57, from jim_a comment to 56

.kent

I read in an addendum to my developer's kit (November 1985 or so)that in fact the start-up routine freed up almost all of memory and do-ing so was the cause of the problem. In any case I have sinceswitched to the Lattice C compiler. Its start-up leaves your program withall but 4K bytes. Malloc calls seem to function well. I wrote a little Cpreprocessor (long story, it was a front end to a menu-maker package)just last week using lots of dynamically allocated memory with noproblem.

Unfortunately, there was a file trashed in all versions of Lattice C thatI could get my hands on—clib.bin. This is forcing me to use the "-t"option to produce .o output so I can use Iink68, the DRI linker. Mygeneral impression of Lattice C other than this has been a massive im-provement in compile time, error reporting, and symbol size (31 charac-ters) over Alcyon.

atari.st/tech #66, from mmanlovea comment to 56

This is just a hip-shot (I haven't read the remaining comments yet), butthe standard C "sbrk()" function seems to be implemented. Would thisgive the end of the program itself or the end of all the memory thatTOS handed over to it? I'll do some experiments.

atari.st/tech #67, from cheatha comment to 66

We had some problems with those memory management functions,too. I'll see if I can get my partner, the ST hack, to tell me what hefigured out about them.

atari.st/tech #73, from jtuermera comment to 56

If you have the developer's kit, you should look at a file calledAPSTARTS (if it is included in your version). Or look at the source ofwhatever module you mention first in your link run. It starts by addingup the length of text, data, and uninitialized data segments. This infor-mation comes from the base page. The address of the base page ishanded over as 4(A7) to any program. The length of the base page

{continued)

Inquiry 303

640K ON IBM/XTMOTHERBOARD

for * 39.95 *

Mow you can have 640K Ram memory on your IBM XTmotherboard without using any slots or taking anypower. Easy to install two prom chip set lets youreplace two banks of 64 chips with two banks of 256kchips, right on your motherboardl

• MO software or changes needed. MO soldering.

• Works like a memory card but costs much less!

• Requires two banks of 256K Ram memory.

• Memory is checked and counted by IBM's built inP.O.S.T.

• Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money back.

- MOTHER-MEM/XT Prom set with

instructions $49.95

• $10.00 rebate when you send in your old 64K chips

- Set of two banks (18 chips) 256K Ram memorytested and burned-in $64.95.

- Add $2.00 shipping. Check, COD, MASTERCARD,VISA

- TOLL FREE ORDERS: (800) 541-2255 wait for tone,then dial 4314311 (touch tone only)

DEALERS INQUIRIES WELCOME.

HENHOUSE

nttnomet

12062 S.W. 117 Court

Suite 121

Miami, Florida 33186

Dept. B-01

COMPETITIVE EDGE

631 S. MAIN ST. • PLYMOUTH, Ml 48170 • (313) 451-0665

FEATURING S-100 COMPONENTS FROM:

COMPUPRO

EARTH

LOMAS

RAM 22® $446DISK 1A® $446

CPU 286® $671MDRIVE-H® $371

TURBOMASTER 256K W/HDCTURBOSLAVE-1 8MHZ 128K

S895$395

THUNDER 186 $895 256K STATIC $412COLOR MAGIC $476 NVDISK512K$371

TELETEK

SYSTEMASTER«>II 8MHZ 128K $795

SBC-1 6MHZ 128K $350 HDC S375

ALSO FEATURING OUR AT COMPATIBLE:

VELOCITY 286

10 MHZ OPERATION1024 K ON

MOTHERBOARD•20MB

FAST HARD DISK HI RES.

MONOCARD STANDARD •

1.2MB FLOPPY DRIVE

WITH DOS 3.1 $3095

MONITOR EXTRA options:

UP TO 16 MEGABYTES OF MEMORY •ENHANCED GRAPHIC ADAPTERS ■HARD DISK SUPPORT TO 240MB SCOXENIX" SYSTEM FIVE ■ AUTOCADREADY SYSTEMS • 3278'79TERMINAL EMULATION

ALSOCE 20MB XT W/512K

$1095

Includes floppy, hard disk, 512Kmemory, monocard w/paralletmonitor.

CompuPro. Ram 22, Mdnve-H aro either trademarks or registered Iradamarks ol Vinsyn Corporation Sysiemastor is a regislerodtrademark 01 Telelok Enterprises PC AT is a trademark ol International Businoss Machines Xonix is a registered trademarkol Wicrosoli uniPATH is a trademark ol Pathway Design, Inc , SCO is a trademark ol THE SANTA CRUZ OPERATION Autocadis a trademark ol Autodesk, Inc

Inquiry 73

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 379

Now it costs evenlessto look good.

Wofdslar 2000 is a trademark ol MicroPro International Corp. Epson is a trademark ol Epson America, Inc.

380 BYTE • JUNE 1986

The Cordata Desktop Printshop™ has always been thebest value in PC-compatible laser printers.

With speed and flexibility that the others can't match.

For example, we put 38 type fonts on diskette, notexpensive cartridges. And let you mix up to 32 fonts in asingle document. Automatically.

A high-speed graphics interface transfers data up to 30times faster than Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet + , and becausemost Desktop Printshop features are implemented in soft-ware, they're easy to update.

And becauseEpson™ emulation isstandard, the DesktopPrintshop has a ready-to-run solution formany programs that otherlaser printers can't use.

Not to mentionbeing easier

>

But now the Desktop Print-shop is an even better value,

A new forms design software program comes with theDesktop Printshop that lets you create documents quickly—and easily —using pull-down menus, not complicated commands.

We've also included the industry-acclaimed Wordstar2000™ word processing program. So you can start producingnear-typeset quality memos, reports, and correspondenceright away.

Last, but not least, we've lowered the price of theDesktop Printshop to $2995, including forms designsoftware, Wordstar 2000 and 38 fonts on diskette.So don't settle for just any laser printer.Demand the Desktop Printshop.

All it takes is a call to Cordata at: (800)621-6746 (in CA: (805) 495-5800; in Canada:(604) 984-0641) for the name of your nearestDesktop Printshop dealer.

After all, how can you affordnot to look your best?

The DesktopPrintshop

CORDATA, 275 E. Hillcrest Drive,Thousand Oaks. CA 91360TELEX 650-2696270; in Europe: Holland 032-18111

cordata

formerly f\ COfODrO%«* data ivsum. Inc.

Inquiry 95

EST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX •

BIX

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

($100) is also added to the total program length. A SetBlock (BDOS$4A) then reduces the total space allocated for the program to thisamount. You can change this start program or make a Malloc in yourprogram to get more room. Someone told me that the DRI C compilermakes its Malloc allocations in the third segment (BSS). But the lengthof this segment is initially set to zero.

NDC Coordinates

atari.st/tech #74, from jruley

I've just finished a frustrating couple of hours with Hippo C, trying tomake my graphics terminal program resolution-independent. TheAbacus GEM book lists an option on the open virtual workstation func-tion for NDC instead of RC screen coordinates, but this does not ap-pear to work. Is this a problem with Hippo C or with the ST?

atari.st/tech #75, from neilharrisa comment to 74

NDC coordinates are not supported on the ST version of GEM.

atari.st/tech #83, from timoren [Tim Oren, KnowledgeSet Corp.]a comment to 74

You can't use NDC with the ST's VDI, because it doesn't have a fullGDOS implemented. That also prevents you from opening workstationson other physical devices (other than the screen) and prevents doingloads of new fonts. Atari is supposed to be testing a RAM-residentGDOS which will work by stealing the VDI trap. The MiGraph EasyDrawpackage uses an early version of the GDOS.

several variations, and so far as I can tell, the function simply does notwork! Any suggestions?

atari.st/tech #80, from jim_a comment to 79

.kent

Well, I can maybe help you some with the first problem. Presumably,the 0-511 value is a 16-bit word divided into four 4-bit nibbles: 0 redgreen blue.Personally I don't use GEM much, but try this:

atari color reg = gem_color_reg->r*(1<<8) +

gem_color_reg- >g*(1<<4) +gem_color_reg - >b;

Or maybe the same thing with the r, g, b reversed. You also mightneed to scale down (probably divide by 16) the GEM componentvalues before you fold them into the register value.

atari.st/tech #84, from jtittsler [Jim Tittsler, Atari Corp.]a comment to 79

I don't know how you get there from Hippo C, but if you can do an ex-tended BIOS call, you can also get the value of each palette register.The extended BIOS call 7, setColor(colornum, color), sets the colorregister colornum to the given color. The old color is returned (and if"color" is negative, the hardware register is not changed, so there is anondestructive way of inquiring the value of each of the paletteregisters).

From Hippo C, can you do something along the lines of: for(i = 0;i<16; ++i) colorreg[i] = xbios(7 i, -1);?

Graphics Programming

atari.st/tech #79, from jruley

Help!

I am still, unfortunately, programming in good ol' Hippo C with the

wonderful Abacus documentation. I need to do two things:

1. Read out the currently set color palette values. I can get the RGBrepresentation of these values using one of GEM's inquiry functions, buthow can I convert the RGB values to the color numbers (0-511)?

2. Save and restore the screen—specifically, I need a way to avoid the

ugly gray blob that appears when the "fsel input" function's dialog

box disappears from the screen. I can do this by getting the screenaddress using "physbase" and treating the screen as an array, but thedocumentation led me to believe that I could use the "vro_cpyfm"function to do this.

So far as I can tell, the blasted function does not do anything. Here'show I am trying to use it:

static short int handle, screen[8],«sMFDB,*dMFDB;

usual GEM set-up

screen[0] = 0;

screen[1] = 0;

screen[2] = 639:

screen[3] = 399;

screen[4] = 0:

screen[5] = 0;

screen[6] = 639;

screen[7] = 399;

vro_cpyfm(handle,3,screen,sMFDB,dMFDB);

all sorts of stuff, including fsel input

vro cpyfm(handle,5,screen,sMFDB,dMFDB);

My understanding from the documentation is that the first call tovro_cpyfm should save the screen to a memory area and that thesecond call should restore it. This is not happening—in fact, I've tried

atari.st/tech #85, from jruleya comment to 84

No, you can't using Hippo. But as I'm writing my own XBIOS, that'llwork just fine—thanks!

atari.st/tech #86, from jruleya comment to 85

Well, I went off and tried it—looks like it'll work!Anybody else out there still using Hippo? If so, I'll post my XBIOS

routines in Listings.

Power Problems

atari .st/questions #2, from dbetz

I have a new Atari 520ST and have been having some problems thatseem to be related to the power supply. Whenever the machine is run-ning, the display jitters. I don't think it is related to the power in myhouse, since I have used many other computers without any similarproblems. Also, my ST seems to be very sensitive to static electricity. Ihave it set up in my living room and whenever I walk across thecarpet, I get a burst of "key clicks" from the ST, and if I am in an editor,I get a burst of garbage characters on the screen. I suspect that theproblem is related to the power supply. Anybody have any idea whatthe problem is or what I can do about it?

atari.st/questions #9, from neilharrisa comment to 2

Are you running a monochrome monitor? If so, a color monitor in closeproximity will cause some screen jitter due to 60-Hz vs. 71-Hz beating.Just turn off the other monitor.

atari.st/questions #10, from dbetza comment to 9

I was running the monochrome monitor and didn't have any other

382 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of bix •

BIX

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of bix

monitors (color or otherwise) anywhere near the one I was using. I triedthis in several locations in my house, so I don't think it was because Iwas too close to some sort of RF source. I have never had any troublewith any of the other computers I've used (including an Atari 520ST thatI borrowed for a while). It really seems like this problem is related tothe power supply or the main keyboard unit (I tried a differentmonochrome monitor also). Neil, thanks for your suggestion, but I don'tthink it's the source of my problem this time.

atari.st/questions #13, from mmanlovea comment to 10

I had a similar problem with the color monitor at first. Moving the CPUpower supply away from the monitor (like, down on the floor) took careof it. Don't know if this could be the problem with the mono monitor,

though.

atari.st/questions #14, from dbetza comment to 13

Thanks for your suggestion. I didn't think of the possibility of in-terference from the power supplies. I had all three of them stackedright in back of the monochrome monitor! I don't have the machineanymore, so I can't check your theory, but I'll call the people that I sentit to tomorrow and suggest that they try it.

IBM PC ANDCOMPATIBLES

The summary of events in the IBM conference this month includes adiscussion on the V series of microprocessors, coping with hard diskproblems, memory expansion for the PC XT, Trojan Horse programs,and programming the IBM 5550 Japanese PC.

V20 Hard Disk Problem

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #629, from lowellt [Lowell Tuttman]

I thought that I would relate an interesting V20 experience I had in thelast week. I got a "General Failure reading drive C:" on my 22-mega-byte hard disk (Micro Design) and decided it was time to reformat andreload the disk. At this time I had a V20 in place. I ran a good backup(32 floppies' worth) and then reformatted the disk. All was going well atthis point. After restoring the files (many hours later) I found that I got"Parity check 2" at boot time on the hard disk, I was able to boot froma floppy and then go over to the hard disk without problems butdefinitely no boot. I replaced the 8088, reformatted the disk, reloadedit, and was able to boot OK with the 8088 in place. I then put the V20back in and all is still fine. The boot process works fine, as doeseverything else. It is curious that I can format floppies with the V20 inplace but not the hard disk.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #631, from ucivms725 [John Leonard]a comment to 629

I had the same problem when I reformatted my hard disk. The problemwas narrowed down to the RESTORE procedure. When I backed up myhard disk, I also backed up the hidden system files of DOS (a packagedeal when you back up the entire hard disk). When restored over thetop of the newly formatted hard disk, these hidden files overwrite thealready existing DOS files from the format. My disk would not boot fromthe hard drive, but the files were there A-OK if the system was bootedfrom a floopy. I found two solutions: Back up each hard disk subdirec-

tory one at a time (if you can remember them) or unhide the twosystem files from the first backup disk and delete them.

My V20 is working perfectly, there appears to be no problem withany operation, and I found that when used in conjunction with an 8087I cut the processing time of a large SPSS-PC (statistical program) runfrom 63 minutes to 13 minutes! (I would not have believed it had I nothad a copy of the printout with the start and end times right in front ofme!)

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #633, from naro [Richard Naro, NEC Electronics]a comment to 631

I would be interested in hearing the details of benchmarks with theV20. While it speeds up its internal operations, the only effect it canhave on an 8087 is the time spent computing the effective address.My guess is that much time is spent doing integer multiply/divideand string operations, which are highly optimized on the V20/V30microprocessors.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #634, from naroa comment to 629

Format routines are notorious for having CPU timing loops. My guessis that the format routine is the cause of the problem, but this is thefirst time I've heard of it on a hard disk. The 765 floppy disk controllerchip is much more susceptible to this problem.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #635, from conniek [Conrad Kageyama]a comment to 631

I don't know which DOS you are using, but in 3.x, there is a IP switchto the RESTORE function which will prompt you before replacing anyexisting files.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #636, from lowellta comment to 634

I think that the problem I had was what was described in message631. The system files were restored over the newly formatted one, and Idid get a DOS error message saying "target disk may not be bootable"I was curious about its being a timing loop because my floppies werefine after formats with the V20.

By the way, I ran all the benchmarks in the "V20,arc" files from NECand I'll be glad to post the benchmark times that I got as soon as Ican find the printout.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #638, from dgookin [Dan Gookin]a comment to 635

Sometimes, depending on your flavor of MS-DOS, IP prompts only forhidden or system files. Very misleading and somewhat pointless.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #639, from billn [Bill Nichols]a comment to 638

IP is supposed to prompt for two things: attempting to overwrite a read-only file or attempting to overwrite a file of the same name but a laterdate. Both cases work (for me) and are valuable. IP is necessary toavoid clobbering the hidden system files. If you skip IP but restore overthem, you may not be able to reboot.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #642, from lowellt

I think I'm a little confused about the V20 and the V20-8. I gather thatthese are the 4-MHz and 8-MHz versions, respectively. What happens ifyou put a V20-8 into a regular PC?

(continued)

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 383

EST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX •

EIX

BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #643, from naroa comment to 642

Early versions of the V20/V30 that were marked with no speed infowere 8-MHz devices. Currently, devices are marked as follows:70108-5 = 5 MHz; 70108-8 = 8 MHz; 70108-10 = 10 MHz.

The latest mask level is M (it is found in the date code). This level isfully compatible with the 8086/8088 it can replace except for the -10devices. This is because it is difficult for CMOS to use a 33% duty-cycle clock, so the 10-MHz devices still require a 50% duty-cycle clock(although below 9.5 MHz they are OK).

The device speed is only the clock at which the manufacturer willguarantee operation and does not affect the throughput of the micro-processor. The most noticeable impact will be on your wallet sincethere are price premiums for faster devices.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #648, from billna comment to 643

Do you have access to info on V60 and V70 chips? I'm interested incomparing them with the 80286 and 80386 on a performance basis.Thanks.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #649, from naroa comment to 648

Yes, but the information is not in a form easily distributed yet. Send BIXmail with a request to be added to the mailing list, and I will send outinformation as it is published.

As for performance, the V60 can do 2 to 3 MIPS [million instructionsper second]—but remember that a MIPS is not constant from machineto machine—and the V70 can do 4 to 6 MIPS. I prefer elapsed time asa better measure of performance. For example, the V60 floating pointcan do 32-bit reals in under 5 /xs (divide in under 8 jis), and there isno penalty for the MMU [memory-management unit] since it is includedin the internal pipeline.

Hard Disk Power Failure

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #667, from asantic [Alexander Asantic]

I have a Rodime 20-megabyte full-height drive in an expansion unit at-tached to a PC. I've been having a problem lately with the disk drivespontaneously losing power while in use. This has never happened inmany months of use but appears to be occurring with greater frequen-cy as time goes by. So far, no damage to the disk or the data on it.

It seems that a circuit breaker is tripping for some reason and prob-ably needs to be replaced. The expansion unit has a very adequate135-W power supply, and only one slot is filled. This slot contains amodem that has been there from the beginning. No other part of thecomputer besides the drive itself is affected when this problem occurs,and cycling the system power brings the disk back up.

The longer the system has been running, the more reliable the harddisk appears to be, so I am currently leaving the machine on 24 hoursa day to insure that some important work gets done by Thursday.That's Murphy's Law for you! Anyway, any suggestions as to how to goabout diagnosing/solving the malfunction would be appreciated.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #668, from bbrown [Bob Brown]a comment to 667

Does your disk have a "power delay unit" between the power cableand the disk proper? This is a gizmo which is intended to "sequence"the hard disk on after the rest of the circuitry is stable, primarily to limitthe amount of current drawn from the power supply at power-up.

Power sequencing is quite common on "real" computers, and a flakysequencer can drop the attached device and anything that's "behind" iton the power circuit. I've never seen a power delay on a micro, so I

don't know what to tell you to look for to discover if you have one, but Iknow they exist because my MicroKit HD lists such a thing as an op-tion in the documentation. If you've got one, I suspect it could causethe problems you are seeing, and I'm pretty sure you don't need it withyour expansion box almost empty.Anybody know what one of these jobbies looks like?

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #670, from billna comment to 667

Circuit breakers also trip due to overheating and voltage spikes/surges.Are you using unfiltered power? If so, get a spike filter at least to pro-tect your equipment. Breakers also get old and trip for no reason. Itshould be cheap to replace.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #676, from asantica comment to 668

Interesting suggestion! If there is a sequencer, it doesn't appear todelay power-up for very long, and it would have to be built into the in-nards of the drive chassis somewhere. I don't see anything likely-looking in plain sight. I still suspect a circuit breaker, but I haven't dis-mounted the unit yet to look around. I'm not really sure what to look for.There's something that looks like a relay in partial view (small case,clear plastic, metal inside), and I hope that's not the bugger causingthe disk to crap out because he's soldered to a board. Thanks for thereply.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #677, from asantica comment to 670

The power is filtered, and there has never been a problem with powerquality before. Overheating is unlikely since the drive becomes morereliable after the system has been powered up for a while. The expan-sion unit has a hefty power supply and lots of room and ventilation.(Sigma DynaFrame—ever meet one? Built like a tank.)

On the circuit-breaker assumption, how would you suggest Iproceed?

Oh, by the way, there's a click when the power cuts out, and some-times a click when the drive powers up.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #678, from billna comment to 677

That click could be most anything. One possibility is that the load inyour expansion box is too small. The power supply puts out x watts,most of which has to be dissipated as heat. The regulators overheatand automatically cut out to prevent damage. Test: Move a peripheralboard into the expansion box (not memory). Second possibility—flakybreaker. Breaker cuts out due to overheating because of high-resistance contacts. Test: Next time the system cuts out, carefully putyour fingers on the breaker case. If it's more than warm, replace it.Third possibility: Check the grounding. But try the other two first.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #682, from bbrowna comment to 676

Sequencers on real computers delay for several seconds, long enoughfor drive motors to reach 80% of full speed. I'd expect a "delay" on aPC disk to hold power for a second or so, long enough to notice. I'dalso expect it to be separate from the drive proper.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #683, from smack [Steve Mack]a comment to 677

I have just started using Rodime drives, and while I have not had thespecific problem you mentioned, I have noticed a defect in these drivesthat might cause such a problem. The shock-mounted drive/printed-

384 BYTE • |UNE I986

best of bix • best of bix • best of bix •

EIX

• Best of bix • best of bix • best of bi:

circuit-board assembly is attached to the mounting frame in such a waythat the pins on the underside of the PC board extend to or below themounting frame at one point. They could easily short to the cabinet'smounting frame, possibly happening due to vibration/head movementor due to the gradual deterioration of the rubber shock mounts andconsequent settling.

Who knows what shorting out random drive logic pins might cause? Ialways insert washers between the drive frame and cabinet frame tokeep the PC board pins just enough farther from shorting that I cansleep well. Paranoid but plausible.

PS.: I should mention, I use 30-megabyte, not 20-megabyte, so thelayout may differ.

Hard Disk Sings the Body Electric

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #672, from mhaas [Mark Haas]

My hard disk has recently started chirping. It's a high-pitched squeakysound that comes, usually briefly, and then goes. If I press gently onthe rear shock mounts (between the drive and its chassis), the chirpstops. The drive is a new Microscience 20-megabyte unit, and so farthis seems to have no effect on the drive's performance or reliability.

Anyone have any suspicions about this? Should I be worried or justget out the screwdriver?

ibm.pclpc.hardware #673, from dondumitru [Donald Dumitru]a comment to 672

My SysGen 30-megabyte (in an IBM PC) started chirping a couple ofmonths ago. I set it out on a table with a power supply and fiddleduntil I found what piece was vibrating. Then I took a piece of tape andjust taped the annoying part to the drive's frame witn a bit of tension.(This assumes the chirper isn't a moving part.) Haven't heard it chirpsince'.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #681, from connieka comment to 672

I'd suggest checking all the screws first, naturally, but most likely thesource of your squeak is the antistatic spring on the bottom of thedrive, attached to the spindle. If you just tweak it a tad to change thetension on it, your noise should go away. At least that's the problem onmost of the Microsci 20s.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #688, from jshifrin [Jerry Shifrin]

One suggestion I've heard (but not tried) is to run the drive on its sidefor a while, presumably to move the lubricant around a bit.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #689, from mhaasa comment to 681

I'll check that out as soon as possible. The chirping sound seems to beworst when the machine is dead cold, when it's first turned on. Thenoise essentially disappears after several minutes and then only occa-sionally reappears briefly. Is that consistent with the antistatic spring youmentioned?

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #690, from mhaasa comment to 688

This raises another question I have about hard disks. Are hard diskdrives designed specifically to be mounted either horizontally or ver-tically? Thus, would you have to choose a specially designed drive toadd into a Compaq Portable (vertical mount)? Can you have problemsif you mount a PC with a hard disk vertically, as with one of thoseCurtis stands?

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #691, from barryn [Barry Nance]a comment to 690

I'm embarrassed to say this, but I installed my 20-megabyte disk up-side down. Once I found out, I didn't bother to turn it around. It worksjust fine in that position, and I'm not going to tamper with success.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #692, from connieka comment to 689

I can't say for sure on that one. Now it's beginning to sound more likea bad bearing/bushing, though it could simply be a matter of the fre-quency of the vibration of the antistatic spring changing with thetemperature.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #695, from connieka comment to 690

Well, the drives are supposed to be tested in all planes, but, really, youcan do only so much to compensate for gravity. The word that I gotwas that you should do the low-level FDISK and FORMAT with thedrive in its intended position, i.e., if you plan to set the machine on itsside on the floor, then do all of the above with the machine in thatposition. I understand that this was very critical with the earlier CMIdrives in the AT.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #704, from petewhite [Pete White]a comment to 690

My Seagate has been running in a vertical configuration for over threemonths without being powered down for more than a few hours. Narya problem, yet.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #705, from petewhitea comment to 689

I have an external drive with a spring that exhibited the same noises,the same way. Drove me bananas! Turned out to be the antistaticspring. (Where were you when I needed you, Connie?)

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #706, from mhaas

Cure found for dreaded chirpies. Yes, a cure has been found for thatdreaded disease inflicting thousands of hard disks, the chirpies. Conniewas right. I removed the hard disk from the chassis, turned it over, andbent back the small brass spring that contacts the platter spindle. Thisrelieved some of the springiness, just a tad, and cured the chirpies.Thanks, Connie.

For those with similar symptoms, don't bend the spring enough toactually deform it. You just want to reduce the spring's pressure on thespindle a slight amount.

Memory Modification

ibm.pc/xt.hardware #102, from jkilgore [Jerry Kilgore]

I recently acquired a how-to note that had been extracted from abulletin board somewhere. By adding an LS-158 chip, closing a jumper,and replacing the chips in banks 0 and 1 with 256K chips, I have640K on the motherboard of my XT. Does any one know (1) why thisworks and (2) will it harm anything? The XT tech manual shows theempty LS-158 chip socket and the jumper but makes no othercomment.

ibm.pc/xt.hardware #106, from dono [Donald Osgood]a comment to 102

Later-model XTs come with that capability built in. They don't mention it

[continued)

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 385

iest of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

EIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

suppose. It certainly is a

because they want to sell you the memory,normal capability of recent-vintage XTs.

ibm.pc/xt.hardware #111, from connieka comment to 102

We have a number of members using that mod, and the file, I believe,was probably called MB640K or some such. That particular file, if I amcorrect, involved soldering an additional jumper, which is a little scaryto me. There is a later mod that involves simply adding an additionalchip to an empty socket, which negates the need for the soldering. Un-fortunately, I don't recall the chip number.

ibm.pc/xt.hardware #112, from dondumitrua comment to 102

I have 640K on the motherboard—exactly as described in that mod.The modification involves (1) soldering a jumper between two solderpads (there just for the purpose of soldering a jumper to); (2) insertinga "decoder/multiplexer chip" into an empty socket (sorry, I don'tremember the chip number); and (3) putting 256K chips into banks 0and 1. Ta, dah! 640K for minibucks. For an XT, this has to be the bestway to upgrade your memory. For me, memory and the decoder/multiplexer cost around $80. I had it installed in less than 45 minutes.

ibm.pc/xt.hardware #114, from rschnapp [Russell Schnapp]a comment to 112

I have the text of that mod in my SideKick Notes file. The mux chip is a74LS158. If you'd like me to repost it (I don't know the original author'sname or the message number), I will.

Avoiding Troian Horses

ibm.pc/pc.software #632, from mwelch [Mark Welch]

I am uploading to the Listings conference a nifty little program calledCHK4BOMB (in a file called CHK4BOMB.ARC). This program goesthrough a program and lists out all ASCII strings and also checks theprogram to see if it is doing any direct disk accesses through the ROMBIOS. In other words, it checks to see if a program that shouldn't begoing to the disk drive actually does. I just ran it on a nifty-looking diskdirectory utility, and it came up with the following warning message(after listing out all the ASCII strings in the program):[clipped from output of CHK4BOMB.COM]

""WARNING"**

This program uses the ROM BIOS routines for direct disk access. Thisprogram COULD format a disk or write to certain sectors without up-dating the directory or File Allocation Table. DO NOT RUN this programuntil checked by an expert, unless you are familiar with the author orcompany.""WARNING""

This program writes to absolute sectors. The possibility exists to over-write important data!

ibm.pc/pc.software #633, from petewhitea comment to 632

Sounds like a program that should be described in the Sysops con-ference. I'll have it as soon as it's listed; thanks for bringing it over.Right now I use the utility program ASCII to list and another utility tolock out disk access when testing. This one sounds a bit more simpleto use.

ibm.pc/pcsoftware #635, from barryna comment to 632

That does sound nifty. But I bet it would go nuts on Norton's Utilities.

ibm.pc/pc.software #639, from mwelcha comment to 633

Tell me about (and tell me where to get) the utility to lock out disk ac-cess when testing. I've heard that there is a program that tells thesystem that there is no hard disk; I would like to get that.

ibm.pc/pc.software #647, from connieka comment to 632

We've been using it for some time now, and it is definitely handy.However, it's a tad slow, so what I usually do is to redirect its output toa file so that I can start it up and go away. Then a quick LIST of theoutput file does the trick if anything less than kosher is in there.

ibm.pc/pc.software #653, from petewhitea comment to 639

It's on the Cul-De-Sac, (617) 429-1784. File named DPROTECTARC. Ittells you if anything wants to write to disk and locks it out so it can't. I'llhave it in Listings as soon as a few problems are addressed. (In theCul-De-Sac it's in Misc. Utilities #2, File #65-1 minute at 1200 bps.)

IBM 5550 (Japanese PC) Help!

ibm.pc/pc.software #748, from gperfect [George Perfect]

We are currently working on some windowing software for the IBM5550 (Japanese PC) and have a small problem (apart from notunderstanding Japanese!).

We would like to display kanji—2-byte—characters on screen withoutusing the BIOS. That is, we would like to place the character codesdirectly in the screen buffer and avoid the speed penalty incurredwhen using the BIOS calls.

To date, all attempts to do this have failed miserably. If anybody canassist with information or suggestions on speeding the display of kanjicharacters, I would be most grateful.

ibm.pc/pc.software #750, from barryna comment to 748

George, there's some material in the Pascal conference that's related todirect-screen I/O. The assembler conference (topic cpu8088) has someas well, I believe. Neither set of material talks about kanji in particular,but you may be able to make use of the data anyway.

Two questions: What's the layout of the video memory (screen buffer)for kanji, especially in relation to the usual—English—layout of charac-ter/attribute byte pairs? And exactly what happens when you try writingto the screen—what symptoms do you get?

ibm.pc/pc.software #766, from gperfecta comment to 750

Thanks for the info. I think we understand how to write to a normalscreen buffer (we do it all the time on other machines), but the prob-lem with kanji is different. Kanji characters are stored in 16 bits-normally treated as 2 discrete bytes. The first byte (if within certainranges of high-order ASCII, i.e., > 127 decimal) acts as a lead-in to tellthe display software that the next byte will complete a 16-bit kanji code.

With regard to the buffer format, it is basically the same as a stan-dard PC (i.e., first byte for character code, second byte for attribute).The standard procedure for writing characters to an IBM screen bufferworks for display of ASCII characters and single-byte Japanese (kanacharacters mainly), but the process fails with 2-byte codes.

The 5550 has a second display buffer which appears to work in APAgraphics mode at all times. It appears that the BIOS fills this buffer withthe FONT image of each character—read from disk if necessary(another small problem)—and, so far, we have only succeeded in mak-ing this happen by sending kanji characters via the BIOS calls.

386 BYTE • |UNE I986

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX •

BIX

• Best of BIX • best of bix • Best of bix!

Our problem is that we do not understand the operation of the 5550BIOS (IBM does not publish it) and so cannot fathom the format of thecharacter-display buffer or even if it is used by the BIOS in the displayof kanji at all. There is a wealth of technical information available for the5550 and several good books, but our Japanese partners have foughtshy of translating it for us.

In terms of symptoms, our main problems are speed (using the 5550BIOS is extremely slow) and clipping of characters on window boun-daries, i.e., if a 2-byte character straddles a window border. The secondproblem is solved with a little searching (and a few curses at the JIScodes, which could make the process of identifying kanji mixed withsingle-byte characters much easier), but the first is a real problem towindowing software.

Right now, it would be a great help if someone who really knows the5550 could tell us that what we want to do is impossible—at least wewould save the effort of trying. Ideally, if somebody has worked themachine and knows the literature, we would appreciate a pointer to theanswer. Thanks again for your help.

ibm.pc/pc.software #769, from barryna comment to 766

I've never seen the Japanese PC, so I'm on thin ice here. All I can tellyou is how I'd approach the problem if I were in your shoes.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say the problem is themystery of what the BIOS is doing—obviously it works, it's just too slow.

What do you think of this idea? Locate the Interrupt 10H vector inlower memory (assuming, as on a regular PC, that it's the one doingvideo-related functions) and use either DEBUG.COM or a product likeASMGEN (available here on BIX in the IBM section of the Listings con-ference) to reverse-assemble the BIOS code that's pointed to by the Int10 vector. Print out the result and go through it, analyzing the code forvideo-buffer updates and accesses. This process should eliminate themystery of what the BIOS is doing.

Then you can proceed to use what you've found out to constructyour own video-memory-buffer control routines and bypass the BIOScode for the too-slow functions.

MACINTOSH

This month the Mac conference covers questions about hard disks, adebugger, a font, and some hints on using Word. There are also somequestions concerning the Mac Plus.

Request for SCSI Information

macintosh/hardware #77, from cfuller [Clayton Fuller]

SCSI Info?

Where can I find more information on the SCSI standard? A source forthe published standard would be nice, but if there are any articlesdescribing its use, that would be better,

macintosh/hardware #79, from tcantrell [Tom Cantrell]a comment to 77

There are two SCSI info sources:

ADSI (Adaptive Data Systems Inc.)

2627 Pomona Blvd.

Pomona, CA 91768

(714) 594-5358

ADSI has a very complete SCSI Guidebook.

NCR Microelectronics DivisionLogic Products Marketing

1635 Aeroplaza Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80916

(303) 596-5612

Ask for all info on the NCR 538x SCSI chips

[Editor's note: ADSI's SCSI Guidebook costs $16.95 plus tax and/orshipping costs.]

MacApp, Music Drivers. Mac Plus Compatibility, andTMON

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #145, from spmpuyol [Robert Puyol]

About MacApp

I'm a certified developer in France, and I have two questions. What isthe latest MacApp version? (Mine is 0.3, a Pascal Workshop alpharelease.) Are Macintosh MacApp and Macintosh Smalltalk available?

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #146, from mondrejko [Michael Ondrejko]a comment to 145

There is a Smalltalk available for the Macintosh from Apple, mostly un-supported, but for $50 definitely worth it. For an order form, contact:Smalltalk Request, c/o Eileen Crombie, Apple Computer Inc., 20525Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #147, from dsharp [Doug Sharp]

Mac Music Driver?

Anyone know of a good way to output good multivoice music from aMac program? I have heard Jazz Musician-Jam Session and got realexcited until I heard what they wanted to license it for. I'd like a driverthat could take a MusicWorks or Deluxe Music Construction Set type offile as input so I could use a decent editor to try out the sounds. Itcan't be purely digitized tunes because of memory-size and processor-use considerations. Any hints or pointers would be accepted.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #148, from petter [Petter Gustad]

What is the latest version of Megamax C (any after v2.1)? Has anyoneseen an updated version of Edit that runs on the Mac Plus?

Jhompson [Tom Thompson,

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #150, from tom_Technical Editor, BYTE]a comment to 148

I don't know about Megamax C. I think the MDS editor works on theMac Plus, but I haven't used it sufficiently to be sure. Stuff that I'vechecked so far:

Application or Desk AccessoryMockWrite 3.0, 4.0Macintosh Pascal 1.0Consulair Mac C 4.0

Finder version #4.1

1.10

4.1

The MDS editor refused to print to the Imagewriter II on the Con-sulair disk, but that may be due to the super-stripped system file on thedisk. MockWrite wrote to the Imagewriter II with no problems.

Oddly enough, TurboControl, with autostart set, didn't cause a crashon the Mac Plus. I can only conclude that it has something to do withthe "old" Finder (4.1). It will be interesting to try it with the Mac Plusversion to see what happens. I'm trying to do a compatibility study hereto see what software will work without upgrades. Any info would be ap-preciated, as I want to see what impact it will have on the boxes ofsoftware I already have.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #152, from rkaapke [Richard Kaapke]a comment to 150

I have used Bill Duvall's editor under Finder 5.1 with HFS. His editor

[continued)

IUNE I986 "BYTE 387

est of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX •

BIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

(MDS Edit) doesn't open files across HFS folders correctly. If you usethe HFSOPEN patch program put into the public domain by AndyHertzfeld, MDS Edit will open files correctly but save them to the "rootdirectory" by using explicit filenames like "HD20:file".

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #153, from kschmucker [Kurt Schmucker]a comment to 145

I am also a MacApp tester/user. I think it is great. As a small test, Ideveloped a program that uses multiple documents, the standard Fileand Edit menus, is compatible with multiple desk accessories, prints onthe LaserWriter and the Imagewriter, and has all the standard windowcontrols. Only 87 lines of (object) Pascal.

The first MacApp users meeting was held at the MacWorld Expo.About 50 people were there, and there was a high level of enthusiasmamong many of the other MacApp users. Several serious applicationswere also shown: a shipboard navigation package, a re-implementationof MacPaint that supports multiple documents, auto-scrolling, and full-screen windows, and a crossword puzzle program.

Version 0.4 will be out soon. If you want an interim version (0.39) thatlacks documentation and a couple of features, you can request it. Per-sonally, I'd wait.

My guess is that after MacApp hits the street, it will be the only wayto develop new end-user applications (end-user applications, not newdevice drivers or stuff like that) because it cuts your development timedown so much (by a factor of 4 usually) and impacts your application(performance and space) so little.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #155, from ccrawfor [Chris Crawford]a comment to 153

I'm a little surprised at your assertion that MacApp impacts an applica-tion's performance and space so little. This certainly violates commonexperience with high-level languages. I attended a presentation onMacApp at a Software Entrepreneur's Forum meeting, and the lecturerseemed to acknowledge that MacApp did exact a considerable perfor-mance penalty.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #156, from roberts [Guy Roberts]a comment to 148

I've been using Megamax C version 2.1b for about three weeks now onboth a Mac 512 and a Mac Plus with no problems.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #159, from ccrawfor

TMON RAM Usage?

I am curious about using the TMON debugger. I have been usingMacsBug for the last few months (before I got my Mac fattened I simp-ly didn't debug—that's a tale of discipline). There seems to be a con-sensus that TMON is one of the best around, but I am curious aboutits consumption of RAM. How much disk space does it require? Howmuch RAM does its resident portion require? Are there any constraintsor gotchas in using it to debug production code?

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #160, from brecher [Steve Brecher]a comment to 159

TMON can take from 20K to 50K+ of RAM, depending on how youconfigure it and what "user area" (set of user-customizable routines)you use. Disk consumption is likewise variable depending on what youincfude/excfude (doesn't a guy like you have a hard disk?). I alwayshave TMON loaded—it's my start-up application (I've altered it so thatafter loading the monitor it launches my "real" start-up application). Lasttime I used MacsBug was about 1947. Get TMON. Then get DarinAdler's public domain Extended User Area.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #161, from kschmuckera comment to 155

Quantification of "little impact" = 10K to 20K in space and between10% to -20% performance hit. (By that I mean the MacApp versioncan be from 10% slower than a non-MacApp-written application up to20% faster.) Maybe I'm spoiled, but that seems like a good trade for abig reduction in development time.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #163, from tom_thompsona comment to 160

I've located the source for the Extended User Area and will upload itfor you if you're interested.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #164, from lloeb [Larry Loeb]a comment to 160

Darin's EUA fixes some minor TMON bugs as well. Gee, if it's not inListings, I'll put it there.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #167, from ccrawfora comment to 163

Yes, please do so; I just today ordered TMON from ICOM, so I will bevery interested in the Extended User Area.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #171, from hedges [Tom Hedges, Fractal

Software]

a comment to 147

Studio Session is supposed to sell for less than $100, not a particularlyhigh figure. It is due out by the end of April and would be your logicalfirst step toward high-quality music output by the Mac.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #175, from dsharpa comment to 171

I wasn't talking about a music program but a music driver to use fromwithin a game I'm working on. If Studio Session is the same as theprogram I saw called Jam Session, then it is indeed a wonderful musicmachine, but the developers wanted mucho bucks to license a driverfor developers. If they drop their prices considerably, I'd jump at it, butmeanwhile I'm still looking for a good, reasonably priced Mac musicdriver.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #176, from frankb [Frank Boosman]a comment to 175

I understand that MacroMind is now licensing code for developers touse in their programs. MacroMind produces VideoWorks and Music-Works, and I seem to remember a sliding scale of royalty charges, upto a max of about 60 cents per unit. What they charge depends onwhat use you want to make of their code; it's handled on a case-by-case basis. Call the people at MacroMind for a MusicWorks driver.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #177, from hedgesa comment to 175

Oh, OK, I didn't think their retail price was that high. The music outputcode (which I have personally worked on) is sort of the "family jewels"of the Studio Session product, so it makes sense they don't want tolicense for cheap.

You can use a single digitized sound from SoundCap, a product fromFractal and MacNifty, but it would require lots more space if youwanted to output complex melodies. On the other hand, if you are con-tent with sound effects and short bursts of music, the SoundCap digi-tized sounds might be the way to go. The SoundCap file unpack andoutput code is in the public domain and is posted in the Listings area.

388 BYTE • |UNE 1986

Best of BIX • best of BIX • Best of BIX •

GIX

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of bi

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #178, from dsharpa comment to 176

I've talked to Mark Cantor of MacroMind, and they are licensing aVideoWorks driver with very minimal sound abilities for a reasonablesum. I am looking for a four-voice music driver. Sorry.

Another Program Bug

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #183, from ccrawfor

Odd Bug

I've got a pretty good programming problem here. I have a call to Cau-tionAlert that causes the system to crash. It always crashes the system,with one exception: //1 have installed MacsBug and if I crash thesystem once, get thrown into MacsBug, execute an Escape to Shell(ES) command, and then restart the program from that point, the Cau-tionAlert will not subsequently crash. Moreover, I found that the crashoccurs only when I set my program as the start-up program on thedisk.

The ALRT definition in the resource file is fine and good, I checked itwith the resource editor. So is the DITL for the ALRT. I thought thatperhaps I wasn't initializing one of the many managers properly, but Iam calling InitGraf, InitFonts, InitWindows, InitMenus, and InitDialogs, inthat order, so it doesn't seem that I am leaving anything out.

This is not a make-or-break problem; I can leave the Minifinder asthe start-up. I am curious, though, as to the cause of this odd little bug.Any ideas?

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #184, from brechera comment to 183

You need to call TElnit.

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #185, from ccrawfora comment to 184

Are you sure that I need to call TElnit? I am not using any part of thetext edit package—at least, I didn't think that Alerts were part of the TEpackage. Am I wrong?

macintosh/softw.devlpmt #189, from ccrawfora comment to 184

Oh, mortification! You were right! That's what I get for trying to save twolousy bytes that I thought were unnecessary because I wasn't directlyusing the text editor package. A great big OOPS!

Installer Tip

macintosh/news #290, from lloeb

How to Fix the Installer

If you have read the errata to the latest Software Supplement (errata.wrtin Listings), you know the System Installer that Apple supplies wants toinstall 3.1 instead of 3.1.1. Here's how to rewrite the script to install thecorrect system file: Open System Installer with ResEd and find theINSC resources. In these resources there is a hex string that representsthe date of the system to be installed. You paste here the date you gotfrom the system you wish to be installed (by opening the destinationsystem with FEdit and copying it from there). Save your changes (this isa backup disk, isn't it?). Open the Imagewriter (and LaserWriter if youhave them) system files with ResEd again and paste the correct INSCresource (that hex date string) in those as well. Save your changes andyou're done.

APL FOR THE Mac

macintosh/software #170, from jbaker [John Baker]

PortaAPL Version 3.0a

For the last two weeks I have enjoyed the immensely rewarding ex-

perience of working (day and night) with what may be the best "poweruser" problem-solving tool running on the Macintosh today.

I am speaking about version 3.0a of PortaAPL. The first two versionsof this product, 2.0 and 2.1, were very satisfying pieces of software. Thelatest release pushes PortaAPL into the front line of top-quality APLsystems. In my opinion PortaAPL is the best APL system buy on themarket today. It compares very favorably in all respects to STSC'sAPL'PLUS, the best MS-DOS APL.

At this point you may wonder who I am and what makes my opinionabout APL systems worth anything. I run a small successful APL con-sulting firm in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (home of the best hockeyteam in the NHL). My major clients are large mainframe APL shops inprivate industry, the Alberta government, and the University of Alberta. Ihave programmed in APL for over ten years.

Having worked on all of these systems, I can state without hesitationthat PortaAPL is a very sound and thorough implementation of stan-dard IBM VS/APL with many STSC extensions. It's the first completeAPL system that costs less than $300 and yet delivers the power andcapacity required to run many mainframe-developed APL systems. Ihave ported hundreds of APL functions and one complete databasesystem from VS/APL environments to PortaAPL with no difficulties orincompatibilities. Of course, the Mac cannot keep up with an Amdahlmainframe, but the amazing thing is this little interpreter is fast enough,running mainframe code, to still be useful.

If you want to experience real power on the Mac, do yourself a favorand get PortaAPL. You will not regret it. Take it from a very satisfiedcustomer. PortaAPL is produced by Portable Software, 60 AberdeenAve, Cambridge, MA 02138, (617) 547-2918.

[Editor's note: PortaAPL costs $275 plus $10 handling charges]

macintosh/software #175, from kerskine [Keith Erskine]a comment to 170

What kind of graphics does PortaAPL allow you to do?

macintosh/software #177, from jbakera comment to 175

PortaAPL supplies a workspace of cover functions that allow you to ac-cess most of QuickDraw from APL. The system comes with a small plotdemo that shows one how to set up a simple technical plotting system.I have modified this system to plot engineering graphs, log normal,splines, etc. The performance is quite adequate. It's not as fast as com-mercial plotting packages; however, the APL environment is more flexi-ble and adaptable than some of the plot packages I have used. If youhave a need for "nonstandard" plots, PortaAPL is a good tool to pro-gram them in.

Boston II Font Info

macintosh/software #179, from joeleben [Joe Leben]

For those that don't know about it, acquire the shareware packagecalled the Boston II font. It's a collection of fonts that are much betterthat any I've seen, and I've got a lot of fonts. It's optimized for produc-ing normal-sized text on an Imagewriter printer and has to be seen tobe believed. The italics are even more legible than the normalcharacters. It comes with a well-formatted on-disk manual and othermiscellaneous software, including a RAM disk package that can beused to speed up the printing of the heavily formatted manual. Best$10.50 I've spent in a long time. It can probably be found on bulletinboards, but I got mine by mail by sending a blank disk and a checkfor $10.50 (U.S.) to the following address: Charles E. Maurer, 31 ForsythAve. S, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 2A4, Canada.

P.S.: The manual is worth the $10.50 for the typographies tips andtechniques that it presents.

{continued)

IUNE I986 -BYTE 389

EST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX •

BIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • best of BIX «

macintosh/software #182, from lloeba comment to 179

I heartily concur. Best usable font I have for real correspondence.

macintosh/software #192, from bwebster [Bruce Webster, ConsultingEditor, BYTE]a comment to 179

I'll second the comments about Boston II. I wrote nice things about it ina recent column (February BYTE), for which Charlie sent me a nice let-ter (as did Paul Rapoport, creator of the International font). Boston isnow the font I use for word processing on the Mac. (Be sure to getBoston II; there's an older Boston running around.)

macintosh/software #233, from jamurphy [Joe Murphy]

Macintosh Pascal 2.0

Macintosh Pascal 2.0 has been finally released as an update for thoseof us who have Macintosh Pascal 1.0. The update should be availableat any Apple dealer. It comes on two disks, one with the new version ofMacPascal and the other with documentation about the update, somenew sample programs, an installer to put the program on a hard disk(or to make backup copies), and a shell program. The shell program isa 75K run-time file that allows programs to be executed without runningMacPascal.

The notorious copy protection is gone, but there are invisible files onthe disks which make it necessary to use Copy II Mac, the utility in-cluded with the program or any copy program that copies invisible filesto make backups.

They appear to have fixed all the bugs and have added somefeatures. The program comes with Finder 5.2, but if you try to executea file with the PSHELL (run-time file), it crashes unless you useFinder/System 4.1. I thought it was really amazing when I tried to run afile as an application, and my Mac did a very vicious crash. It was onlywhen I tried the old Finder that I realized the problem. It seems incredi-ble, but the PSHELL is not compatible with the version of the Finder itcomes with! Overall though, it is a free update (you need your mastercopies to get the update, although my dealer put the copies on twodisks I brought because I didn't want to lose version 1.0), and Appleshould be commended for that. It is a well worth getting and, asidefrom the one problem with the run-time file, is a great improvementover 1.0.

Some Tips on Unprintable Characters in Word

macintosh/software #236, from lloeb

Word Tidbits

It is possible to find and change certain unprintable characters in the

Find/Change dialogs. It requires the following special codes:

" w white space

"s fixed-size nonbreaking space

"t tab

"p paragraph (RETURN character)

"n new line (Linefeed?)

" - optional hyphen

"d Word document division

MAC Plus Pin-outs

mac/ntos/i/tech.talk #144, from rkaapke

Mac Plus Peripheral-8 Pin-out

Since checking the connections between a Macintosh Plus and anImagewriter II, I have found that the pin-outs are identical. For thosewithout an Imagewriter II manual handy (see page 88, appendix C):

8 7 6

5 4 3

2 1

(You should recognize this pattern only in one orientation, which is look-ing at the pins in the male connector, holding it so that the flat part ispointing up.)

Pin 1

DTR

Data Terminal Ready Output

2

CTS

Clear To Send Input

3

TxD-

Transmit Data- Output

4

SG

Signal Ground

5

RxD-

Receive Data- Input

6

TxD +

Balanced Transmit + Output

7

NC

No Connection

8

RxD +

Balanced Receive + Input

Shield

PG

Protective Ground

I have no idea where to get these connectors other than on a Macin-tosh or Apple II peripheral-8 cable.

If you want to adapt a 9-pin to the peripheral-8, try using the Mac512K to Imagewriter II cable (which has a 9-pin on one side and aperipheral-8 on the other). Plug the 8-pin connector into the MacintoshPlus port, then get a "gender bender" 9-pin female to 9-pin femalestraight-through cable. Plug your 9-pin connector into one end of thegender bender and the Imagewriter II cable's 9-pin connector into theother end. Note that the voltages found on the 9-pin connector are notsupplied on the peripheral-8, so don't expect this to work with aThunderScanner or Koala MacVision, or with any other device that re-quires power from the Macintosh and not from its own source.

This is theoretical—I have not tried it; as soon as my Plus arrives, I'llpost any corrections that I needed to make.

Incidentally, I have a ThunderScanner and I will be thinking aboutthe power problem.

All you brave souls who dare to try this out, please leave us a notetelling of your success or corrected failures.

macintosh/tech.talk #150, from rkaapkea comment to 144

When consulting this diagram, reverse the positions of the transmit andreceive connections. When I used an Imagewriter II to Macintosh 512K(DB-9 to peripheral-8) cable, I needed to exchange my transmit andreceive lines for all the connectors I wanted to mate to the DB-9. Thediagram in message 144 is for an Imagewriter II; the Macintosh Plushas the transmit and receive lines (four in all) reversed. (ExchangeTxD+ for RxD + , and so on.)

macintosh/tech.talk #151, from tom_thompsona comment to 150

Your pin-outs are correct. Possibly what's going on is the null modem(transmit-receive pair swap) in the cable. Can you confirm? To recap:pin 3 is TxD-, pin 5 is RxD-, as specified in message 144.

macintosh/tech.talk #152, from rkaapkea comment to 151

Aha! Yes, of course—it's obvious now that I look at the connections!The Macintosh Plus peripheral-8 pin-out on message 144 is correct; anImagewriter II to Macintosh DB-9 is a "null modem" cable, and so ifyou use it with a Macintosh Plus to bring the peripheral-8 out to a maleDB-9, the transmit and receive lines are reversed. You have to keep thisin mind if your way of making an adapter from the Macintosh Plusperipheral-8 to a DB-9 is using the Imagewriter II cable. Thanks forclearing that up for me. ■

390 BYTE- IUNE 1986

The Buyer's Mart-

A Directory of Products and Services

THE BUYER'S MART is a monthly advertising section which enables readersto 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-$475 3x-$450 6x-$425 12x-$375Prepayment 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: Juneissue closes on April 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 603-924-3754.

ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

SOFTWARE PACKAGING, DISKS

Cloth binders & slips like IBM's Vinyl bnders, boxes, andfolders-many sizes. Disk pages, envelopes, & labels. Lowqty, imprinting. Bulk & branded disks. Much More! Lowprices. Fast service. Call or write for FREE CATALOG.

Anthropomorphic Systems Limited

376-B East St. Charles Road

Lombard, IL 60148

1-800-DEAL-NOW (312) 629-5160

. . .SOFTWARE PUBLISHING. . .

GDS oilers a wide variety of services that will help gel yoursoftware fo the market Address your needs wilh GDS

• IBM style cloth/vinyl 3-nng binder/slips

• Labels, sleeves, disk pages, bulk diskettes.

• Disk duplication with 100% verification

• Shrink wrapping and product assembly

• Ouick tum-arouna

A well packaged product can make the difference in making

a sale Call us now' VISA/MC

Glenco Development Systems(31 2) 392-2492

3920 Riage Ave Arlington His - IL 60004

Inquiry 770

BOOKS / DISKS / VIDEOS

NOW THERE ARE TWO BOOKS!!Programmers' Handbook ofComputer Printer Commands

vol. I — pns through 84 — S37.9S

Vol. II — pns as new as 85 — $26.95

Set —It II - 558.95

■50+ Manuta. ol DWP/OMP/Color '450 pgs./Table Form

MCIVISA/CKIPO + $2 COD + $2.50 S/H

ORDERS CALL 1-800-628-2828 ext. IS34 OR WRITE:

CARDINAL POINT INCORPORATED

PO. Bon 596. Ettettsville. IN 47429(812) 876-7811 IMF 9-5)

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

COMPUTER PROTECTION

• UPS • LINE CONDITIONERS • ISOLATORS

• MODEM PROTECTORS

• AC POWER INTERRUPTERS

— HUNDREDS OF HINTS & PRODUCTS —

FREE CATALOG 1-800-225-4876

ELECTRONIC SPECIALISTS, INC.

171 So. Main St., POB 389. Natick, Mass 01760

(617) 655-1532

FREE CATALOG OF ELECTRONIC PARTS!!

Thousands of pans and new surplus electronic partsat super low prices FAST ORDER PROCESSINGAND SHIPPING (95% of ail orders shipped within48 hours)CALL OR WRITE FOR A FREE CATALOG. .

ALL ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

POB 20406. Los Angeles, CA 90006-0406(213) 380-8000

VIDEO STORES

We need ambitious dealers in all U.S. statesand Canada to market a powerful system tocomputerize video tape rental stores.

WINCHESTER DATAPRODUCTS INC.

3301-Executive Drive., #204, Raleigh, N.C. 27609(919) 872-0995

IriQuiry 691

Inquiry 763

Self-Inking Printer Ribbon

For users of Okldata and other open spool ribbonprinters. Controlled Printout Devices are a new kind ofprinting ribbon thai re-ink themselves, and will last 15times longer than the ribbon you are now using. Forfurther information please call or write.

CONTROLLED PRINTOUT DEVICES, INC.

POB B69, Baldwin Rd., Arden, NC 28704(704) 684-9044

LASER PRINTERS

I will pay you cash for your used toner cartridges!!!(HP, Apple, Canon, etc.)

Recharging Service $40

Call or write for free instant pickup service:

PC Corporation, Laser Printer Products

11 Freeman Street. Stoughton, MA 02072

(617) 893-9000 (24 hours)

(617) 341-3005 (9-5 pm Eastern}

Dealer inquiries welcome

Do you know businesses or people that buy IBMhardware, software, accessories and supplies? If soyou could make commissions just for recommendingour national firm. Full or part-time positions availableWe discount most major brand name producls20-50%, which makes our prices most appealing.Pius you get $ for the sale. Call or write for more info.

WGGB

316 North Owen Street Mount Prospect, IL 60056312-392-2621

Inau'fy 678

Inquiry 762

COMMUNICATIONS

FREE CATALOG

Outstanding prices on computer accessories foryour computer and workstation. Our catalogfeatures a wide selection of quality products tomeet all your accessory needs. Call or write todayto receive your free catalog.

LINTEK COMPUTER ACCESSORIES

POB 8056, Grand Rapids, Ml 49508(616) 241-4040

DATA SWITCHES

Stop recabling forever, wilh our Serial or Parallel ABor X Data Switches. Two printers can share one com-puter or two computers can share one printer or plot-ter, or modem, or monitor, or etc. Prices start as lowas $42.00. Send for our catalog or see our ads inJan ./Mar./May issues. To increase your systems pro-ductivity today, call 602-623-5716

Via West, Inc.

534 N Stone Ave.. Tucson, AZ 85705

TELETERM

Sophisticated Terminal Emulator of most popular ter-minals including DEC VT100. plus build your own,up/download direct to disk/printer.. . error free filetransfer protocols. . . full screen ASCII text editor. . .remote print. . . unattended file transfer mode.

Telexpress, Inc.

P.O. Box 217, Willingboro, NJ 08046(609) 877-4900

nauiry 759

Inquiry 755

BAR CODE

LOWEST PRICES ON DISKETTES

5V." SSDD $.45. DSDD $55, High Density $1.653Vj" SSHD $1 45. DSHD $1.85

• Ulelime warranty • Includes lyvek sleeves■ 100°/b error Iree • Reinforced hub ring

• Finest quality • Labels & write protect tabsFree UPS shipping Minimum 100 diskettes.

Send check or call. CA residents add 6Vi<w> sales tax

Data Bureau Inc.

1633 Westwood Blvd.. Ste. 120

Los Angeles. CA 90024

213-479-0345

BAR CODE READERS/PRINTING

Programs $49-$299. Readers-$325 up PRINT BarCodes on PC and Epson/Okidata or IBM Proprinter■ Code 39. I 2of5, UPC, MSI, DOD-LOGMARS.AIAG Graphics chs up to 1". Labels. Catalogs fromfiles Subroutines for BASIC. Cobol. Clipper. Turbo.Pascal. C. dBASE III Plus.

Worthington Data Solutions

130 Crespi Court. Santa Cruz. CA 95060(408) 458-9938

TURBO/COMMUNICATION

1. Asynchronous communications program written i

Turbo Pascal'".2 Auto answer/Auto dial.

