Skip to main content

Full text of "Byte Magazine Volume 08 Number 03 - Mass Storage (RESCAN)"

See other formats 


Vol. 8, No. 3 
$2.95 in USA 
nada/£2.10 in U.K. 
Publication 





How to buy a computer 
by the numbers. 



Introducing the Cromemco 
C-10 Personal Computer. 
0nly$1785, including soft- 
ware, and you get more pro- 
fessional features and per- 
formance for the price than 
with any other personal com- 
puter on the market. We've 
got the numbers to prove it. 

The C-10 starts with a 
high-resolution 12" CRT that 
displays 25 lines with a full 
80 characters on each line. 
Inside is a high-speed Z-80A 
microprocessorand 64K 
bytes of on-board memory. 
Then there's a detached, 
easy-to-use keyboard and a 
5 l A" disk drive with an excep- 
tionally large 390K capacity. 
That's the C-10, and you won't 
find another ready-to-use 



f 



personal computer that of- 
fers you more. 

But hardware can't work 
a lone. That's why every C-10 
includes software— word 
processing, financial spread 
sheet, investment planning 
and BASIC. Hard-working, 
CP/M R -based software that 
meets your everyday needs. 
Software that could cost over 
$1000 somewhere else. FREE 
with the C-10. There's really 
nothing else to buy. 

But the C-10's numbers 
tell only part of the story. 
What they don't say is that 
Cromemco is already known 
for some of the most reliable 
business and scientific com-, 
puters in the industry. And 
now for the first time, this 



technology is available in a 
personal computer. 

One last number. Call 
800 538-8157x929 for the 

name of your nearest 
Cromemco dealer, or to re- 
quest literature. In California 
call 800 672-3470x929. 
Or write Cromemco, Inc., 280 
Bernardo Avenue, P.O. Box 
7400, Mountain View, CA 
94039. In Europe, write ;-. : 
Cromemco A/S, Vesterbro 
gade 1C, 1620 Copenhagen, 
Denmark. 

CP/M R is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. 
All Cromemco products are serviced by TRW. 




Cromemco 

Tomorrow's computers today 



Circle 127 on Inquiry card. 




MULTIPROCESSING/INTELLIGENT I/O 




A EXPANDABLE I/O BUS ^ 


/ C-BUS 


> 


LJL_JL_JC 


~~] 1 1 



I/O INTERFACES 



COLOR GRAPHICS 







jV\ 







11MBYTE 




EXTENSIVE 


COLOR 


FLOPPY DISK 


HARD DISK 


JOYSTICK 


SOFTWARE 


MONITORS 


DRIVES 


DRIVE 


CONSOLE 


SUPPORT 



What Cromemco computer card 
capability can do for you 



The above diagram shows in a func- 
tional way one of the most complete 
lines of computer cards in the industry. 

Look it over carefully. It could be well 
worth your while. 

These are all cards that plug into our 
S-100 bus microcomputers. 

You can also assemble them into a 
custom system in convenient Cromemco 
card cages. 

MULTI-PROCESSING AND 
INTELLIGENT I/O 

The range of capabilities and versatility 
you can draw upon is enormous. 

In processors, for example, you have a 
choice of CPU's including our extremely 
useful new I/O Processor. This can be 
used as a satellite processor to do off-line 
processing, multi-processing, and to form 
intelligent I/O. It opens the door to a 
whole new group of applications and 
tasks. Ask us about it. 

HIGH RESOLUTION 
COLOR GRAPHICS 

Again, you can have beautiful high- 
resolution color graphics with our color 
graphics interface. You can select from 
over 4000 colors and have a picture with 
a resolution at least equal to quality 
broadcast-TV pictures. 




You have an unprecedented selection 
of memory including our unusual 48K 
and 16K two-port RAMs which allow 
high-speed color graphics. 

LOTS OF STORAGE 

These days you often want lots of disk 
storage. So you can select from our disk 
controller card which will operate our 5" 
and 8" floppy disk drives (up to 1.2 
megabytes). Or select our WDI interface 
to operate our 11-megabyte hard disk 
drives. 

POWERFUL SOFTWARE AND 
PERIPHERAL SUPPORT 

There's much more yet you can do 
with our cards. And, of course, there's an 
easy way to put them to work in our 8-, 
12-, and 21 -slot card cages. Our PS8 
power supply makes it simple to get the 
system into operation. 

Finally, Cromemco offers you the 
strongest software support in the industry 



Q Cromemco '" 
I n c o r p o r at e d 
280 BERNARDO AVE., MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040 
Tomorrow's computers today 

Circle 128 on inquiry card. 



with languages like FORTRAN, C, 
COBOL, ASSEMBLER, LISP, BASIC and 
others. There is also a wide choice from 
independent vendors. 

To top it all off, you can draw from a 
substantial array of peripherals: ter- 
minals, printers, color monitors and disk 
drives. 

There is even more capability than 
we're able to describe here. 

NOW AT HALL-MARK 
ANDKIERULFF 

For your convenience Cromemco 
products are now available at Hail-Mark 
Electronics and Kierulff Electronics. Con- 
tact these national distributors for im- 
mediate product delivery. 

CROMEMCOCOMPUTER CARDS 
• PROCESSORS — 4 MHz Z-80 A CPU, single card 
computer, I/O processor • MEMORY — upto64K 
including special 48K and 1 6K two-port RAMS and 
our very well known BYTESAVERS® with PROM 
programming capability • HIGH RESOLUTION 
COLOR GRAPHICS — our SDI offers up to 754 x 
482 pixel resolution. • GENERAL PURPOSE IN- 
TERFACES— QUADART four-channel serial com- 
munications, TU-ART two-channel parallel and 
two-channel serial, 8PIO 8-port parallel, 4PIO 
4-port isolated parallel, D+ 7 A 7-channel D/A and 
A/D converter, printer interface, floppy disk con- 
troller with RS-232 interface and system 
diagnostics, wire-wrap andextendercardsforyour 
development work. 



(415)964-7400 



In The Queue 



BITE 



Volume 8, Number 3 



March 1 983 



Features 

26 Build the ECM-103, an Originate/Answer 

Modem by Steve Garcia / The Texas Instruments 
TMS99532 forms the heart of a Bell- 1 03-compatible 
modem. 

34 The Enhanced VIC-20, Part 2: Adding a 
3K-Byte Memory Board by Joel Swank / Supplement the 
VIC-20's standard 5K bytes of RAM and eliminate those 
annoying "out-of-memory" messages. 

44 A User's View of COMDEX by Jerry Pournelle / 

An impressionistic report of one of the largest gatherings of 
computer dealers and manufacturers. 

56 The Promise of Perpendicular Magnetic 

Recording by Clark E. Johnson Jr. / As the Japanese 
seem to have realized already, PMR represents the next 
level of recording technology. 

68 New Developments In Floppy Disks by Tom 

Moran / New advances in floppy-disk-drive technology 
spurs intense competition. 

86 Optical-Memory Media by Edward Rothchild / 

Some background on how optical disks work, who makes 
them, and how much data they can hold. 

110 Will Removable Hard Disks Replace the 
Floppy? by Larry Sarisky / Improved data-storage 
technologies may eventually eliminate floppy disks. 

122 The Winchester Odyssey, From Manufacturer 
to User by Jim Toreson / A look at drives, OEMs, and the 
cost of doing business. 

1 30 Building a Hard-Disk Interface for an S-100 
Bus System, Part 1 : Introduction by Andrew C. Cruce 
and Scott A. Alexander / The first in a series of articles on 
interfacing a Winchester disk drive to an S-100 bus CP/M 
microcomputer. 

152 NAPLPS: A New Standard for Text and 
Graphics, Part 2: Basic Features by Jim Fleming / How 

to encode text and simple graphics elements in a standard 
and efficient manner. 

218 User's Column: Sage In Bloom, Zeke II, CBIOS 
Traps, Language Debate Continues by Jerry Pournelle / 

The consummate computer user tackles his new writing 
machine. 

262 A Faster Binary Search by Dr. L. E. Larson / An 

important technique results in faster-running applications 
programs and shorter response times. 

295 Data Collection with a Microcomputer by Dr. 

Mahlon G. Kelly / Using a TRS-80 Model I for environ- 
mental research saves time and money. 

310 Build This Memory, Part 1 : How to Construct 
a Low-Cost Memory with 4116 Memory Devices by 

Cameron Spitzer / Take advantage of the low price of the 
4 1 1 6-type memory. 



331a Peek Into the IBM PC by Tim Field / An 

assembly-language program enables an Epson printer to 
display all 256 characters used by the IBM PC. 

389 Keywords In a Fuzzy Context by Thomas A. 
Smith / CBASIC programs for bibliographic search tell you 
the degree to which various articles meet your 
requirements. 

418 ROTERP: An Interpretive Language for Robot 
Control by Gary Liming / High-level languages may help 
bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and the home 
experimenter's robot. 

436 Using SOUND Arguments for HIgh-Preclslon 
RTTY by Scott Persson / How to generate radioteletype 
audio frequencies from an Atari 800. 

453 Binary-Format Number Storage on the Apple II 
Disk by David Eyes / A machine-language routine to read 
and write binary data to a text file. 



Reviews 

1 90 MP/M II by Stephen Schmitt 

247, 248, 251 BYTE Game Grid: Project Nebula by 

Keith Carlson; Legionnaire by Gregg Williams; Omega 

Race for the VIC-20 by Stanley J. Wszola 

256 Quickcode by Adam B. Green 

282 Hayes's Stack Smartmodem by Norman C. McEntire 



Nucleus 



14 

22 

307, 



380, 

474 

478, 

484 

487 

490 

491 

492 

497 

557 

558 

559 



Editorial: The Software Revolution: Where Will We 

Store All Those Programs? 

Letters 

BYTE's Bugs 

450 Programming Quickies: Add Dimensions to Your 

BASIC; Computing Telescope Parameters with the 

OSI Superboard \\ 

462 System Notes: Circles and Ellipses on the Apple 

\\; Adding a Trace to North Star BASIC 

Event Queue 

486 BYTE's Bits 

Software Received 

Ask BYTE 

Books Received 

Clubs and Newsletters 

BYTELINES 

What's New? 

Unclassified Ads 

BOMB, BOMB Results 

Reader Service 




Page 26 



Page 44 



Page 152 



Page 247 



HS 



Managing Editor 

Mark Haas 

Technical Editors 

Gregg Williams. Senior Editor; 

Richard S. Shuford, Curtis P. Feigel, 

Arthur Little, Stanley Wszola, 

Pamela Clark. Richard Malloy; 

Phillip Lemmons. West Coast Editor; Steve 

Garcia. Mark Dahmke, Consulting Editors; 

Jon Swanson, Drafting Editor 

Copy Editors 

Beverly Cronin, Chief; 

Faith Hanson. Warren Williamson. Anthony J. 

Lockwood, Hilary Selby Polk, Elizabeth Kepner, 

Nancy Hayes. Cathryn Baskin, Tom McMillan; 

Margaret Cook, Junior Copy Editor 

Assistants 

Faith Kluntz. Beverly Jackson, Lisa Jo Steiner 

Production 

David R. Anderson, Assoc. Director; 

Patrice Scribner. Jan Muller, Virginia Reardon; 

Sherry McCarthy, Chief Typographer; 

Debi Fredericks, Donna Sweeney, Valerie Horn 

Advertising 

Deborah Porter, Supervisor; 
Marion Carlson, Rob Hannings, Vicki 
Reynolds, Cathy A. R. Drew, Lisa Wozmak; 
Patricia Akerley, Reader Service Coordinator; 
Wai Chiu Li, Advertising/Production 
Coordinator; Linda J. Sweeney 

Circulation 

Gregory Spitzfaden, Manager; 
Andrew Jackson, Asst. Manager; 
Agnes E. Perry, Barbara Varnum, Louise 
Menegus, Jennifer Price, Sheila A. Bamford; 
James Bingham, Dealer Sales; Deborah J. 
Cadwell, Asst; Linda Ryan 
Marketing Communications 

Horace T. Howland, Director; 
Wilbur S. Watson, Coordinator; 
Timothy W. Taussig, Graphic Arts Manager; 
Michele P. Verville, Research Manager 

Controller's Office 

Kenneth A. King, Asst. Controller; 
Mary E. Fluhr, Acct. & D/P Mgr.; Karen 
Burgess,' Jeanne Cilley, Linda Fluhr, Vicki 
Bennett, L. Bradley Browne, Vern Rockwell 

Business Manager 

Daniel Rodrigues 

Traffic 

N. Scott Gagnon, Manager; 
Scott Jackson. Kathleen Reckart 

Receptionist 

Jeanann Waters 

Publishers 

Virginia Londoner, Gordon R. Williamson; 
John E. Hayes, Associate Publisher; 
Cheryl A. Hurd, Publisher's Assistant 



Officers of McGraw-Hill Publications Com- 
pany: Paul F. McPherson, President; Executive 
Vice President; Gene W. Simpson; Senior Vice 
President-Editorial; Ralph R. Schulz; Vice 
Presidents: Kemp Anderson, Business Systems 
Development; Shel F. Asen, Manufacturing; 
Harry L. Brown, Special Markets; James E. 
Hackett, Controller; Eric B. Herr, Planning and 
Development; H. John Sweger, Jr., Marketing. 

Officers of the Corporation: Harold W. 
McGraw Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive 
Officer; Joseph L. Dionne, President and Chief 
Operating Officer; Robert N. Landes, Senior Vice 
President and Secretary; Ralph J. Webb, 
Treasurer. 




In This Issue 

Sophisticated new operating systems and multitasking software promise to 
alter significantly the way we use personal computers. Because of the large 
memory requirements of the new software, we're sure to see changes for the 
better in the nature of external storage devices. New technologies for mass 
storage will become even more critical as the software revolution continues to 
escalate. As Robert Tinney's cover suggests, personal computers will need a 
large quantity of high-speed mass storage to hold all the software and other 
data that we'll generate. Our theme articles address the latest developments 
in mass storage. Clark E. Johnson Jr. discusses "The Promise of Perpendicular 
Magnetic Recording," Tom Moran looks at "New Developments in Floppy 
Disks," Edward Rothchild writes about "Optical-Memory Media," Larry 
Sarisky explores the question "Will Removable Hard Disks Replace the Flop- 
py?" Jim Toreson concentrates on "The Winchester Odyssey," and in the first 
of a three-part series Andrew C Cruce and Scott A. Alexander discuss 
"Building a Hard-Disk Interface for an S-100 Bus System." Plus we have part 2 
of "NAPLPS, A New Standard for Text and Graphics," the second installment 
in the VIC-20 series, "Adding a 3K-Byte Memory Board," a review of MP/M II 
from Digital Research, and BYTE's Game Grid. Steve Garcia tells you how to 
"Build the ECM-103, an Originate/Answer Modem," and more. 



BYTE is published monthly by McGraw-Hill. Inc. with offices at 70 Main St, Peterborough NH 03458, phone 
(603) 924-9281. Office hours. Mon-Thur 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM, Friday 8:30 AM - Noon, Eastern Time. Address 
subscriptions, change of address, USPS Form 3579, and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions, POB 590, 
Martinsville NJ 08836. Second class postage paid a: Peterborough, N,H. 03458 and additional mailing offices. 
USPS Publication No. 528890 |ISSN 0360-5280). Postage Paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Registration number 932 1 . 
Subscriptions are $21 for one year, $38 for two years, and $55 for three years in the USA and its possessions. In 
Canada and Mexico, S23 for one year, $42 for two years, $61 for three years. $53 for one year air delivery to 
Europe. $37 surface delivery elsewhere. Air delivery to selected areas at additional rates upon request. Single copy 
price is $2.95 in the USA and its possessions. $3.50 in Canada and Mexico, $4.50 in Europe, and $5.00 
elsewhere. Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a US bank. Printed 
in United States of America. 

Address all editorial correspondence to the editor at BYTE. POB 372, Hancock NH 03449. Unacceptable 
manuscripts will be returned if accompanied by sufficient first class postage. Not responsible for lost manuscripts or 
photos. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTE. Entire contents copyright © 1983 
by BYTE Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Where necessary, permission is granted by the copyright owner for 
libraries and others registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to photocopy any article herein for the 
base fee of $ 1 .00 per copy of the article or item plus 25 cents per page. Payment should be sent directly to the 
CCC, 2 1 Congress St, Salem MA 1 970. Copying done for other than personal or internal reference use without 
the permission of McGraw-Hill is prohibited. Requests for special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to 
the publisher. 

BYTE® is available in microform from University Microfilms International, 300 N Zeeb Rd, Dept PR. Ann 
Arbor Ml 4B106 USA or IB Bedford Row, Dept PR, London WCl R 4EJ England. 

Subscription questions or problems should be addressed to: 
BYTE Subscriber Service 

P.O. Box 328 
Hancock, NH 03449 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 









The system builder's best choice 
for color graphics is a CS5000 
color system from SCION. Its basic 
component is MicroAngelo®, the 
single board graphics display 
computer that has revolutionized 
monochrome display capability 
with low cost 512x480 pixel 
graphics resolution and 40 line 
by 85 character text capacity. 
When MioroAngelo boards are combined, they create 
high resolution color graphics that have a unique ad- 
vantage. The displayed image is a combination of 
transparencies. So you can add, modify or delete 
images by transparency rather than as an entire image. 

SCION'S Series CS5000 builds an imase with up to 8 bit 
planes, each senerated by a MicroAnselo board. You 
select the assisnment of those bit planes to transpar- 
encies. Each transparency can display 2 n -1 colors where 
n is the number of bit planes it uses.. .2 bit planes would 
make a three color transparency, 8 bit planes would 
make a 255 color transparency. Once each transparency 
has been defined, your host can work with it inde- 
pendently, senerating and modifying its graphics and 
text without interacting with the others. The indepen- 
dent transparencies are combined by the Color Mixer 
board which also assigns one of 16.8 million possible 
colors to each color of each transparency. 



Vburcomputer talks to the SCION 
Color System in SCREENWARE™, 
SCION'S high level display firm- 
ware language. SCREENWARE 
commands are used by the com- 
puter in each MicroAngelo bit 
plane to generate graphics and 
text primitives. User interface is 
made simple with prompted sys- 
tem set-up using SCION's ColorPak. 

MicroAngelo based color graphics systems are easy to 
use. Just plug the boards into your Multibus or S-100 
host. Or use the freestanding workstation configuration 
with its RS-232 interface. In each case, you get high reso- 
lution color graphics for such a low price you can't 
afford to design your own. 

Think SCION for your graphics display needs. 
Think MicroAngelo. Call us at (703) 476-6100. 

System shown is a Model CS5050S. 
*A trademark of Intel Corp. 

CUDN 

if the image is important. 

12310 Pinecrest Rd./Reston, VA 22091 
(703) 476-6100 TWX: 710-833-0684 



For S-100 circle 476 on inquiry card, For Multibus circle 477 on inquiry card. 



Circle 146 on Inquiry card. 



MILESTONE® 
WHEN TIME IS MONEY 




As a project manager, you know 
the value of meticulous plan- 
ning. Oversights and miscalcu- 
lations can cost you crucial 
time and money. 

Milestone is a project manage- 
ment and time scheduling pro- 
gram. It is a powerful "critical 
path" program for planning and 
analyzing virtually any project, 
from a cost estimate for a con- 
struction project to a schedule 
for installing a computer sys- 
tem. The applicationsare unlim- 
ited. 

Milestone uses PERT, Perfor- 
mance Evaluation and Review 
Technique, and CPM, Critical 
Path Method, to plan a project, 
yet Milestone is one of the easi- 
est software packages to use. 

The Milestone user can change 
a variable and instantly Mile- 
stone will display the effect on 
the entire project. For instance, 
the estimated completion date 
of a particular time-crucial task 
may be changed. All schedul- 
ing, manpower costs and asso- 
ciated reports will be re-tabu- 
lated. 

TIME IS MONEY. SAVE BOTH 
WITH MILESTONE. 

The price is $295. CP/M® and CP/M-86™ ver- 
sions require 64K and 128K RAM respec- 
tively. Manual alone Is $30. 

For more information see your local compu- 
ter dealer or contact Digital Marketing 
directly. 

SOFTIE 
SOFTWARE 
DIGIMLAMRKETING 

DIGITAL /MARKETING'" 




DIGITAL MARKETING CORPORATION 

26 70 CHERRY LANE ■ WALNUT CREEK • CALIFORNIA • 94596 
(415) 938 2880 • Telex 1 7-1 852 (DIGMKTG WNCK) 

Deote* lf>auirt*» Invited Oealen outr.oe California call 
(S01) U2.08AJ inside California coll (445) 938-2883 

Milestone is a registered trademark of Organic 

Software. 

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, 

Inc. 

CP/M-86 is a trademark of Digital Research. Inc. 



Editorial 



The Software 
Revolution 

Where Will We Store 
All Those Programs? 

Phil Lemmons, West Coast Editor 



Two advances in hardware — the 16-bit microprocessor with its great 
memory-addressing range and the 64K-bit dynamic RAM (random-access, 
read/write memory) — have paved the way for a software revolution. The Lisa 
software from Apple, and soon the Visi On operating environment from 
Visicorp and a new generation of software from Microsoft, will transform the 
way we use computers and the way we think about our jobs. But just as hard- 
ware advances made possible a revolution in software, the exciting new soft- 
ware demands an improvement in hardware, specifically, in mass storage. The 
memory-intensive operating systems and integrated applications programs 
that are emerging today will make unprecedented demands on the mass 
storage of personal computers. Not only will personal computers need a lot of 
mass storage to run the new software effectively, they will also need high- 
speed mass storage that is faster than today's floppy disks. 

You might think that the current low prices of RAM would reduce the need 
for speed in mass storage. The computer could read the operating system and 
applications program from floppy disk into RAM once, at the beginning of a 
session, and thereafter execution would proceed at the lightning speed of RAM 
itself. But consider how big the new operating systems and applications pro- 
grams will be. Even if new personal computers have 256K bytes of RAM, they 
will not be able to accommodate at one time both a desktop-manager 
operating system and more than one sophisticated applications program. The 
resident portion of Lisa's operating system approaches a quarter of a 
megabyte, and its sophisticated applications programs are almost as large. 
Even though Lisa has a half megabyte of RAM as standard equipment, the 
operating system has to use virtual memory. Virtual memory means treating 
part of mass storage as if it is part of RAM. Since a major limiting factor in the 
speed of software that uses virtual memory is the speed of input/ output of 
mass-storage devices, systems like Lisa will require high-speed mass storage 
for effective operation. Otherwise we will see computer users tapping their feet 
while waiting for their expensive personal computers to read in the next chunk 
of beautiful software. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 342 on inquiry card. 




We've Got More Than A 
Fond Attachment For Your 

ATARI 

We've Got A Disk Drive For $488. 

Percom Data Corporation believes your Atari* home computer is more than just 
fun and games. We believe you should be able to get a single-density, floppy-disk- 
system for your Atari 400 or 800 at a price that will take you into the future without 
knocking you into the next galaxy. 

Percom Data has been manufacturing disk-drive systems, and other accessories 
for personal computers since the mid-1970's and is the industry standard to 
follow when it comes to data separation and system compatibility. 

The Percom Data AT-88 combines Percom Data quality and reliability at a price 
that is not a budget-buster. 

The Percom Data AT-88 offers 88 Kbytes (formatted) in single-density, with plug- 
in ease of attachment to your Atari. The AT-88 has integral power supply, "no- 
patch" to Atari DOS and critical constant speed regulation. 

Take advantage of this low introductory price of $488 by calling Percom Data now 
to get more information, or the name of an authorized dealer nearby. Call toll-free 

1-800-527-1222 



PEtiSOM DATA 



CORPORATION 

Expanding Your Peripheral Vision 



DRIVES • NETWORKS • SOFTWARE 



11220 Pagemiil Road Dallas, Texas 75243 (214) 340-7081 
1-800-527-1222 



•Atari 400/800 is a trademark o 



Editorial. 



Hard Disks for the Masses? 

The point of this argument is not to debunk the new 
software. On the contrary: the revolution in software can 
extend the power of computing to millions of people as 
well as making life more enjoyable for current microcom- 
puter users. If the software revolution is to make 
microcomputing a true mass phenomenon, however, 
there must first be a reduction in the price of high-speed 
mass-storage hardware. Lower prices for Winchester 
hard disks would be an ideal solution. Making hard disks 
standard equipment on 16-bit computers would help 
bring down the cost of the disk drive somewhat. And 
because hard disks operate up to 20 times faster than 
floppy disks, the delays required to read in software 
would cease to be a problem. In the office, hard disks will 
no doubt be the standard answer to the new software's 
need for high-speed mass storage. 

But hard disks are likely to remain too expensive to 
become standard equipment outside the office. Prices 
have plunged in the last three years, but hard-disk 
systems still cost at least $1500. More often the prices are 
closer to $2500. (See "The Winchester Odyssey," page 
122, about why hard disks that cost $600 in quantity at 
the factory cost much more by the time they're integrated 
into hard-disk systems.) The mechanics required to rotate 
the disk at very high speed while the magnetic head floats 
microns above the disk are not simple and the manufac- 
turing process cannot get much less expensive. 

The only remaining area for significant cost savings in 
hard disks is the controller. Several companies are reduc- 
ing Winchester controllers to single chips or small chip 
sets. Western Digital Corporation has a series of Win- 
chester controller boards based on its own LSI (large- 
scale-integration) chips. The Western Digital WD1001 
board cost $245 last year. The WD1002 cost $195 at the 
end of 1982. The company plans to introduce the 
WD1003 at $175 this summer, and the WD1004 at $150 in 
the fall. In other words, Western Digital's advances can 
squeeze about $100 out of the cost of hard-disk systems 
by the end of the year. 

National Semiconductor will introduce a four-chip 
Winchester-disk controller this summer. The DP8464 
disk pulse detector, the DP8460 MFM data separator, the 
DP8462 MFM data encoder, and the DP8466 disk data 
controller together make up a sophisticated, high- 
performance controller capable of handling multiuser 
and multitasking operations. Single-user systems will not 
require the entire chip set; in fact, the National Semicon- 
ductor chips needed for a hard-disk controller in a typical 
personal computer will cost less than $100. 

Adaptec, a start-up firm (1625 McCarthy Blvd., 
Milpitas, C A 95035), also is offering its own Winchester 
controller chip set and boards based on the chips. 
Adaptec's products are based on five chips in the 
ACS-500 series. The complete chip set required for high- 
performance, multiuser and multitasking systems costs 



$190 in quantity. The Adaptec product of most interest to 
personal computer users is the single-chip controller 
called the Winchester Controller Chip. This chip costs 
only $75 in large quantities. NEC, too, has announced a 
single-chip Winchester controller at less than $100. 

As with the Western Digital boards, these other LSI 
controllers will reduce Winchester prices for single-user 
systems by about $100. That is a significant saving, but 
even a saving of $200 would probably not induce manu- 
facturers of personal computers to make Winchester 
disks standard equipment. Replacing one floppy disk 
with a Winchester disk would add at least $1000 to a 
computer's list price, and probably more. Manufacturers 
seem reluctant to raise list prices that much. And yet, 
keeping the hard disk optional prevents the kind of 
volume savings that would come with making the hard 
disk standard equipment. Thus, hard disks remain more 
expensive than they really have to be and add $1500 to 
$2500 to system costs. 

If hard disks will remain too expensive to host the soft- 
ware revolution in personal computers, where will we 
put the friendly new operating systems and applications 
programs? 

Solving a Read-Only Problem 

Businesses and individuals who need to write and read 
large amounts of data at high speed will have no choice 
but to use hard disks. But we don't need to write and 
rewrite the new operating systems and applications pro- 
grams; we only need to read them into RAM time and 
again every day and to update them on disk every few 
months. Most people's requirements for writing data are 
not so great as to require hard disks. Few of us generate 
enough data each day to overflow an ordinary floppy, 
much less the new high-capacity floppies (see "New 
Developments in Floppy Disks," page 68). 

Is an inexpensive form of ROM (read-only memory) on 
the horizon? NEC's new 1-megabit semiconductor ROMs 
are remarkable bargains at something more than $40 per 
megabit, but the real requirements of the new operating 
systems and a set of applications programs may approach 
a megabyte. That would require more than $320 worth of 
ROMs. Moreover, software updates and bug-fixes would 
pose major problems. Software houses, computer manu- 
facturers, and computer dealers could not be expected to 
swallow the cost of replacing the ROMs. Erasable and re- 
programmable ROMs and the equipment needed to pro- 
gram them would be prohibitively expensive. 

The Laser Card from Drexler 

Fortunately, a new form of read-only mass storage, the 
Drexon Laser Card (from Drexler Technology Corp., 
2557 Charleston Rd., Mountain View, C A 94043) is just 
coming to market (see photo 1). The size of a credit card, 
the Laser Card has a storage capacity of 2 megabytes. 
With 1 megabit or 125K bytes prerecorded, Laser Cards 



8 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



DISCOVER THE DYSAN DIFFERENCE 



Dysan 

Software Duplication: 



It's your name on the package label 
And your company's reputation on 
the line. Whether your program retails 
for $40.00 or $400.00, or is for com- 
pany internal distribution, the cost of 
duplicating it on diskettes is just a frac- 
tion of the value of your product. 
Doesn't it make sense to protect the 
time, money and talent invested in 
your software with the finest and most 
complete software duplication ser- 
vices available? 

Quality Software Deserves 
the Quality Media. 

Dysan's software duplication ser- 
vices are unsurpassed for fidelity of re- 
production. Not only is your program 
copied unerringly onto the finest me- 
dia made — the Dysan diskette — but 
it's also copied on proprietary equip- 
ment manufactured by Dysan, exclu- 1 . 
sively for Dysan. Plus Dysan offers you 
the widest variety of support services 
available — from software protection to 
serialization and packaging. 





Isn't it time you discovered the 
Dysan difference? For more informa- 
tion on Dysan software duplication, fill 
out and return this coupon today, or 
call (800) 551-9000. 




CORPORATION 



Circle 159 on Inquiry card. 



Dysan Software Duplication Division 

5201 Patrick Henry Drive 
Santa Clara, CA 95050 
(800)551-9000 
(408) 988-3472 

Please send me more details on 
Dysan's Software Duplication Services. 

Name: 



Company: . 
Address: — 

City: 

Phone: i 



State: 



Zip: 



Editorial. 




Photo 1: The Drexon Laser Card. This card can store 2 million 
bytes of data. The small object resting on the card's recording 
stripe is the semiconductor diode laser required to write data on 
the stripe. Either a diode laser or a photodetector array can read 
the data. 



will cost about $1.50 each; with the full 2 megabytes en- 
coded, the cost will remain less than $6. At that price, the 
Laser Card will be less expensive to distribute than 
today's floppy disks. It will not present a barrier to fre- 
quent software updates. Indeed, software houses will be 
able to distribute updates in the same mass mailings that 
banks use to distribute new credit cards. 

The name Laser Card is somewhat frightening because 
lasers are expensive. But lasers are required only to write 
data on these cards; an array of inexpensive photode- 
tectors can read the data. In fact, the equipment required 
to read data from a Laser Card at a rate of 125K bytes per 
second will cost less than $100. The read rate has no in- 
trinsic limit. To increase the rate to that of hard disks, 
manufacturers can just add more of the inexpensive 
photodetectors to the array. The cost of laser writing 
equipment, estimated at about $500, will not deter com- 
puter manufacturers or software houses. For very high- 
volume high-speed writing operations, such as printing 
100,000 Laser Card copies of a piece of software, photo- 
lithographic processes will be more economical than 
lasers. 

New peripheral technology usually requires expensive 
redesign of existing equipment, but the Laser Card seems 
to escape that problem. The reading equipment is com- 
pact and will not require significant changes in the hous- 
ings of today's personal computers. The most conspicu- 
ous sign of the Laser Card's presence, in fact, will be a 
slot in the side or the front of the computer. The size of 
the slot is like that found on automatic teller machines. 

The Laser Card has another feature that will appeal to 
software houses and program authors: every vendor can 
encode optical data at a different level of reflectivity. For 
this and other reasons, software piracy will be more dif- 
ficult with Laser Cards than it is with magnetic storage. 

One of the features that will appeal most to manufac- 



turers and computer users is that Laser Cards do not wear 
out as floppy disks do; in fact, Laser Cards show no signs 
of wear at all. Futhermore, Drexon coatings — the record- 
ing material used on the Laser Cards — are resistant to 
damage from bending and are invulnerable to magnetic 
hazards. (For more information about the Laser Card and 
the nature of its recording medium, see "Optical Memory 
Media," page 86.) The reading equipment itself is ex- 
pected to require much less maintenance than a floppy- 
disk drive does. 

To encourage use of the Laser Card, Drexler is licens- 
ing the technology needed to read and write the cards. 
For a one-time fee, companies can purchase information 
on read/write equipment design, gain the use of patents 
for read/write equipment without paying royalties, and 
acquire the right to distribute Laser Cards to end users. 
Toshiba is the first announced licensee. Others may be 
announced by the cover date of this issue. Drexler intends 
to be the principal supplier of the cards but will license a 
second manufacturer. Drexler is now capable of making 
100,000 cards per day. 

The Laser Card has many possible applications besides 
the one that now looks most important: serving as the 
read-only medium for large operating systems and appli- 
cations programs that comprise the software revolution. 
Dictionaries and other large reference books could be en- 
coded compactly, especially when the Laser Card's ca- 
pacity goes up to 10 megabytes, as Drexler expects. The 
compactness and reliability of the card and the reading 
equipment also seem to suit the Laser Card ideally for use 
in portable computers. When computer users leave their 
home or office, they will not have to leave behind the 
software to which they're sure to become addicted. With 
all the software in a Laser Card, the need for read/ 
write/rewrite data storage in the portable computer may 
be reduced to a single microfloppy disk or bubble-mem- 
ory cartridge. While Laser Cards will find many uses in 
the office, they are likely to coexist there with hard disks 
and floppy disks. The read/write capabilities of magnetic 
storage will remain indispensable for most business ap- 
plications. 

The coming availability of inexpensive 10-megabyte 
read-only mass storage, in the form of the Laser Card, 
will no doubt broaden the application of the microcom- 
puter in ways unforeseen. One of the delights of watching 
the microcomputer industry is that each round of pro- 
gress feeds on the next in a combination of synergism and 
serendipity. Just as 16-bit microprocessors and 64K-bit (8 
of these chips make up 64K bytes) RAMs made possible 
today's software revolution, and the software revolution 
demands new mass-storage technology and finds the 
Laser Card ready, so this new mass-storage technology 
will feed the software revolution. What software will this 
new technology make possible? What new hardware will 
that new software demand? Something is bound to turn 
up.B 



10 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 224 on inquiry card. 




Intertec announces what may well be the industry's first 
personable microcomputer-SuperBrain II.™ 

What's a personable computer? It's a computer with 
business application versatility at personal computer 
prices. It's a computer powerful enough to tackle even 
your toughest business jobs, yet at a price that won't put 
you out of business. But most importantly, it's a computer 
you can put to use right out of the box. That's because 
SuperBrain II™ boasts the industry standard CP/M* 
operating software. So whatever your business 
application, SuperBrain N can handle it. There are literally 
hundreds of ready-to-run business applications available 
"off-the-shelf: 

Unlike many microcomputers, the SuperBrain II™ is time- 
tested and field-proven. It's built and backed by a 
company that's been around as long as the industry itself. 
A company you can count on for product support and 
customer satisfaction. 

•Registered trademark of Digital Research. 
tMicrosolt is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. 



STANDARD FEATURES 

• Dual 5 1 /4" disk drives 

• 350K/750K/1.5 MB disk capacities 

• 64K RAM 

• Twin Z80A microprocessors 

• An easy-to-read 12-inch non-glare screen 

• An 18-key numeric keypad 

• 10 MB disk expansion capability COptional) 

• Microsoftf Basic 

When you think about it-price, performance, and the 
reputation of the manufacturer-it's no wonder so many 
discriminating microcomputer users have become 
"personal" friends with our new SuperBrain II™- 
the industry's one and only personable desktop 
microcomputer. 



DATA 
=fe SYSTEMS 



CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS: 2300 BROAD RIVER ROAD • COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA 29210 •1803) 798-9100 • TWX 810-6B6-2115 




Microstuff's 

CROSSTALK 
$119 




ASHTON TATE 

dBASE II $529.00 

BOTTOM LINE STRATEGIST 279.00 

C. ITOH 

PROWRITER PARALLEL $489.00 

PROWRITER SERIAL 639.00 

F-10 55 1799.00 

F-1 PARALLEL 1 399.00 

MO SERIAL 1449.00 

CRAPPLER INTERFACE 140.50 

PROWRITER II 789.00 

TRACTOR FOR F10 229.00 

CALIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS 
ASYNCHRONOUS INTERFACE ..$129.00 

SYNCHRONOUS INTERFACE 149.00 

CALENDAR CLOCK 105.00 

RS232 INTERFACE 124.00 

PROGRAMMABLE TIMER (for apple) 99.00 
COMSHARE TARGET MARKETING 

PLANNER CALC $79.00 

TARGET FINANCIAL MODELING . . 249.00 
CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE 
HOME ACCOUNTANT FOR APPLE $69.00 
HOME ACCOUNTANT FOR IBM ... 1 29.00 
DICTRONICS, INC. 
RANDOM HS. ELE. THESAURUS. $129.00 
PROOF READER 50.00 

NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS SYSTEMS 

THE ANSWER $249.00 

NEC 

NEC 3550 LOP $2149.00 

OASIS 

WORDPLUS $149.00 

PEACHTREE 

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE $375.00 

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE 375.00 

GENERAL LEDGER 375.00 

INVENTORY 375.00 

PAYROLL 187.50 

SALES INVOICING 375.00 

PERFECT SOFTWARE 

PERFECT CALC $139.00 

PERFECT FILER 279.00 

PERFECT SPELLER 139.00 

PERFECT WRITER 239.00 

QUADRAM 
128K MEMORY EXPANSION. . . . $380.00 

192K MEMORY EXPANSION 475.00 

64K MEMORY EXPANSION 280.00 

64K MEMORY UPGRADE 129.00 

DUAL PORT EXPANSION KIT 49.00 

MICROFAZERS ALL MODELS CALL! 

MICROFAZER POWER SUPPLY ....17.00 

OUADBOARD 64K 499.00 

OUADBOARD 128K 649.00 

OUADBOARD 192K 749.00 

OUADBOARD 256K 829.00 

RANA 

CONTROLLER FOR ELITE I $99.00 

RANA ELITE 1 379.00 

RANA ELITE II 559.00 

RANA ELITE III 729.00 

SMITH-CORONA 

SMITH-CORONA TP-1 $599.00 

SORCIM 

PASCAL M $131.25 

SUPERCALC BY SORCIM 209.00 

SPELLGUARD 189.00 

SUPERSOFT 

ADA $269.00 

DIAGNOSTICS I 65.50 

DIAGNOSTICS II 84.00 

DISK DOCTOR BY SUPERSOFT 84.00 

FORTRAN 279.00 

PESONAL DATABASE 99.00 

SCRATCHPAD 259.00 

STACKWORKS FORTH 149.00 

STATSGRAPHS 169.00 

C COMPILER 175.00 

SSS FORTRAN IV 218.75 

SUPER M LIST 65.00 

TERM 1 131.00 

TERM II 150.00 

TEXT FORMATTING 75.00 

UTILITIES I . UTILITIES II 52.50 



EAGLE 

MONEY DECISIONS $119.00 

FORCE II 

MATH* $99.00 

FOX & GELLER 

dUTIL $68.00 

OUICKSCREEN FOR dBASE II 1 29.00 

OUICKCODE FOR dBASE II 249.00 

INTEGRAL DATA SYSTEMS 
IDS MICROPRISM 480 PRINTER. $599.00 

IDS PRISM 132 PRINTER 1199.00 

IDS PRISM 80 PRINTER 879.00 

INTERACTIVE STRUCTURES 

PKASSO 145.00 

INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE, INC. 

TIM III $369.00 

GRAPHMAGIC 69.00 

MATHEMAGIC 79.00 

INFORMATION UNLIMITED SYSTEMS 

EASYFILER $349.00 

EASYSPELLER 159.00 

EASYWRITER II 279.00 

MAXELL 
FD-1 Or FH-1-32 8 "SINGLE SIDED. . . . $41.50 

FD-2 8" DOUBLE SIDED 48.95 

MD-1 0rMH-1 5 1 /V' SINGLE SIDED.... 31. 25 
MD-2 or MH-2 SVa" double sided . . . 47.10 



MICROPRO 

CALCSTAR $99.00 

DATASTAR 194.00 

DATASTAR 199.00 

MAILMERGE 139.00 

SPELLSTAR 174.00 

SUPERSORT 1 1 74.00 

SUPERSORT II 1 74.00 

WORDSTAR 279.00 

WORDSTAR/ MAILMERGE 369.00 

WORDSTAR TRAINING GUIDE 11.25 

MICROSOFT 

128K RAM FOR IBM PC $599.00 

ALDS 105.00 

BASIC 80 COMPILER 299.00 

BASIC 80 INTERPRETER 279.00 

BASIC COMPILER FOR APPLE II ..315.00 

1 28K RAMCARD 599.00 

192K RAMCARD 699.00 

256K RAMCARD 799.00 

64K RAMCARD 399.00 

64K RAMCHIPS 175.00 

TIME MANAGER 119.00 

TYPING TUTOR 23.00 

MICROSOFT Z80 PREMIUM PACK 619.75 

MICROSOFT Z80 SOFTCARD 279.00 

muLISP/ muSTAR 169.00 

MULTIPLAN 229.00 

muSIMP/muMATH 199.00 

TASC APPLESOFT COMPILER .... 149.00 




Micropros 

INFOSTAR 



SORENTO VALLEY ASSOCIATES 

8" FLOPPY SYSTEM (1 MEG) . . $1995.00 
8" FLOPPY SYSTEM (2 MEG). . . . 2599.00 

10 MEG WINC. FOR APPLE 3399.00 

1 28K RAM BOARD 649.00 

1 92K RAM BOARD 845.00 

256K RAM BOARD 949.00 

T/ MAKER COMPANY 

T/ MAKER III $249.00 

VIDEX 

ENHANCER II $119.00 

VIDEX KEYBOARD ENHANCER . . . 105.00 
VIDEX VIDEOTERM FOR APPLE II. 299.00 

VISICORP 

DESKTOP PLAN APPLE II $184.00 

DESKTOP PLAN IBM 228.00 

VISICALC 184.00 

VISICALC ADVANCED VERSION ..339.00 
VISICALC BUSINESS FORECASTING 89.00 

VISIDEX 184.00 

VISIFILE APPLE II 184.00 

VISIFILE IBM 228.00 

VISILINK 184.00 

VISIPACK 619.00 

VISIPLOT FOR APPLE 1 59.00 

VISISCHEDULE 228.00 

VISITERM 80.00 

VISITREND/ VISIPLOT 228.00 



we want you to know... 

MICROHOUSE, because we don't just answer phones, we 
answer questions. 

we want you to know... 

MICROHOUSE continues to feature great prices and quality 

softwares and hardware. 

we want you to know... 

MICROHOUSE introduces new products: 

THE ANSWER NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS SYSTEMS, INC. 

Now you can truly have information at the touch of a button from the world's first self- 
teaching database system, the answer uses "electronic cards" or computerized ver- 
sions of Index cards. These cards hold all your pertinent Information in the sequence 
you want It. with the answers report generation feature, you can also do mailings, 
business reports, math, and high level searching. 

LIST PRICE: $295.00 MICROHOUSE PRICE $249.00 

FAST GRAPHS INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE 

fast GRAPHS Is a complete graphics and plotting program designed for the IBM-PC 
with a color or high resolution black and white monitor, completely menu driven, fast 
GRAPHS automatically scales axes, titles, and creates graph legends; using manual 
data input or direct data input from Vlslcalc, or most other spread sheet and database 
programs. Special draw mode with painting and erasing feature allows you to creatively 
edit your graphs and charts. 
List Price: $295.00 MICROHOUSE PRICE: $189.00 

CALST AR CALIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INC. 

CALSTAR Is a brand new, expandable, single board computer system which is ideally 
suited to business applications, it combines high priced benefits at a cost any business 
can afford. Calstar offers 2-8" double slded-double density disc drives (2 meg capacltyl). 
software included in every calstar: cp/m, perfect writer, perfect speller, perfect 

CALC, and PERFECT FILER. CALL MICROHOUSE FOR DETAILS! 

List Price: $2995.00 MICROHOUSE PRICE: $2695.00 

PRINTMASTER F-10 C. ITOH 

The printmaster Is built on an aluminum base and uses high quality metal parts for 
reliability and dependability, it streams along at 55 LOcps (letter quality characters per 
second) with all the qualities of a starwriter. MICROHOUSE Is an authorized c. itoh re- 
pair center. 

MICROHOUSE PRICE: $1749.00 

we want you to know... 

MICROHOUSE has a 24 hour computerized order system 
called microline which enables you to access specific pro- 
duct information and place an order if you wish. MICROLINE 
can be reached at 1 -21 5-868-1 203. 

P.O. BOX 499/1044 LINDEN ST, DEPT. 201 ..BETHLEHEM, PA 18016 

IBM IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK DF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES. CP/M IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF DIGITAL RE- 
SEARCH, INC., APPLE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTERS, INC., PERFECT WRITER, PERFECT SPELLER, PERFECT CALC 
ARE TRADEMARKS OF PERFECT SOFTWARE, INC. THE ANSWER IS A TRADEMARK OF NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS SYSTEMS. FAST 
GRAPH IS A TRADEMARK OF INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE MARKETING, INC. CROSSTALK IS A TRADEMARK OF MICROSTUFF. INFOSTAR IS A 
TRADEMARK OF MICROPRO. PRICES, SPECIFICATIONS AND AVAILIBILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. NOT ALL PROGRAMS 
AVAILABLE IN ALL FORMATS. PLEASE CALL FOR ADDITIONAL PRODUCT INFORMATION. DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME. 

WE WANT YOU TO KNOW... 

MICROHOUSE 

Circle 282 on inquiry card YOUI* MlCrO*COlfipU tCf PeOple 



Letters 



Misleading Advertising 

I read with great interest an advertise- 
ment for the AMI IIH — h Computer, 
manufactured by Apollo Computer Com- 
pany of Taiwan and distributed by Orien- 
tal Investments Limited of Switzerland 
(November 1982 BYTE, page 332). The 
computer is advertised as being "Apple II 
Plus Compatible" and appears nearly 
identical in its physical characteristics to 
the Apple II. The terms of sale for the 
computer, which is offered at an enor- 
mous price reduction over the usual dis- 
counted cost of an Apple II, require pre- 
payment by money order or by certified 
check. 

Because of recent articles concerning 
the potential infringement of copyrights 
owned by Apple, I contacted the U.S. 
Customs Service in Washington [(202) 
566-5765] to inquire on the legality of im- 
porting the AMI II 4- 4- . I was told that all 
Apple II "look-alikes," specifically includ- 
ing those manufactured by Apollo Com- 
pany, will be seized by Customs upon im- 
port. 

In my opinion your magazine has done 
a great disservice to your readers in carry- 
ing the ad for the AMI II 4- 4- Computer. I 
hope that not many of your readers have 
responded to this alluring ad and sent 
in their prepayments only to have their 
purchased equipment impounded at the 
border. 

Richard L. Merriam 
7 Thoreau Rd. 
Lexington, MA 02173 

As is true of most publications, BYTE 
periodically receives complaints from one 
advertiser (or individual) about the activi- 
ties of another advertiser. As is also true 
of all magazines, it is quite impossible for 
us to act as judge and jury and arbitrate 
commercial disputes between advertisers. 
In addition to other problems, the cost of 
the technical and legal expertise that we 
would have to hire would put our maga- 
zine out of the price range of most of our 
readers and advertisers alike. 

Is there nothing, then, that a magazine 
like BYTE can or should do? Of course 
there is. Every advertisement from a new 
advertiser is reviewed both by an editor 
and a publisher in an attempt to spot 
problems and potential reader rip-offs 
before they occur. While this is not fool- 
proof, we are pleased that we have headed 



off several problems before they found 
their way into print. 

The other step we can take is to adhere 
rigorously to the rulings of government 
tribunals or agencies, who, after all, are 
the appropriate ones to respond to dis- 
putes between advertisers. Unfortunately, 
unless the prevailing advertiser or the 
tribunal itself thinks to inform us of a rul- 
ing, there is no automatic way we receive 
this information. Thus, it was somewhat 
fortuitous that we received a copy of a 
Customs Department Newsletter men- 
tioning the importation ban against some 
Apple II "look-alikes." As soon as we 
received that notice, the ad in question 
was removed from all issues not yet 
printed. . . . Gordon R. Williamson 



Language Flexibility 

Jerry Pournelle's exposure of the high 
priests of computer software is long over- 
due (see "User's Column," October 1982 
BYTE, page 254). 

Since the microcomputer revolution 
began, these high priests have stood by 
their "cure-all" languages and have had a 
put-down attitude toward us poor slobs 
using "nonstructured" code (anything 
with a GOTO statement). Fact is, it's 
easier to defend a familiar language than 
to tread on unfamiliar territory by trying 
to learn another. 

Let's get with it, gang! Every language 
on the market has its share of strengths 
and weaknesses. Just as a wood craftsman 
requires a variety of special tools to do the 
job right, the professional programmer 
needs to understand which software 
"tools" are available to get the job done. 
There is no "best" programming language, 
but given any particular problem, there 
are several languages that will do the job 
quite well. 

The software engineer needs to be able 
to select which language is suitable for the 
task at hand. That might involve breaking 
down a project into modules written in 
BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, and assem- 
bly language to capitalize on the strong 
points of each language. I admire Digital 
Research, Microsoft, and others for tak- 
ing steps in this direction to allow the pro- 
grammer to "link" modules written in dif- 
ferent languages into a single program. 

The hardware side of the computer rev- 
olution is leaps and bounds ahead of, and 
being held back by, the software develop- 



ment side. It's high time that we move 
software development from the mystical 
black art of the '60s into the rapidly 
changing environment of the '80s. The 
high priest stuck holding onto ALGOL/ 
Pascal/FORTRAN/whatever as the cure- 
all language will be much like the elec- 
trical engineer of the '50s left holding a 
vacuum tube. 

Robert S. Walden, President 
XL Computer Products 
POB805 
Mesa, AZ 85202 



Almost a Tlnkerer's Dream 

I just had to write and compliment you 
on the November 1982 BYTE. I am an 
electrical engineer and a hardware hacker 
from way back, and I was about ready to 
let my subscription to BYTE lapse. While 
hardware hackers are a dying breed, I had 
begun to think that we were entirely for- 
gotten. I realize that there aren't many 
left, but there are probably more of us 
than there are disabled microcomputer 
users (see the September 1982 BYTE on 
"Computers and the Disabled") or artist 
microcomputer users (July 1982 BYTE, 
"Computers in the Arts and Sciences") or 
even microcomputer users that program 
in Logo (August 1982 BYTE, "Logo"). 
While these are probably worthy causes 
to devote an issue of BYTE to, it seemed 
that the tinkerers were entirely left out. 
And then came the November 1982 issue. 
While not quite a tinkerer's dream, it is in 
the general direction of one. Steve 
Ciarcia's "Build the Circuit Cellar MPX-16 
Computer System, Part 2" (page 7S), Phil 
Lemmons's informative article "Victor 
Victorious: The Victor 9000 Computer" 
(page 216), a vector-graphics construction 
article (Billy Garrett's "Microvec: The 
Other Type of Video Display," page 508), 
and even Phil Lemmons's "An Interview 
with Chuck Peddle" (page 256) were all 
interesting. No long, boring articles about 
why this DBMS (database management 
system) is better than that (for a home 
computer?), no articles on a language that 
needs five full-time programmers and a 
mainframe computer to maintain it, and 
no one telling me to rush right out and 
plunk down $4000 for the latest do-every- 
thing-but-change-the-baby gizmo. 

While I am not advising that you 
change the editorial direction of BYTE, I 



14 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 





Eng> 



inee" 



ifor< 



In' 



t clU8 cnt 



blo^ 



md P in 



, r apHi cs 




Both 



in" 



.dusW 



co' 



,mP atl 



, inta 



irfac^ 




To put your 

micro computer on 

printing terms 

The Facit 4510 Low Cost 80-column 
Serial Matrix Printer is a thoroughbred 
micro printer. Engineered for quality 
and professional computer outputs. 
Facit 4510 fully configured features most printer 
options as standard. State-of-the-art micro-pro- 
cessor concept and a 2K-work buffer accepts print- 
ing data as fast as your computer can send it. 
Versatility comes from industry compatible inter- 
faces - both parallel and serial RS-232-C. 

Block graphics and pin graphics secure 
optimum system performance and give complete 
printing freedom. 

Emphasizing multifont and high resolution 
capabilities including 8 national character sets as 
standard. 

Fan fold tractor feed, single sheet and 
telex roll with friction feed completes your 
thoroughbred micro printer. The Facit 4510. 



Circle 486 on inquiry card. 



235 Main Dunstable Road PD. Box 828 Nashua, N.H. 03061 
Phone: (603) 883-4157. 

Europe: S-10545 Stockholm, Sweden Phone: (8) 7386000. 



Letters, 



am glad to see some articles of interest to 
people other than full-time data process- 
ing managers or game addicts. And 
besides, the November issue did not have 
one mention (that I could find) that "the 
uses of a computer are limited only by 
your imagination." If I ever see that trite, 
overworked, meaningless phrase in print 
again, I think that I will go into a 
homicidal rage. 

Oh yes, tell Jerry Pournelle that I enjoy 
his "User's Column." And his books are 
okay, too. 

Stuart Ball 

1101 Dover St. NE 

Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 



For the Record 

In the November 1982 BYTE, an er- 
roneous reference was made in Peter 
Sdrensen's article "Tronic Imagery" (page 
48). 

On page 56 (in the paragraph continu- 
ing from page 55), Michael Fremer, music 
and sound design supervisor for Iron, 
was referred to as the sound effects 
creator. 

As the actual sound effects creator for 
Iron, I would like this point clarified. 

Frank Serafine 

Serafine FX 

1861 South Bundy Dr. 

West Los Angeles, CA 90025 



What Did He Say? 

BYTE magazine is used by a cross- 
section of people representing many dif- 
ferent levels of involvement with the ap- 
plications of computers. To serve and to 
maintain its readership, the magazine 
offers access to knowledge and access to 
tools. 

While access to knowledge is also 
catered to by the book market, access to 
tools is provided almost exclusively by 
periodical publications of this type, some 
with self -serving and others with public- 
serving interests. In this context, the word 
tool can be taken in its global meaning of 
"what is instrumental in the realization of 
something." 

The more useful BYTE magazine be- 
comes at providing both types of access, 
the more likely it is to become itself a tool 
and be used as such by its readers. Of all 
needs presented to the editors of the 



magazine by the readers, the key demand 
will always be for more usefulness, hence 
for more useful access. End of loop. 
The editor's job: define "access." 
The reader's job: define "useful." 
I am right now working on my own list 
of wishes. Readers, to your pens! 

Laurent Dube 

Green Island 

POB 3670 

Prince Rupert, British Columbia 

Canada V8J 3W8 



The Myth 
off Computer Literacy 

Yes, computer literacy is really a myth. 
There is no such thing. Many articles have 
been written decrying the lack of com- 
puter literacy in our society. Thousands 
of books and junior college courses have 
been devoted to this subject, but it really 
doesn't exist. Why not? Because com- 
puters are not literate. In fact, computer 
operators need not be literate either (al- 
though knowing how to read is advan- 
tageous). 

Like telephones, computers are ma- 
chines and are quite easy to operate. You 
just turn them on and follow the instruc- 
tions as they appear on the screen. You 
don't hear about telephone literacy. Com- 
puters are the same thing. No problem. 

A properly functioning computer with 
user-friendly software is a pleasure. 
Where we get into trouble is when we 
have software or hardware that malfunc- 
tions. Just like the early telephones, which 
had a lot of hardware and software prob- 
lems, computers (still in their evolution- 
ary infancy) have often given us interest- 
ing moments. As time goes on, this will 
straighten out and become a rare annoy- 
ance, as is now the case with the tele- 
phone. 

So why all the baloney about computer 
literacy? It is due to the desire of our news 
and education industries to increase their 
power. The news media tell us we are 
dumb, stupid, and will fall behind or 
lose a job if we are computer illiterate. 
This makes many people nervous and 
they buy more books, papers, and maga- 
zines in an effort to catch up. Educational 
institutions, suffering from the exit of all 
those baby-boom people, need more 
bodies to maintain income and justify 
their share of tax revenues. 

Certainly we need programmers and 
systems analysts who must be well 



trained in computer technology, just as all 
telephone repairmen and installers must 
be trained for their trade. But for the rest 
of us consumers, all we do is turn the 
computer on and use it, just like the tele- 
phone, and that requires very little "liter- 
acy." 

What we really need is to be digital- 
watch literate. I have a 45-function, $29 
wrist watch with 4 buttons and I cannot 
make it stop beeping. . . , 

E. J. Neiburger DDS 
Dental Computer Newsletter 
1000 North Ave. 
Waukegan, IL 60085 



An Ounce 
off Preventive Maintenance 

We second Mr. Brady's motion (No- 
vember 1982 BYTE, 'letters," page 19) re- 
questing more BYTE articles concerning 
maintenance and repair. 

Computers may sometimes be astonish- 
ing in their capabilities but they're still 
machines, and machines break— some 
more frequently than others and some 
more mysteriously. 

Of course, thorough and regular main- 
tenance can help cut down on the number 
of breakdowns, but when the machine 
does go on the blink there's no reason why 
it can't be up and running quickly. To en- 
sure a minimum of downtime, every com- 
puter owner should establish a relation- 
ship with a reliable and efficient mainte- 
nance organization before any repairs are 
needed. 

In the world of microcomputers, the 
most likely and most reliable source of 
service is the computer distributor or 
dealer. In short, the person you buy it 
from. It is naive to expect prompt service 
from hardware makers. They are in the 
business of manufacturing, not servicing, 
microcomputers. 

So it behooves the microcomputer 
buyer to compare service capabilities as 
well as prices when shopping for a system. 
In fact, service should be a more crucial 
factor than price in the decision because 
the few dollars saved by buying from a 
mail-order house with no maintenance 
service will cost you dearly as time goes 
by and equipment fails. 

In order to evaluate the maintenance 
capabilities of computer dealers and to 
make sure you'll get prompt service if and 
when you need it, make sure they meet 
the following criteria. 



16 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



f 









IF MetaCard DOESN'T IMPROVE 

YOUR WORKING CONDITIONS 

WE'LL GIVE YOU YOUR MONEY BACK. 



It's almost three in the morning. 
You knew just one more line of code 
and your program would be finished. 
That was seven hours ago. It's hard 
work developing good software. Writing 
it on the Apple II is no exception. 
Although we can't promise to get you 
to bed by eleven o'clock, we can make 
your job a lot easier. 

When we developed MetaCard, a 
co-processor system for the Apple II, we 
designed in 128K bytes of on-board 
memory with parity. Enough memory to 
run the most powerful development tools 
available. We included memory expansion 
capabilities beyond 128K. 

And we made sure it could run all three 
operating systems for the IBM PC. MetaCard 
does more than make your job easier, it opens 
up new development areas. If you want to create 
or run more powerful applications software for 
the Apple, or for the IBM PC or other 
8086/88-based systems, you should have a 
MetaCard in your Apple. MetaCard supports the 
most popular development languages available 
for MS-DOS, CP/M-86 and UCSD p-System 
Version IV Languages like Pascal, C, COBOL, 




FORTRAN, BASIC and almost all others operate 
at peak performance. MetaCard enables you to 
continue to use most of the popular peripherals 
for your Apple II, plus all of your existing 
software. And with many best selling 
applications for the IBM PC available soon, you 
can use your Apple in new and developing areas. 
MetaCard uses the Intel 8088 processor and 
operates at a full 5 Mhz. And MetaCard's 
real-time clock, external power supply, parity 
checking RAM, and power-up ROM diagnostics 
give you the features and reliability you demand. 



Satisfaction Guaranteed 

We know you'll still work through the night. 
But if MetaCard doesn't improve your 
working conditions, return it within 
30 days, and we'll send your money 
back. No questions asked. 
MetaCard, complete with 
J documentation, MS-DOS and UCSD 
f p-System (CP/M-86 optional) and power 
f supply, is available in both 64 and 128K 
} configurations, priced at $980 and $1,150 
respectively. The MetaCard System Operating 
Manual is available for only $25. 

For more information write us today, 
Metamorphic Systems, Inc., 8950 Villa La 
Jolla Drive, Suite 1200, La Jolla, CA 92037. 
Or call us today to orderyours at 

800/228-8088 

In California call 619/457-3870. 

MetaCard is a trademark of Metamorphic Systems, Inc., Apple — Apple 
Computer Inc., Intel 8088 — Intel Corporation, CP'M-86 — Digital Research 
Corporation, MS-DOS — Microsoft, UCSD p-System — University of California, 
IBM PC— IBM. 

Circle 265 on inquiry card. 

MetaCard 



Letters • 



Proximity: Common sense tells you 
that you'll get better service from a com- 
pany close by than one far away. Also 
keep in mind that shipping charges are 
usually the responsibility of the customer. 

Longevity: We've been living in the age 
of computers long enough that you 
needn't deal with a company that doesn't 
have a substantial track record. (For in- 
stance, Tristar has been in business over 
10 years.) Unless there's something very 
special about the company, don't deal 



with a brand-new business. The computer 
industry has seen too many casualties, 
and one thing you want is a company that 
will be around tomorrow. 

Legitimacy: It's easy to get into the 
computer business today. Deal with a real 
business, not an answering service. Ask 
for references. 

Adequate stock of replacement parts: 
Ask if the company has an inventory of 
replacement parts. Having the necessary 
parts on hand can mean the difference be- 



Excellence 
Acknowledged. 




Some people demand the best. 

Superior quality at superiorvalue identifies 
the "best" products, and the best in Apple In- 
compatible drives is the Micro-Sci line of 5V4 " 
floppy disk drives and subsystems. 

Business people needing storage, reliability 
and fast access have been impressed with 
Micro-Sci's A40 system since we introduced it 
back in 1979. For a lower list price than the 
Apple Disk H®'s, the A40 offers 20Kb more 
capacity, faster access time and greater 
data reliability. 

The Micro-Sci A70 drive combines quick 
access and high reliability with a full 286Kb 
storage capability. 

The newest member 
of Micro-Sci's Apple II- 
compatible family, the A2, is a 
direct replacement for the Disk II 



//-SCI 



featuring total compatibility at a lower cost. Better 
still, you can mix our A2 drive and controller with 
their drive and controller for complete freedom of 
interchangeabilily. 

And Micro-Sci's controller includes operating 
features like jumper-selectable 3.2 and 3.3 DOS. 
Give yourself the privilege. 
Micro-Sci delivers the most in quality, 
reliability and performance. So when you 
consider additional drives or a disk subsystem 
for your Apple II, indulge yourself in the Micro- 
Sci alternative. 

See our complete product line today at 
a dealer near you. 

(SPECIAL NOTE TO APPLE III 9 
USERS; Micro-Sci also offers a full 
range of Apple Ill-compatible 
drives. Ask your local dealer 
for details.) 



MICRO-SCI 

Micro-Sci is a Division of Standun Controls, Inc. 

2158 SOUTH HATHAWAY STREET • SANTA ANA, C ALIFORNI A92705 ■ 714/662-2801 • TELEX: 910-346-6739 

International Dealer Inquiries ... IMC International Markets Corp. Telephone: 714/730-0963 • Telex: 277782-ROBY UR 

* Apple, Apple II, Apple III and Disk II are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. 



18 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 276 on Inquiry card. 



tween hours and weeks of downtime. 

Tools and space for in-house repair: In 
order to provide good maintenance, ade- 
quate money must be allotted for a repair 
shop and sophisticated tools. Make sure 
that your dealer has done so. 

Trained people: Any reputable manu- 
facturer runs training sessions to teach 
people how to repair their equipment. 
Make sure one of your dealer's employees 
has gone to that school. 

Computer downtime means money and 
inconvenience and sometimes even hard- 
ship for anyone whose computer opera- 
tions are essential. For those reasons, all 
computer owners should be well versed in 
their equipment's proper care and feeding 
and should have a top-notch maintenance 
organization on call to fix things if they 
start going bad. 

Pete Morley 

Tristar Data Systems 

Cherry Hill Industrial Center 

2 Keystone Ave. 

Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 



Victor Club 

Phil Lemmons's article "Victor Vic- 
torious: The Victor 9000 Computer" 
(November 1982 BYTE, page 216) was in- 
deed impressive. 

The Andrews Group is heavily in- 
volved in the development end of 
CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/ 
computer-aided management) software 
for the Victor 9000 coupled with Houston 
Instrument plotters and digitizers. 

Over the last six months of develop- 
ment work we have had tremendous sup- 
port from the Victor Software Group in 
Chicago. We feel at this point, however, 
there should be some central point for in- 
formation exchange for the Victor. 

To this end we have set up the Victor 
User's Club and for the present time we 
will use the offices of the Andrews Group 
and its facilities. 

The club will be for the free exchange of 
information and will publish a monthly 
newsletter pertaining to new develop- 
ments and software ideas. The yearly fee 
is $35, which will cover publishing and 
mailing expenses. 

Mark W. Andrews 
The Andrews Group 
310 SW 2nd St. 
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 

Circle 484 for dealers. 
Circle 485 for end users. — * 




IBC MIDDI CADET 1 



ALTOS ™ ACS 8000-10 



Maximum Users 
Disk Storage 
Memory 
CPU Speed 

Benchmark (Elapsed time 

List Price 



9 

20 MB 

256 KB J 

6 MHz 

1:44 Minutes* 

$7495.00 



Maximum Users 
Disk Storage 
Memory 
CPU Speed 

Benchmark (Elapsed time) 

List Price 



4 

10MB 

208 KB 

4 MHz 

5:03 Minutes* 

$7995.00 



The IBC MIDDI Cadet is better, faster and less expensive than the ALTOS ACS-8000-10 and 
others. That's why we call it the heavyweight performer. 

Because the MIDDI is completely software compatible with ALTOS, ONYX™, Dynabyte™ and 
others using CP/M™ 2.2, MP/M™ II or OASIS™, you can transport your applications software to the 
MIDDI without modification. So why not take the benchmark test yourself. 

If you are an OEM, system integrator, multiple end user, or dealer for any of our competitors, 

send a copy of your application program to IBC. We will run your software on the MIDDI without 

modification and give you the elapsed time in minutes. You be the judge. If it really is faster 

than your current hardware and it is , then you owe it to yourself and your customers to switch to 

IBC. 

So remember! When you want a heavyweight performer at a low price, contact — — 

outside the usa within the USA See us at Spring Comdex 



21592 Manila Street 4185 Harrison Blvd., Suite 301 

Chatsworth, CA 91311 Ogden. UTAH 84403 

(213)882-9007 TELEX NO, 215349 (801)621-2294 



"Four users under OASIS 
Upgradeable to 512 K Bytes 



ems Iric . DYNABYTE is a trademark 



Letters 



The Real Bottleneck 

I take exception to a term which I fear is 
becoming widely accepted. I have recently 
seen it in BYTE and other publications. 
This term is Von Neumann bottleneck. 

The term is used because the concept of 
the stored program computer as we know 
it today is largely due to the work of John 
Von Neumann (1903-1957) in the early 
'40s and because in this concept instruc- 
tions are fetched and executed in a strictly 
linear fashion. 

I disagree with the popular use of the 
phrase for several reasons. First, in his in- 
novative work this genius broke the bot- 
tleneck of the day, which was the com- 
mon narrowmindedness that thought of 
computers in terms of single-use or hard- 
to-modif y dedicated systems. 

Second, the term contains the pejora- 
tive connotation that if it were not for 
Von Neumann this bottleneck would not 
exist today. It certainly would because it 
is related to hardware technology more 
than to anything else. 

Third, if Von Neumann had lived 
longer, the state of computer theory 



would most likely be far more advanced 
than it is. Doubtless his theoretical con- 
tributions would have gone well beyond 
the advances in hardware that we have 
seen over the years, particularly in regard 
to the capability of true multi- and 
parallel-processing. So if there is a Von 
Neumann bottleneck, it is in the loss that 
the world of mathematics and computers 
suffered in his early death. 

The contributions Von Neumann made 
to mathematics are well known, from the 
founding of the theory of games, with its 
wide-reaching applications in areas like 
weather research and economics, to his 
work in set theory and theoretical physics 
and his work in the logical design of elec- 
tronic computers and a general theory of 
automata. These contributions, along 
with the many anecdotes still told today 
about the intellectual powers of the man, 
attest to his true genius in many areas of 
mathematics and computing theory. I 
strongly protest the use of the term I have 
been discussing— it is a manifest injustice 
to connect the name Von Neumann with 
this pseudo-problem. 

In a constructive vein, may I make two 



suggestions. First, that this phenomenon 
be more aptly named. Terms like unipro- 
cessing bottleneck, linear-processng bot- 
tleneck or sequential-processing bot- 
tleneck come to mind, but I will not 
presume to coin the definitive phrase here. 
Second, may I suggest the following 
definition of the term Von Neumann bot- 
tleneck: the fact that more than 95 percent 
of all people have less than 5 percent of 
the ability of John Von Neumann. 

Philip Mahler 

Instructor of Mathematics 

Middlesex Community College 

Springs Rd. 

Bedford, MA 01730 



The Meaning of Oppression 

Just to set the record straight: I am the 
source of the "RESIST THE DRAFT" mes- 
sage that Dr. Kallend discovered assem- 
bled into Apple Logo (see the December 
1982 BYTE "Letters" column, page 18). 
Neither Apple Computer Inc. (which dis- 




wmmsmm 



The Most Promising Duet 
For An Orchestra* 

Our duet is perfect for a single user system. 
The same duet performs even better in a multi-user orchestra 




MCM*80: 

S-100 Single Board 
Computer ■ Single 
or multi processor 
capability ■ Pro- 
grammable master 
or slave selection 

■ Redundant pro- 
cessor manipulation 

■ 4MHz Z80A or 
6MHz Z80B CPU ■ 
64K RAM and 2K EPROM with monitor 

■ 2 serial, 2 parallel, 4 timer 
ports ■ Bi-directional inter- 
processor channel ■ Dual 
mode serial ports interface ■ 
Multi-layer PCB construction. 

£495 Circle 228 on inquiry card. 




DCM*80: S-100 Disk Controller 

Module ■ 8" and/or SVi" floppy disk 

controller ■ SASI (ANSI, SCSI) hard disk 

host adapter ■ Single and double density, 

single and double side Software 

implementation on CP/M 1 

2.2 and TurboDOS! 

1 TM of Digital Research, Inc. 
1 TM of Software 2000, Inc. 

$345. 






JC SYSTEMS 

1075 Hiawatha Ct, 
Fremont, CA 94538 
(415) 657-4215 



SSESES3ES 



897 N.W. Grant Ave. • Corvallis, Oregon 97330 • 503/758-0521 



T 



TWFTTn 



Expanding Horizons in 
Text Display 

Videoterm increases your Apple ][® display to a full 

capacity 80 columns. Proofreading text problems are 

a thing of the past. With Videoterm your text is 

displayed in upper and lower case characters with true 

I descenders utilizing a 7 by 9 character matrix. The 

time-tested Videoterm is compatible with most word 
processors and is available with alternate character 
fonts. Once you've explored the advantages of 
Videoterm, you'll discover a whole new world for you 
and your Apple ][. 
Suggested retail price: $345.00 



^feS- 




■ 



ACCESSORIES 



Videoterm Utilities Disc includes: 
•Graphics Template System 
•Font Editor 
•Mid-Res Graphics 
•Applesoft Read Screen Utility 
•Top & Bottom Scrolling 
•Pascal Vidpatch 

Suggested price 237.00 




Videoterm 

Character Set 

EPROMs ™' T 

•French •N. European 

• German 'Russian 

• Inverse 'Spanish 
•Katakana [Japanese] *Super & Subscript 
•Math & Greek Symbols Suggested price 
•Norsk $29.00 each. 



Dvorak EPRQM [Enhancer]— $29. 00 
Lower Case Chip [Rev 7 & up]— $29.00 



SOFT VIDEO SWITCH 




The Soft Video Switch is an automatic ver- 
sion of the popular Switchplate. It knows 
whether it should display 40 or 80 columns 
or Apple graphics. It does the tedious work 
of switching video-out signals so you don't 
have to. The Soft Video Switch can be con- 
trolled by software. May be used with any 
Videoterm with Firmware 2.0 or greater. 
The single wire shift mod is also supported. 
Package price is 9535.00. 



Circle 443 on Inquiry card. 



ENHANCER ][ 




The Enhancer ][ features a typeahead buf- 
fer. Your keyboard has upper and lower 
case, and will auto repeat any key held 
down. A single keystroke can become a 
word or an entire sentence. Controlled by a 
powerful microprocessor, Enhancer ][ 
allows you to re-map your keyboard or add 
specialized features. Changing a chip 
creates a totally different keyboard. 
Enhancer ][ Utilities Disc included. 

Suggested retail price $1 49.00. 



videx is a trademark of videx, \ncJ 

~ i jt Mi 



Apple ][ is a registered trademark of Apple-Computer Inc. 



PRINTER 
OPTIMIZER 




Why buy a mere "spooler" when you 
can have THE PRINTER OPTIMIZER? 

* 64k to 256k spooling buffer 

* adapts different brands -can 
mix Serial and Parallel 

* character conversion:! to 1, 
1 to many, many to 1, ignore 

* pushbutton automated access to 
your printer's various type 
styles and printing modes 

* several ways to PAUSE printing 

* access any character, graphic 
design or printer "trick" from 
any program at any time 

* special features for use as 
a MODEM buffer 



m£ I Ctl Electronic Typewriter Interface 



The cost effective alternative. 
Converts IBM, Adler/Royal, Olympia 
and other Electronic Typewriters 
into letter quality printers. 

* 2K memory buffer 

* access all typewriter characters 
and automated features 

* Serial or Parallel versions 

* Many proprietary features and 
commands insure compatibility 
with your system and software 

* Typesetting capability! 



PETI 




Super low cost adaptor for new 
inexpensive portable Electronic 
Typewriters can yield typewriter 
and letter quality printer com- 
bination for around $500 total! 

. * perfect for "personal use" 

* easy "plug-in" Parallel 
connection to most computers 

* compatible with popular word 
processing programs 

APPLIED 
CREATIVE 
TECHNOLOGY 



INC. 



2723 Avenue E East, Suite 71 7 
Arlington, Texas 7601 1 
[8171-261-6905 
[800]-433-5373 



Letters 

tributes the product) nor Logo Computer 
Systems (which manufactures it) knew of 
its inclusion. 

Dr. Kallend sees "an early start on 
1984" in the dissemination of the message 
(which he regards as subversive) "into so 
many of our schools." This view is aston- 
ishingly upside down. In the nightmare 
world of George Orwell's novel 1984, the 
expression of "subversive" ideas was all 
but wiped out; thus was obedience to 
government authority assured. It's hard to 
imagine a clearer antithesis to the type of 
oppression depicted in 1984 than en- 
couraging defiance of the draft, in schools 
and elsewhere. Dr. Kallend seems to be 
telling us that resistance is oppression. 

Gary L. Drescher 

NE43-743 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Cambridge, MA 02139 

A Language Is Born 

November 1982 saw continued discus- 
sion of the QWERTY versus Dvorak key- 
boards in the "Letters" section of BYTE 
(page 16). I am a touch-typist, and al- 
though I did not relish the prospect of 
learning to type all over again, the bene- 
fits from Dvorak's "simpler keyboard" in- 
trigued me. 

As with many microcomputers, the key- 
board on my Osborne is not redefinable. 
This meant that I couldn't implement 
Dvorak's layout without first replacing 
my ROM. However, I found a solution: 
rather than redefining the keyboard into 
Dvorak's structure, I chose to redefine the 
alphabet. If the word to be typed is 
"letter" I mentally encode it and type the 
"Dvorak-English" word "pokkdo." "Dear 
Sir" becomes "Hdao :so" and "Having a 
wonderful time." equates to the seemingly 
nonsensical "Ja.gly a ,slhdotfp kgmdq." 

I find that I have sufficient time to think 
of (or read) what I wish to type, convert 
its spelling into Dvorak-English, and still 
retain the speed of a true Dvorak key- 
board. The one problem, that other peo- 
ple cannot read my text until it is 
decrypted, does not significantly subtract 
from the value I have gained. However, it 
is my intention to seek the removal of 
even this irritation. Dvorak-English as a 
second language, perhaps taught along- 
side French and Spanish in public schools, 
would do the trick. 

Chris Rudek 

5975 Newman Court, #4 

Sacramento, CA 95819 



Warranty Pirates 



I thoroughly enjoy Jerry Pournelle's ar- 
ticles and find them informative and 
entertaining. However, I would like to 
take a good-natured poke at one of his 
commentaries in the November 1982 
BYTE "User's Column" (page 394) regard- 
ing the warranty and license information 
included with the Soft-Link evaluation 
copy of Colortrol that Mr. Pournelle con- 
sidered reviewing. 

If Mr. Pournelle will reread the warran- 
ty and license information that he signed 
when he began running CP/M on his sys- 
tem, he will find that Soft-Link, as many 
other software vendors have done, has 
merely used wording similar to that used 
by Digital Research. These vendors ap- 
parently feel there's no point in arguing 
with success. Digital Research has a suc- 
cessful software package, has not been 
sued out of business, and has successfully 
sued against pirates, while other software 
companies have difficulty coming up with 
anything else as simple and as protective. 
In other words, most software houses 
have "pirated" Digital Research's warran- 
ty and license format, probably for good 
reason, and Soft-Link shouldn't be taken 
to task for doing the same. 

Actually, most software houses are 
willing to be less restrictive in practice, 
but with suits being brought for almost 
any reason, valid and otherwise, and with 
such suits being expensive to defend, with 
little or no compensation for the winning 
defense, software houses will probably 
continue to use similar wording in war- 
ranties and licenses, if for no other reason 
than to avoid attorney fees rather than re- 
sponsibility. 

R. David Otten, Owner/President 
Signature Software Systems Inc. 
5602 Stouder Place NW 
Pickerington, OH 43147 ■ 



BYTE's Bugs 



MARC This Correction 

In the textbox on the MARC operating 
system that accompanied Christopher O. 
Kern's article "Microshell and Unica: 
Unix-Style Enhancements for CP/M," an 
incorrect telephone number was listed for 
Vortex Technology. (See the December 
1982 BYTE, page 206.) The correct num- 
ber is (213) 645-7200. ■ 



22 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 







BOXED IN THE CORNER 
BY YOUR SMALL 
BUSINESS COMPUTER? 



The trouble with many of today's better known 
small business computers is they box you into a single 
user system. So after your big initial investment you 
still have a single user system. You always will. 

Now there's the Ze^s 4 from OSM Computers. The 
Ze\ss 4 is the first multi-user, multi-processor micro at 
single user prices. The Ze^s 4 is less than one cubic foot 
and weighs 24.6 pounds. 

Yet it's like four separate, powerful small business 
computers in one. It allows up to four users to share 
a common data base or work independently. Each has 
his own CPU, 64K of RAM and I/O ports. That means 
greater operator independence, more processor power 
and greater reliability. 

You needn't worry about running out of storage 
capacity either. The Ze^s 4 comes with a built-in hard 
disk, so users share up to 19MB of storage, about twice as 
much as most other multi-user systems. 

You'll enjoy maximum flexibility in software appli- 
cations too, because Ze/is 4's MUSE operating system 
runs programs compatible with CP/M. Plus MUSE 
provides extensive file management functions typically 
found only on mini computers. 

Here's another big advantage: The Ze/iS 4 is 



designed for low maintenance, low down-time. Its four 
modules snap in and out with a few minutes work. 
So if repairs are ever needed, modules are simply 
replaced through OSM's limited warranty program. 

Maybe the best thing is that you can buy the 
powerful and expandable Ze^s 4 for $4,595 ($6,595 fully 
configured for four users). 

The Ze^s 4 from OSM, the latest in a family of 
powerful, multi-user small business computers. It's the 
little box that lets you grow without boxing you in. 

To find out more, 
call (800) 538-5120 
or (415) 961-8680 in 
California or write to 
OSM Computer Cor- 
poration, 665 Clyde 
Avenue, Mountain 
View, CA 94043. 




Computers. Your power to expand. 

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. 

Zeps 4 and MUSE are trademarks of OSM Computer Corporation. 

© 1983 OSM Computers. 

Circle 329 on Inquiry card. 



ARE YOU STILL LETTING 

YOUR PRINTER 

TIE UP YOUR COMPUTER? 



While your printer is running, your 
computer is tied up. You can't use 
it for processing, computing, data 
entry. Nothing. All you can do is 
twiddle your thumbs until the 
program is finished. 
Pretty ridiculous. 

MICROBUFFER ALLOWS YOU 

TO PRINT AND PROCESS 

SIMULTANEOUSLY. 

You just dump your printing data 
directly to Microbuffer, whoosh!, 
and continue processing. 
No waiting. 

Microbuffer accepts data as fast 
as your computer can send it. 
It stores the data in its own 
memory buffer then takes control 
of the printer. 

It's that easy. 

THERE IS A MICROBUFFER 

FOR ANY COMPUTER/PRINTER 

COMBINATION. 

Whatever your system, there is a 
specific Microbuffer designed to 
accommodate it. 

FOR APPLE II COMPUTERS, 
Mircobuffer II features on-board 
firmware for text formatting and 
advanced graphics dump routines. 
Both serial and parllel versions 
have a power-efficient low- 
consumption design. Special 
functions include Basic listing 
formatter, self-test, buffer zap, and 



transparent and maintain modes. 
The 16K model is priced at $259 
and the 32K, at $299. 

FOR EPSON PRINTERS, Microbuffer/ E 
comes in two serial versions — 
8K or 16K (upgradable to 32K) — 
and two parallel versions — 16K 
or 32K (upgradable to 64K). The 
serial buffer supports both hard- 
ware handshaking and XON-XOFF 
software handshaking at baud 
rates up to 19,200. Both interfaces 
are compatible with standard Epson 
commands, including GRAFTRAX-80 
and GRAFTRAX-80 + . Prices range 
from $159 to $279. 

ALL OTHER COMPUTER/ PRINTER 
COMBINATIONS can be untied by 
the stand-alone Microbuffer In-line. 

The serial stand-alone will 
support different input and output 
baud rates and different hand- 
shake protocol. Both serial and 
parallel versions are available in a 
32K model at $299 or 64K for 
$349. Either can be user-upgraded 
to a total of 256K with 64K add-ons 
— just $179 each. 

SIMPLE TO INSTALL 

Microbuffer II is slot-independent. 
It slips directly inside the Apple II 
in any slot except zero. 

Microbuffer/ E mounts easily 
inside the existing auxiliary slot 
directly inside the Epson printer. 

The stand-alone Microbuffer is 



installed in-line between virtually 
any computer and any printer. 

MICROBUFFER FROM 
PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS. 

So what are you waiting for? Write 
to us for more information or ask 
your dealer for a demonstration. 

When you see how much 
freedom Microbuffer will allow, 
you'll understand why it's so silly 
to be without one. 

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS, INC.™ 
31245 LA BAYA DRIVE 
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA 91362 
(213) 991-8200 





FREES COMPUTERS 



Circle 350 on inquiry card. 



Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar 



Build the ECM-103, 
an Originate /Answer Modem 

The Texas Instruments TMS99532 component 
forms the heart of a Bell-103-compatible modem. 



Steve Ciarcia 

POB 582 

Glastonbury, CT 06033 



Back in the August 1980 BYTE, I 
presented an article on how to build 
an originate-only modem for under 
$50 (see reference 2). It must have 
been the right project at the right 
time; I know that several thousand of 
you ordered the kit version. Since 
then, however, technology has ad- 
vanced. The degree of functionality 
that took about a hundred com- 
ponents and a fair amount of con- 
struction complexity in 1980 can now 
be obtained with less effort and can 
offer even better performance. The 
limited originate-only design from 
2Vi years ago may not be adequate 
for all applications. I believe a new 
design is warranted. 

This month's project is the con- 
struction of a reliable and versatile 
300-bps (bit-per-second) data-com- 
munication device called the Circuit 
Cellar ECM-103 modem (see photo 
1). It requires no calibration or 
critical adjustments, uses only 30 
components, and operates in both 
originate and answer modes. I think 
you'll be intrigued with its simplicity. 



Copyright © 1 983 by Steven A. Ciarcia. 
All rights reserved. 



Let's begin with a quick review of 
modems and data-communication 
techniques. 

What Is a Modem? 

The word modem is a contraction 
of the two words modulator and de- 
modulator. The modem converts dig- 
ital signals from the computer into 
analog signals, which can be trans- 
mitted via a telephone line. Various 
techniques can be employed in this 
conversion. 

Modems are generally categorized 
by the speed at which they transmit 
data. The data-transmission rates are 
properly expressed in bits per second 
(bps), although you often hear the 
term baud used. Strictly speaking, 
"baud" measures the number of tran- 
sitions in state of the communication 
link, rather than the amount of data 
represented by these transitions. A 
single change of state may in some 
cases represent multiple data bits, and 
therefore the data rate may not equal 
the baud rate. The difference can be 
important. 

Modems are commonly divided in- 
to four categories, based on their 
speed of transmission. The low-speed 
modems are those operating at speeds 



from to 600 bps. The medium-speed 
modems operate from 1200 to 2400 
bps. From about 3600 bps to around 
16,000 bps are a group of modems 
generally called high-speed, but still 
higher in speed are the wide-band 
modems, which work at speeds from 
19,200 bps on up. 

The higher the data rate, the 
greater the price of the modem. Most 
low-speed (300-bps) modems are 
generally under $200, while most 
1200-bps units are in the $700 to 
$1000 range. Low- and medium-speed 
modems generally use voice-grade 
telephone lines, but the higher-speed 
units require dedicated communica- 
tion-grade lines. And as the speed of 
data communication increases, the 
techniques required to ensure error- 
free reception become, by necessity, 
more sophisticated. 

How Modems Work 

The process of translating digital 
information into a form that can be 
sent through telephone lines is called 
modulation. Current practices in- 
clude several techniques. 

Low-speed modems generally em- 
ploy a technique called frequency-shift 
keying (FSK), which uses two distinct 



26 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Photo 1: Prototype of the Circuit Cellar ECM-103 300-bps modem. The TMS99532 is the chip on the left next to the crystal 
The circuit can be directly attached to the telephone lines through a DAA or acoustically coupled through the coupler shown in 
photo 3. 



tones of different frequency to repre- 
sent logic 1 and 0. Data is sent by the 
modem's alternately transmitting the 
two frequencies (i.e., shifting the fre- 
quency of its transmitted carrier 
tone). The amount of information 
that can be sent using FSK in a given 
interval of time is limited by the fre- 
quency bandwidth of the telephone 
line: a transmitted data bit must con- 
sist of at least the number of cycles of 
a 1 or tone required for the receiver 
to recognize it, and the number of 
cycles of the transmitted tone taking 
place in a time interval is the same 
thing as its frequency. The frequen- 
cies used cannot exceed the capability 
of the line. 

Higher-speed modems use more 
complex and sophisticated transmis- 
sion techniques, all of which to some 
extent modulate not only the frequen- 
cies of the tones but their phase, and 
possibly amplitude, as well. These 



phase-shift keying (PSK) methods 
permit more compact data encoding, 
with more information transmitted in 
less time, by making a single change 
in the state of the physical communi- 
cation link communicate more than 
one data bit. (In such a technique, the 
data rate differs from the baud rate; 
see reference 1.) 

The most popular variation of PSK 
is called quadrature amplitude modu- 
lation, or QAM. Widely used in 1200- 
bps modems, QAM employs both 
amplitude and phase modulation to 
encode 2 bits of data in every state 
transition (see reference 4). 

The chief drawback of any PSK 
technique is the sophistication re- 
quired in the decoding mechanism of 
the receiving modem, which must 
sort out the information-bearing 
phase and amplitude variations in the 
received signal from the meaningless 
phase and amplitude distortions in- 



duced in the signal by the communi- 
cation link. 

Because this article is about build- 
ing a low-speed modem, Til save the 
discussion of these more sophisticated 
encoding techniques for a more ap- 
propriate time in the future. 

How an FSK Modem Works 

In computer communication via 
modems, one of the two modems in- 
volved is called the originating 
modem because the communication 
link is established beginning with it. 
The other modem is called the 
answering modem. In the archetypal 
case, the originating modem is 
associated with a video-display ter- 
minal, and the answering modem is 
connected to a remote host computer. 

In frequency-shift-keyed communi- 
cation, a modem is said to operate in 
either originate or answer mode. Each 
of these modes has its own unique set 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 27 




Photo 2: Inside view of prototype modem. Box contains modem circuit (upper 
left), coupler, and power supply (lower right). 



GAIN 




LOW- BANDPASS 
RECEIVE FILTER 



LOGIC LOGIC! 




HIGH-BANDPASS 
RECEIVE FILTER 



LOGICO L0GIC1 



2100 




FREQUENCY RESPONSE 
OF TELEPHONE NETWORK 



300 1070 

*2100Hz -CCITT V. 25 ANSWER TONE 



1270 2025 

FREQUENCY (Hi) 



1115 



Figure 1: Frequency spectrum used by low-speed Bell-10 3-compatible modems for data 
communication over voice-grade telephone lines. For full-duplex operation, two 
distinct passbands are used, one for data passing in each direction. The modulation 
technique used is phase-continuous frequency -shift keying. 



of tone frequencies to indicate 1 and 
0. (From the previous discussion of 
FSK, you will recall that the transmis- 
sion of one tone at a given frequency 
signifies a logic 1 and that a tone at a 
certain other frequency signifies a 
logic 0.) Use of two sets of tones 
allows full-duplex communication, in 
which information moves in both di- 
rections at once over a single pair of 
wires. 

The modem operating in originate 
mode transmits using the originate set 
of tones (1070 Hz for a and 1270 Hz 
for a 1). The modem operating in 
answer mode transmits using the 
answer tones (2025 Hz for a and 
2225 Hz for a 1). In receiving, each 
modem listens for the tones being 
used by the other modem. The logic-1 
frequency is sometimes called the 
mark tone, and the logic-0 frequency 
is then called the space tone. Figure 1 
shows the telephone-line passband 
and the relationship of the two sets of 
tones. 

Almost universally, if you are dial- 
ing a large computer network, your 
terminal is considered the originating 
terminal, and therefore your modem 
need only operate in originate mode. 
A modem that can do only this is 
called an "originate-only" modem. If 
you wish your equipment to be able 
to answer calls from an originate- 
mode modem, you need a modem ca- 
pable of operating in answer mode. 

If the other party is willing and able 
to establish the link but still use 
answer frequencies, you could receive 
calls on an originate-only modem. 
(The choice of which modem uses 
which mode is arbitrary as long as 
they don't both try to use the same 












TMS99532 






MICROPHONE 








TTL/RS-232C 
CONVERTER 


AMPLIFIER 




















SPEAKER 






RS-232C/TTL 
CONVERTER 


AMPLIFIER 























SERIAL 
) COMPUTER 
INTERFACE 



Figure 2: Block diagram of the Circuit Cellar ECM-103 modem, which is designed around the Texas Instruments TMS99532 integrated 
circuit. 



28 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



mode.) So owning an originate-only 
modem doesn't put you at a major 
disadvantage, but a unit that can 
operate in both modes, an originate/ 
answer modem, is more flexible. The 
ECM-103 presented for construction 
here is such an originate/answer 
modem. 

Design of the ECM-103 

The Circuit Cellar ECM-103 300-bps 
modem is built around the Texas In- 
struments TMS99532 FSK modem 
chip, which allows the modem to 
achieve a new plateau of elegance and 
reliability. The ECM-103 uses signifi- 
cantly fewer components than most 
modems presently available and is 
simple enough for the casual hobbyist 
to assemble (see photo 2). I've ar- 
ranged for The Micromint to produce 
a kit for building the ECM-103. 

Completely crystal-controlled, the 
ECM-103 requires no calibration or 
adjustments. Although designed for 
acoustical coupling to a telephone 



handset, the modem also lends itself 
to direct telephone-line connection 
through an FCC- (Federal Communi- 
cations Commission-) registered pro- 
tective circuit, a so-called DAA (data- 
access arrangement). A 600-ohm 
matching transformer for connection 
to the DAA is available in the parts 
list. The ECM-103 is connected to its 
associated computer or video termi- 
nal (its data-terminal equipment) 
through an RS-232C-compatible in- 
terface. 

Figure 2 is a block diagram of the 
ECM-103. The distinctive modem 
functions are all contained in the 
TMS99532; the other parts of the cir- 
cuit serve to interface the TMS99532 
to either the acoustic coupler or the 
computer. 

Figure 3 is the schematic diagram of 



the ECM-103. The four integrated cir- 
cuits in the modem work as follows. 
IC1 is the TMS99532. Component 
IC2 (an MC1458) is a dual operation- 
al amplifier (op amp). One half of it 
amplifies the signals received from 
the microphone next to the handset's 
earpiece, while the other half am- 
plifies the FSK output from the 
TMS99532 to drive a speaker under 
the telephone mouthpiece. IC3 (an 
MC1488) and IC4 (an MC1489) serve 
chiefly as level-shifters to convert the 
digital circuitry's TTL (transistor- 
transistor logic) voltages to the 
±12-V (volt) levels required for RS- 
232C communication. One section of 
IC3 is used to drive the carrier-detect 
LED (light-emitting diode). Switch 
SWl selects the answer or originate 
operating mode. 



Number 


Type 


+ 5 V 


GND 


-12 


V 


+ 12 V 


-5 V 


IC1 


TMS99532 


5 


18 






14 


11 


IC2 


MC1458 






4 




8 




IC3 


MC1488 


14 


7 










IC4 


MC1489 




7 


1 




14 





+ 12V 



Jl 

RS-232C | C 4 

CONNECTOR MC1489 



"ORIG" N/C 



TRANSMITTED 
DATA I 



SE> £X 



ft? ANSWER 



RECEIVED ^— I L7^~[ I 1 

DUT <JJ -A * 1 5 f" 



ACOUSTIC 
COUPLER 



DATA 01 



CARRIER 
DETECT 



<U 

GROUND rr> — i 

N/C* NO CONNECTION 



<D 



IC3 
MC1488 



jr 



LEDl 
TIL-220 

-96- 




CARRIER 
DETECT" 



HIGH-IMPEDANCE 

CERAMIC 

MICROPHONE 



m 



Figure 3: Schematic diagram of the ECM-103. Four voltages are required to power the unit; no power-supply components are shown 
in this figure. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 29 



(4a) 



ANALOG L OOPBA CK ENABLE 

CARRIER-DETECT INDICATION 

CARRIER-DETECT- TIMING 

RECEIVED DATA OUTPUT 

(+5V) 

4.032-MHz OSCILLATOR OUTPUT 



CRYSTAL CONNECTIONS 
ANSWER-TONE ENABLE 



ALB [ 

DCD[ 

TM6 [ 

RCVD[ 

v C cC 

OSCOUT [ 
XTAL2[ 
XTAL1 

ATE 



1 18 ] VSS (GROUND) 

2 17 ] EXl EXTERNAL TONE INPUT 

3 16 ] TXA ANALOG TRANSMISSION OUTPUT 

4 15]RCVA RECEIVED ANALOG INPUT 

5 14 ]V D D <+12V) 

6 13 ] SQT TRANSMISSION SQUELCH 

7 1 2 ] A / ANSWER / ORIGIN A TE SEL ECT 

8 11 3 V BB f-M 

9 10 ] XMTD TRANSMITTED DATA 
TMS99532 



(4b) 



TMG 
DCD • 



CARRIER 
DETECTION 



AGC 



RCVD •*- 



XTAL1 

XTAL2 

OSCOUT 

XMTD ■ 



DEMODULATOR 



,. 








OSCILLATOR 


* 









MODULATOR 



MULTIPLEXER 



BANDPASS 
FILTER 



BANDPASS 
FILTER 



MULTIPLEXER 



ANTIALIASING 

LOW-PASS 

FILTER 



ANTIALIASING 

LOW-PASS 

FILTER 



EXl 



I 1 
TXA 



Figure 4: Pinout specification (a) and functional block diagram (b) of the TMS99532 modem chip. 



Not shown in the schematic is the 
four-voltage power supply. The 
TMS99532 requires three voltages: 
+ 5 V, -5 V, and + 12 V, while an 
additional — 12-V supply is required 
by the MCL458 and MC1488. An ex- 
ternal three-voltage power supply can 
be used if an onboard voltage con- 
verter ( — 12 V to — 5 V) is installed in 
the modem. (This approach was 
taken in the kit version, which re- 
quires the input of only + 5 V, + 12 V, 
and —12 V for operation.) 

Figure 4 shows a pinout specifica- 
tion and block diagram of the 
TMS99532 modem chip. The LSI 
(large-scale integration) NMOS (neg- 
ative-channel metal-oxide semicon- 
ductor) technology of the TMS99532 
enables it to contain all the necessary 
modulation, demodulation, and fil- 
tering circuitry required to form the 
heart of a modem. Its use eliminates 
many standard discrete components, 



reducing the size and increasing the 
reliability of modem designs. 

The transmit FSK-modulator sec- 
tion is phase-continuous, that is, the 
phase of the transmitted signal re- 
mains constant during a frequency 
shift. The mark (logic 1) and space 

The TMS99532 uses a 
4.032-MHz crystal to 

generate the four 

reference frequencies 

used by the digital 

filters. 

(logic 0) frequencies are derived from 
the clock circuit. Whether the answer 
or originate frequencies are transmit- 
ted is determined by the logic level on 
the A/O select line (pin 12). The fre- 
quency shifting of the output is con- 
trolled by the data arriving through 



the XMTD line (pin 10). The modula- 
tor's output, bandpass-filtered to 
eliminate noise, makes its way to the 
outside world via the TXA line (pin 
16). 

The demodulator includes two 
stages of filtration: two primary anti- 
aliasing filters, each of which feeds 
two secondary narrow-bandpass digi- 
tal filters centered on the particular 
mark and space frequencies. One pri- 
mary filter is centered on 1170 Hz (to 
pass received originate-mode tones) 
and the other on 2125 Hz (allowing 
answer-mode tones to pass). 

The TMS99532 uses a 4.032-MHz 
crystal to generate the four reference 
frequencies (both sets of mark and 
space tones) used by the digital filters. 
In either operating mode, one set is 
used to sample the analog input 
signals (from the chip's RCVA input, 
pin 15) through a switched capacitor- 
filter network, while the other set 



30 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



generates the carrier signals in the 
transmit modulator. 

In the receiving process, the out- 
puts of the digital mark and space 
filters are full-wave rectified and their 
levels are compared. If the signal 
coming from the mark filter is greater 
in amplitude than the space filter's 
amplitude, the received data is inter- 
preted as a logic 1 (or vice versa). The 
input from the microphone is at- 
tached to the RCVA input (pin 15), 
and the demodulated data comes out 
on the RCVD output line (pin 4). 

The TMS99532 has a carrier-detect 
function that allows separate time- 
out intervals for acquisition and loss 
of signal. For a valid carrier-detect 
signal to be generated, the TMS99532 
must receive a mark signal of detect- 
ible amplitude during the interval 
selected as the carrier-detect turn-on 
time. After a mark-state carrier has 
been detected, the signal must fall 
below the carrier-detect turn-off 
threshold for a predetermined turn- 
off interval before the Data Carrier 
Detect output (pin 2) indicates loss of 
signal. The turn-on and turn-off times 
are preset by the connection of a 
resistor/capacitor combination to the 
TMG input (pin 3). In designing the 
ECM-103, I chose a 10-megohm resis- 
tor and. a 0.01-microfarad capacitor 
to provide a turn-on carrier-detect in- 
terval of approximately 75 ms (milli- 
seconds) and a turn-off time of ap- 
proximately 25 ms. 

Acoustic-Coupler Interface 

The easiest and simplest way of 
making the physical connection from 
the ECM-103 modem to the telephone 
line is to use an acoustic coupler. This 
apparatus is in essence just a speaker 
and a microphone that "talk" through 
a standard telephone handset. While 
direct connection to the telephone 
lines has technical advantages, 
acoustic coupling is convenient and 
does not require FCC approval. 

Construction of a serviceable 
acoustic coupler is really quite sim- 
ple; I described the process with 
detailed photographs in my previous 
modem article (reference 2). You need 
only common, easy-to-f ind materials 
and a modicum of dexterity to assem- 
ble the device. 




Photo 3: Acoustic modem components. Consists of a high impedance ceramic 
microphone, 8-ohm speaker, and 2 rubber cushions. Because it makes no physical 
connection to the telephone line, no FCC certification is required. 



If you prefer the professional look 
in your projects and want to guaran- 
tee top performance, I recommend 
the acoustic-coupler kit available 
from The Micromint. It uses rubber 
cushions specially designed for a tight 
fit on the telephone handset and a 



A 300-bps modem can 

neatly serve most 

needs for everyday 

data communication. 



ceramic microphone specifically 
designed for use in modems (see 
photos 3 and 4). Interestingly 
enough, as I was working on the 
ECM-103, the folks at The Micromint 
informed me that they had received a 
large order for acoustic-coupler parts 



from Texas Instruments itself, where 
someone was apparently also proto- 
typing a number of TMS99532 proj- 
ects. 

In Conclusion 

Today, the need for one computer 
to be able to talk to other computers 
is apparent without much explana- 
tion. The proliferation of automatic 
bulletin-board systems, timesharing 
services, and business data services 
dependent upon data communication 
has touched most computer users. 

For the average casual computer 
user or experimenter, a 300-bps Bell- 
103-compatible modem is generally 
adequate and is considered standard 
equipment. The prices of 1200-bps 
units are still very high, but I expect 
that they will eventually come down, 
and as a consequence more people 
will begin to use 1200-bps modems. 
(As soon as it becomes cost-effective, 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 31 




Photo 4: Finished modem prototype 



there will be a Circuit Cellar project 
to build a 1200-bps modem.) But for 
now, a 300-bps modem can neatly 
serve most needs for everyday data 
communication. 

The ECM-103 uses the latest LSI 
technology and is a considerable im- 
provement over previous designs. Be- 
cause it is crystal-controlled and uses 
no external filtering or frequency-set- 
point components, it offers substan- 
tially improved performance and 
long-term reliability. The TMS99532 
is a relatively new chip and as such is 
very expensive. Because of this, I 
have limited the complexity of the 
ECM-103 so that even with the other 
components it is still economical to 
build. 

Next Month: 

After you've built the modem, 
you'll need to connect it to your com- 
puter or terminal. In April, well look 
at a "break-out box, " a diagnostic aid 
for making RS-232C connections 
work. ■ 



To receive a complete list of Garcia 's 
Circuit Cellar project kits available from the 
Micromint. circle 100 on the reader service 
'"luiry card at the back of the magazine. 



References 

Bingham, John. "Understanding Modula- 
tion Methods." EDN, July 16, 1982, page 
352. 

Ciarcia, Steve. "A Build-lt-Yourself 
Modem for Under $50." August 1980 
BYTE, page 22. 

Parsons, Ronald G. "An Answer/Originate 
Modem." June 1980 BYTE, page 24. 
Skjellum, Anthony, and Richard S. 
Shuford. Letter and Reply: "In Search of 
Faster Modems." June 1982 BYTE, page 
42. 



magazine. 



Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous 
Circuit Cellar articles as reference material for 
each month's current article. Most of the past 
articles are available in reprint books from 
BYTE Books, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 
POB 400, Hightstown, NJ 08520. 

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume I contains 
the articles that appeared in BYTE from 
September 1 977 through November 1 978. Ciar- 
cia's Circuit Cellar, Volume II contains the ar- 
ticles from December 1978 through June 1980. 
Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume III contains 
the articles that were published from July 1980 
through December 1981. 



The following items are available from: 

The Micromint Inc. 
561 Willow Ave. 
Cedarhurst, NY 11516 
(800) 645-3479 (for orders) 
(516) 374-6793 (for information) 

1. ECM-103 modem kit: Comes com- 
plete with all components, printed- 
circuit board, RS-232C and power con- 
nectors, TMS99532 chip, and assembly 
manual. Requires acoustic coupler and 
power supply, not included. 

Complete kit $60 

2. Acoustic-coupler kit: Includes 2 
rubber cushions, a 2-inch 8-ohm speak- 
er, and a 2-inch ceramic microphone. 

Complete kit $18 



3. 600-ohm matching transformer for 
connecting to a DAA in direct-connect 
applications $9 

4. Universal three-voltage power- 
supply kit (size: 2.1 by 4.5 inches) Pro- 
vides + 5 V at 300 mA, +12 V at 50 
mA, -12 V at 50 mA. 

Complete kit $27 

All print ed-circuit boards are solder- 
masked and silk-screened and include a 
users manual. 

Prices include shipping and handling 
charges in the continental U.S.; please 
add $10 for orders from anywhere else. 

Residents of New York State please 
include 7 percent sales tax. 



32 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 






MDBS! 

Mainframe-quality DBMS from 

Micro Data Base Systems, Inc. 

International Software Enterprises— USA 

(312) 981-9200 



ACCOUNTING PLUS™ 
A comprehensive microcomputer 

business accounting system. 
SOFTWARE DIMENSIONS, INC. 

(916) 722-8000 



QUICK CHECK™ 

Instant Answers for Money Matters, 

Bookkeeping/Accounts/Inventory 

CHUCK ATKINSON PROGRAMS 

(817) 249-0166 






INMASS™ 

Integrated Manufacturing and 

Accounting Software System 

MICROCOMPUTER CONSULTANTS 

(916) 756-8104 



DATA COMMUNICATIONS 

SOFTWARE 

AS YNC, BIS YNC & SNA-SDLC protocol 

data communications software. 

IE Systems, Inc. & Micro-Integration, Inc. 

(603) 659-5891 



PC/FORTH™ 

Program development systems for Z-80 

and 8086/88 microcomputers 

Laboratory Microsystems, Inc. 

(213) 306-7412 



WHEN YOU BUY 
THE RIGHT SOFTWARE, 
YOU CANT GO WRONG 
ON THE HARDWARE. 



CP/M compatible software — for maximum 
work power on more than 600 computer models. 



All the computers in the world won't help you without smart 
software, That's why were showing some of the best software 
products you can buy/ from solid, innovative companies. They're 
shown here together because they're all CP/M compatible. CP/M is 
I he universally accepted operating system created by Digital Research 
that allows software products like these to run on more than 600 
different computer models including the biggest names in hardware. 
So, to get smart software for your system, call one of the tine 
Independent Software Vendors listed above or to find out how CP/M 
can increase productivity in your world, contact Digital Research at 
(408)649-5500. 



DIGITAL 
RESEARCH 

The creators of CP/M 1 " 1 - 







Circle 148 on inquiry card. 

The logo, tagline and CP/M are either trademarks or 
registered trademarks of Digital Research Inc. 
C1982 Digital Research Inc. 




The Enhanced VIC-20 

Part 2: Adding a 3K-Byte Memory Board 



Joel Swank 
12550 SW Colony #3 
Beaverton, OR 97005 



OUT OF MEMORY is one of the most annoying error 
messages you can get. It usually happens just when 
you've almost finished writing that essential program. 
This article, the second in the Enhanced VIC-20 series, 
will show you how to prevent this problem by adding 
more memory to your microcomputer. 

Essentially, the addition of memory fills a "gap" in the 
VIC's memory. The memory circuit is relatively simple, 
but building the board demands a certain amount of ex- 
perience with electronic components. 

As supplied by Commodore, the VIC-20 comes with 
5K bytes of programmable RAM (random-access read/ 
write memory) which is logically divided into two sec- 
tions. One kilobyte (four pages) is located at the low end 
of the VIC memory space spanning addresses 0-1023 
($0-$3FF hexadecimal). This block of memory is used by 
the VIC control program (called the KERNAL) and is not 
available to BASIC programs. The 6502 microprocessor, 
which controls the VIC, requires that page zero (0-255 or 
$0-$FF) be used for direct-page machine instructions and 
that page one (256-511 or $100-$1FF) be used for the 
hardware stack. The KERNAL program uses pages two 
and three (512-1023 or $200-$3FF) to store such impor- 
tant VIC data as vectors, current color, and the screen 
buffer location. The keyboard input buffer and the tape 
buffer are also located there. Almost all of the first IK 
bytes of memory are dedicated to some use. 

The other 4K bytes of memory on the standard VIC are 
located at 4096-8191 ($1000-$1FFF). This RAM, which is 
used to hold the BASIC program and variables and the 
screen buffer, has a special use. It can be accessed by the 
6560 video interface chip (hence VIC). The 6560 is the in- 

Editor's Note 

The VIC-20 is one of the new breed of low-cost computers that offer a 
surprising amount of computing power for the money. But its low cost 
also means that it lacks some of the features we've come to take for 
granted. In this series of articles, author Joel Swank will "enhance" the 
VIC-20 and in so doing increase the utility of this very interesting com- 
puter. . .S.J.W. 



tegrated circuit (IC) in the VIC that creates the color im- 
ages that are sent to the screen. Special circuitry allows 
both the microprocessor and the video interface chip to 
access this 4K-byte block of RAM. It is the only RAM in 
the system that can contain the screen buffer and alter- 
nate character sets. This block of RAM must occupy a 
4K-byte boundary. That's why it's located at 4096 
($1000) instead of 1024 ($400), leaving a 3K-byte gap in 
RAM at 1024-4095 ($400-$FFF). Filling this memory gap 
with RAM will expand the VIC's memory to 8K bytes. 
Commodore offers two memory cartridges that fill this 
gap: the 3K-byte Memory Expander and the Super 
Expander. 

The KERNAL program checks for the presence of 
RAM at 1024 ($400) during power-up initialization. If 
RAM is present, it is used by BASIC. BASIC will then 
display the message 6655 BYTES FREE instead of the nor- 
mal 3583 BYTES FREE. That makes available 3072 more 
bytes for BASIC programs and variables. It also moves 
the start of BASIC to 1024 ($400), which frees the RAM 
in the special video block for use with special characters 
and lets you use full high-resolution graphics. (See the 
VIC users manual for information on high-resolution 
graphics.) The VIC LOAD command automatically 
relocates BASIC programs when they are loaded, so any 
programs you save on a 5K-byte VIC will also work on 
an 8K-byte VIC. 

Design 

A 3K-byte RAM board must be connected to the VIC 
via the expansion connector slot in the right rear of the 
case. Inside this slot is a standard 44-pin card-edge con- 
nector with contacts on 0.156-inch centers. This connec- 
tor will accept a standard industry card-edge plug. Com- 
modore cartridges consist of a printed circuit (PC) board 
to which a plastic case is bolted. The case helps to guide 
the edge of the PC board into the connector. You can also 
insert a board without a case if you carefully align the 
board and the connector. 



34 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 239 on inquiry card. 



KEY TRONIC 

POLISHES THE 

APPLE H* KEYBOARD 






Full Shifting Capability 



Numeric Pad 



Eleven Function 
Keys Streamline 
Multiple Key 
Operations 



Keys in Familiar 
Typewriter Locations 



Eight Single 
Key Cursor 
Movements 



Enhance your APPLE II* Computer System with a Key Tronic keyboard 
peripheral. 

This detached, low-profile keyboard is plug-compatible with the existing 
keyboard socket of the Apple II. It also features reliable microprocessor electronics, 
solid-state capacitance switches, and positive tactile feedback. 






key tronic 



Price: $298.00, includes shipping & 
handling. To Order Model KB-200 Call 
Toll Free 1-800-262-6006 (8 a.m.- 4 p.m. 
Pacific Standard Time). 

Come see us at Comdex, Booth #2256. 



THE RESPONSIVE KEYBOARD COMPANY 



DEPT. El • P.O. BOX 14687 • SPOKANE, WASHINGTON 99214 USA 

'Apple II is a registered trademark of AppJe_.Qamputer, Inc. 



VIC Expansion-bus Pin Assignments 




Pin # Use 


Pin# 


Use 


1 GND 


A 


GND 


2 CDO 


B 


CAO 


3 CD1 


C 


CA1 


4 CD2 


D 


CA2 


5 CD3 


E 


CA3 


6 CD4 


F 


CA4 


7 CD5 


H 


CA5 


8 CD6 


J 


CA6 


9 CD7 


K 
L 
M 
N 
P 
R 
S 
T 


CA7 

CA8 

CA9 

CA10 

CA11 

CA12 

CA13 

1702 


10 BLK1 


1 1 BLK2 


12 BLK3 


13 BLK5 


14 RAMI 


15 RAM2 


16 RAM3 


17 VR/W 


U 


1703 


18 CR/W 


V 


S02 


19 IRQ" 

20 NC 


w 

X 


NMf 


RESET 


21 +5VDC 


Y 


NC 


22 GND 


z 


GND 


Table 1: VIC expansion-bus pin assignments 
nomenclature in the VIC users manual 


using the 





VIC Expansion-bus Select L 


nes 


Signal 


Space 


Addresses 


Intended Use 


BLK1 


8K 


$2000-$3FFF 


RAM EXPANSION 


BLK2 


8K 


$4000-$5FFF 


RAM EXPANSION 


BLK3 


8K 


$6000-$7FFF 


RAM EXPANSION 


BLK5 


8K 
1K 
1K 
1K 


$A000-$BFFF 
$400-$7FF 
$800-$BFF 
$C00-$FFF 


ROM CARTRIDGE 
RAM EXPANSION 
RAM EXPANSION 
RAM EXPANSION 


RAMI 


RAM2 


RAM3 


1702 


1K 


$9800-$9BFF 


I/O EXPANSION 


1703 


1K 


$9C00-$9FFF 


I/O EXPANSION 


Table 2: 


VIC expansion-bus external select lines, their ad- 


dress ranges and intended 


use. 





Page 150 of the VIC users manual shows the signals on 
each pin of this connector. Table 1 lists the pin numbers 
and their signals. The 6502 microprocessor uses these 
signals, which are collectively called a bus, to com- 
municate with all parts of the system. The memory- 
expansion port is not the entire 6502 bus because the two 
high-order address lines are missing. But all standard 
6502 control and data lines are present, along with nine 



select lines. A select line exists for each unused block of 
the VIC address space. Table 2 shows the select lines and 
their corresponding address ranges. (Note that there is an 
error on page 150 of the users manual. The two select 
lines 1/02 and 1/03 (pins T and U), like all the other 
select lines, are negative logic signals. They should be 
shown with a line or bar over them.) 

Figure 1 shows the schematic for a 3K-byte RAM board 
that will plug into the VIC expansion bus. Implementing 
a 3K-byte RAM board is very simple because no external 
decoding of the address lines is needed. The VIC provides 
a select line for each IK bytes of RAM in the range 
1024-4095 ($400-$FFF). 

I chose 2114 static RAM ICs for my board, the same 
parts used for VIC's 5K bytes of memory. Each 2114 con- 
tains 4K bits organized as IK of half bytes or nybbles. 
Each IK bytes of RAM require a pair of 2114s. One 2114 
contains the high-order nybble of each byte, and the 
other contains the low-order nybble. Six 2114s are need- 
ed for 3K bytes of RAM. Each pair is selected by one of 
the RAM select lines. 

Construction 

Although the logic of the 3K-byte board is simple, con- 
structing it is more complicated. The pin numbers shown 
in both the VIC users manual and table 1 do not use the 
standard industry nomenclature for the 44-pin card-edge 
connector. It's actually a mirror image of the industry 
standard. If you buy a plugboard or a connector whose 
pins are marked, they won't match the VIC pin numbers. 
(I almost wired my board wrong before I realized that.) I 
guess Commodore used this numbering scheme to be con- 
sistent with the rest of the connectors on the back of 'the 
VIC. Table 3 lists the VIC pin assignments in standard 
nomenclature. 

The dimensions of the expansion-interface slot also 
present a problem. A PC board plugged into the VIC ex- 
pansion connector has only 1/8-inch clearance below and 
5/8-inch clearance above the edges of the slot. This 
clearance is no problem if you're using an etched printed- 
circuit board, but most people who build their own 
boards use one of the wire-wrapping methods of con- 
struction. Wire wrapping requires space below the board 
for wrap posts and wires. 

To work around the physical constraints, I built my 
board upside-down. That is, I built the board so that it 
would plug into the VIC with the components facing 
down and the wire- wrap pins facing up. To make the 
scheme work, I had to leave the first 2Vz inches of the 
board bare, which brings all components and wiring out- 
side the VIC case (see photo 1). The 5/8-inch clearance 
above leaves room to install wires to bring the signals out 
to the components. It looks a little strange, but it works 
well. It also means you have to use a third pin-assignment 
nomenclature. Table 4 shows the VIC upside-down bus 
pin assignments. 

Once you have the pin assignment nomenclature 
down, constructing the board is fairly straightforward. I 
have used Vector Electronic Company's Slit-N-Wrap 



36 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 352 on inquiry card. 



High Resolution RGB Color Monitor 
Designed for the IBM Personal Computer 



FEATURES 

□ 80 characters x 25 lines 

D 690 dots horizontal resolution 

D 16 colors 

D .31 mm dot pitch tube 

□ non-glare, black matrix 

□ plugs directly to IBM PC, cable 
supplied 

□ FCC Class B Approved 



Princeton Graphic Systems' new 
HX-1 2 high resolution color moni- 
tor is designed with an NEC.31 mm 
dot pitch CRT to give you up to 690 
dots horizontal resolution. You 
need not compromise the display 
quality of your system with monitors 
rated at less than the 640 horizon- 
tal dots generated by your IBM PC. 
The PGS HX-1 2 delivers 1 6 super 
colors, 80 characters x 25 lines. It 
is the best price/performance PC 
direct drive monitor in the market 
today. Get the PGS HX-1 2 and 
discover for yourself how well it 
complements your IBM Personal 
Computer. 





ptec Ssstats High Resolution 81 KB 

r High fcsaltttiea 88 ehapacte* BX-12 BG1 
phic Systems High ^solution 88 chapactep HM-12 IGM 
Plic Sgsteie High Besolatita W etawctep BX-12 KB 
fide Sgsteas High Resolution 8i chai HX-12 RS 

ftet Systems ligh fesolution 88 character IX-12 
fhie Sgste« High Resolution os hi 

Ffcie Sgsteas Sesoi on 88 chapaetep BX-12 8GB 

s High Resolution 88 character BX-12 m 
pnic xysrr ns High Resolution §§ chapaetep HX-12 RGB 



80 character display 



Princeton 
Graphic Systems 



11 01 -I State Road □ Princeton, New Jersey 08540 □ (609)6831660 □ TLX: 685 7009 PGS Prin. 



E> 
E> 

E> 






CDO 
CD1 



CD3 
CD4 



CDS 
CD6 



CD7 



+ 5V 



l£> 

{£> 



CAO 



CA1 



CA2 



CA3 



CA4 



CA5 



CA6 



CA7 






CA8 



CA9 



VR/W 






RAMI 



RAM2 



RAM3 



+ 5V o 
A 



18 



16 



15 



10 



13 



14 



+ 5V o 



DO Dl D2 D3 

vcc 

A0 

Al 

A2 

2114 
A3 

A4 

A5 

A6 

A7 

A8 

A9 

R/W 

GND CS 



10 



11 



12 



14 



+ 5V o 
A 



DO Dl D2 D3 

vcc 

A0 

Al 

A2 

2114 
A3 

A4 

A5 

A6 

A7 

A8 

A9 

R/W 

GND CS 



15 



12 



+ 5V o 
A 



DO Dl D2 D3 

vcc 

A0 

Al 

A2 

2114 
A3 

A4 

A5 

A6 

A7 

A8 

A9 

R/W 

GND CS 



15 



14 



+ 5V 

A 



DO Dl D2 D3 

vcc 

A0 

Al 

A2 

2114 
A3 

A4 

A5 

A6 

A7 

A8 

A9 

R/W 

GND CS 



15 



13 



14 



+ 5V <-> 
A 



DO Dl D2 D3 

vcc 

A0 
Al 

A2 

2114 
A3 

A4 

A5 

A6 

A7 

A8 

A9 

R/W 

GND CS 



14 



DO Dl D2 D3 

vcc 

A0 

Al 

A2 

2114 
A3 

A4 

A5 

A6 

A7 

A8 

A9 

R/W 

GND CS 



Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the VIC 3K-byte RAM board. The connector numbers on the left match the VIC expansion-bus 
pinouts shown in both table 1 and the users manual. 




Photo 1: A 3K-byte RAM board for the V1C-20 computer. This 
view shows the component side of the board and the parts 
layout. The circuit wiring, done with wirewrap technique, is on 
the opposite side, 



method of construction for years with good results. Stan- 
dard wire wrapping or the newer Just Wrap method from 
OK Machine and Tool Corp. should also produce good 
results. A variety of distributors sell wire-wrap sockets 
and individual wrap posts. I wrap all connections except 
the power and ground connections. For those I use point- 
to-point soldering so that I can use heavier gauge wire 
than the 28-gauge required for the Slit-N-Wrap method. 
It's a good policy to put a 10-/iF electrolytic capacitor 
across the power and ground lines near the edge connec- 
tor and to put a 0.1-/J ceramic-disk bypass capacitor 
next to each IC on the board from the power-supply line 
to ground. Whichever construction method and pin 
nomenclature you use, it's a good idea to mark the board 
and the VIC so that you never insert the board backward. 

Testing 

When you plug the 3K-byte RAM board into the VIC 
and turn it on, you should see the message 6655 BYTES 
FREE. If you don't, there's an error on the board. The 
VIC does a memory test at power-up. If it detects an er- 
ror, it fills the screen with a random pattern of characters 
and colors and refuses further communication. Even if 
you get the proper message, you can't be sure that the 



38 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



GREAT IDEAS... 

Down to Earth 
-~ Products 



(Available Soon) 



SDS-ZS10/4 

4 RS232 Channels 
Full Duplex 
Real Time Clock 



-HARD DISK INTERFACE 

>polis 1220 Series 

-506 

face Adapter 



r\ 



in/ >cj New Si: 




• 5 'A" Hard Disk 
\S6 TPI Floppy 



6 Slot S-100 Mainframe 
See page 402 for details 




. PY DiSK DRIVE 

Double Sided 

Single Density/Double Density 
Up to 2.4 Megabyte 
(Qume Now Available) 



SDS-MULTIPLEXER/DISPLAY 

Three RS232C ! to 2 Switches 

Two Seven Segment Status Display 

JCan be used as a line monitor for data 

communications link) 

(route RS232 to one of two devices) 





TURBOOOS TANDEM 




SDS-MASTER 




SIERRA DAIA 

Fresno CA/Marketlng Division 

2 1 1 62 Lorain Ave., Falrvlew Park, Ohio 441 26 

(216) 331-8500 Telex. 980131 WDMR 



Circle 389 on inquiry card. 



SOS-SLAVE 



SDS-SINGLE BOARD COMPUTERS 

Z80 CPU 64K Bank Switch Memory 

2 RS232 Channels 4 Timers IEEE 696 Buss 

4 ParaJlel ports 

NEC 765 FDC with PLL to all Shugart 

compatible drives fSDS-Master onlyj 

MZP/M2.2&3.0 

*CP/M Registered trademark of . • 

Digital Research 
*TurboDOS Registered trademark of 

Software 2000 



VIC Expansion-bus Standard Nomenclature 


Pin# Use" 


Pin# Use 


1 GND 


A GND 


2 + 5VDC 

3 NC 


B NC 


C RESET 


4 IRQ" 


D NMT 


5 CR/W 


E S02 


6 VR/W 


F 1703 
H 1702 
J CA13 
K CA12 
L CA11 
M CA10 
N CA9 
P CA8 


7 RAM3 


8 RAM2 


9 RAMI 


10 BLK5 


1 1 BLK3 


12 BLK2 


13 BLK1 


14 CD7 


R CA7 


15 CD6 


S CA6 


16 CD5 


T CA5 


17 CD4 


U CA4 


18 CD3 


V CA3 


19 CD2 


W CA2 


20 CD1 


X CA1 


21 CDO 


Y CAO 


22 GND 


Z GND 


Table 3: VIC expansion-bus pin assignments using standard 
industry nomenclature. Most numbered plugboards use this 
nomenclature. 



memory is working properly because the VIC's memory 
tegt is not thorough. 

The next step is to load and run a BASIC program to 
see if it works. If it does, there's a good chance that the 
memory is okay. If you have any problems, there are a 
few things you should check. Look for broken wires and 
poor solder joints. Check all connections for proper pin 
numbers. Be sure not to pull wires tight across adjacent 
pins. Wrap posts have sharp corners that can pierce in- 



VIC Expansion-bus Upside-down Nomenclature 


Pin# Use 


Pin# Use 


1 GND 


A GND 


2 CAO 


B CDO 


3 CA1 


C CD1 


4 CA2 


D CD2 


5 CA3 


E CD3 


6 CA4 


F CD4 


7 CA5 


H CD5 


8 CA6 


J CD6 


9 CA7 


K CD7 


10 CA8 


L BLK1 


11 CA9 


M BLK2 


12 CA10 


N BLK3 


13 CA11 

14 CA12 

15 CA13 

16 1702 


P BLK5 


R RAMI 


S RAM2 


T RAM3 


17 1703 


U VR/W 


18 S02 


V CR/W 


19 NMT 


W IRQ" 
X NC 


20 RESET 


21 NC 


Y + 5VDC 


22 GND 


Z GND 


Table 4: VIC expansion-bus pin assignments using upside- 


down nomenclature. This is how the signals would appear on 


a standard numbered board when they are inserted upside- 


down into the VIC. 



sulation. Try reseating the ICs in their sockets. As a last 
resort, try replacing the ICs one at a time, with spares 
you know to be good. 

The most difficult part of expanding the VIC was figur- 
ing out the pin-assignment nomenclature and how to 
work around the board's physical limitations. After solv- 
ing those problems, I was able to add 3K bytes of RAM 
for about $30 in parts and four hours of construction 
time . ■ 





%0 compilers 


• FULL C 
• UNIX* Ver. 7 COMP AT ABILITY 




HOST 


6809 
TARGET 


PDP-11VLSM1* 
TARGET 


8080/(Z80) 
TARGET 


8088/8086 
TARGET 


• NO ROYALTIES ON GENERATED CODE 

• GENERATED CODE IS REENTRANT 

• C AND ASSEMBLY SOURCE MAY BE 
INTERMIXED 

• UPGRADES & SUPPORT FOR 1 YEAR 
408-275-1659 


FLEX7UNIFLEX* 
OS-9* 


$200.00 ™!' 
$350.00 ,\o{'t 


500.00 


500,00 


500,00 


RT-ir/RSxir 

PDP-11* 


500.00 


200.00 X™' 
350.00 XZ 


500.00 


500.00 


CP/M* 
8080/(Z80) 


500.00 


500.00 


200.00 XuT 

350.00 ,?;;:, 


500.00 


PCDOSVMSDOS* 
8088/8086 


500.00 


500.00 


500.00 


200.00 ",'«,?! ' 
350.00 "i 1 ;; 


BE 
tra 
of 


CDOS is a trademark of IBM CORP. MSDOS is a trademark of MICROSOFT. UNIX is a trademark 
LL LABS. RT-1 1/RSX-ll/PDP-ll is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. FLEX/UNIFLEXL 
demark of Technical Systems consultants. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research. OS-9isatradema 
Microware & Motorola 


of TELECON SYSTEMS 

5 r a 1155 Meridian Avenue, Suite 218 ! 
San Jose, California 95125 | 



40 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 421 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 442 on Inquiry card. - 






I 



"Three Atatm" Courtesy of Gred 
Abram, University of florth Carolina 
al Chapel Hill 



"ftunva" By Kk haul Hat/, VectilH 
Corporation 



:.i 



"tntmgmt&t Circuit DeSfgn* Courtesy n tt\ The Beginning" By Richard hat*, 
of f loyd J James. Univei -illy of fio» th Vetlrix Corporation 

Caiollna at Chapel Mill 



1995 



AMD THE FIRST AFFORDABLE HIGH RESOLUTION COLOR GRAPHICS MACHIME IS YOURS 



VK128 

•VERY HIGH RESOLUTION 672 by 
480 pixels Individually addressable 

• EIGHT COLORS PER PIXEL 3 bit 
planes of memory totalling 128K 
graphics RAM 

•ON-BOARD 16 BIT MICRO- 
COMPUTER Intel 8088 microprocessor 
with additional PROM and RAM and 
built-in expansion capability 

• 3D GRAPHICS SOFTWARE PACK- 
AGE built-in command set Includes: 
rotation, scaling, translation, perspec- 
tive, clipping, viewport polygon, and 
filled polygon 

• HARDWARE LIHE AHD ARC 
GENERATION on-board VLSI graphics 
display controller, 1600 nano- 
seconds pixel drawing time 



•USER DEFINABLE CHARACTER 
GENERATION built-in charactei Set 
Includes *oom, slant, and variable 
spacing, or upload your own character 
definitions 



^j 




•SERIAL AND PARALLEL INTERFACE 

300-19.?K baud and 8 bit parallel port 

• USER FRIENDLY COMMAND FOR- 
MAT supports high level language and 
hexadecimal transmissions 

V/X384 

• 512 COLOR5PERP|X.EL9blt planes 
>f memory with 384K graphics RAM 

• COLOR LOOKUP TABLE 8 bit 
digital-to-analog converters provide a 
16 million color palate 

• INCLUDES ALL FEATURES of 
VX1Z8 for total of S>3995 

•VXM HIGH RESOLUTION COLOR 
MONITOR RGB analog Input with 24 
Kllohert2 scan rate, long persistence 
phosphor $1295 

• COLOR GRAPHIC PRINTER 
with interface cable $1295 




Wc just made 

owning an Atari computer 

a lot more logical. 







Introducing the Rana 1000 disk drive. It's a whole new game for Atari computers. 




This two digit LED readout 
displays a code that tells you 
everything you need to know. 



This beeping button tells you 
your write protect feature is 
keeping your information safe. 



When Rana Systems introduced the Elite 
Series of Apple® compatible disk drives, we didn't 
know what a tremendous impact they would make. 
It turned out to be a line so outstanding in perfor- 
mance, styling, capacity and price, that it instan- 
taneously made us a major force in the market. 
Well, needless to say, the response was so great 
that we were forced to create the same highly ad- 
vanced disk drive for Atari® A disk drive that when 
coupled with Atari's computer, could perform 
everything from accounting, financial planning, 
and stock charting, to word processing, business 
management, and letting you write your own pro- 
grams. Plus, we made it simple enough for a child 
to use, for learning anything from the alphabet to 
a foreign language. 

Working with a diskette 
versus playing with a cassette. 

Let's face it. The only reason Atari made a 
cassette option to their computer was to make it 
affordable. But now you don't have to settle for less. 
Because now you can get a diskette for your Atari 
computer which outperforms their cassette and 
costs 1 /3 less than their disk drive. With Atari's cas- 
sette you only get half the functions of a com- 
puter compared to what our floppy disk can give 
you. Their cassette is not only limited in the soft- 
ware available, but it also takes 20 times longer to 
get the information you need. And Rana's disk 



The remaining buttons beep 
when touched, and provide 
readouts on density storage, 
error status, and drive number. 



This button beeps when you 
touch it, and the LED readout 
tells you what track you're on. 



drive offers twice the storage capacity of either 
their cassette or disk drive. 

Why even stylewise our new low profile design 
not only looks 100 times more spectacular, but it 
occupies 3 times less space. And our new Rana 
1000 also gives you a piece of its mind every time 
you use it, because our disk drive gives you informa- 
tion as well as takes it. And we think that says a lot. 

The disk drive 
that has all the answers. 

Rana offers you a myriad of features Atari 
couldn't even conceive of. Like five electronic func- 
tions on the front panel that actually beep and give 
you a LED readout when touched. Our disk drive 
tells you what track you're on, and what density 
and how much information you're storing. It lets 
you switch from a single density of 90,000 letters to 
a double density of 1 80,000 letters, on a single 
diskette. And, we have a write protect feature which 
protects your diskette from being erased. In fact, 
no other disk drive can offer you that. 

As you can see, it was easy to build a disk 
drive superior to Atari's. Because for every reason 
you buy a disk drive, Rana has superior technology 

The Rana 1000 disk drive. It brings your Atari 
computer to a higher level of sophistication for a 
price one third lower than Atari's. So your choice 
shouldn't even be a matter of logic. 

Just common sense. 



RanaSystems 



Always a step ahead of the originals. 




20620 South Leapwood Avenue, Carson, CA 90746 213-538-2353. For dealer information call 
toll free: 1-800-421-2207 In California only call: 1-800-262-1221. Source Number: TCT-654 

Available at all participating Computerland stores and other fine computer dealers. 

* Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. ©Atari is a registered trademark of Atari, Inc., a Warner Communications Company. See us at the West Coast Computer Show. 

Circle 374 on inquiry card. 



A User's View of COMDEX 

The Industry Begins to Mature 



COMDEX is a big show put on 
mostly by manufacturers for dealers, 
and dealers definitely ought to at- 
tend. Users are another matter. 
COMDEX isn't set up for users, and 
paradoxically, there's too much to 
see. The most recent COMDEX, held 
in December in Las Vegas, had over a 
thousand exhibits and more than 
40,000 attendees. 

For all that, COMDEX is impor- 
tant. It's here that suppliers convince 
dealers they should handle their hard- 
ware and software products. Because 
everyone wants to be first with new 
technology, a lot of new develop- 
ments are announced and shown at 
COMDEX. Some are the products of 
mature technologies, some are pro- 
totypes, and some are half-baked 
schemes that aren't going anywhere. 
For computer journalists, COMDEX 
is a good place to pick up background 
material. 

My first impression of COMDEX 
was lines. Lines for taxis at the air- 
port; a long and inexplicable check-in 
line at the Imperial Palace hotel; a 



About the Author 

Jerry Pournelle is a former aerospace engineer 
and current science-fiction writer who loves to 
play with computers. 



Jerry Pournelle 

c/o BYTE Publications 

POB 372 

Hancock, NH 03449 



line for a taxi to the Convention 
Center; long lines for badges; and 
long lines for taxis to get back to my 
hotel when the day was nearly over. 
As working press I didn't have to 
stand in the badge line, but that was 
the only one I missed. 

My second feeling was dismay: 
there's no way to cover a thousand 
exhibits in three days, nor is it much 
easier to characterize an entire in- 
dustry in a few sentences. (The Com- 
puter Dealer, a show newspaper pub- 
lished daily, ran to 168 pages I) Con- 
sequently this report will be highly 
personal. I saw as much as I could. 
I've consulted experts when possible. 
Still, there's much I missed, and if I've 
overlooked something significant, I 
can only apologize. 

One more warning: this is a show 
report. It is, therefore, much more 
impressionistic than my User's Col- 
umn. I can describe what I saw, and 
what I thought about it; but I am not 
making recommendations and won't 
until I can use some of this new stuff. 

I can remember when the micro- 
computer industry consisted of little 
more than MITS kits and some home- 
brew machines; one had to be a deter- 
mined hobbyist, or at least have a 
pioneer spirit, to become involved in 
"this crazy new game" back then. 



Now there are hundreds of computers 
and thousands of programs. As the 
market expands, vendors hope to sell 
to less sophisticated users. Thus have 
grown up the "system packagers," 
who combine hardware, software, 
and "teaching aids." I saw evidence of 
advances in hardware, software, and 
materials designed to show beginners 
how to use the stuff. 

Hardware 

The most significant hardware I 
saw was the Syquest "removable 
media Winchester." This is a 100-mm 
hard-disk drive that comes in a pack- 
age half the height of a thin 5V4-inch 
floppy disk and has a removable disk 
cartridge called the Q-Pak. Each car- 
tridge holds 5 megabytes formatted. 
The drives have the same pinouts, 
timing, etc. as a standard 5V4-inch 
Winchester and work with standard 
Winchester controllers, power sup- 
plies, and interfaces. 

The Syquest drives sell for $800 
each; the Q-Paks are $50. A few sys- 
tems at the show already made use of 
Syquests; these typically sold a two- 
drive system with power supply and 
controller for $2500, about half again 
what you pay for a pair of 8-inch 
double-sided double-density floppies. 
Tecmar is offering a single-drive sys- 



44 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Photo 1: Neighbors at COMDEX 
Honeywell and Apple Computer. 




Photo 2: A sight we all thought we'd 
never see. A "foreigner" at the IBM dis- 
play booth. IBM now makes equipment 
that can be used by Apple computers. 



Photo 3: COMDEX is a wonderful place 
to meet people (left to right): Compupro 
President Mark Garetz; Tony Pietsch of 
Proteus Engineering (who builds and 
maintains all my computers); and 
BYTE's West Coast Editor Phil 
Lemmons. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 45 




WF Your computer's telephone. 

* r%#" | j 

f//////////m/%/ //M ' 




W///////0 W///M 



Whether they're getting the jump on 
the latest stock reports or waging galac- 
tic wars in the middle of the night, more 
and more personal computer users are 
communicating. With each other. With 
offices. With networks, utilities and mail 
services all over the country. 




And Hayes is providing the commun- 
ications link: A first-rate telecomputing 
system that combines an intelligent RS-2 3 2 
connect modem with a sophisticated, 
easy-to-use communications program. 

The Smartmodem 300. Think of it 
as your computer's telephone. Just plug 
it into any phone jack, and the Smart- 
modem 300 sends messages to and from 



your personal computer, at 300 bits 
per second, over ordinary phone lines. 
Goodbye isolation. Hello world. 

Your modem is the one peripheral that 
makes your computer a computer system . 
So it's only natural that you'd want the 
best modem for your money. (One that 
comes with a limited 2-year warranty.) 
The Smartmodem 300 is a wise choice. 
Far superior to acoustic coupler modems, 
which connect to the telephone receiver. 
And it's so easy to use. 

It dials, answers and disconnects 
calls automatically, operating with 
rotary dials, Touch-Tone* and key-set 
systems. Plus it works at full or naif 
duplex, which simply means that 
connecting to a time-sharing system, 
while it is a big deal, is no big deal to do. 

Indicator lights let you see 
what your Smartmodem is 
doing, while an audio speaker 
lets you hear it. (Is the remote 
system down, or was the 
line just busy? This way. you'll know.) 

Now all tnese extras aren't absolutely 
necessary. We could have gotten by 
without them. But at Hayes, we're not 
satisfied with just "getting by." That's 



why we made the Smartmodem 300 so- 
well, smart, You can even program it. 
In fact we've provided one for you. 

Announcing Smartcom II.™ The 
communications program designed by 
Hayes specifically for the Smartmodem. 
If ever there was friendly software, the 
Smartcom II is it! 

The first time out. you'll be creating 
messages, sending them, printing them 
and storing them to disk. Simultaneously. 

Likewise, when you're on the receiv- 
ing end. Only you really don't need to 
be, With Smartcom II and your Smart- 
modem 300, your computer does it all. 
completely unattended! That's especially 
helpful if you're sending work from 
home to the office, or vice versa. 

But it's just part of the story. For instance . 
before you communicate with another 
system, you need to "set up" your 
computer to match the way the remote 
system transmits data. With Smartcom 
II. you do this only once, the first time. 
After that, the information (called para- 
meters) is stored in a directory on the 
Smartcom II. Calling or answering a sys- 
tem listed in the directory requires just 
a few quick keystrokes. 

You can store lengthy log-on sequences 
~ the same way. 
Press one key. and 
the Smartcom II 
automatically exe- 
cutes a whole string of numbers to connect 
you to a utility or information service. 

And if you need it, there's always 
"help" Even while you're on-line, the 
screen will display explanations about a 



Hayes 



46 BYTE March 1983 




prompt, message or parameter that will 
get you on your way in no time. 

Smartcom II also provides a directory 
of the files stored on your disk. You can 
create, display, list, name, re-name or 
erase any File right from the Smartcom II 
screen. 




And now Smartcom II is available for 
the IBM PC**and Xerox S20-IIT- 

Like all our products, Smartcom II 
and the Smartmodem 300 are backed 
by excellent documentation and full 
support from us to your dealer. 

So see him today. Link up to the excit- 
ing world of telecomputing. Get a tele- 
phone for your computer. 

Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. 
5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Norcross, 
Georgia 30092. 404/449-8791- 

Smartcom II is a. trademark of Hayes Microcomputer 

Products. Inc. 

'Trademark of American Telephone and Telegraph 

"IBM is a registered trademark of International Business 

Machines. Corp. 

jXerox 820-11 is a trademark of Xerox Corporation 

D19S3 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc. 

Sold only in the U.S.A. 



Circle 196 on inquiry card. 



tern with controller for the IBM Per- 
sonal Computer for $1795. 

The second significant trend in disk 
technology was to microfloppy disks. 
Tandon, Tabor, Shugart, Sony, and 
others were pushing these "shirt- 
pocket" disks. I saw two sizes, 3V4 
and 3V2 inches; each has vocal de- 
fenders. I'm told, however, that a 
number of major manufacturers are 
getting together to try to agree on a 
standard size and format, and I hope 
they do. 

A third trend in disk technology is 
the "enormous minifloppy." I saw 
several demonstrations of 2-mega- 
byte double-sided double-density 
5V4-inch floppy disks. 

Add to this the incremental devel- 
opments in the standard nonremov- 
able Winchester hard disks — up to 40 
megabytes formatted on a drive that 
costs no more than a 5-megabyte 
drive cost a year or two ago — and 
you can see that system designers 
have some decisions to make. Bill 
Godbout of Compupro went about 
looking at all the new disk systems in 
hopes of getting some clues as to what 
the future standards will be. So did 
George Morrow of Morrow Designs, 
and I'm sure they weren't alone. 

I don't know what conclusions they 
came to. I can offer the opinion of 
Tony Pietsch of Proteus Engineering, 
the computer engineer who devel- 
oped my system and who tries very 
hard to stay current with the state of 
the art. 

"Flat prediction," Tony said. 
"Within two years, both 8-inch and 
5V4-inch disk systems will be obsolete 
and after that they'll rapidly die out. I 
don't know exactly what will replace 
them, but it will be a combination of 
hard disks and shirt-pocket floppies." 

Tony thinks the Syquest removable 
Winchester is an excellent idea, but 
he'd prefer to see the technology 
develop a bit before recommending 
the system to end users. Bill Godbout 
had the same view. Compupro will 
test the concept thoroughly before in- 
corporating it into systems. The com- 
pany is also working with shirt- 
pocket disks, and it has multimega- 
byte 5V4-inch systems working. 

The explosion in computer tech- 
nology continues. Some companies, 



like Altos, are moving to erase the 
distinction between the "big" mini- 
computer and the microcomputer. 
Altos President David Jackson is 
proud of his new single-board 
machines that offer all the power of a 
DEC PDP-11 for well under $20,000. 
Meanwhile, Compupro's Bill God- 
bout showed a whole line of expand- 
able S-100 equipment, including a 
working processor board based on 
the 68000 chip, another built on the 
8086 with optional "math chip" 
aboard, and two prototypes based, 
respectively, on the National Semi- 
conductor 16-bit external, 32-bit in- 
ternal 16032, and Intel's iAPX 286. 

Tony Pietsch put it this way: "The 
16032 is going to be a big machine. 
The internal chip architecture makes 
it equivalent in power to the IBM 
System 360 or 370. For that matter, it 
will be trivial to get it working like a 
LISP Machine." The IBM 370 is, as 
Tony says, big; the LISP Machine 
was developed at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, primarily by 
Marvin Minsky, and is very impor- 
tant in artificial-intelligence studies. It 
looks as if machines equivalent to 
both will be available at S-100 prices 
within a year. 

We also have the 68000 machines. 
Fortune was out in force. So was 
Sage. Both had working systems and 
an expanding line of software. 

The 8088 chips were not neglected 
either. Eagle Computers, with an IBM 
Personal Computer work-alike, at- 
tracted a lot of attention. My favorite 
of those, though, is the Zenith Z-100, 
which has an S-100 bus and runs PC 
programs without making you en- 
dure the PC's maldesigned keyboard. 

There was also the Basis, a Euro- 
pean machine (but which features an 
American-style keyboard) that has 
both a 6502 chip and a Z80. I was 
much impressed by the Basis, and I'd 
advise anyone contemplating an 
Apple acquisition to look it over first. 

And on, and on. . . 

Portables 

There are so many portable ma- 
chines now that I can't keep track of 
them. It seems a new one springs up 
every week, and all the manufac- 
turers of portables are trying to build 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 47 



dealer and repair networks to service 
them. 

There are flat-screen systems based 
on liquid-crystal displays, portable 
versions of the IBM Personal Com- 
puter, machines with plastic cases 
and machines with metal cases, ma- 
chines with tiny screens and machines 
with larger screens. Not only can't I 
keep up with them, I can't even list 
them all. 

Meanwhile, the "old" portables 
continue to improve. There's new 
software for the Kaypro. There's a 
new carrying case, a very nice new 
screen display, and new software for 
the Otrona. The Osborne 1 has both 
double-density disks and an 80-char- 
acter screen as an option. As well it 
has the most impressive package of 
software and "learning tools" I've 
seen for any entry-level computer. 

A few of the new ones I saw: the 
Hyperion, a somewhat portable IBM 
PC work-alike; the Zorba, a 
Z80-based machine that looks a bit 
like someone crossed the Osborne 
with the Kaypro and kept many of 



the best features of both; and 
Teleram's new true portable, which 
uses a liquid-crystal display and can 
run for several hours on its batteries. 
Anyone looking for a computer 
ought to look seriously at the port- 
ables. 

Software 

The exciting news in software is a 
new language by Niklaus Wirth, the 
creator of Pascal. The language is 
called Modula 2 and was first imple- 
mented on the Apple; we now have it 
for our Sage 68000 computer. Modula 
2, from Volition Systems (POB 1236, 
Del Mar, CA 92014) has many simi- 
larities to Pascal, and Volition Sys- 
tems says that with its learning pack- 
age a Pascal programmer can learn 
Modula 2 in a few days. 

As implied by the name, Modula 2 
is a modular language; each module is 
a collection of declarations that can 
be put together to make very struc- 
tured and readable programs. I'm 
much looking forward to playing 
with it on our Sage. 



Another interesting development 
came from Peachtree Software: it has 
developed a voice synthesizer that 
takes considerably less memory (or 
disk space) to store significant mes- 
sages, and it sounds human, complete 
with inflections and emphases. Peach- 
tree is using it to develop human- 
machine interfaces; this could become 
very significant. 

The other big news was Digital 
Research's GSX graphics-support 
package, Visi On from Visicorp, and 
Lotus's 1-2-3. These three companies 
all had dealers clustered at their 
booths. Unfortunately, I ran out of 
time and had no chance to see them. 

In addition to the new software, 
there were a lot of hefty im- 
provements. A score of companies 
have database management pro- 
grams; everyone wants to cut into the 
dBASE II sales. Altos President David 
Jackson told me he saw at least six 
database management programs that 
Altos wants to evaluate, and I noticed 
that Bill Godbout's people were col- 
lecting information too. 



Did You Hear the One About the 

Computer That Talks? 



It's no joke. 



With the ECHO speech synthesizer from 
Street Electronics whatever you type on the 
keyboard, your computer can say. The ECHO'S 
text-to-speech system gives your computer an 
unlimited vocabulary while using a minimum of 
memory. And now a diskette of fixed, natural 
sounding words is available to enhance the 
ECHO It's voice output. 



Nearly 400 language rules are contained in the ECHO'S text- 
to-speech algorithm. These rules enable the computer to 
pronounce most correctly spelled words. When in the text-to- 
speech mode the user can select any of 63 different pitch levels, 
and have words spoken either monotonically or with intonation 
by using simple control character sequences. The rate of speech 
can be fast or slow; words can be spoken in their entirety or 
spelled letter by letter. The ECHOs also pronounce punctuation 
and numbers. Words can be encoded using phonemes and 
diphthongs when the text-to-speech or fixed vocabulary is not 
required. 

Applications are unlimited, ranging from phone answering, 
educational and training programs, to games and aiding the sight 
and speech impaired. The ECHO is a complete stand alone unit 
which is compatible with most any computer; it sells for $299.95. 
The ECHO ][, which plugs into the Apple ][, is priced at $149.95. 



Street Electronics Corporation 

1140 Mark Avenue, Carpinteria, CA 93013 
Telephone (805) 684-4593 



n 



48 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Call toll free for demonstration (800) 221-0339 

Circle 404 on Inquiry card. 



With ASCOM . . . 




personal computer communication 

has never been this easy. 



That's why Big 8 accounting firms and 
Fortune 500 companies use ASCOM. 

ASCOM is an interactive microcom- 
puter telecommunications program for 
timesharing and data transfers. It is 
easy to use because it employs menus, 
simple commands and features an on- 
line help facility. 

A typical use of ASCOM is to access 
a data base to retrieve data for storage 
and analysis on your microcomputer. It 
can also be used to transmit program 
files to another machine running 
ASCOM. This can be done locally 
through direct connection, or over 
, telephone lines by using a modem. 

ASCOM works on IBM PC, MS-DOS, 
CP/M-86, and CP/M-80 compatible 
micros. 



WESTICO 



25 Van Zant Street • Norwalk, CT 06855 
(203) 853-6880 • Telex 643-788 

Dial up our 24-Hour Computer Hotline for 
300 baud modems: (203) 853-0816 

D Please send me an ASCOM program & 

documentation: $175.00 * 
D The ASCOM documentation only: $30.00 * 
D FREE: Catalog of over 250 available programs. 

C.O.D. Visa MasterCard . . 



Card No. 
Model of Micro. 
Name. 



Company . 
Address _ 
City 



_Exp_ 



_5V4" 8" 



.Tel: 



_St._ 



-Zip_ 



(*Plus $3.00 shipping and handling in N. America. Ct. 
residents add 7 1 /2% sales tax.) 

ASCOM is a trademark of Dynamic Microprocessor 
Associates. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research 
©Copyright 1983 Westico, Inc. A WA + 2 



ASCOM features: 

• Works with modems or by direct con- 
nection at speeds from 110 to 19,200 
baud, 

• Transfers both text and program files 
between computers. 

. Protocols to synchronize large file 

transfers. 
. Remote mode permits control of 

another micro running ASCOM. 

• Automatic processing with com- 
mand files. 

. Commands for displaying directories 
and files. 

To order ASCOM, call or write today: 

WESTICO 

The Software Express Service 

25 Van Zant Street • Norwalk, CT 06855 
(203) 853-6880 • Telex 643-788 




^s-^ 



UNIX, 

with change. 

Idris is a trademark of Whitesmiths, Ltd. /UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. 



Put off by the UNIX price tag and licensing restrictions? If you are, 
take a closer look at Idris. 

Idris gives you all the power of UNIX at a fraction of the cost— 
and they're highly compatible— even pin-for-pin in some cases. 
Upfront expenses are much lower, you only pay for the parts you 
ship, and the end-user licenses can be transferable. 

What's more, we wrote Idris ourselves— from the ground up— 
so you'll have fewer licensing hassles. We wrote it almost entirely 
in C, for maximum portability across a wide range of processors. 
And we kept it small. 

Idris can run comfortably where UNIX can't even fit: On an 
MC68000 with no memory management hardware, for example. 
On a bank-switched 8080 or Z80. Or on any LSI-11 or PDP-11 with 
memory management. A very big Idris plus. 

Find out how you can put Idris to work in your favorite con- 
figuration today.. Write Whitesmiths, Ltd., 97 Lowell Road, Concord, 
MA 01742. Or call (617) 369-8499, TLX 951708 SOFTWARE CNCM. 

With Idris, you pocket the change. 

Whitesmiths, Ltd. 

Crafting SoftwareTbols fa- your Trade. 

Distributors: Australia, Fawnray Ply. Ltd. P.O.B. 224 Murstville NSW 2220 (612) 570-6100 
Japan, Advanced Data Controls, Corp., Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (03) 263-0383 
United Kingdom, Real Time Systems, Newcastle upon Tyne 0632 733131 



Spreadsheet programs were also 
popular. Sorcim announced a num- 
ber of improvements in Supercalc, as 
well as a new programming editor. 
There must have been 20 other spread- 
sheets and derivatives. Every one of 
them claims one or another unique 
feature, and without thorough tests 
and reviews there's no way I can tell 
them apart. 

There's now software for almost 
any "standard" machine and operat- 
ing system. CP/M and the 8-bit Z80 
and 8085 are still the most commonly 
written for, but their popularity is be- 
ing strongly challenged by the IBM 
Personal Computer and its work- 
alikes. Because CP/M-86 is just com- 
ing out in a final and usable form — I 
saw it running only at Godbout's 
Compupro booth, although doubtless 
other exhibitors had it going — it's a 
bit early to tell how it will fare in 
competition with MS-DOS. 

Package Deals 

A lot of "business computers" are 
available. Some come from original 
manufacturers, but many are systems 
put together from other people's 
machines. Typically, there's a pack- 
age deal of software and hardware, 
along with introductory materials 
and manuals. 

Some of these packages are pretty 
good; but it is my impression that the 
best hardware has not yet got 
together with the best software, and 
neither has been put into a package 
with the best introductory and teach- 
ing materials combined with an ex- 
tensive dealer and service network. 
This doesn't mean that there aren't 
some pretty good packages available. 

The Altos line, for example, is 
quite good. It has reasonable to ex- 
cellent software, decent introductory 
manuals, reliable and handsome 
hardware, and support from a very 
good dealer network. The Altos can 
be configured to work with Ethernet 
and other communications networks. 
On the other hand, the Altos is a 
single-board computer. It's not easily 
expanded or upgraded. What you 
buy is what you'll have for a while, 
unless you trade it in on an entire new 
system. For many buyers that's good 
enough. 



50 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 456 on inquiry card. 



Now Our Family Tree Is Complete 




Knssm wtsfsau mmm mssmm wmsm 







p^shbi 



SBC-1 (Above) A multiprocessing 
slave board computer with Z-80 CPU 
(4 or 6 MHz), 2 serial ports, 2 parallel 
ports, and up to 128K RAM. Provides 
unique 2K FIFO buffering for system 
block data transfers. When used with 
TurboDOS or MDZ/OS the results are 
phenomenal! 



Systemaster® (Right) The ultimate one 
board computer; use it as a complete 
single-user system or as the "master" 
in a multi-processing network 
environment. Complete with Z- 80A 
CPU, 2 serial and 2 parallel ports, 
floppy controller, DMA, real 
time clock, and Teletek's 
advanced CP/M BIOS. Also 
supports MP/M-II, MDZ/OS, 
and TurboDOS. 




;.sS; 



E3S 



HD/CTC (Left) A hard disk and 
cartridge tape controller combined 
together on one board ! A Z-80 CPU 
(4 or 6 MHz); 16K ROM, and up to 8K 
RAM provide intelligence required to 
relieve disk I/O burden from host 
system CPU. Round out your 
multiprocessing system with an 
integrated mass storage/backup 
controller. 



FELETEK 

9767F Business Park Drive 
Sacramento, CA 95827 
(916) 361-1777 
Telex #4991834 
Answer back-Teletek 



Circle422on inquiry card. 



Your Single Source Family of S-100 Products. 



) Teletek 1983 



BYTE March 1983 51 



What if you want 
more assurance 
your valuable data 
wont fade away? 




Re y on SYNCOM 
diskettes with Ectype -.^ 
coating. Balanced coercivity means 
long-lasting signal life. 



Syncom diskettes assure excellent 
archival performance in the 
following ways. 

First, with calibrated coercivity -a 
precisely balanced blend of milled 
ferrous oxides that allows Ectype® 
coating to respond fully to "write" 
signals, for strong, permanent 
data retention. 

Then, a burnished coating surface to 
boost both signal strength and 
packing density. 

Carbon additives drain away static 
charge before it can alter data. 



And, finally, every Syncom diskette 
is write/read-back certified to be 
100% error free. 

To see which Syncom diskette will 
replace the one you're using now, 
send for our free "Flexi-Finder" 
selection guide - and the name of 
the supplier nearest you. 



Balanced coercivity 
of Ectype® coating 
allows write current 
to saturate fully. 



Syncom, Box 130, Mitchell, SD 57301 . 
800-843-9862; 605-996-8200. 




SYNCOM 

Manufacturer of a full line of flexible media 



The Altos is the top end of the 
microcomputer line, and total pack- 
age costs tend to be high (although 
low compared to the minicomputers 
the Altos can replace). At the low 
end, the O sborne 1 is an excellent 
total package. I'm impressed with 
both the software and the introduc- 
tory materials that come with the ma- 
chine; I'm even more impressed with 
the dealer and service network that 
Osborne has built. 

I didn't see any other total pack- 
ages as impressive as those; but that 
was at COMDEX. I also saw hard- 
ware firms out looking at packaging. 
Compupro, Otrona, Zenith, Non- 
Linear Systems (Kaypro), Altos, and 
Morrow Designs were all buying 
rights to software, hiring writers, and 
building up their dealer networks. 
(I'm sure many others were also; 
these are the ones I talked to myself.) 

The Bottom Line 

Tony Pietsch, who knows what to 
look for, thought the most significant 
thing about this year's COMDEX was 
that of a dozen new terminals and 
small computers, just about every 
one of them offers ANSI-Standard 
X-3. 64-1979. That, he explains, is 
standard ASCII, which specifies how 
computers ought to communicate 
with each other and what the control 
characters ought to mean. This is 
what the big boys in mini- and main- 
frame computers conform to. 

This trend is significant because it 
means that the microcomputer in- 
dustry is moving that much closer to 
maturity. We now have microcom- 
puters that can hook into the com- 
munications networks used by the 
very large business systems, and that 
trend is strengthened by the adoption 
of ANSI (American National Stan- 
dards Institute) standards for com- 
munications. Microcomputers cost 
only a fraction of what the business 
community usually expects to pay. 
We've established a trend toward de- 
cent software at reasonable prices. 
New and better manuals, instruc- 
tional materials, and training systems 
are being developed all the time. 

Put it all together and there's no 
limit to the future of the microcom- 
puter industry. ■ 



52 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 408 on inquiry card. 



Invest $129.95 in Zttog's 
Peripherals Kit and get what you 
paid for out of the 68000. 




So, you picked the 68000 for 
your new design only to dis- 
cover the manufacturer doesn't 
offer all the peripherals you 
need to back it up. What now? 
Order Zilog's handy new 
Z8500 Peripherals Evaluation 
Kit today to help bring your 
designs to reality. Only Zilog 
has the peripherals and fore- 
sight to develop this unique kit. 
And only Zilog can make you 
this special offer. 

You get the most advanced 
peripheral chips available 
to enhance the performance of 
your 68000 CPU in addition 
to interface applications notes 
and complete documentation— 
all for $129.95! 

Zilog peripherals feature 



68000-compatible interrupts 
and software programmable 
operating modes to increase 
system performance and flexi- 
bility. All you supply is the 
68000. You get faster answers, 
too. Follow the kit's easy 
instructions, and you can have 
results in a matter of hours, 
not weeks. 

The Z8500 Peripherals 
Evaluation Kit. The peripherals 
you need for the 68000 that 
you can't get from the manu- 
facturer. Kits are in stock at all 
Zilog distributors. For the 
phone number of the distributor 
nearest you, or for additional 
free information on the Z8500 
peripherals call Zilog TOLL 
FREE (800) 272-6560. 



Z8530SCC 

• One Megabit/second data transfer 
rate 

> Two full-duplex channels 
* Asynchronous and synchronous 
data communications modes 
Z8030FIO 

• 128-byte asynch bidirectional 
FIFO buffer 

• Mailbox registers 

• Pattern recognition logic 
Z8536CIO 

Three I/O ports 

Four handshake modes 

Three independent 16-bit 

counter/timers 



Pioneering the MicroworUL 

An af 11 Hate of E)JQON Corporation 



Our huge inventory will 
save you time. And money. 

Chances are, we have just what you want right in our warehouse. 
So we can ship it out right now. At the right price. 



16K RAM KITS 13.95 

Setof 8 NEC 4116 200ns. Guaranteed one year. 
FOR IBM-PC, set ol 9 15.75 

DISKETTES 

ALPHA DISKS... 21.95 

Single sided, certified Double Density 40 Tracks, 
with Hub- ring. Box of 10. Guaranteed one year. 

SCOTCH 3M 

S.S.D.DEN 40 TRK 23.50 

D.S.D.DEN 40 TRK 36.50 

VERBATIM DATALIFE 

MD 525-01, 10, 16 26.50 

MD 550-01, 10, 16 44.50 

MD 557-01, 10. 16 45.60 

MD 577-01, 10. 16 34.80 

FD 32 or 34-9000 36.00 

FD32 or 34-8000 45.60 

FD 34-4001 4B.60 

DISKETTE STORAGE 

5'/<" PLASTIC LIBRARY CASE 2.50 

8" PLASTIC LIBRARY CASE 3.50 

PLASTIC STORAGE BINDER w/ Inserts.. ..9.95 
PROTECTOR 5W (50 Disk Capacity).. ..21. 95 

PROTECTOR 8" (50 Disk Capacity) 24.95 

DISK BANK 574" 5.95 

DISK BANK 8" 6.95 

NEC PERSONAL 
COMPUTERS 

Call Alpha Byte tor our low NEC prices. 

ALTOS COMPUTER 
SYSTEMS 

Call Alpha Byte tor our low Altos prices. 

ATARI COMPUTERS 

SIGNALMAN MODEM 85.00 

ATARI 800 659.00 

ATARI 400 (16K) $CALL 

ATARI 810 DISK DRIVE 445.00 

ATARI 850 INTERFACE 169.00 

ATARI 410 PROGRAM RECORDER 75,00 

EPSON CABLE.. 35.00 

MEMORY MODULE (16K) 89.95 

JOYSTICK CONTROLLER 10.00 

PADDLE CONTROLLERS 17.50 

STAR RAIDERS 32.00 

MISSILE COMMAND 32.00 

ASTERIODS ....32.00 

PACMAN 32.00 

CENTIPEDE 32.00 

PERCOM DISK DRIVE 684.00 

See Apple-Atari Software. 

INTEC PERIPHERALS 
RAM MODULES 

48K FOR ATARI 400 145.00 

32K FOR ATARI 800 67.00 

PRINTERS 

ANADEX WP 6000 P & S 2814.00 

ANADEX 9501A 1390.00 



STAR MICRONICS GEMINI 10 $CALL 

RIBBONS FOR MX-80 8.95 

RIBBONS FOR MX-100 24.00 

C-ITOH F-10 40 CPS PARALLEL 1390.00 

C-ITOH F-10 40 CPS SERIAL 1390.00 

C-ITOH PROWRITER PARALLEL 469.00 

C-ITOH PROWRITER SERIAL 590.00 

C-ITOH PROWRITER II PARALLEL 715.00 

C-ITOH PROWRITER II SERIAL 767.00 

EPSON MX-80 W/GRAFTRAX PLUS $CALL 

NEW'. EPSON FX-80 $CALL 

EPSON MX-100 W/GRAFTRAX PLUS....SCALL 

EPSON GRAFTRAX PLUS 60.00 

COMREX CR-1 PARALLEL 839.00 

COMREX CR-1 SERIAL 859.00 

COMREX TRACTOR FEED 109.00 

IDS PRISM 80 859.00 

IDS PRISM 80 W/ COLOR/OPTIONS. ..1599.00 

NEC 8023A 485.00 

NEC SPINWRITER 3530 P. RO 1995.00 

NEC SPINWRITER 7710 S. RO 2545.00 

NEC SPINWRITER 7730 P. RO 2545.00 

NEC SPINWRITER 7700 D SELLUM... .2795.00 

NEC SPINWRITER 3500 SELL&M 2295.00 

OKIDATA MICROLINE 80 389.00 

OKIDATA MICRDLINE 82A 460.00 

OKIDATA MICRDLINE 83A 700.00 

OKIDATA MICROLINE 84 1170.00 

OKIGRAPH 82 49,95 

OKIGRAPH 83 49.95 

MICROBUFFER IN-LINE 32K 299.00 

MICROBUFFER IN-LINE 64K 349.00 

MICROBUFFER 64K EXPANSION MOD. .179.00 

BOOKS 

THE CUSTOM APPLE 24.95 

BASIC BETTER & FASTER DEMO DISK... 18.00 

THE CUSTOM TRS-80 24.95 

MICROSOFT BASIC FASTER & BETTER, .24.95 

CUSTOM l/D MACHINE LANGUAGE 24.95 

TRS-80 DISK & MYSTERIES 16.95 

MICROSOFT BASIC & DECODED 24.95 

APPLE HARDWARE 

OUENTIN APPLEMATE DRIVE 269.00 

SUPER CLOCK II 129.00 

VERSA WRITER DIGITIZER 259.00 

ABT APPLE KEYPAD 119.00 

SOFTCARD PREMIUM SYSTEM 569.00 

MICROSOFT Z-80 SOFTCARD 249.00 

MICROSOFT RAMCARD 79.00 

VIDEX 80x24 VIDEO CARD 260.00 

VIDEX KEYBOARD ENHANCER II 129.00 

VIDEX FUNCTION STRIP 74.00 

M & R SUPERTERM 80x24 VIDEO BD..315.00 

M & R COOLING FAN 44.95 

M & R UNIVERSAL MOD 54.95 

T/G JOYSTICK 44.95 

T/G PADDLE 29.95 

T/G SELECT-A-PORT 54.95 

T/G TRACKBALL 47.50 

KRAFT JOYSTICK 4B.00 

VERSA E-Z PORT 21.95 

THE MILL-PASCAL SPEED UP 270.00 

PROMETHEUS VERSACARD 165.00 

MICROBUFFER lit 16K W/GRAPHICS... 259.00 
MICROBUFFER lit 32K W/GRAPHICS...299.00 

SUPERFAN II 62.00 

SUPERFAN II W/ZENER 84.50 

RANA CONTROLLER 104.00 

RANA DRIVE ELITE 1 335.00 

SNAPSHOT 119.00 



GRAPPLER+ 145.00 

7710A ASYNCHRON. SER. INTERFACE. 149.00 
7712A SYNCHRON. SER. INTERFACE. ..159.00 

7742A CALENDAR CLOCK 99.00 

772BA CENTRONICS INTERFACE 105.00 

VISTA VISION 80-80 COL CARD 259.00 

VISTA B" DISK DRIVE CONTROLLER.. .549.00 

MONITORS 

USI AMBER 12" 160.00 

NEC 12" GREEN MONITOR 169.00 

NEC 12" COLOR MONITOR 399.00 

BMC GREEN MONITOR 89.00 

AMDEK COLOR 1 365.00 

AMDEK RGB COLOR II 774.00 

AMDEK RGB INTERFACE 169.00 

TAXAN RGB 359.00 

TAXAN 12" AMBER 125.00 

MOUNTAIN 
HARDWARE 

CPS MULTIFUNCTION BOARD 154.00 

ROMPLUS W/ KEYBOARD FILTER 165.00 

ROMPLUS W/0 KEYBOARD FILTER 125.00 

KEYBOARD FILTER ROM..... 49.00 

COPYROM 49.00 

MUSIC SYSTEM 369.00 

ROMWRITER 149.00 

EXPANSION CHASSIS 580.00 

RAMPLUS 32K 160.00 

S-100 HARDWARE 

CALIFORNIA 
COMPUTER SYSTEMS 

2200A MAINFRAME 459.00 

2065C 64K DYNAMIC RAM 539.00 

2422 DISK CONT. & CP/M® 359.00 

2710 4 SERIAL I/O 279.00 

271B 2 SERIAL / 2 PARALLEL I/O 289.00 

2720 4 PARLLEL I/O 219.00 

2810 Z-80 CPU 259.00 

COMREX 

"THE TIMEPIECE" S-100 CLOCK 125.00 

MODEMS 

NOVATION J-CAT 125.00 

NOVATION SMARTCAT 212 499.00 

NOVATION SMARTCAT 209.00 

NOVATION D-CAT (1200 Baud) 619.00 

NOVATION APPLE-CAT (300 Baud) 310.00 

NOVATION APPLE-CAT (1200 Baud) 605.00 

UDS 212 LP (1200 Baud) 429.00 

UDS 103 JLP AUTO ANS 209.00 

HAYES MICROMODEM II 289.00 

MICROMODEM W/ TERMINAL PKG 309.00 

HAYES 100 MODEM (S-100) 325.00 

HAYES SMART MODEM (300 Baud).... 227.00 
HAYES SMART MODEM (1200 Baud). ..540.00 

HAYES CHRONOGRAPH 199.00 

SIGNALMAN MODEM W /RS-232C 85.00 

TERMINALS 

TELEVIDEO 925C 810.00 

ADDS-VIEWPOINT 599.00 

HAZELTINE ESPRIT 510.00 

VISUAL-50 GREEN 690.00 



TRS-80 MOD I 
HARDWARE 

PERCOM DATA SEPARATOR 27.00 

PERCOM DOUBLER II W /DOS 3.4 159.00 

4 DRIVE CONTROLLER P/S 259.00 

TANDON 40 TRK DISK DRIVE W/P.S...2B9.00 

LNW DOUBLER W/DOSPLUS 3.3 138.00 

LNW 5/B DOUBLER W/DOSPLUS 3.4.. .181 .00 

IBM HARDWARE 

SEATTLE 64K RAM + 355.00 

OUADBOARD 64K 430.00 

64K MEMORY UPGRADE 80.00 

ALPHA BYTE IBM MEMORY 
EXPANSION BOARDS 

256K W /RS-232C 349.00 

256K W /RS-232C & SUPERCALC 529.00 

512K W/RS-232C 579.00 

512K W /RS-232C & SUPERCALC 749.00 

IBM DISK DRIVES 

Alpha Byte's add-on drive kits for the IBM-PC — 
each kit includes installation instructions. 
1 Tandon TM100-1 Single head 40 trk. 195.00 
1 Tandon TM100-2 Double head 40 trk. 262.50 
OUENTIN DOUBLE HEAD 40 TRK 289.00 

HARD DISK 
DRIVE SPECIAL 

MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS 

5 V*" Winchester, cabinet, P.S. controller, 
assembled and tested. Attaches to your Z-80 CPU 
system in minutes. Runs on Northstar, Heath/ 
Zenith. TRS-80 Mod II, Apple w/ CP/M® . CCS 
and others. Hardware must be Z-80 /CPM- 
system. The included self-installing software at- 
taches to your CP/M® system. 6-month warran- 
ty. No effect on your present floppy disk system. 
Includes all cables and installation instructions. 

10 MEGABYTES 2370.00 

20 MEGABYTES 3180.00 

ISOLATORS 

ISO-1 3-SOCKET 49.95 

ISO-2 6-SOCKET .....49.95 

BARE DRIVES 

TANDON 5V4 INCH 

100-1 SINGLE HEAD 40 TRK 195.00 

100-2 DUAL HEAD 40 TRK 262.50 

100-3 SINGLE HEAD 80 TRK 250.00 

100-4 DUAL HEAD 80 TRK 369.00 

TANDON THINLINE 8 INCH 

848-1 SINGLE SIDE 379.00 

848-2 DUAL SIDE 490.00 

MICROSOFT 

APPLE 

FORTRAN* 150.00 

BASIC COMPILER*..... 296.00 

COBOL* 550.00 



CP/M is a reg. trademark of Digital Research. 'Requires Z-80 Softcard |Reg. trademark of Micro Pro Internation I Corp. ^Trademark of Practical Peripherals. Inc. "'Trademark of Software Dimensions, Inc. 



Z-80 SOFTCARD 249.00 

RAMCARD 79.00 

TYPING TUTOR II 17.95 

OLYMPIC DECATHLON 24.95 

TASC APPLESOFT COMPILER 125.00 

ALDS. 95.00 

MULTIPLAN NATIVE OR CP/M.... 209.00 

TIME MANAGER 117.00 

MICRO PRO 

APPLE CP/M® 

WORDSTARS 279.00 

SUPERSORT'f 179.00 

MAILMERGE*t... 174.00 

DATASTAR't 207.00 

SPELLSTAR't 174.00 

CALCSTAR't 109.00 

CP/M® SOFTWARE 

We carry CP/M" 5 software in all popular disk 
formats. Call for availability and price. Most soft- 
ware also available on IBM. 

THE WORD PLUS 117.00 

d BASE II 429.00 

OUICKCODE 230.00 

DUTIL 91.00 

SUPERCALC 189.00 

SPELLGUARD 230.00 

P&TCP/M* MOD 2 & 16 TRS-80.... 175.00 

PASCAL Z 349.00 

PASCAL/M Z-80 OR 8080 295.00 

CONDOR 1 579.00 

CONDOR II 849.00 

DIGITAL RESEARCH 

MAC 82.00 

ZSID 92.00 

PASCAL MT+ W/ SSP 429.00 

PL/ 1-80 439.00 

C BASIC 2 109.00 

SUPERSOFT 

DIAGNOSTIC 1 69.00 

DIAGNOSTIC II 89.00 

'C'COMPILER 179.00 

UTILITIES 1 59.00 

UTILITIES II 59.00 

RATFOR.... 89.00 

FORTRAN 239.00 

DISK DOCTOR 78.00 

MICROPRO 

WORDSTAR 279.00 

SUPERSORT 179.00 

MAILMERGE.. 174.00 

DATASTAR 207.00 

SPELLSTAR 174.00 

CALCSTAR 109.00 

MICROSOFT 

MULTIPLAN 209.00 

BASIC 80 249.00 

BASIC COMPILER 299.00 

FORTRAN 80 359.00 

COBOL 80 585.00 

MACRO 80 156.00 

mu MATH/mu SIMP 200.00 

mu LISP/mu STAR 165.00 

IBM SOFTWARE 

VOLKSWRITER V 1.2 145.00 

WRITE ON 90.00 

EASYWRtTER II 247.00 

EASY SPELLER 149.00 

EASY FILE 285.00 

HOME ACCOUNTANT* 105.00 

FIRST CLASS MAIL 85.00 

SUPERCALC .....179.00 

WORDSTAR 279.00 

MAILMERGE 174.00 

DATASTAR 207.00 

SPELLSTAR ...174.00 

SUPERSORT 179.00 

d BASE II 429.00 

SPELLGUARO 145.00 

CALCSTAR 199.00 

THE WORD PLUS 117.00 

T.I.M 379.00 

JFORMAT 39.00 

MOVE IT 109.00 

THE TAX MANAGER 188.00 

VISICALC / 256K 189.00 

VISITREND / VISIPLOT 235.00 

VISIDEX 192.00 



VISIFILE 249.00 

VISISCHEDULE 229.00 

VERSA WRITER GRAPHICS TABLETS. ...270.00 

CONCURRENT CP/M* 86 315.00 

GRAPHICS HARD COPY SYSTEM 19.50 

Call for additional IBM software prices. 



TRS-80 SOFTWARE 

NEWDOS/80 2.0 MOD I. Ill 139.00 

LAZY WRITER MOD I, II 165.00 

PROSOFT NEWSCRIPT MOD I, III w/labels109.00 
SPECIAL DELIVERY MOD I. Ill 119.00 



WORD PROCESSOR SPECIAL 

(Limited Quantities) 

FRANKLIN ACE C.ITOH 8510 795.00 

1000 1395 -°° NEC HI RES GREEN 285.00 

F D^K N DR.VE A W/ CON™. 539.00 SC0TCH 3M DISKETTES .. 44.00 

ACE WRITER STORAGE BOX 2.50 

WORD PROCESSOR 129.00 

MICROBUFFER II 32K. . . .299.00 SgASfT 

Now $2392 

This system may be modified to your needs. Call for special price quote. 



IBM GAME SOFTWARE 

ZORK I, ll ( III 28.00 

STARCROSS 28.00 

DEADLINE 35.00 

GALAXY 19.50 

MIDWAY CAMPAIGN 17.00 

THE WARP FACTOR 31.16 

LOST COLONY 23.36 

CONQUEST 23.36 

GALACTIC ATTACK 25.00 

APPLE PANIC 23.61 

TEMPLE OF ASPHAI 34.95 

CROSSFIRE 24.95 

FROGGER 27.26 

M'SOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR .....38.95 

If you don't see the software you want, call. Our 
software stock is constantly expanding. 

APPLE SOFTWARE 

MAGIC WINDOW II 117.00 

MAGIC WINDOW 79.00 

MAGIC WORDS 59.00 

MAGIC MAILER 59.00 

DB MASTER 169.00 

DB MASTER UTILITY PACK I OR II 69.00 

DATA CAPTURE 4.0/80 59.95 

PFS: GRAPH 89.95 

PFS: (NEW) PERSONAL FILING SYSTEM. 85.00 

PFS: REPORT 79.00 

Z-TERM*... 89.95 

Z-TERM PRO*.. 129.95 

ASCII EXPRESS PRO 98.00 

EASY WRITER-PRO 136.00 

EASY MAILER-PRO 117.00 

A-STAT COMP. STATISTICS PKG 99.00 

BEAGLE BROTHERS UTILITY CITY 23.00 

APPLE MECHANIC 23.00 

TIP DESK #1 15.95 

BEAGLE BAG 23.00 

SUPER TEXT 40/56/77 97.50 

LISA 2.5 59.95 

TRANSCEND II 115.00 

SCREENWRITER II 99.00 

DICTIONARY 79.00 

GENERAL MANAGER 179.00 

CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE 

G/L 165.00 

A/R..... 165.00 

A/P 165.00 

PAYROLL 165.00 

PROPERTY MGMT 325.00 

THE HOME ACCOUNTANT 59.95 

F.C.M. w/form letter 75.00 

VISICORP 

DESKTOP PLAN II 189.00 

VISIPLOT 158.00 

VISITRENO/VISIPLOT 229.00 

VISIOEX 189.00 

VISITERM 79.00 

VISICALC 189.00 

VISIFILES 189.00 

VISISCHEDULE 229.00 



X-TRA SPECIAL DELIVERY MOO l.lll... .199.00 

TRACKCESS MOD 1 24.95 

OMNITERM SMART TERM. MOO I, III 89.95 

MICROSOFT BASIC COMP. FOR MOD I.. 165. 00 
LOOS 5.1 MOD UN 119.00 

TRS-80 GAMES 

SUPERNOVA 17.95 

ROBOT ATTACK 17.95 

MISSILE ATTACK 18.95 

STAR FIGHTER 24.95 

Call for more TRS-80 games. 

APPLE & ATARI GAMES 

Spinnaker in stock, call for prices. 
BRODERBUND 

APPLE PANIC... 23.61 

MIDNIGHT MAGIC 27.26 

CHOPLIFTER 27.20 

AUTOMATED SIMULATIONS 

INVASION ORION 20.95 

STAR WARRIOR 31.35 

CRUSH.CRUMBLE AND CHOMP 24.95 

TEMPLE OF APSHAI 31.35 

HELLFIRE WARRIOR 31.35 

RESCUE AT RIGEL 23.36 

ON-LINE SYSTEMS 

WIZARD AND PRINCESS 27.26 

SOFT PORN ADVENTURE 23.36 

THRESHOLD 31.16 

JAW BREAKER 23.36 

CROSSFIRE 24.95 

ULYSSES & GOLDEN FLEECE 25.95 

FROGGER 24.50 

INFOCOM 

ZORK I J 1 . 1 1 1 28.00 

STARCROSS 28.00 

DEADLINE 35.00 

EDU-WARE 

COMPU-READ 24.95 

COMPU-MATH FRACTIONS 34.95 

COMPU-MATH DECIMALS 34.95 

MORE GREAT APPLE 
GAMES 

DARK CRYSTAL 31.61 

TUBEWAY 27.26 

ARCADE MACHINE 32.95 

TUES. MORNING QUARTERBACK 25.95 

THE SPACE VIKINGS 38.50 

COMPUTER QUARTERBACK 31.16 

SEA FOX 24.00 

THE SHATTERED ALLIANCE 49.95 

POOL 1.5 27.26 

ULTIMA 31.16 

RASTER BLASTER 23.36 

FLIGHT SIMULATOR 26.61 

INTERNATIONAL GRAND PRIX 25.95 

SARGON II 28.95 



PINBALL SUBLOGIC 24.50 

SNACK ATTACK 23.36 

BUDGECO PINBALL CONST. SET 31.61 

THIEF 24.95 

THE WARP FACTOR 31.16 

COSMO MISSION 23.36 

WIZARDRY 37.95 

NIGHT OF DIAMONDS 27.26 

STARBLAZER..... 24.95 

CRISIS MOUNTAIN 26.32 

SIRIUS SOFTWARE 

SPACE EGGS 23.36 

GORGON 31.16 

SNEAKERS 23.36 

PHANTOMS FIVE 22.00 

BANDITS 25.00 

EDU-WARE 

PERCEPTION PKG 19.95 

COMPU-MATH: ARITHMETIC 39.95 

COMPU-SPELL (REO. DATA DISK) 24.95 

COMPU-SPELL DATA DISKS 4-8. ea 17.95 

RENDEZVOUS 28.50 

ON-LINE SYSTEMS 

ULTIMA II 42.00 

MISSILE DEFENSE 27.26 

PEST PATROL 23.36 

TIME ZONE 77.96 

CRANSTON MANOR 25.95 

CANNON BALL BLITZ 25.95 

MUSE SOFTWARE 

ROBOT WARS 32.95 

THREE MILE ISLAND 31.61 

A.B.M 19.46 



To order or for 
information call 

In NewYxk: 
(212)509-1923 

InLosAngetes: 
(213)706-0333 
In Dallas: 
(214)744-4251 

By Modem: 
(213)991-J60^ 

'"call our modem line 

I FOR WEEKLY SPECIALS. 
I ' 




IPUTER 
PRODUCTS 

31245 LA BAYA DRIVE 
WESTLAKE VILLAGE. CA 91362 

Circle 14 on inquiry card. 



We guarantee everything we sell for 30 days — no returns after 30 days. Defective software will be replaced free, but another software returns are subject to 15% restocking fee and must be accompanied by RMA slip. No 
returns on game software, unless defective. We accept VISA and MasterCard on all orders: COO orders, up to S300. Shipping charges: S3 for all prepaid orders, actual shipping charges for non- prepaids; S3 for COD orders 
under 25lbs. ($6 for over) plus a $4 surcharge: add 15% for foreign, FPO and APO orders. Calif, add 6% sales tax. in L.A. County add 6'/?%. Prices quoted are for stock on hand and are subject to change without notice. 



The Promise of Perpendicular 
Magnetic Recording 

As the Japanese seem to have realized already, 

perpendicular magnetic recording represents 

the next level of recording technology. 

Clark E. Johnson Jr. 
Vertimag Systems Corp. 

815 14th Ave. SE 
Minneapolis, MN 55414 



Of the several new mass-storage 
technologies that promise greatly in- 
creased data densities, perpendicular 
magnetic recording is the one most 
likely to enjoy early widespread use. 
Perpendicular-magnetic-recording 
technology, even in its infancy, 
promises a tenfold improvement over 
conventional recording. 

The key to the new method lies in 
magnetizing the tape or disk surface 
material at right angles, i.e., at angles 
perpendicular to the surface. In con- 
trast, conventional longitudinal 
recording creates magnetized zones 
along the surface. With perpendicular 
recording, higher recording densities 
now squeeze the width rather than 
the length of these magnetized 
regions. 

Conventional Recording 

The digital Is and Os of a com- 
puter's binary language are recorded 
by magnetizing discrete regions of the 
magnetic material, usually an oxide 
of iron, that coats the surface of a 



About the Author 

Clark E. Johnson Jr. is the president of Ver- 
timag Systems Corporation, a company that 
was formed specifically to commercialize 
perpendicular magnetic recording. He began 
his involvement with magnetic-recording 
research and development with the 3M Com- 
pany in the 1950s. 



recording tape or disk. You can think 
of each computer bit (1 or 0) as a tiny 
permanent magnet within this mag- 
netizable surface layer. 

In conventional recording technol- 
ogy, the tiny permanent magnets rep- 
resenting digital Is might be recorded 
north-pole-first along the length of 
the recording track, while digital 0s 
would be recorded south-pole-first 
along the same track. Because the 
playback heads can detect only tran- 
sitions, the process of reading the 
recorded data actually involves de- 
tecting the change in polarity: a 
north-to-south transition may be ar- 
bitrarily defined as a digital 1, and 
a south-to-north change will then 
become a digital 0. The magnetized 
zones lie lengthwise, or end to end, 
along the recording track in conven- 
tional longitudinal recording. 

A nine-track digital tape recorder 
will encode Is and 0s in nine parallel 
rows or tracks along the length of the 
tape, with each track containing up to 
6250 magnetic changes (called flux 
changes) per inch. The most ad- 
vanced magnetic memories can re- 
cord the equivalent of 15,000 "tiny 
permanent magnets" per inch of re- 
cording track. Winchester disk mem- 
ories, using the most advanced head- 
positioning mechanisms, create up to 
1000 circular recording tracks per 
inch of disk radius. Such advanced 
Winchester memories have storage 



capacities as high as 1.6 X 10 9 bits 
per disk. 

The Limiting Factor 

What' limits recording density and 
therefore memory capacity? That is, 
what sets a ceiling on the number of 
tiny permanent magnets that can be 
created in each inch of the recording 
medium's magnetic coating? What 
are the sources of data-reading error 
that prohibit an indefinite increase in 
magnets-per-inch recording density? 
Computer memories must sustain 
error-free operation in the region of 1 
bit in 10 12 bits. Otherwise, computer 
systems would provide unexpected 
payroll bonuses and guide astronauts 
to Hoboken instead of the moon. 

The stronger the recording equip- 
ment can make each tiny magnet that 
it creates in the medium's magnetic 
layer, the more accurately the equip- 
ment's read head will determine 
whether a magnet represents a 1 or a 
0. Memory-system designers try to 
create circumstances that will sustain 
magnet strength as recording density 
(bit s per inch) increases. 

From basic research on magnetism, 
it has long been understood that a 
permanent magnet should be long 
and thin; its length should be several 
times greater than its thickness. If for 
some reason a magnet must be short- 
ened, then the magnet's thickness 
must be proportionately reduced in 



56 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 319 on Inquiry card. 



ShareNet ™ is Now 

Others Talk of Tomorrow 




The Only Complete Personal Computer Local Area Network 

Others are just talking about tomorrow's technology . . . ShareNet has it now! 
With power and capabilities found only in minicomputers and mainframes; 

Best of all it can be yours today. 
ShareNet Local Area Network gives you a true multi-user system enabling you to 
link up to 24 personal computers, five printers and use . . . 



Multiple Operating Systems 

Extensive Data Security 

Hierarchical Directory 

Default File Locking 

Concurrent File Sharing 



Print Spooling 
Redundant Directories 
Cartridge Disk Back-up 
Public & Private Directory 
Electronic Mail 



Network Interface Cards available for IBM/PC. 

Soon available: APPLE, VICTOR, DEC RAINBOW, OSBORNE, & Others. 

For tomorrow's technology, today . . . call 1-800-453-1267. 

ShareNet. 
The Local Area Network of the Future Today 

TELEX: 669 401 AIR COURS PHX 
Novell Data Systems, Inc. 1170 N. Industrial Park Drive Orem, Utah 84057 Phone: 801-226-8202 



order to maintain the magnet's 
strength. This need to make the 
magnet long relative to its "waistline" 
dimension stems from the self-demag- 
netization properties of all permanent 
magnets. The north and south poles 
tend to neutralize each other, with a 
net reduction in the magnet's overall 
effectiveness and resulting external 
field. Keeping the poles far apart and 
the ratio of length to thickness high 
reduces this self-demagnetization ef- 
fect. The length-to-thickness ratio 
suffers as longitudinal recording's 
data density increases. 

An examination of the factors de- 
termining the dimensions of these 
longitudinally recorded magnets will 
show why increased density adverse- 
ly affects the magnet's length-to- 
thickness ratio. Because they are re- 
corded end to end along the magnetic 
track, their length must decrease as 
recording density rises. One dimen- 
sion of the "waistline" is fixed, being 
set by the thickness of the tape or 
disk's magnetic coating. The other is 
determined by the across-the-track 



width of the recording head. 

Therefore, to maximize the mag- 
net's length-to-width ratio, recording- 
head designers strive to produce very 
narrow tracks, while manufacturers 
of tape and disk media offer products 
with remarkably thin magnetic 
layers. Both endeavors are aimed at 
creating magnetized regions with 
very narrow waistlines so that the 
reduced magnet length at high den- 
sities still preserves a reasonable 
length-to-thickness ratio. 

At densities above 15,000 magnets 
per inch, however, even these tactics 
reach a point of diminishing returns. 
Thinner coatings mean less magnetic 
material, hence weaker electrical out- 
put signals. Recording experts suggest 
that conventional longitudinal-re- 
cording technology has already 
pushed lineal recording density close 
to its ultimate ceiling. The only di- 
mension left open to improvement in 
raising memory capacity within this 
technology is the number of tracks 
per inch. Currently, the most ad- 
vanced head-positioning servomech- 




ftWR ,TtR 



DAISY WHEEL 
PRINTER 




• Full Olivetti 
typewriter 
warranty 

• U.L. 
Listed 



$695 

plus shipping 

FEATURES 

• Typewriter operation with nothing to disconnect • 10, 12 or 15 characters per 
inch switch selectable • Portable with carrying case • Entire interface mounted 
internally in the Olivetti Praxis 30 typewriter • Underlining • Cables available for 
most computers • Service from Olivetti dealers • Centronics compatible parallel 
input • Built in self test • Cartridge ribbon • 2nd keyboard switch selectable. 



YTE WRITE 



125 NORTHVIEW RD., ITHACA, N.Y. 14850 
(607) 272-1 132 



anism can advance the head in incre- 
ments of only 1/1000 of an inch, pro- 
ducing 1000 tracks per inch of disk 
diameter. It should ultimately be pos- 
sible, however, to record 10,000 
magnetic zones per inch and, there- 
fore, something approaching 10,000 
tracks per inch. That would yield a 
tenfold gain in memory capacity 
without need for further gains in 
along-the-track recording density. 
Improved head-positioning mechan- 
isms will doubtlessly raise the tracks- 
per-inch figure in the years ahead but 
perpendicular recording affords the 
possibility of major gains not only in 
tracks per inch but especially in bits 
per inch along each track. 

Perpendicular Recording 

Since conventional longitudinal- 
recording technology leads to in- 
creased self-demagnetization of the 
tiny recorded magnets as density is 
increased, is there some alternative 
approach that sidesteps the problem? 
The obvious way is to reorient the 
tiny magnets within the magnetizable 
layer on each disk or tape, so that 
their length-to-thickness ratio no 
longer deteriorates at higher densi- 
ties. While conventional recording re- 
duces the length dimension of the 
end-to-end magnets, perpendicular 
recording puts the squeeze on width 
rather than length at higher densities. 
The magnetized zones are turned 90 
degrees, so that instead of lying along 
the tape's surface, the length dimen- 
sion of the zone now stands vertical- 
ly, perpendicular to the surface of the 
disk or tape. You might say that the 
magnets are recorded "into" the 
magnetic material rather than along 
it. Magnet length is now determined 
by the depth of the layer of magnetic 
material. One of the width dimen- 
sions is still set by recording-track 
width and the other by bits per inch 
along the track. 

Consequently, raising the record- 
ing density no longer worsens the de- 
magnetizing effect. In fact, the op- 
posite is true. Because the recorded 
magnetic zones are perpendicular to 
the disk or tape surface, higher densi- 
ties now squeeze their waistline di- 
mensions, rather than their length. 
The length-to-thickness ratio steadily 



58 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 66 on inquiry card. 



Circle 20 on inquiry card. 



IBM 

compatible . . . 




Go first class . . . 
with your peripherals, too! 



Your IBM personal computer deserves the finest, fully 
compatible peripherals, like Amdek's high resolution 
Color II Monitor ... the new comfort-view Model 
"Video-310A" amber monitor ... or the new revolu- 
tionary AMDISK-3 Micro-Floppydisk Drive with up to 1 
Megabyte storage! Just call, or write for full details on 
these high-performance Amdek peripherals. 



Color II Monitor, 13", 560(H) x 240(V) line resolu- 
tion, 80 x 24 character display. 
Model "Video-Si 0A" amber phosphor screen with 
TTL video input. Connecting cable included. 
"AMDISK-3" Micro-Floppydisk Drive, 1 Megabyte 
(unformatted) storage, track-to-track compatible 
with 5%" drives, shirtpocket size Micro-Floppydisk 
Cartridge. 



2201 Lively Blvd. • Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 

(312)364-1180 TLX: 25-4786 * 

Amdek . . . your guide to innovative computing! 



CORR 



Technology 

longitudinal 
recording 



perpendicular 
recording 

laser (optical) 
recording 



64K-bit RAM 



Versatility 
read and write 

read and write 
read only 



Lineal Density 

15,000 flux 
reversals per inch 



100,000 flux 
reversals per inch 

25,000 impressions 
per inch 



read and write NA 



Areal Density 

165 x 10 a flux 

reversals per 
square inch 

10 10 flux reversals 
per square inch 

6.25 x 10 B 
impressions per 
square inch 

10 a bits 

per square inch 



Table 1: A comparison of the theoretical performance of four memory technologies. 
Perpendicular magnetics offers both read and write capabilities and the highest areal 
densities. The 64K-bit RAM is, of course, volatile and is included here only to put 
the density of the other technologies in perspective. 



improves as recording density is 
raised, and we have a condition, rare 
in science, in which pushing technol- 
ogy to higher limits actually enhances 
the phenomenon being pushed. 

Even though perpendicular-record- 
ing technology has yet to emerge 
from the research laboratory, scien- 
tists confidently predict that densities 
of 100,000 bits per inch will rapidly 
be realized in commercial hardware. 
Indeed, some experiments already 
suggest that a 440,000-bit-per-inch 
density will be possible. Further im- 
provements will be made in the years 
ahead, with an ultimate limit set by 
phenomena — perhaps at the atomic 
level — totally different from the self- 
demagnetization that limits the densi- 
ty attainable with longitudinal-re- 
cording technology. 

Areal Comparison with 
Other Technologies 

Recording media and technologies 
are best compared on the basis of bits 
per square inch rather than bits per 
inch. This is because you can increase 
memory capacity by raising both re- 
cording density and the number of 
recording tracks. Thus, areal compar- 
isons take both sources of improve- 
ment into account. On this basis, per- 
pendicular recording offers close to 
an immediate hundredfold improve- 
ment, at 10 10 (100,000 X 100,000) 
bits per square inch, over longitudi- 
nal recording's 10 8 (10,000 X 10,000) 
bits per square inch. True, these 
figures represent recording densities 



that may be attainable in the future 
rather than what can be achieved 
with today's hardware, but they pro- 
vide a useful basis for comparison. 

Laser Recording 

Laser memory techniques enjoy a 
''good press," probably owing to their 
space-age novelty. There are physical 
limitations, however, to the potential 
data densities achieved by laser tech- 
nology. Diffraction phenomena limit 
physical dimensions to about 1 
micron when visible light is used. 
(The same limitation crops up in geo- 
metries of semiconductor layout.) Be- 
cause 1 micron is 1 millionth of a 
meter, and a meter is roughly 40 
inches, this limiting resolution works 
out to 40/10 6 . At best, therefore, 
based on visible-light wavelengths, 
laser recording can achieve a max- 
imum density of 10V40 or 25,000 bits 
per inch. That compares to 100,000 
magnets per inch for perpendicular 
recording, which also has no compar- 
able fundamental barrier to much 
higher densities. In terms of areal 
density, laser technology might attain 
a maximum of 25,000 X 25,000 or 
6.25 X 10 9 bits per square inch. 

64K-bit RAM 

The uses of RAM (random-access 
read/write memory) are, of course, 
different from those of nonvolatile 
memory devices such as floppy disks. 
It is worth noting, however, that the 
theoretical data density of perpen- 
dicular magnetic recording exceeds 



the density of today's RAM. A 64K- 
bit RAM chip measures about one- 
quarter inch on each side. Therefore, 
it would be theoretically feasible to 
produce 16 such 64K-bit RAMs from 
a square inch of silicon. Thus, using 
the same hypothetical areal basis for 
comparison, the memory chip offers 
a density of 16 X 64,000 or 1024 X 
10 6 bits per square inch, much lower 
than laser or magnetic technology. 

Table 1 presents a brief comparison 
of the performance of four recording 
technologies as to versatility, lineal 
density, and areal density. 

The Problem of Media 

for Perpendicular Recording 

The limiting factor in the develop- 
ment of perpendicular recording tech- 
nology has been finding a magnetic 
material that lends itself to this re- 
cording process. Today's answer is an 
alloy of chromium and cobalt, which 
is placed on the recording medium's 
surface in the form of hexagonal 
crystals that can support magnetiza- 
tion perpendicularly. In other words, 
the CrCo crystal's magnetizable axis 
lies at right angles to the medium sur- 
face and parallel to its crystallo- 
graphic "C" axis. 

The process of depositing the CrCo 
crystals is very sophisticated, involv- 
ing the same sputtering techniques 
that are used in manufacturing semi- 
conductor integrated circuits. (Using 
sputtering techniques, manufacturers 
coat a surface by putting it in a 
vacuum chamber that has a cathode 
consisting of the substance to be used 
as a coating. When the cathode is 
bombarded by positive ions, atoms of 
the coating substance are transferred 
uniformly to the surface being 
coated.) This sputtering technology 
needs to be modified in order to deal 
with the requirement to coat acres of 
substrate rapidly and economically 
and realize reproducible results. 
While these techniques are being 
developed and undoubtedly will be 
commercialized, such mass produc- 
tion equipment and techniques do not 
exist at the moment. It will probably 
be a year to 18 months before produc- 
tion equipment becomes available to 
fabricate media in commerical quan- 
tities. The development of perpendic- 



60 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 







IM\ 



make 
your apple 



^ 



COMPATIBLE WITH 
APPLE II™, APPLE III™, 
FRANKLIN™. ORANGE™, 
AND BASIS™. 



Supercharge your Apple to 
go 50 times faster. 





or Apple 



Here's a whole new way to polish up your Apple II 
III™. RAMDISK 320™ from Axlon. 

Thousands of users are discovering right now how the 
RAMDISK 320™ can boost both memory and access speeds of their 
Apples. The ultrafast RAMDISK 320™ is up to 50 times faster than 
standard floppy drives, and 10 times faster than hard disk 
drives. You can easily sort two full disks in 15 seconds. 

Besides faster, error-free throughput, 
RAMDISK 320™ is designed to save wear 
and tear on your floppy drives. There are no 
moving parts. 

RAMDISK 320™ has its own power 
supply, plus three-hour battery backup. 
RAMDISK 320™ draws no power from 
your Apple, and it retains data even when the 
Apple is turned off. 

Your RAMDISK 320™ solid-state memory 
add-on system is fully compatible with Apple 
DOS 3.3, SOS, CP/M™, Apple Pascal 1.1 and 
Pascal 4.0. (In fact, we'll give you drivers with 
each RAMDISK 320™.) 




For even faster speeds, combine 
Axlon's RAMDISK 320™ with S&H PDE Software. 



RAMDISK 320™ can help you zoom through a wide variety of 
tasks in the real world — word processing, accounting, data base 
management, software development, educational and scientific data 
processing, or whenever speed is of the essence. 

RAMDISK 320™ comes with a plug-in, slot-independent inter- 
face card. And it includes a specially designed operating program, 
plus software for diagnostics, and fast-load copy routines. 

Axlon offers RAMDISK 320™ with a full one-year warranty. 



Interested Distributors, Dealers, and OEMs call 

(408) 945-0500 for information on national 

sales, support, and pricing program or write 

Axlon, Inc., 70 Daggett Drive, San Jose, CA 

95134. 

For consumer information on ordering 
the RAMDISK 320™, call 800-227-6703. In 
Calif. 800-632-7979. 



Apple I and Apple III are 
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. 
CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research. 




AXLON 



National Distributors: • BYTE INDUSTRIES, INC. Hayward, California (415) 783-8272 • HIGH TECHNOLOGY Florissant, Missouri (314) 838-6502 • MARCEY INC. Van 
Nuys, California (213) 994-7602 • MICRO COMPUTER ELECTRONIC DIST. Reading, Pennsylvania (215) 929-9484 • MICRO D Fountain Valley, California (714) 641-0205 
• NATIONAL MICRO WHOLESALE Medford, Oregon (503) 773-1169 • PMI MICRO WHOLESALERS Fairfield, New Jersey (201) 227-8411 • SKU Berkeley, California (415) 
848-0802 • VIDEO THEATRE Rochester, New York (716)621-2003 • COMPUTRAC New Orleans, Louisiana (504)895-1474 

Circle 41 on inquiry card. 



ular-recording technology may be 
media-limited for as many as 10 years 
due to cost. 

The first floppy disks for perpen- 
dicular recording will probably cost 
about $20 each, compared with $5 to 
$10 for conventional disks. In the 
future, fresh materials and fresh pro- 
cesses for placing the material on the 
medium will cut costs. These fresh 
approaches should lead to an econo- 
mical way to place the CrCo alloy, or 
some alternative material, on record- 
ing tape as well as disk. 

Hardware and Applications 

Floppy disks are expected to be the 
first commercial memory products to 
exploit the new perpendicular record- 
ing technology. They will offer 3 to 5 
times the capacity of today's longi- 
tudinal floppy-disk systems and will 
be priced 30 to 70 percent higher. 
Later designs will push down the cost 
per bit even more. Vertimag Systems 
Corporation has demonstrated a" pro- 
totype floppy-disk system that oper- 
ates at 36,000 flux reversals per inch 



and provides 5 megabytes of total 
storage capacity. The system will 
eventually sell for around $500, with 
production expected to begin in 1984. 

Following the market acceptance of 
floppy-disk memories based on per- 
pendicular recording, a number of 
manufacturers are likely to launch 
hard-disk data-storage systems that 
challenge present Winchester sys- 
tems. Because the Winchester disk is 
sealed in a clean-air environment, it 
lends itself to the meticulous mech- 
anical engineering necessary to in- 
crease the number of tracks per inch 
and also to the control of the "flying 
height" of the head relative to the 
magnetic recording surface. 

The potent combination of more 
tracks and perpendicular recording's 
tenfold increase in bits per track will 
give designers the headroom to con- 
tinue product evolution through the 
rest of this century. To date, 5V4-inch 
Winchesters can accommodate more 
than 10 megabytes per disk. Memory 
designers have doubled capacity 
every two to three years for the past 




new WICAT 68000 products 

SYSTEM 160 

This expanded MULTIBUS system is for those whose 
applications exceed the range of desktop computers, 
but whose budgets do not. The rack-mount configura- 
tion allows you to buy only what you need now and 
expand later. The 12 slot MULTIBUS chassis holds up to 
4.5 MB of memory. A second drawer permits 4 10MB or 
15MB Winchester disks with floppy and/or cartridge 
tape backup. Up to twelve terminals can be attached. 
High performance SMD disk and intelligent I/O ports will 
also be available. This is an ideal UNIX system. 

Pedestal mount 12 slot chassis, IEEE 796 MULTIBUS , CPU, memory management, calendar clock. 512KB mem- 
ory, 6 RS232C serial ports, 1 16-bit parallel port, MCS operating system, choice of one language $9390 

DISK EXPANSION UNIT 

This unit provides for System 150 additional disk storage capacity for the desktop 
WICAT1 50. Two 1 0MB or 1 5MB Winchesters can be included. The maximum configura- 
tion is two 15MB Winchester disk and cartridge tape backup for $10,170. 

integral™ database and MenuSystem™ 

For the powerful WICAT 150, 160, and 200 computers, Concurrent provides application 
development tools to quickly develop your systems. MenuSystem allows you to define 
your screen by simply "painting" them on your terminal. Integral supports a network 
database that can directly model complex real world data structures. 
To discuss your application, please write us or call (513) 281-1270 

MULTIBUS TM Intel; UNIX TM Bell Labs; integral and MenuSystem TM Concurrent 

Concurrent c»„ fa 

1870 Madison Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45206 

HIGH PERFORMANCE MICROCOMPUTERS FOR SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 




25 years, and perpendicular recording 
provides the technological advance 
that can be expected to maintain this 
rate of progress for many years to 
come. 

Digital Audio/Video Market 

Current techniques for the digital 
recording of music consume memory 
capacity at a prodigious rate, and 
digital video applications consume 
recording surface area in amounts 
that are orders of magnitude greater 
than audio. This may serve as an in- 
centive to put perpendicular record- 
ing to work in the digital audio/video 
market. 

Digital-recording techniques first 
convert what the microphone "hears" 
into the binary language of com- 
puters. This is done by taking many 
instantaneous samples of the micro- 
phone's electrical output signal and 
converting these samples into their 
digital equivalents. It is these 
samples, which provide a digital 
replica of the original music, that are 
recorded for future playback. 

To preserve music fidelity, it is nec- 
essary to take many "instantaneous" 
samples. Typically, the microphone's 
electrical output is sampled approxi- 
mately 50,000 times per second. 
Moreover, because music spans a 
very wide range of loudness, from the 
nearly inaudible to the deafening, 
each of the 50,000 samples must be 
represented by a sizable digital word 
to accommodate the full dynamic 
range. The music industry has chosen 
to include 16 bits to allow a 
64,000 : 1 range of loudness as the 
standard word "size" for music 
digitizing. Consequently, each of the 
samples taken 50,000 times per sec- 
ond produces 16 bits of digital infor- 
mation to be recorded for subsequent 
playback. 

Any magnetic memory systems de- 
signed to handle digital audio appli- 
cations must therefore accept data at 
the rate of 800,000 bits per second 
(50,000 X 16 = 800,000 bits per sec- 
ond). A conventional longitudinal-re- 
cording system capable of a 10,000- 
bit-per-inch recording density would 
therefore consume 80 (800,000/ 
10,000) inches of tape per second. 
Perpendicular recording, at the prom- 



62 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 117 on inquiry card. 



VEMT-THE CLEAR CHOICE 
FOR PROGRAMMING 

PLUS FEATURES FOR FAST, EFFICIENT WORD PROCESSING 



Increasing your productivity is what a 
good text editor is all about. VEDIT excels 
with a unique combination of powerful 
and easy to use editing features, 
customizability and complete hardware 
support. Compare VEDIT - you'll find 
everything you expect in a good editor 
plus many time saving features which 
only VEDIT offers. 

VEDIT fully utilizes all function keys, or 
configures to any keyboard layout you 
are familiar with. VEDIT has helpful aids 
such as directory display, and you won t 
loose text if you runout of diskspace - you 
can delete files or change disks. 

Powerful TECO style command 
macros letyou perform editing tasks you 
might otherwise not even attempt Nearly 
impossible tasks for other editors (such 
as translations or extensive search/ 
replace on many files), can be done 
automatically from a command file. 



For program development VEDIT 
surpasses any other editor - with more 
extensive file handling, powerful com- 
mand macro capability and special 
features for Pascal, PL/1, 'C, Cobol, 
Assembler and others. VEDIT reduces 
program editing time by 30% as 
compared to the best word processor. 

For word processing, VEDIT has word 
wrap, adjustable margins, paragraph 
reformatting, word and paragraph 
functions, simple printing and more. 

VEDIT supports practically every CRT 
terminal, video board, 8080, Z80 and 
8086 computer. We have been con- 
sistently first to support new computers. 
And we support you with any technical 
assistance you need. 

Please specify your microcomputer, 
video board or the CRT terminal version, 
8080, Z80, or 8086 code, operating 
system and disk format. 



IBM PC, Displaywriter ° Zeni h Zl 00 and Z89 ° NEC APC ° DEC VT1 80 ° Televideo 802 
TRS-80 I, II and 16° Apple II Softcard°Su erBrain°Nor hStar Xerox 820 ° Cromemco 
MP/M ° CP/M-86 ° Concurrent CP/M-86 ° MSDOS ° PCDOS 



VEDIT - Disk and Manual 

8080,Z80orIBMPC $150 

CP/M-86 orMSDOS. .. . $195 
Manualonly $18 



Compare VEDIT's features: 

True Full Screen Editing 
Edit files one disk in length 
Automatic Disk Buffering 
Compact and Fast 
Display of line and column # 
Set/Goto text markers 
'Undo' key to restore line 
Automatic Indent/Undent 
Adjustable Tab positions 
Repeat function key 
Text Move and Copy 
10 Scratchpad Buffers 
Load/Save buffers on disk 
Powerful command macros 
Directory display 
Edit additional (small) 
files simultaneously 
Insert another disk file 
Unlimited file handling 
Recovery from 'Full Disk' 
Change disks while editing 
Word Wrap, format paragraph 
Simple Printing 
Menu driven installation 
Startup command file 
Setup CRT function keys 
Support newest CRT terminals 
Support smart CRT functions 
Customizable keyboard layout 




CP/M and MP/M are registered trademarks of Dig ital Research Inc. Apple II is a registered trademark 
of Apple Computer. Inc. MS-DOS and Softcard are trademaiks of Microsoft. TRS-80 is a trademaik 
of Tandy Corporation. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines. 



Circle 115 on inquiry card. 



CompuView 

PRODUCTS, INC. 

1955 Pauline Blvd., Suite 200 ° Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103 ° (313) 996-1299 



ised 100,000 bits per inch, would cut 
this profligate use of tape down to 8 
inches per second. Future digital- 
signal manipulation and compression 
will probably condense the amount of 
music data that must be recorded to 
preserve music fidelity. For example, 
it might be possible to develop tech- 
niques for recording only the changes 
in the music rather than, for example, 
continuing to record all data for notes 
that persist unchanged for substantial 
fractions of a second. Why record all 
800,000 bits of data for a soprano 
who sustains the same note for an en- 
tire second? Such digital trickery, 
coupled with perpendicular record- 
ing's storage density, should put true 
digital music in the home in much less 
than a decade. 

The Future Development 
of Perpendicular Recording 

The new perpendicular-recording 
technology is being developed mainly 
by an alliance of Japanese industry 
and universities. In America, only the 
Magnetics Research Laboratory at the 



University of Minnesota operates at 
the forefront of this new science. 

Reports from Japan provide evi- 
dence of perpendicular recording at 
440,000 bits per inch. At this early 
stage of research, such density is 
probably accompanied by error rates 
that would be prohibitive in commer- 
cial applications. However, digital 
music recording is less critical in 
regard to data error, so such densities 
would represent another major step 
toward commercialization of digital 
audio systems. At a 440,000-bit-per- 
inch density, tape consumption for 
digital music would drop to around 2 
inches per second. If the data can be 
distributed over several parallel tape 
tracks, tape consumption will be re- 
duced even further. 

The Japanese have a massive effort 
going on in perpendicular recording. 
On March 11 and 12, 1982, in Sendai, 
Japan, the first International Sym- 
posium on Perpendicular Recording 
was sponsored by Tohoku University 
and organized by the inventor of 
perpendicular recording, Professor 



Tele Video® Users! 

NOW 92 WORDSTAR® COMMANDS 



The TV2000 is Designed for the 

925,950, Intelligent I and 800 

Through 816 Computers 



Features: 

• 46 single key stroke commands 

• 41 shifted commands 

• 5 MailMerge commands 

• Faster cursor and keyboarding 

• User-oriented command selection 
& location 

• Soft switch activates the enhance- 
ment with no loss of Tele Video 
attributes. 

Custom keyboard layout 
available for special codes 
or formats 




Includes: 

46 replacement key caps 

Replacement ROM 

SUGGESTED RETAIL 
PRICE $220 

WbrdTbchSystems 

953 Mountain View Dr. Suite 114 
Lafayette, California 94549 
(415) 254-7747 



Trademark Wordstar® MicroPro International — TeleVideo® TeleVideo Systems, Inc. 
MailMerge® MicroPro International 



Iwasaki. Some 320 people attended, 
and 23 papers were given at this 
meeting. Twenty of the papers were 
by Japanese authors; three by U.S. 
authors, all of them with. Vertimag 
Systems Corporation. Only seven 
non-Japanese people participated: 
three from Vertimag and four from 
the rest of the world. 

Virtually every well-known Japan- 
ese electronics company is working 
on perpendicular recording. We 
estimate that at least 400 researchers 
are working in Japanese universities 
and companies on perpendicular 
recording technology. The companies 
include, but certainly are not limited 
to, Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Nippon 
Electric Company (NEC), NTT, 
Sony, Matsushita, and a number of 
smaller companies. The recent 
Toshiba announcement of a 3V2-inch 
perpendicularly oriented floppy-disk 
system is a case in point. While this 
product is still two years or so from 
production, it represents Japan's level 
of achievement in this area. 

Initially, the Japanese activity will 
probably be aimed at the consumer 
electronics industry because the Jap- 
anese dominate this area. 

Ironically, many of the research 
managers of the Japanese companies 
were graduate students and post- 
graduate fellows under Professor Jack 
Judy, director of the Magnetics 
Research Laboratory at the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota and one of Ver- 
timag's founders. These graduate stu- 
dents, whose tuition and expenses 
were completely paid by their com- 
panies, are now the leaders of the 
Japanese technical thrust in perpen- 
dicular recording. This certainly does 
not speak well of the ability and 
awareness of American industrial 
management. 

Once a medium is available and the 
technology of perpendicular record- 
ing is well understood and dissemi- 
nated, there will be an urgent move- 
ment toward perpendicular-record- 
ing-based data-storage systems. Since 
"smaller is better," we may expect to 
see a continuing movement toward 
smaller drives, even more compact 
than the new 3Vi- and 3V2-inch drives, 
perhaps down to something as tiny as 
a 1-inch floppy-disk system. ■ 



64 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 460 on Inquiry card. 





'.-vr- 




This Programming professional deserves a 
lot more from his personal computer. 



He's earned it. As a seasoned professional, 
he's learned to master some of the world's 
most advanced programming tools. Tools 
specially designed to meet the everyday 
demands of programming experts. 

But as the owner of a personal com- 
puter, he's come to expect less. Less 
performance. Less sophistication. And less 
flexibility. 

Why should programming a 
personal computer be any different? 

Prior to the announcement of micro/ 
SPF™ development software, experienced 
programmers felt programming a personal 
computer was a lot like playing with a toy. 
You couldn't take it seriously. 

But today, there's micro/SPF™ a solution 
to elementary program editing tools now 
offered with most micro-computers. 

With micro/SPF™ you get the same 
procedures and commands experienced 
programmers are accustomed to using at 
work. By mimicking features found in 



standard SPF software, micro/SPF™ 
provides all the sophisticated utilities pro- 
gramming professionals expect. 

Programming experts can take 
advantage of skills they've spent 
years perfecting. 

Now, for the first time, mainframe soft- 
ware is available for personal computers. 
SPF screens are fully reproduced in logical 
sequence and each screen is formatted 
identical to those found in the SPF system. 

In addition, micro/SPF™ comes equipped 
with the same primary and line commands, 
tutorial messages and program editor 
(with program function keys) experienced 
programmers are used to. 

Programming professionals who've 
spent years perfecting the art of writing 
sophisticated code deserve to work with 
state-of-the-art tools, not toys. Find out 
how micro/SPF™ can help you do work- 
compatible programming on your 
personal computer today! 



mcio/srr rumiy onion nwu 



SELECT OfTfM =-> _ 



CHEATE OR CHANCE SOURCE DATA 
PERFORM MCHO'SFF UTILITY FUNCTIONS 
DISPLAY I N FORMAT I OH ABOUT MICRO/SPF 
TERMINATE THE MICRO/SPF SESSION 



5 HI IIY TO TERMINATE MICRO/SPF 



ENTEH/UIim PMWinuS ULOU: 



I BLANK FOR MEMBER SELECTION LIST* 



PH/iSER 

PHASER SYSTEMS, INC 50 WEST BROKAW ROAD 
SAN JOSE, CA95110 



Circle 346 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



65 




"Oasis Systems' software - unquestionably the 
best" . . . Peter McWilliams, author of 
the #1 best-selling book on word processing. 







ctuation" 



Punctuation 

Checking 

and 

Writing 

rovement 



The WORD Plus is the standard by which other 
spelling checkers are measured. Here's why: 

• Real 45,000 word dictionary. 

• Shows errors "in-context." 

• Interactive word look-up finds correct spelling 
for you and corrects at the push of a button. 

• Hyphenates words automatically. 

• Solves crosswords, puzzles, and anagrams. 

• Works with almost any CP/M®, CP/M-86® or 
MS/DOS compatible word processing program 
(WordStar, Magic Wand, Spellbinder, Perfect 
Writer, Select, Final Word . . . and more!). 



Punctuation & Style takes the worry out of writing 
by automatically catching dozens of different 
punctuation errors, both common and obscure. In 
addition, P&S catches unpaired format commands 
(underline, boldface, etc.), doubled words, and 
more. 

P&S gives you a * 'critique' ' of your writing, 
suggesting alternatives for commonly misused or 
over-worked phrases. It also shows where active 
voice can replace passive voice to add clarity and 
precision. 

Punctuation & Style is the perfect companion to 
The WORD Plus. It works easily with most CP/M 
word processors. (Available soon for CP/M-86 and 
MS/DOS.) 






Call or write for 
complete information: 



619-291-9489 



OASIS 

SYSTEMS 



2765 Reynard Way 
San Diego, CA 92103 

Circle 320 on Inquiry card. 



CP/M and CP/M-86 are registered trademarks of Digital Research, Inc. 



Dealers contact: 

SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTORS 

1-800-252-4024 (in California) 
1-800-421-0814 (outside California) 



New Developments 
in Floppy Disks 

The marketplace for microfloppies is heating up. 



Tom Moran 

3895 22nd St. 

San Francisco, CA 94114 



The most popular method of re- 
cording and storing data for micro- 
computer systems is the ubiquitous 
floppy-disk drive, particularly in its 
5V4-inch incarnation. The floppy disk 
offers inexpensive archival storage 
and is the medium for many widely 
available software packages. To sur- 
vive in this large and robust market, 
manufacturers of floppy-disk drives 
are constantly trying to improve the 
price, capacity, size, and perfor- 
mance of their products. 

Some companies are pursuing new 
technologies while others are relying 
on enhancements of proven methods. 
Those who are working with new 
technologies feel that their innovative 
methods are necessary to maintain 
the constant increase of data storage 
capacity that has occurred up to now. 
Proven methods appeal to companies 
that feel that advances can be made 
without the risks inherent in using 
less well known procedures. 

Three different technologies that 

About the Author 

Tom Moran is a freelance technical writer 
living in San Francisco. He has written several 
articles for Electronics magazine. 



are most likely to influence floppy- 
disk products for computer systems 
and electronic typewriters are perpen- 
dicular magnetic recording (also 
called vertical recording, or VR), Ber- 
noulli technology, and the exciting 
but muddied world of sub-5V4-inch 
floppy disks. 

Perpendicular magnetic recording 
(PMR) is expected to increase the 
storage capacity of disk drives by re- 
aligning the magnetic material on the 
disk surface to achieve a higher den- 
sity of bits per inch on a disk. Ber- 
noulli technology is a noncontact 
method of recording data in which 
the read/write head flies in close 
proximity to the surface of the disk. 
This, in combination with other tech- 
niques, enables a floppy disk rotating 
at 1500 rpm (revolutions per minute) 
to perform very much like a Win- 
chester hard-disk drive. 

"Aflopalypse" Now 

The term "three-ring circus" 
doesn't adequately describe the ef- 
forts on the part of manufacturers to 
make smaller floppy-disk drives for 
lighter, more portable systems (see 
photo 1). A number of companies are 



now making or are about to make 
3-inch, 3 a /4-inch, and at least three 
different, incompatible 3Vi-inch 
floppy-disk-drive systems. The situa- 
tion is like a tag-team wrestling match 
with six teams jumping into the ring 
at once. Each team is fighting for a 
different design. Alliances between 
the teams have been made and 
broken. However, everyone in the 
contest is striving for the same objec- 
tive — to have a product with the 
prestigious and lucrative title of "In- 
dustry Standard" for the sub-5V4-inch 
market. 

Previously, every disk-drive stan- 
dard has ultimately been decided by 
the marketplace and never by a com- 
mittee. The advantage of being the 
first drive maker to ship significant 
quantities of a sub-5V4-inch floppy 
disk belongs to Sony, which makes a 
drive called the OA-D30V that stores 
437K bytes on a 3 x /2-inch metal hub 
disk within a hard plastic cartridge. 
But an alliance of 19 companies has 
gone before the ANSI (American Na- 
tional Standards Institute) X3B8 
Committee advocating substantially 
different specifications from those of 
the Sony microfloppy disk. The 



68 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 105 on inquiry card. 









BBrt9M<-> 73ABCDEFGH 



P^^/f/sl'sSrif-.^SABCDCFGHTJ 
*&• *f 23436789 tf <«>?3ABCDEFGHIJK 
' - "*j £3456789* »<->?o>ABCDEFGHIJKL 
'**:";ai 23456789 1 ;<«>?aABCDEFGH I JKLM 
?,-. ,'OJ 234567991. K*>?3ABCDEFGHI JKLMN 
i , -.yfl 12345*789: ;<*>?3ABCDEFGH I JKLMNO 
* -./0123456789tJ<«>?artBTOEFGHIJKL«MOF 
♦ +. . -'0123456789: J <">?8ABCDEFGHIJKLMN0PQ 
n ■ '01 234567 89U<»>?aftBCDEFGHlJKLMN0PQR 
. - • 0123456789: ; <«>?3fiBCDEFGHI JKLMNGPQPS 
-. ■ l£3456789«;<«>?aABCDEFGHIJKLMM0PQRST 
. '. £3456739: ;<">?3ABCDEFGHIJKLMN0PQRSTU 
7456789l|<»>?8ABCDEFGHIJKLMN0PeRSTUV 
56789: ; <■) ?3ABCDEFGHIJKLr1NQPGRSTUVW 
6789U K->?8ABCDEFC 




?3h 


C 


<i' ti ;■' 


.D 


-B 


£" 


B C 


T 


r. ■ 


u 



BCDEFGHIJKLHW0PQR8TUVMXY2C hJ-v « abed 
CDEFGH I JKLMWOPQRSTUVUXY2C N 3 * * atoC ci« 
DEFGHIJKLMWOPQRSTUVWKYZC sj* <*bcd*f 
EFGHIJKLMN0PaRSTUVWXYZC>.3" <*tocd«fei 
FGHI JKLNNOPGRSTUYWXYZC *3* * »bcd*f ah 
GHlJKLnNOPORSTUVWXY2CN3 A '■ abed* f*hi 
HI JKLMMOPQ.RSTUVMXYZC - 3 - . ; hh<: d* f«h 








^er for your hand-held 
niputer, telex communication, 
nome computer, banking 
' application, or medical 

instrumentation. Standard 
product comes with both Serial 
232 Asynchronous and 
ntronic parallel printer interface. 




Serial transmission speed switch selectable 
for 1 1 Baud rate to 4800 Baud rate. 
Data transfer for speed at 160 CPS. 
Graphic capability. 2B0 dots across. 
Small enough to be hand-held, compact, 
slimline, lightweight, quiet, and portable. 
Ideal for Sharp, Epson HX20, Atari, T.I., or 
Commodore Computers. 




computer peripheral 



1117 Venice Bouievaro Los flnqeies en 90015 (213) 298-1297 Telex: 134561 lsr 



Sharp, Epson Atari, T-l, And Commodore are trademarks of Sharp Corporation, 
Epson America Corp. , Atari & Warner Communications Co. . Texas Instruments, and Commodore Corp. 



loosely knit alliance, re- 
ferring to itself as the 
Microfloppy Standards 
Committee, includes 
media makers Verbatim 
Corporation, BASF Sys- 
tems Corporation, Xidex, 
Brown Disc, Memorex, 
and Dennison Kybe Cor- 
poration, and drive 
makers Shugart Associ- 
ates Inc., Micro Periph- 
erals Inc. (MPI), Olivetti 
Peripheral Equipment, 
Luctor Corporation, and 
the Remex Division of the 
Ex-Cell-O Corporation. 

The Microfloppy Stan- 
dards Committee invited 
Sony and the 3-inch- 
drive advocates, Hitachi, 
Matsushita, and Maxell 
Corporation of America, 
to make technical presen- 
tations to the committee, 
which they did. General agreement 
was reached on the need for a floppy- 
disk drive with disks small enough to 
fit into a shirt pocket. Everyone at- 
tending the meeting also thought that 
a hard shell would be preferable to 
the standard vinyl floppy-disk jacket. 
However, the Hitachi/Matsushita/ 
Maxell group thought that the drive 
should be as small as possible, while 
the Microfloppy Standards Commit- 
tee preferred not to push the tech- 
nology, opting instead for the larger 
3y2-inch standard it considers more 
reliable. 

Amdek Corporation of Elk Grove 
Village, Illinois, is marketing the 
Hitachi /Matsushita /Maxell-type 
drive. Amdek is offering two of the 
3-inch drives as a unit with a total 
unformatted capacity of 1 megabyte. 
The unit is compatible with the 
5V4-inch industry-standard format 
and became available for end users in 
December 1982. The suggested retail 
price of the Amdisk-3 Micro-Floppy- 
disk Cartridge system is $799 for the 
two-drive unit and cables if an addi- 
tional controller card is not required. 
Presently Amdek expects to have 
controller cards for the Apple II and 
III and IBM PC. 

Micro Peripherals Inc. introduced 
its model 301F 3-inch design at 




Photo 1: 'The Incredible Shrinking Floppy-Disk Drive." The 
Tandon TM35 3Vi-inch microfloppy-disk drive is shown in com- 
parison with standard and half-height 8- and 5 l A-inch drives. 
Although occupying far less volume, the microfloppy has seven- 
eighths of the data storage capacity of the 5 l A-inch drives and more 
than one-half of the capacity of the 8-inch drives. 



COMDEX. It was the first American 
firm to manufacture and market a 
3-inch drive and endorse the Hitachi/ 
Matsushita /Maxell standard. Its 
drive has a capacity of 250K (unfor- 
matted) bytes per side with a "flippy" 
feature enabling both sides to be used 
for data storage. The drive features a 
band-type head positioner to achieve 
a 3-ms (millisecond) track-to-track 



Sony and the 

Microfloppy Standards 

Committee disagreed 

on many points, 

including the preferred 

disk rotation rate. 



seek time and uses standard 5V4-inch 
specifications such as 300-rpm rota- 
tion, 40 tps, 100 tpi, and a 250K-bit- 
per-second transfer rate. Disks are 
provided by Maxell, TDK, and 
others. 

Sony and the Microfloppy Stan- 
dards Committee disagreed on many 
particulars. The most important is the 
committee's wish to make 3V2-inch 
drives that are plug-compatible with 
standard 5V4-inch drives so that de- 
signers can use standard controllers 



and users can run stan- 
dard software, thus keep- 
ing redesign costs to a 
minimum. 

Sony stuck by its 
600-rpm disk-rotation 
rate, while the committee 
chose 300 rpm, Sony's 
argument for the faster 
rotation is that, on 
smaller drives, the inner- 
most tracks pass under 
the read/write head too 
slowly and the data- 
transfer rate is impaired. 
The committee says that 
the slower rotation it pro- 
poses will keep the data 
rate compatible with 
5V4~inch drives and that 
the high speed Sony ad- 
vocates would generate 
too much heat, causing 
reliability problems due 
to expansion and con- 
traction of the disks during use. 
Again for reasons of compatibility 
with extant 5V4-inch drives, the com- 
mittee opted to widen the read/write 
window to allow more tracks without 
greater track density, recommending 
40 or 80 tracks per side (tps) on either 
one or both sides of the disk. Current- 
ly, the highest capacity in this format 
would be 1 megabyte of unformatted 
storage. 

Most of the physical dimensions of 
the standard suggested by the Micro- 
floppy Standards Committee are the 
same as those of the Sony drive. 
However, the medium used by Sony 
is nominally 580 oersteds, 100 micro- 
inches thick, while the committee's 
standard would use a medium of 650 
oersteds, 40 to 50 microinches thick. 
[Editor's note: An oersted is a unit of 
magnetic resistance used to quantify 
the performance of magnetic media. ] 
Members of the committee say that 
Sony's medium is unique, but a 
number of companies, including 
some that are not members of the 
committee, are developing new media 
similar to that specified by the com- 
mittee. Although the committee 
agrees with Sony's use of hard-shell 
cases for the media, it wants to add 
further protection in the form of an 
automatic shutter that will open the 



70 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



TEK 2200 



MULTI-PURPOSE 
OSCILLOSCOPES 



THE PERFORMANCE/ 
PRICE STANDARD 



Tek's most successful 

scope series ever: At $1200-$1450, 

it's easy to see why! 



Wide-range verti- 
cal sensitivity: 

Scale factors from 
100V/div(10X 
probe) to 2 mV/div 
(1X probe). Accurate 
to ±3%. Acordc 
coupling. 



Two high-sensitivity 
channels: dc to 60 

MHz bandwidth 
from10V/divto20 
mV/div; extended 
sensitivity of 2 
mV/div at > 50 
MHz. 



r Tfektrt > 



Sweep speeds : Delayed sweep 

from 0.5 s to 50 ns. measurements: 
To 5 ns/div with X10 Accurate to ±3% 
magnification. with single time- 

base 2213; to 
±1.5% with dual 
time-base 221 5. 



Complete trigger 
system. Includes 
TV field, normal, 
vertical mode, and 
automatic; internal, 
external and line 
sources; variable 
holdoff. 



Probes included. 

High-performance, 
positive attachment 
10-14 pF and 60 
MHz at the probe 
tip. 





















• 








: I- 






! 




, i 
i 






I 


















1 










■ 








I 


















} 


















I ' 














j 
































■ jil^w r '^ m ' ^E§) 



Tektronix 2213 1 



In 30 years of Tektronix oscil- 
loscope leadership, no other 
scopes have recorded the 
immediate popular appeal of 
the Tek 2200 Series. The Tek 2213 
and 2215 are unapproachable for the 
performance and reliability they 
offer at a surprisingly affordable 
price. 

There's no compromise with 
Tektronix quality: The low cost is the 
result of a new design concept that 
cut mechanical parts by 65%. Cut 
cabling by 90%. Virtually eliminated 
board electrical connectors. And 
eliminated the need for a cooling fan. 



Yet performance is written all over 
the front panels. There's the band- 
width for digital and analog circuits. 
The sensitivity for low signal mea- 
surements. The sweep speeds for 
fast logic families. And delayed 
sweep for fast, accurate timing 
measurements. 

The cost: $1200* for the 2213. 
$1450* for the dual time base 2215. 

You can order, or obtain more 
information, through the Tektronix 
National Marketing Center, where 
technical personnel can answer 
your questions and expedite 
delivery. Your direct order includes 



probes, operating manuals, 15- 
day return policy and full Tektronix 
warranty 

For quantity purchases, please 
contact your local Tektronix sales 
representative. 

Order toll free: 
1-800-426-2200 
Extension 48 

In Oregon call collect: 
(503) 627-9000 Ext. 48 



Trice RO.B. Beaverton, OR. Price subject to change. 



Tektronix 

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE 



Copyrjghf(g)1982. Tektronix. Inc. All rights reserved. TTA-338 



CAST BETTER, FASTER 

SPELLS WITH OUR 
CI-C86 C COMPILER 




Weave 
a spell with 

the CI-C86 C Compiler, 

especially designed for use with: 

• CPM86 and MPM86 • DEC Rainbow • Zenith ZIOO • Seattle 

• MS-DOS • Victor 9000 • Lomas 8O86 • Eagle 

• IBM Personal • Sirlus • Altos 86OO • Columbia 1600 

• IBM Displaywrlter • NEC APC • Compupro 86/87 • And Many More 

CI puts all the magic of C at your finger- 
tips with all of K&R, a full support library, 
8087 support and much more. 
Merlin would approve! 

Disk and documentation $395. 
Overseas airmail $20. 

For further information, please contact: 



Computer Innovations, Inc. 

75 Pine Street 

Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 

Telephone: (201) 530-0995 



C86 and CI-C86 ore trademarks of Computer Innovations, inc 

CPM and MPM ore trademarks of Digital Research 

MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft. 

IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines 

DEC is o trademark of Digital Eauipment Corp, 

72 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 





head-access window when the disk is 
inserted into the drive and close it 
when the disk is removed. 

The major backers of the Micro- 
floppy Standards Committee are 
Shugart and Verbatim, which expect 
to have limited production quantities 
of drives and media available early in 
the third quarter of 1983. Industry 
analysts believe that 4 million sub- 
5V4-inch drives will be produced by 
all manufacturers in 1983. According 
to Malcolm Northrup, president of 
Verbatim, in a few years shipments of 
all sub-5V4-inch systems may grow as 
large as 151 million units. 

Two years from now Toshiba Cor- 
poration of Tokyo expects to be in 
production of its recently announced 
PMR 3V2-inch 3-megabyte floppy- 
disk drive. Although a lot of develop- 
ment is left to be done, the company 
clearly hopes to get a jump on com- 
petitors by announcing its new tech- 
nology now. The drive's hard plastic 
cartridge with autoshutter contains a 
75-micron-thick polyester disk that is 
sputter-coated on both sides with a 
0.5-micron layer of cobalt chromium. 
The cartridge is 90 by 92 by 3 mm. 
The recording density will be 50,000 
bits per inch (bpi) at 144 tracks per 
inch (tpi) compared to 5500 bpi at 48 
tpi for conventional longitudinal data 
recording. This is 7 or 8 times the 
density of most longitudinal record- 
ing. The entire drive measures only 
100 by 130 by 40 mm. 

In the 3V4-inch corner, two drop- 
outs from the Microfloppy Standards 
Committee who submitted their own 
proposal to the X3B8 committee, 
drive-maker Tabor and disk-maker 
Dysan, have recently been joined by 
Seagate Technology, which will 
become a second source for Tabor 
drives. 

Tabor calls its 3V4-inch floppy-disk 
drive the Model TC 500 Drivette and 
says it's the first in a family of drives 
with different capacities. The single- 
sided drive uses a soft vinyl jacket 
and records in either FM or MFM 
(frequency modulation or modified 
frequency modulation) on 80 tracks 
at a density of 140 tpi. When record- 
ing is in FM, the bit density is 4625 
bpi, and when in MFM, it is 9250 bpi. 
Data transfer is 250K bits per second 



Circle 102 on inquiry card. 



rrs TIME KIDS 

STARTED USING STRONG 

LANGUAGE. 




We encourage it. 

Because now the most powerful 
educational language is available on 
the Apple Personal Computer. 

Presenting Apple Logo. 

It's not just a programming 
language for computers, but a 
learning language for people. 

Enough so that anyone, 
working with Apple Logo, 
can easily learn the program- 
ming principles once reserved 
for college courses. 

Apple Logo encourages 
you to break problems into 
small steps, and then shows 
you how to make those steps 
automatic. 




It does all this interactively. 
For instance, if you accidentally 
type "foreword',' instead of forward, 
Apple Logo responds with "I don't 
know how to foreword." 

There is no such thing as a mistake 
with Apple Logo, only logical state- 
ments telling you what needs to be 
done to make the program work. So 
the student programs the computer. 
Not the computer the student. 

And as you learn, Apple Logo 
learns with you. So whether you're a 
student of 5 or 55, you'll always be 
challenged— but not overwhelmed. 
Apple Logo runs on the Apple II 
with 64K. And it comes from 
Apple, the leading personal 
computer company in educa- 
tion—with the largest library 
of courseware at all levels. 
Apple Logo. It can make 
getting to know a computer 
the most positive of learning 
experiences. 
Your kids will swear by it. 

The personal computer. 



ganpplg 

w® 



For more information, call (800) 538-9696. In California, call (800) 662-9238. Or write: Apple Computer Inc., 20525 Mariani Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014. 
Apple 3 Logo is a product of Logo Computer Systems, Inc., 222 Brunswick Boulevard, Point-Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R1A6. 



Circle 487 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 73 




Photo 2: The Tandon TM35-2 microfloppy-disk drive, which is compatible with standard 5 l A-inch drive controllers, has a rigid car- 
tridge enclosing the magnetic medium. 



(FM). The 1.625- by 4- by 5.5-inch 
drive weighs 1.6 pounds and records 
250K bytes (unformatted) per disk in 
FM and 500K bytes in MFM. The 
company, started in January 1982, is 
based in Westford, Massachusetts. 
Some units were in early evaluation 
in December, and volume production 
started in January of this year. 

According to Tabor, Seagate had 
previously agreed to make drives in 
the Sony format but decided not to 
when Sony would let it assemble only 
Sony components instead of making 
complete drives. Another problem 
was that Seagate thought that double- 
sided versions of the Sony drive 
would be unstable. However, Sony 
can take some comfort from a 
$30-million contract with Hewlett- 
Packard for drives to be integrated 
into HP's systems. Hewlett-Packard 
has indicated that it chose the Sony 
system because it is already in pro- 
duction and that HP will support the 
Sony system as the standard. 

Another disk-drive manufacturer, 
Tandon Corporation, has recently in- 
troduced its TM35 Microline 3V2-inch 



microfloppy in two models (see photo 
2). The TM35-2 is compatible with 
the standard 5V4-inch interface, and 
the TM35-4 is compatible with the 
Sony OA-D30V microfloppy's inter- 
face, software, and disks, but it 
records data on both sides of its disk. 
Both models of the TM35 store 875K 
bytes using both sides of the disk. The 
TM35-4 has an average access time of 
70 ms, and the TM35-2, 100 ms. The 
devices measure 1% by 4 by 6V2 
inches. The TM35-4 records 7610 bpi 
at 135 tpi and 70 tps, while the 
TM35-2 records 3617/7610 bpi, 135 
tpi, and 40 tps. The two models have 
an onboard Intel 8084 microprocessor 
to control spindle speed and head 
positioning, and a brushless direct- 
drive DC motor. Tandon is using the 
Sony-type disks for the drives and 
says that an automatic shutter is 
available for the rigid cartridge. 

Tandon says that it's not hedging 
bets, just providing products for dif- 
ferent markets. According to Tandon 
representative Al Erickson, Sony and 
Hewlett-Packard will be putting 
Sony-type drives into instruments 



and new office equipment that have 
nothing to do with the 5 V* -inch-drive 
market. Tandon expects there will be 
more than one market and more than 
one application for both of these 
drive forms. In fact, Tandon with- 
drew from the standards committee 
because president Jugi Tandon felt 
that market acceptance will deter- 
mine the standard as it has done 
before. The company planned to 
deliver evaluation units in the first 
quarter of 1983 with high-volume 
production following later in the 
year. In large OEM (original-equip- 
ment-manufacturer) quantities, the 
TM35s will cost $200 to $250 each. 

Many companies don't seem ter- 
ribly worried about the eventual out- 
come in the sub-5V4-inch market. 
Most express confidence that the 
standards they are backing will do 
well and add that, even if the market 
goes against them, it won't take them 
more than six months to a year to 
retool to meet the new demand. 

Even if the magnetic dust clears up 
tomorrow and one microfloppy-drive 
format emerges victorious, it will still 



74 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




The 

DISC- LESS 

approach 

to S- 100 

architecture 

increases 

system 

performance 

so well that 

we guarantee 

satisfaction. 



BENCHMARK 



Write 100 files to disc 


2.2 


3.0 


DISC- LESS 


3.26 min. 


2.22 min. 


25 sec. 


General sort functions 


5.25 min. 


4.17 min. 


15 sec. 


Search and replace 


2.30 min. 


1.45 min. 


3 sec. 


Document recall 


45 sec. 


30 sec. 


2 sec. 



Upgrade your existing 
S-100 system to disc-less 

• "Ram-Disc 256" 

• "Rom-Disc" with 

CP/M 2.2 in ROM 

• All software included 

'1295.00 

Complete single-user 
disc- less Board Set with 
CP/M 2.2 In ROM 

• Z-80A CPU (SBC-200) 

• 256K bank select RAM (XRAM III) 

• Single board controller handles 
four 5 1 /4" or 8" drives, any mix 
(Versafloppy II) 

• "Ram-Disc 256" 

• "Rom-Disc" with 

CP/M 2.2 in ROM 

'2750.00 

Now, add the disc-less 
network controller to existing 
S-100 systems and convert 
to network operation quickly 
and easily. 

• Base band coax 

• Broad band coax 



• 2 megabit /sec. 

• CSMA 

• Guaranteed message service 

• CP/M compatible 

• Turbodos compatible 

• S-1 00 single board design 

'950.00 



Under disc-less 
operation networks use the 
"Ram-Disc" as local 
on-line cache storage for 
non-stop computing. 



CP/M3.0Single-User 
Board Set 

• SBC-200 

• Bank select XRAM III 
64K or 256K* 

• Versafloppy II 

• CP/M 3.0 bank select 
with documentation 

'925.00 

'Systems with 256K RAM, 

'1295.00 



TurbodosSingle-User 
Board Set 

• SBC-200 

• Bank select XRAM ill 64K 

• Versafloppy II 

• Turbodos with documentation 

'1 295.00 

Versafloppy II 
Disc Controller 

• CP/M 3.0 bank select FREE 

Complete S-1 00 
disc-less System 

• Low profile system design 

• CPU, 64K RAM, floppy controller 

• "Ram-Disc 256" 

• "Rom-Disc" with 

CP/M 2.2 in ROM 

• Qume Model 102 video terminal 

• Single bV*" or 8" floppy drive 

'4950.00 

Complete disc-less Word 
Processing System 

• Full disc-less system 

• "Wordstar" in ROM 

• Letter-quality printer, 25cps. 

'6999.00 

WSONICS 



MICRO SYSTEMS IN( 



1 500 N.W. 62 STREET 

FORT LAUDERDALE. FL 33309 

1 -800-327-5567 

IN FLORIDA CALL: 305-776-7177 



at Sonics 'We are Technology 11 



Circle 400 on Inquiry card. 



have an inherent problem. The stan- 
dard microfloppy-to-be may well be 
compatible with 5V4-inch controllers 
and software, but incompatibility 
between the 3Vi-inch microfloppies 
and 5V4-inch floppy disks will be ax- 
iomatic. 

Perpendicular Magnetic 
Recording 

Although a lot of room still exists 
to increase track densities and thus 
capacity, the limitations of conven- 



tional recording techniques are begin- 
ning to be reached, and perpendi- 
cular, or vertical, magnetic recording 
seems a likely next step (see also 'The 
Promise of Perpendicular Magnetic 
Recording" by Clark E. Johnson Jr., 
page 56). In media in use now, the 
magnetic particles are laid end to end 
along the direction of the media's 
tracks. PMR "stacks" the magnets 
side by side vertically. This not only 
increases the number of bits that can 
be stored in the same space, it reduces 



Soup to Nuts. 




2X 

Some would 
have you think 
thata matrix printer 
is a mere side dish that 
comes with your computer 

Don't believe it. 

What you get out ot your printer is what you get out 
ot your computer. It your printer is small, slow, noisy 
or unreliable, your computer will be limited, sluggish, 
irritating, or inoperable. Just telling it like it is. 

That's why Intoscribe has come up with a gourmet 
line ot multifunction matrix printers specifically for 
business and professional users. 

You can switch from high-speed data processing 
to business letters, at will; handle uptol6-inch- 
wide paper; make up to five crisp carbons; gener- 
ate gorgeous graphics in up to eight colors; and 
enjoy truly elegant and incredibly quiet operation, 
day-in and day-out. 

Check the menu for the printer that meets your exact needs. 
Why go with the computer manufacturer's combo plate when the same 
money will let you buy Intoscribe, a la carte? 

Your favorite computer dealer or systems specialist will be delighted to arrange a 
demonstration for you. Or contact the matrix d': Intoscribe, 2720 South Croddy Way, 
Santa Ana, California 92704, USA, Phone (714) 641-8595, Telex 692422. 

PRINT WITH INFOSCRIBE 



the self-demagnetizing effect, which 
lessens as the length-to-thickness 
ratio of a magnet decreases. One way 
to keep a favorable length-to- 
thickness ratio is to decrease the 
thickness of the medium by develop- 
ing a thin-film disk. Unfortunately, 
although thin-film disks have been 
used in well-functioning prototypes 
many times, no one has been able to 
produce them economically and 
reliably in large quantities. In the 
words of one industry observer, 
"thin-film media have been just 
around the corner for nine years, and 
they're still not here. Something tells 
me they never will be." 

Because PMR records the bits 
"into" the medium rather than along 
it, the length is determined by the 
thickness of the substrate. And, as 
density increases along the track, the 
length-to-thickness ratio is actually 
improved, so that the self-demag- 
netizing effect approaches zero. 
However, this does not mean that 
there are no problems with this 
technology. In the past, prominent 
industry analysts have expressed 
skepticism about the possibility of 
recording vertically, saying that 
recording takes place not vertically or 
horizontally but somewhere in be- 
tween. In fact, the greatest need in 
working with PMR is to find a 
medium substrate that can be ver- 
tically oriented in a consistent pattern 
on the disk's surface. 

The best substrate candidate so far 
seems to be cobalt chromium, which 
can be deposited in hexagonal 
crystals on the disk's surface under 
carefully controlled conditions. The 
best method found so far for coating 
disks is vacuum sputtering, which, 
although slow, has been extensively 
perfected by the semiconductor in- 
dustry, which uses sputtering to coat 
silicon wafers. 

Vertimag Systems Corporation of 
Minneapolis, Minnesota, expects to 
start production of a 5V4-inch floppy- 
disk drive using PMR in 1984. Al- 
ready demonstrated in prototype, its 
system will provide 5 megabytes of 
storage in a form compatible with the 
SA400 standard from Shugart. In 
fact, the drive will use Shugart's me- 



76 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 210 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 435 on Inquiry card. • 



the monitor 
that stands alone 




£ 






^L*? 








a complete 

ine of high quality monochrome (green 

and amber), as well as medium and 

high resolution RGB color monitors. 

Our monitors are in use around the 

world on IBM and Apple as well as 

most other personal computers. 



See your local <s 

dealer, or call us for details. 



TSK Electronics Corporation 
18005 Cortney Court 
City of Industry, CA 91748 
(213) 810-1291 



* 



Circle 34 on inquiry card. 




If you use a Word 
Processor, you need 

QRAMMATik™ 

Beyond Spelling Checking 

Grammatik can find over 15 
different kinds of common errors 
missed by simple spelling 
checkers alone, including 
punctuation and capitalization 
errors, overworked and wordy 
phrases, and many others. Use 
Grammatik with Aspen Software's 
spelling checker Proofreader, 
featuring the Random House 
Dictionary®, or with your current 
spelling checker for a complete 
document proofreading system. 

Read what the experts say: 

"The perfect complement to a 
spelling checker." 

Alan Miller. Interface Age, 5/82 

"A surprisingly fast and easy tool for 
analyzing writing style and 
punctuation." 

Bob Louden, InfoWorld, 12/81 

"Anyone involved with word 
processing in any way is encouraged 
to get this excellent program." 

A. A. Wicks, Computronics, 6/82 

"A dynamic tool for comprehensive 
editing beyond spelling corrections." 

Dona Z. Meilach, Interface Age, 5/82 

"A worthy and useful addition to your 
word processing software." 

Stephen Kimmel, Creative Computing. 6/82 

Works with CP/M®, 
IBM-PC®, TRS-80® 



Grammatik $75.00 
Proofreader $50.00 



Order directly from Aspen 
Software, or see your local dealer. 
Specify your computer system 
configuration when ordering! 
Visa, Mastercard accepted. 



Random House is a registered trademark of Random 
House. Inc. Other registered trademarks: CP/M: Digital 
Research -- TRS-80: Tandy Corp. -- IBM: IBM -- 
Proofreader, Grammatik: Aspen Software Co. 



Aspen Software Co. 

P.O. Box 339-B Tijeras. NM 87059 
(505) 281-1634 




chanical components and Vertimag's 
own cobalt-chromium-sputtered 
disks. Data will be stored at 96 tpi, 
and up to 36,000 bpi will be recorded 
on the inner tracks using a form of 
MFM. According to Clark E. Johnson 
Jr., president of Vertimag, the drive 
will have a data transfer rate of 1.7 
megabits per second and will sell for 
less than $500 in OEM quantities. 

Flying with 
Bernoulli Technology 

Another company that's using in- 
novative techniques is Iomega Cor- 
poration of Ogden, Utah, which is 
making a 10-megabyte 8-inch floppy- 
disk drive, the Alpha 10, using Ber- 
noulli technology. With this tech- 
nique, founded on principles dis- 
covered 200 years ago by Swiss 
physicist Daniel Bernoulli, the head 
"flies" less than 10 microinches above 
the surface of the medium. The drive 
uses a large flat surface called the Ber- 
noulli plate that is positioned 0.005 
inch from the disk, which spins at 
1500 rpm. The spinning of the disk 
creates an airflow moving from the 
middle of the disk radially outward to 
its circumference. This lowers the air 
pressure and pulls the medium evenly 
toward the Bernoulli plate. A hole in 
the plate allows the medium to be ac- 
cessed by the read/write head, which 
is hydrodynamically mounted. The 
airflow ensures that the disk is reli- 
ably positioned and that it does not 
touch the plate. This noncontact ar- 
rangement means less wear and 
greater reliability than is normally 
found, for example, in Winchester 
hard-disk drives. In fact, Iomega says 
that its 8-inch floppy disk has 
reliability advantages over Win- 
chesters because the design of the 
head assembly causes contaminants 
to be flushed out of the system away 
from the read/write area and because 
the airflow cushion damps shock and 
vibration of the disk and read /write 
head configuration, resulting in less 
chance of head crashes. Because the 
head and disk are brought together 
by the Bernoulli effect, not by 
springs, any shock to the system will 
act to decouple them, thus avoiding a 
collision and resulting in a soft data 
error instead of a catastrophic failure. 



When the passing contaminant has 
cleared the area, the head and disk 
recouple. 

Because the system's compliance is 
in the disk itself, no gimbal arrange- 
ment is necessary for the arm and 
read/write head. In fact, the drive has 
only two moving parts, the rotary 
head actuator and the spindle motor. 

The Alpha 10 has a closed-loop 
embedded servomechanism in each 
track, allowing 300 tpi recording. The 
present bit density is 24,000 bpi using 
run-length-limited code, and Iomega 
is looking closely at the possibility of 
increasing that with PMR. Data is 
transferred at 1.13 megabytes per sec- 
ond. Production of the Alpha 10 
started in September 1982. Mean- 
while, Iomega is working on a 
5V4-inch drive called the Beta 5 that 
uses the same technology. The new 
drive will store 5 megabytes of for- 
matted data, and the disk will rotate 
at 1964 rpm. The Beta 5 will use 434 
tpi and 17,000 bpi and have a stan- 
dard (Winchester) data-transfer rate 
of 5 megabits per second. Iomega 
says that the Bournelli technology 
translates well to a smaller size 
because smaller disks are easier to 
stabilize. Both the 5 V^ -inch drive and 
the Alpha 10 use the industry- 
standard disk interface. 

Although Iomega is currently the 
only manufacturer shipping Bernoulli 
drives, the company believes Ber- 
noulli technology is the way of the 
future because of its inherent advan- 
tages of a cheap medium, Winchester- 
like performance and' capacity, and 
extreme simplicity of design. Second 
sources of the Alpha 10 are expected 
to be announced soon, and Iomega 
says that IBM and others are working 
on similar systems. . 

High Capacity 

with Proven Technology 

Drivetec Inc., of San Jose, Califor- 
nia, founded by Herb Thompson, one 
of the founders of Shugart Associ- 
ates, is a company that believes in 
fine-tuning proven technology. The 
year-old company's first product, an- 
nounced in November 1982, is called 
the Drivetec 320 Superminifloppy 
and offers 3.33 megabytes of unfor- 
matted storage in a half-height 



78 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 






».\»* ' 









'*.x**" %r " 

















*»* „'• **, 

w ** „ 'ft,.** I» ">»» 

•" C^s&fcv, 



.«<*• 






&^"* 






•"OH. "• would Bol"h'!| 0n!rr * U "* U 



••„> 






:<*.*-" 



ftf 



***** : 

lis** 



.,.1^1 



t ..» lv » 







"**»* 



"£?>.,. 





Introducing . . . 

The IS PipeLine™ Random Access Printing Buffer. 

Insert pictures, graphics or spread-sheet data into reports. Duplicate 
form letters— automatically changing addresses on each. Now, all 
your programs can work together to produce printed output. 

For the first time ever, here is a buffer that not only frees your fast com- 
puter from your slow printer but also allows you to rearrange, compose 
and copy your data on its way to the printer. 

■ Random Access Printing— stores paragraphs or pictures for printing 
in any order— any number of times. 

■ FIFO Printing— conventional first-in first-out operation. 

■ Compression of data for efficient utilization of memory space. 

■ Ability to interrupt long-term buffer operations for straight-thru short- 
term printing. 

■ Simple Erase feature to clear buffer. 

■ Automatic duplication capability. 

■ Easily expandable, by you, from 8K Bytes to 128K Bytes. 

The IS PipeLine is Universal— it works with any parallel (Centronics* — 
style) computer/printer combination. A special version is available for 
PKASO IM Printer Interfaces. 

The IS PipeLine is a self-contained unit with operating manual, cables 
and power supply included. 

For more information on the truly revolutionary IS PipeLine Random 
Access Printing Buffer, call us today. 

Interactive Structures Inc. 
146 Montgomery Avenue 

P*JIVJOyilWyU i rMl7UU**' * Centronics is a trademark of Centronics Data Computer Corp 

Telephone: (215) 667-1713 

Circle 220 on inquiry card. The IS Pipeline™ Random Access Printing Buffer is patent pending. 



5y4-inch drive. The 
Drivetec 320 has a pro- 
prietary track-following 
embedded servo system 
that allows recording of 
192 tpi, and its linear 
recording density is ap- 
proximately 9908 bpi 
(see photo 3). A two- 
stepper system uses one 
stepper for large head 
movements and another 
for fine adjustments, so 
that the two recording 
heads can be moved in 
200-microinch incre- 
ments. The medium is a 
special preformatted 
50-microinch-thick oxide 
coating on a platter that 
allows much higher bit densities and 
track densities than conventional 
100-microinch-thick media. The drive 
has an onboard microprocessor, a 
brushless DC motor, and buffered 
track seek and is designed to be 
downward compatible with 48-tpi 
disks. Data is transferred at 500K bits 
per second. 

Drivetec expects to ship evaluation 
units in the first quarter of 1983, with 
manufacturing start-up scheduled for 
the second quarter. The Drivetec 320 
will cost less than $325 each in OEM 
quantities of 1000. 

Drivetec'sHerb Thompson believes 
that long-term trends will be the fine 
tuning of established technologies. "I 
built the first floppy disk at IBM in 
1967," he says, "and it really hasn't 
changed a bit since then, except that 
performance has dramatically in- 
creased. It still has a long way to go, 
of course, but I don't want to argue 
with success. Why should I go off and 
start up with thin-film heads and ex- 
otic media when the chances of fail- 
ure are so high?" Thompson goes on 
to say that PMR is another buzzword 
like thin-film heads and bubble mem- 
ories. "I wouldn't hold my breath 
waiting for vertical recording because 
it requires thin-film heads and they're 
not cost-effective and I don't see them 
becoming so." He also doesn't think 
that cobalt chromium substrates will 
be the medium of the future unless 
there's a major breakthrough. "I saw 




Photo 3: Drivetec 320 Supermini] 'loppy. Based on established 
technology, the Drivetec offers 3 megabytes of storage in a half- 
height 5 l A-inch drive. 



plated media 20 years ago; IBM's 
done a huge amount of research on 
them and threw them out. I wouldn't 
risk my company on anything less 
than proven technology." 

Half -Height Floppy Disks 

Tandon, Shugart, and Qume are 
now offering half -height 5V4-inch 
floppy-disk drives, the form that is 
the most serious threat to micro- 
floppies in the portable, low-cost, 
and small-computer-systems mar- 

Specially formulated 
disks from Verbatim 
Corporation will be 

used by Apple 
Computer and Amlyn 

in new drives. 

kets. Shugart is producing two 
models, the SA455 and the SA465. 
The SA455 uses 48 tpi and stores 
250K or 500K bytes, while the SA465 
has a 500K-byte single-density and 
1-megabyte double-density capacity 
with 96 tpi (all unformatted). Both 
double-sided drives are compatible 
with the standard floppy-disk inter- 
face and, like other half-height 
drives, use brushless direct-drive DC 
motors that reduce the size of the 
drives by eliminating belts, pulleys, 
and bearings used with AC motors. 
Evaluation-model shipping was due 



in the fourth quarter of 
1982, with volume pro- 
duction to follow in the 
first quarter of 1983. In 
quantities of 5000, the 
SA455 is priced at $160 
and the SA465 at $195. 
Average access time is 
about 94 ms, and data- 
transfer rate is 125K or 
250K bits per second de- 
pending on whether 
single or dual density is 
used. 

Tandon's half-height 
5V4-inch drive is offered 
in two versions, one 
costing $100, and the 
other, a mechanism-only 
version, is $50 in very 
large OEM quantities. The TM50 uses 
double-density single-sided recording 
and 48 tpi to store 250K bytes in a 
5.75- by 1.625- by 8-inch package. 
Average access time is 267 ms. 

Qume's half -height 5V4-inch drive 
offering is the Qumetrak 142, a 
double-sided 48-tpi drive that stores 
500K bytes unformatted. Its average 
access time is 175 ms. High- volume 
OEM prices are expected to be less 
than $150 each. 

NEC has introduced a half -height 
8-inch floppy-disk drive, the FD 
1165, with storage capacity of 1.6 
megabytes using double density and 
both sides of the disk. The FD 1165 is 
priced at $525 each for quantities of 
100; in quantities of 300 the cost is 
$395 each. 

Super Disks 

Specially formulated disks from 
Verbatim Corporation will be used in 
new drives from Apple Computer 
and Amlyn. The disks will have a 
50-microinch coating of cobalt- 
impregnated gamma iron oxide with 
a magnetic resistance of 625 oersteds 
instead of the standard 300 oersteds 
and will have a 17-year warranty. 
Apple will use the disks in two new 
full-sized drives, the Apple Unifile 
and the Apple Duofile. The Unifile 
will store 871K bytes formatted on 
62.5 tpi at 10,000 bpi. The Duofile 
will contain 1.7 megabytes format- 
ted. The Apple drives are designed 



80 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Chairman of the Boards 



*GEW^ 



"*W* 






y " ^i 






£ -1 






iUrftw" 1 ' 






I/O Ports . 



Z-80A CPU, 
Floppy Disk Controller, 
64K of Memory, Serial & Parallel 
all on a SINGLE S-100 BOARD! 






Advanced Digital is the leader in 
S-100 single board computers. Our 
attention to quality workmanship, 
our outstanding performance 
and proven reliability have made 
our SUPER QUAD "computer 
on a board" number one. 

Now SUPER QUAD® has been 
elected "Chairman of the Boards" 
in the expanding Multi- 
Processing marketplace. SUPER 
QUAD functions as the Bus Master 
and takes charge of many 
SUPER-SLAVE® processor boards. 

SUPER QUAD is so complete, 
it actually replaces the traditional 
4-board S-100 computer and for 

only $875.00. 




Look at these features: 

• IEEE S-100 Standard 

• Z-80A CPU 

• 64K of Bank Select Memory as 
well as extended addressing 

• Double density floppy disk 
controller. Both 8" or 5-1/4" Disk 
Drives 

• 2 serial & 2 parallel I/O ports 
(RS-232 and intelligent hard 
disk interface). 

• 2K or 4K of monitor EPROM 

• Runs with CP/M®, MP/M® and 
turbo-DOS™ 



Ask about our new HDC-1001 
Hard Disk Controller for 
both 8" or 5-1/4" hard disk 
drives, only $500 retail. 
For more information, write or 
call: Sales Dept. 



• One year warranty. 

• Free copy of bios disk. 

Advanced Digital's SUPER- 
SLAVE processor boards are the 
ideal directors to work with the 
Chairman of the Boards and 
Turbo-DOS® operating system in a 
multi-user, multi-processor system. 




12700-B Knott Street • Garden Grove, California 92641 

9 Registered Trademark of Digital Research Carp 
'" Registered Trademark of Sof^zore 2000 inc. 



(714) 891-4004 TELEX 678401 tab irin 

t Copyright 1981 Advanced Digital Corp 



Circle 413 on Inquiry card. 







~' 



H 



WNVWW^VW^^' 



vuw^vww^^ 






^J^CO^NS-N!** 3 ** 




innovators in 
Winchester 



ffiSMSiJ 



Tallgrass Technologies presents a 
family of Winchester HardFiles and 
removable cartridge media that 
has set the industry standard on 
performance and reliability. With 
integral lat&e backup and format- 
ted capacities from 6.25 Mb to 20 
Mb, Tallgrass has a Hard File to 
answer the most serious data 
management problems. 

Let Tallgrass introduce you to our 
family of Winchester subsystems 
and watch your personal compu- 
ter transform into a powerful data 
processing system. 

From $3095.00 suggested retail 
including integral backup. 

Tallgrass 
Technologies 

Corporation 

9207 Cody, Overland park, Kansas 66214 
(913) 492-6002 

Available from COMPUTERLAND and 
other participating dealers. 




for the Apple III and for backup of 
the 5-megabyte Profile Winchester 
disk drive. The rigid jacket of the 
Verbatim disk will resist heat distor- 
tion up to 160 degrees F. 

Multicartridge Drives 

The Amlyn drive belongs to the 
multicartridge drive category. It uses 
five-disk Mini Pack cartridges, each 
storing 1.6 megabytes of unformatted 
data on one side using 170 tpi at 9500 
bpi and 154 tracks. The unformatted 
capacity of each cartridge will be 8 
megabytes, and the user will be able 
to remove one or all of the five 
SVi-inch disks at will. 

Another drive that uses multiple 
disks is the Mega-Mate, made by 
Mega-Data Computer Products Inc. 
of Overland Park, Kansas. The 
Mega-Mate contains an interchange- 
able 40-disk magazine that stores 5 
formatted megabytes on one side of 
all the disks. The magazine can be 
reversed to provide an additional 
5-megabyte capacity. The drive itself 
is priced at $695, and additional 
magazines are $70. 



Conclusion 

The current revolution in data- 
storage technology poses an interest- 
ing problem for end users. On one 
hand, the size reduction and in- 
creased storage of the new microflop- 
pies offers several advantages to 
small-computer-system designers. 
Drives could be incorporated into a 
handier, less conspicuous area on a 
computer. Two microfloppies could, 
for example, be placed underneath a 
standard-sized keyboard. 

On the other hand, with the pro- 
liferation of different formats and 
data-storage technologies, end users 
could find themselves stuck with an 
orphan disk-drive system. And the 
subsequent lack of inexpensive media 
and support could become very ex- 
pensive. 

Although microfloppies and im- 
proved data-storage technologies will 
have their market, there is a simpler 
method for increasing the transport- 
ability and convenience of existing 
SVi-inch floppy disks. Just have all 
the shirt makers agree upon a stan- 
dard 5% -inch pocket. ■ 



BYTE's Bugs 



Gremlins Gobble 
Up- Arrows 

It looks like gremlins have struck 
once again. This time they invaded 
the program listing in "High-Speed 
Pascal Text File I/O" by K. Brook 
Richan and James S. Rosenvall 
(January 1983 BYTE, page 454). The 
program listing for FASTIODEMO 
(listing 1) should have up-arrows in 
several places but, unfortunately, 
doesn't. Anyone interested in obtain- 
ing a copy of the corrected listing 
may do so by sending a legal-size self- 
addressed envelope with $0.37 U.S. 
postage to: 

Pascal Listing 

Attn: Ms. Lisa Steiner 

BYTE 

POB 372 

Hancock, NH 03449 

Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for 
delivery. ■ 



82 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




You cant buy an S- 
hard disk system for 



•it 





5 MEGABYTES. 



5 MEGABYTES, PLUS 



$3,995 $4,400 



That's the full price for the complete 
Decision T computer. Including an S-100, 
(IEEE-696) 14-slot motherboard, 64K 
of RAM, DMA floppy and hard disk con- 
trollers, a 5 Megabyte hard disk, a 200 K 
floppy disk drive, one parallel and 
three serial ports. Plus, CP/M® 2.2 and 
Microsoft® BASIC-80. 



For another $405, you double your floppy 
capacity to 400K. And, you get over 
$1,200 worth of applications software: 
WordStar,® Correct-It™ spelling checker, 
the LogiCalc™ spreadsheet, and the 
Personal PEARL™ relational data base 
manager 

NOW, MULTI-USER. For an addi- 
tional $1,995, you get a package that 



allows you to add two more 
users to your system. Which 
makes the Decision I the lowest 
priced multi-user, multi-tasking system 
you can buy. The package adds an 
additional 192Kof RAM, plus Micronix,™ 
Morrow's UN IX™-like operating system. 
The OS includes a CP/M emulator which 
allows you to use CP/M software in a 
multi-user environment. 
BUY IT YOUR WAY Single user or 
multi-user/multi-tasking. Or; buy a 
single user system now and expand it later: 
No matter how you buy it, you can't 
buy more performance for less. 



MORROW DESIGNS H 

MORROW DESIGNS □ 600 McCormick St. □ San Leandro, CA94577O(415)430-1970 



WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro, Inc., CP/Misa 

registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. 

Decision I, Micronix. and Correct-It, are trademarks of Morrow 

Designs 



Personal PEARL is a trademark of Relational Systems, Inc. 
UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc. 
LogiCalc is a trademark of Software Products International 
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation 



Circle 295 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 83 



Introducing the portable computer 

for professionals on the move. 

Hewlett-Packard's new HP-75. 



A decade ago, we introduced the world's 
first scientific pocket calculator and rendered 
the time-honored slide rule obsolete. 

Now we're introducing the HP-75 portable 
computer. And if press reaction is any indi- 
cation, history is about to repeat itself. 

As small as a book. As 
powerful as a personal. 

Desktop-computer power in a handsome 
26-ounce package. That's the HP-75. It's just 
10 inches by 5 inches by l l A inches. 

But don't let the compactness fool you. 
Inside its rugged case lies a 48K-byte, ROM- 
based operating system. With a comprehen- 
sive, 147-command instruction set that helps 
you write hard-working, memory-efficient 
BASIC programs. 




Plug-in ROM ports let you add up to three 
32K-byte software modules— modules that 
solve tough problems without sacrificing 
user memory 

And that user memory gives you up to 
24K bytes of program and data storage. 

It all adds up. A fully loaded HP-75 is a 
168K-byte computing powerhouse in 
calculator clothing. 

Want more? A built-in magnetic card 
reader provides a convenient, inexpensive 
way to store and retrieve programs or data. 

The HP-75's typewriter-like keyboard 
means rapid, accurate entry of text or data. 
And when we say you can touch type on it, 
we mean you can touch type on it. 

Those keys, by the way, can be redefined 
with your favorite commands or programs. 
Up to 196 unique key combinations in all. 

Immediate, convenient access 

to your most frequently used 

programs. 

Thanks to the HP-75's multiple-file 



structure, programs, data and text can be 
named, simultaneously stored in memory, 
and programmed to interact with each other. 
Add continuous memory, and you've got 
a computer that's designed to solve problems 
on the go. Simply load your favorite files 
and enjoy immediate access to any or all of 
them. The files are retained in memory until 
you decide to delete them— even when the 
machine is turned off. 

Time and appointments to keep 
you on schedule. 

The TIME key brings to display the day of 
the week, date and time to the nearest second. 

The APPOINTMENT feature reminds 
you— an hour from now or a year from now — 
of things you have to do. You can have a 
silent message on the display, any one of six 
alarms, or a combination of both. 

Even if the machine is turned off, it will 
"wake up" and alert you of an appointment. 
Or it will execute programs or control periph- 
erals according to predetermined schedules. 

In an environmental test, for instance, 
where readings are taken every half hour, 
the HP-75 can make sure its owner gets the 
weekend off. 

Software tailored to solve your 
specific problems. 

HP-75 software is now available in areas 
such as math, engineering, finance, and statis- 
tics. With spreadsheet analysis* on the way. 

Our plug-in math module* for instance, 
solves polynomial roots, evaluates integrals, 
and performs finite Fourier transforms. 

With our text-formatter module** you'll 
compose memos, letters, and short documents 
virtually anywhere; then print them out 
when you return to your home or office. 

In addition, our third-party software 
program assures you of ever-expanding 
software variety. 

If you're a volume purchaser or OEM, 
give us a call. We can help you create custom 
HP-75 systems with special plug-in modules, 
magnetic cards, digital cassettes, and key- 
board overlays. 

Peripherals for a total 
computing package. 

The HP-75 is equipped with the Hewlett- 
Packard Interface Loop, giving you a choice 
of 15 peripherals. [And that choice is 
expanding. The HP-75 can work simultane- 
ously with up to 30.) 

In a battery-powered briefcase system 
weighing about seven pounds, you might 
have the 2 4 -character printer, digital cassette 
drive and acoustic modem*** 

A desktop system might include the 80- 
column impact printer, full-color graphics 
plotter, and 12-inch video monitor. 

And the HP-75 can "talk to" other 
computers, peripherals, and instruments 
with our HP-IB (IEEE-488)** RS-232*and 



GPIO interfaces. 

In summary, the HP-75 is the heart of an 
extremely versatile system, in addition to its 
stand-alone capabilities. 




Manuals to make sure you get 
the most from your machine. 

Chock-full of examples and helpful hints, 
our owner's manual will get you up and 
running in short order. And it's organized to 
help you access the information you need 
to get on with the job at hand. 

A supplementary reference guide provides 
a concise summary of the computer's 
operating protocol and instruction set. 

The value you're looking for. 

What is the price of all this power in this 
compact package? $995**** A lot less than 
you might pay for a personal computer you 
can't take with you. 

See the HP-75 today. It's the smart choice 
for professionals on the move. 

For the authorized HP dealer or HP sales 
office nearest you, call TOLL-FREE 800-547- 
3400 (Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii: 503-758- 
1010). TTY users with hearing or speech 
impairments, dial 503-758-5566. 




^Available May 1,1983. 
** Available March 1, 1983. 
***Call our toll-free number for availability. 
***Suggested retail price. May vary outside 
U.S. Peripherals and software not 
included. 



Circle 200 on Inquiry card. 



m 



HEWLETT 
PACKARD 




CD 

% 

CD 

a 

LO 



■a 

03 
O 
■D 
Q) 

"5 
a 



CD 

Is 

O 0_ 



si 

L -I 



03 



03 
1 03 q5C\J 

Z 3 >. 

- ^ O CO CD 



2 »S« ><fe«o 



: (U CO 

Sep 

".SCffl 



°"0 >«03 

w(DJ, i 

0"D.= C 

a. o3-i o 



* CO 

C\j +- CO 

2-° > 

03^^ 
"D I CD 

Ssfi 



CO 

C 

o 

03 

C 

lo 
S: o 

CO o 
J2 Q) 



si 



l_ 03 

>toO^,a: : F 



CD O)0) D > © 

^ S o o) '1 7 

£ g 0) co 5* >-* 

as • n • c_i i— • 



2"o 

^ E 
c\je 

08 

CN o 



X 

O) 

0)0)0) 

aJaJ+i 

■J- .2 CO CO ~ 

2 CO ±i ±i o) 
qJ o ? 0)T) 

a gbijiD 
° ac\jio I 

m E 0)^:-^ 



CO 



^ ° 

CD4I 
•■15 c 
j2 o Q) 
c^ E 

18 = 

c o a 

"oB a 

Pr? E 
iZ . O 



Q) 
P DCNJ 

"Eft 
= - g J o 

rn r- (a Q) o 

0= Q.±i CO 
LO O 3 C 

H X"0^7 

< = g>7 • 

Sfgs E 

o 



«8S 

.Moo 00 o 
(01- • o 



co~ 
CCD co 

gw.9 

t C O) 

E 00 
o -^ "-- 
oo o 

CO CO 03 

^r-CD 

«to T ". 

TJ c CO 
03-— C 

Eog 

Q) CD 

in 

CO C C 



-w 



Optical-Memory Media 

How optical disks work, who makes them, 
and how much data they can hold. 



Laser videodisks and players have 
been commercially available for over 
five years, but the commercial use of 
this technology for storage of digital 
data has been delayed. Although 
building optical mass-storage drives 
is not a trivial exercise, perfecting and 
fabricating the optical media has 
proved to be an even more difficult 
task. Nevertheless, it appears likely 
that a variety of American, Euro- 
pean, and Japanese firms will present 
prototype optical-memory systems 
and media at computer and micro- 
graphics trade shows this spring, with 
"beta testing" (initial user tests) oc- 
curring by year-end. Commercial 
availability finally seems to be at 
hand. 

I'll now try to describe the com- 
position and performance character- 
istics of the various types of noneras- 
able optical-memory media that will 
most likely be used with the first- 
generation optical drives, and I'll in- 
dicate possible directions in which the 



About the Author 

Edward 5. Rothchild is a consultant and 
publisher of the Optical Memory Newsletter 
Including Interactive Videodisks. 



Edward Rothchild 

Optical Memory Newsletter 

POB 14817, 

San Francisco, CA 94114 

industry can be expected to move as 
the second-generation drives and 
erasable media are introduced toward 
the end of the 1980s. 

Lack of Disk Standards 

Just as a wide variety of magnetic 
disk drives and media have been de- 
signed for different applications, per- 
formance characteristics, and price, 
so, too, a wide range of optical drives 
and media will eventually be avail- 
able. Unfortunately, the optical- 
recording community has made little 
movement to agree on standards for 
the infant industry. Recent meetings 
have not even been able to agree on 
the size of the center hole in the disk, 
let alone the disk's composition, 
diameter, thickness, or performance. 
Every manufacturer is trying to posi- 
tion its product to become the de 
facto standard. 

Disks are being made now in 
12- and 14-inch diameters, with 8-, 
5V4-, 3-, and possibly 2-inch disks 
likely in the near future for use in 
small computers. Media for both the 
current least-capacity and greatest- 
capacity systems are rectangular 
cards or slides, and some firms are 
offering experimental optical reel-to- 
reel tapes and cassettes for a variety 



of applications, large and small. 

The most important reasons for the 
delay in introduction of optical re- 
cording technology are problems 
with the stability, archivability (shelf 
life), data integrity, and producibility 
of the media themselves. No one 
knows for sure just which material or 
combination of materials will gain ac- 
ceptance in the marketplace. Many 
major computer companies planning 
to introduce optical media are hedg- 
ing their bets by developing several 
different types. 

Starting an Industry 

No one wants the optical-memory 
industry to suffer the embarrassing 
fiasco (and lawsuits) experienced by 
those firms trying to commercialize 
video tape for document storage and 
retrieval in the 1960s. Before any sig- 
nificant part of the computer-user 
community can be expected to trans- 
fer existing records or store new data 
on a new medium/that medium must 
be reliable and widely perceived to be 
so. 

The first generation of optical 
mass-storage devices will be based 
almost exclusively on lasers writing 
data by distorting thin metal films. In 
some systems, the laser burns holes in 



86 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



The CONCEPT AVT 



&u 



Because VT100 users 
deserve more than just 

VT100 compatibility. 




E^MMM^ 



THE CONCEPT DISPLAY TERMINAL 

VT1 00 compatibility is one thing, but eight pages of memory, 
programmable function keys, windowing, multiple computer capabilities, 
ANSI standard conformance. ..and VT100 compatibility is something else. 
Only from Human Designed Systems. 



A good news/great news story from Human 
Designed Systems. 

First the good news. The concept AVT display 
terminal gives you everything you need in an 
80/132-column ANSI/VT100-compatible display 
terminal. And at a very competitive price. 



$ 



Now the great news. The concept 
AVT display terminal provides an 
exciting, new set of capabilities that 
lets you do much more. Without 
changing the price. 

It starts with ANSI standard conform- 
ance, DEC software compatibility, and 
80/132-column capability, and extends that even 
further by offering eight pages of display 
memory to relieve the interactive user of the 
need to generate unnecessary hardcopy 
printouts and to provide the application 
developer with a powerful tool for applications 
requiring multiple formats and storage of large 
volumes of text; by enabling users to 
permanently configure a terminal for their needs 
or applications; by providing functionality 

'Quantity 50. DEC and VT are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. 



1095 



designed to improve the effectiveness of slow- 
speed applications; by enabling users to create 
true windows within display memory; by 
providing programmable function keys which 
transmit data and/or execute terminal 
commands; by providing up to three additional 
communications ports for connection to other 

N peripherals and computers; by 

providing flexible user networking 
functionality for use in a wide range of 
different applications, including 
multiple computer connections; and 
by doing much more. 

VT100 compatibility and ANSI 
standard conformance. Add it to the concept 
display terminal's 132-column performance, in 
ASCII or APL/ASCII models, with multiple 
computer capabilities, windowing, 
programmable function keys, multiple pages of 
memory, and much more, and you can see why 
Human Designed Systems has given terminals a 
new meaning. ..and that means true economy. 

human designed systems, inc. 

3440 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 
215-382-5000 Circle 202 on inquiry card. . 



Human Designed Systems. We're redefining terminal performance. 

Boston — (617) 329-3510; Chicago — (312) 825-2960; Dallas — (214) 696-8031; Delaware — Infocon: (302) 239-2942; Hawaii - Gray Associates: (808)261-3751; Los Angeles 
— (213) 410-9454; Northern New Jersey — Infocon: (201) 624-1372; New York City Area — Infocon: (212) 689-8833; New York Stale — Naco Electronics: Rochester. 
(716) 223-4490, Syracuse: (315) 699-2651; San Francisco — (415)692-4184; Washington, DC — International Systems Marketing: (301)279-5775; Australia— I. O. Peripheries 
Pty. Limited: (02) 427 3555; Belgium — BELCOMP: 091/25 22 88; Canada — CAIL Systems: Toronto: (416) 362-1063; Denmark — ADCOM Data Aps: 1-19 44 66; Finland — 
Modulsystem O Y: 0-692651 1 ; France — Walton: (1 ) 226.06.90; Singapore — DTS Singapore: (65) 33-88-566; Sweden — Allnovo Data AB: 08-37 25 15; Switzerland — Mltek ag: 
02/461 22 52; United Kingdom — Shandell Systems Ltd.: 02407-2027; West Germany — COMKO Computersystemges, mbH: 0221-48 30 51. 

DISTRIBUTORSHIP INQUIRIES INVITED. 



%HB 



the thin metal film; this process is 
called ablation. In other processes be- 
ing developed by 3M Company and 
France's Thomson-CSF, bubbles or 
blisters are raised by lasers. In still 
others, a phase change in the index of 
reflectivity is created without either 
ablating or blistering the thin metal 
film's surface. 

Regardless of which technique is 
used, the pattern of holes, bubbles, or 
marks in the medium surface causes 
the read-back laser beam to be 
deflected at specific intervals, thus 
reproducing the original binary bit 
pattern. The size or position of the 
hole, blister, of mark relative to its 
neighbors may also be used to encode 
binary information onto the medium. 

Tellurium-Based Media 

To date, over 70 percent of the 
research into materials for optical- 
memory media has concentrated on a 
rare nonmetallic element, tellurium, 
which resembles sulfur and selenium 
in chemical properties. Although 



tellurium is sometimes found native 
in white crystals, it is usually found 
alloyed with other elements. The 
chief reason for this is that pure 
tellurium oxidizes rapidly when in 
contact with moisture. Tellurium is 
somewhat toxic (and gives workers in 
contact with it a bad case of body 
odor). Researchers, nevertheless, 
have concentrated on finding ways to 
prevent tellurium from oxidizing, 
such as by overcoating it, encap- 
sulating it, building bilayered, 
trilayered, or Philips' Air-Sandwich 
structures, or alloying it with more 
stable elements such as selenium or 
arsenic. 

Tellurium has been favored pri- 
marily because of its low melting 
point (450 °C) and high sensitivity. 
However, much optical-media re- 
search in recent years has concen- 
trated on finding viable alternatives 
to tellurium. Among these are silver 
halide and gold/platinum alloys. 
Tellurium has its champions as well 
as detractors; most systems to be 



ALF COPY SERVICE 

FAST • RELIABLE • LOW COST 



If you produce software, ALF's disk copying service is the 
quick, convenient answer to your disk duplication needs. Most 
orders are shipped in less than a week. Every disk we copy is 
verified bit by bit and guaranteed 100% flawless. Standard 
formats include Apple II (including nibble-copy proof and 
double-boot), Apple III, Atari, IBM, Osborne, and TRS-80. 

Our "no frills" pricing means you don't have to buy extras 
you don't need — set-up charges are $10 to $25 per disk to be 
copied, copying charges are 30<p to 40<p per side (minimum: 50 
copies). JrJ^^ 

Of course, we have the frills too — including custom printing 
and packaging. Call us today for complete details. 

We also sell blank disks 
in bulk pack boxes of 100. 
All are 5 1 /4 ", single sided, 
double density (except 
Nashua is single density), 
unlabeled, with hub ring. 
Add $7 per hundred for 
sleeves, $2.50 per hundred v. 
for shipping. 

ALF (303) 234-0871 1315F NELSON ST, DENVER, CO 80215 



3M 


$165/100 


CDC 


$165/100 


MEMOREX 


$165/100 


NASHUA 


$155/100 


VERBATIM 


$185/100 



commercially tested this year will use 
tellurium or one of these alternatives. 
Firms that already have or are plan- 
ning to show tellurium-based optical- 
media products in 1983 include Con- 
trol Data Corporation (CDC), Fujit- 
su, Hitachi, Matsushita, Omex, 
Philips, RCA, Storage Technology, 
Toshiba, and Xerox. 

Japanese Optical-Memory Media 

Japanese-developed media lean 
heavily toward tellurium alloys, in- 
cluding tellurium suboxide, tel- 
lurium/carbon alloy, and tellurium/ 
copper alloy. Toshiba and 3M have 
been showing Toshiba's DF-2100 
(tellurium/carbon alloy medium) 
document-storage system at com- 
puter and micrographics shows for 
over a year. Toshiba claims a 40-year 
archival life for its medium. 

Matsushita, under the Panasonic 
label, has been showing prototype 
DRAW (direct-read-after-write) still- 
frame analog video recorders using 
diode lasers; they are able to store 
15,000 images on one side of an 
8-inch tellurium suboxide disk. 
Digital DRAW recorders are expected 
from Matsushita shortly, and Fujitsu 
is expected to use a tellurium/copper 
alloy in its high-end optical recording 
medium. 

Other Media 

Gold/platinum alloy optical media 
are being developed by the French 
firm Thomson-CSF in cooperation 
with the Optimem project in Xerox's 
Shugart Division. Silver halide is the 
metal used in the only optical 
medium now commercially available, 
Drexler Technology Corporation's 
Drexon. Kodak is quite far along in 
development of a polymer/dye 
binder optical medium that uses no 
thin metal film. 

Desired Characteristics 

Regardless of the materials used, 
optical media should have the follow- 
ing general characteristics: long-term 
archival storage ability, high absorp- 
tivity at the recording wavelength, 
low writing energy, low manufactur- 
ing cost, high signal-to-noise ratio, 
good hole- (or bubble- or mark-) 
forming characteristics, low thermal 



88 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 369 on Inquiry card. . 




Q U A S a R 



--,v.7c SErCST Ifl ft. -'^'. 



f\T i '-• .•::■. 

1 X < —■ j 

1 \J FEBRUARY ; - ■•■•■. :V£ CO 



Se.242 • 53,213 -5.3 



28,633 : 33»?23 



4Bi9B0 : i9,:si 



DTK.!" !«?,632 : 1<?,«V 








6 2« 32 :•■; 






One picture is worth 
a thousand numbers. 

Introducing the new wide-tape Quasar* 4-Color 
Plotter, driven by the portable with the speed and 
power of a desktop computer. 

Coupled with the sophisticated Quasar Hand-Held 
Computer, this advanced, 80-character plotter turns 
dry statistics into dramatic graphics anytime, any- 
where. Makes analysis easier, presentations more 
exciting. 

The Quasar HHC is actually a desktop computer 
you can take with you. Its heart is a fast, powerful 
6502 microprocessor, with powerful programming 
languages— Microsoft BASIC, SnapBASIC and 



orictjjrv-/n in,anu myn iuwhwi j «~ 

8KB RAM and 16KB ROM internal, _ r 
external Memory Modules and ROMs or EPROM s in 
capsules. Operates on rechargeable NiCad batteries 
and retains data with power off. 




The Quasar mainframe has a complete range of 



Printer, Telephone Modem Cassette Interface, 
RS232 Interface, Color TV Adaptor, I/O Adaptor that 
works with up to 6 peripherals, 

That means the Quasar HHC system can be your 
personal computer and databases portable terminal 
that interacts with a large, central computer, or sup- 
plementary system to host computers for data retriev- 
al, collection and transfer. 

An expanding array of snap-in software includes 
modelling programs for "what if" alternatives, pro- 
grams for time-billing professionals, financial calcula- 
tions, and many others for scientific, engineering, 
marketing and business applications. 

For a complete information kit, write Quasar HHC 
Dept., or use Reader Service Card. 

Portable Computer Systems 



For HHC system tailored to your specific application contact System House/OEM: 

American Medical Instruments Computer Applications Impact Technologies Group, Inc. 

Afbanv CA Aurora, CO Salisbury, NG 

75 525-1113 303-696-1864 704-637-6183 

p ie(d Data Pentagon Industries, Inc. System Exposure 

Simi Valley, CA Chicago, IL Ww'^ 

Rn*-W-4fi?q . 312-867-9200 813-736-5154 



Field Data 
Simi Valley, CA 
805-522-9629 



Salisbury, NC 
704-637-6183 
System Exposure 
Dunedin, FL 
813-736-5154 





Pictorial Publishers, Inc. 




Indianapolis, IN 


Systems 7, Inc. 


317-872-7220 


Houston, TX 


Quasar HHC Distributor 


713-468-4394 


InterNet 


Agent Computer Services, Inc. 


San Francisco, CA 


Columbia City, IN 


800-227-4258 


219-422-6552 


415-781-0175 



QUASAR COMPANY, Divisio 



n of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, 9401 West Grand Avenue, Franklin Park, IL 60131 (312) 451 -1200 






conductivity, and, preferably, a 
manufacturing process free of toxic 
substances. 

Erasable Reusable Media 

Originally, optical media's lack of 
erasability was considered by many 
to be a shortcoming. However, more 
recent thought has recognized that for 
most applications it is not desirable 
that optical media be erasable. This is 
because optical media will occupy a 
different place in the memory hierar- 
chy than most magnetic media and 
will be preferred for archival and 
massive data-collection jobs where 
there is more need to preserve the in- 
formation than to erase and update it. 

Because optical media typically 
contain up to 100 times the storage 
capacity of the same size magnetic 
media, they provide storage at a 
small fraction of the cost per user- 
byte for magnetic media. Optical 
media in systems to be shown this 
year range in capacity from IV* to 4 
gigabytes (a gigabyte is 1024 mega- 
bytes). Being able to erase and reuse 



an optical disk is not an economic 
consideration as it is with more ex- 
pensive magnetic disks. Far more im- 
portant than erasability is the conve- 
nience of removing optical disks and 
their much longer life in an archive; 
one need not rerecord optical disks 
every two to three years. 

Erasable vs. Nonerasable Media 

With the luxury of so much storage 
space available, many computer 
scientists feel that rather than erase 
data on optical disks, it is preferable 
merely to put a disabling code in each 
obsolete data sector with a pointer to 
updated information. Thus, if an 
audit trail must be done to find out 
how an answer was constructed, the 
original data will not have been 
obliterated. 

Nevertheless, erasability would 
definitely be desirable in some ap- 
plications, and research organizations 
around the world are increasing their 
efforts to identify the best techniques 
for achieving erasable and reusable 
optical media. Laboratory experi- 



ments have offered encouraging re- 
sults, and commercial availability can 
be expected around 1986, at which 
time optical media can be expected to 
seriously affect magnetic media sales. 
Until then, optical media will comple- 
ment rather than compete with mag- 
netic media. The storage media most 
likely to be hurt by optical media in 
the near term are reel-to-reel mag- 
netic tape and microfiche for archival 
data and document storage. 

A variety of approaches to eras- 
ability are being tested in labora- 
tories. Dr. Alan Bell, now with IBM's 
Research Laboratories in San Jose, 
California, described the state-of-the- 
art thinking on the subject in the 
March/ April 1982 issue of Optical 
Memory Newsletter, and he conclud- 
ed that recent developments in the 
U.S. and Japan in magneto-optic 
materials using encapsulated trilayer 
structures now look more promising 
for erasability than they did in the 
1970s when phase changes were 
caused by using amorphous semicon- 
ductors that recorded at one 



YOU SPENT $4,000 ON 
A PERSONAL CdlKIPUTER. 

FOR ANOTHER $12.50, YOU CAN 
GET YOUR MONEY'S WORTH. 



A lot of business people 
aren't realizing the full poten 
tial of their per- 
sonal computers 
Because they 
haven't realized 
how much 
more their 
computers 
are capable 
of. 

LIST 
can help. 

LIST is the first publica 
tion that puts software first. 

It contains articles by 




some of the most respected 
names in the computer field. 
Written to help you get the 
most out of your personal 
computer. 

What's 
more, 
LIST con- 
tains the 
LIST 
Software 
Locator™ a 
comprehensive guide to 
over 3, 000 personal com- 
puter programs, conveniently 
indexed by application, 



© 1983 Redgate Publishing Company, Vero Beach. FL. All rights reserved. 
90 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



industry, operating system 
and hardware. 

LIST is sold at leading 
computer stores and book- 
stores. Or, you can phone 
our toll-free number, and 
receive a copy by mail. The 
price, exclusive of postage 
and handling, is $12.50, 
(VISA and MasterCard 
accepted). 

Which is a pretty small 
price to pay for something 
that can maximize a much 
larger investment. 

LIST is published by 
Redgate Publishing Company, 
an affiliate of E.R Hutton. 



LIST 

The Software Reso rceBook 
|| For Personal Computer Users 

1 800 821-7700 

Kxt. 1110 



Circle 377 on Inquiry card. 




The MultiMode Printer with 
The Magnificent Fonts 





BIBBM* 



QanteK 7030 



MultiMode Printer 
Offers Flexibility 



The"Beautiful"Font 



£6 



^0 



cw 






^ 



u^ 






io^ •jy 



Circle 364 on Inquiry card. 



... At a Sensible Price— $1,995 (Qty. 1) 

"Flexibility" means instantaneous call up of any of this trend- 
setting machine's many features whether for word processing, 
data processing, graphics or forms generation. Using either of the 
two built in interfaces, an external keyboard or downloading 
from your computer, you can program the Qantex Model 7030 to 
do more. 

Compare the "Beauty" of our printed letters for the word process- 
ing fonts which include Cubic, Trend, Spokesman, Courier, Italics, 
Script, OCR-A, APL, Scientific plus downloaded fonts from your 
computer. Draft copy modes include 8 resident fonts — U.S., 
U.K., German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and 
Danish. 

Other features include high resolution graphics — 144 x 144, 
single pass and double pass word processing, and 180 cps data 
processing modes and user defined formats. 

Operator initiated, the MultiMode printer provides a complete 
printed status report of operating parameters and diagnostics. 

For more information, or a demo, call us about the new Qantex 
Model 7030 MultiMode Printer. 

WdntGX Division of North Atlantic 

60 Plant Avenue, Hauppauge, NY 11788 

(516) 582-6060 (800) 645-5292 

^Registered Trademark of North Atlantic Industries 



temperature and erased at another. 

Robert McFarlane of North Ameri- 
can Philips Laboratories predicts that 
reversible media are three to five 
years away; magneto-optics will 
probably be developed first, especial- 
ly by Matsushita and Hitachi in 
Japan, and phase-change erasable 
techniques will be less likely. Philips 
has published very little about its 
reversible-media research. 

This, however, is not the unani- 
mous view; Edward LaBudde, general 
manager of Burroughs' optical re- 
cording program, sees amorphous-to- 
crystalline phase transition as the 
most promising technique. Despite 
heavy work in magneto-optics by the 
Japanese as well as Xerox and IBM, 
LaBudde doubts that the contrast and 
signal-to-noise ratio will be sufficient 
for most applications. Burroughs is 
not concentrating much effort on re- 
versible media now. Compared with 
the problems in perfecting erasable 
media, developing nonerasable media 
seems trivial. 



Error Rates 

Corrected BERs (bit error rates) 
satisfactory to both the mainframe 
computer and micrographics indus- 
tries seem to have been attained 
within the past year. However, it is 
necessary to link discussion of the 
BER with each application, taking 
into account the seriousness of an 
error versus the cost of correcting it. 
Although magnetic media for main- 
frame data applications have cor- 
rected (or "hard") BERs of 1 in 10 13 , 
not all magnetic media require it; 
floppy disks typically have a cor- 
rected BER of 1 in 10 9 . For document- 
storage applications, where images 
rather than digital data are recorded, 
a corrected BER of 1 in 10 6 is more 
than adequate. An error in that range 
will show up as a tiny black speck on 
a high-resolution image. 

Typically the "raw" (uncorrected) 
BER of optical media is 1 in 10 6 . New 
techniques in ED AC (error detection 
and correction) codes bring the un- 
corrected user BER up to 1 in 10 13 but 



require from 10 to 50 percent of the 
disk's total capacity to do so. The 
most dramatic breakthrough in 
EDAC is from Storage Technology 
Corporation (STC), which claims 
corrected BER of 1 in 10 13 with 
overhead of only 20 to 30 percent of 
the disk's capacity while leaving users 
with a 4-gigabyte capacity on one 
side of a 14-inch tellurium-based 
multilayer disk. 

Data Transfer Rates 

Burroughs and STC are develop- 
ing 14-inch disks for high-end, 
sophisticated mainframe applica- 
tions, but not all optical memory 
systems will be used with main- 
frames. Most optical-memory drives 
and media will be sought by the mid- 
range and low-end of the market for 
use with minicomputers and micro- 
computers for both digital data and 
office automation applications. The 
capacity of the first-generation disks 
will typically be 1 to 2 gigabytes; the 
disks and drives will be much less ex- 



Clrcle 313 on Inquiry card. 



ARENT YOU GLAD 
YOU WAITED! 



$1795. 




DIVISION OF 



Non-Linear Systems, Inc. 533 Stevens Avenue, Solana Beach, CA 92075 U.S.A. (619) 755-1134 



IF YOUR DATA'S WORTH 

REMEMBERING, IT'S 

WORTH PROTECTING. 




POWERMAKER 
MICRO UPS® 



A split-second blackout or a sudden voltage 
sag can shut down your small business computer, 
completely wiping out critical data. Inventories, 
payrolls, receivables — whatever is in the mem- 
ory may be lost instantly. 

Although this type of data is just as important 
to a small business as it is to a large corporation, 
blackout protection has always been far too 
costly for small business applications. But now 
there is the Powermaker Micro UPS, an inexpen- 
sive standby power source specifically designed 
for small business computers. 

This new rechargeable power system pro- 
vides up to 35 minutes of steady sine-wave 
power, enabling even the most sensitive small 
computers to ride through blackouts and voltage 
sags completely unaffected. 

Why sine-wave power? Because square- 
wave power impairs the performance of many 
printers, viewing screens and timing circuits. 
Powermaker produces a sine wave that exactly 
matches the wave shape of commercial power, 



ensuring compatibility with any computer 
system. 

In addition to providing highly reliable 
blackout and brownout protection, Powermaker 
also protects against electrical noise, one of the 
major causes of computer errors and system mal- 
function. Powermaker is portable, completely 
automatic, maintenance free and plugs into any 
standard 120V outlet. 

No matter how small your computer, your 
data is worth remem- ——— — ———————— i 

bering Protect it I TOPAZ; 9192 TORAZ WAY 

SAN DIEGO, CA 92123-1165 
PHONE: (619) 279-0831 
TWX: (910) 335-1526 

□ Please send me complete 
information about Powermaker® 

□ Please have a representative 
call me. 

Name 



with an affordable 
Powermaker 
Micro UPS. 

For complete 
information about 
the new Topaz 
Powermaker Micro 
UPS, please fill 
out this coupon or 
call us. 



TORAZ 

SOLUTIONS TO POWER PROBLEMS" 
Circle 495 on inquiry card. 



Title 

Company 

Address 

City State- 
Zip Phone 



We Scout Out 
The Best Buys. 

THE PURCHASING AGENT is your computer buying company. 
We negotiate the purchase of millions of dollars of hardware and software 
at the best prices each year. Our buying power gives you more hardware 
and software for your money. Our fee is 25% of what we save you off list price. 
By participating in the savings, we share a common goal —to save you money. 

Call us for your price on any product not listed. All prices shown 
include our fee. 



COMPUTERS 




IBM Personal comp. 


CALL 






Amdek Color III term. 


429 


Alpha Micro 1000 VW 


$5,960 


AST 11% OFF 


Alpha Micro 1030 


12,047 


Baby Blue 


530 


Alpha Micro 1051 


17,634 


Davong5 meg. H.D 


1,569 


AlspaAC1-2/SS 


2,320 


Diablo630API 


1,825 


Altos 8000-10 


5,850 


NEC 3550 


1,920 


Altos 8600-10 


7,586 


Seattle boards 


CALL 


AltosSeries5-15D 


2,100 


& all IBM peripherals 


CALL 


Altos Series 5-5D 


3,999 


Micromation 


CALL 


Apple Computers 


CALL 


Molecular 


CALL 


California Computer 




Morrow Micro Decisions 


CALL 


Systems 300-1 A 


4,414 


NEC 16 bit APC system 


CALL 


Columbia Data 


CALL 


NEC800064KPCsys. 


2,266 


Compupro Godbout™ 




NorthStar Advantage 


2,669 


Sys 816/A* 


4,200 


NorthStarAdv. H.D. 5 


4,395 


Sys 816/B* 


5,360 


Onyx 5001 MU-6 


7,350 


Sys 816/C* 


6,880 


Onyx 8000 MU-10 


7,900 


Ram21.128K 


807 


Sage 


3,200 


Disk II H.D. Contr 


586 


Sanyo 1000 


1,540 


Morrow 20 meg H.D. 


2,990 


Seattle System 2 


3,251 


'Assembled and tested 


TelevideoTS-802 


2,600 


Cromemco System 1 


2,946 


TelevideoTS-802H 


4,450 


Cromemco System 2 


3,400 


TelevideoTS-806 


5.200 


Cromemco 68000 




Vector 2600 


3,895 


System 1 


4,395 


Vector 3005 


5,495 


Dynabyte 26% OFF 


Vector 4 


CALL 


Eagle II 


2,350 


Victor 


CALL 


Eagle 1600 


5,420 


Zenith 100 22% OFF 



PRINTERS 

Brother, parallel, daisy 910 

C.ltoh, F-10, daisy 1,350 

Daisywriter 2000 1,099 

Diablo 620. dsy 25 cps 990 

Diablo630, daisy 2,050 

IDS Prism 132 all options 1,430 

NEC 3510 CALL 

NEC 7710 RO 2.325 

NEC/Sellum1,16K,trac. 2,595 

Qume9 45 full panel 1,799 

Qume 9/55 full panel 2,180 

Qume11 35 CALL 

Smith Corona TP-1, daisy 681 

Tally CALL 

Texas Instr. Tl 810 1,240 

OTHER PERIPHERALS 

Amdek Color II term 694 

Ventel 212 + modem 765 

CorvuslOmeg. H.D. 2,995 

Houston Instr DMP-29 1.549 

Houston Instr. DMP-40 775 

Morrow 20 meg. H.D. 3,650 

SOFTWARE 

Call for prices on all your 
software needs. 



Mastercard, VISA at 3% handling fee. Prices subject to change without notice Minimum fee $150 

EXPORT SERVICES AVAILABLE. 

We are agents for overseas computer dealers and distributors. 
INTERNATIONAL TELEX 470851 

On The Frontier of High Technology and Value. 



THE 

PURCHASING 

AGENT 

1635 School Street 
Moraga, CA 94556 

Call Toll Free 
800-227-2288 
In Californ 
(415) 376 





March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 363 on Inquiry card. 



pensive than the high-capacity, high- 
performance systems designed for 
mainframe environments. Burroughs' 
medium will handle transfer rates of 
12 million bps (bits per second); 
STC's will handle 24 million bps. The 
medium being jointly developed by 
Control Data and Philips for mid- 
range office automation jobs handles 
5 million bps. 

Optical Media Costs 

What will optical media cost? Most 
manufacturers predict that within a 
year 1- to 2-gigabyte disks will sell to 
end users for about $150; 2- to 4-giga- 
byte disks will cost $200 to $300 in- 
itially. STC foresees a cost of $100 to 
$150 for its 4-gigabyte disk by 1985. 
By the end of the decade, when yields 
should make it possible to build 
millions of disks annually, most 
optical-media developers see user 
costs dropping to $15 for a noneras- 
able disk. 

Assuming that high yields have 
been achieved, STC spokesmen feel 
that by 1990 the cost of putting down 
a bit on optical media will have 
dropped to the equivalent of putting a 
bit down on paper, or around 15 
cents per megabyte. 

A market-research study offered 
for sale by Rothchild Consultants 
predicts that in 1986 erasable media 
would cost a premium of 50 percent 
over nonerasable disks, dropping to a 
25 percent premium by 1990, when 
they should capture 40 percent of the 
optical-disk market. 

Ease of Handling 

Ease of handling is one of the 
strongest arguments in favor of op- 
tical disks over magnetic media. Al- 
though most optical-media develop- 
ers now favor encapsulating their 
disks in protective overcoats or car- 
tridges, all optical media are remov- 
able from the drive, unlike most high- 
capacity magnetic disks. Further- 
more, the optical disks are much less 
susceptible to being damaged by heat 
or humidity, and neither fingerprints 
nor magnetic fields can affect optical 
disks. 

Their ease of handling makes it 
possible to develop automatic disk- 
changing mechanisms (similar to 
jukeboxes) for optical disks. The 

Circle 461 on inquiry card. — ► 






INCREASE 

YOUR PRODUCTIVITY 

WITH OUR WORD 

PROCESSING KEYBOARD 

FOR THE IBM PC. 



We improved the keyboard and added some features 
to make your keyboard more "finger friendly". 







• Left hand SHIFT key properly placed. 