3. XModem protocol

4. Documented Source Code included.

5. For CPM/MS-DOS/PCjrPrice $30.00

Larry Chrysikoscall: 6500 Soulh WashtenawChicago. IL 60629312-778-3146 after 6:00 pm

Inquiry 711

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 391

The Buyer's Mart-

DISK CONVERSION

DUPLICATING SERVICES

HARDWARE

CONVERSION SERVICES

Convert any 9 track magnetic tape to Of Irom over500 formats including 3W", 514" 8" disk formats &.word processors. Disk to disk conversions alsoavailable. Call for more info. (312) 459-6010

Pivar Computing Services, Inc.

165 Arlington Hgts. Rd., Dept. #B* * Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 * *

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

Why risk duplicating your important programs on your com-puter, when our equipment is designed solely to duplicate disks& verily their perfection 100%' Over 600 formats 344". 5'A"&B' Plus serialization copy protection, labeling, packagingshrink-wrapping and last personalized service

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

1701 E. Edinger Ave. A-4Santa Ana, CA 92705714/547-3383 (collect)

DON'T LET POWER PROBLEMSDESTROY YOUR FILES.

GET UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWERSUPPLIES FOR YOUR PC'S. CALL FORBEST PRICINGS.

Everett/Charles" Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue

Fontana, CA 92335

800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

nciijiry 694

DISK AND TAPE CONVERSIONS

High quality conversion services for Dedicated WordProcessors, Mini and Microcomputers. Over 600 3Vi",5'/4", and 8" lormats. Also 800-1600BPI tape. Includ-ed: Wang, NBI, CPT, DEC, Vydec, Lanier, OS/6, XeroxIBM Sys/34/36/38/5520, Mac, Victor, TRS, Apple,NSTAR, IBM PC/AT, HP. and most of the other microcom-puters. We can convert directly into word processingsoftware such as: DW3. WR MSAVRD, WS, Samna, MM.PFS. and many others.

DATA FORMATS, INC. (408) 972-1830

BLANKET SERVICES

Diskette duplication • Packaging • Stocking/Dropshipping • 48 hour delivery • SUPERLoK copy pro-tection • No mastering fee • No charge for stan-dard labels • Place a blanket order with releasesas you need them for any quantity at a fixed price.

Star-Byte, Inc.

2564 Industry Lane, Norristown, PA 19403215-539-4300 800-243-1515

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTERINDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

• FORTH OS . Editor Assembler, Target Compiler, RAWDisk • 8085 CPU • 16 A/D Channels • RS232 • RealtimeClock • Buttered Digital I/O • Battery Backed RAM

• Single Supply • Watchdog Timer • Full Line ot Sup-port Hardware/Software • Counter/Timer • IBM/CPMSupport • RS422 • FROM S295.00 •

EMAC, INC.

1400 West Main, Carbondale. Illinois. 62901

(618) 529-4525

nauiry 750

Inquiry 692

INCOMPATIBLE WORD PROCESSORS?

We convert to and from: XEROX, DEC, IBM,

LANIER, WANG, PC-DOS, CONVERGENT

TECHNOLOGY, WORDSTAR, MULTIMATE,

SAMNA ASCII, MICOM, TAPE TO DISK.

Also most CP/M systems.

LOWEST PRICES

DATA CONVERSION INC.

6310 Cabaltero Blvd. • Buena Park, CA 90620

(714) 522-7762 (800) 824-4851 in CA.

nauiry 682

Disk/Disk * Tape/Disk

Over 600 formats! 3'/2, 5'A. or 8 inch disks; 9track mag tape: 10 MB Bernoulli cartridge. Database and word processor translation specialists.

Computer Conversions, Inc.

9580 Black Mountain Rd., Ste J

San Diego, CA 92126

(619) 693-1697

DUPLICATION SOLUTIONS

We have the answer to your duplication needs.no matter what the volume. We supply auto-loaders, disks, and technical support We pro-vide copy protection, serialization, packageassembly, and distributive shipping

MegaSoft

P.O. Box 710. Freehold, NJ 077281-800-222-0490 201-462-7628 (in NJ)

HARDWARE

USED APPLES & IBM's

Laser 128 (new) — call

PC Jr as low as $325.00

Motherboards & accessories — call

We buy, sell. & horsetrade — Apple, IBM, & CBM.

SHREVE SYSTEMS

845 Lark Ave., Shreveport, LA 71105318-865-6743 4-9 p.m. C.S.T. VISA/MC

EPROM/EEPROM PROG. $250

Programs 2716-27512. 25xx and 68764/66 epromsvia RS-232. Also 874x micros and 28xxA & 52BxxEEPROMs Automatic baud rate select, built in helpmenus, no personality modules'

16 BIT I/O MODULE $75Low cost control via RS-232. Expands to 512'

INTELLITRONICS

P.O. Box 3263. Tustin, CA 92680(714) 669-0614

The BG-Boards

and well-crafted books leach you how to constructcircuits for interfacing external devices to IBM, Ap-ple. TRS-80. Tandy, Commodore, Timex-Smclairmicros for monitoring and control S35 to S350. Freecatalog.

Group Technology, Ltd.

Route 1 Box 83, Check, VA 24072703-651-3153

Inquiry 676

CONVERT

CP/M <-> MS-DOS

Read, write and formal CP/M diskettes en an IBM PC or com-patible Over 115 CP/M formats on the menu and you canadd your own Use Convert to copy text and data files (suchas WordStar and Obase II) between CP/M and MS-DOS Oruse it to manufacture CP/M diskettes.

Only S69 from Selfware, Inc.

3545 Chain Bridge Rd., Suite 3

Fairfax, VA 22030

703-352-2977

POWERLINE GREMLINS??POWER FAILURES??

The MEIRICK STANDBY POWER SYSTEM

is the TOTAL SOLUTION to your

powerline problems

240 watt system - $365. <>00 watt system - S495,

800 watt system - $795

MEIRICK Inc., POWER SYSTEMS DIV.

Box 298, Frisco, CO 80443 303-668-3251

WESTERN INFORMATION SYSTEMSPhoenix, Arizona

Distributors ot Wyse, Televideo Diablo, Case/RixonParadyne, Prentice Also Canon laser and otherprinters

LOWEST PRICESLeasing Available

1-800 824-3086

Dealers Only

739

Inquiry 720

nQwry 760

DOCUMENTATION

COMPUTER ASSEMBLY MANUALS

BIG BLUE SEED lor IBM- BUILDERS: parts list, placement diagrams instructions for assembling over 65 IBM-compatible bare cards - $14.95.APPLE SEED II lor APPLE- BUILDERS: instructionslor assembling 77 Apple-compatible bare cards includingthe 11+ and lie motherboards - $12.95.

OVER 40 DIFFERENT BARE CARDSIN STOCK FOR THE HOBBYIST

NuScope Associates

PO Box 790 • Lewiston NY • 14092

nquiry 726

392 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Tandy 1000 Hardware

TanPak Multifunction Cards $329

Memory to 512K. RS232. Clock, DMA

TanPak Secondary $249

Memory to 256K, RS232, Clock

10 Meg Hard Drive with Controller $549

20 Meg Hard Drive with Controller $749

Hard Drive Specialist

1-800-231-6671 or 1-713-480-6000

16208 Hickory Knoll, Houston, Texas 77059

nauiry 702

68000 COMPUTERS

Single board computers. 128K to 1M RAM. 4 serial.2 parallel ports {expandable to 22 ports total), floppycontroller for 2 to 4 drives, SASI interface for Win-chester addition, timer/clock, real time multi-taskingmulti-user operating system, assembler, line editor,2 screen editors, spreadsheet From $995.00

AAA Chicago Computer Center

120 Chestnut Lane - Wheeling. IL 60090(312) 459-0450

Inouiry 650

The Buyer's Mart-

HARDWARE

HARDWARE ADD-ONS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

S79 MONO/GRAPHIC/PRINTER BOARD

• Hercules compatible ' 720 x 348 pixel' Lolus 1-2-3 compatible ' 80 x 25 text" Printer, Monitor port ' 1 year warranty' Light pen port ' In stock delivery

1 -S99 2-9 S89 10 - $79

SUGAR INTERNATIONAL

12015 NE 8th Ste. 3. Bellevue. WA 98005(206) 462-9283, Mo-Sa, 9-6

640K for IBM XT and Portables

Expand your memory board with MAXRAM. Easy plug-in installation, does not violate IBM's warranty, 100%software compatible, MAXRAM-R includes two banksof 256K chips.

MAXRAM S49.00

MAXRAM-R $129.00

Shipping included, dealer pricing available.Call (315) 47B-0722 to order.

LOGICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION

6184 Teall Sta., Syracuse, NY 13217

PC-Write" Shareware

Fast, powerful word processor/text editor for IBMPC. New Version 2.6 with auto reformat, optionalmenus, on-screen help, laser printer support, newexpanded manual. Mailmerge, split screen, ASCIIfiles, macros. All software, tutorial/guide ondiskette, $10. OK to copy. Register for full manual,support $75. 90-day money-back guarantee.

Qulcksoft (206) 282-0452 Visa/MC

219 First N. #224J, Seattle, WA 98109

Inquiry 737

INFORMATION SERVICES

TANDY-EPSON

Our 10th year of DISCOUNTS

Ed or Joe McManus

Fgt. Prepaid. Save Tax

Toll Free 800-231-3680

MARYMAC INDUSTRIES, INC.

22511 Katy Fwy., Katy (Houston), TX 774501-713-392-0747 Telex: 774132

TURBO S.I.X.

The Turbo Pascal Software Information exchangeoffers its members megabytes of Turbo Pascalcode for only 36 per diskette. Also a monthlynewsletter- Send $1.95 for the TURBO S.I.X.catalog. Deductible from the $19.95 membershipfee when you join. MC/Visa.

TURBO S.I.X.

P.O. Box 8373, Dept BZ, Waco, Texas 767103101 Mitchell, Waco. TX (817) 753-2182

PC-File III" Version 4

Search, sod, browse, global changes, macros, marlinglabels, formal reports with selection & calculations, sub-totals, totals, averages, encryption Exchange data with1-2-3. WORD, WordStar Over 190,000 users $59.95 +$5 s/h. For IBM PC

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 980061-800-J-BUTTON

MULTIUSERS

GBA

Full function IEEE-488 bus analyzer with 12,287byte memory. Controlled from any RS-232 com-puter or terminal. Also provides full bus control andmessage sending capability. $995.00

Connecticut microcomputer, Inc.

568 Danbury Rd„ New Milford, CT 06776Phone: 203-354-9395 Telex: 710-456-0052

MULTIUSER CLIPPER (OR C)!

With NOVELLIB and Nantucket's Clipper or Lifeboat'sLattice C Compiler.

• NOVELL or PC Networks • P'int Spooling

• Record & File Locking • Login, Station ID. and Morel

• Dead-Lock Avoidance • Object code and examples

NOVELLIB only S99. (specify Clipper or C).

Communication Horizons

701 7th Ave., Dept B, New York, NY 10036Tel: (212) 724-0150 Source: NAN285

PC-File/FP

All the power of PC-File III plus: Relational link toolher databases, integrated letter writing & mail-merge, context sensitive pop-up help windows Newbinary search retrieves data hundreds of times faster$149.95 + $5 s/h.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 980061-800-J-BUTTON

Inouiry 679

Inquiry 673

1-800-826-0843THE COMPUTER BARN

Wyse 50 $409. Wyse PC - $995.

Wyse 85 $459. (Dual Floppy)

Televideo 905 — $285.

Televideo At I — $2095.

We Will Beat Any Published Price

Call for FREE Brochure

DBASE III PLUS PLUS

NOVELLIB-2D gives you what Ashton-Tate left out:higher level Network functions:

• NOVELL or PC Networks • Semaphore Locks

• Print Spooling & Banners • Station & User ID. and Morel

• Electronic Mail • BIN code and examples

NOVELLIB-2D only S99.

Communication Horizons

701 7th Ave., Dept B, New York, NY 10036Tel: (212) 724-0150 Source: NAN285

SMITH'S INVOICE

Invoices, shipping labels, customer databaseCustomer & product mailing lists and labels. Menudriven—easy to use. For IBM PC with 128K and 2DS/DD drives or hard disk. All software, manual ondisk S15. Same-day shipment on personal checks

Smith Consulting

Route 1, Box 213, Greensburg, IN 47240

Inquiry 674

HARDWARE ADD-ONS

PROGRAM/GENERATORS

RS-232 RS-422

• Four Port RS-232

534900

• RS-422/485 Serial . .

$14goo

• RS-232/422 with 24 Parallel I/O .

519900

• RS422 Synchronous

'299°°

Call About Custom Designed

Boards

ADAMS

P.O. Box 17525

Greenville, South Carolina 29606

(803) 297-9630

WINDOW.LIB $99.

An easy to use complete windowing system lor programmersand writing m

• BASIC IBM. M-S CB86 • C LATTICE. M-S

• COBOL MS, HMF • PASCAL M-S. TURBO

• FORTRAN MS RMFWindow editor included Create ca labie popup menus, helpscreens The ime selector features auto reverse highlightingana Cursor control No royalties Ask about our BIOS/DOSLIB VISA/MC

GLENCO ENGINEERING (312) 392-2492

3920 Ridge Ave., Arlington Hts.. IL 60004

The Andsor Collection™

Unique concept: creates complete, self-contained,window-based data management environment, inone DOS file. Simplifies everything. Combine func-tions to create your own solutions in any application:calculations, database management, modeling, textprocessing, charts, data analysis, statistics, reports,labels, forms, presentations, mail-merge, etc. Sim-ple enough for a PCjr, sophisticated enough for aPC AT.

SEE ALSO THE AD BELOW

SOFTWARE BUSINESS

FAST GRAPHICS COPROCESSOR

50.000 vector/second card for PC, XT or AT withCGA. Draws in hardware: zoom, pan, area fill,dithering, arcs etc. Turbo Pascal & MS-Fortranlibraries. 14 day trial, 90 day warranty. 640x400 16color: S582. 640x200: $378. Manual only: $10,refundable.

E-Heart Engineering

18103 Sky Park South #D, Irvine, CA 92714 (714) 261-1725

Inquiry 686

dFELLER Inventory

A business inventory program written inmodifiable dBASE source code. The menu-drivenprogram lets you locate items by inventory nameor number. It keeps track of reorder points, ven-dors, average cost, and other info. RequiresdBASE II or III. PC-DOS/CPM S150.

Felter Associates

550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpeming, Ml 49849(906) 486-6024

The Andsor Collection"

From simple calculations dies mauiries to complex modelsdata structures, repons Superb 400 page hardcover manualwith many examples USS9S + $5 s&h 60'day money'backguarantee Visa/MC/AmEx-'ChK/MO/COD Call or write now toorder IBM PC/XTVAT/PCjr 128K. one drive or hard disk,monochrome and/or color. DOS 2 0+ Not copy-protected

ANDSOR RESEARCH INC.

181 University Avenue., Suite 1202,Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 3M7

(416) 364-8423

Inquiry 656

IUNE I986 -BYTE 393

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

SOFTWARE/CHURCH

CUSTOM PAYROLL

Ml systems have multiple pay categories, calcula-tion of all taxes, user defined deductions, 401 (k)handling, many reports, paychecks, W-2 forms, andmuch more. Custom features are available. Pricesstart at $695 for system, manual, and PC Basicsource code

Datasmith, Inc.

Box 8036, Shawnee Mission, KS 66208(913) 381-9118

Inquiry 684

MoneyCounts" Version 3.0

Everything you need to take charge of your finances;Checking/Credit Card Mgt.. Budgeting, Exp.Analysis, Financial Rpts., Graphics, Tutorial, muchmore. Great for home/business,CPA designed. IBM PC/XT & Compatibles withDOS 2.0 or later and 192K • $69.95

PARSONS TECHNOLOGY

6925 Surrey Dr. NE„ Cedar Rapids, IA 52402(319) 373-0197 CHECK/VISA/MC

Church Package

Parishioner Time, Talent and Treasure System pro-gram is written in modifiable dBASE source code.• Contributions • Disbursements • Ledger• Names with mailing labels• Personal information database.Requires dBASE II or III. PC-DOS/CPM-80 $200.

Feller Associates

550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpeming. Ml 49849(906) 486-6024

SOFTWARE/EDUCATION

Programmers:

We guarantee our products lo be solid, bugfree

* CorreclForth - Very professional.

' Correcl_Datamizer - 50:1 dala compression

guaranteed.' SafeModem ■ Hackerproof.$80.75 per program MC/VlSA/MO/Check. Specifycomputer

Correct Software, Inc.

RR1 Box 140, Black Hawk, SD 57718(605) 787-5904

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 $395.Call for free 30 day trial period.

COMPUTER KEYES

21929 Makah Rd., Woodway, WA 98020(206) 776-6443

"War or Peace? You Decide!"

Stimulates discussion on the role of nuclear weaponsin national security. Players choose U.S. ot Sovietside. Six crisis situations. High school or nome use,both teacher and student manuals included. IBM orApple. $49.95 MCA/ISA/AMEX. For info. call.207-775-1330. For orders call. 1-800-628-2828 ext.649.

Bright Ideas, Inc.

52 Exeter St., Portland, Maine 04102-2839

Inquiry £

Inquiry 677

nquiry 661

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

LP88-LINEAR PROGRAMMING

A Dowerful menu-driven system for solving linear programs w/up to 510 constraints & 2510 variables Features include in-teractive & batch operation, spreadsheet-styie input & editing,storage of problems & bases, Simplex Algorithm restart, reportgenerator, sensrMy analysis Req IBM PC, 192K. $99 w/B0B7support, users guide. VISA/MCEASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INC.P.O. Box 15328, Alexandria, VA 22309(703) 549-5469

• FORECASTING *

MODELING * PUNNING *

Compatible with IBM PC & Apple IIMICRO-BJ" NUAMETRICS-

• Box-Jenkins AHIMA • Econometrics package

• Identify, estimate, lorecasl $195.00

S295-00 PROFESSIONALS CHOICEXTRAPOLATOH• • Link to Lotus. Visicalc• Automatic forecasting Multiple order discounts5195,00 50% oft Apple II ordersSTRATIX

P.O. Box 4413 •

Burlingame, CA 94011

(415) 697-0573

MC/VISA

Dr. TS MUSIC SOFTWARE

IF YOU CAN USE A WORD PROCESSORYOU CAN MAKE MUSIC!MIDI music-composition software for Commodore andApple computers Also, algorithmic composition pro-grams tor computer generation ot sequences. Fullyeditable Bach songbook. Keyboard, Bass, and Drumdisks Patch libraries available for Yamaha and Casio syn-thesizers Reviewed in Jan '85 COMPUTE

66 Louise Rd.. Chestnut Hill. MA 02167(617) 244-6954

Inquiry 689

Inquiry 687

PC-Calc" Version 3

64 columns x 256 rows, math and Stat, functions,horizontal bar graphs, title locking, individually ad-justable column widths, IF. . .THEN, link to otherspreadsheets or PC-File databases, much more. Re-quires 256K IBM PC. $59.95 + $5 s/h.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 980061-800-J-BUTTON

TIME & BILLING $99 JOB COST OPTION $50

30 Day Money-back TrialVirtually unlimited number of jobs, direct cost, direct laborand overhead categories Provision for job estimating isincluded in JOB COST OPTION Very flexible and veryeasy lo learn to use Prints your statements, many reportsincluding Job Summary and Job Detail, and morel ForMS-DOS/IBM-PC & compatibles VISA/MC/Prepaid/COD

Accounting Systems

1148-5 Executive Circle, Cary, NC 27511(919) 467-3428

MicroGANTT®

Control your project1 You describe the work.MicroGANTT calculates the schedule and budget Op-timize the schedule interactively Customize the reportsSub-tasking, fixed and variable costs, multi-projectresource allocation, unlimited size and scope GANTT.PERT, CPfvl, DOD-7000 Call or write for free catalog

Earth Data Corporation

P.O. Box 13168. Richmond, VA 23225(804) 231-0300

Inquiry 665

Inquiry 651

nquiry 690

PC-Type"

Fast, compact, capable & easy! Help panels, hands-on tutorial, macros, multiple-line headings & footings,DOS path support, print spooling, block operations,etc ASCII files. Install program allows customization$59.95 + $5 s/h. For 128K IBM PC.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 980061-800-J-BUTTON

EC EDITOR - FOR IBM PC

Nt enuf rm 2 dscrbe Ihs slick edtr' EC regularlydisplaces editors and WPs 4 & 5 times its price. Most-ly sold by word of mouth, w/companies coming backfor more. Best value at $49.50 + $5 s/h! DEMO$5: complete EC, bt cn't sv ties ovr 65 Ins.

C SOURCE

12801 Frost Rd., Kansas City, MO 64138(816) 353-8808 VISA/MC/COO

Al for the IBM PC

TOPSI is a full version ot OPS5 which runs under MSDOS. Unix or CP/M A fast, etlicient expert systemdevelopment tool

Prototyping. SI25

Production S250

Professional S375C version, add $20 Shipping, add $5

Dynamic Master Systems

POB 566456, Atlanta GA 30356(404) 565-0771

nquiry 666

nquiry 669

BILINGUAL WORD PROCESSOR

DuangJan, a special word processor for Englishand; European, Greek, Lao. Portuguese. Russian,Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, your own language, ormore. For IBM PC/XT/AT/Clones with graphics &IBM/Epson/Cltoh printer. $59 + $4 S&H in US&Can( + 10 others)

MEGACHOMPCOMPANY

3524 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19149, USA

(215) 331-2748/8138

FIXED-ASSETS ACCOUNTING

Provides for multiple asset inventories Supports alldepreciation methods. 150 ACRS schedules supplied ondisk Several report formats including Tax Form 4562CP/M-80 & DOSDEPRECIATION-MASTER II V4.0 $349.00

(includes I year ot support)

DEMO DISK . . $35.00

MC. VISA. COD. Add $4 tor shipping/handling

Generic Computer Products, Inc.

P O Box 790. Marquette Michigan 49855 (906) 249-9801

nquiry 697

NAMEBRAND SOFTWARE. CHEAP!

• • At least 50% oft! •"

IBM PC clone company goes out ot business, and weal GIL ELECTRONICS buy then software inventory'Microsoft Basic Compilers, 6. Interpreters. Multiplan,Wordstar. Spellstar, & Mailmerge. dBASE II. CCP/M-86.RM Cobol. RealWorld General Ledger. Sales Analysis.Payroll, much more1 All software is new, in original fac-tory sealed packages Send for FREE CATALOG today!1

GIL ELECTRONICS

P.O. Box 1628-B, Soquel, CA 95073

Inquiry 698

394 BYTE ■ IUNE I986

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

► SOFTWARE FOR PENNIES ^

GET BEST AND LATEST PC-DOS. CP/M-80 ANDCP/M-86 PUBLIC DOMAIN PROGRAMS FORBUSINESS. PERSONAL. EDUCATION, SOFTWAREDEVELOPMENT, MODEMING. SCIENCE, AND MORE.AT LOW COST OF COPYING 3-Vi. 5-'/« AND 8" DISKFORMATS ARE SUPPORTED SEND $5.00 FORCATALOG

MULTIPATH, INC.

Box 395. Montville, NJ 07045

(201) 575-5880

Z-100 TURBO SOFTWARE

-ZGL- Color graphics library with windows.-ZPORTS- Directly control your I/O ports.Full source code! Risk-free 15 day trial.-ZGL- $39.95, -ZPORTS- $24.95

Zlmbazl Products

7405 BERKMAN DRIVE, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78752

BASIC PROGRAMMERS

Add SALT & PEPPER 10 your exisling/new programsCreate dazzling Menus, intelligent Input Screens Walk-ing Strings. ASC/Desc Sort. PRT SCR Date processing& more SALT & PEPPER has 28 modules, (in MS-DOScompatiOle interpretive BASIC) They merge with yourprogram in minutes S & P performs all the tricks, YOUget the applause $59.95. Demo disk. $2.50. ($2.50 s&h).

MC'VISA COMPUTER GURU

40 Wagner Ave., Piscataway. NJ 08854201-356-6477

POWERFUL FILE MANAGEMENT

I D T S FileManager* for people serious about Iheirsystems No kid stuff—only powerful managing toolsFile sort. copy, move, delete, search & change attributes

Undelete and dear filesEDLIN enhancer & batch mode clean up and more

Menu driven

$34.95 (about Va Norton's) MC/VISA

INTEGRATED DATA TECHNOLOGY, INC.

4775 Bunchberry Lane. Colorado Springs, CO 80917

ORDERS: 303-486-2583

FORTRAN PROGRAMMER?

Now you can call 2-D and 3-D graphics routineswithin your FORTRAN program.

GRAFMATIC: 75 callable routines for

screen output, $135.PLOTMATIC: Pen plotter driver. $135.For the IBM PC, XT. AT and compatibles. We sup-port a variety of compilers, graphics boards andplotters.

MICROCOMPATIBLES

301 Prelude Drive. Dept. B

Silver Spring, MD 20901

(301) 593-0683

CROSS ASSEMBLERS

Develop microprocessor programs on your IBM PCor MS DOS computer.

' Macros * Conditional Assembly ' Editor '

Complete support for most 8 bit microprocessors

Linker and EPROM Programmer Driver

Microcomputer Tools Co.

1255C Kenwal Rd., Concord, CA 94521 (415) 825-4200

Inquiry 705

Inauiry 721

Inquiry 7!6

THE BEST OF THE BEST!

Public Domain & User Supported Software for IBM PCor compatible. Word Processing, Database, Spread-sheets, Utilities, Games, Accounting, etc! 50 diskpackage $205.00, or rent 2 wks. $75.00. Info & SuperSampler Disk $6.50, Deluxe Word Processor $6.50,both $12.00. MC/VISA

BLUE CIRCLE GROUP, INC.

Box 23502, Minneapolis, MN 55423(612) 823-4111

CREATE UNIQUE GRAPHICS

Go where no man has goes before. Explore theMANDELBROT set as described in Aug. 85 issueSci. Am. Infinitely complex. Easy zoom. 8087 codeand DRAGON CURVE included. COM file S25.W/140K of 50% comment TURBO PASCAL source$50. Liberal copyrite no protect. Shipping includ-ed. IBM color, TIPC 3 plane.

Fractured Fractals

P.O. Box 1762, Lewisville, TX 75067

LISP for the MACINTOSH™

MacScheme7" implements the Scheme dialect o'LISP It features a fast byte code interpreter, debug-ger, editor that understands LISP syntax, multiplewindows, and Quickdraw graphics. University sitelicenses available. $125. ( + $10 overseas).MC/VISA. To order, call or write:

Semantic Microsystems

4470 S.W. Hall St., Ste. 340, Beaverton, OR 97005 USA (503) 643-4539

inQui'y 659

Does your hard disk seem like a vastand uncharted land?

JOBS

Job \ Organization \ Backup \ SystemClearly superior' Now with MACRO capability and userOelmed pop-up windows $49 M/C & VISA Welcome

RCT Design

P.O. Box 179, Nipomo, CA 93444(805) 934-2905

Advanced disk management for IBM PC/XT/AT & compatibles.

MAPIT

Make your own MAPS!!

Simple to produce maps with your data

Includes most country and stale outlines

Any printer or HP plotter.

Only $95 for MS-DOS or PC-DOS

US Country Outlines available (or $95.

QSC

Box 778. East Lansing, Ml 48823(517) 641-4428

MAC BASICCOMPILER $100

+ McAssembly $150

BASIC compiler generates asm, rel, or obj. Link,resource comp with assembler. ALL for $150!

PTERODACTYL SOFTWARE

Box 538, Fairfax, CA 94930est. 1982 415-485-0714

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

SCIENTIFIC GRAPHS

SCI-GRAF produces high-res graphs (1680 x 1712pixels) on Epson or IBM graphics primers Supportslog/linear scales, error bars, overlays, batch-mode opera-tion Very flexible data entry Irom disk or keyboard Usercustomizable Requires DOS 2 or 3. 256KS99.95 (Sorry, no credit cards)

Microcomputer Systems Consultants

27 Forest Ave., Port Jefferson Station. New york 11776-1820(516) 928-7493

REFER SAVES HOURS

REF cross references program variable, values,keywords, hnenumbers, and/or tabels.ENTER adds languages to supplied: asm, basic,c. cobol. pascal, ada. forlran. dbase, rbase.FINDREPL updates programs. $45.

James Halstead & Asc.

1551 Plainfield, Joliet, IL 60435(815) 725-0346

Minnesota SNOBOL4 Language

Powerful string & data handling facilities. Interpreter com-patible with mainframe SNOBOL4. 32K strings, 32 bit in-tegers, 8087 for float 8i large memory model. Sample pgmsinclude ELIZA. For >128K IBM PC & DOS or equivalent.Definitive "green" book by Griswold et al available.

Guide +5%" SSDD diskette $44.95

Guide + diskette + "green" book $59.95

"Green" book only $24.95

Postpaid in USA. In NY add tax. VJSA/MC (914) 271-5855

BERSTIS INTERNATIONAL

POB 441, Millwood, NY 10520

inquiry 722

Inquiry 658

PLOTTER SOFTWARE

Save lime and money by creating your own presen-tation quality text slides. THE DGI SIGNMAKER isan easy to use menu driven program for your IBMor APPLE computer and most plotters (Epson. HI.HP. HP-GL. IBM and others) for ony $75.

DECISION GRAPHICS, INC.

P.O Box 2776-B, Littleton. Colorado 80161Phone (303) 796-0341

Tools for CB80 & CB86

BOOS. DOS, and BIOS calls from CB80 andCB86! CBC Tools includes functions for direc-tory access, string ops, a debugger, radix con-version, command line pa'Sing, quicksorts, bit

and byte ops. and more lor CP/M-80. CP/M-86,and PC-DOS. $180.00. Ask aboul our Pascal

MT+ products

Minnow Bear Computers

POB 2233 Sta. A. Champaign, IL 61820-8233 (217) 39B-6883

BetterBASIC Programmers

BetterTOOLS" SPEEDS BetterBASIC" developmentIncludes: 150+ useful tools in 17 modules/manual/source code/no royalties. Quickson/screen builder/extended math/directories/display and printer routines/powerful input/much much more. Only $89.VISA/MC/COD

SOFTWARE ASSOCIATES

6220 W. Airport Blvd.. Houston. TX 77035 (713) 726-0706

Inquiry 746

IUNE I986 -BYTE 395

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

BASIC = > PASCAL

(1) converts BASIC to PASCAL.

(2) transform spaghetti-code to structured statement

(IF-THEN-ELSE, REPEAT, WHILE, CASE)automatically.

(3) separate one big program into many procedures

hierarchically.

BPCONV MS-DOS version $199.00.

(Sample conversion $10.00)

GOTOLESS CONVERSION

P.O. Box 50068, Denton. TX 76206

PH (214) 221-0363

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

BEAM ANALY. & SPRING DESIGN

Beam analysis program calculates shear, moments, reac-tions, slopes and deflections in beams. Price: $50.00.Helical spring design program for compression, exten-sion and torsion springs. Price: $75.00.Both packages include disk and documentation. ForApple II series of computers or IBM PC, PCjr andcompatibles.

SYLCA CORPORATION

33-47 14 Street. Dept B, Long Island City, NY 11106718-278-4604

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

PC TECHNICAL GRAPHICS

TEKMAR is a graphics library (or the TecmarGraphics Master. Similar to PLOT-10, includesWINDOW, VIEWPORT, AXIS. Support for HP, HIplotters. Curve fitting, complete plotting program.Log, semi-log, multi-axis, 3-D. contours. Demodisk, literature available.

Advanced Systems Consultants

21115 Devonshire St., Suite 329, Chalsworth, CA 91311(818) 407-1059

Inquiry 700

Inquiry 653

CROSS ASSEMBLERS with"UNIVERSAL" LINKER andPOWERFUL LIBRARIANSfor IBM PC MS-DOS

Full featured for most microprocessors

ENERTEC, INC.

BOX 1312, Lansdale, PA 19446215-362-0966 MC/VISA

► MATRIX 100 ■«

Powerful Matrix operations with single statements inIBM PC BASIC. Perform multiple regression, solvesimultaneous equations, invert matrices, etc.MATRIX 100 commands are fast, reliable and easyto use. Price $80. 8087 support $125; compiler sup-port $250. ($4 s&h. CA res. add sales tax).

STANFORD BUSINESS SOFTWARE, INC.

4151 Middlefield Rd., Suite 215, Palo Alto, CA 94303 To Order Call (415) 424-9499

► SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR <

Memory resident emulation ol the HP-11C plus directinsertion of results in foreground program, graphi-cally presented, decimal, hex, binary, & octal opera-tions, boolean functions and more. Mouse support.8087 or Standard versions $49.95 + 3.00 s&h.

K SOFTWARE HOUSE

Rt. 2, Box 83B1 Unionville, TN 37180(615)294-5090

Inquiry 693

Inquiry 749

Inquiry 710

EXPERT SYSTEMS!

You can develop expert systems with KNOWOL,the Knowledge Oriented Language from IMCO. In-cludes a tutorial, unlimited development capabili-ty, and a smart rules editor. Not copy protected.An incredible introductory offer at $39.95 plus $2s&h ($4/COD).

Intelligent Machine Company

3813 N. 14th St., Arlington, VA 22201

(703) 52B-9136

ENGINEERING SOFTWARE WRITTENBY ENGINEERS FOR ENGINEERS

Highest power per dollar Highesl power per K of

memory. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Electronic Circuit Analysis $450.

Tatum Labs

33 Main St., Newtown, CT 06470(203) 426-2184

Digital Logic Design on the Macintosh"

The LogicWorks'" series allows you to create, testand document digital circuitry on your MacintoshFull simulation capability lets you catch design errorsbefore committing your circuit !o hardware. From$79.95 (US). Demo pkg $10. VisaJMC Accepted

Capilano Computing Systems Ltd.

Box 86971, N. Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V7L 4P6(604) 669-6343

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

SOFTWARE/SYSTEMS

$10 SCI CALCULATOR

Power-packed, RAM resident, full-function infinitelyprogrammable sci. calculator with matrix capabilityat $10 ($2 s&h).

Turbo Pascal source + utilities for sparse matrixhandling $10 w/calculator purchase.

SottTech Inc.

18505 W. 8 Mile, Delroit, Ml 482191-313-544-8544

Affordable Engineering Software

CALL OR WRITE FOR FREE CATALOGCircuit Analysis • Root Locus • ThermalAnalysis • Plotter Drivers • Graphics • SignalProcessing • Filter Design • Report Pro-ofreader • Transfer Function Analysis.BV Engineering

2200 Business Way Suite 207, Riverside. CA 92501(714) 781-0252 VISA/MC

CPM-80 LIVES on your PC

CP/Mulalor puis a 4mhz 8 bil CP/M emulator in your IBMPC lor $99. ($3s + h).

- A greal 8 bit development system

- Saves expensive CPM-80 applications

- Increases PC speed 10% for 8088 programs

- Priced less than mos! software only products

- Uses no valuable board slots

Source Information

P.O. Box 2974, Warminster, PA 18974VISA Phone (215) 628-4719 M/C

Inquiry 744

inquiry 667

Inquiry 748

FORTRAN SOURCE CODE

PROFESSIONAL SIGNAL PROCESSING &

MATRIX ANALYSIS UTILITIES35 PROGRAMS WflUTORIAL & EXAMPLESFFT. AR Modeling. Digilal Fillers Matrix. SVD. Con| Gra-dienl. Pseudo-Inverse Root Finder. Cubic Spline Interp,Graphics. Random Numbers More. Disk/Hard-copyDocumented. 130 pages Bibliography Send tor InloPkg $99. CLAREN SOFTWARE

P.O. Box 5333 • MESA, AZ 85201 (602) 820-3877

TIRED OF SEARCHING!!

Can't find that special conversion factor? You gelthousands in the giant disk of units constants andconversion factors, No need for a calculator, con-versions are calculated for you. Menu driven withcolor & printout features. Only $19.95 includingshipping R D ASS0C|ATES

P.O. Box 820, Rogue River, OR 97537503-479-1248

LASER TYPOGRAPHY $495.

Typographic composition software to drive the Cor-data L300 Laser Printer as a typesetter. H & J 76proportional space fonts, widths for 150 fontsavailable. Mix face & point size on any line.multicolumn capability.

Micro Print-X, Inc.

P.O. Box 581, Ballinger, TX 76821(915) 365-2343 Dealer inquiries Welcome

nquiry 672

forMath® text-formatter

• Equations, matrices, ratios, integrals, diagrams

• Macros, fonts, Greek/math symbols

• Hyphenation, secn/eqn/ref numbering

• Indexes, table of contents, footnotes

• Dot-matrix, daisywheel. laser printers, all monitors

$400. $50 for demo

Shantha Software Inc.

50 West 97th St Room 11N. New York City 10025

(212) 222-SNIPTouchtone toll free: 950-1088-walt-FORMATH

UPGRADE YOUR IBM PC TOA STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPEI

Do Data Acquisition, Frequency Spectrum

Analysis, Transfer Functions, Analysis with

Lotus 1-2-3, and more—inexpensively and all

without programming!

For inlo on SNAPSHOT Storage Scope:

HEM Data Corporation

17025 Crescent • Southtield. Ml 48076

(313) 559-5607

Multi-TerminalDisk Operating Systems

GASS-General Accounting Scientific Switchingsystem. Multitasking. Can handle 12 terminals offIBM PC. Used in mini's since 1976 Dealers wantedList Price $95.

Maxey Systems, Inc.

5910 Youree Dr. Suite D. Shreveport, LA 71105(318) B68-5422

396 BYTE • IUNE 1986

The Buyer's Mart-

STATISTICS

UTILITIES

UTILITIES

STATISTIX™

$75 - Satisfaction guaranteed

A comprehensive, powerful, yet easy-lo-use statisticalanalysis system for IBM PC/XT/AT's, Apple N's, andMS DOS machines. Clear 200p manual. Write forinformation

NH Analytical Software

801 West Iowa Ave.. St. Paul. MN 55117(612) 488-4436

"USER-FRIENDLY" REDEFINED

Don't laugh Now if your PC's aren't friendly, it's yourown fault. Meet TheEMCEE, your application managerReplaces DOS prompt with custom menus. Runs pro-grams, batch files and menus. 99 levels of password pro-tection. Fast, friendly interface for users, powerful accessand control for systems managers Only $49.95. Whatcould be friendlier than that?

COMMAND SOFTWARE SYSTEMS, INC.1-800-423-9147 or 1-818-707-7100

BTrees with C Source

These are powerful, portable, dependable file utilitylibraries. Thousands of programmers worldwide re-ly on our quality code. All source code included, noroyalty fees, works with any K&R compafibfe Ccompiler.• Btree only $75.00 • ISAM only $40.00 additional.

SOFTFOCUS

1343 Slanbury Dr. Oakville. Ontario. Canada L6L 2J5(416) 625-0903

Inquiry 727

Inquiry 767

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 available.Requires 256K RAM. IBM PC or compatible. $200MC/Visa.

VAR Econometrics

P.O. Box 19334, Minneapolis, MN 55419(612) 822-9690

PADLOCK/PADLOCK II DISKS

PADLOCK furnishes the user witn a method for providingprotection against unauthorized duplication from DOScommands $99. PADLOCK II disks come preformattedwith finger-print and serialization. PADLOCK II disks of-fer superior protection Ask about our HARD DISK pro-tection with uninstall capability MC/VISA.

Glenco Engineering

3920 Ridge Ave , Arlington Hts.. IL 60004(312) 392-2492

ZERODISK

ZeroDisk runs dozens of copyprotected businesspackages from your hard disk without floppies Call forthe latest list of software it handles Needs IBM AT, XT.PC. or compatible, DOS 2.0 or higher. ZeroDisk is revis-ed monthly and is not copy protected. $75 US Checkor Credit Cards accepted

QUAID SOFTWARE LIMITED45 Charles St. E. 3rd Fl.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 1S2(416) 961-8243

Inquiry 75B

Inquiry £

The Statistician

includes: Multiple Regression (Stepwise, ridge, allsubsets, backward elimination)

• Time series analysis ■ descriptive statistics

• transformations • survey research • nonparametrics

• X-Y plots • ANOVA • random samples ■ data base

• data editor • search & sort • hypothesis tests

For IBM, MS-DOS. XENIX, CPM, TRS-DOS.

QUANT SYSTEMS toll'freeBox 62B. Charleston. SC 29402 1-B00-334-0854803-571-2825 (Ext. 814)

SOURCE CODE LIBRARIAN &REVISION CONTROL SYSTEM

TLIB'" keeps ALL versions of your program in ONEcompact library file, even with hundreds of revisions

• 5 times faster than SCCS • LAN compatible

• Free public domain MAKE (with source) by L. DyerMS/PC-DOS 2.x 8, 3.x $99.95 + $3S&H. VISA/MC

BURTON SYSTEMS SOFTWARE

FOB 4156, Cary, NC 27511(919) 469-3068

MEDIA MASTER PLUS

READ, WRITE, and FORMAT over 60 CP/M disks andrun mnst CP/M-80 programs on your IBM PC! Two pro-gram package includes ZP/EM, a CP/M-80 emulator pro-gram that 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 735

STATISTICS CATALOG!

If you need statistics for IBM PC or Apple II, callus and let our technical advisors help you find thestatistics programs you need.Write or call now to get a FREE catalog of statisticsand quality control software.HUMAN SYSTEMS DYNAMICS

9010 Reseda Blvd., Ste. 222Northridge. CA 91324

(800) 451-3030 (818) 993-8536 (CA)

DOS USERS.

"Save time and frustration" — J.E, PournelleStill River Shell. Powerful full screen file / direc-tory manager. Faster and easier than DOS. Fullrange of features. PC/MS-DOS 2.0 + . $29 com-plete. $9 shareware diskette. MC/VISA.

Bob Howard

PO Box 57, Still River, MA 01467617-456-3699

GENSCREEN

For Microsoft Cobol/IBM CobolGenerates Cobol Source Code For Your ScreenSection and Data Divisions Fast!!!Gensceen is a powersul ne* programmes produclrviiy tool v*rucnutilizes a screen image lex! hie produced Irom your own edilor Thisin mm is run through Ouf interactive ulilily lo produce 100% syntaxfree Cobol source code Genscreen will produce "generic' o' customdata names for your code automatically Genscreen is available 'oronly $69.99 trom

Personal Computer Development Corp.

POB 8556, Warwick, Rl 02888-6556(401) 333-8704

Inquiry 660

nquiry 732

NUMBER CRUNCHER STAT SYS

Menu-driven Multiple & stepwise regression,ANOVA, time series Discriminant, cluster, and fac-tor analysis. Principal components, scatter plotshistograms, t-tesls. contingency tables, nonparametrtcs. Import export data. Spreadsheet, sort,join, merge. $79. IBM PC/Macintosh. Quantitydiscount. NCSS-B

865 East 400 North, Kaysville, UT 84037 801-546-0445

RAMbak or WARP-TEN - 9.95

RAMbak automates the saving of new or chang-ed RAM disk files to floppy disks and/or hard disksubdirectories. WARP-TEN is a programmabledisk cache. PC, XT, AT, compatibles with 256KDOS 2.0+ . Introductory price is only 9.95 each.(MN Res. + 6%).

Software Brewing Company

P.O. Box 12094, St. Paul, MN 55112612-636-2727

PAL FOR SIDEKICK!

Personal Appointment Locator automatically showscoming appointments, searches your file, maintainsto-do list, examines multiple files. Resident alarm too1Only $45. Cheap at twice the price!

PAL SOFTWARE

Ste. 12B 110 Green St., New York, NY 10012212-925-1843

Inquiry 747

Inquiry 729

TEXT SCANNING

XENIX/UNIX

ELIMINATE KEYBOARDING

CONVERT TYPESET AND

TYPEWRITTEN COPY

TO DISK OR TAPE

CALL

MEDIA CONVERSION

CORPORATION

312-346-0102

SUPERCOPY

The mosl EFFICIENTINTELLIGENT-USER-FRIENDLYPOWERFUL AUTOMATIC BACKUP UTILITY of prolecteddiskettes lor IBM PC/XT/AT EXCLUSIVE DISKETTEANALYZER/DIAGNOSER FULL AUTOMATIC LOCKINGCAPABILITY' Built-in HELP with full instructions in a disk file$50 VISA/MC/CHK

YETIWARE CORP.

P O Box 21152. Mid Town StationNew York. NY 10129DEALERS. CONTACT US

Inquiry 768

XENIX/UNIX SOFTWARE

TELETERM-X Mulli-User Telecommunications

XPD Print Manager/Spooler

XTX File Transfer Utility

X-MENU System Administration Utility

and Menu PackageTELETERM-EM Terminal Emulator to turn your

MSDOS/TRSDOS micro into a workstation

Telexpress, Inc.

P.O. Box 217, Willingboro, NJ 08046(609) 877-4900

nquiry 756

IUNE I986 -BYTE 397

Inquiry 333

QUALITY • SERVICE • PRICE!

SUN-XT/PLUS COMPUTER

(ASSEMBLED & TESTED)

Dealer & Computer GroupI CALL FOR SPECIAL PRICE I

□ One 360 KB Vz Height Disk Drive

□ 256K RAM (Expandable to 640K)Q Enhanced Keyboard (AT Style)n Hercules Compatible Mono Graphic Card (720x348)n 12" High-Resolution TTL Mono Monitor

a 8 Expansion Slots □ Parallel Printer Port

□ Uses MS & PC DOS Operating System

' Meets FCC Class A' Regulations for Industry & Business Use

SUN-XTMono System

$895

2 Disk Drives • 640K RAM

Mono G Card-12" TTL Monitor

Enhanced Keyboard • 135W P.S.

Parallel Port

SUN-XTColor System

2 Disk Drives • 640K RAM

Color G Card

13" RGB Color Monitor (640x240)

Enhanced Keyboard • 135W P.S.

SUN-STMono System

(8MHz Turbo)

$995

2 Disk Drives • 640K RAM

Mono G Card-12" TTL Monitor

Enhanced Keyboard • 135W P.S.

Parallel Port (Switchable to 4.77 MHz)

SUN-STColor System

(8MHz Turbo)

W293

2 Disk Drives • 640K RAM

Color G Card

13" RGB Color Monitor (640x240)

Enhanced Keyboard135W P.S. (Switchable to 4.77MHz)

AT COMPATIBLESYSTEM (8MHz)

t/725

One 1.2MB FDD -640K RAM

Keyboard • HDD FDD Controller

200W P.S. Case A&T

(Call for other Configuration)

SPECIAL SALE ITEMS

SUN-XT CPU (4.77MHz)

SUN-ST CPU (8MHz Turbo) ...

FDC w Cable

CABINET

MULTI I/O PLUS(Serial, Par, Clock, Game) ...

POWER SUPPLY 135W

AT STYLE KEYBOARD

OTHER PARTS AVAILABLE

m SUNTROIMICS CO INC

"^D^ 12603 Crenshaw Blvd , Hawthorne, CA 90250

{Orders Only) STORE HOURS

1 -800-421 -5 775 MON - FRI 4:00am - 6:00pm

(CA Orders & Tech Info.} Saturday io:00am-5:00pm

213-644-1140 Dealer & OEM Inquiries Invited

TERMS: VISA, MasterCard (No Surcharge! COD, Cash »r CertifiedCheck (VISA or MC Rel. Required). School & Gov. ContractorP.O. accepted. Shipping & HC S*.0fl (or 1 lbs. plus $..60 lor eachadditional lb. CA residents add CA Sales Tax, $10.00 Mm. Order.WARRANTY: 90 Days Warranty Labor. Parts Replacement Onl\.

FUTURE MUSIC

• COMPUTER AND MUSIC SPECIALISTS!

• ALL MAJOR BRANDS AVAILABLE!

• THE BEST PRICES!

• TECHNICAL AND NOT-SO-TECHNICAL SUPPORT TOO!

■a

KEYBOARDS, SYNTHESIZERS, SAMPLERS, DRUM MACHINES,REVERBS, DELAYS, INTERFACES, SOFTWARE AND MORE.

IBM PC PRODUCTS

List

Sale

APPLE II SERIES PRODUCTS

List Sale

MPU IBM Interface

S 310

S223

Passport Midi 8+ Software..

169 129

TECMAR Music Card

CALL! CALL!

Passport Master Tracks.. .

249 199

Textures 1

149

125

Passport Leadsheeter....

149 109

Textures II

349

295

Syntech Interface

w/Drum Sync

Jim Miller

129 99

Personal Composer.. . .

495

425

Syntech Studio 2 Sequencer 225 175

SDA Pro Midi System

599

449

Yamaha Editors

CALL! CALL!

Many More "New" Products CALL! CALL!

CZ Series Editors & Librarians CALL! CALL!

APPLE MACINTOSH PRODUCTS

Digital Sampling on the HE..

CALL! CALL!

Deluxe Music Const. Set .. .

49

32

Commodore64/128 Products..

CALL! CALL!

Midi Conductor Interface.. .

89

69

KEYBOARDS, SYNTHESIZERS,

ETC.

Opcode 128/512 Interface.

125

95

DX7/TX7 Programs (1000s!)

$1ea.

Opcode Mac Plus Interface

200

160

DX/RX 128 Ram Carts .. .

125 95

Opcode Sequencer V2.0.. .

200

175

CZ Series 64 Ram Carts ..

89 69

Mark of the Unicorn

4 Track Recorders

CALL! CALL!

Performer

295

260

Studio Effects Devices ...

CALL! CALL!

Concertware Plus Midi....

CALL! CALL!

Midi Keyboards

CALL! CALL!

Digital Sampler Editors... ,

CALL!

CALL!

Drum Machines

CALL! CALL!

ATARI, AMIGA, CALL FOR LATEST

NFO!

BYTE SPECIALISSUE $ SALE $

$299

START YOUR COMPUTER MUSIC SYSTEM TODAY

CASIO CZ101 Soo

PROFESSIONAL SYNTHESIZER SOUND. UPT04UNIQUE

SOUNDS ATONCE, MIDI, PROGRAMABLE. PORTABLE.

EASY TO USE - THE STANDARD -

FREE AC ADAPTER & SHIPPING

BOOKS ON MIDI, MIDI PRODUCTS

• Understanding .Midi - 82 Pages 3.95

w/Praduct Guide

• Howto Understand & Program the DX 7... 24.95

• Synthesizer Technique 8 95

Send cost plus S1.50 postage and handling to theaddress below or call toll free to order

SPECIAL PRICE ON ATARI SYSTEMS! CALL!

FUTURE MUSIC IS THE ONLY MUSIC STOREDEVOTED TO COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS &HOME MUSICIANS. WE HAVE MANY MOREPRODUCTS AVAILABLE. IF YOU DON'T SEEWHAT YOU WANT HERE, CALL US.

MASTERCARD AND VISA ACCEPTED

CALL 24 HRS. TOLL FREE!

1-800-FOR-MIDI

FUTURE MUSIC, 1465 Terminal Way. Mail Orders and Correspondence to: Box 1090, Reno, NV 89504. Nevada Call 702-826-MIDI. Cust. Service 702-359-MIDI; 9-9 PDT

398 BYTE- IUNE 1986

Inquiry I38

EUTE

LIMITED EDITION

Beautiful 16" X 20"Limited Edition Prints,each signed and numberedby the Artist.

#B

Sss$S»

INTELLIGENT REFLECTIONS

Fascinating...And Unique!

The two 1985 Byte covers shown above are now availableas 16" X 20" limited edition prints. Each edition is strictlylimited to 1000 prints, which are individually inspected, signedand numbered by the artist, Robert Tinney. These excellentreproductions are made from the original paintings(not (romtransparencies or photos) to ensure accurate color fidelity.

Byte Limited Edition Classics are printed on select 100%cotton fiber stock. This is a museum grade acid free paper,highly resistant to yellowing and cracking; you will be assuredof a print which will retain its color and beauty for generations.Accompanying each print is a handsome Certificate of Au-thenticity, which is also personally signed and numbered bythe artist, and which certifies the quality and limited numberof the edition.

Price and Shipping

The price of each Byte Limited Edition Classic is $55; iftwo or more prints are ordered, the price of each is only $45.

STORAGE SPACE

Byte Limited Edition Classics are shipped flat, and are guaranteed to arriveundamaged or be immediately replaced. In fact, if for any reason you arenot satisfied with your order, you may return it within 30 days for a noquestions asked refund. Your prints will be shipped UPS Blue Label (twoday delivery), and will usually be shipped within one week of receipt of order.

Ordering

To order your Byte Limited Edition Classic(s), just clip out and mail thecoupon below. If you prefer, you may call in a MasterCard or Visa orderto Robert Tinney Graphics. l-(504)272-7266.

r

Send me the following print lor $55($45 each for two or more).Qty. # Title Amount

$

$

postage & handling $4($10 overseas) $

Total $

Bill my □ Visa or □ Mastercharge: Exp. Date:

Card No.

□ I have enclosed check or money order to Robert

Tinney Graphics

□ Please just send me your free color brochure.

Ship To:

Name:

Mail this coupon to:Robert Tinney Graphics

1864 N. Pamela DriveBaton Rouge, Louisiana 70815

Address:_City:

State:.

-Zip:_

IUNE I986 -BYTE J99

MEMORIES

ADD-IN BOARDSPIN-FOR-PIN COMPATIBLEEASY INSTALLATION

HP 150 [All Versions]

512K $660

WANG PC 256K $460384K $635512K $750

GFK

Amandastr. 60, 2000 Hamburg 6West Germany

Phone Telex

[40]4301051 2162272

Dealers are invited

US Distributor:

HyPoint Technology [216] 526-0323

TIME SAVING — MONEY SAVING

PRINTER BUFFER

«.Spo

pply. the Simol-Z-lJ Plus hulfc-r is LMsy In Install .1andable 10 512K.» any Hme by iusi plugging in al-7-<j I'lus is ihe professional'! 1 hoice, (<» siie, 11

(Without Cable) 12flK-$27'» ..' ,>,\ C-$ 109 ST2K-S369(Including Cable) 128K-S309 25hK-$339 512K-S399

SPOOLZ-Q BLUE PLUG IN PRINTER BUFFER FOR THE IBM PC and COntpall-liliMiinit'i«fr%ISACENUINlHAKD\VARE PRINTER BUFFER. NOT ASI'OOIERParallel <>nl\ and Serial/Parallel models available. Works with any software andiliH-s mil use any of the Lumpulet's memory. SiZCS from 2SbK to 1.074K areavailable- 5paol-z-Q Blue replaces ihp p.n.illcl ptinlet card m the PG (May Ik-I PH. .'.or J). Many, many advanced feaWew Call or wrile fat futl details Pricesstart at tut (Parallel only) and S199 [Serial capable),

.cylcj

rim dealers 01 direct (mm us. \\i- accept M/C, VISA, AME* 01 COD1 barge lot shipping or COD IS day trial period (no-hassle 'I'ftindall products. CA KsfdenK - 6% tax. . ■

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED. <Btectmr>ic»

O.E.M.s — We can modify our 1601 Fulton Ave.,Suite 10A

buffers 10 meel your special Sacramento, CA 95825

requirements. (916) 483-0709

-T PC/XT USERS!

M

COGTREE Utilities by

Cogitate

S129.95

M

LYNC by Norton-Lamber. ..

. S 199.95

#

DATAPLEX by Data Access

. .Varies

W

RM/COBOL by Ryan/

McFarland

. . Varies

M

Universe by Omnitrend...

S 98.50

a

Blue Mad by Cogitate. . . .

S 599.00

i

CadPower + by Trilex

S995.00

M

Softext Teaching Aids

S 95.00

M

PrintSet by Cogitate

.S 79.95

J-

CogiTAPE by Cogitate

. .CALLII

M

Anti-Static Products

. .Varies

-f Uninterruptible Power

Backups

. . Varies

J~ TeleVideo Software

. .CALLII

Eiitai

"A Higher Form of Software"

24000 Telegraph Road

Southfleld, Ml 48034

(313) 352-2345/Telex 38658!

VISA/MASTERCARD ACCEPTED

Dealer Inquiries Welcomed

Inquiry 406

Inquiry 178

Inquiry 71

Set up a complete

graphics workstation

on your PC for

under $100!

MicroPlot's enhanced PC-PLOT-III graphicsemulator software package enables IBM PCand compatibles to appear to a mainframeas a DEC VT-1007VT-52, a RenographiesVT-640, a Tektronix 4010/4014 or apartial Tektronix 4027. Over 12,000 copiesare currently in use world-wide at majorcorporations, educational facilities, researchlabs and independent consulting firms.

For more information call toll free1-800-338-0333, Ohio call 1-800-242-0333Give operator this ID number: 766-8501.

659-H Park Meadow RoadWesterville, Oh 43081 614/882-4786

Sureit Is insured?

SAFEWARE® Insurance provides fullreplacement of hardware, media and

purchased software. As little as $39/yr. covers:• Fire • Theft • Power Surges

• Earthquake • Water Damage • Auto Accident

For information or immediate coverage call:

1-800-848-3469

In Ohio call 1-614-262-0559SAFEWARK, The Insurance Agency Inc.

TERMINALEMULATION

Softerm PC emulates over 30popularterminals including the:

• DECVT102, VT220

• Data General D200, D410

• IBM 3101-20 [block mode]

• Hewlett-Packard 2622A

• Honeywell VIP7801, VIP7803Guaranteed Compatibility

Call for free product brief

S195MC-VISA-C0D

For the IBM PC/XT/AT, DG1, NEC,

Wang PC, Tl Pro, Gridcase, Tandy

SOFTRONICS

7899 Lexington Dr., Ste 210

Colorado Springs, CO 80918

C303] 593-9540

Inquiry 226

Inquiry 304

Inquiry 3I4

Maxell Floppy Disks

The Mini-Diskswith maximum quality.

Dealer inquiriesinvited C.O.D'saccepted. CallFREE (800) 235-4137.

PACIFIC EXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd.. San LuisSan Luis Obispo. CA 93401.In Catcall (800) 592-5935 or(805)543-1037

TURBOLINK +

"TURBO Pascal hackers will like this

program."

Jerry PournelleByte Magazine

• Add 512K of TURBO Pascal' to your code

• Call up to 8 memory resident TURBOPascal modules from programs written in:—BASIC, BASICA, Compiled BASIC—MS Pascal, C, MS FORTRAN—Standard, 8087 and BCD TURBO Pascal

• Add TURBO Pascal's 8087, BCD andgraphic capabilities to other languages

• Automatically generate TURBO Pascalcompatible inline machine code

• Use all TURBO Pascal variants in a singleprogram

• For IBM PC and compatible

OS/ Foreign orders

S&H included add $10.00

VISA/MC: 1-800-835-2246 X 123KANSAS CALL: 1-800-362-2421 x123

Inquiries and Technical Information (303) 971-0729

PATHFINDER SOFTWARE, INC.

P.O. Box 43, Littleton, CO 80160

'TURBO Pascal is a icgislered Irailemaik of Borland International

■..»#%AMA SINGLE

M68000 as»

COMPUTER

On board 6-10 MHz CPU, 20K RAM, 32K EPROM,two RS-232, 16-bit port, 5-counter/timersexpandable via Memory/FDC Board.

M68K CPU (bare board) S 89.95

M68K CPU A&T (6MHz) $495.00

MD512K Memory/FOC (bare board) S 89.95

MD512K Memory/FDC (128K) $495.00

FDC/Hard Disk interlace oplion ST50.00

M68KE Enclosure w/power supply $249.00

M68K Monitor EPROM's S 95.00

M68K Macro Cross Assembler S195.00

4XF0RTH OS w/assembler. editor S295.00

CP/M 68K OS w/"C" compiler $395.00

T^lkM C? Educational P.O. Box 16115

r* IVI ^% Microcomputer Irvine, CA 927131^1'IVJ Systems (714)854-8545

Inquiry 254

Inquiry 256

Inquiry 124

$ompu$ave

Call Toll Free: 1-800-624-8949

A DIVISION OF ADLANKO CORPORATION

MONITORS

Hitachi 1455S... 525 Amdek 310A.145Mitsuba/TTL.... 109 Amdek 722. . 499NEC Multisynch.542 PGS MAX 12.162Tatung 1370.. .449 PGS HX12E.515Tatung 1380.... 519 Taxan 620..385Tatung 1222A...122 Taxan 640..495Thorn 36382SI . 375 Wyse 620... 399

Zenith 1240 155 Zenith 1230..92

Roland/12'7RGB/640x240/.37... 299Thomson/14"/Color Comp/Apple.. 139Sakata/13VRGB/800x400/.31.... 529Mitsubishi/Quadram/Tecmar.... CALL

MODEMS

AST Reach Hall-Card W/Soll 325

Anchor Volksmodem 49

Anchor Express Half-Card W/Soft.. 185

Hayes Smartmodem 1200 368

Incomm 2400 (Upgradable 4800 + ).399

Novation 212 Apple Cat II 375

Prac. Per. 1200 Half-Card W/Soft..155

Prometheus Promodem 1200G 195

Prometheus Promod 1200B W/Soft.218

Racal-Vadic 1200V 209

Racal-Vadic 2400 Half-Card W/Soft.389

Zoom HE Internal/Apple 92

Codex/Rixon/UDS/Ven-Tel CALL

COMPUTERS

Altos 986T-80 Multiuser System.. 10695

Corona PPC400 Port./2 Drives 1125

Sharp PC7000 Port./2 Drives 1295

Sperry IT/1M/40M Hard Drive. .. .2995Televideo AT/1.2M/20M/Monitor.. 2385

Wyse PC1100/256K/1 Drive 965

Zenith ZF138 Port./I Drive 1195

Zenith ZF148/256K/1 Drive 899

Zenith ZF158/256K/1 Drive 1399

Corvus/Molecular/Panasonic CALL

PC-XT CLONE $599

640K/4.77 MHz/1 Floppy Drive/135 W

Power Supply/XT-Style Keyboard/ User

Documentation/6 Months Warranty

OLIVETTI M-24 $1645

(FROM THE MAKERS OF AT&T 6300)640K/8MHz/1 Floppy Drive/250 WattPower Supply/Keyboard/Clock/Calendar

640x400 Mono & Color/7 Empty SlotsPar & Serial Ports/Monochrome Monitor

TERMINALS

Televideo 905. .299 Altos IV...

385

Televideo 955. .449 Ampex 210

.365

Wyse 30 289 Ampex 219

465

Wyse 50 418 Qume 101G

.293

Wyse 85 438 Visual 65..

425

Adds/CIE/IBM/Kimtron/Liberty...

CALL

PRINTERS/PLOTTERS

Citizen 120D... 179 Canon A40. .. 235

.248

.2265

549

.245

.689

Citizen MSP10

Corona Lazer

Epson FX286.

Epson LX90..

Epson LQ1000

Panasonic 1080.199

Panasonic 1091.235

Toshiba 321...495

Toshiba 341... 795

Fujitsu Color Printer/220CPS....

Anadex/C. Itoh/Data Prod/Qume

Genicom/Okidata/Televideo/TI..

Buffers/Cables/Sheet Feeders..

Stands/Switch Boxes/Tractors..

Houston/loline/Roland Plotters...

Houston/Kurta/Summa Digitizers.

Canon LazerDiablo D25.Diablo 635.Juki 6100..NECP5. ...NEC P5XLNECP7...Star NX10Tally MT86

1975

: 519

1065.345.9751125.585.245.425.495CALLCALLCALLCALLSAVESAVE

DISK DRIVES

Apple Compatible Floppy Drives.... 121

IBM Compatible Floppy Drives 89

IOMEGA Dual 20M Bernoulli Box.. 2995

Tandon 20M Hard Card 669

Seagate 20M Hard Drive Kit 439

Seagate 30M AT Hard Drive 695

OTHER FLOPPY AND HARD DRIVESArchive • CDC • Corvus • Gamma • IrwinMaynard • Micro Sci • Mitsubishi • PriamPanasonic • Shugart • Tallgrass • Teac

Tecmar • Toshiba • Western Digital

BOARDS

AST Rampage PC 298

AST Six Pack Plus/64K 212

Six Pack Clone/Game Port/OK 99

ATI Graphics Solution 199

Hercules Color Card 143

Color Card Clone 95

Intel Above Boards CALL

Orange Grappler + (Apple) 69

Paradise Modular Graphics Card.. .235

PC Monochrome Graph (Par Port) 99

PC 576K RAM Board (OK) 67

Quadram Vega EGA+ 389

Sigma 400 High Res Card 455

Taxan 555 High Res Card .189

Tecmar Captain/OK 119

Microtek/Orchid/Persyst/STB ... CALLPrac. Peripherals/Thesys/Vutek.. CALL

ALL TYPES OF BUSINESS. CADAND RECREATIONAL SOFTWAREVERY LOW PRICES CALL

WE ALSO CARRY

Maynard Mouse W/Software 122 I

Intel 8087-2 Coprocessor Chip 152

Keytron 5153 Keyboard/Touch Pad. 265 |

Disk Controllers/Joysticks/Labels

Power Supplies/Surge Protectors

Cables/Graphics Tablets/Light Pens

VERY LOW PRICES FOR DS/DD DISKS

HOURS: MON FRI 8AM - 6PM/SAT QAM - 2PMIN ARIZONA CALL (602) 437-4855

CompuSave: 4207 S. 37th St., Phoenix, AZ 85040/For Customer

Service Call (602) 437 4856'Prices Reflect Cash Discounts And Are

Subiect To Change Without Notice/Minimum Shipping Charge $4

Purchase Orders ft Major Credit Cards Welcome

BYTE CONNECTION INC.- (714,778-6496

BOTTOM LINE (HOI GUSTFtPSX - "Who you senna call?*' =====

BROTHER M 1509 $350 CITOH LQ24... $ 895 D10-40.

C-10 t 4T5 CITIZEN MSP 15 $ 365, MSP 25 ....

PREMIER35 S 450 CORONA LASER

DIABL0635 $1250 INKJET S 895 34LO

LAZER/COPIER 4045 $4259 EPSON

DATA PRODUCTS CALL FUJITSU MAX24

2400PLUS $919 DL 2400 $895 2100

HEWLETT-PACKARD LASER JET $2295 HP Plus

HP LASER 500 Plus .. $4145 NEC P560 .... $ 895 P7SO ..OKIDATA 192 ... $ 369 193 ... $ 479 PANASONIC P1592 .P1592 $625 TOSHIBAP351 $1095 P341..,.

PLOTTERS A DIGITIZERS ~ ~

CALCOMP1042-While Supplies Last.... .. $8395 1043

1044... $11,195 GOULD 6320 11 x 17.. $1550 IO LINE 3700HIDMP56 $4596 DMP40 $775 OMP51/52...

HP 7475

NICOLET ZETA 824 ..., ..GTC0 3648L... . $3095

KURTA12x12

SUMMAGRAPHICS 11x11

$1659 HP7580.

$8995 ZETA836CS

$3095 1117A $1195 2436TL.

$ 595 12x17

11 x11 $ 495 18x12

HITACHI 36x48... $4195 TIGER 11 x 11 ... $ 675 15x15

GRAPHIC CONTROLLERS a MONITORS

HITACHI HM 3719 a BNW 15

MICROVITEC905CNQGRAPHPORTD

TAXAN 640 $ COLOR 400L

PERSYSTBOB16 4 NEC1401

GALAXY 800 ft MITSUBISHI 6489

VERTICOMCD-1 ft VERTICOM M-16

BNW ADAPTER $1950 ARTIST-IT

CONOGRAPHICS 400 ft MITSUBISHI 3479 LP

MITSUBISHI 1341 ft SIGMA 400

HARD DRIVES ft BACK UP SYSTEMS

UBM 10 MB HD. 10 MB Tape B/U ft Cont

. $7359. $3895.. $4145.. $8415$13,295.. $5995..$ 695.. $ 750. $1295

UBM 20 MB HD. Controller ....UBM 70 MB HD, 2B MS lor AT .

RHODIME40MBHD

FUJITSU 55 MB HD

MOUNTAIN 30 MS HD ... .

$ 479 UBM 30 MB HD ft Controller $ 695 MICROCRAFT, B/

$1550 UBM (Archive) 60 MB Tape B/U.... $ 750 IBM Doctor Offici

$875 PRIAM60MBHD $1595 rai i cno wuai

$2095 MOUNTAIN 60 MB $2250 *.«". run wn« i

(714) 778-6496

PERSONAL COMPUTERS

UBM • I (IBM Compatible), 640K, AT or 5151 Look Alike Keyboard, Two 360 Floppies, PP.

Graphics Board ft Monitor $ 879

UBM * II Turbo, all the above with 360 Floppy, 20 MB HD $1359

UBM * IV, (IBM AT Compatible), with 8 MHZ, 640 K, 1.2 MB Floppy. 20 MB HD Graphics

Card, Monitor ft Keyboard $2495

UBM Monographic* $120 UBM AT Serial, Parallel $ 95

UBM Multl Function, S, P C/C. Zero-3S4K $ 125

UBM 20 MB Subsystem $ 479 UBM Color Graphics $ 120

UBM EGA Campatlble $ 350 DEALER'S INQUIRIES INVITED

IBM Pc7with?56K. KB, Two 360 Floppies $1295

IBM PC XT, with 256K 360 Floppy. 20 MB HD, KB., Graphics Card, Monitor $2350

IBM PC AT, with 512K KB, 20 MB HD $3795

IBM PC Convertible 80 C 88 Processor, with 512K. Two 720KB Floppies... CALL

IBM Proprlnter $ 475 IBM Quletwrlter CALL

IBM EGA, with 256K Memory... $ 775 IBM EG Monitor $ 685

COMPAQ PORTABLE II with 512K. 80286 Processor, Two 360 Floppies $2875

COMPAQ DESK PRO, with 640K. Two 360 Floppies, Graphics Card ft Monitor .. $1895COMPAQ DESK PRO a PORTABLE 288, with 640K 1.2 Floppy, 20 MB HD

Monitor $3895

For 86 MB, instead of 20 MB, add $ 995

AT A T 6300 PC, with 256K. KB, Two 360 Floppies, AT ft T Graphics Card ft Monitor, $1795

AT ft T 6300 Plus, with 512 K 12 Floppy, KB, Graphics Card ft Monitor $3495

SPERRY PC-IT, with 640K, 1.2 MB Floppy, 40 MB HD, KB $3095

SOFTWARE ^^

Accounting Package $ 495

AUTOCAD $1950

CALVANCE, VERSACAD, HITACHI a ANVIL CALL

ARMOR SYSTEM'S Excallbur a Plus Series CALL

COMPUTER ASSOCIATE (IUS) A/R, A/P, G/L EACH $ 350

UNIVAIR'S Dental Management a Medical Management-9000 CALL

CYMA Medical, Chiropractic, Orthodontic, Dental Package $1625

Physician Micro Systems Package $1850

Hotel Information Systems Package $2450

MICROCRAFT, BALCONE, UNIVAIR CALL

IBM Doctor Officer Manager $2195

CALL FOR WHAT IS NOT LISTED, WE GUARANTEE THAT YOUR CALLWILL NOT BE A WASTE.

t~M'mA\ M afNa>Vl4.^-B7 4f^ No charges for testing and configuring equipment. Prk;es

X.*Y sl*srjf M m cy ^J*m,\W^J and availability subject to change without notice.

163 West Oerritcs Ave., Anaheim, OA 9280S

Inquiry 55

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 401

FREE CATALOG

Outstanding prices on computeraccessories for your computer andworkstation. Our catalog features awide selection of quality productsto meet all your accessory needs.Call or write today to receive yourfree catalog.

LINTEK COMPUTER ACCESSORIES

POB 8056. Grand Rapids, Ml 49518(616) 241-4040

-p PROFESSIONAL .^y'^ HANDICAPPING SYSTEMS "^

PRESENTED BY PROFESSOR JONES

35f

Thoroughbred "Gold" Edition'"

A "Full" featured thoroughbred analysis designedlor the professional and the serious novice.S159.95 complete w/Waster Betlor"* S199.95Limited "'Gold'"" Enables Professional Handicappers toassign specific values to racing valuables they lee^re, impor-tant, creat%program weigfil based on particular irTra/and finetune for maximum win percentage. Program designed for "easeof use." User needs no programming experience.

(Contains Integrated Bellor'") $299.95 complete-^^"*«* Gold Dog Analysis'" $149.95

The ONLY professional grey-hound analysis available thai w/mtegraled Betlor $199.95evaluates ALL variables Limited Version $299.95

Master Harness Handicapper"" ^tdhProfessional software designed * v\to provide a thorough analysis complete $159.95

of all trotter and pacer races in ^/Integrated Bettor $199.95the United Slates and Canada. Limited $299.95

Lottery Analysis. Statistical comparison program designed todelect subtle patterns in winning numbers and digits.Lottery (3-4 digit) $79.95 w/Lollo (Max. 99 Digit} $99.95

FREE CATALOG

Professor Jones • 1940 W. State, Boise, ID B3702

CALL 342-6939 • VISA/MasterCard/AMEX Welcorr

erms: 48-Hour Free shipping ot software. Add $6 hardware/ I

$6 C.O.D / $6 UPS Blue / $9 Out ol Country Idaho residents

| add 4%. 3 weeks personal checks. Cash price only. Add

j VISA/MaslerCard, AMEX. Prices subject to change.

Inquiry !87

• YourRevie>

Inquiry 276

Your BEST BET in H

Serial 4 ■ I HI HI ■ ► Parallel

Convert What You HaveTo What You Want!

* RS232 Serial * Centronics Parallel

' 8 Baud Rates * Handshake Signals

" Latched Outputs ' Compact 3y, x 4% x 1%

No longer will your peripheral choices be limited by the typeof port you have available! Our new High Performance 700Series Converters provide the missing link. Based on thelatest In CMOS technology, these unils feature lull baudrate selection to 19.2K, with handshake signals to maximizetransfer efficiency. Detailed documentation allowssimplified installation. Order the Model 770 (Ser/Par) orModel 775 (Par/Ser) Today!

onlyJ89.95

Connoclor Option 110 COCA Residents 6*/. tax

UPS Shipping S3 00

TioBrfri

2734<: Jonnson Dr

Post Office Box 3717

Ventura, California 93006

CALL (805) 658-7466 or 658-7467MB For FAST Delivery \

Inquiry 349

Get the whole

story on graphics

terminal emulation.

To find out more about softwarethat lets your PC emulateTEKTRONIX™ 4105/6/7/9 andDEC VT100™ terminals,call or write:

0 GRAFPOinT

4340 Stevens Creeks Blvd., Suite 280,San Jose, CA 95129 (408) 249-7951

11

' ELECTRONICS

SHARE computers, printers,any parallel or serial deviceELIMINATE cable swappingINEXPENSIVE way to networkCOMPATIBLE withall computers.

Businesses, Schools. HomesWE ALSO OFFER:Data Buffers. Line Drivers,Modems, Protocol Converters,Parallel - Serial Converters,Cables, Computers, Printers,Disk Drives, and more.AUTOMATIC - CARETAKER is ideal lor a business orschool to share a printer or modem among many computers.Operation is fully automatic with no software required.Parallel or Serial 4 channels - $295 8 channels - $395MANUAL - HAHDSWITCH is operated with the flip ot 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 ■ $79 1:4 ■ $139 2:2 - $119 2:4 - $199LED and spike prolection on serial models add $20.CODE ACTIVATED - PORTER connects one computer tomultiple peripherals. A software code selects the peripheral.Parallel 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 status.4:4-$495 4:8 - $795 selector - $39^=^=^=^= gtoe tt IG&u t* f*t* commute* ^^^=^^^=

ROSE ELECTRONICS (713) 933-7673

P.O. BOX 742571 MC & VISA Accepted

HOUSTON, TX 77274 Dealer Inquiries Invited

CALL US FOR ALL YOUR INTERFACE NEEDS

6800 FamilySoftware

■,..". '..'.■

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

Lafayette. IN 17904I 317.7.12-9428

Inquiry 146

Inquiry 298

Inquiry 377

DATA ACQUISITION TO GO

INTERFACE FOR ANY COMPUTER

FREE IBM SOFTWARE

Connects via RS-232. Fully IBM com-patible. Built-in BASIC. Stand alonecapability. Expandable. BatteryOption. Basic system: 16 ch. 12 bitA/D, 2 ch. D/A, 32 bit Digital I/O.Expansion boards available. DirectBus units for many computers.

(201) 299-1615P.O. Box 246, Morris Plains, NJ 07950

ELEXOR

LOW COST UNIVERSALPROGRAMMER KITS

" NO PERSONALITY MODULES REQUIRED" ON LINE HELP AND MENU SELECTION" ON BOARD 110/220V POWER SUPPLY" FAST PROGRAMMING MODE AT GV VCC" BUILT IN MONITOR FOR 1/0 DEBUG" CAD PCB. SILKSCREEN & SCHEMATIC" SOFTWARE DRIVERS FOR MOST PCs" SUPPORTS ALL 5V EPR0MS. EEPR0MSAND INTEL MICROCOMPUTERS

KITS FROM $125 ASSEMBLED $295DRIVERS $35 SHIPPING $4VISA «, MASTER CARD ACCEPTED

B&C MICROSYSTEMS

6322 Mojave dr. San Jose CA 95120Phone (108)997-7685 Telex 1995363

UNIVERSALEPROM PROGRAMMER

" NO PERSONALITY MODULES REQUIRED" ON LINE HELP AND MENU SELECTION" ON BOARD 110/220V POWER SUPPLY" FAST PROGRAMMING MODE AT 6V VCC" BUILT IN EPROM ERASER W/TIMER" GANG PORT FOR FUTURE EXPANSION" SOFTWARE DRIVERS FOR MOST PCs" SUPPORTS ALL 5V EPR0MS. EEPR0MSAND INTEL MICROCOMPUTERS

1109C-33 $515 1109C-34 $G95

DRIVERS $35 SHIPPING $6

VISA & MASTER CARD ACCEPTED

B&C MICROSYSTEMS

6322 Mojave dr. San Jose CA 95120Phone (108)997-7685 Telex 1995363

Inquiry 127

Your System/Controller should fit youlike 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?

if\'."l want softwarecompatibility."Solution:

THESB180

COMPUTER/CONTROLLERThe SB180, only 4" by 1%"', 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%", S%" or 8" drives. The SB180 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.

SB 180-1 w/8K ROM monitor. . $369.00SB180-1-10 w/8K ROM monitor,

BIOS source and

Z-system $418.00

ff2:"l need speed."Solution:

THE Z8 FORTHSYSTEM/CONTROLLER

The Z8 FORTH System/Controller isonly 4" by 4%" and includes a custommasked Z8 version of the FORTH

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

ff3'. "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 BCC11/BCC21 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-

preter 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

ff4: "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 language.Programs 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.

IUNE

MICROMINT, INC.25 Terrace DriveVernon, CT 06066

1986 -BYTE 403

NEW LOW PRICES !

NEW LOW PRICES

COMPUTERPRODUCTS.Inc.ORDER TOLL FREE

(800)538-8800.

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

(800)848-8008

S [MasterCard]

STATIC

DYNAMIC

2114L

200ns

.99

4116

200ns

.35

2016

200ns

.99

4116

150ns

.45

2016

150ns

1.35

4164

200ns

1.05

HM6116 P

150ns

1.35

4164

150ns

1.20

HM6116LP

150ns

1.45

41128

150ns

4.95

Z-6132

300ns

19.89

41256

150ns

2.89

HM6164 P

150ns

3.35

41256

120ns

3.B9

HM6164LP

150ns

3.45

4416

150ns

3.95

HM6164LP

100ns

12.45

4464

150ns

6.95

EPROMS

2516

450ns

2.95

2532

350ns

3.75

2708

450ns

2.95

2716-5

490ns

1.95

2716

450ns

2.45

2716-1

350ns

■2.95

2732

450ns

2.95

2732 A-2

200ns

3.95

2732 A 250ns

2764 450ns 2.95

2764 250ns 3.45

27128 250ns 3.95

27256 250ns 6.99

27512 250ns 29.99

MC68764 450ns 15.99

MC68766 350ns 16.99

8088 / 8086

UPGRADE

V-20...5MHZ... 13.95

V-20... 8 MHz... 19.95

— High Speed —

DP-25 Solder Cup

Male, Female, Hoods.

990 ea.

UV ERASERS

QUV-T8/1 $49.95

ECONOMY Model

r-tSSJ

74LSOO

i

74LS100

14

74LS125

.36

74LS260

.46

74LS01

14

74LS126

.36

74LS266

.36

74LS02

14

74LS132

.36

74LS273

.76

74LS03

14

74LS133

.46

74LS275

1.96

74LS04

14

74LS136

.36

74LS279

.36

74LS05

16

74LS137

.98

74LS280

1.18

74LS08

16

74LS138

.36

74LS283

.56

74LS09

16

74LS139

.36

74LS290

.86

74LS10

14

74LS145

.86

74LS293

.76

74LS11

IB

74LS147

.86

74LS295

.66

74LS12

in

74LS14B

.86

74LS298

.66

74LS13

3(1

74LS151

.36

74LS299

1.46

74LS14

?4

74LS153

.36

74LS323

2.46

74LS15

M

74LS154

1.46

74LS324

1.68

74LS20

16

74LS155

.46

74LS352

1.24

74LS21

20

74LS156

.46

74LS353

1.18

74LS22

?n

74LS157

.34

74LS363

1.28

74LS26

?n

74LS158

.28

74LS364

1.88

74LS27

?n

74LS160

.28

74LS365

.36

74LS28

24

74LS161

.36

74LS366

.36

74LS30

16

74LS162

.46

74LS367

36

74LS32

16

74LS163

.36

74LS368

.36

74LS33

?6

74LS164

46

74LS373

.76

74LS37

M

74LS165

6-1

74LS374

.76

74LS38

?4

74LS166

.86

741S377

.76

74LS40

16

74LS168

.94

74LS378

1.12

74LS42

36

74LS169

.94

74LS385

1.84

74LS47

SB

74LS170

.64

74LS386

.42

74LS48

66

74LS173

.46

74LS390

1.06

74LS49

66

74LS174

.36

74LS393

.76

74LS51

16

74LS175

.36

74LS395

1.06

74LS54

18

74LS181

1.46

74LS399

1.06

74LS55

.20

74LS189

3.86

74LS424

2.86

74LS63

m

74LS190

.46

74LS447

.92

74LS73

?B

74LS191

.46

74LS490

1.46

74LS74

??

74LS192

.66

74LS624

1.92

74LS75

26

74LS193

.66

74LS640

.96

74LS76

?fi

74LS194

.56

74LS645

.96

74LS78

.36

74LS195

.56

74LS668

1.46

74LS83

46

74LS196

.56

74LS669

1.26

74LS85

46

74LS197

.56

74LS670

.86

74LS86

20

74LS221

.56

74LS674

9.58

74LS90

.36

74LS240

.66

74LS682

3.14

74LS91

.86

74LS241

66

74LS683

2.86

74LS92

46

74LS242

66

74LS684

2.86

74LS93

.36

74LS243

.66

74LS685

2.86

74LS95

46

74LS244

.58

74LS688

1.86

74LS96

.46

74LS245

.68

74LS689

2.86

74LS107

.32

74LS247

.68

74LS783

21.96

74LS109

,34

74LS248

.66

81LS95

1.36

74LS112

26

74LS249

.96

81LS96

1.36

74LS113

.32

74LS251

.46

B1LS97

1.36

74LS114

3?

74LS253

.46

81LS98

1.36

74LS122

44

74LS257

.36

74LS123

46

74LS258

.46

25LS2521

2.48

74LS124

2.60

74LS259

1.18

25LS2569

2.48

r MEMORY ^

EXPANSION KIT

• Erases 15 EPROMS in 20 minutes

• Plastic Enclosure

41256 150ns$2.89 each!

8000

8031 4.95

8035 1.45

8039 1.89

8080A 2.89

8085 2.35

8085A-2 4.89

8086 7.89

8087-3 124.95

8087-2 139.95

8088 5.95

8089 39.95

8100

8131 2.90

8155 2.35

8155-2 3.89

8156 2.89

8185 26.89

8185-2 26.89

8200

8202 8.98

8203 29.89

8205 2.98

8212 1.35

8214 3.59

8216 1.35

8224 2.09

8226 1.59

8228 3.29

8237 4.79

8237-5 5.29

8238 3.99

8243 2.39

8250 5.95

8251 1.49

8251A 1.69

8253 1.69

8200 (contlnuad)

8253-5 1.79

B255 1.59

8255-5 1.79

8257 1.99

8257-5 2.29

8259 1.89

8259-5 1.99

8271 48.95

8272 4.79

8274 4.79

8275 24.99

8279 2.29

8279-5 2.79

8282 3.79

8283 3.79

8284 2.79

8286 3.79

8287 3.79

8288 4.79

8289 19.89

8292 12.90

8300

8303 1.79

8304 1.79

8307 1.79

8308 1.79

6310 2.29

8311 2.29

8700

8741 8.89

8748 6.99

8749 9.89

8755 18.89

80000

80186-6 48.89

80188 48.89

CRYSTALS

ALL STANDARD VALUES .... 1.00

CRYSTAL CLOCK OSC.

ALL STANDARD VALUES .... 4.89

DIP Switches 790

ORBITAL SYSTEMS:

EXTENDED 80-Col. Card for Appli lie

64K to 128K Upgrade; 2-Yr. Warranty {69.95

Z-B0(CP/M) CARD, for Apple II+, lit

Compatible with all Apple CP/M

Lifetime Warranty 69.95

IBM ACCESSORIES

8087-3 5 MHz 124.95

8087-2 8 MHz 139.95

80287 1 MHz 179.00

80286 99.00

Power Supply, 135W 89.00

Monochrome Graphic Card . 119.00

Memory Card 139.00

Multifunction Card 129.00

AT Crystal: 16,18,20 MHz.... 4.95

MACINTOSH UPGRADE

(PARTS ONLY) _ _

128K to 51ZK 50.

Consists of: (16) 41256, 150ns;ID 74F253;|17) 16-Pin Sockets

Resistors and Capacitors ALSO INCLUDED

APPLE ACCESSORIES

Parallel Printer Card 49.95

80-Col. card for Apple 11+.., 149.9580-Col. card for Apple lie... 69.95

Cooling Fan 38.95

Power Supply 69.95

Joystick 29.95

RF Modulator 13.95

Disk Drive Full Height.... 159.95

Disk Drive'/z Height 129.95

Controller Card 49.95

16K Card 39.95

Z-80 Card 69.95

. DISKETTES .* BULK w

SS/DD 25/$17.25

DS/DD 25/$19.75

AT disks 25/$50.00

3V2" disks ... 25/$50.00

ALL DISKETTES HAVE AFULL 1-YEAR WARRANTY

r

6500 ^

6500 6500 A

6502

.. 1.99 6502A 2.49

6504

.. 6.79 6520A 2.49

6505

.. 8.79 6522A 4.99

6507

.. 9.79 6532A 9.89

6520

.. 1.59 6545A 6.89

6522

.. 3.99 6551A 6.89

6532

.. 5.99

6545

4 89 6500 B

6551

.. 5.89 6502B 5.B9

6800

1 MHz

6800

.. 189 2 MHz

6802

6803

6808

■ ■ JM}3 68B0O 4.89

log 68B02 5.89

6809E

5 89 68B09 6.89

6809

.. 5.89 68B09E 6.99

6810

.. 1.89 68B10 2.99

6820

• • 2-89 68B21 3.89

6821

6828

6840

■ AS 68B40 14.89

" jgl 68B45 6.89

6843

18 89 68850 2.89

6844

6845

4 89 68000

6847

.. 10.89 68000-8 9.89

6850

.. 189 68047 12.89

6852

•• 15? 68488 14.89

6860

6862

::io9 »£? 'ill

6875

689 68661 8.89

6880

149 68764 15.89

6883

.. 21.89 68766 16.89

Z-80

Z-80 Z-80A (contlnuad)

Z80-CPU ...

.. .99 Z80A-DMA 4.89

Z80-CTC ...

.. 1.49 Z80A-PIO 1.79

Z80-OART ..

.. 3.89 Z80A-SIO/0 .... 4.89

Z80-DMA...

.. 3.89 Z80A-SIO/1 .... 4.89

Z80-PI0 ....

.. 1.59 Z80A-SIO/2 .... 4.89

Z80-SIO/0 .

.. 3.89 Z80A-SIO/9 .... 4.89

Z80-SIO/1 ..

.. 3.89

Z80-SIO/2 ..

.. 3.89 Z-80 B

Z80-SI0/9 ..

- - 3-89 Z80B-CPU 3.59

, _n A Z80B-CTC 3.59Z-BU A Z80B-PIO 3.59

Z80A-CPU ..

.. 1.49 Z80B-OART .... 10.89

Z80A-CTC ..

.. 1.69 Z80BS10/0 ... 10.89

Z80A-DART .

.. 4.89 Z80S10/2 .... 10.89

POWER SUPPLY

(Switching)

+ 12V

0.4 Amp

-I2V+ 5V

J

5.5 Amp iy.90

—.1

t!

1986

- THE

IC MASTER -

Your ticket to fast and easy

IC selections

$

119.00

MACINTOSH. APPLE II. APPLE III" and "APPLE II+" ate

Trademarks ol APPLE COMPUTER. INC.

AT" is a Trademark of IBM CORPORATION.

HOURS: Mon-Fri. 7:30 to 5:00

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

2100 De La Cruz Blvd

Santa Clara, CA 95050

(408) 988-0697

ALL MERCHANDISE IS100% GUARANTEED

■MEW LOW PRICES

■MEW LOW PRICES !

404 B YTE • JUNE 1986

Inquiry 120

Bullet-286 8-MHz80286 XT Motherboard

• Faster and more compatible than turboexpansion cards

• 9 times faster than XT, 65% fasterthan AT

• Completely XT hardware and softwarecompatible*

• Up to 1 MB onboard RAM with nowait states

• 10-minute, screwdriver-only installation

• One-year warranty

Marchand International

1240 N. Van Buren, Unit 108, Anaheim, CA 92807

(714) 630-3382

•E«cepl IBM ROM BASIC

Inquiry 203

NEC PRINTERS

(1 Year Factory Warranty)

Pinwriter P5 $ 925

Pinwriter P5XL $1100

Pinwriter P6 $ 445

Pinwriter P7 $ 575

Elf 350/360 $ 380

3510/15/30/50 $ 715

8810/15/30/50 $1040

Optional Forms HandlingDevices CALL

QUALITY PRINTERS8415 Cement City RoadBrooklyn, Michigan 49230Phone: 517-592-3749

Inquiry 287

ComputerParts Mart

634Noith Bth St

San Jose. CA 95112(408) 993-9011

STEPPER ENSEMBLE

100 Step High Precision MotorBy Applied Motion. Stepper driver with .^0bipolar windings. 26ohms/15mh. W'x2.1" ground shaft with helical fol- q&&*lower groove (5 0.182" pitch. This is ,**"*™an extremely high accuracy assemblygood to better than 50 microns absolute. Ball bearings,5.5gm/cm inertia, 10 oz. in. holding torque Oi 400 ma.New. never used. Driver I.C.s: 3717 for P.W.M. Micro-stepping allow efficient use of any supply voltage up to 40vDC. Motor and Two I.C.s including data sheets $14.!

STD-BUS

64K RAM Card expandable lo 256K S 99

256K Card $249

VolraxCard S149

i SASI Interface Card S100

l 4-SIO Card S165

14-PIO Card S129

' 2-SIO S 2-PIO Card S125Z80 CPU Cacd ... . S 79

6800 Proc Caid . 5300.Complete STD Systems available—Up lo 10 slots. 10 MB Disk, etc

UNashua.

Diskettes

■w ymm

5'/4" DS/DD with hub ring and sleeve,factory warranteed. packaged in 50's.Shipping Extra. Quantity 50,856 each.

The mme ■■TfbW X,low price ^^#Ab^ (\our volume #**«m ycopying # ^7eachcustomers pay! ^^ Qty, i no

We sell 3V2"&5V4" disks-alltypes, major brands. Call toll free:

1-800-321-4668

in Colorado. 303-234-0871VISA, MASTERCARD, OR COD ACCEPTED

Jk W JE* 1315-F Nelson SI.4%, M-t F Denver, CO 80215

Inquiry 14

PORTABLE ADDITIONS

PORTABLE DISK DRIVE S229

3'h". bait, oper.. TS-DOS, WOK storage

24K RAM CHIP for Tandy 200 $89

8K RAM CHIP lor Model- WO $29and NEC 8201. . .3 lor $79, 6 lor $149

SIDESTAR lor NEC Starlet $399128K Ram Disk Cartridge

SIDECAR lor NEC PC-8201A $2594 banks ot 32K in one cartridge

CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-732-5012

Calil: 805-987-1742

Canada: 604-856-8858. Australia: 02-419-8899

1ZSi

PURPLECOMPUTING

VISA MIC &AMER.EXP.

420 Constitution Ave., Camarillo, CA 93010

Inquiry 280

FANSI-CONSOLE

tm

The Integrated Console UtilityTMAll the little things IBM forgot!for IBM—PC, XT, AT & clones.

• 1.2 to 3.0 times faster DOS & BIOSscreen writing

• more escape seouences than ANS'.SYS

• usable in any language

• scroll recall facility

• compatibility w/PC & AT software

• full EGA support

• 255 character typeanead Duffer

• increase key repeat rate

• no scroll blink for some adaptors

• VT 100/52 emulation

• auto dual screen disable

• keyboard induced breakpoints

• window support

• support for 50 line display

• many many more little features

400p Manual {w/slip case) & disk $75, or JUKIShareware disk $25. As described in Pt'-HorttiFebruary S6, pp. 282 and in Lotus June 85, pg. 8.

HERSEY MICRO CONSULTING. INC

Box 8276J, Ann Arbor, Ml 48107(313)994-3259 x525 VISA/MC

Inquiry 81

Inquiry 154

IMPORT DIRECTSAVE 30%

MASTER PACKS SAMPLE IMPORT IMPORT*

1-4 5-49 50+

PC-AT $1595.00 $1495.00 $1299,00

512KRAM(Upto1MonBoard)1.2 M FLOPPY - FLOPPY & HARD DISK CONTROLLERAT KEYBOARD - CLOCK WITH BATTERY BACKUP195W POWER SUPPLY - DOS 3.10 & MANUAL

SAMPLE 5-49 50+

PC-AT COLOR $1800.00 $1700.00 $1550.00

SAME AS ABOVE WITH COLOR MONITOR ANDCOLOR/GRAPHICS CARD

SAMPLE 10-99 100+PC-XT TURBO $000.00 $000.00 $505.00

640K RAM, 8088-2. (4.77 MHZ or 6.66 MHZ)360K FLOPPY - KEYBOARD - MONOCHROME/GRAPHICS PRINTER -12" TTL HIGH RES MONITOR

PC-XT $000.00 $505.00 $405.00

256K RAM - 360K FLOPPY - KEYBOARDMONOCHROME/GRAPHICS/PRINTER CARD (Her-cules Comp.) - 12" TTL HIGH RES MONITOR

DRIVES

1-49

50+

XT 300K FL0PPT

$09.00

$65.00

XT 10 MEO INTERNAL </> NEI8HT

$396.00

$355.00

XT 20 MEG INTERNAL V, HEIBHT

$470.00

$425.00

AT 1.2 MB FLOPPY

$140.00

$129.00

AT 20 MEO INTERNAL 40 MSEC

$570.00

$505.00

AT SO MEO INTERNAL 40 MSEC

$070.00

$595.00

INDIVIDUAL PART PRICING FOB TAIWAN

10-99

100+

PC-XT-2B8X 0 SLOTS (super XT BIOS)

$74.7$

$06.00

135W POWER SUPPLY

$51.75

$45.00

FLIP-TOP CLONE BOX

$25.45

$23.00

M0N0/SRAPHIC/PRN (Here comp)

$52.90

$40.00

KEYBOARD

$30.00

$32.00

FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER

$23.00

$20.00

RAM KITS 256K

$25.30

$22.09

12" TTL HIGH RES MONITOR

$65.00

$60.00

SUBTOTAL BASIC PC NO DRIVES

$360.70

$313.00

PUTT

$14.70

$13.00

OCEAN FREIGHT

$24.00

$20.09

AIRFREIGHT $110 am

ACS IMPORT FEE $J»0.00/Bim+10%

$71.00

$34.09

TOTAL LANDED COST, LA RUBOR

$47040

$350.80

MONITORS

SAMPLE 10-49 50+

$90.00 $05.00 $00.00

$381.00 $276.00 $236.00

$400.00 $350.99 $335.00

CL-868 12" TTL MONOMD-J 14" COLOR RGB.30 DOT 840x200MD-7 14" CB10R RGB.31 MM B0T 720x350

ADD ON B0AR0S - PARTIAL LIST

K-XT-640K MOTHER BOARD 8 SLOT

PC-XM40K TDRBO 4.77/8.66 MHZ

TRANS-NET (UN)CARD 1.0 MHZ

3S4K MULTI-FUNCT (AST6 comp)

RAM KITS 384K

MDBEM CARB 300/1200 (Hayes comp)

COLOR BRAPHICS CARD

AB SWITCH BOX (Centronics 2:1 or 1:2)

AB SWITCH BOX WITH 841BVFFER

AT SERIAL/PARALLEL CARD

AT COLOR/GRAPHICS

84 INPUT ANALOG/DIGITAL CARD

120 LINE PARALLEL I/O CARD

• 100 UNIT ORDERS MAY BE SCHEDULED OVER 6 MONTHS

ACS IMPORTERS

5311DERRYAVE,UNITAAGOURA HILLS, CA 91301H0URS9AM-6PMPST

(818) 888-1092TELEX: 299353 POST UR

10-99

100+

$78.00

$73.00

$09.00

$05.00

$199.00

$185.00

$86.70

$58.00

$36.80

$3200

$118.00

$105.00

$42.56

$37.00

$27.00

$24.00

$85.56

$57.00

$61.00

$55.00

$69.00

$01.00

$390.80

$358.00

$495.00

$371.00

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 405

\Nhafs New at

AMERICAN DESIGN COMPONENTS?

"The Source" of theelectro-mechanical componentsfor the hobbyist.

We warehouse 60,000items at AmericanDesign Components — ex-pensive, often hard-to-findcomponents for sale at afraction of their originalcost!

You'll find every part youneed — either brand new,or removed from equipment(RFE) in excellent condition.But quantities are limited.Order from this ad, or visitour retail showroom and findexactly what you need fromthe thousands of items ondisplay.

OpenMon. - Sat., 9-5

THERE'S NO RISK.

With our full 90-day warranty,any purchase can be returned forany reason for full credit or refund.

19" COLOR X-YDISPLAY

Originally designed for use in Atari coin-operated games. Contains 3-gun colortube, focus and brightness controls. Re-quires external X-Y inputs, 250-0-24Vtransformer for power. May be used foroscilloscopes, reprogrammed for gameuse, or modified with the use of externalvertical and horizontal oscillators to arastor scan display or TV monitor forcomputer use. (IBM compatible.) Trans-former supplied.

Item 05449 $99.00 New

ADAM COMPUTER KIT!

(Less printer & w/o cabinet)

Build it yourself from subassemblies. Nowiring necessary (just plugs together).Hook-up diagram included. Includes:Keyboard, 2 cassette digital data drives,2 game controllers, power supply, allmemory boards, and one cassette. Iscapable of running CP/M, has built-inword processor.

Item #7410 $99.00 (complete)

DISK DRIVES

% HT

96TPI

DS/Quad

Tandon #TM55-4

Item #1904 $79.50 ea

or 2 for $150.00

FULL HT

96TPI

DS/Quad

Tandon #TM101-4

Item #1901 $99.00 ea.

108CFM

MUFFIN

FAN

115VAC/60HZ., 21W., 28 amps.3100 RPM. 5-blade, aluminumhousing, sleeve bearing. Can bemounted for blowing or exhaust.Dim.: 4"/)8" sq. x 1 Yi " deepMfr. - Rotron #030173Item #5493 $ 1 0.9 5 New

ADAM REPLACEMENTKEYBOARD

(ASCII 75-Key/

I [ I ■ I I I I ■

21 user-defined keys. 7-pin con-nection. ASCII 8-bit serial outputOriginally designed for the Adam.Dim.: 15"Wx 2'/j"H xB»" D

Item #6643 $19.95 New

27CFM

MINI

FAN

115VAC/60 Hz. Low noise level

fan. Can be mounted for blowing

or exhaust. Fits standard 3Yi "

relay rack.

Dim.: 3%" sq. x 1%" deep.

Mfr. - Torin TA 300

Item #1873 $6.95 New

48-KEY KEYBOARD

Replace the membrane keyboardonyourTimex/SinclairZ-81 /1000with this brand new "big com-puter" keyboard from Texas In-struments. Simple to install —complete instructions and sche-matic included.Item #6712 $5.95 New

MR 52S (IBM® Compatible)

5%" FULL HEIGHTDISK DRIVE

Double sided/double density, fullheight drive. 48 T.P.I., 80 tracks.Item #7928 $79.50 New2 for $150.00

COMPUTERTAPE DRIVE

(For Adam)

Serial format. Search 80IPS -Read/Write 20IPS. 12V motor,5V logic, 8 & 9 pin connectorcables. Originally designed forthe Adam.Dim: 5"W x 3% "H x 4" deep

Item #6641 $9.95 New

ADAM PRINTER 12" COMPOSITE

POWER SUPPLY (Linear) VIDEO MONITOR

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

MicroprocessorsTMS9928AN

Video Display Processor 15.95MC68A09EP

8-Bit Microprocessor

(External Clock) 5.25

P8255A

Programmable Peripheral

Interface 5.75

8259A

Programmable Interrupt

Controller 2.49

Z8530PC

Multi-Protocol Serial

Controller (UPD7201) 34.95Dynamic Rem4116-2

16384x1 200N.S. .99

4816

16384x 1 200N.S. 4.00

Static Ram2114-45

1024x4450N.S. .99

6167P-6

16384x1 85 N.S. 8.00

Eproms

2716 2048x8 450 N.S. 2.242732 3096x8 450 N.S. 2.452764-25

8192X8250N.S. 3.00

2764-3

8192x8300N.S. 2.75

2764-45

8192x8450N.S. 2.45

Microcomputer68701

8-Bit with Eprom 15.00

Please cell us for 74XX, 74SXX.74LSXX, end 74HCXX.

mtMK

DC Output: - 5V @ 200 ma.

+ 5V @ 3 amps

+ 12V (S) 2.9 amps

+ 18V (inductive) (ffl 1 amp

Input: 115V/60H2.

Chassis Dim: 11"Wx4"Hx8"D

Item #6642 $14.95 New

Green phosphor; 40/80 column,1000-line resolution. 18MHzbandwidth. Compatible with IBM,Apple, Commodore, and more. In-cludes external transformer foroperation on 115 VAC & videocable. Mfr - Elston Elec. #DM30Item #6602 $29.95 New

PUMPS - COMPRESSORS - BLOWERS - MOTORS - POTENTIOMETERS - COUNTERSTIMERS-RELAYS-VOLTAGE REGULATORS-POWER SUPPLIES

STEPPING MOTORSfor ROBOTICS

Precision steppers with increments from1 to 7.5 degrees. Speeds up to 5,000 steps.

Stall Dimensions

Item Step DC Torque H x W x D (In.)No. Angle Volts oz/ln 1) Body 2) Shaft

#5431

#5272

Mfr. & Part No.

5431

1

5

17"

11 1'/, x 1 % x 1211/. x V,

N.A. PhillipsA82310-M2

2/$ 9.95

5272

1.8

1.3

200

11 4V4 diax4'/i

Sigma 4742TD-

2) %dia. X 1 Vie

200F1.3

2/ 59.50

5269

7.5

9

36

1) 13/,4Lx2%dia

N.A. Phillips

%.

2) % dia. x 'A L

B82916

2/ 17.95

5275

1.8

1.8

72

1) 21/„Lx23/„dia

2) % dia. x % I

Superior Elec.M061-FF-6201B

2/ 37.50

STEP UP-DOWNAUTO-TRANSFORMER

3.5 KVA with taps at: 100-115-120/200-208-220-230 & 240V.Ideal for boosting low line volt-age, or for use in converting 115to 230V and 230 to 115V.Dim.: 7"H x 6"W x 5V, " deep.Mfr. - Hyde #3575Item #8006 $69.00 New

500 VA MICRO-COMPUTER REGULATOR

AMERICAN DESIGN COMPONENTS, 62 JOSEPH STREET, MOONACHIE, N.J. 07074 MINIMUMYES! Please send me the following items: □ My check or money order is enclosed. 0RPf?

Item How D Charge my credit card.

D Visa □ Master Card □ Amex Bv'e"66

Card No.

No.

Output: 120V/60HZ.Input range: 95-1 30V ± 3% Sinusoidolwave output contains less than 3% har-monic distortion. Maintains output addi-tionally + 5%-10% down to 78V input.Ultra isolator for microprocessor-basedequipment; includes 6 ft. line cord. Inputwith dual 3-conductor "U" ground output.Dim.: 16% "Lx 8'/i"Wx TA "H.Mfr. - Sola #63-13-150.

Item #8007 $199.00 New

Total

Shipping & handling, we ship UPS unless

otherwise specified. Add $3 plus 10% total.

Canadian: $3 plus P.O. cost. Charge only.

Sales Tax (N.J, residents only,

please add 6% of total)

ORDER TOTAL

Exp. Date

Signature

Telephone: Area Code

City

State

Zip

All inquiries and free catalog requests call 201-939-2710.

For all phone orders, ca//TOLL-FREE 800-524-0809. In New Jersey, 201-939-2710.

406 B YTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 21

Vfeature

D I p disks

for Dlu files

User-Transparent

Security Features Included.

Golden Bow Systems

S80 - S120

Add S3 'or shipptrifl/fiamllinj

California residentadd 6% salts lax

619/298-9349

P O.Box3039

San Diego CA 92103

RS-422

Communications Board

'fMHH'Hf'mHnHIUI!'

• 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.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

Q

Inquiry I44

Inquiry 283

ROSS

MAYBE THE ONLY DEVELOPMENTSOFTWARE YOU'LL EVER NEED

• Table based 8 bit cross-assembler

• Tables/Source files included for:

1802 6502 8048 COP4003870 6801 8051 Z88096 6805 8085 Z80

• Modify/Create tables for most 8 bit microsCreate your own instruction sets

• INTEL. MOTOROLA. TEKTRONIX output formats

• Use with any EPROM programmer

• 36 page manual, full instructions

• Available in the following disk formats:

5" IBM-PC PC/MS-DOS 2.0 or greater, compatibles5" APPLE II r/lie CP/M-80 (Softcard), compatibles8" SSSD CP/M-80 IZ80 only)

DATA

• Multi-user Database!

• Powerful!

• Multiple OperatingSystem Compatibility!

• Attractive DealerPricing!

• Full Dealer Support!

Dataflex is .1 trademark of Data Access

Dealer Inquiries Invited

wmm

24000 Telegraph Road

Southfield, Michigan 48034 USA

(313) 352-2345

Inquiry 359

Inquiry 72

72 Digital I/O

PXB-721

Parallel Expansion Board

• For IBM-PC & Compatibles

• 72 Digital I/O Lines

• Simple Programming

• Uses One Expansion Slot

• Fast Delivery

$195

©

QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304(216)434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

64K-128K-256KDRAMS

80287-8 "80287-3

8087-3 "8087-2

8087-1

6 I T T N 6 R

€l€CTRONICS

899 SOUTH COAST HIGHWAYLAGUNA BEACH, CA 92651

(714) 497-6200

CALL NOW FOR FREE CATALOG

Inquiry 284

Inquiry 42

Inquiry 40

ORDER TOLL FREE24 HOURS EVERY DAY

800-662-2686

HARDWARE

COMPUTERS

IBM Compatible

256K Ram (Expands to 640K) 1 year warranty

DUAL FLOPPY SYSTEM 649

20MB HARD DISK SYSTEM 1049

ATARI, PANASONIC, OLIVETTI COMPUTERS CALL

—MODEMS, BOARDS, DRIVES

AST Advantage 359

SixPakPlus 384K 279

Intel Above Board 289

Paradise 5 Pak 384K.... 199

J-Ram 2/3 149/199

J-Rom 3AT 269

Tecmar Captain 384K ... 2196 Function Card 384K... 179

384K Ram Card 99

20MB Hotd Disk Kit 479

Easycard 20MB 749

Sigma One Reel Tape 659

Teoc 55B 109

DatnShield XT 300 369

Evercom 1200 Internal... 175

Smortmodem 12008 319

1200/2400 389/579

RocalVodic 1200 239

Practical Modem 1200... 129

Courier 2400 439

Genoa Spectrum 279

0uadEGA+ 399

Paradise Modular 269

Taxan 555 169

Sigma Color 400 469

Mono Graphics Card 109

video 7 Vega 409

AST Rampage 309

PRINTERS, PLOTTERS* MONITORS

EPS0N-AII Models. DOT MATRIX & DAISYWHEEL CALL

Canon Loser Beam 2175 Roland DXY-101 Plotter. .509

Citizen 120D 175 Houston Inst DMP-29 ... 1850

Citizen Premiere 35 425 Amdek 310A 149

Panasonic 1080 199 Amdek 600/722 ... 419/519

Panasonic 1091 249 NEC 1280 TTL Mono 119

Panasonic 1092 319 NEC 1401 Multi-Sync.... 549

Panasonic 1592 449 Taxan 610/620.... 355/399

Sweet P 600 739 Taxan 630/640.... 455/519

-SOFTWARE-

ACCOUNTING & DATABASE-

BPI Accntng/Mod... from 309 Managing Your Money ... 110Peachtree/Module 269 dBase III Plus 369

Back To Basics Acctng..Open Systems/Module..SBTGLPRor JobCost..SBT AP or AR (source)..Accounting Partner 2 ...

209 Nutshell 79

389 Reflex 59

249 Revelation 549

189 PFS File & Report 149

559 Q&A/+256K 205/239

SPREADSHEETS & INTEGRATED SOFTWARE

Lotus/Symphony CALL Smart SW System 489

Framework II 369 Multlplan 2.0 119

Supercalc 3 209 Mosaic Twin 89

-WORD PROCESSING-

Volkswrlter3 155 PFS Write * Proot 82

Microsoft Word 229 Multlmate 219

Ward Petted 4.1 225 Multlmate Advantage.... 279

- GRAPHICS-

Chattmoster 219 ln-A-Vlsion 289

Eneraraphlcs w/ Plot.... 229 Microsoft Chart 2 179

Freelance 209 Dr. Halo II w/Mouse 119

UTILITIES & LANGUAGES

Turbo Lightning 57 Fontrix 92

Microsoft Protect 2 239 Fastbock 115

Superproject 209 Sideways 37

Timeline 2 259 Traveling Sidekick 39

Tnie Basic 95 Windows 59

Microsoft C Compiler 239 Pop-Up Deskset 55

Microsoft Fortran 205 Desqview 59

Macro Assembler 90 Prokey 77

Oulck Basic 63 Xlree 31

Call Toll Free 24 hrs Every Day800-662-2686 orders only

for Ca Orders, Tech Support, Price Quotes, Info

415-668-9350 9-5 pacific time, m-f

Call or Write for Free Catalog

PAYMENT: (No Fee For Credit Cards.) Visa. MasterCard.

Cashier's Checks, Personal Checks with 2 wk. hold.

Qualified P.o.'s. Ca residents odd sales tax.

SHIPPING: UPS ground-2% per order, $4 min. FREE for SW

orders over $1000. UPS Blue-3% per order. $6mln. FREE for

SW orders over $1500. Printers, Monitors, Disk Drives,

computers — Call for charges.

All Products New with lull warrontles.

Price & availability subject to change without notice.

THE BAY

COMPANY

584 CASTRO ST., SUITE 487 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114o division ol MCSS. Inc Computet & Software specialists since 1981

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 407

Inquiry 113

Lowest Price Ever!on 3M Data Products

LIFETIME IMRRANTY

SS-DD Qty ■ 5 Bx (lesser qty add 3%) DS-DD

75{ - $107

J152 T 5.2596TPI s192

S152 3.507135TPI' $215

DS-HD 96 TPI (For the "ATT $222

'Pre-packaged in 3M's Flip n'File for $4./box

5150 8.00'SS-SDW/Wp

s184 8.00" W/WP s205

3M Head Cleaning Kit $6"

3M Data Cartridges - Qty 10/case (lesser qty add 5%)DC-100A $1230

DC-1000 s1235

DC-300XLP $19D0

DC-600A S2080

SUPER SPECIAL!* 3M Bulk Diskettes 5.25" DS-DD 50C'

BASF-

FtexyQeh

An Apple A Day

Win FREE Apple lie Computetand CASH!

SS-DD

75*

S-179

LIFETIME WARRANTYQty 5 Bx (lesser qty add 3%)

5.25" Qty 50 (10/Bx)

3.50" Qty 50 (5/plastic case)

DS-HD lor "AT" Qty 50 (10/Bx)

BASF diskettes are factory packed in boxes of 10 with

Tyvek sleeves, user ID labels and write-protect tabs.

OS-DD

85*

$029

S-J99

, Best Deal Ever

#- Nashua

SS-DD (lesser Qty add 10%) DS-DD

fiftO 5.25" Qty 10 BX 7R$

"" (volume discounts available) ■ w$169 3.507135TPI *229

DS-HD for the "AT" $209

Incredible Value!Made by a leadingmagnetic media manufacturerLIFETIME WARRANTY

SS-DD DS-DD

100 500 1000 100 500

.53 52 .50 5.25"w/hubring. .62 .62

1.52 1.50 1.48 3.607135TPI...1.86 1:83 1.80

5.25" DS-HD for the "AT" 1.72 1.65 1.55

59

COLOR DISKETTES

85*

DO 5.25" W/hub ring

RIBBONS STORAGE

Epson MX 70/80 .... 526S Amaray Media Mate . . «8"Epson MX 100 . . '3" Disk Minder II-75 . . . «6"Okidata 80/32/83/92/93s135 Micro Disk Minders-36.»6,sApple Image Writer .. s3™ Plastic Library Case .. *t*

TJflMS: VISA. MasterCard. American Express COD. ordsrs add S400. Pre-paid orders deduct 2% discount. POs accepted Irom corporations rated 3A2or better, government, and schools on Net 30 basis. FPO, APO. AK. HI andPR orders add 5%. No sales lax outside Utah! Minimum order 130.00.SHIPPING: Minimum S4 00 lot 100 ot fewer diskettes oi (irsl 5 poundsTOLL FREE ORDER LINE:

1-800-523-9681

INFORMATION AND INQUIRIES

1-801-942-2273

DISKCOTECH

DISKCO TECHNOLOGIES. INC.

2U34 East 70OQ South Salt Lake City Utah 84

Hours 7 AM i; PM (Mln. Time)

408 BYTE • JUNE 1986

Quelo QoUUU Developmentvi/ Tools

Quelo Assembler Packages are Motorola compatible.Each package Includes a macro assembler, linker/locator, object librarian, utilities for producingROMable code, extensive Indexed typeset manualsand produces S-records, Intel hex, extended TEK hex,UNIX COFF and symbol cross references. Portablesource written In "C" Is available. It has been ported toa variety of mainframes and minis Including VAX.

68020 Assembler Package

For CP/M-86, -88K and MSfPCDOS $ 750

66000/68010 Assembler Package

For CP/M-80, -86, -S8K and MSIPC-DOS $595

68000 "C" Cross Compiler

For MS/PC-DOS by Lattice, Inc.

With Quolo 68000(68010 Assembler Package $1095

With Quelo 68020 Assembler Package $1250

Call Patrick Adams today: Quelo, Inc.

2464 33rd W. Suite #173

Seattle, WA USA 98199

Phone 2061285-2528

COD, Visa, MasterCard Telex 910-333-8171

Trademarks CPr'M, Digital Research; MS, Microsoft Corporation: Quelo,Ouelo. Inc

Inquiry 291

MODULARDATA ACQUISITION

• For IBM & Compatibles

• Flexible and Inexpensive

• Money Back Guarantee

• Free Technical Support

Fast DeliveryQUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304(216)434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

0

Inquiry 285

An RS-232 Break-Out-Boxat a Fraction of the Cost.

RS-232 Multi-Adapter Board: 9 LED's for signalmonitoring. 24 switches to open any line (except line1). 20 jumper wires allow re-wiring to any con-figuration. 1 male and 1 female connector. Orderdirect! Only $59.95. All cash orders postpaid. (ILres. add 6% sales tax). We Accept MC, Visa. Freeillustrated catalog of RS-232 interface and testingequipment. Phone: 815-434-0846. Make checkspayable to:

&H electronics

■raw MANUFACTURING COMPANY

P.O. Box 1008B, OTTAWA, IL 61350

Inquiry 35

PICTURES THAT THINK

Boxes & Arrows'" is an IBM PC-basedblock diagram editor and computingsystem. If you are looking for some-thing more than a spreadsheet, Boxes& Arrows will let you combine compu-tation with pictorial representation.

• Automatic box & line drawing

• Labels and algebraic formulas

• Any printer, any display

• No limit to diagram size

• Call or write for full details

Inner Loop Software5456 McConnell AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90066

innerloop

software (213)822-2800

Inquiry I6I

ocsooo

iflllfTH

EXPANDS PC

PERFORMANCE AT A FRACTION

OF NETWORKING COST

• Adds four to eight serial communicationports to IBM PC, XT. AT or compatibles.

• Standard RS-232 or optional RS-422 portsfor increased transmission speed and distance.