• lighted Indicators on: 

CAPS LOCK key, NUMERAL LOCK key 

• RETURN key In standard typewriter position. 

• ENTER key next to ten key pad for adding machine like 
data entry. 

• Sculptured key tops with "finger homing" position on: 
F, J, and 5 key of the ten key pad. 

From the design of the case to colors of the keys, to the 
plug on the cable, the keyboard Is 100% IBM compatible. 
This keyboard Is the most productive way you will ever 
spend S199. 

30 DAY SATISFACTION GUARANTEE 

We are so sure you will like this keyboard we will give 
you 30 days of use to be sure. If you are not completely 
satisfied return ft for a full refund Including freight. 






TO ORDER BY MAIL SEND: 

—quantity desired @ $199 each, 
—your name and shipping address 
— daytime phone number 
—add $5 for UPS 2 day air service 
—California residents add $11.94 sales tax. 
—Company check or credit card and expiry date. 
(Personal checks take 18 days to clear) 

TO ORDER BY PHONE: 

In California (805) 482-9829 

Outside California Toll Free (800) 821-4479 

Dealer Inquiries Invited 



QUBIE' 
DISTRIBUTING 



European Inquiries: 
129 Magdalene Rd. 
London, SW18 
870-8899 



4809 Calle Alto 
Camarlllo, CA 93010 



Make 




The Qume SPRINT 11 PLUS, is the new stan 
dard of quality for professional, letter-perfect 
daisywheel printing. And for just $1776, 
you can have it for your personal or desk- 
top computer. It comes complete with a 
Qume Connection interface module to fit 
popular computers from IBM, Radio Shack, 

Commodore, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, North B 
Star and many others. Its 96-character daisywheel 
delivers letter-quality text at a steady 40 cps. And 

Our new 

SPRINT 11 PLUS, 
fits every computer. 

$1776. i 




ction. 

with an average of 5,500 trouble-free hours 
(3 years typical use) between maintenance, 
the SPRINT 11 PLUS is unmatched in 
reliability. Qume quality is the choice of 
sophisticated, professional users. At $1776, 
there's no reason for you to settle for any- 
thing less. Make the Qume Connection by 
calling one of our authorized distributors. 
Or write Qume, 2350 Qume Drive, 
San Jose, California 95131. 

Qume, 

i ▼ A Subsidiary of ITT 







w 



^Efc^ 



Abacus Data Services 

(416) 677-9555 Ontario 

Anacomp 

(213) 51 6-7480 CA 

(206) 641-4990 WA 

(206) 881-1113 WA 

(509) 624-1308 WA 

(800) 426-6244 Outside WA 

Anthem Systems 

(415) 342-9182 CA 

Audio Visual Services 

(713)659-1111 TX 

(800) 392-7770 TX Only 

Bohllg and Associates 

(612)922-7011 MN 

Butler Associates 

(203) 653-7158 CT 

(617) 964-5270 MA 

Byte Industries 

(800) 972-5948 CA Only 

(800) 227-2070 OutsideCA 

C&G Distributors, Inc. 

(513) 435-4340 OH 

(800) 245-1084 Outside OH 
(412) 366-5056 PA 

(800) 245-1084 Outside PA 
D. J. Carlyle Corp. 

(213) 277-4562 CA 
(714) 640-0355 CA 

(415) 254-9550 CA 
(808) 531-5136 HI 

(312) 975-1500 IL 
(201) 780-0802 N J 

(214) 458-0^88 TX 

(713) 530-4980 TX 
Computer Martof N.J. 

(201) 283-0600 NJ 
Computermax Corp. 
(505) 883-0048 AZ 
(602) 997-8900 AZ 
(303) 773-1169 CA 
(904) 878-4121 FL 
(404) 458-6500 GA 
(704)542-0091 NC 
(512) 654-4711 TX 
Datamex Ltd. 

(613) 224-1391 Ontario 

(416) 781-9135 Ontario 
(514)481-1116 Quebec 
(604)684-8625 Vancouver 
Data Systems Marketing 
(602) 833-0061 AZ 

(916) 891-8358 CA 

(714) 540-231 2 CA 
(209) 237-8577 CA 
(213) 344-7097 CA 
(213) 641-2050 CA 
(415)941-0240CA 
(213) 796-2562 CA 
(213) 796-2631 CA 
(714) 560-9222 CA 

(213) 344-7097 CA 
(303) 371-4140 CA 
(303) 694-1 71 OCA 

(313) 254-2830 Ml 
(406)586-1511 MT 
(603)673-0765 NH 
(505)294-1531 NM 
(503) 641-2469 OR 
(412) 486-2676 PA 

(214) 960-1604 TX 

(713) 789-0803 TX 

(801) 292-6666 UT 
(206) 575-8123 WA 
Datatech Systems, Ltd. 
(403) 483-3947 Alberta 
(416)255-9351 Ontario 
(604) 765-7781 Victoria 
DataTechnology Industries 

(415) 638-1206 CA 
(910) 366-2072 (TWX) 
Data Terminal Mart 
(403)270-3737 Alberta 

(403) 420-1755 Alberta 
(604) 872-8482 B.C. 

(902) 469-3782 NovaScotia 

(416) 495-2001 Ontario 
(416) 677-0184 Ontario 
(613) 729-5196 Ontario 
(416) 245-4780 Ontario 

(514) 288-1555 Quebec 
Equipment Resources 

(404) 995-0313 GA 
(901) 794-4635 TN 
General Electric 
(205) 479-6547 AL 
(602) 278-8515 AZ 

(714) 231-0309 CA 
(415) 436-9260 CA 
(203) 628-9638 CT 

(202) 737-6211 DC 
(305) 921-0169 FL 
(904) 751-0615 FL 
(305) 904-7723 FL 
(404) 452-4913 G A 
(404) 452-4919 G A 
(219) 933-4500 I L 
(217)424-8495 I L 
(312) 780-2994 IL 
(812)473-6161 IN 
(317) 241-9330 IN 
(219)933-4500 IN 
(319) 285-7501 IA 
(502)452-3311 KY 
(301) 332-4710 MD 
(617) 938-1920 MA 
(800) 343-4411 MA 
(612) 522-4396 MN 
(816) 231-6362 MO 

(314) 993-0537 MO 
(201) 227-7900 N J 
(609) 488-0244 N J 



(716) 876-1200 NY 
(201) 227-7900 NY 
(518) 385-4888 NY 
(704)525-3011 NC 
(513) 874-8512 OH 
(216)441-6111 OH 

(503) 221-5095 OR 
(901) 527-3709 TN 

(214) 243-1106 TX 
(713) 672-3575 TX 
(801) 973-2253 UT 
Gentry and Associates 
(205) 534-9771 AL 
(305) 791-8405 FL 
(305)859-7450 FL 
(813) 886-0720 FL 
(404) 998-2829 GA 
(504)367-3975 LA 
(919) 227-3639 NC 
(803) 772-6876 SC 
(901) 358-8629 TN 
(615) 977-0282 TN 
Inland Associates 
(913) 764-7977 KS 

Inter ACT Computer Systems 
(305) 331-7117 FL 
(404) 953-8213 GA 
(704) 254-1949 NC 
(704) 552-7502 NC 
(919) 275-3305 NC 
(919) 876-6379 NC 
Manchester Electronics 
(800) 342-1382 CT 
MicroAmerica 
(800)421-1485CA 
(800) 262-4212 CA 
(617) 431-7660 MA Only 
(800) 343-4411 Outside MA 
(800) 527-3261 OutsideTX 

(800) 442-5847 TX Only 
Micro Computers 

of New Orleans 

(504) 885-5883 LA 

Natl. Computer Syndicate 

(312) 459-6400 I L 

Pac. Mountain States Corp. 

(213) 989-611 3 CA 
PAR Associates 
(602) 243-4267 AZ 
(303) 371-4140 CA 

(801) 292-8145 UT 
Pioneer Electronics 
(205) 837-9300 AL 
(305) 859-3600 FL 
(305) 771-7520 FL 
(404)448-1711 GA 
(301)948-0710 MD 
(919) 273-4441 NC 

(215) 674-4000 PA 
Pioneer Std. Electronics 

(312) 437-9680 IL 
(317) 849-7300 IN 

(313) 525-1800 Ml 
(612) 935-5444 MN 

(216) 587-3600 OH 
(513) 236-9900 OH 
(412) 782-2300 PA 
(512)835-4000TX 

(214) 386-7300 TX 
(713) 988-5555 TX 
Schweber 

(205) 882-2200 AL 
(213) 999-4702 CA 

(213) 537-4321 CA 
(916) 929-9732 CA 
(408) 496-0200 CA 
(203) 792-3500 CT 
(305) 331-7117 FL 
(305) 927-0511 FL 
(404) 449-9170 GA 
(312) 364-3750 IL 
(319) 373-1417 IA 
(301)840-5900 MD 
(617) 275-5100 MA 
(313)525-8100 Ml 
(612) 941-5280 MN 
(201) 227-7880 NJ 
(716)424-2222 NY 
(516) 334-7474 NY 
(216) 464-2970 OH 
(513) 439-1800 OH 
(918) 622-8000 OK 

(215) 441-0600 PA 
(412) 782-1600 PA 
(512) 458-8253 TX 

(214) 661-5010 TX 

(713) 784-3600TX 

(414) 784-9020 Wl 

Tek Aids Industries Inc. 

(312) 870-7400 IL 
(512)835-9518TX 
Terminal Rentals, Inc. 
(602) 258-4466 AZ 
(213) 637-3413 CA 

(714) 235-9268 CA 

(415) 956-4821 CA 
(408) 292-9915 CA 
(714)832-2414 CA 
Terminals Unlimited 
(800)336-0423 
(800) 572-0164 VA 
(703) 237-8666 VA 
Unico 

(512) 451-0251 TX 

Victor Electronics 

(617) 481-4010 MA 
Western N.Y. Computer 
(716) 381-4120 NY 
2M Corporation 

(201) 625-8100 NJ 



Qume 

▼ A Subsidiary of ITT 

Circle 370 on inquiry card. 




Photo 1: The Drexon family of optical disks. Disks are available in 12-inch and 4. 7-inch 
sizes, with or without the clear protective cover plate. Near the center of one of the 
smaller disks is a semiconductor-diode laser used for recording and reading optical 
disks. The larger disks have a capacity of 1250 megabytes per side, while the 4.7 -inch 
disks can store 200 megabytes per side. Disks are recorded with 0.8-micron to 
1.0-micron holes burned into their reflective surface. (Photo by Victor Budnik.) 



most ambitious design is one STC has 
for a 500-disk IBM-compatible device 
which, with 4-gigabyte capacity per 
disk, gives users online access in sec- 
onds to 2 terabytes (2 million mega- 
bytes)! 

Drexler's Drexon Medium 

The first company to offer optical 
recording media on a commercial 
basis is Drexler Technology Corpora- 
tion of Mountain View, California. 
One of the world's largest suppliers of 
photomasks and chemicals used in 
the fabrication of semiconductors, 
Drexler has patented a technique 
whereby spherical (reflective) and 
filamentary (absorptive) particles of 
silver halide are embedded in a col- 
loidal polymer matrix ("gelatin") to 
form the recording medium. 

Tradenamed Drexon II, the 
medium is a double-layer configura- 
tion of a crust containing silver halide 
particles and an insulating underlayer 
devoid of the metal. A diode laser 
heats the medium so that the silver 
halide particles absorb the laser 
energy. As the temperature rises to 



about 200 °C, the polymer film melts 
and creates spots of low reflectivity in 
a field of high reflectivity. 

An increasing variety of disk sizes 
is being offered. Photo 1 shows 
12-inch (30 cm) and 4.7-inch (12 cm) 
Drexon disks with and without clear 
protective overcoats. Also shown is a 
semiconductor-diode laser used for 
writing and reading data. Using 
0.8- to 1.0-micron- wide holes, 12-inch 
Drexon disks hold 1.25 gigabytes per 
side, whereas 4.7-inch disks contain 
200 megabytes per side. Although 
holes as small as 0.4 micron have 
been recorded, Drexler recommends 
0.7-micron pits. 

Drexler has avoided two problems 
associated with using silver halide for 
optical DRAW media: processing and 
graininess. Usually graininess results 
in intrinsic noise because the particle 
size prevents obtaining the sharp- 
edged pit definition needed in high- 
density optical recording. 

Furthermore, because the laser 
melts the gelatin rather than the 
silver, lower-powered compact diode 
lasers can be used, rather than the 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 97 




Photo 2: Recorded surface of Drexon II material as photographed by a scanning elec- 
tron microscope at 2500-power magnification. The holes vary in size between 3 and 5 
microns and were recorded with a 3-mW laser pulsed for a duration of 75, 150, and 300 
microseconds. Holes recorded in Drexon II are well defined and have lipless rims 
because the material shrinks when heated. These characteristics improve the signal-to- 
noise ratio and permit data to be encoded by varying hole lengths and spacings. 




800-523-7900 

>Vtvart,= ~i 







CHAZ&fi 



Photo 3: A common credit card could use the Drexon laser -recorded stripe. The stripe 
on the back of this card has a capacity of 1.6 million bits and is not susceptible to 
erasure by stray magnetic fields. A card this size completely covered on both sides could 
store 40 million bits. (Photo by Victor Budnik.) 



bulkier gas lasers. When production 
of 12-inch disks reaches 100,000 an- 
nually, Drexler expects the cost to 
drop to about $40 each. 

On Drexon II disks the laser 
records a unit of data as a well- 
defined hole with a lipless rim, which 
Drexler says improves the signal-to- 
noise ratio and permits data encoding 
by varying the hole lengths and spac- 
ings between holes. The laser shrinks 
the gelatin in the medium, leaving the 
lipless rims, rather than throwing up 
craters around the pit as happens in 
other ablative techniques. The scan- 
ning electron microscope photo at 
2500-power magnification (photo 2) 
shows 3-micron and 5-micron holes 
recorded at 3 milliwatts (mW) of laser 
power for a duration of 75, 150, and 
300 microseconds. 

In addition to disks, Drexler is now 
offering its medium in reel-to-reel op- 
tical tape, cassettes, and cards. The 
Drexon Laser Card has attracted con- 
siderable attention for its ability to 
deliver high-density storage in a con- 
veniently small and inexpensive pack- 
age the size of a credit card. Photo 3 
shows a bank credit card with a stripe 
of Drexon instead of the typical 
magnetic stripe on the back. Using 
10-micron holes, the stripe yields 
200K bytes. If both sides of the card 
were fully covered by Drexon record- 
ed with 5-micron holes, storage capa- 
city would be 5 megabytes. The card 
has interested manufacturers world- 
wide for a variety of applications. 

SRI International is developing 
four types of equipment for Drexler 
to demonstrate Laser Card technol- 
ogy to potential licensees: a microbar 
reader for security access applica- 
tions, a spot reader for read-only 
software applications, a read/write 
machine for spots useful as an output 
device, and a debit card machine. Re- 
cently, Toshiba took the first license 
to use Laser Card equipment, prob- 
ably for personal computer applica- 
tions. Drexler estimates that a Laser 
Card small-computer database-entry 
device containing 3 megabits would 
cost $2. Drexler expects to soon have 
other licensees for its technology. 

The Philips Air-Sandwich 

Philips began research on optical- 



98 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Which do you think is the 
more sophisticated computer? 

Epson. 



The big differences between the Epson HX-20 Notebook 
Computer (on the left) and the Apple Computer (on the 
right) are: 1) the HX-20 doesn't need a power cord, 2) the 
HX-20 weighs only about four pounds, and 3) the HX-20 
costs a lot less money. 

The Epson HX-20 Notebook Computer has a full-size 
keyboard, a built-in LCD screen, a built-in printer, 48K of 
combined RAM and ROM memory, and an internal power 
supply that will keep it running for over 50 hours. So you can 
do computing and word processing virtually anyplace you 
happen to be. Whereas, with the Apple Computer, you can 
only go as far as an extension cord will take you. 

And on the HX-20, you get communications interfaces, 
upper and lower case letters, five program areas, a full 68 
keys including an integrated numeric key pad, an internal 
clock/calendar, and the screen and printer. Standard. On 
the Apple, you pay something extra for each feature — if you 

Circle 177 on Inquiry card. 



can get them at all. 
All of which makes the take-it-anywhere HX-20 perfect 

for business executives, salespeople, students, kids — 

anyone who's looking for an affordable, practical way into 

computing. 
Portable. Powerful. Affordable. Sophisticated. The extra- 
ordinary HX-20 Notebook 
Computer. Find out just how 
extraordinary. Call (800) 
421-5426, in California (213) 
539-9140 for your nearest 
Epson computer dealer. 




EPSON 

EPSON AMERICA, INC. 



BYTE March 1983 



99 



INFORMATION 
LAYERS 



ANNULAR SPACER- 



^-2t\z^//A^//Azz-zx 



CAVI 



tA 



PROTECTIVE COVER- 
ANO SUBSTRATE 



Figure 1: Cross section of the Philips Air- 
Sandwich disk. The cavity is 20 mm thick 
and is filled with very clean air; each of 
the plastic substrates is 1.1 mm thick, 
while the thin-film tellurium recording 
surface is 300 angstroms thick (an 
angstrom is one 10-billionth of a meter). 



storage media in Holland in 1972 and 
since 1975 has been aiming its prod- 
ucts at mid-range applications in both 
office automation and digital data 
processing. 

North American Philips manufac- 
tures a 12-inch double-sided disk. A 
unique feature of Philips' media is the 
Air-Sandwich, shown in cross section 
in figure 1, which functions as a mini- 



ature clean room. The 20-millimeter 
(mm) cavity holds very clean air. The 
substrate is 1.1 mm thick, and the 
tellurium-alloy recording layer is 300 
angstroms, for a total disk thickness 
of 2.5 mm. 

It's possible to burn 0.7-micron 
holes in Air-Sandwich disks, as 
shown magnified about 40,000 times 
by a scanning electron microscope in 
photo 4. Track pitch is 2 microns, ca- 
pacity is 1V4 gigabytes per surface, 
for a total of 2 X 10 10 bits per disk. 
Errors are corrected to 1 in 10 9 bits, 
with 40 to 50 percent overhead for 
formatting and error detection and 
correction. The disk can provide a 
corrected BER of 1 in 10 12 at the ex- 
pense of capacity. Raw BER is 1 in 
10 6 . 

North American Philips uses plas- 
tic substrates, whereas N.V. Philips 
in Holland uses glass for its version of 
the Air-Sandwich. Philips and Con- 
trol Data Corporation, in a joint ven- 
ture for development of disks and 



drives, will probably use plastic sub- 
strates, even though the Dutch prefer 
the more expensive glass approach. A 
North American Philips spokesman 
indicated that both versions may be 
produced until the market selects one 
or the other. A CDC spokesman 
thinks that glass substrates will be 
used on the first disks. Even though 
the plastic transpires water, the 
tellurium alloy will still allow 
archival life of 10 years according to 
accelerated life tests. 

North American Philips has devel- 
oped a cartridge that is necessary 
only for very high density recording 
requiring holes smaller than 0.7 
micron; the cartridge will not be used 
with lower-density, lower-cost Air- 
Sandwich applications. For high- 
density optical recording, the funda- 
mental limit in capacity is the resolu- 
tion of the medium itself. Philips 
thinks that 0.3 or 0.4 micron rep- 
resents the smallest recordable hole, 
which will be very ragged, making 




Photo 4: Recorded surface of a Philips Air-Sandwich optical disk. In this photo, taken by a scanning electron microscope, the 
0. 7 -micron holes are magnified 40,000 times. The Philips disk has a capacity of 1.25 gigabytes per side. See figure 1 for a cross section 
of the Air-Sandwich disk. 



100 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 379 on Inquiry card. 



OIERE'S A CONCERTO IN YOUR COMPUTER 














fflN 


V 



V 




COMPU-MUSIC 




. . . And a waltz, a blues song, ^ 

a rhapsody, and a whole lotta 

rock n roll. In fact, your computer >~ b 

can now play any kind of music, 

thanks to the new Roland 

Compu-Music. 

Roland, the world's leading pro- 
ducer of synthesizers and 
electronic musical instruments, 
has put its years of music 
programming experience into a 
high performance computer/ 
music synthesizer system 
that can easily be used by 
anyone— from the computer- 
user with a musical background 
to the programmer with a 
song in his heart. 

The Roland Compu-Music 

does for music what the 

word processor has 

done for words. The 

Compu-Music 

software allows your computer to write, 

program, change and store musical 

compositions of up to eight voices, 

plus a seven voice electronic 

drummer. The Compu-Music 

hardware (CMU-800) is a music 

synthesizer that plays these 

musical parts. 



* 



The CMU-800 connects to your 
computer through any auxiliary slot 
and then connecting to any 
amplifier or stereo system for perfor- 
mance. Because the Compu-Music 
system is software based, it allows 
for virtually infinite hardware 
expansion, it can never become 
' obsolete. 

Playing and programming the 
Compu-Music is so easy that you 
don't have to be a musician, but 
if you are, you'll appreciate the 
well-thought-out programming, a 
system that Roland has used for 
many years with proven success. 
Also, the CMU-800 hardware 
easily interfaces with many 
other synthesizers for 
expanded performance- 
all controlled by your 
computer. 

The Roland CMU-800 
Synthesizer retails for $495.00. The 
Compu-Music Software retails for $70.00 and is 
available for the Apple II and NEC 
computers. For more information, 
see your computer dealer or contact: 
RolandCorp US, 2401 Saybrook 
Avenue, Los Angeles, 
CA 90040 (213) 685-5141 




Circle 311 on Inquiry card. 



IBM 


personal computer 


UCSD 


p-System™ 


Version IV. 1 


NCI now offers 


Version IV. 1 which includes: 


• RAMdisk 


• Subsidiary Volume Support 


• 8087 Numeric Coprocessor Support 


• FASTER Long Integers (2x) 


• FASTER Floating Point (3x) 


• 25% greater floppy storage 


• Floppy Write Verification 


• Asynchronous Serial I/O 


• Extended memory codepool 


• 8086/87/88 Macro Assembler 


• 8087 Native Code Generator 


• program caller unit 


• generalized sort unit 


• 32 bit seek 


• FASTER Seek 


• FASTER Turtlegraphics 


• Adaptable Support 


• PC DOS Filer Utility 


• Background Spooler 


Also available 


• PFAS Pascal File Access System 


• Hard Disk Support 


• Advanced Systems Editor 


• Sprinter text formatter 


• QuicklSAM/PascallSAM/SuperDB 


• QuickForm/PascalForm 


Available for 


• IBM pc 


• Victor 9000 


TM Regents University California 


TM IBM Corporation 


For more information call 


Network Consulting Inc. 


Discovery Park 


Suite 110-3700 (hIiihmc Way 


lliirniihy, B,C. tanacla VSCMMI 


604-430-JU66 




Photo 5: Recorded surface of a Burroughs Corporation optical disk. This photo was 
taken by an optical microscope at 800-power magnification and clearly shows the tracks 
of 0.6-micron holes. Capacity of the 14-inch disk is 2 gigabytes per side. 



retrieval without errors very difficult. 
Capacities of 10 12 bits per disk will re- 
quire 14-inch disks. 

Philips writes on its disks with 
diode lasers, generally in spiral pat- 
terns, and may possibly use Hitachi 
diode lasers for writing up to 5 
million bps, but the disks are read 
with helium/neon gas lasers. Transfer 
rates over 5 million bps will require 
selected diode lasers, which are not 
yet widely available, or argon gas 
lasers. Reading requires about 2 mW 
of power. N.V. Philips in Holland 
finds that diode lasers that both read 
and write at 2 million bps are sufficient 
for office automation applications. 
North American Philips disks are not 
pregrooved, whereas the Dutch disks 
are, simplifying the recording process 
but lowering capacity. 

Burroughs' Process 

The Burroughs medium operates 
differently from the ablative hole- 
burning technique used by Philips 
and Drexler and the bubble-raising 
technique of 3M and Thomson-CSF. 
In the Burroughs system, laser power 
heats up the metal-film surface and 
causes an irreversible phase change of 
the index of refraction and the extinc- 
tion coefficient (n and k, 
respectively). The refractive index is 
described by a complex number. The 
real part (n) describes the velocity of 
light going through the material and 



the imaginary part (k) describes the 
rate of absorption. Metals have very 
high k because light is absorbed very 
rapidly, as opposed to glass, which 
has a low k. 

Although Burroughs' medium em- 
ployes n and k phase change, it is not 
the standard crystal-to-amorphous 
reaction. Thus the film does not move 
very much, as in ablative techniques, 
and is compatible with a contact 
overcoat approach because no rims 
are created around the pits. It also re- 
quires much lower laser power. Using 
off-the-shelf helium/neon lasers, 
track pitch is 1.7 microns and average 
spot size is 0.6 micron. Most of the 
testing has been with 10- to 15-mW 
incident laser write power with 42- 
nanosecond (ns) exposure times. 
Medium threshold is described as 4 
mW to 6 mW, with demonstrated 
read power of under 1 mW. Photo 5, 
taken with an optical microscope at 
800-power magnification, shows 
data, track, and sector information 
written on the Burroughs medium. 

The trilayer medium, with 2-giga- 
byte capacity, is manufactured from 
a standard 14-inch Winchester-disk 
platter spin-coated with plastic to 
smooth its surface. The subsequent 
layers, composed of an aluminum (or 
other metal) reflector, dielectric 
spacer, and absorber layer, together 
are a few thousand angstroms thick. 
The overcoat is 0. 007-inch, thick 



102 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



TMP software 
The computer's mind. 







Regardless of what brand of microcomputer 
you own, the key to its productivity is the 
software you use. And more and more 
companies and individuals 3fe relying on 
TMP Software to get out more work, faster 

Software so advanced its simple. 

With TMP, Total Management Planning 
Systems, you and your computer 
communicate in English. Simply follow 
instructions displayed on the screen to quickly 
and efficiently enter save and retrieve 
information. And unique "Help" screens 
allow you to ask questions and get answers, 
in process, without turning to instruction 
manuals or erasing information you're 
working on. 

Combine packages, maximize results. 

Perhaps more importantly once you learn the 
operation of one TMP Software Package, 
you've learned the basics of our entire 
sophisticated system: TMP/FreeForm™ 
(electronic index cards); TMP/CaldM 
(electronic spread sheets and more); 
TM P/ Manager tm (structured data base 
management); TMP/WriteriM 



(word processing/document retrieval); 
TMP/Front-EndiM (combines packages). Each 
package can stand alone, or they can be 
integrated to form a complete, powerful 
system — increasing productivity and 
minimizing the opportunity for error 

On-going support and innovation. 

TMP Software is available for most popular- 
desk -top computers and supermicros. And 
new software packages are being added 
monthly Videotape training programs are 
available on VHS, Beta and U-Matic formats. 

Contact your nearest TMP Software dealer or 
order direct. Either way get on line with 
TMP, and improve your computer's mind. 
Dealer inquiries invited. The United Software 
Company 2431 East Douglas, Wichita, 
Kansas, 67211, (316) 684-5281. MasterCard, 
Visa and American Express. circle 441 on inquiry card. 

The computer's mind. 




Total Management Planning Systems 



TMR TMP/FreeForm, TMP/Calc. TMP/Managet TMP/Wnter, and TMP/Front-End are trademarks o f The United Software Company 



enough to keep dust particles out of 
focus and thin enough to control the 
thickness tolerances. This medium 
contains no tellurium, but Burroughs 
has not divulged the materials used. 
The disk will be factory formatted 
with address and sector information 
and will contain 600 sectors per track. 

Burroughs is designing a high- 
performance disk with a signal-to- 
noise ratio of 30 decibels for broad- 
band applications able to be trans- 
ported across the country and rugged 
enough to be washed in case of severe 
contamination. To prevent that nec- 
essity, the 0.125-inch-thick disk will 
be encased in a 15-inch-square, 
0.5-inch-thick cartridge (not her- 
metically sealed). 

Edward LaBudde of Burroughs be- 
lieves that this medium can achieve 1 
in 10 12 corrected BER after a projected 
10-year lifetime. The raw BER is 1 in 
10 6 ; 50 percent of the total 4-gigabyte 
disk capacity is used for error detec- 
tion and correction, formatting, and 
addressing. However, Burroughs says 
its approach is capable of producing 



no uncorrectable errors when the disk 
is new. 

Kodak's Approach 

Kodak started developing a poly- 
mer/dye binder bilayer medium using 
two laser wavelengths, whereby 
colored dyes in a plastic material over 
a reflective material are written on in 
the infrared part of the spectrum (800 
to 850 nanometers) and read in the 
red part (633 nanometers). The 
medium can now be both written and 
read in the infrared for system de- 
signers wishing to keep to a single 
laser wavelength, but Kodak recom- 
mends a two- wavelength approach. 
Capacity on two-wavelength- 
approach Kodak disks is 5.6 gigabytes 
per 12-inch disk side. Data can be 
written at 3 million bps with a 
0.8-micron pit length and 1.67-micron 
pitch. 

Packing Densities 

How dense will the packing on op- 
tical disks become by the end of the 
century? Burroughs is already work- 




FOR CP/M-86 



CC-86 Compiler available for both CP/M-86* 
and MP/M-86* (incl. IBM PC) 

Full Unix** V7 language compatibility 
Standard I/O library supports both buffered and 
non-buffered I/O and OS calls 

Stand-alone assembler supports relocatable code, 
local symbols and linkage to external modules 

Introductory prices: $500 for CC-86 and 
assembler/linker; $200 for assembler/linker; 
$50 for manual (incl. K & R) 



CP/M and MP/M 
are trademarks of 
Digital Research 

Unix is a trademark 
of Bell Laboratories 




(503)297-7153 

Control-C Software, Inc. 

6441 SW Canyon Court 
Portland, OR 97221 



ing near the diffraction limit and 
believes that packing density will 
probably not increase significantly 
until electron-beam or other exotic 
technologies are commercialized. 
Packing density is not the primary 
emphasis at Burroughs. The price/ 
performance ratio and reliability are 
more important when compared with 
magnetic technologies. 

STC foresees the possibility to in- 
crease optical-disk packing density to 
1 trillion bytes per square inch by the 
year 2000 by recording in various 
colors and using filters to read just the 
desired data. Other researchers go 
even further, estimating the possibili- 
ty of building disks containing 10 21 
bits. 

Future Materials 

Although I have indicated that 
almost all first-generation media will 
employ thin metal films in the record- 
ing layer, some industry researchers 
say that polymer/ dye binders offer 
advantages in ease and cost of manu- 
facture over thin metal films and may 
become the preferred material before 
the end of this decade. This view has 
raised strong controversy, however. 
Dr. Bell of IBM points out that 
polymer/dye binders have advan- 
tages and disadvantages when com- 
pared with thin metal films, adding 
that the issue is complex and it is not 
yet clear that polymer/dye binders 
will be the wave of the future. 

Edward LaBudde of Burroughs 
says that polymer/dye binders will 
not be the trend; thin-film will remain 
the preferred medium until something 
better comes along. Thin-film tech- 
nology is widespread and will invite 
many people to work on its prob- 
lems. The enormous capital invest- 
ment necessary to develop a totally 
new medium like polymer/dye 
binders may be outweighed by the 
sheer numbers of people involved in 
''mainstream" media. 

In addition, LaBudde sees no in- 
herent advantage to dye-based op- 
tical disks and believes thin metal 
films should be cheaper to make, 
even in a small operation, than poly- 
mer/dye binders because the latter re- 
quire a much heavier outlay for 
capital equipment, such as a web 



104 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 121 on Inquiry card. 



Be Wise. 
Be Thrifty. 
Be A 
Night Owl. 




Your Own University Library Online At Homel 

If you're free between the hours of six and midnight, 
make a date with one of the world's fastest, most 
powerful online, information services — at a fraction of 
what it would cost during the business day. All you 
pay is a $50 registration fee to receive your classified 
user's password. Then, any evening, you can summon 
up a wealth of information for as little as $6 per hour. 

Technical and scientific abstracts. Medical journals. 
Government studies. Business indexes. Major 
newspapers. BRS/ AFTER DARK gives you access to the 
same comprehensive data files used by BRS Search 
Service subscribers, which include major corporations 
and reference libraries throughout the world. All 
instantly accessible with simple, interactive language. 

Of course, BRS/AFTER DARK also gives you valuable 
peripheral services like a home-computer Newsletter 
and nationwide communication via electronic mail. 
Plus, shop-at-home services and instant software 
delivery programmed for the very near future. 

Don't let another evening go by without BRS/AFTER 
DARK. All you need is your phone and any dial-up 
system or terminal. For more information about 
BRS/AFTER DARK just fill out the coupon. 

Circle 52 on Inquiry card. 



€5 



AFTER DARK 



Sign me up as aBRS/AFTERDARKsubscriberforaone- 
time subscription fee of $50. (Basic user's rate as low as 
$6 hour.) BY 3/83 

□ Charge to MASTER CARD/VISA (circle one) 



Acct. No. . 



-Expires. 



□ Send more information 

Signature 



NAME. 



ADDRESS. 



_STATE_ 



-ZIP_ 



CITY 

Mail to: BRS • 1200 RT. 7 • LATHAM, NY 12110 • (518) 783-1161 



press, than thin-film. This point, 
however, is not universally agreed 
upon. Once this equipment is amort- 
ized, polymers do indeed offer a 
cheaper method of putting down a 
data-storage medium and easier pro- 
duction techniques, and unlike 
tellurium, the most commonly en- 
countered thin-metal medium, they 
are nontoxic. 

The main champions of the poly- 
mer/dye binder medium are Kodak 
and other major film producers, who 
can take advantage of already in- 
stalled web coating equipment used 
to process Kodacolor and similar 
films; the same machinery can be 
used to make optical disks to keep the 
equipment running at full capacity. 
The web coating process, however, 
employs a flexible substrate rather 
than the rigid substrate used on other 
optical disks, leading some experts to 
speculate that polymer-based media 
might eventually find their way onto 
the market late in the decade as the 
low-cost 3- to 5-inch optical floppy 
disks predicted by many observers. 

A wide variety of other potential 
optical-media materials are being 
reported on at scientific conferences. 
Some of the more exotic include 
diazo, photochromies, amorphous 
semiconductors, spectral-hole burn- 
ing in crystals, surface texturing, cop- 
per sulfate in glass, and frequency do- 
main storage. 

Copper Sulfate in Glass: 
Archival Master Disks? 

Copper sulfate in glass, researched 
at Xerox's Advanced Development 
Laboratory in El Segundo, Califor- 
nia, has implications for both optical 
disks and videodisks. The process 
yields a disk that should be absolutely 
archival, perhaps lasting thousands 
of years. The technique involves 
using copper ion-exchanged glass, 
which is simple and cheap to pro- 
duce. 

An optically absorbing region is 
formed extending up to 8 microns 
into the Pyrex 7740 glass surface, 
forming a monolithic structure. The 
glass is immersed in molten copper 
salt at 550 °C for between 15 seconds 
and 6 hours. The sodium out-diffuses 
and the copper in-diffuses. Focused 



laser light causes localized perturba- 
tions on the surface, appearing as 
raised hemispherical bumps, rather 
than hollow bubbles. A density of 10 8 
bumps per centimeter squared has 
been achieved. 

Although the bump-forming mech- 
anism is not understood, the medium 
has great promise to be used as an op- 
tical disk or videodisk master because 
no encapsulation is needed for the 
bumps. However, a 150-mW argon 
laser is needed, calling for about 10 

OHSq has strong 

optical absorption 

extending into the 

infrared. 

times the laser power required with 
other media. Writing is at 488 
nanometers, with reading done either 
with an argon laser with reduced 
power, or a helium/neon laser. 

IBM Studies Hydroxy Squarylium 

IBM is looking at many different 
materials for optical media. Some of 
the more promising research the firm 
has disclosed relates to organic dyes. 
One of the most interesting of these is 
hydroxy squarylium (OHSq), which 
has a melting point of 360°C, com- 
pared to tellurium's 450 °C, but re- 
quires 60 percent higher laser power 
for writing and reading than tellu- 
rium. 

OHSq appeals to researchers 
because it has strong optical absorp- 
tion extending into the infrared, ex- 
cellent thermal and optical stability, 
and can be either solvent coated or 
evaporated in preparing disks, offer- 
ing substantial cost savings. OHSq 
disks were subjected to 10 million 
readouts before a 10 percent degrada- 
tion in data occurred, more than ade- 
quate stability for digital data storage 
applications. 

Cryogenic 

Frequency Domain Storage 

An even more esoteric optical- 
media research project at IBM con- 
cerns the frequency-domain-storage 
approach, the most important feature 
of which is that up to 1000 data bits 
can be stored in frequency space at 



each spatial location, so that a fixed 
media/scanning read/write spot 
system can yield extremely high data 
rates and packing densities. Despite 
the lack of threshold exhibited by 
photochemical hole-burning materi- 
als, IBM reports that up to 10 million 
read cycles were possible on relative- 
ly low-sensitivity media while main- 
taining a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 to 
1. The technique provides for reversi- 
ble media but requires that the system 
be kept at cryogenic temperatures: 4 
kelvins, close to absolute zero. 

Surface Texturing 

Bell Laboratories has done con- 
siderable work using reactive ion 
etching to microscopically texture the 
surface of optical media to produce 
submicron-sized columns and cones. 
Although they have formed textured 
surfaces in metals, semiconductors, 
and insulators, germanium and sili- 
con have produced the best results. 
The textured surface is not reflective. 
When hit with 10 mW of laser power, 
the structures are melted away, leav- 
ing a spot 100 times as reflective as 
before. The technique produces no 
debris or rims around the recorded 
spots. Bell Labs finds the technique 
much more stable and permanent 
than systems using tellurium, and it 
may be possible to use the disk as a 
master to replicate copies. 

Looking Ahead 

Where is all this leading? Little 
about the composition of optical 
media will matter to most users; the 
media, along with system hardware 
and software, will have to be trans- 
parent to the user in order to gain 
wide acceptance. Research is moving 
quite rapidly in the optical-media 
field, and only time will tell if this 
most promising technology will catch 
on with the computing public, or 
whether it will be cast aside as some 
other promising technologies have 
been in the recent past. Fortunately, 
most of us dedicated to informing the 
industry and public about develop- 
ments in optical recording technology 
believe predictions are realistic that 
by 1990, most digital and image data 
will be stored on low-cost, remov- 
able, high-density optical media. ■ 



106 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




GP-100A: US$389 



COMMAND PERFORMANCE. 



Seikosha gives you all the best features— including economy and super-clear graphics. 



Unlike some graphic printers, Seikosha s new 
GP-100A Gni-Hammer Graphic Printer puts full dot 
addressable graphics at your command. The GP-100A 
lets you repeat a column of data as many times as 
needed with just one command. Software control enables 
double-width character output, and the positioning is 
both character and dot addressable. Designed for simple 
operation, it ranks among the most cost-efficient graphic 
printers on the market. Command performance tech- 
nology that not only works for you now, but takes you 
well into the future. 



Other valuable features; 

•Graphics, regular and double width character 
modes can be intermixed on the same line. 

•Automatic printing. When the text exceeds 
the maximum line length, there is no loss 
of data due to overflow. 

•Self-test printing is a standard feature. 

•Centronics type parallel interface. 

•Paper width is adjustable up to 10 inches. 

•Optional Interface:RS232C,IEEE488, apple ll,etc. 

Graphic Printer ft 3 *J Series 

Available at COMPUTERLAND and other fine 
stores in your area Cjrc!e 388 on |nqulry card 



Distributed by AXIOM CORPORATION 1014 Griswold Avenue San Fernando, Calif. 91340 Phone (213) 365-9521 TWX (910) 496-1746 
Manufactured by SEIKOSHA SYSTEM EQUIPMENT DIV. 4-1-1 Taihei Sumida-ku Tokyo Japan. Phone: 03-623-8111 Telex: 262-2620 



The Choice of 



Computer Exchange — The Supply Center for the IBM-PC 



SOFTWARE 01 



IBM-PC 



BUS NESS 



NEW! 
NEW! 



NEW! 



^ASHTONTATE. dBase II. requires CP/M-86 & 128K 
dBase II. requires PC-DOS & 128K 
APPLIED SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY. Versaform 
DATAMOST. Real Estate Investment Program 

Write On 
EAGLE SOFTWARE. Money Decisions 
HOWARDSOFT. Real Estate Analyzer II 
INFORMATION UNLIMITED. Easywnter II (a WPS) 

Easyspeller (88K Words) 
Easyfiler (a DBMS) 
INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE. T I M III (a DBMS) 
¥ INSOFT. Data Design (a powerful easy to use DBMS) NEW! 
ISA. Spell Guard 
ISM. MalheMagic 

* MICROCRAFT. Requires CP/M-86 
Legal Billing & Time Keeping — Verdict 
Professional Billing & Time Keeping •— Billkeeper 

* MICRO LAB. The Tax Manager 

+ MICROPRO. WordStar* plus IreeWordStar Training Manual 
MailMerge™ 
SpellStar ' * 

3 Pak, Word & Mail & Spell, above 3 
IntoStar NEW! 

ReportStar NEW! 

Note: Price increase due soon on Micropro. Call first. 



MICROSOFT. FLight Simulator (by Sub-logic) 
NORELL. Visualize 

Easy Data DBMS 
NORTH AMERICAN BUS. SYSTEM. The Answer 
PBL CORPORATION. Personal Investor 
* PEACHTREE. Peach Pak 4 (GL. AR & AP) 
PERFECT SOFTWARE. Perfect Writer ' " 
Perfect Speller* " 
Perfect Filer T M 
SELECT INFO. Select (a WPS) 
SORCIM/ISA. SuperCalc 

SuperWnter 
STC, The Creator 
SYNERGISTIC. Data Reporter 
*VISICORP. VisiCalc»/256K 

VisiDex or VisiSchedule. each 

VisiTrend/Plot 

VisiFile or Desktop Plan I. each 



UTILITY 



NEW! 



NEW! 
NEW! 



LIST 
PRICE 
$ 700 
$ 700 
$ 389 
$ 130 
$ 130 
$ 150 
$ 250 
$ 350 
$ 175 
$ 400 
$ 495 
J 225 
$ 295 
$ 90 

$ 750 
$ 750 
J 250 
$ 495 
$ 250 
$•250 
$ 845 
$ 495 
$ 350 

$ 50 

J 100 

$ 250 

$ 250 

$ 145 

$ 595 

$ 389 

$ 189 

$ 289 

$ 595 

$ 295 

J 395 

$ 200 

$ 250 

$ 250 

$ 250 

$ 300 

$ 300 



OUR 
PRICE 
$419 
$449 
$265 
$ 89 
$ 89 
$129 
$189 
$259 
$129 
$299 
$369 
$169 
$220 
$ 69 

$395 
$395 
$189 
$249 
Call 
Call 
Call 
$335 
$235 

$ 35 
$ 75 
$189 
$169 
$ 99 
$395 
$239 
$119 
$179 
$339 
$199 
$269 
$139 
$169 
$179 
$199 
$219 
$239 



1983 CE SOFTWARE AWARD: 

"Copy II PC by Central Point Software is the best CE software buy of 1983. It will 
copy more copy protected software and faster than any other backup system. 
Unlike other copiers it makes an exact duplicate of youroriginal and it does 100% 
verification of copy. Documentation is excellent" 
♦ CENTRAL POINT. Copy II PC. Backup and Utility NEW! $ 40 $ 35 
NORELL DATA. System Backup $ 50 $ 39 

NORTON. Norton Utilities. 14 powerful programs. 3 disks $ 80 $ 65 



HOME & EDUCATIONAL 



AUTOMATED SIMULATIONS. Temple ol Apshai 

Oil Barons 
BRODERBUNO. Apple Panic 

* CONTINENTAL. The Home Accountant Plus 
DATAMOST. Pig Pen or Space Strike, each 
DAVIDSON. The Speed Reader 
INFOCOM. Deadline 

Zork I or Zork II or Zork III, each 

* INSOFT, WordJrix 

QuoTrix 
ON-LINE. Golf Challenge 

Ulysses & The Golden Fleece 
PBL CORP.. Personal Investor 
SENTIENT. Cyborg 

SIRIUS. Conquest or Call to Arms, each 
SPINNAKER. Snooper Troops, Si or #2. each 

Story Machine or Face Maker, each 
STRATEGIC. The Warp Factor 





$ 40 


$ 29 


NEW! 


$ 100 


$ 75 




$ 30 


$ 22 




$ 150 


$112 




$ 30 


$ 22 




$ 75 


$ 55 




$ 50 


$ 39 




$ 40 


$ 29 


NEW! 


$ 35 


$ 29 


NEW! 


$ 35 


$ 29 


NEW! 


$ 25 


$ 19 




$ 35 


$ 25 




$ 145 


$ 99 


NEW! 


$ 35 


$ 25 




$ 30 


$ 23 




$ 45 


$ 35 




$ 35 


$ 25 




$ 40 


$ 30 



DISKETTES 



Control Data Corporation 12 for 10 Special. 
COC, 120 each. 5'.4 with ring, SS. SO (Apple, IBM, etc.) 

12 each, 5U, with ring, SS SO (Apple, IBM, etc.) 

12 each 8". SS. SD 

10 each, 5'/«. SS. DD (H/P. IBM. etc.) 
IBM. 10 each, 5>/<. SS, SD (Apple, IBM, etc.) 

10 each. 5V<. SS. DD (H/P, IBM. etc.) 
VERBATIM. 10 each 5V«. with ring, SS, SD or SS. DD 
MAXELL. 10 each, 5'/«, SS, OD or SS. SO 
OYSAN. 10 each. 5V«, SS. SD 
10 each, 5. DS, DD 



Limited Time! 

$ 450 $195 



$ 22 

$ 28 
$ 49 
$ 45 
$ 49 
$ 28 
$ 35 
$ 39 
$ 49 



• Means a BEST buy. 
Ad #962 



Hot Line For Information 
On Your Order 
(503) 772-3803 




6 4 K I B M - P C ,BM is 3 tr "fernark of IBM Corporation. 

$2850 / " — ' 

System Includes 

Two 320K Disk Drives 

12" Green Amdek Monitor 

90 Day Warranty 

Call For Details And 
Other Configurations 

HARDWARES 

LIST OUR 
PRICE PRICE 
MEMORY CHIP KITS,64Kaddonloyourmemorycards . 9 chips. 

200NS, tested and burnedin. 90 day warranty $ 1 50 $ 59 
Combo Plus. 64K with async. port. $ 495, $359 

Combo Plus. 64K wild parallel port. $ 495 $359 

I Combo Plus, 64K w/async. & para. $ 555 $395 

fvamnv% combo Plus, 64K w/async. para. & clock/cal. $ 595 $429 
For above Combo Plus ol 128K add $85. For 192K add $192. for 
256K add $256- 

BUY VALUE of the YEAR: 

RAM Cards come with DISRAM 1 M soltware. Disk/RAM 
software that makes your RAM look like a disk. 
64K RAM Card (192K when full) 

*2 year warranty 
192K RAM Card + 2 year warranty 
CURTIS. PC PedestalT M lor Display on PC 

9 Foot Cable for IBM Keyboard (extends 3' to 9') 
Mono. Extension Cables. Power and Signal 

r\A\/r\^sri DS1 - 501 Hard °* k - 5 Me * 

UAVUi^U OSl-501. 6 MB Hard Oisk 

DS1-512, 12 MB Hard Disk 

OS1-519. 19 MB Hard Disk 
MAYNARD. Floppy Drive Control Board, for up to 4 drives 

With Serial Port add $40. For Parallel Poit add $70. 



ComX 



64K RAM Card w/Parity 
128K RAM Card w/Panty 
256K RAM Card w/Panty 



$ 395 
$ 675 
$ 80 
$ 50 
$ 55 
$1995 
$1995 
$2495 
$2995 
$ 195 

$ 350 
$ 525 
$ 875 



$149 
$249 
$ 65 
$ 35 
$45 
$1495 
$1495 
$1895 
$2295 
$165 

$259 
$395 
$659 



MICROSOFT 

VXN-.J., Big Blue 

^QUADRAMcogpopaion 

Quadboard. 64K. expandable to 256K, 4 junction boaid $ 595 

Quadboard. 128K. expandable to256K. 4 (unction board $ 775 

Quadboard. 192K, expandable to 256K. 4 lunction board $ 895 

4. Quadboard. 256K. lour function board $ 995 

Microfazer, w/Copy. Par/Par. 8K, HMP8 $ 159 

Microfazer. w/Copy, Par/Par, 64K, #MP64 $ 299 

Microfazer, w/Copy. Par/Par. 128K. KMP128 $ 445 

Microlazer, Snap-on, 8K, Par/Par, Epson, HMEB. w/PSI $ 159 

Microfazer, Snap-on, 64K, Par/Par, Epson. «ME64, w/PSI $ 299 
All Microfazers are expandable (w/copy to 512K) (Snap-on to 64K). 

TG PRODUCTS. Joystick $ 65 

xEDEx*oby *ue 

Control Data OR landon 

DISK DRIVES. Double Sided 320K. Same as now 

supplied with IBM— PC. Tested, burned-in and with 1 each $ 650 $249 

installation instructions. 90 day warranty by us. 2 or more $ 650 $239 



$ 595 $449 



$435 
$565 
$635 
$670 
$119 
$235 
$345 
$145 
$235 

$ 49 



64ft plus 

CP/M-80 operation 
$ 600 $399 



PRINTERS AND ACCESSORIES 



EPSON. CALL 

Jf NEC. Dol Matrix. 8023 Printer F/T $ 695 

STAR MiCRONICS. 9x9 DotMatrix,10Ocps.2.3K.Geminil0 N $ 499 

9x9 Dot Matrix, lOOcps, 2.3K. Gemini 15" $ 649 

ANADEX. DP8000 Dot Matrix, 120cps, Serial & Cent. Para.l/F $ 995 
EPSON. 

IBM-PC to Epson or Star Micronics $ 60 

Apple Interlace and Cable for Epson $ 95 

Grappler* by Orange Micro, specify printer $ 165 

Apple Graphics Dump Program $ 15 

APPLE COMPUTER INC.. Silentype Printer lor Apple II $ 395 
LETTER QUALITY - DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS: 
OLYMPIA, ES-100. Printer/Typewriter, complete with serial 

interlacing to the Apple II or IBM-PC $1735 $1295 

COMREX. Comriter CR1. RS232 Serial l/F. 200 wpm $1199 $845 

Comriter Tractor Feed for CR-1 $ 1 18 $ 99 

SUPPLIES: Tractor Feed Paper, Ribbons. Heads, Qume Daisy Wheels & Ribbons. 



CALL 
$525 
$385 
$495 
$495 

% 45 
$ 59 
$119 
$ 9 
$335 



8" CP/M-80 

BUSINESS & SYSTEM SOFTWARE 

* ASHTON-TATE dBase II 

COM SHARE TARGET. Target PlannerCalc 
Masterplanner 

PlannerCalc Applications Pkg. 
PlannerCatc Combo Pkg. 
INFOCOM. Deadline 

Zork I or Zork II or Zork III or Starcross, each 
ISM. MatheMagic 

MICROCRAFT. Legal Billing & Time Keeping 
"k Prof. Billing & Time Keeping — Billkeeper 

MICROPRO. WordStar® plus free WordStar Training Manual 
MailMerge™ 
SpellStar m 
3 Pak, Word & Mail & Spell. 3 above 

NEW! 



InfoStar 
ReportStar 



NEW 



Multiplan 
Fortran 80 
BASIC Compiler 
COBOL-80 
BASIC-80 

muLisp/muStar-80 
M-Sort-80 
Edit 80 
Macro-80 
OASIS. The Word Plus (45,000 word verification) 
PEACHTREE. Magic Wand 

Series 4 GL, AR, AP or Inventory, each 
Series 8 GL, AR, AP, Inv. or Pay. each 
Series 9 Peach Text 
Series 9 Spelling Proofreader 
Series 9 Calc. Mail List or Telecomm.. each 
PERFECT SOFTWARE, Perfect Writer T M 
Perfect Speller 1 M 
Perfect Filer 



LIST 
PRICE 
$ 700 
$ 99 
$ 325 
$ 50 
$ 125 
$ 60 
$ 50 
$ 100 
$ 750 
$ 750 
$ 495 
$ 250 
$ 250 
$ 845 
$ 495 
$ 350 
$ 275 
$ 500 
$ 395 
$ 750 
$ 350 
$ 200 
$ 195 
$ 120 
$ 200 
$ 150 
$ 500 
$ 600 
$ 750 
$ 500 
$ 300 
$ 375 
$ 389 
$ 189 
$ 289 



OUR 
PRICE 
$419 
$ 39 
$225 
$ 40 
$ 65 
$ 45 
$ 39 
$ 75 
$395 
$395 
$249 
$ 79 
Call 
Call 
$335 
$235 
$199 
$325 
$295 
$545 
$275 
$145 
$145 
$ 80 
$145 
Call 
$195 
$395 
$495 
$330 
$195 
$245 
$239 
$119 
$179 



MONITORS 



NEC. 12" Green 

12" Color, Composite 

SANYO, 9" B&W 
9" Green 
12" Green 

13" Color. Composite 
13" Color RGB 

ZENITH. 12" Green 

AMDEK. 12" Green #300 

13" Color I, Composite 

13" Color II. RGB. Hi Res. (Ap. II, III & IBM-PC) 

13" Color III, RGB, Commercial. (Ap. II, III) 

DVM. Color II or III to Apple II Interface 

Note: Color II and III come with cable lor IBM-PC. 



$ 249 
$ 450 
$ 190 
$ 200 
$ 260 
$ 470 
$ 995 
$ 150 
$ 200 
$ 449 
$ 899 
$ 569 
$ 199 



$159 
$349 
$149 
$139 
$199 
$349 
$795 
$119 
$159 
$359 
$799 
$469 
$175 



MODEMS AND 
TELE COMMUNICATIONS TERMINAL 

HAYES. Micromodem II (tor the Apple II) $ 379 $275 

Apple Terminal Program for Micromodem II $ 99 $ 69 

MICROCOM. Micro Courier lor Apple II $ 250 $125 

Micro Telegram for Apple II $ 250 $125 

SSM. Transcend 1 lor Apple II Data Comm. $89 $69 

NOVATION. Apptecat II Modem $ 389 $269 

212 Apple Cat $ 725 $599 

HAYES, Stock Chronograph (RS-232) $ 249 $189 

Stock Smartmodem (RS-232) $ 289 $225 

Smartmodem 1200 (RS-232) $ 699 $535 

Micromodem 100 (S-100 bus) % 399 $275 

SIGNALMAN. Modem MKI (RS-232) $ 99 $ 79 

IBM-PC to Modem Cable $ 39 $ 29 

AXLON. Datalink 1000 Hand Held Communications Terminal $ 399 $325 



**CORVUS SYSTEMS 

* 6 Meg Hard Disk, w/o interface $2995 $1895 

* * 11 Meg Hard Disk, w/o interface $4795 $2695 

20 Meg Hard Disk, w/o interface $5795 $3495 

IBM PC Interface (IBM DOS), Manual & Cable 5 $ 300 $239 

Mirror built in for easy backup $ 790 $595 

Apple Interlace, Manual & Cable 5 $ 300 $239 

Omni Disk Server for Apple II (Special) $ 990 $495 

Omni Transporter Card Apple II (Special) $ 495 $275 

Dmni Junction Box Set (Special) $ 39 $25 
Other Interfaces, OmniNet. Constellation. Mirror. All in Stock. 



m 



H/P 7470A Graphics Plotter $1550 $1195 

H/P 4 1C Calculator $ 195 $149 

H/P 41CV Calculator with 2.2K Memory $ 275 $219 
Full 41 accessory and software in stock. Call. 



Portland. OR Cash & Carry Outlet. 11507-D SW Pacific Hwy.. Terrace Shop- 
ping Center, Portland. OR. Over-the-counter safes only. On 99W between Rte. 
217 and Interstate 5. Open M-F 10-6. Sat. 10-3. Call 245-1020. 



ORDERING INFORMATION AND TERMS: All items iusually mstock.'We immediately honor Cashiers Checks, Money Orders, Fortune 1000 
Checks and Government Checks. Personal or Company Checks allow 20 days to clear. No C.O.D. Add 3% for VISA or MC. Include telephone number. Add 3% for shipping, 
insurance and handling (S.I&H) with $5 minimum. UPS ground is standard so add 3% more for UPS Blue with $10 minimum. Add 12% total for S.I&H lor US Postal, APO or FPO 
with $15 minimum. For Hawaii, Alaska and Canada. UPS is in someareasonly, all others are Postal so call, write, or specify PO. Foreign orders except Canada for S.I&H add 18% 
or $25 minimum except for monitors add 30% or $50 minimum. Prices subject to change and typo errors, so call to verify. All goods are new. include factory warranty and 
are guaranteed to work. Due to our low prices, all salesarefinal. Call before returmnggoods for repair or replacement. Orders received with insufficent S.I&H charges will 
be relunded. ORDER DESK HOURS 8 to 6 PST M-F and 10 to 4 Sat. 1 PM here is 4 PM in NY. 

nno nrrrnriur»rc We have been a computer dealer since 1978 and in mail order since 1980. Banks: First interstate Bank. (503) 776-5620 and Jefferson 
UUK KbrbKblMUboi StaleBank, (503) 773-5333. We belong to the Chamber of Commerce. (503) 772-6293. or call Dun & Bradstreet if you are a subscriber. 
Computer Exchange is a division of O'Tech Group, Inc. 



Professionals 



.M. 



<i f THEY WANT ANT) KNOW HOW TO USE IT. 



Manufactured g] b^ & Howell by wipplG Computer 

Exclusively for l = y ^^* 

CALL US ON THE APPLE HE 



The B&H Apple 11+ differs from tht 
Apple Apple IK only in that it is in 
black hammertone color and its 
warranty is longer. 
Warranty: Factory warranty is by 
Bell and Howell (not by Apple) and 
is one year parts plus90 day labor 
Warranty service available at Bell 
and Howell service centers or 
return to Computer Exchange. 



B&H APPLE 11 + 

64K (4BK+0UR 16K CARD) 

Disk, Micro Sci A2 w/3.3 Controller 

Disk, Micro Sci A2 Only 



LIST OUR 

PRICE PRICE 

$1725 $1150 

$ 579 $ 378 

$ 479 $ 299 



cippkzii/n+/iiE 

supply center 



HARDWARE 

for Apple II 





B&H APPLE 11+ 

64K STARTER SYSTEM r f '$1,595 

r SAVE$ 834 

• 48K B&H APPLE 11+ 

• ComXI6K RAM Card. 2 Year Warranty 

• Micro Sci A2 Disk Drive with 3.3 Controller 

• Central Point Filer, Apple 11+ 3.3 DDS plus many 
utility programs 

• Sanyo 9" Green Monitor 

• Rf Modulator (for color TV) 

• Game Paddles 

• Game with Color Graphics and Sound 



I FORTHEAPPLEII/IKHI 
DIRECT SUBSTITUTES 
MICRO-SCI for APPLE DRIVES 
Micro-Sci A2 drives and/or controllers are direct plug 
compatible substitutes for Apple drives and controllers. 
LIST OUR 
PRICE PRICE 
For Appie II 

A2.5U". 143KDisk Drive $479 $299 

Controller Card for A2 Drive $ 100 $ 79 

A40, 5'V, 160K Disk Drive $ 449 $339 

A70. 5'r, 286K Disk Drive $ 599 $459 

Controller for A40 or A70 $ 100 $ 79 

Filer, Disk Utility Software $ 20 $ 15 



LIST OUR 

PRICE PRICE 

* RAM EXPANSION: 

* ComX RAM Card 16K $ 179 $ 49 

* ALS. ADDRam 16K $ 149 $ 79 
m Microsoft. RAMCard 16K $ 100 $ 89 
m. Saturn Systems. RAM Card 32K $ 249 $169 

RAM Card 64K $ 425 $319 

Axlon. RAM Card 128K $ 475 $375 

RAM Disk System 320K $1395 $995 

80 COLUMN VIDEO CARDS: 

4 ALS. Smarterm II $ 179 $139 

Dirt Cheap Video $ 89 $ 69 

Color II % 179 $139 

Videx. Videoterm $ 345 $229 

Vista, Vision 80 $ 395 $199 

MISCELLANEOUS: 

ALS. The CP/M Card $ 399 $299 

ZCard $ 169 $129 

16K ADDRam Special $ 149 $ 79 

Synergizer w/S'calc + Condor $749 $529 

Axlon. 320K RAM Disk System $1395 $995 

ASTAR. RF Modulator $ 35 $ 25 

CCS. Serial Interface 7710A $150 $129 

Other CCS Cards in stock Call Call 

Dan Paymar, Lower Case Chips $ 50 $39 

Don't Ask, DAO-003 S A Mouth $ 125 $ 85 

4 Eastside. Wild Card, copier $130 $99 

Kensington. System Saver $ 90 $ 69 

Kraft. Joystick $ 65 $ 49 

Paddle $ 50 $ 39 

M&R. Sup R fan $ 50 $ 39 

* Microsoft. Z80 Softcard $ 345 $245 
if Softcard Premium Pack$ 695 $495 

Z80 Softcard Plus $ 645 $459 

16K RAMCard $ 100 $ 89 

Mountain. CPS Multifunction Card$ 239 $199 

Orange Micro, Grappler Plus $ 165 $119 

Practical Peripherals. 

MBS 8K Serial (Epson) $ 159 $129 

MBP16K Para (Epson) $ 159 $129 

Microbulfer II 16K. (specify) $ 259 $209 

Microbuffer II 32K. (specify) $ 299 $229 

* PCPI. Appli Card. 14 features. 

6 Mhz $ 595 $435 

RH Electronics. Super Fan II $ 75 $ 59 

SSM.AlOll.Serial/Para.lnterfaceS 225 $169 

TG Products. Game Paddles $ 40 $ 29 

Joystick $ 60 $ 45 

SelectA-Port $ 60 $ 45 

* Videx. Videoterm 80 col. $ 345 $229 

Soft Video Switch $ 35 $ 25 

Enhancer II $ 149 $ 99 

Function Strip $ 79 $ 59 

PSI0. Para/Ser Interface $ 229 $169 

Full Videx Line. Call. Up to 35% off. 

WICO. Trackball $ 80 $ 55 











LIST 


OUR 










PRICE 


PRICE 


CrYCTTIfH TI 


)T2 






Budgeco, Raster Blaster $ 29 


$ 22 


jUr 1 WAr 


[h 


LIST 


OUR 


4- Continental. Home Accountant $ 75 


$49 


on disk for Apple II/II+/IIE 


PRICE 
Perfect, Perfect Writer $ 389 


PRICE 
$239 


Datamost, Snack Attack $ 30 
Datasoft.CanyonClimber New! $ 30 


$ 24 

$ 23 






Perfect Speller $ 189 


$119 


Edu-Ware, Several in stock Call 


Call 






Perfect Filer $ 289 
Quality. GBS w/3 gen. (a DBMS) $ 650 
Sensible. Sens. Speller, specify $ 125 


$179 
$475 
$ 85 


Auto. Simulations, 

Introductory 3-Pack $ 50 
Hayden, Sargon II (Chess) $ 35 




BUSINESS 


$ 35 


LIST 
PRICE 


OUR 
PRICE 


$ 29 


^ Silcon Valley. Word Handler $ 250 


$139 


Infocom. Deadline $ 50 


$ 38 


Sof./Sys., Executive Secretary $ 250 


$169 


Jf Insoft, Electric Duet by Lutus $ 30 


$ 25 


Apple Computer. Inc. 




Executive Speller $ 75 


$ 55 


Zargs New' $ 35 


$ 27 


The Controller GL. AR. AP $ 625 


$299 


* Solidus. Stockfile $ 600 


$350 


Spider Raid New! $ 30 


$ 24 


Apple Fortran $ 200 


$159 


Stockseller $ 700 


$450 


Lightning. Mastertype $ 40 


$ 29 


How to 1 (Educational) $ 50 


$ 25 


Systems Plus 




Microsoft, Olympic Decathlon $ 30 


$ 24 


Apple Logo $ 175 


$149 


Acctg. Plus, General Ledger $ 425 


$295 


Typing Tutor II $ 25 


$ 15 


50% off other Apple Inc. software 


Call 


Acctg. Plus. GL, AP and A/R $ 995 


$595 


Muse, Robot War $ 40 


$ 29 


Applied Soft Tech.. VersaForm $389 


$265 


Acctg. Plus, above + Inventory $1395 


$775 


Castle Wolfenstein $ 30 


$ 23 


Artsci, MagicWindow II New! $ 150 


$ 99 


Software Publishing, PFS II $ 125 


$ 85 


On-Line. Frogger New! $ 35 
Ultima II $ 55 


$ 25 


AshtonTate. dBase II (CP/M) $ 700 


$439 


Report $ 95 


$ 65 


$ 40 


Continental, GL, AR, AP or PR. ea. $ 250 


$169 


Graph $ 125 


i 85 


Softporn (X Rated) $ 30 
Piccadilly. Warp Destroyer $ 30 
Sirius, Gorgon $ 40 
Sir-Tec. Wizardry $ 50 
Knight of Diamonds. New! $ 35 
Sub Logic, Flight Simulator $ 34 
Pinball $ 30 


$ 22 
$ 23 
$ 29 
$ 39 
$ 26 
$ 25 
$ 23 


1st Class Mail $ 75 
Home Accountant $ 75 


$ 49 
$ 49 


Southeastern Data Capture, call to soecifv 
STC, The Creator NEW! $ 200 


$139 


Hayden. Pie Writer (Specify brd.) $ 170 


$ 99 


Stoneware. DB Master $ 229 


$155 


<fc High Tech., Job Cost System $ 750 
Info Master $ 189 
Howard Soft, 


$350 
$119 


DB Utility 1 or II $ 99 
Videx. 
-+C Applewriter II preboot disk $ 20 


$ 69 
$ 15 


Real Estate Analyzer II $ 195 


$129 


Visicalc to 64K preboot disk % 50 


$ 39 


Strategic. Southern Command $ 60 
OTHER BRANDS IN STOCK. CALL. 


$ 45 


Tax Preparer $ 150 


$ 99 


Viscalc to 176K preboot disk $ 90 


S 69 




Info. Unlim., Easywriter (PRO) $ 175 
-y. ISA, Spellguard (CP/M) $295 


$119 
$ 99 


VisiCorp/Personal Software, 
* Visicalc 3.3 $ 250 


$179 










UK, Letter Perfect w/MailMerge $ 150 


$ 99 


VisiDex Special! $ 250 


$150 


WHILE THEY LAST 




* Micro Craft, (CP/M) 

Professional Biflkeeper $ 750 

Legal Billing & Timekeeping $ 750 

Micro Lab, Invoice Factory $ 200 


$395 
$395 
$ 99 


VisiFile $ 250 


$179 


• OVERSTOCK SPECIALS • 

FOR APPLE 11/11+ 


UTILITY & DEVELOPMENT 


Beagle, Utility City $ 30 


$ 22 


ComX 16K RAM Card, 2 Yr. Warranty $ 1 79 


$49 


Tax Manager $ 150 


$ 99 


DOS Boss $ 24 


$ 18 


Microsoft 16K RAMCard $ 195 


$ 89 


Micro Pro. (all CP/M) 




Apple Mechanic New! $ 30 


$ 22 


Saturn Systems, 32K RAM Card $ 249 


$169 


WordStar* ^Training Manual $ 495 


$199 


Central Point Software 




AtS Synergizer Pack, 




MailMerge™' $ 250 


S 69 


* Filer. DOS Utility $ 20 


$ 15 


Supercalc plus Condor Jr. $ 749 


$529 


SpellStar™ $ 250 


Call 


jy. Copy II Plus (bit copier) $ 40 


$ 35 


Videx Videoterm, 80 column card $ 345 


$229 


SPECIAL! All 3 above $ 895 


Call 


Epson, Graphics Dump $ 15 


$ 9 


CCS. Serial Interface 7710A $ 150 


$129 


Data Star™- $295 


Call 


Insoft, 




Centronics Interface 7728 S 110 


$ 85 


Microsoft. Multi-Plan (CP/M) $ 275 


$175 


GraFORTH by Paul Lulus $ 75 


$ 59 


Calender Clock 7424A $ 120 


$ 95 


Multi-Plan (DOS 3.3) New! $ 275 


$175 


TransFORTH II by Paul Lutus $ 125 
Microsoft, 


$ 99 


Centronics Interface 7720B $ 120 


$95 


Muse, Super Text 40/80 $ 175 


$129 








Super Text40/56/70 New! $ 125 
Jf On-Line, Screenwriter II $ 130 


$ 95 
$ 89 


A.L.D.S. $ 125 
BASIC Compiler $ 395 


$ 75 

$299 


This Month t)U /O VI 1 While They Last 


The Dictionary New! % 100 


$ 69 


Cobol 80 $ 750 


$559 


VIC 20 and VIC 20 Hardware and Software 




GeneralManagerllNew! $ 230 


$155 


Fortran 80 $ 195 


$149 


ATARI, 400 and 800 Peripherals and Software 


Dsborne/C.P. Soft. (Disk and Book) 




TASC Compiler $ 175 


$159 


REC. 8001 Hardware and Software 




jf- Some Common Basic Programs. 




.*£ Omega, Locksmith (bit copier) $ 100 


$ 75 


XEROX 820 Computer System, with Drives 




75 Business. Statistics and Math 




Penguin, Comp.GraphicsSys. New! % 70 


$ 53 


Moniter and CP/M, was$3,695,now$l,495 


programs for the Apple II $ 100 


$ 49 


Graphics Magician Newlj 60 


$41 


ANADEX. DP8000, Dot Matrix Printer, $495 




*f Practical Basic Programs 




Phoenix. Zoom Grafix $ 40 


$ 29 


A A LU N The Leader in Atari Add o 




40 more very valuable programs 




Quality. Bag of Tricks New! $ 40 


$ 29 


rs 


beyond "Some Com BasicProg" $ 100 

Peachtree. Requires CP/M and MBASIC. 
Specify Videoterm or 40 columns. 
Series 40 GL & AR & AP. all 3 $ 595 


$ 49 

$3$: 


Sensible, Back It Up, (bit copier) $ 60 


$ 49 


M Rampower 128K System 
■ ^ {for the Atari 800) $ 475 
VI^ Rampower 48K Module 
ZJLXi { for400 > 5 185 
ATARI Rampower 32K 


$350 
$135 


HOME & EDUCATION 


Broderbund, 
Apple Panic $ 30 


$ 21 


Series 40 Inv. or Pay., ea. $ 400 
Series9Text&Spell&Mail.all3 $ 595 
Series 80 GL&AR&AP, Videx $ 595 


$275 
$395 
$395 


Arcade Machine $ 45 
Choplifter New! $ 35 
Many others 


$ 40 
$ 26 
Call 


(for the Atari 400 or 800) S 120 $ 89 
Free with above 3: Ramscan, Diagnostic Diskette. 



Ad #962 



THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPUTER MAILORDER FIRM 



Computer Exchange 

ALL MAIL: P.O. Box 23068, Portland, OR 97005 

SHOWROOM AT 11507D SW PACIFIC HWY., PORTLAND, OR, OPEN M-F 10-6 



ORDERDESK TOLL FREE 

(800) 547-1289 

All Other Orders Including Oregon: 772-3256 



Circle 470 for IBM Peripherals Circle 471 for Apple Circle 472 for all others 



Will Removable Hard Disks 
Replace the Floppy? 

Improved data-storage technologies may eventually 

eliminate floppy disks. 



Larry Sarisky 

Syquest Technology 

47923 Warm Springs Blvd. 

Fremont, CA 94539 



The floppy-disk drive has been the 
method of choice for data storage for 
several years now. But like all de 
facto standards, its dominance is be- 
ing challenged, in this case by the 
development of a new storage 
medium — the removable hard-disk 
cartridge. 

The cartridge appears to offer all 
the advantages of the floppy disk as 
well as increased storage capacity and 
access speed. But before describing 
this new method of data storage, let's 
take a look at how and why floppy 
disks were developed. 

When IBM introduced the 
System/360 computers, their low- 
level microcode programs were 

About the Author 

Larry Sarisky is the vice-president of sales and 
marketing for Syquest Technology. He has 
more than 12 years' experience in marketing 
data-storage products. 



stored in read-only memory (ROM). 
By the time the IBM 370 was 
developed, however, semiconductor 
technology had advanced so far that 
microcode storage could be im- 
plemented in semiconductor 
memory. This memory was volatile, 



Newer microprocessors 

can make use of 

virtual storage only 

with the faster access 

speeds offered by hard 

disks. 



so a microcode loading-and-storage 
device was necessary. Magnetic tape 
was considered, but the need for 
loading diagnostic programs as well 
as microcode presented a problem. So 
in 1973, IBM developed a cheap disk 



and drive that provided the random- 
access speed needed for diagnostic- 
program loading. This low-cost, flex- 
ible disk gave IBM an economical 
random-access program-loading 
device. And once such a device was 
available, it was easy to add a write 
capability for data storage. Semicon- 
ductor technology and the IBM 370 
had set the stage for the floppy disk, 
the data-storage medium that helped 
launch the small-computer revolu- 
tion. 

The revolution, however, was 
spearheaded not by IBM but by in- 
dependent manufacturers of floppy 
disks such as Shugart Associates and 
Memorex, who saw the value of low- 
cost, random-access storage for 
smaller computers. By 1975, 27 in- 
dependent suppliers were producing 
8-inch floppy-disk drives. 

The new medium for storage 
offered potent advantages. As 



110 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



UP TO BETTER 
PERFORMANCE! 



NEW PRODUCTS 

(qty. 1-3 prices) 

STD801 and 811 Card Cages 

Black anodized aluminum card cages, with mother- 
board and card retainer bar for use in high vibration 
areas. Specify bottom mount (801) or back mount 
(81 1). $225 (8 slot motherboard), $265 (1 2 slots), 
$305 (16 slots). 

STD 881 "NEMA 1 2" Computer 
Enclosure 

Intended for unfriendly industrial environments. 
Splash-proof (oil and dust tight) box includes 8 slot 
motherboard, card cage, card retainer bar, switching 
power supply ( + 5V @ 6A, +12V @ 1A, -12V 

V2A),115V AC input. $595. Options: 12 and 16 slot 
motherboards, stainless steel enclosure, EMI/RFI 
shielding. Call for quote on options. 

S-1 OO/IEEE 696 ZIF Extender Board 

(#ZB-1) 

Zero Insertion Force greatly simplifies board testing 
and substitution. 3000+ insertion/extraction cycles. 
Includes fuses on + 8V and ± 16V lines, ground post, 
41 x 17 hole kluge area (0.1" grid), and power-to-board 
switch with LED indicator. $159 



STD BUS 
COMPONENTS 

(qty. 1-3 prices) 



STD 001. Flat cable terminated 
prototyping board. $49 
STD 002. Dual 18 edge connector 
terminated prototyping board. $54 
STD 003- Terminal block terminated prototyping board. $59 
STD 101. Extender board, 8.4" long. $59 
STD 201. 8 channel TRIAC (4A/117V) output board. $229 
STD 211.8 channel opto-isolated line voltage input board. $194 
STD 221. 8 channel SPST reed relay output board. $169 
STD 231 . 8 channel low voltage isolated input board. $194 
STD MBD*. 8 slot ($135) or 16 slot ($175) high speed motherboard. 
STD 16K RAM*. 16K X 8 static memory card. $325 
STD CPU Z*. 4 MHz Z80 CPU board with serial I/O and sockets for 8K of RAM/ROM. $335 

Circle 299 on inquiry card. 

For more information, call Mullen Computer Products at (415) 783-2866 
or write MCP Inc., Box 6214, Hayward, CA 94544. 

"OEM products manufactured by CompuPro division of Godbout Electronics; distributed via MCP Inc., a Godbout affiliate. 








Photo 1: A size comparison of the 3. 9-inch removable hard-disk cartridge drive with 
standard 5 l A- and 8-inch floppy-disk drives. The cartridge drive is 1.625 by 4.8 by 8 
inches. 



Business Week reported in a May 17, 
1976, article, "Each standard disk 
(floppy) has the data-storage capacity 
of 3000 punched cards. The disks are 
also reusable, easier to store and 
mail, and inexpensive." The article 
also predicted that "a new market 
segment is opening up thanks to the 
development of the cheapest of com- 
puters — the microprocessor or com- 
puter-on-a-chip." 
As these prophetic words were 



written, Shugart Associates was 
developing a lower-cost SVWnch 
flexible-disk drive. It was this drive 
that signaled the decline of cassette 
tape. The 5V4-inch floppy-disk drives 
and media cost less than comparable 
cassette-based storage. They offered 
an average access time of about half a 
second compared to the cassette's 20 
seconds. And their error rate was two 
orders of magnitude better than that 
of cassettes. 



The Winchester Disk 

While lower-cost 5V4-inch floppy 
disks gained most of the attention in 
1976, Memorex saw another IBM- 
developed storage technology that 
could be used in small computers. Its 
Model 601 hard disk was the first 
small Winchester system to be 
available from a source other than 
IBM. By protecting the read/write 
heads and disk platters in a sealed en- 
vironment, the Winchester could 
deliver higher data-storage capacities, 
faster access, and greater reliability at 
a lower cost per byte. While the 601's 
disk diameter was a hefty 14 inches, 
successive Winchester-technology 
disk drives reduced it to 8 inches and 
then 5Vi inches. 

The history of disk storage has 
been a tale of increasing compactness. 
The first 14-inch Winchester-type 
drives paralleled established storage- 
module devices. The 8-inch Win- 
chester followed the 8-inch floppy 
disk. The 5V4-inch drive was com- 
patible in size with its corresponding 



It's not Magic, it's NEC. 



NEC distributors 
pull miraclek out of 
a thimble. 

NEC Spinwriters." Their supernatural reliability 
and versatility have made them the world's most 
popular letter-quality printers. Here are some of the 
miracles they can perform for you. 

The Spinwriters' rapidly growing catalog of print 
thimbles give you incredible versatility, One NEC 
thimble can print in 35 different languages. Another 
has complete technical and mathematical symbols. 
Another a full scientific symbol font, The thimbles 
snap in and out in seconds. And they each last for 
more than 30 million impressions. 

Of all printer companies/on/y NEC designs and 
manufactures its own comprehensive family of 
forms handlers. We've got eight of them, enough to 
handle any form you can conjure up. They're all user- 
changeable, too. 

Spinwriters have remarkable reliability, more 
than two years between failures in normal usage. 
And they need no preventive maintenance or 





routine lubrication. Ever. With only 3 major 
spares, mean time to repair is only 
15 minutes. 

The NEC Spinwriters. Reliable, quiet, 
compact flexible and easy to use. 
For more information on NEC Spin- 
writers, or to find out how to become 
an NEC distributor yourself, contact the 
authorized NEC distributor nearest you. 

Spinwriter is a trademark of 
Nippon Electric Co.. Ltd. 

NEC 

NEC Information Systems, Inc. 



floppy disk. And, finally, the 
3.9-inch hard-disk cartridge (see 
photo 1) parallels the newer 
"microfloppies." 

The Need for Better Disks 

The development of 16-bit pro- 
cessors, more complex operating 
systems, and multiuser, multitasking 
configurations has increased the need 
for hard-disk capacity, reliability, 
and speed. Newer processors can 
make use of virtual storage only with 
the faster access speeds of hard disks. 
Operating systems such as Unix 
have a large assortment of utilities 
that won't fit on a floppy. To perform 
multiple tasks for multiple users, 
systems required the capacity and ac- 
cess speed available only from hard 
disks. 

Microcomputer applications are 
becoming far more sophisticated. A 
business accounting system can re- 
quire a box of 10 floppy disks. A 
high-resolution digitizing camera 
may need more than a megabyte of 
data storage for a single picture. 



Database-management systems, com- 
puter graphics, English-language- 
based programming, extensive menus, 
and broad-based application packages 
all require faster access to a larger 
amount of data than a single floppy 
disk can hold. 



If a fixed disk crashes, 

it can be replaced only 

by a factory technician. 



The Limitations of Fixed Disks 

While fixed-disk Winchester drives 
are suitable for many applications, 
they present severe integration prob- 
lems for smaller computer systems 
that now use one or two 5V4-inch 
floppy-disk drives. The 14-inch drive 
is simply too big and too heavy to be 
integrated into many existing 
systems. It also requires a more 
sophisticated interface and both AC 
and DC power-supply voltages. 

The smaller 5V4- and 8-inch Win- 



chester drives have proved to be more 
practical for small systems, but they 
are no panacea. Although they're 
smaller than the 14-inch drives, they 
still may be too large for some 
systems. Why? Because most systems 
have required both removable and 
fixed media. If the current system has 
been designed for one or two 5V4-inch 
floppy disks, there may not be room 
to add a fixed-disk drive. 

The user must also worry about the 
possibility of a fixed-disk failure. If 
the fixed disk crashes, it can be 
replaced only by a trained technician. 
Even worse, data may be lost forever. 
For this reason, most users back up 
important programs and files on flop- 
py disks or tape. Unfortunately, the 
floppy disk is often inadequate for 
backup. Small Winchester drives 
have capacities that range from 5 to 
80 megabytes. Backing up that much 
storage on floppy disks is inconve- 
nient and slow. And although tape 
can be used for backup, it lacks the 
random access, reliability, and ser- 
viceability of disk storage. 




ALABAMA 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

(205) 883-8660 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

(205) 837-8700 
Huntsville, AL 

ALASKA 

Transalaska Data Sys., Inc. 

Anchorage, AK 
(907) 276-5616 

ARIZONA 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

602) 243-6601 

International Data Systems 
(602) 231-0888 
Phoenix, AZ 

The Phoenix Group, Inc. 
Tempe, AZ 
(602) 894-9247 

Spirit Electronics 

Scottsdafe, AZ 
(602) 998-1533 



CALIFORNIA 

Byle Industries 
(415) 783-8272 
ComputerLand Corp. 

(415) 487-5000 
Hayward, CA 

Consolidated Data Terminals 

Oakland, CA 

(415) 638-1222 

Data Systems Marketing 

San Diego. CA 

(619) 560-9222 

Eakins Associates, Inc. 

Mountain View. CA 

(415) 969-4533 

Electronic Mktg. Specialists 

Tustin, CA 

(714) 832-9920 

Electronic Mktg. Specialists 

Sunnyvale, CA 

(408) 245-9291 

Electronic Mktg. Specialists 

Reseda, CA 

(213) 708-2055 

Electronic Mktg. Specialists 

San Diego, CA 

(619) 560-5133 

Emerson Enterprises 

San Ramon, CA 

(415) 837-8728 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Sunnyvale, CA 

(408) 773-9990 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

San Diego, CA 

(619) 268-1201 

Leasametrlc 

Foster City, CA 

(415) 574-4441 



Leasametrlc 

Culver City, CA 
(213) 670-0461 
Micro Business World 
Tarzana, CA 
(213) 996-2252 

RC Data, Inc. 

San Jose, CA 
(408) 946-3800 
Renaissance Tech. Corp. 
Concord, CA 
(415) 676-5757 
Terminal Rentals, Inc. 
Tustin, CA 
(714) 832-2414 

Terminal Rentals, Inc. 

San Jose, CA 

(408) 292-9915 

United States Data Systems 

San Mateo, CA 

(415) 572-6600 

Vltek 

San Marcos, CA 

(714) 744-8305 

Waybern Corp. 

Garden Grove, CA 

(714) 554-4520 

Western Mlcrotechnology 

Cupertino, CA 

(408) 725-1662 

COLORADO 

Acorn Data Products 

Englewood, CO 

(303) 779-6644 

Data Design & Development 

(303) 296-3807 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

(303) 934-3111 

Denver, CO 

FLORIDA 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Orlando. FL 
(305) 425-5505 



W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Fort Lauderdale, FL 

(305) 776-4800 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Melbourne, FL 

(305) 723-0766 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Tampa, FL 

(813) 985-0394 

Cain ABultman, Inc. 

Jacksonville, FL 

(904) 356-4812 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Fort Lauderdale, FL 

(305) 971-9280 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Orlando, FL 

(305) 855-4020 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

St. Petersburg, FL 

(813) 576-8691 

GEORGIA 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Atlanta. GA 

(404)455-1035 

Digital Solutions, Inc. 

Marietta, GA 

(404) 955-4488 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Norcross. GA 

(404) 447-8000 

HAWAII 

Gray Associates 

Kailua, HI 
(808) 261-3751 

ILLINOIS 

Dytec/Central, Inc. 

Arlington Heights. IL 
(312) 394-3380 
Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 
Bensenville, IL 
(312) 860-3800 




Photo 2: Syquest Technology SQ-306 removable-cartridge hard-disk drive. The car- 
tridge (shown at left) is inserted into the drive unit, shown with its top cover and drive 
door removed. 



In spite of these limitations, small 
hard-disk drives have become the 
hottest products in data storage. 
Almost every computer manufacturer 
now offers Winchester hard-disk 
storage, as either a standard system 
component or an option. Why, then, 
are floppy disks still needed? Because, 
until recently, they enjoyed two 
critical advantages over hard disks: 
they were removable and cheap. 



The Hard-Disk Cartridge 

Floppy disks can no longer in- 
herently claim those advantages over 
hard disks, following the develop- 
ment of a new generation of 
removable, pocket-sized hard-disk 
cartridges and drives such as the Sy- 
quest SQ-306. Cartridges can be 
replaced when they're full, and, like 
floppy disks, they can be transported 
from one computer to another (see 



photo 2). [Editor's Note: The Syquest 
removable-cartridge hard-disk drive 
is not a Winchester drive because the 
read/write heads are not permanently 
sealed with the disk, as is the case in 
true Winchester technology . . . 
R. S. S.] 

But not all hard-disk cartridges can 
compete with the floppy disk. Car- 
tridge drives are now available in 
three sizes: 3.9, SVa, and 8 inches. All 
three sizes share the same basic tech- 
nology, but their prices differ sig- 
nificantly. Eight-inch cartridge drives 
cost $1500 or more. The smaller 
5V4-inch drives cost more than $1000. 
The still smaller 3.9-inch drives cost 
less than $800. Smaller cartridges also 
cost less. The 8-inch cartridge can 
cost more than $100, the 5V4-inch 
about $50, and the 3.9-inch about 
$35. 

Although all three sizes are gaining 
acceptance, many industry analysts 
believe that only the 3.9-inch hard- 
disk cartridge is inexpensive enough 
to compete with floppy-disk drives 



Information Systems, Inc. 

Arlington Heights, IL 
(312) 228-5480 
Kaltronlcs 
Northbrook, IL 
(312) 291-1220 
Nablh's, Inc. 
Evanston, IL 
(312)869-6140 
Tek-Aids Industries, Inc. 
ArlingtonHeights, IL 
(312) 870-7400 

INDIANA 

Dy tec/Central, Inc. 
Indianapolis, IN 
(317)247-1316 
General Microcomputer 
South Bend. IN 
(219) 277-4972 

Graham Etec. Supply, Inc. 

Indianapolis, IN 
(317) 634-8202 



n 



Star-Tronic Distributor Co. 

Car met. IN 
(317) 844-0102 

IOWA 

Dytec/Central, Inc. 

(319) 363-9377 

KANSAS 

Hail-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Lenexa, KS 
(913) 888-4747 
Inland Associates, Inc. 

Olathe, KS 
(913) 764-7977 



LOUISIANA 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Mandeville, LA 
(504) 626-9701 

MARYLAND 

Bartlett Associates, Inc. 

Bethesda, MD 
(301) 656-3061 
Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Baltimore. MD 
(301) 796-9300 

M/A-Com Alanthus 

(301) 770-1150 

Micro Distributors, Inc. 

(800) 638-6621 
Rockville, MD 
TheZamoiskiCo. 
Baltimore, MD 
(301) 644-2900 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Bartlett Associates, Inc. 
Framingham, MA 
(617) 879-7530 

The Computer Store, Inc. 

Sudbury, MA 
(617) 879-3700 
Continental Resources, Inc. 
Bedford. MA 
(617) 275-0850 
CPU Computer Corp. 
Charlestown, MA 
(617) 242-3350 



Microamerica Dlstr. Co., Inc. 

Needfiam, MA 
(617) 449-5807 
Simsim, Inc. 
Natick, MA 
(617) 655-6415 

MICHIGAN 

General Data Company, Inc. 

Brighton, Ml 
(313) 227-3046 
Star-Tronic Distributor Co. 
Farmington Hills, Ml 
(313) 477-7586 
WKM Associates, Inc. 
Madison Heights, Ml 

(313) 588-2300 

MINNESOTA 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Bloomington, MN 

(612) 854-3223 

Inland Associates, Inc. 

Minneapolis, MN 

(612) 379-5354 

Kaltronics Distributing, Inc. 

St. Paul, MN 

(612) 293-0385 

Team Central, Inc. 

Minneapolis, MN 

(612) 623-3850 

Tele-Terminals, Inc. 

Brooklyn Park, MN 

(612) 536-6000 

MISSOURI 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Maryland Heights, MO 

(314) 291-5350 



Inland Associates, Inc. 

St. Louis, MO 

(314) 391-6901 

NEW JERSEY 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Cherry Hill, NJ 

(609) 424-7300 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Fairfield, NJ 

(201) 575-4415 

Logon, Inc. 

Haekensack, NJ 

(201) 646-9222 

TransNet Corporation 

Union. NJ 

(201) 688-7800 

WPPeriph. 4 Supply Co., I 

Matawan, NJ 
(201) 946-4995 

NEW YORK 

Arrow Electronics 

Farmingdale, NY 
(516) 694-6800 
Bartlett Associates, Inc. 
White Plains, NY 
(914) 949-6476 

The Computer Factory 

New York, NY 

(212) 687-5000 

Erin Computer Distr. Corp. 

Farmingdale, NY 

(516) 293-4114 

Ossmann Computer Tech., 

East Syracuse, NY 

(315) 437-6666 
Ossmann Computer Tech., 
Rochester, NY 
(716) 473-5720 

Ossmann Computer Tech., Inc. 
Vestal, NY 
(607) 785-9947 



and media. The drive costs only 
slightly more than a floppy-disk 
drive. The cost of a cartridge is com- 
parable to the cost of a box of 10 flop- 
py disks. 

This comparison is even more 
favorable in terms of cost per byte 
because the hard-disk cartridge sup- 
plies far more capacity per unit. 
While floppy disks can hold up to 1 
megabyte of storage before format- 
ting, the 3.9-inch hard disk has an un- 
formatted capacity of 6.38 mega- 
bytes. Not only does it carry from 6 
to 15 times more data than a floppy 
disk, it carries it more safely, sealed 
in a protective cartridge. 

While floppy-disk technology has 
matured and offers few opportunities 
for enhancement, small hard disks are 
at the beginning of their product- 
technology cycle and will have their 
data storage capacity increased again 
and again. The cost per megabyte of 
storage is dropping rapidly. 

Like audio- and video-tape cas- 
settes, hard-disk cartridges will be 
available in a variety of capacities. 



Syquest, for example, is already 
developing a cartridge, compatible in 
size with existing cartridges, that will 
double capacity to 12.76 megabytes. 

Regardless of capacity, these car- 
tridges deliver better performance 
than floppy disks. Their average ac- 
cess time is 75 milliseconds, or from 
1.5 to 3 times faster than floppy 
disks. The data-transfer rate is even 
more impressive. In one second, the 
cartridge drive can transfer 5 
megabits, compared to the 5Vi-inch 
disk's Va of a megabit. That's 20 times 
faster. 

Cartridge models provide better in- 
terchangeability between drives than 
floppy disks. The cartridge is de- 
signed to provide for a minimum of 
10,000 insertion/ removal cycles (see 
figure 1). A closed-loop embedded 
digital servomechanism ensures car- 
tridge interchangeability while allow- 
ing variable sectoring. The embedded 
servo information is recorded on the 
disk and provides the sector-mark 
signals and timing information for all 
read/write operations. 



The digital servo system locks the 
read/write heads over the centerline 
of the appropriate recording track. 
More practical than conventional 
track-following systems, the digital 
servo leaves both surfaces free for 
data and provides flexibility in sector 
formatting. This enables system 
builders to define the number of bytes 
per sector to match any format re- 
quirement. 

The digital servo, helped by on- 
board microprocessor control and a 
microstepping head positioner, also 
speeds data access and improves ac- 
curacy. The microstepping positioner 
steps in increments of 0.9 degrees 
rather than the conventional 1.8 
degrees. The drive's microprocessor 
reads servo information, corrects for 
track alignment, and adjusts the step- 
per within 100 microinches, all at 60 
times a second. 

The 3.9-inch disk drives mount 
almost anywhere — under a keyboard 
or in a terminal. Two hard-disk 
drives can occupy one conventional 
5V4-inch floppy space. The drives are 



WORTH CAROLINA 

W,A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Durham, NC 

(919) 683-1580 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Raleigh, NC 
(919} 832-4465 

OHIO 



Fc 
(4 



, Inc. 



General Data Co., 

Cincinnati, OH 
(513) 851-2585 
General Data Co., Inc. 
Lakewood. OH 
(216) 228-8833 

eneral Data Co., Inc. 
Fostoria, OH 
(419) 435-1191 
Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 
Highland Heights, OH 
(216) 473-2907 
Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 
Westerville, OH 
(614) 891-4555 
Midwest Microcomputer 
Defiance, OH 
(419) 782-1115 
WKM Associates 
Cleveland, OH 
(216) 524-5930 
National Instr. Dlstr. Inc. 
Dayton, OH 
(513) 435-4503 
Star-Tronic Distributor Co. 
Fairview Park, OH 
(216) 779-9660 
Star-Tronic Distributor Co. 
Englewood, OH 
(513) 836-0951 

OKLAHOMA 

Data Applications Corp. 

(918) 250-8686 



Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 
(918) 665-3200 
Tulsa. OK 

OREGON 

Mlcroware Distributing 

Aloha, OR 
(503) 642-7679 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Barllett Associates, Inc. 

Norristown, PA 
(215) 666-7100 
General Data Company 
Pittsburgh, PA 
(412) 788-4800 
Star-Tronic Distributor Co. 
Monroeville, PA 
(412) 372-3340 
WKM Associates 
Pittsburgh, PA 
(412) 892-2953 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

WA. Brown Instruments, Inc. 

Columbia. SC 
(803) 798-8070 

TENNESSEE 

W.A. Brown Instruments, Inc. 
Oak Ridge, TN 
(615) 482-5761 

TEXAS 

Data Applications 

Addison, TX 
(214) 931-1100 
Data Applications 
Houston, TX 
(713) 686-8413 



Data Applications 

San Antonio, TX 

(512) 732-7176 

D&B Data Systems 

Piano, TX 

(214) 422-7910 

D&B Data Systems 

Houston, TX 

(713) 463-7561 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Dallas, TX 

(214) 343-5000 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Austin, TX 

(512) 258-8848 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Houston, TX 

(713) 781-6100 

Southern Micro Distributors 

Irving, TX 

(214) 258-6636 

UTAH 

Acorn Data Products 
Salt Lake City, UT 
(801) 973-7958 

VIRGINIA 

Nine Associates 

Fairfax, VA 
(703) 273-1803 

Terminals Unlimited 

Falls Church, VA 
(703) 237-8666 



WASHINGTON 

Micro Technology, Inc. 

Tacoma, WA 
(206) 272-3347 

Sigma Distributing 

Bellevue, WA 
(206) 454-6307 

WISCONSIN 

Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. 

Oak Creek, Wl 
(414) 761-3000 



stc 

NEC Information Systems, Inc. 

Circle 309 on inquiry card. 




HEADS RETRACT 
TO TRACK 000 FOR 
CARTRIDGE INSERTION 



GRAPHITE, 4 /itn. 
MAGNETIC FILM, 3/J.in. 

ELECTROLESS NICKEL, 
800 /tin. 

-ALUMINUM SUBSTRATE 
DISK CROSS SECTION 




AIR FILTER 



INSERTION CHANNEL 




DOOR SLIDES TO LEFT 
FOR HEAD ACCESS 



TABS 

(NOT VISIBLE) 

PREVENT INCORRECT 

INSERTION 

MAGNETIC HUB 



DRIVE DOOR- 
REGISTRATION DIAMETER- 



ABYRINTH SEAL 
^*- -WR1TE-PROTECT TAB 



Figure 1: As a cartridge is inserted into the hard-disk drive, the cartridge door slides 
open to allow access to the read/write heads, which were previously retracted to track 
000. The disk is seated onto the drive spindle by a metal scroll on the cartridge (not visi- 
ble in the figure) and then secured by a magnetic hub. Tabs on the drive base ensure that 
the cartridge is inserted correctly and that the cartridge door is open. A cross section of 
the hard disk illustrates the layers of materials on the disk (not drawn to scale). 



only 1.625 inches high, 4.8 inches 
wide, and 8 inches deep. Their rugged 
design enables them to be used in 
portable systems. 

Easy Integration 

The 3.9-inch cartridge has the same 
pinouts, timing, data-transfer rates, 
and track/sector formatting as 
industry-standard 5V4-inch fixed-disk 
Winchester drives. This compatibility 
allows the use of standard Winchester 
controllers and interfacing pro- 
cedures, as well as standard 5V4-inch 
floppy-disk DC power supplies. 

Convenience 

Convenience of use is an important 
factor in the success of the cartridge. 
The 3.9-inch cartridge is a more con- 
venient size than 8-inch floppy disks 
or larger cartridges. Just under 4 
inches in length and width and less 
than Vz inch high, it fits in a coat 
pocket, purse, or briefcase. Its 



"unbendable" case is easy to handle 
and safer to mail. 

Perhaps more important is the con- 
venience of direct access to more 
data. The user can retrieve data from 
a larger online database without in- 



The thin-film-plating 

technique used on 

3.9-inch hard disks 

eliminates the need for 

an initial purge cycle, 

which with 

conventional disks can 

take several minutes. 



serting and removing many floppy 
disks. This is especially important in 
such applications as accounting, in- 
ventory control, database searches, 
and so on. 



Thin-Film Plating 

The 3.9-inch hard-disk cartridge 
can store more data more reliably and 
in less room because it uses thin-film 
plating for the magnetic data- 
recording layer. While conventional 
Winchester technology must seal the 
disks away from dust, smoke, and 
other contaminants, the cartridge's 
graphite-coated thin-film metallic 
alloy needs less protection. This thin- 
film plating, with a lubricating 
coating that shields against dirt, 
allows denser packing of data and 
protects the disk from "head crashes." 

This plating also eliminates the 
need for an initializing purge cycle. 
Users do not have to suffer the in- 
convenience of long waits before 
beginning operation. (With conven- 
tional hard disks, filtered air is first 
blown over the surface of the disk to 
remove any possible contaminants. 
This purge cycle can take several 
minutes.) The thin-film recording 
medium provides greater data densi- 
ty, a more consistent recording sur- 
face, better magnetic resolution, less 
susceptibility to contamination, and 
greater durability than the conven- 
tional ferric-oxide recording medium. 

Let's take a closer look at these ad- 
vantages. Thin-film technology in- 
creases data density. It increases 
storage capacity beyond the current 
limitations of the standard Win- 
chester or floppy disk. While the con- 
ventional medium at 20 to 30 micro- 
inches of thickness has a maximum 
density of only 8000 flux reversals per 
inch, thin film is an order of 
magnitude thinner and can store 
more than 20,000 flux reversals per 
inch. This means simply that thin film 
can increase data density by 2.5 
times. Thin film maintains a more 
consistent recording surface. The 
conventional medium is limited by its 
uneven thickness and a soft surface 
that can be damaged in the event of a 
head crash. 

Thin film offers higher resolution 
Expressed as a percentage, the typical 
disk recording medium has a resolu- 
tion of 65 percent. In contrast, the 
metal-film medium has a resolution 
of 80 percent. (Resolution is defined 
as the read-back voltage ratio of a 
signal recorded at twice the normal 



116 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Before you bet your software 
business on an OS, look who's 
betting on MS-DOS and XENIX. 



A waiting market. If you write and sell 16-bit 
software, MStm-DOS and XENIX™ give you the 
largest installed base. In fact over fifty 16-bit 
manufacturers offer their microcomputers with 
MS-DOS or XENIX. IBM, Victor Altos, Wang, Radio 
Shack, Zenith and Intel, to name just a few. And 
the list is growing. That means there's a ready 
and expanding market for your 16-bit applications 
software. 

The UNIX™ connection. XENIX is the multi- 
user, multi-tasking, UNIX-derived operating system 
for 16-bit microcomputers. MS-DOS 2.0 is 
Microsoft's single-user OS. MS-DOS and XENIX 
share hierarchical file structure and I/O redi- 
rection, including simple piping. MS-DOS 2.0 also 
provides XENIX-compatible system calls. That 
means there's a migration path for programs written 
to run under MS-DOS and XENIX. What's more, 
both MS-DOS and XENIX are supported by 
Microsoft® languages. Which means you can look 
to a single supplier for total support 

Comprehensive support. Microsoft offers you 
a full product support program. Excellent doc- 
umentation. Plus continual enhancements to both 
languages and operating systems. Your appli- 
cations programs can even be listed in Microsoft's 
growing Source Directory of 16-bit applications 
packages. Contact us for current software 
offerings and vendors. 

Leadership. Microsoft led the 
world into the 8-bit micro- 
computer market- 
place with 




the first BASIC for microcomputers. Now, we're 
leading it into the 16-bit market with single and 
multi-user operating systems. Fully supported by 
Microsoft 

Bet the winner. If you're writing and marketing 
software in the 16-bit marketplace, MS-DOS 
and XENIX are setting the standard. In fact, they're 
the standard operating systems for the world's 
largest selling 16-bit microcomputer systems. 
Which means your market is already there... and 

growing. Contact us for complete information, 
efore you bet your software on an operating sys- 
tem, look where your market is betting. 

BETTER TOOLS FOR MICROCOMPUTERS 

MICROSOFT 



m 



MICROSOFT CORPORATION 

10700 NORTHUP WAY 

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON 98004 



Microsoft is a registered trademark, 

and MS, XENIX and the Microsoft 

logo are trademarks of Microsoft 

Corporation 

UNIX is a trademark of Bell 

Laboratories 



^ 



'%£• 



%%%&> 



Xfct^lX 



^ 



K5&* 



recording frequency versus the nor- 
mal recording-frequency signal.) 

Thin film is more durable. 
Durability, expressed in terms of sen- 
sitivity to head impact, is another 
critical factor. Soft oxide coatings are 
no match for a read/write head. 
When a head crashes (contacts the 
disk's surface), oxide particles are 
dislodged. These particles can lead to 
still more crashes or surface damage. 

Although it's not as hard as a 
read/write head, metal film is 1000 
times harder than an oxide layer. This 
greater degree of hardness is 
measured by the Mohs test, which 
scales degrees of hardness from 1 to 
10. Each increasing degree on the 
scale represents an order of 
magnitude increase. A typical 
read/write head has a Mohs number 
of 7. The conventional medium has a 
Mohs number of 2.0 to 2.5. Metal 
film has a hardness of 5.0 to 5.5. 

Thin film is less susceptible to con- 
tamination. With the conventional 
medium, dust particles are attracted 



and captured by the fluid lubricant 
used over the ferric-oxide layer. This 
presents operating problems, 
especially for oxide media used in 
Winchester-type disk drives with 
low-flying heads. In such drives, a 
purge cycle of one to two minutes is 
required. 

Some manufacturers of thin-film 
disks add a layer of graphite, quartz, 
or sapphire above the metal magnetic 
layer. Depending on the loading force 
of the heads used with the disk drive, 
the protective layer can range be- 
tween 0.025 micron and 0.1 micron. 
(The heavier the loading force, the 
thicker the protective layer.) 
Microdisk of Fremont, California, a 
sister company to Syquest, adds a 
0.1-micron graphite overcoat. The 
dry lubricant affords extra protection 
against head crashes and seals the 
metal substrate to prevent corrosion. 

Summary 

Floppy disks and drives still cost 
less than their nonflexible cartridge 



counterparts, but the cost per byte is 
comparable. The removable-car- 
tridge user gains online access to 
more data, faster access speed, 
greater drive reliability, and better 
data integrity. These advantages will 
become even more affordable as 
hard-disk technology and volume 
production improve. Users who buy 
a single cartridge rather than a box of 
floppy disks will get more for their 
money. They will have the best of 
both worlds — the high capacity, per- 
formance, and reliability of a fixed 
rigid disk as well as the removability 
and low cost of a floppy disk. 

The 3.9-inch hard-disk cartridge 
with thin-film plating offers the 
floppy-disk user a better storage 
medium at a competitive price. I 
predict that just as the floppy disk re- 
placed the punched card and the 
cassette, so will the cartridge replace 
the floppy. The cartridge's better 
cost/performance ratio and con- 
venience for the user will make the 
floppy disk obsolete. ■ 



Circle 438 on inquiry card. 








• 300/1200 Baud— Bell 103/113/212 compatible 

• Auto dial — Hayes Smartmodem compatible 

• Full or Half Duplex 

• Audio Monitor signals busy line, no-answer, etc. 

Our newest modem does all this with 3 LSI chips 
—about one seventh of the usual integrated 
circuits Its simplicity, an achievement of 
advanced micro-processor design, promises 
two major benefits The first is outstanding reli- 
ability—that stands to reason. The second is a 
cost low enough to inspire skepticism. Be skep- 
tical; shrewd comparisons may save you 
$100 or more. 

Intelligent design also makes this modem uncom- 
monly easy to use. Lights and switches let you 
test and correct installations without technical 
experience— including some that require 
special interfaces or rewiring with most modems 

The shrewd modem, If it's not at your dealer's yet, 
write or call for complete specifications 

'Suggested list for model 212AAuto Dial, including 
RS232 interface, RJtlC phone jack and two year 
limited warranty. 



V'# 



M 



U.S. ROBOTICS INC. 



lt£?3 WEST WASHINGTON. CHICAGO. ILLINOIS BOO 
13I2) /33-0497 



The 100mm Winchester. 

Removable. Half Size. 

Half Price. Full Performance. 



It's here. Winchester capacity and performance at half the size, 
half the price. And yes, available in removable or fixed disc drives. 

The SyQuest 100mm (3.9") SQ306 packs five megabytes 
(formatted) in half the height of a 5V4" Winchester. And when 
the Q-Pak™ cartridge is full, just slip in another one. It's the best 
of both worlds— the reliability of Winchester with the transporta- 
bility of removable cartridges. 

A better drive. 

SyQuest drives give you a better fit. Mount SyQuest drives 
almost anywhere. Under a keyboard. In your terminal. Fit two in 
one minifloppy space. SyQuest drives are only 1.625 inches high, 
4.8 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. 

Easy integration. The SQ306 has the same pin-outs, timing, 
data transfer rates, and track/sector formatting as industry- 
standard 5V/' Winchester drives. Use standard Winchester 
controllers and interfacing procedures, standard minifloppy DC 
power supplies. 

Better price/performance. SyQuest delivers five megabytes 
with proven Winchester heads, positioning, brushless motors and 
air filtration. Buffered seek reduces average seek time to 75 
msec. But the cost is half of comparable 5 1 //' Winchesters. 



» Fits. , fM 




Q-Pak™ — a better cartridge. 

Better reliability. Closed-loop servo with imbedded digital 
servo (DigiLok™ ) ensures cartridge interchangeability while allow- 
ing variable sectoring. Chromaflux™ graphite coated thin film 
metallic alloy discs protect against contamination. No long purge 
cycle required. 

Available now. 

SyQuest is shipping. In 1983 we will deliver more than 
250,000 drives. Second sources will be available. So order your 
evaluation units today. For more product information, circle our 
readers' service number. For delivery and pricing information, write 
or call Larry Sarisky, SyQuest Technology. 

Circle 409 on inquiry card. 




B SyQuest 



47923 Warm Springs Bl?d. Fremont, California 94538 

415/490-7511 TWX 910-381-7027 

Distributed by Hamilton/Avnet (213) 615-3915 






Drawattentiontoyourself. 

(Write a program for the IBM Personal Computer.) 



Let your imagination take wing. 

Think charts. Graphs. Shapes. Images. 

Use originality, creativity and color in programs 
that entertain. Educate. Organize. Analyze. And 
programs that get down to business. 

Maybe you've written software like that. Or 
perhaps you're thinking about it. 

If so, consider this. 

\bu could draw attention to yourself by writing 
programs for the IBM Personal Computer on the 
IBM Personal Computer. Because all our advanced 
features (see the box at right) make it faster and easier 
to do so. 

Enhanced BASIC already in ROM, for example, 
has graphics commands already built in. 

And if you write a program using our Advanced 
BASIC, you'll find the DRAW command 
particularly appealing. It's virtually a separate 
graphics language within a larger language. 

Put your visual together with any of the 128 
characters and symbols in ROM for a simultaneous, 
text-and-graphics mix. 

Have musical accompaniment as well. 

It's easy, because BASIC controls the built-in 
speaker with a single command. 

Utilize the ten, programmable 
function keys. Try F3 to paint. 
F4 for lines. F5 for circles. Or 
F6 for boxes. 



IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS 


User Memory 


Display Screen 


Permanent Memory 


16K-512K bytes* 


High-resolution* 


(ROM) 40 bytes* 


Microprocessor 


80 characters x 25 lines 


Color/Graphics 


16 bit, 8088* 


Upper and lowercase 


Thdmode: 


Auxiliary Memory 

2 optional internal 
diskette drives, 5!4" 


Green phosphor screen* 


16 colors* 


Operating Systems 


256 characters and 


DOS, UCSD p-System, 


symbols in ROM* 


160K bytes or 320K 


CP/M-86t 


Graphics mode: 


bytes per diskette 


Languages 


4-color resolution: 


Keyboard 

83 keys, 6 ft. cord 


BASIC, Pascal, FORTRAN, 


320h x 200v* 


MACRO Assembler, 


Black & white resolution: 


attaches to 


COBOL 


640hx200v* 


system unit* 


Printer 


Simultaneous graphics & 


10 function keys* 


All-points-addressable 


text capability* 


10-key numeric pad 


graphics capability 


Communications 


Tactile feedback* 


Bidirectional* 


RS-232-C interface 


Diagnostics 


80 characters/second 


Asynchronous or SDLC 


Power-on self testing* 


18 character styles 


protocols 


Parity checking* 


9x9 character matrix* 


Up to 9600 bits per second 


•ADVANCED FEATURES FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS 




Remember that these function keys make your 
program more "friendly" to the user and, therefore, 
more appealing to us. 

In fact, if you're interested in licensing your 
software, we could be interested in publishing it. 

We could also be interested even if it runs on 
another computer. If we select your software, we'll 
ask you to adapt it to our system. 

So if you think your software is close to 
picture perfect, consider sending it in. 

For information on how to submit 
your completed program, write: 
IBM Personal Computer, 
External Submissions, Dept. 765 PC, 
Armonk, New York 10504. T^%=* 



The IBM Personal Computer 
A tool for modern times 



For more information on where to buy the IBM Personal Computer, call 800-447-4700. In Alaska or Hawaii, 800-447-0890. 

tUCSD p-System is a trademark of the Regents of the University of Calif ornia. CP/M-86 is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc. 

Circle 205 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



121 



The Winchester Odyssey 

From Manufacturer to User 

A look at drives, OEMs, and the cost of doing business. 



Looking at the advertisements for 
5V4-inch Winchester drives, the first 
thing you notice is the substantial dif- 
ference between the original equip- 
ment manufacturer (OEM) prices and 
the retail prices. What happens to a 
5-megabyte drive between the manu- 
facturer's shipping dock and the dis- 
play floor to cause a price increase 
from $600 to $3000? 

Perhaps the primary reason for the 
price difference is that the drives 
advertised for the OEMs are by no 
means complete and ready to use. It's 
no accident of advertising photo- 
graphy that you see the drive's in- 
terior workings in beautiful detail. 
The photographer was not hindered 
by a cabinet or controller board 
because neither of those items is part 
of the deal at this stage. Another 
missing item is the power supply. 
Before you can use this drive, the 
OEM must make these additions. The 
controller poses a particularly dif- 



About the Author 

Jim Toreson is the president, chairman of the 
board, and chief executive officer of Xebec, a 
manufacturer of disk-drive controllers. 



Jim Toreson 

Xebec 

432 Lakeside Dr. 

Sunnyvale, CA 94086 



ficult problem for the OEM because 
the original Winchester design omits 
the data separator, and therefore each 
OEM must tackle that job. 

The high-speed data transfer in 
Winchesters requires a data separa- 
tor, which takes the data stored on 
disk in one-channel modified frequen- 
cy modulation (MFM) code and sepa- 
rates it into the clock and data chan- 
nels that the host computer uses in 
non-return-to-zero code (NRZ). (See 
the text box on page 126 for a descrip- 
tion of the process.) The design of the 
separator becomes a complex task be- 
cause of the number of different 
drives and operating systems in exis- 
tence. This challenge to the OEM's 
creativity translates into considerable 
expense. 

Even after the controller, power 
supply, cables, and cabinet become 
part of the product, the OEM still has 
hurdles to overcome before the drive 
appears on your desk. Meeting the 
UL (Underwriters Laboratory) and 
FCC (Federal Communications Com- 
mission) testing requirements calls for 
additional work. The OEM also pro- 
vides operating-system software, 
documentation, and customer sup- 
port after the sale. After determining 



the cost of each of these steps, the 
OEM adds a sales markup to the total 
and you now have a $3000 drive. 

Many of these same expenses apply 
to OEMs who simply act as whole- 
salers for another manufacturer's 
drives. They must test and therefore 
pay for an entire system. To the re- 
sulting overhead OEMs then add 
their general and administrative costs 
and their own markup when calculat- 
ing a drive's final price. They send the 
drives to a distributor, who also adds 
a markup. If we examine the details 
of this process by looking at an OEM 
in action, the reasons for the price dif- 
ference are more apparent. 

Xebec of Sunnyvale, California, 
produces two Winchester drives, the 
Xebec/Apple kit and the UP-9705 
Universal Winchester Mass Storage 
Subsystem. Both drives are function- 
ally identical and use a single-board 
large-scale integration (LSI) control- 
ler with automatic error detection 
and correction, a universal command 
set, onboard sector buffer, Shugart 
Associates Standard Interface (SASI), 
and a data transfer rate of 1 megabyte 
per second. The company charges 
$1299 for the Xebec/ Apple kit and 
$1995 for the UP-9705. As I explain 



122 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



The IMS Family 



IMS Computer products not only fulfill the requirements network with a conservative functional overlap of the 

of stand alone applications, they are designed to be cost system above and below in the Family Tree, 

effective, intelligent nodes in a total network environ- Jhe IMS family is growing rapidly-keeping pace with 

ment! Each product fulfills a particular requiremenWof the technology and the ever increasing needs of industry. 

Vr * * 






* * 





■~ 









k ' * 





PPi»?&ffcpL|ftf*P?*fMlfft 



The Ever Expanding IMS Product Line 




O 5000SX systems computer; SI 00 based archival node to which six user 
terminals may be connected, each with its own processor and memory. 
© 8000SX systems computer; SI 00 based archival node with dual floppy, 
Winchester and tape back up capability. Six user terminals may be 
supported, each with its own processor and memory. 
O 5000IS stand alone intelligent node, SI 00 based. May support up to four 

users, with up to 25 MByte Winchester with dual floppies. 
© 8000S large system computer. SI 00 based. Can support up to 16 users 
with large disk and tape back up capability. 

^n © Stand-alone intelligent CRT with high resolution 
monitor and removable typist keyboard. 
© Exoanded CRT to be used as Intelligent Note Processor. 
Includes Micro Processor, 64K of memory and four serial 
ports— two of which are to be used to connect into high 
speed network communication. 
© Portable cartridge tape back up. Stores 17.5 MBytes 
of data. Operates in start/stop or streamer modes. 



For complete information and specifications 
plus the location of your nearby IMS 
International dealer, call or write today! 
(714) 978-6966 or (702) 883-7611 

2800 Lockheed Way 
Carson City NV 89701 

Telex: 910-395-6051 
INTERNATIONAL 

We Build Computers As If Your Business 
Depended On Them. 




Circle 207 on Inquiry card. 



the differences in these two products, 
you'll see how OEMs charge back for 
their costs. 

Xebec calls the UP-9705 'universal'' 
because its design incorporates host 
adapter cards to allow you to operate 
it with a variety of microcomputers. 
(For an overview of the link between 
drive and computer, see "Building a 
Hard-Disk Interface for an S-100 Bus 
System" by Andrew C. Cruce and 
Scott A. Alexander on page 130 of 
this issue.) Currently these include 
products from Apple and IBM, along 
with S-100 bus, Multibus, and Q-bus 
compatible computers. The advan- 
tage of this approach is that it lets the 
OEM or dealer supply drives for a 
variety of computers simply by stock- 
ing a sufficient number of these 
universal drives and the adapter cards 
for each system. The advantage for 
the user is that once a Winchester 
system is bought, it can be made com- 
patible with several systems just by 
purchasing adapter cards. The design 
can save money for both the dealer 
and the user in the long run. 



To provide this flexibility, Xebec 
buys each type of computer and hires 
a programmer already familiar with 
that computer's operating system to 
design the adapter card. The comple- 
tion of the design and the ensuing 
production of the card does not mean 
an end to the company's use of the 
system and the programmer. To keep 
pace with software corrections and 
enhancements, Xebec retains both. 

The central concept of the 
Xebec/ Apple kit is to reduce the ex- 
penses of software support. Although 
the components in the two drives are 
identical, Xebec offers this kit with 
only an Apple II adapter card sup- 
porting DOS, CP/M, or Pascal. This 
difference saves the company and the 
end user money. 

One expense common to both 
drives occurs during inspection for 
hard and soft errors at the OEM's 
facility. Because the bit error rate (or 
BER, a function of the average num- 
ber of bits transferred before an error 
occurs) is a crucial test, drives must 
be thoroughly use-tested before the 



COMPUTER GEAR— WHOLESALE! 

Purchase your Hardware and Software directly from an OEM/Systems Integrator. Take advantage of our buying power 1 We stock 
a full line of Board Level Components, Software, and Peripherals for all the Popular Machines in use today. These include: 
S-100, GODBOUT, MORROW, APPLE, IBM PC, TRS80, OSBORNE, HP. NORTHSTAR. SUPERBRAIN. NEC. Z/H-89. XEROX, and many 
others. Call for your needs. We'll give you the Lowest Prices, and the Technical Support and Know-How we are quickly 
becoming well-known for. Satisfied Customers Nationwide! The Nation's Custom Systems House for Business. Education. Science 

SOME OF OUR CURRENT SPECIALS: 

MICROSOFT MBASIC 80 S199 • ASHTON-TATE dBASE II S459 • SYSTEMS PLUS FMS81 S299 
MICROPRO: W0R0STAR $259, SPELLSTAR $159, MAILMERGE $99, PACKAGE-ALL THREE $489 



COMPUPRO 




Z-80 CPU 


$219 


INTERF 2 


$189 


8085/88 


$319 


INTERF 3 


$445 


DISK 1 


$359 


INTERF 4 


$269 


DISK 2 


$599 


ENCLOS 2 


$669 


RAM 16 


$439 


CP/M 2.2 


$149 


RAM 17 


$399 


CP/M 86 


$269 


INTERF 1 


$189 


MP/M 816 $769 


SYS 816A: 


$4495 B 


$5675 C: 


$7299 



AMO SIN.B0.C0MP. $675 
VI0-X2 VIDEO BD $319 
SO SYS VOB-8024 $459 
IBM PC/2DR/M0N $3749 
SSM VB2 VIDEO $199 
PERTEC 5V4" 0SDD$125 
MORROW MULTI/0 $279 



MORROW DESIGNS 



NEW MICRODECISION COMPLETE COMPUTER 

(INCLUDES CP/M, WORDSTAR, MBASIC, DISK) 

1 DRIVES945 2 DRIVES $1219 

NEW 12" GREEN TERMINAL $499 



DJDMA W/CP/M $439 DJ2D W/CP/M $349 

65K RAM $429 MULTI I/O $299 

HARD DISK SUBSYSTEMS, DRIVES— CALL 
DECISION 1 MICROCOMPUTER— CALL 



SSM VB3A $399 QUICKCODE $219 QUICKSCREEN $129 SUPERCALC $225 

TELEVIDEO TERMINAL SALE: 925 - $749 SANYO 12" GR(HI RES) $209 AMDEK 300G $159 

LIMITED SPECIAL: USI 12" AMBER MONITOR-20MHZ (SHARPER THAN SANYO) $199 
WE ARE THE LARGEST IN THE CUSTOM C0NFIGUARTI0N OF COMPLETE STATE-OF-THE-ART S-100 
SYSTEMS, AT PACKAGE PRICING, WITH INTEGRATION, BURN-IN, & PROGRAMMING. 



New: CCT Disk Drive Subsystems. Industrial quality 5V«". 8", floppy and/or hard disk custom configurations. Strictly the 
highest quality. ONE 5%" APPLE/IBM: S299 DUAL 8" SSDD: $799 DUAL 8" DSDD: *1199 
HP SUPER SPECIAL: 8" QUME/5MEG SHUGART: S155Q-W/DMA CDNT&CP/M: $1999 



Announcing the CCT SUPER SUPPLY: +8V@ 8 to 30A; ±16V to 3A + ; +24 V to 10A + ; +12V@ 2A+; -5V@ .2A+ 
A wen-engineered, compact supply plugable to handle virtually any Mainlrame/Floppy/Hard disk combo. Call us. 



WE HAVE A LARGE STOCK OF IBM PC SOFTWARE. 

licropro— Microsoft— dBase 1 1 — Spellguard— Supercalc 



SPECIAL: MICROSOFT IBM PC 64K RAMCARD - 1299I 
Call for any CP/M Software— We stock all lormats. at big discount 



WOW!$$ SPECIALS $$ GOOD THROUGH MONTH ENO. As supplies last. Rainchecks may be given il p.ossible. Cash Sales Only! 

CUSTOM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY 

1 CRAFTSMAN COURT, BOX 4160, SED0NA, ARIZONA, 86340 (602) 282-6299 

PRICES & AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE. ALL PRODUCTS NEW, AND CARRY FULL MANUFACTURERS WARRANTEES 
CALL FOR CATALOG. FREE TECHNICAL HELP TO ANYONE. WE CAN CONFIGURE BOARDS & SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SYSTEM 
PLUG-IN & GO. AZ RESIDENTS ADD APPLICABLE SALES TAX. CP/M.TM DIGITAL RESEARCH 



company passes them. The drives 
must average 1 bit error or less for 
every million bits transferred, and it 
is apparent that checking this with a 
statistical sample large enough to en- 
sure validity would be very time con- 
suming. For example, at 5 megabytes 
per second, such a sample would re- 
quire nearly three hours of continu- 
ous read time for just one data track, 
not including seek and head-settling 
time. At that rate, complete testing of 
a typical drive would take more than 
1600 hours or nearly 70 days. Xebec, 
however,^ uses phase margin analysis 
to reduce the testing time to under 
two minutes on one data track and to 
48 hours on the entire drive (see the 
text box on page 128 for a descrip- 
tion). This analysis system reduces 
the company's overhead for this stage 
of the process, and the cost to the end 
user is also somewhat less than it 
would be if the drives were tested 
conventionally. 

In terms of packaging, the Xebec/ 
Apple kit and the UP-9705 differ 
greatly. The latter uses a compact, 
custom-made 115-volt/230-volt 
power supply, FCC- and UL-approved 
shielded connectors, and a custom- 
designed cabinet. Not only are the 
materials costly, but these drives are 
fully assembled. The kit, on the other 
hand, has a power supply (same volt- 
age, but not custom-made), cables, a 
crude cabinet that is packed in a box 
with the drive, controller, adapter 
card, accompanying software, and 
some instructions for assembly. Not 
only does the company avoid paying 
wages to an assembler, it also saves 
money in completely bypassing FCC 
and UL testing. Certification by these 
agencies is not possible and therefore 
not necessary for any device shipped 
in component parts. The cost of test- 
ing, engineering, and producing the 
additional shielded cables, connec- 
tors, and sheet-metal parts required 
for FCC and UL certification adds 
considerably to the price you pay for 
a packaged subsystem. 

The biggest difference between the 
package and the kit is the company's 
definition of support for each. The 
end user pays less for the kit because 
it is shipped directly from the factory 
and thus avoids the entire distri- 



124 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 132 on inquiry card. 



THE COMPLETE COMPUTERL 

$4995. 



Our all-in-one BMC//" 800 computer 
is easier for dealers to sell, customers to 
buy, and OEMs to use in their systems 
because everything is integrated into 
a 20-inch wide single desk top unit: 
computer; keyboard, color graphics, 
disk drives - even a dot matrix printer! 

That's why the BMC zY800 is the 
complete computer. The total system. 
Study the call-outs and you'll see why. 



And that's just the tip of the iceberg. 
Our 8-bit CPU provides CP/M standard 
with MP/M with CP/NET as an option. 
Or you can upgrade to a 16 bit CPU 
which offers IBM PC compatible MS 
DOS* CP/M 86* and much more. 



Add to this, custom software, 
nationwide service and attractive lease 
flooring and you have a real winner - 
built by a billion dollar company that's 
been around for over 100 years. 



14. Dual 500 Kbyte floppies. 

Dual 500 Kbyte floppies & 16 Mbyte 
hard disk (optional & integrated). 
Dual 500 Kbyte floppies & dual 6.3 
Mbyte removable cartridge disks 
(optional & integrated) 



1. 640 x 200 pixel-address- 
able CRT with full color 
graphics. Also available in 
monochrome (8 shades) 



2. 30 programmable 
softkeys 




3. Full ASCII keyboard 



4. Internal expansion slots. 
Built-in calendar clock. 
4 MHz Z 80 A microprocessor. 
Upto256KRAM 



5. 120 cps bi-directional dot 
matrix printer with 80-132 
columns 



"CP/M and CP/NET are 
trademarks of Digital Research 
Distributed in Canada 
by Canada Computer 
(416) 677-7972 



7. Screen dump anytime 

8. ROM cartridge programming 

©BMC 
1900 Avenue of the Stars, Centi 



13. 4 I/O slots for 
expansion 

12. RS-232Cport 

11. 3 accessory ports 

10. Line print key 

9. Full numeric keypad 



BMC SYSTEMS INC. 



1900 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, CA 90067 
(213) 557-9002 • 1-800-BMC-8003 

Circle 59 on Inquiry card. 



M F M 
READ DATA 






\ 







1 





1 


1 







NRZ DATA 


1 
1 

1 
1 
1 
1 




1 
I 

1 
1 
1 
1 




(7) 


1 
1 
1 
1 


1 

1 

1 
1 


1 
1 

1 


1 

1 

1 
1 




NRZ CLOCK V-/ | 














L 



MFM read data is phase locked to the PLL clock. The rising edge of data is in phase with the rising edge of clock. 

The PLL clock generates the data window. 

If the MFM data pulse occurs in the zero half of the data cell, the NRZ data is zero (0). If the MFM data pulse occurs in the one half of 

the data cell, the NRZ data is one (1). 

If no MFM data pulse occurs, the NRZ data is zero. 

The NRZ clock is a constant-frequency clock generated from the PLL clock. On the rising edge of the NRZ clock, the state of the NRZ 

data line determines if the data bit is a one or a zero. 

The NRZ data line changes states only on the trailing edge of the NRZ clock. 



Figure 1: Typical MFM-to-NRZ data recovery. For further information refer to chapter 5 of Computer Storage Systems and 
Technology by Richard E. Matick (Wiley-Inter science, 1977). 



The Data Separator: A Necessary Expense 



When 5 l A-inch Winchester disk 
drive manufacturers decided to omit 
the data separator from their devices, 
the responsibility for that important 
piece of design fell to the designers of 
controllers. Let's now take a look at 
the role of the data separator in hard- 
disk data storage. 

Bit-shifting during data separation 
can seriously affect the read/write ac- 
curacy or bit error rate (BER) of a Win- 
chester drive that has been integrated 
with its controller. When data is mag- 
netically stored on the recording sur- 
face of the drive, it is translated from 
the host computer's non-return-to-zero 
(NRZ) code into modified frequency 
modulation (MFM) code. The data 
separator compresses the two channels 
of information that make up the NRZ 
code, data and clock, into one channel 
encoding both. This process is neces- 
sary because a magnetic disk stores 
data as a series of bar magnets along 
individual tracks in the substrate, thus 
leaving only a data channel available. 



When data is transferred from the 
disk back to the host computer, the 
read /write head reads transitions from 
one magnetic polarity to another. This 
series of pulses must be separated into 
the original data and clock channels. 
The clock is a series of cells with a 
square voltage peak, found before and 
after the window area. This area is 
where the read/write head measures 
data voltage to determine if the bit is a 
one or a zero. It is understandably dif- 
ficult to match the two channels per- 
fectly against each other at five million 
cycles per second. However, this is ex- 
actly what must be done if the data is 
to be read. (See figure 1.) 

Because floppy disks transfer data at 
a much lower rate, a much larger 
amount of time is available to transfer 
each bit. With the increase in time 
comes an increase in the size of the 
window, and thus the system has a 
greater margin for error. Then con- 
sider what happens when the entire cell 
gets down to the 200-nano second 



range, as is the case with Winchester 
drives. The slightest mismatch of the 
two channels means that the bits liter- 
ally go out the data window and the 
data is unreadable. 

The Xebec controller solves this pro- 
blem by using a phase-locked loop 
(PLL) system that locks onto the MFM 
data pulses and recovers the bit timing 
from the disk by first picking off the 
data transitions and converting them 
into a voltage. Then a voltage con- 
troller oscillator uses that voltage to 
generate a clock frequency that direct- 
ly correlates to the data transfer rate. 
Because the clock is customized to fit 
the data, variations in the speed of 
movement of the data can be accom- 
modated. 

It should be obvious from this brief 
account that the design of the data 
separator is no small task, and for this 
reason it contributes considerably to 
the end cost of a disk drive subsystem. 



126 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



m Iff ■ |J|| 

VDUAL presents economic elegance and 
high performance in a low-cost terminal. 




$695 li 



FEATU 


RE COMPARISON CHART 


FEATURE 


VISUAL 
50 


Hazeltine 
Esprit 


ADDS 
Viewpoint 


Lear 
Siegler 
ADM-5 


TeleVideo* 
910 


Tilt and Swivel 


YES 


NO 


NO 


HO 




Detached Keyboard 


YES 


NO 


YES 


NO 


NO 


N-Key Rollover 


YES 


NO 


YES 


NO 


NO 


Audible Key Click 


YES 


YES 


NO 


NO 


NO 


Menu Set-Up Mode 


YES 


NO 


NO 


NO 


NO 


Status Line 


YES 


NO 


NO 


;:o 


NO 


Full 5 Attribute Selection 


YES 


NO 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Smooth Scroll 


YES 


NO 


NO 


NO 


NO 


Line Drawing Character Set 


YES 


NO 


NO 


NO 


NO 


Block Mode 


YES 


YES 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Insert/Delete Line 


YES 


YES 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Bi-Directional Aux Port 


YES 


YES 


NO 


YES 


NO 


Columnar Tabbing 


YES 


YES 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Independent RCV/TX Rates 


YES 


NO 


NO 


NO 


NO 


Answerback User 
Programmable 


YES 


NO 


NO 


OPT. 


NO 



The VISUAL 50 represents a new 
approach in low cost terminals. Although it 
costs drastically less, it offers the features you expect 

from the high priced units. 

For example, the VISUAL 50 enclosure is econom- 
ically designed in light weight plastic and can easily be 
swiveled and tilted for maximum operator comfort. A detached 
keyboard, smooth scroll, large 7 x 9 dot matrix characters and 
non-glare screen are a few of the many human engineering 
features normally offered only on much higher priced terminals. 

Another distinctive feature of the VISUAL 50 is its emulation 
capability. VISUAL 50 is eode-for-code compatible with the 
Hazeltine Esprit,™ ADDS Viewpoint,™ Lear Siegler ADM-3A™ 
and DEC VT-52." Menu driven set-up modes in non-volatile 
memory allow easy selection of terminal parameters. 

And you're not limited to mere emulation. As the chart shows, 
the VISUAL 50 has features and versatility the older, less power- 
ful low cost terminals simply cannot match. 

The price of the VISUAL 50? Only $695 list. Call or write for 
full details on the latest in the industry's finest line of video 
terminals. 

Service available in principal cities through Sorbus Service, 
Division of Management Assistance, Inc. 



K ' || M 



See for yourself 



Visual Technology Incorporated 

540 Main Street, Tewksbury, MA 01876 

Telephone (617) 851-5000. Telex 951-539 



Circle 445 on Inquiry card. 



butor/dealer network and its mark- 
ups. The kit comes with a standard 
90-day warranty, and the user must 
return defective drives to the factory, 
where they are repaired and returned 
within 30 days. With the package, the 
user can opt for a maintenance con- 
tract that provides a replacement 
drive within 24 hours if a drive needs 
repair. Additionally, the buyer of the 
UP-9705 can take advantage of com- 
pany-provided training, full docu- 
mentation, manuals, and a phone ser- 



vice for questions. Direct sales staff 
and after-sale support are two other 
services that Xebec provides for the 
packaged system. 

To keep the expenses of the kit to a 
minimum, Xebec is experimenting 
with a variety of low-cost support ac- 
tivities. A newsletter will provide kit 
owners with a place to exchange in- 
formation, ideas, and solutions to 
problems. Company representatives 
will attend Apple trade shows not to 
answer questions but to encourage kit 




The 

Microcomputer 

Maze 



The 

Pragmatic 

Solution 



PROBLEM: Confusion caused by growing number of computer 
companies promising solutions to industrial and scientific problems, 

SOLUTION: since 1978 Pragmatic has integrated systems based on a 
powerful combination of hardware and software spanning from single to 
multiuser operation and running BOTH 8 and 16 bit software, 

RESULT: a solution that solves your problem NOW and anticipates your 
future computing requirements. 

The Pragmatic solution runs CP/M, CP/M 86, 26, and MP/M compatible 
software. All systems include Wordstar™ for word processing, 
SuperCalc-86™ for business and financial planning and Ashton-Thte's 
dBase II™ for data base management. 

The Pragmatic solution gets you through the microcomputing maze with 
complete solutions for today and tomorrow. Sound Good? Call Jerry Hall 
for the Pragmatic representative nearest you. 

pragmatic deaiqrp 

Pragmatic Designs, Inc. 950 Benicia Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 

(408) 736-8670 TLX: 171627 



(ompuPrcP 



Pragmatic Designs is an authorized CompuPro Systems Center. 

Trademarks: Wordstar of MicroPro, SuperCalc of Sorcim, dBase II of Ashton Tate, CP/M of Digital Research, 
CompuPro of Godbout Electronics. 



owners to form users' groups. Where 
the kit is concerned, Xebec's goal is to 
avoid answering questions on the 
phone, debugging applications pro- 
grams, and holding the hands of inex- 
perienced users. If the company can 
avoid providing that support, the kit 
remains a less costly alternative for 
hobbyists and others who eschew the 
frills. 

As you can see, the cost of pro- 
viding the end user with a functioning 
drive is a factor of the cost incurred 
by the OEM. In our case, we have 
chosen to provide our customers with 
two options: a bare-bones kit with lit- 
tle in the way of after-sale support, 
and an assembled and tested package 
with several support services includ- 
ed. Which product the user buys will 
depend on his needs. The price dif- 
ference is substantial but is an ac- 
curate reflection of the differences in 
our costs for producing the two 
systems. ■ 



Testing the Bit Error Rate 

The difficulty facing anyone who 
wants to test a Winchester drive is that 
the bit error rate (BER) is so low that it 
is hard to determine what a valid sta- 
tistical sample size should be, Xebec 
uses a technique called phase margin 
analysis to handle this problem. 

The size of the data window and the 
position of the data in the window are 
important factors in the BER. Phase 
margin analysis artificially reduces the 
width of the data window and then 
counts the number of bits that fall out- 
side this boundary. With this ap- 
proach, the BER climbs enough to 
make analysis of the drives reliability 
easier and faster. The increased BER 
gives us a sample of significant events 
statistically large enough to make ac- 
curate predictions about the drives 
reliability. 

By using this method, we measure 
both actual errors and near misses. We 
don't attempt to predict the BER from 
analog measurements of signal-to- 
noise ratio or from maximum peak 
shift. Our experience shows that the 
artificially high BERs correlate reliably 
with actual BE Rs when the drive is in 
actual operation. By using this system, 
we also reduce the time needed to testa 
Winchester disk subsystem from 70 
days to 48 hours. 



128 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 351 on inquiry card. 




<r o 



•VJ? 



"i 



It I I $ I 7 I I I i I 



© 



■ 



WOW! 



Look what Saturn Systems 
has come up with! A multi- 
function board for the IBM PC 
with everything but the kitchen 
sink. No need to clutter up all your 
slots with assorted boards — this 
one does it all! You get: 

1. 64K bytes of RAM, with expan- 
sion sockets for up to 576K 

2. Hard disk interface (SASI host 
adapter) 

3. Two serial ports (COM1 and 
COM2) 

4. Real time calendar/clock with 
battery back-up 

5. Parallel printer port (LPT1, 
LPT2, or LPT3) 



And, assoonasyou open the 
box you'll find everything you 
need to put your board to work 
immediately. Saturn's software 
packages include: 

1. Print spooler to letyou keep 
using the computer while the 
printer is running. 

2. Hard disk support for current 
level of PCDOS. 

3. PSEUDO-DISK™ software to 
simulate a very fast disk drive 
(even faster than a hard disk!) 

4. Real time clock support, so you 
never have to type in the date 
and time. 



All this for only $795! Get the 
most out of your IBM PC. Ask for 
the Saturn multi-function board at 
your local dealer. (Larger memory 
models also available. )*64K internal 
RAM and 1 disk drive required. 



P.O. Box 8050 

Ann Arbor, Ml 48107 

(313) 973-8422 



INC. 



Circle 488 on inquiry card. 



Building a Hard-Disk Interface 
for an S-100 Bus System 

Part 1: Introduction 

How a Winchester disk drive 

and disk controller work, and what is needed to connect them 

to the S-100 bus and the CP/M operating system. 



The development and availability 
of inexpensive, high-performance 
Winchester-technology disk drives 
offers us the opportunity to vastly ex- 
pand the capability of micropro- 
cessor-based systems. The fact that 
these disk systems are both inex- 
pensive and intrinsically highly reli- 
able makes them extremely attractive 
as add-on devices for existing sys- 
tems. Over the past several months 
we at ASC Associates have designed 
and constructed 5y4-inch Winchester 
disk subsystems for several micropro- 
cessor systems. In this and two subse- 



About the Authors 

Andrew Cruce has a Ph.D. in Aeronautical 
Engineering and has recently received an S.M. 
degree in management as a Sloan Fellow at 
MIT. Scott Alexander has an M.S. in Electrical 
Engineering. Both have extensive design and 
implementation experience with small com- 
puters and are full partners in the firm of ASC 
Associates, which markets the hardware 
described in this series of articles. 



Andrew C. Cruce and Scott A. Alexander 

ASC Associates Inc. 

POB 615 

Lexington Park, MD 20653 

quent articles we will describe in 
detail all the hardware and software 
necessary to integrate a standard, 
commercially available Winchester 
disk with an existing S-100-bus, 
CP/M-based computer system. 



In terms of speed 

Increase, a hard disk 

Is to a floppy disk 

roughly what a 

floppy disk Is to 

a cassette tape. 

This month we'll review the general 
background information required to 
understand the following articles. 
Next month we'll explain the design 
steps required to interface the disk 
hardware with the system. In part 3 
we will cover the software necessary 
to make CP/M aware that the disk is 
on the system, and we will describe 



the initial integration and debugging 
process. We intend that at the conclu- 
sion of this series you will have suffi- 
cient background information to be 
able to construct and integrate the 
disk system described in these articles 
with an S-100, CP/M-based com- 
puter system. 

Why a Winchester? 

The first question you might ask is 
why go to all the trouble of putting a 
Winchester disk on a microprocessor 
system in the first place. The answer 
is twofold: increased storage capacity 
and speed. Current state-of-the-art 
5V4-inch floppy-disk-drive systems are 
limited to about 1 megabyte of stor- 
age per drive. The smallest Winches- 
ter systems, SVi-inch drives, can to- 
day store over 10 megabytes per 
drive, and these storage capacities are 
only the beginning. The development 
of newer-technology thin-film read/ 
write heads is expected to increase 
capacity by factors of four and more 



130 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



WHY A FORMS 

PROCESSING 

DATABASE? 



% 



? c *fe 



***°&8£* 



Wtgi 



^ T ^^^ E CLAm 



Ever since the introduction of low-cost 
microcomputers, business professionals 
have asked for a system that lets office 
workers use the knowledge they have and 
the procedures they already understand. 

The solution has arrived. VersaForm 
now provides you and your staff with a 
natural way to use a computer— a forms 
processing database system. 

THE IDEAL WAY TO USE 
A COMPUTER 

Just about any form in your office can 
provide a familiar and easily mastered 
interface to a personal computer. Simply 
copy aformtothecomputerscreen and 
you're set. 



BUILD YOUR DATABASE WITH ANY 
OF THESE FORMS 

• Bill of Materials 

• Client Billing 

• Freight Documentation 

• Insertion Orders 

• Insurance Claims 

• Inventory Ledgers 

• Invoices 

• Job Estimates 

• Medical Records 

• Personnel Histories 

• ProjectScheduling 

• Purchase Orders 



that does decimal alignment, tax calcula- 
tions, subtotals, payments, running 
balances, and allows you to make changes 
at any time. Ordinary databases simply 
can't doit. 

All these features and more are yours 
with VersaForm. A spectacularly useful 
print formatting capability enhances 
professional forms management. The 
magic of print formatting is the ability 
to producefrom a single form in your 
database, several completely different 
printed forms. For example, from a patient 
record you can produce a history chart, 
an insurance claim, a statement and 
standard dunning notice. 



Unlike any other system, VersaForm 
gets you started on a computer, working 
the way you're working now . . . you can 
even use your existing paper forms. 

UNIQUELY DESIGNED TO 
YOUR OFFICE REQUIREMENTS 

Most forms have two parts. The form 
heading contains information that appears 
only once on each form, like customer 
name or project number. The transaction 
region, below, has a variable number of 
lineitementrieswhich might contain 
quantities, descriptions, unit costs and 
extensions. These entries require a system 





EVERYDAY BUSINESS FORMS 

DEMAND A TWO-LEVEL RECORD 

STRUCTURE... 

ONLY VERSAFORM HAS IT. 




''NAME MICH"A£L . MOON . . . DATE. 8-31-82 . ,^ 

FIRM MICHAEL .MOON. ASSOCIATES, 

ADDRESS 72D . SOUTH . B ST SUITE .3. 
CITY SAN MATEO . . ST . CA . , ZIP , 94401 


HEADING 


LN QTY Sl5<# DESCRIPTION UNITS EXT 

01 001 0110 APPLE II 1539.00 1539,00 

02 001 0020 DISKII W/CT 695.00 695.00 

03 001 V 0230 DISKII 595.00 595,00 

04 001 0030 16KRAM 99.00 99.00 

05 001 0050 12INMONT 2Z5\00 225.00 
W 0,15 0025 MINI FLOP 5.QO 75.00 
07 0O1 ■; 0001 VERSAJORM. 389.00 389.00 ,■ 

SUBTOTAL 3fi.1B.00 
TAX 217.08 
l TOTAL 3635.08 j 


LINE 
ITEMS 









MANAGEMENT REPORTS IN 
A HURRY 

The real power of a forms processing 
database is evident with VersaForm's 
reporting facility. You need only point 
to the data items within aformyou want 
queried, sorted, counted, subtotalled, and 
totalled. There's no complicated format to 
enter— VersaForm automatically produces 
columnar formats, titled, dated and page 
numbered. 



i 



-nP- 




PAPER 
FORMS 



COPY 
FORMAT 



ENTER 
DATA 



BUILD OVERPRINT PRODUCE Kam E 

DATABASE FORM REPORTS LABELS 



THE ONLY DATABASE THAT COMPLETELY PROCESSES FORMS 
FROM START TO FINISH. 



Dealer and OEM inquiries invited 



RAVBOU 



I n just minutes, a detail or summary 
report is automatically produced. What's 
more, you can run the report again and 
again without having to re-enter the 
instructions. 

APPLE 11////, HARD DISK, 
IBM PC DATABASE? 

VersaForm supports both floppy and 
hard disk sub-systems. You can swap 
data files between different systems 
through a hard disk-based network. From 
remote locations data disks can be consol- 
idated into company-wide reports. 

OPEN-ENDED SYSTEM. 

For special requirements, an optional 
OEM Pascal Interface provides sophisti- 
cated users and software developers with 
powerful VersaForm tools, allowing direct 
access to the B-tree indexed database. 
System integrators can add value by 
creating templates and writing custom 
interfaces. 

Users say VersaForm is the most power- 
ful and easy to use system around. That's 
because it's more than just a database; it's 
a true Business Form Processor. 







# 



Circle 30 on inquiry card. 



sf & 



BYTE March 1983 131 



in the next several years. 

The other advantage of a Winches- 
ter disk drive is its rapid operation. In 
terms of speed, a hard disk is to a 
floppy disk roughly what a floppy 
disk is to a cassette tape. For a Win- 
chester disk system, maximum seek 
times (maximum time to find data on 
the disk) are on the order of 150 to 
200 milliseconds (ms) rather than the 
several seconds associated with many 
floppy-disk systems. Also, once the 
data is located, it is transferred at 5 
million bits per second, which is 
much faster than existing floppy-disk 
systems. At these rates a Winchester 
system can access data anywhere on 
the disk and load 64K bytes of infor- 
mation in under 1 second. The low 
access times, high data-transfer rates, 
and large storage capacities of Win- 
chester drives allow us to realize the 
full processing power that is inherent 
in current microprocessor systems. 
Winchester drives open new vistas for 
such applications as large inventory 
systems, database management sys- 
tems, and data analysis applications. 



What Is a Winchester? 

The term Winchester comes not 
from an inventor's name, but from 
the code name IBM assigned to the 
development of the Model 3340 disk 
memory, which was introduced in 
1973. The industry as a whole has 
borrowed the Winchester name and 
now generally uses it to describe any 
disk drive using similar technology. 
The key element of the Winchester 
technology is that the head-to-disk 
assembly (HDA) is sealed from out- 
side air and the disk is generally non- 
removable. 

In some ways, the Winchester tech- 
nology is similar to conventional 
hard-disk drives. As with conven- 
tional hard disks, the read/write head 
floats over the recording medium on 
an air cushion that keeps the head 
from contacting the disk. In the case 
of the Winchester, however, the 
sealed and extremely clean environ- 
ment of the HDA permits the disk de- 
signer to ''fly" the read/write head 
closer to the disk surface. In typical 
removable-media hard-disk systems, 



INVESTMENT ANALYSIS 



CENTENNIAL SOFTWARE/ 410 17TH ST. SUITE 1375 /DENVER, CO 80202/(303) 595-9193 



STOCK-FOCUS 

Find out how low is low and how high is high. 
Using capital structure and performance data, Stock- 
focus objectively calculates the underlying value of a 
stock. The system was first developed by the manage- 
ment science department of a major money center 
bank, and is now in use by investment advisors, trust 
companies and brokerage houses. On your screen, 
Stock-focus will plot an estimate of lowest value, highest 
value and the current price. You then decide what to 
buy, sell or hold. 



REAL-FOCUS 

Exhaustively analyze potential real estate invest- 
ments using the Wharton School's approach to real 
estate analysis. In minutes you can project profit, costs, 
and IRR for any project over a 10 year period. Real- 
focus accounts for amortization, debt, income, operat- 
ing expenses, taxes, depreciation, and cash flows for 
both after-tax holding and the results of sale. With 
Real-focus you can analyze any potential investment 
from a single building project to a complex time-phased 
planned unit development, 



THE FOCUS TECHNIQUE 

FOCUS is CENTENNIAL SOFTWARE'S new 
approach to Program Architecture, providing a nat- 
ural interaction between microcomputers and users. 
It provides worksheet style input screens, free access 
to all program segments, and the ability to com- 



bine individual results files for portfolio analysis. You 
also receive a usable reference manual, menu helps, 
a program glossary, multiple report formats and spool- 
ing. With our FOCUS technique even the most com- 
plex programs are versatile and easy to use. 



COMPUTER 



MEMORY-K 



IBM PC 64 

Apple (plus) II 48 

TRS-80 I 48 

TRS-80 II 64 

TRS-80 III 48 

ALL PROGRAMS IN DISK BASIC 

IBM is a trademark of IBM. Apple is a trademark ot Apple Computer Corp.. TRSf 



REAL-FOCUS 

$179.00 
149.00 
149.00 
179.00 
149.00 



STOCK-FOCUS 

$189.00 
159.00 
159.00 
189.00 
159.00 



is a trademark of Tandy Corporation. 



ORDER N0WI FILL IN OR CALL 800-5252003 (Toll Free) 



PROGRAM NAME_ 

NAME 

ADDRESS 



. COMPUTER. 



.MEMORY. 



PHONE # . 



ACCOUNT #_ 



D 



EXP. DATE 



□ 



the read/write head flies 60 to 70 
microinches above the disk surface. 
The limitation on the distance the 
head flies above the disk is based on 
the minimum distance the head can 
fly safely above the disk and not risk 
contact with dust or any other con- 
taminant on the disk. Any contact of 
this type causes the head to stop fly- 
ing and crash on the disk surface. 
Such a crash normally ruins the read/ 
write head and the surface of the disk 
medium, results in a complete loss of 
data, and necessitates an expensive 
repair job. Sealing the HDA in a Win- 
chester drive provides a substantially 
cleaner environment than that of re- 
movable-media disks and allows the 
designer to fly the head about 20 
microinches over the disk surface. 
This lower head altitude provides 
higher magnetic flux densities at the 
recording surface and thus higher re- 
cording densities on the disk. 

During read/write/seek opera- 
tions, the Winchester head flies above 
the surface of the disk on an air bear- 
ing, supported by carefully balanced 
aerodynamic forces. As the disk 
starts or stops, the head takes off or 
lands in a silicone-lubricated landing 
area. When the disk is not spinning, 
the head rests on and actually con- 
tacts the landing zone on the disk. 

Winchester drives have a number 
of advantages over conventional 
hard-disk drives. First, they are very 
low cost both in absolute terms and in 
terms of cost per bit of storage capaci- 
ty. In addition, the sealed environ- 
ment of the HDA produces extremely 
high reliability with MBTF (mean 
time between failure) figures quoted 
in excess of 8000 hours. Winchester 
disk drives also require no preventive 
maintenance such as changing air 
filters or cleaning and aligning heads. 
This is of particular importance to 
owners of small, inexpensive com- 
puter systems who wish to have the 
capability associated with removable- 
media hard disks without the atten- 
dant maintenance hassles and ex- 
pense. The primary disadvantage 
comes from the fact that the storage 
medium (the actual disk platter) is not 
removable. This prevents us from 
backing up data files in the conven- 



132 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 75 on inquiry card. 



UNSIISKABLE PRICES 

One Hull of a Deal 



SYSCOM II 

Faithful to the Core 

$725 




COMPUTERS 

Apple— New models. New prices .... SCALL 

Atari 80048K $535 

Chamellon. Compac. Columbia 

(PC emulators) SCALL 

Commodore 64 Ask lor Packagell 

Franklin ACE 1000 S955 

IBM PC-MANY SYSTEM 

CONFIGURATIONS SCALL 

Kaypro— portable. 9" CRT. 2 drives. 

soltware $1695 

Osborne Double Density $1725 

Slimline S-100: Z-80. CP/M. 64K. 2 MByte 

drives Under $2000 

Syscom II— Apple II Plus emulator $725 

Syscom II PKG: 48K. Drive w/Controller. 

12" Hires Green CRT. Z-80 Card. 

80 Column Video Card. 16K RAM 

Card $1650 

FOR APPLE & FRANKLIN 

ALSZ-Card .'. $215 

Corvus all items .... $BIG DISCOUNT 

dBase II (requires CP/M) $395 

Z-80 Card— Applied engineering 

1-9pcs $175 

10+ pes $155 

Universities, clubs, and dealers welcome. 
Fourlh-D — parallel interlace, cable ..... $49 
Grappler ♦ (parallel, cable. 

graphics) $135 

Hayes Mfcromodem II $275 

Microtek Dumpling OX— graphics. 

Oto64Kbuffer $135 

■ Extra RAM-16K sets $20 

Hayes Mlcromodem II $275 

Rana Elite I $285 

Rana Elite II — double $455 

Rana Elite III— quad $585 

8" drive. 2MByte Floppy System .... $1695 
Omnlvlslon 80column. with soltware . . .$165 
Prometheus Expand-a-Ram. up to 

128K $195 

Videx Vldeoterm 80 column $245 

Visicalc 3.3 $179 

Vista Quartet (2 drives, thin. 640K. 

controller) $655 

" Vislon-80 $219 

" V 1200. 8MB removable cartridge .. $1325 

" 6MB extra cartridge $75 

VR Data 5MB Hard Disk with error 

correction $1575 

_ FOR IBM PC 

There is no market more competitive than IBM- 
PCcompatible cards. ASTRESEARCHrightlully 
sells the most. IRONSIDES COMPUTER, recog- 
nizing functionality and design regardless ol 
price, endorses AST RESEARCH products as 
BEST. Beyond all doubt. 
ASTRESEARCH CARDS NOW INCLUDE SPOOLER 
AND DISK EMULATOR 

SOFTWARE NO EXTRA CHARGE 

AST ComboPlus 64K with Parallel. Serial. 

Clock $375 

AST MegaPlus 64K. expandable to 512K. 

SPC $435 

Corona 5MB Hard Disk $1495 

Parallel cable $35 

Serial cable $32 

RAM sets. 64k with parity $65 

Tandon TM 100-2 drive— with installation 

notes $237 

TANDON DRIVES 

TM-100-2-5- f /r DOUBLE SIDED $237 

TM-50-2-5-V/ THIN DOUBLE SIDED (STACKS 

IN PC) SCALL 

TM-648-2-8" DOUBLE SIDED/DOUBLE 

DENSITY $435 




Chameleon "The Compatible Computer" 

• Runs IBM PC & Z-80 soltware • 128K RAM. expandable to 700K 

• Dual 320K drives • PC style keyboard • 9" green display. 80 * 25 
with graphics • Software: DDS. Perfect Writer. Perfect Calc. Basic 

• PORTABLEIII 

You must register your order now to 
receive the introductory price of 

$1995 



JCS RGB-Ill 



VIDEO MONITORS 

• Industrial steel case • 13" CRT • 16colors 
on IBM PC • Cable for IBM PC • 630 lines 
horizontal resolution • Made in Japan with 
industrial Hitachi CRT • High brightness 
phosphors • 1 year parts warranty 
CUSTOMERS: GET A S50 REBATE FOR BUYING 
AFTER ARRANGING A DEMO AT YOUR LOCAL 
COMPUTER STORE. 

DEALERS: CALL FOR DETAILS ON DEMO PLAN. 
Suggested List S595 

Amdek 300G 12" green $145 

Amdek 300A amber $160 

Amdek 310G for IBM $170 

Amdek310A amber $180 

Amdek Color I $325 

Amdek Color II $685 

BMC 12" Green $89 

Dynax 12" green. 20MHz $129 

Dynax 12"amber.20MHz $145 

JCS RGB 111 (630 lines. 16 colors. PC cable) SOEMO REBATE 

Taxan/JCS 12" green $135 

Taxan/JCS RGB-1 $345 

fV , STAR MICRONICS 
\ GEMIN1 10 
S365 

Mr 



PRINTERS 

Epson MX-BOFT— w/Graphtrax Plus $485 

Epson MX-100— w/Graphtrax Plus $645 

Brother/Comrex— 17 cps Daisy $745 

F-10 Starwriter— emulates Diablo $1190 

IDS Microprlsm llOcps, 80 column, graphics $529 

IDS Prism 80 $850 

IDS Prism 132 . . $1025 

NEC 771D-1 $2065 

NEC 77301 lor IBM PC /. $2D95 

Okidata uses standard spool type ribbons 

u82A— 8D column. 12Dcps $395 

u83A— 132 column. 120cps S660 

u84AP— 200cps. 132 column, parallel $935 

u92A— ]60cps. 80 column $525 

Prowrlter/PMC— 80 column. 120cps. proportional $435 

Prowrlter 11—132 column. 120cps $655 

STAR MICRONICS Runs Epson soltware. lOOcps. l/t. graphics. 
Uses spool ribbons— a likely savings of $I00>. 

Gemini 10—80 column. 2k expandable buffer $365 

Gemini 15— 132 column $475 

ATARI 

Atari80048K $535 

Microtek 32k RAM (AT 400/800} — list $139 $105 

PercomRFD40-Sl (176K) — list $699 $545 

" RFD44-S1 (352K) — list $845 $685 

810 Disk $450 

830 Modem $159 

850Printer Interface $165 

Printer cable $35 

Serial cable $35 





S-IOOO THINLINE MAINFRAME 

+ 6 slot motherboard, cage + Power for S-100 
and 2 thinllne 8" drives + Fan. EMI f filer, con- 
nector cutouts + 12" wide * 19" deep *9.8" high 
1-4 pes . . . $475 5-9 pes . . . $450 
10+ $425 

CABLES 

Kaypro cabte. printer — 511 $35 

Osborne printer, parallel— 5lt $35 

Osborne serial, modem— 511 $35 

8" floppy. 6 ft. 50 conductor, for 2 

drives $35 

Also see Apple. IBM. and Atari 

SIERRA DATA SCIENCES 

• S-100 cards for single and multi-user 
systems • Multi-usersyslems need one mas- 
ter, one additional slave per user and TurboOOS 
software • Complete systems with drives and 
CRT terminal are available. 
Z-80 4MHz Master (64K/2serial/fioppy 

controller/hard disk port— 

SBC-100 $655 

Z-80 4MHz Slave (2 serial/2 parallei/64K/ 

EPROM programmer)— SBC-IOOS . . . $565 
4-Port serial communication board— 

ZSIO/4 $235 

RS-232 Multiplexor board- 
SOS MUX $235 

Hard disk interface for Micropolis— 

SOS-HOI-M $129 

CP/M for Master with BIOS— 

CPM/BIOS $150 

Turbo-Dos for Master with Slaves— 

TURBOOOS $645 

MODEMS 

Anchor Automation— FREE SOURCE 

subscription WORTH $100 

Markl.300baud ., $95 

Mark II. 300 baud. Atari $95 

Mark III. 300 baud. Tl $115 

Mark V. 300 baud. Osborne $115 

Mark VI. 300 baud. IBM PC $235 

Mark VII. 300 baud, auto 

answer/dial $135 

Mark VIII. 1200/300 baud, auto 

answer/dial $435 

9 Volt DC Adapter $10 

Hayes Smartmodem 300 $215 

Smartmodem 1200 $515 

Novation Apple-cat II $269 

212 Apple-cat $595 

D-cat $179 

Auto-cat $215 

212 Auto-cat $585 



ALPHA SOFTWARE 

Software for IBM PC and Apple II 
We recommend this software. The documenta- 
tion Is excellent, and the prices are compara- 
tively very low. 

DATA BASE MANAGER-PC $229 

MAILING UST-PC $85 

TYPEFACES-PC $105 

TYPEFACES-APPLE $105 

APPLE-IBM CONNECTION— transfers files 
between $175 



QUME DRIVES 



0T242.8"thin.dsdd $485 

DT842. 8" std. dsdd $495 

DT542. 5Vr. dsdd. 48 Ipi $295 

DT592. 5V«". dsdd. 96 tpi $385 

S-IOOO THINLINE COMPUTER 
SYSTEM 

• Z-804MHZ.64K.CP/M • 2 Thlnline drives. 
8". 2MByte • Mainframe • Add any standard 
video terminal and printer 

NOT $3500 NOT $2500 JUST $1895 

ADD-ON DRIVES FOR 
ZENITH Z-100 COMPUTERS 

• 2 Thinline 8" drives, double sided. 2MByte 

• Thinline cabinet, vertical, power supply, fan. 
cable 

Just plug It in $1175 

COMPUPRO (Godbout) 

Co-Processor 8086/8087 8 MHz $615 

Dual Processor 8085/8088 6MHz $385 

Disk 1. Floppy Controller $490 

RAM 17. 64K CMOS. 12MHz $515 

RAM 21. 128K Static. 12MHz S1 155 

M-Orive. 128K $1150 

S-100 Mainframe. 20 slot, rack $795 

S-100 Mainframe. 20 slot, desk $735 

System Support 1. 1/0 . . , $335 

Interfaces 3. 8 serial $615 

WABASH DISKETTES 

5'/T. Single Sided. Double Density with Hub 

Ring 
5 boxes $l7.50/box 

EPSON RIBBONS 

MX-80 black $25/3pcs. 

MX-10 black $39/3pcs. 

TELEVIDEO TERMINALS 

Extra Memory Pages (kit) INCLUOED— 
No Charge 

TVl925-w/2nd page $745 

TVI950-w/2nd. 3rd. 4th page $945 

MEMORY IC's 

416464K Dynamic 200ns $7.25 

4164 64K Dynamic 150ns $7.95 

4116 16K Dynamic 200ns $2.00 

2716 Eprom $4.00 

2732 Eprom $6.50 

6116 2K*8 Static RAM. 200ns $5.00 

6116M50ns $5.50 




Verify prices by phone. Add 2% for Visa or 
Mastercard. Add 6'/z% tax on California 
orders. Shipping is extra except within the 
Continental US on prepaid orders. S3 sur- 
charge on orders under S25. 

IRONSIDES 

COMFUTERCOKP 

(213) 344-3563 

(800) 528-9537 

18546 Sherman Way, 

Suite #110, 

Reseda, C4 91335 

Circle 226 on Inquiry card. 



CP/M 



PROCESSOR 



OTHER 
PERIPHERALS 



WINCHESTER 
DRIVE 






DISK 1 


NTERFACE 


DISK 
CONTROLLER 






SASI INTERFACE 


HOST 

COMPUTER 

ADAPTER 






S-100 


INTERFACE 





S-100 BUS 



Figure 1: A block diagram showing how a Winchester disk drive can be interfaced with 
an 5-100-bus computer system. 



tional way (that is, by making and 
storing an exact copy of the disk to be 
backed up). However, this problem 
can be overcome in systems that have 
a floppy disk in addition to the Win- 
chester drive. If you are willing to 
take the trouble, important files can 
be periodically backed up on floppy 
disks and saved in the event that a 
Winchester disk malfunctions. This 
may not be as convenient as standard 
backup procedures, but it can pro- 
vide a large measure of data security. 

Which Winchester? 

During the design process of our 
system we first had to decide which of 
the available Winchester disk systems 
we should use. Currently, Winchester 
disks are available from a variety of 
manufacturers with disk platters in 
different sizes, the most common be- 
ing 14-, 8-, and 5V4-inch diameters. 
We evaluated these three options by 
examining the requirements of a typi- 
cal microcomputer user. As storage 
densities have gone up, the 14-inch 
systems have grown to the point 
where they can store a staggering 
amount of data at a relatively low 
cost. Currently, 14-inch systems have 
storage capacities in the multiple hun- 
dreds of megabytes. Although this 
leads to a very attractive cost per bit 
of storage capacity, it also leads to a 
relatively high absolute cost for 



microprocessor applications. In our 
opinion this level of capacity far ex- 
ceeds the requirements of the typical 
microcomputer user. To a certain ex- 
tent, the same logic also applies to the 
8-inch drive systems. They are too 
big and too expensive for the highly 
price-sensitive microcomputer mar- 
ket. As a result, we homed in on the 
more recently available 5V4-inch 
drives as the best alternative. They 
are relatively inexpensive and are cur- 
rently available in models that can 
store over 10 megabytes of data. Ad- 
ditionally, expected technology im- 
provements in the near future will in- 
crease this storage capacity to over 40 
megabytes. Thus the 5V4-inch format 
will not only satisfy most of today's 
requirements but also will provide a 
large potential for growth. 

In addition to price and storage 
capacity there are a number of other 
features of the 5V4-inch drives that 
make them particularly attractive. 
One asset is a standardized drive in- 
terface that allows complete flexibili- 
ty in switching from one manufac- 
turer's drive to another in a com- 
pleted system. This also allows com- 
panies to build standardized control- 
ler boards, which greatly ease the sys- 
tem integration problem. The major 
advantages of the 5V4-inch Win- 
chester drive for microprocessor 
system applications are: 



1. low cost 

2. large storage capacity 

3. rapid access time 

4. high reliability 

5. no need for preventive mainte- 
nance 

6. common interfaces 

7. small and compact size 

8. low power requirements and low 
heat generation 

9. availability from multiple vendors 
with standard interfaces 



The Interface Problem 

The block diagram in figure 1 
presents a common approach to inter- 
facing a Winchester disk with an 
existing computer system. The exist- 
ing system contains a micropro- 
cessor, memory, and one or more 
peripherals that are all running under 
control of the CP/M operating sys- 
tem. All this hardware is plugged into 
and communicates via the S-100 bus. 
To add the Winchester system, the 
designer must provide an HCA (host 
computer adapter) that allows com- 
munication between the existing 
system bus and the disk controller. In 
addition, there must be a disk con- 
troller that accepts commands from 
the system via the HCA and in turn 
commands the Winchester disk to 
perform the desired functions. Final- 
ly, the designer must add software to 
the CP/M system to receive disk I/O 
(input/ output) requests from applica- 
tion programs, such as "read a file" or 
"write a file," and translate these re- 
quests into commands for the HCA. 

Now we'll discuss each of the 
elements in the Winchester system in 
more detail, concentrating on the 
operation of each element as well as 
the interfaces between the various 
elements. 

The Disk and Disk Interface 

A Winchester disk is similar to any 
other disk system in terms of opera- 
tion and organization. The disk can 
be considered to be composed of con- 
centric tracks of recorded informa- 
tion. Each track is further subdivided 
into sectors. A typical 5V4-inch Win- 
chester drive system may contain up- 
wards of 40,000 individual sectors, 



134 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



V %"* 



REFINED LUBRICANT 



ill 

7 



You can wait for industry standards 

to mandate improved performance. 

Or you can have it now on Maxell. 

The Gold Standard. 



What distinguishes a Maxell floppy disk? 
Improvements great and small achieved in a 
decade of innovation. We developed 
unique, uniform crystals to assure dense 
oxide packing, Intensified the calendering 
process to minimize the need for abrasive 
burnishing, Created an improved binder 
and lubricant. And a new jacket 
design that leaves industry standards 
in our wake. 

It would require photomicrographs 
to make some of these improvements f 
observable. On the job, the advan- 
tages become obvious. Resolution 
enhanced by 20% creates a cleaner 



signal output. And guarantees the read/write 
accuracy in double-density applications. New 
jacket construction, heat-resistant to 
140°F / extends disk use without risk of 
mistracking. In effect durability is re- 
defined. And in accelerated tests 
_, against the most respected names 
in the industry, Maxell sustained 
the highest and most consistent 
output over time. 

We applaud industry standards 

that aspire to dropout-free, 

reliable disk performance, 

The Gold Standard expresses 

a higher aim: perfection. 




maxell 

its worth rr 



Computer Products Division, Maxell Corporation of America, 60 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, N J. 07074 201-440-8020 

Circle 260 on Inquiry card. 



5 1/4- INCH 
WINCHESTER 



TO 
CONTROLLER 



TO 
POWER ( 
SUPPLY 





DRIVE SELECT (4 LINES) 




Jl 
CONNECTOR 




HEAD SELECT (3 LINES) 






STEP 






DIRECTION 






TRACK OOO 






SEEK COMPLETE 




INDEX 




READY 




OFF TRACK (OPTION) 




WRITE GATE 






WRITE FAULT 






MFM WRITE DATA 






J2 
CONNECTOR 




MFM READ DATA 






DRIVE SELECTED 






+ 5V 






J3 
CONNECTOR 




+5V RETURN 






+ 12V 






+12V RETURN 






FRAME GROUND 






J4 
CONNECTOR 









Figure 2: The standard 5 l A-inch Winchester disk-drive interface. 



each containing its own sector 
address information and data-storage 
space. As the following discussion 
will show, the operation of a Win- 
chester disk is very similar to that of a 
standard floppy disk. The major dif- 
ference is the speed of operation and 
the amount of data that a Winchester 
can hold. The speed of operation also 
requires that we use a dedicated hard- 
ware disk controller rather than have 
the controller functions performed by 
software as in a floppy-disk system. 
Figure 2 illustrates the standard 
5V4-inch Winchester disk drive inter- 
face, which connects the disk drive to 
the disk controller. Signals in this in- 
terface are of three basic types. The 
first type provides power required for 
disk operation, in this case + 12 and 
+5 volts DC. Signals of the second 
type are data signals that transfer 
data between the disk and the con- 
troller. The data is transmitted serial- 
ly at a 5-megabit-per-second rate in 
MFM (modified frequency modula- 
tion) format. The last type of signals 
are signals for control purposes that 



Now, here's a printer for you. 




The Silver-Reed EXP550 

Electronic Bi-directional, 

Daisy Wheel Printer. 



The new Silver-Reed EXP550 is 
one of the finest machines for 
the money on the market today. 
For starters, the EXP550 offers 
carrier feed in units of 1/120 
inch and forward/reverse paper 
feed in units of 1/48 inch. 
Other features include: 16 CPS 
Shannon text • Subscript • 
Superscript • Bold • 17 inch 
paper capacity • 10, 12, 15, 
PS pitch • and much more. 
The EXP550 will provide 
you with letter quality printing 
at a cost that will amaze you. 
For more information, call 
(800) 4214191 and ask for 
printer sales division. 



9 



SIIVEP-REED 

SILVER- REED AMERICA, INC. 

8665 Hayden Place, Culver City, CA 90230 

[213] 837-6104, Outside of California [800)421-4191. 



OEM & DISTRIBUTOR INQUIRIES WELCOME. 



136 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 393 on inquiry card. 



GTCO DIGITIZERS 



II 



m 



NUMBER ONE 



We Ye the largest producer of electro- 
magnetic digitizers. So we can deliver 
field proven tablets in the quantity you 
need . . . when you need them. 

Our Digi-Pad family uses new technology 
to provide unique digitizer features. 

PRESSURE PEN 

The pressure sensing pen option gives 
the operator a more natural input . . . 
perfect for the artist. 

4D 

The 4D option provides another indepen- 
dent variable proportional to stylus tilt 
and direction . . . like a joy stick. 

SELF DIAGNOSTICS 
A 4-tone alarm reports test results for all 
components including the tablet grid . . . 
insuring digitizer integrity. 

Every Digi-Pad is compatible. So when 
you develop your software and interface 
around our smallest and least expensive 
Digi-Pad (under $1000), you can inter- 
change any other size Digi-Pad without 
redesign. Digi-Pad is also compliant with 
U.L., FCC and many other standards. 

Give your system an edge. Choose the 
number one digitizer from GTCO. 
Call us at (301 ) 279-9550 today. 

n] GTCO Corporation 

£J 1055 First St./Rockviile, MD 20850 
(301) 279-9550 Telex 898471 




|||l| 



i!f !! 




1 



i 

i 




Circle 193 on inquiry card. 



ROTATION 




Figure 3: Reading a sector on a hard disk. In figure 3a the read/write headmoves to the 
proper track. In 3b the read/write head is positioned and waiting for the index pulse. 
When the index position passes under the read/write head (3c) , the disk controller starts 
reading the first sector on the selected track and continues to read until the desired sec- 
tor is reached. In figure 3d the desired sector is under the read/write head and the con- 
troller begins transferring data. 



allow selection of a particular drive, 
stepping of the read/write head in the 
selected drive, and control of other 
primitive disk functions. 

Probably the easiest way to under- 
stand disk operation is to go through 
the steps involved in seeking and 
reading data on a particular sector of 
the disk. In our case, these are the 
functions performed by the con- 
troller. As the first step in the process, 
the controller moves the read/write 
head to the track containing the 
desired segment by sending control 
signals to the disk drive. When the 
read/write head is on the proper 
track, the controller then waits for a 
specific portion of the disk called the 
index position to pass under the head. 
This index position provides orienta- 



tion information which identifies the 
start of a track. The controller then 
begins reading the serial data coming 
from the disk, looking at the sector- 
address information for each sector 
until it locates the address indicating 
the desired sector. The data im- 
mediately following this address is 
then captured and the read is com- 
pleted. This sequence of events is 
shown diagrammatically in figure 3. 

A disk- write operation is per- 
formed similarly. The same sequence 
of events occurs until the controller 
locates the proper sector. At this 
point, instead of reading data from 
the disk, the controller sends new 
data to the disk for recording. 

The final point to be covered is 
how the sector-address information is 



put on the disk in the first place. This 
process is called formatting. When a 
disk is formatted, the controller starts 
on track and, following the index 
position, writes the sector-address in- 
formation for the first sector on the 
disk. It then fills the data area follow- 
ing the first address with nulls or 
other characters to reserve the data 
space for future use. As soon as it has 
filled the area, the controller begins 
the process over again for the next 
sector, writing the sector-address in- 
formation and then reserving the data 
area. This process continues until all 
the sectors on the first track of the 
disk are formatted. The controller 
then steps the read/write head to the 
next track and repeats the process 
until it has formatted all the sectors 
on all the tracks. 

Formatting is typically performed 
only once because creating the sector 
addresses and reserving the data areas 
would destroy any previously stored 
information on the disk. When for- 
matting, we generally have to define 
the size of the data area associated 
with each sector. The size of this area 
affects the total number of sectors on 
the disk and thus the fraction of the 
available disk space that the sector- 
address information occupies. Typi- 
cally, these data areas are set up to 
hold either 256 or 512 bytes of infor- 
mation, although special applications 
could require different allocations for 
optimum storage efficiency. For our 
case we will restrict consideration to 
the 256- or 512-byte cases. 

Because of the need for formatting 
(i.e., placing sector-address informa- 
tion on the disk) manufacturers quote 
two storage-capacity measures for 
disk systems. The unformatted num- 
ber refers to the total amount of data 
that can be stored on the disk. The 
formatted number refers to the total 
amount of data space that is available 
on the disk after it has been format- 
ted. In general, the latter measure is 
of more importance to disk users. 

The Controller 

and Controller Interfaces 

Working backward from the disk 
drive toward the S-100 bus, the next 
device in the disk-drive subsystem is 
the disk controller. We just discussed 



138 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



text continued on page 142 



computers 
wholesale 



315472 3055 

Box91Brewerton,N.Y. 13029 



Circle 1 14 on inquiry card. 



rcra 



-SYSTEMS- 

I ALTOS 20% OFF LIST 

ACS-8000-2 $2649 

ACS-8000-10 6195 

ACS-8000-12 7189 

ACS-8000-14 8790 

ACS-8000-15 3739 

I MTU-1 2000 

MTU 2 2000 

I Series 5-15D 2285 

I Series 5-5D 4275 

ATARI 

800 (48K) $659 

400 (16K) 259 

810 Disk Drive 449 

850 Interface 169 

CROMEMCO 

CS-0 $1035 

CS-1 3195 

CS-1H 5595 

CS-2 3755 

CS-3 5595 

ZPU 315 

64KZ 585 

TuArt 249 

16FDC 475 

The complete CROMEMCO line is available. 

J INTERTEC 

I Superbrain II Jr $1969 

Superbrain II QD 2349 

Superbrain II SD 2650 

MORROW DESIGN 

I Decision I $1335 

Micro Decision w/Terminal 

1 Drive Call 

2 Drives Call 

| Discus 2D 830 

Dual Discus 2D 1385 

Call us for prices on the full MORROW line. 

NORTHSTAR 

| Advantage $2895 

Horizon 2Q-64K 2655 

HD18Mg. Disk 3879 

G CP/M® for Advantage 119 

We carry the complete North Star line— Call! 

TELEVIDEO 

TS-801 $2650 

802 2755 

| 802H 4755 

ZENITH 

I Z-89-80 CP/M® or H/DOS $2075 

I Z-89-82 CP/M® or H/DOS 2115 

Z-90-80 CP/M®or H/DOS 2115 

Z-90-82 CP/M®or H/DOS 2299 



Advertised prices reflect a cash discount on 
prepaid orders only. Most items are in stock 
for immediate delivery in factory sealed cart- 
Lons with full factory warrantees. 



-TERMINALS- 

HAZELTINE 

Esprit 429 

Esprit II 515 

Esprit III 715 

1420 589 

1500 845 

1520 1350 

Executive 80-20 Save! 975 

INTERTEC 

Intertubelll 725 

SOROC Call! 

TELEVIDEO 

910 $559 

912 659 

920 719 

925 719 

950 899 

X-tra Page Memory 80 

WYSE 

100 $749 

100. 2 Page 799 

ZENITH 

Z-19 $639 

ZT-1 549 

-PRINTERS- 

ANADEX 

DP9500 $1290 

2K Buffer 80 

9501 1290 

9620 1475 

CENTRONICS 

704-9Ser $1519 

704-11 Par 1569 

730-1 Ser Save! 299 

730-3 Ser 479 

737-1 Par 689 

C.ITOH 

Prpwriter 8510A Par $425 

Prowriter 8510A Ser 595 

Starwriter F10 Par 1370 

Starwriter F10 Ser 1370 

Printmaster F10 Par 1785 

Printmaster F10 Ser 1785 

C.ITOH Starwriter FIO-Tractor, 200 
Prowriter II Call 

DIABLO 

620RO25CPS $1275 

630RO4OCPS 1949 

Tractor, (for 630 only) 275 

EPSON 

MX-80 $440 

MX-80FT 520 

MX-100 715 

Serial RS232 w/2K 120 



INTEGRAL DATA SYSTEMS 

Prism 80 Basic. $750 

Prism 132 Basic 1075 

Prism80 Package 1299 

Prism 132 Package 1465 

Prism 80 All but color 1065 

Prism 132 All but color 1260 

Paper Tiger 445G 599 

Micro Prism 639 

NEC 

3510 $1515 

3515 1540 

3530 1650 

7710 2295 

7715 2395 

8023 465 

OKI DATA 

80 $300 

82A 395 

83A 639 

84S 1020 

84P 989 

Tractor for 80/82A 50 

SMITH-CORONA TP 1. . . . $629 

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 

TI-810 Basic $1289 

TI-810VCO/Full 1549 

TI-820 RO Basic 1545 

TI-820 KSR Package 1739 

-MONITORS- 

AMDEK 

100G 141 

Color 1 310 

Color II 649 

Colorlll 419 

300G 149 

BMC 

Green Phos $99 

SANYO 

9"Green Phos $159 

12"Green Phos 209 

13"Color 439 

ZENITH 

Z-121 115 

-HARD DISKS- 

CORVUS 

5MB $2555 

10MB 3995 

20MB 4795 

* Please specify what type of computer used 
Mirror Backup 629 

MAEZON 

5Mg $2235 

10 Mg 2760 

15 Mg 3020 

CP/M®-S100 75 



-MODEMS- 
HAYES 

Micro Modem 100 $279 

Micro Modem II 279 

Smartmodem 300 215 

Smartmodem 1200 520 

Chronograph 199 

NOVATION 

4102D $269 

D-Cat 145 

Apple Cat II 310 

Nov-212 1200 Baud 549 

SIGNALMAN 

MKI $79 

MK II 79 

MK IV 135 

MKVII 125 

-SOFTWARE- 
ASHTONTATE 

D Base II $593 

COMPU-View 

V-Edit 125 

MICROAP 

Select III 155 

Selector IV 245 

Selector V 455 

Glector 245 

MICAH 

CP/M^.X..... 225 

Expand 85 

MICROPRO 

Supersort I 165 

Supersort II 155 

WordStar 295 

Mailmerge 115 

DataStar 245 

CalcStar 225 

MICROSOFT 

Z-80 Soft Card 295 

Apple 16K RAM Card 165 

Edit80 85 

Macro 80 165 

Basic 80 275 

Bascom 305 

Fortran 80 335 

Cobol 80 565 

Softcard Premimum Pack. 625 

MICRO TECH CALL 

SORCIM 

Supercalc 225 

BLANK DISKS-Call for prices 
-MEMOREX, MAXELL, 
SCOTCH. VERBATIM- 

If you can't find what you 
need listed here, just call for 
the best prices on the items 
you require. 

N.Y. residents, add appropriate sales tax. 
Shipping is not included (unless otherwise 
stated) C.O.D.s require a 25% deposit. All 
prices and offers may be changed or with- 
drawn without notice. 



•■; 




mm 



PTUR 









COMPLETELY REDESIGNED. 
NOW, THE GRAPPLER + . 

The original Grappler was the first 
graphics interface to give you hi-res 
screen dumps from your keyboard. 
The new Grappler + with Dual Hi-Res 
Graphics adds flexibility with a 
side-by-side graphics printout of 
page 1 and page 2. 

The Grappler + can now be used 
with the Apple® Dot Matrix, 
the Okidata 84, and is Apple III 
compatibles addition, the IDS 
Grappler + is currently available 
with color capability, including 
color graphics screen dumps. 

UP TO 64K BUFFER OPTION 
An optional Buf f erboard can now 
be added to all existing Grappler 
and Grappler + interfaces. See 
your Apple Dealer for details. 

* Requires additional software driver. 

* Requires graphics upgrade. 

© Orange Micro, Inc. 1982 




ACTUAL APPLE II PRINTOUT USING GRAPPLER AND EPSON MX100 

WithThe 

Grappler + 

Printer Interface 




Circle 322 on inquiry card. 

CPM is a registered trademarkof Digital Research, Inc. 
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 



THE GRAPPLER + FEATURES: 

• Dual Hi-Res Graphics • Printer 
Selector Dip Switch • Apple III 
Compatible* • Graphics Screen 
Dump • Inverse Graphics • 
Emphasized Graphics • Double Size 
Picture • 90° Rotation • Center 
Graphics • Chart Recorder Mode 

• Block Graphics • Bell Control 

• Skip-over-perf • Left and Right 
Margins • Variable Line Length 

• Text Screen Dumps • also works 
with Pascal and CPM. 

THE GRAPPLER + INTERFACES 
WITH THE FOLLOWING PRINTERS: 

• Anadex • Apple Dot Matrix 

• Centronics 122 • C. Itoh ProWriter 

• Epson MX-70,MX-80**, 
MX-80F/T**, MX-100 • IDS 460, 560, 
Prism 80 and 132, Microprism • NEC 
8023 • Okidata 82A* *, 83A* *, 84. 

Orange micro 

« ' inc. 

1400 N. Lakeview Ave., 

Anaheim, CA92807 U.S.A. 

(714) 779-2772 Telex: 183511 CSM A 

Foreign Dealer Inquiries Welcome 




If your printer uses your Apple 

more than you do, 

you need The Bufferboard. 



If your Apple is locked into the "PRINT" 
mode so much that you've taken up soli- 
taire to kill the boredom, you need a 
buffer. And if your computer is the Apple 
II or III, the only buffer for you is The 
Bufferboard. Expandable to 64K of stor- 
age, The Bufferboard stores an instantane- 
ous bucketful of print data from your 
computer. Then it feeds the data to your 
printer at its own printing rate. Your Apple 
is set free from driving your printer and is 
ready for more data from you. 



or expensive power supplies are needed 
because The Bufferboard fits right into 
your Apple — and docks onto your existing 
printer interface. The result is convenient 





Take your existing interface — 
and buffer it! 

Only The Bufferboard has a simple 
Interface-Docking System. No bulky boxes 



and economical buffering of most popu- 
lar printer interfaces, including the 
Grappler + ™ interface, Epson interface, 
and Apple printer interface. Thirty sec- 
onds and a single hook-up are all you need 
to end the printer waiting game forever. 

Up to 20 letter-size pages 
stored at a time. 

The Bufferboard comes standard with 
16K, and is expandable to 32K or 64K of 
buffering capacity with the addition of 




memory chips. This "bucket" will hold up 
to 20 pages of a print job, allowing you 
freedom to use your Apple. 

The Bufferboard— designed 
exclusively for the Apple Computer. 

Specifications: 

• Versions for Grappler + interface, Epson 
interface, Apple interface, and other popu- 
lar printer interfaces • 16K buffer standard 

• Upgradeable to 32K or 64K • Automatic 
memory configuration • Automatic self 
test • Includes interface docking cable. 

The Bufferboard is made by Orange 
Micro, Inc. ; the same people who brought 
you the popular Grappler + printer inter- 
face. Both the Grappler + and The 
Bufferboard are now available at your 
local Apple dealer. 

Apple is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. 

Epson is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc. 

^Orange micro 

inc. 

1400 N. Lakeview, Anaheim, CA 92807 
U.S.A. (714)779-2772 
TELEX: TX 183511 CSMA 




Circle 323 on inquiry card. 
©Orange Micro, Inc. 1982 



SASI/V 
DATAC \ 

PORT ^ 



SASlf 
CONTROL < \ 
PORT l^ 1 - 



A 



SASI 
INTERFACE 



SERIALI2ER /DESERIALIZER 
ERROR CODE GENERATION 
AND CHECKING 



INTERNAL CONTROLLER BUS 



8-BIT 
PROCESSOR 



SECTOR 
BUFFER 



DISK CONTROL 

DISCRETES 

INTERFACE 



MFM DATA 
"TO DISK 



DISCRETE CONTROL 
SIGNALS TO DISK 



Figure 4: A block diagram of the disk controller. 



the signals that the controller uses to 
access particular sectors on the disk. 
Now we'll discuss how these signals 
are generated and, in general, how a 
controller operates. 

The controllers we will address are 
characteristically known as "smart" 
controllers. This means that they 
have some internal processing capa- 
bility and use this capability to per- 
form many of the interfacing chores 
with the disk without intervention 
from the host computer. The speed of 
the Winchester disk drive necessitates 
a dedicated controller to effectively 
handle all disk control and timing. 
Figure 4 presents a conceptual block 
diagram of this type of controller. 
The disk-drive interface, which we 
have already discussed, is on the 
right, and the interface to the HCA is 
on the left. A common interface be- 
tween the controller and the HCA is 
based on that developed by Shugart 
Associates, known as the Shugart 
Associates System Interface (SASI). 
As shown, the SASI consists of two 
8-bit connections. One set of 8 bits is 
for data and the other is for control 
signals. The control signals are split, 
with 5 bits used for controller-to- 
HCA signals and 3 bits for HCA-to- 
controller signals. 

Internally, the controller is a bus- 
structured device with an 8-bit pro- 



cessor, a sector buffer, a serial- 
izer/deserializer, the disk interface, 
and the SASI interface connected to 
the internal bus. Again, the easiest 
way to understand the operation of 
the controller is to go through a 
typical sequence of operations. In this 
case, the controller will perform a 
read operation from a particular sec- 
tor of the disk. The process starts 
when the host computer, using the 
HCA, generates a Select signal on the 
SASI interface. This alerts the con- 
troller that a command sequence will 
be coming in over the 8-bit data port. 
Through a series of handshakes, a 
command sequence consisting of 6 
bytes of data is passed through the 
data port of the SASI. These 6 bytes 
contain the command to be executed 
by the controller — in this case, read 
data — and the sector address of the 
data to be read. 

With this information, the con- 
troller begins to execute the requested 
command using its internal pro- 
cessor. It sends commands to the disk 
to move the read/write head to the 
track that contains the desired sector. 
Once the head arrives at the right 
track, it waits for the index pulse and 
then starts reading the data coming 
from the disk to find the appropriate 
sector. The 8-bit processor reads the 
data from the disk after it has gone 



through the serializer/ deserializer. 
The deserializer portion of this device 
receives the MFM data directly from 
the disk, performs error checking and 
error correction on the data, and then 
passes the data to the 8-bit processor 
(via the internal controller bus) in 
parallel byte format. Once the con- 
troller locates the desired sector, it 
transfers the data from the disk into 
the sector buffer. This buffer is essen- 
tially a RAM (random-access read/ 
write memory) chip that is used to 
store the information retrieved from 
the disk until it is requested by the 
host processor. The controller in- 
forms the host system, through the 
SASI port, when it has completed the 
data transfer. At this point the host 
can read the retrieved data out of the 
controller and take any appropriate 
action with it. 

A write operation is performed in a 
similar manner. In this case, the host 
sends the Select command and the 
6-byte command sequence to the con- 
troller that tells it to write data to a 
particular sector. The host then sends 
the controller the data to be written 
into the particular sector. The con- 
troller accepts this data and places it 
in the sector buffer. It then initiates 
the series of actions to find the sector 
to which the data is to be written. 
When the controller locates this sec- 



142 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



TIME SPECTRUM 



Only the new TIME SPECTRUM brings you a galaxy 

of expansion options for your IBM-PC® 

with the new VERSAPAK® family of expansion modules. 



COMPAK SERIAL EXPANSION 
MODULE - Adds a second 
serial asynchronous port to the 
TIME SPECTRUM foundation 
module. 



SNAP ON 
STANDOFFS 

For mounting 
VERSAPAK 

modules 

to foundation 

modules. 



SYNCPAK SYNCHRONOUS EXPANSION 
MODULE - Adds two serial synchronous 
ports to the foundation module. 



RAMPAK MEMORY 
EXPANSION MODULE - 

Adds memory expansion 
to 512KB and an 
optional second serial 
asynchronous port to the 
foundation module. 




Watch for new VERSAPAK modules to be introduced soon 



For more information on the revolutionary new TIME 
SPECTRUM and VERSAPAK expansion modules, see 
your nearest IBM-PC authorized dealer or contact: 



IBM-PC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corp. 
e Copyright Personnel Systems Technology, Inc. 1982 



TIME 
SPECTRUM 
FOUNDATION 
MODULE - 

Contains a Real Time 
Clock. 64KB RAM 
(expandable to 256KB), 
serial asynchronous port, optional 
parallel printer port, and interface 
connections for VERSAPAK modules. 



15801 Rockfield, Ste. A, Irvine, CA 92714 
714-859-8871 

Circle 345 on inquiry card. 



tor, it passes the data from the sector 
buffer through the serializer, which 
adds error detection and correction 
bits to the data, and then sends the 
result to the disk in serial MFM form. 
In addition to the read and write 
functions, a smart controller can per- 
form a number of other functions, in- 
cluding formatting the disk, refor- 
matting a particular track on a disk, 
and a variety of built-in test and loop- 
back test functions. These functions 
are initiated exactly like the read and 



write functions but with a different 
set of commands passed to the con- 
troller. 

The Host Computer Adapter 

The last piece of hardware required 
to complete the Winchester system in- 
terface is the host computer adapter 
(HCA). As figure 1 indicates, this 
adapter allows communication be- 
tween the host computer S-100 bus 
and the SASI on the controller. A 
number of options are available in de- 



QUALITY COMPUTER FORMS 

AT PRICES YOU CAN AFFORD 



WE SUPPORT MORE SYSTEMS WITH 
FORMS THAN ANYONE ! 

INVOICES 'STATEMENTS •CHECKS- P.O. 'S ♦SHIPPERS* MEDICAL FORMS 
INCOME TAX FORMS* W2'S* LETTERHEAD 

Accounting Plus • Altos Accountant • Apple Controller • Broderbund • Continental • 
Durango • Dynabyte • Gold • Great Plains • Libra Programming Inc. • Microcomputing 
Consultants • Open Systems • Peachtree • Radio Shack • Solomon • Star • State of the 
Art • Structured Systems • Systems Plus • TCS • TSE • Vector Graphic* 

We Support 2 1 5 Systems Not Listed Here. So If You Don't See Your 

Software Here Call Toll Free For A Free Sample Packet Of Forms 

For Your Software. 

SHEERCUT 
WORD PROCESSING LETTERHEAD 

SHEER CUT LETTERHEAD FROM CHECKS TO-GO USES A NEW PROCESS TO 
PRODUCE CONTINUOUS FORM PAPER THAT TRIMS CLEAN WHEN BURST. 
NORMAL COMPUTER PAPER USES FIVE PERFORATIONS PER INCH, BUT 
SHEER CUT USES A NEW TECHNOLOGY TO PRODUCE 80 PERFS OR 
"TIES" PER INCH. THIS PRODUCES A VERY CLEAN AND UNIFORM 
EDGE WHEN BURST, AND IS ECONOMICAL IN BOTH SMALL AND LARGE 
QUANTITIES. SHEER CUT IS AVAILABLE ON A STOCK FORM BASIS 
IN FOUR "CLASSIC LAID" PAPERS, OR IN ANY TYPE PAPER ON A 
CUSTOM ORDER. EVERY OTHER FORM CAN BE IMPRINTED TO PRODUCE 
CONTINUOUS FIRST AND SECOND SHEETS. BLANK PRICES ARE $60 
FOR 1,000, S235 FOR 5,000 AND $400 FOR 10,000, WITH 
IMPRINTING, DEALER, AND VOLUME PRICING AVAILABLE. 



CONTINUOUS AND SNAP-OUT 




W2'S 

• J' AND OTHER CONTINUOUS 
TAX FORMS 



^Checks To-Go 



CALL TOLL FREE NOW: (800) 854-2750 IN CA (800) 552-8817 




8384 Hercules St. • P.O. Box 425 • La Mesa, CA 92041 

Your Assurance of Value and Service. 



signing an HCA, but basically they 
boil down to the degree of intelligence 
that is to be incorporated into the 
HCA. In more simple designs, the 
HCA consists of only a couple of out- 
put ports on the S-100 bus with the 
proper address-decode logic. In this 
case, the two output ports on the 
S-100 bus correspond to the two 8-bit 
ports of the SASI interface, and the 
HCA is essentially a buffer device. 
The disk-driver software then manip- 
ulates these two ports to perform any 
required function exactly as if the 
controller were part of the system. 

More complex designs would allow 
the HCA to perform some of the 
functions that would be performed by 
the host computer in the simpler de- 
sign. Again, an example will best il- 
lustrate the process. Assume that a 
host system wishes to transfer a sec- 
tor of 256 bytes from the host system 
to the disk. In the case of the simple 
HCA design, the driver software 
would be informed by the operating 
system of this required transfer and 
then would send the proper com- 
mands to the controller to initiate the 
transfer process. In addition, the 
driver software would sequentially 
fetch each of the 256 bytes of data to 
be transferred from the host memory 
and pass it through the SASI data 
port to the controller. 

An alternate, more complex design 
of the HCA would eliminate much of 
this processing burden from the host 
system's processor. If the HCA were 
given DMA (direct memory access) 
capability, all the host processor 
would have to do would be to tell the 
HCA what sector to read or write to, 
where in host memory the data trans- 
fer was to begin, and how many bytes 
of data to transfer. The HCA would 
then take over the entire process of 
fetching the data from host memory 
and passing it to the controller and 
would simply inform the host proces- 
sor when the process was complete. 

As the description implies, pro- 
viding the HCA with DMA capability 
increases the total system perfor- 
mance by reducing the load on the 
host processor. This increased perfor- 
mance carries with it a penalty in 
terms of increased cost and complexi- 
ty of the HCA. In the design of our 



144 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 77 on inquiry card. 




Tie $1795 
Personal Business 

Computer 
that is changing 
the way people 

go to work. 

Henry Ford revolutionized 
personal transportation. 

Adam Osborne has 
done the same for personal 
business computing. 

Virtually everything 
you need in a personal 
business computer to work 
faster and better with words, 
numbers, and ideas is included 
in a portable carrying case you 
can take anywhere. 



The Osborne is easy to 
learn, fun to use, and quickly 
becomes indispensable. 

One price, $1795, buys it all. 

The Osborne is available 
from a computer retailer near 
you. 

And you can buy it in any 
color you want. As long as it 
is blue. 

Put away your buggywhips. 



$1795. Complete. Including Software. 



For your nearest dealer, 
call (in California) 800 772-3545 
ext. 905; (outside California) call 
800 227-1617 
ext. 905. 



COMPUTER CORPORATION 



The $1795 suggested retail price for the Osborne 1 (a trademark of Osborne Computer Corporation) includes a full business keyboard, built-in CRT display, two built-in floppy disk drives, 
CPU and 64 kilobytes of RAM memory, RS-232 and IEEE 488 interlaces, and the following software packages: WORDSTAR® word processing with MAILMERGE" (a trademark and a registered 
trademark of MicroPro International Corporation of San Rafael, California); SUPERCALC© electronic spreadsheet system (a trademark of Sorcim Corporation); CBASIC* (a registered trademark of 
Compiler Systems); MBASIC* (a registered trademark of Microsoft); and CP/M* (a registered trademark of Digital Research). 



ORIGINAL 
JMP TABLE 



BDOS CCP 















FLOPPY 
BIOS 




FLOPPY 
BIOS 




* 










































NEW WINCHESTER 
BIOS a JMP TABLE 



BDOS CCP 



CP/M PRIOR TO 
RECONFIGURATION 



CP/M AFTER 
RECONFIGURATION 



Figure 5: A block diagram showing how the BIOS for the Winchester disk drive is in- 
serted into the CP/M operating system. 



system, we considered this trade-off 
carefully. In next month's article on 
the hardware design, we will go 
through these trade-offs in detail and 
describe what system we chose and 
the reason for that choice. 

Variations 

Up to now, we have described a 
general Winchester interface system 
that consists of a drive, a controller, 



and an HC A. Any given system must 
contain all these components. How- 
ever, there is considerable latitude in 
how these components are packaged. 
One common packaging strategy is to 
put the controller and HCA functions 
on the same board. In this configura- 
tion, a single board plugs into the 
S-100 bus and a ribbon cable connects 
this board to the disk. In another 
strategy, the HCA is plugged into the 




There is a road 



Many cancer patients need 
transportation to and from 
treatments. That's why the 
American Cancer Society has 
formed groups of volunteers 
across the United States who 
give a few hours of their time 
each month to drive them. 
The road to recovery can be a 
long and difficult one, but it can 
be that much easier when 
there are friends who can 
help along the way. 



} £ American Cancer Soiety 



146 



This space contributed as a public service. 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



S-100 bus and a ribbon cable connects 
the HCA to the controller and anoth- 
er ribbon cable connects the con- 
troller to the disk. This second con- 
figuration is likely to be more com- 
mon because it allows builders of 
controllers to build one controller 
card that is applicable to many 
systems. In fact, as you will see next 
month, this is the configuration we 
chose. 

In the previous discussions, we 
have not mentioned the possibility of 
adding multiple Winchester drives to 
a system. This is certainly possible 
and can be done with very little 
design effort. In most cases, the in- 
cremental cost of the second drive 
amounts to only the cost of the drive 
itself and the interconnection hard- 
ware. We will cover this option in 
detail next month when we discuss 
the specifics of the hardware im- 
plementation we chose and the par- 
ticular controller hardware. 

Operating System 
Considerations 

The final step in integrating a Win- 
chester disk into an existing S-100 
CP/M-based system is to somehow 
make the CP/M operating system 
aware that the disk is part of the 
system. This is done by expanding the 
existing CP/M BIOS (basic input/ 
output system) to include the new 
disk. The existing BIOS contains all 
the software necessary to run the cur- 
rent peripherals on the system. The 
modification we need would keep 
these existing routines and add the 
necessary routines to communicate 
with the new Winchester disk drive. 
The simplified memory map of CP/M 
both before and after the required 
modification, presented in figure 5, 
shows how this can be done. At the 
top of the existing BIOS is a jump 
table that points to the various 
primitive disk functions for an exist- 
ing system. These functions include 
set track, set sector, select disk, read 
sector, write sector, etc. In order to 
add these functions for the new disk, 
the CP/M system is moved using the 
MOVECPM utility, and a new jump 
table is installed that points to the 
new disk routines. This new code, in 
addition to performing the required 



Powerful CP/M Software. 

For Apple, Osborne, TRS-80, North Star, SuperBrain, Micropolis, Altos and others. 

Now only $ Z9«95 each! 



NEVADA 




was $199.95 now only $29.95. 

When we introduced Nevada COBOL three years ago, it was 
loaded with innovations. Today's Edition 2 is even better! For 
example: 

□ It's 4 to 20 times faster than any other micro COBOL 
according to an independent study*. What's more, it's easier 
to use. 

□ Extremely Compact. You can compile and execute up to 
2500 statements in 32K RAM, 4000 statements in 48K, etc. 

□ It's based upon the ANSI-74 standards with level 2 features 
such as compound conditionals and full CALL CANCEL. 

□ You get a diskette, 153-page manual with lots of examples 
and 16 complete COBOL source code programs. 



NEVADA 

FORTRAN 

was $199.95 now only $29.95. 

□ IF . . THEN . . ELSE constructs. 

□ COPY statement. 

□ A very nice TRACE style debugging. 

□ 150 English language error messages. 

□ You get a diskette, 174 pages of Documentation and five 
sample programs. 



NEVADA 

PILOT 

was $149.95 now only $29.95. 

□ Perfect for industrial training, office training, drill and test- 
ing, virtually all programmed instruction, word puzzle games, 
and data entry facilitated by prompts. 

□ What's more, John Starkweather, Ph.D., the inventor of the 
PILOT language, has added many new features to Nevada 
PILOT There are commands to drive optional equipment such 
as Video Tape Recorders and Voice Response Units. There's a 
built-in full-screen text editor and much more. 

□ Meets all PILOT-73 standards for full compatibility with older 
versions. 

□ You get a diskette, 114-page manual and ten useful sample 
programs. 

NEVADA 

EDIT 

was $119.95 now only $29.95. 

□ A character-oriented full-screen video display text editor de- 
signed specifically to create COBOL, BASIC and FORTRAN 
programs. 

□ Completely customizable tab stops, default file type, key- 
board layout and CRT by menu selection. 

□ The diskette comes with an easy to read manual. 



To make our software available to even more micro users, we've slashed our prices. 
What's more, we're offering a money back guarantee. If for any reason you're not 
completely satisfied, just return the package— in good condition with the sealed 
diskette unopened — within 30 days and we'll refund your money completely. 

This is a limited time offer, so order yours today! 

Shipping/handling fees. Add $4.00 for first package and $2.00 each additional 
package. OVERSEAS Add $15.00 for first package and $5.00 each additional 
package. Checks must be in U.S. funds and drawn on a U.S. bank! 

*"A Compiler Benchmark: A Comparative Analysis of Four COBOL Compilers" by 
Stephen F Wheeler. Trademarks: CP/M, Digital Research; TRS-80. Tandy Corp.; 
Apple II, Apple Computer Inc.; Osborne 1, Osborne Computer Corp. © 1982 Ellis 
Computing. 



o 



ELLIS COMPUTING 



MAIL TODAY! To: Ellis Computing 

3917 Noriega St 
San Francisco, CA 94122 



(415)753-0186 



The CP/M operating system and 32K RAM are required. 

Indicate diskette format: □ 8" SSSD 

5W □ Apple CP/M □ Osborne □ N*SD □ N*DD 

□ TRS-80 Mod I □ Micropolis Mod II 

DTRS-80/mapper □ Superbrain DD DOS 3.X 



Indicate software packages: 



D COBOL 
□ FORTRAN 



□ PILOT 

□ EDIT 



Send my order for packages @ $29.95 each Total 

In CA add sales tax . 
□ Check enclosed □ COD Shipping/handling 



□ MasterCard 



□ VISA 



If COD add $4.00 . 
TOTAL . 



# 



Exp. Date . 



Signature . 

Ship to: 
Name 



-Phone #. 



Company 

Street 

City/St/Zip. 
Country 



Offer expires 3/31/83 



Circle 172 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 147 



disk functions, keeps track of which 
disk is selected. If the Winchester is 
the selected disk, then these new 
routines perform any requested func- 
tions. On the other hand, if another 
disk or peripheral is selected, say the 
existing floppy disk, then the com- 
mands are passed directly to the old 
BIOS routines for that system. In this 
way, with a minimum of difficulty, 
the disk primitive routines for the 
new disk can be included in the 
CP/M system. We will cover the de- 
tails of the BIOS routines for the Win- 
chester system as well as the pro- 
cedures for reconfiguring the existing 
system in part 3. 

Summary 

So far we have covered, in a gen- 
eral way, all the components required 
to interface a Winchester disk with an 
existing S-100, CP/M-based system. 
You should now have a fairly com- 
plete understanding of what a Win- 
chester disk is, how it operates, and 
what some of the differences are be- 
tween Winchester disks. In addition, 



you should now have a general grasp 
of the 5V4-inch drive interface, the 
Shugart Associates Standard Inter- 
face, the functions of a smart con- 
troller, and the host computer 
adapter. In parts 2 and 3 we will 
cover a specific example of the inter- 
facing process in detail, using com- 
mercially available equipment: next 
month we will describe the hardware 
including the HCA, the controller, 
and a disk power supply; and in the 
final article we will describe the soft- 
ware aspects of writing new BIOS 
routines for CP/M and reconfiguring 
the system to include the new Win- 
chester disk drive. 

These articles will cover only the 
details of interfacing with S-100 
CP/M-based systems. For interfacing 
with other computers and operating 
systems, however, the procedure is 
much the same. First, an HCA must 
be designed to allow communication 
between the host computer and the 
disk controller. Then the equivalent 
of the CP/M BIOS must be found in 
the operating system used, and new 



code must be generated to include the 
Winchester disk system. Depending 
on the availability of documentation 
on the hardware and operating sys- 
tem, this may or may not be an easy 
task. Hopefully, this series will pro- 
vide a reference point from which to 
proceed. ■ 



The Winchester disk drive subsys- 
tem described in this series of articles is 
available as a completely assembled 
unit from ASC Associates of Lexington 
Park, Maryland. In addition to the 
S-100 version discussed, versions are 
also available for TRS-80 and Apple 
computers. The disk-drive systems for 
these computers use the same drive and 
controller hardware as the S-100 ver- 
sion but use a different host computer 
adapter and interface software. Until a 
nationwide dealer distribution net- 
work is established, these systems will 
be available by mail order for $1995. 
To order or obtain further informa- 
tion, write to ASC Associates Inc., 
FOB 615, Lexington Park, MD 20653, 
or phone (301) 863-6784. 



Serial 4 IIIIIMI ' ^ Parallel 




Connector Option $10.00 
CA Residents 6% tax 
UPS Shipping $3.00 




1501-B Pine Street 

Post Office Box 2233 

Oxnard, California 93030 



Printers! Plotters! Punches! Robots! 

Convert What You Have 
To What You Want! 



• RS232 Serial 

• 8 Baud Rates 

• Latched Outputs 



* Centronics Parallel 

* Handshake Signals 

* Compact 3 1 / 4 x 4% x V/ 2 



No longer will your peripheral choices be limited 
by the. type of port you have available! Our new 
High Performance 700 Series Converters provide 
the missing link. Based on the latest in CMOS 
technology, these units feature full baud rate 
selection to 19.2K, with handshake signals to 
maximize transfer efficiency. Detailed documen- 
tation allows simplified installation. Order the 
Model 770 (Ser/Par) or Model 775 (Par/Ser) 

Today! 

Buffer Products 

Coming Soon! 



CALL (805) 487-1 665 or 487-1 666 For FAST Delivery 



VISA' 



148 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 176 on inquiry card. 



FRANKLIN 



9 § § 



We 




Have An Ace Up Our 

Sleeve For You! 
Call For Sale Price Now! 



NEW! 



2 



The Ace 1200 

• 6502 &Z-80 Processors 
Builtin Drive • 1 28K RAM 

t> 80 Columns 
On Sale Now! 



'■TV: 



BASIS 108 

THE ALTERNATIVE 
On Sale Now! 



SH&L 

COMPUTER SYSTEMS M I fl ICO fTI P U 16 f 

Performance at 
Microcomputer Prices. 

i£ALL NOW & SAVE! 



SYSCOM SYSTEMS 

New Apple 
Compatable 

il System |$799.oo I 




W^h 




fcPRfc 



Fourth Drive 279 

Fourth Controller 89 

Rana Elite One 299 

Rana Controller 89 

Micro SciA-2 349 

Micro Sci A-40 349 

Trackball By T.O 49 

3" Drlvat by Amdak749 
New Vltta Product*. ..Ca III 

Versa Card 169 

16KRam(2vrWNTY) 59 
Softcard PlusByMS. . . 449 
Softcard Prem. System 449 

J-CatByNov 124 

CPSMulti-FuncbyMtn169 
Micro Modem II* . ...278 
Smart Modem 219 



ACCESSORIES 

Hayes 1 2 Baud ; { A*v53^ 
Sooper Spooler (16K) 299 
Z-80 by Microsoft.... 229 
Videoterm (80 col.) ... 244 

EP8 Keyboard 319 

TheGrapplerPlua. .. 119 
RGB by Electrohome219 
Parallel Card (6' cable) 69 

Z-Card by ALS 1 39 

The CP/M Card By ALS 329 
Synerglier By ALS .... 529 




Joystick by TG 46 

In Line Buffer 229 

Disk Emulator (294K) 689 

Appll-Card 6MZ 429 

Expan Chassis by Mtn 539 
Winchester Hard Disk CALL 



•APPLE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK 



SOFTWARE 

Screen Writer II 103 

Magic Window 69 

SuperText II by Muse 118 
BPI SOFTWARE. . .CALL 
Exec Secretary by S. S. 1 89 
Pro. EasyWriterbylUS129 
Letter PRFTw/mailmerael 09 
WORD HANDLER .147 
General Manager — 109 
VisicalcbyVisicorp. . .183 
PFS by Soft Pub. Corp 69 
Visif ile by Visicorp. ... 1 84 

Visitrd/VisipltbyVisicorpI 96 
PFS: Report.........: 69 

DB Master 164 



Circle 109 on inquiry card. 

PFS: Graph.. 89 

Desktop Plan 184 

WallStreeterbyM.L...219 

CP/M®* SOFTWARE 

Basic Interpreter'." 1 . CALL 
Basic Compiler by MS289 
Cobol-80 byMicrosoft.539 
Fortran-80 by Microsoftl 46 

Word Star 299 

Mail Merge 1 59 

Spell Star 159 

Data Star 1 89 

Calc Star 99 

Supercafc 212 

d Base 1 1 b yAshton-tate494 
G/Lby Peachtree...CALL 
A/R by Peachtree. . . CALL 

Peachcalc CALL 

Quickcode 239 

Tax Preparer '82 109 

Real Estate Analyzer. ..139 

Bag of Tricks 29 

loom Graphix 27 

Special Effects 27 



CALL FOR CATALOG! 

*CP/M is a Registered Trademark 



COLUMBIA 



The Columbia MPC is IBM® P/C 

Hardware & Software Compatable. 
The Price? Non - Comparable! 
Save Hundreds and Call 



IM*IBM*IBM*IBNMBIVMBM«I 



FREE* SHIPPING 



A \£KAYCOMP II 

C) I* By Non-Linear Systems 

The totally portable, powerful and profitable 
computer for your home or office. 

• Z-80 • 64 K Ram e two 5V*" floppy-disc drives 
(double density) a 9" video display (80 col.) 
e RS-232C e Parallel Printer • Interface 

SOFTWARE INCLUDED! 

e CP/M" 2.2 e S/Basic • Profit Plan 
e Perfect Writer W/P e Perfect Calc. 
• Perfect Filer a Perfect Speller 



Ct commodore 
All Mpw fid. . 



ATARI CARTRIDGE 



A 1 1 N e w 6 4 & Vic Catalog.. F reel, AD APT E R ! 



5^ 



Dataset 64^ "sft 

Disk Drive 469^ 

Graphic Printer 319"* 

16K Mem. Expander 79,'* 
24K Mem. Expander 1395 

lEEE-488Card 69- 

6 Slot Expand 99 

Afron Chassis 198 

40/80 Col. W/16K 229 

40/80 Col. W/64K 319 

Wico Joystick Delux 37 

Wico Trackball 59 

Modem 95 

Centronics Cable 69 



% 



& msmm \ 



Use Cartridges For Atari 
400/800 On Your Vic 

On Sale $79.00 



AST 

Combo Plus 64 (SPC) 429 
Combo Plus256(SPC)699 
Mega Plus 64 (SP) ...499 
Mega Plus 266 (SP) . . . 799 

QUAL1TYCOMP. 
Big Blue............. 479 

DAVONG 
5 MB Hard ...... ,v; 1589 

10 MB Hard '.;V1989 

15 MB Hard ..2380 

Slave 5 MB..: 1290 



Visicalc(256K) 185 

Word Star 249 

Mail Merge 88 

Peachtree Pkgs .... CALL 

Volks Writer 1 29 

Super Calc 217 

Easy Writer II..,.,., 239 
Home Acct. Plus.... 109 
CP/M-86 byCmpview 299 
Vedit by Cmpview. . . 1 29 



QUADRAM 

QuadboardM64K....459 
QuadboardN256K..,739 

Quad512+64K 399 

Quad 51 2+51 .2 K... 1099 

Quad screen ..1499 

Quad co I or f ...... ...299 

Quadcolor III 719 

Tecmar . ..... , . . .CALL! 

XEDEX 

Baby Blue CP/M.... 489 
Baby Blue Ram Plus 679 

)FTWARE 

Vedit-86 by Cmpview 199 

The Programmer 369 

CP/M-86 by Digital... 279 
Basic-80 by MSoft... 297 
Fortran-80 by MSoft 419 
M/Sortby MSoft.... 159 

Easy by Denver 543 

Mathernagic by ISM 69 

Logon by Ferox 129 

Fastscreen by Cu. . . 73 



cam rnppATAinrci 



TgKfTH 



k\ 



Software 



Chop lifter (cart.) 34 

Trashman (cart.) 33 

Hesmon (cart.) 36 

Vic Fourth (cart.) 4 9 

Personal Jour, (tape) 26 

Vic-Journal (tape) 29 



APPLE LOADER! 
FOR C-64 $89.00 

C-64 Accessories C-64 Software 

Video Pak Z-80 259 Hesmon 64 (cart.) 29 



Video Pak 80 159 

IEEE Adapt, by MS... 89 
Viae (adapt any cass) 45 



Heswriter64(cart.) 34 

Home Journal (tape). . . 39 
Data Calc (tape) 39 



Z-1 00 All in Oa^fZ-1 20-22). / Sale! 

Z-1 00 Low Profile (Z-1 1 0-22) .;.'.' a; Call 

Color Upgrade Kit {Z-2 19-1) . ..aHWHSTX 139 

1 92 K Upgrade Kit (Z-205-1). '. . a 1 55 

RG B Color Monitor 1 3" (ZVM -1 34) • 589 

Auto-Dial Terminal (ZT-i -A) . . A. 589 

System Software Pack #1 (Z55*i00-1) . . . 449 

System Software Pack #2 (Z55-1 00-2) 299 



The Price/Performance Leader! 

Eagle II .a 2495 

Eagle III ; . :; 3199 

Eagle IV.... 4699 

File 10.. ...,..,.,,.../ 2450 

New! Eagle 1600 (8086 Microprocessor) Call! 
Free Brochure 



JjLATARI 



h1 Recorder, A a .":': 74 ' 

810 Disk Drive 439 

825 Printer./., .v.. .,639 
830 Modern...'.':.. ...159" 
850 Interface .:..,.. .159 

Full-View 80 A. ..279 

Joystick (Pair) .'..--.-.•. . . 18 
48 K by lntek...... ., .189 

32Kby Microtek ..... 99 

1010 Recorder.,,..... 79 

Epson Cable.... 34 

> CALL FOR 



1200XL On Sale! 
800 W/48K 529 

400W/16K.....229 



The Bookkeeper . .... 1 94 
The Entertainer. a 69 

-The Educator. A\, ..,11 24 
.. The Programmer A ... 56 
-The Communicator. . .334 

APacMan A. 33 

Mouskattack 26 

Choplifter. , . . 27 

Frogger 27 

,,-.Gor?....'. .';.' ',:::~ 33 

Microsoft Basic 69 

C^TALboT 



TERMINALS 

TELEVIDEO 

TVI910 578 

TV I 910 Plus..,. ... : 589 

TV I 970.. .:.... ....: .1150 

ADDS 

Viewpoint A-1 479 

Viewpoint A-2 CALL 

Viewpoint /60 749 



MONITORS 

NEC 

JB 1 260 1 2" Green A aa<29 ^ 

JB 1201 12" Color 329 

12" RGB (Hi-Res) 789 



AMDEK 



Video 300 77*^9$ 

Color I 309 

Color II 729 



■r£>w PRINTERS 

OKI DATA 

Mtcroline 92 a : 549 

Pacemark 2410P ."....• 2350 

Mtcroline 82A.. 419 

C ITOH 

851 Prowrtter (Par). 439 

1 550 Prowriter (Par) 689 

F-1 Printmaster (Par) 1 789 



CALL , FOR COMPLETE CATALOG 



. IT'S FREE! 



tolTfIIe » 1 -800-854-2833 



TO ORDER: Phone orders invited using Visa, Mastercard, 
American Express, or bank wire transfers. Visa, MC, and 
American Express service charge of 2%. Mail orders may 
sendchargecard number(include expirationdate), cashiers 
check, money order, or personal check (allow 10 business 
days forpersonal orcompanychecksto clear). Pleaseadd 
3% ($5.00 minimum) for UPS shipping, handling, and 
insurance. COD's minimum $250.00 with $25.00 
deposit. All equipment is in factory cartons with manufac- 
turerwarranty.Opened products not returnable. Restocking 



fee for returned merchandise. Equipment subject to price 

change and availability. Retail prices differ from mail order 

prices. 

$40.00 mm, purchase. 'With prepaid cash orders 

*Exclude certain printers & monitors & foreign orders. 

Calif, residents add 6% State Tax. 

For APO and FPO -addl 0%($25.00 min.forpostage. Calif. 

residents add6%SalesTax). Includephonenumber. credit 

cards not accepted. 

Foreign Orders - include 3% handling, shipped air freight 

collect credit cards not accepted. 



COMPUTER 
SPECIALTIES 

(619) 579-0330 

MAIL TOM251 BROADWAY 
EL CAJON, CA. 92021 






■' 



The Panasonic portable computer 

We've improved the way 



■ THE i» 

LLTLK Panasonic. 

It will improve the way you 
solve problems. And the 
solutions come from the 
portable computing power 
you have at your 
fingertips. You can take it 
with you on planes, cars, 
boats, anywhere, because 
it fits into a suitcase. You can 
be more cost effective in the 
field, because you'll have 
access to more information for 
making on-the-spot decisions. 
You'll have the incredible 
advantage of being able to 
telecommunicate from anywhere 
you are. It gives you a whole 
new world of computing. 
Portable computing. 

Software Solutions — Now 

there's an exciting new software 
system for the 6502 
microprocessor that gives you more 
solutions to your problems. 
The popular language software for the portable computer includes 
Extended Basic Compiler/Interpreter, SnapFORTH and Microsoft Basic.® 
The Panasonic portable computer also has a wide range of specific 
software programs for your specific problems, such as: 

The Scientific Calculator — An incredibly powerful tool that solves mathematical problems for the 
scientist, engineer, and professional wherever they go. 

Portabudq et — It's your portable personal financial manager. It gives you up-to-the-minute personal 
control. It allows you to be your own record keeper, savings advisor, accountant, bill manager, credit 
and charge account guide, investment counselor, portfolio keeper, and tax assistant. Overall, it 
helps plan your personal financial life, portably. 

Portacalc — Gives you the portability and the flexibility to automatically analyze numerical problems 
wherever and whenever they arise. You can assess "what if" alternative business problems, 
comprehend key variables in business, and dynamically analyze problems on engineering projects. 

Portawriter — It allows you to write, edit, and format information. And, you can telecommunicate the 
information from wherever you are. Whether you're in the boardroom, hotel room, or even on a golf 
course, Portawriter gives you full editing and formatting capability for notes, reports, letters, news 
copy, tables, lists, forms, orders, you name it. 

Portalo g — It is an easy, precise tool for time-billing professionals without a minute to lose. Whether 
you're on the road or in the office, you can log time, compile bills, generate billing reports, and track 
the work of your highly paid employees. Portalog gives you improved timekeeping productivity. 

Telecomputin g 2™— It lets you telecommunicate with your data base. You can establish 
communications between headquarters and field forces. Exchange files and programs between 
remote stations. Access timesharing services and store data in a large computer's mass storage. 
You can also upload and download program data. 







• 






with a wide range of new software, 
you solve problems. 



Portaflex —A master program that allows you to create solutions for applications, such as: 

o Inventory Control —Analysis and control of inventory while you're on the job. 

° Order Entry— A customized system for any sales order entry. It offers you productivity, and the 
advantage of faster order entry. 

n Field Service — Retrieve, diagnose, and analyze your field service data wherever you are in the field. 

n Auditing and Accounting —Custom auditing and accounting, anywhere you are in the field. 

n Estimating — Versatility for flexible bidding and estimating at your job site. 

Software Development Tools for the Customizer — Create your own custom programs and burn 
them into your EPROM so your program is recorded in nonvolatile form. 

Simply take a desk top microcomputer* insert the software development discs, create your own 
program, de-bug that program, compile the program, then "burn-in" your problem-solving EPROM. 

♦Presently offered for Apple II Plus. 



Hardware Specifications — 

The Panasonic portable computer offers 6502 
microprocessor (1 MHz) technology. 

a It offers 4K or 8K internal nonvolatile RAM 

□ 48K internal ROM 

□ Built-in Ni-Cad rechargeable battery pack 

□ External AC adapter/recharger 

□ 26-character liquid crystal display 

□ 65-key completely redefinable keyboard 



Introducing Peripherals for Additional Solutions — 

Modular peripherals let you customize your system. 

□ Multiple RS-232C serial interfaces 

□ Asynchronous modem with cassette interface 
(110 or 300 baud) 

□ 40-character microprinter (thermal dot matrix printing) 
a 8K or 16K RAM memory expansion packs 

□ X-Y, four-color plotter (up to 80 characters per line) 

□ TV adapter (32 characters X 16 lines with color 
and graphics) 



The Panasonic portable computer. It's improved the way you solve problems. Because we believe 
its portable modules and multiple software applications can vastly improve your productivity. And that 
can be an important solution to your profit problems. 

The portable computer from Panasonic. We've improved the way you solve problems. 

Link Panasonic. It's changing the way the world uses computers. 







Please send me more information. 

Panasonic Company, Hand-Held Computers 
One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, New Jersey 07094 



Name (PLEASE PRINT) . 
Title & Company 



Dealer Inquiries Invited 



v\ Type of Business 

%fc Address 

tauu )\ ^ 

uuu i City 

Phone Number ( 



I 
I 
I 
I 



.State. 



-zip- 



Panasonic. 

just slightly ahead of our time. 



Circle 339 on Inquiry card. 



NAPLPS: A New Standard 
for Text and Graphics 

Part 2: Basic Features 

How to encode text and simple graphics elements 
in a standard and efficient manner. 



Last month in part 1 of this series 
we introduced the North American 
Presentation-Level-Protocol Syntax 
(NAPLPS, or ''nap-lips"), which is an 
ASCII-like standard that can be used 
to facilitate the interchange of both 
textual and graphical information. 
The graphical information is encoded 
in a very portable and resolution- 
independent form, which can be dis- 
played on a large number of suitably 
equipped display terminals, printers, 
or plotters. 

This month the basic features and 
specific coding formats of NAPLPS 
are introduced. The emphasis will be 
on the set of Picture-Description In- 
structions (PDIs), around which most 
of the important features of NAPLPS 
revolve. 



A Picture Is Worth 284 Bytes 

The easiest way to explain the 
detailed coding formats of NAPLPS is 
to use the simple picture (or frame) 
shown in figure 1 (on page 164), 
which illustrates many of the basic 



About the Author 

Jim Fleming was a member of the original 
small group of engineers at Bell Laboratories 
who developed PLP (Presentation-Level Proto- 
col). PLP was later standardized as NAPLPS 
by the ANSI X3L2.1 committee. He is now an 
independent consultant specializing in interac- 
tive computing systems. 



152 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Jim Fleming 
Unir Corporation 

Suite 106 

5987 East 71st St. 

Indianapolis, IN 46220 



NAPLPS features. Listing 1 (pages 
154-163) is an annotated version of 
the NAPLPS codes used to produce 
this picture. As you can see, although 
the annotated listing is quite long, the 
actual coding consists of only 284 
bytes. 

For the sake of simplicity, this pic- 
ture was created using the 7-bit form 
of NAPLPS. As you may remember 
from last month, NAPLPS can use 
either 7 or 8 bits. If we had used the 
8-bit form, the coding would be even 
shorter. 

Op Codes and Operands 

As can be seen in listing 1, a 
Picture-Description Instruction usual- 
ly consists of an op code and an 
operand. The op code specifies a par- 
ticular function; the optional 
operand(s) specify the data needed by 
the function. Figure 2 (on page 166) il- 
lustrates the general op code/ operand 
structure used in NAPLPS. 

In NAPLPS it is very easy to dis- 
tinguish between the op codes and the 
operands. As can be seen, bit 6 is a 
for an op code and a 1 for an 
operand. This distinction allows us to 
have variable-length operands, as 
long as each operand byte has bit 6 
set to a 1. Another nice feature is that 
if the PDIs are presented in octal form 
as in listing 1, it is easy to distinguish 
the operands from the op codes. Oc- 
tal codes with a first digit of (e.g., 



045) are op codes, while a first digit of 
1 (e.g., 154) indicates an operand. 

Bit 5 will always be a 1 for an op 
code. This distinguishes op codes 
from the standard control codes in 
the CO set. The lower 5 bits of an op- 
code byte are used to indicate the par- 
ticular function. These 5 bits accom- 
modate 32 op codes, which are shown 
in figure 3. Most of these op codes 
will be covered in this article. 

The operand bytes shown in figure 
3 all have bit 6 set to 1. The lower 6 
bits (bits through 5) are thus avail- 
able to encode data, the format of 
which is dependent on the op code 
preceding the data. 

The 6 bits available in each 
operand byte can be formatted in a 
variety of ways. Figure 4 illustrates 
the four standard operand-encoding 
formats used in NAPLPS. 

The fixed format for operand en- 
coding is the simplest and most flexi- 
ble. (Isn't it interesting that something 
''fixed" can be "flexible"?) Fixed- 
format operands are used for small 
bit fields (6 bits or less) and often con- 
tain a few suboperands. For example, 
in the Text op code (see figure 7), a 
fixed operand is used to encode the 
Text Rotation (2 bits: 0, 90, 180, or 
270 degrees), Character Path (2 bits: 
Right, Left, Up, or Down), and Char- 
acter Spacing (2 bits: 1, 1.25, 1.5, or 
Proportional). The fixed-format 
operands are used in most of the 

Text continued on page 164 



-® 



BASF QUALIMETRIC™FLEXYDISKS 8 

BUILT FOR ETERNITY-WARRANTED FOR A LIFETIME. 



BASF Qualimetric FlexyDisks® offer 
you more... an extraordinary new 
lifetime warranty* The BASF Quali- 
metric standard is a dramatic new 
international standard of quality in 
magnetic media. ..insurance that 
your most vital information will be 
secure for tomorrow when you enter 
it on BASF FlexyDisks today. 

We can offer this warranty with 
complete confidence because the 
Qualimetric standard reflects a con- 
tinuing BASF commitment to perfec- 
tion..^ process which begins with 
materials selection and inspection, 
and continues through coating, pol- 
ishing, lubricating, testing, and 
100% error-free certification. Built 
into our FlexyDisk jacket is a unique 
two-piece liner. This BASF feature 
traps damaging debris away from 
the media surface, and creates extra 
space in the head access area, insur- 
ing optimum media-to-head align- 
ment. The result is a lifetime of 
outstanding performance. 

When your information must 
be secure for the future, look for 
the distinctive BASF package with 
the Qualimetric seal. Call 800-343- 
4600 for the name of your nearest 
supplier. 





Enter tomorrow on basf today 

* Contact BASF for warra ntydeta Us. © 1982, BA SF Systems Corpora t ion, Bedford, MA 



ERG/68000 

MINI-SYSTEMS 

D Full IEEE 696/S100 
compatibility 

HARDWARE OPTIONS 

□ 8MHz, 10MHz or 12MHz 68000 
CPU 

D Memory Management 

□ Multiple Port Intelligent I/O 

□ 64K or 128K STATIC RAM 
(70 nsec) 

□ 256K Dynamic RAM, with full 
parity (150 nsec) 

D 8" D/D, D/S floppy disk drives 
D 5MB-40MB hard disk drives 
D Full DMA host adaptor 
D 20MB tape streamer 

□ 10 to 20 slot backplane 

□ 30 amp power supply 

SOFTWARE OPTIONS 

D 68KFORTKT systems language 
with MACRO assembler and 
META compiler 

□ Fast Floating Point package 

□ Motorola's MACSBUG 

□ IDRIS 2 operating system with 
C, PASCAL, FORTRAN 77, 
68K-BASIC 1 compilers 

□ CP/M-68K 3 O/S with C, 
Assembler, 68K 1 -BASIC, 
+ 68K 1 -FORTH 

Trademark ERG, Inc. 

Whitesmiths 'Digital Research 

30 day delivery 

with valid Purchase Order 

OEM prices available 

For CPU, Integrated Card Sets 

or Systems. 





Empirical Research Group, Inc. 

P.O. Box 1176 

Milton, WA 98354 

206-631-4855 



Listing 1: An annotated listing ofNAPLPS codes used to produce the designs in figure 1. 
Note that each byte is given in its octal form. This makes it easy to distinguish op codes 
(first digit = 0) from operands (first digit = 1). Coordinates are described in terms of 
both their fractional form and their equivalent form for a 256 by 256 screen. For exam- 
ple, in lines 11-13 the coordinates (0.375,0.25) are equivalent to (96,64) on a 256 by 256 
grid. The notation (dx,dy) refers to coordinates relative to the present drawing point. 



Byte Octal symbolic 

No. Form Form Description 



Get ready for graphics ( 7 Bit Mode ) 
SO Select Gl ( PDI Graphics ) 

Set color to BLUE 



016 



2 074 

3 111 



4 040 

5 120 



8 


043 


9 


100 


10 


067 


11 


111 


12 


140 


13 


100 


14 


110 


15 


140 


16 


100 


17 


110 


18 


102 


19 


100 


20 


106 


21 


106 


22 


100 


23 


140 


24 


100 


25 


100 


26 


100 


27 


106 


28 


107 



29 



100 



SET Set Color 
BLU X100B00B 

Draw the sky by clearing 

the screen to the current color (BLUE) 

RES Reset 

Clear screen to current color 





. 


Change color to GREEN 




• 


for the grass 


6 


074 


SET Set Color 


7 


144 


GRN X1G00G00 



Make sure polygons are not highlighted 
or textured 

TEX Texture 

Solid areas, lines and no highlight 

Draw the grass 

SPF Set Polygon Filled 

■ (X,y) = ( .375, .25) => (96,64) 



(dx,dy) = (+.375,+.0) => (+96,+0) 



- (dx,dy) = (+.25, +.0625) => (+64, +16) 



- (dx,dy) = (+.0,-.3125) => (+0,-80) 



(dx,dy) = (-1.0, +.0) => (-256, +0) 



- (dx,dy) = (+.0,+. 21484375) => (+0,+55) 



Listing 1 continued on page 156 



154 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



«&s 




SOFTWARE 



• = New items 

ASHTONTATE 

dBASEII. . .call for price ($4??) 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE® 

Medical(PAS-3) $849 

Dental (PAS-3) $849 

ASYST DESIGN*/ FRONTIER 

Prof Time Accounting $549 

General Subroutine $269 

Application Utilities $439 

DIGITAL RESEARCH* 
CP/M 2.2* 

NorthStar $149 

TRS-80 Model II 
(P+T) $159 

Micropolis $175 

CP/M-lntel MDS. $135 

• PL/1-80 $449 

BT-80 $ 1 79 

MAC $ 85 

RMAC $179 

Sid S 65 

Z-Sid. ■ - $ 90 

Tex $ 90 

DeSpool.. S 49 

CB-80 $459 

CBasic-2 $ 98 

Link-80 S 90 

FOX&GELLER 

Quickscreen $135 

Ouickcode $265 

dutil $ 65 

MICRO-AP* 

S-Basic $269 

Selector IV $295 

Selector V $495 

MICRO DATA BASE SYSTEMS* 

HDBS $269 

MDBS $795 

DRSorQRSorRTL $269 

MDBS PKG $1999 

MICROPRO* 

• WordStar $279 

Customization Notes $449 

Mail-Merge $ 99 

WordStar/Mail-Merge $369 

DataStar $249 

WordMaster $119 

SuperSort I $199 

• Spell Star $139 

CalcStar $259 

MICROSOFT* 

• Basic-80 $199 

Basic Compiler $329 

Fortran-80 $349 

Cobol-80 $589 

M-Sort $175 

Macro-80 $144 

Edit-80 $ 84 

MuSimp/MuMath $224 

MuLisp-80 $174 

FPL: Bus. Planner $595 

ORGANIC SOFTWARE* 

TextWriter III. .$111 

DateBook II $269 

Milestone $269 

OSBORNE* (McGraw/Hill) 
General Ledger S 59 




SAVE $255 ON PRODUCTIVITY PAC #3! 


Everything you need: a wordprocessor, spreadsheet and 


database. And 


a phenomenally low, low price! 


Regular 




Retail 


Discount 


Final Word 


$300 


$270 


Plannercalc 


$ 99 


$ 50 


Condor I 


$295 


$275 




$694 


$595 


SPECIAL COMBINATION PRICE: $439 




Offer good to 


the end of the month of publication of this 


magazine. Call for our other PAC prices. 





Acct Rec/Acct Pay $ 59 

Payroll w/Cost $ 59 

All 3 $129 

All 3 + CBASIC-2 $199 

Enhanced Osborne 

(vandatta) 

(Includes CBasic) $269 

PEACHTREE® 

General Ledger $399 

Acct Receivable $399 

Acct Payable $399 

Payroll $399 

Inventory $399 

Surveyor $399 

Property Mgt $799 

CPACIient Write-up $799 

P8 Version Add $234 

MagiCalc $269 

Other less 10% 

STAR COMPUTER SYSTEMS 

• G/L, A/R, A/R Pay $ 349 

AM 4 $1129 

Legal Time Billing $ 849 

Property Mngmt $ 849 

STRUCTURED SYSTEMS® 

Business Packages, 
Call for Price 
SORCIM* 

s SuperCalc $249 

Trans 86 $115 

Act $157 

SUPERSOFT® 

Ada $270 

Diagnostic I $ 49 

Diagnostic II $ 84 

Disk Doctor. $89 

Forth (8080 or Z80) $149 

Fortran. $219 

Fortran w/Ratfor $289 

C Compiler $225 

Star Edit .$189 

Scratchpad $266 

StatsGraph $174 

Analizal! $ 45 

Dataview $174 

Disk Edit S 89 

Encode/Decode II S 84 

Optimizer $174 

Super M List 68 

Term II. . . $179 

ZapZ-8000 $450 

Utilities I S 54 

Utilities II. $ 54 

ACCOUNTING PLUS 

1 Module $385 



4 Modules $1255 

All 8 $4500 

UNICORN® 

Mince $149 

Scribble $149 

Both $249 

The Final Word $270 

WHITESMITHS® 

"C" Compiler $600 

Pascal (inclX") $850 

PASCAL 

• Pascal/MT+ Pkg $429 

Compiler $315 

SpProg $175 

Pascal/Z $349 

Pascal/UCSD 4.0 $670 

Pascal/M $355 

Tiny Pascal $ 76 

"DATA BASE" 

FMS-80 $894 

dBASEII $595 

•-Condor I $275 

Condor II $535 

FMS-81 $445 

WORD PROCESSING ' 
WordSearch $179 

s SpellGuard $199 

Peachtext $289 

Magic Spell $269 

Spell Binder $349 

Select $495 

The Word , $ 65 

The Word Plus $145 

Palantier-I (WP) $385 

"COMMUNICATIONS" 

Ascom $149 

BSTAM $149 

BSTMS $149 

Crosstalk $139 

Move-it $ 89 

"OTHER GOODIES" 

Micro Plan $419 

Plan80 $269 

Target (Interchange) $125 

Target (Planner) $189 

Target (Task) $299 

Plannercalc $ 50 

Tiny "C" $ 89 

Tiny "C" Compiler $229 

Nevada Cobol $179 

MicroStat $224 

Vedit $130 

MiniModel .$449 

StatPak $449 

Micro B+ $229 

Raid $224 



LOWER 
HELL OR 



String/80 $ 84 

String/80 (source) $279 

ISIS CP/M Utility $199 

Lynx $199 

Supervyz $ 95 

ATI Power $ 75 

Mathe Magic $ 95 

CIS COBOL $765 

ZIP MBASIC. CBASIC $129 

Real Estate Analysis $ 1 1 6 



APPLE II® 



BRODERBUND 

G/L (with A/P) $444 

Payroll $355 

INFO UNLIMITED® 

Easy Writer (Prof) $155 

Datadex $129 

EasyMailer (Prof) $134 

Other less 15% 

MICROSOFT* 

^ Softcard (Z-80 CP/M) $239 

Fortran. $179 

Cobol $499 

Tasc $139 

s Premium Package $549 

• RAM Card $129 

MICROPRO® 

^Wordstar $199 

MailMerge S 99 

Wordstar/MailMerge $349 

SuperSort I $159 

Spellstar $129 

CalcStar $175 

DataStar $265 

VISICORP® 

• Visicalc3.3...... $189 

Desktop/Plan II $219 

Visiterin $ 90 

Visidex. $219 

Visiplot $180 

Visitrend/Visiplot $259 

Visifile $219 

Visischedule $259 

PEACHTREE® 

G/L. A/R. A/R Pay or 

Inventory (each) $224 

Peach Pack P40 $795 

SOFTWARE DIMENSIONS, INC. 

Accounting Plus II, 
G/L.AR.ARor 

Inventory (each) $385 

(Needs G/L to run) 

OTHER GOODIES 

Super-Text II $127 



,COME 
WATER. 



Data Factory $134 

DB Master. $184 

Versaform VS1 $350 

VH1 $445 



16-BIT SOFTWARE 



WORD PROCESSING 

IBM PC 
^Wordstar $279 

• Spellstar $175 

Mailmerge $109 

Easywriter $314 

Easyspeller $159 

Select/Superspell $535 

Write On $116 

Spellguard 

(also available for 

8" 8086 systems) $229 

SPLaw 

(for Spellguard) $115 

Textwriter III $189 

Spellbinder $349 

Final Word $270 

LANGUAGE UTILITIES 
IBM PC 

Crosstalk $174 

BSTAM $149 

BSTMS $149 

8" 16-BIT SYSTEMS 

• Pascal MT+ /86, SSP $679 

CBasic 86..... $294 

Pascal M/86 $445 

Act 86 $157 

Trans 86 $115 

XLT86 $135 

16-BIT 8" AND DISPLAYWRITER 

CP/M 86 $294 

MP/M86 .$585 

OTHERS 

IBM PC 

SuperCalc $269 

VisiCalc... $219 

Easyfiler $359 

Mathemagic S 89 

CP/M Power S 65 

Condor 21 $265 

Condor 22 $535 

Condor 23 $895 

Condor 20Q $175 

Condor 20R $265 

Statpak $449 

Optimizer $174 

Desktop Plan II $219 

Desktop Plan III $259 

Visidex $219 

Visitrend $259 

Many others available for use 
with the "Baby Blue Board®" 
8" 16-BIT SOFTWARE 

SuperCalc $269 

CP/M Power $ 65 



FORMATS AVAILABLE: 



8" single density 

8" OSI 

Superbrain 

Micropolis/Vector Graphic 

NorthStar Horizon 

NorthStar Advantage 

Osborne 

Heath/Zenith 

Cromemco 

Televideo 

Xerox 820 

Dynabyte 

Hewlett-Packard 125 

NEC 

Eagle 

Apple ll/lll 

Otrona 

TRS-80 Model l/ll/lll 

DEC VT-180 

Altos 

CP/M-86 

IBM PC 



ORDERS ONLY • CALL TOLL FREE • VISA • MASTERCHARGE 
U.S. 1-800-421-4003 • CALIF. 1-800-252-4092 

Outside Continental U.S.— add $10 plus Air Parcel Post • Add $3.50 postage and handling per each item 

• California residents add 6J4%sales tax- Allow 2 weeks on checks. COD. $3.00 extra- Pricessubjecttochange 

without notice. All items subject to availability • ® — Mfgs. Trademark. Blue Label $3.00 additional per item. 

CP/M is a registered trademark of DIGITAL RESEARCH. INC. 

THE DISCOUNT SOFTWARE GROUP 

6520Selma Ave. Suite 309 - Los Angeles, Ca. 90028 • {213) 837-5141 

Int'lTELEX 499-0446 DISCSOFT LSA • USATELEX 194-634 (Attn: 499-0446) 
TWX 910-321-3597 (Attn: 499-0446) 

Circle 152 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 347 on inquiry card. 



P&T CP/M @ 2 is 
GROWING a 



woo^ 






wioo^ 



■>^ 



ABOP2 



>^°. f . 






\o< 



.a* w *%i>^ 









,de^ 



dW 



mod 6 ' 



<*„o< 



o^ 



S C^ 



ZP 1 



Avis 



\e^ e dtW 



\<*ft! 



«<** 



e- 



.desJS ^ 



VAtoP' 



e^ 



ass*' 



*$$* 



^ffS^ 



^SS?^ 



:gg#3**' 



H**° 



AO, 



20 



tffr 



CO' 



(r i«s 






Start with a Model II floppy system and 
grow into a hard disk. Since all P&T 
CP/M 2 systems are fully compatible, 
you will have no conversion worries. 
Special note: P&T hard disk systems 
allow you the user to configure logical 
drive assignments toyourspecifications. 
Write for more details. 

PrepaidVISA, M/C, orCODordersaccepted. 
All prices FOBGoleta and subject tochange. 
CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital 
Research. TRS-80 is a trademark of Tandy Corp. 



PICKLES T)ICKLE< 
& TROUT 



P.O. BOX 1206 

GOLETA, CA 93116 

(805) 685-4641 



"fSoiff 



Listing 1 continued: 



30 


152 




} " (dx,d^ 


31 


140 




} 




• 


Change 


to RED 


32 


074 


SET 


Set Color 


33 


122 


RED 


X10R00R0 



34 
35 



36 
37 
38 
39 

40 
41 
42 
43 



44 
45 
46 
47 

48 
49 

50 
51 
52 
53 

54 
55 
56 



57 
58 
59 
60 



62 
63 
64 
65 
66 



67 



68 
69 



043 
104 



044 
110 
127 
104 

061 
100 
174 
100 



045 
170 
104 
140 

074 
100 

065 
100 
141 
107 

107 
146 
101 



045 
107 
125 
144 



110 
157 
165 
163 
145 



016 



074 
155 



(+.171875,+. 0625) => (+44, +16) 



Make sure highlighting is on 
TEX Texture 

Draw the house 



SPA 



FJEF 



Point Set Absolute 

} 

} - (X,y) = ( .3125, .234375) => (80,60) 



Rectangle Filled 

} 
} 
} 



(dx,dy) = (+.21875, +.125) => (+56, +32) 



Draw the roof 



SPR 



SET 
BLK 



POF 



Point Set Relative 

} 
} 
} 



(dx,dy) = (-.234375, +.125) => (-60, +32) 



Set Color 



Polygon Filled 



(dx,dy) = ( + . 125, + . 05859375 ) => (+32, +15) 



(dx,dy) = (+.125, -.0625) => (+32,-16) 



Label the "House" 



SPR 



SI 

"House' 

H 
o 
u 
s 
e 



Point Set Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = (+.078125, -.078125) => (+20,-20) 

} 

Select GO (ASCII Text) 



Back to graphics 

SO Select Gl (PDI Graphics) 

Set color to CYAN (Light Blue) 



SET 
CYN 



Set Color 
X1G0BG0B 



Label "BIRDS" before drawing them 



Listing 1 continued on page 159 



156 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



CP/M 



APPLE 




WordStar® 

$299 


dBASE II ™ 

$489 


SuperCalc™ 

$189 


Multiplan™ 

$199 


Perfect Writer " 

$199 


WordStar® 
MailMerge" 

$429 


WordStar® 
dBASE II 

$749 


VisiCalc® 

$189 


SuperWriter" 

$249 


InfoStar" 

$299 



ASPEN SOFTWARE™ 

Grammatik $ 60 

Random House Proofreader S 39 
Random House Thesaurus $119 

Univ. of Chicago Manual 



Financial Management 
Series 



CALL 



of Style 
ASHTONTATE™ 

dBase II 


$119 
$489 


CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE™ 

Home Accountant 


CALL 


DIGITAL RESEARCH™ 

CBASIC 


$ 99 


FOX AND GELLER™ 

Quickcode 
dUtil 


$229 
$ 69 



MICROPRO® 

WordStar $289 

MailMerge $149 

WordStar/ MailMerge $389 

WordStar/MailMcrge/SpcllStar $529 



IUS™ 

Easy writer 11 
Easyspeller 1 1 
Easyfiler 



$239 
$139 
$269 



WordStar/ InfoStar 

InfoStar 

CalcStar 

DataStar 

SuperSort 

SpellStar 

ReportStar 

DataStar Update 

MICROSOFT™ 

Multiplan 

Softcard 

Ram Card 

All Three Above 

Videoterm (Videx™) 



$549 
$299 
$ 89 
$179 
$149 
$149 
$229 
CALL 

$199 
$259 
$ 89 
$509 
$269 



Enhancer II (Videx™) 


$119 


SILICON VALLEY SYSTEMS™ 




Basic 80 


$275 


Word Handler 


$149 


Basic Compiler 


$295 


List Handler 


$129 


MICROSTUF™ 




SOFTWARE PUBLISHING™ 




Crosstalk 


$135 


PFS: File 


CALL 


PERFECT SOFTWARE™ 




Other Products 


CALL 


Perfect Writer 


$199 


SORCIM™ 




Perfect Speller 


$129 


SuperCalc 


$189 


Perfect Writer/Speller 


$309 


SuperWriter 


$249 


Perfect Calc 


$139 


SpellGuard 


$129 


Perfect File 


$249 


TCS ACCOUNTING™ 




All Four Perfect Products 


$649 


General Ledger 


$ 99 


PICKLES AND TROUT™ 




Accounts Payable 


$ 99 


CP/M forTRS Model II 


$169 


Accounts Receivable 


$ 99 


CP/M for TRS Model 16 


$189 


Payroll 


S 99 


Hard Disk 


CALL 


All Four Above 


$289 


OASIS™ 




Inventory Management 


$ 99 


The Word Plus 


$129 


VISICORP® 




Punctuation and Style 


$109 


VisiCalc 


$189 






All Other VisiCorp Products 


CALL 



NOW, PAY LESS, AND GET GREAT SERVICE, TOO! 



If you're looking for rock-bottom prices anil fast, 
personal service, take a close look at 800-SOFTWARE. 

Because we buy in volume, we're able to sell the 
products you want at prices that finally make some 
sense. But don't take our word for it. Compare prices 
and see for yourself! 

OUR SERVICE CAN'T BE BEAT. 

We take care of you like our business depends on it. 
Because it does. 

When you call 800-SOFTWARE, you get the fastest 
delivery available anywhere. Which means that every 
order is filled the day we get it. And that our unique 



Order Tracking System™ is on the job, keeping tabs on 
your order, every step of the way. 

Our giant inventory — one of the largest in the United 
States — also assures you of the fastest possible service. 
Everything's in stock so you don't have to wait. 

Technical support? Business software expertise? We've 
got it — and it's the best you'll find anywhere. 

But, put us to the test. Let us prove what we've 
proven to satisfied customers around the world. 

That our prices are lower. That our service is better. 
That there really and truly is a difference. 

Wc look forward to your call. 



FREE GIFT! 

GET 4 FLOPPY DISKETTES FREE 
WITH ANY PURCHASE, 
IF YOU ACT NOW! 

□ Your choice of 5'/ 4 " or 8" 

□ Brand new and brand name 



TO ORDER, CALL TOLL-FREE: 

800-227-4587 

In California, 800-622-0678 
or 415-644-3611 

C A residents add sales tax. 

OR WRITE: 
800-SOFTWARE, INC. 

3120 Telegraph Avenue, 
Berkeley, CA 94705 

Circle 2 on Inquiry card. 



AOO- SOFT WARE) 



■TOR? 



□ Purchase orders accepted 

□ Prompt UPS 3 day Blue Label 
service 

□ Call for shipping charges and our 
other low software prices. 

□ Now open Monday through 
Saturday. 

□ Dealer and quantity discounts 
available. 

□ Prices may change. 

©Copyright WJO-Snttware I9R1 

BYTE March 1983 157 



SUPER BARGAINS 



ACE 1000 COLOR 

COMPUTER! List $1545 

SHARP COMPUTER 249 
















- 




- 


™ ] 




PH^" 












m i 



SUPERBRAIN II 

Double Density 1894 

Quad Density 2274 

Super Density SD 2649 

COMPUSTARS 

TO DEALERS CALL & SAVE 

Advanced Micro Digital S-100 Super- 
Quad Single Board Computer. Z80 64K 
RAM, Disk Controller, 
RS-232 Only 699 

ALTOS — single and multi-user 

ACS-8000-15D List 5990 

Only 4699 

ATARI 400 289 

800 655 

PRINTERS 

OKIDATA82A 489 

CENTRONICS 739-1 499 

IDS PRISM 80 743 

EPSON MX-80 FT 547 

MX-80 459 

MX-100 749 

ANADEX9501A 

Silent Scribe 1345 

NEC #3510 Letter Quality 1623 

C. ITOH F10 Letter Quality .... 1399 
Smith Corona TP-1 595 

TRAXX 5V4" Add-on Drives 249 

Memory Merchant 16K static ... 159 
Central Data RAM S-100 64K ... 299 
Systems Group 

RAMS-10064K 449 

Microangelo Video Graphics 715 



AMERICANSQUARECOMPUTERSis 
organizing a World Wide Association 
of Computer Dealers. Open a Store or 
Start Work Out of Your Home! We 
Charge NO FRANCHISE FEE! (Our 
Competitors charge a FRANCHISE FEE 
of from $15,000.00 to $45,000.00.) Be a 
Winner! Let US help YOU get started 
MAKING MONEY by HELPING 
PEOPLE to put COMPUTERS to WORK. 
Write or Phone today. 

Which Computers are Best? . . . Free 

Insured Shipping at Low Rates. 



TELEVIDEO 

Televideo 910+ 518 

Televideo925 718 

Televideo 950 899 

Televideo Computers Call 

ADDS VIEWPOINT A-1B 469 

ZENITH Z-19 Terminal 649 

Z-89 48K Computer 2119 

Z-90 64K DD 2399 

ZVM-121 ZENITH 

G reen Screen monitor 125 

INTERTUBEIII 

or EMULATOR $710 

AMDEK Color Monitor $329 

GODBOUTCOMPUPRO 

Super Sixteen 8085/8088. The fastest 
8-16 bit computer! Runs 8 and 16 bit 
code] 128K Static RAM, 6MHz CPU's 
LIST 3440 SPECIAL 2569 

New: Systems 816/A, B, and C with 

enclosure and drives. 

816/A .... List 5495 .... Only 4395 

SEATTLE pure 16 bit computer is the 
fastest microcomputer by actual test! 
S-100, 128K Static RAM, 8 MHz 8086. 
22 slot Mainframe 

Model #2 List 3785 Only $3028 

#1 as above 

but 64K List 2990 Only $2392 

IBM PC memory made by SEATTLE. 

Now with "Flash Disk." . . 192K = 697 
64K = 427 
CALIFORNIA COMPUTER 2210A 

List $1995 Only $1595 

Z80, 64K, I/O, Disk controller + CPM. 
California main frame 484 

SYSTEMS GROUP computers run 
FRIENDLY OASIS Call SAVE 

QUAY COMPUTER 

Two drives + CPM $1745 

Four user MPM 208K + 

Hard Disk $5945 

TARBELL'S 

Empire I & II have two 8" disk drives. 

The I is single sided, the II is double 

sided. 

FREE Business Software 

Empire I . . . List 4888 . . . Only 3495 

Corvus Hard Disk SAVE 

SSM Video BRD VB3 kit 361 

Spectrum Color ASM 223 



NORTH STAR 

ADVANTAGE 64K Green Phosphor. 
The Best Business Graphics, 2 Disks, 
Serial Port. Options CPM — Business 
programs $2894 



We Repair 
Computers 



One hour free 

troubleshooting 

on business 

systems. 



MICRO DECISION 

"A DEAL YOU CAN'T REFUSE" 
64K RAM, Z80, 4MHz, 2 Serial Ports, 
Disk Controller. FREE SOFTWARE: 
CPM — Microsoft BASIC — BaZic 
—Wordstar— Logicalc— Correct-It. 

List Only 

with 1 57." Disk .. I $949 ... $1049 
with 2 5 %" Disks ..1545 ... 1400 




NORTH STAR Horizon 

Powerful North Star BASIC Free 

Superb for Business & Science 

Free Secretary Word Processor 

Horizon Standard is now HRZ-2-64K 

Quad 

Factory Assembled & Tested Only 

Horizon-2-64K-Quad $2894 

Horizon-1-64K-QHD 5 3999 

Horizon RAM 64K 594 

Big Sale on Multi-User 

Time-Sharing SAVE 

North Star Hard Disk 18Mb .... 4295 

English to Basic Translator 75 

Zbasic 2 to 5 times faster! 325 

Secretary Word Processor 69 

Wordstar Word Processor 278 

Floating Point Board 699 

Oasis 699 

CPM for N*-Extra features 147 

Micro Mike Software CALL 

MICROSTAT $355 

Pascal-80 539 

Extra Precision BASIC 49 

Northword 179 

Infomanager 329 

General Ledger 399 

Accounts Receivable 399 

Accounts Payable 399 

Inventory 399 

Order Entry 399 

PROPAC 1299 

DOS + BASIC 5.2 28 

INTEGRAND mainframesS-IOO.Many 
models to choose from 

Only 200 & UP 

MODEMS 

DC HAYES — S-100 $329 

POTOMAC MICRO MAGIC ....369 

SIGNALMAN 97 

CAT NOVATION 159 

AUTOCAT 215 



Full Time Graduate 
Technician on Duty. 



DECISION I 



"The IBM-360 on theZ-80 & S-100 BUS!" 

Sixteen Programs running simultan- 
eously! Free CPM, Microsoft BASIC, 
and WORDSTAR with complete system! 

DECISION 1 + 65K Static + 

8" Disks DMA 3403 

DECISION 1 + 65K Static + 

2 57/' Disks 2795 

DECISION 1 + 65K Static + 

5" Disk + 5 Mb Hard Disk 4235 

DECISION 1-2user 256K Static + 
5" Disk + 5 Mb Hard Disk + 

MICRON IX 5830 

DECISION 1 —Z-80 + I/O + 65K 1915 
DECISION 1 — Rackmount + 20 Mb 

HD -8" DRV Reg. 6235 

Inventory Sale 5415 

MORROW Hard Disks 
up to 26 MEGABYTES 

HDC-M26 $3333 

HDC-M20 3333 

HDC-M10 2955 

DMA-M5 Reg. 1775 

Inventory Sale 1400 

DMA-M10 2235 

DMA-M16 2795 

MORROW 8" Disk 

Discus 2D + CPM 600K . . Only $834 
Discus 2 + 2 + CPM 1.2 Mb .... 1068 
Add Drives 2D - 599 2 + 2 = 1795 
Discus 2D dual + CPM . . . Only 1384 
Free Microsoft BASIC from MORROW 
with Discus system or hard disk. 

FAST FIGURE — Most powerful 
spread sheet. 5'A" or 8" 



99 

Wordstar 278 

All MicroPro Software for IBM, Apple, 
North Star, Morrow, etc. SAVE! CALL 



Call for latest prices & availability 



AMERICAN 




ISQUARE 



919-889-4577 

158 BYTE March 1983 



4167KivettDr 




Factory Guarantees 



We Beat Prices 



COMPUTERS 



Jamestown N.C. 27282 



919-883-1105 
Circle 22 on Inquiry card. 



Listing 1 continued: 



70 044 SPA Point Set Absolute 

71 102 } 

72 150 } - (X,y) = ( .15625, .52734375) => (40,135) 

73 107 } 

74 017 SI Select GO (ASCII Text) 

"BIRDS" 



75 


102 


B 


76 


111 


I 


77 


122 


R 


78 


104 


D 


79 


123 


S 



80 016 



81 


057 


82 


101 


83 


167 


84 


120 


85 


107 


86 


107 


87 


144 


88 


107 


89 


107 


90 


124 


91 


055 


92 


100 


93 


100 


94 


124 


95 


100 


96 


100 


97 


166 


98 


043 


99 


100 


100 


045 


101 


100 


102 


111 


103 


112 


104 


055 


105 


107 


106 


107 


107 


144 


108 


107 


109 


107 


110 


124 


111 


055 


112 


100 


113 


100 


114 


124 


115 


100 


116 


100 


117 


166 



Back to Graphics 
SO Select Gl ( PDI Graphics ) 
Draw bird with black wing tips 
SAF Set Arc Filled 

" (X,y) = ( .1953125, .46875) => (50,120) 

- (dx,dy) = (+.015625, -.015625) => (+4,-4) 

- (dx,dy) = (+.0078125, -.015625) => (+2,-4) 

ARF Arc Filled 

- (dx,dy) = ( + .0078125, + .015625) => ( +2 , +4 ) 

- (dx,dy) = ( + .0234375, + .0234375) => ( +6 , +6 ) 

Draw bird without black wing tips 
TEX Texture 

SPR Point Set Relative 

- (dx,dy) = (+.03515625, +.0390625) => (+9, +10) 



ARF 



ARF 



Arc Filled 

- (dx,dy) - (+.015625, -.015625) => (+4,-4) 

- (dx,dy) - (+.0078125, -.015625) => (+2,-4) 

Arc Filled 

- (dx,dy) = (+.0078125, +.015625) => (+2, +4) 

- (dx,dy) = ( + .0234375, + .0234375) => ( +6 , +6 ) 

Listing 1 continued on page 161 
Circle 303 on inquiry card. » 




Get the 

total 

picture. 



Improve your present computer 
system with a high-resolution color 
monitor from NEC. 

NEC's JC-1203 gives you the highest 
resolution you can get in a color monitor. 
And it can reproduce as many different 
colors and shades as the best microcom- 
puters can generate. Compatible with a 
wide variety of computers, including 
IBM,"* Zenith," H-P f * and others, including 
NEC's own PC-8000 and PC-8800. 

Compare these specs with your present 
monitor: 



12-inch diagonal screen 



RGB input signal with TTL level 

Switchable Pos/Neg display 
characters 



80-character, 25-line dispiay 



690 (H) x 230 {V| resolution 



8x8 dots, 8mHz video bandwidth 







ii&^- 



1 



■ 













IT'S INCREDIBLE 

Hard Disk Portable With Software 
for the Price of Its 10MB Alone. 



No matter how you look at it, 
KAYPRO is the best value you'll see 
anywhere. 

You get a powerful computer — 
engineered and built in America 
with 10MB hard disk, 200K floppy 
disk, two RS-232C serial and one 
parallel port, 9" screen of 80 
columns by 24 lines, and detachable 
keyboard with 10 key pad. 

Also included are CP/M 2.2, 
word processing, spread sheet and 
more. All for $2795. Backed by a 90 
day warranty and supported 
nationally. Act now. Send coupon 
today. 



$2795 




Yes, I know a good deal when I see one. 
Send me the KAYPRO 10. My: □ check for 
$2795 is enclosed □ VISA DMC DAE 

i i i i i i i rrn 

Acct. # 



AE valid thru. 

VISA, MC expires 

Name 



Address _ 

City 

State/Zip . 

Signature 



I. 



CONTINUUM. 21006 Devonshire St., 
Chatsworth, California 91311. (213) 998-8766 



(800) 624-3089 outside ca 



(800)624-3090 inside ca 



Circle 120 on Inquiry card. 



Listing 1 continued: 



118 
119 
120 

121 
122 

123 
124 
125 
126 

127 
128 
129 

130 
131 
132 
133 

134 
135 
136 

137 
138 
139 
140 

141 
142 
143 

144 
145 
146 
147 

148 
149 
150 

151 
152 
153 
154 

155 
156 
157 

158 
159 
160 



161 
162 
163 
164 



044 
122 
160 

074 
177 

055 
170 
170 
146 

100 
110 
133 

055 
100 
110 
107 

107 
107 
165 

055 
100 
121 
111 

107 
105 
104 

055 
177 
157 
133 

170 
150 
173 

065 
100 
101 
171 

100 
110 
164 

107 
126 

115 



045 
170 
142 
124 



165 017 



166 
167 



103 
114 



Draw Cloud 

SPA Point Set Absolute 

} 

} " (X,y) = (.6875,-5) => (176,128) 

SET Set Color 
WHT X1GRBGPB 

ARF Arc Filled 

- (dx,dy) = (-. 015625,+. 0234375 ) => (-4, +6) 

- (dx,dy) = (+.04296875, +.01171875) => (+11, +3) 



ARF 



ARF 



POF 



Arc Filled 

- (dx,dy) = (+. 03125,+. 02734375 ) => (+8, +7) 

- (dx,dy) = (+.0234375, -.01171875) => (+6,-3) 

Arc Filled 

- (dx,dy) = (+. 06640625,+. 03515625 ) => (+17, +9) 

- (dx,dy) = (+0. 0,-. 078125 ) => (+0,-20) 

Arc Filled 

■ (dx,dy) = (-.08203125, -.01953125) => (-21,-5) 

■ (dx,dy) = (-.06640625, + .01171875) => (-\l,+3) 

Polygon Filled 

- (dx,dy) = (+.02734375, +.03515625) => (+7, +9) 

- (dx,dy) = (+. 0546875,+. 015625 ) => (+14, +4) 

- (dx,dy) = (+.06640625, -.04296875) => (+17,-11) 



Label "CLOUD" 

SPR Point Set Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = (-.1171875, +.078125) => (-30, +20) 

} 
SI Select GO (ASCII Text) 
"CLOUD" 



C 
L 




Get the 
picture 

that's worth 
more than 
a thousand 
words. 



Make your present system easier to 
look at with a monitor from NEC. 

NEC's JB-1260 combines good looks and 
high quality with a very attractive price. 
Special dark bulb goes extra easy on 
your eyes. Use with Apple" II, Apple II+, 
Apple III* Osborne," and many others, 
including NEC's own PC-8800, PC-8000, 
and NEC TREK (PC-6000). 

Compare these specs with your 
present monitor: 

12-inch diagonal screen 

8x8 dots 

1 5mHz video bandwidth 



80-character, 25-line display 
90-degree deflection 
600 f H| x 230 (V) lines 



Listing 1 continued on page 162 
Circle 304 on inquiry card. » 




Circle 227 on Inquiry card. 



Opt for Quality 

High-Reliability Design 



Model HS-2900 

Intelligent 
Buffer 




Standard $348.00 

RS-232C Add $120.00 
IEEE-488 Add $160.00 

• 62KB STANDARD • Data compressinon/copy mode • Self 
test mode •Centronics I/F standard • RS-232C, IEEE-488 
optional • Low price »AC 100/117/220/240V 



Model SBC-696 




Single Board 
Computer 
meeting IEEE- 
696 (CP/M, SB 
-80) $999.00 



• Z80A »64K staic RAM I ROM replacable) • RS-232C 2port 
Centronics Iport • Supports 5." 8." floppy by DMA •Meets 
IEEE S-100 bus »+5V only •4layered PCB •Memo)/ 
card piggy. back on main board •Include CP/M or SB-80 



Model SBC-488 



Single Board 
Computer 
(IEEE-488 etc) 



$488.00 

• Z80 • ROM/RAM total 10KB •IEEE-488 I/F (TMS9914) 

• RS-232C I/F (8251) • Parallel 6ports (8255) • + 5Vonly 




Model GPIB-100 

S-100 bus 
Multifunction 
Board meeting 
IEEE-488 

$550.00 

• Supports 1EEE-488C1MS9914) •Universal interrupt cont- 
oller(AM9519) • Programmed interval timer (8253) •Real- 
ime clock, battery back-up <MSM5832> »IEEE S-100 I/F 

• Software handler on 8" diskette (CP/M based) 




Model CAP-M20GP 

Intelligent 

Winchester 

Disk 

$6,200.00 

• 8 - Winchester disk, maintenance free • IEEE-488. RS-232C 
(up to 38.400 baud) •Intelligent functions • Supports CP/M 
based driver »430(W )x I5O(H)X450(D)% •AC100/117/220/240V 




Model F2P/F2 




Shugi 
luded 



New8"FD for 
CROMEMCO and 
general -ourpose 
system 

F2P $2,580.00 
F2 $1,990.00 

tible Persci299 • No modi- 
CROMEMCO is needed (F2P) • 
rt 3A801R and 850R(F2) • Cool- 
• 160 (W)X225 (H)X500 (D)% 



ALL PRICES ARE FOB TOKYO AND SUBJECT TO 
CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE (Dealer inquiries invited) 

International Agent : RENFUL COMPUTER LTD. 

Rm. 602. Hop Fat Commercial Centre, 490-492. Nathan Road, 
Kowloon, H.K. Tel : 3-320498(3lines) 

Telex : 37546 RENFL HX Cable Address : RENFULCOMP 

international Q&ixtemf &< Automation 



ISA CO., LTD. 



HEIAN BLDG. 2-6-16 OKUBO.SHINJUKU-KU. TOKYO 160 JAPAN 
PHONE: 03-232-B570 TELEX: 2324496 ISATOK CABLEMSAHEIAN 



Listing 1 continued: 



168 
169 
170 



171 



172 
173 



117 
125 
104 



016 



074 
155 



174 


045 


175 


107 


176 


104 


177 


152 


178 


043 


179 


102 


180 


051 


181 


177 


182 


165 


183 


164 


184 


045 


185 


100 


186 


122 


167 


142 


188 


043 


189 


101 


190 


051 


191 


177 


192 


165 


193 


164 


194 


043 


195 


100 


196 


045 


197 


100 


198 


122 


199 


147 


200 


051 


201 


177 


202 


165 


203 


164 


204 


045 


205 


100 


206 


122 


207 


140 



Back again 

SO Select Gl ( PDI Graphics ) 

Set color to CYAN again for the rain 



SET 



Set Color 
XIGOBGOB 



Draw Rain using various textured lines 

SPR Point Set Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = (+.01953125,-. 1171875) => (+5,-30) 

} 

TEX Texture 

} 

LIR Line Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = (-.0390625,-. 078125) => (-10,-20) 

} 

SPR Point Set Relative 

) 

} - (dx,dy) = (+.078125, +.0703125) => (+20, +18) 

} 

TEX Texture 
} 

LIR Line Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = (-.0390625, -.078125) => (-10,-20) 

) 

TEX Texture 
} 

SPR Point Set Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = ( + . 078125, + . 08984375 ) => (+20, +23) 

} 

LIR Line Relative 

} 

} - (dx,dy) = (-.0390625, -.078125) => (-10,-20) 

} 

SPR Point Set Relative 

} 

) - (dx,dy) = (+.078125, +.0625) => (+20, +16) 

} 
Label the "RAIN" vertically 



208 


042 


TXT 


Text 


209 


114 




Char Path Down 


210 


017 


SI 
"RAIN" 


Select GO (ASC 


211 


122 


R 




212 


101 


A 




213 


111 


I 




214 


116 


N 





Back to Graphics 



162 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 1 conti 


nued: 




215 016 


SO 


Select Gl (PDI 




Reset 


to normal text 


216 042 


TXT 


Text 


217 100 




Char Path Right 



218 
219 



220 
221 
222 
223 

224 
225 
226 
227 

228 
229 
230 

231 
232 
233 

234 
235 
236 

237 
238 
239 



240 
241 
242 
243 

244 



245 
246 
247 
248 

249 



074 
100 



044 
100 
100 
100 

065 
120 
106 
102 

100 
121 
146 

100 
120 
140 

177 
155 
166 

167 
142 
162 



044 
120 
102 
104 

017 



122 
117 
101 
104 

016 



50 


042 


51 


100 


52 


100 


53 


100 


54 


112 


55 


144 



256 


044 


257 


112 


258 


105 


259 


107 



Set color to BLACK 

( actually transparent ) 



SET 
TRN 



Set Color 
X1000000 



Draw the road 

SPA Point Set Absolute 

■ (x,y) = (0.0,0.0) => (0,0) 



POF 



Polygon Filled 

- (dx,dy) = (+.5 ,+.1953125) => (+128 ,+50) 

- (dx,dy) = (+.078125,+. 0546875) => (+20, +14) 

- (dx,dy) = (+. 078125,+. 0) => (+20, +0) 

- (dx,dy) = (-.0703125,-. 0703125) => (-18,-18) 

- (dx,dy) = (-.3515625, -.1796875) => (-90,-46) 




Label the "ROAD" 



SPA 



Point Set Absolute 

} 

} - (X,y) = ( .5, .078125) => (128,20) 



Select GO (ASCII Text) 



SI 

"ROAD" 

R 

A 
D 

SO Select Gl ( PDI Graphics ) 

Change Size of text 

TXT Text 



- (dx,dy) = (+.046875, +.078125) => (+12, +20) 



Draw BLACK "Figure 1" 
as base for drop shadow 



SPA Point Set Absolute 

) 

} ~ ( X /Y) = ( .25, .6859375 ) => (64,175) 

} 



Improve the output of your present 
system with a dot-matrix printer 
from NEC. 

For good-looking copy in a hurry, it's 
hard to beat NEC's hard-working 
PC-8023A.This is a bi-directional 100 
CPS, 80-coiumn printer that can operate 
in a compressed-print mode to yield T32 
columns. Special 2K buffer holds a page 
of data, so the unit can print while you're 
typing in something else. Corrfpatible 
with a wide range of computers, from 
Apple" to Zenith"*. 

Compare these features with your 
present printer: 



Tractor and friction feed 



Complete ASCII characters plus 
Greek, math, and graphic 
characters 



Elite, pica, compressed print, 
proportional spacing, subscript 
and superscript 

Standard parallel Centronics 
interface, serial optional 

Prints clear original and up to three 
copies simultaneously 

*Special cables may be necessary. 
Contact your local NEC Home 
Electronics dealer 




Productivity at your fingertips 



virr 



Listing 1 continued on page 164 
Circle 305 on inquiry card. » 



NEC Home Electronics (U.S.A.}, Inc. 
Personai Computer Division 

1401 Estes Avenue 

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 

(312)228-5900 

Nippon Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan 



Listing 1 continued: 

260 017 SI Select GO (ASCII Text) 
"Figure 1" 



261 


106 


F 


262 


151 


i 


263 


147 


g 


264 


165 


u 


265 


162 


r 


266 


145 


e 


267 


040 


space 


268 


061 


1 



269 



016 



Finish drop shadowing with yellow over black 
SO Select Gl ( PDI Graphics ) 



270 
271 


074 
166 


SET 
YEL 


Set Color 
X1GR0GR0 






272 
273 
274 
275 


044 
102 
176 
170 


SPA 


Point set Absolute 

) 

} " (x,y) = ( .24609375, 

} 


.6875) 


=> (63,176) 



276 



277 
278 
279 
280 
281 
282 
283 
284 



017 



106 
151 
147 
165 
162 
145 
040 
061 



SI Select GO (ASCII Text) 

"Figure 1" 

F 
i 

g 

u 
r 
e 
space 

1 



The end 



Text is still large and 
YELLOW is the current color 




Figure 1: A simple picture produced by the NAPLPS codes in listing 1. (Photo courtesy 
of the Unir Corporation.) 



Text continued from page 152: 

''control-oriented" NAPLPS func- 
tions. 

The single-value format is used 
when a common integer is needed. 
This format is used when specifying 
color indexes and blink rates (in 
tenths of a second). The single-value 
format is encoded using 1 to 4 bytes, 
each containing 6 bits of data. In the 
default mode, 1 byte is used, thus 
allowing numbers in the range to 63 
to be encoded. In the maximum mode 
(4 bytes or 24 bits), numbers from 
to 16,777,215 can be specified. 

The most common format in 
NAPLPS is the multivalue operand. 
The multivalue-operand format has 
two coordinate forms and a color 
form, as shown in figure 4. 

The coordinate forms are used to 
encode (x,y) or (x,y,z) coordinate 
locations in the unit screen. In the 
two-dimensional mode, each 6-bit 
operand contains 3 bits of x and 3 bits 
of y. Multivalue operands are nor- 
mally encoded in 3 bytes. Therefore, 
9 bits of resolution are encoded for 
each coordinate. The 9 bits allow for 
a sign bit and 8 data bits, which 
results in coordinates suitable for a 
256 by 256 resolution display. 

NAPLPS supports multivalue 
operands up to 8 bytes. The 8 bytes 
each contain 6 data bits. Therefore, 
48 bits are available to be split be- 
tween the coordinates. In two-dimen- 
sional mode the 24 bits available for 
each coordinate can support displays 
with a resolution of 8 million by 8 
million points! This exceeds the 
resolution of most media, including a 
page in this magazine. 

The multivalue-operand format is 
also used for color specification. 
Various amounts of green, red, and 
blue are specified using this multibyte 
format. Each 6-bit data item contains 
2 bits of each color. The colors are in- 
terlaced as shown in figure 4, with 
green being first and thus least likely 
to be truncated. This takes advantage 
of the fact that the human eye is more 
responsive to green than it is to red 
and blue. 

The 8-byte multivalue-operand for- 
mat will again yield 48 bits of color 
information that results in 
280,000,000,000,000 colors. With the 
maximum display resolution and the 



164 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



The ultimate under $1000 printing machine. 







^ Q ^ 1983 1984 



The 
one machine solution 

to every application. 

For word processing, plotting 
and just plain printing. 



" \ ' * * n >■ * r'iv'l , " ' ■ ' fl 00 ^^* S>MAN ° ',*""*•« t „ s 




Save the expense of a costly daisy 
wheel. Eliminate the limited capa- 
bility of cheap matrix printers. And 
get plotting in the process!! Get the 
all new, advanced MT 160 multi- 
functional micro printer. You'll be 
amazed that such a small printer 
can house so much horsepower. 

Capability? You name it, this 
printer's got it. A resident Report 
Package puts you in the Word 
Processing world . . . letter quality 
characters, proportional spacing, 
margin justification, auto center- 
ing. A resident Graphics Package 



lets you plot whatever your micro 
wants to portray. The standard 
print mode lets you generate re- 
ports fast— speeds up to 200 lines 
per minute. Also, print eight diffe- 
rent resident character widths. 
There's more. Clip-on paper 
handling attachments let you use 
fan-fold forms, letterhead, cut 
sheets or continuous roll paper. 
The control panel has a "menu 
select" for machine configuration. 
When you look under the hood, 
you'll see what is meant by "solid 
construction." And the MT 160 is 



plug compatible to your micro. 

In short, the MT 160 is the 
epitome of engineering excel- 
lence. And it should be. Afterall, 
Mannesmann Tally is the technol- 
ogy leader in matrix printing. 

MANNESMANN 
TALLY 

8301 South 180th St. 
Kent, Washington 98032 
Phone (206) 251-5524 



IN DISTRIBUTION NOW! 



WEST 


Paragon Sales 


Anacomp 


(408) 263-7955 


(206) 881-1113 


PGI Distribution 


Byte Industries 


(602) 967-1421 


(415) 783-8272 


Waybern 


Kierulff Electronics 


(714) 554-4520 


(213) 725-0325 


Western Micro Technology 




(408) 725-1660 



Acorn Data Products 


Sysprint 


Micro Distributors 


(303) 779-6644 


(214) 669-3666 


(301) 468-6450 




Tek-Aids 


Hansen & Hughes 


CENTRAL 


(312) 870-7400 


(201) 652-7055 


Hail-Mark Electronics 




Tech Data 


(214) 343-5000 


EAST 


(813) 577-2794 


Information Systems 


Computermaxx 


US Plus 


(312) 228-5480 


(904) 878-4121 


(203) 234-0444 


D. L MacNeil, Inc. 


Digital Solutions 


Mannesmann Tally Canada 


(312) 952-8300 


(404) 955-4488 


(416) 661-9783 



Circle 256 on Inquiry card. 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 




Fl nECD; E T ri*i°i : : ! : : Do, 






ixhi : : : : : i 


> OPERANDS 




lx|*l : : : : : i 




LAST BfTE 1 y 1 ! I ' • ' T T 1 
RPCFIVFP ! 1 1 i i i i ± J 


f 0- OP CODE 
^ 1- OPERAND 





Figure 2: The general structure for op 
codes and operands of the Picture- 
Description Instructions (PDIs) in 
NAPLPS. 



maximum color resolution, NAPLPS 
can support displays with 2 96 bits of 
display memory! At today's memory 
prices, such a display would cost $750 
billion billion billion dollars. (No 
wonder semiconductor companies are 
interested in NAPLPS.) 

The final operand format is the 
string operand. This format is used 
when a long string of bits is needed 
that may require hundreds or 
thousands of bytes to encode. This 
format is used when sending high- 
resolution pictures and for encoding 
compressed chain-coded images. 
These techniques will be discussed in 
part 3 of this series. 

The operand/op code encoding 
structure of NAPLPS allows a variety 
of formats and subf ormats. Many of 
the op codes contain one or more of 
the operand types. For example, the 
Text op code, which will be described 
in detail later on, is followed by two 
fixed-format operands and a multi- 
value operand. The total number of 
operand bytes for this op code is 
variable, but the first 2 bytes will 
always be interpreted as fixed-format 
bytes and the remaining bytes will be 
considered as part of a multivalue 
format. Because of the variable- 
length nature of the operand encod- 
ing in NAPLPS, operands can be 
truncated and/or omitted with a con- 
sistent result dependent on the op 
code active at the time. 

Picture-Description Instructions 

The Picture-Description Instruc- 
tions (PDIs) are used to encode 




Figure 3: The complete set of Picture-Description Instruction op codes in NAPLPS. 



graphics images in NAPLPS. Codes 
from the PDI G-set and the ASCII- 
like text set can be intermixed on the 
same frame. Most of the common 
PDIs have been used to encode the 



described here with references to the 
coding in listing 1. 



Reset 

The 



Reset PDI is illustrated in 



image in figure 1. These PDIs are figure 5. It is used to clear the screen 



166 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



text continued on page 1 70 




The Apparat 
EPROM Blaster 
Now for the 
IBM/PC, Apple II 
and TRS-80. 

Apparat's EPROM Burner: It's 
new. It's more powerful and now 
available for all three of today's 
most popular personal 
computers. And the price has 
dropped by over 20%. 



Increased Capabilities 

The Apparat EPROM Burner 
(A.P.B.) programs most 24 pin 4, 
8, 16 and 32k EPROMS, but now it 
can also program 64k devices. 
And with all personality modules 
and software included, Apparat's 
EPROM programmer is the most 
sophisticated system on the 
market. 

The A.P.B. system can verify 
read, program and copy the 
EPROM; copy between different 
ROM types; read or save EPROM 
data on storage devices; program 
directly from computer memory 
and more. 



And a Lower Price 

Even with increased capabilities 
we've been able to lower the price 
20% to $119.00 ($129.00 for the 
IBM/PC). This price includes all 
the personality modules, 
operating software and the 
instruction manual. 

If you're looking for a powerful, 
versatile and cost efficient EPROM 
burner, contact us today, Apparat, 
Inc., 4401 S. I&marac Parkway, 
Denver, CO 80237, (303) 
741-1778. Or to order call 

800/525-7674 

IBM/PC Is a trademark of IBM 
TRS-80 Is a trademark of Tandy Corp. 
Apple II ts a trademark of Apple Computer 



Circle 25 on Inquiry card. 




Apparat, Inc. 



^ 



It's the same old 
Apple II. 







For years, people have been 
trying to build a better Apple* II. 

It finally happened. 

Meet the Apple He, an 
impressive new version of a 
most impressive machine. 

The "e" means enhanced. 
Which means a bundle of new 
features: 

A standard memory of 64K 
(versus 48K) that's easily 



expandable. So you can create 
fatter files and crunch larger 
numbers of numbers. 

A new, improved keyboard, 
with a complete set of ASCII 
standard characters. Plus full 
cursor controls, programmable 
function keys, and a rapid 
auto-repeat feature built into 
every key on the board. 

Both upper and lower case 



characters. (And if you want 
to see more of them on the 
screen at one time, a low cost 
80-column text card is available.) 

Improved peripheral ports. 
Which make it a lot easier to 
connect and disconnect game 
controllers, printers and all 
those other wonderful things 
that go with an Apple Personal 
Computer. 



. 






Except for the font, 
back and inside. 







Self-diagnostics. That's a 
special feature that makes it 
easy to give your computer a 
thorough check-up. 

Plus an even more reliable 
design. Achieved by reducing 
the number of components — 
which is to say, the number of 
things that could go wrong. 



And bear in mind, the He 
still has all those other virtues 
that made the Apple II so very 
popular. Including access to 
more accessories, peripheral 
devices and software than any 
other personal computer you 
can buy. 

So visit any of our over 1300 



authorized dealers, and see the 
newest Apple for yourself. 

Like the original, its rather 
extraordinary. But then some 
things never change. 



apple 



The most personal computer. 



Circle 26 on inquiry card. 

Call (800) 538*9696 for the location of the authorized Apple dealer nearest you, or for information regarding corporate purchases through our National Account Program. 
In California (800) 662-9238. Or write Apple Computer Inc.. Advertising and Promotion Dept., 20525 Mariani Ave.. Cupertino. CA 95014. ©1983 Apple Computer Inc. 






JL 



MSB 



XI 



SI 



rxTrr^ 



1-4 
' BYTES 



2-BIT OPERAND 

3-BIT OPERAND 

■ 1-BtT OPERAND 



L- LSB 



a) FIXED 



b) SINGLE -VALUE 



2 DIMENSIONS 



Ixhl 


— i — i — 

X 


V 1 




Nil 


X 


V 





3 


DIMENSIONS 


F 


|i 


\i 1 i M I 




IT" 


h 


I'lllil 



c) MULTIVALUE 



COLOR 


|X|1|G|H|B|G|R|B| 




|x|i|g|rJb|g|r|b| 



1-8 
BYTES 



XI 



i i — i — i i 



nnr 



T 1 1 1 1— 



1-N 
' BYTES 



d) STRING 



Figure 4: The various formats for the operands of the PDls in NAPLPS. 



and initialize various attributes. Two 
fixed-format operand bytes contain 
nine suboperands. The second 
operand byte can be omitted when 
those operations are not needed. If 
both operand bytes are omitted, a 
complete Reset is performed. 

The screen is cleared based on the 
value in bits 4 to 6 of the first operand 
byte. The eight combinations are 
shown in figure 5. In the example 
frame (line 4), the screen is cleared 
once to establish the blue sky. The 
fixed-format operand (octal 120 at 
line 5) indicates that the screen should 
be cleared to the current in-use color 
(in this case, blue). Note that the sec- 
ond fixed-format operand byte is 
omitted. The op code at line 6 in- 
dicates that the previous operation 
and op code have ended. 

Domain 

The Domain PDI is used primarily 
to control the size of data operands 
for subsequent PDIs. As shown in 
figure 6, the Domain PDI is made up 



of a fixed-format operand followed 
by a multibyte operand. The fixed- 
format operand controls the size of 
single-value operands and multivalue 
operands as well as the dimensionali- 
ty of coordinates. 

The multivalue operand is used to 
control the size of the logical drawing 
point. 

Text 

The Text PDI controls attributes 
related to text and "text-like" sym- 
bols. As discussed in part 1, text sym- 
bols are unique in the sense that they 
are rectangular templates that contain 
a figure. When a text symbol is re- 
quested, the proper template is posi- 
tioned at the current drawing point, 
the template is scaled as specified by 
the text size, and the drawing is per- 
formed. 

Figure 7 illustrates the Text PDI 
and operands. Two fixed-format 
operand bytes contain six sub- 
operands. Each of the suboperands 
has four possible values. As can be 



RESET 

7 6 5 4 3 2 10 
OP CODE (2/0) | X | | 1 | | | | | | 



OPERAND (SEE BELOW) X1B.B.BC.CD 



OPERAND (SEE BELOW ) X 1 R M X U F T 



B B B Color 

No action 

1 Physical display area to 
nominal black 

1 Physical display area to cur- 
rent drawing color 

1 1 Border area to nominal black 

1 Border area to current drawing 

color 

1 1 Physical display area and 

border area to current drawing 
color 

1 1 Physical display area to cur- 
rent drawing color and border 
area to nominal black 

1 1 1 Physical display area and 

border area to nominal black 

C C Color mode 

No action 

1 Select color mode 0, set color 

map to default colors, and set the 
in-use drawing color to white 

1 Select color mode 1 and set color 

map to default colors. If this is ex- 
ecuted while in color mode 0, it 
has the same effect as "11." 
1 1 Select color mode 1, set color 

map to default colors, and set the 
in-use drawing color to white 

Miscellaneous Resets 

D Domain 

T Text 

F Blink 

U Unprotected (User) 

Fields 

X Texture 

M Macro PDIs 

R DRCS 



Figure 5: The operand structure for the 
Reset instruction. 



seen, these suboperands control at- 
tributes such as rotation, spacing, 
and cursor style. 

The multivalue operand following 
the two fixed-format operands is used 
to specify the size and orientation of 
the text template. The size is ex- 
pressed in terms of relative coor- 
dinates, which we will indicate by the 
notation (dx,dy). This is to 
distinguish relative coordinates from 
absolute coordinates (x,y) that refer 



170 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Cdex™ Training for VisiCalc 
Makes VisiCalc Easy. 




In an hour, Cdex Training for VisiCalc can 
make you a VisiCalc user. Or for the experi- 
enced VisiCalc user Cdex Training for 
VisiCalc acts as an instantaneous elec- 
tronic reference and review system. 

It's a computer-assisted training program 
that works. It's highly interactive. So it 
creates a dialogue with you and serves as 



your personal tutor. It's completely self- 
paced. So you set your own learning time. 
And it's graphically-oriented. So you see 
what you're learning. Remember, a picture 
is worth 1000 words. Cdex Training for 
VisiCalc runs on the same Apple® II or 
IBM® Personal Computer as your VisiCalc 
program. 

So see how easy VisiCalc can be. See your 
nearest computer dealer for a demonstration. 



Cdex™ Trainingfor VisiCalc? 

We don't make VisiCalc. 
We just make it easy. 



Cdex Corporation 

5050 El Camino Real Suite 200 
Los Altos, CA 94022 

VisiCalc® is a registered trademark of VisiCorp™ 



Circle 73 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 171 



DOMAIN 

7 6 5 4 3 2 10 
OP CODE (2/1) |x|0|l|0|0|o|oll| 



OPERAND (see below) |x|l IdJM.M.mIs.S | 



LOGICAL 
PEL 
SIZE 



BE ■ ■ I ■ ■ I 
EB , I I ■ ■ I 

d x d y 



MMM 





1 

1 

1 

1 
1 
1 1 



ss 

00 

1 

1 

1 1 



Dimensionality 

two-dimensional 
three-dimensional 

Length of Multivalue 
Operands (Bytes) 

1 

2 

3 (default) 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

Length of Single-Value 
Operands (Bytes) 

1 (default) 

2 

3 

4 



Figure 6: The operand structure for the 
Domain instruction. The Logical Pel Size 
can be thought of as the size of the draw- 
ing pen. 

to specific points on the unit screen. 

In the example frame, text is used 
to label the objects as well as the en- 
tire figure. Most of the text is encoded 
in the standard manner and therefore 
no Text PDI is needed. The first Text 
PDI appears in line 208 and is used to 
change the Character Path from left- 
to-right to down. This allows the 
word "RAIN" (lines 211-214) to be 
sent without repositioning the draw- 
ing point. 

Note that the second fixed-format 
operand and the multivalue size 
operand are omitted because only the 
Character Path is being changed. 
Also note that because the Character 
Path is being changed, the other two 
suboperands in that byte (Interchar- 
acter Spacing and Rotation) have to 
be restated or "refreshed." It is as- 
sumed that the NAPLPS code gen- 



TEXT 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 



OP CODE (2/2) |x|0[l|0[0|0|l|0| 



OPERAND (see below) | X ] 1 | I , I | P , P | R , R | 
OPERAND (see below) |x|l |c ,C|M,M| S,s| 



CHARACTER 

FIELD 

SIZE 



[xM 



dy 



I lntercharacter Spacing 

1 (default value) 

1 1.25 

1.5 

1 Proportional spacing 

P Character Path 

Right (default) 

1 Left 

Up 

1 Down 

R Rotation 

(default) 

1 90 

180 

1 270 



C C Cursor Style 

Underscore (default) 

1 Block 

1 Cross-hair 
1 1 Custom 

M M Move Attribute 

Move together (default) 

1 Cursor leads 

1 Drawing point leads 

1 1 Moving independently 

S S Interrow Spacing 



1 (default) 

1.25 

1.5 

2 



Figure 7: The operand structure for the 
Text instruction. 



erator will always have knowledge of 
the current settings of these 
suboperands so that such a refresh is 
easy to do. 

The Text PDI is used again in lines 
250-255. The size of the text is 
changed to label the figure. The 
Character Path is also set to left-to- 
right. The (dx.dy) of ( + 0.046875, 



TEXTURE 

7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


OP CODE (2/3) | X | | 1 | | | | 1 |l | 


OPERAND ( see below ) |x|i|p,P,p|h|l.l| 


r , 


\VV\ , , 1 , , 1 

MASK SIZE < : 


1 |x|i| . . 1 . . 1 


d x d y 

P P P Texture Pattern 

Solid (default pattern) 
1 Vertical hatching 
1 Horizontal hatching 

1 1 Vertical and horizontal 

crosshatching 

1 Mask A 
1 1 Mask B 
1 1 Mask C 
1 1 1 Mask D 

H Highlight 

Off 

1 On 

L L Line Texture 

Solid (default) 

1 Dotted 

1 Dashed 

1 1 Dotted-dashed 



Figure 8: The operand structure for the 
Texture instruction. 



+ 0.078125) results in a character 
twice as big in both dimensions as the 
default characters. If you want to find 
out how many of these characters 
could fit on a line, you could divide 
1.0 by 0.046875, which results in 21.3 
characters per line. 

It should be noted that no other 
Text PDIs appear after the one in line 
250. At the end of the frame, the text 
size is still large. When the next frame 
is sent, the text size should be 
changed back to its default state. This 
is typically done with a global Reset 
at the beginning of the frame. 

Texture 

The Texture PDI applies to the tex- 
turing of filled areas and lines (see 
figure 8). Line texturing can be set so 
that dotted, dashed, or dotted-dashed 
lines will be drawn instead of the nor- 



172 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



LET THE "ANGEL" DO THE 
WAITING 



Two RS-232C Connectors for serial in 

put and output 



6 Leds to indicate power, transmission 
and reception status, buffer activities, 
page number, etc. 

SKIP and REPRINT provide independant 
page controls to reprint portions of • 
documentation. 

40 Pin Expansion Bus available for 
future expansion 

COPY provide convenient one key opera- 
tion for single copy or multi-copy of text" 

3 externally accessible Dip Switches for 
baudrate, device type, and parallel and 
serial selections. Selections can be made^ 
without losing buffer 



Connect an "ANGEL" between your com- 
puter and your printer, and let the "ANGEL" 
do the waiting .... 

Your valuable computer spends 95% of its 
time waiting for the printer to catch up... and 
while the computer waits, the payroll con- 
tinues. 

The computer sends data to the "ANGEL" 
at speeds up to 1 9. 2K baud. The "ANGEL" 
stores data and sends it to the printer at a 
speed the printer can handle, and your com- 
puter is free to continue working without in- 
terruption. 

A USER WRITES: 
"1 tried the "ANGEL" with my Altos 
system connected to an Epson MX-100, 
both set at 9600 baud. Without the 
"ANGEL" it takes 30 minutes to print 210 
doctors' requisition forms. With the 
"ANGEL" installed, my computer is free 
after 90 seconds." 
With "ANGEL'S" self diagnostics and 
memory test, the entire system thoroughly 
checks itself every time you power up. 
PAGE REPRINT is another unique feature. 
EXAMPLE: You are printing a 32 page 
report, and the paper jams at page 1 1 . 
Reset the printer to the top of the form, 
press PAGE REPRINT, and resume printing 
at the top of page 1 1 . Want to restart two 
pages back? Press PAGE REPRINT twice, 
and you resume at page 10. 






Function keys extend the useful com- 
mands to more than 10. including: hex- 
dump, memory test, remote loading, etc. 

Independant PAUSE and HOLD con- 
trols to suspend transmission and recep- 
tion. 



Two 20 Pin Edge Connectors for parallel 
input and output 



"ANGEL" is compatible with almost all Micro-Computers, including IBM, Apple, TRS-80, Vector Graphic, NorthStar, Altos, 
Xerox, Heath, Zenith, NEC, DEC, etc., with RS-232 serial, Hardware Handshaking, or Centronics compatible parallel interface. 
The manufacturer reserves the right to change the product specification. 



...And think of these other possibilities: 
HEX DUMP. Display or printout every bit 
of data your computer sends out to the 
printer in an easy-to-read Hexidecimal and 
ASCII format. A must for your programmer. 
Pause and Hold for real time programs. 
Page skip for selective printing. What a 
waste to print the entire documentation if 
you only need part of it. 
Simple external switch settings, let the 
"ANGEL" accept either RS-232 serial or 
Centronics parallel data and can output 
either/or in any combination, 
(S-S,S-P,P-S,P-P). The "ANGEL" is com- 
patible with almost all Micro-Computers, 
and can be installed by anyone in minutes. 
Switches are clearly marked for ease of 
operation, and a concise, USER FRIENDLY 
operator reference card is included with 
each unit. 
The "ANGEL" has a full one year limited warranty. 

THE "ANGEL" WILL NEVER KEEP YOCJ 
WATTING! 



The chart shown here illustrates the features 
of the "ANGEL" compared to other buffer 
devices. When compared with the 
"ANGEL", the others just don't measure up. 
Sorry guys. 



Feature 


ANGEL 


MfCRO- 
F ZEJJ • • 


5POOU64 


MICRO 
BUFFER 

IM.LIMe 


SPOOLER 
SERIAL • • 


Price 


295.00 


330.00 


319.00 
w/o serial 


349.00 


603.00 


Memoiy Size 


64K 


64K 


64K 


64K 


62K 


Max Baud Rate 


19.2K 


? 


N/A 


19.2K 


? 


SerialParallel 


Yes 


• 


Mo 


* 




Parallel-Serial 


Yes 


• 


Mo 


* 


* 


Parallel-Parallel 


Yes 


* 


Yes 


• 


• 


Serial-Serial 


Yes 


Yes 


Mo 


Yes 


Yes 


Copy 


Yes 


•■■'- 


Mo 


Yes 


Mo 


Reset/Clear 


Yes 


Yes 


Mo 


Yes 


Yes 


Pause/Hold 


Yes 


Mo 


Mo 


Yes 


Mo 


Paqe Skip 


Yes 


Mo 


Mo 


Mo 


Mo 


Page Reprint 


Yes 


Mo 


Mo 


Mo 


Mo 


Continuous Copy 


Yes 


■) 


Mo 


-> 


Mo 


Self-Diagnostics 


Yes 


■> 


■> 


■) 


? 


Hex-Dump 


Yes 


Mo 


Mo 


Mo 


Mo 



• Can only be configurated for one of the four Modes: 
••Information based on available specifications 
manufacturer's advertisement as of December. 1 982 

Micro-Fazer TM of Quadram Corp. 

Sooper Spooler TM of Compulink Corp. 



r 







KnBHHHPr x rt \ !"• 

PAGE REPRINT HEX DUMP 

LigO Research, Inc. • 396 E. 1 59th St. • Harvey, IL 60426 • 1-312-331-8797 • In Canada 1-416-859-0370 

Circle 246 on Inquiry card. 



TO ORDER: 

CALL TOLL FKEE 1-800-323-3304 
OR SEND CHECK OR MONEY 
ORDER TO LIGO RESEARCH 

Please rush me ( ) "ANGEL(S)" @ 

$295.00 each 

Sub total 

1L oml°y IS Add 6% U.S. sales tax 

Delivery charge $4-00 

TOTAL 

Charge my ( ) VISA ( ) MASTERCARD 

MY ACCT. H IS 

EXPIRATION DATE 



BYTE March 1983 



173 



POINT 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

|x|o|i|o|o|i|o|o| 

|X|1|0. . 1 .~1 



POINT SET (ABSOLUTE) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

|x|o|i|o|o|i|i|ol 

l*M° . I . . 1 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

Ixlola lololi loTTi 

l»l'l*. ■ I ■ .1 

1x1 'U^JLJP 

dx d y 

POINT SET (RELATIVE ) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

Ixlolilololilihl 



[HE 



-J I I I l_ 



* y 

POINT DRAW (ABSOLUTE ) 



IxliU. . I . .1 

|x|1 UlJLjJ 

dx dy 

POINT DRAW (RELATIVE) 



Figure 9: The Point instructions in NAPLPS. Point Set merely moves the "drawing 
point" to the desired position. Point Draw actually draws a point at that position. Coor- 
dinates can be either absolute (x,y) or relative (dx,dy). The first bit of each coordinate is 
a sign bit. The remaining bits are encoded as fixed-point binary numbers, with the 
"binary point" assumed to be just to the right of the sign bit. 



mal solid line. A variety of area tex- 
tures can be selected so that large ob- 
jects can have recognizable interiors. 
The area textures can be chosen from 
a "stock" set of patterns or "program- 
mable" patterns can be used. 

A "cartoon-like" highlighting 
feature is included. When enabled, 
filled areas are highlighted (usually in 



black) to accent the edges. This is 
especially useful in low-resolution 
video-display systems that have trou- 
ble making rapid color changes. 

The Texture PDI is used several 
times in the example frame (lines 8, 
34, 98, 178, 188, and 194). The 
highlighting is turned off for the grass 
and on for the house. The 



highlighting is also used on the left 
bird to add a little diversity. The line 
textures are demonstrated in creating 
the rain (lines 171-203). 

Outlined Drawings 

The majority of drawings are 
created using the basic primitives 
Point, Line, Arc, Rectangle, and 
Polygon. All these primitives are sup- 
ported in NAPLPS with each one 
having several forms. 

Points 

Points can be drawn on the unit 
screen in a variety of ways. As shown 
in figure 9, four Point PDIs are pro- 
vided. Two of these commands are 
used to actually draw points (Point 
Draw), while the other two merely 
position the drawing point prior to 
drawing text or graphics (Point Set). 
The coordinates for both Point Draw 
and Point Set can be expressed in 
either absolute or relative terms. 

At this point (no pun intended), it 
is probably useful to distinguish be- 
tween the drawing point and the cur- 
sor. The drawing point is the imagi- 
nary pen point or brush tip that is 
used to draw graphics on the screen. 
The cursor is the typical block or 
underscore that marks the position 
where the next text entry will be 
made. The drawing point and cursor 
usually "track" each other, but this is 
not required. In other words, the cur- 



Johnny's Function Keys Can't Read 

Or write. Or move a paragraph. Johnny is not a programmer, so his function keys are nonfunctional. 




I BJ ChANqER™ 



For Johnny, and everyone else who wants the convenience of 
function keys, help is here. Keychanger™ replaces 
cumbersome multi-stroke control characters with individual 
function keys, thus saving keystrokes and time. No more 
"control P-S" -- simply press the assigned function key. You 
may choose from four ready-made sets of functions, or create 
custom function keys with the aid of on-screen guidance. You 
can change instantly from one set of functions to another. 

Keychanger™ is CP/M compatible and presently supports 
Wordstar® , dBase II™, and BASIC (other selected programs 
are coming soon). To start your function keys working, send 
$29.95 to Computer Publishing Co., 1945 N. Fine #101, 
Fresno, CA 93727. For VISA/Mastercard orders, call 209-453- 

0777. Wordstar is a registered trademark of MicroPro; dBase II is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. 

Supplied in many popular diskette formats. Compatible with virtually all 
terminals having function keys. California residents addsales tax. 



174 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 11 on Inquiry card. 







® 



n 

Purolator 

armored 



M2dIs I M2dIs 

vTDK fjtffSK 

© I © 

M2Dxls •«« M2DX>S WH 






TDK Floppy Disks. 
Invaluable security for irreplaceable information. 

Today, more and more companies are relying on convenient floppy disks to record, 
store and safeguard information. Irreplaceable information which is vital to their business 
interests. It is precisely the value placed on this information that makes the floppy disk an 
invaluable tool for storage and security. And this is where TDK floppy disks become invalu- 
able to you. TDK floppy disks are guaranteed 1 00% error-free at the time of manufacture 
and certified for double-density encoding. Furthermore, each track of every TDK floppy 
■____i__~..r« disk is tested to exceed industry standards . . . including 

those of IBM, Shugart, ANSI, ECM A, ISO and JIS. Once you 
insert a quality TDK floppy disk into your computer system, 
you're guaranteed highly reliable, ultra smooth perform- 
ance. This is due to TDK's proprietary disk-burnishing tech- 
nique that provides optimum head-to-disk contact. 

TDK floppy disks are available in 5V4 and 8-inch sizes in 
the most popular formats. Each disk comes in its own pro- 
tective Tyvek-type envelope. For a copy of our brochure, 
"Some Straight Talk About Floppy Disks," write to: TDK Elec- 
tronics Corp., Computer Products Marketing Dept., 12 Harbor 
Park Drive, Port Washington, NY 1 1050, or call 516-625-0100. 




&TDK 




i 

■■.£ 



I)o/[i'.i '.-.HI / DoubW Oir.it? 






M2DX1S 96TPI 



OTDK 



©1982 TDK Electronics Corp. 

Circle 417 on Inquiry card. 



The heart of your system. 