• Supported by Xenix, Multi-Link, RTCS, QNX,and other multi-user, multi-tasking operatingsystems.

STAR GATE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.Suite 109

33800 Cunis Blvd. • Easilakc OH 44094Call: (216)951-5922

Inquiry 328

WAVEFORM

SYNTHESIZER

For IBM-PC/XT/AT and

compatibles

Generates user-definable signal

Up to 2000 points per envelope

$795.00QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

o

Inquiry 286

Software Selectable for

■ ■■mi ■ MtPFn -IO Kill J7 ^^—^.^-.^. oonware beiectaoie Tor

HIGH SPEED 12 MHZ OPERATION 6,8,10, and 12 mhzj

FULL IBM PC-AT* COMPATIBILITY!

FOUR MEGA-BYTE RAM CAPACITY ON MOTHERBOARD!

USING 1 MEGA-BIT DRAMS.

QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FORQUALIFIED DEALER, OEM, UNIVERSITYAND CORPORATE ACCOUNTS.

Eight Compatible I/OInterface Connectors

(Same as PC-AT)

Keyboard Interface

(Same as PC-AT)

HIGH SPEED INDUSTRIALGRADE COMPUTER FOR:

• Scientific

• Engineering

• Industrial

• Medical

• University/Education

• Artificial Intelligence

• Etc., Etc., Etc.

r On Board Battery

Extended ROM Capability

(Operates on all compatible BIOS ROMS)

Extended Memory Capacity!Full Four Mega-ByteCapacity on Motherboard!

(Uses 256k or NEW 1 Mega-Bil Drams)

ratf#&

SqvrS

D ATTAK-286'" FULLY ASSEMBLED (LESS ICS) $499.95

D AT CASE 100% COMPATIBLE $129.95

0 AT POWER SUPPLY 192W $129.95

D ATTAK-2861" TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL . .. .$ 29.95□ TURBO-SCOPE™ A/D BOARD $ 99.95

CMOS Clock Calendar

100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.10 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE IFNOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED!

AryiEFji(COJSj|

'■/!■ ;•

■express

»

EUROCARD

A\T

CORPORATION

ADVANCED

INTELLIGENCE

TECHNOLOGY

4100 Spring Valley RoadSuite 400

Dallas, Texas 75244(214) 490-0344

Standard Power Connector

(Same as PC-AT)

80287 Math Processor

(Same as PC-AT)

vii

Runs Intel 80286 at6,8,10&12 MHZ!

(Software selectable)

Peripheral Support Circuits

(Same as PC-AT)

Board Size: Standard IBM-AT*Dimensions: 12 inch x 13.8 inchwith 6 mounting holes to fit allAT compatible cases.

ATTAK-286™ evaluation board kithighest quality multi-layer PCboard with full assemblyinstructions and parts lists!

'IBM and IBM PC-AT are trademarks of International Business Machines

TERMS: We accept cash, checks, money orders andcredit cards. Prices and availability subject to changewithout notice. Shipping and handling charges via UPSground 50c/lb UPS air S1.00/lb Minimum charge S3.00

E 1986 AIT CORP.

Inquiry 6

IUNE I986 -BYTE 409

Inquiry 251

P.C. Computer Brokers Inc..

The Place To Buy YourEpson Printers

WlHIHIIIIIIIINIIMtHimtil II ILJU

[pg EPSON fx-286

U ^s52900

Epson Printers List SALE

Homewriter Printer »249°° ... • 19900

AP-80Printer '379°° .... CALL

LX-90 Printer «32995 ... ■ 229°°

RX-100 Printer »499°° ... CALL

SQ-2000 Ink Jet Printer .... '2295°° •1579°°

FX-85

1st SQ/IQOO

349

Call Toll FREE 1-800-245-4122

Epson Printers List

SpectrumLX-BO ....$ 299°°..

LQ-800Printer ....$ 799°°..

HS-80 Ink Jet Printer.... $ 449°°..

DX-10Daisywheel ....$ 299°°

DX-20 Daisywheel

DX-35 Daisywheel

Comrex High Speed

CR-420 Printer

HI-80 Four Pen

Plotter

..$ 459°°...$ 899°°.

SALES 21900S 54900$ 339°°CALLCALLCALL

.$2195°°....$1449°°

$ 599°°....CALL

LQ-1000S64g00

lists995°°

THE MOST ESSENTIAL CARDI OH Till EQUITY I

• Able to bringthe motherboard to 512K

• '/a the size ofother cards

• Save up toS70.00

• 3 year warranty

Only

sggoo

These Prices Are Good For Mail Order Dept. Only

P.C. Computer Brokers Inc.3879 East 120th Ave.Thornton, CO 80233

[303]450-6727

Call Toll FREE

1-800-245-4122

410 BYTE • IUNE I986

DOUBLE

THEOPTION CAPACITY

OF YOUR IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER

PC-XTRA

• DIRECT EXTENSION OFIBM PC BUS

• NO SOFTWARE CHANGES

• NO HARDWARE MODIFICATION

• STYLING CONSISTENT WITH IBAdd all thos* special options that you've beewanting without worrying about tilling yourplug-In and back panel space

S549 00' F.O.B. SANTA ANA•CAUF0BN1A RESIDENTS ADD 6^ SALES TAX

P C HORIZONS, INC.

1701 E. Edinger, Ste. A6, Santa Ana, CA 92705(714) 9S3-S396

Inquiry 252

C Heritage Systems Corp. J

HSC-912B Video Terminal Card

80 by 24 Alpha-numeric video displayANSI X3.64 command setTTUCMOS serial port (50 to 38.4K baud)Off card line drivers (RS-232, Fiber optic)IBM PC compatable keyboard inputOn Screen configuration utility100 by 10mm, 5V only, 200mA

HSC-9128video terminal card $129

HSC-9128 with RS-232, cables $159

HSC-9129 keyboard $119

Amdek300G Video monitor (Green) $139

Amdek300A Video monitor (Amber) $149

PO Box 10588, "

Greensboro, NC 27404-0588•3Q (919) 274-4818 JgL

Inquiry 153

ATTENTIONBERNOULLI BOOSTERS

Go Either Way!

BOOT

from the Bernoulli Boxlfrom the AT Hard Disk!

FORMAT WITH DOS

PARTITION WITH FDISK

NO SLOWING

We've been shipping Bernoulli Boots

thai work for over a year —

mil walling?

Golden Bow Systems

S95-S110

Add Wtor shipping,1

f

PO Box 3039

San Oitga. CA 92103

(619) 298-9349

Inquiry 145

EPROMPROGRAMMER

The EP-1 is a great value, here's why:

• IBM PC Compatible, Communication Disk included.Also works with CP/M and Development Systems

• Supports over 100 types including 2716 through 97512,CMOS, end A-Suffix Parts

• Menu Driven Chip Selection by Manufacturer and PartNumber

• No Personality Modules

• Fast Programming Algorithm

• Gold Textool ZIF IC Socket

• RS-932. 7 baud rates to 9600

• Full One Year Warranty

• UY Erasers from $34.95

BP Microsystems

5325 Glenmont, Suite E, Houston, TX 77081[713] 667-1636

Inquiry 52

"CPYAT2PC"

IS LIKE HAVING A

FREE

360K FLOPPY DRIVE

Allows copying of IBM AT file for use onIBM PC's & compatibles with no modifica-tion of exisling hardware or software. A 360Kfloppy drive is not required. CPYAT2PC mayreside on your IBM PC/AT hard disk andcopies 1 file or entire subdirectories in 1 step.Also runs on other AT compatibles such asCOMPAQ 286, ZENITH Z-200, and KAYPRO2861. Dealer inquiries welcome. ONLY $79T shipping.

MICROBRIDGE COMPUTERS

Sky Way Building. Suite 125

655 Sky Way. San Carlos. CA 94070

(415) 593-8777 • (415) 595-2150

CHECK, COD WELCOME p"x

(Prepayment Required] rj J

Inquiry 223

You need aPrinter Sharing Unit.

Not another printer.

Save !he cost ol your next printer with our PrinterSharing Unit. Up to 8 computers can use oneprinter, automatically, without changing cables

This rotating electronic switch scans the inputports. When it finds one ready to transmit, it locks-on and puts the printer to work Printing completed,it starts scanning again. „ „

For a demonstration or I ?•■■.,..

moie information call us _ —**— ;

at (206) 355-0590, and we , ,„„„ m

.,; ' .. ' , 4-Channel S395.00

will give you the name of 8-Channel $595.00our dealer nearest you

Datacom Nbrthwest.lnc.

3303 112th SI. SW, Everett, WA 98204

Inquiry 109

WHEN IT ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY HAS TO BETHE BEST QUALITY AND PRICE... CALL D&Di

2% DISCOUNT ON ALL ADVERTISED PRICES WITH PREPAYMENT (800) 662-7253

SPECIAL #1

PC XT Compatible Turbo

• 640K • 8 MHz • Keyboard• Flip Top Case • Two 360K Drives• 135 Watt • 8 Slots • DOS 2.1

$659

SPECIAL #2

IBM PC 256K

• Two 360K Drive

$1449

SPECIAL #3

10 MEGHARD DISK

• For IBM or Compatible• Controller and Cables

Complete v}*«$«J"

SPECIAL #4

NEW SPERRY IT

IBM AT compatibility for an

affordable price!

• 1 Meg Ram included

1.2 MG floppy • 44 MG Hard Disk

• 8 MHz Operations • Monitor

• DOS 3.1 • Printer Port

• Two Serial Ports

• 100% AT Compatibility

ONLY $3799

SPECIAL #5

XT COMPATIBLE

' 8 Slots • Two 360K Drives• Keyboard • 135 Watts

640K 256K

$569 $489

SPECIAL #6

IBM AT COMPUTER SYSTEM

• 20 Meg hard Disk• 1.2 Meg Floppy • DOS 3.1

D & D

512K Ram

IBM

$3699 $4299

SPECIAL #7

CORONA PORTABLE

• IBM Compatible

• 256K • 2 DrivesMonitor • Keyboard • DOS

$1179

*6

SYSTEMS

IBM

PC 256K, 2 Drives $1395

XT 256K, 1 Drive 1699

XT 256K, 1 Drive 1-10 MG 2099

COMPAQ

Portable, 2 Drives, 640K .$1875Call on Desk Pro's & 286 Systems

CORONA

Portable $1195

Desk Top, 2 Drives, 256Kw/monitor 1395

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

Max 12E $159

HX-9 Call

HX-12 425

SR-12 749

TAXAN

Call for best price

AMDEK

310A $145

600 Color 389

722 Color 519

HAYES

Micromodem HE Apple . . . .$149

300 External 129

1200 External 369

1200B IBM Internal 339

2400 External 639

PROMETHEUS

Promodem 1200 External . . $289Promodem 1200A Apple ... 269

Promodem 1200B IBM 269

Promodem 1200MAC 339

IBM COMPATIBLE

Teac 55B $99

Mitsubishi 4851 99

Tandon TM 100-2 99

Qume DT142 89

Okidata 1/3 HT 84

10 MG Hard Card New

20 MG Hard Card Call

MODEMS

PRINTERS

EPSON

LQ 800 $569

LQ 1000 689

OKIDATA

182, 120 cps $218

192, 160 cps, w/Roms 349

193, 160 cps, IBM 499

84, 200 cps, IBM 658

OKI-MATE 20, Color, IBM .Apple & Amiga 199

TOSHIBA

P321 New

P341 Call

P351 $1059

P351 Tractor 159

STARMICRONICS

SG10/15 $219/389

SD10/15 355/469

SR10/15 '. / 489/589

CITIZEN

MSP-10 $249

MSP-15 359

MSP-20 389

MSP-25 539

Premier 35LQ New 469

IBM EXTRAS

AST RESEARCH

SixPak+ , 64K w/Side Kick . $209Reach wCrosstalk 369

HERCULES

Color Card w/Printer Port . .$149Mono Graphics Card 299

GOODIES

IBM Printer Cable $15

64K Ram Set of Nine Chips . 15256K Ram Set of Nine Chips 39Power Supply 135 Watts .... 75

8087 Coprocessor 129

DOS 2.1 65

DOS 3.1 69

Flip Top Case w/speaker 49

Disk Controller w/cable 39

Color Card w/printer 89

Monochrome Card w/printer . 100

Keyboard 0151 89

100 DS/DD 5'A 69

10 1.2MG for AT 5V4 259

All Sales Are Warranteed for 90 Days, Parts & Labor

WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL!\ALL SYSTEMS INCLUDE ASSEMBLY AND TESTING \

VISIT OUR NEW RETAIL LOCATION:

112824 INGLEWOOD AVE., HAWTHORNE, CA 90250 \

PLEASE CALL: (213) 676-0815

SPECIAL #8

APPLE DISK DRIVE100% APPLE

COMPATIBLE 5'/1 "

525A for Me and II + $99

525C for He 109

350M for Mac Special

SPECIAL #9

NEW COMPAQ PORTABLE II

MODEL 1MODEL 2MODEL 3

LIST$3599$4699

IN STOCK

D & D

$2749

$3649

Call

SPECIAL #10

MULTIFUNCTION CARD

• Serial and Parallel Ports

• Clock/Gameport • Ramdisk/Printer spool Software

• 1 Year Warranty

w/384K only$154

SPECIAL #11

PC XT COMPATIBLE

• 640K • 360K Drive • Keyboard

• 20 MG Hard Drive • Monochrome

• 8 Slots • Card w/printer port

• 135 Watt Power Supply

• Green Monochrome • Monitor

• DOS 2.1 • 120 Day Warranty

ONLY $1249

SPECIAL #12

20 MEG HARD DISK

FOR IBM

• Seagate DriveWestern Digital Controller

TESTED $469

SPECIAL #13

COMPAQ 286 PORTABLE

• IBM AT Compatible • DOS

• 1.2 Meg Floppy • 640K• 20 Meg Hard Disk • Monitor

$3989

MAKE THAT CALL!

Order Desk (800) 662-7253

In California (213) 970-0206

Customer Service . .(213) 970-0215Technical Support .(213) 970-0215Retail Store (213) 676-0815

Service Contracts Available

DiscountComputer/

A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION

MAIL ORDER:

13324 HAWTHORNE BLVD., SUITE 201

HAWTHORNE, CA 90250

ORDER DESK:

Inside California (213) 970-0206Outside California (800) 662-7253

Hoars: Monday—Friday 7 am to 6 pm Open Saturdays

WE CARRY TOO MANY ITEMS TO LIST,PLEASE CALL FOR A QUOTE ON ANY ITEM.

Iv/S^l No Surcharge for Credit Cards fi^;

Terms: Prices reflect a cash prepaid discount. All merchandise new.We accept MC, Visa, Wire Transfer, Certified Check, P.O.'s fromqualified firms. P.O. subject to approval & 3% surcharge. Terms: 2%10 net 20. UPS Shipping: minimum $4.00 first 5 pounds. We alsoship U.S. Mail and Federal Express. Call for exact shipping cost. Tax:California residents only add 6'/2% sales tax. All returns subject to15% restock fee. Prices Subject to Change.

Inquiry 102

IUNE 1986

411

«*»2r?

O/v

"M

COMPUTERBANC

so^u

DRIVES

20 MB Seagate drive $439

SO MB drive for AT $699

360 K Floppy for AT $110

Teac55B $109

IBM COMPATIBLE

HARDWARE

Multifunction card 384K. S, P, CLK $139

AT Multifunction card OK 3MB $169

MONOCROME graphics card $99

Color Graphics card $89

ComBo CARD ser, par, clock $69

EXPANSION CHASIS 7 slots $569

< SYSTEMS >

TAPE DRIVES

IO MB Irwin $379

20 MB Irwin $429

Everex Stream 20 $599

Everex Stream 60 $899

COMPAQ 286, 20MB

Portable, 512K, DOS$3999

COMPAQ Deskpro 20MB

640K, Monitor, DDS

$2499

SPERRYII44MB CALL

LEADING EDGI CALL

IBM AT COMPATIBLE

8MHZ, 512K, 20megMonitor, graphics, ser, par

$2399

IBM XT COMPATIBLE

256K, 20 meg, Monitor

graphics, ser, par

$1195

IBMAT30MB $4299

512K, DOS, Monitor

IBMXT20MB $2319

256K, DOS, Monitor

EQUITY CALL

ITTXTRA CALL

IBM SOFTWARE

LOTUS 123 CALL

Symphony CALL

ENABLE 359.00

VPPIanner 59.00

ASHTON TATE Framework 369.00

rJBASEII 279.00

dBASE III Plus 369.00

POWERBASE CALL

CLIPPER dBASE III Compiler 355.00

LATTICE C COMPILER 2*9.00

MULTIMATE 225.00

MULTIMATE ADVANTAGE 269.00

SORCIM SUPERCALC III 199.00

MICROSOFT Multiplan 119.00

Word 225.00

Windows 65.00

Project 239.00

FOX & GELLER Ouickcode 149.00

B0RELAND TJRB0 PASCAL 39.00

REFLEX 55.00

LIGHTENING 55.00

SUPERKEY 39.00

SIDEKICK (unprotected) 46.00

ASCII PRO Comm Software 69.00

CROSSTALK XVI 99.00

MIRROR Comm Software 49.00

PEACHTREE Back to Basics 199.00

BPI GENERAL ACCOUNTING 299.00

OPEN SYSTEMS CALL

REALWORLD CALL

ONE-WRITE PLUS 149.00

IN-HOUSE ACCOUNTANT 89.00

ACCOUNTING PARTNER 199.00

MONOGRAM DOLLARS 4 SENSE.. 105.00TOBIAS MANAGING VOUR MONEY . . 105.00

SATELLITE WORD PERFECT 225.00

MICROPRO WordStar PRO 249.00

WordStar 2000 PLUS 285.00

SAMNA WORD III 279.00

RBASE5000 359.00

PRINTMASTER 35.00

BREAKTHROUGH TIMELINE 255.00

DECISION RESOURCES CHRTMSTER219.00ENERGRAPHICSw/plotteropt 207.00

FUNK SIDEWAYS 36.00

UFETREE VOLKSWRITER DELUXE ... 149.00HARVARD TTL PROJECT MNGR .. .285.00THINKTANK

IBM HARDWARE

AST 6 Pack Plus w/384k 259.00

Advantage W/128k 399.00

STB Rio Plus 384 K 5 function 239.00

RIO Grande 3 function lor AT 289.00

Companion PC 0-2 MB LIMS 189.00

Chauffeur monographics 229.00

EGA ■ Plus Color Board 329.00

JRAM3 175.00

JRAMAT3 225.00

HERCULES Mono Graphics 319.00

Color Card 159.00

ORCHID Turbo 286E 859.00

QUADRAM Quadboard 0-K 198.00

EGA + 379.00

QuadPort for AT ser & par 125.00

TECHMAR Graphics Master CALL

PARADISE Modular Graphics Card CALL

SIGMA High Res Color 400 CALL

130 WAT Power Supply 79.00

TALLGRASS W/Tape CALL

Graphics Edge Card 249.00

1.2MB FLOPPY lor AT 189.00

MOUSE SYSTEMS Mouse 135.00

FIELDMOUSE 113.00

MICROSOFT Mouse w/sltwr 117.00

KOALA KAT 149.00

MODEMS

ANCHOR Express 300/1200 220.00

Volksmodem 1200 (5 yr wrnty) 169.95

EXPRESS I 300/1200 179.00

Lightning 2400 Baud CALL

HAYES 1200 379.00

1200B 349.00

2400 CALL

Micromodem//e CALL

PROMETHEUS 1200 ,«. 269.00

Promodem 1200B .«K* t .219.00

Promodem 1200A . ,»\V',v9>»' . .249.00

Promoden 300 lie ^oftr 115.00

Promoden 2400 .... V CALL

MONITORS

AMDEK300A 139.00

310A Hi-Res Amber 155.00

Color 722 RGB 720 X 350 CALL

PRINCETON GRAPHICS HX-12 399.00

HX-12E RGB 720X350 CALL

SR-12 CALL

MAX-12 149.00

TAXAN: ALL MODELS CALL

PANASONIC DT-S101 Color 141.00

DT-H103 10" High Res RGB 369.00

IBM COMPATIBLE Monocrome 99.00

Color RGB Monitor (640X200) 349.00

PRINTERS

PANASONIC (2 yr warranty)

KX-P1080 199.00

KX-P1091 229.99

KX-P1092 315.00

KX-P1592 439.00

KX-P1595 240CPS 625.00

KX-P3131 17cps Daisey 269.00

KX-P3151 22 cps Daisey 395.00

Call for catalog. Thousands of products available. Volume

Citizen MSP-10 266.00

MSP-15 355.00

MSP-25 489.00

STAR MICRONICS SG-10 219.00

SG-15 399.00

EPSON LX-80 Call

FX-286 lor

LQ-800 Best

LQ-1000 Prices

BROTHER We Will Beat

Twinwriter 5 Any Advertised Price

OKIDATA-All Models Call

TOSHIBA All Models CALL

CANNON Laser Printer CALL

HEWLETT PACKARD PRINTERS ... CALLHOUSTON INSTRUMENTS Plotters CALLDigitizers CALL

APPLE PRODUCTS

APPLE Compatible Drive lie 99.00

He compatible drive 99.00

MAC Compatible 2'h drive 229.00

BERNOULLI 5MB MAC drive CALL

MICROSOFT Macenhancer CALL

Soltcardll 259.00

ASCII XPRESS (Communications).. .69.00

APPLEWORKS 215.00

SPELLWORKS 49.00

PRINT SHOP 35.00

Mach III Joystick 39.00

SYSTEM SAVER Fan 69.00

VIDEO 7 lie Enhancer CALL

VIDEX Ultraterm 165.00

APRICORN (Lifetime Warranty)

Super Serial Imager 75.00

Graphics Interlace 65.00

80Column/64K 75.00

EXTEND IT 64K 55.00

KOALA SpeedKey 99.00

DISKETTES APPLE/MAC 12.00/24.00

discounts.

COMPUTERBANC

14783 Booch Blvd., Huntington Booch, CR 92647Tf ICX #15075? ANSWCR RACK—COMPUTCft UD

714/641-6160

No Chorfl* for Croejk CordsOrders Only

800/332-BANC

OUTSID6 CALIFORNIA

Wm ©Qflgtoiiui)®!? ©©crefe® ©aOD l<b&mi-®BM©

Cosh prices inefcoted. HI products are In fartoru sealed pocltoges UJe guarantee all Kerns for 30 ctai^. UJWn this period, defecttv«mercharidls»r«tums mustbe accompanied bu RMR number. HI other returns cull be subject to o 10% restocking fee. For prepaid orders, clwe wi be a 3% sNpping charge: 5% for UPS' Hue Label; $5.00 minimum; o« orders outside U.S.H. at 15% shipping. California residents odd 6% sales cox. Prices subject to change without notice.

©Copyright 1985 COMPUTeftBHNC. M nights Reserved.

412 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 86

A COMPUTER

PROGRAM

THAT SPEAKS

YOUR LANGUAGE

[jyi****•■■»•//AWMJ ■ j mmm

The ComputerChronicles, a half-hour weekly televisionseries brings you newsand information fromSilicon Valleyandaround the world.CorrespondentStewart Cheifet andGary Klldall, creator ofCP/M cover today'sheadlines and thestories behind them.Find out what is, whatwas and what will be,with the onlycomputer programyou're ever goingto need. TheComputerChronicles,every week ona public tele-vision stationnear you.

(Check local listings fortime and channel.)

Produced by KCSM, San Mateo, CA and WITF, Harrisburg, PA with funding from AFIPS and McGraw-Hill's BYTE magazine.

'M

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 413

$99

HARD DISKCONTROLLER

New Shugart Model 16105 1/4" Hard Disk ControllersEMULATES hw^h

• XEBEC S1410 (1610-3) Full

• DTC510 (1610-1)

• SCSI (1610-4)WORKS WITH ■■■■■■

• Micromint COM 180, SB180

• Wavemat Bullet

• AMPRO All Boards

• Macintosh

• Apple Me

• ACS 1000

• ISI5160

COMPUTER SURPLUS STORE

226 Phelan Avenue

San Jose, CA 95112

408-280-1740

90 dayGuarantee

Manual

and

Schematic

Only $8

9-TRACK MAG. TAPE SUBSYSTEMFOR THE IBM PC/XT/AT

For information interchange, backup and archival storage,IBEX offers a 9-lrack, IBM format-compatible '-.■" magneticlape subsystem for the IBM PC, featuring:

■ 42 M-Bytes on a singlereel.

■ IBM format 1600 cpl.

■ Software for PC-DOS,MS-DOS.

ID

IBEX COMPUTER CORP20741 Manila SIChatsworih. CA 91311(810) 709-8100TWX 910-493-2071

MULTIFUNCTIONCARD

FOR IBM-PC & COMPATIBLES

Ij> I 49 W/384K

INSTALLED

2 YEARS WARRANTY

* PARALLEL PORT * SERIAL PORT* CLOCK/CALENDAR 'GAME PORT• RAM DISK/ PRINTER SPOOLER* CABLES & MANUALS

COMPUTER AGE, INC.55 Fishfry St., Hartford, Ct. 06120

203-724-5100

Terms: add $3.00 for Handling Charges.Visa/MC accepted, no surcharges

Inquiry 82

Inquiry 156

Inquiry 85

Advertise your

computer products

through

BYTE BITS

(2" x 3" ads)

For more information

call Dan Harper at

603-924-6830

BYTE

70 Main St.

Peterborough, NH 03458

STATE-OF-THE-ART^MAGNETIC MEDIA

^

• With Hub Rings

• Write Protect Tabs

• Envelopes

• User ID Labels

• In Factory SealedPoly Packs ot 10

(YOU GET EVERYTHING BUT THE BOX)Prices are per Disk

QTY.

50

100

500

1000

SSDD

.59

.53

.50

.47

DSDD

.62

.58

.55

.52

Library Case Holds 15 Diskettes Only $1,001

plus50«SSH

The 100 File Only $10.95 plus $2.00 S&H

100% ERROR FREE - LIFETIME WARRANTY

Mia order $25.00. Add 10% for less than 50diskettes Shipping and Handling: $4.00 per 100diskettes. Reduced shipping tor larger quanti-ties. C.O.D. add S4.00 Cash or certified check.Continental USA "J^ COD |Tj

Precision Data Products

P.O. Box 8367. Grain! Rapids. Ml 49518(6I6) 4S2-.1457 • Michigan I-800-632-2468Ouisidc Michigan 1-8(10-258-0028

I

dl

8051

8048

SIMULATORS - CROSS ASSEMBLERS -PROGRAMMERS - SIM51 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 2.x DSDD, CP/M-80 8"SSSD, many 5V*" formats. Cross Assemblersand EPROM pgmrs also available. LogicalSystems Corp. 6184 Teall Station, Syr., NY13217, (315) 478-0722.

logical Systems

Inquiry 412

Inquiry 265

Inquiry 191

mericanSemiconductor

OIBM Compatible ,r\\\\ Winchester ( 245

■■■•* HARD DRIVE

On .For AT. XT. {**

CU HID Compaq. Tandy, (3 45hi speed Corona

TVJiM® TI

lUS) KS

■ ®«K

jm H

^ smk

S.7/S1

H v.m

m m

Wffffif

■n &

t& 2? aib» ®m leaiaas p

1-800-237-5758

SALES EXT. 505

Vanc.orL.na __ -.^ Tech. Lino

H ] 3 -1 h l - 9 -1 4 4 Jjgfc Add 3H ^P s I .< - 9 6 I - < > x 4All mm prime parly All menhattitut

NO SHIPPING CHARGES

ORDER TOLL-FREE 800-824-3432

In Calltornia Call (S18) 341-CU33

DRIVES

'.2 Ht. IBM- Compatible

89.99

Tandon 100-2

99.99

Tandon 100-4 (96 Ipi)

129.99

Tandon 848-2

299.99

ADD ONS

Multi-Function w/OK

119.99

Monochrome Graphics

99.99

Color Graphics

109.99

64K D-Rams

9/10.99

640K Motherboard w/bios

189.99

PnnlerCardbylBM

49.99

MONITORS

Princeton Graphics MAX 12E

159.99

Princeton Graphics HX 12

439.99

SYSTEMS

PC/XT Compatible

599.99

HARD DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS

10 Meg.

399.99

20 Meg.

499.99

We carry a complete line ol electronic components.

Call or write for our free catalogl

I%|nICORN ELECTRONICS

■i^gmW lOOiOCanoga Ave Unn B-B Chaisviorth CA9I3M

Min.cnjm ocilei S'O 00 — No srvppi'in cna'ges un ureoa.o DfMis

cnecks new loi clearance VISA • UC

• Simple programming (BASIC, AsaemblyLanguage, etc I

• 64 Unique Phoneme, tor UnllmlterlVoeabutsry

• Switch Selectable I/O Address

• Interrupt Operation

> 4 Watt Onboard Audio Amplifier

• Low Cost ($185)

MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEMS, INC.

©1814 Ryder DriveBaton Rouge, LA. 70808(S04) 769-2154!

Inquiry 358

Inquiry 224

NEW _* |MPB°VED

Fully Hayes Compatible2 Year Warranty

• Tone & Pulse dialing • Built-in speaker

• Auto dial/auto answer • 8 status lights

• Auto redial on busy

^/vv"^ Modem

1200 bps Standalone

Bell 103 and Bell 212A

Compatible

$199

2400 bps Standalone

CCITT V22, V22BIS, Bell 212A,

and Bell 103 Compatible

$399

1200 bps Half Card

for IBM PC & Compatiblesw/Mirror Software

$199

BFPRIZM12 (4 lbs.) Retail $299.00 BFPRIZM24(5 iba) Retail $599.00 BFPRIZM12H (4 lbs.) Retail $299.00

NEW! &?~4*t^10 and 21

• Automatic head unloading

• 2K Sector Buffer

10 Mbyte ^~—- 21 Mbyte A_^_

BFPRIZC10 9O90 8FPRIZC21 $595

25 PIN "D" CONN'S

MIX

N

MATCH

$1

00 each

■ 25 pc. mln.

BFCNDDB25P Male D ConnectorBFCNDDB25S Female D ConnectorBFCNDHB252S 2 piece shielded hood

^CITIZEN

Call For Lowest PricesOn All Models

ORCHID Tiny Turbo 266

EPSON

• Run your PC at AT speed

• Half slot size card

• 8 MHz 80286 processor

OKIDATA

l

i

/* —=

- - ■ j

|L_

- - -,l

BF0RC286H Retail $695.00 $599

Coll for Lowest PricesOn All Models

Coll For Lowest PricesOn All Models

YOUR SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

IRVINE

18241 Mc Durmott,Irvine, CA 92714(714)660-1411

CALL FOR DETAILS

PRIORITY CMEJ ELECTRONICS"

inquiry 274 Moil Your Order To:

'm

21622 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 91311 -9970RETAIL (816)709-5464 INDUSTRIAL: (618)709-5111

SAN JOSE

542 W. Trimble Rd,

San Jose, CA 95131

(408)405-7300

MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER $25.00. Terms U.S. VISA, MC, BAC, Check. Money Order, U.S.Funds ONLY. CA residents add 6%, 6Va%, or 7% Sales Tax, depending on your local rates.Include MINIMUM SHIPPINGS HANDLING of $3.00 for the first 3 lbs, plus 50* for eachadditional pound (25« if within Calif.) Plus 25$ per $100.00 value of your order for

insurance. Orders over 70 lbs. sent freight collect. Just in case, include your phone number.Prices subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices through June1986. Credit card orders will be charged appropriate freight. We are not responsible fortypographical errors.

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS and PRIORITY 1 ELECTRONICS are registered sen/ice marks of the Heath Group, Ltd. Zipper 212A Zipper 2400, Zipper 1200B and Zipper Modem aretrademarks of the Heath Group, Ltd.

8^ ORDER TOLL FREE (800)423-5922 (NOW IN CALIF. TOO!!)

The Diversified Group

4732 Rosecrans, Hawthorne, California 90250

FREE SYSTEM PACKAGE WITH ALL DG-PC'S

RETAIL VALUE $186FREE

System Package Includes:

• 6 Ft Parallel Shielded Cable• Tilt and Swivel Monitor Stand

• Twenty 5 'A" Diskettes w/Lifetime

Guarantee

• Flip File Stores Seventy Diskettes

• Parallel Port• Surge Protector Six Receptacles

• FREE FREE FREE FREE •

oner Expires May 15, 1986

BASE UNIT

System Unit640K on BoardOne 360K Drive

w/Conlroller

150 WattPower Supply

$69995

SYSTEM

System Unit

640K on Board

Two 360K Drives

150 watt pwr sply

Hi-Res Monitor

w/lntertace Card

$847«

The DG PC

Our computers offer the maximum alter-natives In the PC XT compatible market.Alternatives which exceed current PC XTconfigurations. Standard features on all DGPC Series computers Include:

• Full compatibility with IBM PC XT®machines

• 640K bytes ol parity checked memory, 8slots

• 150 watt power supply • keyboard

• 1 Full Year Warranty on Parts and Labor.

• 4 Layer Motherboard

AT

System Unit

80286 Microprocessor

512K Memory

1.2 Meg Floppy

AT Type Kybd, Runs

PC, XT & AT Sftwr,

Par & Ser Ports

$1638"

XT

System Unit

640K on Board

One 360K Drive

10Meg Hard Disk

Monochrome Mon

Mono card

$119595

Service Contract Available on All Products

IBM PC

Bare 256K $1099

One 360K Dr, 256K $1199

IBM XT

One 360K Drive & 20 Meg Drive

$2237M

IBM AT

Unenhanced $339150

Enhanced $399595

IBMSYSTEM

PC-XT with

10 Meg

One 360K Drive,

Monochrome

Monitor

Monochrome Card

$2421

95

rM

ff-

NIPI B-52

• Tandon Compatible • 360K

Double Side/Double Density • Full Height

2 lor $137.00

SVi" DISK DRIVES

Toshiba VS HeightIBM "Logo" DrivesTandon TM100-2MPI (Tandon Compatible)AT 360K w/wnitelace

OTY. 1 OTV. 5

$ 99.95 $ 99.95

119.95 109.95

99.95 99.95

79.95 79.95

119.95 -

DISK DRIVE CONTROLLERS

IBM (Original) ControllerIBM Compatible Controler

$ 99.95 -59.95 -

11; j m lj I I ^i rcnr

LiADn nioi/HflHU UlbK

All Hard Disks Come With: 90 Day Warranty, Cables,and Controller

10 Megabyte w/Conlroller20 Megabyte w/Controller30 Megabyte w/Conlroller

OTY. 1 QTY. 5

$349.95 $349.95

489.95 469.95

728.00 714.00

Most Hard Disks are

Shugart, Mlcrosci, CMI, Rodlne, Segate

Call for Others

BERNOULLI BOX

10 Meg $1779.95 -

20 Meg 2399.95

TAPE BACKUP BY IRWIN

10 Meg internal Vt Height,

Low Power $446.00 $436.00

10 Meg External Beck-up 589.00 579.00

DISK DRIVE CONTROLLERS

Weslern Digital Hard Disk Conl. $179.95 -Adaptec Hard Disk Cont. 199.95 -

MlBUi

LETTER QUALITY - DOT MATRIX

OK I DAT A

ML182P. 120 cps. ParallelML192P, 160 cps, w/NLQML193P, 15" Carriage. 160 ops, w/NLO

CallCallCall

KX 1091KX 1D92

PANASONIC

TOSHIBA

$259.95349.95

P341 24 pin 136 col. $869.00

PSB1 24 pin Par. & Ser. 1089.00

P1340 24 pin SO col. 399.00

EPSON — Call lor Availability

We also carry Juki, Dynax, Toshiba, Star,

Paoasonlc, NEC, Brother

VIDEO

Mh

DG GRAPHICS

Color Graphics w/Parallel Port 2 Yr. War. $104.95

Monochrome Graphics w/Par Port 119.95

EVEREX

The Edge Color/Mono $269.95

The Graphics Edge 269.95

IBM

IBM Monochrome in/Parallel Port $226.95

IBM Color Card w/Parallol Port 214.95

PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card $259.95

Molll Display 159.95

EGA

DG EGA $292.95

STB EGA + 349.95

QUADRAM + 398.95

IBM EGA „.„..« 498.95

SIGMA

Color 400 Board $458.95

HERCULES

Color Graphics $169.95

Monochrome Graphics 319.95

:::-

;

MON

lHHi 4 -

i

AMDEK

300G Composite Green $124.95300A Composite Amber 134.9531DA Monochrome Amber 159,95

TAXAN

620 (640 l 200) $399.95630 (640 X 400) 446.00640 (720 X 400) 549.95

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX12, 640x200 Dot Pilch .31 $421.95HX12E, 640x350 Dol Pilch .28 517.95SR12, 640x400 Dot Pilch .31 573.95SRI2P. 640x480 Dot Pilch .26 787.95HX9, 640x350 Dol Pilch .28 432.95MAX12E, 720x350 169.95

:]i!"[£[ES":i]i

A-B SWITCH BOXES

Parallel 2 pos. $49.95 Serial 2 pos. $64.95

DISKETTES

Xldex Dbl/Dbl 5 Year Warranty1 box ol 10 $9.95

KEYTRONICS KEYBOARDS

5153 Touch Pad $289.955150 Standard $169.95 5151 Deloxe $179.95

BELKIN CABLES

6 lool ShieldedIBMPC to Par. $14.95 IBMPC to Modem $16.95

m

64K SETS

All Upgrades Carry a 2 Year WarrantyNine 4164, 150ns $10.95

128K SETS 256K SETS

Nine. 4128 $39.95 9. 41256, 200ns $34.95

25 Sets $32.95 ea. 25 Sots $32.95 ea.

80287

5MHZ lor AT S Deskpro $189.95

8087-3 8087-2

5MHZ Math Co-Processor 8MHZ Math Co-Processorfor IBMPC tor AUT.Compaq,Deskpro

$142.95 $154.95

I ■**.!• f .1 IhJIII Ull l_r.ll MUM

::iiistiii^ii!iij:L:Li.LLi.ui:

AST SixPac+ W/384K 2 Yr War $261.95

MF-100 SlxPac Compatible plus Gameport $89.95

AST Advantage w/1.5 Megabyte ol MemoryParallel & Serial Ports $497.95

AST Rampage

l_

mmu

Hayes

1200B w/Smartcom II $362.951200 External $392.95 2400 External $595.95

DG

300/1200 Internal Hayes compatible, $156.95

No Suthaitje on Credit Cards

TERMS:

P.O.'s from Government Institutes,

Universities, Fortune 1000

C.O.D.'s w/Guarantee.

Visa, MC, MO, Cashier's Check, Cash.

Please Call lor Shipping: Min. $4.50

We ship Fed. Express, USP, U.S. Mail

The Diversified Group

MAIL ORDERS: 8726 S. Sepulveda, Suite A132, Los Angeles, CA 90045WAREHOUSE: 4732 Rosecrans, Hawthorne, CA 90250

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 523-1041

INSIDE CALIFORNIA

(213) 675-0717

4I6 BYTE • IUNE 1986

Inquiry 118

HOW CAN YOU REFUSETHIS OFFER, IF YOU ARESHOPPING FOR IBM CLONE!

Special Sale for IBM PC/XTCompatible Computer System

H pinecom

OPTIONAL ADD ON :

A For 5151 100 keys keyboard add $40.00

B. For 3way RGB color monitor 13" add $285.00

C. For 10 MGB internal hard disk with controlleradd $499.00

D. For 22 MGB internal hard disk with controlleradd $599.00

E. For Monochrome graphic adapter with printerport and TTL Monochrome 12" Hi-RES monitoradd $60.00

SHIPPING CHARGES: 5% for C.O.D., 2% lor prepaidorders inside Continental U. S. No Personal Checks

ACCGDt Gd

DEALERS INQUIRIES INVITED. Inquiry 263

• IBM la miitirad trad* mark of IBM Corp.

• Fully IBM PC/XT compatible

• 640K on board memories

• 8 IBM PC/XT standard I/O slots

• 8087 coprocessor ready socket

• Standard 4.77 MHz clock speed

• Flip-top type metal cabinet

• 83 key full function key board(enlarged return key and led indicators)

• Color graphic adapter with composit out(RES. 640x320)

• One parallel port for printer

• One RS-232 serial port

• One game port for joystick

• Real time clock with calendar

(5 years battery back up on board)

• 135 watts hard disk ready power supply

• 2 halfheight 360K floppy drives

• 12"monochrome monitor included

• Fully assembled and tested

• 6 months parts and labor warranty

SPECIAL OFFER: $943

PINE COMPUTER INC.

1455 MONTEREY PASS RD., SUITE 103MONTEREY PARK. CA 91754

PHONE: (213) 269-1103

STORE HOURS: Man. - Sat. 9 A.M. — 6 P.M.

IBM PERIPHERALS

• PC/XT 640K MOTHER BOARD. $250.00LOADED W/BIOS

• COLOR GRAPHIC CARD W/RGB & $ 88.00COMPOSIT VIDEO OUT PUT (640x

400 RES)

• MONOCHROME GRAPHIC CARD $120.00W/PRINTER PORT (720x348 RES)

• FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER CARD $ 49.00W/CABLE

• 0/384K MULTIFUNCTION CARD $119.00W/PARALLEL PORT; SERIAL PORT;

GAME PORT; CALANDER, CLOCK(BATTERY BACK UP) AND 384K RAMSLOTS

• DISK I/O CARD W/PARALLEL PORT; $135.00SERIAL PORT; GAME PORT;

CALANDER, CLOCK (BATTERY BACKUP) AND FLOPPY DISK CONTROL-LER W/CABLES

• PARALLEL PRINTER CARD $ 25.00

• SERIAL PRINTER CARD (RS-232) $ 53.00

• DUAL SERIAL CARD (RS-232) $ 75.00(COM-1.COM-2)

• 0/512K RAM EXPANSION CARD $ 52.00

• MOUSE SYSTEM (MICRO-SOFT $ 95.00COMPATIBLE) (3 BUTTONS)

• EXTERNAL MODEM 300/1200 BULD $250.00(HAYS COMPATIBLE)

• 135 WATT POWER SUPPLY 110/220V $ 95.00SIDE SWITCH

• KEYBOARD : PC/XT LOOK ALIKE 84 $ 78.00KEY(5150)

• KEYBOARD: SELECTIC-II LOOK $ 78.00ALIKE. LARGE RT KEY

• KEYBOARD : ADVANCE 100 KEY $109.00MODEL: 5151

• KEYBOARD : AT LOOK ALIKE. LARGE $ 98.00RTKEY

• PARALLEL PRINTER CABLE (6 FT.) $ 14.00

• SERIAL PRINTER CABLE (6 FT.) $ 14.00

• JOY STICK (SELF CENTERING W/2 $ 25.00FIRE BUTTON)

• 360K HALF HEIGHT DISK DRIVE $ 95.00(PANASONIC OR TEAL)

• SURGE SUPRESSED POWER STRIP (6 $ 18.0OUTLETS)

BYTE

back issues for sale

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

Jan.

S3.70

S4.25

S4.25

S4.25

Feb.

S3.70

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

$4.25

March

S3.70

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

S4.25

April

S3.70

$3.70

S4.25

S4.25

$4.25

May

S3.70

S3.70

$4.25

S4.25

S4.25

June

S3.70

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

July

S3.70

S4.25

$4.25

Aug.

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

S4.25

Sept.

S3.70

$4.25

$4.25

$4.25

Oct.

$3.70

$4.25

$4.25

S4.25

Nov.

S3.70

$4.25

$4.25

S4.25

Dec.

$3.70

S4.25

$4.25

$4.25

SPECIAL ISSUES and INDEX

BYTE '83-'84 INDEX

$1.75

1984 Special Guide to IBM

PC's [Vol.

9, No. 9)

$4.75

1985 INSIDE THE IBM PCs

(Vol. 10,

No. II)

$4.75

Circle and send requests with payments to:BYTE Back IssuesP.O. Box 328Hancock, NH 03449

Prices include postage in the US. Please add S.50 percopy for Canada and Mexico; and S2.00 per copy toforeign countries (surface delivery).

Payments from foreign countries must be made inUS funds payable at a US bank.

□ Check enclosed □ VISA □ MasterCard

Card #Exp. _

Signature

Please allow 4 weeks for domestic delivery and 12weeks for foreign delivery.

NAME

ADDRESSCITY

STATE

ZIP

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 417

Howa software engineer

got to captain thelunar landing module.

The Computer Museum is everythingyou'd expect, and a lot of things youwouldn't.

Of course, the museum contains acollection of the most significant accom-plishments in the history of informationprocessing. But it's not just a great placeto see things, it's also a great place todo things.

There are over twenty interactive ex-hibits at The Computer Museum. You candesign a car, create your own fractal land-scape, or even captain the lunar landing

module on the Apollo flight simulator.

So, the next time you're in Boston, stopby The Computer Museum. You'll discoverit's more than a lot of machines, it's also alot of fun.

For more information, or to become aMuseum Member, write The ComputerMuseum, or call (617) 423-6758.

The Computer Museum

There's something in it for everyone.

300 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210

Subscription Problems?

We want to help!

If you have a problem with your BYTE

subscription, write us with the details.

We'll do our best to set it right. But we

must have the name, address, and zip of

the subscription (new and old address, if

it's a change of address). If the problem

involves a payment, be sure to include

copies of the credit card statement, or

front and back of cancelled checks.

Include a "business hours" phone

number if possible.

x>

USM/ML

BITE

Subscriber Service

P.O. Box 328Hancock, NH 03449

m

418 BYTE • IUNE 1986

FORTRON CORPORATION

3225 SELDON CT., FREMONT, CA 94538

IN CALIF: (415)490-8171

TLX: 559291 FORTRON

FAX: (415) 490-9156

ORDER TOLL FREE: 821-9771

U.L. Rated • High Reliability • Full Technical Support

140W (Typ.PC/XT

1B0W(Max.)

$129.00

• U.L. recognized, yellow card available File n E-101116(S)

• Meet FCC class B, European safety spec.

• 115/230V AC convertible

• Low noise DC fan

• OVP, OCP, short circuit protection

• IBM® standard pin out or Faraday type pinout selectable

• 100% 24 hrs. burn-in 100% pre-shipment test.One full year warranty

Ntour PC reprosonts ft Substantial nvastmont II (loos not make sense 10 risk costlydown lime due to Domain power supply, when lot a low dollars more you can havethe conldonco ol FORTRON QUALITY

IBM is a registered trademark ol

PROFITABLE DISCOUNT PRICES FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS & DEALERS - PLEASE CALL

FC520Color Graphic/Mono/Printer

S99.00

FC 550 (CT-6040)

Monochrome / Graphic /

Printer

• 720 x 346 graphic mode

• Run Lotus 1-2-3- auto cac

• IBM" compatible

$109.00

FC 730 (CT-6050C)384K Multifunctions

• Memory expansion tc

• Clock /calendar

• Serial, parallel pons

• Game pon

(ok) $119.00

FC 740

Multi-I/O $109.00

w/Floppy Controller

• 1 EIA-HS232C pon (2nd optional)

• I Contronic port, game port

• ClocK /calendar

$99.00

FC 1730

Multifunction Card

for PC AT

3 memory

• Expandable to 3 MB (optional) bypiggy back board ».,,,„ ,

• Game port $189.1

FC 1930

RS232/ Printer Port

for PC AT

$99.00

FC940RS232/Real Time Clock

Hard DiskController

• RS232C port

• To 9GO0 baud

• Battery bach-up $59. 00(clock only) $49.00

Hard Disk Controller for XT

• DTC5150BX

• WD WX-2 {Western Digital).

• Cable

F.D. & H.D. Controller (or AT

• DTC 5290 . .

■ Western Digital WA-2

• Cable Set

$149.00

$145.U0$ 9.50

$265.00$260.00$ 10.00

FC 230Floppy Disk Controller

XT CPU Board

• Drives up to lour 5

• IBM compatible

• With cables

FC 150 (4.77 MHZ) $'

FC 180(8.00 MHZ) $'

• Expandable lo 64QK on boardmemory

• Optional 6087 co-processor

• Oplional IBM' comp. BIOS

Modems $149.00

INTERNAL

Hayes 1200 RS232 $369.95

Everex 1200 bps $146.00

Practical Peripheral $199.00

EXTERNAL

' compatible $179.00

SPECIAL

*CMI #6640 40 MS31 MB (formatted)

Hard Disk Drive $499.00<FcJlisted $899.00)

512K memory eip. card S69.00

• FC B30S

576K memory exp. card $69.00

• FC 930

serial / parllel adaptor lor XT $49.00

• FC 530monochrome controllerw/primer port .

Enhanced Graphic Adaptor

IBM® Compatible

w/o printer port

w/ printer port

• For PC/XT/AT and compatibles

• 256K on board memory

• Full 16 colors in 640 x 350 on IBM* enhanced color display

• Support 640 x 350 IBM* compatible enhance color and monochrome

• Parallel port • Light pen Interlace

EGA Monitor $499.00

$299.00

FORTRON 200U.P.S. for PC

• 115V/230V AC input convertible

• Input current 2.5 amp

• 20OW continuous

• 1/2 cycle (typical) transfer time

• Hold-up lime (torn 20 minutes (200W) up to

60 minutes (60W) „_

•5.12" X7.7-* 1346- $259.00

FC447

PC/AT Keyboard

Lp,

m

• IBM AT compatible keyboard

■ Enlarge return key

■ Light on num. lock key

$109.00

FC 427 (5150 Type) $79.00

4

FC 437(5151 Type)

4:. v2K^i

• For PC XT

• Large return key »*.*» nn

• Light on num. lock keys $99.00

CABINETS & EXPANSION CHASSIS

FC 630 A-2

mm H HI

« For PC XT compatible side switch

• To use FC 135-40 power supply

• Complete mounting hardware

$79.00

FC620

WWII it! PE |'

• For PC AT compatible

• LED lamps, key, key lock, speakerand mounting hardware included

$139.00

FC610Drives Chassis

w

• 18" x8"x6"

• Capable ot nolding 2 hati-heightdrives

• Come w/power supply. Ian

• LED power indicator $1 49.00

FC 640/5 SlotsPC Expansion Chassis

$239.00

*fP, -

■ W / 5 slol mother board

• 100W power supply, Ian

• Capable ol holding 3 hall-heightdrives

• Dia i5V**x 12'xSta*"Option ot system interface

adaptor $149.00

FC 650/8 Slots

PC Expansion Chassis

$249.00

• PC XT identical size

• W / 6 slol mother board

• 140W power supply

• a hall-height drives

"System interlace adaptor $149.00

FCC 660/12 Slots

PC Expansion Chassis

$289.00

■ I I

• Dia. 15%"x15'A"x5vi"

• W /13 slol molhor board powersupply, Ian

• Capable ol holding 2 hall-heighi

'System interlace adaptor $149,00

MONITORS

• Monochrome

TatungMM 1222 A/G $129.00

Golden Star Green $109.00

• Color Hi-Res (640 x 200)

TalungCM-1360 $359.00

• Enhanced Graphic (640x350)

TaiungCM-1380 $499.00

Princeton HX-12E $529.00

Mitsubishi EGA $529.00

Quimax PX-22 $499.00

DISK DRIVES

• Floppy

Teac S5BV $119,00

1.2 MB 55GFV $149.00

• Hard (w / controller & cable)

10 MB $419.00

20 MB ST-225 $449.00

• 20 MB ST-4026 (40 MS) drive only $579.00

• 30 MB ST-4036 (40 MS) drive only $699.00

• 31 MB CMI-G640 (40 MS) drive only. ,$499.00

Tape Back-Up

(w / controller, cable & tape)

INTERNALSysgen 20 MBEverex 20 MBSysgen 60 MBEverex 60 MBEXTERNALSysgan 20 MBSysgen 60 MBEverex 20 MBEverex 60 MB

Printers $89.00

Admalo DP-130 . . .

$645.00

• 130C.P.S.

$699.00

• 60 columns

$850.00

• 9 x 9 dol matrix held

$895.00

• Parallel Standard interlace

TTX-eO

S749.00

• 50C.P.S.

S99S.00

• 80 columns

S789.00

• Parallel standard Interlace

$995.00

• Thermo printer

RAM CHIPS

$11.50/9 pC.$33.00 / 9 pc$44.00/ 9 pc.

Inquiry 135 for End-Users. Inquiry 136 for DEALERS ONLY

Terms:

• Mm shipping & handling S6 00

• CA res add 6 5°v lax

• Restocking charge 15%

• No rln. goods w/o a RMA no

• Prices subject lo change w/o notice

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 419

IBM Compatible Softwareonly $6 per disk

OVER 500 DISKS FULL

OF PUBLIC DOMAIN AND

USER SUPPORTED PROGRAMS

i^VCL^JL

STAR

Summary of Disks

People often ask"... how can you sell anyreally good programs for $6? After all,everyone knows you have to spend $300 ona good word processor, database manager,or spread sheet program .. . don't you?"

The truth is many of our satisfied custo-mers have discovered that our publicdomain and user supported programs areactually some of the best and most sophis-ticted software you can buy, at any price!The commercial retailers don't want you toknow about us or our programs, but why payhundreds of dollars more for software thatwon't do anymore than our $6.00 package.Here is a sample of our library by category.

WORD PROCESSORS

PC-Write 2.5 {#78} A full featured word pro-cessor that is faster than Wordstar.TSCRIPT (#422) word processor for PC-JRonly. Pascal source code included.DICTIONARY (#378) Dictionary type spell-ing checker.

IV-ED (#415) Word processor - editor.LETTERWRITER(«415) controls letter pro-cessing.

SCREEN EDITORS

FRED (#83) Screen editor similar to IBM's

Personal Editor.

RV-EDIT (#190) Full screen editorfrom Bob

Vollmer.

FOIL EDIT (#347) Full screen editor. Top to

bottom and left to right.

TEXT PROCESSING TOOLS

PC-READ (#194) Program todetermineclari-ty of text.

FOGFIND (#378) reverses writing complex-ity using the "Fog Index".ROFFA 1.61 (#416) make beautiful text for-mats with this processing tool.OPARSER (#419) Public Domain version ofthis famous system.

WORDSTAR AIDS (#379) collection of themost useful utilities for the Wordstar user.

DATABASE PROGRAMS

PC FILE III (#5) most popular database pro-gram from Jim Button,U-MIND (#133) Fast hashing makes this adandy database. (Intelligent database)DATABASE OF STEEL 3.1 (#214. 215, 267,268) Database spreadsheet and expert sys-:em from Potomic Engineering.NEWBASE (#233) Menu driven database lorhe beginner.

PC-DBMS (#383) A relational database

management system that provides on-line

help and screen editing (unctions.

ELSIE EXPERT SYSTEM (#398) Artificial

intelligence shell to build a custom

knowledge-base.

PDS'BASE (#396) Complete hierarchical

data base system master/detail or mother/

daughter type.

CREATOR (#339) create, report, and sort

makes this a super database management

system.

INFOBASE (#340) Forms driven database

management system similar to INFOSTAR.

DATABASES

BOBCAT (#247) Small business database.

Excellent!

MFIND (#311) Database ot over 2000 movies

that can be searched in any category, or you

can add your own.

SPREADSHEETS

PC-CALC (#199) Fabulous 123 work-a-likefrom the author of PC-File.PC-PAD (#406) Spreadsheet and addressbook program written in basic.

SPREADSHEET TEMPLATES

LOTUS 1-2-3 TEMPLATES AND MACROS

(#140. 141. 165, 257. 289, 301-304. 406, 414)

Why spend hours of writing your macros

when these are ready made? Modify them

yourself.

SYMPHONY WORKSHEETS (#305, 306)

FINANCIAL PROGRAMS

PC-CHECK MANAGER (#275) Keeps mul-tiple checkbooks in balance.TAX FILE DBS (#295) Tax record keepingsystem that saves you money on April 15.SAGE TRADER (#242) Analyzes commo-doity trades. Don't "short" this one!PORTSWORTH PACKAGE (#101) Evaluatesyour ever changing stock portfolios.FINANCE (#164, 227) Determine presentand compound values, interest rates, etc.HOME FINANCE (#406) Lotus 1-2-3 Macrosfor real life applications.PC-GENERAL LEDGER 1.2 (#237) An excep-tional accounting system. Used by someCPA's.

TIME AND MONEY (#251) Financial recordkeeping and analist system.LOAN AMORTIZATION (#399) For outputto screen or pinter. Lots of on-line help.

COMMUNICATIONS

QMODEM (#310) The best and fastest com-

ORDER FORM

LONE STAR SOFTWARE, INC.

2100 Hwy. 360, Suite 1204

Grand Prairie, Texas 75050

214/647-1010

munications programs you can buy at anyprice, bar none!

PC-TALK (#391) The classic "Freeware"communication program.PC-VT (#286) VT-100 Emulation.SYSCOMM (#338) Menu driven system allow-ing unattended file transfer.RBBS 12.2 (#212) Become a SYSOP andstart a bulletin board.

FIDO NET (#333) Bulletin Board System.Perhaps the easiest to run.

MATH AND STATISTICS

EPISTAT 3.1 (#88) Statistical analysis ol

small to medium-signed data samples.

KLP 1.9 (#332) Kinetics linear programming

system.

MATH PAK (#394) Programs to teach and

accelerate some math functions. BASICA

LANGUAGES

CHASM 2.13 (#10) Cheap assembler withtutorial.

LADYBUG 1.0 (#94) Logo like program.XLISP 1.4 (#148) Lisp language interpreter.LAXON & PERRY FORTH (#263, 264)MVP-FORTH (#31, 32) Two disk set of Moun-tain Valley Press Forth.3 FORTHS (#352) To modifyorexpand yourown forth language. MVPFORTH, FORTH-H and SEATTLE Computer's Forth.PROLOG & UNIFORTH (#417) Completewith editor and documentation.SNOCREST BASIC (#409,410) two disk set.Real basic interpreter with manual. Can beused with a multi-user system.TBASIC (#381) Tiny basic. A limited subsetof BASIC. Could be placed on a chip.

PASCAL SETS

PASCAL TOOLS (#130, 133) Volume 1, 2and 3 with source code from the famousbook.

TURBO PASCAL-TOOLS (#248, 279, 292,298, 324, 351. 353.364,365,366,375, 392) 12volumes of tools and utilities written espe-cially for turbo Pascal. The most extensivecollection around!

UTILITIES

DISKCAT 4.0 (#106) Catalog all your diskfiles in a hurry.

GINACO (#66) 54 polished routines writtenin basic for any beginner or experts. We loveit!

ULTRA-UTILITIES 4.0 (#133, 245) Recoverlost files, modify sectors, etc. Like Nortons.SYSMENU (#250) Build a menu driven menusystem. Excellent for hard disks.LOAD-US (#284) Allows Lotus and Sym-phony to be used on a hard disk.

I

CIRCLE DISK

SHIP TO:

DISK DIRECTORY (Expianat.cOTHER

ol all files & programs)

x$6 =x$6 =

TEXAS RESIDENTS ADD 6'

SHIPPING & HANDLING

II (5) Si 00 ana 50 lor each additional disk)

□ MASTERCARDCARD NO.

SUBTOTAL

.% TAX

TOTAL

EXPIRATION DATESIGNATURE

PLEASE ENCLOSE CHECK WITH ORDER

I 22 23

I 42 4362 6382 831 102 1031 122 1231 142 1431 162 1631 182 1831 202 2031 222 2231 242 2431 262 2631 282 2831 302 3031 322 323I 342 3431 362 3631 362 3831 402 4031 422 423I 442 443t 462 463I 48? 483

24 25 26 2744 45 46 4764 65 66 6784 85 86 87

104 105 106 107124 125 126 127144 145 146 147164 165 166 167184 185 186 187204 205 206 207224 225 226 227244 245 246 247264 265 266 267284 265 28R287304 305 306 307324 325 326 327344 345 346 347364 365 366 367384 385 386 367

404 405 406 407

424 425 426 427444 445 446 447464 465 466 4674B4 485 486 4B7

28 2948 49

68 8988 89108 109126 12914B 149168 169188 189208 209228 229248 249268 269288 289303 309328 329348 349368 369388 389408 409428 429448 449

NUMBER DESIRED:

10 11 12 13 14 15 1630 31 32 33 34 35 36 :50 51 52 53 54 55 56 !70 71 72 73 74 75 7690 91 92 93 94 95 96 !110 111 112 113 114 115 116 1130 131 132 133 134 135 136 1150 151 152 153 154 155 156 1170 171 172 173 174 175 176 1190 191 192 193 194 195 196 1210 211 212 213 214 215 216 2230 231 232 233 234 235 236 2250 251 252 253 254 255 256 2270 271 272 273 274 275 276 2290 291 292 293 294 295 296 2310 311 312 313 314 315 3163330 331 332 333 334 335 336 3350 351 352 353 354 355 356 3370 37i 372 373 374 375 376 3390 39' 392 393 394 395 396 3410 4H Ji2 413 414 415 4164430 431 432 433 434 435 436 4450 45i 452 453 454 455 456 4470 47' 472 473 474 475 476 4490 49' 492 493 494 495 496 4

18 19 2038 39 40

58 59 6078 79 8098 99 100r 113 119 120r 138 139 140r 158 159 160M78 179 180' 198 199 200' 218 219 220r 238 239 240' 258 259 260t 278 2/9 280' 298 299 300' 318 319 320' 338 339 340r 358 359 360r 378 379 380r 398 399 400' 418 419 420' 438 439 440' 458 459 460' 478 479 480' 496 499 500

'986 Lone Siar Soltv

ALIGN 1.6 (#217) Disk alignment tool.TOP UTILITIES (#273) All of the most re-quested utilities on one disk.NUMZAP (#284) Removes line numbers fromBASIC programs.

BASIC XREF (#358) Chose bags with thisBASIC cross-22 refernece utility.PC-INPUT (#363) Program for BASIC screengeneration.

PATCHES (#376) make back up copies ofsome of the most popular commercial pro-grams with this collection.

PRINTER UTILITIES

SP 3.4 (#186. 275) Printer buffer that parti-tions your data so you can use your compu-ter and print at the same time.SIDEWAYS (#265, 411) Prints text sidewayson an Epson printer.

SETPRTR (#79) Sets up Epson printer froma menu.

SLIDE (#244) produce medium resolutionslides and overhead transparencies.PRINTER UTILITIES (#411) Sorgasboard ofutilities and tools.

EPSON PRINTER UTILITIES (#326) Spool,set up routines all designed for Epson codes,BANNER (#386) make long banners withlarge letters. Includes MS-FORTRAN sourcecodes.

EDUCATION

PC-TOUCH (#249) A typing tutor.EQUATOR (#249) A teaching tool for math,science and finance.

PC-TUTORIAL (#403) A first course in com-puter usage covering various aspects of MS-DOS. Good!

PC-PROFESSOR (#105) Learn Basic theeasy way. One of the best tutorials onBASIC.

PC-DOS HELP (#254) type "help" for theDOS command you forgot.FLASH CARDS (#367-370) 4-disk set.Vocabulary builder, spelling teacher.

GAMES

TOP GAMES (#274) The most requested

arcade type games.

ARCADE GAMES (#293) Another goodie

bag of top Arcade games.

EMON (#296. 297) Adventure game

compiler.

TRIVIA GAMES (#327-329) Lots ol files and

documentation for hours of lun. Will not

work on PCJR.

PC JR GAMES (#354) Games that will work

only on PC JR. Combat, dungeons and

dragons. Global Thermonuclear War.

MISC. GAMES (#390) Good selection of

educational, adventure, and arcade games.

MUSIC

PC-MUSICIAN (#127) Compose music onyour PC, save and play again.PIANO MAN (#279) Play your PC keyboardlike a piano.

APPLICATIONSGENEALOGY ON DISPLAY 3.0 (#90)GENEALOGY - FT 1,25 (#240) from PineCone software.

LABELMAKER (#146) Our favorite label fileand maker Menu driven.PC-FLY "Fliteplan" 2.1 (#261) Pilots prepareand file your flight plans.RECIPE 83 (#281) Recipe index for use withPC File HI (#5)

FAMILY HISTORY (#361) Family history,ancestor and decendant charts. Sample pro-grams.

FORM LETTERS (#388) LOTS of samples ofthe most commonly used business lettersModify'

GRAPHICS

PC-KEY DRAW (#344-345) A small CADsystem. Lots of demonstration files,PC-PICTURE GRAPHICS (#136) Drawingpackage allows you to zoom, color, and

store pictures.

PC-GRAPH (#418) Allows user to create

graphics from PC-File report files.

420 BYTE • IUNE I986

THE COMPANY THAT DELIVERS"

PRINTERS

STAR MICRONICS

NX-10, 136 cps, Trac. & Sheet Feeds 299SG-10, 120 cps, 2K buffer, 1 yr war 219

SG-15. 120 cps, 2K buffer 385

SD-10, 160 cps, 10" carriage 365

SD-15, 160 cps, Corr. Qual 479

SR-10, 200 cps, 10" carriage 520

SR-15, 200 cps, w/Trador 640

OKIDATA

ML182P, 120 cps We

ML182 IBM, Graphics Comp Will

ML182S, 10"Carriage Beat

ML192P, 160 cps all

ML192 IBM, Graphics Comp .., Pricing

ML192S, 160 cps on

ML193P, 160 cps Oki

ML193 IBM, Graphics Comp, , . Printers

ML193S, 160 cps with

ML84P, 200 cps or

ML84 IBM without

ML84S, 200 cps IBM

Okimate 20, 80/40 color Rom

EPSON

LX80, 120 cps 10" carriage Call

FX85, 160 cps 10" carriage Us

JX80, 160 cps Color First

RX100, 100 cps 15" carriage For

FX286. 200 cps 15" carriage ... LowestLQ800, 180/60 P&S 7K 10" . AuthorizedLQ1000, 180/60 P&S 7K 15" ... Epson

LO1500. 200/64 15" Dealer

DX10, LQ Printer Pricing

BROTHER

HR-15XL, LQ 20 cps P or S $ 355

HR-25, LQ 23 cps P or S 499

HR-35, LQ 36 cps P or S 699

2024L, 160 cps 24 wire 794

DH-45, LQ & Dot matrix 36/160 ... 821

JUKI

6100, LQ 18 cps w/proportional spc$ 3556300, LQ 40 cps 675

TOSHIBA

P341P. 180/72, 132 col S 779

P341P/S, 180/72. 24 wire 799

P351P/S, 240/100, 132 col 1099

PANASONIC

1080. 100 cps 2 yr. war. Prop. Sp S 2191091 w/Tractor, 120 cps, 2 yr. war. 2391092, 10" carriage, 180 cps 375

DATA PRODUCTS

8012, 180 cps 10"IBM comp $ 299

8022, 180 cps 15"IBM comp 472

8050C, 200 cps w/color 1172

8070C. 400 cps w/color 1547

CALPAK

BASE SYSTEM

♦ CPU W/256K*One360KDS/DDDr

* Hi-Res Grn Monitor

• Int. Card w/Par. Port

$1099

BUSINESS SYS.

• CPU W/640K

• 1 Para. & 1 Ser. Port

♦ ClkCalw/BatBkup

* Hi-Res ClrGrphCrd*Taxan *620 Clr Hon

♦ 2-360KDS/DD Drive

♦ One 20 Meg Hd Disk

$2150

IBM

PC BASE SYS.

*CPUw/256K*1-360KDS/DD Drive*HI-Res Grn Monitor*

• Int. Card w/Para Port

$1399""""

PC XT BUS SYS

• CPU w/640 K

• 2 Para. &1 Ser. Port

• ClkCal.w/BatBkup

• Hi-Res ClrGrphCrd

• Taxan *620Clr Mon

• 1-360KDS/DD Drive

• One 20 Meg Hd Disk

$2949

PRINTERACCESSORIES

ORANGE MICRO

Grappler + $ 75

Buffered Grappler +. 16K exp. 64K 149

TOSHIBA

Bi-Directional Trac. 1351/351 . .$ 149/155

MICROTEK

Dumpling GX (same as Grappler +)$ 69

Dumpling GX w/16K buffer 125

Dumpling GX w/32 buffer 135

Additional Buffering 16K 7

SMT

Par. Card & Cable

w/Free word processing software . . .$ 69

OKIDATA

Plug n Print for OKI Mate 20 $ 79

Tractor for 182 & 192 39

JUKI

Bi-Direc. Tractor for 6100/6300 $ 115/125

Serial Interface for 6100 65

CABLES

IBM PC to Parallel Printer $ 16

Serial Cable 14

Centronics M/M or M/F 18

DISPLAY MONITORS

QUAORAM

Amber chrome IBM compatible ... .$ 169AMDEK

V300G $ 119

V300A 129

V310A for IBM PC 149

Color 300 199

Color 600 RGB Hi-Res 389

Color 710 Super Hi-Res 485

Color 722 Super Hi-Res 545

TAXAN

IBM Green Monochrome#121 $ 129

IBM Amber Monochromen 22 139

RGB IBM w/Cable#620 399

RGB Super Hi-Res. #640 Best Buy. 499RGB/#630 450

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12 for use with IBM PC $445

Max 12E Amber for IBM 159

SR 12 Super Hi-Res 555

Scan Doubler 185

QUIMAX

PX-4, RGB Hi-Res w/Gr. Text Mode$ 410DM-14 Monochrome for IBM 150

IBM PC ACCESSORIES

IBM

IBM Dos 3.1 $69

PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card $ 249

Module A 75

Module B 256K w/C & C 120

5-Pak same as 6-Pak-Ser. Port 175

Color/Mono Card New 220

64K MEMORY UPGRADE

64K (9 chips) 200ns & 150ns $ 13

HEXACE TECHNOLOGIES

Hi-Res Color Card for PC, XT, AT, .$ 89

QUADRAM

Quad Color 1 Board $ 179

Exp. Quadboard W/64K & Game Port . 199

TECHMAR

Graphics Master $ 449

189150

VUTEK (2 yr. war.)

CPS Board, RGB & Comp. w/Par&Ser

Ports 2 yr war

Color Card (Here, comp.) w/Para.

AST RESEARCH

SixPak + w/64K & Sidekick $ 215

SixPak + W/384K & Sidekick 255

Game Port 49

Preview MonoGraphics 225

KEYTRONICS

KB5151 $ 175

MICROTEK

Monochrome Text Par. & Ser $ 145

Color Graphics Card 2 yr. warr .... 125

SIGMA DESIGNS

Color 400 L or H $ 399

APPLE & FRANKLIN ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

Kensington System Saver $ 69

Masterpiece Control Unit 119

MICROTEK

Serial Interface $ 85

80 col. for II & II + 99

MICROMAX

Viewmax 128K extended 80 col. card for

Apple HE W/64K $ 99

80 col. card for Apple II & II + 139

ADVANCED LOGIC SYSTEMS

Z Engine 2.2 $ 120

80 COI./64K 69

APPLE

Super Serial Card $ 139

SMT

64K, 80 col. Card $ 65

MICRO-SCI

64K, 80 Col. Card $ 49

HARD DISK DRIVES

CMS

10 Meg w/cont. formatted for IBM. .$ 44520 Meg w/conl. formatted for IBM.. 529ALPHA OMEGA

10 Meg w/Conlroller Card $ 475

20 Meg w/Controller Card 565

30 Meg w/Controller Card 699

20 Meg for AT 445

33 Meg for AT 599

Shock Mounted 20 meg for Compaq 699SEAGATE

ST212, Vi HT 10 meg $445

ST225, Vi HT 20 meg 545

DISK DRIVES

TANDON

TM100-2 for IBM PC $ 110

TEAC

55B Double Sided 360K $ 99

Drives For Apple B Franklin

CALL for current prices

PERSONAL SYSTEMS

APPLE

Professional Sys. incl: Apple ME W/128K &80 col., tilt mon., duo disk w/con't kit$1299

Pro System w/Color 1545

Apple lie Lightweight Portable 789

Apple He w/Color 1399

IBM

IBM PC Bare $1095*

IBMPC 64K, 1 Drive 1250*

IBM PC, 2 Drives W/256K 1299*

IBM XT, 10 Meg, 360K Dr. W/256K 2150*

IBM XT Bare W/256K & IBM Floppy 1750*

Call About All "AT" Systems

"Call for current IBM prices

SANYO

MBC 555-2 w/2, 320K Drives &

more software $ 899

775 Portable 1795

Serial Port for Sanyo 65

COMPAQ

256K, W/2-320K Drives $ 1699

Desk Top Model 1 1599

Desk Top Model 2 1925

Desk Top Model 3 Call

Desk Top Model 4 Call

We have "2B6" Ports. & D.P. in stock

WYSE

1100-1 incl. 256K w/two 360K Drives 1 par

& 2 ser. ports $ 1399

1100-2 incl. 10 meg, 1 floppy. 256K, 1 Par.

& 2 ser. ports 2599

'Wyse Monitors & Exp. Chasis Available

SOFTWARE

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.

Lotus 1-2-3 New Version $ 315

Symphony 420

ASHTON TATE

D Base II $ 299

D Base III + 389

PRINTER SWITCH BOX

EXPONENT

Centronics Two Switch $ 58

Centronics Four Switch 83

Serial Two Switch 45

Serial Four Switch 69

MODEMS

ANCHOR

Volksmodem XII, 5 yr war $ 185

Express 1200 250

HAYES MICRO

300 Baud Smart Modem $ 149

1200 Baud Smart Modem 379

1200 B for IBM PC w/SM II 375

2400 Baud Modem 645

DISKETTES

PC DISKETTES

Sgl./Dbl. (Box of 10) $ 13

Dbl./Dbl. (Box of 10) 15

COMPUTER CONNECTION

Dbl./Dbl. (Box of 10) $ 16

Sgl./Dbl. w/Disk Container(10) 15

Dbl./Dbl. w/Disk Container 17

Bulk 50 & Up - Dbl./Dbl. .. . 1.35 each

SMA

PC Documate for: Dos 3.1,1-2-3, Symphony,

D Base III and much much more . $11.95

We Stock What We Sell!!

IF YOU SEE IT ADVERTISED FOR LESS, CALLCOMPUTER CONNECTION FIRST FOR LOWEST QUOTE

>> An --.—-——,——. We accept VISA, MasterCard, COD

IVIAIL. UHDEH: [w/dapoait], Certified Checks or

Wire Transfers. Minimum Shipping

17121 S. Central Avenue, Unit LCarson. California 90746

NO SURCHARGE FOR CREDIT CARDS

Charge SI.OO. Some items subjectto back order. California Res. addBVi% Snles Tax. All returns aresubject to a 15% restocking chargeand must be authorized by storemanager within 10 days. Pricessubject to change without notice.This Ad eupersedea all others.

ORDER LINE[800] 732-0304

[Outside California)

[813] 63S-SS09

[Inside California]Mon. Fri. 7 a.m. to G p.m.Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

CU8TOMER SERVICE:

[S13] 635-5065

Mon.-Fri. S a.m. to 3 p.m.

Inquiry 78

IUNE 1986 'BYTE 421

The Greatest buy

on BASF Qualimetri

Diskettes!

,79 Qty-50

.90 qx^°

5.25"SSDD 5.25"DSDD

Packaged in boxes of 10 with Tyvec sleeves, user IDlabels and write-protect tabs.

wssiMMmmzm

Qly. Qty.

20-40: 50*:

5.25"SSDD(P/N3406) .81 .79

5.25"DSDD(P/N3407) .92 .90

5.25"SSDD-96TPI(P/N3404) .92 .90

5.25"DSDD-96TPI(P/N3405) 1.03 1.01

5.25"DSDD-HD(P/N3403) 2.07 2.04

3.50"SSDD-135TPI(P/N3402) 1.85 1.82

3.50"DSDD-135TPI(P/N3412) 2.41 2.37

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM 6PM Cenlral Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANV NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICEON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THESAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Rd • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

BASFQualimetric

Diskettes in Bulk.

,72

Ea.Qty.150

Ea.rjty.150

5.25"SSDD 5.25^031!

Save a lol of money by buying BASFQUALIMETRIC diskettes in bulk. Packedin cartons of 150 diskettes with Tyvecsleeves. User ID labels and write- Qty.

protect tabs. LIFETIME WARRANTY! 150+:5.25"SSDD(P/N3408) .72

5.25"DSDD(P/N3409) .83

5.25"SSDD-96TPI N/A

5.25"DSDD-96TPI N/A

5.25"DSDD-HD(P/N34I0) N/A

3.50"SSDD-135TPI(P/N3411) 1.51"3.50"DSDD-135TPI(P/N3413) 2.05"' Available in 250 piece cartons only."Available in 200 piece cartons only.FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANV NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICEON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE5AME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bav Rd. ■ Wilmette Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

Bulk Diskettes

Incredible Value!

DSDD

.54 ea.

Multiples of 50 only!These are genuine 3M diskettesas supplied to software duplicatoraccounts. LIFETIME WARRANTY.Tyvec sleeves included! Limitedsupplies, so act now!(P/N10041)

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time. Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE

SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bav Rd. • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

KODAKDISKETTES:

Discover the future today!

.92 Qty-100

1.13 Qty-100

5.25"DSDD

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Qty. Qty.

20-40: 50:

5.25"SSDD(P/N4200) 1.03 1.00

5.25"DSDD(P/N4201) 1.23 1.21

5.25'SSDD-96TPI N/A N/A

5.25"DSDD-96TPI N/A N/A

5.25"DSDD-HD(P/N4202) 2.35 2.31

3.50"SSDD-135TP1(P/N4206) 1.87 1.843.50"DSDD-135TPI(P/N4207) 2.46 2.42

BULK 5.25" DISKETTES!(Packaged in boxes of 100 with Tyvec sleeves,user ID labels and write-protect tabs.)5.25"SSDD(P/N4203) .92

5.25DSDD(P/N4204) 1.13

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time. Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE

SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Rd. • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

DISK WORLD!

Ordering & Shipping

Instructions

FOR FASTEST SERVICE. USE NO -COST MCI MAIL.Our address is DISKORDER. It's a FREE ,MCI MAILletter. No charge to you. (Situation permitting, we'llship these orders in 24 hours or less.)

SHIPPING: 5.25" & 3.50" DISKETTES-Add $ 3.00per each 100 or lewer diskettes. OTHER ITEMS:Add shipping charges as shown in addition to othershipping charges. PAYMENT: VISA, MASTERCARDand Prepaid orders accepted. COD ORDERS: Add$ 5.00 special handling charge. APO, FPO, AK, HI& PR ORDERS: Include shipping charges as shownand additional 5% ot total order amount to cover PALand insurance. We ship only to United Statesaddresses, except as shown above. TAXES: Illinoisresidents add 7% sales tax.

MINIMUM ORDER: $35 00FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 g. INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time. Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE

SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD,

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Rd. • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

ATHANA

TU DISKETTES ,The great unRnown!

.60

5.25"SSDD

Ea,Qty. 50

.69 Qtv 5°

5.25'DSDD

Qly. Qty.50+:.60.69.88.92

1.792.002.73

LIFETIME WARRANTY!5.25"SSDD(P/N3700)5.25"DSDD(P/N3701)5.25"SSDD-96TPI(P/N3702)5.25"DSDD-96TPI(P/N3703)5.25"DSDD-HD(P/N3704)3.50"SSDD-135TPI(P/N3705)3.50"DSDD-135TPI(P/N3706)You've used these diskettes hundreds ot times as copy-protected originals on some of the most popularsoltware packages. They're packed in polybags of 25with Polymer-impregnated sleeves userlD labels andreinforced hubs.write-protect tabs.

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICEON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THESAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Rd. • Wilmerle. Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

78

EA.<- 5.25"SSDD(P/N1000)

Qty.50+

5.25"DSDD(P/N1004)

.1.10

EA.

Qty.50+

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Packed in boxes of 10 withUser ID labels and write-protect labels. Q|y Qty

20-40: 50+:5.25"SSDD(P/N1000) .81 .78

5.25"DSDD(P/N1004) 1.13 1.10

5.25"SSDD-96TPI(P/N1008) 1.58 1.53

5.25"DSDD-96TPI(P/N1011) 1.98 1.93

5.25"DSDD-HD(P/N1040) 2.30 2.24

3.50"SSDD-135TPI(P/N1039) 1.58 1.53

3.50"DSDD-135TPI(P/N1046) 2.23 2.17

8.00"SSSDw/WP(P/N1020) 1.54 1.52

8.00"SSDD w/WP(P/N1025) 1.89 1.86

8.00"DSDD W/WPIP/N1030) 2.12 2.06

DATA CARTRIDGES:(Sold 10 to a carton only.)(Add S 5.00 shipping charges for cartridges.)DC100(P/N1041) 12.62 12.40

DC300XLP(P/N1042) 19.38 19.04DC600A(P/N1043) 21.45 20.89

DISKWORLD!

Printer Ribbonst extraordinary prices!

Brand new ribbons, manufactured toOriginal Equipment Manufacturer'sspecifications, in housings. (Not re-inkedor spools only.)

LIFETIME WARRANTY!EPSON MX-70/80(P/N2500)

$ 2.70 ea. + .25 Shpng.EPSON MX-100(P/N2501)

$ 4.08 ea. + .25 Shpng.Okidata Micro83(P/N2505)

$ 1.37 ea. + .25 Shpng.Okidata Micro84(P/N2502)

$ 2.98 ea. + .25 Shpng.

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICEON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THESAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Rd. • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

DisketteStorage Cases

AMARAY MEDIA-MATE 50:

A revolution in disk storage.

Every once in a while someone takes the simple andmakes it elegant. This unit holds 50 5.25" diskettes, hasgrooves for stacking, inside nipples to keep diskettesfrom slipping and several other features. We like it.(P/N3013)

$ 9.69 ea. + $ 2.00 Shpng.DISK MINDER II:

Low-priced, but effective storage for 75 5.25" diskettes.Smoked plastic top, beige bottom with inside dividers,(P/N2800)

$ 6.49 ea. + $ 2.00 Shpng.DISK MINDER 36:

As above, but holds 36 3.50" diskettes. (P/N2950)$ 6.49 ea. + $ 2.00 Shpng.DISK CADDIES:

The original flip-up holder for 10 5.25" diskettes. Beige(P/N2200) or Grey (P/N2201)

a 1.65 ea. + .20 Shpng.RDERSONLY: INFORMATION

1-800-621-6827 & INQUIRIES:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM -6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE

SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS THE COMPETITIVE AD.

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Rd. • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

DISKWORLD!

422 B YTE • JUNE I986

Inquiry II6

SUPER STAR®DISKETTES:

The ultimate valuein magnetic media.

No one told us how phenomenally successful SuperStar® diskettes would become.

The idea was simple. Very simple.

We would do the same thing that big companies likeIBM® do in regard to creating a "brand name" diskette.That is we would go to major manufacturers, buy top-quality diskettes in massive quantities, give them our ownname and sell them inexpensively.

A very simple idea...that worked!

Now, tens of thousands of businesses, governmentagencies, schools and individuals have learned that youdon't have to pay inflated "brand name" prices to get"brand name" quality.

Just buy Super Star® diskettes.

Quality...without high price.

We ship almost a million Super Star® diskettes a monthand get very tew of them back.

Unlike others who offer a "house brand" or "generic"diskettes, Super Star® diskettes are top-of-the-linequality, exceeding ANSI and IBM standards by 50% ormore.

They are not cosmetically flawed, duplicator product(where a failure rate of 20% or more is expected) or whatwe in the diskette industry refer to as "floor sweepings", aterm which speaks for itself.

A lifetime warranty.

If you sense pride in our description of Super Star®diskettes, you've got it right.

After all, wouldn't you be proud if you found a way todeliver top-quality diskettes at about half the price of"brand names"?

When every bit counts,it's Super Star®!

Nearly a million Super Star® diskettes a month arebeing sold to some of the largest and most recognizablenames in the nation. They love 'em, because they savemoney., and they are dependable.

So now is the time for you to re-discover Super Star®diskettes.

And we say "re-discover" for a reason.

You've alreadyused Super Star!

Super Star® diskettes, as noted, are made by some ofAmerica's leading diskette manufacturers...and the oddsare that you've already used them more than once as thecopy-protected masters on some of the best knownsoftware programs around.

So, when you want the best...and the least expensivebest...order Super Star®!

SUPER STAR SPECIAL!

Your choice of storage at $ 4.95!

Buy 50 Super Star® diskettes and get astorage case for only $ 4.95 (shippingincluded)!

These are durable plastic cases withdividers and are very nice units.

The 5.25" unit holds 50 diskettes and the3.50" unit holds 40 diskettes.

5.25" Storage Case(P/N3100)..$ 4.95 ea.

3.50" Storage Case (P/N 3102).$ 4.95 ea.

What the world needs now

is a complete line ofhigh quality, inexpensive

diskettes with aLIFETIME WARRANTY!

And DISK WORLD! has them!

Super Star 5.25" Diskettes

5.25" SSDD (P/N3800) .55 ea.

5.25" DSDD (p/n380D .64 ea.

5.25" SSDD-96TPIpn3802) .80 ea.

5.25" DSDD-96TPIpn3803) .84 ea.

5.25" DSDD-HD (p/n^ $ 1.72 ea.

ORDER IN MULTIPLES OF 50 ONLY!

Ail Super Star 5.25" Diskettes are poly-bagged in lots of 25 with sleeves, write-protect tabsand user ID labels.

QUANTITY DISCOUNTS: 350-500 diskettes, deduct 3%. 500-700 diskettes, deduct 6%.750-1,000 diskettes, deduct 9%. 1,000+ diskettes, deduct 12%.

Super Star 3.50" Diskettes

3.50" SSDD(p/N3805)3.50" DSDDp/n3806)

$ 1.52 ea.$ 1.86 ea.

ORDER IN MULTIPLES OF 50 ONLY!

Super Star 3.50" diskettes are packaged in boxes of 50 with user ID labels.

QUANTITY DISCOUNTS: 350-500 diskettes, deduct 1.5%. 500-700diskettes, deduct3%.

750-1,000 diskettes, deduct 4.5%. 1,000+ diskettes, deduct 6%.

The Super StarLIFETIME WARRANTY!

Super Star Diskettes areunconditionally warranted againstdefects in original material so long asowned by fne original purchaser.Returns are simple: just send thedefective diskettes with proof ofpurchase, postage-paid by you, with ashort explanation of the problem andwe'll send you replacements.(In-cidentally, coffee stained diskettes ordiskettes with staples driven throughthem or otherwise damaged don'tqualify as defective.)

HOURS:

8AM-6PM Central Time

Monday - Friday

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY

NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND

QUANTITIES SUBJECT TO THE

SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

HOW TO ORDER:

ORDERS ONLY:1-800-621-6827

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140)

INQUIRIES:1-312-256-7140

FOR FASTEST SERVICE, USE NO -COST MCIMAIL. Our address is DISKORDER. It's a FREE ,MCIMAIL letter. No charge fo you. (Situation permitting,we'll ship these orders in 24 hours or less.)

SHIPPING: 5.25" & 3.50" DISKETTES-Add $ 3.00per each 100 or (ewer diskettes. OTHER ITEMS:Add shipping charges as shown in addition to othershipping charges. PAYMENT: VISA, MASTERCARDand Prepaid orders accepted. COD ORDERS: Add$ 5.00 special handling charge. APO, FPO, AK, HI& PR ORDERS: Include shipping charges as shownand additional 5% of total order amount to cover PALand insurance. We ship only to United Statesaddresses, except as shown above. TAXES: Illinoisresidents add 7% sales tax.

MINIMUM ORDER: $35.00

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay RoadWilmette, Illinois 60091

Inquiry 116

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 423

I I I I 1 1 I I I 1 I Ill

TOLL FREE

800-854-8230

CA Residents 714-558-881 3

i i i i i i i i i i ' i i i i i i ' '

OUR POLICY Inquiry 9

•Surcharge (or VISA or Mastercard.

•Volume purchasing agreements available.

•Orders subject to availablity. 'Supply limited on certain items.

•Pricing subject to change without notice.

•ACP Retail Store pricing may vary. Not responsible for typos.

I I I I I I I ' ' I I ' I ' I ' '

I I I I I I I I I I I I"

Compatible

w/20Mb DRIVECARD

Don't miss out on this unbeatablesystem manufactured by Toshiba forACP. ACP has sold over 3,000ADVANCED XT's to satisfiedcustomers including "true blue" userslike Rockwell, Hughes, and Kodak.Not only is the price affordable but thefeatures and compatibility areunbeatable. For more details call oneof our expert consultants. Don'thesitate this will be a sellout!

$

69900

ACP

BASE

PRICE

Call for complete Monochrome or ColorRGB system prices with 10 or 20 Mb harddisk drives or the NEW 20Mb Drivecard.

AST

Sixpak Plus W/64K $235.00

Advantage 128K. AT 399.00

AST 5251-11 575.00

AST 3780 575.00

RAMpage up to 2Mb Call

DCA

Irma $785.00

Irmaline 895.00

DIABLO/XEROX

620 Serial LQP.. . was 1495 now $349.00

620 API LQP 399.00

620 D36 (36cps) 449.00

Tractor was 395 now $99.00

F-21 Sheet Feeder was 896 now 249.00

Cable for 620 (to IBM) 29.00

Diablo P-11 100cps 129.95

Diablo S-11 100cps Serial 139.95

Diablo P-31 Wide 249.95

Diablo S-31 Wide 269.95

Other Diablo Dot Matrix's available Call

EPSON

FXB5 160cps NLQ $375.00

FX185 160cps Wide 499.00

All Epson Models Lowest Price

EVEREX

Graphics Edge or Edge $259.00

HAYES

Samrtmodem 1200 $385.00

Smartmodem1200B 349.00

Smartmodem 2400 575.00

Smartcom II 2.1 Software 88.00

Hayes Comp. 1200 (Int) w/SW 169.95

Hayes Comp. 1200 (Ext) 199.95

HERCULES

Color Card $166.00

Graphics Card w/Sottware 295.00

INTEL

Above Board PC or AT Lowest Price

IRWIN

310A 10 Mb Tape (Ext) $849.00

1100 10 Mb (Int) 495.00

KEYTR0NICS

5151 Deluxe Keyboard $169.95

5153 w/Touchpad 285.80

PC Jr. Numeric Keypad 39.95

MICROSOFT

Mouse $125.00

Mouse (Serial) 145.00

MOUNTAIN COMPUTER

20Mb Hardcard $699.95

MOUSE SYSTEMS

PC Mouse w/Paintbrush $138.00

ACP Mouse w/Keyboard 149.00

• NEW • Advanced AT!

INTRODUCTORY PRICE

| 80286 CPU-8MHZ

1 1.2 Mb Floppy Disk Drive

1 Hard Disk Controller w/Floppy

• AT Style Keyboard

' 192W Pwr Sup. • 8 Expan. Slots

■MS-DOS 3.1, BIOS

$1495.00

ORCHID

PC Turbo 186 W/256K.

$585.00

ADVANCED AT CARDS

ADV-320 Hard Disk Controller with

Floppy lor AT $229.00

ADV-6020AN Color/Graphics/Printer... 89.95

ADV-8050 2Mb Multifunction with

RS-232, Game & Cable. 169.95

A0V-8080 3Mb Memory Expansion129.95

ADV-8120 Printer/RS-232 and

RS-232 (Opt.) 99.95

ADVANCED PC/XT CARDS

ADV-6040 Monochrome/Graphics/

Printer $99.95

ADV-6040-3 As Above for 132 Col..139.95

ADV-6050A Monochrome/Printer

Adapter 85.95

ADV-6050C 384K Multifunction CardRS-232. Printer, Game,Clock'/; Card 119.95

ADV-7060 Floppy Controller,

2 Floppys 39.95

ADV-EGA EGA Short Card 329.95

ADV-6120E Printer, RS-232 x 2 79.95

ADV-6250A Multifunction, RS-232,

Printer, Game, V4 Card..95.95

6260A Multifunction, Floppy Com.,RS-232, Printer, Game,'A Card 149.95

ADV-6280 640K Memory Card, OK.55.95

ADV-6090 Mono/Color/Graphics,

Printer 80/132 Columns179.95

PARADISE

Color/Monocard $185.00

Modular Graphics Card 274.00

PERSYST

Mono Board w/Parallel $159.00

Color Board 139.00

Time Spectrum Sale Call

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12 RGB (640x240) $445.00

MAX-12E Amber TTL 176.00

SH-12 575.00

HX-12E (690x350) 545.00

PROMETHEUS

ProModem 1200 w/Mite (Int) $239.00

ProModem 1200B (Hayes Comp.)... .289.00Alpha/Num or Options Proc 79.95

QUADRAM

Expanded Quadboard (OK) $185.00

Gold Quadboard (OK) 385.00

Silver Quadboard (OK) 215.00

Quadlink 399.00

SIGMA

Color 400 Card $485.00

SHARP

12" Med-res RGB Monitor $269.95

Color Plotter w/Software 199.00

STAR MICRONICS

Gemini 10X.. reduced TO LOW TO PRINT

Gemini 15X sale TO LOW TO PRINT

SG10. SR10, Radix etc. Lowest Price Yell

TAXAN

415 (640x260) RGB. was 699 now $279.95Mod. 640 (Ultra Hi-res) 595.00

TEMPLATES

Lotus, dBase III, etc Lowest Price

TITAN

Accelerator PC w/256K sale Call

TOSHIBA

P321 "3 in 1" LQ Printer sale $599.00

P341 24 Pin 136 Col 869.00

P351 24 Pin w/Serial & Parallel... .1099.00T-1100 MS-DOS Lap Top Call

WESTERN DIGITAL

Filecard 10 Mb Plug-in Call

Cobra Hard Disk Controller $179.95

ZENITH

ZVM-1220/30 12" Grn/Amb TTL $109.00ZVM-1240 & ZVM-135 RGB Call

pHtt

Eftt

BfflRT

W

, ^

20 Mb fr*AQ 20 Mb ficnnUpgrade p*t43 Drivecard \J>U33

Package (1 Yr War) Plug-In 1 Yr War)

SEAGATE FOR AT

(Linear Voice Coil Activator)

20 Mb for AT $575.00

30Mb for AT $695.00

40Mb for AT $815.00

(Inc. Cable & Mounting Rails)

PC UPGRADE SPECIAL

1 *§ SET OF (9) 64K RAMS

O© SET OF (9) 256K RAMS

$7.95 4128 PIGGYBACK RAM

$120.00 8087-2 Coprocessor

1200 Baud Hayes™ Comp. Modem

Short Card by U.S. Robotics withTelpac I Software.

List $499 ACP..$149.95Buy (6) $139.95

SYSGEN 20/20

•20Mb Hard Disk•20Mb Tape

Back-up•New/Factory Box•PC/XT/AT Comp.•External CompleteReg. Retail $3300

ACP Only

$999

Grid Compass MS-DOS LapComputer Demo Sale Call forDetails. 100's in $Q .-OooStock as Low as 049

EGA SPEC AL

New Advanced EGA Card forHigh-res IBM Graphics.

SPECIAL $00088

PRICE! Only £00

UNBELIEVABLE!

Mlcropro INF0STAR SYSTEMI includes

Datastar, Reportstar (PC DOS) $99.95

IBM brand Pascal Compiler 99.95

IBM Pascal Reference 49.95

IBM DOS 2.0 24.95

Visicalc IV IBM 39.95

Compaq MS DOS/BASIC ver.2 49.95

IHS&nefii

(|||pprt|ii

WE WILL MEET ANY PRICE FOR CURRENT PRODUCTADVERTISED IN POPULAR MAGAZINES. POLICYAPPLIES FOR BOTH SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE!

IF NOT - CALL &GET ON OUR MAIL LIST.

UPS POWER SUPPLY

Back Up Pow«r for your IBM,Apple or Compatible

UPS-PC 200 Waits $277.00

UPS-XT 300 Watts 419,00

UPS-AT 800 Watts 739.00

AB PRINTER SWITCH

An AB Switch allows use of two printers withyou' computer system. We stock over 15 dif-ferent configurations.

AB Swiich (Centronics} $59.00

AG Switch (0825) 59.00

NEW NEC V20

P/N upD 70108Replace Your 8088io Increaae Speed -*, . — -. _up to 40% $18.95

DRIVE CABINETS

IBM Stylo Haid Disk with power

supply and fan 1

Dual Hard Disk w/power sup & fenDual 5V<" Full Height vertical mountDual 5V<" Full Height horizontal mountDual 5ft" Thlnllna w/power sup & fanSingle SV." Full Height w/power sup & Ian 56.00Single SVt" Thlniine w/power sup & Ian 60.00

TANDON FLOPPYSPULL OUTS

TANDON TM100-2 69.95

TM10O-1 39.95

TM848-1 99.95

TM848-2 169.95

68000

St 9.95

6810

70.00

6BOOOL10

39.95

6820

6600

2.90

6821

6602

7.75

6828

BB.0060.00

6809E

9.50

6845

DEC RAINBOW UPGRADE

192K UPGRADE CARD $49.95 Bar

Plus Many DEC Software/Hardware Hems!

INTERSIL STD BUS BOARDS

ALMOST SOLD OUT

Send or Call for List

Build Your OwnXT Compatible

8 Slot XT MB $156.00

XT-BIOS 27.95

130 Watt Power Supply. .85.00

Flip-Top Case 49.00

XT Keyboard 75.00

Ml Ht 360K Floppy 99.00

Floppy Controller 49.

Monochrome Adapter. .. .49.95

TTL Mono Monitor 97.77

256K RAM 3

CAPACITORS

OluF DISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100/S5.5Q

I uF DISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100/6.50

.OluF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100/11.25

.1 uF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100/14.25

CORCOM EMI FILTER

STD CORCOM 3 Conductor Filler $4.50

Una Cord lor above — 6 loot 1.49

Line Cord 2 Conductor — 6 fool .35

Line Cord 3 Conductor — 6 foot .95

MUFFIN FANS

Ov«r 10,000 In Slock

Torfn 3" TA-300 Fan NEWI S9.95

Torin 4.38" Muffin Fan NEW! 12.95

12VDC Fan NEWI 14.95

Finger Guards add 1.49

Power Cords add 1.49

IC SOCKETS

BOLDERTAIL 1-S9 100

B Pin ST/LP S .13 5 .10

14 Pin ST/LP .15 .11

16 Pin ST/LP .17 .12

IB Pin ST/LP .20 .17

20 Pin ST/LP .28 .26

22 Pin ST/LP .29 .27

24 Pin ST/LP .29 .27

28 Pin ST/LP 33 .32

36 Pin ST/LP .46 .38

40 Pin ST/LP .48 .42

64 Pin ST/LP 3.95 3.25

WIREWRAP (GOLD) 1-99 100

8 Pin WW/3L S .49 S .40

14 Pin WW/31. .82 .49

te Pin WW/3L .85 .55

1B Pin WW/3L .88 .77

20 Pin WW/3L .99 .96

22 Pin WW/3L 1.19 1.13

24 Pin WW/3L 1.25 1.17

2B Pin WW/3L 1.49 1.39

40PlnWW/3L 1.89 1.75

TEXTOOL/ZIF ZERO INSERTION

16 Pin $675 24 Pin S7.86 28 Pin S8.95

(Wa Stock All Type* ol Sockets)

TRANSISTORS/DIODES

J2222A 7/J1.00 2N3904 11/$1,-

J2369A 5/1.00 2N3906 11/1.'

PN918

3/1.00

TIP29A

2N221SA

45

TIP30A

2N2219A

.45

TIP31A

2N2905

.45

TIP32A

2N2907

.25

1N4148

2N305S

'.69

1N751

2N3585

4/1.00

1N4O02

2N3638

4/1.00

1N4004

2N3772

1.69

MPQ2232

OPTO IS(

>LATO

MCT-2

$ .59

4N33

MCT-6

4N35

MCT-68

.55

4N37

MCA-255

1.69

4N3S

4N26

.65

TIL117

4N27

.65

SPX33

4N28

.69

4N25

2/1.002/1.252/1.2525/1.005/1.0012/1.0010/1.00

Jumbo RedJumbo GreenJumbo YellowMini Slie RedMini Size GreenMini Size Yellow

AC/DC 24V POWERSUPPLY SPECIAL

24V@1A Open Frame

OEM Model

Reg 34.95.ACP ONLY

$11.95

CALL ACP FOR ALL YOURVOLUME IC REQUIREMENTS

EDGE CONNECTORS

S-100STS-10O WW44 Pin ST44 Pin WW72 Pin ST72 Pin WW

D-SUBMINIATURE

DB25S (FomslaDB25P (Male)

Hood $1.25DE37S (Female)DE37P (Male)

Hood $1.75DD50S (Female)DD50P (Male)

Hood $3.25

5.25Mlg H/W S .99$8.956.00Mtg H/W $ .99(OTHER STYLES IN CATALOG)CENTRONICSIOC 36 Pin MaleIDC 36 Pin Female

Solder 38 Pin MaleSo id a r 36 Pin Female

(CALL TOLL FREE FOR IDC's)

IDC CONNECTORS

Solder Header

Rt Angle Solder Header

Ribbon Header Sockel

Ribbon Header

Wire wrap Header

Rt Angle W/W Haader

NUMBER OF CONTACTS0 20 26 34 40 50

79 1.20 1.65 2.10 2.40 3.00

3.10 4.10 4.20 4.60 7.15

NOTE: To order insert number of contacta In place ol xx in ACP part number.ORDER QUANTITY OF 50pcs (mixed) AND TAKE AN ADDITTIONAL 10% OFF.

UV EPR0MERASER

We Stock Full Line

of UV Products

ALSO PROM PROGRAMMERS

THERMAL PAPER

m x 11 -500 SHEETS5000 Packages Available

While Supply An Qfl/Laslsl *J)0-ila/Pkg.

6650 $ 3.25

68047 22.95

6502 $450 I 65046502A 8.90 6507

6502B 9.50 I 6520

8035 $ 5.75

8155

6156

8185

6202

24.50129.9517.5088.95

26 9523.9537.95

8214

S 3.75

8216

1.95

8224

2.20

6226

t.95

6226

3.40

8237

13.75

B237-S

15.95

8238

4.25

8243

3.95

B250

10.50

8251

4.25

8251A

5.95

8253

6.75

6255

4.25

8255A

5.95

8257

5.75

874887496755A

$ 6.7569.9526.95

27.9524.5024.5034.95

4.0MHz "B" 6.0MHz

Z80-CPU

zao-CTC

Z80-DAF1TZ80-DMAZ80-PIOZ80-SIO/0

zao-sio/1

ZBO-SIO/2

zao-sio/9

8.002.958.508.50

DISK CONTROLLERS

UPD76S $9.95

1771 15.85

1791 22.75

1793 21.50

1795 21.50

$21.9532.9532.9532.9527.95

CRT CONTROLLERS

884568B45664746505

S2B.50 I TMS9918 $39.5034.95 8350 39.95

17.95 6545 14.95

21.95 I 8002 19.95

34.95

iO NEC7220 Graphics

UARTS/USARTS

1602B $3.95

2350 J

8250

IM6402

1702 (tmS)2706 (450nS)275B (5V)2716 (450nS)2716 (350nS)2516 (5V)TMS2716TMS25322732 (450nS)2732 (250nS)2732 (200nS)

CMOS EPROMS

3 90

2732A-4 (450nS)

t 4.50

3 65

2732A (250nS)

8.95

5.50

2732A-2 (200nS)

8.95

295

2764 (450nS)

2.95

3.95

2764 (250nS)

3.95

295

2764 (200nS)

4.95

7.50

TMSZ564 (450nS)

8.85

5.60

MCM68764 <450nS)

19.85

2.95

MCM68766 <35DnS)

21.95

3.75

27126-3 (30OnS)

950

4.95

27128 (250nS)

15.S5

$7.95 I 27C64

STATIC RAMS

2101 (450nS)21L02(450nS)2102-1 (450nS)21L02-2 (2S0nS)2111 (450nS)2112(450nS)2114(450nS)2i14L-4(450n) •2114L-3(300n) '2l14L-2(2O0n) '2147 (55nS)4044-4 (450nS)4044-3 (300nS)4044-2 (200nS)UPD410 (lOOnS)5101 (CMOS)

1.45 8/9.5069 6/12.5079 8/13.3069 8/13.90

MK4116 $4.95

TMM2016-2(200nS}4.10TMM2016-15(l50n) 4.95TMM2016-1 (lOOnS) 6.10HM6116P-4 (200nS) 4.75HM6116P-3(150nS) 4.95HM6116P-2 (120nS) 8.85HM8t16LP-4(LP) 5.90HM6116LP-3(LP) 6.75HM6I16LP-2 (LP) 9.95Z6132(300nS) 32.95

HM6264P-t5(150) 32.95HM6264LP-151LP) 36.9574S189 (35nS) 1.85

93415 (50nS) 3.95

93422/93425 (50nS) 3.95

DYNAMIC RAMS

4027 (250nS)1103 [300nsI4116N-2 (150nS)4116N-3 (200nS)411BN-4 (250nS)4164N.150(150n)4164N-200 (2O0n)4164N-120(120nS)TMS4164 (ISOnS)

2.75

TMS4416 (200rtS) $6.95TMS4416 (150nS) ""41256-150 (150n)41256-200 (20On)TMS4050 (300nS)TMS4060 (300nS)MM5260 (30CnS)UPD411 (300nS)MM5298 (250nS)

DISK SPECIAL (ibm pc dsdd)

59|a a— wowi

WCO, HuO Rings

PACKAGE Tyvac Cover Supply Limited

OF 100 Major Mfgr.

5U>" DISKETTESVERBATIM 525-01 SS/ODVERBATIM 550-01 DS/DD (IBM)MAXELL MD-1 SS/OO (All)MAXELL MD-2 DS/DD (IBM)MAXELL DISKS lor AT <96lpi)DYSAN 104/tD SS/DD (All)DYSAN 104/2O DS/DD (IBM)ACP SS/DD (All)ACP DS/DO (IBM)3Vi" DISKETTESVERBATIM 31V' MF350 (MAC)MAXELL 3W" MICRODISK (MAC)8" DISKETTESVERBATIM 8" SS/DDVERBATIM 8'1 DS/DODYSAN 8" SS/DDDYSAN 8" OS/DD

1 Box 10 Box

$22.95 $19.9527.95 24.95

26.9536.9532.95

5W" DISKTUB

$8.95

>»" DISK

$14.95

HEAD CLEANINGKIT—5 Vi" or

$9.95

-1002

400640074008

40224023402440254027

74CO0 $.

74C02

74C04

7dCoa

4026 $ .65

4029 .75

4030 .39

4031 3.25

4032 2.15

4034 1.91

4035 .794037 1.95

4040 ,75

4041 .75

4042 .65

4043 .85

4044 .69

4046 .60

4047 .894046 .99

4050 .34

4051 .75

4052 .75

4053 .75

4055 3.95

4056 2.95

4601

45024503CALL FOR

45054506■1507■1508

451545164518

4520

4555

4556

4566

80C95

80C97

MC14406

MC14409

74C74 S.65 I 74C181 $1.15 I 74C373 $2.3574C85 1.89 74C175 1.15 74C374 2.3574C90 1.15 74C240 1.89 74C901 .5974C93 1.15 I 74C244 1.89I74C922 4.45MORE 74C IN STOCK - ALSO IN CATALOG

LMIC

$3.95

e VRs)

LM300H

LM301N .35

LM304H 1.89

LM305H ,95

LM306H 4.75

LM307N .40

LM306CN .65

LM310CN 1.65

LM311CN .62

LM312H 1.75

LM316CN 1.45

LM318H 1.55

LM319N 1.19

LM320 (son VRs)

LM324N

LM339N

LM340(s

LM348N

LM3S8CN

LM359

LM360N

LM370N

LM373N

LM376N

LM377N

LM360CN

LM380N

LM3B1N

LM362N

LM363N

LM3B4N

LM3B6N

LM3B7N

LM389N

LM392N

LM723N

LM723H

NE531

NE555

NE556

NE55B

NE561

NE564

LM565

LM566

LM567

NE570

NES71

NE590

$2,45

NE592

2.70

LM709N

.55

LM709H

1.90

LM710

.68

LM711

.75

LM715

3.95

LM723N

.55

LM723H

.75

LM733

.98

LM739

1.85

LM741CN

.33

LM741H

.40

LM741N

.29

.65

LM748

.55

LM1014

LM1303

1.90

LM1310

1.45

MC1330

1.65

MC1349

1.85

MC1350

1.15

MC1358

1.65

MC1372

6.75

LM1414

LM1558H

2.99

LM1600

2.35

LM18I2

8.10

LM1B30

3.40

LM1B71

545

LM1672

5.45

LM1877

3.20

LM1889

1.90

LM1896

1.70

ULN2001

1.95

ULN20O3

1.49

XR2206

3.75

XR2207

2.90

XR2208

2.40

XR2211

3.75

LM2877P

2.00

LM2878P

2.25

LM2900

■03

LM290I

.99

LM2903

.69

LM2907

2.45

LM2917

2.85

LM3900

.55

LM3905

1.15

LM3909

LM3914

LM3915

LM3916

MC4024

MC4044

RC4131

RC4136

RC4151

CA3023

CA3039

CA3046

CA3059

CA3060

CA3065

CA3060

CA30B1

CA3062

CA30B3

CA30B6

CA30B9

CA3096

CA3130

CA3140

CA3146

CA3160

LM13080

LM13600

LM13700

LF347

LF351

LF3S3

LF355

LF356

LF357

TL071CP

TL072CP

TL074CN

TL081CP

TL084CN

TL494

TL496

TL497

MC3423

MC3453

MC3456

MC3459

MC3469

MC3470

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

7B05T Also -_

a, i2. is, 24V by

7BL05. 12, 15V 65

7BM06C 89

78MG/79MG 1.49

78H05KC 8.75

7805KAIso ., on

12. 15, 24V I .113

7905T Also __

8. 12, 15, 24V f\j

7905KAISO . QQ

12. 15, 24V.... 1 .03

79L05, 12, 15V .75

LM309K 1.25

LM317H/K 1.25/3.85

LM323K 4.85

LM337K 3.75

LM338K 8.75

LM3S0T 4.55

LM350K 4.75

SPECIAL PURPOSE CHIPS

MC14411 $11

60

58174 $11

25

BR1941 11

St)

5632 J

7H

34702 12

Ml

AY52376 11

SO

5016 14

Ml

AYS360O 11

Ml

8116 1C

M)

2513-OOtU E

Ml

5307 IC

W)

2513-002L G

SO

MC4024 5

78

UPO7201 27

Ml

6038 E

ih

3341 4

so

5369 I

w

11C90 «

Wi

58187 12

25

MC15906 2

^

SPiOOOSpeec

h

$9.95 TRt

S3!

AY38910AY38912SSI-263VotraxOigitalkerLM13600N5V UART

DATA AQUISITION

ADC0800 $14.95

ADC0804

3.45

DAC0806

1.90

ADC0B09

4.45

ADC0B16

4.25

AD7523JN

1.99

ADC0817

$9,75

DAC0600

476

DAC0608

2.85

DAC1020

7.95

DAC1022

5.85

LF353N

1.99

1408L6 $1.951408L8 2.65

DAC1O0 7.95DAC06 7.95DAC01 6.95

LF13201N 1.99

EXPANSION MEMORY

64K UPGRADE (Set of 9$ 14.95256K RAMS (Set of 9) $36.95

CABLES/ACCESSORIES

IBM PARALLEL (Shielded) $19.95

IBM SERIAL (Shielded)

KEYBOARD EXTENSIONRS232 GENDER CHANGER Male-MaleR5232 GENDER CHANGER Female-FemaleNULL MODEM ADAPTOR

DISK DRIVE SPECIALS

Toshiba ND04D DS/DD IBM $109.50

Toshiba ND04E-G (or ,,AT" 119.50

Toshiba ND08DE-G 1.2Mb for "AT"149.50ALL WITH MOUNTING KIT

JUNE SPECIALS

(SUPPLY LIMITED)

SYS GEN 20 Mb ,.__- __

w/20Mb Backup $999.00

lUndMM SUPER NUMERICllTliTlff KEYPAD

Manufactured by Keylronics. We have sold

1000's of these. «rp #on qc

Reg Retail $99 ™ *2?ir

3 or 6 for 29.95 ea

PC Jr. Color Adapter $29.95

PC Jr. TV Adapter 29.95

PC Jr. Operation Manual 19.95

PC Jr. Compact Printer 69.95

PC Jr. 64K Adapter 39.95

Lotus 1-2-3 PC Jr 179.95

• Tl DEMO SALE *

Tl Professional CPU $750.00

Tl Professional w/10Mb 1050.00

Tl Monochrome 119.00

Lotus 1-2-3 Tl Pro 229.00

Home Accountant 69.95

64K Upgrades 99.95

3-Plane Graphics Adapter 169.95

Plus Sale On More Tl Software!

7400

740074017402740374047405740674077408

742174227423742574267427742374307432743774387439

744074417442

7443

74447445

74LS0O74LS0174LS0274LS0374LS0474LS0574LS0874LS0974LS1074LS1174LS1274LS1374LS1474LS1574LS2074LS2174LS2274LS2674LS2774LS2874LS3074LS3274LS3374LS3774LS3874LS4074LS4274LS4774LS4874LS5174LS5474LS5574LS7374LS7474LS7574LS7674LS7874LS6374LS8574LS8674LS9074LS9274LS9374LS9574LS9674LS10774LS10974LS112

74S0O $.

74S02

74S03

74S04

74S05

74S08

74S09

74S10

74S11

74S15

74S20

74S22

74S30

74S32

74S38

74S40

74S51

74S64

74S65

18

7446

S G8

74123

S .45

in

7447

.65

74125

.42

7448

.68

74126

18

7450

74128

.49

18

7451

.19

74132

.45

?3

7453

74136

.75

49

7454

.19

74141

.as

49

7459

.25

74142

2.95

?4

7460

.37

74143

3 70

19

7470

.29

2 95

m

7472

74145

.59

?4

7473

.33

74147

1.49

38

7474

.34

74148

LIB

14

7475

.38

74150

1.09

4q

7476

.34

74151

.55

■!9

7479

4.60

74152

.67

7460

.69

74153

.53

7482

.95

74154

35

7483

74155

.69

4S

7485

.55

74150

.59

SB

7466

.35

74157

.59

79

7488

1.95

74158

1.65

PB

7490

.36

74159

1.58

25

.65

74160

79

74S2

.45

74161

.65

7493

.35

74162

.69

7494

.85

74163

,69

PS

7495

.50

74164

.69

n

7496

74185

.69

RH

7497

2-70

74166

.85

19

74100

1.60

74167

2.75

7fl

74107

.24

74170

1.25

74109

.37

74172

4 75

Ifi

74116

1.45

74173

.69

74121

.29

74174

.69

68

74122

.44

74175

.69

.75

74176 $ ,1

74177 ,i

74179 1..741B0

74181 1,75

74182 1.1574164 2.2574185 2.25

74190 .67

74191 .67

74192 .67

74193 .67

74194 67

74195 .67

74196 .75

74197 ,B6

74221 1.19

74251 .75

74273 ■1.66

74276 1.89

74279 .75

74283 1.40

742B4 2.90

742BS 2.90

74290 1.49

74298 149

74365 .55

74366 .55

74367 ,55

74368 .5574390 1.4574393 1.3374490 2.25

74LS00

74LS11374LS11474LS12274LS12374LS12474LS12574LS12674LS13274LS13674LS13874LS13974LS14574LS14874LS15!74LS15374LS1S474LS15574LS15874LS15774LS1S874LS16074LS16174LS16274LS16374LS16474LS16574LS16674LS16874LS16974LS17074LS17374LS17474LS17574LS18174LS19074LS19174LS19274LS19374LS19474LS19574LS19674LS19774LS22174LS24074LS24274LS24374LS24474LS245

74LS247

74LS248

74LS249

74LS251

74LS253

74L5257

74LS258

74LS259

74LS260

74LS261

74LS266

74LS273

74LS275

74LS279

74LS2B3

74LS290

74LS293

74LS295

74LS298

74LS324

74LS347

74LS348

74LS352

74LS353

74LS363

74LS365

74LS366

74LS367

74LS368

74LS373

74LS374

74LS375

74LS377

74LS3B5

74LS386

74LS390

74LS393

74LS395

74LS399

74LS424

74LS668

74LS670

81LS95

81LS96

81LS97

61LS98

25LS2521

25LS2569

74S00/PROMS*

HS11

.55

74S124 2.69

745132 1.39

745133 .45

745134 .50

745135 .69

7451361.39

745136 .89

745139 .89

745140 .5574S1S1 .9974S153 .9974S157 .99

74S17574S188*74S19474S19574S19674S24074S24174S24274 S 24374S24474S25174S25374S2S774 S 258

CALL FOR 74HC

74S260 $74S26074S2S7*74S268-

745373 ;

745374 174S387*74S47T I74S472" .74S473" •74S474' ■74S47S- I74S570' I

743571' :

74S572" t

74S573" '

745940 1

745941 !