BYTE March 1983 



175 



LINE 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

|x|o|i|o|i|oToTo1 

hh i , ; i , , i 

x y 

LINE (ABSOLUTE ) 

7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

|x|o|i|o|i|o|i[o1 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

Ix|o|i|o|i|o|o|i| 



an 



t— I 



dx dy 

LINE (RELATIVE ) 



miT^r 



HH 



: 



l»|i|o. . i . . I 



0n 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


|X|0|l|0|l|0|l|l| 




ixino. . i . . i 


*, 


|x|i| . . 1 . . 1 


x y 


|X|1| . . 1 . . 1 




|x|i|±. . 1 . . 1 



n 



SET 6 LI NE (ABSOLUTE ) 



dy 



SET 6 LINE (RELATIVE ) 



Figure 10: The Line instructions. The Set & Line instructions move the drawing point to 
a new position and draw a line from that position. The Line instructions draw a line 
from the present drawing point. 



IF TOUR COMPUTERS IMPORTANT TO YOU 

Proteait! 

Without SAFEWARE,™ you could be uninsured. For as little as 
$35 a year, SAFEWARE provides complete protection for all 
hardware, media and purchased software. Both business and 
home application. Call toll free today for more information or 
immediate protection. Columbia National General Agency, 88 E. 
Broad, Columbus, Ohio 43215. (In Ohio call 1-800-848-2112) 



1-800-848-0598 




sor can be positioned on the screen 
and the drawing point can be moved 
independently. 

The example frame uses the "Set" 
forms of the Point PDIs, but not the 
"Draw" forms. Line 36 is an example 
of a Set Point Absolute op code. This 
op code is used to position the draw- 
ing point to a specific place on the 
screen regardless of where the draw- 
ing point is currently located. This is 
in preparation for drawing the house. 

Line 44 is an example of a Set Point 
Relative op code. This op code is 
followed by a {dx,dy) operand that 
specifies a distance to move from the 
current position. This move is made 
in preparation for drawing the roof. 
Note that the relative form of the op 
code is useful because the roof should 
always be "tied" to the house. If a 
specific (absolute) screen coordinate 
had been specified, the roof would be 
fixed at a certain location. In this ex- 
ample, if the initial coordinate (lines 
37-39) is changed, the roof will move 
with the house. 

Lines 

Lines are used in almost every 
graphics display. Four forms of the 
Line PDI are provided, as shown in 
figure 10. The major difference in the 
four op codes is that two of them 
draw a line from the present drawing 
point and the other two draw from a 
new set point. Also, two of the op 
codes involve relative positions and 
two involve absolute positions. 

Lines are used to create the rain in 
the example frame. The relative form 
of the Line PDIs is used in lines 180, 
190, and 200. As mentioned, the lines 
are drawn using the current texture 
setting. 

Arcs 

The Arc PDIs are extremely power- 
ful, but may be confusing to the 
casual observer. Most people can 
eventually be convinced that only 
one circular arc can be drawn 
through three points if two of the 
points are known to form the end- 
points. In NAPLPS the three points 
on the arc are specified rather than 
the center and radius. The three 
points are specified just like other 
points in the unit screen. 



176 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 83 on inquiry card. 



text continued on page 180 



Mr. Dow and Mr. Jones 

introduce 

Dow Jones Software™ 




Jones: "Mr. Dow, look what they're selling in that new store 

down the street: Dow Jones Software. You haven't gotten 
us into ladies' fashions, have you?" 

Dow: "No, Mr. Jones. That's a computer store, and our software 
products allow investors and business professionals to use 
a personal computer like this one here to easily manage 
financial information." 

Jones: "Just what can our software do?" 



Dow: "In a nutshell, Jones, with a personal computer, a tele- 
phone, a modem and Dow Jones Software, you can easily 
perform complex analyses on the information available 
from our information service, Dow Jones News/Retrieval®." 

Jones: "You mean all those calculations I've been doing by hand 
I could do in a fraction of the time with this software? 
That's great!" 

Dow: "It is, Mr. Jones. Just like The Wall Street Journal, 
Dow Jones Software is a resource you can bank on!" 



Available nationwide from these fine computer dealers . . . 



ALASKA 
ANCHORAGE 
Abacus North 

511 West 4th Ave. 
(907)276-7443 
Rainbow Technics 
4301 North Star 
(907) 278-3923 
The Software Store 
4600 Business Park Blvd. 
(907) 694-3044 

ARIZONA 
PHOENIX 

Computerland ol Phoenix 
3152 E. Camelback Road 
(602) 956-5727 

CALIFORNIA 

ANAHEIM 

Powers Computer Center 

1295 N. Euclid St. 
(714) 778-6021 
ARCADIA 
Love Computers 
7 East Foothill 
(213)447-0721 

BAKERSFIELD 
ComputerBasics 

5600 California Ave. 
(805) 834-561 1 



BREA 
ComputerCity 

2700 E. Imperial Highway 

(714)996-0800 

Computique 

1080E. Imperial Highway 

(714) 990-6600 

ELTORO 

Wabash Apple Computer 

SuiteC&D 

23720 El Toro Road 

(714) 768-3236 

ENCINO 

The Software Source 

17905 Ventura Boulevard 

(213)705-4445 



CAMARILLO 
Crawford Data Systems 

350 N. Lantana Ave., #561 

(805)484-4159 

COSTA MESA 

Computer City 

3941 S. Bristol 

(714) 549-7749 

Piatt Music/May Company 

3333 S. Bristol 

(714)546-9321 

FAIRFIELD 

Mark Anthony Computer 

19721 N.Texas 
(707) 426-4600 



HUNTINGTON BEACH 
Gateway Computer Center 

15201 Springdale 

(714) 895-3931 

TheSoftware Store 

16562 Gothard St. 

(714)842-0460 

Sun Computers 

17671 Beach Blvd. 

(714)848-5574 

IRVINE 

Learning Shack 

17981-J Sky Park Circle 

(714) 966-6631 

V.I.P. 

14775 Jeffrey Road, J 

(714)752-6341 



LA MESA 
Computerland 

7200 Parkway Drive 

(619) 464-5656 

LAWNDALE 

Computer Stop 

16811 Hawthorne Blvd. 

(213)371-4010 

Computique 

1611 Hawthorne Blvd. 

(213)370-5795 

LONG BEACH 

AVidd Electronics 

2210 Bellflower Blvd. 

(213) 598-0444 



continued on next page 



Dow Jones Software 



...Bank on it. 



Dow Jones Software Dow Jones Software Dow Jones Software 



LOSALAMITOS 

Amis Desktop Computers 

10512 Los Vaqueros Circle 

(714) 952-4122 

LOS ANGELES 

Compusystems (Downtown) 

1050 West 6th Street 

(213) 975-1220 

Computerland 

10600W. Pico Blvd. 

(213) 559-3353 

Computique 

11986 Wilshire Blvd. 

(213)820-0423 

Computique 

3285 Wilshire Blvd. 

(213)385-7777 

Computique 

435 West 7th Street 

(213)629-0121 

LOS GATOS 

Idea Computer 

301 N.Santa Cruz Ave. 

(408)354-1210 

MODESTO 

Computerware 

1031 15th Street 

(209) 578-9739 

OAKLAND 

Softwaire Centre Int'l. 

5269 Broadway 

(415)428-9333 

ORANGE 

Computer City 

1904 Tustin Ave. 

(714) 974-3082 

PALO ALTO 

Mission Computers 

550 University Ave. 

(415) 326-9689 

Softwaire Centre Int'l. 

477 University Avenue 

(415)327-0520 

PASADENA 

Computique 

260 S.Lake Ave. 

(213) 795-3007 

The Softwaire Centre 

548 S. Lake Avenue 

(213) 793-4443 

RIVERSIDE 

Computer Kingdom 

5225Canyon Crest Dr., #30 

(714)787-1142 

ROCKLIN 

AudioVideo Computer Center 

3111 Sunset Blvd. 

(916) 988-6024 

SACRAMENTO 

Capitol Computer System 

1771 Tribute Road 

(916) 483-7298 

SANTA ANA 
Computique 

3211 South Harbor Blvd. 

(714)549-7373 

Softwaire Centre Int'l. 

3821 S. Bristol 

(714)641-0332 

SANTA BARBARA 

Computer Plaza 

3313A State Street 

(805) 687-9391 

SANTA MONICA 

The Computer Store 

820 Broadway 

(213)451-0713 

SAN DIEGO 

Computer City 

4603 Mission Bay Drive 

(619) 270-3100 

The Computer Merchant 

5107 ElCajohn Blvd. 

(619) 583-3963 

Softwaire Centre Int'l 

4170 Convoy St. 

(619)576-1424 

Software Only 

8199Clairemont Mesa Blvd. 

(619) 569-1666 

Wabash Apple 

4636 Convoy Street 

(619)576-1604 

SAN FRANCISCO 

Apex Information Systems, Inc. 

#1A Russian Hill Place 

(415) 885-1633 

Computer Connection 

214 California Street 

(415) 781-0200 



Quest Computer Store 

710 Montgomery Street 

(415) 982-3753 

Software Center 

4720GearyBlvd. 

(415)751-2231 

SAN JOSE 

Businessland, Inc. 

3610 Stevens Creek Blvd. 

(408) 554-9292 

TARZANA 

Computique 

18665 Ventura Blvd. 

(213) 705-7507 

VENTURA 

Computerland 

3875 Telegraph, Suite E 

(805)656-7711 

WEST LOS ANGELES 

The Software Spot 

1977 Santa Monica Blvd. 

(213)477-7561 

WOODLAND HILLS 

Software Etc. 

19973 Ventura Blvd. 

(213)702-8918 

COLORADO 

AURORA 

Compushop 

3102 S. Parker Road 

(303) 337-5885 

Micro Computer Center 

Suite F, 2680 S. Havana 

(303)751-0811 

BOULDER 

Computer Connection 

Suite 101, 1600 38th Street 

(303) 449-8282 

DENVER 

CW Electronics 

800 Lincoln Street 

(303) 832-1 1 1 1 

Idex Micro Systems 

999 18th Street, Suite 225 

(303) 293-2299 

ENGLEWOOD 

Computers Etc., Inc. 

8923 E. Union Ave. 

(303) 779-5256 

FT. COLLINS 

Rocky Mountain Computers 

2601 S. Lemay,#24 

(303) 223-4000 

CONNECTICUT 
WETHERSFIELD 
Computer Resources, Inc. 

683 Silas Deane Highway 
(203) 563-9000 

WESTPORT 
Computerworks 

1439 Post Road East 
Liberty Plaza 
(203) 255-9096 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
TheComputerStore 

1990 K Street 
(202) 466-3367 

FLORIDA 

FT. LAUDERDALE 

The Computer Works 

6221 N. Federal Highway 
(305)491-8600 
NORTH PALM BEACH 
Computer Center of the 
Palm Beaches 
751 NorthlakeBlvd. 
(305) 848-3801 

GEORGIA 
ATLANTA 
Compushop of Georgia 

The Prado 
5600RoswellRoad 
(404) 252-961 1 
ComputerCenter, Inc. 

3623 Interstate 85 North 
(404) 457-8465 

HAWAII 

HILO 

The Computer Store 

291 KeaweStreet 

(808) 969-1 166 

HONOLULU 

Computer Market of Hawaii 

578AlaMoanaBlvd. 
(808)521-7312 



Memory Lane Computers 

841 Bishop St. 
(808) 526-3232 

IDAHO 

LEWISTON 

B & I Computer System 

1824-B Main Street 
(208)746-5980 
Team Electronics 
1920- 19th Avenue 
(208) 746-0086 

ILLINOIS 

AURORA 

Farnsworth Computer Center 

1891 N. Farnsworth Avenue 

(312)851-3888 

BUFFALO GROVE 

Compushop 

1363 W. Dundee Road 

(312) 577-0600 

CHICAGO 

Chicago Computer Company 

222 West Adams, Suite 245 

(312) 372-7360 

Compushop 

180 N. Wacker 

(312)726-7190 

Computers Plus 

5050 N. Cumberland Ave. 

(312) 452-0066 

Systems Source 

131 W.Madison 

(312) 726-7879 

DEERFIELD 

Video Etc. 

465 Lake Cook Road 

(312) 498-9669 

EVANSTON 

Nabih's 

515 Davis St. 

(312)869-6140 

LAKE FOREST 

Lake Shore Computers 

1000 N. Western Avenue 

(312)234-1002 

MIDLOTHIAN 

Compushop 

14403 S.Cicero Ave. 

(312)396-1020 

NILES 

Computerland 

9511 N. Milwaukee Avenue 

(312) 967-1714 

NORTHBROOK 

Northbrook Computers 

4113 Dundee Road 

(312)480-9190 

OAKBROOK TERRACE 
Oakbrook Computer 

17 West 426 -22nd Street 

(312)941-9005 

ORLAND PARK 

Micro Age Computer Store 

8752 W. 159th St. 

(312)349-8080 

Video Etc. 

9107 W. 151st Street 

(312) 460-8980 

PEORIA 

Wallace Micro Mart 

2619 N. University 

(309) 685-7876 

VILLA PARK 

Farnsworth Computer Center 

383 E. North Avenue 

(312)833-7100 

INDIANA 
INDIANAPOLIS 
Microage Computer Store 

8615 Allisonville Road 
(317)849-5161 

LOUISIANA 
BATON ROUGE 
The Computer Place 

5500 Florida Blvd. 

(504)926-4630 

SHREVEPORT 

Micro Business Systems 

3823 Gilbert 
(318) 226-8848 

MAINE 
AUBURN 
Software Centers 

95 Spring Street 
(207) 784-4330 



MARYLAND 
BETHESDA 
Bethesda Computers 

8020 Norfolk Avenue 

(301)657-1992 

CUMBERLAND 

Miller & Miller 

49 North Centre Street 

(301)777-1000 

EASTON 

The Computer Shop 

10West Dover Street 

(301)995-1816 

LAUREL 

The Communications Center 

9624 Ft. Meade Road 

(301)953-9535 

SALISBURY 

The Computer Shop 

112 West Market Street 

(301) 543-8200 

MASSACHUSETTS 
BURLINGTON 
Computer City 

Vinebrook Plaza 

(617)273-3146 

CAMBRIDGE 

Harvest Computers 

118A Magazine Street 

(617) 547-3289 

Tech Computer Store 

199 Alewif e Brook Parkway 

(617) 497-0395 

CHARLESTOWN 

Computer City 

420 Rutherford Avenue 

(617) 242-3350 

DANVERS 

Computer City 

151 Endicott Street 

(617)774-7118 

NEEDHAM 

New England Electronics (NEECO) 

679 Highland Ave. 

(617)449-1760 

WATERTOWN 

Micro Source Financial 

23 Elm Street 

(617)924-5500 

WORCHESTER 

Computer City 

16 Front St 

(617) 755-5464 

MICHIGAN 
ANN ARBOR 
Complete Computer Center 

413 East Huron 
(313)994-6344 

BIRMINGHAM 
SIMTEC 

41 1 4 W. Maple 

(313) 855-3990 

FARMINGTON HILLS 

Computer Connection 

38437 Grand River 

(313)477-4470 

GRAND BLANC 

Computer Contact 

3017 E. Hill Road 

(313) 694-3740 

GROSS POINTE 

Computerland 

22000 Greater Mack Ave. 

(313) 772-6540 

KALAMAZOO 

Computer Room 

455 W. Michigan Ave. 

(616)343-4634 

LIVONIA 

Computer Horizons 

37099Six Mile Road 

(313)464-6502 

SAGINAW 

The Computer Mart 

3580 Bay Road 

(517) 790-1360 

SOUTHFIELD 

Spectrum Computers 

26618 Southfield Road 

(313) 559-5252 

TROY 

Computer Mart 

1824 W. Maple Road 

(313)649-0910 

Rainbow Computer 

819 East Big Beaver Road 

(313) 528-3535 



WESTBLOOMFIELD 
Retail ComputerCenter 

4381 Orchard Lake Rd. 
(313)855-4220 

MINNESOTA 
BLOOMINGTON 
The Software Centry 

Southtown Center 
Penn Ave. South I-494 
(612)881-4514 
BURNSVILLE 
Computer Professionals 
14322 Burnhaven Drive 
(612)435-8060 

MISSISSIPPI 
JACKSON 
Programs Unlimited 

4030 Metro Drive 
(601)969-6705 

MISSOURI 
KANSAS CITY 
Computer ASP, Inc. 

7115 N.W.Barry Road 

(816)741-8013 

ST. CHARLES 

United Computer Center 

4033S,Cloverleaf 

(314)928-1266 

ST. LOUIS 

Computer Station 

11610 Page Service Drive 

(314)432-7019 

Forsythe Computers 

11445 Olive Street 

(314) 567-0450 

NEBRASKA 

LINCOLN 

Micro Technologies 

8200 N, 66th St. 
(402) 488-4543 
OMAHA 

Software Source 
8610 Cass Street 
(402) 397-4958 

NEVADA 
LAS VEGAS 
Century 23 

4530 Meadows Lane, #C1 

(702)870-1534 

Home Computers 

1775 E. Tropicana 

(702) 798-1022 

RENO 

A+ Computers/Byte Shopof Reno 

4804 Kietzke Lane 

(702) 826-8080 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

HANOVER 

Chips MicroCenter 

3 South Street 

(603)643-5413 

NASHUA 

Computer Mart of New Hampshire 

170 Main Street 

(603) 883-2386 

SALEM 

Computertown 

304 South Broadway 

(603)893-8812 

NEW JERSEY 
PRINCETON 
Clancy Paul 

Princeton Shopping Center 

N. Harrison St. 

(609) 683-0060 

STANHOPE 

Computer Universe 

23 Route 206 

(201)347-7892 

NEW YORK 
JERICHO 
Programs Unlimited 

1 25 S. Service Road 

(516)997-8668 

NEW HYDE PARK 

Berliner Computer Center 

102 Jericho Turnpike 

(516) 775-4700 

NEW YORK 

Computer Factory, Inc. 

485 Lexington Avenue 

(212) 687-5000 

Datel Systems Corp. 

1 21 1 Avenue of the Americas 

(212)921-0110 



Dow Jones Software Dow Jones Software Dow Tones Software 



Future Data 

95 Trinity Place 

(212) 732-3905 

Macy's Department Store 

Herald Square 

(212) 560-4491 

McGraw Hill Bookstore 

1221 Avenue of the Americas 

(212)997-4100 

Representative Systems 

718 Broadway 

(212)477-3061 

SYRACUSE 

Omnlf ax Computer Stores 

3216 Eric Blvd. East 

(315) 446-1284 

YONKERS 

Investment Software Concepts 

295 Jessamine Avenue 

(914)476-1280 

NORTH CAROLINA 
GREENSBORO 
ByteShopof Greensboro 

218 N. Elm Street 
(919) 275-2983 
RALEIGH 

Computer Solutions 
2840 S.Wilmington St. 
(919)755-1779 
WINSTON-SALEM 
Computer South 
8013 Silas Creek 
(919) 748-8001 

OHIO 

BAYVILLAGE 
Norlhcoast Computer 

640 Dover Center Rd. 

(216) 835-4345 

CANTON 

Computerland 

4106 Belden Village St., N.W. 

(216)493-7786 

CINCINNATI 

Abacus Computer Store 

225 E. Sixth Street 

(513)421-5900 

The Future Now 

7336 Kenwood Road 

(513) 791-4700 

CLEVELAND 

Computerland 

2070 E. 9th St. 

(216)621-7262 

COLUMBUS 

ADS Systems 

642 W. Broad St. 

(614) 224-8823 

Mlcroage Computer Store 

2591 Hamilton Road 

(614) 868-1550 

Micro Electronics, Inc. 

LaneAve. Shopping Center 

1555 W. Lane Avenue 

(614)481-8041 

GRANVILLE 

Strictly Software 

1670 Columbus Road 

(614) 587-2938 

MAYFIELD HEIGHTS 

Computerland 

1300Som Center Road 

(216)461-1200 



MENTOR 

Cleveland Computer Co. 

7673 Mentor Avenue 

(216)946-1722 

NORTH OLMSTEAD 

Computerland 

4579 Great Northern Blvd. 

(216)777-1433 

TOLEDO 

Abacus II Micro Computers 

1417 Bernath Parkway 

(419)865-1009 

Abacus II Micro Computers 

4751 Monroe Street 

(419)471-0082 

The High Tech Systems 

4543 Monroe St. 

(419)472-1170 

YOUNGSTOWN 

Computerland 

813 Boardman Poland Rd. 

(216) 758-7569 

OKLAHOMA 
OKLAHOMA CITY 
Computer Connections 

12314 N. May Avenue 

(405) 755-9220 

TULSA 

Computer Connections 

8125A East 51st St. 

(51st & Memorial) 

(918) 663-6342 

OREGON 
BEAVERTON 
Byte Shop 

3482S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd. 

(503) 644-2686 

EUGENE 

Computer Solutions, Inc. 

175 Silver Lane 

(503) 689-9677 

GRANTS PASS 

Team Electronics 

530 N.E. "E" Street 

(503) 479-8723 

PENDLETON 

F& H Sound 

338SouthMain 

(503) 276-3772 

PORTLAND 

American Datastar Systems 

430 N.E. Glisan 

(503)238-4605 

Byte Shop 

625 S.W. 10th Avenue 

(503)223-3496 

Computerland 

327 S.W. Morrison 

(503)295-1928 

Stereo Distributors, Inc. 

955 N.E. Union Ave. 

{503)232-0915 

SALEM 

Computerland 

980 Lancaster Drive, N.E. 

(503)371-7070 

Computer Specialties, Inc. 

3390 S. Commercial 

(503) 399-0534 

Team Electronics 

395 Liberty N.E. 

(503)371-7406 



TIGARD 
Computerland 

12020 S.W. Main Street 
(503)620-6170 

PENNSYLVANIA 
ALTOONA 
Mace Electronics 

3225Pleasant Valley Blvd. 

(814)942-5031 

DOYLESTOWN 

Solution Computer Center 

33 North Main Street 

(215)345-4411 

ERIE 

Mace Electronics 

2631 W. Eighth Street 

(814)838-3511 

GREENSBURG 

Chariot Computers 

245 S. Main St. 

(412)838-9560 

PITTSBURGH 

Business Equipment Sales 

5284 Steubenville Pike 

(412)923-2533 

Computer Workshop 

3848William Penn Highway 

(412)823-6722 

Pittsburgh ComputerStore 

612 Smithfield Street 

(412)391-8050 

The Computer House 

1000 Greentree Road 

(412)921-1333 

TEXAS 
ARLINGTON 
Computer Port 

2142 N.Collins 

(817)469-1502 

BELLAIRE 

Compushop 

5315Bissonnet 

(713)661-2008 

DALLAS 

COMPCO 

Suite 108 

5519 Arapaho Road 

(214)386-6578 

ComputerWares 

Suite 106 

12300 Inwood 

(214)960-0800 

SIMTEC 

12801 Midway 

(214)484-3311 

EL PASO 

RTR Software 

444 Executive Center Blvd. 

(915) 544-4397 

FORT WORTH 

Compushop 

6353 Camp Bowie Blvd. 

Ridglea Plaza 

(817)738-4442 

Computer Co-op 

3465 Bluebonnet Circle 
(817)926-7331 
Computer Wares 
4670S. Hulen 
(817) 346-0446 



HOUSTON 
Compushop 

815 Milam 

(713)227-1523 

Computercraft, Inc. 

5050 FM 1960 West 

(713) 583-2032 

Computercraft, Inc. 

10165 Katy Freeway 

(713)827-1744 

Computercraft, Inc. 

2709 Chimney Road 

(713) 840-9762 

Computercraft, Inc. 

3233 Fondren 

(713)977-0664 

Computercraft, Inc. 

1958 West Gray 

(713)522-3130 

Computercraft, Inc. 

2200 Southwest Freeway 

Suite 150 

(713) 527-8088 

Computercraft Software Store 

2723Chimney Rock 

(713)552-0880 

Computercraft Software Store 

2200 Southwest Freeway 

(713)521-3050 

Computer Galleries 

2493 S. Braeswood 

(713)661-0055 

Computer Galleries 

11538 Northwest Freeway 

(713)956-0900 

Computronlx 

1536 Willowbrook Mall 

(713)890-5832 

Computer General Store 

5085Westheimer 

Galleria II #3590 

(713)627-0455 

SIMTEC 

1990 E. Post Oak Blvd. 

(713)850-9797 

Software Center of Houston 

2200 Southwest Freeway 

(713)521-3050 

IRVING 

Compushop 

Las Colinas Towers IV 

125 Carpenter Freeway 

(214)556-2166 

Computer Wares 

2209 Story Road 

(214) 258-0080 

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS 

Compushop 

8214 Bedford-Euless Road 

(214)498-8106 

PLANO 

Compushop 

3100 Independence Parkway 

(214)867-4595 

Computer Wares 

1915 Central Expressway 

Suite 130 

(214) 422-5584 

SAN ANTONIO 

Computer Shop 

5011 Walzem Road 

(512)657-7034 



VICTORIA 

Computer Command Corp. 

708 E. Goodwin 
(512)573-4305 

UTAH 

SALT LAKE CITY 

Mnemonics 

141 East200South 

(801)521-2168 

Personal Business Computers 

1879 S. Main Street 

(801)486-4839 

VIRGINIA 
ALEXANDRIA 
Computers Plus 

6120 Franconia Road 

(703)922-7850 

Universal Computers 

1710 Fern Street 

(703)379-0367 

RESTON 

Universal Computers 

2355-G Hunters Woods Pla2a 

(703)620-6160 

WASHINGTON 

BELLEVUE 

Bixby's Sight & Sound Center 

11919 N.E. 8th 

(206)454-5770 

Online Computer Centers 

13710 N.E. 20th Street 

(206)644-2080 

Swan Computer Store 

1034 116th Ave., N.E. 

(206) 454-6272 

ELLENSBURG 

Computer Craft 

115 East 8th St. 

(509)925-3755 

LACEY 

Stolz's Computers 

4106 Pacific Avenue, S.E. 

(206) 459-9595 

SEATTLE 

Compu Lab 

735N.NorthlakeWay 

(206)633-5020 

Computer Shop Business Center 

11057 8th Ave., N.E. 

(206) 367-4747 

SPOKANE 

Bits-Bytes-Nibbles, Inc. 

209 Northtown Shopping Center 

(509)487-1601 

Microspace 

S. 114 Madison 

(509)624-3344 

WISCONSIN 

MILWAUKEE 

North Shore Computers 

5261 N. Port Washington Rd. 

(414)963-9700 

WAUSAU 

Oryx Software 

205 Scott St. 
(715)848-2322 

INTERNATIONAL 
SWITZERLAND 
Dynatech Prodata 

Industriestrasse30 
CH-8302 Kloten 




Dow Jones 
Market Analyzer™ 
A technical analysts product 
that allows private and profes- 
sional investors to automatically 
collect, store and update histor- 
ical and daily market quotes, and 
to construct technical analysis 
charts at the touch ofa key. 



Dow Jones 

Market Microscope™ 
A fundamental analysis 
product that allows professional 
money managers tochoose and 
follow indicators for extensive 
lists of stocks and industry 
groups, and to sort, rank, screen 
and set critical points for buying 
and selling. 



Dow Jones 
Market Manager™ 
A portfolio management 
product for private or profes- 
sional investors who desire 
immediate access to pricing and 
financial information, and who 
need an accounting and control 
system for their portfolios of 
securities. 



Dow Jones 

Connector™ 

A data retrieval product 

for the business or professional 
person who wants instant elec- 
tronic access to news, facts and 
vital data at the home or oflice, 
via personal computer, simple 
terminal, communicating word 
processor or teletypewriter. 



Dow Jones Software 



...Bank emit. 



ARC 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


|X|0|1|0|1|1|0|0| 




|X|1|±. . 1 . . 1 




l*lil . . I . . 1 


dx, dyj 


UUIt. . 1 . . 1 




|x|i| , . 1 . . 1 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 



dx 2 dy 2 

ARC (OUTLINED) 



|x|o| 


1|0|1|1|0|1| 




Ixlil 


i, . 1 . , 1 


, 


|x|i| , , 1 . , 1 


dXj dy, 


|x|i| 


i. . 1 . . 1 




l*M , , 1 , . 1 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


|X|0|1|0|1|1|1|0| 




Ixhlo. . 1 . . 1 




1*111 . . 1 , , 1 


x y 


Ix|i|±. . 1 . . 1 




Ixlxl . . 1 . . 1 


dx : dyj 


Ixlilt. . 1 . . 1 




|x|l| , , 1 . . 1 



dx 2 dy 2 

ARC (FILLED ) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

Ixlolilolilililfl 



Ixhlo. ■ I 



Ixhl , , I 



|x|H±. , I 



IxUI ■ . I 



IxliU. ■ I 



dx 2 dy 2 
SET S ARC (OUTLINED) 



Ixlil . ■ I , I 

dx 2 dy 2 

SET S ARC (FILLED ) 



Figure 11: The Arc instructions. 




Figure 12: A diagram showing how the cloud in figure 1 was constructed from four filled 
arcs and a filled polygon. 



Four forms of the Arc PDIs are in- 
cluded in NAPLPS, as shown in 
figure 11. Two of the forms allow 
arcs to be filled so that solid areas 
with curved edges can be created. 

Arcs are used in the example frame 
to create the birds and the cloud. As 
shown in figure 12, the cloud is made 
up of four arcs and a polygon. The 
area between each arc and a line (or 
chord) connecting the endpoints of 
the arc is filled by the Arc (Filled) 
command. The Polygon (Filled) com- 
mand fills the middle area. 

Circles are a subset of the more 
general arc. If only two points are 
specified (instead of three), those 
points are assumed to form endpoints 
of a diameter of a circle. Circles can 
also be encoded using three points in 
the normal arc format, but the start- 
ing and ending points must be equal 
for a circle to be drawn. 

A "hook" has been provided in 
NAPLPS so that it might eventually 
support complex curves or splines. 
These curves cannot be described by 
using simple arcs of circles. But if 
more than three points are specified 
for an arc, it should be possible to 
draw a smooth curve connecting the 
points. Until algorithms are devel- 
oped that can efficiently draw a 
spline, lines can be used to connect 
the points. 

Rectangles 

Both filled and outlined rectangles 
are supported by NAPLPS. The four 
forms of the Rectangle PDI are shown 
in figure 13. Rectangles are described 
by specifying the opposite corner in 
terms of relative (dx,dy) coordinates. 
Negative values for dx or dy can be 
used to produce rectangles in various 
directions from the current drawing 
point. 

One difference that should be 
noted with Rectangles is the final 
destination of the drawing point. 
Most drawing commands cause the 
drawing point to be left at the last 
point involved in the figure. In the 
case of the Rectangle, only the x coor- 
dinate is modified so that the drawing 
point moves horizontally. This 
allows for histograms or bar charts to 
be generated in an efficient manner. 

A Rectangle is used to generate the 



180 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Plug 3,000 new applications 

into your Apple! 



THE CP/M Card™ plugs CP/M Plus™ into your Apple. 

The CP/M Card gives you the option of running your Apple II 

with the speed and capability of a professional Z-80 system 

with CP/M*-compatible software. You plug in the CP/M 

Card. Then choose CP/M or your standard Apple software 

at your option. 
Plug into a big, new world of software. 
The CP/M Card gives you instant access to the world's largest 
selection of microcomputer software— more than 3,000 
CP/M-compatible applications, languages, and 
programming utilities. So, you, too can use pro- 
fessional business programs such as WordStar,® 
SuperCalc™ Condor,™ and other high-performance 
software from Day One. Yet, you still have access 
to your present library of Apple software. 
Plug into incredible performance. 



300% faster than your Apple system! The CP/M Card is the 
only Apple II performance package that offers the speed and 
efficiency of CP/M Plus. 
A plug about quality. 

The CP/M Card was designed and built by Digital Research, 
the creators of CP/M, and Advanced Logic Systems, the most 
respected manufacturer of Apple performance products. So 
you know the CP/M Card is the most perfectly integrated 
Apple performance package you can buy. 

Why just keep plugging along? The CP/M Card 
provides everything you need — including 64K of 
on-board memory, CP/M Plus, CBASICf 
GSX™-80 and full documentation— for just $399. 

Now available through the CP/M library. 
See your local microcomputer dealer today. Or 
contact Advanced Logic Systems, 1195 East 
Together, the ultra-fast CP/M Card and a^»,/n^a^ I ^^\^ Cv,^^^o Arques Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (800) 

CP/M Plus run applications up to ACIVanCeCI LOgiC bySTemS 538-8177. (In California (408) 730-0306.) 

The CP/M Card for your Apple II. 

CP/M, CP/M Plus, the CP/M Card and CBASIC are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Digital Research Inc. Z-80 is a registered trademark of Zilog, Inc. 
WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International Corporation. SuperCalc is a trademark of Sorcim Corporation. Condor is a trademark of Condor Computer 
Corporation. GSX-80 is a trademark of Graphics Software System. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. C1982 Digital Research Inc. 

Circle 149 on inquiry card. 



RECTANGLE 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


|x|o|i|i|o|o|o|o| 




Ixhl'. . I , , I 




|x|i| . , 1 , , 1 



dy 



RECTANGLE (OUTLINED) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


|x|o|i|i|o|o|i|o| 




Ixlilo. . I . . I 




Ixhl . , I . , I 


x y 


Ixlili. , I . . I 




l*M . . I . . 1 



dy 



SET ft RECTANGLE (OUTLINED) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


|X|0|1|1|0|0|0|1| 




Ixlili. , I , . I 




hhl ,!,, 



dy 



RECTANGLE (FILLED) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 

Ixlolililolohlil 




Ixlilo. , I . , I 


' 


Ixhl . . I . , I 


x y 


Ixlili. . 1 . , 1 




l*hl , , 1 , , 1 



dy 



SET 8 RECTANGLE (FILLED) 



Figure 13: The Rectangle instructions. Note that only one point is required to define a 
rectangle. 



house in the example frame. The op 
code at line 40 could have been a Set 
Rectangle Filled with the data from 
lines 37-39 moved into the operation. 
This would eliminate the need for the 
Point Set Absolute op code at line 36. 
Both encodings would yield the same 
result. 

Polygons 

The irregular Polygon is a very 
useful feature in NAPLPS. Many ob- 
jects can be broken down into 
multisided irregular objects. These 
objects can be encoded using the end- 
points of the lines forming the sides. 

Four forms of the Polygon op code 
are available, as shown in figure 14. 
The outlined polygons do not offer 
much more than an efficient way to 
send a lot of lines. It should be noted 
that the last line in a polygon is not 
explicitly sent. The polygon is auto- 
matically "closed" by an edge con- 
necting the last point sent and the 
starting point. 

The filled polygons offer the ability 
to define an entire object disregarding 



When you're into heavyweight software development you 
need more operating system power than CP/M can offer. 
MICROSHELL builds up CP/M with UNIX features that really 
help you put out software. Just for starters: MICROSHELL 
Crunches long CP/M dialogs into one-line commands. Puts 
rtiuscle and flexibility into SUBMIT commands. Captures CRT 
output and redirects it to CP/M files without retyping. Pulls 
programs from another disk drive or user number auto- 
matically (makes hard disk handling a snap). And it's ready 
for more work with no time-consuming warm-start after a 
program runs. MICROSHELL fits your system— uses just 7K 
of memory in any CP/M computer from Apple to Zenith. 
Check out MICROSHELL today and find out what a powerful 
partner it makes— at only $150. 

'"CP/M, Digital Research; UNIX, Bell Laboratories; Apple, Apple Computer, Inc. 



Order Toll Free: 800-368-3359 
VISA, MasterCard accepted. 
Overseas add $20.00 for air mail. 
Manual only: $25. 



Circle 312 on Inquiry card. 



NEW 

GENERATION 
SYSTEMS, inc. 



2153 Golf Course Drive 
Reston,VA 22091 
(703)476-9143 







TTs new Compact Computer* 
It takes over your work, not your desk 



The ordinary personal computer 
occupies too much of the ordinary desk. 

Now Texas Instruments brings you a 
cordless compact computer that solves the 
same sort of problems as the Apple™ or 
IBM™ personal computer. It has enough 
memory and power for complex problems 
in business and science, yet the whole thing 
is smaller than a magazine page. 

Sophisticated software is available right 
now for finance, statistics, production 
planning, graphics— and spreadsheet and 
word processing are just around the comer. 

For most personal computer tasks, its 
6K RAM and 34K ROM are ample. The 
system is easily, economically expanded. 

The TI Compact Computer 40 has 
peripherals that make it even more useful: 

"Based on published manufacturer's suggested retail price. 
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. IBM is a 
registered trademark of International Business Machines Cotp. 



a 4-color printer/plotter; an RS-232 interface 
for talking with other computers or running 
a larger printer; and TI Wafertape™ drive 
for program or data storage. TI Solid State 
Software™ cartridges offer you a choice of 
convenient, foolproof programs. 




Its built-in language is TI Enhanced 
BASIC, which allows you to write programs 
in everyday words. The integrated liquid 
crystal display shows 31 characters, which 
can be scrolled to show up to 80 per line. 
It operates on four AA alkaline batteries that 
give up to 200 hours of service. 

The TI Compact Computer 40 offers 
solutions anywhere you go. Yet it retails for 
less than 1/3* the price of Apple™ or IBM™ 
personal computers. The TI Compact 
Computer— compact in price and size, but 
not in power. See it soon at your Texas 
Instruments retailer. 

Creating useful products tL m m 
and services for you. W\* w 

Texas 
Instruments 

Copyright © 1983 Texas Instruments 

Circle 425 on inquiry card. 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


| x 1 | 1 | 1 | | 1 | | | 




Mill. . 1 . . 1 




MH , , 1 . . 1 


d *i d yi 


IXIlli. , 1 . . 1 




l"M , . 1 . , 1 



POLYGON (OUTLINED ) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


| X | | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 1 | | 




Ml|0, , 1 . , 1 




|x|i| . . I . . 1 


x y 


|X|1|±. , 1 . . 1 




Ixlll . . 1 . . 1 


dxj dyj 


Ixhli. . i . . i 




Ixlll . . 1 . . 1 



dx n dy n 

SET S POLYGON (OUTLINED) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 10 


[ X | o 1 1 |l J J 1 1 | 1 | 




|x|i|'. . 1 . . 1 




Mil . . 1 . . 1 


ItX] dyj 


IXUli, . 1 , , 1 




|x|i| , , 1 , . 1 



dx n dy n 

POLYGON (FILLED ) 



7 6 5 4 3 2 1 


| X | ] 1 | x |oli |l |l | 




|x|i|o, , | , , | 




Ixlll , . , I , , I 


x y 


|x|i|±, 1 . . 1 




|x|i| 1 . . 1 


dxj dyj 


|x|l|±.. , I . , I 


• t 


|X|1| . , 1 . . 1 



dx n dy n 

SET S POLYGON (FILLED ) 



Figure 14: The Polygon instructions. Any number of points can be used to define the 
polygon. 



what may be "under' 7 the object. Pic- 
tures can be built up in the same man- 
ner that kids create pictures using 
construction paper. 

In the example frame, the largest 
polygon is the grass (lines 10-31). 
When the house is drawn on top of 
the grass, a piece of the polygon is 
covered. Likewise, when the road is 
drawn (lines 220-239), more of the 
grass is covered. If the grass had been 
drawn last, part of the house and the 
entire road would not be seen. 

The polygon that is used to fill the 
center of the cloud (lines 151-160) can 
be derived directly from the arcs that 



surround it. As shown in figure 12, 
the {dx f dy) values for the polygon 
end up being the sum of the (dx,dy) 
values for the three points that de- 
scribe the arc. 

Other PDIs 

Several other PDIs are available in 
NAPLPS. Some of them allow com- 
pressed encoding of high-resolution 
images and detailed line drawings. 
PDIs are included that allow "logical" 
areas on the screen to be specified for 
user input. Timed waits and blinking 
capabilities are also part of NAPLPS, 
but will not be discussed here. 



SET COLOR 

7 6 5 4 3 2 10 



OP CODE (3/12) | X | | 1 J 1 | 1 | 1 | Q | Q | 



COLOR VALUE 



M'l ■ ■ I ■ .1 

G R B ; G R B 

I'M . . i ■ ■ i 

G R B G R B 



Figure 15: The Set Color instruction. This 
instruction defines the color with which 
all succeeding characters or graphics 
designs will be drawn. 



Color Control 

Color control in NAPLPS ranges 
from primitive, static color defini- 
tions to exotic color mapping and 
animation. Here I shall describe only 
the primitive color-control capabil- 
ities of NAPLPS. 

The basic color-control capability 
of NAPLPS allows a color to be ex- 
pressed as relative amounts of red, 
green, and blue. The "resolution" of 
the color specification can vary just 
as with coordinates (see figure 15). A 
display device is expected to display 
the "closest" color that is available. 

For simple display devices, 4 to 6 
bits of color specification are usually 
sufficient to select every available col- 
or (unless color maps are available). 
These color-specification bits are 
usually encoded in a truncated 
multivalued-operand byte. The first 
color specification in the sample 
frame appears in lines 2 and 3. The 
Set Color PDI is an op code and is 
followed by a data byte that specifies 
three units of blue, zero units of red, 
and zero units of green. The resulting 
color of the sky is a "very blue" blue. 

When a color is specified, it be- 
comes the "current in-use color." 
Anything drawn after the Set Color 
will be drawn in the new color. Note 
that after the sky is created, the green 
grass color is specified in lines 6 and 
7. If this was not there, the grass 
would be drawn in blue and would 
not be visible. 

Changing Character Sets 

If you have been carefully decoding 
the information in listing 1, you have 



184 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Do any QUAD function 
expansion boards measure up 



This may really be the only board you need 
to expand your IBM personal computer. 
We've now added the most wanted feature 
on a quad function board: two asynchronous 
ports along with memory, clock/calendar, 
and parallel printer port. And unlike most 
big memory boards, you don't have to 
sacrifice multiple functions to get 
51 2k of add-on memory in a single 
slot. 

THE BASICS 
The main board has three functions 
standard: Parity checked and fully 
socketed memory up to 256k in 
64k increments, clock/calendar 
with battery back-up, asynchronous 
communication port (RS232C ser- 
ial) which can be used as COM1 or 
COM2, (DCE for a printer, or DTE PWJB 
for a modem). Optional is a 100% 
IBM compatible parallel printer port, 
and a second async port for another $50 
each. Also included are: SuperDrive™ disk 
emulation and SuperSpooler™ printer buf- 
fer software. 

NO CORNERS CUT 
We didn't lower the quality to give you all 
this. The board is a four layer design with 
solder masking, silk screened locations, 
and gold plated edge connectors. Compo- 
nents are premium grade and meet or 
exceed IBM specifications. Each board is 
burned in and tested prior to shipment. 
CLOCK/CALENDAR 
& CLIP-ON BATTERY 
Ourclock is poweredbya simple $4 lithium 
watch battery available atyourcornerdrug 
store. It is clipped on, not soldered like 
some other clock boards. How useful is a 
battery warranty that requires you to send 
your board to the manufacturer to replace 
it? We send you a diskette with a program 
that sets the time and date when you turn 
on your computer. Now your programs will 
always have the correct time and date on 
them without you ever having to think 
about it. (Just which version ofthat program 
you were writing is the latest one?) 
MEGAPAK OF MEMORY 
The picture in the inset showsthe optional 
256k MegaPak™ board mounted "piggy- 
back"on the main board. This expandability 
feature gives those who need it 512k of 
add-on memory in a single slot. Now you 
can create disk drives in memory up to 



320k, set aside plenty of space for print 
spooling, and still have plenty of memory 
for your biggest programs. An exclusive 
design allows the memory to be split at two 
memory addresses to take full advantage of 
the memory disk feature of concurrent 
CP/M™. 




FREE SOFTWARE 

The disk emulation software creates "disk 
drives" in memory which accessyour pro- 
grams at the speed of RAM memory. The 
print spooler allows the memory to accept 
data as fast as the computer can send it and 
frees your computer for more productive 
work. Some manufacturers sell hardware 
printer buffers that do only this for hundreds 
of dollars. SuperSpooler™ eliminates the 
need for these slot robbing products. 

CHEAP SOFTWARE TOO 
What good is great hardware without some 
great software to use it with? We offer 
some terrific prices on some of the popular 
programs you will want to use your board 
with. How about the cream of the spread- 
sheetprograms, SUPERCALC, for just $1 76. 
Or maybe dBASE II by Ashton-Tate for just 
$469. 

WHY BUY IT FROM US? 
Because we provide the service and support 
most companies just talk about. We realize 
how integral this board is to the use of your 
computer. What good is a warranty if it 
takes weeks for repairs to be made? We 
offer 48 hour turnaround or a replacement 
board on all warranty repairs. Do you hear 
anyone else making this promise? If you 
still are not convinced, and want to compare 
prices, remember we don't charge extra for 
credit cards, shipping, or COD fees. If you 
still want to buy elsewhere, ask them if 
they will face the acid test. 



IBM PC 

to MegaPlus? 

THE ACID TEST 

Qubie say ( Q- B -A ) gives you a 30 day 
satisfaction guarantee on all board pur- 
chases. If you are not completely satisfied 
we will refund the entire amount of your 
purchase. If you can get any of our com- 
petitors to give you the same guarantee, 
buy any other board you think compares 
and return the one you don't like. We know 
which one you will keep. One year parts 
and labor warranty included. 

TO ORDER BYMAILSEND 

— Your name and shipping address 
—Memory size, and options requested 
— Software and cables needed 
— Daytime phone number 
—California residents add 6% sales tax 
—Company check or credit card number 

with expiration date (personal checks 

take 18 days to clear) 



TO ORDER BY PHONE 

In California (805) 482-9829 

Outside California (800) 821-4479 

PRICES: 64k $359 192k $499 
128k $429 256k $569 
512k $968 

(Includes async, memory, clock, Super- 
Drive™, SuperSpooler™) 
OPTIONS: 

Parallel Printer Port $50 

Second Async Port $50 

MegaPak™ with 256k of memory $399 
Cable to parallel printer $35 

Cable to modem or serial printer $25 
Memory Diagnostics Program $10 

SUPERCALC by SORCIM $176 

dBASE II by Ashton-Tate $469 

SHIPMENT 

We pay UPS surface charges. UPS 2 day 
air service $5 extra. Credit card or bank 
check orders shipped next day. 

QUBIE' 
DISTRIBUTING 

4809 Calle AJto 
Camarlllo, CA 93010 

European Inquiries: 129 Magdalene Rd. 
London, SW18 
870-8899 

Circle 462 on inquiry card. 



STATISTICS SO EASY, 
LIKE MAGIC. 




At last, there's a sophisticated statistics 
package that's easy to learn and simple to 
use: speedSTAT 1. 

With extensive statistical analysis capabili- 
ties — including a capacity of over 10,000 
data points and more than 30 different sta- 
tistical measures^speedSTAT 1 islthe 
next major tool in your software collection. 
It multiplies your capabilities . . . with some 
pretty magical results. 

If you've relied on large computers for your 
statistical needs in the past, you'll appreci- 



professional statistical 
analysis system for 
Apple® computers 

ate the convenience and affordability of 
speedSTAT 1 . And even if you don't have 
much experience with computers or 
statistics, speedSTAT 1 will make your 
computer do the work, so you're free to 
think about the results. 

Of course speedSTAT has a lot more up its 
sleeve. You can learn the details at your 
Apple dealer. Or call Toll Free 800/543- 
1 350 (in Ohio call collect: 51 3/891 -5044) 
and we'll send you more information. 

SpeedSTAT is a trademark of SoftCorp International, Inc. 
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 



n;i?E,m»KEU 



m 229 Huber Village Boulevard 

Westerville, Ohio 43081 



Circle 396 on Inquiry card. 



probably come across a few SO and 
SI codes (octal 016 and 017). These 
codes are used to indicate a change in 
the character sets or G-sets that are to 
be used. In the 7-bit mode of 
NAPLPS, only one character set can 
be used at a time. The SO code 
specifies that the set of PDIs should 
be used, and the SI code specifies that 
the Text character set should be used. 

You have also probably noticed 
that the high-order bit of all the codes 
has not been used. The reason for this 
of course is that we have been using 
the 7-bit mode of NAPLPS. If the 
8-bit mode were desired, a simple 
conversion can be made. Each time 
an SO is found it should be removed, 
and all bytes following that code 
should have their high bit set to 1. 
When an SI is encountered, it should 
also be removed and the bytes that 
follow should have a high bit equal to 
0. The result would be that all 
graphics-related codes would be in 
the form 1XXXXXXX. All text-related 
codes would have the form 0XXXXX- 
XX. 

In the 8-bit mode of NAPLPS, the 
14 SI and SO bytes could be re- 
moved, which would allow the figure 
to be stored in only 270 bytes. This 
may not seem like a big savings, but 
for large national databases with 
thousands of frames, every byte 
counts. There would also be a payoff 
in transmission time. At 30 characters 
per second, those 14 bytes might 
represent almost Vi second, which 
adds up as a user interacts with a 
system. 



33MB?:-'! 



Next Month 

In part 3 of this series, I will cover 
some of the more advanced topics in 
NAPLPS, including Incremental 
Lines, Macros, Dynamically Indefin- 
able Character Sets, and Fields. 

This series of articles should give 
the reader a very good overview of 
this coding system. But as was men- 
tioned last month, anyone seriously 
interested in working with NAPLPS 
should obtain a copy of the complete 
specifications for $18 from X3 
Secretariat, CBEMA, 311 First St., 
NW, Washington, DC 20001, (202) 
7 37 -8888. ■ 



Working with the wrong software is like 
questioning a fish. 

Unproductive. 



But now there VDigiSoft. We 
help you choose the micro- 
software that's right for you. 

You can't go wrong with DigiSoft. 
We've taken all the surprises out of 
buying software. No guesswork. No 
regrets. We give you all the information 
you need to make the right choice. But 
we don't stop there. You get plenty of 
professional support after the sale. And 
we guarantee your full satisfaction, 

Call Toll-Free 800/328-2777 

You'll get lots of help from our well- 
trained software consultants. They'll 
answer your questions, off er solutions 
and present several alternatives. 
DigiSoft has a comprehensive software 
inventory, tested and evaluated for top 
quality and performance. We've labeled 
our programs I, II and III, so you can 
select the features best-suited to your 
needs and budget. 



Limited Introductory Offer* 20% 
Of£DMS TM II,andDCalc™II 

DMS is a totally relational database 
management program that can be part of 
an integrated financial system. It's 
compatible with a number of other 
DigiSoft programs including DCalc II, 
an electronic spreadsheet. Both can be 
easily mastered by anyone. If DMS or 
DCalc II is for you, be sure to take 
advantage of this special DigiSoft price. 

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee 

Try our software in your own office, on 
your own computer for thirty days. If 
you're not completely satisfied, you're 
welcome to return it. You have nothing 
at all to lose. 

To order, or request more information, 
call or send in the coupon today. Visa 
and Master Card accepted. 
*Offer expires 4/15/83. 



Dial 



D Please rush DDMS II ®> $259.95 (reg. $324.95) 
□ DCalc II @ $199.95 (reg. $249.95) 

□ Check enclosed. 

Charge to □ VISA □ MASTER CARD 

# Exp. Date 

Signature 

Send more information about these DigiSoft 

programs: □ DMS I □ DMS II □ DMS III 

□ Asset III □ GL m D A/P III □ A/R III 

□ I/C III □ DCalc II □ DCalc III □ Medical III 

□ Optimizer I, II, III Other: 



Name 



Title 



Company 



Computer Type 



Address 



City State Zip 

Mail to: DigiSoft, 10901 Red Circle Drive, 
Mpls., MN 55343 CaIl800/328-2777 



c 




Circle 144 on inquiry card. 







I 







WF^l J 




/ k'l ' 




P ^'N^ 




ffi^ ■ 


n 






'^•••---~. - 




1 "* ■ 


f 


■ 







1 TO 16 USERS TO GO 



Altos multi-user 8086 or 68000 -based 

networking computers are chosen by more 

OEMs and Fortune 1000 companies. Here's why. . . 



ALTOS® 16-bit computer 
systems do more for more users. 
They give you more power. More 
features. And more reliability. For 
less money. 

You get a choice of 8086 or 
68000-based family processors, 
memory management to one MB 
of RAM, an intelligent Z80™ I/O 
and disk controller, plus up to 160 
megabytes of fast Winchester 
storage. 

A single Altos computer can 
serve up to 16 users. And every 
Altos 16-bit computer gives you 



INTER-ALTOS 
LOCAL NETWORK 



Series 586, ACS8600 and ACS68000 
20-160 MByte Winchester 
1-16 USERS with 
ALTOS-NET 




ETHERNET 



Series 586. ACS8600 and ACS68000 
20-160 MByte Winchester 
1-16 USERS with 
ALTOS-NET/UNEr" 



REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS 



Series 586. ACS8600 and ACS68000 
20-160 MByte Winchester 
1-16 USERS with 
ALTOS-NET/UNET 

2780/3780 
3270 
X.25 
SNA/SDLC 





added features like Multibus™ 
interfacing, real time clock, power 
fail detection and comprehensive 
diagnostics. 

But that's just the beginning. 
Link multiple Altos' together and 
communicate in the office of the 
future today. Serve hundreds of 
users with full Ethernet™ and 
ALTOS-NET™ hardware and soft- 
ware support. And save money 
with fewer interconnects. 

In addition, Altos supports 
remote communications protocols 
such as 2780/3780, 3270, X.25, 
and SNA/SDLC. 

Altos has all the 16-bit soft- 
ware you need, too. With popular 
operating systems like XENIX™ / 
UNIX™ (with a user-friendly "busi- 
ness command menu interface"), 
CP/M-86,™ MP/M-86,™ 0ASIS-16, 
MS™-D0Sand PICK for 8086-based 
systems; plus UN IX System III™ 
and RM/COS™ for 68000-based 
systems. 



Altos also has high-level lan- 
guages (BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL 
and PASCAL), and applications 
software (ABS/86 and ABS/68 for 
general accounting, word process- 
ing and financial planning). 

Since 1977, Altos has delivered 
more than 30,000 highly reliable, 
fully socketed, proven single board 
microcomputers and peripherals 
built for business. 

If you've been looking to go 
with a more powerful computer 
that can serve from 1 to 16 users 
for less money, call or write 
us today. 

Altos Computer Systems 
2360 Bering Drive 
San Jose, CA 95131 
(408) 946-6700 
Telex 171562 ALTOS SN J 
or 470642 ALTO Ul 



Packed with 
fresh ideas 
for business 




COMPUTER SYSTEMS 



800-538-7872 

(In Calif. 800-662-6265) 

Circle 18 on Inquiry card. 



ALTOS is a registered trademark and ALTOS-NET is a trademark of Altos Computer Systems. Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. CP/M-86 and MP/M-86 are trademarks of Digital Research, Inc. 
MS and XENIXare trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. XENIX is a microcomputer Implementation of the UNIX operating system. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. UNIX System III is a trade- 
mark of Western Electric. RM/COS is a trademark of Ryan-McFarland. Inc. OASIS- 16 is a product of Phase One Systems. Inc. PICK is a product of Pick & Associates and Pick Computer Works. 
Multibus is a trademark and 8086 is a product of Intel Corporation. 68000 is a product of Motorola. Inc. UNET is a trademark of 3Com Corp. Z80 is a trademark and product of Zilog. Inc. 
c 1982 Altos Computer Systems. 



Software Review 



MP/M II 

The Multiuser, Multiprogramming 
Version of CP/M 



MP/M II, the revised version of the 
Multiprogramming Monitor for 
Microcomputers from Digital 
Research, is a powerful combination 
of valuable operating-system features 
that could become a dominant force 
in the advanced microcomputer 
market. 

The operating system offers you 
significant advantages over conven- 
tional single-user, single-job systems: 
it makes more effective use of im- 
proved microprocessor technology, 
has a broader scope of applications, 
offers better programming and devel- 
opment facilities, and will even in- 
crease throughput for your system. 
The operating system supports real- 
time processing, timesharing, multi- 
programming, and multitasking. 
MP/M II even provides capabilities 
for memory management, interrupt 
handling, extended file operations, 
system security, and sequential pro- 
cess management that are usually 
found only on larger systems. 

Compatibility with CP/M software 
is assured because CP/M file struc- 



About the Author 

Stephen Schmitt has worked for Hewlett- 
Packard and taught at Michigan Technological 
University. He is now doing a review of a ver- 
sion of the Ada programming language for 
microcomputers. 



Stephen Schmitt 
2892 Sandhill Rd. 
Mason, MI 48854 



tures, system calls, and command 
processing are all supported by 
MP/M II. All programming lan- 
guages and software tools for CP/M 
should run on MP/M with little or no 
modification. Thus the available 
repertoire of CP/M applications and 
the large number of high-level 
languages that CP/M supports 
should provide MP/M II with a sub- 
stantial supply of software. 

Systems other than MP/M II are 
competing for prominence in the ex- 
panding microcomputer field. Unix 
or Unix-like systems and Oasis-16 
from Phase One Systems are among 
its chief competitors. Currently, how- 
ever, no clear consensus exists in the 
market for rating the various sys- 
tems. In fact, many leading computer 
manufacturers are offering several 
operating systems as options to lure 
customers. 

In this review, I will describe the 
MP/M II system and its operation, 
outline an application of the system, 
and analyze its feasibility for general 
microcomputer operation. Some of 
the concepts Til touch on require a 
rudimentary background in operat- 
ing-system fundamentals and a gen- 
eral knowledge of CP/M and related 
software. I've included a list of 
reference materials that will acquaint 
you with any unfamiliar subjects. 



Overview 

Briefly, MP/M II can be described 
as a multiple-user version of CP/M 
with enhanced processing capabili- 
ties. Each terminal presents its user 
with a CP/M-like environment that 
can manage more than one task at a 
time. The timesharing capability of 
MP/M II makes it seem as if the 
system is running several programs at 
once, thus allowing more than one 
user to operate the microcomputer at 
a time. This ability to run programs 
concurrently improves performance 
by using system resources more effi- 
ciently. Programs waiting for slow 
I/O (input/output) devices such as 
printers do not consume central pro- 
cessor processing time. Unlike some 
other timesharing systems, MP/M 
permits all active processes to reside 
in memory and thus a large amount 
of disk swapping is avoided. All this 
is handled by a real-time kernel pro- 
gram in MP/M II that supervises 
timesharing, handles requests as they 
happen, sets priorities for resource 
allocation, and coordinates the 
layered interrupt structure. 

MP/M uses a simple file-system 
design that allows the user to access a 
broad class of mass-storage devices. 
The user also has access to very large 
RAM (random-access read/write 
memory) areas, even in 8-bit pro- 



190 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



The new COMPAQ Portable Computer. 
IBM compatibility to go. 



s 



J imple, isn't it? The COMPAQ™ 
Portable Computer can do 

Iwhat the IBM® Personal 
Computer does. To go. 

It runs all the popular pro- 
grams written for the IBM. It 
works with the same printers and 
other peripherals. It even accepts 
the same optional expansion elec- 
tronics that give it additional 
capabilities and functionality. 

There's really only one big dif- 
ference. The COMPAQ Computer 
is designed to travel. 

Carry the COMPAQ Comput- 
er from office to office. Carry it 
home on the weekend. Or take it 
on business trips. 

If you're a consultant, take it 
to your client's office. 

If you use a portable type- 
writer, you can use the 
COMPAQ Computer as a 
portable word processor 
instead. 

If your company 
already uses the 
IBM Personal 
Computer, add 
the COMPAQ 



you'd probably need to buy an 
additional display screen because 
the built-in screen is too small for 
certain tasks, like word process- 
ing. The COMPAQ Computer's 
display screen is nine inches diag- 
onally, big enough for any job, and 
it shows a full 80 characters across. 
And the built-in display offers 
high-resolution graphics and text 
characters on the same screen. 

The bottom line is this. The 
COMPAQ Computer is the first 
uncompromising portable 
computer. It delivers 
all the advantages 
of porta 
bility 



In the standard configuration, 
the COMPAQ Computer has three 
open slots for functional expan- 
sion electronics as your needs 
and applications grow. It accepts 
standard network and commu- 
nications interfaces including 
ETHERNET™ and OMNINET™. 

If you're considering a per- 
sonal computer, there's a new 
question you need to ask your- 
self. Why buy a com- 




^^g^^ Portable as a 

mobile unit that 
can use the same pro- 
grams, the same data disks, and 
even the same user manuals. 

There are more programs 
available for the COMPAQ Com- 
puter than for any other portable. 
More, in fact, than for most non- 
portables. You can buy them in 
hundreds of computer stores 
nationwide, and they run as is, 
right off the shelf. 

With most other portables 



without trad- 
ing off any com- 
puting power capability. 
And what do those advantages 
cost? 

Nothing. 

The COMPAQ Por- 
table sells for hundreds 
less than a compara- 
bly equipped IBM or 
APPLE® III. Standard 
features include 128K 
bytes of internal memory 
and a 320K-byte disk drive, 
both of which are extra-cost 
options on the IBM. Memory 
and additional disk drive up- 
grades are available options to 
double those capacities. 



puter that 

isn't portable? 

For more 

information on 

the COMPAQ 

Portable Computer 

and the location of the 

Authorized Dealer nearest 

you, write us. COMPAQ 

Computer Corporation, 12330 

Perry Road, Houston, Texas 

77070. Or call 1-800-231-9966. 



© 1983 COMPAQ Computer Corporation 

IBM* is a registered trademark of International Business 

Machines Corporation. 

ETHERNET'* is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. 

OMNINET 1 " is a trademark of Corvus Systems. 

Apple* is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 

COMPACT* is a trademark of COMPAQComputer 

Corporation 




f.W Ml- T I I I I I I ! 1 1 I T " 

t/:f^'''r".'-'' J ' J ''' 1 '',^ 




comPAa 



wmm^^^^mmm^^^^^^^m portable computer 

The most Computer you Can Carry. Circle 500 on inquiry card. 



cessor systems. File improvements 
such as separate user file areas, 
security options, and time-stamping 
features extend the standard CP/M 
file structure. 

Fortunately, all enhancements of 
MP/M over CP/M are totally trans- 
parent to CP/M application soft- 
ware. Potential applications for 
MP/M II include office automation, 
real-time process control, advanced 
personal computers, information 
management, and software-devel- 
opment systems. 



Two Versions 

MP/M II is currently available for 
two popular microprocessor families: 
the 8080 family and the 8086 family. 
The 8086 version, MP/M-86, differs 
in memory management, code file 
structure, and its ability to support 
shared-code segments. Fortunately, 
these variations seldom affect user 
software. You can run the same pro- 
gram written in a high-level lan- 
guage such as CBASIC on both 
systems easily. Digital Research also 
supports programming tools for 



Feature 


Purpose 


Multitasking 


Several processes (tasks) can be executed concurrently. Any 
console can initiate multiple tasks. Each task is memory 
resident. 


Task Priority 


Tasks are assigned a ranking factor to ensure that critical 
tasks receive processor time. 


Queuing System 


Process communication 
Synchronization 
Mutual exclusion 


Interrupts and Timing 


Real-time control 

System clock 

Program scheduling 

Timesharing 

I/O device handling 

Delay and timing functions 


Network Capability 


Compatible with CP/NET (local area network). Enables 
resource sharing with other microcomputers. 


Multiple-Console 
Environment 


16 terminals or other character I/O devices can be 
simultaneously supported. 


Multiple Printers 


Spooling and access to several printers is now possible. 
Printers can vary in type and speed (maximum printers: 16). 


Reentrant Code 


Shared code allowed. Only one copy of code segment 
necessary for multiple invocations of a process. (MP/M-86: 
user programs and RSPs. MP/M-80: RSPs only.) 


Memory Management 


Memory-management technique is dependent upon 
microprocessor family. Memory protection is also sup- 
ported (hardware-dependent). 

8080 family: 

Bank-switching system 

400K bytes total physical memory limit 

Maximum number of banks: 8 

8086 family: 

Partition model technique 
Automatic allocation/deallocation 
Memory fragmentation recovery algorithm 
1 megabyte total physical memory limit 


File Password Protection 


File locking to prevent unwanted concurrent access 
Shared-access methods for multiple users 
Security 


Time Stamping 


File creation or updating and accessing data are maintained 
to enhance file management. 


Record Locking and 
Sharing 


Individual records can be exclusively owned or shared in file- 
processing applications. ., 


Increased Mass Storage 


A maximum of 16 logical disk drives with a total capacity of 8 
gigabytes of online storage. (Maximum file size: 32 
megabytes. Maximum drive size: 512 megabytes.) 


Table 1: A summary of the features of MP/M 11. These capabilities greatly expand 
the power of the standard CP/M 2.2 operating system. 



transporting assembly code from 
8080 to 8086 machines. To avoid con- 
fusion, I will discuss only the 8080 
version of MP/M II in this article. 

Features 

The multitasking aspects of MP/M 
II significantly enrich the basic CP/M 
operating-system model, even though 
the user interface and the function of 
software utilities are virtually iden- 
tical to CP/M. Extensions can be 
divided into three subject areas: pro- 
cess management, resource sharing, 
and file-system improvements. Table 
1 summarizes these additional 
capabilities. 

The command structure and sys- 
tem-entry points of MP/M II are a 
superset of those for CP/M. Old 
commands are virtually unchanged. 
This upward compatibility with 
CP/M was a prime objective in the 
design of MP/M. Also, many of the 
objections raised against CP/M and 
previous versions of MP/M have 
been addressed by MP/M II. Some 
rough spots still remain, however. 

System Design and Operation 

MP/M II is organized using a 
hierarchical approach. Figure 1 
details the basic structure of the sys- 
tem and shows the relationships of 
the various system components. The 
layered structure permits successive 
levels of increasingly sophisticated 
functions. A component of one layer 
is logically dependent upon one or 
more underlying layer components. 
For instance, the user interface 
employs the TMP (terminal message 
process) to relay console data and the 
CLI (command line interpreter) to 
process user requests. TMP receives 
data from the console queues, which 
are in turn supplied with character in- 
put by a physical handler in the XIOS 
(extended input/output system). Ac- 
cess across more than one layer is per- 
mitted (e.g., direct XIOS calls) but 
not recommended. 

MP/M II is also divided into 
modules, and the layers do not 
always correspond to these modules. 
They are grouped according to func- 
tion and are distributed as separate 
software components. Briefly, the 
system modules are as follows: 



192 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



A WORD TO THE WISE 
















psscor 






No one gives you more in an ergonomically engineered 

smart terminal than Wyse. 



These days there's little room for 
waste of the corporate dollar. And 
these days the WY-100 smart terminal 
looks even better when you compare 
it to the other guys. 

You definitely get more from Wyse 
— the leader in low-cost, high-per- 
formance, ergonomically engineered 
smart terminals. 

To begin with, you get a great 
looking terminal that features die 
cast aluminum packaging and takes 
up a minimum of desktop space. 

You also get a terminal with an 
uncanny way of pleasing people. It 
comes with an easy-on-the-eyes 
green phosphor screen. And a fully 
tilting/rotating display and detached 
keyboard. (After all, one person's 
just-right-tilt is another's not-quite- 
right-tilt). 

When the workload seems impos- 
sible, horizontal and vertical split 
screen capabilities with independent 
scrolling allow you to be in two places 
at once. 



There's more. You get program- 
mable function keys and transparent 
print. Plus 128 characters with upper 
and lowercase, line drawing and 
graphics, and a keyboard with 105 
keys— including cursor pad, special 
mode and function keys. 

Of course, all of this wouldn't mean 
much if you couldn't count on Wyse 
quality. That's why each WY-100 is 
put through an extensive on/off 
testing program. 

On top of that, WordStar® and other 
emulations are now available from 
your distributor. Which means you 
can automatically get 32 of WordStar's 
most commonly used multi-key com- 
mands fully-implemented on our func- 
tion keys for faster, easier use. 

We think you'll be quite impressed 
when you compare the WY-100 to 
other terminals in its class. But don't 
take our word for it. Call or write us 
today. We'll send you detailed infor- 
mation on why the WY-100 smart 
terminal gives you more. A lot more. 




3040North First St., San Jose, CA 95134 
(408)946-3075 TLX 910-338-2251 
I n the East, call (516) 293-5563 
Outside California, 800-538-8157 ext. 932 
Inside California, 800-672-3470 ext 932 

WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro, Inc. 
UL and FCC approved. ©1982 Wyse Technology. Inc. 



Circle 465 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



193 



FUNCTION 



XIOS 


• I/O Primitives 

• Hardware Initialization 

• Hardware Control 


XDOS 


BDOS 


• Multiprogramming 

• Real-time support 

• Process management 

• Resource sharing 

• Protection 


• CP/M functions 
File primitives 
Device control 


OS ENTRY 
POINTS 


QUEUES 


SYSTEM DATA 
TABLES 


• Devices 

• File system 
•Task primitives 

• Flags 

• System control 


• Synchronize 

• Communication 

• System lists 

• Ports 

• Buffers 


• Configuration Data 

• User Data 


CLI 


TMP 


SPOOL 


RSP 


User Task 


System Task 


User Interface 


Application 


System Utility 



LEVEL 



HARDWARE 

CONTROL 

LEVEL 



OS LEVEL 



INTERFACE 
LEVEL 



PROCESS 
LEVEL 

USER/PRO- 
GRAM 
LEVEL 



Figure 1: A logical representation of the MP/M II system. Functional capabilities are 
divided into successive layers of increasing sophistication. 



BDOS (basic disk operating sys- 
tem) is an upward-compatible version 
of the single-user CP/M BDOS. It 
supports standard CP/M BDOS calls 
and adds extensions for multiple con- 
sole and printer support. File-system 
enhancements are also included. 

XDOS (extended disk operating 
system) contains the real-time pro- 
gram nucleus that monitors processes 
and manages system resources. This 
module supports the multipro- 
gramming and memory-management 
capabilities of MP/M II. Included 
with it are the TMP and CLI for pro- 
cessing console input. The XDOS also 
contains other functions accessible by 
user programs. 

XIOS, like the CP/M BIOS, pro- 
vides the low-level hardware- 
dependent routines. This part of 
MP/M II must be customized for 
every computer system. By encap- 
sulating the system-dependent func- 
tions, MP/M II can be hosted by 
various hardware implementations. 
Functions include console drivers, 
printer drivers, mass-storage 
primitives, hardware-initialization 



code, physical interrupt handlers, 
memory-management primitives 
(e.g., bank select), timing, and other 
I/O routines. 

System Data Tables is a group of 
miscellaneous data tables containing 
global system parameters, informa- 
tion sets pertaining to each user, 
system stacks, active file lists, and 
system queues. 

RSP (resident system program) and 
OS (operating system) processes in- 
clude code, data, and process descrip- 
tors for system tasks. OS processes 
are differentiated from RSPs in that 
they must be included with MP/M II 
and are not system options. 

System Parameter Area is a com- 
mon memory area for communica- 
tion between executing programs and 
the operating system. It occupies low 
memory (0-100 hexadecimal) and is 
compatible with the CP/M memory 
organization. 

Memory layout plays a key role in 
the analysis of MP/M II's operation 
and programming. Figure 2 shows 
how memory is organized. Bank 
switching increases effective system 



At a Glance 

Name 

MP/M \\ (8080) 
MP/M-86 (8086) 

Type 

Microcomputer operating system 

Version 

2.1 (May 1982) 

Manufacturer 

Digital Research Inc. 
POB 579 

Pacific Grove, CA 93950 
(408) 649-3896 

Price 

MP/M II: S450 
MP/M-86: S650 

Format 

CP/M single-density 8-inch floppy disk; 
5/4 -inch floppy-disk versions also 
available 

Language 

Digital Research PL/I and 8080 or 8086 
assembler 

Computer 

8080-, Z80-, 8085-, 8086-, or 8088-based 
system with a minimum of 32K bytes of 
RAM 

Documentation 

5 softbound books (8/2 by 1 1 inches): 
Users Guide, 1 76 pages; Programmer's 
Guide, 226 pages; System Guide, 1 6 1 
pages; Link-80 Manual (for linker pro- 
gram, 8080 family only); RMAC 
Language Manual (for 8080 family) 

Audience 

Operating-system enthusiasts, CP/M 
users, microcomputer OEMs (original 
equipment manufacturers), hobbyists 



memory capacity. The total physical 
memory is divided into blocks termed 
banks (usually 48K bytes). The 
system can switch a portion of the 
logical address space from one 
physical bank to another. Thus, even 
though the 8080 family of central pro- 
cessors can address only 64K bytes 
directly, multiple memory banks can 
be placed into the logical 64K-byte ad- 
dress space, thus increasing memory 
size and multiprogramming capabili- 
ties. Part of the operating system is 
stored in a portion of memory that's 
always active (i.e., never switched). 
Make sure you don't confuse 



194 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



SuperSof t FORTRAN 

Now for CP/M-86, MS DOS, and IBM PC DOS' 



SuperSoft FORTRAN is the answer to 
the growing need for a high quality FORTRAN 
compiler running under CP/M-86 and IBM 
PC DOS. It has major advantages over other 
FORTRAN compilers for the 8086. For 
example, consider the benchmark program 
used to test the IBM FORTRAN in InfoWorld . 
p. 44, Oct. 25, 1982. (While the differential 
listed will not be the same for all benchmark 
programs, we feel it is a good indication of the 
quality of our compiler.) Results are as follows: 
IBM FORTRAN: 38.0 Seconds 

SuperSoft FORTRAN: 2.8 Seconds 
In its first release SuperSoft FORTRAN 
offers the following outstanding features: 

1 . Full ANSI 66 standard FORTRAN with 
important extensions 

2. Standard data types, double precision, 
varying string length, complex numbers 

3. Free format input and free format string 
output 

4. Compact object code and run time support 

5. Special functions include string functions, 
dynamic allocation, time/date, and video 
access 

6. Debug support: subscript checking, good 
runtime messages 

7. Full IEEE floating point 

8. Full 8087 support— available as option 
($50.00). 



Program developers: 



SuperSoft's family of FORTRAN compilers 
means you can write your programs once and 
they will run under CP/M-80, CP/M-86, and 
MS DOS. This lets you get your applications 
running fast no matter what the environment. 



The current compiler allows 64K code 
space and 64K data space with expansion 
anticipated in future releases. 




At last, a FORTRAN compiler that works great on 
my 8086, 8087, and 8088 based systems!" 



SuperSoft FORTRAN: available 
NOW and working great! 

Requires: 128K with CP/M-86® 

and MS DOS 
Price: $425 (in each environment) 

CP/M-80 version also available. 



I n conjunction with SuperSoft, SuperSoft FORTRAN 
was developed by Small Systems Services, Urbana, IL, 
a leader in FORTRAN development. 

CP/M and CP/M-86 are registered trademarks of 
Digital Research. 

Japanese Distributor: ASR Corporation International, 
3-23-8, Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan, 
Tel. (03)-437571 Telex: 0242-2723. 

European Agent: Micro Technology Ltd., 51 The 
Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells. Kent, England TN2 5TH 
TEL 0892-45433. Telex: 95441 Micro-G. 

Circle 407 on inquiry card. 




FIRST IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY P.O.Box1628 Champaign, IL61820 (217)359-2112 Telex 270365 



Top of 








Memory 

Top of 

Banked 

Memory 


MP/M II OS 
(Common) 










Segment 
MP/M Extension 




Relocatable 
Segment 


• • • 




Start of 

Program 

Segments 


TPA 


Relocatable 
Segment 

TPA 


TPA 


100H 
OH 


System Parameter 
Area 


System Parameter 
Area 


System Parameter 
Area 


BankO 






Bank 1 
Tnn nf Memnrv 




BankN 






System Data 
Tables and Stacks 




MP/M II 

OS 

(Common) 


Resident BDOS 




Resident XDOS 






RSPs 






1 


Low Common (usually C000H) 




Banked BDOS 






Banked XDOS 




Segment 


Console tables, 
Files locks, and 
Sys. processes 








Detailed view < 
BankO high 
memory 


Df 


End of Segment (program limit) 



Figure 2: (Top) MP/M II memory organization for the 8080 family of microprocessors. 
Note the flexibility for partitioning banks into segments. Transient-program area (TPA) 
segments are for CP/M programs. (Bottom) This figure details both the common seg- 
ment that includes the MP/M II OS and segment 0. Note that in MP/M systems without 
memory banking, the banked versions of XIOS, BDOS, and XDOS are not required, 
which saves memory space. 



space of each bank. Memory manage- 
ment is done automatically. Pro- 
grams are assigned to segments using 
a best-fit policy. 

Operation 

Operating MP/M II is straightfor- 
ward, especially if you have a good 
understanding of the fundamentals of 
CP/M (see references on CP/M). 
MP/M II can be loaded by a boot 
routine from mass storage or it can be 
initiated by executing a special CP/M 
utility. Once the system is initialized, 
every terminal console displays a 
sign-on message and the standard sys- 
tem prompt. The console works very 
much like a single-user CP/M system. 
The system prompt differs from 
CP/M in its inclusion of a user num- 
ber identifier; for example, "0A>" 
where is the user number and A is 
the default drive. User numbers iden- 
tify the file area associated with each 
console. 

As in CP/M, a command is noth- 
ing more than an order to load and 
execute a user-written or system-sup- 
plied program file. The uniform 
strategy achieves both simplicity and 
flexibility (i.e., you can define your 
own commands or change the names 
of system utilities supplied with 
MP/M II). 

Installation and System 
Generation 

MP/M II software is designed for 
adaptation to a broad range of micro- 
computer hardware environments. 
Hardware independence with MP/M 
II is attempted through a fourfold 
strategy: 



memory banks with memory seg- 
ments. Memory segments are parti- 
tions of memory where program code 
can be loaded. A memory bank may 
have several segments. Transient pro- 
grams must be loaded into segments 
for execution. For example, CP/M 
COM files must be loaded into the 
transient-program area (TPA) in low 
memory. Page-relocatable programs 
(PRLs) can run in any partition. 

The common area, which is used 
by all banks, is located in the upper 
part of logical memory and contains 
the operating-system software. Seg- 



ment is a special partition reserved 
for system modules and RSPs. The 
division between the common area 
and segment defines the top of 
banked memory. In banked MP/M II 
systems, XDOS, BDOS, and XIOS 
are broken into common modules 
and segment modules. Buffers, 
queues, process descriptors, and 
operating-system entry points must 
be kept in the common area. File 
functions and higher-level operations 
that are accessed through system en- 
try points can reside in segment and 
need not occupy the logical address 



• MP/M II is written in a transport- 
able high-level language. 

• Hardware-dependent functions are 
encapsulated in a user-defined inter- 
face module (XIOS). 

• Mass-storage functions are table- 
driven to simplify mapping physical 
disk systems to MP/M II's logical file 
system. 

•A system-generation utility is pro- 
vided to allow the user to specify the 
operating environment structure. 

The majority of MP/M II is written 
in a PL/I dialect. In order to imple- 



196 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Qume SPRINT 11 PLUS 




$1 539.88 UPS DELIVERED 

• 40 characters per second, bi-directional, logic-seeking printhead action 

• Fully-formed, 96 characters, 1 0, 1 2, 1 5 & proportional spacing 

• 1/48 inch line spacing and 1/120 inch character spacing (minimums) 

• Parallel or RS-232C interfacing includes cable (please specify) 



PRINTERS 

Anadex 

AnadexDP-9501A $1409.88 

Anadex DP-9620A $1499.88 

C. Itoh 

C. Itoh Prowriter $499.88 

W/RS-232C 9609.88 

C. Itoh Prowriter 2 $734.88 

W/RS-232C $789.88 

C.ltoh F-1 Starwriter, 40 cps 

Parallel or RS-232C $1499.88 

C.ltoh F-1 Print master, 55 cps 

Parallel or RS-23 2C $1 799.88 

F-1 Tractor $289.88 

Daisywriter 




Daisywriter 2000 $1 089.1 

Daisywriter Tractor $ 1 49.88 

Daisywriter Cable $49.88 

Diablo 

Diablo 620 $1209.88 

Diablo 630 $1909.88 

Diablo 630 KSR $2094.88 




Gemini 10 $419.88 

Gemini 15 $539.88 

IDS 

IDS Microprism $379.88 

IDS Prism 80 $1104.88 

above w/graphics $11 89.88 

above w/sheetfeed $1 294.88 

above w/4-color $1 339.88 



PRINTERS 

IDS Prism 1 32 $1 269.88 

above w/graphics $1 339.88 

above w/sheetfeed $1439.88 

above w/4-color $1 099.88 

Okidata 

Microline 82A $429.88 

62A Okigraph ROM $44.88 

62A Plug-n-Play (PC) $39.88 

62A Tractor. $39.88 

62A Roll Paper Holder $49.88 

Microline 63A $089.88 

63A Okigraph ROM $44.88 

Microline 84 w/graphics & tractor 

Parallel, 200 cps $1 039.88 

Microline 92 $339.88 

Microline 93 $929.88 

NEC 




NEC 3530 $1809.88 

NEC 3550 $21 99.88 

3500 Tractor $239.88 

NEC 7730 $2399.88 

NEC PC 8023A-C $309.88 

Smith-Corona 

Smith Corona TP-1 $379.88 

Specify either 1 or 1 2 cpi, 
& parallel qr RS-232C interface 

CALL FOR PRICESon Cannon. Cen- 
tronics. Datasouth, Epson, Mannes- 
mann Tally. Panasonic. Ricoh, Silver 
Reed, Transtar & others. 



The Columbia MPC 





j,„„„,.,v f , 1|tt 



The Columbia MPC features full compatabilitywith all IBM PC hardware 
and software, including MSDOS, MSBASIC, CP/M 86, FORTRAN, PAS- 
CAL, COBOL, CBASIC 86, etc. Comes with 1 28K RAM, two double-sided 
drives (320K per drive), two serial ports, one parallel port, and a keyboard 
port 

Our package includes the Columbia MPC System(w/1 28K, twodrives & 
4 ports), the Keytronics keyboard, the Color Graphics Board, a Pi-3 
monitor & cable, and MSDOS (w/BASIC interp., diag., macro 86 assemb., 
etc). 



$3733.40, UPS delivered. 



MONITORS 



6 S53" cs9 

USI Pi-3 (12" amber) $189.88 

USI Pi-4(9" amber) $139.88 

Amdek 

Amdek 3 1 0G ( 1 2" green) .... $1 99.88 
Amdek 3 1 0A ( 1 2" amber) .... $1 99.88 

AmdekColorll(Hi-res RGB). ..$789.88 
Amdek Color III (RGB) $479.88 

Electrohome 

Electrohome 1 (RGB) $329.88 

Electrohome 2 (Hi-res RGB) . ... $379.88 
PC Cable $49.88 

NEC 

NEC (1 2" RGB) $739.88 

NEC ( 1 2" Color) $304.88 




Princeton Graphic Systems 

HX- 1 2 (Hi-res RGB) $099.81 

MODEMS 

DC Hayes 

Hayes 300 Baud $234.81 

Hayes 1 200 Baud $309.81 

Novation 

Auto Cat $224.81 

1 200 Auto Cat. $309.81 



Information & Orders 

(603)-881-9855 

Orders Only: (800)-343-0726 

No Hidden Charges 

FREE UPS shipping on all orders— No extra charge to use credit 
cards— All equipment shipped factory fresh with manufacturer's war- 
ranty— COD orders accepted ($10 fee added)— No purchase orders 
accepted— No foreign or APO orders accepted— Minimum $50 per 
order— This ad prepared in January: prices are subject to change. 

Our Computer Showroom is now open in Amherst, NH 



MODEMS 

1 03/2 1 2 SmartCat $499.88 

Novation D-Cat $139.88 

Novation J-Cat Call 

Multi-Line Junction Box— allows a 

modem on multi-line phone 

systems $39.88 

IBM PC PERIPHERALS 

Memory Upgrades 

16K Ram Chips 

Pkgof9 $29.88 

64K Ram Chips 

Pkg. of 9 1 $89.88 

AST Research 

MegaPfus features two serial ports, 
one parallel port, a clock & software 
package (with SuperSpoot and 
SuperDrive). MegaPack option gives 
512 K RAM to 256K Megaplus board. 

MegaPlus 64K $339.88 

MegaPlus 256K $774.88 

MeiaPack $419.88 

Maynard Controllers 

Floppy Disk $1 39.88 

w/Parailel Port $219.88 

W/RS-232C Port $239.88 

Microsoft 

64K RAMCard $284.88 

Quadram 

Quadboards have memory, a parallel 
port, a serial port, a clock, memory and 
software (with RAMdisk & Spooler) 

64K Quadboards $439.88 

256K Quadboards $079.88 

The Quad 5 1 2 has memory and a 
serial port on board 

Quad 5 1 2 o| US /64K $399.88 

Quad 5 1 2 Plus/256K $639.68 

Quad 5 1 2 Plus/51 2K $889.88 

Single Function Cards for the IBM PC 

64K Memory $239.88 

192K Memory $399.88 

RS-232C Card $99.88 

Parallel Card w/cable $109.88 

Clock/Calendar $109.88 

QuCeS 

Big Blue: 64K RAM, a paralle I port. 
serial port, clock. 280 co- processor 

and HD interface $439.88 

1 2mB Hard Disk $21 39.88 

20mB Hard Disk $2479.88 

40mB Hard Disk $3099.88 

Tandon Drives 

Single-sided $229.88 

Double-sided $299.88 

Xedex 

Xedex Baby Blue $334.88 

Xedex RAM Plus $039.88 



HIGH TECHNOLOGY AT AFFORDABLE PRICES 

THE BOTTOM LINE 

MILFORD, NH 03055-0423 □ TELEPHONE (603) 881-98551 



Circle 60 on inquiry card. 



ment MP/M on the different micro- 
processor systems, the designers had 
to modify the PL/I compiler so that it 
could emit specific machine codes. 

Central to the portability strategy 
is the hardware-interface module 
XIOS. The module is a superset of the 
functions defined for CP/M's BIOS 
(basic input/output system). Opera- 
tions found in the XIOS include inter- 
faces to printers, disk systems, ter- 
minals, and other system-specific 
devices. Physical interrupt handlers, 
system timers, and memory-manage- 
ment functions are also defined. 

The peripherals attached to MP/M 
II can be serviced via two methods: 
interrupts and polling. Polling is pro- 
vided for low-speed I/O, debugging, 
and multiple-device processing for 
systems that lack interrupt facilities. 

The XIOS is either written by a 
manufacturer distributing MP/M II 
with its computer system or it can be 
customized by an end user. Digital 
Research provides you with a 
skeleton XIOS module along with 
sample implementations for a few 



systems (e.g., Altos Computer Sys- 
tems). The documentation for gen- 
erating XIOS routines is clear and 
specific. XIOS is composed of ap- 
proximately 25 functions and usually 
requires 5K to 6K bytes of code in- 
cluding buffer space. 

Attributes of the mass-storage sys- 
tem easily map onto the logical file 
structure by use of parameter tables, 
which are called Disk Definition 
Tables. These tables define the 
characteristics of a particular disk 
system. Generation of the tables is 
done automatically by an MP/M 
utility. Disk systems ranging from 
simple floppy disks to the new 
Winchester-technology disks are ef- 
fectively supported. Digital Research 
also supplies a disk blocking/de- 
blocking procedure for increasing 
mass-storage performance. Blocking, 
a technique designed to improve ac- 
cess properties, allows a portion of 
disk storage to reside in main 
memory. 

Integration of MP/M II software 
into a custom operating system is per- 



How to make 
dBase II" work magic. 
It's a snap 
with Autocode. 

Finally, the first practical application of artificial intelligence in 
personal computer software. Autocode 1 is a powerful program 
generator for dBASE II. No prior knowledge of programming required, 



Hiflliil 



• Automatic menus & sub menus 

• Automatic data entry screens 

• Automatic data entry routines, 

• String, numeric, date 8c 
calcufated fields 

• Automatic multiple reports 



*» 



• Automatic programs in dBASE II 
code with interactive screens 

q0\* No prior knowledge of dBASE II 
' ^ required 

• CP/M & MS DOS operating systems 

• Handy pocket size manual 

• Average learning time only 4 hours 



STEMMOS LTD. 

666 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 



Just send the following to address above today. 

> Your diskette format & hardware % • Your name & complete address 

i How many Autocodes you want at $200 each* • A check or money order. 

ORDER TOLL FREE 800-227-1617 (Ext. 417) IN CA CALL 800-772-3545 (Ext 417] 



Credit card buyers may substitute their card number and expiration 
date for the check. Or call us toll free and save the trip to the mail box. 



rSjS 


> 




" \<m 



U.S. Address: 666 Howard St. San Francisco CA 94105/ U.K. Address: 344 Kensington High Street. London W14 
Tel: (415) 777-3800 DeQ|er lnqujries ^^ Tel: 01 602 6242 

dBASE II"-' AshtonTate 'in California odd 6% soles tax Autocode V'Stemmos Lid 



198 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 403 on inquiry card. 



formed by the system-generation util- 
ity GENSYS. The system-generation 
process consists of (1) specifying sys- 
tem options, (2) collecting optional 
and required code segments into a 
single code file, and (3) layout of 
memory segments. Customizing the 
operating system enables you to fine- 
tune system performance, better 
match applications, and increase the 
software's overall flexibility. 

The SYSGEN utility is simple, 
small, and easy to understand. It pro- 
vides the minimum set of options nec- 
essary for flexible system design but 
doesn't bog down programmers with 
extraneous specifications. For the 
most part, the generation process 
facilitates the integration of host-com- 
puter hardware with the MP/M II 
operating-system software. 

I found that developing MP/M II 
XIOS and configuring the software 
for my specific needs were not too dif- 
ficult. Most problems resulted from 
misunderstanding hardware opera- 
tion. The documentation on develop- 
ing XIOS occupies an entire manual. 
The material should be carefully 
covered to minimize problems. I 
recommend implementing CP/M as 
the first step in creating an MP/M II 
system. Without CP/M, the genera- 
tion procedure is not well document- 
ed and requires more effort. 

Programming 

Programming MP/M II software is 
a more difficult task than that for 
CP/M. In addition to the extra sys- 
tem functions offered by MP/M II, 
the multitasking features add an 
order of complexity. But with this 
extra sophistication you get a more 
powerful tool, and more work is 
possible per unit of computing equip- 
ment with shared access. 

Processes and Data Structures 

A process is an active program seg- 
ment ready for execution in memory. 
MP/M II controls processes through 
a data structure termed a process 
descriptor. Process descriptors con- 
tain such information as process 
name, priority, status, device associa- 
tions, file environment, and links to 
other processes in system queues. 
Process descriptors are created at the 

Text continued on page 202 




V^qiiisHes'^ie High Gist Of Plotters 



^Smallj smart and cost effective;, the 
DMP-40 &hgle^g£ri plotter puts big- \ 
plotter power at the command- of the 
smallrsystem ti^r/ : With tfiis amiable 
and competent Md ^t.^ 
cani erea^ colorful 8 J/2 x ,1 1" arid 1 1 x 
17" graphics-Airaages of professional 
quality; for starfd alone use ^binding. \ 
into reports of as overhead traiis- 
paranciesfpr grouj) : presentktioris; ; ). v 
.[ r _ Circles 5 arcs ^ellipses and general 
curves are automatically generated by 
robust intethaffirniwarei freeing you 
arid your computer from wasteful 
lov^leyei:busywork. - - ,J: 
; By pip ttiiig iniri^emerits;of only 
J)05f^ you are: assured of virtu J 
step-free traces ^The result is pfe- 
• cisely "defined gp:aphi& o " 

accuracy and solid repeatability/ 



Standard RS-232-C interfacing , - 
matches the DMB-40 to all current 
computers, :-,..-.■ r 

; ^Multicolor plots^pn the DMP-4Q] ; 
are a simple riiatto sitice built in \ 
firmware arid most commercial soft-" 
wkreprbvide 'pause' te '.':"; 

peri changing. ; * 

Theise^and more big-plotter capa- 
bilities are yourg at small-#otter 

COSt,* r : >.--\ ; 

For the name and location of your nearest \ 
distribuoVy caU 
l-80Q-53fc$2QS:(nri^ 
Hxmstimlmtr^ 

Austin) Terns 7^SX^J^Emope^c(Mact 
Bau$cfc& hottiS iS/V. : i&che$te$am&, 8240 
■GisM-Beliimn^ TdOS9^^4^S > Th 
'^6^7399S> ; -^-; ; ; "; ■ : ;^ : ; : v : y-, : I r ■ : - 

/■*US .retail $.995.' ' " "~ l\' - : ^'V '•■■';' *"•' " 




BAUSCH&LOMB 

ho us f o ri i ns^fum ent division 

CircfeAS foUf-terature... '. Cirbre ^.to^have represerlVatjve call. 



4PD06 



CHOOSE THE SYSTEM 
BUILT-IN PERFORMANCE, 



CompuPro system components deliver results in the toughest 
business, scientific, and industrial computing environments. ..from IBM, 
to NASA, to the local pizza parlor. 

When you're integrating a high-level computing system, choose the 
same components chosen by the pros: IEEE 696/S-100 from CompuPro. 



CPU Boards 

CPU 68K. 68000 based board with sockets for 
memory management unit and up to 8K X 16 (16 
Kbytes) EPROM. $695 (8 MHz), $850 CSC (10 
MHz). 

CPU 86/87. Includes sockets for 8087 math 
co-processor and 80130 firmware chips. $695 (8 
MHz), $850 CSC (10 MHz). Add $300 for factory 
installed 8087 (limits clock speed to 5 MHz). 
CPU 8085/88. The original, much imitated 
dual processor board delivers 8 bit, 16 bit, or 8 
and 16 bit computing. $425, $525 CSC. 
CPU Z. Includes all standard Z80A features; 
downward compatible with most older S-100 
mainframes. $295, $395 CSC. 
CPU 16032. Features minicomputer-like, true 
32 bit internal architecture.* 
CPU 286. This iAPX 286-based board protects 
your software investment by running all existing 
8086/8088 software, while creating new 
possibilities by combining an advanced 
instruction set with the use of four on- 
chip processors.* 




Disk Controllers 

Disk 1. High speed DMA floppy disk con- 
troller. $495, $595 CSC. 

Disk 2. High speed DMA hard disk controller 
for SA4000/Fujitsu F2300 interface. $795, $895 
CSC. 

Disk 3. High Speed DMA hard disk controller 
for SA 1100/ST506 interface.* 

CMOS Static 
12 MHz Memory 

RAM 1 6. 64K X 8 or 32K X 16 - works 
automatically with 8 or 16 bit systems. $650, $750 
CSC. 

RAM 1 7. 64K X 8; ultra low power. $599, $699 

CSC. 

RAM 21 . 128K X 8 or 64K X 16 - works 

automatically with 8 or 16 bit systems. $1350, 

$1450 CSC. 

RAM 22. 256K X 8 or 128K X 16 - works 

automatically with 8 or 16 bit systems.* 

M-DRIVE/H 

M-Drive/H is a 512K memory board (cascadable 
up to 4 Megabytes for even more storage) which 
emulates disk drive operation and runs under 
CP/M® or MP/M tm . $1895. 
Increases operating speeds up to 3500%. 






COMPONENTS WITH 
QUALITY, AND RELIABILITY. 



Dual Floppy Disk 
Sub-System 

Two Qume Trak 842 drives provide over 2.4 million 
bytes of storage. With all-metal enclosure, Disk 
1 controller, rugged power supply, cables, and 
software: 

Digital Research's CP/M 2.2 and CP/M-86 tm 
Sorcim's SuperCalc-86 tm spreadsheet, and 
AshtonTate's dBase ll tm data base manager. 
$3295. 

Desktop 
Enclosure 2 

With shielded/terminated 20 slot motherboard, 
power supply, fan, dust filter, rugged all-metal 
construction. $825 desktop, $895 rack mount . 

Interfacers 

Interfacer 1 . Two RS-232C serial ports. $249, 
$324 CSC. 

Interfacer 2. Three parallel ports plus RS- 
232C serial port. $249, $324 CSC. 
Interfacer 3-5. Five RS-232C serial ports (2 
sync/async, 3 async). $599, $699 CSC. 
Interfacer 3-8. Eight RS-232C serial ports (2 
sync/async, 6 async). $699, $849 CSC. 
Interfacer 4. Three RS-232C serial ports, one 
parallel port, one Centronics/Epson parallel port. 
$395, $495 CSC. 

High-Performance 
Motherboards 

Shielded with active termination. 6 Slots, $140, 
$190 CSC; 12 Slots, $175, $240 CSC; 20 Slots, 
$265, $340 CSC. 



System Support 1 

Clock/calendar; RAM/ROM/math processor 
options; RS-232C serial port; interval timers and 
interrupt controllers; much more. $395, $495 CSC. 

MPX 1 

Multi-user system front end processor with 16K 
on-board RAM. $649, $749 CSC. 

Documentation. 

"Bits, Bytes, and Buzzwords" is a primer for 
those who want to get started right in business 
computing. 26 pages, softcover, $2.50. Request 
publication #B3. 

"CompuPro Product User Manuals: 1975-1980". 

250+ pages, softcover, $20. 

"CompuPro Product User Manuals, Volume 2". 

300+ pages, softcover, $25. 

"Interfacing to S-100/IEEE 696 Microcomputers". 

By Mark Garetz and Sol Libes. 321 pages, soft- 
cover, $15. 

Individual technical manuals also available. 

Call (415) 562-0636 for the location of the CompuPro 

Authorized Sales Center nearest you. CompuPro products 

are backed up by a one year limited warranty (two years for 

boards qualified under the Certified System Component 

high-reliability program). 

3 7 a Circle 92 on Inquiry card. 

'Consult factory for pricing and availability. 

CP/M, CP/M-86, and MP/M are trademarks of Digital Research, M-Drlve and 
M-Drlve/H are trademarks of CompuPro, SuperCalc-86 Is a trademark of Sorclm, 
dBase II is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. 




time the program is invoked by a sys- 
tem command. 

MP/M II supervises the execution 
and resource allocation for various 
tasks in its role as a task coordinator. 
Task scheduling is done on a priority 
basis. Each task has an associated 
static priority. The scheduling 
algorithm selects the task with the 
highest priority as the one to execute 
next. In case of a tie, tasks are 
scheduled using a "round-robin" tech- 
nique. Tasks with the same priority 
receive an equal share of the central- 
processor resource. Timesharing is 
facilitated by the fact that most 
CP/M and MP/M programs are 
assigned equal priorities. MP/M II 
permits 256 priority levels. 

Queues and queue management 
play an important role in the design 
and function of the operating system. 
The basic function of the queue is to 
support the multitasking environ- 
ment. A first-in, first-out pipeline 
transports data safely between pro- 
cesses. And queue data structures are 
maintained by the system. These act 



as "message files." Like files, they can 
be created, purged, opened, closed, 
read, or written. 

Three types of queues are defined 
for MP/M II: mutual-exclusion 
queues, circular queues, and linked- 
list queues. With a mutual-exclusion 
queue, a process has sole rights to the 
associated resource. For example, list- 
ing to a printer requires a printer 
mutual-exclusion queue. When a pro- 
cess is writing to the printer, it owns 
the resource and blocks interference 
from other programs. This prevents 
undesirable accidents such as inter- 
mixing two source listings. The other 
two queue types perform the same 
function but differ in physical 
representation. Circular queues, 
which store messages in array struc- 
tures, are employed when message 
size is between and 2 bytes. Linked- 
list queues support messages longer 
than 2 bytes but have a considerably 
slower access time. Circular and 
linked queues are used for passing 
data between processes. Data 
messages can range from simple 



$30 SOLVES 

THE BACKUP PROBLEM 

FOR CP/M 2.2 



Qbax is a revolutionary new backup program which 
saves huge amounts of time for users of either floppies 
or hard disks by copying only files which have changed. 



Incremental backup for CP/M 2.2 ■ Copies only files 
rewritten since the last backup ■ Handles multiple 
backups ■ Change or report the backup status of files 
■ Redirectablel/O. 



A 



Amanuensis, Inc. 
R. D. # l Box 236 
Grindstone, Pa. 15442 
(412)785-2806 



8" SSSD & 
popular 5Va" formats 
OEM inquiries invited 



Qbax TM Amanuensis, Inc. 

CP/M Registered TM Digital Research 



console-device character transmis- 
sions to sophisticated synchroniza- 
tion information between real-time 
tasks. 

The File System 

MP/M II's file system is an exten- 
sively enhanced revision of the file 
system used by CP/M and old ver- 
sions of MP/M. Changes to the file 
structure are completely upward 
compatible. Mass storage is orga- 
nized as a collection of logical drives. 
A drive may be a single mass-storage 
device like a floppy disk or a compo- 
nent of a large mass-storage 
peripheral. The system supports up to 
16 drives that are identified as devices 
"A" through "P." Each drive is divid- 
ed into two areas: a directory region 
and a data region. Files are grouped 
into 16 user areas in the directory. 
Files registered under a particular user 
number are usually accessible only by 
a user with the matching system user 
number. Data space for deleted files is 
automatically recovered, thereby 
eliminating the need for user packing. 

Specifying a file in a command line 
differs from the CP/M convention in 
that a password may have to be in- 
cluded: 

[drive:]filename[.type][;password] 

where drive = A-P, type has a maxi- 
mum of 3 characters, and filename 
and password have a maximum of 8 
characters. If a file is password pro- 
tected, it can be referenced only with 
the proper password or with the 
default-system password. MP/M II 
supports three levels of protection: 
read protection, write protection, and 
deletion protection. Password protec- 
tion can be turned on or off for the 
entire system. 

Another file-protection measure 
permits you to open files in either a 
locked or a shared mode. A locked 
file can be accessed by only one pro- 
cess at a time. Shared files can be 
referenced by several processes 
simultaneously. Files opened in the 
shared mode can have records of the 
file locked to an individual program. 
Record locking is an important at- 
tribute for many applications. For ex- 
ample, database systems often re- 



202 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 19 on inquiry card. 



Will this year!* 
bells and whistles 

be next years 

hoots and howls? 



NOTIFITSAGIFFORD. 

Freedom from obsolescence now costs 
less than $10,000 for 3 users. Because 
Gifford Multi-User Computer Systems, 
based on industry standard IEEE 696/ 
S-100 with 20 bus slots, allow ample 
expandability and upgradability as new 
processors and peripherals are introduced. 
For example, up to four additional users 
can be added for only $600 each, plus 
terminal costs. All while protecting your 
investment. 

That's why Gifford computer systems, 
with their dual processor CompuPro 
CPUs, have proven themselves to be THE 



SYSTEM for business and technical 
professionals requiring obsolescence- 
proof, hard-disk computers. 

GIFFORD GIVES YOU THE BEST 
OF TWO SOFTWARE WORLDS. 

We were the first company to develop 
a system that runs any combination of 
8 and 16 bit CP/M ™ programs simul- 
taneously. So, if you go with Gifford, 
you'll know you can use the thousands of 
8 bit CP/M programs available, PLUS 
any of the more powerful 16 bit programs 
. . .at the same time. 

And, in addition to compatibility with 
all the CP/M software that's out there, 
you also get Super- 
Calc-86J M dBase II™ 
and MP/M-86™ FREE. 




PRICELESS INFORMATION FOR 
THE PRICE OF A STAMP. 

We invite you to cut out the coupon 
and mail it to us today Well send you 
a free brochure with detailed information 
regarding all the other advantages of 
going with Gifford. Such as, our exclu- 
sive networking and multi-tasking 
telecommunications packages, our two 
year warranty complete service and 
support, system integration and custom 
application software. Plus all the benefits 
of selecting an IEEE 696/S-100 bus- 
based system. 

MP/M 8-16 is a proprietary implementation of 
MP/M-86 and was configured for CompuPro by 
Gifford Computer Systems. CP/M and MP/M are 
registered trademarks of Digital Research. Super- 
Calc is a trademark of Sorcim. dBase II is a trade- 
mark of Ashton-Tate. CompuPro is a trademark 
of Godbout Electronics. Prices and specifications 
subject to change. 






1922 Republic Avenue, San Leandro, CA 94577 
(415) 895-0798 A division of G&.G Engineering 
I'D LIKE THE WHOLE STORY. 
Please send me your brochure. 
ie Title 



Organization. 

Address 

City 

Phone 



-M/S_ 



_ State_ 



_Zip_ 



D Please have a representative call me. 



BY 



Other centers opening soon nationwide. 



GIFFORD COMPUTER SYSTEMS CENTERS □ SAN LEANDRO, CA 94577 (415) 895-0798 □ SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104 (415) 391-4570 
□ LOS ANGELES, CA 90064 (213) 477-3921 □ OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73112 (405) 840-1175 □ HOUSTON, TX 77046 (713) 877-1212 □ 



Circle 189 on inquiry card. 



BYrE March 1983 



203 



File System Extensions 


System Control 


Record locking 


Multiple-printer control 


File locking/Shared access 


Access console via terminal/message 


Error-processing level 


process (TMP) 


Password management 


Access RSP (resident system program) 


Parse MP/M II file name 


Send CLI (command line interpreter) a 


Access disk label 


command line 




Access system data table 


System Clock Interface 


Process Management 


Set time and date 


Run highest-priority task 


Return time and date 


Terminate task 


Delay program 


Create task 


Schedule program 


Set task priority level 


Queue Operations 


Memory Management 


Read/Write to queue 


Request memory segment 


(conditional/unconditional) 


Free memory segment 


Create, Purge, and Open 


Request CP/M transient-program area 




(TPA) segment 


Table 2: MP/M 11 BDOS functions not 


found in CP/M. Programmers can access a 


powerful set of new system functions. 





quire this capability. Files can also be 
designated "read-only"; thus several 
programs can read the file but cannot 
update the contents. 

Time stamping attaches additional 
information to file-directory entries 
by indicating the times when a file 
was created (or updated) and last ac- 
cessed. Even disk drives can have 
labels showing time stamp, name, 
and status information. This is a very 
important feature designed to give 
better support for business applica- 
tions and software-maintenance pro- 
cedures. 

These additions to the CP/M file 
definition scheme have significantly 
improved file processing. A broad 
range of information-management 
applications are now feasible with 
these enhancements. But although 
both sequential and random-file I/O 
are present, the lack of ISAM (in- 
dexed sequential-access method), 
VSAM (virtual storage-access 
method), B-tree, or other direct-access 
methods is a notable weak link in the 
file system. 

The User Environment 
and Command Structure 

As mentioned earlier, the formats 
for MP/M commands are almost 
identical to those for CP/M com- 



mands. The only differences are the 
new MP/M commands that were not 
supported in CP/M. 

For the most part, commands are 
simple and easy to use. One draw- 
back of the command structure, 
however, is that you can't put mul- 
tiple commands on a single input line. 
The MP/M II command-batching 
facility (SUBMIT) is also relatively 
primitive. Batching is a mechanism 
for processing groups of commands 
in a data file. The SUBMIT utility 
lacks such convenient features as 
parameter input, data prompting, or 
conditional command execution. 

Like CP/M, MP/M II monitors 
special-character keyboard input. 
These control-character commands 
are used for line editing and device 
I/O management. MP/M II defines 
an additional character command: 
"D." This command detaches the cur- 
rently executing process from the 
console or reattaches detached pro- 
grams waiting to communicate with 
the console device. When you detach 
all of your programs, the console 
returns to the system command input 
state. 

System error messages have been 
extended and improved over previous 
versions of the operating system. 
More information is given and 



several new classes of errors are 
reported. System function call errors 
give you more detail. Command en- 
try errors provide supplementary in- 
formation relating to new system 
features. However, I still find the 
error-reporting system shallow and 
incomplete. A more uniform ap- 
proach to handling the several error 
sources should be adopted. Error 
messages need to be more meaningful 
and explanatory. A help facility for 
users would aid in error understand- 
ing and improve the overall quality of 
the user interface. Though the simple 
nature of the user interface is a big 
plus, MP/M II is often difficult for 
nontechnical people to comprehend. 

System Functions 

A collection of system entry points 
enables your programs to access a 
powerful set of primitives. Under 
CP/M, programs could make use of 
BDOS functions that primarily dealt 
with device I/O and file manage- 
ment. In MP/M II, system interface 
routines have been added to exploit 
multitasking capabilities and exten- 
sions to the file system. These new 
routines are defined in table 2. 

System Utilities 

System utilities directly interact 
with the system or provide access to 
system functions. Utilities can be sub- 
divided into four groups: program- 
ming aids, system-generation pro- 
grams, a file manager, and system 
interface routines. Because utilities 
are nothing more than file-resident 
programs, they can be modified or 
replaced in accordance with applica- 
tion requirements. Some programs 
correspond to the transient or built-in 
commands of CP/M. Table 3 lists 
M/PM utilities and briefly outlines 
their functions. 

Multitasking 

A real-time multitasking kernel 
located in the XDOS module manages 
program execution. Multitasking 
enables you to support many active 
tasks simultaneously. Although tasks 
may seem to operate in parallel, only 
one process really uses the central 
processor at a given time. The 
operating system maintains a list of 



204 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Foreword by 
Douglas Hofstadter 



INVERSIONS 

a catalog of calligraphic cartwheels 
by Scott Kim 



Backword by 
Jef Raskin 




/\ 




Illusion... calligraphy.,, visual 
magic— Scott Kim's new 
book, Inversions, delights the 
eye and enchants the mind. 
Filled with intriguing designs, 
words that read the same 
right-side up and upside down, 
words-within-words, and 
unexpected symmetries, these 
compositions create a fresh 
way to look at the alphabet. 
The text includes the visual 
principles of symmetry, letter- 
ing, and problem solving that 
are basic to these images. The 
author also draws parallels to 



ISBN 0-07-034546-5 

128 pages 

softcover 

over 50 illustrations 

BYTE Books 

70 Main St., 

Peterborough, N.H. 

03458 



"Kim is the Escher-of-the alphabet. He has created 
a new art form that blends beauty and ingenuity and 
has made it so clear to us that we can try it 
ourselves if we so desire* It may well become the 
new amusement of the literate." Issac Asimov 

"Scott Kim has perfected a personal art form— one 
with grace, elegance, subtlety, and surprises." 

Douglas Hofstadter, author 
Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid 

"...sure to dazzle and delight anyone to whom 
writing is dear." 

The New York Times Book Review 

"Scott Kim's Inversions,., is one of the most 
astonishing and delightful books ever printed." 

Martin Gardner Scientific American 



related exercises in percep- 
tion in such diverse areas as 
art, music, word play, and 
mathematics. Scott Kim's 
original inversion designs first 
appeared in Omni magazine, 
inspiring an overwhelming 
reader response. An 
irresistible challenge, invertible 
writing appeals to everyone 
who loves beauty in 
mathematics and design. 
Scott Kim is a doctoral stu- 
dent in Computer Science at 
Stanford University. 



$8.95 



Utility 


Application 


New for 




Name 


Group 


MP/M? 


Description 


ABORT 


Interface 


Yes 


Aborts process specified in command line. 1 suggest this utility be designated as an RSP to 
ensure that it can run when all memory segments are in use. 


ATTACH 


Interface 


Yes 


Binds a process to the console at which it was started. Console I/O to the process is again 
permitted. 


ASM 


Programming 


No 


Central-processor assembler. 


CONSOLE 


Interface 


Yes 


Lists console number of terminal. 


DDT 


Programming 


No 


CP/M interactive debugging program. 


DIR 


File 


No 


Displays disk directory information. Lists only CP/M-compatible data. 


DSKRESET 


Interface 


No 


Reinitializes disk drives. 


DUMP 


File 


No 


Displays contents of specified file in hexadecimal format. 


ED 


Programming 
and File 


No 


Line-oriented text editor. 


ERA 


File 


No 


Erases file entry from directory. 


ERAQ 


File 


Yes 


Same as ERA except that it prompts you for confirmation before erasing. Some systems 
rename ERAQ to ERA to provide users with more protection. 


GENHEX 


File 


No 


Changes .COM file to .HEX file. 


GENMOD 


File 


Yes 


Converts .HEX file to .PRL format. .HEX file must be 2 concatenated. .HEX files offset by 
100 hexadecimal. 


GENSYS 


Generation 


Yes 


Performs MP/M II system generation. 


LIB 


Programming 


Yes 


Creates library files from set of relocatable files (.REL). 


LINK 


Programming 


Yes 


Linkage editor for binding .REL files. 


LOAD 


File 


No 


Creates .COM file from .HEX file. 


t MPMLDR 


Generation 


Yes 


Loads MP/M II operating system and starts execution. 


MPMSTAT 


Interface 


Yes 


Displays up-to-date status of system environment. 


PIP 


File 


No 


File/device data-transfer routine. 


PRINTER 


Interface 


Yes 


Displays or selects active printer for console. 


PRLCOM 


File 


Yes 


Converts .PRL file to .COM format. 


RDT 


Programming 


Yes 


Memory segment relocatable version of DDT. 


REN 


File 


No 


Changes file name. 


RMAC 


Programming 


Yes 


Relocatable macro assembler for central processor. 


SCHED 


Interface 


Yes 


Schedules a program to start execution at a specific time and date. 


SDIR 


File 


Yes 


Extended file/directory information-list utility. Allows you to view time stamps, file attributes, 
etc., across multiple drives. 


SET 


File 


Yes 


Sets file options. 


SHOW 


File 


No 


Displays disk-drive status and protection levels. 


SPOOL 


File 


Yes 


Primitive file-spooling program. CP/M also has a spooling utility. 


STAT 


File 


No 


CP/M-compatible utility used to display or modify disk/file status. 


STOPSPL 


File 


No 


Terminates active spooling. 


SUBMIT 


Interface 


No 


Command-batching facility. 


TOD 


Interface 


Yes 


Sets/displays current time and date. Valid only for systems with clock. 


TYPE 


File 


No 


Displays file contents in ASCII format. 


USER 


Interface 


No 


Sets/displays active user number. 


XREF 


Programming 


Yes 


RMAC cross-reference listing program. 


Table 3: System utility programs supplied with MP/M II. 



active processes, each of which may 
be in one of several states — ready-to- 
run, waiting on resource, terminated, 
waiting for flag (logical interrupt), 
and so on. The number of memory 
partitions limits how many programs 
can run concurrently. Although idle 
programs are not swapped to disk to 
free up memory, that doesn't limit the 
number of tasks that can be per- 
formed because several tasks can 
reside in a single program. 

In terms of speed, Digital Research 
claims that a single-console MP/M II 
system compares in performance to 
CP/M 2.2. The overhead required for 
dispatching ranges from 7 to 15 per- 
cent. When multiple tasks are run- 
ning, dispatching overhead may in- 

206 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



crease. I/O-bound processes are not 
degraded severely unless they are 
competing for the same resources. 
Priority and timesharing ensure fair 
distribution of the central-processor 
resource. 

Resource Sharing 

Resource sharing is realized 
through MP/M II's queue system. 
Devices that must be used exclusively 
by a given task — printers or the mass- 
storage system, for instance — are ac- 
cessed via a mutual-exclusion queue. 
Printing requests require sequential 
processing, and disk access is provid- 
ed to only one program at a time. 
Even systems incorporating multiple- 
disk controllers handle file requests 



sequentially. Reentrant RSPs such as 
the command line interpreter (CLI) 
are also obtained via queue opera- 
tions. The CLI services those routines 
that have placed a message in its asso- 
ciated queue, CLIQ (command line 
interpreter queue). 

Memory is allocated based on the 
list of memory partitions specified 
during system generation. Processes 
hold memory resources until they ter- 
minate or are aborted. The central 
processor is shared through a special- 
ized queue, the process-ready list, 
which enables you to set the priorities 
of each task element. Deadlock detec- 
tion and prevention measures are not 
fully supported by the operating 
system. 

Text continued on page 210 



t t t t t t t x % immm tttxttttt 



SMSiSTEll 
Inierated fecouRtinq 



STAR SYSTEi 5 
Ufoi Billing 



tmmah. 



.General Ledger 
accounts Receivable •ith 

Ordsr Entry 

taunts Payctole *i*h 

Purchase Orders 

Paqrsl! 

Full Accounting with 

GL/fiR/OE/ftP/PO^AY 



legal Timekeeping 
Accounting 



.Property tartgimt 




STAR'S FREE 
SOFTWARE 

Like Your Screen Test Or 
Your Money Back 

CP/M*, MP/M* and PC DOS** business 
applications software. They're all designed to run 
on microcomputers. 

But screen test Star Software™ free for 30 
days and preview dependable, quality programs 
that do even more for 25-50% less. When you 
install and use them, you'll see how smooth and 
easy your computer helps run a business. Load in 
any of Star's business packages and you'll find 
screen prompts to guide you all the way. 

It's foolproof. 

Whether you take Star's interactive account- 
ing or legal or property packages, you can't help 
but notice how easy it is to get started. 

Part of the reason is superb documentation. 
Instead of groping through support materials, 
like most other packages, Star produces referen- 
ces a businessperson understands. And because 
Star's software runs on the smallest to the largest 
computers, you get uncommon flexibility. 

Many of the problems seen with other 
software companies don't exist with Star. It's 
the company that proves software packages 
don't have to be expensive, time consuming,hard 
to install or hard to use. Tall claims? Maybe. But 
talk to a Star owner. Better yet, screen test them 
yourself. After all, the only way to really judge 
software is to use it. 




Individual accounting packages are priced at 
$400. Integrated Full Accounting at $1250. Legal 
Timekeeping and Accounting $950. Property 
Management $950. 

Send us a check, we'll send you a full 
evaluation copy for any of the above packages to 
run for 30 days. Like it — keep it and the 
included program or — take us up on our money- 
back guarantee. 

If for any reason you don't like what you see, 
return for a full refund. We think it's going to be 
love at first sight. 

Dealer inquiries welcome. Call for our Dealer Profit Plan and 
source code prices. 



□ Here's my check, send me 

□ I'm a dealer. I know the show must £0 on. send me Star's 
Incentive Plan. 

Name . 

Company 

Add r ess 



Phone . 



City/State/Zip_ 






* registered trademark of Digital Research 
** registered trademark of IBM 

^B Star Computer Systems, Inc. 

20600 Gramercy Place 
Torrance, California 90501 
(213) 538-2511 

Circle 401 on Inquiry card. 



How to mak 
work like a 




First, neatly cut out the "370" label. 

Now, when nobody's looking, non- 
chalantly tape it to your terminal, just under the 
"IBM" as if it really belonged there. 

Then wait for your chance and quickly 
slip a dBASE II™ disk into 
your main drive. 
That's it. 

Your IBM Personal 
Computer is now ready to 
run a relational database 
system, the kind that IBM 
put on their mainframes last year. 
And you're ready with more data han- 
dling power than you would have dreamed 
possible before dBASE II. 

You'll wonder how you managed without it. 

You'll find that dBASE II, because it's a 
relational database management system (DBMS), 
starts where file handling programs leave off. 

dBASE II handles multiple databases 
and simplifies everything from accounting to 
department staffing to monitoring rainfall on 
the Upper Volta. 

With a word or two, you CREATE data- 
bases, APPEND new data instantly, UPDATE, 
MODIFY and REPLACE fields, records and 
entire databases. Organize months worth of data 
in minutes with the built-in REPORT. Do sub- 
field and multi-field searches, then DISPLAY 
some or all of the data for any condition you 
want to apply. 

And you've just begun to tap the power 
of dBASE II. 

Easy to look at, easy to use. 

Input screens and output forms couldn't 
be easier— just "paint" your format on the CRT 
and what you see is what you ; ll get. 




You can do automatic calculations on 
fields, records and databases, accurate to 10 digits. 

And you can use dBASE II interactively 
for answers right now. Or save your instruc- 
tions, then repeat everythin g with two words: 
DO Manhours, DO ProjectX, DO whatever 
has to be done. 

Use dBASE II to help make your choice: 

If you've got a 96k IBM PC, send us 
$700 and we'll send you a copy of dBASE II to 
use free for 30 days. 



e your micro 
mainframe. 




Instead of just poring over a manual, run 
it and make sure that it does what you need done. 

Then if you find it isn ; t right for you, 
send it back and we'll return your money no 
questions asked. 

But if you do that, you'll have to remove 
that label. Because nothing short of a mainframe 
works like dBASE II. 

Call (213) 204-5570 today or drop by 
your local computer store for the rest of the story. 

Ashton-Tate, 9929 Jefferson Blvd., 
Culver City, C A 90230. 



Ashton-Tate 



Circle 33 on inquiry card. 

©1982 Ashton-Tate 

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research 



Central Processors Currently Supported 


CPU 


Maker 


Bits 


8080 


Intel 


8 


8085 


Intel 


8 


Z80 


Zilog 


8 


Z108 


Zilog 


8 


8086 


Intel 


16 


8088 


Intel 


8/16 


1 iAPX-186 


Intel 


16 


iAPX-286 


Intel 


16 


Potential CPU Support (projected) 


CPU 


Maker 


Bits 


Z8000 


Zilog 


16 


M68000 


Motorola 


16 


iAPX-432 


Intel 


32 


Table 4: Central 


processors 


supported 


by MP/M II. 







Application Example: Modem 
Service Routine 

You are probably wondering at this 
point how all the new features and 
options can be applied to real pro- 
gramming situations. I'll sketch a sim- 
ple real-life application that will high- 
light the capabilities of MP/M II. 
This program is only qualitatively 
described, but it offers you an insight 
into system programming and opera- 
tion. Specifically, this example 
defines a program that handles 
modem access to an MP/M system. 

A handy computer-system feature 
is the capability to call the computer 
from a remote terminal by telephone. 
Instead of having primitive I/O 
routines handle the operation in the 
XIOS, you might prefer to use an RSP 
that monitors an auto-answer modem 
and initiates communication. The 
process should perform the following 
functions: answering the phone, ini- 
tializing communication handshak- 
ing (e.g., setting the DTR for the RS- 
232C serial port), checking for access 
authorization, recording the event in 
a log, finishing up, and waiting for 
the next call. The design process for 
such a program would be as follows: 

• Write the program as an RSP. 
MP/M II will put the program in the 
ready list and begin its execution at 
system start-up. 



• Add an interrupt handler to detect 
the asynchronous event of the call. 
Assume the serial port has the ability 
to cause an interrupt when the call 
comes in. The handler may be in the 
XIOS or RSP depending on hardware 
flexibility for adding interrupt code. 
The handler's sole function is to set a 
system flag. 

• The RSP suspends itself while wait- 
ing for the call flag to be set. When 
set, the process is activated. The pro- 
cess should have a priority higher 
than normal application programs so 
that the call will not be missed during 
periods of high activity. 

• Once activated, the RSP should 
clear the call flag. It then establishes 
communication with the modem by 
attaching the console representing the 
modem port. Once the communica- 
tion link is set, the process sends a 
message to the console and waits for 
the password. The RSP may loop 
until a correct password is entered or 
terminate if an illegal ID code is 
entered. 

• When the process accepts the user, 
it can send a log-in message to a 
queue attached to an accounting pro- 
gram or write a message in a file. The 
program releases (detaches) the con- 
sole so that the TMP associated with 
the console can start normal MP/M II 
interaction with the modem terminal. 

Perhaps programs such as the 
above will become available as 
MP/M utilities. 

Hardware Specifications 

MP/M II's design is relatively in- 
dependent of the underlying com- 
puter hardware organization. Of 
course, the concept has practical 
limitations, but the MP/M II system 
has to date been implemented on a 
fairly large set of microprocessors 
(see table 4). And Digital Research is 
expanding the number of processors 
MP/M supports, with much em- 
phasis being placed on 16- and 32-bit 
microprocessors. Memory systems 
can range from simple structures to 
virtual schema, banking, and page- 
mapped systems. Indeed, the new 
Zilog Z108 chip, a Z80-compatible 
microprocessor with on-chip memory 
management, would be an ideal 
MP/M environment. The mass- 



storage system is also quite flexible. 
Several mass-storage technologies 
with varying access properties are 
adaptable to the MP/M II file inter- 
face. Of course, terminals, printers, 
and other character I/O devices are 
necessary components of a complete 
system. 

Internal Hardware 

The minimal memory requirement 
for MP/M II is 32K bytes of RAM. 
Many valuable CP/M programs need 
a larger memory space than this, 
however, so I recommend at least 
56K to 64K bytes. Banked or register- 
mapped memory that allows a 
physical address space greater than 
64K is also highly recommended, 
especially in a multiuser environ- 
ment. A good rule of thumb is 32K 
per extra user, but the more memory 
you have, the better. 

Two other hardware components 
are critical for MP/M II systems: a 
clock/timer circuit and com- 
munications-interface hardware. 
Timer circuits are used for tracking 
time of day and generating interrupts 
for timesharing. The suggested "tick 
frequency" is between 50 Hz and 100 
Hz. A Zilog CTC chip exemplifies a 
good selection for this application 
because of its adjustable frequency 
and interrupt-generating capabilities. 
Both serial and parallel I/O chips are 
valuable system components. Serial 
communications are necessary for 
terminals, printers, tape systems, 
EPROM programmers, and many 
other serial devices. Parallel ports can 
be used for Centronics interface 
printers and digital signal processing. 
In addition to these system 
peripherals, you might allocate a few 
extra ports for expansion and occa- 
sional communication functions. 

Although a general interrupt sys- 
tem offers the best system perfor- 
mance, MP/M II can operate without 
interrupts by using a polling 
mechanism. But if a polling 
mechanism is used, system through- 
put declines and user programs must 
make dispatch requests to share 
resources. The type of interrupt 
schema is not critical because the 
operating system translates real inter- 
rupts into logical interrupts or flags. 



210 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Sales representatives in 
most metropolitan areas. 



DUAL. 



HE ULTIMATE 



MULTI-USER 
SERIAL I/O CARD 
WOULD BE... 

■ DMA DRIVEN— Designed 
with fast, direct memory^ access 
for all output transfers. 

■ POWERFUL— 256 character FIFO 

I input buffer allows simultaneous 
high-speed traffic on all channels 
without any lost characters. 
■ SMART— On-board 8085 micro- 
processor off-loads the 68000 



system reliability/system integrity 

2530 San Pablo Avenue • Berkeley • CA 94702 • (415)549-3854 • 1 72029 SPX 




SI04-DMA 

□ FLEXIBLE — Four RS-232C serial 
channels, each individually 
configurable as either DCE 

or DTE. 

□ SOLID AND RELIABLE— Each 

board is dynamically burned-in 
for 168 hours to insure stable 
performance. 

AND WOULD... 

□ HAVE SOFTWARE 
PROGRAMMABLE BAUD 
RATES of 50 to 38,400 Baud 
on each channel. 

□ INCREASE THROUGHPUT 

significantly in multi-user 
configurations. 

The SI04-DMA has been field 
proven in DUAL's System 83, 
a68000/UNIX®, multi-user, 
multi-tasking system. 

SIO-4-DMA $695 

♦UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories 

DUAL. 

DUAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION 

2530 San Pablo Avenue • Berkeley 
CA94702 • (415)549-3854 • 172029SPX 



Circle 157 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



211 



Mass-Storage Requirements 

A variety of disk systems can be 
employed, ranging from SVi-inch 
floppy disks to high-capacity hard 
disks. Also included are RAM 
memories that simulate high-speed 
drives. Because hardware-dependent 
functions are isolated in the XIOS and 
configurable attribute tables are used, 
customizing is easy. I suggest that any 
mass-storage system include an IBM 
3740-compatible (8-inch) floppy sys- 
tem because it's the most popular 
software distribution format. For 
systems with several users, a hard- 
disk system is best. File bottlenecks 
usually result if floppy-based systems 
are accessed by too many people at 
the same time. Many disk systems are 
available for MP/M II applications. 
Most offer the necessary software for 
generating XIOS disk functions. 

Other Peripherals 

Systems may have an assortment 
of associated peripherals. Video-dis- 
play terminals are expected for con- 
sole devices. "Dumb terminals" with 



minimal cursor features are adequate 
for most program environments. 
Other serial devices such as teletypes, 
card readers, paper-tape punches, 
and so on can be connected as 
specialized console devices. 

MP/M II does not directly support a 
magnetic-tape backup system, but 
tape systems controlled by an applica- 
tion program or integrated with some 
of the newer Winchester disks are 
common alternatives. Other equip- 
ment such as graphics terminals, 
modems, synchronous communica- 
tion interfaces, and plotters must be 
operated via custom-written utilities. 

Evaluation 

Digital Research operating-systems 
software has been a dominant force in 
the microprocessor industry. With 
MP/M II, Digital Research hopes to 
solidify its position in the 8-bit mar- 
ket and set the trend for 16-bit micro- 
computers. 

The goal for the MP/M II designers 
was to extend the CP/M model to a 
multiuser environment without losing 



compatibility with CP/M. The sys- 
tem is simple, easy to understand, 
and consistent. Real-time processing 
adds a valuable programming dimen- 
sion. Hardware independence is 
another important attribute. Table- 
driven disk logic, the encapsulation 
of hardware-dependent functions, 
and good supporting documentation 
are all effective solutions to a com- 
plex problem. The well-defined set of 
operating-system interface functions 
is complete and plays an essential role 
in software portability. And MP/M 
II's queue system is excellent. Coor- 
dination of multiple resources is effi- 
ciently handled in a single logical 
mechanism. The queue model is sim- 
ple, but it effectively supports process 
interaction without sacrificing perfor- 
mance. The resulting system is 
neither awkward nor superficial. 

The file-system design and user 
interface are vital aspects of any 
operating system. In MP/M II, the 
file structure is an improved version 
of that of CP/M. The additional 
descriptive information, protection, 



General 
Software 

Mailing Address: 

1454 S. 25th St. 

Terre Haute, IN 47803 

WE HONOR 

VISA and MASTERCHARGE 

TOLL FREE - Outside Indiana 

ORDER DESKS ONLY 

1-800-457-0517 

For Information or Questions 

(812)234-9421 

Not to be confused 

with Software General 

Outside US add $10 plus Air Parcel 
Postage. Add $3.50 postage and 
handling per each item. Indiana 
residents add 5% sales tax. Allow 
2 weeks on checks. COD add 
$3.00 per item. Prices subject to 
change without notice. All items 
subject to availability. 

Disk with Manual Manual Only 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

Dental (PAS-3) $775 

Medical (PAS-3) $849/40 

Programable $875 

ASHTON-TATE 

"dBASEII $525 

BALCONES 

The Boss Fin. Ace. System $1 750 

BYROM SOFTWARE 

•BSTAM $149 

*BSTMS $149 

CAXTON 

Cardbox $225 

COMPUTER CONTROL 

'Fabs(B-Tree) $140/35 

Ultrasoft $140/35 



CONDOR COMPUTER 

Condor I $255/50 

Condor II , $515/55 

Condor II $795/55 

DIGITAL RESEARCH 
CP/M 

2.2 Intel MDS-800 $149 

Northstar (Horizon) $149 

Micropolis $169 

TRS Model II $159 

CB-80 $429/45 

PL1-80 $429/50 

CBasic2 $ 98 

BT-80 $190 

8" only 

RMAC, Linklib, XREF $190 

Display Manager $350 

Access Manager $279 

DJR ASSOCIATES, IWC 

FMS80 $775 

FMS80-1 $400 

FMS80-2 $400 

ECOSOFT 

Microstat $275 

EPIC COMPUTER 

'Super vyz $115/25 

FAIRCOM 

* Micro B + 

(Specify language) $229/30 

FINANCIAL PLANNING 

* Mini Model $429/50 

FOX & GELLER ASSOCIATES, INC. 

Quickscreen $140 

Quickcode $225 

FRONTIER SOFTWARE 
Professional 

Time Accounting $499/50 

General Subroutine $269/50 

Application Utilities $439/50 

FYI, INC. 

Superfile $155 

PASCAL LANGUAGE 

Pascal Z $349/40 

Pascal MT+ V5.5 $429/40 

Compiler $316/25 

SPPOnly $165/15 

KEY BITS 

Wordsearch $1 79/50 

String 80 $ 84 

String 80 (Source) $279 

LEXISOFT 

"Spellbinder $349/55 

MARK OF THE UNICORN 



Final Word $255 

MICRO AP 

Selector IV $249 

Selector V $449/50 

MICRO TAX 

'Level I $195 

"Level II $995 

•Level III $995 

Microsoft 5.3 49 

Run time module 

MICRO PRO® 

Call for NEW LOW PRICES 

MICROSOFT 

Basic-80 $279 

Basic Compiler $319 

Fortran-80 $379 

Cobol-80 $579 

M-Sort ... .....$180 

Macro-80 •. .$154 

MuSimp/muMath $224 

MuLisp-80 $174 

Multiplan $245 

NORTHWEST ANALYTICAL 

•Statpak $409/45 

OASIS 

"The Word". $ 75 

The Word Plus $140 

PEACHTREE® SOFTWARE 

General Ledger $399 

Accounts Receivable $399 

Accounts Payable $399 

Inventory 399 

Mailing Address $399 

for P8 Version add $11 9 

Series 6-Peachtree 

CPA ■. . .$799 

Passive Payroll $449 

Series 7-Peachtree 

SalesTracker $3049 

AR-Sales Analysis $1299 

Inventory $799 

Order Entry $699 

REDDING GROUP 

# Lynx $199 

RYAN-McFARLAND CO. 

RM/Cobol $650 

SORCIM 

'Pascal/M Z80 $349/40 

Pascal/M 86/88 $449/40 

•Act 65, 68, 69, 86, 88 $149 

•Trans 86 $119/25 



'Supercalc $229 

SOUTHERN COMPUTERS 

Call for our unbeatably low prices. 
STRUCTURED SYSTEMS GROUP 

GL, AR, AP, PR, OE $849/50 

SUPERSOFT 

•Diagnostic II $ 84/20 

•Forth $149/30 

*SSS Fortran , . .$219/30 

•Fortran w/RATFOR $289/35 

•C Compiler $175/20 

•Tiny Pascal $ 80/25 

•Disk Doctor $ 84/20 

•Term I $129/25 

Term II $169/25 

Scratchpad $210 

Dataview $165 

Stats Graph $165 

Combination of above 3 $495 

Z8000 Xassembler $449/35 

WHITESMITHS 

C Compiler $700/40 

Pascal (incl C) $900/45 

IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER 

Wordstar3.2 $295/60 

Mailmerge $1 50/25 

Supercalc $229/NA 

Visicalc (256K) $229/NA 

Optimizer $200/NA 

SupersoftC -CP/M86 $500/NA 

Peachtree3 Pak GL, AP, AR $595 

Final Word $265 

Condor I, II, III CALL 

Statpak $439 

BSTAM $149 

Move-It $129 

Easy Writer II $315 

Easy Speller. $155 

Easy Filer (dBase mgr.) $335 

Spellbinder $355/49 

Concurrent CPM 86 $335 

Pascal MT& 86 $360 

SPP86 $180 

AMCobol $800 

APPLE II DOS 

Word Handler II $155 

Listhandler $ 85 

Broderbund Software 

General Ledger (w/A/P) $435 

Payroll $325 

Professional Easy writer $155 



Available for Apple with Softcard 



212 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 187 on inquiry card. 



and file-sharing attributes that are 
provided are very useful. However, a 
hierarchical structure similar to Unix 
would vastly improve the organiza- 
tion of file information. And file- 
access methods for data processing 
are notably absent. As for the user 
interface, it is simple and understand- 
able. Error processing is good, but it 
could be much better. A help utility, 
input correction, and multiple com- 
mand lines are necessary improve- 
ments. 

Documentation 

Documentation for MP/M II 
departs from the old standard for 
microprocessor literature; it is clear, 
concise, and informative. The 
manuals are well organized and make 
it easy for you to locate key ideas. 
Numerous examples and a straight- 
forward format help you to under- 
stand difficult concepts. Three 
manuals are included: a Users Guide, 
a Programmer's Guide, and a System 
Guide. Each contains a separate sum- 
mary, table of contents, index, and 
(except for the System Guide) 
glossary. Print quality is only fair. I 
found few errors and typographical 
mistakes. 

Each manual addresses a different 
MP/M II user audience: the general 
applications user, the system pro- 
grammer, and the system manager or 
architect. The Users Guide describes 



program operation and the user inter- 
face, the Programmer's Guide ex- 
plains system structure and program- 
ming guidelines, and the System 
Guide outlines procedures to custom- 
ize MP/M II for your own hardware. 
In addition to these three system 
manuals, documentation for the 

Although MP/M II 

systems can support 

up to 16 consoles, 6 to 

8 active users is 

probably a more 

realistic number. 

linker program (LINK) and the 
relocatable macro assembler (RMAC) 
also comes with the MP/M package. 

Performance 

System performance under load is 
reasonable because of low system 
overhead and faster microcomputer 
components. MP/M II's efficiency 
can be attributed to its compact code 
size (15K bytes) and a manageable 
system-function set. A single-user 
MP/M II system is 7 percent faster 
than a CP/M 2.2 system. Unlike 
CP/M, MP/M II does not reload part 
of the operating system after com- 
mand calls, so it saves disk-access 
time. 

A major bottleneck with multiple- 



user MP/M II is the mass-storage sys- 
tem. To maintain file integrity, only 
one task at a time can access the file 
system. Thus high disk I/O activity 
substantially degrades performance, 
especially if requests come two or 
three at a time. Because of the disk- 
intensive nature of program develop- 
ment and business applications, a 
hard disk is advisable for systems 
with more than two users. Floppy 
systems are too slow to handle the 
traffic involved in loading com- 
mands, running word processors, 
compiling several programs, and so 
on. A blocking /deblocking algorithm 
can improve disk response; however, 
the size of available main memory is 
reduced by the size of the disk buffer 
that would be involved. 

If there are a large number of users, 
a few concessions must be made. As 
the number of terminals increases, 
data-transmission rates decrease and 
buffering methods become necessary. 
Slow data-transmission rates could be 
improved by a more sophisticated 
spooling system. Although MP/M II 
systems can support up to 16 con- 
soles, 6 to 8 active users is probably a 
more realistic number. 

Scope 

Multitasking real-time control and 
process management are necessary 
for most industrial and scientific com- 
puting jobs. Monitoring a home, con- 




0ct78Byte Computer Chess $735 



COMPUTER CHESS! 

The poster shown at left is an enlarged reproduction of the 
October 1978 Byte cover "Computer Chess." The poster is 18 in. x 
22 in., and is a beautiful full color reproduction of the original 
painting by Robert Tinney. 

Perfect as a gift for both chess and computer enthusiasts, each 
print is only $7.95, plus $3 per order shipping. 

To order, use the convenient coupon below. 



Please send me 

posters for $7.95 each, plus $3 shipping and handling 
($8 overseas). □ I have enclosed check or money 
order □ Visa □ MasterCard 

Card No. 

Expires: 



_ Computer Chess SHIP MY PRINT(S) TO: 



1 

I 



Name: . 
Address: . 

City: 

State: _ 



-Zip: 



robert tinney graphics 

1864 N. Pamela Dr. • Baton Rouge, LA 70815 



Circle 479 on inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 213 



trolling a small plant operation, or 
simple robotics are potential MP/M 
II applications. The interrupt facility 
in conjunction with queue operations 
facilitates the handling of asyn- 
chronous processing and ordering of 
priority requests. The small overhead 
imposed by the operating system 
makes real-time programming feasi- 
ble. 

Several MP/M II features will help 
those users who are involved in pro- 
gram development. The file-stamping 
option, for example, is a useful con- 
cept for keeping track of an evolving 
source code. A large set of applica- 
tions can be conveniently addressed 
by the large selection of programming 
languages available for CP/M. In 
particular, some language processors 
like Pascal/MT + support a program- 
development system similar in con- 
cept to the Ada run-time environ- 
ment. Companies making CP/M 
compilers are modifying their systems 
to incorporate the novel features of 
MP/M II (e.g., record locking and 
shared access). Word processors, file 



utilities, and debuggers streamline the 
programming process. For large pro- 
grams, MP/M II supports chaining of 
programs. Overlay linkers are also 
available for CP/M-compatible soft- 
ware. Well-defined system functions 
and a small operating-system 
"nucleus" form a flexible base for 
building complex programs. 

MP/M II would also make a viable 
office-automation system. CP/M 
database systems, word processing, 
accounting programs, inventory sys- 
tems, and so on are offered by a 
variety of software firms. Multiple- 
user capability coupled with CP/M 
information and planning software 
provide the necessary features. The 
ability to support networking further 
enhances MP/M II's position in this 
market. 

Conclusions 

MP/M II offers features and pro- 
cessing power comparable to many 
large computer operating systems. 
Three of these features — multitask- 
ing, real-time programming, and net- 



DUCES TECUM 




MATE 




Bring Justice To Your Documents, Briefs, 
Pleadings and Contracts. 

LAWMATE Features: 

■ Creates Table of Authorities Cited 

■ Multiple Document Indexes 

■ Word Use and Consistency Analysis 

■ Concordance Generation 

■ Document Line Numbering 

■ Wordstar* Compatible 

Legal Aid at an (Almost) Unlawfully 
Low Price. 



Try LAWMATE at Your Local 
Osborne Computer Dealer, or Call 
Us for the Name of the Nearest 
Authorized ORTHOCODE Textware 
Dealer. 



(DBMS® 

The Textware Company 



THE ORTHOCODE CORPORATION 
P.O. Box 6191 
Albany, CA 94706 
(415) 753-3222 



' LAWMATE is a Trademark d ORTHOCOOE CORPORATION 
Wordstar is a Trademark of MicroPro International 



working — address a class of useful 
applications that range from efficient 
multiple-device control to full-scale 
distributed processing. Task manage- 
ment and communication is effective- 
ly handled with the queuing system. 
The user interface and enhanced file 
system make it much easier to use 
general-application programs. 

The operating system is well 
designed, but it lacks some features 
that are necessary for some commer- 
cial requirements. File-system 
organization and access methods are 
not adequate for information man- 
agement. Also, although security, 
user accounting, and man-machine 
interfacing are significant issues in a 
business data-processing environ- 
ment, MP/M II, like other micropro- 
cessor operating systems, does not 
fully address them. 

Several operating systems that 
have been designed for the latest 
microcomputer technology have im- 
pressive capabilities. Whether the 
MP/M II operating system is the best 
of these is debatable. I do not intend 
to make such a claim. Instead, I 
would point out two critical factors 
by which to judge microprocessor 
operating systems: hardware in- 
dependence and the availability of 
software applications. A universal 
operating system must provide a 
standard interface, independent of a 
computer's word size and com- 
ponents. More important, an exten- 
sive software base is mandatory for a 
useful system. MP/M II is founded on 
these premises and should prove to be 
a leading microprocessor operating 
system. ■ 



References 

1. Mark Dahmke, "Introduction to Multipro- 
gramming," BYTE, September 1979, p. 
20. 

2. Thorn Hogan, "Osborne CP/M User 
Guide." Berkeley, CA: Osborne/McGraw- 
Hill, 1981. 

3. Kenneth J. Johnson, "Microcomputer 
Timesharing," BYTE, April 1979, p. 224. 

4. Gary Kildall, "CP/M: A Family of 8- and 
16-bit Operating Systems," BYTE, June 
1981, pp. 216-232. 

5. Steve North, "The CP/M Disk Operating 
System," Creative Computing, Novem- 
ber/December 1978, pp. 52-53. 

6. Allan C. Shaw, "Logical Design of 
Operating Systems." Englewood Cliffs, 
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974. 



214 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 326 on Inquiry card. 



There is a word that describes your choices 
in flexible disks today. That word is "ordinary." 
The woods seem to be full of offerings of 
middling quality neither good nor bad, not 
necessarily cheap but not overly expensive for 
the most part, products that are just so-so, just 
average, just . . .well, just ordinary 

But now there's a new word in flexible 
disks. Ultra Magnetics. A word that redefines 
the state-of-the-art in flexible disk price perfor- 
mance rather than reinforcing the current state- 
of-the-marketplace. By itself, Ultra means "extra 
ordinary" And by itself is where you 11 place the 
Ultra Magnetics product 
when you have a chance to 
compare it to others. * 

The superb engineering 
and meticulous manufactur- 
ing of each Ultra Magnetics 
disk clearly shows. A propri- 
etary jacket provides more 
consistent jacket dimensions 
and lower torque that result 
in better auto-loading and 
longer life. A special lubri- 
cant built into each disk 
surface enhances both disk 
and head durability. And 



MINI FLEXIBLE DISKS 



i uirov 

MAGNETICS 



100% surface testing of each and every Ultra 
Magnetics disk ensures the highest data 
reliability. Our Ultra Magnetics product line 
currently includes single- and double-sided 
5.25-inch disks. Soon, it will feature 8-inch disks 
as well. For a fact, they are more expensive 
than some of the garden variety alternatives. 
But considering the performance and the 
reliability, Ultra Magnetics is a surprisingly 
attractive value. 

Here's the bottom line. You no longer N 
have to put up with what you may have sadly 
come to expect from flexible disks. And we 
encourage you to take the 
next logical step from the 
usual to the remarkable— 
from the ordinary to the 
extraordinary. Call your 
local supplies distributor 
and ask for Ultra Magnetics. 



unm 

MAGNETICS 



Ultra Magnetics Technology, Inc. 
7 Hangar Way 
Watsonville.CA 95076 
(408) 728-7777 




ORDINARY 



MrvFkutteDtec* 





Circle 440 on inquiry card. 







THE FIRST AND ONLY 
BQ\RD YOUR IBM PC 
MAYEVERNEED. 

Your IBM personal bomputer is a very 
versatile piece of equipment. Perhaps 
more versatile than you realize. New 
applications and functions are being 
developed every daf Now with Quadboard 



by Quadram you can keep your options 
open for tomorrow's technology. Following 
in the tradition of Quadram Quality, four 
of Quadram's best selling IBM boards 
have been combined into one board. 
Your remaining slots will be left free and 
available to accommodate future expan- 
sion needs and uses which you may not 
even be able to contemplate today. 



•B» £jx .£■! ^'rJH -Jgpg 

1 \ Ml r\ 



"te^o-fc^ 



■ (■■■Mil 
» 



— pupil » J 




PROVEN DESIGN. 

Quadram has been shipping IBM boards 
with each of the Quadboard functions 
on separate boards since December, 
1981. They are still available as separates 
(including a Dual Port Async Board) for 
those who desire a quality board but do 
not need to keep slots open for future 
expansion. And they all come with a 
one year warranty from the leader in 
technology applications. 



256K MEMORY EXPANSION. 

Socketed and expandable in 64K 
increments to 256K, full parity generation 
and checking are standard. A Quad- 
board exclusive feature allows parity to 
be switch disabled to avoid lock-up 
upon error detection. The dip switches 
also allow it to be addressed starting 
on any 64K block so that it takes up only 
as much as it has memory installed. 
Memory access and cycle time naturally 
meet all IBM specifications. 



SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 423 



CLOCK/CALENDAR. 

Quadboard eliminates the hassle of 
manually inputting the date on system 
boot-up by providing for the clock and 
all software routines necessary for 
inserting the appropriate programs on 
your diskettes. The internal computer 
clock is automatically set for compati- 
bility with most software routines which 
utilize clock functions. On-board battery 
keeps the clock running when the 
computer is off. 






ALL ON ONE BOARD 

Now you can utilize all the PC's capacity 
with Quadram's extremely flexible con- 
figurations. And it's totally compatible 
with IBM hardware, operating systems, 
and high level languages. It's a full-size 
board that can be inserted into any free 
system slot and it even includes a card 
edge guide for securely mounting the 
card in place. 



SOFTWARE TOO! 

With Quadboard you receive not only 
hardware but extensive software at no 
extra cost. Diagnostics, utilities, and 
Quad-RAM drive software for simulating 
a floppy drive in memory (a super-fast 
SOLID STATE DISK!) are all part of the 
Quadboard package. 



$595 




WIMT64K 
Installed 



k9 WJG14S9 i 



J 61 8HJf3B"S 



fttJiHCT 







i^ o n nlr?lr r> r» r» 



niimi 



Till 



iZ \Z ,Z ,Z iZ ,z , 



PARALLEL PRINTER I/O. 

A 16 pin header on Quadboard is used 
for inserting a short cable containing a 
standard DB25 connector. The connector 
is then mounted in the knock-out hole 
located in the center of the PC back- 
plane. The parallel port can be switch 
disabled or addressed as Printer 1 or 2. 
No conflict exists with the standard 
parallel port on the Monochrome board. 
The internal cable, connector and 
hardware are all included. 



ASYNCHRONOUS (RS232) 
COMMUNICATION ADAPTER. 

Using the same chip as that on the IBM 
ASYNC board, the device is software 
programmable for baud rate, character, 
stop, and parity bits. A male DB25 
connector located on the back connector 
is identical to that on the IBM Async 
Adapter. The adapter is used for 
connecting modems, printers (many 
letter quality printers require RS232), 
and other serial devices. Switches 
allow the port to be configured as COM1 
or COM2 and the board fully supports 
IBM Communications Software. 



INCREDIBLE PRICE! 

Priced at $595 with 64K installed, $775 

with 128K, $895 with 192K and $995 

with 256K. 

ASK YOUR DEALER. 

All products are sold through local 

personal computer dealers. If yours 

does not stock Quadram, 

please ask him to call us 

at (404) 923-6666. /|\ 

QUADRAM f> 

CORPORATION 

\ 

4357 Park Drive/ Norcross, Ga. 30093 
Circle 366 on Inquiry card. 



User's Column 



Sage in Bloom, Zeke II, 

CBIOS Traps, Language 

Debate Continues 

The consummate computer user tackles his new writing 
machine, and other tales from Chaos Manor. 



Jerry Pournelle 

c/o BYTE Publications 

POB 372 

Hancock, NH 03449 



I have three pages of notes on what 
I should write about this month, and 
if I finish the list I'll double BYTE's 
already amazing thickness — and still 
not be caught up with either hard- 
ware developments or the flood of 
useful software that's pouring out for 
microcomputers. There was a time 
when I could pretend to be, if not 
familiar with, at least aware of nearly 
everything going on in the microcom- 
puter world. No longer. I hear about 
many developments, for which I 
thank my numerous correspondents, 
but there's no way anyone can keep 
up with the explosion. 

Meanwhile, we have two new 
systems at Chaos Manor: a new 
writing machine and a Sage II that 
runs UCSD Pascal for the fastest time 
yet in my benchmark. 

I can't keep up, but what the hell, it 
can't hurt to try . . . 

The Sage in Bloom 

I first saw the Sage 68000-based 
machine at the 1982 West Coast 



Computer Faire. Then at Wescon/ 
Mini/Micro I saw another and got to 
talking with Sage's president, Rod 
Coleman. 

About a week ago our Sage ar- 
rived. I'll be writing a lot about it as 
time goes on. 

My first impression is that I love it. 
The Sage is a working machine. Mine 
has a half megabyte of memory (some 
of which can be configured to be run 
as "RAM disk," that is, as a 
memory simulation of a disk, exactly 
like the Compupro M-Drive or 
Semidisk Systems' Semidisk). It has 
two double-sided double-density 
5V4-inch disk drives; those disk 
drives, I must confess, are part of the 
reason I'm changing my mind about 
small disks, because we've been 
working the dickens out of the Sage 
and we haven't had a disk glitch (or 
any other kind of glitch for that 
matter). 

It's a handsome machine. It is also 
quite small; the whole thing — disk 
drives, power supply, computer, and 



all — takes up considerably less space 
than one of the Compupro boxes, and 
in fact is smaller than the Televideo 
925 terminal that came with the Sage. 

The Sage can be that small in part 
because it uses what's known as a 
switching power supply rather than 
the brute-force transformer, rectifier, 
and filter system in the Compupro. 
Switching power supplies rectify the 
110-volt AC immediately, then they 
use electronic switching to eliminate 
the bulky low-frequency transform- 
ers of conventional power supplies. 
They are a lot more efficient than the 
old-fashioned kind; they're also 
trickier to design and use. 

While the Sage is really lovely 
hardware, there is a small problem: 
the operating system is UCSD Pascal. 

For many that's not a bug, it's a 
feature. Heaven knows, UCSD Pascal 
has its champions, including my 
friend Carl Helmers, the founding 
editor of BYTE. The UCSD system 
(now marketed by Softech Microsys- 
tems) is a completely integrated 



218 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



TheCHA 1 

A price/performance leader. 



Sharp 7x9 
dot matrix 
characters 



Character 
highlighting 

Serial 

Auxiliary 

Port 




15 independently 
selectable 
transmit/ receive 
speeds 

White, green 
or amber 
display 



Switch-selectable 
light or dark 
background 

Cursor 
Control Keys 



10 Program 
Function Keys 



Detached 
typewriter 
style 
keyboard 



Copy Key 



The CHAT The NABU 
terminal that allows you to 
expand your system eco- 
nomically without sacrificing 
quality or performance. 

Features include switch- 
selectable Volker-Craig 
VC404 and Lear Siegler 

ADM-3A is a registered trademark of Lear Siegler Inc. 



14- Key 

Numeric 

Keypad 



ADM-3A compatibility, 12" 
non-glare screen, character 
highlighting, detached key- 
board with 4-ft. coiled cord, 
cursor control keys, 10 pro- 
gram function keys, a bi- 
directional serial port, and a 
1 6-key numeric keypad . . . 



all standard! 

All these features and 
more . . . and a truly economi- 
cal price tag. 

Get complete informa- 
tion today, and discover why 
the CHAT is the terminal that 
should cost more. 



lihVMl 



COMMERCIAL 
TERMINALS 

( Formerly volker Craig » 
Circle 301 on inquiry card. 



New York 

333 Metro Park 
Rochester, N.Y 
14623 
Telephone 
(716)475-1221 

California 

Telephone 
(213) 385-7239 



Distributor Headquarters: 



California 

Allen Edwards Associates 
(213) 328-9770 

Florida 

Amerisoft Business Sys. 
(305) 442-8197 



Illinois 

Bexdata Ltd. 
(312) 895-3010 



Kentucky 

Bolton & Westmeyer 
(606) 331-9628 

Massachusetts 

Marketechs, Inc. 
(617) 237-4343 

Minnesota 

Bexdata Ltd.. 
(612) 835-5220 
Molenaar, Inc. 
(612) 235-3000 



New York City 

Pro-Comp Systems 
(212) 246-0074 

Upstate NY 

Data-Term 
(716) 381-7385 

Ohio 

Comtel Instruments 
(216) 442-8080 



Oregon 

Data Devices 
(503) 641-5500 

Utah 

Raytel, Inc. 
(801) 295-3963 

Virginia, Washington DC 

Computerware, Inc. 
(703) 821-8220 



package containing the Pascal com- 
piler, a text editor, disk-file system, 
and a bunch of utilities to format and 
copy disks and such like. One nice 
feature of the system is that when you 
try to compile a Pascal program, as 
the compiler finds your errors, it 
shows them to you in the editor; you 
can fix them on the spot and go on, or 
wait to see more. This takes a lot of 
the sting out of Pascal. 

The system is fast, too. It compiles 
Pascal programs with lightning 
speed. The programs are compiled to 
the UCSD Pascal p-code, which is an 
intermediate code that must be inter- 
preted at run-time. It is not machine 
code, but the 68000 chip is so fast that 
this turns out not to be a handicap 
either. 

My 20 by 20 matrix benchmark 
program (see the October 1982 BYTE) 
ran in 8.9 seconds on the Sage; the 
best time on the 8085/8088 dual pro- 
cessor was 19.2 seconds when com- 
piled by Pascal MT + (which com- 
piles to machine language). 

That's fast. 

The other drawback to the Sage is 



that the documents assume you know 
more than I do. Not a lot more; just 
more. Fortunately, there's a brief 
cookbook example of how to make 
copies of disks; I was able to back up 
the Sage operating system before try- 
ing to experiment, which is just as 
well. However, after that admirable 
step-by-step tutorial on formatting 
and duplicating disks, the documents 
lapse off into "documentese," with 
few to no examples and a nonlogical 
order of presentation. 

Rod Coleman tells me that by the 
time you read this the Sage will prob- 
ably have other operating systems, 
including some kind of CP/M. I hope 
so. Meanwhile, you can get from 
Softech a program called Xenofile 
that will translate CP/M text files in- 
to the UCSD format, so you can 
salvage ASCII (American National 
Standard Code for Information Inter- 
change) files from your CP/M system 
for use on the Sage if you like. Prob- 
ably the most useful thing you can 
bring over would be Pascal source 
programs. 

Last-minute addition: if you get a 



stipple 

LL Dist. by Bell g, Howell 

800 368-3417 




$999 



APPLE PARTS 



DISK II & CONTROLLER . . 45D 

QUENTIN DRIVES 299 

PREMIUM PACK 499 

BMC MONITOR 91 

AMDEK RGB COLOR II . . . 749 
HAYS APPLE MODEM ... 289 

PASCAL 199 

VISICALC 189 

LOGO 99 

MASTER TYPE 28 

WIZARDRY 38 

48K LOOK ALIKE SYSTEM 
DISK & CONTROLLER . . 1D75 



PRINTERS 



NEC 3510 1399 

NEC 7710 2338 

DIABLO 630 1799 

STARWRITER F10 1550 

MICROWRITER 685 

0KIDATA 82A 439 

0KIDATA 83A 689 

STROBE PLOTTER 699 

IDS MICROPRISM 498 

C0EX 350 

FX-80 Call 



MODEMS 



HAYES 1200 BAUD 549 

CAT 1200 212A 588 



IN STORE ONLY 



\x& 



f*<iA* 



m 



& 



*8? 






I SYSTEMS 1 


Z0RBA 


. 1995 


KAY PRO II 

KAY PRO 10 

ACE 1000 

ACE 1200 


. . Ask 
. . Ask 
. Ask 
. . Ask 



Computer learning Tree 



Government Sales 
Call 703-750-2632 




7023 Little River Tnpk. 
Annandale, V A 22003 



Sage, get Introduction to the UCSD 
p-System by Charles W. Grant and 
Jon Butah. Published by Sybex, it 
contains a really detailed tutorial in- 
troduction. I wish I'd had the book 
when I first got the Sage; it would 
have saved a lot of time. Given that 
book, you can get a fairly good 
understanding of the UCSD system in 
a reasonable time. You may not like 
the system, but at least you'll know 
how to use it. Flash: the Grant and 
Butah book now comes standard with 
the Sage computer. 

We've sent the Sage off to a mad 
programmer associate of Alex's; he's 
putting it through strenuous tests, as 
well as writing considerable software 
for it. Much more on the Sage in later 
columns. 

Alas, Poor Ezekial 

We sent Ezekial, my old friend who 
happened to be a Cromemco Z-2, off 
to the organ banks; he has officially 
become spare parts for Larry Niven's 
machine. Like the wonderful one- 
horse shay, everything went at once. 
The final problem was the disk 
system. Zeke used old iCOM disks, 
the kind that had Percom drives with 
the controller on two boards in the 
box with the drives and their power 
supply; and they became unreliable. 
Spare parts are unobtainable: 
although those drives were the very 
best available when we got them, 
they're now from the Dark Ages. To 
update them would cost more than 
new Compupros, and they'd still be 
slow with very limited storage. 

Zeke's bus is too slow, and his old 
Industrial Micro Systems memory 
uses too much power. The bottom 
line, alas, is that it just wasn't worth 
fixing him up. Nor Singh swears he's 
going to get him running so that I can 
donate him to the Los Angeles 
Science Fantasy Society. The LASFS 
already owns Altair, the first Niven 
machine. (That's a little embarrass- 
ing, because Altair Niven was of- 
ficially accepted as a member of the 
club.) 

There's another possibility. Dan 
MacLean's widow donated Alice, 
Dan's old IMSAI, to the LASFS, and 
Nor Singh has been hired to get Alice 
running for the club; it may be that 



220 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 103 on inquiry card. 



Zeke and Alice (who shamelessly car- 
ried on a long-distance affair for 
years) may yet be united into a single 
working entity . , . 

Zeke II 

Ezekial has departed, but I have 
consolation: as Nor Singh arrived to 
remove Zeke, Tony Pietsch delivered 
Zeke II, which is a state-of-the-art 
writing machine. That, of course, is 
the point of all this. I get lots of letters 
asking my recommendation for "the 
ideal word processor." My answer 
usually is, "That depends." However, 
I've seen nothing better than Zeke II 
for creative writing. 

First: my "ideal" writing system is a 
computer, not a dedicated word pro- 
cessor. True, some excellent 
dedicated word processors are on the 
market, and it's a lot easier to learn to 
use them than it is to learn to write 
with a full microcomputer. However, 
in my judgment, the saving is il- 
lusory: it doesn't take that much 
longer to learn to use a real computer; 
and then you can tap the power of the 
software explosion. Most dedicated 
word processors leave you at the mer- 
cy of one company: you get only the 
software it thinks you should have. 
Consequently, I recommend CP/M 
systems. 

Second, iron is expensive but 
silicon is cheap: new computer 
boards are invented all the time. Get 
a good S-100 bus system and you can 
take advantage of the dozens — per- 
haps hundreds — of firms developing 
new capabilities for it. 

Third, deal with reliable companies 
with a good track record. 

In keeping with these views, Zeke 
II consists of a Compupro S-100 bus 
and power supply. My friend Bill 
Grieb continues to swear by the In- 
tegrand box that has bus, power sup- 
ply, disk power supply, and disk 
drives all built into a handsome 
wood-grain cabinet — and perhaps 
he's right. I can only say that the 
Compupro box has never disap- 
pointed me. It's built like a Mack 
truck, with .2 farads (none of this 
microfarad stuff I) of power filtration. 
The only disadvantage is that it's big, 
but I don't mind that. The large size 
helps keep the components cool. 



Inside the box is a Compupro 
6-MHz Z80 central processing unit, 
64K bytes of memory (Compupro 
RAM-17), an Interfacer 4, and the 
Compupro Disk-1 disk controller. 
That drives a pair of Compupro 
8-inch double-sided double-density 
drives at 1.2 megabytes per disk. The 
Interfacer 4 plus the new CBIOS 
(customized basic input/output 
system — the thing that tells CP/M 
about your particular hardware) 
written by Tony Pietsch allows a 
number of ways to talk to the system. 



Tony's CBIOS is now available from 
Compupro. 

The CBIOS allows you to use 
either 5Va- or 8-inch disks. The Com- 
pupro controller supports either. It 
does not run both at once; if you 
want both on the same system, you 
will need two different controllers. 
That, however, is no problem: the 
Compupro box and CBIOS can han- 
dle the situation, so that you can 
transfer files from 8-inch to 5V4-inch 
and vice versa. 

Some disk controllers will run both 



FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES. 




IT'S 
NEVER BEEN 

A BETTER 
TIME! 



The computer industry is experi- 
encing a spectacular growth, by 
1 990 it will become a 20 billion 
dollar industry. Computer retail- 
ing was one of the few industries 
not seriously effected by the 
recent economic crisis. 

Now . . .is a good time to consider 
a franchise opportunity with MicroAge, a leader in computer retail- 
ing. MicroAge has a proven "track record" with over thirty fran- 
chised stores throughout the United States and Canada. In an 
Industry where experience is crucial, MicroAge has it, with six years 
computer retail experience and three years in franchising. It's just 
good sense to go with a leader. 

If you're committed to success in computer retailing, it's essential you 
evaluate the MICROAGE COMPUTER STORES Franchise opportu- 
nity. Investment: $I30 r 000-$200 r 000. 

For detailed information about MicroAge "Franchise Opportunities," 
call (602) 968-3168 or write to: 

MicroAge Computer Stores \nc. 
1425 W. \2th Place 
Tempe, AZ 85281 



/MicroAge 

co/MPUTer sTore 

"The Solution Store" '" 



Circle 269 on inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 221 



8- and 5V4-inch disk drives; I once 
asked Bill Godbout why his wouldn't. 

"I don't make Muntz TVs, either/' 
he told me. 

Interpreted that means that it's 
tricky enough running at the speeds 
his direct-memory-access (I'll explain 
DMA below) systems use without 
trying to play games. Bill Godbout 
once told me, "If the error rate is 
measurable, it's too high." His stuff is 
designed to that philosophy. 

I still prefer 8-inch disk drives, 
although not as adamantly as I did 



last year. The 5V4-inch systems are 
getting more reliable, and running 
double sided and double density they 
hold quite a bit of information. I do 
not believe the small disks are as 
reliable as the 8-inch, but many peo- 
ple for whom I have respect say 
they're reliable enough, so my 
preference is probably pure prejudice; 
unfortunate, but there it is. 

I can also hang a normal terminal 
on the system, and indeed the same 
Televideo 950 that drives the Com- 
pupro 8085/8088 dual processor can 




okjdata 



2723 W. Windrose Suite 3 
Phoenix, Arizona 85029 

1-800-528-8960 



t^ 




All Prices Subject To Change 



COMPUTERS 



ATARI 

1 200 - $645 800-48 K - $499 
410 -$77 810 -$429 
830 -$155 850- $159 

ALTOS 

5-15D-$2120 5-5D- $4100 

NORTHSTAR 

Advantage-$2600 Horizon 64QD-$2600 

TELEVIDEO 

802 - $2599 802H - $4450 
806 - $4950 800A - $1 250 

APPLE-LOOK-A-LIKE 
CALL 



APPLE CARDS 



16K RAM - $78 Z80 CARD - $245 

Videx Card - $227 Smart Term - $279 
Microsoft Prem. Pk — $489 



PRINTERS 



OKI DATA 

M80 - $305 M83A - $639 

M82A - $399 w/Tractor & Grap. $479 

M84P - $978 M84S - $CALL 

ANADEX 
9500A-$1290 9501 A -$1290 

CITOH 

F-10P - $1370 F-10S - $1375 

1550P-$659 Prowriter 1550CD-$709 

8510AP - $459 8510ACD - $550 

DATASOUTH 
DS120- $595 DS180-$1175 

DIABLO 

630RO - $1945 620 - $900 

NEC 

8023 - $450 771 - $2099 

351 - $1499 3550 - $1 925 

Tl 

810- $1240 820 -$1795 



SOFTWARE 



Apple All Major Brands - $CALL 
Wordstar - $299 Datastar - $180 

Calcstar- $100 Spellstar - $165 



DISK DRIVE 



Mlcrosci Apple Dr. - $300 

Rana Elite I - $300 

IRana Elite II - $450 

Rana Elite III -$550 



MODEMS 



HAYS - MICROMODEM - $285 

HAYS - SMARTMODEM - $21 

HAYS - 1 200 Baud - $530 



DISKETTES/BOXES 



Elephant - $20 Scotch — $25 Dysan 



GUARANTEED 
LOW PRICES 



TERMINALS 



ADDS 

A1 - $485 Viewpoint A3 - $51 

HAZELTINE 

1 500 - $995 ESPRIT - $498 

TELEVIDEO 

910 -$569 925 -$718 
920 -$735 950 -$899 

ZENITH 
Z19- $689 Z89- $2129 



MONITORS 



Amdek 300 - $1 40 Color I - $300 

Amdek Color II - $645 Color III - $385 
BMC Green - $85 USI Amber - $1 59 



COMPUTER !CS COMPLETE LINE 
SPECIAL 4164 (150ns) $9 5fW»a 



Customer Service 
602-863-0759 



run Zeke II. That, however, is not the 
normal mode, because we've set up 
Zeke II mostly as a writing machine. 
When he's powered up, he comes up 
in WRITE, my text editor; and when 
he's in WRITE mode, he talks to me 
through an Ithaca IA-1100 memory- 
mapped video board. (Memory- 
mapped video displays directly 
what's in a segment of memory; I 
tried to explain it in the November 
1982 BYTE.) 

Tony has modified the Ithaca 
board to be "write-only memory"; 
that is, you can't read the board's 
memory, you see only what's 
displayed on the monitor screen. The 
board is addressed to the top IK bytes 
of memory, and thus overlaps the 
RAM-17, but they can't interfere with 
each other. 

We took the video chips out of 
Ezekial and put them in the Ithaca 
board, so that the display on my big 
Hitachi 15-inch screen is identical to 
the old Zeke. I continue to use 16 
lines of 64 characters to avoid 
eyestrain. Also, I'm used to it: after 
all, a standard manuscript has 
60-character lines. A page is usually 
25 or 26 lines, so I don't see a whole 
page at once; but I've noticed an 
unexpected benefit. Having only 16 
lines on a screen tends to make me 
shorten my (usually too long) 
paragraphs. 

We wanted to put in a 24 by 80 
"write-only memory" board, but we 
couldn't find one that would work at 
6 MHz and had a nice (i.e., stable, 
legible, etc.) display; if anyone knows 
of such a beast for the S-100 system, 
I'd appreciate the information. 

Another really nice thing about 
Zeke II is the keyboard, which comes 
from an Archive computer. The Ar- 
chive, incidentally, is the machine 
Dr. Arthur C. Clarke settled on. His 
is named Archie. He got an Archive 
in part because he could get service 
for it in Sri Lanka. I'm sure, though, 
that he fell in love with the keyboard, 
and if I had to buy an Archive to get 
this keyboard I probably would. As it 
happens, Tony was able to obtain 
three or four of them. 

The Archive has great key feel, a 
good nonelectronic "click," and a 
really nice (Selectric-style) key 



222 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 180 on Inquiry card. 




€^m^r^Jmj 




Iff you have an I.B.M. computer from their largest 
3081 to their smallest Personal Computer, we have 
the right workstation for you. The Compucart is the 
first economically designed, fully lockable, mobile 
computer/terminal workstation. 

The Compucart's ERGONOMIC design means that not only is the 
keyboard at the correct height for comfortable interactive entry, but 
it is adjustable both horizontally (back and forth) and vertically to 
accommodate both the user and the hardware. The design further means 
that the keyboard, the work and the screen are all in your comfortable 
LINE OF SIGHT. The Compucart is engineered to minimize fatigue and 
to improve the user-computer interface. 

ONLY the Compucart offers SECURITY by returning the computer to the 
closed position when not in use or running unattended, the double walled 
tambor door is closed and the whole workstation is secured with one lock. 
For a terminal user it means that you can comfortably step away from your 
desk while you are logged on and access to your terminal is restricted. 

The Compucart is mobile to allow multiple users to take full advantage 
of the multifunction features of modern computers and NETWORKS. 
Mobility also means BACKUP for a terminal or workstation that is down. 

The Compucart, even with all its features, requires minimum floor space 
(about 4 sq. ft.) and is the engineered workstation that suits both you 
and the hardware to conserve the human resource and keep your 
HARDWARE and SOFTWARE...SECURELY TOGETHER FOR YOU! 

_ 201 North Rome Ave. P.O. Box 2095 Tampa, FL 33601-2095 
Cffy83T Ph. (813) 251-2431 (in Florida) Call Toll Free 1-800/237-9024 



H 7 


■* m 


^P 


^1 ^^r^^ 


^ 


f 



Circle 91 on Inquiry card. 



layout. The entire ASCII character 
set is on board along with arrows on 
the left side and a numeric key pad on 
the right. 

There aren't any extraneous keys in 
odd places; and a lot of special- 
purpose keys are put up where you 
can get at them without their being in 
the way. The special-purpose keys 
are really nice in that they make 
characters with the eighth bit set, so 
that we can make use of not only the 
entire range of control characters, but 
also more than a dozen additional 
one-stroke commands. 

The Archive comes with a printed 
strip that translates the special- 
function keys into Wordstar com- 
mands, and I suppose the Archive 
machine itself takes advantage of 
those. Because I don't use Wordstar, I 
had some work to do. Figuring out 
how to make good use of those keys 
was instructive; more below. 

The bottom line is that callous as it 
may seem, I don't really miss Zeke. 
This new keyboard is fast and conve- 
nient, and the Compupro disk drives 
are so much faster than the old 
iCOMs that I find myself saving my 
text far more often. Scrolling is 
smooth and lightning quick. 

I do hope that Nor Singh can make 
Zeke work again; he's still better than 
half the junk I see out on the market, 
and it would be nice if others could 
get some good from him. Meanwhile, 
Zeke II is as close to being the "ideal" 
writing machine as I've ever worked 
with. 

There are a few possible im- 
provements. For one, there's no hard 
disk; but that's merely a matter of 
time. Tony has one and is refur- 
bishing the software right now. A 
hard disk isn't strictly necessary 
anyway; with a DMA disk controller 
and double-density disks, saving 
your text doesn't take very long; and 
for a writing machine, safety is the 
number one goal, meaning that you 
want the machine to make it easy to 
save early and often. (That's one ma- 
jor advantage of the MIT EMACS 
full-screen editor and its descendants: 
it can be set to automagically save 
text even if you don't think of it.) 

DMA and high density speed up 
floppy-disk operations something 



wonderful. Direct memory access is 
literally just that: the disk controller 
has an on-board microprocessor that 
can get at your system's memory 
without going through the regular 
processor; that lets it do a faster job 
of getting stuff from memory and 
putting it on disk or vice versa. 

Whether or not there's a hard disk, 
the ideal writing machine will need 
fast and reliable floppies. I don't feel 
really safe until my text is saved on a 
disk and the disk has been removed 
from the machine. 



What do you do if you 

have several serial 

output devices but 

only one RS-232C 

output port? Enter the 
T-Switch. 



A second limitation to Zeke II is 
there's no RAM disk, i.e., memory 
that's set up like a disk for fast access. 
RAM disks are nice for checking 
spelling (as well as compiling and 
other computer operations). Of 
course, if you have a hard disk you 
might not want a RAM disk too. 

I do have Semidisk on my dual- 
processor machine, and that would 
work fine in Zeke II; but Compupro 
has announced that it's coming out 
with an M-Drive that will work with 
the Z80, and since almost everything 
else in Zeke II is Compupro, I thought 
I'd wait for Compupro's system. 
More on M-Drive and Semidisk 
below. 

Finally, the Z80 makes for a vanilla 
system; more advanced stuff is 
available. We have here an ex- 
perimental board from Compupro 
that runs at 12 MHz. That's fast! 
However, for a writing machine you 
don't really need that much speed, 
and the Z80 chip has been around 
long enough to have a track record. 
Zeke II is as near the state of the art as 
I'd now recommend for a system 
devoted mostly to text handling. 

Terminal Switching 

For a while it looked as if I'd be up 
to my clavicle in keyboards. 



Although it's possible to make Zeke II 
run with the 16 by 64 screen as his 
normal console (as well as when he's 
running the text editor), there are 
good reasons to want a 24 by 80 
screen when you do programming. 
At the same time, I have the 
Televideo 950 nearby because that 
machine does nearly all our develop- 
ment work and is also useful for 
checking spelling and the like. 

I sure didn't want a second terminal 
for Zeke II, so I solved the problem 
with a T-Switch from Inmac. I sup- 
pose that requires a bit of explana- 
tion. 

Computers talk to the outside 
world in two basic ways: serial and 
parallel. 

Parallel communication sends all 
the data bits of a single character at 
the same time. Parallel communica- 
tion is inherently faster than serial; 
but it requires many wires (in an 8-bit 
machine at least 10 and generally 
many more). Parallel, which is often 
electrically noisy, is usually more 
subject to errors induced by stray 
radio noise. 

As an example, MacLean used 
parallel ports to connect his keyboard 
to Alice the IMSAI, and when he 
began he used a flat ribbon cable. He 
got a lot of extraneous garbage into 
his computer. Eventually he con- 
verted to a round shielded cable and 
most of the errors vanished. 

Centronics printers and other such 
devices generally use parallel com- 
munication. The distance they can be 
from the computer is limited — 15 feet 
maximum. 

With serial communication the bits 
are sent one after another; an 8-bit 
character thus takes at least 10 times 
as long to send in serial as it would in 
parallel. (That's not strictly true, but 
we'll ignore the fine details.) 

Your computer has I/O (input/out- 
put) ports built in as part of its basic 
structure. Those ports are parallel 
ports; it takes special hardware to 
convert from parallel to serial. Serial 
signals can be sent farther, however, 
with less noise and interference. Most 
letter-quality printers, like the 
Diablo, and all telephone or modem 
communications use the serial 
method. 



224 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Check The Chart 
Before You Choose 
Your New 16-Bit 
Computer System. 



Columbia Data Products' 
New Multi-Personal® Computer, 
Featuring IBM-PC® Compatibility, 
Excels In Professional; Business 
And Industrial Applications. 
Check it out. 



Columbia Data Products' M U LTI-PERSON AL® COM PUTER 
can use software and hardware originally intended for 
the IBM® Personal Computer . . . while enjoying the 
flexibility and expandability of all Columbia Data's com- 
puter systems. W 

Available operating system software includes single 
user MS-DOS® or CP/M 86^ or multi-user, multi-tasking 
MP/M 86* or OASIS-16®, with XENIX® available soon, 
providing users with a host of compatible software pack- 
ages for personal and professional business and indus- 
trial applications. A large selection of higher level languages 
are also available, including BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, 
PASCAL and MACRO Assembler. 

Our standard 1 6-Bit 8088 hardware configuration pro- 
vides 128K RAM with parity, two RS-232 serial ports, 
Centronics parallel printer port, interrupt and DMA con- 
trollers, dual floppy disks with 640K storage, Winchester 
disk and keyboard interfaces, and eight IBM-PC compat- 
ible expansion slots . . . and lists for only $2995. Winches- 
ter hard disk configurations, featuring cache buffer 
controllers for enhanced disk access performance are 
also available, starting at $4995. 

So, when you need to grow, why gamble and hassle 
with independent third party hardware and operating 
system vendors which may or may not be compatible . . . 
not to mention the hidden expense and frustration of 
implementing peripheral drivers in the different operat- 
ing systems and upgrades? Who needs the finger-pointing 
when things don't work out? 

Afteryou review our chart, you will agree ... for overall 
16-Bit microprocessor superiority, expandability, flexi- 
bility, compatibility and real economy, Columbia Data is 
your total source. 

Our Multi-Personal Computer ... the 16-Bit system 
born to grow! 

Get yours now. Circle 82 on Inquiry card, 





'•#••'' '// 



MAIN FEATURES 


CDP-MPC 


IBM-PC* 


OTHERS 


Microprocessor 


16-Bit 8088 
8-Bit Z-80 (Opt) 


16-Bit 8088 


? 


USER Memory 


128K-1 Mbytes 


16K-256 Kbytes 


? 


IBM-PC Compatible 
Expansions Slots Beyond 
Professional Configuration 1 


8 Slots 





? 


Resident Floppy Disk 

Storage 


Dual 320K (std) 


Dual 160K (Opt) 
Dual 320K (Opt) 


? 


Resident Cache Buffer 
Hard Disk Storage 


5M/10M 




? 


OPTIONAL OPERATING SYSTEMS (Suppc 


MS-DOS (PC-DOS) 


Yes 


Yes 


? 


CP/M 86 


Yes 


Yes 


? 


MP/M 86 


Yes 


- 


? 


OASIS-16 


Yes 


— 


? 


XENIX 


Soon 


- 


? 


OPTIONAL HARDWARE EXPAf 


RS-232 Communications 


Yes 


Yes 


? 


B/W and Color Display 
Controller 


Yes 


Yes 


7 


Expansion Memory 


Yes 


Yes 


? 


Z-80 CP/M-80 Board 


Yes 


- 


? 


Cache Buffer Hard Disk 


Yes 


- 


7 


Time/Calendar Board 


Yes 


- 


? 


IEEE Bus Controller 


Yes 


- 


? 


8" Floppy Disk System 


Yes 


- 


? 


8" Hard Disk System 


Up to 40 Mbytes 


- 


9 


Tape Cartridge System 


Yes 


- 


? 



'For comparison purposes, typical professional configurations con- 
sist of 16-Bit 8088 Processor, 128K RAM with Parity, Dual 320K 5-inch 
Floppies. DMA and Interrupt Controller. Dual RS-232 Serial Ports, 
Centronics Parallel Port and Dumb Computer Terminal or Equivalent. 
Columbia Data Products also supports CP/M 80* with an optionally 
available Z-80 CP/M Expansion Board. 
'As advertised in BYTE Magazine, August 1982. 



COLUMBIA 



DATA PRODUCTS, INC. 



Home Office: 

8990 Route 108 
Columbia, MD 21045 
Telephone 301-992-3400 
TWX 710-862-1891 



West Coast: 

3901 MacArthur Blvd. 
Suite 211 

Newport Beach, CA 92663 
Telephone 714-752-5245 
Telex 277778 



Europe: 

P.O. Box 11 18 
450 Moenchengladbach 1 
West Germany 
Telephone 02161-33159 
Telex 852452 



IBM Is the trademark of International Business Machines. CP/M and MP/M are trademarks of Digital Research. OASIS Is the trademark of Phase One. MS-DOS and XENIX are 
trademarks of MICROSOFT. 



There's more than one serial 
system, but by far the most popular 
in the microcomputer world is called 
RS-232C. In theory there's an RS- 
232C standard; in practice that's 
almost true but not quite. However, 
it's true enough for T-Switches to 
work. 

Suppose you have several serial 
output devices — say a printer and a 
modem for communications — and 
only one RS-232C output port on 
your computer. Enter the T-Switch, 
which lets you connect both to the 
port and switch between them. Ob- 
viously only one is active at any 
given time. It's true you could ac- 
complish the same result by physical- 
ly plugging and unplugging cables, 
but that's hard on the cables as well as 
darned inconvenient. 

I'd only seen the T-Switch in adver- 
tisements, but it seemed a good idea; 
meanwhile, Inmac sent me a catalog 
of its equipment for microcomputers. 
I've ordered stuff from Inmac before; 
although its equipment is high-priced, 
its service is speedy and reliable. 



Anyway, I bought a T-Switch, and 
the result is that the Televideo 950 
can run both Zeke II and the dual- 
processor machine. Actually, things 
are better than that: Tony has in- 
geniously set up the BIOS so that 
even after exiting from WRITE the 
Archive keyboard is active. There- 
fore, I can run Zeke II on the 
Televideo 950 terminal but continue 
to type on my splendid Archive 
board. 
I love it. 

Changing the CBIOS 

The CP/M operating system has to 
be told about your hardware. That's 
done through a beast known as the 
CBIOS. CP/M, as modified by the 
CBIOS, resides on tracks and 1 of 
your floppy disk and is read in when 
the system is powered up. This is 
known as "cold booting" the system. 
Once CP/M is in memory, it can read 
in other files. 

In the early days you couldn't do 
many fancy tricks with the CP/M 
CBIOS because there just wasn't 



NEW LOW PRICE! SAVE 50% 




Catalog Group 
MOORE 



Moore Keen Edge® Continuous Stationery gives 
your computerized correspondence the look of 
individually-typed letters 

■ HALF PRICE SAVINGS! Moore 20-lb. white bond Kepn 
Edge ■ Produce letters that look individually typed on 8Y2 x 
11" stationery-it's almost impossible to tell they're com- 
puter generated! ■ Enjoy the speed and convenience of 
your word processing equipment ■ Keen Edge forms sepa- 
rate easily with razor-sharp, clean edges ■ Don't forget to 
order matching 24-lb. #10 white bond continuous enve- 
lopes on regular carriers ■ MOORE GUARANTEES YOUR 
100% SATISFACTION OR YOUR MONEY BACK! 

To order, Call toll-free 1-800-323-6230 

In Illinois. Call (312) 459-0210 • If ordering by phone, mention Dept. 104311 
to obtain this offer or complete and mail the convenient Order Form below. 

_ j 

Please select from the chart below. 



CENTER 

A Division of Moore Business Forms 
RO. Box 20. Wheeling, IL 60090 

I I YcS! Send me my FREE 1983 Moore Computer 

Forms and Supplies Catalog! 



Item 


Item No. 


jaerCtn. 


Ship. Wt. 
per 1000 


Price 
per 1-4 Ctn. 


5+ Ctn. 


Forms 


M13581 


2600 


36.4 lbs. 


$ 42.25 ea. 


$ 35.75 ca. 


Envelopes 


M13136 


1000 


20.0 lbs 


1 19.50 ea. 


1 14.50 ea. 



YOUR NAME 


TITLE 




COMPANY NAME 


ADDRESS 


CITY 

{ ) 


STATE 


ZIP 



LJ YES ! I'd like to order. 

(Please complete the following:) 

Total No. of Ctns. Price 

Forms-M13581 § 

Envelopes— M13136 $ 



TOTAL PRICE i 



BUSINESS PHONE 
Dept. 104311 



COMPUTER MAKE AND MODEL 



Applicable sales tax must be added 
unless you enter your tax exempt code 

here 

Your first order will be shipped freight free. 

d BILL ME (net 30 days). I am D & B rated 



room for a big program on two disk 
tracks. Now, however, with double- 
sided double-density disk systems, 
there's acres of space, and, if you 
have the source code to your CBIOS, 
there are all kinds of nifty things you 
might want to do. Tony does a lot of 
them in the CBIOS he put together 
for the Compupro systems. 

In my case, I wanted to make use of 
those special keys on the Archive 
keyboard. 

The usual microcomputer accepts 
only 7-bit characters from the 
keyboard. This is no problem because 
few keyboards can do anything with 
the eighth bit. As a practical matter, 
then, we are limited to 128 (2 7 ) unique 
characters in our communications 
with machines. Of these, the first 31, 
plus character 127 (delete), are re- 
served as "control" characters. These 
include Control-H, which is 
backspace; Control-M, which is car- 
riage return; and others, as well as the 
less familiar ones like Control- 
backslash. 

Most microcomputers do not 
display control characters; they've 
been programmed to treat them as 
orders to be executed rather than 
something to show to the operator. 
Thus, character 7, Control-G, rings 
the bell, but it doesn't print anything. 

Some programs, particularly text 
editors for word processing, have a 
lot of commands. You might want to 
move the cursor around; jump to the 
end of the text; save the text; display 
helpful information; delete words, 
lines, and characters; and such like. 
The problem, then, is how to com- 
municate your wishes to the com- 
puter. 

If you want to be really elegant 
about it, you can put extra keys on 
the keyboard and label them "Delete 
Word" or "Find" or whatever. This is 
fine for the first 32 commands; then 
what do you do? Each special key has 
to send something, and if you want to 
use the entire ASCII character set in- 
cluding curly braces and squiggle and 
such like, then you're stuck. After 
you run out of control characters, 
you can't have just one keystroke per 
command. 

Various programs use different 
ways around this. Some go to "com- 



226 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



BHRT 



Computers for; Business, Home Applications, Resource Management, Technology & Science 
NEW: 15-Day Exchange Privilege (See "TERMS" for details) 



Displayed and sold at our Showroom, 12210 Michigan Ave., Grand Terrace, CA: 
MICRO-DECISION 
by Morrow Designs! 




Psrfoct 

desk-top computer: 
• Z-80, 1 Floppy standard, 2nd optional. Optional 
terminal, or use your own. • CP/M with user friendly 
"shell." • WordStar, SpellChecker, Spreadsheet, 
Microsoft Basic-80 & BASIC. List $1195 to S1790, 
Limited Quantity CALL For Availability. 
NEW: Now with double-sided double-density Flop- 
pies (800 KB storage), and with Data Base Manage- 
ment Sof tware CALL For A vailability! 

ALTOS SERIES 5 

Ideal for independent business or advanced personal 
computer user: supports 3 users with independent 
tasks concurrently. Z-80, 192K, 2 Floppies 2 MEG, 
expandable to hard disk. Comes with MP/M II, 
OASIS also available. _., . , 

List $2990 CALL for availability! 



NEC 

APC 



Extremely sophisticated 
graphics and color display 
(1024x1024 pixel) 16-bit 




(8086!), 128K standard, expandable to 256K. 1-2 8' ' 
Floppies 1 MEG each (run any CP/M program avail- 
able on 8"). Detachable keyboard. Integral monitor 
(monochrome/color). Extensive software. 

H01 Monochrome. 1 Floppy List $3298 

H02 Monochrome. 2 Floppies List $3998 

H03 Color monitor, 2 Floppies List $4998 

CALL for appointment 



BUSINESS OWNERS.. .Can You afford NOT tcTcomputerize? ^ 

If conflicting claims for different systems leave you bewildered, if a salesman is "pushing" a system about 
which you have doubts, or your costly computer is not delivering its promise— help is now available. Our 
Business Program divides computer acquisition to 4 phases, and provides 4 distinct services. Use ONLY the 
service needed, control your cost at EVERY phase, and pay ONLY for what you get— each of our services is 
available independently: 

1) ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS. On time-usage basis, you obtain access to our CONSULTANTS. 

2) HARDWARE. 

3) SOFTWARE. ACCOUNTING PLUS. CYMA DBASE II, MULTIPLAN. 

4) SYSTEM SUPPORT. Subscription to our SUPPORT SERVICE ($200/system/year) gives you access to our 
i SOFTWARE SPECIALISTS who answer your questions on time-usage basis. 

I To Set Up Your Initial Evaluation Call Our Business Division (714) 781-6566 / 

r^NOW BUY SOFTWARE WITH CONFIDENCE— price of each of the modules below includes 1 full yea7s\ 
subscription to our SOFTWARE SUPPORT SERVICE. You get a toll-free number for unlimited inquiries * 
whenever a question arises: 

CYMA Small Business System: fully integrated G/L, A/R. A/P, Payroll $1295 

CYMA G/L, A/R, A/P, Payroll, Inventory: form together an integrated software system capable of handling the 
requirements of larger business. Capacity is limited 

only by your disk storage S895/module or S2995I or all 5 modules. 

CYMA Medical/Dental/Orthodontic Systems: Open account/balance forward, payment books, insurance 

forms, patient recall, etc $1995/system 

CYMA Construction System: includes job costing $2495 

CYMA Client Writeup System: for accountants and CPA $1995 

L Manuals for all above programs $49 ppd. 



r 



■ MORROW DESIGNS Q\ 



3 GRAPHICS SYSTEMS: 



SEC 




P-8800 



Personal Computer System: Just Arrived: 
All the flexibility one could ask for. in highest perfor- 
mance system! Z-80 standard. 8086 16-bit pro- 
cessor optional, ROM Basic (8/16 bit), Graphic RAM, 
64 K user RAM standard, supports up to 256K. Both 
5 1 /* and 8" floppies. Most sophisticated graphics in- 
clude 3 individually-controlled windows; 640x200 
pixel resolution, overall text & graphics. RGB or 
composite display, serial & parallel ports, cassette 
interface. LIMITED SUPPLY SCALL! 



AnAw 



> 



Advanced color graphics under Z-BASIC, 16 
bit (8088) & 8-bit (8085) 128K RAM, expand- 
able to 768K (Expand to 192K for only $180). 
Runs most IBM-PC software and CP/M. 

ZF-100 128K RAM 8/16 bit. 1 floppy 

monochrome graphics LIST$3,249 

ZF-110 Similar to above, but COLOR 

GRAPHICS, 2 floppies LIST $3,999 

ZF-120 128K RAM, 8/16 bit, 2 floppies, 
monochrome graphics. 

integral display LIST $4,099 

ZENITH Hard Disk 



SCALL 
SCALL 



SCALL 
SCALL 



TfekMdeo 

B03 $ 




New. all the features of 802. PLUS: • Larger Screen: 
Nearly double the standard 12" video displays. Ad- 
justable positioning standard! • High-resolution 
graphics under CP/M. (640 x 240 pixels) standard! • 
16 programmable function keys standard! • And the 
best of all: Priced at $1000 under the 802! With all 
these features, the new TeleVideo computer is an 
outstanding buy!!! List $2495 

$ CALL For Availability!!! 



TELEVIDEO 1602GH: similar 

L HardOisk. List $6995 SCALL 



but 10M 



IBM/APPLE PRODUCTS 

HARD DISKS & MICRODISKS: 
Your backup worries are over. 

QCS Hard disk 6 MEG removeable + 6 

MEG fixed. List $3,499 ONLY $2,795 

CORONA Hard disk 5 MEG, mounts 

internally ONLY 51,536 

10 MEG ONLY 51,919 

AMDEK 3" Micro-Floppy System, w/controller, 
1 MEG total. List $899 SCALL 

MEMORY & I/O BOARDS: 

QUADBOARD: clock, serial & parallel 

ports, 128K 5599 

QUAD512 + 64K + serial port 5369 

QUAD512 + 256K + serial port 5699 

QUADSCREEN Super-Monitor 

(166 col. x66 line) $CALL 

QUA DCOLOR for better color graphics $CALL 

MONITORS & PLOTTERS: 

AMDEK 12" Amber $159 

AMDEK COLOR II RGB, hi-resolution, 13" 5699 

AMDEK COLOR III RGB 

ZENITH RGB high-resolution RGB 

PRINCETON high-resolution 12" RGB 

NEC 12" RGB high resolution 

TYMAC printer-adapter f/APPLE 

GRAPPLER 



< 



>: 



Multiple workstations with independent capabilities ano 
tasks: 3 inventory control stations, 2 Accounting Office Sta- 
tions, 1 Management station (16-bit) with graphics capability 
TeleVideo TS-816 CPU with 40 MEG hard disk and 
tape backup. Complete accounting, inventory control, financial management and business graphics programs, 
operating under Turbo-Dosw/file & record lockout for uninterrupted multi-user service. 1 high-speed dot-matrix 
printer and 1 letter-quality printer, receive/auto-dial modem. Complete integration included. 

K List $29,395 CALL FOR INFORMATION 

? SMITH-CORONA V 

TM: 



MiUIIAMM 

IBM- COMPATIBLE 
COMPUTER: i 




>= 



COLUMBIA 1600 16-bit 
boards, reads & runs all IBM software, but has also 
additional Z-80 processor to run 8-bit C/PM. So 
compatible it can even use IBM keyboard! 128K, 1 
parallel & serial ports standard, 8 expansion slots! 
COLUMBIA 1600 package: computer as above 



3-user Decision-1 computer by Morrow Designs: 

Z-80 based system allocates each user his own 64 K RAM partition (other multi-user systems support only 48 
K partition/user). UNIX-derived operating system also emulates CP/M for broad software compatibility. Includ- 
ed with system: MICRONIX Operating System, CP/M, WordStar, Spell-Checker, LogiCalc, Microsoft BASIC- 
80, BAZIC, Personal Pearl Data Base. Supports up to 15 users! System w/ 256K RAM, 16 MByte Hard Disk, 1 
5V4 Floppy (8" optional), Clock, Interrupt Controller & Centronix port. Accounting, Inventory, Data Base 
Management software optional. List $7395 , . . , SCALL / 



complete TeleVideo 

MULTI-USER SYSTEM: g 





AT OUR PRICE, 
NO COMPUTER 
SHOULD BE WITH- 
OUT ONE! 

Daisy-wheel, letter-quality, interfaces all com- 
puters. Serial & parallel models at same low 
price. No less than 18 print-wheels— only 



$6.95 each. List $849 ONLY $545( 



V 



INTERFACES & MODEMS, ETC 

Hayes Modems: 

SmartModem300 $214 

SmartModem 1200 $523 

MicroModem II $269 

MicroModem 100(S-100) $289 

VENTEL RS-232 Modem $763 

MICROFA2ER printer buffer $139 

INTERFAZER f/multi-users, up to 8 terminals 
& 2 printers! $239 

SCOTCH DISKETTES by 3M: the very best! 

5 1 /4 ss.dd. 5boxesmin S21/box 



~f : r± ■clv.ll 



GEMINI-10 

from 

Star-Micronics 



,-;t 




X 



"> 



All the features of EPSON-FT, plus backspace, con- 
tinuous underline. List $499 ONLY $ CALL!!! 

GEMINI-15 similar but 15" carriage. Even better 
buy: List $649 ONLYSCALLIII 



keyboard + CRT controller. List S3, 635 SCALL /^8" ss.dd. 5 boxes min $27/boxy 

EAGLE ™ 

COMPUTERS 

Highly rated busi- 
ness computer, con- 
figured as Word Pro- 
cessor at V? price of 

dedicated w.p. (See Popular Computing 12/82). 
CP/M, CBASIC, SPELLBINDER w.p. & ULTRACALC 
included free!!! 

EAGLE II Z80, 64K, 2 Floppies 780K $2349 

EAGLE III same but 1 6M $3199 

EAGLE IV 10M Hard Disk $4795 

Software: Accounting Plus 
All 8MOD only $149511! 



&1 



SYSCOM-2: Apple-Compatible 
Computer 

Runs most software written for the 6502 (Apple II 
and the Franklin Ace). Many improvements 
engineered into this fine machine. Digital analog 
board is part of CPU rather than a separate compo- 
nent. High and low resolution graphics, both black 
and white and color, with video memory and sound, 
are all part of the computer. 48K, 52 keys, 16 colors. 



List $869 SCALL 




i£ 



EAGLE 1600 SCALL *n 



Additional dot-matrix printers: \ 

NEC-8023A (parallel) $459 

AXIOM 80 col. 30cps. graph., p $289 

Okidata 82A (ser/parallel) $CALL 

Okidata 83A 132 col. (s/p) $649 

Okidata 84-P 200 cps. & 50 cps. 

correspondence mode $994 

Okidata 84-S same, but serial $1099 

Okidata 92, just released $ CALL 

Microprism draft/corresp. $529 

Letter-quality printers: 

NEC 3510 33cps serial $1449 

NEC 3530 same, parallel $1599 

NEC 7710/30 55 cps, s/p $2194 

DIABLO 620 25cps, ser $1094 

BROTHER HR-1 $794 

DAISYWRITER, 16K Buffer $999 

QUME NEW SPRINT II 40 cps LIST $1681 $CALL 



Mannesmann-Tally 
MT-160 heavy duty 
serial or parallel, 

TRACTOR INCLUDED. 
$674 



MT 160 L similar, 
letter-quality $759 




Member, Better Business Bureau 



NEW: COD 15-Day Exchange Privilege (subject to terms below) 
ORDERS & INFORMATION: 

Mo.-Fri. 9:00 AM-5:30 PM PST, Sat 12:00 AM-5:00 PM PST 
1(800) 845-5555 CA, AK, HI call (714) 783-1363 



BANK REFERENCE: BARCLAYS BANK OF CALIFORNIA (213) 892-7244 
AMERICAN EXPRESS, VISA, MASTERCHARGE 
APO, FPO, INTERNATIONAL ORDERS ACCEPTED 

inc P.O. Box 3791, Riverside, CA 92519 



BHRT. 




TERMS: Prices in this ad apply to prepaid orders only, reflect 5% cash discount off our regular sale prices. Per- 
sonal checks allow 2 weeks to dear. Fortune-1000 companies, Universities and Government only: 30-day net, based 
on our regular (non-cash) prices. COD based on non-cash prices and requires payment in full by Cashier's Check or 
Certified Check upon delivery. California residents add 6°/a tax. This ad supersedes all prior offers. Prices subject to 
change and offers may be withdrawn without priornotice. All merchandise new in original factory cartons, carry full 
manufacturer's warranty, and are covered by full insurance during shipping. Absolutely no return on used or dam- 
aged items. Software returnable ONLY in UNOPENED original wrapping. We now offer 15-DAY EXCHANGE 
PRIVILEGE, subject to 10% restocking charge on returned merchandise, and excluding special order items. Add 3% 
for Handling, Shipping & Insurance ($3.95 minimum). 

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Microsoft MurtjPlan are trademark of Microsoft Corp. CYMA is trademark of 
CYMA Corp.. TurboDOS is trademark of Software 2000. Z80A is registered trademark of Zilog Inc. WordStar. SpellStar, CaJcStar. 
OataStar, MailMerge are trademark of MicroPro Company. APPLE is trademark of Apple Computer Inc. 



Circle 50 on inquiry card.] 



OUR COMPETITORS COPY OUR ADVERTISEMENTS. . 



COLUMBIA 



The Muiti-Personal Computer 



A ATARI 



=^==^» PC COMPATIBLE 
=.=3=r= HARDWARE 




PLEASE CALL 
FOR MORE -** 
INFORMATION 

Completely compatible with all IBM PC 
software and peripheral cards. 

Features: 16-bit 8088 processor. 128K RAM, 
dual DS/DD floppy disk drives, 8 expansion 
slots, Centronics printer port, and two 
RS-232 serial ports. 



SEC 





PC-6000 Computer Call for Details 

PC-B001A Microcomputer(32K) 699" 

PC-8031A Dual mini-disk drives 699" 

PC-8012A \I0 Unit, 32K, 7 slots 449" 

32K Memory Card (for64K) 179" 

RenTec Wedge Expansion W/32K .... .449" 

NEC PC-8001 Software 

NEC CP/M Operating System 139" 

WordStar by MicroPro 359" 

SuperSorl by MicroPro 179" 

Packages that do not require CP/M: 

General Ledger 299" 

MB, MP, Inventory, Payroll ea.299." 

Report Manager 149" 

Select Word Processor 349" 

We carry more NEC compatible software. 

HUNDREDS OF ITEMS IN 
OUR SPRING CATALOG 
SEND Sl.OO, CREDITED 
TO YOUR NEXT ORDER 



ATARI SOO C57Q 

48K Memory V w# W 

Atari 400 (16K) 229" 

410 Program Recorder 79" 

810 Disk Drive 429" 

850 Interface Module 165" 

16K Ram Module 69" 

Bit 3 80 Column card for 800 269" 

Atari Symtec Lightpen 129" 

ATARI SOFTWARE 

Word Processor (D) 129" 

Microsoft BASIC(D) 69" 

Macro Assembler & Tex! Editor (D) 79" 

Pac-Man (cartridge) 39" 

Centipede (cartridge) 39" 

Missile Command (cartridge) ..32" 

Star Raiders (cartridge) , 39" 

Space Invaders (cartridge) 32" 

Caverns of Mars (disk) 39" 

Assembler/Editor (cartridge) 55" 

We carry much more software for ATARI. 



MODEMS 



^NCHOP AUTOMATION. INC 

Signalman I (RS-232) 89" 

Signalman II (Atari) 89 00 

5)Hayes 

Smartmodem II 300 baud 219" 

Smarlmodem II 1200 baud 519" 

Chronograph 189" 

| Novation |^ 

Novation DCat direct connect 179" 

Cat acoustic modem 149" 




Qcommodore 






iBKJP""! 

COMPLETE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE 

System includes: keyboard, monochrome 
display, dual SD/DD (1 megabyte), disk 
drives,) 64K RAM, parallel printer adapter 
and DOS 1,2 & manual. 

Call for Price and Availability 

IBM Peripherals 

Apparat Combo Card w/cable 209" 

Symtec Hi-Res lightpen 139" 

Davong Hard Disk Drives CALL 

Combo Plus 64K with onboard Serial, 

Parallel and Clock/Calendar 499" 

64K Memory Upgrade Chip set 95" 

MICROSOFT 

64K Card 249" 

Add 95.00 for each additional 64K RAM. 

QUAHWl 

Quadboards with Sarial and Parallel ports, 
clock/calendar, and money In 64K, 128K, 
192K & 2S6K configurations. 

64K Board 449" 

Please call for other configurations. 

ADD-ON DISK DRIVES 

Tandon TM-100'2 Add-on Drive 275" 

Percom Add-on Single Sided Drive 299" 

Percom Addon Double Sided Drive . . .429" 

\?Y ls .™ New! 

VISIWORD VISICALC 

WORD PROCESSING EXTENDED VERSION 

299.95 299.95 



COMMODORE 64 and VIC 20 
PERIPHERALS 

VIC 1541 Disk Drive 329" 

Dataselte Program Recorder 65 M 

Joystick Controller 9" 

VIC 1525 Graphic Printer 319" 

VIC Super Expander 54" 

8KRAM Cartridge 55" 

16K RAM Cartridge 97" 

VIC RS-232C Terminal Interlace 49" 

VIC Modem 95« 

PLEASE CALL FOR DETAILS 
AND PRICES ON COMMODORE 
64 EQUIPMENT & ACCESSORIES 

Software Available Now: 

Mailing List System (T) 20" 

Word (Text) Processor 35" 

Time Management (T) 25" 

EasyCalc (D) 99" 

EasyPlot(D) 79" 

Easy Finance (D) 49" 

Pet Emulalor(D) 29" 

Sprite Editor(T) 17" 

SpriteWriter(T) 19" 

Sprite Writer (D) 24" 

MusicMagic(D) 24" 

Music Magic (T) 19" 

Wordprocessing for CBM 64 (C) 99" 

Pakacuda(T) 19" 

Sprite Master(T) 35" 

Sprite Master (D) 35" 

Sprite Maker(T) 34" 

Totl. Text 2.6 (T) 35" 

Research Assistant (T) 25" 

Business Pak (A/R. A/P, G/L) 489" 

Accounts Receivable/Billing . 189" 

Accounts Payable/Checkwriting 189" 

General Ledger, Ver. 5 1B9" 

64Yahtzee(T) 20" 

64 Finance (T) 20" 

Verbatim 5% SS/DD 10/35" 100/299' 

Scotch 3M 5Vi SS/DD . . . 10/32" 100/250' 

Verbalim 5V< DS/DD .... 10/42" 100/400' 

Scotch 3M 5 V. DS/DD . . . 10/48" 100/380' 

National 5% SS/DD 10/27" 100/239' 

National 5Vi DS/DD 10/37" 100/325' 



DISKETTES 



PRINTERS 



Anadex9501 

Smith-Corona (S or P) 679" 

Pacemark 2350 350 CPS 1 995" 

New! DaisyWriter Model 2000-40 CPS 1249" 

<32 C.ITOH ELECTRONICS. INC. 

F- 10 55 CPS (parallels serial) 1699" 

F-10 40 CPS (parallel) 1379" 

ProWriter8510 10" (parallel) 459" 

ProWriler 8510 10" (serial) 519" 

ProWriter II 1550 15" (parallel) 679" 

ProWriter II 1550 15" (serial) 739" 

•^v, EPSON 



MX-B0 FX Type III w/grapftics CALL 

MX-100 FX Type III w/grahics ........ CALL 

J^)J 1nU-KMl l).il.iS»sU-mvlm . 

IDS MicroPrism (80 columns) 629" 

Prism 132 Color (all options) 1 539" 

NEC 

8023 Impact Dot Matrix 469" 

3510 33 CPS Sprinwrlters Please Call 

OKIDATA y* 

Okidata 82A 80 col. 

Okidata 83A 132 col 689" 

Okidata 84A 132 col 1099" 

Full forms tractor for 82A 60" 

GEMINI 
PRINTERS 

These printers have features Identical to 
the EPSON line and print faster! 

Gemini 10-10" 100 CPS Fric/Trac «9" 

Gemini 15-15" 100 CPS Fric/Trac .... .529" 

Call for more detail on the Gemini line of 
Epson compatible printer. 






mand modes" and use ordinary letters 
(K for kill and such like) while in the 
special mode. Electric Pencil did this: 
one control command put you in a 
special disk-operations command 
table, another into a print command 
table. WRITE follows this precedent, 
as does Select. 

Others use 'escape sequences": the 
computer intercepts the special 
character Control-], called "Escape," 
and interprets the next thing it sees as 
a command. 

Wordstar does both: that is, you go 
Escape, then K, and you are in a 
special command block. Perfect 
Writer and the various EMACS-like 
editors do the same. 

One problem with all this is that as 
the number of commands increases 
they get harder to remember. Worse, 
though, it's distracting for creative 
writers, and many (including me) 
don't like it. Indeed, I like multistroke 
text commands (as opposed to disk 
and print operations) so little that I'd 
rather not have them than use Word- 
star and its relatives. I'll admit, 
however, that if there were dedicated 
keys that accomplished the results 



quickly, I'd opt for more editing com- 
mands than I have at present. Ob- 
viously, then, what's needed is a way 
to send many more unique com- 
mands from the keyboard. 

One way to do that is to have pro- 
grammable keys that send sequences. 
The Otrona Attache computer does 
something like that. You can program 
the Televideo 950 to do it. Tony has a 
version of WRITE that works with 
the Heath/Zenith Z-19 terminal and 
makes use of the escape-sequence 
arrow and other special-function 
keys. 

Another way is to make a 
keyboard that sets the eighth bit. If 
you could do that, you'd have up to 
128 additional "control characters." 

The Archive keyboard has a 
number of special keys that set the 
eighth bit. However, because CP/M 
wasn't designed to support 8-bit 
characters, the CBIOS in nearly every 
CP/M system resets that bit to 
before the program ever gets a chance 
to see it. Tony's CBIOS was no excep- 
tion, but with a difference: he left a 
place in the source code where you 
can intercept what's coming from the 



console and do whatever you like 
with it. 

Now the version of WRITE that I 
have doesn't accept eighth-bit com- 
mands, so even if my BIOS would 
pass them through I couldn't use 
them. On the other hand, I want to 
use the arrows, the Home key, the 
Delete Word key, and such like; 
they're easier to remember than con- 
trol characters. 

The permanent solution to that 
problem is to change my editor so 
that it accepts eighth-bit characters; 
that's being done. Meanwhile, a tem- 
porary solution is to intercept those 
special characters and interpret them. 
That is: the normal command to 
move the cursor up in WRITE is 
Control-W. The up-arrow key on the 
Archive keyboard makes the 
equivalent of Control-K but with the 
eighth bit set (decimal 139, or hexa- 
decimal 8B). I need something that 
sees that hexadecimal 8B, intercepts 
it, and sends character number 23 
(hexadecimal 17), which is Control- 
W, to the text editor. That will cause 
the editor to lift the cursor one line 
when I hit the up-arrow key. 



228 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



BUT THEY DON'T MATCH OUR PRICES AND SERVICES. 



APPLE and IBM 
SOFTWARE 



APPLE II IBM PC 

dBASE II DBMS 449" 449" 

EasyWriter II , 199" 269" 

SORCIM SuPerCalc 229" 229" 

h|| MicroPro 

WordStar 359" 359" 

MailMerge 179" 179" 

SpellStar 179" 179" 

SuperSor I 179" 179" 

NEW! Thesaurus for use with WordStar: 
60,000 words indexed by the 4500 most 
commonly used words (Appie/IBMf . . . 149" 
Peachtree Accounting Packages . . . CALL 

VtsiCalc 179" 179" 

VlsiCalc (256K version) N/A 1 79" 

Extended Version N/A 299" 

VisiTrend/Plot 229" 229" 

Visifile 189" 219" 

VisiTerm 79" 79" 

VisiDox 189" 189" 



MONITORS 



Amdek Video 300 12" Hi. Res Green . . .159" 

AmdekColorl 13" Color w/audio 319" 

AmdekColor II Hi-Res RGB 699" 

Amdek Color III economical RGB 429" 

Amdek Color IV 13" Hi-Res RGB Color .959" 

Comrex Amber Monitors 

CR-5600 Amber Phosphor Monitor .... 199" 

CR6500 Hi- Res 13" Color 329" 

Electrohome Monitors 

13" Med-Res Coior RGB 369" 

13" Hi-Res RGB Color 669" 

US1 12" Amber Monitor 189" 

USI 12" Green Monitor 179" 



Zenith 12" Green Monitor 



119' 



SEC 



NEC Hi-Res 12-Green Monitor 159" 

NEC Composite Color 12" 329" 

NEC(JB 1202) RGB Monitor 749" 

NEC(JB 1203) IBM compatible RGB. . .766" 

® SANYO 

Sanyo 9" Green Monitor 149" 

Sanyo 12" Hi-Res Green 199" 

Sanyo 13" Color Monitor with sound . .369" 
Sanyo 13" Hi-Res RGB Color 795" 

Affordable 



TAXAN 



Vision I 12" RGB 380 lines 359" 

Vision II 12" RGB 510 lines 499" 

Vision III 12" RGB 630 tines 599" 



APPLE II and FRANKLIN COMPATIBLE 
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE 



MICROSOFT 

MICROSOFT SOFTCARD PREMIUM SYSTEM 
(Includes: Z-80 SoltCard. 16K RamCard. 
Videx Videoterm, Softswitch. & CP/M User 
Guide by Osbourne) List 755.00 Special 
Package Pricing — Only 549™ 

Z-80 SoftCard CP/M by Microsoft 249" 

16K RamCard by Microsott & SOURCE .89" 

Hon 



Utility lor 80 Column VisiCalc 49" 



(D Hayes 



23 Mountain Computer 

m. iHto, "" t " 

CPS MultiFunction Card 169" 

Music Synthesizer System 299" 

A/D + D/A 16 Chn Interface 259" 

RomPlus-t- 129" RomWriter . .149" 

Ex pan. Chassis 539" Clock/Cal . . . 229" 

OTHER POPULAR ACCESSORIES 

ALF 9 Voice Music Card 169" 

CCS77i0AAsynch. Serial Card 139" 

Grappler l/F (Specify Printer) 139" 

Lazer LowerCase Plus III 45 M 

M&R 80 Column Video Card 259" 

Novation Apple Cat It 1200 baud .289" 

Practical Peripherals Buffer cards . .CALL 

Thunderware Clock/Calendar 119" 

TG Joysticks 55" 

TG Paddles 35" 

Vista Vision 80 Column Card 249" 

Versawriter Digitizer Pad 249" 

Wizard BPO & SOB cards 149" 



16K Ram Board 

ASSEMBLED & TESTED 
FOR APPLE II A M 0± 

MB S49 

1 *lJ»iw rai ^ While Supplies Last 

BUILD YOUR OWN! 

BARE BOARD ONLY $15.00 



APPLE II COMPATIBLE 
DISK DRIVES 

Fourth Dimension w/conlroller 399" 

Fourth Dimension Add-on 299" 

Rana Drive 289" 

Rana Drive Controller Card 99" 



2ZE2Z 



VIDEO FUN! 




//-sci 




A2 with Controller 369" 

A2 Add-On 299" 

A40 with Controller 555" 

A 40 Add-On 359" 

APPLE AND FRANKLIN 
COMPATIBLE SOFTWARE 

HowardSoft (1982) Tax Preparer 169 og 

MultiPlan by Microsoft 199" 

Microsoft TASC Applesoft Compiler . . 159" 

Screenwriter II Word Processor 119" 

PFS (Personal Filing System) 99" 

PFS: Report 89" 

DB Master by Stoneware 169" 

Landlord Property Mgt. System 399" 

We stock tile Top 100 Selection ol software 
packages for (he Apple II and Franklin, 



Please call or write tor more details and 
special system package prices. 
THE FRANKLIN ACE 1000 FEATURES 

• Apple II Compatible 

• 64K RAM user memory 

• Upper/Lower case w/shift lock 

• Typewriter style keyboard 

• Twelve key numeric pad 

• Hefty 50 Watt power supply 



t fan 



The Franklin ACE 1000 is a professional 
personal computer that is hardware and 
software compatible with the Apple II and 
includes many features not found on the 
Apple. All programs written for the Apple II 
wit) run on the ACE 1000 without modifica- 
tion including those with using high and 
low resolution color or B&W graphics. The 
ACE 1000 is plug compatible with the Apple. 
All peripherals that operate In the Apple II 
will operate in the ACE 1000 without 
modification. 






SYSCOM 



749.95 



187.50 



Stateofthe Art Video Game 
Features unsurpassed graphic resolution, 
superior arcade-type games, and a 
remarkable expansion capability allowing 
the use of existing Atari and Activislon car- 
tridges. 

We carry all o/ the CotecaVision aaaon ac- 
cessories and cartridges PLEASE CALL 



*i |VW7TfiL£L£CTBQrUCS 

1 iNtEUiViSiONl 

ONLY 

228.50 

necessary for Im- 
rient. List 399" 
We carry Intellivision accessories loo. 




kdCUM snif-laii- laoa^ 



89.95 



We cany Timex 
(Sinclair) accessories. 



GQODSQODlOQF G®CuOCDQatf@[r 




8338 Center Drive 
La Mesa, California 92041 



Order Toll Free 

800-854-6654 

Info & Calif 619—698-8088 

We accept most major credit cards, bank wires, money orders, cashiers or 
certified checks and personal checks (10 days lo clear). For shipping, handling 
3nd insurance add 3% if pre-paid with a check and 5% if paid by credit card 
fmin. S5.00). UPS Blue Label air-service is shipped F.O.8. CA residents add 
6°o sales tax. Foreign orders are shipped freight collect. All equipment is 
new and complete with manufacturer's warranty. Send S1.00 lor 
Catalog/Price List, credited lo your next purchase. We have a customer 
satisfaction policy — contact us for details. 



That can be done. The interception 
takes place between the keyboard and 
CP/M as part of the Get Console In- 
put routine that's programmed into 
the CBIOS. It requires assembly- 
language programming, something I 
haven't done in a year or so, but it 
was all very easy: compare the in- 
coming character with 128 (which is 
delete plus one); if there's a carry, 
meaning that the character is smaller 
than 128, continue as before. If 
there's no carry, meaning that the in- 
coming character is 128 or larger, go 
to a special table, look up what I've 
got, see what I want sent instead of 
that, put it in the A register, and once 
again go on as before. 

You then have to assemble this 
with CP/M's RMAC (relocatable 
code macro assembler), patch it into 
the BIOS, and use the CP/M 
SYSGEN function to put the new ver- 
sion onto tracks and 1 of the 
WRITE system master disk. After 
that, any time I do a cold boot with 
that disk in the A drive, the intei- 
preter is operating. 

Obviously there can be more than 
one of these interpreter systems. For 



example, Micropro's Wordmaster, 
which we use for programming, 
wants Control-K as the up-cursor 
command. It was a trivial job to 
change the table in the CBIOS and 
have a new Wordmaster system 
master. Cold boot that, and the up- 
arrow key sends a Control-K. Of 
course, I have to remember not only 
to change system master disks, but to 
reset the computer when I change 
from using WRITE to using Word- 
master. The CP/M ''warm boot" 
command (Control-C) won't do the 
job; warm booting causes CP/M to 
refresh its disk directories, but it 
doesn't read in the system track 
again. 

I realize this is complex. It's impor- 
tant for several reasons. First, unless 
you buy your system — CP/M — from 
an outfit that gives you the source 
code to your CBIOS, you won't be 
able to do anything like that; and 
while there's no temptation to play 
about like that when you first get a 
machine, it's surprising how quickly 
the urge can come upon you. After 
all, I swore to Tony and my mad 
friend that I would never, never be in- 



terested in understanding operating 
systems and all that arcane stuff that 
goes on inside the machine . . . 

Second, it shows just how com- 
plicated things can be just to get some 
convenient features. This is the ap- 
peal of the dedicated word processor: 
they've set up all this for you and put 
the dedicated keys on the console. All 
you have to do is read the labels. I 
agree that's tempting, too. The prob- 
lems come after you've learned your 
system and you want to do things 
that weren't designed into the 
dedicated machine. 

Third, there's a way out: fully 
reprogrammable keyboards. I'm told 
that the IBM keyboard is that way, 
which is why Jim Baen's Magic 
Keyboard program can reassign the 
various misplaced keys. I'm also told 
that the new Lobo Max-80's keyboard 
is completely under software control, 
so much so that it has to read in an 
assignment file when it does a cold 
boot. The Otrona Attache keyboard 
is much like that as well. Alas, neither 
IBM nor Otrona has given us the soft- 
ware and documentation to allow 
complete reassignment of keys. I 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 229 



don't know whether Lobo intends to 
or not. 

I wish everyone would, though. 
Then we could have truly customized 
text-editor programs. 

MorN? 

Mucking about with the CBIOS 
gave me the opportunity to check the 
timing on both the M-Drive and 
N-Drive. As most of you know, these 
are two similar schemes for fooling 
your computer into thinking that a 
big block of memory is a disk; pro- 
grams read and write on the "memory 
disk" rather than an actual disk 
device. This is very fast. Unless you 
have a battery backup, it is also very 
temporary. 

My Compupro 8085/8088 dual 
processor has both M-Drive (several 
of the new Compupro superfast 
RAM-21 boards) and N-Drive 
(Semidisk). Both have advantages: 
the M-Drive memory is available as 
regular memory when I run the 
machine as an 8088 (for instance with 
CP/M-86), but M-Drive can work 
only with the dual processor and a 
direct-memory-access disk controller. 
The Semidisk memory is not avail- 
able for any purpose other than as a 
pseudodisk, but Semidisk will work 
with any S-100 bus machine (and ver- 
sions are available for the IBM Per- 
sonal Computer and the TRS-80 
Model II also). 

Whatever their relative advan- 
tages, they're nearly equal on speed. I 
used the RMAC assembler to assem- 
ble my CBIOS on M-Drive, then on 
N-Drive. The source code is 72K 
bytes long. Much of it is comments; 
Tony believes in well-annotated 
code. Still in all, it's a big enough job 
for a fair test. To make sure there 
were lots of disk operations, I had the 
assembler write both .PRN (printing) 
file and .SYM (symbol tables) onto 
the logged disk. The .PRN file is well 
over 100K bytes long. 

It assembled in one minute and 
nine seconds on M-Drive and one 
minute and eleven seconds on 
N-Drive. This is as near to equal as 
makes no never mind. For com- 
parison I then did the same job on the 
B-Drive. That took 2:49, more than 
twice as long. 



M-Drive and N-Drive are also 
about equal in speed when used for 
spelling checking. I now have a new 
version of The Word Plus that runs 
fine with either M-Drive or N-Drive; 
and because of the pseudodisk 
speeds, it's practical to use The 
Word's Lookup feature routinely. 



Now I have been 

accused of being a 

"typical academic 

snob/' 

Lookup is a search through the dic- 
tionary for words similar to your 
misspelling; with normal disks, the 
computer's search takes about as long 
as it would for me to look up the 
word in Words Most Often Mis- 
spelled, but it's really nice with 
pseudodisks. 

More Benchmarks 

My "Benchmark of Sorts" as 
reported in the October 1982 BYTE 
must have been reasonably popular; 
at least it drew a lot of mail, almost 
all favorable. The program fills two 
20 by 20 matrices, multiplies them, 
and sums all the elements in the 
answer, using REAL variables. 
(Someone wrote to tell me I needn't 
have used reals, because integers 
would do. Of course that's true, but 
the point of the benchmark was to 
test ability to handle real numbers.) 

John Aro of Caspar, Wyoming, 
used the matrix benchmark programs 
on a North Star Horizon Z80A (4 
MHz); for the 20 by 20 matrices, he 
got two minutes and eight seconds 
(2:08) with North Star BASIC and 
1:52 with FPBASIC; 1:10 with JRT 
(p-code) Pascal; 2:01 with CBASIC; 
and 0:24.6 with CB-80. These times 
seem reasonably comparable to those 
I got. 

Using FORTRAN, Harold Conrad 
of Taber, Alberta, Canada, got a time 
of 39.3 seconds for the 20 by 20 case 
on a 2-MHz 8080A. This is again 
comparable but slightly faster than 
the MT + time obtained on my 8085. 

Another letter was from Professor 
Roger Kirchner of Carleton College in 
Northfield, Minnesota (where the 



James and Dalton boys came to 
grief). Professor Kirchner ran my 
benchmark program on his TI-99, 
using the TI-99/4A p-code Pascal 
compiler. 

His time for the 20 by 20 was 75.7 
seconds. By comparison, Pascal M, 
which also uses p-code, did the same 
program in 59 seconds on my Com- 
pupro dual processor. (And see 
above, 8.9 seconds for the Sage 
68000.) 

Professor Kirchner, incidentally, 
argues in favor of Logo as the begin- 
ner's language of choice. 

More Things My 
Postman Brings Me 

This column generates a lot of 
mail. Most is favorable. I brood too 
much about the unfavorable mail, 
but there's not much to be done about 
that tendency; I don't know any 
writer who doesn't ignore 30 good let- 
ters to worry excessively about one 
poison-pen epistle. 

Sometimes, though, I just don't 
know what to do, as for example with 
the pair of letters I got concerning 
Edsger Dijkstra's "unpleasant truths" 
(see the October 1982 BYTE). Pro- 
fessor Edward O'Connell Jr. of the 
Psychology Department of Syracuse 
University tells me "BASIC is indeed 
brain damaging," and I was far too 
unkind to Professor Dijkstra, who 
was essentially correct in his observa- 
tions. 

Meanwhile, John S. Harbaugh of 
the Diebold Company says he's been 
programming for 23 years, and that 
"Mr. Pournell [sic] and Professor 
Dijkstra are typical academic snobs"; 
he takes me to task for being too par- 
tial to Pascal and insufficiently ap- 
preciative of BASIC. 

In fairness to Mr. Harbaugh, it 
looks as if he'd read the quotes from 
Dijkstra and skimmed so fast he 
thought I agreed with them. 

Professor O'Connell's letter is 
another matter. I was going to let it 
go, but I've just read it again, and it 
needs a reply. 

He says, "I have been in the field 
since 1959, through FORTRAN, IPL- 
V, COBOL, GATE, PL/I, BASIC, 
APL, and Pascal. The only one of the 
list that I have found teachable is 



230 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 









The first information management 
system created from its inception for 
the multi-user. 

The first truly professional system created for 

the program merless environment. INFORMA X™ 

brings even to the first time user programming 

capabilities never 

before thought 

possible with 

microcomputers. 



Worlds beyond in 
speed, security, 
capability and 
flexibility: 

SPEED. The first information 
management system 
for micros that is fast enough to 
accommodate full operational 
interactive online computing. 

SECURITY. The first micro system 
providing the total security necessary for any 
business computing situation to function 
properly. INFORMA X™ provides full transaction 
recording for audit purposes and individual 
security to the field level. 

CAPABILITY: Functions far beyond all current 
micro systems with its unlimited number of 
files; multiple screens per record; interactive 



The software syste 
"■"^ from tomorrow. 

Beyond DBMS... beyond user-friendly 

...true multi-user. 

file sharing of data; extensive calculation and 
math computations. 

FLEXIBILITY: INFORMA X™ permits complete 
modification of any file, record or field previously 
entered with no damage or loss to existing 
data; change fields {key or non-key) or change 
calculations at will; and much, much more. 

If you have not experienced INFORMA X™, you 
are worlds removed from the leading edge of 
microcomputing's true Information Management 
capability. 

ABACUS DATA is totally dedicated to 
helping your business move into the 
creative future of software. We welcome 
your questions and comments. Please 
call our toll free numbers- available 
for service, not just sales: 
1-800-874-8555. In Florida call 
collect, 0-904-398-9547. 




is) 



abacus data, inc.™ 

1920 San Marco Boulevard 
Jacksonville, Florida 32207 

Current Equipment Specifications 

NOW AVAILABLE for; Tete Video®, BOS®, IBM PC®, 
MuSYS®, DEC®, NEC*, and others with Z80, 8088, 
8086 CPU's using CP/M®, CP/M-86®, MmmQST®, 
TurboDOS®, dpc/OS®, operating systems. Minimum 
memory 52K. Call for others. 



Circle 5 on inquiry card. 




VisiCalc was a swell idea 

for then. 



The next generation. First generation electronic 
worksheets were a good idea. They were early software 
management tools that could eliminate a lot of hours 
with a spreadsheet, calculator, pencil and eraser. Enter 
Multiplan, the next generation electronic worksheet 
that's as easy to use as it is useful. 
Make comparisons. Compare Multiplan to any of 
the earlier electronic worksheets. We've given you some 
"prompts" above. 

Compare learning time. Multiplan's tutorial book brings 
you up to speed. Fast. But Multiplan doesn't stop there. 
Multiplan's On-line Reference Guide gives you instant 
help if you have questions. It knows where you are in 
Multiplan and offers information related to your problem, 
right on the screen. 

Compare ease of use. All Multiplan prompts are 
full length words or phrases. And Multiplan provides 
"naming," the ability to assign a plain English name to any 

•Based on features in releases VC-202B0-AP2 and VC-156Y0-IBM 
of VisiCalc on the Apple II and IBM-PC respectively. 



cell or area. "Gross Profit = Sales— Cost" rather than 
"AA44=AZ23— BK154." Which means you can work 
more intuitively And faster. 

Compare utility. Multiplan lets you link related work- 
sheets so that information is transferred between them 
automatically. For instance, you can keep regional sales 
forecasts on separate sheets but link them with your overall 
company forecast. Then, just change the forecast for 
any region, and the company forecast sheet is updated 
automatically. Something you can't do with first generation 
worksheets. 

Compare reports. Not just the work you can do, but the 
way you can present it. Multiplan's flexible formatting 
options allow you to produce presentation-quality reports. 
And its sorting capability lets you sort by either alpha- 
betic or numeric order. So a sales manager who normally 
lists sales regions alphabetically could sort by amount 
sold and conveniently rank by sales performance. The 




Multiplan is 

for 



result is a more meaningful and useful presentation of data. 
Compare availability. With Multiplan, you're not 
limited to a single range of computers. Multiplan is avail- 
able for Apple® and for microcomputers that run 
MS™-DOS, XENIX,™ or CP/M-80* operating systems. 
Multiplan supports both 40- and 80- columns on the 
Apple II. 

Compare the source. Microsoft was the world's first 
microcomputer software company. Today, Microsoft 
software is running in well over a million installations, 
worldwide. Languages. Utilities. Business programs. All, 
maintained at the state-of-the-art. 

Compare for yourself. Drop into your computer store. 
Compare Multiplan's powerful user-oriented features 
to any electronic worksheet on the market. If you've 
been using VisiCalc, Multiplan's ability to directly utilize 
your VisiCalc files lets you easily upgrade to Multiplan. 
And that's just another of the many features designed 



a great idea 
now. 

to make Multiplan the electronic worksheet for 
now. And years from now. 

BETTER TOOLS FOR MICROCOMPUTERS 

MICROSOFT 






Microsoft is a regis- 
tered trademark, and 
Multiplan. XENIX, and 
MS are trademarks of 
Microsoft Corporation 

VtsiCalc is a registered 
trademark of VisiCorp 




CP/M-80 is a registered trade- 
mark of Digital Research. Inc. 

Apple is a registered trademark of 
Apple Computer. Inc. 



Attention 
Dealers: 

General 

Accounting 

Programs 

Cougar Mountain's general ac- 
counting programs operate on 
CP/M, MP/M compatible sys- 
tems, including TurboDos and 
MmmOST. Designed to work on 
hard disk systems. 

Program Features: 

• Multi-User w/record & file 
lock 

• Multi-Company use w/con- 
solidation 

• Accounting Integrity w/an 
audit trail which offers data in- 
tegrity to CPA or Comptroller. 

• Outstanding Documenta- 
tion 

• Fully Integrated w/singie 
source entry or stand alone 

• C.A.T.S. Computer Assisted 
Tutorial Software w/3 levels of 
user help Plus can be real 
time or modified batching for 
users with larger volume of 
data input. 

Cougar Mountain Offers 
You: 

• Increased Sales 

• Complete Dealer Support 

through our excellent staff of 
Customer Service Representa- 
tives 

• Training Seminars 

• Assistance in system conver- 
sion and interfacing programs 

• No Risk! 

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! 



*Qougar 

Mountain 

^Software 




10 S. Latah Box 6886 
Boise, ID 83707 
208-344-2540 

TM: CP/M & MP/M - Digital Research; TurboDos - 
Software 2000; MmmOST - TeleVideo 



Pascal. . . . Diddling about with 
BASIC as a first language leads to in- 
fantile fixations. Pascal can be 
taught, is logical, and demands very 
little more than BASIC initially. (By 
the way, how many times do you 
want to write single-statement pro- 
grams of the form 'PRINT 2*2'?)" 

Now what is one to make of all 
this? According to Professor O'Con- 
nell's letter, he has been teaching for 
18 years that which cannot be taught; 
for I doubt seriously that he has long 
been teaching Pascal. Has he really 
been taking money under false 
pretenses? FORTRAN and COBOL 
are not my favorite languages, but ye 
gods, useful computer programs 
didn't start with Pascal! 

It's certainly possible to rationally 
debate what is the best introductory 
teaching language. It's even possible 
that there is no "best" for all ages; 
that BASIC or Logo is "best" for 
young children, while older students 
might better start with Pascal or even 
LISP. One thing I am certain of is that 
letters that inform me that I am "in- 
fantile, naive, biased, and ignorant" 
are not likely to change my views, 
and I'd have thought a professor of 
psychology would realize that. 

He does say my columns are 
"always interesting" and that he likes 
my reviews of equipment and soft- 
ware. 

The Language Debate Continues 

Mr. Paul A. Sand in defense of 
Pascal says, "Pascal is primarily 
useful for composing large programs. 
Its advantages don't usually show up 
in benchmarks and tutorial texts. A 
good analogy is one I heard from an 
employee of Apple Computer: it is 
very impractical to use a Boeing 747 
to run to the corner grocery store; it's 
equally impractical to walk from 
New Hampshire to California. 
Similarly, it is impractical to use 
Pascal for small programs, and 
BASIC — any version — is often 
hopelessly underpowered for larger 
programs." 

I agree with this except for the final 
sentence, which is ambiguous. If he is 
saying that no version of BASIC is 
useful for large programs, I think he 
may be wrong. 



SPP to the Rescue! 

One of my major dislikes of Pascal 
as it is normally implemented on 
microcomputers — I have no ex- 
perience with it on big machines, and 
anyway that's irrelevant since I'm 
writing for "the Small Systems Jour- 
nal" — is that Pascal tries to make me 
think like a computer. Indeed, Mike 
Lehman put it very well in the manual 
to his Speed Programming Package: 

The Speed Programming Package 
helps the user to remove all "dumb" 
errors prior to compilation. One of 
the limits to productivity is the 
human frustration threshold. One 
must experience first-hand reaching 
the end of a four thousand line source 
compilation only to find that a 
semicolon (or period) was missing to 
fully understand the situation. One 
must then re-edit and recompile only 
to find that it may still be wrong, 
leading to only more and more 
frustration. This tends to lead pro- 
grammers to become extremely 
careful and spend much time 
simulating the compiler in their heads 
to save time when the computer 
should be able to make the produc- 
tion of programs easier, not harder. 

That is precisely the point I have 
been trying to make about Pascal: 
that the implementations I have 
worked with seem well designed to 
drive you to either think like a com- 
puter or go quite mad. Perhaps Pro- 
fessor O'Connell and Mr. Nelson and 
my other detractors never leave out 
semicolons. Perhaps they are correct 
when they condescendingly tell me 
that if I had enough experience I 
wouldn't make syntax errors; but 
perhaps they are not. Mike Lehman 
has far more experience than I do; 
after all, he wrote the Pascal MT + 
compiler, first in UCSD Pascal, then 
inMT + itself. 

I don't want to have to think like a 
computer. I want the computer to 
compute, leaving me to get my own 
work done. I don't much care 
whether my programs meet some out- 
side criterion of "elegance" or even 
"efficiency." ("After all," as Carl 
Helmers says, "if you define 'efficient' 
as 'using least memory,' then the old 
one-letter BASIC variables were effi- 
cient. . . .") I do care that my pro- 
grams are easy to work on at periodic 



234 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 





S 100 Wbrld News 



MACROTECH International Corporation 



22133 Cohasset Street, Canoga Park, California 91303 • 213-887-5737 



Megabyte S-100 Memory Here Now 







M 3 Family Growing 

Another product recently introduced by 
Macrotech is soaring to the top of the best- 
seller list. The Multiuser II is a 128 kbyte 
70ns CMOS static ram memory board that is 
unquestionably without peer in the S-100 
marketplace. It's a 6-layer board with blazing 
speed, 8/16 data transfer protocol, and ultra- 
low power external battery support. The 
same M 3 memory mapped addressing archi- 
tecture so in demand with system software 
professionals is now standard in the new 
Multiuser II. M 3 was first developed by Macro- 
tech for the popular Multiuser I 256K dynam- 
ic ram board to meet the demanding require- 
ments of today's sophisticated systems. 



I memory swi&cn:,- 

I A15-A9 





Macrotech's advanced memory mapping 
scheme allows each 4K block of the 16 bit 
(64K) logical addresses to be dynamically 
translated to any 4K block of the physical 
memory. Global memory can be configured 
to any size and located anywhere in the logi- 
cal address space. All remaining memory can 
be addressed through the remaining logical 
address space by simply reloading the map- 
ping registers to address the desired physical 
memory blocks. This scheme permits unlimit- 
ed use of all on-board physical memory. 



Major breakthrough made by 
Macrotech International Corporation 

CANOGA PARK (Ml)-January 20, 1983-Mike Pelkey, president of Macrotech International 
Corporation, today announced a major technological breakthrough in S-100 dynamic memory 
board density. A full megabyte of high speed dynamic ram is contained on a single stan- 
dard size S-100 multilayer P.C. board. The product, dubbed 'Max 1 meets all IEEE/696 mech- 
anical and electrical specifications and byte 
parity generation/checking is included as a 
standard feature. Max supports IEEE/696 24- 
bit addressing (selectable at any 128K boun- 
dary), 8/16 data transfer protocol, phantom 
line operation, and the same ultra low noise 
bus signal filtering provided on Macrotech's 
popular high performance 256K dynamic 
memory board. 

Max is in production now and shipping at 
the all-time low cost per bit list price of Sl,983 
in unit quantity. 

Bruce Kimmel, Macrotech's sales manager 
reports that customers are being served on 
a "f irst-in, first-out" basis and warns that due 
to a high incidence of graphics and similar 
memory-intensive applications, along with an 
unwillingness in the trade to pay exorbitant 
prices for memory, backlogs may occur for 
Max which could delay shipments against 
some late orders. With the improbability of 
second sourcing for some time, interested 
parties are urged to get orders in as soon as 
possible. Bruce can be contacted at 22133 
Cohasset Street, Canoga Park, California 
91303, or reached by telephone at (213) 
887-5737. 



Virtual Disk 
Flexibility Cited 

CANOGA PARK-January 20, 1983-Macro- 
tech reports their Multiuser I and Multiuser 
II S-100 ram memory boards can be used as 
both system memory and "virtual disk" stor- 
age in eight or sixteen-bit applications. Ad- 
dressing flexibility is the key. The Multiuser 
M 3 memory mapped addressing is guaranteed 
to allow memory partitioning to fit the exact 
requirements of your system without ever 
wasting a single byte. 

Today's trend in operating systems appears 
to include extended memory capabilities to 
allow for the recent technological advances 
in semiconductor memory. A close look at 
Digital Research's new CP/M 3™ for example, 
would lead you to believe that it was especial- 
ly created to fit Macrotech's family of Multi- 
user memory boards. (It wasn't, but try to find 
one that fits better.) 




Where it all started: pictured is the popular 
Multiuser I, Macrotech's first product. This 
widely used board provides 256 Kbytes of 
dynamic ram with UK page memory map- 
ping (called M 3 ), 8/16 bit operation, 24 bit 
addressing and byte parity checking. 



MACROTECH 
Announces 
Distribution Expansion 

CANOGA PARK-January 20, 1983-Macro- 
tech is now establishing domestic and inter- 
national dealer/representative networks. The 
California based firm is expanding it's cus- 
tomer support through these channels and in- 
vites inquiries. Volume users and retailers 
should contact the company for details. 

Macrotech's marketing director Bob Ryle 
states, "IEEE/696 has made S-100 legitimate. 
It is rapidly gaining acceptance due to its in- 
herently superior speed characteristics'.' Ryle 
attributes the growing demand for Macrotech 
memories to Macrotech's strict adherence to 
the IEEE standard. Circle 253 on inquiry card. 



intervals. 

Let me praise Lehman's Speed Pro- 
gramming Package. When Mike first 
sent me Pascal MT + , he sent along 
the SPP; but alas, he sent no 
documents for it, and I was never 
able to use it. Every now and again I 
got puzzled letters from readers who 
were using SPP, and who didn't 
understand some of my frustrations 
with Pascal. Why didn't I use SPP? 

Meanwhile, Digital Research was 
redoing the SPP documents, and 
they'd send them along Real Soon 
Now. Eventually they came. 

Put simply, SPP is indispensable. 
It's not wonderful. It could stand 
some improvements. Even so, it's 
vital that if you program in Pascal 
MT + , you must get SPP. 

SPP is a whole package of pro- 
gramming aids, including both 
editing and syntax-checking func- 
tions. As Paul Sand put it in his 
thoughtful letter, many of Pascal's 
deficiencies are disadvantages of 
compilers rather than interpreters; 
compilers are notoriously unfriendly. 



With SPP, though, some of those 
deficiencies are remedied. 

SPP contains a screen-oriented 
editor somewhat similar to Word- 
master. Some changes have been 
made to the Wordmaster command 
structure and not all have been well 
chosen; I particularly miss Word- 
master's little "QP" buffer, and I can't 
understand why Lehman made some 
of his other changes. No matter. You 
can always use Wordmaster to create 
most of your program, then go to 
SPP for the final touches; or, more 
likely, you can simply get used to 
SPP's quirks. 

Incidentally, I'm writing an SPP 
editor CBIOS to enable my Archive 
keyboard to work directly on SPP's 
editor. 

The SPP editor has some of the 
features of the UCSD Pascal editor. It 
aids in indentation, for one thing. 
There's also a ''pretty print" reshuf- 
fler: once your program has been 
created, SPP will automagically 
reformat it with levels of indenta- 
tions. That by itself shows you many 



of your horrible mistakes, such as 
missing END statements. 

Finally, from within SPP you can 
do syntax checking. That goes fast on 
the M-Drive; and when a syntax error 
is detected, SPP puts you 
automatically in the text editor, with 
the cursor where the compiler thinks 
the error was. (The UCSD editor on 
the Sage 68000 system does this also.) 

There are more valuable features to 
SPP. It will check the spelling of your 
variables. If it finds a variable used 
precisely once, that's a pretty good 
candidate for a spelling error. It will 
log source-code modifications. It will 
even run special procedures you write 
yourself. 

In other words, I'm wild about 
SPP, and I think it's high time that 
everyone selling Pascal get busy to 
provide something similar; the effect 
on the national blood pressure will be 
dramatic. 

Database the Easy Way 

If I'm after a quick and easy way to 
store data, I generally use my own 



DECADES OF SERVICE 



Washington Computer Services 

97 Spring St. , New York, NY10012 «■»«*■' «ffi?gg2S5» 8s ' 19 ' 2 

TOORDER: Call our toll-free number: (800) 221-5416. In N.Y. State and 
fortechnical information: (212) 226-2121. Hours: 9 AM-5:30 PM (EST) 
Monday-Friday TELEX: 12-5606 CABLE: WASHCOMP NYK 




NEC 



APC 



The Professional's Workstation 



8086. 16 bit processor; Two 
8" DSDD disk drives; 128K 
RAM (to B40K); green or RGB 

PERFECT FOR: color screen - 
Word Processing 
CAD/CAM graphics 

(1024x1024 resolution) 
DataBase Management 
Accounting 

Chang Lab's Microplan 
IBM emulations 
CP/M-86, MSD0S, UCSD P. 



This new state-of-the-art work 
station out-performs «Xnr\r\nr 
all others near its *OOUU- 

price ranC^e. (One disk drive, green) 

NEC COMPUTERS AND MONITORS 



On N.Y.S. 
Contract #P-07220 



pi rAQri Do not confuse us with mail order dealers. Weare a full service distributor 
r LLHuL . serving the data processing & installation needs of business & industry 
from micros to mainframes. System houses, educational institutions & governmental agen- 
cies given special consideration. Leasing available. N.Y. State agencies, municipalities, 
and schools— call us lor information on our O.G.S. term contracts on hardware & software. 

Please call to make an appointment for demonstration of this extraordinary computer at our showroom. 
Prices subject to change without notice; call for latest prices. Prices include 3% cash discount. N.Y. 
residents add sales tax. CP/M° is a trademark of Digital Research. All sales subject to our standard 
sale conditions (available on request). Above prices do not include customization or installation. 



STEP UP! 




Quality Software for 
Apple II, Apple///, IBM PC. 

Medical, Dental, Office 
And Educational Software 

For further information 
call 

(619)365-6668 




COMPUTER SERVICE 

Village Data Center - P.O. Box 603 
Joshua Tree. California 92252 



236 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 450 on inquiry card. 



Circle 255 on Inquiry card. 



Printer 

Async Serial Int 




Host Computer 2 



A multi-functional Octopus 

It's a printer buffer, a printer spooler, frees 
computer time and enables copying capability. 

A data protocol translator: 

parallel to parallel parallel to serial 
serial to parallel serial to serial 

A multitask data channel controller: 

• enables host computer to communicate 
to multiple peripherals simultaneously. 

• enables multiple computers to communicate 
with multiple peripherals simultaneously. 

• compatible to most interface protocols. 
All in one for only $197.50. 



Standard product includes: Z80 CPU 
One parallel input port (centronic printer and 
IBM PC compatible), one parallel output port 
[centronic printer and IBM PC compatible], 
two Serial RS232 Asynchronous ports, 8KB 
resident memory. 

Options include: 

Up to 256KB upgradable memory 

Graphic enhancements. 

Modem with Auto Dial capability. 

Two additional parallel ports 

Two additional Serial RS232 Asynchronous ports. 

Customized software enhancements. 



in mi computer peripneral! 

1117 Venice Boulevard Los nngeles Cfl 30015 Call Collect C2133 298-1297 Telex: 1S4SG1 LSfl 

Circle 106 on inquiry card. byte March 1983 237 



Circle 235 on inquiry card. 



Software 
Associates 



now introduces 

a new line of 

affordable 

quality 

software 



*35ee 



DATABASE SYSTEM 

A user-friendly file management system. 
Includes: 

- On-screen design of input and report 
formats 

- Multiple field keys with capability to 
search on any field 

- Query language included for easy 
retrieval of file information 

SORT PACKAGE 

A stand-alone, easy to use sorting 
package using fast heapsortfng. Includes: 

- Sorting on up to 10 keys 

- May be parameter file driven 

- A separate file merge capability 

INDEX CARD FILE 

A computerized index card file with user 
designed format. Includes: 

- 60-column x 14-line size 

- Search for any keyword(s) within file 

- Sort "cards" into smaller categories 

- Perform mathematical functions on 
given portions of a card 

SOFTWARE ASSOCIATES 

38A W. Oakland Avenue 

Oakland, N.J. 07421 

(201) 337-2002 



Formats: IBM PC (PC-DOS or CP/M-86); Osborne; 
NorthStar; Altos. Call about the availability of other 
formats. 

Requirements: CP/M-80, CP/M-86, IBM PC-DOS 
(MS-DOS); 64K RAM; Addressable cursor terminal; 
Printer capable of 132 column. 

Terms: Money order, cashiers check, Visa, Master- 
Card, personal or company check (allow 14 days to 
clear), COD (add $4.00) - Include $5.00 for shipping 
and handling. N J. residents add 6% sales tax. All soft- 
ware shipped UPS (ground). UPS Blue Label add $3.00 
per item. 

Trademarks: Software Associates; IBM, IBM PC-DOS 
- International Business Machines, Inc.; CP/M-80, CP/ 
M-86 - Digital Research, Inc.; MS-DOS - Microsoft, 
Inc.; Osborne -Osborne Computer Corporation; North- 
Star- North Star Computers, Inc.; Altos -Altos Compu- 
ter Systems. 

© 1983 SOFTWARE ASSOCIATES 



Minimum Data Base because it's sim- 
ple to use and understand, and so 
long as there aren't more than a hun- 
dred or so records of more than eight 
to ten items per record, MDB is more 
than adequate. 

More complex data storage and 
retrieval requires more sophisticated 
programs. One such I've long recom- 
mended is dBASE II. (I have several 
rivals of dBASE II here, and I hope 
some time to try them; the problem is 
that between MDB and dBASE II 
there's been no need for anything 
else.) 

The only real problem with dBASE 
II is the documentation; getting 
started with it from scratch can be a 
frustrating experience. It's not an im- 
possible task; a number of friends, 
some of whom have zero experience 
with computers, have taken dBASE II 
and created really sophisticated 
record-keeping structures with it with 
no help from anyone. Still, the in- 
troductory documents have not been 
its strongest point. 

Comes now Fox & Geller with its 
Quickcode program; and a good part 
of the problem of getting started with 
dBASE II is solved. The Quickcode 
programs and book will help you get 
set up with dBASE II and get you 
through the transition from "I 
just want to do my Christmas card 
list" to generating sophisticated ac- 
counting programs. 

It works by "screens"; that is, you 
can use Quickcode to set up the struc- 
ture of the database, one screen per 
record; after that, you enter data into 
the database by filling in the blanks, a 
screen at a time. Anyone starting out 
to learn to use dBASE II can save a 
good bit of time and frustration by 
getting the Fox & Geller Quickcode as 
well. Quickcode would also be useful 
for anyone using dBASE II as a pro- 
gramming language. (Many do; it's 
possible to write some very 
sophisticated programs in dBASE II.) 

Keyboard Companion 

One day there appeared via UPS 
five boxes, each about two feet long 
by half that high and wide. The only 
clue as to what they contained were 
the words "Keyboard Companion." 
When we opened them, we found 



238 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



several copies of a device with that 
name. Each was slightly different. 
One was designed for use with a 
TRS-80, another for an Apple, the 
others for more general systems. 

The Keyboard Companion is a 
combination copyholder and tilted 
table. It consists of some metal box- 
like structures to elevate your 
monitor screen and an attractive 
nonmagnetic black Bakelite board 
with an aluminum edge holder at the 
bottom. A plastic line guide/paper 
holder fits onto one edge. The board 
attaches to your screen via Velcro 
strips; the bottom edge can rest on 
your keyboard or alternatively on 
the table that holds the keyboard. 
The result is that you've a table be- 
tween the keyboard and the monitor 
screen for notebooks, program copy, 
notepaper, or anything else you 
might want to be looking at while 
using the keyboard. 

Our Keyboard Companions sat 
unopened for months. Then Barry 
Workman took the TRS-80 away, 
and one of the students remembered 
we had a Companion for it and sent 
that along. Later we got the Apple, 
and out came another. They worked 
out very well; so well that I fished out 
yet another Companion and set it up 
as part of Zeke II's system. The Com- 
panion has proven to be a very useful 
addition to the system, and I am 
beginning to wonder how I got along 
without it for so long. 

When you're designing your com- 
puter setup, it couldn't hurt to look 
into the Keyboard Companion line; 
this might be just what you're looking 
for. They come in 16- and 20-inch 
widths, with screen holders designed 
for most popular monitors. 

New Operating Systems 

As I write this, they're arranging to 
get me a test copy of CP/M 3.0. I've 
just finished speaking with my col- 
league Mark Dahmke, who already 
has it; Mark likes it a lot. It has a 
number of attractive features — in- 
cluding no more Control-C every 
time you change disks. More on that 
next month. 

I'm also eagerly waiting for Tony 
to finish work on the CBIOS for 
CPM-86 to run on the Compupro 

Text continued on page 242 




mm wm mmmi 




■JflHHiHHHBHHHHHIHH 

S-100 STATIC MEMORY I I FULL TWO-YEAR 

BREAKTHROUGH /!> /y /ZN/TS WARRANTY. 

Finally, you can buy state-of-the-art -^V | I O 1 " * ^"7 Arx ~*" he re '' a bility °f our boards, 

S-100/IEEE 696 static memory for your £ *M X^^!^L # # fj through quality-controlled production and 

computer at an unprecedented savings. ^\| ^*^ ^^ ^^ proven performance, has enabled us to 

Memory Merchant's memory _ _ extend our warranty to a full two years, 

boards provide the advanced features, 48K PARTIALLY POPULATED $519. That's standard with us, not an option, 

quality and reliability you need for the 32K PARTIALLY POPULATED $409. This includes a 6-month exchange 

kind of operational performance i | program for defective units. 

?S2!?s by "^ high Speed 64K RAM, MODEL MM65K16S Shipped direct from stock. 

procebborb. # 64K x Qbjt A|| Memory Merchant's boards are 

Completely Assembled. • speed in excess of 6 MHz shipped direct from stock, normally 

Thesememory boards are not kits, • Uses150ns 16K(2Kx8) static RAMS within 48 hours of receipt of your order, 

nor skeletons — but top-quality, high- • Ultra-low power (435 Ma. max. — Call us at (415) 483-1008 and we may be 

performance memories that are shipped loaded with 64K) able to ship the same day. 

to you completely assembled, burned-in, • Bank Select and Extended Addressing 1 6K RAM M odel 

socketed, tested and insured with one of • A 2K window which can be placed MM16K14 

the industry's best warranties. anywhere in the 64K memory map 

Superior Design & Quality. • Four independently addressable 16K 

Memory Merchant's boards are blocks organized as: 

created by a designer, well known for his — J" wo independent 32K banks or 

proven ability in advanced, cost-efficient — ° ne 64 £ Extended Address Page or 

memory design. Innovative circuitry — One 48K and one 16K bank for use ^ 

provides you with highly desired features in MP/M1 (option) \HBBL^" 

and incredible versatility. • Each 32K bank responds W| 

Only first-quality components are independently to phantom \U3S 

used throughout, and each board is • 2716 (5V) EPROMS may replace any or ^Bl 

rigorously tested to assure perfect and ali °f tne RAM 

dependable performance. • Field-proven operation in CROMEMCO 

CROMIX* and CDOS* 

NO Risk Trial. .Compatible with latest IEEE 696 l6Kx8Bit 16K STATIC RAM $169. 

We are so convinced that you will { g ms such as Northstar , compuPro, Bank Select & Extended Addressing 

be absolutely delighted with our boards M ' nrrnu . i M c imqai fmnt nanpi Aitair ° dMI \ 5 lt!l - 1 « ,, 1 S !? 

that we extend a no-risk trial offer. After and many others °n in ? e P endent| y addressable 4K 

purchasing one of our boards, you may «,-«._ . L», CB ■ ... . .. ., „ ^ s u -.■• 

return it (intact) for any reason within 15 0EM and DEALER inquiries invited. One 4K segment equipped with 1 K 

days after shipment and we will refund i ■ . . wndovvs n auo 

the purchase price (less shipping). ' -^ Uses field-proven 2114 (1 K x 4) RAMS 

, Low Power (less than 1 .2 Amps) 

fn^#»IY^tf%rV>™ Runs on any S-100 8080, 4 MHzZ-80or 

NEW S-100 PRODUCTS COMING lUUf^m^m!t & ^ ^ ^^ 

•nuAi wifiRiTrPURnARn UUUI * WSlCIiCII Prices, terms, specifications subject to 

* ?2Tk L 8^6% B ^TA J T?C RA R S cli^Ln^^CA^T 

* 256K 8/1 6 BIT DYN AM IC RAM LeanarO, UM »**0/ / 'Cromix and CDOS are trademarks of CROMEMCO. 
(415) 483-1008 ' MP/M is a trademark of Digital Research 

Circle 264 on inquiry card. 




Number One Add-On 



Communications 




Advanced Comm. 
Card (CC- 232) 

• Programmable to com- 
municate in Bisync, SDLC, 
HDLC, and Async protocols. 

• Two Ports of RS 232 



AST products are available from Computerland, 
Entre\ ComputerWIart and selected dealers 
worldwide. 



CO 332 For use with 

AST-378^^mp 

• An IBM 2780/3780 RJ._ 

Emulator • Supports Bisync 

point- to- point communications 

protocol • Allows file transfer 

between Host& IBM PC • Ideal 

for IBM System 34, 38, 4300 

ftST-SNA 

• Emulates IBM 3274 
Model 51 C Control Unit 

• Emulates 3278 Display Sta- 
tion • Emulates 3287 Type 
Printer* Optional 3770 Emula- 
tion • Cluster Controller 
Operation • Protocol Con- 
verter Support 



Async #1- 



-- ,h 



64-256K 
Memory 



'IfnnijTjJin 




K-256KN 
One Clock Calendar 
• One IBM Compatible 
Port(opt.)*OnelBMC< 
ble Parallel Printer (opt. 
Battery Backed- up Clo 
Calendar (opt.) 



Products for 



Multifunction Cords 









I 


ill] 


i 







All Multifunction Products include: 

• SuperDrive™ - q Disk Emulator Utility Program 

• SuperSpool ,M - a Printer Buffer Utility Program 

Optional: New Connect fill Connector Mounting Bracket 



Async #1 



Vr~-$"~'v. 



Printer- 
Clock -% 

Battery -| 



Async #2 



64-512K 
(with MegaPak) 



MegaPak' 



I/O Plus 1 

Maximum 6 
Functions (no 
memory) • Clock 
Calendar (std.) 
| • IBM Compatible ' 
Async Port #1 (std.) 
IBM Compatible 
Async Port #1 (opt.) 
J • IBM Printer Port 
i« (opt.) • SuperDrive 
\\ (disk emulator 




Async #1 



\V^,~ Printer 



»:• I LlCil •! J tCi •!•%] 



(print spooler prog.) 



\y|sJ§Bii 




:i !:: i 






MegaPlus' 

64K-512K (with MegaPak) • Two IBM 
Compatible Async Ports (1 std., 1 opt.) 

• One IBM Parallel Printer Port (opt.) 

• One Battery Backed- up Clock Calendar 
std.) • Ideal for Concurrent CP/M, MBA, 

circle 3 on inquiry card. VISI Series software packages. 



Connectflll™ 

NEW! AST Proprietory 
Connector Mounting Bracket 
(does not include cables 
shown in illustration) 



I J\ ! 2372 Morse Avenue 
o^"^iiyi- lrvine ' Calif ' 92714 

R€S€ARCHINC (714)540-1333 

Dealer Inquiries Welcome 




THE SBC80A designed for multiprocessor 
/slave or 1/0 processor, has on board 
Z80A-CPU; DI4A; 128K dual ported RAM.no 
wait state, byte/word accessible; Eprom 
sockets up to 32K; 2 RS232; 2 parallel 
ports j Memory Map Prom; 3 counter/ timer; 
floppy controller; hard disk interface; 
math chip AM9511;20 bit Intel Multibus 
21 vectored interrupts; auxiliary power 
input for stand alone. 



INNOVATIVE RESEARCH, INC. 
17071 Kampen Ln, Huntington Bch,CA92647 
714-842-0492. Multibus Intel trademark. 



Circle 501 on inquiry card. 




fbiutx 



SPEECH SYNTHESIZER 
$50 Each 
($40 in 
r hundreds) 

Order in Ones or Thousands 

The SC-01A Speech Synthesizer is a completely 

self-contained solid state device. This single chip 

phonetically synthesizes continuous speech of 

unlimited vocabulary. 

Computer interfaces and text-to-speech algorithms 

also available for product development. 

Micromint is the largest U.S. distributor of the 

SC-01A. Call us (or a price quote. 

Call 1-800-645-3479, in N.Y. 1-516-374-6793 

MICROMINT INC. 

561 Willow Avenue 
Cedarhurst. NY 11516 



Add $2.00 for 
shipping & handling. 




Circle 502 on inquiry card. 



ULTRA-RES GRAPHICS 

N.E.C. UPD7220 GRAPHICS PROCESSOR 

*S-1 00 BUS B&W $995.00* 

-1024 x 1024 PIXEL PLANE 
-Up to 8 VIDEO PLANES 
*S-100 BUS COLOR 1250.00* 

-THREE 512 x 512 PLANES 
-8 COLORS RGE TTL, 2 BD SYSTEM 
♦MULTIBUS 1995.00* 

-THREE 1024 x 1 024 VIDEO 

PLANES 
-SINGLE BOARD 
*IBMPC 995.00* 

-1024 x 1024 PIXEL PLANE 
-UP TO 8 VIDEO PLANES 
SOFTWARE DRIVERS 
HARDWARE ZOOM 1 to 1 6 
SELECTABLE DISPLAY RESOLUTION 
MULTI-GRAPHICS PROCESSORS AVAILABLE 
start at* 

C.S.D. INC. 

PO Box 253 

Sudbury, MA 01776 

617-443-2750 



Items Reviewed 




Keyboard Companion 


TRS-80II $79.50 


PK AY Corporation 


Apple II $77 


POB 11463 


IBM PC $46 


Costa Mesa, CA 92627 




(714) 548-2081 




M-Drive 


128K $1198 


Compupro Systems 


256K $2396 


Oakland Airport, CA 94614-0355 




(415) 562-0636 




Quickcode 


$295 


Fox & Geller 




POB 1053 




Teaneck, NJ 07666 




(201) 837-0142 




Sage II Computer 


$3600 


Sage Computer Technology 




Suite 4 




35 North Edison Way 




Reno, NV 89502 




(702) 322-6868 




Semidisk 


512K $1995 


Semidisk Systems 


1 megabyte $2995 


POB GG 




Beaverton, OR 97075 




(503) 642-3100 




Speed Programming Package 


CP/Mr86 $250 


Digital Research 




POB 579 




Pacific Grove, CA 93950 




(408) 649-3896 




T-Switch 


manual $147 


Inmac 


automatic $395 


2465 Augustine Dr. 




Santa Clara, CA 95051 




(408) 727-1970 




Book Reviewed 




Introduction to the UCSD p-System by Charles W. Grant 


$14.95 


and Jon Butah, Berkeley, CA: Sybex, 1982, 300 pages, 


($1.50 handling) 


(415) 848-8233 





dual processor. CP/M-86 will enable 
the Compupro to run a number of 
programs that run on the IBM Per- 
sonal Computer. On that score, Mark 
Dahmke has it running and says, 
"CP/M-86 makes the IBM PC a 
usable machine." I thought that a bit 
extreme; after all, a lot of people 
think the IBM PC is usable now. I'd 
probably have one if I hadn't become 
so furious over that horrid 



"European-standard" keyboard. 

Mark agreed he'd probably over- 
stated the case but added, "Going 
from MS-DOS to CP/M-86 is very 
much like going from TRS-DOS to 
CP/M. Once you've done it, you can 
never understand how you put up 
with the old system." I'll have to take 
his word for it, but not for long; one 
day I will get a PC, either by getting 
the right kind of S-100 video output 



Circle 503 on Inquiry card. 




BOOKS • with program listings in BASIC 
• theory, equations, full explanation 
of how programs work 



contain same programs as books 
unprotected and copyable 
use as building blocks 
for your own software 



Data Plotting 
Software for Micros 

This Is a system of 18 programs which process and display 
data; pie charts, bar charts, stock market charts, histograms, 
3D views of surfaces, log plots, curve fitting, data manage- 
ment, histograms and statistical analysis. 

Programs are modular, menu driven, written In BASIC, fully 
explained and keyed to theory. Use them as-ls or modify for 
custom applications. 

Programs handle x, x-y, and x-y-z data files. Features include 
automatic scaling, axis marking and numbering, auto replot 
when data changes, and a special program called LABELER 
which places text and symbols over graphics using a moving 
cursor. 

GBook $28.50 DApple disk $1 9.95 DIBMpc disk $1 9.95 



Sinclair Graphics 



This self-teaching guide will show you how to write 2D and 
3D graphics on the Sinclair 1 000. 

Sinclair Graphics Is unique in that the author teaches graphics 
while writing useful and fascinating programs that do charting, 
graphing, games, simulation and computer art. 

The level of mathematics is kept to a minimum yet most 
topics in computer graphics are 1 covered. 

Illustrative programs are applied to business, education, 
science, math and art. The presentation is light and informal 
while cleverly designed to teach graphics fast. 

□ Book $14.95 

Structural Analysis 
Software for Micros 

More than just a collection of stress programs, this package 
contains all the elements commonly found in sophisticated, 
modern CAD systems but on a scale more appropriate for 
micros. 

You will be able to create a finite element mesh on the 
screen of your micro, rotate it in 3 dimensions, and store it on 
disk. Then recall the mesh from disk, recall a file of material 
properties and carry out a 3d truss or frame analysis. 

Nonlinear and large deflection analyses is accomplished by 
an incremental solution strategy. 

Other programs calculate combined stresses, area properties 
and plot deflected shapes of structures. 

All program are modular, menu driven and written in BASIC. 

□ Book S39T.95 □ Apple disk $24.95 □ IBMpc disk $24.95 



Graphic Software 
f or Microcomputers 

This self-teaching guide will show you how to write your own 
2 and 3 dimensional graphic software. It contains 61 fully 
documented programs In BASIC that Illustrate various graphics 
operations and programming techniques. 

Learn how to create 2 and 3 dimensional shapes, translate, 
rotate, scale, stretch, clip, remove hidden lines, shade, create 
perspective views, calculate and plot surface intersections, use 
a tablet to create 3 dimensional shapes and produce animation 
effects. Applications to science, engineering and business. 

Named "the best book available on microcomputer graphics" by 
Creative Computing in Feb, 1 982. 

□Book $21.95 DApple disk $19.95 DIBMpc disk $19.95 
DTRS80 Color Tape $21 .95 



I BMpc Graphics 



This self-teaching guide will show you how to write your own 
2 and 3 dimensional graphic software on the IBMpc. This is a 
special version of the popular Graphic Software for Microcomputers but 
it has been written especially for the IBMpc. 

In addition to the topics covered in Graphic Software, this IBM 
version covers hardware requirements, separating text from 
graphics, and use of the pc's special graphics enhancements. 

All programs are written in BASICA. 

DBook $24 DIBMpc disk $21 



Engineering 
Software for Micros 

This package of 25 programs will show you how to write 
modern CAD software and use your micro for professional 
engineering work. 

Emphasis is on combining computer graphics with engineer- 
ing problem solving. Programs are included to interactively 
create engineering drawings, store them on disk, recall, up- 
date, merge, add physical properties and rotate in 3 dimen- 
sions. Other programs operate on drawings and perform matrix 
operations, Fourier analysis (spectra displayed graphically), 
mechanisms simulation, and optimization. 

All programs are menu driven, written in BASIC and fully 
documented and keyed to theory and equations. 

DBook $28.50 DApple disk $19.95 DIBMpc disk $19.95 



To order, send check drawn on US bank, money order In US funds, Visa or Mastercard number with expiration date to KERN 
PUBLICATIONS, 1 90 Duck Hill Road, P.O. Box 1 029B, Duxbury, Massachusetts 02332. Add $2 per book 4th class postage 
in US and Canada, $4 1 st class or UPS in US; $4.50 1 st class Canada; $ 1 2 air Europe and Central America; $ 1 8 air elsewhere. 

Call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery. 



KEPvM 

?H?iLlO\TlON3 



Circle 238 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



243 



board for the Compupro; or by get- 
ting a Heath/Zenith Z-100, which 
seems to be a complete PC work- 
alike; or by getting the PC itself and 
installing Jim Baen's Magic Keyboard 
reprogrammer. I have too many 
friends who are too happy with the 
PC for me to be a holdout forever. 

Getting the PC won't solve my real 
problem, which was rather succinctly 
put by Professor Ben Singer of the 
University of Western Ontario. Pro- 
fessor Singer writes, "I am still look- 
ing for a metaprogram — one thing 
that you turn on — a giant file cum 
program that you can write with, 
retrieve, make notes, rewrite, find old 
things, but without menus, without 
leaving disks and programs and all of 
that." 

I know precisely what he means: 
I'm looking for that program too. 
Right now we have text editors, 
databases, calculator programs, 
filecard programs, scratchnote pro- 
grams, things to hold telephone 
numbers, spelling programs, etc., but 
they don't really work together. A 
few, like Wordstar with Spellstar and 
Datastar, try to work together, but 
they aren't really what we're looking 
for. 

A possible approach is multitask- 
ing. I've never thought highly of 
multiuser operating systems for 
microcomputers; the computers are 
cheap enough that I think the goal 
ought to be one user, one processor. 
However, that doesn't mean the pro- 
cessor can't be doing more than one 
thing at a time. After all, while it's 
waiting for me to type in more text, it 
can be checking the spelling of the 



text I've already written or doing 
something useful like that. In theory, 
that would be fine; in practice, I 
suspect it would have side effects suf- 
ficiently distracting that I'd never use 
the capability. 

On the other hand, I would greatly 
love to be able to access a desk 
calculator, retrieve telephone 
numbers and disk catalog informa- 
tion, see my calendar, and make log 
entries right from within my text 
editor without having to save my text 
and load a new program. I've even 
made notes on what I'd like such a 
program (or operating system) to do, 
and I've given it the name Executive 
Secretary. I'm told it wouldn't be all 
that difficult to write; that I can add 
some memory, and with a little hard 
work Executive Secretary can be 
made to run. 

I'll believe it when I see it. That 
may not be as long as I think. Tony 
has a whole mess of stuff from Com- 
pupro and has been making 
mysterious noises about new 
upgrades to the operating system; 
while I keep hearing rumors of similar 
activities elsewhere in computerland. 
After all, Compupro already has its 
MPM-8/16 multitasking multiuser 
system, and although it's not quite 
what I want it's a step in the right 
direction. My own bet is that by the 
time the West Coast Computer Faire 
comes along in 1984 someone will 
have my Executive Secretary. I sure 
hope so. 

Pascal Prime Project 

The Pascal Prime Project men- 
tioned last time continues. This is an 



attempt to get major compiler writers 
and publishers to agree on a set of 
"standard" extensions that fix Pascal's 
major defects. Carl Helmers will 
become chairman of the actual 
meeting to be held during the West 
Coast Computer Faire. We've heard 
from nearly all the major compiler 
writers and publishers, and they'll be 
there. Just how much agreement we'll 
get on Pascal extensions is still more 
guesswork than knowledge, but most 
of the compiler people seem anxious 
to cooperate. 

Meanwhile, I've got a copy of 
Niklaus Wirth's report on Modula-2, 
his candidate for the language to 
remedy Pascal's defects and take its 
place. I haven't had a chance to study 
the book yet, but I don't think there's 
a Modula-2 compiler running on any 
system I'm likely to have; until I can 
run Modula-2, then, I'll continue to 
work on fixing Pascal. Last-minute 
flash: we now have Modula-2 work- 
ing on the Sage. I like it a lot. 

The Pascal Prime meeting will be 
open to the public; the structure will 
be a panel discussion of the invited 
participants, after which we'll take 
suggestions and questions from the 
floor. Since we don't have a lot of 
time, and we do hope to get some 
agreement on required Pascal exten- 
sions, we hope the questions and 
comments can be both relevant and 
short. And this column has gone on 
long enough. Next month, I hope, we 
can look at some equipment using 
8087 "math" chips, plus lots more on 
the Sage and the new Lobo Max-80, 
and perhaps the new Epson QX-10 
machine. ■ 



• INTRO SPECIAL* 
BASIS 108 Computer 

w/choice of drives 
with controller Call 

Micro Sci or Fourth 
w/64K or 128K completely 
assembled, tested and 
configured 

• SPECIAL* MICROSOFT 
PREMIUM SYSTEM $599 

• DISKETTE SPECIALS* 
Maxell MD-1 (Box of 10) $ 32 
Maxell 8" (Box of 10) $ 41 

MONITORS 

NEC Hi-Res 12" Green $129 
NEC RGB 12" Color 

Sanyo Monitors Call 

Amdek Monitors Call 

Electrohome Call 

USI Amber $169 

Televideo Terminals Call 

COMMUNICATIONS 

Hayes Micromodem II $275 
Hayes Smart Modem $235 

Hayes Modem 1200 Call 

Microcom 



^ 



OMMUNI 

INC. 



<^sal 



1400 GRANT AVE. / NOVATO, CALIFORNIA 94947 
IMMEDIATE DELIVERY 



CALL COLLECT 



415-892-7139 



BUY COMPUTERS FROM PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO USE THEM. 

SERVICES AVAILABLE: SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS • HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS 

COMPUTER SECURITY • TELECOMMUNICATIONS • BUSINESS- SCHOOLS 

CONSULTATION SERVICES. 

Ask about out clients. All equipment tested prior to shipment. 

If you don't see it, please ask us. 



APPLE PERIPHERALS 

Thunderclock $125 

Mountain Computer Prod. Call 



Videx Products 
Microsoft Products 
Corvus Products 
TG Joysticks/Paddles 
ABT Keypads 



for 
Best 
Prices 

Call 
$ 99 



System Saver Fan 
Saturn Systems 
Axlon Products 
FourthDimension 
Micro Sci Drives 
16-Bit Apple Card 
SVA Products 
Peachtree Software 



$ 77 



Call 
Call 

Call 



Minimum order SlOO Cashiers checks and money 
orders accepted Add 3% lor VISA or MC Add 3% 
' r shipping/insurance/handling. UPS. No COD. 



to clear All products wilhlull manufacturer's war- 
ranty, laclory sealed Calil resldenlsadd 6% sales 
lax Bank wires & P 0, s accepled. Retail prices 
may vary 

Apple is a registered Irademarkol Apple Computer 
Inc All brand names are registered trademarks 



PRINTERS & INTERFACES 
NEC 8023 
NEC Spinwriter 
Okidata Microline 
IDS & C. Itoh 
Anadex Products \ 

CCS Interface Cards | Call 
Qume and Diablo I for 

EPSON w/Graftrax Plus ( Best 
Micro Buffer II I Prices 

Grappler / 

IBM Software and 
- Peripherals 
Techmar STB Products 
Atari Software 



COMPUTER SYSTEMS 

ALTOS Computers 
ATARI 400 & 800 
Basis 108 Computers 
NEC PC8000 Computers 
Sanyo Computers 
T.I. Home Computer 
Xerox 820-II Computers 

APPLE BUSINESS SOFTWARE 

Versaform $299 

SupercalcCP/M $210 

DB Master VER 3 $169 
The Last One 

Format II $275 
ProEasywriterCombo 1 



Accounting Plus 
INVOICE PLUS 
FMS-80, 81,82 
dBASE II 

VISICORP Software 
MICRO PRO 
Wordstar 
Supersort 
Mail Merge 
Data Star 
Spell Star 
Calc Star 



[Call 
for 
Best 
Prices 



244 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 84 on Inquiry card. 




THE MICRO COMPUTER BUSINESS 

WILL GROW FROM $10 TO $100 BILLION 

IN THE NEXT EIGHT YEARS! 

ARE YOU READY TO CASH IN? 

The micro computer business is predicted to grow from its present S10 billion to S100 billion before 1990' Imagine the 
possibilities this opens for you! No matter where you live, if you're starting up or presently in business, no other industry offers 
you more opportunities! 

Now, finally, all the inside information you need to secure a prosperous future in this dynamic industry is available in 
one place - THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR MANUAL! - An immense information source, compiled by our inquisitive research 
team, aided by a panel of experts and business people from all areas of the computer industry! 

We present the inside story of more than 100 lucrative computer businesses you can enter, where you'll find the real 
opportunities for the eighties: from one man operations like Programming Author, Word Processing Center or Consulting, to 
Systems House, Service Bureau, Computer Store etc! Many at little or no investment! All the invaluable facts and figures: 
How to start, Capital needs, Profit estimates and Margins, How to Sell and Market, How missing technical or business 
experience need not stand in your way, Source of Suppliers, etc! Details that could take years to find out on your own' 

We'll show you inside tricks, like how to never again pay retail for computer products and consumer electronics, even for 
one item - right now, while you're starting your business! How to get free merchandise and trade show invitations, etc. This alone 
will more than pay for the manual! You'll read actualcase histories of othercomputer entrepreneurs, so you can learn from their 
mistakes, and profit from their success stories! Where you'll be one year from now depends on your actions today! Let us 
show you how to take the first crucial steps! 

Order now and take advantage of our limited introduction special, THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR MANUAL, and a 
six month subscription to THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR REPORT/NEWSLETTER ( so you're always up-to-date with the 
industry ), both for only $29.95! You must be convinced on how easy you can strike it rich in the micro computer business - or you 
may return the manual for a full refund within thirty days! USE OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER TO ORDER! 

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW 

TO SUCCEED IN THE COMPUTER BUSINESS 

IS ALL IN THIS MANUAL! 

THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR MANUAL has the answers to all your questions about 
selecting, starting and succesfully running a computer business! There has never been such a 
comprehensive collection of know-how and information about this business in one place! All the 
facts you need to plan and acheive your goals in easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions! 

These are some of the 100-plus businesses covered in PART ONE of the manual, with the 
facts on How to start and run, Start-up Cost ( Even how to operate on a shoestring ), What profits 
to expect, Wholesale prices, Mark-ups, Suppliers, future outlook, case histories for each, etc: 

Systems House, Software Author ( who to sell to and who to avoid ). Service Bureau, Soft- 
l ware Publisher ( How to find programs that sell. Word Processing Service. Consulting and Con- 
sultant Broker ( use your skills or those of others, make S150 - S1000 a day!), The incredible 
Games Business. Computer Store ( Franchises: Pro and Contra, or a low inventory store in your 
home! ), OEM, Hardware Mfg, Data base and Teletext Service ( big prospects! ), Used Com- 
puters, Repairs, Rent-A-Computer, Promote Fests and Trade Shows. Turnkey Systems, 
Bartering, Mail Order, Compile and rent mailing lists, Specialized Data Headhunting and Temp Help Service, Tech Writer Shop. Custom Engineering, The 
highly profitable Seminars and Training Business . and many more! 

Many new ideas and ground floor opportunities! Interviews and successstories on companies of all sizes! Privy info on the profits made: How some 
computer store operators net S100 - 5250,000! Little known outfits that made their owners millionaires, one of these low-key companies, making simple boards, 
went from nil to S20,000,000 and 100 employees in four years! Programmers that make 5300,000, Thousands of micro millionaires in the making, etc! 

Whatever your goal is - Silicon Valley Tycoon, or just a business at home - we guarantee you'll find a business to suit you - or your money back! 
PART TWO of the manual is loaded with the know-how and "streetfighting" savvy you need, both as a novice or business veteran, to get started, to stay 
and to prosper in the micro computer business' A goldmine of information in clear and easy-to-use instructions: How to prepare your Business Plan, Outside 
financing, The mistakes you must avoid, How to hire and manage employees, Incorporation ( when, and how to do it cheaply ), Surviving bad times, Record 
Keeping, how to estimate your market before you start. Use multiple locations to maximize profits, how to promote and stay steps ahead of the competi- 
tion! How to get free advertising, free merchandise, free advice, Power negotiating with suppliers to double your profit margins, etc! Even how to keep a 
present job while starting a business part time! 

Don't miss this opportunity to be part of this great industry - the next success story could be your own! Order the manual today! Part one and two, 
bound in a deluxe ring binder, where you can also collect our newsletter ( free for six months with the manual - a 532.50 value! ) - all for only 529.95! 

Order by phone (Credit cards only), or use the coupon: 





THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR NEWSLETTER - 

ALL THE LATEST INSIDE BUSINESS NEWS! 
NOW! SIX MONTHS FREE WITH YOUR MANUAL! 

You're always attuned to the industry, and your 
manual kept up-to-date, with our newsletter! Each issue has 
the latest business news, ideas, new suppliers, our in- 
dispensible ''watchdog" column on profits, discounts 
( don't miss mfg s promos, like recently, when top video moni- 
tor sold at 580 - that's half wholesale, one third of the retail 
price! ), the competition, the big deals, etc! Feature stories 
with start-up info and case histories on new micro busi- 
nesses! 

You'll get invitations to trade shows and conventions, 
the usage of our advisory service and our discount buying 
service for your purchases! 

You'll find many items in our newsletter that will save 
you the cost of your manual many times over! 



CALL TOLL FREE! 

CHARGE IT! 

Credit Card Orders 

( MC, VISA only ) 

accepted 24 hours/day 

1-800-227-3800 

Ask for extension 1135 

In California call 

1-800-792-0990 



ffl ^ 



liiiiii^^i^Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit 

= Mail to THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR PUBLISHING CO. 

= PO BOX 456, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10163 

E Please send me THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR 

E MANUAL, and the six month free subscription to 

E THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR REPORT/NEWSLETTER. 

£ All for only 529.95, plus S3 for postage/handling ( NY resi- 

3 dents: add 52 64 for sales tax ) If I decide not to keep the 

E manual. I may return it within 30 days for a full refund. 

"E NAME: 



= ADDRESS: 



= CITY, STATE. ZIP: 

S □Check or M.O. enclosed Charge to □ VISA Q MC 

= CARD* 

= Exp. Date: — 



SIGNATURE: 



B0383 



(6) 1982, THE COMPUTER ENTREPRENEUR 



Circle 136 on inquiry card. 



TRACK 

THE SPACE SHUTTLE 

ON AN APPLE? 

YES. WITH MICROSPEED! 



At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, NASA 
scientists have discovered the power of MicroSPEED. 
Using this remarkable hardware/software system with 
an Apple II, they produced a continuous graphic 
display of the Columbia's position relative to the earth 
during the second Shuttle mission. This enabled the 
JPL team to accurately follow the spacecraft in real 
time, and to precisely control its powerful sensors at 
critical points along the flight path. 
Surprised that such a demanding project is possible 
on the Apple? So were JPL's engineers, and many 
others who have discovered . . . 



THE MICROSPEED DIFFERENCE This extraordinary 

Language System exploits the real potential of the 
microcomputer for the first time. The difference 
between MicroSPEED and other programming 
languages is that with MicroSPEED, there is virtually 
no limit to what you can achieve. It may well be the 
ultimate language for the Apple II and III (and soon 
the IBM Personal Computer). MicroSPEED literally 
combines the performance of a minicomputer with an 



exhaustive set of user-friendly capabilities: hardware 
math processing, fast hi-res graphics and text, turtle 
graphics, print formating, two text editors, unlimited 
data types, and incredible FORTH extensibility — all 
at speeds up to 100 times faster than Basic. 

USER-FRIENDLY, EASY-TO-LEARN Starting with 
simple commands that are comfortable even for non- 
programmers, MicroSPEED extends and builds, 
allowing you to create your own tailored application 
languages. The capability of your computer will grow 
exponentially, as you work in an active partnership 
with the machine, exploring and developing new 
problem-solving facilities — creating, correcting, 
refining your increasingly powerful system. 




DEMANDING JOBS AT LOW COST MicroSPEED 
has been put to the test in fields as diverse as medicine, 
the stock market, oceanography, and the arts. In even 
the most challenging applications, MicroSPEED 
users have been unanimous in their praise of the 
System and manual. Typical comments are: 

". . . we are more than pleased with MicroSPEED . . . I 
can't imagine using BA SIC on any future applications. " 

Roger Guevremont, National Research Council of Canada. 

"I continue to marvel at its versatility and power. " 
Carl R. Schramm, USCG Base, Kodiak, Alaska. 

"Great! . . . A joy to use. " 

Henry Harris, Mission Design Manager 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

"If you plan to use a personal computer for any 
demanding task, then we built MicroSPEED for you. " 

Sam Cottrell, President of Applied Analytics. 



MicroSPEED requires the Apple Computer with single disk. Micro- 
SPEED II includes 2 MHz math processor. MicroSPEED II + includes 
4 MHz math processor. 

Applied Analytics Incorporated 

8235 Penn-Randall Place 

Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772 

Please send me: 

MicroSPEED II, $495.00 

MicroSPEED II +, $645.00 



"~l 



(301)420-0700 



J 60 Page Manual, $15.00 
.Detailed Information 



Name: 

Company: 

Address: 

City 



.State. 



.Zip. 



_Phone No. ( 




APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER. INC. 



Circle 29 on inquiry card. 



BYTE GAME GRID 






Project Nebula 



Keith Carlson 

43 McDill Rd. 

Bedford, MA 01730 



In light of the enor- 
mous popularity of video 
games, it's not unusual 
that imitations of the 
most popular ones 
should spring up. After 
all, consumers spend $10 
billion a year on video 
arcades, and manufac- 
turers want a slice of the 
pie. So naturally I ex- 
pected Project Nebula to 
be Radio Shack's version 
of Atari's blockbuster, 
Star Raiders. Not so. 
The two games have 
similarities, but after a 
thorough investigation I 
found that Project 
Nebula's differences in 
terms of rules and play 
make it a true original. 

Actually, Project Nebula for the TRS-80 Color Com- 
puter includes four games. Each game offers you 10 levels 
that increase in difficulty. Target practice is the first 
game, and you'll need it. The joystick control is sluggish 
and difficult to use in the beginning, and practice will 
help you get comfortable using it. Whether the unusual 
feel of the joystick was intentional or not, it detracts from 
the game. Target practice will also introduce you to the 
short-range sensors (both front and rear views) in the 
lower corners of the screen. In my initial experience with 
this practice, I discovered one of Project Nebula's most 
interesting aspects: the program maintains depth of field. 




Photo 1: The forward view from 
upper section of the screen. Two 
your energy bolts (diagonal lines 
torn are your instruments showing 



In other words, if you 
have two enemy ships in 
your sights, you can 
only shoot the one in 
front. The second ship 
becomes vulnerable only 
when it is closer to you 
than the leftover debris 
from the enemy you just 
exploded. And the best 
part is that you gain all 
of this wonderful ex- 
perience under the most 
ideal conditions; you can 
shoot the Zykons, but 
they can't shoot backl 

Once you master the 
joysticks and the range 
sensors, you're ready for 
game two. It, too, is tar- 
get practice, but with a 
big difference: now the 
Zykons are shooting at you. But don't fret too much; 
your ship is still safe. When you get a direct hit from an 
enemy bolt, the screen briefly fills with red @ signs, and 
the game continues. During this game, your other 
joystick is activated and it controls the forward speed of 
your craft. That feature isn't particularly useful in the 
first two games, but it becomes quite significant in subse- 
quent games when you have to dock and refuel. 

In the third game, you apply what you've been practic- 
ing. Now you have an entire quadrant to patrol, and with 
a press of the Z key, you view a multicolored map. To 
travel between sectors, you choose a sector and, by press- 



your scout vessel is shown in the 
Zykon craft have dodged one of 
converging in center). At the hot- 
direction, energy units, and score. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 247 



BYTE GAME GRID 



At a Glance 




Name 

Project Nebula 


Language 

6809 machine language 


Type 

Game 

Manufacturer 


Computer Needed 

TRS-80 Color Computer 
(any configuration) 


Tandy Corporation 

1 Tandy Plaza 

Fort Worth, TX 76102 


Additional Equipment 

Two joysticks 




Documentation 


Price 

S39.95 


8-page manual 




Audience 


Author 

Robert Arnstein 


Arcade game players and 
Star Wars fans 


Format 




ROM cartridge 





ing the H key, off you go into "hyperspace." When you 
move in hyperspace from one sector to another, the 
graphics resemble those in Star Wars. You will travel in 
hyperspace often. Every time the Zykons zap your ship, 
you lose energy units. To refuel, you must travel to a sec- 
tor with a base, dock your ship, and get recharged. 

Docking can be tricky. If you forget to reduce your 
speed at the right time, you will overshoot the base. You 
must set the ship's horizontal and vertical directions 
within a certain range, increase your speed until the base 
is in sight, and then decrease your speed to a specified 
point. When you are close enough to the base, you will 
receive a new power pack. Instructions for this procedure 
are included with the game, and with a little practice 
docking almost becomes easy. 



The fourth and final game of the series pulls out all of 
the stops. Not only do you lose energy units when your 
ship is hit, but the accumulated hits begin to take their 
toll on your vessel. The type and level of damage the hits 
inflict remains unpredictable. You must remember to 
check the damage status report, which is displayed to the 
right of the quadrant map. When it's time for repairs, you 
must travel to a base. 

At this point, finding a base can present quite a chal- 
lenge. If your long-range sensors are damaged, you'll still 
be able to display the quadrant map, but the sectors will 
be randomly filled, making it impossible for you to tell 
which sector contains what; in my opinion, false infor- 
mation is more frustrating than no information at all. If 
you didn't memorize which sector has your home base, 
your only recourse is to conduct a costly sector-by-sector 
search, consuming large amounts of time and fuel. Try- 
ing to use damaged warp engines lands you in a random 
sector, no matter where you want to go. I find this more 
maddening than nonfunctional warp engines. 

A few relatively minor things about Project Nebula 
bother me. Its terrible sound effects grated on my nerves 
and detracted from my ability to enjoy the game. As soon 
as I turned off the white noise, I had a much better time. 
Another quibble concerns the strategy for winning. If 
you're cautious, it's practically impossible to lose. An in- 
exhaustible supply of bases for fuel and repair keep you 
from serious trouble, provided you memorize the loca- 
tion of your base. My last objection concerns the ending 
of the game. When you manage to eliminate every last 
Zykon, all you get is a mere congratulations. A rating 
based on the number of times you refueled combined 
with your score would be more gratifying. These prob- 
lems, however, are trivial compared to Project Nebula's 
overall enjoyability.B 



Legionnaire 



Gregg Williams 
Senior Editor 



I have always had an extreme dislike for any game that 
reminds me of a legal contract. I've never liked war 
games for that reason. The rules always have the length, 
clarity, conciseness, and type size of the average in- 
surance policy. I have also never been able to deal with 
war game maps (which are often the size of movie 
posters) and the number of playing pieces (anywhere 
from fifty to hundreds of units); I much prefer the 
playability of simple game mechanisms to complex ones. 



Because of all this, I've never been comfortable with war 
games, even though I've spent considerable hours playing 
them. 

Avalon Hill's Legionnaire changes all that. The name 
of the game is misleading (for most people, it conjures up 
images of American Legion veterans trying to get to the 
Saturday night banquet alive) and the cover art is poor, 
but those are the only flaws in the presentation of an 
otherwise perfect solitaire game. 



248 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Legionnaire is the most recent game by Atari's Chris 
Crawford, easily the most innovative and talented person 
working on the Atari 400/800 computer today. Though 
his previous game, Eastern Front, solves many of the 
problems of war games, it retains several features that 
don't suit me — only one scenario with over 50 pieces on 
each side, a playing time of several hours, and a complex- 
ity that intimidates rather than challenges me. (Dyed-in- 
the-wool war gamers don't have these problems with the 
game, but I'm sure many feel as I do. I'm happy to report 
that Chris is working on an enhanced version of Eastern 
Front that has, among other things, various levels of 
complexity.) 

Legionnaire is Crawford's latest war game, and many 
of its features improve on Eastern Front. For example, 
you can play games of varying complexity and length 
(the shortest is perhaps 10 minutes), you command be- 
tween one and ten units, the computer automatically 
takes care of the enormous amount of calculation and 
record-keeping that conventional war games require, 
and — best of all — the game takes place in real time. 

In Legionnaire, you are Caesar, and you command a 
force of between one and nine Roman legions. You play 
on a scrolling topographical map several screens high and 
wide (see photo 1), and your task is to defeat two bar- 
barian tribes (played by the computer) that are challeng- 
ing your power. When the game starts, you are asked 
how many legions you want to play with. You can 
choose a force of between one and ten legions, the first of 
which represents Caesar. (As the number of units you 
possess increases, you receive successively weaker units; 
the game is easier with smaller forces. Choose five units 
the first time you play.) You then choose one of twelve 
barbarian infantry tribes (listed in order of increasing 
strength and skill) and one of twelve barbarian cavalry 
tribes. Because each tribe is the same size as your force, 
you are always outnumbered by two to one. Your force 
and the two barbarian groups are placed randomly on the 
map, and the game is ready to begin. 

When you press the Start button on the Atari key- 
board, the barbarian units begin to move toward you. 
This is a very unsettling sight, especially compared with 
Eastern Front, in which you had conventional game turns 
and combat takes place only when you are ready. Not so 
in Legionnaire — the game is in real time and you have no 
time to spare. You use the joystick and a hollow-square 
cursor to give each unit up to eight orders, and each unit 
begins moving as soon as you have finished. The amount 
of time you need to execute these orders depends on the 
type of unit, its current characteristics, and the terrain; of 
course, cavalry units are faster than infantry units, but 
infantry units are stronger and harder to destroy. In 
general, units move once every 4 to 30 seconds, which 
gives you an idea of the pace of the game. The Caesar 




Photo la-c: Legionnaire in action. In this sequence, the cursor 
(yellow box) moves to the top edge of the screen (la and lb). 
When it needs to move further up, the background scrolls down 
(1c). You can see this by noting the locations of Caesar (the 
eagle-shaped pink unit) in each photo. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 249 



BYTE GAME GRID 



At a Glance 






Name 


Author 




Legionnaire 


Chris Crawford 




Type 






Arcade-style real-time military-strategy game 


Language 

6502 machine language 




Manufacturer 






Avalon Hill Microcomputer Games Inc. 


Documentation 




45 1 7 Harford Rd. 


A 20-page manual with game instructions, strategy, an 


analysis of 


Baltimore, MD 2 1 2 1 4 


Roman and barbarian units, and some relevant history 




Price 


Audience 




S35 


Game players 




Computer 






Atari 400 or 800 with cassette recorder, joy sticks, and I6K bytes 






of memory 







unit is both strong and fast, but it has a special liability: if 
you lose it, you lose the game. When enemy units are ad- 
jacent and trying to occupy the same square, they begin 
to fight each other. Depending on the circumstances, a 
unit may retreat and/ or lose men and swords; if it loses 
all of its swords, the unit dies and is removed from play. 

The current status of each unit is indicated by the 
number of unwounded men in that unit and a number 
that reflects their combat strength at the moment due to 
fatigue and circumstances. In addition, the behavior of 
each Roman legion and each barbarian tribe is influenced 
by its overall temperament, which is described in the 
rulebook for Legionnaire. Such subtle information is of 
interest to only the experienced Legionnaire player, but it 
can mean the difference between defeat and victory when 
you are playing against the toughest opponents. 

Of course, there is a lot of strategy to Legionnaire. 
Beginners should take the Roman troops to the top of the 
nearest hill and wait for the attack; that way the tired 
barbarians will have to walk uphill to attack rested 
Romans. You should also keep the cavalry units from be- 
ing "pinned"; they should be free to execute a flank (side) 
or rear attack. See "More Legionnaire Tactics" for more 
information; you may want to play the game for a while 
before reading this box. 

Conclusions 

Legionnaire is a wonderful game that, for me, com- 
bines the graphics and movement of arcade games with 
the depth of strategy games. It also performs the valuable 
service of making the war game accessible to people who 
don't like the complexity and tedium of paper-and-card- 
board war games. I also like the large number of grada- 
tions (in both playing time and skill level) it offers; 



Legionnaire has 1,440 variations (10 troop sizes times 12 
cavalry opponents times 12 infantry opponents). Looking 
up combat results in a table (the procedure in most war 
games) has always struck me as a method of combat reso- 
lution that gives the players too much information on 
how combat is decided; seeing only the results of a battle, 
in real time, gives me a better simulation of war-making. 
Legionnaire has taught me more about military strategy 
and tactics than all the war games I've played to date. 

Avalon Hill should be congratulated on such a strong 
game that extends its leadership in the war-gaming field 
to the microcomputer arena. I only wish that Avalon Hill 
had given Chris Crawford more prominent credit — if 
they don't know it by now, Chris's name sells games, and 
Legionnaire is just one example why. ■ 



More Legionnaire Tactics 

• One tactic for winning Legionnaire is to send one of your 
cavalry units toward the slower barbarian infantry units. If 
you are careful, you can get the infantry units to chase your 
cavalry, thus drawing them away from your main group. The 
remaining units (mostly infantry) can usually overcome the 
isolated barbarian cavalry; once that's done, use your cavalry 
to draw the barbarian infantry back to your main group. It 
will take some practice to use this tactic successfully. 

• // you simply can't give your orders fast enough during a 
fierce battle, an undocumented feature of this game is to hit 
the Option key once (hitting it twice ends the game with your 
surrender). The game pauses (as with the Select key), but 
here you can give your units orders. Hit the Start key to con- 
tinue the game. This is, strictly speaking, cheating, and it 
should be used only when necessary. However, the Huns 
(the most powerful barbarian cavalry) are impossible to 
beat, I'm told, so any method of winning is permitted here. 



250 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Omega Race for the VIC-20 



Stanley J. Wszola 
Technical Editor 



It isn't easy converting a well-known arcade game to 
the smaller screen and coarser graphics of a micro- 
computer. Invariably, the microcomputer display doesn't 
look as nice and the game's action isn't as fast as the ar- 
cade version. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw 
Omega Race for the first time. The version for the Com- 
modore VIC-20 is fast paced, has colorful graphics, and 
features good sound effects. 

The game is relatively unchanged from the original 
Bally Midway version. At the start you are shown the 
race course, a rectangular-shaped field with a smaller rec- 
tangle in its middle. The smaller rectangle displays the 
number of ships you have left, your current score, and 
the previous high score. Populating the larger rectangle 
are a number of space mines and android-controlled 
ships. Each ship or mine is worth a certain number of 
points (see table 1). The object of the game is to 
maneuver your ship around the large rectangle and 
destroy the various space mines and android ships in 
your path. 

The course is bounded on all sides by energy fields. If 
any ship hits the fields, it will bounce off like a billiard 
ball. The behavior of the ships can be used to your ad- 
vantage in maneuvering around the course. 

There are three varieties of android ships, each with its 
own behavior. The Death ships look and act like whirling 
dervishes as they careen around the course laying mines, 
firing wildly, and attempting to crash into your ship. 
They are the most dangerous of all because their seeming- 
ly random behavior makes them difficult to destroy. The 
Command ships, which move at a slower pace, are more 
deliberate in their firing and mine laying. They can be 
outgunned and outmaneuvered. The Droid ships are 
slower still, so they present a tempting target. 

All the ships share one interesting characteristic: they 
can evolve into more advanced ships. A Droid ship can 
turn into a Command ship and a Command ship can 
become a Death ship. This metamorphosis usually occurs 
at the most inconvenient moment. 

All of the action on the screen is accompanied by ap- 
propriate sound effects. The sounds of laser fire, ex- 
ploding ships, and the victory fanfare at the end of a suc- 
cessful session add an interesting dimension to the game 
and reinforce its similarity to the arcade version. 



Object 


Point Value 


Photon Mine 


350 


Vapor Mine 


500 


Droid Ship 


1000 


Command Ship 


1500 


Death Ship 


2500 



5000 bonus points are awarded for each Droid force you destroy. 
You receive an additional ship for each 40,000 points you score. 

Table 1: Point values for mines and android ships. 



At a Glance 

Name 

Omega Race 

Type 

One-player arcade-style game 

Manufacturer 

Commodore Business Machines Inc. 
487 Devon Park Dr. 
Wayne, PA 19087 
(215) 687-9750 

Price 

S39.95 

Format 

Plug-in ROM cartridge 

Language 

6502 assembly language 

Computer Needed 

Commodore VIC-20 with game paddle or joystick 

Documentation 

A one-page instruction sheet 

Audience 

Arcade-game players of a\\ ages 



Game Controls 

You can control your ship by means of a game paddle 
or joystick. Using the joystick, you can fire your ship's 
engines by pushing forward. Pushing the stick right or 
left turns the ship clockwise or counterclockwise, respec- 
tively. The button will fire your laser cannon. If you use 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 251 



BYTE GAME GRID 




Photo 1: An Omega Race game display. The game is played on 
a course bounded on all sides by energy fields. Your ship, at the 
left of the course, must destroy the Droid ships, the circular ob- 
jects, and the mines (the single and double triangles). 



Key 


Function 


F1 


Starts game, joystick, 3 ships 


F2 


Starts game, joystick, 5 ships 


F3 


Starts game, paddle, 3 ships 


F4 


Starts game, paddle, 5 ships 


F5 


Selects screen color, 8 choices 


F7 


Selects ship color, 8 choices 


Table 2: Game controls. The special function keys are used 


to select the various game options. 



a paddle, continuously holding down the Fire button will 
fire your engines. Rotating the paddle turns the ship left 
or right. Tapping the Fire button fires your laser. 



The special function keys on the VIC-20 are used to 
select various game options (see table 2). You can select 
the background color, ship color, your choice of paddle 
or joystick, and the number of ships per turn. 

Game Strategy 

The fact that your ship will bounce off the energy fields 
surrounding the course can be used to your advantage. A 
good strategy is to position your ship at one end of the 
course. Point the ship straight up or down and fire your 
engines. The ship will bounce off the energy field at the 
top and bottom of the course. You can then pivot your 
ship to fire down the long axis of the course as you slowly 
drift from top to bottom. This gives you a clear shot at 
the approaching Droid ships, yet you can still duck 
around the corner of the small rectangle for cover. 

In evaluating the game, I used a number of different 
brands of joysticks and paddles. I found that the joysticks 
worked best and that the Atari type was the most respon- 
sive. That's because the game is very sensitive to user 
commands. The Atari joystick had just the right feel, 
whereas other more responsive joysticks caused over- 
control problems. 

I did develop one foolhardy method for increasing my 
score: letting the Droid ships evolve into Command 
ships, which are worth more points. However, this 
strategy could backfire because the Command ships also 
evolve into Death ships, which are much harder to hit. 

It's hard to adequately describe Omega Race in words 
alone. Essentially a visual game, it demands concentra- 
tion, fast reflexes, and a lot of body English. The use of 
the special function keys to select screen color, ship color, 
and choice of paddles or joystick is well thought out. This 
feature lets you modify the game according to your taste. 
Overall, Omega Race is a fun game that retains all the 
best characteristics of the arcade version. ■ 




Through the Trap Door 

March 1979— $35 



Breaking the Sound Barrier 

September 1977— $35 



BYTE COVERS 

The prints shown at left are beautiful Collector Edition Byte Covers, 
strictly limited to 750 prints each, and signed and numbered by the 
artist, Robert Tinney. Each print is lSin, x%2 in., and is accompanied 
by its own Certificate of Authenticity, To order, use the coupon below. 
¥isa and MasterCard orders may call 1-5CJ4-272-7266. 



Please send _ 

Trap Door prints ($35),_ 



Through the 



□ Visa 
Card No. _ 
Breaking the Sound Barrier Expires: _ 

prints ($35), or sets of both prints Name: 

($55). I have included $3 per order shipping Address: _ 

and handling ($8 overseas). ctty- 

□ I have enclosed check or money order State: 



□ MasterCard 



_Zip: 



I 

Robert Tinney Graphics • 1 864 N. Pamela Dr. • Baton Rouge, LA 708 15 I 



252 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 480 on inquiry card. 



TZa&an 



Just plug it into your IBM* and run your business! 



INTEGRATED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM 



GENERAL LEDGER 



ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE 



BILLING 



INVENTORY 



ACCOUNTS PAYABLE 



PAYROLL 



WORD PROCESSOR - Perfect Writer™ 



SPELLING CHECKER - Perfect Speller 1 



File Management System - Perfect Filer 



Electronic Spreadsheet - Perfect Calc ™ 



The best business program package on the 
market . . . providing all the software and 
storage you ever wanted. 

• All programs self-prompting & menue driven 

• Completely integrated accounting system 

• General Ledger includes a chart of accounts develop- 
ed by aCPA 

• Has been in use for four years 

• High speed operation 

• All software pre-installed on hard disk and ready to 
run. No more diskettes & tedious paper work 

• Self-explanatory . . . easy to use 

• All software & hardware fully guaranteed & supported 



m 





H > 



5 MB WINCHESTER DISK 

plus ABOVE LISTED SOFTWARE 

in ONE INTEGRATED PACKAGE 

$2,9952?* 

^Auxiliary Power Booster Required $195. 



Dealer 

Inquiries 

Invited 



• r 



1420 E. Edinger Ave., Suite 115; Santa Ana, CA 92705 

(714)836-3569 



Circle 63 on inquiry card. 



Monte Carlo Card 

THE DISTINGUISHABLE CARD FOR THE DISCERNING USER. 
FIVE FUNCTIONS ON A SINGLE BOARD 



• 64K to 1 Megabyte RAM Memory 

• ONE IBM Compatible Centronics Parallel Port 

• ONE IBM Compatible RS-232 Serial Port 

• Clock/Calendar (Perpetual Time Keeper) 

• Dual-Port Joystick Interface 

• Future Upgrade Option: Plug-On Direct Connect Modem 

• The Clock/Calendar has full alarm features 
and 1/100th second timing. 