In^uir^^

Pradttets I

;B)£,

Mail

Ul

Orcei:

Fie tail

Eoc

LiaMLlazirje,

I127J

3:UDJM =

Ed

fljjer

Savtj Aic

Cj^

9i!70ii

California Digital

17700Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

IBM Compatible Computer

'49$

DATA PRODUCTS —

• 256K Expandable to 640K on Motherboard

• Double Sided Double Density Disk Drive

• IBM Type Keyboard (with LED indicators)

• Floppy Controller Card

• Eight Expansion Slots

• 135 Watt Power Supply

The Eclipse 16 is an outstanding value in IBM Compatible Computers. After care-ful research and evaluation we found it to be the most reliable unit.Our computer includes some of the newest features available, such as the4.7MHz, multi-layer motherboard with 256K of RAM upgradable on board to 640K.A generous eight expansion slots and 135 Watt power supply give you ampleroom and power for add-on boards. The enclosure has an easy-access flip top lidmaking upgrades a breeze. And our floppy controller supports up to four drives, soas many as three additional drives can be used. Finally, each computer isconfigured and fully tested before sending it to you.

Satisfaction Guaranteed! We're really excited about this new unit, and so sureyou will be too... that you may return the Eclipse 16 for a full credit towards an IBMPC if you are not completely satisfied.

OPTIONS

20MB Hard Drive w/Controller $495

Additional Drive-Installed 99

Irwin 10 Meg. Tape Back up 489

Upgrade from 256K to 640K RAM 79

8087 Math Co Processor 119

Color Graphics Card 79

Monochrome Graphics Card 99

RGB Color Monitor 199

TTL Monochrome Monitor 139

Microsoft Mouse 139

Upgrade from Floppy Controller to Disk I/O2 drive controller, clock/cal., software

parallel, serial, and game ports 79

1200 Baud Internal Modem w/Software 179

NOW

YOUR COMPUTER

CAN READ!!

Omni Reader... the first optical character readerdesigned and priced for small computers.

Copy

• Manuscripts

• Contracts

• Articles

• Forms

• Invoices

• Purchase Orders

Applications

• Mailing Lists

• Editing

• Data Base Management

• Transfering informationbetween incompatiblesystems.

Uses a standard RS-232 serial port hookupto interface eaisily with your computer.

1200 BAUD MODEMS

v7^° UltraLink 1200

This 300/1200 baud modem matches the design specsof the Bell 212A, feature by feature, bringing you reliabil-ity, impeccable transmission and easy operation.Hayes Compatible, except for "S" register. Communi-cation software included.The AVATEX1200, at $99. is a steal! .

SM ARTE AM 1200

The Team 212A offers all the features of tne HayesSmart Modem 1200 for a fraction of the price. Now isyour opportunity to purchase a 1200 baud modem atthe price of a 300 baud modem.

The UltraLink is a 1200 baud HALF DU-PLEX bell 202 compatible internal modemcard for the IBM/PC. This unit operates full iduplex at 300 baud. %

The UltraLink adds a voice/data demen-sion to your PC. Manufacturers originalsuggested price on this modem is $795.California Digitals price is only $99.

SIGNALMAN MARK VI^nn baud HMrcrv VI

The Anchor Automation Mark VI is a 300 oaud directconnect modem that plugs into any slot of your IBM/PC.This modem supports auto answer and auto dial capa-bilities. Other features include telephone number stor-age, send / receive text files, single key-stroke dialingalong with many other functions provided on disk. TheMark VI was originally priced at over $300.

99

Eclipse 1200 100% Hayes, with status lamps. ECP-1200

Eclipse 1200B internal with software ECP-1200B

Hayes Smartmodem 2400 baud modem HYS-2400

Fujitsu 2400/1200 baud aulo everything. FUJ-1935D

Team 1200 Hayes Compatible. 300/1200 baud. TEM-SM1200

UltraLink 120O data and voice on same line. UTL-1200A

CTS 212AH 1200 baud, auto dial CTS-212AH

Terminal software for CTS 212AH CTS-212SFT

Promelheus 1200 super features PRM-P1200

Prometheus 1200B internal PC PRM-P1200B

Signalman Mark VI, 300 baud internal PC SGL-MK6

Hayes Smart Modem 1200 baud, auto dial HYS-212ADHayes 1200B for use with the IBM/PC, 1200 baud. HYS-1200B

Hayes Smartmodem. 300 baud only, auto dial HYS-103AD

Hayes Chronograph, time & date HYS-CHR232

179.00179.00599.00459.00189.00

99.00219.00

35.00289.00279.00

49.00369.00299.00199.00199.00

Seagate $2 CO

20 MEGABYTE , 1^1

WINCHESTER ^ ^ W

WINCHESTERHARD DISK DRIVE

Five Inch Winchester Disk Drives

each two+

SEAGATE 225 20 Meg. 14 Ht. 389 359SEAGATE 4026 26 M.35mS. 859 829SEAGATE 4051 51 M.35mS.1095 1059FUJITSU 2242 55 M.35mS. 1799 1729FUJITSU 2243 86 M.35mS. 2295 2219RODIME RO-202E 27 Meg. 759 729R0DIME RO-203E40Meg. 995 959RODIME R0-204E 53 Meg. 1259 1195CONTROL DATA 94155-86 M.1829 1779MAXTOR XT1140 140 Meg. 3379 3295HONEYWELL 85M. 27 mS. 1795 1695TOSHIBA MK5670M.30mS.1789 1729TANDON 502 10 Meg. 419 379

> Winchester Controllers lor IBM/PC •

FALCON FT-HDC hall card 189

XEBEC 1220 with (loppy controller 269

NATIONAL COMPUTER 5004 159

DTC 5150BX 159

0MTI 5510 hall card 189

ADAPTEC 2010A software install 189

WESTERN DIGITAL WD/1002 189• SCSI/SASI Winchester Controllers •

XEBEC 1410A5W loot print 239

0MTI 20L 119

• Winchester Accessories •

Installation Kit with manual 10

Winchester enclosure and supply 139

Dual 20/34 cable set 25

Switching power supply 49

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 421-5041

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213)217-0500

426 BYTE • (UNE I9«6

California Digital

17700 Figueroa Street m Carson, California 90248

Letter Quality Printer fA

F-10 DAISY WHEEL

fc~

429

QuantityTwo

Single unil pries is $499. Bui ifyou have already purchasedan F-10 printer from CaliforniaDigital, we will honor Ihe $429price on the second printer.

FREE

Accessory Pak

Includes 6 Daisy Wheels

& 2 ribbon cartridges

With F-10 Purchase

The F-10 Daisy Wheel printer is the perfect reasonably priced 40 character per secondword processing printer. This printer is "extremely" similar to C. Itoh's F-10-40 Starwriter prin-ter, however we have been advised by legal counsel for the C. Itoh Company that we shouldrefrain from referring to the F-10 printer as a Starwriter.

This printer auto installs with Wordstar and Perfect Writer, features extensive built-in word

processing functions that allow easy adaptability and reduced software complexity. Industry

standard Centronics interface provides instant compatibility with all computers equipped with a parallel printer port. The F-10 ac-cepts paper up to 15 inches in width.

These printers were originally priced to sell at over $1400. Through a special arrangement California Digital has purchasedthese units from a major computer manu-facturer. We have a limited number of these popular printers left.... while they last we'reoffering a special Accessory Pak, including six Diablo daisy wheels and two ribbon cartridges, with every F-10 printer alreadypriced at a fraction of their original cost.Options available: sheetfeeder, tractor feed, buffered memory and an assortment of printer cables for a variety of computers.

CP/M 2.2Operating System

91

i4

Complete with manualby Digital Research

Originally $185.00Now only $14.95

(10+= 9.95--100+ Call)

BAR CODE READER

iFor IBM/PC

TEKTRONIX MOUSE

79

• 200 dots-per-inch resolution

• Programmable baud rate

• Multiple protocols

• Programmable buttons

• Serial interfaces< Runs on any surface■ Free of pads or grids

• Microsoft TM compatible driverMoving your cursor has never been so easyl This mousecombines the best features of optical and mechanical technology into one high performance mouse.The Tektronixmouse was private labeled by LogiTech for TektronixThe 200 dots-per-inch resolution requires less desk spaceand gives you precision control. This mouse is fast and pre-cise in the most demanding environments. And it has a pro-grammable baud rate so you can use it with almost any ofyour favorite software.

PLOTTER

The DataLogic bar code reader plugs directly betweenthe keyboard and the mainframe of your IBM/PC.

Bar code is suitable for inventory control, freight and in-voice records, personal records and other applications limit-ed only by your imagination.

Also available for the Apple II and RS-232 serial.

SEC RGB

COLORMONITOR

*219

The Convex Comscnber 1 is the icle.il solution lo make shorl work of translating financial and

numeric data into a graphic presentation Many ready to run programs such as Lotus 1 -2-3.

Visi-on and Apple business graphics already support [his ploller

The Comscnber I feaiures programmable paper sizes up lo 8' i by 120 inches. 6 inch per

second piol speed and 0 004 step size Easy lo [tnp'emfirsl Ccnirorursi interlace allows Ihe

Comscnber I immediate use with the printer pod o! most personal compulers.

The Comscnber I is manufactured tor Comrex by Ihe Enier Computer Corporation. The

plotter is marketed by Heath Kit and also sold under Enters own Swcel P" Label. This is

your opportunity lo purchase a plotter which was originally priced at $795 lor only S219.

Also available is a support package which includes demonstration software, interface cable,

a multicolor pen assortment and a variety ol paper and transparency material.

The NEC JC- M01D18 a 13 medium'high resolution RGB monitor suilable lor use with IheSanyo rViBC-55Q.'555 or the IBM/PC The monitor leatures a resolution ol -100 ili.it:; by 2-10lirn.-s Colors av/nl.'itile;ire Red. Green, Blue. Yellow. Cyan, Magenta. Black and WhileThe- NEC monitor carries Ihe Litron-Monroe label and was originally scheduled tor use intheir "Office ol the Future' equipment. A change In Monroe's marketing Strategy has madeiliesu units e*c:es:; inventory which were sold to California Digital. Wo ate nilcrinr] thesenew RGB monitors al a fraction of their original cost Sanyo compatible NIC-1-101/SIBM/P/C Ci ii m hiIi-i compatible NEC-MOW PC

Quick-Link300

The Quick-Link 300 gives you an instant link lo any dial up data base. Such asDow Jones, Western Union or the Source The Quick-Link has four userprogrammable log-on keys, allowing the operator, with only one key stroke, todial the data base, log-in and give the password. AN this information is perma-nently stored in non-volatile RAM,

Features include video output to television or monitor, auto dial, auto-log, fullsized keyboard, 300 baud modem and 1200 baud auxiliary printer port. All thisis available (or only $59.

SONY

53W Floppy Disk Drive

3 1/2" New IBM portable compatible

139

5lA" DISK DRIVE

SALE *89

Your Choice 48 or 96 TPI drive.QUME MODEL 142* 48 TPIMITSUBISHI 4853 • 96 TPI

Quantity Two

TEAC FD55BV half height 119

TEACFD55FV96TPI, halfht. 119TEACFD55GF for IBM AT 189SHUGARTSA455 Half Height 119SH UG ART SA465 Vi Ht. 96TPI 125TANDON 100-2 full height 129

MITSUBISHI 4851 half height 119MITSUBISHI 4853 96/TPIV2 Ht. 99MITSUBISHI 4854 8" elec. 295QUME 142 half height 99

Switching power supplyInstallation Kit with manualDual enclosure for 5W drives34 pin edge connectorsScotch head cleaning kitFlip & File Storage tubs

wo Ten

109 99

109 105

179 175

109 105

119 109

125 119

109 105

89 89

285 275

89 89

49

10

59

5

19

15

UME

'149

Eight Inch Single Sided Drives

QUME 841 single side 159 149 call

SHUGART801R 359 359 354

SIEMENS FDD 100-8 119 115 109

Eight Inch Double Sided Drives

QUME 842 "QUME TRACK 8" 189 179 call

SHUGARTSA851R 495 485 475

OLIVETTI double sided 189 179 159

REMEX RFD-4000 179 169 159MITSUBISHI M2896-63 V2 Ht. 459 449 409

Dual 8" enclosure with power and fan 259

Switching power supply 89

Installation kit with manual 10

fMEMORI

99

DYNAMIC MEMORY

1-100 100+ 1000+

4164 150ns. 128 refresh41256 150ns. 256K

ICM-4164150ICM-41256150

1.394.59

1.19

3.95

Shipping: First five pounds $3.00, each additional pound $.50.Foreign orders: 10% shipping, excess wilt be refunded.California residents add 6Vi% sales tax. • COD's discouraged.Open accounts extended to state supported educational institu-tions and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.

IUNE I986 -BYTE 427

Igggfl Mail-Order Electronics

JyiiUsisKiba 415-592-8097

74QO

Part No.

Price

Part No.

Price

SN7400N

19

SN7485N

55

SN7402N

19

SN7486N

35

SN7404N

25

SN7489N

195

SN7405N

29

SN7490N

39

SN7406N

29

SN7493N

35

SN7407N

23

SN74121N

29

SN7408N

25

SN74123N

49

SN7410N

19

SN74125N

45

SN7414N

45

SN74126N

49

-35

SN74143N

3 95

19

SN74154N

.... 1.25

SN7432N

29

SN74173N

75

SN7438N

29

SN74174N. .

.59

SN7442N

45

SN74175N....

59

SN7445N

69

SN74176N .. .

89

79

SN74181N

1.95

SN74189N

.... 1.95

SN7448N

79

SN74193N.

69

SN7472N

39

SN74198N

1.35

35

35

SN7474N

SN74273N . .

. . 1.95

SN7475N

- 39

SN74365N

59

SN7476N

35

SN74367N... .

59

74LS

19

74LS165

79

19

74LS166

89

74LS04.

25

74LS173

49

74LS174

39

.99

3.95

19

49

19

74LS193

69

74LS14

39

74LS221

59

74LS27

25

74LS240.

69

74LS30

19

74LS243

69

74LS32

25

74LS244

69

74LS42

39

74LS245

79

74LS47

89

74LS259

1.19

74LS73

35

74LS273

79

74LS74

25

74LS279

39

74LS75

29

74LS322

2.95

74LS76.

29

74LS365

39

74LS85

49

74LS366

39

74LS86.

25

74LS367

39

74LS90

39

74LS368

39

74LS93

39

74LS373

79

74LS123

49

74LS374

79

74LS125

39

74LS393

79

74LS138

39

74LS590

5.95

74LS139

39

74LS624

1.95

74LS154

1.49

74LS629

2.49

74LS640

74LS645

74LS158

35

99

74LS163

49

74LS670

99

74LS688

74S/PROMS'

74S00

29

74S188'

1.75

35

1.95

74S08

35

74S196

149

74S10

29

74S240

1.49

74S32

35

74S244

149

74S74

49

74S253

79

74S85

1.49

74S287'

1.69

74S86

35

74S288" .

169

74S124

2.75

74S373 .

1.69

74S174

79

74S374

. . 1 69

74S472'

74ALS

74ALS02

35

74ALS174

89

74ALS04

39

74ALS175

89

74ALS08

35

74ALS240

1 79

74ALS10

35

74ALS244

... 1.79

74ALS27

39

74ALS245

2.49

74ALS30

35

74ALS373

1.95

74ALS32

39

74ALS374

1.95

74ALS74

55

74ALS573

... 1.95

74F

74F00

59

74F139

74F04

65

74F157

1.29

74F08

59

74F193

4.95

74F10

59

74F240

2.49

74F32

65

74F244

2.49

74F74

69

74F253

1 79

74F86.

89

74F373

2.95

74F374

CD—CMOS

CD4001

19

CD4081

.25

CD4011

25

CD4013

35

CD4093

39

CD4016

29

CD4094

. 1.49

CD4017

49

CD40103

. . 2.95

CD4503

CD4510

CD4020

59

69

CD4024

49

CD4511

. . . . 69

CD4027

39

CD4515

1.39

CD4030

39

CD4518

79

CD4040

65

CD4520.

79

CD4049

29

CD4522

79

CD4050

29

CD4538

89

CD4051

65

CD4541

89

CD4052

65

CD4543.......

99

CD4053

65

CD4553

4 95

CD4059

3.49

CD4555

89

CD4060

89

CD4566.

.... 1.95

CD4066

29

CD4583

. 119

CD4069

25

CD4584

59

CD4070

29

CD4585

. . 75

MC14411

9.95

CD4072

25

MC14490P..

4.49

CD4076

89

MC14572

B9

PRICE BREAKTHROUGH!

CUSTOM COMMODORE CHIPSfor VIC-20, C-64 and C-128 Personal Computers

Price Part No.

Price Part No.

•6510CPU 4*95- 9.95 •6526CIA -S5S5-14.95'6525TPI -»h95- 9.95 '6560 VIC-I «35- 14.95•Specs.Available@$1.50ea. I "6567VIC-II4*95-19.95

•6581 SID -3*»5- 19.9582S100PLA -9WSS 19.95

NOTE: 82S100 = U17 (C-64)

m

MOTOROLA

w^Mw™"

MC68701 -Microcomputer with EPROM

The MC68701 is an 8-bit single chip microcomputer unit (MPU)which significantly enhances the capabilities of the MC6800family of parts. On-chip resources include 2048 bytes of EPROM,128 bytes of RAM, Serial Communications Interface (SCI), paral-lel I/O, and a three function Programmable Timer.

MC68701 $24.95

MICROPROCESSOR COMPONENTS

MICROPROCESSOR CHIPS

Part No. Price

D765AC

CDP1802CE....

2661-3

280, Z80A, Z80B

4.95

6.95

6.95

SERIES

Z80A-DART. , ..

5.25

6500/6800/68000 SER.

6840

. . . 6.75

6500/6800/68000 Cont.Part No. Price

68000L8

9.95

8000 SERIES

80C31BH

19.95

8073N

29.95

8086-2

8087 (5MHz)8087-2 (8MHz)

10.95

129.95

.. 159.95

8088-2

9.95

8228

. . . 3.49

8000 SERIES Cont.

Part No. Price

8237-5

. . 6.95

8243

. . 2.49

8250A

. . 6.95

8250B (For IBM)

... 7.25

8251A

. . 2.25

8253-5

. . 2.25

8254

8254-2

. 1 1.95

8255A-5

. . 2.25

8257-5

. . 2.49

8259-5

. . 2.49

8272

. . 4.95

8279-5

. . 2.95

8741

.. 8.95

8748

.. 7.95

8749

. . 9.95

8751

. 29.95

8755

. 1 4.95

DATA ACQUISITION

ADC0804

. . 3.49

ADC0808

. . 8.95

ADC0809

.. 3.95

ADC0816

. 14.95

ADC0817

. . 8.95

DAC0808

.. 1.95

DAC1008

.. 7.95

AY-3-1015D....

. . 4.95

AY-5-1013A....

. . 3.95

Part No.

Function

-DYNAMIC RAMS-

Price

4116N-15 16.384x1 (150ns) 89

4128 131,072x1 (200ns) 5.95

4164N-150 65.536 X 1 (150ns) 1.39

4164N-200 65,536x1 (200ns) 1.19

TMS4416-12 16,384x4 (120ns) 4.95

MM5280 4096x1 (200ns)2107 1.95

8118 16,384x1 (120ns) (+5V Only Required} 99

41256-150 262.144x1 (150ns) 3.95

50464-15 65,536x4 (150ns) (4464) (41464) 7.95

STATIC RAMS

TMM2016-12 2048x8 (120ns) 1.69

2102 1024x1 (350ns) 89

2102-2L 1024x1 (250ns) LP (91L02) 1.49

2114N 1024x4 (450ns) 99

2114N-L 1024x4 (450ns) LP 1.09

2114N-2 1024x4 (200ns) 1.05

2114N-2L 1024x4 (200ns) LP 1.49

21C14 1024x4 (2O0ns) (CMOS) 49

2149 1024 X 4 (45ns) 4.95

5101 256x4 (450ns) CMOS 3.95

HM6116P-3 2048x8 (150ns)CMOS 1.79

HM6116LP-3 2048x8 (150ns) LP CMOS 1.85

HM6264P-12 8192x8 (120ns) CMOS 4.69

HM6264LP-12 8192x8 (120ns) LP CMOS 4.79

HM6264P-15 8192x8 (150ns) CMOS 4.49

HM6264LP-15 8192x8 (150ns) LP. CMOS 4.59

6514 1024x4 (350ns) CMOS (UPD444C) 4.49

PROMS/EPROMS

1702A 256x8 (1fiS) 5.95

TMS2516 2048 X 8 (450ns) 25V 4.95

TMS2532 4096 x 8 (450ns) 25V 5.95

TMS2564 8192 X 8 (450ns) 25V 9.95

2708 1024 X 8 (450ns) 3.95

TMS2716 2048 x 8 (450ns) 3 voltage 9.95

2716 2048 X 8 (450ns) 4.95

2716-1 2048x8 (350ns) 25V 5.95

27C16 2048x8 CMOS 9.95

2732 4096 X 8 (450ns) 4.75

2732A-20 4096x8 (200ns) 21V 4.95

2732A-25 4096x8 (250ns) 21V 4.49

2732A-45 4096x8 (450ns) 21V 4.25

27C32 4096 X 8 CMOS 7.95

2758 1024x8 (450ns) Single +5V 5.95

2764-20 8192x8 (200ns) 21V 4.49

2764-25 8192x8 (250ns) 21V 4.25

2764A-25 8192x8 (250ns) 12.5V 4.49

2764-45 8192x8 (450ns) 21V 3.95

27C64 8192x8 CMOS 21V 5.95

27128-25 16,384x8 (250ns) 128K 21V 4.49

27128A-25 16,384x8 (250ns) 12.5V 5.95

27256-25 32,768x8 (250ns) 256K (12.5V) 7.95

27C256-25 32,768 x 8 (250ns) 256K (CMOS) (12.5V) 10.95

68764 8192x8 (450ns) 25V 15.95

68766 8192 X 8 (350ns) 25V 16.95

74S387 256x4 PROM O.C 1.69

74S471 256 x 8 PROM TS 4.95

82S123 32 X 8 PROM TS 2.95

82S129 256x4 PROMTS 2.95

Part No.

LOW PROFILE (TIN) SOCKETS

1-9 10-99 100-up

8 pin LP..14 pin LP. .16 pin LP..24 pin LP..28 pin LP..40 pin LP..

WIRE WRAP SOCKETS (GOLD) LEVEL #31-9 10-99 100-up

Part No.

.55.69

8 pin WW. .14 pin WW.16 pin WW. .

24 pin WW 1.19

28 pin WW 1.39

40 pin WW 1.79

.65.691.091.291.69

1.191.59

- SOIDERTAIL STANDARD (GOLD S TIN] AND HEADER PLUG SOCKETS ALSO AVAILABLE -

SATELLITE TVDESCRAMBLER

The MM5321 is a TV camera sync generator designed tosupply the basic sync functions for either color or mono-chrome 525 line/60Hz interfaced and camera video recorderapplications. COLOR BURST GATE & SYNC

ALLOW STABLE COLOR OPERATION

MM5321 $9.95

P1GITALKER "

D I 1 UOU -~ Applications: Teaching aids, appliances,clocks, automotive, telecommunications, language transla-tions, etc. The DTI 050 is a standard DIGfTALKER kit encodedwith 137 separate and useful words, 2 tones, and 5 differentsilence durations. The words and tones have been assigneddiscrete addresses, making it possible to output single wordsor words concatenated into phrases or even sentences. The"voice" output of the DT1050 is a highly intelligible male voice.The DT1050 consists of a Speech Processor Chip, MM54104(40-pin) and two (2) Speech ROMs MM52164SSR1 andMM52164SSR2 (24-pin) along with a Master Word list and arecommended schematic diagram on the application sheeLPart No. Description Price

DT1050 Digftalker™ $24.95

MM54104 Processor Chip . . . $12.95

DT1 057-Expands the DT1050 vocabulary from 137words to over 250 words. Includes two (2) ROMs and specs.

DT1057 $11.95

INTERSIL

Part No.

FE0202D

Price

12.9512.95

Part No.7207AEV/Kit

Price

8.49

7211MIPL (Micro)

46.95

7107EV/KH7207AIPD

46.95.... 5.95

7224IPL

7226AEV/Kit

10.9599.95

74HC HI SPEED CMOS

74HC00

35

74HC175

89

74HC02

39

74HC221

1.95

74HC04

39

74HC240

1.39

74HC08

39

74HC244

1.49

74HC10

39

74HC245

1.59

74HC14

59

74HC253

79

74HC30

39

74HC259

1.19

74HC32

45

74HC273

.... 1.79

74HC74

45

74HC373

1.49

74HC75

69

74HG374

.... 1.49

74HC76

69

74HC393

1.19

74HC85

1.19

74HC595

1.95

74HC86

59

74HC688

1.95

74HC123

1.19

74HC4040

1.19

74HC125

74HC132

74HC138

79

74HC4060. . . .

1.19

74HC163

89

74HC4538. . . .

1.95

74HC4543

74C-CMOS

74C00

29

74C174

89

74C02

29

74C175

89

74C04

25

74C221

1.19

74C08

35

74C240

1.59

74C10

29

74C244

1.59

74014.

49

74C373

1.95

74C32

35

74C374

1.95

74C74

49

74C912

7.95

1.19

29

74C86

74C920

9.95

74C89

3.95

74C921

9.95

74C90

89

74C922

3.95

74C154

2.95

74C925

LINEAR

DS0026CN

1.69

LM399H

.3.95

TL074CN

79

TL497ACN

.2.19

TL084CN

1.09

NE540H (C540H).

.. 2.95

LM307CN

45

NE555V

.. .29

LM309K.

1.25

XF1-L555

.. .69

LM311CN

45

LM556N

.. .59

LM317T

99

LM318CN

1.19

LM565N

.. .99

LM319N

1.19

LM567V

.. .89

LM320K-5

1.35

NE592N

.. .89

LM320T-5

59

LM741CN

.. 29

LM323K.

4.49

LM747N

.. .59

LM324N

LM338K.

3.95

LM1488N

.. .69

.49 1.35

LM340K-5

.. .99

LM340K-12. ...

LM340K-15....

1.35

LM1872N

.2.49

LM340T-5

.. .99

LM340T-15. ...

49

XR2206

.3.95

LF347N

99

XR2207

.2.49

LM2907N

LM2917N (8 pin)..

LF353N

59

. . 1.55

LF355N

89

LM3900N

.. .59

LF356N

89

LM3905CN

.. 1.19

LM358N

49

LM3909N

.. .89

LM360N

2.19

LM361N

.. 1.95

LM380CN

1.09

NE5532

.. .99

LM386N-3

89

.. .89

LM387N

99

75477

.. 1.19

LM393N

45

76477

. . 3.95

PARTIAL LISTING ■ OVER 4000 COMPONENTS AND ACCESSORIES IN STOCK! • CALL FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS

428 BYTE • JUNE I986

Inquiry 170

Worldwide • Since 1974

• QUALITY COMPONENTS • COMPETITIVE PRICING• PROMPT DELIVERY

Mail Or dor Electronics-Worldwide

LLLfi

ELECTRONICS

COMMODORE COMPATIBLEACCESSORIES

Wow Compatible

With C-128!

RS232 Adapter

for VIC-20, C-64

and C-128

The JE232CM allows connection of standard serial RS232printers, modems, etc. to your VIC-20, C-64 (excluding theSX-64 Portable), and C-128. A 4-pole switch allows the in-version of the 4 control lines. Complete installation andoperation Instructions included.

• Plugs into User Port ■ Provides Standard RS232 signal levels

• Uses 6 signals {Transmit, Receive. Clear to Send, Request toSend, Data Terminal Ready, Data Set Ready).

JE232CM $39.95

Voice Synthesizer VIC-20 & C-64

Plug-In — Talking in Minutes!JE520CM $99.95

300 Baud Auto ModemMitey-Mo (Fbrc-so $69.95

Parallel Printer Interface

FREE 10K Buffer Included!

MW350 (ForVIC-20,C-64&C-128) $69.95

TRS-80 COMPATIBLEACCESSORIES

E-X-P-A-N-D TRS-80 MEMORY

All kits come complete with documentation

TRS-80 MODEL I, III

TRS-16K3 200ns (Model III) $5.95

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

TRS-80 COLOR AND COLOR II

TRS-64K-2 $11.95

New models only —TRS-CoCo-lncl. 2-50464's (41464's).... $19.95

TRS-80 MODEL 4, 4P

TRS-64K-2 $11.95

Expands Model 4 Irom 16K-64K or Model 4P from 64K-128K

TRS-64K-2PAL $29.95

Expands Model 4 from 64K to 128K

TRS-80 Model 100 • NEC • OLIivettl

M1008K. $29.95 ea. or 3 for $79.95

TRS-80 Model 100 Expansion

NEC8KR $29.95 ea. or 3 tor $79.95

NEC Model PC-8201A Expansion

OM108K. $29.95 ea. or 3 for $79.95

Olivetti Model M10 Expansion

TANDY 200

M200R $89.95 ea. or 2 for $169.95

Tandy Model 200 Expansion

UV-EPROM ERASER

Erases ail EPROMs. Erases up to 8 chips within 21 minutes(1 chip in 15 minutes). Maintains constant exposure distanceof 1". Special conductive foam liner eliminates static build-up.Built-in safety lock to prevent UV exposure. Compact - 9.00"Lx 3.70"W x 2.60"H. Complete with holding tray for 8 chips.

DE-4 UV-EPROM Eraser. . . . $74.95

UVS-11 EL Replacement Bulb. ... $17.95

DATA BOOKS

30003 National Linear Data Book (82) $14.95

30009 Intersil Data Book (85) $ 9.95

30013 Zllog Data Book (85) $14.95

30022 Natl. Logic Data Book Set (84) $24.95

210830 Intel Memory Handbook (83/84) $19.95

230843 Intel Microsystem Hndbk. (83/84) $19.95

MUFFIN/SPRITE-STYLE FANS

MUF60 (SPN3-15-2462).... S9.95

Howard Industries (4.68" sq.. 60 cfm)

SU2C7... ... $9.95

EG&G Rotron (3.12*5" square. 20 cfm)

APPLE* COMPATIBLE ACCESSORIES

Ait Apple Cards come complete with instructions. MADE IN THE USA!

16K RAM CARD(Language Card)

For Apple II and II+*

Expand from 48K-64K. RunsApplesoft, DOS. CP/M andPascal. (ARC-16K/MEH-1)

JE860**.. $39.95

CONTROLLERCARD

For Apple II, II+ and lie'

Capable of handling up to twodrives. Recommended drives:ADD-514 or ADD-12. (ACC-1)

JE875.... $49.95

EXTENDED 80-COLUMN CARD

For Apple lie*

JE864 is an extended 60-column/64KRAM Card. Ultra-high resolution capability.

JE864.... $69.95

128K RAM CARD

For Apple II, IB- and lie'Four key software programs are included:

Utililies, Diagnostics. Demos, and RAMDisk Emulators for DOS 3.3, CP/M andApple Pascal. Expand-A-RAM:

JE868" $119.95

ESHsoKirvUHis

APPLESURANCE

DIAGNOSTIC DISK

CONTROLLER CARD

For Apple II, II+ and lie'

PREVENTS CRASHES!

Test your RAM. ROM, CPU and Disk Drives.DRV-1/Applesurance II:

JE877 $69.95

ggTOffiffik-us

PARALLELPRINTER CARD

For Apple II, II + and He*

Fully compatible with Apple CP/M, ApplePascal (or FORTRAN), and most other op-erating systems and software packages.Available for Apple II, II+ and We'. PRT-1:

JE880. $59.95

g^Ktm.i-UiUs

PARALLEL/SERIAL 64KBUFFER CARD

For Apple II, II+ and lie'Using the parallel jumper cable supplied,the JE883 will attach to the JE880 (above).Parallel Card needed for operation. TheJE883 includes a standard parallel inputwith both parallel and serial (RS232) buf-fered outputs P/S Buffer:

JE883 $79.95

'APPLE, APPLE II, II+ and lie ere registered trademarks of Apple Computers."When using CP/M, the JE860 and JE868 will only function with Version 2.20 or earlier: PASCAL(JE868) Version 1.1 or earlier.

ADDITIONAL APPLE* COMPATIBLE PRODUCTS

Key: a=Apple II or II+ b=Apple lie

APF-1 Cooling Fan with Surge Protection • Key: (a.b) $ 39.95

KHP4007 Switching Power Supply ■ Key: (a,b) $ 39.95

JE614 Numeric/Aux. Keypad-11 accessible functions • Key: (b). ... $ 49.95

AMON 12' Green Monitor with Swivel Stand ■ Key: (a. bond »c) $ 99.95

KB-EA1 Apple Keyboard and Case ■ Key: (a) $ 99.95

JE520AP Voice Synthesizer - Plug-In. User Reedy ■ Key: (a.b) $119.95

ADD-12 5V." Half-Height Disk Drive ■ Key: (a.b) $119.95

ADD-llc Sit" Half-Height Disk Drive • Key: («c) $129.95

ADD-514 5V Full Height Disk Drive • Key: (a,b) $129.95

PM1 200A Prometheus Internal Modem - 2 Cards ■ Key: (a.b) $299.95

Pjjl 200M Prometheus Macintosh Ext Modem ■ Key: (Macintosh) $349.95

GENERAL APPLICATION POWER SUPPLIES

Power/Mate Corp. REGULATED POWER SUPPLY

■ Input: 105-125/210-250VAC @ 47-63Hz ■ Line regulation: ^0.05% • 3 mounting

surfaces • Overvoltage protection ■ UL recognized ■ CSA certified

Part No. Output Size (Inches) Weight PRICE

m.

EMAS/6BEMAS/6C

5VS3A / 6VS2.5A5V@6A/6VS5A

4'/bLx4Wx2IbH5*iL X 4'4W X 2?lH

2 lbs.4 lbs.

S29.95S39.95

4-CHANNEL SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY

- Microprocessor, mini-computer, terminal, medical equipment and process con-trol applications ■ Input: 90-130VAC, 47-440HZ ■ Output: +5VDC fi 5A, -5VDC@ 1A; +12VDC® 1A. -12VDC @ 1A • Line regulation: -0.2%- Ripple: 30mVp-p

• Load regulation: -1% - Overcurrent protection • Adjustment: 5V main output

• 10%.Size:6VLx 1'n"W x 4-15/16"H -Weight: 114 lbs.

FCS-604A $59.95

IBM COMPATIBLEACCESSORIES

83-KEY KEYBOARD

* Identical layout as original IBM PC Keyboard ■ Highlydesirable case wilh palm resl - Complete with cable and data■JUST PLUG INI

KB83 $49.95

Build an IBM PCI XT' Compatible!

IBM-64K 64K RAM Chips (18) $ 24.98

KB-83 83-Key Keyboard $ 49.95

IBM-FCC Floppy Controller Card. ... $ 54.95

IBM-Case case $ 49.95

IBM-MCC Monochrome Card $89.95

IBM-PS Power Supply $ 89.95

FD55B Disk Drive $119.95

IBM-MON Monochrome Monitor. ... $109.95IBM-MB Motherboard $199.95

Regular List $789.58

IBM'"-Special (lncl.9item.above) .. $699.95

Additional Add-Ons Available!

IBM-KB 83-Key Keyboard $79.95

IBM-ENH Enhanced Keyboard $ 99.95

IBM-ICB Integrated Color Board ... $109.95

IBM-E384K Multifunction Card $169.95

IBM-20MBK 20MB Hard Disk Drive $499.95

IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Computers

Universal Af&Vut64K/256K w»

NEW!

©

Printer Buffer

lOHNATHON FREEMAN DESIGNS

The UBUFFER Universal Printer Buffer is a hi-speed databuffer that accepts data at a high rate, and then outputs thisdata to your printer. You save valuable computer time. TheUBUFFER can be connected to practically any compuler orprinter There are four possible combinations: 1) Serial loSerial, 2) Serial to Parallel, 3) Parallel to Parallel, 4) Parallelto Serial. Manual included. Size: 9-1 /3"l_x WW x HfeTH

UBUFFER-64K... $199.95UBUFFER-256K.. $229.95

mmpm—iz—

WX,' i IBM

* § Compatible!$ DISK DRIVES

FD55B Teac SV." DS '..-Height $119.95

SA455 Shugerl 51." DS '/.-Height $139.95

TM100-2 Tandon 51." DS Full-Height. . . . $139.95

JMR 51/4" DISK DRIVE ENCLOSURES

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

DDE-1FH $69.95

Houses 1 Full-Height 5 V Floppy Drive.

DDE-2HH $79.95

Houses 2 Half-Height 5 V Floppy Drives - Vertical

HDDE-1FH $199.95

Houses 1 Hard Disk Drive

$20 Minimum Order - U.S. Funds OnlyShipping: Add 5% plus $1.50 Insurance

California Residents: Add 6% or 61/2% Sales Tax

Send stamped,

self-addressed envelope

to receive a Quarterly

Sales Flyer - FREE!

6/86

ami

lameco

ELECTRONICS

Spec. Sheets - 30C eachPrices Subject to Change

Send $1.00 Postage for a

FREE

1986JAMECO

CATALOG

c 1986 Jameco Electronics

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002 • PHONE ORDERS WELCOME 415-592-8097 Telex: 176043

Inquiry 170

IUNE I986 -BYTE 429

[^WORLDWIDE ISA+

HfiRD DRIVE

1u£&*:

Wfc

HEfiDQUfiRTERS

XT DRIVES

III!

i i

10MB 20MB 20MB

SYSTEM

With West Dig

controller, drive,

cables & inst. proc.

DRIVE ONLY

Seagate orMicroscience

SYSTEM

With West Dig

controller, drive

cables & inst. proc.

-P'acem

e"t, credit (

*349ea $324ea $424

Quantity 10$334 ea. qty 1-9

Quantity 10$434 ea. qty 1-9

AT DRIVES

Prices include cables, rails and inst. proc.

20MB 40MB 44MB

40 ms access

SEAGATE4051

40 ms access

MINISCRIBE6053

28 ms access

$539ea $729ea *995

ea.

Quantity 10$549 ea. qty 1-9

Quantity 10$749 ea. qty 1-9

Quantity 1

808B-COP ft

JBgg

BMCXVonfeaa;au

"CmBOP0

BMCj»J?fesS.

>99' y __^^^»^^t

TAPE BACK-UPS

40MB

INTERNAL$498 ea.

60MB

INTERNAL5775 ea

Quantity 10 Quantity 1

With data cart and software With data cart, sol$519ea qty 19 and controller

60MB

EXTERNAL*795ea.

-r-X LAZER PRINTERS

Name brand, fully IBM and EPSON

graphics compatible 8ppm. 16 type

variations and serial/parallel

interface built-in.

$1888

ine in this ad an

m any source

SH**ANTEED

*«liIssue you

or tne price nf^hipped late neproducts

i i in-

COMPONENTS

* 2S6K DRAMS set of 9150ns . $36•64K DRAMS set of 9150ns ... $9

"8087 $128

'8087-2 $159

'80287-3 $199

V20SMHZ $11

V20 8MHZ $13

V30 8MHz $16

f^oFFEB\

FlLl*f&2<

PC POWER SUPPLIES

• ISO Watt. Digital Switching SB

KEYBOARDS (IBM XT Compatible)

S150 style'5151 style

BOARD PRODUCTS

'AST 5ixpak * compat. multl board tserpar. game clk/cal. exp to 384k RAMDISK &PSPOOL) by MULTITECH lOk inst I

' MULTITECH 576K short card (Ok inst j

S69S88

ACCESSORIES

■ WEST. DIG. 1O02SWX2 XT hard disk cont2 DRIVE floppy controller

' Hercules compatible monochrome graphicscard (720X348) w/par port & light peninterface by MULTITECH

■ MULTITECH color graphics card (1*2-3,

IBM mono and CGA compatible)' TAXAN 553 Ultra Hi Res color card

■ MULTITECH E.G.A. card (IBM mono. CGA

and EGA compatible}SIGMA EGA

MODEMS

' ZOOM lie 300 baud Apple internalSmar TEAM 103/212A 1200*300 baud

external Hayes (AT) compatible' ANCHOR EXPRESS; 1200 baud, nt short' ANCHOR LIGHTNING 2400 baud external

Hayes compatible

MONITORS

S168S188

,,„ TATUNG MM 1222A amber Ttl $126

lixx " TATUNG CM1360 Hi Res RGB 1640 X200i S367

PRINCETON HX-12EEG a RGB 1640 X 350) 5519

"Q?„e-l»°^

100 v99

I

ORDER LINES OPEN 7AM to 6 PM P.S.T.

FLOPPY DRIVES

• PANASONIC 1/2 Ht. PC compatible $99

• SANYO 1/2 Ht. PC compatible $94■ APPLE II compatible, including cable $98

4-ri

(1-800-826-3736 )

i i i i

C1-800-358-8881)

THE FINE PRINT

No returns on software. Prior return authorization required; all itemsreturned must be in original condition with carton, packing and all manualsetc... Some returns may involve a restocking charge. We accept Cashier anCertified checks. Money Orders, personal and company checks (product shwhen check clears). VISA and Mastercard with no surcharge. All productsshipped UPS ground, unless specified otherwise (minimum shipping chargi$5.00. exact charges specified at time of order). All normal manufacturer'swarranties apply. Membership clubs excluded. All items priced and in stoci-at time of ad placement and subject to vendor changes and prior sale at tirof ad publication.

800-528-3138 Orders Only ™ °^corp.

tm 602-991-7870 Customer Support SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85260

EPSONEQUITY II

IBM-PC compatibility mated to the new NEC V30microprocessor gives you 8086 CPU power at speedsof 4.77 and 7.16 MHz. On board you'll find 640K RAM.Hercules compatible mono graphics, clock/calendarand 5 full size option slots - all standard equipment!Add to this two 360K drives, an AT-type keyboard, TTLmonitor and a one year warranty-well, you can see itmakes sense to start building some EQUITY into yourbusiness.

The Epson EQUITY II... CALL

■»——————■^^——t-

Modems

Monitors and Terminals

TATUNG CM-1360 640x200 RGB, 13". G/A switch. $395

TATUNG MM-1222 HiRes 12" TTL (IBM) 109

ZENITH ZVM-1240 Amber (IBM) 155

ZENITH 2VM-1220G or 1220A Flat Screen 99

LIBERT/ Freedom Terminals CALL

LINK 125 Emulates WY-50 and others. HiRes 14" Grn/Amb

6 Scroll Rates. IBM Selectric K.B 419

LINK PC-TERM Emulates WY-50. TVI925 & More, 132Col,

IBM-AT KB. Ideal for Multi-user 449

LINK 220 DEC Compatible, Amber, 6 pgs Memory, RS-423, 26 Lines. To 38.4K Baud. 38 Funct. Keys, More 459

Hard Disk and Tape Subsystems

PC-INSIDER/OUTSIDER, AT-INSIDER, Hard Disk Serieslor IBM. Boots from Hard Disk, Formatted w/Ctrl. & Cbls.,Hardware & P/S or PC Style Cabinet CALL NOW!

THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL85MB Hard Disk w/25ms access 85MB Tape B/US2795

TECMAR OIC-60 External Tape 1449

TECMAR QIC-60 Host I/F Card 109

TECMAR 40200 - II Slot Expansion with 10MB .... 1395

SMS OMTI 5510-7 Controller 135

WANGTEK PC-36 60MB Int. Tape w/ Ctrl.,Cable,S/W919MICROPOLIS 1325 85MB Drive / 25ms Access .... 1498OUANTUM Q-540 40MB Drive. 1 Year Warranty ... 1095DRIVE SYBSYSTEMS FOR COMPUPRO

with Disk 3. CABINET. FAN, P/S, CABLES, etc

-20MB Seagate 1115

-40Mb Quantum Q-540 1715

-72Mb 1325 $2159 6085 2459 XT-1085 2359

10MB TAPE Int. (Requires Concurrent DOS) 439

10MB TAPE Ext. (Requires Concurrent DOS) 549

ALLOY IDXCS-100T 17.7 Ext. Tape (CPM-80/86) .. 1729

PC and AT Extended Memory, etc.

We carry the best selection of Multifunction & MemoryCards lor IBM-PC, XT, AT, portables and compatibles!

INTEL Above Board PCMB 1010 - 64K to 2MB - AllowsLotus. Symphony, others to run above 640K. w/ FREE

Microsoft Windows! $229

INTEL Above Board-AT 128K to 4MB - Use all RAM 459

STB RIO GRANDE 128K to 5MB 269

TECMAR CLOSE OUT!! Save $$$! 1-800-528-3138 CALL

PC Scientific and Industrial Cards

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER DESIGNS

1018-PC 96TTL I/O Lines $446

A/D 64-PC 64 Input..446 D/A 64-PC 64 Output .... 527PC Prototyping Board 19

SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS!

BASEBOARD (96 I/O Lines); DADIO (D to A Conv.)

IEEE-488 Board; LABMASTER: MORE!

Call Now lor Lowest Price!

PC & AT Multi-user Cards

ALLOY PC-PLUS 512K to IBM $595

ALLOY PC-PLUS Package! 512K, Link PC-TERM

Terminal, Cable 1150

RTNX SOFTWARE For PC/XTs (MSDOS 2.1) 119

ATNX SOFTWARE For ATs (MSDOS 3.1) 189

PROMETHEUS PROMODEM 1200-Hayes Compatible

i with Power Supply and Software $275

• PROMODEM OPTIONS:

Communications Buffer 99

512K RAM for Buffer 59

Alpha Numeric Display 75

PROMETHEUS 1200G without Options 189

PROMETHEUS 2400 385

PROMETHEUS 1200A - Apple II. II+, lie card w/ S/W265

PROMETHEUS 300C - Apple lie Piggy Back 129

PROMETHEUS 1200M - Stand Alone for Mact 348

MULTITECH MT224EH MNP Error Correction 529

MULTITECH MT212AR Rack Mount 259

MULTITECH MT224AR Rack Mount 459

MULTITECH MT224ER Rack Mount with E.D.C 495

U.S. ROBOTICS Auto Dial 212A 298

U.S. ROBOTICS PC/XT Modem with Telpac 199

CTS 212AHC Hayes 1200 Compatible 159

CTS 224ADH Hayes 2400 Compatible withpfs: Access 395

Software

We sell all well known brands. ORDER CORRECTLY!SOFTWARE IS NOT RETURNABLE!

WORDSTAR PRO-PAC Closeout! $289

NEW STAR NEWWORD 2 w/ MergePrint, WordPlus spell

check. WordStar Compatible 8 bit $99 16 bit 129

NEW STAR NEWWORD 3 for PCs. Spell checker,Indexing. Content Tables. Macro's. Shorthand keyboard,

Run other programs while in NewWord 209

BD SOFTWARE C Compiler 8" SSSD 8 bit 95

pts:FILE, REPORT.PLAN, etc 43% OFF LIST!

Power Solution

PC/XT Power Supply Up to 4 Drives $89

TRIPPLITE BC-425-FC 425 Watts. 15-20 Minutes ... 398COMPUTER ACCESSORIES U-800 12-35 Minutes. . 699

SAFT SPS 400VA 400 Watt & Sine Wave 475

SAFTSPS 1000VA 1000 Watt & Sine Wave 999

Floppy Disk Drives

MITSUBISHI 2894 8" $475 2896 1/2 ht 8" $435

MITSUBISHI MF501 48TPI 95

TEAC FD55GFV/ IBM-AT 96TPI 125

TEAC FD55FV 96TPI...$115 FD55BV 48 TPI 95

Printers and Buffers

BROTHER M-1509 180/45cps. P&S. Wide w/trac . CALLBROTHER HR-35 36cps Daisey, Wide Carriage.... $729

BROTHER HR-15XL 17cps Daisey. S or P 359

BROTHER HR-10 12cps Daisey with Tractor 229

CALL 1-800-528-3138 Today for the BEST PRICE onEPSON - OKIDATA - CITIZEN

HANZON Buffer 64K-256K S-S.S-P.P-S.P-P 265

HANZON Add-on 64K Module 45

BUCK$ BACK from XEROX!

Its Rebate time and XEROX is passing out the cash.Buy one of these printers and get up to $500.00 back!Also the first month of your 1 Year Warranty includesOn Site Service! You have to love adversity to ignorethis deal.

$100 Break!

Xerox635

BIG REBATES ON ALL XEROX PRINTERS!

Xerox D25 Diablo $497 less $50 Rebate > $447

Diablo 635 1049 less $100 Rebate = 949

Diablo D80-IF 2159 less $500 Rebate « 1659

Diablo 34LQ 989 less $100 Rebate = 889

4045 Laser w/Copier 4995 less $400 Rebate = 4595

Call 1-800-528-3138 Now and

Put Your Money Back to Work for You.

Networking

INTERCONTINENTAL MICRO SYS LANS-100 .... $359I.C.M. LAN-PC without RAM - Runs NOVELL 349

corclcitci

\ corona

ATD/ATP

All merchandise new. Advertised prices are cash prepaid cnly. AM. Express - add 5%. MO Visa & PO's frorrqualified firms - add 3°o. Wires, COD'S (S5 min. fee) with Cashiers Check MO & APOs accepted. Shippingminimum S4 first 3 lbs. Tax: AZ RES ONLY add 6' i% sales tax. All returns subject to 20°o restocking fee oicredit towards future purchases All prices subject to change without notice.

• 80286 CPU @ 8MHz

• 1.2 MB Floppy Drive

• HiRes Graphics (640x400)

• Serial/Parallel Ports

• 130 Watt P/S • 640K RAMROM BIOS Compatible to the IBM-AT. TheCOR DATA ATD/ATP runs virtually all softwaredesigned for today's business environment.

Desktop PublishingLP-300

DESKTOP

PRINTSHOP

Create professionallooking newsletters, adcopy, documents, etc.with LASER accuracy.

• 300x300 dots

• 38 fonts• Cable & Toner Included

Top your CORDATA systems off with thefastest CAD package on the market.

FASTDRAFT 480

• 640x480 Color Card • 80287-3 Co-Processor• NEC Multisync ROB Monitor

BULLETIN! Cordata Announces

HUGE PRICE DROP

Call 1-800-528-3138 for HOT DEALS!

Computer Systems

IMB-PC COMPATIBLES

We carry a wide range of Desktop, Laptop & Portablesdesigned to run the software that fuels today's business.

ZENITH 148, 158. 171. 200AT CALL

SPERRY IT CALL

XEROX 6064 ATT 6300 Compatible CALL

fompuPro™

816/C2 w/80286, 512K RAM. SPUZ-256, 40MB HD. 10MBTape, 5" 96TPI flpy. CDOS 816/286, NewWord &

SuperCalc2 CALL

SYSTEM 10 4 User, 8/16 bit. 40MB HD, 10MB Tape,CCP/M 816, 1MB M-Drive/H, NewWord, SuperCalc2,HyperTyper, Field Companion,Write,Friday!,etc. .. $5149

Video / Graphics / CAD

TATUNG SUPER RES PACKAGE!

CM-1380 RGB (EGA) Monitor (640x350) w/ Dual ScanRate & EGA/Hercules compat. card w/ 256K!.. $845

STB EGA Plus - TTL mono & HiRes RGB $371

HOUSTON INSTRUMENT PLOTTERS

DMP-41/42, 51/52 CALL

Call Now - We Will Not Be Undersold

S-100 Boards & Accessories

If you bought before calling S-100 you paid too much! Westock COMPUPRO. CROMEMCO, DUAL, ICM, KONAN,MULLEN, PICKLES & TROUT, INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER

DESIGNS, TARBELL, VECTOR

Just a few ol THIS MONTH'S SPECIALS!

COMPUPRO RAM 16 64K Static $95

COMPUPRO RAM 22 256K Static 446

COMPUPRO PC-Video Board & CDOS 4.1 719

COMPUPRO CPU 286-8MHZ & CDOS 4.1 1039

COMPUPRO lnterfacer-3 372 lnterfacer-4 263

COMPUPRO Disk-1A 372 Disk-3 447

COMPUPRO System Support 1 263

DUAL AIM-12 A/D Input 12 Bit/32 Channel 629

INTERCONTINENTAL MICROSYSTEMS Master & Slave

Boards 8 & 16 bit IN STOCK CALL NOW

MACROTECH MI-286 80286/Z80 Dual Proc $675

MACROTECH MSR-II 1MB DRAM 825

MACROTECH MSR-II 2MB DRAM 1059

S3

Inquiry 301 for End-Users. Inquiry 302 for DEALERS ONLY.

ROBOTICS — SCIENTIFIC BUS

For IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles, Apple II...

• Holt Adaptor Modular approach to data acquisition and control. A 40 con-ductor ribbon cable bus is generated by a host adapter card. Up to 8 lowco-it Modules can bo located anywhere on a cable up to 100 H long. Busleatures: DMA. interrupts. 16 doia bits. Open & non-proprietary. Host adaptorcard, utility software & manual,. 1150.

• Feet A/D Module: 650K sampleaAec, 8 oil. four differential channels^programmable gain & offset, UOT. Complete package with Scope program,host adapter. Fast AJO Module & cable $500. FFT available.

■ 12 BH A/D Module: four channels. 10K samples/sac, Inst, amp $335

• Port/Relay Module: Til standard relay rack. 24 bits I/O. interrupts.

• Clock Module: Real time 4 periods, battery, interrupts, software.

• Four Axta Stepper Motor Driver Module: 15V® ISWphasafrnotor. Full stop,hall step, brake, free wheel. Software a motor included . 192

• Smart Dual Aula Motor Control Module: For DC, brushless or stepper motordrivers S. encoders. Processors (from HP) allow changes & monitoring on theffy. Optically Isolated. Call for low cost.

• Unique to LAB 40 is its ability lo efficiently interface directly to chips, suchas coprocessors S converters, with the lowest hardware & software overheadCall for more info or order our Workbook.

• LAB 40 Workbook: 10 hardware and software projects with IBM PC 125

Computer Continuum

75 Southgale Awj., Suite 6 • Daly City. CA 940151415) 755-1978

MaslofCard/VISA of UPS CASH COD

Factory New, Prime Parts juPoo

MICROPROCESSOR UNLIMITED, INC.

HKAWrPM) 267-4961

MO EXTRA COSTFOR FED-EXSAT DELIVERYON ORDERSRECEIVED B¥IhrsMAk B/4«

Prices shown above are for April 28,1986

Please cM tor curort prices PnoM subpct to change Please expect higher or Iowa prices ansumo parts due t> supply & demand an] cur ritanrvg costs Snpfn A nsimnce eiVa Cashotaouunl pncos shown Orion racwvotl try (j PM CSl can usualy bo AivorBd <i ytxi by |tfl nmrtmomJnfl. vte FartTet Expre— atendwd Ak (••■ toJO, or Priority One la moot

PC EXPANSIONS

AST SixpackPlus (384 K) $279

Advantage (128K) $369

Advantage (1.5 M) $529

Advantage |3M) $809

Rampage (2 Ml $499

RampageAT (2M) $659

INTEL AboveAT (2M) Sxall

Quadboard (384 K) $249

Gold Quadboard (384 K) $429

LibertyAT (2M) Scall

QuadportAT $135

Tecmar Maestro (2.5M) $629

HERCULES graphics board $299

Color Card $159

HAYES Smartmodem 1200B $349

Smartmodem 1200 $389

Maynard Disk Controller $100

Sandstar Series Scall

MaynStream Tape backup from. $979

WDFile Card(lOM) $769

Tandon Diskard (20M) $789

Setol9 chips(64K) $12

Set ol 9 chips (256K) S29

8087-3 $119

Qume 142AS99 Teac $109

Teac FD55BV (tor AT) $109

CDC 9409: $119 Tandon $109

Verbatim (Box of 10) $19

Maxell (Box of 10 for AT) $39

VLM Computer Electronics

10 Park Place • Morristown, NJ 07960(201) 267-3268 • Visa. MC, Check or COD.

Inquiry 227

R1>V 3M*

\J /** FLEXYDISKS

Free headcleaner in each box. 5%" only.

10-90 100 +

$ .86ea

SS/DDSoft

' .841.18

'2.47'1.85. '1.80

ea

ea

ea

ea

DS/DD $4 QH

Soft I .C. I

High Density $0/0

(ibm-at) L.nrO

3.5/SS

Micro I .UvJea I ,UU ea

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 SouthSomorville, N.J. 08876

(201) 874-5050

ONLY $49

I

1

m± jca

POWER DIRECTORY

» ONE MASTER SWITCH AND FIVEPOWER ILLUMINATING SWITCHES.

* CIRCUIT BREAKER.

• ADD $18 FOR BUILT IN NOISE ANDSPIKE FILTER.

$110 retail value

Postage Included

Allow 4-6 weeks Delivery

Washington residents add $4.00

Send check or M/0 to:

r-ir-»(-r-r-iri 9726 6th Ave' NW

SCEErln suite e

imummii Seattle, WA 98117(206) 789-7446 TLX 215015

Inquiry 105

Inquiry 366

Inquiry 306

J? EPROMV PROGRAMMER

APROTEK 1000

ONLY

-'i $265

oo

D

COMPLETE WITH

PERSONALITY

MODULE

11 7 AC POWER-RS-232 CONNECT

-6 BAUD RATES - HANDSHAKE TO HOST

ALLOWS READ, WRITE, VERIFY & COPY

Comes complete with IBM-PC, Apple, or CPM(Specify Computer) Driver Program on Disc.

Programs the following 5 Volt 24 or 28 pindevices: 2716 series through 27512, 25xx series,68764 plus others. Please Specify PersonalityModule desired with order. Additional PersonalityModules only $ 15.00 ea. Full 1 year warranty.

TO ORDER CALL 1 800 962-5800 OR WRITE

1071 AAVENIDft ACASO

S4 00 Shipping USAVISA in MC Atlil 3■■■-,.

2 Mb EMS RAM / CLOCK

FOR IBM PC/XT and COMPATIBLES

WITH LIFETIME

WARRANTY

FEATURES —

• Supports Lotus/lniel/MierosoMExpanded Memory Specilications[BIS]

• Uses either 64K or 256K DRAM chips

• User upgradable

• Can Ml system memory to 640K. allowmg remaining memory to be used lorEMS

• Includes Clock/Calendar function

• EMS memory manager softwareincluded

• EMS compatible RAM Disk softwareincluded

• EMS compatible Print Spooler sollwareincluded

Memory/Clock Boaid allows you the option at' manmum 64DK andfoi using up lo 2 MB RAMmemory managet Software, which is provided. «Expanded Memory Specification The clock/cat-

The Apparat 1 MB Eipanded:ing your system memory to tni_ wjpanded memory The expandedcompatible wilh the loius/lntel/Microsottend.T function allows yon Id automatic,

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS —

• CLOCK/CALENDAR CARD

■ PROM BLASTER (24 or 26 pi

• COMBO II CARD

• 256K RAM CARD

■ S12K RAM CARD

• EXTERNAL HARD DISK

• INTERNAL HARD DISK

XT HARD DISK UPGRADESHORT SLOT PAR/SERCARD FOR

PPC, AT384ft RAM CARD FOR PPCADD-ON DISK DRIVESAT RAM CARDAT COMBO CARDCABLES

Apparat, Inc.

4401 South Tamarac Parkway — Denver, Colorado 80237(303) 741-1778 — TOLL FREE 8O0/52S-7674

o=s

! not only aprinter buffer !