This card is the Ultimate 

IBM Peripheral. 

See Your Local Dealer. 

Available 



NOW 



The Monte Carlo Card was 

ingeniously engineered to ensure 

that the maximum possible variety of 

the most sought-after features demanded by 

PC users was amassed upon a solitary board. 

Providing users with the best value for money, 

functionality, reliability, and flexibility, were 

our primary goals, which will enshrine the Monte Carlo 

Card as the premier expansion board for any PC user. 



GRAPHICS 

• Full Color or B/W Tones 

• HIRES and Medium Res. 

• 4-Dot Sizes for Blow-ups 

Reproduce Graphics 

from Screen to Dot Matrix 

Printer, Full Screen or 

Sub-Section 

• Rotation, Color Hue 
Selection 

• Shift PrtSc Graphic 
Dumps 

• Color on Prism 132/80 

• Operates on 
EPSON/NEC/C-ITOH 
PRISM/OKIDATA 



See Your Local Dealer or Call 

l-C Magic 

SPOOLING 

• Selectable buffer 
1 K to 64K 

• Serial or Parallel 

• True Background 
spooling atyour fingertips 

• Save processor time 
SAVE 

MONEY 

• Buffers all text 
and graphics 



TERMINAL 

• RS-232 Direct or 
Modem connection 

• Full terminal capability on 
a chip! Printer Hardcopy/ 
Echo 

• Full input/output buffering 

• Background terminal 
features 

• Easy for user 
customization 



FOR YOUR IBM PC 



IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines. Corp. MBI and l-C-Magic are trademarks of Microcomputer Business Industries, Corp. 



MJCBOCQfVLRUTER. 



B U SI NE SS 



industries: 



ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES: 1019 8TH STREET, GOLDEN, COLORADO 80401 (U.S.A.) 




TELEPHONE: (303) 279-8438 circle 279 on inquiry card. 



TWX: 910-934-0191 





;t» 



I 'V; !>,*,?.* 3 



JJ. 

J 41 Ml 
■i 






CO <D 

i 
C Q. 



O P 



> S 



£ee 



c co ; 

0> (DOT 00 .! 

o< >• 

m m CD 



^ °- °- 1_ "4= o -H- 

05 E E cu cp-o o 






^ '■ "VI 



! 



* 



o 






* 






^< 



^ujiiiovo-a, 



(dOOOQIlQ 



Software Review 



Quickcode 

Help arrives for users of dBASE II. 



Adam B. Green 

Sof twarebanc Inc. 

661 Massachusetts Ave. 

Arlington, MA 02174 



Imagine sitting in front of your computer and saying, 
"One accounts receivable program please — and hold the 
invoicing." Well, the state of the art in software hasn't 
reached quite that point yet, but a new breed of program 
generators is certainly working in that direction. One of 
these program generators is Quickcode from Fox & 
Geller, which generates programs to be used with dBASE 
II, the popular database program from Ashton-Tate. 

Incorporating a database, query language, report 
writer, and full programming language into one package, 
dBASE II is an application-development program. It is 
used to perform information-processing tasks ranging 
from simple mailing lists to full accounting systems. The 
dBASE II language handles most of the "dirty work" of 
programming, such as disk-file and screen-handling 
operations. But even though it simplifies the job of 
writing custom programs, you need a general knowledge 
of programming techniques and syntax to make full use 
of the package. 

Quickcode was developed to help two types of dBASE 
II users: businesspeople who lack the required program- 
ming background and consultants under pressure to pro- 
duce programs in as short a time as possible. A Quick- 
code user with little computer background can describe a 
standard application, such as an inventory system, and 
Quickcode will produce a complete set of menu-driven 

About the Author 

Adam B. Green has written a book on dBASE II and teaches dBASE II 
classes around the country. Sof twarebanc is a mail-order software com- 
pany that specializes in business software. 



programs in the dBASE II programming language. These 
programs are clearly written, well documented, and easi- 
ly modified. More knowledgeable users can incorporate 
parts of these programs into their own applications. And 
the programs that are created do not require Quickcode 
to be present when they are running. If changes are re- 
quired, Quickcode can be used to generate slightly dif- 
ferent versions of the same programs. 

I will analyze Quickcode with three criteria in mind: 
how easy it is for the user to describe the desired applica- 
tion, the length of computer time required for programs 
to be generated, and the quality of the generated pro- 
grams. The limitations of Quickcode will also be dis- 
cussed. 

Describing the Application 

How can a computer understand your billing problems 
when the salesperson who sold it to you couldn't? The 
answer is by using a special program. Some programmers 
call this the human interface, and it can be the most 
challenging aspect of writing a program generator. 

One commonly used technique is to engage the user in 
a long, tedious series of questions and answers. Quick- 
code takes an alternate approach of letting the user fill in 
screens and, in effect, "paint a picture" of the application. 

The first step is to use the Quickcode editor, which is 
similar to a limited word processor, to create a data-entry 
form. This screen mask is used for adding, displaying, 
and editing the data in generated programs. If you don't 
find the editor powerful enough, a word processor such 
as Wordstar can be used to create the screen mask. This 



256 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Introducing 

the world's smallest terminal 

with built-in modem. 



Put 
the whole 

business 

world 

in your 

hand. 






Take life easier. Don't get trapped with an over-priced 
hand-held computer you really can't use or read. Or a 
60-pound terminal in a briefcase that's only good for 
creating a hernia. Take hold of the entire business world 
with one hand. With the DATALINK 1000™. The world's 
smallest and least expensive telecommunications 
terminal. 

DATALINK 1000™ weighs less than a pound and it's 
the portable way to tap into limitless reservoirs of 
information — no matter where you are. 

DATALINK 1000™ brings massive computer power 
as close as your nearest telephone. Just unplug the cord 
from your telephone handset and plug it into the 
DATALINK 1000™. With non-modular phones, use the 
pocket-size acoustic coupler. What could be simpler? 

Use your fully portable DATALINK 1000™ to 
transmit or receive data from your personal or busi- 
ness computer and any one of 500 existing infor- 
mation sources (we'll even throw in two free 
hours of on-line access to the powerful 
CompuServe™ information service). 
DATALINK 1000™ is ready for action 
for stock quotes, airline schedules, 
electronic banking and mail, govern- 
ment and business reports, remote or- 
der entries, or a thousand-and-one 
other tasks. 



Technically, DATALINK 1000™ 

is a miniscule marvel. It packs a built-in modem, a phone 
jack, a choice of AC or battery operation, an easy-to-read 
16-character fluorescent display screen, a full 240- 
character memory, and keyboard selection of two differ- 
ent display speeds ( 1 10 baud for easy screen reading, and 
300 baud for output to a TV screen or high-speed printer). 



Interested Distributors, Dealers and OEMs call: (408) 945-0500 

for information on national sales, promotion, support, and 

pricing programs. Or write Axlon, Inc., 70 Daggett 

Drive, San Jose, CA 95134. For consumer 

information and ordering, call: 

800-227-6703. In Calif: 800-632-7979. 



Because computers really 
should be called. 
Not carried. 





AXLON 



National Distributors: • B.A. PARGH CO. Nashville, Tennessee (615) 361-3600 •BYTE INDUSTRIES, INC. Hayward, California (415)783-8272 • HIGH TECHNOLOGY 
Florissant, Missouri (314) 838-6502 • MARCEY INC. Van Nuys, California (213) 994-7602 • MICRO COMPUTER ELECTRONIC DIST. Reading, Pennsylvania (215) 929-9484 
• MICRO D Fountain Valley, California (714) 641-0205 • NATIONAL MICRO WHOLESALE Medford, Oregon (503) 773-1169 • PMI MICRO WHOLESALERS Fairfield, New 
Jersey (201) 227-8411 • SKU Berkeley, California (415) 848-0802 • VIDEO THEATRE Rochester, New York (716) 621-2003 

Circle 42 on inquiry card. byte March 1983 257 



IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED! 

cfln-Ao™ 

MICROPROCESSOR TRAINING KIT 
WITH EPROM PROGRAMMER 



II Kw* 


iBElSU ill 






scAn-Ao 


» 5^ 







Hlj 


•%; 


Hf^ 






£ 


**§SE 














i^J ' 








D 






PROGRAMMER 
:f POWER SUPPL Y 
PERIPHERAL CARD' 

; j^ 7 | D 8K RAM CARD 

i SOUND CARD 
1 X'PRtNTER CARD 
'£' 27 xx TO 25xx ADAPTER 
j> SPEECH CARD 



At last a microprocessor package designed to give you what you 
want most; combined power and versatility. CAN-80 opens up a whole 
new dimension in the world of microcomputers. 

Whether you are a hobbyist, teacher, student, or just plain like 
to dabble in computers, the CAN-80 is right for you. 

But CAN-80 was also designed with the professional in mind. 
It has a built-in EPROM programmer for 2516, 2716, 2732, 2732A, 
2764-also adaptable for 25xx series. 

Speech processors are of course built-in along with all the other 
features. 

Oh Yes, the CAIM-80 is half the price of the so called competition. 



JPLUS & PLUS CO., LTD. 

USA HANDWELL CORP. 

4962 El Camino Real Ste 1 19 Los Altos, CA. 94022 

Tel: (415)9629265/6 

Telex; 171947 HANDWELL LTOS 

RS PLUS & PLUS CO., LTD. 

3/F, 271, Roosevelt Rd. f Sec. 3, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. 
Cable: "SIGMALTD" Taipei 
Telex: 21 140 SIGMALTD 
Tel: (02) 396-9900 (5 Lines) 

Attention Overseas Buyers Other Than In The U.S. A J 



Attention Overseas Buyers OtherlThan In The U.S. A 
Please make direct contact with our Taiwan Offices. 
Thanks! 



At a Glance 




Name 


Computer System 


Quickcode 


8080. 8085. or Z80 com- 




puter with 48K bytes of 


Type 


usable RAM. a 24 by 80 


Program generator for the 


cursor-addressable terminal. 


dBASE II database language 


1 80K bytes of disk storage. 




and the dBASE \l database 


Manufacturer 


program 


Fox & Geller 




POB 1053 


Documentation 


Teaneck. NJ 07666 


137 pages, perfect bound 


(201)837-0142 






Audience 


Price 


Users of dBASE II who need 


S295 


to produce programs quickly 




and those without any pro- 


Format 


gramming knowledge 


5- or 8-inch floppy disk; can 




use hard disk for storage 




Operating System 




CP/M 2.2. MP/M. Turbodos 





can then be saved on a disk file in a nondocument mode 
(e.g., by using the "N" command in Wordstar), which 
can later be accessed by Quickcode to create the data- 
entry form. 

All variables that will be used in the data-entry form 
(e.g., name and address in a mailing list) are defined in a 
second Quickcode screen. In this screen, the user 
describes each variable in terms of the following at- 
tributes: type of variable, length, default value, mini- 
mum value, and maximum value. The user can designate 
an error message to be displayed if data is entered outside 
the minimum and maximum range. It is also possible to 
specify which variables are to be kept in a dBASE II index 
file. 

A third screen is used to specify which of the 12 possi- 
ble types of programs are to be created (see table 1). The 
dBASE II language encourages the use of small, single- 
function modules, in keeping with the philosophy of 
structured programming. Quickcode follows this practice 
and creates a separate module for each major application 
function, as listed in table 1. 

These three screens allow the user with little or no pro- 
gramming experience to describe an application and ac- 
tually "see' 7 how the finished programs will appear. The 
primary disadvantage is that Quickcode makes certain 
assumptions on several factors, such as the type of menus 
to be used and the overall structure of the application 
system. 

Generating the Code 

This is an area in which Quickcode is far superior to 
other program generators. The user simply presses the 
Escape key, and Quickcode is off and running. For exam- 
ple, if the user wants to create one of every possible type 
of module, up to 34K bytes of dBASE II programs are 
written in less than two minutes, and an empty database 
file can be created at the same time. On my double- 

4 Circle 348 on inquiry card. 




COmWTCR WAR£HOUS£ 



CALL TOLL 

ATARI 

Special 800 System 

800 w/48K, recorder, Pac Man or 

Star Raiders, joysticks Call 

Pac- Man Special 
400 w/16K, 2 joysticks, Pac-Man Call 

1200 Call 

800 (48K) $525 

400 Call 

810 Disk Drive $440 

850 Interface $170 

410 Recorder $75 

830 Modem $155 

16K Memory $60 

32K Memory $75 

PRINTERS 

Anadex 
9620 $1445 

C-ltoh 

F-10-Parallel $1350 

F-10-Serial $1350 

55CPS-Series Call 

8510 Parallel $425 

Computer International 

Daisywriter2000w/16K $1000 

Daisy writer 2000 w/48K $ 1 025 

Comrex 

CR-1-S $800 

CR-1-P $775 

Datasouth 
DS180 $1175 

Diablo 

620 RO wo/Tractors $920 

630 RO wo/Tractors $2050 

630KSR wo/Tractors $2435 

IDS 
Microprism 480 $525 

Epson 
All models Call 

NEC 

PC-8023A $465 

3510 $1375 

3550 $1835 

7710 $2050 

7720 $2425 

Okidata 
All models Call 

PMC 
DMP-85 $410 

Smith-Corona 
TP-1 $650 

StarMicronics 

DP-8480S $300 

DP-8480P $295 

Gemini-10 Call 

Tally 

1805/1802 $1455 

MT 1601 w/tractors $630 

MT 1 60L w/tractors $725 

MT180 Call 

Texas Instruments 
810 Basic $1260 



1-800-528-1054 



I ■ 










Maxell Diskettes 5% ' ' Sector oooj . 


. . . $235 




SOFTWARE 










CP/M IBM 


CP/M 


IBM 




DBase 1 1 


$450 


$450 Sorcim Supercalc 


$225 $225 


WordStar 


$285 


$285 Innovative 




MailMerge 


$125 


$125 Software T.I. M. 


$425 $350 


SpellStar 


$195 


$195 CBasic 


$100 NA 


Visi-Calc 


NA 


$195 Microsoft Basic 80 


$265 NA 


Easywriter II 


NA 


$275 WordStar, MailMerge 




Spellguard 


$225 


$225 Spell Checker 


$445 $445 




PLEASE ADD SS PER SOFTWARE ORDER FOR SHIPPING 





DISK DRIVES 

Percom 

Atari S/D 1st Drive 

Atari S/D 2nd Drive 

Atari D/D 1st Drive 

Atari D/D 2nd Drive 

Rana (Drives for Apple) 

Elite 1 

Elite 2 

Elite 3 

Controller (w/Drive only). 

MONITORS 

Zenith 

12" Green Screen 

Amdek 



$400 
$300 
$525 
$330 

$275 

$360 

$585 

$75 



VIDEO TERMINALS 

Televideo 

910 

910 Plus 

920 

925 

950 

Zenith 

Z-19 

ZT-1 



$570 
$570 
$735 
$730 
$915 

$680 
$550 



$115 



Video 300 

Color I 


$145 
$300 


Color II 


$645 


Color III 


$390 


BMC 

12" Green 


$85 


13" Color 


$265 


Comrex 

13" Color Composite. . . . 
13"RGB 


$290 
$455 


NEC 

JB 1201 


$155 


JB 1260 


$115 


USI 

9" Amber 


$130 


12" Amber 

MODEMS 

Hayes Smartmodem 


$150 
$210 


Novation 

CAT 


$140 


D-CAT 


$155 


Signalman 

Mark I 


$85 



COfYlPUTCR 
WAREHOUSE 



COMPUTERS 

Altos 

ACS 8000-15 

Series 15D 

Series 5-5D 

Eagle 

NEC 

8001 

8012 

8031 

Northstar 

Advantage 

Advantage w/5MB. . . . 

Horizon II 64KQD 

Sanyo 

MBC-1000w/WordStar,CalcStar, 

S-Basic,CPM«> Call 

Above w/2 Drives. Call 

MBC-2000 Call 

Televideo Systems 

TS-802 $2599 

TS-802H $4450 

Zenith 

z-120 Call 

z-110 Call 

COMMODORE 

64 



$3742 
$2125 
$4240 
$2350 

$730 
$470 
$730 

$2800 
$3900 
$2625 



Call 




2222 E. Indian School Rd. 
Phoenix, Arizona 85016 



Order Line: 1-800-528-1054 Other Information: 602-954-6109 

Order Line Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10-5 MST Saturday 9-1 MST 

Prices reflect 3% to 5% cash discount. Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty. Please add $8.00 per order for shipping. 
Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send cashiers check or money order all other checks will delay shipping two weeks. 



Circle 411 on inquiry card. 




Systems Strategies/Communications Division 

Specialists in Data Communications Software 

225 West 34th Street 

New York, New York 10001 

(212)279-8400 

• Custom software to allow your product to 
interface networks and emulate other vendors 
equipment 

• SNA, X.25, BSC software to communications 
compatible product developers for a more 
timely and cost effective entry into the 
marketplace 

• Softwarethat is utilized by computer and 
terminal manufacturers. Target processors 
have included Zilog Z-80, Z-8000, Intel 8086 

• Close contact with your engineers to adapt our 
software to your hardware 

• Software in 'C\ Pascal and Assembler 

• Microcomputer systems development 



A Complete Winchester/Floppy Disk System. 

• Disk controller with 4 ports; supports wide range of drives; 5Va" 
and 8'drives can be on same cable. 

• Z80 CPU includes 4MHz, 64KRAM, 2 serial I/O, 1 parallel, CTC 

• Supports 10MB streaming tape. CP/AA® and BIOS included. 

• Package price: $1,195.00. 

May be purchased separately, Disk and streaming drives available.' 



SIGEN Corporation 




1800 Wyatt Dr., #6, Santa Clara, CA 95054 
Contact: Allen Hauptman, 408/988-2527 

CP/M is o trademark of Digital Research. 



-T- 



Programs: 

ADD Add records to a data file 

CMD Main menu program for entire system 

ED Edit an existing record 

FAU Store default values into data-entry variables 

GET Search for a record by index value 

GO Create index files for the database 

10 Format information for the data-entry screen 

LBL Print mailing labels from the data file 

OUT Format information for printing a single data record 

RPT Run reports created with dBASE II report writer 

VAL Perform validation of data entered in ADD 

WS Transfer dBASE II data into Wordstar/Mailmerge 
format 



Data Files: 

DBF 
NDX 



Database file for storing information 

Index file for rapid retrieval and organizing data 



Table 1: A list of the various types of program modules that 
can be generated by Quick code in the dBASE II program- 
ming language. 



density 8-inch floppy disks, the generation step is actual- 
ly performed in less time than it takes the CP/M utility 
program PIP to copy the same amount of code from one 
disk to another. Of course, this time might vary depend- 
ing on the hardware used. 

The speed of Quickcode should have a noticeable effect 
on the entire program-development process. The cycle of 
writing, testing, and modifying programs becomes a mat- 
ter of hours rather than days. If you don't like a par- 
ticular screen — or want to add another variable — simply 
start up Quickcode, and within minutes a new version of 
the system is created. 

The Quality of the Programs 

While program quality is often a matter of personal 
taste, some objective measurements are available. The 
factors considered in this review are modularity, stan- 
dard use of variable names, internal documentation, and 
performance. 

Because Quickcode writes all its code as small 
modules, the user can maintain control over the finished 
product by specifying which of these "building blocks" 
should be created. A nonprogrammer could generate a 
set of modules for a completely menu-driven application 
system, while a consultant might prefer to generate only 
a few functions and manually code the rest. To encourage 
the latter practice among professional programmers, Fox 
& Geller does not require any licensing fee for resale of its 
generated code. 

To ensure compatibility among all these modules, 
Quickcode uses standard naming conventions for its vari- 
ables. This allows modules created for separate applica- 
tions to be "hooked" together. For example, an inventory 
system might be added to an accounts receivable system 
created several months before. Use of standard naming 
conventions also simplifies the task of integrating Quick- 



260 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 391 on inquiry card. 



code modules with handwritten code. 

The task of including internal documentation in pro- 
grams is the bane of all programmers. This mechanical 
task has now been taken over by Quickcode. The pro- 
grams it writes all contain detailed comments in English, 
which not only eases the job of modifying the generated 
code, but also assists the less-experienced user in learning 
the dBASE II language. 

Evaluating the performance of any written material 
often becomes the personal judgment of an individual's 
style. Two conflicting styles of programming are in com- 
mon practice. One style involves the use of all possible 
tricks and shortcuts in a language in order to optimize the 
speed of the running programs. Advocates of this method 
(often C and FORTH programmers) call it tight program- 
ming. Critics often refer to it as write-only code, because 
of the difficulty in reading it at a later date. Quickcode 
takes the opposite approach and generates clean, stan- 
dard code. The resulting programs could run faster if 
shortcuts were taken, and some programmers might 
prefer to modify the code to take advantage of a personal 
speedup technique. I prefer a slow program that I can 
later enhance, instead of a fast but cryptic mess. 

One area of performance where Quickcode clearly 
shines is in the elimination of programming bugs. A great 
deal of programming time is usually spent tracking down 
and removing these pesky critters. Because the code is be- 
ing generated from prewritten text stored within the 
Quickcode program, syntax errors and improper use of 
commands are eliminated. 

Overall, I would say that the quality of the programs 
produced by Quickcode is equal to that of a very 
methodical programmer with more than one year's ex- 
perience with dBASE II. 

Documentation 

The 130-page manual that accompanies Quickcode is 
fairly easy to follow. A preliminary tutorial section is 
designed for overly anxious users who need their applica- 
tions finished two weeks before buying the product. This 
is followed by detailed instructions on each section of the 
program. 

Although there is a table of contents, the manual lacks 
an index. I hope that Fox & Geller finds the time to add 
one, even though it might seem to fly in the face of tradi- 
tion. 

The manual also needs more detailed application ex- 
amples. Although the basic operation of Quickcode is 
clearly described, a sample inventory or accounts pay- 
able system would be helpful. 

Limitations 

While I am obviously pleased with most aspects of 
Quickcode, it has some limitations that should be made 
clear. A major weakness is the inability to create pro- 
grams that access more than one data file. Also, some Fox 
& Geller advertisements claim that a complete accounting 
system could be "knocked out in a weekend." Typically, 
accounting systems consist of several modules that share 



data files. For example, a receivable module must be able 
to access the files of an inventory module. And although 
adequate inventory and receivable systems could be writ- 
ten with Quickcode, the necessary integration of the two 
systems would require a fair amount of programming 
knowledge. The other major weakness is the lack of any 
sophisticated report-writing facilities. I hope that Fox & 
Geller will be able to address these limitations in a later 
version. 

Conclusions 

Quickcode is a well-written, easy-to-use program 
generator for the dBASE II programming language, 
which allows the user to describe an application by sim- 
ply filling in screens. 

A large amount of code (more than 30K bytes) can be 
generated in less than two minutes. The code produced is 
modular, easily modified, and runs at an acceptable 
speed. 

The manual included with the program is clearly writ- 
ten, but lacks an index and sufficient application ex- 
amples. The limitations of Quickcode include the inabili- 
ty to access more than one data file and a weakness in the 
report-writing functions. 

The major audiences for Quickcode are dBASE II users 
with little programming background and programmers 
who need to produce large amounts of standard code 
quickly. ■ 




THE FRIENDLY 
COMMUNICATOR 



BRICKER ASSOCIATES 1982 



Circle 349 on Inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 261 



A Faster Binary Search 

An important technique results in faster-running applications 
programs and shorter response times. 



Most applications of computer pro- 
cessing involve searching data tables 
of one form or another. The process 
is used in compilers, language inter- 
preters, command processors, assem- 
blers, database processors, and word 
processors. The regularity with which 
table searching is used makes the 
choice of searching techniques vital. 
A reduction in search time usually 
results in faster-running applications 
programs and shorter response times. 



Dr. L. E. Larson 

General Technology Division 

IBM Corporation 

Endicott, NY 13760 

Although many techniques exist 
for- searching tables in storage and on 
external media, the three principal 
ones are linear, series, and binary. 
The linear search examines each item, 
starting with the first, and proceeds 
sequentially. The series search, based 
on a mathematical series such as the 
power series or the Fibonacci series, 
works by subdividing the table of 
data in accordance with successive 
smaller numbers in the series. The 



Glossary 



Field: a part of a record that holds a 
particular kind of data. Examples: 
name field, telephone number field, 
social-security number field, and zip 
code field. 

Hash duplication: the replacement of 
more than one unique original key by 
the same key after hashing. Example: 
in hashing by division, two different 
numbers divided by the same divisor 
may yield different quotients but the 
same remainder, hence the same key. 
Hashing: transforming a key field into 
a more compact and more easily manip- 
ulated form to increase the speed of 
sorting or searching. Example: if the 
social-security number is the original 



key field, a new key might be calcu- 
lated by dividing the social-security 
number in each record by 10,000 and 
using the remainder as the new key. 
Key: the field of a record that is com- 
pared to a test value in order to identi- 
fy or locate a record. Example: if 
records are searched for a name, the 
name field is the key. 
Record: a group of related data items 
that is treated as a unit; when there is 
more than one record, each record 
contains the same type of item at corre- 
sponding positions. Example: a record 
might contain someone's name, tele- 
phone number, social- security num- 
ber, and zip code. 



binary search divides the table of data 
into two parts, rejecting one part and 
repeating the process on the other 
part until the item in question is 
found. ("Hashing" can be used to 
search by address calculation, but it 
sometimes yields the same key for 
more than one different field, which 
often reduces it to one of the three 
principal techniques.) 

A discussion of a method of en- 
hancing the binary search would not 
be complete without some back- 
ground on the binary search itself. 
The binary search is appropriate for 
tables whose entries are in some 
order. Based on the concept of divid- 
ing a large problem into smaller 
parts, this technique involves divid- 
ing a list into two parts of equal size. 
None of the entries in one part meets 
the search criteria value (low), while 
an entry in the other part does meet 
that value (not low). The binary 
search divides the not-low part again, 
and the process of division continues 
until only one entry remains. The re- 
maining entry, of course, matches the 
search item. 

Usually, the midpoint of a table is 
computed by dividing the sum of the 
left and right indexes by two. Initial- 



262 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 420 on inquiry card. . 





FIRST 

FROM 

TECMAR 

NEW 

REMOVABLE 

CARTRIDGE 

WINCHESTER 



Write for now Tec mar Information Kit. 

TECMAR 

Personal Computer Products Division 

23600 Mercantile Road 

Cleveland, Ohio 44122 

Phone 216-464-7410/Tolox 241735 



complete with 
controller & cartridge 



This is the breakthrough in 
storage that IBM PC people 
have been waiting for, as 
Tecmar engineering keeps 
you moving ahead. 

• the new SyQuest 

5 Megabyte removable 
cartridge Winchester disk 
drive 

• complete, easily installed 
in IBM PC or available in 
IBM-compatible Tecmar 
expansion chassis 

• new Tecmar superspeed 
controller 

• Tecmar disk sharing for up to 
4 IBM PCs 

• your best solution for mass 
storage, and the most 
sensible back-up system 
available. 

We believe this is the future 
in storage because we have 
proved its reliability and 
its advantages. The new 
removable cartridge gives 
you unlimited memory at a 
lower price tag than the basic 
Winchester o\ comparable 
speed. 

cAinitz complete with 

^ 1 / VO controller & cartridge 

AVAII AIU I NOW AT YOUR TECMAR DEALER 





TECMAR COMPATIBILITY, VERSATILITY, 
RELIABILITY, AFFORDABILITY, 
RESPONDABILITY 

II \q firsl and only complete line of fully 

nsion options for IBM 

diskdriv 



NEW SHARED WINCHESTER PC MATE "m 

Our new GT subsystem upgrades our 
original with 3 times faster speed, sharing 
for up to 4 IBM PCs . . . Controller Board 
available for upgrade on trade-in. 




PC-MATE™" FLOPPY 

Controller Board will handle 5 V and 8" 
disks. Winchesters can be installed in our 
floppy subsystem cabinet. 



X X 

A A 



Figure 1: A search tree representing the 
binary-search process. The search begins 
at the top with the root node and proceeds 
down the tree to the leaf or terminal 
nodes. This process continues until the 
search argument is found or the table is 
exhausted. 



ly, the left and right indexes are the 
two extremes of the table. Comparing 
the search argument to the table entry 
at the midpoint determines whether 
the right or left index is replaced. The 
process continues until the matching 
entry is found or the table has been 
reduced to an empty state. 

In the quest for enhancement, 
many different techniques exist for 
analyzing the process time of an 
algorithm. In searching, for example, 



the usual technique is to examine the 
number of comparisons required to 
locate an item in a table. Because my 
enhancement of the binary-search 
algorithm involves moving a portion 
of the midpoint-calculation code after 
a comparison is made, the analysis 
that I will present focuses on the num- 
ber of comparisons and the number 
of required iterations of the midpoint- 
calculation code. 

The binary-search process I devised 
is a traversal of an implicitly defined 
binary-search tree that is a complete 
binary tree as well. Like all traversals, 
it begins with the root node and pro- 
ceeds down the tree to the leaf or ter- 
minal node. Figure 1 shows a repre- 
sentation of the search process as a 
search tree. 

In the binary-search process, if it 
takes one unit of time to locate the 
third element in a table of seven 
entries, then the computation time 
necessary to locate the third entry 
does not double until the table is ex- 
panded to 31 entries. In other words, 
the binary search resembles a loga- 



rithmic pattern despite the use of the 
division process. It is this logarithmic 
performance that has led to the false 
conclusion that little can be done to 
improve the binary search. 

A long-standing rule of thumb 
about random access to data files is 
that 80 percent of the activity is con- 
cerned with only 20 percent of the 
file. The implication is that after a 
data argument has been seen, the 
probability of seeing it on the next re- 
quest is 3.25 times that for the total 
random case. 

Files and tables share an important 
characteristic: both can be viewed as 
linear-ordered representations of the 
records to be inspected and retrieved. 
Extending the 80/20 rule to tables, 
then, suggests a means for improving 
the performance of a binary search. 

Analysis of Enhancement 

Figure 2 shows the implicit tree 
used for the enhanced-search process. 
In this example, a prior search re- 
turned the eighth entry of the table (P 
represents the node returned by a 

Text continued on page 268 



Muyam industries, inc. 



In Texas Orders 

Questions & Answers 

1-713-392-0747 



2251 1 Katy Freeway 
Katy (Houston) Texas 77450 



To Order 
1-800-231-3680 
800-231-3681 



SAVE BIG DOLLARS ON ALL TRS-80 HARDWARE & SOFTWARE 

TRS-80® BY RADIO SHACK. Brand new in cartons delivered. Save state sales tax. Texas residents add only 5% sales tax. 
Open Mon . -Fri. 9-6, Sat. 9- 1 . We pay freight and insurance. Come by and see us. Call us for a reference in or near your city . 
Ref : Farmers State Bank, Brookshire, Texas. 



WE OFFER ON 
REQUEST 

Federal Express (Overnight Delivery) 

Houston Intercontinental 

Airport Delivery (Seme Day) 

U.P.S. BLUE (Every Day) 

References from people who have 

brought computers from us probably in 
your city. We have thousands of 
satisfied customers. WE WILL NOT BE 
UNDERSOLD! 

ED McMANUS 




No Tax on Out of Texas Shipments! 



10% 15% 

OR MORE 

Telex 77-4132 (FleksHou) 

* TRS-80 is a Registered Trademark of Tandy Corp 



WE ALWAYS 
OFFER 

NO extra charge for Mestar Card 
or Visa. 

We use Direct Freight Lines. No 
long waits. 

We always pay the freight and 
insurance 

Toll free order number 

Our capability to go to the giant 
TRS-80* Computer warehouse 5 
hours away, in Ft. Worth, Texas, 
to keep you in stock. 

JOE McMANUS 



VISA' 



264 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 259 on inquiry card. 




Quark turns your Apple III 
into an orchard. 




You can get the most out of your Apple* III 
with office automation software from Quark. In 
fact, our integrated line of technically advanced 
products can dramatically increase your system's 
capabilities. 

And all Quark programs combine this leading- 
edge technology with a singular innovation: sim- 
plicity of operation. Because we think software 
should present challenges to the developer, 
not to the user. 

This approach to product design is clearly 
evident in our Word Juggler™ word processor. 
And since you can enhance Word Juggler with 
special accessory programs, you'll have ample 
opportunities to discover that productivity is 
not merely a cliche. 



*Apple is a registered trademark 
of Apple Computer. Inc. 



Circle 368 on inquiry card. 



Just add our Lexicheck ™ spelling checker, for 
instance. Or our new Terminus ™ communica- 
tions program; ideal for interfacing Apple Ills. 
And perfect for electronic mail applications. 

Your dealer is waiting to give you a compre- 
hensive demonstration of our complete word 
processing system. Plus other Quark products, 
too, such as our Cataly st™ hard disk boot, 
Discourse ™ software spooler, and 
more. See him today You'll 
quickly find that Quark really 
does turn your Apple III into an 
orchard. So all y ou'll have to do 
is shake the trees. 




INCORPORATED 



2525 West Evans, Suite 220 
Denver, CO 80219 




BYTE March 1983 265 



INTRODUCING 1-2-5 

IT'LL HAVE TOUR 

IBM/PC 

JUMPING THROUGH 

HOOPS. 




Meet 1-2-3 - the remarkable new software 
package that puts more raw power at your finger- 
tips than anything yet created for the IBM PC. 1-2-3 
actually combines information management, 
spreadsheet, and graphing in one program that can 
perform all three functions interchangeably and 
instantly at the touch of a key That's power. 

To explain: since 1-2-3's information manage- 
ment, spreadsheet and graphing functions reside 
in memory simultaneously, you can go from 
retrieval to spreadsheet calculation to 
graphing instantly, 
just by pressing a 
few keys. So 




SPltfAOSHEETj 



now you can 
experiment 
and recalcu- 
late and look 
at data in an 
endless variety of 
ways. As fast as your 
mind can think up new possi- 
bilities. There's no lag between 
you and the computer. And that s 
a new kind of power - power 
that's greater than the sum of its 
programs. 

The spreadsheet function. 

If 1-2-3 were just a spread- 
sheet, you'd want it because it has 
the largest workspace on the mar- 
ket (2048 rows by 256 columns). 
To give you a quick idea of 1-2-3's 
spreadsheet capabilities: VisiCalc's 
spreadsheet for the IBM PC offers 15 arithmetic, 
logical and relational operators, 28 functions and 
32 spreadsheet-related commands. 1-2-3 has 15 
operators, 41 functions and 66 commands. And if 
you include data base and graphing commands, it 
actually has 110! 

In addition, 1-2-3 is up to 50 times as fast as es- 
tablished spreadsheets. With all the features you've 
ever seen on spreadsheets. 1-2-3 also gives you the 
capability to develop customized applications 
(with 26 macro keys) and lets you perform repeti- 
tive tasks automatically with one keystroke. If 1-2-3 
were just a spreadsheet, it would be a very power- 
ful tool. But it's much, much more. 

The information management function. 

Add to 1-2-3's spreadsheet a selective informa- 
tion management function, and the power curve 
rises at an awesome rate. Particularly since 1-2-3's 
information management capability reads files 
from other programs such as WordStar, VisiCalc 
and dBase II. So you can accumulate information 



on a limitless variety of topics and extract all 
or pieces of it for instant spreadsheet analysis. 
Unheard of before. Specific 1-2-3 information man- 
agement features include sorting with primary and 
secondary keys. Retrieval using up to 32 criteria. 
1-2-3 performs statistical functions such as mean, 
count, standard deviation and variance. It can pro- 
duce histograms on part or all of the data base. 
1-2-3 also allows for the maintenance of multiple 
data bases and multiple criteria. 

"^v The graphing function. 
"^ ^n 1-2-3's sophisticated graphing commands 
(j HV»BMATiO M » ?^~^^ enable you to create 

MArtAfifMENl-l f , ^v\ gr ? phs ° f UP to r six vari " 

^^ ■*) ables using information 

already on the spread- 
sheet. And have it on 

Ut ' *— J screen in less than two 

/-vTV .^seconds! Once you've 

^p' ^-' ^ made a graph, three keystrokes 
V ^ -, will display it in a different 

\ form. If data on the spreadsheet 



GRAPHS I } 




changes, you can display a revised 
graph with one keystroke. This 
instant relationship of one 
format to another opens up a 
whole new application area. 
For the first time graphics can 
be used as a "what if" 
thinking tool! 

To fully understand just 
how much power 1-2-3 
adds to the personal com- 
puter you'll want to go to 
your nearby 1-2-3 dealer for 
a full demonstration. For his name and address (and 
more information if you want it) call 1-800-343-5414. 



Spreadsheet, graphing, 
information management all-in-one. 




© Lotus Development Corporation; 
Cambridge, MA 02138, (617) 492-7171. 
All rights reserved. 

WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro Inc. 
VisiCalc is a registered trademark of VisiCorp. 
dBase II is a registered trademark ofAshton-Tate. 
1-2-3 and Lotus are trademarks of Lotus 
Development Corporation. 

Circle 491 on Inquiry card. 




Figure 2: A search tree for the enhanced 
binary search representing a table of 11 
elements. A prior search returned the ele- 
ment shown as node P. The subtrees 
branching down from P represent the 
search paths to be followed after compar- 
ing the search argument with P. Although 
the complete search tree extends to a 
depth of 4, the enhanced binary search 
has two trees to consider: the tree shown 
on the left has a depth of 3, and the one on 
the right has a depth of 2. The reduction 
in depth indicates a reduction in the 
number of iterations required by the 
search. 



Hi) 



2(3) 



2(5) 



3 (8) 



3(11) 



3(H) 



3(17) 



Figure 3: A search tree showing the ac- 
cumulated weight of iterations required to 
inspect every element in a binary search of 
seven elements. Numbers preceding 
parentheses identify the depth; numbers 
within parentheses show the cumulative 
inspections. If each of the seven elements 
is equally likely to match the search argu- 
ment, the binary search would require an 
average of 2.43 inspections to find the 
match. 



prior search). The subtrees to either 
side represent the search path used as 
a result of the first comparison. Al- 
though the table's 11 elements require 
a complete binary-search tree to a 
depth of 4, the enhanced search has 
two trees to consider, one to a depth 
of 2 and the other to a depth of 3. The 
resulting change in depth of the 
search tree translates to a reduction in 
the number of iterations required by 
the search. 

Figure 3 illustrates the depth of 
each node in a full binary-search tree 



Iterations 

by 
Element 

12 3 4 

Case 10 2 12 
Case 2 10 12 
Case 3 12 1 
Case 4 2 12 



Table 1: The number of possible comparisons and possible required iterations of the 
midpoint-calculation code for an enhanced binary search of a table of four elements. 





C( 

1 

1 
2 
2 
3 


Dmparisons 

by 
Element 

2 3 4 


Case 1 
Case 2 
Case 3 
Case 4 


3 2 3 

1 2 3 
3 1 2 

2 3 1 



Table 


Subtables 


SubtableWeight 


Entry 


Left Right 


Left 


Right 


1 


7 





17 


2 


1 6 


1 


14 


3 


2 5 


3 


11 


4 


3 4 


5 


8 


5 


4 3 


8 


5 


6 


5 2 


11 


3 


7 


6 1 


14 


1 


8 


7 


17 





Table 2: A summary 


of the possible cases for ar 


i enhanced binary search of a table of 


eight elements. Assuming that the entry in the left-hand column matches the search 


argument, the next two columns indicate the 


number of si 


ibtables to the left and 


right of the entry. The two right-hand columns show the subtable weights, which 


reflect the number of 


iterations necessary to find the search 


argument in each case. 



and the total number of accesses re- 
quired to inspect every node in the 
tree. A binary search of a table of 
seven elements would require an 
average of 2.43 (17/7) accesses if the 
likelihood for all cases were equal. 

Table 1 illustrates all of the possible 
cases for a table of four elements. The 
left half of the table shows the num- 
ber of comparisons required for each 
element in each configuration. The 
right half of the table shows the num- 
ber of iterations through the mid- 
point-calculation code if the com- 
parison is moved to the beginning of 
the loop and the previous search in- 
formation is used. The average num- 
ber of comparisons in the example 
shown is 2.13 (34/16), but the num- 
ber of iterations is 1.13 (18/16). 
Traditional implementations would 
have required 2.00 iterations of the 
comparison code and the midpoint- 
calculation code. 

Table 2 summarizes "the possible 
cases for a table of eight elements and 
the number of table interrogations re- 



quired to inspect every entry in every 
subtable for every case. The subtable 
"weights" reflect the number of itera- 
tions required in each case. If the 
weights are added and the equal-like- 
lihood assumption is applied, the 
result is an average of 2.84 table ac- 
cesses and 1.84 iterations. 

For a full binary tree of depth D, 
there are 2 {D ' l) nodes at that depth. In 
general, at depth K there are 2 lK ~ l) 
nodes at the level of K in the tree. 
When the tree is full (meaning all 
nodes are present at a level), the 
average number of comparisons (C) 
to locate a node, assuming equal like- 
lihood, is the sum of the levels for 
each node divided by the number of 
nodes. Thus 



c = L 



1(2") 



To extend to the case for the com- 
plete, but not full, binary tree, the 
average becomes 

7(2 / ' 1 )+^(D + l) 



c = L 



N 



268 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



art «** ' 

* co«»- ******* 




256 K RAM 

A 64K to 256 K parity checking RAM is 
fully socketed for easy memory 
expansion. The memory address is 
switch selectable, using up only the 
required memory space. 

GAME I/O 

Interface consisting of two joy-sticks 
and four switch inputs are IBM BASIC 
compatible. A standard GAME I/O 
DB 1 5 connector provides connec- 
tion to the rear plate of the IBM 
computer. 

GOLD IBM INTERFACE 

Gold connectors as well as glass epoxy 

PCB will provide years of reliable 

service, with all hardware interface 

meeting the IBM specification. 

ASYNCHRONOUS 
COMMUNICATION 

A RS232 and 20Ma [TTYJ interface sup- 
ports software programable baud 
rates, parity, stop bits, and character. 
Modem and serial printer are fully 
supported by the IBM communica- 
tion software. A standard DB25 con- 
nector allows for the easy connec- 
tion to serial devices. 



0( V f ^.pCTheTrun.p 
I ^h 256K **"■ * yn " 






****** wop^A 







Available At 
CompuShack Stores 

OUTSTANDING 

QUALITY 

AT AFFORDABLE 

PRICES! 

For Further Information Contact: 
Tava Corp. 

2630 Walnut Ave., Suite G 
Tustin, CA 92680 
(714J 730-6772 
Headquarters Telex: 18-3511 
Answer Back CSMA 

'TRUMP CARD is a registered trademark of 1AVA Corporation 
*IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation, 



Circle 357 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 269 



APPLE » ALTOS « ATARI • MAXELL « DYSAN • EPSON • CCS • SHARP • CASIO • HP • VERBATIM • MEMOREX • SOROC • CORVUS • ADDS 



MICRO 



BUSINESS WORLD INC. 
Information Line (213) 996-2252 
TOLL FREE MAIL ORDER LINES 

(800) 423-5886 outside cam. 




Eg! SPECIAL OF THE MON 1'H FEffil 

DISK DRIVES FOR THE PC 

DOUBLE SIDED/DOUBLE DENSITY 320K 

MSL OUR °NE YEAR WARRANTY 

$650.00 PRICE $239.00 





APPLE II 
PLUS 



PLUG-COMPATIBLE DRIVES 
RANA ELITE I 

W/CONTROLLER W/OUT CONTROLLER 

MSL OUR PRICE I MSL OUR PRICE 
549.00 399.00 449.00 329.00 



MICRO-SCI A2 

W/CONTROLLER W/OUT CONTROLLER 

msl OUR PRICEl MSL OUR PRICE 
519.00 379.00 1 409.00 299.00 A 



imgi 







PERSONAL 
COMPUTER 

INCLUDES: 

2 Drives DS/DD 
Color Graphic Board 
64K Memory 



12" BMC 
GRN PHS 

MQI OUR PRICE 5^ 
355000 *""° 555,00 

•Subject to availability 



ALTOS 8 BIT SYSTEMS 

Z80-8ASED MULTIUSER 

WINCHESTER HARD DISK AND FLOPPY SYSTEMS 

INCLUDES MP/M II OPERATING SYSTEM 




8 
B 

I 
T 


Model No. 


No. of Floppy Disks 


Floppy Disk Storage 


Suggested List Price 


Our Price 


Series 5-150 


2 


2 Mb 


$2,990 


S2.449.00 


Series 5-5D 


1 


1 Mb 


$5,490 


ifmw 


580-10 


1 


1 Mb 


56.490 


$5,422.00 



ALTOS 5-150 APPLE III 

Base Price: $2990 $2995 

Disk Diives: 2 1; add 1@$450 

Capacity: 2M byles 320K bytes (tor both) 

Video: User Opt. CRT Moniior included 

Terminal Cost: $800 average Monitor included 

Operating Syst.MPM included Apple P0S 

CP/M MP/M MPM included CP/M@$465 

Oasis DOS available not available 



ALTOS 5-150 APPLEIII 

3 sen .1 parallel 1 sec. 1 par. =$165 



192 K 
ZB0A 



I/O Poit 
RAM 

Piocessor: 
Computer 

Grade: Industrial 
Dot Matrix User Opt. 
Printer @ $600 

TOTAL $4390" 



128K 
6502A 

Standard 
User Opl. 
@$600 
$4675" 



APPLE PERSONAL 
COMPUTER 

PERIPHERALS AND SOFTWARE 

HARDWARE MSL 

Videx Combo Package 375.00 

Videx Videoterm Card 345.00 

Videx Keyboard Enhancer II 149.00 

Microsoft Sottcard with CP/M 345.00 

Microsoft Premium Pak 695.00 

Microsoft 16K Card 99.95 

PCP Appl I - Card 14 MHZ version) 445.00 

PCP Appl I - Card 16 MHZ version) 595.00 



CorvusWinchester 5MB 
Corvus Winchester 10MB 
Corvus Winchester 20MB 
Saturn Systems 32K 
Saturn Systems 64K 
Saturn Systems 128K 
Hays Micromodem II 
Hays Smartmodem 
Kensington System Saver 
M&RRF Modulator 
M& R Super Fan 
Grappler + 
Practical Peripherals 

Microbuffsr II I6K 
Practical Peripherals 

Microbuffer II 32K 
Prometheus Versa Card 
SVA Disk 2+2 Controller DSSD 
SVADisk 2+ 2 Controller DSDD 



2.495.00 
349500 
4.495.00 
249.00 
425.00 
599.00 
37900 
27900 
90.00 
30.00 
50.00 
175.00 



299.00 
199.00 
395.00 
595.00 



SVAAppL Cache 256 K Memory 1,200.00 



TG Joystick 
TG Select A Port 
Wesper Micro Wizard 80 
Wesper Micro BP0 16K 
Wesper Micro BPO 32K 
Wesper Micro SOB 16K 
Wesper Micro SOB 32K 
BMC 1401 w/RGB Interlace 
LJLSZ Card w/CPM tor Apple It 



59.95 
59.95 
249.00 
179.00 
21900 
24900 
27900 
595.00 
34900 



Our 
Price 
259.00 
239.00 
115.00 
235.00 
499.00 
72.50 
339.00 
449.00 
1.949.00 
2,849.00 
3.699.00 
165.00 
312.00 
452.00 
285.00 
225.00 
68.00 
22.00 
37.00 
135.00 



239.00 
149.00 
335.00 
489.00 
1,049.00 
42.00 
42.00 
179.00 
139.00 
159.00 
189.00 
229.00 
319.00 
209.00^ 



SOFTWARE 

CHOPLIFTERbyBroderband 
Frogger by Sierra On-Line 
Canyon Climber by Datasott 
Wizardry by Sir Tech 
Zork by Infocom 

Snooper Troops Hi by Spinnaker 
Deadline by Intocom 
Apple Pame by Broderband 
Master Type by Lightning 
Typing Tator II by Microsoft 
Story Machine by Spinnaker 
The Home Accountant 

by Continental 
PFS: File by Software Publishing 
VisiCafc by VisiCorp 
PFS: Report by Software Publishing 95 00 
Screenwriter II by Sierra On Line 129.95 



MSL 

3495 
34 95 
2995 
49.95 
39.95 
44 95 
49.95 
29.95 
39.95 
24.95 
34.95 

74.95 
17500 
250 00 



Our 
Prici 
26.20 
26.20 
22.50 
37.50 
29.95 
33.75 
37.50 
22.50 
29.95 
18.75 
29.95 

56.50 
131.25 
189.00 
71.25 
97.50 



IBM 

PERSONAL jggm 
COMPUTER 




PERIPHERALS & SOFTWARE 

HARDWARE MSL 

QUADRAM Quadboard. 4 function brd 

with 64 K 

with 256 K 
Quad Color II 

With 640x240 Resolution 575.00 439.00 

Quad Color III 

With 640x400 Resolution 850.00 669.00 

PrinterCardw/cable (parallel) 159.00 109.00 
PrinterCardw/cable (serial) 179.00 139.00 

Davong Hard Disks CALL 



: ITH8I : 



SOFTWARE 

Zork I by Infocom 

Zork II by Intocom 

Zork III by Infocom 

Snooper Troops #1 by Spinnaker 

Snooper Troops #2 by Spinnaker 

Deadline by Intocom 

Flight Simulator by Microsoft 

Starcross by fnfocom 

Story Machine by Spinnaker 

The Home Accountant 

by Continental 
VisiCalc by VisiCorp 
Wordstarby Micropro 
TheTax Manager by Microlab 
Visitile by VisiCorp 
Supercalc by Sorcim 
dBase II by Ashton Tate 
Personal Investor by PBL 



39.95 
39.95 
39.95 
44.95 
44.95 
49.95 
49.95 
39.95 
34.95 

150.00 
250.00 
415.00 
250.00 
300.00 
295.00 
700.00 
145.00 



28.50 
28.50 
28.50 
33.50 
33.50 
37.50 
37.50 
28.50 
26.50 

111.00 
189.00 
369.00 
189.00 
229.00 
229.00 
489.00 
119.00 



MONITORS 



Q 



12" Grn.PhsKQ 12 EU 

12" Grn. Phs EO 1200 SU 
NEC 

JB 12" Green 
JC 12" Color 
USI 

PI 2 12" Green 
PI 3 12" Amber 
AMDEK 

300 12" Green 
Color! 

Color II RGB Highres 
ELECTROHOME 
ECM-13021 13" RGB Hires 
ECM 1302 2 13" RGB Hires 
^ColorBoardlorApplelt 



List 
249.00 
21900 

249.00 
495.00 

249.00 
28900 

19500 
39500 
89500 

59500 
895.00 
249 00 



Our 

Price 

179.00 

149.00 

175.00 
345.00 

155.00 
185.00 

145.00 
325.00 
695.00 

395.00 
595.00 
19500J , 



1 L 



Dapple me* 



•Subject to availability 



SYSCOM - THE APPLE II 
APPLE II 

1430.00 




WORK ALIKE W/64 K 
AND COLOR 
SYSCOM II 

OUR PRICE 
849.00 



RADIO SHACK 
TRS80MOD III 

WI48K 

2 DRIVE 

RS232 




OUR PRICE 
$1733.00 



\m 



HEWLETT 
PACKARD 



Our 

Price 

64.00 

79.00 

129.00 



HANDHELD CALCULATORS 

AND COMPUTERS* MSL 

HP-10C Slim-Line Prog Scientific 80.00 

HP 11C Slim Line AdvProgSci 100.00 

HP-12C Slimline Adv Finan Prog 150.00 
HP-15C Slim-Line Advanced 

Programmable Scientific 

w/Matrices 135.00 119.00 
HP-I6C Slim-Line Prog for Digital 

Electronics and Comput Science 150.00 129.00 
HP-41CV Handheld Comp 

with 5X Memory 275.00 

HP-97 Desktop Fully Prog Print 750.00 

Card Reader tor 41CV/C 215.00 

Printer tor 41CV/C 385.00 

Optical Wand For 41 CV/C 125.00 
Quad Ram Equals 

4 Mem. Mods 95.00 81.00 

L , 



209.00 
599.00 
162.00 
289.00 
97.00 




S-100 PRODUCTS 

ALL BOARDS ASSEMBLED ft TESTED! 



CALIFORNIA 
COMPUTER SYSTEMS 

Z80CPU 

Disk Controller/CPM 2.2 
64K Static RAM (200 ns) 
Mainframe 110/60 HZ 

or 220V/50HZ 
2 Serial Port+2Paraltet 
CP/M 2.2 



Our 

MSL Price 

325.00 259.00 

425.00 339.00 

750.00 549.00 

575.00 475.00 

360.00 289.00 

150.00 119.00 




THE APPLE COMPATIBLE 
ALTERNATIVE 

FRANKLIN 

BUSINESS 

SYSTEM 

Franklin Ace 1000 system • 64K • 
Disk Drive with controller card • 
green phs. video monitor. 

$1395.00 

SAVE $1000 COMPARED TO APPLE SYSTEM 



■1? 



OSBORNE 

PERSONAL COMPUTER 




INCLUDES 
SOFTWARE 

• CPM • MAIL MERGE 

• WORDSTAR • CB BASIC 

• SUPERCALC • M BASIC 

OUR PRICE 

1795.00 



PRINTERS 



EPSON 

Epson MX 80 T Type HI' 
Epson MX-80F/7 Type III* 
Epson MX-100 Type "'" 

'w/graphics 
OKIOATA 

Okidata 82A w/tractor 80 col 
Okidala 83A Wrtractor 132 col 
Okidata 84P 132 col. serial 
Okidata 84S 132 col. parallel 
C. ITOH 

C. Itoh F 1040 cps(parallel) 
C Itoh F 10 40 cps (serial) 
C Itoh Prowriter (parallel) 
C. Itoh Prowriter (serial) 
SMITH CORONA 
TP 1 Letter Quality 
Tractors 

STAR MICRONIC 
^Gemini 10 




549.00 
899.00 
1395.00 
1495.00 

1795.00 
1895.00 
695.00 
749.00 

895.00 
150.00 



409.00 
709.00 
1019.00 
1177.00 

1377.00 
1439.00 
519.00 
565.00 

599.00 
139.00 



MODEMS 

NOVATION 

Cat 
D-Cat 
Auto-Cat 
212 Auto Cat 
Super Mike 
Apple Cat II 
212 Apple Cat 



MSL 

189.00 
199.00 
249.00 
695.00 
14.95 
389.00 
725.00 



HAYS MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCTS 



Hays Stack Smartmodem 
Smart Modem 1200 
Micromodem 100 
ANCHOR AUTOMATION 

Signalman Modem MK I 
Mark VII (Auto Answer/Dial) 



289.00 
699.00 
399.00 

99.00 
159.00 



Our 
Price 
149.00 
159.00 
209.00 
629.00 
12.95 
289.00 
619.00 

229.00 
529.00 
299.00 



125.00 



m 



A7iir^on BUSINE ss world 

#w,l ^^ r ^^^ WAREHOUSE 



18720 Oxnard. #108 
Tarzana. CA 91356 

OUTSIDE CA CALL TOLL FREE 1 18001 423-5886 IN CA 1213) 9962252 



NameiPieasepr 
Address 


nil 


















City _ 

uiv 




Sta 


te 


Zip 
Description 


Price 




Make Mtdei 


Total 



















































We reserve the right to correct typographical 
errors. This ad supercedes all previous ads 
Prices subject to change without notice. 

'California residents add 6'/?% sales tax. 
**Add 3% Shipping & Handling - Add 3% 
surcharge for credit card s. Order cannot be 
shipped unless accompanied by payment, 
including shipping, handling and tax where 
applicable. 
TOTAL ORDERS 

TAX IF APPLICABLE* 

SHIPPING &HANDLING** _ 
TOTAL ENCLOSED $ _. 



Certilied Check or M.O. 

Bank Wire Transfer 
CREDIT CARD tt 
E«o Date 



Allow 2 weeks clearance lor 
personal check 



VISA 



MAXELL • DYSAN • EPSON • CCS • SHARP • CASIO • HP • VERBATIM • MEMOREX • SOROC • CORVUS • PERSONAL SOFTWARE • CCS 



270 BYTE March 1983 



Circle 270 on inquiry card. 



where N is the number of nodes in the 
tree satisfying the relation 

N = 2° + R-l 
The solution for the general case be- 



comes 



r = . (D-1)(2 D ) + R(D + 1) 
U N 



Although the formulas imply a 
method to calculate the average num- 
ber of comparisons as a function of N 
by solving for D and R, the round-off 
errors in the calculations of 
LOG(2,A0 produce incorrect results. 
Thus the best way to calculate the 
average number of comparisons is 
through an iterative process that 
determines the depth of the complete 
tree and adds the remaining weights. 

When information from a prior 
search is available, you compute the 
average number of comparisons by 
examining each possible case, com- 
puting the sum, and dividing by the 
number of cases. Because the table 
has N elements, the number of cases 
is N. For each case in which the equal- 
likelihood assumption applies, there 
is a probability that the argument is 
equal to a prior argument (1/N) and 
not equal ((N — l)/N). Because the 
subtable weights represent the num- 
ber of comparisons for the nodes in 
the subtables, you can simply divide 
the sum by the number of cases 
(N-l). If K is set to 



K = Y, subtable weight r 



the result after simplification is 

2K 

N 2 



C = 1 + 



The number of iterations of the mid- 
point-calculation code is 

N 2 



/ 



The above derivations apply to the 
case of equal likelihood; however, it 
is possible to have the case of never- 
equal likelihood. Changing the prob- 
abilities for the never-equal case pro- 
duces 



C N 



= 1 + 



2K 



N(N-l) 



The number of iterations of the mid- 
point-calculation code is 
2K 

A general formula relating the prob- 
ability of a match with a prior search 
argument (M) and the size of the table 
(N)is 

c = i + 2/ccl-m) 

N(N-l) 

and the number of iterations becomes 

j = 2K(1-M) 
N(N-l) 

The possibility of the 80/20 rule 
applying in an example requires that 
we compute the probability of the oc- 



currence of a duplicate argument. 
The rule divides the members of the 
table into two sets: high activity (H) 
and low activity (L). A duplicate oc- 
currence can exist only if the prior 
and current arguments are members 
of the same set. If X represents the 
prior argument and Y the current 
argument, the probability of duplica- 
tion can be computed by 



P(X = Y)=A*B*C* + D*E*F 



where 



A =P(X = Y\X,Y in H)=l/(0.2iV) 

B = P(X in H)=0.8 

C = P(Y in H) = 0.8 

D = P(X=Y\X,Y in L)=1/(0.8N) 

E=P(X in L) = 0.2 

and 

F=P(Y in L) = 0.2 
The resulting simplifications produce 

P(X = Y)=3.25/N 
and 

P(X*Y) = (N-3.25)/N 
Thus 



Crule — 1' 



2K(N-3.25) 

N 2 (N-1) 



As before, the number of iterations of 
the midpoint-calculation code is 

/ 2/C(N-3 .25) 

* RULE 



N 2 (N-1) 



The results of these equations are 
shown in table 3, which compares a 
pure binary search for tables of dif- 



ENHANCE YOUR COLOR COMPUTER WITH THESE GREAT PROOUCTS! 



MACRO-80C DISK BASED EDITOR/ASSEMBLER 

This is a powerful macroassembler, screen oriented editor and machine language 
monitor. It features local labels, conditional assembly, printer formatting and cross 
reference listings. Assemble multiple files. Program comes on Radio Shack 
compatible disk with extensive documentation. Price: $99.95 



MICROTEXT COMMUNICATIONS 

Make your computer an intelligent printing terminal with off-line storage! Use 
Microtext for timesharing interactions, printing what is received as it is received 
and saving text to cassette, and morel Price: $59.95 



PI80C PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE 

Use a parallel printer with your Color Computer! Serial-Parallel converter plugs into 
the serial port and allows use of Centronics-compatible printers. You supply the 
printer cable. Price: $69.95 



THE MICRO WORKS COLOR FORTH 

Color Forth is easier to learn than assembly language, executes in less time than 
Basic and is faster to program in than Basic. Rompack comes with 112-page 
manual containing glossary of system-specific words, full standard FIG glossary 
and complete source. A fascinating language designed for the Color Computer! 
Price: $109.95 

SDS-80C SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM 

SDS-80C is a Rompack containing a complete editor, assembler and monitor. It 
allows the user to write, assemble and debug assembly language programs with 
no reloading, object patching or other hassles. Supports full 6809 instruction set. 
Price: $89.95 

80C DISASSEMBLER 

Runs on the Color Computer and generates your own source listing of the Basic 
interpreter ROM. Documentation includes useful ROM entry points, complete 
memory map. I/O hardware details and more. Cassette requires 16K system. 
Price: $49.95 



GAMES: Star Blaster • Pac Attack • Berserk • Cave Hunter • Starfire • Astro Blast • Starship Chameleon • 
Adventure: Black Sanctum • Adventure: Calixto Island • 



THE 



Also Available: Machine Language Monitor Books Memory Upgrade Kits 
Parts and Services Call or write for more information 



MOt^MKi? P.O. BOX 1110 DEL MAR, CA 92014 



California Residents add 6% Tax 

Master ChargeA/isa and 

COD Accepted 

619-942-2400 



Circle 278 on inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 271 



It 




4 













\ 




j 




4 



The new TI 

Professional Computer* 

It makes you the one 

with the answers* 



System Unit 

16-bit. 8088 microprocessor 

64K byte RAM. expandable to 256K bytes 

4K byte graphics display memory 

5-slot expansion bus 

Keyboard 

Specially designed low profile 

Popular typewriter layout 

97 keys, including 12 function keys 

Separate numeric keypad and cursor control 

clusters 
Tactile response, for quick positive entry 
Upper- and lower-case letters 
Display Units 
12-inch monochrome (green phosphor) or 

13-inch full-color, 25 lines x 80 columns 
High resolution. 720 x 300 pixels 
Mass Storage 

Built-in 320K byte diskette standard 
Additional internal storage of 320K byte 

diskette, or 5 or 10 Mbyte Winchester disks 

optional 




Todays business executive is faced with 
a world of questions. Questions about 
productivity. Cost control. And the 
bottom line. 

To help you come up with the 
answers and alternatives, we introduce 
thenewTexas Instruments Professional 
Computet The one with the power, 
the expandability, the easiest-to-use 
keyboard, extremely high resolution 
graphics, and a broad array of software. 

SPECIFICATIONS - 



All the leading operating systems 
and programming languages are avail- 
able. You can use many popular applica- 
tion programs from the best software 
suppliers to help you create spread- 
sheets, do word processing, construct 
graphics, communicate with other 
data bases or create your own. All of 
which lets you control assets, manage 
your time, and make projections for 
tomorrow's performance — today. 



Communications Options 

300 BPS or 300/1200 BPS internal modem 

TTY. 3780 

3270 SNA stand-alone (Summer 1983) 

3270 BSC and SNA cluster (Fall 1983) 

Operating Systems 

MS'"-DOS. Digital Research™ CP/M-86®, and 

Concurrent CP/M-86™. UCSD p-System'" 

Languages 

BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal 

Applications Software 

Over 100 programs available from the most 
popular software vendors such as Micro- 
soft, Ashton-Tate, Micro-Pro. IUS. Sorcim. 
Peachtree. BPI, Lifeboat and others. 

Printers (Available Spring 1983) 

150-cps TI 850 Series for most applications 

FOOTNOTES: MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft 
Corporation. CP/M-86 and Concurrent CP/M-86 are 
trademarks of Digital Research. Inc. UCSD p-System 
is a trademark of the Regents of the University of 
California. 



And for a clear "hard copy" print- 
out of information, you can rely on the 
new 850 Series printers, made by Texas 
Instruments especially for the new TI 
Professional Computet 

In short, theTI Professional Com- 
puter helps you make better business 
decisions based on better information. 
With the performance and reliability 
you expect from TI. 

If you're on your way up, the new 
Texas Instruments Professional Com- 
puter can help. Because it makes you 
the one with the answers. 

Forfull information and a demon- 
stration, visit your local computer 
dealer, or write: Texas Instruments, 
Dept. 1A, EQ Box402430, Dallas, 
Texas 75240. Orcall toll-free: 
1-800-527-3500. 

Creating useful products ^* m 
and services for you. w*f& 

Texas 
Instruments 



Copyright © 1983 Texas Instruments 



291427 E 



Circle 382 on inquiry card. 



ossrs-ioo 

fomfllUlgV D.v of 696 Corp 

*C X_JEsl 1977 

COMPUTERS 

COLUMBIA (IBM-P.CJ 12BK 

RAM. 2 drives $2546.00 

CROMEMCOCS 10 

Personnel Computer 

w/s.w. 1525.00 

EAGLE II w/s.w. 2339.00 

ITHACA INTERSYST. DPS-1 

w/frt panel & MPU 1 795.00 

MORROW MICROOECISION II 

w/22 drives & s.w. 1 295.00 

BOARDS 

AOS Promblaster w/s.w. 298.00 
ADVANCED DIGITAL Super- 
quad w/serial port (single 

card computer) 700.00 

CCS 2810 CPU 259.00 

CCS 64K Dynamic RAM 299.00 
CROMEMCO DPU 

68000/ZB0 839.00 

COMPUPRO 8/16 bit 64K 

Static Ram (ASM) 488.00 

NORTHSTAR ADV. 8/16 

upgrade w/64K RAM 399.00 

S-100's PRO-1 2 way Extender 

Card 33.00 

SCION'S Microangelo Graphics Bd. 

(MA520) 9B6.00 

SDSystems Versafloppy 

w/CP/M 3.0 350.00 

SEATTLE IBM-PC 

64K RAM+ 359.00 

SSM 80 character Video 

Board 375.00 

TARBELL DD FD 

Controller 396.00 

MONITORS/TERMINALS 

KB-1 Keyboard by S-100 1B6.00 
LIBERTY FREEDOM 100 

w/detached KB 535.00 

SANYO 15" Monitor 295.00 

PERIPHERALS - ETC. 

EPSON MX 100 III 625.00 

HAYES Smartmodem 1 200 

Baud 519.00 

PARADYNAMICS 201 8R 

Mainframe 675.00 

INTEGRAND BOO DB/2F 

w/options 497.00 

OPEN SYSTEMS Inventory. 

Drder Prod. etc. 

software 600.00 

PLASTIC FILE CASE 

w/10 DS DD 5" VERB/3M 40.00 
TANDON TM 100-2 DS DD Drive 

for IBM PC. etc. 245.00 

TECMAR 5 Meg Winchester 

Cartridge for IBM-P.C. 1.525.00 
VOTRAX Personal Speech 

System 275.00 



ALL SALES BACKED BY FULL 
DEALER SUPPORT 

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM 
Hrs-900 A_M.-5:30 P.M. M— F 

Subject to Available Quantities • Prices 

Quoted Include Cash Discounts Shipping &. 

Insurance Extra 

S-100 

14425 North 79th Street, Suite B 

Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 

SALES 800-528-3138 



Table 


Binary Search 


Enhanced Search 


80/20 


Size 




Equal 


Never 








Likelihood 


Equal 


Rule 


1.00 


1.00 


0.00 


0.00 


0.00 


2.00 


1.50 


0.50 


1.00 


0.00 


3.00 


1.67 


0.89 


1.33 


0.00 


4.00 


2.00 


1.13 


1.50 


0.28 


5.00 


2.20 


1.36 


1.70 


0.60 


6.00 


2.33 


1.56 


1.87 


0.86 


7.00 


2.43 


1.71 


2.00 


1.07 


8.00 


2.63 


1.84 


2.11 


1.25 


9.00 


2.78 


1.98 


2.22 


1.42 


10.00 


2.90 


2.10 


2.33 


1.58 


30.00 


4.13 


3.44 


3.56 


3.18 


50.00 


4.86 


4.12 


4.20 


3.93 


100.00 


5.80 


5.06 


5.11 


4.95 


300.00 


7.33 


6.59 


6.61 


6.54 


500.00 


8.00 


7.32 


7.34 


7.29 


1000.00 


8.99 


8.31 


8.32 


8.30 


5000.00 


11.36 


10.62 


10.62 


10.62 


0000.00 


12.36 


11.62 


11.62 


11.62 



Table 3: A comparison of the binary search and the enhanced binary search. The 
average number of iterations of the midpoint-calculation code that are required to 
find the search argument are given for different sizes of the table being searched. For 
the enhanced binary search, the number of iterations is given for three different 
assumptions about the table being searched: (1) that each element in the table is 
equally likely to match the search argument, (2) that no two elements in the table are 
equally likely to match the search argument, and (3) that after a data argument has 
been seen, the probability of seeing it again after the next iteration is 3.25 times 
greater than the probability for the random case (the 80/20 rule). 



ferent sizes to the enhanced binary 
search in the cases of equal likeli- 
hood, never-equal likelihood, and the 
80/20 rule. 

While a binary search can be im- 
plemented in many ways, traditional 
implementations require the initial- 
ization of local variables (five PL/I 
statements) followed by a loop com- 
posed of the midpoint calculation 
(five PL/I statements) and a com- 
parison of the search argument with 
an entry in the table (three PL/I state- 
ments). The enhanced search is 
similar in structure, but its midpoint 
calculation follows the comparison. If 
the processor that executes the 
searches requires one instruction 
cycle per PL/I style statement, the 
binary-search time (BT) can be ex- 
pressed as 

BT = 5 + 8C 

and the enhanced-search time (ET) 
can be expressed as 

ET = 5 + 3C + 51 = 8 + 81 



in which C represents the number of 
comparisons and I represents the 
number of iterations needed to satisfy 
the search. 

If in the two preceding equations 
we substitute the number of com- 
parisons and the number of iterations 
indicated in table 3, a comparison of 
the data indicates that the enhanced 
search is usually better than a pure 
binary search. If the tables contain 
approximately 300 entries and an 
equal likelihood applies, the en- 
hanced search results in an advantage 
of approximately 6 percent. A higher 
probability of duplication increases 
the reduction-in-time advantage of 
the enhanced search. If your pro- 
cessor takes a long time to perform a 
divide or shift, the advantage ap- 
proaches 10 percent. 

A Description of the Process 

We can express the process for the 
improved binary search in several 
ways. Table 4 is an example of a deci- 
sion table that represents a looping 
process. The first row of entries 



274 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



STATPRO 

The most comprehensive and sophisticated 

statistics and graphics database program 
ever developed for the personal computer. 



Years of research, development, and 
field testing have resulted in the 
most extensive statistics and graph- 
ics database program specifically 
designed for thepersonahromputing 
environment. STATPRO™ provides 
the data analysis capabilities and 
flexibility previously available only 
on a large computer. Researchers, 
business professionals, and other 
data analysts will welcome the 
breadth yet simplicity of this pro- 
gram! STATPRO requires no pre- 
vious computer experience, no 
special command language. Single 
keystrokes access all of the data man- 
ipulation, statistics, and graphics 
power of STATPRO. 

STATPRO allows easy access to its 
extensive numerical data 
capabilities. 

The strength of STATPRO is found 
in the functions of its user friendly, 
menu-driven database. You can 
easily learn to enter and edit, 
manipulate, transform, and print 
out data. STATPRO's searching 




12 3 4 5 6 7 



capabilities allow these functions to 
be performed on all your data or a 
user defined subset of your data. 
Over 600 transformations and con- 
versions are available. You can 
place the results of these transfor- 
mations into the same field or any 
other field in STATPRO's database. 




STATPRO offers a comprehensive 
collection of statistical procedures. 

The statistics component of 
STATPRO contains a multitude of 
procedures, grouped into the fol- 
lowing modules: 

Descriptive: Contingency analysis, 
cross tabulation, normality tests; 
descriptive, comparative, range and 
non-parametric statistics. 

Regression: Linear, non-linear, 
stepwise, and multiple regressions; 
residual analysis and statistical 
matrices. 

Analysis of Variance: Single and 
nested classifications, two and three 
way equal and unequal sample size 
and non-parametric ANOVA. 

Time Series: Moving averages, 
multi-stage least squares, fitted 
polynomials and trig functions, 
additive and multiple forecasting. 

Multivariate: Principal components 
factor, orthogonal factor, oolique 
factor, pair-weighted cluster, dis- 
criminant function, multiple con- 
tingency, and canonical correlation 
analysis; positive definite inverse 
and determinant. 

STATPRO provides graphic 
representation of your data in 
minutes. 

STATPRO graphics plot all the 
results of your STATPRO statistical 



analyses including scatter, triangle, 
regression, and box plots; piecharts, 
histograms, and dendograms. Fur- 
ther, with STATPRO you can cus- 
tom edit with keyboard, paddles 
or graphics tablet. You can create 
characters and shapes and place 
them anywhere on a graph. Mix 
text with data fields. Place multiple 
plots on each screen. Define your 
axis limits. 

You can save your graphics on a 
disk for a multiple color "slide 
show" presentation, or print them 
out through a variety of compatible 
printers. 

STATPRO documentation wraps 
up the package. 

Although STATPRO software is 
essentially self -documenting, com- 
plete print documentation is pro- 
vided. This includes walk-through 
tutorials, easy to understand pocket 
reference guides and comprehen- 
sive user's guides. 

STATPRO currently runs on the 
Apple® II and Apple III personal 
computers. It will soon be available 
for the IBM® PC. 

Find out more about STATPRO: 
The Statistics and Graphics 
Database Program. 

Contact your local dealer, or call us 
toll-free at 

800-322-2208 

You can also call us toll-free for 
information on corporate purchase 
through our National Account 
Program. 



WADSWORTH 

Electronic 
Publishing 
Company, 
20 Park Plaza, 
Boston, MA 02116. 




STATPRO is a trademark of Wadsworth Electronic Publishing Company. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark 

of International Business Machines, Corp. 



Circle 449 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 275 





Stub 


Decision Rules 
12 3 4 5 6 


Columns 


Tests 
to be 
performed 


M = 

ARG>=TABARG(M) 
ARG = TABARG(M) 
L<R 


Y N N N N N 

- Y Y Y N N 

- Y N N - - 

- - Y N Y N 


Test results 
that select 
a column 


Data 
trans- 
formations 


L=M + 1 
R = M 

M=(L+R)/2 
M = 


1 

1 
1 2 2 

1 1 


Actions to 
be selected 


Wlien and 
how loop 
terminated 


RETURN(M) 
/* LOOP */ 


XXX 
XXX 


Loop 

termination 

criteria 


Initial 
steps 
required 


SEARCH: PROCEDUREfARG.TABARG.LEFT.RIGHT.M) 
RETURNS(FIXED) 

DCL(ARG 1 TABARG(*) I LEFT,RIGHT,L,R,M)FIXED 

L=LEFT 

R = RIGHT 






Instructions 
for 

terminating 
execution 


/* NO SPECIAL TERMINATIONS */ 
END 






Table 4: A decision table for the enhanced binary search specifying the various actions to be performed under various combina- 
tions of conditions. The labels shown in the gray areas are external to the decision table. The decision table itself is divided both 
horizontally and vertically. The upper part is called the "condition" portion; the lower part, shaded in blue, is the "action" por- 
tion. The left portion of the table, called the "stub," identifies the tests to be performed and the actions to be taken (in this case, 
data transformations) . The right portion is divided into six columns, each of which exprtzses a decision rule. The first row of each 
column shows the condition under which a decision rule applies, and the lower rows show the actions to be performed if those 
conditions are true. For example, if M is not equal to 0, we must select one of columns 2 through 6. Moreover, if ARG is greater 
than or equal to TABARG(M), we can narrow our choice to columns 2 through 4. If L is also less than R, then all columns except 
the third are ruled out. Therefore that column expresses the relevant decision rule. Looking down that column to its action por- 
tion, you can see that two actions are selected: L is to be set equal to M + l, and M is to be set equal to (L + R)/2. All the statements 
in the stub are from the PL/I program shown in listing 1. The variables represent the following: ARG, the search argument (the 
value being searched for); TAB ARG, the function argument (the value at the current midpoint address); M, the midpoint address; 
L, the left (or low) extreme address; R, the right (or high) extreme address. 



describes the tests that have to be per- 
formed for the process to work cor- 
rectly. The next row indicates the 
various data transformations that 
will be applied. The third specifies 
when and how the loop will be ter- 
minated. The fourth row describes 
the initial steps that are required, and 
the fifth row provides instructions for 
terminating the execution process. 
The YN-column entries specify the 



results of the condition tests that must 
be satisfied to select a column. The 
numbers in the column identify the 
actions to be selected and their se- 
quence. The X values select the loop- 
termination criteria. The decision 
table presents, in an abstract manner, 
all of the information that is required 
for a program without requiring a 
unique implementation. 
The programming language used in 



the decision-table stubs is PL/I, but 
converting the statements to APL, 
Pascal, BASIC, or machine codes 
would not be difficult. 

A brief description of the enhanced 
binary-search process provides an 
understanding of the procedure that 
is employed when the searching pro- 
cess uses the prior search results and 
completes the search using the re- 
duced implicit-search tree. For the 



276 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Now your computer can say anything and say it well. 
Introducing the Votrax Personal Speech System. 



Quite articulate. 



Friendly to humans. 



The unlimited vocabulary Votrax 
Personal Speech System is the most 
sophisticated, low cost voice synthe- 
sizer available today. Its highly 
articulate text-to-speech translator lets 
your computer properly pronounce 
conversational words at least 95% 



44 



of the time. 

For all those 
unusual words and 
proper names, you 
can define an excep- 
tion word table and 
store your own translations. 
And remember, the entirely 
self-contained Votrax PS System 
gets your computer talking 
without using any valuable 
computer memory. 

Built-in versatility. 

Much more than just a voice 
output device, the Votrax PS System 
lets you mix either speech and sound 
effects or speech and music. A 
programmable master clock and 
350 programmable frequencies 
give you unmatched control of speech 
and sound effects. 

The Votrax PS System offers user 
expandable ROM for custom applica- 
tions, user downloadable software and 
sound effects subroutines for easy user 
programming. Its programmable 
speech rate provides more natural 
rhythm, while 64 programmable 
amplitude levels give you greater con- 
trol of word emphasis. 

Actual size: 12.2" x 4.5" x 2.6" 



Designed to look like a printer to 
your computer, the Votrax PS System 
is extremely easy to use. It can be used 
in tandem with your printer without an 
additional interface card. Both serial 
and parallel ports come standard, 
allowing you to connect the Votrax PS 
System to virtually any computer. 
Speech, music and sound effects are 

only a PRINT statement away. 




What to say after "Hello". 

Businesses will appreciate spoken 
data transmission, narration of graphic 
displays and unmanned, oral product 
demonstrations. Spoken verification of 
data input will make computers much 
easier for the blind to use. School chil- 
dren can receive comprehensive 




The Votrax Personal Speech System 

is covered by a limited warranty. 

Write Votrax for a free copy. 

500 Stephenson Highway, Troy, MI 48084 



computer instruction with voice text- 
books as well as spoken drills and 
testing. And then, late at night, you can 
make those adventure games explode. 

A quick list. 

1=1 Highly articulate Votrax text-to- 
speech translator. 

D 350 programmable frequencies for 
speech /sound effects. 

□ 64 amplitude levels. 
a Simultaneous speech and sound effects 

or speech and music. 
D 8 octave, 3 note music synthesis. 

□ Serial and parallel interface standard. 
□ User programmable master clock. 

□ User defined exception 
word table. 

□ User programmable speech 
rate, amplitude and inflection. 
D User expandable ROM 

for custom applications. 

□ User downloadable 

software. 
D 3,500 character 
input buffer: sub- 
divisible for a printer 
buffer. 
D Internal speaker and external 
speaker jack. 

□ Real time clock and 
8 user defined alarms. 

□ Oral power up and error prompting. 
D X-on/X-off and RTS-CTS handshaking. 

□ Programmable Baud settings (75-9600). 

□ Interrupt driven Z-80 microprocessor. 

□ Parallel/Serial interconnect modes. 

□ Proper number string translation: the 
number "154" is pronounced "one 
hundred fifty four". 

To order, see your local computer 
retailer or call toll-free 



w 



1-800-521-1350 



Michigan residents, please call 
(313)588-0341. MasterCard, VISA or 
personal check accepted. The price is 
$395 plus $4 for delivery. Educational 
discount available. Add sales tax in 
Michigan and California. 

© VOTRAX 1982 




* 



Circle 446 on Inquiry card. 



following situations we will assume 
that the table is an ascending linear 
list in an array data structure. The 
calling sequence takes for granted a 
call parameter that contains the prior 
index returned for a prior search of 
the entries in the table. The prior 
index value returned is initialized to 



if there is no prior search data avail- 
able and then updated by the search- 
ing process: 

• If the current index is 0, the mid- 
point address is recalculated for the 
next iteration and the process con- 
tinues. 



Listing 1: A PL/I procedure that carries out an enhanced binary search. The first line 
identifies the procedure and its variables and states that it will return a fixed value. The 
second line declares the variables so the computer can arrange appropriate storage for 
the kind of values that each variable can assume. ARG represents the search argument 
(the value being searched for); TAB ARG, the function argument (the value at the cur- 
rent midpoint address); M, the midpoint address; L, the left (or low) extreme address; 
and R, the right (or high) extreme address. The procedure works by repeatedly setting 
the value of one of the extremes (R or L) to the previous midpoint value and then calcu- 
lating a new midpoint by adding the extremes and dividing by two. Statements between 
"/*" and "*/" are comments. 

SEARCH: PROCEDURE (ARG, TABARG, LEFT , RIGHT ,M) RETURNS (FIXED) ; 
DCL (ARG , TABARG (* ) ,LEFT, RIGHT, L , R,M) FIXED; 
L=LEFT; 
R=RIGHT; 
ENHANCE= ' ' B ; 
DO WHILE (ENHANCE=' 0*B) ; 
IF M=0 THEN 
DO; 

M=(L+R)/2; 
/* LOO? */; 
END; 
ELSE 
DO; 

IF ARG>=TABARG(M) THEN 
DO; 

IF ARG=TABARG(M) THEN 
DO; 

RETURN (M) ; 
END; 
ELSE 
DO; 

IF L<R THEN 
DO; 

L=M+1 ; 
M=(L+R)/2; 
/* LOOP */; 
END; 
ELSE 
DO; 
M=0; 

RETURN (M) ; 
END; 
END; 
END ;. 
ELSE 
DO; 

IF L<R THEN 
DO; 
R=M; 

M=(L+R)/2; 
/* LOOP */; 
END; 
ELSE 
DO; 
M=0; 

RETURN (M) ; 
END; 
END; 
END; 
END; 

/* NO SPECIAL TERMINATIONS */ ; 
END; 



• If the search argument is not less 
than the function argument and the 
low address is less than the high ad- 
dress, the low address is replaced 
with the midpoint-plus-one entry. 
The midpoint address is recalculated 
for the next iteration. 

•If the search argument is equal to 
the function argument in the table, 
the current midpoint is the value 
returned to the calling program. 

• If the search argument is less than 
the function argument in the table 
and the low address is less than the 
high address, then the high address is 
replaced with the midpoint address. 
The midpoint address is recalculated 
for the next iteration. 

•If no entry is found, the current 
midpoint is set to 0. 

• The current midpoint is the value 
returned to the calling program when 
all iterations have been completed. 

The decision table (table 4) illustrates 
how to use the enhanced-search pro- 
cess. One of the many possible imple- 
mentations is illustrated in listing 1. 

Conclusion 

It is clearly possible to improve the 
binary search by examining a table 
entry before doing any computation. 
The time-saving advantage of this 
technique ranges from 2 to 30 percent 
depending on the size of the table and 
the computing system you use. For 
tables containing approximately 300 
entries, there is a 5 to 10 percent ad- 
vantage if the probability of a match 
ranges from (never equal) to 
3.25/300 (the 80/20 rule).B 

References 

1. Barnes, B. H. and Metzner, J. R. Decision 
Table Languages and Systems. New York: 
ACM Monograph Series, Academic Press, 
1977. 

2. Horowitz, E. and Sahni, S. Fundamentals 
of Data Structures. Potomac, MD: Com- 
puter Science Press, 1977. 

3. Horowitz, E. and Sahni, S. Fundamentals 
of Computer Algorithms. Potomac, MD: 
Computer Science Press, 1978. 

4. Maes, R. "On the Representation of Pro- 
gram Structures by Decision Tables: A 
Critical Assessment." Computer Journal, 
January 1977. 

5. Pryes, N. S. "Automatic Generation of 
Computer Programs." Advances in Com- 
puters, Vol. 16, 1977, pp. 57-125. 



278 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 215 on inquiry card. - 



Actual Size 
Unretouched Output 



COLOR THAT PEAKS FOR ITSELF 



EXPLORE THE WORLD OF COLOR OUTPUT WITH Dot Plot™ gr 
THE PRISM PRINTER™. When it comes to color sheet and let 

graphics, output quality used to be a function ion Cassette 

of price. That is, until Integral Data Systems in- processing a] 
troduced the revolutionary new Prism Printer. and more. 

The modular design of the Prism Printer now All Prism I 

allows you to upgrade by modular components, correspondei 
including the ability to produce brilliant color with our excl 

output at a fraction of the cost of any other Mode™, and < 

color printer /plotter available today. speed printii 

Prism Printer "paints" in strong, vibrant colors Mode™. In ad 
to help display the ups and downs of complex which enable 

data quickly, point out changes, show trends, Apple II™ an 

and make your point unforgettable, because If you're lc 

color communicates. You can produce output quality, at a 

quality such as you see in this beautiful ble, ch< 

graphic representation of the ocean 
floor made at Woods Hole Ocean- 
ographic Institution. 

And whether your output 
requires color or not, that's only 
one facet of Prism Printer's up- 
gradable flexibility. In addition to 
Prism Color™, there are other 
optional modules for virtually any 
application you can think of — 

PRISM PRINTER™ 



Dot Plot™ graphics, Auto Sheet Feed for single- 
sheet and letterhead applications, it's compan- 
ion Cassette Feeder for high volume word- 
processing applications, special character sets, 
and more. 

All Prism Printers offer as standard features 
correspondence -quality output in a single pass 
with our exclusive overlapping-dot Maisey 
Mode™, and dual-speed capability for high- 
speed printing of 200 cps with our Sprint 
Mode™. In addition, we offer software packages 
which enable you to print color graphics from 
Apple II™ and the IBM™ Personal Computer. 

If you're looking for a new high in your output 
quality, at a lower price than you thought possi- 
ble, check out the Prism Printer now at 

your local dealer. Color that peaks for 

^^v itself, from the innovator in imaging 

\ technology, Integral Data Systems. 



^jg/ Integral Data Systems, Inc. 

A Whole New Spectrum of Imaging Ideas 

Milford, New Hampshire 03055 

Telex: 953032 

Toll-free 1 (800)258-1386 

NH, Alaska and Hawaii, (603) 673-9100 



pKft 



r 



■ 

i 

6 




mm ■'■"- 




'■-„ ■_. 










We don't care 

which computer you own. 

We'll help you 

get the most out of it. 



CompuServe puts 
a world of information, 
communications, and 
entertainment at your 
fingertips. 

CompuServe is the versatile, easy to use 
interactive videotex service designed especially 
for the personal computer user. It's dynamic, 
growing and changing daily to satisfy 
its subscribers' needs. It's an industry 
leader, created and managed by 
the same communications pro- 
fessionals who provide busi- 
ness information and 
network services to 
over one fourth of \ I 1 
the FORTUNE 500 '^ 
companies. 

From current events to current assets, 

CompuServe offers a wealth of useful, profitable 

*m* — x\ or J ust Pta" 1 interesting information. 

/7 -v, Electronic magazines and national 

I news wires plus worldwide weather, 

current movie reviews, electronic 

banking and shop at home services, 

and some of the most sophisticated 

financial information available are 

all offered to current subscribers. 

From words to music. CompuServe offers 
a communications network that gives special 






interest groups from hardware enthusiasts to 
computer composers a chance to get 
together. There's a bulletin board 
for selling, swapping, and 
personal notices and a CB 
simulator for real-time com- 
munications between sub- 
scribers. There's electronic 
mail, the fastest, surest, way to 
communicate with other users across the street 
or across the country, plus file retention and 
editing, and lots, lots more. 

Fun and games are expected whenever 
computer users interact, and CompuServe has 
the best. Games you can play alone or with 
other CompuServe subscribers 
anywhere in the country. Classic 
puzzlers, sports and adventure 
games, and fantastic space games 
featuring MegaWars, the "ultimate 
computer conflict." 

But, that's just the tip of 
the chip. CompuServe offers a 
menu of thousands of items 
that make subscribing edu- 
cational, fun and sometimes downright profitable. 
If you'd like to know more about CompuServe, 
call toll free, 800-848-8990 to receive an illus- 
trated guide to the CompuServe Information 
Service. A videotex service for you no matter 
which computer you own. 

CompuServe 

P.O. Box 20212 

5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.. Columbus. Ohio 43220 

800-848-8990 

In Ohio call 614-457-8650 
An H&R Block Company 




Circle 94 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 281 



Hardware Review 



Hayes's Stack Smartmodem 

Communicate at 300 or 1200 bps. 



Norman C. McEntire 

POB 21731 
Columbia, SC 29221 




Photo 1: The Smartmodem package includes the modem, a 
modular telephone cable, an AC line adapter, and an excellent 
manual. (Photo by Ed Crabtree.) 



At a Glance 




Name 


Dimensions 


Hayes Stack Smartmodem 


1.5 inches high by 5.5 


300 or Smartmodem 1 200 


inches wide by 9.6 inches 




long 


Use 




Communication ovef normal 


Features 


(voice) telephone lines 


to 300 bps and 1 200 bps 




direct-connect; accepts ASCII 


Manufacturer 


command strings 


Hayes Microcomputer 




Products Inc. 


Hardware needed 


5835 Peachtree Corners E. 


RS-232C port and RS-232C 


Norcross, GA 30092 


cable 


(404) 449-8791 




Price 




Smartmodem 300 S289 




Smartmodem 1 200 S699 





I have always admired the Hayes Microcomputer 
Products' Micromodem II, available as a plug-in board 
for Apple II computers. The Micromodem II has ideal 
features: it can run at 300 bps (bits per second), can be 
connected directly to the telephone line, performs auto- 
dial and auto-answer functions, has excellent documenta- 
tion, and is reasonably priced. Because I own a TRS-80 
Model I, however, I had to sit back and hope that Hayes 
would develop a general-purpose modem for use with 
RS-232C interfaces. 

My hopes came true when Hayes announced its Stack 
Smartmodem. Advertisements claimed that it contained 
all the desirable features mentioned above, including a 
unique feature that allowed the use of ASCII (American 
National Standard Code for Information Interchange) 
character strings to program the device. What's more, it 
was available in two versions: a 300-bps Bell 
103-compatible unit and one that is also 1200-bps Bell 
212A compatible. With my spirits high, I rushed to the 
computer store and purchased the 300-bps model. I have 
not been disappointed. 



First Impressions 

The package contains the Smartmodem, a modular 
telephone cable, an AC line adapter, and the owner's 
manual. These items are shown in photo 1. 

The Smartmodem is attractively styled. Its dimensions 
of 1.5 by 5.5 by 9.6 inches ensure that it takes up little 
space. The design is such that either a regular telephone 
or another Hayes Stack product — such as the Hayes 
Chronograph clock/calendar — can be placed on top of it. 
With a color scheme of gray and black, the Smartmodem 
blends with almost any environment. 



282 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Find great bargains in this list and reap the rewards: immediate availability, 24- hour express delivery, 
toll-free technical support, and special volume discounts. 



DATABASE 
MANAGEMENT 

dBase II- 

Ashton-Tate $ 475 
Condor II- Condor 
Computer Corp. $ 450 
Data Star- Micro Pro 

Call For Price 
Easy Filer- 

I.U.S. $ 280 

VisiFile-VisiCorp $ 190 

SPREADSHEETS/ 
CALCULATORS 

SuperCalc-Sorcim 

Call For Price 

VisiCalc 256K- 

VisiCorp $ 195 

Calc Star- MicroPro 

Call For Price 

Multiplan- 

Micro Soft $ 225 

COMMUNICATIONS 

Emulink (IBM PC 3270) 
Micro Link Corp 
Emulink (Apple 3270) 
Micro Link Corp 
Crosstalk-Micro Stuf 
BSTAM-Byrom Software 



WANTED 

Help in reducing our inventory. Pick up 

one of these specials and take advantage 

of a great price! 



CROSSTALK 

MicroStuf 

dBASE II 
Ashton-Tkte 

SUPERCALC 

Sorcim 



$120 

$475 

Call For Price 



WORDMATE (IBM PC) 
From Softword Systems — 
the professional's choice in 
IBM PC word processing. 



$495 



LANGUAGES/ 
UTILITIES 

C Basic- 
Digital 
Research 
M Basic - 
Micro Soft 
CB80- 
Digital 
Research 
Basic Compiler- 
Micro Soft 
Fortran 80- 
Micro Soft 
Cobol 80- 
Micro Soft 
Pascal MT+- 
Digital 
Research 
PL-1 80- Digital 
Research 



$ 125 
$ 275 



$ 420 
$ 310 
$ 395 
$ 575 



$ 425 
$ 420 



$ 995 

$ 795 
$ 120 
$ 150 



WORD PROCESSING/SPELLING 

Wordmate-Softword Systems $ 495 

Wordstar- MicroPro Call For Price 

Mailmerge- MicroPro Call For Price 

Wordstar/Mailmerge - 

MicroPro Call For Price 

Spellbinder- Lexisoft $ 295 

Easywriterll-I.U.S. $ 265 

The Final Word- Mark of the Unicorn $ 245 
Select w/Superspell -Select Info. 

Sytems $ 395 



MISCELLANEOUS 

Milestone -Organic 

Software 

StatPak-NW 

Analytical 

VisiSchedule-VisiCorp 

VisiTrend/Plot- VisiCorp 

Supersor t- MicroPro 

Datebook- Organic Software 

MODEMS 

Hayes Micromodem II 
Hayes Smartmodem 300 
PRINTERS 

Epson MX80 FT 
Epson MX100 FT 
IDS Prism 80 
Okidata 82A 
Okidata 83A 
NEC 3550 33cps wp 



$ 245 

$ 395 
$ 245 
$ 245 
Call For Price 
$ 245 



$ 275 
$ 212 

$ 555 
$ 745 
$1335 
$ 439 
$ 705 
$1900 



Call toll-free 800-328-2260 

(In Minnesota, 612-544-3615) 



American Express • MasterCard • VISA 

3.5% surcharge on all credit orders. 



Purchase orders accepted from corporate accounts. Alt orders are shipped UPS. 
$3 shipping charge on software items. 29c shipping charge on hardware items. 

DATASOURCE 

DATASOURCE SYSTEMS MARKETING CORP 

1660 South Highway 100, Minneapolis, MN 55416 



Circle 139 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



283 




-.£& 



**&#£** 
&> 



Save money. Your 
firm name and address 
printed on standardized, 
continuous checks, invoices, 
statements, letterheads and labels. 
Designed to work with programs from oyer 
200 software sources ... or program to our 
attractive forms yourself with guides provided. 
Full color catalog also has stock tab paper, 
envelopes, diskettes, many other supplies and 
accessories. 

•■■■■ Quality products at low prices 

• No "handling charges" or hidden extras 

• Available in small quantities 

• Money-Back Guarantee 

Fast service . . . buy direct by mail or 

PHONE TOLL FREE 

1+800-225-9550 

{Mass; residents 1 + 800-922-8560} 
8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., ET 



NAME 








PHONE 




COMPANY 


STREET 


CITY. STATE and ZIP 


Required to help 


US 


send 


you 


correct information: 


SOFTWARE BRAND 


PACKAGE* 




D 


Do own 

programming. 


COMPUTER MAKE 




MODELS 


□ 


Have not 
purchased yet. 


YOUR LINE OF BUSINESS 








Number of 
employees. 





Nebs 
Computer Forms 

IHH 12 South. Street, Townsend, 



11103 



Massachusetts 01469 
A division of New England Business Service, Inc. 



Symbol Name 

AA Auto Answer 



CD Carrier Detect 



OH Off Hook 



RD Receive Data 



SD Send Data 



TR Terminal Ready 



MR 



Modem Ready 



Use 

When illuminated, signals that 
the Smartmodem is in auto 
answer mode. When the tele- 
phone rings, the AA LED blinks 
at the rate of the ringing signal. 
When this indicator is off, the 
Smartmodem does not auto- 
matically answer. 
Illuminates when the Smart- 
modem detects a carrier from 
a distant modem. 
If the "phone" is off-hook, this 
LED illuminates. The LED is 
always on when the Smart- 
modem is using the telephone 
line. 

This LED blinks while sending 
data or command results from 
the Smartmodem to the RS- 
232C port. 

Blinks while data or commands 
are sent from the terminal to 
the Smartmodem. 
Indicates the status of the RS- 
232C signal DTR (data terminal 
ready), pin 20 of the RS-232C 
connector. As shipped from 
the factory, the DTR signal is 
ignored and TR is always il- 
luminated; setting configura- 
tion switch S1 in the "up" posi- 
tion forces the Smartmodem to 
monitor the DTR signal. 
Indicates the Smartmodem is 
turned on. 



Table 1: Summary of the Smartmodem's status indicators. 



As shown in photo 2a, the front of the Smartmodem 
contains seven LED (light-emitting diode) status in- 
dicators. From left to right, they are: AA (auto-answer 
mode), CD (carrier detect), OH (off hook), RD (receive 
data), SD (send data), TR (terminal ready), and MR 
(modem ready). The LEDs allow the operator to visually 
monitor the operating status of the Smartmodem. The 
operation of each LED is explained in table 1. 

Also at the front, behind the front cover, are eight con- 
figuration switches that determine the power-up setting 
for some of the Smartmodem's operating parameters. 
These switches are explained in table 2. Most of the 
switch settings can be changed under software control. 

Photo 2b shows the back panel. From left to right are 
the power switch, power connector (for the AC line 
adapter), RS-232C connector (for connection to your 
computer system via a user-supplied RS-232C cable), 
telephone connector (for one end of the modular tele- 
phone cable), and the volume-control knob. 

The Smartmodem's RS-232C connector is wired for 
connection to DTE (data terminal equipment), which 



284 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 302 on inquiry card. 



IBM, APPLE and AJARI USERSv 



JffiKf K3 



CompuShack announces 



ware 
war 



SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM PC 



Continental - The Home Accountant . . 
Datamost - Write On / Word Processor 
Denver Software' - 



{■H Lm^iwJ 



Easy Effective' Accounting System 



;■:,;:.;;■ ■ :V ,;;-.\ 



ntormation Unlimited 

Easy Filer 

Easy Planner . . .' 

Easy Speller 



Micro Lab - Tax Manager . 
Micro Pro 

Wordstar. 

Mailmerge 

Peechtree 

General Ledger 

Accounts Receivable ; . 

Accounts Payable 

Sir Tech - Galactic Attack 
VisiCorp 

256K Visicalc 

Visitrend/Visiplot 

Visidex 

Visifiles 



Mathmagic . 

Graphmagic 
Infocorn 
, Zork 1 ...... 

ZorkJI 

Deadline ... 



SOFTWARE FOR YOUR ATARI 400/800 
PERSONAL COMPUTER 

. Asteroids S27. 

Centipede , S35. 

Pac-Man $35. 

Blackjack S15. 

Caverns of Mars $32. 

APEX CASSETTES 

Avalanche S19. 

Outlaw/Howitzer .'. ... $19. 

747 Landing Simulator .- $19. 

Eastern Front $23. 

Dog Daze ' $19. 

Reversi II . . .' . . $19. 

Blockbuster . . . S1 5. 

7-Card Stud : . .'. S15. 

Downhill $19. 

Video Math Flash Cards , $15. 

Letterman . ." : S1 9. 

Wordmaker $19. 

Cubbyholes ; S1 g. 

DISKETTES 

Data Management System S1 9, 

Family Cash Flow . $19, 

Family Budget . , St 9. 

Advanced Music System ... S25. 

Eastern Front : ' S25. 

Supersort . . ..* • $.19. 

Insomnia •„ $19. 

SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II + 
ART-SCI INC. 

Magic Window $79. 

Magic Mailer ■. $49. 

Magic Words , $49. 

Magic Pak — Includes All Three $157. 

Magic Window II S119. 

ASHTON-TATE 

Dbase II (Apple) S499. 

Dbase II (Apple 48K) ' $299. 

We Are The Systjmis Specialist 



CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE 

First Class Mail 

CPA I General Ledge 

CPA II Accounts Receivable . . 

CPA 111 Accounts Payable 

CPA IV Payroll 

CPA V Property Management . 

The Home Accountant - % 

The Home Accountant Plus . . . 
DAKIN 5 CORPORATION 

Depreciation Planner 

Budget Planner 

Business Bookkeeping System 
HAYDEN 

Applesoft Compiler 

IMS 

Graph Magic 

Math Magic 

LIGHTNING SOFTWARE 

Master Type (Hi-Res) 

MICRO PRO 

Word Star Customization Notes 

Wordstar :.....' 

Super Sort 

Mail Merge 

Data Star 

Spell Star 

Calc Star ... 

Word Star Training Guide . 

" Word Star Update 



wmmm 



MICROSOFT 

S299.Q0 Time Manager S1 29.00 

S1 99.00 Fortran $159.00 

S129.00 AL.D.S $99.00 

.' $89.00 Basic Compiler S299.00 

$199.00 muMath/muSimp $185.00 

$129.00 COBOL $499.00 

$129.00 M/SORT $149.00 

. $19.95 TASC $149.00 

. $69.00 Multiplan (Native Apple) $199.00 

Multiplan $199.00 



SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II + 
ON-LINE SYSTEMS 



Screen Writer II 

The General Manager 



Speed-ASM 

Expediter II . . .;. 

Memory Management II . . . 

Lisa 2.5 • 

Lisa Educational System . . 
PEECHTREE SOFTWARE 

General Ledger 

Accounts Receivable 

Accounts Payable 

Inventory 

Payroll 

Peachcalc Electronic 

Spreadsheet 

Telecommunications 

Spelling Proof Reader 

Mailing. List Manager 

Peachtext 

SENSIBLE SOFTWARE 

Back It Up 

Disk Recovery ■ 

Disk Organizer II 

Multidisk Catalog , 

Super Disk Copy . . 

Sensible Speller 

Sensible Speller Supertext 
Format 



SOFTWARE PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 

Personal Filing System . $89.00 
Personal Report System : S65.00 

Graph , S79.00 

SORCIM CORPORATION 

Supercalc S215.00 

STONEWARE 

Stat Pac $69.00 

D B Master S145.00 

D B Utility Pack S69.00 

D B Utility Pack II S69.00 

Graphic Processing 

System Standard .... $49.00 
Graphic Processing 
System Professional . . . S69.00 
SYSTEMS PLUS 

General Ledger $249.00 

GL/AR/AP S599.00 

GL/AP/AR/lnventory .. S699.00 
VISI CORP 

Visifiles S189.00 

Desktop Plan S189.00 

Visiplot , $149.00 

Visidex S189.00 

Visicalc -3.3 $189.00 

Visischedule S219.00 

Business Forecasting 

Model , . $75.00 
Visilink $189.00 



CompuShrck 

Business Home Computers 

2630-H Walnut. Avenue, Tustin, CA 92680 
(714) 730-7207 Telex 18-3511 Ans Bck ESMA 



Circle 358 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 285 



Switch 


Down 


Up 


S1 


Ignores the RS-232C 


Monitors the RS-232C 




DTR signal. 


DTR signal. 


S2 


Responds with number 


Responds with 




result codes. 


ASCII character- 
string result codes. 


S3 


Sends result codes to 


Does not send result 




the terminal. 


codes to the terminal. 


S4 


Does not echo com- 


Echoes command 




mand characters to 


characters to the 




the terminal. 


terminal. 


S5 


Does not automatically 


Automatically 




answer the telephone. 


answers the 
telephone. 


S6 


Does not monitor the 


Monitors the RS-232C 




RS-232C CD (carrier 


CD signal. 




detect) signal. 




S7 


For use with RJ12 and 


For use with RJ11 




RJ13 telephone jacks. 


telephone jacks. 


S8 


Not used. 




Table 2: 


Summary of the Smartmodems configuration 


switches. 


Boldfaced entries are default settings as shipped 


from the factory. All functions can 


be changed under soft- 


ware control. 





DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE/SOFTWARE 
GTEK MODEL 7128 EPROM PROGRAMMER 




Microprocessor based intelligence for ease of 
use and interface. You send the data, the 
7128 takes careof the rest. 
RS-232 interface and ASCII data formats 
make the 7128 compatible with virtually 
any computer with an RS-232 serial Inter- 
face port. 

Auto-select baud rate. 
Use with or without handshaking. 
Bidirectional Xon/Xof f supported. 
CTS/DTR supported. 
Devices supported as of DEC 82. 
NMOS NMOS CMOS EEPROM MPU'S 
2758 2508 27C16 5213 8748 

2716 2516 27C32 X2816 8749 
2732 2532 C6716 48016 8741 
2732A 2564 27C64 8742 

2764 68766 8751 

27128 8755 8755 

Read pin compatible ROMS also. 
Automatic use of proper program voltage 
based on type selected. 
Menu driven eprom type selection, no per- 
sonality modules required. 

(40 pin devices require adapter) 
INTEL, Motorola and MCS-86, Hex formats. 
Split facility for 16 bit data-paths. Read, pro- 
gram, and formatted list commands also. 
Interupt driven type ahead, program and 
verify real time while sanding data. 
Program single byte, block, or whole eprom. 
Intelligent diagnostics discern between 
eprom which is bad and one which merely 
needs erasing. 



Gtek 



INC. 



• Verify erasure and compare commands. 

• Busy light indicates when power is being ap- 
plies to program socket. 

• Complete with TEXTOOL zero insertion 
force socket and integral 120 VAC power 
supply. (240 VAC/50HZ available also) 

• High Performance/Cost ratio. 

• •• Model 7128 PRICE $389.00 ••• 

MODEL 7128 SOCKET ADAPTERS 
MODEL 481 allows programming of 8748, 
8749, 8741, 8742 single chip processors. 
Prica $98.00 

MODEL 511 allows programming the 8751. 
Intel's high powered single chip processor. 
Prica $174.00 
MODEL 755 allows programming the 
8755 EPROM/IO chip 

Price $135.00 
MODEL 7128/24 • budget version of the 
7128. Supports 24 pin parts thru 32K only. 
Upgradable to full 7128 capacity. 

Prica $289.00 

Non-expandable, very low cost models avail- 
able for specific devices. 
MODEL 7128-L1 for 2716 only $149.00 
MODEL 7128-L2 for 2732 only $179.00 

Also available from stock: 

Eprom Erasers UVP model DE-4 . . $78.00 

Avocet Systems Cross Assemblers $200.00 

RS-232 Cable Assemblies $25.00 

Programmable Devices call 

Complete development systems . $3240.00 

Post Office Box 289 

Weveland, Mississippi 39576 

(601) 467-8048 




Photo 2: Front and rear views of the Smartmodem. In photo 2a, 
the seven LED status indicators are visible; photo 2b shows the 
power control, power connector, and R5-232C connector. 



works with 99 percent of terminals and RS-232C inter- 
faces; a slight wiring change allows the use of this modem 
with DCE (data communications equipment). The 
volume-control knob allows you to adjust the volume 
level of the audio monitor. 

The power connector is U. L. (Underwriters' Lab- 
oratories) listed at 120 volts (V) AC, 60 Hz, with a 13. 5- V 
AC output. The supplied telephone cable is normally 
connected to an RJll modular telephone jack. Changing 
the setting of configuration switch 7, however, allows the 
use of either an RJ12 or RJ13 telephone jack. 

Documentation for the Smartmodem consists of a 
single owner's manual with fine-quality print. In addi- 
tion, it is a spiral-bound manual; this makes it easy to use 
while sitting at the computer. 

Installing the Smartmodem 

Connection of the Smartmodem is easy. Connect the 
AC line adapter, the telephone cable, and an RS-232C 
cable to their appropriate connectors. In my case, the RS- 
232C cable connects the Smartmodem to the expansion 
interface of a TRS-80 Model I. The expansion interface 



286 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 194 on inquiry card. 



SAGE TECHNICAL BRIEFING 



SYSTEM DESIGN, SAGE IV 



The challenge was to create 
a computer having room for 
a megabyte of RAM, a built-in 
Winchester with floppy backup, 
and the ability to perform 
2,000,000 instructions 
per second. 

A small miracle, in other 
words. 

And small is exactly what it 
turned out to be. In fact, the 
16-bit Sage IV including all of 
the above attributes, takes up 
less than V2 cubic foot. 

What made such a break- 
through possible? System 
design. 

It took the latest in memory 
and processor technology, 
plus Winchester technology 
And it took a highly integrated, 
closely packed, low power, high 
speed design incorporating a 
proprietary bus. 



No wthe Sage IV is ready for 
you. Actually, you can choose 
from three different Sage IV 
models to meetyour exact 
needs— configurations with a 5 
megabyte Winchester plus 640K 
floppy right on up to a combina- 
tion of four fixed or removable 
Winchesters plus one or two 
floppies (200 megabytes of disk 
capacity in all). 

Because of the Sage IV's no- 
compromise system design you 
can load a 16K program in 1/10 
second from Winchester disk. 

What's more, there are over 
1 20 sources for existing popular 
programs for the Sage IV. The 
incredible p-System operating 
system, standard on every Sage 
IV converts software that 
was originally written 
for 8-bit com- 



puters in Pascal, BASIC and 
Fortran. Optionally, CP/M, 
Modula, and Hyper-Forth are 
also available. 

Betteryet, our small miracles 
come with prices to match. 

So give us a call or write today 
for more Sage IV information 
and the name of your nearest 
dealer. 

Sage Computer Technology, 
35 North Edison Way #4, Reno, 
NV 89502 (702) 322-6868. 

In Europe: TDI LTD, 29 Alma 
Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol 
BS8-2HL Tel: (0272) 742796. 




Yv'. : <~3 



Wm 



W&ii?k 



SSbISf 



->:- 



*ttr 










^* - 


■ : 


^W^v 


Mgfl ^M '-' 


^^^^D 




flL-—*' 


T 


. 


MMiiM 

















ASCII 




Command 




String 


Use 


A 


:Answer the telephone immediately. 


A/ 


:Redial the last number. 


Cn 


:Enable/Disable the transmitter carrier. 


t 


:Pause for a given amount of time. 


Ds 


:Dial a number. 


Fn 


:Set half or full duplex. 


Hn 


:Enable or disable switch hook. 


Mn 


•.Enable or disable the audio monitor. 





:Return to the "on-line" state. 


P 


: Enable pulse dial. 


On 


:Enable or disable the return of result codes. 


R 


:Enter answer mode after dialing a number. 


Sr? 


:Read the value of register Sr. 


Sr = n 


:Assign the value n to register Sr. 


\ 


:Return to command state after dialing a 




number. 


T 


:Enable tone dialing. 


Vn 


:Select method of sending result codes. 


Z 


: Perform a software reset. 


Table 3: Summary of the Smartmodem's commands. 



contains the standard TRS-80 RS-232C board. After the 
connections are made, the Smartmodem is ready for use. 

Use of the Smartmodem 

As stated earlier, the Smartmodem can be used with 
any RS-232C interface. I use the standard TRS-80 setup 



with the TERM program. TERM is a Z80 machine- 
language program that transforms the Model I into a 
"dumb" terminal. 

Once the connections are correct and TERM is execut- 
ing, two LEDs on the Smartmodem will light: MR 
(modem ready) and TR (terminal ready). Proper opera- 
tion is assured by typing the following: 

< enter > 
AT < enter > 

(The AT stands for attention.) If all is well, the Smart- 
modem will respond with the ASCII string OK and will 
be ready to accept a command. 

The procedure just described demonstrates the most 
unique feature of the Smartmodem: you can immediately 
communicate with it without writing any special soft- 
ware! Because this modem accepts ASCII strings as com- 
mands, you can sit at your computer or terminal and 
issue one command after another. The Smartmodem 
takes each command and executes it. After each com- 
mand, it responds by sending back one of five possible 
ASCII strings: OK, CONNECT, RING, NO CARRIER, 
or ERROR. 

A brief description of the commands is given in table 3. 
To see how easy it is to operate the Smartmodem, let's try 
some examples. Suppose you want to use the auto-dial 
feature. To dial the number 960-1700, simply type 



PROGRAMMERS FLIGHT SIMULATOR 
Apple 11 Plus DOS 3.3 48K 




This total IFR System disk features gobs of menu 
selectable flight programs each with breath 
taking realistic picture graphics, moving scenery, 
airport approaches, holding patterns and much 
much more. 

$50.00 At your Computer Store or direct from 

Visa Mastercard 

Programmers Software 

2110 N. 2nd Street 

Cabot, Arkansas 72023 

(501) 843-2988 



AT D T 960-1700 < enter > 

for tone dialers, or 

AT D P 960-1700 <enter> 

for pulse dialers. After you press < enter > , the Smart- 
modem proceeds to dial the number. After dialing, it 
waits for the other end to answer. When the other end 
answers, it detects the carrier and sends the ASCII string 
CONNECT back to the terminal. If the telephone is not 
answered or if no carrier is detected, the Smartmodem 
sends back the ASCII string NO CONNECT. 

The audio monitor is useful when dialing a number. 
Under normal operation, the audio monitor is enabled in 
the off -hook condition. This allows you to monitor the 
dial tone, ringing, busy tone, and carrier tone. After 
detecting the carrier, the Smartmodem normally disables 
the audio monitor; however, the monitor can be enabled 
or disabled by sending the M command 

AT Mx < enter > 

where x is 0, which means speaker is off; x is 1, which 
means speaker off until carrier detect; or x is 2, which 
means speaker always on. 

Suppose you want the Smartmodem to answer the tele- 
phone on the fourth ring. The ASCII command string is 

AT SO = 4 < enter > 



288 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 361 on Inquiry card. 



Performance Breakthrough 




...the CYBERDRI VE for the IBM Personal Computer 

13.5 or 27 million bytes of disk capacity in a single cabinet with 
an integrated mini-cartridge tape for secure data backup. 



Setting an exciting new microcomputer standard, the 
CYBERDRIVE 1 combines a full package of features. 

It offers new, higher performance levels, with an inte- 
grated business-oriented backup device. 

As the CYBERDRIVE is made available for other systems, 
media transfer is assured regardless of the host hardware or 
Operating System. 

The CYBERDRIVE slashes the seek time dramatic- 
ally— e.g. the usual 5 Megabyte stepper-motor Winchester 
disk offers average seek time typically in the range of 100 to 
200 milliseconds Oncl. head settling). 

With the CYBERDRIVE, the average seek time across 
more than five times as much data is only 33 milliseconds 
(incl. head settling). 

This basic speed, coupled with disk cache buffering and 
a peak transfer rate of 1 million bytes per second, make the 
CYBERDRIVE a performance champ! 

The integrated mini-cartridge tapes used for backup of 
data allow dumping of (for example) 10 million bytes of data 
in about 10 minutes . . . much faster than other tape or floppy 
disk backup techniques. Hardware read-after-write error 
checking is incorporated in the tape device. 



© Copyright 19B2 by Cybernetics Inc. All rights reserved. 

Prices and specifications subject to change without notice. 



m is^sis 



...And don't fail to ask about our superb lineup of .serious 
business software (also offered in CYBERDRIVE format) 
including: 

RM/COBOL 2 compiler-the micro industry standard. 
MBSI 3 RM/COBOL general business applications (derived 

from MCBA 4 minicomputer packages) . . . thousands 

in use . . . money back guarantee . . . source program 

license. 
CRT! 1 from Cybernetics (COBOL Reprogramming Tool!)- 

Program generator for RM/COBOL to ease pro- 
gram development and maintenance ... an 

alternative to a Data Base System. 
CBASIC2 5 & CBASIC86 5 compilers ... for aficionados of a 

useful BASIC. 

The software is available on a variety of industry-standard 
Operating Systems including CP/M 5 -MP/M 5 (both -60 & -86), 
OASIS 6 , PCDOS, and UNIX 7 . Inquire for specific details and 
prices. 

a . y Cybernetics. Inc 2 Ryan-McFariand Corp 3 • Micro Business Software, im. 

4 Min^Ccmpole* Business Applications. Inc 5 • Dtgrtal ftoearch. Inc 6 PTiase One Systems. |nc 7 Bell Laboratories 

8041 NEWMAN AVE., SUITE 208 

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA 92647 

714/848-1922 






This command results in the enabling of the AA (auto- 
answer-mode) LED. When the telephone rings, the AA 
LED blinks off at the rate of the ring. In addition, each 
ring sends the string RING to the terminal. On the fourth 
ring, the Smartmodem answers the telephone and enables 
the carrier signal. If the other modem does not respond in 
a given amount of time (the amount of time is program- 
mable), the Smartmodem hangs up and sends the NO 
CONNECT string to the terminal. 

Many other commands are available. Table 3 shows 
commands to set half or full duplex, to answer or to hang 
up, to redial, and to set the various status registers. In ad- 
dition, you can mix pulse and tone dialing, allowing use 
of the Smartmodem in certain PBX (private-branch- 
exchange) systems that use pulse dialing; after pulse dial- 
ing the PBX access code, tone dialing can be used: 

AT D P9, T960-1700 < enter > 



programmers will find that the high-level commands 
available will simplify their applications programming 
tasks. 

Documentation 

The documentation consists of a single owner's 
manual, but what a manual it is! The manual is extremely 
well organized and easy to read. You can immediately 
use the Smartmodem by reading just the first few chap- 
ters. Indeed, you will probably get the modem operating 
15 minutes after taking it out of the box! The first few 
chapters contain installation and command guidelines, 
while the later chapters contain in-depth information on 
commands and configuration switches. Also, the appen- 
dixes contain information such as RS-232C connections, 
telephone information, an ASCII code table, a block 
diagram, a quick reference card, and a warranty card 
(two-year warranty). 



There is no explicit command for switching between 300 
and 1200 bps; the Smartmodem recognizes the speed 
from your initial command and adjusts itself accordingly, 
even in auto-answer mode. 

Even with the many commands and options that are 
available, the Smartmodem is simple — even fun — to 
operate. The beginner can immediately control it using 
the simple commands; the experienced programmer will 
enjoy learning all the commands and options. Finally, 



Conclusions 

The Hayes Smartmodem is an excellent buy. It is nicely 
styled, has very good documentation, and provides 
dependable operation. Also, the ASCII-string program- 
mability of the Smartmodem gives easy control of its 
numerous features. If you are in the market for an RS- 
232C-compatible modem, certainly give the Hayes 
Smartmodem consideration. After all, "smart" beats 
"dumb" any day. . . . ■ 



The AC" ION Solution For Expanding Businesses... 



The DISCOVERY 500, a fully integrated desktop computer 
with 5 1 /4" hard and floppy diskk supports up to 7 users. It Is 
the ideal, low cost turnkey business system. The full size 
DISCOVERY supports up to 1 3 users with a wide variety of 
disk and tape subsystems. An d remember, all DISCOVERY 
users have their own dedicated memory and 8-bit or 1 6-bit 
CPU, running CP/M-80* or CP/M-86*. Action's own 
multiuser multiprocessor ope rating system, the dpc/os 
makes it easy. 

The dpc/net" low-cost local area networks of multiple 
DISCOVERYs provide the ultimate in performance. Up to 
150 users in 10 DISCOVERY systems can be on-line simul- 
taneously with full resource s haring. For the first time, 
mainframe capability at micro prices. 

*CP/M is a reg. TM of DIGITAL RESEARCH CORP. 



From single-user workstations to multiuser 
Systems & Networks, our 
DISCOVERY MULTIPROCESSOR is 
designed to grow by leaps and bounds. 
No more obsolete hardware 
or software. As your 
business expands... 
DISCOVERY 
expands 
with you! 



MULTIPROCESSOR 



Av 



Action Computer Enterprise, Inc. 

55 West Del Mar Blvd. Pasadena CA 91 105 USA 
TWX 91 0-588-1 201 ACTION PSD O {21 3) 793-2440 



■4 

Dealer, Distributor & OEM inquiries are invited. 
Step into the future.. Take Action Today! Call (213) 793-2440 



On the East Coast: MicroSystems International O (617) 655-9595 

In Canada: CESCO Electronique LTEE O Montreal, Canada O (514) 735-5511 

In Asia: Pacific Tradings Agency Ltd. Hong Kong TWX 75332 PACICHX Tel. 5-440071 



290 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 482 on inquiry card. 



JALntfil 



New Super Expander Plus™ pre-boot 

for Ramex-128 ™ board upgrades any 

Apple II 16-sector VisiCalc™ to look 

like the Advanced Version. 



SUPER EXPANDER PLUS keeps all 
your existing VisiCalc facilities, and 
adds variable column width, global 
formatting of numbers, negative 
numbers in brackets, password 
protection, new format commands, 
tabbed fields, the works. It even 
supports an 80-column card if one 
is present. 

If 136K is enough, you can get all 
these features with just one Ramex-128 
board. But SUPER EXPANDER PLUS 
supports two Ramex-128K cards to 
give you an incredible 255K VisiCalc 
File, and dumps the whole model 
back and forth to floppies in less 
than 40 seconds. 

There's simply no other memory- 
expansion/software combination 





UPil 



that even comes close. All the others 
give you less memory, take longer to 
load and save (as much as fifteen 
minutes longer) , and cost more for 
what you get. You've got to see it to 
believe it. Quick! Call your dealer. 

Ramex-128 card, just $499- 
SUPER EXPANDER PLUS, 
just $125. 

OAAEGA MICROWARE, INC 

222 SO. RIVERSIDE PLAZA 

CHICAGO, IL 60606 

312-648-4844 







Following our long-established Omega MicroWare policy, present Super Expander-40 
and -80 owners may upgrade for the price difference only. Phone our office for details. 

Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. VisiCalc is a registered trademark of VisiCorp, Inc. Super Expander Plus, Ramex-128, and Omega MicroWare are trademarks of Omega MicroWare, Inc. 

© 1983 Omega MicroWare, Inc. 
Circle 321 on inquiry card. BYTE March 1983 



291 



OUR PRICES, SELECTION 

AND SAME-DAY SHIPPING 

MAKE US COMPETITIVE. 



Red Baron. Home of the Nation's 



NEC 8023/TEC M-8510 

Outstanding Graphics, Print 
Quality & Performance 




144 x 160 dots/inch • Proportional spacing 

• Lowercase descenders ■ N x 9 dot matrix 

• 8 character sizes ■ 5 unique alphabets • Greek 
character set • Graphic symbols • 100 CPS print 
speed • Bi-directional, logic-seeking • Adjustable 
tractors • Single-sheet friction feed • Vertical & 
horizontal tabbing 



SCall 



IDS Prism 80/132 

Affordable Color, Speed 




200 CPS • Bi-directional, logic-seeking • 24 x 9 dot 
matrix • Lowercase descenders • 8 character sizes 

• 80-132 columns ■ Proportional spacing 

• Text justification • Optional color and dot resolu- 
tion graphics 

Prism 80 Base List $1 ,299 

Prism 132 Base List $1,499 



SCall 



The Epson Series 

High-Quality Printers 
at a Low Price. 




160 CPS • Dot graphics • Proportional spacing • 
Downloadable character sets • 10 and 12 CPI • 
Super/subscripting* Underlining* Reverse line 
feed 

Epson FX series SHjlll 

Full Line of Epson Accessories 



Smith-Corona TP-1 

Daisy Wheel Printer For Under $900 




Brothers HR-1 Daisy Wheel 

Perfect for quality, 
quiet word processing. 



Star Micronics 
Gemini 10/15 





Letter quality Standard serial or parallel data 
interface • Drop-in ribbon • 144 WPM • Various 
fonts available • Loads paper like typewriter 
•Handles single sheets for forms 

Smith-Corona TP-1 List $895 yl/3ll 



• 16 CPS • Prints up to 6 copies • Bi-directional 

• Cloth or carbon quick-change cassette ribbon 

• Quiet, efficient operation for word processing 

Brothers HR-1 

Parallel List $1,100 CPoll 

Serial List$1,200 yl/dll 



120 x 144 dot graphics -100 CPS «2.3K buffer 
•2K User programmable ROM* | 
Underlining • Super/subscripts , ^* 
• Friction feed and adjustable 
tractors 



Gemini 10 
Gemini 15 



Lowest 
Priced 

Dot 
Matrix 



Anadex Silent Scribe 

The Quiet Serial Matrix 
Impact Printer 



Televideo CRT's 

Price, Performance & Reliability 



Monitors 

Crisp, Clear, Compatible 



NTfUfttl ■" IttUUMMM 




Up to 500 CPS • Dot addressable graphics 

• Parallel and serial interfaces standard • Switch 
selectable protocol • Cartridge ribbon • Foreign 
character sets • Underlining • 1 .5k to 12k buffer 

• Correspondence quality print 

List Discount 

Anadex DP-9501A $1,725 $1300 

Anadex DP-9620A $1 ,845 $1 ,475 

AnadexWP-6000 $3,250 SCall 





List Discount 

910 $ 699 $575 

925 $995 $730 

950 $1195 $945 

970 $1495 $Cail 



Amdek 

Video 300, green List $249 £Pill 

Colorl List$499 yl/dll 

for low 
prices 



OUR PEOPLE 
MAKE US EXPERTS, 



Largest Computer Printer Inventory. 



The Grappler*™ 

Apple® Graphics Interface 




• Graphic and text screen dumps • Dual Hi-Res 
Graphics • Printer selector dip switch • Apple III 
compatible*. Inverse graphics • Emphasized 
graphics • Double size picture • 90° Rotation • 
Center graphics • Works with Pascal and CPM® • 
Optional bufferboard available £ ^ — »- 

Grappler + yl #D 

* Requires software driver 

Apple is a registered Trademark of Apple, Inc. 



The Bufferboard™ 

For Apples and Printers 




Take your existing printer interface— and 
buffer it! 

• Versions for Grappler + , Apple interface, Epson 
interface, and others • Comes standard with 16K 
buffer • Expandable to 32K and 64K • Includes 
interface docking cable 

The Bufferboard $175 



IDS Microprism 480 

Prints like a daisy, 
priced like a matrix! 




• Correspondence quality in a single pass 

• Dual speed 75, 110cps • Proportional spacing 

• Bi-directional, logic-seeking • Platen Pin 

or pressure feed • 24 x 9 dot matrix • 10, 12, 16.8 
characters per inch • Double width characters 



IDS Microprism 480 List $799 



$Call 




The Okidata Series 

Hi-Res or TRS 80 Block Graphics 



Customer Benefit 
Package 

1 . Free Expert Consultation. 2. Tech- 
nical Staff. Even your most involved 
questions get quick, helpful answers 
from our staff of printer technicians. 

3. Free Catalog. Get your inform- 
ative catalog with printer compari- 
son chart and print samples today. 

4. Warranty. The manufacturer's war- 
ranty where applicable. 5. Same-Day 
Shipping. 6. Free MasterCard and 
Visa. 7. We Stock What We Sell. We 
make every effort to keep a large 
stock of our advertised products. 
8. APO/FPO Orders Welcome. 



120/200 CPS -9x9 Matrix • Bi-directional, logic- 
seeking printing • Lowercase descenders • Four 
print styles • Optional Hi-Res Graphics 

Okidata 82A List $649 

Okidata 83 A (w/Tractor) .List $995 £ f* ** II 
Okidata 84 (Parallel) . . .List $1395 QUdll 



Other Quality Printers 
at Red Baron 

NEC Spinwriter RO 

Serial Parallel 7700 $3055 $2500 

Serial 3510 $1895 $1700 

Interface Equipment 

Complete Stock of Options, 
Cables and Accessories 

CCS APPLE SERIAL Interface & Cable . .$150 

SIGNALMAN MODEM $Call 

COMPLETE STOCK OF EPSON 

ACCESSORIES $Call 

CUSTOM PRINTER CABLES FOR 

Apple, Atari, IBM, TRS-80 (all models).$Call 

HAYES MICROMODEM II $300 

PRINTER STANDS: Large $ 99 

Small $ 25 

PRINTER RIBBONS— Most Types $Call 



Here's How To Order: 

Phone orders are welcome; same-day ship- 
ment on orders placed before 11:00 a.m. 
Free use of MasterCard and Visa. COD's 
accepted. Personal checks require 2 weeks 
clearance. Manufacturer's warranty in- 
cluded on all equipment. Prices subject to 



Call For Free Catalog: 

(800) 854-8275 

CA, AK, HI (714) 779-2779 



revision. 



fed Baron 




COMPUTER PRODUCTS 

Circle 324 on inquiry card. 

4501 E. Eisenhower Circle, Anaheim, CA 92807 



Jter Prodi 



BISON PRODUCTS, INC. HAS GONE 
WILD & WOOLY WITH LOW PRICES!!! 



PERIPHERALS 

Here are some of the products BISON 
carries for Apple Computers. 

If you don't see what you want 
here, give us a call. 

Microtek I6K RAM Card for Apple II $65.00 

Microsoft Premium Pack 479.50 

BISON Add-on Disk Drive 260.00 

(IOO°to Apple Compatible) 

Apple Joystick 49.50 

Parallel Printer Card with Cable 71.00 

Kensington System Saver 75.00 

D.C. Hayes Micromodem II 270.00 

Microtek Apple Dumpling GX 118.00 

(also available with buffer) 

Microtek Magnum 80 249.00 

Microsoft Z80 Softcard with CP/M™ 239.00 

Videx Enhancer 119.00 

Videx Function Strip 59.00 

Practical Peripherals 1 /*! 

Microbuffer II, 16K, Parallel 209.00 

Micro'buffer II, 32K, Parallel 239.00 

Microbuffer II, 16K, Serial 209.00 

Microbuffer II, 32K, Serial 259.00 

Microbuffer 8K, Serial 1 25.00 

Microbuffer 1 6K, Parallel 1 25.00 

PRINTERS 

BISON carries all of the major brands of 
printers. If you need help choosing the 
proper printer for your needs, call and talk 
to one of our support technicians. 

NECPC-8023AFric. & Trac. w/Graph. .. $485.00 

Okidata Microline 82A 80 Col. w/Trac 439.00 

Okidata Microline 83A w/Trac, 132 Col 639.00 

Okidata Microline 84P, Parallel £25.00 

Okidata Microline 84S, 200 cps/S 999.00 

Star Micronics Gemini 10 Printer. . . Call For Price 
Star Micronics Gemini 15 Printer. . Best In T0.wn 

C. Itoh Prowriter I, Parallel 485.00 

C. Itoh Prowriter I, Parallel/Serial 575.00 

C. Itoh Prowriter II, Parallel 625.00 

C. Itoh Prowriter II, Parallel/Serial 685.00 

C. Itoh F-10 Starwriter, Parallel 40 cps. . . 1225.00 
C. Itoh F-10 StarwriteV, Serial 40 cps .... 1225.00 
C. Itoh F-10 Printmaster, Par. 55 cps .... 1495.00 
C. Itoh F-10 Printmaster, Serial 55 cps. . . 1495.00 

Comrex Daisy Wheel Printer, Parallel 735.00 

Comrex Daisy Wheel Printer, Serial 785.00 

Comrex Tractor Feed 235.00 

Compatible P2350 by Toshiba 
Letter Quality, Dot Matrix Printer 

with Tractor Feed 1895.00 

Diablo 630 Daisy Wheel Printer 1675.00 

For more information circle reader service #53 



MONITORS 



SANYO 

V2" Green Monitor Model DM21 12 89.00 

DMC 6013 13" Color Monitor 375.00 

VMC 7013 13" RGB Color Monitor 375.00 

AMDEK Monitors 
AMDEK Video 300 

12" Green Phospher Non-Glare 145.00 

AMDEK Color II 

13" Color Mon. RGB IBM/NEC/Apple 645.00 

AMDEK Color I 299.00 

NEC 

12" Green Monitor 159.00 

1 3" Color Monitor 325.00 

13" RGB Color Monitor 755.00 

comrex 

6500 13" Color Monitor 289.00 

TELEVIDEO PRODUCTS 

TeleVideo computer terminals and desk- 
top computer system — high price fea- 
tures at low prices. 
TeleVideo TS-802 Computer System 

64K, 4 Mhz Z-80A, CP/M™ 

Dual Floppies, 720K Total 

Same CRT and Keyboard as Televideo 950 Terminal 

Network Expansion Capabilities 

TeleVideo TS-802 2695.00 

TeleVideo TVI-925 Terminal 695.00 

TeleVideo TVI-950 Term.— Top-of-Line . . . 875.00 

MICROPRO SOFTWARE 

Call for tremendous savings on MicroPro Software. 

S-100 PRODUCTS 
Sierra Data sciences 

S-100 Master/Slave Single Board Computers 

Master — 4 Mhz, Z80A 

Slave — 4 Mhz, Z80A 

Sierra Data CP/M™ w/Sierra Data BIOS 

Sierra Manual 

Sierra Data-Winchester Adaptor 

Sierra Data Turbo DOS 

OT Products 



QT 6-Slot, Dual 8" Drives . . 
QT 8-Slot, Dual 8" Drives.. 
QT 12-Slot, Dual 8" Drives. 



.690.00 
.625.00 
.225.00 
. . 25.00 
.159.00 
.750.00 

. 5 30.0 
. 560.00 
. 620.00 



DISK DRIVES 



Qume #842 (Replaces Data-Trak 8) 

Tandon Thin 8" Sngl-Side, Dbl-Density 
Tandon Thin 8" Dbl-Side, Dbl-Density . 
Mitsubushi Dbl-Side, Dbl-Density 



.490.00 
. 345.00 
. 475.00 
.399.00 



FLOPPY 

DISKETTE 

SPECIAL 

WABASH 

Single-Sided, 

Single-Density 

Box of 10, 8" or 5 y 4 " 

19.00 

SPECIAL OFFER: 

Buy a Case of 

Wabash 5 1 / 4 " Diskettes 

(100 diskettes to a case) 

and you pay only 

$170.00 

(Save $2.00 a box) 

TDK 

Single-Sided, 
Single-Density 

5 1 / 4 " 20.00 

8" 30.00 

Double-Sided, 
Double Density 

5y 4 " 25.00 

8" 35.00 

THE BULL 

DISKETTE AND 
INFORMATION HOLDER 

FREE 

with $100 purchase. 
(Normally retails for $9.95) 




"We accept Cash, Certified Checks, VISA and MasterCard" 

All merchandise new in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty 

Corporate and School District P.O.'s accepted subject to credit approval. 

Enclose financial statement with order. 

California residents add Sales Tax. Shipping charges added to all orders. 

"No refunds without prior approval" — Bison credit only on returned merchandise. 

QUANTITIES LIMITED ON SOME ITEMS — PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE 

For Further Information Please Circle Reader Service #54 

Add 3% for credit card purchases. 

Send Mail Orders To: P.O. Box 9078-184 • Van Nuys, California 91409 

For Questions or Phone Orders Call: 



(213) 994-2533 



Data Collection 
with a Microcomputer 

Using a TRS-80 Model I for environmental 
research saves time and money. 



Dr. Mahlon G. Kelly 

Department of Environmental Sciences 

University of Virginia 

Charlottesville, VA 22903 



A friend of mine who lives on the 
edge of a small lake spends every day 
watching the seasons change, study- 
ing the weather, and observing the 
effects of the creatures in the lake. My 
friend is particularly fascinated by the 
chemical, biological, and physical 
processes going on in the little pond, 
and like Thoreau beside Walden the 
fellow resides in a small cabin and has 
little contact with outsiders. Much to 
my advantage as a limnologist (a 
biologist who studies lakes), my 
friend has almost infinite patience as 
an observer and commentator and 
asks only for a continuous supply of 
electrical power and reliable 
maintenance for the various sensors, 
probes, and transducers that monitor 
the lake. My friend, as you may have 
guessed by now, is not a person but 
an old TRS-80 Model I. My 
colleagues and I have found this 
inexpensive computer very useful for 
scientific research. 

As a limnologist, I am interested in 
the conditions that control the rate of 
growth of the microscopic algae 
(phytoplankton) that are suspended 
in lake water. The variables that 



About the Author 

Dr. Kelly, an associate professor of 
environmental science at the University of 
Virginia, is involved in research into the 
character of lakes. 




Photo 1: The tower supports such 
meteorological sensors as anemometers 
and radiometers, and the raft supports 
such sensors in the lake water as oxygen 
and temperature probes. Signal- 
conditioning amplifiers are housed in the 
white box on the raft, and special 
equipment can be set up on the raft as 
well. 

influence their growth include light, 
physical mixing of the water (which is 
related to the temperature variation 
with depth in the water column), and 
available nutrients such as nitrate and 
phosphate. 

The release of oxygen and the 



uptake of carbon by photosynthesis 
reveal the algae's rate of growth. By 
measuring the change of oxygen and 
inorganic carbon concentrations in 
the water, we can estimate the rate of 
photosynthesis. We can then relate 
that rate to various environmental 
factors if we have measurements of 
light, temperature distribution, wind 
velocity, air temperature, relative 
humidity, and precipitation. But 
manually measuring and logging all 
of these variables is time consuming 
and produces only infrequent esti- 
mates of photosynthesis. If we could 
study daily variation by collecting 
data at least every half hour and 
collect that data day after day for 
periods of weeks, months, and 
seasons, we could produce a very 
sophisticated analysis of the factors 
that regulate the ecological quality of 
a lake. 

All of these variables can be 
measured by probes, sensors, and 
other transducers whose output can 
be converted to a voltage. In the past, 
we recorded the voltages on digital 
tape with a data logger. Then we fed 
the tape to a large computer to get 
actual values for light intensity, 
temperature, oxygen concentration, 
and so on, from which it calculated 
the rate of photosynthesis. The catch 
is that data loggers are expensive and 
data processing is tedious. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 295 




Photo 2: The buoys leading to shore support the wires that send analog signals to the 
cabin. The wire for transmitting the signals would have been the most expensive item of 
the whole installation if we had not bought it as military surplus. 

The TRS-80 is housed in the hut along with other equipment for studying the lake. 
The hut is heated and air-conditioned because the graduate students operating the 
equipment argued that the TRS-80 couldn't withstand a wide temperature range. 
Personally, I think the students are more temperature sensitive than the TRS-80 is. 



That's where my friend the TRS-80 
comes in. Our department has a 
16K-byte Model I that includes an 
interface with an analog-to-digital 
(A/D) converter, a multiplexer, and a 
clock. The interface feeds 48 channels 
of data into the computer's bus and 
from there into memory. The A/D 
converter cost about $450 in parts 
and the TRS-80 about $650, making a 
total of $1100 for hardware. The least 
expensive data logger available 
would have cost more than $3000, 
and a specially designed data-logging 
computer to do the same job as the 
TRS-80 would have cost more than 
$10,000. Granted, a more expensive 
computer would have had additional 
capabilities, but we didn't need them. 
And we certainly didn't need the 
additional expense. 

The Data-Acquisition Problem 

Figure 1 shows the general data 
flow we needed for our research. This 
sort of data flow is common in many 
science and engineering applications: 
data is collected from a variety of 
sensors, recorded, and processed, 
then the results are displayed and 
stored. 



In the past, monitoring data from 
the field, which is common in 
meteorological and water-quality 
work, usually involved a "dumb" 
data logger. Figure 2 shows such a 
data flow. In this instance, the data is 
converted to raw digital values that 
are stored at some fixed-time interval 
on magnetic tape. Tapes from the 

A specially designed 
data-logging computer 

to do the same job 

would have cost more 

than 510,000. 

field recorder are then carried to the 
lab and processed through a tape-to- 
tape converter that makes standard 
7- or 9-track tapes compatible with a 
mainframe computer. Then we carry 
these tapes to the computer, where 
the values are converted from 
voltages and transferred to hard disk. 
The data can be examined on a 
video display using an editor to 
eliminate obviously bad values. (Bad 
values are the result of anything from 
birds perching on anemometers to 



fishermen anchoring their boats on 
top of light sensors.) Once corrected, 
the voltage values are then usually 
stored on magnetic tape. The voltages 
are averaged using an appropriate 
scheme to remove spurious noise and 
then converted to true values, such as 
temperature, which are stored as 
another disk file and saved on tape. 
Then that file is processed to convert 
the data into the information needed 
for the research. In our case, rates of 
change of oxygen concentration are 
converted to photosynthetic rates, 
which are expressed as the rate of 
release of oxygen by plants in the 
water. These results are output to 
tape and printed. 

This scheme has several dis- 
advantages. The most obvious 
drawback is that the operator can't 
monitor what a dumb logger is doing. 
And data loggers (even dumb ones) 
are expensive. Moreover, it takes 
time and money to transfer tapes 
from the field to the lab and then to 
the computer, to pick up output 
(tapes and printout) from the 
computer, and so on. And, of course, 
processing time and disk storage on a 
mainframe computer are expensive. 
We needed to make at least five trips 
to and from a computer center and 
five program runs on the mainframe 
for the scheme shown in figure 2. 

Enter the Microcomputer 

Figure 3 shows the same data flow 
mediated by two TRS-80 micro- 
computers. An A/D converter still 
processes the voltage signals, but now 
they go directly to the memory in the 
microcomputer. The signals are then 
converted to voltages (in floating- 
point form), the values are averaged 
by whatever scheme is appropriate, 
and the results are recorded on an 
inexpensive cassette tape. 

The advantages of this method are 
clear. The operator can monitor 
what's happening on a video screen, 
and the voltages can be converted to 
preliminary true values. Out-of -range 
values can also be recognized and 
eliminated. Several steps usually 
done by a mainframe computer are 
now done in real time by the TRS-80 
located in the field. After a few days, 
the tape is removed and taken to 



296 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



another TRS-80 in the lab, where the 
data is transferred to disk. The data is 
then checked and changed with a text 
editor (we use Scripsit), and the 
voltages are converted to real data 
values. Archival data is stored on a 
5V4-inch floppy disk, which is much 
cheaper than a magnetic tape. 

At this point there are two options 
for further data analysis. One is to do 
simple data analysis using the TRS-80 
in the lab. For example, if we only 
need averages of various parameters 
every six hours, they can be cal- 
culated, stored on disk, and printed 
out by the TRS-80. Usually, how- 
ever, the necessary calculations 
would take too much time and mem- 
ory, and the mainframe computer 
would better suit the task. For- 
tunately, several communications 
programs are available for the 
TRS-80 that enable disk files to be 
sent over the phone to other 
computers. Our files are sent to the 
university's computer for further 
processing, and results are returned 
to the TRS-80, where they are stored 
on disk and printed. 

By using the communications 
programs, we eliminated all of the 
trips to the computer center, cut the 
mainframe programs down to one, 
completely eliminated reel-to-reel 
data conversion, and made the 
system easier to use. The special 
hardware and software we needed to 
accomplish our task are described 
below. 



ANALOG INPUT SIGNALS 



1 1 1 


• 


• • 


1 


1 


1 


CONVERSION 


TO 


DIGITAL 


FORMAT 



t 






RAW DATA TAPE 


TAPE STORAGE 





FILE OF ENGINEERING VALUES 




TAPE STORAGE 





EDITING 



STATISTICAL AND OTHER ANALYSES 



1 






FILE OF FINAL VALUES 




TAPE STORAGE 














PRINTOUT 







Figure 1: The data flow used in our research. 



ANALOG INPUT SIGNALS 



* I 1 


••• III 


"DUMB" 


DATA LOGGER 



I 






DIGITAL DATA CARTRIDGE 




STORAGE 





* 






CONVERSION TO 9-TRACK ANSI 
STANDARD TAPE 


STORAGE 





The Hardware 

The A/D unit, designed by Jim 
Demas of the University of Virginia 
Chemistry Department, uses an 
interface from HUH Electronics (a 
company since acquired by 
California Computer Systems) to 
convert signals from the 40-line 
TRS-80 bus to an S-100 bus. The 
HUH interface has three cards: a 
multiplexer, an A/D card, and a 
Wameco RTC-1 clock board. Once 
the clock board is programmed by the 
TRS-80, it controls the multiplexer 
sampling and data transmission to the 
TRS-80. The multiplexer board, also 
designed by a faculty member, uses 
six Analog Devices chips (AD7507s), 
each of which controls eight input 



HARD DISK IN CYBER 172 





1 


SIGNAL 


AVERAGING 



EDITING 



STATISTICAL AND OTHER ANALYSES 



NOTE: 



FINAL VALUES ON HARD DISK 



+ = PROCESSED AT DATA 

COLLECTION SITE. 
# = PROCESSED IN THE LAB. 

*= PROCESSED AT 

MAINFRAME LOCATION. 



t 






CONVERSION TO ENGINEERING 
VALUES ON DISK 


TAPE STORAGE 





TAPE STORAGE 



PRINTOUT 



Figure 2: A typical scientific data flow using a data logger. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 297 



ANALOG INPUT SIGNALS 



CLOCK AND 
CONTROL CIRCUIT 



* * + 



* I * 



MULTIPLEXER 



SEQUENTIAL DIGITAL SIGNALS 



RAM STORAGE 



(50-SECOND UPDATE) 



(" 



* 






AVERAGING 




VIDEO DISPLAY 





CONVERSION TO 
ENGINEERING VALUES 



1 






CASSETTE TAPE 


STORAGE 





TO FLOPPY DISK 



1 






EDITING 


VIDEO DISPLAY 





* 






FLOPPY DISK 




STORAGE 





| ( PHONE LINK) 



CYBER 172 DISK FILE 



NOTE: 



STATISTICAL AND OTHER ANALYSES 



+ = PROCESSED AT DATA 

COLLECTION SITE. 
#= PROCESSED IN THE LAB. 

* = PROCESSED AT 

MAINFRAME LOCATION. 



CYBER 172 DISK FILE 



| ( PHONE LINK) 



TRS-80 DISK FILE 



VIDEO DISPLAY 



STORAGE 



PRINTOUT 



Figure 3: A typical scientific data flow using two microcomputers. 



bytes, initializes and sets up the clock 
board. The second, which uses 154 
bytes, is a driver that receives the 
inputs and places them in their 
memory locations. Those locations 
are then read by the BASIC program 
and the contents are converted into a 
millivolt value that is stored as an 
array variable. We use an x by y 
matrix for the input variables where x 
is the number of channels and y is the 
number of samples taken in the 
interval between outputs to the tape 
recorder. Thus, using a 5-minute 
recording interval and 15 channels, 
data is stored in a 15 by 6 array (5 
channels with 50-second sampling 
results in 6 inputs per channel). 

Normally we average the inputs for 
5 minutes before recording, then 
convert the averages of the input 
voltages to actual variable values 
(e.g., oxygen concentration in 
milligrams per liter or temperature in 
degrees Celsius). The time is also read 
from memory and recorded as 
decimal hours. We could process the 
inputs further by examining, for 
example, rates of change of the 
values. That would require only the 
addition of subroutines to the BASIC 
program. 

When the data is recorded to tape it 
is also placed in memory in an x by 48 
matrix; here, x is the number of input 
channels. This matrix may be 
examined at any time by the 
operator, so if records are made every 
half hour, the previous 24 hours of 
data can be reviewed on the screen. 
Other information can be stored at 
the time of recording for future 
review by the operator. 



signals. The input signals go to an 
ICL 7109, 12-bit A/D converter chip 
and from there via the HUH 
converter as parallel input into the 
TRS-80 bus. The input ranges from 
—4 to +4 volts (adjustable with a 
trimpot) with a resolution and 
accuracy of more than 1 millivolt. 
Each of the 48 channels can be 
examined at an interval of less than 
10 ms (milliseconds), although we 
sample only at 50-second intervals. 
The sampling interval can be 
programmed by the TRS-80. 



Data- Acquisition Software 

Output from each channel is stored 
in 2 bytes of high memory and re- 
freshed at every sampling interval. 
The sampling is interrupt-driven. 
Another 2 bytes are used to store 
output from the clock, which is 
recorded as "elapsed time since start." 
The software is a simple 154-line 
BASIC program that includes two 
machine-language programs that are 
put into a specific high-memory 
location. 

The first program, which uses 36 



Using the System 

The operator needs to know little 
more about the computer than how 
to turn it on and load the program 
from tape; the program is self- 
prompting. First it asks for a header 
message that will be recorded on tape 
and will describe the particulars of 
the experiment. Another prompt asks 
how many channels are being used, 
what the sampling interval should be, 
how often the data should be re- 
corded and what the averaging period 
should be, what the start time is, and 
what variables are being input on 



298 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Lowest Prices on Personal Computers! 



Apple II + 48K, Call 

i Apple III 128K, Call 

Apple II Compatible 
Hardware & Software 

Microsoft Softcard Premium System 
(Includes: Softcard, RAM Cerd.VkJeiVkleo- 
term 80 Col., Softswitch, Osborne CP/M® 

user guide) Only $519 I 

16K RAM Card by Microsoft .... 145 
Z-80 Soft Card by Microsoft .... 275 | 

Vldex VideoTerm 80 Col. Cird . . . $245 

%ltC!fcfc computer 

W IdlllcOMPANY mc 

Vision 40 Soft Screen Inter. . . . $139 
Vision 80 Video Display Card. ... 239 
Clock/Calender Card(Appie III). . . 159 
A-800 DO 8"Disk Controller ... . 299 
V-1000w/2SSDD8"Drives, 1199 
V-1000 w/2 DO DO 8"Drives, 1499 
V-1100 w/2ThlnlineDDDDB"Drives 1699 I 

V-1200 6MB Drive 1199 

Solo 5V4 "SS Drive w/Apple Cont., 329 | 
Solo 5 1 /t M SS Drive w/o Controller, 259 

S Mountain Computer 
I" "H 

CPS MultiFunction Card $167 

The Clock/Calender Card 225 

A/D+D/A Interlace 275 

RDM Writer Card 145 

RAM Plus +{16K) 145 

RAM Plus +{32K) 179 

Expansion Chassis 565 

Music System 295 

Super Talller SD-200 145 

Card Reader 1295 ' 

g Dynamic Disk Systems 

Apple II, Apple III, IBM PC 

5 MB Disk System $2395 

10 MB Disk System 2995 

15 MB Disk System 3495 



III Computers for people; 

A ATARI 

ATARI 400? oW $198 

ATARI 800, NowwmcT^tW 



ATARI 410 Program Recorder $79 

ATARI 810 Disk Drive 419 

ATARI 850 Interface 159 

ATARI 830 Modem 145 

ATARI 825 80 Column Printer 559 

ATARI Joysticks, (Pair) 16 



ATARI Pac Man $29.95 

ATARI Star Raiders 29.95 

ATARI Missile Command 29.95 

ATARI Asteroids 29.95 

ATARI Centipede 29.95 

ATARI Cavarns of Mars 29.95 



SIGNALMAN 

MKII 

300 Baud ATARI Modem 

$89. 



-WICO- 

Command Control 

Arcade Quality 

Joystick Controllers 
$24.95 ea. 



ALIEN VOICE BOX 
Voice Synthesizer 

(For ATARI) 

$99 



--PERCOM- 

ATARI SS DO Single Disk Drive . . . $629 ATARI SS DD Dual Disk Drive .... 989 



HEWLETT 
PACKARD 



r Bu y any HP item in this box 

HP-41 Card Reader.. $159 

HP-41 Optical Wand 99 

HP-41 Printer (82143A) 289 

HP-IL Printer (821 62A) 349 

HP-IL Digital Cassette Drive 349 

HP-IL Video Interface-Module ... 179 

and get 1 FREE item in this box ! 

HP-41 Quad. Memory Module. . . $59 

HP-41 Ext. Func. Mem. Module . . 59 

HP-41 Extended Memory Module, 59 

lHP-41 Time Module 59 



HP-41 C 
HP-41 CV 

HP-12C 
HP-15C 
HP-16C 
HP-11C 
HP-10C. r 59 1 

HP offers and prices expire 4/30/831 




QUADBOARD by QUADRAM, Inc. 
Memory Expansion, Clock, Parallel 
Interface, R232 Int., ON ONE BOARDI 

Ouadboard w/mk instiled $495 

Ouadboard W/192K insti Ned 719 

Ouadboard w/256K instilled 728 

-IBM SOFTWARE- 

WordStar by MicroPro $299 

VlSlCalC by Per soml Sottwire 185 

F FRANKLIN 
COUPVTM CMMftlTIOM 




Franklin Ace 1000 Color Pkg. 

• Ace 1000 w/color 

• Disk Drive w/controller 

• RF Modulator (for color TV), $1499 
Franklin Add-on Drive Call 

— MICROSCI— 

Apple II + Compatible Drive 

Disk Drive w/Controller $479 

Disk Drive w.o. /Controller 379 

-RANA/Apple- 

Ellte I Disc Drive $349 

Elite I Disc Drive w/Controlter 449 

Elite II Disc Drive 549 

Elite Controller Card 99 

CORVUS SYSTEMS 
Corvus Winchester 5 Mog.Disk, $2295 
Corvus Winchester 10 Mog.Disk, 2895 
Corvus Winchester 20 Meg. Disk, 3795 
Mirror Back-Up 639 



Advertised prices do not include shipping. Prices are subject to change and offers may be withdrawn without notice. 




TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 
COMPUTERS 



TI-99/4. $198* 

'Net cost after $100 Factory Rebate. 
Peripheral Expansion Sys. . $195.00 

RS-232 Interface Card 139.00 

Disk Controller Card 1 95.00 

DIskDrive 299.00 

Dual Cassette Cable 12.50 

Tl Joy Sticks (Pair) 27.95 

Tl 10" Color Monitor 319.00 

Tl Modem 179.00 



TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 

SOFTWARE 

I PHM-3026 Extended Bisk. . . . $80.00 j 

PHM-3035 Termlml Emutitor II . . 39.00 

PHM-3055 Editor/Assembler 80.00 

PHM-3058 MiniMemory 80.00 

PHM-3013 Prsnl.Rec.Keepmp.. . .39.00 

PHM-3053 Tl Invader* 32.00 

PHM-3057 Munch Mm 32.00 

PHM-3054CirWers 32.00 

| PHM-3112 Pirtoc 32.00 

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 
CALCULATORS 

TI-59 Calculator $169.00 | 

TI-58C Calculator 79.00 

Tl PC-100C Printer/Plotter 149.00 

TI-55II Calculator 39.00 

Tl LCD Programmer 55.00 



Color I $339 

Color II 699 

Color III 429 

300 Green 159 

300 Amber 169 



-MONITORS- 

BMCl2"Gr $99 

Sanyo 9"Gr 159 

Sanyo12"Gr.,.. 209 

-PRINTERS- 



ZYM-121 Green Phos. 
only $113 



EPSON 



MX-80 $329 

MX-8DFT 519 

MX-100 715 



SEC 



8023 Impect Dot Matrix $469 

3510 33 CPS Serial 1599 

3530 33 CPS Centronics Per., 1699 

Bl-Dlrectional Tractor (3500) .... 229 

7710 55CPS Serial 2349 

7730 55 CPS Centronics Par 2349 

Tractor for 7700 Series 229 

NEW! OKIDATA 92 Call 

CENTRONICS 730-1 Parallel $299 



ffffff Smith-Corona Daisy Wheel 

TP-1../Vow$599-| 



-MODEMS- 



l Nwatkm lSI Novation Cat . . $139 

NovationD-Cat 149 

Novation212 595 

Novation Apple Cat II 310 | 

(T) Hayes 

Mlcromodemll.Jrr:....:... $279 

Smartmodem 300 219 

Smartmodem 1200 549 

Chronograph 189 , 






Write For Free Catalog 



lersonal 
^ y ystcms 




P.O. Box 1073 
Syracuse, N.Y. 13201 



-THORNE- 

Soccer (atari) $37 

Jumbo Jet Pilot (ATARI) . 37 

Kickback (ATARI) 37 

VIDEO Pool (ATARI) 24.95 

Submarine Commandor (ATARI) 37 

Music Composser (VlC-20) 32 

Home Financial Managemant . . . 24.95 

f E commodore 

Commodore VIC-20 $169.00 

Commodore Datasette 67.00 

Commodore Super Eipinder 59.00 

Commodore 8K Memory 52.00 

Commodore VIC Avenger 24.95 

Commodore VIC Super AHon 24.95 

Commodore VIC Juprter Lander . 24.95 

-CABLES- 

Parallel Printer Cables 

ATARI $35 

Apple II 37 

IBM 40 

If you are in need of 

something you cannot 

find in our ad, 

PLEASE CALL 

SHARP 

PC-1500 Hand Held Computer $208 

CE-150 Prlnter/Cass. Interface .... 195 

CE-152 Cassette Tape Recorder 75 

CE-155 BK RAM Memory Module . . . 
CE-151 4K RAM Memory Module. ... 50 



MasterCard 



315-478-6800 



VISA 



FLOPPY DISK DRIVES - 8' 
QUME 

242 - Half height DSDD 48TPI 
Full size DSDD 48TPI 

TANDON 

TM-848-2 - Half height DSDD 48TPI 
MITSUBISHI 

M-2894-63 - Half height DSDD 48TPI 

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES 
QUME 

142 - Half height DSDD 48TPI 
542 - Full size DSDD 48TPI 
592 - Full size DSDD 96TPI 

TANDON 

TM-100-2 - Full size DSDD 48TPI 
TM-100-4 - Full size DSDD 96TPI 
(For the IBM PC) 

MITSUBISHI 

M-4853 - Half height DSDD 9i 
M-4854 - Half height DSDD 

WINCHESTER HA 
AMPEX 

Pyxis 7-5'/i" 7MB capaci 
Pyxis 13-5'/." 13MB cap. 
Pyxis 27 -5'/." 27MB c 
*** 1 year warranty 

WINCHESTE 
MEDIA DIST 

MD-10 - 11MB C 
MD-20 - 22MB 
ForZ-80, CP/M 



PRICE QTY. ONE 



450.00 
465.00 




PRINTERS 
QUME 

Sprint 11-40 CPS Daisy wheel 
MPI 

Printmate 150 A-1 - Serial. 4K buffer 



/VIEDIk DISTRIBUTING 



335.00 
395.00 



650.00 
795.00 
225.00 



2695.00 
3595.00 



479.00 

595.00 
625.00 



595.00 
750.00 
750.00 



1 395.00 
999.00 



(408) 438-5454 

SUPPLIES AND ACCESSORIES ALSO AVAILABLE 

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED 

TERMS: COD, CASH WITH ORDER, MASTERCARD, VISA 

FREIGHT CHARGES WILL BE ADDED TO ALL ORDERS 

Circle 261 on inquiry card. 



particular channels. It also asks for 
certain calibration constants. Alter- 
nately, the operator can choose to 
record input voltages directly, 
leaving conversion for later 
processing. While the program is 
running, the operator can press 
certain keys to do such things as 
display the time, review past data, 
allow another message to be re- 
corded, or stop the run. 

Initially, recording data to tape 
posed a problem, because numerical 
data takes a lot of tape space. Our 
solution was to convert each value to 
a string, concatenate the strings (with 
the time added on at the end), and 
record the single resulting string. This 
procedure makes it possible for one 
side of a 90-minute cassette to hold 
enough data for about 10 days. You 
may find the procedure useful if you 
want to store a lot of data on tape. 

Processing the Data 

Getting the data to the computer 
and then onto tape is only half the 
problem. The tape must be read and 
the data processed further, and in 
some cases we have to send it to the 
university's Cyber-173 computer for 
very detailed and time-consuming 
analysis. This additional work 
requires the use of a more 
sophisticated TRS-80 that has three 
double-density disk drives, a fast 
printer (Centronics 102A), 48K bytes 
of memory, and a modem. This 
TRS-80 is used as a text editor and 
teaching device as well as a smart 
terminal for our large computer. 

Two programs do all of the work 
with the field data. The first one reads 
the tape and makes an image on disk 
while (at the option of the operator) it 
sends a copy to the printer. Once the 
printout has been examined, any 
errors can be corrected using Scripsit. 
As a result, editing and modifying the 
data is very easy. 

The second program reads the disk 
image of the data and decomposes 
each data string into actual values. It 
also does any further conversion that 
is necessary. For example, if values 
were stored as voltages, the program 
will calculate true values. In the data 
string, a space is used as a value 
delimiter, and the string must be 



COMPLETE SUBSYSTEMS 

■ The MD-10, an 11 MB formatted system for $2695. 

■ The MD-20, a 22 MB formatted system for $3595. 

■ The MD-44, a 44 MB formatted system for $4395. 




TO BUY 




■ Interfaces with any Z-80, 

CP/M* system as well as 8085/8086 and IBM PC* 

■ Software includes SOURCE CODE and enhanced 
utilities. 

■ Simple installation. 

■ Networking option; tape back-up option. 

OR DRIVES, OFF THE PALLET 

■ Unformatted disk drives at 7MB ($650, quantity one); 
13MB ($795, quantity one); 20MB ($950, quantity one) 
and 27MB ($1225, quantity one). 




TO BUY 



90 millisecond average access time. 
Maintenance-free operation. 
An AMPEX one-year warranty. 



/l/IEDIk DISTRIBUTING 



DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED 

"Registered trademarks of Digital Research. Inc and IBM Corporation 




MEDIA DISTRIBUTING 4444 Scotts Valley Drive Scotts Valley, CA 95066 408/438-5454 



Circle 262 on inquiry card. 



examined character by character. 
This process would be insufferably 
slow in interpreted BASIC, but using 
Microsoft's compiler speeds up the 
process. For example, it takes about 
15 seconds to decompose and ma- 
nipulate a single string record in 
interpreted BASIC, while 30 may be 
done in a minute using the compiled 
program. 

The output is sent to a second disk 
file, to the printer, and to the screen. 
The disk file may also be modified by 
Scripsit if necessary. The entire 
process for 5 days of 15 channels of 
data takes from one to two hours, 
depending on how much editing you 
must do. Because the TRS-80 is not 
always reliable when it comes to 
writing and reading from tape, some 
records are garbage. The second 
program detects garbage and dubs in 
interpolated values (we can get away 
with this because we are collecting 
more data than we really need). By 
using one of the commercially 
available units that improve tape 



read/write reliability, the garbage 
could be largely eliminated. 

The data must still be sent to the 
university's Cyber-173 computer. 
This is easily accomplished by using 
any of the communications programs 
designed for uploading and down- 
loading programs from computer 
bulletin boards, The Source, and so 
on. We use Lance Micklus's ST80-III. 
We load the data file into a memory 
buffer, dial the Cyber's user number, 
log on, and send the buffer to the 
CDC at 300 bits per second. The data 
is then stored on a disk at the Cyber, 
where we can do whatever analyses 
we like. 

Similar Applications 

We also use a TRS-80 for logging 
data in an analytical chemistry lab. 
It's connected to a spectrophotom- 
eter, an automated titrator, and an 
autoanalyzer to calculate chemical 
concentrations and other informa- 
tion. In fact, this TRS-80 has replaced 
many of the functions of a $40,000 



Need to Measure Your 
Corporate Communications? 

Want to define your company's image? Measure 
competitive strengths? Determine the acceptance of your 
company publications? Gauge reactions to your annual 
report? Determine the effectiveness of your corporate 
advertising? Monitor the impact of important trends and 
developments on your company's business? 

Call McGraw-Hill 
Research 



Backed by 30 years of research 
experience covering scores of 
markets and fields, McGraw-Hill 
Research professionals design 
custom projects that can make a 
big difference in the success of 
your corporate communications 
efforts. The Corporate Commu- 
nications Research Center will 
meetyour research needs 
promptly, at a reasonable price. 

Put McGraw-Hill Research to work 
for you. 



For a quote or proposal, call 
Joan Bullen, Director-Corporate 
Communications Research 
Center at (212) 997-3517 or 
Eleanor Nicoletti, Project Director, 
at (212) 997-3095. Or, write Corpo- 
rate Communications Research 
Center, 1221 Avenue of the 
Americas, New York, NY 10020 



\itii 



If it's a communications problem, we 
probably pioneered the solution. 



LSI-11. We had been sending the 
chemical data over wires to a central 
LSI that serviced several labs, but 
using the TRS-80 for the same 
purpose was actually cheaper than 
buying and installing the cables to 
transmit the data. And it was more 
convenient. 

Microcomputer As Data Logger 

We chose the TRS-80 for its low 
cost and the plethora of software 
available for it. Having a low-cost 
field unit is very important to us. Last 
summer our installation was hit by 
lightning; traces were actually 
vaporized on the boards and the 
TRS-80 was ruined. Even after we 
replaced it, our total expenditure was 
much less than the price of one data 
logger. 

The software advantages are even 
more important. Using Scripsit to edit 
data files gives us flexibility that is 
not possible with the university's 
large computer, and ST80-III gives us 
data-transmission flexibility not 
available with most systems. I 
suppose we could have written 
software to do the same thing for 
another system, but that would have 
taken time away from the research 
itself. 

Saving Time and Money 

I think my TRS-80 is a good 
example of how useful small micro- 
computers can be to a scientist for 
operations previously done by much 
more expensive equipment. The 
TRS-80 in the chemistry lab pretty 
well eliminated a much larger 
minicomputer, and our TRS-80 
completely eliminated a data-logging 
system that had been in use for six 
years. As a result, our charges from 
the university's computer center have 
decreased by about 30 percent during 
the past year, and I would guess that 
the hours spent on data processing 
have been cut in half. Field work that 
required two technicians is now done 
by one, and more quickly as well. 

Data collection, once a nuisance, is 
now much more fun. Perhaps most 
important is that we can now spot 
and correct problems in the field 
without bringing data tapes back to 
the lab to be processed. ■ 



302 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



A 68000 or Z-8000 System With 
UNIX-Type Operating System Software and 
a 5 Meg. Winchester Disk Drive For $10,000 



UVC 

The Logical 
Alternative 



Since we ran our January Byte advertisement, we've 
been deluged with calls requesting information about 
our Motorola 68000 and Z-8000 super microcomputer 
systems. As many know, LMC is a builder of extremely 
reliable and expandable microcomputer systems im- 
plemented on the multibus (IEEE 796) thereby allowing 
use of virtually all peripheral devices. What many of our 
prospective customers dont know (until they write or 
call for our brochure and price list) is that our prices for 
16-bit machines may well be the lowest in the industry. 
This month we present a description of one of our 
smaller systems — the LMC System 2. As you will see, 
System Z is a terrific value — no one else gives you so 
much power, memory, software and expandability for 
$10,000. The value and performance built into System Z 
are found in all LMC products. 



LMC System 2: 

■ Your choice of Motorola 68000 
or Zilog Z-8000 CPU with Monitor 
Program in ROM. 

■ 128 K of RAM. 

■ One 8-inch Double Density/Double 
Sided Floppy Disk Drive. 

■ One 5 Meg. Winchester Disk Drive 
(removable cartridge type). 

■ Two Serial and Four Parallel I/O Ports. 

■ Disk Drive Controllers. 

■ UNIX-type Operating System 
Software 

■ With the MC68000 System, 
IDRIS (UNIX compatible by 
Whitesmiths). 

■ With the Z-8000 System, ZENIX 
(UNIX compatible by Microsoft). 

■ The C Programming Language. 

■ Case, Power Supply and Chassis with 
12 Additional Slots for more RAM, 
Controllers, etc. 

■ Complete, ready to run. 



Typical of LMC's commitment to inno- 
vation and value is our development 
of mega-micro systems — true 32-bit 
microcomputers that implement hard- 
ware virtual memory. These machines 
represent the next generation of micro- 
computers and they provide super-mini 
or mainframe performance at micro- 
computer prices. For example, we've 
been developing a system built around 
the new National Semiconductor 16032 
which is a 32-bit virtual memory pro- 
cessor that runs existing CP/M and 
MP/M software with a remarkable im- 
provement in performance. Because 
this advertisement goes to press early 
in January and because it is a corporate 
policy of LMC never to claim that a new 
product has "arrived" or is "available" 
until we've completely debuggedit, fully 
tested it, and have it available for imme- 
diate delivery, we cannot announce our 
16032 Systems. However, by the time 
you read this ad, we may well be deliver- 
ing 16032 systems and would be happy 
to discuss the next generation of 
mega-microcomputers with you. 



The Logical Microcomputer Company 

140 South Dearborn, Chicago, Illinois 60603 USA, 312.580.0250, Telex: Lexecomp 



AH of LMC's equipment is protectedby a lim- 
ited one-year warranty. Service contracts are 
available as is factory service at an hourly 
rate. In fact, if a customer purchases our 
special-service feature, we will ship a re- 
placementsystem anywhere in the free 



world within 24 hours of a hardware failure 
(at our expense). This means that for most 
customers we can guarantee delivery of a 
replacement system within one day. Call or 
write us for detailed information. 



Circle 249 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



303 



"I built this 16-bit 

computer and saved money. 

Learned a lot, too." 



Save now by building the Heathkit H-100 
yourself. Save later because your computer 
investment won't become obsolete for 
many years to come. 

Save by building it yourself. You can save hundreds of 
dollars over assembled prides when you choose the new 
H-100 16-Bit/8-Bit Compuler Kit - money you can use 
to buy the peripherals and software of your choice. 

H-100 SERIES COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS: 
USER MEMORY: DIAGNOSTICS: 

128K-768K bytes ■ Memory self-test 

MICROPROCESSORS: on dower-up 
16-bit: 8088 AVAILABLE SOFTWARE: 

8-bit: 8085 Z-DOS (MS-DOS) 

DISK STORAGE: $»&?£ . 

Built-in standard £W C JfflE^ 

5.25" disk drive, , Microsoft BASIC 

320K bytes/disk Multiplan 

SuperCalc 

KEYBOARD: WordStar 

Typewriter-style, MailMerge M 

108 keys, 13 DataBase 

function keys, Manager 

18-key numeric pad Mos i standard 

GRAPHICS: 8-bit CP/M 
Always in graphics mode. Software 
640h/225v resolution; 
up to eight colors 

are a vail able , » 

COMMUNICATIONS: 
Two RS-232C Serial 
Interface Ports and 
one parallel port 



128K bytes standard, Optional 



The H-100 is easy to build - the step-by-step Heathkit 
manual shows you how. And every step of the way, you 
have our pledge - "We won't let you fail." Help is as close 
as your phone, or the nearest Heathkit Electronic Center. 

And what better way to learn state-of-the-art computing 
techniques than to build the world's only 16-bit/8-bit 
computer kit? To run today's higher-speed, higher-per- 
formance 16-bit software, you need an H-100. It makes a 
significant difference by processing more information at 
faster speeds. 

Dual microprocessors for power and compatibility. The 
H-100 handles both high-performance 16-bit software 
and most current Heath/Zenith 8-bit software. 

Want room to grow? The H-100's standard 128K byte 
Random Access Memory complement can be expanded 
to 768K bytes- compared to a 64K standard for many 
desktop computers. 

And the industry-standard S-100 card slots support 
memory expansion and additional peripheral devices, 
increasing future upgradability of the H-100. 

High-capacity disk storage, too. The H-100s 5.25" floppy 
disk drive can store 320K bytes on a single disk. The 
computer also supports an optional second 5.25" and 
external 8" floppy disk drives. And an optional multi- 
megabyte internal Winchester disk drive 
will be available in the near future. 



i The H-100 gives me the most 
I for my computer dollar! 





■ xT~" 



y ffl ffi ffifflfflr* ^^ 



■Mm-- 1 



Critical circuits are pre-assembled, making the H-100 
easier and faster to build! 

Want beautiful high-resolution graphics? You can create 
extensive charts, drawings, graphs and symbols to meet 
your needs- using the H-100's bit-mapped graphics 
and its 640 x 225 pixel video display. 
The H-100 gives you total communications flexibility. 
Three interface ports let you plug in dot-matrix and 
letter-quality printers, as well as other peripherals. 



Compare the H-100's exceptional capabilities 


with other desktop computers: 




. 




IBM 






Heathkit 


Personal 


Apple 


COMPUTER: 


H-100 


Computer 


III 




MICROPROCESSORS: 








16-bit: 


8088 


8088 


- 


8-bit: 


8085 


- 


6502 


RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY: 






Minimum: 


128KB 


16KB 


128KB 


Maximum: 


768KB 


576K8 


256KB 


FLOPPY DISK STORAGE: 








Per Diskette: 


320KB 


320KB 


140KB 


Maximum Internal: 


640KB*** 


640KB 


, 140KB 


8" Floppy Support: . 


Standard 


— 


— 


EXPANSION SLOTS: 


Five S-100 


Five (three 


Eight 




(four available) 


available) 




I/O PORTS: 








Parallel- 


1 


Optional 


- 


Serial: 


2 


Optional 


1 


VIDEO DISPLAY: 








Line Columns 


25x80 


25x80 


24x80 


Pixels Colors 


640 x 225 


640 x 200 


560x192 




(8 colors) 


(2 colors) 
320 x 200 
(4 colors) 


(16 colors 


OPERATING SYSTEMS: 


CP M-85, 


CP M-86 


Apple SO! 




Z-DOS (MS-DOS) 


PC-DOS (MS-DOS) 
UCSD P-System 





Information current as of 8/31/82. 



External disk storage available soon. 



Learn by building. When you build and operate the H-100, 
you learn more about this sophisticated computer sys- 
tem and its unique 16-bit/8-bit software capabilities. 



Learn from outstanding documentation. One of the most 
important parts of any computer system is documen- 
tation - and Heathkit documentation is among the in- 
dustry's best. Our instruction and operating manuals are 
fully detailed, in the world-famous Heathkit tradition. 
Learn by doing. Many of our software programs come 
with a complete set-up and operating manual. More 
complete than most other software documentation, each 
manual not only tells you what the program will do - it 
shows you the easiest way to accomplish each task. 
We back you all the way. With Heathkit computer prod- 
ucts, technical assistance and expertise is as close as 
your telephone -or the nearest Heathkit Electronic 
Center." Complete technical assistance and service is 
available at over 60 locations nationwide. 
Buy from a leader. When you choose a Heathkit com- 
puter, you get the backing and reliability .of -the world's 
leader in quality electronic kits for over 50 years! You 
can count on us for quality, service, reliability and value - 
at kit prices that give you more computer for your dollar! 

See the H-100 in action. Visit your nearby Heathkit Elec- 
tronic Centier, which 
has the world's first 
16-bit/8-bit computer 
kit, peripherals and 
software programs on 
display. See your tele- 
phone white pages for 
the nearest store loca- 
tion. Or mail the cou- 
pon today for a FREE, 
full-color Heathkit 

Always tn graphics mode, you comDuter cataloa. 




Always in graphics mode, you 
can control each of the H-100's 
144,000 screen dots! (Color 
graphics optional) 



Circle 119 on inquiry card. 



CLIP COUPON AND MAIL TODAY TO: 
Heath Company, Dept. 334-994 
Benton Harbor, Ml 49022 

Please send my FREE Computer Catalog, with details on 
the new 16-bit/8-bit H-100 Computer Kit. today! 



; Heathkit Electronic Centers are units of Veritechnology Electronics Corporation. 
Heath Company and Veritechnology Electronics Corporation are subsidiaries of 
Zenith Radio Corporation. Prices, product availability and specifications are 
subject to change without notice. - > 



Heathkit 




COMPUTER 
SYSTEMS 



"Quality Throughout" 
800-238-3100 



Q.T. Products Division 
COMPATIBLE COMPUTER CORP 

3 3 30 South Third St. West 
Salt Lake City, UT84II5 
©(801)974-0999 



Q.T. Systems Division 
GOLDEN WEST COMPUTERS 
60 North 300 West 
Provo, UT 84601 
©1801)373-1467 



NEW IMPROVED 1983 MODELS 

The entire Q.T. product line has been redesigned and improved using com- 
puter controlled manufacturing techniques to insure the highest quality. 
Many new features have been added to every item. The Q.T. 1983 models are 
among the best S- 100 products available on the market today. They are fully 
compatible with the latest 16/32 bit cpu's. 

Call (800) 238-3100 today for the location of your nearest dealer and/or to 
obtain the 1983 Q.T. catalog. Substantial dealer/OEM discount offered. 

Stocking dealers with retail showrooms and mail order facilities include: 

Priority One, Chatsworth, CA © 800-423-5922 

Bison Products, Los Angeles. CA © 2 1 3-994-2533 

Compatible Computer, New York City © 2 12-221-7900 



NOTICE: CP/M is a trademark of (Digital Research. Turbodos of Software 2000 and INFOWARE of Compatible 
Computer Corporation. The Q.T. products and systems above are produced and sold under license by 
Compatible Computer Corporation and Golden West Computers. Inc. The O.T. trademark and product designs 
remain the property of the licensor, Q.T. Computer Systems. Inc. of Hawthorne. Calif. 



TERMS: Cash prepayment it 2% discount, COD or net 30 days with prior credit approval. Initial dealer/OEM 
orders must be COO or prepaid (MC/Visa credit card OK). Purchase orders accepted from D&B rated firms. 
Shipping and handling charges estimated at SO 50/lb UPS ground and $1 00/lb UPS Blue Label or airfreight. 
Minimum $3.00. Utah residents add sales tax. Export orders welcomed— telex 426382 ITR Ul. 



Q.T. DISCOUNT MICROSYSTEMS PACKAGES 



Q.T. MAXI-SYSTEM PACKAGE -Model 800P Q.T. MINI-SYSTEM PACKAGE -Model 500P 

$6,395.00 $3,995.00 




List $7,995.00-Save $1,600.00 

— QT 8" Mainframe with 8 slot Motherboard — Televideo 925 Full Featured CRT 

—Choice of printer: C. Itoh F-10 daisy wheel or Oki data M84P high speed dot matrix (200 cps.) 

The Q.T. Maxi-System is an industry standard S-100 expandable microcomputer which is ideal for general 
business computing, word processing and data base management applications. CP/M operating system is 
standard. MP/M or Turbodos optional. Unique Infoware® utilities simplify operation and user training. 

• Electronics on Two Cards • 64K RAM Standard • Universal Disk Controller • 2 Megabytes on line 

• 4MZ Z80A CPU • Parallel Printer Port • 10-40 MB Hard Disk Option • Expandable to 256K RAM 

• Filtered Fan • Two A.C. Outlets • Key Lock Switch • Two Serial Ports 

Package Price Includes Cables, Documentation & Utility Programs. Model 800 alone $4,995 



List $4,995.00-Save $1,000.00 

-Q.T. 5V 4 " MINI-FRAME w/6 slot MB 
-Televideo 910 Green CRT 
-Dot Matrix printer (M82A) 

• CP/M standard. Turbodos optional. 

• Reliable Single Card Electronics 

• Z80 CPU/Universal DMA controller 

• Dual Double Sided/Density Drives 

• Memory: 64K RAM & 320K Disk Drive 

• Cables, manuals, Infoware® Utilities 
Model 500 alone $3,495.00 



,T. INDUSTRY STANDARD S-100 MAINFRAMES 




Q.T. MICR0-FRAME®-Series 600 

Desk Top-Plain Front Panel 

• 6 to 22 slot Motherboard 

• Full I/O Cutout Array 

• Fused EMI/RFI Filter 

• Heavy Duty Power Supply 
( + 8V@16A±16V@3A) 



QTC-MF+1 
QTC-MF + 6 
QTC-MF + 8 
QTC-MF + 12 
QTC-MF+18 



No MB ... 
6 slot MB . 
8 slot MB . 
12 slot MB 
18 slot MB 



QTC-MF+22 22 slot MB 



.$499 
.$599 
.$649 
.$699 
.$799 
.$899 



Q.IMINI-FRAME®-Series500 

DeskTop— Dual Mini Drives 

• Holds two 5 1 /4" Drives 

• Full Cutout Array 

• 6, 8, or 12 slot MB. 

• Fused EMI/RFI Filter 

• Hard Disk Power Supply 
(+8V@16A,±16V@3A, 

±12V@5A, + 5V@5A) 
QTC-MF + MD (No MB) ..$699 
QTC-MF + MD6 6 slot MB .$799 
QTC-MF + MD8 8 slot MB .$849 
QTC-MF + MD12 12 slot MB $899 



Q.T. MAXI-FRAME® -Series 800 

Desk Top for Dual 8" Drives 

• 6, 8, 12 slot Motherboard 

• Universal Drive mounts 

• Key lock Power Switch 

• Heavy Duty Power supply 

( + 8V@16A, ± 16V@3A, + 5V@5A, 
-5V@1A, + 24V@5A) 

QTC-MF + DD1 No MB $799 

QTC-MF + DD6 w/6 s. MB ..$899 
QTC-MF + DD8 w/8 s. MB ..$949 
QTC-MF+DD12 w/12 s. MB .$999 



Q.T. MAXl-FRAME" 



Q.T. PRO-FRAME® -Series 700 

Rack Mount— Constant Voltage 

QTC-RM+12 12 slot MB ...$799 
QTC-RM+18 18 slot MB ...$899 
QTC-RM+22 22 slot MB ...$999 



Standard features & Options: All QT mainframes are built on a strong steel chassis with sturdy heavy 
gauge aluminum covers. Heavy duty power supplies have individually fused outputs and are shielded by 
an EMI/RFI filter & line surge protector. Standard I/O cutouts include provision for 16 DB 25's. 1 DC 37, 2 
DA 15's. Centronics parallel. 1 34 pin and 2 50 pin IDC ribbon cable connectors. Filtered positive pressure 
cooling fan. Twin AC outlets provide convenient connection for and control over printer and terminal. 
Standard colors are charcoal/light grey to match Televideo terminals. Optional colors include brown/tan 
and federal spec, ivory at extra charge. Constant voltage power available on most models— add 
$100,00. EIA rack mount rails avaiable on some units— add $95.00. Complete OEM customization 
available on orders of 10 or more units. Contact factory for details and pricing. 



Q.T. DISK DRIVE CABINETS AND SUBSYSTEMS 




Rear view 



Q.T.'s All in One® 

Universal Disk Drive Cabinet 
• Expandable • Accepts all 8" drives 

QT's unique new disk drive cabinet has been designed to 
accept virtually any 8" drive on the market today from 
Tandon Thinlines to 40 megabyte Quantums. Features 
include interchangeable face plates (Qume, Shugart, 
Tandon, etc.) and "electronics in a drawer" construction 
to simplify installation and maintenance. Heavy duty 
power supply will carry any combination of up to four 
Thinline, two standard, or one hard disk drive with floppy 
backup. +5V@5A,-5V@1A, + 24V@5A. 

QTC-D0C8 8V-XX w/one faceplate $399.00 

Replacement Faceplates (Specify type & 

number of drives) $25.00 

Tandon 4-drive power cable $15.00 

Data Cables available $20-50.00 





DUAL 8" HORIZONTAL DRIVE CABINET 
SINGLE 8" VERTICAL CABINET Dimensions: 5"H 17" W 20"D 
Size: 11"H 11"W18"D Designed to provide basic disk storage 
Perfect add-on disk drive for any capacity for S-100 and other computers, 
system. Accepts most brands. Low profile permits table top stacking. 
QTC-DDC8V $299 QTC-DDC + 88H $349 

Q.T. "ALL IN ONE" EXPANDABLE DISK DRIVE SUBSYSTEM SPECIALS 

QTC-DDS+ with two single sided Siemens Drive (0.5MB) $695 

QTC-DDS + 1 with one double sided Mitsubishi Drive (1MB) $895 

QTC-DDS + 2 with two DSDD Mitsubishi Drives (2MB) $1,495 



Circle 365 on inquiry card. 



Programming Quickies 



Add Dimensions to Your BASIC 



Timothy G. Corrigan 

4232 North Mulligan 

Chicago, IL 60634 



If you have an application that requires more dimen- 
sions than your BASIC supports, or if you are an 
assembly-language wizard with a multidimension ap- 
plication, then have no fear. There is an easy solution to 
your problem. 

Listing 1 contains a program that uses an array with 
one dimension as if it had two dimensions. Line 130 
defines the function used to calculate the single index 
value using two variables. Lines 140 and 150 define the 
maximum values for the two dimensions. The rest of the 
program builds a simple multiplication table. To alter the 
size of this two-dimensional array, just change the XM 
and YM values. You will also have to change the number 
of elements in the A array. 

Listing 2 contains a program that uses an array with 
one dimension as if it had three dimensions. The pro- 
grams in listings 1 and 2 are very similar. The difference 
in listing 2 occurs in line 130, which determines the func- 
tion that calculates the index value. To change the func- 
tion from two dimensions to three, a set of parentheses is 
placed around the function used for two dimensions. This 
value is then multiplied by the maximum value for the 
third dimension, and the third-dimension variable is 



added. The procedure can be repeated to give you an 
unlimited number of dimensions in your arrays. For ex- 
ample, the function for an array with four dimensions is 

I = ((X*YM + Y)*ZM + Z)*TM + T 

This addressing scheme will also allow you to create and 
randomly process disk arrays. Instead of using the 
calculated index as an array index, it may be used as the 
record number when reading or writing to a disk file. 

Listing 3 contains an assembly-language routine that 
will calculate the index value for any multidimensional 
array. The routine is written in IBM 360/370 assembler 
code. (The IBM 370 has 16 general-purpose registers. The 
registers all appear in the listing as "Rn".) Register 2 
points to a series of 2-byte data items that define the ar- 
ray. Register 3 points to another series of 2-byte data 
areas that specify the values of the variables (i.e., the X, 
Y, and Z values from the BASIC programs) that will be 
used to calculate the index value. Register 4 is used as an 
index register. The rest of the program is explained in the 
BASIC-like comments. ■ 



JAY WEINBERG: LIVING PROOF 
YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS COUNT. 

These days, Jay Weinberg's most difficult battles take place on the tennis court. 
Five years ago, he had a different kind of fight on his hands: against one of the 
toughest forms of cancer 

Cancer research and treatment have made Jay s kind of recovery possible for 
almost 2 million people. Which means that your donations have helped buy 
Jay Weinberg a very beautiful gift: his life. 

CANCER CAN BE BEAT. 



American 
Cancer Society * 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 307 



Programming Quickies. 



Listing 1: This simple BASIC program builds a multiplication table using an array with only one dimension. A PRINT statement can 
be added at line 195 to print the values of I, X, and Y. 



100 REM 

110 REM ACCESS 

12 REM 

130 DEF I=X*YM+Y 

140 XM=9 

150 YK=4 

160 DIM A(49) 

170 FOR X=0 TO 

180 FOR Y=0 TO 

190 A(I )=X*Y 

200 NEXT Y 

21C NEXT X 

220 END 



SINGLE DIMENSION ARRAY KITH TWO INDICES 

REM DEFINE INDEX CALCULATION FUNCTION 
REM X DIM HAS 10 ELEMENTS 0-9 
REM Y DIM HAS 5 ELEMENTS 0-5 
REM ARRAY HAS 10*5 ELEMENTS 0-49 

XK :REM IN IT X LOOP 

YM :REM INIT Y LOOP 

REM EUILD A MULTIPLICATION TABLE 
REM LOOP FOR ALL Y VALUES 
REM LOOP FOR ALL X VALUES 
REM END OF PROGRAM 



Listing 2: A BASIC program that builds a three-dimensional table for the function X * Y + Z using an array with only one dimen- 
sion. A PRINT statement can be added at line 215 to print the values of I, X, Y, and Z. 



100 


REM 










110 


REM ACCESS SINGLE 


DIMENSION 


ARPAY WITH THREE INDICES 


120 


REM 










130 


DEF I=(X*YM+Y) 


*ZM+Z : 


REM 


DEFINE INDEX CALCULATION FUNCTION 


140 


XM = 7 






REM 


X DIM HAS 8 ELEMENTS C-7 


150 


YM = 9 






REM 


Y DIM HAS 10 ELEMENTS 0-9 


160 


ZM=9 






:REM 


Z DIM HAS 10 ELEMENTS 0-9 


170 


DIM A(799) 






: REM 


ARRAY HAS 8*10*10 ELEMENTS 0-799 


180 


FOR X=0 TO XM 






: REM 


INIT X LOOP 


190 


FOR Y=C TO YK 






: REM 


INIT Y LOOP 


200 


FOR Z = TO ZM 






: REM 


INIT Z LOOP 


210 


A(I )=X*Y+Z 






:REM 


BUILD A TABLE FUR X*Y+Z FUNCTION 


220 


NEXT Z 






: REM 


LOOP FOR ALL Z VALUES 


230 


NEXT Y 






'REM 


LOOP FOR ALL Y VALUES 


240 


NEXT X 






REM 


LOOP FOR ALL X VALUES 


250 


END 






REM 


END OF PROGRAM 



Need More Serial Ports ? 



% "*-i - r"«wun! 



mum mi 



"H" Add a BTA smart multiport controller to your C.P.U. 

"* The MODEL 524 expands a single RS232 port to four 
individual ports with port selection and baud rate 
controlled by user software. 

"H" Buffered inputs permit simultaneous operation in- 
creasing data exchange rate. 

"H" 62K spooler model also available. 



Price 

$249.00 



Bay Technical Associates 

P. O. Box 387, Bay St. Louis, MS. 39520 
601 - 467-8231 



308 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 47 on inquiry card. 



Listing 3: This IBM System 360/370 assembly-language, general-purpose program performs the same array index calculation used in 
the two BASIC programs, and it can be used with any size array. The routine requires one input area that describes the size of the ar- 
ray (the array control information) and another input area that indicates which element you wish to address (the requesting values). 
The output of this routine is the index or byte displacement of the element you have asked for. This value should be added to the 
beginning address of the array. 



• 
• 

• 
• 

• 
• 

• 
• 

• 



0000 


4862 


0002 


0004 


8960 


0001 


0008 


1B44 




000A 


1B55 




OOOC 


4814 


3000 


0010 


1A15 




0012 


4140 


4002 


0016 


1964 




0018 


4780 


F026 


001C 


4C14 


2004 


0020 


1851 




0022 


47F0 


FOOC 


0026 


4C12 


0000 


002A 


07FE 





INPUT. . . 

R2 = POINTER TO FOLLOWING ARRAY CONTROL INFO 

2 BYTE ELEMENT LENGTH 

2 BYTE # ARRAY DIMENSIONS 

2 BYTE MAX VALUE FOR DIMENSION 1 

2 BYTE MAX VALUE FOR DIMENSION 2 

• • 

• • 

2 BYTE MAX VALUE FOR DIMENSION N 

R3 = POINTER TO FOLLOWING PAPM LIST 

2 BYTE REQUFSTINQ VALUE FOR DIMENSION 1 

2 BYTE REQUESTING VALUE FOR DIMENSION 2 



• 



• 
• 



2 BYTE REQUESTING VALUE FOR DIMENSION N 

OUTPUT. . . 

Rl = INDEX VALUE INTO ARRAY 





LH 


R6,2(R2) 


R6 = # DIMENSIONS 




SLL 


R6,l 


R6 = R6 * 2 




SR 


R4,R4 


R4 = 




SR 


R5 , R5 


R5 = 


RRLOOP 


LH 


Rl, 0(R4,R3) 


Rl = VALUE FROM PARM LIST 




AR 


R1,R5 


Rl = Rl + R5 




LA 


R4 , 2 ( , R4 ) 


R4 = R4 + 2 




CR 


R6,R4 


IF R6 = R4 THEN 




BE 


ARRDONE 


GOTO ARRDONE, ELSE 




MH 


R1,4(R4,R2) 


Rl = Rl * MAX FOR DIM N+l 




LR 


R5,R1 


R5 = Rl 




B 


ARRLOOP 


GOTO ARRLOOP 


RRDONE 


MH 


R1,0(R2) 


Rl = Rl * ELEMENT LENGTH 




EP 


R14 


RETURN 







Uj 



Computer Solutions 
We sell SemiDisk 



SiwSfi for S-100 IBM Personal Computer 




TRS-80 Model 2 

Computing has entered a new era: The SemiDisk era! No longer are you tied down by the speed of floppies or Winchesters. Your 
computer can operate many times faster with a SemiDisk. And with our self installing software it couldn't be easier. Just plug in and hold 
on! No kidding! Special pricing: $1595 for 512K Byte and $2495 for 1 meg Byte. 

Specifications: For information contact: 

TYPE: Semiconductor Disk Emulator Computer Solutions 

CAPACITY: 512k or 1 Mb Robert Pinkham 

POWER REQUIREMENTS: 0.6A (512k) 0.9A (1Mb) P.O. Box 931 

BATTERY BACKUP: 10-12V Unreg. (optional) Hillsboro, OR 97123 

(503) 640-5665 

Dealers Wanted 



Circle 108 on inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 309 



Build This Memory, Part 1 

How to construct a low-cost memory 
board with dynamic devices. 



Cameron Spitzer 

3369 Vanderbilt Way 

Santa Clara, CA 95051 



Many personal computer experi- 
menters want a lot of inexpensive 
memory to expand their computers. 
I'll explain how I built a 64K-byte 
memory card for my S-100 machine 
for less than $200, using the 4116 
memory device. I'll also explain how 
the board works. This inexpensive 
circuit has been reliable for me and, if 
you build it carefully, will satisfy 
your memory needs for years. 

I limited the parts list to items I 
could buy from mail-order "hobby" 
dealers. The circuit was designed for 
easy expansion later on, as your 
needs grow. It will take few changes 
to switch to 4164s, if you wish. 
Plenty of room is left on the card (see 
photo la and b) for adding simple ac- 
cessories like write protection, over- 
laid pages, interrupt on a write or ad- 
dress violation, or whatever you like. 

The integrated circuits (ICs) most 
often used in S-100 memory systems 
are 2114L, 4K by 1-bit MOS (metal- 
oxide semiconductor) static devices, 
but the best-selling ICs are 4116 16K 
by 1-bit dynamic devices. Both are 
made by the same process, using 



n-channel metal-oxide silicon tran- 
sistors, but each takes a different 
circuit-design strategy (table 1 con- 
trasts the two types of circuits). The 
static version costs about five times as 
much per bit of storage as the 
dynamic and will occupy twice the 
space in your system. On the other 
hand, statics require far simpler sup- 
port circuitry. 

The circuit was 

designed for easy 

expansion later, as 

your needs grow. 

I chose the S-100 bus for my 
machine because it's the most widely 
supported modular computer. Every 
computer accessory you can name is 
probably available for the S-100. The 
bus first appeared in early 1975, and 
the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and 
Electronics Engineers) has established 
it as a standard. For many years there 
were no standard signal definitions, 
pin numbers, or timing relationships, 
so there are several mutually incom- 



patible variations of the bus. I'll 
describe two: the IEEE-696 specifica- 
tion and the simplified Z80 version. 
For years S-100 owners have had to 
examine each product for compatibil- 
ity with their own bus versions, and 
I've approached the problem by 
showing jumper-selectable interface 
circuits for both versions. 

S-100 Signals 

First I'll describe the Z80 version of 
the S-100 bus, by giving a description 
of the signal on each pin used by my 
memory card. The status, or cycle-re- 
quest, bus consists of four lines that 
request bus cycles: sMEMR, MWRT, 
sIN, and sOUT. Figure 1 shows how 
the Z80 processor board in my system 
generates these. The other lines are 
mostly power and buffered Z80 
signals. 

A + 8-volt (V) power supply is 
used to power the TTL (transistor- 
transistor logic) devices. A + 16-V 
power supply powers the dynamic 
memory devices. The Z80 also re- 
quires a — 16-V power supply. (The 
supplies are regulated on the card, so 



310 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Photos la and lb: The wire-wrapped prototype memory board. Photo la shows the general layout used to minimize wire lengths. At 
left are the power supply and the bus terminations. Photo lb is the back of the board. 5-100 lines are blue, and the power-supply lines 
are solid AWG 18 copper. To avoid loops, all grounds are connected at the 5-100 ground pin only. 



these voltages can be slightly higher.) 

Sixteen address lines specify an 
address, which must be valid when a 
cycle is requested. The card places 
fetched data on eight DIN (data- 
input) lines and receives data to be 
written over eight DOUT (data- 
output) lines. (You may use the same 
eight wires for these two functions, if 
your other cards allow it.) 

The signal on line sMEMR rises 
when the address is stable and the bus 
wants data from memory. It falls 
when the bus has sampled the data. 

When MWRT rises and when ad- 
dress and data are stable, the memory 
should store data. It falls at least 200 
nanoseconds (ns) later. 

The line pRDY is an input to the 
processor that any card may pull low. 
The signal on line pRDY indicates to 
the processor to slow down. The 
memory card pulls pRDY low when- 
ever the memory card may not be 
ready for the processor to proceed. In 
normal operation, the memory 
doesn't make the processor wait, but 
if cycle requests are piling up, pRDY 
can prevent the (disastrous) loss of a 
cycle. 

Those are all the signals I really 
need, but two others will improve the 
performance of the memory in a sys- 
tem. Ml indicates there will be an idle 
period of at least 400 ns after the cur- 
rent cycle is done. The memory board 
performs an internal cycle during that 
period. PHANTOM, when low, turns 
off the buffer that drives DIN. It 





2114 


4116 




(1K by 4-bit) static 


(16K by 1-bit) dynamic 


Number of devices for 64K bytes 


128 


32 


Price of 16K bytes 


$64 


$12 


(memory devices only) 






Number of support devices 


5 to 10 


20 to 30 


required for S-100 interface 






Cost of 64K-byte 


$350 


$180 


S-100 board 


(two cards) 


(do-it-yourself) 


Power required for 64K bytes 


50 W 


10W 


Ease of interface design 


very easy 


difficult 


Table 1: A comparison of the m 


ost common static c 


ind dynamic memories. 



+ 5V 



;1K 



PRDY[> 



h5V 



> IK 



HOLD[>-"^ 



I 



PART OF 
Z 80A 



I /ORQ 



WR 



BUSRQ 



BUSAK 



74S00 



74LS04 



-0- 




OH 



±=t>h 



rO 



74LS240 




-O SMEMR 



-Omwrt 



-O SINP 



-C> SOUT 



4> 



-OpHLDA 



Figure 1: Developing S-100 bus signals from a Z80 microprocessor. 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 311 



60 



Micro-Priced M PC Programs. 

We've got the widest selection of IBM PC software, at the lowest possible 
everyday prices. Micro- Pricing™ guarantees it. Plus, you'll get top notch, 
toll free, tech support to boot. 
IBM PC Micro- 



Software 



Price 7 



Ashton Tate® 




dBASEII 


$479 


Byrom Software 




BSTAM 


179 


BSTMS 


179 


Condor® Comput 


er 


Condor 20-1 


229 


Condor 20-11 .... 


495 


Condor 20-111 . . . . 


795 


Condor 20-R .... 


249 


Condor 20-Q .... 


139 


Digital Research 




Concurrent 




CP/M 86 


309 


Level 2 Cobol 86 . 


1,299 


Pascal MT + 86 . . 


499 


SPP 86 


189 


SID 86 


129 


Eagle Software 




Money Decisions . 


. 179 


Tax Decisions . . . 


279 


Information Unlimited 


Software® 




EasyWriter II ... . 


$289 


Easy Speller 


139 


Easy Filer 


329 


Innovative Software 


Applications® 




SP/LAW 


. 99 


Innovative 




Software Inc.® 




TIM III 


. 399 


International 




Software Marketing® 


MatheMagic 


. . 85 




Lexisoft 

Spellbinder $279 

Mark of the Unicorn 

Final Word 250 

PC-InterComm 89 

Metasoft 
Benchmark (Word 

Processor) 409 

Benchmark 

(Maillist) 219 

Microsoft® 

MultiPlan 239 

Flight Simulator 41 

64KRAMCard 

Board 289 



128K RAMCard 

Board $429 

192K RAMCard 

Board 609 

256K RAMCard 

Board 699 

64K RAMChips ... 139 
Microstuf® 

Crosstalk 139 

Transporter 219 

Northwest 
Analytical® 

StatPak 399 

Organic Software 

Datebook 329 

Milestone 329 

Testwriterlll 109 

Sorcim® 

SuperCalc 199 

SuperWriter 289 

SpellGuard 239 

SuperCalc Demo ... 75 
SpellGuard Demo . . 55 
VisiCorp® 

VisiCalc 199 

Desktop Plan 249 

VisiDex 199 

VisiTrend 249 

VisiFile 249 

VisiSchedule 249 

VisiTrend/Plot .... 249 
Business Forecasting 

Models 89 

Plus we have a full line of 
products from American 
lYainin^ International. 
MicroPro, and many other 
manufacturers. 



AND 
COUNTING. 

We're adding the best of the PC programs all the time. If you don't see 
what you want, call us toll free. 



CORPORATION OF AMERICA 

1-617-963-7220 • 1-800-343-0852 

CO-RI Bldg., Rt. 28, Avon, MA 02322 Telex No. 947802 
Mon.-Fri., 8:00 A.M.-8:00 P.M. EST Sat. 10:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. EST 

To order simply call Standard Software direct at 1-800-343-0852. In Massachusetts call 
1-617-963-7220. Or mail to the address above. Payment: Orders may be prepaid bv VISA, 
MasterCard. American Express, check or money order. Orders prepaid by check or money 
orders may deduct 37c from the price of software only. C.O.D. orders please add $1.50. 
Massachusetts residents must add 57c sales tax. Postage, handling and shipping charges will be 
cidded to orders as they apply. See below. Shipping is by UPS on all orders, unless specified. 
Emergency overnight shipping is available. Purchase orders are accepted from qualifying 
companies and institutions. All items subject to availability and price change without notice. 



allows you to map other devices inside 
an enabled 8K-byte block of memory. 
Usually these other devices are ROM 
(read-only memory), and they are re- 
quired to pull down PHANTOM 
while they drive the DIN lines. 

Those are all the signals necessary 
to operate a high-performance (2-mil- 
lion-bytes-per-second) memory on 
the S-100 bus, Z80 version. 

The 8080 version of the bus, which 
is described in the IEEE-696 specifica- 
tion (see reference 4), is more com- 
plex. The lines sMEMR and MWRT 
contain nonsense most of the time 
because the 8080 does not syn- 
chronize its status lines with its bus 
cycle requests. The original S-100 
machine (the MITS Altair) didn't pro- 
vide any correction of this nonlatched 
status on its processor board, and the 
processor instead produced a pulse 
(pSYNC and <£1) to operate a latch on 
each of the other boards. Since no 
new machines are being built using 
the Intel 8080 microprocessor, I've 
shown the status latch as an option 
for users of the older equipment. This 
latch is required to meet the IEEE 
specification. Three extra signals, 
pSTVAL (also called *1), pSYNC, 
and pDBIN, are necessary. When 
pSTVAL goes low, status may be 
valid, and when pSYNC is high, 
pSTVAL is meaningful. The logical 
AND function is used to combine 
these two signals. Because sMEMR 
can't be used to gate data onto DIN, 
pDBIN is used instead. The line 
pDBIN is also active when the pro- 
cessor reads an I/O (input/output) 
port. Sometimes, analogous lines are 
used to synchronize a write (pWR or 
sWO), but they are redundant with 
MWRT. 

To complete the introduction, I'll 
describe some of the things that may 
happen on the bus and that a memory 
must ignore. 

To achieve synchronization, many 
peripherals hold up the processor 
until they have data. These devices 
may hold pRDY low for a long time, 
while a disk rotates, or a printer 
prints, or a glacier approaches the 
sea. While pRDY is low, the bus is 
idle, but at the same time, memory 
needs the bus signals in order to re- 
tain data. The card doesn't depend on 



312 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 473 on Inquiry card. 




End S100 Bus Single Boird Computer and Memory Collusion 



The S100 bus has come a long way. 

The old standards, 64, 8 or even 2K of 
memory, and separate boards for I/O, 
processing, floppy control and a host of other 
functions, are obsolete. 

If you use S100 boards, that's great news. 

And bad news. 

The great news is you can buy, off the shelf 
incredibly sophisticated S100 single board 
computers and memories. 

Now the bad news. 

With different prices and 
features on dozens of available 
boards and the fact that some 
boards are still more 
sophisticated than others, it's 
getting tough to decide what 
boards to buy for particular 
applications. 



Intercontinental Micro Systems can help. 

Call or write today and we'll send you 
information defining the state of the art in S100 
bus memories and SBCs. We'll explain DMA, 
memory management, vectored priority inter- 
rupt inputs, RAM disk, parity error detection, 
window deselection and a host of other newly 
available features. 

There is a catch. 

When you call or write, we'll tell you about 



our super-sophisticated CPZ-48000 single 
board computer, our 256KMB-100 bank 
selectable or linear memory and a complete line 
of personality boards that allow you to easily 
interface with anything from floppies to 
winnies, including printers and modems. 

Call or write today and find out how 
Intercontinental Micro Systems can solve your 
S100 bus SBC and memory problems. 
We think once you know 

state-of-the-art, you'll want 

Intercontinental Micro. 




Circle 222 on inquiry card. 



1733 South Douglass Road, Suite E Anaheim, California 92806 (714) 978-9758 Telex: 678401-TAB-IRIN 



bus activity for refreshing data, and 
I've held pRDY (also called WAIT) 
low for 72 hours with no data loss. 

Other peripherals work so fast they 
have to take control of the bus and 
use the memory themselves via DMA 
(direct memory access). In the Z80 
version of the bus, there may be 
spikes (brief pulses) on the active- 
high signals MWRT and sMEMR 
when a transfer of control takes 
place. The memory must, therefore, 
ignore pulses of less than 100-ns dura- 
tion on these lines. Extra sMEMR sig- 
nals are all right, but an extra MWRT 
is a disaster. I've filtered MWRT to 
reject such pulses. 

Finally, many older machines use 
hardware front panels, on which the 
operator reads and writes with push 
buttons. To read memory at human 
speed, the output data must stay 
valid as long as sMEMR stays high. 
I've used an output latch that holds 
data until the next cycle. Some 
designs I've seen do not latch the data 
indefinitely, and they may not work 
with a bus controller as slow as a 
push button. 

Now that I've sketched the problem 
of using the S-100 bus, I'll summarize 
the requirements of the 4116 dynamic 
memory device and show how to 
build and use the card. 

4116 Makes Demands 

To understand how the board 
works, you must first know what the 
bus provides and what the 4116 re- 
quires. I'll only abstract the 4116 
specification sheet, so you should 
send for one if you want all the details 
(see table 2). 

For $48 you can fill this card with 
4116s and your directly addressable 
Z80 memory space with thirty-two 
16-pin DIPs (dual-inline packages). 
Each stores 16,384 bits as charges in a 
grid of 0.03-picofarad (pF) capacitors. 
Because the charges leak away, the 
cells must be refreshed (read into a 
latch and rewritten) at least 500 times 
per second. Any memory-access cycle 
refreshes 128 bits, so that they will 
last for another 2 milliseconds (ms). 
But that complication aside, the in- 
puts are practically TTL-compatible, 
and the DC (direct current) power 
drawn is very small. Current is drawn 



Vendor 


Vendor's 

number for 

4116 


Advanced Micro Devices 
901 Thomson Place 
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 
(408) 732-2400 


Am9016E 


Hitachi America Ltd. 
707 West Algonquin Rd. 
Arlington Heights, IL 60005 
(312)593-7660 


HM4716A 


Intel Corporation 
3065 Bowers Ave. 
Santa Clara, CA 95051 
(408)734-8102 


2116 


ITT Semiconductors 
470 Broadway 
Lawrence, MA 01841 
(617)688-1881 


ITT 4116 


Mostek Corporation 
1215 West Crosby Rd. 
Carrollton, TX 75006 
(214) 323-6000 


MK4116 


NEC Electronics U.S.A. Inc 
Microcomputer Division 
One Natick Executive Park 
Natick, MA 01760 
(617)655-8833 


^PD416 


Texas Instruments 
Semiconductor Group 
POB 225012 
Mail Stop 308 
Dallas, TX 75265 
(214)238-6611 


TMS4116 


Toshiba America 
2151 Michelson Dr. 
Suite 190 
Irvine, CA 92715 
(714)955-1155 


TMM416 


Zilog Inc. 
315 Dell Ave. 
Campbell, CA 95008 
(408) 370-8000 


Z-6116 


Table 2: Vendors that can supply 


specification sheets for 4116-type 
memories. If you send a self-addressed 
9- by 12-inch envelope with 50 cents in 
stamps, you will usually receive a data 
sheet by return mail. 



by 4116s in RF (radio-frequency) 
pulses, with a small DC bias added. 

The memory circuits can perform 
six kinds of cycles, but I use just the 
simplest three: read, write, and 
refresh-only. You could think of the 
general memory cycle as a string of 
five clock periods, as shown in figure 
2a and b. The common 4116 with an 
access time of 200 ns would have 



periods of 67 ns. 

A memory-access cycle begins with 
the falling edge of RAS (Row Address 
Strobe), which makes the device sam- 
ple 7 bits of an address. This portion 
of the address controls which row of 
memory cells inside the device will be 
refreshed. As soon as the second 7-bit 
address value on the address pins is 
valid, CAS (Column Address Strobe) 
may go low. C AS's falling edge makes 
the 4116 sample its address, write- 
enable, and data-input pins. The 
other inputs must remain stable until 
the beginning of the third clock 
period. WR (write) can alter the data 
any time CAS is low. 

If CAS stays high (inactive), a 
RAS-only refresh occurs; the row of 
bits is rewritten, so they are recharged 
for another 2 ms. RAS must be low 
long enough for the refresh to work, 
an interval that coincides with the 
ICs' advertised access time (200 ns). 

After the third clock period, output 
data is ready, and you may let RAS 
and CAS rise. The output data be- 
comes invalid when CAS rises. After 
RAS rises, the 4116 must be left alone 
for two more clock periods. The 
whole cycle takes 375 ns. You may 
stretch any of the clock periods out to 
5 microseconds (jis) or so, but each 
row must be refreshed every 2 ms. 
Figure 2b shows a cycle in time, 
drawn to scale. 

The 4116s require little DC (the 
whole card takes half an amp at 
+ 12 V, running full tilt with a 
4-MHz Z80), but they "drink" RF 
energy. The supply current is drawn 
in a burst after each strobe edge (when 
RAS or CAS changes). Capacitors 
must be mounted near each memory 
device for quick action. The + 12-V 
supply operates the circuitry of the 
4116 and must be less than 10 percent 
noise. The — 5-V supply keeps inter- 
nal diodes cut off. A word of warn- 
ing: it must be more reliable than the 
other supplies. The presence of a +12 
voltage without a —5 voltage will 
damage the memory with the very 
next strobe. The + 5-V supply is used 
only by the memory to generate a 
logic 1 and thus makes far less noise. 

All the signal inputs of a single 
4116 may be driven by LS (low- 
power Schottky) TTL levels. Unfortu- 



314 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



IBM memory 
at realistic 
prices: 

25g^jNK E Rs232c $340 



$529 WITH SUPERCALC 



B\2K^mmTm m m ^579 



$749 WITH SUPERCALC 



Both of these fully-populated memory 
boards include parity checking and 



To order or for 

a standard RS-232C interface, fhey information Call 
are compatible with all IBM software. MW> "wwv/1 vuh 

You can expect these boards to 

meet the highest standards of ■_ hL^A/\fr%Hlr- 

design and manufacturing quality 111 rVIGW lUflV' 

available — at any price. We are /vmia\ C/Vl 4CMO 

proud to guarantee them fully for a \£A£j vyv'I^O 
period of two years. 

In Los Angeles: 
(213)706-0333 

In Dallas: 

IPUTER (214)744-4251 
PRODUCTS By Modem; 




31245 LA BAYA DRIVE 
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA 91362 



(213)991-1604 



We accept VISA and MasterCard on all orders; COD orders, up to $300. 

Shipping charges: $3 for all prepaid orders, actual shipping charges for non-prepaids; $3 for 
COD orders under 25lbs. ($6 for over) plus a $4 surcharge; add 15% for foreign, FP0 and AP0 
orders. Calif, add 6% sales tax, L.A. County add 6 1 />%. 



Circle 15 on Inquiry card. „„.., , 

^ ' BYTE March 1983 315 



(2a) 



'RC 



RAS 



"x 



'RAS ' 



y 



-\ 



CAS 



ADDRESS _/¥w VN/N/W 

(7 LINES} " \ ADDRESS f\ /\ /\/\/\ 



COLUMN 
ADDRESS 



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)g XS 



^ xxxxxxxxx 



xxxxxxxxxxxx> 



MUST NOT CHANGE 



. xxxxxxxxy^^^yyxxyyyxyxxxyxxxyxxy 



/DATA FROM \ 
\RAM / 



IMAGINARY 
RAM CLOCKS 



4>\ 



4>2 



$3 



*4 



*5 



(2b) 



RAS 



CAS 



MORE THAN 200ns 



-120ns- 



S 



WRITE 



25ns 10ns 



^, 



jZZ7 



H — H K- H»— 55ns — H 



ADDRESS ^T 
(7 LINES) 



^qwXXXX cq LUMN xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 



xxxxxxy 



kxxxxxxxxxx 

— ^| h» — 0/50ns 

/// VALID Wfc 

A\V DATA OUT //y 



200 ns ACCESS TIME 



Figures 2a and 2b: Timing relationships of the 4116-type dynamic memory. Figure 2a shows how the cycle time of the memory can 
be considered as five imaginary periods. In this figure, t RAS is the advertised access time. Figure 2b is a read cycle drawn to scale. 
Valid data may terminate from ns to 50 ns after the trailing edge of WRITE. 



nately, when you tie 32 MOS inputs 
together in a grid, it works like a long 
piece of cable. When a fast pulse like 
RAS or CAS hits the open end of a 
cable, it bounces back, upside down. 
Since a — 3-V pulse may destroy the 
data in a 4116 and the bouncing 
reflections wreck the timing, any line 
to eight or more MOS inputs must be 
terminated to absorb falling edges. 
Clamping diodes and pullup resistors 
are used. Series resistors at the source 



work by slowing the fall time of the 
pulses. For more about transmission- 
line effects, see the references. 

Now you see how these popular de- 
vices got their reputation for interface 
complexity: they deserve itl 

Support Circuitry 

Now that the 4116s and the bus are 
less mysterious, you can follow the 
block diagram (figure 3) and the sche- 
matic diagram (figure 4) to under- 



stand how the board works. The 
functions of the support devices are 
given in table 3. 

The power supplies that regulate 
the voltages applied to the TTL and 
the memories deserve special atten- 
tion. Diodes ensure that the last sup- 
ply to quit after power is removed 
will be —5 V. They also protect the 
memories if the — 16- V supply fails. 
Three separate grids of heavy wire 
(one for each supply) and thirty-two 



316 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




"•-- <^0<?£> /W<?/z~as/*/£> f ...^v) Y<?c//^ 'Sc/^^PTVf^- J^ypz+fi^TZ- W/^.A^^*^ , 
/\A& 7& <<~>^Hrz^yY7^ cS/^/Ac-S/ f>£,or, f/^/Mf- OVf- <y/L_ S>&la/^ ^CP/Wf?^/ <zA~pt^z> /\ / wj~i+ 



INTERSTELLAR DRIVE 

^+4 ^^ A SOLID STATE DISK EMULATOR 



Save valuable time! 

5 to 50 times faster 
performance than floppy disks 
# and Winchester drives 

PION'S INTERSTELLAR DRIVE is designed for use with a 
family of interfaces and software packages. Currently avail- 
able are interfaces for IBM, SI 00, TRS80, Apple, SS50, and 
most Z80 uP, and software for most popular operating systems. 
Additional interfaces are continually being developed for the 
most popular computers. 

BaSIC Price for 256KB Unit [Includes interface and software] 

J 1 095 ^ us tax (w ^ ere applied) and shipping 

Visa and Master Card accepted. 





SAVE MONEY! 
Increase your 
computer's productivity 



v 



The INTERSTELLAR DRIVE is a high performance 
data storage subsystem with independent power 
supply, battery backup, and error detection. It has 
256KB to 1 Megabyte of solid state memory integrated 
to perform with your operating system. 



PIOIM f INC. Tel.(6 17)923-8009 

101 R Walnut St., Watertown, MA 02172 

TRS80 trademark of Tandy Corp. Apple trademark of Apple Computers 
Interstellar Drive trademark of PION, Inc. 



Circle 498 on inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 317 



psync[3^ 



8080/IEEE 
ONLY 



MlO * 



PHANTOM O 



REQUEST 
FLAGS 



BUS 
LOGIC 



A13-A15 

<m — 



■TALK 



A 15, A14:x; 



A13-A7 




RFSH- 



A6-A0 



RFSH 
COUNT 



ADDRESS 

BUFFER 

REGISTERS 



CAS- 



MEMORY 
S CYCLE q 

REQUEST 
R 



» 



s REFRESH 
REQUEST 



TIME 
OUT 



BANK 
SELECT 


— 


Tj 


V 

2 



Sfis TIMER 

CLR 



PO 



ANY 
REQ 



CYCLE GENERATOR 



START 



CK1 CK2 CK3 CK4 



BANK M 



t ? ♦ T 



CONTROL LOGIC 



BANK 



♦PULLUP RESISTOR ON EACH LINE 







V 

7 OR 8 



I 



32 4116-TYPE 
MEMORY IC s 



ADDRESS 



RASO 



RAS1 



RAS2 



CAS 



WR 



•pRDY 



1 



WRITE BUFFER 



M, 



READ BUFFER 



■TALK 



CB!> f 

I 



C Wi ~^~ * 

IP 

DIN 



Figure 3: A block diagram of the 64K-byte dynamic memory board. 



0.1-microfarad (/iF) ceramic capaci- 
tors prevent the memories from in- 
jecting more than a volt of, noise onto 
the supplies. Such noise would keep 
the sense amplifiers in the memory 
devices from working reliably. 

Inputs from the bus are translated 
into refresh-cycle requests by the 



block labeled Bus Logic in figure 3 (see 
figure 4, page 320, for the specific TTL 
involved) and into TALK, the signal 
that enables the output buffer (labeled 
Read Buffer in figure 3, IC24 in figure 
4, page 323). Using the top three ad- 
dress bits, IC33 (see figure 4, page 
321), a multiplexer selects one of the 



eight jumpers at Jl to see if the 8K-byte 
block addressed is enabled and gener- 
ates the signal MADDR. For IEEE-696 
versions of the board, status of the bus 
is latched (see figure 4, page 320) to 
ward off extra cycles and MWRT is 
filtered to reject noise. The resulting 
status signals (Z80MEMR and 



318 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Now our $29.95 complete Pascal for CP/M is an even better bargain... 



WHATTHE Y SAID ABOUT 
JRT PASCAL 2.0: 

CREATIVE COMPUTING, Nov. '82 "...While 
'there is no such thing as a free lunch,' 
JRT Pascal at $29.95 (which includes 
postage) certainly allows the user to 
experience champagne and caviar 
at cafeteria prices..." 

INTERFACE AGE, Oct. '82 "...JRT Pascal is 
following the example set by Software 
Toolworks (Sherman Oaks, CA) of 
offering quality software at extremely 
low price..." 

INFOWORLD, Aug. 16, '82 The magazine's 
'Software Report Card' rated JRT's 



documentation 'good' and performance, 
ease of use and error handling 
'excellent'- the highest rating. 
AND NOW; JRT PASCAL 3.0— 

with all the features that earned 2.0 so 
much praise — PLUS the many new features 
shown here. The price?— still just $29.95! 
This astonishing price includes the complete 
JRT Pascal system on diskettes and the. 
new expanded user manual. Not a subset, 
it's a complete Pascal for CP/M.* 

Faster and more reliable than ever, 
for beginner or expert, engineer or busi- 
nessman, JRT Pascal 3.0 provides a set 
of features unequaled by any other Pascal... 
or any other language. 



announcing 
Pascal 



OUR NO-RISK OFFER: 

When you receive JRT Pascal 3.0, look 
it over, check it out, compare it with similar 
systems costing ten times as much. If you're 
not completely satisfied, return it — with the 
sealed diskettes unopened — within 30 days, 
and your money will be refunded in full. 
That's right: satisfaction guaranteed or your 
money back! 

A JRT bonus: if you want to copy the 
diskettes or manual — so long as it's not for 
resale — that's o.k. with us. Pass it on to your 
friends. But don't delay. Send the coupon or 
phone today and start enjoying the Pascal 
advantage; at $29.95, there's no reason 
to wait! 

Extended CASE statement 



Separate compilation 
of auto-loading 
external procedures 



Fast one-step compiler; 
no link needed 

Efficient compiler needs 
only 85K diskette space 




NEW Full support 
for indexed files 

NEW CRT screen 
formatting and 
full cursor control 

NEW Facilities for 
formatting printed 
reports 

Graphing 
procedures 

Statistic procedures 

14 digit BCD 
FLOATING POINT 
arithmetic 

True dynamic 
storage 

Advanced 
assembly interface 



NEW 

File variables 

and GET/PUT 

NEW 
Dynamic arrays 

Random files 
to 8 megabytes 
with variable 
length records 

64K dynamic strings 

Activity analyzer 
prints program use 
histogram 

No limits on procedure 
size, nesting or recursion 

More than 200 

verbal error messages 

Maximum program size: 
more than 200,000 lines 




reference card 

NEW 175-page user manual 
with protective 3-ring binder 
and 5-1/4" or 8" diskettes 

NEW SEARCH procedure 
for fast table look-up 



.still 
only 



Mm&LSO 



$2995! 



Send or 

to JRT SYSTEMS phone 415/566-5100 

550 Irving Street/A11 

San Francisco, CA 94122 

Here's my $29.95; please send me JRT Pascal. I understand that if I'm 
not completely satisfied, I can return it within 30 days — with the sealed 
diskettes unopened — for a full refund. (Allow 2-3 weeks for shipping.) 
I need the 5-1/4" diskettes for □ Apple CP/M; □ Heath, Hard Sector; 
D Heath, Soft Sector; □ Northstar; D Osborne; D Superbrain; 
□ Televideo; □ Xerox 820.. I need □ 8" SSSD diskettes. 



Name 

Address . 

City State Zip 

□ Check □ C.O.D. □ MasterCard □ VISA 

(CA residents add sales tax. Add $6 for shipping outside North America.) 

Card # Exp 



Signature 

*CP/M is a Digital Research TM. 



A 56K CP/M system is required. 



Circle 234 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 319 






DESIGNATIONS NOT USED; 

IC5, IC7, IC8. IC14. IC16. IC23. 
IC30, IC31. IC32, IC34, IC35 

HIGHEST DESIGNATION USED: IC36 



IC 22 
74LS10 




I CI 5 

74S04 



SMEMR |"47^> f 

MWRT [!£> 




Figure 4: A schematic diagram of the 64K-byte dynamic memory board (continued on page 322). 

320 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



o^ 



T" 



+ 8V 
IN 



+ 5V 
OUT 



ELECTROLYTIC 



_L q- 1 ^ 



r 3 ¥ 

IIN40C 
W- 



IN4001 

-W— 



+ 3.4V 
A 



15V 
CERAMIC 
5 PLACES 



; o.i/iF 



X 




STRAP TO r L 

ENABLE 10 2 4 6 

8K BLOCKS I o — p— o- 







i Sj rh 






IC27a 
74LS74 



CLOCK 
CLR 



IC27b 
74LS74 



CLOCK 
CLR 



BANK- 
SELECT 
REGISTER 




PIN IDENTIFICATION 



IC26 
74LS240 




IC20b 
74LS139 



ADDRESS 
SELECTOR 



1 



10 REFRESH ADDR 



11 COLUMN ADDR 



12 ROW ADDR 



S-100 ADDR 13 



BANK SELECT 2 1 



BANK SELECT 2° 



14.5 MHz CLOCK 



Dl IC4 CYCLE 

74S175 GENERATOR _ 

Q4 

01 01 D2 02 Q2 D3 03 Q3 D4 



2 
CK1 



IC12 
74S00 



IC3b 
74S74 



CLOCK 
CLR 



SET 
D Q 



IC3a 
74S74 



CLOCK Q 

CLR 



KZt- 



SET 

D 

IC13b 
74LS74 

CLOCK 

CLR 



SET 

D 

IClOb 
74S74 

CLOCK Q 

"CLR 



WRITE 
STATUS 
FLAG 



TTL CONSTANT HIGH 



^Jf>o^ lata 



E K J 



IC21 
74S65 



IC26 
74LS240 



- 33 |72>PRDY 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 321 



+ 16v[T>~ 
GROUND fsb^- 



tlO^- 



IN4001 

_ 16V (i2>H4 — ^ 



22/iF 

25V 

ELECTROLYTIC 



+ 16V 
IN 



+ 12V 
OUT 



^•^ 47 M F 
25 V 
ELECTROLYTIC 



REFRESH ADDR 



COLUMN ADDR 



S-100 ADDR 13 



BANK SELECT 2* 



BANK SELECT 2° 



-15V 
IN 



-5V 

OUT 



I-12V 

i 



;o,oi^f 



0.1 M F 

15V CERAMIC 
16 PLACES 
(SEE TEXT) 



"31 



O.ljiF 

15V CERAMIC 

6 PLACES 



REFRESH ROW 
COUNTER 



*NO CONNECTION- 
RESERVED FOR FUTURE GROWTH 
(SEE TEXT) 



IC11 

74LS393 
CLOCKA CLOCKB 

2 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 2 6 2 7 2 8 



o ~+ cu m 
r^ aj cr» -h — i — . — i 
<<<<<<< 



W^§>® 99^999 



ID 2D 3D 4D 5D 6D 7D 8D 

CLOCK IC19 

74LS374 



1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 5Q 6Q 7Q 8Q 



ID 2D 3D 4D 5D 6D 7D 8D 



IC17 
74LS374 



1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 5Q 6Q 7Q 8Q 



3 


4 


7 


8 


13 


14 


17 



ID 2D 3D 4D 5D 6D 7D 8D 

CLOCK |C18 

74LS374 



10 20 30 4Q 5Q 6Q 7Q 8Q 



33ft 

(TYPICAL 
FOR 8) 




Figure 4 (continued from page 321): A schematic diagram of the 64K-byte dynamic memory board. 

322 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




<JkT| D07 
<J0] 006 
<f39] D05 
<la] D04 
<f8?] D03 
<J8] D02 
<^39] D01 
<^36l DOO 



NO 
CONNECTION 



■[95^> DIO 
T^> Dll 
{^T> DI2 
{*?> DI3 
{£T> DI4 
{92^> DI5 
{93^> DI6 
J43^> DI7 



IC 24 

74LS373 

READ BUFFER REGISTER 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 323 



Unit 


Type 


Function 


1 


74S10 


CAS gate, TALK gate 


2 


74LS00 


RAS enable 


3 


74S74 


CK5, MEM/RFSH arbitration and status flag 


4 


74S175 


Cycle generator 


6 


74LS393 


Refresh timer 


9 


74S00 


RAS gates 


10 


74S74 


Memory request, write status flags 


11 


74LS393 


Refresh row counter 


12 


74S00 


"Glue" 


13 


74LS74 


Write, refresh request flags 


15 


74S04 


Clock 


17 


74LS374 


Column address buffer register 


18 


74LS374 


Row address buffer register 


19 


74LS373 


Refresh address buffer register 


20 


74LS139 


Bank, cycle interval decoder 


21 


74S65 


watt 


24 


74LS373 


Read data buffer register 


25 


74LS374 


Write data buffer register 


26 


74LS240 


Line receiver, inverters 


27 


74LS74 


Bank select buffer register 


28 


74LS74 


Status latch (8080, IEEE only) 


29 


74LS02 


Status gate (8080, IEEE only) 


33 


74LS151 


Memory address decoder 


36 


74LS30 


Clamping diodes 


— 


4116 


Dynamic memories 


— 


7805 


Logic supply 




7812 


RAM power supply 




7905 


RAM substrate bias supply 


Table 3: Functions of the 


various integrated circuits used on the memory board. 



Z80MWRT) are used to trigger the 
three re quest flags MCY RQ, MWRT 
B, a nd RFRQ. T ALK comes true 
when PHANTOM is false, MADDR 
is true, and Z80MEMR is true. TALK 
turns on the output bus driver. 

Each of the three request flags in- 
dicates that some memory cycle is 
pending, and each is cleared when its 
cycle is accomplished. MCYRQ 
demands a memory-access cycle, 
either read or write. MCYRQ triggers 
all the incoming-address buffers (la- 
beled Column Buffer and Row Buffer 
in figure 3; IC17 and IC18 in figure 4, 
page 322; and IC27 in figure 4, page 
321) so that the bus need not remain 
stable until the end of an access cycle. 
MWRT B means the pending memory 
cycle is a write. It triggers the input- 
data buffer (labeled Write Buffer in 
figure 3, IC25 in fig ure 4, pa ge 323) for 
the same reason. RFRQ means it's 
time to refresh a row in every memory 
on the board. RFRQ may be due to 
an op-code fetch or the 9-/*s timer 
running out. (A careful examination 
of the timing of a 4-MHz Z80 PUSH 



LOWEST PRICED "PROFESSIONAL" MODEMS 



R103J® 300 BAUD 



£fc 



Retail Value $199. - Save $40. 

Compatible With Any Per- 
sonal Computer With 232C In- 
terface (such as: TRS-80, Apple, 
IBM, DEC, etc.) 

300 BAUD Full Duplex (R103J) 



• 1200 BAUD Full Duplex 
(PC1200) 

• Front Panel Light Emitting 
Diodes (LED's) Monitor: 232C 
Interface 



PC1 200 @ 1200 BAUD 



YOUR 
CHOICE 



• Front Panel Push Buttons 
Provide Modem Test Plus Con- 
venient Switching Between 
Talk and Data Modes 

• Compatible With your Stand- 
ard Home Telephone, Both 
Rotary and Push Button 



E 



Retail Value $695. - Save $196. 

• Operates Over All DDD 
Telephone Lines 

• Your Terminal Controls Auto- 
matic or Manual Answer 

• Automatically Selects Origi- 
nate or Answer Mode 

• Bell 103, 113, and212 Com- 
patible 




IRIXONIS13BJ U 






Toll free order number 
800-368-2773 Ext. 358 



(In Md. 301-622-2121 Ext 358) 



ORDERING INFORMATION: To cover 
UPS shipping & handling add $5.00 for 
R103J or $9.00 for PC1200. Include full 
name, address, & zip code. UPS will not 
deliver to a P.O. Box Number, local sales 
tax will be added if shipped to: CA, CO, 
FL, IL, MD, MA, Ml, MN, NJ, NY, NC, PA, 
SC, TX, VA.orWA. 

© RIXON INC., 1982 3042 

Please mail your orders to: Rixon Inc., ATT: R103J Offer, 2120 Industrial Parkway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20904 
March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc Circle 378 on inquiry card. 



TERMS: Send check or money order. No 
cash please, if check is not certified 
shipment will be delayed. For Visa or 
Master Charge, include Card Number, 
Expiration Date, Interbank Number, In- 
terbank Initials (if any), and Name of 
Card Issuer. Sorry, No. COD. 



324 



RIXON 



NC. 



WE'RE SMASHING THE PRICES 



ON 



/^/^i 



DIMENSION 



SYSTEMS 



DISK DRIVES 




mmioK 




APPLE COMPATIBLE DRIVES ._. $289| 

KM WIT H m CONTROLLER $379 * 

EVERY DRIVE INCLUDES A FREE BOX OF ELEPHANT DISKETTES AT NO EXTRA CHARGE 




ft 



$4e - *S#«I» 



# 



^.SaA 9 A <b J 6eses^i 



FOURTH DIMENSION features Siemens Drives with Specially Designed Electronics 

for Stepper Motor Control. The Motor Speed Control is easily accessible through a hole 

in the bottom of the case. Capacity: 140K, 35 Tracks. 



CALL "THE COMPUTER-LINE 3 



ORDERS AND INFORMATION 

(303) 279-2727 

(303) 279-2848 

1-(800)-525-7877 



ORDER INQUIRIES ONLY 
(303) 278-8321 



COMPUTERLINE, Inc. 
1019 8th Street 
Golden, CO 80401 

COMPUTERLINE OF DENVER: 
1 1 36 South Colorado Blvd. 
Denver, CO 80222 



All pnees reflect a 2.9% cash discount. All goods acknowledged faulty on receipt by the customer will be repaired or replaced al our discretion Customers must call for an RMA number before returning 
anv qoods. This facilitates our quick attendance to faulty goods. We reserve the right to repair or return to the manufacturer for repair all goods becoming lautty within the specified warranty period. Any 
s (hardware or software) returned for restocking are subject to a 10% restocking loo at our discretion. No returns on software. We accept no responsibility for any false claims made by manufacturers. 



Prices quoted for stock cm 



n APO and inn riM Please add 2% (minimum S3. 00/ for shi| 



») for shipping. APO add to all prices 5% for shipping 
APO of international) delivered UPS ground. 



Circle 110 on inquiry card. 



(5a) 



14.5MHz 



MCYRQ OR 
RFRQ 



CK1 



CK2 



CK3 



CK4 



CK5 



IDLE 



IDLE 



Ql 



|* 67ns *\ 



Q2 



Q3 



Q4 



Q5 



IDLE 



V^^V^^^^~Y 



\-/ 



y ^sl_ 



y 



m 



y^ 



m. 



y 



y^m 



IMAGINARY 

RAM CLOCKS * 



+ 5 



4>5 



<M 



4>2 



$3 



Figures 5a and 5b: Timing of signals generated on the board, as they relate to the imaginary five-period cycle. In figure 5a, the cycle 
begins on the leading edge of the 14.5-MHz clock while either MCYRQ (the cycle request signal) or RFRQ (the refresh request 
signal) are true. The fifth imaginary period is a forced idle period. Figure 5b shows an idealized read cycle. 



instruction will reveal why you must 
latch incoming address and data; in 
the worst case, the column address 
disappears from the bus just before 
the memories are finished sampling 
it.) 

The 9-(.ls timer (IC6 in figure 4, page 
320) starts running when a refresh 
cycle happens. After 9 /as without 
another RF RQ.it a sserts TIMEOUT 
and sets an RFRQ itself. If there are 
op-code fetches more often than that, 
TIMEOUT stays inactive. In case a 
fast DMA transfer should "lock out" 
refreshes for a while, a 9-jlis interval 
gives nearly twice as many refreshes as 
the memories require. It also lets you 
use a clock as slow as 8 MHz on this 
board without changing the circuit. 

The cycle generator (IC4 of figure 4, 
page 321) is a shift register that fills 
with Is as each cycle progresses (a 
"half -Johnson counter"). Figures 5a 
and b show the cycle generator's tim- 
ing relationships. On every 14.5-MHz 



clock pulse, it samples ANY REQ and 
stores a 1 immediately if there's a re- 
quest. On the fifth clock pulse, IC4 is 
reset by the 1 as it is shifted to CK5, 
and the generator is ready to cycle 
again. The connection from CKl to 
the input of the cycle generator via ICl 
ensures that no cycle can be aborted 
once it starts. CK5 stretches the last 
phase of the cycle a little and gives a 
rest of at least one clock period be- 
tween cycles (see figures 5a and b). 

When CKl rises, the cycle in pro- 
gress may be either memory access or 
refresh. If the cycle is refresh, RFSH 
(pin 6 of IC3, figure 4, page 3 21) is 
true, and there will be no CAS. 
All four RAS lines (figure 4, page 
323) will be active. RFSH is shown in 
photo 2. Thus, memory accesses have 
priority if a refresh request and a 
memory access occur simultaneously. 

On the next phase (CK2 rises), the 
write-status flag WR (see IC10 of 
figure 4, page 321) is triggered, and it 



tells the memories whether to read or 
write. The memories ignore this signal 
during refreshes because they can't 
write without CAS. 

ICll (figure 4, page 322) counts the 
rows being refreshed after each 
refresh cycle. There are three address 
buffer registers: row (IC18), column 
(IC17), and refresh row (IC19). IC19 
is used only for its three-state out- 
puts, but it simplifies the wiring by 
matching the output pins of the other 
registers. The decoder (IC20) selects 
the address the memories will need 
next, and its propagation delay (and 
that of the registers) guarantees the 
hold time of the row address (i.e., the 
row address will not begin to change 
until 25 ns after RAS has fallen). I 
designed the path to allow for eight 
address bits to encourage users to 
switch to the denser 4164 memories 
later. The lines that end in stars on 
the schematic are left dangling, for 
now, but you should mount all the 



326 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



(5b) 



14.5MHz 



ANY REQ 



^A 



HEB 




V^A^^^~V^ 



V 



CK2 



S 



"V 



CK3 



/ 



\ 



CK4 



f 



\ 



ROW ENB 



f 



\ 



COL ENB 



"^ 



J 



A. 



f 



CAS 



\ 



y 



2ffi 



XTT 



2X 



ADDRESS OLD ROW 



COLUMN 



T - ^ — ^ 



DATA 



pRDY 



V 



resistors anyway. 

Because the bus won't wait once it 
begins a write, data is latched into the 
board. A refresh might be in progress 
when the write begins, and the data 
would be gone by the time the memo- 
ries were ready for it if you did not in- 
clude the latch (IC25 in figure 4, page 
323). IC25 also isolates the bus from 
the long, reflection-prone lines to the 
memories. One commercial board 
I've seen omits the input buffer, 
hooking the memory inputs to the 
bus with 18 inches of printed-circuit 
board trace. 

Data is latched coming out of the 
memories, too. The transparent latch, 
IC24, puts the data on the bus as soon 
as it's ready and holds it there until 
TALK goes away. This action makes 
it possible to read the board with very 
flexible timing, including push-button 



front panels, long waits, or very slow 
bus controllers. 

The a ddre ss stro bes, RASO through 
RAS3 and CAS (see photo 3), are 
each gated by phases of the crystal- 
controlled clock. RAS is used in 
decoding the bank address, but all 
four banks receive RAS simulta- 
neously during refresh. CAS isn't 
decoded because it appears only dur- 
ing a memory cycle. The LSTTL gate 
at the far end of each strobe line is 
used only for its input diodes, to limit 
the reflected pulses to a safe level. 

The clock (most of IC15, figure 4, 
page 320) is a ring oscillator. With no 
crystal installed, a pulse chases itself 
around the ring at about 22 MHz. 
The crystal limits the frequency to 
14.5 MHz, and the free speed of the 
ring limits the crystal (or it would try 
to run at 29 MHz). The ring has no 



stable logic state, so the oscillator 
always starts. This circuit gave me 
more trouble than anything else on 
the board but less trouble than the 
other two oscillators I tried first (two 
inverters and an Intel 8224). Do not 
substitute smaller capacitors, or 
you'll get 29 MHz, and your memory 
probably won't work. The lK-byte 
pullup resistor and the fourth inverter 
improve the waveform at its rising 
edge, so that IC3 and IC4 (figure 4, 
page 321) are triggered simultaneous- 
ly, as they must be. 

The wait gate, IC21, decodes the 
various conditions that mean the pro- 
cessor is outrunning the memory. It 
makes the processor wait if: 

1. an op code isn't ready; or 

2. an ordinary read isn't almost ready 
(look very carefully at the refer- 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 327 




Photo 2: A demonstration of the refresh timer while the bus is idle. With pRDY 
grounded, address line is shown alternating as the refresh address is incremented. 




Photo 3: The multiplexed address strobes. With the memory card's clock set at 4 MHz 
and the processor running at 2 MHz, RAS and CAS are clear and well defined (the 
oscilloscope is being triggered by the rising edge of CK1). 



ences and notice that both versions 
of the memory board sample 
pRDY earlier during an ordinary 
read than during an op-code 
fetch); or 

3. a write is still under way, and the 
bus begins a read; or 

4. the timer runs out, and the pro- 
cessor is looking our way. 



Number 4 isn't that important, but it 
limits the occurrence of the others. 
The interaction between processor 
and cycle generator is probabilistic 
and hard to observe. I'd rather make 
an extra wait than skip a cycle. If you 
use Schottky devices everywhere I 
have specified, you'll very seldom get 
wait states at 4 MHz. 



Next Month 

Once the general operation of the 
board is understood, all that remains 
is to order the parts and proceed with 
construction. Of course, the cost ad- 
vantage of this build-it-yourself proj- 
ect may be completely negated if 
proper construction techniques are 
not followed. In the conclusion of this 
article next month, I will detail the 
proper building procedures and at- 
tempt to smooth out some of the 
rough spots that experimenters may 
run into. Remember, if you build the 
circuit carefully, you will have a de- 
pendable memory board that will 
serve you for years. If you rush, or 
buy "untested" parts, you may end 
up with an expensive puzzle, or even 
fireworks. ■ 

References 

1 . Blakeslee, Thomas R. Digital Design with 
Standard MSI and LSI: Design Techniques 
for the Microcomputer Age, 2nd ed. New 
York: John Wiley and Sons, 1979. 

2. Buchanan, J. E. "Crystal Oscillator 
Design Eliminates Start-up Problems." 
EDN, February 20, 1978. 

3. Malakoff, Larry, "Dynamic Memory: Mak- 
ing an Intelligent Decision." BYTE, Feb- 
ruary 1981, page 142. 

4. Morrow, George, et al. "Standard 
Specification for S-100 Bus Interface 
Devices (Proposed IEEE Task 696.1/D2)." 
Computer, July 1979. 

5. Mostek Corporation. Memory Data Book 
and Designer's Guide. 1979. 

a) 4116 Specification, page 109. 

b) Application Note, by David Wooten, 
page 281. 

6. NEC Microcomputers Inc. 1980 Data Cat- 
alog. 8080A Specification, page 165. 

7. Ramo, Simon, et al. Fields and Waves in 
Communications Electronics. New York: 
John Wiley and Sons, 1965. 

8. Texas Instruments Inc. The TTL Data 
Book. 1976. 

9. Zilog Inc. "Z-80 CPU Product Specifica- 
tion." March 1978. 



Acknowledgments 

Jim Cooley, Ben Slade, Les Newcastle, and 
Ed Criscuolo tested the new board in their 
S-100 machines. Thanks to their courage, I can 
claim the card works in systems with SD Sales' 
2-MHz computers and in the Netronics Ex- 
plorer 85. It also works in my system with a 
Z80 running anywhere between 125 kHz and 
4 MHz. 

The good people of Litton Systems' Ame com 
Division, especially Jay Lancaster and Jim 
Cooley, put up with me while they taught me 
the basics of digital electronics. J ay helped with 
the photography. I thank you all. 



328 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 466 on inquiry card. . 




TRODUCING THE NEWEST 
»TIOH FROM XCOMP: 



i TOASTER. 
TWO REMOVABLE 3.9", 5 MEGABYTE 
HARD DISK CARTRIDGES MAKES IT THE 
GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD! 



Now you can start the day by knowing you (ten get 
everything you've always dreamed ot. In facT, it's the 
answer everyone's been looking for! 

The Toaster, from XCOMP. 

The Toaster is a Hard Disk Subsystem with a 
twist. It contains TWO 3.9", 5 Megabyte Hard Disk 
Cartridges that are REMOVABLE! 

The Toaster' provides unlimited storage arid 
convenient back-up with a full 5 Megabytes 
cartridge. lOMegabytes per applicationL , 
addition to XCOMP* s quality, reliability and industry 
leadership, yoii|l be benefiting from the ultra 
simplicity of a jloppy and the fantastic speed of 
a hard d§§k. 

An<r what about security? What can be more 
secure than being able to pull out your cartridge and 
take it home with you? 

Even though the Toaster is revolutionary, XCOMP 



also offers 16-MB Fixed, 5-MB Removable and 8 or 16 
Fixed Hard Disk Subsystems. We consider them the 
best in the industry. ALL XCOMP products attach to 
the Apple II and III, IBM-PC, NEC PC8000, OSBORN, 
KAYPRO and other popular single-board computers. 

The Toaster is just one of the many ideas coming 
from the people at XCOMP today. 

Tomorrow, who knows what may pop up. 



31 SALES OFFICES TO SERVE YOU: Richard Dean & Assoc 
Woburn, MA (617) 933-8435 Paston-Hunter Company, Inc . Syracuse. NY. (315) 437-2992 
EASTERN SEABOARD: TMC Sales Corp.. Fort Lee. NJ. (201) 944-8340/ (212) 563-5185. 
AB&T Sales Corp., King ol Prussia. PA (215) 783-7011 SOUTHEAST: Carlwricjht & Bean 
Atlanta. GA (404) 233-2939 MIDEAST: J Mnlcom Flora. Inc. Plymouth. Ml (313)453-4296 
Incom Marketing. Inc . Columbus. OH (614) 445-8431 . New Horizons Electronic Markr ting. 
Bannockburn, ILL 1312) 234-5911 SOUTHWEST: J.Y. Schoomaker Co.. Inc.. Dallas. TX 
(214) 349-1650 ROCKY MOUNTAINS: B&B Electronics. Inc . Engtewood. CO (303) 773-6700 
WESTCOAST: Berman-Giaveley Co. Inc. Costa Mesa. CA (714) 549-2122 Moulthrop 
Sales, Inc.. San Francisco, CA (415) 8460550: Earl & Brown. Portland. OR (503) 245-2283 
MINNESOTA: Please call XCOMP KANSAS: Please call XCOMP. 



$2795. 



Special Offer: With every Toaster 

sold, you'll receive TWO Cartridges FREE! 

That's a S150. value! Order now! 




7566 Trade St., San Diego, CA 92121; (619) 271-8730/TLX 182786 



FROM THE CREATORS OF THE 

DATA DRIVE® 

COMES APPLETTE 1 ® 

AND APPLETTE 2® 

SLIMLINE DRIVES 




Available At CompuShack Stores 



Applette 1® andApplette2® are 100% Apple II compatible. Halftracking, DOS. PASCAL and CP/M®.300% faster track to 
track speed with 1 5% greater storage capacity on a 40 track mode with enhancer diskette. TEAC® mechanism and read/write 
electronics. Direct shaft drive, metal band positioner, photo coupler write-protected sensor. \0W0 lifetime hours, and more- 
One year warranty on all parts and labor. 



Headquarters Telex: 18-3511 



•DATA DRIVE. APPLETTE !. APPLETTE 2 and TRUMP CARD are. 
regisiered trademarks •' TAVA Corporation, respectively 



TAVA 




CORP. 



(714)730-6772 

*TEAC i s a registered trademark o f TEAC Corp. 



Answer Back CSMA 



k CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. Inc. 

Circle 359 on inquiry card. 



A Peek into the IBM PC 

Expanding the Printer Character Set 

An assembly-language program enables an Epson printer to 
display all 256 characters used by the IBM Personal Computer. 



Tim Field 

95 South El Monte 

Los Altos, CA 94022 



The IBM Personal Computer is a 
top-notch product that has attracted 
a great deal of enthusiastic support, 
as evidenced by the large number of 
hardware and software products that 
have been developed for it. The basic 
system already seems to have set the 
standard by which all new personal 
and small-business machines are be- 
ing compared. 

But while the Personal Computer 
was being designed, IBM was faced 
with numerous hardware and soft- 
ware trade-offs. IBM wanted to get 
the system on the market as quickly 
as possible, and some desirable fea- 
tures were omitted in order to speed 
up the development cycle. Thankful- 
ly, IBM put a great deal of emphasis 
on making the computer as flexible as 
possible and then published all the 
technical reference material about the 
computer that anyone could desire. 

The documentation and flexibility 
allow the system to be easily adapted 



About the Author 

Tim Field has just completed his master's 
degree in computer science at Purdue Universi- 
ty. His experience also includes a few years 
working at DEC. He is presently at work on a 
series of articles about the IBM PC. 



to many different uses. Also, many of 
the faults found by critics of the sys- 
tem can be easily fixed. It is one of 
these faults that I set out to correct. 

One of the trade-offs that IBM 
made in speeding the Personal Com- 
puter to the marketplace was in 
deciding not to manufacture its own 
printer. Instead, IBM made an ar- 
rangement with Epson to use the 
MX-80 dot-matrix printer and slap on 
the IBM logo. By doing this, IBM 
saved a great deal of effort and began 
with a proven product. 

The Epson MX-80 is a high-quality, 
inexpensive, dot-matrix printer with 
a plethora of features. The one fea- 
ture that it does not have, however, is 
the capability to print the full IBM 
character set. Both the monochrome 
and color graphics-display options 
for the IBM PC provide the user with 
256 characters to display. Within that 
set are many characters that are not 
normally available and that are useful 
for authors, mathematicians, scien- 
tists, and so on. But the Epson (IBM) 
printer can provide a hard-copy out- 
put of only 96 of these 256 characters. 

In this article, I present a program 
called PR-256 that will correct this 
deficiency. This program requires an 



Epson MX-100 printer, or an Epson 
MX-80 with the Graftrax graphics op- 
tion, to run properly. The IBM 
printer, because it is almost identical 
to the MX-80, can also be equipped 
with the Graftrax chip. Given one of 
these printers and PR-256, all 256 
characters of the IBM PC are avail- 
able to be printed out (see listing 1). 
Unfortunately, Epson's new Graf- 
trax-Plus graphics chip, which allows 
some additional capabilities including 
italic typefonts, is not compatible 
with PR-256 as it is now written. A 
revised version of PR-256, however, 
that will be compatible with this new 
chip should be available by the time 
this article appears in print. This new 
program will work with printers hav- 
ing either graphics chip. The present 
program listed in this article, 
however, will work only with the 
older Graftrax chip. 

Overview of PR-256 

PR-256 is designed to operate as if 
the user had installed extra hardware 
in the printer. But no additional hard- 
ware other than the Graftrax graphics 
capability is necessary! Once the user 
has set up the program as described in 
this article, PR-256 will automatically 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 331 



Listing 1: A printout of the full IBM Personal Computer character set as produced by 
the program PR-256. 



ASCII 


CHARACTER 


ASCII 


CHARACTER 


ASCII 


CHARACTER 


ASCII 


CHARACTER 


VALUE 




VALUE 




VALUE 




VALUE 









64 


3 


128 


Q 


192 


L 


1 


@ 


65 


A 


129 


il 


193 


J- 


2 


e 


66 


B 


130 


£ 


194 


_,_ 


3 


V 


67 


C 


131 


a 


195 


(- 


4 


♦ 


68 


D 


132 


a 


196 




5 


♦ 


69 


E 


133 


a 


197 


+ 


6 


t 


70 


F 


134 


a 


198 


t 


7 


• 


71 


G 


135 


9 


199 


li- 


8 


□ 


72 


H 


136 


e 


200 


lt 


9 





73 


I 


137 


e 


201 


F 


10 


§ 


74 


J 


138 


6 


202 




11 


3 


75 


K 


139 


i 


203 


— 


12 


? 


76 


L 


140 


i 


204 


It= 


13 


f 


77 


M 


141 


i 


205 




14 


P 


78 


N 


142 


A 


206 


J 


15 


* 


79 





143 


A 


207 




16 


► 


80 


P 


144 


£ 


208 


iL 


17 


< 


81 


Q 


145 


2 


209 


T 


18 


* 


82 


R 


146 


flE 


210 




19 


ti 


83 


S 


147 


6 


211 


IL 


20 


fl 


84 


T 


148 


6 


212 


b 


21 


§ 


85 


U 


149 


6 


213 


F 


22 


■ 


86 


V 


150 


u 


214 


n- 


23 


i 


87 


w 


151 


u 


215 


+ 


24 


t 


88 


X 


152 


V 


216 


=F 


25 


4 


89 


Y 


153 


b 


217 


J 


26 


-* 


90 


z 


154 


u 


218 


r 


27 


4- 


91 


E 


155 


« 


219 


■ 


28 


** 


92 


\ 


156 


£ 


220 




29 


« 


93 


: 


157 


i 


221 


r 


30 


A 


94 


* 


158 


h 


222 


j 


31 


▼ 


95 




159 


S 


223 




32 




96 


"* 


160 


k 


224 


a 


33 


1 


97 


a 


161 


i 


225 


13 


34 


" 


98 


b 


162 


a 


226 


r 


35 


# 


99 


c 


163 


u 


227 


n 


36 


* 


100 


d 


164 


n 


228 


E 


37 


y. 


101 


e 


165 


ft 


229 


U 


38 


«c 


102 


-f 


166 


a 


230 


V 


39 


* 


103 


9 


167 


9 


231 


r 


40 


( 


104 


h 


168 


L 


232 


5 


41 


) 


105 


i 


169 


r 


233 


6 


42 


* 


106 


j 


170 


■> 


234 


n 


43 


+ 


107 


k 


171 


% 


235 


5 


44 


» 


108 


1 


172 


% 


236 


03 


45 




109 


m 


173 


i 


237 





46 


. 


110 


n 


174 


rt 


238 


t 


47 


/ 


111 


o 


175 


» 


239 


n 


48 





112 


P 


176 


¥ 


240 


E 


49 


i 


113 


q 


177 


s 


241 


+ 


50 


2 


114 


r 


178 


■ 


242 


> 


51 


3 


115 


5 


179 


1 


243 


< 


52 


4 


116 


t 


180 


A 


244 


i 


53 


5 


117 


u 


181 


=1 


245 


.j 


54 


6 


118 


V 


182 


-II 


246 




55 


7 


119 


w 


183 


-n 


247 


* 


56 


8 


120 


X 


184 


1 


248 





57 


9 


121 


y 


185 


=11 


249 


♦ 


58 


s 


122 




186 


|| 


250 


t 


59 


• 


123 


< 


187 


1 


251 


<r 


60 


< 


124 


[ 


188 


=!f 


252 


n 


61 


= 


125 


J 


189 


J* 


253 


2 


62 


y 


126 


-V 


190 


d 


254 


■ 


63 


7 


127 





191 


i 


255 





load into the IBM system whenever 
power is turned on and will reside in 
memory until power is turned off. 

Whenever a user program sends 
any characters to the Epson to be 
printed, PR-256 will wake up and 
cause the appropriate characters to be 
printed out. Whether you are running 
a BASIC program, a Pascal program, 
an assembly-language program, or 
even executing a Print Screen func- 
tion, PR-256 will automatically step 
in and cause the proper characters to 
be printed. PR-256 operates with a 
minimum of user intervention. Gen- 
erally, once it has been set up as 
described below, the user need not 
even know that it is there. 

PR-256 is an assembly-language 
program requiring the IBM Macro 
Assembler to assemble and link. It re- 



quires just over 2K bytes of RAM 
(random-access read/ write memory). 
It will load up in the lowest available 
area of memory automatically and 
will not affect DOS (disk operating 
system) operation. If your IBM has 
64K bytes or less of RAM, PR-256 
will take away from the amount of 
memory available to BASIC. But if 
you have more than 64K bytes, you 
will rarely (if ever) miss the memory 
occupied by PR-256. In that case, 
PR-256 will probably be stored out- 
side of the 64K bytes that are used for 
BASIC. 

For the remainder of this article I 
will be talking about PR-256 in detail. 
In order to understand how the pro- 
gram works within the IBM system, I 
must first discuss three different areas 
relating to the program interface. The 



first topic is the interrupt structure of 
the 8088 microprocessor and how the 
IBM BIOS (basic input/output sys- 
tem) software uses this structure. Sec- 
ond, we will look at interfacing with 
DOS to set up PR-256. Finally, we 
will deal with the MX-100. (I will use 
the term MX-100 throughout the arti- 
cle to signify both the Epson MX-100 
and either the IBM printer or the 
MX-80 with the graphics option.) 

After covering these peripheral 
topics (no pun intended), I shall delve 
into the inner workings of PR-256. 

8088 Interrupt Structure 

The interrupt structure of the 8088 
microprocessor is really the tie that 
binds the IBM system together. It is 
analogous to the human spinal col- 
umn in its function. Essentially, the 
system of hardware and software 
interrupts provides the mechanisms 
that are necessary to coordinate the 
various operations of the computer. 

An interrupt is an input into the 
processor that causes the current se- 
quence of operations to be momen- 
tarily broken and some special action 
to be taken. Generally, these have 
been hardware mechanisms that 
simply allow the execution flow of a 
processor to be temporarily "inter- 
rupted" so that some pressing matter 
can be attended to by the processor. 
Interrupts for microprocessors have 
been used primarily by hardware 
designers. An interrupt was signaled 
by "pulling" a pin on the micropro- 
cessor chip low (or high). This al- 
lowed various off-chip functions to 
be monitored and controlled by the 
processor. 

Intel designed into the 8088 a very 
flexible interrupt structure that the 
IBM computer puts to good use. Intel 
gave us 256 interrupts with which to 
work. And these are accessible 
through both hardware and software. 
Intel set aside some 32 of the 256 
interrupts for predefined use (e.g., 
"Divide by Zero," "Nonmaskable 
Interrupt," etc.). But the remaining 
224 interrupts are available to the 
system designer for software use. 

To invoke these software inter- 
rupts, the 8088 has a special INT in- 
struction in its repertoire. In 



332 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



FREE SHIPPING 



IBM® Personal Computer Products Apple II® Computer Products 



Davona 5 MB Hard Disk System 

a 12 MB Hard Disk System 
IBM PC-2 Drive System 



$1525.00 

2099.00 

$CALL 



Quadram - Quadboard with Parallel 

Port, Serial Port, Clock/Calendar, 

Expandable to 256 K. 

64 K on brd. $425.00 

128 K on brd. 539.00 

192 K on brd. 629.00 

256 K on brd. 719.00 

Quadram Memory Expansion 



192 K Maximum 
64 K on brd. 
128 K on brd. 
192 K on brd. 



Amdek Monitors 

Mod. 300 Phosphor 
Composite Color III 
IBM RGB Compatible Color II 
Color I 



$230.00 
350.00 
490.00 



$150.00 
345.00 
650.00 
300.00 



IBM/TRS 80 Disk Drives/Cabinets 

TM 100-1 Single 40 Track Drive $189.00 

with Cabinet & P/S 235.00 

TM 100-2 Double 40 Track Drive 289.00 

TM 100-3 Single 80 Track Drive 289.00 

TM 100-4 Double 80 Track Drive 379.00 

8" Dual Slim Line Power Supply & Cabinet 225.00 

5!A External Power Supply & Cabinet 49.00 



Apple Compatible Controller Card $79.95 
Apple Compatible Disk Drive w/Cabinet & Cable 265.00 

w/Controller 325.00 

16 K Ram Card 60.00 

Printer/Graphics Interface 99.95 

Davong 5 MB Hard Disk System 1525.00 

Davong 12 MB Hard Disk System 2099.00 

Apple Compatible Joysticks 42.95 




Epson/Smith-Corona 
Printers 



MX80 $425.00 

MX80 F/T 470.00 

MX100 640.00 

Smith CoronaTP-1 Letter Duality Daisy Wheel 565.00 

TRS 80 / IBM Parallel Printer Cable 20.00 

(with purchase of printer) 

STAR MICRONICS GEMIN1 1 399.00 

GEMIN1 15 499.00 

5f OurTRS 80® Mod III 

* 48 K; 2 Tandon 5 1 / 4 Disk 
Drives w/RS 232.. $1700.00 




Memory & Media 

IBM 64 K Upgrade Kit (9-4164) 

16 K Upgrade Kit (4116) 
Maxell Diskettes 

MD1 - S/S - D/D 

MD2 - D/S - D/D 

Commodore VIC-64 



$79.95 
12.95 

$36.00/Boxof 10 
46.00/Box of 10 

SCall 



VISA, MASTERCARD ($100 Mm.. Add 2%) \ 

Or Certified Check 
90 Day Warranty (Parts & Labor) 

TRS 80 is a Registered Trademark. Tandy Corp. 
Prices Subject to Change Without Notice 



DATA MAIL 

1(800) 635-5555 



FREE SHIPPING IN CONTINENTAL U.S. 
(TRS 80 MOD III EXCEPTED) 

(213) 993-4804 

(In Calif.) 



P.O BOX 818. RESEDA. CA 91335 



Circle 217 on inquiry card. 







SA2 
ROBOT 

$1495 



The SA2 is a robot developed for the educational market, and has 
been designed to meet a requirement for a robot which will emulate, 
in behaviour and physical attributes, larger industrial robots 
The arm can access 360° with a read i of 18 inches and a maximum 
Jlftof 1 /2lb Circle 218 on inquiry card. 



The Syntheosy 

A low cost speech unit complete with 
Votrax speech output chip, unlimited 
vocabulary, power supply, speaker 
and case, a I for only - 

y $149.95 



DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED 
For further information contact 

INTELLIGENT ARTEFACTS LTD. 

19205 Parthenia St., Suite H 
Northridge, CA91324 




Tel(213) 993-4803 



assembly-level code, this instruction 
is followed by a 1-byte interrupt 
value. The value of that byte deter- 
mines which of 256 interrupts the 
processor should invoke. 

In order for these interrupts to be 
used or serviced, the user must pro- 
vide an interrupt-service routine for 
each of the possible interrupts that 
may occur. When the 8088 processes 
an INT call, its hardware looks at the 
second byte (with the interrupt value 
in it) and determines where the ap- 
propriate interrupt-handling routine 
is to be found. To accomplish this, In- 
tel has reserved the memory locations 
from to 1023 for interrupt use. This 
area of memory is called the interrupt 
vector table. 

These 1024 bytes of memory are 
partitioned off into 4 bytes per inter- 
rupt type (i.e., 256 interrupt types X 
4 = 1024 bytes). The 8088 hardware 
takes the interrupt value, multiplies it 
by 4, and accesses the 4-byte area 
reserved for this interrupt. In these 4 
bytes, the 8088 expects to find the ad- 
dress of the appropriate interrupt- 
service routine. 

The address is stored in these 4 
bytes in standard 8088 format. That 
is, the first 2 bytes of the 4-byte sec- 
tion must contain the program- 
counter address (IP register) for the 
interrupt-service routine, and the sec- 
ond 2 bytes must hold the new Code 
Segment register (CS register) ad- 
dress. From these two values, the 
20-bit service-routine address is deter- 
mined and processor execution con- 
tinues at that location. 

All this work is done automatically 
by the 8088 hardware. Therefore, if 
you have previously set up the table 
of interrupt vectors (the to 1023 
bytes containing the service-routine 
addresses) and you execute an INT in- 
struction, the next instruction that 
will occur is at the start of the service 
routine. This call is very similar to a 
normal subroutine call in that the CS 
and IP registers are saved on the sys- 
tem stack at the time of the INT call. 
In addition, for interrupts, the Flag 
register is also saved on the stack. 
After the interrupt routine has ex- 
ecuted, an IRET (Interrupt Return) 
command restores the proper IP, CS, 
and Flag registers, and returns control 



to the instruction following the INT 
call. 

At this point you are probably say- 
ing, "So what! What do I care about 
all of this?" The vital point is that the 
designers of the IBM system made ex- 
tensive use of this setup. Virtually all 
interaction between processes in the 
IBM are performed via interrupt 
calls. 

When BASIC executes a FILES in- 
struction to get a listing of the system 
disk, it sets up certain parameters in 
the 8088 internal registers and issues 
an appropriate interrupt to perform 
the requested function. Likewise, 
when DOS is requested to list the 
directory of a disk, it executes the 
same interrupt request as BASIC did. 
In either case, when the interrupt 
returns, the directory of the disk has 
been read and printed to the screen. 

IBM provides the assembly-lan- 
guage programmer many utilities 
through the use of the interrupt struc- 
ture. In its Technical Reference 
Manual, IBM states that "access to 
the BIOS function is through the 8088 
software interrupts. Each BIOS entry 
point is available through its own 
interrupt, which can be found in the 
(supplied) interrupt vector listing." 

The BIOS routines are basically a 
group of utilities available to the user. 
Through BIOS, you can perform 
disk, cassette, video, keyboard, 
printer, and communications I/O 
operations in a standardized manner. 
Other system services available in- 
clude time-of-day and memory-size 
determination. IBM states, "the goal 
is to provide an operational interface 
to the system and relieve the pro- 
grammer from concern over hard- 
ware device characteristics." 

The extensive use of the interrupt 
structure gives us users of the IBM 
system another big benefit in addition 
to easy access to various utilities. 
Whereas the actual BIOS code resides 
in ROM (read-only memory), the 
interrupt vector table (remember, the 
memory locations to 1023 reserved 
for interrupt addresses) is in RAM. 
These addresses are initialized by the 
IBM bootstrap routine on each sys- 
tem reset or power-on. This means 
that the user can change the interrupt- 
service addresses stored in this table 



after the system initialization process 
has finished. 

How can we put this knowledge to 
good use? Well, there are many pos- 
sibilities. For example, suppose that 
we want to read and store data to a 
cassette using a different format than 
that defined by IBM. (Perhaps we 
would like to be able to read a format 
used by some other system.) 

The format is determined in soft- 
ware, and because all processes that 
access the cassette will use the 

CASSETTE IO routine supplied in 

the BIOS, we simply need to overlay 
or replace IBM's routine with one of 
our own. As we have just seen, re- 
placing the address in the interrupt 
vector table of a BIOS routine with 
the address of our own routine is ef- 
fectively the same as replacing the 
whole routine with our own. 

In order to accomplish this, we 
must do several things. First, we must 
determine the input and output 
parameters specified in IBM's BIOS 
cassette routine. In its Technical 
Reference Manual, IBM provides a 
complete listing (with excellent com- 
ments) of the 8K-byte BIOS. 

Looking over the BIOS listing for 

the CASSETTE IO routine, we can 

set up the appropriate interface with 
all calling routines. We can then 
rewrite the BIOS routine, making 
sure that all parameter inputs and 
outputs are the same as for the IBM 
version. We can then load our routine 
into RAM, change the interrupt- 
vector-table entry for the cassette 
routine so that it addresses our 
routine, and tell DOS to keep our 
program in RAM. From then on, as 
long as the system is not reset, any 
call from BASIC to save data or pro- 
grams to cassette, or read from 
cassette, goes through our routine 
rather than IBM's. We have managed 
to replace the ROM version with our 
own. 

The preceding example is exactly 
the method used by PR-256 to expand 
the character set on the MX-100 to the 
full 256 characters defined by the IBM 
computer. Whenever the IBM is 
powered on or reset, the program is 
automatically loaded into RAM and 
the BIOS PRINTER_IO routine is 
virtually overlaid by changing the 



334 March 1983 BYTE Publications Inc 



Text continued on page 338 



'"4 



\\vv 




J***. 



<&&rjc*ajKA**s~ 




While new printers with impressive specifications are introduced on an almost daily basis, only 
time will tell the true quality of the product. Over the past 2 years our customers have continued 
to buy the DS180 printer, not only because of its impressive performance and competitive price, 
but also because of our outstanding track record for product reliability and customer support. 

We have continually improved on the performance of the DS180 by incorporating such 
enhancements as dot addressable graphics, 6 user-selectable print sizes and a 2000 character 
buffer. These features coupled with 180 cps printing, parallel and serial interfaces, adjustable 
tractor feed and over 40 other programmable features, make the DS1 80 one of the most versa- 
tile matrix printers available today. 

Before you select your next printer, why not take a look at a time-proven performer— the 
DatasouthDS180. 

The DS180 printer is available nationwide through our network of sales/service distributors. 

■ ■ nn Circle 140 on inquiry card. 

data®©^ 



computer corporation 

P.O. Box 240947 • Charlotte, NC 28224 • 704/523-8500 
Telex: 6843018 DASOU UW 



Celtic 



Megabyte 5.25" GENIE Winchester Drives 

I.B.M. • APPLE II PLUS • RADIO SHACK 




5 MEGABYTES 

$2295°° 

10 MEGABYTES 

$ 2595 00 

15 MEGABYTES 
20 MEGABYTES 

$ 3195 00 
FEATURES 

Precision Manganese-zinc head 
Average access time 77 ms. 

• File sizes 5-20 megabytes 

• Power-on self test 

• Built-in error detection and correc- 
tion 

• System expandable to eight drives 

• Comes complete with all necessary 
software and hardware 

• No preventative maintenance 
required 

• Built-in fan 

• Operates 110/220 VAC 50-60 Hz 

• One year warranty 

'Manufacturer's suggested retail price. Includes all required components. 
IBM DOS Personal Computer Is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. 
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 
Radio Shack is a registered trademark of Tandy Corporation. 
CP/M and CP/M-86 are registered trademarks of Digital Research. 




Talk about user friendly. . . 

Comprehensive system utilities 
package. 
Allows eight-character names 
to be assigned to virtual 
volumes. 

User can back-up to either 
our 5 + 5™ removable Car- 
tridge Drive or to diskettes. 
Mix & match different system 
file types on the same disk. 
System status screen 
messages. 

Up to 16 volumes on-line at a 
time. 

Excellence in Engineering 
Genie Drives were built with the user in mind. A 
design backed by many years of experience, the 
Genie Drive is everything a user ever wanted in a 
hard disk. We offer the ultimate in hard disk mass 
storage systems that money can buy. 



IBM 


APPLE II PLUS 


RADIO SHACK 


• Supports IBM- 


• Supports 


available soon 


DOS, CP/M-86, 


DOS 3.3, 


S-100 


PASCAL 


CP/M, and 




• Ultra High 


PASCAL 


available soon 


Speed DMA 


• Boot from 




data transfers 


Hard Disk 




• Only uses one 


• Can assign 




slot in your 


Hard Disk vol- 




IBM-PC 


ume to any 




• Allows you to 


slot or drive 




run with up to 


number in the 




four floppy 


system 




disk drives 







GEIliE COMPUTER CORPORATION 

31125 Via Colinas #908 • Westlake Village, CA 91362 • (213)991-6210 



TM 

GEniE 



5.25" Removable GENIE Winchester Cartridge Drive 
IBM • APPLE II PLUS • RADIO SHACK • S-100 



The Genie Cartridge Drive is a revolutionary new 10 Megabyte Hard Disk 
Drive that includes a 5 Megabyte removable Winchester catridge. The 
cartridge Drive system simply plugs into your computer, and includes all 
necessary software and hardware. Genie Drives are compat- 
ible with most popular software, 
and each cartridge replaces 
over 30 double-density 
I floppy disks. 




FEATURES 

• 10 Megabytes of on-line storage. 

• File sizes to 5 Megabytes. 

• Power-on self-test. 

• Easy back-ups in minutes. 

• System expandable to eight drives. 

• Built-in error detection and correction. 

• No preventative maintenance required. 

• Comes complete with all necessary software 

and hardware. 

• MTBF 8000 Hours. 

• Built-in fan. 

• Operates 110/220 VAC 50-60 Hz. 

• One year limited warranty. 



Only $ 



oo* 



Removable Cartridge. Imagine, 5 Megabytes in th< 
palm of your hand. These small Winchester cartridges 
are only .75 inches thick and 5.50 inches square. The 
disk itself is completely sealed from theoutsideand all 
its hazards by a sliding door that opens only once the 
cartridge is firmly seated inside the drive. Long term 
availability of this cartridge is assured by its adoption 
by several well known manufacturers including Dysan 
and Memorex, the world leaders in computer mass 
storage media. 

Talk about user friendly • • • 

Comprehensive system utilities package. 
Al lows eight-character names to be assigned to virtual 
volumes. 

UserCan back-uptoany Genie REMOVABLE Cartridge 
Drive, or to diskettes. Mix & Match different system file 
types on the same disk. 

System status screen messages. Up to 16 volumes on- 
line at a time. 

Available at your local computer dealer 

Manufacturer's suggested retail price. Includes all required components. 
Concurrent CP/M-86 Is a registered trade mark of Digital Research. 
IBM Personal Computer Is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. 
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 
Radio Shack is a registered trademark of Tandy Corporation. 
Dysan is a registered trademark of Dysan Corp. 



GEniE COMPUTER CORPORATION 

31125 Via Colinas #908 • Westlake Village, CA 91362 • (213)991-6210 



Circle 188 on inquiry card. 



interrupt-vector-table address to ad- 
dress the new program. Because all 
output to the printer will probably be 
routed through the BIOS 
PRINTER IO routine, the new pro- 
gram has full control over each char- 
acter that is sent to be printed. 

DOS Notes 

In this section, I will discuss some 
basic principles of DOS that we will 
need to use in order for PR-256 to 
work correctly. DOS, the disk 
operating system for the IBM com- 
puter, is a collection of programs that 
interface the user to the system. For 
an in-depth discussion of DOS, IBM's 
DOS Manual provides all the neces- 
sary details, especially in the appen- 
dixes. 

PR-256 must handle three inter- 
faces to DOS. First, we would like 
DOS to automatically load the print 
program when the system is initially 
turned on or reset. Second, we need 
DOS to give the initialization code of 
PR-256 control to set up the printing 
program for execution. Third, during 



the initialization of PR-256, we need 
to tell DOS that the area in memory 
that the program occupies should not 
be overlaid during system operation. 
In order to understand how this is all 
accomplished, a short discussion of 
the inner workings of DOS is in 
order. 

Let's begin by looking at an over- 
view of what DOS must do when the 
system is initially powered on (or 
reset). DOS begins by executing a 
series of initialization routines that 
check the equipment status of the sys- 
tem (i.e., how much memory is in- 
stalled, how many drives, what type 
of monitor, etc.). This check is fol- 
lowed by an initialization of any at- 
tached devices, setting up the inter- 
rupt vector table, and an assortment 
of other jobs that are necessary to get 
the system ready for operation. 

After the initialization phase is 
completed, DOS loads a file from the 
system disk called COMMAND. 
COM. (A system disk is the one that 
has the proper files on it to permit 
you to load and start up DOS.) If you 



look at any of your system disks, you 
will find a file by that name. It is the 
code in this file that acts as a com- 
mand processor. Essentially, all com- 
munication with DOS will be handled 
by COMMAND. 

When COMMAND is executed, it 
does various and assorted tasks 
before issuing the first user prompt. 
One of these first tasks is to check for 
a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT on the 
system disk. This is a special file. The 
extension ".BAT" indicates that the 
file is a batch file, which means that 
its contents are read and executed as 
if a user were typing at a keyboard. 
Thus, if you include a line that says 
DIR in a batch file, a directory of the 
currently selected disk will be 
displayed on the screen just as if you 
had typed in the DIR command at the 
keyboard. 

The "AUTOEXEC" portion of the 
name indicates that this is a file that is 
to be automatically executed when- 
ever the system is started. With this 
facility, the user can cause programs 
or DOS commands to be executed im- 













• p '■■■-- , i 






















L^T«] j % ] 


• T 1 












8 and /or 16 Bits. 

A CompuPro Systems Center is much more than a computer store: It is the 
first place to look for business, scientific, and industrial computing solutions. 
When you're ready for professional level, state-of-the-art microcomputing, turn to 
the professionals listed below . . . they're ready for you. 

ARIZONA Priority 1 Computer Center, Inc. Gilford Computers 

9161 Deering Ave. 2100 Broadway St. 230 California St. #207 
TaaoLk, 7 («hc. »d Chatsworth, CA 91311 Oakland, CA 94612 San Francisco, CA 94104 

ScotfsSaleSz 85260 (213) 709 " 5464 (415) 839 " 3230 (415) 391 " 457 ° 
(602) 991-7870 Byte Shop of Hayward System Interface Consultants Gifford Computers 

1 122 B St. 17440 Revello Dr. 1922 Republic Ave. 
CALIFORNIA Hayward, CA 94541 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 San Leandro, CA 94577 

Complementer, Inc. < 415 > 886 - 4732 < 213 > 4542100 < 415 > 895 " 0798 
1514 University Ave. Gifford Computers Best Computer Stores, Inc. Computer House 

Berkeley, CA 94703 2323 Corinth Ave. 5516 Springdale Ave. 501 B St. 

(415) 845-6366 Los Angeles, CA 90064 Pleasanton, CA 94566 San Rafael, CA 94901 

Logic Systems (213) 477 ' 39 * 1 < 415 > 463 " 2233 < 415 > 453 " 0865 
4800 Manzanita Ave. #21 ACC Advanced Information Mgmt. Data Bank 

Carmichael, CA 95608 833 Steirlin Road #B110 145 Kentucky St. 629 State St. 
(916) 971-3133 Mountain View, C A 94043 Petaluma, CA 94952 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 

(415) 969-4969 (707) 763-7283 (805) 962-8489 



338 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



mediately every time the system is 
started. If the file is not present, 
COMMAND continues on. If the file 
exists, however, COMMAND loads 
and processes the file as a normal 
batch file. The AUTOEXEC file is set 
up by the user. We will use this 
feature to load and initialize PR-256 
every time the system is started. 

After COMMAND finishes its ini- 
tial tasks, it prompts the user with the 
familiar A> and then looks to the 
keyboard for user input. 

Let us take a closer look at how we 
can use AUTOEXEC. PR-256 needs 
to be loaded into RAM and then must 
do a little setup before it is ready to 
operate. Because PR-256 exists on the 
disk as an assembled and linked 
machine program, all that is required 
of AUTOEXEC is to request 
"PR-256." COMMAND will see this 
as it processes AUTOEXEC and will 
go to the default drive, where it will 
find the file called PR-256, load it, 
and initiate execution of the file. 

It appears that loading PR-256 and 
initializing it are fairly simple to do 



using DOS. However, we would like 
to return to DOS after PR-256 ini- 
tialization is finished. To accomplish 
this, we must work through a special 
area of memory called a Program 
Segment Prefix buffer or PSP. The 
PSP is a special data structure that 
COMMAND builds for any process 
before it loads and starts up that pro- 
cess. This is simply 256 bytes of RAM 
set aside for various communication 
protocols with DOS. For example, if 
you have a program that needs to do 
some disk I/O, portions of the PSP 
are set up to permit DOS to do the ac- 
tual I/O transfers. 

We need concern ourselves with 
the PSP for only two things. First, we 
need to realize that it is there. When 
DOS loads in PR-256, it will set up a 
PSP in the lowest available RAM 
space and will then load PR-256 in the 
RAM area immediately following the 
PSP. Thus, our program actually 
grows by 256 bytes in order to make 
room for the PSP. 

The second reason is as follows: 
When DOS loads in a program and 



gives it control to execute, DOS ex- 
pects to gain control back eventually. 
And it has to have a standard way to 
get this control. DOS expects the user 
program to issue a special interrupt 
call when it is ready for DOS to 
regain control of the system. 

Three different interrupts may be 
used to start up DOS again. An INT 
20H is the normal way to exit from a 
program. An INT 27H is an "End but 
stay resident" command. This is what 
we shall use. It tells DOS that the pro- 
gram is to remain in the system and 
that DOS should take care not to 
move some other program on top of 
this one. The third interrupt is a 
special INT 21H that we will not be 
concerned with here. 

IBM warns in the DOS Manual 
that "every program must ensure 
that the CS register contains the seg- 
ment address of its Program Segment 
Prefix control block prior to issuing 
INT 20H (or INT 27H or INT 21H)." 
This is necessary because DOS saves 
certain state values and other infor- 
mation in the PSP and, for proper ter- 




Matrix Computers 

720 Mendocino Ave. 
Santa Rosa, CA 95401 
(707)542-0571 

Pragmatic Designs, Inc. 

950Benicia Ave. 
Sunnyvale, CA Q4086 
(408) 736-8670 

FLORIDA 

Micro Computer Technology 

1549 W. Brandon Blvd. 
Brandon, FL 33511 
(813) 685-7659 

HAWAII 

Capacity Plus Computers 

250AlamahaSt. N14 
Kahului Maui, HI 96732 
(808)877-3496 

ILLINOIS 

Computers Plus 

201 N. Main St. 
Athens, I L 62613 
(217)636-8491 



MASSACHUSETTS 

New England Electronic Exch. 

138 Arlington St. 
Boston, MA 02116 
(617)738-7306 

Key Micro Systems 

822 Boylston St. 
Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 
(617) 738-7305 

MARYLAND 

JR Systems 

8227 Woodmont Ave. #200 
Bethesda, MD 20014 
(301)657-3598 



NORTH CAROLINA 

Friendly Computer Store 

461 4- B West Market St. 
Greensboro, NC 27404 
(919) 294-1491 

OKLAHOMA 



OREGON 

Microwest Computer Products 

811 E. Burnside#117 
Portland, OR 97214 
(503) 238-6274 



WISCONSIN 

Byte Shop of Milwaukee 

4840 S. 76th St. 
Greenfield, Wl 53220 
(414)281-7004 



RHODE ISLAND 

Key Micro Systems 

1606Nooseneck 
Coventry, Rl 02816 
(401)828-7270 



UNITED KINGDOM 

Comcen Technology Ltd. 

45/46 Wychtree St., Morriston 
Swansea SA6 8EX 
United Kingdom 
(0792) 796000 







ompuPro 



Gifford Computers 

6161 N. May #177 
Oklahoma City, OK 73112 
(405)840-1175 



CompuPro division, Godbout Electronics, 
Box 2355, Oakland Airport, CA 94614 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 339 



mination of the program, must access 
these. 

Now this is a tricky problem. 
When DOS sets up the PSP and loads 
in the program, it sets the CS register 
to the "paragraph" at the start of the 
program, not the start of the PSP. (A 
paragraph in this context refers to the 
16-byte "granularity" or increment 
that the CS register is able to address 
in the 8088.) When the program 
finishes execution and issues the INT 
27H to return control to DOS, it must 
somehow move the correct value into 
the CS register. 

Thankfully, COMMAND gives us 
an easy way out. When the PSP is ini- 
tially built, COMMAND places an 
INT 20H instruction into the first 2 
bytes of the PSP. In order for 
PR-256's initialization routine to 
return control to DOS, the user pro- 
gram can issue a jump instruction to 
the first byte of the PSP. We can con- 
struct the jump in such a way that it 
will replace the CS register with the 
proper segment address for the PSP. 
The resulting INT call has the proper 
CS value and DOS comes back 
online. 

The astute reader will have noticed 
that the PSP contains an INT 20H 
command and we need an INT 27H 
executed. We simply alter this in- 
struction during initialization of 
PR-256 and everything works great. 

PR-256 Initialization 

We have two fundamentally dif- 
ferent tasks for PR-256 to do. First, it 
must set up the interrupt vector table 
and return to DOS control. This task 
has to be done only once, when the 
program is initially given control by 
COMMAND. This is called the ini- 
tialization process or phase. The sec- 
ond task is to intercept all output data 
heading toward the printer and pro- 
cess it to effectively give the user the 
256-character set desired. This is the 
run-time process. 

We have already discussed how to 
interface with DOS on system reset. I 
will now describe the complete ini- 
tialization process of PR-256. If you 
look at the PR-256 listing, you will 
notice that the first code encountered 
is the initialization code. It consists 
simply of a call to an initialization 



subroutine and a return. It is within 
this subroutine that the initial tasks 
are done. I could have just as easily 
put this code in the main program 
rather than make it a subroutine, but 
let me explain why I did not. 

When PR-256 returns control to 
DOS after initialization via the INT 
27H command, DOS expects the in- 
ternal register DX to point to the last 
memory address plus one, after 
which it is okay for DOS to overlay. 
Because we execute the initialization 
code only once, we can let DOS over- 
lay that portion of PR-256 and we 
will miss nothing. Thus, by making 
the initialization code a subroutine, I 
was able to place it after all the run- 
time code. I could then set the DX to 
point to the last address of run-time 
code on the INT 27H call. The space 
occupied by the initialization 
subroutine is now available to DOS. 
This saves us a little more RAM for 
other uses. 

The initialization routine does 
several things. First, it simply changes 
the INT 20H command in the PSP to 
an INT 27H. Then it replaces the in- 
terrupt vector address for INT 17H 
with the start of the PR-256 run-time 
code, saves the old vector address 
(for reasons discussed later), and sets 
up a return to DOS to keep the run- 
time code resident. After DOS re- 
gains control, PR-256 just lies in hid- 
ing in the system. It is invoked by any 
process that wishes to send a char- 
acter to a printer. 

Printer Notes 

So far I have discussed the 8088 in- 
terrupt structure and IBM DOS inter- 
face as far as they affect PR-256. In 
this section, I will present a quick 
overview of the Epson MX-100 and 
MX-80 (with graphics option) 
printers. Again, all references to the 
MX-100 are also valid for the MX-80 
or IBM printer with the required 
Graftrax graphics option. 

The Epson MX-100 printer is a dot- 
matrix printer loaded with features. 
In its normal operating mode, the 
MX-100 can print the standard ASCII 
(American National Standard Code 
for Information Interchange) char- 
acter set. This includes the entire 
uppercase and lowercase alphabet, 



the numerals, and other standard 
characters in the 96-character set. In 
addition, the MX-100 offers a small 
set of "international" characters. 
These are subdivided into characters 
associated with various countries: 
France, Germany, England, Den- 
mark, Sweden, Italy, and Spain. A 
total of 37 additional unique 
characters are available using these 
different international modes. 

Finally, the MX-100 provides the 
user the capability of a bit-image 
mode. To understand how this 
works, let's look at the Epson print 
head. It consists of nine "needles" or 
"wires" stacked vertically very close 
together. Each wire can be caused to 
impact with the ribbon by the elec- 
tronics in the printer. The stack of 
wires moves horizontally to the left 
or right. By causing specific wires to 
impact with the ribbon as the head 
moves along the width of the paper, 
the printer produces dots that form 
the shape of a character. 

By placing the printer in the bit- 
image mode, the user can gain direct 
access to the top eight of the nine 
wires. A single byte sent from the 
computer to the MX-100 in bit-image 
mode will cause a single column of 
dot wires to act and the print head to 
move one column to the right. 
Because a byte consists of 8 bits, each 
bit controls one wire. The most sig- 
nificant bit (bit 7) activates the upper- 
most wire. Bit activates the lowest 
wire. If a bit is "1," the print wire 
prints a dot. A "0" does not print. 

Sending a stream of bytes in the 
bit-image mode results in a pattern 
being printed across the page. When 
putting the printer in bit-image mode 
(as discussed below), the user must 
supply a count of the number of col- 
umns to be printed. After that many 
columns are received, the printer 
leaves the bit-image mode and returns 
to whatever mode it was previously 
in. 

How do we change modes in the 
MX-100? The user sends some non- 
printing ASCII code or escape se- 
quence to the printer. The processor 
in the MX-100 interprets it and then 
acts accordingly. An escape sequence 
is a multibyte command string that 
begins with an ESC character 



340 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



WE'LL GETCH A! 

If Esprit II didn't, the Esprit III ™ will. 




Hazeltine's Esprit II™ gave you 
better cost/performance than any 
other budget terminal. Better than 
TVI-910. Better than Viewpoint. 
Better than ADM-3A. It got a 
lot of you. 

Now we're going to get the 
rest of you. 

The new Hazeltine Esprit III™ 
emulates TVI-950. The same 
features. The same keyboard 
layout. The same command set. 
Even the same user-PROM 
capability. The only difference is 
price. Esprit III costs $300 less. 



In fact, it costs $100 less than 
TeleVideo's far less capable 
TVI-925. 

So, now there isn't a terminal left 
with more performance for the 
money than a Hazeltine Esprit. 
Which iswhyyou oughttogetone. 
Or more. 

Got it? 

Hazeltine Corporation 

Computer Terminal Equipment 

Commack, NY 11725 

(516) 462-5598 

or call toll free: 800-645-4508 



Hazeltine 

The new terminal technology. 



ADM TVI Esprit View- Esprit TVI TVI 
Esprit 3A* 910* II point* III 925* 950* 


Detached keyboard 


No 


No 


No 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Buffered mode 


Yes 


No 


No 


Yes 


No 


Yes 


Yea 


Yejs 


Tilt screen 


No 


No 


No 


Yes 


No 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Function keys 


14 


No 


10 


14 


3 


22 


22 


22 


Line graphics 


No 


No 


No 


No 


No 


Yes 


■ No , 


Yes 


Page/line transmit 


Yes 


No 


No 


Yes 


No 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Character/line editing 


Partial 


No 


No 


Yes 


No 


Yes 


Yel 


Yes 


Split screen 


No 


No 


No 


No 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Smooth scrolling 


No 


No 


No 


No 


No 


Yes 


No 


Yes 


Price (in quantity of one) $595 $595 $699 $645 $645 $895 $995 $1,195 



trademarks respectively of LearSiegler, Inc., TeleVideo Systems, Inc and Applied Digital Data Systems, Inc. 



Circle 198 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 341 



Control 








Code 


Hexadecimal 


Decimal 


Function 


NUL 


00 





NULL Ends tab setting. Follows ESC B and 
ESCC. 


BEL 


07 


7 


BELL. Sounds buzzer for about 1 second. 


BS 


08 


8 


Backspace. Cancels a last character input. 


HT 


09 


9 


Horizontal Tabulation. 


LF 


0A 


10 


Linefeed. 


VT 


OB 


11 


Vertical Tabulation. 


FF 


OC 


12 


Form Feed. Advances paper to next Top of 
Form. 


CR 


OD 


13 


Carriage Return. 


SO 


OE 


14 


Shift Out. Turns on the enlarged-character 
printing mode. 


SI 


OF 


15 


Shift In. Turns on the condensed-character 
printing mode. 


DC1 


11 


17 


Device Control 1. Selects printer. Ready to 
receive data. 


DC2 


12 


18 


Device Control 2. Turns off the condensed- 
character printing mode. 


DC3 


13 


19 


Device Control 3. Deselects printer. Not 
ready to receive data. 


DC4 


14 


20 


Device Control 4. Turns off the enlarged- 
character printing mode. 


ESC 


1B 


27 


Escape. ASCII code for Escape. Precedes 
numbers and alphabets. 


ESCO 


30 


48 


Sets a line spacing to eight lines per inch. 


ESC 2 


32 


50 


Sets a line spacing to six lines per inch. 


ESC 8 


38 


56 


Deselects paper end detector. 


ESC 9 


39 


57 


Selects paper end detector. 


ESC A 


41 


65 


Sets a line spacing between a range from 
Y 72 inch to % inch. 


ESCB 


42 


66 


Sets VT up to eight positions. 


ESCC 


43 


67 


Sets form length up to 127 lines or 22 
inches. 


ESCD 


44 


68 


Sets HT up to 12 positions. 


ESCE 


45 


69 


Turns on the emphasized-character 
printing mode. 


ESCF 


46 


70 


Turns off the emphasized-character 
printing mode. 


ESCK 


4B 


75 


Turns on the normal-density bit-image 
mode. 


ESCL 


4C 


76 


Turns on the dual-density bit-image mode. 


ESCN 


4E 


78 


Sets skip-over perforation. 


ESCO 


4F 


79 


Releases skip-over perforation. 


ESCQ 


51 


81 


Sets a column length. 


ESCR 


52 


82 


Selects an international character set from 
among eight languages. 


Table 1: 


Control codes for 


the Epson 


MX-100 printer (or the Epson MX-80 with 


graphics capability). 







(decimal 27 in ASCII) and is followed 
by a defined sequence of bytes. The 
printer's processor parses in the 
whole sequence of bytes and per- 
forms a mode change in response. 

For example, to tell the printer to 
turn on normal bit-density mode, the 
user program sends the ASCII char- 
acter 27 (Escape character) followed 
by a K. The K will not be printed. It 
merely tells the printer that the escape 
sequence is selecting the normal bit- 
image mode. For a summary of the 
control codes and escape sequences 
used by the MX-100, see table 1. 

As many different modes are avail- 
able (i.e., normal-density bit-image, 



dual-density bit-image, condensed- 
character, enlarged-character, 
normal-character, etc.), many dif- 
ferent escape sequences will be ac- 
cepted by the printer. Epson decided 
not to be modular and has designated 
some mode selectors to be set using 
other nonprinting ASCII characters 
rather than have all mode selection be 
done via escape sequences. 

Several standard ASCII printer 
commands are used by the Epson. 
These' include Bell (ASCII 7), Back- 
space (ASCII 8), Carriage Return 
(ASCII 13), Linefeed (ASCII 10), and 
so on. As I will discuss below, these 
special characters present some big 



problems for PR-256. 

To summarize, the MX-100 simply 
looks to the computer for ASCII se- 
quences. Most of the bytes that the 
printer receives are associated with 
some character in the ASCII set, 
which is then printed. 

Some ASCII codes and sequences 
of codes are reserved by the MX-100 
to allow the user to change modes of 
the printer. Thus, from BASIC at the 
IBM terminal, the user can send 
(using LPRINT) the proper com- 
mands to move the printer from 
enlarged-character mode to bit-image 
mode and then to normal print mode. 
This gives the user considerable 
power from software. It is just this 
power that PR-256 uses to enlarge the 
MX-100 character set to the full 256 
characters used by the IBM system. 

How PR-256 Works 

I have now discussed the three ma- 
jor components that are necessary for 
understanding the PR-256 program. 
These are the 8088 interrupt structure 
(and its ties with the IBM BIOS 
routines), the DOS interfacing re- 
quired to load and initialize PR-256 at 
system start-up, and the MX-100 
modes of operation. The remainder 
of this article is devoted to using this 
knowledge to see exactly how PR-256 
operates. Numerous subtle touches 
are contained throughout PR-256, 
which I will explain as we proceed. 

First, let's look at how a process 
running on the IBM Personal Com- 
puter normally prints out text. Any 
routine that wishes to print out char- 
acters to a printer attached to the IBM 
PC will use the BIOS PRINTER_IO 
routine. The operation of this routine 
is very straightforward. The calling 
process will make one call to 
PRINTER_IO for each character to 
be printed out. 

The calling process must first move 
the character to be printed into the 
AL internal register of the 8088, clear 
the AH register, and indicate the 
printer number in the DX register. 
(Note: the IBM can be attached to as 
many as three parallel port printers at 
one time, and the user must specify 
which of the three printers the current 
character is to be directed to.) 

After setting these registers up, the 



342 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Expand your possibilities with 
Concurrent CP/M™ 

If you have to wait impatiently for your personal 
computer to finish a job before moving on to another 
task, you need Concurrent CP/M. This new software tech- 
nology from Digital Research increases the productivity 
of your IBM PC by allowing you to do more with it. 

Using Concurrent CP/M, you can run several 
programs simultaneously switching instantly from one 
program to another. For the first time you can write a letter 
while you do your financial planning. For the first time 



you can write text while printing other documents. For 
the first time you can edit programs while your program 
compiles. Concurrent CP/M is the best investment 
you can make in microcomputing because it multiplies 
the value of your hardware and lets you use all the CP/M 
compatible programs. And if you're developing software, 
it ensures that you're on the crest of the hottest new 
wave in the business. 

So quadruple the effectiveness of your IBM Per- 
sonal Computer with Concurrent CP/M. See your local 

microcomputer dealer. _. . „„ 

r Circle 150 on Inquiry card. 



Now your IBM PC can do 
more than one thing at a time 



Alt «■»!■«• rwfel ym W «r itoff _th«. 

uio -in bkuuii iMfct m mm u. u tto ***+- 

Ito Mfcr »*torttoi •/ 4Ma hUh •ill U to rwl« 
Ih ilmm iw Up fwl Ifwl «rar. mi to pratori 
.1 Jlmtmm m cw wHtotlwIto mmM to ***** 



iM Ml «f tto mil* w aill tow a wll toff fc»J 
to tolt - Mrt MP AtorttoM. 




The logo, fagline and names of DRI products are either 

trademarks or registered trademarks of Digital 

Research Inc. 

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business 

Machines. Corp. 

c Copyright t982 by Digital Research Inc. 




DIGITAL 
RESEARCH 

The creators of CP/M™ 



process executes an INT 17H inter- 
rupt request. This causes the BIOS 
print routine (PRINTER_IO) to send 
out the character to the printer. When 
it is done, the BIOS print routine ex- 
ecutes an IRET instruction to return 
control to the calling process. 

Instead of causing a character to be 
printed out, we can also use 
PRINTER_IO to initialize any of the 
printers or to check the current status 
of a printer. This is accomplished by 
placing a 1 or 2, respectively, into the 
AH register and executing an INT 
17H call. 

All programs that output data 
through the parallel port to a printer 
are supposed to use this method. 
IBM's BASIC, DOS, the Print Screen 
function, Micropro's Wordstar, and 
so on, all comply with this standard 
method. Thus, if I wish to replace the 

PRINTER IO routine with my own, 

I had better be sure that, for any 
given input, PR-256 (the program 
scheduled to replace PRINTER_IO) 
will react in the same manner as 
PRINTER_IO would. 

With this understanding of 
PRINTER_IO, I can outline PR-256 
operation. Whenever a process ex- 
ecutes an INT 17H instruction, 
PR-256 will receive control of the sys- 
tem. The input to the routine is iden- 
tical to the PRINTER_IO routine. If 
PR-256 sees that a character is to be 
printed out, it does some processing 
of the character (which will be 
described in a moment) and takes an 
appropriate action that results in the 
IBM-defined character being printed 
out on the MX-100. 

If the input to PR-256 indicates that 
a printer initialization or a status 
check is being requested, the re- 
quested function is carried out and 
the results returned to the calling pro- 
cess. That is all there is to PR-256. 
Everything else is implementation 
detail. Of course, the implementation 
details are extremely important and 
will be fully explored now. 

Using the PRINTER_IO Routine 

One of the tenets of good program- 
ming practice is that a programmer 
should not constantly be reinventing 
the wheel. If other programmers have 
already done the work that you need, 

344 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



see if you can use their results. In the 
case of PR-256, it made sense to make 
as much use as possible of the 
114-byte PRINTER_IO subroutine 
that IBM supplied in the BIOS. 

After processing a character, 
PR-256 at some point must interact 
with the printer. Most of the time, the 
printer output from PR-256 will be 
the same as that from the 
PRINTER_IO routine. PR-256 sim- 
ply provides some front-end work or 
preprocessing of certain characters. 
Thus, I decided early on that PR-256 
would do whatever processing was 
required for a given character, but 
would use the PRINTER_IO code to 
do the actual data transmission to the 
printers. 

In order to do this, the PR-256 ini- 
tialization code must save the 4-byte 
address of PRINTER_IO that was 
originally stored in the interrupt vec- 
tor table. This saved address is later 
used by the main PR-256 process as a 
subroutine address for doing actual 
printer I/O. 

Note that instead of having PR-256 
bother to look up and save the 

PRINTER IO address every time the 

system was initialized, I could have 
coded the address into the program as 
a constant. This would have saved a 
little code and storage space. How- 
ever, this would have made PR-256 
more susceptible to failure if IBM 
made future changes in its BIOS chip. 

If IBM updates its BIOS routine in 
some later version of the Personal 
Computer, the base address of 
PRINTER_IO could be changed. 
This would not affect any code using 
PRINTER_IO, because DOS would 
be updated to initialize the interrupt 
vector table to the correct address. 
But if PR-256 had the original address 
for PRINTER IO coded in as a con- 
stant, it would not work on the new 
version. By always getting the ad- 
dress from the vector table, PR-256 is 
sure to have the correct address. 

Another item worthy of note is the 
way in which PR-256 calls the 
PRINTER_IO routine. This routine 
was designed to execute as an 
interrupt-service routine and returns 
to the calling process via an IRET in- 
struction. PR-256, however, cannot 
call PRINTER_IO as an interrupt, 



CALL 

YOUR 

LOCAL 

DYSAN 

OFFICE 



CA: 


Los Angeles 
(213)907-1803 




Orange County 
(714)851-9462 




Sacramento 




(916)966-8037 




San Francisco/Sunnyvale 
(408) 727-9552 


DC: 


Washington 
(703)356-6441 


GA: 


Atlanta 




*(404)952-09I9 


IL: 


Chicago 
(312)882-8176 
(800) 323-5609 


MA: 


Boston 




(617)273-5955 
*(6 17) 229-2800 


MI: 


Detroit 




(313)525-8240 


MN: 


Minneapolis 
*(612)814-7199 


MO: 


St. Louis 




(314)434-4011 


NY: 


New York 




(212)687-7122 


OH: 


Cleveland 




(216)333-3725 


PA: 


Pittsburgh 
(412)261-0406 




Philadelphia 
(609)939-4762 


TX: 


Dallas/Ft. Worth 




*(817)261-5312 


WA: 


Seattle 




(206) 455-4725 


"Includes OEM Sales 


Dysan Diskettes are also available 


from all ComputerLand Stores, 
Sears Business Systems Centers, and 
many independent computer outlets 
nationwide. 



For the location of the Dysan sales 

outlet nearest you, contact Dysan at: 

(408) 988-3472 

Toll Free: (800) 538-8133 

Telex: 171551 DYSAN SNTA 

TWX: 9 10-338-2 144- 

H Dysan 

^CORPORATION 



Circle 160 on inquiry card. 



WHAT IS THE 



=CoMi *•} rt 



DISKETTE? 



If you said at least $186.50*, you're probably close. 
Confused? It's simple. The minimum cost of a one-sided, single den- 
sity 8" diskette equals the purchase price plus the cost of the time 
to fully load the data onto the disc* The adjacent diagram tells the 
story. As you can see, the purchase price of a diskette is a small 
fraction of the total cost of ownership. So why not pay a 
few cents more for the best diskette available? ^ 

That's where Dysan's quality comes in. Dysan disk- 
ettes and mini-diskettes are manufactured to 
the toughest quality standards in the industry. 
Every diskette is tested between the tracks 
as well as on the tracks to insure you 100% 
error-free recording over the entire disc 
surface. Dysan quality protects your 
investment of $186.50. 
You know how costly time and data A 
losses can be should your "bargain" 
diskette be faulty. Every penny you 
think you save on the purchase of 
magnetic media could cost you 
dearly. Why take the risk when you 
can have Dysan? 




IS Dysan. 

^/corporation 

Our Media Is Our Message 

5201 Patrick Henry Drive 
Santa Clara, CA 95050 




*$4.00 represents 

Dysan's suggested 

retail price for a one-sided, single 

density 8" diskette, packaged ten 

to a box. Minimum total cost of 

ownership = $186.50 



*$182.50 represents the cost of data 
loading (approximately 22 hours at 
11 , 1 06 keystrokes/hour at a labor cost 
of $8.23/hour), based on 1981 Data 
Entry Management Association 
(DEMA) National Averages. 



f^ 



WW 



Libraries everywhere have found the easy way to fill photocopy requests legally 
and instantly, without the need to seek permissions, from this and over 3000 
other key publications in business, science, humanities, and social science. 

Participation in the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) assures you of legal 
photocopying at the moment of need. You can: 

Fill requests for multiple copies, inter library loan (beyond the CONTU 
guidelines), and reserve desk without fear of copyright infringement. 

Supply copies simply and easily from registered publications. The CCC's 
flexible reporting system accepts photocopying reports and returns an itemized 
invoice. You need not keep any records, our computer will do it for you. 

The Copyright Clearance Center is your one-stop place for on-the-spot 
clearance to photocopy for internal use. You will never have to decline a 
photocopy request or wonder about compliance with the law for any 
publication registered with the CCC. 



For more information, just contact: 



r 



© 



Copyright Clearance Center 

21 Congress Street 

Salem, Massachusetts 01970 

(617) 744-3350 

a not-for-profit corporation 



1 



L 

346 



NAME 


TITLE 




ORGANIZATION 


ADDRESS 


CITY 


STATE 


ZIP 


COUNTRY 


TELEPHONE 





because it has already changed the in- 
terrupt vector table when it removed 
the address for PRINTER_IO. 

If we look at the difference between 
an interrupt-service subroutine call 
and a standard 8088 subroutine call, 
we see that for a subroutine call the 
hardware pushes the CS and IP reg- 
isters onto the system stack, while for 
an interrupt call it additionally 
pushes the Flag register onto the 
stack. Thus, on return from a normal 
call, the hardware will expect to pop 
off two values on a normal call, but 
will expect three values for an inter- 
rupt call. 

If we can just keep the system stack 
straight across the call to 

PRINTER IO, we can use it as a 

normal subroutine. The solution is 
simple. The 8088 hardware, on an in- 
terrupt call, pushes the Flag register 
onto the stack before CS and IP. This 
is great. All we have to do then is 
manually push the Flag register onto 
the stack ourselves (via a PUSHF in- 
struction). Then we can call the 

PRINTER IO routine as a normal 

subroutine. Upon execution comple- 
tion, PRINTER_IO does an IRET 
that will pop off the proper sequence 
of words and leave the stack in good 
shape. 

The last benefit that we get from 

using PRINTER IO as a subroutine 

of PR-256 is that PR-256 does not 
need to be concerned with initializa- 
tion of status checking of the printer. 
If PR-256 receives a request for either 
of these services, it immediately calls 
PRINTER_IO and then returns the 
results it receives. 

Character-Set Definition 

Let's now look at the character set 
of the IBM computer versus that of 
the Epson MX-100. A close com- 
parison study breaks the 256 char- 
acters into five categories that PR-256 
must handle in different ways. I have 
designated these categories as Com- 
mon, International, Graphics, Ex- 
tended, and Control. The following 
text describes each category and 
discusses the effect each had on the 
PR-256 design. 

Common Characters 

The first character category covers 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




\ — s= w 



The Well-Tempered Cross-Assembler 



Before Johann Sebastian Bach developed 
a new method of tuning, you had to 
change instruments practically every time 
you wanted to change keys. Very difficult. 

Before Avocet introduced its family of 
cross-assemblers, developing micro-pro- 
cessor software was much the same. You 
needed a separate development system 
for practically every type of processor. 
Very difficult and very expensive. 

But with Avocet's cross-assemblers, a 
single computer can develop software for 
virtually any microprocessor! Does that 
put us in a league with Bach? You decide 

Development Tools That Work 

Avocet cross-assemblers are fast, reliable 
and user-proven in over 3 years of actual 
use. Ask NASA, IBM, XEROX or the hun- 
dreds of other organizations that use them . 
Every time you see a new microprocessor- 
based product, there's a good chance it 
was developed with Avocet cross- 
assemblers. 

Avocet cross-assemblers are easy to use. 
They run on any computer with CP/M* 
and process assembly language for the 
most popular microprocessor families. 



XASM05 


... 6805 \ 




XASM09 


... 6809 \ 




XASM18 


... 1802 




XASM48 


... 8048/8041 




XASM51 


... 8051 


$200 


XASM65 


... 6502 


each 


XASM68 


... 6800/01 




XASMF8 


...F8/3870 . 




XASMZ8 


...Z8 / 




XASM400 


... COP400/ 




XASM75 


... NEC 7500 


$500 


(Coming sc 


on:XASM68K .. 


.. 68000) 



Turn Your Computer Into A 
Complete Development System 

Of course, there's more. Avocet has the 
tools you need from start to finish to enter, 
assemble and test your software and finally 
cast it in EPROM: 



Text Editor VEDIT - full-screen text edi- 
tor by CompuView. Makes source code 
entry a snap. Full-screen text editing, plus 
TECO-like macro facility for repetitive 
tasks. Pre-configured for over 40 terminals 
and personal computers as well as in user- 
configurable form . 

CP/M-80 version $150 

CP/M-86 or MDOS version $195 

(when ordered with any Avocet product) 

In-Circuit Emulators -- MICE In-Circuit 
Emulator by Microtek. FuJQcapability 
emulation in a compacL^^^pensive 
device. Accepts high-le^JySCII com- 
mands through RS 23aS2nal interface. 
Down-loads prograA^>generated by 
Avocet cross-asserffej^s .. examine and 
modify memory^Affegisters, access I/O 
ports and confej^program execution in 
single instrugtiomand single-cycle modes. 
Forward j^c^>ackward tracing for up to 
256 quMJgi cycles ... Assembly/ Disas- 
sembl^pmmands with symbolic labels 
make it easy to modify the program under 
test. 

MICE-I versions for 6502, 8048, 8085, 
NSC 800 and Z-80 $1,795 each. 

MICE-II versions with 2K trace and 32K 
program memory, plus real-time emula- 
tion and hardware break points for 6502, 
6809, 68000 , 8085 and 8086/8088 .... 

... $3,995. 

(6805 and 8051 versions available starting 
second quarter) 

ROM Simulator - ROMSIM by Inner Ac- 
cess eliminates need to erase and 
reprogram EPROM. Installed in an S-100 
host, ROMSIM substitutes RAM for 
EPROM in external target system. 16K 
memory can be configured to simulate the 
2708, 2758, 2716, 2516, 2732, 2532, 
2764, 2564 in either byte or word 
organization. Avocet's configurable driver 
makes loading of HEX or COM files fast 
and easy. 

From $495 depending on cabling and 
RAM installed. 



EPROM Programmer Model 7128 
EPROM Programmer by GTek programs 
most EPROMS without the need for per- 
sonality modules. Self-contained power 
supply . . . accepts ASCII commands and 
data from any computer through RS 232 
serial interface. Cross-assembler hex ob- 
ject files can be down-loaded directly. 
Commands include verify and read, as 
well as partial programming. 

PROM types supported: 2508, 2758, 
2516, 2716, 2532, 2732, 2732A, 
27C32, MCM8766, 2564, 2764, 27C64, 
27128, 8748, 8741, 8749, 8742, 8751, 
8755, plus Seeq and Xicor EEPROMS. 

(Upgrade kits will be available for new 
PROM types as they are introduced.) 

Programmer $389 

Options include: 

Software Driver Package $ 30 

RS 232 Cable $ 30 

8748 family socket adaptor $ 98 

8751 family socket adaptor $174 

Call Us 

If you're thinking about development sys- 
tems, call us for some straight talk. If we 
don't have what you need, we'll help you 
find out who does. If you like, we'll even 
talk about Bach. 



VISA and Mastercard accepted. All popular disc formats now 
available ■- please specify. Prices do not include shipping and 
handling - call for exact quotes. OEM INQUIRIES INVITED. 

'Trademark of Digital Research. 



AVOCET X 
SYSTEMS INC. 

DEPT. 383-B 

804 SOUTH STATE STREET 

DOVER, DELAWARE 19901 

302-734-0151 



Circle 40 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



347 



the Common characters. The char- 
acters of this type are the 95 char- 
acters (ASCII codes 32 to 126) that 
are common to both the IBM and the 
Epson. These are the printing char- 
acters defined by the ASCII standard 
except for ASCII 127, for which IBM 
uses a different character. 

Once again, following the maxim 
of not reinventing the wheel, I de- 
signed PR-256 to spot any Common 
characters and send them on to the 
MX-100 as they are. They are printed 
using the Epson character set. 

It is important that we look at how 
these different character types affect 
the performance of the MX-100. By 
separating Common characters out 
and using the Epson character set to 
print them, we see that PR-256 will 
exhibit virtually no difference in the 
throughput of normal text printing. 
The small amount of processing that 
PR-256 must do in order to determine 
that the current character is Common 
and then send it out to the printer is 
negligible compared to the speed of 
mechanical movement of the printer. 
Thus for normal text printing, PR-256 
will not noticeably affect the printing 
speed of the Epson. 

Another benefit of using the stan- 
dard Epson set for Common charac- 
ters is that it permits the use of all the 
character printing modes offered by 
the MX-100. Thus, for Common 
characters, the user can print con- 
densed, normal, or enlarged char- 
acters. These may be emphasized or 
normal. All the MX-100 modes avail- 
able are accessible to users through 
PR-256. 

International Characters 

The second character category in 
PR-256 includes most of the 37 
unique extra characters in the seven 
international sets available on the Ep- 
son. Of these, 30 are also part of the 
IBM character set. To use these, 
PR-256 must map the IBM codes for 
an International character onto the 
specific international set in the Epson 
and the code that the Epson desig- 
nates for that character. 

PR-256 uses a bit map to determine 
if the current character is an Interna- 
tional type. The bit map is a structure 



of bits stored in the program such 
that each bit is associated with a 
specific ASCII code. The value of the 
bit identifies whether the associated 
character is International (if the bit is 
0) or not (if the bit is 1). PR-256 uses 
the value of the character sent with 
the calling routine as an index into the 
bit map (identified as BITTYP in the 
PR-256 listing) and determines 
whether that character is indeed In- 
ternational or not. 

When an International character is 
identified, PR-256 does a table look- 
up to get the Epson international set 
to be used and the ASCII code that 
the MX-100 expects for the character. 
PR-256 then sends a sequence of com- 
mands to the MX-100. 

PR-256 first sends an escape se- 
quence (ESC "R") followed by the 
desired international-set designation 
(0 to 7) to put the Epson in the proper 
mode. Next, it sends the correct 8-bit 
code to print out the character. Final- 
ly, it sends out the escape sequence to 
place the Epson back into the interna- 
tional-set mode that it had previously 
been in. 

In order to reset the international 
set to what it had previously been in, 
PR-256 must "remember" the last set 
that the MX-100 was placed in. How 
it does this is discussed later in the ar- 
ticle. But it should be noted here that, 
in order to allow the user to access all 
the Epson capabilities, PR-256 must 
remember the latest international set 
selected by the user. 

To the user, the printing of an In- 
ternational character looks like the 
character was part of the Epson's nor- 
mal character set. The user program 
simply sent PR-256 a single value and 
the result was that the desired char- 
acter was printed out. The user does 
not need to know that PR-256 actual- 
ly sent a total of 7 bytes of data to the 
printer. 

The effect of the International char- 
acters on performance is minimal. 
Even though PR-256 sent the MX-100 
7 bytes of data, 6 of them were con- 
trol codes used by the printer's pro- 
cessor. Only one caused the slow (as 
measured by computer speeds) 
mechanical action of printing a 
character. 



Graphics Characters 

The third classification of char- 
acters covers the Graphics characters. 
On the IBM PC, these characters 
have code values of to 31, 127 to 
178, and 224 to 255 (minus the Inter- 
national characters that are scattered 
throughout). These characters are not 
defined at all by the MX-100 and 
must be printed out via the MX-100 
bit-image mode. When PR-256 spots 
a Graphics character to be printed, it 
takes the appropriate action to place 
the printer into the bit-image mode. It 
then sends the MX-100 a stream of 
bytes defining the columns of dots 
that will make up the character form. 
The Epson prints these out and then 
returns from the bit-image mode to its 
previous state. 

One of the major decisions that I 
had to make in designing PR-256 was 
what size and density to make the 
Graphics characters. Should they be 
the same size as Epson's condensed, 
normal, or enlarged characters? 
Should they be emphasized or not? I 
could not duplicate all the MX-100 
modes because it would have made 
PR-256 prohibitively large. 

I finally decided that all Graphics 
characters would be the same size and 
density as Epson's normal-size em- 
phasized characters. I believe that this 
was the best compromise. This way, 
they fit in comfortably with standard- 
size nonemphasized characters, but if 
you wish to print in the. higher- 
quality emphasized mode, all the 
Graphics characters would fit in per- 
fectly. 

You should understand that if you 
place the Epson in a different 
mode — say the enlarged-character 
mode, and print out Common, Inter- 
national, and Graphics characters in- 
termixed — the Common and Interna- 
tional characters will be enlarged in 
size, but the Graphics ones will re- 
main the normal size. 

Having decided on using normal- 
size, emphasized Graphics characters, 
I had to analyze how Epson defines 
these. The MX-100 uses 12 columns 
to print out its normal-size empha- 
sized characters. The first column is 
blank, followed by nine columns of 
character bits and two more blank 



348 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



columns. The blank columns are 
character separators. PR-256 follows 
the same strategy. 

PR-256 uses the dual-density bit- 
image mode of the Epson to send out 
12 columns of data per Graphics 
character. It sends out one blank col- 
umn followed by nine data columns 
followed by two blank columns. The 
data columns are accessed through a 
lookup table to give PR-256 the cor- 
rect values to define the desired char- 
acter. After receiving the 12 data 
bytes from PR-256, the MX-100 
prints them out and returns to the 
mode it was previously in. 

The user program is completely ig- 
norant of what has occurred. It sim- 
ply sends a single character value to 
be printed out. The result it sees is 
that the character has indeed been 
printed. The fact that PR-256 has sent 
16 bytes of data to the MX-100 (4 
setup bytes and 12 printing bytes) is 
hidden. 

What is not hidden is the degrada- 
tion of printing speed. Printing of 
Graphics characters is slower than 



Common and International char- 
acters. The speed is still more than 
sufficient to remain practical though. 

Extended Characters 

The fourth character type is the Ex- 
tended type, which includes IBM 
character values 179 to 223. These are 
the drawing characters that are used 
to create nice connecting tables and 
borders. They are physically larger 
than the other characters defined by 
IBM. Extended characters are de- 
signed to connect to each other both 
in vertical and horizontal directions. 

PR-256 handles Extended charac- 
ters in much the same manner as it 
does Graphics characters. It simply 
extends the 9 data bytes of the 
Graphics character to cover the full 
12 columns of dots allocated to each 
character. Thus, when printing out 
an Extended character, PR-256 looks 
at the first of the 9 data bytes for that 
character and prints it twice. Instead 
of printing a single blank column, it 
has extended the data column one to 
the left. After printing the 9 data 



bytes as in the Graphics mode, 
PR-256 retains the last byte and prints 
it out twice more, in place of the two 
blank" columns printed by the 
Graphics mode. 

By extending the character to the 
left and to the right, a string of Ex- 
tended characters will connect in the 
horizontal direction exactly as they 
do on the IBM monitor. Unfortunate- 
ly, for several reasons, it is not a sim- 
ple matter to extend the characters in 
the vertical direction. Thus, the Ex- 
tended characters are not guaranteed 
to connect vertically. It depends on 
how much space is inserted between 
lines. For examples of the Extended 
characters, see listing 2. 

Control Characters 

The final category of characters 
known to PR-256 covers Control 
characters. These include the ASCII 
characters 0, 7 to 20, and 27. These 
characters, reserved by the MX-100 
to change modes of the MX-100, do 
things like Carriage Return, Linefeed, 
Backspace, Tabulation, and so on. 



INVENTORY CONTROL LIKE THE BIG GUYS 

-AT LITTLE GUY PRICES * 



ARBA SYSTEM: Real time inventory control 
that starts with the ARBA RS-232 cash register 
and offers sophisticated Point of Sale and In- 
ventory Control software. 



-w 



ARBA Register 

RS232 interface. . . Utilizes 
standard ASCII encoding. . . Twin 
Display Windows. . . Receipt and 
Detail Tapes. . . Cash, charge, 
received on account, paid out, 
void, discount keys. ..11 key 
numeric pad. . . Tax, non tax 
functions. . . 




ARBA Point of Sale 

Prints price tags. . . Generates 
part numbers. . . Reports up to 99 
Departments. . . Reports sales by 
employee. . . Item exception 
reports. . . Refund, void, paid out, 
discount reports by employee. . . 
Accommodates all ARBA Register 
keystrokes. . . 





ARBA Register available separately. . . $1295.00— Suggested Retail 



Also available 



Accounting Plus* General Ledger, Receivables, Payables, Payroll, Purchase Order. . 
Runs under CPIM" and MP/M* ' 



ARBA 



ARBA Fine Business Computing Corporation 

890 East Roosevelt Road 

Lombard, Illinois 60148 (312) 620-8566 



Accounting Plus 
Accounting Plus 
Accounting Plus 



X 




Accounting Plus * Inventory Control 

Up to 65,000 items. . . 12 digit 
alpha/numeric part number. . . 
Recommended order report. . . 
Sales analysis by department 
item or vendor. . . Gross margin 
analysis. . . Stock status 
reports. . . Year to date activity. . . 
Integrates with Accounting 
Plus. . . 
Circle 31 on inquiry card. 



*TM Software Dimensions Inc., Citrus Heights, California 
*TM Digital Research, Pacific Grove, California 

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME 



<d!lfe» FORMULA INTERNATIONAL INC. ^ 

■^ ^* 12603 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250 ^* ' 

For information (213) 973-1921 • Orders Only (outside Calif.) (800) 672-8758 



pineapple 

The Alternative! The Compatible! 
The Affordable! 48K Color Computer Kit! 




rivi 



FEATURES: 

* Fully compatible with Apple® II+ * Built in 2-watt amplifier for realistic 

* Singleboard for easy assembly sound effect with volume control 

* Popular 6502 MPU for large * 8 on board peripheral connectors 
amount of software for expansion 

* Game paddle connector on both * 14 key numeric key-pad 
sides of case * 5-amp switching power supply 

Easy to assemble! AH components are clearly silk-screened on the high quality double-sided 
mother board. All integrated circuits, IC sockets, peripheral connectors, keyboard, switching 
power supply and the professional high impact plastic case are included. 



(please add 5% shipping and handling) 




High Quality 16K RAM Card Kit 

(no cable required) 
Same feature as the one we've been selling but without the 
mess of Dip-wire for Apple* & Pineapple™. $59.95 per kit 



574" Flexible Disc Sale 

Why buy other brands when you can buy WABASH discs for 

much less and backed by 1-year factory warranty. 

All discs come with Hub Rings 

M13A411X 5V<" SSDD Soft Sector $2.25 

M43A411X 574" SSDD 10 Hard Sector $2.25 f- 1 

M53A411X 5Va" SSDD 16 Hard Sector $2.25 

M14A411X 5V4" DSDD Soft Sector $3.65 

F111111X 8" SSSD IBM compatible $2.45 

F131211X 8" SSDD 26 sectors 128 bytes $3.05 



C:: 



At last! Here's the computer case everyone 
has been looking for! 

Ideal for your homebrew 
*AP-II 6502 MPU based computer. 
Made with high impact plastic. 
Color and shape are compatible 
with the standard Apple II 
computers. 

Introductory Offer 
$150.00 ea. 
Keyboard not included see our Ad in this page. 




MODEL: AP-II 



*AP-II model is compatible with Apple II but not manufactured by Apple Computers, 
Inc. ®Apple or Apple II is a registered trade mark of Apple Computers, Inc. 



6502 MPU Based Computer Motherboard! 
You ask for it, you got it! 

• 48K on board memory (4116) 

• 12K on board EPROM memory 
(2716 or 2732) 

• 8 expansion slots for peripheral 
cards 

• Composite-video output 

• size: 14iA" x 8V2" 




$99.95 ea. 



16K RAM Card Kit For Your 
Apple® & Pineapple™ Computer 



Kit includes: 

• High Quality P.C. Board • 8 ea. 4116 (200ns) • All the /C's & 
parts • 16-pin Dip wire • Easy to assemble. You can do it in less 
than 30 minutes! $49.95 per kit 




5 1 /i" Disc Drive 100% Apple® & Pineapple™ 

Compatible we did it once, response was great! 

Now we are doing it again, don't miss it! 
$295.00 ea. w/o controller 
$385.00 ea w/controller 




Replacement Keyboard 
For Your Apple® 1 1 Computer 

Got a bad Keyboard? Here's the alternative! 

• Full ASCII code 

• N-key rollover function 

• TTL level output 

• On-Off indicator 

• Low power consumption 

• With upper/lower case function $99 95 ea 




Switching Power Supply For 
Apple®, AP-II, and Pineapple Computer 

Compact size switching power supply. 



Specification: 

+5Vat 
-5Vat 

+ 12Vat 
-12V at 



4006A 
3A 

2A 
.5A 
.5A 



4007A 
5A 

3A 
1A 
1A 




4007A . 



$145.00 ea. 



4006A $99.00 ea. 

Size: Width 3y 2 ", Depth 9%", Height 2W 

Size and mounting holes will be same as the one used in 

Apple II. 



t Apple is a registered trademark ot APPLE COMPUTERS. INC. 

SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES 



i Order $10.00 / Calif. R 
Tax. Phone Ord 
ONLY. NO C.O.D.'s. Prices subject to change 
without notice. 

Circle 182 on inquiry card. 



STORE HOURS 

MON-FRI — 10-7 

SAT - 10-6 



J 



THE PERSONAL 
COMPUTER AD 
OUR COMPETITION 
DOESN'T WANT 
YOU TO READ. 



It's an ad for NEC's APC™ 
Advanced Personal Computer. 
A solutions-oriented system that 
solves business problems in the 
simplest, most cost-effective way. 
The APC supports both CP/M-86™ 
and MS-DOS!" It can store more 
information than any system in its 
price range. In short, it's got the 
best price/performance of any 
personal computer. That's why our 



competition would p 
never see our sysK 
We asked son 1 
Tien who s 
us why t' 
reason^ 
,s. Thev 
only p 
arket r 
6-bit r 
disk 



it you 

; busi- 
ystemr 
^ed us 
jlrly urv 
APC* 



"That APC of yours is t h ~ most 
powerful computer of ? 
I saw. I don't know hov 
for that price." 

"Now that I've used it tu 
awhile, I see why you nam 
Advanced Personal Computel 

And that from bir : " ^ssmen 
who have tested t' 
When you see the v 
understand why, at, 
others, all of these b^ 
picked NEC. 

Our business software 
was optimized to take 
advantage of the APC's 
unique hardware features 
makes system operation faster 
and easier. 

Our software includes a full set 
of general accounting packages, 
word processing, mailing list 
management, business planning, 
database management, and com 
munications. And we're readying 
many more. 

We're the only company to 
back our software with a unique 

•nconditional guarantee. It will 
>rk or you get your money 

ick. 

^ Our high-resolution color 
graphics run circles, arcs and 
lines around everybody else. 
The A r screen images- 
line' characters 

are unprecedented 
in their clarity. 
Bolors against resolution 
jetitive systems often must 





See for yourself the personal 
computer our competition wishes 
had never been invented. The 
Advanced Personal Computer 
from NEC. Return the coupon to 
NEC Information Systems, Inc., 
5 Militia Drive, Lexington, MA 02173. 



APC is a trademark of Nippon Electric Co., Ltd. 
CP/M-86 is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc. 
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc. 






■ couldn't 
|any that 

well as 

em that 
Is in the 



Name 



Send me more information on the 
Advanced Personal Computer. 



Address 



BE383 



Title 



City, State, Zip 



Company 



Telephone 

SEC 

NEC Information Systems, Inc. 

5 Militia Drive, Lexington, MA 021 73 



The Benchmark in World Class Computers 

Circle 310 on inquiry card. 



Listing 2: Some examples of how certain graphics characters (the Extended characters) 
can connect together vertically using PR-256. In (2a) the printer was set at six lines per 
inch. The vertical lines of the box show large gaps. In (2b) the printer was set at eight 
lines per inch. In (2c) the printer was set at nine lines per inch. Here the characters con- 
nect together vertically and allow us to create some interesting patterns. In (2d) PR-256 
is used to print out a mathematical formula. Note that the integral sign was made by 
vertically connecting two "hook" characters. 

(2a) 



When the printer is set to print at 6 lines per inch., the 
EXTENDED characters do not connect too well vertically. 



(2b) 



EXTENDED is not bad when the printer is set at 8 lines per inch 



(2c) 



DDDDDDDDDDDDaaDaDDnaDnDDnDDnnnDnDnnnDDnnDaaDnDnnnnnDDDDDaDDDDDDDDDDDD 
DDDDDDDDnDDDnnDDDDDnnnDDnnnDnnanDDnnnnDnaDDDnanDnGnnnDDDDDaDDDDDDDDDD 

DDDDDDDDDDDDnnDDDaDDnnaDDaDDDDCnDDDDDnaDnDDnnnaDDaGODDDDaDaDDDDDDDDDD 
JDDDDDDDDDDDaDDDDDDDDaDDDaaDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDaDDDDDDaDaDDDDDDDDDDDDD 



If we send an ESC 'A' sequence with a parameter value 8. 
then the EXTENDED characters do connect vertically. The 
escape sequence sets a line spacing of 8/72 of an inch. 
This works okay as long as we insert blank lines between 
each line of text. 



(2d) 



IUIMO i-1 1 1 l 



(tf <>:) J 2 - Cg<x) 32 ) d>: 



J-l 

Deciding how to handle these char- 
acters was the real headache of the 
PR-256 design. Indeed, these 
characters are difficult to display, let 
alone print out. In BASIC, the only 
way to display these characters is to 
use a POKE command to place them 
into display memory. 

The problem for PR-256 is that it 
cannot guess what the user is trying 
to do. When it receives an ASCII 13 
character as input (Carriage Return 
Control character), it must decide 
whether the user means to execute a 
carriage return on the printer or print 
out the musical note sign that is de- 
fined by the IBM character set as 
value 13. It is desirable to offer the 
user either possibility. 

The solution is to allow several dif- 
ferent options and force the user to 
make the decision. In PR-256, the 
user has three different modes for 
handling these Control characters. It 
is vital that the different modes be 
understood by the user. 

The first mode is the "Pass-em 
thru" mode, which is the default 



mode for PR-256. In this mode, 
whenever a control code is spotted by 
PR-256, it simply sends that character 
on to the MX-100. Thus, the Control 
character is assumed to be a control 
code that the printer is to receive. 

The second mode is the "Print it 
out" mode. This assumes that any 
control code is to be interpreted as a 
printing character rather than an 
MX-100 control code. In this mode, 
PR-256 will treat the character as a 
standard Graphics character and 
print out its IBM-defined form. 

The third mode is a compromise. It 
is the "Print all but CR & LF" mode. 
Notice that in the second mode, there 
is no way for the user program to tell 
the Epson to move on to the next line 
on the paper. In that mode, if PR-256 
receives a CR character, the output 
will be the musical note being printed 
to the paper on the printer. In order 
to permit CR and LF printer actions, 
this third mode is allowed. The only 
valid Control characters recognized 
by this mode are CR (ASCII 13) and 
LF (ASCII 10). These are sent on to 



the printer. Any other Control char- 
acters are interpreted as Graphics 
characters and printed out as such. 

So how do you go about changing 
control modes in PR-256? The user 
program must physically change the 
contents of a memory location within 
PR-256 code. The address of PR-256 
must be obtained from the interrupt 
vector table, and the offset into 
PR-256 is dependent on the printer 
number you wish to change. (Re- 
member, PR-256 can work with up to 
three printers. If you have only a 
single printer attached to the system, 
it should be set up as printer #0.) The 
offset into PR-256 is 12 bytes for 
printer 0, 18 bytes for printer 1, or 24 
bytes for printer 2. The mode values 
are: 

Mode Type Value 

"Pass-em thru" 

"Print it out" 1 

"Print all but CR & LF" 2 

A sample BASIC subroutine to 
change these modes is presented in 
listing 3. The patch routine in listing 4 
allows you to change the default of 
PR-256 to some mode other than 
"Pass-em thru." 

A word of caution is in store at this 
point. If PR-256 is in the default mode 
of "Pass-em thru" and the user per- 
forms a Print Screen function of the 
BASIC screen, a problem may occur. 
The problem stems from the display 
of the function keys that BASIC puts 
on the screen for the user. 

If you enter BASIC and look at the 
display of the function keys, you will 
notice that on the second function- 
key display, after the letters "RUN," 
is a back arrow that IBM uses to in- 
dicate a carriage return. The ASCII 
code for this character is 27, the same 
as the Escape control code used by the 
Epson. When PR-256 is asked to print 
out this back arrow (for example, 
when you want to print out a page of 
BASIC commands), PR-256 checks its 
internal mode. If it is in the "Pass-em 
thru" mode, it will interpret this char- 
acter as a Control character and send 
it on to the Epson rather than print 
out the Graphics version of the back 
arrow. This results in the MX-100 



352 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Text continued on page 356 






Get more 



from your 

small 
computer! 



f»ER 



Microcomputer 

i5RAPHCS 







Take the 



«ST 




6-volume Microcomputing Library for only $2.95 

when you join the Small Computer Book Club. 

You simply agree to buy 3 more books— at handsome discounts — within the next 1 2 months. 



This set of six carefully selected books— a 
$76.25 value— will be your basic refer- 
ence source for small computing. 

BASIC AND THE PERSONAL 
COMPUTER. 

Thomas A. DwyerandMargotCritchfield. 
Clear, down-to-earth introduction to pro- 
gramming in BASIC. Detailed examples 
and numerous illustrations explain the wide 
range of applications possible with personal 
computers. Also, many step-by- step exam- 
ples of word processing, computer games, 
and computer simulations. Publisher's 
Price $14.95 

USING CP/M: A Self-Teaching Guide. 

J.N. Fernandez and R. Ashley. A complete 
introduction to the CP/M ("Control Pro- 
gram") software package used on many 
advanced microcomputers. How to use 
CP/M to copy files, edit, test programs, 
translate programs, and more— regardless 
of the programming language the micro- 
computer uses. Publisher's Price $14.95 
MICROCOMPUTER GRAPHICS. 
Roy E. Myers. Provides the essential math- 
ematics and programming techniques you 
will need for computer graphics applica- 
tions in BASIC, and shows you how to han- 
dle animated figures, peripheral equip- 
ment, colors and resolution, and many other 
topics. Publisher's Price $11.95 



INTERFACING MICROCOMPUTERS 
TO THE REAL WORLD. 

Murray Sargent III and Richard L. Shoe- 
maker. The complete guide for computeriz- 
ing your home, office, or laboratory. Tables, 
charts, and displays show you how to handle 
microcomputer software and operating sys- 
tems; and how to monitor everything from 
the house lights to motors, switches, and 
display panels. Examples feature the Z-80 
microprocessor. Publisher's price $14.51 

THE WORD PROCESSING BOOK: 
A Short Course in Computer Literacy. 

Peter A. McWilliams. You'll see how to 
save up to $15,000 by buying a small com- 
puter with word processing capacities. 
Includes a brand name buying guide. .Pub- 
lisher's Price $9.95 

EXECUTIVE COMPUTING. 

John Nevelson. 25 business methods illus- 
trated by computer programs, in a step- by - 
step casebook. You'll find details on pric- 
ing techniques. . .long-range planning... 
corporate data bases... and much more. 
Publisher's Price $9.95 

SMALLCOMPUTERBOOKCLUBisa 

division of the Library of Computer and 
Information Sciences, the oldest, largest 
and most respected computer book club 
in the world . The SMALL COMPUTER 
BOOK CLUB will keep you up-to-date 



with the latest developments in software, 
improvements in hardware, program- 
ming languages, and much more— all at 
handsome discounts. 
So start enjoying the club's benefits today. 

4 Good Reasons to Join 

1 . The Finest Books. Of the hundreds of books 
submitted to us each year, only the very finest are 
selected and offered. Moreover, our books are always 
of equal quality to publishers' editions, never econ- 
omy editions. 

2. Big Savings. In addition to getting the Micro- 
computing Library for $2.95 when you join, you keep 
saving substantially — up to 30% and occasionally 
even more. (For example, your total savings as a trial 
member— including this introductory offer— can eas- 
ily be over 50% . That's like getting every other book 
free!) 

3. Bonus Books. Also, you will immediately 
become eligible to participate in our Bonus Book 
Plan, with savings up to 70% off the publishers' 
prices. 

4. Convenient Service. At 3-4 week intervals (16 

times peryear)you will receive the Book Club News, 
describing the Main Selection and Alternate Selec- 
tions, together with a dated reply card. If you want the 
Main Selection, do nothing and it will be sent to you 
automatically. If you prefer another selection, or no 
book at all, simply indicate your choice on the card, 
and return it by the date specified. You will have at 
least 10 days to decide. If, because of late mail delivery 
of the News, you should receive a book you do not 
want, we guarantee return postage. 

If the reply card has been removed, please write to 
the Small Computer Book Club. Dept. Y-AA8, River- 
side, NJ. 08075 to obtain membership information 
and an application. 



Before you buy a multi-function RAM 

board for your IBM PC — here's what you 

need to know about AN ATRON's 

"answer RAM"... 



r 



V 





\ 



it gives your PC professional system expandability 



The answer for business and 
professional users 

Now, there's a high quality expansion 
board for your IBM PC that combines: 

• up to 256K of additional RAM 

• 3 complete I/O ports, fully 
compatible with your IBM 

• the best communications inter- 
face you can buy 

. . . "answerRAM" from ANATRON. 



Memory and more — the most 
complete board yet 

Most PC owners buy a multi-func- 
tion RAM board for two reasons: for 
additional main memory, and to get 
additional Input/Output (I/O) ports 
without using up precious expansion 
slots on the IBM PC's motherboard. 

Like all quality RAM boards, "answer- 
RAM" gives you RAM expansion in 



64K increments up to 256K, with par- 
ity checking, fully compatible with 
your IBM PC 

But beyond that, "answerRAM" 
is also the most comprehensive I/O 
board available — with two serial 
communications ports and one par- 
allel printer port, fully wired — ready 
to go. Best of all — memory and all 
three I/O ports use only one slot! 



Anatron 



Anatron, Inc. 

202 West Bennett Street 
Saline, Michigan 481 76 
1-800-521-0521 



"answerRAM" lets your 
system grow 

With "answerRAM's" I/O capability 
you can connect your PC simul- 
taneously to a letter quality printer, a 
high speed printer, and a data service 
or local area network. Now, you can 
use the most appropriate printer for 
the job — without fussing to change 
cables or wasting your time. Or, you 
can access a data service or download 
data from your company 
main-frame computer, 
without discon- 
necting your 
printer. 

So why buy a board that will limit fu- 
ture expansion, when "answerRAM" 
costs the same as less functional 
boards? 

With "answerRAM" you get the most 
out of one expansion slot — saving 
others for future enhancements — so 
your system can grow as your needs 
grow. 

The best communications 
interface — hands down 

Take a close look at what is required 
to use the available I/O ports offered 
on other multi-function RAM boards. 
Not only are there fewer ports than 
"answerRAM" provides, but nearly all 
require you to modify the board, add 
connectors or use up additional slots 
to utilize all their I/O ports. 

"answerRAM" is designed for busi- 
ness users who need a professional 
solution. All I/O ports connect 
through a single, heavy-duty 37-pin 
connector, rigidly mounted in the 
standard rear slot of your IBM PC — 
just like it belonged there. No flimsy 
ribbon cables snaking around the 
chassis. We've even made a unique, 
heavy-duty, shielded, "3-into-l" cable 
for attaching all peripherals. 

Absolutely no clock — here's why 

Unlike other boards, "answerRAM" 



Sample Configuration 




SERIAL (RS232C) 

Letter Quality Printer or Plotter 

(C0M1) or (COM2) 



SERIAL (RS232C) 

Modem or Local Area Network 

(COM2) or (C0M1) 



PARALLEL (Centronics) 

High Speed Dot Matrix Printer 

(LPT1,LPT2,orLPT3) 



answerRAM 
64K, 128K, 192K or 256K RAM 



Comparison Chart 



does not include a board-mounted 
clock — by design. Your PC has an in- 
ternal clock/calendar. True, it needs 
to be initialized each time the system 
is started, but board-mounted clocks 
that try to save you that trouble create 
new problems instead: 

• they use address 
space that may 
conflict with fu- 
ture enhancements 

• they must be dis- 
abled if your PC 
clock is to be 
synched with a 
network clock 

, • you must carry the 

clock software on 

all your system 

disks 
We put our clock on 
our disk-controller 
board where it belongs. 

Software to process 
faster, print more 
conveniently 

"answerRAM" comes 
complete with software 
to make your additional 



RAM function like an electronic disk 
or as a print spooler. And we've in- 
cluded a nifty piece of software that 
lets you toggle the system's default 
printer port from one port to another 
with just a keystroke. 




ANATRON 
"answerRAM"" 




















AST 
ComboPlus" 




• 






• 




• 






OUADRAM 
Ouadboard" 




• 










• 






SEATTLE 
RAM + '" 


















NA 


TECMAR 
ALLinONE'" 




• 






• 




• 







'all I/O ports factory-wired to all necessary connectors — no user modification required 
'manufacturer'sowncable available for interface to peripherals 



Specifications: 




Memory:64K,128K.192K,or256K 


Cable/Connectors: 37-pin commercial grade con- 


with parity, just as IBM installed 


nector and support bracket mounts in chassis 


I/O : 2 Asynchronous Serial poits 


"3-into-r heavy duty cable with 


Configured as C0M1 and COM2 


37-pin connector 


Programmable, for 50-9600 baud; 1, 1.5, or 2 stop 


2 each DB25 (RS232C) connectors 


bit generation; even, odd or no bit parity, 5,6,7, or 


1 each "Centronics" connector 


8 bit character communication 


Cable is jacketed and shielded 


1 Parallel Printer poit 


Manual: Illustrated 26 page manual in IBM PC 


Configured as LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3 


owner's manual format 


All poits can be disabled 


Warranty: One ( 1 ) fulf year on all paits and labor 




(second year extended warranty available) 



,.nswerRAM is 
G,inh.iPlus»j 



rvjfmerol ir.idcm.irL i>lQiinJram G>tp>r.> 
« repistcrc.l rr.idcmark trf Tccmar. Inc. 



Circle 493 on inquiry card. 



Listing 3: A BASIC subroutine to change the printer mode. 



1000 
1010 

1 020 
1030 
1040 
1045 
1050 
1 060 
1 070 
1 080 
1090 
1 1 00 



■ PRINTER_M0DE - this subroutine will set the printer mode in PR256. 

INPUTS: PRNUMB - printer number (0, 1, 2) 

PRMODE - printer mode (0 - "Pass-em thru" 

1 - "Print it out" 

2 - "Print all but CR & LF" ) 
OUTPUTS: DEF SEG value is changed 

DEF SEG = 'FIRST GET ADDRESS TO PR256 FROM INTERRUPT VECTOR TABLE 
INTVECT = 8<H17*4 'OFFSET INTO INTERRUPT TABLE 
TMPSEG = PEEK(INTVECT+3)*256 + PEEK ( INTVECT+2) 
DEF SEG = TMPSEG: POKE ( 12+6*PRNUMB) , PRMODE: RETURN 



Listing 4: A BASIC program called PATCH256. This will allow the user to have both 
Epson graphics printers and nongraphics printers on the same system. 



PATCH256 by Tim Field June 13, 1982 



10 

20 * This program will patch various printer configurations into 

30 * PR256 code. This permits the user to have both Epson graphics 

40 * printers and non-graphics printers used properly on the same 

50 ' system. It also patches in the default CONTROL code mode. 

60 CLS : KEY OFF : BASEADDR = 525 

70 PRINT:PRINT: INPUT "Name of file containing PR256 program <PR256.EXE>" ; PGM* 

80 IF LEN(PGM*> = THEN PGM$ = "PR256.EXE" 

90 IF ( (INSTR(PGM$, ".EXE">=0> AND ( INSTR (PGM*, " . exe" ) =0) ) THEN PGM*=PGM*+". EXE" 

100 OPEN PGM* FOR INPUT AS 1 : CLOSE 1 

110 OPEN PGM* AS 1 LEN = 1: FIELD 1 , 1 AS VALUE* 

120 PRINT: INPUT "Which printer do you want to update (0, 1 , 2) "; PRNUMB 

130 IF ((PRNUMB<0) OR (PRNUMB>2) ) THEN PRINT "Invalid printer number":G0T0 120 

140 PNMB = BASEADDR+(PRNUMB*6) 

150 PRINT "Does pri nter" ; PRNUMB; 

160 INPUT "contain Epson bit image capability (Y/N)";YN* 

170 IF YN*="N" OR YN*="n" THEN GOTO 400 

180 IF YN*<>"Y" AND YN*<>"y" THEN GOTO 150 

190 ' If the printer selected has the bit image capability, we need to set 

200 * up the CONTROL character mode used by PR256. 

210 CLS:PRINT:PRINT:PRINT 

220 PRINT "PR256 has three different methods for handling control characters:" 

230 PRINT: PRINT 

1. Tass-em thru' - This mode sends any CONTROL character" 
on to the printer as a control character. This mode" 
allows full user access to all Epson modes and functions." 



240 PRINT 
250 PRINT 
260 PRINT 
270 PRINT 
280 PRINT 
290 PRINT 
300 PRINT 
310 PRINT 
320 PRINT 
330 PRINT 
340 PRINT 
350 PRINT 



'Print it out' - This mode interprets any CONTROL character" 
as a printing character. It allows no control codes to be" 
sent to the Epson." 



3. 'Print all but CR & LF' - This mode sees only ASCII 13 and" 
ASCII 10 (carriage return and line feed) as valid CONTROL" 
codes. All other CONTROL characters are assumed to be" 
printing characters. " 

360 PRINT: PRINT: PRINT 

370 PRINT "What mode should printer "; PRNUMB; : INPUT "be set into ( 1 ,2, 3) "; PRMODE 

380 IF PRM0DE<1 OR PRM0DE>3 THEN GOTO 370 

390 GET 1,PNMB:LSET VALUE*=CHR* (PRMODE-1 > : PUT 1 , PNMB 

400 IF YN*="Y" OR YN*="y" THEN YNVAL = ELSE YNVAL = 1 

410 GET 1,PNMB+1:LSET VALUE*=CHR* (YNVAL) : PUT 1 , PNMB+1 

420 PRINT: INPUT "Any more configurations (Y/N)";YN* 

430 IF YN*="Y" OR YN*="y" THEN GOTO 120 

440 CLOSE 1: SYSTEM 



entering an undesirable state. 

You can get around this problem in 
two ways. Either you can put the 
printer in the "Print all but CR & LF" 
mode (in which case the PR-256 will 
print out the back arrow as desired) 
or you can turn off the function-key 
display (issue a BASIC KEY OFF 
statement) before printing the screen. 
The first method prevents you from 
changing any MX-100 modes while in 
the "Print all but CR & LF" mode. 
The second method removes the func- 
tion-key display from view momen- 
tarily. 

BASIC also presents a small prob- 
lem in the "Print it out" mode. When- 
ever BASIC is asked to use LPRINT 
to print an ASCII character 13, it 



assumes that the user is sending the 
printer a carriage return command. 
BASIC always tacks on a linefeed 
(ASCII 10) following the sending of 
the ASCII 13 character. In "Print it 
out" mode, this means two characters 
will be printed for each LPRINT 
CHR$(13) command issued. 

IBM's BASIC version 1.1 provides 
a way to get around this problem via 
a "random" printing mode. A printer 
"opened" in random printing mode 
suppresses the automatic linefeed 
after a carriage return. To set the 
printer into random mode, issue an 
'OPEN "LPT1:" AS #1: WIDTH #1, 
255.' Now the character 13 can be 
printed using a 'PRINT 1, CHR$(13)' 
command. 



PR-256 Internal Modes 

If you look through the PR-256 list- 
ing (listing 5), you may notice a 
bunch of funny internal modes that 
are turned on and off. These include: 



FULL_INSTR 

PREV_ESC 

FST_BITG 

NEW_INTL 

ESC—NULL 



GRAF_PRINTER 

BIT_GRAF 

SEC^BITG 

ESC^SINGLE 

ESC_C 



These are modes that are used to re- 
spond properly to various Epson 
printer modes specified by user pro- 
grams. 

FULL_INSTR mode is the three- 
way mode discussed above concern- 
ing how PR-256 handles Control 
characters. The three modes available 
in FULL_INSTR are the "Pass-em 
thru," "Print it out/' and "Print all 
but CR & LF" modes. 

GRAF_PRINTER mode is set by 
the user to tell PR-256 that the printer 
is not an Epson graphics printer. 
Because the IBM computer allows 
multiple printers to be attached at one 
time, it is reasonable to expect a busi- 
ness setup that would include a letter- 
quality printer attached to one port 
and an Epson dot-matrix printer on 
another port. The GRAF_PRINTER 
mode is defaulted to assume that all 
printers attached are the proper 
graphics type. 

To allow the user full flexibility for 
setting up PR-256 in the desired con- 
figuration, I have included 
PATCH256, a patch program found 
in listing 4. A patch program simply 
prompts the user for configuration 
settings for a program and then 
probes into and updates the object 
code on the disk to reflect these set- 
tings. Anytime you change the 
printer configuration of your system, 
you can rerun PATCH256 (making 
sure that the disk containing PR-256 
is not write protected) to reflect the 
new setup. 

The PREV_ESC mode is set by 
PR-256 anytime an ESC Control 
character (ASCII 27) is received. (Re- 
member that ASCII 27 is considered 
as a Control character only when 
PR-256 is in the "Pass-em thru" 
mode.) When the ESC character is 
sent to the printer, it acts as a wake- 



356 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



The Ledger 



NO SURPRISE 

The best type of surprise when you buy accounting soft- 
ware is no surprise. Why re-learn accounting procedures 
just because you are going to a computer? 

If you have been keeping ledgers by hand, then you have 
probably used subsidiary journals such as cash dis- 
bursements, sales, as well as general journal, because 
they provide an organized way of keeping track of 
accounts. 

It is no surprise, then that THE LEDGER also offers you 
the four most popular subsidiary journals: Cash Dis- 
bursements, Cash Receipts, Sales, Purchases, PLUS a 
General Journal. Add to that a Repeating Journal for 
reoccurring entries like rent. 

The documentation and self-instructional cassette tape 
will have you running in a few hours. 

With you and THE LEDGER, it is NO SURPRISE - you 
will be organized! 



HBh 



2455 S.W. 4th Ave. 

Ontario, OR 97914 

(503)881-1477 



ormance 




Circle 454 on inquiry card. 



Systems TL €x 



* .*■ 




APPLE* is a registered trademark 



/Turningpoint 
V Series 

• General Ledger • Accounts Receivable 
> Payroll • Accounts Payable 

» Inventory • Data Base 

A totally integrated accounting system 
featuring Departmental P & L, Budget Re- 
porting and P.O.S., Check Writing, Invoices 
and Statements. Job Costing and Client 
Billing also available. 

Standard features such as: check 

writing for payroll and payables. 

Receivables prints invoices and 

k statements. Available on floppy 

or hard disk. Compatible with 

the APPLE® II and ACE 1000. 

See your dealer today or con- 
tact: 



Circle 455 on inquiry card. 



up signal to the printer. It tells the 
MX-100, "Hey you, the next char- 
acter you receive is going to change 
some operational mode." 

The printer does not print out a 
character upon receipt of an ESC 
character; rather it enters an "Escape 
sequence receiving" mode. The next 
character or characters will be inter- 
preted as Control characters and used 
to change some operational charac- 
teristic of the MX-100. The remaining 
modes mentioned above reflect dif- 
ferent actions that PR-256 must take 
in response to some of these different 
escape sequences. 

PR-256 must make sure that it dis- 
tinguishes between a code sent to the 
Epson as an escape sequence or as a 
normal printing character. If the 
character is part of an escape se- 
quence, PR-256 must not do any pro- 
cessing with that character. For exam- 
ple, if the code normally refers to a 
Graphics character, PR-256 had bet- 
ter not try sending 12 data bytes to 
the printer instead of the character 
value. 

This means that PR-256 must retain 
a certain amount of knowledge of 
which characters have been received 
by any given printer. Because PR-256 
will get only one character at a call, it 
must have the ability to store the 
knowledge that certain escape se- 
quences are in the process of being 
sent to the printer. 



PR-256 sets the PREV_ESC mode 
whenever it spots an ESC Control 
character. On the next call to print 
out a character, PR-256 will examine 
the character to determine what type 
of escape sequence is being sent. De- 
pending on the particular escape se- 
quence, different courses of action 
must be taken. 

The ESC_SINGLE, ESC_NULL, 

and ESC C modes are set by PR-256 

for certain escape sequences to in- 
dicate how many more Control char- 
acters to expect. These modes do not 
require any action from PR-256 other 
than transmitting the proper number 
of control bytes to the printer. 

ESC_SINGLE tells PR-256 to ex- 
pect one more control byte. This 
mode is the result of ESC "A," ESC 
"Q," and ESC "N" sequences received 
by PR-256. These all send some sort 
of parameter byte that PR-256 is to 
send directly to the MX-100. 

ESC_NULL tells PR-256 to send 
all bytes to the printer as Control 
characters until a NUL character 
(ASCII 0) is seen. The transmission of 
the NUL will put PR-256 back into 
normal printing mode. This mode is 
entered from ESC "D" and ESC "B" 
sequences. 

ESC C is set when an ESC "C" se- 
quence is sent through PR-256. This 
indicates that one more byte will be a 
control byte unless that additional 
byte is equal to 0. If it is equal to 0, 



PR-256 should expect an additional 
byte after that. 

The BIT_GRAF, FST_BITG, and 

SEC BITG modes are related. When 

PR-256 receives an ESC "K" or ESC 
"L" sequence, it knows that the user is 
setting the printer into one of two bit- 
image modes. This escape sequence 
specifies that the user also send a 
2-byte count of the number of byte 
values that the Epson is to interpret as 

bit-image codes. FST BITG and 

SEC_BITG are used to tell PR-256 to 
expect the 2 consecutive bytes that 
form the count. 

When the user puts the MX-100 
into bit-image mode, all the 
characters sent to the printer in that 
mode are to be sent directly to the 
printer by PR-256. In other words, a 
code that normally refers to a 
Graphics character is not to be pro- 
cessed as such; instead, the given 
code should be relayed to the printer. 
This means that PR-256 must deter- 
mine the number of characters that 
will be sent to the printer in the bit- 
image mode. PR-256 does this and 
then decrements the count for every 
character received until the count hits 
0. At that point, the printer and 
PR-256 both revert back to normal 
printing modes. 

The last mode is the NEW_INTL 
mode. This is set whenever PR-256 
receives an ESC "R" sequence. This 
signals PR-256 that the printer is be- 



TriSoft has CP/M-68K for the 
TRS-80 Model 16 

And It's Available Today! 

TriSoft introduces the CP/M-68K operating system for the Radio Shack Model- 16 and Model-ll Enhanced computers. This 
addition to the CP/M family adds the SDeed and power of the 16/32-bit MC68000 under CP/M-68K while maintaining 
compatibility with the vast library of CP/M 2.2 software. 



. Runs in conjunction with CP/M 2.2 

. Easy context switching between 2.2 and 68K 

. Z80 acts as I/O slave under CP/M-68K 



• Selection of support utilities provided 

• 68000 assembler provided 

. Industry standard C compiler provided 



TriSoft 

4102 Ave.G 
Austin, Texas 
78751 
1-512-445-558Q 



1 -800-531-5255 Ext.784 

(In Texas call 1 -800-252-9146 Ext.784) 

. CP/M. CP/M 2.2. CP/M-68K TM Digital Research 

. TRS-80 Model 16 and Model II TM Radio Shack/Tandy 



ViSA' 




. 68COO TM Motorola 
. Z80 TM Zilog 



358 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 432 on inquiry card. 



TO ORDER CALL: 

1-800-451-2502 

617-641-1241 



Technical Support 
617-641-1235 



<% SoftwareBanc /■ 

661MaussacSiasettsAve, Arlington, M«u02l7+ 



■zr 



IT 



T7 



*C 



fR 



So, what good is your IBM® 

Personal Computer anyway? 

Yours is the only computer that can run. 



f 




s 



w 



One program combining three essential productivity tools: 
Spreadsheet Information Management Graphics 

for only $495! 

"We are determined to provide the same level of support for 1-2-3™ 
that has made SoftwareBanc the nation's leading dBASE //™ dealer/' 

Adam fi. Green 

President 
SoftwareBanc 

1-2-3 is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation 

dBASE II is a registered trademark of Ashton-Tate, Inc. 

I BM Personal Computer is a registered trademarkof International Business Machines 

Payment may be made by: MasterCard, Visa, check, moneyorder. 

. Mass. residents please add 5% sales tax. Add $5.00 for shipping and handling. 

Circle 397 on Inquiry card. 




ing set into a new international-char- 
acter-set mode. PR-256 must inter- 
cept the mode being sent and store it 
for its own use. We can see the need 
for this if we recall how PR-256 prints 
out International character types. 

Remember that PR-256 will tem- 
porarily change the printer's interna- 
tional set to print out characters in 
the International group. After the 
printing, PR-256 will restore the 
printer's set to what it had been pre- 
viously. Thus, using the NEW INTL 

mode, PR-256 can intercept and save 
the mode being sent and then send the 
mode to the MX-100. 

Conclusion 

As a conclusion, I will quickly 
mention the steps involved in setting 
up PR-256 to run with your system. 
First, you must type in, assemble, and 
link the program as found in listing 5. 
Next, you must set up AUTO- 
EXEC.BAT to load in PR-256 on 
system start-up. 

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file can be 
set up using an editor (like EDLIN 
supplied with DOS) or, because the 
file is very short, using the DOS copy 
command. To use the copy com- 
mand, you must be under DOS con- 
trol. Simply type in "COPY CON: 
AUTOEXEC.BAT ENTER> ". This 
tells DOS to copy from the console 
(keyboard) into the AUTOEXEC.BAT 
file. You will not get any prompt 
back after the < ENTER > key is hit. 
Now, type "PR-256 < ENTER >" 
followed by 'DATE < ENTER >". End 
the copy session by pressing the F6 
function key. DOS will save your 
keyboard entries into the new 
AUTOEXEC.BAT file and return with 
the normal prompt. 

The next time you start up the IBM 
with this disk in the default drive, 
DOS will load PR-256 and prompt 
you for the current date. That is all 
there is to setting up PR-256. 

It will be necessary for you to put 
copies of PR-256.EXE and the 
AUTOEXEC.BAT files on any system 
disk that you intend to boot off of. If 
for some reason you do not want 
DOS to load PR-256 for some system 
start-up, simply press CTRL-BREAK 
after you hear the power-on beep. 
This prevents DOS from processing 



the contents of AUTOEXEC.BAT. 
Good luck and good printing. ■ 



For those readers interested in obtaining a 
running version of PR-256, I have ar- 
ranged to make it available for purchase. 
The disk contains the PR-256 source 
listing, the assembled and linked (ready- 
to-run) object code, the patch program 
discussed in the article, and a sample 
BASIC program using the different modes 
of PR-256. The program is fully revised to 



work with both Graftr ax- Plus and Graf- 
trax printers. The cost of this disk is $25. 
A program called NUCHAR, available for 
$10 extra, allows you to customize as 
many as 128 of PR-256's printing 
characters. User's manuals are included 
with each order. Please include $1.50 for 
shipping in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico 
($5 elsewhere) plus sales tax in California. 
Send orders to Field Computer Products, 
909 North San Antonio Rd., Los Altos, 
CA 94022, (415) 949-3457. Visa and 
Mastercard accepted. 



Listing 5: The complete assembly-code listing of PR-256. Note that this program works 
only with Epson printers equipped with the Graftr ax graphics option, not with the 
newer Graftrax-Plus option. 



1 

2 




4 




5 




6 




8 




10 




11 




12 




13 




14 




15 




16 




17 




18 




19 




20 




21 




2? 




23 




24 




25 




26 




27 




26 




29 


= 005C 


30 


= 0027 


31 


= 001 B 


32 


= 0000 


33 




34 




35 




36 




37 


= 00FE 


3B 


= 00FD 


39 


= 00FB 


40 


= 00F7 


41 


= 00EF 


42 


= 00DF 


43 


= 00BF 


44 


= d07F 


45 




46 




48 




49 




50 




51 


0000 00 


52 


0001 0000 


53 


0003 00 


54 


0004 00 


55 


0005 00 


56 


000b 


57 




53 




59 




6i> 





PAGE 

PAGE 64, 132 

TITLE PR256 - IBM CHAR SET FOR HXJ00 by Tia Field 



; iiiiuiiii i n in tit mi i iiinniiin in in in i it mi tit 
i 

; PR256... Copyright by Tia Field, 1982 



iwO' 
OC1C1O 



53 54 4! 43 
4B 20 20 20 



i IBM CHARACTER SET - This progran resides on the IBM personal 
; coaputer. All 256 Df the characters used by the 1BH Kill 
; be available to be printed put using the Mill or HXSO mth 
; graphics option. The non-standard characters are printed 
; automatically by any process or prograo executing the IBH 
; interrupt I17H Inorial print routine in BIOS). 

: in ii ii mi tint lit lit lit lit mi lit lit lit in in uti tin 



DEFINE CONSTANTS USED BY PROGRAM 


lllllllllldltllltllltl 




INTADDR E0U 017H 


1 4 


NEMINT EQU 027H 




ESC_CHAR EQU 1BH 




NUL EQU 




; Define nask bytes used to turn i 


J 

MASKsBIT.GRAF ECU 


I111S110B 


HASKfSECJITG EQU 


111111016 


flASMFSTJlTG ECU 


11111011B 


MASKSNEHJNTL EQU 


UI10111B 


HASKSESC'SING EQU 


111011MB 


MASKSESC,NULL EQU 


lltUllllB 


HASMESlfc EIU 


101 1 1 1 1 IB 


MASK$PREV_ESC E0U 


QUI in: B 



: Address to Interrupt vector addr 

; DOS interrupt code tor 'End but stay resident* 

; ASCII escape character 

; ASCII NUL character 



Printer in bit-graphics rode 
Next char is 2nd graf char count 
Next char is 1st graf char count 
Next char international char defrt 
Expect one «ore control char 
Expect control chars until NUL found 
One Jiore controi char if non-:ero, eli 
Ne>:t char is escape defn char 



; Define structure used to hold each of the three '.possibly exist;:; 
; printers. 



PRINTERS STRUC 
SVS.M0DE 
SRAFJNT 
FULUNSTR 
GRAF PRINTER 
INTLSET 

PRINTERS ENDS 



jinniimntnnmii 



Define a teiparar 
Cf program only. 



iiiitiiinitniiniiitt 



STACK SEGrtENl >ARfi SIACf 
DB 10 DUPI'SIACr 



; Stores bits pertaining tc curre*: printer ncae 

; lt> bit count of graphics chars. ..*:.* ~ : : -gra * aode 

; vO : CR/LF sode, *0 : Nc ;cntrci :z3t~, -•? ; noraal 

; =0: Printer nas Epson graphics, . \':?-c 

; 0-7 k-alue of current internal ;on^ set 'cr Epson 



I:. Required for ir,j • 



Listing 5 continued on page 362 



360 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Stay in touch 

with the world 
anywhere you go. 

Plug into the largest information 
banks ever compiled, with the inex- 
pensive and easy-to-use RCA Videotex 
Terminal. 



Electronic news . . . stock market 
updates direct to home or office . . . 
published articles . . . government 
and industry reports . . . electronic 
mail . . . there's hardly anything going 
on, anywhere in the world, that can't 
be captured by giant computers, 
ready to be examined at the touch of 
a button. But until recently, these vast 
resources were available only to a 
select few: those having access to the 
largest computers and the skill to 
use them. 

Suddenly, that's all changed. Now 
the information of the world is availa- 
ble to anyone who can tap out a few 
words on a keyboard. The reason: an 
extraordinary piece of portable equip- 
ment that weighs less than six pounds, 
takes no special training to operate, 
and gives you instant access to the 
world's major information and commu- 
nication services. 

TheRCAVP3501 Videotex Terminal. 

With the VP3501 , you don't need a 
personal computer. If you have a tele- 
phone and a TV set, you have every- 
thing you need to get in touch with the 
incredible range of services at Compu- 
Serve, The Source, the Dow Jones 
News/Retrieval Service and others. 

The world of videotex. 

A subscription to such services 
gives you ready access to literally thou- 



sands of "menu" selections covering 
subjects of vital interest. 




• Read electronic editions of impor- 
tant newspapers and magazines, 
right on your TV screen . . .national 
and international news . . . weather, 
sports . . . direct from the newswires. 

• Research almost any subject in 
depth . . . with published articles . . . 
government and industry reports 
. . . other authoritative sources. 

• Keep up with the world of finance 
. . . latest stock market prices . . . 
commodity reports . . . market 
and business commentaries . . . 
detailed information on thousands 
of publicly held companies. 

• Send and receive electronic mail 
with other subscribers nationwide, 
including private person-to-person 
communication at less cost than a 
long distance phone call. 

• Bank and shop at home . . .choose 
from thousands of electronically 
catalogued items . . . made availa- 
ble at discounted prices. 

• Enjoy a wide selection of home serv- 
ices, including dozens of challeng- 
ing gamestotestyourfamily's playing 
skills. 



Quick and easy start-up. 

The VP3501 is as easy to use as a 
video game. Just follow the easy-to- 
understand instructions you get in the 
User's Guide. Connect the VP3501 
to your phone and TV set, turn it on, 
touch a few keys, and you're in direct 
contact with a whole new world of 
information. 

Other VP3501 applications. 

The VP3501 may also allow you to 
communicate with your company or 
school computer, in addition to the 
many subscription services available. 
There are expansion interfaces for a 
printer and cassette recorder. These 
features can provide you with hard 
copy and a full cassette of down- 
loaded information for review off-line, 
at your convenience. You can even 



write and run your own programs on 
host computers. In addition to the 
built-in direct connect modem and RF 
modulator, the VP3501 has 58-key 
alphanumeric and 16-key calculator 
keypads. . . resident and user-defina- 
ble character sets. Color-locking cir- 
cuitry provides sharp graphics . . . 
and there are programmable tones 
from a white noise generator. 

Order now: only $399. 

We know of no comparable videotex 
data terminal available today at this 
low price. The VP3501 terminal 
comes with basic cables and connec- 
tions for your TV set and telephone 
(with certain phones, the optional 
RCA acoustical coupler may be neces- 
sary), and the illustrated User's Guide 
with comprehensive instructions. 
Order now and you'll also get a free 
hourof connecttimefrom CompuServe, 
The Source and the Dow Jones News/ 
Retrieval Service. Try the VP3501 for 
just 10 days. If not completely satis- 
fied, you can return it to RCA for a 
full refund. 

Call toll-free: 800-233-0094. 

In Pennsylvania, call collect to 71 7- 
393-0046. Visa and MasterCard 
orders are accepted by phone or mail 
your order direct to RCA Microcom- 
puter Products, Dept., BY-383 , Cus- 
tomer Service, New Holland Avenue, 
Lancaster, PA 17604. Be sure to 
include name and shipping address, 
telephone, and payment: $399.00 
each, plus $3.00 each shipping, plus 
applicable state and local taxes. Send 
check or money order payable to RCA 
Corporation. Prices and specifica- 
tions subject to change without notice. 



RC/l 



Circle 375 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 361 






a. 
c 






in-o rs m ( 



■^ ■§ I- ^ '— 53 ,W !-, ~ 'JU '_i ^ 

•2 ■? '2 'S •S' 3 iff 'H? ° 5 ■? 2 






362 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




The 3 reasons 

why our software 

should cost you 

an arm and 

a leg... 

1 . We are highly specialized and limit our produc- 
tion to only 7 categories: MANUFACTURER, 
WHOLESALER, DOCTORS, DENTISTS, 
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND FINANCIAL 
PACKAGES. 

2. Our distribution and service network blankets the 
nation and spans the globe. 

3. Our microcomputer software is so finely tuned 
and incredibly simple it will make your secretary 
into a computer wizard. 

These are the reasons why our software 
should cost you a lot, and they are precisely the 
reasons why it won't. . . 

1. Specialization increases quality but reduces 
research and development costs. 

2. Worldwide distribution increases volume and 
reduces unit costs. 

3. Simplicity increases effectiveness but reduces 
installation and operation costs. 

For complete information about the microcom- 
puter software that should cost you an arm and a 
leg, but doesnt, just send for our free brochure. It 
deals exclusively with your business or profession 
and it is written in very plain English. The brochure is 
free, and the postage is paid. 



DISTRIBUTOR AND DEALER 
INQUIRIES ARE WELCOME. 




INTERNATIONAL 
MICRO SYSTEMS 

6445 Metcalf • Shawnee Mission, KS 66202 
(913) 677-1137 



Circle 213 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



363 



CompuShack Your Systems Specialist 




PDS UNIVERSAL 
PRODUCTS 



IBM PC- COMPLETE LINE IgM ® 

IBM 

PC System: includes 64K IBM-PC with 2 
Floppy Disk Drives, Floppy Drive Con- 
troller, Color Graphics Card. All for 
only $2999.00 

TRUMPCARD 

A unique memoiy card with 256K Ram 
Game I/O and Serial I/O. . . $499.00 
TRUMP CARD II 

Serial I/O and 512K fully populated 
memory card $699.00 




TRUMP CARD V 

Features Parallel and Serial I/O, Game 
I/O and a Clock/Calander with bat- 
tery back-up. A fully populated 256K 

memory board $599.00 

QUADRAM 

Quad Board - 256K, Parallel Port, Serial 
I/O, Clock Calendar with battery 

backup $599.00 

512K Ram with Serial I/O. . . . $799.00 

Microfazer Parallel $199.00 

Microfazer Cable $37.95 

Quad Color I $299.00 

Quad Color II 640 x 200. . . . $499.00 
Quad Color III 640 x 400 . . . $699.00 

AST RESEARCH 

Combo Plus- 256K, Parallel & Serial 
Port, Clock Calendar W/Bat. back-up, 
Superdrive, Superspool . . . $599.00 
Mega Plus- 5I2K, Parallel & Senal 
Port, Clock Calendar W/Bat. back-up 
$1199.00 

MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 

Floppy Disk Controller $179.00 

Floppy Disk Controller w /Parallel 

Port . $229.00 

Floppy Disk Controller w/Serial 

Port $239.00 

HERCULES GRAPHICS CARD 
This card gives you 720 x 350 graphics 
capabilities and it is completely 
compatible with DOS software for 



only. 



$489.00 



|714J 730-7207 



BIG BLUE 

Dual I/O ports, dual processing. Serial 
port. Parallel port, 5 MHZ, Z80 B, 64K, 
Hard disk interface, Clock/Calendar, 
let's you run existing CP/M®software. 

List S589 Ours $479 

TALL TREE SYSTEMS 
JRAM 512K, allows PC to address ONE 
MEGABYTE Electronic Disk. . . $800 EA 
JFORMAT lets you mix and match 
Drives: single/dual/quad/Electronic/ 
8"/Hard Disk + Printspooler and 10 

$60.00 





FLOPPY DISK DRIVES 


TANDON 

TM-100-1 SS/DD 


$189.00 


TM- 100-2 DS/DD 


$249.00 


TM-100-4 DS/DD 


$359.00 


TM-848-1 SS/DD 

TM-848-2 DS/DD 


$425.00 
$499.00 


SHUGART 

SA400 SS/SD 


$169.00 


SA450 DS/DD 


$239.00 


SA800/80I SS/SD 


$365.00 


SA850/85I DS/DD 

SIEMENS 

FDD 1 00-5 


$459.00 
$159.00 


FDD 200-5 


$199.00 


QUME 

DT-5 DS/DD 


$269.00 


DT-8 DS/DD 


$469.00 




HARD DISK SYSTEMS 


For IBM and Apple from 
DATAMAC & CORONA 

5MB 


$1595.00 


10MB 


$1995.00 


Complete subsystem with software, 

cables and power supply. 

CORVUS 

5MB $2599.00 


10MB 


$3699.00 




PRINTERS 



EPSON 

MX-80 W/graftrax plus .... $439.00 
MX-80 FT W/graftrax plus . . . $499.00 
MX- 100 W/graftrax plus . . $659.00 



BROTHER 

HR-1 A parallel. . , 

HR-1 A serial 

Tractor feed option 



CompuShrck 

brother. 



789.00 
$899.00 
$135.00 



SMITH CORONA c jmT 

TP-1 parallel ™T. . $579.00 



TP-1 serial. 



$579.00 




NEC 
SPINWRITER 

7710-1 $1995.00 
7715-1 $1995.00 
7730-1 $1995.00 
7720-1 $2395.00 
7725-1 $1995.00 



CompuShrck 

SEC 

3510 $1495.00 
3515 $1595.00 
3520 $1995.00 
3525 $1995.00 
3530 $1595.00 



3550 




$1995.00 


PC8023A .... 

OKIDATA 

82A 




$ 479.00 
$429.00 


83A 




$699.00 


84 AP parallel. 




$999.00 


84AS serial . . 




$1099.00 




MONITORS 


AMDEK MONITORS 
AVAILABLE 

NEC 

JB-1201M 12" green 

screen 


CALL 
$169.00 



JC-1212M 12" color (Lo-Res). . . 335.00 
JC-1203DH (A) 12" (Hi-ResJ . . . $752.00 

ELECTROHOME 

13" RGB monitor (Med-ResJ . . . $299.00 
13" RGB monitor (Hi-Res) .... $549.00 




*CP/M 66 js a registered trademark of Digital Research. Inc 
*CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. Inc. 



COMREX 

CR-5500 1 2" monochrome 

display $99.00 

CR-6500 13" composite color 

monitor $299.00 

CR-6600 13" color RGB 

monitor $499.00 



SPECIAL PRICES 
ARE ONLY PART 
OF OUR SERVICE 

* APPLE is a registered trademark of Apple Computers. Inc 
*IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation 



Sales and Service.) Business & Home Computers 

Prices subject to change without notice 



CABINETS/POWER SUPPLY 

Dual 8" disk drive cabinet/ 

ps $249.00 

Dual S ] A" disk drive cabinet/ 

ps $99.00 

Single 5!4" disk drive cabinet/ 

ps $69.00 

2 single side double density 8" disk 

drives, cabinet/power 
supply $895.00 



Apple 11+ Computer System with 48K 
of memory, 2 "data Drive" disk drives, 
controller card, 12" green screen hi- 
contrast monitor. All cables and manuals 
are included for a CompuShack price 
of $1699.00 

For the same system I isted above with a 
I6K card. Z80 card and an 80 Column 
card add $351 

OTHER PRODUCTS FOR APPLE II 

Special of the Month! 

PDS 

DATA DRIVE® 

100% 

Compatible 
disk drive 
w/controller 
for Apple \\ +. 

$299.00 

SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE . . . $429.00 
APPLETTE 1 (Slimline drive for 
Applell+ $339.00 

PDS UNIVERSAL 

Z80 card CP/M® included. . $159.00 

80 column card $179.00 

Disk drive controller card W/ 

diagnostics software $99.00 

Disk drive controller $79.00 

HAYES MICROCOMPUTER 
PRODUCTS 

Micromodem II $299.95 

Smartmodem 1200 baud full 

duplex. $529.95 

Micromodem II manual/ 

diskette $15.00 

*DATA DRIVE is a registered trademark of PDS Universal. Inc. 
"PDS is a registered trademark of Professional Data Systems. Inc 




Parallel Printer Card 

PRT-I with cable 


$69.00 
$75.00 


PRT-lwith EPSON 80/100 screen 
dump graphics with cable, Graf- 
fitti card $99.00 


I6K Ram card 


$69.00 


I28K Ram card w/DOS 3.3 disk emu- 
lator $369.00 


Grappler Interface Card . 

R. H. ELECTRONICS 

Super fan II and one outlet . 

Super fan II W/Zener Ray < 

two outlets 


$99.00 

$59.95 

Eind 

$79.00 


T G PRODUCTS 

Game paddles 


$29.95 


Joy stick 


$45.95 


Select a port 

STREET ELECTRONICS 

ECHO II speech synthesizer 


$45.95 
$175.00 


OTHER PRODUCTS FOR IBM 



MODULE CONVERTIONS FOR 
YOUR IBM-PC 




Z-80 Card-Will put PC in touch with 

20,000 existing programs CALL 

8086-Lets your IBM run 3 to 4 times 

faster CALL 

68000- Converts PC to 32 bit Architec- 
ture and UNIX III. It transforms 
PC to a powerful cost effective 
Commercial Engineering work 
station CALL 



(714)730-7207 

80286-A multi-user expansion pro- 
vides cost effective benefits 
CALL 
16032-This micro-card offers VAX like 
functionality and architecture 

to PC CALL 

UNIX/XEIMIX^-XENIX on IBM-PC 

CALL 
PC Vena Card-512K Memory Card 
provides user flexibility to run on time 
tested Software available on any of the 
chosen processors .... CALL 

SINCLAIR/TIMEX PRODUCTS 

MEMOTECH PRODUCTS 

!6KMemopack. $ 59.00 

32K Memopack $ 99.00 

64K Memopack $169.00 

Memopack High Res. Graphics . . . 

$139.00 
Memopack Centronics Parallel inter- 
face $139.00 
KAYPRO II COMPUTER SYSTEM 
64K Ram, Perfect Writer. Perfect Filer, 
Perfect Speller. Perfect Calc. S-Basic, 
CP/M®version 2.2. two disk drives, 9" 
(green) monitor, RS232 interface, Parallel 
Printer interface, and Weatherproof 
carrying case $1699 

FRANKLIN ACE 1000 COMPUTER 
SYSTEM 

64 K Ram. Upper and Lowercase letters. 

12 Key numeric, Alpha Lock, Visicalc 
Keys, Two "Data Drives" and Control- 
ler, 12" (green) monitor $1699 

Color Card add $59 

DEC Rainbow 1 00 
Keyboard. CPU, Z-80/8088. 64K, Serial 
RS232 Port, 2 Xt400KB disk (x-400) 
drives, Monitor, CP/M86®/80 Software 
Visit our store for Price! 

WE'RE OPENING RETAIL 
STORES THROUGHOUT 
THE U.S.A. SOON! 



CompuShack 



FRANCHISE INQUIRE S 
WELCOME 



CALL YOUR LOCAL COMPUSHACK DEALERS: 




California 


Anaheim 


• 


Illinois 


Chicago 


(312)964-4612 




Concord 


* 


Montana 


Great Falls 


• 




La Mirada 


(213) 947-9505 




Missoula 


(406)721-1811 




Newport Beach 


* 


New York 


Albany 


* 




San Diego 


|714| 457-2149 




Rochester 


• 




San Jose 


|408| 973-1444 




Rome 


(315) 336-0266 




Tustin 


|714| 730 7207 


Texas 


Austin 


(512)258-1062 




Walnut Creek 


1415)945-8011 


Washington 


Richland 


* 




West LA. 


1213)340-7000 




Spokane 


* 




Woodland Hills 


(213) 888-0030 


Wisconsin 


Verona 


(608) 845-7110 


Colorado 


Denver 


(303) 422-3925 


Canada 


Toronto 


* 


Idaho 


Twin Falls 




U.K. 


London 


01-935-0480 



Headquarters Telex: 181667 
Answer Back COMPDSHAK TSTN 



ALL FLOPPIES REPAIRED QUICKLY AT LOW COST 



Circle 360 on inquiry card. 



S 2 



X a 3- 3= 



ac _i x a _i i 



366 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 184 on Inquiry card. 



FRANKLIN'S BAKER'S 

DOZEN! 



13 Good Reasons to Buy 
the 




w 




•:• 



1. Apple- 11-compatible 

2. CP I M -compatible 

3. 128KofRAM 

4. Built-in floppy disk drive 

5. Disk controller 

6. 80 column card 

7. Serial interface 
Parallel interface 

9. Upper and lower case 
0. VisiCalc® keys 

Cursor control pad 

Numeric pad 
$ 9 Auto repeat keys 




Extras can more than double the price of your per- 
sonal computer. Not so with the Franklin ACE 1200. 
It's the professional computer system that includes 
the extras — and a long list of exclusive Franklin 
features that make it the most extraordinary value on 
the market today. 

The ACE 1200 has everything you'll need 
to add a color or black and white monitor, 
modem, printer, back-up disk drive and 
other accessories. You can choose from J| 
the enormous selection of Apple programs 
and peripherals because the ACE 1200 is 
hardware- and software-compatible with 



the Apple II. And, with the built-in CP/M card, you 
can run both Apple II and CP/M programs. Franklin's 
CP/M operates three times as fast as many com- 
peting systems, drastically reducing processing 
time for most business applications. 

The Franklin ACE 1200 — themost extraordinary value 
m. on the market today. Cal I or write today for 

[/ the name of your local authorized Franklin 

dealer. 

Franklin ACE is a trademark of Franklin Computer Corporation. 
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc. 
CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. 
VisiCalc is a registered trademark of Visi Corp. 



COMPUTER CORPORATION 



7030 Colonial Highway, Pennsauken, NJ 08109 609-488-1700 



O 



o 

73 



in 






~ fc 



a> o» :c : 



% 3 



in 

bo - 



368 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 499 on inquiry card. 






^//z o 



GEMINI- 

FOR PRINTER VALUE THAT'S 
OUT OF THIS WORLD 




Over thirty years of down-to-earth experi 
ence as a precision parts manufacturer has 
enabled Star to produce the Gemini series 
of dot matrix printers--a stellar combina- 
tion of printer quality, flexibility, and reliabil- 
ity. And for a list price of nearly 25% less 
than the best selling competitor. 

The Gemini 10 has a 10" carriage and 
the Gemini 15 a 15Y2" carriage. Plus, the 
Gemini 15 has the added capability of a bot- 
tom paper feed. In both models, Gemini 
quality means a print speed of 100 cps, high- 
resolution bit image and block graphics, * 
and extra fast forms feed. 

Gemini's flexibility is embodied in 
its diverse specialized printing 
capabilities such as super/ 
sub script, underlining, back- 
. spacing, double strike mode 
and emphasized print mode. An- 
other extraordinary standard m » c r t% n 



m 



feature is a 2.3K buffer. An additional 4 K 
is optional. That's twice the memory of lead- 
ing, comparable printers. And Gemini is 
compatible with most software packages 
that support the leading printers. 

Gemini reliability is more than just a 
promise. It's as concrete as a 180 day war- 
ranty (90 days for ribbon and print head), a 
mean time between failure rate of 5 million 
lines, a print head life of over 100 million 
characters, and a 100% duty cycle that 
allows the Gemini to print continuously. 
Plus, prompt, nationwide service is readily 
available. 

So if you're looking for an incredibly 

a high-quality, low-cost printer 
$ that's out of this world, look 
^ to the manufacturer with its 
feet on the ground— Star and 
® the Gemini 10, Gemini 15 dot 



aara micron ic s • inc matrix printers. 

MAKING A NAME FOR OURSELVES 

1120 Empire Central Place, Suite 216, Dallas, TX 75247 



bo 
<3 
EL 
C 
O 



§_ S 8 °- § 



o ™ •«■ 



s s 



of » S 



U- U- — — <=> — 



i ui in 10 in iii m m id i 



370 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




The Micromint MPX-16 Microcomputer System. 



As featured on the cover of "BYTE" magazine, November 1982. 

Also featured in Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, November, December 1982 & January 1983. 



These are all the tools you'll need 

to build the world's most powerful 

single board microcomputer. 



The Micromint MPXf 6. Put one together tonight. 



Once assembled, the most useful tool will be your own 
imagination. The possibilities are limitless. Micromint will 
help you tailor the MPX-16 system to your particular needs 
and budget. Purchase the MPX-16 as a bare pc board, as 
a semi-kit with all the IC sockets, I/O connectors and 
discreet components wave soldered to the pc board, 
or as an assembled and tested unit. 

• Directly boots CP/M-86 or MS-DOS* 

• Runs all CP/M-86 or MS-DOS* applications 
programs. 

On board features. 

• IBM PC bus compatible with 9 expansion slots. 

• Intel 8088 16-bit microprocessor. 

• Optional Intel 8087 math coprocessor. 

• 256K bytes on board memory. 

• Up to one megabyte of system memory. 

• Up to 64K bytes of system ROM/EPROM. 

• Two RS-232C serial I/O ports. 

• Three parallel I/O ports. 

• Floppy disk controller for 51/4" or 8" single or 
double density disk drives. 

• Four independent DMA channels. 

• Sixteen levels of vectored interrupts. 

'Available Soon. 

Circle 275 on inquiry card. 

Micromint 

The System with the Winning Combination. 

IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Machines. Inc.. CP/M-86 is a trademark of Digital Research. I 




To get the MPX-16 up and running only requires one disk 
drive, power supply and serial terminal. 

• MPX-16 single board computer assembled, tested 
and burned in with 64K bytes of RAM, CP/M-86 

or MS-DOS operating system * $1,895.00 

• MPX-16 with 256K bytes of RAM $2,135.00 

• MPX-16 Semi-Kit (wave soldered pc board) less IC's S595.00 

• Complete kit of IC's burned in and tested with 64K 

bytes of RAM $595.00 

With 256K bytes of RAM $800.00 

• MPX-16 Unpopulated (bare) pc board, silk screened 

and solder masked $300.00 

• CP/M-86 Operating System on 51/4" or 8" diskette. . $200.00 
MPX-16 Switching Power Supply including 

power supply harness $300.00 

• MPX-16 Technical Reference and User's Manual $50.00 
Call for current pricing on serial terminals, floppy disk 
drives, metal enclosures, hard disk systems, etc. 



To Order: Call Toll Free 
1-800-645-3479 
• In N.Y. 1-516-374-6793 



MICROMINT INC. 

561 Willow Avenue 
Cedarhurst, NY 11516 




MPX-16 







MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corp 






s s 



*■£ 5 5 o 



u_ u. o 



5 io ™ CO S o- 

r"> ro ro ro io ro 



372 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Alspa 




ANNOUNCING THE HIGH SPEED, LOW COST NETWORK 




The ZERO is designed to bring high performance LOCAL 
AREA NETWORKING to users at budget prices. 

The ZERO and ZERO-NET are unique. Any ZERO station 
can be a Network Master or Network Remote, permitting, for 
the first time, a low cost non stop network. 

The ZERO-NET features a High Level Data Link Controller 
(message synchronous) at 400K bps carried over a simple twisted 
pair cable. To achieve maximum speed and reliability we use col- 
lision detection/avoidance circuitry and automatic CRC error 
detection/ retransmission. 

Each ZERO computer in the net can have Floppy Disk and/or 
Winchester Drives. The ZERO itself is a Z80 based Micro- 
computer with 64K Ram, 2K to 16K of EPROM, 2 Serial ports, 
2 parallel ports, floppy disk controller, Z80CTC counter-timer 
and Z80DMA direct memory access. 

The ZERO hardware design was optimized for TURBODOS*, 
(CP/M**, MP/M** compatible) including such enhancements 
as console type-ahead (buffering), 1.416 Mbytes per 8 inch 
double-sided floppy, multi-processing (background processing) 
such as print spooling, etc. 

KEY PARAMETERS 

• Local Area Networks up to 256 nodes per NET, with 
any mix of Master and Remote stations. Each station may 
support up to 16 logical drives, local or remote. 

• Local Area Networks may be linked through gateways. 

• Per Node — to 2 floppies and to 4 hard disks with appro- 
priate Driver Modules. 

• Per Node — parallel and/or serial printer. 

• Each user can control print routing and/ or spooling. 

• Each node may reference a file system and/or printer on any 
other node. 

• Each node may have an Autostart Log-on with security access 
protection. 

• Each node may have a FIFO type Electronic Mailbox. 




• Each node may operate with 
MP/M compatible file/ record 
interlocks, or with special 
TURBODOS relaxation rules. 

• Maximum recommended buss 
length of 4,000 L.Ft. 

•Full CP/M and MP/M com- 
patibility. 

• The TURBODOS operating 
system can support up to one GIGA Byte (1,000 Mega Bytes) 
per logical drive. 

The ZERO-NET product family — the ZERO, the ZERO/FD, 

the Z-DRIVE and the ZNT terminal — all the components 
required to configure an entire system are available for immedi- 
ate delivery. The ZERO provides a microcomputer network that 
OUTPERFORMS many multi-user minicomputer systems at 
substantially lower cost. While the competition is still studying 
it, ALSPA has done it! 



^^^oHMUr 



/£± Alspa Computer, Inc. 



300 Harvey West Boulevard, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(408) 429-6000 Telex 176279 



♦TURBODOS is a trademark of Software 2000, Inc. 
**CP/M and MP/M are trademarks of Digital Research, Inc. 



Circle 17 on inquiry card. 



§ § g 



o 






CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 

s 


I 


00 


CO 






CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


s 


o 


s 


s 


£ 


s 


§ 


X 


































2 


o 


g 


s 


o 


s 


<=> 


& 






<=> 


CO 


CO 




CO 


CO 


s 


o 


8 


s 


8 


o 


8 


o 


s 




















g 










<=> 


o 








<=> 












CO 
























<=> 


o 
















CO 








CO 


CO 




8 


o 




s 


§ 


s 


g 


<=> 


§ 


CO 


a 


s 


CO 


CO* 


<=» 


§ 



s 


s 


s 


<=» 


fe 












<=> 


s 


§ 


g 


£ 


g 


s 


s 


o 


g 












s 


s 


s 


§ 


& 


1 


* 


£ 




£ 



s s 





co eg co eo o eo 
ex ex ex ex & rx 




00 CD CD 00 O CD 

rx rx fx rx o rx 


li 




U) 




3 




C 










o 






u 




LO 








bo 





: t g i 



ro ro ™ 



i *in-Ofs( 



.<=><=><=><=> — — « — • — « — — - 



374 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Quick, name one software product 
that can pay for itself 
in five minutes? 



(Hint: It's from Fox & Geller) 




dBASE II is a trademark of AshtonTate. WordStar and MailMerge 
are registered trademarks of Micropro International. 
QUICKCODE. dUTIL, and dGRAPH are trademarks of Fox & Geller. 



It's true. Fox & Geller offers dBASE \r users a product 
that's so dynamic and easy to use, it can pay for itself in 
just five minutes. That's because this product is a powerful 
program generator, which writes concise programs to set 
up and maintain any type of database. 

That means you can run a database as is or customize 
them— all with no programming experience what- 
soever! All you have to do is draw your data entry form 
on the screen and you're in business. In business to add, 
edit, or delete. In business to print records, mailing labels, 
or forms up to 96 lines by 1 32 columns. In business to 
transfer data to WordStar™ and MailMerge™ do three 
kinds of data validation, generate customized menus, and 
more. In short, this Fox & Geller product dramatically 
expands your dBASE II capabilities. 

Now, stop and consider how such capabilities can save 
you hours of work and frustration, while making dBASE \\ 
more useful. And it's so easy to use, you don't need an , 
expensive programming consultant. Compare that with 
this product's low price of S 295 .00, and you could find 
ourself saving an equal sum the. very first time you use it! 

Use what? Fox & Geller's QUICKCODE™, that's what. 

Ask for it by name at your local computer dealer. And 
while you're there, see our full line of quality software. 
Software that's practical, reliable, and reasonably priced. 
Software that's created by Jeff Fox and Jacob Geller, 
individuals who stand behind every product 
that bears their names. • 
OtherFox & Geller software include: 
dUTIL™ that combines your dBASE \\ command files 

automatically to produce a faster running time. Lifelines 
called dUTIL and QUICKCODE "two very useful 
packages if you are doing any programming in dBASE \\" 
[October, 1982). 

dGRAPH™ is a brand new package that lets you easily 
produce various types of graphs from your database. 
How easy? Just press one key and you've got a pie chart, 
a bar graph, or a line graph complete with shadings and 
overlays if desired. Runs on many popular printers and is 
available for non-dBASE \\ users, too! 

Use the Reader Service Card to receive full specifications 
for all of these Fox & Geller products. Or contact: 



Fox & Geller Inc. 

P.O.Box 1053 
Teaneck, NJ 07666 
(201)837-0142 
Circle 183 on inquiry card. 




376 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



SANYO PLUS 




$1995 



Th f i - 



©SANYO PLUS 



\ ; / 



/ \ 



A S2000 compurer. wirh S2000 of sofiwore. for $1995. 

The Sonyo Plus consists of o Sonyo MDC-1 000 compurer wirh o builr-in 12" high-res. 
green phospher 25x60 disploy. The deroched keyboard feorures 5 special function 
keys and o 1 0-key pod. The Sonya Plus comes complete with o parallel printer part, o 
serial communicorions port and room for three additional cords. 

Plus you receive o second drive for o totol formotted disk capacity of 624K. 

Plus we now include over S2000 worth of sofrwore including CP/M" 2.2, Sonya Dosic, 
WordSror 3.0 with troining guide. Moilmerge. SpellStor ColcSror. InfoStor and o gomes 
disk. 

Plus you get o 300 baud direct connect modem, with coble modem software and a 1 
month subscription to The Source. We thoroughly integrore and rest each system, and 
generate work copies of oil your sofrwore. 

If you con find o better deal - buy it. 

Extended worronry available. Five module business sofrwore pock: S99. 
Sonya Minus: One drive system $1649. 10 MB. Drive system S3695. 



TELEVIDEO 



ALTOS 



ZENITH 



NORTHSTAR 




Now backed locolly by T.R.W. Built-in 
CRT. derochoble keyboard duolfloppys 
w/750K formotted copociry. 64K. CP/M 
ond more. Special: Telesolurions — 
Wordstar TM ond CalcStor TM w/sysrem 
S279. 

602w/CP/m" $2669 

606 (20 Mb) $5149 

TS1602G $3495 

TS1602GH $5495 

616 (23 Mb) $6296 

600A's $1299 

TERMINALS 



Terminal 
Sale: 



ADDS Viewpoint 3A* 
Wyse 1 00 
Televideo 950 





Zenith ZT-1 ' 


$559 


Televideo 910 


$579 


Televideo 925 


$735 


Zenith Z-19 


$669 


Adds Viewpoint 


$469 


SoroclQ 130 


$599 


Adds Viewpoint 60 


$724 


Hozelrine Espirit 


$499 | 


Hozelrine Espirit II 


$549 ; 


I Hozelrine Espirit III 


coll I 


I with built-in modem 





Our tech s favorire systems. From the 
lowesr priced 3-user systems with either 
2 or 6 M<5. storage, to 40MG 8-user 16 
bit systems. 

Add terminols printers, ond softwore 
ond we con fully lest ond configure your 
system or low prices. Dock nononwide 
by Moore Sysrems Service. 

Series 5-1 5D $2195 

Series 5-5D $3995 

6000-10 $5575 

6600-12 $9465 

Series 5 8000 systems include MP/M 




Introducing rhe Zenith Z-100: Irs rhe 
new 8/16 bif sysiem thors CP/M. MS- 
DOS, ond S-100 compatible. 
Two built-in 320K 5 1/4" drives. 128K 
RAM. oprionol color grophics with control 
of eight colors ond 144,000 dors, five 
S-1 00 expansion slots, ond o full feofure 
keyboard: 

Z-1 10-22 $3069 

Z-1 20-22 $3165 

Sofrwore Special $395 

Z-69's. 90's call 



A 



~^*&C — 



/ \ 



Scottsdale Systems^ 

61 7 N. Scottsdale Road. Suite B, Scottsdale, Arizona 65257 

— (602)941-5856 



Call 6-5 Mon.-Fri. 



SERVICE/ORDERING 

INTEGRATION; Prices listed ore for new equipment in factory seoled boxes wirh monufocturer's 
worronry. We will preresr your equipment, integrate your system, configure your software, provide 
speciol cables, etc.. for an odditionol charge. Coll for prices. 

ORDERING: MAIL ORDER ONLY. Prices listed ore for cosh. No C.O.D.s. We sell on o net 20 
bosis to Fortune 500 componies and Universities Charge cords add 2%. Prices subject to change, 
product subject toavoilobility. AZ. residenrs add 5%. Personal checks take weeks to clear. 0-20% 
restocking fee for returned merchandise. Shipping extra - products ore F.O.D. point of shipment. CP/M 
and MP/M ore registered trademorks of Digitol Research. 

SOFTWARE: We sell all populor CP/M R programs ot discount. Software sold only wirh systems nor 
worrontied for suitobiliry. 




Prices now include free burn ond test. 
We worronry each unir for 90 doys from 
the doy you receive it ( not 90 days from 
the day we receive ir). Coll for prices on 
comporible sofrwore ond hordwore. 

Advonroge 
64K Quod 
Horizon 64K Quod 
Advonroge 
w/5 Mb. 



$2769 
$2695 



$3795 



PRINTERS 




I/O DEVICES 





PRINTERS 




Gemini 10 


$369 


Gemini 15 


$469 


NEC6023A 


$465 


Okidoro 62A 


$409 


Okidoro 63A 


$649 


Okidoro 64 


$995 


Tolly 1601 w/trocr 


$739 


IDS microprism 


$509 


Epson 


call 


HIGH SPEED 


Prism 60 "Loaded" 


$1369 


Prism 132 "Loaded" 


$1464 


Anodex 9501A 


$1369 


DoroSourh DS-160 


$1249 


TI610s 


Call 


LETTER QUALITY 


Diablo 620 


$919 


NEC 3510 


$1495 


NEC 7710 


$2149 



DAISYVA/RITER 2000 



Houston Insrrumenrs: 

Hi-Pads 

DMP-29 

DMP-40 



call 

$1569 

$745 



Hayes: 

300 SmarTmodem 

300/1200 

SmarTmodem 



$219 



The best price/thfuput in letter qualify 
printers. 48k buffer 8 protocols grophics 
mode 4 inrerfocesstd. Sub ond Superscript 
Proportional Spacing and much more 
Uses std. ribbons. 

$1014 




P H T T'THE COMPUTER-LINE" 

VALL IN COLORADO 




The Computerline believes that it is important to be competitive by offering low prices; however, we regard 
service as the most important aspect of a mail-order organization. All our lines are available so that you, the 
customer, are able to talk to fully qualified computer specialists trained to answer all your questions pertaining 
to our line of microcomputers. We are renowned for our excellent after-sales support and our promptness for 
delivery. Peace of mind and excellence in service is our pledge to all our customers. 



IBM Personal Computer Products 



QUADRAM CORPORATION 

QUAOBOARO 

The ultimate memory board for the 
IBM. featuring: 

• fully expandable from 64 to 256K 

• parallel port 

• asynchronous (RS232) serial port 

• clock/calendar 

• RAM disk drive 
$CALL 



INTERFAZER 

Used as: 

• Peripheral buffer 

• Multi-User Printer Controller 

• Computer LO Expander 

• Incompatible Device Interlace 

• Peripheral Multiplexer 

• Data Transfer Rate Converter 
SCALL 



MICROFAZER 

• buffering from 8 to 64K 
(4 to 32 pages of text) 

• printer and computer independent 

• parallel/parallel; serial/serial 
and paralle serial available 

• compute while you print! 
SCALL 



DAVONG 
Systems, Inc. 

Description: 

The Davong Systems Memory Card is a convenient RAM memory expansion 

card for use in the IBM Personal Computer. 

The Memory Card may be placed in any free system slot. It is completely 
compatible with all IBM Personal Computer software and hardware, and runs 
at the same speed as IBM memory products. 

64K RAM $225 192K RAM S499 

256K RAM S599 



Hard Disk System for the 
IBM® Personal Computer. 

ONLY $1595.00 

Description: 5 MEGABYTES STORAGE 

The Davong System's Hard Disk Drive fits conveniently inside the second 
floppy c'isk location of the IBM Personal Computer chassis, providing more 
than 30 times the capacity of a floppy diskette, plus greater speed and 
reliability. 

The DSI-501 System is compatible with IBM software, and supports IBM 
DOS". The system includes all necessary components and software for 
installation. 

5, 10 and 15 Megabytes available 



TANDON DRIVE 

SPECIAL 

Double Sided/Double Density 

320K BYTES STORAGE 

TM— 100— 2 

NOW ONLY 



$259 



Call for TM-100-4 



RGB 
Color Monitor < 

SPECIAL! 

Princeton Graphic Systems 



690 Dots Horizontal 

16 colors 

Non-glare screen 

Sharp looking — matches IBM 



$CALL 



BUSINESS 

TAX MANAGER . $199 

256K VISICALC $189 

VISITREND'VISIPLOT $239 

VISIDEX $189 

EASY EFFECTIVE 
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM . . . S389 

SUPERCALC $219 

SUPERWRITER $289 



IBM SOFTWARE 

ENTERTAINMENT 

GALACTIC ATTACK $26 

ZORK I $29 

ZORK II $29 

DEADLINE $39 

CALL FOR NEW GAMES 
AT UNBEATABLE PRICES 
T and G JOYSTICKS .... S44.95 
ADAM AND 
EVE PADDLES $29.95 



CALL FOR SOFTWARE NOT LISTED 



MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 

Floppy Disk Controller/with parallel $229 

Floppy Disk Controller/with serial $259 



THE ULTIMATE IBM® 
PERIPHERALS 

Five Function 
Memory/Serial/Parallel/Clock/ Joystick 

Monte Carlo™ card 

• 64K to 1 Megabyte of Memory 

• ONE IBM Compatible Centronics Parallel Port 

• ONE IBM Compatible Asynchronous Communications F 

• ClockyCalendar (Battery Backed) with Alarm Features 

• Dual-Port Joystick Interface 

• Future Upgrade Option: Direct Connect Plug-On Modem 

And the Sensational $CALL 
on a chip 

l-C-MAGIC™ 

GRAPHIC MED/HI RES. SCREEN DUMP 

PRINT SPOOLING UP TO 64K 

TERMINAL EMULATION 

SCALL 

PGS— Princeton Graphics Systems 

Hi-resolution, RGB Color Monitor $CALL 

5%" Half Height 'Slimline' drives 

put two floppies in a single slot! $CALL 

DAVONG 5 - 10 - 15M byte 

Hard Disk Systems from $1 595 

"-"- Trademarks of Microcomputer Business Industries Corp. (MBI) 



Peripherals For All Computers 



PRINTERS 



NEC 

Spinwntef 7710/7730 $2339 

B023A $ 489 

STAR 

Gemini lOanoGemlni 16 $CALL 

EPSON (Grafira* Plus) 

MX-80 SCALL 

OKIDATA 

80no tracior $ 339 

80 with tractor : $ 399 

B2Ano tractor $ 439 

82Awltn tractor S 479 

B3A J 689 

84Aparallel $1029 

84A serial $1139 

2KBu!terwithserial current loopboard $139 

Graphics B2A, B3A .. , $ 79 



SMITH CORONA TPI 

Daisywheel/Letter Quality 
NOW ONLY $589 



C-ITOH 
F10 Word Quality Printer 

• 40 CPS Printing 

• Letter quality excellence 

Now Only $1395 

Prowrlter I 120cps (Parallel) $ 469 

Prowrlter 1 120cps (Parallel/Serial) S 619 

Prowrlter II (136 column) Parallel S 699 

Prowrlter II (136 column) Parallel/Serial $ 749 

C-ITOH F10 55 CPS $1795 

INTEGRAL DATA SYSTEMS 

PRISM 132 Color printer with all options 

• 200 cps Sprint Mode 

• 4-color printing 

• Friction/Tractor feed $1595 



MONITORS 

Zenith ZVM-121 Phosphor, 15 MHZ $ 119 

NEC 1201 Phosphor, 20 MHZ $ 179 

NEC 1 201 Composite, Color $ 335 

NEC 1201 RGB Color $ 899 

Amdek 300 Phosphor $ 1 79 

Amdek Composite, Color $ 349 

Amdek IBM Compabible Color $ 749 

BMC Green $ 89 



Princeton Graphic RGB Color SCALL 

For IBM 

Electrohome RGB $ 749 

Electrohome IBM Cable $ 49 



MODEMS 

Hayes Smartmodem, 300 baud $219 

Hayes Smartmodem, 1200 baud $539 

Hayes Chronograph $189 

Novation Cat $145 

Novation D-Cat $165 

Novation Auto Cat $209 

CERMETEK $CALL 

1 200 baud modem 



DISKETTES (5 1 A inch) 

SCOTCH WITH PLASTIC LIBRARY CASES (Boxes of 10) 

(48 Track singie-sided, double density) $26.50 

VERBATIM DATALIFE SS/DD (Boxes of 10) ... $24.95 

VERBATIM DATALIFE DS/DD (Boxes of 10) $44.95 

ELEPHANT DISKETTES SS/DD (Boxes of 10) $23.95 

ELEPHANT DISKETTES DS/DD (Boxes of 10) $39.95 



NEC PERSONAL 
COMPUTER PRODUCTS 

)1A Keyboard and processor unit, includi ng 32K Ram. 

24KB N-Basic Rom, cassette tape recorder interface. 

parallel printer interface, display interface , S749 

!2A Modular expansion unit, including 10 bus extension. 

diskette adaptor. 32KB Ram. real-time clock, B priority inienup! levels, 
6 slots tor additional boards S479 



NEC General Account ng System S2S9 

NEC Accounts Receivable Syste m S259 

NEC Inventory Control System S259 

NEC Payroll System ) S259 

NEC Job Cost System S259 

NEC Benchmark Word Processing S32S 

NEC CPM Operating System Si2E 

NEC Report Manager S135 

Data Base S459 

We carry the entire line ol NEOBPI software tor the personal computer. 
Please call or write lor information. 

with NEW NEC-APC-SCALL 



^ 



THE BEST PRICES IN THE NATION 
ON APPLE PERIPHERALS! 



MBI APPLETIME CARD 

WORKS WITH DB MASTER AND VISIDEX 
MOUNTAIN HARDWARE COMPATIBLE . . 



$89 



MBI VIP CARD 

THE BEST GRAPHICS CARD 

AVAILABLE WITH AN ADDITIONAL SERIAL PORT 

(For Modem or 2nd printer) 



$129 



WE'RE SMASHING THE PRICES 
ON APPLE COMPATIBLE DISK DRIVES 

FORTH DIMENSION 

APPLE COMPATIBLE DRIVES 

PLUS ONE BOX OF ELEPHANT DISKETTES 

FORTH DIMENSION 

DRIVE WITH CONTROLLER 

(including the Apple DOS Master and manual) 

PLUS ONE BOX OF ELEPHANT DISKETTES 



$289 
$379 



Call for prices on RANA and MICROSCI drives 



80 COLUMN CARDS FOR APPLE 

Wesper 80 Card $259 

Vision 80 Card (Vista) $269 

Videx 80 Card $249 



RAM CARDS 

Davong 16K Card, Microtek, 
and Microsoft 16K Card ALL at . . 



$ 79 



T AND G PRODUCTS 

Game Paddles . . . $ 29 

Joy Stick $ 44 

Selecta-port Expander $ 49 



APPLE WORD PROCESSING 

Screenwriter II On line's Sensational! $ 89 

Silicon Valley Systems 

Word Handler II $159 

List Handler $ 79 

Call for Continental, Dakin 5, Broderbund, Automated Simu- 
lations, Avant-Garde, Edu-Ware, Denver, Howard, Sirius Sen- 
sible. Synergistic Software, etc. 



BUSINESS SOFTWARE 

VISICORP.INC. 

Desktop Plan III $229 Visidex . . . 

Desktop Plan II $189 Visiterm .... 

Visifiles $189 Visicalc 3-3 . 

Visiplot $159 Visipak . . . 

VisitrendVisiplot $229 

STONEWARE 

DB Master $169 

DB Utility Pack $ 69 



$189 
$ 79 
$189 
$539 



CALIFORNIA 
COMPUTER SYSTEMS 



7710 Async Serial tnl 
7490 GPiB (IEEE-488) Int. 
7470 Ana lo Dig Converter 

7711 Async Serial (Term) 

7712 Sync Serial Int 
7721 Apple Parallel Int. 
Calendar/Clock Module 
Programable Timer 



$135 
$239 
$ 99 
$135 
S149 
$109 
$ 99 
$ 99 



MOUNTAIN 
HARDWARE 

CPS Multi-Function Card 

The Clock 

Superlalker 

Music System 

Expansion Chassis 

Romwnter 

Ram Plus 



S129 
$229 
S159 
$319 
$599 
$139 
$149 



MODEMS FOR APPLE 

Hayes Micromodem II $269 

Novation Apple Cat II $299 

212 Apple Full Duplex (for Apple Cat II) $329 

212 Apple Cat $629 

21 2 Stand Alone Auto Cat $599 



Visiterm 
Transend II 
ASCII Express 



MODEM SOFTWARE 



S 79 
$119 
$ 95 



CPM FOR APPLE 

Microsoft Z80 Softcard 



S269 



MISCELLANEOUS APPLE PRODUCTS 

Enhancer II S119 00 

Sup R Mod S 27 95 

. System Saver s 79 00 

Videx Function Strip $ 69 00 




CALL "THE COMPUTER-LINE" 



(303) 279-2727 

(303) 279-2848 

1-(800)-525-7877 

THE COMPUTERLINE, INC. 

1019 8TH STREET GOLDEN. COLORADO. U.S.A. 80401 



SHOWROOM: 

1136 S COLORADO BLVD. 
DENVER. CO 80222 

Circle 111 on inquiry card. 

Ai prices lellect a 2 9"o cash discoum AH goods acknowledged faulty on receipt by the customer will be repaired or replaces at our discreiiui ^ustumers musi can 'rji ar RMA number ue'.m- •fKt'wu 
any goods This facilitates our quick attendance to faulty goods We reserve the rrgh' to repair or return to the manufacture' tor repair an goods becoming faulty within the specified warrant) parted 
Any goods (hardware or software) returned for restocking are subject to a 10°- restocking fee ai our discretion No returns on game software We accept no responsibility foi any laise claims made 
by manufacturers Prices quoted for stock on hand and sub|ect lo change without nonce Specialists in APO and international deliveries Please add 2% (minimum S3 00) for shipping APO add to ai' 
prices 5% for shipping (minimum SS 001 Please allow 10 working days plus mail time (if an order is mailed m for receipl of all UPS delivered goods All goods (other than APO or international! delivered 
UPS ground 



All brands are registered trademarks. 



System Notes 



Circles and Ellipses 
on the Apple II 



Douglas Priest 
8615 West 20th Ave. 
Lakewood, CO 80215 



Given a center point and a radius, the problem of con- 
structing a circle is fairly simple. However, suppose you 
know only several points on a circumference. This makes 
things a bit more complicated, but it's nothing a trusty 
Apple II can't handle. Similarly, plotting an ellipse from 
the two foci and a point on the perimeter may seem 
tricky, but it is easily accomplished. 

The programs in listings 1 and 2 perform these tasks on 



UV EPROM ERASER 



• Erases over 15 EPROMS - 15 minutes erase time 

• Element life 7700 hours 

• Intensity: 12Ws Vicm'at 1" 

• Erases all UV EPROMS (2716, 2732, 2516, 2532, etc.) 




$49.95 



* HOBBY MODEL 

INDUSTRIAL MODEL 

QUV-T8/2N 

$68.95 
WITH TIMER AND 
SAFETY SWITCH 

QUV-T8/2T 

$97.50 



PROGRAMS: 2508, 2516, 2532, 2716, 27C16, 27C32, 

2732A, 2758, 8748, 8749H, 8748H 
OPTIONAL MODULES: 2564, 2764, 8755A, 8741 

• STAN0 ALONE, CRT. OR COMPUTER CONTROL 

• UPL0A0/00WNL0A0 IN MOTOROLA DR INTEL HEX FORMAT 

• MICROPROCESSOR BASED * 4 K INTERNAL RAM 

• 90 DAY PARTS & LABOR WARRANTY ON ALL PRODUCTS 

SOON TO BE RELEASED: 

PROMPRO-8 128K Version $689. 
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE 



INTELLIGENT 

PROGRAMMER 

STAND ALONE 

RS-232 

• RELIABLE 

• EASY COPY (No external 
equipment needed) 

• USER FRIENDLY 

COMPATIBLE: 

IBM PC, TRS-80, APPLE, CPM, 

FLEX, TEKTR0NICS, M0S 

(MCS-48) 

PROGRAMMING 

PRICEINCLUDES 
PERSONAL ITY MODULE 



$489.00 



LOGICAL DEVICES INC. 

781 W. OAKLAND PARK BLVD. • FT. LAUDERDALE. FL 3331 1 

Phone Orders (305) 974-0967 • TWX: 510-955-9496 
SEE US AT COMDEX SPRING - BOOTH #3019 



an Apple II using Applesoft BASIC. They are designed to 
be used as subroutines, with slight modifications, but 
they can be used by themselves to design graphic 
displays. 

The first program (see listing 1) accepts three points, 
(XI, Yl), (X2, Y2), and (X3, Y3), and plots a circle on the 
screen. The perpendicular bisector of the line (XI, Yl), 
(X2, Y2) passes through the point 

/ XI + X2 Yl + Y2 \ 



and has slope 

±L XI - X2 

A = (Y2 - Y1)/(X2 - XI) = Y2 - Yl 

From this information, the program finds the y-intercept 
B. Using the same method, it calculates the slope C and 
y-intercept D of the perpendicular bisector of (X2, Y2), 
(X3, Y3). The intersection of the resulting lines, 
Y = AX + B and Y = CX + D, is given by 



X c = 



D - B 
A - C 



and Y r = AX C + B 



The program then uses the distance formula to find a 
radius: 



R 



V(X C - XI) 2 + (Y c - Yl) 2 



and plots a standard circle. 

The second program (see listing 2) allows you to input 
two foci (Fl and F2) and a third point on the perimeter of 
the ellipse. By finding the distance from the first focus 
(see figure 1) to the point, and from the point to the 
second focus, and dividing this distance by 2, the pro- 
gram determines the semimajor axis. The length is also 
that of two sides of an isosceles triangle whose base is the 
line connecting the foci and whose altitude is the 
semiminor axis. The program finds this axis by first 



380 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 248 on inquiry card. 



We Have It!. . Computers, Disk 
Systems, Printers and Terminals 



Call For Super Value 

On S-100 System With 

DM Dens. 8"DrNesl 



INTERTEC SUPERBRAIN II 
FREE MlcroSoft Basic 80 . 

Self contained computer with dual 
disks and two SR232C ports, com- 
plete with CP/M® 2.2 

64KJr $2099 

64K QD $2495 

64KSD $2949 

10 Meg. DDS Hard Disk. . . . $2995 



VIDEO TERMINALS 

SOROC IQ 120 $595 

SOROC IQ 130 595 

HAZELTINE ESPRIT Call 

HAZELTINE ESPRIT II Call 

HAZELTINE 1420 Call 

HAZELTINE 1500 Call 

HAZELTINE 1510 Call 

HAZELTINE 1520 Call 

TELEVIDEO 910C Call 

TELEVIDEO 912C Call 

TELEVIDEO 920C Call 

TELEVIDEO 925C Call 

TELEVIDEO 950C Call 

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 940 Basic. . . $1299 

Tl 940 Package $1699 

Tl 745 Portable Terminal 1249 

INTERTEC INTERTUBE III 749 

ZENITH Z19 729 

PRINTERS 

ANADEX DP-9001A $1369 

ANADEX DP-9501A 1429 

PAPER TIGER IDS-445G Special! 599 

PRISM PRINTER IDS-80 w/o color. ... 1 149 

PRISM PRINTER I DS-80 w/color 1499 

PRISM PRINTER IDS-132 w/color .... 1695 

NEC 3510 RO, RS232C.35CPS Now 1619 

NEC 3530 RO, Cent. lnter.,35CPS. Only 1859 

NEC 7710 RO, RS232C, 55CPS 2375 

NEC 7720 KSR, RS232C, 55CPS 2795 

NEC 7730 RO, Cent. Inter., 55CPS 2375 

QUME SPRINT 9/45 

Ltd. or Full, 45CPS, RS232C, Now 1998 

C. ITOH PRO WTITER. Parallel 549 

C.ITOH PRO WRITER, Ser. & Par 649 

DIABLO 620 RO, RS232C. 20 CPS 1249 

DIABLO 630 RO, RS232C, 55 CPS 2299 

CENTRONICS 7301 Par. . . . New Low 299 

CENTRONICS 737-3 RS232C 389 

CENTRONICS 704-11 Parallel 1695 

CENTRONICS 704-9 RS232C 1595 

CENTRONICS 1 22G Parallel, 1 20CPS . . 949 

EPSON MX-80 489 

EPSON MX-80FT 589 

EPSON MX-100FT 789 

EPSON RS232 Serial Interface 65 

EPSON RS232/2K Buffer Interface 129 

EPSON GRAFTRAX il 90 

EPSON Apple* Printer Interface 75 

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS Tl 810 Basic, 1349 

TI-810 Basic RS232C & Parallel 1395 

TI-810 w/full ASCII, Vert, forms control, 

compressed print 1599 

TI-820 RO Basic 1645 

TI-820 KSR Basic 1839 

TI-810 Package w/LQ 2099 



OKIDATA MICROLINE-80 359 

Tractor feed option 50 

MICROLINE 82A 459 

MICROLINE 83A 729 

MICROLINE 84 Parallel 1149 

MICROLINE 84 Serial 1249 

MONITORS 

ZENITH ZYM-121, 12" Green Phos 115 

AMDEK 100 12" New Low! 99 

AMDEK 100G 12"Gr. Phos 149 

AMDEK 300 12"High Res 179 

AMDEK COLOR-1, 13" 339 

AMDEK COLOR-II, 13" GRB Hi. Res. . . 755 

AMDEK COLOR-HI. 13" RGB 419 

APPLE® AdapterforRGB 159 



ir^" 



NortriStar 

Call For Prices 

FLOPPY DISK SYSTEMS 

MORROW DISCUS 2D Sng.,DD 898* 

MORROW DUAL DISCUS 2D DD . . . 1549* 
MORROW DISCUS 2 + 2. 2 side. DD . 1239* 

MORROW DUAL DISCUS 2 + 2 2139* 

MORROW DUAL DMA DISCUS 2D . 1619* 

HARD DISK SUBSYSTEMS 

MORROW DESIGNS 
DISCUS M5. 5 Meg. ... New Low 1559* 

DISCUS M 10, 10 Meg 3095* 

DISCUS M26. 26 Meg 3795* 

CORVUS 5 Meg 2375 

CORVUS 12 Meg 2969 

CORVUS 18 Meg 3799 

MAEZON5Meg 1695 

MAEZON 10 Meg 1949 

MAEZON 15 Meg 2799 

INTERTEC 10 Meg Special! 2999 

' Includes CP/M*2. 2 and Microsoft Basic. 

FLOPPY DISK 
CONTROLLER BOARDS 

CROMEMCO 16 FDC, DD 499 

NORTH STAR DD 479 

MORROW DISK JOCKEY 2D, A&T. ... 329 

INTERSYSTEMS FDC-2. A&T 439 

TARBELL DD, A&T 445 

SYSTEMS GROUP DD, DMA 439 

ESCON CONVERSION 
FOR IBM SELECTRIC 

Complete w/microprocessor controller and 
power supply. Factory built. User installs 
solenoid assembly or it can be done at the 
ESCON factory. 

RS232C Serial & Parallel 534 

Cable for above 25 

PROM PROGRAMMERS 

SSMPB1 Kit 152 

SSM PB1, A&T 225 

MODEMS 

NOVATION CAT, Acoustic 149 

D-CAT. Direct Connect, (300 Baud). ... 155 

AUTO CAT Auto Answer 219 

APPLE CAT 329 

D-CAT(1200 Baud) 599 

103 JLP Auto Answer 219 

DC HAYES MICROMODEM II (Apple) . . 339 
HAYES SMART MODEM (300 Baud) . . 239 
HAYES SMART MODEM (1200 Baud). . . 595 
POTOMAC MICRO MAGIC (S-100). ... 339 



CALIFORNIA COMPUTER 
SYSTEMS 

Z80 CPU Board 269 

Disk Controller 2422, w/CP/M® 359 

16K Static, A&T 259 

32K Static, A&T 399 

64K Dynamic RAM 335 

SYSTEM 2210 w/64K. CP/M® 2.2 1895 

CPU BOARDS 

(Assembled unless noted) 

NORTHSTAR Z-80 (ZPB, A/ A) 269 

INTERSYSTEMS (MPU-80) 349 

SSM CB1 8080, A&T 214 

SSM CB2.Z-80 A&T 289 

SSM CB2. Z-80 Kit 219 

SYSTEMS GROUP Z-80 with I/O 419 

MEMORY BOARDS 

NORTHSTAR 16K RAM 199 

H-RAM64K 589 

H-RAM 32K 419 

CROMEMCO 16KZ 419 

CROMEMC064KZ 595 

CROMEMCO 256KZ 1095 

MEMORY MERCHANT 

16K Static, 4 MHz 159 

64K Static, 4 MHz 549 

SYSTEMS GROUP 

DM6400, 64K Board 529 

DMB6400, 64K Board 420 

HDM2800. 128K Board 1095 

GOdBOUT(ACrT) 

CPU-Z 249 

CPU 8085 88 359 

RAM 20 32 359 

RAM 17 64 510 

RAM 21 1149 

INTERFACE 1 215 

INTERFACER 1 215 

INTERFACER2 215 

DISK 1 425 

SYSTEM SU PPORT 1 335 

ENCLOSURE2(Desk) 699 

ENCLOSURE2(RACK) 759 

VIDEO BOARDS I/O Mapped 

SSM VB2 I/O, Kit 169 

SSM VM2 I/O, A&T 229 

Memory Maped 

SSM VB1C, 16x64, Kit 152 

SSM VB1C, 16x64, A&T 206 

SSM VB3, 80 Char. 4MHz. Kit 359 

SSM VB3, 80 Char. 4 MHz, A&T 419 

APPLE® BOARDS 

CALIFORNIA COMPUTER 

7710A Asynchronous Ser. Inter 139 

7712A Synchronous Ser. Inter 149 

7424A Calender Clock 99 

7728A Centronics Printer Inter 99 

Call for price on MORROW 

MICRO DECISION and 

CROMEMCO SP 10 



We stock a complete inventory 

of MAXELL, MEMOREX, 

SCOTCH and VERBATIM for all 

your Diskette requirements. 

Write for free catalog. 



MiniMicroMart, Inc. 

(315)422-4467" 



943 W.Genesee St 
P.O. Box 2991 B 
Syracuse, New York 13220 



TWX 710-542^)431 



All prices F.O.B. shipping point, subject to 
change. All offers subject to withdraw! with- 
out notice. Advertised prices reflect a 2% 
cash discount {orders prepaid prior to ship- 
ment). C.O.D.'s & Credit Cards, 2% higher. 



Circle 289 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



System Notes 



determining angle o: using an inversion of the Law of 
Cosines: 



ex = cos -1 



A 2 + B 2 - C 2 
2AB 



then applying the law again in the form 



D = A 2 + 4" - 2 ^ "I" cos a 
4 2 



The center of the ellipse is the point halfway between the 
foci. With this information, the program can now con- 
struct the ellipse. 

Program Notes 

Both programs set the origin (0, 0) in the bottom left 
corner. To restore it to the upper left, delete every 
"159 -." 

Lines 30, 40, 70, and 80 in listing 1 will give the same 
result more efficiently if (XI + X2)/2 (or Yl + Y2, as 
the case may be) is substituted for (X2 — Xl)/2 + Xl. 
This change can also be made in listing 2, line 20. 

Listing 1 uses the paddles to input the necessary points, 
while listing 2 uses the keyboard. However, any routine 
at the appropriate lines that return values for Xl, Yl, X2, 



QUALITY 

SERVICE 

AVAILABILITY 






ACTIVE, YOUR 

NUMBER ONE 

CHOICE 



Vs^tittiftttfc 



/EJftprt«^e^»r^diretjOffleriAg \ \ 
yiomfSuter Boards/Microprocessor and \ 






Pt^fentiometeps, Relays, Multimeters, \ 
s w i t cn i B, Knefas, cannee t p rs, so c ke t s, 



Enclosures/ Data Jind Reference; 



BoqKs, Soldering Aids, AIMD MUCH MORE 



Fall/Winter catalog is now available -\FREE Of 



CHARGE. Cirtle No. 



i on fr^e inforn 

rwesTts 



Call Toll Rree 80q-343-0874 

/MASS. customers call [617} 366-0500 



Y2, X3, and Y3 (for the circle program), or Xl, Yl, X2, 
Y2, PX, and PY (for the ellipse program), can be 
substituted. 

In listing 1, if all three points lie in a straight line, "NO 
SOLUTION" is printed. If part of a shape lies outside the 
screen boundaries, both programs continue plotting 
when the shape reenters the screen. ■ 



POINT 




Figure 1: Illustration of the method used to construct the ellipse. 
Enter the two foci (Fl and F2) and the point. 

Listing 1: The circle program. Enter three points on the circle's 
perimeter and the program will draw the circle. 

10 P = 3-. 14159265 
20 HGR : HCOLOR= 3= GOSUB 230 

30 QX = : !2 - XI > ••■■' 2 + XI 

40 QV = '::V2 - Vl> .•- 2 + VI 

50 A = (XI - X2> ••••• '::V2 - Vl> 

50 g - q; y ' - ^ :+: q; : . : ; 

70 QX = <X3 - X2> y" 2 + X2 

90 C = <X2 - X3> •-' ':'. V3 - V2> 

100 D = QV - C # QX 

110 IF rt = C THEN TEXT = PRINT 

"NO SOLUTION" s, END 
120 PI = <D - EO ••-• <rt - C> 
130 P2 = A * PI + B 
140 R = SQR •::•:: PI - XI > ""• 2 + <P2 

- Vi::« •'* 2> 

150 HPLOT PI ■+• R.159 - P2 

160 FOR = TO 2 * P STEP P .-- 

36 
170 X = R * COS OH::' + P1:V ~ 159 

- R * SIN OIO - P2 

180 IF X < OR X > 279 OR V < 

OR V > 159 THEN 200 
190 HPLOT TO X,V 

Listing 1 continued on page 384 



382 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 6 on inquiry card. 



With Chart-Master; 

creating quality graphics is 

as easy as apple pie. 




No matter how you 
slice them, pie 
charts, bar charts and 
scatter diagrams are a lot 
easier to read and understand 
than rows and columns of numbers. 
Now you can create colorful business graphics any- 
time you need them, with an easy-to-use Ghart- 
Master graphics software program. A program that 
works with Hewlett-Packard plotters and your IBM® 
or Apple® personal computer. 




IKTKCS1 UTES » WO 'WES 



~m 




Values printed at data points; both left and right Y-axis scales; floating 
legends & bars; both horizontal & vertical formats; exploded pie sections. 

Just enter your data, choose a chart format, 
preview the chart on your screen, and Chart-Master 
will automatically create a beautiful, presentation- 
quality chart. In seconds. 

There's more to Chart-Master than simplicity. 
Incredible power and sophistication. You can enter 



data manually or auto- 
matically from Visicalc® 
and other programs. Print 
on either paper or acetate 
transparencies. Make your 
charts any size, any where on the page. 
Have your text appear in attractive print-quality 
type. Choose from sophisticated formats that in- 
clude percentage bars, stock price (High/Low/ 
Close) and area charts. 

Power and ease-of-use. That's why Chart- 
Master is in daily use at major corporations like GE, 
Eastman Kodak, Exxon, Union Carbide, GM, AT&T, 
DuPont, 3M, Citibank, Motorola, Proctor & Gamble 
and GTE. 

The retail price of Chart-Master is $375. For a 
complete information kit and name of your nearest 
dealer, contact Decision Resources, Inc., 21 Bridge 
Square, Westport, CT 06880. (203) 222-1974. 

DecisionResources 

Software Designed for Decision Makers 

Visicalc is a trademark of Visicorp. Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc. 
IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. 



Circle 142 on inquiry card. 



Circle 65 on inquiry card. 



MULTI-PROGRAMMER 

matures: SYSTEM- 10 



Features: SYS 

• Dedicated keys and large 
display vocabulary for ease of use. 
I/O - 6 baud rates, 1 3 formats including 
Intel lee, Textron ix and Motorola. 
EPROMs, E 2 PROMs and bipolars. 
Gang option - programs eight at once. 
Remote control option. 



PROGRAMS 
OViR 25a 



DEVICE TYPES 




DIS. 
ED1TRA., 
DEVICE P 
TYPE SEI 



C-RAM 
)AD DATA 
MPARE FIELDS 
« MEMORY FIELD 
MOVE 
DSTICS 

and more. \,, 
COMPUTER SYST 

Defray Beach, FL 334 




Powerful Lab Graphics 
For Your Apple II + ® Computer 



SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER 



CURVE FITTER 



J& i& ¥ «ft SJL 







MTW WOJ KM.E C 



— \ t, a s if 

SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER 48K APPLE 11+ , $25 

Draws professional-looking graphs of your data. EASIER, FASTER, NEATER 
and more ACCURATE than handplotting. You choose data format, length and 
position of axes, 20 symbols, error bars, labels anywhere in 4 orientations, etc. 
Includes 5 DEMOS on disk with 30-PAGE MANUAL. 

CURVE FITTER 48K APPLE II +, $35 

Selects the best curve to fit your data. SCALE, TRANSFORM, AVERAGE, 
SMOOTH, INTERPOLATE (3 types), LEAST SQUARES FIT (3 types), EVALUATE 
UNKNOWNS from fitted curve. Includes 5 DEMOS on disk with 33-PAGE 
MANUAL. 

VIDICHART 48K APPLE II +, $75 

NEW tools for lab data management. FAST plots of 4 data sets with SCROLL- 
ING in 4 directions, ZOOM scaling on X and Y axes, 2 types of graphic CUR- 
SORS and on-screen STATUS REPORT. PLOTS A/D INPUT while sampling. 
ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, DIVIDE, INTEGRATE, DIFFERENTIATE, 
AVERAGE or NORMALIZE data sets with SIMPLE COMMANDS. Ideal for spec- 
tra, chromatograms, rate curves, etc. Includes SAMPLE DATA on disk with 
28-PAGE MANUAL. 

SPECIAL! All 3 programs on one disk, only $120. Since each program uses the 
same data format on disk, data may be shared. 

BUY THESE PROGRAMS AT YOUR LOCAL DEALER OR ORDER 
DIRECT. For more information, ask for FREE brochure or send $5 for any 
manual ($12 for all 3), deductible with purchase. Add $1.50 shipping on all 
orders. For fastest service, call in your VISA or Master Card order. 

INTERACTIVE MICROWARE, INC. 

P.O. Box 771, Dept. B State College, PA 16801 

CALL (814) 238-8294 for IMMEDIATE ACTION 



lUjI 



• Trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 



System Notes. 



Listing 1 continued: 

218 END 

228 REM INPUT FROM PADDLES CPRE 

SS BUTTON TO ACCEPT POINT; 
230 PRINT "POINT 1 : " s : GOSUB 270 

s print x n , "vsxi = :«:: VI = V 

240 PRINT "POINT 2s "5". GOSUB 270 

: PRINT X" ? "V ::■■=; 2 = X:V2 = V 
250 PRINT "POINT 3:""= GOSUB 270 

: PRINT X" , n V:X3 = XsV3 = V 
260 RETURN 
270 X = INT < PDL <0> * 1.@95>:V 

= INT < PDL <1> * . 625 > 
2S0 HCOLOR= 3s HPLOT X ? V: IF PEEK 

< - 16287) > 127 THEN 380 
2 9 8 H C L R= @ : H P L T X * V a G O TO 2 

70 
300 IF PEEK < - 162S7> > 127 THEN 

300 
310 V = 159 - Vs RETURN 

Listing 2: The ellipse program. Enter the two foci and a point on 
the perimeter. The program will draw the ellipse based on the 
location of the points. 

10 HGR : HCOLOR= 3: GOSUB 168: P = 

3. 14159265 
20 OX = <X2 - XI > y' 2 + XI :0V = < 

V2 - Vl> .-- 2 + VI 
30 N = SQR ■::•:: XI - PX> "• 2 + <V1 - 

PV> """ 2> + SQR <<X2 - PX> ■'" 

2 + <V2 - PV> •*'- 2> 
40 A = N .-- 2 
58 B = SQR Kf\ ""■ 2 - << XI - 0X> '" 

2 + <V1 - 0V> •"" 2>> 
60 Q = ATN <<V2 - Vl> ■•• <X2 - XI 



7W 
SO 

90 

100 

HO 

120 
130 
140 
150 
160 
170 
ISO 
190 
2O0 
210 
220 



HPLOT OX, 159 - OV 
FOR = O TO 2 * P STEP P •■- 
6 
R = A * B .-- SQR <<A * SIN 

jo ■"" 2 + <b + cos to:*':-* -"• 

v = p :+: COS (0 + Q> + OX-V 
R : + : SIN OH + CO + OV 
IF X < OR X > 279 OR V < 

OR V > 159 THEN 130 
HPLOT TO X, 159 - V 
NEXT 
END 

REM INPUT <FROM KEVBOARD) 
I NPUT " F I RST FOCUS : " ? X 1 .- V 1 
HPLOT XI ., 159 - VI 



u 



II M '..J-.i I. .!•" 



HPLOT X2, 159 - V2 
INPUT "POINT: •' ?PX ? PV 
HPLOT PX, 159 - PV 
RETURN 



354 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 219 on inquiry card. 



Everybody's making money 
selling microcomputers. 
Somebody s going to make money 
servicing them. 



New NRI Home Study Course Shows 
You How to Make Money Servicing, 

Repairing, and Programming 
Personal and Small 
Business Computers 

Seems like every time you turn around, 
somebody comes along with a new computer for 
home or business use. And what's made it all 
possible is the amazing microprocessor, the tiny 
little chip that's a computer in itself. 

Using this new technology, the industry is 
offering compact, affordable computers that handle 
things like payrolls, billing, inventory, and other jobs 
for businesses of every size . . . perform household 
functions including budgeting, environmental sys- 
tems control, indexing recipes. And thousands of 
hobbyists are already owners, experimenting and 
developing their own programs. 

Growing Demand 
for Computer Technicians 

This is only one of the growth factors influenc- 
ing the increasing opportunities for qualified com- 
puter technicians. The U.S. Department of Labor 
projects over a 100% increase in job openings for the 
decade through 1985. Most of them new jobs created 
by the expanding world of the computer. 

Learn at Home in Your Spare Time 

NRI can train you for this exciting, rewarding 
field. Train you at home to service not only micro- 
computers, but word processors and data terminals, 
too. Train you at your convenience, with clearly 
written "bite-size" lessons that you do evenings or 
weekends, without going to classes or quitting your 
present job. 

Your training is built around the latest model 
of the world's most popular computer. It's the amaz- 
ing TRS-80™ Model III, with capabilities and fea- 
tures to perform a host of personal and business 
functions. No other small computer has so much 
software available for it, no other is used and relied 



(TRS-80 is a trademark 
of the Radio Shack 
division of Tandy Corp.) 




on by so many ' ^ J* 

people. And it's yours 
to keep for personal or busi- 
ness use. ^ ' 

You get plenty of practical 
experience. Using the NRI Discovery Lab* that also 
comes as part of your course, you build and study 
circuits ranging from the simplest to the most 
advanced. You analyze and troubleshoot using the 
professional 4-f unction LCD digital multimeter you 
keep to use later in your work. Then you use the lab 
and meter to actually access the interior of your 
computer. . . build special circuits and write pro- 
grams to control them. You "see" your computer 
at work and demonstrate its power. 

Computer Assisted Instruction 

Your TRS-80 even helps train you. You receive 
4 special lesson tapes in BASIC computer language. 
Using them in your microcomputer, you "talk" to it 
as you progress. Errors are explained, graphics and 
animation drive home key points. Within a matter of 
minutes, you'll be able to write simple programs 
yourself. 

Become the Complete 
Computer Person 

In addition to training in 
BASIC and advanced machine lan- 
guage, you gain hands-on experi- 




ence in the operation and application of computers 
to business and personal jobs. You're trained to 
become the fully rounded, new breed of technician 
who can interface with the operational, program- 
ming and service facets of today's computers. You're 
ready to take your place in the new electronic age. 

Other Opportunities 

NRI has been giving ambitious people new 
electronic skills since 1914. 1bday's offerings also 
include TV/Audio/Video Systems servicing with 
training on our exclusive Heath/Zenith computer- 
programmable 25" diagonal color TV... Industrial 
Electronics, Design lechnology. . .and other state-of- 
the-art courses. 

Free Catalog. . .Mail Card 
No Salesman Will Call 

Send the postage-paid card for our 100-page 
catalog showing all courses with equipment and 
complete lesson plans. There's no obligation other 
than to yourself. See how NRI can help you grow 
with the most exciting and important new field of 
the80's. If card has been removed, please write to us. 



P 



NRI Schools 

McGraw-Hill Continuing 

Education Center 
3939 Wisconsin Ave. 
Washington, DC 20016 



We'll give you tomorrow. 



'■ . " .■:_■«. . ■■■'•■_-. _ g|jf..j 





with Pulomor! 




Let our experts 
help you configure 
your system 
and save 
even more! 

Depend on Palomar 

for great backup, 

too. (1) Expert 

technical advice. 

(2) Fast response on 

orders. (3) In-house 

service repairs. 

(4) Guaranteed 

satisfaction. 



APPtf 
SYSTEMS 
SPECIAL 



Apple-Compatible 48K Computer with TEAC Super 5 Disk Drive and Controller. 
BMC 12" Green Screen Monitor . . . NOW *1 255 00 

Same system with a 64K Franklin Ace 1000 S1.525.00 

Same system with a 48K Apple II Plus S1.595.00 



MODEMS 

HAYES 

Micromodem II (Apple II) 289.00 

Micromodem II With Terminal 

Program 315.00 

Micromodem 100 (S-100) 339.00 

Smartmodem (RS-232) 225.00 

Chronograph (RS-232) 195.00 

Terminal Program 75.00 

UDS 

103 LP Oirect 175.00 

103 JLP Auto Answer 209.00 

202 SLP 1200 BAUD 255.00 

212 LP 469.00 



NOVATION 

CAT (Acoustic) 145.00 

D-CAT 159.00 

J-CAT 139.00 

Smart CAT (300) 215.00 

212 Auto CAT 599.00 

Apple CAT I! 299.00 

212 Apple CAT ...609.00 

Expansion Module 35.00 

Handset , 27.00 

Firmware ROM 27.00 

Order Toil-Free! 



COMREX 

Comriter CR-1C , CALL 

Tractor Feed 89.00 

EPSON 

ASAP 2K Serial 59.00 

Comrex 4K Serial Buffer 139.00 

Microbuffer-16K Parallel .... 139.00 

Microbuffer-8K Serial 139.00 

NOVELL 

Image 800 999.00 

OKIDATA 

Microline 82-A 489.00 

Microline 83-A 689.00 

Microline 84-S 1199.00 

Microline 84-P 1059.00 

2K Parallel Interface 129.00 

Forms Tractor (82-A) 55.00 

OLYMPIA 

COMPACT Serial Interface 849.00 

ES 100 KRO 949.00 

ES 100 699.00 

Serial/Parallel Interface 250.00 

CCS Apple Serial Card 135.00 

STAR 
MICRONICS 

Gemini 10 CALL 
Gemini 15 ...CALL 



NEC 

3510 RO Serial 1515.00 

3520 KSR Serial 2100.00 

3530 RO Parallel 1695,00 

3550 RO IBM 1880.00 

7710 RO Serial .2325.00 

7730 RO Parallel 2395.00 

8023-A Dot Matrix ...489.00 

Bi-Directional Tractor (3500) .230.00 

Cut Sheet Guide (3500) 90.00 

SILVER REED 

EXP 550 Serial/Parallel Interface .695.00 

SMITH CORONA 

TP-I ; 599.00 

TEC 

PMC 8510 Parallel 465.00 

PMC 8510 Serial 585.00 

ITOH 8510-A Parallel 469.00 

ITOH 8510-A Serial 619.00 

ITOH 1550 Parallel 750.00 

ITOH 1550 Serial 789.00 

ITOH F-10-40 1395.00 

ITOH F-10-55 1795.00 



Many items are not listed. Please call our 800 number if 
you don't see what you're looking for. 




PERSONAL COMPUTERS 



ALTOS 

ACS 8000-2 3199.00 

ACS 8000-15 4399.00 

APPLE 

Apple l\ Plus CALL 

Disk II D.O.S. 3 CALL 

Disk II CALL 

BASIS 

108-0003 (64K) 1895.00 

108-0004 (128K) 1995.00 

CHAMELEON 

IBM-Compatible 1995.00 

IBM 

IBM PC CALL 

MORROW 

Micro Decision with Terminal & 1 Drive 
1790.00 

Micro Decision with Terminal & 2 Drives 
2140.00 

XEROX 

820 with CP/M, Wordstar 1995.00 



KAYCOMP 

Kaypro Portable, Includes $250 
Extras 1795.00 

FRANKLIN 

ACE 1000 (64K) CALL 

ACE 10, Disk Drive CALL 

OSBORNE 

Osborne I Portable, Includes $200 

Extras 1795.00 

With Double Density Drives ...1995,00 

SYSCOM 

Syscom 48K, Apple Compatible ...799.00 
TELEVIDEO 

TS802 3119.00 

TS 806 5735.00 

TS 816 10365.00 

VICTOR 

9000 (SS) 2 Single-sided Drives .3495.00 
9000 (DS) 2 Double-sided Drives 4295.00 
9000 (HD) 1 Double-sided Drive, 

10 Mb Hard Disk 5595.00 



APPLE 



SOFTWARE 

BUSINESS 



HARDWARE 

ALS Z Cafd | 

ALS CP/M Card ... 3 

ALS CP/M Card with SuperCalc J 

PCP1 Applicard. 2 80 Catd 3 

PCPI 88 Cafd-16K CPU 6 

ALS 2 Card, with SuperCalc ; 

CCSIEEE Card 1 

CCS Analog/Digital Card 1 

CCS 12K ROM/PROM Module 1 

CCS Programmable Timet 

Comrex Clock Card 

CPS Multifunction Card 1 

Echo II Speech Synthesizer 

EDP AC Surge Protector 

EOP EMI-flFf Filter 

Expandaport-6 Ports Wild Speaker 

Hayes Micromodem II 2 

Microbuffer II I6K .2 

Micf obufle r 1 1 32K 2 

Microsott 280 Sottcard .5 

Microtek 16KRam Card 

Microtek Parallel Printer Card 



MONITORS 

BMC 

BM-12AU 12" Green 89.00 

BM-12 EUN 12" Green 149.00 

BM-1401 RGB with Card 

and/or Cable 399.00 

BM-AU919U Color, Composite 

Sound 399.00 

BM-AU9191U RGB for IBM-PC 759.00 

COMREX 

CR 5500-12" Green 155.00 

CR 6500-13" Composite 315.00 

CR 6600-13" RGB 429.00 

ELECTROHOME 

13" RGB 339.00 

13" Hi Res. RGB 589.00 

Apple II Interface 199.00 

IBM 16 Color Cable 35 

TAXAN 

KG 12N-12" Green CALL 

KA 12N-12" Amber CALL 

RGB Vision 1-12" RGB CALL 

RGB Vision 111-12" RGB CALL 

RGB Apple II Card CALL 

RGB II Apple II Card with 
Text Color CALL 



STB 12BK Memory Card . 399.00 

System Saver-Fan/Outtets/Switcli .79.00 
TG Game Paddles 
TG Joy Sticks 

TG Selecl-A-Porl 

Videx 80 Column Card 
Videx Enhancer II (Rev. 7) 
Videx FunctionSlrjp . . 
Viewmax 80 



45.00 
.... 45.00 

27900 



249.00 



The Home Accountant .... 


55.00 


Sensible Speller 


99.00 


Pfs: 


9900 


pis: Report 


69.00 


pts: Graph 


99.00 


SuperCalc 


235.00 


DB. Master 


. 179.00 


D.B. Master Utility Pak «l 


79.00 


D.B. MasterUtility Pak «2 


79.00 


VisiCaic 


205.00 



VisiSchedule 

Letter Perfect 

Data Perlect 
Supertext 40/56/70 . 
PERSONAL & HOME 
Algebra I 
Algebra II 

CompuMatli: Arllh Skill 
CompuSpell (Reg Data Disk) 

Compuflead 

S A.T. Word Attack Skill 

Graph Magic _ 

Crossword Magic 

Tax Manager 

Typing Tutor 

SYSTEMS & UTILITIES 

Apple Mechanic 

DOS Boss 
Utility City 

SAM 

Apple Soli Compiler 

Basic Compiler 

The Artist 



3900 
119,00 
19 00 

2100 
1800 
2100 



ZENITH 

12" Green 119.00 

NEC 

PC-8041A-12" Green 159.00 

AMDEK 

Video 300-12" Green 165.00 

Color I -13" Color Composite 349.00 

Color II -Hi Res. RGB 749.00 

Color III -Lo Res. RGB 439.00 

RGB Apple II Card 165.00 

SANYO 

9" Hi Res. Green 159.00 

12" Green Screen 135.00 

12" Hi Res. Green 209.00 

13" Color 419.00 

13" Hi Res. Color 899.00 

U.S.I. 

9" Green Screen 119.00 

9" Amber Screen 155.00 

12" Green Screen 155.00 

12" Amber Screen 175.00 

P.G.S. 

12" Hi-Res RGB for IBM 759.00 




HARDWARE 

IBM PC CALL 

Amdek Color II RGB Monitor 799.00 

Amdek 3" Dual Disk Drive 785.00 

BMC 12" Green Monitor 149.00 

BMC Color Composite Monitor 

with Sound 399.00 

BMC Hi-Res RGB Monitor 759.00 

Computer Peripherals I/O Printer 

Interface (4 Ports) 159.00 

Computer Peripherals 64 I/O 

Memory Card 299.00 

Corona 5MB Winchester CALL 

Corona 10MB Winchester CALL 

M & R SuperMod/5 59.00 

Micro Buffer In Line, (32K) 259.00 

Percom Add On DiskDrive (Dual) ...450.00 

PGS Hi-Res RGB 12" Monitor 759.00 

PMC Disk Drive 199.00 

Ram Plus Quad Board 449.00 

DISK DRIVES 

Corona 5MB Winchester CALL 

Corona 10MB Winchester CALL 

Disk II With Controller Card CALL 

Media Distributing 11 Mb Winchester 

Subsystem 2,595.00 

Media Distributing 22 Mb Winchester 

Subsystem 3,495.00 

Microsci A35 375.00 

Microsci Controller Card 99.00 

Palomar is pledged 



SOFTWARE 

BUSINESS 

d Base II 499.00 

Denver Accounting System 549.00 

Easy Filer 295.00 

Easy Planner 145.00 

Easy Speller 129,00 

Easy Writer II 259.00 

VisiCaic 205.00 

VisiTrend/Plot .......: 249.00 

VisiDex 205.00 

VisiFile 249.00 

Business Forecasting Module 85.00 

Desktop Plan 249.00 

Visischedule ...249.00 

HOME & PERSONAL 

The HomeAcccount + 109.00 

Money Decisions 145.00 

Mathmagic 65.00 

Graphmagic 65.00 

Rana Disk Drive 319.00 

Rana Controller 109.00 

TEAC Super 5 Disc Drive 299.00 

TEAC Super 5 Controller Card 89.00 

TEAC Super 5 Double-sided 

Disk Drive 429.00 

TEAC Super 5 Controller Card for 

Double-sided Disk Drive 109.00 

to your satisfaction. 



fflfin Palomar makes buying easy .. 



ORDER TOLL-FREE! Call 

800-237-3333 

In California call 800-338-5555 

Telex 697120-150 

TERMS OF SALE: Cash, Check, money order, bankwire transfer, credit card, or purchase orders 
from qualified firms and institutions. Please include telephone number with order and expiration 
date on credit card orders. California residents add 6% sales tax. Advertised prices are for 
prepaid orders F.O.B. shipping point. Add 3% or $3.00 minimum for shipping in the U.S. Pricing 
and availability subject to change without notice. Address written orders to: 

910-105 W. San Marcos Blvd., San Marcos, CA 92069 



PALOMAft 



COMPUTER PRODUCTS 



Circle 337 on Inquiry card. 



■• r^ 



'"J I III, 




THE BEST WHY 
TO GIVE THEM 

THPICIURL 



An exact copy. Fax is the only system that sends it 
most anywhere in the world. Speed. Economy. Confidentiality. 
Fax puts it together like no other system can. 

All you need to send hard copy overseas is a 
telephone and a facsimile machine. Tne same machine you 
may already be using domestically. The price of a Fax 
transmission is the price of a call. And our 1-minute overseas 
minimum makes it more economical than ever. See the chart 
for sample rates. 

Send signed documents. Graphs. Pictures. Fax 
transmits an exact duplicate from your original. Sending them 
requires no special training or personnel. Send them any time. 



Many terminals can receive without an operator. Send 
them with Fax. It's the only way for hard copy to travel. 

For a free brochure, call toll free 1 800 874-8000or write: 
FaxFacts, RQ Box 397, East Brunswick, NJ 0881_6-0397. 

j Times and c osts to transmit a 400- word page to Europe* 

[transmission I 

i TIMES** 



Std. Tel Rate 
(7am-1pm) 



COST 

Dis. Tel Rate 
(1pm-6pm) 



Econ.Tel Rate 
(6pm-7am) 



| 1 MINUTE 
I 3 MINUTES 
i 6 MINUTES 



$2.37 
$5.03 
$9.02 



$1.7 8 
$3.78 
$6.78 



$1.42 
$3.02 
$5.42 



^Similar attractive rates to other areas. 
**Transmission times vary depending on type of equipment used. 



J 




Keywords in a Fuzzy Context 

CBASIC programs for bibliographic search that will tell you the 
degree to which various articles meet your requirements. 



Thomas A. Smith 
1525 Lyndhurst Ave. 
Camarillo, CA 93010 



I used to rack my brain trying to 
remember where I had read an article 
that contained just the information I 
needed for one project or another. I 
knew I'd read it somewhere, but I was 
at a loss to recall the source. As my 
library of periodicals grew, so did my 
frustration. 

Then I read an article (see reference 
1) in which the author, Ronald Yager, 
described the use of fuzzy-set theory 
in searching a bibliography. Needless 
to say, I had found the elegant solu- 
tion to my problem. The next step 
was to realize Yager's brainchild by 
implementing it. 

Shortly afterward, I began writing 
a set of programs in CBASIC. In 
writing them, I set myself several 
goals: to adhere to the description in 
Yager's article, to minimize the 
amount of computer memory re- 
quired, and to make the programs 
user-friendly and crash-proof. To my 
surprise, I found that achieving the 
third goal required much more effort 
and code than I had anticipated. 

The advantage of applying fuzzy- 
set theory to a bibliographic search is 
that you can ask for references to ar- 



ticles that satisfy more than one 
criterion. You formulate your inter- 
rogation as a logical connection of 
concepts; the bibliographic search 
system uses fuzzy-set theory to inter- 
pret the interrogation and gives you 
information on the degree to which 



Fuzzy sets allow you 

to introduce the 

"degree of belonging" 

concept. 



the articles in the bibliography satisfy 
it. Then the system lists those articles 
that meet various criteria to the 
degree you had specified. 

The search system also includes 
programs to build and modify both 
the bibliography file and an associ- 
ated file containing descriptive key- 
words for the library. A third file, 
built interactively when a new library 
is first established, describes the 
record structure of the bibliographic 
and keyword files and contains other 
program initialization data. Other 



utility programs list the keyword 
vocabulary to the console or printer 
and compress a bibliographic file 
after many record deletions have 
been made. 

Why Fuzzy Sets? 

For bibliographic searching, fuzzy 
sets are clearly superior to normal 
Boolean sets. In classical set theory, a 
variable can assume only two values: 
true or false, one or zero. An element 
either belongs to a set or does not. 
Fuzzy sets allow me to introduce the 
"degree of belonging" concept and 
still retain the ability to perform the 
logical operations equivalent to the 
AND, OR, NOT, and IMPLICA- 
TION of two-valued logic. 

Two-valued logic lets me search a 
bibliography (with descriptive key- 
words attached) for all articles 
described as, say, 

(entertaining 
OR educational) 
AND NOT lengthy. 

But this kind of search can provide no 
information on how entertaining, 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 389 



Boolean 
Operation 

x ANDy 
x ORy 
NOTy 
x IMPLIES y 



Fuzzy 
Notation 

x * y 
x + y 

(y)' 

x#y 



Fuzzy 
Definition 

min(x,y) 
max(x,y) 
1 - y 
max(1 -x,y) 



Table 1: Notation and definition for fuzzy-set operations. 



educational, or lengthy the reported 
articles are. The use of fuzzy sets, 
however, lets me qualify each key- 
word descriptor by a numeric indica- 
tion, in the range of to 1, for the 
degree to which the keyword applies 
to an article. In addition, when I in- 
terrogate the bibliography I can now 
qualify each keyword I use in the 
search with a number between and 
1 to indicate the importance of that 
quality to me for this search. 

For the sake of illustration, let's 
recast the two-valued example above 
into one using fuzzy sets. Let's sup- 
pose that one of the articles in the bib- 
liography is described as entertaining 
(0.5), educational (0.8), and lengthy 
(0.3). Let us further suppose that I in- 
terrogate the bibliography with the 
following interrogation phrase: 

(entertaining (0.2) 
OR educational (0.9)) 
AND NOT lengthy (1.0) 

For each of the articles in the file, the 
search process will first perform a 
logical AND on the values of corre- 
sponding keywords in the interroga- 
tion and in the article descriptors, and 
replace the keywords in the interroga- 
tion phrase with the results. Carrying 
out this expansion for our example, 
we have 

((0.2 AND 0.5) 
OR (0.9 AND 0.8)) 
AND NOT (1.0 AND 0.3) 

When we reduce this expression using 
the definitions in table 1 for fuzzy 
operations, we obtain, in three steps: 

(0.2 OR 0.8) AND NOT (0.3) 
0.8 AND 0.7 
0.7 



This article, then, would be rated as 
satisfying my interrogation request at 
the 0.7 level. If the search had en- 
countered a second article with the 
same keywords and descriptors ex- 
cept that its length had a value of 0.9, 
it would have received a rating of 0.1. 
The difference in ratings reflects the 
importance I attached to brevity. 



A traditional search 

can provide no 

information on how 

entertaining, 

educational, or lengthy 

the reported 

articles are. 



This is the basis for the method 
used in the bibliographic search sys- 
tem. The actual method employed is 
somewhat more flexible because the 
interrogation phrase is entered as a 
logical connection of concepts. The 
concept words need not be in the key- 
word vocabulary; the program asks 
you to define each concept in terms of 
keywords from the vocabulary and 
ratings associated with the keywords. 
Thus, using the fuzzy symbology 
from table 1, I could have produced 
the same results as in the last example 
by either of two sequences: 

An interrogation phrase of 
((entertaining + educational)* 
(lengthy)') followed by defining 
the concepts as 

entertaining: entertaining 0.2 
educational: educational 0.9 

lengthy: lengthy 1.0 



An interrogation phrase of (en- 
tertaining* (lengthy)') followed 
by defining the concepts as 

entertaining: entertaining 0.2 
educational 0.9 

lengthy: lengthy 1.0 

It is important to note that the only 
link between words (concepts) in the 
interrogation phrase and keywords in 
the bibliographic file is that estab- 
lished by the list of concept defini- 
tions. In effect, this allows us to rede- 
fine a keyword, as we did with the 
word "entertaining" in the second se- 
quence above. 



System Overview 

The bibliographic search system 
consists of seven separate programs 
chained together (using the CBASIC 
CHAIN statement to transfer control) 
under control of a main driver, 
BIBLIO, shown in listing 1. BIBLIO 
first reads a file of initialization data, 
then displays the menu of functions 
available, and finally executes the 
selected function. If there is no in- 
itialization data on file, the main 
driver will call the program PARMS 
(see listing 2), which interacts with 
the user to define the system param- 
eters as a file called < library > .DEF. 
The term < library > denotes a user- 
chosen name that applies to all files 
associated with a particular biblio- 
graphy; < library > . VOC, the second 
of three necessary files, contains the 
vocabulary of keywords and is built or 
modified by the program VOCBLD 
(see listing 3). After VOCBLD has exe- 
cuted, it automatically chains to the 
program VOCLST (see listing 4), 
which will list the keywords on the 
console or printer. VOCLST may also 
be called independently from the main 
menu. 

To increase the efficiency of search- 
ing the list of keywords, the file 
< library > .VOC is maintained in 
lexicographic order. BIBBLD (see list- 
ing 5) builds and modifies the file of 
articles, < library > .BIB. No ordering 
is maintained in this file; articles are 
added by appending them to the end 
of the file. The program deletes articles 
by serially reading and displaying 



390 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



records of articles from the 

< library > .BIB file, letting the user 
designate records for deletion, and 
substituting five Zs for the first five 
characters of the first field of the desig- 
nated records. Records so marked are 
ignored when the file is searched for 
articles. When enough records have 
been marked to make it wise to do so, 
the user runs CMPRBIB (see listing 6) 
to compress the < library > .BIB file. 
This program reads and rewrites the 

< library > .BIB file and eliminates all 
records marked for deletion, thus re- 
claiming wasted disk space. 

The heart of this system of pro- 
grams is the function that searches the 
bibliography file. This has been split 
into two programs, BIBSRCH (see 
listing 7) and BIBSR2 (see listing 8). 
BIBSR2, a continuation of BIBSRCH, 
has been split from it to conserve 
memory. The user initiates a search 
by entering an interrogation phrase 
that consists of one or more words 
(concepts) joined or modified by 
logical operators. Parentheses estab- 
lish precedence for the operations. 
Permissible operators are the fuzzy 
equivalents, defined in table 1, of the 
Boolean AND, OR, NOT, and IM- 
PLICATION operators. The user is 
then prompted to define each of the 
concepts he has entered in terms of 
keywords found in the keyword vo- 
cabulary for the library to be 
searched. Next, the search routine 
scans the < library > .BIB file of ar- 
ticles, calculating and recording the 
degree to which each article satisfies 
the interrogation phrase. Then the 
program displays the number of ar- 
ticles that meet or exceed each of the 
11 possible degrees of satisfaction 
(0.0, 0.1, 0.2 .. . 1.0). Next, the user 
is asked for a minimum satisfaction 
threshold; the program then retrieves 
and lists all articles that meet or ex- 
ceed this threshold. 

The system parameter file, 
< library > .DEF, is generated by the 
program PARMS and read by the in- 
itialization section of BIBLIO. Com- 
posed of numeric data only, it is read 
and written in serial fashion. Lines 
37-46 of listing 1 define the items in 
this file. The keyword vocabulary file, 

< library > .VOC, contains fixed- 
length records, each record holding 



Listing 1: BIBLIO, the driver routine for the bibliographic search system, initializes the 
system parameters, displays a menu of functions, and chains to the selected function. 



6i 

7\ 
EM 

9: 
:i. o 
:i. :i. 
:i. 2 
13 
14 
15 
1 6 
\.7 
18 

1 9 

2 
2. I 



2 6 
2.7 
2$) 

2 9 

3 
31 
3 2 
33 
3 4 
35 
3 6 
37 
38 
39 
-U) 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 
47 
4B 
49 
50 
51 



57 

58 

59 

6 
61 
62 
63 
64 
65 
66 

6 7 
68 
69 
70 
71 
72. 
73 
74 
75 
76 
77 

7 8 



REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 



FILE E: IB L 10. El AS 

xokxx*** FUZZY BIBLIOGRAPHIC SEARCH ******* 

* Written h\:',l Thonas A* Smith * 

* 1525 L y n d h 1 1 r s t A ve » f * 

* Canarillo, CA 930:10 * 

*: >k x * w. *: :* »r >k *: *. w. *: x.ww. »: >k * *: *: w *: w. w x< * *' s: w xc w w >r #, xok w *: * * * 



REM MAIN DRIVER AND MENU 



REM SET UP COMMON FOR CHAIN IN G 

X CHAIN 40,41)00, 0,600 

KEY WD* (1) , LIE: NAME it , RI...EN7 , TRUE'/. , AUTH . LEN7 , Till. * LENZ 
MAXBIB% , MAXDESC% , MAXDEF% , MAXKEYS% , MAXCONX » CONCEPT* ( 1 > 
IBS . LENX , CLS$ , ERR7 , JOUR * LENZ , KWD ♦ LENZ , CMD* < I ) 
LET 7. ( 1 ) , RGHT7< 1 ) , CON ♦ KEY7 f 2 ) , CON . RATE ( 2 ) , QUERY* , !...% 



COMMON 
COMMON 
COMMON 
COMMON 



REM INITIALIZE 

IF LEN(LIEsNAME*)«0 THEN \ 

LIEN A METACOMMAND* 
CL3'.r^CHR'.li(3:l. ) : TRUE %-■■•■ 1 
PRINT CI... S* 
IF LEN(LIE:NAME*)=0 THEN \ 

INPUT "PLEASE ENTER LIBRARY NAME 



" JLIBNAME* 



REM IF NO DEFINITIONS ON FILE CO TO DEFINITION MODULE 

IF END *3 THEN 14 

P E N I... I E: NAME! % •♦• " . D E F " AB 3 

I F SIZE ( LIEN AME'-M- " . DEF " ) » THEN \ 

DELETE 3 : CHAIN "PARMS" 
GOTO 13 
14 CHAIN "PARMS" 

13 REM OTHERWISE READ DEFINITIONS 
IF END *3 THEN 12 



READ t-3J 
MAXKEYS7. , 
MAXDESC7, 
MAXDEF7, 
MAXC0N7, 
MAXBIB7 , 
AUTH.LEN7, 
TIT L.I... EN 7, 
JOUR J... EN 7, 
IS S.I... EN 7, 
KWD . I...EN7 
12 CLOSE 3 



REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 
REM 



MAX 
MAX 
MAX 
MAX 
MAX 



REM 
R I... E N 7 « A U T H . I... E N 7 + J U R . I... EN 7 • 

3*<MAXDESC7H) + 2 
D I M K E Y W D $ ( M A X K E Y S 7 ) 



REM DISPLAY MENU AND GET SELECTION 



NUMBER KEYWORDS IN VOCABULARY 
KEYWORDS PER BIBLIO ARTICLE 
KEYWORDS PER CONCEPT DEFINITION 
NUMBER CONCEPTS PER QUERY 
NUMBER ARTICLES IN El I EH.. 10 FILE 

AUTHOR NAME FIELD LENGTH 

ARTICLE TITLE FIELD LENGTH 

JOURNAL NAME FIELD LENGTH 

ISSUE IDENTIFIER FIELD LENGTH 

KEYWORD FIELD LENGTH 



TOTAL ARTICLE RECORD LENGTH 
• IS S.I... EN 7 •♦• TITL.LEN7 •♦• \ 



PRINT 
PRINT 

PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT- 
ER! NT 
OPT 7-7 



CLS* : PRINT 
TAB (12); "•-•-■■■ 



-BIBLIOGRAPHY SEARCH- 



TAB < 12) ; 
TAB CI. 2) ; 
TAB CI. 2) J 
TAB CI. 2) ; 
TAB CI. 2) J 
TAB (12) J 
PRINT 



' J 0PT7 



' 1 E: U 1 1. . D / M D 1 1 :r Y B I B I... 1 G R A P II Y ' ' 

'2 BUILD/MODIFY KEYWORD VOCABULARY" 

■'3 LIST KEYWORD VOCABULARY WORDS" 

'4 SEARCH EUBLIOGRAPHY FILE" 

'5 COMPRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY FILE" 

"A DONE EXIT TO SYSTEM" 

: PRINT 

WHILE (OPT7>6) OR C0PT7C1) 

INPUT "PLEASE SELECT DESIRED FUNCTION BY NUMBER 

IF <OPT7>6) OR (OPT 7X1) THEN \ 

PRINT "ILLEGAL.. FUNCTION NUMPEP- -REENTER" 
WEND 

REM EXECUTE SELECTED FUNCTION 
IF 0PT7-6 THEN STOP 
IF t:)PT7=-=:L THEN CHAIN "BIBBLD" 
IF 0E'T7~2 THEN CHAIN "V0CBI..D" 
IF OF'TZ-3 THEN CHAIN "VOCE ST" 

if 0pt7'."-4 then chain "bibsrch" 
if optx='5 tfipn chain "cmprbib" 



Listing 2: PARMS, the system parameter definition program, is automatically called 
from BIBLIO when a new library is being established. PARMS interacts with the user to 
build a file containing the system file descriptions and other parameters. 



I j REM FILF I'ARMb.BAS 

3! REM PROGRAM PARAMETER DEFINITION NODULE 



Listing 2 continued on page 392 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 391 



Listing 2 continued: 



6 : 
7: 
b; 
?: 
l o : 



is: 
;a: 
i. /j 
J. 8 : 
19 J 
20 : 
21 : 

za : 

2 i : 

2 a: 

27: 
2a: 
2V : 

3 u : 
3 1 : 
32; 
33; 
34i 
35; 

3 a : 
37: 
30 : 
39 : 
40: 
<\ i : 
42: 
13: 
1 4 : 

4 5: 
46: 
47: 
4 8 : 
49: 
so : 
51 : 
52: 
53: 
54: 

56: 
57: 
58 : 
59: 
60 : 
ai: 
62: 
63: 
64 : 
65: 
66: 
67: 
ab: 
<w : 
7 o : 
7 i : 
72.; 
73: 
74; 
75: 
7 a: 

7 7 : 
7o; 
79: 
bo: 

8 1 : 
82: 

8 3 ; 

84 J 



87; 
38; 
89: 
9 : 
9 1 ; 



COMMON KEYHD* < 1 > * LIBNAhEi , RL EN"/ , TRUE/i , nUTI-l . I...EN7. t IX It.. , LEN% 
COMMON MAXBIBX , MAXOESC"/ , MAXDEF % , MAXKEYSZ * MAXCON/. t CANCER }-\. ^ 1 > 
COMMON IBSJ . LENX » CI. £>4> , F RR% , JOUR ♦ LENX , KWO a. EN"/ > CMD* ( I. > 
COMMON LET 7. it > ,RGHTX< 1 ) t CON. KEY7.U:. ) , CON. RATE ( 2) > QUERY*,!. 7. 
DIM SPARM7(4) 

SPA C EX* F RE 
SPACEX«--3PACEX"-1U0 
10 PRINT' CIS* 

PRINT TAB ( 12); " PARAMETER DEFINITION FOR "J 

PRINT LI BN A ME* J " " 

PRINT 
PRINT \ 

"THIS MODULE WILL DEFINE Villi- PARAMETERS FOR THE LIBRARY "', LIBNAME'H 
INPUT "IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO PROCEED ENTER 8 ELSE ENTER CJ "JANS* 
I F U C: A S E * ( L E F T <h ( A N S <l» , 1 ) ) < > " C " T H E N S T P 
PRINT \ 
* : ** FIRST WE DEFINE THE ARTICLE RECORD FIELD SIZES **•• 

12 PRINT \ 

"YOU HAVE A MAXIMUM OF 2fi() CHARACTERS THAT MAY BE ALLOCATED" 

PRINT \ 

"FOR EACH ARTICLE REE CORD . EACH KEYWORD DESCRIPTOR ATTACHED" 

PRINT \ 

"WILL CONSUME THREE OF THESE." 

INPUT \ 

"WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DESCRIPTORS PER ARTICLE'? " I MAXDESCT. 

PRINT USING \ 

"YOU HAVE *#tt CHARACTERS REMAINING ♦ " J 2? ; iO-3*MAXDEBC7 

13 PRINT \ 

"ENTER MAXIMUM FIELD LENGTHS, IN ORDER, FOR AUTHOR, TITLE," 
PRINT \ 

"JOURNAL, AND ISSUE-- ALL ON ONE LINE, SEPARATE ENTRIES BY" 

PRINT \ 

"ONE OR MORE SPACES AND FOLLOW LAST ENTRY WITH RETURN," 

GCJSUB 100 

IF V7.<>5 THEN \ 

PRINT "INCORRECT NUMBER OF ENTRIES—RE-ENTER" :\ 

GOTO 13 
A U T H . L E N V. = S P A R M% ( 1) : T I T L , L E N 7. * S P A R M 7. ( 2 ) 
J0UR,LENX^SPARM7(3) : ISS.LEN7. ^SPARM7(4) 
RLEN"/~AUTH . LENX+TITL . LEN/S+ JOUR . LENX+ISS* LENX 
RLENX=RLENtf, + 3*(NAXDESCJS + l)+2 
IF RLEN7>255 THEN \ 

PRINT USING "RECOFilD CONTAINS ***** CHARACTERS" J RLEN7.-S :\ 

F'FttNT "THE MAXIMUM IS 250 --PLEASE RE-DEFINE FIELDS" :\ 

GOTO 12 

PRINT CI..T3* 

PRINT \ 

"** .NOW WE SET THE MAXIMUM SIZES OF OTHER PARAMETERS **" 

4 PRINT \ 

"ENTER, IN ORDER, THE MAX TO BE ALLOWED FOR 

PRINT \ 

"CHARS F'ER KEYWORD, NO. OF KEYWORDS IN VOCABULARY (<256)" 

PRINT \ 

"NO. CONCEPTS F'ER INTERROGATION, NO. KEYWORDS PER CONCEPT." 

PRINT \ 

"SEPARATE ENTRIES BY BRACES AND FOLLOW LAST WITH RETURN." 

GO SUB 10 

IF V7.05 THEN \ 

PRINT "INCORRECT NUMBER OF ENTFtlES ■--■ REr-ENTER" :\ 

GOTO 4 
KWD,LENX« SPARM7. (1) J MAXKEYS7.*=SPARM"/ (2 ) 
MAXCON % -= SP ARM 7,(3) : MAXDEF7, »SPARMX ( 4 ) 
IF MAXKEYS7>255 THEN MAXKEYS%*255 

INPUT "CAPACITY OF ONE SIDE OF ONE DISK (KILOBYTES)! "JD.CAP 
KY . FILX=2*MAXKEYSX* ( KWD , LENX+2 ) 
K Y , F I L % a 1 fl 2 4 x ( I N TX ( K Y ♦ F I L 7/10 2 4 ) + 1 ) 
[) , C A P ~ ( 1 x [) . C A P - 1 02 4 -■ K Y . F 1 1... 7 ) / R L E N 7 
D.CAPr-D.CAP-;l 

RL7.«9* ( MAXC0N7.+ 1 ) x ( MAXDEF 7. ♦ 2 ) 

IN7=-"2x(MAXC0N7 + l ) * (MAXDEF7-* 1 ) > 4*< MAXC0N7* 1 ) 
ST%* ( MAXKEYS7. + 1 ) *KWD . LEN7 
MEM»* ( SPACE7--RL7 -IN7.-ST7. ) /?. 
PRINT USING \ 

"YOU HAVE DISK BPf.CE FOR ****** ARTICLES. "? D.CAP 
PRINT USING \ 

"YOU HAVE MEMORY SPACE FOR ****** ARTICLES ♦ "? MFM7 
IF' MEM%<D.CAP THEN MSPACF>MEM% ELSE MSPACE^T) » CAP 
FT:: INT USING \ 

"*#**** ARTICLES IS THE MAXIMUM YOU MfrY HAVE i "I MORALE 
INPUT \ 

"DO YOU WISH TO RE- ALLOCATE THE AVAILABLE SPACE <Y/N>? "JANS* 
IF' USA S E 'h ( I... E F T T < A m* , 1 ) ) ■"-■ " Y " T Fl E M J. 
INPUT "MAXIMUM NO, OF ARTICLES DESIRED: " \ MAXBTb:% 
IF MAX B I F: X ■■ M S P A C E T H E N M A X B I B X, »■ M S. P A CF. 



AO 1 



CREATE l..!BNAME<M" .DBF 
PRINT * I ; \ 

M AXKE VS% t MAXDESC % , MAXDF F X , MAXCUN7 f \ 

MAXBIB7 , AUTH,LF.N% , 1 1 l"L .LEH7 M ICHJP . L..EN7 , 

ISS.LFN% ? KWD*LEN3r* 
CLOSE I. 

CHAIN "ftlBLIO" 

I OO INPUT "> "j Li.!ivi> i I%^1 ? !,'":; : j 
W H I L E ', I % - I . E N >; I) 1 1 M 1 : - :■ j A N D i V X <• 5 ; 

U! 1 1 1 L £ M I D 1; ( DU H* , 17, , J > « " " : T7 ^ .1 % + 1 S 



392 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 2 continued on page 393 



one keyword; record length is the sys- 
tem parameter of line 46, listing 1. The 
maximum length of this file is defined 
in line 37 of listing 1 and cannot exceed 
255 keywords. 

The bibliography file, < library > 
.BIB, contains fixed-length records 
with five fields each. The first four 
fields contain the author's name, the 
article title, the journal name, and the 
journal issue. The system parameters 
in lines 42-45 of listing 1 specify the 
maximum number of characters that 
each of these fields can contain. The 
last of the five fields in an article 
record contains the keyword descrip- 
tor data, three characters per descrip- 
tor. The first two characters of each 
descriptor are the ASCII (American 
Standard Code for Information Inter- 
change) representation of the hexa- 
decimally encoded keyword index 
number; the third is the ASCII hexa- 
decimally encoded value of the article 
applicability rating for the keyword, 
scaled up by a factor of 10. 

The maximum record length for an 
article is 255 keywords; of these, two 
are required as record delimiters by 
CBASIC and three are used to flag the 
end of the keyword descriptor list. 
Thus the author, title, journal, and 
issue field lengths added to three 
times the number of keyword descrip- 
tors must not exceed 250. The maxi- 
mum number of keyword descriptors 
that may be attached to an article is 
defined by the parameter in line 38 of 
listing 1. 

Building a Library 

Let's walk through each of the pro- 
gram functions in the order you would 
follow to build a new library. By way 
of example, I will often refer to the 
representations of the video displays 
shown in listings 9-14. All user inputs 
in these display listings have been 
underlined for easy identification. 

First, we call up the program for 
our library named COMPJOUR with 
the CP/M command CRUN2 BIBLIO 
COMPJOUR. If we had not included 
the library name, the BIBLIO program 
would have asked for one. The library 
name may be preceded by a disk-drive 
specifier; if none is specified, the sys- 
tem will assume the files are assigned 
to the drive that was selected prior to 



the run command. Because we are 
building a new library, BIBLIO will 
not find any files called COMPJOUR 
and will immediately branch to the 
system parameter-definition program 
PARMS. Listing 9 represents the 
video screen as we define the contents 
of the system parameter file COMP- 
JOUR. DEF by responding to requests 
from PARMS. PARMS first gives us 
a chance to exit back to the operating 
system in case we have mistyped the 
library name. If the name is correct 
and we want to proceed, we enter a C 
and PARMS begins the first phase of 
the definition process. This phase sets 
up the field length s for the article 
records and is completed as shown in 
listing 9. 

The second phase, shown in the 
screen copy in listing 10, completes 
the definition process by defining 
parameters for the keyword vocab- 
ulary file and setting the sizes of ar- 
rays. We are asked to state the capa- 
city of one disk surface so that the 
program can calculate an upper limit 
for the number of articles that can be 
stored. The number of K bytes 
entered should be the data storage 
capacity minus the combined size of 
all programs that must reside on the 
same disk. Because the bibliographic 
programs occupy 17K bytes and the 
CBASIC run-time interpreter requires 
17K bytes of disk space, we will enter 
a figure of 206K bytes, which is the 
maximum capacity left for data 
storage if we have one single-sided 
single-density 8-inch disk. After 
PARMS is given this number, it in- 
forms us of the maximum number of 
articles that can be accommodated in 
the available disk and memory space. 
The amount of memory stated in 
listing 10 (13,823) is for a 64K-byte 
system. A 48K-byte system would 
provide sufficient space for process- 
ing about 5600 articles. 

Before PARMS writes the COMP- 
JOUR. DEF file, it gives us a chance to 
change the definitions. We might 
want, for example, to increase the 
number of articles that the disk can 
accommodate at the expense of the 
article-record size. Once the param- 
eters file, the keyword vocabulary 
file, and the article file have been 
built, we can still redefine some of 



Listing 2 continued: 



.10 1. J *iiPAF"(MX(UXi-V^L(^I't;Hr*<DUM$tLEN'nUh*^ I X + J ) ? 

L02! UX^UXM. 

J 03? WHT.I...H (NIIVMI'IHVI >XV. f n ' ■ " "> AND i l X IKNtniJh*) 

i.oit iz--<i?;.i i ; wind 
:i. ()■:•,: wend 

10 6: RF1URN 



Listing 3: VOCBLD, selected by menu item 2 from BIBLIO, lets the user build or 
modify the file containing the vocabulary of keywords. 



Kl M Ml I UH.U I'.hfY. 

Kl M 1:1111 h/l Nl Akr.l Kl. YWllkl; ydl.iif.U1 r-iRY 

COMMON Kl ^ WI.H ( I ) , I 1 BNAMIr % , KIT. MX , TRUEX ♦ All TTI ♦ I ENX , I X 1*1 , I .ENX 
COMMON MfYXLUUX , MAXOI BCX , MAXDET X » MAXKEYSX , MAXCONX , C N C E P 'I * < I > 
COMMON U3S.L .t r N% , Cl.liih , t* iv'K/f. » t.li HIR , Lt NX , KWD , LENX , CMD* < I > 
rUMMtiN I ITX< I ) ,RC;in?.,( I > ;C0N.KEYX<2) » CON, RATI:- (2) t QUER t * , I ..X 
DIM DPI* YX ( MAXKEYbX ) , VX ( MAXKEY SX > , MOUEX ( MAXKEYBX ) 

dim i.. .sua an f r,stkx<b) 

4e.l rem build/enlarge /change vocabulary file 

ptc.in t cls* 

print i ab ( 12) ; •• keyword vocabulary build/modii- y -- " 

PRINT 

BLANK * = " 

Z E E S * " " 2: z. x x:x. z. x:x:x:x. xrr. xx x z. z z. :z:z::z: z :/::/.. z. z. xx z. :z::z: x z z x. z x z. x:x. t:x. z z x x z. r. ' ' 

FOP I%:=1 TO MAXKEYSX : MOUEX (IX) ~=G : UX(I%)^I% : NEXT 1% 

DELX*0 

REM IF NO FILE THEN BUILD ONE 
IF END *:l THEN 4,:I.E:l 
OPEN LIENAME'J> + " . UOC" AS 1 

if size (l:i:bname$+",uqc" )"•■•() then \ 

DELETE J. : GOTO 4. 1 El 

REM OTHERWISE READ THE FILE 
IF END *:L THEN 4.2E1 
VOC.LENX-1 
WHILE TRUEX 

READ *1J LINE KEY WD* ( U0C . LENX ) 

Vr.)C.LENZwVaC.LENX+i 

WEND 
4.2E1 CLOSE 1 
YOG . LENX^UOC . LEN/i-1 
NEWX=0 

OLD ,N.UM3C=V0C. LENX 

E:X-RENAME<LIBNAME*+" ♦UEUC" , LIBNAMEiM " .YOG" ) 
CREATE LIBNAME*+"«UTM" AS 1 

INPUT "DO YOU WISH TO ADD OR DELETE (A/D>? "JANS* 
ANS*=UCASE*( LEFT* ( ANS* , 1 ) ) 
IF ANS*="A" THEN 4.5E1 

REM DELETE KEYWORDS 
WHILE TRUEX 

INPUT "ENTER KEYWORD NUMBER: "J LINE TEMP* 

IF LEN<TEMF'*) = THEN 4.4E1 

,JX = VAL( TEMP* ) I DELXkDELX + 1 - J DKEYX ( DELX ) --JX 

KEYWD* ( JX ) -LEFT* ( ZEES* , KWD . LENX ) 

WEND 

4.5E1 REM GET A NEW KEYWORD 
WHILE TRUEX 

IF VOC.LENX>=MAXKEYS'/i THEN \ 

PRINT "KEYWORD VOCABULARY FULL" :\ 
GOTO 4.4EI 
^..SSEl PRINT "ENTER KEYWORD #" J UOCI . LENX+ J. J " X "J 
INPUT ""{LINE TEMP* 
IF LEN(TEMP*)^0 THEN ^.^E1 
TEMP$^UCASE*(TEMP*) 

I'/i-o 

WHILE IX<LEN(TEMP*) J IX-IX+1 
IF MID*(TEMF'*,IX,:l. )=" " THEN \ 

PRINT "KEYWORDS MAY NOT CONTAIN PLANKS RE-ENTER' 1 :\ 

GUTO '♦♦55E1 

WEND 
VOC . LENJC=V0C . LENXH J KEYWD * ( VGC * LENX ) -LEFT * ( TEMP*+RL ANK* , KWD . LENX ) 
WEND 



a: 
/: 

8 : 
9 ♦ 

1 : 
i :i s 
:l. 2 1 

131 
l.'IJ 

is: 
:i. 6 : 
17 1 
\M 
i. ? : 
2 o : 
2 1 : 

23: 
2t : 

26 : 
27: 
20 : 
29: 
30 : 

31* 

32: 
33: 

3'U 

35: 

36 J 

37 1 
3HS 
39t 

<\Qi 
^i: 
<\?A 
^3: 
4i: 
^5: 
^6: 
^7: 
18: 
19: 
50: 
si : 
sj2 : 
53: 
51: 

56: 
57: 
so : 
zm 

60! 

6 1 : 

62 J 

63: 

61 J 

65: 
66: 
67: 

6b: 

69 I 

70 5 

7 1 : 

72: 
73: 

74 J 

75: 

76: 

77: 



4.1 El REM BUILD FROM SCRATCH 

CREATE LIE'.NAME*-»".UOC" AS 1 

UQC.LEN%«'0 

NEW7.--1 

GOTO 4.KE1 

4.4E1 REM QUICKSORT ARRAY OF KEYWORDS, KEEPING TRACK OF MOVES 
PF^INT "SORTING. ..." 

Listing 3 continued on page 394 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 393 



Listing 

78i 

79J 

ao : 

si ; 

82: 

83: 

eh: 

85: 

8 6: 
87: 
88 : 
89: 
90: 
9i.: 
<?;>: 
93: 

95: 

9 6 : 
97: 
98: 
99: 

i. p o : 
:i. (') :i : 
inzj 
iod: 

l. (HI ! 

JQSJ 
KJAS 

1.08J 

i o 9 : 
i. j. o ; 
I ill 
mi 
i. :l. 3 : 
iju 
115: 
146: 
U.7: 
:i. m : 
1 :i 9 : 
lzii : 
.1.21 : 

122 : 
123: 

12* S 

1 25 t 

126 J 

127 J 
128: 

129 ; 
i3o : 
131 : 
132: 
133: 
i3ft: 
i35: 
136: 
137: 
138: 
1 39 : 
ifto : 
i ft i : 

M21 

11 3 | 

v\*\ i 

:l. '15 i 
lft6J 

1.4 7 : 
ift8: 

149 J 

150 : 
isi : 

1 52 : 

153 J 

15ft: 
155 : 

156: 
157: 
158 : 

159: 
160 : 
161 : 
162: 

1631 

1 6ft : 
165: 

1.66: 

16/1 

168: 
169: 
1 7 o : 

1 7 1 S 

1.72 J 
173 J 
1 7'» I 



3 continued: 

§%=1 : L.STK%(1)«1 I R»STKZ<1) UOC.LENZ 
ft . ft 1 E 1 LZ»L.STKZ(SZ) : FilZ-R. STKZ < SZ) : SZ-SZ-1 

ft.ft22El IZ--LZ : JZ-RZ t X*=KEYWD* ( INT"/. ( CLZ+RZ ) 72 ) ) 
ft.ft3El WHILE KEY WD* (17- XX* : IZ~IZ+1 I WEND 
WHILE X$<KEYWD$( JZ) : JZ-JZ-l I WEND 
IF- IZOJZ THEN \ 

W* = KEYWD* (17.) : KEYWD*<IZ>-KEYWD*<,)Z> :\ 
KEYWD*(J%)«~W* : TEMPZ^VZdZ) !\ 
U%<I%)=U%<J%) : VZ(,JZ)-TEMPZ :\ 

ix«i%'M : j%=j%--i 

IF IZOJZ THEN ft.ft3E1. 
IF (JZ-LZ) >k (RZ-IZ) THEN ft.ftftEl 
IF IZ<RK THEN \ 

SZ^SZH : L.STK%<SZ)-I% J R.Sn'KZ(&Z>r--R7C 
RZ==JZ 

GOT G ft*ft5El 
q. ft ft El IF 17.<,\:<. THEN \ 

SZ"*S"/>:l : L»GTK7.Ci^;) »L% J R . STKZ ( SZ) «J% 
L>«IZ 

ft.ft5El IF LZ<RZ THEN ft*ft22E.1 
IF S ZOO THEN ft.ftlEl 

REM RF-SHUFFLE MOUE VECTOR 
IF NEWZ THEN ft»ft2El 

for iz«i tcj ui;k::.»li ; :n";; 

IF VZ( IZ )<» OLD, NUMZ THEN \ 

MC)yEZ(vza'X) ^jrz* uzcco 
NEXT :i% 

if Dk;;L %::>() tiii: n i,-i?fi 

FOR 1 7.-1 I'O DFLZ 

M0UEZ(DKEYZCfZ)>^99^ 
NEXT IZ 

yi:)r.*LENZ'-voc.i...i:::Nz-DQ.z 

ft, ft 2 El REM WRITE KEY WD* ARRAY TO DISK 
IF END *1 THEN ft. 6 El. 

for iz-1 to uoc.lenz 

print using "&"} *ij keywd*cdo 

NEXT IZ 
CLOSE 1 
PRINT UOC.LENZ J " KEYWORDS WRITTEN TO VOCABULARY" 

IF NOT NEWZ THEN \ 

Etf-RENAME ( LIBNAME*+" . UOC" , LIBN AME* + " . UTM" ) J \ 

OPEN I...IE:NAMEiM-".UE:K" AS 1. :\ 

DELETE 1 :\ 

GOSUEl 5E1 
CHAIN "UOCLST" 

ft. 6 El PRINT "FILE WRITE F-RROR" 

IF NEWZ THEN DELETE 1 ELSE CLOSE 1 :\ 

E:Z*RENAME ( LIBNAME**" . UOC" , LIE:NAME* + " . UBK" ) :\ 

OPEN LIBNAME*+".<JTM" AS I. :\ 

DELETE 1 
INPUT "PRESS* RETURN TO GO BACK TO MENU "J LINE ANS$ 
ft. 9 El CHAIN "BIBLIO" 

REM CONVERT TWO ASCII HEX TO INTEGER 

D E F F N . T W O . I N T Z ( D U M * ) 

TENZ~ASC ( MID* ( DUM* , 1 t I. ) ) 

IF TENZ>6ft THEN TENZ^TENZ-55 ELSE TENZ-TENZ-ft8 

ONEZ-ASC ( MID* ( DUM* , 2 , I. ) ) 

IF 0NEZ>6ft THEN ONEZ^ONEZ- 55 ELSE 0NEZONEZ~-ft3 

F N ♦ T W O , I N T Z = 1 6 x T E N Z + O N E Z 

RETURN 

FEND 

REM CONVERT INTEGER TO TWO ASCII HEX 

DEE FN.INT.TWO*(DUMZ) 

H I Z = D U M Z / 1. 6 : L O Z = D U M Z •••• 1. 6 * H I Z 

IF HIZC.1.0 THEN HIZ~HIZ« ft 8 ELSE HIZ^HIZ+55 

IF LC)Z<1() THEIN LO%«LO%-» ft8 ELSE L0Z~L0Z+55 

F N . 1 N T ♦ T W O * = C H R * ( H I Z ) ■*• C H R * ( L O Z ) 

RETURN 

FEND 

5E1 REM ALTER KEYWORD NUMBERS IN BIBLIO FILE FOR NEW ORDERING 

REM IF THERE IS NO BIBLIO FILE WE ARE DONE 
IF END *2 THEN 5. 5 El 

OPEN LIE : ,!NAMEHi*".F:lB" RECL RLENZ AS Z 
IF SIZE(LIE:NiW.:* + ",E:!lE»")=*n THEN \ 
DELETE 2 : RETURN 

REM OTHERWISE WE READ AND MODIFY 

PRINT "MODIFYING KEYWORD DESCRIPTORS IN EiIE'.LID ♦ ♦ ♦ . " 

IF END 12 THEN 5. ft El 

RNUM/0--2 

READ #2,1? LINE TEMP* 

D E S C . B E G Z * A U T H ♦ I... E N Z + T I T I, . L E N Z ■«• J O U R ♦ L E N X + 1 S q . I... E N Z + 1 

WHILE TRUEZ 

READ *2,RNUMZ 
IZ^DES^.BEGZ 
WHILE TRUEZ 

DUM* -MID* (TEMP*, I %, 3 > 

IF DUM*^ "FFF" THEN '.;». 3 El 



LINE TEMP* 
LIZ-LENCTEMP*) 



Listing 3 continued on page 395 



these parameters. This might be desir- 
able if changes have occurred in 
either our disk or memory capacity. 
None of the parameters entered in 
listing 9 can be altered, nor can the 
first parameter entered in listing 10, 
but any or all of the rest may be. The 
safest way to accomplish a redefini- 
tion is to rename the existing COMP- 
JOUR.DEF file to save it as a backup 
and then rerun BIBLIO, which will let 
us generate a new COMPJOUR.DEF 
file as described above. We can then 
display the contents of both files on 
the video screen by using the CP/M 
command TYPE in order to verify 
that the new file is correct. When the 
parameter definition is completed, 
the program displays the menu 
shown in listing 11 and asks us to 
make a selection. This menu reap- 
pears after completion of any of the 
six listed tasks — except the last, 
which exits to CP/M. Our next step is 
to build a vocabulary of keywords. 
Accordingly, we select menu item 2 
and branch to the program 
VOCBLD. 

Listing 12 represents the video dis- 
play as we use VOCBLD to add to an 
existing library of 110 words. The dis- 
play is the same for building a new 
vocabulary except that the query 
about adding or deleting is not pre- 
sent and the keyword numbers start 
with 1. Keyword entries may not con- 
tain spaces. To enter a multiple-word 
keyword, we hyphenate it as shown 
in the first keyword entry in listing 
12. We terminate the entry of key- 
words by pressing only the Return 
key in response to the keyword entry 
prompt. 

Once all the keywords have been 
entered, VOCBLD sorts them into 
alphabetic order and then notifies us 
of the total number contained in the 
file COMPJOUR.VOC after it has 
written or rewritten the file. If a file of 
articles, COMPJOUR.BIB, has al- 
ready been created, VOCBLD will 
next scan it and modify the keyword 
numbers attached to each article to 
reflect the reordered vocabulary of 
keywords. VOCBLD informs us that 
it is doing this in the last line of listing 
12. As its last step, VOCBLD calls up 
the vocabulary listing program 
VOCLST to give us an up-to-date 



394 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



printout of the vocabulary such as 
that shown in listing 13. We can exe- 
cute VOCLST at any time by select- 
ing menu item 3 and directing output 
to the printer or the video display. 
After the vocabulary is listed, the dis- 
play reverts to the main menu. 

To continue creating a new library, 
we select menu item 1, which causes 
BIBLD to execute. As shown in listing 

14, BIBLD prompts us to enter each 
item in an article record and to ter- 
minate data entry by responding to 
the AUTHOR prompt by pressing the 
Return key. The display in listing 14 
actually shows an addition to a file of 
articles that already existed; the only 
difference in the display is the ques- 
tion in the second line. When we enter 
the keywords and their ratings, we 
must separate them by spaces; we 
must also enter the keywords exactly 
as they appear in the vocabulary. 
When we finish entering articles, 
BIBLD updates the COMPJOUR.BIB 
file, informs us of the number of ar- 
ticles on file, and then transfers back 
to the menu display when we press 
Return. 

Searching the Library 

Now that we have built a library, 
we can search it. Selecting menu item 
4 calls BIBSRCH, which puts us in the 
search mode and, as shown in listing 

15, prompts us to enter the interroga- 
tion phrase. The phrase we have 
chosen, entered in the third line of the 
display, expresses interest in articles 
about graphics that use a plotter; in 
addition, the phrase states (through 
the # sign for implication) that if the 
article describes a program, the pro- 
gram should be in BASIC. Next, BIB- 
SRCH asks us to define each of the 
words, or concepts, used in our inter- 
rogation; recall that these concepts 
need not be keywords. The defini- 
tions entered tell BIBSRCH to inter- 
pret the concept GRAPHICS to mean - 
exactly what the keyword GRAPH- 
ICS means; to interpret PLOTTER as 
meaning either of the keywords 
PLOTTER or PRINTER but that we 
prefer PLOTTER; to interpret PRO- 
GRAM to mean either of the key- 
words PROGRAM or LISTING; and, 
finally, to interpret BASIC to mean 
the same as the keyword BASIC. 



Listing 

175: 

1761 

177: 

178: 

179: 

i8o: 

i8i: 

182: 

183: 

184: 

185: 

186: 

187: 

188: : 

is?: [ 



3 continued: 

KX=FN . TWO . INTXC OUM* ) 
IF" MQVEX(KX>=999 THEN \ 

DUM2*="" \ 
ELSE \ 

KX-KX+MOVEX ( KX ) : \ 

DUM2*=FN,INT.TW0*(KX> -»• RIGHT* (DUM* , 1 ) 
TEMPl$*LEFT$(TEMP$,IX-l>+DUM2$+RIGHT*<TEMP$»LlX-I%-2> 



TEMP*=LEFT$(TEMP1*+" 



' , L 1 % ) 



IF LEN(DUM2*>>() THEN IX=IX+3 
WEND 
5.3E1 PRINT USING " 
RNUMX=RNUMX+1 
WEND 
.4E1 CLOSE 2 
.5E1 RETURN 



*2,RNUM7.; TEMP* 



Listing 4: VOCLST, called automatically from VOCBLD after any modifications to the 
keyword vocabulary, lists the vocabulary on the screen or printer. VOCLST can also be 
executed by selecting menu item 3 in BIBLIO. 



REM 



FILE VOCLST. BAS 



3: 
4: 

b ♦ 

6: 

7: 

s: 

9: 

10: 

n: 

12: 

13: 

14: 

15: 

16: 

17: 

is: 

19: 

20: 

21: 

22: 

23: 

24: 

25: 
26: 

27: 
28: 
29: 
30: 

31J 

32: 
33: 
34: 
35: 
36: 
37: 
38: 
39: 
40: 
41: 

43: 
44: 
45: 
^6: 
47: 
48: 
49: 
50: 
51: 
52: 
53: 
54: 
55: 
56: 

57: 
58: 



REM VOCABULARY LIST TO CONSOLE/PRINTER 

COMMON KEYWD* ( 1 > , LIBNAME* , RI..ENX , TRUEX , AUTH . LENX , TITL , LENX 
COMMON MAXBIBX,MAXDESCX,MAXI.)EFX,MAXKEYSX,MAXC0NX,C0N(.:EPT*(:1> 
COMMON ISS . LENX , CLS* , ERRX , JOUR . LENX , KWD , KWD . LENX , CMD* ( i ) 
COMMON LFTX ( 1 ) , RGHTX ( 1 ) , CON, KEY X( 2 ) , CON . RATE ( ?.. ) , QUERY* t 1.7. 



—KEYWORD VOCABULARY LESTER- 



PRINT CLS* J PRINT 

PRINT TAB (12) J" 

PRINT 

INPUT "DO YOU WISH A PRINTED LISTING (Y/N)' : > "JANS* 

IF UCASE*(LEFT*(ANS*, 1) >«"Y M THEN \ 

LPRINTER J CQLX--4 \ 

ELSE PRINT CLS* : C0LX==3 

REM IF NO VOCABULARY FILE RETURN TO MENU 
IF END *1 THEN 3.3E1 
OPEN LIBNAME*+".VOC" AS 1 
IF SIZE(LIBNAME* + ".»VOC n )"l) THEN \ 
DELETE 1 J GOTO 3. 3 El. 

REM OTHERWISE READ COMPLETE VOCABULARY 

IF END *1 THEN 3.1E1 

IX = 1 

WHILE TRUEX 

READ *i;line KEYWD*(IX) 

IX=IXH 

WEND 
3.1 El IX=IX-1 
CLOSE 1 

REM LIST IN FOUR COLUMNS FOR PRINTER, THREE FOR SCREEN 
IF COLX-4 THEN LPRINTER :\ 

FOR JX=1 TO 5 J PRINT J NEXT JX :\ 

PRINT T ABC 23) {LIBNAME* \" KEYWORD VOCABULARY" :\ 

PRINT TAB (23) } " • •••" 

N . ROWX=INTX ( IX/COLX ) 

IF IXXN.ROWX*COLX> THEN N ♦ ROWX«N . ROWX+1 
FOR JX=1 TO N.ROWX 
FOR KX»0 TO COLX-1 
INDX« JX+KXXN . ROWX 
IF INDX>IX .THEN 3.2E1 
PRINT USING "### H ; INDX; 
PRINT " "+KEYWD*<INDX)J 
NEXT KX 
3.2E1 PRINT 
NEXT JX 
PRINT 

IF C0LX=4 THEN PRINT I PRINT: PRINT : PRINT 
CONSOLE 
PRINT 

3»4E1 INPUT "PRESS RETURN TO GO BACK TO MENU"; LINE ANS* 
CHAIN "BIBLIO" 



3.3E1 PRINT "NO VOCABULAF^Y FILE NAMED 
GOTO 3.4E1 



LIBNAME* 



Listing 5: BIBLD, called by menu selection 1 in BIBLIO, is used to build or modify the 
bibliographic file of articles. 



.1 . t REM FILE BIBBLD.BAS 

3: REM BIBLIO BUILD/MODIFY ROUTINE 



Listing 5 continued on page 396 
March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 395 



Listing 



i. a i 
ii : 

li?! 

1 3 i 

i -i : 

.1 ?.. ! 

I 6 i 

I 7 : 

i o : 
i * : 

20 I 



5 continued: 

C M M N K E Y ND* <1 ) » L I6N AM E $ , RL E N % , T R U E 7. , A U T H . L E N 7. , T I T I... , I... E N 7. 

C M M N H A X B I B 7 , M A X D E B C % , M A X D EF % » M A X K E Y S X > H AX C N% > C N C E P T $ C 1 ) 

COMMON IBS . LEN7.,CLB$ , ERRX , JOUR . LEN7 , KWD . LEN7. , CMO*( 1 ) 

COMMON LFT7. ( 1 ) , RGHT7. ( 1 ) , CON ♦ KEY7. ( 2 ) , CON . RATE ( ?.. ) , QUERY* , L7. 

CO BUB 6 El 

CHAIN "Ei'IEiLIO" 

STOP 

REM CONVERT INTEGER TO TWO ASCII HEX 
DEF FN«I.NT.TWO*<DUM/C> 
HI%=DUM%/16 : L07.-DUM7-:l.6*HI7 
IP hi 1. 7. < 10 THEN HI7~-HI7.*-''i8 ELBE HI7^HI7 + 55 
1.0 THEN LO"/- = LOZ+' e H;i ELBE L07~-L07.»55 
. T W * "- C H R * ( H I % ) + C H R * ( I... % ) 



IF L07,< 
FN. TNT, 
RETURN 
FEND 



23: 

?AX 

26 J 

27; 

23 t 

30 : 
3 1. : 
32: 
33: 

34 i 

351 

36: 
37: 
38 : 
39 : 
'Hi: 
4:1. : 
42: 
13: 
4't: 
is: 
16: 
47: 
48 : 
49: 
so : 
si : 

5 2 J 

53: 

54: 



57: 
53 : 
59: 
60 : 
6i : 
67.: 
63: 

6 4: 
65: 
66: 

671 

68 : 
69: 
70 : 
7 1 : 

72 J 

73: 
74: 

75: 

7 6: 
77 J 

78: 
79: 

80 : 
8 1 : 
82: 
83: 
84 : 
35: 
8<'> : 
87: 
88: 
89: 
90 : 
? i. : 
92; 



98 J 

99 1 

i o o : 



REM CONVERT ONE DIGIT REAL TO ASCII HEX 

DEF FN,REALONE$<QUM) 

ONE7,-INT7(:UK0*DUM) 

IF GNE7.<10 THEN 0NE7-DNE7+-48 ELBE ONE %~ ONE 7, + KS 

F N . R E A I... O N E * = :: C H R * ( O N E 7. ) 

RETURN 

FEND 

6E1 REM BUILD/MODIFY BIBLIOGRAPHY FILE 
PRINT CLBili 

PRINT TAE:CI.2> J " -BIBLIO BUILD7M0DIFY- 

PRINT 

REM IF NO VOCABULARY FILE, EXIT TO MENU 

IF END HI THEN 6.1 El 

OPEN LIBNAMF3-f",VOC" AB 1 

IF SI7E(LIBNAME$ + ".VOC")=-0 THEN \ 

DELETE 1 : GOTO 6.1E1 
V0C,LEN7.==-1 

REM OTHERWISE READ VOCABULARY 
IF END *1 THEN 6, 2 El 
WHILE TRUE 7 

READ I 1 J K E Y W D $ ( V O C , I... E N 7. ) 

V0C.LEN7-V0CJ...EN7 + 1 

WEND 
6. 2 El CLOSE 1 
V0C.LEN7.=-V0C.LEN%-1 

REM IF NO BIBLIO FILE, GO BUILD ONE 
IF END #2 THEN 6. 3 El 

OPEN LIBNAME** "♦BIB" RECL RL.EN7 AS 2 
IF SIZE(LIBNAME!M" .E:IE:")~0 THEN \ 
DELETE 2 : GOTO 6.3E1 

REM OTHERWISE WE WANT TO ADD OR DELETE 
INPUT "DO YOU WISH TO ADD OR DELETE ARTICLE £ 
ANS$*UCASE* ( LEFT* ( ANS* , 1 ) ) 
IF ANS$~"D" THEN 4E1 

REM FIND LAST SECTOR AND READ BIBLIO TO EOF 

IF END #2 THEN 6, 37 El 

READ *2,i; LINE BUFF* 

BIB. LEN%=VAL( BUFF*) 

READ *2,BIB,LEN7~2; 

WHILE TRUE 7, 

READ #2 J BUFF $ 

WEND 
GOTO 6.37E1 



(A/D)? "JANSUi 



6.3E1 REM BUILD IT 
PIE: a. EN 7=== 

CREATE U:ENAME*+ ,, »BIE:' 
PRINT USING "#*#4MMrj 



FiECL RLE NX AS 
#2,1 J BIB.LEN7 



REM GET ENTRIES FOR BIBLIO AND WRITE TO FILE 

6.37E1 L=: LANK *=■--" 

F'RINT "PRESSING RETURN 

PRINT "TERMINATES THIS 

PRINT 

WHILE TRUE 7 

IF BIBa..EN7>===MAXBIB7 

BUFF**"" 

INPUT "AUTHOR J "J LINE 

IF LEN< AUTHOR* )-() THEN \ 



IN RESPONSE 
ROUTINE. " 



THEN 6. 34 El 



TO THE PROMPT 'AUTHOR 



PRINT USING 

GOTO 6. 32 El 

INPUT "TITLE J 

INPUT "JOURNAL 

INPUT "IS, SUE : 



'&" 



GHR1»(26) ;\ 



J LINE TITLE* 

*, LINE JOURNAL..* 

; LINE It! SUE* 
A I J T H O R * = I... E F T * < A U T H O R * ■»■ B I... A N K * , A U T H . I... E N 7. > 
T I r I. .. E * * I... E : F T * ( T I T L E * + B I... A N K \ & , T IT I... ♦ L E N 7. ) 
J O U R N A I... * ~ L E F T * ( J O U R N A I... * f B L A N K * , J O U R . I... E N 7. ) 
I S SI.) E * = L E: F' T * ( I S S I J E * + BL A N K * , I S 8 . L E N 7 ) 
6,33 E 1 B U F F * - A U T H O R * + T I T I... E * + J O U R N A I... * + 1 S S U E * 
PRINT "ENTER KEYWORDS AND RATINGS, I.E., KEYWORD! 0.5 KEYW0RD2 0,6" 



REM GET KEYWORDS AND RATINGS 
CMD'M"" J KEY7.M) : EKF'<7.^() 
IN FIJI ">" J LINE CMD* 



CODE INTO ASCII HEX 



Listing 5 continued on page 397 



Before we continue, a few notes on 
the syntax of an interrogation phrase 
seem appropriate. Parentheses estab- 
lish the precedence of the operations; 
the complete phrase must be enclosed 
in parentheses and it may not contain 
spaces. The fuzzy-operator notation 
is defined in table 1; the NOT 
operator must be immediately 
preceded by a right parenthesis, 
marking the end of the expression to 
which the NOT applies. 

After BIBSRCH has parsed the in- 
terrogation phrase and defined the 
concepts according to our instruc- 
tions, the program chains to BIBSR2, 
the second half of the search pro- 
gram. BIBSR2 scans each article on 
file, calculating the degree to which 
each one satisfies our interrogation. 
The amount of time required for this 
search can be substantial for a large 
bibliography, but as long as we see 
that the disk is being accessed prop- 
erly, we can be sure the search is pro- 
ceeding normally. When this scan is 
over, the video display represented in 
listing 16 appears with a summary of 
the results of the search. We can then 
enter the rating level that we want ar- 
ticles to meet or exceed. Next we in- 
dicate whether we want printed out- 
put for the search report. When the 
program has this choice, it prints or 
displays the report as shown in listing 
17. The report begins with a section 
recounting the specifications for the 
search, which is followed by articles 
that meet those specifications. 

Some Notes and Cautions 

Three of the system's capabilities 
remain to be addressed. We can 
delete keywords from the vocabulary 
under menu item 2. The display is 
essentially the same as that for adding 
keywords (see listing 12), except that 
we are asked to enter the index 
number for the keyword rather than 
the keyword itself. Menu item 1 lets 
us delete articles from the biblio- 
graphy. This is a slow process 
because each article in the file is read 
and displayed, and we are asked to 
choose to keep or delete each article. 
Those we designate for deletion are 
flagged and then rewritten; those we 
designate for retention are rewritten 
unchanged. 



396 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



After enough records have been 
flagged for deletion to make it worth- 
while to recover their space, menu 
item 6 can compress the file. We can 
use an alternate method of deleting 
articles if enough disk space is 
available. The file of articles can be 
read by ED, the CP/M editor; 
because each article will appear to the 
editor as one line, the line positioning 
and kill commands can be used to 
delete articles. If we use this method, 
the total record count contained in 
the first record of the file must be 
changed to reflect the new total. 

You will need to change line 21 of 
the program BIBLIO to set the clear- 
screen command to that required by 
your terminal. The display and 
printer formatting in these programs 
assumes a line length of at least 64 
characters for the display and 80 for 
the printer. If your lines are shorter, 
you may wish to change the output 
formatting. 

Possible Extensions 

The programs I have described can 
be run on systems with at least 40K 
bytes of memory and one disk drive. 
As the examples illustrate, the use of 
fuzzy sets provides information on 
the degree to which articles meet cer- 
tain requirements. A traditional 
keyword search would not provide 
this information. 

Many businesses could take advan- 
tage of the application of fuzzy sets to 
the search process. The system could 
match customer preferences with 
product or service descriptions and 
rate each service or product for 
customer satisfaction. Real-estate and 
mail-order firms come readily to 
mind. You may devise other applica- 
tions to extend and improve the capa- 
bilities of the bibliographic search 
system. ■ 



References 

Yager, R. "A Logical On-Line 
Bibliographic Searcher: An Application of 
Fuzzy Sets." IEEE Transactions on 
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, vol. 
SMC-10, no. 1, January 1980, p. 51. 
Watson, S. "Fuzzy Decision Analysis." 
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and 
Cybernetics, vol. SMC-9, no. 1, January 
1979, p. 1. 



Listing 5 continued: 



I. .1. s 
1 o 2 : 
:i. o 3 : 
:i. o 4 : 
105 J 
i o 6 1 
i o / : 
i. o h : 
:i. o 9 : 
1 1. 1) : 
1 1. 1 : 
t 1 2 : 
:i. :i 3 : 
i :l. 4 i 
1 l 5 : 
1 I 6 S 

117; 

l .1 B i 
I I y : 

L2 0? 
.1. ? I I 
1,22; 

1 2 3 : 
12.4: 
125? 
126? 
127 S 

121:1: 
129: 

:l. 3 ii ? 
I 3 :l $ 
:l. 3 2 i 
133 1 
13-11 
l.35t 

136: 
137: 
138: 
139: 
140 : 

141? 

1 4 2 : 
i <i3 : 

1441 
1451 

146? 
1-17? 

14(3: 

:l. 4 9 : 

150 : 
151 : 
152: 

153 J 

154? 

155: 
156: 
157: 
158: 
159: 
160 : 
1 6 1 : 
162: 
163: 

164 J 

165: 
166: 
167: 

168 J 
1691 

1 7 o : 

1711 

172: 
173 : 

1741 

175: 

176? 
177! 
178: 
1791 
180 1 
1811 
1821 
188? 
184J 
1851 
186? 
187: 
188? 
1891 
1 9 : 

191 : 
192: 

193? 

194: 

195: 

196? 
197? 



II" <LEN(CMD*)~0) THEN 6. 31 El 

swz--i : ix-i : w.numx^o 

WHILE <IX<LEN(CMD*) ) 

IT KEYX>=MAXDESC% THEN 6. 39 El 
W H I L E ( M I D* < CMDifc r I X 1 1 ) ;::: " " ) 

WEND 

D U M * « R I G H T * ( C M D * , L. E N < C M D $ ) - 1 % + 1 > 
IF NOT SWX THEN 6.36E1 
W.NUMZ~W.NUMXKl 
GQSUB 17E:I. 
IF ERRX THEN 6. 33 El 
l:> U F F * * B U F F * •♦• 1 N . I N I . T W * < K E : : X > 
SWX-0 

GOTO 6. 3 8 El 
6.36E1 CH*«LI»:F : 'I *<DUM*, 1) 

IF (CH<K>"."> AND ( <CH*<"0") OR ( CI ■l*>"9" ) ) THEN \ 

PRINT "KEYWORDS MAY NOT CONTAIN BLANKS) RE-ENTER LINE 

GOTO 6. 33 El 
XL L EFT* <DUM*,1 >=="." THEN \ 

RAL-MAL<"I)"H)UM*) \ 
ELSE RAT*:YAL(DUM*> 
I :: U F \ * - B U F F * + F N . R E A L N E * ( R A T ) 
KEYX-KEYX+1 
SW*>~J. 
6 . 3BE1 WHILE ( MID$ ( CMD* , IX, I ) < : ; " " > AND i IX <LEN ( CMD$ ) ) 
l'/.^- X7.il 

wend 

WEND 

6 . 31 El BUFF^BUFFjM-'TFF" 

PRINT USING "8"? *2? BUFF* 

BIB.LEN"/~B:r.Ba..EN% + l 

WEND 

4E1 REM READ AND DISPLAY ARTICLES, SAVING OR DELETING AS WE GO 

R.RECX-2 : DELX--0 

READ *2,1J LINE BUFF* 

PRINT "TO DELETE RESPOND TO THE PROMPT ' > ' WITH AT LEAST " 

PRINT "DEPRESSIONS OF LP. SIGN *, THEN RETURN. DEPRESiS ONLY 

PRINT "RETURN TO SAVE, ENTER E THEN REITl.lFtN TO EXIT 1(3 MENU" 

PRINT 

IF END #2 THEN 4. 4 El 

WHILE TRUEX 

READ *2,R,RECX: LINE BUFF* 

PRINT MID* ( BUFF* , AUTH . LENX + TITL . LEN/S+ 1 , JOUR . LENX ) J 
T A B ( v.) U R . L E N X + 2 ) J M I D * ( B U F F * , A U T H . L E N X ♦ 1 , T I T L 
MID* ( BUFF * , AUT H. LENX+TITL. . LENX + JOUR . LENX+ 1 , IS 
T A B < v.l U R . L E N X » 2 ) J L E F T * ( B U F F * , A U T H . L E N X ) 



:\ 



WO" 

THE' 



PRINT 
PRINT- 
PRINT 
PRINT 
INPUT 



J..ENX) 
3* LENX) 



LINE ANS* 



if ucase*(left*<aw;;*,:l))-"E" then 4.4Ei 



IF LEFT* (ANS*, 2)« 
PRINT USING "&" 
DEL%«DELZ+1 
R.RECX-R.RECX+1 
WEND 
4.4E1 PRINT DELXJ " 
CLOSE 2 
GOTO 6.7E1 






THEN \ 

,r.recx; ' 



7.7.7.7.7." » RIGHT* ( BUFF* , RLENX-7 ) I \ 



ARTICLES MARKED DELETED" 



6* 34 El PRINT 
6. 32 El PRINT 
PRINT USING ' 
CLOSE 2 
GOTO 6.7E1 



"FILE FULL- 
BIB.LENZJ ' 



-NO MORE ARTICLES 
ARTICLES ON FILE' 
, 1? BIB. LENX 



CAN BE WRITTEN" 



6.1E1 PRINT "NO VOCABULARY FILE NAMED '", LIBNAME* 

6.7E1 INPUT "PRESS RETURN TO GO BACK TO MENU "J LINE ANS* 

RETURN 

6.39E1 REM TOO MANY KEYWORDS ENTERED 

KEYX=0 

B U F F * ~ L E F T * < B U F F * , A U T H ♦ L E N X + T I T L . L E N X + J U R . L E N X + 1 S S . L E N X ) 

PRINT "NO MORE THAN "JMAXDESCXJ " KEYWORDS PER ARTICLE CAN" 

PRINT "BE ENTERED. PLEASE SHORTEN LIST AND RE-ENTER" 

GOTO 6.33E1 

19 El REM BREAKOUT KEYWORD AND FIND ITS NUMBER 
IRX-1 

WHILE MID*(DUM*,IF<X,1) <>" " : IR%=IR%+1 : WEND 
W0RD*=LEF r T * ( DUM* , IRX-1 ) +BLANK* 
WORD* -LEFT* ( WORD* ,16) 
WORD*~~-UCASE*<WORD*) 

REM BINARY SEARCH FOR WORD IN KEYWORD ARRAY 
IBX=1 : JBX-UOG.LENX 
19.1E1 KBX^(IB/C+JBX)/2 
IF WORD*>KEYWD*(KBX) THEN \ 
IBX=KBXM \ 

else je:x=kbx-1 
if (w0rd*okeywd*(kbx)) and (ibxo==jbx) then 19.1e1 
i f w r d * < > f< e y w d * ( k b x ) t h e n 19. 3 e 1 
iz=irx+i;s-i 

RETURN 

19.3E1 PRINT USING "CANNOT FIND KEYWOF^D \**tt#"? W . NUMX 
INPUT "PRESS RE URN TO RE-ENTER COMPLETE LINE "J LINE ANS* 
ERRX*-1 ? RETURN 



Additional listing on page 400 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 397 




64K Ram 

780 KB Disk Storage 

Word Processing. UltracalcCP/M 

C-Basic Software 

Smith Corona TP 1 

Letter Quality Printer 

$2995.00 

EAGLE 1600 CALL 



TeltVideo 




TERMINALS 

910 $579.00 

912C ..$699.00 

920C $749.00 

925C $749.00 

950 . $950.00 

WYSEWY100 S74900 

COMPUTERS 
800A S 1299 00 

802 S2649 00 

802H S469500 

806 S4999 00 

8 I 6 S8999 00 

303 CALL 

1602 1603 . O'.L 

TIMEX SINCLAIR 

1000 

$B5. a 

16K Memory Module $44.95 

Vu-Calc $17.95 

Check Book Manager S13.95 

The Organizer , $ 1 4.95 

The Budgeter S13.95 

Stock Option $14.95 

Loan & Mortgage Amortizer . $1 2.95 
Mindware Printer $109.00 



£■[ commodore 

8032 $1039.00 

4032 $749.00 

8096 Upgrade Kit $369.00 

Super Pet $ 1 499.00 

2031 .$469.00 

8250 Dbl.Sided Disk Drive ... $ 1 699.00 
D9060 5 Meg. Hard Disk .... $2399.00 
D9060 7.5 Meg. Hard Disk . . . $2699.00 

8050 $1299.00 

4040 $969.00 

8300 (Letter Quality) $ 1 549.00 

8023 $599.00 

4022 $399.00 

New Z-Ram. AddsCP/Ma 64K . . . $549.00 

The Manager $209.00 

Magis CALL 

Word Pro 5 Plus $31 9.00 

Word Pro 4 Plus $299.00 

Word Pro 3 Plus $ 1 99.00 

The Administrator $379.00 

Info Pro Plus $21 9.00 

Power $79.00 



Qz commodore 



VIC SO 
$149 

VIC 20 Dust Cover $9.99 

VIC 1 530 Datassette $69.00 

VIC 1 54 1 (64K Disk Drive) .... $339.00 

VIC 1 525 Graphic Printer $339.00 

VIC 1 2 1 3K Mem. Exp $32 00 

VIC 1 1 1 8K Mem. Exp $53.00 

VIC 1 1 1 1 1 6K Mem. Exp $94 00 

VIC 1 1 1 RS232C Term. Interface. .. $43.00 
VIC 1 1 1 2 IEEE-488 Interface . . . $86.00 

VIC 1211 Super Expander $5300 

VIC Mother Board $99.00 



SEC 



COMPUTERS 

800 1 A S7 1 9 00 

S719 00 
S549 00 



8031 
8012 



SHARP PC-1 BOO 

POCKET 

COMPUTER 



fz commodore 



PRINTERS 

8C23 S469.00 

7710 77 30 S2399 00 

3510 3530 S1599 00 

MONITORS 

JB-1260 SH900 

JB-1201 S14900 

JC 1212 S299 00 

JC--203 S629 00 



tJQUUOOOOC 

ooanoDBD 
aanooaoa 



$169 




CE 15C Printer. Plotter and 

Cassette Interface Unit $ 1 72.00 

CE 152 Cassette Recorder ...$62.00 
CE 155 8K Ram 

Expansion Module $94.00 

C E 1 25 Printer/Micro Cassette ... $ 1 29.00 



VIC 64 



PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE 

Word Processing forVIC 64 .... $79.95 



MONITORS 





AMOEK 




1 00 B & W 




S7495 


300G 




S16900 


300A 




S179 00 


Color I 




S339 00 


Color II 




S699 00 


Color II A 




S79900 


Color III 




S399 00 


Color IV 




CALL 



BMC 

12" Green S79 99 

13" Color 1401 (Mid Res) S36900 

9191U 13" S32900 

TAXAN 

RGB 1 S329 00 

ZENITH 

ZVM l2i S99 00 

SHARP 
Sharp 13" Color TV S275.00 

PANASONIC 

TR-120MlPtHighRes Green) $15900 



CT 160 Dual Mode Color 



S29900 



PRINTERS 

SMITH CORONA 

TP 1 $599.00 

C. ITOH (TEC) 
Starwnler(FlO-40CPS) ... $1399.00 
Pnntmaster|FlO-55CPS) . .51749.00 
Prowrtter 80 Col (Parallel) S499 00 

Prowrtter 80 Col. (Serial) . .. $629.00 
Prownter 2 11 32 Col.) $799.00 

OKIOATA 

82A $429.00 

83A $659.00 

84 (Parallel) $1049.00 

84 (Serial) $1 149.00 

IOB 

MicroPnsm $649.00 

132 (Fully Configured) $159900 

80 (Fully Configured) $1 399 00 

Call for other configurations. 

STAR 

Gemini 10 $379.00 

Gemini 15 S489.00 

OAISYWRITER 

Letter Quality 1049.00 

OIABLO 
b?0 ... S999 00 



630 



$1769.00 



MODEMS 

HAYES 

Smart S229.00 

Smart 1200(1200 Baud) .5549.00 

Chronorjraph $1 99.00 

M.cromodem 1 00 $309.00 

Micromodem II S279.00 

Micromodem II (with Terms) . . S299.00 

NOVATION 

Cat 5144.00 

D-Ca! 5159.00 

212 Auto Cal 5589.00 

Apple Cat II 5279.00 

212 Apple Cat II 5609.00 

J-Cat 5119.00 

Cat 103 5199.00 

Cat 103/212 5439.00 

ANCHOR 

Mark I (RS-232) 579.00 

Mark II (Atari) ...579.00 

Mark III (TI-99) 510900 

Mark IV (CBM/PET) 51 25.00 

Mark V (OSBORNE) 595.00 

Mark VI (IBM-PC) 51 79.00 

Mark VII (Auto Answer Call) ... 5 1 1 9.00 

TRS -80 Color Computer 599.00 

9 Volt Power Supply 59.00 

il order es 




NEC 
3550 PRINTER... S2099 

PERCOM ORIVEB 

5W" 1 60K Disk Drive 5249.00 

5V4" 320K Disk Drive 5299.00 

AMOEK 

310A Amber Monitor 5179.00 

310G 5179.00 

Amdisk (3 V Drive) 5729.00 

DXY Plotter 5759.00 

Color II 5699.00 

SOFTWARE 

I.U.S. Easywriter II 5249.00 

I.U.S. Easyspeller $1 29.00 

Peach Package(GL/AP/AR)...S4 19.00 

PROFESSIONAL 

SOFTWARE 

IBM/PC Word Processing S31 9.00 

MICRO PRO 

Word Star/Mail Merge . . 5399.00 



Circle 104 on inquiry card. COITipUter 1X13 



IN PA. CALL [71 7)327-9575, 477 E.THIRO ST., WILLI AMSPORT, PA. 1 7701 

in stock items shipped same day you call No risk, no deposit on COD. orders. Pre-paid orders receive free shipping within the Continental United States wit hno waiting period for certified 
checks or money orders. Add 3% (minimum S3 00) shipping and handling on all COD. and Credit Cardorders. NV. and PA. residents add sales tax. All items subject to availability and price 
change note: We stock manufacturer's and third party software for most all computers on the market. Call today for our new catalogue. 



F 



FRANKLIN 




ACE 1000 

ACE 1 with Controller Card 
ACE Writer Word Processor 

CALL... 

FOR SYSTEM PRICE! 
Ace 1000 CALL 



SYSCOM II 
48K Color Computer 

100% Apple Compatible 
Apple Soft Basic 

S7G9.00 



VIBICORP 

for Apple, IBM & Franklin 

Visidex , $189.00 

Visifile Si 89.00 

Vtsiplot $159.00 

Visiterm S89.00 

Visitrend/Plot S229.00 

VisiSchedule S229.00 

Desktop Plan S189.00 

Visicalc(Applell#.Atari.CBM.IBM). . . Si 79.00 
Visicorp prices for IBM may vary slightly. 

CONTINENTAL 

Home Accnt. (Apple/Franklin). . $59.00 

Home Accountant (IBM) S 1 1 9.00 

1st Class Mail (Apple/Franklm) . . . S59.00 

smius 

Free Fall $24.00 

Beer Run $24.00 

Snake Byte S24.00 

Space Eggs S24.00 

Sneakers S24.00 

Bandits S28.00 

BROOERBOUNO 

Apple Panic S23.00 

David's Magic S27.00 

Star Blazer S25.00 

Arcade Machine $34.00 

Chophfter S27.00 

Serpentine S27.00 

INFOCOM 

Deadline. S35.00 

Star Cross $29.00 

Zork I S29.00 

Zork II or III . . . . . S29.00 

MPC 

Bubdisk (128K Ram) S719.00 

AXLON 
Apple/Franklin 1 28K Ram .... $399.00 

Apple/Franklin Ram Disk S999.00 

VU-MAX 




FOR ATARI 

AT88-S1 S399 00 

AT88-A1 S289 00 

RFD40-S! S539 00 

RFD40-A1 S329 00 

RFD40-S2 S869 00 

RFD44-S1 S659 00 

RFD44S2 S99900 



M HOMECOMPUTERS 

ATARI" 




RAIMA OISK ORIVEB 

Call for price and availability on the 
new Rana Disk Drives for The Apple 
and Franklin Computer Systems. 



//-sci 




MICRO-SCI 
OISK ORIVEB FOR 
APPLE & FRANKLIN 

A2 S299.00 

A40 S349.00 

A70 $459 00 

C2 Controller S79.00 

C47 Controller S89.00 



FLOPPY OISKS 

MAXELL 

MD I (Box of 10) $32.00 

MDII (Box of 10) S44.00 

FD I (8") S40.00 

FD II (8" DD) S50.00 

VERBATUM 

5'VSS DD. S26.00 

5V«" DS DD ...$36.00 

ELEPHANT 

5WSS SD S 19.99 



80 Column Card 



. S1 5900 




HEWLETT 
PACKARD 



<*i cv 



$209 



HP41C S 149 00 

HP 10C S5900 

HP 1 1C $7200 

HP 12C S99 00 

HP 15C $9900 

HP 16C S9900 

HPIL PERIPHERALS In Stock 
Call for 

CALCULATOR 
SPECIALS 




400 

1BK $199 

32K $274 ::: 

48K S359 



•Non-Atari Ram 



410 Recorder. 
810 Disk Drive 
822 Printer . 



$7400 
. S429.00 
S269.00 



825 Printer S589.00 

830 Modem $1 59.00 

820 Printer $259.00 

850 Interlace S 169.00 

CX40 Joy Sticks (pair) Si 8.00 

CX853 Atari 16K Ram S77.95 



BOO 

48K $499 

Call for Price and 
Availability of the NEW 

64KATARI 1EOO 

Axlon32KRam S89 00 

Axlon 48K Ram S13900 

/>xlon 128K Ram S399 00 

Intec 48K Board S 159 00 

Intec 32K Board S74 00 

One Year Extended Warranty S70 00 

CX481 Entertainer Package S69 00 

CX482 Educator Package S13000 

CX483 Programmer Package S54 00 

CX484 Communicator Package $344 00 



■SOFTWARE FOR ATARI 



ATARI 

Pac-Man S33.00 

Centipede S33.00 

Caverns,of Mars S32 00 

Asteroids $29.00 

Missile Command S29.00 

Star Raiders S35.00 

Galaxian $33.00 

Defender S33.00 

ON-LINE 

Jawbreaker $27,00 

Softporn S27.00 

Wizard and the Princess S29.00 

The Next Step $34.00 

Mission Asteroid S22.00 

Mouskattack S31.00 

Frogger $31.00 

Cross Fire (ROM) S36.00 

SYNAPSE 

File Manager 800 S69.00 

Chicken S26.00 

Dodge Racer $26.00 

Synassembler S30.00 

Page 6 S 19.00 

Shamus .'. S26.00 

Protector $26.00 

Nautilus S26.00 

Slime S26.00 

Disk Manager S24.00 

DATA80FT 

Pacific Coast Highway 
Canyon Climber 
Tumble Bugs 
Shooting Arcade 
Clowns and Balloons 

Graphic Master 

Graphic Generator 

Micro Painter 

Text Wizard 

Spell Wizard 
Bishop's Square 



S25.00 
S25.00 
S25.00 
$25.00 
S25 00 
S30.00 
S 13.00 
S25.00 
$7900 
$64.00 
$2500 
Sands of Egypt $25.00 



APX 

Text Formatter 
Firmly Budgeter 
Eastern Front 
Family Cash 
Jukebox 
Downhill 

Outlaw 

Holy Grail 
Player Piano 

Keyboard Organ 

Number Blast 

Frogmaster 

747 Land Simulator 
Bumper Pool. 

CBS 

K-razy Shoot Out 
K-razy Kritters 
K-razy Antics 
K-star Patrol 

EPYX 

Crush. Crumble & Chomp 
Crypt of the Undead 
Curse of Ra 

Datestones & Ryn 

Invasion Orion 
King Arthur's Heir 

Morloc's Tower 

Rescue at Rigel . . . 

Ricochet 

Star Warrior 

Temple of Asphai 

Upper Reaches of Apshai 



WICO 
Joy Sticks 

for Atari. Commodore. 
Apple & Franklin 
CALL 



$18 50 
$18 50 
$24 00 
$1850 
$1350 
$1850 
S1850 
$24.00 
. $18.50 
. S 1850 
. S 13.50 
S 18.50 
. $ 1 8 50 
$13 50 

S32.00 
$32 00 
S32 00 
$32 00 

$24.00 
$24.00 

.S16.00 
$1600 
$19.00 

. $24.00 
$16.00 
$24.00 
$16.00 
$29.00 

. $29.00 
SI 6.00 




computer mail order west 



Circle 104 on inquiry card. 



800-648-331 1 

IN NV. CALL (702)588-5654, P.O. BOX 8689, STATELINE, NV. 88448 

international ORDERS: All shipments outside continental United States must be pre-paid by certified check only 1 Include 3%(rn1n*mum S3 00) shipping and handling 
educational DISCOUNTS: Additional discounts are available from both Computer Mail Order locations to qualified Educational Institutions. 
apo & FPOi Add minimum S5.00 shipping on all orders. CP/M ls a registered trademark of Digital Research. Inc 



Circle 433 on Inquiry card. 




K1 



SUP€ftBRMN 

The super performing, super 
reliable microcomputer from 
Intertec Data Systems features 
twin double-density 5 1 A" drives 
with 350K or700K of disk storage 
- expandable to 10 megabytes. 
A CP/M* Disk Operating System, 
64K of dynamic RAM and more. 



s 



SUP€R 
PRIC€ 




Because we're a nationwide 
distributor of SuperBrain, 
CompuStar, and the CompuStar 
1 0-Megabyte Disk Storage 
System, we can offer the 
absolute lowest prices in 
the business. 

SUP€R 
S€RVIC€ 

Better yet, we offer you a 
great deal of service and support 
because we want your business 
tomorrow as well as today. 

• We'll burn-in your SuperBrain 
for 72 hours before 

we deliver it 

• We'll help with installation 
and configuration 

• We'll repair equipment at our 
service center and replace 
modules when necessary 

• We'll fill your software needs 
or help you develop your own 

• We'll match your SuperBrain 
with a super printer 

For more information call 609-424-4700 
or 21 5-629-1 289. To order call toll-free 
800-257-52 1 7. In N J call 609-424-4700. 




2 Keystone Avenue 
Cherry Hill. NJ 08003 
* Registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. 
SuperBrain and CompuStar are trademarks 
of Intertec Data Systems. 



3 


r= INTERTEC 
[I DATA 
S SYSTEMS. 



Listing 6: CMPRBIB, called by menu selection 5, compresses the file of articles by 
removing all articles that have been marked for deletion by BIBLD. 



3: 

4: 

s: 

6: 

7: 

8: 

9: 

10 : 

n : 

12: 

13: 

n: 

is: 

16: 

17: 

is: 

19: 

20 : 

21 : 

22 J 

23: 
2^: 
25: 
26: 
27: 
28: 
29: 
30 : 
31: 
32: 
33: 
34: 
35: 
36: 
37: 
38: 
39: 
40 : 
41: 



REM FILE CMPRBIB.BAS 

REM COMPRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY FILE BY REMOVING MARKED ARTICLES 

COMMON KEYWD$ ( 1 ) , LIBNAME $ , RLEN7. , TRUE7. , AUTH . LEN7. , TI.TL . LEN7. 
COMMON MAXBIB7. , MAXDESC7. , MAXDEF7. , MAXKEYS7. , MAXC0N7. , C0NCEPT$ ( 1 ) 
COMMON ISS . LEN7. ,CLS$ , ERR7., JOUR . LEN7. , KWD . LEN7. , CMD$ ( 1 ) 
COMMON LFT7. ( 1 ) , RGHT7. ( 1 ) , CON . KEY* ( 2 ) , CON . RATE ( 2 ) ,QUERY$ , L7. 



PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 



CLS$ 

TAB ( 12 ) J " 



-COMPRESS BIEiLIOGRAPHY- 



REM IF NO BIBLIO FILE THEN GO BACK TO MENU 
IF END *2 THEN 5.9E1 

OPEN LIBNAME$+".BIB" RECL RLEN7. AS 2 
IF SIZE<LIBNAME$+".BIB")=0 THEN \ 
DELETE 2 J GOTO 5.9E1 

REM OTHERWISE SCAN AND DELETE 
R.RECZ=1 : W.REC7. = 1 : DEL7.=0 
IF END *2 THEN 5.8E1 
READ *2,1J LINE BUFF$ 
WHILE TRUE7. 

READ *2,R.REC7.JLINE BUFF$ 

IF LEFT$<BUFF$,5)="ZZZZZ" THEN 5.2E1 
IF R.REC7-OW.REC7. THEN \ 

PRINT USING "&"; *2,W.REC7.J BUFF$ 
R.REC7.=R.REC7.+ 1 : W . REC7. = W . REC7. + 1 
GOTO 5.3E1 

5.2E1 R.REC7.=R.REC7.+ 1 I DEL7.=DEL7. + 1 

5.3E1 WEND 
5.8E1 PRINT USING "&"; *2,W.REC7.J CHR$(26) 
PRINT USING "##****"; *2,1J W.REC7.-2 
CLOSE 2 

PRINT W.REC7.-2J " ARTICLES ON FILE" 
PRINT DELXJ " ARTICLES WERE REMOVED" 

5.5E1 INPUT "PRESS RETURN TO GO BACK TO MENU" J LINE ANS$ 
CHAIN "BIBLIO" 

5.9E1 PRINT "NO BIBLIO FILE NAMED " J LIBNAME$ 
GOTO 5.5E1 



Listing 7: BIBSRCH, called by menu selection 4, is the first of two programs that ex- 
ecute in sequence to search the file of articles and report the results. BIBSRCH receives 
an interrogation from the user, checks it for syntax, and interacts with the user to define 
the interrogation in terms of vocabulary keywords. 



3: 

4t 

5: 

6: 

7: 

8: 

9: 

10: 

n: 

12: 

13: 

14: 

is: 

16 t 

17: 

181 

19: 
20: 
21 : 

22 * 

23: 
24: 

251 

26: 
27: 

28J 

29: 
3o: 
3i: 
32: 
33: 
34: 
35: 



REM FILE BIBSRCH. BAS 

REM FIRST SEGMENT OF BIBLIOGRAPHY SEARCH ROUTINE 

COMMON KEYWD$ ( 1 ) , LIBNAME$ , RLEN7. , TRUE7. r AUTH . LEN7., TITL . LEN7. 

COMMON MAXBIB7., MAXDESC7. , MAXDEF 7. , MAXKEYS7. , MAXC0N7. , CONCEPTS ( 1 ) 

COMMON ISS . LEN7. , CLS$, ERR7. , JOUR . LEN7. , KWD. LEN7. , CMD$ < 1 ) 

COMMON LFT7. ( 1 ) , RGHT7. ( 1 ) , CON . KE Y7. ( 2 ) , CON . RATE ( 2 ) , QUERY$ , L7. 

DIM LFT7.<MAXC0N7.) , C0NCEPT$( MAXC0N7.) , CON . KEY%< MAXC0N7. , MAXDEF7.+ 1 ) 

DIM CON . RATE ( MAXC0N7. , MAXDEF7.+ 1 ) , RGHT7.( MAXC0N7. ) , CMD$ ( MAXC0N7.) 

CONSOLE 

ERR7. = 

BLANK$=" 

PRINT CLS$ 

PRINT TAB <12)J " BIBLIOGRAPHY SEARCH " 

PRINT 

REM READ KEYWORD VOCABULARY 

REM IF NO VOCABULARY FILE EXIT TO SYSTEM 
IF END *1 THEN 34E1 
OPEN LIBNAME$+" .VOC" AS 1 
IF SIZE(LIBNAME$+".VOC" )=0 THEN \ 
DELETE 1 J GOTO 34E1 

REM OTHERWISE READ IT ALL 
IF END *1 THEN 33E1 
V0C.LEN7. = 1 
WHILE TRUE7. 

READ *1J LINE KEYWD$ ( VOC . LEN7. ) 

VOC . LEN7.=V0C . LEN7.+ 1 

WEND 
33E1 CLOSE 1 
VOC . LEN7.=V0C . LEN7.-1 

REM IF NO BIBLIO FILE, EXIT TO SYSTEM 



Listing 7 continued on page 402 



400 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Our Prices Will Get Your Attention.' 
Our Service Will Keep It. 



ORDER NO. DESCRIPTION 



LIST AEI PRICE ORDER NO DESCRIPTION 



LIST AEI PRICE ORDER NO. DESCRIPTION 



LIST AEI PRICE 



Itelevide^ystems Inec^rinters 



I 



TS-802 Integrated Single User 

Computer 3295 

TS-802H Integrated Hard Disk 

Computer 5995 

TS-1602G 16 Bit 802 Type Computer 4495 
TS-1602GH 16 Bit 802H Type 

Computer 6995 

TS-806-20 Multi-User Computer ... . 7195 

TS-816 Multi User Computer .... 8995 

TV-910-P Televideo 910 Plus 699 

TV-910 Televideo 910 699 

TV-912 Televideo 912C 925 

TV-920 Televideo 920C 995 

TV-925 Televideo 925 995 

TV-950 Televideo 950 1 195 

TV- 90 10 Second Page Option 

912/920 80 

TV-9050 One Additional Page for 

925/950 95 

TV-9051 Three Additional Pages 

for 950 1 20 

TV-MM For Any Televideo Terminal 60 
TS-24-001 TeleSolutions WordStar 

• CalcStar 790 

TS-100 WordStar 495 

TS-150 SpellStar v . 250 

TS-200 MailMerge. . . . n ^^ . . 250 

TS-300 DataStar ... . , ,TT 295 

TS-400 Supersort 250 

TS-1000 CalcStar 145 

TS-806H/20 20 MB Expansion forTS-806 3600 

TS-TW Telewriter - NEC 3500 .... 2195 

NORTHSTAR 





NE-3510-1 


NEC 3510 SpinwriterR/O 






?M? 


NE-3515-1 


Serial 35 CPS 


1895 


1500 




NEC 351 5S pin writer R/O 




Call 




Serial Diablo Compatible 


1925 


1594 


Call 


NE-3530-1 
NE-3550-1 


NEC 3530 Spinwriter 

NEC 3550SpinwriterR/O 


2190 


1764 


Call 




Parallel IBM Compatible . 


2350 


2065 


Call 


NE-35-TRAC 


Bi-directional Tractor .... 


265 


237 


Call 


NE-7710-1 


NEC 7710 Spin writer R/O 






573 




Serial 55 CPS 


3085 


2276 


573 


NE-7715-1 


NEC 7715 SpinwriterR/O 






685 




Serial Diablo Comp 


3165 


2600 


737 


NE-7720-1 


NEC 7720 Spinwriter KSR 






745 




Serial 55 CPS 


3610 


2917 


921 


NE-7725-1 


NEC 7725 Spinwriter KSR 










Serial Diablo Comp 


3710 


3041 


50 


NE-7730-1 


NEC 7730 Spinwriter 


3085 


2276 




NE-PC-8023 


Parallel 


695 


506 


62 




PLUS OTHER ACCESSORIES 






95 
53 


(STAR MICRONICS 







NS-94404 Adv-2Q-64K Computer . . 3599 
NS-97404 Adv-1Q-64K-HD-5 

Computer 4999 

NS-94401 Hrz-2Q-64K Horizon 3599 

NS-97401 Hrz-1Q-64K-HD-5MB 4999 

PLUS OTHER NORTHSTAR PRODUCTS 

! ZENITH 



Call 
280 
154 
171 
238 
164 
128 
2948 
1629 



Call 

Call 
Call 
Call 



ZVM-121 

Z-19-CN 

ZT-1-A 

Z-25-AA 

Z-89-81 

Z-90-82 

Z-89-X 

Z-90-80 

Z-37 

Z-87-89 

Z-87-90 

ZS-67 



Green Screen Monitor . . 

Z-19 Terminal 

Auto-Dial Terminal 

Z-25 Dot Matrix Printer . 
Z-89 Computer System 
Z-90 Computer System 
Z-89 w/o Integral Drive , 
Z-90 w/o Integral Drive 
Z-37 Dual 5" Disk Drives 
Z87 Dual 5" Disk Drives 
Same Disk add 400K 

to Z-90 

Z-67 Winchester - 

Floppy Drive 

Z47 Dual 8" Disk Drives 



99 
672 
526 
1198 
1952 



160 

895 

699 
1499 
2499 
2799 2176 
2495 1 749 
2895 1950 
1995 1593 

999 898 



5995 4747 
3695 Call 



I 



PLUS: MORROW . 
NEC PERSONAL 



ALTOS • EAGLE . 
FRANKLIN ACE 



DP-8480-TP 80 Column Dot Matrix 

Printer - Parallel 449 Call 

DP-8480-TS 80 Column Dot Matrix 

Printer - Serial 464 Call 

Gemini-10 10" Carriage - Parallel ... 499 Call 

Gemini-15 15" Carriage - Parallel ... 649 Call 

Serial Interface Card 85 Call 

DP-8240 40 Column Dot Matrix - 

Parallel or Serial 250 Call 

I OKIDATA 

OK-82A Okidata Microline 82A 

with Tractor Feed 719 486 

OK-83A Okidata Microline 83 A . . 1195 713 
OK-84A-P Okidata Microline 84A 

- Parallel 1395 Call 

OK-84A-S Okidata Microline 84A 

-Serial 1495 Call 

OK-G-82 Okigraph I for 82A 99 36 

OK-G-83 Okigraph I for 83A 99 36 

OK-2K 2K Buffer/Serial BD 

all Models 140 119 

MANNESMANN TALLY 

MT1605 Serial 200 CPS 1695 1441 

MT1602 Parallel 200 CPS 1695 1441 

MT1805 Serial - 200 CPS or 50 CPS 1995 Call 
MT1802 Parallel - 200 CPS 

or 50 CPS 1995 Call 

MT160L S or P- 160 CPS 990 809 

PLUS: ANADEX • C-ITOH - DATA 
SOUTH . TI - DIABLO . COMREX 

ALSO AVAILABLE: 

MODEMS - DISKETTE STORAGE BOXES • 
DISKETTES • CLIPSTRIP - RIBBONS 



| SOFTWARE AVAILABLE 



Altos CP/M 5W 

Apple CP/M 514" 

Apple DOS — Cassette 

Apple DOS — Diskette 

Atari 400/800 Diskette 

Atari Cartridge 

Atari Cassette 

Basic 4 CP/M S\i" 

CP/M-86 Display Writer 

Cromemco CP/M 5 V 

DEC VT-180 CP/M 5 1 -i" 

Eagle CP/M 5%" 

Heath Z-90 CP/M 5'V 

Heath Zenith CP/M 5V;i" CALL 

Hewlett Packard 1 25 CP/M 5%" . . . ^• rL±J±J 
Hewlett Packard 8 7 CP/M 5V .... - r ,^ Ty 

IBM P.C. CP/M 86 FOR 

IBM PC. DOS 

NEC CP/M 5I«" nTPPFMT 

Northstar Advantage CP/M 5Va" . . . ^*UKKIUIH l 

Northstar Horizon CP/M 5Vi" 

Ohio Scientific C-3 CP/M 514" PRICING 

Osborne CP/M 5Vt" 

Otrona CP/M 5V 

QD-Micropolis Mod 11/ Vector Graphic 

Sanyo 1000 CP/M 5U" 

Sirius Victor 5 V 

Software for 8086 Computers 

Standard CP/M 5W 

Superbrain 5Vi" 

Timex/Sinciair ZX81 

TRS-80 Cassette Models I & III 

TRS-80 Diskette Models I & III 

TRS-80 Model II CP/M 

Televideo CP/M 5!i" 

Vic 20 

Wang CP/M 5 1 //', 8" 

Xerox 820 CP/M 5VV 



I 



MARCH SPECIALS 



PALANTIER™ 

WORD PROCESSOR 

WITH MAI LOUT ™ 

Powerful dot, flexible dot.easy to use! 
Compatible With: A ^ P R R ^ E 

• Northstar Advantage • Televideo 802 
. 8" IBM Standard . IBM PC-DD 

■ Superbrain II • Superbrain IID 

• Kpro $300 

Apple II (64K) CPM $235 

Franklin Ace 1000 

• 64K Ram • 10 Key Numeric Pad 

• U/L Case Keyboard • Muffin Fan . . , Call 



GUARANTEE 

• PROVEN PRODUCTS 

• SYSTEM DESIGN HELP 

• BENCH TESTING AND CONFIGURING 
. TECHNICAL SUPPORT STAFF 

■ SERVICE AFTER SALE: 

(800) 854-7635 TECHNICAL SERVICE SUPPORT 
We will pay the freight — both ways — for repair 
on verified returns within 30 days of sale. 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS 

Prices change daily Call for current pricing and availability Prices based 
on prepaid cash orders We accept cashiers checks, money orders, bank 
wires, or personal checks (10 days to clear). COD. — standard charges 
plus 2% handling for orders outside California Mastercharge & Visa - 
5% handling California residents add 6% sales tax 




VISA 






Prices change daily — 
call for current pricing. 

CALL TOLL FREE: 

800-854-7635 



IN CALIFORNIA CALL: 

(619) 562-7571 

AUTOMATED EQUIPMENT, INC. 

8775 Olive Lane. Suites I & J . Santee, CA 92071 



Circle 39 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



401 



Circle 390 on inquiry card. 



Now Attractive 
Industrial Quality 

Main Frames 

as low as $200 



• Dual LED Display 

• Shock Mounted 6 Slot 
Mother Boards/Card Cage 

• ps-101 Power Supply 

• Power & Reset Switches, A/C Filter, 
Fan, Etc. 




SDS-S100-SL 

8" Floppy Drive Enclosure/System 
Special Lift Out Drive Rack 
Fits all Regular and Slim-Line 8" Drives 
Also Will Support 5W' Hard Disk 




SDS-S 100-MFL 

S'A" Floppy and/or Hard Drive 
Enclosure/System 




SDS-MF2 SDS-MIC 

12 Slot ST 00 Computer Chassis or 
8" Micropolis Hard Disk Cabinet 



M-101 Power Supply 

This solid supply gives you the capability 
of running any variety of 8" floppy or 
S'A" floppy or hard disk drives as well 
as power a full SlOO-Buss 




Unregulated: 

+ 16V @ 1 amp 
) 1 amp 



-16V ( 



SiERMORmSOENCCS 

Fresno, California/ 

Marketing Division 
2 1 1 62 Lorain Road, Falrvlew Park, Ohio 44126 
(216) 331-8500 TELEX: 980131 WDMR 

See our other ad on page 39 

402 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 7 continued: 



36: 

37: 
38: 
39: 
to: 
41: 
42: 
43: 
44: 
45: 
46: 
47: 
^8: 
49: 
50: 
51 : 
52: 
53: 
54: 
55 : 
56: 
57: 
58: 
59: 
6o: 
6i: 
62: 
63: 
64: 
65: 
66: 
67: 
68: 
69: 
70: 

71J 

72: 
73: 

74 J 

75: 
76: 

771 

78: 

79: 

eo: 

8i: 

82: 

83: 

84: 

85: 

86: 

87: 

88: 

89: 

90: 

91: 

92: 

93: 

94: 

95: 

96: 

97: 

98: 

99: 

100: 

lqu 

102: 

103: 

104: 

los: 

106: 

107: 

los: 

109: 

not 

in: 

112: 

113: 

114: 

us: 

116: 

117: 

us: 

119: 

120: 

121J 

122: 
123: 
124: 
125: 
126: 
127: 
128: 
129: 
130: 
i3i: 



IF END *2 THEN 34E1 

OPEN LIBNAME$+".BIB" AS 2 

IF SIZE (LIBNAME$+". BIB" )=0 

DELETE 2 : GOTO 34E1 
CLOSE 2 



REM OTHERWISE GET 
GOSUB 1E1 



A QUERY t CHECK SYNTAX AND PARSE 



REM THEN DEFINE QUERY IN TERMS OF KEYWORDS IN VOCABULARY 
GOSUB 18E1 

REM NOW TO THE REST OF SEARCH ROUTINE 

CHAIN "BIBSR2" 

STOP 

REM FUNCTION TO RECOGNIZE FUZZY OPERATORS AND PARENS 
DEF FNSPEC . CH7.( DUM$ , P0SIT7. ) 
CH*=MID$<DUM$,P0SIT7., 1 ) 
FNSPEC. CH7. = 

IF <CH* = "*" ) OR <<CH$> = ) AND <CH$< = M + U >> THEN FNSPEC. CH7.=- 

RETURN 
FEND 

REM GET AND PARSE AN INTERROGATION PHRASE 

1E1 ERR7.=0 

1.2E1 QUERY$="" 

PRINT "ENTER INTERROGATION PHRASE" 

INPUT ">"; LINE QUERY$ 

QUERY$=UCASE$(QUERY$) 

REM ROUGH SYNTAX CHECK 

I7. = l 

IF LEFT$<QUERY$,1 )<>"<" THEN \ 

ERR7.=3 : GOSUB 9E1 : ERR7. = : GOTO 1.2E1 
PAREN7.= 
WHILE I7.<=L'EN(QUERY$) 

IF MID*(QUERY$,I7.,1> = "< 

IF MID$<QUERY$,I7.,1)="> 

IX-IX+1 

WEND 
IF PAREN7. THEN ERR7.=4 : GOSUB 9E1 : ERR7.=0 : GOTO 1.2E1 

REM NOW TO PARSE 

PTR.0NE7. = 1 : PTR.TW07.=i: L7.= 

1.1E1 WHILE (FNSPEC. CH7.< QUERY$ ,PTR . 0NE7. ) ) AND ( PTR. 0NE7.<LEN( QUERY$ ) ) 

PTR . 0NE%=PTR . 0NE7. + 1 

WEND 
IF PTR.0NE7.>=LEN(QUERY$) THEN RETURN 
L7.=L7.+1 

LFT7.(L7.)=PTR.0NE7. 
PTR.TW07.=PTR.0NE7. 
WHILE NOT FNSPEC. CH7.<QUERY$, PTR. TW07.) 

PTR . TW0%=PTR . TW07. + 1 

WEND 
RGHT7. ( L7. ) =PTR . TW0% 

C0NCEPT$(L7.)=MID$<QUERY$,LFT7.<L7.),RGHT7.<L7.)-LFT7.<L7.)) 
PTR.0NE7.=PTR.TW0% 
GOTO 1.1E1 
RETURN 



THEN PAREN7.=PAREN7.+1 
THEN PAREN7.=PAREN%-1 



9E1 REM ERROR COMMENTOR 

ON ERR7. GOTO 9 . 1E1 , 9 . 2E1 , 9 . 4E1 , 9 . 5E 1 , 9 . 6E1 

9.1E1 PRINT "AN ILLEGAL KEYWORD INPUT— "J 

GOTO 9.3E1 

9.2E1 PRINT 

GOTO 9.3E1 

9.4E1 PRINT 

GOTO 9.3E1 

9.5E1 F'RINT 

GOTO 9.3E1 

9.6E1 PRINT 

9.3E1 PRINT 

RETURN 



'RATINGS MUST BE IN RANGE 0.0... 1.0- 



'ENTIRE PHRASE MUST BE ENCLOSED IN PARENS- 
■RIGHT AND LEFT PARENS MUST BE BALANCED--" 



'KEYWORDS MAY NOT CONTAIN BLANKS- 
'RE-ENTER PHRASE" 



18E1 REM DEFINE CONCEPTS IN TERMS OF KEYWORDS 

PRINT "PLEASE DEEINE EACH OF THE CONCEPTS YOU HAVE ENTERED 

PRINT "IN TERMS OF KEYWORDS AND THEIR APPLICABILITY" 

PRINT "EXAMPLE : THEORY 0.6 APF'LICATIONS 0.8" 

PRINT 

FOR J7. = l TO LZ 

18.3E1 KEYZ=0 

PRINT CONCEPT $<J7.) J 

INPUT "J "J LINE CMD$(J7.) 

CMD$ ( J7. ) =UCASE$ ( CMD$ ( J7. ) ) 

sw%=-i : i%=i 

WHILE <IX<LEN<CMD$<J7.)>> AND ( KEY7.<MAXDEF%) 

WHILE MID$(CMD$<J7.),I7.,1)=" " : I%=17.+ 1 : WEND 
DUM$=RIGHT$<CMD$(J7.),LEN<CMD$<J7.)>-I7.+ 1> 
IF NOT SW7. THEN 18.7E1 

KEYX-KEYX+1 

GOSUB 8E1 

CON . KEY7. ( J7. , KEY X ) =KB7. 

SW7.=0 



Listing 7 continued on page 404 



THE FORTH SOURCE 



TM 



MVP-FORTH - A Public Domain Product 

MVP Forth is fig-FORTH modified by 100% of the FORTH-79 Standard 
Required Word Set plus the vocabulary for the instructional book Starting 
FORTH. Editor, assembler and utilities are included. 

Transportability of programs is assured since the kernal of MVP-FORTH 
is the same for all computers to the machine dependent READ/WRITE 
instructions. 

Modification and extension (up or down) is simplified by having the 
source code and through the use of MVP-FORTH Programming Aids and 
Cross Compilers. 

The CP/M* are supplied on 8", SS/SD, IBM 3740. format disks. The 
include a track and sector calculation array for down loading to other 
sizes and formats. Other disks are machine specific. 

All About FOR TH is an annotated glossary of MVP-FORTH words as well 
as other dialects. It is in 8080 code, other MVP-FORTH implementations 
include documentation of the differences between it and other CPU's and 
computers. 



MVP-FORTH PRODUCTS for CP/M® IBM-PC® and Apple® 

LI MVP-FORTH Programmer's Kit including disk with 
documentation, ALL ABOUT FORTH, and STARTING 
FORTH. Assembly source listing versions. $100 

L ] MVP-FORTH Disk with documentation. Assembly source 
listing version. $75 

I ) MVP-FORTH Cross Compiler with MVP-FORTH source in 
FORTH. $300 

I I MVP-FORTH Programming Aids for decompiling. 

callfinding. and translating. Specify computer. $1 50 

I I MVP-FORTH Fast Floating Point for Apple ll/ll + on board 
with 951 1 math chip. Requires MVP-FORTH for Apple $400 

U MVP-FORTH Assembly Source Printed listing. $20 

LI ALL ABOUT FORTH by Haydon. MVP-FORTH reference, 
plus fig-FORTH and FORTH-79. $20 

• ••MVP-FORTH operates under a variety of CPU's, computers, 
and operating systems. Specify your computer and operating 
system. CP/M supplied on 8". SS/SD, 3740 format. • • • 



FORTH DISKS 

FORTH with editor, assembler, and 
APPLE ll/ll + by 
MicroMotion $100 

□ APPLE II by Kuntze $90 
C ATARI' 1 valFORTH $50 

□ CP/M* by MicroMotion $1 00 
J CROMEMCO* by Inner 

Access $1 00 

HP-85 by Lange $90 

Z IBM-PC" by Laboratory 
Microsystems $100 

□ NOVA by CCI. quad 

floppy $100 



manual. 
D PET" by FSS $90 

D TRS-80/r by Nautilus 
Systems $90 

G 6800 by Talbot 

Microsystems $100 

G 6809 by Talbot 

Microsystems $1 00 

G Z80 by Laboratory 

Microsystems $50 

8086/88 by Laboratory 
Microsystems $100 

G VIC FORTH byHES. VIC20 
cartridge $60 



FORTH MANUALS, GUIDES & DOCUMENTS 

G AIM FORTH User's 

Manual 
□ APPLE User's Manual 



U 



G 



Enhanced FORTH with: 

S-Stand Alone, M-Math 

Extras, 79-FORTH-79. 

APPLE ll/ll + by Micro- 
Motion. F. G, &79 $140 
ATARI by 

PNS, F. G. & X. $90 

I ; CP/M by MicroMotion. 

F&79 $140 

Apple ll/ll + ,GraFORTH by 
Insoft. stand alone 
graphics $75 

[J H89/Z89 by Haydon, 

T & S $250 

[ i H89/Z89 by Haydon. T $1 75 



F-Floating Point, G-Graphics. T-Tutorial. 
Chip Support, MT-Multi-Tasking, X-Other 



[ I 



IBM-PC, PolyFORTH by 

FORTH Inc.. 

F, G, S. M, MT. & X $300 

Multi- Tasking FORTH by 

Shaw Labs. CP/M. 

X & 79 $395 



G TRS-80/1 or III by Miller 
Microcomputer Services, 
F. X. & 79 $130 

G TUTORIAL by Laxen & 
Harris. CP/M with a copy of 
Starting FORTH $95 

G Extensions for Laboratory 
Microsystems IBM.Z80. and 
8086 
G Software Floating 

Point 
D 8087 Support 

(IBM-PC or 8086) 
L) 951 1 Support 

(Z80 or 8086) 
U Color Graphics 

(IBM-PC) 
[J Data Base 

Management 



$100 

$100 

$100 

$100 

$200 

CROSS COMPILERS Allow extending, modifying and compiling for 
speed and memory savings, can also produce ROMable code. •Requires 
FORTH disk. 

LI CP/M $300 LI IBM- $300 

I I H89/Z89 $300 U 8086- $300 

I I TRS-80/I $300 I t Z80- $300 

[ I Northstar $300 L I Apple ll/ll + $350 

I ] fig-FORTH Programming Aids for decompiling, callfinding, 
and translating. Specify CP/M, IBM-PC. 8086, Z80. or 
Apple ll/ll + $150 



G ALL ABOUT FORTH by 

Haydon. An annotated 
glossary of common FORTH 
words. MVP-FORTH 
reference. $20 

And So FORTH by Huang A 
college level text. $25 

FORTH Encyclopedia by 
Derick & Baker. A complete 
programmer's manual to fig- 
FORTH with FORTH-79 
references. Flow charted, 
2nd Ed. $25 

LI Starting FORTH by Brodie. 
Best instructional manual 
available, (soft cover) 

I I Starting FORTH (hard 
cover) 

1980 FORML Proc. 

1981 FORML Proc. 
2 Vol. 

1982 FORML Proc. 
1981 Rochester FORTH 
Proc. 

□ 1982 Rochester FORTH 
Proc. 

G Using FORTH 

□ A FORTH Primer 
G Threaded Interpretive 

Languages 



$12 



$20 



G 
G 



G 
□ 



$16 

$20 
$25 

$40 
$25 

$25 

$25 
$25 
$25 

$21 



MicroMotion 

□ TRS-80 User's Manual, 
MMSFORTH $19 

□ METAFORTH by Cassady. 
Meta compiler in 8080 
code $30 

G Systems Guide to fig- 
FORTH $25 
G Caltech FORTH Manual $1 2 
G Invitation to FORTH $20 
G PDP-11 FORTH User's 

Manual 
G CP/M User's Manual, 
MicroMotion 

□ FORTH-79 Standard 
G FORTH-79 Standard 

Conversion 

G Tiny Pascal in 

fig-FORTH 

□ NOVA fig-FORTH by CCI 
with editor, assembler, and 
utilities $15 

□ MVP-FORTH Source Listings 
D IBM-PC □ CP/M 
□ Apple ll/ll + 



$20 

$20 
$15 

$10 

$10 



$20 



Q Installation Manual for fig-FORTH, contains FORTH 

model, glossary, memory map and instructions $1 5 

Source Listings of fig-FORTH, for specific CPU's and computers. The 
Installation Manual is required for implementation. Each $1 5 

G 1802 G 6502 G 6800 D AlphaMicro 

G 8080 G 8086/88 G 9900 □ APPLE II 

G PACE G 6809 G NOVA G PDP-1 1/LSI-11 

□ 68000 □ Eclipse □ VAX 
Ordering Information: Check. Money Order (payable to MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS. 
INC.). VISA. MasterCard or COD's accepted. No billing or unpaid PO's. California 
residents add sales tax. Shipping costs in US included in price. Foreign orders, pay 
in US funds on US bank, include for handling and shipping by Air: $5 for each item 
under $25. $10 for each item between $25 and $99 and $20 for each item over 
$1 00. Minimum order $10. All prices and products subject to change or withdrawal 
without notice. Single system and/or single user license agreement required on 
some products. 
DEALER & AUTHOR INQUIRIES INVITED 



MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS, INC. 



PO BOX 4656 



MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040 



(415)961-4103 



Circle 297 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 403 



Circle 240 on Inquiry card. 



M89.95* 

|The Best and Most Complete 
LOGO for Apple 1 1 on the market 
lat a Super Saver price. 

jSprites now available for LOGO 



Krell's College Board 

SAT* 

Preparation Series 

ATARI, APPLE, PET, TRS-80, IBM 

A COMPREHENSIVE PREPARATION PACKAGE 
MORE THAN 40 PROGRAMS/$299.95 

1. Diagnostic analysis 

2. Prescription of Individual study plans 

3. Coverage of all SAT* skills 

4. Unlimited drill and practice 

5. SAT* Exam Question simulator 

6. All questions in SAT* format and at 
SAT* difficulty level 

7. Instantaneous answers, explanations 
and scoring for problems 

8. Worksheet generation and performance 
monitoring - (optional) 

9. A complete record mmanagement system - 
(optional) 

10. Systematic Instruction in pertinent math, 

verbal and test taking skills - (optional) 

Krell's unique logical design provides 

personalized Instruction for each student 

according to Individual needs. 



Shelby Lyman 
Chess 



& 



Shelby's Socrates Chess Tutorial Series uses the 
latest Al Techniques to customize each lesson for 
you. Construction modules cover every aspect of the 
game. For all micro's. Call or write for details. 



Amazing Ben 

The Roya! Road to 
Artifical Intelligence 

$79.95 



CONNECTIONS 

A complete game system. Learn the principles of 
scientific reasoning in your choice of game formats. 
Expand minds at all ages. Subject areas include: 
Geography, Biology, Everyday Objects, etc. 

Game System $99.95 

Data Base, $24.95 per subject, 
3 for $50 



Isaac Newton + F.G. Newton 
$49.95 



Descarte's Delight 
$89.95 



1320 Stony Brook Road/Stony Brook, NY 11790 
Telephone 516-751-5139 

Krell Software Corp. has no official ties with the College Ent- 
rance Examination Board or the Educational Testing Service. 
Krell is. however, a supplier of products to the ETS 

'Trademarks of Apple Comp. Corp.. Tandy Corp. 
Commodore Corp. Digilal Research Corp.. IBM., Atari Corp. 

N.Y.S. residents add sales tax 



Listing 7 continued: 



132*. GOTO 18.8E1 

133: 18.7E1 CH$=LEFT$<DUM$,1) 

134: IF (CH$<>"«"> AND ((CHS-O'O") OR (CH$>"9" )) THEN \ 

135: ERR%=5 : GOSUB 9E1 : ERR7. = : GOTO 18.3E1 

136: IF CH$=" ." THEN \ 

137: CON.RATE<JX,KEY7.)=VAL("0" + DUM$> \ 

138: ELSE C0N.RATE(J7.,KEYX)=VAL(DUM$> 

139: IF (CON. RATE <J7.,KEY7.)>1.0) OR ( CON. RATE ( JX, KEYXKO . ) THEN\ 

140 : ERR7.=2 *. GOSUB 9E1 :\ 

141 : ERR7.=0 : GOTO 18.3E1 

142: SWX=-1 

14 3: 1B.8E1 WHILE (MIO$ < CMO$ < J7. ) ,17. , 1 )<>" ") AND ( I7.<LEN( CMD$ < J7.) ) ) 

144: IX-IX+1 

14 5*. WEND 

146: WEND 

147: CON.KEY7.(J7.,KEY7.+ 1) = : CON . RATE < J7.,KEY7.+ 1 ) =0 . 

148*. NEXT J7. 

149*. RETURN 

150: 

151 : 

152*. 8E1 REM BREAKOUT KEYWORD FROM INPUT STRING AND FIND NUMBER 

153: IR7.=1 

154*. WHILE MID$(DUM$,IRX,1><>" " : IRX=IR%+1 : WEND 

155: W0R0$=LEFT$<DUM$,IR7.-1) + BLANK* 

156*. WORO$=LEFT$<WORO$,KWO.LENX) 

157: REM BINARY SEARCH FOR WORD IN KEYWORD ARRAY 

158*. IB7.=1 *. JBX=VOC.LENX 

159: 8.1E1 KBX=<JBX+IBX)/2 

160*. IF WORO$>KEYWO$(KBX> THEN \ 

IBX=KE:X + 1 \ 

ELSE JB7.=KB7.-1 
163*. IF (W0R0$OKEYWD$(KB7. )) AND <IBX<=JB7.) THEN 8.1E1 
164: IF (WORO$OKEYWD$<KBX>> THEN \ 

ERR7. = 1 *. GOSUB 9E1 *. ERR7. = :\ 

GOTO 18.3E1 
IX=IR7.+IX-1 
168*. RETURN 
169: 

REM NO FILES 

34E1 PRINT "NO LIBRARY FILE NAMED "J LIBNAME* 



161*. 
162: 



165*. 
166*. 
167*. 



170 : 

171: 

172*. 

173: 



INF'UT 
STOP 



'PRESS RETURN TO EXIT TO SYSTEM 



LINE ANS$ 



Listing 8: BIBSR2 is the second of the two portions of the search program. It scans the 
file of articles, calculating a satisfaction rating for each, summarizes the scan results, 
and lists those articles that meet your specifications. 



REM 



-FILE BIBSR2.BAS 



3: 

4*. 
5*. 
6*. 
7J 

8: 

9*. 
10*. 

11 J 

12: 

13*. 

14*. 
15*. 
16*. 

17: 
is: 
19: 

20*. 
21*. 

22: 
23: 

2 4*. 
25*. 
26*. 
27*. 
28*. 
29*. 

3 0*. 
31: 
32*. 
33*. 
34*. 
35: 
36: 
37*. 
38: 
39: 

4 0*. 
41*. 

42: 

43*. 



REM SEGMENT TWO OF BIBLIOGRAPHY SEARCH PROGRAM 

COMMON KEYWD* ( 1 ) , LIBNAME* , RLEN7. , TRUE7. , AUTH . LEN7. , TITL . LEN7. 

COMMON MAXBIBX,MAXDESC7.,MAXDEFX,MAXKEYS7.,MAXC0N7.,C0NCEFT$<1> 

COMMON ISS . LEN7. , CLS$ , ERR7. , JOUR . LENX , KWO . LEN7. , CMD$ < 1 ) 

COMMON LFT7. ( 1 ) , RGHT7. ( 1 ) , CO N . KEY7. < 2 ) , CON . RATE ( 2 ) , QUERY* , L7. 

DIM OP.STK$<MAXCONX) , V . STK ( MAXC0N7. ) , ART . KEYXC MAXDESC7.) 

DIM RPTX < 1 1 > , ART . VAL < MAXDESC7. ) , V < MAXC0N7. ) , RATING7. < MAXBIB7.) 

GOSUB 19E1 

CHAIN "BIBLIO" 

STOP 

REM FUZZY LOGICAL FUNCTIONS 

DEF FN.ZADEH(A,B,CH$> 

ERR7.=0 

IF CH$="x" THEN 4E1 

IF CH$="+" THEN 4.1E1 

IF CH$<>"#" THEN FN.ZADEH=0: ERR7. = 3 : RETURN 

IF BX1.0-A) THEN FN,ZAOEH=B ELSE FN.ZADEH= 1. 0-A 

RETURN 

4E1 IF A<E: THEN FN.ZADEH=A ELSE FN.ZADEH=E: 

RETURN 

4.1E1 IF A>B THEN FN.ZADEH=A ELSE FN.ZADEH=Ei 

RETURN 

FEND 

3E1 REM BUILD STRING Y* FROM QUERY* BY REPLACING CONCEPT 

REM NAMES WITH THEIR VALUES 

Y$="" : Y$=LEFT$<QUERY$,LFT7.<1>-1) 

LFT7. ( LV.+ 1 ) =LEN ( QUERY* ) + 1 

FOR I% = 1 TO L7. 

V$=STR$(V(IX>> 

Y$ = Y$+V$+MID$ ( QUERY $ , RGHT% < 17. ) , LFT7. < I7.+ 1 ) -RGHT7. < 17. ) ) 

NEXT 17. 
RETURN 

2E1 REM REDUCE Y$ BY PERFORMING FUZZY LOGICAL OPS 
J7. = l *. L17.=LEN(Y$) 

THEN RETURN 



IF LEFT$(Y$,1 )<>"(' 
WHILE MIO$<Y$,J7.,l)< 

J7.=J7. + 1 *. WEND 
1 7.= J 7. 



' >' 



Prices slightly higher outside US 



Listing 8 continued on page 406 



404 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Scientific Applications Performed In: 

LIGHTNING 




FORTRAN PROGRAM 1 

A = 1.52 

Do 101 = 1, 100000 

B = A + 1.43 

10 Continue 

Execution time = 6.5 sec. 



FORTRAN PROGRAM 2 

A=1.52 

Do 101 = 1, 100000 

B = A/1.43 

10 Continue 
Execution time = 8 sec. 



(WITH BENCH MARKS 
TO PROVE IT!) 

The above bench marks were run on our LDP2 
system, which includes: The Lightning One* 
CPU, LDP72 floppy disk controller, HAZITALL 
system support and RAM67, 128K Static RAM. 
The operating system is MS-DOS**. The For- 
tran Compiler is Microsoft's Fortran, Version 
3.01. And, the Lightning One equipped with an 
8086 and 8087, runs at 8 MHz. 

If your computer, micro or mini, can't offer 
such high performance, it's time for you to call 
Lomas Data Products, so you can make your 
own "lightning speed" calculations. LDP offers 
a full line of quality SI 00 bus products: sys- 
tems, boards & software, all engineered to ex- 
acting reliability and 
performance crite- 
ria with a full one 
year guarantee. [| 



LDP 



ml 

Dealer and OEM inquiries invited. 
New expanded facilities: 

LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS, INC. □ 66 Hopkinton Road, 
Westboro, Mass. 01581 □ Tel: (617) 366-6434 

* Trademark of Lomas Data Products, Inc. ** trademark of Microsoft, Inc. 



Circle 250 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 405 



Circle 287 on inquiry card. 



CP/M® Users: 

Access IBM 
with ReformaTTer™ 



ReformaTTer conversion software lets 
you read and write IBM 3740 disk- 
ettes* on your CP/M or MP/M system. 

ReformaTTer is ideal for CP/M users 
who want 

• Access to large system data bases 

• Distributed data processing 

• Offline program development 

• Database conversion 

With ReformaTTer, you have the 
ability to 

• Bidirectionally tranfer complete 
files between CP/M and IBM 

• Automatically handle ASCII/ 
EBCDIC code conversion 

• Display and alter IBM 3740 direc- 
tory and data 

Enjoy the same advantages of main- 
frame access that other ReformaTTer 
users have. Customers like Gpjohn, 
M&M/Mars, The United Nations, 
Arthur Young & Co., Sandia Labs, 
FMC Corp., and Stanford University 
all use ReformaTTer. So can you. 

Other versions of ReformaTTer con- 
version software include 

CP/M** DEC (RT 11) 

TRSDOS Mod. II ~ CP/M 

TRSDOS Mod. II ~ DEC (RT 1 1) 

Order ReformaTTer today for only 

$249. 

*IBM 3 740 basic data exchange format. Refor- 
maTTer requires one 8 " floppy drive. 




(415) 324-9114 

TWX: 910-370-7457 

467 Hamilton Av., Suite 2, Palo Alto, CA 94301 
CP/M is a reg. trademark of Digital Research 



Please send complete information on the follow- 
ing versions of ReformaTTer^ 



□ Please send ReformaTTer CP/M — IBM. My 
check for $249 (plus $5 shipping. Cal. 

Res. add 6V2% sales tax). □ Charge to my 

□ VISA □ MasterCard. 

# exp. date 



Signature 

Name 

Company 

Street 

City 

State 



.Zip 



Mail to MicroTech Exports, Inc. 
467 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301 



Listing 8 continued: 

44: WHILE MID$<Y$,IX,1)0 M < M 

45S IX=IX-1 J WEND 

46: i%=i%+i i 

47: MX = IX 

48: V.PTRX=MAXC0NX : 0P.PTRX=MAXC0NX 

49: 2.2E1 KX=MX 

SO: WHILE (ASC(MID*(Y$,KX,1))>=44) 

51 : KX=KX+1 t WEND 

52: V . STK < V . PTRX ) =VAL ( MID* ( Y$ , M X , KX-MX ) ) 

53: V.PTRX=V.PTRX-1 

54: IF KX=JX THEN 2.1E1 

55: OP . STK* (OP. PTRX)=MID$ < Y$ , KX , 1 ) 

56: 0P.PTRX=0P.PTRX-1 



57: 

58t 

59: 
6o: 
6i: 
62: 
63: 
64: 
65: 
66: 
67: 
68: 
69: 
70: 

711 

72: 
73: 
74: 
75: 
76: 

77 X 

78: 

79: 

8o: 

8i : 

82: 

83: 

84: 

85: 

86: 

87: 

88: 

89: 

90 : 

91: 

92: 

93: 

94: 

95: 

96: 

97: 

98: 

99: 

loo: 

101: 

1021 

103: 
104: 
los: 

106! 

107: 
los: 
109: 
no: 
in: 
112: 

113: 

114! 

115: 
116: 
117: 
us: 
119: 
120: 
121: 
122: 
123: 
124: 
125: 
126: 
127: 
128: 
129: 
130: 
131 : 
132: 
133: 
134: 
135: 
136: 
137: 
138: 
139: 
140: 



MX=KX+1 

GOTO 2.2E1 

2.1E1 WHILE 0P.PTRX<MAXC0NX 

0P.PTRX*0P.PTRX+1 *. OP$=OP.STK$<OP.PTRX> 

V.PTRX=V.PTRX+1 S V1=V.STK(V.PTRX) 

V.PTRX=V.PTRX+1 J V2=V.STK(V.PTRX) 

T=FN.ZADEH<V1,V2,0P$) 

IF ERRX THEN RETURN 

V.STK(V.PTRX)=T : V . PTRX=V .PTRX-1 

WEND 
V.PTRX*V.PTRX+1 J V1*V.STK<V.PTRX) 
IF MID$(Y$, JX + 1,1)='"" THEN \ 

V1=1.0-V1 *. \ 

Y**LEFT* ( Y* , IX-2 ) +STR$ < V 1 ) +RIGHT* < Y$ , L 1 X- JX- 1 ) \ 

ELSE \ 

Y$=LEFT$(Y$,IX-2)+STR*<Vl)+RIGHT$<Y$,LlX-JX) 
GOTO 2E1 
RETURN 

REM CONVERT TWO ASCII HEX TO INTEGER 

DEF FN.TWO.INTX(DUM$) 

TENX=ASC ( MID* ( DUM* ,1,1)) 

IF TENX>64 THEN TENX=TENX-55 ELSE TENX=TENX-48 

0NEX= ASC ( MID* ( DUM$ ,2,1)) 

IF 0NEX>64 THEN 0NEX=0NEX-55 ELSE 0NEX=0NEX-48 

FN.TW0.INTX=16*TENX+ ONEX 

RETURN 

FEND 

REM CONVERT ONE ASCII HEX TO REAL 

DEF FN.ONEREAL(DUM$) 

ONEX=ASC ( MID* ( DUM* ,3,1)) 

IF 0NEX>64 THEN 0NEX=0NEX-55 ELSE 0NEX=0NEX-48 

FN.ONEREAL=ONEX/10.0 

RETURN 

FEND 



19E1 REM READ IN BIBLIO AND CALCULATE SATISFACTION LEVELS 

IF END #2 THEN 20.1E1 

BIB.LENX=0 J DESC. BEGX=AUTH.LENX+TITL.LENX+ JOUR. LENX+ISS.LENX+1 

OPEN LIBNAM£$+".BIB" AS 2 BUFF 16 RECS 128 

READ #2; LINE BUFF$ 

WHILE TRUEX 

READ #2; LINE BUFF$ 
BIB.LENX=BIB.LENX+1 
IF LEFT*(BUFF$,5)="ZZZZZ" THEN \ 

RATINGX(BIB.LENX)=0 : GOTO 19.5E1 
REM DECODE DESCRIPTORS 
KX=DESC.BEGX *. DESC.NOX = 
WHILE TRUEX 

DUM$=MID$(BUFF$,KX,3) 

IF DUM$="FFF" THEN 19.1E1 

DESC . NOX=DESC . NOX+1 

ART . KEYX ( DESC .NOX ) =FN . TWO . INTX ( DUM$ ) 

ART . VAL ( DESC . NOX ) =FN . ONEREAL ( DUM$ ) 

KX=KX+3 
WEND 

19.1E1 REM DETERMINE ARTICLE VALUE V(JX) FOR EACH CONCEPT 
FOR JX=1 TO LX 

KEYX=1 J MIN=1.0 : MAX=0.0 
WHILE CON . KEYX ( JX , KE YX ) <>0 
REM FIND MATCHING ART. KEYX 
RAL«0.0 
FOR IX=1 TO DESC. NOX 

IF ART. KEYX ( IX )«C0N. KEYX (JX, KEYX) THEN \ 

RAL=ART.VAL(IX) 
NEXT IX 
IF RAL<CON.RATE(JX,KEYX) THEN MIN=RAL ELSE \ 

MIN=CON . RATE ( JX , KE YX ) 
IF MIN>MAX THEN MAX=MIN 
KEYX=KEYX+1 
WEND 
V(JX)=MAX 
NEXT JX 
GOSUB 3E1 
GOSUB 2E1 
IF ERRX THEN 22E1 
RATINGX ( BIB . LENX ) = 1 xVAL < Y$ ) 
19.5E1 WEND 
20.1E1 CLOSE 2 

21E1 REM SEARCH OVER RATINGS TO COMPUTE #ARTICLES VS RATINGS 



Listing 8 continued on page 410 



406 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



APbPLUS 

is Here! 



The world's most powerful programming 

language is now available for your IBM® 

Personal Computer. 



If your code is longer than 

NtCSiN;] —To sort a list of 
names N according to collating 
sequence CS 

( 1+ 1 ) ±C —To calculate the 
final balance on a cash-flow 
stream C at varying interest 
rates I 

A/EEW — To multiply matrix M by 
the inverse of matrix N 

M*M — To multiply M by itself 

( ( x pA ) =A i A ) I A— To remove 
any duplicates from a list of data 

9 9 + 2 5 ? 9 00 —To generate 25 
different random numbers 
between 100 and 999 



then you are 

* reinventing the whejel 

* playing head games with 
BASIC or PASCAL, or 

* unaware of APL. 

Don't take our word for it — 
ask someone who knows the APL 
language. It's powerful, and our 
APL*PLUS micro versions available 
for the IBM PC and the TRS-80" 
Model III support the full range of 
features you'd expect for your 
microcomputer. APL is easy to 
learn — easier than BASIC for the 
same function. The documentation 
that comes with the APL*PLUS/PC 
System includes APL is Easy!, along 
with the most popular APL self- 
teaching text, APL. An Interactive 
Approach by Gilman and Rose, and 
a detailed reference manual. 



STSC, a Contel Company, has been 
an international leader in APL 
computer services since 1969. The 
same system that is used to solve 
problems for the largest industrial 
and financial organizations in the 
world is now available for your PC. 
Everything you need to become an 
expert in this system is available 
today. Act now. 

APL*PLUS/PC minimum system configura- 
tion: The APL*PLUS/PC System operates 
under the PCDOS operating system on IBM's 
Personal Computer with at least 128K of 
RAM memory and at least one disk drive. It 
automatically supports the Intel 1 " 8087 Float- 
ing Point Coprocessor if installed. 



stsc 



APL* PLUS/PC System Distribution 

STSC, Inc., 2115 East Jefferson Street 

Rockville, Maryland 20852 (301) 984-5000 (credit card orders only) 

Please send the APL*PLUS/PC System, including 
documentation and a custom character ROM which enables 
the PC to display the APL character set. 

IZI Enclosed is my check for $595. Add applicable state and local 
sales tax in CA, CO, CT, IL, MA, MD, MI, NC, NM, NY, PA.TX, WA. 

CI Charge my MasterCard Account # 

Bank# Expiration date 

Q Charge my VISA Account # 

Expiration date 

Credit card customers add $4.00 shipping and handling in the 
continental U.S. 

CD Send me your free information package. 

Name 

Address 



City State Zip 

Phone ( ) 

BY-383 

APL*PLUS is a servicemark and trademark of sSTSC, Inc., registered in the U.S. Patent, and 

Trademark Office and in certaih other countries, IBM is a trademark of International Business 

Machines. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation. TRS-80 is a registered trademark of 

Tandy Corporation. 



Circle 405 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



407 




For everyone who's tried 
to top the MX-80, bad news. 
We just did. 

Epson. 



The Epson MX-80 is the best-selling dot 
matrix impact printer in the world. It has 
been since its introduction. And despite the 
host of imitators it spawned, no one has 
been able top it. Until now. 
FX-80: Son of a legend. 
The new Epson FX-80 is far more than just 
doo-dads added on to last year's model. It's 
the most astonishing collection of features 
ever assembled in a personal printer. 

For starters, it's fast: 160 CPS. And clean. 
All the print quality Epson is famous for in a 
tack-sharp 9x9 matrix. 

But that hardly scratches the surface. 
Create your own alphabet. 
With the new FX-80, you aren't limited to 
ASCII characters. You can create your own. 
Any character or symbol that can be defined 
in a 9x11 matrix can be added to the FX-80's 
already impressive library of type styles and 
stored in its integral 2K RAM. 

So you can create "Sally's Gothic" or 
"Tom's Roman" just by downloading and 
modifying standard characters. Or you can 
create a custom set from scratch. Either way, 
you can store up to 256 new characters. And 
if you don't need a new alphabet, the RAM 
functions as a 2K data input buffer. 
Who knows graphics better than Epson? 
Nobody, that's who. And if you don't 
believe it, witness the FX-80. 

With a 12K ROM capacity, the FX-80 gives 
you a few things the others don't. For exam- 
ple, not one, not two, but seven different dot 
addressable graphic modes are program 



selectable. And can be mixed in the same 
print line. Everything from 72 DPI (dots- 
per-inch) Plotter Graphics to the 640 dots 
per line resolution designed to match the 
remarkable monitor clarity of the Epson 
QX-10 personal computer. 

And that is in addition to an astonishing 
array of 136 different user-selectable type 
styles including Proportional, Elite and Italic 
as well as the more conventional faces you 
get on other printers. 

Hard-to-beat hardware. 

The FX-80 has all the hardware features 
you've come to know and love on the MX 
Series: logic seeking, bidirectional printing, 
the by-now-famous disposable printhead, 
and more. 

The FX-80 features an adjustable pin 
platen or optional friction /tractor feed, so 
you can use fanfold, roll or sheet paper . . . 
backwards or forwards. The FX-80 even 
gives you reverse paper feed. 

And if you're printing forms, the FX-80 
has a feature you're gonna love: a function 
that allows you to tear off the paper within 
one inch of the last print position. 

Be the first on your block. 

We'd be willing to bet that the FX-80 — like 
the MX-80 — will have its share of imitators. 
Don't be fooled. To make sure you get the 
genuine article, rush down to your local 
computer store right now and let them show 
you everything the FX-80 can do. 

And while you're there . . . ask them to 
show you how it works with our computers. 




EPSON 

EPSON AMERICA, INC. 

COMPUTER PRODUCTS DIVISION 

3415 Kashiwa Street 
Torrance, California 90505 
(213)539-9140. 
Outside California, phone 
(800) 421-5426 for the 
Epson dealer nearest you. 

Circle 178 on inquiry card. 



Circle 427 on inquiry card. 



AVAILABLE 
NOW! 




(VERSION IV.1) 

FOR THE 



9000 



THE MOST PORTABLE, 
POWERFUL AND POPULAR 
OPERATING ENVIRONMENT 
IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR 
IMMEDIATE SHIPMENT FOR 
THE VICTOR 9000 / SIRIUS 
COMPUTER 

□■ Full screen editor 

□ Comprehensive filer and 
utilities 

□ PASCAL, FORTRAN and 
BASIC compilers 

□ Object code compatibility 
with IBM, Osborne, Tl, DEC 

□ Extended memory 

□ TURTLEGRAPHICS 

Full use of Victor screen 

□ Native code generator 

Complete trade off 
between size and speed 

□ Xenofile 

p-SYSTEM to/from CP/M 86 

TM-Digital Research Corp. 

□ Complete documentation 
700 pages 

□ Runtime only systems 
also available 



"Trademarks 

Regents of the University of California 
Victor Business Products 



Combine a great machine 
with a great operating system 

ONLY FROM TDI: 



620 HUNGERFORD DRIVE, 

SUITE 33, 

ROCKVILLE, MD. 20850 

(301) 340-8700 

29 ALMA VALE ROAD 
BRISTOL, U.K. BS8 2HL 
0272-742796 



Listing 8 continued: 



141 
142 
143 
144 
145 
146 
147 
148 
149 
150 
151 
152 
153 
154 
155 
156 
157 
158 
159 
160 
161 
162 
163 
164 
165 
166 
167 
168 
169 
170 
171 
172 
173 
174 
175 
176 
177 
178 
179 
180 
181 
182 
183 
184 
185 
186 
187 
188 
189 
190 
191 
192 
193 
194 
195 
196 
197 
198 
199 
200 
201 
202 
203 
204 
205 
206 
207 
208 
209 
210 
211 
212 
213 
214 
215 
216 
217 
218 
219 
220 
221 
222 
223 
224 

225 
226 
227 
228 
229 
230 
231 
232 
233 
234 
235 
236 



FOR I7. = l TO 11 t RPTX(IX>=0 J NEXT 17. 
FOR I7. = l TO BIB. LENX 

KX=RATINGX(IX) + 1 

RPT7. ( KX ) =RPT7. ( KX ) + 1 

NEXT 17. 
FOR 17.= 10 TO 1 STEP -1 

RPTX(IX)=RPTX(I7.) + RPT7.(I7.+ 1) 

NEXT 17. 
21.3E1 PRINT CLS$ 
PRINT TAB ( 11) J "NUMBER OF ARTICLES THAT MEET OR EXCEED RATINGS OF" 

PRINT TABC28); "0.0 1,0" 

PRINT 

PRINT TAB(ll) ;"RATINGS";TAB(22) J "#ARTICLES" J 

PRINT TAB(39)J "RATINGS" J TAB ( 50 ) \ "#ARTICLES" 

PRINT 

FOR I7. = l TO 6 

FOR K7.= TO 1 
IND7.=I7.+6xK7. 
IF INDXM1 THEN 21.9E1 

PRINT USING "#.#";TAB(13+28*K/0 \ (INDX- 1 ) /l ♦ J 
PRINT USING "#*#"; TAB(24+28*KX) J RPTX(l'NDX) » 
NEXT K7. 

21.9E1 PRINT 

NEXT 17. 
PRINT 



•" INT7. (10,0*MINRAT) THEN 21.1E1 



REM FIND AND LIST ARTICLES THAT MEET MINIMUM THRESHOLD 

INPUT "ENTER MINIMUM RATING DESIRED FOR ARTICLE;: PRINTOUT: 

GOSUB 24E1 

OPEN LIBNAME$+".BIB" RECL RLEN7. AS 2 

I% = 

IF END #2 THEN 21.2E1 

WHILE I7.<BIB.LEN7. 

I7. = I7. + 1 

IF RATINGX(IX) 

READ #2,I7.+ i; LINE BUFF$ 

GOSUB 25E1 

21.1E1 WEND 
21.2E1 CLOSE 2 



CONSOLE 

INPUT "DO YOU WISH TO RE-SEARCH WITH DIFFERENT THRESHOLD ( Y/N) 

IF UCASE$(LEFT*(ANS$,1))="Y" THEN 21.3E1 

FOR I7. = l TO MAXC0N7. \ OP . STK$< 17.) ="" : NEXT IX 

RETURN 

22E1 PRINT "INVALID FUZZY OPERATOR IN INTERROGATION PHRASE" 
INPUT "PRESS RETURN TO RESTART SEARCH ROUTINE "J LINE ANS$ 
CHAIN "BIBSRCH" 



•JMINRAT 



■ ; ANS$ 



PRNT$ 



LIBNAME$ 



24E1 REM PRINT OUTPUT HEADER INFO 

INPUT "DO YOU WISH A PRINTED OUTPUT (Y/N)? 

INX=1 : LLENX=63 

IF UCASE$(LEFT$(PRNT$, 1) )="Y" THEN \ 

LPRINTER : INX=6 : LLENX = 79 *.\ 

FOR IPX=1 TO 5 : PRINT *. NEXT IPX 
PRINT TAB(21)J "Fuzzy Search of Library "J 
PRINT TAB.C1NX)} 

FOR IPX=1 TO 63 : PRINT "-"J \ NEXT IPX : PRINT 
PRINT TAB(INX); "Interrogation Phrase :" 
PRINT TAB(IN7.+3)J QUERY$ 

PRINT TAB(INX); "Interrogation Phrase Definitions l" 
FOR IPX=1 TO LX 

PRINT TAB(INX+3)J CONCEPTS ( IPX ) J " J "J 

PRINT CMD$(IP7.) 

NEXT IPX 
PRINT TAB(INX); "Selection Level *. "f 
PRINT USING "#.#"; MINRAT 
PRINT TAB(INX); 

FOR IPX=1 TO 63 J PRINT "-"J : NEXT IPX t PRINT 
LCNTX=LX+13 
RETURN 

25E1 REM PRINT ARTICLE DATA 

SPX=INX+5 

IF JOUR.LENX>ISS.LENX THEN SPX=SPX+JOUR .LENX \ 

ELSE SPX=SPX+ISS.LEN7. 
IF LCNTX>57 THEN \ 

FOR IPX=1 TO 71-LCNTX I PRINT : NEXT IPX : LCNTX=LCNTX+5 
PRINT TAEKINX); "Record : "J 
PRINT USING "####"; ix; 
IF (SPX+11)>LLENX THEN PRINT TAB(INX)J J LCNTX=LCNTX+1 :\ 

ELSE PRINT TAB(SPX); 
PRINT "Level : "J 

PRINT USING "#.#"; RATINGX(IX)/10.0 

PRINT TAB ( INX ) J MID$ ( BUFF$ , AUTH . LENX+TITL . LENX+ 1 , JOUR . LENX ) J 

IF (SPX+TITL.LENX)>LLENX THEN PRINT TAB (INX) J : LCNTX = LCNT7. + 1 :\ 

ELSE PRINT TAB(SPX); 
PRINT MID$(BUFF*, AUTH. LEN7.+ 1 , TITL. LENX) 

PRINT TAB ( INX ) J MID$ ( BUFF* , AUTH . LENX + TITL . LENX + JOUR . LENX+ 1 , ISS . LENX ) J 
IF (SPX+AUTH.LENX)>LLENX THEN PRINT TAB (INX) J *. LCNTX = LCNTX+1 :\ 

ELSE PRINT TAB(SPX); 
PRINT LEFT$(BUFF$, AUTH. LENX) 
PRINT 

LCNT^=LCNTX+4 
RETURN 

Additional listing on page 412 



410 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



We speak 

your language 

and translate 

your software needs 

into efficient and 

Quality Services... 



DMA products operate 

on the full range of 8080-8088 

processors, including the IBM-PC 



Here's what you can do! 

Data Base Management 

The FORMULA. 

The Application Generator™ 

This unique software package lets you 
create sophisticated business application 
software without programming. The 
FORMULA builds files, reports, updates, 
sorts, and menus and links them all 
according to the user's specifications. 
It incorporates features of a data base 
manager, a word processor, and a compiler 
into the first "system language" for 
microcomputers. 

Communications 

ASCOM™ 

ASCOM™ Is the most versatile 
asynchronous communication package for 
microcomputers on the market. It features 
interactive, menu-driven, and batch 
operations; supports auto-answer and 
auto-dial modems; includes most popular 
protocols; provides network simulation; 
and many other options. Xerox Corporation, 
NCR, Monroe Systems for Business, and the 
big 8 accounting firms use ASCOM. 

Utilities 

EM80/86™ 

This software emulator lets you use eight 
bit software on sixteen bit microcomputers 
without hardware modifications. 

UT-86™ 

This package of user-friendly utilities 
for the IBM Personal Computer and similar 
systems includes copying, directory sorting, 
patching, and a general purpose file print 
utility. 



Coming Soon 



DMA."C"™ — A "C" language compiler 
which will generate either Z80 or 8086 
assembly language code. Due to a unique 
optimization routine which is based 
upon a functional "P-code" model, the 
efficiency of DMA."C" will far exceed that 
of existing compilers. 

SYNC/ com™ — A bisynchronous 
communication package that will be 
configurable for a variety of systems and 
include a flexible interface to the operating 
system. 

The 8086 O. S. Converter™ — A program 
which will permit programs written for Digital 
Research's CP/M-86™ to execute under 
IBM's PC DOS. 



WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE 



DYNAMIC MICROPROCESSOR ASSOCIATES, INC. 

545 FIFTH AVENUE, NY, NY 10017 

Dealer Inquiries only • (212) 687-7115 



Circle 216 on Inquiry card. 



Main/Frames 



Main/Frames 

from 



• 30 Models of Enclosures 

• Assembled and tested 

• Quasi-Coax Motherboards 

• Power Supply 

• Card cage and guides 

• Fan, line, cord, (use, power 
& reset switches 



fl"|Floppy Main/Frame 

$482 



8" Disc Enclosure 



Phase/80 8" Floppy Mainframe 



Phase /80 Desk + Mainframe 

Write or call for our 

brochure which includes our 

application note: 

"Building Computers — 

A Recipe" 

INrEGWND 

8620 Roosevelt Ave.'VisaliaCA 93291 

209/651-1203 

We accept Bank Americard /Visa 

and MasterCharge 



412 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 9: A copy of the first screen displayed by PARMS during the definition of 
parameters for a new library called COMPJOUR. Entries made by the user are under- 
lined. 

~ par ami;;: i er defini rum for comp jour---- - 

THIS MODULE W! 1.1. DEFINE THE PARAMETERS FOR 1 1 IE I 1BRARY COMPJOUR 
IE YOU DO NOT WISH 10 PROCEED ENTER S ELSE ENTER C _C_ 

** FIRST WE DEFINE THE AR"1 T.CLE RECORD FIELD SIZES ** 

YOU HAVE A MAXIMUM UK 25fi(1 CHARAC f I P!y THAT MCA P.E ALLOCATED 

EUR EACH ARTICLE RECORD. EACH KEYWORD DESCRIPTOR ATTACHED 

WILL. CONSUME THREE UE THESE, 

WHA1. IS THE MAXIMUM MUMPER OF DE SCRIPT DRS PEP ARTICLE? B_ 

YOU HAVE T/6 CHARACTERS RE MAI NINO , 

ENTER MAXIMUM II ELD LENGTHS, IN ORDER, EUR AUTHOR' , TITLE, 

JOURNAL t AMD ISSUE ---ALL UN ONE LINE. SEPARATE, ENTRTFS PY 

ONE OR HOPE SPACES AND FOLIUM I.. AC; I ENTRY WITH RETURN. 
1 7 SO :l 6 1, 6 



Listing 10: A copy of the second screen displayed by PARMS, which completes the 
parameter definitions for COMPJOUR. 



xx NOW WE SET THE MAXIMUM SIZES OF OTHER PARAMETERS »■* 
ENTER, IN ORDER, THE MAX TO BE ALLOWED FOR : 
CHARS PER KEYWORD, NO. OF KEYWORDS IN VOCABULARY <<256) 
NO. CONCEPTS PER INTERROGATION, NO. KEYWORDS PER CONCEPT. 
SEPARATE ENTRIES BY SPACES AND FOLLOW LAST WITH RETURN. 
> 16 ISO B 8 

CAPACITY OF ONE SIDE OF ONE DISK (KILOBYTES): 2 6 

YOU HAVE DISK SPACE FOR 1552 ARTICLES. 
YOU HAVE MEMORY SPACE FOR 13023 ARTICLES. 

1552 ARTICLES IS THE MAXIMUM YOU MAY HAVE. 
DC) YOU WISH TO RE-ALLOCATE THE. AVAILABLE SPACE (Y/N)? N 



MAXIMUM NO. OF ARTICLES DESIRED J 



150 D 



Listing 11: The menu of system functions is redisplayed after a selected function has 
been completed. The second step in building a library is to select menu item 2 to 
build/modify the keyword vocabulary. 



- - - -■ - B I B I... 1 GRAP H Y S E A R C H 

1 BUILD /MODI FY BIBLIOGRAPHY 

2 BUILD/MODIFY KEYWORD VOCABULARY 

3 LIST KEYWORD VOCABULARY WORDS 

4 SEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY FILE 

5 COMPRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY FILE 

6 DONE- -EXIT TO SYSTEM 

PLEASE SELECT DESIRED FUNCTION BY NUMBER: 2 



Listing 12: The screen display as you add three new keywords to the vocabulary. You 
signal the end of the sequence of entries by pressing the return key in response to the 
prompt for another keyword. 

■■■- -KEYWORD Vl.JCABULARY PUIRD/MODlf Y- - 

DO YOU MIS I- 1 TO ADD OR DELETE (A/To? A 



FU7/YSFT 



ENTER KEYWORD l 110 

ENTER KEYWORD I 1 I 1 

ENTER KEYWORD # :l 12 

ENTER KEYWORD Ih 113 



SORTING, . . . 

112 KEYWORDS WRIT TEN TO VOCARl I!. APi 
MODIFYING KEYWORD DESCRIPTORS if) RJ PL JO , . < 



Additional listing on page 414 




for a complete selection of microcomputer hardware, software and accessories. 



Apple/Franklin 



Hayes SmartModem, 
Dow Jones Analyzer 

Reg. 629 NOW $499 
BRODERBUND 

Apple Panic $ 25 

Choplifter 26 

Serpentine 26 

CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE 

Home Accountant . . .$129 

CHARLES MANN 

BasicTeacher $ 30 

Teacher Plus 32 

Medical II 879 

CDEX 

'Visicalc Training . . . .$ 39 

DENVER SOFTWARE 

* Easy (Exec. Att'g) ... .$565 
Financial Partner .... 219 
Pascal Tutor 
or Programmer .... 108 

HOWARD SOFTWARE 

Real Estate Analyzer . . $ 145 
Tax Preparer '83 .... 1 75 
Tax Preparer state: 

CA. NY. NJ, IL . . . . SCall 

KRELL CO. 
Logo $ 135 

LINK SYSTEMS 

Datafax $159 

Datalink 79 

MICROPRO 

Wordstar (Reg. CP/M) .$299 

Mailmerge 149 

CalcStar 99 

SpellStar 149 

SuperSort 159 

Data Pak (Special) ... 480 

MICROSOFT 

Basic Compiler $315 

Cobol-80 599 

Fortran-80 155 

Time Manager 125 

TASC Compiler 135 

A.L.D.S 99 

Multiplan(DOS) 199 

PENGUIN SOFTWARE 

Complete Graphics 

System $ 57 

Graphics Magician ... 48 

OMEGA 

Locksmith $ 79 

Inspector 47 

Watson 44 

GAMES 

HaydenSargonll . . . .$ 25 
InfocomZorkl. II or III . 32 



I nfocom Deadline ... 42 

L&S Crossword Magic 38 

Sirtech Wizardry .... 39 
Sirtech Night of 

Diamonds 29 

MISC. 
ISM Mathemagic .... $ 80 

ISASpellguard 199 

LJK Edit 6502 82 

On-Line Screen Writer II 95 
PFS: Filing, Report 

or Graph 88 

PEACHTREE 

Series 40 

G/L, A/R, A/P ea. ... $ 399 

Inventory 399 

G/L + A/R + A/P 

(Special) 397 

Series 9 

Peachcalc 279 

Telecommunications . 279 

SILICON VALLEY 

Wordhandler(Special) .$149 

Sensible Speller .... 99 



COMPUVIEW 
V-Edit 8080 280, IBM PC$ 130 
V-Edit CP/M86, MS DOS 165 

DIGITAL RESEARCH 

Pascal Mt+ $389 

MAC 85 

SID (8080 Debugger) . . 65 

ZSID(Z80 Debugger) . . 90 

CP/M 2.2 149 

C Basic 2 97 

PL/1-80 449 

FOX AND GELLER 

Quick Screen $125 

Quick Code 237 

D-Util 89 

MARK OF UNICORN 

•Final Word $250 

MICROPRO 

'WordStar(Special) . . .$299 

•MailMerge 149 

'CalcStar 99 

•SpellStar 149 

'SuperSort I 159 

•InfoStar 299 

3-Pack 480 

MICROSOFT 

Basic 80 $279 

Basic Compiler 289 

Fortran 80 345 

Cobol 80 550 

Macro 80 140 

MuMath/MuSimp .... 199 

Multiplan 215 



OASIS 

•The Word Plus $120 

•Punctuation and Style . 99 

PEACHTREE 

General Ledger Series 4$ 399 
Accounts Receivable 

Series 4 399 

Accounts Payable 

Series 4 399 

Inventory Series 4 ... 399 

CPA Client Write-up . . 799 

Series 8 Modules each 485 

• Peackpak 4 (G/L, A/R. 

AP)(Sp) 397 

Peachtext 350 

PROn"EM SOFTWARE 

• Footnote $ 105 

STAR COMPUTER SYSTEM 

G/L, A/R, A/P or Pay . .$350 
Legal Time. Billing . . . 845 
Property Management . 845 

SORCIM 

Supercalc $225 

Trans 86 115 

Act 155 

SUPERSOFT 

Diagnostic II $ 83 

Disk Doctor 84 

Fortran 299 

C-8086 400 

Lisp 120 

Tiny Pascal 63 

Z8000 Assembler . ... 400 

C Cross Assembler .. 400 

Fortran 8086 340 

•Scratchpad 219 

'Optimizer 159 

'Disk Edit 80 

ASHTONTATE 

•dBase II $450 

GAMES 

InfocomZorkl, II or III .$ 32 

Deadline 50 

Yahoo Catchum .... 32 

Supersoft Nemesis . . 37 
Supersoft Dungeon 

Master 34 

Supersoft Analyza II . . 39 



IBM PC 



'Please see CP/M listing for 
products with a "*". All pro- 
grams with a "*" will run on 
PCDOS. 
IUS EasiWriter II ... .$299 

lUSEasiSpeller 149 

IUS Accounting Module 460 
Alpha DataBase 

Manager ....... 170 



Alpha Mailing List . 
Data Most Write-on 
Woolf Move It .... 
ISASpellguard . . . 
Lifetree Volkswriter 
Special Peachpak 

(GL, AR & AP) 
Ecosoft Microstat . 
Northwest Statpak . 
Howard Software Tax 

Preparer '83 ... . 
Organic Software 

Milestone 

Datebook II 

*Microstuf Crosstalk 

GAMES 

Lost Colony .... 
Temple of Apshai . 

Galaxy 

Midway Campaign 

Frogger 

The Warp Factor . 



85 
110 
125 
247 
175 

399 
257 
397 



5 269 

269 

5139 

5 25 
33 
22 
20 
30 
35 



Accessories/ 
Hardware 



BOARDS 

Apple/Franklin 
Coprocessors 88 card .$795 

Softcard (Z80 CP/M) . . 245 
Applescope (your Apple 

as an Oscilloscope) . 595 

Videx 80 Col. Board . . 247 

Microsoft Premium Pak 599 

Videx Enhancer I . . . . 149 

K&D Enhancer 115 

Dan Paymar 

Lower Case 27 

ALS Smarterm 379 

ALSZ-card 269 

Versacard 160 

Bit 3 Dual Comm-pJus . 209 

16K RAM WIZARD ... 79 

Microsoft 16K RAM . . 89 
Echo II Speech 

Synthesizer 159 

IBM PC 

BYAD DS-1 

(64K, Z80, CP/M) . . .$599 

Datamac64K 399 

Zedex Baby Blue .... 495 

Quadram Quad Board . 445 

Quadram 128KRam .. 495 
AST Combo + 64K 

w/Par. Port 350 

Hercules Graphics 

Board 555 

Orchid Monochrome 

GrahicAdptr 432 

QuCeSBig Blue .... 499 

Vista Max icard 64K . . 325 



MISCELLANEOUS 

PercomDoublerll . . . $ 167 
Symtec Light Pen 

(IBM PC) 140 

Symtec Light Pen 

(APII/III) 200 

Microfazer BK Printer 

Buffer 135 

Maynard Floppy Drive 

Controller w/Par. Port 

(ICMPC) 229 

COMPUTERS 
Commodore/A tarl 
Nee/ Xerox — Call for 
Price Information 

MONITORS & TERMINALS 

Amdek Video 300 ... .$160 
Amdek RGB Color ... 699 
NEC 12" Hires Green . 159 
Sanyo 12" Hires Green 199 
USIHi-RLS 12" Amber. 199 
Zenith ZVM 12" Green . 115 
PGS RGB Color 599 

MODEMS 

Novation Apple-Cat II .$299 
Novation 212 Auto Cat 585 
Hayes Smart modem . . 225 
Hayes Smart Modem 

1200 520 

Micromodem II 319 

Hayes Chronograph . . 199 
US Robotics: 
Auto-Dial (Full 

Auto300/1200) .... 459 
Auto-Line (Auto 

Answer300/1000) . . 399 

PRINTERS 

Epson SCall 

C. ItohStarwriter .... 1450 
C. Itoh Prowriter .... 499 
Generic Prowriter . . . 425 

NEC 3530 1890 

NEC8123A 525 

Okidata Microline 82A . 460 
OkidataMicroline83A . 685 
Prism 80 (w/4 options) 

color 1399 

Prism 132 (w/4 options) 1547 
Smith-Corona TP-1 ... 625 

DISK DRIVES 

Rana Elite I (AP II) 

(Special) $325 

Rana Elite II SCall 

Rana Elite III SCall 

Rana Controller (AP II) . 90 
Micro Sci A35(AP II) . . 399 
Tandon 100-2 274 

. . . and many more! 



ORDER TOLL FREE - Outside Wl - 1-800-826-1589 



Please: • Wisconsin residents — add 5% for sales tax 

• Add $3.50 for shipping per software and small 
items. Call regarding others. 

• Foreign - add 15% handling & shipping for 
small items & software. 



We welcome: • Visa, Mastercharge — (Add 4%) 

• Checks (Allow 1-2 weeks for clearing) 

• COD (Add $1.50 per shipment) 

For technical information & in Wisconsin: 715-848-2322 
Store prices differ from mail order. 



OiyX Software • 205ScottSt. • P.O. Box 1961 • Wausau, Wl 54401 



# 



Circle 327 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 413 



Listing 13: After any modifications to the keyword vocabulary, a listing of the complete vocabulary appears on either the display or 
the printer. The printed output is in four columns; the display output would be in three columns. 