DLB I 1 THIS IS THE MOST SOPHISTICATED

PRINTER BUFFER - MULTIPLEXOR - SWITCH

WITH TWO SEPARATE INPUTS |S£RIAL AND PARALLEL] ANDTWO SEPARATE OUTPUTS |SERIAL AND PARALLEL) CAN BEUSED LIKE STANDARD BUFFER WITH ANY INPUT TO ANY

OUTPUT BUT ALSO YOU CAN CONNECT 2 COMPUTERS TO IPRINTER OR I COMPUTER TO 3 PRINTERS OR 1 COMPUTERSAND 2 PRINTERS AND MORB = I COMPUTER TO 3 PRINTERSOR S COMPUTERS TO I PRINTER

HIOH CAPACITY - M KB TO 26B KB AND - 366 KB TO I MBIMODKLS A AND B) PAUSE, COPY AND RESET FUNCTIONS

SBRIAL PORTS WITH 7 OR B BITS WORD LENGTH. I OR 2 STOPBIT. PARITY, XON/XOPF, DTR, RTS

DCB-A-ruK f 2bb |*| DCB-B-2b6K f 29t('|

|'l Pov»r lupply and pir*IU) c»bl»t no includad

ALSO. WE HAVE THE MOST COMPLETE DATA CONVERTERUNIT CONVERTS RS232 SERIAL TO CENTRONICS PARALLELOR VICE VERSA. JUST BY MOVING IUMPERS BAUD RATE ANDPROTOCOL FULLY PROGRAMABLE PROM tt>o TO 19200 BAUDSINCLUDES DTR, RTS. XON/XOFP, PARITY, «lc

DCU ( «0 ["I

ES

seiialOparallelDCU bi-directional converter

INTECTRA ...

3039 TERMINAMOUNTAIN VIEW CA-94CH:

nc.-Dept.232IAL BLVDW-CA-940

415,967-8818 TLX 34SS45

Inquiry 26

micro the

supply alternative.

ORGANIZATION INC.

The SANYO completeword processing system

The alternative for WANG, Xerox orany dedicated word processingsystem.

At Micro Supply Organization weoffer the lowest prices on Sanyocomputers and software. Withprices like these you can afford theconvenience of owning andoperating more than one computer.We also offer the User SupportHotline for questions concerningyour computer or about softwareavailability. Whether you need oneor a dozen computers, Micro SupplyOrganization is the place to getthem!

The MBC 1160 Accounting SoftwareWe carry a complete line of ADSaccounting business software. BuyG/L, A//R, A/P, Inventory and receivethe Payroll module FREE. Thecurrent retail price is $398. permodule. Now from MSO you payonly $99 per module. All five $299.

20 meg internal hard drivesubsystem for SANYO MBC 1150,1160 & 1250. «*%--*

$649

COMPAT Disk Utility now available.

USER SUPPORTHOT LINE

805/393-2247

All systems carry full 90 day warranty.

CASH PRICE ONLY

Check in advance. Add 3% for VISA/MC. Shipping& handling charges will be added to each order.

For our catalog with complete details andprices, send $2.00 to:

Get more for yourmoney!

IS

MBC 1160

Including this FREE software:

• Wordstar • Spellstar

• Mailmerge • Calcstar

• Infostar • BASIC

8-Bit Integrated Computerwith 640KB Formatted MiniFloppy Disk Capacity

• Z-80A CPU wilh no-wait mode andlarge 64KB RAM/4KB ROMmemory capacity lor fastexecution

• CP/M operating system wilh editor,assembler and all standard utilities

• No-glare amber monitor displayscreen (or easy viewing.

• 80-characler x 25-line display 256characters in 8 x 12-dol malrixcells

• Two internal double-sided, double-density, double-track 5Vi" slim-type mini floppy disk drives with640KB formatted capacity

• Interfaces lor one Cenironicsprmler and one RS-232C porl

• Optional interface for hard diskdrive and for exlernal 8" floppydisk drive

LEGEND 880 or SANYO PR 5000

Dot Matrix Printer

• 80 char/line or dot-image graphics

• Centronics parallel interface

• Tractors or Friction feed

• Pica, elite, condensed or proportional

• Epson compatible

Includes printer cable & full warranty

Letter quality Daisy Wheel Printer

• Letter-quality printer with 96-characterdaisy wheel printing element.

• Accepts paper up to 13 inches in width.

• 14 cps bidirectional printing.

• 10, 12 and 15 cpi printing pitches.

• Centronics parallel interface.

• Optional form tractor.

Includes printer cable & full warranty.

Micro Supply Organization, Inc.

4909 Stockdale Hwy. #180Bakersfield. CA 93309

15% Restocking on Returned Orders

This complete packagelists for $3194.00

Computer& Printer

ONLY

$699

Inquiry 222

IUNE I986 -BYTE 433

• •

.EQ..E to

0) 4)i ~z. tn •'-'

■a ^o

3 (1) JD o

to b; « w

O *- t T3

CM O O B

r (O OTi

^ TO J

CJ -D O

co o

n) O CO

J^CM CD

CD CD

O

1 §

0) 3 O -D

.2 to <~> s _ >, _ co S?>Sa»al2oB CO

► Sa^^^s ZZ

oNNrocD>.>,co>.> ^Wmix 5S &l* att « 0)

t-COC0C\J*-U-.<C0<O) ^^

.......... <y>

00 h CD

5 co ^

<§E :'■■'.

t; X *=

0)

= -o

- o££ ^ p

a je .2 to ,

CO "O >,

to t

O CO

sfc:

Nco-o>.coco>-^

* s-

0000

coTr^i-cou-mcoQ-cn f^»• • • • . tf>

"O t- o

ro o °

.>£ O Q_ CO

« tO - £

CO -□ O 0) I

j-2 P ra 5)

«o o to ™

2 X

•-S2

< oo

uO

(A

CO00

0. 1""

5£C

co o °^ o a. E

.!2 to ■- ,,,7 to to Q.^5

io ° «aO tKl 5 a. a.

■ScvJ

— c —

I-COf CO

o CO

00

00

olO

a. t—

X «/*

CD

Z JC

0-2

— "D

"S r 2

to o c

O Q. o

to i- CCJ CD *"

2 ^<

Q. ■£ O

2 O-CT

°> ffl ^

O = <U

c; COTJ

■§ * J

5 o. <

I- CO

<co

xCVJ

COCO

</>

>^

~

CJ

uan

JffiF^w

2 3 s

u H hv

^^S^ .- .

* T3

T) W

d) 1 1:1

■— / /III

//

"* "* ra

E |

/#■

W III

IB

J 1?

1 /

/ft

0 i- S

llmm

" 'D

\\m

u*

\m

II

K 01 if

i i

3 (4i ro

l 1

U £ E

I

1 1

■o ; »

|

a 3 2C U H

I

'/

directiotomaticriter is a

■

.13?

<n< S

CO

o

1

1^

5 a

1

>.n

Su.

CO >.

'co c

•D O

i-'C •

° ° 8

^S

>>.!2

u n 1

tO tD= 3

CO °

UJ m m

9 for.

RIT

0) CO11

in 2

hy pay $114

TARW

when our 40 cpsfrom the samemlow as

CD 3CO 1

SCO

a* m

iv^

/ / // =

/• / s

X

1

_J

o

-D

*■

on anractoraphicJ

■^

p 0 D)

in

I

120 cps, fradjustabifeed with

oO00CM

UJ

*/>

CD

in

en

x s5

fifi

G)

en

<

1^.

Z Q)— "D

h-

fMH

Si

111 -

CO

CO

(ijtn

uj CD

D.Q.

£ CD

a If)

t

i capacity11 wattslutespower s

< «o

ui ^ c E c3

a .

CD CO O 41 'O

K F ' -i co

LU

s only c

MB fo

power

alls in j

ks w/st

o<<

s" § 11

D CM _1 £ §

CNJXO

• • • • •

0)

>

. c

°o

il o

CD O"O

F S.

m 5CO ci-

2 3 0-

in

I E u « S.

(0 o Q o> o>

uj os

G)

- o < 2 2

1— ttCO o"

G)

co Q i- o o

CO

CO

co ra" o

y.

IT

CO

t»

O Q>

o >

I

Q PI

5 ;£

]l: :

XI TO

co n>

D W I

5

flc lr"' 1

VW7'

c5-E .

c c

< y

mpuni

m m

i ^

o ° 5O E o.

o o

. o<oaim

So

= o

° 00

:?CNIO CM

So

Soo

ra O

a> COo>0>

C *-N

<co

to TOCM

592 =

E i

c c

S 3

O

I?

£ W (jO

9 Jr Q-

"D O- 3

3 SM

" o S>

5 Q.C/5

CDO

O CO

CD 3o

<B OCO

Printer (Data) switch $45.00

Distributors, Dealers welcome

■ Metal case, fully shielded • Dimension: 1" x 4V«"

• Push button switch • All pin switched

• 2 layer PC board • Color: beige

• 1 year warranty

Switch box D type

(RS232)/Centronic

2 way switch (push bullon)2 way cross (rotary)4 way switch (rotaryj

Cable

Molded

S6SrJ791657*89

RS-232 Miniature

Gender Changer M/M, F/FNull Modem

Jumper box, S urge-pro toctoiMini.tester, Mini-patch bo*

30 Day Money Back Guarantee

J ACO ENTERPRISES

1478 POPPY WAY, CUPERTINO, CA 95014

(408) 096-0675

for TURBO PASCAL™

INSTANT TEXT DISPLAY - the Pascal "write"procedure takes several seconds to fill the screenwith text. ZIPCALC does it in less than 1/10 sec.Instant windowing capability is also included.ULTRA FAST NUMBER DISPLAYZIPCALC removes the real number time barrierwith a 32-bit Long Integer data type that convertsto a string 7 times taster.

HIGH SPEED COMPUTATION - the LongInteger is Ideal for many financial and otherapplications with its dramatic increase Incomputation speed. ZIPCALC provides a full setof procedures for Long Integer arithmetic, shifts,compares, conversions to other data types, andfull string conversions. ZIPCALC has the powerof a 32-bit processor in Pascal callable form.EASY TO LEARN - EASY TO USE -ZIPCALC consists of 35 highly optimizedroutines, most assembler coded, a tutorial User'sGuide, programmed demos, and many examples.IBM PC & TRUE COMPATIBLES ^^ ^^$45 includes N.Y. sales tax & shipping ^- mm

DYNAMOY

MICRO-DATA SYSTEMS. INC "■■*

1045-B Gravel RoadWebster, N.Y. 14580(716)671-5066Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland Int. Inc.

To be merely compatible

isn't enough...

Be the best!

Manufacturer directly offer :OEM, VAR, Dealer

* 5 VLSI chips set

more reliable than IBM PC/AT" 6/8, 6/10 MHz software switch

* 7 DMA channel

" Expandable to 1MB memory on board" System clock/calendar with CMOS RAM

buffer and battery backup' Fully AT compatibleWisetek International Co.469 Valley WayMilpitas, CA 95035Tel : (408) 263-1237

Inquiry 168

Inquiry 122

Inquiry 378

If you paid more for Chips,you didn't buy them at:

MicroTech

(206) 364-2209, 8 - 6 Mon.-Sat.P.O.Box 75673, Seattle, WA 98125

RAMS

256K

150 ns

2.75

256K

120 ns

3.25

64K

150 ns

1.20

64K

120 ns

1.35

6264LP-15

150 ns

EPROMS

3.15

2764

250 ns

3.25

2764

200 ns

3.75

27C64

250 ns

3.75

27128

250 ns

3.65

27256

250 ns

5.55

Shipping & handling: UPS ground $2.00, Prices subjectto change, Master Card/Visa add 3%, Wash, residentsadd 7.9°/o sales tax.

Satisfaction 100% guaranteed!

□ TELECOMP

XEn&A Complete System, PC/XTCompatible, 640K $685

5151 Style Keyboard $75

AT Style Keyboard $75

384K Multifunction (OK) $95

Color/Graphic/Printer $63

135W PS $69

Floppy Drive Controller $39

Parallel Printer Cable $15

XT Type Case $39

AT Type Case $75

Seagate 225+WD $495

Taxan 620 $395

PC/XT Turbo 4 Layers $155

Taxan 630 $435

Turbo MB 640K/4 Layer $195

Samsung TTL $95

Special Price For Dealer

System Turbo 4 Layers/xt $925

IBM is a registered trademark ofInternational Business Machines Corporation

9282 Bolsa Ave.,

Westminster, CA 92683

(714) 894-8954 Telex. 3719632-CHTRADE

I.C.s and Peripherals

+ B4K / 12BK / 256K D-RAMs

at tha LOW PRICES

HP Vactra 128K Upgrade I3B.95

• V20-5 S14.00 / VSO-B S1B.00

V30-8 S18.00 / 8087 $115.00

8087-2 . S155.00 / 80287-3 . 1180.00

• TEAC FD55-BV DS/DD Disk Drives

w/1 year factory warranty §95.00

• MultiTech External ModemMultiModom [100% Hayes compatible]

1S00/300 bps S243.00

2400/1S00/3Q0 bps 1449.00

• Memory Boards

JRAMS-P / a-S W/2MB 8349.00

JRAM3-P / 3-B w/3MB 8388.00

JRAM-AT3-P W/2MB 8449.00

Pan/Sen/Clock Module 8115.00

• 155W Power Supply for IBM/PC & XT8125.00

• 2732, 2784, 27128, 2725B, 4464, 6116,6284, etc. are available!

Advanced Technology Products, Corp.

P.O. Box 2205/11141 Georgia Ave.. Silver Spring, MD 20902

301-933-3523

Prices are subject to change without notice.Cell us for the latest prices.

>• OEMS AND DEALERS ARE INVITED ••••

Inquiry 228

Inquiry 345

Inquiry II

NEW EPROM PROGRAMMEREPROM-1 $495

' Programs all 28-Pin, 5-Volt EPROMs and

EEPROMs.1 Perfect for engineering workstations, field

service and small production runs.

* Simple keyboard and display for stand aloneduplication.

* Interface to your computer via an RS232C port.

* PC control software included at no extra charge.

TO ORDER PHONE:800-325-6028 Outside California916-885-7262 Inside California

Visa and MasterCard accepted<M» I INTERNATIONAL ,,„.. „ .3*1 MICROSYSTEMS U554 C Avenue***> I INCORPORATED Auburn, CA 9S603

20 Meg Hard Disk Kit—S435™

Includes Half Height 20MB Hard Disk withcontroller and cables, 1 year warranty.

Turbo Plus Motherboard

w/OK—S21500

5 or 8 MHz switchable without powerdown,runs 3 times faster than PC/XT in 8 MHz

PC/XT COMPATIBLE PARTS

JUMBO-640 (4.77 MHz)

Motherboard w/8K $125.00

AT-1 Meg Motherboard w/BK $745.00

Mono/Graphic Card w/ Printer Port $ 85.00

Color Card with Printer Port $ 85.00

EGA Color Card $275.00RAMBANK Memory Expansion

Card w/BK $215.00

Internal Modem (1200 baud) $165.00

Mitsubishi 360K Floppy Disk Drive $115.00

Irwin Tape Drive (10 Meg) $395.00

LUCKY COMPUTERS

[214] 690-6110

2011 Brandeis, Richardson, TX 75081

Ramjet 256KPrint Buffer

• FREES YOUR COMPUTER UP FAST

• FULL 256K BYTES OF BUFFER SPACE

• FAST DATA RATE - UP TO 7000 CPS

• WILL PAUSE FOR INDIVIDUAL PAGES

• MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE THAN OTHERS

• ALL FOR ONLY $269.00

The RAMJET 256K Print Buffer is available in eitherparallel or serial versions. Dealer inquiries are verywelcome. Custom programming for special applica-tions is available. For more information or to orderthe RAMJET 256K Print Buffer:

CALL (206) 236-2983Omnitronix, Inc.

P.O. Box 43-MercerlslandWA98040

Inquiry 164

Inquiry 197

Inquiry 244

I

icroProducts

nternational

MltMMcJUUMtfl 714/898-0840 " /

\ Telex: 887841 XORDATA HTBH Fax: 714/897-3363

► 15392 Assembly Lane, Unit A'Huntington Beach, CA 92649 <

The XAT is out most versatile and powerfulsystem Using Inlel s 80286 processor, thesystem runs al 6 and 8 MHz wtth a true16-bit data bus Comes standard with a 3meg Add-On board 2 parallel & one serialport monitor keyboard. DOS 3 1. two' .-height DS DD I 2 meg floppies

5 Complete Systems

Mm-

This siandard system is as compatible withIBM as it can be Featuring a 4-layer mother-board. 8-slot expansion, up to 640Kmemory on the motherboard, and Ihe 6 67MHz TURBO mode. Also included DOS 3 1keyboard, 135 wall power supply. TTL 720 ;348 resolution video card, green or ambe-monitor serial & parallel ports. Real TimeClock and software

Amsterdam ■ 020-45-26-50

2 MB Expansion Board

Our 1986 Catalog isHOT} off the press!

' ' x Dealers! Check our9 * Profitable Discount

Pricing!

■uiinniiiiii■miiiiiiiiii -]imiiiiiiiimii *|

The perfect choice for Ihe system Integratorwho needs the IBM compatibility, but not inthe standard PC cabinet This model featurestnnged and removable sides, up to 3 '? heightperipherals out front Iron! mounl AC switchand rear mount 135 watt power supply Alsomakes an ideal Host Of File Server unitm multi-user configurations1

The XTJr. is only junior in size1 With up to640K memory on :he motherboard and fourexpansion slots, this stand-alone system isalso great for workstations in a networkingenvironment. It can be upgraded to theTURBO two speed motherboard and youcan also add up to 2 serial & 2 parallel portsor any IBM compatible expansion card Aperfect word processing data entry system

■jf%= Compact

Tins is truly the affordable portable and webuild it to your specifications Need a 20meg hard disk and 20 meg tape with 64 OKmemory in your portable''' No problem1 TheXPC Compact comes standard with a 9 "

amber TTL monitor. 135 watt ps. 256K

memory two 360K drives. Real Time

Clock Calendar w battery Back-up serial and |

parallel ports and our TURBO Motherboard

24 Add-On Cards

This board safisfces Ihe new approach suggested byINTEL and Lotus 1-2-3. Also may be used on ourXT-SBC TURBO boad for memory based at OK.

Hard Disk Controller

This Western Digital controller handles 1 or 2 drives 5to 140 megabytes with minimum software configura-tion Features DOS 2 1 & 3 1 compatibility, and ST-506Interface

384K Multi-Function

A Mulli-function board featuring Parallel Po-t Serial PortGame Port. Real Time Clock Calendar with BatteryBack-up. Expand to384K all Cables PnnlSpooler andRAM Disk Software and Manuals

Germany

4 Meg Token Ring

Conned your workstation to an existing 4 MegabyteIBM token ring system or build up your own IEEE 802standard system. Tne lowest possible cost forI00°«industry standard compatibility

AT H.D. & Floppy

Mono & Color Graphics

7 PAK Multi-Function

PROM Laser

Tnis new Western Digital combo board with its n-speedVLSI technology will give you a data transfer rate 50°<vfaster than the existing combo board in the AT Runsboth 360K and I 2 meg lloppy disk drives

Supports Iwo levels of graphics and text tn compositemonochrome or RGB color Low resolution 320 x 200pixel high resolution 640 x 200 pixel

Features Floppy Controller, Parallel Port. Serial Port(optional 2nd Serial}. Game Port. Real TimeClock Calendar wilh Battery Back-up. RAMdisk. Print-Spooler, all cables & manuals

Hi-speedalgonthmes will burn 2716, 2732. 2732A,2764 (in 52 sec). 27128, 2 7256 EPROMS under soli-ware control right in your PC Zero Force InsertionSockets. Software, and Manual

35 Components

Bombay ■ 357172

Motherboards

XAT TURBO XT-SBC

• RTC Calendar

■ 648 MH^ clock

• 8-slot expansion ■•Inlel 80286

XPC TURBO

4 77 &8MH*clockSerial & Parallel4-layer PCB designRTC Calendar

XPC-XT

> A 77 &667MMZ• -Mayer PCB design1 8-stof expansion' up to 640K Memory"3-2 processrr

» Siandard 4 77 MHz

• up to 640K memory

• 8-slol expansion

• siandard 8088 CPU87 socket ai

Power Supplys

XT 135 watt XT 150 watt

Whisper fanHi-oulpul 150 watt4 DC connectors+ 5V-I5A -5V-5A-H2V-5 5A -12V-5A

XTC 135

■ I35w switching

• Wmsper Fan

• Side AC switch

• + 5V-15A -5V-5A

• +I2V-4 2A -12V-5A'

AT 200 watt

■>& a

> 200 Watt poweri Exterior AC switch1 4 DC power conn' + 5V-20A -5V-5Ai-12V-7 7A -12V-5A

Rear MounlRear On Oil switchCxlra AC outlets+ 5V-15A -5V- 5A12V-4A -12V-5A

Cabinets

illinium *• ivnm

The XTjr. cabinet is only 3 " x 16 5 " x 15" yel ilwill nold a standard XT compatible motherboardIncludes a switching power supply Fronl panelcut-out for a nail-height lloppy or hard disk

Mini '

Our XPC-XT cabinet has an 8-slo: back panelWith additional cut-outs lor two RS-232 I 0 portsFeatures mounting for up to lour halt height

; ■-■ ^"t-'als

Keyboards

AT

This Keyboards siandard equipment witira'11of our XAT systems, but the layout is so wellliked, we're offering t here

XT

1

Our volume purchases ol these IBM stylenits allows us to lower the price once again

The right choice lor an external ada-on cabinet1Add-on a floppy tape back-up. or up to 33 meg ofhard disk fnalf-heighl| Switching power supply >sincluded

5051

Now a fully seleclnc unit at an affordableprice Features a 10-key numeric pad & aseparate cursor pad

1

I Panasonic MSeagateTEACTulin

Drives

Archive

Irwin

Maxtor

Memtek

Miniscribe

i Panasonic

Seagate

TEAC

Tulin

3 Sub-Systems J 3 Networks J ■ Cassette Training ¥ Int/Ext Modems

This full height cabinetwill hold a Tape Back-upwith lull or Mieigiit HardDisk inside for two Ha/dDtsksi

A perfect cabinet icTape or Hard Disk anice addition to your

I

Choose from singlewith full height basetrollers cables

... ,..,,,,;-'■-■:':--'-

m ■ # -v am- * ■• m- -

One w;iy to slay ahead ol the competihon is by using a Multi-User or NelworK system configuration Irom Micro ProductsInternational Choose Hi -speed RS -232 XOR-NETSDLC or Token Ring Data Iransler rates up to 4 megabytessecond can be obtained

Wnal is tne Cassette Training concept9 Using InteractiveAudio Tra ning to combine the advantage ol classroom andsell-teaching methods

The Method One audio track delivers a lecture explainingthe program, while the second track emulates the keyboard,actually running the sludenl s computer Al Ireguent intervalsIhe tape pauses automatically to allow the studert keyboardinput, wheh is monitored lor accuracy by the MITS COED

• FCC approved lor direct • Runs fne popularRJ-11 conneclion Hayes communications

• Phone Cable & Power Supply software

Finally a price breakthrough on a Hayes compatible, external300 1200 baud modern Includes driver so It ware

Inquiry 221

• Q-Modem software included • Runs tne popularAlso runs XCOM software Hayes commumcatio

• All cables included soflware

We included every feature you tVOliW want m a modem cardIts FCC registered tor direct connection to your modularphone jack with the cord included

UNE 1986 • BY

PC Compatible

CASH DRAWERS

M-S CASH DRAWER

10711 Flower St., Stanton, CA 90680

(800) 544-1749

In California call:

(714) 821-1133

Inquiry 232

5V4" FLOPPYMOTORS

Now Buehler OEM replace-ment spindle motors for allmajor 51/4-inch, full-heightfloppy disk drives areavailable for fast delivery.Built to exact OEM size, per-formance and quality stan-dards. Pulleys included.

For details and prices,contact:

Buehler Services, Inc.P.O. Box A, Hwy 70-EKinston, NC 28501Phone: 919/522-4300

The ALL NEW

SIBEC II

" 8052AH BASIC V1.1 CPU

■ iSBX* expansion connectors

■ Prototyping area

■ Five 8 bit input/output ports

■ PROM programmer

■ Expansion connectors

CALL TODAY 603/469-3232$295

Binary Technology, Inc.

a

MSBX is a trademark of (ha Intel Corporation

\o.mitti;kizi:i> (gNCEPTS

4333 66th ST. N. NEW!

ST. PETERSBURGFL 33709 USA

"INTERSOL"

Ever had a bad experience with Businesssoftware? Irritating isn't it? We thought so too,so we designed INTERSOL! Fully-Integrated,12 modules, very easy to use, you can buy itand have it CUSTOMIZED for your needs!FEATURES: A/FWP-G/L-PURCHS-INVOICE-SALES-REPORTS-FIN STS-TAXES-PAYROLL-DAILY REPORTS.

AVAILABLE 'WITH SOURCE CODES"! Youcustomize it, or we will! SAVE HUNDREDSOF DOLLARS! Get it ALL with "INTERSOL",the fully-integrated solution.

INTERSOL (12 modules) $97.00

INTERSOL. . (SOURCE CODES) $122.00

add $3.00 S/H VISA-MC-CHECK

(813) 545-1996

Inquiry 87

11 ICJ/\fcj|l

SS/DD

$.64

OTHER BRANDS AS LOW AS $.54

BULK DISKETTES- QUANTITIESOF 500 with TYVEK SLEEVES

RIBBONS <A" Brands>

EPSON MX 70/80 $4.20Prices based on quantities of 48

J5S 800-222-0490^

IS2I 201-462-7628 In N. J. E=3Mi^oft^hBo°a07728

Inquiry 2I3

DYNAMIC RAMS

41256

41256*>41256

4164^4164

4464

100ns120ns

150ns120ns

s6.85_s3.35_

~l740

CHANGING SYSTEMS?

What Happens to Your Data?

Does JUST Media Conversion

Solve Incompatibilities?

WHAT IF...

everything is changing, including your software,hardware, operating systems and media? Whathappens to your spreadsheet data and formulas,database structures and/or word processingdocuments and codes?What do you do, and what is the cost?

We Make Incompatible Data Compatible!

The source can be mainframes, minis, micros,dedicated word processors or typesetters.ADAPS0 member.

CompuData Translators, Inc. 213-462-62226565 Sunset Bl, #301 Hollywood, CA 90028

Inquiry 74

_SaJeSianl™

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.KB5151, AT&T 6300, WYSE 50 and manyothers. Send $29.95, check, M.O., Visa & MCinclude exp. date. Specify computer type. Dealerinquiries invited. Free brochure avail.

Merritt Computer Products, Inc.

2925 LBJ Fwy. #180 / Dallas, Texas 75234

(214) 339-0753

Inquiry 215

COLOR

VT220$150

*plus yourPC, jr, XT, AT or compatible

ZSTEMpc-VT220 Smart Terminal Emulator132-col. by windowing - no addit. hardware

Double High Double Wide Characters

Full VT100 line graphics. Smooih scrolling

2-way file transfers incl. XMODEM and KERMIT

Full keyboard softkeys/MACROS

Data rates to 38.4KB. High Throughput

Color/graphics, monochrome & EGA support

International Font Support • DOS Access

ISO and attribute mapped color

ZSTEMpc-VT220 S150. 4010/4014 Option S99

ZSTEMpc-VTlOO — Choice of the US. Airforce

30 day money back guarantee. MC/VISA

KEA SYSTEMS LTD.

#412 - 2150 W. Broadway

Vancouver. B.C. CANADA V6K 4L9

Support (604)732-7411

TELEX 04-352848 VCR

Order Toll Free (800) 663-8702

inquiry 405

Inquiry 160

Inquiry 410

THE LATEST IN PC ENHANCEMENT PRODUCTS

ENHANCED GRAPHICS ADAPTOR $295.00

700% IBM COMPA TIBLE—PASSES IBM EGA DIAGNOSTICS

•»

COMPATIBLE WITH IBM EGA, COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTOR

AND MONOCHROME ADAPTOR

DISPLAYS 16 COLORS OUT OF 64 COLORS

COMES WITH 256K OF VIDEO RAM

DUAL SCANNING FREQUENCIES—WORKS WITH

STANDARD OR EGA TYPE RGB MONITORS

LIGHT PEN INTERFACE

EXTENDED MEMORY CARD $199.95

UP TO 2 MEGABYTES OF LOTUS/INTEL COMPATIBLE MEMORY

CONFORMS TO LOTUS INTEL EXTENDED MEMORY

SPECIFICATIONS (EMS)

SHIPPED WITH ZERO K RAM. USER EXPANDABLE TO 2

MEGABYTES

USES 64K OR 256K DYNAMIC RAMS

USE AS EXTENDED (EMS) OR CONVENTIONAL MEMORY,

RAMDISK OR SPOOLER

SOFTWARE INCLUDES EMS DEVICE DRIVERS,

PRINT SPOOLER AND RAMDISK

AT MULTIFUNCTION CARD $199.95

ADDS UP TO 3 MEGABYTES OF USER EXPANDABLE MEMORY

SHIPPED WITH ZERO l< RAM USER EXPANDABLE TO 1.5

MEGABYTES RAM ON BOARD, UP TO 3 MEGABYTES WITH

OPTIONAL PIGGYBACK CARD

USES 64K OR 256K DYNAMIC RAMS

PARALLEL PORT & GAME PORT

SERIAL PORT

OPTIONAL SECOND SERIAL PORT

PIGGYBACK MEMORY CARD mo memory installed) $49.95

CLASSIC 296 SPEED PAK $795.00

8 MHz 80286 ACCELERA TOR BOARD FOR IBM PC/XT

8MHz 80286 RUNS 33% FASTER THAN A STANDARD AT

RUNS AT PROGRAMS-COMPATIBLE WITH DOS 2.1, 3.0 & 3.1

COMPATIBLE WITH ALL PC XT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE WITH

NO PATCHES OR MODIFICATIONS NEEDED

1 MEGABYTE MEMORY ON BOARD, EXPANDABLE TO 16MB

HIGH SPEED 16-BIT BIOS AND RAM

OPTIONS INCLUDE 80287 MATH CO-PROCESSOR, MULTITASKING

SUPPORT AND MULTIUSER SUPPORT

EPR0M PROGRAMMER $129.95

FOR IBM PC/XT!AT AND COMPATIBLES

PROGRAMS 27xxx SERIES EPROMS UP TO 27512

MENU DRIVEN SOFTWARE PROVIDED ON DISKETTE

AUTOMATICALLY SETS PROGRAMMING VOLTAGE

LOADS AND SAVES EPROM BUFFER TO DISK

READ, WRITE, COPY, VERIFY OR CHECK BLANK

DEBUG STYLE EDITOR FOR EASY MODIFICATION OF PROGRAM

SPLITS OR COMBINES EPROMS OF DIFFERING SIZES

INTERNAL CARD WITH EXTERNAL ZIF SOCKET MODULE

S 1

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE LOCATED AT 1256 SOUTH BASCOM AVENUE IN SAN JOSE

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling Include $2.50 for UPS

| RaerniTl AvenilO Qan IriCO Pi Qm^fi Ground and S3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign orders may require

>. UdDl/UIII MveilUC, OC1I1 tfUSC, v*« JJJI^-U additional shipping charges- please contact our sales department lor the amount CA.

t Include applicable sales tax. All merchandise Is warranted for 90 days

rise staled. Prices are subject to change without

I- A V /AAA* r\-ir- n,i-4r- - asli. 'jaj -i-• rt responsible for typographical errors. We reserve the right to llr

PAX (408) 275-8415 • TeleX 171-110 substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

i. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128 &*%&

Toll Free 800-538-5000 • (408) 995-5430FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110 ZSSSKS

© COPYRIGHT 1986 JDR MICRODEVICES

1miwW1ii|JIIi>

THE JDR MICRODEVICES LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES. JDR INSTRUMENTS AND JDR MICRODEVICES ARE TRADEMARKS OF JDR MICRODEVICES.IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES. APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER.

Inquiry 173

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 439

BUILD A COMPLETE 256K XT SYSTEM—$717

STATIC RAMS

2101

256x4

(450ns)

1.95

5101

256x4

|450ns)|CMOS)

3.95

2102L-4

1024x1

(450ns)|LI>|

.99

2112

256x4

(450ns)

2.99

2114

1024x4

(450ns)

.99

2114L-4

1024x4

(450ns)|LP|

1.09

2114L-2

1024x4

(200nsl|LP)

1.49

2114L-15

1024x4

(150ns)(LP|

1.95

TN1S4044-4

4096x1

(450ns)

1.95

TMM2016-150

2048x8

(150ns)

1.49

TMM2016-100

2048x8

(100ns)

1.95

HM6116-4

2048x8

(200ns)(CMOS)

1.39

HM6116-3

2048x8

|150ns)|CMOS)

1.49

HM6116LP-4

2048x8

|200ns)|CIUOS)|LP)

1.49

HM6116LP 3

2048x8

|150ns)|CMOS)|LP)

1.59

HM6116LP-2

2048x8

(120ns)|CMOS)(LP)

2.95

HM6264P-15

8192x8

(150ns) [CMOS]

3.89

HM6264LP-15

8192x8

|150ns)|CMOS)(LP)

3.95

HM6264LP-12

8192x8

(120ns) (CMOS) (LP)

4.49

LP=Low power

DYNAMIC RAMS

4116-250

16384x1

(250ns)

.49

4116-200

16384x1

(200ns)

.69

4116-150

16384x1

(150ns)

.89

4116-120

16384x1

(120ns]

1.49

MK4332

32768x1

(200ns)

6.95

4164-200

65536x1

|200ns)(5v)

1.19

4164-150

65536x1

|150ns)(5v]

1.29

4164-120

65536x1

|120ns)|5v)

1.95

MCM6665

65536x1

(200ns)(5v)

1.95

TMS4164

65536x1

(150ns)(5v)

1.95

4164-REFRESH

65536x1

(150ns)(5VI(REFHESH) 2.95

TMS4416

16384x4

(150ns)|5v|

4.95

41128-150

131072x1

(150ns)(5v)

5.95

TMS4464-15

65536x4

|150ns)|5v)

6.95

41256-200

262144x1

(200ns||5v|

2.95

41256-150

262144x1

(150ns||5v|

2.95

5v=Single 5 Volt Supply

REFRESH Pin 1 Refresh

• •••HIGH-TECH****

I NEC V20 UPD70108 $14"

I REPLACES 808B TO SPEED UP IBM PC 10-40%

* HIGH-SPEED ADDRESS CALCULATIONIN HARDWARE

* PIN COMPATIBLE WITH 8088

* SUPERSET OF 8088 INSTRUCTION SET

* LOW POWER CMOS

8MHZ V20 UPD70108-8 $24.9518MHZ V3D UPD70116-8 $26,951

• •••SPOTLIGHT****

ORDER TOLL FREE

800-538-5000

EPROMS

2708

1024x8

(450ns)

3.95

2716

2048x8

(450ns)(5V|

3.49

2716-1

2048x8

(3S0ns)|5V|

3.95

TMS2532

4096x8

(450ns](5VI

3.95

2732

4096x8

(450ns|(5V)

3.89

2732A

4096x8

|250ns)|5V)(21V PGM

3.95

2732A-2

4096x8

(200ns)(5V)[21VPGM

4.25

2/C64

8192x8

(250ns)|5V||CMOS)

5.95

2764

8192x8

(450nsl[5VI

3.49

2764-250

8192x8

|250ns)[5V)

3.95

2764-200

8192x8

|200nsl(5V)

4.25

MCM68766

8192x8

|350ns)|5V)|24 PIN)

17.95

27128

16384x8

|250ns|(5V|

4.25

27C256

32768x8

(250ns)|5V)|CMOS)

12.95

27256

32768x8

|250ns)(5V)

7.49

5V-Single

5 Volt Supply

21V PGM Program at 21 Volts

DISErCpToRr°at!§S WMM ERASERS

Model

Timer

CapacityChip

Intensity

|uW/Cm!)

UnitPrice

PE-14

NO

9

8.000

S83.00

PE-14T

YES

9

8.000

S119.00

PE-24T

YES

12

9,600

SI 75.00

6000

8035

1.49

8039

1.95

8080

2.95

8085

2.49

8087-2

169.95

8087

129.00

8088

6.95

8088-2

9.95

8155

2.49

8155-2

3.95

8748

7.95

8755

19.95

80286

129.95

80287

199.95

8200

8203

29.95

8205

3.29

8212

1.49

8216

1.49

8224

2.25

8237

4.95

8237-5

5.49

8250

6.95

8251

1.69

8251A

1.89

8253

1.89

8253-5

1.95

8255

1.69

8255-5

1.89

8259

1.95

8259-5

2.29

8272

4.95

8279

2.49

8279-5

2.95

8282

3.95

8284

2.95

8286

3.95

8288

4.95

Z-80

Z80-CPU 2 5MHj

4.0 MHZ

I Z80A-CPUZ80A-CTCZ80A-DARTZ80A-DMAZ80A-PIOZ80A-SIO. 0

1 Z80A-SIO/1Z80A-SIO/2

8.0 MHZ

| Z80B-CPUZ80B-CTCZ80BPIOZ80B-DART

ZR0B-S1O 0

Z80B-SIO-2

,28671 ZILOG

1.791.895.955.951.895.955.955.95

3.754.254.2514.9512.9512.9519.95 .

6500

1.0 MHZ

6502

2.79

6SC02,CMOS112.95

6507

9.95

6520

1.95

6522

4.95

6526

26.95

6532

6.95

6545

6.95

6551

5.95

6561

19.95

6581

34.95

2.0 MHZ

6502A

2.95

6520A

2.95

6522A

5.95

6532A

11.95

6545A

7.95

6551A

6.95

3.0 MHZ

6502B

6.95

6880

1.0MHZ

68006802680368096809E6810I 6820I 68216840684368446845684768506883

1.954.959.955.955.951.952.951.956.95

19.95

12.954.95

11.951.95

22.95

2.0 MHZ

68B0068B0268B09E68B0968B2168B4568B50i68B54

4.955.956.956.453.506.753.957.95 ,

CLOCKCIRCUITS

MM5369 1.95

MM5369-EST 1.95MM58167 12.95MM58174 11.95. MSM5832 2.95 .

CRT

CONTROLLERS

6845

4.95

68B45

8.95

6847

11.95

HD46505SP

6.95

MC1372

2.95

8275

26.95

7220

19.95

CRT5027

12.95

CRT5037

9.95

TMS9918A

19.95

DISK

CONTROLLERS

1771

4.95

1791

9.95

1793

9.95

1795

12.95

1797

12.95

2791

19.95

2793

19.95

2797

29.95

6843

19.95

8272

4.95

UPD765

4.95

MB8876

12.95

MB8877

12.95

1691

6.95

2143

6.95

BIT RATEGENERATORS

MCI 4411BR19414702COM8116

I MM5307

9.954.959.958.954.95 .

UARTS

AY5-1013

3.95

AY3-1015

4.95

TR1602

3.95

2651

4.95

IM6402

6.95

IM6403

9.95

,INS8250

6.95

SOUND CHIPS

7647776489SSI 263AY3-8910AY3-8912. SPIOOO

3.958.9539.9512.9512.9539.00 J

32.768 KHz

1.0 MHz

1.8432

2.0

2.097152

2.4576

3.2768

3.579545

4.0

4.032

5.0

5.0688

6.0

6.144

6.5536

8.010.0

10.73863512.0

14.3181815.016.017.43018.018.43220.022.118424.032.0

.952.952.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951 951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.951.95

CRYSTALOSCILLATORS

1.0MHzI 1.8432

2.0

2.4576

2 5

4.0

5.0688

6.0

6.144

8.0

10.0

12.0

12.480

15.0

16.0

18.432

20.0K24.0

5.955.955.955.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.954.95

74LS00

MISC

TMS99531

9.95

TMS99532

19.95

ULN2003

.79

3242

7.95

3341

4.95

MC3470

1.95

MC3480

8.95

MC34B7

2.95

11C90

13.95

2513-001 UP

6.95

AY5-2376

11.95

AY5-3600PRO11.95

74LS0O

74LS01

74LS02

74LS03

74LS04

74LS05

74LS08

74LS09

74LS10

74LS11

74LS12

74LS13

74LS14

74LS15

74LS20

74LS21

74LS22

74LS27

74LS28

74LS30

74LS32

74LS33

74LS37

74LS38

74LS42

74LS47

74LS48

74LS51

74LS73

74LS74

74LS75

74LS76

74LS83

74LS85

74LS86

74LS90

74LS92

74LS93

74LS95

74LS107

74LS109

74LS112

74LS122

74LS123

74LS124

74LS125

74LS126

74LS132

74LS133

74LS136

74LS138

74LS139

74LS145

74LS147

74LS148

74LS151

74LS153

74LS154

74LS155

74LS156

74LS157

74LS158

74LS160

74LS161

74LS162

74LS163

74LS164

.16.18.17.18.16

.18.16.22.22.26.39.26.17.22.22.23.26.17.1828.26.26.39

.17.29

.29.49.49.22.39.49.39.49.34.36.29.45.49

2.75.39.39.39.49.39.39.39.99.99.99.39.39

1.49.59.49.36.29.29.39.49

.65.95.95.49.39.39.49.69.69.69.69.59.59.59.69.69

.69.79.49.49

74LS16574LS16674LS16974LS17374LS17474LS17574LS19174LS19274LS19374LS19474LS19574LS19674LS19774LS22174LS24074LS24174LS24274LS24374LS24474LS24574LS25174LS25374LS256 1.7974LS257 .3974LS258 .4974LS259 1.2974LS260 .4974LS266 .3974LS273 .7974LS279 .3974LS280 1.9874LS283 .5974LS290 .8974LS293 .8974LS299 1.4974LS322 3.9574LS323 2.4974LS364 1.9574LS365 .3974LS36774LS36874LS37374LS37474LS37574LS37774LS378 1.1874LS390 1.1974LS393 .7974LS541 1.4974LS624 1.9574LS640 .9974LS645 .9974LS669 1.2974LS670 .8974LS682 3.2074LS683 3.2074LS684 3.2074LS688 2.4074LS783 22.9581LS95 1.4981LS96 1.4981LS97 1.4981LS98 1.4925LS2521 2.8025LS2569 2.8026LS31 1.9526LS32 1.95

.39.39.79.79.95.79

HIGH SPEED CMOS

A new family of high speed CMOS logic featuring

the speed of low power Schorrxy (8ns typical gate

propagation delay), combined with the advantages of

CMOS: very low power consumption, superior noise

immunity, and improved output drive.

74HC00

74HC: Operate

at CMOS logic levels and

are ideal

for new. all-CMOS designs.

74HC00

.59

74HC148

1.19

74HC02

.59

74HC151

.89

74HC04

.59

74HC154

2.49

74HC08

.59

74HC157

.89

74HC10

.59

74HC158

.95

74HC14

.79

74HC163

1.15

74HC20

.59

74HC175

.99

74HC27

.59

74HC240

1.89

74HC30

.59

74HC244

1.89

74HC32

.69

74HC245

1.89

74HC51

.59

74HC257

.85

74HC74

.75

74HC259

1.39

74HC85

1.35

74HC273

1.89

74HC86

.69

74HC299

4.99

74HC93

1.19

74HC368

.99

74HC107

.79

74HC373

2.29

74HC109

.79

74HC374

2.29

74HC112

.79

74HC390

1.39

74HC125

1.19

74HC393

1.39

74HC132

1.19

74HC4017

1.99

74HC133

.69

74HC4020

1.39

74HC138

.99

74HC4049

.89

74HC139

.99

74HC4050

.89

74HCT00

74HCT: Direct, drop-in replacements for LS TTL

and can be intermixed with 74LS in the same circuit.

74HCT00

.69

74HCT166

3.05

74HCT02

.69

74HCT174

1.09

74HCT04

.69

74HCT193

1.39

74HCT08

.69

74HCT194

1.19

74HCT10

.69

74HCT240

2.19

74HCT11

.69

74HCT241

2.19

74HCT27

.69

74HCT244

2.19

74HCT30

.69

74HCT245

2.19

74HCT32

.79

74HCT257

.99

74HCT74

.85

74HCT259

1.59

74HCT75

.95

74HCT273

2.09

74HCT138

1.15

74HCT367

1.09

74HCT139

1.15

74HCT373

2.49

74HCT154

2.99

74HCT374

2.49

74HCT157

.99

74HCT393

1.59

74HCT158

.99

74HCT4017

2.19

74HCT161

1.29

74HCT4040

1.59

74HCT164

1.39

74HCT4060

1.49

74F0074F0274F0474F0874F1074F32. 74F64

.69.69

74F00

74F74 .7974F86 .9974F138 1.6974F139 1.6974F157 1.6974F240 3.2974F244 3.29

74F251 1.6974F2S3 1.6974F257 1.6974F280 1.7974F283 3.9574F373 4.2974F374 4.29 J

.1.

T

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE LOCATED AT 1256 SOUTH BASCOM AVENUE IN SAN JOSE

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5

TU-TH, 9-9

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

' TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling include $2.50 lor UPS

. Sail JOSe. CA 95128 Ground and $3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and lorelgn orders may require

, —— — ~, addlllonal shipping charges- please conlacl our sales departmenl for the amount. CA

Toll Frpe 80,0-53fl-5nnn • fzlflfU QQ5-*?tMn residents musl include applicable sales tax. All merchandise Is warranted lor 90 days

I Ull riCC OUU 3JO WW ■ \H\JO) 3»3 3HOU unless otherwise staled. Prices are subject lo change wllhoul notice. We are nol

PAY /AHfl\ 97K g/HC m Tolnv 171 11fl responsible lor typographical errors. We reserve Ihe right lo limit quantities and lo

"MA \H\JO) £.10-OI 13 ■ I eieX l/l-IIU substitute manulacturer. All merchandise subject lo prior sale.

© COPYRIGHT 1986 JDR MICRODEVICES

THE JDR MICRODEVICES LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES. JDR INSTRUMENTS AND JDR MICRODEVICES ARE TRADEMARKS OF JDR MICRODFVirFSIBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES. APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER. miurluucvlCE!..

i YTE • IUNE I986

PARTIAL LISTING ONLY — CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG

CMOS

4001

.19

14419

4.95

4011

.19

14433

14.95

4012

.25

4503

.49

4013

.35

4511

.69

4015

.29

4516

.79

4016

.29

4518

.85

4017

.49

4522

.79

4018

.69

4526

.79

4020

.59

4527

1.95

4021

.69

4528

.79

4024

.49

4529

2.95

4025

.25

4532

1.95

4027

.39

4538

.95

4028

.65

4541

1.29

4035

.69

4553

5.79

4040

.69

4585

.75

4041

.75

4702

12.95

4042

.59

74C00

.29

4043

.85

74C14

.59

4044

.69

74C74

.59

4045

1.98

74C83

1.95

4046

.69

74C85

1.49

4047

.69

74C95

.99

4049

.29

74C150

5.75

4050

.29

74C151

2.25

4051

.69

74C161

.99

4052

.69

74C163

.99

4053

.69

74C164

1.39

4056

2.19

74C192

1.49

4060

.69

74C193

1.49

4066

.29

74C221

1.75

4069

.19

74C240

1.89

4076

.59

74C244

1.89

4077

.29

74C374

1.99

4081

.22

74C905 10.95

4085

.79

74C911

8.95

4086

.89

74C917

8.95

4093

.49

74C922

4.49

4094

2.49

74C923

4.95

14411

9.95

74C926

7.95

14412

6.95

B0C97

95 i

100

PIN ST

S-100

.125

3.95

100

PIN WW

S-100

.125

4.95

ft?

PIN ST

IBM PC

.100

1.95

so

PIN ST

APPLE

.100

2.95

44

PIN ST

STD

.156

1.95

44

PIN WW

STD

.156

4.95

7400/9000

7400

.19

74147

2.49

7402

.19

74148

1.20

7404

.19

74150

1.35

7406

.29

74151

.55

7407

.29

74153

.55

7408

.24

74154

1.49

7410

.19

74155

.75

7411

.25

74157

.55

7414

.49

74159

1.65

7416

.25

74161

.69

7417

.25

74163

.69

7420

.19

74164

.85

7423

.29

74165

.85

7430

.19

74166

1.00

7432

.29

74175

.89

7438

.29

74177

.75

7442

.49

74178

1.15

7445

.69

74181

2.25

7447

.89

74182

.75

7470

.35

74184

2.00

7473

.34

74191

1.15

7474

.33

74192

.79

7475

.45

74194

.85

7476

.35

74196

.79

7483

.50

74197

.75

7485

.59

74199

1.35

7486

.35

74221

1.35

7489

2.15

74246

1.35

7490

.39

74247

1.25

7492

.50

74248

1.85

7493

.35

74249

1.95

7495

.55

74251

.75

7497

2.75

74265

1.35

74100

2.29

74273

1.95

74121

.29

74278

3.11

74123

.49

74367

.65

74125

.45

74368

.65

74141

.65

9368

3.95

74143

5.95

9602

1.50

74144

2.95

9637

2.95

74145

.60

96S02

1.95 J

EDGECARD CONNECTORS

74S00

74S00

.29

74S163

74S02

.29

74S168

74S03

.29

74S174

74S04

.29

74S175

74S05

.29

74S188

74S08

.35

74S189

74S10

.29

74S195

74S15

.35

74S196

74S30

.29

74S197

74S32

.35

74S226

74S37

.69

74S240

74S38

.69

74S241

74S74

.49

74S244

74S85

.95

74S257

74S86

.35

74S253

74S112

.50

74S258

74S124

2.75

74S280

74S138

.79

74S287

74S140

.55

74S288

74S151

.79

74S299

74S153

.79

74S373

74S157

.79

74S374

74S158

.95

74S471

74S161

1.29

74S571

1.29

3.95

.79

.79

1.95

1.95

1.49

1.49

1.49

3.99

1.49

1.49

1.49

.79

.79

.95

1.95

1.69

1.69

2.95

1.69

1.69

DATA ACQ

INTERFACE

ADC0800 15 55

8T26

1.29

ADC0804 3.49

8T28

1.29

ADC0809 4.49

8T95

.89

AOC0816 14.95

8T96

.89

ADC0817 9.95

8T97

.59

ADC0831 8.95

8T98

.89

DAC0800 4.49

DM8131

2.95

DAC0806 1.95

DP8304

2.29

DAC0808 2.95

DS8833

2.25

DAC1020 8.25

DS8835

1.99

DAC1022 5.95

DS8836

.99

MC1408L8 2.95

DS8B37

1.65 J

36 PIN CENTRONICS

Mill

IDCEN36 RIBBON CABLE

6.95

CEN36 SOLDER CUP

4.95

FEMIU

IDCEN36/F RIBBON CABLE

7.95

CEN36PC RT ANGLE PC MOUNT

4.95

INTERSIL

ICL7106

9.95

ICL7107

12.95

ICL7660

2.95

ICL8038

4.95

ICM7207A

5.95

ICM7208

15.95

VOLTAGEREGULATORS

TO-220 CASE

7805T .49 7905T .59

7808T .49 7908T .59

7812T .49 7912T .59

7815T .49 7915T .59

TO-3 CASE

7805K 1.39 7905K 1.49

7812K 1.39 7912K 1.49

TO-93 CASE

78L05 .49 79L05 .6978L12 .49 79L12 1.49

OTHER VOLTAGE REGS

LM323K 5V 3A TO 3 4.79LM328K Adj. 5A TO 3 3.9578H05K 5V 5A TO 3 7.9578H12K 12V 5A TO-3 8.95. 78P05K 5V 10A TO-3 14.95

LINEAR

IG SOCKETS

1-9!

100+

8 PIN ST

.11

.10

14 PIN ST

.11

.09

16 PIN ST

.12

.10

18 PIN ST

.15

.13

20 PIN ST

.18

.15

22 PIN ST

.15

.12

24 PIN ST

.20

.15

28 PIN ST

.22

.16

40 PIN ST

.30

.22

64 PIN ST

1.95

1.49

ST=SOLDERTAIL

8 PIN WW

.59

.69

14 PIN WW

.69

.52

16 PIN WW

.69

.58

18 PIN WW

.99

.90

20 PIN WW

1.09

.98

22 PIN WW

1.39

1.28

24 PIN WW

1.49

1.35

28 PIN WW

1.69

1.49

40 PIN WW

1.99

1.80

WW=WIREWRAP

16 PIN ZIF

4.95

CALL

24 PIN ZIF

5.95

CALL

28 PIN ZIF

6.95

CALL

40 PIN ZIF

9.95

CALL

ZIF=TEXTOOL

(ZERO INSERTION FORCE)

TL066

.99

LM733

.98

TL071

.69

LM741

.29

TL072

1.09

LM747

.69

TL074

1.95

LM748

.59

TL081

.59

MC1330

7.69

TL082

.99

MC1350

1.19

TL084

1.49

MC1372

6.95

LM301

.34

LM1414

1.59

LM309K

1.25

LM1458

.49

LM311

.59

LM1488

.49

LM311H

.89

LM1489

.49

LM317K

3.49

LM1496

.85

LM317T

.95

LM1812

8.25

LM318

1.49

LM1889

1.95

LM319

1.25

ULN2003

.79

LM320 see7900

XR2206

3.75

LM322

1.65

XR2211

2.95

LM323K

4.79

XR2240

1.95

LM324

.49

MPQ2907

1.95

LM331

3.95

LM2917

1.95

LM334

1.19

CA3046

.89

LM335

1.40

CA3081

.99

LM336

1.75

CA3082

.99

LM337K

3.95

CA3086

.80

LM33SK

3.95

CA3089

1.95

LM339

.59

CA3130E

.99

LM340 50C7800

CA3146

1.29

LM350T

4.60

CA3160

1.19

LF353

.59

MC3470

1.95

LF356

.99

MC3480

8.95

LF357

.99

MC3487

2.95

LM358

.59

LM3900

.49

LM380

.89

LM3909

.98

LM383

1.95

LM3911

2.25

LM386

.89

LM3914

2.39

LM393

.45

MC4024

3.49

LM394H

4.60

MC4044

3.99

TL494

4.20

RC4136

1.25

TL497

3.25

RC4558

.69

NE555

.29

LM13600

1.49

NE556

.49

75107

1.49

NE558

1.29

75110

1.95

NE564

1.95

75150

1.95

LM565

.95

75154

1.95

LM566

1.49

75188

1.25

LM567

.79

75189

1.25

NE570

2.95

75451

.39

NE590

2.50

75452

.39

NE592

.98

75453

.39

LM710

.75

75477

1.29

LM723

.49

75492

.79

H=TO-5 CAN. K

TO-3. T= TO-220

DIP CI

NNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

8

14

16

18

20

22

24

28

40

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLEDST IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxST

.62

.79

.89

1.09

1.29

1.39

1.49

1.69

2.49

HIGH RELIABILITY 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)

ICCxx

.49

.59

.69

.99

.99

.99

.99

1.09

1.49

RIBBON CABLEDIP PLUGS (IDC)

IDPxx

.95

.95

1.75

2.95

DIODES/OPTO/TRANSISTORS

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE D-SUBMINIA TURE BELOW

\ \ II II II II I /AUGAT24ST

D-S

UBMINIfl

TUR

E

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

9

15

19

25

37

50

SOLDER CUP

MALE

DBxxP

.82

.90

1.25

1.25

1.80

3

48

FEMALE

DBxxS

.95

1.15

1.50

1.50

2.35

4

32

RIGHT ANGLEPC SOLDER

MALE

DBxxPR

1.20

1.49

1.95

2.65

FEMALE

DBxxSR

1.25

1.55

2.00

2.79

WIRE WRAP

MALE

DBxxPWW

1.69

2.56

3.89

5.60

FEMALE

DBxxSWW

2.76

4.27

6.84

9.95

IDCRIBBON CABLE

MALE

IDBxxP

2.70

2.95

3.98

5.70

FEMALE

IDBxxS

2.92

3.20

4.33

6.76

HOODS

METAL

MHOODxx

1.25

1.25

1.30

1.30

GREY

HOODxx

.65

.65

.65

.75

.95

ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: INSERT THE NUMBER OT CONTACTS IN THE POSITION

MARKED *»" OF THE "ORDER Br PART NUMBER LISTED.

EXAMPLE: A 15 PIN RIGHT ANGLE MALE PC SOLDER WOULD BE DBI5PR

M0UNTIN6 HARDWARE $1.00

IDC CONNECT!

RS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

10

20

26

34

40

50

SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxS

.82

1.29

1.68

2.20

2.58

3.24

RIGHT ANGLE SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxSR

.85

1.35

1.76

2.31

272

3.39

WW HEADER

IDHxxW

1.86

2.98

3.84

4.50

5.28

6.63

RIGHT ANGLE WW HEADER

IDHxxWR

2.05

3.28

4.22

4.45

4.80

7.30

RIBBON HEADER SOCKET

IDSxx

.79

.99

1.39

1.59

1.99

2.25

RIBBON HEADER

IDMxx

5.50

6.25

7.00

7.50

8.50

RIBBON EDGE CARD

IDExx

1.75

2.25

2.65

2.75

3.80

3.95

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE DSUBMINIATURE ABOVE

HARD TO FINDSNAPABLE" HEADERS

CAN BE SNAPPED APART TO

MAKE ANY SIZE HEADER.

ALL WITH .1" CENTERS

1x40 STRAIGHT LEAD .99

1x40 RIGHTANGLE 1.49

2x40 STRAIGHT LEAD 2.49

.2x40 RIGHTANGLE 2.99

SHORTINGBLOCKS

GOLD

CONTACTS

SPACED

5/$1.00

I have dealt with JDR for years now, but I was rece:lured away by other companies promising better servand prices. None of these companies were ab.your service and low prices. I "m happy to say thatback to stay!

I think that when a company is able to servecustomers so well, it deserves to be congratulatedlook foeward to deal ing wi th you in the future .

Yours truly, George To

1N751

.25

4N26

.69

1N7S9

.25

4N27

.69

1N4148

25/1.00

4N28

.69

1N4004

10/1.00

4N33

.89

1N5402

.25

4N37

1.19

KBP04

.55

MCT-2

.59

KBU8A

.95

MCT-6

1.29

MDA990-2

.35

TIL-111

.99

N2222

.25

2N3906

.10

PN2222

.10

2N4401

.25

2N2905

.50

2N4402

.25

2N2907

.25

2N4403

.25

2N3055

.79

2N6045

1.75

2N3904

.10

TIP31

.49

LED DISPLAYS

FND-3571359)

COM CATHODE

.362'

1.25

FND-5001503)

COM CATHODE

.5"

1.49

FND-5071510)

COM ANODE

.5"

1.49

MAN-72

COM ANODE

3"

.99

MAN-74

COM CATHODE

.3"

.99

MAN-8940

COM CATHODE

.8"

1.99

TIL-313

COM CATHODE

.3"

.45

HP5082-7760

COM CATHODE

43"

1.29

TIL-311 4x7 HEXW/LOGIC

.270'

9.95

HP5082-7340 4x7 HEXW/LOGIC

.290'

7.95

DIFFUSED LEDS

1-99

100-UP

JUMBO RED

T1»/4

.10

.09

JUMBO GREEN

T1V.