COMPJOUR KEYWORD VOCABULARY 



1 


A-I 


29 


CF-M2.2 


57 


INTERPRETER 


85 


QUEUE 


2 


ACCOUNTING 


30 


CRT 


58 


INVENTORY 


86 


RANDOM 


3 


ALGORITHM 


31 


DATA 


59 


LANGUAGE 


87 


RECORDER 


4 


ANALOG 


32 


DEBUG 


60 


LAPLACE 


88 


REGRESSION 


5 


ANALYSIS 


33 


DECIMAL 


61 


LINEAR 


89 


REVIEW 


6 


AF'L 


34 


DECISIONS 


62 


LINKED-LIST 


90 


SCHEDULING 


7 


APPLICATIONS 


35 


DESIGN 


63 


LISTING 


91 


SEARCH 


8 


ASSEMBLER 


36 


DIFFERENTIAL 


64 


LISTS 


92 


SERIAL 


9 


ASSEMBLY 


37 


DIGITAL 


65 


LOGIC 


93 


SET 


10 


ASTRONAUTICS 


38 


DISASSEMBLER 


66 


MAILING 


94 


SIMULATION 


11 


BALLY 


39 


DISK 


67 


MANAGEMENT 


95 


SORT 


12 


BASIC 


40 


DRIVER 


68 


MATHEMATICS 


96 


SPACE 


13 


BOOLEAN 


41 


DUMP 


69 


MATRIX 


97 


STATISTICS 


14 


BUDGET 


42 


EEiASIC 


70 


MCOS 


98 


STRING 


15 


BUSBASIC 


43 


EDITOR 


71 


MERGE 


99 


STRUCTURED 


16 


BUSINESS 


44 


FILE 


72 


MODEM 


100 


STRUCTURED 


17 


CBASIC 


45 


FINANCIAL 


73 


MOTION 


101 


TERMINAL 


18 


CIRCUITS 


46 


FORMATTER 


74 


MSBASIC 


102 


TEST 


19 


CODE 


47 


FOURIER 


75 


NSBASIC 


103 


THEORY 


20 


COMMUNICATIONS 


48 


FUZZY-SET 


76 


PARALLEL 


104 


THREE-DIMENSIONS 


21 


COMPILER 


49 


GAME 


77 


PASCAL 


105 


TRANSCENDENTAL 


22 


COMPRESSION 


50 


GRAPHICS 


78 


PERSONAL 


106 


TRANSLATOR 


23 


CONSTRUCTION 


51 


HARDWARE 


79 


PERSPECTIVE 


107 


TREES 


24 


CONTROL 


52 


HASHING 


80 


PHYSICS 


108 


TRS-80 


25 


CONVERSION 


53 


HEXADECIMAL 


81 


PLOTTER 


109 


TUTORIAL 


26 


COPY 


54 


INPUT/OUTPUT 


82 


PRINTER 


110 


UTILITY 


27 


CORRELATION 


55 


INTEGRATION 


83 


PROGRAM 


111 


WARNIER-ORR 


28 


CP/M 


56 


INTERFACE 


84 


PSEUDORANDOM 


112 


Z-80 




mil 



XJUU letters per hour 
via your personal computer 




delivered in 46 hours or sooner 
ot 264 o piece. 

Whether it's credit and collection applications, announcements to 
your customers, or sales promotions for new services, our MAIL- 
COM software turns your personal computer into a one-button mail- 
ing house of enormous power. All you need is a modem, a personal 
computer, and our MAIL-COM software. 

Our software allows you to link up with the U.S. Postal Service's new 
ECOM System. After receiving your letters via modem, the Postal Ser- 
vice will then print, stuff, seal and deliver the letters usually by the next 
day and guaranteed within 48 hours. 

MAIL-COM software is available now for the IBM PC($195.00)andfor 
the Alpha Micro ($495.00). Next month MAIL-COM software will be 
available for CP-M ($195.00) and for the Apple ($195.00). 

To order, call or write: 



Digisoft 

Computers 



1501 Third Avenue 
New York NY 10028 
(212)734-3875 



BREAKTHROUGH 




S5BK? 



INCOMM AUTO DIAL 300/1200 

(21 2A) MODEM FOR $599.00 
INTRODUCTORY GET 
ACQUAINTED PRICE! 

(For A Limited Time Only!) 
FOR A AUTOMATIC DIALING 

300/1200 BAUD MODEM $ 495 00 

(Limit Two PerCustomer) Compatible with Hayes 
YOU DO NOT NEED ATELEPHONE 

"To originate or to receive a call" Simply hook up the modular jack (RJ11C) directly to the phone line. 

then type the phone number in your terminal or Microcomputer and the INCOMM Auto Dial 
212A Modem will automatically dial the number and make the connection. It will then remember 
the number and will redial by a simple command. The reliability of all INCOMM products is so high 
that we back our products with a full TWO YEAR WARRANTY! 



DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED! 

(Someselected territories are still available) 



CALL COLLECT TO ORDER DESK ONLY (312) 459-8874 

(Bank Cards Accepted) 
115 N. Wolf Road ' ^ ^^ M ^wheeling, , L 60090 

(312)459-8881 



414 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 341 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 208 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 267 on inquiry card. 



Listing 14: The screen display as an article is being added to the bibliography (using 
menu function 1). 

■ - B I B L 1 B U I L D / M D I F Y - - - 

DC) YOU WISH TO ADD OR DELETE ARTICLES (A/D)? _A_ 

PRESSING RETURN IN RESPONSE. TO THE PROMPT 'AUTHOR' 
TERMINATES THIS ROUTINE . 

AUTHOR ; Watson, S, 

iiTle : 

JOURNAL. 
ISSUE ? 



F u 2 7 h D e c 1 s i o n A n a '.I. y s i \ 



IEEE Tr;;n,s SMC -9 



'9 Pi 



ENTER KEYWORDS AND RATINGS, I . E'. . , KEYWORD! 0.5 KEYW0RD2 0.6 
• F U Z Z Y - B E I ;l. f D E C I S 1 N S 0.8 ANA L Y S I S t) , F? A I •' P I... I C A T I G N S (J , 6 



62 ARTICLED ON FILL- 
PRESS RETURN TO GO E'ACK TO MENU 



Listing 15: The display after selecting menu item 4 to search the bibliography file. After 
entering the interrogation phrase, you must define each concept in the phrase in terms 
of keywords that are contained in the relevant vocabulary. 

B I B L 1 G R A P H Y S E A R C H - 



ENTER INTERROGATION PHRASE 
• ( G R A P H I C S * P 1. T T E R x ( P R G R A M » B A S I C ) ) 

PLEASE DEFINE EACH OF THE CONCEPTS YOU HAVE ENTERED 
IN TERMS OF KEYWORDS AND THEIR APPLICABILITY 
EXAMPLE I THEORY 0.6 APPLICATIONS ♦ £1 

graphics: GRAPHICS 1.0 



f ■' l u t i e i v : plotter 0.9 printer . 'i 
p r o g r a m i program 1 , i) listing 1 ♦ 
basic: basic 1,0 



Listing 16: After the search of the article file is completed, a summary of the results is 
displayed, and you enter the minimum rating for articles to be listed. 

NUMBER OF ARTICLES THAT MEET OR EXCEED RATINGS OF 
♦ . , . ♦ . 1 . 



RATINGS 


* ARTICLES 


RATINGS 


♦ARTICLES 


0.0 


62 


0,6 


1 


0.1 


2 


0.7 


1 


\)*X 


n 


. (!) 


:!. 


0.3 


2 


0.9 





0.4 


2 


1.0 





, ! = i 


1 







ENTER MINIMUM RATING DESIRED EOF* ARTICLE PRINTOUT: 0.2 
DO YOU WISH A PRINTED OUTPUT <Y/N>V J_ 

Listing 17: The report given at the conclusion of the search. The header summarizes the 
search specifications. The articles that meet the specifications follow. 

Fuzzy Search of Library CO MP,) OUR 

Interrogation Phrase : 

<GRAPHICSxPLC)TTERx<PROGRAM*BASIC) ) 
Interrogation Phrase Definitions I 

GRAPHICS : GRAPHICS 1.0 

PLOTTER : PLOTTER 0.9 PRINTER 0.4 

PROGRAM : PROGRAM 1 . LISTING 1 . 

BASIC : BASIC 1 . 
Selection Level : 0,2 



Record 

EiYTE 

May 78 p49 

Record : * 
E:YTE 

Feb 81 p220 



17 



Level : 0.8 

Hidden Line Subroutines for 3-dinensional Plotting 

Gottlieb, M. 

Level J 0.4 

Inage Processing With a Pi 1 inter 

Calkins, C . A . 



MODEM 



$ 



129 



95 



No other acoustic modem 
gives you all these fea- 

price. 



tures at this 




The MFJ-1232 Acoustic Modem gives you a 
combination of features, quality and performance 
that others can't match at this price. 

0-300 Baud, Bell 103 compatible. Originate/ 
Answer. Half/full duplex. RS-232, TTL, CMOS 
level compatible. Use any computer. Cassette 
tape recorder ports save data for reloading or re- 
transmission. 6 pole active filter handles weak 
signals. Carrier detect LED indicates adequate 
signal strength for data recognition. Quality 
"muffs" gives good acoustic coupling, isolates 
external noise for reliable data transfer. Crystal 
controlled. "ON" LED. Aluminum cabinet. 110 
VAC or 9 volt batteries. 9x1^x4 in. 



Apple II, II Plus: software and cable for 
modem, MFJ-1231, $39.95. Plugs into game 
port. No serial board needed. 




It's like having 
an extra port 



MFJ-1240 RS-232 TRANSFER SWITCH. Swit- 
ches computer between 2 peripherals (printer, 
terminal, modem, etc.). Like having extra port. 
Push button switches 10 lines (pins 2,3,4,5,6,8, 
11,15,17,20). Change plug or cable to substitute 
other lines. Push button reverses transmit- 
receive lines. LEDs monitor pins 2,3,4,5,6,8,20. 
PC board eliminates wiring, crosstalk, line inter- 
ference. 3 RS-232 25 pin connectors. 7x2x6 in. 

$QQ95 MFJ - 1108 AC POWER CENTER. 
yy Adds convenience, prevents data 
loss, head bounce, equipment damage. 

SH| Relay latches power off during power 
transients. Multi-filters isolate equip- 
HI ment, eliminate interaction, noise, 
f§ hash. Varistors suppress spikes. 3 
isolated, switched socket pairs. One un- 
switched for clock, etc. Lighted power, 
reset switch. Pop-out fuse. 3 wire, 6 ft. 
cord. 15A, 125V, 1875 watts. Aluminum 
case. Black. 18x2 3 / 4 x2 in. MFJ-1107, 
$79.95. Like 1108 less relay. 8 sockets, 
2 unswitched. Other models available, 
write for free specification sheet. 

Order from MFJ and try it. If not delighted, 
return within 30 days for refund (less shipping). 
One year unconditional guarantee. 
Order yours today. Call toll free 800-647-1800. 

Charge VISA, MC. Or mail check, money order. 
Add $4.00 each for shipping and handling. 



CALL TOLL FREE . . . 800-647-1800 



Call 601-323-5869 in MS, outside continental USA 

ME I ENTERPRISES, I 
lYIlW INCORPORATED 

921 Louisville Road, Starkville, MS 39759 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 415 



Introducing—the Byte 



Club 



FORMERLY COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS' BOOK CLUB 



MICROCOMPUTER GRAPH- 
ICS AND PROGRAMMING 
TECHNIQUES. By H. Katzan. Jr. 
240 pp., 100 ill us. and tables. Here's 
a stimulating introduction to com- 
puter graphics for small com- 
puters. It covers all the advances to 
date in color coding and computer 
graphics technology and — best of 
all — it's written for information 
professionals who can't draw! In- 
cludes actual graphics programs 
worth hundreds of dollars! 
582576-7 $18.95 

COMPILER CONSTRUCTION: 
Theory and Practice. By W. A. 

Barrett and J. D. Couch. 661 pp., 
illus. Everything its title promises! 
An excellent introduction to the 
world of automatic translation, this 
is a mix of mathematical founda- 
tions of compilers and the practical 
considerations required in devel- 
oping high-quality compilers for 
commercial release. 
788/499B S25.93 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



MICROCOMPUTER INTERFAC- 
ING By B. Artwick 
789/436B $28.00 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

AN INTRODUCTION TO VISI- 
CALC® MATRIX1NG FOR AP- 
PLE®' AND IBM 9 . By H. Anbar- 
lian. 252 pp., illus., softcover. 
Enables you to use VisiCalc ma- 
trixes — also known as templates and 
models — to put your Apple or IBM 
personal computer to productive 
use almost immediately. It de- 
scribes the actual process of devel- 
oping matrixes for such applica- 
tions as expense vouchers, price/ 
earnings ratios, payrolls, stock 
portfolios, and more. 
016/054 S22.95 

THE PASCAL HANDBOOK By J. 

Tiberghien 

582365-9B S35.00 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

THE SCIENCE OF PROGRAM- 
MING By D. Gries 
582452-3 $19.80 



SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: A 
Practitioner's Approach. By R. 

S. Pressman. 576 pp., 180 illus. Gives 
you a concise but complete picture 
of each step in the software engi- 
neering process — a set of tech- 
niques that deal with software as 
an engineered product. Each step 
is discussed and illustrated — from 
planning, analysis, and design to 
implementation, testing, and main- 
tenance — to show exactly what's 
involved. 

507/813B S32.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

ASSEMBLERS, COMPILERS, 
AND PROGRAM TRANSLA- 
TION By P. Calingaert 
582110-9 $22.95 



MINICOMPUTER AND MI- 
CROPROCESSOR INTERFAC- 
ING. By J. C. Cluley. 266 pp., 73 
illus. and tables. Unless you are 
content to have your information 
processing system simply talk to it- 
self, you need the intense coverage 
of interfacing provided so bril- 
liantly by this compact volume. In 
addition to discussing the logical 
design of interfaces assembled from 
small-scale integrated circuits, the 
book gives you a lucid picture of the 
interface packages designed for mi- 
croprocessor systems and the way 
in which they are used. 
582585-6B $27.50 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



POWERFUL 
TOOLS! 

POWERFUL 
SAVINGS! 

Take any 3 books for only 




Values up to $75.00 



BIT-SLICE MICROPROCES- 
SOR DESIGN. By J. Mick and 
J. Brick. 398 pp. All in one place — 
the crucial information you've been 
needing about the 2900 family of 
bit-slice microprocessor compo- 
nents. This remarkable "first" de- 
signs right before your eyes not just 
one but two complete 16-bit ma- 
chines! 

417/814B S29.50 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

MICROPROCESSOR APPLI- 
CATIONS HANDBOOK. Ed- 
ited by D. F. Stout. 472 pp., 284 il- 
lus. This BIG book on SMALL chips 
will help you make your systems 
timely, versatile, and cost-effec- 
tive. The 16 expert contributors 
provide in-depth treatments of both 
hardware and software so you can 
completely analyze, design, con- 
struct, and program. 
617/988B S35.00 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



PROGRAMMING WITH ADA: 

An Introduction By Means of 

Graduated Examples By P. Weg- 

ner 

789/24X S17.95 

THE SMALL COMPUTER 
CONNECTION: Networks for 
the Home and Office. By N. L. 

Shapiro. 256 pp. Shows you how to 
use existing hardware and soft- 
ware to link your small computer to 
other computers — large and small — 
and to a vast universe of databases. 
From stock market quotations to 
using interactive "chat modes," 
you'll learn how to use today's giant 
information utility services. 
564/124 $16.95 

THE SOUL OF A NEW MA- 
CHINE By T. Kidder 
582439-6 $13.95 

THE DEVIL'S DP DICTIONARY 

By S. Kelly-Bootle 

340/226 $8.50 



ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS' 
HANDBOOK, 2/e By D. G. Fink 
& D. Christiansen 

209/812A $75.00 

(Counts as 3 of your 3 books) 

SOFTWARE DEBUGGING FOR 
MICROCOMPUTERS By R. Bruce 
582075-7 $18.95 

Z80 USERS MANUAL. By J. 

Carr. 326 pp.. with diagrams, charts, 
and tables. Takes you through every 
opportunity the ZAP can offer! It 
covers Z80 pin definitions, CPU 
control signals, support chips, in- 
terfacing peripherals, and much 
more. It also includes a 177-page 
Z80 instruction set so you can study 
the instructions on a one-by-one 
basis. 
582336-5 $21.95 

ELECTRONIC GAMES By W. H. 

Buchsbaum 

087/210B $26.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



COMPUTER PERIPHERALS 
FOR MINICOMPUTERS, MI- 
CROPROCESSORS, AND PER- 
SONAL COMPUTERS By C. L. 

Hohenstein 

294/518 $21.90 

A PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE TO 
COBOL By W. J. Harrison 
789/789 $18.95 

MICROPROCESSOR DATA 
BOOK. By S. A. Money. 350 pp.. 
220 illus. A truly awesome collec- 
tion of data about virtually every 
chip available today! International 
in scope, the book provides infor- 
mation about 4, 8, and 16-bit de- 
vices from a wide range of Ameri- 
can, European, and Japanese 
manufacturers. A common format 
enables you to analyze each de- 
vice's capabilities and compare it 
with other devices. 
427/062B $35.00 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



Consider these Byte Books as well! 




MICROCOMPUTER OP- 
ERATING SYSTEMS By M. 

Dahmke 

150/710 S15.95 

TRS-80 GRAPHICS FOR 

THE MODEL 1 AND 

MODEL 111 By D. Kater & S. 

Thomas 

333/033 S12.95 

THREADED INTERPRE- 
TIVE LANGUAGES By R. G. 

Loeliger 

383/60X $20.75 

THE BRAINS OF MEN 
AND MACHINES By E. W. 

Kent 

341/230 $20.95 

BASIC SCIENTIFIC SUB- 
ROUTINES, Vol. 11 By Dr. 

F. R. Ruckdeschel 

542/023B $26.50 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



CIARCIA'S CIRCUIT CEL- 
LAR, Vol. 2 By S. Ciarcia 
109/63X $14.75 

BYTE BOOK OF PASCAL 

By B. W. Lif f ick 

789/673B $25.00 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

BASIC SCIENTIFIC SUB- 
ROUTINES, Vol. 1 By Dr. F. 

R. Ruckdeschel 

542/015 $24.50 

CIARCIA'S CIRCUIT CEL- 
LAR, Vol. HI By S. Ciarcia 
109/656 $12.95 

MICROCOMPUTER DISK 
TECHNIQUES By P. Swan- 
son 
625/824 $15.00 

BUILD YOUR OWN Z-80 
COMPUTER By S. Ciarcia 
109/621 $17.95 



* If you join now for a trial period and agree to purchase three more books — at 
handsome discounts — during your first year of membership. (Publishers' prices shown) 



PRINCIPLES OF INTERAC- 
TIVE COMPUTER GRAPH- 
ICS. By W. M. Newman and R. 
Sproull. 2nd Ed., 544 pp., illus. Now 
in a revised, updated Second Edi- 
tion, this volume has long been THE 
standard source of information for 
designers! Now, as before, it is ut- 
terly comprehensive and up to the 
minute in its coverage. 
463/387B $32.50 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

MICROPROCESSORS/ 
MICROCOMPUTERS / SYSTEM 
DESIGN By Texas Instruments, Inc. 
637/58XB $29.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

DATA STRUCTURES USING 
PASCAL. By A. M. Tenenbaum 
and M. J. Augenstein. 544 pp.. il- 
lus. With its emphasis on struc- 
tured design and programming 
techniques, this work takes you on 
a trailblazing journey through PAS- 
CAL. Separate chapters are de- 
voted to the stack, recursion, queues 
and lists, PASCAL list processing, 
trees, graphs and their applica- 
tions. 

582230-XB $25.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 



INTRODUCTION TO WORD- 
STAR™. By A Naiman. 202 pp.. 
with illus. and command displays. 
Get your hands on this guide to the 
most powerful word-processing 
program available. Well organized 
and clearly written, it surpasses the 
dry WordStar reference manual. 
You'll learn to edit copy • create and 
merge files ■ format on-screen ■ cre- 
ate special print effects • generate 
form letters • and more! 
582594-5 $21.95 

APPLE MACHINE LANGUAGE 

By D. Inman & K. Inman 

582398-5 $19.95 

THE ADA PROGRAMMING 
LANGUAGE. By I. C. Pyle. 293 
pp., illus., softbound. Written pri- 
marily for practicing programmers 
of embedded computer systems, 
this book provides a full presenta- 
tion of the power of ADA. It will 
also prove of great interest to other 
programmers as well as to man- 
agers of programming projects. 
582447-7 $15.95 

STRUCTURED PROGRAM- 

MING: Theory and Practice By R. 

C. Linger, H. D. Mills & B. I. Witt 
788/537 $22.95 



ELECTRONICS DICTIONARY, 

4/e By J. Markus 

404/313B $32.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

NETWORK SYSTEMS. By R. L. 

Sharma, P. J. T. deSousa, and A. D. 
Ingle. 321 pp.. illus. Here is the first 
book to describe — concisely and 
comprehensively — all current stored 
program-controlled (SPC) telecom- 
munication network systems that 
use integrated modeling, analysis, 
and design techniques. Gives you a 
solid methodology for minimizing 
the risks involved in meeting de- 
sign specifications. 
582557-OB $29.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

TRS-80 ASSEMBLY LAN- 
GUAGE. By H. S. Howe, Jr. 186 
pp.. illus. Everything you need to 
know to develop machine lan- 
guage programs for the TRS-80! 
This book covers all introductory 
concepts in the use of the TRS-80 
. . . provides "inside information" 
about ROM, RAM, and disk oper- 
ating systems to show you what 
goes on inside the TRS-80 . . . and 
offers a variety of tested programs 
and subroutines. 
582495-7 $17.95 



MICROPROCESSOR DEVEL- 
OPMENT AND DEVELOP- 
MENT SYSTEMS. Edited by V. 
Tseng. 7 70 pp.. 90 illus. A panel of 
experts provides an overview of the 
development process, displays the 
different approaches taken by lead- 
ing firms in the field, and covers ex- 
isting systems and tools. You'll gain 
a better understanding of what is 
involved in microprocessor appli- 
cation development . . . and you'll 
be able to identify and decide what 
is important for you. 
653/801 B $29.95 

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books) 

OPERATING SYSTEMS By H. 

Lorin & H. M. Dietel 

582354-3 $20.95 

APPLE PASCAL: A Hands-On 
Approach. By A. Luehrmann and H. 
Peckham. 426pp.. spiralbound. Fi- 
nally — a how-to-use-PASCAL book 
for Apple computer users that 
makes a complete language as easy 
as (forgive us!) applesauce. Takes 
you from "total ignorance" all the 
way up to a very impressive com- 
petence in the use of that rather 
complex language, PASCAL. 
491/712 $16.95 



Why YOU should join 
the Byte Book Club now! 

• Best and newest books from ALL publishers! Books are se- 
lected from a wide range of publishers by expert editors and con- 
sultants to give you continuing access to the best and latest books in 
your field. 

• Big savings! Build your library and save money too! Savings range 
up to 30% or more off publishers' list prices — usually 20% to 25%. 

• Bonus books! You will immediately begin to participate in our Bo- 
nus Book Plan that allows you savings of between 70%-80% off the 
publishers' prices of many professional and general interest books! 

• Convenience! 14-16times a year (about once every 3-4 weeks) you 
receive the Club Bulletin FREE. It fully describes the Main Selection 
and alternate selections. A dated Reply Card is included. If you want 
the Main Selection, you simply do nothing — it will be shipped auto- 
matically. If you want an alternate selection — or no book at all — you 
simply indicate it on the Reply Card and return it by the date speci- 
fied. You will have at least 10 days to decide. If, because of late deliv- 
ery of the Bulletin you receive a Main Selection you do not want, you 
may return it for credit at the Club's expense. 

As a Club member you agree only to the purchase of three additional 
books during your first year of membership. Membership may be dis- 
continued by either you or the Club at any time after you have pur- 
chased the three additional books. Orders from outside the U.S. can- 
not be accepted. 



MAIL CARD OR THIS COUPON TODAY 



m 



McGraw-Hill Book Clubs 
BYTE BOOK CLUB 

P.O. Box 582, Hightstown, 
New Jersey 08520 

Please enroll me as a member and send me the three choices I have 
listed below. Bill me only S3. 00 plus local tax, postage, and handling. 
If not satisfied, I may return the books within 10 days and my mem- 
bership will be canceled. I agree to purchase a minimum of three 
additional books during my first year of membership as outlined un- 
der the Club plan described in this ad. A shipping and handling charge 
is added to all shipments. 



Name. 



Address/Apt. _ 
City/State/Zip _ 



Corporate Affiliation 

This order subject to acceptance by McGraw-Hill. All prices subject to 
change without notice. Offer good only to new members. Orders from 
outside the U.S. cannot be accepted. 

K P39597 



ROTERP: An Interpretive 
Language for Robot Control 

High-level languages may help bridge the gap between 
artificial intelligence and the home experimenter's robot. 



Gary Liming 

1224 South Wheaton 

St. Charles, MO 63301 



A quick survey of the information 
being published on experimental 
robotics and artificial intelligence 
reveals a gap in practical information 
between the two subjects where there 
should be a bridge. Paradoxically, 
while most experiments in artificial 
intelligence are performed in high- 
level languages (notably LISP), most 
books and articles for robotics experi- 
menters concentrate on hardware 
design and leave software control to 
assembly-language routines. 

The assembly-language approach 
to robot control involves combining 
routines to produce a particular 
behavior in a robot. This method 
does have practical advantages: it re- 
quires little initial planning, it is 
usually memory-efficient, and the 
code can be entered by using simple 
switches or a keypad, making more 
expensive peripherals dedicated to the 
robot unnecessary. A major 
drawback, however, is the time and 
effort it takes to reorganize the 
routines to produce new behavior in 
the robot. 

Perhaps the greatest disadvantage 
of using assembly language is the dif- 
ficulty other experimenters have 



understanding the origins of a robot's 
behavior. Because assembly language 
is difficult to read, the underlying 
cause of the robot's behavior may 
elude even the well-versed experi- 
menter. Duplicating the behavior of a 
robot with a different processor is 
usually even more difficult. 

A microprocessor specifically de- 
signed for robotic control would 
resolve these problems. Such a micro- 
processor would use simple com- 
mands that exercise all of the robot's 
capabilities. A program for this 
microprocessor might look something 
like listing 1, which causes the robot 
to slowly walk a three-foot square. In 
addition to being easier to understand 
than assembly language, the program 
requires only 24 bytes of storage. 

Enter the "Pseudoprocessor" 

Our theoretical microprocessor 
would be practical only if all the com- 
ponents of the robot could be antici- 
pated and mass production could 
justify its cost. In fact, custom pro- 
cessors have been used in intelligent 
instruments and even in sophisticated 
toys, but an experimental robot is a 
low-volume item and must be flexible 



Listing 1: This example of a first attempt 
at a robotic language suggests how a 
robot-control language should look. In- 
structions are simple enough to be very 
flexible (they might be used in any 
number of situations) yet powerful 
enough so that the programmer doesn't 
get bogged down in details. 



0000 


05 




SLOW 


0001 


08 




FEET 


0002 


30 


0003 


FORWARD 3 


0005 


34 


0090 


TURN RIGHT 90 


0008 


30 


0003 


FORWARD 3 


0011 


34 


0090 


TURN RIGHT 90 


0014 


30 


0003 


FORWARD 3 


0017 


34 


0090 


TURN RIGHT 90 


0020 


30 


0003 


FORWARD 3 


0023 


00 




HALT 



enough to accommodate major new 
functions and devices. To expect all 
experimenters to use the same micro- 
processor is unrealistic. 

In lieu of a custom microprocessor, 
we might create a "pseudoprocessor" 
in software. Not only would it ex- 
ecute our robotic instructions, but it 
would be easy to extend or modify as 
well. This pseudoprocessor could be 
in the form of . a small interpreter, 
possibly in PROM (programmable 
read-only memory). The interpreter 



418 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Games that challenge you at a price that won't 




BACKGAMMON 




E2-E4. 
B1-C3 

03 Fl-Ct 

Q4 B1-R3 

INURLID 

04. D1-F3 

05 F3-D3 

06 C3-R4- 

07 G1-F3 
INURLID 

07 H2-H4- 

08 



E7-ES 

BB-C6 
D8-DS 

MOUE 
G8-F6 
GS-G3 
GS-H1 

MOUE 

Hl-Gl 

CHECK 





1 N B 1 




\K 


1; j [?] n I 




[b 


HfJ^J^JI 




£ } f~l £~j 



FLIGHT SIMULATOR 



CHESS 



n b c 


D E F 


G H 










^rlr 








'" : 




■£■ 





MIXED GAME BAG 



in — 

/// : 
HI 

m HI 






-555- 



3 ♦/* 

if jj3 *• 

a_— — 333----- ♦ 

-666- 
. . •/•/■ 
:B66 

-666 



CUBE GAME 



$79.95. 



> Look to Sinclair for the only $79.95 
computer and the first Serious Games Package. 
A special limited time offer. Call toll free today. 

What could be more challenging than creating 
your own games on a personal computer? Or being 
intellectually challenged by serious games where 
you match wits with a computer or another 
opponent in a fierce trial of skills? 

The Timex/Sinclair 1000* is a fully program- 
mable computer with a powerful BASIC language 
and complete instruction manual, all for only 
$79.95. The moment you sit down with the 
TS1000 you can learn how to program your own 
games. Maybe you want to create a stock market 
game, a word game, a mathematical game. 
The challenges are endless. 

For this one low price, the TS1000 comes with 
everything you need for connecting the computer 
to your color or black-and-white TV. 

Of course, you might also want pre-programmed 
software cassettes for your $79.95 computer. 
Y)u'll have a wide choice with our free software 
catalog which comes with the TS1000. And the 
software cassettes play in any cassette recorder. 

The 16K Memory Module. More power to you. 

Let's say you want to go one step further. The 
16K Memory Module allows you and your family 
to be challenged by even more sophisticated 
games. Not mindless arcade games, but serious, 
intellectually stimulating games which are both 
fun and educational. 

The Memory Module costs only $49.95 and 
plugs onto the back of the TS1000 for 8 times 
more memory capacity. A whole new world of 
software is available to those with the 16K 
Memory Module. 

The Serious Games Package. 
A $75 value for only $50. 

For those who want a lot of serious 16K games, 
Sinclair announces a special software offering 
with a $25 savings! Now, for the first time, you 
can receive all five games shown above at the 
reduced price of only $50. 



Chess: You can play with another opponent or 
you can match wits with the computer. 

Flight Simulator: Maneuver and land a light 
aircraft with full cockpit controls/instrumenta- 
tion and navigational aids. You have to allow for 
wind velocity and direction, rate of descent and 
mountainous terrain. 

Cube Game: Every bit as mind-baffling as 
Rubik's Cube. 

Backgammon: Everyone's favorite. Again, you 
can play against another opponent or against the 
computer. Complete with a doubling cube. 

Mixed Game Bag: A series of memory and con- 
centration tests including Robot Wars, a version 
of "Master Mind'.' 

There's never been a better value on a serious 
games package. And to think it all starts on a 
$79.95 computer! 

Why order today? 

In addition to saving $25 on software, there are 
other reasons to buy your TS1000 today. Com- 
puters costing hundreds and even thousands of 
dollars rarely offer you games this serious or 
challenging. 

Another reason to order today is convenience, 
by toll-free phone. No crowds, no waiting lines, 
no parking worries. It's never been easier to get 
started in the world of computers. Or more 
worthwhile. 

How to order today! 

Just call our toll-free number and use your 
MasterCard or VISA. Or send the coupon with a 
check or money order. Then try out the Timex/ 
Sinclair 1000 for 10 days at no risk. If you're not 
entirely satisfied, we will refund your money. It's 
as easy as that. (Sorry, no refunds on software.) 

Call toll-free: 800-543-3000. Ask for operator 
509. In Ohio call: 800-582-1364. Ask for operator 
509. In Canada call 513-729-4300, operator 509. 
Have your MasterCard or VISA ready when 
calling. Phones open 24 hours a day, 7 days a 
week. These numbers are for wders only. 



If you simply want information, please don't 
call, write Sinclair Research, Ltd., 2 Sinclair 
Plaza, Nashua, NH 03061. 

Call toll free 800-543-3000 

(operator 509) 



|Ad code: 

B3BY 



Mail to: Sinclair Research, Ltd. 

One Sinclair Plaza, Nashua, NH 03061 



□ Check or Money Order enclosed 

Price** Qty. 



Amount 



TS1000 



16K Memory Module 



16K Cassettes 



Special Serious 
Games Package 
(5 games valued 
at$75.00) 



ShippingfHandling 



$79.95 



$49.95 



$15.00. 
each 



$50.00 



$ 5.00 



**U.S. Dollars 



Total: 



5.00 



Cassettes for 16K Memory Module: $15.00 each. 
Check the boxes of all the cassettes you want. 



□ Flight Simulator #6 

□ Chess #7 

□ Backgammon #8 

□ Cube Game #9 



D Mixed Game Bag #26 
□ 111 take all 5 cassettes 
included in Sinclair's 
Special Serious 
Games Package. 



Name 



Street 



City 



State 



Zip 



'Sinclair technology is the heart of both the ZX81 and the 
Timex/Sinclair 1000 co mputer. 



Single-Board Computer 
— Microprocessor 
— Limited available memory 
— I/O interfaces 

Output Devices 

— Motors for forward, reverse, and 

turning motions 
— Numeric display 
— Bell or buzzer 

Input Devices 

— Proximity switches or ultrasonic 

sensors 
— Numeric keypad 
— Light detector 

Table 1: Attributes of a simple experi- 
mental robot. 



would fetch each instruction of the 
program from memory and call an 
appropriate routine to execute that 
instruction. The pseudoprocessor 
technique is not new; languages like 
Pascal and even some adventure-type 
games have been implemented for 
microprocessor systems using the 
concept. 

If all of this sounds like an argu- 
ment on behalf of the use of high- 
level languages, it is. A robotic 
pseudoprocessor has a number of ad- 
vantages. First, it provides program- 



Time ttpjwir LA36 



The DS120 Terminal Controller makes your LA36 
perform like a DECwriter® III. 

The Datasouth DS120 gives your DEC writer® II the high speed printing 
and versatile performance features of the DEC writer® III at only a frac- 
tion of the cost. The DS120 is a plug compatible replacement for your 
LA36 logic board which can be installed in minutes. Standard features 
include: 



• 165 cps bidirectional printing 

• Horizontal & Vertical Tabs 

• Page Length Selection 

• 110-4800 baud operation 

• 1000 character print buffer 

• X-on, X-of f protocol 

• Self Test 



• RS232 interface 

• 20 mA Current Loop interface 

• Top of Form 

• Adjustable Margins 

• Double wide characters 

• Parity selection 

• Optional APL character set 



Over 5,000 DS120 units are now being used by customers ranging from 
the Fortune 500 to personal computing enthusiasts. In numerous instal- 
lations, entire networks of terminals have been upgraded to take advan- 
tage of today's higher speed data 
communications services. LSI 
microprocessor electronics 
and strict quality control en- 
sure dependable performance 
for years to come. When ser- 
vice is required, we will 
respond promptly and effec- 
tively. Best of all, we can de- 
liver immediately through 
our nationwide network of 
distributors. Just give us a 
call for all the details. 

data@@A computer corporation 

421 6 Stuart Andrew Blvd. • Charlotte, North Carolina 28210* 704/523-8500 




ming at a behavioral level that is easy 
for the programmer (or anyone else) 
to understand. And it creates pro- 
grams that are less machine- 
dependent. It is also conducive to the 
creation of more powerful instruc- 
tions than those on most micro- 
processors. Finally, it can be extended 
and modified, if designed properly. 

A Simple Design 

Let's see how the pseudoprocessor 
approach can be applied in a simple 
example. Table 1 shows the attributes 
of a basic experimental robot. It con- 
sists of an SBC (single-board com- 
puter) like many of those currently 
available, a frame and motors con- 
structed with treads or wheels for 
mobility, some proximity sensors and 
light detectors, a bell or buzzer, and a 
numeric display and keypad (found 
on the SBC). 

Given these simple peripheral de- 
vices, we can envision what a pseudo- 
processor for a robot will look like. 
Of course, it will need instructions to 
turn the drive motors on and off and 
to acquire data from the sensors. It 
will have registers to count units of 
time and distance. Instructions that 
change the program flow and condi- 
tional testing will enhance its ability 
to make decisions. And it will include 
such standard items as a program 
counter, general-purpose registers, 
and I/O (input/output) instructions. 

Figure 1 shows the architecture of 
the interpreter for the simple robot I 
named ROTERP. It has 26 general- 
purpose 16-bit registers, a program 
counter, condition codes, and some 
special-purpose registers. (I chose to 
have 26 general-purpose registers 
because they are easily represented by 
the letters of the alphabet.) 

The array register, a location that 
points to the array being referenced, 
functions like an index register found 
on other processors. The speed regis- 
ter is a location for a number that the 
movement instructions use to deter- 
mine a rate of speed. The distance- 
units register is a location that move- 
ment instructions use to set a scale for 
movement, and the time-units 
register specifies a time scale. 

To produce a particular behavior, 
the registers are manipulated by the 



420 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 141 on Inquiry card. 



NUMERO UNO 

SPANI5H 50FTWARE 




. . .1.,:. . . ■-■ ... ■ •■ .......""W- • . . ■ . --.- 



We're reaching into a dynamic new frontier. . . We're 
International Micro Systems, the first distributor to spe- 
cialize in Spanish software, specifically tailored to solve 
all your business needs. We support all major brand 
computers: APPLE, IBM Personal Computer, ATARI, 
TRS - 80, and CP/M ® systems: 



Word Processors 

Accounting 

Inventory Control and Invoicing 

DataStar* 

CalcStar* 

PERT CPM 

WordStar* 

MailMerge* 

Accounts Receivable 



Cost Control 
Bank Control 
Clinical Lab Control 
Clinical Records Control 
Construction Cost Analysis 
Financial Analysis 
Report Generators 
Program Generators 
Games 



And we can make them work for you, the businessper- 
son that demands a Spanish speaking computer or the 
dealer with an irresistible urge to fulfill your customers' 
rising demands for Spanish software. 
For more information, please write or call us at: 



I 




International Micro Systems, Inc. 

9380 Sunset Drive Suite B 210 

Miami, Florida 33173 

(305) 279-0186 or (305) 279-0194 



Circle 214 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



421 



instruction set given in table 2, which 
shows each instruction op (operation) 
code, its associated mnemonic, the 
type of operand it uses, and the num- 
ber of bytes per instruction. Although 
the op codes are shown in hexadeci- 
mal, they could easily be given in 
decimal; hexadecimal was chosen 
only for convenience. The first 64 in- 
structions control the robot's move- 
ment while the last 64 instructions 
control the processor registers. 
Because ROTERP uses 8-bit op codes, 



128 possible instructions are still 
available for expansion. 

In order to understand the origin of 
behavior in our simple robot, we 
need to look more closely at the in- 
structions it follows. The first group 
of instructions, op codes 00 through 
OF hexadecimal, are all 1-byte instruc- 
tions. HALT simply returns control 
to the monitor ROM (read-only mem- 
ory) on the SBC. ZERO initializes all 
the processor registers except the pro- 
gram counter. FAST, MEDIUM, and 



^•&$'m 



THE 

BcncHmarK® 

A Word Processor 
Worthy of Comparison . . . 



FEATURE 


BENCHMARK 


Wordstar 


BENCHMARK 




2.0 


3.21 


3.0 


Ease of Operation 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Plain English Commands 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Use Cursor Keys 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Control Characters 


NO 


YES 


NO 


Function Keys 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Computer Aided Tutorial 


YES 


YES 


YES 


Descriptive Directory 


YES 


NO 


YES 


29 Character Title 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Author & Operator ID 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Document Size 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Creation Date 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Revision Time & Date 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Standard Editing Features 


YES 


YES 


YES 


Go To Any Page 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Interactive Printing 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Automatic Reformatting 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Automatic Repagination 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Headings and Footings 


YES 


YES 


YES 


Multi-line 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Keyboard Phrases 


YES 


NO 


YES 


Proportional Printing 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Business Graphics 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Paragraph Assembly 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Edit Marking 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Auto Widow/Orphan Protect 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Auto Footnoting 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Built In Calculator 


NO 


NO 


YES 


Price 


$249 


$495 


$499 



DEMAND A COMPARISON! 

Call or Write: 

Metasoft Corporation, 711 E. Cottonwood, Suite E, Casa Grande, AZ 85222 • (602) 961-0003 




PROGRAM COUNTER 



CONDITION CODES 



SPEED 



DISTANCE UNITS 



TIME UNITS 



Figure 1: Architecture of ROTERP, the in- 
terpreter for a simple robot. The inter- 
preter handles 16-bit-wide registers (there 
is a general-purpose register for each letter 
of the alphabet as well as registers for con- 
dition codes and special purposes). 

SLOW place a predetermined number 
in the speed register. Similarly, 
INCHES, FEET, and METERS store a 
value in the distance-units register, 
and MILLSEC, SECONDS, and 
HOURS set the time-units register. 
REPEAT places the starting address 
of the program into the program 
counter and normally causes it to 
loop indefinitely at the end of a pro- 
gram. RETURN signals the end of a 
subroutine. 

The next group of instructions, 10 
through IF hexadecimal, are each 2 
bytes long and use a single-byte 
operand to specify a general-purpose 
register that contains a working 
value. For instance, BEEP C, repre- 
sented as 17 03, causes the robot to 
beep the number of times indicated 
by register C. FORWARD B (10 02) 
causes the robot to move forward the 
number of units defined in register B. 
Similarly, HESITATE A (19 01) 
causes the robot to wait A units of 
time, DISPLAY A displays register A, 
and ENTER A places a number from 
the keypad in register A. TEST tests 
the indicated register and sets the ap- 
propriate condition codes. RAN- 
DOM returns a random number and 
places it in the given register. SCAN 
and PROXIMITY read the respective 



422 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 266 on inquiry card. 



/ MICROFAZER 
THE"ANY COMPUTER ANY 
7 PRINTER"BUFFER 



I . 




IIIWUCRaFAZER 




Reset Ready Error 



Cop* 



QUADRAM 



Time is money. You have a 
computer system because you 
know that it saves you money by 
simplifying procedures and 
reducing time normally involved in 
your work. Time is an important 
resource which should not 
be wasted. You are 
wasting valuable time if 
you ever wait for your 
printer. 

No waiting. Now with 
Microf azer by Quadram 
there is no more waiting. 

Microfazers are inexpen- 
sive universal printer buf- 
fers which any computer 
user cannot afford to be without. 
Any computer— any printer 
(or plotter!) whether parallel or 
serial. Microf azer receives informa- 
tion from the computer at ultra 
high speeds causing the computer 
to think the printer is printing just 
as fast as the computer can send. 
Microf azer holds the information 
until your printer can handle it, and 
then sends it on. 



More copies. Microfazer is 
equipped with a copy feature 
allowing additional copies of the 
buffered information— from one to 
as many as you want— with the 
mere press of a button. When you 




need your information repeated, 
for whatever reason, it's always 
right there— inside Microfazer. 

Microfazer™ stack. Microfazer 
can be stacked with popular 
modems or other peripherals. 
Some models can plug directly 
onto the back of your printer. 
Install it in less than 60 seconds, 
and choose the amount of buffer 



memory you need— 8K, 16K, 
32K, or 64K. One model even 
comes with up to 512K! You may 
use several Microfazers in series to 
create just what's right for you. 
Take data in from a serial computer 
and out to a parallel printer. 
Or in from a parallel com- 
puter and out to a serial 
printer. Microfazer is just as 
flexible as you need it to 
be. 

Low price. Only $169 for 
8K of buffering, $189 (16K), 
$225 (32K) and $299 for a 
full 64K. Serial-to-Parallel, 
Parallel-to-Serial and 
Serial-to-Serial models have slightly 
higher prices. 




QUADRAM 

CORPORATION 

4357 Park Drive/ Norcross, Ga. 30093 
(404) 923-6666 
Circle 367 on inquiry card. 









<$ £ o Q ^ 




00 HALT 




20 FORWARD 


RC* 


2 


40 JUMP 


R 2 


60 


SET 


R,R 


3 


01 ZERO 




21 REVERSE 


RC 


2 


41 JUMPEQ 


R 2 


61 


ADD 


R.R 


3 


02 




22 RIGHT 


RC 


2 


42 JUMPNE 


R 2 


62 


SUB 


R,R 


3 


03 FAST 




23 LEFT 


RC 


2 


43 




63 


MUL 


R.R 


3 


04 MEDIUM 




24 RTURN 


RC 


2 


44 SBROUTNE 


R 2 


64 


DIV 


R,R 


3 


05 SLOW 




25 LTURN 


RC 


2 


45 ARRAY 


R 2 


65 








06 




26 






46 




66 








07 INCHES 




27 






47 




67 


COMPARE 


R,R 


3 


08 FEET 




28 






48 




68 


GET 


R,R 


3 


09 METERS 




29 






49 




69 


PUT 


R,R 


3 


1A MILLISEC 




2A 






4A 




6A 








OB SECONDS 




2B 






4B 




6B 








OC HOURS 




2C 






4C 




6C 








OD 




2D 






5D INCRMENT 


R 2 


6D 








OE REPEAT 




2E 






4E DECRMENT 


R 2 


6E 








OF RETURN 




2F 






4F CLEAR 


R 2 


6F 








10 FORWARD 


R* 2 


30 FORWARD 


N* 


3 


50 JUMP 


N 3 


70 


SET 


N,R 


4 


11 REVERSE 


R 2 


31 REVERSE 


N 


3 


51 JUMPEQ 


N 3 


71 


ADD 


N,R 


4 


12 RIGHT 


R 2 


32 RIGHT 


N 


3 


52 JUMPNE 


N 3 


72 


SUB 


N,R 


4 


13 LEFT 


R 2 


33 LEFT 


N 


3 


53 




73 


MUL 


N,R 


4 


14 RTURN 


R 2 


34 RTURN 


N 


3 


54 SBROUTNE 


N 3 


74 


DIV 


N,R 


4 


15 LTURN 


R 2 


35 LTURN 


N 


3 


55 ARRAY 


N 3 


75 








16 




36 






56 




76 








17 BEEP 


R 2 


37 BEEP 


N 


3 


57 




,77 


COMPARE 


N,R 


4 


18 DISPLAY 


R 2 


38 DISPLAY 


N 


3 


58 




78 


GET 


N,R 


4 


19 HESITATE 


R 2 


39 HESITATE 


N 


3 


59 




79 


PUT 


N,R 


4 


1A 




3A CALL 


N 


3 


5A 




7A 








1B TEST 


R 2 


3B 






5B 




7B 








1C ENTER 


R 3 


3C 






5C 




7C 








1D RANDOM 


R 2 


3D 






5D 




7D 








1 E SCAN 


R 2 


3E 






5E 




7E 








1F PROXIMITY 


R 2 


3F 






5F 




7F 








Table 2: Pseudoprocessor instruction set (*R = 


Register, N 


= Number, RC = 


Register Count) 










ALL 3-M MEDIA AVAILABLE at 50% or MORE OFF LIST PRICE 



Why settle for inferior substitutes 
when you can now get the very best 
media at unprecedented savings. Be it 
8" or 5 1 /4", hard- or soft-sectored: We 
are an Authorized 3-M Distributor 
and can ship it immediately. 



Examples: Ust 

5VA n SSDD (hard/soft sector) . /. 4.20 



EEEH 

424 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Pari # 
744D 

745D 5V4 B DSDD (hard/soft sector) 6.00 

741 D 8" SSDD (hard/soft sector) 5.55 

743D 8" DSDD (hard/soft sector) 7.10 

(even greater savings on diskettes in bulk pack— call for information) 
Minimum order: 10 boxes. For orders of 1000 or more deduct 2%, 
for 5000 or more deduct 5%, for 10,000 or more deduct 7.5%. Call 
for savings or larger orders. 



OUR PRICE (per diskette, in box of 10, _^ 

$2 04 individual envelopes) ro\ 

2^4 I >Q/ 

2.75 

3.39 



3M 

Authorized Distributor 



ORDERS & INFORMATION: 

Mo.-Fri. 9:00 AM-5:30 PM PST, Sat. 12:00 AM-5:00 PM PST 
1-(800) 845-5555 CA. AK, HI call (714) 783-1363 

BANK REFERENCE: BARCLAYS BANK OF CALIFORNIA (213) 8927244 
AMERICAN EXPRESS, VISA, MASTERCHARGE 
AP0. FP0, INTERNATIONAL ORDERS ACCEPTED 

INC. P.O. Box 3791, Riverside, CA 92519 




Terms: Cashier's check, Visa, MasterCharge, American Express 
(add 4% for credil cards). Purchase orders from approved 
organizations on 30 day net at 25% surcharge. COD at 10% sur- 
charge. Shipping charges extra. 



Circle 506 on inquiry card. 




You've Cot 



TOTAL ACCESS 



TM 



Rose 



TO YOUR COMPUTER HARDWARE & SOFTWARE 
NEEDS. CALL ROSE TODAY! 



TM 



* DISK DRIVES 

Total Access 40 Track $239 

Aerocomp 40T Flippy. . . $319 

Aerocomp 80T $399 

Aerocomp 80T Flippy $409 

Aerocomp 40T Duol Head $409 

Aerocomp 80T Dual Head $399 

ForTT\S8uMod I.Mod. IIIG lDMPCexrernolGTI99/4A 

Incl. power supply G enclosure. 

J^Apple Comporible Drive $279 

< Apple Camp. Disk Conrroller Board $89 

* BARE DRIVES 

Torol Access 40T $199 

Aerocomp 40T Flippy $269 

Aerocomp 80T . . . . $329 

Aerocomp 80T Flippy $359 

Aerocomp 40T Duol Head $329 

Aerocomp 80T Dual Head $469 

* DRIVE CABI.ES 

2-drive $24 

4-drive $34 

Extender cable $13 

* OPERATING SYSTEMS 

TPSDOS 2.3 Disk b Manual $20 

LDOS(lorlll) ....$119 

D05PLU5 3.4 $129 

NEWDOS/80 (I or III) $129 

* DISK CONTROLLERS/SEPARATORS 

Aerocomp "DDC" double dens, disk 

conrroller for Mod. I $139 

w/DOSPLUS 3.3D $179 

w/LDOS $229 

Aerocomp ll DD5" double dens, dora sep. for 

Percom or LN Doubler $49 

Aerocomp "SDS" single dens, dora sep. for 
Mod. I $29 

MODEL III DRIVES 

Complere Kirs including 40 rrock disk drives (1 

S'or 2), disk conrroller board, power supply and 

S q|| hardware and cables 

One Drive Sysrem Kir $479 

Two Drive Sysrem Kir $689 

* ODD STUFF 

Single drive power supply $44 

Drive enclosure (silver) $24 

Diskerres (box of 10) $24 

MX80 ribbons. $9 



120 doy worroniy on drives Add $5 per drive 
shipping in Conr. US. UPS COD charge $1 .50. There is o 
15 doy FREE TRIAL ON DRIVES. If nor complerely 
sorisfied I'll refund your money (less shipping) I'll 
roke exceprion ro improper use or mishandling. 



" RADIO SHACK COMPUTERS 

26-1061 Mill, LI, 4K 595 

26-1062 Mill, Ul, 16K 799 

26-1065 Mill, 48K 1 drive 1495 

26-1066 Mill, 48K 2 dr P5232 1950 

26-3004 16K Color Compurer 299 

26-3002 16KCCw/exrendedDASIC. ... 399 
26-3003 32K CC w/exrended DASIC. ... 499 



26-3501 PC 1, (Call obour occessories) 129 

26-3601 PC 2, (Call obour occessories>......229 

26-4002 64K Mil, 1 -drive 2899 

26-6001 128K M16, 1 -drive 4199 

26-6002 128K M16, 2-drive 4799 

26-6050 DT-1 Terminal 599 

* PERIPHERALS - Model HHIM6, CC 

32K LNW E/l W/P5232 complere 375 

LNDOUDLER 5/8 w/o DOS 199 

26- 1 1 43 Podio Shock DDen board 1 25 

26-1125 Mill Hi Kes board 299 

26-1 145 Ml P5232 firs P5 E/l 85 

26-1 148 Mill R5232 wirh cable 89 

26- 11 72 D.C Modem I - 125 

26-1173 D.C Modem II 199 

26-1208 CC(V81 Recorder 51 

26-1 130 Mill Hard Disk, primary 2099 

26-1 131 Mill Hard Disk, secondary. .... 1599 

26-1132 Mod I H/D odoprer 32 

16-0230 13" Color TV, remore conrrol. . . 353 

26- 1 1 62 Mill 1 sr drive Kir, pure f\S. 629 

26-3008 C C Joysticks, pr 21 

26-3022 CC drivel, includes conrroller ... 449 

26-4104 Mil/ 1 6 Hi-Res board 419 

26-4150 Mil/ 16 Hard Disk 8.4Mbyre, pri...3799 
26-4151 MII/16Hard Disk84Mbyre,sec...2899 

26-4160 1 -Drive expansion 938 

26-4161 2-drive expansion 1431 

26-4162 3-drive expansion 1897 

26-4165 1-drive unir 1099 

26-4166 2-drive unir 1699 

26-4167 Thin line odd-on drive 535 

26-6010 Mil ro M16 upgrade 1299 

26-601 1 128K [\m board 599 

* PRINTERS & OTHER ACCESSORIES 

26- 1 1 58 Daisy Wheel II, 43 cps 1 599 

26-1447 f\S. Troaor Asy 208 

26-1448 Sheer Feeder 999 

26-1 165 Line Prinrer V 160cps 1 195 

26-1455 Acousric cover 339 

26-1250 DWP-410, 25cps 1207 

26-1459 f\S. Troaor Asy 199 

26-1251 DMP-400, 140 cps 969 

26-1252 DMP-500, 220cps ^399 

26-1253 DMP-100, 50cps 309 

26-1254 DMP-200, 120cps. 679 

26-1 191 Mulri-pen plorrer 1650 

26-1 192 CGP-1 15 Color prinrer 199 

26-1 193 Florbed plorrer 799 

26-1195 Digirizer 369 

26-1196 GT-116 XPAD" 295 

ANADEX DP-9260A 200cps 1449 

PPOWNTER 1, 120cps, 10" F/T 469 

PROWVTER 2, 120cps, 15" F/T 669 

STAfWPJTEP F-10. 40cps 1399 

PRJNTMASTEP F-10, 55cps. 1599 

Purishouser rroaor feed 208 

Purishouser sheer feeder 999 

*LNW COMPUTERS 

96K LNW-80 Model I, NTSC/PGB, P5232, 5"/8" 
DDen conrroller, FREE 1 2" green phospher 
monitor and cable included 1695 



* TRS80 G Radio Shock ore Trademarks of Tandy Corp. Copyrighr 1982 TOTAL ACCESS 



128K LNW-80 Mod II, NTSC/PGB, P5232, CP/M 
comporible, 5"/8" conrroller, FREE 1 2" green 
phos moniror/coble included 2495 

* MEDIA &SUPPUES 

8" ds\<6 SSDDen, Guoronreed Forever. ... 32 

8" d\s\<6 DSDDen, Same Guoronree 39 

5" Flipsorr, holds 50 disks 23 

8" Flipsorr, some deal 29 

5" Library Boxes 2.50 

8" Library Boxes 3.50 

5" or 8" Head Cleaning Kir 9 

Trocr paper Irr size, 2900 sheer 20 lb 25 

Call for ribbon b prinrwheel prices. 

* SOFTWARE 

All Podio Shock Software 20% off 

Aron CP/M Model II 160 

Pickles b Trour CP/M Model II 160 

Pickles b Trour CP/M Model 16 190 

All SNAPPWARE 10% off 

All MicroPro 35% off 

*TRS-80 SPECIAL EQUIPMENT 

CP/M (48l<?) for Mod III w/hordwore and 

software complere 275 

CP/M (64K inc) for Mod III wirh hardware 

and software 440 

80 x 24 video board for Mod III .299 

GREEN Phospher Airiglore CRT 79 

AMBER Phospher Anriglore CRT 89 

1 6K Memory 200nsec Guor 1 yr 8/S12 

64K Memory 200nsec Guor 1 yr . . , . . 8/S48 
ZVM-121 12" Green Phos. Mon 135 

ALWAYS CALL FOR THE LATEST PRICES They may 
have changed in the 60+ days since this ad was 
written. 

ORDER NOW! 
TOLL FREE 
800-527-3582 

Wrire or call. Toll free lines ore for orders only. 
Texas residenrs coll 214/458-1966 and 
deducr $2.00 from your order. If you need 
rechnicol informarion or service use rhe Texas 
number. Prices ore subjecr ro change wirhour 
norice and ore moil order only. I occeprVISA 
or MASTERCARD, you con send a check or 
money order (allow a couple of weeks for 
personal or company checks ro clear) or 
order COD (cosh, cerrified check or money 
order only). Shipping is nor included unless 
orherwise indicored. Texas orders odd 5% rox 
No rox added on shipmenrs ourside Texas. 
Order up - I need rhe money! 

TOTAL ACCESS 

P.O. BOX 3002 
RICHARDSON, TX 75080 

214-458-1966 

NEXT DAY SHIPMENT! on all in stock Merchandise 



Circle 429 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



425 



devices and place the result into the 
spec *4ed register. 

Tl e next group of instructions, 20 
through 2F hexadecimal, cause their 
respective motions until the proximi- 
ty register changes; then motion 
ceases. The elapsed distance units are 
then recorded in the given register. 

Instructions 30 through 3F hexa- 
decimal are 3-byte commands that 
use an immediate 16-bit constant for 
the operand. For example, BEEP 7 
(37 0007) signals the robot to beep 



seven times. In other respects, this 
group mirrors the group 10 hexadeci- 
mal instructions, except for the CALL 
instruction; CALL is a "hook" to an 
assembly-language subroutine, and 
its operand is a 16-bit absolute 
address. 

Five instructions work with the 
processor registers. JUMP A takes the 
signed 16-bit value in register A and 
adds it to the program counter. 
JUMPEQ and JUMPNE are condi- 
tional jumps that test the condition 



I 



f 



• .• • FEATURING 8 AND 16 BIT SYSTEMS • • • 



EPSON QX VALDOCS: Extremely user friendly! See review Sept. BYTE. 
HX 80: Notebook-sized battery operated Z 80 computer, up to 256 K RAM, built- 
in hard copy, LCD scrollable screen. 



MASTER MAX: S-100 system, Z-80, IN fERCONTINENTAL CPZ48000 single 
card computer with four channels of I MA, dual 8", double density drives, 

CP/M $2,540. 

Options: double sided drives, Winchester, TURBODOS, 2 user, 220v/50hz. 



IMS 8X MULTIUSER SYSTEMS: Z-80, S-100. Each user has own Z-80, 
64K RAM, 2 I/O. TURBODOS multiuser CP/M compatible operating system cuts 
link/edit time in half. Z-80 code. Interrupt driven. 8088 upgrade w/256K RAM has 
been announced. 



7 ARBELL: Empire systems, Z-80, S-100. 

( .ROMEMCO: C-10 personal computer w/software package $1,695. 



E 088: COLUMBIA DATA: IBM-PC look alike, multiuser option . 

86 S-100 SYSTEMS: ^ 

LOMAS: with MS-DOS or CP/M-86. Winchester option. 

SEATTLE: with simultaneous 8" and 5" drives. Will accept IBM/PC software. 



UAL PROCESSOR SYSTEMS: 

GODBOUT 816 A,B,C: 8085/8088. MP/M 816 allows simultaneous operation of both 

processors. 
CROMEMCO DPU: 68000 and Z 80. CROMIX operating system. 



; AX BOX 8" DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS w/QUMES, SHUGARTS, MITSUBISHI, NEC. 



"WINTERS (dot matrix and LQ): 
EPSON, NEC, QUME, CITOH, IDS, 
FLORIDA DATA, TELETYPE. 



TERMINALS: WYSE, HAZELTINE, 

IBM 3101, TELEVIDEO. 
Voice recognition board for TELEVIDEO 

950/ 



PER SCI 277/299 DRIVES. 



MODEMS: U.S. ROBOTICS 1200/300 
DC HAYES compatible $525. 



S-100 MAINFRAMES: 

PARADYNAMICS, ECT, some TEI 12 
slot still in stock. 



GRAPHICS: 

MICROANGELO GRAPHICS. 
MIRAGE: new from SCION. 

AUTO-CAD Interactive graphics soft- 
ware; for engineers, architects, design- 
ers. 

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS 
PLOTTERS, DMP-29 $1,775. 



IBM PC ACCESSORIES: Extensive 

line including QU ADRAM, SEATTLE, 
8080/8086 EMULATOR (software). 



IBM 3270: compatible equipment from 
Teletype Corp. Fast delivery! Cost ef- 
fective! 



We have an extensive product line including systems, peripherals, software, 

boards, drives, consulting services. Write or call for detailed specifications. 

We have knowledgeable technical staff. 



WE EXPORT 



Overseas Callers: Phone (212) 448-6298 
TWX 710 588 2844 or Cable: OWENSASSOC 



JOHN D.OWENS Associates, Inc! 

12 Schubert Street, Staten Island, New York 10305 
(212) 448-6283 '(212) 448-2913 (212) 448-6298 



2 



code register. SBROUTNE is a simple 
subroutine call to a section of the pro- 
gram, and it terminates with a 
RETURN instruction. Each processor 
register instruction uses an operand 
that is a relative offset to the program 
counter so that the resulting code is 
position-independent. 

The ARRAY instruction declares 
the array being referenced by adding 
its operand to the program counter 
and placing the resulting address in 
the array register. The INCRMENT, 
DECRMENT, and CLEAR instruc- 
tions are added for convenience. 

GET and PUT are used with the 
ARRAY instruction. After an array 
has been declared, a GET 5,B (70 
0005 02) reads the fifth 16-bit element 
from the array and stores it in register 
B. The PUT A,B instruction (69 01 
02) uses the number in register A as 
the offset into the array and places 
the number found there in register B. 

Finally, the register-manipulation 
instructions use a constant or a reg- 
ister to perform an operation on 
another register. For instance, ADD 
B,C (60 02 03) means "add register B 
to register C." COMPARE compares 
a constant or a register to another 
register and then sets the appropriate 
condition code. 

Some Examples 

Armed with these instructions, let's 
try them on a simple program. Sup- 
pose we want our simple robot to 
search for a source of light in the 
room, determine how far away it is, 
and then report back to us. The re- 
sulting program might look some- 
thing like listing 2. In this program, 
the robot turns to the right until it 
faces a source of light. Then it moves 
forward until it senses or bumps into 
the source of light, whereupon it 
moves back to its starting position, 
displays the distance, and stops. This 
program requires only 17 bytes 
through the keypad. 

Of course, that is assuming the 
light sensor is mounted on the front 
of the robot and the path to the light 
source is unobstructed. If the pro- 
gram has to take obstructions into ac- 
count, a triangulation scheme could 
be worked into it (but that, as they 
say, is left "as an exercise for the 



426 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



(J THE PRICE SLASHER! ltl 

',^^ IF YOU WANT IT - WE'VE GOT IT IF WE HAVEN'T GOT IT - WE'LL FIND IT ... ^M 



FRANKLim 



• Color o r Black & White 

• Apple II compatible 

• 64K of RAM 

• Upper and lower case 

• Typewriter style keyboard 



CALL 

• 12 key numeric pad 

• Alpha lock key 

• Visicaic keys 

• 50 watt power supply 

• Built in fan 

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS ALL PRODUCTS CALL 

ALTOS 

8000 2 CALL 

8000 12 CALL 

ATARI 

BOO w 48K S619 

COMMODORE 

VIC 20 219 

DISK DRIVES 

HARD DISKS AVAILABLE CALL 

RANA SYSTEMS 

$429. 

CALL 

CALL 

..: 99. 



Elite I w Controller 



399. 
466. 
593. 



Elite III . 

Control Card :.. 

MICRO SCI 

A35 w Controller 
A40 w Controller 
A70 w Controller 

PRINTERS 

OKIDATA 

M.crolme 80 $ 369. 

Microlme 82A 459. 

Microlme 83A 749. 

Microl.ne 84 1144. 

M.rml.n.' 2410P 2599. 

BROTHER 

HR. 1 Oaisv Wheel • Parallel 889 

HR-1 Daisy Wheel Serial 969 

Forms Tractor 149. 

STAR MICRONICS 

Gf MINI 10 429. 

GEMINI 15 CALL 

C ITOH 

Prownter 851 AP _ 499. 

Starwnter F10-40PU 1 549. 

EPSON CALL 

NEC 

8023 w Tractors 489. 

3510 1722, 

3515 1755. 

7710 7730 2465. 

7715 2499. 

7720 2699. 

7725 2750. 

QUME 

9 45 LTD 2099. 

9 45 FULL 2199. 

IDS 

Micro Prism CALL 

Prism 132 ...CALL 

DIABLO 

630. RS-232. Daisy Wheel 1995. 

630 API-Apple. IBM TRS 80 1796. 

620 1239. 

MANNESMANN TALLY PRINTERS 

MT160L ...... ■• 879. 



MONITORS & TERMINALS 

USI 

12" Hi Res Green S139. 

12' Amber 159. 

SANYO 

1 2 " Black & White 249. 

12" Green Screen 265, 

1 3" Color 465. 

13" Color RGB 885. 

ADDS 

Viewpoint Green Screen 589. 

Viewpoint 60 695. 

HA2ELTINE 

Esprit 585. 

Esprit II 649. 

BMC USA 

12" Green 95. 

12 "Hi Res Green 145. 

1 4" Color Composite 329. 

14" RG8 Color 3 39. 

AMDEK 

12" Green 1 69. 

13" Color I 379. 

Color 1 1 Hi-Res 849. 

Color III RGB Color 475. 

TELEVIDEO 

910.,, - 639. 

912 - 745. 

925 825. 

950 989. 

NEC 

JB 1260 12" Econo Green Hi Res 120. 

JB 1201 12" Green Screen Hi Res 169. 

JC 1 201 1 2" Color . 362. 

JC 1 203 1 2" Hi Res Color , 799. 

Cable for IBM PC 19 - 



ACCESSORIES ', ; 

SORRENTO VALLEY ASSOCIATES 

App-L-cache 256K Memory S995. 

SSM 

AS 1 Apple Serial I/O Card .1 129. 

APIO Apple Pnrriillel 1/0 Card 75. 

AIO- II 164. 

TG PRODUCTS 

Game Paddles 28. 

Joy Stick 44. 

ORANGE MICRO 

GRAPPLER PLUS 1 39. 

MICROTEK 

Apple Dumpling 129. 

KRAFT SYSTEMS 

JOYSTICK 49. 

MPC PERIPHERALS 

Bubble Memory NEW 679 

1 6K Memory Board for Apple II . . • •SPECIAL* 63- 

32K Memory Board for Apple II 149. 

Parallel Printer Card for Apple II 72 . 

Upper and Lower Case ROM 19. 

PROM-IT. Eprom for the Apple II 99. 

Serial Input/Output Card for Apple II 119. 

1 6/32K Expansion Memory Board 125. 

M & R ENTERPRISES 

SUP R TERMINAL 80 Column Video Board 269. 

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS 

Microbuffer II 1 6K for Apple II 239. 

Microbuffer II 32K for Apple II 279. 

BK Serial Buffer for Epson Printer 129. 

1 6K Parallel Interface for Epson Printer 129. 

MICROSOFT 

Z-BOSoftcard for Apple 249. 

MOUNTAIN COMPUTER 

CPS Multifunction for Apple 1 65. 

The Clock for Apple . . 235. 

Romplus 119. 

Ramplus 16K for Apple 135. 

Ramplus 32K for Apple 152. 

Music System for Apple 319. 

Rom Writer for Apple . . 1 39. 

ADVANCE LOGIC 

2 CARD for Apple II 22S. 

R.H. ELECTRONICS 

2ENERRAY 72. 

SUPER FAN 49. 

VERSA COMPUTING 

Versawnter Graphics Tablet 299. 

SEATTLE COMPUTER 

64K: RAM + for the IBM PC 385. 

1 28K RAM * for the IBM PC 529. 

256K RAM ♦ for the IBM PC 789. 

CALIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS 

Asynchronous Serial Interface 145. 

VIDEX. INC. 

Videoterm 269. 

Softvideo Switch 29. 

Inverse Chip .24. 

Enhancer II 119. 

SOFTWARE FOR CP/M 

ASHTONTATE 

dBase II «499. 

MICROPRO 

Wordstar - C^ CALL 

Ma.lmerge V Hf° S - r>^ CALL 

Calcsiar ^rtfff^. CALL 

Datasiar 9&X. CALL 

Supersort ...CALL 

Spellstar CALL 

MICROSOFT 

Fortran 80 369. 

Macro 80 149. 

Basic Compiler 309. 

mu/MATH/mu/SIMP 80 195. 

Cobol 80 595. 

Basic 80 279. 

Edit 80 96. 



mu/LISP/n 
Multi Plan 



u/STAR 80 149. 

-Also Available For Apple 205. 



SOFTWARE DIMENSIONS. INC. 

Accounting Plus ....CALL 

FOX & GELLER 

Quickscreen , 140. 

Quickcode 225. 

Crosstalk . . . MICROSTUF , , 169. 

Supercalc . . SORCIM 205. 

The Word . . OASIS 75. 

Spellbinder . LEXISOFT 279. 

T/Makerll . LIFEBOAT 219. 

Superyyze .. EPIC SOFTWARE 115. 



SOFTWARE FOR IBM 

SORCIM 

Supercalc S205. 

SuperWriter 295. 

Spellguard 229. 

SELECT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

Select Word Processor W/Superspell 369. 

VtSlCORP 

Visicaic 256K Version 209. 

Visitrend/Visipilot - • • • 249. 

Visidex 209. 

Visifile 249. 

Desktop Plan I 249. 

MICROPRO 

Wordsta r ^\ CALL 

Mailmerge ^°^»W tS CALL 

Spellstar \ CALL 



I. U.S. 

Easyspeller 1 39. 

Easyfiler 289. 

Easywriter 11 269 

SOFTWARE DIMENSIONS. INC. 

Accounting Plus CALL 

CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE 

The Home Accountant Plus 119. 

DENVER SOFTWARE 

EASy (Executive Accounting System) 535. 



Write On DATAMOST • . 

Condor II CONDOR .... 

Crosstalk MICROSTUF . 

MathMagic ISM ■■ 

The Tax Manager MICROLAB- • 
d Base II . 



99. 

449. 

165. 

75. 

195. 

, ASHTON -TATE 499. 



Condor III . ... CONDOR 799. 

CALL FOR THIS MONTH'S SPECIALSII 

Note: Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 
C/PM is a registered trademark of Digital Research. 

WE ACCEPT • MONEY ORDER 



SOFTWARE FOR APPLE 

BRODERBUNO 

Serpentine 29. 

Chopl.fter 29. 

MICROSOFT 

Typing Tutor II $18. 

Adventure 25. 

•Fortran 80 1 65. 

A.L.D.S 1 00. 

* Basic Compiler 315. 

mu/MATH/mu/SIMP 80 200. 

Olympic Decathalon 25. 

•Cobol 80 595. 

M/Sort 1 56. 

Softcard Premium System 699. 

Time Manager , 119. 

SELECT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

Select Word Processor 389. 

VISICORP 

Visicaic 209. 

Visiterm 85. 

Visiplot 169. 

Visidex 209. 

Visitrend/Visiplot 249. 

Visifile . . 209. 

Visischedule 249. 

Desktop Plan II 209. 

MICROPRO 

'Calcstar Sf **• CALL 

"Datastar T. ^^^ CALL 

•Supersort fcEPP. CALL 

•Wordstar Q \N^ CALL 

•Mailmerge ^p^Ct S , CALL 

•Spellstar CALL 

SORCIM 

SDellguard 229 

SOUTHEASTERN SOFTWARE 

Data Caoture 4.0 58 

EDU-WARE CALL 

Step by Step ..PROGRAM DESIGN -•■• 59. 

Datafax LINK SYSTEMS 149. 

dBase II ASHTONTATE 499 

CALL FOR MORE APPLE SOFTWARE!! 
MODEMS 

HAYES MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCTS 

Smartmodem S229. 

Smartmodem 1200 599. 

Micromodem II 28 9 

Micromodem 1 00 325. 

Chronograph 199, 

NOVATION 



Cat . 



. 169 



D-Cat 

Auto Cat 293. 

Apple Cat II 309. 

Apple Cat 1 1 — 2 1 2 CALL 



CASHIERS or CERTIFIED CHECK 
BANK WIRE TRANSFERS 





Circle 254 on Inquiry card. 



COD 

• PERSONAL CHtCK (allow 10 days to clear) 

• VISA MASTERCARD (acid 2%) 

Add 3 u o lor shipping Handling & insurance (S5 mm ) Calif 
residents add 6°o tax All equipment iS new. comes with 
manufacturers guarantees PLUS we guarantee it for 30 days 
and pay shipping charges on any returns All equipment subject 
to puce change & availability Without notice Check quantity discounts 

9434 Chesapeake Drive 
San Diego, CA 92123 
ORDERS ONLY: 800-752-1341 
CALIFORNIA ORDERS: 619-277-8001 
INFORMATION: 619-277-8006 

BYTE March 1983 




427 



Listing 2: Sample program written in ROTERP. The robot is commanded to scan the 
room for a light source, determine its distance, and display the information. 



START 



0000 


12 


0001 


0003 


2B 


01 


0005 


2E 


01 


0007 


42 


FFF8 


0010 


30 


02 


0012 


21 


02 


0014 


28 


02 


0016 


00 





RIGHT 


1 


SCAN 


A 


TEST 


A 


JUMPEQ 


START 


COUNT FORWARD 


B 


REVERSE 


B 


DISPLAY 


B 


HALT 





Martin 

Marietta 

Aerospace 

Data Processing 
Opportunities 



Martin Marietta Aerospace, 
NASA's prime Contractor for 
the Space Shuttle External 
Tank has immediate open- 
ings for Data Processing pro- 
fessionals. Because we ac- 
tually manufacture the exter- 
nal tank, you'll get to see the 
actual results of your efforts. 



computer 

programmer; 

analysts 

Immediate opportunities exist 
for individuals experienced in: 

•UNIVAC1100 
ASC11 COBOL 
DMS1100 
DDL, SDDL, DMU 
DML, QLP 
DPS 1100, TIP 
D/B Editor 



•APPLICATION 

EXPERIENCE 
Shop floor control, 
Scheduling, Manufac- 
turing, Inventory, 
Purchasing, Config- 
uration Management, 
Quality Engineering. 



DATA BASE OPENINGS 
Analyst, Design, Ad- 
ministrators with above 
hardware, software and 
applications experience. 



These opportunities exist 
at our Mlchoud Assembly 
Facility located in subur- 
ban East New Orleans. 

Qualified candidates Interested in 
learning more about these oppor- 
tunities at Martin Marietta should 
forward resumes, Including salary 
history to Martin Marietta Aerospace, 
Denver Glazier, BVTE-383, P.O. Box 
29304, New Orleans, Louisiana 
70189. We are an equal opportunity 
employer, m/f/h. 



AWJMT-fiv afJMiGrrj* 



reader"). Imagine how much more 
difficult it would be in assembly 
language I 

Let's try programming the robot to 
survey a room. An array can be 
declared to store distances and posi- 
tions, data that can be acquired dur- 
ing the robot's trips back and forth 
throughout the room until it is 
familiar with its surroundings. 

Even this simple robot can be 
taught to wake you when the sun 
comes up. Just give it explicit instruc- 
tions to go to an eastern bedroom 
window and then let the program 
loop patiently until light appears. At 
dawn the robot will retrace its steps 
to your bed and beep insistently. 

The Implementation 

The implementation of ROTERP is 
easier than I would have expected. 
This version fits into a single 2K-byte 
2716 EPROM (erasable program- 
mable read-only memory). It is also 
fairly memory-efficient: the memory 
required for the registers, temporary 
locations, and a 10-deep nested call 
stack is only 128 bytes, leaving the 
rest of available memory for program 
storage. (I used a Motorola MEK 
6800 D2 microprocessor kit to arrive 
at these figures.) 

Figure 2 shows the modules that 
need to be written to form the com- 
plete interpreter. The first module 
allocates some memory for all of the 
16-bit processor registers, some tem- 
porary storage for use by the inter- 
preter, and enough memory for a 
subroutine call stack, which must ac- 
commodate as many nested calls as 
might be reasonably needed. You can 
use 1 byte to allocate as many as 256 
general-purpose registers. The trade- 
off is simply between memory used 
by ROTERP and the amount of mem- 
ory left for program storage. 

The initialization module is entered 
after the program is placed into mem- 
ory. First it places the fixed starting 
address of the program into the pro- 
gram counter, sets up any interrupt- 
service-routine vectors that are 
needed, and initializes any device that 
needs it. Next it calls a subroutine 
that clears all of the general-purpose 
registers and places some default 
values into the special-purpose reg- 



428 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



OVERBUILT 




Now you can afford to be 
choosy. With the Toshiba P1350 
dot matrix printer. Choose 
quality when you want it. 
Speed when you need it. At a 
price you'd expect to pay for 
just one or the other. 

For speed, choose the 
draft mode. 160 CPS. About a 
page a minute. For quality, 
choose the LetterPerf ect mode. 
100 CPS. About twice as fast 
as a daisy wheel. Or choose 
the graphics mode at 192 CPS. 

The technological break- 
through that makes it possible: 
Toshiba's fine-wire, over- 
lapping, 24-pin, impact print 
head. For incredibly high 
180 dots per inch density 
with a single pass. 

More choices: variable 
pitches of 12 CPI or 10 CP1. 



Three character fonts. Variable 
line spacing. Single sheet 
paper or continuous forms, 
from 5" to 15" wide, with up to 
four copies. Friction feed, pin 
feed tractor or Toshiba's ultra- 
reliable sheet feeder. And a 
choice of interfacing: parallel 
or serial. 

Toshiba P1350. It gives you 
the choices 
you want. 
The qual- 
ity you 
expect. 
The 

reliability 
you need. 








The precision you require. 
The low-maintenance long 
life you like. The price you 
love. With versatility and 

performance 
that's been 
proven in more 
than 7,000 
installations. 
When it 
comes to printers, you really 
have no choice. There's only 
the Toshiba P1350. Write forthe 
details on everything it can do 
for you. Toshiba America, Inc., 
Information Systems Division, 
2441 Michelle Drive, Tustin, 
CA 92680. 
Better yet, call toll-free... now! 

1-800-648-5000 

Ask for operator #198 

In Nevada, call (702) 329-9411 



UNDERESTIMATED 



Circle 428 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



429 



Everybody^ 
Logic Analyzer 



12 Channels 
16 Words 




A logic probe and oscilloscope are no 
longer adequate for analysis in today's 
digital world. For testing or debugging 
microcomputer or other digital logic 
circuits you need a real logic analyzer. 

The LA- 12 captures, stores and displays 
TTL and LSTTL digital data so that 
the instantaneous meaning of the data 
stream (e.g. data value, ASCII code, 
address) can be understood and 
analyzed long after the actual events 
have passed. 

■ Easy to Use ■ 10 MHz ■ Clock 
Qualifier ■ Trigger input ■ 3 Trigger 
Qualifiers ■ Built-in LED Display — 
No oscilloscope needed ■ Compact 

■ Expandable ■ Low Cost 

30 day trial 

Purchase an LA-12, use it, and if you are not 
completely satisfied, return it within 30 days 
and receive a full refund. 

Free Offer 

If you order within 45 days, and mention this 
magazine, you will receive a $49.95 input cable 
free with each LA-12 ordered. 

Save $28.95 

In addition, if you enclose payment with your 
order you can deduct 5% and we will pay 
shipping charges. 

All prices are in US dollars for 120VAC. 
To order in the Continental US call 

TOLL FREE 
l-(800) 547-5995 EXT. 195 



Connecticut microcomputer, Inc. 

36 Del Mar Drive, Brookf ield, CT 06804 
(203) 775-4595 TWX: 710-456-0052 



Q 


Description 


Price 


Total 




Logic Analyzer 


$379.00 






Input Cable 


49.95 






20 Color-coded 
microclips 


44.95 




Connecticut residents add 7 Vz^o sales tax 




Shipping & 
Handling 


$10.00 




Total 





D Company purchase order enclosed (Rated 

Firms only) 
□ Check □ VISA D MasterCard 

Acct. No. 

Signature 

Name (Print) 

Address 



. Exp. Date, 



City_ 

State _ 



. Zip. 



Dealer inquiries invited 



MODULE I 

MEMDRY 

ALLOCATION 



MODULE 2 
INITIALIZATION 







MODULE 3 










INSTRUCTION 










DISPATCHER 










\1 








V 








y 






MODULE 4 


MODULE 5 






MOVEMENT 


\ 
\ 






PROCESSOR 






ROUTINES 




/ 

/ 


MANIPULATION 








\ 
\ 




/ 












/ 










\ 

\ 




/ 
/ 



















MODULE 6 

SUBROUTINE 

LIBRARY 



Figure 2: Block diagram of ROTERP modules. 



isters. ROTERP uses SECONDS, 
FEET, and SLOW as defaults. This 
"clear and default" function is ex- 
pressed as a subroutine because it is 
also called by the ZERO instruction. 

Execution then continues into the 
instruction dispatch module, which 
contains a jump table used to pass 
control to the routine that executes 
the current instruction. If any invalid 
op code is executed, control is trans- 
ferred to a routine that displays an er- 
ror code and jumps the SBC monitor. 
This jump table is 256 bytes long 
because all op codes greater than 7F 
are currently treated as invalid in- 
structions. If you want all 256 possi- 
ble instructions, the jump table size 
would increase to 512 bytes. 

The next section, which contains 
all the routines that carry out each in- 
struction, is divided into two 
modules: one for execution of move- 
ment instructions and one for regis- 
ter-manipulation instructions. The in- 
struction routines in the movement 
module are very dependent on the 
hardware scheme that controls the 
direction and speed of the motors. 
The motors can be interrupt-driven 
or controlled with timing loops in the 
manner of stepping motors and sim- 
ple relay-operated DC motors. 



All of the movement routines have 
many functions in common. First, 
they get the operands, translate them 
from a register designation to a work- 
ing number as needed, and assign a 
temporary location to each working 
number. A scaling routine then trans- 
lates the number of distance or time 
units into an absolute number ex- 
pected by the motor handler. The op 
code itself serves as a direction 
indicator. 

Next, the motor handler is called to 
perform the motion. And the last 
function every instruction performs is 
to add the length of the instruction to 
the program counter so that it points 
to the next instruction to be executed. 
Control is then passed back to the in- 
struction dispatcher. 

Because many of the instructions 
must perform common functions, the 
functions are expressed as subrou- 
tines and placed in the last module, 
the subroutine library. The subrou- 
tine library also includes routines that 
do common register operations like 
16-bit addition, subtraction, multipli- 
cation, and division. The library is 
designed not only to save duplication 
of code but to permit the easy addi- 
tion of new instructions. 

To add a new instruction, you 



430 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Lyco Computer Marketing & Consultants 



TO ORDER 

CALL US 



TOLL FREE 800-233-8760 

In PA 1-717-398-4079 



SPECIAL 81 DISK DRIVE $41 9. 

Xi i«/m iaaf NEC8023 PRINTER... $449. 
PURCHAot PERCOMAT-88 DISK... $395. 

DESIGNER TEE-SHIRT 
with PURCHASE of 

800 48K RAM . . . $489.00 




ATARI 

^9 A Warner Communications Company 



ATARI HARDW/ 

410 CASSETTE RECORDER . . 
825 PRINTER 


tRE 

..$ 75.00 1 
..$585.00 1 
..$149.00 
..$164.00 1 

$119.00 

$54.00 
$219.00 
$189.00 

$69.00 

...$28.75 1 
...$28.75 1 


I 830 PHONE MODEM 


I 850INTERFACE 


i PACKAGES 

I CX482 EDUCATOR 


CX483 PROGRAMMER 


CX488 COMMUNICATOR 

I CX41 9 BOOKKEEPER 


KX71 04 ENTERTAINER 

I SOFTWARE 

CXL401 2 MISSILE COMMAND 
CXL401 3 ASTEROID 


CXL4020 CENTIPEDE 


...$32.75 1 


CXL4022 PACMAN 


...$32.75 1 


J CXL4011 STAR RAIDER 


...$34.75 1 


I CXL4004 BASKETBALL 


...$26.75 1 


CXL4006 SUPER BREAKOUT . 
I CXL4008 SPACE INVADER.... 


...$28.75 1 
...$28.75 


I CX81 30 CAVERNS OF MARS. . 
j CX4108 HANGMAN 


...$31.75 1 
,...$12.75 


j CX4102 KINGDOM 


...$12.75 I 


CX41 12 STATES & 

CAPITALS 

CX41 14 EUROPEAN 

I COUNTRIES 

I CX4109 GRAPHIT 


....$12.75 | 

....$12.75 I 
...$16.75 I 


I CX41 21 ENERGY CZAR 


...$12.75 1 


] CX41 23 SCRAM 


....$19.75 I 


I CX4101 PROGRAMMING I ... 


....$19.75 I 


I CX4106 PROGRAMMING II... 


,...$22.75 


CX41 1 7 PROGRAMMING III . . 
J GLAXIAN 

DEFENDER 

J JUGGLES 

I SPEED READING 


... $22.75 I 
.. $32.75 
• • $32.75 
-. $23.75 
.. $55.75 
...$33.75 
....$45.75 


I CXL4007 MUSIC COMPOSER 
j CXL4002 ATARI BASIC 


I CX81 26 MICROSOFT 

\ BASIC 


. . $65.75 


CXL4003 ASSEMBLER 

EDITOR 

CX8126 MACRO 
I ASSEMBLER 


....$45.75 
....$69.75 I 


I CXL4018 PILOT HOME 


$65.75 I 


I CX405 PILOT EDUCATOR .... 


....$99.75 


I CX415 HOME FILING 

j MANAGER 

CX414 BOOKKEEPER 


....$41.75 
..$119.75 I 





NEW RELEASES 

ATARI 1200 

COMPUTER 

THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE 

EASTERN FRONT 1941 $25.50 

OUTLAW/HOWITZER $15.50 

WIZARD of WAR $31 .00 

GORF $31.00 

FROGGER $26.00 

CHOP LIFTER $27.75 

APPLE PANIC $23.75 

PREPPIE $1 9.95 

STAR WARRIOR $28.00 

CRUSH, CRUMBLE, &CHOMP $23.00 

SHOOTING GALLERY $1 9.95 

VIDEO MATH FLASH $1 2.00 

MY FIRST ALPHABET $25.50 

BAHA BUGGIES $24.95 

TEMPLE of ASPHAI $27.95 

UPPER REACHES 

of ASPHAI $15.00 

TRACK ATTACK $23.00 

STAR BLAZER $25.00 

LABYRI NTH $23.00 

SEA FOX $23.00 

POOL 1.5 $26.95 

SPEEDWAY BLAST (ROM) $29.95 

INHOME 

400 KEY BOARD $99.75 

PROTECTOR $24.95 

NAUTILUS $24.95 

SLIME $24.95 

SUBMARINE 

COMMANDER (ROM) $36.95 

JUMBO JET 

PI LOT (ROM) $36.95 

SOCCER (ROM) $36.95 

KICKBACK (football ROM) $36.95 



POLICY 



In-Stock items shipped within 24. hours of order. Personal 

I checks require four weeks clearance before shipping. No 

I deposit for COD orders. PA residents add sales tax. All products 

subject to availability and price change. Advertised prices 

show 4% discount offered for cash. Add 4% for Mastercard and 

I Visa. Circle 252 on inquiry card. 



PRINTERS 

PROWRITER I $479.00 

PROWRITER II $ CALL 

OKIDATA82A $419.00 

OKIDATA 83A $639.00 

OKIDATA 84 $1 029.00 

OKIDATA TRACTOR $63.00 

NEC 8023A $449.00 

SMITH CORONA $589.00 

STARWRITER $1 475.00 



BUSINESS SOFTWARE 

ATARI WORD PROCESSING ... 

LETTER PERFECT (ROM) 

LETTER PERFECT (disc) 

TEXT WIZZARD 

] DATA PERFECT 

J VISICALC 

DATASAM/65 


.$109.00 
.$149.00 
.$129.00 
.$ 89.00 
.$ 75.00 
$169.00 
.$125.00 


JOYSTICKS 

ATARI CX-40 


...$18.00 j 


1 LESTICK 

j WICO COMMAND CONTROL.. 
WICO RED BALL 


...$34.00 1 
...$23.75 ] 
...$26.75 1 


WICO TRACK BALL 


...$54.7.5 j 


I STICK STAND 


...$ 6.75 | 


1 Book of ATARI 

Software 
(346 pages) ..$19.95 



PERCOM 

SINGLE DRIVE (SD) $399.00 

SINGLE DRIVE (DO) $549.00 

DUAL DRIVE (DD) $869.00 

DUAL HEAD (DD) $669.00 



TO ORDER 
CALL TOLL FREE 

800-233-8760 

|1n PA 1-717-398-4079 
or send order to 
Lyco Computer 
P.O. Box 5088 
I Jersey Shore, PA 177401 



simply place the new entry in the 
jump table and call the appropriate 
"fetch operand" routines. If the in- 
struction is in the register-manipula- 
tion group, you can call many of the 
existing subroutines in the library to 
reduce the amount of new code that 
needs to be written. (If the instruction 
involves the use of an entirely new 
device, you must write a handler for 
that device, as you would in any 
case.) Finally, an existing routine in- 
crements the program counter and 



jumps back to the instruction dis- 
patcher. 

Extensions 

If you find yourself using a parti- 
cular sequence of instructions repeat- 
edly, a single new instruction will 
make your program both shorter and 
easier to write. And the processor is 
not limited to expanding new instruc- 
tions: a new device may be complex 
enough to warrant the use of a new 
special-purpose register. If you expect 



ALL 




Software Catalog. FREE. Get the lowest price on every software 
program you need. 1/3 off list price guaranteed. And look 
what else you get from ITM: 

Unlimited Consultation! ITM's consultants work with an amazing 
database indexed with over 300 software selection criteria 
— plus thousands of in-depth product reviews. You'll get 
the programs that are right for you. Quickly. Easily. It's the 
most sophisticated consultation service in the industry. 
Call toll free! 

Ovet 2,000 programs to choose from. Hundreds added every 
month. All categories. All formats. 

See any program demonstrated. Order any non-entertainment 
program for a risk-free, thirty-day trial. Full refund if not 
completely satisfied. 

No minimum order. Buy just one program if you like. Quick 
shipments. 

All this, and more, is yours for an annual fee of $1 00. Call 
ITM now. Or, mail the coupon today and receive our FREE 
Software Catalog. Save hundreds-even thousands-of 
dollars on all of your software purchases with ITM. 

American Express, Visa, or MasterCard honored. 

Call toll-free today. 

(800) 334-3404 

In California [415) 284-7540 

Software Catalog. FREE. Byte 383 

□ YES. Send complete information for my review. Please include a 
free copy of ITM's Software Catalog. 



NAME_ 



COMPANY NAME. 

ADDRESS 



CITY/STATE/ZIP- 
PHONE 



□ Individual □ Dealer □ Consultant □ Company 



ITM 

Software Division 

We make software 
buying simple. 

Attn: Stevan Cloudtree 
936 Dewing Ave., Suite E 
Lafayette, CA 94549-4292 
(800) 334-3404 or 
(415)284-7540 



to use many different arrays, adding 
new array registers is only a matter of 
allocating space for them and assign- 
ing new op codes that call the same 
subroutines that the present ARRAY 
instruction uses. 

The simple architecture and in- 
struction set presented here should 
not be considered complete or taken 
for the optimum design of a pseudo- 
processor for robots. Each design 
should be tailored individually to the 
kinds of experiments that you expect 
to do. For example, if you want a link 
to a host computer, the instruction 
dispatch module can be modified to 
receive instructions from a serial-line 
interface instead of reading them 
from memory. Two other options 
exist: the processor can be oriented 
around 32-bit registers if more preci- 
sion is desired, or it can use 8-bit 
registers if less precision is needed. 
Expressing movement routines in 
terms of relative polar or Cartesian 
coordinates might be more desirable. 

For maximum flexibility, one inter- 
preter could include all of these fea- 
tures. If one byte does not sufficiently 
represent all of the different instruc- 
tions, a 16-bit op code could be used. 
Better yet, a single instruction that 
changes jump tables would allow you 
to switch between whole instruction 
sets. The ultimate step forward, 
though, would be a translator that 
would produce running code from the 
instruction mnemonics. This transla- 
tor would resolve symbolic references 
and might be the precursor of even 
higher-level "macro" statements of 
behavior. New language constructs, 
such as those found in LISP, might be 
implemented for ease of integrating 
the work being done in other areas of 
artificial intelligence. 

Summary 

ROTERP illustrates how a pseudo- 
processor can control the increasing 
number of devices that can be incor- 
porated into an experimental robot. 
With careful planning, you will be 
able to improve and expand the inter- 
preter without difficulty. By tailoring 
the robot's processor to the kind of 
behavior it will perform, the robot 
becomes a much easier tool to work 
with.H 



432 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 204 on inquiry card. 




Technically, IDE's new 
Combination Board for the IBM PC 

is a knockout 



It beats 

the knockout 

problem. 

IDE's new Combina- 
tion Board allows you 
to cable both serial 
and parallel inter- 
faces from the back 
of the board itself. 

So even if your 
IBM PC doesn't have 
a knockout at the 
back, you can now 
interface printers, 
disks, or communi- 
cations devices. With- 
out any troublesome 
jury rigging, without 
wasting expansion 
slots, and with the 
unit's protective 
cover still in place. 

It's a technical 
knockout. 

The interfacing innovations are 
only the beginning. 

For the first time, you can get a 
Winchester disk drive interface on a 
combination board. Or you can use 
the same interface for a printer. 

Only the IDE Combination Board 
gives you this capability. 

And that's only one of 3 options 



IDE offers. You can also add a serial 
interface (RS232C Cable Adapter 
included) and/or clock/calendar with 
battery backup. 




The price is a very 
nice touch. 

To really be knocked out by the 
IDE Combination Board, just take a 
look at our price structure. 

You buy only the options you 
want - so you never have to pay for 
something you don't need. 

And with IDE's helpful upgrade 
policy, you can trade up your board for 
one with more memory or options. 
For very little money 



Memory only: 
64K $275 



Pricing table 

One option: 
Add $75 



128K$385 
192K$485 
256K$575 



Two options: 
Add $120 

Three options: 
Add $150 



Circle 206 on inquiry card. 



A Combination Board this 
advanced deserves a lot 
behind it. 

IDE backs up its new Combination 
Board with a one-year warranty. . . not 
just 90 days. 

It's available for immediate deliv- 
ery, and installation is free in major 
metropolitan areas. 

So call us now to order your Com- 
bination Board. We'll answer any 
questions you have, and give you the 
name of your nearest IDE dealer 

He'll show you the new IDE Com- 
bination Board and the whole line of 
IDE products: Winchester disk drives, 
memory boards, printer spooler soft- 
ware, and disk-emulation software. 

They're all technical knockouts. 

1-800-257-5027 

(in MA call (617) 272-7360) 

IDE Associates 

44 Mall Koad.Hurlington. MA 1)1803 

BYTE March 1983 



433 







x T» $*r ia! port* 

x 12 inch 8Bx24 line « peen L ,,»*»*.. t 
I HiJwfotion pen pi**?; CP-31) difjria* 

x 14 (teg my ici«»«f 

* Hicn>ionlSIC8iVer.5,2 

K WordStar 3.8 Word Processma 

X 48 f 998i3rd Spelling Checker 

x Pwerfal Electronic %*$** 










Full size smar terminal with detachable keyboard 



4MHz, Z80A™CPU 
64K RAM main memory 
200 Kbyte 5y 4 " floppy disk 
(Osborne, Xerox, IBM formats) 
Two serial ports 




Complete sof ware package, 
including. 






CP/M Operating System 
WordStar® Word Processing 
Microsoft® BASIC 80 
NorthStar compatible BAZIC® 
Spelling Checker 
Electronic Spreadsheet 



You can't buy more 
computer for less. 



$1790 is the total retail price of the complete Micro 
Decision™ System you see in this ad. And that 
includes the computer with a disk drive, a full size 
smart terminal, and over $ 1800 worth of software. 
No other business computer available today offers 
so much for so little (a comparable Apple system 
costs almost twice as much). 
The Micro Decision is a bargain any way you look 
at it. The computer alone, with all that software 
and one disk drive is only $1195. If you want to 
add another disk drive, the price is still great: just 
$1545. And the smart terminal is only $595. Retail. 
As for the microcomputer itself, our Micro Decision 



includes a 64K CP/M® 2.2 Operating System. That's 
the industry standard operating system that gives 
you access to over 2000 business programs (avail- 
able right now— right off the shelf). 

If you'd like more information, or to find out about 
our substantial quantity discounts, call us at (415) 
430-1970. We'll introduce you to more Morrow. 
And less price. 

LOOK TO MORROW FOR ANSWERS TODAY 

MORROW OE5IGNS 



600 McCormick St. 

San Leandro, CA 94577 

(415) 430-1970 



n 



Circle 296 on inquiry card. 




^v<s 



CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. Inc. 

Z80A is a trademark of Zilog. Inc. 

WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro, Inc. 

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft 

Corporation 

BAZIC is a registered trademark of Micro Mike's. Inc. 

Micro Decision is a trademark of Morrow Designs 



s- 



S-V 



5^0 




Using SOUND Arguments for 
High-Precision RTTY 

How to generate radioteletype audio frequencies 

from an Atari 800. 



This article focuses on the audio 
capabilities of the Atari 800 micro- 
computer. These include synthesized 
speech, automatic Touch-Tone (a 
registered trademark of the Bell Sys- 
tem) dialing, Morse-code generation, 
and many more. A direct use of the 
Atari's sound capabilities may be 
demonstrated by the ease with which 
it will generate the proper sound fre- 
quencies for the transmission of 
amateur radioteletype. With only a 
shielded cable between the Atari's 
monitor jack and the VHF (very high 
frequency) radio as interface, a com- 
pletely new method of "interfaceless" 
data transmission for microcom- 
puters is born. Previously, micro- 
computers had been sending radio- 
teletype by controlling expensive out- 
board tone generators, but with the 
Atari 800's four built-in tone 
generators, who needs the expense of 
an interface? 

Introduction to RTTY 

Amateur radioteletype (RTTY) 
signals are composed of two precise 
audio-frequency tones which alter- 
nate in patterns to produce character 
combinations, usually in the five- 



Scott Persson 

4719 Valley St. 

Omaha, NE 68106 



level Baudot or Murray code. The 
higher of the two tones is the space 
tone and the lower is the mark tone. 
The difference in frequency between 
the space and the mark tones is the 
shift. Radioteletype normally uses 
two shifts; the mark tone for both has 
been standardized at 2125 Hz (hertz, 



With the Atari 800 s 

four built-in tone 

generators, who needs 

the expense of an 

interface? 



or cycles per second). For a 170-Hz 
shift, the space tone is 2295 Hz 
(2125 + 170); for an 850-Hz shift, 
the space tone is 2975 Hz (2125 + 
850). The Atari 800 will generate 
some of these frequencies. 

Simple Audio-Frequency 
Generation 

The sound generators within the 
Atari are clocked at 63.921 kHz 
(kilohertz). Each generator is 
associated with a memory location 



and the value within that location is 
constantly being decremented from 
255 to at the clock frequency. The 
decrement interval is determined by 
the Atari BASIC SOUND statement 
parameters. The frequency of the 
audio that is produced is determined 
by the number of times per second 
that the corresponding memory loca- 
tion counts down to 0. The exact fre- 
quency of a SOUND statement can be 
determined with the following equa- 
tion: 



^OUT — 



2N 



(1) 



where F OUT is the frequency actually 
obtained from the computer, F^ is 
63,921 Hz, and N is the second 
SOUND command parameter (0 to 
255) plus 1. 

For example, N would equal 
14 + 1, or 15, in the command 
"SOUND 0,14,10,15/' We can com- 
pute the exact frequency as follows: 



^out — 



r IN 



IN 



63,921 
2(15) 



436 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Heart 



TEXAS 



•L\ LUiiq; 



SYSTEMS 



HEADER in MAIL ORDER DISCOUNTS!! 



800 433-5184 



Texas 817/274-5625 



IBM Personal Computer 



INTERNAL DISKS FOR IBM 

Complete IBM Disk Systems $CALL I 

Tandon Internal Disk . . single sided 160k 
Tandon Internal Disk . double sided 320k | 

HARD DISKS FOR IBM 

Complete 5 meg. Systems . . . from $1588 I 

Multi-computer Network Systems available j 

MONITORS FOR IBM 

Green - hi resolution from $89 I 

atching PGS Color - super hi res . $Catl | 

QUADBOARD FOR IBM 

Includes 64k to 256k additional Memory, I 

Serial & Parallel Port and Calendar Clock | 

ADDITIONAL MEMORY FOR IBM 

16k Chips each $2 | 

64k Chips SCall | 

PRINTER FOR IBM 
Epson, Star & other matrix printers . SCall I 
NEC 3550 Spinwriter IBM version . . SCall | 



DAVONG 



DAVONG HARD DISK 
FOR APPLE II AND APPLE III 

5mg --S1550 

12mg-— - S2000 

Specify External/Internal 



First DISK DRIVE w/controller, DOS 3.3, 

cables and manual ... $419 

, Second DISK DRIVE with cable .... $319 

APPLE to EPSON card and cable 

Z 80 Card tCall 

RAM Card tCall 

Printer Interface Cards $Call 

Graphic Printer Interface Ca d $139 

Graphic Spooler Interface Card/1 6k to 84k 



TANDON DRIVES 



TCS DRIVE CABINET Is Industrial grade 
heavy guage metal, safely fused, and 
comes with gold plated external connector 
with extender cable. 



1 DRIVE in Cabinet 

40 track single sided S249 

80 track (dual sided 40 track) .... $329 
160 track (dual sided 80 track) $449 

1 DRIVE/DouMe Cabinet 

40 track single sided $289 

80 track (dual sided 40 track) $369 

180 track (dual sided 80 track) $499 



2 DRIVES/Double Cabinet 

40 track single sided M89 

80 track (dual sided 40 tracks) $639 

160 track (dual sided 80 tracks) .... $849 

Drives In cabinets come assembled/tested 
with power supply. Order cable separately. 



BARE DRIVES ONLY 

40 track single sided $CALL 

80 track (dual sided 40 track) .... $CALL 

160 track (dual sided 80 track) . . . iCALL 

6 Inch Slimline sgl/dbl sided $CALL 

Winchester hard drives 5-30 meg . $CALL 



CORVUS HARD DISK 



CORVUS HARD DISKS 

Call for '83 prices - lowest anywhere 

Add 5, 10 or 20 megabytes of storage to your TRS80. IBM. Apple, Atari. Heath, Zenith, 
Intertec, S-100 and many others. One or several computers can share a hard disk. Get 
simultaneous access todata for multiple users. AVAILABLE NOW at SUPER SAVINGS. 



PRINTERS 



TCS has the LOWEST PRICES on IN STOCK PRINTERS! 



MATRIX PRINTERS 

STAR GEMINI 

Better than Epson and costs lessl 

100 cps . . 180 day warranty 

Bit Image AND Block Graphics 

Friction Feed and Pin Feed paper 

STAR GEMINI 10 (10 Inch carriage) SCall 

STAR GEMINI 15 (15 Inch carriage) $Call 

C.ITOH 8510 / TEC / PMC $Call 

DMP 100 $349 

DMP 200 $689 

DMP 400 $1029 

DMP 500 $1564 

ANADEX 9501-A $1395 

CENTRONICS 352/353 $Call 

OKIDATA printers .. $Call for Low Prices 



LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS 

C.ITOH F-10 (40 cps) $1595 

DAISY WHEEL II (RS) $1695 

NEC 3510 / 3530 / 3550 $Call 

NEC 7710 / 7730 $Call 

SMITH CORONA TP-1 S599 

BROTHER / COMREX $829 

EPSON PRINTERS 

EPSON MX 80 $CALL 

EPSON MX 80 FT $ CALL 

EPSON MX 100 FT $CALL 

GRAPHTRAX PLUS come free In EPSONS 

Cables and Interfaces available 
for moat popular computers 



For fast, efficient service H63rt Of we can air freight from Dallas 

TEXAS COMPUTER SYSTEMS 

P.O. Box 1327 Arlington, Texas 76004-1327 

TEXAS ORDERS 817/274-5625 

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 817/274-9221 

ORDER STATUS 817/277-1913 

TELEX/TWX/Easylink ELN 62100790 



800 433-5184 



No tax out of state. Texans add 5%. Prices subject to change at any time. 



TRS-80 



TCS MODEL III 48k 2 DISK 

St*hm com *4* 1 St d*y TCS sWfced warranty. 



$1695 

With standard 40 track 

double density drives. 

Over 340.000 bytes. 

Includes TDOS. 

$1995 

With 2 dual headed 40 

track dbl. density drives. 

Over 730,000 bytes. 

includes DOSPLUS 3.4 

($150 value) 



Fully assembled and tested systems that are software compatible and functionally 
Identical to Radio Shack units sold at computer stores for $hundreds more. 

□ CONTROLLER BOARDS are high "quality double sided epoxy boards with gold 
plated contacts. 

□ POWER SUPPLY is the finest switching type available. 

□ MOUNTING HARDWARE Includes power and data cables. 

a DISK DRIVES are Tandon. the same ones used by Radio Shack ... 40 track, double 
density, with a 5 millisecond stepping rate. 




TCS MODEL III DISK EXPANSION KITS 

1 Controller. Power Supply. Mounting Hardware & Inatructions S279 

2 Controller. Power Supply. Hardware & one 40 track Tandon drive $478 

3 Controller. Power Supply, Hardware, two 40 track Tandon drives. 32k memory 

(•verytMng you need for 2 drive 48fc upgrade) S677 

3a Kit 3 but with two 80 track drives (dual sided 40a) S879 

3b Kit 3 but with two 180 track drives (dual sided 80s) S1099 



MODEL III SYSTEMS 

Original 90 day manufacturer's warranty. 

MODEL III 4k $598 

MODEL III 16k $Call 

MODEL III 32k $Call 

MODEL III 46k $Call 

MODEL III 46k 2 Drive RS232 $Call 



TCS MODEL III Systems use original RS 
hardware and quality TCS memory. 
180 day limited warranty. 

TCS MODEL III 16k $Call 

TCS MODEL III 32k $798 

TCS MODEL III 48k $628 

Green or Amber Langley Sinclair CRT for 
your customized Model III ICall 



COLOR COMPUTER 

Original 90 day manufacturer's warranty. 

COLOR COMPUTER 16k $249 

COLOR COMPUTER 16k ext $335 

COLOR COMPUTER 32k ext $Call 

COLOR COMPUTER DISK $479 

COLOR COMPUTER DISK 1 $349 



TCS COLOR COMPUTERS use original 
RS hardware & TCS memory. 
180 day warranty. 

TCS COLOR COMPUTER 32k ext . . $379 
TCS COLOR COMPUTER DISK . . $449 
TCS COLOR COMPUTER DISK 1 . . $249 
TCS 32k MEMORY $79 



Model II -- Model 12 — Model 16 -- $CALL 

Ask about our TCS Special M12. 2 drive - SAVE SSSS 
TCS is an authorized TRS-80 dealer F701 in Brady. Texas 

DEALER INQUIRIES invited on all TCS MODEL III Systems and Kits 



CUSTOM SOFTWARE FROM TCS 



BTREE Scratchpad 
$39.95 



BTREE Library 
$39.95 



BTREE Mail 

$49.95 



List 



TCS Exclusive THE PRODUCER $149.95 

The ultimate solution In creating your own custom software. If you're In a jam and can't 
find a program to fit your needs, use this fast and simple Program Development System 
to tailor make a solution to your problem. Custom design your own screen format with 
complete control over the number of characters assigned to each field. Fully view and 
edit all fields at all times. Create a B-Tree structured file allowing you to access data 
rapidly and without sorting. One key access to user-designed self-help or prompt 
information. Expand your program to support up to 8 calculations for each data field. 

AND MUCH MUCH MORE. 
This system comes complete with Its own Disk Operating System. It will make you a 
master of your software needs without hiring a programmer. Or If you are a 
programmer, this system will save you hundreds of hours In design work for your 
clients. Saving time Is saving moneyl 

WRITE FOR FREE BROCHURE ON TCS PROGRAM GENERATOR 



Circle 175 on Inquiry card. 



CP/M 
GRAPHICS 
SOFTWARE 

PLOTWARE-z 



«1 
































ri- 






I 






















! 














!_■■ 








MHREnouSES. Bl lOCWTIC 



On ALTOS, APPLE, 

OSBORNE, ZENITH, 

and most others. 

THE MOST COMPLETE: 

Use THREE ways: 

1. "MENU" GRAPHICS (easy, friendly) 

2. "COMMAND FILES" (powerful, flexible) 

3. "COMPILER LINKED" (Fortran, etc.) 
Use on: most CRT's, dot matrix printers, 
plotters, word processing printers 

THE MOST PROVEN: 

2 years in the field 

THE MOST IMPLEMENTED: 

1 . 8 bit and 1 6 bit machines 

2. USER MODIFIABLE 

3. many applications programs 

$399 complete 
$35 manual only 

VISA, MC, C.O.D., CHECK, M.O. 



THE ENERCOMP 
COMPANY 

P.O. Box 28014. 

Lokewood, Colorado 80228 

(303)988-1648 

Also Available Through 

WESTICO 

The Software Express Service 

25 Van Zani Street • Norwalk, Connecticut 06855 

(203)853-6880 • Telex 643788 

and selected dealers. 



BIT 7 


BIT 6 


BIT 5 


BIT 4 


BIT 3 


BIT 2 


BIT 1 


BIT 



Bit Function 

7 Not discussed. 

6 Clock Generator 1 with 1.789790 MHz, instead of 63.9210 kHz. 

5 Clock Generator 3 with 1.789790 MHz, instead of 63.9210 kHz. 

4 Clock Generator 2 with Generator 1, instead of 63.9210 kHz. 

3 Clock Generator 4 with Generator 3, instead of 63.9210 kHz. 

2 Not discussed. 

1 Not discussed. 

Change normal clock frequency of 63.9210 kHz to 15.6999 kHz. 

Figure 1: The 1-byte audio-control register (AUDCTL) shown as bit through bit 7. 
AUDCTL is used to link generators together and to increase the clock rate. 



63,921 
30 

= 2130.69 Hz 

This result is fairly close to our 
mark tone of 2125 Hz. In fact, this 
tone works just fine for radioteletype. 
The space tone of 2295 Hz used in 
170-Hz shift can be approximated by 
making N equal 13 to get 2282.89 Hz. 
I used this combination in my tele- 
typewriter program (see listing 1) for 
several months until the local hams 
converted to an 850-Hz shift (2975 
Hz). In order to generate 2975 Hz, 
you must make N equal 10.74, an im- 
possibility because the SOUND state- 
ment rounds all arguments into in- 
tegers. Thus, 10.74 becomes 10, 
which yields a frequency of 3196 Hz. 

Complex Audio-Frequency 
Generation 

High-precision sound generation is 
possible because the Atari's designers 
allow you to link two of the four 
sound generators together, so you're 
not limited to an 8-bit integer num- 
ber. Thus, the range of the SOUND 
parameter can be expanded from 
through 255 ( through FF hexa- 
decimal) to through 65,535 (0 
through FFFF hexadecimal). This 
means passing the generators 16 bits 
of information, rather than 8 bits. To 
do so, you cannot use the SOUND 
statement; all instructions and infor- 



mation passed to the generators must 
be entered directly into memory using 
the POKE statement. 

To link the generators, you must 
become somewhat familiar with 
AUDCTL, the audio-control register 
(see figure 1). AUDCTL is located at 
memory address 53,768 (D208 hexa- 
decimal) and writes data into the 
audio-mode control register. In order 
to link generators 1 and 2, bit 4 must 
be a 1; to link generators 3 and 4, bit 
3 must be a 1. These bits are turned 
on by entering into the AUDCTL reg- 
ister a decimal number which is the 
sum of the powers of 2 that corre- 
spond to the bits you want turned on. 
For example, to turn on bits 3 and 4, 
add 2 3 and 2 4 (8 + 16) to get 24, and 
place that value into AUDCTL with 
the POKE statement. 

The added audio-frequency preci- 
sion requires the use of a faster clock 
rate for the generator pairs. Normal- 
ly, the clock rate is 63.921 kHz and 
bits 0, 5, and 6 of AUDCTL are zero. 
To get a faster rate, turn on bit 5 if 
generators 1 and 2 are paired or bit 6 
if generators 3 and 4 are paired. The 
new clock rate is 1.78979 megahertz 
(MHz). The increased clock rate 
means that a new equation is neces- 
sary to determine the output: 

MN 

(2) 



^OUT " 



438 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



2(N + M) 



where F ut * s tne frequency actually 



Text continued on page 444 



Listing 1: Radioteletype program for an Atari 800. For more information on the program, see the text box on page 442. 

2 REM x 4 0WPM ATARI RTTY PROGRAM x 

3 REM x ALL RIGHTS RESERVED * 

4 REM x PROGRAMMER: SCOTT PERSSON* x< 

5 REM * DATE: 04-07-81 ♦ * 

6 REM x MEMORY: 10 420 BYTES * 

e clr :poke 752,i:goto 13 

9 REM xxxxxx BAUDOT GENERATOR xxxxxx* 

10 a=a(i,p):b=a(2,p):c=a(3#p):d=a(^ # p):e=a<5,p):w=a(6,p):poke 5376 o,bf: for t«i t 

O 5: NEXT T:P0KE 53760, A 

11 FOR T = l TO 6JNEXT TJPOKE 53760 , B I FOR T = l TO 5:NEXT T 5 POKE 53760, CU'OR T = l TO 
6: NEXT TJPOKE 53760, D 

12 FOR T = l TO 5: NEXT TJPOKE 53760, El FOR T«l TO 6: NEXT TJPOKE 5376 0,MF: FOR T«l TO 
8: NEXT T: RETURN 

13 REM xxxxxx FREQUENCY INPUT xkkxxk* 

14 ? ">" }"<ENTER MARK FREQUENCY> " JJINPUT MF : MF--< 1789790 /<2*MF )) -7 : IF MF-INTCMF 
>> = 0*5 THEN MF==INT(MF + 1) 

15 ? :? "<ENTER SPACE FREQUENCY> "JJINPUT SF : SF" < 1789790/ < 2*SF )) -7 : IF SF-INT(SF) 
>=0*5 THEN SF=INT(SF+1) 

16 MF=INT(MF-256):SF=INT(SF-256):P0KE 53768, 120 :PC)KE 53762,1 

17 REM xxxxxxxxxxxx MAIN xxxxxxxxxxxx 

18 DIM A (6, 124).: POKE 82, 2: POKE 764, 255 5 POKE 83,36:? "D- 11 J t POSITION 2 , 1 : ? "<PLEASE 
WAIT>"{ JFOR T = l TO 56 

19 READ AJREAD BJREAD CJREAD DtREAD EtREAD F5READ GJREAD H : A ( , A )=B : A ( 1 , A )=C : A ( 2 
, A ) =D : A ( 3 , A ) =E : A ( 4 , A ) «F 

20 a(5,a)-=g:a(6,a)=--h:next t:gosub 41: position 2,1:? "<STDBY> ATARI BOO TEL 

ETYPE" J :L=0 tV«0 :GOTO 38 

21 IF PEEK<764>=255 THEN POKE 77, it GOTO 21 

22 P=PEEK(764>:PQKE 764, 255:iF P = 12 THEN 32 

23 IF P=124 THEN GOSUB 10 J GOTO 21 

24 IF P=60 THEN GOSUB lOJGOTO 21 

25 IF P=28 THEN 3 5 

26 IF P==39 THEN 37 

27 IF L>64 THEN SETCOLOR 2,2,8 

28 L=L+i:iF !...=••• 71 THEN P==12:G0T0 32 

29 IF (<A(0,P)>64 AND A(0,P)<91) OR P=33) AND V«l THEN R=P : P«60 J GOSUB lOJP-RJGOT 
31 

3 IF (A(0,P)<65 OR A(0,P)>90) AND P<>33 AND \J~Q THEN R^P :P=124 t GOSUB 10tP=R 

31 GOSUB 1 : ? CHR* ( A ( , P ) ) J 5 GOTO 2 1 

32 SETCOLOR 2,9,4: GOSUB 1 J P--28 : GOSUB 1 t P=60 t GOSUB 10 5L = 0JIF PEEK (84X21 THEN 3 
4 

33 ? ">":POSITION 2,15? "<TRANSMIT> ATARI 800 TELETYPE' 1 :? tPOKE 752, Ot GOTO 2 
1 

34 POSITION 2 , PEEK ( 84 ) +1 : ? " "} ,M, }J GOTO 21 

35 IF PEEK (84X21 THEN GOSUB 10 J POSITION PEEK ( 85 ) , PEEK ( 84 ) +1 }? " M } l,M } :GOTO 21 

36 GOSUB 1 : POKE 84 , 3 X POSITION PEEK ( 85 ) , PEEK ( 84 > J ? " M !""!J GOTO 2 1 

37 GOSUB 45:P0SITI0N 2,11? "<STDBY> "{POKE 764, 2552POKE 752,1 

38 IF PEEK (764)039 THEN POKE 77, i: GOTO 38 

39 GOSUB 45:? ">": POSITION 2 , 1 : ? "<TRANSMIT> ATARI 800 TELETYPE' 1 :? SPOKE 752 
, 5? " "}'•"} 

40 POKE 764, 255: POKE 53760 , MF : POKE 53763, 226: GOTO 21 

41 REM xxxxxx ARRAY CONVERSION xxxxxx 

42 FOR X = l TO 5: FOR Y=0 TO 124: IF A<X,Y)=1 THEN A ( X , Y ) = SF I GOTO 44 

43 A<X,Y)«MF 

44 NEXT YJNEXT X 5 RETURN 

45 REM xxxxxxxxx MORSE ID xxxxxxjkxxxx 

46 POKE 752, i: POSITION 2 , 1 1 ? "<IDENTIFY> ":POKE 53760 , 25 J P=7 I GOSUB 51 1 P=2l 5 GCK3UB 
51 : GOSUB 51 

47 FOR T = l TO 21 : NEXT Tl GOSUB 5i:P=7:F0R S = l TO 8: GOSUB 51 5 NEXT Si FOR T*l TO 21 : 
NEXT T 

48 P==2i:F0R S=l TO 5? GOSUB 51 : NEXT SJFQR T-l TO 21 t NEXT TiGOBUB 51 : GOSUB 5UP-7: 

GOSUB 5i:P=21 

Listing 1 continued o n page 440 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 439 



Listing 1 continued: 



49 GDSUB 

1 SP==7tG0S 

50 FOR T- 

51 POKE ! 
9 00 DATA 

DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 
DATA 



9 1 
90 2 
903 
904 
9015 
90 6 
907 
908 
90 9 
9 1 
911 
912 
913 
914 
915 
916 
9 1 7 
918 
919 

92 
921 
922 
923 
924 
925 
926 
927 
928 
929 

93 
931 
932 
933 
934 
935 



It FOR 
UB 51 
1 TO 2 
3763,2 
63,65, 
21,66, 
18,67, 
58,68, 
42,69, 
56,70, 
61,71, 
57,72, 
13,73, 
1,74,0 
5,75,0 
0,76,1 
37,77, 
35,78, 
8,79,1 
10,80, 
47,81, 
4 0,82, 
62,83, 
45,84, 
11,85, 
16,86, 
46,87, 
22,88, 
43,89, 
23,90, 
31,49, 
30,50, 
26,51, 
24,52, 
29,53, 
27,54, 
51,55, 
53,56, 
48,57, 
50,48, 



T = l TO 21 J NEXT TM"'^7 : FOR S==l TO 2: GO SUB 51 IP = 21 J GO SUB 51 1 GO SUB 5 



IJNEXT T 
26: FOR T 
0,0, 1 , 1 , 

, 1 , 1 , , 

1 ,0,0,0, 
, 1 , 1 , , 
, 1 , 1 , 1 , 

, 1 ,0,0, 

1 , , 1 , , 
1 , 1 , , 1 , 
1 ,0,0, 1 , 
, , 1 , , 1 
t , 0,0, 1 
, , 1 , 1 , 
1 1 1 ,0,0, 
1 , 1 ,0,0, 
, 1 , 1 ,0,0 
1 ,0,0, 1 , 

0,0,0, :i. , 

1 , , 1 , , 
, 1 , , 1 , 
1 , l , l , l , 
0,0,0, 1 , 
1,0,0,0, 
0,0, 1 , 1 , 
, 1 ,0,0, 
, 1 , , 1 , 
, 1 , 1 , 1 , 
0,0,0, 1 , 
0,0, 1 , 1 , 

, 1 , 1 , 1 , 

1 , , 1 , , 

1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 

, 1 , , 1 , 
0,0,0, 1 , 

1 ,0,0, 1 , 
1 , 1 , 1 , , 
1 ,0,0, 1 , 



:next 

= 1 TO 
1 , 
0,0 
1 , 
1 , 
1 , 
1 , 
0,0 
0,0 
1 , 
,0 

, o 

,0 

0,0 

1 , 

,0 

0,0 

0,0 

1 , 

:i. , 

0,0 
1 , 
0,0 
0,0 
0,0 
0,0 
0,0 
, 1 
, 1 

1 , 1 
1 , 1 

, 1 
, 1 

1 , 1 
1 , 1 

, 1 
, 1 



s:poke 5376 o,mf: return 
p:next t:poke 53763,: 



T=l TO 5: NEXT Tt RETURN 



Listing 1 continued on page 442 



WHY YOU 
SHOULD 
MAKE A 
CORPORATE 
CONTRIBU- 
TION TO 
THE AD 
COUNCIL 



The Advertising Council is the biggest 
advertiser in the world. Last year, with 
the cooperation of all media, the Coun- 
cil placed almost six hundred million 
dollars of public service advertising. 
Yet its total operating expense budget 
was only $1,147,000 which makes its 
advertising programs one of America's 
greatest bargains ... for every $1 cash 
outlay the Council is generating over 
$600 of advertising. 

U.S. business and associated groups 
contributed the dollars the Ad Council 
needs to create and manage this 
remarkable program. Advertisers, ad- 
vertisingagencies, and the media 
contributed the space and time. 

Your company can play a role. If you 
believe in supporting public service 
efforts to help meet the challenges 
which face our nation today, then your 
company can do as many hundreds of 



others— large and small— have done. 
You can make a tax-deductible con- 
tribution to the Advertising Council. 

At the very least you can, quite easily, 
find out more about how the Council 
works and what it does. Simply write to: 
Robert P. Keim, President, The Adver- 
tising Council, Inc., 825 Third Avenue, 
New York, New York 10022. 



- HQ I A Public Service of This Magazine 
1 & The Advertising Council. 

The cost of preparation of this advertisement 
was paid for by the American Business Press, 
the association of specialized business publi- 
cations. This space was donated by this 
magazine. 



440 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Does Yours Compare 



I 



i 



r/tj 



***uv0fe : - 



WwicaHSf*^---'- 



r*™"*"^*" 



Introducing tomorrow's disk controller. . . OMNIDISK offers S-100 users 
a unique combination of compatibility and technological innovation that 
together produce features not found in any conventional disk controllers. See for 
yourself what tomorrow looks like: 



/Simultaneous support of both 5Vi" and 8" floppy 

V disks allows software transfer between disks. 

^24 bit DMA allows CPU by-pass. 

/ Power-on boot PROM gets you up and running in 
r a huny. 

/On-board de-blocking conserves valuable RAM 

V space above bios. 

-/ Interfaces with the WD 1001® hard disk con- 

V trailer. No need to buy a host adapter. 

V Full 16 bit port addressing. 



V 



Full track buffer allows controller to recall entire 
track, not just sectors. Results in a speed in- 
crease 3-to-7-times greater than conventional con- 
trollers for both read and write operations. 



OMNIDISK'S features reflect our committ- 
ment to designing S-100 products with an eye on 
the future. OMNIDISK'S price reflects our com- 
mittment to offer products with an eye on the 
needs of today's user. 
You can begin using 
tomorrow's disk con- 
troller today for only. 

So why wait, order now. 



LJMVltJ Willi Ull \S J \S VI I III 

$399' 



*CP/M configured for OMNIDISK, only $25 with 
purchase. 




FULCRUM 

COMPUTER PRODUCTS 



distributed by: 

W.W. COMPONENT SUPPLY INC. 

1771 Junction Avenue 
San Jose, CA 95112 
(408) 295-7171 



FREE U.P.S. ground shipping on pre-paid orders. Shipping will be added to C.O.D., 
VISA and M/C orders. CA residents please add sales tax. 






Tomorrow's 8 MHZ Z80 CPU coming soon from FULCRUM 

Circle 464 on inquiry card. 



StarLogic 

Announces More 

Disk Drive 

Savings 



TANDON DRIVES FOR IBM AND TRS-80 

These basic drives can be mounted inter- 
nally on IBM and TRS-80-III personal com- 
puters. Both full-size and the new ThinLine 
models are available. 

TANDON TM100-1 $165.00 

TANDON TM50-1 $145.00 

TANDON TM100-2 $235.00 

TANDON TM55-2 $215.00 

TANDON TM-100-4 $295.00 

TANDON TM55-4 $275.00 

TANDON TM101 -4 $295.00 

TANDON TM848-1 $350.00 

TANDON TM848-2 $425.00 

APPLE ll-COMPATIBLE DISK DRIVES 

Includes drive, cable and cabinet 
(also compatible with Franklin ACE) 
5W standard drive $205.00 

ThinLine drive $185.00 

Dual ThinLine drives $335.00 

EXTERNAL DRIVES FOR IBM PC 

Price includes drive, power supply, cable 
and cabinet. 

100-1 with 160K IBM format $235.00 

100-2 with 320K IBM format $305.00 
55-2 with 320K IBM format $285.00 

100-4 with 650K IBM format $385.00 
(includes software patch to DOS 1. 1) 
55-4 with 650K IBM format $365.00 

(includes software patch to DOS 1.1) 

EXTERNAL DRIVES FOR TRS-80 MODEL 
III, TANDY COLOR COMPUTER AND 
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 

Prices includes drive, power supply, 
cable and cabinet. Storage is unformatted. 



100-1 with 250K* 


$235.00 


50-1 with 250K* 


$215.00 


100-2 with 500K 


$305.00 


55-2 with 500K 


$285.00 


100-4 with 1000K 


$365.00 


55-4 with 1000K 


$345.00 



''Compatible with Tandy Color Computer 

WINCHESTER SUBSYSTEMS FOR IBM PC 

Includes Winchester disk drive, cabinet, 
power supply, cable, controller, I/O 
adaptor and software (JEL) for 1.1 DOS 
5 Megabyte $1375.00 

10 Megabyte $1575.00 

15 Megabyte $1775.00 

30 Megabyte $2275.00 

All drives and peripherals have our standard 
warranty which includes 90 days parts and 
labor. 

TELEPHONE ORDERS ONLY 

Only phone orders will be accepted. Master 

Card, VISA, Cashier's Check, COD accepted. 

(213) 883-0587 



StarLogic 



Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 
IBM and IBM PC are registered trademarks ol IBM Corporation. 
TRS-80 is a registered trademark of Tandy Corporation. 
ThinLine is a registered trademark of Tandon Corporation. 
JEL is a product of Tall Tree Systems. 

Prices subject to change without notice. 

Prices do not include shipping charges which will be 

added to billing. 

442 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing \ 


[ continued: 


936 


DATA 


60,32,0,0,0,0,0,0 


937 


DATA 


124,32,0,0,1,0,0,1 


938 


DATA 


12,32,1,1,1,0,1,0 


939 


DATA 


33,32,1,1,0,1,1,0 


940 


DATA 


14,45,0,0,1,1,1,1 


941 


DATA 


88,36,0,1,1,0,1,1 


942 


DATA 


95,33,0,1,0,0,1,1 


943 


DATA 


91,38,1,0,1,0,0,1 


944 


DATA 


90,35,1,1,0,1,0,1 


945 


DATA 


115,39,0,0,1,0,1,1 


946 


DATA 


112,40,0,0,0,0,1,1 


947 


DATA 


114,41,1,0,1,1,0,1 


948 


DATA 


94,34,0,1,1,1,0,1 


949 


DATA 


38,47,0,1,0,0,0,1 


950 


DATA 


66,58,1,0,0,0,1,1 


951 


DATA 


2,59,1,0,0,0,0,1 


952 


DATA 


102,63,0,1,1,0,0,1 


953 


DATA 


32,44,1,1,0,0,1,1 


954 


DATA 


34,4 6,1,1,0,0,0,1 


955 


DATA 


28,28,1,0,1,1,1,0 



The Radioteletype Program 

The program I used to implement 
radioteletype frequencies is presented 
in listing 1. The following paragraphs 
comment on the significant lines of the 
program. 

Lines 10 through 12 (timing loops) 
must be placed at the programs begin- 
ning because the BASIC interpreter 
looks for line calls (GOTO and 
GOSUB) from line O. If the loops were 
any deeper in the program, the timing 
loop delays would be in error. 

Lines 14 and 15 contain the input 
routine, where you enter the mark and 
space frequencies you wish to use. 

Line 16 sets up the high-precision 
generator pair, then sets the high-order 
byte of the pair to 1, which will make 
the pair generate at radioteletype fre- 
quencies. 

Lines 18 and 19 read character data 
into A, a two-dimensional array, using 
scalar variables A through H (see 
DATA statements in lines 900 through 
955). Of these variables, A represents 
the keyboard code for the key that will 
be pressed, B is the ATASCII (Atari 
ASCII code) equivalent for the charac- 
ter in variable A, variables C through 
G collectively form the 5-bit Baudot 
equivalent (0 for mark tone and 1 for 
space tone), and H is a figures/ letters- 
shift flag. H equals if the character is 



in lower (letters) shift, 1 if the 
character is in upper (figures) shift. 

Line 21 looks for keyboard input 
from memory location CM (hexadeci- 
mal 01FC). 

Lines 22-26 look for special-case 
RTTY characters, such as A (the 
Atari-logo key), Carriage Return, 
Linefeed, Ltrs (letters shift), Figs (figure 
shift), and Bell. The program includes 
automatic up- and down-shifting, and 
will generate a combined Linefeed/Ltrs 
upon receipt of a Carriage Return. The 
program loops constantly until the 
Atari-logo key is pressed. The Atari- 
logo key will also terminate RTTY 
transmission and return the program 
to standby looping. 

Line 27 changes the screen color 
when over 64 characters have been 
typed on one line, to remind you that 
only 5 characters remain on a standard 
RTTY line. If you continue to type, a 
combined Carriage Return/Line- 
feed/Ltrs will be sent automatically 
when you reach 70 characters. 

Lines 46 through 51 contain the 
Morse-code identification routine. 
This must be changed for your call 
sign. To do so, change the values of P 
(dit = 7, dah = 21), the number of 
repetitions (GOSUB 51), and the place- 
ment of the delays between characters 
(FOR T = Ito 21:NEXT T). The ex- 
isting call sign is WBOQPP. 



1 




«BUY BY DIRECT-MAIL* 



1-800-841-0860 

CONVENIENT ORDER ENTRY 






% 



MICRO MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS INC. 



TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 

DISCOUNT PRICED 
FROM 




CALL 



BUY 
DIRECT 



26-3004 



TRS-80 MODEL III COMPUTER 

DISCOUNT PRICES 




FROM 



$ 



BUY DIRECT 



588 



26-1061 



TRS-80 MODEL 16 COMPUTER 



DISCOUNT PRICED 
FROM 




BUY DIRECT 



26-6001 



4* 



FRANKLIN 

ACE 1000 

COMPUTER 

DISCOUNT PRICED 

$ CALL 



SMITH CORONA TP-I 
DAISY WHEEL PRINTER 

DISCOUNT PRICED 
FROM 



FROM 



$ 



559 




BUY DIRECT 



A ATARI 

HOME COMPUTERS 

DISCOUNT t g^ £%g% 

PRICED *h/H 

FROM V4.a 



1 



TRS-80 MODEL II COMPUTER 



DISCOUNT PRICED 
FROM 




TRS-80 l/lll 

HARD 
DRIVES 



1988 



TRS-80 PRINTERS 



AAFG BY 
RADIO SHACK 



26-1130 



CALL 



BUY DIRECT 



26-4002 



£m commodore 
V ~ TEXAS INSTRUMENT 
CALL FOR PRICES 



DWP-410 $1287.00 

DMP-100 $339.00 

DMP-200 $679.00 

DMP-400 $1015.00 

DMP-500 $1525.00 



V. 






PLEASE WRITE US FOR 



FREE 



•COPY OF OUR CUSTOMER DIS- 
COUNT PRICE LIST UPON RE- 
QUEST 

•COPY OF MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY 
UPON REQUEST 



MICRO MANAGEMENT 
SYSTEMS INC. 

PARCEL DIVISION 
DEPT. NO. 1 
2803 THOMASVILLE RD. EAST 
CAIRO, GA. 31728 



OKPATA EPSON 



GA. 
INFO 



912-3777120 

TM - TANDY CORPORATION 



TRS-80 SOFTWARE 

VISICALC, PROFILE, 

SCRIPSIT & MORE 

$AVE MONEY 

PRICES AND PRODUCTS SUBJECT TO 
CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ORDERS 
SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION AND AC- 
CEPTANCE. 



I 



Circle 273 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



443 



Cost-Effectiveness 



MjMj»Y£H^IjMjWI 


i^^jiimmiiimiim in 



ICompuPro 1 



ICompoPro 1 



More performance; 

Handles 8 and/or 16 bit software, single to multi-user. 
Features high speed operation with lots of memory. 

more quality, 

Combines innovative but proven hardware with best-selling, 
industry-acclaimed software packages. 

more reliability, 

Not 90 days, but one year limited warranty 
(two years optional at extra cost). 

and more service per dollar spent 

Authorized service now available at 50 locations nationwide. 



For a convincing demonstration of why 

CompuPro is your most cost-effective choice 

for business, industrial and scientific 

computing applications, visit your 

Authorized CompuPro Systems Center. 



omouPro 



CompuPro division, Godbout Electronics, Box 2355, Oakland Airport, CA 94614 

Circle 93 on inquiry card. 



Circle 145 on inquiry card. 



MMFANTASTIC PRICES!!!! 
FROM DIGITAL DIMENSIONS 

OKIDATA 

ML-80 $339 

ML-82A $415 

*ML-83A $680 

*ML-84(parallel) $985 

*ML-84(serial) $1 ,095 

ML-92 $509 

ML-93 $869 

PACEMARK 2410 CALL 

PACEMARK 2350 CALL 

'Includes Tractor Feed 

ANADEX DP8000 $749 

ANADEX DP9500/9501 $1279 

ANADEX 9500A/9501A $1359 

ANADEX DP9000/9001 $1 209 

ANADEX DP9620A $1459 

SCM-TP I $649 

120 word/min Daisy Wheel, 10 or 12 pitch, 
serial or parallel interface 

DAISYWRITER 2000 $1,015 

BIDIRECTIONAL 40CPS AVERAGE THROUGH 
PUT, 48K BUFFER, CENTRONICS, 488, 
RS232 b C. LOOP INCLUDED. 

DAISYWRITER 1500 S $955 

4K Buffer Serial Only 
DAISYWRITER 1500 P $925 

4K Buffer Parallel Only 

IDS 

PRISM 80 $1,219 

Includes sprint mode, dot plot and cut sheet guide 

PRISM 80 $1319 

Includes sprint mode, dot plot, cut sheet guide and 3.4K 
buffer. 

PRISM 132 $1 ,649 

Includes oil of above and 4-color graphics 

CITOH 

Prowriter (Parallel). . . $489 

Prowriter (Serial) $629 

Prowriter 2 (Parallel) $719 

Prowriter 2 (Serial) $769 

Starwriter F10 $1 ,449 

Printmoster F-10 $1 ,699 

DISK DRIVES 

RANA ELITE I $305 

MICRO-SCI $289 

MODEMS 

HAYES 300 BAUD SMART MODEM $219 

HAYES 1200 BAUD SMART MODEM $515 

E-Z COLOR board $199 

For the Apple II or Apple II Plus. 
16-Color, 256 x 192 resolution. Requires 
3.3 DOS. Includes demo software and 
E-Z COLOR Editor. 
E-Z COLOR board for S100 Systems $279 
E-Z COLOR board for TRS-80 $239 

INTEX TALKER text-to-speech synthesizer. Serial and 
parallel interface included $280 

AMDEK 13" COLOR-1 $335 

AMDEK 13" COLOR II $719 

NEC JB1201 GREEN Monitor $159 

FOR THE IBM P.C. 

Quadram Quadboard w/64k $429 

Quadram Quadboard w/128k $519 

Quadram Quadboard w/192k $609 

Quadram Quadboard w/256k $699 

DIGITAL DIMENSIONS 

190 Chapel Rd., Manchester, CT 06040 

Info Er Orders Call 203-649-3611 
Orders Only 1-800-243-5222 

C.O.D. Welcome. Allow 2-3 Weeks For Checks. MC/VISA 
OK. All Prices Include UPS Ground Freight In U.S. CT 
Residents Add 77i% Sales Tax. Prices Subject To Change 
Without Notice. 



BIT 7 


BIT 6 


BIT 5 


BIT 4 


BIT 3 


BIT 2 


BIT 1 


BIT 


1 





1 

















1 





1 





1 











1 





1 





1 


1 


1 


1 



OFF 



1/2 VOLUME 



FULL VOLUME 



Figure 2: The audio-control registers (AUDCl to AUDC4) control the volume of the 
corresponding audio generator (1 to 4). The volume range is from 224 to 239 decimal 



Text continued from page 438: 

obtained from the computer, F^ is 
1,789,790 Hz (1.78979 MHz), N is the 
number to be passed to the generator 
pair, and M is always 7 for a gener- 
ator pair. 

For example, we'll find the value of 
N to yield the space tone 2975 Hz 
used in 850-Hz shift radioteletype: 



^OUT _ 



2975 = 



2(N + 7) 



1,789,790 



2(N+7) 
N = 293.8 

The closest integer value for N is 294. 
By passing the generator pair 294, we 
get an audio-output frequency of 
2973.07 Hz, only about 0.06 percent 
off our goal. 

Our next problem is to put the 
value 294 into memory. Obviously it 
cannot be entered as an 8-bit integer 
because the maximum integer value is 
255. However, by passing the gener- 
ator pair 16 bits of information we 
can easily denote the decimal number 
294 in two 8-bit "pieces." First, con- 
vert the decimal number obtained 
from equation 2 into a 2-byte hexa- 
decimal number: the decimal number 
294 equals the hexadecimal number 
0126. The two most significant digits 
(01) make up the high-order byte and 
the two least significant digits (26) 
make up the low-order byte. Next, 
convert each hexadecimal byte back 
to its decimal value, individually: 01 
hexadecimal equals 1 decimal and 26 



hexadecimal equals 38 decimal. These 
numbers are then passed to the audio- 
frequency registers (AUDFl through 
AUDF4). Using the POKE command, 
place the high-order byte into the 
high AUDF register of the pair and 
the low-order byte into the low 
AUDF register. 

Volume Control 

Once the frequency is determined, 
the volume must be set because its 
default value is zero. The volume is 
controlled by the audio-channel con- 
trol registers (AUDCl through 
AUDC4, see figure 2). Because the 
generators are paired, it is necessary 
to turn on only AUDC2 or AUDC4 
for output. For full volume, use the 
POKE command to place the number 
239 into the appropriate AUDC; for 
zero volume, use POKE to enter the 
number 224. The values within that 
range will vary the volume propor- 
tionately. 

Putting It Together 

To create high-precision audio, 
follow these steps: 

• Set up the generator pair(s) and in- 
crease the clock rate by changing the 
AUDCTL register with the POKE 
command. 

• Choose an output frequency and 
obtain N from equation 2. 

• Split N into two hexadecimal bytes 
and then convert each byte into its 
decimal equivalent. 

• Use the POKE command to place 



446 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 2: This short program will set up generator pairs 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and prepare them for high-precision sound generation. 
To obtain a given frequency, use the number N from equation 2 in the format HB (high-order byte) and LB (low-order byte); e.g. , for 
1050 Hz the number is 845. HB = 845/256 or 3; LB = 77 (the remainder). The value for VOLUME should be determined empirically. 



10 POKE 53763, 120 

20 POKE 53762, HB 

30 POKE 53760, LB 

40 POKE 53763, VOLUME 



REM SETS UP THE PAIRS 

REM HB — HIGH ORDER BYTE 

REM LB — LOW ORDER BYTE 

REM VOLUME = 160 (OFF) TO 17? 



(FULL) 



FRONT VIEW OF FEMALE JACK 



AUDIO OUTPUT 



COMPOSITE CHROMA 




COMPOSITE LUMINENCE 



COMPOSITE VIDEO 



Figure 3: The pinout from the Atari monitor jack (front view). The audio frequencies 
are taken from pins 2 and 3. 



A BASIC assembly-language ver- 
sion of the RTTY program is 
available on cassette from the 
author for $15. It features RTTY 
transmission and reception at any 
speed and any audio shift. It comes 
preprogrammed with the individ- 
ual's call sign. For information send 
a stamped, self-addressed envelope 
to: 

Scott Persson WBOQPP 
4719 Valley St. 
Omaha, NE 68106 



the high byte into the high AUDF of 
the generator pair and the low byte 
into the low AUDF. 
• Choose a volume level and use 
POKE to place the value (224 to 239) 
into either AUDC2 or AUDC4. 

You can use the program presented in 



listing 2 to experiment with high- 
precision frequency generation. 

The audio output from the Atari 
comes from the monitor jack, which 
is located on the right side of the com- 
puter near the peripheral jack (see 
figure 3). The audio frequencies are 
taken from pins 2 and 3; note that pin 



2 is the ground. A 5-pin DIN 
(Deutsche Industrie Norm) plug and 
shielded audio cable are the only in- 
terface necessary. There are few hams 
who can boast of 99.94-percent tone 
accuracy — much less a $2 inter- 
face — and it's all accessible with a lit- 
tle SOUND thinking. ■ 






Electronic 

Circuit 

Analysis 



DC and AC analysis 

Very fast, machine language 

Infinite circuits on multiple passes 

Worst case, sensitivity analysis 

Dynamic modification 

64 Nodes, 127 branches 

Compare circuits 

Log or linear sweep 

Full file handling 

Frequency response, magnitude and phase 

Complete manual with examples 

TRS^80 (TRSDOS) $90.00 

CP/M $150.00 

Tatum Labs 

P.O. Box 722 

Hawleyville, CT 

06440 

(203) 426-2184 



TIT) 

Or 






5^ 



■ti Tir- 

oo-j 






Z-0T3 ' 
OOO ; 

in r 



!2£o 



D-d : 

Ooj . 

3 m < 



O H 

z> 

o 

o 
c 
o 

-I 



O m _ m 
> mS H 

H P -r, < 

2 Pzs 

g M «T» 

WHO 
"* (0 ' 



nmmmmmzD OD 
■rrrrr> >> 
-m-mz r*< 
nrnmmrnrn> ' O 



^nn°°D x£ 



>>> 

ODD 

mmm 

00"iw 

OO i oo 
uu * 8 ? 



< 
O 

o 

s 

: £ -u 

>o 







age 65 

years worked 40 
retirement benefits 

The U.S. Department of Labor has a free 
booklet that will help you answer these 
questions and a lot more. Send for it today. 
Write: Pensions, Consumer Information 
Center, Pueblo, Colorado 81009 

U.S. Department of Labor 



Circle 415 on inquiry card. 



Circle 436 on Inquiry card. 



In the beginning, there was the 
printer. 

And right on its heels came the 
first printer breakdown. 

Unfortunately, the first printer ser- 
vice call didn't happen nearly so 
quickly, thus creating downtime - 
a problem that still plagues users 
today. 

What's the answer? Non-Stop- 
Printing from Trilog. 



Two heads are better than one. 

Most dot-matrix line printers use 
only a single print head. That's 
fine - unless something goes wrong 
with the head. Then you're out of 
business until a service representa- 
tive shows up. 

On the other hand, the Trilog 
TIP-300 uses an exclusive two- 
headed system. Both 150 1pm print 
heads run simultaneously. Giving 



you a total output of 300 1pm. 

Should one print head temporarily 
fail, the user simply flips a switch 
and the remaining head continues 
printing at 150 1pm. 

Now that's Non-Stop-Printing! 

Dual heads offer another advan- 
tage, too. Instead of being pushed 
to capacity like most single heads, 
each Trilog head runs at a 50% 
duty cycle. This makes them much 



Non-Stop-Printing; 
advance since the p 










For more information circle 489 




more reliable than conventional 
print heads. 

Advanced innovation isn't just 
in our heads. 

That's why we also gave Trilog 
printers dual tractors. They not only 
stabilize the paper and minimize 
friction, but allow the paper to move 
forward and backward. This gives 
you plotting capability and lets you 
generate forms. You can also print 



bar codes. Plus business and engi- 
neering graphics. 
Five printers for the price 
of one. 

Besides graphics, the TIP-300 
gives you four other types of print- 
ing: standard data processing char- 
acters. Letter quality characters that 
approach the sharpness of fully 
formed characters. And two versions 
of compressed characters for paper 



savings and special formats. 

For more information contact: 
Trilog, Inc., 17391 Murphy Ave., Irvine, 
CA 92714. Or call (714) 549-4079- 
TWX (910) 595-2798. 

You'll see that compared to 
Trilog, other printers are still in the 
Dark Ages. 
Non-Stop-Printing starts with 

[trilog]® 



The single greatest 



nnterwas 




• ... :. ■ ■' ■■ ■ . • 







For a sales contact circle 490 



/ The Best In Price, ' 
Selection and Delivery 

Call Now 

TOLL FREE 
800-368-3404 

(In VA, Call Collect 703-237-8695) 

AMPEX-INTERTEOTEXAS INSTRUMENTS-GENERAL DATA 

COMM.-ANDERSONJACOBSON-C.ITOH-QUME • BEEHIVE- 

DATASOUTH-DIABLO-CENTRONICS -NEC -PRENTICE 



ONLY $1 895 
ONLY S2295 
ONLY S2695 



INTERTEC SUPERBRAIN II 

64K DD* 

64K QD* 

64K SD* (96TPI) 
'{includes M/Soft BASIC) 
DDS-10Meg .__■_ 

(Hard Disk) ...... HJKEIEE 

DYNABYTE Call 

EHcasa 

NEC 

7710 Ser $2149 

7715 $2196 

7730 Par . . . .$2149 

7720 $2449 

7725 $ 2496 

Std. Tractor 77 xx ... $ 199 

3510 $1390 

3510 EX . . .Call for Special Price 

3515 $1395 

DATASOUTH Call 

DIABLO 

620-SPI $1144 

630-R102/147 $1949 

630-ECS Call 

630-R153* $1745 

"(for IBM P.C.. Apple II, TRS-80) 

630-R155 Call 

630-K104(KSR) $2385 

QUME 

Sprint 9/45 FP $1794 

Sprint 9/55 FP $2119 

Sprint 9/55 FP/XMEM ... .$2186 
Sprint 9/55 LP/XMEM . . . .$2094 

Sprint 11/40- PLUS Call 

Bi-Dir. Forms Tractor $ 199 

CENTRONICS: 34/38 Call 

nsnnng 

AMPEX 

D80 $699 

BEEHIVE (SMART DISPLAY) 

DM5 Call 

DM5A Call 

DM310 (3101 Emulator) ... Call 
DM 3270 (3270 Emulator) . . Call 

Protocol Converter Call 

QUME 

QVT-102 .$ 594 

QVT-103 $ 739 



C. ITOH 

CIT 101 $1350 

CIT 161 (Color) Call 

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 

745 Standard $1390 

745 Std. (Reconditioned) . . . Call 

765 Bbl M'my Call 

785/787 Call 

810 Basic $1249 

810 Package $1439 

820 Package RO Package $1610 

820 KSR Package Call 

840 RO Basic $ 795 

840 RO Tractor Feed Pkg. $1059 
940 Video Ed'tr $1570 

EEEZE3 

PRENTICE STAR 300Bd..$ 124 

GDC1035JL $ 169 

1200-9600 Baud Call 

Stat Muxes Call 

EBEana 

QUME 

Data Trak 5 ... $ 289 or 2 for $549 
Data Trak 8 . . . $519 or 2 for $999 
M.liA'.'fl:l=M 

BISYNC-3780 $ 769 

Wordstar (IBM P.C.) $ 279 

Data Star $ 218 

Mail Merge FREE* 

Spell Star $ 149 

Spell Guard $ 229 

Plan 80 $ 249 

d Base 11 $529 

CalcStar $ 191 

SuperSort $ 158 

Super Calc $ 249 

InfoStar Call 

CIS Cobol $ 689 

Forms II $ 159 

MACRO 80 $ 183 

"C" Compiler . , $ 177 

■With purchase of InloStar. 

Special! While They Last! 

SOROC TERMINALS 

IQ 120 MflM&m 

NOTE IBM and Burroughs compatible 
terminals available Please inquire 



In addition, we can make EIA RS 232 or RS 449 cables to your order, 
and supply you with ribbons, printer stands, print wheels, thimbles for 
all printers listed. And many, many more items. CALL NOW. 
All items shipped freight collect either motor freight or UPS unless other- 
wise specified. All prices already include 3% cash discount. Purchase with 
credit card does not include discount. Virginia residents, add 4% Sales Tax. 
For fastest delivery send certified check, money order or bank-wire transfer. 
Sorry, no C.O.D. orders. All equipment is in factory cartons with manufac- 
turers' warranty (honored at our depot). Prices subject to.change without 
notice. Most items in stock. 



TCRmiflBLS 




Terminals Terrific, Inc., P.O. Box 216, Merrifield, VA 22116 
Phone: 800-368-3404 (In VA, Call Collect 703-237-8695) 



Programming Quickies 



Computing 

Telescope 

Parameters with 

the OSI 

Superb oar d II 

R. B. Minton, c/o BYTE, POB 372, Hancock, NH 03449 

The program in listing 1 is written for the Ohio Scien- 
tific Superboard II and will run in 4K bytes of program- 
mable memory. It computes various optical parameters 
for a Newtonian reflecting telescope and should be useful 
to anyone who already owns a reflector or is considering 
buying or making one. 

The program computes a telescope's power, F number 
(focal ratio), eye relief, Ramsden disk diameter, 
magnitude limit, resolving power (Dawes' limit), prime- 
focus scale, and the size (in arc-seconds and microns) of a 
star image at various angular and linear distances from 
the optical axis. This will certainly be a blessing to 
stargazers, because knowing the size of star images helps 
evaluate the performance of a telescope. The program 
also computes what the axial spherical aberration would 
be if the telescope's primary (main) mirror were spherical 
instead of parabolic. This is useful to anyone making a 
Newtonian reflector and wanting the focal length long 
enough so that the mirror will not have to be parabo- 
lized. 

Entering the Variables 

Enter the aperture (the main mirror diameter) and the 
focal length in inches. (These may already be known or 
can be measured.) Enter the eyepiece focal length in mil- 
limeters. If you prefer to use inches, delete line 280. The 
usual types of eyepieces are Ramsden, Kellner, Plossel, 
orthoscopic, symmetrical, or Erfle. Enter the first letter of 
the type of eyepiece for the eye relief calculation (the dis- 
tance the eye should be positioned from the outside glass 
surface of the eyepiece). Distances other than this will 
result in a restricted field of view and uncomfortable 
viewing. 

Evaluating the Output 

After these four values are entered, the program pro- 
duces the first of three screens of data. The first lists the 
input data for verification, the telescope's power, the eye 
relief, the diameter of the Ramsden disk, the magnitude 



450 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 423 on inquiry card. 



Listing 1: A BASIC program for the Ohio Scientific Superboard 
II that computes optical parameters for a Newtonian telescope. 
The program will run in 4K bytes of programmable memory 
and compute telescope power, F number, eye relief, Ramsden 
disk diameter, magnitude limit, resolving power, prime-focus 
scale, and the size of a star image at various angular and linear 
distances from the optical axis. 



1 REM PROGRAM TELESCOPE OPTICS 

20 REM BY R. B. MINTON 

30 PI = 3. 14159 

40 Q = 180: 11 = 250 

50 KN = .3 

60 K = (Q/PI)*3600 

70 FOR X = 1 TO 32:PRINT:NEXT 

80 PRINT "PROGRAM TELESCOPE COM-":PRINT 

90 PRINT "PUTES VARIOUS PARAME-":PRINT 

100 PRINT "TERS FOR A REFLECTING":PRINT 

1 10 PRINT "TELESCOPE":PRINT 

120 FOR X = 1 TO 3000:NEXT 

130 FOR X = 1 TO 32:PRINT:NEXT 

140 PRINT "ENTER APERTURE":PRINT 

150 INPUT A:PRINT 

160 PRINT "ENTER MIRROR F. L.": PRINT 

170 INPUT FL:PRINT 

180 FO = FL/A 

190 FO = INT(100*FO)/100 

200 PRINT "ENTER EYEPIECE F. L.":PRINT 

210 INPUT EF:PRINT 

220 PRINT "ENTER EYEPIECE TYPE":PRINT 

230 INPUT A$:PRINT 

240 IF A$ = "P" THEN KN = . 75 

250 IF A$ = "0"THENKN=.8 

260 IF A$ = "S" THEN KN = .8 

270 IF A$ = "E" THEN KN = .35 

280 EF = EF/25.4 

290 EF = INT(100*EF)/100 

300 PO = FL/EF 

310 PA = INT(PO + .5) 

320 RD = A/PO 

330 RD = INT(1000*(RD + .0005))/1000 

340 ER = (FL*EF*KN)/(FL - EF) 

350 ER = INT(100*ER)/100 

360 MA = 9 + (5*(LOG(A)/LOG(10))) 

370 MA = INT(10*(MA + .05))/10 

380 DL = 4.56/A 

390 DL = INT(100*(DL + .005))/100 

400 SC = 8120.66/FL 

410 FOR X= 1 TO 32:PRINT:NEXT 

420 PRINT "APERTURE = "; A:PRINT 

430 PRINT "MIRROR F. L. =";FL:PRINT 

440 PRINT "TELESCOPE F/NO = "; FO:PRINT 



450 PRINT "EYEPIECE F. L. =";EF:PRINT 

460 PRINT "TELESCOPE POWER =";PA:PRINT 

470 PRINT "EYE RELIEF = ";ER:PRINT 

480 PRINT "RAMSDEN DISK = ";RD:PRINT 

490 PRINT "MAG. LIMIT = " ;M AiPRINT 

500 PRINT "DAWES LIMIT = ";DL:PRINT 

510 PRINT "P. F. SCALE = ";SC:PRINT 

520 PRINT "ENTER C TO CONTINUE":PRINT 

530 INPUT A$: PRINT 

540 IF A$ <> "C" GOTO 970 

550 FOR X = 1 TO 32:PRINT:NEXT 

560 PRINT "ENTER FIELD DIA.(DEG)":PRINT 

570 INPUT FD:PRINT 

580 FR = FD/2 

590 PRINT "ENTER STEP SIZE":PRINT 

600 INPUT SS:PRINT 

610 PRINT "ANGLE COMA ASTIG.":PRINT 

620 FOR I = SS TO FR STEP SS 

630 FA = I*(PI/Q) 

640 CO = (FA/(16*(FO*FO)))*K 

650 AS = ((FA*FA)/(2*FO))*K 

660 PRINT I;CO;AS:PRINT 

670 FORJ = l TOJJ:NEXT J 

680 NEXT I 

690 SP = (.0078/(FO*FO*FO))*K 

700 PRINT "AX. SP. AB. =";SP:PRINT 

710 PRINT "ENTER C TO CONTINUE":PRINT 

720 INPUT A$:PRINT 

730 IF A$<> "C" GOTO 970 

740 FOR X = 1 TO 32:PRINT:NEXT 

750 PRINT "RADIUS COMA ASTIG.":PRINT 

760 FOR 1 = 2 TO 18 STEP 2 

770 FA = (I*SC)/K 

780 CO = (FA/(16*(FO*FO)))*K 

790 CO=CO/SC 

800 CO = (INT((CO + . 0005)* 1000)/1000)* 1000 

810 AS = ((FA*FA)/(2*FO))*K 

820 AS = AS/SC 

830 AS = (INT((AS + .0005)* 1000)/1000)* 1000 

840 PRINT " ";I;" ";CO;" ";AS:PRINT 

850 FOR J = 1 TO JJ:NEXT J 

860 NEXT I 

870 SP = SP/SC 

880 SP = (INT((SP + .0005)* 1 000)/1000* 1 000 

890 PRINT "AX. SP. AB. =";SP:PRINT 

900 PRINT "MORE COMPUTATIONS?":PRINT 

910 INPUT A$:PRINT 

920 IF A$ = "N" GOTO 970 

930 PRINT "DIFFERENT OPTICS?":PRINT 

940 INPUT A$:PRINT 

950 IF A$ = "Y"GOTO 130 

960 GOTO 550 

970 PRINT "END OF RUN":PRINT 

980 END 



DOES YOUR E.Q. NEED IMPROVING? 



(Economics QuobenO 



IT MIGHT. TAKE THIS 

QUICK QUIZ AND FIND OUT. 



True False 

□ □ ( 1 .) When inflation occurs, each 
dollar we have buys more goods and 
services. 

□ □ (2.) As productivity increases, our 
standard of living increases. 

□ □ (3.) One out of five American 
workers belongs to a labor union. 



If you found these questions tough, your 
Economics Quotient, your E.Q., could prob- 
ably stand some improvement. 

A special booklet on our American 
Economic System can help you do just that. 
It's fact-filled, easy reading and free. 

For your free copy, write "Economics',' 
Pueblo, Colorado 81009. 

ANSWERS: l'e L'Z A'\ 



The American 

Economic 

System 

We should oil leorn 
more oboul il. 



(i) 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 451 



Programming Quickie. 



limit, the Dawes' limit, and the prime-focus scale. The 
Ramsden disk is the diameter of the beam of light enter- 
ing the eye. If it is larger than the pupil diameter, some 
light is being wasted. An eyepiece should be used with a 
focal length that gives a Ramsden disk no larger than 0.25 
or 0.20 inch. The magnitude limit will indicate approx- 
imately the faintest star visible with the telescope. The 
Dawes' limit gives the resolving power in arc-seconds of a 
parabolic mirror with a good figure (good optical perfor- 
mance). Indeed, the main function of a telescope is to 
gather light, up to the magnitude limit, and increase 
resolution, up to the Dawes' limit. The average naked eye 
can see a sixth-magnitude star and has a resolution of 60 
to 120 arc-seconds. The prime-focus scale is expressed in 
arc-seconds per millimeter and allows computing the size 
of an object if one were to photograph it at prime-focus 
and with no supplementary optics. 

The second screen of data requires entering the field 
diameter in degrees and the step size. A small to medium- 
sized telescope has a maximum angular field of view of 
usually 0.25° to 1° for the lowest-powered eyepiece. The 
field can be judged by looking at the moon, which is close 
to 0.50° in diameter. If 1.0 and 0.1 are entered as field 
and step size, the program will output the angular 
diameters of the two major optical aberrations, coma and 
astigmatism, 0.1° to 0.5° from the optical axis. Both 
coma and astigmatism are zero-valued on axis for a 
parabolic mirror. The combined effect of these aberra- 
tions is to make what is a small, round, sharp star image 



at the center of the field appear as a fan-shaped and 
elongated image near the edge of the field of view. The 
severity of their effects can be judged by comparing the 
computed values to the Dawes' limit. If the values are 
larger, they will be visible to the eye. If the values are five 
to ten times larger, they may be objectionable to the 
viewer. Lines 670 and 850 slow the listing and may be 
deleted. The "AX. SP. AB." is the axial spherical aberra- 
tion in arc-seconds, and later in microns. 

The third screen of data is similar to the second except 
the values of coma and astigmatism are recorded in 
microns (a linear measure) instead of arc-seconds (an 
angular measure). A micron is 10" 4 cm or 0.001 mm. This 
output is useful to the person taking photographs 
through a telescope at prime focus with a 35 mm camera. 
The field radius and step size are defined by line 760 as 
18 mm and 2 mm, respectively. Star image sizes of 20 
microns to 50 microns are acceptable for photography. 
The scale is used to compute the size of an object on film. 
The formula is size = angular diameter (in arc-seconds) / 
prime-focus scale (in arc-seconds per millimeter). For ex- 
ample, the moon is Vi X 60 arc-min/deg X 60 arc- 
sec/min or about 1800 arc-seconds; and would have an 
1800/180 or 10 mm diameter for a telescope with a focal 
length of 45 inches (1143 mm). 

Many of the values are rounded to two or three 
decimal places in accordance with the expected accuracy 
of the input data and the limitations of the observer, 
telescope, and observing environment. ■ 



You can 

now order 

article 

reprints 

from this 

publication 



University Microfilms International, 
in cooperation with publishers 
of this journal, offers a highly con- 
venient Article Reprint Service. 
Single articles or complete issues 
can now be obtained in their 
original size (up to 8V2 x 1 1 inches). 
For more information please com- 
plete and mail the coupon below. 

ARTICLE REPRINT 
SERVICE 

University Microfilms International 



DYES! I would like to know more about the Article Reprint 
Service. Please send me full details on how I can order. 
D Please include catalogue of available titles. 



Institution/Company. 

Department 

Address 

City 



.State. 



-Zip_ 



University Microfilms International 

Article Reprint Service 

300 North Zeeb Road 

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 



452 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Binary-Format Number Storage 
on the Apple II Disk 

A machine-language routine to read and write 
binary data to a text file. 



A limitation of the Applesoft DOS 
(disk operating system) is its inability 
to store a number in its binary 
floating-point form in a disk text file. 
Applesoft uses this form, a 32-bit 
binary number (the mantissa) times 2 
to a given power (the exponent), to 
represent a real number to itself. 

If all numeric data could be written 
to a text file in that form, you would 
be able to use direct-access files effi- 
ciently and accurately. Each real 
number would always be 5 bytes 
long, giving you complete control 
over field and record lengths. If you 
need to make frequent inquiries or 
updates to selected records, a direct- 
access file is the most effective type of 
organization. This article describes 
machine-language subroutines that 
permit the most efficient use of disk 
space by storing a number in the same 
binary floating-point form that is 
used for internal memory. 

Output Limitations 

Although many BASICs have a 
PUT or similar command that will 

About the Author 

David Eyes is the product manager for pro- 
fessional software with Hay den Software Com- 
pany. 



David Eyes 

266 Broadway 

Arlington, MA 02174 



store the internal binary form of a 
number, the only output command 
available to Applesoft is PRINT. This 
command is typically used to send 
data to your video screen or printer, 
but can also send data to your disk. 
When PRINT is used for output, it 
converts data to a string of ASCII 
(American National Standard Code 
for Information Interchange) char- 
acters. Because the disk is a storage 



PRINT is the only 

Applesoft output 

command and it 

converts data to ASCII. 



device and not a human-readable dis- 
play, this conversion to ASCII is un- 
necessary and presents a real problem 
if you expect to use direct-access files 
with any degree of efficiency. 

In disk operations, file space must 
be defined for each field or item of 
data to be stored. If the data stored is 
in character form, due to the use of 
PRINT for output, the field size must 
allow for the maximum possible 
number length because the range of 



numbers used in most practical com- 
puter applications varies greatly. 
With DOS, this need to precisely 
define field lengths in a text file is 
especially critical when using the 
"relative-record" addressing method. 
This form of direct access allows you 
to move the "position in the file 
pointer" forward to a specific loca- 
tion on the disk where the data for a 
given record is stored. 

If each record is a fixed length, it is 
simple to decide how many bytes the 
pointer must be advanced into the file 
in order to access a given record. You 
just multiply the record length by the 
position of the record relative to the 
beginning of the file. DOS will make 
these calculations for you if you 
specify an L (length) parameter in 
your OPEN statement and an R 
(relative-record) parameter in your 
READ or WRITE statement. 

DOS will not enforce your record 
length, however. If the data you write 
to a given record proves to be longer 
than the space defined, DOS will 
simply write past the allocation and 
over any data stored in the successive 
record, destroying its original con- 
tents. Keeping track of the field 
lengths within records is the program- 
mer's responsibility. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 453 



Listing 1: A program to display the decimal values of each of the 5 bytes of the real 
variable "A." Each variable table entry is 7 bytes long. The first 2 bytes are the 
characters of the variable name. With a real variable, the next 5 bytes represent the 
number itself. Running this program will let you input any number into variable 'A" 
and see the different decimal values each of the 5 bytes acquires. 



100 
110 
120 
130 
140 
160 
170 
190 
200 
210 
220 



A = 
B = PEEK 
B = B + 2 
C = B 

INPUT 

FOR X 

PRINT 
C = C + 

NEXT X 

PRINT 

GOTO 130 



(105) + PEEK (106) * 256 



A 

- 1 TO 5 

PEEK (Of 

1 



Listing 2: By inserting these lines into the program in listing 1, you have a crude method 
of outputting the floating-point representation of a real number to the disk. 



150 
180 



A$ = " 
A$ = A$ + 
PRINT A$ 



CHR$ ( PEEK (O) 



By writing the numeric data to the 
file in the binary floating-point form, 
you would gain control over your 
field and record lengths because each 
real number would always be 5 bytes 
long. To do this, the internal DOS 
routines that read and write data to a 
file must be accessed. The data is 
written byte by byte directly from an 
internal floating-point representation 
of the number and the conversion to a 
string of ASCII characters is by- 
passed. 

Using the CHR$ function, for 
example, it is easy to see how to 
generate and output any binary data 
(see listing 1). If you then access the 
memory locations where the floating- 
point number is stored and these 
values are used to generate a string 
value using CHR$, this string can be 
output directly to disk with PRINT 
(see listing 2). 

DOS Complications 

DOS text files (the only ones sup- 
porting direct access) are called "text" 
files because that is exactly what DOS 



expects to be put there. The ASCII 
codes for characters are significant 
only to 7 bits and DOS uses the 
eighth, high-order bit of each byte for 
its own purposes. For DOS to include 
the full ASCII character set, it has to 
distinguish the end-of-file marker for 
text files, 00 hexadecimal, from the 
ASCII null character, which is also 00 
hexadecimal. It is able to do this 
because the high-order bit of every 
byte written to a text file is normally 
set high on output. The null character 
then becomes 80 hexadecimal. 

For our purposes, this action has 
the unfortunate effect of eliminating 
one-eighth of the information con- 
tained in a stream of floating-point 
data. DOS complicates things further 
by setting the same high-order bit low 
on input when data is being returned 
from the disk. 

The solution to these DOS com- 
plications involves saving the status 
of the high-order bit in each of the 5 
bytes to corresponding bits of a sixth 
byte. This is then made part of the 
output and the information needed to 



reconstruct the data in its original 
form upon return from the disk is re- 
tained. 

A Machine-Language Answer 

The principles involved in this 
method of binary-format number 
storage have been illustrated using 
the example of BASIC PEEKs and 
CHR$ functions. However, the prob- 
lem has now reached a level of com- 
plexity that requires the speed and 
efficiency of machine code. 

The program CONVERT (see list- 
ing 3), written in 6502 assembly lan- 
guage, initializes a USR function that 
can be accessed from BASIC. (See the 
Applesoft reference manual for a 
description of the USR function.) 
Depending on whether a file has been 
opened for writing or reading, the 
routine either encodes the real expres- 
sion passed in the USR function and 
writes it to disk or reads and decodes 
it, restoring the high-order bits, and 
returns it as the value of the function. 

The first segment of code, executed 
when the program is BRUN at the 
start of a BASIC program, initializes 
the pointers to the start of the USR 
function in locations 0A through 0C 
hexadecimal. This initialization sec- 
tion also sets the MON C,I,0 flags to 
0. DOS monitoring is basically mean- 
ingless when outputting binary data 
and may cause undesirable side ef- 
fects. 

The USR function is invoked some- 
what differently from BASIC, de- 
pending upon whether reading or 
writing is desired. The file must first 
have been opened and then selected 
for the desired operation using DOS. 
To write a real value to the disk, the 
expression is passed to the subroutine 
as the argument of the USR function. 
To satisfy the syntax, the USR state- 
ment appears on the right of the 
assignment statement, with a dummy 
variable on the left. To read a value 
from the disk, a dummy variable is 
used as the argument of the USR 
function and the value read is 
assigned to the variable on the left of 
the equal sign. 

Writing to Disk 

When control is passed to the USR 
routine CONVERT, the program first 



454 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 3: The program CONVERT is called as a USR function to read and write floating-point representations of real variables to the 
Apple 11 disk. 



LISA 2,5 



convert; FLOATING-POINT DISK I/O 



0800 1 

0800 2 

0800 3 

0800 4 

0800 5 

0800 6 

0800 7 

0800 8 

0800 9 

0800 10 

0800 11 

0800 12 

0800 13 

0800 14 

0800 15 

0800 16 

0800 17 

0800 13 

0800 19 

0300 20 

0300 21 

0093 22 

009D 23 

OOAO 24 

OOFF 25 

0001 26 

0300 27 

0300 28 

0300 29 

0300 30 

BFFF 31 

9EE0 32 

A2FC 33 

A68C 34 

A6D2 35 

AA51 36 

AA52 37 

AA5E 38 

EB21 39 

EB53 40 

E9E3 41 

FDED 42 

0300 43 

0300 44 

0300 45 

0300 46 

0300 47 

0300 48 

0300 49 

0300 A9 4C 50 

0302 85 OA 51 

0304 A9 13 52 

0306 85 OB 53 

0308 A9 03 54 

030A 85 OC 55 

030C A9 00 56 
030E 8D 5E AA 57 

0311 60 58 



TTL "CONVERT: FLOATING-POINT DISK I/O' 



CONVERT 

COPYRIGHT 1981 

BY DAVID EYES 

USR function for the Apple II* 
Reads arid writes floating-point 
representations of real variables 
to Apple II disk* For use with 
direct access? fixed length record 
disk storage* 



TEMP 

FAC 

CHAR 

CTRLBYTE 

SIGNFLAG 



ORG 
OBJ 
EPZ 
EPZ 
EPZ 
EPZ 
EPZ 



$300 

$800 

$93 

$9D 

$AO 

$FF 

7-00000001 



RAMTOP must be set to highest 
available RAM memory location 



RAMTOP 

SUITCH 

CLOSE 

GETBYTE 

ERROR 

STATUS 

CSUSTATE 

MONFLAG 

PACK 

ARGTOFAC 

MOVEARG 

COUT 



EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 
EQU 



$BFFF 

RAMT0P~$211F 

RAMT0P-$1D03 

RAMT0P-$1973 

RAMT0P-$192D 

RAMT0P-$15AE 



RAMTOP- 

RAMTOP 

$EB21 

$EB53 

$E9E:.S 

$FDED 



$15AD 
$15A1 



Initialise USR function by 
moving Jump instruction t a 
start of program to page zero 



LDA *$4C 
STA $0A 
LDA *ENTER 
STA $0B 
LDA /ENTER 
STA $0C 
LDA #$00 
STA MONFLAG 
RTS 



J Disable mori c > i ? o 

Listing 3 continued on page 456 
March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 455 



Listing 3 continued: 



0312 
0312 
0312 
0312 
0312 
0312 
0312 
0313 
0313 
0313 
0316 
0316 
0318 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
031A 
03 ID 
031F 
0322 
0322 
0322 
0323 
0324 
0325 
0327 
0329 
0329 
032C 
032F 
0331 
0334 
0334 
0337 
0339 
0339 
033B 
033D 
033D 
033D 
033F 
0340 
0342 
0344 
0346 
0348 
034B 
034E 
0350 
0353 
0353 
0354 
0354 
0354 
0354 



00 



AD 51 A A 

C9 01 
DO 3A 



20 8C A6 
DO 03 
4C 93 03 



OA 
OA 
OA 

85 FF 
A2 00 

8E 12 03 
20 8C A6 
DO 03 
4C 93 03 

AE 12 03 
06 FF 

BO 02 
49 80 



95 93 
E8 

EO 05 
DO E5 
A9 93 
AO 00 
20 E3 E9 
20 53 
A9 00 
8D 52 



EB 



AA 



60 



59 

60 

61 

62 

63 

64 

65 

66 

67 

68 

69 

70 

71 

72 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 

78 

79 

80 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

91 

92 

93 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 

100 

101 

102 

103 

104 

105 

106 

107 

108 

109 

110 

111 

112 

113 

114 

115 

116 

117 

118 

119 

120 

121 

122 



PAG 



Main program 



XSAVE 



enter: 



read: 



k i: 



~3: 



*4: 



HEX 00 



LDA STATUS 

CMP *$01 
BNE WRITE 



X-re^ister save 



J See if a READ 

command is active 



READ 2ets control byte from 
disk? t h e n uses it to restore 
hi^h-order bit of data coming 
in from disk* Returns a real 
value to USR function* 



JSR 


GETBYTE 


BNE 


>1 


JMP 


ENDDATA 


ASL 




ASL 




ASL 




STA 


CTRLBYTE 


LDX 


**00 


STX 


XSAUE 


JSR 


GETBYTE 


BNE 


>3 


JhP 


ENDDATA 


LDX 


XSAVE 


ASL 


CTRLBYTE 


BCS 


>4 


EOR 


♦210000000 


STA 


fEMPiX 


INX 




CPX 


*$05 


BNE 


<2 


LDA 


♦ TEMP 


LDY 


/TEMP 


JSR 


MOVEARG 


JSR 


ARGTQFAC 


LDA 


**00 


STA 


CSUSTATE 


RTS 




PAG 





5 Get next textfile byte 

f If value is $00> 
then end of file 

> skip unused bits 



r Get next byte 

? Test end of file 



* Advance next bit 
into c a r r y 

r Set data bit low 
if c o n t r o 1 bit low 



5 Save 



j Set up registers 

t for call to MOUEARG 

? Move TEMP to ARG 

? Move ARG to FAC 

i Set CSUSTATE TO 
'start of line' 



456 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Listing 3 continued 










0354 








123 


5 WRITE 


first e n 


0354 








124 


f t h e n 


puts real 


0354 








125 


r o n t o 


d i s k ♦ 


0354 








126 






0354 








127 






0354 








128 






0354 








129 


write: 




0354 


20 


21 


EB 


130 


jsr 


PACK 


0357 








131 


? 




0357 


A9 


01 




132 


LDA 


♦SIGNFLAG 


0359 


85 


FF 




133 


STA 


CTRLBYTE 


035B 


A2 


00 




134 


LDX 


*$00 


035D 








135 


~i: 




035D 


06 


FF 




136 


ASL 


CTRLBYTE 


035F 


B5 


93 




137 


LDA 


TEMP>X 


0361 


10 


06 




138 


BPL 


>2 


0363 


A9 


01 




139 


LDA 


♦SIGNFLAG 


0365 


05 


FF 




140 


ORA 


CTRLBYTE 


0367 


85 


FF 




141 


STA 


CTRLBYTE 


0369 








142 


~2t 




0369 


E8 






143 


INX 




036A 


E0 


05 




144 


CPX 


*$05 


036C 


DO 


EF 




145 


BNE 


<1 


036E 








146 


* 




036E 


A9 


04 




147 


LDA 


*$04 


0370 


8D 


52 


AA 


148 


STA 


CSWSTATE 


0373 


A5 


FF 




149 


LDA 


CTRLBYTE 


0375 


09 


80 




150 


ORA 


**80 


0377 


20 


ED 


FD 


151 


JSR 


COUT 


037A 


A2 


00 




152 


LDX 


*00 


037C 








153 


~3t 




037C 


A9 


04 




154 


LDA 


*$04 


037E 


8D 


52 


AA 


155 


STA 


CSWSTATE 


0381 


B5 


93 




156 


LDA 


TEMP,X 


0383 


09 


80 




157 


ORA 


**80 


0385 


20 


ED 


FD 


158 


JSR 


COUT 


0388 


E8 






159 


INX 




0389 


EO 


05 




160 


CPX 


*$05 


038B 


DO 


EF 




161 


BNE 


<3 


038D 


A9 


05 




162 


LDA 


*$05 


038F 


8D 


52 


AA 


163 


STA 


CSWSTATE 


0392 


60 






164 


RTS 




0393 








165 


r 




0393 








166 


enddata: 




0393 


20 


FC 


A2 


167 


JSR 


CLOSE 


0396 


20 


EO 


9E 


168 


JSR 


SWITCH 


0399 


A9 


05 




169 


LDA 


*$05 


039B 


4C 


D2 


A6 


170 


JMP 


ERROR 


039E 








171 


END 





USR 



y Move and pack floating-point 
a c c u m u 1 a t o r to TEMP 

r Initialize c o n t r o 1 b y t e 



A d v a n c e to n e y, t p o s i t i o n 



Set bit if hi2h 



Be^in write 

t Set output state to 'write' 

f Control, byte is written first 

r Set hidhr order bit 

I Write it 



E n d of data error 

t Close file 

f Switch i / o pointers 

j Set error code to 5 



***** END OF ASSEMBLY 



checks the setting of the DOS READ 
status flag. If the file has been opened 
for reading, the low-order bit will be 
set to 1. With this check, either the 
WRITE or READ routine is executed. 
WRITE begins by calling the 
Applesoft PACK routine that moves 
the value in the floating-point ac- 
cumulator into one of the zero-page 
floating-point registers in the packed 



(5-byte) form. The USR function has 
placed the value of its argument in the 
primary floating-point accumulator 
(in an expanded 6-byte form). 

As explained above, the contents of 
the high-order bit will be set high 
when writing to a text file. Before this 
is done, however, these values must 
be preserved in the location labeled 
CRTLBYTE. This location is first set 



to the value 1. Each of the five loca- 
tions of the real number in TEMP is 
stepped through. If the high-order bit 
is set, the sign flag in the processor 
status register will likewise be set and 
the value in CRTLBYTE will be ORed 
with the single digit in SIGNFLAG. 
CRTLBYTE is shifted left one posi- 
tion during each iteration; each of the 
5 bits in CRTLBYTE thus comes to 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 457 



correspond to the setting of the high- 
order bits in the 5 data bytes that 
comprise the floating-point number. 

With the control byte encoded, 
data may now be written to the file 
beginning with the control byte. 
Because DOS is monitoring the out- 
put, the CSWSTATE (character out- 
put switch state) location must first 
be set to 4, the "write data to file" 
state. This is done before each byte is 
written, canceling the effect of any 
carriage return that may appear in the 
binary data. Thus, DOS is prevented 
from prematurely exiting the WRITE 
mode if it next encounters data that it 
could interpret as a Control-D char- 
acter. (The sequence carriage return 
and Control-D signals that the 
characters that follow are to be inter- 
preted as a DOS command.) 

Before the WRITE, which is ac- 
complished by a call to COUT, the 
data in the accumulator is ORed with 
80 hexadecimal, permitting DOS to 
detect an end-of-data error during a 
subsequent READ. 

Having written the 5 bytes of bina- 



ry data that comprise the floating- 
point number, the CSWSTATE is set 
to 5, the beginning of a write data 
line, so that any DOS commands in- 
voked via Control-D after the USR 
call will be detected. This has the 
same result as ending a WRITE with a 
carriage return without actually hav- 
ing done so. 

Reading Binary Data 

The READ routine, to which the 
USR function branches if a DOS 
READ command is active, reverses 
this process. The control byte is read 
first, then shifted left three times to 
advance past the unused bits, leaving 
the first "control" bit in the carry flag. 
As the data comes in with the high- 
order bit set, it will be exclusive- 
ORed with 80 hexadecimal, setting it 
low if the corresponding bit in the 
control byte is also low. With the 
control bit shifted into the carry flag 
during each iteration of the loop that 
reads in the rest of the data, the cor- 
rect value is restored to the real 
number. 



As each byte is read in, it is com- 
pared with the end-of-data marker, 
00 hexadecimal, to determine if the 
end of the file has been reached. This 
is a possibility if the file pointer has 
been improperly positioned. If this is 
the case, control jumps to the routine 
ENDDATA, which, via a call to the 
appropriate DOS routine, closes the 
file and either prints the "end-of-data" 
error message or passes the error code 
to an Applesoft ONERR handler. 

Otherwise, as the number is being 
read in, it is stored in the register 
TEMP. After the high-order bits have 
been restored to their proper settings, 
the number is moved to the floating- 
point accumulator via calls to the 
Applesoft routines MOVEARG and 
ARGTOFAC. Finally, the 
CSWSTATE is set to 0, "start of 
line," to monitor any DOS com- 
mands that may follow the USR state- 
ment. With the restored real number 
in the floating-point accumulator, the 
USR function will return to BASIC 
and assign this value to the real 
variable on the left of the equal sign. 



MAKE YOUR LIFE 
BEARABLE . . . 

With FLX-I-SORT 

F.X-I-SORT is a package designed to save programmers time. 
With flx-i-SORT, you are able to sort disk files of any size 
ripidly without tying up large amounts of memory. 
fIx-i-SORT uses a modified Singleton • algorithm and is 
written in assembly language to achieve maximum speed and 
control. flx-i-SORT uses a simple command line to control 
the sort. This allows easy modification to sort a different file 
or use different keys for the sort. When used with MBASIC, 
flx-i-SORT is an invaluable tool for programmers and users. 
flx-i-SORT is available only from Bear Computers. 

MBASic is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. 

PRICE $179.00 

(Add S3 50 for shipping and 
handling) 



| Here's How to order: 

See your authorized Bear Dealer 
CALL: (309)828-3011 or 
(309) 828- 6031 

^j| Master Card and y; H visa accepted. 
Send check or money order 



sBear 



] computers, 
/inc. 

10? N center 
Bioomington Illinois 61701 



a message 
to our subscribers 



From time to time we make the BYTE subscriber list 
available to other companies who wish to send our 
subscribers promotional material about their products. We 
take great care to screen these companies, choosing only 
those who are reputable, and whose products, services or 
information we feel would be of interest to you. Direct 
mail is an efficient medium for presenting the latest personal 
computer goods and services to our subscribers. 

Many BYTE subscribers appreciate this controlled use of 
our mailing list, and look forward to finding information of 
interest to them in the mail. Used are our subscribers' 
names and addresses only (no other information we may 
have is ever given). 

While we believe the distribution of this information is of 

benefit to our subscribers, we firmly respect the wishes of 

any subscriber who does not want to receive such 

promotional literature. Should you wish to restrict the use 

of your name, simply send your request to the following 

address. 

BYTE Publications Inc 

Attn: Circulation Department 

70 Main St 

Peterborough NH 

03458 



458 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 125 on Inquiry card. 



Listing 4: A sample program showing how the USR function is used. 



10 1 

20 

30 

40 

SO 

60 

70 

BO 

9 

100 

110 

120 

130 

140 

150 

16 

170 

ISO 

190 

200 

2 1 

220 

230 

240 

250 

260 



$ = CHR$ 
PRINT D*> 
PRINT D*i 
PRINT D$r 
FOR X = 1 
READ A>A* 

== USR (fl) 
PRINT A$ 
NEXT X 

r : ' R I N T 

PRINT 

PRINT 

INPUT 

IF R 



(4) 
BRUN 
OPEN 
WRITE 
TO K 



CONVERT ♦ OBJ > A$300" 
TEST" 
TEST" 



D$r "CLOSE TE3" 
D*? "OPEN TEST: 

'WHICH RECORD 
THEN 220 



LI 



WOULD YOU LIKE' 



R = R - 1 

PRINT D$5 "READ TES1 •■R' JR 
A = USR <EO 

INPUT A$ 

PRINT "THE CONTENTS OF RECORD "OR i 1 

PRINT AfA* 

GOTO 120 

PRINT D$; "CLOSE TEST" 

DATA 233*44? APPLE. 5, HOUSE i .001 

DATA WRITE* 455,002* 12345^ 233,1, WORD?: 

DATA 55 54321? ~23 ? HAPPY? --2E + 23 

DATA MOUSE. Or CLOCK? 3* 123456. ■ HELLO 



are: 



USR and Applesoft 

The program DIRECT (see listing 
4) demonstrates how this function 
can be used from Applesoft. First, the 
program CONVERT is loaded into 
memory at location 300 hexadecimal 
with BRUN, and the initialization 
procedure is executed. A small 
random-access file is then built by 
reading 10 values in the DATA 
statements and writing them to the 
disk file TEST. The role of the dum- 
my variables in the USR has been ex- 
plained above. For the sake of il- 
lustration, a string field is also written 
to the file immediately following the 
USR call to show how character data 
and binary numeric data can be 
mixed as desired to build a record. 
Note that as the data is written to the 
file sequentially, with each record be- 
ing filled completely, it is not 
necessary to make calls to POSITION 
by specifying a record parameter with 
each WRITE. And since the binary 
floating-point number is always 6 
bytes, there is no need for a field 
delimiter such as a carriage return. 
Therefore, care must be taken when 
mixing USR with PRINT and INPUT 
in a given record. 

Once the file has been built, the 
direct-access feature can be seen when 



the user is prompted for a record 
selection. (Although DOS numbers 
records from 0, they are numbered 
here from 1. An entry of exits the 
loop.) 

When the file is reopened, a length 
parameter of 12 is used: a 6-byte real 
field, consisting of control byte and 
data, and a 5-byte string followed by 
a carriage return as a field delimiter. 
The READ command actually sets the 
record number to be selected. Having 
been positioned to the appropriate 
location in the file, USR fetches the 
next 6 bytes and translates them into 
a real variable. 

This simple program illustrates the 
principles of direct access of binary- 
format numeric data using the 
machine-language program CON- 
VERT. I hope these functions will 
make possible more ambitious appli- 
cations requiring direct access, as well 
as allow more efficient use of disk 
storage. ■ 



References 

Luebbert, William F. What's Where in 
the Apple: An Atlas to the Apple Com- 
puter. Chelmsford, MA: Micro Ink, 1981. 
Worth, Don and Pieter Lechner. 
Beneath Apple DOS. Reseda, CA: 
Quality Software, 1981. 




Run your Z80-based computer 4 to 1 times 
faster using Assembler instead of BASIC or 
other high-level languages. Write your first 
Assembler Language program in only a few 
hours using the ICE80 Utility Library then 
watch your computer run at full throttle! 
ICE80 is a software toolbox including over 
75 callable functions to help you write pro- 
fessional software. The ICE80 package con- 
tains source language for 5 sample programs 
and a 40 page reference manual chock-full 
of coding examples. You'll be amazed at 
your computer's performance and YOUR 
new progammlng power. For CP/M systems 
only. Send check or money order for $40. 
(Va. residents add 4% state tax.) 

ICE CORPORATION 

100 Timber Oak Court, Suite B3 
Lynchburg, Virginia 24502 

ICE80 source code available for $24 when 
ordered with ICE80 Utility Library. 



Circle 496 on inquiry card. 



PERIPHERALS 
FOR THE APPLE 

Quality Inexpensive Apple 

Compatible Peripherals 

with a Full One Year Warranty 









BARE 






EACH 


BOARD 


Apple Compatible Disk Drive 


(5V4") $249 




Disk Controller Card (DOS 3.2-3.3) 


69 


$21 


80 Column Board 




149 


29 


280 Softcard Replacement 




119 


29 


Printer Interface with 16 K Buffer 






and Graphics 




119 


28 


New SA400L Drives 








(90 Day Warranty) 




169 




Prowriter 851 AP 




475 




8510/8023 Ribbon 




6 




B/H Apple II+ 




989 





COLORADO COMPUTER PERIPHERALS 

R.R. 6, Box 7-D, Golden, Colorado 80401 
(303) 278-7172 (303) 366-5267 



Circle 494 on inquiry card. 




wabash 

ifli=i>E.i-i=r=5n 

Scotch 

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED 



MdtttrCott 



FOR 

ORDERS 

CALL COLLECT 

(614) 866-3462 




Circle 497 on inquiry card. 



"Why should I think of Lanier when 
I think of the office of the future?" 



Corporate informa- 
tion planners have a 
legitimate need to 
know the direction 
of a prominent word 
processing supplier. 
Lanier's direction is 
total office automation. 
We offer the technol- 
ogy to provide ad- 
vanced information 
processing resources 
in a distributed data 
processing environ- 
ment. 

"Will Lanier be 
compatible with 
my mainframe 
computer?" 

"Lanier systems can 
be used today as 
asynchronous or 
bisynchronous termi- 
nals to communicate 
with a wide variety of 
computers and other 
Lanier systems. And 
Lanier is implement- 
ing SNA/SDLC pro- 
tocols to help you get 
all the information 
you need to do your 
job more productively." 

"How do you plan to 
tie into the local area 
network we choose?" 

"We'll be able to 
connect to the lead- 
ing local area net- 
works of the office of 
the future, sharing 
words, data and 
voice - not proposing 
another standard to 
add to your network- 
ing confusion. And we 
will have electronic 
mail to get that infor- 



mation anywhere in 
the world - instantly." 

"How do I know Lanier 
will have what we 
need next year and 
the year after that?" 

"Because we've 
developed a master 
plan for a layered 
architecture. By 
isolating functions to 
particular layers, 
new technologies 
can be introduced 
easily to the layers 
directly affected by 
that technology. That 
makes the systems 
easy to maintain, up- 
grade and change." 

"But the increasing 
needs of our growing 
business require 
more than word 
processing..." 

"Lanier equipment is 
multifunctional. We 
have the applica- 
tions packages you 
need right now for 
records manage- 
ment, mathematical 
functions, bar graphs 
and statistical 
typing. Since our 
products are multi- 
tasking, your staff can 
type an inventory 
report while integrat- 
ing a list of names, 
addresses and 
individual informa- 
tion into a form letter in 
the background, and 
print out a new prod- 
uct proposal - all at 
the same time. 




©1982LanierBusiness Products. Inc. 



"Glad you asked" 

■■ Wise r H rrntr&11 ProciWonf T.rrniar Rucinc 



Wes Cantrell, President Lanier Business Products, Inc. 



*?And we're con- 
tinually developing 
more programs. Like 
scheduling and 
calendars. Plus, we 
offer BASIC so that 
you can write your 
own software pro- 
grams if you prefer.' 

"How can you assure 
that my equipment 
will be up and 
running smoothly and 
will continue to be 
productive?" 

"We were rated #1 in 
service and support 




by Quantum Science 
in1980. That's because 
we're committed to 
making sure you get 
the help you need to 
be more productive 
today - and tomorrow. 
We want you to know 
that Lanier is a disci- 
plined, applications- 
oriented of f ice auto- 
mation vendor. We've 
been helping offices 
be more productive 
since 1934. We've 
been leaders in the 
field of word process- 
ing and spoken 
word processing for 
the past 47 years. 
And now we are ex- 
panding our scope 
into total office 
automation for the 
future. We think 
you'll be needing us." 

Send us this coupon, 
or call Jennifer Scott 
at (800) 241-1706 for 
more information 
about Lanier's elec- 
tronic office systems. 
Except in Alaska and 
Hawaii, in Georgia, 
call collect: 
(404)321-1244. 



Send to: 


B ^M MM MB ^M ^M ^M ^M ■■■ MM MM. MB. ■■■ SB. 

Lanier Business Products, inc. 
1700ChantillyDr.N.E. 
Atlanta, GA 30324 < 
Attn : Jennifer Scott < 


Name 


Title 


Phone 


Best Time to Call t 


Firm 


Address 


County 


City 


State Zip 



I 

I 

n \ 

C0I 

si 

SI 



SI 

*l 



We'll change your mind about the future. 

Right here andnow 



;5 



Circle 242 on inquiry card. 



System Notes 



Adding a Trace to North Star BASIC 



Steve Stern 

Genigraphics Corp. 

Building 1, Room 107 

Electronics Park 

POB 591 

Liverpool, NY 13088 



One drawback of North Star BASIC is that it lacks the 
trace feature found in many other BASICs. This feature is 
handy in debugging because it allows you to watch the 
flow of control through your program as it is executing. 

I added a trace to my version of North Star BASIC 
(Release 5), and this System Note provides you with the 
programs involved. 

Without a listing of the BASIC interpreter, it would be 
difficult, if not impossible, to add new commands direct- 
ly. Fortunately, North Star provides the "hook" required 
to turn on and off the trace via the "Control-C" routine. 



r 



TM 



>v 




EZLl I Building Blocks 
for Microcomputer 
Systems, Dedicated 
Controllers and 
Test Equipment 



S-100 

64K 

STATIC 

RAM 



ECTs 64K STATIC RAM is a low power fully static 64K x 
8 bit S-100 Bus Memory Board. 2716 EPROM's can be 
intermixed with the RAM's. 

$399.00 



Specializing in Quality Microcomputer Hardware 
™ Industrial • Educational • Small Business • Personal 
Card Cages, Power Supplies, Mainframes, CPU's, 
Memory, 110, OEM Variations 

ELECTRONIC CONTROL TECHNOLOGY, INC. 

I 763 Ramsey Ave., Hillside, NJ 07205 (201) 686-8080 




This routine starts in hexadecimal memory location 2964 
and is entered after each line of the BASIC program is in- 
terpreted and executed. By replacing the fir^ f few bytes of 
the Control-C routine with a jump out to ier-supplied 
program, it is possible to gain control after each BASIC 
line is executed. 

Due to the fact that the trace routine needs to print out 
the current BASIC line number, all that remains is a way 
to retrieve that value. After some trial and error using a 
monitor program, I discovered that the line number's 
binary value was stored in the 2 bytes starting at location 
59C4. With this information, writing a user-callable 
assembly-language package that would print out the line 
number after each line was executed was straightforward. 
Listing 1 is the routine that accomplishes this. There are 
three entry points: one each for turning the trace feature 
on and off; one (not called by the user) for printing the 
trace. 

Listing 2 is a subroutine that the trace program calls to 
convert the internal binary representation of the line 
number to ASCII (American National Standard Code for 
Information Interchange). It was taken from the run-time 
utilities found in The BYTE Book of Pascal (Blaise Liffick, 
editor; Peterborough NH: BYTE Books, 1979). Listing 3 
is a hexadecimal dump of the trace package when it's 
link-loaded at hexadecimal location 1000. To use the 
package, the BASIC program must call the assembly- 
language routine at PLACIT to start the trace and at 
DELTRC to delete the trace. For the example in listing 3 
the BASIC statements would look like this: 

100 Y = CALL(4096) \ REM TURN ON TRACE \ 
Y IS A DUMMY VARIABLE 



and 



200 Y - CALL(4110) \ REM TURN OFF TRACE 

Listing 4 is an example of a simple BASIC program us- 
ing the trace feature. It shows how the results of the ac- 
tual trace would appear. ■ 



462 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 169 on inquiry card. 



Listing 1: Machine-language program that implements a trace function in North Star BASIC. By modifying the correct memory loca- 
tions, the user can force the BASIC interpreter to jump to this routine after executing each program line. 



MAKRQ 


ASSEMBLER 


AMAf 


2 




coco 




ODE 


•PASC 


LISRY 


0000 




DSF 


'ASC 


EXTRN 


oooc 




JPL 


.ACE THE 


TRAP 


GOOD 




PLAGIT 


ENTRY- 


a coo 


216429 






LXI 


0003 


3EC3 






MVI 


05 


77 






MOV 


0C06 


23 






INX 


0007 


111E0 






LXI 


COO A 


73 






MOM 


03 


23 






INX 


OOOC 


72 






MOM 


OD 


C9 






RE- 


000E 




DELTRC 


ENTRY 


00CE 


116429 






LXI 


ooii 


211AQ3 






LXI 


ODE 










0014 


010400 






LXI 


0017 


ED SO 






LDIR 


OCi? 


C9 






RET 


01A 


DBS 3 


ORIGCODE 


IN 


0G1C 


E602 






AMI 


001E 




TRC 


:strt 


ENTRY 


0Q1E 


2AC459 






LhiLD 


0021 


2B 






DCX 


022 


7E 






MOV 


0023 


FESC 






CPI 


0025 


28 IE 






JRZ 


27 


3253CC 






STA 


002A 


23 






DCX 


29 


7E 






MOV 


0C2C 


32570 






STA 


002 r 


215900 






LXI 


0032 


0E07 






MVI 


003*1 


CD4C3 






CALL 


0G37 


2A5700 






LKLD 


03 A 


CDO0OO 






CALL 


003D 


215900 






LXI 


GC4C 


0E03 






MVI 


0042 


CD4C0 






CALL 


0045 


DSC 3 


DCh 


IE 


IN 


0047 


E602 






ANI 


04? 


F26029 






JP 


GC4C 


46 


PR! 


■LOOP 


MOV 


4') 


AF 






XRA 


4E 


CD0D2C 






CALL 


051 


0D 






DCR 


0052 


41 






MOV 


0053 


23 






INX 


0054 


10F6 






DJNZ 


0056 


C9 






RET 


0057 


OC 


BYTE1 


DS 


OC50 





BYT 


"C'"> 


DB 


005? 


0DGA2Q41 
5420 


MSG 


} 


DB 


MAKRO 


ASSEMBLES 


AMA. 


n 




0000 


ERRORS 








BYMBOI 


- TABLE 









Hf2964H 

A*0C3H ; OP-CODE FOR JUMP 

My A ; STORE 

H 

DfTRCSTRT 

M*E t LSI-' OF JUMP ADDRESS 

H 

MfD i MSH OF JUMP ADDRESS 

t TRAP HAS BEEN PLACED 

t ENTER HERE TO DELETE TRACE 

D*02964K 

Hr ORIGCODE ; ADDR OF COPY OF ORIGINAL C 



B*4 



3 
2 

; ENTER HERE TO PRINT TRACE 

059C4H ; THIS IS THE ADDR W/THE LINE * 

H 

AfM 

5CH i CHECK FOR SLASH (\) 

DONE ; IF SO? DON'T PRINT ANYTHING 

BYTE2 

H 

AfM 

BYT El 

HfMSG 

Cf7 ; C 

PRTLOOP 

BYTE1 t 

DSPASC 

HfMSG 

Cf3 

PRTLOOP 

3 

9 



IS CHARACTER COUNT 

; TO PRINT 'AT 1 

DSPASC EXPECTS INPUT IN HL 



2968H 

BfM t PUT THE CHARACTER IN B 

A ; ZERO OUT A 

02C0DH ; CHAR OUT 

C t DECREMENT COUNT 

BfC-f TO TEST 

H t JUST IN CASE 

PRTLOOP 



ODHfOAHf' AT 



Listing 1 continued on page 464 

March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 463 



Listing 1 continued: 



BYTE! 


057 


01 


BYTE2 


058 


01 


DELTRC 


000E 


01 


DONE 


45 01 


DSPASC 


003C 


03 


MSG 


005? 


01 


ODSPASC 


0000 


83 


ORIGCODE 


001A 01 


PLACIT 


0000 


01 


PRTLOOP 


0Q4C 


01 


7RCSTRT 


IE 


01 







Listing 2: Subroutine called by the main program to convert BASIC line numbers, stored in binary form, into ASCII characters. 



MAXRO 
300Q 
DO GG 



B0D0 

0QOC 
BGGC 
3 3 C 
0QC0 
31 
00C2 
G003 
0003 
0007 
000? 
002C 
009F 
012 
0015 
0017 
001S 
001? 
001A 
0013 
001E 
001F 
0020 
0C23 
02": 
0027 
0028 
0C28 
G02? 
002A 
023 
0G2C 
002D 
0C2E 
QG30 
0031 
0032 
0035 
0035 
0C35 
0036 
0037 
0033 
003? 
CG3A 
9 3E' 
033D 
003E 
003F 



AS<?EM3L.Ef 



AF 
3D 

r D 

A4 

F20F03 

062D 

CD0D2Q 

CD20GO 

010AO0 

CD6D0Q 

3E30 

83 

F5 

7C 

B5 

C20F00 

Fl 

47 

CD0D2Q 

Fl 

F21F00 

C? 

AF 

95 

6F 

9C 

95 

67 

D63Q 

E:5 

CO 

C33F3G 



AF 

91 

4F 

93 

91 

47 

D680 

Bl 

CO 



AMA.2 
; TAKEN FROM "THE 3YT 
J THIS IS A SUBSET Q 
; CONVERTS BINARY DA 
} INPUT IS A 16-BIT 
; THE OUTPUT IS THE 
DSPASC ENTRY 
t 

XRA 



Y3 



WR 



NEGH 



NEGE 



PUSH 

ANA 

JP 

MVI 

CALL 

CALL 

LXI 

CALL 

MVI 

ADD 

PUSH 

MOV 

ORA 

JNZ 

POP 

MOV 

CALL 

POP 

JP 

RET 

ENTRY 

XRA 

SU3 

MOV 

SBB 

SUB 

MOV 

SUI 

ORA 

RNZ 

JMP 

ENTRY 

XRA 

SUS 

MOV 

SBB 

SUB 

MCV 

SUI 

ORA 

RNZ 



E BOOK OF PASCAL" PAGES 207-210 
F THE PASCAL RUNTIME ROUTINES WHICH 
TA TO ASCII ? AM!? PRINTS tt OUT. THE 
QUANTITY IN THE H-L REGISTER PAIR* 
ASCII REPRESENTATION ON THE CRT* 

I THIS IS LOCATION 1B7D 

IN THE REFERENCE LISTING 

A 

A 

PSW 

H 

Y3 

B f ' - ' 

OUTP 

NEGH 

BflC 

DIV16 

Ai30H 

E 

PSW 

AfH 

L 

Y3 

PSW 

Br A 

OUTP 

PSW 

WR 



A 

L 

L,A 

H 

L 

H*A 

80H 

L 



OVFL 



A 

C 

CrA 

B 

C 

Br A 

8CH 

C 



OVFL 



Listing 2 continued on page 468 



464 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 




Tfla !r iif ini Ekift Blui 

"The ONLY Book Club for micro users' 



Play games . . . develop new programming skills . . 
organize your finances . . . earn extra income . . . 
even build your own microcomputer . . . 

HAVE IT ALL FOR ONLY $2.95 

Select any 5 books, pay only $2.95 

(a value up to $102.75) when you join 
The Computer Book Club®! 

m 

mlliltllMII 




mm*, xxmw 
tm r;: 

■mmnm 




337 
List S19.95 





1195 
List S13.95 




1396 
List 513.95 



"IBM 







1251 
List $16.95 

m PRACTICAL 




mi 

List $15.95 



" &t<uiii.ws:. 
1293 
List 515.95 







1496 
List 517.95 



1205 
List 516.95 



1085 
List 514.95 



7 very good reasons to try 
The Computer Book Club® 

Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214 

• Reduced Member Prices. Save 20% to 75 % on books sure 
to increase your computer know-how 

• Satisfaction Guaranteed. All books returnable within 10 
days without obligation 

• ClubNews Bulletins. All about current selections— mains, 
alternates, extras— plus bonus offers. Comes 13 times a year 
with dozens of up-to-the-minute titles you can pick from 

• "Automatic Order." Do nothing, and the Main selection 
will be shipped automatically! But . . . if you want an Alter- 
nate Selection— or no books at all— we'll follow the instruc- 
tions you give on the reply form provided with every News 
Bulletin 

• Continuing Bene its. Get a Dividend Certificate with every 
book purchased after fulfilling membership obligation, and 
qualify for discounts on many other volumes 

• Extra Bonuses. Take advantage of added-value promo- 
tions, plus special discounts on software, games, and more 

• Exceptional Quality. All books are first-rate publisher's 
editions, filled with useful, up-to-the-minute information 

Circle 412 on inquiry card. 




1506 
List 512.95 




TV: Si ii| i mi In', ill '■ 

Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214 

Please accept my membership in The Computer Book Club 
and send the 5 volumes circled below, billing me $2.95 plus 
shipping and handling charges. If not satisfied, I may return 
the books within ten days without obligation and have my 
membership cancelled. I agree to purchase 4 or more books 
at reduced Club prices [plus shipping/handling) during the 
next 12 months, and may resign any time thereafter. 

337 338 841 1045 1050 1085 1108 
1111 1160 1169 1183 1195 1199 1205 1251 

1276 1293 1295 1299 1369 1391 1394 
1396 1398 1406 1423 1468 1480 1496 1506 



Name 



Phone 



Address 
City 



State 



Zip 



(Valid for new members only. Foreign and Canada add 20%. Orders outside U.S. 
or Canada must be prepaid with international money orders in U.S. dollars), This 
order subject to acceptance by The Computer Book Club. BY-383 



I 
I 
I 

I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 



BYTE March 1983 465 



4 



INTRODUCING THE 
103 and 103/212 
SMART-CAT 
MODEMS. 




They Do 

Everything. 

With Less. For Less. 

Take your pick. With either one, you'll get two very 
important advantages. 

First, each is the best modem in its class. They do 
more, do it easier and do it in less space. The reason: 
our LSI technology is state-of-the-art. Our Smart-Cats 
run better and cooler — and will 
for years. 

Second, you can get your hands 
on either one of them right now. 
No waiting. Your local dealer has 
a shelf full. 

The price is something else, too. 
Suggested retail: 

The 103/212 Smart-Cat $595. 

The 103 Smart-Cat $249. 




See your dealer today and get yours. He does have a 
bunch, but it's not unlimited. 

SMART-CAT MODEM FEATURES: 

• Built-in Dialer (Touch-Tone or Rotary) • Auto Answer 

• Direct Connect 

• Analog & Digital Loopback Test 

• Extensive Software Command Set 

• Busy Detect (Allows Modem To 
Be Programmed To Redial) 

• 103 Smart-Cat Modem: 
300 Baud, Full Duplex 

• 103/212 Smart-Cat Modem: 
300 or 1200 Baud, Full Duplex 



New Smart-Cat 103 and 103/212 modems. 



Novation 




18664 Oxnard Street, Tarzana, CA 91356 
(800) 423-5419 

In California: (213)996-5060 



Circle 317 on Inquiry card. 



§ If 



Look at what the best 
has been reduced to. 



Our engineers have come up 
with some state-of-the-art LSI 
technology and a whole new 
modem. 

It's smaller. J-Cat is about 
l/5th the size of an ordinary 
modem. Easy to stick-on, tuck- 
in, put anywhere you want. 



It's better. J -Cat does the 
things you need for professional 
performance. No fussing to get 
it into the right answer or 
originate mode; it does it auto- 
matically. LED's show you 
status; and audio "beeps" tell 
you when you reach a busy 
signal, detect a carrier, get a 
dial tone, etc. 

And you can hook it into 
any modular RJ11C phone jack. 



Introducing the Novation 

J-CAT 




It COStS less. If you've 
shopped around, you know a 
modem with close to these fea- 
tures costs $250 or more. Our 
LSI technology has let us do 
the right thing with the price, 
too. Suggested retail — $149. 

Smaller is definitely better. 

See your dealer. He has 
them right now. 



J-CAT FEATURES: 



Direct Connect, FCC 
Part 68 Registered 

Auto Answer 

Auto Search (Originate or Answer 
Mode) 

Disconnect/Test Key 

Connect/Break Key 

Self-Test 

Audio Line Status Indicator 



Dialtone/Busy Status at Serial 
I/O Connector 

Off Hook Control at Serial 
I/O Connector 

Compatible With EIA-RS232C or 
TTL Interfaces 

Low Power 

And it's from Novation, the world's 
leader in personal communications. 



Novation 




18664 Oxnard Street, Tarzana, CA 91356 



(800) 423-5419 

In California: 
(213) 996-5060 

Circle 318 on Inquiry card. 



Listing 2 continued: 



0Q3F 


2134 




0042 


CD4600 




QC45 


C9 




0046 




• 
t 


0046 




PRIM 


0046 


0E0A 




MAKRO 


ASSEMBLER 


AMA*2 


3 4S 




PNT 


0C48 


46 




0049 


23 




004* 


CDCD23 




004D 


B9 




QO^E 


C2^BOO 




0051 


C9 




0052 




t 


0052 




DUCK 


0052 


215E00 




0055 


CQ4600 




0058 


210000 




05B 


54 




005C 


5D 




005D 


C9 




005E 


20444956 
49444520 
43434543 
4BQDQA 


DM1 


006D 




DIV1 


G06D 


73 




006E 


EJl 




0G6F 


CA5200 




C072 


AF 




0073 


80 




0074 


F5 




0075 


F4350 




0078 


AF 




0079 


84 




07A 


F5 




073 


FC2800 




007E 


EB 




007F 


21000 




0082 


3E10 




0084 


29 


D2 


0385 


EE: 




0086 


29 




0087 


EB 




0088 


D28C0Q 




0Q8S 


23 




0G8C 


E5 


D3 


r. n orv 

uwuJ 


09 




Q0SI 


D298GO 




0091 


1C 




0092 


33 




CC93 


33 




0094 


3D 




0095 


C28400 




0C98 


C3A000 




93 


'Z. 1 


D4 


39C 


3D 




G09D 


C234 




AG 


E3 


D4A 


QOAi 


Cl 





LXI 

CALL 

RET 



MVI 



MOV 

INX 

CALL 

CMP 

JNZ 

RET 

ENTRY 

LXI 

CALL 

LXI 

MOV 

MOV 

RET 

DB 



HfSM2 
PRINT 
t WAS "JtfP PUSH 1 IN ORIG LIST 



Cf 0AM 



BfM 

H 

OLITP 

C 

PNT 



HsOMl 
PRINT 
H»Q 

E>L 

' DIVIDE CHECK' >QDH>QAH 



ENTRY 




MOV 


A>B 


ORA 


C 


JZ 


DVCK 


XRA 


A 


ADD 


B 


PUSH 


PSW 


CP 


NEGS 


XRA 


A 


ADD 


H 


PUSH 


PSW 


CM 


NEGH 


XCHG 




LXI 


H*0 


MVI 


A?10H 


DAD 


H 


XCHG 




DAD 


H 


XCHG 




JNC 


D3 


INX 


H 


PUSH 


H 


DAD 


B 


JNC 


D4 


INR 


E 


INX 


SP 


INX 


S? 


DCR 


A 


JNZ 


D2 


JMP 


D4A 


POP 


hi 


DCR 


A 


JNZ 


D2 


XCHG 




POP 


B 



Listing 2 continued on page 470 



468 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



In Less Than 3 Minutes 

Your IBM Model 50, 60, 65, 75, or 85 

Electronic Typewriter 

can be an RS232C PRINTER or TERMINAL 




CALIFORNIA MICRO COMPUTER Models 5060 and 
5061 can be installed easily and require NO modifications 
to the typewriter. 

For additional information contact: 

CALIFORNIA MICRO COMPUTER 
9323 Warbler Ave., Fountain Valley, CA. 
92708 (714)847-4141 



MICROSTAT® 

MICROSTAT® + baZic® 



Release 3.0 
PERFORMANCE 



The best just got better! MICROSTAT has been the 
leader in the statistics field for microcomputers since 
1979, and the new release 3.0 outperforms and is 
noticeably faster than previous versions. Just a few 
of the features include: 

GREATER ACCURACY 

BCD with up to 14 digit precision; 

PROGRAM ENHANCEMENTS 

Missing data capabilities and many more; 

FASTER EXECUTION 

Calculation time greatly reduced; 

DYNAMIC FILE ALLOCATION 

Data can be inserted, added, or deleted; 

SPECIAL PRICE: 

For a limited time get MICROSTAT plus baZic 
complete with program disk and documen- 
tation for each for $395.00, save $50.00! 

The MICROSTAT - baZic version requires: a Z80 CPU, 
CP/M™ and 48K of memory. Available formats: 8" SD 
disk or 5 1 /4" North Star only. Check with your dealer for 
other formats. Also available for: Microsoft's Basic-80™, 
North Star DOS and IBM. For more information, call 
or write: 

ECOSOFT INC. 

P.O. Box 68602 P^lF 

Indianapolis, IN 46268-0602 I^HBl 

(317) 255-6476 

MICROSTAT is a registered trademark of ECOSOFT, INC. 

baZic is a registered trademark of MICROMIKES. INC. 

CP/M is a registered trademark of DIGITAL RESEARCH 

Basic-80 is a registered trademark of MICROSOFT 



BYTE Books Carry Waite 

A New Primer Series 

Computer Animation Primer 

by Mitchell Waite and David Fox 

Illustrated in full color this lively guide 
to the exciting world of computer- 
animated graphics is virtually "2- 
books-in-1." The first part covers the 
theory and products of high-resolu- 
tion computer graphics, from frame 
buffer technology to shading al- 
gorithms; the second part shows you 
how to unlock the power of the Atari 
computer for true color animation. 
Features include program listings in 
Atari BASIC and 6502 Assembly Lan- 
guage, a source catalog of hardware 
and software for both Apple and Atari 
computers, and examples of today's 
best animation efforts. 




JUST PUBLISHED! 



Apple Backpack 

by Scot Kamins and Mitchell Waite 

Concrete methods for developing 
"user-friendly" software are at your 
fingertips in this useful course in 
humanized programming. Written in 
readable and often witty style, and 
with complete details on everything 
from screen formatting to writing 
clear documentation. 

8086/808816-bit 
Microprocessor Primer 

by Christopher L Morgan 
and Mitchell Waite 

You don't have to be a hardware 
engineer to follow the author's clear, 
crisp descriptions of the vastly more 
powerful new Intel 8086/8088 16-bit 
microprocessor's. Covers design, capa- 
bilities, potential, currently available 
software, and new products based on 
the 8088, with emphasis on the IBM 
Personal Computer 

Word Processing Primer 

by Mitchell Waite and Julie Area 

Focusing primarily on inexpensive 
microcomputer-based text-editing 
products, this book gives you a thor- 
ough rundown on a powerful new 
way to electronically generate, cor- 
rect; and manage all kinds of typewrit- 
ten documents. Coverage includes 
controlling copy appearance, and se- 
lecting equipment and programs. 

At your bookseller or computer store. Or 
r *" mail coupon for 15 days' FREE examination! 

I Byte/McGraw-Hill 
| RO. Box 400 

| Hightstown, N.J. 08520 

| Please send me the book(s) checked for 15 days on 
n approval. At the end of that time I will pay for the book(s) I 

keep, plus local tax, postage, and handling, and return any 

unwanted book(s) postpaid. 

021742-4 □ Computer Animation Primer $18.95 
033356-4 □ Apple Backpack $14.95 
043109-4 □ 8086/8088 $16.95 
067761-1 □ Word Processing Primer $14.95 




m 



i 



Name. 



I 



Address/Apt._ 



| City/State/Zip_ 



23-nl75-2144~3 



Circle 163 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 469 



Listing 2 continued: 



Q0A2 


Fl 








PGP 




PSW 












00A3 


A8 








XRA 




El 












QQA4 


FC28 0Q 






CM 




NEGH 












00A7 


7A 








MOV 




A*D 












0CA8 


B3 








GRA 




E 












30A9 


08 








RZ 
















MAKRO 


asse:i 


1BLER 


AMA< 


,2 


















CO A A 


AF 








XRA 




A 












OOAB 


80 








ADD 




B 












AC 


F0 








RP 
















GOAD 


AF 








XRA 




A 












GOAZ 


93 








SUB 




E 












uDAF 


5i" 








MOV 




EfA 












OCBO 


•9 A 








SEE 




D. 












OOBi 


93 








SUB 




E 












0^2 


zr-r 








MOV 




L)y A 












33 


09 








RET 
















20CD 






CJ; 


rr 


F.GU 




20 0DK 












C G S 4 


204F; 
52-46' 

57 0D 


<C4F 

j A 


SMS 


> 


D3 




1 OVER,"' 




10 








n n © E* 


























MAKRC 


ASS« 


MSLER 


AMA 


♦ 2 


















0090 


ERRO 


K £5 






















3YM:;:3' 


L TAB 


LE 


























084 


01 


D3 


008C 


01 


D4 


0O9B 


01 


D4A 


0CA0 


01 


DIV16 




06D 


c: 


DM1 


05E 


CI 


D3PA3C 


ocoo 


01 


DVCK 


0052 


01 


NEGB 




035 


1 


NEGK 


23 


CI 


OUTP 


20CD 


00 


OVFL 


003F 


01 


PN i 




04B 


01 


PRINT 


046 


01 


SM2 


0B4 


01 


MR 


001F 


01 


Y3 




0GF 


01 





















Listing 3: Hexadecimal dump of the trace routine as it would appear after being link-loaded to memory location 1000. 
+>DH 10 0-11 ID 



1000 


21 


64 


29 


3E 


CO 


77 


23 


11 


IE 


10 


73 


23 


72 


09 


11 


64 


1010 


29 


21 


1A 


10 


01 


04 


00 


ED 


EM) 


C9 


DB 


03 


E6 


02 


2A 


04 


1020 


59 


2B 


7E 


FE 


50 


28 


IE 


32 


50 


10 


2B 


7E 


32 


57 


10 


21 


1030 


59 


10 


0E 


07 


CD 


4C 


10 


2A 


57 


10 


CD 


5F 


10 


21 


59 


10 


10*G 


0E 


03 


CD 


4C 


10 


DB 


03 


c.6 


02 


F2 


68 


29 


46 


AF 


CD 


CD 


1050 


20 


0D 


41 


23 


10 


F6 


C9 


00 


00 


0D 


0A 


20 


41 


54 


20 


AF 


1060 


3D 


F5 


A4 


F2 


6E 


10 


06 


2D 


CD 


0D 


20 


CD 


87 


10 


01 


OA 


1070 


0G 


CD 


CC 


10 


3E 


30 


83 


F5 


7C 


B5 


02 


6E 


10 


Fl 


47 


CD 


1080 


0D 


20 


Fl 


F2 


7E 


10 


C9 


AF 


95 


6F 


90 


95 


67 


D6 


80 


B5 


1090 


CO 


C3 


9E 


10 


AF 


91 


4F 


98 


91 


47 


D6 


80 


Bl 


CO 


21 


13 


10A0 


11 


CD 


A5 


10 


C9 


0E 


0A 


46 


23 


CD 


0D 


20 


B9 


C2 


A7 


10 


10B0 


C9 


21 


BD 


10 


CD 


A5 


10 


21 


00 


00 


54 


5D 


C9 


29 


44 


49 


10CC 


56 


49 


44 


45 


20 


43 


48 


45 


43 


4B 


0D 


0A 


78 


Bl 


CA 


Bl 


10D0 


10 


AF 


80 


F5 


F4 


94 


10 


AF 


84 


F5 


FC 


87 


10 


EB 


21 


00 


10E0 


00 


3E 


10 


29 


EB 


29 


EB 


D2 


EB 


10 


23 


E5 


09 


D2 


FA 


10 


10F0 


10 


33 


33 


3D 


C2 


E3 


10 


C3 


FF 


10 


El 


3D 


02 


E3 


10 


EB 


110 


CI 


Fl 


AS 


FC 


87 


10 


7A 


B3 


CO 


AF 


80 


FO 


AF 


93 


5F 


9A 


1110 


93 


57 


C9 


20 


4F 


56 


45 


52 


46 


40 


4F 


57 


OD 


OA 







Listing 4 is on page 472 



470 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



uircie e>4 on inquiry cara. 



The Byte Shop 9 
Franchise Opportunity. 

Computer retailing has survived the economic hard 



times like no o 



her industry: w ith phenomenal growth 
' and profit. 

Just wait until the 
economy gets hot! 

That's why this is a 
good time to consider 
the Byte Shop® oppor- 
tunity. 

The growth industry of the 1980s. If yOU are motivated 

to make a commitment to success in the computer re- 
tailing industry, you owe it to yourself to evaluate the 
Byte Shop® Franchise prospectus. Cash required: 
$60,000. Franchise fee only $10,000. 

21 130 Cabot Boulevard fejfl Byt£^[iD®[o)® 

Hayward, CA 94545 the affonlable computer stor^. 

415/783/8272 



Company^ 

Address 



City/Slate/Zip_ 
Phone 



lyte Shop is a registered trademark of Byte Industries, 




• Z-80 microprocessor 
+ 64K of memory 
• 4 individually programmable 
channels 

Smart enough to: 

• print text and transmit and receive data 
without tying up your computer 

• link up to 4 terminals to your computer and 
significantly cut delay time for multiple users 

The Archives Intelligent Serial Interface Board 
from the makers of the dependable Archives 
Business Computer/Word Processor. For complete 
details and our technical bulletin write or call: 



A 



archives incorporated 

404 West 35th Street • Davenport, IA 52806 
Telephone (319) 386-7401 



|=-RACET computes^ ^-RACET 

Imm. Integrity in Software __J I— 



COMPUTES i 



i 



FIELD PROVEN 
HARD DRIVES 

5 to 240 MEGABYTES ON LINE for the TRS-80* Mod II/XVI 

Winchester and Cartridge Disk Drives available for immediate delivery!! 

5 MEGABYTE FOR Mod I, II, and III 
CALL FOR PRICING 




14 + Megabyte (formatted) ARM Winchester Disk Drive CALL for Pricing 

Includes ECC error detection and correction. FAST. Service Contract Avail- 
able ($30/month/drive). Multiplexor available. SHARE hard drive between 
four Model ll's!! 



20 Megabyte Cll Honeywell Bull Cartridge Drive $7995 

10 Megabytes fixed, 10 removable for the professional installation requiring 
Removable Media for BACKUP. 60 and 120 Megabyte add-on drives available. 
Upto 240 MEGABYTES! ! Four port multiplexor available to SHARE hard drives. 



HARD/SOFT DISKS SYSTEM (HSDS) SOFTWARE 

Radio Shack 2.0 Compatible Operating System for Hard Drive Operation. 
Run your 2.0 software on hard drives without conversion (except drive des- 
ignation). Compatible with most machine language programs that use the 
standard calling sequence. Supports ARM, Cameo, Cynthia Bull, Corvus, 
Data Peripherals, QCS, Radio Shack, and certain other hard drives. 
Access BOTH your floppy disk drives and hard drive files INTERCHANGEABLY!! 
Complete utilities include HZAP (Hard DiskSUPERZAP), Directory Catalog Sys- . 
tern, Parameterized FORMAT, HPURGE (Bulk Copy/Purge Utility) and others. 
The Hard/Soft Disk System (HSDS) Software has almost two years FIELD 
experience. Version 5.0 adds several enhancements including maintenance 
of system files on the hard drive, files as large as the disk, the ability to seg- 
ment the disk as logical drives, and definable directory size. Floppy backup 
(close to a Megabyte per minute) is provided for Winchester drives. 

HSDS for Radio Shack $500 
HSDS for Other Drives $400 



r-RACET COMPUTES ltdT 

^_ Integrity in Software _l 

1330 N. Glasseli, Suite M, Orange, CA 92667 (714) 997-4950 

jS CALL FOR COMPETITIVE PRICING ON HARD DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS — 

I BUY WHERE YOU CAN GET SOFTWARE SUPPORT!! 

DEALER AND SYSTEM HOUSES — WE HAVE DEALER PRICING!! 
CIRCLE READER RESPONSE FOR FREE TRS AND NEC CATALOG. 
'TRS-80 is a trademark of tandy corporation 



Circle 474 on inquiry card. 



Circle 372 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



471 



The Mega Super Computer 




FfM Coroputar with ■ Purctuis* of ■ RAM Disk 

* ZeOB Running at 5mhz. * Versatile CPM. * Math chip 951 1 or 
9512 AMD. * 48 Plus Poits on Mega Expander BUS. * CTC. 
DMA. * 2 Parallel Ports— with hand shaking. * Serial 
Poits— with or without hand shaking runs ISO to 1 9K2 Baud. Runs 
most terminals, printers, and modems. 

* NOWI CPM 3.0. 

* Hard Disk Interface hooks directly to Priam Drives. 

* Floppy Disk Controller— Handles Single Density IBM compatible 
disks and Dual Density I or 2 sided supports. 3" or 5'/«" in various 
combinations— 3 Drives equal over 4 Mega Bytes of Storage. 
WD2797. 

* 512 K Bytes of 64K Drams with parity configurable as a HIGH 
SPEED ELECTRONIC DISK or B banks of 64K for multi-user or 
countless other applications. 

* All this on a state-of-the-art 4 layer card— with accurate 
documentation— 10" x 15". 

* Prices: Bare Board with Documentation S399 

64K Base System A & T J895 

5I2K Base System A & T $ 1 595 

CPM 2.2 System A & T J 1 25 

5l2KBaseK.it SI 299 

64K Base Kit S699 

MPM $325 

m MEGA CO. = 

231B S Park Street, Madison, Wl 53713 (608)255-7400 



Circle 263 on inquiry card. 



DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS 
SMITH-CORONA TP-1 




$529 



■ BROTHER HR-15(2 colors) SAVE 

• BROTHER HR-1(l6k) $749 

• DAISY WRITER 2000(48k) $999 

■ C-ITOH F-10(40 cps) $1295 

• COMMODORE 64 Computer ... SAVE 

• OSBORNE Computer $1595 

• SANYO MBC-1000(incl sftwre) $1595 

• KAY-PRO II $CALL 

• ZORBA SAVE 

• Wordstar/Spellstar/Mailmerge . . S349 
•Franklin-Ace $899 

MICRO MART 

5375 Kearny Villa Rd # 1 1 5, San Diego CA 92123 
(619) 268-0169 



Circle 277 on Inquiry card. 



EPSON 

NEW REPLACEMENT 

RIBBON CARTRIDGES 

MX 70-80 $ 4.75 ea. 
MX 100 10.75 ea. 

Please add $.75 ea. handling/shipping. 



LABELS 

$12.00/5000 

STOCK #10350-1-15/16 "x3V 2 "x1 wide. 

White— pressure sensitive— pin feed— 

4 1 /j" carrier, packed 5000 per box. 
Add $2.50 per box handling/shipping. 



TERMS: Visa & M.C. (add 4%). check or 

money order. C.O.D.'s. add $2.00. min. order 

$12.00. CA residents add 6% Sales Tax. 



fiW 



COMPUTER 
SUPPLY CO. 



25422 TRABUCO RD. SUITE #200 
EL TORO, CA. 92630 • (714) 768-0370 



Circle 381 on Inquiry card. 



Listing 4: Simple BASIC program and the results of running the trace routine. As each 
line of program code is interpreted, the trace routine displays the current line number. 



100 REM SAMPLE PROGRAM TO ILLUSTRATE TRACE USAGE 

110 FOR 1=1 TO 3 

129 X=RND(-1) 

130 Y=CALL<4096) \ REM TURN ON TRACE 
140 IF X>*5 THEN 150 ELSE 160 

150 S1=S1+1 \ GOTO 170 

160 S2=S2+1 

170 Y=CALL<4110) \ REM TURN OFF TRACE 

180 NEXT I 

190 PRINT SlfS2 

READY 

RUN 

AT 140 

AT 160 

AT 170 

AT 140 

AT 15G 

AT 170 

AT 140 

AT 160 

AT 170 
1 2 
READY 



Circle 444 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 21 on Inquiry card. 




A VINTAGE PAPERBACK 



The first comprehen- 
sive encyclopedia cov- 
ering all aspects of the 
new electronic tech- 
nologies now radically 
changing communica- 
tions, education, and 
business practices 
throughout the world, 



THE RANDOM HOUSE 
DICTIONARY OF NEW 
INFORMATION TECH- 
NOLOGY offers a 
wealth of explanations 
of crucial terms, con- 
cepts, methods, and 
media. Illustrated. 

57.95. now at your bookstore 



i VINTAGE BOOKS 

A division of Random House 



EITI 



NEW THIS MONTH!! 



EPSON 

FX SERIES PRINTERS 
FX-80 F/T 

$645 

Now In Stock!/ 



IBM P.C. 
64K RAM 

2 3 20 K Drives 

AMDEK 300, DOS 1. 1 

MONOCHROME ADAPTER 

$3249.95 

COMPUTERS 

IBM PC $4399.95 

320K RAM Memory, two 320K Disk 
Drives. DOS 1 I. Color Graphics Card 
Hi-Res BMC Green Screen Monilor. 
Parallel Card, RS-232 Serial Card. 
Clock Calendar. Wordsiar b Visicalc 

IBM PC $2699 95 

64K Ram Memory, iwo 320K Disk 
Drives and Onve Controller 

PRINTERS 

Epson 

MX-80 S419 

MX-80F/T S499 

MX-100 S645 

Okidata 

ML 80 , S350 

ML82A $425 

ML83A S699 

ML 84 $1049 

STARMICRONICS 

GemimlO $389 

Gemini 15 S499 

Smith-Corona T PI. S599 

Serial or Parallel 

fflms .,*-.-■ 



MODEL 12 

80K RAM, 2 Drive 

$3599 

RADIO SHACK 

12 Meg. HARD DISK 

$3199 




New 

Low Prices! 

MODEL III 

TRS-80 

48K 799 

48K. 2 Dr. 1499 



DISK DRIVES 




TEAC • Complata with Powe 




Supply (t Cabinet 




40 Track Single Side 


$229 


40 Track Dual Side 


S340 


80 Track Single Side 


S340 


80 Track Dual Side 


$399 


TANDON - Complete with Power 


Supply & Cabinet 




40 Track Single Side 


$239 


40 Track Dual Side 


$319 


80 Track Single Side 


$319 


80 Track Dual Side 


S369 


TEAC • Bare 




40 Track Single Side 


S189 


40 Track Dual Side 


$289 


BOTrackSmgleSide 


$289 


80 Track Dual Side 


S349 


TANDON - Bare 




40 Track Single Side 


S199 


40 Track Dual Side 


S269 


80TrackSmgleS.de 


S269 


80 Track Dual Side 


S319 



fc, 918/H25-4844 SmaII 

AMERICAN Busies 



118 SO. MILL ST 
PRYOR, OK 74161 



COMPUTERS 



zback issues for sale 





1976 


1977 


1978 


1979 


1980 


1981 


1982 


1983 


Jan. 




S2.00 




S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 




S3. 70 


Feb. 






S2.75 


S2.75 


S3.25 


S3. 25 


S3 .70 


S3. 70 


March 






S2.75 


S2.75 


S3.25 


S3.25 


S3. 70 


S3. 70 


April 






S2.75 


S2.75 


S3.25 


S3. 25 


S3.70 




May 




S2.00 


S2.75 


S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 70 




June 




S2.00 


S2.75 


S2.75 


S3.25 


S3. 25 


S3. 70 







1976 


1977 


1978 


1979 


1980 


1981 


1982 


1983 


July 


S2.00 


S2.00 


S2.75 


S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3.70 




Aug. 


S2.00 


S2.00 


S2.75 


S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 70 




Sept. 




S2.75 


S2.75 


S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 70 




Oct. 






S2.75 


S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 






Nov. 


S2.00 


S2.75 




S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 70 




Dec. 


S2.00 


S2.75 


S2.75 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 25 


S3. 70 





Circle and send requests with payment to: 
BYTE Back Issues 
P.O. Box 328 
Hancock, WH 03449 

Please allow 4 weeks for domestic delivery 
and 8 weeks for foreign delivery. 

name 

address 

city 

state 



The above prices include postage in the US. 
Please add $.50 per copy for Canada and 
Mexico; and $2.00 per copy to foreign coun- 
tries. 

□ Check enclosed 
Payments from foreign countries must be 
made in US funds payable at a US bank. 

□ MasterCard 



□ VISA 
Card # _ 



Exp. 



zip 



Signature 



BYTE March 1983 



473 



Event Queue 



March 1983 



March 

Continuing Engineering Edu- 
cation Courses, George Wash- 
ington University, Washing- 
ton, DC. Among the courses 
being offered are "Managing 
Data Processing Systems in 
Multiproject Environments" 
and "Design of Digital Con- 
trol Systems." Fees range from 
$685 to $855. Further details 
are available from Douglas 
Green, Continuing Engineer- 
ing Education, George Wash- 
ington University, Washing- 
ton, DC 20052, (800) 424- 
9773; in the District of Colum- 
bia, (202) 676-8515. 

March 

Courses for Developers and 
Users of Computer Systems, 

various sites throughout the 
U.S. Among the courses being 
offered by the AMA (Ameri- 
can Management Associa- 
tions) are "Fundamentals of 
Data Processing for the Non- 
data Processing Executive," 
"Fundamentals of Data Pro- 
cessing for Administrative 
Assistants and Office Support 
Staff," and "Database Con- 
cepts and Design." For com- 
plete registration and course 
information, contact the 
AMA, 135 West 50th St., 
New York, NY 10020, (212) 
586-8100. 

March-May 

Courses in C Language and 

Unix'/'various sites throughout 
the U.S. Three 5-day courses 
are offered by Plum Hall Inc. 
The "C Programming Work- 
shop/' a hands-on course, 
covers all aspects of the C lan- 
guage for individuals able to 
program in another language. 
The "Advanced C Topics 
Seminar" covers efficiency, 
portability, readability, de- 
bugging, packaging, and in- 
terfacing. An introductory 
course, the "Unix Workshop" 
focuses on software develop- 



ment. Each course fee is 
$1000. For details, contact 
Joan Hall, Plum Hall Inc., 1 
Spruce Ave., Cardiff, NJ 
08232, (609) 927-3770. 

March-June 

Computer Showcase Expos, 

various sites throughout the 
U.S. This popular show will 
be held in more than 10 cities 
between March and June. For 
a schedule, contact The Inter- 
face Group, 160 Speen St., 
POB 927, Framingham, MA 
01701, (800) 225-4620; in Mas- 
sachusetts, (617) 879-4502. 

March-June 

Data Processing Courses, the 

Hartford Graduate Center, 
Hartford, CT. Among the 
courses offered are "ANS 
COBOL Programming Work- 
shop 1" and "CICS/VS Com- 
mand Level Coding Work- 
shop." Hartford Graduate 
Center data-processing 
courses are available for on- 
site presentation. For more in- 
formation, contact Don 
Florek, Hartford Graduate 
Center, 275 Windsor St., Hart- 
ford, CT 06120, (203) 
549-3600, ext. 252, 253, or 254. 

March-June 

Intel Microcomputer Work- 
shops, various sites through- 
out the U.S. Contact Intel 
Corp., Mail Stop SV3-1, 3065 
Bowers Ave., Santa Clara, 
CA 95051. 

March- June 

Intensive Seminars of Interest 
to Data Processing Profession- 
als, Boston metropolitan area. 
Among the two- to five-day 
seminars offered are "Project 
Management" and "Data 
Communications." Registra- 
tion fees range from $495 to 
$975. For a seminar bulletin, 
contact Ms. Ginny Bazarian, 
Office of Continuing Educa- 
tion, Higgins House, Worces- 
ter Polytechnic Institute, 
Worcester, MA 01609, (617) 
793-5517. 



March-June 

Seminars in Simulation, Man- 
agement, Statistics, and Com- 
puter Science, various sites 
throughout the U.S. "Simula- 
tion Modeling for Decision 
Making," "Database Design," 
and "Satellite Communica- 
tions Technology" are some of 
the topics to be presented. For 
details, contact the Institute 
for Professional Education, 
POB 756, Arlington, VA 
22216, (703) 527-8700. 

March-July 

Courses from Integrated 
Computer Systems, various 
sites throughout the U.S. 
Course titles include "Compu- 
ter-Aided Design and Manu- 
facturing," "Computer Graph- 
ics," "Hands-On Pascal Work- 
shop," "Defining Software Re- 
quirements, Specifications, 
and Tests," and "Computer- 
ized Robots." Fees range from 
$695 to $845. For information, 
contact Ruth Dordick, Inte- 
grated Computer Systems, 
3304 Pico Blvd., POB 5339, 
Santa Monica, CA 90405, or 
call (213) 450-2060. 

March-July 

Technical Courses from Zilog, 

Campbell, CA. A wide vari- 
ety of such courses as the 
"Z8000 Processor Family" and 
"C Programming" are offered. 
Fees range from $175 to $875. 
For a complete schedule, con- 
tact Zilog Inc., Training and 
Education Department, 1315 
Dell Ave., Campbell, CA 
95008, (408) 370-8092. 

March 11-17 

The Twenty-fourth Annual 
Management Conference of 
the Electronic Representatives 
Association, Cancun, Mexico. 
Educational programs, special 
meetings, round-table discus- 
sions, and workshops will 
highlight this annual event. 
Contact the Electronic Repre- 
sentatives Association, 20 East 
Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611, 
(312) 649-1333. 



March 14-15 

The Seventh Annual Confer- 
ence of the Michigan Associa- 
tion for Computer Users in 
Learning— MACUL '83, Hyatt 
Regency, Dearborn, MI. Ses- 
sions and speakers will high- 
light this conference. For more 
information, contact Betty 
VandenBosch Shaw, Coordi- 
nator of Mathematics, Flint 
Community Schools, 923 East 
Kearsley, Flint, MI 48502, 
(313) 762-1007. 



March 14-17 

The Seventh Annual Federal 
Office Systems Expo — FOSE 

'83, Washington Convention 
Center, Washington, DC. Six- 
ty high-level sessions will 
cover the development of inte- 
grated office systems in both 
government and industry. 
More than 200 companies will 
display the latest in office sys- 
tems technology. For more in- 
formation, contact Mary Beth 
Gouled, National Trade Pro- 
ductions Inc., 9418 Annapolis 
Rd., Lanham, MD 20706, 
(800) 638-8510; in Maryland, 
(301) 459-8383. 



March 14-18 

Computer Graphics Applica- 
tions for Management and 
Productivity— CAMP '83, In- 
ternational Congress Center, 
Berlin, West Germany. This 
conference features tutorials, 
technical papers, and exhibits 
that reflect the practical ap- 
plications and state of the art 
of computers and computer- 
graphics' technology. Topics 
on the agenda include com- 
puter-aided design and manu- 
facturing, sales-support 
graphics, and improving the 
use of engineering data. A 
hardware and software ex- 
hibition will be held. Full par- 
ticulars are available from the 
World Computer Graphics 
Association, Suite 250, 2033 
M St. NW, Washington, DC 
20036, (202) 775-9556. 



474 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 51 on inquiry card. 



Circle 244 on inquiry card. 




PC-1 
Powerline 
Controller 

Puts Bidirectional A.C. 
carrier communications 
in your APPLE II 

• Operates up to 256 Leviton/ 
BSR remote control devices 

:; • Receives input communica- 
tions from Leviton/BSR 
transmitters 

• On board real time clock 

• Worldwide compatibility 
(50/60 Hz) 

• Easy installation and 
> operation 

PC : 1 is available for $285.00 

Dealer inquiries invited. 



BI-COMM SYSTEMS 

itiYorkt' - .'ial Cour t, -• 7 (612)481-0775 




Star Micronics Gemini 10 9x9 ma- 
trix Hi Res. graphic, 100CPS, fric- 
tion/tractor feed, parallel , .$389 
Gemini 15 15" carriage. . , $495 

Epson MX80 F/T III Call 

Epson MX100 F/T III Call 

C. Itoh ProWriter 8510AP, 120 CPS, 

Graphics, Parallel 5459 

OkidataML80P, 80 CPS . . . .$339 
Okidata ML82A, 120 CPS . . 5399 
Okidata 84,200 CPS, 132 col .S999 
Okidata 84S 200 CPS, Serial. S 1099 
NEC 8023A, 100 CPS, Tr3Ctor/fric 
tion fee, Graphics, parallel . . .$459 




C.ITOH F-TO PRINTER 
40 CPS daisywheel printer. Para- 
llel. Limited time offer . . $ Call 
COMREX CFM-C Daisywheel, 17 

CPS, Parallel S769.00 

BROTHER PRINTER HR-1 
Letter quality daisywheel printer, 
15 CPS, friction feed. Parallel in- 
terface. Super value $759.00 




NEC SPiNWRITER 3550 
NEC's new letter-quality printer 
especially designed for the IBM PC. 
203 columns, auto proportional 
space, justification, bi-directional, 
350 words per min. Serial . $1,995 



MONITOR SALE 
Dynax GM-120, 12" green, 600 dot 

20 MHz $2e0$129 

Dynax AM-121, 12" Amber, 600 

dot, 20 MHz $250 $149 

Taxan KG-12N, 12" green 800 dot, 

S199S145 

Taxan KA12N, 12" amber, 800dot 

$265 $159 

NEC JC1203 RGB Color, 690 dots 

hi res. 16 colors . . .5895 $749 

Cable-NEC to IBM $19 

Princeton HX-12, 12" RGB Color, 

690 dot hi res. 16 color. Has 

identical IBM cabinet S795S599 
Taxan RGBvison I, 380 dot . 5365 
Taxan RGBvision ll,510dot 5549 
Taxan RGBvisionlll,630 dot. 5640 
Cable-Taxan to IBMor Apple. $19 




IBM Personal Computers 

A. 64K system unit & keyboard, 
two 160K drives & controller. 

$2,355 

B. 64K system unit & keyboard, 
two 160K drives & controller, 
color/graphic card. $2,620 

C. 64K system unit & keyboard, 
two 160K drives & controller, 
IBM monochrome display & 
display/printer adapter. $2,995 

If you want 320K drives for the 
above systems add $230 



AST MEMORY CARDS 

ComboPlus, MegaPlus and I/O Plus 
cards for IBM PC. Call for best price 




5% TAN DON DRIVES 

The newest. IBM PC compatible. 
Installation instruction included. 
TM100-1A.SSDD 160K . . . 5175 
TM100-2A, DSDD320K. . . 5259 



SOFTWARE FOR IBM PC 

VisiCalc $250 $179 

Desktop Plan $360 $229 

VisiDex $250 $189 

VisiFile. $300 $235 

VisiSchedule $360 $229 

VisiTrend/Plot $360 $229 

Multi Plan (64K) . . . . S2SO $230 

DOS 1.1 $40 

Basic Compiler $360 $275 

Cobol Compiler S760 $650 

Fortran Compiler DOS $350 $320 
Macro Assembler DOS . St60 $90 

Pascal Compiler $300 $275 

Async Communication 2.0. . . $60 
Dow Jones Reporter . . $160 $95 
Peachtree Acct. Payable $596 $555 
Peachtree Acct. Receivable . 5555 
Peachtree Gen. Ledger . S596 $555 
Peachtree Inventory . . $566 $555 
Peach Pak 40 (GL, AP, AR) . 5395 
BPI Account Receivable. $4S5 $395 
BPI General Ledger . . . $«t26 $395 
BPI Inventory Control . $435 $395 

BPI Job Cost 55SQ $495 

BPI Payroll "S4S6 $395 



To order, please send money order or cashier's check. Personal or company checks require 2-3 weeks to clear. 
Piices reflect 3% cash discount. Visa/Mastercard accepted. Shipping, insurance & handling charges: 3% of total 
order value by UPS Surface, 5% by UPS Air or Parcel Post. California residents add sales tax. COD's requires 
20% deposits. Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send for Monthly Specials and Catalog. 



EASTERN ENTERPRISES, INC. 



2937 S. VAIL AVE., LOS ANGELES, CALIF. 90040 

TOLL-FREE /QnnAQOO IrtOI Calif., Alaska. Hawaii TELEX 

Order Dosk (oUU/OJ^-/UO I (213)725-3080 664477 



12 B&W MONITOR 




Contrast 
Power/Bright 
V-Hold 
H-Hotd 



VIDEO 100 by AMDEK 

FACTORY $7095 

WARRANTY f %J 



for APPLE 

16K RAM CARD 

Language Transparent 
COEX FACTORY $ £Q95 



WARRANTY 



69' 



5V4"Floppy 

DISKETTES 

All Certified-100% Guaranteed 

$MO00 



149° 



BOX of 1 00 

Above with *,«««- 

Hub Rings $169.00 



FLOPPY DISK DRIVE 



From Fourth Dimension Systems 

with • Track Zero Micro Switch 

• DOS 3.2.1 & DOS 3.3 

• CP/M and PASCAL 

DESIGNED *___„ 

FOR YOUR $ Off #95 

APPLE™ LUf 

Controller Card . 

for above $99.00 



COEX 80-FT d p°rTn m 4 t r rix 



• Interface with Applet Centronics 
RS-232, IEEE-488 

• 9x7 Dot Matrix, 80 CPS, 
Bi-Directional Printing 

• 2K Buffered Memory ^ 

• 80, 96, 132 Columns, Graphics 
and Block Printing 

• Selectable Char Pitch, Line 
Spacing and Feed 

COEX Interface Card to APPLE $49.95 




* 



299 



95 



00 



VISION-80® 

80x24 Video Display Card 

Vista Computer Company's new Vision-80 board is a sophisticated 
yet easy to use video display card for the Apple™ computer. 



$ 249 



PARALLEL INTERFACE 

EPSON TO APPLE 

New From $4A95 CABLE 
COEX *t$f INCLUDED 



PROTOTYPING CARDS 

forAPFLE....$19.95 
forl.B.M $49.95 



EXTENDER CARDS 

for APPLE... $16.95 
forl.B.M $19.95 



"Have You Kissed Your Computer Lately" 

Components Express, Inc. 

^S5T 1380 E. Edinger • Santa Ana, Calif. 92705 • 714/558-3972 

Terms of Sale: Cash, Checks, Credit Cards, M.O., C.O.D. Calif, residents add 6% sales tax. 




Circle 88 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



475 




And then 
there 

were none. 



The list of already extinct animals 
grows . . . the great auk, the Texas gray 
wolf, the Badlands bighorn, the sea mink, 
the passenger pigeon . . . 

What happens if civilization 
continues to slowly choke out wildlife 
species by species? 

Man cannot live on a planet unfit for 
animals. 

Join an organization that's doing 
something about preserving our 
endangered species. Get involved. Write 
*«!»* the National Wildlife Federation, 
^!f/& Department 105,1412 16th 
gMjga Street, MW. Washington, 

»3w DC 20036 - 

It's not too late. 



PUT PRICES IN CHECK 



ZIP PACK 
RELOAD RIBBONS 

FOR 

NEC 8023A 

APPLE PRINTERS 

C. ITOH PROWRITER 

99 $QQ 99 

I . EA. 05. DOZ. 



MEMOREX 
DISKETTES 

5V. SINGLE SIDE- DUAL DENSITY 

s 2 4.99 

10 PACK 



CARTRIDGE RIBBONS FOR 

EPSON 
MX-80 MX-100 

$ 7." $ 12. 95 
$89." $ 139. 86 

DOZ. DOZ. 



LABEL 
SPECIAL 



(5K/MIN.) 

,1 ACROSS 3,«15/16 CONTINUOUS LABELS 



COMPLETE LINE OF OTHER RIBBONS AVAILABLE, PLEASE CALL 

ALL ABOVE PRICES INCLUDE SHIPPING 

Check-Mate 



51 DIAUTO DR. 



PO. BOX 103 



RANDOLPH, MA 02368 

TOLL FREE 800-343-7706 I N MASS 61 7-963-7694 

WE ACCEPT MASTER CARD & ViSA 
MASS. RESIDENTS ADD 5% SALES TAX 

PHONES OPEN 9AM-7PM EASTERN TIME 



Event Queue. 



March 15-16 

Selecting a Microcomputer for 
Scientific and Engineering Ap- 
plications, Colorado School 
of Mines, Golden, CO. This 
short course reviews hardware 
and software technology for 
potential buyers of microcom- 
puters in relation to specific 
scientific and engineering ap- 
plications. The fee is $195. 
Contact the Space Office, 
Colorado School of Mines, 
Golden, CO 80401, (303) 
273-3321. 

March 16-17 

Business-Expo, Albert Thom- 
as Convention and Exhibit 
Center, Houston, TX. This 
show features everything 
from computers, copiers, and 
telephone equipment to in- 
terior decorating, office de- 
sign, and financial consulting. 
More than 20 seminars on 
business technologies will be 
offered. Complete details are 
available from Business-Expo, 
702 East Northland Towers, 
15565 Northland Dr., South- 
field, MI 48075, (313) 
569-8280. 

March 17-19 

The New Jersey Business 
Computer Show, Holiday Inn 
(North), Exit 14, New Jersey 
Turnpike. This "strictly busi- 
ness" show will feature small 
business systems, word pro- 
cessors, software, and acces- 
sories. For further informa- 
tion, contact the Kengore 
Corp., POB 13, Franklin 
Park, NJ 08823, (201) 
297-2526. 

March 17-19 

The Third Annual Microcom- 
puters in Education Confer- 
ence, Arizona State Universi- 
ty, Tempe. The theme for this 
conference is "Forward to the 
3 Cs: Communicating, Calcu- 
lating, and Computing." De- 
monstrations, workshops, 
and presentations will em- 
phasize the potential of com- 
puters to revolutionize the 
learning process. Topics to be 
explored include how com- 



puters are changing the nature 
of: content in subject areas, 
teaching, and what it means 
to be well educated. Univer- 
sity credit will be available. 
Further information can be 
obtained from Marilyn Sue 
Ford, B-47 Payne Hall, Col- 
lege of Education, Arizona 
State University, Tempe, AZ 
85287, (602) 965-7363. 

March 18-20 

The Eighth West Coast Com- 
puter Faire, Civic Auditorium 
and Brooks Hall, San Fran- 
cisco, CA. Attendance this 
year is expected to reach 
40,000. More than 600 ex- 
hibitors and a wide assort- 
ment of seminars make this 
one of the largest annual com- 
puter shows. For more infor- 
mation, contact The Com- 
puter Faire, 333 Swett Rd., 
Woodside, CA 94602, (415) 
851-7075. 



March 19 

The Sixth Annual PACS 
Computer Games Festival, La 

Salle College Ballroom, 20th 
and Olney, Philadelphia, PA. 
This show is sponsored by the 
La Salle College Physics De- 
partment and PACS (Phila- 
delphia Area Computer Soci- 
ety). The theme is "Com- 
puters in Daily Life." Contact 
Stephen A. Longo, Physics 
Department, La Salle College, 
Philadelphia, PA 19141, (215) 
951-1255. 

March 21-24 

Interface '83, Miami Beach 
Convention Center, Miami, 
FL. This conference will cover 
all aspects of data com- 
munications and information 
processing in technology, 
management, policy, and 
strategy. It is cosponsored by 
McGraw-Hill's Business Week 
and Data Communications 
magazines. For further details, 
contact The Interface Group, 
160 Speen St., POB 927, 
Framingham, MA 01701, 
(800) 225-4620; in Massachu- 
setts, (617) 879-4502. 



476 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 76 on inquiry card. 



Circle 165 on inquiry card. 



New, Unique Products 

Alternate Energy, Telescopes, 
Optics, Weather, Magnets, 
Microscopes & More! 

- n In One Giant FREE Catalog 






feSBss? 






&&' 




Biggest Catalog! 
Finest Quality! 

Since 1941, thousands of 
engineers, craftsmen & hobby- 
ists nationwide have been 
comingdirectlytothe Edmund 
Scientific Catalog for quality 
products. . .fully guaranteed! 



FREE ! Simply fill in below, mailtoday, andyourEdmund 
Scientific Catalog will be on its way to you. 

D Send FREE Catalog 

Name 

Address 

City 



_State_ 



_Zip._ 



Edmund Scientific 

Dept. 8333 2115 Edscorp Bldg. 
Barrington, N J. 08007 

No. 3484 ®1982 Edmund Scientific Co. 





MuSYS gives 
S-lOO the best 
in networks. . 

withTurboDOS* 

With CP/M®* compatible TurboDOS and MuSYS net- 
work slave boards you can turn any Z80-based, S-100 
system into a superior multi-processor, multi-user 
network. 

TurboDOS is faster than CP/M® for system functions. 
TurboDOS supports larger files (134 MB) and disks 
(1048 MB) and, unlike CP/NET, it's compatible with 
nearly all 2.2 applications software. Many features which 
are optional, extra cost or not available at all in CP/M® are 
standard with TurboDOS. Add a MuSYS NET/82* and 
you've got a complete, hardware isolated network slave 
including Z80A CPU, two serial ports and many other 
advanced features. For special applications an additional 
bank of 64K memory is available. 
Expand your S-100 system economically with MuSYS 
now! Ask for all the facts on TurboDOS and our 
expanding line of network slave boards. (Generous 
quantity/dealer discounts available.) 

•TurboDOS is a trademark of Software 2000, Inc. CP/M and CP/NET are trademarks 
of Digital Research, Inc. NET/82 Is a trademark of MuSYS Corp. 



mm u corp 

Specialists in Multi-user Microsystems 



1 752 B Langley 
Irvine, CA 92714 
(714) 662-7387 
TWX: 910-595-1967 
CABLE: MUSYSIRIN 



Circle 459 on inquiry card. 



Circle 300 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



477 



Event Queue. 



March 21-24 

Personal Microcomputer In- 
terfacing and Scientific Instru- 
mentation Automation, Vir- 
ginia Polytechnic Institute and 
State University, Blacksburg, 
VA. This is a hands-on work- 
shop where the participant de- 
signs and tests concepts with 
the actual hardware. The fee 
is $595. For more information, 
contact Dr. Linda Leffel, 
C.E.C., Virginia Tech, Blacks- 
burg, VA 24061, (703) 
961-4848. 



March 21-25 

Auditing in the Contem- 
porary Computer Environ- 
ment, San Diego, CA. This 
course is designed for internal 
auditors and financial and 
data-processing professionals. 
It provides a comprehensive 
audit approach for computer- 
based systems, including how 
to evaluate controls and how 
to design a program of tests 
using questionnaires, check- 
lists, software tools, and flow 
charts. For details, contact 
Marge Umlor, EDP Auditors 
Foundation, 373 South 
Schmale Rd., Carol Stream, 
IL 60187. 

March 22-24 

Cincinnati Business Show, Ex- 
hibition-Convention Center, 
Cincinnati, OH. A wide range 
of products and services will 
be displayed, including com- 
puters, satellite equipment, 
electronic mail systems, and 
telecommunications equip- 
ment. For more information, 
contact Ray G. Nemo, Cin- 
cinnati Business Show, 10608 
Millington Court, Cincinnati, 
OH 45242, (513) 791-6300. 

March 24-25 

Computers in Construction, 

Orlando, FL. This seminar is 
designed to assist construction 
contractors and construction 
management firms in acquir- 
ing computer systems. The 
registration fee is $395. For 
further information, contact 



CIP Information Services Inc., 
1105-F Spring St., Silver 
Spring, MD 20910, (301) 
589-7933. 

March 24-25 

The Western Educational 
Computing Workshops, Hay- 
ward, CA. These workshops, 
sponsored by the California 
Educational Computing Con- 
sortium, provide demon- 
strations and hands-on ex- 
perience with new computer 
applications, software, and 
hardware. Contact Jerry 
Rose, Computer Center, Cali- 
fornia State University, 25800 
Hillary St., Hayward, CA 
94542. 

March 24-25 

Workshop on Performance 
and Evaluation of Local Area 
Networks, Worcester, MA. 
This workshop will seek to in- 
crease interaction and com- 
munications between active 
researchers and systems devel- 
opers on the performance and 
evaluation of local-area net- 
works. Contact T. C Ting, 
Computer Science Depart- 
ment, Worcester Polytechnic 
Institute, Worcester, MA 
01609, (617) 793-5670. 

March 25 

Communication Aids and 
Computers: A Voice for the 
Non-Vocal, Stokes Audito- 
rium, Children's Hospital, 
Philadelphia, PA. This con- 
ference will present recent ad- 
vances in technology, meth- 
odology, and research as they 
relate to computers and 
speech technology. Sessions 
will include lectures, video- 
tapes, and equipment demon- 
strations. The registration fee 
is $75. This conference is 
sponsored by the Children's 
Seashore House and the Divi- 
sion of Child Development 
and Rehabilitation of the 
Children's Hospital of 
Philadelphia. For further in- 
formation, contact Joan 
Bruno, Chief Speech Patholo- 
gist, Children's Seashore 
House, 4100 Atlantic Ave., 



Atlantic City, NJ 08404, (609) 
345-5191, ext. 205. 



March 27 

The 1983 Greater Baltimore 
Hamboree and Computerfest, 

Maryland State Fairgrounds 
Exhibition Complex, Timo- 
nium. Personal computers, 
business systems, software, 
and a flea market highlight 
this electronics show. Guest 
speakers will address a variety 
of topics. Admission is $3. 
Contact the Greater Baltimore 
Hamboree and Computerfest, 
POB 95, Timonium, MD 
21093, (301) 561-1282. 



March 27-30 

The 1983 National Conference 
on Higher Education, Wash- 
ington Hilton Hotel, Wash- 
ington, DC. This conference is 
sponsored by the American 
Association for Higher Educa- 
tion (AAHE). It features tu- 
torials, workshops, program 
sessions, and formal ad- 
dresses. The theme is "Col- 
leges Enter the Information 
Society." For full details, con- 
tact the AAHE, Suite 600, 
One Dupont Circle, Washing- 
ton, DC 20036, (202) 
293-6440. 



March 28-30 

The Third Florida Instruc- 
tional Computing Con- 
ference, Curtis Hixon Con- 
vention Center and the Hyatt 
Regency Hotel, Tampa, FL. 
More than 100 exhibitors will 
demonstrate educational 
hardware and software. Con- 
ference sessions will be geared 
toward administrative per- 
sonnel and teachers. Fourteen 
workshops will be conducted 
on such topics as beginning 
computer literacy, Logo, 
courseware evaluation, and the 
administrative uses of com- 
puters. For details, contact 
Dianne Cothran, Florida De- 
partment of Education, Edu- 
cational Technology Section, 
Knott Building, Tallahassee, 
FL 32301, (904) 488-0980. 

March 28-31 

National Design Engineering 

Show and Conference, Mc- 

Cormick Place, Chicago, IL. 
The conference is sponsored 
by the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers' design 
engineering division. It will 
run concurrently with the Na- 
tional Plant Engineering and 
Maintenance Show and Con- 
ference. Details are available 
from Clapp & Poliak Inc., 708 
Third Ave., New York, NY 
10017, (212) 661-8410. 



BYTE'S Bits 



Lobby Letters 
on CompuServe 

Lobby Letters of America, 
now on-line with Compu- 
Serve, lets anyone send a com- 
pliment, complaint, or com- 
ment to a national or interna- 
tional official, agency, or 
organization on any well- 
known issue. 

Here's how it works: you 
supply Lobby Letters with the 
name of a person, organiza- 
tion, or product, a brief ex- 
planation of your comments, 



and specify whether your let- 
ter is satirical or serious. 
Lobby Letters then composes 
a professional-looking letter 
based on this information, 
supplies the correct address, 
and sends you the finished 
product to sign and mail. 

Each letter costs $3.50 and 
is billed to your CompuServe 
account. Further details are 
available from CompuServe, 
5000 Arlington Centre Blvd., 
Columbus, OH 43220, (614) 
457-8600. ■ 



478 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 179 on inquiry card. 



START YOUR OWN 
COMPUTER CO. 



HOW TO START YOUR OWN SYSTEMS HOUSE $36. 

7th edition. November 1981 

Written by the founder of a successful systems house, this fact-filled 220-page 
manual covers virtually all aspects of starting and operating a small systems 
company. Contracts, proposals, agreements and a complete business plan are 
included in full, and may be used immediately. Proven, field-tested solutions to 
the many problems facing small turnkey vendors are presented. 

HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL COMPUTER CONSULTANT $28. 

by Leslie Nelson, 4th revised edition, December 1981 

The rewards of the consultant can be high: freedom, more satisfying work and 
doubled or tripled income. This manual provides comprehensive background 
information and step-by-step directions for those interested to explore this 
lucrative field. 

HOW TO START YOUR OWN COMPUTER STORE $145. 

1st printing. April 1983 

Computerstorestrategies. Optimum product mix. Brands to avoid. Working with 
distributors. Software selection. When to consider franchises. Where to find good 
personnel. Selecting the right location. The start-up plan. The seven best promo- 
tion strategies. Financial plan. Three low budget approaches. 

HOW TO START YOUR OWN WORD PROCESSING SERVICE $48. 

by Leslie Nelson. 2nd edition, November 1982 

Turn a small investment into a steady, money making business that adds $10,000, 
$50,000 or $100,000 to your income. Detailed start-up. marketing and operations 
plans are included. 

HOW TO SELL YOUR MICRO SOFTWARE $19.95 

By B.J. Korites. Ph.D, May 1982 

The best practical guide for those with software to sell. Detailed discussion of the 
eight best marketing strategies. How to sell through distributors, brokers, 
computer manufacturers. Advertising techniques. Pricing, Software security. 

Send check, money order, VISA, Master Charge or American Express # and exp. 
date. Publisher pays 4th class shipping. Add $1.00 per book for UPS shipping 
(USA only). NJ residents add 6% sales tax. For faster shipment on credit card 
orders call (201) 783-6940. 

ESSEX PUBLISHING CO. Dept. 2 
285 Bloomfield Avenue • Caldwell. N.J. 07006 



Huntington's 
Disease... 

The Genetic 
Time Bomb! 





NATIONAL 

HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE ASSOCIATION 

Suite 501. 1441 Broadway. NewYork. NY 10018 
212-966-4320 



7911 



THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLISHER 



new from 

Wizard 

two printer boards 

WIZ ARD-IPI for Apple II* 
Smart Printing at a Smart Price 

For $87.50(Suggested Retail) you get the Wizard 
Intelligent Printer Interface for parallel printers (com- 
plete with cable). It offers not only text printing, but 
enhanced text formatting such as: line length, left 
and right margin, page length, software control of 
automatic line feeds and perforation skips. 

Graphics too-hi-res screen dump, alternate hi-res 
screen dump, 90 degree rotation, inverse video, 
double-size picture, left margin alignment... 
all done with single-key commands. 

WIZARD-EBI 

Up to 64K of Buffering in 
your Epson MX Series Printer 

The Wizard Epson Buffered Interface mounts com- 
pletely inside any MX Series printer. It provides up to 
64K characters of buffering in steps of 8, 16, 32 or 
64K, and offloads the time-consuming printing task 
from the computer to the buffer. 



Use your computer 
prints the previous 
on-board 5 volt 
regulator, will 
never overload 
the Epson 5 volt 
supply as 
others do. 

Suggested Retail 
(with 8K] 
$139.00 



for the next task while the printer 
one. The Wizard-EBI, with its 



O 



lUESPEH 
JHiCRDSYSTEmS 

•* A WESPERCORP COMPANY 

3188 Pullman Street 
Costa Mesa, CA 92626 



Registered trademark 
Apple Computers, Inc. 




Circle 453 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 479 



Circle 68 on inquiry card. 

Epson, OKI, IDS, NEC, Diablo, Qume 




ACOUSTIC ENCLOSURES 



• Reduces Noise Up to 90% 

• Heavy Duty Acrylic Cover 




• Bottom Feed Capability 

• Woodgrain Finish 

Micro Printercenter" 

Dealer & Ordering Info 

800-343-4311 

Master Charge and Visa Accepted 
Shipping & Handling Charges Additional 

CAB-TEK, Inc. 

Riverside St. Nashua, NH 03062 

CIVILIZING COMPUTERS 



MPC I S99 (MX 80) MPC II S129 (0KI82) 

MPC III $179 (83A, MX100) MCP IV S199 (Daisy Printer) 

Power Control & Ventilation S80 

Paper Rack S30 Bottom Feed Brackets S30 

MPC I SHOWN 



SLUDER 



THE COMPETITIVE EDGE 



CAN BE YOURS! DEALERS. 



FU3ITSU 10 & 20 MB HARD & OR FLOPPY DISK 
SUB-SYSTEMS AT OhE LOW PRICE.. NO VOLUME 
AGREEMENTS READY TO RUN W/GODBOUT DISK I 
If II. COMPLETE SYSTEMS - r ALSO AVAILABLE 
AUTHORIZED SPELLBINDER (tm) DISTRIBUTOR 



SYSTEM 
$2950 
3500 
3995 
6095 
6195 
8995 



IW USERS UPGRADE YOUR GODBOUT 
20 MB Fujitsu HD vi I Cab. & P.S. 
8" Mitsubishi & 20 MB HD Cab. PS 
8" Mitsubishi, 20 MB, & 10 Slot MF 
CPU Z,64K Sys,20M3,8",10 sit CPM 
85/88, 6W Sys,20MB,8 M ,10 sit CPM 
1PM 6-16(tm)85/88,256K,20M£,8 M ,10S 
85/88, 6W Sys,(2)8 M floppy,10slt,CPM 2995 
LQMAS 10MHz 8086 ,1?.8K, (2 )8 M ,10S,CPM 3795 
OMAS 8MHz 86,128K DRAM, (2 )8 M ,10S 3325 
LOMAS 5 user MPM86 ,32MB, 8" ,512K 10S 7995 
rELETEK Systemaster (2)8 M DSDD 10S 24-95 
Televideo 925 $689 Televidoe 950 875 

isk 1 vi I CPM 80 ^5 G3 6 8000 or 86 ^89 
LOMAS 128K RAM 67 875 LDP 256K DRAM 796 
Teltek Systemaster 671 Teletek HDCTC 596 
:PM,MPM are tm of Digital Research of CA 
pellbinder is tm of Lexisoft Box 951 

Westminster, CA 926 83 (71£) 895-1746 



Event Queue. 



April 1983 



April 3-17 

The First London Computer 
Festival, Central Hall, West- 
minster, and City University, 
London, England. Seminars, 
conferences, exhibitions, 
workshops, and competitions 
will be featured. For informa- 
tion, contact the Secretary to 
the Consortium, GLC Cen- 
tral Computer Service, Room 
431, County Hall, London 
SE1, England; tel: (01) 
633-3348. 



April 5-8 

Computers/Graphics in the 
Building Process, Convention 
Center, Washington, DC. 
The focus of this internation- 
al event will be on the needs 
of private sector and federal 
users for computer/graphics 
applications in architecture, 
engineering, design, plan- 
ning, and management of the 
building process. This event 
is cosponsored by the Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences' 
Advisory Board on the Built 
Environment (ABBE) and the 
World Computer Graphics 
Association (WCGA). For 
details, contact the WCGA, 
Suite 399, 2033 M St. NW, 
Washington, DC 20036, (202) 
775-9956. 



April 5-8 

The Second Annual Conven- 
tion and Exposition of the 
Electronic Funds Transfer As- 
sociation — EFT Expo, Riviera 
Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. Gen- 
eral and concurrent sessions 
will focus on electronic pay- 
ment systems and services. 
Topics to be covered include 
automated teller machines, 
home information and finan- 
cial services, legal issues, and 
technical standards. Further 
information is available from 
the EFT Association, Suite 
800, 1029 Vermont Ave. 
NW, Washington, DC 20005, 
(202) 783-3555. 



April 10-13 

APL83, Sheraton Washing- 
ton Hotel, Washington, DC. 
This conference and exhibi- 
tion includes hands-on dis- 
plays and presentations of 
technical papers. For details, 
contact D & S Whyte Associ- 
ates, Conference and Exhibits 
Manager, Suite 200, 117 King 
St., Alexandria, VA 22314, 
(703) 548-2802. 

April 11-13 

IBM-MVS Training Semi- 
nars, Chicago, IL. Two semi- 
nars are offered: "MVS Inter- 
nals Overview for Data Pro- 
cessing and Operations Man- 
agement" and "MVS Inter- 
nals for Systems Program- 
mers." These courses run for 
IV2 and 2Vz days, respective- 
ly. For complete information, 
contact ACTS Corp., 11910 
Gate Way, Austin, TX 78759 f 
(512) 258-7869. 



April 11-15 

Intergraphics '83, Takanawa 
Prince Convention Center, 
Tokyo, Japan. This confer- 
ence and exhibition will cover 
a wide range of computer- 
graphics topics, including 
business and management 
graphics, virtual machine 
languages, and chemical and 
biochemical applications of 
computer graphics. Contact 
the World Computer Graph- 
ics Association, Suite 250, 
2033 M St. NW, Washington, 
DC 20036, (202) 775-9556. 

April 13-20 

Hanover Fair '83— Cebit '83, 
Hanover, West Germany. The 
Hanover Fair is one of the 
world's largest industrial trade 
fairs. Attention will be paid to 
office equipment and data- 
processing technology. More 
than 1200 exhibitors from 30 
countries will display their 
products to a crowd of more 
than 200,000. Full information 
is available from the Hanover 
Fairs Information Center, 
Salem Industrial Park, POB 
338, Whitehouse, NJ 08888 f 



480 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 395 on Inquiry card. 



(800) 526-5978; in New Jersey, 
(201) 534-9044. 

April 14-17 

The Second Annual New 
York Computer Show and 
Software Exhibition, Nassau 
Coliseum, Uniondale, NY. 
This show features printers, 
software, hard disks, mo- 
dems, memory cards, car- 
tridges, publications, support 
services, and other peripherals 
and accessories. Admission is 
$5 for adults and $3 for child- 
ren. Contact Northeast Expo- 
sitions, 822 Boylston St., 
Chestnut Hill, MA 02167, 
(617) 739-2000. 

April 15-16 

The Thirteenth Annual Vir- 
ginia Computer Users Conf er- 
ence— VCUC, Marriott Hotel, 
Blacksburg, VA. This confer- 
ence is organized and run by 
the Virginia Tech Student 
Chapter of the Association for 
Computing Machinery in co- 



operation with the Virginia 
Polytechnic Computer Sci- 
ence Department. Topics of 
interest include Ada, human 
factors, and computer graph- 
ics. For more information, 
contact Luanne Melown or 
Paula Brimer, Virginia Poly- 
technic Institute and State 
University, 562 McBryde 
Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061, 
(703) 961-6931. 

April 15-17 

The Use of Computers in Psy- 
chology, Hilton, Wilmington, 
NC. With a focus on micro- 
computers, the five planned 
symposia will explore such 
issues as statistical and thera- 
peutic applications and the use 
and misuse of microcompu- 
ters in psychological assess- 
ment. For complete details, 
write to Steven R. Edelman, 
Association of Eastern North 
Carolina Psychologists, 105 
Lou Dr., Goldsboro, NC 
27530. 



BDOS ERROR 

ON B:BAD SECTOR 




Before disk errors ruin your work again order BADLIM. 

■ BADLIM assures the reliability of your CP/M 
computer. 

■ You can use your disks 1 times longer without 
losing your data AND your time. 

■ BADLIM checks thoroughly your disk marking all 
the blocks which have defective sectors. The 
operating system will know that those sectors 
should be skipped. 

■ BADLIM is the only program that gives protection 
for soft and hard errors. 

■ The first time BADLIM will list which files in your 
disk are on bad sectors, so you can take action to 
correct it. 

■ But thereafter the bad areas in your disk will be 
automatically by-passed. 

• For CP/M 1.4 single density and for CP/M 2.xx of 
any format and density. It is a must for Winchester 
as the media cannot be replaced. 
BADLIM cost only $73. Whatever the reason you have 
to use a computer you need BADLIM. Contact your 
dealer or call us today: 

BLAT R&D Corp., 8016 188th. St SW, Edmonds 
WA 98020. Phone: [206] 771-1408 -^ - __ -- - 
DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED. OAULlLM. 



April 16-17 

The Eighth Annual Trenton 
Computer Festival, Trenton 
State College, NJ. This festival 
includes short courses, user 
group meetings, demonstra- 
tions, commercial exhibits, 
and a flea market. Admission 
for the two days is $5. Con- 
tact Dr. Allen Katz, Trenton 
State College, Hillwood Lakes 
CN 550, Trenton, NJ 08625, 
(609) 771-2487. 



April 18-21 

The Thirteenth International 
Symposium on Industrial Ro- 
bots and The Robots 7 Con- 
ference and Exposition, Con- 
rad Hilton Hotel and McCor- 
mick Place, Chicago, IL. The 
theme for this event, 
"Robotics: The Emerging 
Challenge," will be investi- 
gated through more than a 
dozen conference sessions, 
four special forums, and three 
basic sessions. More than 150 



companies will exhibit in- 
dustrial robots and compo- 
nents. This event is cospon- 
sored by Robotics Interna- 
tional of the Society of 
Manufacturing Engineers and 
the Robot Institute of America 
(RIA). Full details are avail- 
able from Ms. Pat Van Doren, 
Conference Coordinator, 
SME Technical Activities, 
One SME Dr., POB 930, 
Dearborn, MI 48128, (313) 
271-1500, ext. 369. 

April 19-21 

Electro/83 — High-Technology 
Electronics Exhibition and 
Convention, Coliseum and 
Sheraton Centre, New York, 
NY. This show runs concur- 
rently with the Mini/Micro- 
Northeast exposition. For in- 
formation, contact Electronic 
Conventions Inc., 999 North 
Sepulveda Blvd., El Segundo, 
CA 90245, (800) 421-6816; in 
California, (800) 262-4208 or 
(213) 772-2965. 



H0^J 



V 




WrfSgSo*' 






a? 



•S5** 



■-•*<^lfd& 



\o 



680°' 






Wps 



avawc 




□ belle de si. claire 

16147 Valerio St., Van Nuys, CA 91406-2974 • (213) 988-6644 -Telex 65-1397 
DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED 800-322-6666 



Circle 58 on inquiry card. 



Circle 49 on Inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 481 



Circle 107 on inquiry card. 



From Computer Plus to YOU . . . 
PLUS after PLUS after PLUS 













'1 










Moaei 10 12SK 

i Drive U1 99 

j 2 Drive $4799 




ColorComputer16KS235 
w/16K Ext. rkwic S305 
wJ32K Ext. ftasic S420 




Model IIM6KS699 

Model III 48K 

2Dlsk&RS232cS1549 




Okidata flO $320 
OkldotaB2A$399 
Okidata 92 $510 




Color Computer Disk Drive 
Drive $470 Drivel $299 




Smilh Corona Tl 
Daisy Wheel 5575 



RUM IMI?Ff T Here _ a J e J u J i i2l e . wo J?. u . r fi neof t ers - 



call TOLL FREE tor full information. 



COMPUTERS 

Model 12MK 1 Drive 
Model 12 MK 2 Drive 
Model III 4K LEV I 
MODEL III16K 
MODELMI48K 
Model IM48K 

2 Disk & RS232c 
Color Compuler 16K 
Color Computer 16K 

w/exiended bostc 
tColor Computer 32K-64K 

w.exlended bosic 
Pocket Computer 2 
ModeM61DR128K 
Model 16 2DR 128K 
DM Doto Terminal 
PT-210 Portable Tefmmal 
MODEMS 
LynxDirectConneciMli'MIII 
Hayes Smart Modem II 
HayesSmart Modem 1200 
Novotion Smartcat 1200 



$2699 
3375 




R S Acoustic Coupler AC-3 
RS ModemlDC 
RS Modem II DC 
Signalman Modem 
PRINTERS 
Daisy Wheel II 
DWP-410 

Smith Corona TPI Daisy Wheel 
EpsonMXBO 
EpsonMX80FT 
Epson MX100 
CGP-115 
DMP-100 
DMP-200 
DMP-400 
DMP-500 
Okida1o80 
Okidata 82A 
Okidalo83A 
Okidolo 84 Parallel 
Okidoto92 
Okidoto93 
P C Ploner Punter 



Since 1973 - 

We have the lowest possible 

Fully Warranteed Prices AND 

a full complement of Radio Shack 

Software. 



DISKDRIVES 

RS. Model III ISTDnve 
Tandon40TrackMI 
Color Computer Drive 1 
Color Computer Drive 
Primary Hard Disk MM 
Primory Hard Disk Mill 
ETC. 
CCR-81 recorder 
C C Joysticks 

16KRAMN.EC 200NS chips 
64K Rom Chips 
Color Compuler Flex O S 
32K Microbutter inline 

Brand Nome Software ■ 

Sendlor listing 
RS Soflwore 10% oil list 



TOLL FREE 

1 -800-343-8124 



com 



a regmeredtrodemark ot Tandy Carp 






P.O. Box 1094 
460 King Street 
Littleton, Ma 01460 I 
617-486-3193 "•• cotoiog 



plus 



RadR>ShackTR&80's 



Full Line 





YOU CAN SAVE money when you buy Radio Shack TRS-80 Com- 
puters from Pan American Electronics. Pan American Elec 
ironies went into business in 1976 and led the way in bringing con- 
sumers original Radio Shack TRS-80 Computers at reduced prices. 
NO other company has done it longer. 
NO other company has done it better and 
NO other company sells them for less. 

Pan American 
Electronics 

TOLL FREE NUMBER 800/531-7466 

1117 Conway Avenue • Department B 
Mission, Texas 78572 
Phone: 512/581-2766 
Telex Number 767339 

TNI — Trademark of Tandy corporation 



Event Queue. 



April 19-21 

Infocom 83, Town and Coun- 
try Hotel, San Diego, CA. 
The theme for this second an- 
nual joint conference of the 
IEEE Computer and Commu- 
nications Societies is ''Com- 
puters and Communications 
Integration: Reality and Illu- 
sion." Topics of interest in- 
clude computer network ar- 
chitectures, computer com- 
munications standards, and 
integrated services digital net- 
works. A series of tutorials 
will be held the day before this 
conference begins. For further 
information, contact the IEEE 
Computer Society, POB 639, 
Silver Spring, MD 20901, 
(301) 589-3386. 



April 20-22 

Symposium on Computer- 

Aided Geometry Modeling, 

Hampton, VA. For informa- 
tion, contact John Shoosmith, 
Mail Stop 125, NASA Langley 
Research Center, Hampton, 
VA 23665, (804) 827-3466. 

April 21-22 

Computers in Construction, 

New York, NY. For details, 
see March 24-25. 

April 22 

Microcomputers in Physics 
Instruction, Wilkes College, 
Wilkes-Bar re, PA. This ses- 
sion is sponsored by the Cen- 
tral Pennsylvania Section of 
the American Association of 
Physics Teachers. For infor- 
mation, contact F. J. 
Donahoe, Wilkes College, 
Box 111, Wilkes-Barre, PA 
18766. 

April 24-29 

The HP 3000 International 
Users Group Conference, 
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 
The theme for this conference 
is "Systems Designed with 
Users in Mind." Technical 
papers, vendor exhibits, and a 
lecture by Isaac Asimov will 
highlight this conference. Full 
details are available from Ms. 
Renaye Lee, Conference 



Manager, HP 3000 IUG, Suite 
205, 289 South San Antonio 
Rd., Los Altos, CA 94022, 
(415) 941-9960. 

April 25-27 

The 1983 Symposium on Se- 
curity and Privacy, Clare- 
mont Hotel, Oakland/Berke- 
ley, C A. Papers and panel ses- 
sions will explore such topics 
as security testing and evalua- 
tion, application security, and 
cryptographic protocol. For 
further details, contact the 
IEEE Computer Society, POB 
639, Silver Spring, MD 20901, 
(301) 589-3386. 

April 25-27 

Workshop on Software Engi- 
neering Technology Transfer, 

Konover Hotel, Miami Beach, 
FL. This workshop will probe 
some of the problems affect- 
ing the use of software engi- 
neering tools, techniques, and 
methodologies, in such areas 
as marketing, engineering, 
sales, and customer service. 
For further information, con- 
tact the IEEE Computer So- 
ciety, POB 639, Silver Spring, 
MD 20901, (301) 589-3386. 

April 26-28 

Exploitation '83— The HP1000 
International User Group 
Conference, Heathrow Penta 
Hotel, Heathrow, London, 
England. Papers and commer- 
cial exhibits about getting the 
most from your system will be 
featured. For full details, con- 
tact the HP1000 Conference 
Centre, Conference Services 
Ltd., 3 Bute St., London SW7 
3EY, England; tel: 01-584 
4226; Telex: 916054. 

April 26-28 

Hi-Tech 83, McCormick Place, 
Chicago, IL. This show will 
cover all aspects of automated 
production from design to 
shipping. Exhibits and ses- 
sions will focus on robotics, 
computer-aided design, and 
automatic assembly equip- 
ment and systems. The Third 
Information Management Ex- 
position and Conference for 



482 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 338 on Inquiry card. 



Manufacturing: Info/Manu- 
facturing will run concurrent- 
ly with Hi-Tech 83. Further 
information is available from 
Clapp & Poliak Inc., 708 
Third Ave., New York, NY 
10017, (212) 661-8410. 



April 28-30 

Ed Com/ Spring '83, Washing- 
ton, DC. In more than 300 
session hours educators will 
address, evaluate, and analyze 
the development of computers 
in education. Demonstrations, 
seminars, hands-on exper- 
ience, and panel sessions will 
display hardware, software, 
and publications. For more in- 
formation, contact Carol 
Houts, Judco Computer Expos 
Inc., Suite 201, 2629 North 
Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 
AZ 85257, (800) 528-2355; in 
Arizona, (602) 990-1715. 

April 28-May 1 

The Third Annual Southwest 
Computer Show and Soft- 
ware Exposition, Market Hall, 
Dallas, TX. This show fea- 
tures printers, modems, video 
displays, plug-in boards, car- 
tridges, software, and support 
services. Admission is $5 for 
adults and $3 for children. Full 
details are available from 
Northeast Expositions, 822 
Boylston St., Chestnut Hill, 
MA 02167, (617) 739-2000. 



May 1983 



May 1-4 

The Thirtieth International 
Technical Communication 
Conference, Sheraton-St. 
Louis Hotel, St. Louis, MO. 
This conference is sponsored 
by the Society for Technical 
Communication (STC). It 
will focus on such issues as 
industrial instruction, con- 
sumer education, and safety. 
For full details, contact the 
STC, 815 15th St. NW, 
Washington, DC 20005, (202) 
737-0035. 



May 2-5 

Test and Measurement World 
Expo, Convention Center, 
San Jose, CA. More than 50 
workshops will explore in- 
struments and techniques 
critical to performing timely 
and cost-effective failure 
analyses of microelectronic 
circuits and components. 
Topics to be addressed in- 
clude X-ray microradio- 
graphy and surface analysis 
techniques. Full particulars 
are available from Meg 
Bowen, Test and Measure- 
ment World Expo, 215 
Brighton Ave., Boston, MA 
02134, (617) 254-1445. 

May 10-11 

Selecting a Microcomputer 
for Scientific and Engineering 
Applications, Golden, CO. 
For details, see March 15-16. 

May 10-12 
Mini/Micro-Northwest, 

Portland, OR. Running con- 
currently with Northcon/83, 
this show addresses such 
topics as aerospace elec- 
tronics, laser applications, 
and signal and image pro- 
cessing. Contact Electronic 
Conventions Inc., Suite 410, 
999 North Sepulveda Blvd., 
El Segundo, C A 90245, (800) 
421-6816; in California, (800) 
262-4208 or (213) 772-2965. 

May 11-15 

Computa '83: The Third In- 
ternational Exhibition on 
Computer and Information 
Processing Technology, 
World Trade Centre, Singa- 
pore. Information is available 
from Kallman Associates, 5 
Maple Court, Ridgewood, NJ 
07450, (201) 652-7070. 



May 16-19 

National Computer Confer- 
ence, Anaheim and Disney- 
land Hotel Convention Cen- 
ters, Anaheim, CA. This 
show features exhibits of 
computer products and ser- 
vices, technical sessions, 
seminars, and formal ad- 



dresses. For complete infor- 
mation, contact the Ameri- 
can Federation of Informa- 
tion Processing Societies Inc., 
1815 North Lynn St., Arling- 
ton, VA 22209, (703) 
558-3624. 

May 17-20 

Technology/Invention New 
Product Expo, Expo Mart, 
Monroeville, PA. This show 
will feature everything from 
diesel fuel-injection systems 
to spring-loaded fly swatters. 
Further details can be ob- 
tained from Gary F. Brown, 
Technology/Inpex, Suite 
400, 701 Smithfield St., Pitts- 
burgh, PA 15222, (412) 
288-1344. 

May 18-20 

The Fifth National Confer- 
ence of the Cognitive Science 
Society, University of Roch- 
ester, Rochester, NY. This 
conference will consist of lec- 
tures, panels, commentaries, 
and papers. Contact the Cog- 
nitive Science Conference, 
Dewey Hall, University cf 
Rochester, Rochester, NY 
14627, (716) 275-5402. 

May 18-20 

Mipro-83: The Sixth Micro- 
processors/Microcomputers 
Course/Conference, Con- 
gress Center, Hotel Adriatic, 
Opatija, Yugoslavia. The 
theme for this conference is 
"Advanced Microcomputer 
Application Techniques and 
New Trends." It is geared 
toward hardware and soft- 
ware specialists and man- 
agers involved with the de- 
velopment, production, and 
management of microcom- 
puter-based systems. For de- 



tails, contact Mr. P. Drago- 
jlovic, Mipro Secretariat, Trg 
P. Togliatti 4, 51000 Rijeka, 
Yugoslavia. 

May 19-20 

Computers in Construction, 

Denver, CO. For details, see 
March 24-25. 

May 22-25 

The Eighteenth Annual 
Meeting and Exhibit Program 
of the AAMI, Loews Ana- 
tole, Dallas, TX. Topics on 
the docket include anesthesia 
instrumentation and tech- 
nology, computer applica- 
tions, personnel manage- 
ment, and technology trans- 
fer. Roundtable discussions, 
tutorials, and an exhibit pro- 
gram will be featured. For de- 
tails, contact the Association 
for the Advancement of Med- 
ical Instrumentation, Suite 
602, 1901 North Fort Meyer 
Dr., Arlington, VA 22209, 
(703) 525-4890. 

May 31-June 2 

The Second Canadian Com- 
puter-Aided Design/Com- 
puter-Aided Manufacturing 
and Robotics Exposition and 
Conference, International 
Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 
Canada. Leading internation- 
al companies will demon- 
strate industrial robots, auto- 
matic assembly equipment, 
optical scanners, and numeri- 
cally controlled machine 
tools. Technical papers will 
focus on such topics as robot- 
vision systems and design 
analysis. For information, 
contact Hugh F. Macgregor & 
Associates, 662 Queen St. W, 
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1E5, 
Canada, (416) 363-2201. ■ 



In order to gain optimal coverage of your organization's com- 
puter conferences, seminars, workshops, courses, etc, notice 
should reach our office at least three months in advance of the 
date of the event. Entries should be sent to: Event Queue, BYTE 
Publications, POB 372, Hancock NH 03449. Each month we 
publish the current contents of the queue for the month of the 
cover date and the two following calendar months. Thus a given 
event may appear as many as three times in this se&ion if it \s sent 
to us far enough in advance. 



March 19a^ © BYTE Publications Inc 483 



Software Received 



Apple 

APAD 2.0, a set of three 
programs for designing im- 
pedance matching and at- 
tenuation circuits for use in 
audio-frequency transmission 
circuits. The programs design 
T, PI, H, and O pads. For the 
Apple II Plus; cassette or flop- 
py disk, $15. Forbes Enter- 
prises, 21832 99th Ave. SE, 
Snohomish, WA 98290. 

Apple BASIC: Data File 
Programming, a book and 
software combination. This 
package shows you how to 
create and maintain data files. 
Using a step-by-step ap- 
proach, you can write a sim- 
ple database-management 
program. For the Apple II; 
floppy disk, $19.95. Wiley 
Professional Software, 1 
Wiley Dr., Somerset, NJ 
08873. 

Banner Magic, a program 
that can create lettered ban- 
ners. Using any printer, you 
can enter your message and 
have it printed with letters up 
to 7 inches high. Program op- 
tions are entered via a menu. 
For the Apple II; floppy disk, 
$24.95. Phoenix Software 
Inc., 64 Lake Zurich Dr., Lake 
Zurich, IL 60047. 

Computing Without Math- 
ematics, a book and software 
combination. This package 
offers a hands-on approach to 
learning the essentials of 
BASIC and Pascal. Word pro- 
cessing and data management 
are also covered. For the 
Apple II; floppy disk, $25. 
Microcomputer Educational 
Materials, POB 6184, Santa 
Barbara, CA 93111. 

Editor/Assembler, an 
editor and assembler package 
that features disk-oriented, 
menu-driven operation within 
memory emulation. This pack- 
age includes full-screen editor 
and detailed manual. For the 
Apple II; floppy disk, $89.95. 
Custom Micro Systems Ltd., 
16921 108th St., Edmonton, 
Alberta T5X 3B2, Canada. 



Interstellar Sharks, an ad- 
venture-type game. You be- 
come a member of a vast gal- 
actic corporate empire. Your 
goal is to reach the planet 
Triskelion by choosing a 
character and following a 
career path to success. For the 
Apple II; floppy disk, $32.95. 
Interactive Fantasies Inc., 
28035 Dorothy Dr., Agoura, 
CA 91301. 

Jawbreaker, an arcade- 
type game. You find yourself 
in a candy store. You must 
negotiate a maze, eat the 
candy, and avoid the happy 
faces which are trying to 
catch you and pull your 
teeth. For the Apple II and 
III; floppy disk, $29.95. 
Sierra On-line Inc., 36575 
Mudge Ranch Rd., Coarse- 
gold, CA 93614. 

Linear Programming Model, 
a program to develop a 
model for the allocation of 
resources based on mathe- 
matical formulas. Variables 
in the formula correspond to 
resources and resource con- 
straints. For the Apple II; 
floppy disk, $29.95. Micro- 
phase Systems, POB 10461, 
Tallahassee, FL 32302. 

Lunar Leeper, an arcade- 
type game for one player. 
You start by rescuing your 
men from the Lunar Leepers 
and progress toward the de- 
struction of the giant eyeball. 
Eight levels of play. For the 
Apple II and III; floppy disk, 
$29.95. Sierra On-line Inc. 
(see address above). 

Micro on the Apple, 
Volume 3, a book and soft- 
ware combination. This pack- 
age includes programming 
aids for Applesoft and ma- 
chine language, graphics util- 
ites, games, and tutorial and 
reference articles. For the 
Apple II; floppy disk, $24.95. 
Micro Ink Inc., POB 6502, 
Chelmsford, MA 01824. 

PFS: Graph on the Apple 
III, a graphics development 
package. It is designed to pro- 



duce bar, line, or pie charts 
with labels and to work with 
the PFS: File package, Visicalc 
files, or to stand alone. For the 
Apple III; floppy disk, $125. 
Software Publishing Corp., 
1901 Landings Dr., Mountain 
View, CA 94043. 

Pest Patrol, an arcade-type 
game. The object of this game 
is to kill all the insects. You 
are given five cans of bug 
spray to use. But beware: the 
bugs are tough and fight back 
with bombs. For the Apple II 
and III; floppy disk, $29.95. 
Sierra On-line Inc. (see ad- 
dress above). 

Proof, a spelling checker/ 
proofreader program. It can 
accept input from the key- 
board or floppy disk. Files 
can be either ASCII, text, or 
binary. The dictionary con- 
tains 44,711 words. For the 
Apple II; floppy disk, $192. 
Cambrian Software, Gwy- 
nllys, Groeslon, Caernafon, 
Gwynedd, LL54 7ST, Wales. 

Sherwood Forest, a graph- 
ics adventure-type game. 
You must help Robin Hood 
win the hand of Maid 
Marian. You control his ac- 
tions through simple com- 
mands in order to move 
around Sherwood Forest. For 
the Apple II; floppy disk, 
$34.95. Phoenix Software 
Inc. (see address above). 

Spy's Demise, an arcade- 
type game. Your mission is to 
find the solution to the secret 
code. You must avoid the 
guards and collect the clues 
that are hidden throughout 
the diplomatic mission. For 
the Apple II; floppy disk, 
$29.95. Penguin Software, 
830 4th Ave., Geneva, IL 
60134. 

Atari 

Basics of Animation, a set 

of tutorial programs designed 
to show you how to move 
shapes on a video screen. The 
package covers the PRINT 
and PLOT commands and 



the use of player/missile 
graphics. For the Atari 400/ 
800; floppy disk, $19.95. 
Educational Software Inc., 
4565 Cherry vale Ave., So- 
quel, CA 95073. 

Dragonstomper, an ar- 
cade- and adventure-type 
game. You have been cast 
back into the past where you 
must battle and search for the 
Amulet of the Druids. The 
game features three levels of 
play. For the Atari Video 
Computer System; cartridge, 
$17.95. Starpath Corp., POB 
209, Santa Clara, CA 95050. 

The Home Filing Manager, 
a simple database-manage- 
ment program. The program 
and manual help you develop 
your own computerized filing 
system using an index-card 
format for data storage. For 
the Atari 400/800; floppy 
disk, $49.95. Atari Inc., 1312 
Crossman Rd., POB 61657, 
Sunnyvale, CA 94086. 

Mad-Netter, an arcade- 
type game. As the Mad-Net- 
ter, you must try to capture 
all the butterflies to score 
points. But beware of the 
killer bees, slimy snakes, and 
mad dogs. For the Atari 400/ 
800; floppy disk, $34.95. 
Computer Magic Ltd., POB 
2634, Huntington Station, 
NY 11745. 

Monster Maze, an arcade- 
type game. You are trapped 
in a three-dimensional maze 
and more than 40 mutants are 
chasing you. You must col- 
lect gold bars and vitamins to 
escape. For the Atari 400/ 
800; cartridge, $39.95. Epyx/ 
Automated Simulations Inc., 
1043 Kiel Court, Sunnyvale, 
CA 94086. 

Platter Mania, an arcade- 
type game. You beome a cir- 
cus performer doing the fa- 
mous spinning plate trick. 
Keep your plates spinning on 
the sticks; the more plates, 
the higher your score. For the 
Atari 400/800; cartridge, 
$39.95. Epyx/ Automated Sim- 



484 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



X 



ulations Inc. (see address 
above). 

Pogoman, an arcade-type 
game. As Pogoman, you must 
help the city conserve elec- 
tricity by turning off all the 
street lights. You leap about 
avoiding cars, cats, chickens, 
and fire hydrants. For the 
Atari 400/800; floppy disk, 
$39.95. Computer Magic Ltd. 
(see address above). 

Sound & Music, an educa- 
tional program. This package 
introduces Atari computer 
owners to audio program- 
ming techniques. It ranges 
from simple SOUND state- 
ments to chords and com- 
plete songs. For the Atari 
400/800; floppy disk, $19.95. 
Educational Software Inc. 
(see address above). 

Speedway Blast, an arcade- 
type game. Your neighbor- 
hood has been invaded by 
asphalt-eating monsters. You 
must jump into your hot rod 
and blast the buggers. You 
must be wary of monster eggs 
and holes. For the Atari 400/ 
800; cartridge, $39.95. Inno- 
vative Design Software Inc., 
POB 1658, Las Cruces, NM 
88004. 

CP/M 

AList, a database-manage- 



ment program. This program 
is set up to handle alpha- 
betically ordered information 
(e.g., telephone or mail lists), 
but can be configured for 
other uses. For CP/M-based 
systems; floppy disk, $150. 
Honor System Software, 
2562 East Glade, Mesa, AZ 
85204. 

Forest, an adventure-type 
game. The King has given 
you a mission to complete in 
his forest. It may be as simple 
as gathering firewood or as 
difficult as destroying an evil 
creature. For CP/M-based 
systems; floppy disk, $29.95. 
Centaur, 501 Jackson, 
Charleston, IL 61920. 

Trakmaster, a disk-library 
cataloging system. This sys- 
tem lets you maintain ex- 
panded descriptions of each 
file, locate a file by its de- 
scription, and easily make 
backups and copies of files. 
For the CP/M-based systems; 
floppy disk, $150. Microfu- 
sion, Suite 105, 5580 La Jolla 
Blvd., La Jolla, CA 92037. 

IBM Personal Computer 

Expense-Track I, a menu- 
driven program to keep track 
of expenses in the home or 
small business. Each expense 
has a date, description, 



category, method and pay- 
ment code, and tax status. 
For the IBM Personal Com- 
puter; floppy disk, $29. 
Sapana Micro Software, 1305 
South Rouse, Pittsburg, KS 
66762. 

Fun Key, a utility to pro- 
gram IBM Personal Com- 
puter function keys. All 10 
keys can be programmed for 
commonly used commands. 
Files of function-key com- 
mands can be saved for use 
with any applications pro- 
gram. For the IBM Personal 
Computer; floppy disk, 
$24.95. Bourbaki Inc., 431 
Main St., Boise, ID 83702. 

Galactic Encounters, a Star 
Trek-type game. You become 
the commander of an Illiad 
Star Cruiser. You must de- 
stroy all the Kaons in your 
galaxy. Your ship is equipped 
with phasers, torpedoes, and 
energy shields. For the IBM 
Personal Computer; floppy 
disk, $34.95. Micro Produc- 
tions Inc., POB 147, George- 
town, TX 78626. 

Invoice-Generator-PA /DO, 
a program to maintain and 
print invoices for a dentist's 
office. Based on forms for the 
Illinois Department of Public 
Aid, this program stores data 
on up to 275 invoices per disk. 



For the IBM Personal Com- 
puter; floppy disk, $49. 
Sapana Micro Software (see 
address above). 

Mail-Track I, a mailing-list 
maintenance program. This 
program keeps your mailing 
list in ZIP code order and 
allows you to search, sort, 
edit, and delete entries. It can 
attach special messages to 
labels, as well as print the 
labels. For the IBM Personal 
Computer; floppy disk, $29. 
Sapana Micro Software (see 
address above). 

Xywrite, a text-editing sys- 
tem that edits standard ASCII 
text files. It can merge files 
and print while editing. 
Online prompting is standard. 
For use with 40- or 80-column 
displays. For the IBM Per- 
sonal Computer; floppy disk, 
$50. Xyquest Inc., POB 372, 
Bedford, MA 01730. 

TRS-80 

Fast BASIC Beyond TRS-80 
BASIC, a book and software 
combination. This package 
shows you how to increase the 
speed of your programs by 
combining machine-language 
subroutines with BASIC pro- 
grams. For the TRS-80 Models 
I and III; cassette or floppy 
disk, $19.95. Wiley Profes- 





The President s Council *n 
Physical Fitness and Sports 



CAN'T 

KEEP 

UP 



Exercise builds strong 
bodies, but... 

in America today, many 
normally healthy children 
cannot do twenty situps or 
even one pullup. Lacking the 
strength and stamina they 
need, these children can t 
keep up with their friends. 
Don't let this happen, Your 
school or recreation center 
should have special programs 
to improve strength and 
endurance. 
See that your child gets help 



Send for this tree 

booklet 

Write: 

Fitness 

Washington. DC 20201 



fttness 

lest 

and 

Program 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 485 



Software Received 



sional Software, 1 Wiley Dr., 
Somerset, NJ 08873. 

The TRS-80 Means Busi- 
ness, a book and software 
combination. This package 
covers the basics of using the 
Model II for day-to-day busi- 
ness applications. The pro- 
gram disk includes modules to 
develop your own programs. 
For the TRS-80 Model II; flop- 
py disk, $32.90. Wiley Profes- 
sional Software (see address 
above). 

VIC-20 

Paratrooper, an arcade- 
type game. You must shoot 
the helicopters and para- 
troopers falling from the sky. 
Game has four levels of play. 
For the VIC-20; cassette, 
$19.95. The Electric Co., POB 
388, Lake Havasu City, AZ 
86403. 

Quick Brown Fox, a word- 
processing package that has 
all standard word-processing 



features. It operates by means 
of menu selections. Files may 
be saved on disk or cassette. 
For the VIC-20 and Commo- 
dore 64; cartridge, $65. Quick 
Brown Fox, Suite 4F, 548 
Broadway, New York, NY 
10012. 

Rescue at Rigel, an adven- 
ture game with graphics. Your 
mission is to rescue the 10 
prisoners from the hands of 
the High Tollah, a race of evil 
aliens. You must beat the 
clock to free the prisoners. For 
the VIC-20; cassette, $29.95. 
Epyx/ Automated Simulations 
Inc., 1043 Kiel Court, Sunny- 
vale, CA 94086. 

Sword of Fargoal, an ad- 
venture game with graphics. 
You enter an everchanging 
dungeon searching for the 
Sword of Fargoal. You must 
grope your way through the 
dungeon and fight the mon- 
sters. For the VIC-20; cassette, 
$39.95. Epyx/ Automated Sim- 



Tarbell Double Density 
Floppy Disk Interface 

■'FOR 8" DISK DRIVES 
Under Tarbell Double-Density CP/M, single and double density 
disks may be intermixed. The system automatically determines 
whether single or double density is in place. 

•Software select single or double density. 

•Phase-locked-loop and write precompensation for reliable 
data recovery and storage. 

• On-board phantom bootstrap PROM is disabled after boot- 
strap operation so all 64K memory address space is available 
to user. 

•DMA in single or double density permits multi-user operation. 

•Extended addressing provides 8 extra address bits, permitting 
direct transfer anywhere in a 16 megabyte address range. 

•Select up to 4 drives, single or double sided. 

•New BIOS for CP/M included on single-density diskette. 



CP/M is a reg, trademark of Digital Research. 




Dovlen Place, Suite B, Carson, Ca. 90746 
(213)538-4251 (213)538-2254 



ulations Inc. (see address 
above). 

ZX81 

Compu-Stat, a statistics 
package that calculates most 
descriptive statistics and in- 
cludes mean, median, 95-per- 
cent confidence limits, stan- 
dard deviation, variance, 
range, and other methods. 
For the Timex /Sinclair 1000 
and ZX81; cassette, $9.95. 
Computercraft, 156 Drakes 
Lane, Summertown, TN 
38483. 

CFastduet, two utility pro- 
grams that quickly read and 
write programs and data to a 
cassette tape. These programs 
can read or write data files. 
Requires 16K bytes of RAM. 
For the Timex /Sinclair 1000 
and ZX81; cassette, $21.50. 
Cosmonics, POB 10358, San 
Jose, CA 95157. 

Fun and Games Package, a 
set of three programs. Draw 
pictures on the screen, pilot a 
Lunar Lander on the moon, 
and make and break secret 



codes. For the Timex /Sinclair 
1000 and ZX81; BASIC list- 
ing, $1. Florida Creations, 
POB 16422, Jacksonville, FL 
32245. 

Tax Return Helper, a set of 
seven programs for the pre- 
paration of 1982 income tax 
returns. This package covers 
IRS forms 1040 and schedules 
A, B, C, C1/C2, D, and E. 
The forms can be printed or 
saved on tape. For the 
Timex/Sinclair 1000 and 
ZX81; cassette, $14. Ksoft, 
845 Wellner Rd., Naperville, 
IL 60540. 

Other Computers 

Visi-Checkbook, a program 
that stores a full year's worth 
of checkbook entries and al- 
lows you to balance your 
checkbook, prepare month- 
to-month comparisons, ana- 
lyze single expenses, and draw 
a bar graph of expenses. For 
the TI-99/4A; cassette, 
$12.98. Design Strategies, 
69-B Bethel Church Rd., Jack- 
son, NJ 08527. ■ 



This is a list of software packages that have been received by 
BYTE Publications during the past month. The list is correct to the 
best of our knowledge, but it is not meant to be a full description 
of the product or the forms in which the product is available. In 
particular, some packages may be sold for several machines or in 
both cassette and floppy-disk format; the product listed here is 
the version received by BYTE Publications. 