.14

.12

JUMBO YELLOW

T1V,

.14

.12

MOUNTING HDW

T1V.

.10

.09

MINI RED

T1

.10

.09

SWITCHES

SPST MINI-TOGGLE ON-ON

1.25

DPDT MINI-TOGGLE ON-ON

1.50

DPDT MINI-TOGGLE ONOFFON

1.75

SPST MINI-PUSHBUTTON NO.

.39

SPST MINI-PUSHBUTTON N.C.

.39

SPST TOGGLE ON OFF

.49

BCD OUTPUT 10 POSITION 6 PIN DIP

1.95

DIP SWITCHES

4 POSITION .85 7 POSITION

.95

5 POSITION .90 8 POSITION

.95

6 POSITION .90 10 POSITION

1.29

RIBBON CAE

LE

CONTACTS

SINGLE COLOR

COLOR CODED

1'

10'

1'

10'

10

.18

1.60

.30

2.75

16

.28

2.50

.48

4.40

20

.36

3.20

.60

5.50

25

.45

4.00

.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

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES © copyright 1986 jdr microdevices

IUNE I986

ORDER TOLL FREE 800-538-5000

BARGAIN HUNTERS CORNER

__^10/$6.90

CONNECTOR

100/$S2 10/$7.90

25 PIN FEMALE D-SUB CONNECTOR

HOOD 25

IDE34

6/U31

ROB25

^f0/$6.90

9 10/$14.90

tor : s

AUGAT IfJWW TO0/S49 10/$6.90

16 PIN WIRE WRAP IC SOCKET MACHINE PIN

.1uf DISC 1OOO/$29.50 100/S3.95

. 1 uf 16 VOLT CERAMIC DISC CAPACITORS

SPECIALS END 6/30/86

PAGE WIRE WRAP WIRE

PRECUT ASSORTMENT

IN ASSORTED COLORS S27.50

lOOoa: 5.5". 6.0", 6.5". 7.0"250ea: 2.5", 4.5". 5.0"500aa: 3.0". 3.5", 4.0"

SPOOLS

100 feet S4.30500 feet SI 3.25

250 feet $7.251000fBetS21.95

Please specify color:Blue, Black, Yellow or Red

EMI FILTER

I MANUFACTURED

BY CORCOM' LOW COST 1

I FITS LC-HP BELOW■ 6 AMP 120/240 VOLT

6 FOOT LINE CORDS

LC-2 2 CONDUCTOR .39

LC-3 2 CONDUCTOR .99LC-HP 3 CONDUCTOR WSTD

FEMALE SOCKET 1.49

MUFFIN FANS

3.15" SQ3.63" SO., 3.18" SQ

ROTRON 14.95

ETRI 14.95

MASUSHITA 16.95

WIRE WRAP PROTOTYPE CARDS

FR-4 EPOXY GLASS LAMINATEWITH GOLD-PLATED EDGE-CARD FINGERS

IBM-PR2 .___

IBM

BOTH CARDS HAVE SILK SCREENED LEGENDS

AND INCLUDES MOUNTING BRACKET

IBM-PR1 WITH *5V AND GROUND PLANE ..,.$27.96

IBM-PR2 AS ABOVE WITH DECODING LAYOUT S29.95

S-100

P100-1 BARE - NO FOIL PADS S15.15

P100-2 HORIZONTAL BUS S21.80

P100-3 VERTICAL BUS $21.80

PI 00-4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE S22.75

APPLE

P500-1 BARE - NO FOIL PADS S15.15

P500-3 HORIZONTAL BUS $22.75

P500-4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE $21.80

. 7060-45 FOR APPLE lie AUX SLOT $30.00

SOCKET-WRAP I.D.™

' SLIPS OVER WIRE WRAP PINS

• IDENTIFIES PIN NUMBERS ON WRAPSIDE OF BOARD

• CAN WRITE ON PLASTIC; SUCH AS IC IIPINS PARTS PCK. OF

8 IDWRAP08 10

14 IDWRAP14 10

16 IDWRAJM6 10

18 IDWRAP18 5

20 IDWRAP 20 5

22 IDWRAP 22 5

24 IDWRAP 24 5

28 IDWRAP 28 5

40 IDWRAP 40 5

PLEASE ORDER BY NUMBER OFPACKAGES (PCK. OF|

CAPACITORS

TANTALUM

15V .35 .47(jf 35V .45

15V .70 1.0 35V .45

15V .80 2.2 35V .65

15V 1.35 4.7 35V .85

35V .40 10 35V 1.00

FRAME STYLETRANSFORMERS

2 AMP 5.95

4 AMP 7.95

8 AMP 10.952 AMP 7.95 ,

I.Oflf| 6.810

10p(

I 2227

, 33

I 4768100220560

.01/if.047f/f

50V .0550V .05

DISC

50V50V50V50V50V50V50V

680

.001/if

.0022

.005

.01

.02

50V .05

50V .05

50V .05

50V .05

50V .07

50V .07

50V .07

12V .10

MONOLITHIC

50V .14 .1(/f 50V

50V .15 Al^ 50V

ELECTROLYTIC

V

2.2

4.7

10I 17

100

220I 470

2200.4700

RADIAL25V35V50V50V35V16V35V25V16V

.15

.15.18

tyf

10

22

47

100

220

470

1000

2200

4700

AXIAL50V50V16V50V35V25V50V16V16V

.25.30.50.60.70

DATARASE EPROM ERASER $34.95

• ERASES 2 IN 10 MINUTES

• COMPACT-NO DRAWER

• THIN METAL SHUTTERPREVENTS UV LIGHTFROM ESCAPING

V« WATT RESISTORS

5% CARBON FILM ALL STANDARD VALUESFROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG. OHM

10 PCS samevalue .05 100 PCS same value .02

i 50 PCS samevalue .025 1000 PCS samevalue .015 ,

RESISTOR NETWORKS

SIP

10 PIN

9 RESISTOR

.69

SIP

8 PIN

7 RESISTOR

.59

DIP

16 PIN

8 RESISTOR

1.09

DIP

16 PIN

15 RESISTOR

1.09

DIP

14 PIN

7 RESISTOR

.99

.DIP

14 PIN

13 RESISTOR

.99

r SPECIALS ON BYPASS CAPACITORS "

.01 lit CERAMIC DISC 100/S5.00.01 /it MONOLITHIC 100/510.00.1 /it CERAMIC DISC 100/S6.50.1 /it MONOLITHIC 100/S12.50

SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES

$89.95

PS-IBM

. FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE

• 135 WATTS

• *5V(S>15A, *12V(f»4.2A PS-IBM-5V@>.5A, -12V@.5A

• ONE YEAR WARRANTY

PS-IBM-150 $99.95

■ FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE

■ 150 WATTS

• •12V@5.2A, *5V@16A-12V @ .5A, -5V @ .5A PS-130

■ ONE YEAR WARRANTY

PS-130

$99.95

130 WATTS

SWITCH ON REAR

FOR USE IN OTHER IBM

TYPE MACHINES

90 DAY WARRANTY

PSA

$49.95

• USE TO POWER APPLE TYPESYSTEMS

• •SV(n<HA, *12V(iB2.5A-5V @ .5A, -12V @ .5A

. APPLE POWER CONNECTOR

PS-SPL200 $49.95

• *5V@25A, +12V@ 3.5A-5V@1A, -12V @ 1A

■ ULAPPROVED

i ALUMINUM ENCLOSURE

BOOKSbv STEVE CIARCIA

BIULD YOUR OWN

Z80 COMPUTER $19.95

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 1 S17.95

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 2 $18.95

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 3 $18.95

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 4 $18.95

.CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 5 $19.95

MICROCOMPUTER

HARDWARE HANDBOOK

FROM ELCOMP $14.95

OVER 800 PAGES OF DATASHEETSON THE MOST COMMONLY USEDICs. INCLUDES TTL. CMOS. 74LS00.MEMORY. CPUs. MPU SUPPORT.I AND MUCH MORE!

WIS

HI SOLDERL

ESSB

READBOf

RDS

PARTNUMBER

DIMENSIONS

DISTRIBUTIONSTRIPIS)

TIEPOINTS

TERMINALSTRIP(S|

TIEPOINTS

BINDINGPOSTS

PRICE

WBU-D

.38 x 6.50"

1

100

2.95

WBU-T

1.38 x 6 50"

1

630

6.95

WBU-204-3

3.94 K 8.45"

1

100

2

1260

2

17.95

WBU-204

5.13x8.45"

4

400

2

1260

3

24.95

WBU-206

6.88 x 9.06"

5

500

3

1890

4

29.95

WBU-208

8.25 x 9.45"

7

700

4

2520

4

39.95

LITHIUM BATTERY

AS USED IN CLOCK CIRCUITS

3 VOLT BATTERY $3.95

. BATTERY HOLDER $1.49 .

NEW EDITION!

1986IG MASTER

THE INDUSTRY STANDARD

$129.95

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE LOCATED AT 1256 SOUTH BASCOM AVENUE IN SAN JOSE

||—^|-) Ift »■ ■ ■ HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

^Jl J|*^ IVllCrOQGVICGS PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling indue

1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128 tZXSJ^^.&SES^ZfiS^Z

Toll Free 800-538-5000 • (408) 995-5430

FAX (408) 275-8415 • TeleX 171-110 substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to ph

© COPYRIGHT 1986 JDR MICRODEVICES

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling Indue

Ground and S3.50 lor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign orders may reqi.

additional shipping charges - please contact our sales department tor the amount CA.

residents must Include applicable sales lax. All merchandise is wan-anted lor 90 days

unless otherwise slated. Prices are subject to change without notice. We —

responsible for typographical errors. We reserve the right lo Mr "

substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to pri

442 BYTE- |UNE I?

Inquiry 175

PARTIAL LISTING ONLY—CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG

xakata

120 DPS DOT MATRIX PRINTER

DISK DRIVES

FOR APPLE COMPUTERS

AM 50$99.95

r*Bt?\

• Vi HT, DIRECT DRIVE

I 100% APPLE COMPATIBLE

I SIX MONTH WARRANTY

BAL-500$129.95

■ TEAC MECHANISM-DIRECT DRIVE

• 100% APPLE COMPATIBLE

• FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY

AM 35$129.95

• FULL HT SHUGART MECHANISM

• DIRECT REPLACEMENT FOR APPLEDISK II

• SIX MONTH WARRANTY

MAC535$249.95

• 3.5" ADD-ON DISK DRIVE

• 100% MACINTOSH COMPATABLE

• DOUBLE SIDED 800K BYTE STORAGE

• HIGH RELIABILITY DRIVE

HAS AUTO-EJECT MECHANISM

• FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY

A0-3G$139.95

rgBB

. 100% APPLE lie COMPATIBLE.READY TO PLUG IN, W/SHIELDEDCABLE & MOLDED 19 PINCONNECTOR

. SIX MONTH WARRANTY

DISK DRIVE ACCESSORIES

FDD CONTROLLER CARD S49.95lie ADAPTOR CABLE $19.95

ADAPTS STANDARD APPLE DRIVESFOR USE WITH APPLE lie

$79.95

CASE WITH KEYBOARDFOR APPLE TYPE MOTHERBOARD

• USER DEFINED FUNCTION KEYS. NUMERIIC KEYPAD WITH

CURSOR CONTROL

• CAPS LOCK • AUTO-REPEAT

KEYBOARD-AP $49.95

. REPLACEMENT FOR APPLE II

KEYBOARD■ CAPS LOCK KEY. AUTO-REPEAT. ONE KEY ENTRY OF BASIC

OR CP/M COMMANDS

EXTENDER CARDS

IBM-PC

$45.00

IBM-AT

$68.00

APPLE II

$45.00

APPLE lie

$45.00

MULTIBUS

$86.00^

APPLE COMPATIBLEINTERFACE CARDS

EPROM PROGRAMMER $59.95

MODELRP525

DUPLICATE OR BURN ANYSTANDARD 27xx SERIES EPROMEASY TO USE MENU-DRIVENSOFTWARE IS INCLUDEDMENU SELECTION FOR 2716.2732, 2732A, 2764 AND 27128HIGH SPEED WRITE ALGORITHMLED INDICATORS FOR ACTIVITYNO EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLYNEEDEDONE YEAR WARRANTY

M. 3WAY SWITCH BONES

SERIAL OR PARALLEL

CONNECTS 3 PRINTERS TO ONE

COMPUTER OR VICE VERSA

ALL LINES SWITCHES

HIGH QUALITY ROTARY SWITCH MOUNTED

ON PCB

GOLD CONTACTS

STURDY METAL ENCLOSURE

SWITCH-3P CENTRONICS PARALLEL $99.95SWITCH 3S RS232 SERIAL $99.95

16KRAMCARD

$39.95

• FULL TWO YEAR WARRANTY

• EXPAND YOUR 48K APPLE TO64K

- USE IN PLACE OF APPLELANGUAGE CARD

BARE PC CURD W/IMSIRUCIIONS $9.95

$99.95

QUICKLY TESTS MANY COMMON

ICs

DISPLAYS PASS OR FAIL

ONE YEAR WARRANTY

TESTS: 4000 SERIES CMOS,74HC SERIES CMOS,7400, 74LS, 74L, 74H & 74S

300B MODEM $49.95

FOR APPLE OR IBM

INCLUDES ASCII PRO-EZ SOFTWARE

' FCC APPROVED

. BELL SYSTEMS103 COMPATIBLE

> INCLUDES AC ADAPTOR

> AUTO-DIAL

> DIRECT CONNECT

, CABLE FOR APPLE lie SI 4.95 .

JOYSTICK CR40i $7.95

FOR ATARI 400, 800, 2600,VIC 20/64 AND APPLE lie

DISKFILE

HOLDS 70 5V4" DISKETTES

v3.5" DISKFILE holds 40 $9«5,

POWER STRIP

-ULAPPROVED• 15A CIRCUITBREAKER

$12.95

«%%%%%*

Ml PRINTER BUFFERS

FREES COMPUTER FOR OTHER TASKSWHILE PRINTING LONG DOCUMENTSSTAND-ALONE DESIGN; WORKS WITH ANYCOMPUTER OR PRINTERALL MODELS FEATURE PRINT PAUSEMEMORY CHECK. GRAPHICS CAPABILITY

SP120P PARALLEL $139.95

• 64K UPGRADABLE TO 256K■ LED INDICATOR SHOWS VOLUME OF DATAIN BUFFER

SP120S RS232 SERIAL $159.95

64K UPGRADABLE TO 256K

6 SELECTBALE BAUD RATES, FROM

600B-19.200B

SP110P PARALLEL $249.95

64K UPGRADABLE TO 512K

SPOOLS OUTPUT OF UP TO 3 COMPUTERS

LED BARGRAPH DISPLAYS AMOUNT OF

DATA IN BUFFER

RESET FUNCTION CLEARS

DATA IN BUFFER

REPEAT FUNCTION CAN RM Hf

PRODUCE MULTIPLE

COPIES OF A DOCUMENT

NASHUA DISKETTES DEALS

5V4" soft sector

DS/DD WITH HUB RINGS

$990 690ea 590ea

BOX OF 10 BULK QTV 50 BOLK OTV 250

NASHUA DISKETTES WERE JUDGED

TO HAVE THE HIGHEST POLISH

AND RECORDED AMPLITUDE OF ANY

DISKETTES TESTED ACCORDING TO

"COMPARING FLOPPY DISKS", BYTE 9/84

DISKETTES

NASHUA 5V«"

N-MD2DN-MD2FN-MD2H

DS/DD SOFTDS/QUAD SOFTDS'HD FOR AT

NASHUA 8"

S9.90$34.95S49.95

N-FD1N-FD2D

SS/DDSOFTDS/DD SOFT

NASHUA 3.5"

$27.95S34.95

N-3.5SS

3.5" SS/DD FOR MAC

VERBATIM 5V4"

S32.95

V-MD1DV-MD2DV-MD110O

SS/DDSOFTDS/DD SOFTSS/DD 10 SECTOR HARD

$2395$29.95$23.95

MODEL

SP-1200

$169.95

■ EPSON/IBM COMPATIBLE

> 9-WIRE PRINTHEAD

1 120 CPS-BIDIRECTIOIMAL, 80 COL.- FRICTION AND TRACTOR FEED

> PROPORTIONAL SPACING

1 CENTRONICS PARALLEL INTERFACE1 8 CHARACTER SETS AND GRAPHICS

6 FOOT IBM PRINTER CABLE $9.95 I

I REPLACEMENT RIBBON CARTRIDGE $11.95 I

51/4" FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

TEAC FD-55B 'A HT DS/DD (FOR IBM) SI 09.95

TEACFD-55F Vi HT DS/QUAD (FOR IBM| $109.95TEAC FD-55GFV Vi HT DS/HD (FOR IBM AT) $154.95

TANDON TM100-2 DS/DD IFOR IBM) S99.95

TANDON TM50-2 V, HT DS/DD (FOR IBM) S89.95

MPI-B52 DS/DD (FOR IBM) S89.95

QUME QT-142 Vi HT DS/DD IFOR IBM) S79.95

8'; FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

FD 100-8 SS/DD (SA/801 EOUIV)FD 200-8 DS/DD (SA/851R EOUIV)

$119.00$159.00

DISK DRIVE ACCESSORIES

TEAC SPECIFICATION MANUAL $5.00

TEAC MAINTENANCE MANUAL $25.00

Vi HT MOUNTING HARDWARE $2.95 j

MOUNTING RAILS FOR IBM AT $4.95

"Y" POWER CABLE FOR BV4" FDDs $2.95

5V«" FDD POWER CONNECTORS $1.19

TEAC FD 55

TANDON TM100-2

DISK DRIVE ENCLOSURES

GAB-APPLE $24.95

APPLE TYPE CABINET W/OUT POWER SUPPLY

CAB-1FH5 $69.95

FULL HT 5V4" BEIGE CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

CAB-2SV5 $49.95 I

DUAL SLIMLINE 5'/." CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

CAB-2SVB vertical $209.95

DUAL SLIMLINE 8" CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

CAB-2FHB horizintal $219.95 |

DUAL FULL HT 8" CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

TEST EQUIPMENT FROM JDR INSTRUMENTSDIGITAL MULTIMETER PEN DPM-1000

$54.95

AUTO RANGING, POLARITY AND DECIMAL!

, LARGE 3.5 DIGITDISPLAY

DATA HOLD SWITCHFREEZES READING

* FAST, AUDIBLE CON-TINUITY TEST

« LOW BATTERYINDICATOR

* OVERLOAD PROTEC-TION

20MHZ DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPE35MHZ DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPE

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE OSCILLOSCOPES, SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 41.

MODEL 2000MODEL 3500

$389.00$549.00

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES © copyright 1986 jdr microdevices

inquiry 175

JUNE I986 * BYTE 443

BUILD A COMPLETE 256K XT SYSTEM—$717

SEAGATE ST-225 20MB HARD DISK SYSTEM 1 CRT MONITORS FOR ALL APPLICATIONS

449.00

INCLUDES HALF LENGTH HD| CONTROLLER. CABLES, MOUNT-ING HARDWARE AND INSTRUC-TIONS. ALL DRIVES ARE PRE-TESTED AND COME WITH A ONEI YEAR WARRANTY.

XT COMPATIBLEMOTHERBOARD

$159.00

• 4.77 MH2 8088 CPU. OPTIONAL8087 CO-PROCESSOR

« 8 EXPANSION SLOTS■ OK RAM INSTALLED, EXPANDABLETO 640K ONBOARD MEMORY

• ALL ICs SOCKETED HIGHESTQUALITY PC BOARD

• ACCEPTS 2764 OR 27128 ROMS

PRO-BIOS $29.95

IBM COMPATIBLE INTERFACE CARDS

ALL WITH A ONE YEAR WARRANTY

MULTI I/O FLOPPY CARD $129.95

PERFECT FOR THE 640K MOTHERBOARD

• 2 DRIVE FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER■ 1 RS232 SERIAL PORT; OPTIONAL 2nd

SERIAL PORT< PARALLEL PRINTER PORT

• GAME PORT

• CLOCK/CALENDAR

• SOFTWARE: CLOCK UTILITIES,RAMDISK. SPOOLER

OPTIONAL SERIAL PORT JI5.95

awri

LUXOR

HI-RES RGB MONITOR

MODEL J90-9528

■ DIGITAL RGB-IBM COMPATIBLE

■ 14"SCREEN

■ 16 TRUE COLORS

• 25 MH* BANDWIDTH'RESOLUTION > 640x262

• 31mm DOT PITCH

• CABLE FOR IBM PC INCLUDED

SAKATA

COMPOSITE COLOR

MODEL SC-100TOP RATED FOR APPLE1 3" COMPOSITE VIDEORESOLUTION: 280H x 300VINTERNAL AUDIO AMPONE YEAR WARRANTY

' I ■

CENTER SYSTEMS

MONOCHROME

MODEL KLM-1211■ IBM COMPATIBLE TTL INPUT

• 12" NON-GLARE SCREEN

- P39 GREEN PHOSPHORUS

• VERY HIGH RESOLUTION:25 MH* BANDWIDTH1100 LINES ICENTER)

AMBER VERSION $109.95

$299.95 $169.95 $99.95

MULTIFUNCTION! CARD

ALL THE FEATURES OF AST'S 6 PACK PLUS AT HALF THE PRICEn.^.~~v-*fms*mm±im •« i—■»■ ' clock/calendar

Ml

$119.95

• 0-384K RAM' SERIAL PORT

• PARALLEL PORT

• GAME PORT

• SOFTWARE INCLUDED

PRINTER CABLE64K RAM UPGRADE

COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTOR

$9.95

9IS1071

$99.95

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH IBM COLOR CARD

■ 4 VIDEO INTERFACES: RGB,COMPOSITE COLOR, HIRESCOMPOSITE MONOCHROME.CONNECTOR FOR RF MODULATOR

• COLOR GRAPHICS MODE: 320 x 200

• MONO GRAPHICS MODE: 640 x 200

■ LIGHT PEN INTERFACE

BUILD YOUR OWN 256KKT COMPATIBLE SYSTEM

XT MOTHERBOARD $159.95

PRO-BIOS $29.95

256R RAM $26.55

130 WATT POWER SUPPLY $89.95FLIP-TOP CASE $49.95

DKM-2000 KEYBOARD $79.951/2 HEIGHT QUME DRIVE $79.95FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER $49.95MONOCHROME ADAPTOR $49.95MONOCHROME MONITOR $99.95

TOTAL $716.10

IBM STYLECOMPUTER CASE *a

AN ATTRACTIVE STEEL CASE

WITH A HINGED LID FITS THE

POPULAR PC/XT COMPATIBLE

MOTHERBOARDS

• SWITCH CUT-OUT ON SIDE FOR PC XT

STYLE POWER SUPPLYi CUT-OUT FOR 8 EXPANSION SLOTSi ALL HARDWARE INCLUDED

MONITOR STAND

TILTS AND SWIVELS

ONLY $12.95

INTER CABLE

N \

• DB25 TO

CENTRONICS £n gr

• SHIELDED CABLE 03.30

$49.95

MONOCHROME GRAPHICS CARD

$119.95

FULL Y COMPA TIBLE W/IBM MONOCHROME ADAPTOR & HERCULES GRAPHICS

• LOTUS COMPATIBLE

■ TEXT MODE: 80 x 25

■ GRAPHICS MODE: 720 x 348

• PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE

• OPTIONAL SERIAL PORT S19.95

MONOCHROME ADAPTOR

$49.95

ANOTHER FANTASTIC VALUE FROM JDR!■ IBM COMPATIBLE TTL OUTPUT • 720 x 350 PIXEL DIPLAV

PLEASE NOTE: THIS CARD WILL NOT RUN LOTUS GRAPHICS AND DOES NOT INCLUDE APARALLEL PORT

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE ADAPTOR

$49.95

IBM COMPATIBLE KEYBOARDSDKM-2000 $79.95 IBM-5151 $99,95

"5150" STYLE KEYBOARD

FULLY IBM COMPATIBLE

LED STATUS INDICATORS FOR CAPS 8.

NUMBER LOCK

83 KEY - SAME LAYOUT AS

IBM PC XT KEYBOARD

• INTERFACES UP TO 4 STANDARDFDDsTO IBM PC OR COMPATIBLES

• INCLUDES CABLE FOR TWOINTERNAL DRIVES

» STANDARD DB37 FOR EXTERNALDRIVES

• RUNS QUAD DENSITY DRIVESWHEN USED WITH JFORMAT

EASYDATA 1200 BAUD MODEM FOR IBM

INCLUDES PC TALK III COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE

> NEW 10 INCH CARD' HAYES COMPATIBLE

> AUTO DIAL/AUTO ANSWER

> AUTO RE-DIAL ON BUSY

> INCLUDES SERIAL PORT!

> ONE YEAR WARRANTY

$169.95

#JDR Microdevices

POWER SUPPLY

NOW ONLY $09.95

FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE135 WATTS

>5V @ 15A. 112V (ffl 4.2A-5V @) 5A, -12V <a> .5A

- REPLACEMENT FOR KEVTRONICSKB-5151'"

• SEPARATE CURSOR & NUMERICKEYPAD

• CAPS LOCK & NUMBER LOCKINDICATORS

• IMPROVED KEYBOARD LAYOUT

DISK DRIVESTANDON TM50-2

$69.95

* Vi HT DS/DD

* IBM COMPATIBLE

* EXTREMELY QUIET!

TEAC FD-55B DS/DD $109.95

TEACFD-55F DS/OUAD $109.95

TEAC FD-55G DS/HD $154.95

QUME QT-142 DS/DD $79.95

MOUNTING HARDWARE $2.95

150 WATT MODEL $99.95 at/rails $4.95,

1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128Toll Free 800-538-5000 • (408) 995-5430 • FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

444 BYTE- IUNE 1986

) COPYRIGHT 1986 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry 176

DISKS AND DOWNLOADS

Ordering Disks of BYTE Listings

Listings that accompany BYTE articles are availableon disk in a variety of formats. For each BYTEissue, beginning with December 1985, all thelistings mentioned in that issue are on that month'sdisk. There's no need to request individual listingsor to send additional fees; the cost per disk coversan entire month's listings. To order a disk of theselistings for noncommercial purposes, indicate theissue and the kind of disk on the form below.Enclose a check or money order in the correctamount made out to BYTE Listings. We cannot ac-cept credit card orders at this time. All pricesinclude postage. Send requests to BYTE Listings,One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458.Program Listings may also be downloaded viaBYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764.

BYTE issue:

COMMON 5'/4-INCH FORMATS

(All cost $5 per disk in North America, S6 in

Europe and South America, $7 in Asia, Africa, and

Australia.)

□ Apple II 554-inch DOS 3.3

□ Apple II 5/4-inch ProDOS

□ Hewlett-Packard 12 5

□ IBM PC

□ Kaypro 2 CP/M

□ Texas Instruments Professional

□ TRS-80 Model III

□ TRS-80 Model 4

□ Zenith Z-I00

COMMON 3'/2-INCH FORMATS

(All cost $6 per disk in North America, S7 in

Europe and South America, $8 in Asia, Africa, and

Australia.)

□ Apple Macintosh

□ Atari 520ST

□ Commodore Amiga

□ Data General/One

□ Hewlett-Packard 150

CP/M STANDARD 8-INCH FORMAT

($6 per disk in North America, $7 in Europe andSouth America, $8 in Asia, Africa, and Australia.)

□ Single-sided single-density

OTHER FORMATS

Due to the diversity of requests and the customwork involved, there will be some delay in fulfillingthese requests. (All cost $6 per disk in NorthAmerica, $7 in Europe and South America, $8 inAsia, Africa, and Australia.)Size Machine

□ 8-inch

□ 5/4-inch

□ 3/2-inch

SEND DISK TO:

Name

Street

City

State or Province.Country

Postal Code

Check or money order enclosed for $_

Bulletin Boards in Canada

Listed below are some computer bulletin boardsthat carry program listings from BYTE. Programsare for noncommercial use in connection withBYTE articles only. Some BBSs may charge anannual maintenance fee, and you must pay yourown telephone charges.

Western Canadian Distribution Center (3420 48thSt., Edmonton, Alberta T6L 3R5) will be supplyinglistings to its member bulletin-board systems.

Edmonton, Alberta, (403) 454-6093

Meadowlark, Alberta, (403) 43 5-6579

Montreal, Quebec, PComm Systems,(514) 989-9450

Prince George, British Columbia, (604) 562-9519

Regina, Saskatchewan, (306) 586-5 585

Toronto, Ontario, Epson Club of Toronto (EPCOT),(416) 635-9600

Winnipeg, Manitoba, (204) 452-5529

In addition, arrangements for BYTEnet Listings havebeen made with one or more system operators inthe following nations: Australia, Denmark, France,Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, The Netherlands,Nigeria, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden,Switzerland. United Kingdom, and West Germany.Contact us at (603) 924-9281 for an up-to-date list. ■

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 445

BOMB

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box

ARTICLE* PAGE ARTICLE AUTHOR(S)

1 9 Microbytes staff

2 29 What's New staff

3 50 Ask BYTE/Circuit Cellar Feedback Ciarcia

4 63 Book Reviews Swearingen

Graves.CzarnikLent

5 85 Product Description:

The Macintosh Plus Robinson

6 92 Programming Project: A Simple

File-Indexing Scheme Webster

7 107 Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Adding

SCSI to the SB 180 Computer,

Part 2: Bus Phases Ciarcia

8 117 Sorting ProDOS Directories Silvestri

9 131 Decoding MacPaint on the IBM PC . Anacker

10 137 Programming Insight:

Hilbert Curves Made Simple Ackerman

11 145 The Challenge of Music Software Powell

12 155 Digital Music Synthesis Moog

13 171 Digital Sampling on

the Apple Macintosh Yavelow

QUANTITY AND QUALITY

This month we are revising the award system. Our present method, whichis based on quantity of points earned by weighting each vote cast, willcontinue. Each excellent vote is weighted at 3 points. 2 for good, I forfair, and 0 for poor. In addition, we are instituting an award for highestaverage vote, which removes quantity as a factor in the voting. The author(not a staff member) with the highest average score will receive S50.The Product Preview of The Atari I040ST" by BYTE editors PhillipRobinson and Ion R, Edwards is the winner from the March BYTE. Insecond place. According to Webster. Bruce Webster discusses "68000

ARTICLE*

1415161718192021

2223

24

25

26

27

28

29

PAGE ARTICLE AUTHORIS)

Musical Fractals Dodge, Bahn

A MIDI Project Kubicky

MIDI Programming Swearingen

The Atari 520ST lensen

Compaq Deskpro 286 Miastkowski

Tele-286 Rash

Mix C Grehan

Four MIDI Interfaces Powell,

GrehanConcertWare+ and SongPainter . . BernardoThe Kurzweil 250

Digital Synthesizer Morgan

Computing at Chaos Manor:

Color and CP/M Pournelle

BYTE U.K.:

Modem Mysteries Revealed Pountain

Applications Only: Upgrade Fever. ShapiroBYTE Japan:

New Tools. New Challenges Raike

According to Webster:

Storage for the Masses Webster

Best of BIX BlXen

185199211233243251257265

273

279

319

329339

347

367

Wars: Round I. Finding the Titanic'' wins third, netting for its authors,Marti Spalding and Ben Dawson, the SI00 bonus. In fourth is BruceWebster's Programming Project. "A Simple Windowing System. Part I:Basic Principles ' Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar on "Real-Time Clocks: AView Toward the Future" came in fifth place. And winners of S50 areSteve A. Hersee and Dan Knopoff for "An ANSI Standard for the CLanguage."

This month. Marti Spalding and Ben Dawson are the first recipientsof the new S50 award for quality Congratulations to all.

BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF:

Dennis J. Riley, Advertising Sales Manager, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, tel. (603) 924-9281

NEW ENGLAND

ME. NH. VT. MA. Rl.

EASTERN CANADA

Paul McPherson Ir. (6171 262-1160

McGraw-Hill Publications

575 Boylston Street

Boston. MA 02116

ATLANTIC

NY. NYC. CT. Nl (NORTH!

Leah G. Rabinowitz (2121 512-2096

McGraw-Hill Publications

1221 Avenue of the Americas—

39th Floor

New York. NY 10020

Dick McGurk 12031 968-7111McGraw-Hill PublicationsBuilding A—3rd Floor777 Long Ridge RoadStamford. CT 06902

EAST

PA (EAST!. Nl (SOUTH!.MD. VA. W.VA. DE. DC.Daniel Ferro (2151 496-3833McGraw-Hill PublicationsThree ParkwayPhiladelphia. PA 19102

SOUTHEAST

NC. SC. GA. FL, AL. TNMaggie M. Dorvee (404) 252-0626McGraw-Hill Publications4170 Ashford-Dunwoody Road-Suite 420Atlanta. GA 30319

MIDWEST

IL, MO, KS, IA, ND. SD. MN, Wl. NB, IN

Bob Denmead 131,2] 751-3740

McGraw-Hill Publications

Blair Building

645 North Michigan Ave.

Chicago. II. 60611

GREAT LAKES, OHIO REGION

Ml. OH. PA (ALLEGHENY!. KY.ONTARIO. CANADARenee Navarro (3 I 31 352-9760McGraw-Hill Publications4000 Town Center-Suite 770Southfield, Ml 48075

SOUTHWEST, ROCKY MOUNTAIN

UT. CO. WY. OK. TX. AR, MS, LAKevin Harold 12141 458-2400McGraw-Hill PublicationsPrestonwood Tower—Suite 9075151 BeltlineDallas, TX 75240

SOUTH PACIFIC

SOUTHERN CA AZ. NM, LAS VEGASlack Anderson 17141 557-6292McGraw-Hill Publications300! Red Hill Ave.Building #1—Suite 222Costa Mesa. CA 92626

Karen Niles (2131 480-5243, 487-1 160McGraw-Hill Publications3333 Wllshlre Boulevard #407Los Angeles. CA 90010

NORTH PACIFIC

HI. WA, OR. ID. MT. NORTHERN CA

NV (except LAS VEGAS). W. CANADA

Mike Klssebeith 14 I 5| 362-4600

McGraw-Hill Publications

425 Battery Street

San Francisco. CA 94111

Bill McAfee 14 I 5| 349-4100McGraw-Hill Publications951 Mariner's Island Blvd-3rd FloorSan Mateo CA 94404

International Advertising Sales Staff:

Mr. Hans CsokorPublimediaReisnerstrasse 61A-1037 Vienna. Austria222 75 76 84

Mrs. Gurit GepnerMcGraw-Hill Publishing Co.PO Box 2156Bat Yam. 59121 Israel3 866 561 321 39

Mr. Fritz KrusebeckerMcGraw-Hill Publishing Co.Liebigstrasse 19D-6000 Frankfurt/Main IWest Germany69 72 01 81

Mrs. Maria SarmientoPedro Teixeira 8. OH 320Iberia Mart 1Madrid 4. SpainI 45 52 891

Mr Andrew Karnig

Andrew Karnig & Associates

Finnbodavagen

S-I3I 31 Nacka. Sweden

8-44 0005

Mr. Alain Faure

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

128 Faubourg Saint Honore

75008 Paris

France

(II 47-20-33-42

Mr Arthur SchefferMcGraw-Hill Publishing Co34 Dover St.London WIX 3RAEngland 01 493 1451

Manuela CapuanoMcGraw-Hill Publishing Co.Via Flavio Baracchini 120123 Milan. Italy02 86 90 617

Seavex Ltd.

400 Orchard Road. * 10-01

Singapore 092 3

Republic of Singapore

Tel: 734-9790

Telex- RS355'i9 SEAVEX

WEST COAST SURPLUSAND RETAIL ACCOUNTS

Tom Harvey 18051 964-85773463 State Street-Suite 256Santa Barbara. CA 93105

The Buyer's Mart

Karen Burgess 16031 924-3754BYTE Publications70 Main StreetPeterborough. NH 034 58

BYTE BITS (2x31

Dan Harper (603] 924-6830BYTE Publications70 Main StreetPeterborough. NH 034 58

Post Card MailingsNational

Bradley Browne (6031 924-6166BYTE Publications70 Main StreetPeterborough. NH 03458

Seavex Ltd

503 Wilson House

19-27 Wyndham St.

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: 5-260149

Telex: 60904 SEVEX HX

Hiro Morita

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co,

Overseas Corp.

Room 1528

Kasumigaseki Bldg.

3-2-5 Kasumigaseki.

Chiyoda-Ku

Tokyo 100. lapan

3 581 9811

Mr. Ernest McCraryEmpresa Internacional deComunicacoes Ltda.Rua da Consolacao. 222Conjunto 103

01302 Sao Paulo. S.P. BrasilTel: lll| 259-3811Telex: (100) 32122 EMBN

446 BYTE- 1UNE 1986

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No.

Page No.

39323

399

456910II12131415

1617181921384385

2325

36394041408409

40542

4504445464748495051

395

3965253

A&T SYSTEMS INC 287

AST RESEARCH 12. 13

AST RESEARCH ...... 12. 13

ABSOFT 370

ACS IMPORTERS 405

ADV. DIGITAL CORP. 28

ADV. DIGITAL CORP 28

ADV INTELLIGENCE TECHN ... 409ADVANCED COMP PROD 424. 425ADVANCE DEVLPMNT TECHN 149ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PROD 436

AFTON COMPUTER 355

AFTON COMPUTER 355

ALF PRODUCTS INC 405

ALPHA MICRO 264

ALPS AMERICA 125-129

ALSYS LTD. 140, 141

AMBER SYSTEMS 283

AMBER SYSTEMS 283

AMDEK CORP 232

AMER DESIGN COMPONENTS 406AMERICAN COMP & PERIPH 346AMERICAN COMP 6 PERIPH .346AMERICAN SEMICONDUCTOR . . 414AMERICAN SMALL BUSN COMP 130

AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 375

ANTHRO CORP 16

APPARAT INC 432

APPLE COMPUTER INC 48 AD

APPLIED SOFTWARE KINETICS . 52

APROTEK 432

ARITY CORPORATION 205

ARTEK CORP 35

ASHTONTATE 290. 291

AT&T COMMUNICATIONS . 200. 201

AT&T INFORMATION SYS 351

ATRON CORP 182

ATRONICS INTL INC 335

B&B ELECTRONICS 408

B&C MICROSYSTEMS 402

B&C MICROSYSTEMS 402

BARRINGTON SYSTEMS 26. 27

BASF SYSTEMS 134. 135

BAY EXPRESS 407

BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 284

BELL & HOWELUOUINTAR DIV . 91BELL & HOWELUOUINTAR DIV . . 91

BEST WESTERN INTL 342

BINARY TECH. INC 438

BITTNER ELECTRONICS 407

BIX 336, 337

BLAISE COMPUTING INC 195

BLAISE COMPUTING INC 195

BORLAND INTL Cll, 1

BORLAND INTL Cll, 1

BORLAND INTL 31

BORLAND INTL 31

BORLAND INTL 33

BORLAND INTL 33

BORLAND INTL 133

BORLAND INTL 133

BP MICROSYSTEMS 410

BROWN BAG SOFTWARE 45

BTE COMPUTERS 353

BUEHLER SERVICES INC 438

BUSINESS TOOLS INC 77

BUYER'S MART SECTION . , 391-397

BYTE BACK ISSUES 417

BYTE BITS MESSAGE 414

BYTE SUB. MESSAGE 372

BYTE SUB SERVICE 418

BYTE CONNECTION, THE 401

CEC 376

C WARE/DESMET C 377

CALIFORNIA DIGITAL 426, 427

CANON USA 340, 341

CAPITAL EOUIPMENT CORP 259

CAPITAL MICRO 238

CAUZIN SYSTEMS 344, 345

CHALCEDONY SOFTWARE 348

CHALCEDONY SOFTWARE 348

CHORUS DATA SYSTEMS 268

CITIZEN AMERICA 115

Inquiry No.

Page No.

65 CLASSIC TECHNOLOGY 72. 73

66 CLASSIC TECHNOLOGY . , .72, 73

67 CLEVELAND CODONICS INC 262

• CODEX CORPORATION 304

• CODEX CORPORATION 306

• CODEX CORPORATION 308

71 COGITATE 400

72 COGITATE 407

• COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP 152, 153

73 COMPETITIVE EDGE 379

74 COMPUDATA TRANSLATORS INC 438

• COMPUPRO 307

75 COMPUSAVE 401

76 COMPUSERVE 95

77 COMPUTER AFFAIRS INC . . . 97

85 COMPUTER AGE INC 414

• COMPUTER CHRONICLES 413

78 COMPUTER CONNECTION INC . 421

• COMPUTER CONTINUUM 432

80 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER . 316, 317

• COMPUTER MUSEUM . 418

81 COMPUTER PARTS MART. 405

82 COMPUTER SURPLUS STORE .414

83 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 310

84 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 310

86 COMPUTERBANC 412

87 COMPUTERIZED CONCEPTS 438

• COMPUTERS FOR THE BLIND 377

89 COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL 218

90 COMPUTRADE 372

91 CONCORD TECHNOLOGY CO ... 52

92 CONROY-LAPOINTE 62

93 CONROY-LAPOINTE 62

94 CONROY-LAPOINTE 62

95 CORDATA 380. 381

96 COSMOS INC 136

99 CUESTA SYSTEMS 330

102 D AND D DISCOUNT. . 411

104 DATA BLOCKS INC 184

105 DATA EXCHANGE 432

106 DATA SPEC 172

107 DATA SPEC 172

108 DATA TRANSLATION INC 321

109 DATACOM NORTHWEST INC 410

110 DECISIONWARE INC 300

111 DECISIONWARE INC 300

112 DIGITALK INC 56

113 DISKCO TECH 408

114 DISKETTE CONNECTION 365

115 DISKS PLUS 76

116 DISKWORLDI. INC 422, 423

117 DISPLAY TELECOMMNCTNS .54

118 DIVERSIFIED GROUP THE .... 416

119 DOBERMAN SOFTWARE . . 221

120 DOKAY COMP PROD INC 404

121 DRESSELHAUS COMP PROD 334

122 DYNAMUS MICRO-DATA SYS. .436147 EAST DIGITAL CO LTD 375

123 ECOSOFT 318

124 EDUCATIONAL MICROCOMP SYS 400

125 ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN 114

126 ELEK-TEK 24

127 ELEXOR INC 402

129 EVEREX SYSTEMS 37

130 EVEREX SYSTEMS 37

131 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING . .256

132 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING 256

391 FORMAT SOFTWARE 252

392 FORMAT SOFTWARE 252

133 FORTRON CORPORATION 67

134 FORTRON CORPORATION 67

135 FORTRON CORPORATION .... 419

136 FORTRON CORPORATION 419

Inquiry No.

Page No.

137 FOX SOFTWARE INC 20

138 FUTURE MUSIC 398

140 GENERAL COMPUTER 313

397 GENERAL PARAMETRICS 248

141 GENOA SYSTEMS CORP. 281

406 GFK 400

142 GLENCO ENGINEERING 99

144 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 407

145 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 410

146 GRAFPOINT 402

401 GRIDCOMM 358

148 GTEK INC 277

• HARMONY COMPUTERS 373

151 HAYES MICROCOMP. PROD 87

303 HENHOUSE SOFTWARE 379

152 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH. .84

153 HERITAGE SYSTEMS CORP 410

154 HERSEY MICRO CONSULTING . . 405

155 HOUSTON INSTR./BAUSCH&LOMB . 21

156 IBEX COMP CORP. 414

157 IBM - IISGI SERVICES 263

159 IBM CORP 326. 327

160 IC EXPRESS 438

161 INNER LOOP SOFTWARE 408

• INTECTRA INC 432

163 INTEGRAND RESEARCH CORP . 70

164 INTERNATIONAL MICROSYS. .436

■ IQ TECHNOLOGIES 270

■ IQ TECHNOLOGIES 272

166 ITT INFORMATION SYSTEMS .278

167 ITT INFORMATION SYSTEMS .278

168 IACO ENTERPRISES 436

169 IADE COMP PROD 434, 435

170 IAMECO ELECTRONICS . . . 428, 429

171 IC INFORMATION SYSTEMS ... 305

172 IDR INSTRUMENTS 41

173 IDR MICRODEVICES 439

174 IDR MICRODEVICES 440, 441

175 IDR MICRODEVICES 442. 443

176 IDR MICRODEVICES 444

177 |M SYSTEM INC 188

178 IVB ELECTRONICS 400

179 KADAK PRODUCTS LTD. 74

410 KEA SYSTEMS 438

180 KERN PUBLICATIONS 258

181 KIMTRON CORP 261

182 KIMTRON CORP 261

183 LAHEY COMPUTER SYSTEMS 374

184 LAPTOPP SYSTEMS 288

185 LATTICE. INC 311

186 LIFEBOAT ASSOC 181

187 LINTEKCOMP. ACCESSORIES . 402

188 LIONHEART PRESS 370

189 LOGICAL DEVICES 314

190 LOGICAL DEVICES 315

191 LOGICAL SYSTEMS INC 414

400 LOGICSOFT 272 A-F

195 LOGITECH INC 237

196 LOGITECH INC 271

• LONE STAR SOFTWARE 420

197 LUCKY COMPUTERS 436

198 LYCO COMPUTER 369

199 MANX SOFTWARE SYS 79

200 MANX SOFTWARE SYS 242

201 MANZANA 48

203 MARCHAND INTERNATIONAL. . 405

204 MARK WILLIAMS CO 51

205 MARK WILLIAMS CO 53

• MAXELL DATA PRODUCTS 7

208 MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 15

• MCGRAW-HILL RESEARCH 287

209 MCGRAW-HILL SOFTWARE 366

210 MCGRAW-HILL SOFTWARE 320

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.

211 MCGRAW-HILL TRAINING SYS. . . 163

212 MCGRAW-HILL TRAINING SYS . 163

213 MEGASOFT 438

214 MEGATEL COMPUTER TECH ... 373

• MERCEDES-BENZ OF NA 255

215 MERRITT COMP PRODUCTS. .438

216 METACOMCO 4

■217 MFI ENTERPRISES INC 193

218 MICRO DATA BASE SYS 75

219 MICRO DESIGN INTL 250

220 MICRO INTERFACES CORP 376

221 MICRO PRODUCTS INTL 437

222 MICRO SUPPLY 433

223 MICROBRIDGE COMP. INTL 410

224 MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEMS 414

225 MICROCRAFX. 17

• MICROMINT INC 403

226 MICROPLOT 400

227 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD 432

• MICRORIM INC 325

• MICROSOFT CORP 59

• MICROSOFT CORP 169

• MICROSOFT CORP 177

228 MICROTECH 436

229 MICROWAY 139

230 MICROWAY 309

394 MIX SOFTWARE 331

402 MORE COMPUTER 76

232 M-S CORPORATION 438

233 NANAO USA CORP 225

234 NANAO USA CORP 225

235 NANTUCKET 39

236 NANTUCKET 39

238 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 120

239 NATIONAL MEMORY SYSTEMS 68

• NCR 57

240 NEC HOME ELECTR.USA 301

241 NEC INFORMATION SYS Clll

242 NIC TECHNOLOGY INC 194

243 OKIDATA 106

244 OMNITRONIX INC 436

245 ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 151

246 ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 151

247 ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 343

248 ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 343

249 ORION INSTRUMENTS 362

250 OSBORNE/MCGRAW-HILL- 223

251 PC COMPUTER BROKERS INC 410

252 PC HORIZONS INC 410

254 PACIFIC EXCHANGES 400

255 PANASONIC COMPUTER DIV .147

256 PATHFINDER SOFTWARE. INC. . . 400

257 PC MART 160

258 PC NETWORK 80, 81

■ PC SOURCE 288 A-B

• PCS LIMITED 208 A-B

259 PCS LIMITED 209

260 PECAN SOFTWARE SYS. INC ... 121

261 PERSOFT INC 8

262 PERSONAL TEX. INC 352

263 PINE COMPUTER INC 417

264 PRACTICORP 197

265 PRECISION DATA PRODUCTS .414

266 PRIMAGES INC 101

272 PRINCETON GRAPHIC'SIGMA 55

267 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS. . 226, 227

• PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 357

■ PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 359

• PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 361

271 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 363

273 PRINTER ACCESSORIES DIRECT. 374

274 PRIORITY ONE 415

275 PRO CODE INTERNATIONAL , . 208

276 PROFESSOR IONES INC 402

277 PROGRAMMER'S SHOP 297

278 PROGRAMS IN MOTION 166

279 PROSOFT 43

280 PURPLE COMPUTING 405

281 ODP COMPUTER SYSTEMS 170

282 QMS 328

283 QUA TECH INC 407

284 QUA TECH, INC 407

285 QUA TECH. INC 408

IUNE 1986 -BYTE 447

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No.

Page No.

286 QUA TECH. INC 408

• QUAID SOFTWARE LTD 150

287 QUALITY PRINTERS 405

288 OUBIE' 247

289 QUBIE' 249

290 QUELO. INC 370

291 QUELO. INC 408

292 QUICKSORT 58

294 RADIO SHACK CIV

295 RADIO SHACK 11

296 RATIONAL SYSTEMS 219

298 ROSE ELECTRONICS 402

299 ROYAL AMERICAN TECH 71

300 SNW ELECT. & APPL 342

301 S-100 DIV 696 CORP. 431

302 S-100 DIV. 696 CORP. 431

304 SAFEWARE 400

411 SAMSUNG ELECTR. DEVICES. . .338

305 SBT CORPORATION 323

306 SCEENA INC 432

308 SHAPE MAGNETRONICS 286

309 SILICON SPECIALTIES 66

310 SILICON SPECIALTIES 66

311 SOFTKLONE DISTRIBUTING .... 103

• SOFTLINE CORP. 65

312 SOFTLOGIC SOLUTIONS INC. ... 240

313 SOFTLOGIC SOLUTIONS INC . . 241

314 SOFTRONICS 400

• SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SYS. 324

316 SOFTWARE LINK THE ... 206. 207

317 SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INT'L 69

Inquiry No.

Page No.

318 SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INT'L ... 69

319 SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC 299

320 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 298

321 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 298

322 SOURCE ELECTRONICS 74

323 SOURCE ELECTRONICS 74

324 SOURCE ELECTRONICS 378

325 SOURCE ELECTRONICS 378

326 SPECTRUM SOFTWARE 179

327 SPSS 154

328 STAR GATE TECHNOLOGIES. 408

329 STONY BROOK SOFTWARE INC. .284

330 STSC INC 167

331 SUBLOGIC CORR 25

332 SUMMIT SOFTWARE TECHN. INC 6460 SUNNYVALE COMMUNICATIONS 333

333 SUNTRONICS CO. INC 398

334 SYNCHRONICS 334

403 T.S.MICROTECH INC 22

404 T.S.MICROTECH INC 22

336 TAXAN. CORP. 89

337 TAXAN CORP 89

388 TDK ELECTRONICS 275

338 TDT GROUP INC 157

339 TDT GROUP INC 164

340 TEAC 239

341 TEAM TECH INC 267

342 TECH PC 144

343 TECH PC 144

344 TEKTRONIX INC 123

345 TELECOMP INC 436

Inquiry No.

Page No.

346 THOMSON CONSUMER PROD 186, 187

347 THOMSON CONSUMER PROD 186. 187

348 THREE M COMPANY 198

349 TIGERTRONICS 402

• TINNEY. ROBERT GRAPHICS. . 399

350 TLM SYSTEMS INC 213

351 TLM SYSTEMS INC 215

352 TLM SYSTEMS INC 217

353 TOMCAT COMPUTER INC 350

354 TOPAZ. INC 230

355 TOPAZ. INC 230

407 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC 360

• TRANSEC SYSTEMS. INC 18

357 TRUE BASIC 285

• U.S. ROBOTICS 269

358 UNICORN ELECTRONICS 414

• UNITED AIRLINES 364

149 UNITEX CO 210

359 UNIVERSAL CROSS-ASSEMBLERS 407

360 VANTEX DATA SYSTEMS 90

361 VEN-TEL INC 23

362 VICTOR TECHNOLOGIES 116

363 VICTORY ENT TECHNOLOGY ... 166

• VLM COMPUTER ELECTR 432

364 VOTRAX. INC 161

• WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS . . 173

366 WEDGE TECHNOLOGY INC 432

367 WELLS AMERICAN 47

369 WESTERN COMPUTER 19

370 WESTERN COMPUTER 19

371 WESTERN TELEMATIC 294

Inquiry No.

Page No.

372 WESTERN TELEMATIC 294

373 WHOLESALE OUTLET THE .354

374 WILEY PRESS 146

376 WINTEK CORP 5

377 WINTEK CORP 402

378 WISETEK INT'L CO 436

379 WORLDWIDE ACCESS 4.10

380 XEROX CORP 60. 61

398 XEROX CORR 302. 303

381 YAMAHA/PROF PROD. DIV. 104. 105

382 ZEDCOR 349

383 ZEDCOR 349

* Correspond directly with company

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SECTION

500 ALGOL ENTERPRISE CO LTD 256D

501 AMERICAN BUYING 6 EXPORT

SERVICES 256G

502 ASHFORD INT'L INC 256C

• BYTE 256A

• BYTE INT'L SERVICES 256F

503 DATA ACCESS CORP. 256H

504 GREY MATTER 256B

505 WINTECH DATA PROD CORP . 256E

No domestic inquiries, please.

TIPS

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! *

Use BYTE's Telephone Inquiry Processing System

Using TIPS can bring product information as much as 10 days earlier.

SEND FOR YOUR 1) If you are a new subscriber or have lost your I.D. card, circle #1 on the Reader Service

SUBSCRIBER I.D. CARD Card; attach mailer label. We will immediately send your personal TIPS subscriber card.

GET PREPARED

2) Write your Subscriber Number, as printed on your Subscriber I.D. Card, in boxes in Step 5 below.(Do not add O's to fill in blank boxes)

3) Write numbers for information desired in boxes in Step 7b below.(Do not add O's to fill in blank boxes.)

CALL TIPS

4) Now, on a Touch-Tone telephone dial: (413) 442-2668 and wait for voice commands.

ENTER YOURSUBSCRIBER ANDISSUE NUMBERS

5)

6)

When TIPS says: "Enter Subscriber Number"(Enter by pushing the numbers and symbols [# orignoring blank boxes)Enter 000000001111

enclosed in the boxes] on telephone pad

When TIPS says "Enter magazine code & issue code"Enter LTJ U El El 11II

ENTER YOURINQUIRIES

7a) When TIPS says "Enter (next) Inquiry Number"

Enter one inquiry selection from below (ignore blank boxes)

b) Repeat 7a as needed (maximum 17 inquiry numbers)

1. o □ o

2. □ D O

3. O D D

4. O □ O

5. O D O

6. O O D I

7. O O O I

8. D D O I

9. O D O I

10. O O O I

11. OOD1

12. O O D I

13. O O D t

14. O O O

15. O O O

16. D O O

17. O O O

END SESSION

8) End session by entering B H 13 LO 11 II

9) Hang up after hearing final message

If you are a subscriber and need assistance, call (603) 924-9281.

If you are not a subscriber fill out the subscription card found in this issue or, call BYTE Circulation 800-258-5485.•Domestic and Canadian Subscribers Only!

448 BYTE • IUNE 1986

PRINTERSPROGRESS

For what youused to pay fora 9-pin printer

now, you can buyour fully-featured24-pin printer.

Our new Pinwriter™ P6, P7 series dot matrix printers are the first 24-pin printers that list for as littleas $699. Or about what you would have paid for an ordinary 9-pin printer a year ago.

Now, that's progress. Especially when you consider our new printers have an advanced 24-pinprinthead. And print data at 216 characters per second and crisp, dense letter-quality at up to 65 cps.

Actually these new Pinwriter dot matrix printers surpass every other printer in their price range.In their combination of speed, graphics resolution, the number of built-in fonts and low noise level.

None of which will surprise you if you know NEC printers. Because nobody does more with 24-pin technology than NEC. In fact, we now have more 24-pin printer models than any othermanufacturer.

So if you're looking for a printer that will do more and do it better, just progress to your NECdealer and you'll get it for less than you imagined.

You can see the Pinwriter P6, P7 and our other 24-pin printers at your local dealer. For moreinformation, call 1-800-343-4418 (in MA 617-264-8635). Or write: NEC Information Systems,

Dept. 1610, 1414 Massachusetts Ave., Boxborough, MA 01719.

NEC PRINTERS.THEYONLY STOPWHEN YOU WANTTHEM TO.

B jffit » Computers and Commum

© 1986 NEC Corp.

NEC

NEC Information Systems, Inc.

Inquiry 241

wsm

Radio Shack brings over600 software programs-*%idthin easy reach.

1

■

SoftwareKefereriee

andTaMY ^ide

Exp*eSS ur ,ev0ted to

tue complete »

■%&8S£-

liM iMUdlrfiMUih ily

for the^'right" program. The 1986Radio Shack Software Reference^Mid Tandy® Computer Guide is all

tor all types of cornputers-r-everything from XENIX® andMS-DOS® lines to portables.

This catalog features the mostcomprehensive software selectionavailable. Essential business pro-grams such as accounting, databasemanagementj and business graphicsare readily available as well as avariety of industry-specific pro-

MilM fiM-M

programs for doctors, lawyers,fanners and other professionals.

* of course, there are dozens_„rams and utilities specifi-cally for programmers. We haveadvanced language developmentsystems like CProgramming■Sys-tem and RM/COBOL, plus power-ful languages from Microsoft, likeMacro Assembler, XENIX Basic In-terpreter and PASCAL Compiler.You'll also find GEM Desktop 1.2and a multitude of operating sys-tems. And you can add aditionalcapability to your portable com-

puter witn oar uooe unver orBar Code Writer.

We offer you the software youneed most—from personal produc-tivity to a wide variety pf trainingpackages. And if it's not available inthe stoic, we'll order it tllrough ourExpress Order System.

So visit a Radio Shack ComputerCenter today—it's your one-stopsoftware store.

Radio /hack

The Technology Store"

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION

MS-DOS, XENIX, Macro Assembler, XENIX Basic Assembler and PASCAL Compiler/Registered TM Microsoft. C Programming Sysiem/TM Mark Williams CorRyan-McFarland. Bar Code Writer and Bar Code Driver/TM Protable Computer Support Group. GEM Desktop 1.2/TM Digital Research In

iams Company. RM/COBOUTM

Inquiry 294