This is an all-inclusive list that makes no comment on the quality 
or usefulness of the software listed. We regret that we cannot 
review every software package we receive. Instead, this list is 
meant to be a monthly acknowledgment of these packages and 
the companies that sent them. All software received is considered 
to be on loan to BYTE and is returned to the manufacturer after a 
set period of time. Companies sending software packages should 
be sure to include the list price of the packages and (where appro- 
priate) the alternate forms in which they are available. 



BYTE's Bits 



Educational Journal Seeks Articles 



Elementary School Guid- 
ance and Counseling will 
devote its Fall 1983 issue to 
the impact of computers on 
elementary schools. Articles 
that focus on the implications 
of computers in schools for 
guidance counselors are 



sought. For information or to 
submit an article for consid- 
eration, contact Dr. Don 
Dinkmeyer Jr., 4010 North- 
west 99 Ave., Coral Springs, 
FL 33065, or Dr. Jon Carlson, 
Route 4, Box 492, Lake 
Geneva, WI 53147. ■ 



486 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 414 on Inquiry card. 



Ask BYTE 



Conducted by Steve Garcia 



Pascal Talking 
Sweet on OSI 

Dear Steve, 

I have heard a lot of talk 
about the Pascal language, 
and everyone seems to say it's 
a good language. I want to 
take a course in Pascal, but I 
would like to have a computer 
at home with a Pascal com- 
piler. I own an OSI (Ohio 
Scientific Inc.) ClP but there 
doesn't seem to be a version of 
Pascal for it. Do you know of 
any company that has one? 
What would be involved in 
custom-designing a compiler 
for my machine? Also, how 
do I amplify the output signal 
from an I/O port to drive a 
small motor or relay through 
a transistor? 

I'm also thinking of inter- 
facing your speech synthesizer 
to my ClP. My "Centronics" 



parallel interface, though, has 
a few lines that I don't under- 
stand^What are the signals: 
PL, F , RS", DS", ACK, and 
BUSY? Whi ch on e s do I con - 
necttoSTB, X/R, ENABLE, 
and GND connections of the 
Sweet Talker? 
Marc Weigel 
Delta, British Columbia, 
Canada 



A tiny Pascal is available 
for OSI computers. It uses the 
OS65D operating system and 
is implemented in fig-FORTH. 
It's available for $65 from OSI 
Software & Hardware, 3336 
Avondale Court, Windsor, 
Ontario N9E 1X6, Canada. 

Assuming that you have a 
TTL-level output port on your 
computer, all that is necessary 
for driving a small motor or 
relay is to use this output to 



COMPUTER 

OUTPUT EX- 
PORT 



LOGIC HIGH ( + 5V) 
ACTIVATES RELAY 



Figure 1 

control an NPN transistor as 
shown in the schematic 
diagram (figure 1). 

Here's how the Sweet 
Talker speech synthesizer can 
be attached to your Cen- 
tronics output port: the data 
strobe DS is connected to 
the STB line on the Sweet 




Talker (pin 21). The BUSY 
line is hooked to the ~A/R line 
(pin 8). The UNIT SELECT 
(pin 25 of the Centronics port) 
should be tied to pin 34 
(ground) of the Centronics 
port and to pins 12 (ENABLE) 
and D (ground) of the Sweet 
Talker board. . . . Steve 



Decoding 
Rotary Pulses 

Dear Steve, 

I would like to build a pulse 
decoder for remote control 
that's similar to the Touch- 
Tone decoder in your Decem- 
ber 1981 Circuit Cellar, except 
that I want to be able to de- 
code rotary-dial pulses. (See 
"Build a Touch-Tone Decoder 
for Remote Control," page 42.) 

I have connected the leads 
from the earpiece of my 
phone to the cassette input 
port on my Apple II Plus. My 
program writes the values of 
this address into memory, 
but the numbers make no 
sense because they fluctuate 
even when I have no input to 
the port. 

Should I use a bandpass fil- 
ter to detect the pulses? If so, 
what would the frequencies 
be? 

I'm really stuck, Steve. 
Any suggestions or ideas you 



could give me would be 
greatly appreciated. 

Thanks. 
Hans Tanner 
Montreal, Quebec, Canada 

Before discussing your 
problem with the cassette in- 
terface for pulse-tone decod- 
ing, I should warn you that 
the pulses sent by a rotary- 
dial telephone go to the cen- 
tral office only and are not 
available at extension phones 
on the same line. If you plan 
to use this method for tele- 
phone remote control, you 
will be unsuccessful. 

The Apple Us cassette port 
is designed to look for high- 
frequency pulses at a parti- 
cular rate and not at relative- 
ly random, low-frequency 
pulses. Hence, your cassette 
port is not the proper input 
port. Amplify the pulses from 
the telephone receiver and use 
the output of the amplifier to 
switch a transistor. The out- 



put of the transistor can feed a 
5-volt signal to a one-shot cir- 
cuit to yield clean pulses of a 
known width. These pulses 
can then be easily counted and 
used for whatever purpose 
you desire. . . . Steve 

Take My APU. . . 
Please 

Dear Steve, 

I have been reading your 
column since you began writ- 
ing for BYTE and have en- 
joyed it very much. I also en- 
joyed your book Take my 
Computer. . .Please (avail- 
able fron BYTE/McGraw-Hill 
Book Co., POB 400, Hights- 
town, NJ 08520). 

One topic you, along with 
most of the industry, seem to 
have ignored: designing with 
arithmetic processors (APUs) 
and APU peripherials (e.g., 
Intel's 8231-2). Is there a rea- 
son for this? I am very inter- 
ested in such devices but find 



the lack of information dis- 
couraging. 

Can you provide any infor- 
mation on these devices or let 
me know if you plan to dis- 
cuss them in the future? 
Michael Scott 
Downers Grove, IL 

APUs are tricky devices 
that are rather difficult to 
work with because they don't 
always function as intended. 
Also, special software must be 
written to drive them, due to 
the fact that most high-level 
languages have their own 
arithmetic routines. 

APUs do, however, offer 
increased processing speed. 
They are mainly used in dedi- 
cated applications, and there 
has been very little interest in 
them for microcomputer ap- 
plications. Finally, you're 
right: there is not much liter- 
ature available, other than 
from the manufacturers. 
. . . Steve 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 487 



Circle 173 on inquiry card. 



Edix+ Wordix has word processing 
features that our competitors are 
still dreaming about . . . 




$390 buys the whole dream. 



Edix Editing Features 

Up to 4 screen windows 
Up to 12 file buffers 
Top-to-bottom and 

side-to-side scrolling. 
Regular expression 

searching and translating 
Intra- and inter-buffer 

moving and copying 
Online help 
Online tutorial 



Wordix Formatting Features 

Auto footnotes 
Auto table of contents 
Auto hyphenation 
Multi-line headers and 

footers 
Multi-column layout 
Powerful macros 
Data file access 

Requires 128K IBM PC 
Edix alone: S195 



EmF?GiTlG 

TECHNOLOGY 
2031 Broadway Boulder, Colorado 80302 303 447-9495 

For more information, or to place an order, 
call toll-free 800-782-4896. 

TM "Trademark of Emerging Technology Consultants, Inc. 



^ 



$595.00 



=^ 



The Last Expansion Unit You 
Will Ever Have To BUY 

The six most commonly required add-on J eaiures for your IBM PC 

^Without Using Any Additional Slots! 



Six additonal system slots. 

1 Up to 256kof additional memory 
with our exclusive DPECC (R) 
(Dynamic Parity Error Correct- 
ing Circuitry]* 



• Two Asynchronous serial ports.* 

• Three parallel ports. * 

• Real Time Clock.* 




The 256k RAM, 2 asynchronous serial ports, 3 parallel ports, and a 
Real Time Clock are all built on to the motherboard, so you won't 
have to waste precious slots on them. 

The Expansion Unit comes without these options installed.* So you don't 
have to pay for them if you don't need them. But when you do, all you have 
A to do is plug in the chips and you are ready to go. 

*All options are available installed with the Expansion 
Unit. 

211 6 WALSH AVENUE 
SANTA CLARA C A 95050 
(408) 727-7548 




JJ 



Ask BYTE 



Sophisticated 
Modems Expensive 

Dear Steve, 

I'm a college student, and 
I'll be taking some computer 
courses this fall. I've been us- 
ing my OSI (Ohio Scientific 
Inc.) Challenger IP as a 
remote terminal to access 
Dartmouth timesharing. It has 
worked fairly well, but its 
23-character line and 300-bps 
(bit per second) acoustic 
modem, which date from the 
Dark Ages, have tested the 
limits of my patience. 

I'm planning to buy a stan- 
dard video terminal, which 
will solve one problem. Do 
you know of any plans for 
building a 1200-bps originate- 
only modem? The cheapest 
(assembled) ones I can find 
cost more than $600 and do 
everything but make coffee. 
What makes these units so ex- 
pensive? 
Greg Beasley 
Dartmouth College 
Hanover, NH 



The 1200-bps modems on 
the market today are indeed 
sophisticated and expensive. 
They offer a multitude of fea- 
tures that enhance communi- 
cations with the many data- 
base utilities — e.g., The 
Source and CompuServe — 
that now proliferate. One 
reason for their high cost lies 
in the complexity of the filters 
that are required to transmit 
and receive data over a stan- 
dard telephone line. These 
filters determine important 
operating parameters, such as 
signal-to-noise ratio and 
dynamic range, and can affect 
receiver sensitivity and adja- 
cent channel rejection. 

Two standards for 1200-bps 
modems have evolved: Bell 
Model 202 and Bell Model 
212. The Bell Model 202 re- 
quires significantly greater 
bandwidth and is limited to 
half-duplex operation on 
2-wire lines. The Bell Model 
212 is the preferred standard 



and is the one that is used in 
those expensive modems. . . . 
Steve 



A Simple Break 
Key In One-Shot 

Dear Steve, 

I have an Osborne 1 that I 
would like to expand with 
both a communications device 
(e.g., a modem) and interface 
to the S-100 bus. This, how- 
ever, presents two somewhat 
unrelated problems. 

First, many commercial 
data-processing systems re- 
cognize the Break key, but 
most software-terminal pack- 
ages ignore this command. 
However, the Break key is 
often the only way to inter- 
rupt a service bureau during 
transmission. The service 
bureaus recognize the Break 
key on most terminals, but 
they do not respond to control 
C or any other set of charac- 
ters, including escape. What is 
the Break signal, and how can 
I achieve it? 

My second question con- 
cerns mating the S-100 bus to 
an Osborne 1. Osborne, per- 
haps attempting to cut ex- 
penses, did not bring out any 
of the system buses. I know 
that the 8080 and the Z80 use 
the S-100 bus, but some inter- 
facing is required. Could you 
tell me something about that, 
or at least where to look? I use 
my IEEE port to drive my 
printer, so I feel that it would 
not be a good choice for hard 
disks, etc. 

Thank you. 
Barry Millman 
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 

The Break key is used to in- 
dicate a need for immediate 
attention. It's a unique signal 
and is not in the standard 
ASCII code. Pressing this key 
causes the data line to go high 
for approximately 300 ms 
(milliseconds) and is inter- 
preted by the computer as a 
break signal. This condition 
always occurs when you're 



488 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 376 on Inquiry card. 



operating in a full-duplex 
mode, but it can occur during 
half-duplex operation only 
when the terminal is transmit- 
ting. When the computer is 
transmitting, the Break key is 
unrecognized. A simple way 
to achieve this 300-ms pulse is 
through the use of a one-shot 
circuit. 

An excellent description of 
the S-100 bus and interfacing 
other buses to it can be found 
in the book by Elmer C. Poe 
and James C. Goodwin The 
S-100 & Other Micro Buses, 
published by Howard W. 
Sams & Co. Inc. . . . Steve 

Bank Selecting 

Addresses More 

Memory 

Dear Steve, 

I own an Atari 800 and 
wish to increase its memory (it 
has 24K bytes now). While 
reading a recent issue of 
BYTE, I saw an ad for a 
128K-byte RAM card. But as I 
understood it, the Atari can 
use only 48K bytes of mem- 
ory. How can the Atari use 
the additional 80K bytes? 
Also, what is bank-selected 
memory and how is it used? 
Mark Webb 
Miles City, MT 



While the 6502 processor in 
the Atari 800 can address 64K 
bytes of memory, 16 K bytes 
of address space are reserved 
for ROM (read-only memory) 
and I/O (input /output) ports. 
Therefore, the maximum 
memory that can be addressed 
is 48K bytes. 

More than 48K bytes can be 
addressed by a technique 
known as bank selecting. By 
using one of the I/O ports, 
different blocks of memory 
can be selected and addressed. 
In the case of the 128K-byte 
RAM card, an additional 
104K bytes of memory are 
available for program storage. 
This memory can be used as if 
it were a disk, but it's much 
faster because its access time is 
on the order of microseconds. 

With this arrangement, it is 
possible to load many graphic 
pictures into memory and call 
them to the screen very quick- 
ly. A database or dictionary 
can also be bank-selected to 
decrease search time. . . . 
Steve 

Silent 700 Turned 
Into a Printer 

Dear Steve, 

My company recently 
bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 



Model II. We also have a 
neglected Texas Instruments 
Silent 700 portable terminal 
(from our timesharing days). 
Is there a way to use the TI 
terminal as a printer? If so, 
how? 

Gary G. Schwartz 
New York, NY 

Connecting a terminal to a 
computer is simply a matter of 
wiring it to the serial or 
parallel port. Use the Model 
ll's serial port in your case. 
The TRSDOS operating sys- 
tem has printer setup com- 
mands that allow proper con- 
figuration of your particular 
printer. 

Because there are so many 
versions of the TI Silent 700, 
it's possible that the input port 
on your unit has an acoustic 
coupler, rather than a serial- 
interface port. It is then neces- 
sary to go inside the box and 
find the serial output from the 
coupler. Consult TI for infor- 
mation or obtain the 
terminal's schematic diagram 
to see how this can be accom- 
plished. 

As a last resort, an inexpen- 
sive modem such as the one 
described in this month's Cir- 
cuit Cellar, "Build the 
ECM-103, An Originate/ 



Answer Modem" (page 26), 
can be connected between the 
terminal and the computer. 
This would eliminate any in- 
ternal wiring and still provide 
the printer features. . . . Steve 



Correction 

The Pickles & Trout TVM-04 
direct-entry video kit men- 
tioned in the January 1983 
Ask BYTE is no longer avail- 
able. I apologize for any in- 
convenience this may have 
caused. . . . Steve ■ 



In "Ask BYTE," Steve Gar- 
cia answers questions on any 
area of microcomputing. The 
most representative ques- 
tions received each month 
will be answered and pub- 
lished. Do you have a nag- 
ging problem? Send your in- 
quiry to: 

Ask BYTE 

c/o Steve Garcia 

POB 5B2 * 

Glastonbury CT 06033 
If you are a subscriber to 
The Source, chat with Steve 
(TCE3 1 7) directly. Due to the 
high volume of inquiries, per- 
sonal replies cannot be 
given. Be sure to include 
"Ask BYTE" in the address. 






ONLV). BOCCIM. PfllCCB F 



CO"OU£TE cntALOO ell 



Circle 143 on Inquiry card. 



WBUMHEl 
MUSIS 




3-POINT 

MOTION GENERATION 



THIS PROGRAM WILL: - 



a Design 4-bar linkages 
o Assemble linkages 

□ Rotate linkages 

o Plot linkage paths 

□ Trace the linkage 

o Eliminate undesirable linkages 
a Automatically increment inputs 

APPLE II PLUS Disk and Manual . . .$48 

48K DOS 3.3 Manual $ 5 

Send check or money order to: 
i mrFRESEARCH& ENGINEERING 

ft \l |\ PO. BOX II407 , , 

OlJ UL\inc. MILW, Wl 532II (4I4J 964-3662 



DySttll DISKETTES 



5 1/4" SPEOFY SOFT. 10 Or 16 SECTORS 





PART 1 


PRICE 10 


PRICE 50 


PRICE 100 


S8SD 


DYS104-1 


38.40 


178.00 


342.00 


SSDD 


DYS104-1D 


40.40 


188.00 


361.00 


DSDD 


DYS104-2D 


47.30 


221.00 


426.50 


DSQD 


DYS204-2D 


55.00 


258 . 00 


478.00 


8" 


SPECIFY SOFT <x 


32 SECTORS 







PART I PRICE 10 PRICE 50 PRICE 100 

SSSD DYS101-1 40.40 189.00 362.00 

SSDD DYS101-1D 49.40 230.00 444.00 

DSDD DYS101-2D 57.00 267.00 516.00 



CALL TOLL FREE - ORDERS ONLY 
800-824-7888 au. states exceptc a 
800-852-7777 ?o«c a residents 
ask for OPERATOR #906 



P.O. Box 3304, Saratoga. CA 95070-1304 



(408) 252-4210 



Circle 136 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 126 on Inquiry card. 



Books Received 



CBM Professional Com- 
puter Guide, Adam Osborne, 
Jim Strasma, and Ellen 
Strasma. Berkeley, CA: Os- 
borne/McGraw-Hill, 1982; 
512 pages, 37 by 55 cm, soft- 
cover, ISBN 0-931988-75-6, 
$15. 

The Complete Home Video 
Handbook, Mark Dunton 
and David Owen. New York: 
Random House, 1982; 224 
pages, 43 by 62 cm, hard- 
cover, ISBN 0-394-52761-5, 
$19.95. 

Decision Tables in Soft- 
ware Engineering, Richard B. 
Hurley. New York: Van 
Nostrand Reinhold, 1983; 
176 pages, 37 by 55 cm, hard- 
cover, ISBN 0-442-23599-2, 
$18.95. 

Design of Computer Data 
Files, Owen Hanson. Rock- 
ville, MD: Computer Science 
Press, 1982; 358 pages, 37 by 
56 cm, hardcover, ISBN 0- 
914894-17-X, $24.95. 

Digital and Microprocessor 
Engineering, S.J. Cahill. 
New York: Halsted Press, 
1982; 513 pages, 15.5 by 23.5 
cm, hardcover, ISBN 0-470- 
27301-1, $89.95. 

Essentials of COBOL Pro- 
gramming: A Structured Ap- 
proach, Gerald N. Pitts and 
Barry L Bateman. Rockville, 
MD: Computer Science 
Press, 1982; 145 pages, 36 by 
53.6 cm, softcover, ISBN 
0-914894-34-X, $14.95. 

Executive Guide to Word- 
star, Philip E. Massie. Culver 
City, CA: Culver City Can- 
non Co. (POB 444), 1982; 24 
pages, 23 by 51 cm, soft- 
cover, ISBN 0-910517-00-2, 
$5.75. 

Face to File Communica- 
tion: A Psychological Ap- 
proach to Information Sys- 
tems, Bruce Christie. New 
York: John Wiley & Sons, 
1981; 306 pages, 37 by 55 cm, 
hardcover, ISBN 0-471- 
27939-0, $35.75. 

The Forrest Mims Circuit 
Scrapbook, Forrest Mims. 
New York: McGraw-Hill, 



1983; 141 pages, 51 by 66 cm, 
softcover, ISBN 0-07- 
042389-X, $14.95. 

Global Stakes: The Future 
of High Technology in 
America, James Botkin, Dan 
Dimancescu, and Ray Stata, 
with John McClellan. Cam- 
bridge, MA: Ballinger Pub- 
lishing Co., 1982; 248 pages, 
38 by 56 cm, hardcover, 
ISBN 0-88410-886-4, $17.50. 

How to Break into Data 
Processing, Laura Steibel Ses- 
sions. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 
Prentice-Hall, 1982; 130 
pages, 33 by 48 cm, soft- 
cover, ISBN 0-13-402479-6, 
$6.95. 

The Illiac IV: The First 
Supercomputer, R. Michael 
Hord. Rockville, MD: Com- 
puter Science Press, 1982; 350 
pages, 37 by 56 cm, hard- 
cover, ISBN 0-914894-71-4, 
$29.95. 

Introduction to Interactive 
Computer Graphics, Joan E. 
Scott. New York: John Wiley 
& Sons, 1982; 255 pages, 37 
by 55 cm, hardcover, ISBN 
0-471-05773-8, $25.95. 

Introduction to the Z80 
Microcomputer, Adi J. 
Khambata. New York: John 
Wiley & Sons, 1982; 336 
pages, 51 by 66 cm, soft- 
cover, ISBN 0-471-86167-7, 
$11.95. 

Kids and the Apple, Ed- 
ward H. Carlson. Reston, 
VA: Reston Publishing Co., 
1982; 218 pages, 50 by 65 cm, 
spiral bound, ISBN 0- 
8359-3669-4, $19.95. 

Management Control of 
Data Processing: Preventing 
Management -By-Crisis, 
W. H. Inmon. Englewood 
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 
1983; 326 pages, 43 by 57 cm, 
hardcover, ISBN 0-13- 
548123-6, $24.95. 

Microcomputer Architec- 
ture and Programming, John 
F. Wakerly. New York: John 
Wiley & Sons, 1981; 692 
pages, 41 by 55 cm, hard- 
cover, ISBN 0-471-05232-9, 
$32.95. 



Microcomputer Graphics 
and Programming Tech- 
niques, Harry Katzan Jr. New 
York: Van Nostrand 
Reinhold, 1982; 240 pages, 37 
by 55 cm, hardcover, ISBN 
0-442-28419-5, $18.95. 

Microcomputer Uses in 
Small Business, John K. 
Jackson. Kirkland, WA: 
Datamasters (12700 North- 
east 124th St.), 1982; 79 
pages, 50 by 65 cm, soft- 
cover, ISBN-none, $9.95. 

Microprocessor Instruction 
Sets and Software Principles, 
David L Heiserman. Engle- 
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- 
Hall, 1983; 440 pages, 43 by 
57 cm, hardcover, ISBN 
0-13-581090-6, $29.95. 

Personal Microcomputing 
in the Corporate Environ- 
ment. Albany, NY: Ad- 
vanced Management Re- 
search Inc., 1982; 35 pages, 
51 by 67 cm, softcover, 
ISBN-none, $35. 

Picture This Too! David 
D. Thornburg. Reading, 
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1982; 
224 pages, 51 by 66 cm, spiral 
bound, ISBN 0-201-07767-1, 
$14.95. 

Principles of Database Sys- 
tems, 2nd edition, Jeffrey D. 
Ullman. Rockville, MD: 
Computer Science Press, 
1982; 484 pages, 37 by 56 cm, 
hardcover, ISBN 0-914894- 
36-6, $24.95. 

Run: Computer Education, 



Dennis O. Harper and James 
H. Stewart. Monterey, CA: 
Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 
1983; 245 pages, 50 by 66 cm, 
softcover, ISBN 0-534- 
01265-5, $15.95. 

Software Testing Tech- 
niques, Boris Beizer. New 
York: Van Nostrand Rein- 
hold, 1983; 320 pages, 38 by 
55 cm, hardcover, ISBN 
0-442-24592-0, $27.50. 

Techniques for Creating 
Golden Delicious Games for 
the Apple Computer, How- 
ard M. Franklin, Joanne 
Koltnow, and Leroy Finkel. 
New York: John Wiley & 
Sons, 1982; 150 pages, 40.6 
by 60 cm, softcover, ISBN 
0-471-09083-2, $12.95. 

TRS-80 Assembly Lan- 
guage Subroutines, William 
Barden Jr. Englewood Cliffs, 
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982; 232 
pages, 50 by 65 cm, spiral 
bound, ISBN 0-13-931188-2, 
$18.95. 

Using the Osborne 1 Com- 
puter, T. G. Lewis. Reston, 
VA: Reston Publishing Co., 
1983; 211 pages, 37 by 56 cm, 
hardcover, ISBN 0-8359- 
8142-8, $19.95. 

VIC Innovative Com- 
puting, Clifford Ramshaw. 
Nashville, TN: Melbourne 
House Software Inc. (347 
Redwood Dr.), 1982; 147 
pages, 33 by 50 cm, soft- 
cover, ISBN-none, $14.95. ■ 



This is a list of books received at BYTE Publications during this 
past month. Although the list is not meant to be exhaustive, its 
purpose is to acquaint BYTE readers with recently published titles 
in computer science and related fields. We regret that we cannot 
review or comment on all the books we receive; instead, this list is 
meant to be a monthly acknowledgment of these books and the 
publishers who sent them. 



490 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Clubs and Newsletters 



Economically 
Speaking 

The Ergonomics Newslet- 
ter, produced by the Koffler 
Group, an ergonomics con- 
sulting firm, reports on world- 
wide developments in human- 
factors engineering. The sub- 
scription rate is $126 in North 
America and $165 elsewhere. 
Two-year, multiple-copy, and 
educational discounts are 
available. For a free sample 
issue, contact The Ergonomics 
Newsletter, The Koffler 
Group, 1301 Lachman Lane, 
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, 
or call (213) 459-4429. 



Collect The Stack 

The Stack is a monthly 
newsletter produced by the 
Long Island Computer Asso- 
ciation (LICA). Meetings are 
held on the third Friday of 
each month at 8 p.m. at the 
New York Institute of Tech- 
nology. Anyone interested in 
computers may attend. The 
$12 annual membership fee in- 
cludes a subscription to The 
Stack. For further infor- 
mation, write to LICA, POB 
71, Hicksville, NY 11801. 



Northwestern 
Atari Enthusiasts 

The Atari Computer Enthu- 
siasts (ACE) of Eugene, Ore- 
gon, an independent group 
not affiliated with Atari Inc., 
meets on the second Wednes- 
day of each month at 7:30 
p.m. The $10 annual member- 
ship fee includes the ACE 
newsletter; overseas subscrip- 
tions are $20 a year. Articles 
contributed to the newsletter 
are welcome. For more infor- 
mation, contact ACE, 3662 
Vine Maple Dr., Eugene, OR 
97405. 



Compuswap 
In New Jersey 

Compuswap is an APF 
Users Group that produces a 
bimonthly newsletter contain- 
ing updates on software and 
news about the APF Imagina- 
tion Machine. The $15 annual 
membership fee includes a 
subscription to the group's 
newsletter. Inquiries may be 
sent with a self-addressed 
stamped envelope to Compu- 
swap, POB 1373, West Cald- 
well, NJ 07006. 



News for Video Users 

Interactive Video Technol- 
ogy has the latest news on de- 
velopments and products for 
interactive video training in 
medicine, industry, and edu- 
cation. The subscription rate 
is $45 a year. For further in- 
formation, write to Heartland 
Communications, 223 Sunrise 
Dr., Shreve, OH 44676, or 
call (216) 567-3732. 



Pascal for IBM PC 

USUS (UCSD-Pascal System 
User's Society) has formed 
an IBM Personal Computer 
special-interest group to serve 
as a clearinghouse for infor- 
mation on the implementa- 
tion, optimization, and use of 
the Pascal system. Individual 
memberships in USUS are $20 
annually. Membership in the 
IBM PC group is open to any 
USUS member. Applications 
are available from the USUS 
Secretary, POB 1148, La Jolla, 
CA 92038. 



Syntax Quarterly 

Syntax Quarterly, a new 
publication of the Harvard 
Group, offers programs, re- 
views, and products ex- 
clusively for Timex/Sinclair 



computer users. A one-year 
subscription (4 issues) costs 
$15. If you also want to sub- 
scribe to Syntax, a newsletter 
for Timex/Sinclair users, a 
combined subscription (4 
issues of the quarterly and 12 
issues of the newsletter) costs 
$39. Contact the Harvard 
Group, RD 2, Box 457, Har- 
vard, MA 01451, or call (617) 
456-3661. 



Seattle Computer 
Products Users 

The Seattle Computer Prod- 
ucts Users Group (SCPUG) 
promotes the sharing of 
knowledge among users of 
8086/MS-DOS-based sys- 
tems. The group offers a 
forum for discussion, system 
software, and a bulletin 
board. Membership is $10 a 
year and includes a news- 
letter. For further informa- 
tion, contact either Frank 
Warren, SCPUG, 25190 
Cypress Ave. #213, Hay ward, 
CA 94544, (415) 785-7499; or 
Joseph Boykin, 47-4 Sheridan 
Dr., Shrewsbury, MA 01545, 
(617) 845-1074. 



Remember RAMS 

Memory Pages is the offi- 
cial monthly newsletter of the 
Rochester Area Microcom- 
puter Society (RAMS). It con- 
tains minutes of the meetings, 
announcements, and a calen- 
dar of events. Membership in 
RAMS runs from October to 
September. The membership 



dues are $7.50 or $4 after 
April; institutional or com- 
mercial dues are $20. For more 
information, write to RAMS, 
POB 90808, Rochester, NY 
14609. 



LNW BBS at 1 200 bps 

The LNW User Group bul- 
letin board system (BBS) has 
been upgraded to operate with 
the Hayes Microcomputer 
Products 1200 Smartmodem. 
The system works with both 
300- and 1200-bps modems. 
The LNW User Group offers 
members the 300-bps Smart- 
modem for $200 and the 
1200-bps Smartmodem for 
$550. For more information, 
call (516) 924-9229 (voice) or 
924-8115 (BBS). A subscrip- 
tion to the group's newsletter 
is available for $25. For more 
information, write to the Suf- 
folk County Computer Asso- 
ciation, LNW User Group, 
244 Mill Rd., Yaphank, NY 
11980. 



News from the 
District of Columbia 

The Public Service Satellite 
Consortium produces a 
monthly newsletter that con- 
tains a calendar of events, ar- 
ticles, and conference reports. 
The newsletter is available to 
PSSC members and any inter- 
ested parties. Address inqui- 
ries to Michelle Wesley, Suite 
907, 1660 L St. NW, Washing- 
ton, DC 20036, or call (202) 
331-1154. ■ 



If you would like BYTE readers to know about your club or 
newsletter send the details accompanied by no more than one 
newsletter to Clubs and Newsletters, BYTE Publications, POB 372, 
Hancock, NH 03449. Overseas groups are encouraged to par- 
ticipate. Please allow at least three months for your announce- 
ment to appear. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 491 



BYTELINES 



News and Speculation about Personal Computing 

Conducted by Sol Libes 



R, 



random Rumors: Tan- 
dy is believed to be readying 
three new computers for in- 
troduction this spring. Two 
are upgrades of the TRS-80 
Model II and Model III (to 
be called the Model IV and 
Model 12, respectively) and 
the third is a portable brief- 
case system called the 
M100. The Model IV will 
have 1 28K bytes of RAM and 
an 80-column display. The 
Model 12 will add expansion 
slots and a larger power sup- 
ply to the Model II. Also, 
look for the battleship-gray 
cases to be a thing of the 
past (the color conflicts with 
office decor). Tandy is ex- 
pected to finally start ship- 
ping its long-awaited multi- 
user operating system for 
the Model 16 this month. 
DEC (Digital Equipment 
Corporation) is supposedly 
working on a Unix operating 
system for its personal com- 
puters. . . . DEC is also hint- 
ing about several new 32-bit 
VAX systems, using a single- 
chip microprocessor and a 
four-chip processor set, due 
for introduction next year. 
. . . There are rumblings that 
IBM will soon introduce a 
4-inch floppy disk capable 
of storing 250K bytes. 
. . . Also, Xerox is expected 
to finally release Small- 
talk-80, and the first im- 
plementation will be on the 
firm's model 1100 Scientific 
Information system. . . . 
Digital Research is report- 
edly planning to release 
a C compiler. . . . Fortune 
Systems is believed to be 
developing a small-scale, 
low-cost version of its 32:16 
machine using the new Mo- 
torola 68008 microprocessor 
(which requires only an 8-bit- 
wide data path, similar to 



Intel's 8088). . . .Texas In- 
struments (Tl) is expected to 
introduce a new version of 
the 99/4 with 64K bytes of 
memory and a CP/M option, 
to compete with the Com- 
modore 64. Tl is also ex- 
pected to shortly announce 
a portable compact com- 
puter. ... It is rumored that 
Sperry Univac and Mitsubi- 
shi are negotiating a private- 
label deal for a CP/M-based 
system. 



M 



lattel Computer: 

Mattel Electronics introduced 
the Aquarius computer at the 
January Consumer Electronics 
Show. With a Z80A processor 
and 4K bytes of RAM in the 
basic version for under $200, 
the machine can be expand- 
ed with a variety of peripher- 
als. Memory cartridges can in- 
crease RAM to 52K bytes, and 
two expansion modules offer 
the options of dual disk drives 
and game controllers. What's 
more, with the disk-drive ad- 
dition, the system will run 
CP/M 3.0 P. C. 



dl-100 Bus Standard 
Adopted: The IEEE has 
finally adopted the S-100/ 
IEEE-696 bus standard for 
microcomputer systems. 
This standard, which has 
been in the works for over 
three years (typical develop- 
ment time for an IEEE stan- 
dard) and required the ap- 
proval of four separate com- 
mittees, is an important one 
because the S-100 bus is the 
most popular bus system 
used by microcomputer 
manufacturers. Currently 
close to 150 manufacturers 
make a total of over 500 dif- 
ferent plug-in boards for 



S-100 systems. Hence, the 
standard will ensure a high 
degree of compatibility 
among different manufac- 
turers' products. 

Even more important, the 
standard provides for imple- 
menting future changes in 
the state of the art in micro- 
computer systems. The stan- 
dard allows up to 16 mega- 
bytes of direct memory ad- 
dressing, up to 64K I/O ports, 
up to 10 vectored interrupts, 
up to 16 masters, with a mix 
of up to 22 masters and 
slaves (including a front- 
panel option), and the flex- 
ibility of configuring a sys- 
tem any way the user wishes. 
Manufacturers have already 
introduced S-100 processor 
cards for half a dozen dif- 
ferent 8-bit microprocessors 
(Intel's 8080 and 8085, 
Zilog's Z80, MOS Technolo- 
gy's 6502, and Motorola's 
6800 and 6809) and seven 
different 16-bit microproces- 
sors (Tl's 9900, DEC'S LSI-11, 
Intel's 8086 and 8088, Zilog's 
Z8000, Motorola's 68000, 
and National Semiconduc- 
tor's 16032). More processor 
cards are expected. 

The S-100 manufacturers 
lead the industry in imple- 
menting new technical de- 
velopments. They were the 
first to introduce to the per- 
sonal computer marketplace 
16-bit systems; the CP/M, 
MS-DOS, OASIS, and Turbo- 
Dos operating systems; flop- 
py-disk systems; hard-disk 
systems; virtual-disk sys- 
tems; cache-memory sys- 
tems; multiprocessing; and 
multiuser systems. In all 
probability they will con- 
tinue to lead in the introduc- 
tion of state-of-the-art fea- 
tures. 

Credit for the develop- 



ment of the S-100/IEEE-696 
bus standard goes to George 
Morrow of Morrow Designs 
and Kels Elmquist of Ithaca 
Intersystems for drafting the 
original standard, and to 
Mark Garetz of Compupro 
who finalized the standard 
and piloted it through the 
committees to final adop- 
tion. It is expected that the 
standard will be published in 
a final form by the IEEE. To 
find out about receiving a 
copy, send a stamped, self- 
addressed, business-size en- 
velope to Mark Garetz, 
Compupro, Box 2355, Oak- 
land Airport, CA 94614. 



If Islcorp's Vlsl On: 

Way back in 1981, Xerox 
demonstrated its Star per- 
sonal workstation computer 
% system at the National Com- 
puter Conference (NCC). The 
system featured a startling 
new operating system de- 
signed for neophyte com- 
puter users and displayed a 
menu of graphic images, 
called icons, depicting ob- 
jects normally found in the 
office: file cabinets, file 
folders, a printer, etc., all on 
a page-format, bit-mapped 
video display. The cursor 
was controlled with a thing 
called a mouse, which the 
user could roll around on the 
desk to allow motion be- 
tween menus and items in 
the menus. For example, it 
allowed the user to very 
easily "cut and paste" to- 
gether text. The system ef- 
fectively limited the key- 
board to the minor role of 
text entry. The Star heralded 
the new generation of user- 
friendly computers; the only 
hitch was that the cost was 
"out of sight," and Xerox has 



492 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



yet to go into production on 
the system. 

Several companies showed 
similar products at last 
year's NCC. Although lower 
in cost than the Xerox sys- 
tem, they too had prices that 
limited their acceptance. 
And Apple has introduced 
such an operating system on 
its new 68000-based Lisa. 

Now comes word that 
Visicorp will release this 
summer a software package 
for the IBM Personal Com- 
puter (others to follow) that 
provides many of these fea- 
tures. Called Visi On, it pro- 
vides "windows" in which 
text and other files can be 
viewed, moved, and shuffled 
around using a two-button 
mouse cursor controller (in- 
terfaced via an RS-232C 
serial port). The software is 
written largely in C and is 
designed to be machine- and 
operating-system indepen- 
dent. A minimal system on 
the IBM Personal Computer 
will require 128K bytes of 
memory (more memory is 
desirable; 512K bytes is 
recommended when using 
concurrent CP/M). Visicorp 
is also said to be readying 
communications and net- 
working software. 

If Visi On will indeed pro- 
vide these promised features 
it could have a serious im- 
pact on Apple's new 16-bit 
systems, which are expected 
to provide similar features 
(some of Apple's key design- 
ers worked on the Xerox Star) 
and be much more expen- 
sive. 



■ BM Doings: There is a 
rumor afloat that IBM will 
leave both Digital Research 
and Microsoft out in the 
cold. It is suggested that, 
having just introduced Unix 
for the firm's Series/1 mini- 
computers, IBM will go for 
complete product-line com- 
patibility by eventually of- 
fering Unix (not Xenix) for 
the Personal Computer, 



dropping CP/M-86 and PC- 
DOS (MS-DOS) entirely. 

. . . Mm Ha 

In an act reminiscent of 
Apple Computer, IBM has 
notified its dealers that it 
will not condone reselling of 
its systems to unauthorized 
dealers. However, it has not 
gone as far as Apple did in 
threatening to terminate 
such dealers. Further, IBM 
has curtailed production of 
machines with only 16K 
bytes of memory to prevent 
unauthorized resellers from 
purchasing units for expan- 
sion with non-IBM memory 
and disk drives. 

IBM now has about 500 
dealers (including 300 Com- 
puterland dealers) and is ex- 
panding its dealer network 
rapidly, leading to intense 
competition in some areas. 
For example, in southern 
California, an area noted for 
hefty discounting, one 
dealer has advertised a price 
of $2405 on an IBM Personal 
Computer system listing for 
$3085 — more than a 20% dis- 
count. Furthermore, several 
IBM Product Centers have 
offered special promotions 
that have included 10% dis- 
counts and other induce- 
ments. Also, IBM has in- 
stituted a 22% discount pro- 
gram for school purchases. 

IBM is expected to finally 
introduce its hard-disk op- 
tion for the Personal Com- 
puter next month or the 
month after. It is expected to 
use the Seagate 5y4-inch 
drive and Xebec controller, 
and will provide from 10 to 
60 megabytes of storage. 

Matsushita has signed a 
contract to manufacture 
computers for IBM that will 
be sold by IBM Japan Ltd. 
The first systems are expect- 
ed to go on the market this 
spring with prices ranging 
from $4000 to $6000. Colby 
Computer of Palo Alto, Cali- 
fornia, has introduced a kit 
to convert an IBM Personal 
Computer into a 26-pound 
portable computer. Just 



remove the IBM mother- 
board and disk drive from 
IBM's box and install it in 
the Colby PC-1 box, which 
also contains a 9-inch video 
monitor. 

IBM and Carnegie-Mellon 
University have entered into 
an agreement to develop a 
microcomputer network 
(with 7500 workstations) 
over a three-year period. The 
project will involve the 
development of a 32-bit 
machine with 1 megabyte of 
memory and a high-resolu- 
tion bit-mapped graphics 
screen and tablet. Initially, 
the network will use 1000 of 
the new IBM 68000-based 
microcomputers, with the 
32-bit machines being added 
as they are developed. Stu- 
dents will be expected to 
either lease or purchase the 
systems. 



*rmpple News: Much to 
the surprise of industry ex- 
perts, Apple Computer Inc. 
showed a very strong in- 
come increase for the last 
quarter of last year, ending 
September 24. Income in- 
creased 71% to almost $19 
million and sales jumped 
80% to almost $176 million. 
Considering the age of the 
Apple II, the friction be- 
tween Apple and its dealers, 
and the competition from 
IBM, analysts expected 
stunted growth. Instead 
Apple shipped over 300,000 
systems in the past year, 
about twice the number of 
IBM Personal Computers 
(IBM's revenues are believed 
to be greater, however). Ex- 
perts now expect that Apple's 
sales growth will continue to 
be strong into the beginning 
of this year. It's also interest- 
ing to note that Apple is in 
the process of increasing its 
work force from 3500 to 
4900 employees, apparently 
betting on the acceptance of 
the new Lisa, Mackintosh, 
and lower-cost Apple II sys- 
tems. 



Although Apple's market 
share decreased, the overall 
growth of the market has 
resulted in increased sales 
for Apple. Apple has decid- 
ed to become aggressive in 
its campaign to halt trans- 
shipping of machines from 
authorized dealers to unau- 
thorized discounters. It has 
hired a Phoenix-based law 
firm to track the origins of 
transshipped computers and 
is promising to take action 
against dealers it suspects 
have violated their agree- 
ment. Apple claims to have 
cut off a few dealers already 
for this reason. 

Steve Wozniak, a co- 
founder of Apple Computer 
Inc., has joined forces with 
Digital Research to develop 
a new product for the Apple 
II. It is an add-on card that 
will allow the Apple II to run 
CP/M-Plus (also known as 
CP/M version 3) and support 
the new emerging GSX-80 
graphics standard. The 
board will be produced and 
marketed by ALS (Advanced 
Logic Systems) of Sunny- 
vale, California. 



Wi P/M-Plus Introduced: 

Digital Research Inc. has 
finally released its new ver- 
sion of CP/M for 8-bit 
machines. Digital Research 
calls it CP/M-Plus, but most 
computer experimenters will 
probably refer to it as CP/M 
version 3.0. Certainly it is a 
major upgrade of CP/M, 
offering many new features 
and performance enhance- 
ments. Most particularly it 
takes advantage of the fact 
that 8-bit systems are going 
beyond the traditional 
64K-byte memory bounds. 
CP/M-Plus is designed for 
systems with banked mem- 
ory where the size of the 
DOS (disk operating system) 
is no longer a problem. The 
memory space for programs 
now can be as great as 62K 
bytes, with additional buf- 
fers for I/O. Thus we can ex- 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 493 



BYTELINES. 



pect to see 8-bit CP/M-Plus 
systems, typically with 256K 
bytes of memory and high- 
speed performance, particu- 
larly for hard-disk systems. 

CP/M-Plus also offers such 
features as I/O redirection 
(in the manner of Unix), date 
and time stamping, file pass- 
words, a command-line edi- 
tor, and a Help command. 
Maximum total floppy-disk 
drive capacity is now up to 
512 megabytes and file size 
is now up to 32 megabytes 
maximum. Another big im- 
provement is the documen- 
tation. Previous CP/M docu- 
mentation was written for 
very advanced program- 
mers. The new documenta- 
tion is much more down-to- 
earth and more professional- 
ly produced. There are 26 
new BDOS (basic disk oper- 
ating system) functions and 
16 new BIOS (basic input/ 
output system) functions. 
Most CP/M version 2.2 ap- 
plication programs should 
run under CP/M-Plus with no 
change; however, some 
problems can be expected 
with certain debugging and 
disk utilities. 

We now await the new 
version of MS-DOS from 
Microsoft to see its enhance- 
ments. In any case, CP/M- 
Plus will no doubt add new 
life to the 8-bit microcom- 
puter world, and 8-bit ma- 
chines will continue to com- 
pete strongly with the 
emerging 16-bit machines. 
Now if Digital Research 
would just add concurrency 
(multitasking) to CP/M-80, 
the company would have a 
very attractive product! 



N. 



lew 32-Blt Desktop 
System: Hewlett-Packard 
(HP) is the first company to 
announce a 32-bit desktop 
computer system. Called the 
9800, it will employ HP's 
own 32-bit microprocessor 
chip set and will provide a 
claimed performance equiv- 
alent to IBM's 370/150. 
Prices will start at $28,000. 



Shipments are expected to 
start in this quarter. The ma- 
chine is expected to be ori- 
ented to the scientific and 
engineering markets. 

HP appears to have scored 
a coup over competitors in 
the 32-bit field. AT & T (Amer- 
ican Telephone and Tele- 
graph) is expected to intro- 
duce a 32-bit system later 
this year, and Intel is ex- 
pected to introduce a new 
32-bit microprocessor that is 
suitable for desktop com- 
puter use. 



I ortable Market Ac- 
celerates: Adam Osborne 
in effect created the port- 
able computer market with 
his Osborne 1 computer. In 
1981, his first year of busi- 
ness, he claimed to have 
done $10 million worth of 
business. Last year he 
claimed $100 million, and he 
is shooting for $1 billion by 
the mid-1980s. Several com- 
petitors have entered the 
market with machines that 
are either lower in price or 
have better features, or 
both. 

The portable-computer 
market presently appears to 
be the fastest-growing seg- 
ment of the personal com- 
puter market. Apple Com- 
puter Inc. is known to be 
working on a portable sys- 
tem, as are Tandy, IBM, 
DEC, and several Japanese 
companies. Systems from 
over a dozen manufacturers 
are expected to be out by 
year-end. One Japanese 
portable is already being 
marketed in Japan. The 
Japanese firms are expected 
to be very strong in the port- 
able-computer arena be- 
cause of their advantage in 
display technology. 

The next big innovation in 
portable computers is ex- 
pected to be the new 3-inch 
floppy-disks and hard-disk 
drives for mass storage. Al- 
though some people ques- 
tion the reliability of a Win- 



chester hard-disk drive in a 
portable system, such units 
are expected shortly. 



H< 



low Are They All 
Doing? According to a 
report generated by Portia 
Isaacson and Egil Juliussen 
of Future Computing Inc. (a 
market-research firm), the 
microcomputer system with 
the largest base of customers 
by the end of 1982 was the 
Commodore VIC-20, with 
about 750,000 systems sold. 
Second and third were the 
Apple II and Timex/Sinclair 
1000, both with about 
600,000 systems, followed 
closely by the Texas In- 
struments TI-99/4A, with 
about 575,000 systems. The 
report says that, during 1982, 
the VIC-20, Timex/Sinclair 
1000, and TI-99/4A overtook 
the Apple II by selling at a 
rate of at least three to one. 
This is accounted for by the 
fact that the VIC-20 and Tl- 
99/4A are being sold by over 
8000 mass-merchandising 
stores such as K-Mart and 
Toys-R-Us, while the Apple II 
is sold only through 1000 
computer stores. 



J^\T & T Offers to Sup- 
port Unix: In a surprise 
move, AT & T has announced 
that it will provide support 
for Unix to source-code 
licensees. Binary licensees 
(end users) must get support 
from Unix vendors. The sup- 
port will include telephone 
hotlines for troubleshooting, 
technical consultants, semi- 
nars, newsletters, electronic 
mail reports of problems, 
and periodic releases of up- 
dates. 

AT & T has also released 
Unix System V, an upgrade 
from the System III. It pro- 
vides enhanced screen edit- 
ing, text processing, file-sys- 
tem maintenance, and com- 
munications. Further, it has 
"tighter'' code (meaning it is 
a more concise and stream- 
lined program) and is 



claimed to operate more ef- 
ficiently. 

Some commercial users of 
Unix are complaining that 
they have only just finished 
transporting System III to 
their machines (System III 
was announced only a year 
ago), and now they will have 
to spend more development 
time on System V. Com- 
plaints have also been heard 
regarding the Unix standard, 
based on System III, which 
has nearly been completed 
and now will have to go 
back for reworking. 

Western Electric has 
opened what is considered 
the world's largest software 
development facility in 
Lisle, Illinois. The firm plans 
to have 1700 people there 
shortly, with 2400 expected 
eventually. Industry experts 
feel that this is a prelude to a 
future AT & T assault into 
the general-computer mar- 
ketplace via a thrust into the 
software business. AT & T is 
rumored to be readying a 
computer using the Bell- 
mac-32 32-bit microproces- 
sor for introduction next 
year. 

IBM has introduced Unix 
for its Series/1 minicom- 
puters, and the firm is ex- 
pected to also make it avail- 
able for the 4300 mainframe 
series. IBM is reportedly 
readying a 32-bit version of 
the Series/1 for introduction 
this year. 

In an interesting sidelight, 
Tandy Corporation has asked 
the Justice Department 
to forbid AT&T's using the 
Bell name when that firm 
goes into the computer and 
other businesses. They con- 
tend that the new logo and 
name, American Bell, is just 
not enough of a departure 
and that the use of the name 
"Bell" will give AT&T too 
much of an advantage. 



M 



I Icro-Floppy Makers 
vie for a Standard: It's 
chaos in micro-floppy land, 
with manufacturers trying to 



494 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



make 3-inch, 3 1 /4-inch / 
3V2-inch, and 4-inch floppy 
disks the standard, and so 
far no one is succeeding. Re- 
cently, Shugart Associates 
introduced its 3y2-inch drive. 
However, Micro Peripherals 
Inc., which had previously 
endorsed the 3y2-inch drive, 
has switched to the Hitachi 
3-inch drive. Then there's the 
3V4-inch drive being pushed 
by Seagate Technology, 
Tabor Corp., and Dysan Inc. 
Also, IBM is believed to be 
working on a 4-inch drive. In 
the meantime, Tandon (one 
of the prime factors in the 
floppy marketplace), along 
with Verbatim, has decided 
to go with the Sony 3V2-inch 
drive. . . . A. L. 

Whatever size becomes 
standard for micro-floppies 
might also become a stan- 
dard size for micro-hard 
disks. One company, Sy- 
quest, has already intro- 
duced a 3.9-inch hard-disk 
drive with removable media. 



Local-Area Network 
Market Developing: 

Nestar and Corvus have 
pioneered the low-cost 
microcomputer LAN (local- 
area network) market. Re- 
cently they were joined by 
3Com, and a battle is shap- 
ing up for market share. Al- 
though the early versions of 
these systems were slow, 
newer upgrades are provid- 
ing much higher perfor- 
mance. Nestar and 3Com 
provide sophisticated net- 
working software for their 
systems while Corvus sup- 
ports a wide variety of dif- 
ferent personal computers on 
its system. 

Companies such as DEC 
and HP appear to be going 
with the more expensive 
Ethernet system. In the 
meantime, close to two 
years of wrangling have 
gone on in the IEEE LAN 
standard committee; 
manufacturers fail to agree 
on an industry LAN stan- 
dard, and about two dozen 



different systems have been 
introduced. This may lead to 
chaos in the LAN market- 
place. IBM is expected to in- 
troduce soon yet another 
system, which because of 
IBM's position in the com- 
puter market may become 
the de facto standard. 



Battle In the Class- 
room: People tend to get 
hooked on the first com- 
puter they are trained on. 
Hence, Apple, Tandy, IBM, 
Tl, and Atari all want to get 
their machines into schools 
so that students will influ- 
ence their parents to buy 
systems, and later the gradu- 
ates will purchase their own 
systems. 

So far Apple seems to be 
winning the battle of the 
classroom: thousands of 
Apple II systems are in- 
stalled, and a federal bill 
may be passed to allow com- 
panies to write off twice the 
manufacturing cost of com- 
puters they donate to prima- 
ry and secondary schools. 
The bill has already passed 
the House of Representa- 
tives. 

IBM has moved into the 
fray with a 22% discount to 
accredited schools and col- 
leges on its basic Personal 
Computer system. Further, 
as I mentioned earlier, IBM 
has entered into a develop- 
ment project with Carnegie- 
Mellon University that is ex- 
pected to have far-reaching 
impact in the educational 
world. Carnegie-Mellon is 
also negotiating with Warner 
Communications (Atari's 
parent company) to make 
the Carnegie-Mellon/IBM 
systems available to homes 
via cable television. 

Commodore and Tandy 
offer special deals to 
schools and have also been 
successful in installing a 
large number of computers 
in schools. DEC has just 
signed a contract with 
Rochester Institute of Tech- 



nology to sell DEC personal 
computers to RIT students, 
faculty, and staff at about a 
40% discount (does it pay to 
enroll as a student to buy a 
system?). 



v, 



Irtual Disk Systems: 

The continuing decrease in 
memory cost has led to the 
introduction of disk-emu- 
lator systems that substan- 
tially speed up system per- 
formance. In applications 
such as database systems 
and sorting that make a 
large number of disk access- 
es, the ultimate speed of the 
system is determined by the 
access time of the disk 
rather than the processor 
used. Thus a system that 
allows disk files, buffer files, 
and temporary intermediate 
files to be stored in solid- 
state memory speeds up pro- 
gram execution sometimes 
by as much as 1 00 times. The 
only disadvantage is that if 
power is shut down before 
the data is transferred from 
the virtual disk in memory to 
the actual disk, data will be 
lost. 

There are at least five 
manufacturers of such sys- 
tems, including Semidisk 
Systems, Beaverton, Oregon; 
Magnolia Microsystems, 
Seattle, Washington; GG En- 
gineering, San Leandro, Cali- 
fornia; Axlon, Sunnyvale, 
California; and Macrotech 
International, Canoga Park, 
California. 



I op Three Operating 
Systems: The UCSD p-Sys- 
tem, from Softech Microsys- 
tems, now appears to rank 
third in the popularity con- 
test for single-user micro- 
computer operating systems. 
CP/M still ranks first, and is 
still far out in front. Second 
is MS-DOS from Microsoft. 
Although, it's doubtful that 
the p-System will move up a 
notch in the race, it is inter- 
esting to note that the sys- 
tem is already available on 



DEC, HP, Osborne, Tl, Phil- 
lips, Zenith, Commodore, 
Sage, Nixdorf, and Victor 
computers. 



R. 



obots with a Sense 
of Touch: MIT (Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technolo- 
gy) reports that a research 
program has developed a 
much-improved tactile sens- 
ing system for robots that 
provides a very human-like 
sense of touch. The new sen- 
sor system is intended to be 
used as part of a tendon- 
actuated mechanical finger 
that operates much like a 
human finger. The device is 
made up of 256 tactile sen- 
sors that fit on the tip of a 
finger. 

The Artificial Intelligence 
Laboratory at MIT is devel- 
oping tactile recognition 
programs that allow the sen- 
sor to determine the general 
shape of an object it is 
touching, if it has any bumps 
or depressions, and if the ob- 
ject can be rolled. Research 
is also expected in the area 
of texture recognition and 
construction of a touch pic- 
ture of an object as the sen- 
sor is moved across the ob- 
ject. 



R, 



etallers Complain 
About Low Profits: It is 

estimated that there are now 
over 2500 computer stores in 
the U.S. doing about $2.5 
billion in sales. However, the 
proliferation of stores and 
the poor economy are lead- 
ing to competition and dis- 
counting that are combining 
to hurt independent com- 
puter retailers. Many 
microcomputer stores were 
started in garages and 
basements a few years ago 
by hobbyists who hoped to 
profit from their passions. 
Now a number of these 
stores are finding them- 
selves undercapitalized, 
trapped in the complexities 
of retailing, and squeezed 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 495 



BYTELINES. 



between low manufacturer 
discounts and high mail- 
order dealer discounts. More 
computers are now sold 
through mass merchandisers 
than through computer 
stores. As a result, several 
hundred of these pioneering 
computer stores closed last 
year, and more are expected 
to close this year. 



KmBS Vegas Shows Several 
new computers were intro- 
duced at the winter Consum- 
er Electronics Show (CES) in 
Las Vegas. Commodore made 
a splash with a portable ver- 
sion of the 64, offering a built- 
in color display and two 
drives for $1595. Another en- 
try was the firm's hand-held 
computer with 4K bytes, ex- 
pandable to 16K bytes. This 
same machine is being manu- 
factured by Toshiba. . . .Tl 
introduced the 99/2, designed 



to go head-to-head with the 
Timex/Sinclair 1000, with a 
$99.95 price tag. Also on dis- 
play was the Compact Com- 
puter 40, a battery-operated 
system with 6K bytes of RAM 
and an optional four-color 
printer/plotter. 

Spectra Video drew much 
attention with its SV 318 com- 
puter, a 32K-byte ROM, 32K- 
byte RAM system (expand- 
able to 96K bytes of ROM and 
144K bytes of RAM), with a 
base price of $299. A wide 
range of peripherals are avail- 
able, and the system is com- 
patible with CP/M 3.0. Per- 
haps its most distinguishing 
physical characteristic is the 
joystick on the keyboard 
panel. Entex is offering the 
2000 Piggyback Computer, a 
keyboard for the Atari 2600 
including 8K bytes of BASIC 
and 3K bytes of RAM, for $95. 
The Timex/Sinclair 2000 (the 
American version of England's 



Can a Software Package 
Change the World? 

Spread Sheets First... 
QUESTEXT 111 Next! 



14) 



• A Revolutionary New Microcomputer Concept 
for Systems Developers and End Users Alike 

• Buy One General Purpose Package and save 
buying dozens of Specialized Programs 

• ULTRA FRIENDLY • 100",. Menu Driven 

• LLARNABLE in one session • No Programming 
ALLOWS INSTANTANEOUS INNOVATION • Not a DBMS 



QUESTEXT III is a mature general purpose system (or 
organizing and communicaling textual information. It 
organizes text into tree like menu structures. It is the 
first electronic WorDsheet, a generalized information 
handler. 

Unlimited uses: Dealer Demo; On line help and docu 
mentation; Computer-aided instruction; On job training; 
Top-down software documentation; Writer's outlines; 
Electronic filebox. Speech teleprompting; Classroom 
blackboarding; Address/phonebook; Public access ques- 
tion answering; Calendar /datebook; Scheduling/plan- 
ning; Archiving; Library and File cabinet indexing; 
Observation logging; Personnel aids (locator service, job 
description, line of command); Customer New Product 
support and training; Technical Information manage^ 
ment; Diagnosis support; Quality control; Price Product 
data; Electronic Publishing; Bulletin boarding; Tutorials 



and quizzes (or textbooks; Personal computing (mes 
sage.remindci and note comment management, disk file 
inventory annotation, system protoculs. procedures, 
etc ); Home Computing (Insurance inventory. Records 
management, etc.). Survey and experiment control; 
Much more. Unprecedented potential for contract con- 
sultantsand systems developers, 

FEATURES; Easy updating, Cursor editing; Error trap- 
ping; English prompting; No syntax: Fast machine 
executable code; Simple commands (Help. Show, Add, 
Delete, Insert, Move. Edii, Print, Next. Up, Top); Garbage 
recycling; Easy file control (Create. Delete, Backup, Mod- 
ify); REQUIRES IBM PC or 2. x 56K CP M, ASCII CRT. 
WHO CAN USE QUESTEXT? ANYONE CAN! (Sys- 
tems Developers, Business People. Educators. Consul- 
tants, Scientists, Programmers and Nonprogrammers 
alike). 



SEE BELOW FOR ADVANTAGES OF EARLY ORDER. MONEY BACK OFFER ON MINI VERSION. 
PHONE ORDERS 617 369 5719 • OEM AND DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME. . ... 



I 
I 
I 



Mail io: iRi, 1S38 Main Street. Concord. MA 01742 

PLEASE SEND ME QUESTEXT III; 

D Mini Version (6 lines menu, up to 40 screens. 500 records). (Relundable lor 1 4 day > if Mini Version is 

returned in good condition.) 
D FultSvitem(99fmes menu. upio6,000 screen* 32.700records.)WholevilcloMay 30. 1983 tAherMay 30. !%!. ReiaiU 
□ Manual Only 
D Sell leaching &ik w S application* 

AddS300Poila3eandHandlM 9 TOTALCOST 

•Feaiuie* Price* AiaJahJisv wbiecno chanjt u.iKoul nonce < 1983 >Hr 



INFORMATION REDUCTION RESEARCH 



$ 49 95 
$17995 
$ 29.95 
$ 2995 



D8"SD D Osborne D IBM PC (Oihersfro/i 


ndeaiers) 












T 


!mn 










**. 




Zip 



I 
I 
I 



Spectrum computer) was an- 
nounced at the show, and a 
$15 rebate was offered on the 
Timex/Sinclair 1000 P. C. 



M 



lore Imports from 
Japan: The Commerce De- 
partment reports that IC (in- 
tegrated circuit) imports 
from Japan for the first 9 
months of last year doubled 
in dollar volume, while U.S. 
IC exports to Japan rose 
27%, causing a trade deficit 
of $227 million. The Japa- 
nese now have 7% of the 
total U.S. IC market. Con- 
sumption of ICs in Japan last 
year rose 15%, while in the 
U.S. IC makers were laying 
off employees and operating 
at 70% of capacity— all at a 
time when tariffs between 
the U.S. and Japan were 
equalized. 



V/SI Division Sold: 

Ohio Scientific Inc., one of 
the earliest personal-com- 
puter makers (begun in 1975 
and later bought out by M/A- 
COM Inc.), has reportedly 
been sold to Kendata Inc. of 
Stamford, Connecticut. OSI 
has been in financial dif- 
ficulties for several years and 
reportedly had a substantial 
loss in 1982. Kendata, found- 
ed only last year, sells and 
leases small-business com- 
puters (e.g., Victor, Altos, 
and North Star) and has 22 
employees (versus 200 at 
OSI). OSI reportedly has sold 
38,000 systems and has 400 
'dealers. 



R, 



random News Bits: 

CBS is reported preparing to 
open its first computer store 
in Berkeley, California, with 
the hope of eventually es- 
tablishing a chain of 
stores. . . . Non-Linear Sys- 
tems, Solana Beach, Califor- 
nia, reports that it is now 
shipping 10,000 Kaypro II 
portable computers each 
month. . . . Quantum Sci- 



ence Corporation, a New 
York research firm, esti- 
mates that the Japanese cur- 
rently have a 1.7% share of 
the U.S. small-business com- 
puter market (estimated at 
$7.9 million), and the firm 
expects this to increase to 

about 3.5% by 1986 Sy- 

quest Technology has lined 
up a second source for its 
3.9-inch Winchester drive, 
which puts the company in a 
prime position as a hard-disk 
supplier for portable com- 
puters. . . . Centronics Data 
Computer Corporation has 
quietly dropped its plans to 
produce the Quietwriter 
printer which was an- 
nounced with great fanfare 
two years ago. . . . Drivetec, 
Palo Alto, California, has 
introduced a 5^-inch 
floppy-disk drive storing 3.3 
megabytes. It is half-height 
and has a track density of 
192 tracks per inch. . . . Intel 
has introduced the 7114 
4-megabit bubble-memory 
device that it expects to start 
sampling by early summer. 
. . . The French government 
now levies a fine on sup- 
pliers who use Anglicized 
jargon in program and com- 
puter documentation. 
. . . ADAPSO (Association of 
Data Processing Service 
Organizations) has finally 
recognized the microcom- 
puter and established a 
Microcomputer Software 
Association. . . . Atari has an- 
nounced the Atari 1200XL 
Home Computer System for 
introduction this summer. 
Look for it to be a direct 
competitor for the Commo- 
dore 64 and the new Apple 
lle.B 

MAIL: I receive a large 
number of letters each month 
as a result of this column. If you 
write to me and wish a 
response, please include a self- 
addressed, stamped envelope. 

Sol Llbes 

c/o BYTE Publications 

POB 372 

Hancock, NH 03449 ■ 



496 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Circle 504 on Inquiry card. 



What's New? 



MASS STORAGE 



^^^ 


MPM^ 


- j » t >— - ». i 


jSjIl DATA ELECTRONICS INC. I 


Itefe. 


MMaH ^^ HM HMMHHbi4i 



Streaming Tape 
Cartridge for Winchester Backup 



The Slider from Data 
Electronics is a /4-inch 
digital cartridge tape drive 
designed to match the 
backup requirements of 
current 5 /4-inch Win- 
chester disk systems. The 
Slider features streaming 
operation with 10 mega- 
bytes of storage, a read/ 
write head with write 
drivers and read preampli- 
fiers, and interface logic 
with motion control and 
status reporting. It uses an 
ANSI-standard 450-foot 
magnetic-tape cartridge 
and incorporates GCR 
(group code recording). 



The Slider has a recording 
density of up to 1 0,000 
flux changes per inch. 

The Slider is available in 
a variety of packages: open 
frame, slide mounted, and 
desktop in multiple mount- 
ing configurations. In 
OEM (original equipment 
manufacturer) quantities, 
the Slider costs less than 
$500. For purchasing and 
ordering information, con- 
tact Data Electronics Inc., 
101 50 Sorrento Valley Rd., 
San Diego, CA 92121, 
(619) 452-7840. 
Circle 550 on inquiry card. 



Hard-Disk System for Apples and IBM PC 

The Hobbyist is a 
5/4 -inch hard-disk drive 
designed to work with the 
Apple \\ and III and the IBM 
Personal Computer. Pro- 
duced by Santa Clara Sys- 
tems, this drive includes 5 
megabytes of storage 
capacity, a controller, host 
adapter, operating soft- 
ware, cable, and cabinet. 
The Hobbyist costs $1995. 
Contact Santa Clara Sys- 




tems Inc., 560 Division St., 
Campbell, CA 95008, 
(408) 374-6972. 
Circle 551 on inquiry card. 




Intelligent Controllers 
Interface to Popular Buses 



A family of intelligent 
controllers that hook IBM- 
compatible 9-track format- 
ted tape drives to a variety 
of popular computer buses 
has been introduced by 
Alloy Engineering Com- 
pany. The ITS family of 
8085-based controllers 
links such drives as the 
Cipher Microstreamer to 
S-l 00, SS-50, and Radio 
Shack TRS-80 buses. These 
controllers feature soft- 
ware-selectable ASCII-to- 
EBCDIC (extended binary- 
coded decimal inter- 



change code) conversion 
in firmware. Software is 
supported under the fol- 
lowing operating systems: 
CP/M, MP/M, DPC/OS, 
OS-9, and TRSDOS. 

In OEM (original equip- 
ment manufacturer) quan- 
tities, the ITS family costs 
$650 per unit. For more in- 
formation, contact Alloy 
Engineering Co. Inc., 
Computer Products Divi- 
sion, 12 Mercer Rd., 
Natick, MA 01760, (617) 
655-3900. 
Circle 552 on inquiry card. 



Microfloppies for HP Computers 



Hewlett-Packard is 
marketing a family of 
3/2 -inch mass-storage sys- 
tems for its personal, busi- 
ness, and technical com- 
puters. Each microfloppy 
system uses a 3/2 -inch 
Sony drive and HP elec- 
tronics. Presently, the firm 
has three packages avail- 
able: a single-drive 270K- 
byte system, a 540K-byte 
dual-drive model, and a 
4.6-megabyte Winchester 
disk coupled with a single 
3/2 -inch microfloppy. The 



3/2 -inch disk drive trans- 
fers 1 7,800 bytes of infor- 
mation per second. The 
disk, which can record 
135 tracks of data per 
inch, is wrapped in a hard 
polymer housing. The 
drive has a sliding cover 
for the read/write open- 
ing, which protects 
against contamination 
from dust and dirt. 

The 3/2 -inch drive sys- 
tems are compatible with 
HP Series 80, 1 00 r and 200 
personal computers and 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 497 



What's New? 



the HP 1 000 desktop com- 
puter family. Prices range 
from S] 200 to $4975. The 
3/2 -inch media cost $59 
per box of 10. Full details 
are available from your 
local Hewlett-Packard 
sales office. 
Circle 553 on inquiry card. 



Elite Drives 
for Apples 

The Elite line of 5/4 -inch 
floppy-disk drives from 
Rana Systems are Apple- 
compatible. Standard fea- 
tures include storage capa- 
cities of up to 625 K bytes, 
the ability to work with 
Apple's and Rana Systems' 
controller cards, and DOS 
3.3, Pascal 1.1, and CP/M 
compatibility. The Elite 
controller card lets you 
hook any combination of 
four Apple or Rana Systems 
drives to the Apple II, and it 
automatically boots 1 3- 
and 1 6-sector disks. 

The Elite One, a single- 
sided, 40-track drive pro- 
viding 1 63K bytes of stor- 
age, costs $379. A double- 
sided, 40-track drive with 
326K bytes of storage, the 
Elite Two is $649. The Elite 
Three is a double-sided, 
80-track drive priced at 
$849. Each Elite drive 
comes with a user manual 
and an enhancer disk. Op- 
tionally, they can be pur- 
chased with the controller 
card for $519, $749, and 
$949, respectively. The 
controller card alone is 
$145. For further details, 
contact Rana Systems, 
20620 South Leapwood 
Ave., Carson, CA 90746, 
(800) 421-2207; in Califor- 



nia, call (800) 262-1221 or 

(213) 538-2353. 

Circle 554 on inquiry card. 

COMDEX REPORT 



Big Screen for IBM 
Personal Computer 

Quadscreen, a 17-inch 
monitor for the IBM Per- 
sonal Computer from 
Quadram Corporation, 
was on display at the Fall 
Comdex in Las Vegas. 
Capable of displaying 
10,240 characters simul- 
taneously, this P4 phos- 
phor high-resolution 
monochrome screen can 
use a 5 by 7 character 
matrix to achieve a 160- 
character by 64-line dis- 
play. A split-screen feature 
gives you side-by-side 80- 
character by 64-line 
screens, and a bit-mapped 
graphics mode permits an 
addressable resolution of 
960 horizontal by 5 1 2 ver- 
tical. Screen attributes in- 
clude reverse video and 
forward and backward 
scroll. Built-in, user-defin- 
able character sets and 
driver firmware in read- 
only memory are stan- 
dard. Quadscreen has full 
IBM PC-DOS/BIOS com- 
patibility. 

An optional P39 green- 
phosphor screen is avail- 
able for Quadscreen. 
Priced at $1950, Quad- 
screen comes with a 
cable, software, and a 
controller that uses only 
one slot on the Personal 
Computer. For informa- 
tion, contact Quadram 
Corp., 4357 Park Dr., Nor- 
cross, GA 30093, (404) 
923-6666. 
Circle 555 on inquiry card. 




Printer Features 
Variable-Speed Operation 



The 8600 dot-matrix im- 
pact printer with variable- 
speed operation and an 
1 8-wire print head was in- 
troduced at Comdex by 
C. Itoh Electronics Inc. 
This printer features task- 
dominant print speeds of 
180 cps (characters per 
second) for data and list 
processing, 90 cps for 
high-resolution graphics, 
and 60 cps for near letter- 
quality output. Using a 9 
by 9 matrix, the 8600 of- 
fers an 80-character-per- 
line format, built-in 
graphics mode, a 2K-byte 
buffer (expandable in 
2K-byte increments) that 
reduces the central proces- 
sor overhead, and parallel 
and serial interfacing with 
X/ON and X/OFF proto- 
col. Paper feed is either bi- 
directional roll or optional 
tractor feed. The platen 
distance is adjustable for a 
variety of form thick- 
nesses. Automatic vertical 
and horizontal tabbing 
and variable forms-length 
selection with electronic 
vertical formatting are 
standard. Print features in- 
clude proportional spac- 
ing, eight character sizes, 
the ability to mix fonts dur- 



ing single line passes, and 
eight user-selectable 
alphabets, ranging from 
English to Japanese. 

The 8600 dot-matrix 
printer costs approximate- 
ly $1400. Quantity dis- 
counts are offered. Pur- 
chasing and technical de- 
tails are available from 
C. Itoh Electronics Inc., 
5301 Beethoven St., Los 
Angeles, CA 90066, (2 1 3) 
306-6700. 
Circle 556 on inquiry card. 



Irma Links IBM PC to 
3270 Controllers 

Technical Analysis Cor- 
poration's Irma, the first in- 
terface for direct native- 
mode coaxial cable attach- 
ment of IBM Personal 
Computers to IBM 3270 
controllers, was an- 
nounced at Comdex. Irma 
is a printed-circuit board 
that fits into any available 
slot in the PC. It is attached 
by coaxial cable to most 
IBM 3270 controllers and 
emulates an IBM 3278 dis- 
play. It operates in native 
3278 mode and requires 
no additional telephone 
lines, modems, or com- 



498 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



What's New? 



munications front-end 
support for local or remote 
environments. Standard 
features Include an Inter- 
nal 1920-character screen 
buffer, emulation- of 3270 
monochrome and color 
character displays of up to 
80 characters by 24 lines, a 
set of subroutines for selec- 
tive transfer of data from 
emulated 3278 screens, 
and onboard diagnostics. 
In addition, Irma provides 
complete IBM 3278-2 ter- 
minal function compatibil- 
ity and the ability to save 
full screens of mainframe 
data on floppy disk or on 
hard copy. 

Irma works with any 
IBM 3274, 3276, or In- 
tegral terminal controller 
that uses Type A terminal 
adapters. It lists for $1 195; 
quantity discounts are 
available. For full details, 
contact Technical Analysis 
Corp., 1 20 West Wleuca 
Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA 
30042, (800) 241-4762; In 
Georgia, (404) 252-1045. 
Circle 557 on inquiry card. 



Local Network 
Unveiled at Comdex 

At Comdex, Vector 
Graphic introduced LINC 
(local interactive network 
communications), a local- 
area network scheme that 
uses telephone wire to 
connect up to 15 single- 
user Vector 4 microcom- 
puters. LINC is described 
as a high-speed token- 
passing network that uses 
a distributed control tech- 
nique which eliminates 
the need for a dedicated 
master station or a file 
server. All members of a 



LINC network can share 
large disk files, high-speed 
printers, communications 
facilities, and an electronic 
mail service. Each work- 
station will support an in- 
dividual printer and can 
function as a stand-alone 
word or data processor 
while connected to the 
network. LINC uses SDLC 
(synchronous data-link 
control) protocol technol- 
ogy. The data rate is 
750,000 bits per second 
using RS-422A transmis- 
sion standards. Network 
software resembles that of 
a multiuser operating sys- 
tem, and the workstations 
can run CP/M- and MP/M- 
type applications pro- 
grams. 

Complementing the 
LINC network is the Vec- 
tor 4 Intelligent Worksta- 
tion. This workstation, a 
full-function microcom- 
puter without local disk 
storage, is ready to plug 
onto the network. Priced 
at $3750, it comes with a 
built-in controller board 
containing an amplifier 
that maintains signal 
strength over long 
distances. 

The Vector 4 comes in 
two other configurations: 
the Vector 4/20 has two 
630K-byte 5/4-inch 
floppy-disk drives; the Vec- 
tor 4/30 carries a single 
floppy disk and a 5/4-inch 
5-megabyte Winchester 
disk drive. A LINC upgrade 
kit is available for either the 
4/20 or 4/30 for S750, in- 
cluding network software. 
For complete details, con- 
tact Vector Graphic Inc., 
500 North Ventu Park Rd., 
Thousand Oaks, CA 
91320, (805) 499-5831. 
Circle 558 on inquiry card. 




Portable Peripheral for Communications 



Axlon demonstrated its 
Datalink Series 1000 porta- 
ble personal communica- 
tions terminal at Comdex. 
Datalink measures ]% by 
3 9 / )6 by 6 3 / 4 inches and 
weighs less than a pound. 
Designed for a variety of 
markets, this terminal can 
be used to transmit or re- 
trieve information from a 
personal telephone direc- 
tory or a database such as 
the New York Stock Ex- 
change. Dataline has a 
16-character tilted green- 
fluorescent display, key- 
board-selectable 110- or 
300-bit-per-second char- 



acter speeds, a built-in RS- 
232C-compatible output 
port, and an alphanumeric 
typewriter keyboard. Re- 
chargeable batteries and a 
built-in direct-connect tele- 
phone modem 3re stan- 
dard. 

Datalink options include 
acoustic cups, a 40-char- 
acter-per-line printer, and 
a television display inter- 
face with 2K bytes of 
memory. It costs $399 and 
is available from Axlon 
Inc., 70 Daggett Dr., San 
Jose, CA 95134, (408) 
945-0500. 
Circle 559 on inquiry card. 



Personal Computer Network System 



The PLAN 4000 system 
from Nestar Systems will 
simultaneously support 
the IBM PC and Apple II 
and III computers in a 
vendor-independent net- 
work. This system was de- 
signed for users requiring 
dedicated and accessible 
computing power with full 
communications capabili- 
ties for sharing and access- 
ing information. PLAN 
4000 is built around Data- 
point Corporation's ARC- 
net and Xerox's Ethernet 



technologies, and it sup- 
ports up to 548 megabytes 
of disk stroage for each file 
server online. The file 
server manages access to 
storage for all users con- 
nected to the network, 
and multiple file servers 
can be added. Functions 
possible with PLAN 4000 
include automatic printing 
with a variety of printers, 
local and worldwide elec- 
tronic mail communica- 
tions, direct user access to 
IBM mainframes, Telex 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 499 



What's New? 



communications from in- 
dividual workstations, and 
bridges to other networks. 
Workstations attach to 
PLAN 4000 by means of a 
plug-in network interface 
card, which is $595. A 
40-station network costs 
approximately $ 1 800 per 
workstation, which in- 
cludes support for up to 
137 megabytes of disk 
storage and 45 megabytes 
of digital cartridge tape 



backup, a print server, an 
IBM 3270 server, and elec- 
tronic mail capabilities. A 
number of network con- 
figurations can be ar- 
ranged. For complete 
specifications and pur- 
chasing information, con- 
tact Nestar Systems Inc., 
2585 East Bayshore Rd., 
Palo Alto, CA 94303, 
(415) 493-2223. 
Circle 560 on inquiry card. 




Half -Height Winchester 
Uses Thin-Film Disks 



Seagate Technology 
unveiled a half-height 
5 /4-inch micro Winches- 
ter disk drive at the Fall 
Comdex. The ST206 drive 
uses ferrite read/write 
heads for higher frequen- 
cy response and a flux 
density of 9074 fcpi (flux 
changes per inch). Its thin- 
film plated media are cap- 
able of storing 6.38 mega- 
bytes of unformatted data 
or 5 megabytes of for- 
matted data. Fully com- 
patible with the industry- 
standard ST506 interface, 
the ST206 was designed 
to be a companion to half- 
height floppy-disk drives in 
single-slot intelligent ter- 
minals and portable com- 



puters. Technical specifica- 
tions include a 5-megabit- 
per-second transfer rate, 
average access time of 85 
milliseconds (including set- 
tling) using a split-band 
positioner and a stepper- 
motor-driven actuator, a 
stored-data density of 
10,416 bytes per track (un- 
formatted), and 9.33-milli- 
second average latency. 
Dimensions for the ST206 
3re 1.625 by 5.75 by 8 
inches. 

In 500-unit lots, the 
ST206 costs $745. Seagate 
Technology is located at 
360 El Pueblo Rd., Scotts 
Valley, CA 95066, (408) 
438-6550. 
Circle 561 on inquiry card. 




Serial Dot-Matrix Printers 



Okidata introduced two 
serial dot-matrix printers at 
Comdex. The Microline 
Models 92 and 93 provide 
correspondence-quality 
printing and data-pro- 
cessing capabilities. Both 
models give you bidirec- 
tional data processing 
with short-line seeking 
logic at 160 cps (char- 
acters per second) and 
high-resolution corres- 
pondence-quality printing 
at 40 cps. These printers 
have enhanced and em- 
phasized printing, dot-ad- 
dressable graphics, down- 
line-loadable character 
sets that allow you to 
create custom characters 
and symbols, and a 9-pin 
stored-energy printhead. 
User forms controls for ver- 
tical tab, top of form, and 
up to 10 forms lengths 3re 
provided through switch 
and program control. The 
mean time between fail- 
ures is 4000 hours, and 
the mean time to repair is 
1 5 minutes. These printers 
come with a Centronics- 
compatible parallel inter- 
face. A high-performance 
RS-232C serial interface is 
available optionally. 



The Model 92's maxi- 
mum column width is 136 
characters at 1 7 cpi (char- 
acters per inch). It has a 
standard roller platen to 
accommodate friction and 
pin paper feeds. A tractor 
feed is optional. The 
Model 93 has a roller 
platen and tractor feed for 
forms up to 16 inches 
wide. Contact Okidata 
Corp., 1 1 1 Gaither Dr., 
Mount Laurel, NJ 08054, 
(800) 654-3282; in New 
Jersey, (609) 235-2600. 
Circle 562 on inquiry card. 



Bisynchronous 

Communications 

Interface 

North Star Computers is 
marketing a software 
package that provides a 
2780/3780 bisynchronous 
communications link be- 
tween Advantage and 
Horizon microcomputers 
and large mainframes. 
With the Northlink 
2780/3780 Bisync, North 



500 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



What's New? 



Star systems can transmit 
batched files between 
their equipment and com- 
puters from such manufac- 
turers as IBM, Hewlett- 
Packard, and Data 
General. Northlink can 
provide the same service 
when it is used as a gate- 
way on North Star's local- 
area network, Northnet. 

The Northlink 2780/ 
3780 Bisync costs $499. 
Contact North Star Com- 
puters Inc., 14440 Cata- 
lina St., San Leandro, CA 
94577. 
Circle 563 on inquiry card. 

SOFTWARE 



Hayden 
Software Products 

The Hayden Software 
Company markets busi- 
ness, entertainment, profes- 
sional, and utility software 
packages. Designed for 
small businesses with 
CP/M-based systems, the 
Basic Accounting System 
provides general ledger, ac- 
counts payable and receiv- 
able, payroll, and inventory 
program modules. For the 
home, Hayden offers ar- 
cade-type games such as 
Bulldog Pinball, an Atari 
version of the popular pin- 
ball game. The PIE Writer 
word processor for the IBM 
Personal Computer and 
Apple lis equipped with an 
80-column board is avail- 
able. Hayden also distri- 
butes a shape-drawing pro- 
gram and a communica- 
tions system for use with 
the Apple II and Hayes 



Micromodem ii. For infor- 
mation, contact Hayden 
Software Co., 600 Suffolk 
St., Lowell, MA 01853, 
(6 1 7) 937-0200. 
Circle 564 on inquiry card. 



Sophisticated 
Word Processor 

The Gutenberg Word 
and Print Processing Pro- 
gram for the Apple l\ is a 
user-friendly word pro- 
cessor suitable for text 
creation and secretarial 
tasks. It offers a split-screen 
text editor, user-definable 
screen and printer char- 
acters for multilanguage 
documents, and auto- 
matic centering of up to 
32 user-definable foreign 
accent marks. Gutenberg 
has an unlimited variety of 
such formats as multiple 
columns, shaped text, 
complex tabulations, and 
multiple levels of indenta- 
tion. Standard features in- 
clude global search and re- 
place with eight different 
masks and counter, pro- 
grammable keyboard abili- 
ties for data capturing, and 
high- or low-resolution 
editing modes. Gutenberg 
supports graphics, pic- 
tures, and text in propor- 
tionally spaced characters 
in all justification modes. It 
works with most popular 
dot-matrix and daisy- 
wheel printers, including 
Apple DPM, Centronics 
737 and 739, Epson 
MX-80/100 with Graftrax- 
Plus, NEC 8023A-C, 
C. Itoh F-10, and Qume 
Sprint 5/45 and 9/45. It 
supports a variety of 



parallel and serial printer- 
interface cards. 

Gutenberg runs on 48K- 
byte Apple II computers 
equipped with one disk 
drive. A shift-key modifica- 
tion is required. The sug- 
gested retail price is $325, 
which includes a backup 
disk, documentation, a 
ruler, and a shift-key modi- 
fication cable. A demon- 
stration disk copy is avail- 
able at participating Apple 
dealers. Contact Micro- 
mation Ltd., Suite 406, 1 
Yorkdale Rd., Toronto, 
Ontario M6A 3A1, 
Canada, (416) 781-6675. 
Circle 565 on inquiry card. 



Software for Fun 
and Profit 

Digital Marketing Cor- 
poration's software line 
ranges from games to so- 
phisticated financial plan- 
ning and analysis pro- 
grams. The company has 
software for word process- 
ing, real estate analysis, ac- 
counting, customer and 
product profiles, communi- 
cations, bibliography colla- 
tions, medical billing and 
accounts receivable, proof- 
reading, project and time 
management, and data 
compression. Digital Mar- 
keting programs are avail- 
able in most microcom- 
puter formats and run on 
the IBM Personal Com- 
puter and CP/M-, CP/M-86-, 
and MS-DOS-based sys- 
tems. For full details, con- 
tact Digital Marketing 
Corp., 2670 Cherry Lane, 
Walnut Creek, CA 94596, 
(415) 938-2880. 
Circle 566 on inquiry card. 



SYSTEMS 



Business Computers 
with 8/16-Bit 
Architecture 

Digilog Business Sys- 
tems recently started ship- 
ping two dual 8/16-bit 
desktop business com- 
puters. The Systems 1016 
and 1516 are built on the 
Z80A processor and Intel's 
80186 processor. Standard 
features include 64K bytes 
of RAM (random-access 
read/write memory) for 
the Z80A, 128K bytes of 
RAM for the 80186, the 
CP/M operating system, a 
1 2-inch monitor, 73-key 
keyboard, and floppy-disk 
or Winchester-disk stor- 
age. Both models can 
operate as stand-alone 8- 
or 16-bit computers and 
serve as workstations in 
an 8-bit Digilog multiuser 
network. The System 
1016 is offered with 720K 
bytes of floppy-disk stor- 
age or with 1 .6 megabytes 
of Winchester storage. Its 
companion model can be 
configured for 5 or 10 
megabytes of Winchester 
storage. 

Options include both 
the CP/M-86 operating 
system and 1 28K bytes of 
additional RAM for the 
80 1 86 processor. Prices 
range from $3995 to 
$6995, depending upon 
model and storage capa- 
cities. The additional RAM 
costs $450. Further infor- 
mation is available from 
Digilog Business Systems 
Inc., Welsh Road and Park 
Drive, POB 355, Mont- 
gomery ville, PA 1 8936, 
(215) 628-4810. 
Circle 567 on inquiry card. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 501 



What's New? 




Entry-Level Computer 
Has Sound and Graphics 



The NEC Home Elec- 
tronics PC-6000 is an 
entry-level computer sys- 
tem for home and school. 
The PC-6000 features 
sound, color, and the abil- 
ity to work with black- 
and-white or color televi- 
sions or a NEC composite- 
video monitor. This system 
contains 16K bytes of 
RAM (random-access 
read/write memory), 16K 
bytes of ROM (read-only 
memory), Microsoft BASIC 
with enhanced graphics 
and sound capabilities for 
use with joysticks, and the 
ability to produce nine col- 
ors that enhance text and 
graphics. The PC-6000's 
music function has an 
eight-octave range and 
uses three independent 
sound generators. Its 
7 1 -key typewriter-style 
keyboard provides 10 dif- 
ferent functions by means 
of 5 function keys. More 
than 30 software pack- 
ages are available for the 
PC-6000, including games 
and personal finance pro- 
grams. 

Options for the PC-6000 
include a 5/4 -inch floppy- 
disk drive, a cassette data 
recorder, a 40-character 
thermal printer, a pressure- 
sensitive touch-panel for 
creating images, RAM and 



ROM cartridge for an addi- 
tional 1 6K bytes of mem- 
ory, an RS-232C interface, 
and 1 2-inch monochro- 
matic or color display 
monitors. The PC-6000 
costs less than $450 and is 
available from NEC Home 
Electronics Inc., 1401 
Estes Ave., Elk Grove, IL 
60007, (3 1 2) 228-5900. 
Circle 568 on inquiry card. 




System Supports 
Five Users 

The 16-bit Altos 586 
microcomputer supports 
five users and offers in- 
tegral Ethernet and Altos- 
Net network interfaces. 
The 586 is supplied with a 
10-MHz 8086 processor, 
256K or 512K bytes of 
RAM (random-access 
read/ write memory), key- 
board, bit-mapped moni- 



tor, Multibus-type architec- 
ture, proprietary memory- 
management, power 
failure detection, and a 
battery-backed clock and 
calendar. The 586's six RS- 
232C ports are upgradable 
to ten through an integral 
communications board of- 
fering an auto-dial/auto- 
answer modem. This 
board provides communi- 
cation with large main- 
frames and such protocols 
as IBM 2780/3780 (syn- 
chronous) and X.25. Soft- 
ware includes the Xenix/ 
Unix operating system and 
the Altos ABS/86 business 
package. The 586 will sup- 
port MS-DOS, PICK, 
CP/M-86, MP/M-86, and 
Oasis- 1 6 operating sys- 
tems. Languages such as 
BASIC, COBOL, FOR- 
TRAN, Pascal, and C can 
be used. 

As many as 32 Altos 
586s can be networked 
using high-speed twisted 
pair cable, which allows 
more than 200 users to 
share files, send electronic 
mail, and pool printers and 
peripherals. Networking is 
accomplished with RS- 
422A cabling connected 
to the integral interface 
and Altos-Net software. 

Two versions of the 586 
family are available. The 
586-2 offers dual 5/4-inch 
1 -megabyte floppy-disk 
drives and costs S4990. 
The 586-10 features 
1 0-megabyte 5 ] A -inch 
hard-disk storage with 
floppy-disk backup. It costs 
$7990. Both are upgrad- 
able to 20 megabytes. 
Contact Altos Computer 
Systems, 2360 Bering Dr., 
San Jose, CA 95 13 1,(408) 
946-6700. 
Circle 569 on inquiry card. 



PUBLICATIONS 



Computer Curriculum 

for Teachers, 

Administrators 

Slated for release in 
May, My Students Use 
Computers: A Compre- 
hensive Guide for the K-8 
Curriculum provides a 
scope and a set of objec- 
tives for integrating com- 
puter-related skills and 
knowledge into the kin- 
dergarten through 8th 
grade curriculum. It's 
based on a three-year proj- 
ect funded by a grant from 
the National Science 
Foundation and devel- 
oped by Beverly Hunter of 
the Human Resources Re- 
search Organization and 
an advisory panel of com- 
puter educators. Seventy 
teachers and specialists 
contributed to this guide, 
which contains 90 de- 
tailed lesson plans and ac- 
tivities for each grade 
level guidance for staff de- 
velopment, and a compre- 
hensive list of additional 
resources. The material 
was classroom tested 
throughout the 1981-82 
school year. 

My Students Use Com- 
puters is $23.95, case 
bound. A shorter spiral 
bound version for class- 
room teachers containing 
only the grade-specific ob- 
jectives, activities, and 
resource section costs 
S 14.95. It's available di- 
rectly from the Reston 
Publishing Co., 11480 
Sunset Hills Rd., Reston, 
VA 22090, (800) 336- 
0338; in Virginia, (703) 
437-8900. 
Circle 570 on inquiry card. 



502 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



What's New? 



Bibliography Lists 
Computer Periodicals 

Microcomputing Peri- 
odicals: An Annotated 
Bibliography lists more 
than 400 computing maga- 
zines and newsletters. 
Periodicals covered touch 
all bases from general and 
specific applications, such 
as medicine, to individual 
products. Among the facts 
provided by this biblio- 
graphy are subscription 
address, frequency of pub- 
lication, and brief descrip- 
tions of contents, scope, 
and audience. An appen- 
dix of periodicals that have 
changed names or ceased 
publication and a subject 
index are included. 

Microcomputing Peri- 
odicals: An Annotated 
Bibliography is updated 
constantly. It's $ 1 5 from 
Microcomputing Periodi- 
cals, 53 Fraserwood Ave. 
#2, Toronto, Ontario M6B 
2N6, Canada. 
Circle 571 on inquiry card. 



Detailed 

Specifications Given 

in Catalog 

The Electronic Power 
Conversion Division of 
Gould Inc. has produced a 
1 6-page catalog describ- 
ing its line of Super Isola- 
tion Transformers and AC 
line conditioners in ratings 
from 1 10 VAC to 60 kVA. 
This free catalog has de- 
tailed technical descrip- 
tions of five different prod- 
uct lines. AC power-line 
problems and the appro- 
priate line-conditioning de- 
vice necessary to solve 



them are discussed. 

The Handbook of AC 
Power Problems is also 
available from Gould. It 
discusses in layman's 
terms power-line problems 
that plague computers. 
The handbook costs $4. 
Contact Gould Inc., Elec- 
tronic Power Conversion 
Division, 2727 Kurtz St., 
San Diego, CA 92 1 1 0, 
(714) 291-4211. 
Circle 572 on inquiry card. 



Z89/Z90 
Software Directory 

The Zenith Data Sys- 
tems Software Directory 

lists more than 400 pro- 
grams for Zenith Z89 and 
Z90 desktop computers. 
This directory has full-page 
outlines of accounting, 
agribusiness, communica- 
tions, database, graphics, 
inventory and time man- 
agement, word pro- 
cessing, and other soft- 
ware packages aimed at 
business users. Each entry 
lists the vendor's name 
and telephone number 
and provides a summary 
of the product's features, 
operating system require- 
ments, programming lan- 
guage, disk size and for- 
mat, number of drives, 
minimum memory, and 
whether source code is 
available. 

The Zenith Data Sys- 
tems Software Directory 
costs $25 at Zenith com- 
puter dealers and Heathkit 
Electronic Centers. Zenith 
Data Systems, 1000 Mil- 
waukee Ave., Glenview, 
IL 60025. 
Circle 573 on inquiry card. 



PERIPHERALS 



Intelligent Printer Option 



The Intelligent Graphics 
Processor (IPG) merges 
matrix line printing with 
microprocessor tech- 
nology. IPG enables Prin- 
tronix P-Series printers to 
perform a variety of func- 
tions ranging from forms 
generation, bar codes, 
and line or box segment 
graphics to stored logo 
graphics and overlays. 
Programming the IPG is 
said to be achieved with a 
simple data file and a com- 



mand format that's easy to 
understand and program. 
IPG is available as a 
factory-installed option or 
as an upgrade for 150-, 
300-, and 600-line-per- 
minute P-Series printers. 
The suggested price is 
$1495. For full particulars, 
contact Printronix Inc., 
1 7500 Cartwright Rd., 
POB 19559, Irvine, CA 
92713, (714) 549-7700. 
Circle 574 on inquiry card. 



Handprint Data 

First shipments of 
Pencept's Personal Pen- 
pad, which lets you hand- 
print data into your per- 
sonal computer, begin this 
month. Made up of a writ- 
ing tablet, a control unit, 
and an electronic pen, 
Penpad is purported to be 
able to recognize the full 
complement of alphabetic 
and numeric characters 
and 15 special characters 
such as dollar and equal 
signs. Designed to immedi- 
ately recognize hand- 
printed data, Penpad 
builds a memory image of 



to Your Computer 

a character by analyzing 
its shape as it is written. 
Each character shape is 
equivalent to 2000 bits of 
data, which is then further 
reduced to 7-bit ASCII 
code and displayed on a 
video screen. Penpad is 
equipped with function 
boxes that merely require 
a check for initialization. 
These function boxes can 
be predefined or specified 
for individual applications. 
Other standard features in- 
clude edit and delete capa- 
bilities. 

In single units, Personal 
Penpad costs $3500; 
quantity discounts are of- 
fered. Further details are 
available from Pencept 
Inc., 39 Green St., Wal- 
tham, MA 02154, (617) 
893-6390. 
Circle 575 on inquiry card. 




March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 503 



What's New? 




Vectrlx Unveils Color Graphics Line 



A line of color graphics 
systems built on the NEC 
GDC and the 1 6-bit 8088 
microprocessor has been 
released by Vectrix Cor- 
poration. Intended as a 
graphics display for a host 
computer and targeted at 
both the end-user and 
OEM (original equipment 
manufacturer) markets, 
the VX Series comprises 
two graphics processors, a 
1 3-inch RGB (red/green/ 
blue) monitor, a color 
printer, and a keyboard. 

The VX128 graphics 
processor has 627 by 480 
pixel resolution, serial and 
parallel interfaces, eight 
simultaneous colors, and 
three-dimensional vector 
graphics with rotation, 
scaling, translation, per- 
spective, clipping, view- 
port, polygons, and filled 
polygons. This system has 
the ability to mix graphics 
and characters using built- 
in user-definable char- 
acters. Bidirectional access 
to individual pixels is per- 
mitted. Also featured are 
graphics RAM (random-ac- 
cess read/write memory) 
and high-speed hardware 
generation of lines, arcs, 
and multiply or divide. 



An enhanced VX128, 
the VX384 gives you 5 1 2 
simultaneous colors for 
shading and bit-plane 
animation for three-dimen- 
sional solid modeling, 
presentation graphics, and 
image processing. 

Prices for optional 
equipment range from 
$295 to $1495. The 
VX128 costs $1995. The 
VX384 is available as an 
add-on board for the 
VX128 for S2000 or as a 
stand-alone unit for 
$3995. OEM discounts 
can be arranged. For 
details, contact Vectrix 
Corp., 700 Battleground 
Ave., Greensboro, NC 
27401, (800) 334-8181; in 
North Carolina, (919) 
272-3479. 
Circle 576 on inquiry card. 



Disk-Emulation 
System 

Semidisk, a high-capa- 
city disk-emulation system, 
is designed for Radio Shack 
TRS-80 Model lis, the IBM 
Personal Computer, and 



S- 1 00-bus-based systems. 
It's made up of a memory 
board that plugs into a 
single slot on the com- 
puter's bus and driver soft- 
ware. Like a disk, Semidisk 
gives you a directory and 
lets you read, write, exe- 
cute, or modify files. It can 
store 512K bytes of data 
and transfer data at a rate 
of 200K bytes per second. 
System highlights include 
an l/O-mapped hardware 
interface and a 64k-bit by 
1-bit dynamic RAM (ran- 
dom-access read/write 
memory) chip. All data 
enters Semidisk through 
four I/O ports that can be 
readdressed to any one of 
64 locations. Extended ad- 
dressing or bank-selecting 
techniques for storing data 
are not required. Up to 8 
megabytes of storage can 
be achieved with addition- 
al Semidisks. 

Semidisk software 
comes in a variety of for- 
mats, including 8-inch 
single-density floppy disk, 
8-inch TRS-80 Model \\ 
double-density disks, 
5 ] A -inch double-density 
North Star disks, and IBM 
Personal Computer 5/4- 
inch floppy disks. Inquiries 
about special formats are 
invited. It runs with the 
CP/M 2.2 operating sys- 
tem. For the IBM Personal 
Computer, it requires MS- 
DOS or CP/M-86. Includ- 
ing documentation and 
source code, Semidisk 
costs $1995, postpaid. A 
I -megabyte version is 
$2295, and the user's 
manual is $10. Contact 
Semidisk Systems, POB 
GG, Beaverton, OR 
97075, (503) 642-3100. 
Circle 577 on inquiry card. 




t, v c 



Modem Links IBM 

PC to Information 

Services 

Ven-Tel's PC Modem 
Plus is a communications 
package that connects the 
IBM Personal Computer to 
The Source, the Dow 
Jones News/Retrieval Ser- 
vice, and other informa- 
tion databases. The PC 
Modem Plus comprises a 
micro pro cess or- based 
auto-answer/auto-d/al 
300-bps (bit-per-secondj 
modem outfitted with a 
2K-byte buffer and an 
extra serial port, menu- 
driven communications 
software, and a standard 
modular telephone cable. 
It can operate in both half- 
and full-duplex modes and 
is said to be completely 
hardware- and software- 
compatible with the Per- 
sonal Computer. It plugs 
into the Personal Com- 
puter's chassis and can be 
expanded to 1 200-bps full- 
duplex (Bell 212A-com- 
patible) operation by 
means of a piggyback 
card. 

The PC Modem Plus has 
a suggested price of $389, 
which includes operating 
instructions. For full order- 
ing and technical informa- 
tion, contact Ven-Tel Inc., 
2342 Walsh Ave., Santa 
Clara, CA 95051, (408) 
727-5721. 
Circle 578 on inquiry card. 



504 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



What's New? 




Measurement and Control 
Systems for Apple and IBM Computers 



Data Acquisition Sys- 
tems is marketing a family 
of measurement and con- 
trol systems for the Apple II 
and the IBM Personal 
Computer. The DAS Series 
500 comprises four modu- 
lar units, each of which 
has the ability to accept up 
to 1 2 additional I/O library 
modules for applications 
flexibility. Standard system 
components and capabili- 
ties include software 
sampling rates surpassing 
20,000 samples per sec- 
ond for A/D (analog-to- 
digital) inputs, a real-time 
clock for time-stamping, 
three programmable inter- 
val timers, and internal 
power supplies. These 
devices can handle 15,000 
conversions per second at 
1 4 bits and offer integrated 
hardware and software 
capabilities. 

The general-purpose 
System 500 is said to be 
configurable for virtually 
any combination of A/D 
or D/A inputs and outputs. 
The System 510, a high- 
performance data-acquisi- 
tion system, is tailored for 
applications requiring A/D 
conversions. Purported to 
be a complete measure- 



ment and control unit, the 
System 520 has both A/D 
inputs and outputs and 
device-control capabilities. 
The System 530 features 
high resolution, low noise, 
and speed for accurate 
digitization and generation 
of complex analog signals. 

DAS Series 500 systems 
use a multitasking lan- 
guage known as Soft500. 
According to the manu- 
facturer, Soft500 extends 
Applesoft BASIC for data 
acquisition, measurement, 
and control functions. It 
consists of a real-time, 
interrupt-driven operating 
environment and more 
than 40 statements. For 
the IBM PC, Soft500 func- 
tions as an extended 
BASIC. This software sup- 
ports transparent data 
storage to 768K bytes 
with memory expansion 
cards for the Apple II or up 
to 1 megabyte for the PC. 

The Series 500 ranges in 
price from $2700 to 
$4400. For full specifica- 
tions, contact Data Ac- 
quisition Systems Inc., 349 
Congress St., Boston, MA 
022)0, (617) 423-7691. 
Circle 579 on inquiry card. 







Portable PC-Compatible 
Computer Kit 



The Colby PC-I Conver- 
sion Kit allows IBM Per- 
sonal Computer users to 
transfer the PC's capabili- 
ties into a 26-pound por- 
table unit. The kit includes 
a 9-inch high-resolution 
display, switching power 
supply, wire harness, and 
interface, enclosed in a 1 5- 
by 17- by 8/2 -inch case 
with a handle. PC-I is de- 
signed to operate with the 
PC's disk drive, system 
board, plug-in boards, and 
keyboard. The conversion 
is said to require less than 



one hour and can be per- 
formed at participating 
dealers. 

Future options for the 
PC-I include a modem, a 
snap-on keyboard, S ] A- 
inch dual disk-drive capa- 
bility, and a local network- 
ing system. The Colby PC-I 
costs $899. For pur- 
chasing information or 
specification sheets, con- 
tact Colby Computer, 2 
Palo Alto Square, Palo 
Alto, CA 94304, (415) 
493-7788. 
Circle 580 on inquiry card. 



Plug-in CP/M 
Interface for Apple 



Advanced Logic Sys- 
tems, in cooperation with 
Digital Research, has an- 
nounced a plug-in CP/M 
interface card that lets 
Apple II and Apple II Plus 
users run CP/M-com- 
patible applications soft- 
ware. The CP/M Card 
plugs directly into the 
Apple and provides an ad- 



ditional 64K bytes of 
memory. The card uses a 
6-MHz Z80B microproces- 
sor and has automatic 
bank switching with 
cache memory. It con- 
forms to standard Apple 
protocols for direct mem- 
ory access and interrupts. 
The package includes 
Digital Research's CP/M 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 505 






AN ASTRONOMICAL VALUE AND 



L 



CALL: (303) 279-2848 or (800) 525-7877 



m 



Mi 
18 



5sw 



THE COMPUTER LINE, INC. 

, GOLDEN, COLORADO 

Offer void outside the Milky Way 



Circle 112 on inquiry card.. 



What's New? 



Plus 3.0, CBASIC and 
GSX-80 CP/M software 
and menu-driven utilities 
from Advanced Logic 
Systems. 

The CP/M Card requires 
a 48K-byte Apple with 
two disk drives, DOS 3.3, 
and a video monitor with 



an 80-column card. It 
costs $399 and can be or- 
dered from Advanced 
Logic Systems, 1195 East 
Arques Ave., Sunnyvale, 
CA 94086, (408) 730- 
0306. 
Circle 581 on inquiry card. 



Hard Plastic Display Filters 



Optech video-display 
filters have a low-reflection 
surface that eliminates 
glare and provides opti- 
mum contrast and read- 
ability. These filters are 
made of hard plastic and 
are supplied with a gasket 
that seals out dust. Optech 



filters cost $30 and are 
available in a variety of 
sizes to fit most popular dis- 
plays. For details, contact 
SGL Homalite, 1 1 Brook- 
side Dr., Wilmington, DE 
19804, (302) 652-3686. 
Circle 582 on inquiry card. 




Video Cassette Learning Library 



The Video Cassette 
Learning Library from 
Stoneware is designed to 
teach new users of Apple 
\\/\\\ computers and IBM 
Personal Computers how 
to make their systems 
work. These video cas- 
settes offer a self-paced, 
hands-on approach that 
explains the operation of 
each computer. The cas- 
settes contain 10 chapters, 
which guide you from as- 



sembling your system to 
programming in BASIC. 
This series of how-to video 
cassettes was produced 
for Stoneware by Kennen 
Publishing. 

The Video Cassette 
Learning Library is avail- 
able in VHS or Beta for- 
mat. Each cassette is 
$ 1 20. Contact Stoneware 
Inc., 50 Belvedere St., San 
Rafael CA 94901. 
Circle 583 on inquiry card. 




Computer Work Centers 



Once A Tree is offering 
a line of computer fur- 
niture. All items come 
ready to assemble and are 
made from solid oak, hand 
rubbed with oil. A basic 
computer desk costs 
$249.95, a utility shelf is 
$39.95, and a printer 



stand is priced at S 1 64.95. 
Dealer inquiries are in- 
vited. Contact Once A 
Tree/Amaro & Son Inc., 
3192 Commercial St., San 
Diego, CA 92113, (619) 
421-0441. 
Circle 584 on inquiry card. 



Where Do New Products Items Come From? 

The information printed in the new products pages of BYTE is 
obtained from "new product" or "press release" copy sent by the 
promoters of new products. If in our judgment the information 
might be of interest to the personal computing experimenters and 
homebrewers who read BYTE, we print it in some form. We 
openly solicit releases and photos from manufacturers and sup- 
pliers to this marketplace. The information is printed more or less 
as a f irst-in first-out queue, subject to occasional priority modifica- 
tions. While we would not knowingly print untrue or inaccurate 
data, or data from unreliable companies, our capacity to evaluate 
the products and companies appearing in the "What's New?" 
feature is necessarily limited. We therefore cannot be responsible 
for product quality or company performance. 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 507 



SUPER-FAST! 

Z80 

DISASSEMBLER 

$69.95 



Uses Zilog Mnemonics, allows user defined 
labels, strings, and data spaces. Source or 
listing-type output with Xref to any device. 
Available for 280 CP/M or TRS-80. 



SLR Systems 

200 Homewood Drive 

Butler, PA 16001 

(412) 282-0864 



Add 32.00 shipping. Specify format required. 
Check, money order, VISA, Master Card, C.O.D. 
PA residents add 6% sales tax. Dealer Inquiries 
Invited. CP/M, TRS-80 TM of Digital Research. 
Tandy Corp. 



Circle 394 on Inquiry card. 



THE BURNER I/O 

HasacompleteEPROM programmer, two serial ports, 
one parallel I/O port with handshaking and memory 
management. 

Programmer features: • Programs 2704, 2708, 2508, 
2758, 2716, 2516, TMS2716, 2732. 2732A. 2764 • CP/M 
compatible software supplied in EPROM that can be 
easily written on a diskette. EPROM selection is done 
with software. Does not use programming modules 
• Programmer is totally I/O mapped • Programming 
socket is zero insertion force type • Programming 
voltages generated on board. 

I/O Features: • 2 fully independent RS-232 serial 
ports • Baud rate Generators are independently 
programmablefrom50to19200baud • Independents 
bitoutput, inputand status flags • 4direct sense lines. 
Memory management features: • Controls address 
lines A16-A23 • Is disabled with standard ADSB* 
signal. 

Options: • Complete board with programmer, I/O and 
memory management, $354.95 • Programmer only, 
$219.95 • I/O only. (2S ♦ P) $219.95 • Prog, and I/O, 
$329.95 • Memory management only $109.95. 
Memory management may be added to programmer 
or I/O for $25.00. All combinations are assembled and 
tested, Delivery Stock Shipping: UPS surface $3.00, 
UPS air $5.00. 

EXTENDED PROCESSING 

3861 Woodcreek Lane 

San Jose. Ca. 95117 

(408) 249-8248 



Circle 181 on Inquiry card. 



low IC Prices 



2716 S3 40 

5V2Kx8 EPROM 450ns 

2732 $4 10 

EPROM 450ns 

2764 $9 00 

EPROM 450ns 

6116P-3 $4 25 

CMOS2Kx8 static RAM 

80C85 S17 20 

CMOS 8085 CPU, with info 

Send for catalog. Quantity prices avail- 
able. Colorado residents add tax. Add $1 
shipping per order. Credit card OK. 



Colorado Chips 

P. O. Box 11 1 , Frisco, CO 80443 



Circle 483 on Inquiry card. 



Scotch Diskettes 

Rely on Scotch* diskettes to keep your valu- 
able data safe. Dependable Scotch diskettes 
are tested and guaranteed error-free. The low 
abrasivity saves your read/write heads, 
They're compatible with most diskette drives. 




(800)235-4137 



Dealer Inquiries 
Invited 




Circle 331 on Inquiry card. 






FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE 



i- ii 







is** | 

unSOF _ _. 



S " THOUSAj^poNlC fc 
?sUBfe^AHPE 



r^on^ 



p^e- 



Angelas' 



ft. 



\jo$* 



J 



Circle 13 on Inquiry card. 



SUPER I/O 

low Cost I/O Expansion Board 

Build and interface projects in minutes. 
Use with any Z80* « processor. Use / 
s'mple In/Dut instructions. No 
complicated controllers to init. 
Features l/Oormemory map. 
•32 byte wide channels. 
•16 Input/16 Output. 
•256bitsof 1/0. Op 
fans lor TRSr SIN- 
CLAIR* and Z80' 
socket inter- 
lace cables. A 




INTERFACE: 
Relays, lamps, 
breadboard proj- 
ects, uarls, modems, 
leds. motors, voice 
projects, emulate com- 
puter buses, robotics 
projects, real time con- 
trol, communication inter- 
laces. . .limited only by your 
imagination. 



WIN/MILL Reseorch, Inc. 

INNOVHTIV6 PRODUCTS FOR INNOVHTIV6 P6OPL6 
453 Crampton Avenuei ORDER PHONE (only) (702) 329-0441 
Reno. Nevada 89502 I For priority info, send SASE. 



Circle 457 on Inquiry card. 



DATA COMMUNICATIONS 

SPECIALISTS FOR 

IBM PC & SEATTLE 

COMPUTERS 

Teleprocessing software available for 
above computers to time-sharing host or 
between two users (send binary files, 
also). Version 2 software, $60; Version 3, 
IBM PC $95, SEATTLE $160. Write for 
deta ils or $3.00 for manuals. 

SEATTLE 8086 GAZELLE 

Computer system. 

SPECIAL PRICE for SEATTLE SYSTEM 
(desktop) +4-port serial board + cables + 
choice of Microsoft BASIC, Pascal, 
FORTRAN, or COBOL. 
Write for literature and prices on above 
systems, or call for quote. 

■CSCSi 

COMPUTER & STATISTICAL 
CONSULTING SERVICES 

P.O. Box 5351 

Terre Haute. IN 47805 

(812) 466-4111 



Circle 130 on Inquiry card. 



f L 



Relocatable 

Threaded 

Language 



$150 



RTL is a new language which retains the 
speed and extensibility of Forth but adds many 
additional advantages as a result of its more 
structured dictionary. Names, code, and vari- 
ables are all stored in separate areas for easy 
generation of headerless, romable code. All 
code is relocatable. RTL supports local vari- 
ables, multitasking, redirected I/O, and even 
allows definitions to be changed retroactively. 
All source code is included. Versions are cur- 
rently available or under development for 
68000, 6809, 8080, 280. 8086, 8088, and 
6502. 

RTL Programming Aids 

/ 0844 Deerwood SE 

Lowell, Ml 4933 1 

(616)897-5672 



Circle 410 on inquiry card. 



RanaSystems 



EliteOne 


$295 


EliteTwo 


$499 


EliteThree 


$649 


EliteController 


$ 89 



fgappki compute 



H ARDWAR E/SO FTWAR E 
GARDEN OF EDEN 

COMPUTERS 

13147 Cedar Street 
Westminster, CA 92683 

714-894-9528 

24 Hours — 7 Days 

Ask for our newest Price List 



Circle 186 on Inquiry card. 



VIDEO TERMINAL BOARD 82-018 



This is a complete stand alone Video Terminal board. 
All that is needed besides this board is a parallel 
ASCII keyboard, standard NTSC monitor, and a 
power supply. It displays 80 columns by 25 lines of 
UPPER and lower case characters. Data is transfer- 
red by RS232 at rates of 110 baud to 9600 baud — 
switch selectable. The UART is controlled (parity etc.) 
by a 5 pos. dip switch. 

Complete source listing is included in the documen- 
tation. Both the character generator and the CRT pro- 
gram are in 2716 EPROMS to allow easy modification 
to your needs. 

This board uses a 6502 Microprocessor and a 6545-1 
CRT controller. The 6502 runs during the horz. and 
vert, blanking (45% of the time). The serial input port 
is interrupt driven. A 1500 character silo is used to 
store data until the 6502 can display it. 




Features 

• 6502 Microprocessor 

• 6545-1 CRT controller 

• 2716 EPROM char. gen. 

• 2716 EPROM program 

• 4K RAM (6116) 



• 2K EPROM 2716 

• RS232 I/O for direct 
connection to computer 
or modem. 

• 80 columns x 25 line display 



Size 6.2" x 7.2" 

Output for speaker (bell) 

Power +5 700Ma. 

+ 12 50Ma. 

-12 50Ma. 



BAUD RATE 

GENERATOR 
110-9600 



PARALLEL 
KEYBOARD 

INPUT 

(TTL) 



VIDEO TERMINAL 
82-018 



UART 



¥$ 



VIDEO 
DISPLAY 
CIRCUIT 



COMPOSITE 
VIDEO 



SPEAKER 
(BELL) 



OUT IN 
RS232 I/O 



+5 +12 



-12 GND. 



This board is available assembled and tested, or bare board with the two EPROMS 
and crystal. 

Assembled and tested #82-01 8A $199.95 

Bare board with EPROMS and crystal #82-018B $ 89.95 

Both versions come with complete documentation. 







#249 



ALL PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE FROM JOHN BELL ENGINEERING, INC. • 1014 CENTER ST., SAN CARLOS, CA 94070 
ADD SALES TAX IN CALIFORNIA • ADD 5% SHIPPING & HANDLING 3% FOR ORDERS OVER $100 

(415) 592-8411 1 ™ $ 7 5 T % D o E R ^ A D 

WILL CALL HOURS: Sam ■ 4pm ADD $1 - 50 F0R C0D ' 



SEND $1.00 FOR CATALOG 



Circle 48 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



509 



NEW! M-68OO0 
SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER 



: "\1i 



M 

•■•■.•v.t 1. 



fkatuhesi 

I6 bit Motorola 6S000 CI'U npentlnK A lOMHi, 20K bytesofon board fui iutk RAM, 
I6K byt« of on boird KPHOM spier. 7 levels of prioritied iuto«cclor<d Intrrmpls, 
2 memory expansion buses (up lo 2S6K). 2 serial communication ports (RS-2 J2C). 
16-bitbidireclionalparallelpori, 6S 00 peripheral accomodalionbtts.Sxtt-bllcounler/ 
timers with vectored interrupts, on board real lime clock, software compatible with 
Motorola MEX68KOM board. 
PRICE. 

Bare board with documenlation 199.9S 

MEX6SKDM compatible monitor In 2764 EPRO.M's SI20.M 

M6S0OT CPU Ic memory map PROM Jl 15.00 

Shipping and handling (Domestic) J3.00 

(Forei(n> SIS.00 

ML Frm, 9 Et™"*" 7 1 4-553-0 1 33 

POBOXItllS IRVINE. CA 927U61IS 



THE SORT 11 






General Son and Merge Utility 

Created exclusively for the IBM Personal Computer 

$95 

THE SORT SORTS: 

• BASIC. PASCAL. FORTRAN 
COBOL and MailMerge files 

• sequential, random files 

• records organized by ilems and lines 

• for all common data types(string-text. 
integer, real, double precision) 

• for all common data types (sti ing-text, 
integer, real, double precision) 

• external and internal data 
representations 

• interactive parameter preparation 

• record selection 

Requires 48 K and one disk drive 

Also OMS SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SERIES 

A. PASCAL SCREEN UNIT • Access screen and 
keyboard from Pascal program • WO 

B PASCAL DOUBLE PRECISION ARITHMETIC 
PACKAGE - Increase your Pascal 
integer arithmetic precision to 32 bits! $40 

C. UTILITY PACKAGE- converts videomodes. 
opens communication lines, speeds up 
1/0. Sets Epson and NEC tabs S25 
'Registered trademark of IBM. 

Send order with check/money order to 

ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. INC. 

3 Chickory Court, Glen Arm. Md. 21057 

(301)668-9011 

MD residents include 5% sales tax 



NEW PRODUCT! 




CP/M Z80-A 
SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER 

• On board video • Wide line ond thin line graphics 

• 128K of RAM • Sasi interface • Floppy disk con- 
troller for up to four 5-1/4 and four 8 inch drives, 
single/double density simultaneously • 4 serial 
ports • Full Centronics printer port • Expansion 
bus • Extended track buffer • 16K printer buffer 

• DMA • Compact size (8-1/4 x 12-1/4) 

tKr>r\r\ r\r\ on orders placed and poid for 
obUU UU prfor fo March 1, 1983 FOB Los 
v Angeles, CA S7.00 shipping 

INSIGHT ENTERPRISES. CORPORATION 

373 N. Western Ave.. Suite 12, 7/' l = r /~ 

Los Angeles, CA 90004 (213)461-3262 J' c {= 

Dealer. OEM. International Inquiries Welcome 



Circle 166 on Inquiry card 



Circle 325 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 211 on Inquiry card. 



MicroScripf* 



Are you wasting valuable lime trying to format complex 
documents with a word processor or obsolete text formatter? 

MicroScripr™ is a state of the art text formatter specifical- 
ly designed for the production of technical manuals, specifica- 
tions, and other complex documents. This powerful tool pays 
for itself the first time you use it. Featuring: 

• generalized markup • floating text blocks 

• left alignment • footnotes 

• center alignment • variable line spacing 

• right alignment • widow supression 

• justification • section numbering 

• left indention • imbedded documents 

• right indention • automatic lists 

• bold text • macro processing 

• underscored text • symbol processing 

• proportional spacing • table of contents 

• fully definable page • direct printer control 

• multiple columns • initialization profile 

• headers and footers • page numbering 

$99 postpaid within U.S., outside U.S. add S10. CA residents add 
6%. Specify CP/M-80*. CP/M-86', MS-DOS', or PC-DOS'; printer 
type; disk lormat. 

Software Technique™ 

6531 Crown Blvd., Suite 3A • San Jose, CA 95120 

(408) 997-5026 

' CP/M-80, CP/M-85 trademarks ol Oigital Research, MS-DOS 
trademark ol Microsolt. PC-DOS trademark of IBM Corporation 



g^ScotaK 

3M 



DISKETTES 



Call Toll-Free 
1-800-328-DISC for prices and infor- 
mation. Dealer inquiries invited. 
C.O.D. and charge cards accepted. 
All orders shipped from stock, within 24 
hours. Call toll FREE 




W 



North Hills Corporation 

3564 Rolling View Dr. 

White Bear Lake, MN 55110 

1-800-328-DISC 

MNCall Collect 1-612-770-0485 



TM 



PC/FORTH 

Complete FORTH program development systems 
for the IBM® Personal Computer. Packages 
include interpreter/compiler with virtual memory 
management, line editor, custom screen editor, 
assembler, decompiler, utilities, file and record 
access modules, and many demonstration pro- 
grams. 1 50 page user manual $ 1 00.00 

Software floating point, Intel 8087 support, color 
graphics extensions, and target compiler avail- 
able at additional cost. 

Specify PC-DOS or CP/M-86®. One disk drive 
and 48 kbytes RAM required. Software supplied 
on 574 inch single sided soft sectored double 
density diskettes. 

Laboratory Microsystems 

4147 Beethoven Street 
Los Angeles, CA 90066 
(213) 306-7412 



Circle 399 on inquiry card. 



Circle 314 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 241 on Inquiry card. 




v . Forthe 

^tjfl'lr IBMPCand 
'•*fci/ CP/M-86. 

*±W 8087 CHIP $223 

APPLICATIONS 

FFTs $75 

MATRIXPAK $75 

87/88 GUIDE VOLUME I . . .$19.95 

LANGUAGE SUPPORT 

87MACRO™ $150 

87BASKT $150 

87PASCAL™ $150 

87FORTRAN~ $150 

IBM Personal Computer is a registered trademark 

ot IBM Corp CP/M-86 is a trademark ot Digital Re- ^JJ^ 

search, Inc 8087 is a irademark ot Intel Corp ■ 

87/88GUIDE.87MACR0 87BASIC 87PASCAL 
87FORTRAN and MicroWare are trademarks ol 
MiCroWare Inc. 



Micro 
Ware 



P.O. Box 79 
Kingston, MA 

02364 

(617)746-7341 



DISKETTES 

AND 

DISKETTE DUPLICATION 

DISKETTES (Hub Ring/Write Protect) 

Certified 100% error free 

Box ot 10 

5V< Single Side/Single Density S17.50 

Single Side/Double Density 20.00 

Double Side/Double Density 24.00 

8 Single Side/Single Density 2000 

Single Side/Double Density 2550 

Double Side/Double Density 30.00 

Specify soft. 10 or 16 sector on 5'/« diskettes 
Shipping S1.50 (Cal add tax) 
Money Order/VISA/MasterCard/C.O.D 
DUPLICATION 

• Duplication services — all popular formats 

• All services performed on latest technically 
advanced equipment 

• Prices start at 51 90. including diskette 
Please write for full description of all Hoflman 
services and prices. 

fir Hoffman 

COMPUTCR PRODUCTS 

.1720 FLOWER AVE ■ DUARTE.CA 91010 



!fc 



CALL 
8003431078 

FOR THE 
BEST PRICE 

Call P.R.I.C.E. for big savings 
on home computers, software, video 
cassette recorders, car stereo, home 
stereo, portable radios and tape 
recorders, cordless telephones, and 
answering machines, video games, 
tapes, and movies. 

P.R.I.C.E. willbeatanylegitimate 
offer on in-stock items. Call our toll- 
free number now! 800-343-1078. 
In Mass. 617-961-2400. 

PRICE 



Circle 288 on inquiry card. 



Circle 201 on inquiry card. 



Circle 330 on inquiry card. 



DECADES OF SERVICE 



Washington Computer Services 



97 Spring Street 
New York, New York 10012 
TO ORDER: CALL OUR TOLL-FREE NUMBER: (800)221-5416 
In N.Y. State and for technical information: (212) 226-2121 

HOURS: 9 AM-5:30 PM (EST) Monday- Friday 



anaffNiateof (C?^™))) est. 1912 

CUSTOM COMPUTER ROOM WIRING SINCE 1960 



TELEX: 12-5606 CABLE: WASHC0MP NYK 



FULLY CONFIGURED BUSINESS SYSTEMS 

The following are some examples of the fully assembled and tested business and 
scientific computer systems which we offer: 

The Premier Multi-User Computer System CALL 

) 8000 SX, multi-user, multi-processor, turbo DOS FOR 

~r"aT^Il CPM 2.2. FULL 2 YEAR WARRANTY! CONFIGURATION 

5000IS, S-100 desk top mainframe 

On-Site Service Contracts Available 



Where Do You Turn To Solve Your Computer Puzzle? 




MICRODECISION 



from below S1200 



8088/8055-Runs both 8 & 16 bit software. Green or high res. 

color. CP/M, MS-DOS 
<k rw^S* APC-8086, 16 bit, 128K, 8" DRIVES, Optional 1024x1024 Color 
[Vfc, V' Graphic, 32 bit F.P. Proc. MS DOS. CP/M 86 from S3295 

PC-8800 Personal Computer software 



TURN TO US! 

We'll show you 

the easiest way 

to put the 

pieces together. 



Matched, Compatible, Proven- 
Use Someone Else's Engineering to Supplement Yours. 





The Professional's Work Station 
NEC on N.Y.S. Contract #P-07220 

68000 16 bit multi-user, S-100. UNIX V. 7 
8086 16 bit, 128K RAM, S-100. Syst. #2 



SCALL 
S3499 



XEROX 

mm 



MORROW 
DESIGNS 

ALTOS 



Over 2000 business, scientific, professional applications & educational packages are 
available. Call with your requirements for our advice or a quotation. 

8" DISK DRIVE SALE NOW! 

$540 2 for $1025 

$550 2 for $1050 
$350 



8"SHUGARTSA801R $385 8"SHUGARTSA851R 
QUME DATATRACK 8 or MITSUBISHI 
Enclosure, power supply for 2 8" drives A & T 



NorthStar 



8 & 16 BIT BOARDS 
& SYSTEMS 

SCION MicroAngelo Hi Res Graphics Systems SCALL 

Similar savings on SSM, DELTA, DYNABYTE, TELEVI0E0, 0IGIAC, ADOS, DEC. 
DATA GEN., ATARI, TECHMAR, EPSON, AND MANY OTHERS 



MORROW 



PRINTERS 



Teletype 40. 300 LPM-typerwriter quality, RS-232 
interface. This quality printer is available in many 
configurations including forms access, quietized case, etc. 



r TT 



from Only 
$3200 



MORROW DISCUS 20 
VISTA 

HARD DISK SPECIALS 

CORVUS 
TERMINALS 

TELETYPE 
TELEVIDE0 
LEAR SIEGLER 



CP/M® MICROSOFT BASIC, C0NT. 



ItTTT-^l 



M* c 



$950 
$CALL 



XCOMP 



PMMIM00EM 
ADDS 

ANN ARBOR 
VISUAL 



IBM 3101 
DIGITAL EQUIP. 
HAZELTINE 



$359 



CORP. 



Teletype 43 

ANADEX DIABLO 

CENTRONICS EPSON 

C. ITOH FACIT 

DATA PRODUCTS OKI DATA 

DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. OLIVETTI 

INTERGRAL DATA SYS. QANTEX 



from $995 
MANNESMANN TALLY 
NEC AMERICA 
QUME 

SMITH CORONA 
TELETYPE 
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 



AMPEX Dialogue 81™ 

Int eractive Te rminal 
^ | • Full cursor control 
m H j "Full editing keys 
^ ^M ) • Full visual attributes 
-:Mjm*2 pages (4 page 
optional) 
'Printer port 
Black & White, Green, or 
Amber screen 





$ 795 



NEW! 
QUME QVT 102 
$669 



FIRST OF A NEW 
GENERATION 



PI FA^FI Do not confuse us with mail order dealers. We are a 
r LCHOL. f U || service distributor serving the data processing & 
installation needs of business & industry from micros to mainframes. 
System houses, educational institutions & governmental agencies given 
special consideration. Leasing available. 



N.Y. State agencies, municipali- 
ties, and schools — call us for 
information on our O.G.S. term 
contracts on hardware & software. 



DEALER and INTERNATIONAL INQUIRIES WELCOME 



For fast delivery, send certified check, money order or call to arrange direct bank wire transfer. Personal or company checks require two to three weeks to 
clear. Prices subject to change without notice: call for latest prices. Prices include 3% cash discount. N.Y. residents add sales tax. Qantex is a trademark of 
North Atlantic Industries, Inc. CP/M® is a trademark of Digital Research. All sales subject to our standard safe conditions (available on request). Call for 
shipping charges. Above prices do not include customization or installation. 

Circle 451 on Inquiry card. byte March 1983 511 



SAVE$$$ 

IBM^-PC USERS 
Buy 512K RAM Card I Serial Port 
direct from the manufacturer 
COMPARE OUR PRICES 

RAM Card 64K populated, expandable to 512K $239 

RAM Card 128K populated, expandable lo 512K S319 

RAM Card 256K populated, expandable 1o512K $479 

RAM Card 512K populated $799 

Tandon 100-2 DS/DD Drive $249 

Above each RAM Card wilh RS232C Port, add $80 

Expansion Kit 64KB(testcci). only $70 

LOOK AT THESE FEATURES! 

♦ Multilayer Board for Low Noise 

■ Socketed lor Easy Upgrade to 512K memory 

• One Year Warranty • Fully Tested 

■ Parity Generate/Check - Error Delecting Capability 

♦ Fully compahble with IBM- PC Software & Hardware Specs 

* Easy lo Follow Instructions Included • No Wait States 

■ Serial Port may be Configured as COM! or COM2 

■ Address Flexibility - Each 64K Block is Address Selectable 
lor any Base Address 

Dealers inquiries welcome • Add $5 lor Shipping • California Rest 
dent. Add 6% Sales lax 

Call or Send CheckvMoney Order to: 

MK Research 

14682 Orange Acres • Irvine, California 92714 
Telephone: (714)559-1598 



OlttMdeo USERS! 

COGITATE Fast Dump/Restore System for TS 
802h\806. 

• Back-up files twice as fast as PIP. 

• Double the storage, up to 700K/diskette, with 
muftrplediskette capability .$90.00 

COGITATE Type Ahead With Print Screen 

• Print key prints screen. 

• 64charactertypeaheadbuffer $90.00 

TurboDOS 

• MULTI-USER $750.00 

•SEMINARS $250.00 

CP/M® is registered trademark ol Digital Research. Inc. 

TurboOOS is a registered trademark ot Software 2000, Inc. 

PLUS OTHER GOOD TELEVIOEO STUFF! 



COGITATE, Inc. 

SPECIALISTS IN UNIQUE TELEVIOEO SOFTWARE 

24000 Telegraph Road, Southfield, Ml 48034 
(313) 352-2345 

VISA/MASTER CARO Accepted 



Maxell Floppy Disks 

The Mini-Disks 
with maximum quality. 





Dealer inquiries 
invited. C.O.D's 
accepted. Call 
FREE (800) 235-4137. 

PACIFIC EXCHANGES 

100 Foothill Blvd.. San Luis 
San Luis Obispo. CA 93401 . 
In Cal. call (800) 592-5935 or 
(805)543-1037 



Circle 290 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 81 on inquiry card. 



Circle 331 on inquiry card. 



BASF 

FlexyDisks® 



5V4" 

Specify soft, 
10 or 16 sector 



Price/10 Price/100 



1 side/double density 

2 sided/double density 



S20.00 
34.50 



$1 85.00 
325.00 



8 



If Specify soft 
or 32 sector 



Price/10 Price/100 



1 side/single density S21.00 $195.00 

1 side/double density 29.50 275.00 

2 sided/double density 34.50 325.00 
Certified Check - Money Order - Personal Check 
Allow up to 2 weeks for personal checks to clear. 
Add S1.50 to each order for UPS. shipping charges. 

NJ Residents add 5% NJ Sales Tax 

280 Dukes Parkway, P.O. Box 85 
Somerville, NJ. 08876 • (201) 725-6680 

Dealer Inquiries Invited 



ANALOG** DIGITAL 
DIGITAL** ANALOG 

CONVERSION MODULES 

SOFTWARE 
GAIN CONTROL 



srsion tune - mixcible high and low inputs - gain 

1 to 1024 - IP bit '.(lrnplrtonrJ hold amplifier 
nnn(vl c)iffcu'.niinl - 16-chonncl onplog to, oigital 

(Kdiinm - programmable gain instrumentation 
ilifier ■ «r»iom bnnnl to'.i - S 100 - 2 to 15 khz 



- 12-bit 
B-channel differential - 
high accuracy P rf J9V 



sample and hold amplifier 
S dvvinet - analog to digital 



For additional details about the AD-100-4 and other 
fine California Data Corporation 100% Individually 
tested, high reliability products, circle the reader 
service card number below or for faster response 
write or call us. 

CALIFORNIA DATA 
CORPORATION 

3475 Old Conejo Road, Suite C-10 
Newbury Park, CA 91320 

(805) 498-3651 



m? 



] 4d% 








*° x oT° e 



COMPARE... THEN CALL 



(615)727-6000 

SYSTEM ED 
-, CORPORATION 

" P.O. Box 18, Mountain City, TN 37683 



Circle 137 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 69 on inquiry card. 



Circle 380 on inquiry card. 



S-lOO Single Board 
WINCHESTER 

EASY DISK CONTROLLER" 




• Works with any S-lOO CPU + IEE 696 

• Supports 5W\ 8" and 14" Drives 
ST-506. SA-IOOO. SA-4000 Interfaces 

• Record Accessible 1-K sector buffer 
frees host memory, matches DMA speed 

• On-board microprocessor- auto seeks, 
simple, very small software driver 

• Dealers and Distributors invited 
Assembled and tested with formatter/test 
program and operating system drivers. 
VISA. MasterCard - specify drive - $545. 

Monitor Dynamics, Inc. 

1121 West Ninth St. • Upland. CA 91786 

(714) 985-7214 



SW Floppy Disk Drives 

(Direct IBM® Plug-in) 

TANDON Model TM 100-1 . $189* ea. 
TANDON Model TM 100-2 . $269* ea. 
12" Green Phospher Zenith Monitor $109* ea. 

IBM EXPANSION 
BOARDS 

64K Memory $275* ea. 

128K Memory $375* ea. 

192K Memory $450* ea. 

256K Memory $510* ea. 

Floppy Controller $180* ea. 

16K System BD Memory . $ 25* ea. 
MC / VISA or C.O.D. with certified check 
or money order. Arkansas residents add 
sales tax. 

For information or orders, call 

501-777-9859 

G-H Computer Systems, Inc. 

P.O. Box 871 • Hope, AR 71801 

' Plus Shipping. 



$99 SINGLE BOARD 
COMPUTER/CONTROLLER 




MODEL MCG-85 FEATURES: 



-Automatic Baud Rate 
-5 Interrupts 
-14 Bit Counter/Timer 
-Onboard Prototyping 
-6.144 MHz Crystal 
-Onboard Expansion 

* 4K ROM &Vor 

* 4K RAM or CMOS RAM 



-8085A CPU 

-2K System Monitor 

ROM 
-256 Bytes of RAM 
-RS232C Port 
-Parallel &. Serial I/O 
-Two 8 Bit Prog Ports 
-One 6 Bit Prog Port 
-4V2 x 6'/2 PCB 

STOCK $99 Kit $135 A&.T. 

Expansion Boards available. Visa, M.C., Amex & 
COD accepted. 

ATLANTIS COMPUTERS 

31' 14 Broadway 

Astoria, NY. 11106 

212/728-6700 



Circle 292 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 185 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 36 on inquiry card. 



TRAKSTOR. 

Your Specialty 
Store For Drives 

LOW, LOW, PRICES!! 

HIGH PERFORMANCE REMEX FLOPPY DISK DRIVES 




5)4" DISK DRIVES 

RFD 480 $275 

double sided/double density 48 tpi 
(SA450/TA 101-2 compatible) 

RFD 960 $345 

double sided/double density 96 tpi 
(S A460/TA 101-4 compatible) 

DC brushless spindle motors for longer life— 
30,000 hours MTBF! 

Specify standard bezel or low profile 
2/3 height 

TO ORDER: CALL TOLL FREE (800) 358-4888, 
CALL (800) 358-4798 in California 

TERMS: VISA, MG BAC, Check, Money Order -U.S. funds 
only Prices include sales tax. Shipping and handling 
charges: $3.00 for first 3 lbs. plus 35c for each additional 
lb. Orders over 50 lbs. sent freight collect. 

Shipping weights: 8" drive - 16 lbs.; 5^" drive - 4 lbs. 



8" DISK DRIVES 

RFD 2000 $295 

single sided/double density 
(SA 801R compatible) 

RFD 4000 $395 

double sided/double density 
(SA 851R compatible) 

FREE TECHNICAL MANUAL WITH 
EVERY ORDER 




TRAKSTOR 

2991 White Star 
Anaheim, C A 92686 



Circle 153 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 513 



SMITH-CORONA TP-I 

Letter Quality 




• SERIAL OR 
PARALLEL INTERFACE 

• MICROPROCESSOR ELECTRONICS 



ORDER 

TOLL FREE 

FREE SHIPPING 



$569 



(800) 531-5475 (if outside of Texas) 
(512)250-1523 (in Texas] 

CompuAdd Corp. 

13010 Research Blvd. No. 218 

Austin, Texas 78705 



5 'A" Tandon Drives 



• TM 100-1 $189 

(single sided, 40 TRK, single Free 

or double density) Shipping 

•TM 100-2 $259 

(double sided, 40 TRK/side Free 

single or double density) Shipping 

• TM 100-4 $349 

(double sided, 80 TRK/side Free 

96 TPI, double density] Shipping 

ORDER - TOLL FREE 

1 -800-53 1 -5475 (If outside of Texas) 

(512) 250-1523 (If inside of Texas) 

"If we can't ship the next working day, 
we won't take the order." 

Master Card/Visa or check. 
Texas Residents add 5% sales tax. 



CompuAdd Corp. 

1 30 1 Research Blvd -#218 
Austin, Texas 78750 



Atlantic Cabinet Computer Furniture 




A complete range of quality work stations 
designed specifically to house ail micro- 
computers. 

1 Delivered heavily packed, in self-assembly 
form needing only a Phillips screwdriver and 
a few minutes of your time to assemble. 

1 Manufactured from 1" all wood particle 
board surfaced with hard-wearing melamine 
veneer, in Oak or Walnut. 

> Dealer and Distributor inquiries welcome. 

1 For more information, contact your local 
dealer, write or call Atlantic Cabinet (301) 
223-8900. 

ATLANTIC CABINET CORPORATION 

P.O. Box 100, Williamsporl, Maryland 21795 



Circle 89 on inquiry card. 



Circle 90 on inquiry card. 



Circle 35 on inquiry card. 



EDGE-86 

AN INDUSTRIAL QUALITY 
8086 OEM SYSTEM 




• HARDWARE 

—A Multibus* COMPATIBLE 8086 CPU BOARD 
WITH DMA FLOPPY CONTROLLER, INTERRUPT 
CONTROLLER, PROGRAMMABLE TIMERS, 3 
SERIAL PORTS, TWO PARALLEL I/O PORTS, AND 
8K BYTES OF PROM WITH BOOT STRAP 
LOADER FOR CPM/86™. 

- 128K BYTES DYNAMIC RAM BOARD. 

-4-SLOT MULTIBUS CARD CAGE, WITH COM- 
PLETE DOCUMENTATION AND SCHEMATICS; 
ALL FOR $1250. 

• SOFTWARE 

- CPM/86 O.S. WITH COMPLETE UTILITIES . . . $250. 

—OFF THE SHELF DELIVERY— 

3KE MICRO SYSTEMS 

195 W. EL CAMINO REAL, SUNNYVALE, CA 94086 
TELEPHONE: 408-738-4729 

• Multibus TM Of Intel. ,M CPM/86 TM ol Digital Research. 



MEMOREX 

Flexible Discs 




BEST PRICES 
IN THE U.S. 

Call for our special dealer 
program. C.O.D.'s accepted. 
TOLL FREE (800) 652-8168 
In California (213) 901-8881 



m 



U.S. EXCHANGE 

14831 Bessemer St. 

Van Nuys. CA 91411-2773 




V 



With the new ASCI Four Port intelligent 
switch 9ll your RS-232C networking 
problems can he solved Whenever 
your switching applications the ASCI 
Switch allows you to switch with ease. 
Because the switch is intelligent it 
allows you to change between peri- 
pherals from your keyboard. The code 
can even be imbedded in your text. 
When you consider the lime you 
saved due to the simplicity of install- 
ation, the elimination of extra cabling 
and the exclusion of knob turning the 
ASCI Four Porl intelligeni switch is the 
perfect way to expand your net- 
working capabilities. 



ft 



Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. 

PO BOX Q • ALTADENA. CALIFORNIA91001 
(213)793-8971 



Circle 164 on inquiry card. 



Circle 439 on inquiry card. 



Circle 10 on Inquiry card. 







ELIZA IS HERE! 


New Sources of S-100 Bus 






AT LAST! A FULL IMPLEMENTATION of the original ELIZA 






program is now available to run on your microcomputer! 


Mainframes & Disk 




Created at MIT in 1966. ELIZA has become the world's most 


Enclosures 




celebrated artificial intelligence demonstration program. ELIZA is 




a non-directive psychotherapist who analyzes each statement as 






you type it in and then responds with her own comment or question 


Power Regulation 




— and her remarks are often startlingly appropriate! 




Designed to run on a farge mainframe. ELIZA has hitherto been 


meeting previous standards 




unavailable to personal computer users except in greatly stripped 
down versions lacking the sophistication which made the original 
program so fascinating. 

Now, our new microcomputer version possessing the FULL power 


Ann Arbor Terminals 




and range of expression of the original is being offered at the 
introductory price of only $25. And if you want to find out how she 
does it (or teach her to do more) we will include the complete 


60 Lines Display 




Source Program for only $20 additional. 




Order yourcopy of ELIZA today and you'll never again wonder how 


48 Programmable Keys 




to respond when you hear someone say "Okay, let's see what this 
computer of yours can actually do!" 


1,499 prepaid 




ELIZA IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING DISK FORMATS: 

1. Standard 8 inch single density (or all CP/M based computers 
S25 tor ELIZA COM - add S20 for Microsoft BASIC-BOSource 
2 5V. inch CP/M lor ApplR II equipped with Z-80 SoftCard 


CALL FOR PRICES 




S25 (or ELIZA.COM - aod S20 lor Microsoft BASIC-BO Source 
3 5V< inch tor 4BK Apple II with Applesotl ROM and DOS 3.3 

S25 lor Protected File - add S20lor Applesolt Source J 


MICRO MIDWEST 




4. 5'< inch for64K IBM Personal Computer 

S25 (or Protected File - add $20 lor IBM Disk BASIC Source 


10205 W. 69 TERR. 




5. 5'< inch (or Osborne I Microcomputer 

S25 for Protected File - add S20 (or Microsoft BASIC-80 Source 


MERRIAM, KS. 66203 




ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH GROUP 

921 NORTH LA JOLLA AVENUE 


913-362-3462 




[■H LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90046 jflMh, 
| WW (213)656-7368 (213)654-2214 B|| 






MC. VISA and CHECKS ACCEPTED 







** SUPER™ 1V1V 
ISA's DATABASE 

The only DBMS with all these features: 

• PROVEN in one year of test marketing 

• TOUGH, reliable file structure 

• MENU driven for simplicity and easy use 

• ARITHMETIC with stored calculations 

• FAST set-up and report formating 

• CLEAR user-oriented documentation 

• PRINTS totals & subtotals - mail labels 

• REFORMATS and merges data files 

• MULTI-DISK files: Up to 128K records 

• SORTS full disks on up to 40 fields 

• PRODUCTION input of repetitive data 

• USE existing data files 

• COUPLES to word processors 

• POSTS transactions to master file 

• SEARCH by strings, ranges, comparisons 

• DATA COMPRESSION: Over twice as 
many labels as the other system 

ForTRS-80* Models I, II, III, & 16 - 250.00 
CP/Mt - 295.00 

Ask your Dealer or Write: 

Institute for Scientific Analysis, Inc. 

P. O. Box 7186, Dept. B-2 

Wilmington, DE 19803 (215)358-3735 

*T.M. Tandy Corp. f T.M. Digital Research 



Circle 274 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 32 on inquiry card. 



Circle 212 on inquiry card. 



WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD 



TERMINALS 



Zenith ZT-1 
Zenith Z-1 9 
Televideo910+ 
Televideo 925 
Televideo950 
Sanyo CRX-1100 



$595.00 
$679.00 
$599.00 
$779.00 
$979.00 
CALL 



COMPUTERS 

Sanyo MBC1 000 64K CALL 

Sanyo MBC 1200 CALL 

Sanyo MBC 2000 dual 5 1 /»" CALL 

Sanyo MBC 3000 dual 8" CALL 

Sanyo MBC4000 16 BIT CALL 
ALLSANYO COMPUTERS INCLUDE 
WordStar, MailMerge, CalcStar, SpellStar. InfoStar 

Franklin Ace 1 000 64K CALL 

Franklin Ace 1 200 128K CALL 
Call for our Special System Packages! 



TELECOMMUNICATIONS 



Novation Cat 

Novation J Cat 

Novation D Cat 

Novation Apple Cat 

Novation Apple Cat 1200 baud 

Novation Smart Cat 

Novation Smart Cat 1200 baud 

Hayes Micromodem II 

Hayes Smai tmodem 

Hayes Smartmodem 1200 baud 

Hayes Chronograph 

Signalman Mark I 

Signalman— IBM 



$139.00 
$119.00 
$155.00 
$299.00 
$629.00 
$199.00 
$495.00 
$299.00 
$239.00 
$569.00 
$229.00 
$89.00 
$189.00 



DISKETTES 

Verex5V4" 

Verbatim 5Vz" 

Verbatim 8" 

Verbatim Head Cleaning Diskette 

Maxell MD1 5V«" 

Maxell MD2 5V<" 

Maxell FD1 8" 

Maxell FD2 8" 

5Va" File Box 

8" File Box 



$23.95 
$26.95 
$36.95 
$9.95 
$29.95 
$44.95 
$37.95 
$44.95 
$19.95 
$21.95 



MONITORS 



Sanyo 9" B&W 

Sanyo 9" Green 

Sanyo 12" B&W 

Sanyo 12" Green 

Sanyo 13" Color 

SMD 13" Color 

Comrex 13" Color 

Amdek 13" Color 

Zenith 13" Color RGB 

Zenith 12" Green 

Electrohome 1 3" Color RGB 

Taxan 1 2" Amber 

Taxan 12" Green 

Taxan 1 2" Medium Res Color 

Taxan 12" Hi Res Color 



$159.00 
$165.00 
$179.00 
$199.00 
$399.00 
$339.00 
$329.00 
$329.00 
$589.00 
$99.00 
$599.00 
$139.00 
$129.00 
$319.00 
$529.00 



The CPU Computer Corporation 
Announces: 

CPUnet 

The Local Area Network that uses 

real CP/M '" for Apples. CPUnet '" 

allows you to run hundreds of 

popular CP/M" programs, on your 

Apple terminals, without disk drives! 

Call for more information. 

$2995.00 



APPLE ACCESSORIES 

16K Card by Microsoft $79.00 

32K Card by Saturn $1 99.00 

64K Card by Saturn $419.00 

128K Card by Saturn $585.00 

SoftCard Plus by Microsoft CALL 

Keyboard Enhancer by Videx $125.00 

Videoterm by Videx $259.00 

Game Paddle by TG $49.00 

Joystick by TG $49.00 

PkasolD-12Card $159.00 

PkasoEP-12Card $159.00 

PkasoAP-12Card $159.00 

PkasoNE-12Card $159.00 

System Saver by Kensington $75.00 

Microbuffer I1 1 6K (Apple) $229.00 

Microbuffer II 32K (In Line) $259.00 

Microbuffer II 64K(lnLine) $319.00 

Add-Ram 1 6K by ALS $79.00 

Z-Card w/CPM by ALS $225.00 

Z-Card 64K by ALS $299.00 

Smarterm by ALS $249.00 

Smarterm II by ALS $149.00 

Dirt Cheap Video by ALS $75.00 

Color II Card by ALS $149.00 



APPLE SOFTWARE 



MICROPRO 

WordStar 

MailMerge 

SpellStar 

DataStar 

CalcStar 

VISICORP 

VisiCalc 

VisiTerm 

VisiDex 

VisiPlot 

VisiFile 

VisiSchedule 

VisiTrend/Plot 

VisiLink 

Visicalc Business Model 

MISCELLANEOUS 

MicroTerminal 

Screenwriter II 

Dictionary 

DB Master 

PFS Filing System 

PFS Report 

PFS Graph 

Easy Writer Pro 

Easy Mailer Pro 

Z-Term Pro 

Word Handler 

MultiPlan by Microsoft 

dBase II 

HowardSoft Tax Preparer 



$379.00 
$190.00 
$190.00 
$259.00 
$115.00 

$199.00 
$89.00 
$199.00 
$169.00 
$199.00 
$259.00 
$259.00 
$199.00 
$89.00 

$69.00 

$99.00 

$79.00 

$169.00 

$99.00 

$75.00 

$99.00 

$199.00 

$79.00 

$129.00 

$149.00 

$229.00 

$489.00 

$149.00 



IBM PC HARDWARE 

Quadram 128K Ram Card $599.00 

Quadram 192K Ram Card $719.00 

Quadram 256K Ram Card $795.00 

Microsoft 64K Ram Card $399.00 

Microsoft 1 92K Ram Card $699.00 

Microsoft 256K Ram Card $799.00 

Joystick by TG $49.00 

Tandon TM 100-2 Raw Drive $279.00 



TO ORDER CALL TOLL FREE 
1-800-343-6522 

For fast delivery, send certified checks, money orders, or 
call to arrange direct bank wire transfers. Personal or com- 
pany checks require one to three weeks to clear. All prices 
are mail order only and are subject to change without 
notice. Call for shipping charges. 



IBM PC SOFTWARE 

INFORMATION UNLIMITED 

Easy Writer $289.00 

Easy Speller $149.00 

Easy Filer $319.00 

VISICORP 

VisiCalc 256K $199.00 

VisiDex $209.00 

VisiFile $259.00 

VisiTrend/Plot $259.00 

VisiSchedule $259.00 

VisiWord $329.00 

MICROPRO 

WordStar $379.00 

MailMerge $195.00 

MISCELLANEOUS 

SuperCalc $279.00 

SuperWriter $289.00 

Home Accountant + $129.00 

dBase II $495.00 



DISK DRIVES 

CCM21 add-on forSanyo MBC 1000 $359.00 
CC1 100 for the TRS 80 Model I 

5V4" 50 track $299.00 

Corvus 5M with Mirror $2895.00 

Corvus 1 0M with Mirror $3679.00 

Corvus 20M with Mirror $4579.00 
Rana Systems for the Apple II 

Elite One 40 track CALL 

Elite Two 80 track CALL 

Elite Three 80 track, double side CALL 

Elite Controller CALL 

Sanyo EFD 1 60 $699.00 



RAM 

1 6K Ram Kit for Apple II 
and TRS 80. 41 16 chips 
200 nano seconds 



$17.50 



PRINTERS 

NEC 3510 Serial 

NEC 3530 Parallel 

NEC3550forthelBMPC 

NEC 7710 Serial 

NEC 7720 KSR 

NEC7730 Parallel 

Epson MX 80 

Epson MX 80 FT 

Epson MX 100 FT 

Epson FX Series 

Epson RX Series 

IDS Microprism 

IDS Prism 80 

IDS Prism 132 

Okidata82A 

Okidata 83A 

Okidata 84 

Sanyo PR 5500 Letter Quality 

Brother HR 1 Letter Quality 

Toshiba P 1350 160CPS 

Letter Quality 

Call For More IBM Software And Accessories 
CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. 



SPECIAL OF THE MONTH 

SANYO PR 5500 

LETTER QUALITY 

PRINTER 

18 CPS-DAIS Y WHEEL 

BI-DIRECTIONAL 

SCALLS 



$1595.00 

$1629.00 

$1995.00 

$2250.00 

$2675.00 

$2250.00 

CALL 

CALL 

CALL 

CALL 

CALL 

CALL 

CALL 

CALL 

$479.00 

$729.00 

$1149.00 

$859.00 

$899.00 



CALL 




The CPU Sh 



I I 



DEALER INQUIRIES PLEASE CALL 1-800-343-7036 

420-438 Rutherford Ave., Dept. BY 3 , Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129 
9 PM (EST) Mon.-Fri. (Sat. till 6) TWX- 710-348-1796 Massachusetts Residents ca 




Hours 9 AM 

Technical information call 617/242-3361 

Circle 124 on inquiry card 



61 7/242-3361 
Massachusetts Residents add 5% Sales Tax 




UCtjyll TheAppleusersgroup 
**"*■*• software librarybonanza 

at truly affordable prices. For the first time 
injoy your Apple to its fullest capacity 

using specially packed disks with over 60 

outstanding programs each. Not available 

jrom any other source! 

Applesoft • 3.3 DOS 



l RDCBAH^ PPLEUUflRE ^ 

•^ ^Wtn - An PulRnKiue uariRtv nf inlPres 



offers 
lAn extensive variety of inleresting, 
useful and entertaining programs 
-ri ^ J indispensable to the serious computerist 
\ j/ including: 

Business • Educational • Graphics 

Games • Music • Science 

Utilities • DataBase • Finance.,. 

Library disks 1. 2 & 3 are mixed categories and new 
disks 4 (Games), 5 (Utilities), 6 (Graphics) & 7 (Integer) 
at $59.95 each. Why pay more? 

Order direct from this ad and Save up to $136. 
Buy disk library package 1 , 2 & 3 and get a 
special bonus disk FREE — over 260 programs 
for $179.95+ shipping. For best value, get 
all 8 disks for$349, postage prepaid, for over 
530 of our best programs at 65<t each! 
Call nowtoll free: 1-800-327-8664 
Florida: 1-305-987-8665 

6400 Hayes Si. ra rv y/S4~ 

Hollywood. FL 33024 



micro- PROLOG 



the fifth generation 
language for micros 

rsion of PROLOG currently 



• ^-PROLOG is an interactive vi 
available for CP/M 2.xx Z80's. 

• PROLOG is the Artificial Intelligence language chosen by 
Japan as the core language for their Fifth Generation Com- 
puters. 

• PROLOG grew out of Al research in computational logic. 
PROLOG means PROgfamming in LOGic. 

• A PROLOG program comprises a set of facts and rules. It 
unifies: 

•relational data and relational queries. 

•recursive list processing, 

■pattern directed rule based programming, within a single 

framework of logic programming. 

• Current applications: Expert Systems, Natural Language 
Understanding, Intelligent Data Bases. 

Distribution Formats 

5": North Star, Zenith Z89, IBM PC (with Z80 card) 

Apple II (Z80card, lowercase reqd), Osborne 
8": SS/SD IBM 3740 



Need more info? 

Sample the 
language with the 
160 page Primer. 
Price can be set 
against software. 



Prices 

Software (with $275 
Manual & Primer) 
Primer $15 

Prices include air P&P 



ID LOGIC PROGRAMMING ASSOCIATES Ltd. 
|k 10 BURTWOOD CLOSE, 
*° LONDON SW18, ENGLAND 



H Dysan 

^CORPORATION 



Solve your dfac fvoblesm buy 100% surface 
tested Oyva/i dhk^tei AD orden aliped 
from *odk. wfchfci 24 hour* Call toQ FREE 
(800) 235-4137 for prias and kdtmmg l km . 
Visa and Master Card accepted. 




PACIFIC 
EXCHANGES 

100 Foothill Blvd. 
San Luis Obispo. CA 
93401. (InCal. call 
(805)543-1037.) 



Circle 28 on inquiry card. 



Circle 247 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 331 on Inquiry card. 



LOOKING AT 

PRINTER BUFFERS? 




BE CERTAIN... 

YOU GET WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE GETHNG: 

5P©©[&-ZZ-<|IL is THE 
COMPLETE , NOTHING ELSETO BUY, 
STAND ALONE PARALLEL PRINTER 
BUFFER PLUS FEATURESNOT FOUND ON 
OTHER BUFFERS SUCH AS: 

• SWTCHSElf CTABIE TAUSf N FORM EEET MODI FOR SINGLE SHEET PRINTING 

• AUTOMATIC SPACECKAR&CrER COMPRESSION 

• 32K CHAflACTEflS CAPAOTVSTANtWflfl, WXAND 128K MOOEISAVAILABLE. 
USER EXPANDABLE. 

• NO HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE M00IRCATI0NS REQUIRED 

• AND MUCH MORE. WRrTE OR CAli FOR RLE 0ETAJLS. 

PRICE (32K INCLUDES CABLE) $Z79.95 

JVB ELECTRONICS 

1601 Fulton Avenue. Suttel 

Sacramento, California 95825 

Phone: (916)4^0709 




Get Graphics 
. On Your 
DEC* LA120 



DECPLOT'" upgrades your DEC LA120 to 
print graphics fast— only 35 seconds per 
average page. ..Just $595. Need color too? 
Get DECOLOR 1 ".. .Only $995. Fully com- 
patible with most graphics software and 
CRT display terminals. 

NEW! VT-125 

COLOR PRINTER INTERFACE 

$495 

Texprint's simple plug-in modules require 
no extra custom software for dot-address- 
able or character-graphics applications. 
Expand LA120 performance, yet preserve 
all original functions. Available now from 
Texprint or DEC distributors. 

•Registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corp. 



TEXPRINT 



TEXPRINT, INC. 

8BI-- 
Burlington 



*ADDS* 



VIEWPOINT TERMINALS 
$495 

In addition EPl carries printers DEC & 
DG compatible terminals and modems, 
hems in stock are shipped within 24 hours. 
ALL orders shipped COD. All items are 
new and in factory cartons with manufac- 
turers warranties. 



ECONOMY 
PERIPHERALS INC 

(404) 952-0213 



Circle 236 on inquiry card. 



Circle 426 on inquiry card. 



Circle 162 on inquiry card. 




DiscMaster 1000 
Videodisc Interface 

• Enables computer control of laser 
videodisc players 

• Works with any mainframe, mini, or 
microcomputer 

• Standard RS-232C serial interface 

• No modification required to player or 
computer 

• Interactive playback for training, mar- 
keting, exhibition, and data retrieval 

• All cables and connectors included 

• Price: $395 

New Media Graphics Corporation 
139 Main Street 
Cambridge, MA 02142 
617-547-4344 





RAMS 






EPROMS 




2708 


2716 


2516 


2732 


2532 


2765 


4116 


4164 


6116 



Circle 492 on inquiry card. 



Large quantity 74S/74LS 

HANDWELL CORP. 

(415) 962-9265 

4962 El Camino Real, #119 

Los Altos, CA 94022 

WHOLESALE - RETAIL ■ 



Circle 195 on Inquiry card. 



g5fi. 



a cKuP 



fj§jM 



Circle 131 on Inquiry card. 




"THE ORIGINAL BIG BOARD" 

OEM - INDUSTRIAL - BUSINESS - SCIENTIFIC 



& SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER KIT! 



Z-80 CPU! 64K RAM! 

(DO NOT CONFUSE WITH ANY OF OUR FLATTERING IMITATORS!) 



M 



% 







THE BIG BOARD PROJECT: With thousands sold worldwide and over twoyears of field experience, the Big 
Board may just be one of the most reliable single board computers available today. This is thesamedesign that 
was licensed by Xerox Corp. as the basis for their 820 computer. 

The Big Board gives you the right mix of most needed computing features all on one board. The Big Board was 
designed from scratch to run the latest version of CP/M*. Just imagine all the off-the-shelf software that can be 
run on the Big Board without any modifications needed. 



*3192S 



(64K KIT 
BASIC I/O) 



FULLY SOCKETED! 



FEATURES: (Remember, all this on one board!) 



SIZE: 87, x 13% IN. 
SAME AS AN 8 IN. DRIVE. 
REQUIRES: +5V @ 3 AMPS 
+ - 12V @.5 AMPS. 



64K RAM 

Uses Industry standard 4116 RAM's. All 64K is available to the user, our VIDEO 
and EPROM sections do not make holes in system RAM. Also, very special care 
was taken in the RAM array PC layout to eliminate potential noise and glitches. 



Running at 
INTERUPTS 


2.5 MHZ. Handles 
Fully buffered and 


Z-80 CPU 

all 4116 RAM refresh and 
runs 8080 software. 


suppo 


ts 


Mode 


2 



24 x 80 CHARACTER VIDEO 

With a crisp, flicker-free display that looks extremely sharp even on small 
monitors. Hardware scroll and full cursor control. Composite video or split video 
and sync. Character set is supplied on a 2716 style ROM, making customized 
fonts easy. Sync pulses can be any desired length or polarity. Video may be 
inverted or true. 5x7 Matrix - Upper & Lower Case. 



SERIAL I/O (OPTIONAL) 

Full 2 channels using the Z80 SIO and the SMC 8116 Baud Rate Generator. FULL 
RS232! For synchronous or asynchronous communication. In synchronous 
mode, the clocks can be transmitted or received by a modem. Both channels can 
be set up for either data-communication or data-terminals. Supports mode 2 1 nt. 
Price for all parts and connectors: $39.95 



FLOPPY DISC CONTROLLER 

Uses WD1771 controller chip with aTTL Data Separatorforenhancedreliability. 
IBM 3740 compatible. Supports up to four 8 inch disc drives. Directly compatible 
with standard Shugart drives such as the SA800 or SA801. Drives can be 
configured for remote AC off-on. Runs CP/M* 2.2. 



BASIC I/O 

Consists of separate parallel port (Z80 PIO) for use with an ASCII encoded 
keyboard for Input. Output would be on the 80 x 24 Video Display. 



TWO PORT PARALLEL I/O (OPTIONAL) 

Uses Z-80 PIO. Full 16 bits, fully buffered, bi-directional. Uses selectable hand 
shake polarity. Set of all parts and connectors for parallel I/O: $19.95 



BLANK PC BOARD — $119 
The blank Big Board PC Board comes complete with full 
documentation (including schematics), the character ROM, 
the PFM 3.3 MONITOR ROM, and a diskette with the source 
of our BIOS, BOOT, and PFM 3.3 MONITOR. 



REAL TIME CLOCK (OPTIONAL) 

Uses Z-80 CTC. Can be configured as a Counter on Real Time Clock. Set of all 
parts: $9.95 



CP/M* 2.2 FOR BIG BOARD 

The popular CP/M* D.O.S. to run on Big Board is available lor $139.00. 



BIG BOARD SOFTWARE SPECIAL — $149 

Through special arrangement with CDLweoffer a powerful packageofTDLZ-80 
software that has a suggested retail of almost S600. Includes: Extended Disk 
Business Basic, ZEDIT text editor, MACRO II Macro Assembler, LINKER, 
DEBUG I and DEBUG II. Supplied on 8 in. diskette with extensive manual. 



PFM 3.3 2K SYSTEM MONITOR 



Thereal power of the Big Boardlies in Its PFM 3.3 on board monitor. PFM commands include: Dump Memory, Boot CP/M*, Copy, Examine, Fill Memory, Test Memory, GoTo, 
Read and Write I/O Ports, Disc Read (Drive, Track, Sector), and Search PFM occupies one of the (our 2716 EPROM locations provided. Z-80 is a Trademark of Zilog. 



Digital Research Computers 

W (OF TEXAS) 

P.O. BOX 401565 • GARLAND, TEXAS 75040 • (214)271-3538 



TERMS: Shipments will be made approximately 3 to 6 weeks after we 
receive your order. VISA, MC, cash accepted. We will accept COD's (for the 
Big Board only) with a$75 deposit. BalanceUPS COD. Add $4. OOshipping. 

USA AND CANADA ONLY 



♦TRADEMARK OF DIGITAL RESEARCH. NOT ASSOCIATED WITH DIGITAL RESEARCH OF CALIFORNIA, THE ORIGINATORS OF CPM SOFTWARE 

"1 TO 4 PIECE DOMESTIC USA PRICE. 



Printed Circuit A/B Switch 




• Ideal for switching RS-232 devices 

• High Quality Printed Circuit Board 

• 3 25 pin D-subminiature Connectors 

• 20 circuits switched 



Kit & Assembly Drawing s 34.95 ppd. 

Assembled & Wave Soldered s 39.95 ppd. 

Visa/Master Charge {201)227-8411 

PMI 

16-6 Passaic Avenue 
Fairfield. New Jersey 07006 



DISKETTES 

3M Scotch' BRAND 



AT SUPER LOW PRICES 

WE WILL SHIP YOUR 

ORDER WITHIN 24 HOURS 

AND WE PAY THE 

SHIPPING CHARGES 



QjP COD ACCEPTED 



DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED 

^, CALL TOLL FREE 
800 922-8193 



IN CALIFORNIA 
800 468-1068 



Tayco Business Forms 
Computer Supplies 

5* Post Office Box 605 

Si Newbury Park. CA 91320 




"•""Heath 
Users 




Double Your 
5%" disk storage 
capacity without adding a drive. 

Get twice as much from your H88 or 
H89 microcomputer. Our FDC-880H 
floppy disk controller, in conjunction 
with your 5 1 /" drives, for example, 
expands memory capacity from 256 
bytes to 512 bytes per sector. 

And it handles single and double- 
sided, single and double-density, 8" and 
5 1 /" drives — simultaneously. 



Ol 



C.D.H. Systems Inc. 
Controlled Data Recording Systems Inc. 
7210 Oairmont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92111 
(714)560-1272 



Circle 343 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 416 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 74 on inquiry card. 



y Epson •"%, 
* Giveaway '• 

Epson MX70/80 Cartridges 



$5 



OO EACH 

Min. 3 of same color 



Reloads $2.50 each Min. 12 
S30.00 a Doz. of Same Color 

Cartridges and Reloads Available 
In Black, Red, Green, Blue, Brown 

|B m " M J B.T. Enterprises 

W m M ^B m Carlough Rd. 
w-:u^= ^m Bohemia, N.Y. 11716 



Orde" Toil Ftee »—*-. i NYS O'dets Call 

-^^"- 516 67 815S 

Prrces Sul)|eLl 10 Ctwngr 
N YS Resitienis Ada U* AiKl $2 00 Shipping i Handling 
B I Enteijjnses is a division ot Bi-Iecn Eniiii puses lnc 



TRS-80 MODEL 16 and 
68 000 SYSTE MS 

DATABASE and FILE 
SOFTWARE 

Relational Database System 
Easy To Use - Powerful 

INTRODUCTORY OFFER $595 

Menus & English Subset 

Query Language 
68000 Code Efficiency 

Features Never Seen Before. 

Send For Catalog. 

DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 

211 N. EL CAMINO REAL, 101C 

ENCINITAS, CA 92024 

or Phone: (619) 942-0744 

TRS-80 Is a trademark of Tandy Corp. 



TEKALIKE 

The Graphics Terminal Program 




TEKALIKE turns the Apple II computer into 

on intelligent graphical work stotion 

for communication with remote host computers. 

It simulates the features of o Tektronix 4010 graphics 

terminal, provides local plotting capabilities and more... 



Remote Terminal Mode: 

Several Communications Allernolivea 

up, la 9600 boud 
Local recording' ot Graphics Deploy 

Compatible with: 

tello'rjror & Dissplo (rjjco Corp.) 

PlotlO (Tektroni.) 
Ifkl.-onir 40SX Family 



CCS 771QA [300-9WM bouflj 

(Cotternio Compute/ S^Iemi) 

*ss '. Cc-^-uricctiws Cam (JOO Baud} 

*cp= Sufw SMM C=ra (JOa -9600 Bnud) 



Local Computer Mods: 



*E Software 

BDO Greenwich Drive 

Chico. CA 95926 

WosterCard end VIS* Accepted 

To Order Coll (916) 893-1162 

Dealer Inquires Welcome 



Circle 62 on inquiry card. 



Circle 138 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 452 on InqulFy card. 



DEBUG FAST 




NEW 



NEW QUICK LOW-COST ,*P DEBUG AID. If you 

program, engineer, test, or repair micros, try 
this new invention and save endless time and 
effort. Shows you program flow, address, 
data, I/O, timing, and stability info on 256 
LEDs. Telescopic and microscopic views. Easy, 
quick, rugged, portable. A smart alternative 
or addition to multi-thousand dollar instru- 
ments. MICRO VIEW™ is just $749 complete. 
Order today on 14-day trial or circle our 
numberforcolorbrochure.MicroLogicCorp, 
POB 174, MS-I, 100 2nd St, Hackensack. NJ 
07602. (201) 342-6518. 



\ferbatinr 

Floppy Discs 

CALL NOW -TOLL FREE 

1-800-328-DISC 

Dealer inquiries invited. C.O.D.'s and 
charge cards accepted. 
All orders shipped from stock, 
within 24 hours. Call toll FREE. 

Ma w 

North Hills Corporation 

3564 Rolling View Dr. 

White Bear Lake, MN 55110 

1-800-328-DISC 

MN Call Collect 1-612-770-0485 



When it comes to scientific software 
for microsystems, DYNACOMP delivers: 




The Systems ...Apple trs-8o pet/cbm nec Atari 

Osborne SuperBram North Star CP/M 

The Software ... 

REGRESSION I. REGRESSION II 



MULTILINEAR REGRESSION 

STATTEST 

ANAL YSlS OF VARIANCE 

NUUBERKRUNChER 

STATSORT 

DIGITAL FILTER 

DA1A SMOOTHER 

SOFTNET MATtHNET 

FILTER ANALYSIS 



kLYSlS 



LOGIC DESIGNER 
ACTIVE CIRCUIT AN 
LOGIC SIMULATOR 
ROOTS 

FOURIER ANALYZER 
TRANSI ER FUNCTION ANALYZER 
HARMONIC ANALYZER 
BASIC SClENTlliC. SUBROUTINES 
VOLUME I VOLUME II 

basic statistical subrou' 



ES 



CALL OR WRITE FOR A FREE CATALOG 

DYNACOMP. INC. 

1427 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, N.Y. 14618 

Telephone: (716)442-8960 



Circle 271 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 315 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 158 on Inquiry card. 



MfJA 



& 






WE MEET OR BEAT ALL 
COMPETITORS PRICES 

FOR ALL COMPUTER ITEMS CALL 



FRANKLIN ACE 1000 

• 64K 

• Numeric Keyboard 

• Large Power Supply 



only 



$969. 



00 



Disk Drives for 
Apple & Franklin 

Qty. 1 oty. 2 



RanaElitel 
Rana Elite II 
Rana Elite III 
Rana Controller 
Micro SciA-2 
Micro Sci Contlr 
Quentin Drive 
5MB Winchester 
10MB Winchester 
15MB Winchester 
20MB Winchester 



$299 $289 

439 429 

569 559 

99 89 

269 259 

79 73 

259 249 

1499 - 

1699 

1899 

2099 - 



FRANKLIN SYSTEM 

• ACE 1000 

• BMC 12A 

Cm Monitor 

• Disk Drive and 
Controller 



40% 
OFF 



S1387 



Unbeatable Price 



Reg Price 
$231 2. 00 



SAVE 

$924. 80 



APPLE II 

• PIUS48K 

only §989. 

(Not an Authorized Apple Dealer) | 

Apple Accessories 

80 Column Card $189 

16K Memory Card 59 

Box of Diskettsw/ring . 18 

Crappler + 118 

TCJoystick 39 

Microsoft Premium Pk. . 459 

D Base II 449 

Parallel Card &Cable ... 49 

Quentin l6KCard 54 

NEW! TOSHIBA PRINTER 

call (213) 219-0811 for 
the best price! 



IBM PRODUCTS 

ASTCombO + 64K 389 

DBasell 449 

TCJoystick 

Tandon Si/a" Drives 

Oty.1 0ty.2 

TM 100-1 Sgl. Side $189 $179 
TM 100-2 Dbl. Side 254 244 



Maynor for IBM 

FloppyDiskController $179 

Floppy Disk Controller 

with Par. Port 209 

with Ser. Port 229 

64KRam Board 199 

128K Ram Board 249 

l92KRam Board 299 

256KRam Board 369 

w/Serial Port Add 79 

Cabinets — 5 1 /V' 

Singlecabinetpowersupply ..$ 59 
DoublecabinetPowerSupply . 99 

Cabinets — 8" 

Singlecabinet, pwrsupply,fan.$249 
Dual cabinet, pwr supply, fan . . 279 



SEE US AT PRODUX 2000 

Los Angeles Convention Center 

April 28-30 



MONITORS 

BMC 12A (15MHZ) 

90 day warranty 

only $75.00 



Zenith (15MHz) $ 99 

BMC 12A (15MHZ) 75 

BMC12EIK20MHZ) 129 

BMC Color 279 

Amdek300G 149 

AmdekColorl 309 

Many other Monitors Available Call 

8" DISK DRIVES 

8" Sgl. Side/Dbl. Density 

• FDD 100-8 

• Same as 801 R 

omv $21 9 ea. 
10 for $200 ea. 

Shugart 

801 R Sgl side/ Dbl Den $369 

85lRDblside/DblDen 469 

Qume 

DT-8 Dbl side/Dbl Den $479 

Mitsubishi 

Mit. Dbl side/Dbl Den $409 

Tandon 

TM 848-1 Thinline $369 

TM848-2Thinline 459 

Circle 87 on inquiry card. 



PRINTERS 

C. IOTH 851 OA Prowriter 120cps $425 

Gemini 10 - 
(sameasMX80FDl00cps 375 

Gemini 15 
(sameasMXi00)l00cps 499 



C. loth 

8510A Prowriter $425 

8510 ACD Prowriter Serial .... 569 

F10 40 PU Star writer 1349 

Epson 

MX80FX Call 

MX80FTHI 489 

MX100FTIII 599 

Okidata 

ML82A ( 120CPS $ 389 

ML83A,120cps 649 

ML84 Parallel, 200cps 985 

ML84 serial, 200CPS 1075 

ML92,160cps 519 

ML93,160cps 899 

ML2350, 350CPS, 2K buf 1999 

All Okidata Options Available 

OTHER PRODUCT LINES 

Not Listed 

• Anadex • California Computer 
Systems • Hayes Micro Computer • 
Micro Pro • Toshiba • Nee America 

• Practical Periphial • OT Computer 
systems • Vista Computer • ver- 
batim Corp • Call Cables & Card 
Cages Available 



Dmputer 
Components 
Unlimited 



RETAIL STORE: Customer Service: 

12308 Burl Avenue (213)219-0811 

Hawthorne, CA 90250 order Desk: 

MAILORDER: (213)219-0808 

P.O. BOX 1936 

Hawthorne, CA 90250 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (pstj 

All merchandise new. We accept MC, Visa, Check SP.O.'s from qualified firms. 
CA Res. add 6 1 /2% Sales Tax. Please add shipping: S3.50 first 5 lbs., 60Cea. add. lb. 



IEEE-488 TO TRS-80* INTERFACE 
Everything needed to add powerful 
BASIC GPIB-488 controller capability 
to TRS-80 Model 1 or 3, Level 2 or 
DOS with a minimum of 16K. 



find sJur. Jctei 



4BB-B0C 
For Model 3 
Operation 



488-80B 
For Model 1 



£ j j£L 



Model 488-80B or 488-80C Price: $375. 

+ shipping, insurance & tax 
WHEN ORDERING SPECIFY DISK OR TAPE 

SCIENTIFIC ENGINEERING 
LABORATORIES 

11 Neil Drive • Old Bethpage, NY 11804 

Telephone: (516) 694-3370 

'Trademark of Tandy Corp. 

There is no affiliation between Scientific 

Engineering Laboratories and Tandy Corp. or 



Radio Shack. 



Originate/Answer UDS 212 LP Modem 
U^ — — — $395 




IMMEDIATE DELIVERY 

• Compatible with Bell 21 2 modems (1 200 bps only) 
» Telco powered— no AC connection required 

• Simplified controls— talk/data and originate/answer only 

• Direct-connect to dial-up network 

ffl»^ mm* 

1111 W. Dundee Road 
Wheeling, II 600S0 
Sslss-(312) 459-8886 
Service-(312) 459-8874 



NEW! S-100 BUS COMPATIBLE 

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER WITH VIDEO OUTPUT 




FEATURES: 

4MH^/' «M\ upuiSK ol KPKOM. i:» lo-iK buu. HAM. lv.0BUlT1r.Pu! jkjiu.uhl. a HIT 
oulpLl isuit. one fiUII swis.- inpur pint imli M.iirhipi cumpcml ..Ocu ^ulput (BUxI'JI. 
vidto iltribuli-b lr«".ffX- ixkru. uiKVrlnv, blinSunyi, jji.iphii: lopdbii.tics 

PRICE: 

Bate bo*rd wnh docunwnhiiion M99S 

Monitor ,vid vidou ti-tmnuJ wttworc (in EPROM) S4S 00 

S»ur« listinjj (with Momior purchawl 51S00 

H^rd to find Pjtis Kii krysiil jnd fuso link PROM'sl SBOQ 

^^^ ,^^ CMJfOW.1* MSlOtN)!. *iw »v ia» 

^C^^f ^S ««»«♦««» 
^f»» if^^V ^^B Hlcrotompunr 
^h^Ar&V^ System* 
I'O BOX I h I j \ IKMM.l \ VJTI t-fttli 

714-553-0133 



Circle 384 on inquiry card. 



Circle 221 on inquiry card. 



Circle 167 on inquiry card. 



APPLE HARDWARE 
40% to 70% off!! 

Stock Retail Now % 

Nimber Price Only Of! 

APIOI I6K RAM card $149 $49 67% 

API02 80 Column card 295 159 46% 

API03 9" Monitor green (very sharp).... 199 119 40% 

API04 Clock/cal card 195 109 44% 

API 05 Disk-ll drive wo/controller 498 249 50% 

API06 Disk-ll controller 1 50 89 4 1 % 

API07 Joy-stick delux 49 25 49% 

API08 Language card only 295 159 46% 

API09 Lower case. 45 25 44% 

API 10 Parallel card 150 59 61% 

API II Serial card 195 89 54% 

API 1 2 SopR-Mod 39 25 36% 

API 13 Tel-Modem (RS-232) 120 75 38% 

API 14 Z-80card 298 139 53% 

AP20I Apple-ll+ compat. 48Kklt 599 320 47% 

AP202 Hardcase for AP20I (plastic) 175 119 32% 

AP203 Keyboard for AP20 1 1 39 7 8 44% 

AP204 Power supply for AP20 1 120 75 38% 

We accept Visa. Master Chg, C.O.D., Personal checks. 
All prices good thrujan. 31. 1983 

K & D ELECTRONICS CO. 

1440 PACIFIC COAST HWY., 0104 

HARBOR CITY, C A 90710 

(213) 530-2577 



wabash 

When it comes to 

Flexible Disks, nobody 

does it better than 

Wabash. 

MasterCard. Visa Accepted. 
Call Free: (800)235-4137 



PACIFIC 
EXCHANGES 

100 Foothill Blvd 
San Luis Obispo. CA 
93401 (InCal call 
(805)343-1037) 




S-100 COLOR GRAPHICS! 

THE STATE-OF-THE-ART COLOR 
GRAPHICS BOARD FOR THE S-100 BUS. 

• Display consists of backdropand pattern planes plus 32 sprite 
planes. 

■ Each pixel in a plane can be colored or can be transparent to 
reveal the underlying plane(s). 

• Prioritized planes eliminate the need tor hidden object routines 
in applications requiring 3D simulation. 

• Sprites are moved on screen by changing two-byte pointers thus 
simplifying animation applications. 

• Up to 15 colors or 8 gray levels with a resolution of 256 pixels 
horizontally and 192 pixels vertically. 

• Standard NTSC video output connects directly to color monitor 
or to RF modulator for use with regular color receiver 

• One text and three graphics display modes. 

• On-board 16K byte display RAM separate from system RAM. 

• High quality PC board with solder masks, silkscreen and gold- 
plated contact fingers. 

• Meets or exceeds all aspects of IEEE-696 (S-100) standard 

• Documentation includes comprehensive user's manual with 
demonstration programs and Texas Instrument's manual for the 
new TMS9918A Video Display Processor used on the board. 

• Typical applications include business graphics, industrial pro- 
cess monitoring, drafting/design aid, educational systems and 
video game development. 

$249.95 

(assembled & tested) 



We pay UPS ground shipping in the 
continental U.S. UPS air add $2.00. 
COD add S1.50 foreign add S15.00. 
TN residents add 6% sales tax. VISA 
& MASTERCARD welcome. 



MicroDynamics 

Corporation 

P.O. Box 17577 

Memphis. TN 38117 

(9011-755-0619 



Circle 237 on inquiry card. 



Circle 331 on inquiry card. 



Circle 281 on inquiry card. 



Got a computer? 



\\\\\\\\\\V\\\\^N 



NNX^^S^^** 3 ^ 




Get a Giltronix Selector 
Switch. 

Eliminate unplugging and re-plugging your CPU's, 
peripherals, and modems. Eliminate expensive 
duplication of interconnection hardware. Connect 
three components to Giltronix Selector Switch 
#S8AB, Then select your connection with a simple 
turn of the dial. Only $79 in OEM quantities. 
Monitoring options available. Full 5 year warranty 
on all Giltronix units. 
SWITCH TO GILTRONIX. 



OUmiONI&MC 

UNIVERSAL INTERFACE PRODUCTS 



970 San Antonio Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94303 



SIGMATEK INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION 

327 Clarkin Ct.. Walnut Creek. CA 94598 

(415I 938-5097 



MICROPROCESSOR CRYSTALS (MHz] 



1 2288 1 6896 1 8J32 



4 00 each 



2000 2 097152 2 4576 

3 2768 3 579545 4 000 

49152 5000 506BB 

6000 6144 6 400. 

7 3728 8 000 10 000 

14 31818 15575 18 000 



300each 
4 194304 4 433619 200 each 
5185 5 7143 
6 5536 7000 



19 61 



18 432 



20 0( 



2 00 each 
2.00each 
2.00 each 
2 OOeach 
2.50 each 



TUNING FORK CRYSTALS |3 x 8 Minature| 

32768KH* 1.50each 

30KHMo50KHz Inquire 



EPROMS 

2532 (5V 450ns) 
2732 I5V 450 nsl 
2764l5V,450nsl 



4.75 each 
4.50 each 
10 DO each 



DYNAMIC RAMS 

4l64O50ns1 



N.A.S.H.U.A. 

5V* mini floppy diskette 

SS/SD Soft Sector 20.00 box/1 O pc. 



Sprint 68 
Microcomputer 




CONTROL COMPUTER 
DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM 

6800 MPU, serial I/O, 48K RAM, dual 8" 
drives, WIZRD multitasking DOS, editor, 
assembler, 16K BASIC, all for $3949. 

OPTIONS 

C, PL/VV, PASCAL, FORTRAN, EROM pro- 
grammer, analog I/O, parallel I/O, 488 
GPIB interface, CMOS RAM/battery, power 
fall detect/power on reset 

IWintek Corp. 
1801 South Street 



Circle 192 on inquiry card. 



Circle 392 on inquiry card. 



Circle 458 on inquiry card. 



<s& 



dSter ' 



&r 



CHRISLIN YEARS AHEAD IN 
MEMORY DESIGN 




512KB SINGLE BOARD IBM MEMORY W/RS232-C PORT 

• Addressable as a contiguous block in 64KB increments thru 1 megabyte. 

• On board parity with interrupt on parity error. 

SINGLE QTY. PRICE: $895.00 MEMDISK 1: $10.00 

MEMDISK 1 Allows memory to emulate disks. Increases system performance!! 




64KB SINGLE BOARD EXORCISOR 
1, 11, AND ROCKWELL 
SYSTEMS 65 MEMORY 

• Parity checker on board. 

• Addressable as a contiguous block in 4K increments with 
respect to VXA or VUA. 

• Pin to Pin compatibility. 

SINGLE QTY. PRICE: $390.00 




64KB SINGLE BOARD 
S100 MEMORY 

• Addressable as a contiguous block in 4K word 
increments. 

• Battery back-up capability. 

• Functions with on-board refresh. 

SINGLE QTY. PRICE: $390.00 




512KB SINGLE BOARD 
MULTIBUS MEMORY 

• Pin to Pin MULTIBUS compatibility for both 8 bit and 16 
bit systems. 

• On board parity with selectable interrupt on parity 
ERROR. 

• Addressable as a contiguous block in 16K word 
increments up to 16 megabytes. 

SINGLE QTY. PRICE: $1395.00 




256KB SINGLE BOARD 
LSI 11 MEMORY 

• On board parity generator checker. 

• Addressable as a contiguous block in 4K word 
increments through 4 megabytes. 

• Battery back-up mode. 

SINGLE QTY. PRICE: 128K x 18 $795.00 

32K x 18 $390.00 



DON'T ASK WHY WE CHARGE SO LITTLE, ASK WHY THEY CHARGE SO MUCH. 



c 



Chrislin Industries, Inc. 

31352 Via Colinas • Westlake Village, CA 91362 • 213-991-2254 
TWX 910-494-1253 (CHRISLIN WKVG) 



Multibus is a trademark of the Intal Corp. 

Circle 79 on Inquiry card. 



LSI II is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corp. 



EXORciser is a trademark of Motorola. 

BYTE March 1983 521 



C SCREEN EDITOR 

CSE: A full-screen text editor written in C 

• Powerful command sel includes cursor control, 
find/replace, block move, file inclusion, and nested 
macro commands 

• Installation program allows easy customization for most 
popular terminals 

• Available for CP/M-86 1 , MP/M-86 1 . CP/M 2.2 1 , 
MS-DOS', and IBM PC 

• Requires 64K CP/M-86 or equivalent MP/M-86; 56K 
CP/M 2.2; 64K MS-DOS; 64K IBM PC 

• Includes object code, C source code, and manual 

. Available in 8" SSSD format for CP/M-86, MP/M-86, 
CP/M 2.2. MS-DOS 

• $60.00, including UPS; additional versions $20.00 each 



8080 SIMULATOR 

SIM80: An 8080 simulator for the 8086/8088 

• Run CP/M object code (.COM files) on any CP/M-86 
or MP/M-86 system : ASM, DDT. dBase IM, C/80. 
MBASIC. etc. 

• Retain applications software when upgrading from 
CP/M to CP/M-86 

• Develop and debug CP/M software on CP/M-86 

• 8K overhead, TPA can be 61K 

• 1/3 to 1/10 as fast as a 5 Mhz 8085 (not recommended 
for highly interactive programs such as Wordstar 5 , or for 
very large, slow interpreted BASIC programs) 

• Includes object code, ASM-86 source code, and manu.il 

• Available in 8" SSSD format for CP/M-U6, MP/M-16 

• $50.00, including UPS 

Both CSE and SIM80 for $90.00 



P.O. Box 10853 • Eugene, OR 97401 . (503) 689-7010 

'rm. Digital Research: -tni, Microsoft; >Im. IBM; 'tm, Ashlon-Talc; 



Northwest 

Microsystem 

Design 



EPROM EMULATOR AND 
DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM 
$299 KIT, $495 COMPLETE 

System includes chassis and 
power supplies (+5V, +12V, +25V) 




* Z80A CPU, BK EPROM and 8K RW1 

* on-board EPROM programmer 

* EPROM emulator socket 

* RS-232 port, 280 PIO and zao CTC 

* audio-cassette interface 

* S-100 bus extension 

* user function keys 

* Tiny BASIC and DEBUGGER 

Yang Electronic Systems, Inc. 



307 Compton Aveni 



Laurel, Maryland 207O7 



(301)776-0076 



GAME DESIGNER 

At new low prices and with 
an expanded product line 

Game Development Systems 

for: Atari* 2600 VCS, ,M Atari 5200 
Supersystem 1M & Colecovision. 1M 
Host environment options: Apple II," 
Atari 400/800, IBM' PC, TRS-80," 
V1C-20* & more. 
Memory options of cartridge: 4K to 
16K (bankswitching). 



SO |V 



frobco: The Toolmakers of 
the Cartridge Industry 

Call 408-429-1552 for more details 
or write: frobco, P.O. Box 8378 

Santa Cruz, CA 95061-8378 



Circle 316 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 467 on inquiry card. 



Circle 430 on inquiry card. 



Now... You Can Monitor 

7 Most Important 
RS-232 Interface Lines 




RS-232-INTERFACE TESTER 

connects in series "with any RS-232 interface. LED's clearly 
display status of 7 functions: transmit data, receive data, 
request to send, clear to send, data set ready, carrier detect, 
data terminal ready. Requires no power; may be left in per- 
manently. Satisfaction guaranteed. ORDER NOW! 0nly$39.95 
plus $1.75 for postage and handling, (IL res. add 5% sales 
tax); we accept MC, Visa. FREE: illustrated catalog of problem 
detecting equipment. Phone 815/539-5827. Make checks 
payable to: 



electronics 

Box 475 B, MEND0TA, IL 61342 




Dot Matrix Printer Interfaces with Apple II 

Featuring an Apple ll®-compatible parallel 
interface, Addmaster Corporation has produced 
a new dot matrix printer, Model 170. The inter- 
face includes a Centronics-type handshake and 
DB-25 interface connector, Baudot, and day — 
and time clock. The Model 170 provides 18 or 
21 characters per line, 6 lines per inch print 
density, on standard 2V2" adding machine tape. 
Designed to use with personal computers, 
Model 170 will produce hard and carbonless 
copies of programs, data or results. Write 
Addmaster Corporation, 416 Junipero Serra Dr., 
San Gabriel, CA 91776 or call 213/285-1121. 



MORROW DESIGNS 

DECISION 1 
$2995 



VW5 MEG M0 
&5VVSSDD 
& CP/M ONLY 



II you also buy either an 
upgrade or a terminal & 
printer. Else $3095 

Same-Day Board Swap (Airport to Airport) 
INCLUDING MORROW gnQQC W/5 MEG HD& 5V" DSDD 
TERMINAL. ELSE S3545 '"'OSS J OR ADD FOR 16 MEG 
* 03A. M Stol S-100. Z-80. 65K Static. I to6 user (Need more memory. Software 
& I/O !or 6 users) Desk top. with 3 Serial & 1P. CP/M: Wordstar: Basic 80: 
Correct-It: Logicale." Ba2ic: Pilot: & Pearl DBM Data Base Management 
System" Shipment from lactory with laciory warranty Professional tutoring 
buddy system tor beginners 

CPC also includes with (*) systems: Payroll. GL AR. AP. Fixed Assets. Raw 
& Finished Inventory, Mail List. Transendental Pak, Loan Amortization. 
6 Funclion Compound interest. -J0QK ol CPM UliNty Source Code, and SiarTrek 

*AI1 CompuPrO CoSf-pluS 
KN-o or less Shipment 
Irom distributor's stock 
Call lor our system prices 

l Includes CPC software 

Computers, terminals & 
software at cost-plus 

prices. Call 

rjBASE A 1 r T' v ^ ' ine0 ' d ^ ase "■ Financial 

■■ I\ C h I All I A t/i> Planning. Forecaslmg & related 
■IrVjl 1LU1 l~lQ.lt software Also Fon SGellec 

PRINTERS: OKI, Cltoh, NEC, Diablo, M/T, etc. 



(ompu 



Pro 



tflfetetfdeo 



CostPlus 

76 COMPUTERS 

one Sin ??i? P0 - Box6114«Binningham. AL 35259-6114 
£\JD O7y-4730 Our bank istStNationalol Birmingham, (205) 326-5120 



TEAMS: Cash *,ih cdet 
Aaa 2" c handing 10°iican 
cellalton i5°o restocking 
ch.rge FOBshp point 
CALLUS 9AM to 10 PM 



Circle 43 on inquiry card. 



Circle 7 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 122 on inquiry card. 



* 



MAIL ORDER SHOPPERS 
' AMAZING NHW DIRECTORIES 

WHERE TO BUY PRODUCTS FOR 
ANY POPULAR BRAND OF COMPUTER 



* 



• Hundreds of Mail Order Dealers 

• Thousands of Products 

• Save Time— Save Money- 
Computers, Software, Hardware, 
Accessories, Supplies and More 

22 Sections Devoted To Specific Brands 
of Computers 

DIRECTORY VOL.1— $6.98 

Altos™ Apple™ Atari™ Commodore™ 

Compupro™ Compustar™ Cromemco™ Digital" 

HP™ IBM™ 

DIRECTORY VOL.2— $6.96 

NEC™ Northstar™ Sanyo™ Seattle™ Sinclair™ 

Superbrain™ TRS-80™ Televideo™ Vector™ 

Victor™ Xerox™ Zenith™ 

Both For S1 2.9 5 

Plus $0.50 Each P&H 

Check or MO, Calif. Orders Add Sales Tax 

CAVERLY'S INC. 

DEPT. B-3, 512 BRIDLE CT., 
WALNUT CREEK, CA 94596 



H-8 OWNERS 

KEEP YOUR SYSTEM UP TO 
DATE WITH THESE INNOVATIVE 
PRODUCTS FROM CCM. 

• 8088 COPROCESSOR 

CPU CARD -$325 

• 9511 MATH CARD -$345 

• 8 CHANNEL A/D CARD -$125 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR TO 
ORDER WRITE: 

CCM, INC 

PO BOX 2308 

RESTON, V A 22091 

or call 

703-620-3403 

MC/VISA ACCEPTED 



Touch Tone 
Decoding Modem 

Convert Touch Tones to ASCII. 
The Touch Tone Decoder Modem 
offers a low cost solution to re- 
mote monitoring and data entry 
applications. It autoanswers and 
connects any host computer's 
asynchronous RS-232 port with 
the telephone system. Select 300. 
600, or 1200 baud data rate or 
optional external audio input. 
$500 single quantity. Touch Tone 
send/1200 baud receive terminal 
svsllsble. 

the microperipheral corporation 

2565 152nd Avenue NE 
Redmond, WA 98052 

(206) 881-7544 



Circle 71 on inquiry card. 



Circle 72 on inquiry card. 



Circle 283 on Inquiry card. 



/£j± Alspa Computer, Inc. 



T 



The price- performance leader. Includes Z80A. 1 or 2 full 8" 
drives (double density, double sided). 3 serial and 1 parallel 
port, and Winchester port. Prices start at less than S2000. 
DEALER and OEM inquiries invited. 



SPECIALS 

6502 

6502A/6512A 

6520 PIA 

6522VIA 

6532 

2114-L200 

2716 EPROM 

2532 EPROM 

6116 2KX8 CMOS 

4116 RAM 

Zero Insertion Force 



on INTREGATED CIRCUITS 



7.45 10/6.95 50/6.55 100/6.15 

8.40 10/7.95 50/7.35 100/6.90 

5.15 10/4 90 50/4 45 100/4 15 

6.45 10/6.10 50/5 75 100/5.45 

7.90 10/7.40 50/7.00 100/6.60 

2.45 25/2.30 100/2 15 

4.90 5/4.50 10/4.00 

7.90 5/7.45 10/6.90 

RAM 790 5/7.45 10/6 90 

8 for 14 

24 pin Socket (Scanbe) 200 




U-L_-.. 



Anchor Automation 



Signalman Modems 



FREE SOURCE MEMBERSHIP WITH SIGNALMAN 

AIISignalmanModemsareDirectConnect.andinclude cables 

to connect to your computer and to the telephone. Signalman 

Modems provide the best price-perlormance values, and start 

at less than $100. Dealer and OEM inquiries invited 

Mark I RS232 

Mark II for Atari 850 

Mark IV for CBM/PET with software 

Mark V for Osborne (software available) 

Mark VI for IBM Personal Computer 

Mark VII Auto Dial/Auto Answer 

Mark VIII Bell 212 Auto Dial/Answer 

DC HAYES Smartmodem 229 

DC Hayes Smartmodem 1 200 545 

RS232 M00EM — CCITT frequencies 175 

We carry Apple 11+ from 
Bell & Howell 




16K RAM Card 

Apple LOGO 

Video Recorder Interface 

Super Serial Card 

Thunderclock Plus 

Z80 Softcard and CP/M (Microsoft) 

Parallel Printer Interface/Cable 

Grappler Interface 

TG Products Joystick for Apple 

TG Paddles 32 

DC Hayes Micromodem II 299 

Videx 80 Column Card 259 
Kayden Software for Apple 20% OFF 

Silentype Printer and Card 31 

Graphics Tablet and Card 645 

Apple PASCAL Language 195 

Apple FORTRAN 160 
We stock EDUWARE Software 

GENIS I Courseware Development System 145 

Unicom Grade Reporting or School Inventory 250 

Executive Briefing System with fonts 225 

Apple Dumpling (Microtek) Printer Interlace 1 1 5 
Apple Dumpling with 1 6K Buffer 1 60 

PIE Writer Word Processor 120 



Q commodore 

See us for Personal Business, 

and Educational requirements. 

Educational Discounts available. 

PETSCAN $245 base price 

Allows you to connect up to 35 CBM/PET Computers to 
shared disk drives and printers Completely transparent to the 
user Perfect for schools or multiple word processing con- 
figurations. Base configuration supports 2 computers Addi- 
tional computer hookups S100 each 

Commodore COMMUNICATES! 

COMPACK $129 

Intelligent Terminal Package includes 
ACIA hardware based interface. DB25 Cable and STCP Soft- 
ware with remote telemetry, transfer to/from disk, printer out- 
put. XON-XOFF control, user program control, and status 
line. 

VE-2IEEEto Parallel Interface 119 

Includes case, power supply, full 8-bit transmission, and 
switch selectable character conversion to ASCII 



VIC 20 Products 

VIC Modem 93 

VIC RAM Cards in stock 
VIC SuperExpander 53 
VIC 16K RAM 95 

Thorn EMI Software 
HES Software 

VIC Omega Race 32 

Spiders of Mars (UMI) 39 
Programmers Aid 45 

VICTORY Software 



Street Sweepers 
Night Rider 
Treasures of Bat Cave 
Games Pack I 
Victory Casino 
Adventure Pack II 



12 
11 
12 
12 
8 
12 



VIC Sargon II Chess 
VIC GORF 
Meteor Run (UMI) 
Vanilla PILOT 
Amok (UMI) 
Snakman 
Rubik's Cube 
Programmers Reference 
Renaissance (UMI) 
VIC Adventure Series 
for VIC and C64 
Maze in 3-D 
Cosmic Debris 
Grave Robbers Advent 
Games Pack II 
Adventure Pack I 
Trek 



Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide 15 

Compute's First Book of PET/CBM 1 1 

POWER ROM Utilities for PET/CBM 78 

WordPro 3+ - 32K CBM. disk, printer 195 
WordPro 3+/B4 

WordPro 4+ - 8032. disk, printer 300 

SPELLMASTER spelling checker for WordPro 1 70 

VISICALC for PET. ATARI, or Apple 190 

PETRAX PET to Epson Graphics Software 40 

SM-KIT enhanced PET/CBM ROM Utilities 40 

Programmers Toolkit - PET ROM Utilities 35 

PETSpacemaker II ROM Switch 36 

2 Meter PET to IEEE or IEEE to IEEE Cable 40 

Dust Cover for PET. CBM. 4040. or 8050 8 

VIC or C64 Parallel Printer Interface 79 

CmC IEEE-RS232 Printer Interface - PET 120 

SADI Intelligent IEEE-RS232 or parallel 235 

ZRAM - CBM 64 K RAM. Z80. CP/M 550 

Programmingthe PET/CBM (Compute!) — R. West 20 

Compute 1 First Book of VIC 11 

Whole PET Catalog (Midnight Gazette) 8 

Color Chart Video Board for PET 1 25 

PET Fun and Games (Cursor) 1 1 

FTexFile~for PET C BM~ C64 $110 

Database, Report Writer with Calculations, Mailing Lists 

FORTH for PET full FIG model — Cargill/Riley $50 

Metacompiler for FORTH for independent bject code 30 

85 
65 



KMMM PASCAL tor PET/CBM 

EARL for PET/CBM Disk-based ASSEMBLER 



Super Graphics — BASIC Language Exercises 45 

Fast machine language graphics routines for PET/CBM 



RAM/ROM for PET/CBM 



4K S75 8K $90 



DISK 
SPECIALS 




Scotch (3M) 5" ss/dd 
Scotch (3M) 5" ds/dd 
Scotch (3M) 8" ss/sd 
Scotch (3M) 8" ss/dd 



10/2.25 50/2.10 100/2 05 

10/315 50/2.90 100/285 

10/2 40 50/2.20 100/2 15 

10/295 50/2.70 100/2.65 



We stock VERBATIM DISKS 

Write for Dealer and OEM prices. 

BASF 5" or 8" 10/2 00 20/195 100/185 

NEW BASF Qualimetric Disks also in stock 

Wabash5"ss/sd 10/180 50/175 100/170 

Wabash 5" ss/dd 1 0/ 2.00 50/ 1 95 1 00/ 1 90 

Wabash 8" ss/sd 10/2 00 50/195 100/190 

We stock MAXELL DISKS 

Write for dealer and OEM prices. 

Disk Storage Pages 10 for S5 Hub Rings 50 for $6 
Disk Library Cases 8"— 3.00 5" — 225 

Head Cleaning Kits 11 



CASSETTES— AGFA PE-611 PREMIUM 




High output, low noise. 5 screw housings 




C-10 10/ 61 50/ 58 


100/ 50 


C-30 10/85 50/82 


100/70 



SPECIALS 



Zenith ZVM-121 Green Phosphor Monitor 
VOICE BOX Speech Synthesizer (Apple or Aran) 
Many printers available (Star. Brother OKI. etc) 
We Stock AM DEK Monitors 
Watanabe Intelligent Plotter 1095 6-pen 

ISOBAR 4 Outlet Surge Supressor/Noise Filter 
We stock Electrohome Monitors 
dBASE II 



109 



1395 
49 

390 



Panasonic TR-120M1P 12" Monitor (20 MHz) 149 

Panasonic CT-160 Dual Mode Color Monitor 285 

Franklin Computers - special system price 
Hewletl Packard Calculators available 

USI Video Monitors— Green or AMBER 20 MHz hf-res. 
Dealer and OEM inquiries invited 

ALL BOOK and SOFTWARE PRICES DISCOUNTED 

A P Products 15% OFF 

Synertek SYM-1 Microcomputer SALE 189 

KTM-2/80 Synertek Video and Keyboard 349 

Yeh£tm I data 

I systems 

Z19 Video Terminal (VT-52 compatible) 695 

ZT-1 Intelligent Communications Terminal 479 
Z100 16-bit/8-bit System CALL 

We stock entire Zenith line. 




ATARr 

SPECIALS 



800 Computer 
400-16K 
81 Disk Drive 
Thorn EMI Software 
850 Interface 
Inside Atari DOS 
Joysticks or Paddles 
Microtek RAM Cards 
EduFun Software 
Pilot 

Super Breakout 
APX Software 



525 
269 
440 

170 
18 
19 



65 
29 
Call 



Microsoft BASIC 
MISSILE COMMAND 
ASTEROIDS 
STAR RAIDERS 

Space Invaders 
Atari Graph. (Compute!) 
Caverns of Mars 
PAC-MAN 
CENTIPEDE 
First Book of Atari 
Anchor Modem— Atari 
Other Atari products 



72 
29 
29 
34 

29 
11 
33 
36 
36 
11 
85 
Call 



252 Bethlehem Pike 
Colmar, PA 18915 



215-822-7727 



A B Computers 



WRITE FOR CATALOG 

Add $1 .25 per order for shipping. We pay balance of UPS surface 
charges on all prepaid orders. Prices listed are on cash discount 
basis. Regular prices slightly higher. Prices subject to change 



Circle 4 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 523 




IBM 

PERSONAL 

COMPUTER 



64K, 2 320K DRIVES, COLOR 

BOARD $2,895 

64K, 2 320K DRIVES, IBM DISPLAY . .53,250 




OSBORNE 

COMPUTER 



64K, 2 DOUBLE SIDED DRIVES & 
SOFTWARE 51,750 



PRINTERS: EPSON, OKIDATA & 

GEMINI CALL 



COMPUTER HORIZON 

7341 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Suite 106, MB 135 
San Diego, CA 92111 Tel: (619) 565-0158 



THROUGHPUT 



SEATTLE CttCUTER PRODUCTS GAZELLE 
SCION MICRCWNGELO GRAPHICS SYSTEM 
INTEGRAL DATA SYSTEMS PRINTERS 
BAUCH 1 LOHB ONP-29 PLOTTER 
ANPL0&-0IGITAL t OIGITAL-ANPLOG 
IEEE-48B ... WD NORE 

CDHPLETE SYSTEMS FROH J52M 



FOR THE IBM 



SEATTLE COHPUTER PRODUCTS WW* 
SCION 16 COLOR 640X480 PIXELS 
ANAL0G-0I6ITAL 1 OIGITAL-ANPLOG 
IEEE-488 ... AND MORE 



UILLIAH J a QJFF 

7 ROBERTS RDw VELLE5LEY, HR B21B1 

16171-235-9585 

ESTABLISHED 1978. SPECIALIZING IN 
OMSULTATION AND SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 
FOR ENGINEERING/SCIENTIFIC USES. 



\ferbatim 

flexible disks 

Call Free (800) 235-4137 for 

prices and information. Dealer 
inquiries invited. C.O.D. and 
charge cards accepted. 

VISA' 




PACIFIC 
EXCHANGES 

100 Foothill Blvd. 
San Luis Obispo, CA 
93401. In Cal. call 
(800) 592-5935 or 
(805) 543-1037. 



Circle 101 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 80 on Inquiry card 



Circle 331 on Inquiry card. 



APPLE® 

COMPATIBLE 
SYSTEM SALES 

A W/P Package Inch 

APPLE* COMPATIBLE W/64K 

RANA ELITE ONE W/CNTR 

12" AMBER MONITOR 

SMITH/CORONA TP— I PRINTER 

WORD PROCESSING SOFT. 

ON SALE $1899 
AND MORE— Savings & Selection 

Apple lie CALL 

KayPro II $1499 

Franklin Ace 1000 $ 929 

Cokmbia MPC $2295 

Syscom 2 $ 649 

IBM P/C On Sale 

Smith-Corona TP-I $ 559 

Gemini 10 Dot Matrix $ 329 

For Complete Selection and 
Lowest Prices — Free Catalog 

COMPUTERS 
and more 

2420 University Ave., Sultt 3, San Diego, Ca. 92104 
(619)291-1442, Telex 697120, Datamax Attn: Depl 322 




SBC 8671 

? Basic 
Controller 




A com- 
plete self 
contained con- 
trol computer. 



Features: Zllog Z8671 microprocessor with 2K 
basic interpreter. Sockets for 48K of on board 
user memory. 48 parallel I/O lines, RS 232 & 
20MA current loop serial communications, 
and more . . . 

Custom & Oem ver- 
sions also available 



4v 



SQOCOO 

0£%J Each 

*Z8 is a Trademark of Zllog Corp. 



Lehmann & Associates 

P.O. Box 566, Maumee, Ohio 
(419)8910687 



Bargain 
Boards" 

Best prices around on 

|Gra 



puPro 



boards. 

RAM 21 $766. 

M-Drive H-5998. 

Call or write for 
additional board prices 
or to place orders. 

Include $6.00 per board for shipping and handling. 

6331 Fairmount Ave. #701 
El Cerrito, Ca. 94530 
(415) 524-8352 



Circle 113 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 245 on Inquiry card. 



I IBM® PC 
SOFTWARE 



ONLY $68 FOR ALL THREE!! 

PERSONALPAC™: 3 menu-driven "user 
friendly" time savers. 
BILLTIME: Program expense categories 
w/o programming experience. Easily add, 
delete, update bills. Sort several ways. 
BANKBAL: Reconcile checkbook fast! Flexi- 
ble and handles all types of income and ex- 
penses. 

APPTCAL: Keep track of all engagements. 
Easily add, delete, update, and list appoint- 
ments. 

USE AT HOME OR AT THE OFFICE 
Sold on PC DOS-formatted diskette. Send 
check, money order or C.O.D. to: 

SEARS ELECTRONICS INC. 

' 'time saving software designers ' ' 

Tirrell Hill, Goffstown, NH 03045 

(603) 497-3074 







iem -Quality 

Printing for 

Your Computer 



Complete system with 
top-quality IBM 
Electronic typewriter 
is ready to plug into 
your computer, or, you can 
convertyourown IBM Electronic orSelectric®. 

• IBM approved since 1978. 

• For all popular computers. 

• No special software required. 

• Money back guarantee. 

*** MORE SUPER SPECIALS! *** 

Smltti-CoronaTP-1 $629 TelevWeo925 $788 

Teletek Systemaster $792 Anadex DP950OA $1388 
Software. orJier products Call! StarPrinters Call! 

Call our professionals for best service and price. 
• we export to all countries. • 

IPEX INTERNATIONAL, INC. 

5115 Douglas Fir Road 
caiabasas, ca 91302 U.S.A. 

Telex/TWX 910-494-2100 

(213)710-1444 

IBM and SELECTRIC are trademarks of IBM Corp, 




ScreenGen 

FULL SCREEN CONTROL 



An assembler subprogram you call from your 
BASIC or COBOL programs to handle screen 
input/output as IBM mainframes do. 
You just define a table/array in your program 
specifying screen formats, and call ScreenGen 
to do all the I/O for you. 

• Input or display a full screen with one single 
command 

• Use all of your CRT video attributes 

• Define up to 24 function keys 

• Define templates for display and input. 
Six standard editing templates built-in. 

• Validate input while keying. Insert and 
delete characters to correct fields 

• Tab fields forward and backward 

• Superfast screen operation 
Available now for 



Microsoft 



CP/M 
TRS-80 
Apple II' 
Manual 
Only 



'requires soMcard 



BASIC-80 \ 
COBOL-80 
Dig. Research CBASlC \ 
Ryan McFarland RM/C0B0L I 
Radio Shack BASIC 

RS/C0B0L / 
Source code included 
IBM PC available soon 



IfllERDfiTQ SYSTEMS 
1051 Clinton St., Buffalo, N.Y. 14206 
(416) 493-8675 m 



$99 
$75 
$75 

$25 



INC. 



Circle 386 on inquiry card. 



Circle 225 on inquiry card. 



Circle 223 on inquiry card. 



wabash 



for 
as 

low 
as 



diskettes 

$1.39 each! 

Now.. .Get High Quality at a Low Price 

Wabash means quality products that you can depend on. 
Forover 1 6 years, Wabash has been making high quality 
computer products. Wabash diskettes are made to provide 
error-free performance on your computer system. Every 
Wabash diskette is individually tested and is 100% certified 
to insure premium performance. 

Why Wabash is Special 

The quality of Wabash diskettes is stressed throughout 
the entire manufacturing process. Aftercoating, all Wabash 
diskettes go through a unique burnishing process that 
gives each diskette a mirror-smooth appearance. Wabash 
then carefully applies a lubricant that is specially form- 
ulated to increase diskette life. This saves you money, 
since your discs may last longer. It also assists your disk 
drives in maintaining constant speed which can reduce 
read and write errors. 

Special Seal... Helps Prevent Contamination 

Tokeepoutforeign particles, a uniqueheatsealbondsthe 
jacket and liner together. A special thermal seal which 
avoids contamination from adhesives, is then used to fold 
and seal the jacket. This results in outstanding perfor- 
mance and true reliability. Wabash then packages each 
diskette, (except bulk pack) in a super strong and tear 
resistant Tyvek® evelope. The final Wabash product is 
then shrink-wrapped to insure cleanliness and reduce 
contamination during shipment. 

Each Diskette is 100% Critically Tested 

Since each step in the Wabash diskette manufacturing 
process is subject to strict quality control procedures, you 
can be sure Wabash diskettes will perform for you. And 
every Wabash diskette meets the ultra-high standards of 
ANSI, ECMA, IBM and ISO in addition to the many critical 
quality control tests performed by Wabash. Wabash does 
all of this testing to provide you with consistently high 
quality diskettes. Reliability and data integrity - that's 
what Wabash quality is all about. 

Flexible Disc Quantity Discounts Available 

Wabash diskettes are packed 10 discs to a carton and 1 
cartons to a case. The economy bulk pack is packaged 
100 discs to a case without envelopes or labels. Please 
order only in increments of 100 units for quantity 100 
pricing. With the exception of bulk pack, we are also 
willing to accommodate your smaller orders. Quantities 
less than 1 00 units are available in increments of 1 units 
at a 10% surcharge. Quantity discounts are also avail- 
able. Order 500 or more discs at the same time and deduct 
1%; 1 ,000 or more saves you 2%; 2,000 or more saves you 
3%; 5,000 or more saves you 4%; 10,000 or more saves 
you 5%; 25,000 or more saves you 6%; 50,000 or more 
saves you 7% and 1 00,000 or more discs earns you an 8% 
discount off our super low quantity 100 price. Almost all 
Wabash diskettes are immediately available from CE. Our 
warehouse facilities are equipped to help us get you the 
quality product you need, when you need it. If you need 
further assistance to find the flexible disc that's right for 
you, call the Wabash diskette compatibility hotline. Dial 
toll-free 800-323-9868 and ask for your compatibility 
representative. In Illinois or outside the United States dial 
31 2-593-6363 between 9 AM to 4 PM Central Time. 

Circle 86 on Inquiry card. 



Part# 


CE quant. 
100 price 
per disc (S) 


F111 


1.99 


F111B 


1.79 


F31A 


1.99 


F131 


2.49 


F14A 


3.19 


F144 


3.19 


F145 


3.19 


F147 


3.19 


M11A 


1.59 


M11AB 


1.39 


M41A 


1.59 


M51A 


1.59 


M51F 


2.99 


M13A 


1.89 


M13AB 


1.69 


M18A 


2.79 


M43A 


1.89 


M53A 


1.89 


M14A 


2.79 


M44A 


2.79 


M54A 


2.79 


M15A 


2.69 


M16A 


3.79 



SAVE ON WABASH DISKETTES 

Product Description 

8" SSSD IBM Compatible (128 B/S, 26 Sectors) 

8" Same as above, but bulk pack w/o envelope 

8" SSSD Shugart Compatible, 32 Hard Sector 

8" SSDD IBM Compatible (1 28 B/S, 26 Sectors) 

8" DSDD Soft Sector (Unformatted) 

8" DSDD Soft Sector (256 B/S, 2 6 Sectors) 

8" DSDD Soft Sector (51 2 B/S, 15 Sectors) 

8" DSDD Soft Sector (1024 B/S, 8 Sectors) 

5 1 /4" SSSD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring 

5V4" Same as above, but bulk pack w/o envelope 

5 1 /4" SSSD 10 Hard Sector w/Hub Ring 

5V4" SSSD 16 Hard Sector w/Hub Ring 

5V4" SSDD Lanier No-problem compatible 

5 1 /4" SSDD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring 

5 1 /4" Same as above, but bulk pack w/o envelope 

5V4" SSDD Soft Sector Flippy Disk (use both sides) 

5 1 /4" SSDD 10 Hard Sector w/Hub Ring 

5 1 /4" SSDD 1 6 Hard Sector w/Hub Ring 

5 1 /4" DSDD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring 

5 1 /4" DSDD 10 Hard Sector w/Hub Ring 

5 1 /4" DSDD 16 Hard Sector w/Hub Ring 

5 1 A" SSQD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring (96 TPI) 

5V4" DSQD Soft Sector w/Hub Ring (96 TPI) 

SSSD = Single Sided Single Density; SSDD= Single Sided Double Density; 
DSDD = Double Sided Double Density; SSQD = Single Sided Quad Density; 
DSQD = Double Sided Quad Density; TPI = Tracks per inch. 

Buy with Confidence 

To get the fastest delivery from CE of your Wabash computer 
products, send or phone your order directly to our Computer 
Products Division. Be sure to calculate your price using the CE 
prices in this ad. Michigan residents please add 4% sales tax or 
supply your tax I.D. number. Written purchase orders are accep- 
ted from approved government agencies and most well rated 
firms at a 30% surcharge for net 30 billing. All sales are subject to 
availability, acceptance and verification. All sales are final. Prices, 
terms and specifications are subject to change without notice. All 
prices are in U.S. dollars. Out of stock items will be placed on 
backorder automatically unless CE is instructed differently. Min- 
imum prepaid order $50.00. Minimum purchase order $200.00. 
International orders are invited with a $20.00 surcharge for 
special handling in addition to shipping charges. All shipments 
are F.O.B. Ann Arbor, Michigan. No COD's please. Non-certified 
and foreign checks require bank clearance. 

For shipping charges add $8.00 per case or partial-case of 
100 8-inch discs or $6.00 per case or partial-case of 100 5 1 /4-inch 
mini-discs for U.P.S. ground shipping and handling in the con- 
tinental United States. 

Mail orders to: Communications Electronics, Box 1002, 
Ann Arbor, Michigan 481 06 U.S.A. If you have a Master Card 
or Visa card, you may call and place a credit card order. Order 
toll-free in the U.S. Dial 800-521-441 4. If you are outside the 
U.S. or in Michigan, dial 31 3-994-4444. Order your Wabash 
diskettes from Communications Electronics today. 
Copyright 1982 Communications Electronics"' Ad #110582 





MEMBER 




Order Toil-Free! wabash 

800-521-4414 error-free 



In Michigan 313-994-4444 



diskettes 




COMMUNICATIONS 
ELECTRONICS™ 

Computet Products Division 

854 Phoenix □ Box 1 002 □ Ann Arbor, Michigan 48 1 06 U.S.A. 
Call TOLL-FREE (800) 521 -441 4 or outside U.S.A. (31 3) 994-4444 

BYTE March 1983 525 



MEMOREX 

FLEXIBLE DISCS 



WE WILL NOT BE UNDER- 
SOLDfl Call Free (800)235-4137 

for prices and information. Dealer 
inquiries invited and C.O.D.'s 
accepted 

VfSA 




PACIFIC 
EXCHANGES 

100 Foothill Blvd. 
San Luis Obispo, CA 
93401. InCaL call 
(800)592-5935 or 
,(805)543-1037 



SPECIAL OFFER 




TURBO-MICRO COMPUTER 

Complete System With Networking Capability 

*1 to 16 independent users. 

*20 to 80 M. Byte hard disk 

*CP/M orTurboDos Operating System 

♦100% CP/M Compatible 

*S-100 BUS Structure, master/slave concept 

3.2 M. Byte Desk Top Turbo-Micro 

Computer, 1 to 6 users $2349.00 

20 M. Byte Hard Disk Desk Top Turbo- 
Micro Computer, 1 to 6 users $3995.00 

20 M. Byte Hard Disk Stand-Alone Turbo- 
Micro Computer, 1 to 16 users $5595.00 

Write or call for complete information and price 
package. 

ADVANCED COMP. TECH. 

SAN DIEGO, CA (619) 571-2746 



ANUDATA 

COMPUTER PRODUCTS 



PRINCETON GRAPHIC HIGH RESOLUTION 

RGB COLOR MONITOR FOR IBM-PC CALL 

TAN DON FLOPPY DRIVE TM 100-2 8255 

VERBATIM DISKETTES f, 1/4" SS DD S24.50/J0 
DS DD 8.W10 

FOR INFORMATION OR ORDERS CALL 



914-221-1560 



OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 

73 BRANDY LANE 
WAPPINGER FALLS, NY 12590 



Circle 331 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 12 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 23 on inquiry card. 



OLIVETTI M-20 
COMPUTERS 



COMPUTERS 

M-20 Computer, 128k, Single Disk 
M-20 Computer. 128k, Dual Disk 
32k Memory Expansion 
Color Monitor & 32k Memory 
11Mb Internal Hard Disk 
Eagle II Computer 
Eagle III Computer 

PRINTERS 

Dot Matrix Printers 
Letter Quality Printers 
Olivetti Thermal Graphics Printer 
Panasonic 6-Pen Plotter 

SOFTWARE 



SUGG. 
LIST 

$3087 
3682 
229 
1700 
3782 
2995 
3995 



OUR 
PRICE 

$2469 
2945 
180 
1360 
3025 
2595 
3495 



— Call — 

— Call — 

1100 700 
1995 1596 

— Call — 



CALL FOR GREAT DISCOUNTS 

on all Olivetti Computers. Software. Printers, etc. 

WE DEAL. 



TlmeSaver Systems 

206/927-9024 

15 Central Way, Suite320, Kirkland. WA 98033 



TAXMAN-83 

An Interactive TAX MANagement Program for 

VisiCalc™& Super Calc™ Users 

TAXMAN-83 provides you with the capability to easily calculate your 1982 

taxes by using the already proven VisiCalc and SuperCalc™ electronic 

spreadsheets. 

TAXMAN-83 prepares and prints 1982 individual income lax relurns. 
TAXMAN&crjrsifers altaxaltemalrves.corrputes the kwesl lax possible, 
tests reasonableness and tells you which lorms are necessary for filing. 
TAXMAN-83 includes the lollowing forms/schedules: Federal 1040; 
SchedulesA, B, C, D, E, F, G, R, RP, SE, ES, U, W; Forms 1116, 2106, 
2119, 2210, 2440, 2441,3468, 3903, 4136, 4137, 4255, 4562,4563, 4625, 
4684, 4797, 4798,4835, 4952, 4970, 4972, 5329, 5544, 5695, 5884, 6249, 
6251, 6252, 6478, 6765, 6781; Tax schedules X, YS, YJ, Z; Tax tables; 
Sales tax tables for all stales. 

TAXMAN43 is now available lor most microcomputers utilizing 
VisiCalc™ or SuperCalc™ 

PRICED AT ONLY 



ffl M 



$95.00 

Call: 1-205-533-7590 



OCI 



ATSUKO 

COMPUTING 

INTERNATIONAL 

303 Williams Avenue. Huntsville. AL 35801 



ONE BOARD CP/M SYSTEM 
FOR NETWORKS 



: li 1 "'*&*»> i 't &2Kfc 



j_ ^*»- | £ .c*r5a 



JK8«*MSr«* 



Features: 



• 8 l /i x 12'/j inches 

• 10 MHZ 8085 CPU 

• 64K RAM 

• 880 KBIT/SEC 
Network Port 



• CRT Controller 

• 8272 FD Controller 

• Winchester Interface 

• 2 RS-232 Channels 



Documentation $20 

CP/M Floppy Disk Op. System fcl80 

Check or Money Order 



autocoii troll 

INCOIPOIAHO ^^H 

1 1400 Dorsett Rd. 

Maryland Heights, MO 63043 

(314) 739-0055 



Circle 387 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 37 on Inquiry card. 



Circle 38 on inquiry card. 



CHIPS &DALE tl 

THE INFLATION FIGHTERSl 

4116250ns8/89.50 100+ 1.05 ea. 

4116 200ns 8/S10.00 100+ SI. 05 ea. 

4116 150ns 8/$l 1.50 100+ $1.25 ea. 

4116 120ns 8/S 14.50 100+ 81.50 ea. 

4116 120ns 8/815.50 100+ 81.50 ea. 

21 14L 300ns 8/8 10.50 

2 114L 200ns 8/8 12.00 
•4164 200ns 84.65 ea. 
•4164 150ns 85.10 ea. 
•6116 150ns 84.00 ea. 
•6116 200ns 83.85 ea. 
•6116LP 150ns 84.75 ea. 
•1791 Disk Controller 820.00 

1777 Disk Controller $17.50 

Z80A. Z80ACTC. Z80A PIO 83.00 ea. 

8255 84.25 

2716-1 5V 350ns 8/84.25 ea. 85.00 ea. 

2716 5V 450ns 83.00 ea. 
•2732 5V 450ns 83.85 ea. 
•2532 5V 450ns 84.25 ea. 
•2764 5V 300ns 28 pin 89.00 ea. 
•2764 5V 24 pin CALL 
•2564 5V CALL 

••8087 CALL 

68000 CALL 

Allow up to 3 wks. for personal checks to clear. Please include 
phone number. Prices subject to change without notice. Shipping & 
Handling for Chips S3.50. FOB Bellevue. WA. for all else. Wash. 
residents add 6.5% Sales Tax. 

CHIPS & DALE 1-206-451-9770 

10655 N.E.4th St., Suite 400 
Bellevue, WA 9B004 



C LANGUAGE 
PROGRAMMERS 



Now with: 



c-systems 
C COMPILER 
c-window™ 



The first c language source level 

program testing and debugging tool. 

• Single step by c source line. 

• Set breakpoints at line numbers. 

• Display and alter variables by symbol 
name, using c expression syntax. 

• No more printf or assembler level 
debugging! 

c-window™ is a support package for 
the c-systems C COMPILER for 

8O86/8O88 based systems. 

Contact: £^1^^ 

c-systems 

P.O. Box 3253 

TM c-systems 



Fullerton, CA 92634 
714-637-5362 




Maxell 
Diskettes 



The floppy disks that meet 
or exceed every standard 
of quality. Dealer inquiries 
invited. 

/* Call Toll Free *\ 
1-800-237-8931. 

In Florida, call 
V 813-577-2794, J 



V 



Tech* Data Corporation 

•3251 Tech Drive North 
St. Petersburg, FL 33702 



Circle 78 on inquiry card. 



Circle 67 on inquiry card. 



Circle 419 on inquiry card. 



DRIVES 



IBM • APPLE II • APPLE II 

QUENTIN 

OR 

MICRO-SCI 



APPLE II 5 1/4" 



$ 269 



00 



OKPATA | © BASIS 1 08 



82A83A 84 93 



CALL FOR LOWEST PRICES 



EPSON 



MX80 



FX80 



MX100 



CALL FOR LOWEST PRICES 



APPLE COMPATIBLE 

COMPUTER 

CALL FOR LOWEST PRICE 



SMITH-CORONA 




TP-I 



LETTER QUALITY 

DAISY WHEEL 

$57500 



SOFTWARE 


WE HAVE IT ALL! 


OVER 500 TITLES 


IBM • APPLE • CP/M 


PARTIAL LISTING 


ARCADE MACHINE 


$31 .00 


BEAGLE BROS. 


SCALL 


BPI GL. AP, AR 


299.00 


BRODERBUND 


SCALL 


DATAMOST 


SCALL 


EDU-WARE 


SCALL 


FROGGER 


30.00 


HAYDEN PIE WRITER 


119.00 


HOME ACCOUNTANT 


59.00 


HOME ACC'T + (IBM) 


119.00 


INFO. UNLIMITED 


SCALL 


MICROPRO 


SCALL 


MICROSOFT 


SCALL 


MULTIPLAN (CP/M, IBM) 199.00 


PEACHTREE 


SCALL 


PERFECT SOFTWARE 


SCALL 


PFS 


SCALL 


SCREENWRITER II 


99.00 


SIRIUS 


SCALL 


SUPERCALC 


215.00 


TRANSEND 


119.00 


WIZARDRY 


35.00 


WORDHANDLER II 


139.00 


ZORK I. II, III 


27.00 



KENSINGTON , , r ~ 

microware ■ # Cjtt Products 




HARDWARE 


WE CARRY MOST 
PRODUCTS. PLEASE 
CALL IF NOT LISTED 


PARTIAL LISTING 


DISK LIBRARY CASE 


2.50 


FLIP FILE 


20.00 


GRAPPLER + 


139.00 


HAYES MICROMODEM II 


269.00 


JOYPORT 


49.00 


KRAFT JOYSTICK 


47.00 


M & R ENTERPRISES 


SCALL 


MX-80 PRINTER STAND 


19.00 


MX-PLUS 


45.00 


MICROBUFFER II 32K 


239.00 


MICRO-SCI DRIVES 


SCALL 


MICROSOFT IBM RAMCD 


299.00 


MICROSOFT SOFTCARD 


239.00 


NOVATION PRODUCTS 


SCALL 


PAYMAR L/CASE. REV.7 


20.00 


PKASO 


159.00 


PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS 


SCALL 


SHIFT KEY MODIFICATION 


12.00 


VISTA PRODUCTS 


SCALL 


WILDCARD 


119.00 


WIZARD BPO 


159.00 



16 RAM CARD 



Paddles 


$29 00 


Joystick 11 


40 oo 


Select-A-Port 


4700 


All of Above 


109 00 


Trakball 


$CALL 


Joystick III 


$CALL 


Joystick IBM 


4500 



IBM-APPLE II- APPLE III 


Visilink (Apple) 


179.00 


Visicalc (IBM or Apple) 


179.00 


Desktop Plan II (Apple) 


179.00 


Desktop Plan (IBM) 


249.00 


Visidex (IBM or Apple) 


179.00 


Visifile (Apple) 


179.00 


Visifile (IBM) 


249.00 


Visiplot (Apple) 


145.00 


Visischedule (Apple) 


229.00 


Visiterm (Apple) 


75.00 


Visitrend/Plot (Apple) 


229.00 



£j Mountain Computer 


CPS Card 


159.00 


CPS Cable 


SCALL 


Ramplus+32K 


145.00 


Rom Writer 


145.00 


Clock 


195.00 


Music System 


299.00 


Super Talker 


149.00 


Expansion Chassis 


559.00 


Card Reader 


SCALL 


A/D-D/A 


269.00 


Visicalc Expander 


SCALL 



MONITORS 



BMC 12" Green Au 


88 00 


BMC 12" Green Eu 


129 00 


USI PI3-12" Amber 


169 00 


USI PI4-9" Amber 


159 00 


NEC 12" Green 


179 00 


NEC 12" Color 


34900 


AMDEK 


$CALL 


SANYO 


$CALL 



Compatible with: 
DOS 3.3, CP/M, 
Visicalc, PASCAL 
2 YR. WARRANTY 



$ 59 



00 







64 K 


$31 9 00 


128K 


45900 


V-C Expand 80 


99 00 



l^egenfr <3lttbustmB 



64K, incudes V-C plus, $299 00 

128K^ d 7*p*" CALC e °- 479 00 
Pascal Super Systems $CALL 



\ferbatim 



5 1/4" (100) 


S239 9 * 


5 1/4" (10) 


25 95 


8" (10} 


39 95 


Head Cleaning Kit 


750 




idex 



80 Column 




$239°° 


Enhancer II 




119 00 


Softswitch 




25 co 


Function Strip 




59 no 


Inverse Video 




19 C0 


Applewriter Pre 


-Boot 


19™ 


Visicalc 80 Soft 


ware 


4 goo 


Visicalc 80 w/mem. exp. 


7400 



EPSON RIBBONS 



MX 80 
MX 100 



7 00 ea or 3 



$ 700 

1 1 00 , 



or 3 



for 20 00 
for32 00 



DEALER 

INQUIRIES 

INVITED 




COMPUTER 

DISCOUNT 

PRODUCTS 



MAIL ORDERS & RETAIL STORE 

860 S. Winchester Blvd. 
San Jose, C A 95128 

(408) 985-0400 



HOURS: MON-FRI 8AM - 7PM - SAT & SUN 1 0AM - 4PM I 



PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE - ALL ORDERS FOB SAN JOSE 



Circle 97 on Inquiry card. 



PARALLEL INTERFACE 
PROBLEM? 




PRINTER OR COMPUTER? 
The Detectabyte® Model BD-1 

• Connects To Computer Parallel 
Output Port (36 Pin Connector) 

• Indicates If Preselected Character 
Was Sent 

• Complete With Power Supply And 
LED Display 

• Scope Sync Output 

• Minimizes Repair Costs& Turnaround 
Time 

PriCe $1 69.50 Plus$3.00 Shipping 
(California Orders Add 6% Sales Tax) 

The Partran Company 

2520 S. Fairview Avenue, Suite F 

Santa Ana, CA 92704 

(714)662-0709 



$99 TAX 

"IRIS" IS LESS TAXING TO USE 

1983 Returns on 1982 Income. Listable. 
Asks for Numbers, Yes/ No Answers 
Gives HELP. Picks, does forms itself. 
SV Disks 12) for CP/M M , MICROSOFT" 
BASIC. Copyable for 10 users. Under $10 each. 

599-PERSONAL-IRIS 1040/A,B,D,G,W 
common statements and forms, credits, + 

NO EXTRA COSTadds C,E,F,R,SE,ES 
more forms,credits,+ 

Future update discounted to original 
Buyers. Return mail delivery with bank, 
Certified check.MASTERCARD, VISA. 
CP/M-Registered Trademark of Digital Research 
Microsoft-Reg. Trademark of Microsoft Corp. 

D.C. POSTAGE, INC., 1309 4th St. SW 
Washington DC 20024 

202-484-1535 [messages only] 



SPECIAL OFFER! 



MEGA 



IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER 
MEMORY EXPANSION BOARD 




FEATURES: 

Expansion capability from 64K to MByte, 
Memory boundaries selection flexibility, Pro- 
grammable memory banking capability, Pro- 
grammable memory write protect, Dual RS- 
232-C serial asynchronous ports, Program- 
mable RS-232-C address, "Key-lock" software 
protection logic, High quality four layer PC 
board, One year warranty. 

SPECIAL PRICE: 

64K RAM & twoRS-232serial ports— $299.95 

256K RAM & two RS-232 serial ports— $499.95 

==""= T B l £ B £ , . mpM, ' r (714) 553-0133 

= ~ = = = ia««™.ooai (619) 727-0202 

P.O. Box 16115, Irvine CA 92713-6115 



Circle 340 on inquiry card. 



Circle 134 on inquiry card. 



Circle 168 on Inquiry card. 



WORD PROCESSING - PLUS 
SPELLBINDER 



A Word Processor for CP/M and MS-DOS Systems, 
with built-in mail list, sorts by zips, alpha and cues, 
forms generator, column addition and more. 

LIST PLANA PLAN-B PLANC 

$495 $356 $321 $285 

Other CP/M, MS-DOS and Apple software available 
with same terms. Write or call for full spec sheets or 
further information. 

PLANS: 

A - Phone support, exchange privilege, 90 days 
8 - Phone support, exchange privilege, 30 days 
C - Support limited to supplied documentation, no 
exchange except for bad disk replacement. 

Additional support available at $20/hour. 

TERMS: 

Prices include cash discount. Add 4% for charge or 
COD orders. Add $5 shipping and handling. 



Suite 14-04 
3322 Mem. 
Pkwy.,S.W. 



fes^ 



(205)883-8113 
Hunstville, 

AL 35801 



ATDQfinn. the double density disk 

nlnOUUU. INTERFACE FOR ATARI 800/400 

• Z80 4MHz controller with 64k 
RAM. 

• Comes with CP/M 2.2. Also runs 
ATARI DOS and OS/A+. 

• Runs four 5 1 /}" or 8" drives. 

• Has a serial and a parallel port. 

• CO-POWER-88, and 8088 co- 
processor with up to 256k RAM 
is now available. Runs CP/M-86 
or MSDOS. 

64k ATR8000 $750.00 

5 1 /." Drive $399.95 

OS/A+, Vers. 4 $ 49.95 

CO-POWER-88 Choose from 

several packages. 

Call for pricing. 

SOFTWARE 

PUBLISHERS, 

INC. 

2500 E. Randol 

. Mill Rd.. Suite 125 

.^ Arlington, TX 76011 

(817) 469-1181 




Cables 

EIA RS 232-C 



Quality cables with immediate 


delivery and low prices. 


Conductor 


Price 


1-4 


$12.00 +.18/ft. 


5-7 


12.50 + ,27/ft. 


8-12 


1 3.50 + .33/ft. 


13-16 


1 4.75 + .44/ft. 


17-25 


1 7.00 + .55/ft. 



Circle 135 on inquiry card. 



Circle 398 on Inquiry card. 



Specify: Male or female connectors, length of 
cable and pins to be connected. OEM & quantity 
discounts available to qualified customers. On 
prepaid orders add $5.00 for shipping/handling. 
We also supply connector parts, bulk 
cable, IBM, DECCompatable&Centronic 
cables. 

Communication 
Cable Company 

3 1 9 Louella Ave. Wayne, PA 1 9087 
\^ 215-964-9404 j 

Circle 85 on Inquiry card. 



I WILL BEAT ANY COMPETITOR'S PRICE 

PROVIDED IT IS NOT BELOW MY COST. 

TRY TO BEAT THESE IC PRICES: 





DYNAMIC RAM 




64K 


200 ns 


$4.85 


64K 


150 ns 


5.10 


16K 


200 ns 
EPROM 


1.25 i 


2764 


300 ns 


$8.00 


2732 


450 ns 


4.15 


2716 


450 ns 


3.33 ; 


2532 


450 ns 
STATIC RAM 


470 


6116P-3 150 ns 


$4.40 I 


2016 


100 ns 


4.00 


2114 


200 ns 
Z80A FAMILY 


1.60 j 


CPU. 


CTC, or PIO 


$3.39 


DART 




8.25 


DMA 


or SIO/0 


12.50 J 



MasterCard VISA or UPS CASH COO 

Factory New. Prime Parts 
MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED 

24.000 South Peoria Ave. 
BEGGS. OK. 74421 

(918) 267-4961 

I Prices subject to change. Call for volume prices Subiect to available quantmes I 
I Shipping & Insurance extra Cash discount prices shown. 




HBi.BJJB.BJ 

jbjfffi n 

HpIT L 



1 Z 



Z8 PROGRAMMABLE 
LOGIC CONTROLLER 

16K Static Memory (61 16)/(2716) 
9 Parallel Ports (3-8255A) 

Bare Board $50.00 

Kit $224.00 

A. & T $274.00 

To Order (313) 425-1137 
MICROADE 

29554 Rosslyn 
Garden City, Ml 48135 



Scotch 

diskettes 



i d©* 



SAVE 507, 



Scotch" 

Diskettes 



Y^^— — — ' Dealer Inquiries 
E1/." Specify Soft 
^ /4 10 or 16 sector M 
744D 1 side/dbl dens 


Invited 

rices/10 

$22.30 
. $31.00 
. $33.80 

$45.50 

. $23.60 
. $29.00 
. $37.80 

pping 
list. 
MS 

Ml 48081 


745 2 sides/dbl dens 


746 1 side/quad 96 tpi 


747 2 sides/ quad 96 tpi 


8 ' ' Specify soft o r 32 Secto 
740 1 side sgl/dens 


741 1 side/dbl dens 


743 2 sides/dbl dens 


Checks-viSA-MC-c.o.D./Add S2 sh 

Call or write for our complete 

LYBEN COMPUTER SYSTE 

27204 Harper Ave., St. Clair Shores, 
Phone: (313) 777-7780 



Authorized Distributor QfUl 

^information Processing Products OIVlj 



Circle 284 on inquiry card. 



Circle 268 on inquiry card. 



Circle 251 on inquiry card. 



SIEMENS 1 MEGABYTE 

8" Double Sided/Double Density 

l-$299.00 ear 
2-$289.00* 10-$269.00 







FDD200-8 Floppy 

Disk Drive 
Shugart Compatible 



ShippingWgt. 15 lbs. 
Factory New and Packaged 

Fully Guaranteed • 90 Day Warranty 
Service Contracts Available • Full Documentation 

We've been wholesalers to the industry for 10 years, but when these 2 
items became available at the same time, we decided to offer them directly 
to you. We know it will prove to be a good relationship and we'll be back 
next month with more incredible bargains. Hope to hear from you soon. 

Sincerely, 



Circle 478 on Inquiry card. 



Jom w/l** 



'Orders accepted by Visa/MasterCharge (add 3%) Money Order or certified check. Price does 
not include shipping charges. Specify method of shipment desired and include approximate 
shipping charge. N.J. residents add 6% sales tax. 



OUME 55CPS— HIGH SPEED 

DAISEY WHEEL LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS 

$950.00 ea.' 






Quantity Pricing Available 



ffmiiiniiiimimiifiiiimm 




Proportional Spacing 

2K Buffer 

RS-232 or 
Centronics Parallel 



ShippingWgt. 46 lbs. 

The Qume Sprint 3-55 with Interface is Compatible with most Computers 
having RS-232 or Centronics Parallel A or 6, such as Radio Shack, Apple, 
IBM, etc. Also works with most popular word processing programs like 
Micropro™ Wordstar. 

These Qume Printers were used by a major typesetting company under 
maintenance until replaced by laser printers on an exchange basis. We had 
their technicians refurbish and completely exercise them to give you many 
years of reliable service at a price you can live with. 



HOBB-Y-TRONIX, INC. 



Division of Tope Industries, Inc. 

951 Ball Ave., Union, N.J. 07083 
(201) 687-1330 



Best Price • Good Quality • Swift Delivery • Export 

PRINTER IBM PC 



COMPUTER 

•The Best Graphic 
Personal Computer* * 

LNW 80 I ZBOA, 65K, 480 x 1 9 2 1,250 

II WCP/M board 1.500 

•Multiuser Business/Engineer* 
CROMEMCO Best Price Anywhere 

CS1 6%" floppy, 280 3,196 

CS1H W/5 MB hard disk 6,596 

CS1D2E 256K RAM, 68000 & Z80 

two 6 14" floppy 4,396 

CS1D2 no error correction 3,996 

CS3D5E 512K RAM, 6800 &Z80 

two 8" floppy 7,996 

C10 64K, 12" monitor 

Z80A. keyboard 1.090 

•Professional/Word Process* 

ZENITH Z90-80, 64K 2.050 

NORTH HORIZON, 1 

STAR quad drive, HD5 3,999 

ADVANTAGE, 2 

quad drives, 64K 2,999 

CROMEMCO 64K, 12" monitor, 390K 
CIO floppy, letter quality printer, 

CP/M type O.S. + word processing 
+ spreadsheet 2,7 50 

Zenith 1 6-8it 
Z-1 10 dual drives, 1 28K RAM color board, 

225x640 graphic, IBM PC 

compatible 3,099 

ZVM-134 superb color monitor 550 

•16-bltCPU* 
WICAT 256K RAM, CRT, 2 floppies, . .7,520 

*68000* S150WS 1-user 9,250 

256KRAM, 10MB hard disk, 
960KB floppy CRT, OS + 1 language 

S150-3 WS3-users 10,800 

same as S150 WS 

SI 50-6 WS 6-users 1 2,800 

5 1 2K RAM same as S 1 50 WS 

Graphics 300x400 900 

DUAL <■ 68000, 51 2K RAM, 20MB hard disk, 

IBM floppy, UNIX, SI 00 14,500 

ALTOS ACS8600-12 500K RAM 20MB 

hard disk 9,750 

Business System Software. . . .1,995 
TERAK, SWTPC, DEC, NEC Call 



$ 

EPSON FX new product CALL 

Integral Data System 

MICROPRISM 76 cps excellent print/1 1 cps 
84 x84 graphic, RS232/paral1el 
pin & friction feed '. 526 

PRISM 80 200 cps, 80 col 945 

w/graphics 84x84 1 ,02 5 

PRISM 1 32 200 cps, 1 32 col 1 . 1 00 

w/graphics 84 x 84 1 .1 80 

graphic, color, friction 1,590 

Tl 810 Superb CALL 

OKIDATA MICROLINE 84 parallel 1,025 

PRINTEK920 340cps, 144x144 2.450 

•Letter Quality* 

C.ITOH Starwriter F-10 40 cps 1 ,395 

QUME 9/4 5 1,840 

DIABLO 620 1,288 

BROTHER HR-1 Parallel 950 

NEC 7710 2,299 

3510 1,520 

TERMINAL 

ZENITH Z29 smart terminal 665 

ZT-1 w/modem telecom 560 

HAZELTINE ESPRIT II 588 

III 788 

BEEHIVE DM5 A 995 

IBM 3101-10 1,295 

TELEVIDEO 970 . . 1,119 

VISUAL 300 948 

MONITOR 

ZENITH 12" green 114 

AMDEK COLOR IV 720 x400 1 ,050 

COLOR II RGB 13" 725 

COLOR I 13" 340 

300 G 12" green 169 

SANYO 13" RGB 800 

NEC 12" green 170 

1203 RGB 725 

Electrohome RGB 580x235. . 599 

MODEM 

D.C. Hayes Smartmodem 300 baud 230 

300/1 200 baud 570 

Novation CAT 300 baud 155 

1 200 baud 590 



AMDEK 31 monitor 1 89 

IDS Microprism 480. . 525 

EPSON FX CALL 

NEC 3550 letter quality 1,918 

C.ITOH F-10 40cps 1,395 

Microsoft 1 28K RAM 360 

EASY WRITER II IUS 255 

CP AIDS Master Tax 1,195 

LEGAL TIMEKEEPING STAR 725 

Digital Research Pascal MT + 86 31 

Concurrent CP/M 86 299 

Peachtree GL, AR, AP 330 

Structured Systems Accounting 700 

DIGITIZER/PLOTTER 

HOUSTON INSTRUMENT DMP29 CALL 

HI PAD DIGITIZER DT-1 1 1 1 " x 1 1 " 725 

AMDEK AMPLOT 1 1" x 14" 780 

DISK DRIVE 

Mitsubishi 8" DD, DS bare 410 

dual B" subsystem 1 ,099 

Tandon 5%" DD, DS bare 280 

SOFTWARE 

dBASE II Ashton-Tate database 499 

CONDOR II 450 

MICROSOFT BASIC 80 285 

Micro Pro WORDSTAR 360 

MAILMERG 105 

Digital Research CPM 2.2 1 39 

Accounting Plus System Plus 399 

CALL (212)937-6363 
free catalogue 

Prices subject to change. American Express, Visa/ 
Mastercard add 3%. F.O.B. point of shipment. 20% re- 
stocking fee for returned merchandise. Personal checks 
take 3 weeks to clear. COD on certified check only. N.Y. 
residents add sales tax. Manufacturers' warranty only. 
International customers, please confirm price before 
order. Accept P.O. from Fortune 500 & schools. 

Computer Channel TELEX: 

21 -55 44th Road 429418 

Long Island City, NY 1 1 1 01 CSTNY 






Circle 96 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 529 



Circle 95 on Inquiry card. 



TRUE MAIL ORDER PRICES 

With so many so-called Mail Order establishments using "toll free" lines, and grandiose advertising, how 
can you, the customer, expect to receive true mail order savings? We have done away with large ads, 
and free phone lines to offer comparable service passing on the savings to you. 
THINK! You still SEND YOUR MONEY in the mail to an unknown untested party, and delivery is still 
often doubtful and certainly protracted in most cases. 



PRINTERS 

OKIDATA 

80 no tractor $ 319 

80 wtth tractor ... $ 369 

82A no tractoj S 419 

82A with tractor $ 459 

«3A $ 669 

84 A parallel ... $1009 

84A senal $1119 

2K Buffer ... $50 

Graphics 82A. 83A ... $ 73 

C-ITOH SPECIAL 

Comet II (125 cps) $499 

Full 15" width text printer 

C-ITOH PRINTERS 

80 col. parallel printer $ 449 

80 col. serial printer $ 589 

132 col. parallel printer $ 679 

132 col. serial printer $ 729 

Prac. Peripheral 8K Serial Buffer 

with X on/of I Epson $ 1 1 1 

Graphics Prowriter (120 cps) $ 444 

STAR PRINTERS 

Gemini 10 and 15 Call for Pricing 



LETTER QUALITY 

serial or parallel 

C-ITOH F10 $?345 

Brother HRI S 849 

Smith Corona TPI . S 569 

PRINTER 
CONNECTORS 

TRS-80 Cables only $22 

Apple Int. & Cable ... $ 79 

Atari-printer Cable $ 24 

IBM PC-printer Cable $ 24 

Male Centronics-printer Cable $ 24 

RS232 male-male $ 19 

"Configured for any computer, 
please specify your computer" 

IDS Cable $ 33 

Apple Graphics Card with Cable 
to EpsorVNEC/C-ITOH $ 89 

MONITORS 

Zenith ZVM-121 Green $ 90 

TECO ED 1200 line Hires Green ... $111 

NEC Anti Glare Green $155 

AMDEK 300G $155 

AMDEK Color I $333 

AMDEK Color II (IBM Available) $699 



IBM 



Monte Carlo Card 64K $ 399 

I C Magic $ 69 

VERBATIM 

5 l '4'SSSD S22.50 

5/4-SS'DD $24.00 

S T /4" DSDD $35.00 

8" DS'DD $39.00 

8" SS'DD $35.00 

Availablem soft sector and hard sector 1 0/ 16 

IBM/APPLE DRIVES 

• TandonTMS-100-1 $202 

TMS-100-2 $265 

TMS-100-4 $383 

• Software patch for IBM $ 66 

• RANA Elite 1 Add on Drive $333 
Quad drive Apple controller $ 99 
For Elite 2/3/4 

write for price availability $ 99 

• DAVONG (Apple and IBM) 

5 MB $1525 

10 MB $2025 

15 MB $2245 



NEC 
PERSONAL COMPUTER 



PC-8001 
PC-8012 
PC-8031 






S699 
$459 
S699 




COMING! 


-NEW NEC-APC 





GENERIC DISKETTES 

5 1 /4" SS/SD in plastic library case . . . . , $2 



5' 4" 



Library Cases Alone 



S 2 50 
S 3 50 



MODEMS 

Hayes Smart Modem 
Hayes Micro Modem 
Hayes Chronograph 

Apple • Cat II 

IBM - Smart Modem Cables 

RAM CARDS 

Apple 16K Card $ 66 

32K Card $125 

IBM 64K Quad Board $375 

Apple Vista Vision 80 $242 



$212 
$259 
$179 
$279 
$ 22 



Send orders and inquiries to: 



TM 



Computer Apparatus 

P.O. Box 32063 • Aurora, CO 80041 



TELEPHONE ORDER INQUIRIES: 
(303) 759-9251 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mountain Time. Monday to Friday. 



We have access to a vast range ol computer products from the many stocking distributors in Denver We cater tor 

a range of brand name peripherals and software for TRS-80. Apple. IBM. Atari and CP M users SEND in a card 

stating your interests lor our free catalog. 

DELIVERIES; 4-6 weeks al worst, all orders are fully dated. (Includes mail and shipping time) 

PERSONAL CHECKS: OKAY, but cashiers checks, money orders, etc., will receive shipping preference 

VISA AND MASTERCARD: Add 4% to total we CHARGE only WHEN we SHIP. 

CATALOG: Descriptions charts pricing and availability on all our products. Prices subject to change without notice 

SHIPPING: VIA UPS add $2.00 plus 1% of order total. 

Please Circle Inquiry Card to 
Receive Our Comprehensive Catalog 



DISK DRIVE For APPLE!! 

— metal cabinet ^ ^ 

— 35 track $279 ■$& 
— ► w/ cable 



Computer Games: 

APPLE & ATARI (specify) 

Choplifter , 

Frogger>-^24-95ea. 

Apple Panic 

C rossf i re — -V — »-$2 1 . 9 56S. 

Raster Blaster' 



SUPER 3.5am P P0WER SUPPLY 

for APPLE — »- $ 105.00 J$- 



Diskette Storage BOX 

5 1 / 4 iru 5/ : 8in. 5 
*z.sow. $10.00- H50 $15.oo 



Bare Bones APPLE II 

EURO= 
w/o 

Keyboard 



48KRAM = 



Pwr. Supply 



$399. 



Microswitch: Power Supply* APPLE 
Keyboard : w/ Purchase : Reference Man!, 

$ 7500 : * 9500 :' 118.00 



*SPECIALS*| 

3inch Mini FAN — 
2111— *245 
8155— *- $11.50 
ER2501 — »-M.95 
AY5 1013A — »-*2.95 

8202— *29,95 

6522—*- *5,25 
6255 - '4.50 
8748-8 ^31JOO 
MC6800 —'775 
MC6802 - f 1495 
MC6850 — *450 
MC6821 ^M.95 

6331— *1.25 



CONCORD 




COMPONENTS 



4116-2— 8/9.95 
2716(5v)— 3.25ea 
2732(5v)— 5.25ea 
2532(5v)— 8.75ea. 
Z80 A CPU-* 5.25ea. 

1982 I.e." 

(2vol.) Master 

$49.95 



2910 B E.LAPALMA 
ANAHEIM CA 92806 

-714.632-6790 ™™r 

IOmiMOROIR CARtSADDb IllDW ? WKS OL T >| 

Freight mmL [HiCK ' s Sil! 

MO -49 ~*2*> 1*250 -499 **9<"> send*tOO 
W -99 -4M HO -999 - 11°° for 
100-240 -8<» 1 1000- UP -Call catalog 



MONITORS & ^ 
ZENITH* ZVM-121 

I2in. 15MHz /GREEN Phos. 
! — *102.00TV 

BMC#BM-1200SU 

12»n. 18 MHz /GREEN Phos. 
Non- Glare Screen 

l+$128.00# 

BMC#BM1401RGB 

13in "RGB" COLOR 
with Apple interface!! 

'^$425.00^ 



Diskette SALE!! 

N \V>\* "Wabash" 



5W 
SS/£D 18.50 
SS/DD 27.40 
DS/SD o 
DS/DD 3240 



8nch 

21.50 

3040 

34.90 

37.40 



REAL-TIME CLOCK 
CALENDAR (MSM 5832) 

*6.25 /M.25xtal. 



Syntron 1 1 

Computer 

*48K RAM 

*Runs Apple Software 

$649.00 



Circle 116 on inquiry card. 




ADD ON DISK DRIVE for IBM PC- Tandon 

Single sided or double sided, double density disk drives for 
IBM PC, these are exactly the same disk drives used by IBM 
at half the price 

MSM-551001 TM100-1 single sided $219.95 

MSM-551002 TM100-2 double sided $294.95 

SERIAL I/O for IBM PC - Profit Systems 

Two asynchronous serial RS-232C I/O ports, realtimeclock- 
calender, includes software 

IOI-8100A Card with 1 port $159.95 

IOI-8101A Card with 2 ports $199.95 

SERIAL/PARALLEL for IBM PC - Profit Sys 

Two asynchronous serial RS-232C I/O ports, one parallel 
printer I/O port, real time clock-calender, includes software 

IOI-8110A 1 serial & 1 parallel $199.95 

101-8111 A 2 serial & 1 parallel $229.95 



EXTENDER CARD for IBM PC - Profit System 

All bus signals extended, signal names silk screened on top 

of board, gold-plated card edge, low noise 

TSX-300A IBM PC extender $45.00 



PROTOTYPING CARD for PC - Profit Systems 

Highly versatile wire-wrap or solder prototyping board for 
your IBM PC, large bread board area, power and ground 
planes to reduce noise, all holes are plated through, card is 
solder masked on both sides, all signals names are silk 
screened on both sides 
TSX-310A $59.95 



i/ivten Monitory 



HI-RES 12" GREEN SCREEN - Zenith 

15 MHz bandwith 700 lines/inch, P31 green phosphor, 
switchable 40 or 60 columns, small, light-weight & portable. 
VDM-201201 List price $189.95 $115.95 

HI-RES GREEN MONITORS - NEC 

20 MHz bandwidth. P31 phosphor ultra-high resolution 
video monitor, high quality, extremely reliable. 

VDM-651200 Deluxe 12" $199.95 

VDM-651260 Economy 12" $149.95 

VDM-65092 Deluxe 9" $179.95 



12" COLOR MONITORS - Taxan 

78 MHz high resolution RGB color monitors fully compatible 
with Apple II and IBM PC, unlimited colors available. 

VDC-821210 RGBvision I. 380 lines $389.95 

VCD-821230 RGBvision III, 630 lines $689.95 

VDA-821200 RGB card for Apple II $99.95 

COLOR MONITORS - Amdek 

Reasonably priced color video monitors. 

VDC-80130 13" Color I $379.95 

VDC-801320 13" Color II $894.95 

IOV-2300A DVM board for Apple $199.95 

AMBER or GREEN MONITORS - USI 

High resolution 18 MHz compact video monitors. 

VDM-751210 12" Amber phosphor $149.95 

VDM-751220 12" Green phosphor $139.95 

VDM-750910 9" Amber phosphor $149.95 

VDM-750920 9" Green phosphor $139.95 




SUPERQUAD - Adv. Micro Digital 

Single board, standard size S-100 computer system, 4 MHz 
Z-80A, single or double density disk controller for 5 1 / 4 " or 8" 
drives. 64K RAM, extended addressing, up to 4K of EPROM, 
2 serial & 2 parallel I/O ports, real time interrupt clock, CP/M 
compatible. 

CPC-30800A A & T $724.95 

IOX-4232A Serial I/O adapter $29.95 




Disk Sub-Systems - Jade 

Handsome metal cabinet with proportionally balanced air 
flow system, rugged dual drive power supply, power cable 
kit, power switch, line cord, fuse holder, cooling fan, never- 
mar rubber feet, all necessary hardware to mount 2-8" disk 
drives, power supply, and fan, does not include signal cable. 

Dual 8" Sub-Assembly Cabinet 

END-000420 Bare cabinet $49.95 

END-000421 Cabinet kit $199.95 

END-000431 A & T $249.95 

8" Subsystems - Single Sided, Double Density 

END-000423 Kit w/2 FD100-8DS $650.00 

END-000424 A & T w/2 FD100-8DS $695.00 

END-000433 Kit w/2 SA-801Rs 



END-000434 A & T w/2 SA-801Rs m 



$999.95 

$1195.00 

8" Sub-Systems - Double Sided, Double Density 

END-000426 Kit w/2 DT-8s $1224.95 

$1424.95 

$1274.95 

END-000437 A & Tw/2SA-851Rs $1474.95 



END-000427 A & Tw/2DT-8s. 
END-000436 Kit w/2 SA-851Rs 




Dual Slimline Sub-Systems - Jade 

Handsome vertical cabinet with scratch resistant baked 
enamel finish, proportionally balanced air flow system, quiet 
cooling fan, rugged dual drive power supply, power cables, 
power switch, line cord, fuse holder, cooling fan, all 
necessary hardware to mount 2-8" slimline disk drives, does 
not include signal cable. 

Dual 8" Slimline Cabinet 

END-000820 Bare cabinet $59.95 

END-000822 A & T w/o drives $179.95 

Dual 8" Slimline Sub-Systems 

END-000823 Kit w/2 TM848-1 $919.95 

END-000824 A & T w/2 TM848-1 $949.95 

END-000833 Kit w/2 TM848-2 $1149.95 

END-000834 A & T w/2 TM848-2 $1179.95 



5y 4 " Disk Drives^ 



Tandon TM100-1 single-sided double-density 48 TPI 
MSM-551001 $219.95 ea 2 for $199.95 ea 

Shugart SA400L single-sided double-density 40 track 
MSM-1 04000 $234.95 ea 2 for $224.95 ea 

Shugart SA455 half-size double-sided 48 TPI 

MSM-1 04550 $349.95 ea 2 for $329.95 ea 

Shugart SA465 half-size doule-sided 96 TPI 

MSM-1 04650 $399.95 ea 2 for $379.95 ea 

Tandon TM100-2 double-sided double-density 48 TPI 
MSM-551002 $294.95 ea 2 for $269.95 ea 

Shugart SA450 double-sided double-density 35 track 
MSM-104500 $349.95 ea 2 for $329.95 ea 

Tandon TM100-3 single-sided double-density 96 TPI 
MSM-551003 $294.95 ea 2 for $269.95 ea 

Tandon TM100-4 double-sided double-density 96 TPI 
MSM-551004 $394.95 ea 2 for $374.95 ea 

MPI B-51 single-sided double-density 40 track 
MSM-155100 $234.95 ea 2 for $224.95 ea 

MPI B-52 double-sided double-density 40 track 
MSM-155200 $344.95 ea 2 for $334.95 ea 

5 1 / 4 " Cabinets with Power Supply 

END-000216 Single cab wlpower supply $69.95 

END-000226 Dual cab wlpower supply $94.95 




PB-1 - SSM Microcomputer 

2708. 2716 EPROM board with on-board programmer. 

MEM-99510K Kit with manual $154.95 

MEM-99510A A & T with manual $219.95 

PROM-100 - SD Systems 

2708, 2716. 2732 EPROM programmer with software. 

MEM-99520K Kit with software $189.95 

MEM-99520A A & T with software $249.95 



PnnfersonSa/e 



STARMICRONICS GEMENI 

High speed dot matrix printers with all the features o f the 
higher-priced best-selling machines for a lot less money!!! 
100 CPS, 9x9 dot matrix with true lower case descenders, 
high-resolution bit image and block graphics, superscript & 
subscript, underlining, backspacing, double strike and 
emphasized print modes, proportional space font, friction 
feed, tractor feed , and roll paper, 5, 6, 8% 10, 12, & 17 pitch, 
programable line spacing, FREE 2.3K buffer. Epson pin and 
plug compatible, user replaceable print head, extended 6 
month factory warranty. 

PRM-66010 10" wide carriage $399.95 

PRM-66015 15" wide carriage $529.95 

PRA-66200 Serial interface card $69.95 

HIGH-SPEED, HIGH QUALITY - Okidata 

Microllne 82 A 80/132 column, 120 CPS, 9 x9dot matrix, 
friction feed, pin feed, adjustable tractor feed (optional), 
handles 4 part forms up to 9.5" wide, rear & bottom feed, 
paper tear bar, 100% duty cycle/200,000,000 character print 
head, bi-directional/logic seeking, both serial & parallel 
Interfaces Included, front panel switch & program control of 
10 different form lengths, uses inexpensive spool type 
ribbons, double width & condensed characters, true lower 
case descenders & graphics 
PRM-43082 with FREE tractor CALL 

Microllne 83 A 132/232 column, 120 CPS, forms up to 15" 
wide, removable tractor, plus all the features ofthe82A. 
PRM-43083 with FREE tractor CALL 

Microllne 84 132/232 column, Hi-speed 200 CPS. full dot 
graphics built in, plus all the features of the 83A. 

PRM-43084 Centronics parallel CALL 

PRM-43085 Serial with 2K buffer CALL 



IOP-2100A Apple card and cable . 
PRA-27087 TRS-80 cable 



PRA-43081 2K hi speed serial card 

PRA-43082 Hi-res graphics ROMs 82A _ 

PRA-43083 Hi-graphics ROMs 83A 

PRA-43088 Tractor option for 82A 



_ $69.95 
_ $24.95 
. $149.95 
_ $49.95 
_ $49.95 
__ $49.95 



ULTRA-VIOLET EPROM ERASERS 

Inexpensive erasers for industry or home. 

XME-3100A Spectronics w/o timer $69.50 

XME-3101A Spectronics with timer $94.50 

XME-3200A Economy model $49.95 




LETTER QUALITY PRINTER - COMREX 

Uses standard daisy wheels and ribbon cartridges, 16 CPS 
bi-directional printing, semi-automatic paper loader (single 
sheet or fan fold), 10/12/15 pitch, up to 16" paper, built-in 
noise suppression cover. 

PRD-11001 Centronics parallel $899.95 

PRD-11002 RS-232C serial model $969.95 

PRA-11000 Tractor Option $119.95 



STARWRITER F-10 - C. Itoh 

New 40 CPS daisy wheel printer with full 15" carriage, uses 
standard Diablo print wheels and ribbons, both parallel and 
serial interfaces included. 
PRD-22010 Starwriter F-10 $1495.95 




ISO-BUS - Jade 

Silent, simple, and on sale - a better motherboard 
6 Slot (5y A " x 8%") 
MBS-061B Bare board . 



MBS-061K Kit 




$39.95 


MBS-061 A A & T 




$69.95 


12 Slot (9y A " 
MBS-121B Bare board 


x 8%-; 


$34.95 


MBS-121K Kit 




$69 95 


MBS-121A A & T 




$109 95 


18 Slot (14W 
MRS-181R Par* hnard , . 


x am') 


$5495 


MBS-181K Kit 




$qq q5 


MRS-1R1A A A T 




$149.95 



Computer Products 



Place Orders Toll Free 



Inside California 
800-262-1710 



Continental U.S. 
800-421-5500 



Computer Products 

Circle 229 on Inquiry card 




PRODUEIS 




APPLE W 
ACCESSOR!^ 



APPLE DISK DRIVE - Apple Compatible 

Totally Apple compatible, 143,360 bytes per drive on DOS 
3.3, full one year factory warranty, half-track capability 
reads all Apple software, plugs right into Apple controller as 
second drive, DOS 3.3, 3.2.1, Pascal, & CP/M compatible. 

MSM-1 23200 Add-on Apple Drive $269.95 

MSM-1 23100 Controller $99.95 



16K RAM CARD - for Apple II 

Expand your Apple II to 64K, use as language card, full 1 year 

warranty. Why spend $175.00 ? 

MEX-16700A Save over $115.00 $59.95 

Z-CARD for Apple II - A.L.S. 

Two computers in one, Z-80 & 6502, more than doubles the 
power and potential of your Apple, includes Z-80 CPU card 
CP/M 2.2 and complete manual set, Pascal compatible, 
utilities are menu-driven, one year warranty. 
CPX-62800A A & T with CP/M 2.2 $159.95 

SMARTERM II - A.L.S. 

80 column x24 line video card for Apple II, addressable 25th 
status line, normal/inverse or high/low video, 128 ASCII 
characters, upper and lower case, 7x9 dot matrix with true 
descenders, standard Data Media terminal control codes, 
CP/M Pascal & Fortran compatible, 50/60 Hz, 40/80 column 
selection from keyboard. 
IOV-2500A ALS Smarterm II $169.95 

SERIAL I/O CARD - A.L.S. 

Full feature serial card for modems & printers, baud rates 
from 110 to 19,200, CTC/RTS & X-on/X-off protocols, auto 
line feed, RS-232C cable interface included. 
IOI-1000A A & T "Dispatcher Card" $129.95 

CP/M 3.0 CARD for APPLE - A.L.S. 

The most powerful card availability foryour Apple! 

6 MHz, Z-80B, additional 64K of RAM, CP/M plus 3.0, 100% 
CP/M 2.2 compatibility, C basic, CP/M Graphics, 3005 faster 
than any other CP/M for Apple. One year warranty. 

CPX-82810A A.L.S. CP/M Card $349.95 



2 MEGABYTES for Apple II 

Complete package includes: Two 8" double-density disk 
drives, Vista double-density 8" disk controller, cabinet, 
power supply, & cables, DOS 3.2/3.3, CP/M 2.2, & Pascal 
compatible. 

1 MegaByte Package Kit $1495.00 

1 MegaByte Package A & T $1695.00 

2 MegaByte Package Kit $1795.00 

2 MegaByte Package A & T $1995.95 

MODEM CARD FOR APPLE - SSM 

Better than Hayesl! Better than Novation!! Direct connect 
ModemCard plugs directly into Apple - no external 
components, auto-dial, auto-answer. Bell 103 compatible, 
full and half duplex, touch-tone or pulse dialing generated 
on board, Micromodem II software compatible, displays 
modem information on screen, audio monitoring of phone 
line, no serial port required, two year factory warranty, FREE 
Source Subsrlptfon with purchase of Transend software. 

IOM-2430A ModemCard $289.95 

SFA-55770010M Transend 1 w/Source $79.95 



SFA-55770010M Transend 2 w /Source . 
SFA-55770030M Transend 3 w /Source . 



.$129.95 
. $239.95 




f;l°M%Y BOARDS 



MEMORY 



64K STATIC RAM - Jade 

Uses new 2K x 8 static RAMs, fully supports IEEE 69624 bit 
extended addressing, 200ns RAMs, lower 32K or entire 
board phantomable, 2716 EPROMs may be' subbed for 
RAMs, any 2K segment of upper 8K may be disabled, low 
power typically less than 500ma. 



MEM-99152B Bare board _ 
MEM-99152K Kit less RAM 

MEM-32152K 32K kit 

MEM-56152K 56K kit 

MEM-64152K 64K kit 

Assembled & Tested 



_ $49.95 
_ $99.95 
. $199.95 
. $289.95 



$299.95 

. add $50.00 



256 RAMDISK - SD Systems 

ExpandoRAM III expandable from 64K to 256K using 64KX1 
RAM chips, compatible with CP/M, MP/M, Oasis, 
& most other Z-80 based systems, functions as ultra-high 
speed disk drive when used with optional RAMDISK 
software. 

MEM-65064A 64K A & T 

MEM-65128A 128K A & T 



MEM-65192A 192K A& T 

MEM-65256A 256K A&T 

SFC-55009000F RAMDISK sftwr CP/M 2.2 . 
SFC-55009000F RAMDISK with EXRAM III 



$474.95 
$574.95 
$674.95 
$774.95 
$44.95 



$24.95 

64K RAM BOARD - CCS. 

IEEE S-100, supports front panels, bank select, fall-safe 
refresh 4MHz, extended addressing, list price $575. 00 - less 
than half price!!! 
MEM-64565A $199.95 



w.nirn BOARDS. 



MICROANGELO -Scion 

Ultra-high-resolution 512 x 480, 256coloror black & white S- 

100 video board 

IOV-1500A A&T $799.95 




I/O BOARDS 



THE BUS PROBE - Jade 

Inexpensive S-100 Diagnostic Analyzer 

So your computer is down. And you don't have an 
oscilloscope. And you don't have a front panel... You're not 
alone - most computers have their occasional bad days. But 
without diagnostic equipment such as an oscilloscope 
(expensive!) or a front panel (expensive!), it can be very 
difficult to pinpoint the problem. Even if you have an 
extender board with a superfast logic probe, you can't see 
more than one signal at a time. You're stuck, right? 

Not anymore; Jade is proud to offer our cost-effective 
solution to the problems mentioned above: THE BUS 
PROBE. 

Whether you're a hobbyist with a cantankerous kluge or a 
field technician with an anxious computer owner breathing 
down your neck, you'll find THE BUS PROBE speeds your 
repair time remarkably. Just plug in THE BUS PROBE and 
you'll be able to see all the IEEE S-100 signals in action. THE 
BUS PROBE allows you to see inputs, outputs, memory 
reads and writes, instruction fetches, DMA channels 
vectored interrupts, 8 or 16 bit wide data transfers, plus the 
three bus supply voltages. 

TSX-200B Bare board $59.95 

TSX-200K Kit 129.95 



TSX-200A A&T 



, $159.95 



I/0-4 - SSM Microcomputer 

2 serial I/O ports plus 2 parallel I/O ports. 

IOI-1010B Bare board w/manual 

IOI-1010K Kit with Manual 

IOI-1010A A&T 



. $35.95 



. $179.95 
_ $249.95 



I/0-5 - SSM Microcomputer 

Two serial & 3 parallel I/O ports, 11 0-19.2 K Baud 
IOI-1015A A&T $289.95 

INTERFACER 4 - CompuPro 

3 serial, 1 parallel, 1 Centronics parallel. 

IOI-1840A A&T $314.95 

IOI-1840C CSC $414.95 



PLACE ORDERS TOLL FREE 



Continental U.S. 
800-421-5500 



Inside California 
800-262-1710 



For Technical Inquires 
or Customer Service call: 

213-973-7707 



We accept cash, checks, credit cards, or Purchase Orders from qualified firms and institutions. Circle 230 on Inquiry card. 

Minimum prepaid order $15.00 California residents add 6y 2 % tax. Export customers outside the US or Canada please 
add 10% to all prices. Prices and avalllblllty subject to change without notice. Shipping and handling charges 
via UPS Ground 50C/lb. UPS Air $1.00/lb. minimum charge $3.00 



LQVffiEpMSE^ 




s-100 

CPUBOARDS 



SBC-200 - SD Systems 

4 MHz Z-BOA CPU with serial & parallel I/O, 1K RAM. BK 

ROM space, monitor PROM included. 

CPC-30200A A & T $329.95 

THE BIG Z - Jade 

2 or 4 MHz switchable Z-BO CPU board with serial I/O, 
accomodates 270B. 2716, or 2732 EPROM, baud rates from 
75 to 9600. 

CPU-30201B Bare board w I manual $35.00 

CPU-30201K Kit with Manual $149.95 

CPU-30201A A & T with Manual $199.95 

2810 Z-80 CPU - CCS. 

2 or 4 MHz Z-80 CPU with serial I/O port & on board monitor 

PROM, front panel compatible. 

CPU-30400A A & T with PROM $289.95 

CPU-Z - CompuPro 

2/4 MHz ZBOA CPU, 24 bit addressing. 

CPU-30500A 2/4 MHz A & T 

CPU-30500C 3/6 MHz CSC 



. $279.95 
. $374.95 



8085/8088 - CompuPro 

Both B& 16 bit CPUs, standard B bit S-100 bus, up toB MHz, 
accesses 16 Megabytes of memory. 

CPU-20510A 6 MHz A& T $398.95 

CPU-20510C 6/8 MHz CSC $497.95 




Siemens FDD 100-8 single-sided double-density 
MSF-201120 $274.95 ea 2 for $249.95 ea 

Shugart SA810 half-size single-sided double-density 
MSF-108100 $424.95 ea 2 for $394.95 ea 

Shugart SA860 half-size double-sided double-density 
MSF-108600 $574.95 ea 2 for $549.95 ea 

Shugart SA801R single-sided double-density 
MSF-10801R $394.95 ea 2 for $389.95 ea 

Shugart SA851R double-sided double-density 
MSF-10851R $554.95 ea 2 for $529.95 ea 

Tandon TM848-1 single-sided double-den thin-line 
MSF-558481 $379.95 ea 2 for $369.95 ea 

Tandon TM848-2 double-sided double-den thin-line 
MSF-558482 $494.95 ea 2 for $484.95 ea 

Qume DT-8 double-sided double-density 

MSF-750080 $524.95 ea 2 for $498.95 ea 




MODEMS 



SMART BUY In MODEMS - Signalman 

7200 and/or 300 baud, direct connect, automatic answer or 
orginate selection, auto-answer /auto-dial on deluxe models, 
IBM model plugs directly into an IBM option slot and does 
not require a serial port (a $300.00 savings!), 9v battery 
allows total portability, full one year warranty. 
IOM-5600A 300 baud direct connect $89.95 



IOM-5610A 300 baud Deluxe 

IOM-5620A 1200/300 baud Deluxe . 
IOM-5630A 300 baud for IBM PC _ 
IOM-5640A 300 baud for Tl 99/4 _ 
IOM-5650A 300 baud for Osborne . 

IOM-5660A 300 baud Atari 850 

IOM-5670A 300 baud PET/CBM _ 



- $149.95 
. $369.95 
. $269.95 
.$119.95 
.$119.95 
_ $99.95 
-$169.95 



1200 BAUD SMARTMODEM - Hayes 

1200 and 300 baud, all the features of the standard 

Smartmodem plus 1200 baud, 212 compatible, full or half 

duplex. 

IOM-5500A Smartmodem 1200 $599.95 

SMARTMODEM - Hayes 

Sophisticated direct-connect auto-answer/auto-dial 
modem, touch-tone or pulse dialing, RS-232C interface, 
programmable 

IOM-5400A Smartmodem $224.95 

IOK-1500A Hayes Chronograph $218.95 

IOM-2010A Micromodem II w/Term prgm $329.95 

IOM-2012A Terminal program for MMII $89.95 



IOM-1100A Micromodem 100 . 



. $368.95 



1200 BAUD SMART CAT - Novaton 

103/212 Smart Cat & 103SmartCat, 1200 &300baud, built-in 
dialer, auto re-dial if busy, auto answer/disconnect, direct 
connect, LED readout displays mode, analog/digital loop- 
back self tests, usable with multi-line phones. 

IOM-5241A 300 baud 103 Smart Cat $229.95 

IOM-5251A 1200 baud 212/103 Smart Cat $549.95 

IOM-5261A 300 baud 103 J-Cat $129.95 

J-CAT™ MODEM - Novation 

7/5 the size of ordinary modems, Bell 103, manual or 
auto-answer, automatic answer/originate, direct conect, 
built-in self-test, two LED's and audio "beeps" provide 
complete status information. 
IOM-5261A Novation $149.95 



n.SK CONTROLLED 



DISK 1 - CompuPro 

8" or 5 1 /," DMA disk controller, single or double density, 
single or double sided, 10 MHz. 

IOD-1810A A & T $449.95 

IOD-1810C CSC $554.95 

VERSAFLOPPY II - SD Systems 

Double density disk controller for any combination of 5 1 /," 
and 8" single or double sided, analog phase-locked loop 
data separator, vectored interrupts, CP/M 2.2 & Oasis 
compatible, control/diagnostic software PROM included. 

IOD-1160A A & T with PROM $359.95 

SFC-55009047F CP/M 3.0 with VF II $99.95 



2242 DISK CONTROLLER - CCS. 

5y 4 " or 8" double density disk controller with on-board boot 

loader ROM, free CP/M 2.2 & manual set. 

IOD-1300A A & T with CP/M 2.2 $399.95 

DOUBLE D -Jade 

High reliablity double density disk controller with on-board 
Z-80 A, auxiliary printer port, IEEE S-100, can function in 
multi-user interrupt driven bus. 

IOD-1200B Bare board & hdwr man $59.95 

IOD-1200K Kit w/hdwr & sftwr man $299.95 

IOD-1200A A & T w/hdwr & sftwr man $325.95 

SFC-59002001f CP/M 2.2 with Double D $99.95 

" "^ PI US 3.0, 

CP/M 3.0 is Digital Research's latest version of the industry 
standard disk operating system. It features many 
performance improvements such as intelligent record 
buffering, improved directory handling, "HELP" facility, 
time/date stamping of files and many more improvements. 
AND A TREMENDOUS INCREASE IN SPEED /.'.', if is fully 
CP/M 2.2 compatible and requires no changes to your 
existing application software. Available only to Versaf loppy 
II owners with SBC-200 CPU's 

CP/M 2.2 compatible 

Easily customized 

Easier to learn and use 

High performance file system 

Automatic disk log-In of removable media 

Support for 1 to 16 banks of RAM 

Supports up to 16 drives of 512 Megabytes each 

Up to ten times faster than CP/M 2.2 

Console I/O re-dlrectlon 

Easy to use system utilities with HELP facility 

Power batch facility 

Designed for application programmers 
• Resident system extensions 

SFC-55009057F CP/M 3.0 8" with' manuals $200.00 

SFC-55009057M CP/M 3.0 Manual $30.00 



THREE BOARD SET— SD Systems 



CP/M 3.0 

Save $ 800. 00 



S-700 board set with 4 MHz Z-80A, 64K of RAM 
expandable to 256K, serial and parallel I/O ports, 
double-density disk controller for 5 1 / 4 " and 8" disk 
drives, new and improved CP/M 3.0 manual set, system 
monitor, control and diagnostic software. Includes SD 
Systems SBC-200, 64K ExpandoRAM III, Versaf loppy II, 
and FREE CP/M 3.0 - all boards are assembled & tested. 



64K Board Set with FREE CP/M 3.0 _ 
256K Board Set with FREE CP/M 3.0 



. $1195.00 
$1395.00 



LIMITED QUANTITY 




Circle 230 on Inquiry card. 



Computer Products 

4901 West Rosecrans, Hawthorne, California 90250 



DoKOtU Computer 



EPROMS 



STATIC RAMS 




Products, 



1702 

2708 

2758 

TMS 2516 

2716 

2716-1 

TMS 2716 

2532 

2732 

2764 

MC68764 



Ins 

450ns 

5V450ns 

5V450ns 

5V450ns 

5V 350ns 

450ns 

5V450ns 

5V450ns 

5V450ns 

5V450ns 

(24pin) 



2.95 
2.98 
9.70 
5.70 
3.44 
5.70 
8.70 
7.80 
4.15 
12.95 
39.00 



VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE 
AND RECEIVE A 5% DISCOUNT! 

3250 KELLER STREET. #9 • SANTA CLARA, CA 95050 



DYNAMIC RAMS 



16 K APPLE* II 
RAM CARD 



BARE BOARD 

KIT 

ASSEMBLED 



14.00 
42.50 



* Applu is ,) t rademj 



I Apple CnrnputCM . Inc. 



74LS00 

74LS0I 

74LS02 

74LS03 

74LS04 

74LS05 

74LS08 

74LS10 

74LS11 

74 LSI 2 

74 LSI 3 

74LS14 

74 LSI 5 

74LS20 

74LS21 

74LS22 

74LS26 

74LS2 7 

74LS28 

74LS30 

74LS3 2 

74LS33 

74LS3 7 

74LS3 8 

74LS4 

74LS4 2 

/4 LS4 7 

74LS48 

74LS49 

74 LS5 1 

74LS54 

74LS55 

74LS63 

74 LS 7 3 

74LS74 

74LS/5 

74LS76 

74LS78 

74LS83 

74LS85 

74LS86 

74LS90 

74LS91 

74LS92 

74LS93 

74LS95 

74LS96 

74LS107 

74LS109 

74LS1 12 

74 LSI 1 J 

74 LSI 14 

74LS122 



.23 
.23 
.23 
.23 
.23 
.23 
23 
.23 
.29 
.29 
.39 
.58 
.29 
.23 
.29 
.23 
.29 
.24 
.29 
.24 
.28 
.54 
.54 
.34 
.24 
.48 
.74 
.74 
.74 
.24 
.24 
.28 
1.19 
.3 5 
38. 
.38 
.38 
.48 
.59 
.95 
.38 
.54 
.74 
.54 
.54 
.74 
.78 
.3 8 
.38 
.38 
.3 8 
.38 
.44 



74LS123 
74LS124 
74LS125 
74LS126 
74LS132 
74LS136 
74LS137 
74LS138 
74LS139 
74LS145 
74LS147 
74LS148 
74LS151 
74LS153 
74LS154 
74LS155 
74LS156 
74LS157 
74LS158 
74LS160 
74LS161 
74LS162 
74LS163 
74LS164 
74LS165 
74LS166 
74LS168 
74LS169 
74LS170 
74LS173 
74LS174 
74LS175 
74LS181 
74LS189 
74LS190 
74LS191 
74LS192 
74LS193 
7 4 LSI 94 
74LS195 
74LS196 
74LS197 
74LS221 
74LS240 
74LS24 1 
74LS242 
74LS243 
74LS244 
74LS245 
74LS24 7 
74LS248 
74LS249 
74LS25I 



.94 

2.89 

.94 

.78 

.74 

.48 

.94 

.74 

.74 

1.09 

2.19 

1.19 

.54 

.54 

1.74 

.6 8 

.68 

.64 

.58 

.68 

.64 

.6 8 

.68 

.68 

..68 

1.94 

1.68 

1.68 

1.68 

.6 8 

.54 

.88 

1.48 

8.90 

.78 

.88 

.6 8 

.68 

.88 

.74 

.78 

.78 

1.09 

.94 

.94 

.64 

.64 

.89 

1.88 

.74 

1.19 

.88 

.58 



74 LS253 
74 LS257 
74 LS258 
7 4 LS259 
74 LS260 
74LS266 
74LS273 
74LS275 
74LS279 
74LS280 
74LS283 
7 4LS2 90 
74LS293 
74LS295 
74LS2 98 
74LS324 
74LS352 
74LS353 
74LS363 
74LS364 
74LS365 
74 LS366 
74LS367 
74LS368 
74LS373 
74LS3 74 
74LS377 
74LS378 
74LS379 
74LS385 
74LS386 
74LS390 
74LS393 
74LS395 
74LS399 
74LS424 
74LS447 
74LS4 90 
74LS668 
74LS669 
74LS670 
7 4LS6 74 
74LS682 
74LS683 
74LS6 84 
74LS685 
74LS688 
74LS689 

81LS95 
81LS96 
81LS97 
81 LS98 



DoKau 



U\J rVvALI Computer Products, Inc. 

13250 Keller Street, #9 

Santa Clara, CA 95050 

(800) 538-8800 

Calif. Residents Local Phone 

(800) 848 8008 (408) 988-0697 



INTERFACE 



8T26 

8T28 

8T95 

8T96 

8T97 

8T98 

DM8131 

DP8304 

DS8826 



1.65 

1.95 

.95 

.95 

.95 

.95 

2.90 

2.25 

1.25 



TMS 4027 

MK 4108 

MM 5298 

4116 

4116 

4116 

2118 

MK 4816 

4164-200 

4164-150 



250 

200ns 

250ns 

150ns 

200ns 

250ns 

5V 150ns 

5V300ns 

5V 200ns 

5V150ns 



1.99 
1.74 
1.74 
1.74 
1.24 
1.14 
4.90 
5.25 
5.45 
6.35 



2101 

2101-1 

2101 L-2 

2112 

2112 

2114 

2114 L-3 

2114 L-2 

2147 

TMS 4044-4 

TMS 4044-3 

TMS 4044-2 

MK4118 

TMM2016 

TMM2016 

TMM2016 

HM6116-4 

HM6616-3 

HM6116-2 

Z-6132 



450ns 
450ns 
250ns LP 
450ns 
450ns 
450ns 
300ns LF 
200ns LF 

55ns 
450ns 
300ns 
200ns 
250ns 
200ns 
150ns 
100ns 
200ns 
150ns 
120ns 
300ns 



1.80 
.78 
1.54 
2.48 
2.68 
1.74 
1.84 
1.94 
8.90 
3.15 
3.45 
3.90 
9.70 
4.15 
5.44 
7.44 
4.90 
5.75 
6.95 
32.95 



LP - Low Power 



RESISTORS 

V4 WATT 5% CARBON FILM 

ALL STANDARD VALUES 

FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG OHM 

50 PCS. SAME VALUE- .0200 

100 PCS. SAME VALUE . • .0150 

1000 PCS. SAME VALUE .0125 



We Will Beat 

Any Competitors' 

Prices! 



.58 

.58 

.78 

2.74 

.59 

.48 

1.48 

3.20 

.48 

1.94 

.94 

.88 

.88 

.98 

.88 

1.74 

1.28 

1.28 

1.34 

1.94 

.48 

.48 

.44 

.44 

.98 

.98 

1.3 9 

1.14 

1.34 

1.88 

.44 

1.18 

1.18 

1.18 

1.58 

2.88 

.36 

1.8 8 

1.64 

1.84 

1.48 

9.45 

2.98 

2.38 

2.38 

2.38 

2.38 

2.38 

1.48 
1.48 
1.48 
1.48 



UARTS 



AY3 1014 
AY5 1013 
AY5 2376 
TR 1602 
1M 6402 
1M 6403 



5.80 
3.90 
10.90 
3.85 
7.80 
8.80 



LEDS 

Jumbo Red 10/1.00 

Jumbo Green 6/1.00 

Jumbo Yellow 6/1.00 



DIP SWITCHES 

.84 

4 Position .94 

5 Position i.gs 

6 Position 2.74 

7 Position 2.48 

8 Position 1.24 



EXAR 



XR 2206 
XR 2207 
XR 2208 
XR 221 1 
XR 2240 



3.70 
3.70 
3.85 
5.20 
3.20 



RCA 



CA 3010 
CA 3013 
CA 3023 
CA 3035 
CA 3039 
CA 3046 
CA 3053 
CA 3059 
CA 3060 
CA 3065 
CA 3080 
CA 3081 
CA 3082 
CA 3083 
CA 3086 
CA 3089 
CA 3130 
CA 3140 
CA 3146 
CA 3160 
CA 3401 
CA 3600 



94 
1.98 
2.74 
2.48 
1.24 
1.45 
2.89 
2.89 
1.74 
1.09 
1.64 
1.64 
1.64 

.80 
2.89 
1.24 
1.14 
1.74 
1.14 

.58 
3.40 



CMOS 



4000 
4001 
4002 
4006 
4007 
4008 
4009 
4010 
4011 
4012 
4013 
4014 
4015 
4016 
4017 
4018 
4019 
4020 
4021 
4022 
4023 
4024 
4025 
4026 
4027 
4028 
4029 
4030 
4034 
4035 
4040 
4041 
4042 
4043 
4044 
4046 
4047 
4049 
4050 
4051 
4053 
4060 
4066 
4068 
4069 
4070 
4071 
4072 
4073 
4075 
4076 
4078 
4081 
4082 
4085 



.24 
.29 
.24 
.89 
.24 
.89 
.44 
.44 
.29 
.24 
.38 
.78 
.38 
.38 
.68 
.78 
.38 
.74 
.78 
.78 
.34 
.74 
.34 
.59 
.44 
.63 
.78 
.38 
1.94 
.84 
.73 
.74 
.68 
.74 
.74 
.84 
.89 
.34 
.34 
.78 
.78 
.88 
.38 
.39 
.28 
.35 
.29 
.29 
.29 
.29 
.78 
.28 
,89 



4066 
4093 
4098 
4099 
4502 
4503 
4508 
4510 
4511 
4512 
4514 
4515 
4516 
4518 
4519 
4520 
4522 
4526 
4527 
4528 
4531 
4532 
4538 
4539 
4543 
4555 
4556 
4581 
4582 
4584 
4585 

80C07 
80C95 
80C96 
80C97 
80C98 

74CO0 
74C02 
74C04 
74C08 
74C10 
74C14 
74C20 
74C30 
74C32 
74C42 
74C48 
74C73 
74C74 
74C76 
74C83 
74C85 
74C86 



.89 

.90 

2.48 

1.89 

.89 

.59 

1.89 

.84 

.84 

.84 

1.19 

1.78 

1.49 

.89 

.38 

.78 

1.19 

1.19 

1.89 

1.19 

.89 

1.89 

1.89 

1.89 

1.19 

.89 

.89 

1.18 

1.90 

.74 

.89 
.89 
.89 
.89 
1.14 

.34 

.34 

.34 

.34 

.58 

.34 

.34 

.49 

1.28 

1.19 

.64 

.64 

.79 

1.94 

1.94 

.38 



6500 

1 MHZ 



6502 
6504 
6505 
6507 
6520 
6522 
6532 
6545 
6551 



5.44 
6,85 
7.60 
9.85 
4.30 
7.90 
9.90 
16.95 



2 MHZ 

6502A g 95 

6522A 10.90 

6532A 11.90 

6545A 27.90 

6551A 11.90 



3 MHZ 
6502B 



11.90 



74C89 

74C90 

74C93 

74C95 

74C107 

74C150 

74C151 

74C154 

74C157 

74C160 

74C161 

74C162 

74C163 

74C164 

74C165 

74C173 

74C174 

74C175 

74C192 

74C193 

74C195 

74C200 

74C221 

74C373 

74C374 

74C901 

74C902 

74C903 

74C905 

74C906 

74C907 

74C908 

74C909 

74C910 

74C911 

74C912 

74C914 

74C915 

74C918 

74C920 

74C921 

74C922 

74C923 

74C925 

74C926 

74C927 

74C928 

74C929 

74C930 

14409 
14410 
14411 
14412 
14419 



4.45 

1.74 

.98 

.88 

5.70 

2.25 

3.25 

1.75 

1.18 

1.18 

1.99 

1.18 

1.38 

1.99 

.78 

1.18 

1.18 

1.48 

1.48 

1.38 

5.70 

1.74 

2.44 

2.74 

.38 

.84 

.84 

10.90 

.94 

.99 

1.99 

2.74 

9.90 

8.90 

8.90 

1.94 

1.18 

2.74 

15.95 

15.95 

4.45 

4.90 

5.90 

7.90 

7.90 

7.90 

16.95 

12.85 
12.85 
11.85 
12.85 
4.85 



BANKAMERICARD 



master charge 



TERMS: For shipping include $2.00 for UPS 
Ground. $3.00 for UPS Blue Label Air. $10.00 
minimum order. Bay Area residents add B%% Sales 
Tax. California residents add 6% Sales Tax. We 
reserve the right to limit quantities and substitute 
manufacturer. Prices subject to change without 
notice. Send SASE for complete list. 



Circle 154 on inquiry card. 



APPLE II USERS 
DISK DRIVE! 



Includes metal cabinet 

Color matches Apple 

35 Tracks/single side 

Includes cable 

Use with Apple II Controller 



265.00 



WITH CONTROLLER CARD - 359.95 



DoKOtU Computer 




Products, 



VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE 
AND RECEIVE A 5% DISCOUNT! 



,v* 



UPGRADE 

4116-200™ 
8/10.00 



X 



3250 KELLER STREET. #9 



SANTA CLARA, CA 95050 



fe. 



2.5 MHZ 

Z80-CPU 

Z80-PIO 

Z80-CTC 

Z80-DMA 

Z80-DART 

Z80-SIO/0 

Z80-SIO/1 

Z80-SIO/2 

Z80-SIO/9 

4.0 MHZ 
Z80A-CPU 
Z80A-PIO 
Z80A-CTC 



CLOCK 
CIRCUITS 

MM 5314 4.90 
MM 5369 3.90 
MM 5375 4.90 
MM 58167 8.90 
MM 58174 10.95 

MSM 5832 6.90 



3.75 
4.90 
14.90 
13.95 
16.95 
16.95 
16.95 
15.95 
16.95 



Z80 



SERIES 



Z80A-DMA 

Z80A-DART 

Z80A-SIO/0 

Z80A-SIO/1 

Z80A-SIO/2 

Z80A-SIO/9 

6.0 MHZ 
Z80B-CPU 
Z80B-PIO 
Z80B-CTC 



21.95 
15.95 
20.95 
21.95 
21.95 
18.95 

14.95 
12.95 
12.95 



4.90 
4.90 
6.90 



ZILOG 



Z6132 
Z8671 



32.95 
38.95 



5 1 4Diskettes 



NASHUA 

SS SD 18.95 

NASHUA 

SS DD 20.95 

NASHUA 

DS DD 27.95 

Five year warranty on 
NASHUA DISKETTES 



ORDER TOLL FREE 

(BOO) 538-8800 
(800) 848-8008 

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS) 
ALL MERCHANDISE IS 100% GUARANTEED 



9000 SERIES 



3316 
3334 
9368 
9401 
3601 
3602 
36S02 



.95 
2.39 
3.69 
8.95 

.69 
1.39 
1.79 



MISC. 



11 C90 
3242 
MC 3470 
MC 3480 
ULN 2003 
CA 3146 
2513-001 up 
2513-002 low 



12.95 
6.95 
7.95 
8.95 
5.95 
1.75 
9.69 
9.69 



VOLTAGE REGULATORS 



7805T 
7808T 
7812T 
7815T 
7824T 

7805K 
7812K 
7815K 
7824K 

7905T 



.75 
.75 
.75 
.75 
.85 

1.29 
1.29 
1.29 
1.29 
.85 



7908T 
7912T 
7915T 
7924T 



.85 
.85 
.85 
.95 



7905K 1.39 

7912K 1.39 

7915K 1.39 

7924K 1.39 

T = TO-220 
K = TO-3 



CONNECTORS 

RS232 Male 

RS232 Female 

RS232 Female Right Angle 

RS232 Hood 

30 pin Edge 

44 pin Edge 

50 pin Edge 

86 pin Edge 

100 pin ST 

100 pin W/W 



2.99 
3.45 
4.90 
1.19 
2.45 
2.48 
2.48 
2.68 
3.85 
3.85 
4.90 



Do Kaii 



CRYSTALS 



32.768 KHZ 

10 MHZ 

1.8432 

2.0 

2.097152 

2.4576 

3.2768 

3.579545 

4.0 

5.0 

5.0688 



1.90 
4.50 
4.50 
3.90 
3.90 
3.90 
3.90 
3.00 
3.00 
3.00 
3.90 



5.185 

5.7143 

6.5536 

8.0 

10.0 

14.31818 

18.0 

18.432 

20.0 

22.1184 

32.0 



3.90 
3.90 
3.90 
3.00 
3.00 
3.90 
3.00 
3.00 
3.00 
3.00 
3.90 



8000 



8035 

8039 

8080A 

8085A 

8088 

8155 

8156 

8185 

8741 

8748 

8755 

8202 

8205 

8212 

8214 

8216 

8224 

8226 

8228 

8237 

8238 



6.95 

7.59 

3.90 

7.95 

34.95 

7.75 

8.75 

29.00 

39.00 

14.95 

29.95 

27.95 

3.45 

1.80 

3.75 

1.75 

2.45 

1.80 

4.50 

19.00 

4 75 



8239 

8243 

8250 

8251 

8253 

8253-5 

8255 

8255-5 

8257 

8259 

8272 

8275 

8279 

8279-5 

8282 

8283 

8284 

8286 

8287 

8288 

8289 



4.75 

4.75 

14.90 

4.50 

8.75 

9.75 

4.50 

5.20 

8.50 

6.85 

39.00 

29.00 

9.25 

9.95 

6.50 

6.50 

5.50 

6.50 

6.50 

25.00 

49 00 



WKJ IVVA VI Computer Products, Inc. 

13250 Keller Street, #9 

Santa Clara, CA 95050 

(800) 538-8800 

^al if. Residents Local Phone 

300) 848 8008 (408) 988-0697 



LINEAR 



LM301 

LM308 

LM309K 

LM311 

LM317T 

LM31 7K 

LM318 

LM323K 

LM324 

LM337K 

LM339 

LM377 

LM380 

LM386 

LM555 

LM556 

LM565 

LM566 

LM567 

LM723 

LM733 



.32 

.7 5 

1.25 

.64 

1.65 

1.70 

1.49 

3.75 

.59 

3.90 

.79 

2.25 

1.25 

1.00 

.38 

.65 

.95 

1.45 

.99 

.49 

.95 



L.M/.l 1 

LM/.I / 

LM/48 

L M 1 J 1 

MC13J0 

MC1350 

MCI. 358 

LM14 14 

LM14[j8 

LM1488 

LM1489 

LM1&00 

LM1889 

LM3900 

LM3909 

LM3914 

LM3915 

LM3916 

75451 

7 r j45° 

75453 



.29 

.75 

.49 

2.45 

1.69 

1.25 

1.69 

1.49 

.55 

.95 

.95 

2.45 

2.45 

.59 

.95 

3.70 

3.70 

3.70 

.35 

.35 

.35 



Disc 
Controllers 



1771 
1791 
1793 
1795 
1797 
1691 
UPD 765 



16.00 
27.95 
29.95 
49.95 
49.95 
17.95 
34.95 



IC Sockets 



8 PIN 
14 PIN 
16 PIN 
18 PIN 
20 PIN 
22 PIN 
24 PIN 
28 PIN 
40 PIN 



ST 
.10 
.12 
.15 
.20 
.25 
.25 
.25 
.35 
.40 



W/W 

.49 

.50 

.57 

.85 

.99 

1.30 

1.40 

1.50 

1.80 



ST = Soldertail 
W/W = Wirewrap 



6800 
1 MHz 



6800 

6802 

6808 

6809 

6809 E 

6810 

6820 

6821 

6828 

6840 

6843 

6844 

6845 

6847 

6850 

6852 

6860 

6862 

6875 

6880 

6883 



4.75 

8.65 

8.45 

11.95 

17.95 

2.90 

3.50 

3.50 

14.90 

7.95 

32.95 

32.95 

16.90 

11.95 

3.20 

3.50 

10.90 

11.90 

6.90 

1.80 

22.95 



2 MHz 



68B00 

68B02 

68B09 

68B09 I 

68B10 

68B21 

68B45 

68B50 



10.00 
21.95 
28.95 
29.90 
7.90 
12.00 
34.00 
12.00 



8 MHz 

68000 95.95 



Power Supplies 



MOUNTED ON PC BOARD 

MANUFACTURED BY CONVER 

+5 VOLT 4 AMP 

±12 VOLT 1 AMP 




34.95 




BankAmericard 



master charge] 



TERMS: For shipping include $2.00 for UPS 
Ground. $3.00 for UPS Blue Label Air, $10.00 
minimum order. Bay Area residents add 6 1 / 2 % Sales 
Tax. California residents add 6% Sales Tax. We 
reserve the right to limit quantities and substitute 
manufacturer. Prices subject to change without 
notice. Send SASE for complete list. 



Circle 154 on Inquiry card. 




SBC-8B0 S-100 IEEE STAND ALONE 

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER 



USESZ-80A(2or4MHz) 

FEATURES: RS232 Serial I/O Port • Parallel Ports for Centronics 
or Gen Purpose Printer • Three 1 6 bit Programmable Timers, one 
usedforbaudrate • EPROM Circuitry for2708. 2716, or61 1 6 (2K 
RAM) • IK On Board RAM Circuitry locatable on 1K boundries 
• Power On EPROM Jump Circuitry • Phantom EPROM Circuitry 



Kit 



$240 

A&T 

$265 




FDC-1 S-100 IEEE 696 

FLOPPY DISC 
CONTROLLER 

USES WD1 795-02 



FEATURES: State of the art digital separator • Drives can be any ANSI b y A or 8 drive 
• Drive Size, Step Rates, Formats can be intermixed without changing software • Runs 
SD, DD, SS and DS Formats • Digital Prewrite Compensation. 

Assembled and Tested $295.00 Kit $265.00 




S-100 IEEE 

REAL TIME 
CLOCK CALENDAR 



GIVE YOUR COMPUTER THE 
Hour-Min. -Sec. -Day-Month- Year 

FEATURES: Date provided as Day, Month, Year with Leap Year register bit • Time pro- 
vided as 12 or 24 hour program selectable format, hours, minutes and seconds • Time 
and Date settable by program control • Plus or Minus 30 second time adjustment • 4 
Time Interupts available -1 hour, 1 minute, 1 second and 1040Hz (approx. 1 millisecond/ 
• Crystal Controlled time reference • On board Rechargable Data Sentry Battery 

Assembled and Tested $135.00 Kit $115.00 



* SPECIAL * 



APPLE II COMPATIBLE 
FLOPPY DISC CONTROLLER 



APPLE II COMPATIBLE ASCII 



J DIRECTLY DRIVES 
ANY ANSI, SHUGART 
T~-^— i 0RTAND0N 
DISK DRIVES 

Frees you from Apple disc drives and Apple look alike drives. 

FEATURES: Compatible with CP/M, PASCAL and Apple DOS 3.3 • Drives can be any 
e »andard Shugart compatible 5!4 drive • Reads 1 3 or 1 6 Sector Discs, hard or soft sectored 
i 7 Cards can be used to drive 14 Disc Drives (two drives each card) 

Controller $99.95 

Tandon, D/D TM100-1 $225.00 



.m : m:m,m *&MM< 






FULL 
KEYBOARD 



FEATURES: N-Key Rollover Function • Shift lock. Underscore and j | / • High Flexibility 
forModificationor Expansion • Plug-in Compatible with Apple II • Compact size, mounts 
in Apple II Case • Full Typewriter Keyboard with TTL level ASCII outputs • On-Off 
Indications • Low Power Consumption 

Assembled and Tested 



$99.00 



S-100 IEEE 696 CARD CAGES AND MOTHER BOARDS 

^Ground Sheilding Network prevents cross talk 

*LED Power Indicator 

*Easy Access to Power and Reset Lines 

it Available in 6, 8, and 12 slot cages 



Bare Board 


6 Slot 


8 Slot 


12 Slot 


$20.00 


$25.00 


$35.00 


Kit 


40.00 


55.00 


80.00 


Assembled & Tested 


55.00 


80.00 


1 1 5.00 


A &■ T and in Card Cage 


80.00 


1 1 5.00 


1 55.00 




SUNTRONICS PROTOTYPE BOARDS 

APPLE Prototype Board. Double sided glass with gold 
plated Apple and General Purpose terminals. Con- 
tainsmatnxof 1 7x63 solderplateddonutson .15 x.1 
spacing. Great for 14, 16, 24 pin IC s. 
SUN-722 $13.75 

S-100 Prototype Board. Double sided glass with 
gold plated, numbered S-100 terminals. Matrix of 
25 x 78 solder plated donuts on .15 x .1 spacing. 
Locations for headers and regulators. Great for 14, 16, 
24 pin IC s. 
SUN-721 $17.85 

General Purpose Experimental Prototype Boards 

(Solder Plated w/Double Sided Terminals on .156" Centers) 

15/30 pin, 3/b x 4/? board w/. 1 x.2 hole spacing and 
power strip run every 1 .2 . Allows 6x7 8pm IC s or 2x3 
24pm ICs 

SUN IC-S $1.65 

22/44 pin, 4/2 x 6/a board w/. 1 holespacing. Contains 4 
rows of 67 pins with power strips between rows. Pattern 
of 4 columns of 67 pins, fakes all sizes of IC s. 

SUN U-75 33.25 

22/44 pin, &,'/■& x 7 board w/. 1 x .2 hoie spacing and 
power strips every 1.2 Allows 10x10 8pin |C s oi 3x7 
24pm ICs. 

SUN IC-L S3.95 

Dealer Inquires Invited 




EPROM's, RAM's, CPU, and MISC 



1-7 8 up 50 up 



2716 3.95 

2732 4.75 

2532 7.65 

2764 10.00 



3.95 

4.40 

5.95 

10.00 



3.95 
CALL 
CALL 
10.00 



6116P-3(150nS) 
2114L-2 (200nS) 
4164 (200nS) 
Z-80A CPU 



16K RAM Expansion Kit For TRS-80 Model 



1-7 8 up 50 up 

6.10 5.75 CALL 

— 1.62 CALL 

6.25 6.25 6.25 

5.29 5.29 5,29 
II $11.00/8 




9" 18Mhz BANDWIDTH 

Black and White $117.00 

Green 121.00 

Orange 125.00 



SAMWOO 

MONITORS 

Features: Composite Video Input/ 
Output • Switchable Input Impedance 
75 or 1 OK ohm • 750 Line Resolu- 
tion at Center and 500 Lines at Corners 
• Dimensions are 12.13 x11.34 x 
11.65 for the 12 model and 8.66 x- 
8.54 x9.05 for the 9 model 

12" 12MHz BANDWIDTH 

Black and White $127.00 

Green 130.00 

Orange 134.00 



Add 5 7.o0 Snipping and Handling for tms itenr 
Dealer Inquires Invited 



^— SUNTRONICS CO., inc. 



^~^^^^— 12621 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250 

^ZhZmZThT STORE HOURS MON.-FRl 9.00am to 6:00pm 

T^^^m ^ —J SATURDAY I OOOam 1 1. 5 OOpm 

, ^^£^^ CALIFORNIA OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA TOLL FREE 

213-644-1149 1-800-421-5775 

iiut Teen mio and CdHi 0rri«r&i |Ordei DesK Oniyj 

Man Order— Minimum Order 510 Semi Money Order oi CnecK to. P.O. BOX 1957— 

Dept. B. HAWTHORNE. CA 90250. v*iSA or Mastercard (piease include expiration 

daiei. Add B2.00 postage and nandirng to order. CA residents add 6>o saies tax 

Appie is a regisiered trademarK oi Appie Computer inc 



Circle 406 on inquiry card. 



FULL SIZE KEYBOARD 
CONVERSION 



sum&' 



■ N g* r, e 

S fcl El ** * ' 

^ ^ ^ ^. V> ■ 



FOR f 
YOUR 
ZX-81/ 
TS-1000 



Fi///y Warranteed 
For 90 Days/ 

SUN KD-81 



If your tired of not knowing if your data got entered or tired of poking 
data in with one or two fingers, then it's time to upgrade your ZX-81 
to a full size, professional, keyboard. The SUN KD-81 KEYBOARD 
offers just that ... all the ease and comfort of inputting your programs 
and text on a fast and efficient professional sized keyboard! 



95 



69 



KD-81 Features: 



Full Size Keyboard with 41 Keys 
Full Size Space Bar 
Allows Touch Typing 
Keyboard Case Holds Both 
Keyboard and Computer 
High Impact Plastic Case with 
Vaporized Metal Shielding 



• Easy Assembly 

• Two Color Imprinted Key Tops 
for Easy Reading 

• Key Tops have Commands and 
Graphics Spelled Out for Easy 
Programming 

• Measures 10 3 /*" x 7%" x 2 1 / 8 " 



EASY TO 
INSTALL 

• No Soldering 

• No Modifications 

> > 

Check out these 

simple 
instal- 
lation 
steps! 



16K RAM 



Module 



with "PIGGYBACK" Connector 
for those EXTRA ADD-ONS 




• Steel Case instead of plastic 
reduces RFI 

• RAM Module has lip for mounting 
on ZX-81 or our KD-81 keyboard 
that eliminates noise and crash 
problems due to the "wobbles" 



• Built-in output connector for 



All these features 
And still only. . . . 



49 



piggyback mounting 
additional peripherals 

Equivalent to ZX-81 
or TS-1000 16K 
RAM in performance 



95 



32K and 64K available CALL 




MX- 1 6 mounted \ 
on the ZX-81 




JE 



SUNTRONICS Ctt, inc. 

12621 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250 



CALIFORNIA 



1. Remo\/e4 screws securing ZX-81 case 
and remove 2 screws holding ZX-81 PCB. 

2. Unplug the 2 ribDon cables from the 
ZX-81 keyboard. 

3. Plug the 2 riboon cables into the con- 
nectors on the KD-81 keyboard. 

4. Attach the ZX-81 PCB to the KD-81 
case with 2 screws, close case and install 
remaining 4 screws into the Douom of tne 
KD-81 KeyDoard case ... 

And enjoy the comfort and 
ease of inputting your data 
on a full size keyboard! 



OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA TOLL FREE 



STORE HOURS: 



**±m 



MON.-FRI. 
SATURDAY 



9:00am to 6:30pm 
10:00am to 5:00pm 



213-644-1149 1-800-421-5775 

(for Tech Info and Calif, orders) (Order Desk Only) 

Mail Order — Minimum Order $10. Send Chuck or Money Order to: P.O. BOX 1957— 
Dept. B, HAWTHORNE, CA 90250. VISA or Mastercard (please include expiration datel. 
Add S4.00 postage and handling to order. CA residents add 6% sales lax. 



Circle 406 on Inquiry card. 



V-/WASVNCED 
^"\ /f>RODUCrS 







78H05K $5.95 LMI<«I4N 



MICROPROCESSORS 



16K Apple™ Ramcard 

LIST 195 
ACP 

S5995 

Full 1 year warranty 
• Top quality — gold fingers 
Expand Apple II 48K to 64K 
• Compatible with Z-80 SoftcarcT 
Allows system to run with CP/M~, PASCAL, 
DOS 3.3, COBAL, Visicalc, etc. 
Supplied with extra 16K RAM& has (2) LED's 




32K STATIC RAM 




16K4MHzKit $159.95 

16K4MHZA&T „,.,„- _ c 217.95 
32K4MHzKit * 1Z9 - 9a -?eS4S. 
► 32K 4 MHz A&T • 339.00 

BARE BOARD 39.95 

Bare Bdw/all parts less mem. 99.95 



REPEAT OF SELL-OUT 
58 Key Unencoded Keyboard 



This is a new58 key terminal Keyboard 
manufactured by a major manufacturer, 
it is uncoded with SPST keys unat- 
tached to any PC board. Solid molded 
plastic 11"x4"base. 



Unencoded 
Key Pad 

15 key Keypad with 
1-10 keys and tab, 
return.(-). (;) and {.). 



% 



"EPROM" 

ERASER 

Model 

DE-4 

$89.95 

Holds 4 EPROM's 
at a time. 
$325.00 




16K Memory 
Expansion Kits 

forApple/TRS-80 

8pcs4116 16K 

200/250nS $1 Q QK 

Specify computer Vp I L.uO 

CALL FOR VOLUME PRICING 



CORCOM FILTER 

Jfk Popular 

Mm corcom 

^By w 6 amps *§ 



) M95 

6 amps 
Compatible Line Cord Add ... S3 .50 



Astec RF Modulator 




P/N 1082 Channel 3 or 4 



AMD MODEM IC 

_--a^P/N AM7910 
^^^SPfflT 1200Baud 
llP^ 5 Volts 

^ $01100 

Special ACP Price U3 



64K CMOS 



RAMCARD 




5 299°° 



6116ICS 

SVolt 

Single Supply 
Assm and Tested 



INTEL "SHST 



Super Fast! 

Super 
Low Power! 



PartNo.2147 $1.95 ea. 




STEPPER MOTOR 

Operates by applying 
12VDC in one direc- 
tion and then revers- 
ing polarity {or square 
wave). Uses 12VDC. 
Clock Wise Rotation, 
Rated 3 RPM at 4 
AUK P.P.S. with a 5 degree 
PRICE stepping angle. 

SO 95 
Oea. 10 for $34,95 




RS232 SIGNAL TESTER 

COEXRS232 
Line Tester 

| (7) LED Indicators 
$9>I95 
only CH 

Other Styles Also Available 



INTEL CODEC IC 



P/N 2910A 

For Digital 

Voice 

For Filter P/N 2912 A 



^ 




SURGE 
SUPPRESSOR 

"Surgeonics" 
Power Sentry 

15 Amps 250 Volts 
transient suppression 

£. p Prt c. 8 39 M 



CONNECTORS 



DB25P(RS232) 

DB25S Female 

Hood 

Set with Hood, Sale 

22/44 S/T, KIM 

43/86 S/T, MOT 

50/100 S-100 Connector W/W 

50/100 S-100 Connector S/T 



$3.25 
3.75 
1.25 
7.50 
2.95 
6.50 
4.95 
3.95 




PARALLEL ALPHA NUMERIC 
PRINTER 



19 Column Printer prints 16 numerical columns plus 3 
columns which have math, alpha and other notations. 
Each wheel has 12 positions with position 12 blank. 
Position 1 1 on numerical columns have decimal point or#. Utilizes 2.75" 
wide adding machine tape and a dual color ink ribboa Input data parallel 
withfourbit BCDcomparatorcircuit(schematic provided). Print rate, 3 lines 
per second. Operating voltage 22-28VDC with typical cycle time 
340mS. Size 6'/*"W x S'^'H x 5%"Dp. New. $9.95ea. 3, ~ 



Z6O0J $99.00 

Z8002 69.00 

ZBO 9.95 

Z80A 11.95 
F-8 (3B50) 16.95 

2650 16.95 

1802 9.75 

6080A 4.75 

80S5 14.95 



6116/201657.95 
8264-64K 5.95 
4116-2 1.99 

4116-2 8/12.95 

2101 3.99 

2102 .79 
21L02-2 1.49 
21L02-4 
2111 
2112 
2114 
2114L-2 
2114L-4 



514.95 
2901 9.90 

2901 A 14.95 
9900JL 49.95 
B502 9.95 

6502A 16.95 
IM6100 29.95 
11.75 
■ 



2125 



8155 $9.95 

8156 9.95 
8202 29.95 
8205 2.69 
8212 2.75 
8214 4.95 
8216 2.75 
8224 2.95 
8226 2.95 
8228 3.95 
8243 9.50 

8250 14.95 

8251 8.50 
8253 1 1 .95 
8255 4.50 
8257 9.50 




6522 

6530-X 

6532 

6551 

Z80-PIO 

Z80A-PIO 

Z80CTC 

Z80A-CTC 

Z80-DMA 

Z80A-DMA 

Z80-SIO 

Z80A-SIO 



24.95 
17.95 
19.95 
6.50 
9.50 
6.50 
9.50 
19.95 
27.95 
24.95 
29.95 



MOS PROMS 



2764 (8Kx8) TS S69.95 

2732 (4Kx8) TS 12.95 
2716/2516; 5V 

(2Kx8) TS 7.95 

TMS2716, 5V, 12V 17.95 

2758.5V,(450nS) 3.50 



2708(450nS) S5.75 
2708(650nS) 5.25 
1702A 5.75 

MM5203AQ 14.50 
MM5204Q 8.95 



BE23 



2513-00K5V) Upper S9.50 
2513-005(5V)Lo*er 10.95 
2513-A0M3 (5V)Lower 14.95 
MCM667IOASCIIShillerJI2.95 
MCM66740Mall>Symr»l 13.95 
MCM66750AlphaControl 13.45 
1771-01 8" & Minilloppy 24.95 
1781 OualFloopy 29.95 

1791-01 Dual Floppy 36.95 
1791-02 Dual Floppy 44.95 
179300.DS Floppy 44.95 
1797DD.DSFioppy S4.95 
1691 Dala Separate* 18 95 
2143CfocKGenetator 18.95 

8700 8 bitBlrwiy 1350 

8701 10 bilBinary 22.00 
B703 6 bilTS 13.50 
9400 Voll 10 FreqConv. 725 
8750 3% DiQiieCD 
1408L6 6Cit 
1408188 bit 
DAC01 D lo A 



$995 



13.95 



DAC08 

DAC100 995 

8038 FunclionGeneralor 4 50 

MC4024VCO 2.95 

LM566VC0 1.95 
XR2206 FunctionGeitoratot5.25 

17U602B(5V,12v) 3.95 

AY51013(5V. 12V) 4.95 

AY51014A/I612(5-14V) 695 

AY51015A/1B63(5V) 6.95 

IM6402 7.95 



IM6403 

2350USRT 

1671BA S lros 

MC14411 

4702 

WD1941 

COM5016 

INSB250 

AY5-2376 

AY5-3600 

MM5740AAC 



895 



1695 
15.95 
13 75 
1375 



Essga 



Tpfrfr 



LOW PROFILE 
SOCKETS (TIN) 



8 pin LP .16 .15 

14 pin LP .20 .19 

16 pin LP .22 .21 

18 pin LP .29 .28 

20 pin LP .34 .32 

22 pin LP .29 .27 

24 pin LP .38 .37 

28 pin LP .45 .44 

40 pin LP .60 .59 

3L WIREWRAP 
SUCKETS (GOLD) 

1-24 25-4! 

8 pin WW .55 .54 

10 pin WW (Tin) .65 63 

14 pin WW .75 .73 
16 pin WW 
18 pin WW 
20pinWW 
22 pin WW 
24 pinWW 
28 pinWW 



.95 
1.15 

1.45 
1.35 



40pinWW 



2.20 



1.08 
1.35 
1.26 
1.53 



1.23 
1.14 
1.38 



78M06 

78M.G. 1.49 

LM108AH 2.95 

LM300H .99 

LM301CN .35 

LM304H 1 .98 

LM305H 

LM306H 

LM307CN 

LM308CN 

LM309K 

LM310CN 

LM311D/CN 

LM312H 

LM317T 

LM318CN 

LM319N/H 

LM320K-XX* 

LM320T-XX" 

LM320H-XX* 

LM323K 

LM324N 

LM337K 

LM338K 

LM339N 

LM340K-XX* 

LM340T-XX* 

LM340H-XX* 

LM344H 

LM348N 

LM350K 

LM358CN 

LM360N 

LM372N 

LM376N 

LM377N 

LM380CN/N 

LM381N 

LM383T 

LM386N 

LM387N 

LM390N 

NE531V/T 

NE555V 

NE556N 

NE561T 

NE565N/H 

NE566H/V 

NE567V/H 

NE592N 

LM702H 

LM709N/H 

LM710N/H 

LM711N/H 

LM715N 

LM723N/H 

LM733N/H 

LM739N 

LM741CN/H 

LM741CN-14 

LM747N/H 

LM748N/H 

LM760CN 

LM1310N 

MC1330 

MC1350 

MC1358 



74S00 $ .39 

74502 .43 

74503 .45 

74504 .52 
74S05 
74S08 
74S09 

74510 .42 

7451 1 .42 
74S15 .42 
74S20 .42 
74S22 .42 
74S30 42 
74S32 .49 
74S38 1.19 
74S40 .49 
74S51 .42 

74564 46 

74565 .46 
74S74 .69 
74S86 .72 

745112 .72 

745113 .72 

745114 .72 



1.E 
3.25 



1.25 
.89 
1.75 
1.70 
1.49 
1.25 
1.35 
1.39 
1.25 
4.95 
.95 
5.95 
6.95 
.95 
1.75 
1.25 
1.25 
1.95 
1.20 
5.60 
.98 
1.49 
1.95 
3.75 
2.75 
1.25 
1.79 
1.95 
1.25 
1.40 
1.95 
3.75 
.39 
.98 
19.95 
1.25 
1.75 
1.50 
2.75 
1.99 
.29 
75 
.39 
1.95 



2.95 
1.90 
1.95 
1.95 
1.75 



1.M1458CN/N 

MC1488N 

MC1489N 

LM1496N 

LM1556N 

LM1820N 

LM1850N 

LM1889N 

LM2111N 

LM2900N 

LM2901N 

LM2917N 

CA3013T 

CA3018T 

CA3021T 

CA3023T 

CA3035T 

CA3039T 

CA3046N 

LM3053N 

CA3059N 

CA3060N 

CA3062N 

LM3065N 

CA3080T 

CA3081N 

CA3082N 

CA3083N 

CA3086N 

CA3089N 

CA3096N 

CA3097N 

CA3130T 

CA3140T 

CA3146N 

CA3160T 

CA3190N 

CA3410N 

MC3423N 

MC3460N 

SG3524N 

CA3600N 

LM3900N 

LM3905N 

LM3909N 

LM3914N 

LM3915N 

LM3916N 

RC4131N 

RC4136N 

RC4151N 

RC4194TK 

RC4195TK 

ULN2001 

ULN2003 

SN75450N 

SN75451 N 

SN75452N 

SN75453N 

SN75454N 

SN75491N 

SN75492N 

SN75493N 

SN75494N 

TL494CN 

TL496CP 



3.10 
1.75 
.99 
2.50 
2.95 
2.19 
1 99 
3.49 
2.99 
2.75 
1.29 
1.29 
1.49 
3.19 
3.19 
4.95 
1.49 
1.29 



1.55 

.80 
2.99 
3.49 
1.99 
1.30 
1.19 
2.49 



1.49 
3.95 
3.95 
3.39 



3.75 
3.95 
3.75 
2.95 
1.10 
3.70 
4.95 
5.40 
1.25 
1.50 
.59 



4.20 
1.65 



.49 



74S124 
74S133 
74S134 
74S135 
74S136 
74S138 
74S139 
74S140 
74S151 
74S153 
74S157 
74S158 
74S160 
74S174 
74S175 
74S188 
74S194 
74S195 
74S196 
74S240 
74S241 
74S242 
74S243 



3.69 
.54 



1.29 
1.29 
.73 
1.29 
1.29 
1.29 
1.29 
2.79 
1.49 
1.49 
2.69 
1.89 



2.75 
2.75 
2.99 
2.99 



74S244 $2.99 

74S251 1.35 

74S253 1.35 

745257 1 .29 

745258 1.29 
74S260 .75 
74S280 2.79 

745287 2.99 

745288 2.55 

745373 3.10 

745374 3.10 
74S387 2.75 

745471 7.95 

745472 7.95 

745473 7.95 

745474 9.95 

745475 9.95 

745570 5.75 

745571 5.75 

745572 8.95 

745573 8.95 

745940 2.90 

745941 2.90 



DIP 
SWITCHES 



2 Position S .99 

4 Position 1.19 

5 Position 1.29 

6 Position 1 .35 




7 Position $1.39 

8 Position 1 .49 

9 Position 1 .65 
10 Position 1.69 



MUFFIN® FAN 

"The dependable, low 
cost, largest selling fan 
for commercial cooling 
applications. 

• 1 05cfm free air delivery 

• 4.68" sq.x1.50' deep. 
Weight - 17 oz, 

SPECIAL PURCHASE 
^ $9.50ea. 




SUPER IC CLOSEOUT SPECIALS 



6571 A 



$6.95 



74LS377 2/1.99 

74LS241 2/1.99 

8259 6.95 

6561 RAM 2.95 

LM733CN 3/1.99 

LM323K 3.95 



SIG 2652 3.95 

8253 6.95 
2758 EPROM 2.95 

1802 8.95 

Z80A CPU 4.95 

6522 6.95 

6502 CPU 5.95 



8080A CPU 
2102 RAM 
4060 RAM 
2732 
UPD410 
UPD41 1 



.75 
1.40 
6.95 
2.98 
2.98 

2708 EPROM 8/29.95 
2114 8/14.50 



5027 CRT $9.95 



2901 

6039 

MM5320 

9131 RAM 

EMM4402 

10415 



3.95 
3.95 
5.99 
1.99 
1.99 
4.95 



8700 A/D 2/16.95 



TOLL FREE 

800-854-8230 

910-595-1565 



7400$ .19 

7401 .22 

7402 .22 

7403 .22 

7404 .22 

7405 .23 

7406 .35 

7407 .35 

7408 .26 

7409 .23 

7410 .22 

7411 .29 

7412 .29 

7413 .39 

7414 .59 

7416 .29 

7417 .29 

7420 .22 

7421 .35 

7422 .29 

7423 .29 

7425 .29 

7426 .29 

7427 .25 

7429 .45 

7430 .23 
7432 .29 

7437 .25 

7438 .29 

7439 .29 

7440 .19 

7441 .79 

7442 .57 

7443 .95 

7444 .95 

7445 .79 

7446 .79 

7447 .65 

7448 .79 

7450 .19 

7451 .19 

7453 .19 

7454 .19 

7459 .25 

7460 .23 
7470 .29 

7472 .29 

7473 .34 

7474 .34 



74LS0O$ .26 

74LS01 .28 

74LS02 .28 
74LS03 
74LS04 
74LS05 
74LS08 
74LS09 
74LS10 
74LS1 1 
74LS12 
74LS13 
74LS14 
74LS15 

74LS20 .26 

74LS21 .33 

74LS22 .33 

74LS26 .33 

74LS27 .33 

74LS28 .33 

74LS30 .26 

74LS32 .33 

74LS33 .55 

74LS37 .45 

74LS38 .39 

74LS40 .26 
74LS42 
74LS47 

74LS48 .95 

74LS51 .26 

74LS54 .29 

74LS55 .29 

74LS73 .45 

74LS74 .42 

74LS75 .59 

74LS76 .45 

74LS78 .45 

74LS83A .79 
74LS85 1.19 

74LS86 .45 

74LS90 .57 

74LS92 .75 

74LS93 .75 

74LS95 .68 

74LS96 .98 

74LS107 .45 

74LS109 .45 

74LS112 .43 



.28 



.33 



.79 



4000 $ .35 

4001 .35 

4002 .35 

4006 1.05 

4007 .25 

4008 1.39 
4009 



4010 
4011 
4012 
4013 



.45 
.35 
25 
.45 

4014 1.39 

4015 1.15 

4016 .59 

4017 1.19 

4018 .89 

4019 .45 

4020 1.10 

4021 1.19 



4024 .75 

4025 .25 

4027 .85 

4028 .85 

4029 1 .29 

4030 .45 

4031 3.25 

4032 2.15 

4034 3.25 

4035 95 



7475 $ ,3b 
7476 



7479 
7480 
7482 
7483 
7485 
7486 



4.60 
.49 



.35 
1.75 



7490 

7491 

7492 

7493 

7494 

7495 

7496 

7497 2.90 

74100 2.90 

74107 .32 

74109 .37 

74116 1.95 

74121 .29 

74122 .39 
74123 
74125 
74126 
74128 
74132 
74136 
74139 
74141 

74142 2.95 

74143 2.95 

74144 2.95 

74145 .62 

74147 1.95 

74148 1.20 

74150 1.09 

74151 .67 

74152 .67 

74153 .67 

74154 1.19 

74155 .78 

74156 .78 

74157 .69 

74158 1.65 

74159 2.49 

74160 .88 



.65 



.59 
.39 



.79 



74161 3 

74162 

74163 

74164 

74165 

74166 

74167 

74170 

74172 

74173 

74174 

74175 

74176 

74177 

74179 

74180 

74181 

74182 

74184 

74185 

74186 

74188 

74190 

74191 

74192 

74193 

74194 

74195 

74196 

74197 

74198 

74199 

74221 

74251 

74273 

74276 

74279 

74283 

74284 

74285 

74290 

74298 

74365 

74366 

74367 

74368 

74390 

74393 

74490 



1 

9 I 



74LS132 
74LS136 
74LS138 
74LS139 



74LS113$ .43 74LS245$2.20 

74LS114 .43 74LS247 1.10 

74LS122 .55 74LS248 1.10 

74LS123 1.19 74LS249 1.19 

74LS124 1.35 74LS251 1.40 

74LS125 .89 74LS253 1.40 

74LS126 .52 74LS257 .65 

.79 74LS258 .98 

.49 74LS259 2.95 

.85 74LS260 .65 

.85 74LS261 2.49 

74LS145 1.25 74LS266 .59 

74LS148 1.49 74LS273 1.75 

74LS151 .79 74LS275 4.40 

74LS153 .79 74LS279 .59 

74LS154 1.70 74LS283 .99 

74LS155 1.19 74LS290 .99 

74LS156 .99 74LS293 .99 

74LS157 .85 74LS295 1.10 

74LS158 .75 74LS296 1.19 

74LS160 1.05 74LS324 1.75 

74LS161 1.15 74LS347 1.95 

74LS162 1.05 74LS348 1.95 

74LS163 1.05 74LS352 1.19 

74LS164 1.19 74LS353 1.19 

74LS165 .89 74LS363 1.49 

74LS166 2.48 74LS365 .69 

74LS168 1.15 74LS366 .69 

74LS169 1.15 74LS367 .69 

74LS170 1.99 74LS368 .69 

74LS173 .89 74LS373 1.89 

74LS174 .89 74LS374 1.89 

74LS175 .89 74LS375 .69 

74LS181 2.20 74LS377 1.95 

74LS190 1.15 74LS385 1.95 

74LS191 1.15 74LS386 .65 

74LS192 .98 74LS390 1.95 

,98 74LS393 1.95 

.15 74LS395 1.70 

.95 74LS399 2.35 

.89 74LS424 2.95 

74LS197 .89 74LS668 1.75 

74LS221 1.15 74LS670 2.29 

74LS240 1.69 81LS95 1.69 

74LS242 1.69 81LS96 1.69 

74LS243 1.69 81LS97 1.69 

74LS244 1.49 81LS98 1.69 

VOLUME PRICING 

* I TOLL FREE 



74LS193 
74LS194 ' 
74LS195 
74LS196 



4037 $1.95 

4040 1 .29 

4041 1.25 

4042 .95 

4043 .85 

4044 .85 

4046 1.75 

4047 1.25 

4048 .99 

4049 .45 

4050 .69 

4051 1.10 

4052 1.10 

4053 1.10 

4055 3.95 

4056 2.95 

4059 9.25 

4060 1.39 
4066 .75 
4069 .35 



4089 $2.95 

4093 .99 

4094 2.95 

4098 2.29 

4099 2.25 

14408 12.95 

14409 12.95 

14410 12.95 
14412 12.95 
14415 8.95 
14419 4.95 
4501 



4070 
4071 
4072 
4073 
4075 



.49 



.35 
.35 

4076 1.29 

4077 .35 

4078 .35 

4081 .35 

4082 .35 
4085 1 .95 



4502 
4503 
4505 
4506 
4507 
4508 
4510 
4511 
4512 
4515 
4516 
4518 
4520 
4555 
4556 
4566 



1.65 

.69 

8.95 

.75 

.95 

3 75 

1.19 

1.19 

1.39 

2.75 

1.45 

1.39 

125 

4.95 



Mall Onlen P.O. Box 17329 Irvine, CA 92713 

Retail: 1 31 OB E. Edlnger, Santa Ana CA 92705 
(714) 558-8813 

542 W. Trimble, San Jose, CA 95131 
(408) 946-7010 



TERMS: MO. Cashier's Check. Bankwire, Personal 
checks allow 2 weeks lor processing. Include Drivers 
License and credit card #s Visa. AMEX. CB add 3% 
service Charge. Add 3% shipping & handling or S2.50, 
whichever is greater. Add 10% tor foreign orders or 
US Parcel Post IncludeTelephone number. NO CODs. 
Prices subject to change without notice. Some items 
subject to prior sale. We reserve the right to substitute 
manufacturer. Retail prices may vary. 



Circle 8 on Inquiry card. 



w^AIASVNCEDI 
T Z=^COMPUTERl 
^\/™)DUCTSI 



"&*j 



NOW AVAILABLE 

FREE 

IBM PC Catalog 




SIEMEN'S SALE 

You can now purchase Shugart compatible 
8" Disk Drives below your existing 
factory direct pricing! 




These Prices are 

the lowest ever published 



*Siemen's SSDD FDD100-8 ... $199.00 



Also, with purchase ot Disk Drives you can buy the 
Vista V-1000 Dual Case with Power Supply and Cable 

for only S375.00 Regular Price $495.00 

OFFER LIMITED! 

FACTORY 

WARRANTY 90 DAYS! 



SHIPPED IMMEDIATELY 
FROM STOCK! 

•OEM QUANTITIES 




S-100 64K omos RAMCARD 

Unbelieveable 
Price! 

$2ggoo 

Assembled and Tested 

□ ACP has sold over 1000 of these IEEE 
compatible, low-priced, high-reliability 
64K Static RAM Cards. 

□ Single 5-Volt operation. 




List 

95 

995 
1295 



595 
695 
995 
1095 



655 



40 



1995 
2495 



295 
325 




p-rTc p e $ 299 00 



IBM LOW COST 
MEMORY 

MEMORY PLUS AT LOW PRICES! 
Now! "Multicard" expandable 

from 64 - 256 K with 

(1) PARALLEL (1) SERIAL 

(1) CLOCK/CALENDAR 

P/N V-064PSC $1 OQ00 
with64K ISO 

00 



COEX 80-FT 




Best of ail, the price . 



$ 



299 



00 



ABM 

BSR-X10 Interface 

Color to Mono I/O Module 

Telephone Receptionist adapt 

PS3276/Bisyn Emulator 
AMDEK 
Dual3" Amdisk 

(2) Hitachi DS (250K) 
AST Mega plus" Card 

P/N MG-064, 64K. Ser, Clk 

P/N MG-064SP.add'ISer. Par 

P/NMG-256, 256K.Ser.Clk 

P/N MG-256SPadd'l Ser, Par 
AST I/O Plus" Card 

P/N l/O-SP. Clk. (2) Ser, Par 265 
AST Combo Plus" Card 

P/N MC256SPC 256K, clk, P/S 995 
AST PC Disk++" Card 

P/N MD-064, 64K, Host. Par 
CACTUS TECHNOLOGY 

200 Baud Direct Modum 
COEX 

Extender Card 

Prototype Card 

37 Pin "D" Connector 

Snap-in Card Guides (5) 
CORONA Hard Disk System 
COR VUS Hard Disk System 
DAVONG 

5Mb Hard Disk 

12Mb Hard Disk 
MAYNARD Disk Drive Card 

Floppy Card w/Parallel 

Floppy Card w/Serial 
ORCHID 

Hi-Res Graphics Adapter 495 

PERSYST Spectrum (64-256K) 

P/N SP64-CCP, 64K, S. S. P 

P/N SP64. 64K 

64K Upgrade Kit (9 chips) 130 

QUADRAM Quadboard (64-256K) 

P/N Q64. 64K w/4 functions 595 
TANDON 

TM 100-1 (160K) 295 

TM 100-2 (320K) 395 

TG PRODUCTS 

Joystick 65 

Track Ball 65 

VISTA "Multicard 

P/N V-064, 64K 

P / N V-064PSC 2 5 6 K w/PSC 

64 K Upgrade Kit (9 chips) 

"MAXICARD""576K 1295 

"PC MASTER"" 7 l/O's 669 

"8" Disk Controller" 
XEDEX 

Baby Blue CP/M 600 



COEX 80F/T 80cps 
STAR MICRONICS - 

Gemini 10 100cps 

Gemini 15 15" 
EPSON 

MX80III 

MX80F/T III 

MX100IN 
INTEGRAL DATA 

Microprism 480 

Prism 80 Color(all) 

Prism 132Color(all) 
BROTHER HR-1 

Daisywriter 
IBM PC to EPSON Cable 
OKI DATA 

Microline82A 

Microline83A 

Microline84AP 



ACP 

S85 

85 

875 

1150 



449 
499 
695 
749 



695 
495 



Call 
Call 



1490 
2295 



(exp. 64-25 6K) 
295 

495 



499 
375 
50 



799 689 

1795 1495 

1995 1685 

1 1 95 895 

1495 1295 

60 45 

599 489 

899 729 

1399 1099 



MONITORS 



P/N V-256PSC 
with 256K 



$ 335' 



only 



Optional COEX Interface Card 
to Apple $39.95 



MODEMS 



List ACP 

SIGNALMAN Mark I (RS232) S99 S79 
HAYES 

Smartmodem (RS232) 289 225 



Smartmtxtem 1200 
IBM PC !o Modem Cable 



699 549 



AMDEKCORP 

300Green12" 

310 Amber 12" 

Color I Composite 

Color II RGB Hi-Res 

Color III RGBComm'l 

Color IV RGB Analog 
NEC 12" Green -NEW 

12" RGB (690x230) 
SONY Profeel 19" Color RGB 
PRINCETON GRAPHICS 

RGB IBM Lookalike 



$199 S155 

210 175 

399 339 

899 790 

499 445 

1299 1059 

199 155 

895 799 

895 819 

700 599 



DISKETTES 



FLOPPY DISK DRIVES 

SINGLE-SIDED 8" 



DOUBLE-SIDED 8" 

" Siemens FDD200-8 399 389 379 

"■8-2 479 475 489 



SINGLE-SIDED 5W 

SA400 210 208 198 Tandem TM 100-1 205 1 

B51 210 208 198 Pertec FD200 149 1 

DOUBLE-SIDED BW 
450 345 325 313 Tendon TM100-2 289 i 

£50 159 159 149 

DOUBLE-SIDED 5VV Thinline 

"5 359 Qume 5'/«" Thinline 375 : 
DOUBLE-SIDED 3" 
Call Call Call 

WINCHESTERS 5W 
ST506(6Mb) 699 679 599 Seagate ST512(12Mb) 990 ! 
5006(6Mb) 865 850 819 IM1 5012(1 2Mb) 1088K 

5018[18Mb) 131312991225 

SPECIAL LIQUIDATION - SMALL QTY 
SHUGART 4004 
14" WINCHESTER 

Only 10 Available —So Hurryi 
14.5 MEGABYTES 



DYSAN 5'/." SS SD 
DYSAN 5 VV DS SD 
IBM 5%" SS SD 
IBM 5%" SSDD 
VERBATIM 525-01 SS 
VERBATIM 550-01 DS 
MAXELL MD1 SS 
MAXELL MD2 DS 
AMDEK Hitachi 3"DS Micro 
BULK SPECIAL SS 
With Sleeve and Box 1 



1 0/S55 
10/65 
10/60 
10/65 
10/45 
1 0/55 
10/50 
10/60 
5/99 
10/25 

00/195 



APPLE System Saver FAN 



Surge Suppressor Faa 
Double Outlet Receptacle . 



^M 



"SOLO" 
Apple ll/lle 

Compatible 
Disk Drive 

Totally compatible to Apple Drives. 



$ 



only 



249 



00 



Controller $99.00 

Just plug in and run. 

Vista Quartet 

s > fc . Equivalent 

to 



only^^/^' 



$ 



699 



Apple 
rives 



00 




, Add8" 

IJ\ Disk 

S\. - " Drives 
HEM To Your 
Apple ll/lle 
Up To 2.4 Megabyte! 

Now"TRIMUNE V1 100" with 
Tandon Thinline DS DD Drives. 

Tandon Dual DS DD. $1 895.00 

QumeDualDSDD 1699.00 

Shugart Dual801 R 1 295.00 



SPECIAL 
OFFER 

(2) Siemen's 8" Disk Drives 
(1) Vista V-1 000 Enclosure 
(1) Power Supply w/Fan, w/Cable 



Si 



699 



00 



ACP 
Low Price 



Apple Compatible Software 



SAVE UP TO 40% 



MORE IBM GOODIES 


CURTIS PC Pedestal 


$80 


$65 


Extension Cable 


50 


44 


INTEL 8087 IC 




199 


RAM EXPANSION 






16K Motherboard (1 6 IC's) 




19 


64K Memory Exp. (9 IC's) 




50 


KRAFT IBM Joystick 


70 


49 


IBM Paddles 


50 


40 



BUSINESS 




HOBBY 




Screen Writer 


S29 


Bag of Tricks 


S32 


Word Handler 


149 


Graphics Magic'n 


45 


BD Master 


155 


DOS Boss 


19 


Visicalc™ 3.3 


185 


Zoom Graphics 


32 


Master Type 


29 


Utility City 


22 


DeskTop Plan II 


179 


Locksmith 4.0 


90 


DeskTop Plan III 


225 


Compl Graph Sys 


55 


Vtsipfot 


159 


Apple Mechanic 


24 


PFS. File II 


115 


Nibbles Away II 


35 


FPS, File III 


155 


GAMES 




Visitrend/Visiplot 


25 


The Missing Ring 


29 


PFS, Graph II 


115 


Choplifler 


26 


PFS.Graphlll 


155 


Frogger 


24 


Multiplan 


199 


Wizardy 


39 


Versaform 


279 


Snack Attack 


24 


Wordstar 


365 


Castle Wolfenstien 


24 


Format II 


179 


Arcade Machine 


44 


dBASEIt 


439 


Canyon Climber 


24 


Supercalc 


169 


Aztec 


29 


PFS, Report II 


95 


Mask of the Sun 


29 


PFS, Report III 


115 


Cannonball Blitz 


26 


Accl Plus G/L 


299 


Knight Diamonds 


26 


G/L, A/P, A/R 


599 


Zorkl 


29 


Abo ve+ Inventory 


799 


Zork III 


29 


Magic Window 


115 


Starcross 


29 


HOME 




Serpentine 


25 


Home Accountent 59 


Star Blazer 


25 


Transend I 


76 


Deadline 


39 


Transendll 


119 


Tubeway 


25 


Data Capture 4.0 


49 


Flight Simulator 


25 


Vrsiterm 


B9 


Space Vikings 


25 


Per. Finance Mgr 


85 


Sargon II 


29 


ASCII Exprs, Prof 


99 


Spitfire Simulator 


29 


Electronic Duet 


25 


Apple Panic 


22 


Tax Prep. 1983 


149 


Olympic Decath 


23 




Special Sale Price ... $995.00 



TOIL FREE 

8004544230 

910-595-1565 




UST ACP 

Apple II Plus W/48K $1530.00 S999.0O 

Apple II Plus w/64K 1729.00 1 049.00 

Apple II System Special w/64K, 

Z80 Card, Vision 80 2519.00 1 499.00 

Apple III W/128K 3495.00 2695.00 

Apple ltlw/256K 4295.00 2995.00 

ProFile Hard Disk Drive 3499.00 2095.00 
Vista Apple III Timecard 195.00 169.00 



"Apple Products Available In-store Only" 



APPLE HARDWARE 




List 


ACP \ 


Apple It Disk II w/Controrr 


S645.00 


$449.00 ] 


Apple II Disk II w/o 


525.00 


389.00 1 


Apple Family System 


2495.00 


CALL | 


Prototype Card 


24.00 


21.95 1 


IEEE-488 Interface 


450.00 


375.00 I 


Extended Warranty- 1 yr 


225.00 


199.00 | 


Super Serial Card 


195.00 


174.95 | 


language Card 


195.00 


149.95 I 


Graphic Tablet w/IO 


795.00 


695.00 1 


"Available ln-store Only" 





MORE HARDWARE 



MICROSOFT 

Z80 Softcard 

16K Ramcard 

The Premium Package 
SSM 

AIO-II4 Function Serial/ 
Parallel 

AIO Serial/Parallet 
KEYBOARD COMPANY 

Numeric Keypad 

Apple II Joystick 

Apple II Handcontrollers 
KRAFT 

Joystick 

Hand Controller 
PROMETHEUS 

VERSAbox Spool/Burr 

VERSAcard FouMn-1 

AUrO-DOC diagnostics 
VISTA COMPUTER CO. 

Vision 80 80x24 Card 

Vision 40 40 col. 
enhance 

Vision 20 Lo case ROM 

A800 8" DS. DO 

Quartet Disk Drive 

Duet Disk Drive 

Solo Disk Drive 

40 Char Type ahead 

Wild Card 
VIDEX 

Videoterm 80x24 Card 

Keyboard Enhancer It 

Soft Switch 

Function Strip Keys 



ACP 
$249.00 
89.00 
579.00 



225.00 
195.00 

149.95 
49.95 
29.95 



249.00 
199.00 
99.00 



179.00 
165.00 

124.95 
44.50 
25.95 

49.00 
40.00 

199.00 
166.00 
82.00 



395.00 269.00 



PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS 



199.00 
29.95 
595.00 



345.00 
149.00 
35.00 
79.00 



16K Microbuffer 

32K Microbuffer 

Snapshot Option 
VOTRAX 

Type n' Talk Speech 
SCOTT INSTRUMENTS 

Voice Recognif n VEF80 
CORVUS 

5 Mb Hard Disk 

10Mb Hard Disk 

20 Mb Hard Disk 
ORANGE MICRO 

The Grappter I/O (Plus) 
SATURN SYSTEMS 

32K RAM Card 

64K RAM Card 

128K RAM Card 
NOVATION 

Apple-Cat II 

Apple-Cat 212 
HAYES MICROCOMPUTER 

Hayes Chronograph 249.00 

Micromodem II 

Smartmodem 
MOUNTAIN COMPUTER 

CPS Multifunction 

Music System 

A/D plus D/A 

Supertalker 

Introl X-10 Controller 

ROM Plus 

Keyboard Filter ROM 

Copy ROM 

ROM Writer 
M&R ENTERPRISES 

Sup'rterm 80x24 Card 

Sup'rSwitcher 6 Amp 
Power Supply 

Sup'rMod II RF 
Modulator 

Apple Fan 
ALS 

The CP/M Plus Z80 card 399.00 

Smarterm 80x24 Card 349.00 

The Syneroizer Package 699.00 



259.00 
299.00 
149.00 

375.00 

799.00 

3750.00 
5350.00 
6450.00 

195.00 

239.00 
425.00 
599.00 

389.00 
625.00 



349.00 
299.00 

239.00 
395.00 
350.00 
199.00 
200.00 
155.00 
55.00 
55.00 
175.00 

395.00 

295.00 

69.00 
55.00 



149.00 
25.00 
399.00 
699.00 
499.00 
269.00 
35.00 
1 1 5.00 

279.00 
1 29.00 
30.00 
69.00 

220.00 
253.00 
109.00 



2495.00 
2895.00 
3995.00 



189.00 
355.00 
505.00 

329.00 
525.00 

229.00 
289.00 
229.00 

169.00 
335.00 
299.00 
169.00 
1 75.00 
1 29.00 
44.00 
44.00 
159.00 

279.00 

239.00 

49.00 
43.00 

299.00 
279.00 
549.00 



16K RAM CARD 



Apple 111 6K 



Compatible with 
Z80 Softcard" ... PASCAL CP/M™ 

Full 1 year Warranty. Top Quality by COEX 

r^ $rq95 

PRCE \J*J 

Also from COEX NEW EPSON 
Parallel Interface for Apple. 

With cable ..$39.95 



Mailorder P.O. Box 17328 Irvine, CA 92713 



Retail: 1 31 OB E. Edlnger, Santa Ana G A 92705 
(714) 558-8813 

542 W. Trimble, San Jose, GA 95131 
(408) 948-7010 



TERMS; MO. Cashier's Check_ Bank Wire. Personal 
Checks allow 2 weeks for processing. Include Drivers 
License and credit card «s Visa. AMEX, CB add 3% 
service charge. Add 3% shipping 8 handling or S2.S0. 
whichever is greater. Add 10% for foreign orders or 
US Parcel Post. Include Telephone number. NO CODs. 
Prices subject lo change withoul notice. Some items 
subject to prior sale. We reserve Ihe right tosubstitute 
manufacturer. Retail prices may vary. 



Circle 8 on Inquiry card. 



CaMFornja DiqiTAl 

Post Office Box 3097 B • Torrance, California 90503 



fk FREE * 

Plastic library case supplied with ail 
| diskettes purchased from California Digital 

$ 

Neiv Low Price 



1995 



Pn vale labeled (or California Oigttal by one of the most 

respecied producers el magnetic media £ach diskette 

is certified double density at 40 tracks To insure 

extended media life all diskette are manufactured with a 

reinforced hub. 

Each box of diskettes is supplied wMh a free plastic 

libraiycase 

Sof I sector CAL-50 1 , Ten sector C AL-51 



5 J /4" DISKETTES 

WITH LIBRARY CASE 



$ 



26. 50 

Your Choice 

SCOTCH 
MEMOREX 
VERBATIM 



Single Side Double Density 
Soft Sector 10 Sector 16 Sector 



SCOTCH 


744D-0 


744D-10 


744D-16 


26.50 


MEMOREX 


3481 


3483 


3485 


26.50 


VERBATIM 


52501 


525-10 


NA 


26.50 


MAXELL 


M01 


MH1-10 


MH1-16 


29.85 


DYSAN 


104/1D 


107/1D 


NA 


45.00 





Double Side Double 


Density 




SCOTCH 


745-0 


745-10 


745-16 


42.50 


VERBATIM 


550-01 


550-10 


NA 


42.50 


MAXELL 


MD2-D 


MH2-10D 


MH2-16D 


45.00 


DYSAN 


104/2D 


107/2D 


NA 


49.50 


DYSAN 96 


204/2D 


NA 


NA 


59.50 



EIGHT INCH DISKETTES 



Single Side Single Density 



SCOTCH 



MEMOREX 



DYSAN 



740-0 



3060 



3740/1 39.50 



29.50 



29.50 



Thirty Two Sector 



SCOTCH 1 740-32 1 29.50 



Scotch He id CIrJning Kit 
PUjiic Litirirt Casei 5WSB" 
Duktrlt Flp TuDi dtly diskette* Ift* 
Oiiliette Ftp Tutu titty mskenes B" 



Single Side Double Density 



SCOTCH 741-0 39.00 



MEMOREX 



3090 



DYSAN 3740/D 57.50 



35.00 



Double side Double Density 



SCOTCH 743-0 



MEMOREX 



DYSAN 



3114 



374Q/2D 



47.50 



39.50 



65.00 



Microswitch (? :";'* — ■ ,, „ /****%.->' >__*; 
KEYBOARD fi 'i'i't 'l 'l 'i'i' tTT ^ 

$-wtr% itt'),i,i.i,i,i,i,iJ 



79 £ 



I III I I 




Each keyboard contains 81 high reliability Hall Effect keys. 
Outputs seven bit parallel ASCII MIC-81SD5 3 Lbs. 

__ 

KEYBOARD 

$ 24.95 

This Hitek keyboard is the same unit used by Lear Siegler in their middle line 
CRT terminals. The keyboard features 58 unencoded metal on metal con- 
tacts (HIK-58). Matching numeric cluster with 15 keys is available for S9.95 
(HIK-1 5). Buy both of these units for only S29.90 and save $5.00 (HIK-5815). 




MEM ORY 

16K DYNAMIC 




1.95 

4116 150ns. 



64K DYNAMIC 

6.95 

4164 150ns. 



2732 EPROM 

4.9S [ 



450ns. 



16K STATIC 

4.95 

6116 200ns- 




2764 EPROM 

SALE 9.95 



DYNAMIC MEMORY . 



<t027<IK dynamic250ns ICM-<10272SO 

4116 150ns. 16K iCM-41 16150 

4 11 6200ns. 16K ICM-4U6200 

4164 150ns. 64K 128 refresh ICM4164150 

4)256 150ns. 256K ICM -41256150 



Available Muiclirj3 



21L02200ns 1K sialic 
21102450ns. 1 K sialic 
2112 450ns 2K sialic 
2114300ns 1Kx4 
4044TMS-J50ns -»K x 1 
5257 300ns 4K x 1 
6116P4200ns 2Kx8 
6116P3 150ns 2K x 8 
6167/2167 100ns 16Kx 1 (20pm) 



STATIC MEMORY 

ICM-21 L02200 
ICM-2102.150 
ICM-21 12450 
ICM-211-1300 
ICM-40J4450 
ICM-5257300 
ICM-6116200 
ICM-61 16150 
ICM-6167100 



2708 450ns 1Kx8 
2716450ns 2Kx8 
2716TMS. 150ns Tn-vollage 
2732.150ns 4K x 8 
2732350ns 4K x 8 
2532 450ns 4K x 8 
2764350ns 8K x 8 
27128350ns 16Kx8 



EPROMS 

ICE-2708 

ICE-2716 

ICE-2716TMS 

ICE-2732 

ICE-2732350 

ICE-2532 

ICE-27G4 

ICE27128 



Available Warch83 



CONIUCTORS 

DB25P 




S-100Gold 
$2.95 



nrnnnnrirnnrin 

yT'lTVITI'I'I'I'ITW 

$2.50 



GOLD EUGE CONNKCTOKS 

S-lOO ,12.-i" centers i-acl 

tmsai s»lucr .250" row S2.i>: 

Imsat wire wrap (I'D .'(.91 

Sullins ili-Hcl. . 2;>0" -l.-,< 

Sullins Ili-Kel. W/W 5.3; 

Sullins /Altaic . HO" -Ul! 
.156" Centers {siondani) 

111 i.\ Kim fcvcltt 2./.1 

.i6/7:» Digital Group S/ T 5.L': 
36/72 IJiSitai Gniup WAV G.6< 

13/(16 .M»i<»'ol:i 6B00SH' ii.lii 

43/86 Muto. CftUO W/VV 7.0< 



1:3) CIRCUIT SOCKETS 



.<12 .40 1.60 1.17 



L\UO 1.1(0 



I J. A h.>. 



2/1- 



1)1: 



M'lW iiCiie 
>S fem.-il. 
iood :!/|> 
CJ:i71 J ui.iU- 
VMS rum.ilu 

1)501' iri.ile 

n.-.os iirii.ai 



uibijon cAni.,t; conm:c:toi{S 

17/.T1 r.*' di.SU .1.8.1 1.15 :t.LT, 
20/10 TKS-UU fi.tiS ri.O.'i 4.70 

ri/rio «■" disk a.iio ii.15 4.D0 




23" 

COMPOSITE 
MONITOR 

*159 



Ideal monitor 

for classroom 

demonstrations. 



Ever try gathering a classroom of students around a 12" monitor'' Hero is your opportunity to 

purchase a 23" high resolution monitor at a reasonable pnee. 

These units accept standard com posit video signals generated by most personal compute rs mcludrng 

the Apple and IBM. Attach tt your computer and in second you aro shooting down Klingons in wide 

screen video. 

MOT-BW23 35 Lbs. Monitors aro open Irame and (or saloly should be enclosed. Wood grained 

enclosure for above S35.00 additional CAL-ENC23 15 Lbs. 



Each additional $.50. 
xcess will be refunded. 
i tax.' COD's discouraged. 
ipported educational institute 
i & Bradstreet. 



Eight Inch Single Sided 

One Two 



Ten 



SHUGARTSA801R 


s 395 


385 


375 


SIEMENS FDD100-8 


259 


259 


225 


TAND0N 848-1 SLIMLINE 


379 


369 


359 



Eight Inch Double Sided 




SHUGART SA851R 


525 


495 


475 


QUME DATA TRACK 8 


525 


495 


475 


MITSUBISHI M2894-63 


485 


475 


469 


OLIVETTI 802/851 


369 


359 


349 


TAND0N 848-2 SLIMLINE 


495 


485 


475 


SHUGART 860 THINLINE 


569 


549 


539 









Five Inch Single Sided 



SHUGART SA400 


215 


209 


199 


TAND0NTM 100-1 


209 


199 


195 



Five Inch Double Sided 



SHUGART SA450 


349 


329 


315 


TAND0NTM 100-2 


295 


269 


259 


TAND0N 96TPITM100-4 


369 


355 


350 


OLIVETTI 502 2 A height 


239 


225 


215 



Three Inch Rigid Floppy 



HITACHI-AMDEK 



call for pricing 



Five Inch Winchesters 






SEAGATE 506 6 Megabyte] 759 


725 


695 


SEAGATE 512 12 Megabyte) 995 


960 


960 


TAND0N 603SE 14 Megabyte 


995 


960 


895 


WESTERN DYNAX removable 


995 


960 


950 



upon request, all drives are supplied 
with power connectors and manual 




Eight Inch Subsystem 

Two Siemens FDD1 00-8 disk drives with power supply, 

4" exhaust fan complete with al necessary power cables. 

Same as above but with: 

ShugartSOin MSD2801 '1195 

Shugart B51 H MSD2851 1450 



Olivetti 802 CAL2801 s 1250 
QumeDTS MSDSDT 1450 



ECLIPSl 
100 

*695l 



INDUSTRIAL S-lOO MAINFRAME 

Suitable (or hospital and industrial applications. Constructed from 304 
brushed stainless steel. Modualar 500 watt toroid power supply provides 
f 8 volts at 30 Amps and + 1 6 volts at 4 Amps.Supplied with standard 1 8 slot 
Faraday mother board. Auxilary switched AC receptacles. The Eclipse 100 
can be either table or rack mounted. Provisions for internally mounting a ten 
megabyte Winchester disk drive. 

The Eclipse 100 is the perfect mainlrame to fill the void left by the 
now defunct TEI Corporation. EPS-1 00 50 lbs. 



TOLL FREE ORDER LINE 

(800)421-5041 

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA 

(213)679-9001 



ifoRNIA DiqiTAl 

Post Office Box 3097 B • Torrance, California 90503 



uper Buy $ 239 



SIEMENS 

FDD 100-8 
8" DISK DRIVE 



10 Drives $ 209 



100 Drives $ 175 



California Digital has recently participated in the pur chaseol several thousand Siemens FDD 100-8 floppy disk drives. 
These units are electronically and physically similar to that of the Shugart 801 R. Any application that will accept the 
Shugart will work with the Siemens FDD 1 00-8. 

All units are new and shipped in factory sealed boxes. Becauseof the extremely low price weexpect a quick sell out. 
SEA-F1008 17 lbs. Manual and power connectors supplied free upon request. Also available: Two drive subsystem 
supplied in metal enclosure with power supply and exhaust fan. S750.00 CAL-2F1008. 



MORROW 
DESIGNS 

MICRO DECISION 




119$ 



Includes $1800 worth of free software: 



Buy before month end and California Digital 
will supply, free of any additional cost, 50 
Diskettes and a 5V4" Flip & File. 



Digital Research 2.2 CP/M 
MicroPro Wordstar 
Electronic Spreadsheet 



NorthStar Bazic 

Spelling Checker 
Microsoft Basic 80 



The Morrow Micro Decision offers one of the best values in small business computers. Standard 
features include 64K of RAM, 4MHz Z 80 CPU, two RS232 serial ports, dual density floppy disk 
controller capable of supporting four disk drives, and a 200 Kilobyte 5 1 /j" disk drive. The unit is 
powered by a low noise switching power supply. 

The low profile enclosure should blend in to most any office environment. The Micro Decision is 
delivered complete with CP/M 2.2 as well as Basic 80 and Wordstar. Available options include a 
second disk drive and a video terminal. MDS-MD1 1 8 lbs. 



PRINTERS 

UCUKl 




MATRIX PRINTERS 

- tOOchar/sec parallel 



Slar Gemtni-10 friction & traclo 

Slar Eclipse 80FT friction & trac 

Okidala 82A serial & parallel 9VV paper 

Okidala 83A serial & parallel 15" paper 

Okidala B4A serial & parallel 1 5" paper 

OKidata2350 (new) 350 char/sec 

EpsonMX80FT with graphlrax. friction & tractor feed. 

EpsonMX 1 00 with graphlrax, 1 5" paper 

NEC8023A parallel 9V paper, graphics 

Anadex 9500A high speed 15" paper 

Anadex 9501 A highspeedwithgraphics 

Datasouth 1 80 high speed 1 8 cp s 1 5 

Quantex 7030 corespondence quality 180 char/sec 

Prownter 8510 parallel 9 1 ';" paper 

Prownter 8510 senai9V? paper 

Prownter 1115 paper 

Pnntronix P300 highspeed printer 300lmes per minute, 

Pnntronix P60O ultra high speed 600 lines Per minute 

Mannesmann Tally 1805 200 char/sec serial 

WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS 

' NEC77i0 55ehar/second, serial interface NEC7710 

NEC7730 same as above only parellel interface NEC-7730 

NEC3510 15 serial NEC-3510 

Oiablo630 40 char/sec. serial DBL-630 

BrolherHHn daiseywheel BTH-HR1S 

BrOlherHFm senalmterlace BTH-HR1S 

Smith Corona TP-t daisy wheel printer serial SCM-TPiS 

StarwnterFIOsenal PRO-FtOS 

Star-writer F10 parallel PRO-HOP 



STR-GI0 

STR-E80FT 

OKI-82A 

OKI-83A 

OKI-84A 

OKI-2350 

EPS-MX80FT 

EPS-MX100 

NEC6023A 

ADX-9500A 

ADX-9501A 

OSI-180 

OTX-7030 

PRO-6510P 

PAO-8510S 

PRO-2P 

PTX-P300 

PTX-P600 

MAN-1805 



359 00 
297 00 
459.00 
695,00 
1079.00 
1995 00 
519 00 
695 00 
485 00 
1279.00 
127900 
1295 00 
1535.00 
495 00 
639 00 
750 00 
4500 00 
6150.00 
1 650 00 

2379.00 
2379.00 
1775.00 
225000 
855.00 
895.00 
659 00 
1475.00 
1475.00 



EPSON MX 80 
RIBBONS 6.95 

MONITORS 

Zenith Z121 green phosphor 12" 40/80 column swilcti ITH-tVl. 115.00 

BMC 1?A green phosphor 15 Mlv. composit video BMC-12A 8800 

DMC 12EN green phosphor 20 Mhz Itinh resolution BMC-12EN 139 00 

NEC JB1201 green phosphor 18 M»v composit video NEC-JB1201 16900 

NEC JB1260 green phosphor commercial qraile comnusit NEC-1260 12900 

Motorola 23" Open frame blk/while composit video MOT-BW23 15900 

Motorola 12" open frame blk/white reqireshorz sync S powM0T-fllV12 6900 

Conrac 9 open frame requires horz sync & power supply CON-flV/9 5900 
ICOLORI 

NEC JC1201 composit color NEC-JC1201 325 00 

NEC RGB monitor NEC-1202DM 8750C 

8MC 13' Composil video BMC-1400CL 27300 

BMC 13" RGB color monitor 8MC-1401RG8 329 00 

BMC interface card for Apple If lor above RGB BMC-81RGB 14900 

Comrex /Hitachi 13 RGB high res monitor COM-6600 53900 

Comrex /Hitachi 13" Composit color monitor COM-6500 395.00 

Amdek color »1 composil video AMD-100 349 00 

Amdex color *l high res RGB color monitor AMD-200 739.00 

Amdek color »3 commercial grade color RGB AMD-300 475 00 

Direct Connect 

MODEMS 



Universal Data 103LP. line power, answer & originate 
Universal Data 103LPJ. auto answer 
Universal Data 202, 1200 baud, holt duplex only 
Universal Data 2 I2LP, full 1 200 oaud duplex, line power 
Universal Data 212A. 300/1200 baud, auto answer 
Hayes Smart Modem 1 200, auto answer, auto dial 
Hayes Smart modem, 300 baud only, auto answer, aulo dial 
Hayes Micromodem II, 1 03 Apple direct connect 
Hayes Micromodem 100, S-100. auto answer, auto dial 
Hayes Chronograph, time* date 
Novation "J" Cat. direct connect, auto answer 
Novation Cat. acoustic connect 

Novation D" Cat, direct connect via handsel not phone line. 
Novation SmartCat 103, autoanswer, auto dial. 
, Novation SmartCat 103 '21 2, 1 200 baud auto dial 
Penre! 30O/1 20O baud, auto log-on, aufo dial 
Signalman Mark I. direct connect with terminal cable. 
3. Robotics 2 12A. 300/1200 baud 



UOS-103LP 


169.00 


UDS-103LPJ 


209.00 


UDS-202LP 


209.00 


UDS-212LP 


450 00 


UDS-212A 


535 00 


HY5-212AD 


575 00 


HYS-103AD 


229.00 


HVS-MM2 


27900 


HYS-100 


319 00 


HYS-CHR232 


199.00 


NOV-JCAT 


119.00 


NOV-CAT 


159.00 


NOV-DCAT 


169 00 


NOV-SC103 


2190O 


NOV-SC212 


529.00 


PEN-212A 


S795.QQ 


SGL-MK1 


88.00 


USR-212A 


485 00 



VISA 


■ _ mt ^^ ■ 


[ master charye] 


,. ^,-^x^> 



TERMINALS 




Wyse 



Freedom 50. split screen, deiat enable keyboard 

Visual 50. detachable, keyboard selectable settings. 

Visual 50 Green screen 

Visuel330, emulates DEC, DG. LSI. green 

Ampex Dialogue 80 green screen, twopage, tunc, keys 

Ampex Dialouge 80 amber screen, twopage, tunc keys 

Wyse 100, horz & vert, split screen, metal enclosure 

Tele video 910 Plus, block mode 

Televideo 925. detachable keyboard, 22 function keys 

Televideo 950, graphic char, split scteen, 22 func. 

Televideo 97D, 14 green screen. 1 32 column. European 

Zemth ig terminal. VT52 compatible. 

ADDS Viewpoint A1 detachable keyboard 

ADDS Viewpoint A2. xycursor 



APPLE 

48K Plus 



L1B-F50 


495.00 


VSL-50 


635.00 


VSL-50G 


650.00 


VSL-330G 


995.00 


APX-O80G 


685.00 


APX-DflOA 


685.00 


WYS-100 


825.00 


TVI-910P 


595.00 


TVI-925 


795.00 


TVI-950 


985.00 


TVI-970 


March 


ZTH-Z19 


765.00 


AOD-VP1 


585.00 


ADD-VP2 


585.00 



1089 




S-100 
BOARDS 

16 BIT MICROPROCESSORS 

GBT-8687 GodbouieOW/BOn? Microprocessor fco-t* ^9500 
G8T-B687 Godbout 80S8/SOS5dual 8 D.T 

microprocessor 3:900 

SEA-6OB6 Seattle Computet 16 M micro two 

boardsel 66900 

TSC-8086 Tecmar Computer 16bit microprocessor 59500 
L0M8086 lomasDaia Systems LigMmoOne call 

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTERS 

WAV-BtTl Wavemale Bullet 1 with lloppy 256K 

(notS-1001 79500 

AMD-ZBO Advanced Micro Dig.tai floppy 5 WK 7:000 

1EL-FDC1 Teletck FOCI Single board NEC765 

controller S7500 

8 BIT MICROPROCESSORS 

GBT-ZBG GodDOul 280 8 bit CPU 24 Bit extended 

address 2 SO CO 

CCS-2810 California Computer Z-80 rmcroprocessK 27500 

S0SSBC2CO SO SystemsSBC-200 Z« 

microprocessor 2750O 

MSM-Z80 Measurement Sysiem Z-80 2810 

microprocessor J 2500 

„ TAR.Z80 




Measurement Sysiem Z-80 2810 

microprocessor 
Iarbell£teclrOn,cs Z-BOwilMwo RS?32 

pons 



APPLE BRAND PRODUCTS 



APL-48P 
APL-0SK1 
APLDSK2 



XTN-G1Q 
XTN-16K 



Apple Plus 48K RAM 

Apple disk with cantroliei card 

Apple disk without comroiler cant 



Xilen 10 Megabyte Galium 
16K RAM card for Apple II 



RANA SYSTEMS 



Apple add on disk drive with controller 
Apple add on drive without controllei 



CALIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS 



CCS-7710 


Asynchronous Seual Interlace 


CCS-7728 


Centronics Parallel Interface 


CCS-7720 


Apple Parallel Interlace 


CCS-71U 


12K Rom/Prom Module 


CCS-7424 


Calendar/Clock Module 


CCS-7JJ0 


Programmable Timer 


CCS-7811B 


Arithmetic Processor for Apple II DlU5 



125.00 
9500 
9500 

11500 
9300 
9500 

31900 



MOUNTAIN COMPUTERS, INC. 

MTN-CPS CPS Multrfunclron Card 

MTN-TCLK Clock/Calendar 

MTN-STLK Superlaiker SD200 

MTN-ROMF Rom Plus with Keyboard filter 

MTN-ROMRTR Rom Wrrter with Eprom sockel 

MTN-AODA A*0/0-A Convener 

MTN-BSR .X- 1D Control Card for BSR system 

MICRO SOFT 

MSF-SFTCRO Microsoft Z-80CPU card 

MSM6KRAM Microsoft 16K RAM card 

VISTA 
VSA-A800 Vista B" controller card 

VSA-VIS80 Vista Vision 80 

MCI-CNTRL Micro Sci disk drive controller 

FOURTH DIMENSION 

FDN-SPRDRV Super Drive-35 track Apple add on 32900 

SORRENTO VALLEY ASSOC 

SVA-221 Single sided Single density controller 350 00 

SVA-222 Double Sided. Single density controller 360 00 

SVA-223 Single or double sided, double densily 475.00 

ADVANCED BUSINESS TECH 

ABT-13KEYN 13- Key pad for new Apple 95.00 



289.00 
89 00 



FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLERS 

G9T0SK1 GodboijlDiSkOnedoublerJensilyMEC-765 : 
Monow Designs Disk Jocveyli with CPM 3 
Morrow Oesir|ns Oisk Jockey I single 

density : 

Calitorraa Comlmter 2422 wilhCPM " 

T.irbel I Electronics double densily 

ironies single density 

controller • 

CPM OPERATING SYSTEM 

IT-CPM22 Codboul CPM 22 lor Disk One 8 tvl 



G8TCPM860 GodboulCPM B6 loi Disv Or 

w.th soee 

GBT-CPMB6 Godbout CPM B6lor oper.il, 
8086 board 

HARD DISK CONTROLLER 

GBT.DSK2 tOritroul Disk 11 ha:d disk conlroHer 
G6T DSK3 Gorlboul Disk in hard disk conirolfrr 
MDS-WH16 Mnirow Dfsi(|ns Wmchesier to. 

S»agate W6 
WDMOOO Wesiwn Oigiial WD- 1000 mm S lOQi 

EPROM BOARDS 

A0S-PB100 Ackerman Digital Prom Blasler 100 
SOSP100 SO Svslems Prom-100 pioounimet 
SSMPB1 SSM Prom prgrammer up 10 2716 
0GR-P32 Digital Research 32K EnrOm read only 



16000 
2E50O 
26500 



GBT.P16 
GBT-RI7 

GBIR20 

G8T.R21 

CCS 2116 



STATIC MEMORY BOARDS 

1 Caliom.a D g'tai Sralc 61 B 16 dh 
i6l67l 

Godbout Ham 16 WK memory 8/16 Bit 
GoflBOul Ram 17 WK memory 6 Oil 

2jijiI add 
Godboutftam 20 32k sialic memon 

GOdboul Ram 2l 128K 8/16 Oil siatl 

memory 
Cat'iOrmaComuler 2116 16H static 



39500 
37S0O 



DYNAMIC MEMORY BOARDS 
CAL 0256 Cai-icrr-a O.g.rai 25£k ctynarr c manor, 

B Dit 

S0SEX3 SD Systems E»Da.rfloiamlil25W dynamic 
CCS-2065 C.iMcna Computers 206 5 6JK dynamic 
MSMD'.tSW Measurentenl Systems DMGS-tOO < Aloha 



49500 
3«00 

59500 



INTERFACE BOARDS 



CCS2710 



J95K) 

585(1) 
29500 



SPECIAL FUNCTION BOARDS 

.1100 D C Hayes Mic-omodem S 'OOfCC 



Mill 1,-Fiui 

aik w.ino 
101 ivino 



B"-'"'i 'i.-'.'.wiiB 



ate supported educati 
»' Dun fc Bradstreet. 
I Blvd. Visitors by a 



256K DYNAMIC 

MEMORY BOARD 

*495 

• 2S8UlobytuotniiniDivu«lnoMKdynirnlcRAM| 

• OvsronfltnagibYtaoltntniDiYiMlngthaniw 
2MK*ynimlc RAM chips. 

• Emrdilidlon-tnipcipiblllty. 

• Individual 16K block ci n b a rafocata d to any 
boundry within a magabyti of RAM. 

• 24 blladdraulng an d phantom mod acapablllly. I 

The Calilomra Digital 2S6K RAM board represents an oulstandmg value in S-100 memory technology I 

above earlier generation 64K dynamic ram Doards it gives you iriese additional leatures. 256K ot memory w 

Parity error feature can be jumpered to any of the interrupt lines, a status port, ERROR LED. or IEEE-69S 

signal. 24 or 1 6 bit addressing with memory management. 

Proper operation with Iront panel equipped systems. DMA disk controllers, and IEEE-696 Temporary Buss Masters 

assured with an on the board Ml generator tor memory refresh timing CAS and RAS timing is controlled with laooed 

digital delay lines lor proper operation over Ihe entire operating temperature range 

The board ts very recent in design using the Nalional Semiconductor DP-8409 RAM Comroiler chip Split termini 

networks are used on ell address lines, CAS line, and RAS lines eliminating ihe last traces of ringing Tne board use! 

separate voltage regulators. One tor the DRAMs and one lor Ihe inlerface logic increasing Ihe noise immunity 

of the ram array. Typical power dissipation is 8 watts. 

Documentation includes theory of operation, configuration guide, a schematic, and application n( 

use of the memory manaoement options. CAL-256K 2 Lbs. 



TOLL FREE ORDER LINE 

(800)421-5041 

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA 

(213)679-9001 



ir IEEE-69S "ERROR 



f ^pp^ 




MICROPROCESSOR COMPONENTS W\ Digitaiker 



SN7400N 
SN7401N 
SN7402N 
SN7403N 
SN7404N 
SN7405N 
SN7406N 
SN7407N 
SN7408N 
SN7409N 
SN7410N 
SN7411N 
SN7412N 
SN7413N 
SN7414N 
SN7416N 
SN7417N 
SN7420N 
SN7421N 
SN7422N 
SN7423N 
SN7425N 
SN7426N 
SN7427N 
SN7428N 
SN7430N 
SN7432N 
SN7437N 
SN7438N 
SN7439N 
SN7440N 
SN7441N 
SN7442N 
SN7443N 
SN7444N 
SN7445N 
SN7446N 
SN7447N 
SN7448N 
SN7450N 
SN7451N 
SN7453N 
SN7454N 
SN7459A 
SN7460N 
SN747DN 



74LS00 
74LS0I 
74LS02 
74LS03 
74LS04 
74LS05 
74LS08 
74LS09 
74LS10 
74LS11 
74LS12 
74LSI3 
74LS14 
74LS15 
74LS20 
74LS21 
74LS22 
74LS26 
74LS27 
74LS28 
74LS30 
74LS32 
74LS33 
74LS37 
74LS38 
74LS40 
74LS42 
74LS47 
74LS48 
74LS49 
74LS51 
74LS54 
74LS55 
74LS73 
74LS74 
74LS75 
74LS76 
74LS78 
74LS83 
74LS85 
74LS86 
74LS90 



16 275 

SN74100M 24 1.49 

SN74104N 14 89 

SN74105N 14 .89 

SN74107N 14 .29 

SN74109N 16 .39 

SN74116N 24 1 49 

SN74121N 14 39 

SN74122N 14 .55 

SN74123N 16 .49 

SN74125N 14 .45 

SN74I26N 14 .45 

SN74132N 14 .49 

SN74136N 14 69 

SN74I41N 16 .69 

SN74142N 16 2.95 

SN74143N 24 2.95 

SN74144N 24 2.95 

SN74145N 16 .59 

SN74147N 16 1.49 

SN74148N 16 1.19 

SN74150N 24 1.19 

SN74151N 16 .59 

SN74152N 14 .59 

SN74153N 16 .59 

SN74154N 24 1.25 

SN7415SN 16 .59 



SN74156N 
SN74157N 
SN74160N 
SN74161N 
SN74162N 
SN74163N 
SN74164N 
SN74165N 
SN74166N 
SN74167N 
SN74170N 
SM74172N 
SN74173N 
SN74174N 
SN74175N 
SN74176N 
SN74177N 
SN74179N 
SN74180N 
SN74181H 
SN74182N 
SN741B4N 
SN74185N 
SN74190N 
SN74191N 
SN74192N 
SN74193N 
SM74194N 
SN74195N 
SN74196N 
SN74197N 
SN74198N 
SN74199N 
SN74221N 
SN74251N 
SN74276N 
SN74279N 
SN74283N 
SN74284N 
SN74285N 
SN74365N 
SN74366N 
SN74367N 
SN74368N 
SN74390N 
SN74393N 



14 .69 

16 1 49 

14 .69 

24 195 

16 89 

16 1.95 

16 1.95 

16 .69 

16 69 

16 69 

16 .69 

16 69 

16 .69 

14 89 



7JLS92 

:i :■■..■: 
7M.S% 
74LS96 

: 

74LS109 
74LS1 12 

74LS113 
74LS114 

74LS123 

74L5126 
74LS132 

/■HSU3 
74LS136 

74LS139 
74LS1S1 

74L5153 
. : ' .. 
74LS15S 
74LSI56 
74LS157 
74LS158 
74LS160 
74LS161 
74LS162 
74LS163 
7-1LS164 
74LS165 
74LS168 
74LS169 
74LS170 

74LS174 

/■USUI; 

74LS181 
74LS190 
74LS191 



74LS192 16 

74LS193 16 

74LS194 16 

74LS195 16 

74LS197 14 

74LS221 16 

74LS240 20 

74LS241 20 

74LS242 14 

74LS243 14 

74LS244 20 

74LS245 20 

74LS247 16 

74LS248 16 

74LS249 16 

74LS251 16 

74LS253 16 

74LS257 16 

74LS258 16 

74LS260 14 

74LS266 14 

74LS273 20 

74LS279 16 

74LS283 16 

74LS290 14 

74LS293 14 

74LS298 16 

74LS352 16 

74LS353 16 

74LS355 16 

74LS366 16 

74LS367 16 

74LS368 16 

74LS373 20 

74LS374 20 

74LS375 16 

74LS386 14 

74LS393 14 

74LS399 16 

74LS670 16 

81LS95 20 

81LS97 20 



MICROPROCESSOR CHIPS 

Pari Ho. "Pins Function Price 

CDP1B02 40 CPU $9 95 

2650 40 MPU ... 14 95 

IDM2901ADC 40 CPU— 4-bil slice (Com. Temp Gr.). 19 95 

MCS6502 40 MPU w/Clock (65K byles mem | 9 95 

MC6802CP 40 MPU w/Clock and RAM . .7.95 

IMS8035N-6 40 MPU-B-bil (6MKz) 5,95 

INSB039N-6 40 CPJ-Sgl.chip8-bil(l28bls Ram) 5 95 

1NS8040N-6 40 CPU (256 bytes RAM) . 5 95 

INS8Q70N 40 CPU |W bytes RAM) ..... H 95 

INS8073N 40 CPU w/8asrc Micro interpreter 14 95 

P8085A 40 CPU ... . 5.95 

Z80, Z80A, Z80B, Z8000 SERIES 

Z80 40 CPU(MK3880N)(780C)2HrU . S495 

Z80-CTC 28 CounterTimerCircuit 5.95 

Z80-DART 40 Dual AsynchronousRec. /Trans 1195 

Z80-DMA 40 OirectMemoryAccessCircuit 15.95 

Z80-P1Q 40 Parallel I/O Interface Controller . 5 95 

Z80-S10/0 40 Serial I/O (TxCB and RxCB Bonded) 15 95 

Z80-S10/1 40 Seriall/0(LacksOTRB) 15 95 

Z80-S10/2 40 Seria1l/0 (Lacks SYNCB) 15 95 

Z80-S10/9 40 Serialt/O 15 95 

Z80A 40 CPU(MK3880fJ-4)(780C-1)4MH; 5 95 

Z80A-CTC 28 CounlefTimerCircuit .5.95 

Z80A-DART 40 Dual Asynchronous Rec. /Trans ...11.95 

Z80AOMA 40 Oirect MemoryAccess Circuit 17 95 

260A-P10 40 Parallel i/Ointerface Controller 5 95 

Z80A-S10/0 40 Sena! I/O (TxCBandRxCB bonded) .16 95 

Z80A-S10/1 40 Serial l/0(LacksOTRB) . .16,95 

Z80A S10/2 40 Serial l/0(Lacks SYNCB) , 16.95 

Z80A-S10/9 40 Seriall/O 16.95 

Z808 40 CPU(MK3880N-6)6MHz 1195 

Z80B-CTC 28 CounterTimerCircuit 13 95 

Z808-P10 40 Parallell/OlnterfaceCortlroller 13.95 

Z8001 48 CPU Segmented 51.95 

Z8002 40 CPU Non-Segmented 55 95 

Z8030 40 Serial Comm. Controller 44,95 

Z8036 40 Counter/Timer & Parallel 1 / Unit. .29.95 

6800/68000 SERIES 

MC6800 40 MPU . . 4.95 

MC6802CP 40 MPU with clockand RAM .7 95 

MC6810API 24 128x8 Static RAM 3.95 

MC6821 40 Peripheral Inter Adap1(MC682Q 4 95 

MC6828 Z4 Priority Interrupt Controll er 15.95 

MC6830L8 24 1024x8bitRDM (MC6SA30-8) 10.95 

MC6850 24 Asynchronous Comm. Adapter 4.95 

MC6852 24 SynchronousSerialData Adapter 5.75 

MC6860 24 0-600bps Oigilai MDOEM 9.95 

MC6862 24 2400bps Modulator 12.95 

MC6880A 16 Ouad 3-s)a1e bus. 1rans. (MC8T26) 2.25 

MC68000L8 64 MPU 16-8it(8MHz) 69.95 

MC68488P 40 General Purposetnt. Adapter 8.95 

MC68652P2 40 Multl. Protocol Comm. Controller .24.95 

MC68661PB 28 EnhancedProg.Coniin.ini 8.95 

8080A SERIES 

INS8080A 40 CPU 3.95 

TMS5501 40 Synchronous Dalalnterlace(SlRC). 14.95 

INSB154 40 128 Byte RAM 16 Bit 1/0 13.95 

INS82C06 20 Octal D FlipFIop TriState (74C374) , 2 49 

OP8212 24 8-billnput/Outpul (74S412) 2.25 

OP8214 24 Priority InlerruptControl . 3.95 

OP8216 16 Br-OirectiOnatBusOriver . 2.25 

DP8224 16 Clock Generator/Driver 2.25 

0P8226 16 Bus Driver 2.25 

OP8228 28 System Cont./Bus Driver (74S428) 3 49 

0P8238 28 Syaem Controller (74S438) 4.49 

INSB243 24 I/OEj pander tor 48 Series 5 95 

INSB245 18 16-Key Keyboard Encoder (74C922) ..4 49 

INS8246 20 20-Key Keyboard Encoder (74C923I 4.95 

INSB247 28 Display Controller (74C911) .. .8.95 

INS8248 28 Display Controller (74C9I2) . .8.95 

IN58250N 40 Asyn. Comm Element flrJS825D) . 10 95 

OP8251 28 Prog. Comm. I/O (USART) 4 49 

OP8253 24 Prog. Interval Timer .6.95 

OP8255 40 Prog. Peripheral I/O (PPI) 4.49 

0P8257 40 Prog. OMA Control .... . 7.95 

DP8259 28 Prog. tnlerruptControl 6.95 

OP8275 40 Prog CRT Controller 29.95 

OP8279 40 Prog. Keyboard/Oisptay Interlace 6 95 

OP8303 20 8-BitTri-StaleBi-DirectionalTrans 3 95 

OP8304 20 8-bit Bi-Directionat Receiver 2 49 

OP8307 20 8-bit Bi-OirectionalReceiver 2 49 

OP8308 20 8-bit Bi-OirectionalReceiver 2.49 

DP8310 20 OclalLatchedPenpheralOriver 4 95 

OP8311 20 Oclat Latched PenpherafDriver 4 95 
MICROPROCESSOR MANUALS & DATA BOOKS 

M-Z80 User Manual 7 50 

M-C0P1802 User Manual .7 50 

M-2650 User Manual 5.00 

10400 1982lntelOataBook(l405pg ) 14.95 

30001 1981 Nat. CMOS Book (628pg.) 6 95 

30002 1980 Nat. interlace Book (640 pg ) 6 95 

30003 1982 Nat. LinearBook (1952 pg ) .1195 
30005 1981Nat. TTLBook (624 pg ) 9 95 
30008 1980 Nat. Memory Oata Book (464 pg.) 6 95 
30011 1980Na1.LinearAppltca(ions(736pg ) 15.95 
30013 1983 Zilog Data Book (641 pg.).. . 7 95 
205610 1981 Intel Peripheral Design (828 pg.) 9 95 



Pari No. 


•Pins 


-UTNAMIU HAMD 




Price 


1103 


18 


1024x1 (300ns) 




99 


4027 


16 


4096x1 (250ns) 




...2.49 


4116N-2 


16 


16,384x1 (150ns) 


1 89 


8/14.95 


4116N-3 


16 


16.384x1 (200ns) . . . 


1 69 


8/12 95 


4116N-4 


16 


16,384x1 (250ns) 


1.49 


8/10 95 


4164N-150 


IB 


65,535x1 (150ns) . 


7.9b 


8/59.95 


4 1 64 N -200 


IB 


65,536x1 (200ns) 


7.49 


8/54.95 


MM5261 


18 


1024x1 (300ns) 


4! 


-8/1.95 


MM5262 


22 


2048x1 (365ns) 


.49- 


-BM.95 


MM5270 


IB 


4096x1 (250ns)MK4096 




4 95 


MM5280 


?7 


4096x1 (200ns)2lC7 . 




3 95 


MM5290-2 


16 


16.384x1 (150ns) 


189 


8/14 95 


MM5290-3 


lb 


16.384x1 (200ns) 


t 69 


8/1295 


MM5290-4 


16 


16.384x1(250n5) 


I 49 


8/10 95 


!.U! ; ,29S-3 


lb 


8192x1 (200ns) 




169 












1101 


16 


256x1 (650ns) 




149 


2101 


Tl 


256x4 (450ns)8101 




2 49 


2102 


16 


1024x1 (350ns) 




.89 


2IL02 


16 


1024x1 (450ns)LP. 




149 



18 256*4 (450ns) 81 11 . 

18 256x4 (450ns) MOS 

18 1024x4 (450ns) 

18 1024x4 (450ns) LP 

" 1024x4 (200ns) 



1 95-8/13 95 

2 25-8/15.95 
.2 25-8/1595 



21UL-2 


18 


1024x4 


(200ns) LP . 2.49-8 


/1795 


2141-3 


18 


4096x1 


(150ns) 


3 95 


2147 


18 


4096x1 


(70ns) 


4 95 


2148 


18 


1024x4 


(70ns) 


8 95 


TMS4044 


18 


4096x1 


(450ns) 


3 95 


TMS4045 




1024x4 


(450ns) 


395 


5101 


22 


256x4 


(450ns)CMDS 


4 95 


MM5257 


18 


4096x1 


(450ns)4044 


4,95 


HM6116P-3 


?4 


2048x8 


(150ns) CMOS 


7 95 


HM6I16-4 


24 


2048x8 


(200ns)CM0S 


695 


HM6116LP-' 


24 


2048x8 


(200ns)L.P CMOS 


7 95 


7489 


1b 


16x4 


(50ns)3l01 


225 


74C920 


?? 


256x4 


(250ns) CM0S(6551) 


3 95 


74C921 


18 


756x4 


(250ns) CMOS 


3 95 


74C929 


18 


1024x1 


MOS (650M 


3H5 


7-1C930 


18 


1024x1 


(?50ns)CMOS(G518) 


3 95 


74S189 


16 


16x4 


(35ns) 93405 . 


1.95 


74S200 


In 




410 


3 95 


74S206 


16 


256x1 


(60ns) 93411 


3 95 


74S289 


16 


16x4 


(35ns) 3101 


2.25 


82S10 


16 


1024x1 


(50ns) O.C. 193415) . 


.195 


82S25 


16 


16x4 


(50ns) O.C (74S2B9) . 


2 25 










1702A 


24 


256x8 


(lus) 


4,95 


2708 


24 


1024x8 


(450ns) . 


3 9S 


2708-5 


?4 


1024x8 


(550ns)SM00246 


?95 


TMS2516 


74 


2048x8 


(450ns)27l6 


1,95 




74 


4090x8 


(450ns )NMC2532 


') ns 


TMS2564 


78 


8192x8 


(450ns) 


l'l ■!', 


TMS2716 


74 


2048x8 


(450ns) 3 voltage , 


7 95 


271G 


74 


2048x8 


(450ns) 


i '15 


2716-1 


24 


2048x8 


(350ns) 


6.95 


2732 


74 


4096x8 


1450ns) 


9 95 


27580 


24 


1024x8 


(450ns) single +5V , . 


2 95 


MM2764 


7H 


8192x8 


1450ns) 


11, !1 5 


MM2764-3 


28 


8192x8 


(300ns) 


19.95 










74SI88 


16 


32x8 


PHOM O.C. (6330-1) 


1.-19 


74S287 


16 


:">!)».: 


PROM T.S (6301-1) 


1.95 


74S288 


16 


j«vS 


PROMTS (6331-1) 


1 95 


74S387 


16 


.-nx.i 


PROM O.C (6300-1| 


1 95 


74S471 


7(1 


;'!,<«!) 


Hil/IM i i, (6309-11 


•:, yi. 


74S472 


20 


Ml'.!) 


PROMT S (6349-1) 


4 95 


74S473 


7(1 




PROM O.C (6348) 


4 95 


74S474 


74 


512x8 


PROM T S. (DM87S296N) 


4.95 


74S475 


74 


512x8 


PROM C (G340) 


4 95 


74S478 


24 


1024x6 


PP.0M T S (TBP28S861 


8.95 


74S570 


16 


5l?x4 


PROM C (6305) 


?.95 


74S571 


16 


512x4 


PROM 1 S (630G) 


2 95 


74S572 


18 


n.i;>.:».: 


PROM O.C (6352) 


4.95 


74S573 


18 


1024x4 


PROMTS (82S137) 


.1 r.r, 


82S23 


16 


32x8 


PROMOC (27S18) 


?<t:> 


82S115 


74 


512x8 


PROM T.S (27S15) 


Ql'j 


82S123 


16 


a;M< 


PROM T S. (27S19I 


? <)', 


82S126 


16 


256x4 


PROMOC (27S20I 


i w. 


82S129 


16 


?';t».l 


PROMTS (27S21) 


,1 ')!, 


B2S130 


16 


512x4 


PROMOC (27S12) 


5 95 


82S185 


18 


2048x4 


PROMT S URP': h 


9 95 



OM87S180N 24 1024xB PROMOC I82S180) 

OM87S181N 24 1024x8 PROM T S (825181) 

0M87S184N 18 204Bx4 PROMOC (B2S1B4| 

OM87S185N 18 2048x4 PROM T.S (B2S185) 

OM87S190N 24 2048x4 PROMO C. (B2S190) 

OM87S191N 24 204Bx8 PROM T S. (82S191) 

DATA ACQUISITION 

DC 10 Mostek DC/OCConveri +5Vto -9V 

MC3470P IB Floppy Disk Read AMP Syslem 

MC1408L7 IB 7-bitD/A Converter (DACQ8Q7LCN) 

MC1408L8 IB 8-bit D/A Converter (0AC0B08LCN) 

20 8-bil A/D Converter ( 1 LSB) 

16 8 tut 0/A Converter (0 78% Lm.) 

28 a-bitA/D Converter (8-Cfi. Multi ) 



DT1050 — Applications: Teaching aids, 
appliances, clocks, automotive, telecommunica- 
tions, language translations, etc. 

The OT1050 is a standard DIGITALKER kit encoded wllh 137 separate 
and useful words, 2 tones, and 5 different silence durations. The 
words and tones have been assigned discrete addresses, making it 
possible to output single words orwords concatenated intophrases 
or even sentences. The "voice"' output of the OT1050 is a highly in- 
telligible male voice. Female and children's voices can be synthesiz- 
ed. The vocabulary is chosen so that it is applicable to many pro- 
ducts and markets. 

The DT10SO consists ol a Speech Professor Chip, MM54104 (40 pin) 
and two (2) Speech ROMs MM52164SSR1 and MM52164SSR2 (24-pin) 
along with a Master Word lis! and a recommended schematic 
diagram on the application sheet. 

DT1050 Digitaiker™ $34.95 ea. 



DT1057 — Expands the DT1050 vocabulary 
from 137 to over 260 words. Intel. 2 ROMs and specs. 
DT1057 $24.95 ea. 




RADIO CONTROL CIRCUITS f 



Ideal to use for: 

• Toys, hobby crafts, robots, trains 

• Burglar alarms » IR dala link 

• Remote slide projector control 

• Consumer remote data links 



• Energy-saving, remotely swllched lighting systems 
A complete 6-channel digital encoder and RF transmitter: low power, 
at frequency of 27MHz or 49MHz. a field strength of 10,OOOuV meter 
at 3 meters. 9V operation on chip RF oscillator/transmitter, on chip 
4.6 regulator. Up to 80MHz carrier frequency operation. 

LM1871N RC Encoder/Transmitter Chip . . .S1.95 

A complete RF receiver/decoder, used at either 27MHz, 49MHz or 
72MHz. It provides 4 independent channels when used with LM1871 
(2 analog. 2 dig.) operates from four 1.5V cells. Crystal controlled. 

LM1B72N RC Receiver/Decoder Chip $2.49 

SRX1504 49.435MHz Crystal (LM1872N) ...$3.95 
SRX1505 49.890MH*Crystal(LM1871N) . , $3.95 



NnnnflL 



VTTTT7TT 



Part No. "Pins Function 



7045iPI 

7045EV/KH* 

7106CPL 

7106EV/KU- 

7107CPL 

7107EV/Kif 

711BCPL 

7117CPL 

7201 IUS 

72051PG 

7205EV/KH' 

7706CJPE 

7206C£V/KiP 

7207AIPD 

7207AEWKif 

7208IPI 

7209IPA 

7715IPG 

7215EV/KH" 

7216AUI 

7216CIJI 

7216DIPI 

7217IJI 

7217AIPI 

7224IPL 

7226AIJL 

?226AEv7Kir 

7240IJE 

7242UA 

7250UE 

7260IJE 

75551PA 

7S56IPD 

7611BCPA 

;«:!HiCrA 

7621BCPA 
7631CCPE 
7641CCP0 
7G47CCPD 

8038CCPD 

■ 
8DB9CC0 
■ 
8212CPA 



CMOSPrecision Timer 

StopwalchChlp.XTL 

3Vi0igitA/D(LC00rive) 

tC. Circuit Board. Oisptay 

3V, Olgil A/O(LE0 Orive) 

IC. Circuit Board, Oisplay 

3'/? Digit A/0 LCOOiS. HL0 

3% DigitA/OLEOOis.HLD. 

LowBatleryVoll Indicator . , 

CMOS LEO Slopwatch/Timer 

SlopwatchChip, XTL 

Tone Generator . . . . 

ToneGenerator Chip. XTL 

OscitlatorConlrotler 

Frep. CounlerChip. XTL 

SevenDecade Counter 

ClockGenerator 

4Func CMOSStopwalchCKT ... 
4 Func. Stopwalch Chip. XTL . . 
8 Digit Univ Counter C. A. 

8 OigilFreq. Counter C A 

SOigilFreq CounterC.C 

4 Digit LEDUp/DownCounterC A 
4 Orgit LEO Up/DownCounler C.C . 

LC04V? Oigil Up CounlerORI 

8 Oigit Univ. Counter 

SFunctionCounterChip. XTL . 
CMOS Bin Prog Timer/Counter 
CMOS Divide by-256 RC Timer 
CMOS BCO Prog Timer/Counter 
CMOSBCOProg Timer/Counter 
CM0S555 Timer 
CM0S556Timer 
CMOSOp Amp Comparator . 
CMOSOpAmpExl.Cmvr. . 
CMOSDua! Op Amp Comp . 
CMOSTriOpAmpComp. .. 
CMOSOuadOpAmpComp 
CMOSOuadOpAmpComp 
Votage Convener . . 
Wavetorm Generator 
Monolithic Logarithmic Amp .... 
50ppm Band-GAP Volt Rel. Diode 
Volt Ret/Indicator ... 
Volt Rel/indicatot 



29 95 
..16.95 
. . 15.95 



1595 
.. 3 95 

13 95 

14 95 
29 95 

. 2495 
19 95 
10.95 
1195 

. 10.95 
29 95 

. 74 95 




CD4000 14 

CD4001 14 

CD4002 14 

CD4006 14 

C04007 14 

CD4009 16 

CD4010 16 

C04011 14 

CD4012 14 

C04013 14 

C04014 16 

CD4015 16 

C04016 14 

C04017 16 

C04018 16 

C04019 16 

C04020 16 

CO4021 16 

C04022 16 

C04023 14 

C04024 14 

C04025 14 

CD4026 16 

CD4027 16 

CD4028 16 

CD4029 16 

C04030 14 

CD4034 24 

CD4035 16 



cair for ^ laiMAAA ; S„ 19 « ' "^ 

°Tcou% € I ell iJfcCO -'S&n&tsgr 

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002 
3/83 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME — (415) 5928097 Telex: 176043 



TL071CP 8 
TL072CP 8 1 
TL074CN 14 1 
TL081CP 8 
TL082CP 8 1 
TL084CN 14 1 
LM301CN 8 
LM302H 1 

LM304H 1 

LM305H 
LM307CN B 
LM308CN 8 
LM309K 1 

LM310CN 8 1 
LM311CN B 
LM312H 2 

LM317T 1 

LM3I7K 3 

LM318CN 8 1 
LM319N 14 1 
LM320K-5 1 

LM320K-12 1 

LM320K-15 1 

LM320T-5 
LM320M2 
LM320T-15 
LM323K 5 

LM324N 14 
LM337T 1 

LM338K 6 

LM339N 14 
LM340K-5 1 

LM340K-12 1 

130003 1982Nat. 



LM2002T 
LM3189N 
LM3900N 
LM3905CM 
LM3909N 
LM3914N 
LM3915N 18 3 49 
LM3916N 18 3 49 
RC4136N 14 1.25 
RC4151N8 8 1 95 
1CL80388 14 3 95 
LM13080N 8 1.19 
LMt3600N 16 1.19 
MORE AVAILABLE 



LinearDataBook(i952pgsi .$U.95j 



542 BYTE March 1983 



Circle 231 on Inquiry card 




JOYSTICKS 

JSA(2)...$6.95/pair 



KEYBOARDS - POWER SUPPLIES EXPAND Y0UR MEM0RY 




PADDLES 

JSP(2)...$4.95/pair 



TV GAME SWITCH 

Switches TV to video game 
or computer operation. 
Used on Atari. 

TGS-1...$2.95ea. 



VIDEO GAME CHIPS 

Pull-outs from hand-held 
video games, AP2000 
consists of one MM2716Q 
EPROM and one 74LS04. 
AP2002 consists of two 
MM2716 EPROMs and one 
74LS04. These EPROMs are 
mounted on a circuit board 
with a 12-pin edge card 
connection. EPROMs can 
be reprogrammed for other 
applications. 
$2.49 ea. or 2 for $3.95 
$3.49 ea. or 2 for $6.49 




JOYSTICKS 




5K Linear 

Taper Pots S5.25 



m inni , 1D0K Linear 

JS ' 100K Taper Pots $4.95 



, 150K Linear 

; Taper Pots S4.75 



JVC 40 40K (2) Video Con ' 
js-5k (Pictured) ' trailer in Case S4.95 

JS KNOB Knob for JS5K,100K,150K S.99 ea. 

JVC KNOB Knob ior JVC-40 S.99 ea. 



Jameco Digital Thermometer Kit 




I CQnn ([OQQr wan aoapter mcruoe 

JEoOO 3)39.95 6Vl«3vh«i),-d, 



Dual sensors — switch 
controls tor indoor/outdoor 
or dual monitoring — can be 
extended to 500 feet. Con- 
tinuous LED .8" ht. display. 
Range: -40*F to 199T. -40*C 
to 100°C. Accuracy ±1° 
nominal. Calibrate for 
F a h r e n h e i 1 1 C e I s i u s . 
Simulated walnut case. AC 
wall adapter included. Size: 



BOOKS 

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR - INTERSIL — INTEL 

30001 National CMOS Data Book (1981) SG.95 

(640 pages) 74C. CD4000, and A/D Converters 

30002 National Interface Data Book (1980) S6.85 

(704 pages) DP, DS8000. DS3600, DS5700, etc. 

30003 National Linear Data Book (1982) $11.95 

(1376 pages) LM. LF, ADC, DAC. LH Series 

30004 National Series 80— Board Level Computer(1980) . . . .54.95 
(224 pages) 

30005 National TTL Logic Data Book (1981) $9.95 

(624 pages) 7400,LS,L,H.S, and DM8000 Series 

30006 Above (3) 30001,3,5 as set . . $24^95 

30008 NationalMemory Data Book(1980) $6.95 

(464 pages) RAMs, ROMs, PROMs, EPROMs Series 

30009 Inters il Data Book (1983) $9.95 

(1356 pages) Complete line. 

30010 National Audio/Radio Handbook (1980) $5.95 

(240 pages) Pre-Amps, AM, FM & FM Stereo, Power Amps 

30011 National Linear AppllcationHandbook(1980) $15.95 

(736 pages) Application Notes. Linear Briefs, etc. 

30012 National PAL Data Book (1982) - S5.95 

(176 pages) Data Sheet, PAL Design 

30013 Zllog Data Book (19B3) S7.95 

(641 pages) Microprocessors and Support Chips 

010400 Intel Component Data Book (1982) S1495 

(1405 pg.) Full data sheets lor Intel's products Incl, man. 

devices, mlcroproc, perlph. & Ind./mll, products 
205610 Intel Peripheral Design Handbook(1981) S9.95 

(828 pages) Full data sheets, application notes for Intel 

peripheral device components 



17VLx6"Wx 1%'H 



16V'Lx5V*"Wx 1%"H 



23"LxSV 4 "Wx1-3/8"H 



i"Lx5'i"Wx iy„"H 



nrLx3S'Wx1VH 



9y.-Lx4'A*Wx 1Y,'H 



m 




DATANETICS 73-KEY KEYBOARD Apple Compatible 

Data Entry Keyboard uses MM571D BEE/N encoder chip lincluded), 73-Key Ksyboard features 

11-key numeric keypad, SPST switching. 24-pin edge card connection Includes pln-oul. 

Part No. KB261 fFils DTE-20 Enclosure) $49. 95 each 



MICRO SWITCH 69-KEY KEYBOARD 

Data Entry Keyboard. Encoded Output: 8-bl! Parallel E8C DIG. Switching: Hah Elloct. 24-pln Edge 

Card Connection. Complete w/Pin Connection. Can easily be modified to ASCII code. 

Part No. KB69SD12-2 (Fits Into DTE-20 Enclosure) S19.95 each 



MICRO SWITCH 85-KEY KEYB0AR0 

Word Processing Keyboard, 26 Pin Edge Card Connoclion. Supply Voltage +5VDC. Main Keyboard 
is QWERTY. Addilional Key Pads lor Cursor and ward processing lunctions. 

Part No, B5SD18-1 $29.95 each 



MICRO SWITCH 88-KEY KEYBOARD (PARALLEL 

Data Entry Keyboard used In a Diablo 1640 Terminal. Supply Vollage: +5V, -12V. Switching: Hall 
Elfoct - 10-pm Edge Card Connection. Schematic included. Uses B048 Encoder Chip. 

Part No. 88SD22 (Fits into DTE-20 Enclosure) $49.95 each 



HI-TEK 58-KEY KEYBOARD 

SPST switching, mechanical, monolithic housing, charcoal grey keycaps. Keyboard (s not mounted 
on circuit board (each key is individually acccsslole). Used to replace much-membrane found on 
Sinclair, Atari, and TRS-80 computers. 

Part No. K-5B (Fits dte-u Enclosure) S1 9. 95 each 



ALPS 29-KEY CALCULATOR KEYBOARD 

Features one it-position decimal select switch, one 3-posilion switch, and two 2-poslllon switches, 

mechanical SPST switching. 22-pin edge card connection. Pin-out included. 

Part No. KB297040 (Fits DTE-11 Enclosure) S4.95 each 



POWER SUPPLY + 5V0C @ 1 AMP REGULATED Transection Tech 
Output +5V0C tA (also +30V0C) reg. Input 115VAC 6DHz. 2-lone (black/beige) self-enclosed 
case. 6 It.. 3 eond. black power cord. 6*/rw * 7"D i 2'/."H. Wt. 3 lbs. Data sheet Incl. 
Part No. PS51194 $19.95 each 



POWER SUPPLY + 5VDC @ 3 AMP REGULATED Deitwn 

Input: 115V AC. 47-440HZ. Output. 5VDC Adjustable ■,, 3 amp. 6VDC & 2.5 amp. Adjustable cur- 
rent limit. Ripple 4 Noise: IMVrms. 5MV p-p — 2 mounting surfaces, UL recognizee). Size: 4"Wx 
4Vj"L x 2-7/16 "H - wl. 2 lbs. Dala sheet included. 

Part No. QPS-1 $29.95 each 



POWER SUPPLY +5VDC @ 7.5 AMP, 12VDC @ 1.5 AMP SWITCHING 

Input: 115VAC, 50-60Hm 3imp/230VAC 50Hz <fr 1,6 amp. Fan voll./pown supply select swlt- 

chrn[H5/23'JVACj. Out[jn: L.vtjC -. i fi ^rii(i. i;vnc ,,■ 1.6 amp. 8 ft. blk. pow. cord. 11 Vi"W x 

i:ivo (3'A'ii wt. 6 lbs. 

Part No. PS94V0 $49.95 each 



POWER SUPPLY 4-ChanneI Switching Power Supply 

Microprocessor, mini-computer, terminal, medical eguipmenl and process control applications. In- 
put: 90-130VAC 47-440H*. Output- +5V - I -I2VDC «i 1A 
Line rea.: ±0.2%. Ripple: 30mVp-p. Load reg.: ±1V Owercurrent protection. Adj: 5V main oul- 
pui±10%. 6-3/8"L 1 1-7/8"W x 4-15/16"H. Wl. 1V»lbs. 

Part No. FCS-604A S69.95 each 



POWER SUPPLY Adjustable Switching 4-24VDC to 5 Amps 

Ad|. 4-24VDC; 5VDC f,i 5A. 6VDC (<t 4.BA, 9VDC vi 4 1A. 12VDC ■;, 3.3A, IBVOCcft- 1.9A. 24V0C 
a ,5A. Overvoltage Prelection. Input: 115VAC 50/60HI. Output variations within 20mV, a.25"L x 
4.25-W i 2.25"H. Wl. 3.25 lbs. 

JE224 Kit $79.95 each 

JE224A Assembled & Tested $99.95 each 



84-Key Keyboard 



CA153A $69.95 



95- Key Keyboard 



CA154A $79.95 



CONTROL 
DATA 

Data Entry 
Keyboards 

RS232Jnlorfoce 

FT2 Shielded Base 

SPST Switching 

Momentary 

Contact 

KeyswHches 

30" Interface 

Cable 

Attractive 

Case 



104-Key Keyboard 




CA148 $99.95 



80-Key Keyboard 




CA150C $89.95 



Color; keycaps: black, blue, red ■ cover: black w/beige base. 21 Vi "x9"x3 1 /2 ". 6 lbs. 



BUG BOX™ — 30 individual compartments 

• Stores 60 8-pin or 30 14- or 16-pinDIPs • Bug rugs 
not included •Clear plastic cover slides & locks 

• Cover marked ^numbers 1-30 • Compartment 
size: 1 " x 3.75" x .5" deep • Box size: 4.8" x 3.3" x .6" 

• Weight: 1.75 oz. 

BUG BOX™ 
Please specify color code: (B) Blue, (R) Red, (W) 
White, (Y) Yellow 
Part No./Color Code QTY PRICE 



BUG BOX™ 

STORAGE 

SYSTEMS 

BUG CAGE ,m (BGC-D01- ) wllh Bug Boxes 



ANTI-STATIC 



10 



Universal 




Computer Keyboard Enclosures 



DTE" BfankOesk-Top Enclosures 
are designed for easy modifica- 
tion. High strength epoxy molded 
end pieces in mocha brown finish. 
r ,y Sliding rear/ bottom panel for service/ 

jfc component access' Top/nott panels .080" 
thick alum alodnetype 1200 finish (gold tint 
color) lor best paint adhesion alter modification. 
Vented top & bottom panels lor cooling efliciency 
Rigid construction provides unlimited applications 
8.50 — •/ " Assembly instructions Included. 

DTB8 Panel Width 7.5" $24.95 

DTE-11 Panel Width 10.13" $27.95 

DTE-14 Panel Width 13.5" .$29.95 

DTE-20 Panel Width 19.25" $34.95 



3.40 ^ 



Mostek DC/DC Converter 
+ 5 VOLTS TO -9 VOLTS 

Input: +5V. Output: -9V (regulated) ® 30mA. 
Printed circuit mounting. Specifications incl. 

DC10 $2.95 ea. or 2/$4.95 




Battery Checker 

Easy-to-use hand -held battery 
checker tests A A, AAA, C, D, and 216 
batteries. A multi-colored meter 
shows if battery is good, weak or 
needs replacing. Size: 6 1 /t "L x 2 Vi "W 
X 1-7/8"H. 

BC-1 $6.95 ea. 



BUG CAGE™ — 12 locations store Bug Boxes, 
Big Bug Boxes or Bug Trays • Modular and in- 
terlocking 'Heavy duty Injection molded plastic 
• Each cage has 6 sip-on locations • 2 cages per 
pkg. «Cage size: 5-1/8" x 5" x 3-7;8" • 4 colors 
available — please specify color code: (B) Blue, (R) 
Red, (W) White, (Y) Yellow 
Part No./Color Code Price 



BGC-001-t )2CaQes(6loc.ea.) . S11.95/pkg. 



BUG TRAY™ — Stores in Bug Cage • Molded 
plastic • Thrao styles: Open(1 compartment 3.05" x 
4.6" x .6"); Vertical (5compartments .5" x 4.6" x .6"); 
and Horizontal (8 comparlments .4" x 3.95" x .6") 
• Ideal for tools, hardware, components, etc. »Tray 
size: 3.55" x 5.05" x ,6" ■ Black color only 
PART NO. DESCRIPTION PRICE 



BTH-001 Horizontal Bug Tray S1.95 

BTV-001 Vertical Bug Tray 1.95 

BTO-001 Open Bug Tray 1.95 

BTX-003 1 of each Bug Tray (3) 4.98 



BUG RUG™ — Static discharge protection for 
CMOS and MOSFET devices • Pre-cut to dimen- 
sions of BUG BOX (1- x .35") 

Part No. Description Price 

BRG-030 30 loam rectangles for Bug Box S1.98 

BBR-036 6 loam rector LSI Big Bug Box . 1.96 



CAGE KEEPER™ — Pins column ol Bug 
Boxes in Bug Cage Price 



LSI BIG BUG BOX™ — Designed to store 
large IC's, Resistors, Capacitors and Diodes • Divid- 
ed into three compartments measuring 1"x 4.15" x 
.5" deep • Three vertical and three horizontal 
dividers Included • Bug Rugs not Included "Box 
size:4.9"x3.3"x .6" •Weight: 1.75 oz. 

LSI BIG BUG BOX™ 

Please specify color code: (B) Blue. (R) Red, (W) 

While. (Y) Yellow 

PART NO.ICOLOR CODE QTY PRICE 



)AS 
)AS., 



ANTI-STATIC 



S 4.29 
37.89 



BACK PACK™ — Self-adhesive labels lor the 
back ot ICs • Shows exact Internal logic In relation 
to IC pins • 532 labeis in each package (Including 
sevoral blank labels) • Each Package for 8, 14, 16. 
24, 28 and 40-pin ICs • Combo package includes 
1,068 labels for TTL and CMOS " 
• Microprocessor package contains 744 labels 
Part No. Description Price 



BPT-012 TTL S7.95 

BPC012 CMOS 8.95 

BPM-012 Combo 14.95 

BPU012 Microprocessor 9.95 



BUG TAGS™ — Self-adhesive, easy-lo-read 

labels lor markng Bug Box and LSI Big Bug Box 
• Most popular components 

PART NO. DESCRIPTION QTY. P 



BTT-200 


TTL 


200 


S4.98 


BTC-200 


CMOS 


200 


4.98 


EH K 2(10 


LS Schottky 


200 


4.9B 


nTS2QO 


Special 


200 


4.98 


BTM800 


Mixer 


800 


13.95 



MORE BUG TAGS AVAILABLE! 



• * • BUG BOX SYSTEMS INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL • • • 

Your choice: regular or ami-static. Includes 2-Bug Cages (12 locations); G-Bug Boxes: 3-LSl Big Bug Sous; 1-horizonta! Bug Tray: 
1-open Bug Tray; t-vertical 8ug Tray: 1 package Bug Rug for regular Bug Boies; 1 package Bug Rug for LSI Big Bug Boxes: 1 
package Mixer Labels (300 each). Color: Bug Boxes and Cages - Bluo. Bug Trays - Black. 

SP-BUG Regular (Retail value ss9,45) Sale Price $49.95 

SP-BUG-AS Anti-Static (Retail value $67.45) .Sale Price $59.95 



S10.00 Minimum Order — U.S. Funds Only 
California Residents Add 6 1 /a% Sales Tax 
Shipping — Add 5% plus $1.50 Insurance 
Send S.A.S.E. for Monthly Sales Flyer! 



§? ball for \ 
% Quantity *=■ 
gr, Discounts 



JE 
i 



fflfflfflMMrfl 



Spec Sheets — 30c each 
Send $1.00 Postage for your 
FREE 1983 JAMECO CATALOG 
Prices Subject to Change 



ameco 



ELECTRONICS 



' 53.95 ^ 



1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002 
3/83 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME — (4*5) 592-8097 Telex: 176043 



TRS-80to16K, 32K, or 48K 

•'Model 1 = From 4K to 16K Requires (1) One Kit 
Model 3 = From 4K to 48K Requires (3) Three Kits 
Color m From 4K to 16K Requires (1) One Kit 

"Model 1 equipped wit!) Expansion Board up to 4BK Two Kits Required 
- One KM Required for each 16 Kef Expansion - 

TRS-16K3 *200ns for Color & Model III $12.95 

THS-16K4 '250ns for Model I , .S1Q.95 



TRS-80 Co or 32K or 64K Convers on Kit 



Kit comes complete with 8 each 4164-2 (200ns) 64K dynamic RAMs 
and conversion documentation. Converts TRS-80 color computers 
with D and E circuit boards, and all new color computers to 32K. 
Minor modifications of 32K memory will allow the use of all 64K of 
the dynamic RAM. 

TRS-64K2 $54.95 

5Va" Mini-Floppy Disk Drive J^££% 

FOR TRS-80 MODEL I (Industiy Slandard) ^/Computer < 

Features single or double density. Recording ^1 Corp. r^ 
mode: FM single. MFM double density. Power: CAATKrJ^ 

+ 12VDC(±0.6V)1.6Amax., +5VDC(±0.25V) 
0.8A max. Unit as pic. at left (does not Incl. etfflt 

case, power supply, cables). 30-pg. data book j^m 

Incl. Wt. 3',/j lbs. Size: 5V 4 "W x S'T) x 3% "H. tff^ ^M 
Part No. Limited Quantity! Price H 

FD200 $179.95 fl 

Single-sided, 40 tracks, 250K bytes capacity ^Jm® 

FD250 $199.95 ^^If 

Double-sided, 35 tracks, 438K bytes capacity ^* 

tonm* g„ Floppy Djsk Dr j ve 

Ifeft*^ • Shugart 801 R 
Sit™' compatible 

M ' ^^ "Single-Sided 

ji» - 5^il|^§il • 77 Tracks 

2^'W «*« # 400/800K Bytes 
;li," Capacity 

• Industry Standard 

The FDD100-8 8" Floppy Disk Drive (Industry Standard) features 
single or double density. Recording mode: FM single, MFM double 
density. Transfer rate: 250K bits/sec. single density; 500K bits/sec. 
double density. The FDD100 8 is designed to work with the single- 
sided soft sectored IBM Diskette I, or eq. disk cartridge. Hard- 
sectored option available. Power: 115/230VAC & 50-60Hz, +24VDC 
Ov 17 amps max., + 5VDC @ 1.2 amps max. Unit as pictured above 
(does notinclude case, power suppty, or cables). Size 8. 55"W x 14*L 
x 4.5*H. Weighs 12 lbs. Incl. 96-pg. manual. 
Part No. Price 

FDD100-8 Buy 1 for $269.95 each 

FDD100-8 Buy 2 for $259.95 each 

FDD100 8 Buy 10 tor $249.95 each 

2708,2716,2732 & 2764 EPROM Programmer 

JE664 EPROM PROGRAMMER 

8K TO 64K EPROMS -24 AND 28PIN PACKAGES 

Self-Contained — Requires No Additional Systems for Operation 

N1S& 

m 





• Programs, validates, and checks for properly erased EPROMs ■ Emulates PROMs 
or EPROMs • RSZ3ZC Computer Interface for editing/program loading • Loads data 
into RAM by keyboard * Changes data in RAM by keyboard • Loads RAM from an 
EPROM • Compares EPROMs lor content differences • Copies EPROMs • Power In- 

fiul: 115VAC. 60Hz, « 10W power consumption • Encfasure: Color-coordinated, 
Ight tan panels w/molded mocha brown end pieces • Sze: 15-5/B"L x 6V0 x 
3V."H • Wt.: 5'/. lbs. 

JE664-A EPROM Programmer $995.00 

Assembled & Tested ( Includes JM16 A Module) 

JE665- RS232C INTERFACE OPTION - TheJE665RS232Clnterface 
Oplion implementscomputeraccess to the JE664 s RAM. Sampiesoltware wntlen in 
BASIC provided lor TRS-80* Model I. Level II Computer. Baud rate: 9600 Word 
Lgth 8 oils - odd parity. Stop bits: 2. Option may be adapted to other computers. 

JE664- ARS EPROM Piog. w/JE6650pllon $1195.00 

Assembled and Tested (Includes JMI6A Module) 

EPROM JUMPER MODULES — The JE664s JUMPER MODULE (Personal- 
ly Module) is a plug-in Module that p re-sets J E664 lor proper programming pulses to 
the EPROM & conligures EPROM socket connections tor that particular EPRQM 

Part 

No, EPROM EPROM MANUFACTURER PRICE 

JM08A 2708 AMD. Motorola. National. Intel. Tl . $14 95 

JM16A 2716JMS2516 Intel, Molorola.Nalional. NEC. Tl SH.95 

JM16B TMS2716 Motorola. Tl ( +5.-12, +12) $14.95 

JM32A TMS2532 Motorola. Tl 514.95 

JM328 2732 AMD.FujitSU.NEC.Hitachi.lntel $14.95 

JM64A MCM68764. 

MCMB8L764 Motorola 514.95 

JM64B 2764 Inlel $14.95 

JM64C TMS2564 Tl $14,95 

UV-EPROM Eraser 

| 8 Chips — 51 Minutes | » w ^ 



| 1 Chip — 37 Minutes] 



Erases 2708, 2716, 2732, 2764, 2516. 2532. 2564. Erases up to 8 chips 
within 51 minutes (1 chip in 37 minutes). Maintains constant exposure 
distance of one inch. Special conductive loam liner eliminates static 
build-up. Built-in safely lock to prevent UV exposure. Compact — only 
9.00" x 3.70* x 2.60". Complete wllh holding tray for 8 chips. 

UVS11EL Replacement Bulb s 16.95 

DE-4 UV-EPROM Eraser . . . . $ 79.95 



D 



Sprite-style Fan 

• 36cfm free air delivery 

• 3.125" sq. x 1.665" depth >*M»r*i' 

• 10 yrs, cont. duty at 20 °C fronts 

• 115V 50/60H2 





Muffin-style Fan 

• 105cfm free air delivery i^l^ 1 

• 4.68" sq. x 1.50" depth. < Frame 
i • 10 yrs. cont. duty at 20°C ''Wv 

• Impedance protected, ambients to 70 °C 

• 115V50/60HZ14W Wt. 17 oz. 

MU2A1-U g-JSTj* d) S9.95 ea. 

MU2A-1N Ne« $14.95 63., 



Circle 231 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 



543 



PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 



THERE ARE NO BETTER BOARDS - THERE ARE NO BETTER PRICES! 



ompuPro FROM PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 




CPU BOARDS 

CO-PROCESSOR 6066/6067 

16 bit 8 or 10 MHz 8086 CPU with sockets 
for 8087 and 80130 



Part No. 



Description 



Ust Price Our Price 



B0GBT1B6A A&T 8M Hz 8086 only $695.00 $624.89 
B0GBT1B6C CSC 10MHz 8086 only$850.00 $764.B9 
B0GBT1B6AB7 A&T with 8087 option $995.00 $925.00 
B0GBT166C67 CSC with 8087 option*$1 150.00 $1065.00 
*808 7 Limits clock speed to 5MHz 

© DUAL PROCESSOR 6065-6066 

6 or 8 MHz provides true 16 Bit Powerwith a standard 

8 bit S-100 bus 
B0GBT1B12A A&T 6MHz $425.00 $398.89 

B0GBT1B12C CSC 6/8 MHz $525.00 $497,89 

66K - 66000 16 BIT CPU 

16 bit 8 or 10 MHz on-board sockets for 2716. 2732, 

or 2764 EPROMs for up to 8K x 16 of memory 
B0GBT1B4A A&T 8MHz $695.00 $625.00 

B0GBT1B4C CSC 10MHz $850.00 $765.00 

FORTH OPERATING SYSTEM FOR 66K CPU 

Requires a DISK 1. 64K of CompuPro memory, 

and an INTER FACER 3 or 4. 

B0GBT6BK0S FORTH operating system $200.00 

CPUZ - Z60B CPU NOW 6MHz! 

3/6 MHz Z80B CPU with 24 Bit Addressing. 

FASTEST Z80 CPU AVAILABLE! 

B0GBT160A 3/6 MHz A&T $295.00 $279.89 

B0GBT160C 3/6 MHz CSC $395.00 $374.B9 





CMOS RAM SALE! 
RAM 17 - 64K CMOS STATIC RAM 

12 MHz. RAM 1 7, 2 Watt. DMA Compatible 24 Bit Addressing 



Part No. 



Description 



Ust Price Our Price 



B0GBTRAM17 64K A&T 10MHz 
B0GBT175A64 64K A&T 12MHz 
B0GBT175C64 64K CSC 12MHz 



$319.00 
$499.00 $460.00 
$599.00 $550.00 



RAM 16 - 02K x 16 BIT CMOS STATIC RAM 

8 and/or 16 Bit 

© 12 MHz, RAM 1 6 , 32K x 16 or 64K x 8 

IEEE/696 16 Bit 2 Watt. 24 Bit Addressing 

B0GBTRAM16 64K A&T 10MHz $349.00 

B0GBT160A 64K A&T 12MHz $550.00 $510.00 

B0GBT1B0C 64K CSC 12MHz $650.00 $610.00 




<► 



NEW! RAM 21 - 126K STATIC RAM 

816 RAM 21 12MHz, 128K x 8 or 64K x 16 

IEEE/696 8 or 16 Bit, 1 2 Amps, 24 Bit Addressing 

B0GBT190A 128K A&T >-r^ $1095.00 $ 995.00 

B0GBT190C 128KCSC *W $1245.00 $1125.00 



• When 2 or more 8" disk drives are purchased with Disk 
1 Controller. 

DISK CONTROLLERS 

DISK 1 FLOPPY CONTROLLER - OUR BESTI 

Fast DMA, Soft Sector, Controls Up to Four 8" or 5'//' 

Single or Double Density Drives. 

BDPDBI71ACPM A&T w/CPM 2.2 & BIOS $670.00 $495.00 

•When purchased with two 8" $450.00 

disk drives only. 
B0PDB171CCPM CSC w/CP/M 2.2 & BIOS $770.00 $595.00 
B0GBT171A Disk 1 Controller A&T $495.00 $440.89 

80GBT171C Disk 1 Controller CSC S595.00 $550.00 

BD6BTCPM80 CP/M 2.2 for Z80/8085 w/manual $174.89 

& BIOS 8" S/D disk 
80GBTCPM88 CP/M 2.2 for 8086 w/manuals $299.89 

& BIOS 8" S/D disk. 

DISK 2/SELECTOR CHANNEL 
HARD DISK CONTROLLER 

Fast DMA 2 board set. controls 4 Shugart 4000 series 

or Fujitsu 2300 type drives. Includes CP/M 2.2' 
B0GBT177A Assembled & Tested $795.00 $750.00 
B0GBT177C CSC $895.00 $B50.00 



M-DRIVE SOLID STATE DISK DRIVE, 
0500% FASTER!! 

Not really, but the next best thing for CompuPro 8085/88 

Users. Call for Details on M-Drive. 
M-Drive requires a 6MHz CPU 8085/88 dual processor. Disk 
1 DMA disk controller and System Support 
1 Multifunction Board. 
B06BTMD128KA 128K of A&T memory & M-Drive Software $1198.00 
B06BTM0I28KC 128K of CSC memory & M-Drive Software $1398.00 
806BTM0258KA 256K of A&T memory & M-Drive Soflware $2395.00 
BD6BTM025BKC 256K of CSC memory & M-Drive Software $2795.00 

M-DRI VE/H HARDWARE LOGICAL DISK SYSTEM 

Interfaces through two I/O ports, and runs at 10MHz. 
IEEE 696 compatible. Requires any CompuPro CPU 
and a Disk 1. Each board contains 51 2 K of fast, low 

power (900mA) RAM, with parity checking. 
06GBT197A M-ORIVE/H w/software, A&T $1895.00 $1775.00 
06GBT197C M-DRIVE/H w/software. CSC 32095.00 $1950.00 



► 




1 




I/O BOARDS 

SYSTEM SUPPORT 1 MULTIFUNCTION BOARD 

Serial port (software prog, baud), 4 K EPROM or RAM 

provision, 15 levels of interrupt, realtime clock, 

optional math processor 



Part No. 



Description 



Ust Price 



p Price 



B0GBT162A Assembled & Tested 
B0GBT162C CSC 
B0GBTB231 Math Chip 
B0GBT6232 Math Chip 
B0GBT182AM1 A&Tw/8231 Math Chip 
B0GBT162CM1 CSCw/8231 Math Chip 
B0GBT162AM2 A&Tw/8232 Math Chip 
B0GBT162CM2 CSC w/8232 Math Chip 



$395.00 
$495.00 



$359.89 

$459.69 

$195.00 

$195.00 

$490.00 

$654.89 

$490.00 

$654 89 



MPX CHANNEL BOARDS 

I/O Multiplexer, using 8085A-2 CPU on board w/4K RAM 

B0GBT166A4 Assembled & Tested $495.00 $444.89 

B0GBT166C4 CSC $595.00 $534.89 

With 16K RAM 

B0GBT166A16 Assembled & Tested $649.00 $584.89 

B0GBT166C16 CSC $749.00 $674.89 

INTERFACER 1 

Two Serial I/O 

B0GBT133A Assembled & Tested $249.00 $218.89 

B0GBT133C CSC $324.00 $2B9.B9 

INTERFACER 2 

Three parallel, one serial I/O board 

B0GBT150A Assembled & Tested $249.00 $218.89 

B0GBT150C CSC $324.00 $289.00 

INTERFACER 

Eight-channel multi-user serial I/O board 

B0GBT1748A Assembled & Tested $699.00 $628.89 

B0GBT1748C CSC 200 hr. 8 port $849.00 $748.69 

B0GBT1745A Assembled & Tested $599.00 $558.89 

B0GBT1745C CSC 200 hr. 5 port $699.00 $62B.B9 




INTERFACER 4 

Three Serial, 1 Parallel, 1 Centronics Parallel 
B0GBT187A Assembled & Tested $395.00 $314.89 
B0GBT187C CSC $495.00 $414.89 

SPECTRUM COLOR GRAPHICS 

Color Graphics board with Parallel I/O 

B0GBT144A Assembled & Tested $299.00 $285.00 

B0GBT144C CSC $395.00 $375.00 

S-100 MOTHERBOARDS 

Active termination, 6-12-20 Slot 



S-100 MAINFRAME 

110V 60Hz CVT Mainframe uses famous 20 slot 

CompuPro Motherboard (55 lbs.) 

B0GBTENC20RM 20 Slot Rackmount $895.00 $825.00 

B0GBTENC200K 20 Slot Desk Top $825.00 $760.00 




A&T 6 slot, 2 lbs. 
CSC 6 slot, 2 lbs. 
A&T 12 slot, 3 lbs. 
CSC 12 slot, 3 lbs. 
A&T 20 slot, 4 lbs. 
CSC 20 slot, 4 lbs. 



$140.00 
$190.00 
$175.00 
$240.00 
$265.00 
$340.00 



$125.00 

$155.00 

$155.00 

$220.00 

$235.00 

$310.00 



Circle 354 on Inquiry card. 



PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 



k ompuPro 10 MHz 64KDytes 

S-100 STATIC RAM - ULTRA LOW POWER - ONLY 2 WATTS 
ASSEMBLED & TESTED - ONE YEAR WARRANTY 



UNBELIEVABLE! While the rest of the industry struggles to attain 6MHz, CompuPro has effortlessly jumped from 10 to 12MHz. The 
power consumption (400mA; 2 Watts) is still the lowest in spite of running nearly twice as fast. Priority One Electronics has purchased 
the remainder of CompuPro's 10MHz boards and are offering them at these unprecedented prices. 



» Extremely low power consumption {2 watts 

typical) 
' Flawlessly handles any DMA device per IEEE 

696 specifications 
1 Single +5 Volt operation (requires no other 

supply voltages) 
' Switch-Selectable choice ot 24 address lines 

conforming to IEEE 696/S-100 extended 

addressing 
• 2K windows, individually selectable at E000. 

E800, F000, and F800 permits use witholder 

memory-mapped disk controllers or ROM 

(i.e., Morrow, NorthStar) 
> Any 16K block maybe disabled, dip switch 

selectable 2 K disable from XXE000 - FFFF in 

2K increments 
» Switch Selectable PHANTOM disable 



RAM 17 




$319.00 ea. 

Price: $599.00 

$299.00 ea. 



SALE 
PRICE: 

List Price: $599.00 
*2 or 
More: 
B0GBTRAM17 Assembled & Tested 



• Board addressable as one 64 K x 8 or 32 K x 1 6 

block; DIP switch selectable on any 64K 
boundary 

• Extremely low power consumption (2 watts 
typical) 

» Meets or exceeds all IEEE 696/S-1 00 speci- 
fications 

» Flawlessly handles any DMA device per IEEE 
696 specifications 

» Single + 5 Volt operation (requires n o other 
supply voltages) 

» 24 bit addressing; conforms to IEEE 696 
specifications 

» 8 or 16 bit data transfer dependant on SXTRQ. 
Conforms with IEEE696 timing requirements 
for XTRQ and SIXTN 



® RAM 16 




$349.00 ea. 

Price: $650.00 

$325.00 ea. 



SALE 
PRICE: 

List Price: $650.00 
2 or 
More: 
B0GBTRAM16 Assembled & Tested 



ompuPro SYSTEM 816 



FOR THOSE WHO DEMAND EXCELLENCE 



MINICOMPUTER REGULATORS 



f /Power 
{'Protectors 






The CompuPro familyof system packages excel in high level business, 
industrial, and scientific computing environments. 
Each package includes a unique combination of CompuPro system 
components, optimized for common single and multi-user applications. 
All systems run 8 and 16 bit software, and all single-user systems may 
be easily upgraded to multi-user opertion. The result is a computer 
which can grow as your computing requirements grow. 

SYSTEM 816 BASIC COMPONENTS 

HARDWARE: 

• Desktop enclosure with 20 slot motherboard 

• Dual QUME DT8 floppy drives in a cabinet with power supply 

• Dual CPU 8085/8088 

• Memory is comprised of multiples of RAM 17 64 K static memory 
boards 

• High speed Disk 1 DMA floppy disk controller board 

• System Support One board: Clock/calendar, RAM/ROM/Math 
processor options, RS-232 serial port, dual interrupt controllers. 
3 interval timers 

• All internal cables 
SOFTWARE: 

• CP/M 2.2'" and CP/M 86'" operating systems 

• CompuPro M-DRIVE'" for solid state disk drive 

• SuperCalc-86'" spreadsheet program by Sorcim 

• dBase II'" data base software by Ashton Tate 

SYSTEM 816/A" 

System B16/A gives superb computing today with an option for future 
expansion - all the way up to sophisticated multi-user operation. 
SYSTEM 816/A BASIC SPECIFICATIONS 

8 bit processor 6MHz 8085 16 bit processor 8MHz 8088 
Disk storage; Up to 2.4 Megabytes. Single or double sided, single or 
double density, expandable to 4.8 Megabytes. 
Main memory: 128K - expandable to: 1 Megabyte 
Serial ports: 4 Parallel ports: 1 
Centronics/Epson ports: 1 

Software: CP/M 2.2, CP/M-86, M-Drive, SuperCalc-86, dBase. 
Convenience features: Clock/calendar, interrupt controllers, interval 
timers, and math processor option. 

Save over $ 1 000.00 compared to all components pur- 
chased separately. 

B0GBTSYSB1BADA Single user system desk top. A&T $5495.00 
BDGBTSYSB16ADC Single user system desk top, CSC $6045.00 

(All Systems shipped Freight Collect) 



SYSTEM 816/B" 

System B16/B delivers state-of-the-art single user computing today, 
with an option for future expansion to multi-user operation. 

SYSTEM 816/B Basic Specifications: 

8 bit processor 6MHz 8085 - 16 bit processor 8MHz 8088 
Disk storage: Up to 2.4 Megabytes. Single or double sided, single or 
double density, expandable to 4.8 Megabytes. 
Main memory: 256 K - expandable to: 1 Megabyte 
Serial ports: 6 

Software: CP/M 2.2. CP/M-86, M-Drive. SuperCalc-86, dBase II 
Convenience features: Clock/calendar, interrupt controllers, interval 
timers, and math processor option 

Save over S 1800.00 compared to all components pur- 
chased separately. 

B0GBTSYSB16B0A Single user system desk top, A&T $6995.00 
B0GBTSYSB16B0C Single user system desk top, CSC $7795.00 

SYSTEM 816/C 

System B 1 6 / C i s t h e system of choice for firms which need superior 
computing power now, with the option to expand into an even more 
powerful system in the future. SyslemB 16/C supports up to three users 
simply by adding appropriate terminals: for more users, just add more 
CompuPro RAM and terminals. 

SYSTEM 816/C BASIC SPECIFICATIONS 

8 bit processor 6MHz 8085 - 16 bit processor 8MHz 8088 
Disk storage Up to 2.4 Megabytes. Single or double sided, single or 
double density, expandable to 4.8 Megabytes. 
Main memory 384 K - expandable to: 1 Megabyte 
Serial ports: 9 

Software CP/M 22. CP/M-86, MP/M 8-16. M-Drive. SuperCalc-86. 
dBase II 

Convenience features Clock/calendar, interrupt controllers, interval 
timers, and math processor option. 

Save over $2300.00 compared to all components pur- 
chased separately. 

B0GBTSYSB16CDA Multi-user system desk top, A&T $8995.00 
B0GBTSYSB16C0C Multi-user system desk top, CSC $9995.00 




HOW CLEAN IS 
YOUR POWER? 



GS 




SOLA ELECTRIC 



The Sola Micro/Mini Computer Ultra Isolated Regulator provides 
instantaneous voltage regulation, and ultra isolation from both trans- 
verse and common mode noise for any type of load. It also suppresses 
transients, protects against overloads and serves as a portable dedi- 
cated line. It is the ultimate in AC line conditioning equipment 
POUTAOLE 120VAC 60 Hz SINGLE PHASE 
Maximum Dimensions Approx. 
Output L x W x Shipping Price 

Part Ho. VA Rating (Approx.) Weight Ust 



SALE 



B0SLAB313070 
B0SLA6313114 
BOSLA 63131 25 
B0SLAB313150 
BOSLA 6313175 
BDSLAB313210 



70 
140 
250 
500 
750 
1000 



12 x 
12 x 
14 x 
17 x 
17 x 
17 x 



6 x 
6x 

8 x 

9 x 
9 x 
9x 



10 lbs. $196.20 
18 $257.15 
31 $305.55 
47 $424.40 
60 1 $541.40 
75 1 $627.10 



B0SLAB313220 2000* 17 x 11 x 11 1 08 1 $1066.40 



$159.00 
S20B.40 
S24B.05 
$344.00 
S43B.B0 
J50B.25 
SB64.35 



Output voltage is 120VAC ±3% for an input voltage of 95-130VAC 

•Unit has 30 Amp twist receptacle. 

Also available are Hard Wired and 50Hz models 

t Shipped Freight Collect 




X 



DIRECT CONNECT MODEM 

$79.00 

- 300 BAUD 
MURA MM-100 

• 0-300 baud 

• RS232C interface 

• Full duplex 

• Carrier detect indicator 

• Bell 1 03 compatible 

• Low voltage 

• Originate/Answer switch selectable Ust Price SALE 

B0MURMM100 - 300 baud modem $99.95 $79.00 

(Shipping Weight: 2 lbs.) 

BDCN0RS232BF RS232 cable $19.95 

Cables also available for Atari, 71, Vic 20, & Timex 



PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 

9161 DEERING AVE. CHATSWORTH, CA 9 1 3 1 1 
ORDER TOLL FREE (800) 423-5922 - CA, AK, HI CALL (210) 709-51 11 

Terms. U.S. VISA, MC, BAC.Check, Money Order, U.f Funds Only. CAresidentsadd 6Vi% Sales Tax. MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER315.00. Include MINI MUM 
SHIPPING & HANOLING ol $3 00 lor the first 3 lbs. plus 40$ for each additional pound. Ordersover 50 lbs. sent freight collect Just in case.please include your 
phone number Prices subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices through March, 1983. Credit Card orders will be charged approp- 
riate freighi II you hnvent received your Winter '83 Engineering Selection guide, send $1.00 for your copy today! Sale prices for prepaid orders only. 



RETAIL STORE PHONE NUMBERS: (Chotsworth:) (213) 709-5464 - (Irvine:) (714) 660-1411 

Circle 354 on Inquiry card. 



PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 




mpia 



SICES' 




5W DISK DRIVES 

Single-Sided Double-Density 48 TPI $200.00 

Double-Sided Double-Oensity 48 TPI $270.00 

Single-Sided Double-Density 96 TPI $275.00 

Double-Sided Double- Density 96 TPI $400.00 

* Replace ""'when ordering, with "m" tor MPI style bezel, 
or "S" for Shugart style bezel. (Shipping Weight 5 lbs.) 

2" HIGH 8" DISK DRIVES 



S-100 DUAL 8" SUBSYSTEM 

B0CCS2422A S-100 Disk Controller with CP/M 2.2 1 $399.00 

B0SIEFD01008 Siemens Double Density 8" drive 2 $478.00 

B0IIIFDE002 Dual Horizontal Cabinet 1 $295.00 

with Power Supply 

and Data Cable 



SAVE $212.00!! 

$995.00 



1 $ 35.00 
$1207.00 



(include $30.00 for shipping) 



DON'T 
MISS OUT! 

Order No. 
B0PDBSIESUB1 




Internationa/ 

Instrumentation 

Incorporated 




DUAL 8" SIEMENS F001 008, 

DUAL 8" CABINET POWER SUPPLY 

AND INTERNAL POWER CABLES 

IF BOUGHT SEPARATELY: $890.00 



PRICED AT: 



$695.00 



BOPOBIIISIE 



• Positive Pressure Filler Cooling • Hinged top for easy access 

• Power Supply:4A@ +5V,3A@+24V • Heavy non-flex .090 alumin- 

1A@-5V urn base 

• Each output is individually fused • Modular power connectors 



ENVIRONMENT MONITOR PANEL 

Temperature and voltage monitor with visual and audible alarm lor 
overtemp condition. Direct Digital Readoutol Internaitemperature In 

C on standard DVM 
B0IIIF0E002 CABINET ONLY (Sh. Wt. 38 lbs.) $295.00 

BQPOBIIISIEEM 2-Drives, Cabinet & disk environment monitor $775.00 
B0IIIFDEDD2EM Cabinet only with disk environment monitor $375.00 
B0PDB50MI8EI8E Dual Oala Cable $31.15 

B0PGC50S60S External Data Cable $19.77 



64K IEEE/S-100 DYNAMIC RAM 



€ 



California 
Computer 
Systems 



2 or 4MHz BANK SELECTABLE 

• 2 or 4 MHz operation • Designed to IEEE proposed S-100 busstand- 
ard • Supports IMSAI-type front panels • Operates with either an 8080 
or Z-80 based S-100 system providing processor transparent refreshes 
with both • Bank-select system allows system memory expansion • 
Bank-select port's address is jumer selectable • Any 16K block can be 
made bank-independent • All 64 K can be made bank-enabled on power- 
on and reset* Fully buffered address and data lines • Conliguraitonasa 
16K. 32K or 48K board without the removal of RAMs • Fail-safe refresh 
circuitry for extended Wail States • Board configuration with reliable, 
easy to configure Berg jumpers • Supports DMA • Jumper-selectable 
Phantom input • Assembled & Tested • All ICs in sockets • Uses 
Popular 4116 RAMs • Full factory warranty. 

REGULAR LIST PRICE IS $375.00 

YOU SAVE AN 
INCREDIBLE $176.00!! 




$199.00 

B0CCS20653 (Sh. wt. 2 lbs.) 



DUY DRIVE AND CABINET TOGETHER AND SAVE! 




The first 2" high 8" disk drive allows for mounting under 
the keyboard on CRT, etc. 

NO AC Required +5V +24VDC only 
FAST 3 msec track to track! 
B0MPI41M Vz High 1 side double-density $380.00 

B0MPI42M 72 High 2 side double-density $460.00 

B0MP141S Full height 1 side single drive, dble.-density $380.00 
B0MP142S Full height 2 sided single drive, dble.-density $480.00 
B0MPI410 Full height 1 side dual drive, dble.-density $780.00 
B0MPI420 Full height 2 side dual drive, dble.-density $920.00 

(Shipping Weight: 11 lbs, per drive) 



landon 




8-INCH 
THIN LINE 



\ 



Exactly one-half the height of any other model 

Proprietary, high-resolution, read-write heads patented 

by Tandon 

D.C. only operation - no A.C. required 

Industry standard interface 

Three millisecond track-to-track access time (9 lbs.) 

B0TN0TM8481 Single Sided: $380.00 2 or more: $370.00 ea. 

B0TNDTMB482 Double Sided: $495.00 2 or more: $485.00 ea. 

TANDON 5V4" DRIVES 
B0TN0TMI00I Single Sided, 250KB (5 lbs.) $220.00 ea. 

2 or More: $200.00 each 

B0TN0TMI 002 Double Sided, 500KB $295.00 ea. 

2 or More: $270.00 each 

B0TN0TMI003 Single Sided, 500KB $295.00 ea. 

2 or More: $270.00 each 

rM1004 Double Sided, 1000KB $395.00 ea. 

2 or More: $375.00 each 



DUAL 6" HALF HEIGHT 
FLOPPY CABINET 



1 INSTRUMENTATION, 



24V @ 4A5V<5> 3A 
-5V@ 800ma rrn'a 
Fan cooled 

Socketed power connections 
All supplies regulated 






Ust Price SALE 



B0III0TLO02 Dual Thin Line Cabinet (12 lbs.) $225.00 $165.00 

DUY THE CABINET DRIVES AND SAVE! 
With 2 Tandon Thlnlines 

BOPDBIIITNDI Cabinet W/2TNDTM8481 -1 sided (30 lbs.)$885.00 
B0P0BIIITN02 Cabinet w/2 TNDTM8482 -2 sided (30 lbs) $1115.00 



With 2 MPI Slimllnes 



BOPOBIIIMPII Cabinet w/2 MPI41M - 1 sided (30 lbs.) $920.00 
B0P0BIIIMPI2 Cabinet w/2 MPI42M - 2 sided (30 lbs.) $1080.00 

Options 

B0III0TLMPIKIT MPI drive adaptor mounting kit (2 lbs.) $24.95 

BOIIIOCCSHU Shugart / AC/DC power connector kit (2 lbs.) $14.95 

(For full size single SA801 or compatible drives) 



Circle 355 on inquiry card. 



PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 



LOWEST COST 
PRINTERS AVAILABLE 

$299.00 $229.00 

THI? IS NOT A TVP06RAHICAL ERROR!! 




COEX 
x 80 
F/T 




• 80 cps • 10, 12 or 16.5 cpi • 3 selectable line spacing • Vertical 
format control • Centronics parallel or RS232 serial interface • Uses 
a standard Undeiwood spooled ribbon • Friction and tractor feed 

list Price Our Price 

B0C0X80FT Parallel int. $399.00 $329.00 

B0C0X80FTSER Serial int. $399.00 $329.00 
(Shipping Weight: 21 lbs.) 



• 5 x 7 Dot Matrix • Parallel Interface (Centronics) • 
Tractor Feed • Dot Addressable Graphics • Up to 3- Part 
Paper • Self Test • One Year Warranty • 30 CPS 80 
Column Unidirectional • Uses Regular Paper 
B0AXMGP100A (Shipping Weight 1 1 lbs.) 

List Price: $389.00 $229.00 







HITACHI 

Hitachi Denihi America. Ltd. 

DUAL TRACE 
OSCILLOSCOPES 

ALL HITACHI DUAL TRACE SCOPES ARESHIPPED COMPLETE 
WITH 2 PROBES AND INSTRUCTION MANUAL 



V-050F 




35 MHz 
DELAYED SWEEP 

• Single time base delay sweep • 
rectangular CRT with internal graticule 

• High sensitivity 1mv/div(7MHz) • 
Large dynamic range of 8 div to full band- 
width • CH1 output • Built-in signal 
delay line 
B0HITV353F List: $949.00 

SALE: $799.00 

V-352F 35 MHz DUAL TRACE 

Same as V353F except without delayed sweep. 
B0H ITY352F List: $895.00 SALE: $7 4 9.00 

20 MHz 
I** DELAYED SWEEP 

*- v % * . • Single time base delay sweep • High 

.» *~ to m sensitivity 1mv/div (5MHz) • Full TV 

f * tf-'si^r triggering • X-Y operation • CH1 

$ I- # *, # " 0ut P ut • H '9 h reliability, MTBF 20,000 

% hours 

List: $749.00 



61 DATAGARD 
JSGLWABER 



I 



*?z 



LINE MONITOR POWER 
CONDITIONERS 




1200 BAUD AUTO-DIAL 

HAYES SMARTMODEM COMPATIBLE 



LSfl U.S. ROBOTICS N&* 



MODEMS 

$495.00 

The AUTO DIAL2I2A Modem is a direct connect 0-300 or 1200 baud 
modem capable of dialing and calling for you The AUTO DIAL 21 2 A is 

c ompatible In function to the DC Hayes SMARTMODEM -, 

Part No, Description Lis! SALE Price 

B0USRADIAL212A 0-300 1200 baud dialing modem $59900 $495.00 



EIA/RS232 WALL PLATES 



(Does not include connectors) 
B0IIIWP0B2S1 Single punched 

4/$10.00 

B0IIIWP0B252 Dual Punched 



4/$12.00 
RS-232 




SUD-MINIATURE 
CONNECTORS 

1-9 10-24 25-99 100-UP 



B0CNDDB25P 25 Pin Male 
B0CNDDB25S 25 Pin Female 
B0CNDDB51212 1 Pc. Grey Hood 
B0CNDP25H 2 Pc. Grey Hood 
B0CNDDB5I228 2 Pc. Black Hood 



$2.75 $2.50 $2.25 $1.95 

$4.00 $3.50 $3.25 $3.00 

$1.85 $1.40 $1.25 $1.15 

$1.50 $1.25 $1.10 $1.00 

$1.75 $1.50 $1.35 $1.20 



B0CNDD20418 Hardware set 2/Pr. $1.00 $ .80 $ .70 $ .80 



Before you plug in your computer, you'd better consider how you are 
going to insure or protect your investment from unwanted electrical 
pollution. 

DG1 15 SERIES 
SINGLE STAGE SPIKE PROTECTION 



Pill No. 



Description 



Ust 



SALE 



B0WBRDGI15P Wall unit plug in 2 lbs. $49.95 

B0WBRDGI15S 6 outlet strip w/SW&LT 3 lbs. $61.95 



$34.95 
$42.00 



V-200F 



DG31 5 SERIES 
3 STAGE SPIKE FILTER & FOUR STAGE NOISE FILTER 

B0WBRD6315P5Wall unit pig in 2 lbs. $153.95 $ 99.95 

B0WBRDB3I5S 6 outlet stripw/SW&LT 3 lbs. $193.95 $119.95 
B0WBR0G315R 6 outlet racks w/SW&LT 8 lbs. $193.00 $119.95 



r 



DISKETTES 

SOFT SECTOR 

40 TRACK SINGLE SIDED 

DOUBLE DENSITY WITH 

HUB REINFORCING RINGS 

Package of 10: yl 9.95 

BONUS!! 

FREEH KASSETTE10 

LIBRARY CASE WITH 

PACKAGE OF 10 DISKETTES 

A $4.25 VALUED B0PR>5SDD (Shipping Weight 2 lbs.) 

B0PRI580 package of 80, less Library Case §1 20.00 





SALE: $625.00 



V-202F 20 MHz DUAL TRACE 

Same a s V203F except without delayed sweep. 
B0HI7V202F List: S6 95.00 SALE: $57 5.00 



V-002F 



30 MHz 



*" • High sensitivity 1 mv/div (5 MHz) • 

■♦ £■■ Full TV Triggering • X-Y operation • 
"h # , CH 1 Output • Built-in signal delay line 
; itr v • High reliability, MTBF 20,000 hours 
"*" * B0HITW02F List: $799.00 




SALE: $699.00 



V-152F 15 MHz DUAL TRACE 

Same as W02F except without delay line and only 15 MHz. 

SALE: $495.00 



B0HITT152F 



List: $595.00 



> Texas Instruments 
16 PIN GOLD AND TIN 
DIP SOLDERTAIL SOCKETS 



TIN 

QTY B0TIS16LP 

so $ 8.00 
1000$ 60.00 



GOLD 

B0TIG16LP 

$ 10.00 
$ 80.00 



45oo $225.00 $315.00 



SEND $1.00 TODAY 
FOR THE NEW, FULL COLOR 
WINTER 1983 ENGINEERING 

SELECTION GUIDE!! 



Color Display Monitors 




.PRIORITY 



JrCordlBESM 




• 13" Screen 

• NTSCor 
RGB Inputs 



High Impact Plastic 
Cabinet (Silver Grey) 



Ust Price SALE 

B0HITCM1481 Comp video Ivp-p (28 lbs.) $479.95 $339.00 
B0HITCM1472 RGB 16 colors.(35 lbs.) $1029.95 $749.00 



ELECTRONICS 



91 61 DEERING AVE. CHATSWORTH, CA 91 31 Ml 



'Ejjj 



ORDER TOLL FREE (600) 420-5922 - CA, AK. HI CALL (213) 709-51 1 1 

Terms. U.S. VISA, MC, BAC. Check Money Order, U.f Funds Only CA residents add 6W% Sales Tax. MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER $15.00. Include MINIMUM 
SHIPPING & HANDLING of $3.00 for the first 3 lbs. plus 40C for each additional pound. Orders over 50 lbs. sent freight collect Just in case, please include your 
phone number. Prices subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices through March, 1983. Credit Card orders will be charged approp- 
riate freight. If you haven't received your Winter '83 Engineering Selection guide, send $1.00 for your copy today! Sale prices for prepaid orders only. 



RETAIL STORE PHONE NUMBERS: (Chotsworfh:) (210) 709-5464 - (Irvine:) (714) 660-1411 

Circle 355 on Inquiry card. 



PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS 



WE ARE OPEN IN IRVINE, CA! 

That's Right! Priority One Electornics 
proudly announces the February 1983 
Opening of its 10,000 square-foot SYS- 
TEM CENTER/RETAIL SHOWROOM in the 
heart of Orange County, California! 

18241 McDurmott Irvine, CA 92714 

(714)660-1411 





SIGN UP NOW FOR 
GRAND OPENING SALE FLYER! 



I $10.00 



$10.00 
GET ACQUAINTED 
COUPON! 

Good On Any Prepoid Purchose 
Over $25.00, At Our Irvine Systems 
Center Only! Limit One Per Person. 

$10.00 hpl ~ D SSS« 19,a $1000 




DUAL QUME 6" FLOPPY DRIVE, 
CABINET, DMAS-100 <m cqc nn 
CONTROLLED ■♦■WWMIU 

AND CP/M S 
FROM 



B0P0BGBT206SYS 



ompuPro 



ABSOLUTELY THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE 
DISK SUBSYSTEM EVER OFFERED 
DY PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS!! 



YOU SAVE 
$1419.77!! 



2 Double sided 8" QUME DT8 disk drives 

DMA Floppy Controller (controls up to 4 drives) 1 

CP/M® 2.2 w/bios written for the Disk 1 Controller 1 

Cabinet includes power supply & internal data cable 1 

External data cable included 1 

(Shipping Charge: $21.80; shipped in two boxes) 



List Price 
G8T206SP $2325.00 
6BT171A $405.00 

GBTCPMB0 $175.00 
PGC50S60S $ 19.77 
$3014.77 



CABINET AND 2 QUME DT8 DOUBLE SIDED DRIVES ft 1295 OO 

(Sri WL 50 lbs I t ^ ^^^ **' ^^ * ^^ ^^ 

PROVIDE 2.4 MBYTES OF MASS STORAGE!! us, : $ 232 5.oo untumm mmzm? 



SIERRA OJXTJX 
SCIENCES 



G MICROPOLIS 



DEST OF DOTH WORLDS! 
PERFORMANCE & LOW COST!! 




• Z80A 4MHz CPU • 64K RAM • 2 Serial RS-232 Ports • 
Floppy Disk Interface Controls Four 8" or5'/4" Drives • 35 Mbytes 
of mass storage • CP/M 2.2 with the Sierra Data Menu Driven BIOS 

• Winchester Hard Disk Adaptor • Disk Drive Power Supply and 
Cabinet • Drive Data Cable • S-1 00 IEEE Compatible 

PACKAGE 
CONTAINS: 
B0S0SSBC SBC Computer $650.00 
B0S0SH01 Hard DisCont $150.00 
BOSDSWNMCP Disk Cab & PS. $495.00 
B0MCP12231 35 Mbyte 

Hard Disk $3595.00 
B0NSDSCPM CP/M2.2w/BI 0S$150.00 

$5240.00 SAVE $445.00!! 

(Shipped in 5 boxes, total Sh. Wt: 81 lbs.) B0P0BSDSMCP 



TOTAL 

PACKAGE 

PRICE: 

$4795.00 



S-100 BOARDS 

SSM 

Part No. Description Uit Price Our Price 

$219.89 
§289.89 
§469.89 
§249.89 
§440.00 



B0SSMPB1A 2708/2716 Programmer & EPROMS265 00 
B0SSMI05A 105 Input/Oulput $329.00 

B0SSMI08A 108 Eight Serial 1/0 $550.00 

B0SSMID4A 2 Parallel, 2 Serial 1/0 $290 00 

B0SSMVB3A2480 x 24 Video Hoard $499.00 

DUAL 

68000 S-100 CPU $89500 

225f,K Nyiuiinr Mummy Cud Sl/'JMHl 
32K CMOS Memory C;mi $G9500 
2716 EPR0M Hojiril $29500 

SI 04 -DMA $695 00 

CALIFORNIA COMPUTER 



B0DULCPU88000 

B00UIDMEM256K 

B0DULCMEM32 

B0DULEPR0M32 

B0DULSI04DMA 

B0CCS2810A 
BDCCS271001 
B0CCS271901 
B0CCS272001 
B0CCS273001 
B0CCS2422A 



Z80A CPU w/HS?:i? 
4 Port Serial I/O 
2 Serial, ? Ccnimriics Par 
4 Purl Paiallol I/O 
G Porl Si;nal I/O 



$325 00 
$325 00 
$:«i() 00 
$?/5 00 
$!if>0 00 



Floppy disk i:onliolli:i w/(;iVM$4?') 00 



$850.00 
$1230.00 
S660.00 
$280.00 
$650.00 

$289.89 
$310.00 
$345.00 
$265.00 
$525.00 
$375.00 



2 QUME DT8s 8" DOUBLE SIDED 
DISK DRIVE AND A CCS2422A 
FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER 
WITH CP/M 2.2®!!! 

• 2 double sided 8" QUME DT8s 

• CCS2422A Flopy Disk Controller w/CP/M® 

• Controls up to four 8" and/or 5V<i" drives simultaneously 

• CompuPro cabinet with power supply and internal data 
cable 

• External data cable included 



SAVE 
$1274.7711 



$1495.00 

B0PDBGBTCCS 



LIST PRICE: 
$2769.88 



(Shipping Charge $22.20. shipped in two boxes) 



<mm ^sr priority one electronics 

^^* ^^™ V I (> I 1)1 k'INc / AVI CHATSWORTH, CA 9 1 3 1 1 
ORDER TOLL FREE (800) 423-5922 - CA. AK, HI CALL C213) 709-51 1 1 

Terms US VISA NIC HAi; YSmV Mtirn;y llnln II S I irinh Duly CA resitli'iilsJdd (>'.-% Sales Tax MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER*S1500. IncludeM INIMUM 
SHIPPINGS HANUl IN{] id $:»ii(i im iiur in;.i :i Ihs |itus4t)t tuni.ifti .itlttiltoiial pound Orders over 50 lbs. sent freight collect Just in case, pleaseincludeyour 
phone unrulier Pricin, miIijci:! in i.ii.iimii: wiihuui nuiii.t; Wt; will iluuin htssi to iiunnt^in prices through March, 1983. Credit Card orders will be charged approp- 



riate lri:i(|lit II yon llli 



veil V'iiii Wmlri WW I mjimn: 



ii:l(!(:lir)ii guide, send $1 00 lor your copy today! Sale prices for prepaid orders only. 



RETAIL STORE PHONE NUMBERS: (Chotsworrh:) (213) 709-5464 - (Irvine:) (714) 660-1411 

Circle 356 on Inquiry card. 



Micromint will put both a computer 

development system and an OEM dedicated 

controller in the palm of your hand 

for as little as $127; 



The Z8 Basic Computer/Controller 
represents a milestone in microcompu- 
ter price-performance. The entire 
computer is 4" by 4V2" and includes a 
tiny BASIC interpreter, 4K bytes of pro- 
gram memory, one RS-232 serial port 
and two parallel ports plus a variety of 
other features. The Z8 microcomputer 
board is completely self-contained and 
optimized for use as a dedicated con- 
troller Can be battery operated. Comes 
withover200pagesof documentation. 



Z8 BASIC COMPUTER/CONTROLLER 




• Uses Zilog Z8671 single chip mic- 
rocomputer 

• On board tiny BASIC interpreter 

• 2 parallel ports plus serial I/O port. 

• Just connect a CRT terminal and 
write control programs in BASIC 

• 4K bytes of RAM. EPROM pin com- 
patible 

• Baud rates 1 10-9600 BPS 

• Data and address buses available for 
124K memory and I/O expansion 

• Consumes only 1.5 watts at +5, +12 
& -12v. 

BCC01 Z8 Basic Computer 

Assembled & Tested . . $199.00 
BCC02Z8 Basic Computer 

Kit $169.00^ 



COMING SOON 

A/D Converter 8 Channel 8 Bit 
AC I/O Board 

• 4 Channel 1 15V ac inputs 

• 4 Channel 11 5Vac outputs 
20 MA ADAPTER 



Z8 MEMORY. I/O EXPANSION & 
CASSETTE INTERFACE 




The Z8 Memory, I/O Expansion & 
Cassette Interface Board (Z8 Expan- 
sion Board for short) allows you to add 
up to 8K of additional memory plus 
three 8-bit parallel ports to your Z8 
Basic Computer/Controller. The mem- 
ory expansion will support any com- 
bination of byte wide RAM memory 
chips or 2716 or 2732 EPROM. The 
cassette interface is 300 baud Kansas 
City Standard (2400Hz/1200Hz). 
BCC03 Z8 Expansion Board 

w/4K memory $140.00 

BGC04 Z8 Expansion Board 

w/8K memory .. $170.00 



Z8 EPROM PROGRAMMER 




The EPROM Programmer board 
allows you to transfer application pro- 
grams in BASIC orAssembly language 
directly from RAM to either 2716 or 
2732 EPROMS. Requires Z8 Basic 
Expansion Board for operation. 
NOTE: We recommend the higher cur- 
rent UPS03 or UPS04 power supply 
when using the EPROM Programmer. 

BCC07 Z8 EPROM Programmer 

Assembled & Tested 

..$145.00 









Z8 SERIAL EXPANSION BOARD 

GB8& 



111 



iWltH S&f lift 




The Serial Expansion Board adds an 
additional RS-232C serial portto the Z8 
system. It runs at 75 to 19,200 baud in 
all standard protocols. The 20 ma. cur- 
rent loop.is opto-isolated for reliability 
and protection. 

BCC08 Z8 Serial Board 
Assembled & Tested . . . $180.00 

MOTHER-BOARD 
MB02 Z8 Mother Board 

with 5 connectors (Gold) 

Assembled & Tested $81.00 

UNIVERSAL POWER SUPPLY 

+5@300ma.+12&-12V@50ma. 
UPS01 Assembled and 

Tested $ 35.00 

UPS02 Kit $ 27.00 

+5 @ 1 amp. +12 & -12V @ 50 ma. 
UPS03 Assembled and 

Tested $ 60.00 

UPS04 Kit $ 50.00 



Z8 CROSS ASSEMBLERS 

FROM ALLEN ASHLEY 
XAS01 ForTRS-80Modl $ 75.00 
XAS02 ForTRS-80 Mod IfIS 75.00 
XAS03ForCP/M-8" ....$150.00 

FROM MICRO RESOURCES 

MR01 CP/M-8" Diskette . $ 75.00 

MR02 APPLE II CP/M5V4"$ 75.00 



s featured in Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, 
Byte Magazine, July, August, 1981. 



MICROMINT INC. 

561 Willow Avenue 
Cedarhurst, NY 11516 

To Order: 

Call Toll Free 
1-800-645-3479 
For Information Call: 
1-516-374-6793 

Circle 481 on inquiry card. 



?8 is a trademark of Zilog Inc. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research "^B| 



*ln quantities of 100 



64K DYNAMIC 
200 NS 



TMM2016 



2KX8 STATIC 
200 NS 



ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUARANTEED! 



CALL US FOR VOLUME QUOTES 



STATIC RAMS 



2101 

5101 

2102-1 

2102L-4 

2102L-2 

2111 

2112 

2114 

2114L-4 

2114L-3 

2114L-2 

2147 

TMS4044-4 

TMS4044-3 

TMS4044-2 

MK4118 

TMM2016-200 

TMM2016-150 

TMM2016-100 

HM6116-4 

HM6116-3 

HM6116-2 

HM6116LP-4 

HM6116LP-3 

HM6116LP-2 

Z-6132 



256x4 
256 x4 
1024 x 1 
1024 x 1 
1024 x 1 
256 x4 
256-4 
1024 x 4 
1024x4 
1024 x 4 
1024 x4 
4096 x 1 
4096 x 1 
4096 x 1 
4096 x 1 
1024 x 8 
2048 x 8 
2048x8 
2048x8 
2048 x 8 
2048 x 8 
2048x8 
2048 x 8 
2048 x 8 
2048 x 8 
4096 x 8 



(450ns) 
(450ns) 
(450ns) 
(450ns) 
(250ns) 
(450ns) 
(450ns) 
(450ns) 
(450ns) 
(300ns) 
(200ns) 
(55ns) 
(450ns) 
(300ns) 
(200ns) 
(250ns) 
(200ns) 
(150ns) 
(100ns) 
(200ns) 
(150ns) 
(120ns) 
(200ns) 
(150ns) 
(120ns) 
(300ns) 



(cmos) 



(LP) 
(LP) 



(LP) 
(LP) 
(LP) 



(cmos) 

(cmos) 

(cmos) 

(cmos)(LP) 

(cmos)(LP) 

(cmos)(LP) 

(Qstat) 



1.95 

3.95 

.89 

1.29 

1.69 

2.99 

2.99 

8/14.95 

8/15.25 

8/15.45 

8/15.95 

4.95 

3.49 

3.99 

4.49 

9.95 

4.15 

4.95 

6.15 

4.95 

5.95 

8.95 I 

6.95 I 

8.95 

10.95 I 

34.95 



DISC 

CONTROLLERS 



Z-80 



8000 



6800 



LP Low Power 



Qstat = Quasi-Static 



TMS4027 

UPD411 

MM5280 

MK4108 

MM5298 

4116-300 

4116-250 

4116-200 

4116-150 

4116-120 

2118 

4164-200 

4164-150 



DYNAMIC RAMS 



4096 x 1 

4096 x 1 

4096 x 1 

8192 x 1 

8192 x 1 

16384 x 1 

16384 x 1 

16384 x 1 

16384 x 1 

16384 x 1 

16384 x 1 

65536 x 1 

65536 x 1 



(250ns) 

(300ns) 

(300ns) 

(200ns) 

(250ns) 

(300ns) 

(250ns) 

(200ns) 

(150ns) 

(120ns) 

(150ns) (5v) 

(200ns) (5v) 

(150ns) (5v) 



1.99 

3.00 

3.00 

1.95 

1.85 

8/11.75 

8/11.95 

8/13.95 

8/15.95 

8/29.95 

4.95 

6.25 

7.25 



5V = single 5 volt supply 



EPROMS 

1702 256x8 (1us) 4.50 

2708 1024x8 (450ns) 3.95 

2758 1024x8 (450ns)(5v) 5.95 

2716 2048 x 8 (450ns)(5v) 3.95 

2716-1 2048x8 (350ns)(5v) 6.25 

TMS2516 2048x8 (450ns)(5v) 5.50 

TMS2716 2048x8 (450ns) 7,95 

TMS2532 4096x8 (450ns)(5v) 7.95 

2732 4096x8 (450ns)(5v) 4.95 

2732-250 4096X8 (250ns)(5v) 12.95 

2732-200 4096x8 (200ns)(5v) 16.95 

2764 8192x8 (450ns)(5v) 16.95 

2764-250 8192 x8 (250ns)(5v) 18.95 

2764-200 8192 x 8 (200ns)(5v) 24.95 

TMS2564 8192x8 (450ns)(5v) 24.95 

MC68764 8192 x 8 (450ns)(5v)(24 pin) 39.95 

5v = Single 5 Volt Supply 



EPROM ERASERS 



PE-14 
PE-14T 
PE-24T 
PL-265T 
PR-125T 
k PR-320 



Capacity 

Chip 

6 

6 

9 
20 
16 
32 



Intensity 
(uW/Cm 2 ) 

5,200 
5,200 
6,700 
6,700 
15,000 
15,000 



83.00 
119.00 
175.00 
255.00 
349.00 
595.00 , 



1771 


16.95 1 


2.5 Mh 


z 


1791 


29.95 I 1 


Z80-CPU 


3.95 


1793 


38.95 I 


Z80-CTC 


5.95 


1795 
1797 


54.95 I 
54.95 I 


Z80-DART 


15.25 


6843 


34.95 I ! 


Z80-DMA 


17.50 


8272 


39.95 I ; 


Z80-PIO 


5.75 


UPD765 


39.95 I 


Z80-SIO/0 


18.50 


1691 


18.95 I 


Z80-SIO/1 


18.50 


2143 


18.95 ■ I 


Z80-SIO/2 


18.50 


INTERFACE | I 


Z80-SIO/9 


16.95 


8T26 


1.69 ■ 






8T28 


2.49 I | 


4.0 Mh 


Z 


8T95 
8T96 


.99 ■ 

.99 1 


Z80A-CPU 


6.00 


8T97 


.99 1 


Z80A-CTC 


8.65 


8T98 


.99 ■ , 


Z80A-DART 


18.75 


DM8131 


2.95 I 


Z80A-DMA 


27.50 


DP8304 


2.29 ■ 


Z80A-PIO 


6.00 


DS8835 


1.99 I • I 


Z80A-SIO/0 


22.50 


DS8836 

MISC. 


.99 I 


Z80A-SIO/1 


22.50 




Z80A-SIO/2 


22.50 


3242 
3341 


7.95 IB 
4.95 I I 


Z80A-SIO/9 


19.95 


MC3470 
MC3480 


4.95 I 

9.00 I 


6.0 Mh 


Z 


11C90 


13.95 I 


Z80B-CPU 


17.95 


95H90 


7.95 I 


Z80B-CTC 


15.50 


2513-001 UP 
2513-002 LOW 


9.95 I 
9.95 I 


Z80B-PIO 


15.50 


SOUND CHIPS H 


ZILOG 


76477 


3.95 ■ j 






76489 


8.95 I 


Z6132 


34.95 


AY3-8910 


12.95 I 


Z8671 


39.95 


MC3340 


1.49 ■ 







CRT 
CONTROLLERS 

6845 
68B45 
HD46505SP 
6847 
MC1372 
68047 
8275 
7220 

CRT5027 

CRT5037 

I TMS9918A 

DP8350 



14.95 
35.95 
15.95 
12.25 
6.95 
24.95 
29.95 
99.95 
39.95 
49.95 
39.95 
49.95 



BIT-RATE 
GENERATORS 



MC14411 

BR1941 

4702 

COM5016 

COM8116 

MM5307 

UARTS 

AY3-1014 

AY5-1013 

AY3-1015 
1 PT1472 
| TR1602 
i 2350 
I 2651 
I TMS6011 
I IM6402 

IM6403 
I INS8250 



11.95 
11.95 
12.95 
16.95 
10.95 
10.95 



6.95 
3.95 
6.95 
9.95 
3.95 
9.95 
8.95 
5.95 
7.95 
8.95 
14.95 



KEYBOARD 
CHIPS 

I AY5-2376 11.95 

AY5-3600 11.95 



CLOCK 




CIRCUITS 


MM5314 


4.95 


MM5369 


3.95 


MM5375 


4.95 


MM58167 


8.95 


MM58174 


11.95 


MSM5832 


6.95 



CRYSTALS 



32.768 khz 

1.9 mhz 

1.8432 

2.0 

2.097152 

2.4576 

3.2768 

3.579535 

4.0 

5.0 

5.0688 

5.185 

5.7143 

6.0 

6.144 

6.5536 

8.0 
10.738635 
14.31818 
15.0 
16.0 
17.430 
18.0 
18.432 
20.0 
22.1184 
L32.0 



1.95 
4.95 
4.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 
3.95 j 



DATA 
ACQUISITION 

15.55 

3.49 
4.49 
9.95 
4.95 
1.95 
2.95 
8.25 
5.95 
1.95 
2.95 . 



ADC0800 
ADC0804 
ADC0809 
ADC0817 
DAC0800 
DAC0806 
DAC0808 
DAC1020 
DAC1022 
MC1408L6 
t MC1408L8 



8035 


5.95 


8039 


6.95 


INS-8060 


17.95 


INS-8073 


24.95 


8080 


3.95 


8085 


5.95 


8D85A-2 


11.95 


8086 


29.95 


8087 


CALL 


8088 


39.95 


8089 


89.95 


8155 


7.95 


8156 


8.95 


8185 


29.95 


8185-2 


39.95 


8741 


39.95 


8748 


29.95 


8755 


32.00 



8200 



8202 
8203 
8205 
8212 
8214 
8216 
8224 
8226 
8228 
8237 
8238 
8243 
8250 
8251 
8253 
8253-5 
8255 
8255-5 
8257 
8257-5 
8259 
8259-5 
8271 
8272 
8275 
8279 
8279-5 
8282 
8283 
8284 
8286 
8287 
8288 
k 8289 



29.95 

39.95 

3.50 

1.80 

3.85 

1.75 

2.25 

1.80 I 

3.49 

19.95 

4.49 

4.45 

10.95 | 

4.49 

6.95 

7.95 

4.49 

5.25 

7.95 

8.95 

6.90 

7.50 

39.95 

39.95 

29.95 

8.95 

10.00 

6.50 

6.50 

5.50 

6.50 

6.50 

25.00 

49.95 J 



68000 

6800 

6802 

6808 

6809E 

6809 

6810 

6820 

6821 

6828 

6840 

6843 

6844 

6845 

6847 

6850 

6852 

6860 

6662 

6875 

6880 

6883 

68047 

68488 

6800 
68B00 
68B02 
68B09E 
68B09 
68B10 
68B21 
66B45 
66B50 



59.95 

4.95 

7.95 

13.90 

19.95 

12.95 

2.95 

4.95 

3.25 

14.95 

12.95 

34.95 

25.95 

14.95 

12.25 

3.45 

5.75 

9.95 

11.95 

6.95 

2.25 

24.95 

24.95 

19.95 

1MHZ 

10.95 
22.25 
29.95 
29.95', 
7.95 
12.95 
35.95 
12.95 



68B00 2 MHZ 



6500 



6502 
6504 
6505 
6507 
6520 
6522 
6532 
6545 
6551 

6502A 
6522A 
6532A 
6545A 
6551 A 

6502B 



5.95 

6.95 

8.95 

9.95 

4.35 

8.75 

11.25 

22.50 

11.85 

9.95 
11.70 
12.40 
28.50 
12.95 

14.95 



FUNCTION m 
GENERATORS 1 


EXAR 








XR 2206 


3.75 


MC4024 


3.95 1 


XR 2207 


3.85 


LM566 


1.49 H 


XR 2208 


3.90 


XR2206 


3.75 ■ 


XR2211 


5.25 


8038 


>»l 


i XR 2240 


3.25 




INIbHolL K 


r 9000 SERIES^ 


ICL7103 


9.50 1 


9316 


1.00 


ICL7106 


9.95 I 


9334 


2.50 


ICL7107 


12.95 I 


9368 


3.95 






9401 


9.95 


ICL7660 


2.95 H 


9601 


.75 


ICL8038 


3.95 1 


9602 


1.50 


ICM7207A 


5.59 I 


96S02 


1.95 


ICM7208 


15.95 m 







JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. 

1224 S. Bascom Avenue 
i - San Jose, CA 95128 

800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) 
(408) 995-5430 • Telex 171-110 

©1982 JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. 



VISIT OUR ~ NEW HOURS - 

VISI I UUH M-W-F.9-5 

RETAIL STORE j-Th.,9-9 Sat. 11-3 

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING 

TERMS: For shipping include $2 for UPS Ground or S3 for UPS Blue 
Label Air. Items over 5 pounds require additional shipping charges. 
Foreign orders, include sufficient amount for shipping. There is a S 1 
minimum order. Bay Area and Los Angeles Counties add 6'/ ? °/ D Sales 
Tax. Other California residents add 6% Sates Tax. We reserve the 
right to substitute manufacturer. Not responsible for typographical 
errors. Prices are subject to change without notice. We will match or 
beat any competitor's price provided it is not below our cost. 



550 BYTE March 1983 



Circle 232 on Inquiry card. 



2716 



16K EPROMS 



2732 



ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUARANTEED! 



£i f V#£i 32K EPROMS T EACH 
CALL US FOR VOLUME QUOTES 



74LS00 



IC SOCKETS 



74LS00 


.24 


74LS86 


.39 


74LS169 


1.75 


74LS323 


3.50 


74LS01 


.25 


74LS90 


.55 


74LS170 


1.49 


74LS324 


1.75 


74LS02 


.25 


74LS91 


.89 


74LS173 


.69 


74LS352 


1.29 


74LS03 


.25 


74LS92 


.55 


74LS174 


.55 


74LS353 


1.29 


74LS04 


.24 


74LS93 


.55 


74LS175 


.55 


74LS363 


1.35 


74LS05 


.25 


74LS95 


.75 


74LS181 


2.15 


74LS364 


1.95 


74LS08 


.28 


74LS96 


.89 


74LS189 


8.95 


74LS365 


.49 


74LS09 


.29 


74LS107 


.39 


74LS190 


.89 


74LS366 


.49 


74LS10 


.25 


74LS109 


.39 


74LS191 


.89 


74LS367 


.45 


74LS11 


.35 


74LS112 


.39 


74LS192 


.79 


74LS368 


.45 


74LS12 


.35 


74LS113 


.39 


74LS193 


.79 


74LS373 


.99 


74LS13 


.45 


74LS114 


.39 


74LS194 


.69 


74LS374 


.99 


74LS14 


.59 


74LS122 


.45 


74LS195 


.69 


74LS377 


1.39 


74LS15 


.35 


74LS123 


.79 


74LS196 


.79 


74LS378 


1.18 


74LS20 


.25 


74LS124 


2.90 


74LS197 


.79 


74LS379 


1.35 


74LS21 


.29 


74LS125 


.49 


74LS221 


.89 


74LS385 


1.90 


74LS22 


.25 


74LS126 


.49 


74LS240 


.95 


74LS386 


.45 


74LS26 


.29 


74LS132 


.59 


74LS241 


.99 


74LS390 


1.19 


74LS27 


.29 


74LS133 


.59 


74LS242 


.99 


74LS393 


1.19 


74LS28 


.35 


74LS136 


.39 


74LS243 


.99 


74LS395 


1.19 


74LS30 


.25 


74LS137 


.99 


74LS244 


.99 


74LS399 


1.49 


74LS32 


.29 


74LS138 


.55 


74LS245 


1.49 


74LS424 


2.95 


74LS33 


.55 


74LS139 


.55 


74LS247 


.75 


74LS447 


.37 


74LS37 


.35 


74LS145 


1.20 


74LS248 


.99 


74LS490 


1.95 


74LS38 


.35 


74LS147 


2.49 


74LS249 


.99 


74LS624 


3.99 


74LS40 


.25 


74LS148 


1.35 


74LS251 


.59 


74LS668 


1.69 


74LS42 


.49 


74LS151 


.55 


74LS253 


.59 


74LS669 


1.89 


74LS47 


.75 


74LS153 


.55 


74LS257 


.59 


74LS670 


1.49 


74LS48 


.75 


74LS154 


1.90 


74LS258 


.59 


74LS674 


9.65 


74LS49 


.75 


74LS155 


.69 


74LS259 


2.75 


74LS682 


3.20 


74LS51 


.25 


74LS156 


.69 


74LS260 


.59 


74LS683 


3.20 


74LS54 


.29 


74LS157 


.65 


74LS266 


.55 


74LS684 


3.20 


74LS55 


.29 


74LS158 


.59 


74LS273 


1.49 


74LS685 


3.20 


74LS63 


1.25 


74LS160 


.69 


74LS275 


3.35 


74LS688 


2.40 


74LS73 


.39 


74LS161 


.65 


74LS279 


.49 


74LS689 


3.20 


74LS74 


.35 


74LS162 


.69 


74LS280 


1.98 


74LS783 


24.95 


74LS75 


.39 


74LS163 


.65 


74LS283 


.69 


81LS95 


1.49 


74LS76 


.39 


74LS164 


.69 


74LS290 


.89 


81LS96 


1.49 


74LS78 


.49 


74LS165 


.95 


74LS293 


.89 


81LS97 


1.49 


74LS83 


.60 


74LS166 


1.95 


74LS295 


.99 


81LS98 


1.49 


74LS85 


.69 


74LS168 


1.75 


74LS298 


.89 


25LS2521 


2.80 










74LS299 


1.75 


25LS2569 


4.25 





1-99 


100 


8 pin ST 


.13 


.11 


14 pin ST 


.15 


.12 


16 pin ST 


.17 


.13 


18 pin ST 


.20 


.18 


20 pin ST 


.29 


.27 


22 pin ST 


.30 


.27 


24 pin ST 


.30 


.27 


28 pin ST 


.40 


.32 


40 pin ST 


.49 


.39 


64 pin ST 


4.25 


call 


ST = SOLDERTAIL 


8 pin WW 


.59 


.49 


14 pin WW 


.69 


.52 


16 pin WW 


.69 


.58 


18 pin WW 


99 


.90 


20 pin WW 


1.09 


.98 


22 pin WW 


1.39 


1.28 


24 pin WW 


1.49 


1.35 


28 pin WW 


1.69 


1.49 


40 pin WW 


1.99 


1.80 


WW = WIREWRAP 


16 pinZIF 


6.75 


call 


24 pinZIF 


9.95 


call 


28pinZIF 


10.95 


call 


Z)F TEXTOOL 


(Zero Insertion Force) 



7400 



CMOS 



CONNECTORS 



RS232 MALE 
RS232 FEMALE 
RS232 FEMALE 
RIGHT ANGLE 

| RS232HOOD 
S-100 ST 

L S-100WW 



2.95 
3.50 

5.25 
1.25 
3.95 
4.95 



Prices Slashed! 
74S00 



MasterCard 



74S00 

74S02 

74S03 

74S04 

74S05 

74S08 

74S09 

74S10 

74S11 

74S15 

74S20 

74S22 

74S30 

74S32 

74S37 

74S38 

74S40 

74S51 

74S64 

74S65 

74S74 

74S85 

74S86 

74S112 

74S113 

74S114 

74S124 

74S132 

74S133 

74S134 

74S135 

74S138 

74S139 

74S140 

74S151 

74S153 

74S157 

74S158 

74S161 

74S162 



.32 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.40 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.35 
.40 
.88 
.85 
.35 
.35 
.40 
.40 
.50 
1.99 
.50 
.50 
.50 
.55 
2.75 
1.24 
.45 
.50 
.89 
.85 
.85 
.55 
.95 
.95 
.95 
.95 
1.95 
1.95 



74S163 
74S168 
74S169 
74S"i74 
74S175 
74S181 
74S182 
74S188 
74S189 
74S194 
74S195 
74S196 
74S197 
74S201 
74S225 
74S240 
74S241 
74S244 
74S251 
74S253 
74S257 
74S258 
74S260 
74S274 
74S275 
74S280 
74S287 
74S288 
74S289 
74S301 
74S373 
74S374 
74S381 
74S387 
74S412 
74S471 
74S472 
74S474 
74S482 
74S570 
74S571 



1.95 

3.95 

3.95 

.95 

.95 

3.95 

2.95 

1.95 

6.95 

1.49 

1.49 

1.49 

1.49 

6.95 

7.95 

2.20 

2.20 

2.20 

.95 

.95 

.95 

.95 

.79 

19.95 

19.95 

1.95 

1.90 

1.90 

6.89 

6.95 

2.45 

2.45 

7.95 

1.95 

2.98 

4.95 

4.95 

4.95 

15.25 

2.95 

2.95 J 




DIP 
SWITCHES 

4 POSITION .85 

I 5 POSITION .90 

6 POSITION .90 

h 7 POSITION .95 

l8 POSITION .95 i 



ORDER TOLL FREE 

800-538-5000 
800-662-6279 

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS) 

IF YOU CAN FIND A PRICE LOWER 

ELSEWHERE, LET US KNOW AND 

WEtL MEET OR BEAT THEIR PRICE! 
(SEE TERMS BELOW) 

o * Computer managed inventory— 
virtually no back orders! 

• Very competitive prices! 

• Frieijdly staff! 

• Fast service — most orders 
shipped within 24 hours! 



LED DISPLAYS 



HP 5082-7760 
MAN 72 
MAN 74 
FND-357 (359) 
FND-500 (503) 
.FND-507 (510) 



.6" CC 1.23 

.3" CA .99 

.3" CC .99 

.375" CC 1.25 

.5" CC 1.49 

.5" CA 1.49 J 



LED LAMPS 1 

1-99 100-up 
Jumbo 
Red .10 .09 

! Jumbo 

Green .18 .15 
Jumbo 

Yellow .18 .15 



7400 
7401 
7402 


.19 
.19 
.19 


74132 
74136 
74141 
74142 


.45 

.50 

.65 

2.95 




4000 
4001 
4002 


.29 
.25 
.25 


4527 
4528 
4531 


1.95 

1.19 

.95 


7403 


.19 




4006 


.89 


4532 


1.95 


7404 


.19 


74143 


2.95 




4007 


.29 


4538 


1.95 


7405 


.25 


74145 
74147 


.60 
1.75 




4008 


.95 


4539 


1.95 


7406 


.29 




4009 


.39 


4541 


2.64 


7407 


.29 


74148 


1.20 




4010 


.45 


4543 


1.19 


7408 


.24 


74150 


1.35 




4011 


.25 


4553 


5.79 


7409 


.19 


74151 


.55 




4012 


.25 


4555 


.95 


7410 


.19 


74152 


.65 




4013 


.38 


4556 


.95 


7411 
7412 


.25 
.30 


74153 
74154 


.55 
1.25 




4014 
4015 


.79 
.39 


4581 
4582 


1.95 
1.95 


7413 


.35 


74155 


.75 




4016 


.39 


4584 


.75 


7414 


.49 


74156 


.65 
.55 
1.65 




4017 


.69 


4585 


.75 


7416 


.25 


74157 




4018 


.79 


4702 


12.95 


7417 


.25 


74159 




4019 


.39 


74C00 


.35 


7420 


.19 


74160 


.85 




4020 


.75 


74C02 


.35 


7421 


.35 


74161 


.69 




4021 


.79 


74C04 


.35 


7422 


.35 


74162 
74163 


.85 
.69 
.85 
.85 
1.00 
2.95 
1.65 




4022 


.79 


74C08 


.35 


7423 


.29 




4023 


.29 


74C10 


.35 


7425 


.29 


74164 
74165 
74166 
74167 
74170 




4024 


.65 


74C14 


.59 


7426 


.29 




4025 


.29 


74C20 


.35 


7427 
7428 
7430 


.29 
.45 
.19 




4026 
4027 
4028 


1.65 
.45 
.69 


74C30 
74C32 
74C42 


.35 
.39 
1.29 


7432 


.29 


74172 


5.95 




4029 


.79 


74C48 


1.99 


7433 


.45 


74173 
74174 


.75 
.89 
.89 
.89 
.75 
1.15 
1.75 




4030 


.39 


74C73 


.65 


7437 


.29 




4034 


1.95 


74C74 


.65 


7438 


.29 


74175 
74176 




4035 


.85 


74C76 


.80 


7440 


.19 




4040 


.75 


74C83 


1.95 


7442 


.49 


74177 




4041 


.75 


74C85 


1.95 


7443 
7444 


.65 
.69 


74178 
74179 




4042 
4043 


.69 
.85 


74C86 
74C89 


.39 
4.50 


7445 


.69 


74180 
74181 
74182 
74184 
74185 
74186 
74190 


.75 
2.25 

.75 

2.00 

2.00 

18.50 

1.15 




4044 


.79 


74C90 


1.19 


7446 
7447 


.69 
.69 




4046 
4047 


.85 
.95 


74C93 
74C95 


1.75 
.99 


7448 
7450 
7451 
7453 


.69 
.19 
.23 
.23 




4049 
4050 
4051 
4053 


.35 
.35 
.79 
.79 


74C107 
74C150 
74C151 
74C154 


.89 
5.75 
2.25 
3.25 


7454 


.23 


74191 


1.15 




4060 


.89 


74C157 


1.75 


7460 


.23 


74192 


.79 
.79 
.85 
.85 
.79 




4066 


.39 


74C160 


1.19 


7470 


.35 


74193 




4068 


.39 


74C161 


1.19 


7472 


.29 


74194 
74195 
74196 




4069 


.29 


74C162 


1.19 


7473 


.34 




4070 


.35 


74C163 


1.19 


7474 


.33 




4071 


.29 


74C164 


1.39 


7475 


.45 


74197 


.75 

1.35 

1.35 

1.35 

1.35 

1.25 

1.85 

1.95 

.75 

2.25 

1.35 

1.95 

1.25 

.75 

2.00 

3.75 

3.75 

.95 

.75 

.85 

2,25 

.65 

.65 

.65 

.65 

2.20 

1.75 

1.35 

3.15 

.85 

2.55 




4072 


.29 


74C165 


2.00 


7476 
7480 
7481 


.35 
.59 
1.10 


74198 
74199 
74221 
74246 
74247 
74248 
74249 
74251 
74259 
74265 
74273 
74276 
74279 
74283 
74284 
74285 
74290 
74293 
74298 
74351 
74365 
74366 




4073 
4075 
4076 


.29 
.29 
.79 


74C173 
74C174 
74C175 


.79 
1.19 
1.19 


7482 
7483 


.95 
.50 




4078 
4081 


.29 
.29 


74C192 
74C193 


1.49 
1.49 


7485 


.59 




4082 


.29 


74C195 


1.39 


7486 
7489 


.35 
2.15 




4085 
4086 


.95 
.95 


74C200 
74C221 


5.75 
1.75 


7490 


.35 




4093 


.49 


74C373 


2.45 


7491 


.40 




4098 


2.49 


74C374 


2.45 


7492 


.50 




4099 


1.95 


74C901 


.39 


7493 


.35 




14409 


12.95 


74C902 


.85 


7494 


.65 




14410 


12.95 


74C903 


.85 


7495 


.55 




14411 


11.95 


74C905 


10.95 


7496 


.70 




14412 


12.95 


74C906 


.95 


7497 


2.75 




14419 


7.95 


74C907 


1.00 


74100 


1.75 




14433 


4.18 


74C908 


2.00 


74107 


.30 




4502 


.95 


74C909 


2.75 


74109 


.45 




4503 


.65 


74C911 


8.95 


74110 


.45 




4508 


1.95 


74C912 


8.95 


74111 


.55 




4510 


.85 


74C914 


1.95 


74116 


1.55 




4511 


.85 


74C915 


1.19 


74120 


1.20 


74367 
74368 
74376 
74390 
74393 
74425 
74426 
74490 




4512 


.85 


74C918 


2.75 


74121 


.29 




4514 


1.25 


74C920 


17.95 


74122 


.45 




4515 


1.79 


74C921 


15.95 


74123 


.49 




4516 


1.55 


74C922 


4.49 


74125 


.45 




4518 


.89 


74C923 


4.95 


74126 
74128 


.45 
.55 




4519 
4520 


.39 
.79 


74C925 
74C926 


5.95 
7.95 








4522 


1.25 


74C928 


7.95 








i 4526 


1.25 


74C929 


19.95 


















TRANSISTORS DIODES 




PN2222 




NPN SWITCH TO-92 


10/1.00 100/8.99 


PN2907 




PNP SWITCH TO-92 


10/1.25 100/10.99 


2N2222 




NPN SWITCH TO-18 




.25 50/10.99 


2N2907 




PNP SWITCH TO-18 




.25 50/10.99 


2N3055 




NPN POWER TO-3 




.79 10/6.99 


3055T 




NPN POWER TO-220 




.69 10/5.99 


2N3904 




NPN SWITCH TO-92 


10/1.00 100/8.99 


2N3906 




NPN SWITCH TO-92 


10/1.00 100/8.99 


IN4148 (IN914) 


SWITCHING 


25/1.00 1000/35.00 


IN4004 




RECTIFIER 






10/1.00 100/8.99 



;»1982 JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. 



Circle 232 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 







LINEAR 










RCA 






VOLTAGE 




LM301 
LM301H 


.34 
.79 


LM348 
LM350K 


.99 
4.95 


NE564 
LM565 


2.95 
.99 


LM1496 
LM1558H 


.85 
3.10 


CA 3023 
C A 3039 


2.75 
1.29 


CA 3082 
CA 3083 


1.65 1 
1.55 ■ 


REGULATORS 




LM307 


.45 


LM350T 


4.60 


LM566 


1.49 


LM1800 


2.37 


CA 3046 


1.25 


CA 3086 


.80 I 


7805T 


.89 


7905T 


.99 


LM308 


.69 


LM358 


.69 


LM567 


.89 


LM1812 


8.25 


CA 3059 


2.90 


CA 3089 


2.99 ■ 


7808T 


.89 


7908T 


.99 


LM308H 


1.15 


LM359 


1.79 


NE570 


3.95 


LM1830 


3.50 


CA 3060 


2.90 


CA 3096 


3.49 ■ 


7812T 


.89 


7912T 


.99 


LM309H 


1.95 


LM376 


3:75 


NE571 


2.95 


LM1871 


5.49 


CA 3065 


1.75 


CA3130 


1.30 ■ 


7815T 


.89 


7915T 


.99 


LM309K 


1.25 


LM377 


1.95 


NE592 


2.75 


LM1872 


5.49 


CA 3080 


1.10 


CA3140 


1.15 I 


7824T 


.89 


7924T 


.99 


LM310 

LM311 

LM311H 

LM312H 

LM317K 


1.75 

.64 

.89 

1.75 

3.95 


LM378 

LM379 

LM380 

LM380N-8 

LM381 


2.50 
4.50 
.89 
1.10 
1.60 


LM703 
LM709 
LM710 
LM711 
LM723 


.89 
.59 
.75 
.79 
.49 


LM1877 
LM1889 
LM1896 
LM2877 

LM2878 


3.25 
1.95 
1.75 
2.05 
2.25 


CA 3081 


1.65 CA3146 
CA3160 

Tl 


1.85 1 
1.19 ■ 


7805K 
7812K 
7815K 
7824K 


1.39 
1.39 
1.39 
1.39 


7905K 
7912K 
7915K 
7924K 


1.49 
1.49 
1.49 
1.49 


LM317T 


1.19 


LM382 


1.60 


LM723H 


.55 


LM2900 


.85 


TL494 


4.20 


75365 


1.95 1 


78L05 


.69 


79L05 


.79 


LM318 


1.49 


LM383 


1.95 


LM733 


.98 


LM2901 


1.00 


TL496 


1.65 


75450 


.59 ■ 


78L12 


.69 


79L12 


.79 


LM318H 


1.59 


LM384 


1.95 


LM741 


.35 


LM3900 


.59 


TL497 


3.25 


75451 


.39 ■ 


78L15 


.69 


79L15 


.79 


LM319H 


1.90 


LM386 


.89 


LM741N-14 .35 


LM3905 


1.25 


75107 


1.49 


75452 


.39 ■ 


78H05K 
78H12K 


9.95 
9.95 


LM323K 
UA78S40 




LM319 1.25 
LM320 (see 7900) 


LM387 
LM389 


1.40 
1.35 


LM741H 
LM747 


.40 
.69 


LM3909 
LM3911 


.98 
2.25 


75110 
75150 


1.95 
1.95 


75453 
75454 


.39 ■ 
.39 ■ 


4.95 
1.95 


LM322 


1.65 


LM390 


1.95 


LM748 


.59 


LM3914 


3.95 


75154 


1.95 
1.25 
1.25 


75491 
75492 
75493 
75494 


.79 1 
.79 ■ 
.89 ■ 
.89 I 




T = TO-220 


K = TO-3 




LM323K 


4.95 
.59 


LM392 
LM394H 


.69 
4.60 


LM1014 
LM1303 


1.19 
1.95 


LM3915 
LM3916 


3.95 
3.95 


75188 
75189 




L = 


TO-92 




LM324 










LM329 


.65 
3.95 


LM399H 
NE531 


5.00 
2.95 


LM1310 
MC1330 


1.49 
1.69 


MC4024 
MC4044 


3.95 
4.50 


















LM331 










LM334 
LM335 


1.19 
1.40 


NE536 
NE555 


6.00 
.34 


MC1349 
MC1350 


1.89 
1.19 


RC4136 
RC4151 


1.25 
3.95 




n i r 






T)ISK DRIVES 


LM336 


1.75 


NE556 


.65 


MC1358 


1.69 


LM4250 


1.75 




Bl rt 






TAL 






LM337K 


3.95 


NE558 


1.50 


MC1372 


6.95 


LM4500 


3.25 


TL071 


.79 


TL084 


2.19 H 




TANuuin 




LM337T 
LM338K 


1.95 
6.95 


NE555 
NE556 


.34 
.65 


LM1414 
LM1458 


1.59 
.59 


LM13080 
LM13600 


1.29 
1.49 


TL072 
TL074 


1.19 
2.19 


LF347 
LF351 


2.19 9 
.60 ■ 


TM100-1 5% (FOR IBM) SS/DD 229.00 


LM339 


.99 


NE558 


1.50 


LM1488 


.69 


LM13700 


1.49 


TL081 


.79 


LF353 


1.00 ■ 


TM100-2 5%" (FOR IBM) DS/DD 295.00 


LM340(see7l 


NE561 


24.95 


LM1489 


.69 






TL082 


1.19 


LF355 


1.10 ■ 


























TL083 


1.19 


LF356 


1.10 ■ 




SHUG 
























LF357 


1.40 ■ 












H = TO-5C 


T = 


TO-220 


K 


= TO-3 












SA4C 


'OL 5V«" MO 


TRACK) SS/DD 1 9? 


I.95 



RIBBON CABLE 



CONTACTS 


SINGLE COLOR 


COLOR CODED 


V 


10' 


V 


10' 


10 


.50 


4.40 


.83 


7.30 


20 


.65 


5.70 


1.25 


11.00 


26 


.75 


6.60 


1.32 


11.60 


34 


.98 


8.60 


1.65 


14.50 


40 


1.32 


11.60 


1.92 


16.80 


50 


1.38 


12.10 


2.50 


22.00 



WIREWRAP CARDS 

FR-4 Epoxy Glass Laminate 
With Gold Plated Contact Fingers 

S-100BUSS 

P100-1 Bare — No Foil Pads 15.95 

P100-2 Horizontal BUSS 22.95 

P100-3 Vertical BUSS 22.95 

P100-4 Single Foil Pads Per Hole 23.95 

APPLE 

P500-1 Bare — No Foil Pads 15.95 

P500-3 Horizontal BUSS 22.95 

P500-4 Single Foil Pads Per Hofe 23.95 

IBM 

IBM-PR BUSS Lines + Pads 55.00 

GENERAL PURPOSE 

22/44 PIN ( .156" SPACING) 

P441-3 Vertical BUSS, 4.5" x 6" 13.95 

P442-3 Vertical BUSS, 4.5" x 9" 14.95 

36/72 PIN ( .1" SPACING) 

P721-3 Vertical BUSS, 4.5" x 6" 13.95 

P722-3 Vertical BUSS, 4.5" x 9" 14.95 . 



WE HAVE THE 
COMPLETE LINE 

OF IDC AhlD 
D-SUBMINIATURE 

CONNECTORS 



BEST SELLING 
BOOKS 

OSBORNE/MC G RAW-HILL 

Apple II User's Guide 16.95 

CRT Controller's Handbook 9.95 

68000 Assembly Language 

Programming 16.99 

CBASIC User Guide 15.00 

SYBEX 

Your Your First Computer 8.95 

The CP/M Handbook 14.95 

The PASCAL Handbook 18.95 

Microprocessor Interfacing 

Techniques 17.95 J 

MICROCOMPUTER 
HARDWARE HANDBOOK 

FROM ELCOMP — $14.95 
I Over 800 pages of manufacturers data | 
sheets on most commonly used IC's. 
Includes: 

• TTL — 74/74LS and 74F 

• CMOS 

• Voltage Regulators 

• Memory — RAM, ROM, EPROM 
| • CPU's — 6800, 6500, Z80, 8080, 

8085, 8086/8 
I • MPU support & interface — 6800, 
6500, Z80, 8200, etc. 



SIEMENS 

FD1 00-8 a ss/dd rti _ rtrt 

(801 REPLACEMENT) 259.00 | 

PERTEC 

FD-200 5% ss/dd 179.95 

L FN-250 s v ds/dd 199.95 J 



CABINET FOR 5 1 / 4 " 
DISK DRIVE 

• COLOR MATCHES APPLE 

• FITSSHUGART 

SPECIAL — $29,95 



BYPASS CAPS 

.01 UF DISC 100/6.00 

.1 UFDISC 100/8.00 

.1 UF MONOLITHIC 100/15.00 



WE NOW STOCK A 

COMPLETE LINE OF 

DISC, ELECTROLYTIC, 

MONOLITHIC AND 

TANTALUM CAPACITORS 



RESISTORS 

Va WATT 5% CARBON FILM ALL 

STANDARD VALUES 
FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG OHM 

50 PCS. SAME VALUE .025 EA. 

100 PCS. SAME VALUE .02 EA. 

1000 PCS. SAME VALUE .015 EA. 



JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. 

1224 S. Bascom Avenue 

San Jose, CA 95128 

800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) 

(408) 995-5430 • Telex 171-110 

©1982 JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. 



VISIT OUR 
RETAIL STORE 



— NEW HOURS — 

M-W-F, 9-5 

T-Th.,9-9 Sat. 11 -3 



PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING 

TERMS: For shipping include 52 lor UPS Ground or S3 tor UPS Blue 
Label Air. Items over 5 pounds require additional shipping charges. 
Foreign orders, include sulficient amount lor shipping. There is a S10 
minimum order. Bay Area and Los Angeles Counties add 6Vn Sales 
Tax. Other California residents add 6 : Sales Tax. We reserve the 
right to substitute manufacturer. Not responsible for typographical 
errors. Prices are subject to change without notice. We will match or 
beat any competitor's price provided it is not below our cost. 



552 BYTE March 1983 



Circle 233 on inquiry card. 



4116 16K DYNAMIC RAMS 250NS 8/ $ 1 1 9 s 5 e 



ALL MERCHANDISE 100% GUARANTEED! 



CALL US FOR VOLUME QUOTES 



^ VIEWMAX 80l DISK DRIVE 



A Full Function 80 column card 
for Apple II* — Compare these 
features with any other: 

• 7x9 dot matrix; Upper and 
lower case with true 
descenders 

• Soft Video switch 

• Inverse video characters 

• Shift key support 

• Fully compatible with Apple* 
DOS, CP/M*. PASCAL, and 
most popular word 
processors 

• 2 YEAR WARRANTY 



$219 



95 



JDR COOLING FAN 1 

FOR YOUR APPLE II 

• Easy installation — no 
modification of Apple 
required 

• Eliminates overheating 
problems 

• Switch on front controls fan, 
Apple, and extra outlet 

• Rotron whisper fan is the 
quietest, most reliable on the 
market 

195 



$ 69 J 



• Fully Apple* compatible 

• 35 Track — Will read half 
tracks! 

• Use with our controller 
(call for price) or with 
your Apple controller 

• Price includes case and 
cable — ready to plug in 

• Attractive cabinet 
matches Apple drive 

• 90-Day Warranty 



*299 



95 



ORDER TOLL FREE 

800-538-5000 
800-662-6279 

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS) 

IF YOU CAN FIND A PRICE LOWER 

ELSEWHERE. LET US KNOW AND 

WE'LL MEET OR BE A T THEIR PRICE! 

(SEE TERMS BELOW) 

• Computer managed inventory- 
virtually no back orders! 

• Very competitive prices! 

• Friendly staff! 

• Fast service — most orders 
shipped within 24 hours! 



JDR16KRAMCARD 1 

For Apple II* 

• Expand your 48K Apple to 64K 

• Fully compatible with Apple 
Language System — Use in 
place of Apple Language card 

• Provides extra memory for 
Visicalc™ 

• Run PASCAL, FORTRAN, 
Integer Basic with appropriate 
software 

• Highest quality card features: 
gold edge connector, sockets 
for all IC's I 

NOW WITH 2 YEAR WARRANTY 



ASSEMBLED & TESTED 
WITH WARRANTY 



KIT — INCLUDES ALL 
PARTS & INSTRUCTIONS. . . 

BARE PC CARD 
,WITH INSTRUCTIONS 



$4495 

$4095 
$-|495 



1 pp ^ 11 


L.H.J T 1 


■ 7> v . M [MasterCard! 


1 \ L «■ J 



MONITORS 

GREEN PHOSPHOR 
NECJB1201M $169 00 

ZENITH zvM-121 $119 00 

COLOR 

.AMDEK color 1 $ 335 00 



OKIDATA PRINTERS 

• 120 cps, 9x9 Dot Matrix 

• 50% faster than EPSON 

• Parallel and Serial interfaces 
are standard 

ML-82A $ 479 50 

ML-83A $ 699 95 

ML-84 PARALLEL... $ 1 059 00 
CALL FOR PRICES ON 82A TRACTOR OPTION 
AND 82A, 83A GRAPHICS OPTION. CABLES 
AND INTERFACE CARDS AVAILABLE 



SVa" DISKETTES 

ATHANA ss SD soft . . . 24.95 
MEMOREX ss sd soft 26.95 
VERBATIM ss dd soft 29.95 
VERBATIM 10 sect hard 29.95 

NASHUA 

TOP QUALITY - LOW PRICE! 

Single Sided, Single Density 
Soft Sectored with Hub Ring 

$19.95 box of 10 



NEWPORT 
PROSTICK 

Professional Quality 
Atari-Type Joystick 
Extremely Rugged — Actual 
Arcade game Joystick 
All parts are replaceable 
6 Month Warranty 

*31 00 EA *59 95 PR 




POWER SUPPLY *39 95 

MOUNTED ON PC BOARD 

MANUFACTURED BY CONVER 

+5 VOLT 4 AMP 

±12 VOLT 1 AMP 



SPECIAL THANKS TO 

MARC AND AL FOR 

THEIR HARD WORK 

AND DEDICATION 



•APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER. INC. 



31982 JDR MICRODEVICES, INC. 



Circle 233 on Inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 553 



If, X ?F MICRO 
lVl.fll. S/1££S 



• MADE IN U.S.A. BY AMERICANS • 



S-1 00-4 MINI'S 

Choose the System that fits your needs! 

A complete computer system ready to add 
on a terminal and printer. All Systems in- 
clude CP/M® software and system manual 
set. Full six-month parts and labor warranty 
excluding drives which carry the full O.E.M. 
manufacturers warranty. All S-1 00-4 Sys- 
tems advertised are in stock assembled and 
tested available for immediate delivery. 



MINI FLOPPY 

Only $1395.00 

COMPLETE 

• with 48 TPI single sided 
double density 5 1 A" $1 395.00 

• with 48 TPI double sided 
double density 5fc" .$1 495.00 

• with 96 TPI double sided 
double density 5W . $1 650.00 

An inexpensive but powerful system featuring a 
4 slot S-1 00 bus chassis with the XOR S-1 00 
board set; 4-MHZ Z-80 CPU • 64K dynamic 
memory* multi-sector mixed density disk con- 
troller • 2-RS232 output ports in the rear for 
your terminal and printer • 3 eight-bit parallel 
ports on the CPU ready to add a cable and 
interface to your printer • All above systems 
are in stock • Includes CP/M® 2.2. 

CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research 



DUAL DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS 




HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL 

Fully Assembled and Tested Units 

w/two Shugart 801 R SS/DD $ 975.00 

w/two Shugart 851 R DS/DD 1 225.00 

w/two Siemans 120-8 SS/DD 675.00 

w/two Qume DT-8 DS/DD 1 250.00 

w/two Tandon 848-1 SS/DD 995.00 

w/two Tandon 848-2 DS/DD 11 95.00 

Cabinet A&Tw/PowerSupplyandAccs.. 235.00 
Cabinet Top and Bottom Only— 69.50 



California CHP 

Computer WE E-i 

Systems 19 

SPECIAL! mmk 

CCS SYSTEM 2410 . . $1995.00 

• Includes CP/M® 2.2 • 2-Serial/1-Parallel Port 

• DMA Disk Controller • Hardware Vectored Interrupts 

• 2-Real Time Clocks • Supports CP/M®,MP/M®,OASlS 

CCS 2300 System , A & T . . 1 695.00 

• 2810 CPU Only— 255.00 

• 2422 Disk Controller Only— 330.00 

• 2066 64K Only— 360.00 

• 2300A Mainframe N EW! . . . Only— 455.00 

• CCS Apple Boards . . . Call Toll Free For Prices 




HARD DISK 

Only $2995.00 

COMPLETE 
These S-1 00-4 Systems may 
be very small in size (9"H x 
9%"W x 1 8%"L) but look at the 
size of the ATASI* 5V«" Win- 
chester hard disks we offer! 

4 models to choose from 

• Seagate 5 Megabyte System $2995.00 

• #3020 1 5.6 Megabyte* System $3495.00 

• #3033 26 Megabyte' System $3995.00 

• #3046 36 Megabyte' System $4495.00 

The above systemsinclude a 96 TPI double sided doubledensity 5 W 
floppy as standard. The hard disk is controlled via Western Digital's 
controller lor hard disks. Other features are the same as system at left. 

• Megabyte sizes mentioned above are the available storage space alter 
formatting. 




TAPE BACKUP 

with hard Only $4250,00 

DISK COMPLETE 

I — _ :: Now available through 
| U.$ Micro Sales, the 
XOR IRWIN 510 S- 
1 00-4 tape backup sys- 
tem with 1 megabytes 
I us, of hard disk storage. 

Back up your hard disk 
on a mini-tape (we're talking 10 meg.) in 
less than 3V2 minutes! The above system 
includes a 96 TPI DS/DD floppy drive and 
this system's modular design allows you 
to add a second floppy for only $395.00* 



*** XOR COMPATIBLE SOFTWARE *** 



WORD PROCESSING 
&TEXT EDITING 



$275.00 
100.00 
175.00 
135.00 



WordStar 

Mail Merge 

SpellStar 

Random House Thesaurus 

TEX (Text Formatter) 90.00 

Mince (Text Editor) 1 45.00 

Scribble (Formatter) 1 45.00 

(Both Mince & Scribble) 245.00 

Final Word (Word Processor) 265.00 

Peach Pack (4 Programs) 450.00 

Spell Guard 225.00 

WordMaster (Text Editor) 11 5.00 

The Word Plus (Spelling Checker) .... 1 30.00 



r 

DATA APPLICATIONS 

dBASE II $595.00 


Quickcode (Program Generator, 
Builder for dBASE II 


Screen 

250.00 


FMS-80 


890.00 


FMS-80-11 


440.00 


DataStar (Data Entry & Ret.) . 
CalcStar (Elec. Spreadsheet) . 
BT-80 (Rec. Retreival) 


245.00 

145.00 
175.00 


Access Manager (For B-Tree) . 
SuperCalc 


250.00 

265.00 


Mailman (M/L Manager) 


119.00 


NAD (M/L Manager) 


90.00 


Recover (Lost Data Recovery). 


65.00 



LANGUAGES 

MBasic-80 $290.00 

MBasic Compiler 325.00 

CBasic 2 100.00 

CB-80 (Compiler) 455.00 

Fortran-80 375.00 

PL/l-80 (Language) 450.00 

Pascal MT+ (Language). 445.00 

Pascal MT+ (Compiler) 31 0.00 

Cobol-80 (Language) 585.00 

C Compiler (Language) 21 5.00 

ADA (Compiler) 265.00 

MAC (Macro Assem.) 85.00 

Macro-80 (Macro Assem.) 1 50.00 



Formats for XOR, NORTHSTAR, ALTOS, VECTOR GRAPHICS, Etc. 



r COMMUNICATIONS 

Move-it $ 80.00 


Crosstalk 


160.00 


BSTAM 


149.00 


BSTMS 


149.00 


Term II 


150.00 


CP/M® HELPS 

ATI-CP/M Power 2.2 (Training) 

Supervyz 


75.00 
95.00 


CP+ (English Language Menus) .... 
Smart Key 


125.00 
50.00 


Smart Print 


30.00 


ISIS (CP/M*) (Translator) 


199.00 


Disk-Edit 


90.00 


L 





ACCOUNTING 

Peachtree - Series 4 

General Ledger $395.00 

Accounts Receivable 395.00 

Accounts Payable 395.00 

Inventory 395.00 

Payroll. 395.00 

Peach Pak (G/L, A/R, A/P) 900.00 

Accounting Plus CALL 

Structured Systems CALL 

Medical 845.00 

Dental 845.00 

Master Tax (Prof 1040) 1500.00 

Standard Tax (A 1040) 550.00 



OTHER APPLICATIONS 

SuperSort $190.00 

M-Sort 170.00 

Q-Sort 89.00 

Disk Doctor 89.00 

Pearl 1 (Entry Lev. Prg. Gen.) 45.00 

Pearl 2 (Int. Prog. Gen) 250.00 

Pearl 3 (Advanced) 450.00 

75.00 
75.00 
75.00 
75.00 
45.00 



ATI D.B. Power (dBase II Training). . 

ATI SuperCalc (Training) 

ATI MBasic (Training) 

ATI WordStar (Training) 

DeSpool (Background Print Utility). . 

ZSID (Debugger) 89.00 



Circle 437 on Inquiry card. 




TrW© [L®(§g)ftD®[n]® ft® ©®nw® ^©w 
ft EAST Coast Call (8 1 5) 485-4002 
ft WEST Coast Call (71 4) 891-2677 

out mmm toll w\mm 

state U = ©©© = «^i=®©0 

TERMS: We accept VlSA/MC. prepay, check or money order. Pteaseallrjw persona) check two weeks to clear before shipment 
S500ranrJI)ngchar9eonallO(tJef3urKtef S50.00. 15% Restocking Fee. Allordersshippedvia U P S unlessotherwsespedfied.AJI 
UPS C.O.D. orders overS 1 00.00 require a Cashiers Check. •Ourproductscarry a full6 rnonthspaitsandlaborwairantyexciuding 
drives, printeisand terminals which cany the full O.E.M. factory warranty. PRICES SUBJECTTO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. 

" UNIVERSAL POWER SUPPLY 

For Big Board, Apple or Aim 65 

+5VDC @ 3 Amps 
+ 12VDC @ .750 Amps 

-12VDC @ .750Amps 

-5VDC @ .500 Amps 
Dimensions: 4" x 4" x 1 1 " 



18 ST ffi« MICRO 
lyi.fll. SALES 



• MADE IN U.S.A. BY AMERICANS * 



* EAST * 11 Edison Drive, New Lenox, Illinois 60451 

• WEST +6182 Garden Grove Blvd., Westminster, CA 92683 




$69.95 



DISK DRIVE POWER SUPPLY 

For 2 - 8" or 5" Drives 

+ 5VDC @ 4 Amps 

+24VDC @ 3 Amps 

- 5VDC @ 1 Amp 

AC Cablesfor2 Drives $7.50 




Dimensions: 4" x 4" x 11" 



$59.95 



S-100 POWER SUPPLY 

+8VDC @ 30 Amps 
+ 16VDC @ 6 Amps 
-16VDC @ 6 Amps 

PC Board Design 
Dimensions: 5" x 6" x 11" 




$89.50 



TERMINALS 

Televideo 910+ with green screen. . . $575.00 
TV. 925. .. 739.00 TV. 950. . 945.00 

Adds Viewpoint Model 3A+ 51 9.00 

Zenith Z-19 740.00 

PRINTERS 

Gemini Star 10 $ CALL 

Epson MX-80FT $549.00 

Epson MX-100FT 699.00 

Okidata 82A 80 Column 465.00 

Okidata 83A 1 32 Column 745.00 

C-ITOH Prowriter I 525.00 

I.D.S. Microprism Model 480 565.00 

8" DISK DRIVES 

SA801R $388.00ea. Twofor$379.00ea. 

SA851R 535.00ea. Twofor 529.00ea. 

QUME DT-8 . . . 540.00ea. Twofor 529.00ea. 
Tandon 848-1... 395.00ea. Twofor 388.00ea. 
Tandon 848-2... 525. OOea. Twofor 519.00ea. 

BLOWOUT SPECIAL 
Siemans 1 20-8 SS/DD (full 90 day warranty) . . . 235.00 



by XOR . 



For test or systems applications 
Complete S-1 00 12 Slot Main- \ 
frame with Disk Drive Power Supply 
for 4 Drives. 

SPECIFICATIONS 

Regulated 
+5V @ 5A 
+24V @ 3A 
-5V @ 1A 
$225.00 Kit with 1 2 S-100 Bus Connectors 
$255.00 Assem. and Tested with 1 2 Bus Connectors 

$15.00 AC/DC Drive Cable Set for 2 Drives 
Dimensions 6" x 1 0" x 18" — Shipping Weight 25 lbs. 




Unregulated 
+8V @ 30A 
±16V@ 6A 




Low Velocity 
Whisper Fans 
On/y$18.00ea. 
Finger Guards 
$2.50 each. 



XOR 

S-100 MOD 



CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE 1 - (714) 898-5525 



^©®-4 




$1695.00 



• 4 Slot S-1 00 Bus 

•A- Two Separate Power Supplys 

• XOR S-100 Board Set 



• Inculdes CP/M® 2.2 and Manl 

• All Cables Provided 

• Dimensionsonly9"x9"x18 , /2" 



S-1 00-4 System Complete with: 

2-Tandon Thinline 8" (Model TM-848-1 SS/DD) 
Part#S-1 000-40 $1 695.00 

2-Tandon Thinline 8" (Model TM-848-2 DS/DD) 
Part#S-1 000-39 $1 950.00 

• ••SPECIAL OF THE MONTH*** 
8" Dual Drive Subsytem 1 .2 Meg Includes two 
Siemans 120-8 SS/DD Drives, Cables, Power Supplies and 
Cabinet. A&T Only— $675.00 



Apple 8" Disk Controller Card $395.00 

ZVX4 Dual Density, Single & Double Sided - Auto Boot 
Disk 2 + 2 Single Density Single or Dual Sided 

YsVA^ 300.00 

^s / 

Complete line of add on drives for Apple 
CALL TOLL FREE FOR PRICES 

Circle 437 on inquiry card. 




$1795.00 

TERMINAL 

• Feather Touch Capacitance Kybrd • 60 Key Standard ASCII 
•SO ROC Type Screen Attribute Sel • 8 Special Function Keys 

• Hall Intensity * 20 Screen Editing Keys 

COMPUTER 

• XOR S-100 Board Set • Includes CP/M* 2 2 

• Programmable Keyboard Set • 8 Slol S-1 00 Bus 

S-1 00-8 System Complete With: 

Shugart 801R Subsystem* (#S-1000-22) ...$2675.00 
Shugart 851 R Subsystem* (#S-1 000-23) ... 2925.00 

Qume DT-8 Subsystem* (#S-1 000-24) 2950.00 

Shugart SA 400 Minis (#S-1000-25) 2350.00 

Complete System, No Drives (#S-1 000-21).. 1795.00 

"Available in Horizontal or Vertical Cabinet 



n®@ mum 

IN YOUR S-1 00-1 2* 




Introducing a major breakthrough in technology . . . 
The removable cartridge disk called the Alpha- 
10™. 10 megabytes of removable storage space 
(14 meg unformatted) with the speed and reliabili- 
ty a Winchester offers. The complete system in- 
cludes the XOR Z-80 based 64K board set, the S1 - 
MOD power supply/mother board, the Alpha-1 0~ 
drive (w/ 3 cartridges), sitting alongside a Shugart 
851 DS/DD multi-sector floppy disk, CP/M® 2.2 
software and manuals, and we'll even throw in a 6 
month parts and labor exclusive warranty. 

(#S1 000-75) Complete $3995.00 

If you already own an S-1 00-1 2 w/2 floppies buy 
an Alpha-10 ,u upgrade package. Includes Alpha- 
1 ,u cartridge drive, cartridge control board,S-1 00 
interface board w/all necessary cables, software 
and manuals. System price includes 3 10 meg 

cartridges. (#S-1 000-80) $1 995.00 

*Extra cartridges available(#M-2000-51) . $50.00 

ALPHA-10~ is a product manufactured by IOMEGA'" CORP. 



Ask about our Low Cost MODEM Software 



Hayes - MicroModem 1 00 Ser/Por 1 1 0/300 Baud . . 
Hayes - S mart Modem 300 Baud Orig/Ans Director. . 
Novation -DCAT300 Baud DirectCon.Ans/Orig. . . 
Novation - AUTOCAT Auto/Ans/Orig Direct Con.. 
Novation- APPLECAT300/1200Baud Direct Con.. 
PMMI - MM103 300/600 Baud (S-100 BUS) . 



$275.00 
250.00 
1 65.00 
235.00 
350.00 
359.00 



SEE US AT THE WEST COAST 
COMPUTER FAIRE! 

Civic Auditorium Brooks Hall, San Francisco 
March 18,19,20, 1983-Booths#1844and#1846 

Don't miss out . . . Send us a postcard to 
get a 1 983 Winter/Spring Catalog 



FOR ONLY $129.95 Learn Computing \ 
From The Ground 




Build a Computer kit that grows 
with you, and can expand to 64k 
RAM, Microsoft BASIC, Text Edi- 
tor/Assembler, Word Processor, 
Floppy Disks and more. 

EXPLORER/85 

Here's I he low cost way to leam the fundamentals of com- 
puting, the all-imporlant basics you'll need more and 
more as you advance in computer skills. For just $129.95 
you gel the advanced -design Explarer/a5 motherboard, 
with all Ihe features you need to learn how lo write and 
use pmgrams. And i can grow into a system thai e a 
match for any personal computer on the market. Look at 
these features: 8085 Centrol Processing Unit, the 
microprocessor "heart'* of Ihe Explorer/85, {loin Ihe 
millions who will buy and use Ihe 8060/8085 this year 
alone!) . . . Four 8-hil plus one 6-bit input/output ports from 
which you can input and output your programs, as well as 
control exterior switches, relays, lights, etc. a cassette 
interface that lets yon store and reload programs you've 
learned lo write . drhixe 2.000 byte npertiting 
system/monitor makes it easy to learn computing in 
several important ways: • It allows simpler, faster writ- 
ing and entering of programs • It permits access by you 
to all parts of the system so you can check on the status of 
any point in Ihe program • ll allows tracing each pro- 
gram step by step, wilh provision for displaying all ihe 
contents of the CPU (register, flags, etc.) «... and il 
does much more! 

You get all this in Ihe starting level (Level A) of Ihe 
Explorer/85 for only 5129.95. Incredible! To use. jusl 
plug in your BVDC power supply and terminal or 
keyboard/display — if you don't have them, see our 
special offers below. 

□ Level A computer kit (Termmal Version) . . . S129.BS 
plus S3 Pal.' 

D Level A kit (Hex Keypad/Display Version) . . . $129,98 
plus $3 P&l.* 

LEVEL B — This "building block" converls the mother- 
board into a iwo-slot S10Q bus (industry standard) com- 
puter. Now you can plug in any of the hundreds of S100 
cards available. 

D Level B kit. $49.95 plus $2 P& I. * 
D SlOO bus connectors (two required) . . . $4.85 each, 
postpaid. 

LEVEL C — Add still more 
computing power, this "build- 
ing block'' mounts directly on 
the motherboard and expands 
the SlOO bus lo six slots. 
Q Level C kit . . . $39.95 plus $2 1 
P&l* 

D SlOO bus connectors (five 
required) . . $4.85 each, 
postpaid. 

LEVEL D — When you reach Ihe point in learning lhal re- 
quires more memory, we offirr wo choices: either add 4k 
of a memory directly on lh«; motherboard, or add 16k to 
64kof memoiy by means of.) single SlOOcard, our famous 
")AWS." 

Level D kit: (CHECK ONE) . . . □ Ikon-board . . . $49.95 
plus 32 P&I*: □ 16k SlOO "|AWS ; . . . $149.95 plus $2 
PAIVD 32k SlOO "|AWS"... $199.95 plus $2 P&1*; □ 4Hk 
SlOO "|AWS" . . $249.95 plus $2 P&l"; D 64k SlOO 
")AWS" . . . $299.95 plus 52 P&l* 

LEVEL E — An important "building block;'' it activates 
theflk ROM/EPROM spaceon Ihe molherboard Now just 
plug in our Bk Microsoft BASIC or your own custom 
programs. 

□ l>evel E kit . . . $3.95 plus 50C P&l " 

>Tt BASIC — It's the language that allows you to 
talk Knghsh b your compuier! ll is available three ways: 
D flkcassetteversion of Microsoft BASIC: (royuires Level 
B and 12k of RAM minimum: we sugjjt;st a 16k SlOO 
'■lAWS""— see above) . $64.95 postpaid. 
D 8k ROM version of Microsoft BASIC: (requires Level B 
& Level Eand 4k RAM: just plug into your ljevel E sockets. 
We suggest either the Ik Level D RAM expansion or a 16k 
SlOO "JAWS ') $99.95 plus 52 P&l.* 
D Disk version of Microsoft BASIC: (requires Level B. 
32k of RAM. floppy disk controller. 8" floppy disk drive) 
$325 postpaid 

TEXT EDITOR/ ASSEMBLER — The editor/assembler 
is a software tool (a program) designed to simplify the task 
of writing programs. As your programs become longer 
and more complex, the assr'Vnnler can save yuu many 
hours of programming lime This software includes an 
editor program that enters the programs you write, makes 
changes, and saves Ihe programs on cassettes. The assem- 
bler performs Ihe clerical task of translating symbolic 
code into Ihe computer-readable object code. The editor/ 
assembler program is available eilher in cassette or a 
ROM version. 

O Editor/Assembler (Cassette version: requires Level 
"8" and Bk (min ) of RAM— we surest 16k "IAWS" — 
see above) . . $59.95 plus $2 P&l.* 
Q Editor/ Assembler (ROM version, supplied on an SlOO 
card: requires I^evel B and Ik RAM (mm I — we suggest 
either Level D or 16k "JAWS") $99.95 plus $2 P&l.* 
8" FLOPPY DISK — A remarkahle "building block." 
Add our B" floppy disk when you need faster operation, 
more convenient program storage, perhaps a business ap- 
plication, and access lo the literal y thousands of programs 
and program languages available today You simply plug 
them into your Exploa*r/B5 disk system — il accepts all 
IBM-formatted CP /Myograms. 
D 8" Floppy Disk Drive . $499.95 plus 512 P&l.' 
D Floppy Controller Card . $199.95 plus 52 P&l * 
D Disk Drive Cabinet & Power Supply .. $6195 plus 
S3 P&l.' 

D Drive Cables (set up for two drives) . $25.00 plus 
SI. 50 P&l.' 

D CP/M 2.2 Disk Operating System: includes Text 
Editor/Assembler, dynamic debugger, and other features 
lhal give your Explorer/BS access to thousands of existing 
CP/M-based programs . . S150.00 postpaid. 
NEED A POWER SUPPLY? Gmsider our AP-1. ll can 
supply all Ihe power you need for a fully expanded Ex- 
plorer/85 (note: disk dn'wrs have ihe ir own power supply ). 
Plus the AP-1 fits neatly into the attractive Explorer steel 
cabinet (see below). 

D AP-1 Power Supply kil (8V @ 5 amps) in deluxe sUml 
cabinet ... $39.95 plus $2 P&l.' 
NEED A TERMINAL? We 
offer you choices: Ihe least ex- 
pensive one is our Hex 
Keypad/Display kil lhal dis- 
plays Ihe information on a 
calculator-type screen. The 
other choice is our ASCII 
Keyboard/Computer Terminal 
kit. thai can be used wilh either 




J, Plug in Nelrnnir 
K[.'y|)(i(i/Uisf)l(iy 
2 MM \j\m\ B to t:ri, 
Si 00 

,'J. MM Ik RAM 



i H«!) 



•». Plii£ in Level E h(;nr: in:- ■ 
COOts Microsoft BASIC or P 
K</i lor/AssemWw in ROM J 



... Ariel KvnSII JO hminl's 

r.rt lo li Add y on own custom cir- £ 

cuits (prototyping (iron) fc 

7. Conned Inrminul ■ 



a CRT monitor or a TV set (if you have an RF modulator). ■ 

D Hex Keypad/Display kil .... $69.95 plus 52 P&l* ■ 

■ 

□ FASTERM - $4 TERMINAL KIT - Featuring a 
ASCII Keyboard. 128 characier sel upper and i 
75onm output. 8 baud rates 150 lot 9.200 (sv 
able). RS232'C or 20 MA output 32 or 64 c 
hoe lormats, complete w 
Deluxe Steel Cabmel a 
Power Supply ... $199.95 | 
plus S3 P&l.* 



D RF Modulator kil (allows you to use your TV sel as a 

monitor) . . . $8.95 postpaid. 

D 12" Video Monilor (10MH2 bandwidth) $139.95 

plus $5 P&l * 

D Deluxe Steel Cabinet for the- 

Explorer/H5 . . . $49.95 plus S3 I 

P&l.' 

D Fan for cabinet . , $15.00 | 

plus $1.50 P&l.' 





ORDER A SPECIAL-PRICE 

EXPLORER/85 PAK— THERE'S 

ONE FOR EVERY NEED. 



r (Requi 
lsS2P-& 



D Beginner P«k (Save S261K)) — You gel Level A (Ter- 
minal Version) with Monitor Source Listing (525 value) 
AP-1. 5-amp. power supply. Intel 8085 Users Manual . . 
(Reg. S199 95) SPECIAL $169.95 plus S4 P&l.' 
O Experimenter Pik (Save 553.40) — You get Level A 
(Hex Keypad/Display Version) with Hex Keypad/ 
Display. Intel 6085 User Manual. Level A Hex Monitor 
Source Listing, and AP-1. 5-amp power supply . (Reg 
S279.95) SPECIAL $219.95 plus S6 P&l.' 
□ Special Microsoft BASIC P«k (SaveS103 00)— Youget 
levels A (Terminal Version). B. D (4k RAM). E. 8k 
Microsofl in ROM. Intel 60115 User Manual. Level A Moni- 
lor Source Listing, and AP-1. 5-amp. power supply 
(Reg. $439.70} SPECIAL $329,95 plus 57 P&l.' 
D Add a Rom-Version Text Editor/ Assembler (Req 
levels Band Dor SI 110 Memory). . $99.95 plus* 

Sttrtet 8" Disk Syitem - Includes Level A. B floppy disk " 

controller, one CDC H" disk-drive, two-drive cable, two ■ 

SlOO r.onnef tors: just add your own power supplies, ■ 

cabinels and hardware . . D (Reg. 51065.00) SPECIAL ■ 

$999.95 plus S13 P&l.' . . .D 32k Slarter System. $1045.95 ■ 

plus S13 P&l.' D 48k Starter System. $1095.95 plus $13 ! 
P&l. ' D 64k Starter System. $1145,95 plus 513 P&l.' 

O Add lo any of above Explorer steel cabinet. AP-1 five ■ 

amp power supply. Level C wilh two SlOO connectors. ■ 

disk drive eabirml and power supply, two sub-D connw:- ■ 

tors for connecting your printer and terminal . . , (Reg. ■ 

$225.95) SPECIAL $199.95 plu.s $13 P&l . * *" 

a Complete 64K System Wired & Tested S1650.00 Z 

plus$26P&).* ■ 

G Special! Complete: Business Software Pak (Savti ■ 

$625 00)— Includes CP/M 2 2 Microsofl BASIC. General ■ 

Ledger. Accounls Receivable. Accounls Payable. Payroll ■ 

Package . . (Reg 51325) SPECIAL $699.95 postpaid. \ 

^^^^^^^^^^—^^-^^^^^—^^-^^^^ ■ 

*P(tI stands I or "pmtrigi; fr iiisumri<:f;."Fr>rCanrttii(iri or- ■ 

<rr;rs. double this omotinl. * 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ■ 

Continental Credit Card BuyersOutsideConnecticut: ■ 

TO ORDER : 
Call Toll Free: 

800-243-7428 ! 

■ 

To Order From Connecticut, I 

or For Technical Assistance, J 

Call (203) 354-9375 ; 

- ■ 

CP/M is a reg. trademark of Digital Research ■ 

j|f (Clip unit mail unliw.ud)'^^ ■ 

SEND ME THE ITEMS CHECKED ABOVE I 

Tolal Enclosed (Conn Residents add sales lax) S ■ 

Paid by: ■ 

D Personal Check D Cashier's Check/Money Order ■ 

D VISA □ MASTER CARD (Bank No. ) Z 



_ Exp. Date _ 



City_ 



_Zip _ 



J^^ETRONICSResearch&Developm 



556 BYTE March 1983 




ANNOUNCING TWO 
NEW TERMINALS 

Smart* Fast • Graphics • Matching Modem and $295 Printer 

Netronics announces a state of the art 
breakthrough in terminals. Now at prices you 
can afford, you can go on-line with data-bank 
and computer phone-line services. It's all 
yours: "electronic newspapers," educational 
services, Dow- Jones stock reports, games, 
recipes, personal computing with any level 
language, program exchanges, electronic bul- 
letin boards . , . and more every day!!! 

Netronics otters two new terminals, both 
feature a full 56 key/128 character typewriter- 
style keyboard, baud rates to 19.2 kilobaud, a 
rugged steel cabinet and power supply. The 
simplest one, FASTERM-64, is a 16 line by 64 or 32 character per line unit, with a serial 
printer port for making hard copy of all incoming data, and optional provisions for block and 
special character graphics. The "smart" version, SMARTERM-80,features either 24 line by 80 
characters per line or 16 by 40 characters per line, it offers on-screen editing with page-at-a- 
time printing, 12,000 pixel graphics, line graphics, absolute cursor addressing, underlining, 
reverse video, one-half intensity and much more . . . simply plug them into your computer or 
our phone modem and be on-line instantly. Use your TV set (RF modulator required) or our 
delux green-phosphor monitor pictured above. For hard copy just add our matched printer. 

Price breakthrough!!! Own the FASTERM-64, a complete terminal kit, ready to plug in for 
just $199 95 or order the SMARTERM-80 kit for just $299.95, (both available wired and tested.) 
Be on-line with the million-dollar computers and data services today ... we even supply the 
necessary subscription forms. 

More good news: All the components in our terminals are available separately (see 
coupon), so you buy only what you need!!! 

FASTERM-64 . . . DISPLAY FORMAT: 64 or3 2 characters/line by 16 lines ... 96 displayable 
ASCII characters (upper & lower case) ... 8 baud rates: 150, 300, 600, 1200, 2400. 4800, 9600, 
19,200, (switch sel.).. . LINE OUTPUT: RS232/C or 20 ma current loop ... VIDEO OUTPUT: 1V 
P/P (EIA RS-170) . . . CURSOR MODES: home & clear screen, erase to end of line, erase cursor 
line, cursor up & down, auto carriage return/line feed at end of line & auto scrolling . . . 
REVERSE VIDEO . . . BLINKING CURSOR . . . PARITY: olf, even or odd . . . STOP BITS: 1, 1.5, 
2 ... DATA BITS PER CHARACTER: 5, 6, 7 or 8 . . . CHARACTER OUTPUT: 5 by 7 dot matrix 
in a 7 by 1 2 cell ... PRINTER OUTPUT: prints all incoming dat a . . . 1 K ON BOARD RAM . . . 
2K ON BOARD ROM . . . CRYSTAL CONTROLLED . . . COMPLETE WITH POWER SUPPLY . . . 
OPTIONAL GRAPHICS MODE: includes 34 Greek & math characters plus 30 special graphics 
characters . . . ASCII ENCODED KEYBOARD: 56 key/128 characters. 

SMARTERM-BO . . . DISPLAY FORMAT: 80 characters by 24 lines or 40 characters by 16 lines 
128 displayable ASCII characters (upper & lower case) 8 baud rates: 110. 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 
4800, 9600, 19, 200 .. . LINE OUTPUT: RS232/C or 20 ma current loop . . . VIDEO OUTPUT; 1V 
pp (EIA RS-170) . . , EDITING FEATURES: insert/delete line, insert/delete character, for- 
ward/back tab . . . LINE OR PAGE TRANSMIT . . . PAGE PRINT FUNCTION . . . CURSOR POSI- 
TIONING: up, down, right, left, plus absolute cursor positioning with read back . . . VISUAL 
ATTRIBUTES: underline, blink, reverse video, half intensity, & blank . . . GRAPHICS: 12,000 
pixel resolution block plus line graphics . . . ON-SCREEN PARITY INDICATOR . , . PARITY: Off. 
even or odd. . . STOP BITS: 110 baud 2. all others 1 . . . CHAR. OUTPUT: 7 by 11 character in 
a 9 by 12 block... PRINTER OUTPUT .. . 60 OR 50 Hz VERTICAL REFRESH .. . BLINKING 
BLOCK CURSOR . . CRYSTAL CONTROLLED . . . 2K ON BOARD RAM . . . ASCII ENCODED 
KEYBOARD: 56 key/128 character . . . 4K ON BOARD ROM . . . COMPLETE WITH POWER 
SUPPLY. 

TELEPHONE MODEM 103 O/A . . . FULL DUPLEX, FCC APPROVED , . . DATA RATE: 300 baud 
. . . INTERFACE: RS232/C and TTY . . . CONTROLS: talk/data switch (no need to connect and 
disconnect phone), originate/answer switch on rear panel ... NO POWER SUPPLY RE- 
QUIRED. 

ASCII KEYBOARD ASCII-3 ... 56 KEY/128 CHARACTER ASCII 
ENCODED . . . UPPER & LOWER CASE . . . FULLY DEBOUNCED . 
2 KEY ROLLOVER . . . POS OR NEG LOGIC WITH POS STROBE . 
REQUIRES +5 & -12V DC (SUPPLIED FROM VIDEO BOARDS) 
PRINTER COMET I . . . SERIAL I/O TO 9600 BAUD ... 80 
CHARACTER COLUMN (132 COMPRESSED) . . . 10" TRACTOR FEED 1 
. . . UPPER/LOWER CASE . . . INDUSTRY STANDARD RIBBONS . . . 
4 CHARACTER SIZES ... 9 BY 7 DOT MATRIX . . , BI-DIRECTIONAL 
PRINTING 

Continental U.S.A. Credit Card Buyers Outside Connecticut 

CALL TOLL FREE 800-243-7428 

To Order From Connecticut Or For Tech. Assist. Call (203) 354-9375 

NETRONICS R&D LTD. o. P t. 

333 Litchfield Road, New Milford, CT 06776 

Please send the items checked below: 

D COMPLETE FASTERM-64 TERMINAL (includes FASTVID-64 video board 
ASCII-3 keyboard, steel cabinet and power supply) ... Kit $199.95 plus $3 P&l 
. . . wired & tested $249.95 plus $3 P&l . . . graphics option: add $19.95 to 

□ COMPLETE SMARTERM-80 TERMINAL (includes SMARTVID-80 video 
board, ASCII-3 keyboard, steel cabinet and power supply) . . . kit $299.95 plus 
$3 P&l . . . wired and tested $369.95 plus $3 P&l 

□ FASTVID-64 VIDEO BOARD (requires + 5 & -12V DC] . . . kit $99.95 plus $3 
P&l . . . graphics option add $19.95 . . . wired & tested $129.95 plus $3 P&l . . . 
graphics option add $19.95 

□ SMARTVID-80 VIDEO BOARD (requires +5 & +/-12V DC) . . . kit $199.95 
plus $3 P&l . . . wired & tested $249.95 plus $3 P&l 

□ DELUXE STEEL TERMINAL CABINET . . . $19.95 plus $3 P&l 

□ ASCII-3 KEYBOARD (requires +5 & -12VDC) ... kit $69.95 plus $3 P&l . . . 
wired and tested $89.95 plus $3 P&l 

D POWER SUPPLY (powers ASCII-3 keyboard & video boards) ... kit only 

$19.95 plus $2 P&l 

D ZENITH VIDEO MONITOR (high resolution green phosphor) . . . wired & 

tested $149.95 plus $6 P&l 

D TELEPHONE MODEM MODEL 103 O/A . . . wired & tested $189.95 plus $3 

P&l 

□ DOT MATRIX PRINTER Comet I . . . wired & tested $299.95 plus $10 P&l 

□ RF MODULATOR MOD RF-1 ... kit only $8.95 plus $1 P&l 

□ 3FT-25 LEAD MODEM/TERMINAL OR PRINTER/TERMINAL CONNECTOR 
CABLE . . . $14.95 ea plus $2 P&l 

For Canadian orders, double the postage . Conn. res. add sales tax. 

Total Enclosed $. 




□ Personal Check D Cashier's Check/Money Order 

D VISA D MasterCard (Bank No. 

Acct. No. Exp. Date 

Signature 

Print Name 

Address 

City 



State 



Zip 



Unclassified Ads 



FOR SALE: Ohio Scientific CBP-DF. color video system, key 
board with numeric keypad, 48K RAM. dual 8-inch floppy disks, 
serial modem port, serial printer port. Cenrronics printer port, 
home control port, tone output. DAC output, and two joysticks. 
Lots of software, including UCSD Pascal. Complete documenta- 
tion (service manual, technical notes, and morej Also, Okidata 
MLBO printer and acoustic modem included. $3700 or best offer. 
Scott Ellsworth. 4260-1 Wilmington Dr.. Camp Springs. MD 
20335. \30l) 599-1847. 



FOR SALE: Commodore PET 2001 with BK bytes of memory 
and internal cooling fan. Lots of documentation, schematics, in- 
struction and learning manuals, programs, games, and miscella 
neous hardware. Excellent condition, hardly used (another poten- 
tial hobby that time didn't permit). S500 or best offer. James Yu. 
25 Clarkson Farm Dr.. Chesterfield. MO 63017, (314) 227-1094 
evenings. 342-2625 days. 



FOR SALE: I6K Interact home computer. 1500-bps built-in 
cassette player, connects to your color TV, complete with Level 2 
BASIC and Microchess program tapes, twojoysticks. and a service 
manual. Worth over S800. will sell for S350 or best offer. Apple 
Tree Press Inc., Attn: Tom Stevens. 1 20 South Liberty, Rushville. IL 
62681. (217) 322-6558 between I p.m. and 5 p.m. 



WANTED: SwTPC MP-R EPROM programmer. 8. K. Enckson. 
304 Southfield Dr.. Fayetteville. NY 1 3066. 



FOR SALE: A STD-Bus Z80 system consisting of a Mostek 
MDX-CPU-II Z80 board. MDX-PIO board. MDX-SIO board, and a 
Prolog M7702 2716 EPROM card ( 1 6K). This is contained in a blue 
cabinet measuring 14 by 2 1 Vi by 12 inches with a key-locking 
door. The power supply produces - 12V. I A; two 5V.5A sup- 
plies. The motherboard has 9 sockets with room for 16. Removed 
from service, less than two years old. and in excellent working 
order. Documentation included. Makes a great base for CP/M. 
S500 firm, Billy Garrett. 5515 West Market St., Apt. 801. Greens- 
boro. NC 27409. (919) 8520323. 



WANTED: Norwegian user group is looking for used ZXB 1 s 
and other compatible equipment. Also, looking for used disk 
drives and Percom Doubler for TRS-80. Will swap or sell pro- 
grams for both ZXB I and TRS-80. Ski ZX-group. c/o Jan Otto 
Reberg, Bjerkelundveien 1 5. 1 400 Ski. Norway. 



WANTED: Information for interfacing the Polyphormic 
system with the Trendata 1000 printer. Any information at all 
on the Trendata printer would be most helpful. Dr. James F. 
Calhoun. Dept. of Psychology. Psychology Clinic. University of 
Georgia. Athens, GA 30602. 



FOR SALE: IBM PC components and software: two 5 l A -inch 
disk drives. S200. Game Control Adapter. $45. Peach Tree ac- 
counting: General Ledger. Account Receivable. Account 
Payable, $550. Everything is brand new. T.L. Dawson. I 1908 
Broad Oaks A, Austin. TX 78759. (512) 258-61 17. 



WANTED: To correspond with Sinclair ZXB I (I6KJ users 
who wish to exchange software and information, or who 
know of a Sinclair bulletin board system. Steve Ketler. 46225 
Strathcona Rd.. Chilliwack. British Columbia V2P 3TI, Canada. 



FOR TRADE: Want to swap programs for the TRS-80 Color 
Computer. Send your list of programs and I'll send mine. James 
L. Payette, Box 250. Echo Bay, Ontario POS ICO, Canada. 



FOR SALE: TI-743 KSR terminal and Novation Car modem. 
Allows telephone direct-connect communications at 300 bps. 
Terminal has full ASCII keyboard and 80-column thermal 
printer. Modem is compatible with Bell 1 03 orig/ans. Rarely us- 
ed, in excellent shape. Best offer. Randy Miyazaki. 797 Sweet- 
water Way. San Jose. CA 95133, (408) 738-8330. 



FOR SALE: Versafloppy disk controller. S-100 bus- 
compattble. Operates with single-density, single- or double- 
sided S'A- or 8-inch drives: $ 1 50. Tarik Isani, 601 Alleghany St., 
Blacksburg. VA 24060. (703) 953-1490. 

WANTED: Need information on Digital's PDP-8 and inter- 
facing to a cassette tape player/recorder. Art G. Granzeier III. 
2860 B Sabre Dr.. Tyndall AFB. FL 32403. 



FOR SALE: California Computer Systems 2210A system 
(4MHz ZB0, 64K, DS/DD floppy disk controller, CP/M 2.2). 
Televideo 920C terminal, two OumeDT-8 drives in enclosure 
with power supply and fan. Best offer for any or all. Steve 
Dirickson, 33 Granite St. #205. New London. CT 06320, (203) 
444-7348. 



WANTED: Golf-handicap program listing, hints, assistance, 
etc. Trying to develop a program for my Osborne I and my golf 
association. Loren Martindale, 1746 West 25th Lane. Yuma. 
AZ 85364. 



FOR SALE: Rockwell System 65 Microcomputer Develop- 
ment System, 32K RAM. I MHz. Includes 16K static RAM 
module. PROM programming module. OS2 and OS3 operating 
systems with 6502 assembler, editor, diagnostic, and 
debug/monitor packages, plus User 65 host and buffer modules 
for in-circuit emulation. All documentation, factory serviced, 
and ready to go. Cost $8840. new in 9/81. Yours for $3000 
firm. Dennis Neff. 267 1 2 Calle Maria, Mission Viejo, CA 92691 , 
(714) 855-9585. 



WANTED: High school student needs used or surplus com- 
puter equipment. Can use anything from tapes and disks to 
drives and monitors. Nels Bruckner, 36823 Jasper-Lowell Rd.. 
Jasper. OR 97401. 



WANTED: Information on IMSAI 8080 kit. My kit is in- 
complete. I am a beginner computer hobbyist and would like to 
finish the kit. Any help would be appreciated. Also, some issues 
of Kilobaud Microcomputing for sale. J. Richard Laredo, 3211 
West Rohmann Ave.. Peoria. IL 61604. (309) 673-7854. 



WANTED: Engineering student would like to purchase a 
10-MHz. or better, oscilloscope. M68000 single-board com- 
puter; PCB manufacturing equipment; databooks and manuals. 
If you have (but are not using) any of this equipment, make me 
an offer. Tim Nye. 443 Simcoe St., Amherstburg. Ontario N9V 
I N4 Canada. 



FOR SALE: Heath H-19A video terminal assembled and 
tested. Complete documentation and schematics. Priced much 
lower than Zenith Z-19 yet completely compatible. Suitable for 
use with any RS-232C modem or computer with serial output. 
Hugh Henriques. 2416 Vails Gate Heights Dr.. New Windsor. 
NY 12550. (914) 565-3926. 



FOR SALE: O-bus backplanes. H9270 (4 by 4). H928 1 -88 (2 
by 8). and H928 1 -BC (2 by 1 2) . Would like $ 1 00 each, but will 
consider all offers. Bob Gordon. POB 394. Burlington, VT 
05402, (802) 985-29 1 1 . 



FOR SALE: Apple Integer BASIC firmware ROM card. This 
card has the old monitor ROM which contains instruction trace, 
single-step facilities, and 1 6-bit multiply-and-divide instructions: 
SI 00. Mark L. Engel. 345 Black Rock Ave.. New Britain. CT 
06052. (203) 229-0077. 



FOR SALE: Sinclair ZXB I with 16K. manual, cassette cord, 
power cord, and TV connector; s 1 50 value, first S 1 25 takes all. 
J. Mcmanus. 102 Brookside Rd„ Darien, CT 06820. (203) 
655-6568. 



FOR SALE: S-100 boards: BK Godbout Econoram II static- 
memory board. BK Logos I stat/c-memoiy board. Both assem- 
bled and in excellent condition: $60 each. Stanley Lee. 164 
Fallswater Road NE. Calgary. Alberta T3J 1 B3. Canada. (403) 
259-8440. 



FOR SALE: Centronics Micro printer with four extra rolls of 
paper: $ I 50. Intel SDK-85 System Design Kit: S 100. Vector rack- 
mount card cage with Compupro 6-slot motherboard: $100. 
CCS Floating Point Math Card for Apple: ^200. Keith Sharman, 
42 Rossmere Close SE, Medicine Hat, Alberta TIB 2JB Canada, 
(403) 526-0594. 



WANTED: A small to medium computer system for nonprofit 
educational organization. Needed for fund raising and book- 
keeping. Any donation would be fully tax deductible. Will con- 
sider anything. Mike Robinson. Kansas City Capital. Route # I , 
Waverly. MO 64096, (816) 493-2285. 



WANTED: Someone to program (burn) Signetics Prom 
#82S I 1 5 . I can supply chip plus program on 5V-2 7 1 6 or paper 
tape. Sid Tallman. University of Miami, Tritium Lab. 4600 
Rickenbacker Causeway. Miami, FL 33149. 



FOR SALE: BYTE, first issue to present. 13 volumes bound in 
blue buckram; 1982 issues unbound; $300 or best offer. 
Kilobaud Microcomputing, first issue to present. 10 volumes 
bound in brown buckram; 1982 issues unbound: $275 or best 
offer. Possible trade for Apple hardware. A. Osroff. 6774 Sunny 
Brae Dr.. San Diego, CA 92 II 9. (714) 461-6573. 



FOR SALE: Commodore PET 2001 series with BK RAM. Betsi 
interface board. 24K Expandoram memory board. Kimsi-Plus 
power supply, and a cassette with several programs including 
Space Invaders. Checkers 3.0. and Dunjonquest— Temple of 
Apshai. Best offer over S500. Donald Burden, Rt. 3. Box 219. 
Floyds Knobs. IN 47119. 



FOR SALE: Netronics Elf II with kluge board. 4K RAM board, 
three 86-pin gold-edge connectors, tiny BASIC on cassette, full 
BASIC in EPROM. and Giant board. Also. Netronics ASC II en- 
coded keyboard, video-display board, and RF modulator. Also. 
Emerson cassette recorder and homebrew power supply. Full 
documentation included. Complete operating system in ex- 
cellent condition. $350 or best offer. Will sell separately. John 
Mills. 52 Audubon St.. New Britain. CT 06053. (203) 229-3370. 



FOR SALE: Apple package: 48K Apple II Plus, two disk 
drives. 1 6K Apple language card, Hayes Micromodem II. Moun- 
tain CPS serial/parallel card with clock, and four boxes of disks. 
Software: BASIC. Pascal. Visicalc. Visiterm. DOS 3.3. DOS 
toolkit. Peachtree Accounting System for CP/M (A/R. A/P. G/L. 
Payroll), all manuals included. Plus, a free used Dataproducts 
matrix printer not hooked into system yet, but works. Complete 
package: FOB $3800. Art Manzo. I 130 Hopkins Ave.. Red- 
wood City. CA 94062. (415) 367-8833. 



WANTED: Replacement keyboard for Commodore PET 
Model 2001. Symbols have worn off the old calculator-style 
keys. Mark Zimmermann, 219 Dale Dr.. Silver Spring. MD 
209 10, {30\\ 565-2166. 



WANTED: Need any DECtape controller (preferably for 
PDP-9/1 5) DEC M boards, etc. for PDP- 1 5. Will trade DEC A, 8. 
G. R. W series boards, empty DEC racks, power supplies, etc. 
Also for trade or sale one new DLI I W I/O port for PDP- 1 Is. 
Looking for other users of DEC machines, we have running 
PDP-7, B. 9, 1 5, and people scrapping their antique DEC equip- 
ment. DaveRazler. 33A Clubhouse Rd.. Storrs. CT 06268, (203) 
429-0054. 



FOR EXCHANGE: Want computer equipment: printers, 
displays, hard-disk systems, software, etc. in exchange for oak 
furniture. Vern Blanchard, POB 445, Ramona. CA 92065. (714) 
789-6149. 



UNCLASSIFIED POLICY: Readers who have computer equipment to buy, sell, or 
trade or who are requesting or giving advice may send a notice to BYTE for inclusion in the 
Unclassified Ads section. To be considered for publication, an advertisement must be non- 
commercial (individuals or bona fide computer clubs only), typed double-spaced on plain 
whitepaper,contain 75 words or fewer, and include complete name and address. This ser- 
vice is free of charge; notices are printed once only as space permits. Your confirmation of 
placement is appearance in an issue of BYTE as we engage in no correspondence. Please 
allow at least three months for your ad to appear. Send your notices to Unclassified Ads, 
BYTE/McGraw-Hill, POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449. ' 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 557 



Unclassified Ads 



FOR SALE: Storage Oscilloscope. Tektronix Model 7834 with 
7AI9, 7A26, 7BB0. 7885. 7DI5. as well as Solder/Desolder PPS 
IOOA by Page. Sean Hegna or Ann Thagard. 235 East 
Bayfront. Balboa Island. Newport Beach. CA 92662. (714) 
673-33B3. 



FOR SALE: Persa 277 dual-disk drive. Fastest B-mch floppy- 
disk drive on the market. Functions as two conventional drives. 
I 8-ms track-to-track seek time. Voice-coil servo posit/oner: 
S400. Robert Morein. 1570 Arran Way, Dresher. PA 19025, 
|2I5) 628-86B4. 



FOR SALE: Two Percom data separators: S20 each. 
Cashier's check or postal money order. Construction Engineer- 
ing Inc., 125 Irving St.. POB 2154, Framingham, MA 01701, 



NEEDED: Someone to modify Radio Shack's Mailing List II 
program for use with extra disk drives. Joe Flores. 4247 North 
Arica Ave.. Rosemead. CA 91770. |2I3) 287-2195. 



FOR SALE: Datel 30 printer: IBM Selectric mechanism, serial 
input, needs work, S300 or best offer. Jeff Spirer. 3530 Henry 
Hudson Parkway. Bronx. NY 10463. |2I2) 796-6060. 10 a.m. 
to 3 p.m. 



WANTED: Protocol Converter. I need to communicate with 
IBM 2780 bisynchronous protocol through an asynchronous 
RS-232C serial port. I need a Black Box Catalog A/S 2 protocol 
converter or equivalent. Jim Hutchins. 3713 Forest Lane, 
Garland. TX 75042. |2I4) 272-543! 



FOR SALE: DECwriter II Model LA 36: Complete with 
Omnitec modem. Not currently in use. Best offer. Peter B. Roll. 
|5!6) 671-5100. 



WANTED: Correspondence from anyone who has had ex- 
perience using the Phasestore 5075 system, manufactured by 
California Micro Computer Company, in conjunction with an 
IBM 50, 60, or 75 electronic typewriter. W.J. Buchanan. 1 142 1 
Key West Dr. NE Albuquerque, NM 87 1 1 1 . 



FOR SALE: Digital Group ZB0 with 62K, 256 by 256 
graphics board (BK), audio-cassetre board, eight parallel ports, 
and four RS-232C serial ports. Quad Phi-Deck drive with con- 
troller, disk-drive controller board |no drives), real-time 
clock/interrupt board, PA. printer, full ASCII keyboard, and 
Sanyo 9-inch monitor Also, Oasis 5.3, Phimon, Image, and 
more. S2000 or best offer. Tommy S. Davis. Rt. I Box 61. 
Dnggs. ID 83422, |307) 353-2578. 



BOMB 




BYTE's Onaoina Monitor Box 


Article # 


Page 


Article 


Author(s) 


1 


26 


Build the ECM-103, an Originate/ Answer 








Modem 


Garcia 


2 


34 


The Enhanced VIC-20, Part 2: Adding a 








3K-Byte Memory Board 


Swank 


3 


44 


A User's View of COMDEX 


Pournelle 


4 


56 


The Promise of Perpendicular Magnetic 








Recording 


Johnson 


5 


68 


New Developments in Floppy Disks 


Moran 


6 


86 


Optical-Memory Media 


Rothchild 


7 


110 


Will Removable Hard Disks Replace the 








Floppy? 


Sa risky 


8 


122 


The Winchester Odyssey, From Manufacturer 








to User 


Toreson 


9 


130 


Building a Hard-Disk Interface for an S-l 00 


Cruce, 






Bus System, Part 1 : Introduction 


Alexander 


10 


152 


NAPLPS: A New Standard for Text and 








Graphics, Part 2: Basic Features 


Fleming 


11 


190 


MP/M II 


Schmitt 


12 


218 


User's Column: Sage in Bloom, Zeke II, CBIOS 








Traps, Language Debate Continues 


Pournelle 


13 


247 


Project Nebula 


Carlson 


14 


248 


Legionnaire 


Williams 


15 


251 


Omega Race for the VIC-20 


Wszola 


16 


256 


Quickcode 


Green 


17 


262 


A Faster Binary Search 


Larson 


18 


282 


Hayes's Stack Smartmodem 


McEntire 


19 


295 


Data Collection with a Microcomputer 


Kelly 


20 


310 


Build This Memory, Part 1 : How to Construct 
a Low-Cost Memory with 41 1 6 Memory 








Devices 


Spitzer 


21 


331 


A Peek into the IBM PC 


Field 


22 


389 


Keywords in a Fuzzy Context 


Smith 


23 


418 


ROTERP: An Interpretive Language for Robot 








Control 


Liming 


24 


436 


Using SOUND Arguments for High-Precision 








RTTY 


Persson 


25 


453 


Binary-Format Number Storage on the Apple 








II Disk 


Eyes 



FOR SALE: IBM Selectric I/O terminal and ball in working 
condition: S275 |needs character adjustment). Oscilloscopes. 
Hewlett-Packard dual trace: S250. Tektronix, dual- and quad- 
trace, dual writing beam: S295. DEC 1 1/05 cabinet with power 
supply, sockets, and fans as supplied by DEC: S295. Televideo 
Model 912. like new: S495. Core memory system in cabinet 
made by Fabr/tek for DEC PDP-! I computers: make an offer. 
Microfiche reader manufactured by Recordak: S85. Also, have 
many DEC module boards Murray Marcus. 918 Rockmont 
Court, Orlando, FL 32804. |305) 299-4229. 



FOR SALE: Ohio Scientific Challenger 4 personal minicom- 
puter with OSI65D operating system. 32K processor memory, 
two 5% -inch disk drives, and a Microline 80-cps dot-matrix 
printer; includes 20 disks, software, and games: S200 or best of- 
fer. Also have #33 Teletypewriter: S200 or best offer. Stella Ellis. 
POB 233. Westchester, IL 60153. (312) 345-2770. 



WANTED: Programming job to work on at home. I am an 
electrical engineer with 3 years' experience in micro software. 
2 x h years in micro hardware, and 2'/? years in other digital 
hardware. I have a Sphere and TRS-80 Model I with disk, but 
am willing to buy more equipment f like an IBM PC) if needed. 
Charles Skeldon, 5119 Irving Ave. N, Minneapolis. MN 55430. 
|6I2) 588-9088. after 6 p.m. 



WANTED: Exchange sailboat design: theory and navigation 
programs in BASIC or Pascal. Brent Farler. 10810 East 33rd 
Court. Tulsa. OK 74145. 



WANTED: Individual who uses computers for stock market 
investment decisions would like contact with any user clubs 
in the Louisville. Kentucky area. Also, with individuals using 
computer-assisted forecasting for any market. This includes 
subscribers to The Granville Maiket Letter. The Professional In- 
vestor, and other financial advisories. W.C Gaines. 1814 
Lafontenay Court. Louisville. KY 40223. (502) 244-0756. 



FOR SALE: Teletype Model 43 printing terminal with a 
Multitech acoustic modem: S800. Brian Keller. 1801 Pomme 
Rd.. Arnold, MO 63010. (314) 296-6230. 



FOR SALE: SwTPC 4K Memory Boards. S35 each or all five 
for S I 50 Would consider trade for Percom LFD Disk Con- 
troller, with Smoketran and complete documentation. Richard 
Carreras, |505) 298-9187. 



FOR SALE: ASR-33 Teletype. Distributor checked. Good con- 
dition. Used in bug book experiments as typewriter 
printer/paper punch. ASR manual rncluded: S 1 75. Pay shipping 
on delivery. G. Pliant. 1332 Mass, Joplin, MO 64801. |417) 
623-9991 



Part 2 is Number 1 

Steve Garcia won the December 
BOMB contest with the second 
part of "Build the Circuit Cellar 
MPX-16 Computer System." He 
will receive the S 100 kitty. Second 
place goes to Jerry Pournelle for his 
User's Column "A Slew of Lan- 
guages, a Slap at Documentation, 
and a Curse at Keyboards." This 
honor brings with it a $50 purse. 
Chris Crawford won third place for 
sharing his experience in game 
design in the article "Design Tech- 
niques and Ideals for Computer 
Games." 



558 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



Reader Service 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



118 1st NATIONAL COMP. 228, 229 

2 800 SOFTWARE 157 

3 A.S.T.RESEARCH 240, 241 

4 AB COMPUTERS 523 

5 ABACUS DATA INC. 231 

482 ACTION COMPUTER 290 

6 ACTIVE ELECTRONICS 382 

7 ADDMASTER CORP. 522 

8 ADV.COMP.PROD. 538, 539 

* ADV.DIGITAL CORP. 81 
149 ADV.LOGIC SYSTEMS 181 

10 ADV.SYS.CONCEPTS 514 

12 ADVANCED COMP.TECH. 526 

* ALF PRODUCTS, INC. 88 

13 ALL ELECTRONICS CORP. 508 

14 ALPHA BYTE COMP.PROD. 54, 55 

15 ALPHA BYTE COMP.PROD. 315 

17 ALSPA COMP.SYS. 373 

18 ALTOS COMP.SYS. 188, 189 

19 AMANUENSIS 202 

20 AMDEKCORP. 59 

21 AMER.SMALL BUSN.COMP. 473 

22 AMER.SQUARE COMP. 158 

493 ANATRON 354, 355 

23 ANUDATA526 

25 APPARAT INC. 167 

26 APPLE COMPUTER INC. 168, 169 

28 APPLEWARE, INC. 516 

29 APPLIED ANALYTICS 246 

* APPLIED CREATIVE TECH.INC. 22 

30 APPLIED SOFTWARE TECH. 131 

31 ARBA350 

474 ARCHIVES INC. 471 

32 ARTIFICIAL INT'L.RESRCH. 514 

33 ASHTON-TATE 208, 209 

34 ASPEN SFTW.CO. 78 

* AT&T LONG LINES 388 

35 ATLANTIC CABINET CORP. 514 

36 ATLANTIS COMP.SERV. 512 

37 ATSUKO COMPUTING INT'L. 526 

38 AUTOCONTROL INC. 526 

39 AUTOMATED EQUPMNT. 401 

40 AVOCET347 

41 AXLON 61 

42 AXLON 257 

43 B&B ELECTR. 522 

* BARGAIN BOARDS 524 

44 BASF SYSTEMS 153 

45 BAUSCH & LOMB INSTR.SYS. 199 

46 BAUSCH & LOMB INSTR.SYS. 199 

47 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC. 308 
125 BEAR COMP. 458 

48 BELL, JOHN ENGR. 509 

49 BELLE DE ST.CLAIRE 481 

50 BHRT 227 
506 BHRT 424 

51 BI-COMM SYSTEM 475 

53 BISON PROD INC. 294 

54 BISON PROD INC. 294 

58 BLAT RESRCH. & DEVELOP. 481 

59 BMC SYSTEMS, INC. 125 

60 BOTTOM LINE, THE 197 

52 BRS 105 

62 BT ENTERPRISES 518 

63 BUSINESS MANAGER 253 

* BYTE BACK ISSUES 473 

* BYTE BOOK CLUB 416, 417 

* BYTE BOOKS 205 

64 BYTE INDUSTRIES 471 

* BYTE PUBL.INC. 458 

65 BYTEK COMP. SYS. 384 

66 BYTEWRITER58 

67 C-SYSTEMS526 

68 CAB-TEK, INC. 480 

69 CALIF. DATA CORP. 512 

* CALIF. DIGITAL 540, 541 

* CALIF.MICRO.COMP. 469 

71 CAVERLY'S INC. 522 

72 CCM INC. 522 

73 CDEX CORP. 171 

74 CDR SYSTEMS 518 

75 CENTENNIAL SOFTWARE 132 

76 CHECK-MATE 476 

77 CHECKS-TO-GO 144 

78 CHIPS & DALE 526 

79 CHRISLIN INDUSTRIES 521 

80 CLAFF, WILLIAM J. 524 

81 COGITATE 512 

483 COLORADO CHIPS 508 

494 COLORADO COMP.PERIPH. 459 

82 COLUMBIA DATA PROD. 225 

83 COLUMBIA NATIONAL 176 

84 COMMUNICAL, INC. 244 

85 COMMUNICATION CABLE 528 

86 COMMUNICATIONS ELECTR. 525 
365 COMPATIBLE/QT306 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



500 COMPAQ 191 

136 COMP. ENTREPRENEUR 245 

87 COMP.COMPNTS.UNLTD. 519 

88 COMPONENTS EXPRESS 475 

89 COMPUADD514 

90 COMPUADD514 

91 COMPUCART 223 

92 COMPUPRO/GODBOUT 200, 201 

* COMPUPRO/GODBOUT 338, 339 

93 COMPUPRO/GODBOUT 444, 445 

94 COMPUSERVE 280, 281 
358 COMPUSHACK285 
360 COM PUS HACK 364, 365 

95 COMPUTER APPARATUS 530 

96 COMPUTER CHANNEL 529 

97 COMPUTER DISCOUNT PROD. 527 

470 COMPUTER EXCHANGE 108, 109 

471 COMPUTER EXCHANGE 108, 109 

472 COMPUTER EXCHANGE 108, 109 

101 COMPUTER HORIZON 524 

102 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS 72 

103 COMPUTER LEARNING TREE 220 

104 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER 398, 399 

105 COMPUTER PERIPH.INC. 69 

106 COMPUTER PERIPH.INC. 237 

107 COMPUTER PLUS 482 

1 1 COMPUTER PUBLISHING CO. 174 

108 COMPUTER SOLUTIONS 309 

109 COMPUTER SPCLTIES. 149 

* COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 259 

110 COMPUTERLINE INT'L-A 325 

1 1 1 COMPUTERLINE INT'L-A 378, 379 

112 COMPUTERLINE INT'L-B 506 

113 COMPUTERS & MORE 524 

114 COMPUTERS WHOLESALE 139 

115 COMPUVIEW PROD.INC. 63 

116 CONCORD COMP.PROD. 530 

117 CONCURRENT CORP. 62 

* CONNECTICUT MICRO COMP. 430 

120 CONTINUUM 160 

121 CONTROL C SOFTWARE 104 

122 COST PLUS COMP. 522 

* COUGAR MT. SOFTWARE 234 
124 CPU SHOP, THE 515 

126 CREATIVITY UNLTD. 489 

127 CROMEMCOCII, 1 

128 CROMEMC0 2 

130 CSCS508 

503 C.S.D. INC. 242 

131 CUESTA SYSTEMS 516 

132 CUSTOM COMP.TECH. 124 

* CYBERNETICS INC. 289 

134 D.C.POSTAGE 528 

135 DAMAN 528 

137 DATA EXCHANGE 512 
217 DATA MAIL 333 

138 DATA MANAGEMENT SYS. 518 
497 DATA MASTER 459 

139 DATA SOURCE SYS.CORP. 283 

140 DATASOUTH COMP.CORP. 335 

141 DATASOUTH COMP.CORP. 420 

142 DECISION RESOURCES 383 

143 DESIGNWARE INC. 489 

144 DIGISOFT187 

341 DIGISOFT COMP. 414 

145 DIGITAL DIMENSIONS 446 

146 DIGITAL MARKETING 6 

148 DIGITAL RESEARCH 33 

149 DIGITAL RESEARCH 181 

150 DIGITAL RESEARCH 343 

* DIGITAL RESEARCH COMP. 517 
152 DISCOUNT SOFTWARE 155 

* DMA 411 

154 DO KA Y COMP.PROD.INC. 534, 535 

* DOW JONES SFTW. 177, 178, 179 

157 DUAL SYS.CONTROL CORP. 211 

158 DYNACOMP 518 

159 DYSANCORP.9 

160 DYSAN CORP. 344, 345 

244 EASTERN ENTERPRISES 475 

162 ECONOMY PERIPHERALS 516 

163 ECOSOFT 469 

164 EDGE MICROSYSTEMS 514 

165 EDMUND SCIENTIFIC CO. 477 
169 ELECTRONIC CONTROL 462 

172 ELLIS COMPUTING 147 

173 EMERGING TECH.CONSLT. 488 

* EMPIRICAL RESRCH.GRP. 154 

166 EMS 510 

167 EMS 520 

175 ENERCOMP438 

176 ENGINEERING SPECIALTIES 148 

177 EPSON AMERICA 99 

178 EPSON AMERICA 408, 409 

179 ESSEX PUBLISHING 479 

180 EXPOTEK222 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



181 EXTENDED PROCESSING 508 

486 FACIT/DATA ROYAL 15 

182 FORMULA INT'L. 349 

183 FOX & GELLER INC. 375 

184 FRANKLIN COMP.CORP. 367 
430 FROBC0 522 

185 G-H COMPUTER SYS. 512 

186 GARDEN OF EDEN COMP. 508 

187 GENERAL SOFTWARE INC. 212 

188 GENIE COMP.CORP. 336, 337 

189 GIFFORD COMP. SYS. 203 
189 G&G ENGINEERING 203 

192 GILTRONIX INC. 520 

193 GTCOCORP. 137 

194 GTEKINC.286 

195 HANDWELL CORP. 516 

196 HAYES MICROCOMP.PROD. 46, 47 
198 HAZELTINE CORP. 341 

119 HEATH COMPANY 304, 305 

200 HEWLETT-PACKARD 84, 85 
478 HOBB-Y-TRONIX INC. 529 

201 HOFFMAN COMP. PROD. 510 

202 HUMAN DESIGN SYSTEM 87 

484 I.B.C. 19 

485 I.B.C. 19 

496 I.C.E. CORP. 459 

204 I.T.M. 432 

205 IBM CORP. 120, 121 

206 IDE CORPORATION 433 

207 IMS INTERNATIONAL 123 

208 INCOMM414 

504 INFORMATION REDUCTION 
RESEARCH 496 

210 INFOSCRIBE76 

221 INNOVATIVE COMM. 520 

501 INNOVATIVE RESEARCH 242 

211 INSIGHT ENTERPRISES 510 

212 INSTITUTE -SCTF.ANALYSIS 514 

213 INT'L.MICROSYS.363 

214 INT'L.MICROSYS.421 

215 INTEGRAL DATA SYS. 279 

216 INTEGRAND 412 

218 INTELLIGENT ARTEFACTS 333 

219 INTERACTIVE MICROWRE. 384 

220 INTERACTIVE STRUCT. 79 

222 INTERCONTN.MICROSYS. 313 

223 INTERDATA SYSTEMS INC. 524 

224 INTERTEC DATA SYS. 1 1 

225 IPEX INT'L. 524 

226 IRONSIDES COMP. CORP. 133 

227 ISA CO.LTD. 162 

228 J.C.SYSTEMS 20 

229 JADE COMP.PROD. 531 

230 JADE COMP.PROD. 532, 533 

231 JAMECO ELECTR. 542, 543 

232 JDR MICRODE VICES 550, 551 

233 JDR MICRODE VICES 552, 553 

234 JRT SYSTEMS 319 

236 JVB ELECTRONICS 516 

237 K & D ELECTRONICS 520 

238 KERN PUBLISHING 243 

239 KEY TRONICS CORP. 35 

240 KRELL SOFTWARE 404 

241 LABORATORY MICROSYS. 510 

242 LANIER BUSN.PROD. 460, 461 

243 LEADING EDGE PROD. Clll 

245 LEHMANN & ASSOC. 524 

246 LIGO RESEARCH INC. 173 

247 LOGIC PROGRAMMING ASSOC. 
516 

248 LOGICAL DEVICES 380 

249 LOGICAL MICROCOMPUTER 303 

487 LOGO COMP.SYS. 73 

250 LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS 405 
491 LOTUS DEVELOPMENT 266, 267 

251 LYBEN COMP.SYS. 528 

252 LYCO COMPUTER 431 

* MACMILLAN BOOK CLUBS 353 

253 MACROTECH INT'L. 235 

254 MAILCOMP INC. 427 

256 MANNESMANN TALLY 165 

* MARTIN MARIETTA CORP. 428 

259 MARYMAC INDUSTRIES 264 

260 MAXELL DATA PRODUCTS 135 
168 MBI 528 

* McGRAW-HILUBYTE BOOK CO. 
469 

261 MEDIA DISTRIBUTING 300 

262 MEDIA DISTRIBUTING 301 

263 MEGA CO. 472 

264 MEMORY MERCHANT 239 

265 METAMORPHIC SYS.INC. 17 

266 METASOFT CORP 422 

267 MFJ ENTERPRISES INC. 415 

269 MICRO AGE COMP.STORE 221 

270 MICRO BUSN.WORLD 270 



To get further information on the products advertised in BYTE, fill out the reader service card with 
your name and address. Then circle the appropriate numbers for the advertisers you select from the 
list. Add a 20-cent stamp to the card, then drop it in the mail. Not only do you gain information, but 
our advertisers are encouraged to use the marketplace provided by BYTE. This helps us bring you a big- 
ger BYTE. The index is provided as an additional service by the publisher, who assumes no liability for 
errors or omissions. *Correspond directly with company. 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



271 MICRO LOGIC 518 

273 MICRO MANAGEMENT SYS. 443 

277 MICRO MART 472 

274 MICRO MIDWEST 514 

275 MICRO MINT 371 
481 MICRO MINT 549 
502 MICRO MINT 242 

276 MICRO SCI 18 

278 MICRO WORKS, THE 271 
268 MICROADE528 

279 MICROCOMP.BUSN.IND. 254, 255 

281 MICRODYNAMICS 520 

282 MICROHOUSE 12, 13 

283 MICROPERIPH.CORP.THE 522 

284 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD. 
528 

* MICROSOFT 117 

* MICROSOFT 232, 233 

287 MICROTECH EXPORTS 406 

288 MICROWARE510 

289 MINI MICRO MART 381 

290 MK RESEARCH 512 

292 MONITOR DYNAMICS 512 

255 MONUMENT COMP.SERV. 236 

* MOORE BUSN.FORMS 226 

295 MORROW DESIGNS 83 

296 MORROW DESIGNS 434, 435 

297 MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS 403 

299 MULLEN COMP. PROD. 1 1 1 

300 MUSYS 477 

301 NABU COMMERCIAL TERMINALS 
219 

302 NEBS 284 

303 NEC HOME ELECTR.USA 159 

304 NEC HOME ELECTR. USA 161 

305 NEC HOME ELECTR. USA 163 

309 NEC INFORMATION SYS. 112, 
113, 114, 115 

310 NEC INFORMATION SYS. 351 

* NETRONICS 558 

3 1 1 NETWORK CONSULTING CORP. 
102 

312 NEW GENERATION SYS. 182 
492 NEW MEDIA GRAPHICS 516 
136 N.K. INC489 

313 NON-LINEAR SYS. INC. 92 

314 NORTH HILLS CORP. 510 

315 NORTH HILLS CORP. 518 

316 NORTHWEST MICROSYS. 
DESGN. 522 

317 NOVATION 466 

318 NOVATION 467 

319 NOVELL DATA SYS. 57 

* NRI SCHOOLS ELECTR. DIV. 385 

320 OASIS SYSTEMS 66, 67 

321 OMEGA MICROWARE INC. 291 

322 ORANGE MICRO 140 

323 ORANGE MICRO 141 

325 ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT 
SYS. 510 

326 ORTHOCODE GROUP 214 

327 ORYX SOFTWARE 413 

* OSBORNE COMPUTERS 145 

329 OSM COMPUTER 23 

* OWENS ASSOC. 426 

330 P.R.I.C.E. 510 

331 PACIFIC EXCHANGES 508, 512, 
516,520,524,526 

337 PALOMAR COMP.EQUIP. 386, 387 

338 PAN AMERICAN ELEC. INC. 482 

339 PANASONIC H.H.C. 150, 151 

340 PARTRAN CO., THE 528 

342 PERCOM DATA 7 

343 PERIPHERAL MARKETING INC. 518 

344 PERSONAL COMP.SYS. 299 

345 PERSONAL SYS.TECHN. 143 

346 PHASER 65 

347 PICKLES & TROUT 156 
498 PION INC. 317 

348 PLUS & PLUS CO, LTD. 258 

349 POPCOM 261 

350 PRACTICAL PERIPH. 24, 25 

351 PRAGMATIC DESIGNS 128 

352 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS. 37 

354 PRIORITY ONE 544, 545 

355 PRIORITY ONE 546, 547 

356 PRIORITY ONE 548 

361 PROGRAMMERS SFTW. EX. 288 

363 PURCHASING AGENTJHE 94 

364 QANTEXDIV. 91 

365 QT/COMPATIBLE 306 

366 QUADRAM CORP. 216, 217 

367 QUADRAM CORP. 423 

368 QUARK ENGINEERING 265 

369 QUASAR COMPANY 89 

461 QUBIE DIST 95 

462 QUBIE DIST 185 

370 QUME CORP. 96, 97 

372 RACET COMPUTES LTD. 471 

373 RADIO SHACK CIV 

374 RANA SYSTEMS 42, 43 

375 RCA 361 

376 RCSINC. 488 

324 RED BARON 292, 293 

377 RED GATE PUBLCO. 90 

378 RIXON 324 

379 ROLAND CORP. 101 



March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 559 



Reader Service 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



410 RTL PROGRAMMING AIDS 508 

381 S&W COMPUTER SUPPLY 472 

382 S-100INC. 274 

383 SAGE COMP.TECH. 287 
488 SATURN SYSTEMS 129 

384 SCIENTIFIC ENG. 520 

476 SCION CORP 5 

477 SCION CORP 5 

* SCOTTSDALE SYSTEMS 377 
386 SEARS GROUP, THE 524 

388 SEIKOSHA CORP. 107 

389 SIERRA DATA SCIENCES 39 

390 SIERRA DATA SCIENCES 402 

391 SIGEN CORP. 260 

392 SIGMATEK520 

393 SILVER-REED AMERICA, INC. 136 

* SINCLAIR RESEARCH 419 

394 SLR 508 

395 SLUDER480 

396 SOFTCORP INT'L. 186 
235 SOFTWARE ASSOC. 238 

397 SOFTWARE BANC 359 

398 SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS 528 

399 SOFTWARE TECHNIQUE 510 

400 SONICS MICRO SYS. 75 
473 STANDARD SOFTWARE 312 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



401 STAR COMPUTER 207 

" STAR LOGIC 442 

499 STAR MICRONICS 369 

403 STEMMOS LTD. 198 

404 STREET ELECTR. CORP. 48 

405 STSC INC. 407 

406 SUNTRONICS 536, 537 

407 SUPERSOFT 195 

408 SYNCOM SYSTEMS 52 

409 SYQUEST TECH. 119 
380 SYSTEMED512 

41 1 SYSTEMS STRATEGIES 260 

412 TAB BOOKS 465 

413 TALLGRASSTECH.82 

414 TARBELL ELECTR. 486 

415 TATUM LABS 447 
357 TAVA CORP 269 
359 TAVA CORP 330 

416 TAYCO BUSINESS FORMS 518 

417 TDK ELECTRONICS 175 

419 TECH-DATA CORP. 526 

420 TECMAR INC. 263 

* TEKTRONIX INC. 71 

421 TELECON SYSTEMS 40 

422 TELETEK51 

423 TERMINALS TERRIFIC 450 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



* TEXAS COMP.SYS. 437 

425 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 183 

• TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 272, 273 

426 TEXPRINT516 

387 TIMESAVER SYS. 526 

427 TIMESHARING DEV. INC. 410 

479 TINNEY, RBT GRAPHICS 213 

480 TINNEY, RBT GRAPHICS 252 

428 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC. 429 
495 TOPAZ 93 

429 TOTAL ACCESS 425 
153 TRAKSTOR 513 

489 TRILOG 448 

490 TRILOG 449 

432 TRISOFT358 

433 TRISTAR DATA SYS. 400 

435 TSK ELECTR.CORP. 77 

436 TYCOMP COMPANY 447 

437 U.S. MICRO SALES 554, 555 

438 U.S. ROBOTICS 118 

439 U.S. EXCHANGE 514 

440 ULTRA MAGNETICS TECHN. 215 

441 UNITED SFTW.CO. 103 

442 VECTRIX41 

443 VIDEX 21 

444 VINTAGE BOOKS 473 



Inquiry No. 



Page No. 



445 VISUAL TECH.INC. 127 

446 VOTRAX 277 

449 WADSWORTH ELECT.PUBL. 275 

450 WASHINGTON COMP.SERV. 236 

451 WASHINGTON COMP.SERV. 511 

452 WE SOFTWARE 518 

453 WESPER MICROSYSTEMS 479 

* WESTICO INC. 49 

454 WESTWARE357 

455 WESTWARE357 

456 WHITESMITHS LTD 50 

457 WIN/MILL RESEARCH INC. 508 

458 WINTEK CORP. 520 

459 WINTERHALTER & ASSOC. 477 

460 WORDTECH SYSTEMS 64 

464 WW COMPONENT SUPPLY 441 

465 WYSE TECHNOLOGY 193 

466 XCOMP329 

467 YANG ELECTRONIC 522 

* ZILOG COMP. SYS. 53 

^Correspond directly with company. 



National Advertising Sales Representatives: 



Northeast 

ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, Rl, DE, MD, VA, 
WV, OK, TX, Upstate NY, Eastern 
Canada 

Hajar Associates 

280 Hillside Ave. 

Needham Heights, MA 02194 

(617)444-3946 

Mid Atlantic 

NY, NYC, NJ, PA 

Hajar Associates 
321 Broad St. 
Red Bank, NJ 07701 
(201) 741-7744 

Southeast 

NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, TN, 
KY, LA 

Maggie McClelland 

McGraw-Hill Publication 

4170 Ashford Dunwoody Road 

Suite 420 

Atlanta, GA 30319 

(404) 2520626 



Midwest 

MN, Wl, Ml, IA, IL, IN, OH, 
MO, NE, KS, ND, SD, AR 

Hajar Associates 
5225 Old Orchard Rd. 
Suite 50 

Skokle, IL 60076 
(312) 966-01 60 

Northwest 

AK, HI, WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, Northern 
California, Nevada Except Las Vegas, 
Western Canada 

Bill McAfee 

McGraw-Hill Publications 

1000 Elwell Court 

Suite 124 

Palo Alto, CA 94303 

(415)968-0280 



Southwest 

UT, CO, AZ, NM, Las Vegas, Southern 
California 

Page Goodrich 
McGraw-Hill Publications 
3001 Red Hill Avenue 
Building #1-Sulte 222 
Costa Mesa, CA 92626 
(714) 557-6292 

Karen Nlles 

McGraw-Hill Publications 
3200 Wllshlre Boulevard 
Los Angeles, CA 90010 
(213)480-5243 
(21 3) 487-1 1 60 

West Coast Surplus and 
Retail Accounts 

Tom Harvey 

3463 State Street 

Suite 256 

Santa Barbara, CA 93105 

(805) 964-8577 



European Advertising 


Sales Representatives: 






Mrs. Maria Sarmlento 




Mr. Fritz Krusebecker 




Mr. Ello Gonzaga 


Pedro Telxelra 8, Off. 320 




McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 




McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 


Iberia Mart 1 




Lleblgstrasse 27C 




Via Baracchlnl 1 


Madrid 4, Spain 




D-6000 Frankfurt/Main 1 




20123 Milan, Italy 


45 52 891 


: 


West Germany 




86 90 617 




72 01 81 




Mr. Andrew Karnlg 










Andrew Karnlg & Associates 




Mr. Michael Sales 




Far East/Pacific 


Kungsholmsgatan 10 




McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 




Seavex Ltd. 


112 27 Stockholm, Sweden 




1 7 rue Georges Bizet 




05-49/50 Tanglln Shopping Center 


08 51 68 70 




F 75116 Paris 
France 




19 Tanglln Rd. Singapore 1024 
Republic of Singapore 


Mr. Hans Csokor 




720 33 42 






Publlmedia 










Relsnerstrasse 61 




Mr. Simon Smith 




Seavex, Ltd. 


A-1 037 Vienna, Austria 




McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 
34 Dover St. 




Room 102, Yu Yuet Lai Bldg. 
43-55 Wyndham St. Central 


Mrs. Gurlt Gepner 




London W1X3RA 




Hong Kong 


McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 




England 






1 1 5 Yosephtal St. 




01 493 1451 






Bat Yam, Israel 










866 561 321 39 











560 March 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc 



EiTI 



READER SERVICE 



m 



For fastest service transfer mailer label from wrapper to 
coupon provided at the right. Requests cannot be honored 
unless zip code is given. This card valid for 90 days only. 
NOTE— If label is missing or defaced fill out coupon 
carefully— PLEASE PRINT— this is the only way to get 
requested material to you. 



Name 

(Title) 

Address . 

City. . 



.(Company) 



. State . 



21 41 

22 42 

23 43 

24 44 

25 45 

26 46 

27 47 

8 28 48 

9 29 49 

10 30 50 

11 31 51 

12 32 52 

13 33 53 

14 34 54 

15 35 55 

16 36 56 

17 37 57 

18 38 58 

19 39 59 

20 40 60 



61 


81 


62 


82 


63 


83 


64 


84 


65 


85 


66 


86 


67 


87 


68 


88 


69 


89 


70 


90 


71 


91 


72 


92 


73 


93 


74 


94 


75 


95 


76 


96 


77 


97 


78 


98 


79 


99 


80 


100 



101 121 

102 122 

103 123 

104 124 

105 125 

106 126 

107 127 

108 128 

109 129 

110 130 

111 131 

112 132 

113 133 

114 134 

115 135 

116 136 

117 137 

118 138 

119 139 

120 140 



141 


161 


181 


142 


162 


182 


143 


163 


183 


144 


164 


184 


145 


165 


185 


146 


166 


186 


147 


167 


187 


148 


168 


188 


149 


169 


189 


150 


170 


190 


151 


171 


191 


152 


172 


192 


153 


173 


193 


154 


174 


194 


155 


175 


195 


156 


176 


196 


157 


177 


197 


158 


178 


198 


159 


179 


199 


160 


180 


200 



201 221 

202 222 

203 223 

204 224 

205 225 

206 226 

207 227 

208 228 

209 229 

210 230 

211 231 

212 232 

213 233 

214 234 

215 235 

216 236 

217 237 

218 238 

219 239 

220 240 



241 261 281 

242 262 282 

243 263 283 

244 264 284 

245 265 285 

246 266 286 

247 267 287 

248 268 288 

249 269 289 

250 270 290 

251 271 291 

252 272 292 

253 273 293 

254 274 294 

255 275 295 

256 276 296 

257 277 297 

258 278 298 

259 279 299 

260 280 300 



301 321 

302 322 

303 323 

304 324 

305 325 

306 326 

307 327 

308 328 

309 329 

310 330 

311 331 

312 332 

313 333 

314 334 

315 335 

316 336 

317 337 

318 338 

319 339 

320 340 



341 


361 


381 


342 362 382 


343 


363 


383 


344 


364 


384 


345 


365 


385 


346 


366 


386 


347 


367 


387 


348 


368 


388 


349 


369 


389 


350 


370 


390 


351 


371 


391 


352 


372 


392 


353 


373 


393 


354 


374 


394 


355 


375 


395 


356 


376 


396 


357 


377 


397 


358 


378 


398 


359 


379 


399 


360 


380 


400 



401 421 441 

402 422 442 

403 423 443 

404 424 444 

405 425 445 

406 426 446 

407 427 447 

408 428 448 

409 429 449 

410 430 450 

411 431 451 

412 432 452 

413 433 453 

414 434 454 

415 435 455 

416 436 456 

417 437 457 

418 438 458 

419 439 459 

420 440 460 



461 481 

462 482 

463 483 

464 484 

465 485 

466 486 

467 487 

468 488 

469 489 

470 490 

471 491 

472 492 

473 493 

474 494 

475 495 

476 496 

477 497 

478 498 

479 499 

480 500 



501 521 541 

502 522 542 

503 523 543 

504 524 544 

505 525 545 

506 526 546 

507 527 547 

508 528 548 

509 529 549 

510 530 550 

511 531 551 

512 532 552 

513 533 553 

514 534 554 

515 535 555 

516 536 556 

517 537 557 

518 538 558 

519 539 559 

520 540 560 



561 


581 


562 


582 


563 


583 


564 


584 


565 


585 


566 


586 


567 


587 


568 


588 


569 


589 


570 


590 


571 


591 


572 


592 


573 


593 


574 


594 


575 


595 


576 


596 


577 


597 


578 


598 


579 


599 


580 


600 



60i ^ 

602 6226**- 




603 623 


643 


66?TjB^ 


604 624 


644 


664 684 


605 625 


645 


665 685 


606 626 


646 


666 686 


607 627 


647 


667 687 


608 628 


648 


668 688 


609 629 


649 


669 689 


610 630 


650 


670 690 


611 631 


651 


671 691 


612 632 


652 


672 692 


613 633 


653 


673 693 


614 634 


654 


674 694 


615 635 


655 


675 695 


616 636 


656 


676 696 


617 637 


657 


677 697 


618 638 


658 


678 698 


619 639 


659 


679 699 


620 640 


660 


680 700 



BTTE 1 Bt/IVIB is your direct line to the editor's desk. Each month, the authors of the two top-rated articles receive bonuses based on your 
evaluation. First look at the list of this month's articles and corresponding article numbers [located in the unclassified ads section on the page preceding the 
Reader Service list), then rate each article you've read as Excellent/ Good, Fair, or Poor, based on your overall impression of the article, by circling the ap- 
propriate number in each column below. Your feedback helps to produce the best possible magazine each month. 



Article No. 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


25 


Excellent 


801 


805 


809 


813 


817 


821 


825 


829 


833 


837 


841 


845 


849 


853 


857 


861 


865 


869 


873 


877 


881 


885 


889 


893 


897 


Good 


802 


806 


810 


814 


818 


822 


826 


830 


834 


838 


842 


846 


850 


854 


858 


862 


866 


870 


874 


878 


882 


886 


890 


894 


898 


Fair 


803 


807 


811 


815 


819 


823 


827 


831 


835 


839 


843 


847 


851 


855 


859 


863 


867 


871 


875 


879 


883 


887 


891 


895 


899 


Poor 


804 


808 


812 


816 


820 


824 


828 


832 


836 


840 


844 


848 


852 


856 


860 


864 


868 


872 


876 


880 


884 


888 


892 


896 


900 


Comments 





BITI 



READER SERVICE 



m 



MARCH 1983 
4133 



Name . 



For fastest service transfer mailer label from wrapper to 
coupon provided at the right. Requests cannot be honored 
unless zip code is given. This card valid for 90 days only. 
NOTE— if label is missing or defaced fill out coupon 
carefully— PLEASE PRINT— this is the only way to get 
requested material to you. 



(Title) . 



. (Company) 



Address . 
City. , 



. State . 



.Zip. 



8 28 

9 29 

10 30 

11 31 

12 32 

13 33 

14 34 

15 35 

16 36 

17 37 

18 38 

19 39 

20 40 



41 61 

42 62 

43 63 

44 64 

45 65 

46 66 

47 67 

48 68 

49 69 

50 70 

51 71 

52 72 

53 73 

54 74 

55 75 

56 76 

57 77 

58 78 

59 79 



60 80 100 



101 121 

102 122 

103 123 

104 124 

105 125 

106 126 

107 127 

108 128 

109 129 

110 130 

111 131 

112 132 

113 133 

114 134 

115 135 

116 136 

117 137 

118 138 

119 139 

120 140 



141 


161 


181 


142 


162 


182 


143 


163 


183 


144 


164 


184 


145 


165 


185 


146 


166 


186 


147 


167 


187 


148 


168 


188 


149 


169 


189 


150 


170 


190 


151 


171 


191 


152 


172 


192 


153 


173 


193 


154 


174 


194 


155 


175 


195 


156 


176 


196 


157 


177 


197 


158 


178 


198 


159 


179 


199 


160 


180 


200 



201 221 

202 222 

203 223 

204 224 

205 225 

206 226 

207 227 

208 228 

209 229 

210 230 

211 231 

212 232 

213 233 

214 234 

215 235 

216 236 

217 237 

218 238 

219 239 

220 240 



241 


261 


281 


242 


262 


282 


243 


263 


283 


244 


264 


284 


245 


265 


285 


246 


266 


286 


247 


267 


287 


248 


268 


288 


249 


269 


289 


250 


270 


290 


251 


271 


291 


252 


272 


292 


253 


273 


293 


254 


274 


294 


255 


275 


295 


256 


276 


296 


257 


277 


297 


258 


278 


298 


259 


279 


299 


260 


280 


300 



301 321 

302 322 

303 323 

304 324 

305 325 

306 326 

307 327 

308 328 

309 329 

310 330 

311 331 

312 332 

313 333 

314 334 

315 335 

316 336 

317 337 

318 338 

319 339 

320 340 



341 


361 


381 


342 


362 


382 


343 


363 


383 


344 


364 


384 


345 


365 


385 


346 


366 


386 


347 


367 


387 


348 


368 


388 


349 


369 


389 


350 


370 


390 


351 


371 


391 


352 


372 


392 


353 


373 


393 


354 


374 


394 


355 


375 


395 


356 


376 


396 


357 


377 


397 


358 


378 


398 


359 


379 


399 


360 


380 


400 



401 421 

402 422 

403 423 

404 424 

405 425 

406 426 

407 427 

408 428 

409 429 

410 430 

411 431 

412 432 

413 433 

414 434 

415 435 

416 436 

417 437 

418 438 

419 439 

420 440 



441 


461 


481 


442 


462 


482 


443 


463 


483 


444 


464 


484 


445 


465 


485 


446 


466 


486 


447 


467 


487 


448 


468 


488 


449 


469 


489 


450 


470 


490 


451 


471 


491 


452 


472 


492 


453 


473 


493 


454 


474 


494 


455 


475 


495 


456 


476 


496 


457 


477 


497 


458 


478 


498 


459 


479 


499 


460 


480 


500 



501 521 

502 522 

503 523 

504 524 

505 525 

506 526 

507 527 

508 528 

509 529 

510 530 

511 531 

512 532 

513 533 

514 534 

515 535 

516 536 

517 537 

518 538 

519 539 

520 540 



541 


561 


581 


542 


562 


582 


543 


563 


583 


544 


564 


584 


545 


565 


585 


546 


566 


586 


547 


567 


587 


548 


568 


588 


549 


569 


589 


550 


570 


590 


551 


571 


591 


552 


572 


592 


553 


573 


593 


554 


574 


594 


555 


575 


595 


556 


576 


596 


557 


577 


597 


558 


578 


598 


559 


579 


599 


560 


580 


600 



601 621 

602 622 

603 623 

604 624 

605 625 

606 626 

607 627 

608 628 

609 629 

610 630 

611 631 

612 632 

613 633 

614 634 

615 635 

616 636 

617 637 

618 638 

619 639 

620 640 



641 661 681 

642 662 682 

643 663 683 

644 664 684 

645 665 685 

646 666 686 

647 667 687 

648 668 688 

649 669 689 

650 670 690 

651 671 691 

652 672 692 

653 673 693 

654 674 694 

655 675 695 

656 676 696 

657 677 697 

658 678 698 

659 679 699 

660 680 700 



To get further information on the products advertised in BYTE, fill out the reader service card with your name and address. Then circle the ap- 
propriate numbers for the advertisers you select from the list. Add a 20-centstamp to the card, then drop it in the mail. Not only do you gain infc ir- 
mation, but our advertisers are encouraged to use the marketplace provided by BYTE. This helps us bring you a bigger BYTE. The index is pro- 
vided as an additional service by the publisher, who assumes no liability for errors or omissions. 



PLACE 

STAMP 

HERE 



EITE 

READER SERVICE 

PO BOX 298 

D ALTON, MA 01226 

USA 



PLACE 

STAMP 

HERE 



BITE 



READER SERVICE 
PO BOX 298 
DALTON, MA 01226 
USA 



EITE 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 



m 



4133 



For a subscription to BYTE, please complete this card. 
Name 



Address . 



City 



State . 



-Zip. 



. Country . 



Card No. . 



Expiration date . 



Four digits above name— Master Charge only 

Signature Date 

Please allow eight weeks for processing. Thank you. 



D I year 
D 2 years 
D 3 years 



USA 

D S2I 
D S38 
D S55 



Canada 
Mexico 

D S23 

□ S42 

□ S61 



□ S53 Europe fair delivery) payment enclosed 
D S37 Elsewhere (surface mail) payment 
enclosed 

(Air mail rates available upon request) 

Pitas* remit In US funds drawn on a 
US bank. Thank you. 

D Check enclosed (Bonus: [North America 
only] one EXTRA issue— receive 13 issues for 

the price of 1 2) 



□ Bill me (North America only) 



EITE 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 



tfnlM 



4133 



For a subscription to BYTE, please complete this card. 



Name . 



Address . 



City . 

State . 



-Zip. 



. Country 



Card No. 



Expiration date . 



Four digits above name— Master Charge only 

Signature Date 

Please allow eight weeks for processing. Thank you. 



USA 


Canada 




Mexico 


D S2l 


D S23 


D S38 


□ S42 


D S55 


D S6I 



D I year 
□ 2 years 
D 3 years 



D S53 Europe (air delivery) payment enclosed 
D S37 Elsewhere (surface mail) payment 
enclosed 

(Air mail rates available upon request) 

Plaat • remit In US funds drawn on a 
US bank. Thank you. 

D Check enclosed (Bonus: [North America 
only] one EXTRA issue— receive 13 issues for 

the price of 1 2) 

D Bill me (North America only) 






fir***- Don't Miss An Issue! 



Have BYTE 
delivered to 
your door. 

Each month BYTE will bring you the 
latest in microcomputer technology. 

DISCOVER and IMPLEMENT new 
ideas. Don't miss the original informa- 
tion presented in the pages of BYTE. 



With BYTE you'll always be among 
the first to know about the important 
breakthroughs, worthwhile new 
equipment, and innovative projects in 
the world of computing. 

CHALLENGE US to deliver the very 
best ideas in microcomputers and ad- 
vanced technology to you. Return the 
attached card todayl 

Subscribe to BYTE— the world's 
leading computer magazine. 



PLACE 

STAMP 

HERE 



BIT! 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 
PO Box 590 
Martinsville NJ 08836 
USA 



PLACE 

STAMP 

HERE 



BITE 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 
PO Box 590 
Martinsville NJ 08836 
USA 



THE LEADING EDGE IN PRINTERS 

ONE GREAT LINE. ONE GREAT WARRANTY 

Finally, there's one full family of printers that covers every business or word processing application- 
all from C Itoh, a company known for packing more product into less price; and all distributed 
exclusively by Leading Edge, a company known for searching out and providing that very thing. 
Which means that one call to one source can get you any printer, any time you need it, for any purpose. 
All backed by a full years' warranty from Leading Edge. (Try that on any other line of printers.) 

THE PRO'S. 

The Prowriters: business printers— and more. The "more" is a dot-matrix process with more dots. It gives you denser, 

. 1 1^_ /__ 1 ^- 1 I ii* 1 ■_!- 1 1._1;1._ _t 1 *. _1- _ C •* ^« \ 



Prowriter : 120 cps. 80 columns dot matrix compressable to 136. 10" carriage. Parallel or serial interface. 
Prowriter 2: Same as Prowriter, except 15" carriage allows full 136 columns in normal print mode. 

Parallel or serial interface. 



PROWRITER 2 




PROWRITER 



THE STAR.; 

The Starwriter F-10. In short (or more precisely, in a sleek 6" high, 30-pound unit), it gives you more 

of just about everything— except bulk and noise— than any other printer in its price range. It's a 40 cps letter-quality 

daisy-wheel with a bunch of built-in functions to simplify and speed up word processing. 

It plugs into almost any micro on the market, serial or parallel. 




SlARWraTERF-lO 




THE MASTER. 

The Printmaster F-10. Does all the same good stuff as the Starwriter except, at 55 cps, the Master does it faster. 



PRINTMABTERF-"D 




Distributed Exclusively by Leading Edge Products, Inc., 225 Turnpike Street, Canton, Massachusetts 02021. 
Call: toll-free 1-800-343-6833; or in Massachusetts call collect (617) 828-8150 Telex 951-624. 

Circle 243 on inquiry card. 




Radio Shack Presents the New Standard 
Of Small Business Systems 

Introducing the fRS-80® Model 12 Computer and 12-Megabyte Hard Disk Drive 



Our new TRS-80 Model 12 is a remarkable business 
system that offers a unique combination of power, versa- 
tility and easy expandability. 

A Multi-Purpose Computer. TRS-80 Model 12 can han- 
dle accounting, word processing and financial planning 
applications, meet program development requirements, 
even be outfitted for communications with mainframe 
computers. There's no waiting for software, because it's 
fully compatible with our popular Model II business 
programs. 

Professional Features for Only $3199. The TRS-80 
Model 12 (Cat. No. 26-4004) includes an 80K memory 
and a built-in 1 .25-megabyte double-sided, double- 
density floppy disk drive. Or you can choose a TRS-80 
Model 1 2 with two built-in drives for just $3999 (26-4005). 
Model 12 includes a high-resolution 12" green phosphor 
screen that displays 24 lines of 80 characters and a 
detachable, low-profile 82-key keyboard with numeric 
datapad and eight special-function keys. 

Easy Expansion. After installation of our optional 
Model 1 2 Card Cage, you'll have six plug-in card slots for 
expanding your system to the power and capability you 
need. It's also easy to expand with external floppy disk 
drives, a printer, plotter, modem and more. 



Complete Hard Disk System for Only $6893*. Team 
up your single-disk TRS-80 Model 12 with our new 12- 
megabyte Hard Disk Drive (26-4152, $3495) and you've 
got a system that's perfect for large inventory control 
needs, accounting and data base management. 

Come In and See the New Model 12. Get a personal 
demonstration at your nearest Radio Shack Computer 
Center and selected Radio Shack stores and participat- 
ing dealers today. Ask about our leasing, training and 
service plans, too. 

Radio /hack 

The biggest name in little computers® 

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION 



Send me a free TRS-80 Computer Catalog today. 

Mail To: Radio Shack, Dept. 83-A-162 

300 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, Texas 76102 



ADDRESS. 

CITY 



. STATE . 



TELEPHONE. 



* Installation required, not included. Retail prices may vary at individual stores and dealers. 
Special order may be required. 

Circle 373 on inquiry card. 







x T» $*r ia! port* 

x 12 inch 8Bx24 line « peen L ,,»*»*.. t 
I HiJwfotion pen pi**?; CP-31) difjria* 

x 14 (teg my ici«»«f 

* Hicn>ionlSIC8iVer.5,2 

K WordStar 3.8 Word Processma 

X 48 f 998i3rd Spelling Checker 

x Pwerfal Electronic %*$** 










Full size smar terminal with detachable keyboard 



4MHz, Z80A™CPU 
64K RAM main memory 
200 Kbyte 5 1 / 4 " floppy disk 
(Osborne, Xerox, IBM formats) 
Two serial ports 




Complete sof ware package, 
including. 






CP/M Operating System 
WordStar® Word Processing 
Microsoft® BASIC 80 
NorthStar compatible BAZIC® 
Spelling Checker 
Electronic Spreadsheet 




Technically, IDE's new 
Combination Board for the IBM PC 

is a knockout. 



It beats 

the knockout 

problem. 

IDE's new Combina- 
tion Board allows you 
to cable both serial 
^^/parallel inter- 
faces from the back 
of the board itself. 

So even if your 
IBM PC doesn't have 
a knockout at the 
back, you can now 
interface printers, 
disks, or communi- 
cations devices. With- 
out any troublesome 
jury rigging, without 
wasting expansion 
slots, and with the 
unit's protective 
cover still in place. 

It's a technical 
knockout. 

The interfacing innovations are 
only the beginning. 

For the first time, you can get a 
Winchester disk drive interface on a 
combination board. Or you can use 
the same interface for a printer. 

Only the IDE Combination Board 
gives you this capability. 

And that's only one of 3 options 



IDE offers. You can also add a serial 
interface (RS232C Cable Adapter 
included) and/or clock/calendar with 
battety backup. 



J FN 00 
CRYSTAL OSC. 
UWJOMHz 
* FOX 8236 



U \\\lr*&)%t 



.i'us7J;ii-^-90S8:i! 



^j J «fti)tMCSft« j 

"!*}£,? " ,7.? 5 ?, *)'■% v --***■ 

& : s-j-iiiBS if ■»: \ -_ Bfll 



cr/ 



The price is a very 
nice touch. 

To really be knocked out by the 
IDE Combination Board, just take a 
look at our price structure. 

You buy only the options you 
want - so you never have to pay for 
something you don't need. 

And with IDE's helpful upgrade 
policy, you can trade up your board for 
one with more memory or options. 
For very little monev. 



Memory only: 
64K $275 

128K$385 

192K$485 
256K $575 



Pricing table 



One option: 
Add $75 

Two options: 

Add $120 

Three options: 

Add$150 



A Combination Board this 
advanced deserves a lot 
behind it. 

IDE backs up its new Combination 
Board with a one-year warranty. . . not 
just 90 days. 

It's available for immediate deliv- 
ery, and installation is free in major 
metropolitan areas. 

So call us now to order your Com- 
bination Board. We' 11 answer any 
questions you have, and give you the 
name of your nearest IDE dealer 

He'll show you the new IDE Com- 
bination Board and the whole line of 
IDE products: Winchester disk drives, 
memory boards, printer spooler soft- 
ware, and disk-emulation software. 

They're all technical knockouts. 

1-800-257-5027 

(in MA call (617) 272-7360) 

IDE Associates 

44Mal]Koad.Burliii|»ton.MAlJ18(W 



Circle 206 on inquiry card. 



BYTE March 1983 433